OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 i 
 
 BR 
 
 Moo 
 
 The 
 
 45 .H84 186A 
 re, Daniel, 1809-1899. 
 age and the gospel 
 
 
 
 1 
 
THE AGE AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
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 SERMONS preached before the University of Cambridge, in 1844. 
 
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 THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 VINDICATED. 
 
THE AGE AND THE GOSPEL; 
 
 FOUR SERMONS 
 
 ^rcacftelr before tjie Hnibersitg of ©ambnliQe 
 
 AT THE HULSEAN LECTURE, 1864. 
 
 TO WHICH 13 ADDED 
 
 A DISCOURSE ON FINAL RETRIBUTION. 
 
 DANIEL MOORE, M.A. 
 
 INCUMBENT OF CAMDEN CHURCH, CAMBERVn<:LL, AUTHOR OP 
 "THOUGHTS ON PREACHING." ic. 
 
 RTYINGTONS, 
 
 LONDON, OXFORD, AND CAMBEIDGE. 
 
 1865. 
 
PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PEESS. 
 
TO 
 
 THE REVEREND THE VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
 AND 
 
 THE OTHER TRUSTEES OF THE HULSEAN LECTURE, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING SERMONS 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED WITH MUCH RESPECT 
 
 BY THEIR OBLIGED SERVANT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
^:b.^"^^ 
 
 
 
 CF 
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A FEW words of introduction seem necessary to the pre- 
 sent volume of Lectures, in order to explain some point.s 
 of difference in it from the Hulsean publications of former 
 years. 
 
 Until within a recent period, the Lectures preached 
 on this foundation were expected to be at least eight in 
 number. By a recent statute, they need not necessarily 
 exceed four. Originally the subjects treated of were 
 almost exclusively those of the polemic or controversial 
 class; and the Lectures, some of them very able and 
 profound, were, in accordance with the will of the Foun- 
 der, required to be printed. By the later statute, this 
 compulsory condition has been removed ; — the design 
 apparently being, that the Preacher, while not entirely 
 overlooking the original purpose of the Lecture, **' to shew 
 the evidence for revealed religion," should be at liberty 
 to give to the Sermons a less formal and scholastic clia- 
 racter than had been customaiy; and perhaps to introduce 
 more freely those practical appeals to the conscience, 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 which seem needful to give effect to our pulpit teaching, 
 and, as a rule, are found to be most welcome to the hearers 
 themselves. 
 
 Such, at least, was the present Lecturer's interpre- 
 tation of the intention of the statute. And he has acted 
 upon it. Anxious as he was, in the choice of his subject, 
 to have respect to the avowed object of the Founder, yet 
 lie confesses to a far deeper anxiety, that he might pro- 
 mote the spiritual benefit of those whom it was his pri- 
 vilege to address. 
 
 On the general subject of the Lectures he has little 
 to remark. While not shrinking from the admission, that 
 there does exist, among all classes of the community, a 
 strong tendency to infidel, or, at least, latitudinarian 
 thought, and while not hesitating to repeat some boastful 
 statements in reference to it, resting on adverse authority, 
 the Lecturer holds fast by the persuasion that, as com- 
 pared with what seemed to be apprehended a few years 
 ago, the faith of the nation is gradually, but surely 
 coming round to a more healthy state. The friends of 
 our Zion have nothing to fear from, even if they do not 
 '^ love this rocking of the battlements." To any who will 
 '' mark w^ell her bulwarks " they will be seen to stand the 
 more firmly when this transient rocking is over. Eng- 
 land, in consequence of the attacks of an ill-advised 
 Bishop, adheres more confidently to the tinth of the Old 
 Testament. France, by the travestie of a recreant or 
 reckless priest, seems likely to discover, that there is more 
 truth than she thought of, in the New. 
 
 The Lecturer has not thought it needful to make any 
 direct reference to the late Pentateuchal controversy. The 
 
Preface, ix 
 
 book -wliicli gave rise to it has become one of those dead 
 things, which society is glad to bury out of its siglit. The 
 two-points, therefore, which, in the present state of the in- 
 fidel argument, seemed to claim attention in a Lecture of 
 this kind, were, first a general survey of the course and 
 method of sceptical procedure, more especially in relation 
 to the Old Testament ; and next, a revievr of the several 
 humanitarian hypotheses, by means of which it has been 
 sought to account for the moral facts of Christianity, — 
 for the problem of a triumphant Gospel, or for the mys- 
 tery of a still loved and worshipped Christ, 
 
 Illustrations of the method and policy of modern 
 unbelief are supplied abundantly in the writings of a class 
 of theologians, who are perhaps fairly represented in the 
 volume called Essays and Revietvs; the writers of which, 
 as controversialists, are remarkable for nothing so much 
 as this, — that they advance much, in the way of 
 sceptical allegation, which they do not even attempt to 
 prove ; and hint at a great deal more, which, in the form 
 of positive disbelief, they have not the honesty or the 
 courage to avow. 
 
 With regard to the other chief topic selected for 
 notice, — the several humanitarian theories of the personal 
 Christ, — a prominence is naturally given in the Lectures, 
 to that "patronizing novel," as Dr Pusey has well termed 
 Kenan's Life of Jesus, " in which the supercilious inso- 
 lence of superiority which makes allowance for its GoD, 
 is more sickening even than its hinted blasphemy \" 
 
 The Lecturer has added a Sermon, preached, in sul)- 
 
 1 Dr Pusey : Preface to the Prophet Daniel. 
 
X Preface. 
 
 stance, during his month of office, at one of the parish 
 churches in Cambridge, on the solemn subject of " Final 
 Retribution." Even as one of the unhappily vexed ques- 
 tions of the Age, the topic would have come in suitably 
 as a pendant to the Hulsean course. But the theme is 
 congruous to the general subject of the Lecture on other 
 accounts. A part of the argument, in the University 
 Sermons, is designed to shew that many of the objections 
 urged against our revealed system arise out of inadequate 
 conceptions, first of the rectitude of GoD as a Moral 
 Governor, and next of our own relations to Him, as beings 
 under condemnation, and depraved, and fallen. The 
 mistake will be found to underlie most of the exceptions 
 taken against the doctrine of Final Retribution. " Thou 
 thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself," is 
 the saying of the Psalmist with regard to some in his day ; 
 and it is no less true of some in ours. They try all the 
 Divine arrangements by their fallible human standard. 
 Their recoil is not more against the judgement Revelation 
 threatens, than against the way of escape it reveals. 
 They hate, equally, the righteousness and the grace ; the 
 Sin-bearer and the Sanctifier ; the justice which will by 
 no means clear the guilty, and the holiness which, without 
 a renewed mind and changed affections, will allow no man 
 to see the Lord. Hence they seem to feel that no 
 course is left but to break away from law, and Law-giver, 
 and Saviour too, — until with regard to the Almighty 
 Ruler of the universe, the inward thought of their heart 
 is, "Let us break His bonds asunder and cast away His 
 cords from us." 
 
 The preacher has only further to remark that he be- 
 
Preface, xi 
 
 lieves the Founder of these Lectures to have been guided 
 by a holy and far-seeing wisdom, when he resolved to con- 
 secrate his substance to objects connected with the main- 
 tenance and defence of revealed religion. For we may be 
 assured that the adversaries of the faith have not yet done 
 with us, nor we with them. They may be overthrown : 
 but a pestilent brood will spring up, even from the blood- 
 drops which fall from the heads of the slain. Our true 
 wisdom, therefore, is to shew that we are neither blind 
 to the stealthy advances of infidelity nor afraid of them ; 
 that we are friendly to the closest examination into the 
 principles upon which our faith is founded ; assured that, 
 for a religion like ours, no investigation can be too search- 
 ing, no argument too manly, and close, and free. We 
 welcome all the winnowing processes of time, and re- 
 search, and scientific scholarship. The confidence of 
 Gamaliel is still our confidence : and even when, as in 
 some recent instances, the assaults upon the faith come 
 from new and unexpected quarters, we comfort ourselves 
 with that sentiment inscribed on the statue of Luther at 
 Wittenberg : 
 
 Ist's Gotteswerk, so wird's bestehen : 
 Ist's Menschenwerk wird's untergeheu. 
 
 Is it God's work, 'twill always stay; 
 Is it man's work, 'twill pass away. 
 
 As intimated already, it is a part of the new arrange- 
 ment that the Lecturer should be under no obligation to 
 publish his Sermons. And, in view of other urgent 
 engagements, the present Lecturer would have been most 
 glad to have availed himself of such a permitted exemp- 
 
xii Preface, 
 
 tion. But the desirableness of publication was urged 
 upon him by many : and by some to whose judgement he 
 felt bound to defer ; while the fact that much of his pre- 
 pared matter was, from want of time, either abridged or 
 entirely omitted in the delivery, made him not sony 
 for the opportunity of presenting his argument in a less 
 mutilated and imperfect form. At all events, in the kind 
 reception of his Sermons, he cannot deny himself the grati- 
 fication of seeing a testimony to one fact which is most 
 encouraging : namely, that there is nothing the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge welcomes more than an honest and 
 painstaking effort to uphold the authority of the Bible, 
 and to vindicate the claims of the world's Redeemer. 
 
 D. M. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 
 
 I Chron. xn. 32. 
 
 PAGE 
 And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had under- 
 standing of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the 
 heads of them were two hundred ; and all their brethren were at 
 their commandment i 
 
 Introduction — Children of Issachar— I. General features of the Age — Intense acti- 
 vity — ^Widely diffused knowledge— Intelligence of the working classes— Of the mercan- 
 tile classes— Social Science movement- Sceptical tendencies of the Age-In the lower 
 classes— Effect on national character— Pro^iress of infidelity in Europe — II. Our 
 duties— To uphold the intellectual claims of Christianity-To watch the tendencies of 
 the popular literatiu-e-To put ourselves in harmony with great social movements — 
 To be thoroughly acquainted with the evidences of revealed religion— Conclusion. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE AGE AND THE WRITTEN WORD. 
 
 Psalm cxxxvui. 2. 
 Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name. 
 
 25 
 
 Twofold object of infidel attack— I. Method of sceptical procedure— Appeals to 
 popular sufirage-Is very complimentary to Christianity-Intolerant of weU-deflned 
 dogma-II. Points in the Revelation usually selected for attack— Miracle— Alleged 
 incompatibility with the discoveries of modern science-Geology— Language— Anti- 
 quities— III. The large and varied claims of Revelation-Its reasonable cLihns as 
 inspired-Its historic claims as authenticated— Its moral claims as congruous to the 
 nature and circumstances of mankind-The difficulties of Revelation the ditiiculties 
 of natural religion also -Conclusion -The busy mocker-The right heart and the 
 right creed. 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 SEEMON III. 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST, AS IXTERPRETED BY MODERN 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 Matthew xvi. 13. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? . . . '54 
 
 Change in the form of modern sceptical attack— Science of historical criticism— 
 I. The claims of Christ-Views of older infidels-Of Priestley and Belsham— Modem 
 Fnitarianism -Mythical theory of Strauss— The neo-Christianity of America-The 
 Life of Jesus by Renan-Its inconsistencies— Unfair dealing with the New Testa- 
 ment— II. Insufficiency of aU humanitarian theories to solve the problems of Christi- 
 anity- Of the personal life, circumstances, or character of its founder— Influence of 
 Christ over his o^vn countrymen — Success of Christianity in the first ages— Admission 
 of Gibbon-The divinity of Christ the only adequate solution— Conclusion. 
 
 SERMON lY. 
 
 THE CHRIST OF GOD. 
 
 Matthew xvi. 15, 16. 
 
 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that 1 am 1 And Simon Peter 
 
 answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 83 
 
 Importance of right views of Christ— His own jealousy upon the subject— I. The 
 transcendent mystery of His nature— Modern thought and the supernatural— II. Tlie 
 miracles of Christ— Not accepted without scrutiny - AUeged familiarity of the age with ■ 
 miracles — Inconsistent with the effect of them on the multitude— III. The claims of 
 Christ and Jewish prophecy— Testunonies to the truth of Old Testament predictions 
 — The Messiah of prophecy and of the Gospel history— Christ the complement of the 
 revealed system— IV. The fitness of a Divinely-human Christ in order to the work 
 of redemption— In relation to the Law of God— And to the peace and happiness of 
 man -The Christ of modern criticism an open blasphemy- Conclusion. 
 
 A DISCOURSE ON FINAL RETRIBUTION. 
 
 Eev. XXII. II. 
 
 He that is unjust, Jet him he unjust still: and he which is filthy, let 
 
 him he filthy still 117 
 
 Introduction — Difficulty of treating the subject — T. Antecedent probability of 
 the doctrine— Course and constitution of nature and providence — Tendency to 
 finality in hiunau character — Retribution incidental to all moral agency— II. Re- 
 
Contents, xv 
 
 vealed testimonies to the doctrine— Christianity a remedial scheme— Direct affiniin- 
 tions of Eevelation— Scripture assumes that all probation ends with the present life 
 —Metaphysical relations of eternity and duration— the hypothesis of annihilation- 
 Ill. Alleged inconsistency of the doctrine with the perfectness of God— His benevo- 
 lence—His mercy— His justice— Difficulties of the contrary theory— The revealed 
 doctrine urged by Christ, the tenderest of all preachers.; 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. Infidel Tract Literature, p. 151. B, The alleged Prevalence of 
 Scepticism among the Educated Classes, p. 154. C. The Excess 
 of Faith, p. 155. D. The Tenets and Organization of the Secu- 
 larists, p. 157. E. Encomiums on the Bible by Infidel Writers, 
 p, 158. F. Misuse of the leading terms of Christian Theology, 
 p. 159. G. The Necessity of well-defined Dogmatic Formularies, 
 p. 1 6 1 . H. The Language of Scripture on Scientific Subjects, p. 1 6 1 . 
 I. The Beginnings of Religious Doubt, p. 163. J. The Character 
 and Opinions of Theodore Parker, p. 164. K, Ednan and the 
 Fragments of Papias, p. 166. L. The recent Work of Michelet, 
 p. 167. M. The Claims of R^nan as a Controversialist, p. 169. 
 N. The Early Christian Martyrs and the Name of Christ, 
 p. I7'2. O. The Martyrdom of Polycarp, p. 173. P. Humanitarian 
 Theories of Christianity, p. 175. Q. The 'i heory of a Series of 
 Eternally Impressed Consequences, p. 176, K. The Present Con- 
 dition of the Jews, p. 177. S. Christ necessarily a Deceiver if 
 He were not Divine, p. 179. T. Miscellaneous Testimonies to a 
 belief in the Eternity of Future Retribution, p. 181. U. Ecclesi- 
 astical Testimonies to the Doctrine, p. 183. 
 
■ Alas ! what can they teach and not mislead, 
 Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, 
 And how the world began, and how man fell 
 Degraded b^r himself, on grace depending? 
 Much of the soul they talk, but all awry. 
 And in themselves seek virtue ; and to themselves 
 All glory arrogate, to God give none ; 
 Rather accuse Him under usual names, 
 Fortune and fate, as one regardless quite 
 Of mortal things. Who therefore seeks in these 
 True wisdom, finds her not ; or by delusion, 
 Far worse, her false resemblauce only meets, 
 An empty cloud.— Milton. 
 
 AeX yhp Kot alpiaeis ev vfuv elvac, 'iva ot Boki/jlol (pdvepoL yivuprai kv vfuv. 
 Ac si diceret: Ob hoc haeresion non statim divi^itus eradicantur auctores, 
 ut probati manifesti fiant; id est, ut unusquisque quam tenax, et fidelis, 
 et fixus Catholicae fidei sit amator, appareat. Et revera cum quseque 
 novitas ebuliit, statim cernitur frumentorum gravitas, et levitas palearum : 
 tunc sine magno molimine excutitur ab area, quod nullo pondere intra 
 aream tenebatur.— ViNCENTius Lirinensis. 
 

 THEOLOGIC&L 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 TUB CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 
 
 I ChRON. XII. 32. 
 And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had under- 
 standing of the times, to know lohat Israel ought to do ; the 
 heads of them ivere two hundred; and all their brethren 
 were at their commandment. 
 
 Introduction— Children of Issachar— I. General features of the Age- 
 Intense activity— Widely diffused knowledge -Intelligence of the working 
 classes- Of the mercantile classes— Social Science movement— Sceptical 
 tendencies of the Age— In the lower classes— Effect on national character- 
 Progi-ess of infidelity in Europe— II. Our duties— To uphold the intellectual 
 claims of Christianity— To watch the tendencies of the popular hterature— 
 To put ourselves in harmony with great social movements— To be thoroughly 
 acquainted with the e\adences of revealed religion— Conclusion. 
 
 Xo mean accomplishment is that which is here attri- 
 buted to the children of Issachar. A right estimate of 
 the state of the public mind,— of the forms of social life 
 and influence which characterize the days in which, we 
 live> — of those signs, indications, tendencies which together 
 make up what we call the mling spieit of the Age — 
 has always been accounted a mark of true wisdom, in 
 those who occupy any place of public trust. Witli many 
 of these tendencies themselves, we may have little sym- 
 pathy : may possibly, on principle, object to them. But 
 
 1 
 
 /; 
 
2 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 if we would influence the Age, we must first understand 
 it; — in measure, must allow ourselves to be drifted along 
 with the current ; and, as far as we can, must make our 
 agencies fit in with the course which we see it takes. To 
 place ourselves in needless antagonism to the prevailing 
 bias of the day would be useless, and something more. 
 Whatevel' the benefit we design for our fellow-men, there 
 must be no coercion, — no hot-house forcing. The lawful 
 is not always the expedient : and they who have to guide 
 others, must consider not only what things are good, in 
 themselves, but what may be best for the present neces- 
 sity. "The children of Issachar were men who had under- 
 standing of the times, to know what Israel ought to do:" — 
 and the consequence was that "all their brethren were at 
 their commandment." 
 
 Limited, but not without significance, is the infor- 
 mation about this particular tribe, which is to be gathered 
 from the sacred record. That their territory was situated 
 in the richest part of Palestine ; that the majority of them 
 were especially given to the quiet pursuits of husbandry; 
 that their numbers at the time of the Sinaitic census were 
 inferior only to those of Judah and Dan: that others of 
 them were deeply addicted to studious investigations and 
 pursuits, by their eminence in which they attained great 
 influence among the other tribes; and that, on the occa- 
 sion referred to in our text, they were the means of 
 bringing over a large armed force to the side of David, — 
 would seem to represent the sum of what has come down 
 to us in the form of authenticated history. But, in rela- 
 tion to the particular fact of their having "understanding 
 of the times," we may accept added information from 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 3 
 
 other sources. Thus Jerome notes a prevalent Jewish 
 tradition that the tribe of Issachar took an active part in 
 promoting the reforms of Jehoshaphat. Josephus declares 
 that they had "the faculty of knowing things that were 
 to happen." Whilst the testimony of the Targum runs, 
 " they were astronomers and astrologers : skilful also in 
 the doctrine of the solar periods and in fixing their lunar 
 solemnities to their proper times : that they might shew 
 Israel what to do : and their leaders were two hundred 
 chiefs of the Sanhedrin : and all their brethren excelled in 
 the Avords of the Law, and were endued with wisdom, and 
 were obedient to their command." 
 
 At all events, on the testimony of Ezra alone, and 
 from their intimate relations wdth the brother tribe of 
 Zebulon, — "out of whom went they that handle the pen 
 of the writer," — we may fairly conclude the children of 
 Issachar to have been men, not only conversant with all 
 matters pertaining to the Jewish Church and Common- 
 wealth, but men also, to whom, on account of their known 
 wisdom, and judgment, and experience, the nation would 
 be the first to resort in troublous times. Whether any, 
 or what particular office they held in the Jewish hierarchy, 
 it may not be easy to determine. Enough that, as a tribe, 
 they evidently enjoyed the confidence of their genera- 
 tion; — w^ere regarded as men who took a higher stand- 
 point than their fellows, in their view of the phenomena 
 of the outside world ; — in a word, were looked upon as 
 Guides and Teachers for the Age\ 
 
 1 There is a parallel passage to the text in the Book of Esther i. 13 : 
 "Then the king said to the wise men uhich Icncw the times (for so was the 
 
 1—2 
 
4 The Characteristics of the Age, 
 
 The 'mention of such a class may not unfitly introduce 
 a subject, which, in humble dependence upon Divine aid, 
 I am anxious to bring before you in regard to the present 
 relations of the Age and kevealeb eeligion ; as well as 
 our own duties with respect to them ; — my purpose being, 
 as far as my limits will allow, to investigate those facts 
 and phenomena of social life around us, which, as casting 
 their lights or shadows on the Christianity of the age, 
 no public teacher is at liberty to neglect. It is not 
 enough for a man, put in trust with the Gospel, that he 
 have a thorough comprehension of its general suitableness 
 to the wants and endowments of humanity. He must lay 
 himself out to bring all his teaching face to face with the 
 mental and moral specialities of his generation; — must 
 adapt his exhortations to the ever-shifting phases and 
 developments of current thought. ''0 ye hypocrites," 
 w^as the stern reproof of our Lord to the Pharisees, '' ye 
 can discern the face of the sky : but can ye not discern the 
 signs of the times ?" 
 
 Only, before entering upon my task, let me bespeak 
 for my subject a spirit of reverent and solemn thoughtful- 
 ness. Momentous are the issues which are involved in 
 
 liing's manner towards all who knew the law) &c." The beautiful lines of 
 Tennyson, in relation to a E-oyal Personage, will be recalled in this connection : 
 
 " And statesmen at her council met 
 
 Who knew the seasons, when to take 
 ^^ Occasion by the hand, and make 
 
 The bounds of freedom wider yet 
 
 Ey shaping some august decree 
 
 Which kept her throne unshaken still. 
 
 Broad-based upon her people's will 
 And compassed by the inviolate sea." 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 5 
 
 the truth or falsehood of Eevelation. To any, under 
 anxious or awakened convictions, we may well say in the 
 words of Moses ; — " It is not a vain thing for you : because 
 it is your life." If God have not spoken to man, let it be 
 proved that He has not : — proved to demonstration ; for 
 on this side of the argument, it is manifest, we ought to 
 be satisfied with nothing less. But if GoD have revealed 
 Himself, as all the ages attest, then let us bend at His 
 footstool and ask light. In the spirit of our great Sir 
 Isaac Newton, let us search the Scriptures on our knees : — 
 too sensible of our need of Eevelation to be ever fretting 
 against the yoke of its authority, and too thankful for the 
 blessed hope it gives us, to complain that we cannot enter 
 fully into the plans of an Infinite mind. " God who, at 
 the first, didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by 
 the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit ; grant 
 us, by the same Spirit, to have a right judgment in all 
 things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 I. In considering these relations of the Agfe^and 
 Revealed Religion, our first business lies with an enquiry 
 into the Age itself, — what is there peculiar in it ? What 
 are those attributes or characteristics of it, which, in a 
 general history of civilization, will mark off our times 
 from the times which have gone before ? Particular ages 
 of the world have such leading characteristics, as much as 
 particular peoples have : and, in their settled form, they 
 become a part of the operative forces of the times ; — con- 
 stitute an essential feature of the national life, as much as 
 did any of the typical endowments of ancient nations, — as 
 
6 TJie Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 did that of sympathy with the beautiful in the Greek, or 
 that of passion for power in the Roman, or that of venera- 
 tion for the sacred in the Jew. 
 
 What then is the distinguishing Age-characteristic of 
 our own times ? To this question we should probably 
 most of us respond, an intense, earnest, unresting ACTI- 
 VITY ; — a pressing forward, whether for good or for evil, in 
 all commercial, intellectual, and scientific pursuits ; — the 
 whole national mind fired with a very passion for progress. 
 Especially is this seen in the present intellectual condi- 
 tion of our population ; — in the observed infusion of a 
 higher element of thought into all the arts and compe- 
 titions of life : — knowledge advanced to one of the chief 
 powers of the state, and all orders of the community being 
 ready to do homage to the commonwealth of mind. 
 
 i. But this intellectualism of our age has its special 
 characteristics also. Thus it is marked by a more equable 
 distribution of knowledge among all classes. 
 
 The principle by which the intellectual life of former 
 ages seems to have been mainly governed, was that of 
 centralization: — that by which ours will be hereafter dis- 
 tinguished is that of diffusion. The mental guides and 
 guardians of former times seem to have favoured a disci- 
 pline of reserve ; to have desired to retain the keys of 
 public instruction in their own keeping ; — making know- 
 ledge to be the monopoly of a few privileged classes, and 
 doling out information to the masses by little and little. 
 With us, knowledge of every kind is exoteric, open, free, 
 the common right and property of the race. And in keep- 
 ing with this spirit among us, is the multiplication of 
 agencies and channels for imparting knowledge. If the 
 
Tlie CJiaracterisiics of the Age, 7 
 
 invention of printing formed a new era in the history of 
 civiUzation, the discoveries of modern mechanical science 
 may be said to form a new era in the history of the ,. 
 press. Our typography is one of the marvels of the age. 
 Its cheapness, its beauty, the rapidity of its production, 
 and the transfer to the printed page of the most beautiful 
 creations of the pencil, have all tended not only to bring the 
 treasures of our national literature within reach of the hum- 
 blest classes of society, but also to present them for their 
 acceptance in the most interesting and attractive form. 
 
 Nor less marked has been the effect of these increased 
 facilities on the character of the literature itself The 
 author-class has multiplied as much as the reader-class, 
 and with mutual benefit to both. Not to compare our 
 school-book compilations with those of fifty years ago, — 
 or our books of travel, or science, or fiction, — what an 
 unique creation of modern thought, — an institution and 
 engine of power of itself — is the periodical press of 
 our day; — articles being thrown off by the month, the 
 week, and even by the day, which would have sufficed to 
 have made the literature of any former age, and have 
 secured for the writers a place in history. 
 
 And the effect of all this as seen in the intellectual 
 aspects of our large towns, will be attested by those of 
 us whose pastoral labours lie in the midst of these vast 
 hives of human industry. The direction of the popular 
 mind is onward, — steadily, resolutely, in every department, 
 — onward. Look at our poorer classes. Time was when 
 the library of thousands of families in our land rarely 
 extended beyond the Bible, the Prayer-book, and one or 
 two antiquated volumes of reference, — the dusty heir- 
 
8 The ChaTacteristics of the Age. 
 
 looms of a generation that had gone before. It is not so 
 now. The skilled artizan is a reader. A higher type of 
 literature is demanded for our parish libraries. The cheap 
 weekly or monthly serials, hawked through our streets and 
 cottages, — the bad productions as well as the good, — are 
 all prepared upon the supposition of an advanced condition 
 of popular intelligence ; whilst, among assemblages of 
 workmen in some of our manufacturing towns, a marked 
 partiality is being evinced for those higher forms of mental 
 and moral reasoning, which we have been accustomed to 
 suppose none but the trained and practised thinker would 
 be able to appreciate. 
 
 Still more is this mental progress of the Age observ- 
 able, if we come to those who are higher in the social scale, 
 — namely our middle and mercantile classes. The rising 
 educated merchant of our day is one of the intellectual 
 forces of the times. He is to be met with in the senate, 
 in the popular lecture-room, and among the contributors 
 to the periodical literature of the day. And, in degree, the 
 observation applies to the class generally. Their tastes 
 are no longer limited to the narrow demands of commer- 
 cial or professional life. An extensive acquaintance with 
 the best productions of our home and foreign literature ; a 
 ready appreciation of the questions mooted among con- 
 flicting schools of art ; a watching, with keen and observant 
 interest, the progress of scientific discovery; and a sympa- 
 thy wide, large, and generous, with all the topics most 
 interesting to human thought, — these are among the in- 
 tellectual characteristics of that large class, which, as lying 
 between the base and the apex of our social edifice, may 
 be considered as fair exponents of the tone of intelligence 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 among us, and affording a gauge of the mental stature 
 of the times. 
 
 ii. Another mark by which this intellectual tendency 
 of our age is distinguished, even as it constitutes a large 
 element of its coherence, and life, and strength, is that it 
 is self-supported : — that it maintains itself, as a distinct 
 power in the community, by a system of combined and 
 reciprocated action among the members themselves. 
 
 In former times, when authors were few, and readers 
 were few, and when such books as were written were 
 little, if at all, addressed to the popular mind, the masses 
 were necessarily dependent for the most part upon the 
 professional teacher. The parent, the schoolmaster, the 
 minister of religion, — the age had no other instructors 
 than these. The marked feature of our times, on the 
 contrary, is that society is its own teacher: — that, without 
 neglecting the more formal or professional aids, either 
 of the school or the church, men trust more than 
 formerly to a principle of self-help; — every man becoming 
 a teacher to his neighbour, and the separate classes 
 of the community being made schoolmasters to them- 
 selves. 
 
 Illustrations of this might be cited in the practice of 
 many who live in the metropolis or other populous 
 towns ; — in the manual labour class, for instance, giving 
 up their recreation hour to self-improvement, — to con- 
 versations upon the latest literary accession to the reading- 
 room, or the last topic debated at the club; — or in tlie 
 tradesman's assistant class, turning their Athenaeums and 
 Institutes to account, in the acquisition of languages, and 
 so equipping themselves for the competitive examiuatiuns 
 
10 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 of the day. But that which, more than anything else, 
 brings out this self-assisted feature of modern intel- 
 lectualism, is the tendency to bring together, from all 
 parts of the country, and even from abroad, large aggi'ega- 
 tions of thoughtful men, who shall take counsel together 
 on matters pertaining to the cause of civilization and 
 human progress. The annual gatherings of the Congress 
 and the Association have become an institution among 
 us. Social Economy has taken a permanent place among 
 the sciences. And the foremost men in their several 
 departments, — of art, of language, of antiquities, of educa- 
 tion, of morals, of law, — are exercising an influence over 
 the tone of national thought which entitles them to a pro- 
 minent place among the teaching appliances of the age. 
 
 iii. But I pass on to that which I chiefly design to 
 insist upon in the intellectual characteristics of the age, 
 namely, the adverse attitude which is frequently taken 
 against the claims of revealed religion. 
 
 The tendencies to scepticism in the present day shew 
 themselves, more or less, in every direction. Much espe- 
 cially have we to apprehend from the prevalence of these 
 tendencies among our poorer classes. No doubt among 
 the eight and twenty millions of infidel and vicious tracts 
 computed to be annually circulated among our English 
 poor, many are but reproductions of the coarse accusations 
 of Kichard Carlile, and Taylor, and Paine. But, mixed 
 up with them, are attacks upon our Christianity of a more 
 dangerous kind, — made up from the infidel philosophy of 
 America, or the admissions of the writers in the Essays 
 and Bevieivs, or in some instances, of translated extracts 
 from the subtle scepticism of the Continent, — so that, in 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 11 
 
 the case of large bodies of persons working together, as in 
 shops or factories, men who never heard the names of 
 Hegel, or Schelling, or Strauss, can retail, with flippant 
 tongue, their mischievous theories of unbelief^ 
 
 But not by the agency of tracts only, do the pro- 
 moters of popular infidelity carry on their work. They 
 have their Sunday meetings for holding discussional or 
 Deistical services. Weekly or monthly periodicals are 
 open to receive and deal out the freshest contributions 
 of infidel thought. Associations are formed, ostensibly 
 with a scientific purpose, but really to place the conclu- 
 sions of science and the statements of Ptevelation in array 
 against each other; all being so many painful proofs how 
 much the recent advances of the national mind have been 
 unaccompanied with a healthy religious influence, and 
 shewing what a tendency there is in all unsanctified 
 knowledge to foster "an evil heart of unbelief, in de- 
 parting from the living God." 
 
 The sceptical tendencies, among the more educated 
 classes, of course take a different and more covert form. 
 Getting away from the narrow issues raised by the recent 
 Pentateuchal discussion, the direct set of the popular cur- 
 rent now is against an authoritative revelation and a 
 superhuman Christ; — a binding dogma in the Word, and 
 a reigning and Almighty Saviour in the heart. We seem 
 to be getting back to the philosophical theology of 
 Priestley, only with the more recent importations into it 
 of the American Parker, and the rest of the humanitarian 
 school. These points however will fall more properly 
 under notice in a future discourse. In connection with 
 
 1 See Note A. in the Appendix. 
 
12 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 the social life and characteristics of the Age, our reference 
 to the subject here may close with some remarks on the 
 genesis or geographical course of infidel opinion, during 
 the last century and a half. 
 
 The first outgrowth of the mischief we must, with all 
 shame, charge upon our own land. We may say of Eng- 
 land as the prophet said of Lachish : — " She is the begin- 
 ning of the sin to the daughter of Zion\" Vent our dis- 
 pleasure as we may against the Encyclopaedists and their 
 frantic blasjDhemy, on the one hand, or the Rationalists 
 and their pantheistic systems on the other, we may not 
 forget that both these noxious growths came of the bitter 
 root of the English Deism, originated in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries. The historic progress of the 
 mischief can be tracked. "With whatever differences of 
 scientific form, there is no break of mental continuity in 
 the scepticism, as it travelled from us to France; from 
 France to Germany; and from Germany back to us again. 
 Bolingbroke was the infidel father of Voltaire : and there 
 are features, both in modern English and Continental 
 misbelief, which bear traces of this common ancestry. 
 There is a practical lesson however to be drawn from the 
 progi'ess of European infidelity, which concerns us close- 
 ly, — namely, to observe how commonly this progress of 
 unbelief has been allied with a debased and degenerate 
 condition of national life; — how the two things have acted 
 and reacted upon each other, in dragging down liberty, 
 morals, religion, all that constitutes the social dignity and 
 happiness of a people, to the darkest and most abysmal 
 depths. The English Deism of the 17th century, like the 
 
 1 The sin, i.e. of idolatry: Micah i. 13. 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 13 
 
 Atheism of the first French Kevokition, was both a cause 
 and an effect. It was the offspring of a bad age, and it 
 made that age worse. It grew out of poHtical convul- 
 sions, which it fostered, — out of a popular ignorance, which 
 it pandered to, — out of a reckless libertinism and dissolute- 
 ness, which it promoted, by releasing all who practised 
 them from the restraints of moral law. Whilst, of the 
 Atheism of the French Revolution, it is not too much 
 to say, that principles were originated in that memorable 
 convulsion, and mental and moral tendencies encouraged, 
 Avhich, both in that country and elsewhere, are bearing 
 their noxious fruit until now. 
 
 Thus, it is to be feared that the bitter and envenomed 
 spirit which distinguishes a good deal of our modern 
 infidel criticism has come down to us from those times. 
 Such virulence is not demanded by the exigencies of argu- 
 ment. It bespeaks rather the enmity of dread ; fierce 
 resentment against a power that is feared ; — as if the 
 mind were haunted with some terrible apprehension that 
 what it was rejecting might, after all, prove to be but 
 too true. The language of Burke is not too strong to be 
 applied to many modern infidels, that, as a moral Go- 
 vernor, — that is, as One demanding the absolute subjec- 
 tion of the whole man to His word and will, ''they hate 
 God, 'with all their heart, with all their mind, with all 
 their soul, and with all their strength.' He never presents 
 himself to their thoughts but to menace and alarm them\" 
 
 1 "Letters on a Eegicide Peace," Let. i. WorJcs, Vol. viii. Montesquieu 
 lias a kindred sentiment: "The pious man and the Atheist," he observes, 
 " always talk of reli-ion. The one speaks of what he loves, the other of 
 what he fears.'" 
 
14 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 The revolutionary blasphemy of France may be said to 
 have culminated, when the goddess of Reason, as a shame- 
 less courtezan, was presented as an object of worship to 
 the peoi^le. But who shall say how far the foundation 
 was then laid for that sneering contempt for the wisdom 
 of the past, — that supercilious sweeping away of the 
 ancient landmarks of truth, — that revolt and impatience 
 of the mind against all external authority, whether from 
 God or man, which distinguish so significantly the scep- 
 ticism of modern times. The goddess of Disbelief is en- 
 throned in the midst of us, and he, among us, shall have 
 the palm of superior wisdom who is the first to bow 
 the knee. 
 
 II. But on these more general characteristics of the 
 Asre I cannot dwell further, as a few words must be said 
 on our DUTIES in respect to them. "The children of 
 Issachar were men that had understanding of the times, 
 to know what Israel ought to do." 
 
 i. And first, in view of the widely diffused popular 
 intelligence I have referred to, we shall be careful to ex- 
 hibit the claims of Christianity in accordance with the 
 principles of mans intellectual nature. 
 
 Christianity always claims for itself the distinction of 
 being a reasonable service, and this claim we must up- 
 ]-^old, — at least, so far as not to leave room for the 
 reproach, either to religion that it is the nursed child of 
 ignorance, or to its advocates that they follow slowly in 
 the rear of an enlightened age. The caution is the more 
 necessary, because the staple of infidel and unitarian 
 objection to the Chiistian dogma will be found to rest, 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 15 
 
 in large degree, on ill-considered and uncareful statements, 
 by some Christian teachers, of what that dogma is. There 
 has been a want of caution in the presentment of evan- 
 gelical doctrine which has led to an apparent clash between 
 truth and truth, between theory and fact, — a seeming want 
 of compatibility in the teacher's views of religious obli- 
 gation, either with the perfections of the Divine nature, 
 or with the intellectual and moral powers of man. At 
 many points of the Christian theologT, will a deficiency of 
 clearness and exactitude, in our verbal statements, lay us 
 open to the objections of the philosophical Theist. The 
 relations between the Old and oS'ew Testament, so pre- 
 sented as to imply a change in the moral j^rocedure of 
 God, rather than a development, — the use of a harsh 
 terminology in speaking of the work of the Atonement, as 
 a necessity forced upon an Almighty Ruler by the de- 
 mands of a punitive justice, — a bald presentment of the 
 doctrine of the Sovereignty of the Divine elections, as if it 
 were an arbitrary exercise of will, without regard to these 
 eternal i^rinciples of wisdom and goodness which we 
 know must rule every decision of an Infinite mind, — 
 may all furnish illustrations of truth taught by halves; 
 dogma presented out of its right proportions; the Gospel 
 scheme viewed so exclusively from some one side, as, even 
 to a candid mind to wear an air of paradox, and, by an 
 adverse critic, likely to be held up as something worse. 
 
 Let us never forget, therefore, that Christianity has 
 a philosophy, and that all our most cherished verities 
 are in harmony with it. An able modem writer has 
 asked, "why should we vex ourselves to find out whe- 
 ther deductions are philosophical or no, provided they 
 
16 The Characteinstics of the Age. 
 
 are religious^?" We disallow the possibility of a dis- 
 agreement, such as this question seems to contemplate. 
 In relation to matters upon which philosophy is com- 
 petent to decide, no deduction can be religious which 
 is not philosophical also. No doubt there are many 
 things we believe, and which we must require others 
 to believe, solely on the authority of a Divine state- 
 ment. And it is in accordance with our most exact 
 laws of thought that we should do so. We lay down 
 this axiom with regard to man, — that reason as he may, 
 and conjecture as he may, the province of his certain 
 knowledge is the province of sensible observation, — so far, 
 and no further. Revelation professedly deals with topics 
 w^hich lie outside this province ; — with spiritual facts, v/ith 
 a spiritual government, with a spiritual world. Belief in 
 these is, and must be, the belief not of knowledge, but of 
 testimony. 
 
