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THE CONFIRMATION OF FAITH 
 
 BY 
 
 REASON AND AUTHORITY. 
 
 THE HULSEAN LECTURES, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 CAMBRIDGE IN 1852. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE CURREY, B.D., 
 
 PREACHER AT THE CHARTERHOUSE, 
 FORMERLY FELLOW AND TUTOR OP ST JOHN's COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: JOHN DEIGHTON; 
 
 MACMILLAN & Co. 
 
 LONDON: F. AND J. RIVINGTON. 
 
 M.DCCC.LIII. 
 
REV. RICHARD ORES, D.D., 
 
 PROVOST OF KING'S COLLEGE, ' 
 AND VICE-CHANCELLOE IN THE TEAR 1851—1852. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D., F.R.S., 
 
 MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 REV. RALPH TATHAM, D.D., 
 
 MASTER OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, 
 
 THESE LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
The Rev. John Hulse, M.A., by his will bearing 
 date July 21, 1777, founded a Lectureship in the 
 University of Cambridge, to be held by a Clergyman 
 in the University of the degree of Master of Arts, and 
 under the age of forty years : the Lecturer to be 
 elected annually on Christmas-day, or within seven days 
 after, by the Vice-Chancellor, the Master of Trinity 
 College, and the Master of St John's College, or any 
 two of them : the subject of the Lectures to be as 
 follows ; " The evidence of Revealed Religion ; the 
 Truth and Excellence of Christianity; the Prophecies 
 and Miracles ; direct or collateral proofs of the Chris- 
 tian Religion, especially the collateral arguments; the 
 more difficult texts, or obscure parts of Holy Scrip- 
 ture;" or any one or more of these topics, at the 
 discretion of the Lecturer. 
 
PRIITCETOIT 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 MODERN INFIDELITY. 
 
 EPHES. VI. 12. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 We zorestle not against ^sk and blood, but against prin- 
 cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
 darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness 
 in high places 1 
 
 LECTURE 11. 
 
 REASON AND AUTHORITY. 
 
 ISAIAH XLIII. 8, 9. 
 
 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf 
 that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered to- 
 gether, and let the people be assembled : Who among 
 them can declare this, and shew us former things ? let 
 them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be 
 justified ; or let them hear and say. It is truth. . . 30 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 JAMES I. 2L 
 
 Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able 
 
 to save your souls i^9 
 
CONTENTS. 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTTJRE. 
 
 2 TIM. III. 16. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is pro- 
 fitable for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for 
 instruction in righteousness 84 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 2 TIM. L 12. 
 
 / know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he 
 is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
 against that day 113 
 
 LECTURE VL 
 
 SIN. 
 
 S. MATTH. IX. 13. 
 
 I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
 
 144 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 S. JOHN I. 14. 
 
 The Word was madejlesh, and dwelt among us, {and tve 
 beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of 
 the Father,) full of grace and truth 174 
 
CONTENTS, xi 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 JOHN I. 29. 
 
 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
 the world 204 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 GRACE. 
 
 S. JOHN XVII. 17. 
 
 Sanctify them through thy truth 240 
 
JtSAlH V^ AU XV-'J 
 
 LECTURE 1. 
 
 MODERN INFIDELITY. 
 
 EPHES. VI. 12. 
 We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
 the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked- 
 ness in high places. 
 
 n^HE passage with which my text is con- 
 -'- nected carries us back to the time when 
 the Apostle was engaged in the conflict here 
 described, when he "fought with beasts at 
 EphesusS" and preached the word to the 
 Thessalonians "in much affliction^;" when he 
 approved himself a minister of Christ, in 
 labours, in stripes, in prisons, and in deaths^; 
 " troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; 
 perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but 
 not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed*;" 
 when tribulation, distress, persecution, fa- 
 mine, nakedness, peril, and the sword ; when 
 principalities and powers conspired, yet con- 
 spired in vain, to separate the first preachers 
 of the Gospel from the love of Christ Jesus 
 
 • 1 Cor. XV. 32. 2 1 Thess. i. 6. 
 
 " 2 Cor. xi. 23. * 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9. 
 
 C. H. L. 1 
 
2 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 our Lord'. But we shall have a very imper- 
 fect appreciation of the passage we are now 
 considering if we limit its application to the 
 times at which S. Paul wrote. He speaks 
 therein of a battle which was then raging, of 
 a warfare in which he himself bore part ; but 
 the very nature of the conflict is sufficient to 
 convince us that it neither commenced nor 
 ceased with the Apostle and his contempo- 
 raries, for they wrestled, as our text informs 
 us, with the ruler of the darkness of this 
 world, and with the evil spirits in the regions 
 of the air : for such is confessedly the sense 
 of the latter words in the original {rd TrvevnariKo. 
 
 T^9 iTovrjpia^ ev T019 eTvovpaviois). 
 
 The history of mankind will shew that this 
 warfare has been going on from the earliest 
 ages, and our own experience will convince 
 us that it is going on now. Therefore may we 
 with confidence derive from the inspired lan- 
 guage of the Apostle instruction as to the 
 mode in which we are to do valiantly, sup- 
 port amid the labours of the contest, and 
 assurance of ultimate triumph over our foes. 
 
 The great aim of the adversary is at all 
 times to cut us off* from Christ, to whom we 
 are united by faith, but the plan of his attacks 
 is very varied. At one time, he would turn 
 
 ' Rom. viii. 3.5. 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. 3 
 
 aside and entice us by the lusts of the flesh, 
 and by demoralizing, unchristianize, the world 
 — for "the carnal mind is enmity against 
 God^" At another time, by the subtleties of 
 vain philosophy he would delude and mislead, 
 if by any means he may draw us off from the 
 wisdom which is not of this world. Or again, 
 by the introduction of heresies and schisms 
 would perplex and distract us, and substitute 
 envyings, railing, and accusation, for the 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the 
 Holy Ghost, which characterize the kingdom 
 of God. He appeals in turn to our appetites, 
 our reason, and our passions, for he knows 
 that every part of the soul is obnoxious to 
 temptation. And as every individual is in the 
 course of his life to some extent subjected to 
 each of these classes of temptations, but not to 
 each in the same degree ; the chief trial of one, 
 being to master his appetites, of another, to 
 discipline his reason, and of a third, to control 
 his passions : so we observe that at different 
 periods of the Christian Church the heat of 
 the battle has been sustained at different parts 
 of the field, while lesser engagements have 
 been taking place in other quarters. The 
 main point of attack is not very long the 
 same. Now it is reckless licentiousness and 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 7- 
 
 1—2 
 
4 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 bold lawlessness, and now cold indifference 
 and decent scepticism,which obstruct our path. 
 We are called upon to defend, at one time the 
 more mysterious doctrines, at another the very 
 elements of our faith. But there is also a 
 striking alternation in this respect. The battle 
 is again and again renewed where for a time 
 it seemed to slacken, and the efforts of the 
 combatants are required again and again 
 where the battle has been already fought over, 
 and (it may have been thought) decided. In 
 all worketh the same " mystery of iniquity^" 
 to the condemnation of those who believe not 
 the truth, and have pleasure in unrighteous- 
 ness. The Christian warrior must then put 
 on the whole armour of God, that he may be 
 able to stand against the wiles of the devil, to 
 quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, to 
 withstand in the evil day, and having done 
 all, to stand''. 
 
 These remarks may not inappropriately 
 introduce a course of Lectures like the pre- 
 sent, the subject of which is, to a certain ex- 
 tent, limited by the terms of the foundation. 
 The discussion of the Evidences of Christian- 
 ity has of late, it must be confessed, failed 
 to awaken the same interest which it created 
 at the time at which the founder of this Lec- 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii. 7- "' Eph. vi. 13. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 5 
 
 ture made his bequest. It has been deemed a 
 more pressing need to substantiate the claims 
 of the peculiar form in which we embrace 
 Christianity, than to examine the common 
 basis upon which our Church and all national 
 Churches stand, or at least to dwell more 
 upon the constitution and authority of the 
 Church Catholic, than upon the evidences of the 
 faith of which this Church is the depositary. 
 Interesting as these questions are, and closely 
 connected with the prescribed subject-matter 
 of our enquiry, it must be a very hasty and 
 superficial view of the times we live in, which 
 fails to discover tokens of a coming necessity 
 for conducting our warfare with the powers of 
 evil upon a somewhat different footing. The 
 weapons which have been wielded so success- 
 fully by Cudworth, Butler, Paley, and others, 
 must ere long be brought forth into common 
 use, and the battle which they fought re- 
 newed. This consideration may well induce 
 the friends of religion to close up their ranks, 
 and, waiving minor differences, march on in 
 firm and united ranks against the common 
 enemy of our faith. 
 
 The last half century has seen infidelity 
 assume in a neighbouring country the most 
 varied forms. The shape now most prevalent 
 is that of a pantheistic philosophy, which 
 
6 MODERN INFroELITY. [Lect. 
 
 views the universe as a manifestation of the 
 Deity, and recognizes no essential distinction 
 between the animate and inanimate creation, 
 no fundamental difference between good and 
 evil, but merges all individuality in the ope- 
 ration of one mighty whole. Nor has the 
 extravagance of speculation stopped even 
 here. There has sprung up in Germany a 
 class of writers professing open hostility to 
 the Christian religion ; nay, to the very name 
 of religion itself. Writer has succeeded to 
 writer, each exceeding the other in reckless 
 impiety. Even the rule of love to man has 
 been abandoned, and no principle left but 
 self-love to be the guide of all man's actions — 
 nothing of hope beyond the exercise of this 
 principle during the few years of a mortal 
 life^ I have set before you this appalling 
 
 ^ " As Strauss thought to rescue his countrymen from a 
 myth which they deemed history^ and Bauer to free them 
 from ' developed Christianity,' so Feuerbach would deliver 
 them from the dream of religion in general. One negative 
 spirit soon outstripped another. Feuerbach had not long 
 appeared, before he, like Strauss, found himself outbid. Max 
 Stirner came forth with his book on ' The Individual and his 
 Property,' and rates Feuerbach as a bigot, for still holding 
 to an idol, in preaching ' Love to man.' Even this rehgion 
 must fall down before — Egoism ! The installation of this 
 principle is as yet the final result of our process of criticism, 
 destitute alike of real depth of thought, and of an active, 
 healthy tone of moral feeling." — Hundeshagen's Deutsche 
 Protestantismus, Frankf. 1850, p. 207. 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. 7 
 
 picture, drawn by one of their own country- 
 men, because the influence of such opinions 
 must inevitably soon reach, if they have not 
 already reached, our own land. The literary 
 labours of one nation have at all times had 
 some effect upon its neighbours. In the pre- 
 sent day the means and opportunities of cir- 
 culating all writings are so multiplied that 
 we have good reason for apprehending a rapid 
 and wide dissemination of all that may touch 
 upon any topic of common interest, provided 
 it be put in a novel and popular form. 
 
 And further, an advanced state of civiliza- 
 tion will at all times bring with it increased 
 intellectual activity, and extended diffusion 
 of knowledge. These blessings (which when 
 rightly understood we cannot value too 
 highly) are not pure and unalloyed. For the 
 enemy is at all times permitted to sow tares 
 among the wheat. In times of ignorance it 
 seems that morality is alone at stake, and that 
 men are little disposed to question the doc- 
 trine which they will not obey. But the 
 moral and intellectual perceptions are so in- 
 timately connected that the one cannot be 
 disturbed without the derangement of the 
 other; and immorality which ignores the 
 truth has ever been found to lead swiftly and 
 surely to infidelity which denies it. 
 
8 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 The ignorance and immorality in which 
 great masses of the population of this coun- 
 try are growing up have long been sub- 
 jects of deep anxiety to all thoughtful men, 
 and we cannot pretend that the remedies 
 which have been applied or proposed have 
 adequately met these great and crying wants. 
 Still, knowledge of some kind is extending 
 itself to all classes of society, and it is need- 
 less to say, how ill-prepared the minds of 
 those whose education has been neglected 
 must be to discern the nature of the intel- 
 lectual food set before them. And, besides 
 those who have been left absolutely without 
 education there is a large class of the 
 half-educated, who have received a certain 
 amount of mental instruction, accompanied 
 by little or no moral training, to whose hearts 
 religion has not been brought home as an 
 essential element of education. Persons whose 
 minds have been awakened from partial or 
 total inactivity are generally inclined, in the 
 first instance, to doubt and deny. They have 
 seen reason to give up many previous notions. 
 They have become acquainted, it may be, with 
 proximate causes of phaenomena, which they 
 once ascribed to the immediate interposition 
 of Divine agency. They begin to examine 
 and enquire for themselves. And while all 
 
L] MODERN INFroELITY. 9 
 
 enquiry, fully and honestly carried out, must 
 ultimately advance the cause of truth, super- 
 ficial enquiry may, for a time, have the con- 
 trary effect. And these enquiries cannot, at 
 first, be otherwise than superficial, and are 
 therefore very apt to foster vanity instead of 
 teaching humility, unless the mind has been 
 previously furnished with some solid and sub- 
 stantial principles, by which to regulate and 
 control the exercise of the reason and the 
 imagination. But in minds which are not 
 only unfurnished with truly rational prin- 
 ciples, but have been perverted by habitual 
 disregard to moral obligations, and have never 
 practically learnt the sacredness of duty, it 
 may well be conceived that doubts on reli- 
 gious subjects will arise, which their habits 
 and lives will incline men to covet rather 
 than shun. And thus questions of the most 
 vital concern will often be freely entertained, 
 and readily discussed and determined, by 
 persons quite incompetent, and an intellec- 
 tual infidelity will grow up and extend its 
 baneful influence to the masses of the com- 
 munity. There are unmistakeable tokens that 
 in our own country these influences are at 
 work. Already, in our large towns, it is far 
 from uncommon to find among the illiterate 
 many who can argue subtly, as well as deny 
 
10 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 boldly, and are prepared with cavils and 
 objections that can only be refuted by skill 
 and knowledge. 
 