 A careful regard to this principle will be found to 
 foreclose many forms of modern objection to the truths of 
 E-evelation. Rationalists, we know, have attacked, by 
 turns, all the fundamental doctrines of our faith, — the In- 
 carnation, the Atonement, the work of the Spirit, the 
 sacred mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity. Let the canon 
 be recognized which determines the limit of all possible 
 knowledge, which defines what does belong to our intel- 
 lectual economy, and what does not, and we shall feel that 
 there is a large range of subjects upon which God may 
 speak or may be silent : but upon which, if He speak, 
 all further speculation must be at an end, and all abstract 
 
 ^ Dr Newman. See motto to the Samp tor? Lecture on ** The Limits of 
 Reh;iious Thought." 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 1 7 
 
 philosophy must hold its peace. " For what man knoweth 
 the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in 
 him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the 
 Spirit of God." 
 
 ii. Again, the self-sustained character of this popular 
 intelligence will make the Christian teacher very slow to 
 obtrude, and very unwilling to rely on any claim to public 
 respect and confidence, on the score of mere professional or 
 prescrijotive right. 
 
 No undervaluing of the sacred office, it will be sup- 
 posed, is intended by this caution, nor any denial of th;.' 
 fact that oral teaching has, from the first, been among the 
 chief aoencies devised of God for the instruction of the 
 
 o 
 
 world. So far otherwise, we gladly recognize proofs in 
 the New Testament, in the history of the first Christian 
 centuries, in all the annals of civil and religious liberty, 
 both at home and abroad, of the power which the pro- 
 fessed religious teacher has been able to wield over the 
 convictions and moral sentiments of mankind. In the 
 great religious revival of the fourth century, Avhen Chry- 
 sostom and Augustine arose to change the face of Chris- 
 tianity and to shake the world ; in those mighty struggles 
 with the papacy which ended in securing to us the benefit 
 of a pure and reformed religion; in the last days of the 
 Stuarts, when men were trembling for the ark of our 
 endangered Protestantism, — we meet with testimonies in 
 abundance that it must be his own fault if the accredited 
 religious teacher be not a mighty power in the state. Still, 
 between those times and our own, there is an important 
 difference. We are teachers of the age, but not the only 
 teachers,— even of religion. The secular guides of public 
 
 2 
 
18 The Cha7xict eristics of the Age. 
 
 opinion cannot be kept off our ground. There is a large 
 domain of subject necessarily common to us both. And 
 when we meet them there, our relative ascendancy over 
 the popular mind will be determined, not by the stronger 
 oflScial right to teach, but by the greater competency for 
 the office. At all events, if we resolve to rest on ecclesi- 
 astical authority alone, — the patent of priority conferred 
 upon us by the laying on of hands, — the unaccredited 
 instructor will be sure to retort upon us, — " shew me thy 
 patent to teach without thy power, and I will shew thee 
 my patent by my power." 
 
 iii. Again, in view of the wide circulation of books 
 among all classes, we shall do well to note carefully the 
 tendencies of the popular literature, — to acquaint ourselves, 
 from time to time, with the general quality of that mental 
 food, which is supplied to meet the stimulated and un- 
 healthy cravings of a reading age. 
 
 We should err greatly, if we were to limit the danger 
 to be apprehended from modern scepticism, to the reading 
 of books Avritten ostensibly with a theological aim. The 
 mischief lies deeper, more concealed, is more subtle in its 
 Avorking and more widely spread. Thoughts, like those 
 by which all devout minds have been so greatly shocked 
 of late, especially as coming from members of our own 
 body, have been at work in the popular imagination for 
 some years past : and that mainly in consequence of the 
 sceptical insinuations, — shreds and patches of old misbeliefs, 
 — which have been scattered up and down the pages of a 
 miscellaneous literature. We may be slow to allow the 
 boast of one of the chief sceptical organs of the day, that 
 the whole literature of our times, — science, history, morals, 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 19 
 
 poetry, fiction and essay, — is prepared by men \vlio Lave 
 long ceased to believe. But we fear it would not be 
 difficult to name writers of eminence, in most of these 
 departments, whose pages bear traces of a lightly esteemed 
 Christianity, — the smouldering embers of an out-dying 
 faith in any thing which professes to be revealed. Painful 
 it may be to have, in our literature, examples of an at- 
 tractive poetry, written only to corrupt ; of the polished 
 essay, calculated chiefly to mislead; of the scientific theory, 
 which would strip man of the dignity of his Divine 
 original ; of the philosophic history which would cast God 
 out of His own world. But to be forewarned is to be 
 forearmed. " Watchman, what of the night ^ ?" 
 
 iv. Furthermore, we should know and consider what 
 we ought to do in relation to that other intellectual note 
 of our times; the endeavour to bring all measures for 
 advancing the physical, intellectual, and moral life of our 
 country within the operation of some uniform and compre- 
 hensive scheme of social philosophy. 
 
 This movement will go on, whether we take part in 
 it or not. And, as a crusade against the ignorance, the 
 improvidence, the foolish prejudices, or the bad passions of 
 men, we ought to wish it should go on. The avowed ob- 
 ject of the advocate of social science is to promote the 
 civilization of the world. Our ol)ject is the same, with 
 the single qualification that we desire to make that civili- 
 zation Christian ; — to make education. Christian ; sanitary 
 regulations, Christian ; international relations, Christian ; 
 law and jurisprudence. Christian. We wish to guide all 
 developments of the national power into a Gospel chan- 
 
 1 See Note B in the Appendix. 
 
 2—2 
 
20 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 nel, — into a studied agreement with its spirit, and into 
 harmony with its eternal laws\ We cannot but be afraid 
 of any schemes of civihzation which rest only upon statis- 
 tics; upon tabulated results, and the assumed recurrence 
 of the same social conditions. They throw us back upon 
 the old theories of philosophical necessity, and involve 
 conclusions which depose man from his freedom, and Pro- 
 vidence from its moral rule. Let however the Christian 
 element be recognized, — in social economics, in educa- 
 tion, in legislation, in commerce, in every thing which 
 affects the strength and dignity of nations, — and, with 
 every plan for the social amelioration of our race, we 
 should be ever ready to concur. We are stewards for men's 
 happiness for the life that now is, as well as for that 
 which is to come. And in order to our having proper 
 influence in our day and generation, men mast look upon 
 us, not as the adversaries but as the friends and pioneers 
 of progress ; — one with our countrymen in all their social 
 schemes and sympathies, whilst, in all their higher aspira- 
 tions, we are going with them, and going before them, for 
 their good. 
 
 V. Our last answer to the question as to what Israel 
 ought to do, has reference to the duty, obligatory upon 
 all of us, to make ourselves thoroughly conversant with 
 the claims and evidences of revealed religion. 
 
 Teachers should do this for their own sake. We live 
 in an age of doubt. The foundations of the great deep 
 
 1 Worthy alike of the place and of the man, was the sentiment put forth 
 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his recent eloquent oration at Oxford. 
 He is reported as saying : " It was of the highest consequence in these days 
 that the commanding influence of Christianity, the highest jooiver of civiliza- 
 Uon, should be brought to bear on the material tendencies of the dayP 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 21 
 
 of thought are being broken ujd ; and we must not wonder 
 if our own faith should sometimes feel the shock. But 
 this should not be with any permanent hurt. Of a cer- 
 tainty will not be, if it set us upon a manly search into 
 the source of our difficulties ; if we resolve to meet these 
 involuntary "spectres of the mind" bravely, and to rest 
 not till, in the strength of God, we have laid them low. 
 There is a Nemesis of faith as well as of unbelief: and 
 never will truth charge disloyalty upon those who, in 
 simplicity and godly sincerity,- challenge her to bring forth 
 her proofs. 
 
 There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds^. 
 
 But this thorough acquaintance with the Christian 
 evidences is needed for the sake of others also. It is f^ 
 well observed by the late Archbishop Whately, that 
 modern infidelity is made up of '' objections against 
 Christianity, — not of answers to the arguments for it." 
 This witness is true. Butler's Analogy has never been 
 answered. Paley's Evidences have never been answered. 
 The testimonies, collected by Leland, and Lardner, and 
 Leslie, have never been answered. And yet, as defences 
 against the assaults of modern scepticism, it seems well to 
 urge that we should not rely entirely upon these older 
 manuals of Christian, evidence. So far as relates to our 
 perceptions of revealed truth, there is a progress in theo- 
 logical science, as in science of every other kind. In the 
 departments of history, criticism, antiquities, products of 
 soil and clime, secondary and corroborative lights are con- 
 stantly let in upon the sacred volume, all of which may 
 
 ^ Tennyson. See Note C in the Appendix.- 
 
22 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 be helpful to ,us in dealing with some of the keenly 
 agitated moral questions of the day. At ail events, with- 
 out undervaluing an anti-Deist literature, which carried 
 conviction to the mind of a Locke, or a Newton, or a 
 Milton, it seems only fair to admit, that, to the great 
 majority of our critical and scientific doubts, our older 
 works on evidence supply no direct answer. , In form, 
 at least, these doubts are the creation of the Age; and, 
 only by solutions derived from the growing intelligence of 
 the age, can they be met and silenced. New wine must 
 not be put into old bottles. If phases of adverse criticism 
 are constantly coming before us, which our fathers knev/ 
 not of ; — ^if we are required to prove that the Mosaic re- 
 cord is not a patch- work of ill-assorted legends ; that 
 the facts relating to the personal Christ, are not a poetic 
 myth; that the writings of David and the prophets are 
 something more than the inspirations of religious genius; 
 that the controlling influence, by which the words of 
 the sacred writers have been preserved to us, was suffi- 
 cient for all the purposes of a Divinely authenticated reve- 
 lation, — it is clear that, instead of depending exclusively 
 upon the literature of the past, or the defences of the jDast, 
 we must put ourselves abreast with the ripest know- 
 ledge of the times, and engage the objector with weapons, 
 equal at least, if not su23erior to his own. 
 
 I conclude with one remark, addressed to an imjDortant 
 section of my auditory. Obliged by my limits to deal 
 chiefly with the intellectual characteristics of the age, the 
 fear with me is natural, that some of those who are look- 
 iug forward to the sacred office, may be chiefly concerned 
 
The Characteristics of the Age. 23 
 
 to come up to the literary or controversial requisitions 
 of the times, and care for little else. Can it be neces- 
 sary to remind such, that, in taking upon themselves the 
 ministry of the Gospel, they will have to watch for souls ? 
 — "watch for them as they that must give account." 
 Notable words these of the Apostle. For if, while logi- 
 cally equipped for the strifes and controversies of the 
 day, we be found wanting in the higher qualities of 
 ambassadors for Christ ; — if there should be nothing, in our 
 message, either to build up the believer in his faith, or 
 to cast down the formalist from his false hope ; — if tliere 
 be no pungency in our appeals to the conscience ; nothing 
 heart- stirring in our word of exhortation ; no fulness in 
 our exhibitions of the great mystery of godliness to draw 
 all men to Christ, — to His footstool, to His cross, to His 
 heart, to His throne, — in a word, if our whole ministry 
 be permitted to degenerate into a hard, soul-less, dialectic 
 exercise, — of body without spirit ; of intellect without 
 devoutness ; of Christianity without Christ, — fearful, most 
 fearful will be the reckoning, taken with us by the 
 Eternal lover of the souls of men : and fearful will 
 be the recoil upon our Church and ourselves. No ; all 
 around us is life, in sad and solemn earnest ; — evil prin- 
 ciples sown broad-cast; sin and misery burdening the 
 earth ; all the aspects of social life reflecting the signs of 
 a dislocated and disordered world ; the whole creation 
 groaning and travailing in pain together until now. And 
 the remedy for this is to be found in the holding up, to 
 the faith of men, not so much a dogma, as a person ; 
 — not so much the testimonies to the Revelation, as 
 the perfections of the august and Glorious Hevkvler. 
 
-4 The Characteristics of the Age. 
 
 Brethren, it is Christ the masses of our population want, 
 though they know it not. And, if we be careful to liold 
 Him up, in all the dignity of His person, and nature, and 
 work, and offices ; — in the power of His blood to cleanse, 
 in the sufficiency of His grace to support, in the complete- 
 ness of His righteousness to justify, in the might of His 
 intercessions to prevail ; — if everywhere, and to all who 
 will come to Him, we preach Christ, as the only peace 
 of the heart, as the only repose of the spirit, as the one 
 refuge of the fearful conscience, as the one all-filling, all- 
 satisfying object, upon which the thoughts of man could 
 be exercised, or towards which the affections of man could 
 be turned; — then, for the triumphs of His truth in the 
 world, we need have no fear. We would not omit season- 
 able defences of the faith : but our confidence would be 
 not in thein, but in Him. The truth of Christ, we know, 
 is imperishable. Schisms may abound. Error may wax 
 bold. Systems of human philosophy may live through 
 their little day : and the oppositions of science may perish 
 by their own suicidal hands. But the word of the Gospel 
 will live on, — unchanged in its contents, unshaken in its 
 evidences, unmutilated in its integrity, and unfailing in 
 its fulfilments : — " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
 my words shall not pass away." Amen. 
 
SEKMON II. 
 
 THE AGE AND THE WRITTEN WORD, 
 
 Psalm cxxxviii. 2. 
 
 TliGu hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name. 
 
 Twofold object of infidel attack — I. Method of sceptical procedure — 
 Appeals to popular suSrage — Is very complimentary to Christianity — 
 Intolerant of well-defined dogma — II. Points in the Revelation usually 
 selected for attack — Miracle — Alleged incompatibility with the discoveries 
 of modem science — Geology — Language — Antiquities — III. The large 
 and varied claims of Revelation — Its reasonable claims as inspired — Its 
 historic claims as authenticated — Its moral claims as congruous to the 
 nature and circumstances of mankind — The difficulties of Revelation the 
 difficulties of natural religion also — Conclusion — The busy mocker — The 
 right heart and the right creed. 
 
 The Bible is a wonderful book if it be true. If it were 
 not true, it would be a more wonderful book still. Tens 
 of centuries have passed away since some of its human 
 authors lived. And, in the interval, decay or change has 
 passed upon all earthly things: — upon kingdoms, which 
 have perished ; upon peoples, which have disappeared 
 from the earth ; upon institutions, the choicest products 
 of the human intelligence, which yet, being made sub- 
 ject unto vanity, neither on the character of nations, nor 
 on the hearts of men, have left evidence or trace behind. 
 But the Bible remains, a living and mighty power in 
 
26 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 the world. All time has had it in charge to keep it. 
 All providence has been bowed to subserve its gracious 
 purposes. And now, in its grand old age, — its " silver 
 cord not loosed" nor its "golden bowl broken," — it holds, 
 as by magic spell, the hearts of unnumbered millions of 
 our race, — their light, their hope, their comfort, for the 
 life that now is, their sure foundation for the life which is 
 to come. Can any be found who are ready to disparage 
 this word ? to undervalue a book, which God, and angels, 
 and all good men have conspired to magnify? If there 
 be, '^0 my soul, come not thou into their secret: unto 
 their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." Truth 
 and truth only could have given to the Bible its ever- 
 during life : and the God of truth alone could have pre- 
 served it. " Thou hast magnified Thy "Word above all 
 Thy Name." 
 
 The text, on the most commonly received interpre- 
 tation, may be considered as evidencing the Psalmist's 
 profound estimation of the importance of the revealed 
 word; his habitual persuasion that, in the reverent study 
 of Scripture, were to be obtained our noblest views of the 
 Divine character; its rich treasury of promise far sur- 
 passing the highest human expectation, and causing its 
 contents to be magnified "above all that is famed, or 
 spoken, or believed of God\" 
 
 In a like spirit of bowing reverence to the revealed 
 will of God, I desire to enter uj^on my task to-day; when, 
 
 ^ See Hammond, in loc. Dr Phillips also observes that the Hebrew 
 word denotes ' ' the word of 'promise. The force of the passage may therefore be 
 that God's promises are so great and his performances so exact and true, as 
 tver to surpass all previous expectations, notwithstanding His great name." 
 Hie Fsalms in II threw. 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 27 
 
 in accordance with an intimation already given, I am 
 to call attention more particularly to some of the sceptical 
 tendencies of our age, — whether as manifested under the 
 older and outspoken form of freethinling, or as veiled 
 under the modern euphuism oi free thought On a theme 
 so wide, we must have some principle of selection: and 
 therefore, while leaving to be dealt with by the more 
 elaborate treatises of the press, the minute objections of 
 a critical or scientific scholarship, I shall aim to take up 
 only those more familiar forms of unbelieving thought, 
 with which we are broug^ht face to face as relio-ious 
 teachers, and which therefore it falls within the province 
 of our public ministrations to meet fairly and to expose. 
 
 Now this scepticism of our age may be considered 
 generally, as having a two-fold object of attack ; — 
 namely, the written Eevelation and the Personal 
 Christ; — the word inspired, and the Word Incarnate; — 
 the message which " God, at sundry times and in divers 
 manners," has sent to us by the Prophets, and that same 
 message, as it has been Divinely authenticated and deve- 
 loped by His Son, — the Christ of prophecy, the Christ of 
 the Gospels, the Christ of God. 
 
 Our business to-day will lie chiefly with the avritten 
 Eevelation : and in relation thereto we shall proceed, first, 
 
 I. To take a glance at the general COURSE AND 
 
 policy of infidel OBJECTORS; 
 
 II. To notice some points IN the Eevelation most 
 commonly selected for attack ; 
 
 III. To urge the large and varied claims of the 
 Eevelation itself. 
 
 I. First, it may be convenient to some of my younger 
 
28 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 brethren that I direct attention to the general COUESE 
 AND PROCEDURE of modern scepticism, — the covert 
 method of its attacks, and the insidiousness of the guise 
 it wears. 
 
 i. Thus, we observe, that as compared with the in- 
 fidelity of a bygone age, modern unbelief appeals more 
 directly to the favour and suffrage of the pojyular mind. 
 
 Our older English Deists, from the time of Lord Her- 
 bert down to Gibbon, were accustomed to address their 
 arguments to men of culture and refinement. With many 
 of them, disbelief was a mere efflorescence of literary 
 vanity. They spread their net to catch the thoughtful 
 intellects of the age: and would have looked upon the 
 masses of the uneducated as a spoil not worth the capture. 
 Modern sceptics deem it well to cover with their meshes a 
 much wider surface. They aim to be popular in their 
 writings; are proud of addressing themselves to the prac- 
 tical English mind; claim the merit of using great plain- 
 ness of speech. And, when it suits their purpose, they do 
 use it. Our last infidel importations, as I have said, have 
 come to us from Germany. But there are essential differ- 
 ences between the English and the Teutonic mind. Our 
 people, it was known, would never take kindly to the 
 Continental Rationalism, as such, — to a priori speculations 
 about the nature of God, and "the philosophy of the 
 Unconditioned." As a nation, we are averse from abstrac- 
 tions : and prefer that whatever is to be said on such 
 subjects should be said, as far as possible, in easily appre- 
 hended, tangible, and concrete forms. Hence the mischief 
 of the recently revived attacks on the Pentateuch. It was 
 infidelity made easy. All the positive evidences for its 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 20 
 
 authenticity were studiously kept in the background. 
 History with its facts; miracle with its proofs; prophecy 
 with its fulfilments; heathenism with its testimonies, were 
 witnesses not even cited in the controversy. The arti- 
 fice attempted was, that the claims of the Mosaic record 
 to be considered a history or a myth, — a Revelation or a 
 fraud, — should be made to appear determinable on issues, 
 which the school-boy could work out on his slate, or the 
 mechanic verify with his line and rule. 
 
 And these popular forms of appeal have well served 
 their purpose. Never has the infidelity of the lower 
 orders presented itself in such systematized and scientific 
 forms as it exhibits now. It is a negation no longer : — 
 an obliteration of old faiths no longer. In outward form 
 and pretension, at least, it is a science; a philosophy; an 
 articulate creed. The secularist will quote his formulas 
 to you with as much precision, as if they were the dicta of 
 an ecumenical councir. True there may be nothing new 
 in the system, — nothing which had not been foresha- 
 dowed in the Positivism of Comte, or in the social and 
 secular philosophizing of Owen^ But the ready accept- 
 ance of such Atheistic teaching, among the masses, should 
 be a lesson to us how impossible it is for the mind to rest 
 in an eclectic Christianity;— on a professed abjuring of 
 the facts of the Old Testament, to save the credit of the 
 
 1 See note T>. in the Appendix. 
 
 2 Robert Owen, of Lanark, founder of a system called "Socialism." 
 His proposed aim was to raise the condition of the industrial classes ; but 
 his theology, or rather his negation of it, consisted chiefly in the deification 
 or fatalism of circumstances. For an account of his system, see Farrar s 
 Critical History of Free Thought, Lect. v. 284. Comte's chief work is the 
 Philosophie Positive, and has been translated by Miss Martiucau. 
 
30 The Age and the Written Word, 
 
 New. Indeed the leaders of infidel thought, among the 
 poorer classes, make no secret of this. They deem it 
 better that religious reforms should be effected slowly, 
 and therefore they are content to take the uprooting of 
 Christianity as an instalment. But not there do they 
 intend to stop, nor anywhere, until they have landed 
 their deluded victims on that dark shore, — a land of dark- 
 ness as darkness itself, — from which are banished all hope 
 of immortality and all belief in a personal God. 
 
 ii. I note another feature in the policy of modern 
 scepticism, namely, that in relation to so much of Chris- 
 tianity as it chooses to admit, it assumes to be very com- 
 plimentary and smooth-spoken. 
 
 Against all that is vital in the system modern Ration- 
 alism can be bitter enough. But the Bible is a book of 
 large and varied contents. And it would be strange 
 indeed if, in the exquisiteness of its poetry, or the beauty 
 of its narratives, or the lofty reach of its wisdom, in the 
 grandeur of its conceptions of the Divine nature, or in the 
 matchless perfection of its code for governing the relations 
 between man and man, — unbelievers could not find matter 
 for their qualified and worthless praise. And they have 
 found it. Not far should we have to search into the pages 
 of the sceptical literature of the day to find testimonies to 
 the fact, that, to the Bible the world is chiefly indebted 
 for all that is pure in morals, all that is sublime in thought, 
 all that is noble in legislation, all that is dignified and 
 refined in the usages of social life. The greatest of human 
 institutions, it is declared, seem built on the Bible, neither 
 can there be found in any other book a like aptitude for 
 meeting the desires and aspirations of the universal heart 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 31 
 
 of man\ Such things I say are told us hy men, wlio yet 
 seem to have no other object in reciting them, tlian that 
 they should serve as a foil to the conclusion to which their 
 monstrous impiety and perverted logic brings them, that 
 yet this book, of which they speak, is " a human work, 
 made up of some things which are beautiful and true, but 
 of others which no man in his senses can accept, — the 
 work of various writers capriciously thrown together, and 
 united by no common tie but the lids of the book- 
 binder^" 
 
 To the same spirit of disingenuous, though affected 
 reverence for our revealed scheme, must we refer that 
 tendency in modern sceptical writers to take the funda- 
 mental terms of Christian theology, — faith, inspiration, 
 atonement, enlightening influences of the Spirit, — and, 
 utterly ignoring their familiar and long accepted use, to 
 combine them into a theological mosaic of their own. In 
 this way, a masked portraiture of Christianity is put before 
 the unwary by which his eyes are blinded : — only leaving 
 him to say in utter bewilderment ; — " The voice is Jacob's 
 voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." Surely, in 
 speaking of this subtle and misleading use of Christian 
 phraseology, we cannot express ourselves in too plain 
 language. It is a deception, an artifice, a high misdemea- 
 nour and offence against the statutes of common honesty'. 
 
 Of course, the danger, even as it is probably the design 
 of much of this conciliatory and fair-seeming attitude to- 
 wards Revelation is this, — that people should be led to 
 
 '^ See note E. in the Appendix. 
 
 2 Theodore Parker, JJlscourses on Religion, p. 243. 
 
 ^ rSee note F. in the Appendix. 
 
32 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 think that the difference between vital Christianity and 
 the so-called philosophical Christianity, — in other words, 
 the difference between faith and unbelief, — is of much 
 less moment than it appears. And therefore, by us, the 
 true conditions of the case must be put fairly and boldly. 
 The modern neologian may claim to be very far removed 
 from the Deism of the seventeenth century : but he is 
 much nearer that, than he is to the Christianity of the 
 Bible. In the main, perhaps, he professes to be a believer 
 in the Scriptures: and, as one having strong moral and 
 intellectual S3^mpathies with much that he finds in the 
 Gospel system, he claims to be considered a Christian. 
 But he is not so. Men are Christians, in the higher sense, 
 not by the exercise of a selective faith in the Scriptures, — 
 taking that which may be common "to Christianity and 
 a multitude of merely human beliefs besides,^but only 
 as they accept the holy volume in its entirety; and are 
 prepared to recognize, in its every precept, and every 
 prophecy, — its every doctrine, and its every fact, — a direct 
 message from God to the souls of men. 
 
 iii. We notice one other part of the policy of modern 
 scepticism, namely, its endeavour to rid the professing 
 Christian Church of all dogmatic certainty or definiteness. 
 
 One of the writers of the Essays has observed, '' In the 
 present day a godless orthodoxy threatens as in the fif- 
 teenth century to extinguish religious thought altogether, 
 and nothing is allowed in the Church of England, in the 
 present day but the formulse of past thinkings which have 
 long lost all sense of any kind^." This language reflects 
 
 ^ Essays and Reviews, p. 297. Mr Pattison. So also, in relation to our 
 more strongly marked dogmatic formularies, we have Professor Jowett ex- 
 
The Age and the Written Word, 33 
 
 but too truly a condition of mind which has obtained very 
 extensively among us; — namely, a fretting against the 
 yoke of theological absoluteness and finality; a feeling 
 that some coercive influence is being employed against 
 the freedom of human thought, if for the Christian 
 dogma, in any form, there be claimed a permanent juris- 
 diction over the religious conscience. Minds of this kind 
 ask for a wide margin of belief; a plastic, flexible ter- 
 minology which may mean anything or nothing; scope 
 for the exercise of the sentimental, and the poetic, and 
 the emotional; — in order that, under cover of that para- 
 doxical mental condition, which is half faith, and half in- 
 fidelity, they may believe as much or as little as they 
 j^lease. Hence a good deal of the haziness and cloud 
 which marks the style of our neological writers. Tliey 
 shun, as it were an adder in their path, anything that 
 commits them to a distinct theology. You take up one 
 of their books, — perhaps a sermon. The thought is tender, 
 the image is gTaceful, the appeal is fervent, the rhetoric 
 is flowing, but all is indefinite, — a nimbus of golden mist. 
 From beginning to end there is no doctrine^. 
 
 pressing his " hope for the future that these distinctions of theology are 
 beginning to fade away." 
 
 "^ Dr Newman, an acute ohserver of the state of religious thought, has 
 recently reminded us of his words in 1839 in a contribution he had furnished 
 to the British Critic. "In the present day mistiness is the mother of 
 •wisdom. A man who can set down half-a-dozen general propositions, which 
 escape from destroying one another by being diluted into truisms, who can 
 hold the balance between opposites so skilfully as to do without fulcrum or 
 beam, who never enunciates a truth without guarding himself against being 
 
 supposed to exclude the contradictory this is what the Church is sai^l 
 
 to want, not party-men, but sensible, temperate, sober, wel]-jurlgingi)ersons, 
 to guide it through the channel of no-meaning, between the Scylla and 
 Charybdis of Aye and No." Apologia, p. 193. See also note G. in Ai'pendix. 
 
34 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 Now apart from the danger that this nebulous and 
 indeterminate theology may soon become no theology at 
 all, and that the dimly discerned and twilight forms of 
 truth may soon lose all shape in the night of unbelief, it 
 seems well to warn any, who may have begun to be fasci- 
 nated by this air-beating and impalpable teaching, that 
 they stand already on the sloping ledge of Gospel condem- 
 nation. The obligation of religious belief, as laid down by 
 Christianity, was a new principle in the ethical systems of 
 the world. But of the new religion it was the distinguish- 
 ing mark. " He that believe th and is baptized shall be 
 saved." " He that belie veth not God hath made Him a 
 liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of 
 His Son." " I came that I should bear witness to the 
 truth." " My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me." 
 Such words contain a strong protest against all undogmatic 
 Christianity, — against all teaching which we are either 
 afraid to express, or are not able to express in plain and 
 intelligible terms. To set lightly by a doctrine which 
 claims to have been sent from heaven; to be content 
 with misty and undefined notions concerning it; to rele- 
 gate all that is di'stinctive about it to a limbo of myth, and 
 incertitude, and doubt, cannot but be a dishonour to its 
 infinite Author. The charge commonly brought against 
 our time-honoured formularies is that they bind us to a 
 severe and exact terminology in relation to truths, which, 
 from their nature, we can only know imperfectly. Surely 
 this can be no reason why the little we do know should not 
 be determinately expressed. Whatever revelation God has 
 seen fit to make, must have been designed to become the 
 object of a rational belief; and, as such, must admit of 
 
The Age and the Written Word. Do 
 
 l)eing expressed in some of tlie intelligible forms of human 
 speech ; whilst as to the mystery, construct or reconstruct 
 creeds as we may, and make them broad and facile as we 
 may, it is obvious, from the subjects dealt with, that we 
 can never bring them absolutely within the limits of hu- 
 man thought, and that it is no reproach to Revelation, but 
 rather a recommendation to it, that in some of its disclo- 
 sures those limits should bo overpassed.. 
 
 Against all schemes, therefore, for a theology drawn 
 up in the language of a charitable and elastic vagueness, 
 we contend that the question at issue is, whether, in re- 
 lation to truths which we confessedly know but in part, 
 we ought not to be careful to know that part clearly ? and 
 whether on subjects, which all must comprehend imper- 
 fectly, it is not the duty of every one to be right as far as 
 his faculties enable him to go ? " He that abideth not 
 in the doctrine of Christ," it is declared, " hath not God." 
 How can we abide in it, if we know not what the doctrine 
 is ? If there be a " faith which was once delivered to the 
 saints," we must contend for it, and that earnestly. A 
 Christianity without dogma is a nullity. It is not ''the 
 Word of God magnified above all His Name :" — but rather 
 His Word, having all the parts which most magnify His 
 Name, cancelled and blotted out. 
 
 II. But I pass on to the next part of our subject, 
 or the POINTS IN THE WRITTEN REVELATION which are 
 more commonly selected for attack. 
 
 i. First among these are the miracles. These have 
 been attacked with a virulence, with an industry, with a 
 
36 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 keen and persistent logic, which shew but too plainly what 
 an impregnable fortress of revelation this evidence is felt 
 to be. It seems as if Kationalists were conscious that if 
 they did not succeed in overthrowing miracles, they must 
 become Christians. Hence the forms of attack have been 
 various. First, the existence of the miracle, as a fact, was 
 denied. ' The work wrought was no miracle at all: but an 
 effect produced according to some occult physical law, 
 which, being known only to the worker, would make the 
 phenomenon appear like a miracle to the ignorant looker- 
 on. Then the literary reality of the miracle was brought 
 in question. It was never meant to be read as history. 
 It was an inserted legendary graft upon an otherwise true 
 narrative, and which might be detached from the record, 
 without the slightest damage to its integrity. We answer 
 confidently the separation is impossible, — as impossible 
 as would be the elimination of the vein from the sculptured 
 marble, or that of the interlacing and embedded hbre from 
 the leaf of a tree. Every page of revelation, of the 
 Gospel history especially, sparkles with miracle. The 
 book is a firm, hard conglomerate of fact and prodigy, — the 
 two things, like web and woof, forming one entire fabric. 
 Bolingbroke admitted this long ago. "The miracles in the 
 Bible," he says, "are not like those in Livy, — detached 
 pieces that do not disturb the history. The whole Bible 
 history is founded on miracles. It consists of little else : 
 and if it were not a history of them it would be a history 
 of nothing." 
 
 Then there was the objection of incredibility. Could 
 any amount of testimony j)rove a miracle true? To this 
 one answer is supplied in the admitted indissolubility of 
 
Tlie Age and the Written Word, 37 
 
 the two parts of the narrative, the historic and the mi- 
 raculous. The Exodus and the passage of the Red Sea 
 rest upon the same basis of historic evidence. And if we 
 accept the one, as a w^ell authenticated fact, we must 
 accept the other also. But besides this, it is to be urrred 
 that testimony lies at the foundation of all our knowledge. 
 Upon it, when carefully weighed and sifted, philosophy 
 builds her inductions, legislation its judgments, the whole 
 commerce of human life its confidences and its laws. And 
 hence to foreclose the argument against testimony, in the 
 case of any visible fact, by an a pi^iori canon of incredi- 
 bility, is the very caprice of argumentative despotism: — 
 hardly exceeded, in its irrationalness, by that usage of 
 some African chiefs, who, to save themselves from being 
 troubled by evil tidings, made a law that any man who 
 brought them, instead of being listened to, should be 
 put to death for his pains \ 
 
 Then there is the objection profanely put forth by 
 some modern unitarian writers, as rejDresented by an able 
 periodical, and expressed in such words, as, "A miracle 
 looks upon God as a 'prentice Creator changing his 
 mind," ''improving with practice," obliged to mend upon 
 the original constitution of things, the world being shaped 
 in so poor a way that it ''does not answer His intentions," 
 and He therefore must alter its laws to meet new con- 
 
 ^ Parker, a bitter enemy of miracles, discLiiras all sympathy with these 
 modes of disposing of miracles antecedently and without enquiry. He 
 says "the question of miracles is one of fact to be settled by his- 
 torical evidence only I think miracles are entirely possible. I think 
 
 God can manifest Himself in a thousand ways that He never did reveal 
 Himself in, and I can't say that he won't to-morrow." Life and Coirc- 
 sjyondence, Vol. i. p. 47. 
 
88 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 ditions\ Who sees not, in tliis, an assumed definition 
 of a miracle, which it is known every intelligent theo- 
 logian would repudiate? No doubt it may suit the pur- 
 pose of Hume and the Essayists to speak of a miracle 
 as "a suspension of the laws of matter" or a "violation of 
 the order of the material universe V' hut, in its received 
 theological acceptation, a miracle is no more than an effect 
 produced by Divine power in some v*^ay, that is out of the 
 observed course of ordinary and sensible operations ; or 
 as Dr Thomas Brown describes it, " a new effect, supposed 
 to be produced by the introduction of a new cause I" In 
 so describing it, we say nothing labout the laws of nature 
 being interrupted ; but only that the manner of its visible 
 operations is changed : which change, however, we pre- 
 sume to be effected by some other lav/ that we are sup- 
 posed to know nothing about. The miracle is no more 
 contrary to nature than the ordinary phenomenon is. It 
 is something in addition to what we know of nature; — 
 the introduction of a higher element of power which we 
 do not see, into a lower element which we do see. 
 
 The last form of the objection to be noticed and 
 probably the more common one, in our day, is that a 
 miracle is in its own nature impossible; in other words, 
 that the Omnipotent is fettered by His own laws; that 
 conditions, developing themselves according to an order 
 
 ^ See Westminster Revieio, Oct. 1864. 
 
 2 "The enlarged critical and inductive study of the natural world cannot 
 but tend powerfully to evince the inconceivableness of imagined interruption.s 
 of natural order, or supposed suspensions of the laws of matter." B. Powell, 
 Hi Essays and Reviews, p. no. 
 
 *-2 Enquiry iv. to the Relations of Cause and Effect, quoted in Mill's System 
 of Logic; Vol. II. c. XXV. 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 39 
 
 of eternal sequence, have been impressed upon the phy- 
 sical universe, and that, even by Him who first gave them 
 being, they are now beyond recall. Very difficult is it 
 to see how any but an Atheist can take this ground. 
 For every Deist, of whatever school, believes in the fact 
 of creation. And, creation, begin when it may, and be 
 brought about how it may, innovates upon the constituted 
 order of things; is a deviation from the observed law 
 of sequences; is something contrary to all antecedent 
 experience ; in a word, is a miracle \ The Atheist is not 
 troubled with this difficulty. Matter is his God: and, 
 as its laAvs are eternal — to him, there can be no miracle. 
 But to none but the Atheist: so that, in regard of their 
 proper theological status, we can see no difference between 
 the philosopher that says with his lips, "There is no 
 miracle," and the fool that saith in his heart, ''There is 
 no God." 
 
 ii. Another objection commonly taken against the 
 written revelation is the alles^ed disao^reement of some of 
 its statements with the facts and discoveries of modern 
 science. 
 
 By some persons, it seems to be supposed, that Reve- 
 lation and science must always be afraid of each other; 
 and always jealous of each other. But surely they ought 
 not so to be; because what Kepler beautifully calls " the 
 
 ^ M. Guizot in his recent work observes, " what is creation but a 
 supernatural fact, the act of a power superior to the actual laws of nature, 
 and which has power to modify them just as much as it had power to estab- 
 lish them. The first of miracles is God Himself: there is a second miracle 
 — man." Meditations on the Essence ofHJhrislianity, p. lOO. See the samo 
 form of argument admirably worked out in the Eellpse <f Faith, pp. ^45 — 
 260. 
 
40 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 finger of God and the tongue of God," can never be con- 
 trary the one to the other. Whatever the appearing 
 discrepancy be, it must be one of our own making; and 
 proceeding either from our too hasty generalizations 
 upon the facts of science, or else from some ill-consi- 
 dered and mistaken interpretation of the words of Scrip- 
 ture. This remark will not unfitly apply to some of 
 the objections taken by scientific men to the Mosaic 
 record of the Creation, and especially to the commonly 
 assumed date of our world's beginning. The interpreta- 
 tion Avas undoubtedly a hasty one which assumed this 
 date to be coeval with the creation of man. The Bible 
 nowhere affirms this ; and a contrary inference, favouring 
 the existence of a pre-Adamite world, will be found 
 among the conjectures of the early Christian writers, long 
 before the scientific difficulty involved in the popular 
 assumption had been thought of^ 
 
 This may serve as an instance of hasty conclusions 
 drawn by the friends of Scripture; but have not the 
 advocates of science sometimes drawn hasty conclusions 
 also ? Of course this pulpit is the very last place in w^hich 
 a man would have the temerity to undervalue the results 
 of scientific investigation of any kind : whilst, with regard 
 to geology especially, we are all prepared to hail it gladly 
 as one of the noblest fields ever opened for human 
 research. Still, when successive theories, in relation to 
 this science, are urged as being at variance with Scrip- 
 ture, is it not competent to us to ask, Have all these 
 geological hypotheses been in accordance with one ano- 
 
 ^ See refei-ences to Jerome, S. Basil, S. Greg. Nazianz. in Dr Pusey's 
 Prophet Daniel, p. xvii. 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 41 
 
 ther? Has not system risen against system, and theory 
 displaced theory, till the disciple of a science, itself but of 
 yesterday, finds himself already walking over the graves 
 of defunct philosophies, and not knowing how long shall 
 be in the ascendant the system which he is adopting now? 
 Science itself is waiting for a matured and fully deve- 
 loped geology; until it comes, there is as little room for 
 timid misgivings on the one side as for an over-forward 
 confidence on the other \ At all events, in relation to any 
 of these alleged disagreements with modern discoveries, 
 all we are to look for, in Scripture, — all that, on its own 
 shewing, we are entitled to look for, — is, that wherever 
 scientific subjects euter into the narrative, there be found, 
 in it, that general harmony with observation and pheno- 
 menal fact, which shall make the document intelligible to 
 all readers, and, in its leading and essential features, true 
 to all times. And such with all confidence we aver it is^ 
 The same form of reply will avail iu the case of other 
 scientific objections to the contents of revelation, taken 
 from the department of language, and history, and anti- 
 quities. Experience has shewn that the source of most of 
 these objections is to be found in hasty deductions, or 
 superficial observation, or in some form or other of in- 
 
 ^ One who will not be suspected of disloyalty to the best interests of 
 science has well observed: '* I can only say that in my judgement doubt 
 and delay are better than headlong haste and baseless confidence, on (|iies- 
 tions so large and deep ; and that as we shall never entirely get rid of our 
 ignorance, there seems to be some advantage in not throwing off the con- 
 sciousness of it. And we shall be able to bear our ignorance the more 
 patiently, if we have not looked to science for that which science cannot 
 give." Dr Whewell's Indications of the Creator, ^nd ed, p. ^9. 
 