 We must also remember that the litera- 
 ture, whether of a whole people or of a par- 
 ticular class, takes its tone from the modes 
 of opinion and thought already prevalent, and 
 at the same time contributes much to per- 
 petuate and extend them. So that the intel- 
 lectual evils of the present day are not so 
 much to be attributed to the abundance of 
 immoral and infidel publications, as the exist- 
 ence of such publications is to be taken as 
 evidence of the unhealthy appetite which 
 they supply. But if they indicate they also 
 increase the evil. By their means is poured 
 upon the minds of those to whom they are 
 most likely to prove prejudicial a flood of 
 poison elaborated in many a school of error, 
 gathered together by perverse ingenuity and 
 set out in an attractive form, while the author 
 of the mischief, like the sophist of Bithy- 
 nia S retires unquestioned from the confusion 
 
 ^ invTa eliroDi/ 6 Qpa<TVfxa-vo<: ev via el'^ev dirievai coa-irep 
 f3a\av€v^ r]lxo)v KUTavTXrjcra^ kutu twv wtcoi' aOpoov kcli -jtoXvv 
 Tov \oyov...Kai elirov oi Caifxavie Opacv/jLaye olov €p.(3a\wv 
 Xojov ev v(o eye'? dirievai 'irp\v htCa^at iKafw? i; jxaQeiu erre 
 ouTO)?, eVre aXAto? e%f'- ») crpiKpov o'Ut eVjYeipeu/ irpdyp-a Ztopi- 
 ^Cffdai aW ov (i'lov ciayiajrjv, t; dv Biayo/xei/oc cKaarTo^ tjfxdov 
 \v<TtTe\€(rrdTt]v (^wrjv ^w'jj ; Plat. Rep. Lib. I. p. 344, E. 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. M 
 
 which he has created. The false idols erected 
 from time to time, by men of distorted intel- 
 lects and diseased imaginations, are placed 
 in imposing array at the very threshold of 
 the temple of knowledge, and they who have 
 scarcely ever thought before are required at 
 once to single out the true from the false ob- 
 jects of homage and veneration. And as the 
 devil ever finds among the sons of men agents 
 who industriously perform his work, and 
 delight to propagate the delusions which he 
 originates, the emissaries of falsehood are 
 in the present day both numerous and ac- 
 tive. The communication of scientific know- 
 ledge is not uncommonly made the vehicle 
 for the inculcation of unbelief. The truths of 
 science, which when fully known are most 
 effectual to defend and confirm our faith, are 
 often half told, and so contribute to unsettle 
 
 Books which present science in a popular form, and take 
 occasion thereby to throw out doubts on the most solemn and 
 momentous subjects, come precisely under the censure which 
 ' Plato so well passed upon similar productions of the sophistical 
 school of Athens. Speaking of Theuth, the supposed inventor 
 of letters, he says, in the person of one Thamus : ovkow fxvtjut]^ 
 
 a\\' virofxvtja-ew! (papfxaKou evpe^ a-o(p'ia^ oe toT? fxadrjTal^ Zo^av 
 oVK dX^deiav iropi^ei^' iroXvtjicoot yap <roi jevofxevoi avev cica-y^t}^^ 
 'TToXvyvoi/xove'S elvai Z6^ov(ti, a.yviofxov€? w^ em to irXrjdo^ oure<: 
 Ka\ ■ya\€7ro\ ^vveTi/ai. ho^d(ro(poi yeyovore^ avTi aoipiav. Flat. 
 
 Phaedr. p. 275. See Van Heusde Init. Philosoph. Platon. 
 Vol. II. p. 120. 
 
12 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 the minds of those who must take at second- 
 hand all that their instructor details to them, 
 while that instructor is insidiously labouring 
 to undermine their belief in Christianity. 
 And amidst the forms under which infidelity 
 is continually presenting itself to our notice, 
 there are arising monstrous forms of super- 
 stition taking fast hold of minds unoccupied 
 by truth. The extended, and it is to be 
 feared, extending influence exerted by what 
 is called Mormonism, is the most obvious 
 proof of this assertion, and affords a striking 
 illustration of the connexion between infi- 
 delity and superstition, which has been ob- 
 served in all ages of the world ; as if these 
 two were content, by a mutual compact, to 
 share a divided empire over the hearts of 
 mankind, or as if they were, as in truth they 
 are, servants of a common master, who by 
 different measures are furthering the same 
 cause, and are employed by him, in virtual 
 league, though often with mock hostility, to 
 lay waste and desolate the fair places of the « 
 earth. 
 
 The inspired Apostle has described the 
 last days in terms which seem to deserve 
 peculiar attention in times like the present ; 
 for he there predicts the simultaneous growth 
 of immorality, infidelity, and superstition. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 13 
 
 "For men shall be lovers of their own selves 
 ...heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more 
 than lovers of God : having a form of godli- 
 ness, but denying the power thereof... ever 
 learning, and never able to come to the know- 
 ledge of the truth.... Evil men and seducers 
 shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and 
 being deceived'." And I am disposed to 
 refer to this chapter of Holy Writ upon the 
 present occasion, for two reasons : because it 
 forms part of an Epistle especially addressed 
 to ministers of the Gospel ; and because it 
 is followed by instructions as to the mode of 
 meeting the dangers which it foretells. For 
 in alluding to the spiritual condition of our 
 people, T cannot forget that I am addressing 
 a body of men whose duty and calling it is to 
 counteract these evil tendencies. I cannot 
 forget that the corroboration of the faith was 
 a primary object with those benefactors to 
 whom we owe the various foundations in this 
 our University ; that theological studies are 
 those which should here be most carefully 
 fostered, and can here be most effectually 
 pursued; and that from hence there goes 
 forth yearly a large proportion of those who 
 bind themselves, by the special vows of mi- 
 nisters of our Church, to do battle as cham- 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 2—13. 
 
14 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 pions of the faith under the great Captain of 
 our salvation. I cannot forget that I am 
 addressing many who will ere long be actually 
 engaged in encountering those moral evils 
 which I have thus attempted to describe. 
 And this portion of Scripture will also sug- 
 gest to us the method in which we are to 
 meet our perils. " Continue thou," says S. 
 Paul to Timothy, " in the things which thou 
 hast learned and been assured of, knowing of 
 whom thou hast learned them ; and that from 
 a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
 which are able to make thee wise unto sal- 
 vation through faith which is in Christ Jesus^" 
 This often-quoted passage may yet be advan- 
 tageously repeated, in order that we may be 
 impressed with the necessity of seeking the 
 assurance of faith, in a careful and patient 
 study of the sacred volume, a serious regard 
 to the sources from which instruction comes, 
 and a recurrence to those principles upon 
 which the faith has been established, and by 
 which alone it can be maintained and se- 
 cured. The tendency to negation which we 
 observe in superficial enquirers must be met 
 by the exhibition of positive truths. The 
 doubts circulated by false teachers must be 
 invalidated, not merely by the refutation of 
 ' 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15. 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. 15 
 
 them as they arise, but by the supply of such 
 information as will be likely to render them 
 harmless. The efforts of the adversaries 
 increase the need of skill and learning on the 
 part of all who would defend the faith. For 
 such a purpose it is very desirable that we 
 should acquaint ourselves with the labours of 
 past generations, in answering objections and 
 establishing the evidences of Christianity, for 
 we shall find that errors are constantly repro- 
 duced. The same tendencies in the human 
 mind will of themselves lead to the same 
 results; and nothing is more common with 
 those who would overthrow Christianity, than 
 to make use of objections brought forward 
 long ago, as though they were now for the 
 first time discovered and promulgated ^ The 
 freshness of originality has generally a pecu- 
 liar charm, and the power of dressing up old 
 and often-repeated doubts has not unfrequently 
 won attention for an author which the real 
 strength of his arguments little deserves. To 
 
 ^ This is seen most remarkably in Mr F, W. Newman's 
 Phases of Faith : where every one of the objections he states as 
 newly occurring to himself, and as insuperable, have been brought 
 forward and discussed over and over again, both by infidel 
 and Christian writers. It is evident how much force these 
 objections would have lost had they been stated as they really 
 are, as difficulties which had been raised, not to say answered 
 already, by other men. 
 
16 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 be able to shew that there is, after all, no 
 novelty in what has been urged, that the very 
 same questions have received the attention of 
 men of thought and power in times past, who 
 have left recorded either the solution of the 
 difficulty or a declaration that it has in no way 
 shaken their faith, will of itself go far to 
 invalidate the effect of objections so unfairly 
 insisted upon. 
 
 And, moreover, it is of infinite consequence 
 that we be provided with positive arguments 
 in support of the cause which we espouse. 
 For if we weigh against the objections which 
 are so constantly brought forward, the mass of 
 evidence attesting the truth of that against 
 which these objections are urged, the com- 
 parison of the former with the latter will make 
 them appear paltry and insignificant, though 
 they might by themselves have seemed by no 
 means inconsiderable. The most powerful 
 mode of denying falsehood is by asserting 
 truth. How necessary then is it, even to our 
 own stability and peace of mind, that we 
 should acquaint ourselves with the history of 
 the past, that we may know by experience 
 the weapons by which error has been suc- 
 cessfully controverted, and may be furnished 
 with the numerous arguments for the truth 
 which the learning of other ages has supplied. 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. 17 
 
 It is thus that the labours of the good and 
 great live after them, and they being dead yet 
 speak- 
 But it were indeed a fallacy to suppose that 
 faith can be built up upon mere learning. 
 One of the chief weapons in the Christian 
 armoury is " the sword of the Spirit, which 
 is the word of God^" "The word of God is 
 quick and powerful, and sharper than any 
 two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
 asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
 and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts 
 and intents of the heart^." It is the first and 
 highest duty of the minister to apply the 
 word of God, as the Apostles applied it, to the 
 hearts of men — to convince them of sin — to 
 awaken their consciences from dead works to 
 serve the living God, to exhibit to them their 
 responsibilities as moral agents and as ser- 
 vants of the Most High, to set before them 
 the mysteries of godliness, the justice and 
 majesty of their Almighty Creator, the tender 
 love of their compassionate Father. It were 
 hopeless to expect that learning and research 
 should be the sole or even the principal means 
 of winning souls to God. Knowledge and 
 holiness must grow up side by side. Igno- 
 rance and impurity are alike incompatible 
 
 ' Eph. vi. 17. 2 Heb. iv. 12. 
 
 C. H. L. 2 
 
18 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 with faith. We must render our bodies a 
 living sacrifice — we must be transformed by 
 the renewing of our minds, that we may prove 
 what is that good and acceptable and perfect 
 will of God \ 
 
 It might have been deemed superfluous 
 to say even thus much of the distinction be- 
 tween the inward apprehension of religious 
 truth, and the study of its history and its 
 evidences — a distinction which has been uni- 
 formly maintained by our divines, and is 
 practically enforced by every preacher of the 
 Gospel throughout the land. But it has been 
 attempted of late to cast a reproach upon our 
 Church, by representing that she is endea- 
 vouring to convert a population sunk in igno- 
 rance and heathenism by no other means than 
 the use of logical and historical proofs. And 
 the inference has been drawn that all systems 
 of theological learning are not only useless, 
 but actually antagonistic to the true spirit of 
 Christianity ^ We may appeal to the ho- 
 
 ' Rom. xii. 1, 2. 
 ' The same writer, to whom I have alluded in a former 
 note, Mr F. W. Newman, has dwelt upon this topic in his 
 book on " The Soul," entirely overlooking the practical teach- 
 ing of all our parish-priests, and speaking with great contempt 
 of the use of theological learning to defend the faith. Plow 
 this can be reconciled with his own logical attempts to over- 
 throw Christianity, or how such attempts are to be met with- 
 out learning, does not appear. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. Ift 
 
 noured names of the past as affording the best 
 refutation of such an assertion. Has the learn- 
 ing of a Ridley, a Hooker, a Beveridge, or a 
 Wilson, made them ineffectual ministers of 
 the Word of God? Has the flame of piety- 
 burnt less brightly when human learning, 
 human industry, and human research, have 
 been employed upon the objects of faith, and 
 consecrated to the service of God ? 
 
 The attempt to separate absolutely reli- 
 gious feeling from intellectual culture, is con- 
 nected with a form of error, which seems to 
 possess for some peculiar attractions ^ The 
 name of Christianity has been preserved, the 
 spirit of Christianity has been insisted upon, 
 sometimes with eloquence and apparent feel- 
 ing, but it has been represented as essential 
 to the true development of this spirit that 
 we should abandon the form. We have been 
 told, that if we are to imitate the early 
 preachers of Christianity, we must propose 
 our appeal to the faith of others, to be tested 
 by the inward and spiritual evidence ; then, 
 
 ^ This has been seen on many different occasions. The 
 Pietists of the 17th century in Germany afford an instance of 
 this feeling, arising in the first place from the genuine earnest- 
 ness of Spener, but degenerating into ignorant fanaticism. The 
 Pietists were, however, truly Christians, and would have sym- 
 pathized very little with such spiritualists as those of our own 
 day. 
 
 2—2 
 
20 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 and then only, shall we be upon the Apostles' 
 track ; that religion can never resume her 
 pristine vigour, until she becomes purely 
 spiritual, and, as in apostolic days, speaks 
 only to the soul; that the problem for all 
 who wish to save cultivated Europe from 
 pantheism, selfishness, and immorality, is 
 to extract and preserve the heavenly spirit 
 of Christianity while neglecting its earthly 
 husk^ 
 
 Now although we recognize a broad dis- 
 tinction between any mere human teaching, 
 and that teaching which based its authority 
 upon miracidous gifts and supernatural com- 
 munications, yet we may gather sufficient 
 to inform us of the method of apostolical 
 teaching so far as it is proposed for our imi- 
 tation. And the examination of the Epistles 
 for this purpose will shew how widely the 
 spirituality of the Apostles differs from mo- 
 dern spiritualism. The Epistles of S. Paul, 
 remarkable as they are for spirit-searching 
 appeals to the inner man, are equally remark- 
 able for logical reasoning, and arguments in 
 which another inspired penman tells us there 
 were things hard to be understood^. And if 
 S. Paul lays less stress upon historic proof, it 
 is plainly because he was addressing those by 
 
 1 Newman on " The Soul," p. 207- ^ g. Peter. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 21 
 
 whom his facts were undisputed. For while 
 the Apostle does not deem it necessary to 
 prove particulars which no one pretended to 
 gainsay, he uniformly makes the facts of our 
 Lord's history the groundwork of his admo- 
 nitions. To give witness of the Resurrection 
 was the professed commission of an Apostle^ 
 And the Epistle to the Romans sets out with 
 the Resurrection as furnishing an attestation 
 to our Lord's Divinity : " Paul, a servant of 
 God, called to be an Apostle, separated unto 
 the Gospel of God (which He had promised 
 afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,) 
 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 which was made of the seed of David accord- 
 ing to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of 
 God with power, according to the Spirit of 
 holiness by the resurrection from the dead^." 
 Again, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 he introduces his discussion on the Resurrec- 
 tion by a brief summary of the evidences^, 
 and proceeds to confirm it by logical argu- 
 ments. And so throughout his Epistles there 
 is a constant reference to the great facts of 
 our religion, as furnishing the very keystones 
 of the spiritual temple, which he is commis- 
 sioned to aid in rearing. Indeed, there is not 
 an Epistle which does not bear direct evidence 
 1 Acts i. 22. 2 Ron,, i, i_4. 3 i Cor. xv. 4—8. 
 
22 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 to the assertion, that historic facts and logical 
 proofs are the starting-points of all apostoli- 
 cal spirituality. 
 
 But the different direction of the apostolic 
 and the modern spiritualism is most clearly 
 seen in their ultimate divergence. To glory 
 in the Cross of Christ, to be absorbed in the 
 contemplation of the mysterious and solemn 
 acts by which man was redeemed, was the 
 wisdom of those who became, in the Apostles' 
 sense of the word, perfect. It is melancholy 
 but instructive to observe the different issue 
 of modern spiritualism. For we find the 
 same persons who would thus reduce reli- 
 gion to mere feeling, are ever ready to raise 
 objections to its system, as making demands 
 upon the reason which cannot be supported — 
 repeating afresh the old objection of Celsus, 
 that the faith of the Christians is an un- 
 reasoning and unreasonable faiths Those 
 who have begun by professing allegiance to 
 the spirit of Christianity, without deeming it 
 necessary to insist upon the form, have aban- 
 doned one by one all its doctrines, all its 
 facts. And then they seem impelled not only 
 to desert but to disprove, not only to neglect 
 but to attack, the system which they have 
 abandoned. The pains bestowed to effect 
 
 ' Neander'sCh. Hist. Vol. i. p. 97- Eng. Trans. Lond. 1850. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 23 
 
 this purpose can scarcely be explained by 
 any other supposition, than that they have 
 begun to hate that which they have ceased 
 to love. The weapons of logic so depreciated 
 as weapons of defence, are used with eager- 
 ness as weapons of attack. Learning and 
 ingenuity, which were deemed so unworthy 
 assistants of the champions of the truth, are 
 unscrupulously employed to overthrow it. It 
 is sad indeed to contemplate the progress of 
 such speculations ; to mark the pains with 
 which every possible objection is sought out 
 and brought together ; the disingenuity with 
 which old questions are stated anew, while all 
 reference to their having been considered and 
 answered is suppressed ; to observe how one 
 by one every Christian principle is given up ; 
 until the beneficial results of Christianity, 
 which have been hitherto unquestioned, are 
 assigned to foreign causes utterly inadequate 
 to account for them ; and the demoralizing 
 and debasing system of Mahometanism is 
 elevated to the disparagement of the religion 
 of Christ; and all this accompanied by a 
 profession of abiding by the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity K 
 
 ^ It has frequently been remarked that infidels have 
 always had a peculiar predilection for Mahometanism. There 
 is a curious illustration of this in an anecdote given of himself 
 
24 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 These unhappy conclusions may teach us 
 the inseparability of the spirit and the doc- 
 trines of Christianity, and may convince us 
 that a sober and serious study of its external 
 features is not only not inconsistent with, but 
 is greatly conducive, if not absolutely neces- 
 sary, to a just appreciation of its internal 
 excellence. And while the attacks which 
 proceed from these quarters are the best 
 proofs of the necessity of being armed at all 
 points, of neglecting no study, no branch of 
 learning which may throw light upon the 
 
 by Mr F. W. Newman, who tells us that while he was at 
 Aleppo, he one day got into religious discourse with a Mo- 
 hammedan carpenter, which left on him a "lasting im- 
 pression." After Mr N. had addressed him, the Mohammedan 
 replied, " I will tell you. Sir, how the case stands. God has 
 given to you English a great many good things. You make 
 fine ships, and sharp penknives, &c. ; all this is of God. But 
 there is one thing which God has withheld from you, and has 
 revealed to us : and that is, the knowledge of the true religion 
 by which one may be saved." "We can scarcely be surprized 
 at any conclusion to which a person arrives who at a time at 
 which he imagines himself a most zealous Christian, allows his 
 faith to be shaken by a " lasting impression " from such a com- 
 mon-place remark as this. This same author, after having 
 accumulated together and admitted as unanswerable every ob- 
 jection against Christianity, dismisses the positive arguments 
 in its favour very summarily ; e. g. asserting that " the moral 
 advantages which we owe to Christianity have been exagge- 
 rated by the same party spirit ;" and instancing the social 
 elevation of women and of the sanctity of the marriage tie 
 as having their origin, not in the diffusion of Christian prin- 
 ciple, but in " Germanic soundness of heart !" 
 
L] MODERN INFIDELITY. 25 
 
 foundations of our faith, lest we be found, like 
 the philosophers of old, with a sword, but with- 
 out a shield' — while these attacks, combined 
 with the other circumstances to which I have 
 referred, prove that for mere self-defence the 
 study of the Christian evidences is imperative 
 upon every Christian minister, they may 
 suggest to us that this study need not be 
 barren of spiritual interest, or unproductive of 
 spiritual improvement. And as we observe, 
 that for the edification of the infant Church 
 God was pleased to appoint diversities of ad- 
 ministration, to set some apostles, and some 
 prophets, some teachers, to institute miracles, 
 gifts of healing, helps, governments, and 
 diversities of tongues ; the nature of such 
 offices denoting that an appeal was made to 
 the senses, to the heart, and to the under- 
 standing; so it is evident that there are still 
 many members, but one body, that every 
 member has its own office, and that the weak- 
 ness of one is felt by all the rest. We must 
 have learning as well as piety, sober thought- 
 fulness as well as energetic vigour. And every 
 office rightly performed in the cause of the 
 Church of Christ is honourable to men. Let 
 those who are looking forward to the time 
 
 ^ " Gladium habent, scutum non habent." — Lactant.Div. 
 Inst. Lib. ni. § 4. 
 
26 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 when they shall enter upon the sacred pro- 
 fession of the ministry be careful honestly to 
 perform the task now before them. There 
 are offered to them here opportunities (which 
 will never again be within their reach) of 
 strengthening their minds by earnest study, 
 and of acquiring knowledge which will be 
 invaluable to them in their future career of 
 active usefulness. And may I be permitted 
 to a address one word to those who have 
 already undertaken the sacred office, and 
 are exercising it here as teachers and go- 
 vernors. None can be insensible of the 
 influence which the general tone of thought 
 and opinion among the older members of 
 the University exercises upon their younger 
 brethren, and through them upon the nation 
 at large. Of how vital importance is it that 
 there should he maintained here a school of 
 sound theology, formed by careful and patient 
 study of all the branches of that chief science, 
 and confirmed by the just apprehension of 
 literature and of science, which may be ex- 
 pected to find their place in a body like our 
 own. Only let each of us gird himself to his 
 peculiar task with a remembrance of the truth 
 which S. Paul so constantly impresses upon 
 all, that there are diversities of administra- 
 tions, but it is the same Spirit who worketh all 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 27 
 
 in all. Let none approach to his work un- 
 conscious of the presence, or unmindful of the 
 assistance of the Holy Spirit. *' Having then 
 gifts differing according to the grace that is 
 given to us, whether prophecy, let us pro- 
 phesy according to the proportion of faith ; or 
 ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he 
 that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that ex- 
 horteth, on exhortation ^" 
 
 The student or the teacher of the Word of 
 God must ever bear in mind on how holy a 
 subject he is engaged, and not presume to 
 approach it with cold indifference, as if, on 
 the one hand, there were no danger in error, 
 and on the other, he had nothing to lose or 
 gain in the issue of his labours. The frequent 
 entreaties of S. Paul for the prayers of his 
 converts, that he might be strengthened for 
 the work in which he was engaged, may teach 
 us in what spirit we should enter upon all our 
 enquiries which have reference to the truth of 
 that scheme which we have been taught to 
 receive as a revelation from the Most High : 
 neither laying aside nor overbearing our 
 understanding, but applying it to those ob- 
 jects, and those alone, which are properly 
 within its reach, judging spiritual things by 
 spiritual, and besides, giving all diligence to 
 
 ^ Rom. xii. 6 — 8. 
 
28 MODERN INFIDELITY. [Lect. 
 
 add to our faith virtue, and to virtue know- 
 ledge ^ 
 
 The remarks which I have made upon the 
 nature of the opposition offered by the ene- 
 mies of the Gospel may suffice to convince us 
 of the importance of that department of the 
 Christian ministry to which it is the especial 
 purpose of these Lectures to invite your atten- 
 tion ; namely, that of weighing and consider- 
 ing the foundations of our faith. And it has 
 appeared to me to bear upon questions of 
 great interest in the present day, to attempt 
 to determine the relative force of the two 
 principles of reason and authority, in sustain- 
 ing the assurance of faith. 
 
 The two principles have too often been 
 arrayed one against the other, but in their 
 legitimate exercise furnish mutual support. 
 Authority must often appeal to reason, and 
 reason prompt submission to authority. And 
 we shall endeavour, upon a future occasion, 
 to shew that it is the characteristic of Chris- 
 tianity, that it brings both into harmonious 
 action, and that any disturbance of this 
 harmony by an undue exaltation of one or 
 the other prmciple has an injurious effect 
 upon the integrity of our faith, and the purity 
 of our religion. 
 
 ' 2 Pet. i. 5. 
 
I.] MODERN INFIDELITY. 29 
 
 May God grant unto me such a measure 
 of His grace, that I may speak nothing which 
 is not in conformity with His will ; and that 
 my words, feeble and imperfect though they 
 be, may conduce, in some degree, to the end 
 for which the Apostle made request in every 
 prayer in behalf of the disciples at Philippi, 
 that your love may abound yet more and 
 more, in knowledge and in all judgment ; that 
 ye may approve things that are excellent ; 
 that ye may be sincere and without offence 
 till the day of Christ; being filled with the 
 the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus 
 Christ unto the glory and praise of God\ 
 
 1 Philip, i. 9— II. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 REASON AND AUTHORITY. 
 
 Preached on Easter Day. 
 
 ISAIAH XLIII. 8, 9. 
 
 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf 
 that have ears. Let all the nations he gathered to- 
 gether, and let the people he assembled: Who among 
 them can declare this, and shew us former things I let 
 them bring forth their witnesses, that they may he jus- 
 tified, or let them hear and say, It is truth. 
 
 rpHE crowning miracle of Christianity in 
 -^ commemoration of which we this day 
 keep high festival, is one which is very sig- 
 nificant of the nature of our religion. The 
 triumph effected over sin and death when the 
 Son of God burst the barriers of the tomb 
 was typical of the triumph of His Church 
 over the powers of darkness. And the tes- 
 timony upon which the Resurrection was 
 established is the same in character as the 
 testimony offered in behalf of the whole 
 scheme of Christianity. 
 
 It was predicted by the word of God, 
 announced by celestial messengers, con- 
 firmed by sensible evidence, and promulgated 
 by human testimony. It was received, not 
 
Lect. II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 31 
 
 without reluctance and incredulity, but doubts 
 and slowness of heart were made to con- 
 tribute to the assurance of faith. And not 
 only were there direct evidences to support it, 
 but the effects which followed, the power of 
 God making itself manifest in supernatural 
 gifts, in moral excellency, and in spiritual 
 fervour, proved to the satisfaction of thou- 
 sands that the cause was of God. The wit- 
 nesses were brought forth, the preachers jus- 
 tified, and the multitudes heard and said, It 
 is truth. 
 
 Reason and authority combined to esta- 
 blish the hopes which result to us from the 
 resurrection of our Lord. Upon these two 
 principles must all truth be built up ; and 
 it is a proof of the divine origin of Chris- 
 tianity, that in calling upon us at the same 
 time to think and to believe it appeals to 
 principles deeply seated in our common na- 
 ture, in a manner undiscoverable in any other 
 system of religion or philosophy. 
 