 ^ See note H. in Appendix. 
 
42 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 exact or imperfect knowledge. The utter refutation of 
 the charges brought by Volney against the Scripture re- 
 cords, founded on his mis-reading of the ancient inscrip- 
 tions at Denderat and Thebes, as well as the discovery, by 
 Laplace, that the Indian records, supposed to be fatal 
 to the historic claims of Moses, involved an astronomical 
 impossibility \ may fairly be quoted in support of this view. 
 Other instances might be easily cited. And if, on the 
 one hand, they suggest to an objector the lesson of scien- 
 tific modesty, on the other they should suggest to the 
 believer the duty of a patient and trustful waiting. Time 
 and human progress will be found to be great inter- 
 preters. DiiSiculties which a century ago would have 
 been given up as hopeless, are every day yielding to the 
 solvent of a well-ripened scholarship, or the more ad- 
 vanced condition of historic science ; — thus not only turn- 
 ing to the account of a corroboration of the sacred record, 
 the mistakes of the superficial sciolist, but shewing how 
 ready true science of every kind is to become the handmaid 
 of religion, and lay her offering at the footstool of the 
 revelation of God^. Science claims, and claims justly, to 
 be a preacher of the great Name of God. But behold, a 
 
 1 See Dr Wiseman's Lectures, pp. 69 — 73. Other examples will be 
 found in Hamilton's Pentateuch and its Assailants, Introdaction, p. xix; 
 and in GsixhQit's Bible and its Critics, Boyle Lecture, p. 117. 
 ^ Akenside's Hymn to Science will be recalled : 
 
 Then launch through being's wide extent, 
 Let the fair scale with just ascent 
 
 And cautious steps be trod : 
 And from the dead corporeal mass, 
 Through each progressive order pass 
 To instinct, reason, God. 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 4n 
 
 greater than science is here. " Thou hast magnified Thy 
 Word above all Thy Name." 
 
 III. On objections against the written word I have 
 not time to insist further.; being anxious to offer a few 
 observations on the large AND varied claims ov the 
 Revelation itself. 
 
 i. Thus, looking at the evidences from their positive 
 side, we are entitled to urge the rational claims of the 
 Revelation ; — as answering to the demands of right reason, 
 as affording scope for the exercise of an intelligent faith; 
 as meeting that irrepressible craving for certainty on moral 
 subjects which is the first need of the awakened mind. 
 This, no revelation could be to us unless we could reirard 
 it as infallible; that is, unless it were, in some unique and 
 transcendental sense, "God's word written," — the actual 
 inspirations of the Everlasting intellect, adapted to the 
 mental and moral constitution of man. And we may so 
 regard it. We claim for the Scriptures only what they claim 
 for themselves, — that they are the oracles of God; very 
 truth of very truth; a collection of utterances, proceeding- 
 direct from the excellent glory, and repi'oduced, in all their 
 Divine purity, on a written page. We bind ourselves by 
 no theories of inspiration. Grant that the controlling 
 influence on the minds of the sacred writers was sufficient 
 to authenticate their message as a revelation sent from 
 
 There, Science, veil thy daring eye, 
 Nor dive too deep, nor soar too high 
 
 In that divine abyss ; 
 To faith content thy beams to lend, 
 Her liopea to assure, her steps befriend, 
 
 And light her way to bliss. 
 
44 The Age and the Written Word, 
 
 God, as well as to secure an infallible directory to us in all 
 things pertaining to salvation, and with speculations as 
 to the nature or extent of the influence employed, — we 
 have nothing whatever to do. On some subjects in the 
 Revelation, we must suppose the highest degree of Divine 
 illumination would be employed, interdicting the writer 
 from setting down a word or syllable of his own. In 
 other departments of the record, it is conceivable that 
 room should be left for the limited intermixture of the 
 human element. Our faith requires the Divine element 
 chiefly, as we have intimated, on this account — that we 
 may be assured of the certainty of the things revealed. 
 Without defining inspiration therefore, and without theo- 
 rizing about it, it seems a good rule to suppose so much of 
 the supernatural in a revelation, as was needful for the 
 ends proposed, and no more. 
 
 In furtherance of the same view, we are permitted 
 to urge the historic claims of the word. If history and 
 documentary evidence can be believed in any thing, it can 
 be believed in this, that, fifteen hundred years before the 
 Christian era, the Jews had a religion given to them 
 which they believed to be a revelation from God : and as 
 either from necessity or from choice, this people became, 
 in the course of time, to be mixed up with the most cele- 
 brated nations of the earth, their annals may be said to 
 have points of contact with universal history. Hence, in 
 support of the truth of the Old Testament records, we are 
 able to adduce the consenting testimony of all history, 
 all time, all races, and all tongues: to bring corrobora- 
 tions from the earliest documentary sources it is possible 
 to consult ; — from the most cultivated ages of Greek and 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 45 
 
 Roman literature ; from traditions however distorted and 
 disguised, culled out of the mythologies of all nations: — 
 insomuch that we may say boldly that, to deny the claims 
 of the Old Testament, w^ould be to make documents a 
 nullity, authorship a fable, testimony a lie; would be to 
 acknowledge that we could have no certain canon of 
 literary authenticity to guide us, and in effect would over- 
 turn all history. 
 
 But especially ought we to urge the moral claims of 
 Revelation as the only system which meets man in his 
 ruin, and the deep exigency sin has brought upon him ; as 
 proving its Divine original by its marvellous adaptation to 
 all the circumstances of human nature ; as making the 
 most august disclosures of the character and perfections of 
 God, both as the moral Governor and gracious Redeemer 
 of our race; as providing for the recovery and restoration, 
 as well as for the pardon and acceptance of a fallen world ; 
 as training the Church for all its responsible duties to the 
 end of time; as throvs^ing open to us the doors of the 
 heavenly kingdom, and shewing how we may be made 
 fitted for its joys. It is in this aspect, especially, that 
 David in all his Psalms delights to magnify the Word of 
 God. Let one instance suffice. In his matchless descrip- 
 tion of the j^lanetary heavens, in the nineteenth Psalm, we 
 have a contrast between the teachings of natural and re- 
 vealed theology. " The heavens declare the glory of God, 
 and the firmament sheweth His handywork." This is 
 nature's mission, and all her mission; — of the method of a 
 sinner's conversion she is able to teach us notliiug. But 
 when in the next strophe, the Word of God is brouglit in, 
 effects of a hio^her kind are assumed to be wrought, and the 
 
46 The Age and the IVrltten Word. 
 
 triumjjli of grace appears in the new life of tlie souls of 
 men. " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
 sour." 
 
 ii. Once more, we hold ourselves entitled to urge as a 
 strong argument in support of the claims of Revelation, 
 that there are no difficulties chargeable upon it which do 
 not press ivith equal, if not greater force, upon the systems 
 of natural religion. 
 
 Christianity has its distinctive difficulties, no doubt. 
 Its doctrine of a personal Tempter, of the fall of humanity 
 by the sin of Adam, of its recovery by the Incarnation of 
 the Son of God, of its restoration to Divine and heavenly 
 fellowships by the agency of the Holy Spirit, whilst meet- 
 ing, if true, all the aptitudes of our moral nature, and 
 throwing a flood of light on some of the deepest problems 
 connected with the destiny of our race, — yet does not 
 leave the revealed scheme entirely free from some perplex- 
 ing considerations. The question is, of what kind are 
 these perplexities ? And can any system of pure Theism 
 plead entire exemption from them ? 
 
 Now these perplexities arise, for the most part, out of 
 our relations to God as a moral- Governor : — relations, 
 which necessarily suppose the existence of sin, of a re- 
 vealed law, of an adequate satisfaction to the Divine jus- 
 tice, or failing that, of a righteous retribution to be visited 
 on the moral agent. Of these, as being ultimate facts of 
 the Divine existence, Christianity offers no explanation. 
 
 ^ Lord Bacon has well observed: "As concerning Divine philosophy or 
 natural theology, it is that knowledge or rudiment of knowledge concerning 
 
 God, which may be obtained by the contemplation of His creatures The 
 
 bounds of this knowledge are that it sufficeth to convince Atheism, but not 
 to inform religion." 
 
The Age and the Written Woixl. 47 
 
 It takes them as the pure Theist is o])lige(l to take them, 
 — (that is if he beUeves in a moral government at all,) — 
 as congruous to the first principles of right reason, and 
 yet beset with some insoluble problems, approach the ques- 
 tion from what side you will. Sir William Hamilton has 
 well observed "no difficulty emerges in theology, which 
 had not previously emerged in philosophy." It is not by 
 sweeping away the Christian dogma, that you can sweep 
 away that which gave occasion to it. The doctrine of 
 atonement, for instance, may be a great myster}^, but is it 
 a greater mystery than its alternative, — the whole legisla- 
 tion of heaven set at nought by the unconditional forgive- 
 ness of sin ? In entering upon such speculations, men 
 seem to forget that the real difficulty lies further back ; 
 that they must begin at the beginning ; and enquire, 
 whence it is that evil ever came to have-j^lace amidst the 
 works of a Being who must have hated it, and must have 
 had power to exclude it, if He would ? The Christian goes 
 back to the Satanic rebellion, as accounting for the first 
 liistoric manifestation of evil, but not as solving the mys- 
 tery of its beginning,. — a mystery, which he believes to 
 be hidden in the depths of the Infinite counsels, and 
 before which therefore it is the highest philosophy to 
 bow. 
 
 And yet it is out of this mystery of evil, — around us, 
 within us, lying at the centre of our very being, — that 
 nearly all our moral perplexities arise. They are not the 
 product of Eevelation at all. Revelation did not create 
 the necessity for a daysman between us and God ; or create 
 the consciousness of unfitness for the fellowships of tlic hea- 
 venly state ; or create that haunting Nemesis of transgres- 
 
48 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 sion whicli pursues man to the border-line of his earthly 
 being, and which, if he is immortal, he feels must pursue 
 him still. All these are facts of his moral condition, 
 existing wholly independent of the Bible, and which would 
 continue to embarrass and perplex him, if every vestige of 
 Revelation should be swept away. The only thing to be 
 charged .upon Christianity is that in relation to all this 
 moral disturbance, both in the world and in the hearts of 
 men, " it plentifully declares the thing that is ;" — what it 
 is, whence it is, why it is, and how it is to be taken away. 
 If, in its methods of relief, there be some things which are 
 above our comprehension, it should be remembered, that 
 when the evil is an unmeasured mystery, we naturally look 
 for something of mystery in the cure. From the depths 
 of an unfathomable abyss, had come up some awful influ- 
 ence, having permission given to it to damage and derange 
 the moral universe of God, — whence, but from the far-back 
 recesses of the Infinite Intelligence, could be evolved a 
 scheme of such searchless profundity and wisdom, as at 
 once to restore the haraion^^ and to counteract the sin ? 
 In rejecting this scheme because of its attendant moral 
 difficulties, the infidel is only thrown back in utter and 
 more unrelieved abandonment on the difficulties he had 
 before. He cannot get rid of them ; and he cannot explain 
 them. On his principles, the evil he is conscious of is an 
 effect without a cause. The immortality he looks forward 
 to is a gloom without a gleam. The Moral Governor he 
 acknowledges is a sceptreless, a limited, and even an in- 
 consistent God. 
 
 Time allows not that we pursue our argument further. 
 The permission of difficulties, in a revelation from the 
 
The Age and the Written Word, 4i) 
 
 Infinite mind,— whether those of a moral kind in relation 
 to the general scheme of Christianity, or those of a critical 
 kind, connected with the contents of the sacred volume 
 Itself,— not only affords no valid reason for doubting the 
 truth of Revelation, but supplies a positive argument hi its 
 favour : because '' he wlio believes the Scripture t6 have 
 proceeded from Him who is the Author of JN^ature, may 
 well expect to find the same sort of difficulties as are 
 found in the constitution of nature'." Nor is this all: 
 the question is, to say the least, an open one, whether 
 even had such a thing been possible, a Revelation, entirely 
 free from difficulties, would have been expedient for our- 
 selves? For, as Burke has well observed, ''this amicable 
 conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all 
 its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial V AVe 
 desire not, therefore, that the things pertaining to God 
 should be made too easy to us. On the contrary, we 
 believe that the absence from the sacred page of every 
 obscure or perplexing statement would have caused to 
 be lost to the believer, many supports to his faith, many 
 incitements to his diligence, many motives to his prayers 
 for Divine guidance and illumination, — while yet, it is 
 morally certain, that such freedom from difficulty would 
 
 1 Bp Butler, quoting from Origen. On tlie logical relation between 
 doubt and difficulty, a writer, whose psychological experience of both has 
 probably exceeded that of most men, thus expresses himself : "Ten thousand 
 difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject. DitficuUy 
 and doubt are incommensurate." Newman's Apologia, p. 374. 
 
 ^ Burke introduces the line from Virgil : 
 
 " Pater ipse colendi 
 Haud facilcm esse viam voluit." 
 
50 Tlie Age and the Written Word. 
 
 neither have restrained the objector from his cavils, nor 
 have cured the unbeliever of his pride. 
 
 Again have I to ask of the younger part of my auditory 
 to suffer from me the word of exhortation — two words. 
 
 The first is, beware of the busy mocker; of the man who 
 delights to fling heedlessly the seeds of unbelieving thought ; 
 of him who, like the mad man in the Proverbs, casts about 
 him "firebrands, arrows, and death," and then exclaims, "Am 
 I not in sport?" Many such persons there are : and, for the 
 most part, they are as unscrupulous as they are heartless. 
 Armed perhaps with difliculties which they have been at 
 no pains to look into; with objections which have been 
 answered again and again ; with arguments they know to 
 be specious, and hypotheses in which they do not believe 
 themselves, — they hesitate not to sow, in the heart of a 
 young man, that first seed of religious doubtiug, which 
 though it be the smallest of all seeds at first, may, in the end, 
 become a great tree ; a tree which will continually spread 
 forth its branches till it has destroyed, by its withering and 
 wastinsr shadow, all reverence for a father's teachinof, and 
 all faith in a father's God. And what will the mocking 
 scorner have left you as compensation for that pile of cast- 
 off beliefs, which tells the story of his triumph ? He calls 
 it a peace. You find it a solitude — a dreadful solitude : — 
 a dreary blank of soul with no truth in the past, no solace 
 in the present, no hope for the future. You look up ; but 
 the God is silent — if there be One ! You listen for some 
 voice from the spirit within you, but you catch nothing 
 but the murmur of an almost desired annihilation, or the 
 low moan of unutterable despair. Say not, I am dealing 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 51 
 
 with mere alarmists* fictions, in speaking thus. By many 
 of you will have been read that picture of an overshadowed 
 grave, described, in such thrilling words, by a living pre- 
 late, when preaching before the sister University \ Whilst 
 if further proof be wanting of the insupportable loneliness 
 of soul, which comes when faith in Revelation is gone, let 
 one testify who knows what the experience is. " Having 
 given up its belief in Divine revelation the mind is haunted 
 by a sense of deprivation.... It is useless for reason to con- 
 vince itself to weariness that Christianity is a fable, while 
 the heart keeps protesting that it contained a response 
 to her need, whose absence leaves her cold and void. It 
 would be much better for reason to cease its claim to be 
 solely attended to, till her wants have been supplied I" 
 Oh : Avho sees not that there is a chastisement of unbelief 
 even in this life: and that, apart from the retributions 
 of a future world, there is awful truth in those words, 
 *'He that believeth not is condemned already." 
 
 The other practical observation I wish to leave with 
 you is, that a right understanding of the truth will always 
 be found in connection with right affections towards the 
 God of truth. "If any man will do His will," said our 
 Lord, "he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." 
 You cannot be ignorant of the fact that, on the principles 
 of Christianity, all unbelief is sin, and all faith is the gift 
 of God. Scripture always assumes the sufficiency of its 
 own evidence to convince, if conviction be honestly desired, 
 and if the means for arriving at conviction be earnestly 
 and devoutly employed. The uncertainty or the darkness 
 
 ^ See note I. in the Appendix. 
 
 2 Thouykti in Aid of Faith, by S. Hennell, p. 57. 
 
 4—2 
 
52 The Age and the Written Word. 
 
 is not in the Scripture: '"tis man's dim eye creates the 
 obscurity;' Of a celebrated divine in Pope's day, and 
 deemed worthy of honoured mention in his verse \ it is 
 related, that when a young man, on one occasion, entered 
 his study, saying that his mind was sorely perplexed with 
 some Scripture difficulties, he said to him, "Before I hear 
 your difficulties, let me ask you one thing, did you take 
 them in humble ^TdijQV to God before you came to me?" 
 With a natural shame, the young man confessed he had 
 not. "Then," replied the divine, "I must decline to hear 
 you. Prayer is one of the first duties of natural religion : 
 and he who lives in the neglect of that, must not expect to 
 solve the difficulties of a religion that is revealed." The 
 reproof was just; and proceeded upon a supposition, which 
 all observation goes to confirm, that the common seat of 
 infidelity is in the heart. Until the moral obstacles to the 
 reception of the Gospel are taken away; until a man has 
 come to feel, in his own soul, the adaptation of the Bible 
 disclosures to all the exigencies of his moral condition, — to 
 feel, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the sufficiency' of the 
 Word to enlighten, to console, to guide, to sanctify, — 
 magnify that Word as we may, he will never be able to 
 discern in it all the traces and handwriting of the living 
 God. The characters indeed are there, graven as with 
 an iron pen, distinct and clear as the stars of heaven, — but 
 the vail upon the heart remains untaken away, and there- 
 
 ^ The divine referred to is Dr James Foster, a preacher in the City, of 
 some eminence, as appears from Pope's lines : 
 
 Let modest Foster, if he will, excel 
 Ten metropolitans in preaching well. 
 
 Epilogue to Sat. Dial. i. 
 
The Age and the Written Word. 53 
 
 fore the man reads in vain. Sucli a man is a subject not 
 for our reproofs, but for our compassions ; not so much for 
 the convincing argument as for the subduing j^i'ayer: — 
 prayer that he may be brought under higher and more 
 effectual teaching; prayer that the fetters of an intel- 
 lectual pride may be broken; prayer that he maybe led 
 by the Spirit into all truth, — that truth which Christ has 
 revealed, and the only truth which can make him free. 
 Amex. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST, AS INTERPRETED BY 
 MODERN CRITICISM, 
 
 Matthew xvi. 13. 
 WJiom do men say that I the Son of Man am ? 
 
 Change in the form of modern sceptical attack — Science of historical 
 criticism — I, The claims of Christ — Yiews of older infidels — Of Priestley 
 and Belsham — Modern Unitarianism — Mythical theory of Strauss — The 
 neo-Christianity of America — The "Life of Jesus" by E,dnan — Its in- 
 consistencies — Unfair dealing with the New Testament — II. Insufficiency 
 of all humanitarian theories to solve the problems of Christianity — Of the 
 personal life, circumstances, or character of its founder — Influence of Christ 
 over his own countrymen — Success of Christianity in the first ages — Ad- 
 mission of Gibbon — The Divinity of Christ the only adequate solution- 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The Church of Christ will be a militant church to the 
 end of time. Her enemies can be driven out only by 
 little and little. The victories she achieves, however 
 gi^eat, are never final: and even at the moment when she 
 is flushed with a recent triumph, she must gird herself 
 for the strife again. Our own times supply us with a 
 proof of this. The infidelity of the age is " like the troubled 
 sea, when it cannot rest." Repulsed with shame, in its 
 attempts against the inspired authority of the Old Testa- 
 
The Claims of Christ, &c, 55 
 
 rnent, it revives the bygone attacks on the Divine original 
 of the New : — gathers up the spent and blunted arrows, 
 which had fallen harmlessly before the stronghold of 
 Judaism, to point them against the central doctrine of 
 Christianity, — the majesty, and might, and glory of the 
 Eternal Son of God. In relation to both these parts of 
 our revealed system, however, it is note-worthy that our 
 adversaries have assis^ned, to one form of arofument, a 
 distinguished prominence, — the argument, I mean, sup- 
 posed to arise from an application of the modern science 
 of "historical criticism." The object of this science, — 
 that of enabling us to eliminate the residue of truth 
 to be found in any legendary or fabulous materials, in 
 the department of history, so as to part off the respective 
 territories of fact and fiction, — we should all allow to be 
 good. And, in the case of documents, where the materials 
 are doubtful, and the presence of imposture is, on good 
 grounds, really to be apprehended, the principles of such 
 a science might be most profitably employed. But no 
 such doubtful character can be proved to belong to the 
 writings of the New Testament. These records have 
 been proved to be geneixdly credible, again and again, — 
 sealed by the blood of martyrs, and accepted by the 
 scholarship of all ages, — and we therefore protest, at the 
 outset, against the right to class our Gospel narratives 
 among those legendary and unreal creations of a dark age, 
 which, until filtered through a new critical j)rocess, we 
 are not at liberty to accept. 
 
 Still, in considering that phase of scepticism which 
 we enter upon to-day, — that which has respect to the 
 personal claims of Christ, — it may be expedient, in 
 
50 The Claims of Christy 
 
 accordance with the tendencies of modern thought, to 
 approach the question from its purely historic side; to 
 contemplate the Founder of Christianity just as we should 
 any other personage, who had performed a conspicuous 
 part in the world's history; — waiving, for the moment, 
 the claims of the New Testament to be considered a 
 Revelation from God, and putting the Evangelical record 
 on the abstract footing of a trustworthy historical writing 
 of the period. The enquiry will bring us face to face 
 vvdth the different theories which have been propounded 
 in relation to Christ, — who He was, what He was, whence 
 He obtained the authority He uniformly claimed to make 
 laws for the consciences, and to give life to the souls 
 of men. " Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am ?" 
 Let us proceed to consider, 
 
 I. The views put forth by modern ratioxalists 
 on this subject; and 
 
 II. The UTTER INADEQUACY of them to explain the 
 FACTS OF HISTORY, in relation either to Christ or to 
 Christianity. 
 
 Our first duty, — and in view of the solemn thought 
 that we are dealing with the claims of the Lord of Glory, 
 the Author of life to souls immortal, above and below, 
 of necessity a painful duty, — is to take a glance at the 
 impious answers which unbelievers, of different schools of 
 thought, have returned to that question of the Holy One, 
 ''Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" 
 
 These answers are both many and diverse. On no 
 side of the evidence for the faith, has the ever-shifting 
 form of infidel attack changed more completely than in 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism. 57 
 
 relation to the person and claims of Christ. Audaciously 
 consistent with its own principles, the older infidelity 
 sought to emancipate itself from the encompassing diffi- 
 culties at a bound, by declaring Christ to be an im- 
 postor, — His miracles a cheat. His doctrines a plagiarism, 
 His sanctity a simulated appearance, His whole mission 
 and life a lie. Against such a view all the demands of 
 historical probability protested ; and the ground has been 
 long and very generally abandoned. Then followed the 
 speculations of the Socinians, and the more modern Uni- 
 tarianism of Priestley and Belsham: and this latter system, 
 as somewhat less repugnant to the feelings of reverent 
 and pious minds, still lingers among the traditional 
 varieties of a so-called Christian belief But the system, 
 if system it is to be called, has hardly ever got beyond a 
 fasciculus of evangelical selections. It has never consoli- 
 dated into a settled scheme of faith; and has never souo-ht 
 to confront itself with the practical problem, how a super- 
 natural Christianity came to be originated by a humani- 
 tarian Christ. Hence nothing has come of this theory. 
 Without effort to make proselytes, and without seeming 
 to care whether it were even holding its own, English 
 Unitarianism has been hitherto content to live on, in cold 
 and segregated respectability, — numbering some inge- 
 nious men on its side, but, as a religion, neither endan- 
 gering the nation's belief, nor reaching the nation's heart \ 
 
 ^ Coleridge says of this system that it "never did and never can subsist 
 as a general religion, for, i. It neither states the disease on account of which 
 the human being hungers for revelation, nor prepares any remedy in general, 
 nor ministers any hope to the individual. i. In order to make itself en- 
 durable on Scriptural grounds, it must so weaken the texts and authority 
 of Scripture, as to leave in Scripture no binding ground of proof in any- 
 
58 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 Coming down somewhat nearer to our own times, we 
 are met by the mythical theory of Strauss, according to 
 whom Christ was a real person, possessed of the most 
 commanding qualities, grand and god-like in His enthu- 
 siasm, and therefore easily raised to the rank of a Divinity 
 by His credulous and admiring followers. The Gospels, 
 on this shewing, were neither to be rejected as false, nor 
 received as historically true : but as consisting for the 
 most part of myths, embodying the conceptions of Jewish 
 enthusiasm in relation to the kingdom of the Messiah. 
 
 That in this separation of the fabulous from the his- 
 toric, in the Gospel record, this bold theorist should rele- 
 gate, to the region of myth and fable, all that was vital to 
 the faith and hope of the Christian, was to be expected. 
 Accordingly, in the mythical system, nothing is left us 
 of Christianity but a fleshless and unbreathing skeleton. 
 Every thing that savours of the supernatural is cleared 
 away with remorseless sweep ; and wherever with Peter, 
 or Mary, or Thomas, we would prostrate ourselves before 
 the author of our Redemption, the Christ of the Incar- 
 nation vanishes out of our sight, and tliere appears no- 
 thing before us but the work of an enthusiastic Jewish 
 imagination, revelling in visions of a Messianic kingdom, 
 and seeing in Jesus Christ a worthy occupant for its 
 throne. 
 
 The system of Strauss startled by its ingenuity and 
 boldness, but, in its original form, it had but a short-lived 
 success. Calm investigation soon discovered that, as an 
 
 thing. 3. Take a pious Jew, one of the Maccabees, and compare his faith 
 and its grounds with Priestley's : and then for what did Christ come V 
 Confessions of an Enquiring Spirit, p. 181. 
 
as interpreted by Modern Criticism. 59 
 
 explanation of Gospel phenomena, it was inadequate; as 
 the rationale of a great religious movement, was not 
 borne out by facts ; and as an application of the science 
 of historic criticism, was a mistake. Hence the important 
 modifications introduced by the author, into his recent 
 edition, now declared to be "the most complete and satis- 
 factory solution of the great religious problem of the 
 day." In this work, profiting, as he alleges, by the 
 learned researches of the Tiibingen school, the author 
 gives up the application of his mythical theory to large 
 portions of the Gospel, choosing rather, at the bidding 
 of his new allies, to regard them as deliberately fabricated 
 statements. We need not stay to expose the fallacies of 
 the several Tubingen theorists. Their own hands are 
 red with the blood of the slain. Strauss overthrew the 
 scheme of Paulus, and now Bauer has reduced to a nullity 
 the scheme of Strauss ; so that we have only to leave 
 these learned dreamers to themselves, and the work of 
 destruction will go on fast enough. Our concern is chiefly 
 with the proof furnished by their recent agreements, that 
 the terminus to which all these Rationalistic criticisms 
 do, and must lead, is no other than that, which the more 
 outspoken Deist had reached a hundred and fifty years 
 ago, — namely, that in all its essential particulars the 
 New Testament is both a falsehood and a fraud \ 
 
 The theories of Parker and the rest of the modern 
 American School, in relation to our present subject, have 
 
 ^ Strauss's own account of the cliange in his views is, tliat he had 
 merely pressed his mythical hypothesis too far. He says, " True, I have been 
 refuted : but only as one who thinks he owes a thousand pounds is refuted 
 when it is shewn he owes only a hundred." 
 
GO The Claims of Christy 
 
 scarcely enough to distinguish them from the more ex- 
 treme forms of English Unitarianism, as represented by 
 Hennell and Martineau, — to entitle them to any very 
 particular notice. Christ is declared to be "the great- 
 est person of the ages;" *' the proudest achievement of 
 the human race ;" " the greatest fact in the whole cre- 
 ation of man." That He should be " worshipped as a God 
 is no wonder, because good men worship the best thing 
 they know, and call it God ;" and the moral attainment of 
 Jesus was as much above "the hierarchical conception of 
 Jehovah" at Jerusalem, as it was above "the sacerdotal 
 conception of Jove" at Rome or Athens \ All these 
 praises are accorded to Christ, however, because He is 
 thought to be the worthy exponent of that new American 
 Christianity, to which has been given the name of " the 
 absolute religion ;" or as its advocates describe it, " the 
 absolute morality ; the obligation of absolute love to God 
 and man." In this fact alone,— the transcendent excellence 
 of the teaching of Christ as an absolutist, — they find a 
 reason for all the success which the Gospel has met with 
 in the world. "The Word of God grew and prevailed." 
 " The new doctrine passes from its low beginnings on the 
 Galilean Lake, step by step, through Jerusalem, Ephesus, 
 Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome, till it ascends the 
 throne of the world, and kings and empires lie prostrate at 
 its feet I" No answer is provided to the question, How it 
 spread so rapidly, — with pagan power against it, with 
 Jewish hatred against it, with the pride of philosophy 
 
 1 Selected Sermons by Theodore Parker, p. 33. 
 
 2 A Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion; T. Parker: p. 22)^. See 
 Note J. ill the Appendix. 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism. CI 
 
 against it, with everything against it, in the condition of 
 tiie world at large, or in the universal heart of man? 
 
 Of recent attempts, however, to make out a consistent 
 human Christ, the most remarkable, and, on the score of 
 literary attractiveness, the most dangerous, is that con- 
 tained in the Life of Jesus, by Ernest Renan. Hardly, I 
 think, could the difficulties of the problem involved in the 
 life and character of Christ, be made more forcibly appa- 
 rent, than in the reckless and extravagant shifts to get rid 
 of them, resorted to by this accomplished writer. Tlie 
 merest tyro in the history of the sacred canon stands 
 amazed, on finding the authority of a great European 
 scholar pledged to such a statement, as that " the three 
 synoptic Gospels were the issue of an obscure and en- 
 tirely popular elaboration:" — the early Christians "having 
 each his copy of the fragmentary biography of Papias," 
 which, swelled by accretions of the reported sayings and 
 doings of the Master, inserted in the margin, became the 
 foundation of our present Evangelical narrative^ ! 
 
 More desperate, if possible, because more directly 
 against all evidence, is this writer's attempt to account, 
 by human means, for the excellency of the doctrine of 
 Christ, and the world-wide acceptance it has received. 
 For, against all the information that has come down to us 
 of the intellectually sunken condition of the Galilean po- 
 pulation, we are gravely assured that Jesus was brought 
 up in a part of Palestine, where the national faith was 
 more pure, and robust, and healthy than in any other, — 
 the moral teaching of the Galilsean synagogues being 
 altogether of a hidier cast than that which was commonly 
 
 1 See note K. in the Appendix. 
 
62 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 inculcated at Jerusalem. And these outward advantages 
 combined with a genius of transcendent order, and a cha- 
 racter of unrivalled dignity, and strength, and sweetness, 
 enabled Him, it is alleged, to give forth those lofty pre- 
 cepts, which have since been accepted as the guide and 
 moral text-book of mankind. But this was not all. The 
 temper of the times, as well as the whole tone of 
 Messianic thought, clamoured loudly for the miraculous, in 
 any one who should aspire to be a leader. Jesus must be 
 a wonder-worker, or He could never succeed. And, sorely 
 against His will. He at length yielded to the demand. 
 He persuaded others, and probably persuaded Himself, 
 that certain apparent cures, wrought on the sick, and the 
 possessed, and the epileptic, w^ere the real effects, as possi- 
 bly they were, of personal contact or converse with Him- 
 self The concession to this popular avidity for miracle, 
 however, it is declared, became too strong for Christ. *'He 
 was no longer His own master." *' His conscience gave 
 w^ay ;" until at length, (profound and sincere is the apology 
 offered to a Christian audience for repeating such blas- 
 phemy,) in the pretended miracle of the raising of Lazarus, 
 He becomes the unwilling conniver at a fraud, got up for 
 interested purposes by His friends I 
 
 Such is the last humanitarian theory, with which a 
 man reputed to be a scholar, and still professing to be 
 a Christian, has shocked the religious feelings of France, 
 and Europe, and the world. Hardly can we account for 
 the putting forth of such a production, except upon the 
 supposition of the writer being inoculated with that inor- 
 dinate vanity, that passion for notoriety at all cost, — which 
 both Burke and Robert Hall have noted as the characteristic 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism, 63 
 
 feature of French infidelity. Intent only upon astonishing 
 by the audacious novelty of their speculations, men of this 
 class feel that the more sacred the interests they trifle with 
 the better. Distinction in the secular departments of 
 literary enquiry, even if they could obtain it, would not 
 appease their insatiate appetite. They prefer to thrust 
 their flesh-hook into the hallowed vessels of the sanctuary, 
 and to pour profane contempt on the things that men 
 most revere and love \ 
 
 Great, however, as has been the sensation created by 
 this work on the Continent, — even to the extent of at- 
 tracting to the same field of inglorious labour a writer 
 who has all the vanity of Renan mthout his power ^, it 
 may well be doubted whether, after the first impressions 
 produced by its fascinating style have worn off, the book 
 will retain any practical hold on the minds of our own 
 countrymen. The entire spirit and plan of it do not fall 
 in with our national aptitudes. We are not so easily cap- 
 tivated by the picturesque, and the sentimental, and the 
 dramatic, as our Continental neighbours are : while a point 
 of comparison with them, still more fatal to the success of 
 this new '* life of Jesus," will be found in this, — that, as a 
 
 ^ An elegant writer has well observed: "Nothing tempts the mind so 
 powerfully on, as to have successfully begun to demolish what has been long 
 regarded as most sacred. The soldiers of Csesar probably had never felt 
 themselves so brave as after they had cut down the Massilian grove: nor 
 the Philistines, as when the ark of the God of Israel was among their 
 spoils : the mind is proud of its triumphs, in proportion to the reputed 
 greatness of what it has overcome." Foster's Easays, Essay I. p. 39. 
 
 2 Michelet, in his new work, entitled Bible de VUumanite. See note L. 
 in the Appendix. " The gross profits of La Vie de Jesus, in two years, 
 came to £17637 16,?. 8(/. and the demand for it is still very great." Paris 
 correspondent quoted in tlie Guardian, Dec. 2 '2. 
 
G4 The Claims of Christ j 
 
 rule, our people have, at least, some knowledge of tlieir 
 Bible \ Hence, probably, the very little of direct refuta- 
 tion which this work has elicited from the scholars of this 
 country ^ As an attack upon Christianity, it seems to be 
 considered beneath criticism. We cannot employ grave 
 cHalectic weapons against the fictions of a romance : and a 
 writer would seem to put himself out of the pale of contro- 
 vers};^, wiio draws upon the credulity or ignorance of his 
 readers for his arguments, and upon his own imagination for 
 his facts. Moreover, it is probably felt, with regard to all 
 intelligent readers, that even if they should not consider 
 themselves insulted by its unscientific dogmatism, or 
 trifled with by its utterly unsujDported statements, or out- 
 raged by its irreverent and ribald sneers ^ they could 
 hardly fail to see how entirely inconsistent the book is 
 with itself : and how utterly impossible it Avould be for it 
 to abide the condemning ordeal of its own contradictions. 
 Thus, Christianity is allowed to be " the grand inaugura- 
 tion of a new era of religious thought," — " the promulga- 
 tion of a universal and eternal religion for humanity," 
 " the one sublime system that has fixed for ever the idea 
 of pure worship," and yet, at the same time, is declared 
 to contain little that is original in itself, or whicli might 
 not have been gathered from pre-existing documentary 
 
 1 It is satisfactory to learn from the agents of the Bible Society on the 
 Continent, that a great int^-rest has been stirred up in the French people to 
 read for themselves a book which has supplied to their countrymen the 
 materials for such an exquisite romance. See last paragraph of Note M, in 
 the Appendix. 
 
 ^ An able article has appeared in the Edinbtirgh upon the work, and a 
 powerful exposure of some of its inconsistencies will be found in The Chriat 
 of the Gospels and Modern Criticism, by Dr Tulloch, of St Andrew's. 
 
 ^ See Note M. in the Appendix. 
 
as interpreted by Modern Criticism. Co 
 
 sources. Whilst of the author s portraiture of Jesus, all 
 that can be said is, that it furnishes the strangest example 
 of the moral grotesque ever penned. It is a misshapen 
 human solecism, from which the common intelligence of 
 mankind turns away, and to which no sober history would 
 give a place in its page. For, we are asked to look upon one, 
 " in whom was condensed all that is good and elevated in 
 our nature;" one who "amidst the assemblage of low 
 common beings rises as a pillar towards the sky, to bear 
 witness to a nobler destiny ;" one, to whom " the univer- 
 sal conscience has decreed the title of the Son of God, 
 and that with justice;" one who, "by the strength of his 
 heroic will, conquered heaven ;" — and yet, in another page, 
 this same beiug is presented to us as a cunning Thauma- 
 turge ; a weak enthusiast; something between a fanatic 
 and an impostor ; — in a word, a mere adventurer, content 
 to urge proofs in support of his mission, which, in his 
 heart, he despised, and sanctioning the use of dissimula- 
 tion, and chicane, and evil, so only that good may come. 
 God of all truth and righteousness ! What do some men 
 think of Christ ? 
 