 Every form of Paganism with which we 
 are acquainted was propounded to the mul- 
 titude for absolute and unconditional accept- 
 ance. If hidden truths lay beneath external 
 signs (such as ingenious men have discovered 
 even in the most revolting symbols), the com- 
 mon people neither recognized nor suspected 
 them. They were neither taught nor per- 
 
32 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect 
 
 mitted to scan the purport of the rites which 
 were adopted, or to question the authority 
 upon which they were received. And al- 
 though intellectual culture commonly origi- 
 nated with a priestly caste, and the tirst 
 efforts of thought were directed to sacred sub- 
 jects, yet the nature of these efforts among 
 the heathens was such as to further the sepa- 
 ration, not to promote the union, of reason 
 and authority. The priests made no attempt 
 to explain the principles of their religion to 
 those who were to be brought under its in- 
 fluence, but reserved what was retained of 
 truth for the initiated alone. Thus did the 
 priests in public call upon the multitude to 
 listen to authority without reason, while in 
 private they guided their own speculations 
 by reason without authority. The philoso- 
 phers proceeded openly in the latter direction. 
 For they, not being bound by interest and 
 profession to the externals of religion, dis- 
 regarded it altogether in their search after 
 truth, conforming merely so far as was neces- 
 sary to escape persecution and disgrace. 
 
 In India, the religious system contained 
 in the Vedas was at first adopted with blind 
 submission. This unreasoning reception was 
 infringed by the subtle and allegorizing com- 
 mentaries of the Mimansa, and soon followed 
 by an abandonment of those books upon 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 33 
 
 which the earlier speculations had proceeded, 
 and to the establishment of a system of philo- 
 sophy, whose very denomination avowed that 
 it recognized no God^ 
 
 In Greece the Orphic mysteries were the 
 results of the first exercise of thought in the 
 same direction as that which had been taken 
 by the school of the Mimansa. But the sepa- 
 ration between religion and philosophy was 
 yet more rapid and decided. It is not im- 
 possible that Thales conceived it to be no 
 wide deviation from the popular belief, when 
 he derived the gods of his countrymen from 
 the primal element in which he sought the 
 origin of all things. But the various schools 
 of philosophy which soon arose in Greece, 
 whether they inclined to Pantheism, Deism, 
 or Atheism, had this in common, that they 
 entirely disregarded, if they did not openly 
 controvert, the tenets of the national religion. 
 And when for physical speculations enquiries 
 were substituted concerning more intimately 
 the nature and well-being of man, the phi- 
 losophers had the less prospect of success 
 because they were cut off from one of the 
 sources from which the truth they sought was 
 to be derived. The sophists denied boldly the 
 
 ' Nir-Iswhara Sankhya : Sankhya sine Deo. See Cousin, 
 Histoire de la Philosophie, Lect. 5. 
 
 C. H. L. 3 
 
34 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 existence of any standard, whether of know- 
 ledge or of virtue, and arrived at conclusions 
 so absurd and immoral as to evince the un- 
 soundness of their hypothesis, while their 
 great opponent, who was ever labouring to 
 establish fixed principles, looked to pure 
 reason for their discovery. His well-known 
 maxim, Know thyself, referred to a scientific 
 knowledge of the nature of the soul in general, 
 not to a studious self-examination of the in- 
 dividual heart ; and it was the groundwork of 
 all his teaching, that if the understanding 
 were once really informed, immoral acts 
 would be impossible. But it is very instruc- 
 tive to observe, how the master-minds of old, 
 with their exaggerated estimate of the intel- 
 lectual powers, yearned after external revela- 
 tion. Divination, prodigies, and oracles, were 
 caught at by Socrates, as supplying, in some 
 sort, those authoritative communications the 
 want of which was felt and confessed \ And 
 Plato based whatever hopes remained to him 
 of rescuing his countrymen from the corrup- 
 tion and ignorance in which they were in- 
 volved, upon the possibility that there might 
 arise some teacher perfectly instructed in all 
 the highest truths of morality, to reorganize 
 the state upon new principles, and command 
 
 ' Xen. Mem. i. 4, 15. 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 35 
 
 by position and character the respect and 
 obedience of the community ^ But, destitute 
 as they were of this aid, the philosophers 
 had little choice but to seek by reason alone 
 the truths which concerned the happiness of 
 mankind. Thought thus uncontrolled, natu- 
 rally took different directions, and this diver- 
 sity evinced the inefficacy of the methods 
 pursued. The result was, that profession of 
 uncertainty, which appeared among the New 
 Academicians, expressive of doubtfulness as 
 to the conclusions of other schools, and little 
 or no certainty in the opinions adopted by 
 their own^. 
 
 Side by side with this system of mere 
 probability, there was yet one school which 
 took higher grounds, and reached, perhaps, 
 the farthest point attainable by the unassisted 
 efforts of man in the determination of the 
 principles of morality. The Stoics resolutely 
 maintained the absolute sufficiency of pure 
 reason to arrive at knowledge adequate to the 
 wants of the human race. And in the Stoicism 
 
 ^ Plat. Rep. VI. pp. 491 — 502, where he discusses the cause 
 Tij<s TtSv iroWdov trovripia^, and the possibility of their improve- 
 ment. " Optime Plato horum nihil sciri posse dicebat sine 
 oraculo." Grot, de Ver. Christ. Eel. iii. 12. 
 
 * Fiducia illi (Ciceroni) defuit ignoranti veritatem, quod 
 ipse simpliciter in eodem opere confitetur. Ait enim facilius 
 se posse dicere quod non sit, quam quod sit; hoc est, falsa 
 se intelligere, vera nescire. Lact. D. I. i. 17- 
 
 3—2 
 
3^ REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 of Epictetus and M. Aurelius we discover a 
 purity and depth that may well command 
 our approbation. But notwithstanding a few 
 cases such as these, the general condition 
 of mankind proved the necessity of other 
 weapons to combat the passions and incli- 
 nations. And while Stoicism had attractions 
 for the loftier spirits, the antagonistic system 
 of Epicurean self-indulgence gained many 
 more votaries ; a system virtually renouncing 
 reason and authority alike, and holding out 
 to every one the gratification of his peculiar 
 tastes and inclinations; a philosophy little 
 deserving the name, but exhibiting the issue 
 of the abnegation of authority in atheistic 
 impiety and unrestrained licentiousness ^ 
 
 The natural tendency of man to seek an 
 authoritative guide was evinced by the forma- 
 tion of schools of philosophy, wherein the dis- 
 ciples in general were content to accept the 
 dogmas of their master as the groundwork 
 of speculation. The few who professed to 
 proceed upon original and independent en- 
 quiry grasped, as we have before said, at 
 the shadow of authority. The greater num- 
 
 * Epicuri disciplina multo celebrior semper fuit quam 
 cjeterorum : non quia veri aliquid afferat, sed quia multos po- 
 pulate nomen voluptatis invitat. Nemo enim non in vitia pro- 
 nus est. Propterea, ut ad se multitudinem contrahat, apposita 
 singulis quibusque moribus loquitur. Lact. D. I. iii. 17' 
 
n.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. ^7 
 
 ber, even of philosophers, were fain to attach 
 themselves to a mightier name than their own, 
 and to seek credit and find assurance in the 
 appeal to some one who had preceded them. 
 
 Meantime, the wants of the great mass of 
 mankind could not but make themselves felt. 
 If the philosophers could have satisfied them- 
 selves with reason, the multitude would have 
 craved for authority. And however perverted 
 might be the expression of their craving, it 
 gave token of an actual want, that demanded 
 and was intended to be supplied. " Nullum vi- 
 tium ita contra naturam est, ut naturae deleat 
 etiam extrema vestigial" The very abomina- 
 tions of idolatry were connected with a genuine 
 impulse of human nature, dictating the neces- 
 sity of having some objects of faith and 
 reverence. Accordingly the impiety of the 
 philosophers (that is, their unceremonious 
 disregard of the common notions of the gods) 
 met with little sympathy at the hands of the 
 populace. Those whose religion had no in- 
 fluence upon their lives, and occupied a small 
 place in their thoughts, were ready to put to 
 death any who dared to impugn the credit 
 of the legends they had been accustomed to 
 accept without question. But blind submis- 
 sion, unaccompanied by moral conviction, led, 
 ' S. Aug. C. D. xix. 12, 2. 
 
38 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 as might have been expected, only to false- 
 hood. The truths derived from primitive 
 tradition, or from the instincts of nature, were 
 more and more obscured by new supersti- 
 tions, and religion lost all but her outward 
 shape, and that deformed and hideous beyond 
 description. And here the voice of reason 
 again made itself heard. There was a limit 
 to the submission of the many as there had 
 been to the independence of the few. Thus, 
 when in the closing days of Paganism, the 
 principles which had been acting indepen- 
 dently came into open collision, and reason 
 was employed in detecting the hollowness 
 of assumed authority, the extremes of each, 
 reckless atheism and blind superstition, stood 
 forth to shew the insufficiency of previous 
 systems, and to prepare men to receive some 
 better scheme, under which reason and autho- 
 rity should find each its proper place in the 
 advancement and confirmation of the truth. 
 
 The expostulations in my text exhibit the 
 method adopted by the Providence of God 
 for the subversion of error and idolatry. The 
 nations are gathered together, the people 
 assembled. The eyes of the blind are to be 
 opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. They 
 are called upon to see and hear the witnesses 
 who stand before them. Then, having been 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 39 
 
 convinced, by experience, of their own igno- 
 rance, and by reason of the authority of Him 
 who addresses them, they are required to 
 hear and say, It is truth. And who are the 
 witnesses upon wliose testimony the truth is 
 to be received? First, the chosen people, 
 declaring to the nations the Unity and Ma- 
 jesty of Jehovah ; and then the chosen mes- 
 senger, announcing more clearly and fully the 
 attributes of the Most High : "Ye are my 
 witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant 
 whom I have chosen : that ye may know and 
 believe me, and understand that I am he : 
 before me there was no God formed, neither 
 shall there be after me. I, even I, am the 
 Lord ; and beside me there is no Saviour. I 
 have declared, and have saved, and I have 
 shewed, when there was no strange god 
 among you : therefore ye are my witnesses, 
 saith the Lord, that I am God^" The nature 
 of the appeal, and of the testimony, proclaim 
 to us that the true religion is both to be 
 believed and to be understood. And if we 
 examine the scheme, w^hether of the Old or 
 of the New Dispensation, as promulgated to 
 the Jews or to the Gentiles, we shall find that 
 union of reason and authority which was 
 wanting in all other religions. 
 
 ' Isai. xliii. 10—12. 
 
40 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 To a people before whom the visible 
 tokens of God's power were continually set 
 forth there was less occasion to insist upon 
 the conviction of the understanding. Yet we 
 do not find the reasonable nature of the im- 
 posed service forgotten or disregarded. In the 
 recapitulation of events of past years, through- 
 out the book of Deuteronomy, Moses urges 
 the experience of former acts of God's power 
 and love, as affording proof that He is great, 
 and greatly to be feared. There is a con- 
 tinual appeal to the reason of those whom 
 he addresses. *'Only take heed to thyself, 
 and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget 
 the things which thine eyes have seen, and 
 lest they depart from thy heart all the days 
 of thy life : but teach them thy sons, and 
 thy sons' sons^" " Ask now of the days that 
 are past, which were before thee, since the 
 day that God created man upon the earth, 
 and ask from the one side of heaven unto the 
 other, whether there hath been any such thing 
 as this great thing is, or hath been heard like 
 it? Did ever people hear the voice of God 
 speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou 
 hast heard, and live ? Or hath God assayed 
 to go and take him a nation from the midst 
 of another nation, by temptations, by signs, 
 ' Deut. iv. 9. 
 
IL] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 41- 
 
 and by wonders, and by war, and by a 
 mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, 
 and by great terrors, according to all that 
 the Lord your God did for you in Egypt 
 before your eyes ? Unto thee it was shewed, 
 that thou mightest know that the Lord he 
 is God ; there is none else beside him^" Re- 
 ligion having been first promulgated by sen- 
 sible tokens of Divine authority, these tokens 
 become the subjects of subsequent reflection, 
 and are proposed as evidences to future ge- 
 nerations of the doctrines which they are 
 called upon to believe. The same method is 
 observable in the inculcation of practical pre- 
 cepts. The king who in Ecclesiastes depre- 
 ciates human learning, and bases wisdom 
 upon the fear of God, is inspired to transmit 
 in the Proverbs a body of divine morality 
 wherein perpetual reference is made to the 
 judgment of reason. "Trust in the Lord 
 with all thine heart ; and lean not unto thine 
 own understanding^." But, "if thou wilt 
 receive my words, and hide my command- 
 ments with thee ; so that thou incline thine 
 ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to 
 understanding ; yea, if thou criest after know- 
 ledge, and liftest up thy voice for under- 
 standing ; if thou seekest her as silver, and 
 ' Deut. iv. 32—35. ' Prov. iii. 5. 
 
42 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then 
 shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, 
 and find the knowledge of God^" And so, 
 in the prophets, all flesh are commanded to 
 be silent before the Lord 2, they are also 
 summoned to reason together^ with Him, to 
 come near together to judgment^. 
 
 But the harmony of God's works is con- 
 stantly interrupted by man. The Scribes and 
 Pharisees aimed at establishing unlimited 
 command over the consciences and under- 
 standing of the people. Blind as they were 
 themselves, they pretended to be leaders of 
 the blind. And the vicious straining of au- 
 thority produced a reaction which did not 
 confine itself to the demolition of the spurious 
 additions to the truth, but went equally 
 wrong in the opposite direction. The Sad- 
 ducees not only disallowed traditions, but 
 refused to accept the system which the word 
 of God prescribed. Adopting reason as their 
 guide, they accommodated Revelation to it; 
 while the Pharisees strained Revelation to 
 the support of their unfounded claims to 
 authority. So that in the corruption of reli- 
 gion there was again a disjunction of the two 
 
 ' Prov. ii. 1—5. "" Zech. ii. 13. 
 
 " Conip. Isai. xliii. 26; Jcr. xii. 1 ; Ezck. xviii. 2 ; Mic. vi. 2. 
 
 ' Isai. xH. 1. 
 
n.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 43 
 
 principles, on the combination of which true 
 religion ever rests. 
 
 The reformation of this corruption was the 
 work of Christianity, which not merely re- 
 stored but perfected the harmonious action of 
 these two principles ; propounding greater 
 mysteries to be received, declaring more 
 truths to be understood. The precepts and 
 the promises of the Gospel were to be re- 
 ceived upon the testimony of Him who de- 
 livered them, and spake with authority, and 
 not as the Scribes. But our Lord was also 
 pleased to convince those whom he com- 
 manded to listen. Even when He spoke in 
 parables he proclaimed, " He that hath ears 
 to hear, let him hear." And it was because 
 they closed their eyes and their ears that 
 light was withdrawn. But with those who 
 came to Him in an honest although ignorant 
 spirit, He vouchsafed to reason ; to convince 
 their understandings as well as illuminate 
 their heart. He explained the difficulties 
 and removed the doubts of enquiring dis- 
 ciples ; and when they were slow of heart to 
 believe all that the prophets had written, 
 ** beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 
 he expounded unto them in all the Scrip- 
 tures the things concerning himself^" And, 
 
 ' Luke xxiv. 27* 
 
44 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 besides the reasonable nature of His words, 
 there was a proof of His authority offered to 
 all in the works which He wrought. These 
 works were evident to the senses, and the 
 mind must have been perverted which failed 
 to draw the inference which the blind man 
 in the Gospel drew upon the recovery of his 
 sight. "Why herein," said he to the cavil- 
 ling Pharisees, "is a marvellous thing, that 
 ye know not from whence he is, and yet he 
 hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that 
 God heareth not sinners : but if any man be 
 a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him 
 he heareth. Since the world began was it 
 not heard that any man opened the eyes of 
 one that was born blind. If this man were 
 not of God, he could do nothing^" For mi- 
 racles are in their very nature an appeal to 
 the understanding through the senses ; and so 
 our Lord represents His words and His works 
 as removing every pretence for disbelief, and 
 shews that after such evidence the rejection 
 of Him must be attributed only to moral 
 causes. " If I had not come and spoken unto 
 them, they had not had sin : but now they 
 have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth 
 me hateth my Father also. If I had not done 
 among them the works which none other man 
 
 ' Joh. ix. 30—33. 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 45 
 
 did, they had not had sin : but now have they 
 both seen and hated both me and my Father^" 
 The Apostles received a commission from 
 their Divine Master to continue the work 
 which He had begun ; and were entrusted with 
 similar powers. And while they insisted 
 upon their claims to attention, they habitu- 
 ally referred to the understanding of those to 
 whom they preached. S. Paul maintains the 
 dignity of his apostleship without reserve. 
 "Am I not an apostle? am I not free? 
 have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? are 
 not ye my work in the Lord^?" *' I declare 
 unto you the Gospel which I preached unto 
 you, which also ye have received, and wherein 
 ye stand ; by which also ye are saved, if ye 
 keep in memory what I preached unto you, 
 unless ye have believed in vain. For I de- 
 livered unto you first of all that which I also 
 received^." " I will come to visions and reve- 
 lations of the Lord^" But he also strengthens 
 his power, and confirms his assertions, by 
 argument and by reasoning. He appeals at 
 various times to the facts of the Gospel his- 
 tory ^ to miraculous gifts^, to his own dis- 
 interested labours^ to the success of his 
 
 ' Joh. XV. 22—25. ' 1 Cor. ix. 1. ' 1 Cor. xv. 1—3. 
 * 2 Cor. xiLl. ' 1 Cor. xv. 3—8. " 1 Cor. xii. 
 ' 1 Cor. ix. 19. 
 
46 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 preachings to spiritual longings^, to inward 
 convictions', to self-searching enquiry^. Thus 
 was it that the converts of the Apostles re- 
 ceived the word which they heard of them, 
 not as the word of man, but, as it was in truth, 
 the word of God^, because their testimony 
 among them was believed^. And the prayer 
 offered by S. Paul, in behalf of the Ephe- 
 sians, stands as a record and pattern of the 
 true principles of the teaching of the Gospel, 
 *' That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit 
 of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
 him : the eyes of your understanding being 
 enlightened ; that ye may know what is the 
 hope of his calling^." 
 
 A review of the history of the Christian 
 Church will shew that it was through de- 
 viation from these principles that error was 
 introduced. In their early conflicts with 
 idolaters the defenders of Christianity had 
 mainly recourse to the weapons of reason ; 
 and their assaults upon the crumbling edi- 
 fice of Paganism were completely successful. 
 The fables of mythology, and the morals of 
 
 ' 2 Cor. iii. 2. ' 2 Cor. v. 4. M Cor. ii. 10. 
 
 * 2Cor.xiii.5. ' ] Thess. ii. 13. 
 
 ' 2 Thess. i. 10. See Pearson " On tlie Creed," Art. i. 
 ' Eph. i. 17, 18. 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 47 
 
 heathendom, were provided with no barriers 
 against their enemies. The method of ex- 
 plaining away by allegory that which could 
 not be defended by argument was now re- 
 sorted to, and it was far from uncommon for 
 the Christian writers to make use of the same 
 weapons as their opponents. The uncon- 
 trolled use of such weapons produced within 
 the Church heretical opinions, which de- 
 manded the interposition of authority to 
 check the extravagance of speculation. The 
 great champions of the faith who were made 
 instrumental in conducting the Christian 
 Church through the struggles of the first four 
 centuries were thus continually called upon 
 to make use of both the principles given to 
 man for the elucidation of the truths But 
 in a subsequent age, when the inroads of 
 barbarism had destroyed nearly all the ves- 
 tiges of past civilization, and confined what 
 yet remained of learning within very nar- 
 row boundaries, authority began to exercise 
 extravagant sway. The great mass of the 
 people were, in truth, little capable of inde- 
 pendent thought, and received implicitly that 
 which was proposed to them. But among the 
 few who were capable of it, thought would 
 yet find its place. The schoolmen, who aided 
 ' See Athanas. Ep. cli. I. § 2. Libr. of the Fathers, Vol. vin. 
 
48 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 SO much in forging the chains for reason, 
 found room for the application of their intel- 
 lectual powers. Hedged in within the limits 
 of councils and decretals, they enjoyed within 
 these limits free licence of speculation. Start- 
 ing from an infallible standard, they made 
 deductions, sometimes ingenious and true, but 
 often fanciful and unreasonable. And these 
 deductions were adopted by their succes- 
 sors as equally incontrovertible, and became 
 the foundation of other arguments and con- 
 clusions, the less rational as they receded 
 further from the original source. Thus was 
 reason converted into logic, and the under- 
 standing tyrannously overborne by mere 
 authority. Nor were there wanting in these 
 darker ages men of genius and power to 
 protest against the slavery to which the intel- 
 lect was subjected : men but half emanci- 
 pated, perhaps, from the thraldom against 
 which they declaimed, or rushing into the 
 opposite extreme to that which they were 
 endeavouring to avoid. 
 
 As knowledge became more general the 
 conflict was carried on with greater ardour, 
 and reason reasserted with continually in- 
 creasing strength the rights of which she had 
 been so long debarred. 
 
 The climax of the struggle was the Re- 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 49 
 
 formation of the sixteenth century. Authority 
 had overstrained her power, and had brought 
 about, as before, a violent reaction. Re- 
 stricted from her legitimate operation, reason 
 had exercised a silent influence, which had 
 produced the most fatal consequences. Scep- 
 ticism and immorality pervaded all ranks. 
 Even the highest ecclesiastical personages 
 were all but professed unbelievers. The 
 heroic spirit of Luther, whose work it was 
 to emancipate reason, did yet greater service 
 in fanning into a new flame the dying embers 
 of vital religion. But the liberation of the 
 human mind was not achieved without vio- 
 lence and evil. The war which Luther waged 
 so successfully, and upon the whole so mo- 
 derately, was soon taken up by men of far 
 less pretensions, who turned liberty into li- 
 centiousness ; and Luther was himself com- 
 pelled to enter the lists on the side of autho- 
 rity when those who called themselves his 
 followers would have trampled her under 
 foot. 
 
 The revival of letters brought with it new 
 illustrations of the truths of Christianity ; but 
 the explosion of past systems, and the dis- 
 covery of the corruptions by which religion 
 had been disfigured, led adventurous minds 
 to build up by philosophy a system professing 
 c. H. L. 4 
 
50 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 to be be independent of revelation. The 
 attempt, which was so unsuccessfully made 
 by the Emperor Julian in the last days of 
 Paganism, has been renewed in various forms, 
 from time to time, since the Reformation. 
 The Deism of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 
 the Atheism of Hobbes, and the Pantheism 
 of Spinosa, were all the results of such endea- 
 vours. And the scepticism of the French 
 school of philosophers was connected with a 
 similar struggle, the movement in this case 
 being as much political as religious. The de- 
 spotic exercise of the power of the state to 
 extinguish civil liberty, and to banish Pro- 
 testantism from France, was followed by a 
 corruption so palpable as to excite the atten- 
 tion of many who became bitter adversaries 
 of religion, because it seemed to them to en- 
 slave the intellect, and to let loose the pas- 
 sions. But they who led on the assault upon 
 the Christian faith discovered little of that 
 earnestness which is the best warrant of sin- 
 cerity. They took up a position purely nega- 
 tive, and instead of correcting the moral 
 evils against which they declaimed, made 
 them a theme for satire and raillery, ridiculing 
 the best and holiest principles of action, and 
 substituting nothing for that which they took 
 away. But views which are purely negative 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 51 
 
 find no permanent favour with mankind, 
 whose very nature prompts them to believe. 
 They leave behind to the future enemies of 
 truth a pernicious legacy of doubts and diffi- 
 culties, but in general men are not attracted 
 by them, but rather cling closer to authority 
 when reason is thus abused. 
 
 The latest effi)rts to dispense with authority 
 have been by no means confined to negative 
 views. They have been made in a country of 
 whose literature it is eminently characteris- 
 tic, to weave together, the results of laborious 
 study by some novel and ingenious hypothesis. 
 This practice has been of late years carried 
 on with the utmost freedom in speculations 
 upon Christianity. Theology has been deemed 
 a science requiring new development, and ad- 
 mitting of new discoveries, in the same manner 
 as the sciences which have been evolved by 
 human thought ; and the authority of Reve- 
 lation has been more and more disregarded. 
 And we can scarcely fail to discover in these 
 efforts of rationalism a principal cause of the 
 increased energy and power, which it cannot 
 be denied that the Church of Rome has, of 
 late years, in some respects displayed. Many 
 whose faith has been shaken by the dispro- 
 portionate exercise of pure reason, have 
 sought refuge in their perplexity in a system 
 
 4 — 2 
 
52 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 from which reason is all but absolutely dis- 
 carded, and authority alone is made the 
 anchor of faith. 
 
 Yet if we would draw a right inference 
 from the observation of the method of the 
 Divine Revelation, and from the history of 
 the past, we may detect the errors of either 
 extreme, and find safety in the middle course 
 adopted and prescribed by our own Church. 
 
 We shall absolutely distrust those who 
 bid us set out upon our search after truth 
 unincumbered by any preconceived opinions, 
 without reference to those who have gone 
 before us, without endeavours to guide our 
 steps by any external aid. To speak of na- 
 tural religion from which revelation is ex- 
 cluded, is to speak of a religion which ia 
 in reality contrary to our nature ; and the 
 profession of any religious system, that it is 
 founded upon authority, is a presumption in 
 favour of rather than against its truth. 
 
 But we shall equally distrust those who 
 bid us make an entire surrender of our reason, 
 and look to authority alone. On this prin- 
 ciple we shall be left without any means of 
 comparing the relative worth of conflicting 
 systems when they offer themselves to our 
 notice. We shall be Pagans in a Pagan land, 
 Mahometans in a Mahometan, Christians in 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 53 
 
 a Christian, and shall in each case be pro- 
 fessors, and not believers. But is it necessary 
 that all or most men should be familiar with 
 the various forms of belief, or should be able 
 to discuss formally the evidences of our reli- 
 gion, and examine critically the objections 
 which may be urged against it ? Far from it. 
 Such enquiries and discussions are in the 
 power only of a few, and in ail cases require 
 to be undertaken with caution and serious- 
 ness. Such studies form part, as we have 
 already said, of the business of a teacher of 
 the Gospel, and the circumstances of the 
 times make it necessary that he should not 
 neglect them. But every one who pursues 
 them must do so in earnest ; for nothing con- 
 duces more to unsettle our own minds and 
 those of others, than to entertain doubts and 
 difficulties hastily and superficially, instead 
 of dismissing them at once, or else sifting to 
 the very bottom the questions which have 
 been raised. If careful and minute inves- 
 tigation be out of our power, we need not 
 dwell on isolated difficulties, but we are not 
 on that account called upon to resign our 
 reason. Coleridge has drawn a distinction 
 between the faculty by which we argue, and 
 that by which we comprehend, and has said 
 that it is the latter by which most men must 
 
54 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 receive the truth. This faculty is cognizant 
 of the broad features that characterize a reli- 
 gion. The superiority of Christendom to all 
 the rest of the world, in science, civilization, 
 and power — the adaptation of our religion to 
 the wants of men — the external testimony we 
 possess from numerous sources — the internal 
 marks of truth and divinity — and the com- 
 bination of these and all other proofs, called 
 by Bp. Butler the general effect of Christi- 
 anity, are appreciable by all, unlearned as 
 well as learned, and unite to establish the 
 authority of that sublime and superhuman 
 scheme to which we are required to bow our 
 reason when we have thus convinced our 
 understanding. 
 
 But we should ill appreciate the wants 
 of men and the fulness with which they are 
 supplied, if we sought for the confirmation of 
 the authority of which we stand in need in 
 mere external evidence or in mere conviction 
 of the understanding. 
 