 We might now pass on to consider the inadequacy of 
 these rationalistic theories in relation to the person of 
 Christ, even if freed from contradictions. But, before 
 doing so, it seems competent to us to protest determinately 
 against the whole style of criticism, adopted by these scepti- 
 cal writers, in dealing with the gospels. Criticism, indeed, 
 it is not. It is rather a succession of arbitrary and illogical 
 assumptions, forbidding that criticism should be employed. 
 Enquiry is fore-closed, — absolutely interdicted by the most 
 unwarrantable and unheard of postulates. For thus stands 
 
 5 
 
66 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 the case. A collection of writings has passed into the pro- 
 vince of history. The wisdom of ages has put its seal upon 
 them. The laws and institutions of the most enlightened 
 governments are framed upon them. But we are asked to 
 reconsider this consensus and verdict of the whole civilized 
 world. And we are told how we must proceed. The 
 book, though coming to us as a homogeneous and closely 
 compacted whole, must be disintegrated. The chaff must 
 be separated from the wheat. First, the Acts of the 
 Apostles must be left out of the enquiry. Then the 
 Epistles. Both these may form parts of a continuous chain 
 of evidence ; and, with the general structure of the narra- 
 tive and with each other, may disclose minute coincidences 
 which fraud or falsehood would never have thought of 
 But, in dealing with Christ and Christianity, it is dis- 
 honestly assumed, our business lies wholly with the four 
 Gospels. How much of these shall be taken? Well, 
 first there must be an elision, from Matthew and Mark, of 
 every thing which involves the preternatural, — accounts of 
 miracle, or prophetic fulfilment, or a superhuman Christ. 
 Luke must not be accepted without larger deductions; 
 because, ill-done as his work is at best, the materials 
 for it were obtained at secondhand. As to John, his 
 book is no gospel at all. The whole tone and character 
 of it is in flagrant contradiction to the synoptic Gospels, 
 and the composition is a mere attempt to pass off, as 
 the utterance of Christ, the bad i)hilosophy which the 
 writer had learned in the Gnostic schools. A selective 
 option being thii.s left to us, in dealing with the differ- 
 ent parts of the Gospels, — to relegate to myth some, to 
 misinformation some, to ignorance and conceit some, — • 
 
as interpreted hy Modern CrUwism, 67 
 
 tlie poor residuum is reserved for impartial study and in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 We ask, does the history of literary criticism, furnish 
 any thmg parallel to this ? Would any scholar think it fair 
 to deal thus with the writings of He2K)dotus or Thucydides ? 
 And must there not be an end of all documentary tests of 
 all canons of authenticity,. of all rules for ascertaining ihe 
 certam, and the credible, and the true in history, if men 
 on sittmg down to examine into the veracity of a written 
 document, are to have the permission conceded to them 
 beforehand, that they may take so much of the book a^ 
 pleases them, and reject the i^st? 
 
 II. But, apart from this unfairness in the method of 
 building up a theory, we proceed, to shew the insuffi- 
 CIE.XCY of the various theories themselves, whether German 
 American, or French, either to solve the historic facts of 
 Christ as a person, or to account for Christianity as a 
 
 GREAT POWER IN THE WORLD. 
 
 i. And, first, we observe of these theories that they 
 are n^reconcileable with the position which Christ always 
 occupies a^ the centre, and life, and sustaining power of 
 His oiun system. 
 
 Of the founders of many false religions we do not even 
 know the name. The institution has outlived the man; 
 has spread itself by accretions of influence from extraneous' 
 sources, without any continuous support from its author, 
 or any further indebtedness to his name. It is far other- 
 wise with the religion of the Gospel. There is, and can be, 
 no such thing as Christianity without Christ. He is its 
 Alpha and Omega. All truth is in Jesus. He lias not 
 
68 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 come merely to shew us the way to the Father. He is 
 Himself the way. He is not a Divinely accredited 
 Teacher of the truth only. He is Himself the truth. As 
 we read through the Gospel narrative, we seem to be con- 
 scious of nothing but of one living, moving, all-pervading 
 presence. The Divine philosophy, which underlies the 
 teachings of the book, we seem scarcely aware of, — so com- 
 pletely do all faith, love, veneration, trust, cluster and 
 crystallize round the one sublime personality, — the Teacher 
 of Nazareth, the Christ of God. Nor is it an accident, 
 arising out of the structure of the narrative, that the mind 
 is thus absorbingly taken up with the individual, rather 
 than with what He said, or what He did. The Master 
 himself meant it so to be. Above the Gospel as a system, 
 or the teachers of it as men, the central figure towers 
 loftily. The doctrines laid down were to be had in remem- 
 brance of the disciples because He delivered them. The 
 works wrought were to be grand in their eyes, because they 
 were wrought in His ]srA:ME. In going forth to preach, they 
 were to consider themselves witnesses, not so much for the 
 truth of the Gospel, as for the person and glory of its 
 Author. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jeru- 
 salem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
 uttermost parts of the earth." 
 
 So much appears on the face of the sacred narrative. 
 It is borne out strikingly by other testimonies. We cannot 
 read the account of the early persecutions, without seeing 
 that it was not so much with a view to attest faith in 
 a system, that martyrs laid down their lives, as it was to 
 declare their faith in a person. This comes out plainly 
 in the well-known correspondence between Trajan and 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism. (jd 
 
 tlie younger Pliny. Even after their apprehension, the 
 Christians were to be let go on one condition; namely^ 
 that they would speak injuriously of Christ; that they 
 would utter that name, which to them was a name above 
 every name, with the required formula of malediction. 
 But nothing, we are told, could induce them to do this. 
 They were witnesses not for a theory, not for a principle, 
 not for an abstract theology, but for the personal Christ ; 
 for one whom they believed to be the worthy object of all 
 adoration and worship; for the ascended, living, and 
 enthroned God\ Some forms of proposed recantation 
 which were offered to them, as the price of release, they 
 could and did recite ; because they could recite them in 
 their own sense, — as Polycarp did, when the proconsul 
 required him to pronounce the words, "Away with the 
 Atheists." But when to this was added the further condi- 
 tion that they should revile Christ, then, like the same 
 faithful bishop, the Christians felt that the time of martyr- 
 dom was come, and that they must palter and concede no 
 more^ 
 
 Not without weight, we submit, should these consi- 
 derations be, in estimating the personal claims of Christ. 
 Neither Trajan nor Pliny, in themselves, had any wish to 
 be persecutors. Subject to certain reasons of state, there 
 was, in both of them, a desire to shew to the Christians 
 the utmost leniency ; — whilst to so much of the new teaching 
 as accorded with a philosophical theism, there is reason to 
 believe they were both favourable. But when, for belief 
 in a speculative theology, the new religionists held up for 
 
 "^ See Note N, in the Appendix. 
 2 See Note 0. in the Appendix. 
 
70 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 adoration a personal God, — one who would brook no rival, 
 share no worship, rest not in His triumphs, till the shivered 
 simulacra fell down before the cross of the crucified, — the 
 amenities both of emperor and proconsul were forgotten. 
 They feared not Christianity but Christ. They succumbed 
 to the power of an invisible personality. They assisted 
 unconsciously in the apotheosis of Jesus of Nazareth, and 
 confessed to the magic power of His name, as much as if 
 they had believed in His resurrection from the dead. 
 
 ii. We note further that, viewed apart from all miracu- 
 lous intervention, the history of Christ presents a problem 
 incapable of being solved by the limited opportunities and 
 circumstances of His earlier or later life. 
 
 A man may make for himself a place in the world, oj- 
 have a place made for him; but we are generally able to 
 trace the causes which have led to his success. He may 
 have been endued with a native force of character, which 
 enables him to "grapple with his evil star." Education 
 or family connection may have given him great advantages 
 above his fellows. The age may have been in a state of 
 ripeness for great changes, waiting only for some strong 
 mind or will to turn the occasion to account : while strange 
 conjunctions in the political heavens — events fitting in 
 so curiously as to look like the very caprice of history — 
 may have favoured the inauguration of a great social crisis. 
 Still all is human, historic, easily accounted for on the 
 known principles of moral causation, and the observed 
 dependencies of human events. 
 
 We ask, can the place which Jesus of Nazareth made 
 for Himself in the world eighteen hundred years ago, and 
 the influence which His name has exerted ever since, be 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism, 71 
 
 thus accounted for? Apart from miracle, and apart from 
 prophec}^, and limiting our view exclusively to the accepted 
 facts of His earthly life, are the means and conditions 
 supposable, under which an ordinary human personage, 
 even though possessed of the highest natural endowments, 
 should be able to teach what Christ taught, and to do for 
 tiie world what Christ has done? 
 
 To answer this question, we take the facts as they I 
 on the surface of the history. In the reign of Augustus 
 Caesar, a man is born into the world, in an obscure pro- 
 vince of the Roman Empire. His parents are poor, — his 
 reputed father being an ordinary mechanic. Nothing notice- 
 able occurs either in his infancy or childhood, if we except 
 the visit to Jerusalem, at twelve years of age. His deport- 
 ment on this occasion is remarkable, no doubt, exhibiting 
 a ripeness and strength of thought above his 3^ears, and in 
 advance of the moral intelligence of the times. But still 
 no condition of humanity is transcended; and the light 
 which had flashed forth for a moment, as far as the world 
 at large is concerned, goes out again in darkness. Another 
 long interval elapses, and manhood is reached; yet all 
 passes without mark, without observable preparation, 
 without a single inch of ground being cleared away for the 
 erection of that mighty platform, — soon to be the scene of 
 transactions which should convulse the world.. Suddenly 
 that platform is raised. It comes up, as it were, in a 
 night, — like the gourd over the prophet's head, but not to 
 perish or pass away. Nations flock to the shadow of it. 
 Unbidden and unknown, Jesus comes forth. Without 
 patronage from the rich, without countenance from the 
 learned, without sympathy from the men of His own 
 
72 The Claims of Christy 
 
 nation, he emerges from the deep seclusion of Nazareth, — 
 a friendless artizan -prophet, to bear his resistless testi- 
 mony against superstition, against hypocrisy, against a 
 corrupt priesthood, against all falsehood, and against all 
 sin. He gathers a little band around him, — obscure in 
 station like himself. And having travelled with this 
 handful of disciples over the cities and villages of Palestine, 
 and having, in the course of his journeys, given to them a 
 body of teaching, unsurpassed for the purity of its precepts, 
 and the sublimity of its doctrines, and the augustness of 
 its disclosures, — after a ministry of three short years, and, 
 under a ban of infamy and disgrace, he dies. 
 
 Such are the mere external facts of Christ's life. Can 
 we account, by means of them, and according to the ordi- 
 nary developments of man's work in the world, for all 
 that He said and did ? Assuming Him to be human only, 
 and to have done nothing to show that He was anything 
 else, will the supposition account for the effects, whether 
 adverse or friendly, produced by His own personal minis- 
 try? — for the restless apprehensions of Herod, the sore 
 perplexities of Pilate, for the inveterate malice of the 
 chief-priests and rulers, or for the self-sacrifices of those 
 who had courage enough to espouse His cause? Not 
 easily, and not soon, does a man acquire an ascendancy 
 over the popular mind, such, that in a time of profound 
 peace he can shake to their centre the foundations of social 
 life and order. He must, as a rule, have time to develope 
 his plans ; a strong party to espouse his cause ; the assur- 
 ance of a sympathy, wide and deep, with the object he 
 is endeavouring to accomplish. Christ was destitute of 
 all these secondary appliances, yet He was loved, feared, 
 
as intey^preted hy Modern Criticism. 73 
 
 envied, hated, adored. Let us look at these adverse cir- 
 cumstances a Uttle more closely, in order to see, how ut- 
 terly inadequate any humanitarian hypothesis must be 
 to account for the influence acquired by Christ over all 
 classes of His countrymen. 
 
 Thus His social position was against Plim. Born in 
 poverty, brought up to a trade. He had to go forth to 
 His ministry, without purse or scrip, and, even for the 
 necessities of daily life, was obliged to trust to friends to 
 " minister to Him of their substance/' All this must be 
 vastly hindering to the prosecution of a great undertak- 
 ing. Even the poor wall rarely take a beggar for their 
 leader : and it seems to be a part of our nature's mam- 
 mon-Avorship that we should hardly acknowledge a bene- 
 factor if he be born of poverty. " There was a little city, 
 and few men within it ; and there came a great king 
 against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks 
 against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, 
 and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man 
 remembered that same poor man\" 
 
 Especially must these lowly antecedents be a great 
 barrier to a man who comes forward as a 2^Mic instructor: 
 as the founder of a new school of thought: as one bent 
 upon overturning the traditional belief of his age and 
 nation, and setting up a new religion in the world. No 
 reputation for great natural abilities will, of itself, recom- 
 mend a man in such a case. He must be able, at the 
 outset, to urge, as a claim upon our confidence, that he is 
 possessed of all the advantages of learned experience, and 
 
 1 Eccles. ix. 14, 15. 
 
74 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 high mental culture. Tell us that lie is a mere handi- 
 craftsman, — that almost up to the day of his claiming to 
 be considered as the light of the world, — the very leisure 
 for study had been denied him by the stern conditions 
 of working-life, and the taunt of scorn is instantly cast 
 upon his pretensions, "Is not this the carpenter?" "How 
 knoweth this man letters having never learned ?" 
 
 So again the extremely limited time for accomplishing 
 the objects of His ministry, must be unfavourable to suc- 
 cess. Three years only, and very little of that period 
 spent in Jerusalem, represent the space during which 
 Christ originated and placed upon a basis of time-enduring 
 strength a system of moral teaching, the most perfect, our 
 enemies themselves being judges, that has ever challenged 
 the acceptance of mankind. We ask confidently, Does the 
 history of philosophy, of legislation, of an}^ achieved suc- 
 cess of the human mind furnish any ]3arallel to this ? Did 
 Abraham require no more than three years to prepare for 
 the setting up of his dispensation ? How long was Moses 
 in educating himself to be the leader, and lawgiver of his 
 people ? What had three years been to Pericles, in building 
 up the polity of Athens, to Justinian in framing a code for 
 the empire, or to Aristotle, or our own Newton and Bacon, 
 in maturing those mighty philosophies, which were to guide 
 the intellects of ages ? Such familiar illustrations force 
 the question upon us, — is it possible, upon ordinary hu- 
 man conditions, to explain how an obscure, unbefriended 
 mechanic, beginning his teaching labours at thirty years 
 of age, and dying at thirty- three, could, in that brief 
 interval, secure the establishment of a system, which 
 should effect an entire revolution of human thought, and 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism. 7-3 
 
 sweep the most hoary superstitions from the face of the 
 earth ? 
 
 And then, once more, the natu7'e of the truths Christ 
 had come to announce, was adverse to His success. A 
 prophet may often ensure large and ready acceptance for 
 his message, if he will be content to "prophesy smooth 
 things;" if he will stoop to humour the prejudices, or appeal 
 to the passions, or extenuate the follies and vices of those 
 whose suffrasfes he is seekinfic to enlist. Mahomet owed 
 much of his success to a policy of this kind. His heaven 
 was a thing of sense, and climate, and gross materialism, — a 
 paradise for oriental natures, not an immortalit}^ for man- 
 kind. The preaching of Christ, on the contrary, was a 
 crusade against the pride, the folly, the wickedness of the 
 universal heart of man. It spared neither age, nor sect, 
 nor calling. It deferred neither to prejudices, nor established 
 usage, nor traditional forms of faith. Towards the world, 
 and the hurtful things that are in the world, it exhibited 
 the same posture of unvarying antagonism, — often, to the 
 superficial observer, appearing as if its hand were against 
 every man, and every man's hand against it. The fact led 
 to the shortening of His career. The land could not bear 
 His words. The Gospel was seen to be a spiritual reli- 
 gion : and men were intolerant of any thing spiritual, — 
 the Pharisees of a spiritual worship : the Jewish people of 
 a spiritual kingdom : the Sadducees of a spiritual God. 
 Even the little band of disciples that were attached to His 
 person had little sympathy with a good deal of His theo- 
 logy. They understood it not.: were offended at it: and 
 it was in their hearts often to go back. Yet, in spite of all 
 this, the religion increased. Its Founder became more and 
 
7G The Claims of Christ, 
 
 more formidable. A mighty spell was seen to be at work 
 on the spirits of men, and Christ was the magician who 
 held the wand. 
 
 And as the influence which Christ obtained over His 
 countrymen can never be explained, on the supposition 
 of His unassisted humanity, so never, on such a suppo- 
 sition, shall we be able to account for the absolute im- 
 peccability of the character, on which much of that influ- 
 ence was founded. We need not hesitate to say that, 
 regarded in its absolute and unimpeachable faultless- 
 ness, — its freedom from those infirmities, and mistakes, 
 and overtakings of natural passion, and mixtures of selfish 
 motive, found more or less in the most perfect of man- 
 kind, — the character of Christ is not human; is not of 
 this world ; proclaims in Him the presence of some in- 
 habiting Divinity, which could only have been imparted 
 to a Being coming down to us from the upper world. 
 We must have believed in an incarnation of fact, if not 
 of dogma. The testimony of our opponents to this lofty 
 sinlessness of the Saviour is expressed in language, which 
 borders very closely upon worship. Their homage to the 
 superior moral stature of Jesus above other men is as 
 open as the kiss of Judas,.; — is it a breach of charity to 
 add, — and as sincere? But then look at the dilemma 
 into which men are forced by this admission. This fault- 
 less character was either a reality, or an invention. If 
 it were a reality, — an embodied fact of history, a mental 
 and moral development, witnessed in the acts and con- 
 versation of a living personage eighteen hundred years 
 ago, then the owner of this faultless character could have 
 been a teacher of nothing but faultless truth. Neither 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism, 77 
 
 deceit nor error could be found in Him. So that in 
 regard of the jDrophecies which he professed to fulfil, 
 or the miracles which He declared He had wrought, or 
 the Divine honours to which He claimed to be entitled, 
 there is, on this recognition of His moral perfectness, an 
 entire end of the argument. He is Divine, if He ever 
 lived at all. 
 
 What then are the difficulties which beset the alter- 
 native hypothesis? that this exquisite portraiture of ma- 
 jestic excellence was a fiction of the New Testament 
 \^Tlters, — a sublime creation of Galila^an thought? These 
 difficulties are many. First, the disciples did not compre- 
 hend this character themselves. They more than once 
 took exception to some of the most beautiful and charac- 
 teristic acts of their Master's ministry; whilst the pro- 
 phecies, out of which they might have adumbrated some 
 approximation to the Messianic portrait, were so little 
 understood by them, that they could have the fulfilment 
 of them set before their eyes, without knowing it. "We 
 thought that it had been He who should have redeemed 
 Israel : and beside all this, to-day is the third day since 
 these things were done." 
 
 Again then, we ask, Whence did this company of 
 unlettered men derive the materials for this character 
 of transcendent perfectness? Where found they the 
 original for Christ, the faultless One ? Could the records 
 of history have furnished it, even with all the colouring 
 with which hero-worship loves to invest the objects of its 
 idolatry? Could the fictions of the poet have furnished 
 it, with all the license given to him to roam in the most 
 cultivated gardens of humanity, and to cull from them 
 
78 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 every creature's best? Assuredly not. The power to 
 create such a character would be as great a miracle as 
 the character itself. This conclusion is accepted, almost 
 in so many words, by one, who with all his enmity to the 
 doctrine of Christ, and with a keen perception of the 
 moral sublimity of His character, saw the hopelessness 
 of denying' to Jesus a real place in history. " Shall we 
 hold," asks Parker, "such a man never lived? the whole 
 story is a lie? Suppose that Plato and Newton never 
 lived, but who did their wonders, and thought their 
 thoughts? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What 
 man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but Jesus \" 
 
 The problem of the historic Christ, considered as 
 human, and human only, will be hampered with yet 
 more insoluble conditions if we look at the posthumous 
 effects of His teaching. We are not at liberty to assume 
 the fact of the Resurrection, in our present method of 
 argument, and therefore we will leave out of the account 
 that great fact, which yet, if it be not true, the voice of 
 testimony should never be listened to again. Enough for 
 our purpose, however, that the Man Christ Jesus is cut 
 off : has passed away under a cloud : — his historj^, as we 
 
 1 Life of Jesus, p. 363. The admission of Rousseau on the same suhject 
 is famiKar, but is worth repeating. " Shall we suppose the evangelic history 
 a mere fiction ? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks of fiction ; on 
 the contrary, the history of Socrates, which nobody presumes to doubt, is 
 not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, 
 only shifts the difficulty without obviating it. It is more inconceivable that 
 a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one 
 only should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable 
 of the diction, and strangers to the morality, contained in the Gospel ; the 
 marks of whose truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor 
 would be a more astonishing man than the hero." 
 
as iiiterpreted hy Modern Criticism. 79 
 
 should expect, to become the property of a swift oblivion, 
 aud his name, in the next generation, to be clean put 
 out. But we pass over an interval of two centuries, and 
 the fleeting image of a three years' life stands out as 
 a central figure in Imperial history. His religion has 
 spread over the three great continents of the civilized 
 world : and caused the leaven of a Christian influence 
 to penetrate into the philosophy, the commerce, the laws, 
 the arts, and all the institutions of the Empire. " We are 
 but of yesterday," is the uncontradicted challenge of 
 Tertullian, "and we have tilled everything that is yours. 
 We have left you nothing but your temples. W^e can 
 out-number your armies. There are more Christians 
 in a single province than in all your legions \" 
 
 And w-hat becomes of this Christianity in after ages? 
 To this question we can return no better answer than is 
 contained in the candid admission of Gibbon himself: 
 who says, " While that great body (the Roman Empire) 
 was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow 
 decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated 
 itself into the minds of men ; grew up in silence and 
 obscurity : derived new vigour from opjDosition : and 
 finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on 
 the ruins of the Capitol... Nor was the influence of Chris- 
 tianity confined to this period, or to the limits of the 
 Roman Empire. After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen 
 centuries that religion is still professed by the nations 
 of Europe, the most distinguished portion of the human 
 kind, in arts and learning, as well as in arms. By the 
 
 1 Apol. c. XXXVII. Seo other testimonies in Chevalliir's 'Translation, 
 note, p. 431. 
 
80 The Claims of Christ, 
 
 industry and zeal of Europeans, it lias been widely dif- 
 fused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa... and, 
 by means of colonies, has been firoily established from 
 Canada to Chili, in a world unknown to the ancients \" 
 
 We pursue this view of our subject no further. Our 
 position is, that separated from the preternatural, the 
 uncreated^ the Divine, Jesus of Nazareth is a phenomenon, 
 in the annals of the world, which never has been ac- 
 counted for, and never can be. We have had brought 
 before us the conditions of a personal life. They are 
 contracted; unpromising; to anything great or good, 
 adverse in the extreme. It is required, on the assump- 
 tion that there was no Divine interference in the mat- 
 ter, — that the life of Christ was, in all respects, a natural 
 life, and in no degree assisted by miracle, — to account for 
 all its subsequent developments ; — for the character of 
 faultless purity ; for the doctrine of transcendent grandeur ; 
 for the mission of resistless success; for the Name, a 
 precious thing, and a life-giving, and a tower of strength 
 to all true believers unto this day. The doctrine of a 
 Divine Incarnation, with its concomitants of miracle 
 and prophecy, will sufficiently solve this mystery. But 
 will anything else? 
 
 With strons^ confidence we answer, No. The heart 
 of the j)i"oblem Avill be found to lie in the infinite per- 
 fections of the Lord Jesus ; in the immutableness and 
 eternity of our Divine Emmanuel, — tabernacling in the 
 flesh, for a season, in order to quicken to new life our 
 fallen, diseased, and darkened manhood, and yet as "Head 
 over all things to His Church," remaining "the same 
 ^ Decline and Fall, ii. 265. See Note P. in the Appendix. 
 
as interpreted hy Modern Criticism. 81 
 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever." In this view we take up 
 the language of our immortal Hooker and say, " Let it 
 be counted folly, or fury, or phrenzy whatsoever, it is our 
 comfort and our wisdom, we care for no knowledge but 
 this that man hath sinned, and God hath suffered, — that 
 God hath made Himself the Son of Man, and that men 
 are made the righteousness of God." Yes ; this mystery 
 of godliness it is, that solves, satisfactorily and sufficiently, 
 the grandeur of the Saviour's triumphs, whether in the 
 world or in the Church, — whether among the assemblies 
 of the glorified, or in the hearts of the sons of men. 
 *' Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and 
 strength : even to Him shall men come." We know whom 
 we have believed. We are persuaded there is a sure refuge, 
 and we flee to it. We see a hope set before us, and we 
 lay hold on it. We behold the golden sceptre held out, 
 and we advance, without fear, to the footstool of the eternal 
 throne, to pour out our sins and sorrows into the ears of 
 a personal Saviour, and a personal God. We feel that we 
 are subjects of Christ's world; members of Christ's body; 
 children of Christ's grace; heirs of Christ's glory. We 
 acknowledge, with Peter, ''Unto you which believe He is 
 precious;" precious for the dignity of His nature; precious 
 for the infinite reach of His atonement; precious for the 
 sufficiency of His grace ; precious for the aboundings of 
 His compassion, and sympathy, and love. All the needs 
 of humanity centre and find their rest in Christ. We are 
 conscious of wanting a way, a truth, a life; — a prophet, a 
 priest, a king : — a wisdom, a righteousness, a sanctification, 
 a redemption ; — but if asked to whom shall we seek for 
 
 6 
 
82 Tlie Claims of Christ, &c. 
 
 these, or ''to which of the saints wilt thou turn?" the 
 response of the grateful Christian heart is, " Lord, to whom 
 shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life/' "Thou 
 art the Christ the Son of the living God." Amen. 
 
SEEMON IV. 
 
 THE CHRIST OF GOD, 
 
 Matth. XVI. 15, 16. 
 
 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? And Simon 
 Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God. 
 
 Importance of right views of Christ — His own jealousy upon the subject 
 — I. The transcendent mystery of His nature — Modern thought and the 
 supernatural — II. The miracles of Christ — Not accepted without scrutiny 
 • — Alleged familiarity of the age wdth miracles — Inconsistent with the effect 
 of them on the multitude — III. The claims of Christ and Jewish prophecy 
 — Testimonies to the truth of Old Testament predictions — The Messiah 
 of prophecy and of the Gospel history — Christ the complement of the 
 revealed system — IV. The fitness of a Divinely-human Christ in order to 
 the work of redemption — In relation to the Law of God — And to the peace 
 and happiness of man — The Christ of modern criticism an open blasphemy 
 — Conclusion. 
 
 Whether as a trial of a man's creed, if it be sound, — 
 of his personal religion, if it be deep, — of his hope of final 
 salvation, if it be well-grounded, and sure, and scriptural, — 
 no question can be imagined more searching and decisive 
 than that proposed by our Lord to the Pharisees, "What 
 think ye of Christ?" If a man be wrong in his views of 
 this fundamental fact, so far as relates to his own moral 
 state before God, ho will be right in nothing else. Whether 
 as a cause or an effect, with light views of Christ will be 
 
 G— 2 
 
84 The Christ of God, 
 
 conjoined light vie\Ts of sin, light thoughts of the Divine 
 holiness, a light appreciation of what is due to the claims 
 of a righteous government, a light estimation of that true 
 conversion of heart without which no man shall see GoD. 
 All things take their colouring from tliis first mistake. The 
 doctrine is wrong. The practice is wrong. The heart is 
 wrong. ■ The man is yet under the power of a blinded 
 mind; and must be content to take rank with the most 
 ignorant of those, concerning whom the Saviour said, 
 "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" 
 
 The fact is not without significance, that our LoED was 
 very solicitous on this point of a just recognition of His 
 claims; that He always expected to have conceded to Him, 
 the possession of a moral and intellectual pre-eminence 
 which was more than human. The advancement of such 
 a claim may be cited as another of the problems, involved 
 in the Saviour's life and character. For there is nothino- 
 
 o 
 
 men scrutinize more jealously, and resist more deter- 
 minately, than lofty pretensions; the boast of superior 
 wisdom and intelligence; the demand, on the part of one 
 who aspires to be a leader, to have every utterance that 
 falls from him regarded as infallible and oracular. We 
 have only to suppose the case of a human teacher, first 
 introducing himself to the learning and philosophy of the 
 ao^e with such lano^uao^e, as ''I am the lio^ht of the world:" 
 "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
 they are life :" "Ye are from beneath, I am from above," — 
 to perceive that, were it only for his arrogance and vanity, 
 such a man, instead of being gladly listened to, would be 
 received with the most unmeasured disgust and scorn. 
 Yet when we read of Christ saying such things, we never 
 
The Christ of God, 85 
 
 seem to feel, — it may be doubted whether the bitterest 
 opponent of His Divinity ever feels,^ — that there is any 
 overstepping of the modesty of true greatness. We see 
 nothing to compromise "the meekness and gentleness of 
 Christ," even while He is assuming an attitude of supre- 
 macy above the whole race of mankind. Whence comes 
 this absence of any jar or discord in the character? 
 Why is not its unity rent or injured by the display of such 
 opposite qualities? The answer is obvious. As we read 
 the history, we are impressed irresistibly with the persua^ 
 sion that we stand in the presence of a Teacher sent from 
 God. And, in this view, that set ting up of a claim to uni- 
 versal deference, which would be offending to the last 
 deofree in an ordinary human teacher, becomes,. in Christ, 
 nothing more than the dignified and natural- assertion of a 
 rightful authority. In proclaiming Himself to be greater 
 than Jonas, wiser tlmn Solomon^ older than Abraham,, we 
 see Christ sought not His own glory. "If I honour 
 myself," he declares, "my honour is nothing. But my 
 Father honoureth me:" and that honour I must both 
 myself vindicate, and- see vindicated before men.. "Whom 
 do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, 
 Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some Elias; and 
 others Jeremias or one of the prophets." The answer does 
 not satisfy. 'The world at large may make these blind 
 and ill-considered guesses as to my person,' intimates the 
 Holy Speaker. But ye, my witnesses, my messengers, the 
 torch-bearers to the uttermost parts of the earth of a 
 ]ieaven-kindled flame, — "whom say Ye that I am? And 
 Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living GOD." 
 
8G The Christ of God, 
 
 We resume the enquiry entered upon in our last dis- 
 course, — namely, Can the facts of Christianity be accounted 
 for, apart from the Divinity of its Founder? Our method, 
 on the former occasion, you will remember, was to take the 
 low ground of our Lord's earthly life, — the familiar and 
 accepted facts of Christian history, — holding in abeyance 
 the supernatural parts of the narrative, and, from the 
 basis of a veritable human record, to work up to the con- 
 clusion, that Christ must be something more than man, — 
 that He said more, did more, was more, than was possible 
 to a being, constituted according to the highest type of 
 manhood. We have now to try to reach the same conclu- 
 sion by a different process : and, taking the whole body of 
 revelation as it stands, and accepting the records for what 
 they profess to be, — to see whether, in the Divine person- 
 ality of Jesus Christ, viewed in connection with the pur- 
 poses of His mediation, we have not an adequate solution 
 of those perplexing phenomena, which the hypothesis of 
 the human Christ is found to be wholly insufficient to 
 explain. 
 
 In this further vindication of the claims of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, there are four principal topics on which it will 
 be necessary to insist; namely 
 
 I The transcendent mystery of His nature; 
 
 IT. The greatness and almighty power of 
 His works; 
 
 III. The accordance of His life and history 
 
 WITH the requisitions OF JEWISH PRO- 
 PHECY; and 
 
The Christ of God. 87 
 
 IV. The pre-eminent suitableness of His quali- 
 fications FOR undertaking THE WORK OF 
 
 man's redemption. 
 
 I We begin by going up to the fountain-head of all 
 our revealed mysteries, — the Divine Incarnation of 
 Jesus. 
 
 We feel justified in this course. The position we claim 
 to have made good, in our last discourse, is, that the sujDer- 
 human element of the Gospels denied, there is as yet no 
 adequate solution of the mere historic facts of Christianity 
 in the field. Men have been found, in every age, and of ever}^ 
 school of thought, prepared to reject the message of 
 Christ, and yet not one among them has been able to sur- 
 mount that first stumbling-block, the moral problems 
 involved in the personal history of Jesus of Nazareth. To 
 make out a consistent human Christ, theory after theory 
 has emerged, — from Germany, from America, from France, 
 each destructive of the one that had gone before, — and yet 
 all unable to stand before the inexorable logic of the 
 historian, — the accepted credibilities, whether of Matthew 
 and Mark on the one hand, or of Pliny and Tacitus on the 
 other. Our business, therefore, is to shew that the only 
 theory which can stand before these witnesses, is that 
 which accepts, in all its sublime and simple truthfulness, 
 the Gospel narrative of the LoRD Jesus as a Divine per- 
 sonage, — as One placed above the conditions of ordinary 
 creature life. Here, as it seems to us, we have a cause 
 adequate to the effect; the marvellous, explained by the 
 marvellous; an Infinite Agent interposing for an infinite 
 need, and therefore with proportionate success. The two- 
 
88 The Christ of God, 
 
 fold nature of our Blessed Lord is the key-note to the 
 whole Gospel-history. Itself an unsolved mystery, it solves 
 all the mysteries of the narrative besides. The mystery of 
 Divine perfectness in the character; the mystery of heavenly 
 wisdom in the doctrine ; the mystery of superhuman power 
 in the works ; the mystery of triumphant success in the 
 mission, with all the benefits it has achieved for mankind ; 
 — this, and much more than this, we can satisfactorily 
 account for, if, as we look on that obscure prophet of 
 Galilee, our faith enables us to say, "Thou art the Clirist 
 the Son of the living GoD." 
 
 But in so saying we are met, at the outset, by an 
 objection, closely allied to that already adverted to, in 
 relation to the miracles of the Old Testament. 'Your 
 position,' it is alleged, ' involves the existence of a super- 
 natural person, interfering in the affairs of the world in 
 a supernatural manner, and claiming to be the object 
 of supernatural predictions. We deny the possibility of 
 all this. We hold it to be an imperative intellectual 
 duty to reject the supernatural in any form. The impos- 
 sibility of it is the final, irreversible sentence of all scien- 
 tific philosophy. We maintain that it has no conceivable 
 existence in fact; and, consequently, no hypothesis, of 
 which such an element forms a constituent part, can have 
 any place in a rational belief.' The form of the objection, 
 it will be seen, is not unlike that which by some has 
 been applied to specific miracles. But it is now sought 
 to push the principle of the objection much further : — the 
 gi-ound being taken by unbelievers of all schools, that 
 from history, from dogma, from the whole universe of God, 
 we must at once and for ever banish the supernatural. 
 
The Christ of God. 89 
 
 Let us glcance at the reasoning. The fundamental 
 assumption common to all these objectors, — whether Posi- 
 tivists, Pantheists, or Rationalists, — is one, namely, the 
 universal supremacy and eternal fixedness of nature's law. 
 In this system, no place is left for the intervention of 
 a moral Ruler, of a subordinating Providence, of a spirit- 
 power above and beyond nature's power. We are thrown 
 back upon the inexorable fatalism of Lucretius. Any- 
 thing different from that which exists, — whether sight 
 given to a man blind from his birth, or a different col- 
 location of two gi'ains of sand, — would involve an inter- 
 ference with the established causations of the imi versed 
 And the nexus which binds these, it is alleged, cannot 
 be broken. Out of a far-back eternity, and unguided by 
 any personal power, comes forth, in silent march, the long 
 train of physical and historic sequences : — into the deve- 
 lopments of an eternity future, alike uninterfered with, 
 we are to suppose, will the train of all coming things 
 pass on, and pass away. In the way of moral intervention, 
 there appears to be no God in the past, no God in the pre- 
 sent, no God in the future. A high and impersonal ab- 
 straction governs all things ; — gathering uj), and inclosing 
 within a rigorous and unalterable system of causes and 
 effects, the forces of nature, the distributions of provi- 
 dence, the history of peoples, — in a w^ord, whatever per- 
 tains to the bodies and the souls of men. 
 
 What have we to urge against such a theory % Much 
 every way. The common instincts of humanity are against 
 it. Nature herself, the voice of that "inner conscious- 
 ness," to which it is so much the fashion to appeal, pro- 
 
 ^ See I^Tote Q. in the Appendix. 
 
90 The Christ of God. 
 
 tests against this deification of the mere forces, and pro- 
 perties, and tendencies of things. The primitive theology 
 of all nations shews an intense yearning in man for the 
 superhuman, — a belief in the intervention of some per- 
 sonal agency to avert calamity, or hear prayer; to bless 
 the harvest, or control the storm. Some of the mala- 
 dies of our, nature are stronof thins^s. What was the in- 
 ference which the men of Lystra drew, on seeing the 
 manifestation of a j)ower stronger than the strong? Did 
 not their instincts foreshadow the idea of a Divine In- 
 carnation ? They said, " the gods are come dowm to us 
 in the likeness of men." 
 
 Again ; the first rudiments of philosophy are against 
 these necessitarian theories. We all know that the sys- 
 tem of the universe consists of two great kingdoms or 
 departments ; — the one material, in which every thing is 
 regulated by a scheme of orderly successions, — an un- 
 broken chain of causes and effects ; the other spiritual, 
 not governed by this apparatus of necessary causes, but 
 ruled and administered by higher laws of its own. Still, 
 there is no possibility of keej)ing the territory of these 
 two kingdoms apart. They overlap each other at all 
 points where moral agents are found. Man himself, as 
 not being under the law of cause and effect in his choices, 
 is, in that respect, outside the realm of the necessary or 
 the material. In the freedom of his moral determina- 
 tions, he is a supernatural being; and, in each notable 
 scientific discovery, w^hen he sets the existing forces of 
 nature at work in combinations which were not known 
 before, he may be said to break in upon the existing cau- 
 sations of the universe, as truly, though not to the same 
 
The Christ of God, 91 
 
 extent, as a visible miracle does. Hence, so far from 
 allowing that the supernatural conflicts with the system 
 of the universe, we hold it to be an essential part of that 
 system : — nature and the supernatural being complemen- 
 tary the one to the other, and both entering as common 
 factors or co-efficients into the physical and moral adminis- 
 tration of God\ 
 
 Once more, in relation to this resolution of all things 
 into a catena of preordained and eternal laws, we ob- 
 serve that it strikes at the root of all our conceptions of 
 God, as a Mokal Governor. These absolutely forbid 
 us to divorce nature from Providence; — the power that 
 evokes a world into being, from the wisdom that shapes 
 its destinies, or the goodness that upholds its life. To 
 look upon God as the mere initiative cause of our created 
 system, but taking no care or thought of it afterwards ; — 
 delegating to a mechanical impulse the sceptre of the 
 universe, and leaving the fortunes of humanity to revolve 
 upon it as upon a wheel, — may do very w^ell for a fol- 
 lower of Epicurus, but surely is not in accordance with the 
 first principles even of a 2^ure Theism. Natural religion 
 scorns at the abdication, by the Creator, of the throne of 
 this lower world. " He who believes in God," says Guizot, 
 'Hakes His providence for granted," — takes for granted 
 that there is an unslumbering eye watching over the moral 
 interests of the human race ; — and therefore supposes that, 
 when an extreme need occurs in the affairs of the de- 
 pendent creation, the Infinite Ruler will not stay His hand 
 from supplying a proportionate remedy. The supposition 
 
 ^ See some able remarks upon this subject in Dr Bushnell's Nature and 
 the Super natural, c. ii. pp. 24 — 2)i' 
 
92 The Christ of God, 
 
 of Christianity is, that this extreme case has arisen, and 
 that the Incarnation of the Son of GoD is a Divine con- 
 trivance to meet the difficulty, — heaven's response to the 
 aspirations of the universal earth. Hence foreordained of 
 God from the foundation of the world as this Incarna- 
 tion was, and gathered up by Him into a scheme, ex- 
 tending, it is likely, to other beings and other worlds, yet, 
 to us the Divine life of Jesus must take the form of a 
 miraculous intervention, — an intervention, justified by the 
 exigency it was intended to meet. For man had fallen. 
 By falling, had passed into a condition of enmity against 
 God : — enmity to the holiness of His being, to the per- 
 fectness of His law,, to the principles of His moral 
 administration, to the enjoyment of His presence in the 
 life of the world to come. By what, short of an Almighty 
 power, could the bonds of this enmity be broken, or who, 
 but our Divine Emmanuel, could make us again the sons 
 of God ^? 
 