 Faith is the apprehension of external au- 
 thority by the inner man, not only to the 
 satisfaction of the reason, but also to the in- 
 formation of the heart. The want of the 
 recognition of this inward consciousness con- 
 stitutes an apparent defect in the well-known 
 axiom of Locke : " Whatever God hath re- 
 
II.] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 55 
 
 vealed is certainly true ; no doubt can be 
 made of it ; but whether it be Divine Reve- 
 lation or no, reason must judge." Wherein 
 he seems to make Divine authority to rest 
 exclusively upon human reason. 
 
 In all the systems of Paganism the spiri- 
 tual apprehension of truth was necessarily 
 wanting, but its want was both felt and de- 
 plored. Christianity recommended itself to 
 the heathen in that it declared that unknown 
 power which they had in blindness sought after 
 in vain. Nor was this absent in the Jewish 
 Church. The outpourings of the Psalmist, and 
 the voices of the Prophets, were anticipatory 
 of the more frequent appeals to man's inner 
 spirit which pervade the inspired writings of 
 the New Testament. We have before re- 
 marked upon the exclusive reference to man's 
 spiritual faculties, which has led some to dis- 
 regard and to deny the facts and doctrines of 
 our faith. Such men seek, indeed, an autho- 
 rity superior to reason. But they seek it 
 within themselves, and are led into hopeless 
 delusions which from their very origin can 
 scarcely be dispersed. But as the inward 
 faculty must be exercised upon outward ob- 
 jects, so must the outward objects be appre- 
 hended by the inward faculty, in order to 
 such reception as is properly to be denomi- 
 
56 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. 
 
 nated faith. The inward apprehension no 
 more dispenses with the outward truths than 
 the faculty of intelligence with the things to 
 be understood, the power of sensation with the 
 objects to be perceived. 
 
 The authority we seek as Christians is 
 external but is supernatural, and must there- 
 fore be apprehended by the spirit, while its 
 testimony at the same time is subjected to the 
 examination of the reason. "Wherefore," to 
 adopt the language of one of the most philo- 
 sophical of our divines, " mere speculation 
 and dry mathematical reasoning in minds 
 unpurified and having a contrary interest of 
 carnality and a heavy load of infidelity and 
 distrust sinking them down, cannot alone be- 
 get an unshaken confidence and assurance of 
 so high truths. As it is certain also, on the 
 contrary, that minds purged from vice may, 
 vrithout syllogistical reasonings and mathe- 
 matical demonstrations, have an undoubted 
 assurance of these things according to that of 
 
 the phuosopher, r) KaOapai^ TTOtet ev yvivaei twv 
 
 apiaTwv elmt, ' Purity posscsses men with an 
 assurance of the best things;' whether this 
 assurance be called a vaticination and divine 
 sagacity (as it is by Plato and Aristotle), or 
 faith, as in the Scripture. For the Scripture 
 faith is not a mere believing of historical 
 
IL] REASON AND AUTHORITY. 57 
 
 things, and upon inartificial arguments or tes- 
 timonies only, but is a certain higher and 
 diviner power in the soul that peculiarly cor- 
 respondeth with the Deity. Notwithstanding 
 which, knowledge or science added to this 
 faith (according to the Scripture advice) will 
 make it more firm and stedfast, and the better 
 able to resist those assaults of sophistical rea- 
 sonings that shall be made against it^" 
 
 Thus the objection that has so often been 
 urged by the impugners of the truth, that 
 Christianity commands its votaries to believe, 
 while they give a reason for all things — idle 
 and vain as is the boast — is turned at once 
 against those who urge it. For the instinct 
 of man, as history itself proves, teaches that 
 of every system of religion authority must 
 form an important ingredient, and that the 
 proposition maintained of old by S. Augustin, 
 against the Manichees is true, that it is im- 
 possible to enter upon true religion without 
 first believing those things which shall here- 
 after be experimentally known to the honest 
 believer, and without some reverent submis- 
 sion to the grave empire of authority^ 
 
 Let us, my brethren, never dream of be- 
 lieving without love, or of loving without 
 
 ' Cudworth's Intell. Syst., Pref. p. xlv. 
 2 S. Aug. de Util. Credend. ch. ix. 
 
58 REASON AND AUTHORITY. [Lect. II. 
 
 belief. But as the Apostles of faith and 
 love ran together towards the sepulchre of 
 their risen Lord, and though now one and 
 now the other was beforehand in the race, 
 yet both entered into the place where the 
 Lord had lain\ so in our Christian course 
 let Faith and Love advance together, and 
 each lend to the other strength and support ; 
 Love provoking by its speed the more tardy 
 footsteps of Faith, Faith pointing out to Love 
 the tokens and evidences which surround us, 
 both purging the mental vision of all that 
 can obstruct and retard it, and attuning the 
 heart to the harmony of divinest mysteries, 
 that we may see, understand, and believe. 
 
 ' John XX. Gospel for the Day. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 JAMES I. 21. 
 
 Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is 
 able to save your souls. 
 
 WHILE Christ and his Apostles were upon 
 earth they proclaimed the will of God 
 as known to them by direct communication 
 with heaven. Our Lord was himself the way, 
 the truth, and the life. The Apostles were 
 appointed to declare the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, and were guided by visions and reve- 
 lations to a perfect knowledge of that which 
 they delivered to the saints. The Church of 
 Christ was commissioned to convey to future 
 generations the message originally entrusted 
 to Apostles and Evangelists. But there was 
 no longer need of the same extraordinary 
 interposition to accredit the preachers of the 
 Gospel. The miraculous powers of healing 
 were withdrawn, when the standing miracle 
 of the propagation of Christianity supplied 
 the required evidence of its Divine origin. 
 The miraculous communication of the Divine 
 will was no longer vouchsafed when the 
 
60 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 records of the past contained the Revelation of 
 God to man. There was from this time forth 
 required only some recognized channel for 
 the streams of grace already flowing from 
 the living rock of salvation, some faithful 
 witness of truths already enunciated. 
 
 The standing authority which is to supply 
 the place of Christ upon earth is the word 
 of God enshrined in a written volume, and 
 committed to the custody of the Church, in 
 the same way as of old the finger of God en- 
 graved the commandments upon tables of 
 stone that were laid up for a perpetual testi- 
 mony within the ark of the Sanctuary. For 
 the Almighty has not left the expression of 
 His will either wholly or partially to the 
 uncertainty of oral tradition. The written 
 volume presents itself to our notice as complete 
 and absolute. The Law exhibits Jehovah utter- 
 ing His sacred ordinances and righteous de- 
 crees. The Prophets pronounce themselves 
 divine messengers. The Gospel sets before 
 us a glorious and perfect ministration. The 
 word transmitted by the Apostles is denomi- 
 nated the word of God^ which the Gentiles 
 received 2, and cities and rulers desired to 
 hear^; which grew mightily and prevailed^ 
 
 ^ Heb. xiii. 7- ^ Acts xi. 1. 
 
 • Acts xiii. 7 and 44. ^ Acts xix. 20. 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 61 
 
 For the preaching of the Apostles is said to 
 be the very Gospel of Christ, from which to 
 differ was to be liable to a curse \ their mis- 
 sion, the fulfilling of "the word of God, 
 even the mystery which hath been hid from 
 ages and from generations, but now is made 
 manifest to his saints^." The writers of the 
 New Testament advance the same claims for 
 the sure word of prophecy ^ for all scripture^, 
 and for their own words, setting their seal to 
 the whole of the Sacred Volume as the Book 
 of Divine authority, passing their condemna- 
 tion upon those who corrupt ^ blaspheme ^ or 
 deceitfully handle^ it, and representing it to 
 be the part of a minister approved of God 
 rightly to divide the word of truths 
 
 Such is the character in which the Holy 
 Scriptures present themselves to us. It re- 
 mains to be seen whether their claims are made 
 good, whether we may justly look upon them 
 as the sole depository of infallible truth. 
 Accordingly T propose upon the present occa- 
 sion to consider, how reason and authority 
 combine to confirm the testimony upon which 
 we receive the Holy Bible as the rule of faith. 
 
 1 Gal. i. 8. 2 Col. i. 26. 
 
 3 2 Pet. i. 19—21. * 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 5 2 Cor. ii. 17. 6 Tit. ii. 5. 
 
 7 2Cor. iv. 2. 8 2Tim. ii. 15. 
 
62 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 It has been represented by some that 
 our acceptance of the Scriptures must rest 
 upon the authority of formal decrees, that 
 Councils duly convoked are under the imme- 
 diate guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that 
 their resolutions have the force not merely of 
 sure testimony, but of Divine law. And as 
 this power has been conceived to be inherent 
 in the Church, and to remain unchanged in 
 every age, the Church of Rome, which is ever 
 ready to assume the prerogatives of the Church 
 Universal, has appropriated its exercise to 
 herself, and would persuade us that the re- 
 cognition of her power is necessary to an 
 assured possession of the word of God. This 
 claim was formally advanced at the Council 
 of Trent, in which every determination was 
 prefaced by a declaration of the Divine influ- 
 ence under which the Council met and re- 
 solved. And the Synod not only assumed the 
 right of including in the Canon of Scripture 
 books that had not been recognized by earlier 
 Councils*, but ventured to assert expressly 
 the inspiration of the Latin Vulgate ^ which 
 confessedly differs in many particulars from 
 
 * The Council of Laodicea determined the Canon as our 
 Church receives it, excepting that it admitted Baruch, the 
 Epistle of Jeremy, and the second book of Esdras. 
 
 2 Concil. Trid. Scss. iv. 
 
Ill] THE WORD OF GOD. 63 
 
 the Scriptures as they are transmitted to us 
 in the original languages. So that according 
 to this system the question of the reception of 
 the Scripture is removed entirely from the 
 cognizance of the reason, and made to turn 
 upon the acknowledgement of a living author- 
 ity which deliberates and decrees for man- 
 kind. 
 
 We need not however hesitate to adopt 
 the well-known maxim of S. Augustin, upon 
 which Romanist divines have so strongly 
 insisted : " Non crederem Evangelio nisi me 
 Catholicse Ecclesiae commoverat auctoritas\" 
 *' I should not believe the Gospel, were I not 
 moved to do so by the authority of the Church 
 Catholic." But a definition of the terms here 
 employed is necessary in order to enable us 
 to understand the true scope of the principle 
 thus enunciated. First, The authority is that 
 of a witness or messenger, with no power of 
 changing the message which he is commis- 
 sioned to deliver ; and secondly, the Church 
 which exercises this office is in the true sense 
 Catholic or Universal. 
 
 It is plain that from the first the Scrip- 
 tures were recognized as the rule of faith. 
 " Ye know," says Clement, *' and it is well that 
 ye know the Holy Scriptures, and have looked 
 
 ' Melanctli. Disp. in Luth. Op. Tom. i. f(.l. 439. 
 
64 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 narrowly into the oracles of God ^" "Thus 
 says the Holy word S" " The Scripture saith^" 
 is ever with him a conclusive argument. 
 " The Gospel," says Ignatius, (meaning there- 
 by, as Bishop Kaye has shewn, the written go- 
 spel,) "is the perfecting of immortality^." And 
 again : " We should abstain from such things, 
 and not speak of them, but give heed to the 
 Prophets, and yet more to the Gospel, in which 
 our suffering has been set forth, and our 
 resurrection perfected^" " As Abraham, "says 
 Justin Martyr, " believed the voice of God, 
 and it was imputed to him for righteousness, 
 so we Christians have believed the voice of 
 God, spoken both by Apostles and by Prophets, 
 and have suffered the loss of all things even 
 to death ^" So Tertullian : " I adore the 
 completeness of Scripture. But in Scripture 
 I read nowhere what Hermogenes and his 
 school would teach. If it be written, let them 
 shew it ; if it be not written, let them dread 
 the woe pronounced upon those who add to or 
 take away from the word'." And Irenaeus, 
 
 1 Clem, ad Cor. i. 53. ^ j^j^j ^j^ 55 
 
 3 Ibid. ch. 34 and 35. 
 
 * TO evayjeXiov airapTia-fxa a(pBap<T'ia^, Ignat. ad Philad. 
 
 c. 9. That ivay^^eXinv means a written Gospel, is shewn by 
 Kaye, Just. M. p. 137- 
 
 5 Ignat. ad. Smyr. c. 7. ^ j^gt. jyi Tryph. p. 347, E. 
 
 7 Tertull. adv. Ilermog. ch. 22. 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 65 
 
 " In such things ought we to submit ourselves 
 to God, knowing well that the Scriptures are 
 perfect, as having been spoken by the Word 
 and the Spirit of God^" It is therefore but 
 reasonable to suppose that some agreement 
 must have been come to, whether by formal 
 or by virtual assent, determining the authority 
 to which appeal was to be made. And ac- 
 cordingly the testimony of any ancient writer 
 has far more weight than that which is to be 
 attached to an individual witness. Not only 
 is such testimony valuable as given by one 
 who from the time at which he lived must 
 have been well fitted to j udge of the external 
 evidence upon which particular documents 
 were accepted or rejected, but his decision 
 can be regarded in no other light than as an 
 expression of what was generally received 
 by the Church of which he was a mem- 
 ber ; while the visible communion maintained 
 amongst the various branches of the Primi- 
 tive Church adds to the collective force of 
 the testimony derived from the assertions of 
 individual writers. We thus arrive at the 
 mind of the early Church upon this momen- 
 tous question by records independent of any 
 formal determination ; and it is remarkable, 
 
 * Iren. ad Haer. ii. 47. Comp. v. 30, where he quotes 
 the same verse as Tertnllian. See also iv. 69. 
 