 Christ then, is a supernatural person, and His religion, 
 a supernatural institution. The laws of the moral world, 
 if left to their eternally impressed consequences, would 
 have caused man to perpetuate his own misery, without 
 redemption, and without a hope, — seeing that character, 
 of itself, never changes. He that is unjust will be unjust 
 still, and he that is filthy will be filthy still. But Chris- 
 
 1 In limiting the argument to that aspect of the mission of Christ which 
 has relation to man as fallen, no opinion is supposed to be offered on that 
 larger question of philosophical theology, not unfamiliar to the ancients, but 
 much revived in our own times, especially by some of the more learned and 
 orthodox divines of Germany, namely, whether Christ would not have come 
 if man had not sinned. See remarks by the Editor of Lange's Life of 
 Christ, Vol. i. p. 64. 
 
The Christ of God, 9 
 
 o 
 
 tianity is a supernatural dispensation of healing and re- 
 storation, coming down upon this apparatus of moral 
 causes, and over-riding the law of mundane sequences by 
 higher laws of its own : — thus vindicating the supremacy 
 of God, as a Moral Governor, and, by means of the re- 
 demption that is in Christ Jesus, making a way for the 
 return of our sinning race. Of the metRod of such an 
 intervention we have no particular account to give. Limit- 
 ed knowledge, in relation to it, is not our shame but 
 our rejoicing. "We preach the wisdom of God in a 
 mystery." 
 
 II. But the claims of Jesus have to be vindicated 
 further by a reference to the gkeatness and almighty 
 POWER OF His works. " Ye men of Israel," said Peter, 
 " hear these words : Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of 
 God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, 
 which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye your- 
 selves also know." 
 
 To the argTiment against miracles in general, as w^ell as 
 to the unscientific method by which it is sometimes sought 
 to foreclose all reasoning upon them, on certain a priori 
 grounds, I invited attention in a former discourse ; — my 
 aim then being to shew that the nature of the reason- 
 ing employed to extrude miracle from history, would avail 
 equally, if true, to banish a moral Governor from the 
 world. But, in regard of His claims to be considered a 
 messenger sent from God, the miracles of Christ stand 
 on an entirely different footing from those of Moses or 
 Elijah. The miracles of the old Testament prophets were 
 wrought in virtue of a derived power, — are never supposed 
 
04 The Christ of God. 
 
 to be any tiling else. The miracles of Christ were His 
 oiun; flowing directly from Himself as a miraculous per- 
 son ; from His will, as a miraculous energy ; from His life 
 as a miraculous life. His works are a true and natural and 
 proper efflux of His Godhead; — as much a part of a Divine 
 manifestation as His Incarnation was, and appealing to 
 the same supe'i'natural proof as that appealed to, that He 
 must be the Christ of GoD. " Go and shew John again 
 those things which ye do hear and see: the blind re- 
 ceive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleans- 
 ed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the 
 poor have the Gospel preached to them." 
 
 Hence a special line of argument is taken with regard 
 to the miracles of Christ. There seems a disposition to 
 gi^ant, for argument's sake, the possibility of miracles, but 
 it is required as a condition of belief in them, that they 
 should have been subjected to an ordeal of scientific scru- 
 tiny, — to a proper investigation by a " commission, com- 
 posed of physiologists, physicians, chemists, and persons 
 trained in historical criticism." Of course the object of 
 bringing forward these unreasonable scientific tests, as 
 necessary to establish a miracle, is to bring out in bolder 
 relief the very imscientific conditions under which, it is 
 alleged, the miracles of Christ did take place, and the 
 facilities afforded thereby either for delusion or im- 
 posture. 
 
 "VVe seem almost to trifle with the intelligence of a 
 Christian auditory, when we recite some of these pre- 
 tended facilities. To be told, as we ^re by M. Renan, 
 that the miracles of Christ were accepted by the specta- 
 tors " without scrutiny," is surely the very wantonness of 
 
The Clirist of God. 95 
 
 assumption. Did the enemies of Christ accept His mira- 
 cles without scrutiny? Would the Pharisees, shrewd, 
 sceptical men as they were, — have lost any opportunity 
 of exposing any pretended miracle ? Did one answer, or 
 two, or three, satisfy them, before they desisted from their 
 attempt to disprove the cure which had been wrought on 
 the man blind from his birth ? 
 
 But the age generally, it is argued, was in favour of 
 the miraculous. " To do a miracle was then thought no- 
 thing extraordinary." "Theurgy was an esteemed and 
 widely spread art." " Magic was a lucrative profession : 
 asleep or awake, men's minds were familiar with mira- 
 cles \" But does not this argument prove too much? If 
 the Jewish people were so very familiar with miracles, how 
 came the power of Christ to work them, to produce such a 
 strong impression alike on friend and foe? — on Nicode- 
 mus declaring, " we know that no man can do these mira- 
 cles which thou doest except GoD be with him"? — or on 
 the chief priests, afraid that, if the miracle of Laz.?rus 
 should obtain much wider credence among the people, 
 " the Romans would come and take away both their place 
 and nation"? Surely, if Christ, in coming among them, 
 had done no works but such as other men did, there was 
 no reason to suppose that He would be treated differently 
 from the manner in which other men were. But how 
 contrary was the fact? Witness the miracle brought be- 
 fore us, in the Gospel of this day I The feeding of the 
 five thousand presents no difficulty to scej)tical expositors, 
 who see in it nothing beyond " an extraordinary frugality" 
 
 1 See Westminster lievieiu, Oct. 1864. Art. Strauss. 
 
 2 Preached on the Sunday before Advent. 
 
96 The Christ of God. 
 
 on the part of the disciples, and " a willingness in those 
 who had provisions, to give to those who had none." Yet 
 see how the incident operated on the minds of the five 
 thousand themselves, — those persons to whom a miracle 
 was an every-day occurrence. "Then those men when 
 they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of 
 a truth that prophet that should come into the world." 
 
 But we will not press further this argument from the 
 works of Christ. Allowed, as they are, by all exact 
 thinkers, to be amenable to the law of evidence, — to the 
 law which tries their reality as facts and to nothing else, — 
 if miracles are rejected, it may well be asked what fact in 
 history are we expected to believe? The infidel Gibbon, 
 whether by design or according to his wont of 
 
 " Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer," 
 
 has well put our case for us, when, in relation to some 
 strongly a,ttested marvels of a later period, he ob- 
 serves: — "The witnesses of the fact all lived within the 
 compass of a century: they all appeal to their personal 
 knowledge, or the public notoriety for the truth of a 
 miracle which was repeated in several instances, displayed 
 on the greatest theatre of the world, and submitted during 
 a series of years to the calm examination of the senses \" 
 The force of this kind of contemporary evidence we must 
 all acknowledge; — especially, when, as in the case of the 
 Saviour's miracles, so many of the witnesses were them- 
 selves partakers of the benefit. When Christ made His 
 frequent challenges to the multitudes to be believed for 
 His work's sake, His appeal lay not to those who had been 
 
 1 Decline and Fall, c. xxvii. 
 
The Christ of God, 07 
 
 nninterestecl spectators of some striking but useless prodigy. 
 He was surrounded by the blind He had enlightened, by the 
 sick He had healed, by the lame He had restored, by the 
 demoniac delivered from his phrensy, or the dumb whose 
 first utterances were dedicated to his Redeemer's praise. 
 Such men needed no further witnesses. They saw, in the 
 works of Christ, the most convincing attestation to His 
 claims, the seal of Heaven set to His whole mission, and 
 life, and work. And they bowed themselves in the mighty 
 Presence. "And there came a fear on all: and they 
 glorified GoD, saying, That a great prophet is risen up 
 among us; and. That GoD hath visited His people \" 
 
 in. We advance to a further stage in this vindication 
 of the claims of Jesus, as found in the accordance of His 
 entire life and history with THE REQUISITIONS OF Jewish 
 
 PROPHECY. 
 
 The predictive prophecies of the Old Testament, stand 
 alone in the literature of the world: — alone for their anti- 
 quity; alone for their lofty imaginings; alone for the 
 corroborations which all history has furnished, and con- 
 tinues to furnish of the accuracy of the predictions. Espe- 
 cially, in regard of their continuous developments, are 
 these prophecies without any parallel. A prediction which 
 should deal only with things near at hand, might have 
 been humanly accounted for, as lying within the range of 
 human prescience to foresee, or, it might be, a skilful fore- 
 casting of natural agencies to bring about. But Hebrew 
 prophecy ranges over the entire expanse of histor}^ It is 
 constantly germinating and gathering strength with age. 
 
 * Luke vii. 16. 
 
 7 
 
98 The Christ of God. 
 
 Every century that passes puts the predicted facts further 
 and further out of the reach of human causation: and, 
 in the existing circumstances of climes, and races, and 
 national habitudes, we stand in the presence of a daily 
 repeated miracle. 
 
 The proofs of these continuous prophetic fulfilments, — 
 as seen in the malediction of heaven, pursuing the children 
 of Ham through all the successions of human history ; or in 
 the fierce independence and sullen isolation from his kind, 
 of the descendants of the Ishmaelite; or in the shivering 
 to pieces of ancient dynasties, till they became like the 
 chaff on the summer threshing-floor, — would admit of 
 indefinite illustration. But the argument reaches its 
 climax in the present condition of the Jewish people. The 
 continued existence of such a nation, without extinction as 
 a race of themselves, and yet without amalgamation with 
 other races, is an unique fact. They are a people to be 
 accounted for. Hence we hold that the best witness 
 for a supernaturally predictive element, in the Jewish 
 Scriptures, is the Jew himself, — the Jew as we see him 
 now. We cannot look upon one of God's ancient people, 
 without seeing one, whose history, whose institutions, 
 whose very countenance must carry us back to the cradle 
 of civilization, and to the infancy of the world. His 
 features cast in a mould of unaltering ancestral type : his 
 vicissitudes a connecting link with the facts of universal 
 history: his laws the same as they were delivered three 
 thousand years ago from the burning fires of Horeb, — "the 
 very seal not railed from the bond," — make the Jew the 
 central fact of the prophetic system to all time. It is his 
 to have seen the birth and death of nations. Eace after 
 
The Christ of God. 09 
 
 race of his oppressors have disappeared without leaving 
 any trace of their national existence. Deeply buried in 
 the earth are the cities where his fathers sojourned in 
 captivity: and only the broken column of the desert 
 remains to tell the story of their magnificent decay. But 
 the Jew is as a column unbroken,-^standing indeed among 
 ihe vestiges of forgotten nations, and seeming to be as one 
 of them, — but, in truth, miraculously preserved of GoD, to 
 be a witness to the nations of a moral Providence ; a pro- 
 clamation to all humanity, that the Scripture cannot be 
 broken. " The voice said. Cry. And he said, What shall I 
 cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as 
 the flow^er of the field.... The grass withereth, the flow^er 
 fadeth: but the Word of GoD shall stand for ever\" 
 
 We hold fast then by the Word of Old Testament pro- 
 phecy. The enquiry arises, What is the testimony it bears, 
 when view^ed in connection wdth the facts of New Testa- 
 ment history, to the Divine mission and authority of Jesus 
 Christ? How far, if w-e examine the double record with 
 diligent and honest scrutiny, shall w^e be led to say at the 
 end of it, as Philip said on finding Nathanael, "We have 
 found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets 
 did write"? 
 
 Now the primary and distinguishing feature of revela- 
 tion, it wdll be admitted, is the declaration of a Great 
 Deliverer from sin and misery, promised under one dispen- 
 sation, and given under another. It wdll be further allowed 
 that, in the ages antecedent to the appearance of Christ 
 upon earth, a widely prevailing expectation of such a 
 Deliverer obtained, not among Jews only, but among some 
 
 ■^ Isa. xl. 6 — 8. See Note R. in the Append ix. 
 
 7—2 
 
TOO The Christ of God, 
 
 of the most enliglitened thinkers of heathen 'antiquity \ 
 We have to enquire, therefore, What form did this expecta- 
 tion take, or what form ought it to have taken among 
 those, who, as possessors of the oracles of God, alone had 
 any authoritative information to give upon the subject? 
 And how far does the Messianic ty|3e of a Deliverer, as set 
 forth in the Old Testament, find its correlative in the 
 person of Him, who, in the New Testament, claims to be 
 this Deliverer, and to have been so ordained from the 
 foundation of the world? 
 
 Discussions of particular jDrophecies, of course, we have 
 no room for^. We can but gather up the substance of the 
 Messianic predictions, as they lie on the surface. Let us 
 class them in some kind of order. A series of prophecies, 
 reaching from the commencement to the close of the 
 ancient dispensation, foretell the coming of some Great 
 One, "the Desire of all nations." They describe Him gene- 
 rally, by His nature, His office. His mission, and the results 
 which should follow. With regard to His NATUEE, these 
 prophecies, w^hile, on the one hand, declaring Him to be a 
 real human being; a descendant of Adam, Abraham, and 
 David; the true offspring of a woman, though after some 
 supernatural manner, — yet, on the other hand, speak of 
 Him as, in some special and peculiar sense, the Son of 
 
 ^ See this point illustrated in Archbishop Trench's Hulsean Lectures, 
 entitled Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom. He shews that there 
 are prophecies of Christianity running thiough all history. See also 
 Hardwick's Christ and other Masters, Part iv. c. iv. and elsewhere. 
 
 ^ Of those which bear more directly on our present subject, some 
 striking examples are given, and di^cussed with his usual ability, by Dr 
 Pusey, in his last noble contribution to English theology, The Prophet 
 Daniel, Lect. viii. and ix. pp. 467 — 491. See also Dr McCaul's Essay on 
 Prophecy in Aids to Faith, p. 82. 
 
The Christ of God. 101 
 
 God ; as having a real and operative existence in the patri- 
 archal and Jewish ages, and even from all eternity ; as the 
 proper object of worship, and trust, and love ; and finally, 
 as being, of right, invested with titles, which it is a pri- 
 mary belief of our theology to consider as restrictedly and 
 incommunicably Divine, — such as Jehovah, the Creator, 
 the Everlasting Father, the Mighty GoD. 
 
 With regard to His office, it is declared He shall be a 
 Messenger, pre-eminent above all others, in rank, and 
 power, and authority; a Teacher, inspired with the largest 
 measure of Divine gifts and qualifications ; a Lawgiver, 
 authorized to inaugurate a new code for informing the 
 consciences and elevating the characters of men ; a pacifi- 
 cator and mediator between GoD and His rebellious 
 children ; and, to all who should receive Him, a Saviour 
 from all the sin and misery that are in the world. 
 
 Once more, of the MISSION of this Messiah, and 
 its results, these prophecies inform us, that, though in the 
 execution of His benevolent design, Messiah will undergo 
 the severest extremes of suffering, until He shall at length 
 have to lay down His life for a ransom; — yet that, from 
 behind that dark cloud. He shall emerge to a condition of 
 glory, and honour, and triumph ; shall be exalted to a seat 
 at the right hand of power ; and finally, shall set up a 
 kingdom, holy and spiritual in its nature, w^orld-wide in 
 the reach of its blessings, indestructible and eternal in 
 duration, as a kingdom that shall know no end. 
 
 Such is the outline of the Messianic portraiture, as it 
 appears on the page of ancient prophecy. The striking 
 peculiarity of it, as we shall all acknowledge, is the strangely 
 opposite, and apparently incompatible elements it appears 
 
102 The Christ of God. 
 
 to combine. If the coming of Christ were s^ill the object 
 of expectation to us, our natural enquiry would be, " How 
 is this new thing in the earth to be created ? How is it 
 possible that there should meet, in one and the same 
 Beins", the finite and the infinite, the abased and the 
 exalted, the humanity with all its experience of suffering, 
 and sorrow, and defeat, and shame ; and the Divinity, able 
 to wield, and all the while actually wielding, the powers of 
 the uncreated and unchangeable God?" Thus, antece- 
 dently, and before a single chapter of the New Testament 
 is opened, we are confronted with the only possible solu- 
 tion of the prophetic problem; namely, that in some way 
 or other, we should behold "GoD manifest in the flesh," — 
 should be made to look upon some occult and mysterious 
 union of perfect Deity and perfect humanity; in a word, 
 that either from earth or from heaven, there should come 
 forth a being, concerning whom it might be said, that he 
 was " of the seed of David according to the flesh," and yet 
 " over all GoD blessed for ever." 
 
 These, I say, are the conditions of the problem, 
 which prophecy had put into men's hands, and which 
 we know were in men's hands, before Messiah appeared. 
 Our next position is, that they are met in the person of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, — met in those very preternatural con- 
 ditions, which modern thought is so unwilling to accept. 
 For we take His history by itself. And, keeping entirely 
 out of view the prophecies which had gone before, we find, 
 presented to our notice, the portrait of One, who, "in all 
 things had the pre-eminence;" — in His nature, in that, 
 though descended of David's line, and born of a pure vir- 
 gin. He allowed Himself to be the object of worship, as 
 
The Christ of God. 103 
 
 being One with the Everlasting Father ; in His office, in 
 that, as a Teacher and prophet. He proved Himself to be 
 possessed of superhuman endowments, penetrating with an 
 Omniscient clearness into the secrets of all hearts, and the 
 hidden things of all coming time; in the ATTRIBUTES as- 
 cribed to Him, not only as the Author of creation, and the 
 Omnific Governor of the whole dependent universe, but as 
 having at His supreme disposal the most inestimable 
 spiritual blessings, — the pardon of sin, the renewal of our 
 moral nature, the resurrection of the body from the grave, 
 and the gift of spiritual and eternal life ; in the titles be- 
 stowed upon Him as, "the image of God," "the Lord from 
 heaven," " the Blessed and only potentate," "the great God 
 and our Saviour," "the King of kings and Lord of lords." 
 The question arises therefore, if the requisitions of Jewish 
 prophecy are thus satisfied ; and if two independently pur- 
 sued lines of investigation, — one based on an analysis of 
 the testimonies of prophets as to what Messiah should be ; 
 the other, on the collected testimonies of Evangelists and 
 Apostles a« to what their Messiah was,: — are found to run, 
 side by side, in close and never diverging parallel,^ — can any 
 doubt exist, that one and the same Being was in the con- 
 templation of the writerSj under both testaments, and that 
 Peter expressed the mind of both when he said to his 
 Lord, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Hving God'"? 
 
 ^ For a complete list of the Messianic prophecies, arranged with his ac- 
 customed clearness and precision, see Dr Pye Smith's Scripture Testimony 
 to the Messiah, Vol. i. c. 4. For the corresponding fulfilments in the New 
 Testament, see the same work, Vol. II. Books III. and iv. The full force 
 of the argument from this source the mind does not at first apprehend. 
 Simpson {Plea for Relujion) reckons up one hundred and nine prophecies 
 relating to some particulars in the life of Christ. Upon the doctrine of 
 
104 The Christ of God. 
 
 It would be easy to supplement this view of tlie claims 
 of Christ, based upon His fulfilment of particular predic- 
 tions, by a reference to His place in that large prophetic 
 scheme, which takes in the whole of the Divine communi- 
 cations to our race. 
 
 According to this scheme, the whole period of time, 
 from the Creation until now, is occupied by three principal 
 dispensations, which we usually denominate as the Patri- 
 archal, the Levitical, and the Christian. Of these the 
 characteristic feature is, that they are all marked by unity 
 of design ; that they constitute, of themselves, a gradually 
 developing and harmonious scheme ; and are occupied, 
 especially, with the coming of a Divine person into the 
 world, in whose work and mission, all that was distinctive 
 and external, in preceding systems, was to have its accom- 
 plishment and consummation. Hence, of all these econo- 
 mies, whatever be their differences of dispensational form, 
 the central obj ect is Christ. He is conspicuously introduced 
 under the patriarchal dispensation ; is more fully shadowed 
 forth under the law ; covers the whole field of view under 
 the Gospel. This, as we all know, is the great argument 
 of the Apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, and else- 
 where. The doctrine of a Divine Incarnation, taken in con- 
 nection with Christ's redemptive work, is the key which 
 unlocks the ark of all Old Testament mysteries. In the 
 person of Christ, who is ''the brightness of the Father's 
 
 chances, Bishop Mcllvaine has shewn that taking only b, single event pre- 
 dicted in the Old Testament, the chances against its occurrence at the time 
 and place indicated, are as twelve millions to one. We leave to the mathe- 
 matician to compute what this ratio would become, when the operation has 
 to be performed, not upon a single event, but upon one hundred and nine 
 vents. See more in Garbett's Boyle Lectures, 1861, Lect. ii. p. 48. 
 
The Christ of God. 105 
 
 glory," " the worshipped of all the angels of GoD," " the 
 same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," at the same 
 time that "He is partaker of flesh and blood," "tastes 
 death for every man," is *' tempted in all points like as 
 we are," — Paul beholds " a minister of the sanctuary, and 
 of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not 
 man." In this view, every part of the ancient service 
 became, after his conversion, invested with a new and 
 sacred sijniificance. Never had he been without reverence 
 for these outward ordinances : for he knew them to be 
 " patterns of things in the heavens." But in the light of 
 the Gospel, they became something more than patterns. 
 They were a parable to the eye. And the dumb things 
 spake : and shadows stood out in defined and visible form : 
 and, like as when Moses was hid in a cleft of the rock, it 
 seemed as if the glory of the Lord in redemption was 
 made to pass before him, — Christ Himself being the cen- 
 tral radiance of the scene, and His sacrifice the clue to 
 all that had been obscure before. From this time for- 
 ward he beholds Christ everywhere. He beholds Him in 
 history, — in the fire, and in the cloud, and in the sea. 
 He beholds Him in ritual, — in the hyssop, and the sprin- 
 kled blood, and the scarlet wool. He beholds Him in type, 
 — in the uplifted serpent, and the falling manna, and the 
 smitten rock. All is enigma without the Divine Christ : 
 all, in the light of the Divine Christ, is manifest as a 
 blazing star. **The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of 
 prophecy \" 
 
 1 The Author has attempted to work out the prophetical argument 
 more fully iu his Divine Auikorily of the Feututeuch. Lect. vii. 
 
106 The Christ of God, 
 
 IV. Tlie last gi'ound on which we proposed to rest 
 the majestic claims of Jesus has respect to the pre-eminent 
 FITNESS of His qualifications for undertaking the work 
 OF man's redemption. 
 
 i. Consider this fitness in the ijifinite perfectness of the 
 sacrifice, by means of which Christ obtained this eternal re- 
 lemption.for us. "VVe stay not to reply to the cavils which 
 human philosophy has sometimes urged against the prin- 
 ciple of propitiation, as a means of bringing GoD and the 
 sinner together. Let it first be shewn that the question 
 is one which philosophy is competent to deal with. Till 
 then, we take our stand upon facts. The doctrine of vi- 
 carious sacrifice, — of some victim to be offered up for 
 man's sin, is known to be of the highest antiquity. Fallen 
 man has never been without it. It never appears, on the 
 face of Scripture, as an expedient to meet an uncontem- 
 plated moral exigency, — as the peculiarity of a dispensa- 
 tion, or the accident of an age or Church ; — but rather as an 
 ultimate fact of revealed science, which has been the basis 
 of all economies, and has shaped the religious institutions 
 of all times. Hence, throughout Revelation, throughout 
 successive religious economies, throughout man's whole 
 moral history, in an enlightened state, or in a dark, we 
 never entirely lose sight of the idea of propitiation. It 
 may be obscured. It may be overlaid. It may be mixed 
 up with some disparaging human element : but its normal 
 type, the just suffering for the unjust, is indestructible ; 
 — ^whether as inscribed on the rude pile of patriarchs ; 
 or as pervading all the parts of a sacrificial ritual ; or as 
 given forth in the utterances of prophetic vision, — in the 
 case of those who had the knowledge of God ; or, in the 
 
The Christ of God. 107 
 
 case of the heathen, — as leading men to incarnadine the 
 river, to rear the altar, to kindle the j)ile, to offer up the 
 holocaust, — because, even without any revealed intimations 
 of an atonement, they were unable to eradicate the per- 
 suasion from their minds, that the Great Spirit of the 
 universe could be propitiated in no other way\ 
 
 In the New Testament, of course, the principle takes 
 its defined and developed form. It culminates in the 
 sacrifice of Him " whom God hath set forth to be a pro- 
 pitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His right- 
 eousness for the remission of sins that are past," — the 
 truth everywhere brought out, being, that the recovery of 
 our lost race by means of sacrifice, is part of an ever- 
 lasting purpose ; that the atonement of Christ is the one 
 harmonizing element of moral government ; the great 
 central fact in the Divine administration, in which alone 
 all the perfections of a holy nature could blend and meet. 
 
 The enquiry follows, Do they so meet in the sacrifice 
 of Christ ? or could they meet in Him, if He were not 
 both human an^ Divine ? Consider this sacrifice only 
 in relation to the legislative authority of God. The moral 
 law we know is a holy thing. It is the expressed mind 
 of God : and, like Himself, can neither alter, nor relent, 
 nor suffer any abatement of its claims. To suppose that it 
 could, would be to charge awful reproach upon the wisdom 
 
 ^ Examples from all parts of the known world will be found in Arch- 
 bishop Magee on the Atonement, pp. 99 — 131. "In the number of human 
 sacrifices offered up to propitiate a Being who 'could pardon the guilty 
 only in consideration of the blood of the innocent,' no nation perhaps ex- 
 ceeds the ancient Mexicans. The amount of victims immolated on its ac- 
 cursed altars, would stagger the faith of the least scrupulous believ'^er." 
 Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, Vol. i. c. III. p. 43. 
 
108 The Christ of God. 
 
 of its Author. For any law whose penalties are uncon- 
 ditionally remitted, is thereby confessed by the Lawgiver 
 to have been needlessly or unjustly rigorous at first. The 
 mere suspending of a solemnly declared enactment would 
 almost compel the dishonouring inference, that there had 
 been something in the moral circumstances and liabilities of 
 mankind, . which the Almighty had not contemplated : — in 
 fact, that, convinced of the impracticability of the service 
 which He had required of His creatures, He has seen fit 
 to release them from the obligation of perfect obedience, 
 and to put up with their repentance instead. The devis- 
 ing of some method, therefore, whereby to magnify the 
 law, and make it honourable, we may confidently put 
 down as a Divine necessity. All the perfections of a 
 holy nature would be compromised, and all the founda- 
 tions of moral government loosened, if the rnercy of GoD 
 could be extended to the sinner, without some form of 
 moral equivalent ; or even if He should accept, as that 
 equivalent, the sacrifice of a finite being to atone for the 
 breach of an infinitely perfect law. ^ 
 
 Hence, with all its searchless mystery, the doctrine 
 of a Divine and Incarnate sacrifice is the only one which 
 appears to vindicate the authority of a heavenly legisla- 
 tion. For Christ to have taken upon Him "the nature of 
 angels," or of any created being, however exalted, would 
 have availed nothing as a satisfaction for the law which 
 man had broken. The mere fact of creation would vitiate 
 the sacrifice. For, by this very condition of being, all 
 the faculties of the surety are pledged to God, — pledged 
 to their utmost exercise. It is plain that he who is to 
 satisfy the law for others, must be above the claims of 
 
The Christ of God. 100 
 
 law himself. But this no finite creature can ever be. 
 Christ, therefore, must be an Infinite Saviour, and His 
 atonement an Infinite atonement. For if. He be not, 
 the la\^ remains still dishonoured ; the curse against our 
 race is still impending ; Heaven's gates are still barred 
 against us ; and the blood of Calvary has not touched that 
 kindled fire, which threw out everywhere its sword of 
 flame, to keep the way of the Tree of Life. " Ought not 
 Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
 His glory?" was the question, put by the Holy One, to 
 the disciples journeying to Emmaus. He ought. " Die 
 He, or Justice must." 
 
 ii. And then, once more, it is only in the recognition of 
 the Divine claims of Christ, that we see His fitness to 
 become the world's Redeemer, in relation to ourselves, — 
 in order to inspire us with love for His person, and give 
 us confidence in His infinite ability to save. 
 
 "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the livine -GoD." 
 This belief in the essential Godhead of Him who under- 
 takes for us, is our life. It stamps all His teaching with 
 the impress of infallible truth. It gives to His promises 
 the force of a present and felt reality. It lowers the depths 
 of His humiliation. It expands the heart of His compas- 
 sions. It widens the embrace of His redeeming arm. It 
 adds infinity to the vast, and omnipotence to the strono-. 
 Tell me that the blood of atonement is of finite worthi- 
 ness, and my heart sinks within me. To say that it will 
 cleanse from much, will never gain my confidence, unless 
 you can say it will ''cleanse from all sin." If, in its appli- 
 cation, that blood could leave one offender hopeless, one 
 heart desolate, one soul with its iEthiop's stains upon it to 
 
110 The Christ of God, 
 
 be confronted with the face of God, who shall say that 
 Tnine may not be that one blemished soul ; mine the guilt 
 of that unreached, and unpardoned sin? No: the blood 
 by which the Church has been purchased, — we may not 
 shrink from the sublime literalness of inspiration, — is the 
 blood of the Infinite, — "the Church which He has pur- 
 chased with His own blood ^". Oh! who, on reading such 
 words, does not feel how vital it is to all peace, all hope, 
 all happy prospects of immortality, that we be able to 
 answer aright, that question of the Saviour, "But whom 
 say ye that I am ? " 
 
 Thus, brethren, I have endeavoured to bring before you, 
 the portraiture of Christ, presented to us in the Scripture 
 records, as contrasted with that monstrous and mis-shapen 
 counterfeit, to which the sacred name of Jesus has been 
 given by modern critics. The Revelation picture stands out 
 as a great mystery, no doubt. But it is a mystery of God- 
 liness : — having GoD for its Author, infinite rectitude for 
 its rule, the salvation of man for its end. The Christ of 
 modern criticism is not a contradictory thing only, not an 
 inadequate thing only, but involves conclusions, which, if 
 they hold at all, must hold to the utter extermination of the 
 Christian system. Any theology which denies the Godhead 
 of Christ, the miracles of Christ, the fulfilment of the pro- 
 phecies in Christ, does a great deal more than reject these 
 parts of our revealed system. It dooms to eternal dis- 
 honour the character of the Saviour, either for goodness, or 
 truth, or honesty. It makes Him to have introduced into 
 
 ^ A pardon bouglit with blood, wdth blood Divine, 
 With blood Divine of Him I made my foe. 
 
 Night TlwurjUs, N. iv. 
 
The Christ of God. Ill 
 
 the world, an idolatry worse than any He came to destroy, 
 in that, being a man, He made Himself GoD. It writes on 
 that brow, whereon truth ever sat radiant as the sun in his 
 strength, that title of liar, which is odious in the estimation 
 of God and man. It holds up as an impostor and a cheat, 
 the all-holy and spotless Lamb of God ! 
 
 We challenge the possibility of escaping from this tre- 
 mendous conclusion. Christ claims to be equal with the 
 Father; claims to be the terminating object of ancient 
 prophecy; claims to have given sight to the blind, and life 
 to the dead; — Avhere, but on the lowest ledge of debased 
 humanity, can we place Him, if at the very moment of His 
 throwing out the challenge to the multitudes. He knew 
 these claims were false ? And if this be so, what follows ? 
 Why then, all the Evangelists, and Apostles, and confessors, 
 and martyrs, have been found false witnesses of GoD. Then 
 have the hopes of humanity, and the trust of all ages, no 
 better foundation than a vision of the night. Then they 
 that have fallen asleep in Christ have perished : and we, 
 who are yet alive, must perish also. And we are baptized 
 into the name of — what ? And we refresh our souls with 
 the body and blood of — what ? And we hear the command 
 given, Let all the angels of God worship — what ? Nay, the 
 mjrriads of the glorified, tuning their golden harps, and 
 chanting their alleluias on the crystal sea, fall down before 
 the throne of — what? why, either a pretender, falsely 
 alleging that He did perform mighty works ; or an enthusiast, 
 so weak as not to be quite sure whether he did or not! 
 Away with the terrible courtesy, which accords to the 
 authors of such theories the name of Christians ; or which 
 hesitates to number them with that blaspheming throng. 
 
112 The Christ of God. 
 
 for wliom we can only pray, in the words of Him tliey have 
 reviled, — "Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do V 
 
 In bringing these Lectures to a close, I am deeply 
 anxious to leave, on the minds of my younger brethren 
 especially, a full impression of the inevitably progressive 
 tendency of all indulged religious doubts, and, if the prin- 
 ciples of this neo-Christianity be allowed, the one terminus 
 to which they will naturally, if not necessarily, lead. Let 
 us not be deceived. The real alternative with which mo- 
 dern thought is now confronting us is, Christianity or Athe- 
 ism, — that narrow issue, neither more nor less. The halting 
 places which are supposed to lie between, — whether an 
 eclectic Christianity, or a refined spiritualism, or a kind 
 of theistic philosophy, — are only sloping ledges. When 
 we find dogma gone, historic certainty gone, belief in a 
 righteous moral government gone, we bethink ourselves 
 that the residuum of belief is hardly worth the keeping. 
 And we slide down a little lower. The mist of incertitude 
 thickens. Holding off convulsively from what, we fear, 
 may be the next stage of an ever-darkening descent, — the 
 disbelief of a personal GoD, — we catch at the first inter- 
 jected shadow ; and we resolve, either with the Positivist to 
 erect an altar to necessity, or, with the Pantheist, to wor- 
 ship the Universe. By this time, the edge of the chasm is 
 reached. We gaze ; we lean over ; we start back. But 
 the treacherous guide, who has dragged us to the brink, 
 whispers 'Why thus far and no further? Pevelation, 
 providence, mii'acle, — resurrection, angel, spirit, — a heaven 
 
 * See Note S. in the Ai-'nendix. 
 
The Christ of God. 113 
 
 for the blessed, or a hell for the lost, — you have put all 
 these parts of a worn-out creed away, — what more certainty, 
 than for these, have you for the solitary belief you would 
 still cling to, — the fact of the Divine existence? Demon- 
 stration is the scientific condition of a rational belief 
 That withheld, an universal scepticism is the mind's re- 
 pose. "Cast thyself down."' Oh! is there not as much of 
 prophecy as of poetry in that description of Wordsworth, — 
 
 So I fared, 
 Dragging all precepts, judgements, maxims, creeds, 
 Like culprits to the bar : calling the mind 
 Suspiciously to establish, in plain day, 
 Her titles and her honours: now believing, 
 Now disbelieving : endlessly perplexed 
 With impulse, motive, right and wrong, the ground 
 Of obligation, what the rule and whence 
 The sanction : till demanding formal proof 
 And seeking it in everything, I lost 
 All feeling of conviction : and in fine 
 Sick, wearied out with contrarieties, 
 Yielded up moral questions in despair! 
 
 But, brethren, I have done. You will believe in, and 
 allow for the anxiety, — the almost oppressive anxiety — ^which 
 weighs upon me, as I quit this ever-honoured pulpit, lest, 
 in anything I have said, or have left unsaid, I should have 
 failed in magnifying the name of the Lord Jesus, whether 
 in relation to the profound mystery of His INCAENATION, 
 or the Infinite glory and prerogatives of His Godhead. 
 I have been bringing before you no unpractical school- 
 man's subtlety. The doctrine of the Divinely-Human 
 Mediator is our life. We love to think of Him as He was 
 revealed to the prophet Ezekiel by the brook; as the 
 enthroned presence of the upper world, — Light of Light, 
 
 8 
 
114 The Christ of God. 
 
 God of God, Very God of Very God, — and yet withal a 
 glorious similitude, which mortal eyes might look upon, — 
 a GoD-man administrator of a subject universe. He that 
 sat upon the throne was "the likeness as the appearance of 
 a man." Brethren, be this our rock, this our refuge, this 
 our rest, for ever. The Lord reigneth. The Lord Jesus 
 reignetli. The tender, sympathizing, Incarnate Mediator 
 fills the throne. Eternal power and Godhead, as an ab- 
 stract truth, is a lesson which we may learn from Nature's 
 Bible. She has written it upon her chained lightnings, 
 and her bounded seas; upon the stars obedient in their 
 courses, and in the stability of her everlasting hills. Bnt 
 that power and Godhead embodied in a personal manifes- 
 tation, — a Sovereign, a Benefactor, "a Friend that sticketh 
 closer than a brother," — this we can never know till, by the 
 enlightening and converting influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 we are enabled to say with Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living God." This view, without lowering the 
 majesty of the Godhead, adapts our conceptions of it to the 
 conditions of mortal thought ; in prayer especially, brings 
 the object of worship nearer to us; relieves the mind in its 
 gropings after an incorporeal abstraction, and enables it to 
 lay hold on the concrete reality of a personal and redeem- 
 ing God. Nor is this all. It is by means of this ineffable 
 descending of the Godhead, — stooping, till it should come 
 within the grasp of a reverent religious imagination, that 
 we are enabled to feel toward the Divine Being, in the 
 character of our Emmanuel, the sentiment of personal love, 
 personal gratitude, the fervid glow of a holy and heavenly 
 friendship. "We love Him, because He first loved us." We 
 love to be in frequent meditations on His glorious character 
 
Tlie Christ of God. 115 
 
 and offices ; love to sit at His feet, and learn wisdom from 
 the written word ; love to lift up the heart to Him amid 
 the world's "crowded loneliness;" love to realize His near- 
 ness to us in the closet, in the sanctuary, in holy sacra- 
 ments ; — nay, love to feel that heaven itself has no higher 
 prerogative than this, — a sight of the Redeemer in His 
 glory, and power to worship, without a veil, before His 
 throne. " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, 
 though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory." Amen. 
 
 8—2 
 
Not man alone, — all rationals, heaven arms 
 
 With an illustrious, but tremendous power 
 
 To counteract its own most gracious ends ; 
 
 And this, of strict necessity, not choice : 
 
 That power denied, men, angels, were no more 
 
 But passive engines, void of praise, or blame. 
 
 A natm-e rational, implies the power 
 
 Of being bless'd, or wretched, as we please ; 
 
 Else idle reason would have nought to do : 
 
 And he that would be barr'd capacity 
 
 Of pain, courts incapacity of bliss. 
 
 Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom ; 
 
 Invites us ardently, but not compels. 
 
 Heaven but persuades, almighty man decrees ; 
 
 Man is the maker of immortal fates, 
 
 Man falls by man if finally he falls ; 
 
 And fall he must, who learns from death alone, 
 
 The dreadful secret — that he lives for ever. 
 
 Young. Night Thoughts 
 
 "This belief is necessary to teach us to make a fit estimate of the price 
 of Christ's blood, to value sufiiciently the work of our redemption, to 
 acknowledge and admire the love of God to us in Christ. For he which 
 believeth not the eternity of torments to come, can never value sufiiciently 
 that ransom by which we were redeemed from them, or be proportionately 
 thankful to his Redeemer, by whose intei'vention we have escaped them ; 
 whereas he who is sensible of the loss of heaven and the everlasting priva- 
 tion of the presence of God, of the torments of fire, the company of the 
 devU and his angels, the vials of the wrath of an angry and never-to-be- 
 appeased God, and hopeth to escape all these by virtue of the death of his 
 Redeemer, cannot but highly value the price of that blood, and be propor- 
 tionately thankful for so 'precious a redemption'." — Pearson's Exposition 
 of the Creed. 
 
A DISCOURSE 
 
 FINAL EETEIBUTION.i 
 
 Revelation xxii. ii. 
 
 He that is unjust, let him he unjust still : and he which is filthy, 
 let him he filthy still. ^^ 
 
 Introduction — Difficulty of treating the subject — I. Antecedent proba- 
 bility of the doctrine — Course and constitution of nature and providence — 
 Tendency to finality in human character — Retribution incidental to all 
 moral agency — II. Revealed testimonies to the doctrine — Christianity a 
 remedial scheme — Direct affirmations of Revelation — Scripture assumes 
 that aU probation ends with the present life — Metaphysical relations of 
 eternity and duration — the hypothesis of annihilation — III. Alleged incon- 
 sistency of the doctrine with the perfectness of God — His benevolence — 
 His mercy — His justice — Difficulties of the contrary theory — The revealed 
 doctrine urged by Christ, the tenderest of all preachers. 
 
 These words are among the last of those which John heard 
 in heaven; the last of those inspired utterances which con- 
 stitute God's message to the souls of men ; the last of that 
 series of Divine communications which were never to be 
 re-opened ; never to be added to; never, by angel's or by 
 prophet's voice, to be urged or proclaimed again. The 
 
 1 Preached, in substance, at St Sepulchre's, Cambridge, on the evening 
 of Nov. 20, 1864. 
 
118 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 thought may well lend an added interest to the passage. 
 Permitted, as we have been in the former chapters, to 
 accompany the Apostle in his visions of things not seen as 
 yet ; to ascend with him to those prophetic heights, whence 
 we could look out on the broad stream of time, — agitated 
 ever, turbid ever, uncertain ever, till it reach the fair 
 haven, the calm deep ocean of eternity, — we treasure up, 
 among sacred remembrances, the last scenes of the closing 
 pageant ; the last folds of the falling cloud ; the last Avords 
 which came from the uncreated glory, as, for ever and for 
 ever, the vision passed away. And what words are they? 
 Oh ! they are full of admonition, full of profit, full of awful 
 truth. They tell of the Divine unchangeableness. They 
 tell of the uniformity of law. They tell of the perpetuity 
 of moral character ; — " And he saith unto me, Seal not the 
 sayings of the prophecy of this book," — at least, until 
 there has been a declaration of that truth which is reason's 
 dictate, revelation's burden, heaven's immutable and ever- 
 lasting law: — "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: 
 and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still : and he that 
 is righteous, let him be righteous still : and he that is holy, 
 let him be holy still." 
 
 Brethren, I have selected a solemn topic for our medita- 
 tion; a topic, ''to be handled," as Hooker says, "with a 
 bleeding heart;" and I ask your prayers that, whatever I 
 may say upon it, may be in accordance with the teaching 
 of the Spirit, and the mind of Christ. The great difficulty 
 in the treatment of such a subject, we shall all feel, is how 
 to hold the balance rightly between tenderness on the one 
 hand, and fidelity on the other; between the natural com- 
 passionateness of the teacher, and the stern logic of an 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 110 
 
 investigator of moral evidence; between the sorrow, even 
 unto tears, wliicli must be felt for the lost children of our 
 race, and the loyalty which we all owe to the majesty of 
 the truth of GoD^ No doubt the sight is a sad one, — to 
 God, to angels, and to men, — when a man takes up the 
 affirmative side of a theme like this, in the spirit of theo- 
 logical partizanship ; intent only, like a hired advocate, on 
 bringing out such considerations as may tend to sustain 
 a foregone conclusion ; and, in the harsh severity of his 
 indictments, appearing to stand forth as one, who holds 
 a brief against the sinning family of man. And yet, 
 scarcely less sad is it to see a teacher, one who is put in 
 trust with the Gospel, yielding so far to the impulses of 
 a criminal leniency, as to be afraid to declare openly to 
 those whom he addresses, the facts of man's moral condi- 
 tion as they are ; or the exact case of Christianity as it 
 stands ; or the true principles of the Divine administration 
 as we see them in operation, in the world, in nature, and 
 in human life. 
 
 Surely, in all our teaching, we are bound to begin wnth 
 man where God begins with him;: — as a sinner, as "very 
 far gone from original righteousness," as having his whole 
 heritage of moral happiness forfeited by an ancient seques- 
 tration, and as having no hope of deliverance but in the 
 
 ^ Paley observes in this matter, "It is very difficult to handle this sub- 
 ject properly; and one cause among others of the difficulty is, that it is not 
 for one poor sinner to denounce such appalling terrors, such tremendous 
 consequences against another. Damnation is a word which lies not in the 
 mouth of man, who is a worm, towards any of his fellow-creatures whatso- 
 ever ; yet it is absolutely necessary that the threatenings of Almighty God 
 1)6 made known and published." — Vol. vi. Sermon on the Terrors of the 
 Lord. 
 
120 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 mission and sacrifice of the Son of God. Men will never 
 have right views of God, or of themselves, until they have 
 realized Christianity as an extreme remedy for an extreme 
 need ; — a remedy which, if not applied, must leave the need 
 to continue in unending and ever-increasing force. Not 
 that, in the case of neglect, there is any coming down of 
 a new agency or a new law to make the misery of this felt 
 need the greater. The retribution, such as it is, is the 
 immortality of a refused benefit; the undying fruit of 
 a tree of the sinner's own planting; the perpetuating of 
 that estrangement from GoD, which it was the design of 
 Christ and His Blessed Spirit to take away. And this 
 seems to be the proper force of the words recited in our 
 text. They speak not of punitive retribution, as such, at 
 all. They merely imply, that without any force exerted 
 on the freedom of the moral agent, the dispositions and 
 tendencies which have been the object of fixed choice in 
 this life, will be left to continue, and from the absence of 
 any influence to change them, cannot but continue, the 
 confirmed dispositions and tendencies of the life to come. 
 Whatever is done, is done by the sinner himself. Revela- 
 tion only puts the case as it is, — given, an eternity of evil 
 character, what can be looked for but an eternity of evil 
 consequence? " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still : 
 and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still." 
 
 Our subject, as will be perceived, is the eternity of 
 THE RETRIBUTION to be visited hereafter upon the ungodly; 
 and therefore, with a chastened awe upon our spirits, and 
 with earnest prayer for Divine guidance and illumination, 
 let us give our attention to the three following con- 
 siderations : — 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution. 121 
 
 I. The ANTECEDENT PROBABILITY of the doctrine, 
 as deduced from the method and course of God's moral 
 government. 
 
 II. The force of the revealed testimonies to the 
 doctrine, when taken in connexion with the origin and 
 avowed design of Christianity. 
 
 III. The insufficiency of any objections to the doctrine, 
 on the ground of its SUPPOSED INCOMPATIBILITY with the 
 Divine attributes. 
 
 I. We are first to shew certain ANTECEDENT PROBABILI- 
 TIES for the doctrine in question, based on the ascertained 
 facts of moral government ; on the observed law and con- 
 stitution of the economy under which we live; on those 
 uniform teachings of reason and conscience, which, equally 
 with revelation itself, must reflect the mind of GoD. 
 
 " The first principle of religion," says Bacon, " is right 
 reason." We must not, in upholding the doctrine under 
 consideration, leave it to be supposed that we are shut 
 up to the wording of Inspiration ; that we dare not go 
 further back ; that we are afraid to ask, ' What doth 
 nature itself teach, or the GOD of nature, in His every-day 
 dealings with mankind?' We believe that, in nature, in 
 providence, in revelation, GoD is one ; — that He never does 
 conflict with Himself, and never can. I do not say that 
 it is, in all cases, incumbent upon us to shew the harmony. 
 It were most unreasonable that it should be. For we have 
 not all the constituents before us of the things which must 
 be made to agree, — not the whole facts of science, not th(3 
 entire scheme of providence, not the conditions and cir- 
 
122 A Discourse on Final Retrihution. 
 
 cumstances of other accountable agents, to whom, as much 
 as to ourselves, the principles of a revealed legislation must 
 apply \ While, therefore, we aver, with all confidence, 
 that the agi^eement between the statements of Revelation 
 and the well-sustained conclusions of human philosophy 
 will become more apparent, the more rigorously our in- 
 quiries into both are pursued, we do not hold ourselves 
 bound to prove more than an agreement of general prin- 
 ciples — a parallelism of procedure and method in these 
 two departments of truth, close enough to indicate a com- 
 mon authorship. In other words, it is enough if we can 
 point to indications, in the v^^orld around us, that GoD was 
 likely to do that, which^ according to our interpretation of 
 the v/ritten Word, He says He will do. In relation to the 
 case of future rewards and punishments, we leave room 
 for the supposition, that the principles of -legislation may 
 be carried much further under the spiritual, than they are 
 under the temporal economy ; and that things may take a 
 defined a.nd consummated form in the next life, to which 
 they are but continually tending in this. All w^e can be 
 expected to prove is unity of directian, likeness of ad- 
 ministrative plan-, evidence that the present and the 
 future world are formed for the same subjects, and are 
 ruled by the same God. 
 
 What, then, are the facts of our actual condition? 
 We are under the government of a superior Power. He 
 
 ^ Dr Whewell observes, "This universal consistency of truth with itself 
 must be assented to ; but it by no means follows that we must be able to 
 obtain a full insight into the nature and manner of such a consistency. 
 Such an insight would only be possible if we could obtain a clear view of 
 that central body of truth, the source of the principles which appear in the 
 separate lines of speculation." Indications of the Creator, p. 113. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retrihiition. 123 
 
 is wise. He is good. He is powerful. We offer no 
 proofs of this. The earth is full of them — no spot being 
 found so barren as not to shew footprints of an unslumber- 
 ing and presiding GoD. But what is He more than this ? 
 How further does he vindicate His title to be considered 
 a moral Governor, — ruling for moral ends, administering 
 His power by moral means, and assuming, in the subjects 
 of His empire, a moral nature, with all those sensibilities, 
 tendencies, instincts, powers, which, rightly employed, 
 would enable them to refuse the evil and to choose the 
 good ? Of this the proofs are multiplied. To go no fur- 
 ther than the general constitution of this world's govern- 
 ment, no one could deny that it is, upon the whole, 
 favourable to virtue, and adverse to wrong-doing; that, 
 with all the permitted exceptions inseparable from a state 
 of probation, the more marked aspects of providential 
 government are yet towards the encouragement of the 
 just, and the pure, and the lovely, and the things of good 
 report \ Good men have suffered far their mistakes, and 
 bad men have run their career of successful crime ; but, 
 in some way or other, the retributive element of moral 
 government has always made itself felt. God has " never 
 left Himself without a witness;" never allowed it to be 
 supposed that He looked with throned indifference on the 
 moral issue of things. In nature, in providence, in every 
 law He impressed, whether upon matter or upon mind. 
 He has made known abundantly the uniform tendency of 
 His administration. Whatever He might permit, every- 
 thing was against sin. He would spare it neither in 
 
 1 See Bishop Butler's chapter on the Moral Government of God. Anal. 
 Part I. ch. III. 
 
124 A Discourse on Final Retribution, 
 
 small nor great. "The stars in their courses fought 
 against Sisera." 
 
 Yet more does this recompensing feature of Divine 
 government discover itself, when we extend the inquiry to 
 the facts of our individual consciousness ; when we look 
 into the several adaptations and tendencies of our moral 
 organization, — taken in connection mth their obvious 
 relation to a punitive economy, as their proper sphere of 
 exercise, and to the production of a holy character, as the 
 design of their besto^vment. Thus, among such universal 
 facts or phenomena, we put down the sense of accountable- 
 ness for our actions. The law, the rule, the enforcing 
 sanction of such accountableness, for the present, we say 
 nothing about. We are now looking at man as we find 
 him, — trpng to bring together the most ordinary and 
 admitted facts of human experience. And we set it do^vn 
 as one of them, that every man has the idea of moral 
 right and wrong ; that he judges his own conduct by it, 
 that he judges the conduct of others by it, and that, 
 according to it, he expects to receive his award of praise 
 or blame. All human magistracies appeal to this feel- 
 ing. Its existence is supposed in such words as "law," 
 "rule," "obligation," "duty," — terms finding their cor- 
 respondent in certain original susceptibilities of the moral 
 agent. The introduction of the term did not create the 
 susceptibilities. It could not create them, — any more 
 than directions where to look for an object could give a 
 man the power of sight. The idea of accountableness 
 must be there first, — a primal instinct of the human con- 
 sciousness, at once telling a man that he is under law, and 
 consenting to the law that it is good. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution. 125 
 
 But hereupon follows another fact of our moral ex- 
 perience. This law being in the heart, — its own interpreter, 
 its own vindication, its own witness that the obligations 
 imposed by it are of Divine and unchanging force, — we find 
 that, for our own sake, we must Jive in harmony wdth its 
 requirements. We ca^nnot be inattentive to them without 
 uneasiness. We cannot violate them w^ithout misery, and 
 the utter loss of our own self-esteem. The impunities of 
 society for the transgression afford no relief. We are under 
 an economy of unseen retributions. There is no avenger 
 from without. The worm of remorse that feeds upon us 
 is self-engendered, and we kindle the fires of our own hell. 
 
 We advance to another stage. The misery of remorse 
 continuing, self-respect gone, the authority of conscience 
 set at nought, relief is sought in renewed transgression. 
 The man has lost the peace of obedience ; such as they 
 are, he may as well have the " pleasures of sin." What 
 will happen now ? Sin will, in time, become the formed 
 and fixed habit of his soul. " Evil men wax w^orse and 
 worse." We cannot wdiile life lasts, assign any end to the 
 progression \ Each repeated act of disobedience exerts 
 an influence upon character; tends to its consolidation 
 and settlement in evil ; helps to bring about that which, 
 as far as can be seen, will be its final and everlasting form 
 — that of hatred of God and of all good. We can hardly 
 have failed to observe that there is, in all our habits, be 
 they good or be they evil, a tendency to perpetuate them- 
 
 1 Nam quis 
 
 Peccandi finem posuit sibi ? quando recepit 
 Ejectum semel attrita de fronte ruborem? 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. v. 13. 
 
126 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 selves ; to reproduce their own like ; to appear again and 
 again continually, and always in more confirmed and 
 vigorous form. Of course the law acts uniformly ; and, 
 therefore, while it becomes a conservative element of cha- 
 racter in the case of those who have chosen the right 
 path, it serves only to accelerate with more destructive 
 speed the ruin of him who has chosen the wrong. " Right- 
 eousness keepeth him that is upright in the way ; but 
 wickedness overthroweth the sinner." 
 
 And, co-ordinately with this moral deterioration we 
 have spoken of, is the retributive process going on. There 
 is an unseen parallelism kept up between the sin and the 
 misery; the guilt and the remorse; the ripening character 
 and the maturing shame. To the end of their days, sinners 
 are constantly finding out that " they that plough iniquity 
 and sow wickedness, reap the same." Many, in the most 
 literal sense of those words, may say in their hearts daily, 
 "My sin is ever before me." For some great transgression 
 haunts them Avith its retributions to the end of life. They 
 never escape from its revenges. It tracks their path like a 
 bloodhound. It holds them firm in the iron grasp of destiny. 
 To close every door of hope against them, it fixes upon them 
 everywhere the Cain-brand of Heaven's anger, — the cleaving 
 leprosy of a lost name. This, however, is but the retribu- 
 tion of an outward Providence. They may escape it. But 
 if they do, there is another. They shall be pursued by the 
 reflection that life, character, conduct, prospects, — all took 
 their sad complexion from that first false step. The mo- 
 tives to piety had become withdrawn, the rewards of piety 
 were forgotten, the principle of piety had become extin- 
 guished and destroyed : and now they must stand in their 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 127 
 
 lot ; abide by their choice. Having sown the wind, they 
 must reap the whirlwind ; having sown misery, they must 
 reap despair. Without ever having been taught it by 
 Scripture, the cry had gone up from ten thousand desolate 
 hearts, "There is no peace, saith my GoD, to the wicked \" 
 
 Let us now consider the bearing of all this on that part 
 of the argument which is under consideration. We pro- 
 posed to investigate an antecedent probahilitT/ of what God 
 would do in a future world, derived from our knowledge 
 of what He is seen to do in this. Now, by this knowledge 
 — not supplied by Scripture, observe, but by the patent 
 facts of human observation — we get to find that this 
 our world is constructed upon a system of recompenses; 
 that retribution is a law incident to all moral agency; that 
 the course of nature, as well as the constitution of the 
 human mind, are so arranged as that sin should always 
 bring with it its own punishment. We find further that, 
 apart from religious influences, this law of retribution pur- 
 sues man to the very boundary -line of the present state ; 
 that it must continue to do so, if that boundary-line were 
 removed indefinitely further off; insomuch that, owing to 
 the misery increasing as the sin increased, and the sin 
 increasing as the evil character took deeper root, if Judas 
 himself could have had an earthly immortality given to 
 him, he would as surely have found a hell in this world, as 
 he found one afterwards in going to ''his own place." 
 
 Now, this being so, we are obliged to concede to the 
 
 1 This self-avenging and self-perpetuating tendency of sinful habits will 
 be found discussed with great ability, in; a work entitled The Revealed Doc- 
 trine of Future Rewards and Punishments, by Dr R. Winter Hamilton. See 
 Sect. II. pp. 86— 132. 
 
128 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 doctrine of eternal punishments, apart from all the teach- 
 ings of Revelation, this apparent corroboration to begin 
 with. It harmonises with all the facts of moral govern- 
 ment. It is the actual extension and development of 
 principles, already seen to be in operation. It is the very 
 rule of dealing with us, which, if the nature of God be im- 
 mutable, and the principles of His administration be eter- 
 nal, would, far beyond any other, satisfy the anticipations 
 of enlightened reason, and commend itself to the moral 
 approval of mankind. In dealing with responsible agents, 
 we feel that a righteous governor can have but one righte- 
 ous rule; and to suppose Him to lay down any other in the 
 awards of the future world, would be as impossible as to 
 suppose that that world might be under some other God. 
 As far as we can see, all penalties are visited upon charac- 
 ter; and character, after this life, is immortal. "He 
 that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is 
 filthy, let him be filthy still." 
 
 II. I pass on to our second head, or a consideration of 
 Scripture testimonies to the doctrine of Final Retribu- 
 tion, taken in connexion with the origin and avowed design 
 of Christianity. 
 
 What is Christianity? As intimated already, it is 
 God's remedy for a lost, diseased, sin-smitten world. If all 
 had been well with us, there had been no need of such an 
 intervention on our behalf : " They that be whole need not 
 a physician, but they that are sick." The supposition of 
 revelation throughout, is that we are fallen from our creat- 
 ed dignity; are suffering from some violence done to the 
 original purpose of our being; are wrestling and struggling 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 129 
 
 with the rudiments of a once-nobler nature, — that we are 
 formed for immortality, and are awaiting it. Such supposi- 
 tions fall in with all the facts of our personal consciousness ; 
 are adajDted to our antecedent expectations of what a reve- 
 lation from heaven would be; put the seal of Divine 
 authenticity on conclusions, which reason and nature had 
 drawn before. 
 
 Still, while insisting upon it as a strong corroboration 
 of the truth of Christianity, that its statements coincide 
 so exactly with the facts of our present condition, we deem 
 it imiDortant to enforce an observation, already urged in 
 relation to a kindred topic ', that revelation is but the tuit- 
 ness to these facts, and not their initiative cause. Save 
 that it heightens the amount of a man's responsibility for 
 the use or misuse of its own disclosures — a result in- 
 evitable in every case of benefits conferred — Revelation 
 makes no difference in his state whatever. If it declare 
 him to be " wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
 and naked;" to have his lines fallen unto him in a toil- 
 ing and suffering w^orld ; to have a sense of condemnation 
 upon his spirit; to be living under a law wliich he has 
 broken, and to be training for an immortality which he must 
 meet — yet this is no more than he was before the revelation 
 came, — no more than what, if the revelation were taken 
 away, he would continue still to be. The Bible does but 
 hold up the mirror to our moral nature ; and we acknow- 
 ledge that its witness is true. We feel that God would 
 have brought "every secret thing into judgment," though 
 the Angel had not lifted the veil from "the great white 
 throne;" and are conscious that a law of perpetuity would 
 
 ^ See Sermon ii. p. 47 of this work. 
 
 9 
 
130 A Discourse on Final Retribution, 
 
 still have inhered to human character, though that axiom 
 of heaven's jurisprudence had never been laid down ; 
 — "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he 
 that is filthy, let him be filthy still." 
 
 The remark seems important, because there is a way 
 of looking at the eternity of future retribution as a detached 
 and dismembered doctrine of the Christian system: — un- 
 connected either with the suffering and misery which that 
 system found in the world, or with its own beneficent 
 provisions for their removal. Now, if Christianity had first 
 made man a responsible being, that he might be amenable 
 to punishment, or had first endued him with a capacity of 
 endless life, that this punishment might be eternal, there 
 had been some plausibility in such a view. But it is mani- 
 fest that Christianity did no such thing, and could not have 
 done it. Man knev*^ he was responsible before; knew he 
 *was immortal before; knew, before the disclosures of reve- 
 lation, and apart from them, that he had forfeited the 
 favour of GoD. All the sufferings that he endured were 
 but a consequence of this. And he could see no end to 
 them, because he could fix no boundary to the guilt out of 
 which they sprung ^ Christ came to put an end both to it 
 and them; — to remove the guilt, to sanctify the suffering, 
 and to cut off that doom which must otherwise have 
 followed both — the bitter pains of eternal death. "I am 
 come that they might have life, and that they might have 
 it more abundantly." 
 
 ^ How plainly has Lucretius set this fact before us as part of a heatlien'a 
 consciousness: — 
 
 Nee videfc interea, qui terminus esse nialorum 
 
 Possit, nee quae sit poenarum denique finis : 
 
 Atque eadem metuit magia hsec ne in morte gravescant. 
 
 De lit rum Nat. lib. iii. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retrihution, 131 
 
 Such, I say, is the design of Christianity, and whatever 
 it reveals must be considered as revealed in furtherance of 
 that design. Does it reveal the doctrine of punishments 
 in the future world? does it say that these punishments 
 shall be eternal? 
 
 First, Does it reveal punishments ? And if so, of what 
 nature are they? We can only say of them, that in descrip- 
 tion, they are intensely, ineffably, inconceivably awful. 
 They suppose, in the case of the wicked, new capacities of 
 suffering supervening upon the resurrection state ; body, 
 soul, and spirit raised to new powers of anguish; and the 
 offender, after a righteous trial, cast ''into the gi'eat w^ine- 
 press of the wrath of God." Take only a few texts : "And 
 cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there 
 shall be w^eeping and gnashing of teeth." "Send Lazarus, 
 that he may di|) the tip of his finger in water, and cool 
 my tongue ; for I am tormented in this" flame." " Who 
 among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among 
 us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? " Or take a few 
 detached expressions — the awful poetry of retribution : — 
 the "furnace," the "lake," the "mist," the "tempest," the 
 " smoke of torment," and the " undying worm," the " wan- 
 dering stars," and the " raging waves of the sea, foaming 
 out their own shame." We may look upon these as figures. 
 But wdiy, in the exposition of great truths, does Scripture 
 have recourse to figures? Not surely to reduce and 
 weaken their proportions, but to present them wath mure 
 of intensity, and breadth, and power; to eke out the defi- 
 ciencies of the human intelligence ; to help the mind in its 
 graspings after an infinitely removed reality. 
 
 And, in all descriptions relating to the eternal v.'orld, 
 
132 A Discourse on Final Retribution, 
 
 we feel that this must be so. Hell must have its poetry, 
 as well as heaven ; Tophet, as Paradise ; the region of the 
 lake that burnetii, as the city of the crystal sea. The 
 things which GoD has prepared, whether for them that 
 love, or for them that hate Him, are alike far above out of 
 our sight. "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" 
 asks the Psalmist. But there is no response. Conjecture 
 fails; analogy is baffled; tired thought gives up the de- 
 spairful task, and imagination folds her wing. Be still; 
 inquire not ; enough that " it is a fearful thing to fall into 
 the hands of the living GoD." 
 
 We insist not then, too particularly, on the precise 
 nature of the future retribution. There may, or may not 
 be material fire ; there may, or may not be a local torture- 
 chamber ; there may, or may not be living ministries of 
 wrath and vengeance, ordained to visit on the immortal 
 body unheard-of measures and varieties of pain. But we 
 may leave out these, and think of the cup of wrath as con- 
 taining moral ingredients only ; — the sinner left to make 
 his own hell and to live in it — his fierce passions an uncon- 
 sumed "fire," his guilty remembrances a never-sated 
 " worm," his mist of darkness the gloom of unending 
 despair, the slavery of sin his everlasting chain, and his 
 curse his immortality. Let the supposition be made that 
 character has taken its fixed and imperishable type ; that 
 his lot is thenceforth cast in a prayerless, hopeless, Christ- 
 less world ; that his future fellowships must be with evil, 
 only evil, and that continually, — and all the elements for 
 the most fearful retribution we could think of, are to be 
 found in the sinner's own breast. Like as with Pharaoh, 
 the heart will become harder under each avenging stroke. 
 
A Discourse on Final Eetrihution. 133 
 
 There is no limit to his obduracy, till he becomes wild with 
 remorse, and fatuous with despair. "And they gnawed 
 their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the GoD of heaven 
 because of their pains and sores, and repented not of their 
 deeds \" 
 
 But then, are the Scriptural intimations beyond gain- 
 saying which suppose this state of retribution to be eter- 
 nal ? Is the testimony clear and decisive that the condi- 
 tion spoken of is unalterable, without abatement, without 
 intermission, without possibility of deliverance under an 
 economy which shall know no end ? We answer, as far as 
 we can put a defiuite meaning upon words, it is. To admit 
 the contrary, would be to make the Bible unsafe for our 
 guidance, inspiration to have failed of its design, truth a 
 thing still to be sought for, — a mystery yet hidden in the 
 Everlasting Intellect, and which w^e must wait a new reve- 
 lation to unfold. Our grounds for speaking thus confi- 
 dently, are based on the generally acknowledged import of 
 the w^ords employed^; on the ascertained interpretation 
 which would be put upon those words by the persons to 
 whom they were addressed^; on the pervading supposition 
 of finality which Scripture makes wdienever it alludes to 
 the allotments of the future world; and on the determi- 
 nateness, which the New Testament always claims for its 
 own economy, as disclosing the last remedial effort God 
 
 1 Kev. xvi. lo, II. 
 
 2 On the word atw^tos and its cognates in relation to this subject, see Dr 
 Pusey's recent sermon, pp. 20 — 23. 
 
 3 See on the prevalent opinion of the Jews in relation to this subject, 
 Pearson on the Creed, Art. xil. and note ; Campbell's Dissertation on 
 yievva, on Gospels, Vol. I. pp. 184, 185, note ; and Whitby on 2 Thesi. 
 Appendix 40. 
 
134 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 would ever make for the restoration and recovery of 
 man\ 
 
 Time allows not of ^my following out this reasoning. 
 With regard to verbal interpretations, when we read such 
 passages as, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" or, "WHio 
 shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
 presence of the Loed, and from the glory of His powder;" 
 or, " The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and 
 ever;" or, ''Their worm shall not die, neither shall their 
 lire be quenched," — it seems little better than theological 
 trifling even to try to invent for such plain v>^ords a second 
 meaning. The Bible would be the most misleading book 
 that ever was written, if, either by the mists of hypotheti- 
 cal conjecture, or the adroitness of verbal criticism, it could 
 be shewn that, wdien it spake of a worm that should 
 "never die," it meant a worm that should die; — that by the 
 fire which ''never should be quenched," it meant afire that, 
 after a time, should go out altogether; — nay more, if it 
 could be shewn, that the very form of expression, which 
 Inspiration has selected to describe the eternity of the 
 Divine Being himself should, w^hen applied to the duration 
 of future punishments, represent no more than a measur- 
 able interval of days, and weeks, and months, and years. 
 
 Equally conclusive against the possibility of a reversed 
 sentence, or even the extinguishment of it by means of the 
 
 ^ The following admission, considering the quarter from which it comes, 
 is noteworthy : — " On this point I acknowledge that my convictions are 
 Btrong. I have long searched with anxious solicitude for a text in the 
 Bible that would even seem to favour the idea of a future probation. I 
 cannot find it." — Moses Stuart, Exerjetical Essays, Sec, Andover, 1830, 
 p. 60. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 135 
 
 destruction of the offender, is that uniform assumption of 
 Scripture, that, in tlie life that noAV is, the final overtures 
 of mercy are made to us, and the last opportunities of sal- 
 vation given. The alleged facts of our moral condition are 
 sliortly these : — that we have broken the laws of an Infi- 
 nite Being; that we have made ourselves liable to an infi- 
 nite condemnation; and that only by an acquired interest 
 in some infinite atonement, can that condemnation be 
 taken away. Now, the supposition made in the case of 
 every lost spirit under the Gospel is, that he has allowed 
 his interest in that infinite atonement to lapse; that he has 
 failed in those moral requirements of faith and penitence, 
 by which a part in Christ's sacrifice . was to be secured \ 
 In order, therefore, to such a man being eventually saved, 
 one of two things must take place; either he must find 
 another sacrifice in the world of retribution, or there must 
 be a way of satisfying the righteous demands of GoD 
 without any sacrifice at all. Will any, in the face of that 
 Scrijoture, "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins," 
 have boldness to affirm the first of these alternatives ? or, 
 whilst reading such words as, "V/ithout shedding of blood 
 is no remission," admit the possibility of the second ? 
 Hence, I think, it must be obvious that any possible change 
 in the sinner's condition, when the time of his earthly pro- 
 l)ation is once passed, would involve the recasting of our 
 whole theology. We should have to look out for another 
 Bible, another law, another GoD. There would be nothing 
 
 ^ Bp Jeremy Taylor has beautifully observed "Mercy is like a rainbow, 
 wliich God sets in the clouds to remember mankind : it abides here as lon<^ 
 as it is not hindered : but we must never look for it after it is ni'jht, and it 
 ihines not in the other world.''^— Miracles of Divine Mercy. 
 
136 A Discourse on Final Retribution, 
 
 but jar and conflict in the principles of the Divine admini- 
 stration. Rewards would be bestowed according to one 
 rule, and punishments according to another. And other 
 conclusions must follow more contradictory or awful still. 
 God must deny Himself; Christ must have died in vain ; 
 the Spirit would be no longer the source of holiness; 
 characters could of themselves change from evil to good; 
 hell would be no punishment, but a remedy ; and, since the 
 succeeding eternity of happiness would compensate for 
 even milleniads of anguish, it would be no longer true of 
 him that betrayed the Saviour, "good were it for that man 
 if he had never been born." Oh ! in what sublime contrast, 
 to these unauthorised and baseless theories of men, is that 
 self-acting and self-perpetuating law of heavenly legisla- 
 tion, which, penetrating to the remotest departments of 
 moral government, infixing itself deeply in the heart of the 
 human consciousness, combining, as an integral part of one 
 extended scheme with all the teachings of revelation, and 
 reaching to all worlds where moral beings are found — to 
 men in their probation, to fallen angels in their chains, to 
 saints on their thrones of light, and to lost spirits in their 
 estate of remediless and unchanging woe, — commands the 
 suffrages of the universal conscience, and attests, "Yerily 
 there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a GoD 
 that judgeth in the earth." 
 
 But here would seem to be the proper place for advert- 
 ing to two modes of evading the force of the Scriptural 
 proofs of this doctrine, which have been put forth by 
 modern writers. The first is that contained in the meta- 
 physical argument of a theologian of some repute, main- 
 taining that the word ''eternity/' or its cognates, is not to 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution. 137 
 
 be understood of "duration" at all. The argument of this 
 writer may be difficult to present in a condensed form; 
 but the following sentence is perhaps the best for the pur- 
 pose. He says, — " If it is right, if it is a duty, to say that 
 eternity, in relation to God, has nothing to do with time 
 or duration ; are we not bound to say that also in reference 
 to life or to punishment, it has nothing to do with time or 
 duration'?" 
 
 Surely there is something questionable in the premiss 
 of this argument. If it mean — as, to be of any argumen- 
 tative value, it should mean — that " eternity," in relation 
 to our apprehensions of GoD, " has nothing to do with time 
 or duration," or, that ideas, borrowed from time or dura- 
 tion, are not to enter into our attempted realizations of 
 such an attribute, the position cannot be admitted. In 
 the Prophet Micah, we have it said of Christ, " Whose 
 goings forth have been of old, from the days of eternity " 
 (chap. V. 2, margin) ; where the Holy Spirit appears to be 
 assisting us to some conception of a foregone eternity, by 
 sending us back to a period before time was. It is ad- 
 mitted that by eternity, as applied to GoD, we mean in- 
 de23endence of the revolutions or conditions of time, — that 
 which is without beginning, or change, or end. But this 
 does not make the quality spoken of less positive in 
 itself The negation of all limit or restriction on an at- 
 tribute does not make the attribute itself a negation; but, 
 on the contrary, affirms its positive nature to be of the 
 most absolute and perfect kind. By immensity y every one 
 would understand us to mean a negation of limited exten- 
 sion ; but that would not alter the positiveness of the 
 ^ Maurice's Theological Essays, 2nd Edit. p. 450. 
 
138 A Discourse on Final Betrihntion. 
 
 accident spoken of, as affirming hifinity of space. And, in 
 like manner, to negative all restrictions of time or limited 
 duration, in relation to the Divine Being, is only, in other 
 words, to affirm the positive infinitude of His existence. 
 Indeed the untenableness of the position we are contro- 
 verting will become apparent, if we propose one question, 
 — Would any definition or theory of eternity, in relation to 
 God, hold good, of which this negative idea of unrestricted- 
 ness did not constitute a part, or with which it would not 
 consist? or, to put the question in another form. Could 
 any explanation of eternity, in reference to the Divine 
 nature, be true, if it allowed the possibility that there 
 might be either a time past when GoD ivas not, or a time 
 future when GoD would cease to he f If not, then, upon 
 the objector's own reasoning, since eternity, as applied to 
 the Divine nature, may be associated with ideas of that 
 which had no beginning, so eternity, " in reference to life 
 and punishment," may be associated with that which shall 
 never have an end. We are quite v/illing to accept the 
 position advanced, that eternity must describe a condition 
 which is independent of the accidents and limitations of 
 time ; but we submit that, in affirming that very inde- 
 pendence, we exclude all possibility of change or end. 
 
 As a startling verbal paradox, it seemed expedient to 
 advert to this modern view ; but, as the tenor of our 
 argument has gone to shew, the received doctrine does not 
 rest merely on the word "eternity," nor even upon the 
 man}'" texts which embody, as plainly as words can, the 
 idea of endless duration ; but on the fact, that the doctrine 
 pervades the entire system of our revealed theology, and 
 is an involved necessity of the moral Government of God. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution. 139 
 
 The other mode of evading the force of the plain 
 statements of Revelation on this subject, is that which 
 makes all the terms in Scripture, expressive of future 
 retribution, to be so many modes of describing the ab- 
 solute annihilation of the sinner; — death everlastin5r in 
 the most literal sense. This theory it is known has been 
 advocated in the writings of an accomplished layman, 
 formerly a professor in this University. After describing 
 the doctrine of eternal retributions, as one from which 
 " the hearts of most men turn aside, not only vnth an 
 intuitive horror, but with an invincible incredulity," the 
 late Professor of Modern History proceeds to raise the 
 question, '' Whether all the words employed by our LOED, 
 or by His Apostles, on the subject, are not satisfied by 
 understanding that the punishment is eternal only inas- 
 much as it involves the ultimate destruction or annihi- 
 lation of those on whom it is to be inflicted^?" Now, 
 we submit that, even restricting the inquiry to this nar- 
 row philological issue, ,the words of Scripture, in which 
 this subject is alluded to, would not be satisfied by such 
 a view. The portion of the wicked is described in lan- 
 guage which must imply conscious existence and will 
 consist with nothing else. '' They shall be tormented day 
 and night for ever ;" " They have no rest day nor night ;" 
 " They were cast alive into a lake of fire," — are forms of 
 expression which we all feel to be utterly inconsistent 
 with any other supposition than that of the continued 
 sensibility and passion of the impenitent in a future 
 world. But even if it were possible, by any "alchemy 
 of words," to make these expressions stand for extin- 
 
 ^ Epilogue to Ecclesiastical Essays, pp. 489, 496. 
 
140 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 guished being, the advocate for annihilation would find his 
 task very far from done. He would have to get rid of the 
 most ineradicable and universal instinct of the human 
 soul, testifying to its own immortality. He would have 
 to prove it a possible thing that spirit can be destroyed 
 at all, — a possible thing that you can kill mind. He 
 would have to suppose a line of procedure, on the part of 
 the Almighty, utterly at variance with all the analogies of 
 moral government. He would have to gainsay the avowed 
 design and provisions of the Gospel system, as a scheme 
 for the salvation and recovery of man. And above all, he 
 would have to shield the great name of GoD from the 
 reproach of being obliged to put forth mere j^otver to up- 
 hold a moral attribute ; of putting out, by violence, a com- 
 municated spark of His own immortality; in a word, of 
 being so embarrassed by the conditions of His own laws, 
 as that, finding no way consistently with them, either 
 to pardon the sinner or to punish him. He resolved, after 
 the fashion of perplexed human legislators, to blot him 
 from existence altogether ! Well might our Christian 
 poet exclaim — 
 
 "Heaven starts at an annilnlating God."i 
 
 III. A few words only remain to be offered on some 
 alleged objections to the doctrine under consideration, on 
 
 1 Further on the poet says : — 
 
 " Nature's first wish is endless happiness : 
 Annihilation is an after-thought, 
 A monstrous wish unborn till virtue dies. 
 And oh ! what depth of horror lies enclosed ! 
 For non-existence no man ever wished, 
 But first he wished the Deity destroyed. — Night VII. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retrihution. 141 
 
 tlie ground of its INCONSISTENCY WITH THE PERFECTIONS 
 
 OF THE Divine nature. 
 