 C.H.L. 5 
 
66 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 that the earliest synodical decrees upon this 
 subject, those of the Council of Laodicea, 
 were drawn up in a form which clearly im- 
 plies that there was a general agreement in 
 the Church as to the books of Holy Writ ac- 
 counted canonical. The list of these books is 
 appended to the 60th canon of the Council, 
 in order to leave no ambiguity in the pre- 
 ceding canon, wherein it is prescribed that 
 none but the canonical books be read pub- 
 licly in the churches ^ 
 
 While, however, we are of necessity car- 
 ried back to the earliest days in our consider- 
 ation of the testimony borne to the authority 
 of holy Scripture, we are not to suppose that 
 the Church has ceased to perform in the pre- 
 sent day the office of a witness and keeper of 
 Holy Writ. The realization in one organized 
 body of the Idea of the Church Invisible, per- 
 fectly joined together under its Divine Head, 
 may well be the subject of holy aspiration and 
 spiritual longings. We know not how far 
 this glorious consummation may hereafter be 
 brought about upon earth ; but the actual con- 
 
 ' Baron. Annal. Vol. rv. App., gives what seem to me 
 valid reasons for fixing the date of this Council at a.d. 320. 
 The 59th Canon runs thus : Quod non oportet privates et 
 vulgares aliquos psalmos dici in Ecclesia, nee libros non 
 canonicos sed solos canonicos Veteris et Novi Testamenti. — 
 Concil. Laod. Canon, in Labbei Concil. Gener. Vol. I. p. 1508. 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 67 
 
 dition of the world wherein we live discovers 
 to us the Visible Church in a less commanding 
 attitude. And we must beware of narrowing 
 its boundaries by any preconceived notions 
 of what may be looked for in a state of ideal 
 perfection. It may be doubted whether at- 
 tempts to define with logical precision the 
 limits of the visible Church have ever been 
 very successful^ Most of such definitions, 
 when pushed to their consequences, have led 
 to results which it has not been found easy 
 to reconcile and explain. Error in doctrine, 
 or defect in constitution, must of necessity 
 in some degree check the flow of life to the 
 particular branch where it occurs ; but it 
 seems more in accordance with Christian hu- 
 mility and charity, which hopeth all things, 
 to leave to God the judgment of churches 
 as well as of individuals, than to apply any 
 formula of man's deduction to determine the 
 amount of error, or the degree of viciousness 
 in constitution, which shall warrant us in 
 
 * The definition given in Art. xix. seems purposely to leave 
 a certain degree of indefiniteness in its determination. The 
 language of it was borrowed, as in many cases, from the theo- 
 logical definition of Melancthon : 
 
 Est itaque Eoclesia congregatio sanctorum in qua Evange- 
 lium docetur, et sacramenta administrantur. 
 
 Ecclesia non est -TroXiTe'ia constituta ordinationibus humanis 
 
 sacrificiorum sacerdotii et rituum. — Disp. Melanc. in Luth. Op. 
 
 Tom. I. fol. 439. 
 
 5 — 2 
 
68 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 pronouncing any branch to be cast forth and 
 withered. We can see throughout the world 
 a Body of believers, separated indeed by 
 diversities of doctrine or of discipline, but 
 united by a recognition of the sacraments of 
 Christ's institution, and by a common pro- 
 fession of faith in Christ as the propitiation 
 for their sins, and the author of their sal- 
 vation. We need not undervalue the pure 
 doctrine and Apostolical constitution of our 
 own Church because we include all who hold 
 these common principles in that Body to 
 the members of which salvation is set forth 
 according to the New Covenant : "It shall 
 come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved^" While 
 then we gather, in the first instance, the tes- 
 timony of the Primitive Church, which, not 
 only from its antiquity, but from its purity 
 and integrity, is deserving of peculiar regard, 
 we may also derive confirmation from the 
 witness borne in the present no less than in 
 past ages by the Visible Church of Christ — 
 the congregation of believers. 
 
 We look to the past, and see issuing forth 
 from the obscure huts of some of the humblest 
 inhabitants of an insignificant country, a 
 scheme which overbears opposition and ad- 
 
 1 Acts ii. 21. 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 69' 
 
 vances onward to take possession of the whole 
 world. We see the ancient idols of mankind 
 fall down before it, while it gathers fresh 
 vigour from the ruin of empires. If at times 
 it is partially obscured by error, or benumbed 
 by inactivity, its strength is dormant, not 
 extinct. It awakes to fresh conquests and 
 fresh triumphs, proving its divine origin by 
 gathering to itself every day nations and 
 kings hitherto unsubdued to its yoke. The 
 watchword with which it has gone forth to 
 conquer is the Word of God. The system 
 has been built up upon the recognition of 
 the divine authority of the Scriptures, and 
 its success affords a strong presumption that 
 the foundation is not unsound. The very 
 existence of the Church of hrist is a stand- 
 ing miracle accrediting the Sacred Book, 
 which is the title-deed of its inheritance. 
 And, moreover, the testimony is ever most 
 valuable, whether it comes from earlier or 
 later times, which is obtained from men who 
 have given evidence, by their lives and by 
 their deaths, of their sincerity and zeal. The 
 holy lives and holy deaths of martyrs and 
 confessors invest their confession of faith with 
 peculiar interest; and although it is not every 
 one that has ventured life for his cause, whose 
 cause is necessarily good, yet when many have 
 
70 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 given similar tokens of their assurance of the 
 same faith, there arises a presumption in fa- 
 vour of their cause, of which it is never easy 
 to dispose. The Visible Church has been set 
 as a city upon the hill, as a beacon to give 
 light to the world. And holy men are the 
 light of the Church. The fruitful evidence 
 of holy living reflects upon the testimony 
 offered to our acceptance a light which adds 
 continually to the illumination of mankind. 
 Let us apply these considerations to the sub- 
 ject of the Holy Scriptures, and we shall see 
 how we may bring to bear upon the question 
 the wide diff*usion of the Christian name, and 
 the zeal which has animated in all ages pro- 
 fessors of the religion of Christ. 
 
 We are surrounded by the glorious com- 
 pany of the Apostles, the noble army of 
 Martyrs, the Holy Church throughout the 
 world. We are compassed with a cloud of 
 witnesses, who speak to us not merely his- 
 torically but morally, with the power of those 
 who have devoted to God's service the talents 
 which He has given them, with the authority 
 of those who have proved their sincerity by 
 the sacrifices which they have made. The 
 learning and piety of former times is a per- 
 petual possession to the Christian. The 
 labours of the servants in their Master's cause 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 71 
 
 are not in vain. The remembrance that men 
 of the profoundest learning, and of unques- 
 tionable integrity have accepted, not without 
 patient study, the claims of the Scriptures to 
 be the written revelation of God's will, can- 
 not fail to influence the sober judgment as 
 well as affect the heart. We naturally seek 
 the support of authority. Can there be au- 
 thority more legitimate than this ? It is no 
 mere prejudice, as infidels delight to style it, 
 which disposes us to believe. It is a pre- 
 sumption supported by reasons so manifestly 
 just and valid, that to neglect it were in truth 
 to neglect a principle which has, and ought 
 to have, weight with all the thoughtful among 
 mankind. " Credo Evangelio, quia me Ca- 
 tholicae EcclesiaB commovet auctoritas." 
 
 Nor need we hesitate to give due and 
 proper weight to the decision of the Church 
 to which we belong. We do not, indeed, like 
 the Romanists, recognize an infallible autho- 
 rity which once accepted precludes the exer- 
 cise of individual thought concerning subjects 
 upon which a determination has been pro- 
 nounced. But we do not forget that our 
 Church can point to its martyrs and confes- 
 sors who have sealed their testimony with 
 their blood. We do not forget the reverent 
 care with which our reformers preserved pri- 
 
72 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 mitive doctrine while they removed spurious 
 additions, — the united learning and zeal for 
 which their names are honoured. We do not 
 forget the piety and intellect which have 
 grown up, and have rendered back to the 
 mother which nurtured them a goodly return 
 of service and of love. We do not forget 
 the activity which our Church is now dis- 
 playing both at home and abroad, giving the 
 truest proof of vitality by winning souls to 
 Christ. Far be it from us to make boast of 
 what has been done. But when with these 
 credentials our Church points to the Bible 
 as the source of all truth, and bids us receive 
 this Book at her hands as the sure evidence 
 of the promises and covenants to which 
 through her we have been admitted, we may 
 listen with reverence as to an honoured 
 parent whose instruction we first receive in 
 faith, and then make our own by reflection. 
 
 It is thus, in fact, that most men do re- 
 ceive the word of God upon a reasonable 
 presumption of its truth. And it is the neg- 
 lect of this presumption, the substitution of 
 what is called pure reason for reason sup- 
 ported by such authority, which has unhap- 
 pily led some to reject the Scriptures. They 
 have deemed themselves at liberty to subject 
 the evidence and the contents of Scripture to 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 73 
 
 the same logical investigation which they 
 are wont to exercise upon any other compo- 
 sition ; and with the utmost confidence in 
 the certainty of the process which they adopt, 
 they have accepted the conclusion without 
 hesitation, sometimes even with a willing ala- 
 crity, which seems to indicate a predispo- 
 sition hostile to the Christian faith. But if 
 there be no such hostility, the very indif- 
 ference is a fault. It assumes that the appre- 
 ciation of the evidences of our religion is to 
 be looked for in the reason alone, that the 
 Revelation of God to man will be established 
 by logical proofs, and will contain nothing 
 but what it falls within the province of reason 
 to judge. When we are conducting any ma- 
 thematical investigation with the principles 
 and laws of the science fully impressed upon 
 our minds, if we arrive at a result which 
 seems to be at variance with these princi- 
 ples, we feel assured that there has been some 
 error in the process which we have adopted. 
 We retrace our steps, we examine our deduc- 
 tions, and often find considerable difficulty 
 in discovering where the error lies; and if we 
 had not faith in our first principles, we 
 should be inclined to pronounce them im- 
 properly assumed; but this faith makes us 
 look closer into the question before us, and 
 
74 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 we generally at last detect the fallacy, and the 
 conclusion is found to confirm the principles 
 which it appeared at first to controvert. 
 A neglect of general principles established 
 by facts otherwise inexplicable has been 
 the main cause of the rejection of the Scrip- 
 tures as the word of God. When a con- 
 clusion has presented difficulty, men have 
 forgotten to question the process by which 
 they have arrived at it, because they have 
 not set out with that faith in their general 
 principles which might have led them to disr 
 trust themselves. 
 
 Authority supplies in the first instance the 
 laws upon which our reasoning is to proceed ; 
 and although the considerations by which 
 these laws have been established may be fitly 
 brought under review, they are not at once to 
 be overturned because the consequences which 
 we deduce from them involve apparent con- 
 tradiction. We must ascertain first whether 
 our method is correct, and next whether it is 
 legitimately applied to the subject before us. 
 
 One instance will best illustrate our mean- 
 ing. The ingenuity of modern criticism has 
 by the application of distinguished learning 
 discovered the errors of early chroniclers of 
 profane history, and by copious knowledge 
 derived from other sources has to a consider- 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 75 
 
 able degree reconstructed the history of an 
 ancient people. Even in such a work few 
 would maintain that all the conclusions are 
 equally well founded, or that the commonly- 
 received narrative has in no case been aban- 
 doned upon insufficient grounds. But these 
 speculations concern questions in themselves 
 indifferent, and are based upon an acknow- 
 ledged absence of original documents. To 
 apply therefore, as has been done, a similar 
 system of critical investigation to the subject 
 of Sacred History, is to ignore the existence 
 of well-attested documents of authentic his- 
 tory, and to forget that this question involves 
 our most sacred duties and obligations. How 
 serious then is the responsibility incurred by 
 one who ventures to press forward an inge- 
 nious hypothesis, the result of unassisted ima- 
 gination, which is at variance with opinions 
 sanctioned by learning and antiquity, and 
 connected with the highest hopes and loftiest 
 aspirations of mankind. "It is the love of 
 Virgil," saysS. Augustin, " engendered in our 
 minds by the commendation bestowed upon 
 him by our forefathers, that prepares us to 
 listen to the numerous disquisitions upon his 
 poetry with minds ready most to approve of 
 those who best exhibit the excellence of the 
 master, and to impute any failure in the ex- 
 
76 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 planation to the defect of the teacher, not to 
 the fault of the poet. Surely we should ap- 
 proach in a similar spirit to those whom the 
 voice of antiquity has proclaimed to have 
 been moved by the Holy Ghost." And yet, 
 says he, in terms which, spoken as they were 
 of the Manichees, read a striking le ? on to 
 the rash broachers of infidel theories in modern 
 days — *' Yet are these young men of intelli- 
 gence so unrivalled, of powers of discovery so 
 wonderful, that with little deep study of the 
 Scriptures, with no help from instruction (for 
 the have never sought it), with no disposition 
 to allow even moderate understandings to the 
 recognized witnesses in favour of the Sacred 
 Volume, they have boldly expressed their dis- 
 belief in its contents, moved by the voices of 
 adversaries who, under the specious pretence 
 of reason, require an assent to assertions far 
 more incredible than the records which they 
 endeavour to disproved" 
 
 But let us not suppose that the appeal to 
 authority upon which we insist, disparages or 
 even dispenses with reason properly so called. 
 The remarks already made have been di- 
 rected to shew the reasonable nature of the 
 authority which they attempt to establish. 
 And the authority being that of a witness, not 
 