 Thus, it is thought to war with the infinite benevolence 
 of God. The question is, in what sense we speak of Deity 
 as possessor of such au attribute? If it be meant to imply 
 that benevolence is the absolute and paramount rule of 
 moral government — not regulated in its exercise by any 
 law of rectitude, not qualified by any considerations of 
 truth or wisdom, but over-riding the whole constitution 
 and course of nature just to bestow happiness, we have a 
 right to ask, Where see we the proof of such a rule? 
 where find we any trace of this exclusively benevolent 
 God? The "depth," heaving with volcanic fires, says, 
 " It is not in me." The '' sea," mingling its wild roar with 
 the cries of the drowning, says, " It is not in me." " Not 
 in me," says History, as she shews on her every page some 
 record of misery and triumphant wrong. "Not in me," 
 says Revelation, who know of no GoD but One — One "all 
 whose ways are judgment: a GoD of truth, and without 
 iniquity ; just and right is He." No, brethren, we know 
 nothing of the goodness of GoD, except as it is exerted in 
 harmony with His other attributes ; except as it is guided 
 and controlled by the conditions of infinite righteousness. 
 We dare not set GoD af]^ainst Himself, or attribute ao-ainst 
 attribute, or the law which regulates the succession of 
 moral causes and effects, against another law which would 
 break that succession, and set the first aside. This were 
 to make God the author, not of peace, but of confusion, of 
 anarchy, of feeble and inconstant rule. Moreover, a moral 
 Governor, to be simply and absolutely benevolent, in the 
 sense of always conferring present enjoyment, must reward 
 
142 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 evil, must favour ungodliness, must lay down that "sceptre 
 of righteousness," which is the proper sceptre of His king- 
 dom ; and, in favour of a blind and undiscriminating pity, 
 must abdicate His throne. But "the righteous Lord loveth 
 righteousness," and can love nothing else. We claim for 
 Him infinite benevolence, as much as those who deny the 
 revealed doctrine do. But it is in a higher and w^orthier 
 sense; namely, as the benevolence of eternal rectitude, as 
 the benevolence that "will not clear the guilty," as the 
 benevolence which, instead of making for itself a throne on 
 the ruins of other perfections, combines with and magnifies 
 them all. " Mercy and truth are met together : righteous- 
 ness and peace have kissed each other." 
 
 To the same effect, and admittin<j^ in substance of the 
 same reply, is the objection to the revealed doctrine 
 which is based on the MERCY of GoD, as the special and 
 distinguishing attribute of the Gospel revelation. For 
 the objection overlooks the fact, that if the Gospel re- 
 veals "grace," it reveals "truth" also. And a part of that 
 truth it is that, in exact proportion to the freedom, and 
 largeness, and condescension of the proffered amnesty, 
 must be the heightened sin of those who, by their im- 
 penitence and unbelief, put the offers of a gracious GoD 
 away. " How shall we escape if we neglect so great sal- 
 vation?" The Gospel must necessarily have a condemna- 
 tion of its own, as well as the law. The law condemns us 
 for the neglect of its precepts, and the violation of its laws. 
 And shall not the Gospel condemn us for treading under 
 foot the Son of GoD ? for counting the blood of the cove- 
 nant an unholy thing? for despite, renev/ed and repeated, 
 to the Spirit of Grace? in a word, for crucifying the Son of 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 143 
 
 God afresh, and putting Him to an open shame ? Be- 
 sides, how could this indiscriminate exercise of mercy take 
 place without injustice to the rest of the universe of GoD? 
 God has other worlds to govern besides this, and other 
 offenders to punish besides man. Where is this display 
 of leniency to sto]) ? If you say, in the whole world of 
 humanity, nowhere. Then we answer, righteous measure 
 has not been dealt out to the fallen ano-els, hi<xher than 
 
 CD ' O 
 
 man in the scale of created intelligence, and ''yet doomed 
 to be bound under the durance of an everlasting chain." 
 
 Once more, the doctrine in question, it is sometimes 
 contended, is inconsistent with what we should conceive of 
 tlie justice of God. But who made thee, O man, a judge 
 of this matter ? Is the criminal always the fittest person 
 to pronounce on the expediency or wisdom of the lav^^? 
 Has the creature the necessary faculties for determining, in 
 what proportions severity and clemency should enter into 
 the retributive arrangements of the Creator, that without 
 fear or mistrust he should 
 
 " Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod, 
 Kejudge His justice, be the God of God^ V 
 
 But the presumption of such a revision of the Divine 
 arrangements apart, what form does this exception to the 
 revealed doctrine, on the score of moral equity, most com- 
 
 1 'And then as to the duration of this punishment ; no man can presume, 
 in our present state of ignorance and darkness, to be able truly to judge, 
 barely by the strength of his own natural reason, what in this respect is or 
 is not consistent with the wisdom, and justice, and goodiies.s of the Supreme 
 Governor of the world ; since we "know neither the place, nor kind, nor 
 manner, nor circumstances, nor degrees, nor all the ends and uses of the 
 final punishment of the wicked." — Dr Samuel Clarke's Evidences of Rtli- 
 (jlon. 
 
144 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 monly assume? Why that there is a disproportion be- 
 tween the offence and the punishment, the one being 
 limited to time, the other being extended to eternity. 
 Now, in the first place, before we can judge of this alleged 
 disproportion, we must know what the real magnitude of 
 sin is. And this we are unable to define. Owincr to vari- 
 ous forms of social restraint, the more aggravated features 
 of sin are rarely seen; and if they were, our impaired 
 moral sensibilities would not apprehend their full enormity. 
 Moreover, without committing ourselves to that canon of 
 Hooker, that "all sin is infinite because He is infinite 
 whom sin offendeth," we yet cannot be blind to the fact, 
 that such is the inherent and spreading malignity of sin, 
 that to no one act of committed transgression can we 
 assign a limited measure of resulting evil. In their conse- 
 quences, and as far as the present economy is concerned, 
 they are all, to our conceptions, infinite. The taint of cor- 
 ruption is propagated from breath to breath in never- 
 ending succession. Infidelity and falsehood are immortal. 
 From the youthful pretenders to an intellectual scepticism 
 are still heard the covert sarcasms of Gibbon, and the pro- 
 ductions of Voltaire and Paine are as destructive now, as 
 they were in the day when the foul brood came forth of 
 their empoisoned brain. Immorality and crime are im- 
 mortal. The deeds of infamy our journals are daily teem- 
 ing with will project their darkling shadow over genera- 
 tions yet unborn ; and the impure or blasphemous Avord, 
 which fell yesterday from the sinner's lips, has caused a 
 vibration in the moral atmosphere, of which the ends of 
 the earth may feel the shock. Tremble we, then, before 
 we speak of sin as a light thing. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 145 
 
 But ' is there not a disproportion between a temporal 
 offence and an eternal punishment ' ? it is said. Not more, 
 surely, than there, is between a temporal probation and 
 eternal blessedness ; and if a GoD of recompences may or- 
 dain the one, it were no incongruous thing that He should 
 ordain the other also. Besides, how comes sin to be re- 
 lated to duration at alP? In human tribunals, we do not 
 judge a man by the length of time he took to commit an 
 offence, but by the inherent turpitude of the offence itself; 
 and it is but reasonable to suppose that God will deal 
 with the sinner ujDon a like principle. The man sinned as 
 long as he could. He died with sin reigning in his heart; 
 and when he awakes to consciousness in the future w^orld, 
 he will find it reigning still. 
 
 And there it will reign for ever. For this, after all, is 
 the real answer to the objection, and one as easy to under- 
 stand as it is impossible to gainsay. The same doctrine 
 which supposes a man to be doomed to endless miser?/, 
 supposes in him such a fixedness of moral character, that 
 he will live in endless guilt The one is strictly relative to 
 the other. It is useless to speculate upon what w^ould 
 happen if he were afterwards to repent, or turn, or pray, 
 or look to Jesus, because he retains a fixed aversion 
 from every one of these things I All the springs of holy 
 
 ^ On this point Bishop Horsley observes: — "Qualities are not to be 
 measured by duration ; they bear no more relation to it than they do to 
 space. The hatefulness of sin is seated in itself, — in its own inherent 
 quality of evil ; by that its ill-deservings are to be measured, not by the 
 narrowness of the limits, action of time and space, within which the good 
 Providence of God hath confined its power of doing mischief." Sermons, 
 8vo. p. 143. 
 
 2 *' For never can true reconcilement grow 
 
 Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep." — !Milton. 
 
 10 
 
146 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 influence are dried up. Every agency for conversion is 
 gone. To him, Christ is not, the Holy Spirit is not, the 
 Bible, angels, holy ordinances are not. Not that God 
 comjjels a man to sin even in hell. He does but permit 
 moral laws to take their course ; character to develope itself 
 according to its fixed bias ; progression to follow its eternal 
 order. In a word, He leaves undisturbed that tendency to 
 continuity which belongs to all the dynamics of the uni- 
 verse, and in virtue of which, he that is unjust, will be 
 unjust still: and he that is filthy, will be filthy still. 
 
 Solemn, awful, inscrutable, therefore, as we must allow 
 the received doctrine of Final Retribution to be, I believe 
 on any fair and rational investigation, it will be found to 
 present fewer difficulties, fewer incongruities, fewer devia- 
 tions from the analogy of the Divine procedure, than any 
 other hypothesis which could be suggested in its stead. If 
 it affirm that sin and misery go together, this is no more 
 than, in degree, we see taking place now. And, therefore, 
 under a perfect moral system, — such as we are taught to 
 look for in the future world, — it seems to be of necessity 
 that a fixed character of evil should be connected with a 
 misery coeval with itself M3^stery on such a subject there 
 must be, because of its relation to an earlier and greater 
 mystery' — the existence of evil at all. But the postulate 
 granted, that it was quite competent to the Almighty 
 to make an accountable being — that He was not bound 
 to limit Himself to the creation of necessary agents, 
 who could do neither good nor evil — all the rest of the 
 mystery follows. The creation of moral agents involves 
 the possibility of their committing sin ; and the authority 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution, 147 
 
 of a Moral Governor makes it necessary that, having com- 
 mitted it, they should bear the consequences. What those 
 consequences are we have seen. There is a tendency in 
 human character towards the permanent, the irreversible, 
 the everlasting. A period of probation is assigned, — a 
 most mercifully considered and righteous period, during 
 which the mind has to make its choice of good or evil. 
 Fixed in their choice of evil, and dying in it, the wicked 
 are exposed to a punishment proportioned to their desert. 
 That such punishment is of eternal duration, is not so 
 much a part of the sentence, as an involved necessity of 
 their actual circumstances and condition. For they are 
 naturally immortal; cannot lose their immortality; and 
 therefore must continue in the misery attached to their 
 adopted and final choice. 
 
 And if the wicked are to live on, how natural for us to 
 ask. Where? Hell is not, you say. Purgatory is not. 
 What then? Will heaven open its doors for the repro- 
 bates ? Must the regions of the blessed be unparadised 
 by such polluting presence ? The question is one for the 
 Deist, observe, as much as for the Christian. There goes 
 down to the grave, and there rises up from it, a man 
 having immortal hatreds in his heart, immortal rebellions 
 in his will, immortal fires of lust in his bosom — WHAT 
 
 IS TO BECOME OF HIM ? 
 
 Men of every age and clime have asked this question, 
 and, without Revelation to guide them, have inferi'ed, in 
 substance, the answer which Revelation has given. Pa- 
 ganism has had its Tartarus ; Endless torment could find 
 a place in the Platonic philosophy. Hinduism has its 
 ages of hopeless penance ; and Mohammedanism its hell, 
 
 10—2 
 
148 A Discourse on Final Retribution. 
 
 its seas of lire, its irrevocable destiny\ What mean these 
 consentaneous testimonies, if they witness not, either to 
 some original tracing upon the human conscience, which 
 no infidelity has been able to obliterate, or to the echoes 
 of some primeval revelation, making their voice to be 
 heard in all the theologies of mankind ? 
 
 Easy would it be to strengthen the view we have taken 
 of the doctrine of Final Retkibution, by a reference to 
 the consentient voice of Christian antiquity, — the pervad- 
 ing and all but uncontroverted persuasion of the univer- 
 sal Church ^ But it seems better that we fall back on 
 the plain and unequivocal statements of the New Testa- 
 ment; because there the doctrine appears in harmony 
 with a revealed plan, — stamping upon the warnings of the 
 Gospel an impress of unutterable solemnity, and heighten- 
 ing our gratitude to Christ, by shewing us the condemna- 
 tion from which He came to set us free. Nor should it 
 fail to give to our convictions upon this subject a yet 
 deeper reality and intenseness, to remember that, if there 
 be any Scriptural presentments of the doctrine more aw- 
 fully graphic and appalling than the rest, they are those 
 which proceeded from the lips of Christ Himself; from 
 Him whose sensitiveness and compassion were more than 
 human ; from Him who came not to destroy men's lives, 
 nor yet to make them sad, but to redeem us from the 
 
 ^ See note T. in the Appendix. 
 
 ^ A belief in the doctiine, it will be remembered, is put down by Gibbon 
 as among the subsidiary influences in promoting the spread of Christianity. 
 Decline and Fall, c. xvi. For Ecclesiastical testimonies, see note U. in the 
 Appendix. 
 
A Discourse on Final Retribution. 140 
 
 power of the destroyer, and to save us with an everlasting 
 love. 
 
 And if, in order to this. He dwells sometimes on the por- 
 tion of the ungodly — the worm, and the fire, and the dark- 
 ness, and the gnashing teeth — yet is this only to prevail 
 with us to look at the future world on its other side, and see 
 the spiritual glory of the righteous — fellowship with angels, 
 a seat on the throne, a sight of GoD. Jesus knows what 
 is in man, and whatever luill be in him ; knows that the 
 bitterest ingredient in the cup of undying anguish, will 
 be the remembrance, by the impenitent sinner, of the 
 salvation he has refused, and the grace he has resisted, 
 and the calls he has disregarded, — the thought of tlu' 
 Saviour who besought him earnestly to accept forgiveness, 
 and of the Spirit wdio strove with him mightily that he 
 might repent and live. Hence the urgency with which, 
 both in the Old Testament and in the New, we are ex- 
 horted to " flee from the wrath to come." In some of these 
 passages, the mystery of the Divine compassions well-nigh 
 confounds us. It seems as if deep were calling unto deep 
 in a fathomless profound of love. " O, my people, what 
 have I done unto thee ? Wherein have I wearied thee ?" 
 "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I de- 
 liver thee, Israel ? How shall I make thee as Admah ? 
 How shall I set thee as Zeboim?" "And when He was 
 come near. He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, 
 If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, 
 the things that belong unto thy peace ! but now they are 
 hid from thine eyes." 
 
 "But now they are hid from thine eyes" — said the 
 weeping Saviour, and in this sentence, we hear the con- 
 
150 A Discourse on Final JR.eti^iition. 
 
 elusion of the whole matter. For the words remind us 
 that the great choice of a rational nature is put before 
 us, and that, whether for weal or woe, the decision must 
 be made now. Very soon the powers of immortality will 
 be upon us ; and we shall stand in our lot in the realms 
 of a changeless world : — changeless to the lost, for where 
 in the midst of that demon throng should they find One 
 "mighty to save"? changeless to the saved, for not all the 
 powers of eternity could make a redeemed saint to fall. 
 
 One thought more. We began by saying that the 
 words of our text were among the last of those which 
 John heard in heaven. ' They were not quite the last. The 
 older Revelation may conclude with the sentence "lest 
 I come and smite the earth with a curse ;" but the dis- 
 pensation of grace must close with the offers of grace. 
 Love lingers on the Angel's tongue as the last strains of 
 the inspired music are dying away. And while it is 
 needful to make the proclamation before all worlds, that 
 the resurrection-character changeth not, — that he that is 
 holy shall be holy still, and he that is filthy shall be 
 filthy still, — yet shall not the vision be sealed uj), with- 
 out another, and another, and another earnest entreaty 
 of the sinner to accept a present salvation, and to lay 
 liold on eternal life ; — " And the Spieit and the Bride 
 SAY, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
 And let him that is athirst, Come. And whoso- 
 ever WILL, LET HIM TAKE OF THE WATER OF LIFE 
 
 FREELY." Amen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. Page ii. 
 Infidel Teact Literature. 
 
 In an article on Book-hawking, which appeared in "The 
 Times," sometime ago, is the following statement : " It was 
 proved in evidence given before the House of Commons, in the 
 year 1851, that the sale of immoral and intidel publications 
 amounted to 29,000,000 annually." Perhaps for "it was 
 proved,^^ in this extract, we ought rather to read, "it was 
 stated y For the evidence supposed to be referred to is that of 
 a Mr G. S. Bucknall : and it has been shewn to rest on con- 
 jectural and very insufficient data. At all events, if the witness 
 have only overstated the circulation of infidel tracts as much as 
 he has been proved to have understated the sale and circulation 
 of religious tracts, his statistics of infidel liten-ature will not be 
 found so very appalling. (See the whole question discussed in 
 the Religious Tract Society's Report for 1857. Append, pp. 
 
 3—5-) 
 
 With regard to the literary quality of these insidious publi- 
 cations, many of them are the production of men of high mental 
 culture. Of some knowledge of the more learned infidelity 
 <3f the Continent, on the part of such Tract- writers as Barker 
 and Holyoake, no one acquainted with their A\^'itings will 
 entertain any doubt. But to every intellectual movement, 
 capable of being turned to infidel account, these writers are 
 keenly alive. At the first debate in Convocation on Essays 
 and Reviews^ it was stated that an epitome of that mischievous 
 
152 Appendix. 
 
 work had been already prepared by the Secularists at Leeds. 
 Besides this, a clever essay on the book has been written by 
 the atheist Barker. It is not only a skilful resume of the 
 general tendency of the essays, supported by lengthened ex- 
 tracts, but it points out the inevitable necessity, that the 
 writers, if true to their own principles, must go further in the 
 same direction : and therefore confidently anticipates the time, 
 when ' the seven' shall be hailed by the partisans of Atheism, as 
 it were in the words, "Art thou also become weak as we? Art 
 thou become like unto us 1 " Still the writer of the tract is 
 very apologetic for the Essayists, and only hopes they may not 
 be " urged or harassed." He observes, " The Essayists may 
 speak more plainly by and by. They may both have new 
 thoughts to utter, and be so circumstanced as to feel free to 
 utter them in the plainest words they can command. That 
 which would now be sin, may be hereafter duty. Give them 
 time and leave them free. It is better for others that religious 
 reformers should move slowly. They are better able when 
 
 they move slowly to draw others after them For ourselves 
 
 we are under great obligations to the authors of Essays and 
 Reviews. They have, in our judgement, done the cause of 
 truth and of freedom good service, and laid their country and 
 their age under great obligation." Essay on Essays and 
 Reviews J p. 96. 
 
 Of course these Bible-haters were not slow to make large 
 capital out of the Colenso admissions, and therefore the Writer 
 was not surprised to find the shelves of the great Empo- 
 rium of infidelity laden with ware, for which the materials 
 had been supplied by an African Bishop. Less prepared, 
 however, was he to have a tract put into his hand, founded 
 in no inconsiderable degree upon the admissions of a recent 
 Bampton Lecturer — the tract itself being designed to throw 
 doubts upon the being of a God. Of its sixteen pages, more 
 than one-third is dedicated to extracts from Professor Hansel's 
 Lecture on The Limits of Religious TJioucfht. Such a fact may at 
 
Notes. 153 
 
 least serve to shew, that it was not without reason that, in a 
 discourse preached before the University on Trinity Sunday, 
 i860, the present writer felt it a duty to make the following 
 cautionary observations in reference to some positions in the 
 Banipton Lecturer, liable to be made use of in a way which its 
 accomplished author would be the last to intend. 
 
 " Neither in relation to this mystery of the Godhead, can 
 we regard as without danger some recently suggested restric- 
 tions upon the exercise of religious thought, put forth with 
 much ability by a Lecturer at the sister University. We would 
 do all honour to the vigorous and unanswerable eloquence which 
 has mapped out for the rationalist his proper and legitimate 
 domain, and shewn the hopeless obscurity which awaits him if 
 he presume to cross its border-line. But we must be very 
 careful lest the sword which we use to drive an enquirer back 
 from forbidden ground, do not equally deter him from standing 
 with any confidence on ground that is lawful and sure: in 
 other words, lest that 'speculative knowledge' of God, which 
 is affirmed to be impossible to him by the use of his unassisted 
 faculties, be not, on these assumed conditions of human thought, 
 impossible to him under a revealed system also. Without 
 pretending to discuss the large questions, opened by the able 
 Lecturer referred to, we cannot Avithhold an expression of our 
 belief, that the theory contained in his work very much over- 
 states the extent of our ignorance of the Divine Being : that it 
 reduces to an abject and impossible submission the most im- 
 portant functions of the rational nature; that it makes the 
 necessarily inadequate conception which the mind forms of God- 
 head all one with blank and blind uncertainty, and instead of 
 the clearly defined statements of Christian belief, contained in 
 our creeds, appears to leave us with nothing but a ^regulative 
 
154 Appendix. 
 
 fiction ; a phenomenal falsehood : a meaningless Athenian sym- 
 bol for an unknowable and unknown God." 
 
 The Atheistical tract closes with these words. "What, 
 then, is the sum of all that Mansel says? It is this. That 
 reason and religion are incompatible, — that if you would be- 
 lieve, you must not reason, — that if you reason, you cannot 
 consistently believe, — that all you have to reason about is, 
 whether the Bible be God's word, and then take all it says in 
 faith, nothing doubting. And he is right. All religions are 
 irrational, childish, foolish ; and the Christian religion is as fool- 
 ish as any, — and rational religionism, Philosophical Theism, and 
 Unitarian Christianity, are as untruthful, as much at war with 
 the facts of consciousness and the phenomena of nature, as the 
 poorest and lowest forms of savage Paganism, and even more so." 
 
 Note B. Page 19. 
 
 The alleged Pkevalence of Scepticism among the 
 Educated Classes. 
 
 The allusion in the sermon is to an article in the Westmhi- 
 ster Review, Oct. i860. The writer says — 
 
 " It must be a profound evil that all thinking men should 
 reject a national religion. It is almost worse that they sliould 
 falsely pretend to accept it. In what a net-work of contrary 
 influences is our daily life passed. All the tenderer and holier 
 of our ties lead one way; all the stronger and more rational, 
 another. The home, the school, and the Church touch chords 
 in our hearts. Life, thought, and society nullify and dispel 
 theii- teaching. The newspaper, the review, the tale by every 
 fire-side, is written almost exclusively by men who have long 
 ceased to believe. So also the school-book, the text-book, the 
 manuals for study of youth and manhood, the whole mental 
 food of the day ; science, history, morals, and politics, poetry, 
 fiction, and essay; the very lesson of the school, the very ser- 
 mon from the pulpit. And all this is done beneath a solemn 
 or cynical hypocrisy. How long cihali this last?" p. 331. 
 
Notes. 155 
 
 In tlie same article are statements, wliicli we cannot but 
 think are still more over-coloured, in regard to the prevalence 
 of unbelief in our Universities. The writer says, speaking 
 of Essays and Keviews, "Indeed, no one that knows the re- 
 ligious state of the Universities could doubt that such a book 
 would be eagerly welcomed, but welcomed only as a partial 
 instalment. Few, perhaps, are aware how far the decay of 
 belief extends beneath those walls." p. 330. And again : 
 *' This volume draws a sad picture of the prevalence of intel- 
 lectual doubt within those cloisters. That picture is far short 
 of the reality. ' Smouldering scepticism,^ indeed ! When they 
 are honeycombed with disbelief, running through every phase 
 from physical interpretation to utter atheism. Professors, tutors, 
 fellows, and pupils are conscious of this wide-spread doubt." 
 
 p. 331- 
 
 Happily we have only the writer's z/^se dixit for all this, exen 
 as being the case four years ago : and, putting authority against 
 authority, we may not be unwilling, on the general subject of 
 the prevalence of infidel thought in England, to take comfort 
 from the strong affirmations to the contrary, put forth in recent 
 articles by the leading journal of the day. 
 
 Note C. Page 21. 
 
 The Excess of Faith. 
 
 On this subject see an admirable sermon by the present 
 Bishop of Lincoln, called " The Nemesis of Excess in Faith and 
 Worship." He wisely warns us that " Faith overstrained till it 
 has passed into the boundary of unreasoning or ill-reasoning 
 credulity shrinks back into doubt, scepticism, or infidelity." 
 "Sometimes," he observes, "faith accepting, on authority with- 
 out evidence, tenet after tenet, strikes against one which stag- 
 gers and revolts. It is brought to a stand, perplexed and in 
 doubt. It is forced to examine its footing, and to question the 
 
156 Appendix. 
 
 stability of its premises It becomes more distrustful of 
 
 assertion, more exacting of proof, more on its guard against 
 fallacies. It suspects the logic of its former conclusions, and 
 admits by degrees a feeling of uncertainty as to the objects and 
 grounds of its belief" The melancholy issue of all this over- 
 strained or unproved faith is that " A general suspicion of doubt 
 pervades the whole subject of Eevelation. The discovery of 
 unsound inferences discredits those which are sound: and he 
 who finds that he has believed too much, is fearful whether 
 
 there be anything to be believed at all." "What wonder if 
 
 the disappointed, discontented soul yields to the congenial 
 temptation [of modern scepticism :] and if unreasoning credulity 
 finds its dreary Nemesis in a cold, critical, self-satisfied unbe- 
 lief.''" Bp. Jackson's God's word and Mans heart, pp. 149, 152, 
 157. See also some excellent remarks on the same subject in 
 Farrar's Critical History of Free Thought^ p. 368. The entire 
 passage in Tennyson, from which the two lines in the text are 
 taken will bear quoting : 
 
 "You tell me doubt is devil-born. 
 
 I know not; one indeed I knew 
 
 In many a subtle question versed, 
 
 Who touched a jarring lyre at first, 
 But ever strove to make it true : 
 
 Perplext in faith, but not in deeds, 
 
 At last he beat his music out. 
 
 There lives more faith in honest doubt. 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds. 
 
 He fought his doubts, and gathered strength. 
 He would not make his judgment blind. 
 He faced the spectres of the mind 
 
 And laid them : thus he came at length 
 
 To find a stronger faith his own ; 
 
 And power was with him in the night 
 Which makes the darkness and the light, 
 
 And dwells not in the light alone." 
 
 In Mcmoriam, XCV. 
 
Notes, ] 57 
 
 Note D. Page 29. 
 The Tenets and Organization of the Secularists. 
 
 In the " Report on Religious Worshi}}," as given by Mr 
 Mann, 185 1, the following is put down as the principal tenet of 
 Secularism : — " That as the fact of a future life is at all events 
 susceptible of some degree of doubt, while the fact and neces- 
 sities of a present life are matters of direct sensation, it is 
 therefore prudent to attend exclusively to the concerns of that 
 existence which is certain and immediate, rather than waste 
 energies on a preparation for that which can hardly be con- 
 sidered more than a remote and merely possible contingency." 
 Report^ kz. p. 93. 
 
 In the Tract " Secularism the one thing needful," we have 
 the following account of its teaching. " The leading maxim of 
 Secularism is to make the best use of this world. And as the 
 reality of this life is more apparent, and the duties more clear, 
 than a future life and its duties, Secularism teaches the pru- 
 dence and wisdom of making this life our first consideration." 
 
 P-5. 
 
 The account by Holyoake is given in these terms : " Secu- 
 larism commences not in Atheism, but Cosmism. It acknow- 
 ledges that Nature is — it does not declare why it is. It traces 
 the order of the universe, but does not pronounce upon the 
 cause. It studies manifestations, bub does not pledge itself to 
 account for them. Guided by the principle of Materialism, 
 which we define as the search, not after primary, but after cal- 
 culable causes, it labours in the inexhaustible field of positive 
 philosophy. A Secular Society may contain classes for the study 
 of Atheism, as it may of Theism, but the Society is not com- 
 promised by such pursuits. It neither proposes to define, nor 
 to limit, nor to answer for the opinions of its members. Its 
 function is to indicate to its members reliable methods of form- 
 
158 Appendix. 
 
 ing tlieir opinions, and to defend their right to acquire them, 
 to hold them, to utter them, to debate them," 
 
 Secularism is probably the most complete infidel organization 
 which has yet been attempted in this country. It has its 
 monthly magazine, now extending to many volumes: — its 
 separate series of Tracts, called the Secular Propagandist 
 Tracts : — its school-books for the use of children : — and even a 
 form of prayer ! The afiairs of the Society are regulated by a 
 Central Federation, in London, called a Council of Friends: 
 and they have lately commenced publishing "a Library of 
 accredited works," of which the first volume, " The Task of to- 
 day " is just published. See Holyoake's Organization of Free- 
 thinkers. 
 
 Note E. Page 31. 
 Encomiuisis on the Bible by Infidel YfRiTERS. 
 
 The following eloquent passage is from the pen of the late 
 Theodore Parker ; and forms part of a discourse in which he 
 nevertheless avows that all his faith in the Bible as a Divine 
 Revelation is gone. " This collection of books has taken such 
 hold of the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which 
 goes up like incense from that land of temples and heroic deeds, 
 has not half the influence of this book from a nation, despised 
 alike in ancient and modern times. It is read in all the ten thou- 
 sand pulpits of our land. In all the temples of Christendom is 
 its voice lifted up week by week. The sun never sets on its 
 glowing page. It goes equally to the cottage of the plain man, 
 and the palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of 
 the scholar, and coloiirs the talk of the street. It enters men's 
 closets, mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of life. The 
 Bible attends men in sickness, when the fever of the world is 
 on them. The aching head finds a softer pillow, when the 
 
Notes. 159 
 
 Bible lies underneatli. The mariner, escaping from shipwreck, 
 seizes it the first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to God. 
 It blesses us when we are born, gives names to half Christen- 
 dom, rejoices with us, has sympathy for our mourning, tempers 
 our grief to finer issues. It is the better part of our sermons. 
 It lifts man above himself. Our best of uttered prayers are 
 from its storied speech, wherewith our fjithers and the patri- 
 archs prayed. The timid man, about to awake from his dream 
 of life, looks through the glass of Scripture, and his eye grows 
 bright; he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the way 
 unknown and distant, to take the death angel by the hand and 
 bid farewell to wife, and babes, and home. Men rest on this 
 their dearest hopes. It tells them of God, and of His blessed 
 Son, of earthly duties, and heavenly rest. " 
 
 "There must be in the Bible, mind, heart, and soul, v/isdora 
 and religion : were it otherwise, how could millions find it 
 their lawgiver, friend, and prophet 1 Some of the greatest of 
 human institutions seem built on the Bible : such things will 
 not stand on chaff", but on mountains of rock. What is the 
 secret cause of this wide and deep influence ? It must be found 
 in the Bible itself, and must be adequate to the eflfect." Dis- 
 course of Matters 2^e'i^taining to Religion, pp. 239 seq. 
 
 Note F. Page 31. 
 
 The Mis-use by Eatioxalists of the leading terms of 
 Christian Theology. 
 
 Although the origin of this disingenuous use of Christian 
 language is referred by Hagenbach to Fichte and Schelling, 
 the readiness to adopt it, by the writers of the Essayist school, 
 may be seen from the Essay of Dr Williams, who, as usual, 
 makes Bunsen carry his burden for him. "For though he 
 (Bunsen) embraces with more than orthodox warmth New Testa- 
 
] 60 Appendix. 
 
 ment terms, he explains them in such a way that he may be 
 charged with using Evangelical language in a philosophical 
 sense." And then we have some hypothetical specimens of 
 Christian nomenclature as read with the Bunsen- Williams 
 gloss. Justification hy Faith, may mean, " that peace of mind, 
 or sense of Divine approval which comes of trust in a righte- 
 ous God, rather than a fiction of merit by transfer." Regene- 
 ration is a " giving of insight, or an awakening of the forces of 
 the soul." Resurrection would mean a *' spiritual quickening." 
 Salvation would be "our deliverance from darkness." Propi- 
 tiation would be " the recovery of that peace which cannot be, 
 while sin divides us from the Searcher of hearts." The " hate- 
 ful fires of Gehenna may serve as images of distracted re- 
 morse." And " heaven is not a place so much as a fulfilment 
 of the love of God." Well might the Westininster Review 
 taunt these writers in the language, " How far is this solvent 
 process to be carried ? Are all formulje whatever to be dis- 
 carded, or what materials remain to form new 1 In their ordi- 
 nary if not plain sense, there has been discarded the Word of 
 God, — the Creation — the Fall — the Redemption — Justifica- 
 tion — Regeneration, and Salvation. ... It maybe that this is a 
 true view of Christianity, but we insist in the name of common 
 sense that it is a new view." Article on Neo-Christianity, 
 p. 305, Oct. i860. See some able remarks on the subject 
 of this Note in Garbett's Boyle Lectures, The Bible and its 
 Critics, p. 357. 
 
 It would almost seem as if the Secularists were emu- 
 lous of the success which has attended this clever artifice ; 
 for one of their leaflet Tracts (for Railways) is headed, 
 "Who is a Christian 1" And then comes the answer. "A 
 Christian free from Superstition accepts the word Christ not 
 as the name of Jesus, but as meaning the Philosophy of 
 Truth and Righteousness, .that is Knowledge and Good works, 
 that is Civilization, so that Civilization is to be the Saviour 
 of Mankind, from Barbarism, Ignorance, and Superstition.... 
 
Notes. 161 
 
 Christianity free from Superstition would free Mankind from 
 these Evils, lead to perfect Civilisation, and the World would 
 become a Pai-adise." 
 
 Note G. Page 33. 
 
 Tke Necessity of well-defined Dogmatic Formularies. 
 
 On this subject we have an able minister of the Church of 
 Scotland thus expressing himself : " It is not for me to say 
 what should be the measure proposed by that commission 
 which has been appointed by Her Majesty to settle practically 
 what should be the nature and the place of tests in the Church 
 of England. I may be allowed, however, to give it as my own 
 opinion, and the ojiinion of many others, both within and 
 beyond her communion, that a more responsible trust has not 
 been committed to any public body for the last two centuries. 
 I feel that it does not belong to me to say how the creed of the 
 Church of England is to be guarded. But as loving all that is 
 good, and receiving all that is great in that Church, and being 
 convinced that a departure from the faith in that Church 
 would be followed by tremendous consequences throughout 
 universal Christendom, I may be permitted to express my wish 
 and prayer that she will come out of her present trial, retain- 
 ing for Christ and His Word the high place which they have 
 hitherto held in her Articles. I hope she will be able to do so, 
 notwithstanding the opposing influence of very learned, very 
 intellectual, and I believe very good men." — Dr M^Cosh, Aspects 
 of Infidelity at Home and Abroad, p. 13. 
 
 Note H. Page 41. 
 
 The Language of Scripture in relation to Scientific 
 Subjects. 
 
 Dr Whewell has well shewn, in relation to this subject, 
 that differences between Scripture language and Scientific 
 
 11 
 
162 Appendix, 
 
 lanf^uar^e, in describing pliysical phenomena, are inevitable, in 
 consequence of tlie progressive character of Natural Science. 
 He observes, "Science is constantly teaching iis to describe 
 known facts in new language, but the language of Scripture 
 is always the same. And not only so, but the language of 
 Scripture is necessarily adapted to the common state of man's 
 intellectual development, in which he is supposed not to be 
 possessed of science. Hence the phrases used by Scripture 
 are precisely those v/hich science soon teaches man to consider 
 as inaccurate. Yet they are not on that account the less fitted 
 for their proper purpose : for if any terms had been used, 
 adapted to a more advanced state of knowledge, they must 
 have been unintelligible among those to whom the Scripture 
 was first addressed. If the Jews had been told that water 
 existed in the clouds in small drops, they would have marvel- 
 led that it did not constantly descend; and to have explained 
 the reason of this, would have been to teach Atmology in the 
 sacred Avritings. If they had read in their Scripture that 
 the earth was a sphere, when it appeared to be a plain, they 
 Y/ould only have been disturbed in their thoughts, or driven to 
 some wild and baseless imaginations by a declaration to them 
 so strange. If the Divine Speaker, instead of saying that He 
 would set his bow in the clouds, had been made to declare that 
 He would give to water the property of refracting difierent 
 colours at different angles, how utterly unmeaning to the 
 hearers would the words have been ! And in these cases, the 
 expressions, being nnintelligible, startling, and be\^dlderino-, 
 would have been such as tended to unfit the Sacred Narrative 
 
 for its place in the providential dispensation of the world." 
 
 Indications of the Creator, p. 176. 
 
Notes. 163 
 
 Note T. Page 51. 
 The Beginnings of Eeligious Doubt. 
 
 Xo apology is offered for re-producing at length tlie inci- 
 dent referred to in the text. Those who are familiar with the 
 description will Le wishful for its insertion, in the hope of 
 beneht to others. The Sermons are entitled, Tlie Revelation 
 of God the Frohation of Man; and, after some awakening 
 and solemn warnings in relation to " seeds of doubtfulness" 
 ripening into "the seed of death," the preacher proceeds: 
 "It is not from the imagination that I have drawn this 
 warning. I can tell you of an overshadowed grave which 
 closed in on such a struggle, and such an end, as that at which 
 I have glanced. In ifc was laid a form which had hardly 
 reached the fulness of earliest manhood. That young man had 
 gone young, ardent, and simply faithful to the tutelage of one, 
 himself I doubt not a sincere believer, but Avho sought to recon- 
 cile the teaching of our Church, in which he ministered, with 
 the dreams of rationalism. His favourite pupil learned his 
 lore, and it sufficed for his needs whilst health beat high in his 
 youthful veins. But on him sickness and decay closed early 
 in, and, as the glow of health faded, the intellectual lights for 
 which he had exchanged the simplicity of faith began to pale ; 
 whilst the viper brood of doubts crept forth from their hiding- 
 places, and raised against' him fearfully their envenomed heads. 
 And they were too strong for him. The teacher who had sug- 
 gested could not remove them ; and in darkness and despair 
 his victim died before his eyes the doubter's death." — Sermons 
 hy the Lis] 102^ of Oxford, p. 37. 
 
 In relation to the power of doubt over the mind in a time 
 of sickness, the words of the poet ako may be leuiembered : 
 
 11—2 
 
164 Appendix. 
 
 'Be near me when the sensuous frame 
 
 Is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust. 
 And Time a maniac scattering dust; 
 
 And Life a fury slinging flame. 
 
 Be near me when my faith is dry. 
 And men the flies of latter spring 
 That lay their eggs, and sting and sing, 
 
 And weave their pretty ceUs and die." 
 
 In Memoriam. 
 
 Note J. Page 60. 
 The Character axd Opinions of Theodore Parker, 
 
 This eminent American writer was born in 18 10, and died 
 in 1860J and thougli we may hesitate to subscribe to that 
 language of his biographer, "that he was a representative man, 
 with conscience and humanity enough to feed a generation, 
 to warn and to save, to build up with healthy tissue, to repair 
 the degenerate waste of a noble people, and to pull down 
 and trample on their crimes also" {Life and Correspo7idence, 
 Preface, p. viii), yet there can be no doubt that his influence 
 over the tone of religious thought in America was greater than 
 that of any man of his day. He began life as a Unitarian 
 minister at Boston, casting his theology at first pretty much after 
 the model of that taught by Dr Channing, with whom he was 
 on terms of personal intimacy. Very soon, however, his teach- 
 ing took the form of a sort of sentimental Deism, — something 
 like what Isaac Taylor calls " impiety scented and got up for 
 ladies," — attacks upon all the fundamental truths of Pevela- 
 tion being mixed up with testimonies to Chi-ist and Chris- 
 tianity, which, for beauty, and truth, and pathos, might challenge 
 rivalry with the productions of the most orthodox literature. 
 As intimated in the text, the name he wished his religion 
 to be known by was, " The Absolute Peligion," — the obligation 
 of absolute love to God and man. He placed the ground of 
 
Notes. 165 
 
 religion chiefly in personal consciousness ; in certain emotional 
 intuitions which all men have of God, of moral law, and of 
 a future life. He utterly disbelieved in miracles, though he did 
 not deny their possibility. On the same principle he denied 
 the existence of a special Providence. He allowed no kind of 
 inspiration, save that which is common to all the higher forms 
 of human genius: and while looking upon Christ and Chris- 
 tianity as the best exponents of man's moral duties and obliga- 
 tions at jyresentj he saw no reason why the authority of both 
 should not be superseded by some higher development of the 
 human intelligence yet to come. 
 
 He ministered for some time to the Unitarians at Boston ; 
 but he went too far even for them ; and the connection was 
 dissolved. From this time, his Deism took not so much a more 
 outspoken form, — for that was hardly possible, — but became 
 intermingled with much more of abuse, and sarcasm, and 
 coarseness than would be found in the writings of his earlier 
 life. Thus, in one place, after saying of our Lord, — " I look 
 on him as a man of vast genius, a great mind, a great con- 
 science, a great heart, a great soul;" — he goes on, "but when 
 he was a boy, I suppose he stumbled in learning to walk : mis- 
 called the letters in learning to read : got wrong conclusions 
 in his thoughts," &c. Zi/e, ii. p. 226. But one of the most 
 painful passages occurs in a letter from Rome. " The Roman 
 religion is addressed only to the senses, and must ere long go 
 the same road as the Egyptian and its successors. Protes- 
 tantism will in due time follow, it being a little less absurd 
 than Catholicism. Thus the tree of religion drops its leaves 
 continually, after they have done their work, and itself grows 
 greater and greater by the half of each of them. I wonder 
 ministers don't see that Christianity is one leaf of this immense 
 tree, and must fall when its work is done. But they don't 
 and won't. But the men of Science and Philosophy through- 
 out Europe have utterly broken with the first principles of 
 what is historically called Christianity, i.e. the supernatural 
 
166 Appendix. 
 
 Revelation, the Incarnation of God in a Virgin's womb, the 
 Atonement, the Eternal damnation of mankind (all except a 
 few miserable creatures), the devilish character of the Deity. 
 These are the essentials of the * revealed religion,' of the 
 Christianity of the Church: and they will go to their own 
 place." Life, ii. 330. The thought is surely a very solemn 
 one, that soon after penning this letter, Theodore Parker died. 
 Did he realize what he hoped to do, when, some time before he 
 wrote, " If my life should close to-morrow — 
 
 " I have the richest, best of consolations: 
 The thought that I have given 
 To serve the cause of heaven 
 The freshest of my early inspirations"? Vol. i. p. 194. 
 
 Note K. Page 61. 
 M. Eenan and the Fragments of Papias. 
 
 Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis (a.d. 120), and the slen- 
 derness of the foundation on which IM. Kenan has raised his 
 novel hypothesis, may be inferred from the following parti- 
 culars, extracted from a Sermon by the Kev. Dr Irons, " My 
 words shall not pass away," preached at St Paul's Cathedral, 
 Jan. 3, 1864. "In Routh's Reliquice (i. 7—38), we have the 
 fragments, partly Greek and partly Latin, of the Five Books, 
 of Papias Aoytwv KvptaKwi/ 'E^T^yT^Veco?, to which Eusebius refers. 
 The notes are somewhat copious, but valuable; but the nature 
 of the book itself and its bearing on the question, what Xoyta 
 of Christ were known generally in Hierapolis and the churches 
 of Asia Minor, the following passage will show. ' I shall not 
 tire of mentioning to thee, together with the inter jyretationSy 
 whatsoever things I have at any time heard, and well remem- 
 bered, from the Elders, being confirmed as to their truth. For 
 I had no pleasure in those who speak many things — as the 
 
Notes, 167 
 
 generality — but in tliose wlio teacli trutlis; and not in those 
 who make mention of the commands of others, but in those 
 who give faithfully the commands of the Lord, and the things 
 which proceed from the Truth itself And if at any time one 
 met me who had accompanied with the Elders, I enquired into 
 the words of the Elders also ; — what Andrew, or what Peter 
 said; or what Philip — [Philip's four daughters {Acts xxi. 9) 
 are said to have lived at Ilierapolis] — or what Thomas, or what 
 James ; or any other of the Disciples of our Lord. Also what 
 Aristion and John the Elder, the Disciples of the Lord say. 
 For I took not the things from the Books to be so profitable to 
 me, as those from still living oral testimony ''^^ — (^(oo-t;? <fio)vy]<; 
 
 Kol IX€VOV(Tr]S.). 
 
 " St L'enceus (at the beginning of the third century) also 
 preserves fragments of now-forgotten writers, who report say- 
 ings from those who were known as * Elders,' i. e. ' Disciples of 
 the Apostles.' " (Routh, i. 40-65.) 
 
 " In another passage of Papias (preserved also by Irenseus) 
 some Miracles are mentioned of which we have no account in 
 the New Testament; and other Parables and Discourses of 
 our Saviour, — some of them ' /xv^iKwrcpa,' — referring to the 
 Millennium. Papias (as Irenseus says), adds, that Mark wrote 
 a Gospel correctly, as the interpreter of Peter, but did not 
 preserve the true order of events, since he had not himself heen 
 a hearer q/* Christ, and did not therefore give an exact arrange- 
 ment of the A-o'yta." — Sermort, pp. 8 and 25. 
 
 Note L. Page 63. 
 
 The PvECext Work of M. Michelet. 
 
 The following sketch of the scope and style of the Bible de 
 Vhumanite is taken from the Athenaeum, Nov. 12, 1864 : — 
 'Inspired by M. Renan's success, M. Michelet has taken the 
 
168 Appendix. 
 
 Bible in hand, read some parts of it carelessly, and come to the 
 conclusion that there is not much in it : nothing to compare 
 Tvith what he finds of beauty, goodness and originality in the 
 divine poems and legends of Persia and India. It chanced 
 that during the past year, M. Michelet heard for the first time 
 of the Ramayana, one of the two sacred poems describing the 
 exploits of Yishnu; and, like the old gentleman who picked 
 up the * Age of Keason ' on a stall, he fancies he has made 
 a discovery which will shake the world. M. Michelet has just 
 learnt to his amazement that Vishnu, at the request of the 
 inferior gods, took upon himself the form of man, in order 
 that he might combat the demon Kavan'a. Is it not easy for 
 a professor of paradox to jump to the conclusion, that in this 
 Yishnu legend we have the original source of our Christian 
 tenet of the Incarnation? M. Michelet, elated with joy at his 
 great discovery, exclaims : 'The year 1863 will remain to me 
 for ever happy and blessed ; for in that year I read for the first 
 time the grand sacred poem of India, the divine Ramayana.' 
 
 "Having traced the first Christian mystery to its source in 
 Vishnu, he travels towards the west, through Persia and Baby- 
 lonia; glancing at the wayside poetry and legends, finding the 
 Messianic idea in one place, the Virgin-motherhood in a second, 
 and so to the end of his nine chapters. From two or three 
 classical authors and from some of the early Fathers he quotes 
 and misquotes anything found to his purpose. He tells with 
 fervour the legend of Olympias and the Serpent; tells it as 
 a fact, and as an impious illustration of an Article received in 
 every Christian church. He trifles with the legends of Adonis, 
 Leda, Aphrodite and Apollo. In every impure region of the 
 old mythology he finds historical analogies and illustrations, 
 damaging, as he dreams, to the Christian system, in its founda- 
 tion. Indeed, the whole of his pretended historical exposition 
 is an attempt to show that the Christian church is an insti- 
 tution — not of sages, free men and philosophers — but of women 
 and slaves." 
 
Notes, 169 
 
 In reference to the vanity which we have refeiTed to as 
 the actuating motive of such men as Ptenan and Michelet, we 
 may as well quote the words of Burke in speaking of Kousseau. 
 He says, " We have had the great professor and founder of 
 the pliilosophy of vanity in England. As I had good opportu- 
 nities of knowing his jn-oceedings almost from day to day, he 
 left no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle 
 either to influence his heart, or to guide his understanding, but 
 vanity. With this vice he was possessed to a degree little 
 short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric 
 vanity, that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, 
 was impelled to publish a mad confession of his mad faults, 
 and to attempt a new sort of glory from bringing hardily to 
 light the obscure and vulgar vices which we know may some- 
 times be blended with eminent talents. He has not observed 
 on the nature of vanity who does not know it is omnivorous ; 
 that it has no choice in its food; that it is fond to talk even 
 of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and 
 draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and 
 
 candour Under this philosophic instructor in the etlcics of 
 
 vanity, they have attempted in France a regeneration of the 
 moral constitution of man." 
 
 Note M. Page 64. 
 The Claims of M. PtENiVN as a Controversialist. 
 
 We have not applied the harsh terms of the text incon- 
 siderately, or without having specific instances in view. As 
 examples of what we -have called this author's "unscientific 
 dogmatism," we might quote the few complacent and even 
 contemptuous sentences in which he disposes of the whole 
 argument from miracles. " In the name of universal expe- 
 rience we banish miracle from history." " A supernatural 
 
170 Appendix, 
 
 account always implies credulity or imposture." Or, again, we 
 might refer to the strangely illogical way in which, without 
 offering a shadow of proof, and as if there could be no doubt 
 upon the matter, he takes it for granted that St Luke is alto- 
 gether wrong in his chronology; and that it is a mere inven- 
 tion of the lovers of prophecy to suppose that Christ was born 
 at Bethlehem, His real birth-place being Nazareth; and that 
 it may be accepted as a fact that Jesus was not descended 
 from David at all. 
 
 Of "unsupported statements," not to apply to them a 
 stronger term, we have examples in such sentences as tliese. 
 " All confessions of faith are perversions of the idea of Jesus. 
 We should seek in vain for a theological proposition in the 
 Gospel." (On chercherait vainement une proj^osition theolo- 
 gique dans I'Evangile.) "We should seek in vain in the 
 Gospel for one religious rite recommended by Jesus." (On 
 chercherait vainement dans I'Evangile une pratique religieuse 
 recommandee par Jesus.) Or, again, in his versions or rather 
 perversions of some of the parables, as when referring to the 
 parable of the Unjust Steward he has recourse to a most 
 obviously fallacious interpretation of his own, in order that 
 he may have the opportunity of saying, "here a steward is 
 praised because he has made friends v/ith the poor at the 
 expense of his master;" or when of another parable he tells 
 us Dives is in hell, simply "because he is a rich man, because 
 he does not give up his property to the poor, because he does well 
 while others have done ill." As if it w'ere not patent on the 
 face of the parable that the sin of Dives consisted not in his 
 jyossession of wealth, but in his abuse of it to his own selfish 
 gratifications — in the fact of his leading an idle and useless 
 life — and above all, in that he, a Jew, should have so wantonly 
 violated that great commandment of the Law, "Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself." Lev. xix. i8. 
 
 Examples of the " irreverent and ribald sneers" of this blas- 
 phemer we should not deem it well to multiply. Two instances 
 
Notes. 171 
 
 may be cited, which, on account of their incredible baseness, we 
 prefer to give in the writer's own words. The following passage 
 occurs in his reference to the penitent woman in Simon's house. 
 ** Des femmes faibles on coupables, surprises de tant de charmes, 
 et goutant, pour la premiere fois, le contact plein d'attrait de la 
 vertu, s'approchaient librement de lui, on s'etonnait qu'il ne les 
 
 repoussatpas Des femmes, les coeurs plein de larmes, et dis- 
 
 posees par leurs fautes aux sentiments d'humilitc, etaient plus 
 pres de son royaume que les natures mediocres, lesquelles ont 
 sou vent peu de merite de n'avoir point failli. On cougoit, d'un 
 autre cote, que ces ames tendres, trouvant dans leur conversion 
 ^ la secte un moyen de rehabilitation facile, s'attachaient a 
 lui avec passion." The other passage exceeds anything to be 
 found in Paine or Yoltaire. The writer is speculating upon 
 the various forms of jDainful reflection which might have con- 
 tributed to intensify the mysterious agony which the Holy One 
 experienced in the garden. And the following revolting pas- 
 sage occurs : " Peut-etre quelques-uns de ces touchants souve- 
 nirs qai conservent les ames les plus fortes, et qui par moments 
 les percent comme un glaive, lui vinrent-ils a ce moment. Se 
 rappela-t-il les claires fontaines de la Galilee, ou il aurait pu se 
 rafraichir; la vigne et la figuier sous lesquels il avait pu s'asseoir ; 
 les jeunes filles qui auraient peut-etre consenti a raimer?" 
 
 These examples will suffice. We extend this note only to 
 quote with all thankfulness a proof how this miserable romance 
 of TJie Life of Jesus has been already over-ruled of God to create 
 a wider demand, among the French people, for the true Life 
 of the Saviour, as contained in the Scriptui-es of the New 
 Testament. The following is from M. de Pressense's E-eport, 
 as contained in the last Monthly Reporter of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society. " The attention of our population is at 
 the present moment turned in a truly extraordinary manner, as 
 has never previously been the case, to the life, and consequently 
 also to the person of Jesus Christ. In a manner which is sur- 
 prisingly wide-spread, as soon as ever a Colporteur accosts any 
 
172 Appendix, 
 
 one, all that lie Las to say about the Saviour is listened to with 
 attention. Yery lively discussions arise : very frequently igno- 
 rance or impiety is openly displayed. This is doubtless very 
 sad, but, taking all things together, this is far to be preferred to 
 that stolid indifference which, for so long a time, was the brazen 
 w\all which prevented any Grospel appeals reaching men's con- 
 sciences and hearts. A considerable number of our agents now 
 send me information similar to the following : — ' The Life of 
 Jesus, by Ren an, is increasingly facilitating my efforts in the 
 sale of New Testaments.' * The Life oj Jesus, by Kenan, 
 opens more than ever the way for conversations respecting the 
 person and work of the Redeemer,' * The Life of Jesus, by 
 Renan, is certainly promoting the reading of the New Testa- 
 ment.'" — Monthly Reporter, Nov. i, 1864. 
 
 Note N. Page 6g. 
 The Early Christian Martyrs and the Name of Christ. 
 
 Familiar as we are made, from our school-days, with the 
 letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, written at most not 
 above forty years after the death of St Paul, it may be doubted 
 whether the importance of it is sufficiently appreciated in its 
 bearing on the point for which it is cited in the text, namely, 
 the place which Christ occupied in the minds of the first Chris- 
 tians, as being in himself a Divine Being, and demanding that 
 the religion which He had given to the world should be irrevo- 
 cably bound up with the honour of His own name. Both 
 these facts, however, it will be seen, come out strongly in these 
 celebrated letters. Thus nothing can be more conclusive than 
 the words which the proconsul puts into the mouth of the 
 faithful Christians who were brought before him for punish- 
 ment. " They affirmed that the whole of their guilt, or error, 
 was that they met on a certain stated day before it was light, 
 
Notes, 173 
 
 and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ as to some 
 God," (quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmen- 
 que Christo quasi Deo dicer e secum invieem). In like manner 
 with regard to their veneration for the name of Christ, and their 
 inflexible determination, as religionists, to be known by no other 
 designation. " The method," says Pliny, "which I have observed 
 towards those who have been brought before me as Christians 
 is this : — I interrogated them whether they were Christians : 
 if they confessed I repeated the question twice again, adding 
 threats at the same time ; when if they still persevered, I 
 ordered them to be punished : (Interrogavi i23Sos an essent 
 Christiani. Confitentes iterum et tertio interrogavi supplicium 
 minatus : perse verantes duci jussi.) He then proceeds to spe- 
 cify the crucial tests by which he was able to ascertain the 
 moral sincerity of some who appeared anxious to equivocate ; — 
 such as repeating an invocation to the gods, or performing 
 some religious rite before the Emperor's statue, or reviling the 
 name of Christ, — compliances to which none of the sincere 
 among them could be induced to submit (prseterea maledicerent 
 Christo, quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur, qui sunt revera 
 Christiani). The answer of the Emperor is to the same effect, 
 putting in the forefront of the conditions of a proffered pardon, 
 that the accused should deny himself to be a Christian : ' ita 
 tamen ut qui negaverit se Christianum esse, idque re ipsa mani- 
 festum fecerit, i. e. supplicando Diis nostris, quamvis suspcctus 
 in prseteritum fuerit, veniam ex poenitentia impetret.' " Epist. 
 X. 97 and 98. 
 
 Note 0. Page 6g. 
 
 The Martyrdom: of Polycarp. 
 
 The term Atheist was a name constantly applied to the 
 early Christians, on account of their refusal to offer worship to 
 the heathen deities: so that "Away with the Atheists" really 
 
174 Appendix. 
 
 meant "Away with the Christians." Of course, taking the 
 word in its proper etymological sens 9, the Christians compro- 
 mised no principle in repeating the required formula, and 
 many it is likely escaped martyrdom by doing so. Polycarp, 
 however, while repeating the words, guarded himself from all 
 suspicion of mental reservation by telling the bystanders to 
 whom he intended the offensive word to be applied. The 
 following is the account taken from "The circular letter of 
 the Church of Smyrna" concerning his martyrdom. "Now 
 as he was going into the lists, there was a voice from hea- 
 ven, *Be strong, Polycarp, and quit thyself like a man.' 
 No one sav/ who it was that spake to liim : but those of our 
 brethren who were present heard the voice. And as he was 
 brought in, there was a great disturbance, when they heard 
 that Polycarp was taken. And when he came near, the Pro- 
 consul asked him, whether he were Polycarp. And, when he 
 acknowledged (that he was,) he persuaded him to deny (the 
 faith,) saying, 'E-everence thy old age;' with many other 
 exhortations of a like nature, as their custom is, saying, 'Swear 
 by the fortune of Csesar; repent, and say. Away with the 
 wicked.' Then Polycarp, looking with a severe countenance 
 upon the whole company of ungodly Gentiles who were in the 
 lists, stretched forth his hand to them, and said, groaning and 
 looking up to heaven, 'Away with the wicked.' But the Pro- 
 consul urging him, and saying, 'Swear, and I will release thee: 
 reproach Christ;' Polycarp answered, 'Fourscore and six 
 years have I continued serving Him, and He hath never wronged 
 me at all; how then can I blaspheme my King and my Sa- 
 viour 1 ' 
 
 "The Proconsul said unto him, 'I have wild beasts ready; to 
 those I will cast thee, unless thou repent.' He answered, ' Call 
 for them, then : for we Christians are fixed in our minds, not 
 to change from good to evil. But it vv^ill be good for me to be 
 changed from my grievous sufferings to their just reward.'" 
 
 After a few more fruitless attempts to j^ersuade him to 
 
Notes, 1 75 
 
 recant, the holy man was led out by the executioners, and 
 perished at the stake. Chevallier s Translation of the Ejnstles 
 of Clement, &c. pp. 154 — 159. 
 
 Note P. Page 80. 
 
 The Insufficiency of all Humanitarian Theories to ac- 
 count FOR THE Moral Facts of Christianity. 
 
 In the working out of this part of his argument, the writer 
 is indebted for some very useful suggestions to two works of 
 great value, The Christ of History, by John Young ; and 
 The Restoixdion of Belief by Isaac Taylor. The followin<T 
 extracts will illustrate the manner of these wi'iters, in settinf' 
 forth some of the historic difficulties of Christianity, regarded 
 as a human institution only. 
 
 " History tells of warriors who reached the summit of their 
 fame in comparative youth; it tells of men of science also, and 
 of scholars, and cf statesmen, who in youth rose to great and 
 envied distinction. But the difference is obvious, and it is 
 wide, between the conquest of territory, and the conquest of 
 minds ; between scientific, literary, or political renown, and 
 moral and spiritual influence and excellence. Is there an 
 instance, not of a man acquiring fame in youth and preservinr^ 
 it in old age, but of a man who died in youth, gaining vast 
 influence of a purely spiritual kind, not by force of arms, and 
 not by secular aid in any form, but simply and only by his 
 principles and his life — of such a man transmitting that influ- 
 ence through successive generations, and after two thousand 
 years retaining it in all its freshness, and continuing, at that 
 distance of time, to establish himself, and to reign ulmightily 
 in the minds and hearts of myriads of human beings 1 If 
 there be, or anything approaching to it, where is it 1 There is 
 not such an example in the whole history of the world, except 
 Jesus Christ." The Christ of History, l)p. 2iZi 34. 
 
176 Appendix, 
 
 ** Remove from Christianity everything in it which is su- 
 pernatural and divine, and then the problem which we have to 
 do with is this. — A revolution in human affairs, in the highest 
 degree beneficial in its import, was carried forward upon the 
 arena of the great world, by means of the noble behaviour of 
 men who command our sympathy and admiration, as brave, 
 wise, and good. But this revolution drew the whole of its 
 moral force from a belief, which — how shall we designate it 1 — 
 was in part an inexplicable illusion ; in part a dream, and in 
 large part a fraud. This, the greatest forward movement which 
 the civilized branches of the human family have ever made, 
 took its rise in bewildered Jewish brains ! Indestructible ele- 
 ments of advancement to which even infidel nations confessedly 
 owe whatever is best and most hopeful within them, these 
 elements of good, which were obtained for us at so vast a cost, 
 had their source in a congeries of exaggerations, and in a 
 mindless conspiracy, hatched by chance, nursed by imposture, 
 and winged by fanaticism." Restoration of Belief, pp. 109, no. 
 In a new edition of this work, we find advertised a Postscript in 
 reply to Kenan. We may confidently predict it will repay 
 perusal. 
 
 Note Q. Page 89. 
 
 The Theory of a Series of eternally impressed 
 Consequences. 
 
 The allusion to a "different collocation of two grains of 
 sand" is not an imaginary example, cited to show the extrava- 
 gance of the theory referred to, but is taken from a grave argu- 
 mentative illustration of this law of necessary sequences, as 
 found in the work of a great German philosopher. " Let us 
 imagine, for instance, this grain of sand lying some few feet 
 further inland than it actually does. Then must the storm- 
 
Notes, 177 
 
 wind that drove it in from tlie sea-shore have been stronger 
 than it actually was. Then must the preceding state of the 
 atmosphere, by which this wind was occasioned, and its degree 
 of strength determined, have been different from what it actu- 
 ally Avas, and the previous changes which gave rise to this 
 particular weather, and so on. We must suppose a different 
 temperature from that which really existed, and a different 
 constitution of the bodies which influenced this temperature. 
 The fertility or barrenness of countries, the duration of the life 
 of man, depend, unquestionably, in a great degree on tem- 
 perature. How can you know — since it is not given us to 
 penetrate the arcana of nature, and it is therefore allowable to 
 speak of possibilities — how can you know that in such a state 
 of the weather as we have been supposing, in order to carry 
 this grain of sand a few yards further, some ancestor of yours 
 might not have perished from hunger, or cold, or heat, long 
 before the birth of that son from whom you are descended; 
 that thus you might never have been at all ; and all that you 
 have ever done, and all that you ever hope to do in this world, 
 must have been hindered in order that a grain of sand might 
 lie in a different place." Fichte, Die Bestimmung des MenscJten. 
 Werke, ii. p. 178. Quoted in Aids to Faith, P- i7- 
 
 Note E. Page 99. 
 
 The Present Condition of the Jews, an Argument for the 
 Truth of Prophecy. 
 
 On this subject the reader would be well repaid by the 
 perusal of a tract, cited in the "Transactions of the Sanhedrim 
 of Jews assembled at Paris, in 1807," by order of Buonaparte, 
 and entitled "An Appeal to the Justice of Kings and Nations," 
 wi'itten by a Jew. The author, after describing, with much 
 pathos and eloquence, the sufferings of his nation, es}iocially 
 
 12 
 
178 Appendix, 
 
 at tlie hands of Europeans ; and after declaring, tliat it seems 
 as if they were allowed to survive the destruction of their 
 country, only to become a mark for the insulting finger of 
 scorn, and a sport to the most inveterate hatred, — asks, 
 "What is our guilt 1 is it that generous constancy which we 
 have manifested in defending the laws of our Withers ? But 
 this constancy ought to have entitled us to the admiration of 
 all nations ; and it has only sharjDcned against us the daggers 
 of persecution. Braving all kinds of torments, the pangs of 
 death, and the still more terrible pangs of life, we alone have 
 withstood the impetuous torrents of time, sweeping indiscrimi- 
 nately in its course nations, religions, and countries. What is 
 become of those celebrated empires, whose very name still 
 excites our admiration, by the ideas of splendid greatness 
 attached to them, and whose power controlled the v>diole surface 
 of the known globe ? They are only remembered as monu- 
 ments of the vanity of human greatness. E-ome and Greece 
 are no more ! their descendants, mixed with other nations, 
 have lost even the traces of their origin ; while a population of 
 a few millions of men, so often subjugated, stands the test of 
 3,000 revolving years, and the fiery ordeal of fifteen centuries 
 of persecution." 
 
 The following passage also, from their own historian Bas- 
 nage, Avill be read with interest : "We here behold the greatest 
 prodigy, in the preservation of the Jewish nation, in spite of 
 all the calamities it has sustained for 1700 years; we here see a 
 church, which has been hated and persecuted for 1700 3^ears, 
 still subsisting and numerous: kings have often emploj^ed the 
 severity of edicts, and the hands of the executioner, to destroy 
 it ; the seditious multitude has perpetrated massacres and 
 persecutions infinitely more tragical than the princes ; both 
 kings and people, heathens, Christians, and Mahometans, how- 
 ever opposite in other points, have united in the design of 
 ruining this nation, and have not efiected it. The bush of 
 Moses surrounded by flardes, has always burnt without con- 
 
Notes. 1 79 
 
 suming. Dispersed tlivongh all parts of the civilized world ; 
 driven from or persecuted wherever they have appeared, they 
 have from age to age endured misery and persecution, and 
 waded through torrents of their own blood ; yet they still exist 
 in spite of the disgrace, and hatred, and suffering, which attend 
 them ; while there remains nothing of the greatest monarchies 
 antecedent to the era of their destruction, but the name." 
 Basnage, Book vi. c. i. s. i. 
 
 In relation, to their belief that they shall one day return to 
 their own land, Dr Buchanan observes, " I have had many 
 interesting conferences with the Jews, on the subject of their 
 present state; and have been much struck with two circum- 
 stances, their constant reference to the desolation of Jerusalem, 
 and their confident hope that it will one day be rebuilt. The 
 desolation of the Holy City is ever jDresent to the minds of the 
 Jews, when the subject is coucerniug themselves as a nation ; 
 for, though without a king, and without a country, they con- 
 stantly speak of the unity of their nation. Distance of time 
 and place seems to have no effect in obliterating the remem- 
 brance of the desolation. I often thought of the verse in the 
 Psalms, 'If I forget tliee, Jerusalem, let my right hand 
 forget her cunning.' They speak of Palestine as near at hand, 
 and easily accessible. It is become an ordinance of the Pabbins 
 in some places, that when a man builds a new house, he shall 
 leave a small part of it unfinished, as an emblem of ruin, and 
 write on it these words, Zecher Lacliorcham, i.e. in memory op 
 THE DESOLATION." Vide Buchanan's Christian Researches^ 
 2nd Edit. p. 212. 
 
 Note S. Page 112. 
 
 Christ necessarily a Deceiver if He were not Divine. 
 
 Obvious as would seem to be the conclusion set forth in 
 the text, that in the denial of Christ's claims to the Messiah- 
 
 12-2 
 
] 80 Appendix. 
 
 ship, with all the Divine prerogatives attached to it, is in- 
 volved, of necessity, a denial of His claims to anything like 
 moral integrity, — by one modern rationalist only, as far as we 
 know, does the conclusion seem to have been boldly accepted. 
 Francis Newman utterly repudiates the eulogies pronounced by 
 Parker, Strauss, and others, on the character of Jesus : and that 
 on the ground taken in the text. Thus, after speaking of the 
 unapproached pre-eminence with which the Jewish imagination 
 had always invested their Messiah, and which Jesus must have 
 been aware of, he goes on, " If He did not intend to claim this, 
 it was His obvious duty to cUscl'dim it, and to warn all against 
 false, dangerous, or foolish conceptions of Messiah ; to pro- 
 test that Messiah was only a teacher, not a prince, not a 
 Divine lawgiver, not a Supreme judge sitting on the throne 
 of God, and disposing of men's eternal destinies; nay, why 
 claim the title Messiah at all, if it could only suggest false- 
 hood 1 Since He sedulously fostered the belief that He was 
 the Messiah, without attempting to define the term, or guide 
 the public mind. He could only be understood, and must have 
 wished to be understood, to present Himself as Messiah in 
 the popular, notorious sense. If He was really this, honour 
 Him as such. If His claim was delusive, He cannot be held 
 guiltless. 
 
 "Every high post has its own besetting sin, which must 
 be conquered by him who is to earn any admiration. A 
 finance minister, who pilfers the treasury, can never be honour- 
 ed as a hero, whatever the merits of his public measures. A 
 statesman or prince, entrusted with the supreme executive 
 power, ruins his claim to veneration if he use that power 
 violently to overthrow the laws. Such as is the crime of a 
 statesman who usurps a despotism, such is the guilt of a re- 
 ligious teacher who usurps lordship over the taught, and 
 aggrandizes himself. It is a bottomless gulf of demerit, swal- 
 lowing up all possible merit, and making silence concerning 
 him our kindest course, if only his panegyrists allow us to be 
 
Notes. 181 
 
 silent. A teacher -svlio exalts himself into our Lord and 
 Saviour and Judge, leaves to His hearers no reasonable choice 
 between two extremes of conduct. Who is not with Him is 
 against Him. For we must cither submit frankly to His claims, 
 and acknowledfje ourselves little children — abhor the idea of 
 criticizing Him or His precepts, and in short become morallj 
 annihilated in His presence — or, on the opposite, we cannot 
 help seeing Him to have fallen into something woi-se than 
 ignominy." — Discourse against Hero-making in lleligion, p. 23. 
 
 Note T. Page 148. 
 
 Miscellaneous Testimonies to a Belief in the Eternity 
 OF Future Retribution. 
 
 Of the classical testimonies referred to in the text, ex- 
 amples will be remembered easily. Lucretius reflects truly, 
 while he ridicules the popular teaching, when he represents 
 Tityus as feeling the eternal vultures tearing his inexhausted 
 liver : 
 
 " Nor could e'er 
 The fierce devourers find a feast so vast, 
 A feast that through eternity should last." 
 
 Or when he speaks of Sisyphus, bound down by the huge 
 stone's perpetual burden : 
 
 " Still doomed to strive, and still to strive in vain." 
 
 See also the passage referred to in the text, thus rendered by 
 the translator from whom we are quoting : 
 
 " Nor sees the wretch a boundary to his grief. 
 Nor one consoling prospect of relief : 
 Fears after death these ills will heaven tell, 
 And proves on earth the torments of his hell." 
 
 Busby's Lucret. De Rcr. Nat. ui. 
 
182 Appendix. 
 
 Other examples will occur, taken from the punishments of 
 Ixion, Prometheus, and the unhaj^py Theseus. 
 
 " Sedet aeternumque sedebit 
 Infelix Theseus." 
 
 Virg. jEneid. Lib, vi. 
 
 Of the place the doctrine held in the Platonic philosophy, 
 the follo^ying may serve as an example. Having allowed that 
 there are IdcrLixa djiapTiJiJiaTa, remedial offences, Socrates says : 
 " But they who shall be found incorrigible on account of the 
 enormity of their crimes, their many and foul sacrileges, or 
 their unrighteous slaughters, or for the perpetration of simi- 
 lar acts, — they, as a fitting doom, shall plunge into Tartarus, 
 whence tUey do never escape : o9cv ovTroTc iK/Satvovcnv.''^ In 
 answer to an opinion advanced by Warburton, that these things 
 were not really believed, Dr Pusey, in his recent Sermon, 
 quotes a passage from Plato, de Rep. i. 5 : " Know well," he said, 
 ''O Socrates, that when any one is, or thinks he is near dying, 
 there entereth into him fear and anxiety as to things, in re- 
 gard to which they never before came into his mind. For 
 those myths too, which are told about those in Hades, that he 
 who has been guilty of injustice here must pay the penalty to 
 justice there, which had been laughed at thus far, then tor- 
 ture his soul lest they should be true." — Everlasting Punish- 
 ment, a Sermon, p. 7. For other examples, see Alley's Vin- 
 dicice Christiance, c. x. § i. 
 
 With regard to the theology of the Hindus, mingled as all 
 their views of immortality were with the monstrous extrava- 
 gancies of their transmigration theory, yet in the case of the 
 worst class of offenders, no portion was left but one of end- 
 less retribution. " By all the sacred books of the Hindus," 
 says Alley, "a heaven and hell, the scene of eternal recom- 
 pense and retribution were uniformly and explicitly announced. 
 The doctrine was authoritatively communicated to the people, 
 as confirmed alike by the deductions of reason and the voice 
 of religion. It was a truth vrhich the inspiration of the gods 
 
Notes. 183 
 
 had unerringly proclaimed, and the faith of men universally 
 embraced." Vindlcice Chrisiiance, c. x. § 2. 
 
 The penalties of the wicked, according to the Mahomedan 
 theology, surpass, in their wild and terrific extravagance, any 
 thing to he found in classic writers of the Pagan Tartarus. 
 After undergoing the most dreadful torments in the grave, 
 "where they had been ceaselessly gnawed and stung by dragons 
 with seven heads," they rise to be subjected to a more grievous 
 punishment. "Placed on the bridge Sirat, which is built over 
 hell, and is sharper than the edge of a sword, they shall be pre- 
 cipitated in their endeavours to pass it into the gulf below." 
 " And they shall be chained to devils, and dwell amidst burn- 
 ing winds, and scalding waters : and they shall moreover abide 
 in the darkness of a black smoke, which shall cast forth sparks 
 as big as towers, and shall in no wise shelter them from the 
 heat, nor be of service against the flame." ..." And they shall be 
 beaten with maces, and clothed in garments of fire : and as 
 often as they shall attempt to escape from their torments, they 
 shall be dragged back again by evil spirits, who shall say 
 unto them, Taste ye the pain of burning." See Sale's Korarij 
 Prelim. Diss. Sect. iv. p. 120, and Kor. Ghr. l. lvi. and lxxvii. 
 
 Note U. Page 148. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Testimonies to the Doctrine of Eternal 
 Punishment. 
 
 The effect of the recent Judgment of Privy Council, in 
 relation to this solemn subject, has been to bring together such 
 a mass of testimony, and even to cause the reproducing of it 
 in the columns of our daily and weekly newspapers, that we 
 might almost have omitted from our Appendix the testimony 
 of the Universal Church in affirmation of the view taken in 
 the Sermon. A few selections, however, from the early Chi'is- 
 tian writers, may not be unacceptable. 
 
184 Ajopendix. 
 
 Beginning witli tlie Apostolic Fathers, we may cite first 
 the testimony of Clement, who, in his Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, says, "If we do the will of Christ we shall 
 find rest. But if otherwise. He will in no wise rescue us 
 from endless punishment;" — ov^kv ly/xas pixjcrai Ik ttJs aliavCov 
 KoXdcrcois. 
 
 Ignatius says in his Epistle to the Ephesians, " He that is 
 thus defiled shall depart into unquenchable fire." 
 
 Polycarp, at his martydom, appealed to the Proconsul in 
 this language : " Thou threatenest me with fire which burns 
 for an hour, and in a little while is extinguished : for thou 
 knowest not the fire of the future judgment, and of that eter- 
 nal punishment which is reserved for the ungodly." (See Che- 
 vallier's JSjnstles of Clement, Pol^car]) and Ignatius, p. 157). 
 
 Justin Martyr (a. d. i 40) uses this very strong language : 
 " If it be not so (that the unrighteous shall be punished with 
 everlasting fire), then is there no God." Aj)ologia. 
 
 Irenseus (a. D. 178) says: "Christ shall send the impious 
 and the unjust and the lawless and the blasphemous of man- 
 kind into endless fire." Adv. Hceres. Symh. Ap. Lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 To the above may be added the testimony of Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus (a. d. 194), who speaks of "Eternal torments;" — of 
 Tertullian (a. d. 200), who declares the punishments of the 
 wicked to be " Non diuturni verum sempiterni ;" of Cyprian 
 (a.d. 258), "Nee erit imde habere tormenta vel requiem pos- 
 sint aliquando vel finem;" of Lactantius (a. d. 306), "Ad per- 
 petua tormenta damnati, et seternis ignibus traditi ;" &c. of 
 Athanasius, who in reference to Judas says, " If his punish- 
 ment were to have an end, it loould be an advantage to him to 
 have been born." 
 
 Other early testimonies will be found in the Rituale Anglo- 
 Caiholicum, by the Be v. H. Bailey. A than. Creed, xvi. 41. 
 Litany, xvii. 6 ; whilst with the fact of the condemnation of 
 Origen by the fifth General Council, for holding views contrary 
 to those of the Universal Church on this subject, most readers 
 
Notes. 185 
 
 will liave become acquainted throngli the letters of Mr Keble 
 and Dr Piisey, which have appeared in the Times. 
 
 Nor are there any material divergencies from the Catholic 
 doctrine to be found among Christian bodies of later date. 
 True, the Romish Church, by her fond conceit of a purgatorial 
 cleansing, has practically thrown over the orthodox view with 
 regard to any who die in her communion, but she has always 
 conceded the truth of it in the case of all the impenitent who 
 die without her pale: and has always refused canonization to 
 Origen for his heresies on this very subject. The Protestant 
 Confessions,— such as the Helvetic, the Dort, the Augsburg, — 
 are unanimous in their agreement with the revealed doctrine, 
 as are also the leading non-conformist bodies in our own 
 country. 
 
 Of the undisguised and emphatic teaching of our own Church, 
 on this solemn topic, it is not necessary to speak. She has 
 affirmed, in words which defy all the powers of a cunning casu- 
 istry to evade, " they that have done evil shall go into everlast- 
 ing fire." Nor can it be too often repeated that the recent 
 Judgment has not affirmed anything else. That Judgment does 
 not touch doctrine at all; as indeed nothing human can; at 
 least whilst those words remain in our Bible, The Scripturs 
 
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