 1 S. Aug. de Util. Credend. ch. vi. 
 
m.] THE WORD OF GOD. 77 
 
 of a judge, the testimony must of necessity 
 be subjected to the cognizance of the under- 
 standing. The competency and the honesty 
 of the several witnesses, the extent and force 
 of their testimony, its individual and aggre- 
 gate value, the decision, whether explicitly or 
 implicitly pronounced by persons whose posi- 
 tion and character has enabled them to judge 
 — are all submitted to human reason, whose 
 especial province it is to judge of external 
 tvidences. But there is a very prevalent dis- 
 position among men to be guided more by 
 internal than by external evidences. The 
 collection and the review of the former is a 
 laborious task, and demands so much of n- 
 dustry and research that few are willing to 
 undertake it. To estimate aright internal evi- 
 dence does in reality require no less prepara- 
 tion. But the need of it is less obvious. There 
 are certain common topics of morality, proba- 
 bility, and analogy, of which men in general 
 deem themselves fully competent to judge. 
 And the majority of mankind are too much 
 accustomed to read hastily books, for the real 
 comprehension of which they are ill-prepared 
 by previous information, and to pronounce 
 freely and sometimes dogmatically upon the 
 value or the meaning of their contents. This 
 rash spirit has been productive of the most 
 
78 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 unhappy results in handling the books of our 
 religion. Therefore is it well perhaps to lay 
 more stress upon external than upon internal 
 evidences, because in them we are less liable 
 to be deceived by prejudice or misconception. 
 But the examination of internal evidence is 
 also an important province of reason, and the 
 fulness of Scripture will here too give us 
 abundant matter for thought and investiga- 
 tion. The purity of the precepts delivered — 
 the knowledge of human nature displayed — 
 the accordance of historical description with 
 the times described — the elevation of the prin- 
 ciples set forth above the habits and thoughts 
 of the age — the simplicity and yet dignity 
 of style — the coincidences and harmony of 
 the narrative — its fidelity as confirmed by 
 comparison with profane historians; — these 
 and various other topics present large scope 
 for the exercise of our reason. Indeed, if we 
 view Scripture in its historical aspect as a 
 book embracing events that extend over a 
 space of time exceeding four thousand years, 
 in which there are references to the fortunes 
 of nearly every nation that has taken a promi- 
 nent position upon the earth, references often 
 brief and incidental yet found to correspond 
 with what we know of these nations from 
 other sources, and this more apparently as 
 
III.] THE WORD OF GOD. 79 
 
 fresh discoveries daily open to us fresh sources 
 of information ; if we observe that, occupied 
 as it is with objects so manifold, no plain 
 and palpable error has been made out — or if 
 we view it in its moral aspect, and trace the 
 germs of a morality far surpassing that of 
 all other nations, evident in the rudest ages, 
 gradually unfolding themselves with the ad- 
 vance of time, until they attain full maturity, 
 as developed by the preaching of Christ and 
 His Apostles, so that the Bible is the reposi- 
 tory of all the purest and noblest principles of 
 natural religion — or once more, if we view it 
 in its doctrinal aspect, and see throughout all 
 its parts one consistent and intelligible scheme 
 shadowed out, predicted; and revealed, ob- 
 serving how the new revelation has illustrated 
 and cleared up the obscurer portions of the 
 old, and marking the perfect unity of the 
 whole volume though composed at various 
 times and by so numerous writers — if we view 
 it, I say, in each and all of these aspects, we 
 see a subject fitted for the contemplation of 
 the most profound philosopher, for the exer- 
 cise of the most exalted intellect, and can 
 triumphantly retort the charge of unreason- 
 ableness on those who, notwithstanding these 
 multiplied evidences, suffer special objections 
 to outweigh general proof, and by an exclusive 
 
80 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 contemplation of what seem to them dark 
 spots, lose all sense of the transcendant bright- 
 ness of that word which endureth for ever in 
 the heavens, which has gone forth from one 
 end of the earth unto the other, rejoicing as a 
 giant to run its course. 
 
 But while we thus allude to various con- 
 siderations which tend to establish the autho- 
 rity of the word of God upon the foundation 
 of reason, which seem sufficient to repel the 
 assaults of the adversary, and calculated to 
 produce in those who profess to disbelieve it, 
 a serious apprehension that it may be true, 
 we must not forget that the conviction which 
 begets assurance in the individual is the gift 
 of God. The word that is to save our souls 
 must be engrafted in the heart. And per- 
 haps this is all which Calvin meant when he 
 said that ** men cannot by any argument be 
 brought to believe the Scriptures \" There 
 have been some who have made the language 
 and style of the Scriptures themselves the test 
 and touchstone of their genuineness — main- 
 taining that they bear about them an un- 
 mistakeable impress of their divine origin. 
 
 ^ Inst, Christ. Relig. i. 8, 10, quoted by Jones on the 
 Canon of the New Test. Pt. i. ch. 7 ; who remarks that Calvin 
 does in his next chapter make use of many arguments taken 
 from testimony and tradition for this purpose. 
 
ill.] THE WORD OF GOD. 81 
 
 Nor would I deny that they possess intrinsi- 
 cally a very peculiar force, which displays 
 itself in the most varied operations. By an 
 arrow from this quiver the heart of the unbe- 
 liever has been pierced asunder, by a word 
 from this volume the blasphemer and the 
 profligate have been arrested in their career, 
 the careless has been awakened, the waverer 
 confirmed, the mourner comforted, the broken- 
 hearted healed. Many have felt its living 
 energy rushing upon them as with a mighty 
 wind. For the wind bloweth where it listeth, 
 and we hear the sound thereof, yet cannot 
 tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth\ 
 Yet were it idle to look for means of critical 
 discrimination in a property of Holy Writ, 
 which has reference to the heart alone. The 
 brightness of the Word of God does not 
 illuminate the vision of all upon whom it 
 shines. The companions of Saul saw indeed 
 the light, but it was Saul alone who heard the 
 voice speaking unto him ^. The inward con- 
 sciousness of God's presence in His word is 
 not intended to take the place of intellectual 
 apprehension, but it furnishes that which 
 learning and intellect cannot supply, without 
 which learning and intellect are vain. It is 
 in general the reward and effect of a patient, 
 
 ^ John Hi. 8. ^ Acts xxii. 9. 
 
 C. II. L. 6 
 
82 THE WORD OF GOD. [Lect. 
 
 humble, and devout study of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, with an honest desire to discover therein 
 instruction for our ignorance, support for our 
 weakness, relief for our weariness, reproof for 
 our folly, and pardon for our sins. The soul 
 that after long thirsting in a barren and dry 
 wilderness where is no water, has found the 
 well that springeth up unto everlasting life, 
 cannot doubt the source from which these 
 living waters flow. Experience must imbue 
 the soul with a love for God's word, and 
 teach the true value of the riches which it 
 contains. Where our treasure is, our heart 
 will be also. It is vain to meet the ques- 
 tions of cavillers by an appeal to the internal 
 testimony which is not appreciable by those 
 whom we would answer or convince. Nor 
 dare we say that the Holy Spirit gives to 
 man a power of discerning between this or 
 that book, or authorizes any determination 
 founded upon internal perception of manner 
 or of style. 
 
 Yet for the full apprehension of Holy 
 Scripture the heart must be convinced. The 
 testimony is good and true to those who have 
 learnt its value. Nay, it is the crown to all 
 belief which without it is necessarily imper- 
 fect. The historical, the logical, the moral, 
 must be informed and animated by the spi- 
 
III.] THE WORD OP GOD. 83 
 
 ritual. Thus shall the words of our Saviour 
 become to us that which He Himself de- 
 clared them to be, spirit and life; for " it is 
 the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth 
 nothing'." Thus if we continue in His word, 
 we shall become His disciples indeed, and 
 shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
 us free^ and the God of hope shall fill us 
 with all joy and peace in believing, that we 
 may abound in hope through the power of 
 the Holy Ghosts 
 
 ' John vi. 63. ^ John viii. 31,32. 3 Rom. xv. 13. 
 
 6—2 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 2 TIM. III. 16. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable for doctrine, for reproof , for correction, 
 for instruction in righteousness. 
 
 T HAVE spoken of the foundation upon 
 -*■ which the authority of the word of God 
 rests. The nature of this authority deserves 
 some particular consideration. For the ad- 
 vance of infidelity has commonly been antici- 
 pated and promoted by doubts and objections 
 connected with this subject. In the first 
 attacks upon Christianity it was attempted to 
 destroy all credence in the Holy Scriptures 
 by representing them as mere forgeries and 
 impostures. But research soon demonstrated 
 the weakness of such representations, and 
 fresh evidence was continually brought in to 
 shew that the several books of Holy Writ 
 were the production of the age and country 
 usually assigned to them, and that their au- 
 thors were neither hypocrites nor enthusiasts, 
 but honest and pious men, who spoke the 
 words of sincerity and truth. But Scripture 
 
Lect. IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 85 
 
 having been in one sense acknowledged, its 
 divinity and infallibility became the objects 
 of attack, while the question seemed to be 
 raised among believers themselves as to the 
 sense in which they were to understand the 
 Scriptures to be the word of God. 
 
 This circumstance renders it imperative 
 upon us to examine, in the first place, what 
 Scripture itself professes ; and the very first 
 glance at the contents of the Bible conveys to 
 us its supernatural character. The description 
 of the creation of the world, of the fall of man, 
 of miracles performed, whether by the mi- 
 nistry of angels, or by the direct interposition 
 of Him who created and sustains the universe 
 — the unfolding of the counsels of the Most 
 High by act and by prophecy — the denun- 
 ciation of Divine vengeance upon sinners, 
 and the proclamation of Divine mercy to the 
 repentant — the promulgation of a scheme 
 foreordained by the wisdom of God for the 
 abolition of transgression and the recovery 
 of mankind, manifestly imply a miraculous 
 communication from God to man. The de- 
 clarations of Scripture to this effect are plain 
 andunmistakeable. The statutes which Moses 
 set forth before the people are called by him 
 "the words of God," "the voice of God." 
 The sweet Psalmist of Israel, the anointed 
 
86 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 of the God of Jacob said, " The Spirit of the 
 Lord spake by me, and his word was in my 
 tongue^" " He (the Lord God) spake by the 
 mouth of his holy prophets which have been 
 since the world began 2," said Zacharias, him- 
 self (as the historian tells us) being filled with 
 the Holy Ghost and prophesying^. " The 
 Holy Ghost," says the historian of the Acts, 
 " by the mouth of David spake before con- 
 cerning Judas'^ ;" and again, *' These things 
 God before had shewed by the mouth of his 
 prophets ^" Not to multiply passages repeat- 
 ing the same expressions, S. Peter speaks 
 distinctly in his second Epistle: "No pro- 
 phecy of the Scripture is of any private inter- 
 pretation : for the prophecy came not in old 
 time by the will of man ; but holy men of 
 God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost ^." And whether we adopt our autho- 
 rized translation of my text, which seems 
 most in accordance with the original, or that 
 which we find in the Latin Vulgate, " all 
 divinely-inspired Scripture is also profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 
 struction in righteousness^ :" there is the same 
 
 1 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. 2 L^kc i 70. 3 L^ke i. 67. 
 
 * Acts i. 16. « Acts iii. 18. ^ 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. 
 
 ^ It is scarcely necessary to notice the singular application 
 of this passage by Tertullian to prove the authority of the Book 
 of Enoch : 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 87 
 
 assertion that the Holy Scriptures [to. lepa 
 ypdjULfxaTa) referred to in the preceding verse 
 are to be regarded as expressive of the Di- 
 
 " Et legimus omnem Scripturem edificationi habilem divi- 
 nitus inspirari." The Complutensian Edition in 1.514 has 
 *' Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata utilis est ad docendum." 
 An edition of the Vulgate, published by Isidore in 1557, alters 
 the translation to " et utilis," but the Vulgate of Sixtus V. 
 recurs to the Complutensian reading, and this has been pre- 
 served in all succeeding editions. 
 
 Mr. F. W. Newman eagerly adopts this interpretation, 
 and says that " the spirit of this remark is perfectly apologetic! 
 Despise not, Timothy, (is virtually his exhortation) the 
 Scriptures that you learned as a child. Although now you have 
 the Spirit to teach you, yet that does not make the older 
 writers useless — for everi/ divinely-inspired writing is also 
 profitable for instruction" &c. Phases of Faith, p. 141. It is 
 difficult to understand how Traa-a ypa(j)r] deoirv€v<rro^ Kai uxpe- 
 Xiljio<; can be thus rendered without assuming a very forced and 
 unnatural construction. But even if this be the real mean- 
 ing, vv^hat possible grounds are there for Mr. Newman's para- 
 phrase ? It is inconsistent with the whole tenor of the passage. 
 The Apostle thus commences this portion of his Epistle : " This 
 know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come," 
 eh. iii. ver. 1. He proceeds to give the signs of the times by a 
 description of the men who shall then appear, vv. 2 — 9. Then 
 turning to Timothy he says, " But thou hast fully known my 
 doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, 
 patience, persecutions," &c. vv. 10 — 12. Again recurring in 
 V. 12 to "evil men" he turns again to Timothy, "But continue 
 thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been 
 assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them ; and that 
 from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are 
 able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
 in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
 
88 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 vine will, and the writers as under the influ- 
 ence of the Spirit of God. 
 
 It seems to be in accordance with this 
 character of Holy Writ that the various wri- 
 ters are so seldom brought forward. In many 
 cases their names are known only by tradi- 
 tion, or by inference derived from some re- 
 marks which, humanly speaking, would seem 
 to have been casually introduced. Thus in the 
 Pentateuch, which constant tradition among 
 Jews and Christians has ascribed to Moses, 
 that lawgiver is continually spoken of without 
 intimation that he is himself speaking. " Now 
 the man Moses was very meek, above all the 
 men which were upon the face of the earths" 
 And again, "Moses wrote their goings out 
 according to their journeys, by the com- 
 mandment of the Lord 2." A similar mode 
 of writing led in early times to a discussion 
 whether the book of Job was to be considered 
 as composed by that patriarch himself; and 
 an ancient writer remarks, that since it was 
 
 instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be per- 
 fect, throughly furnished unto all good works." Now is there 
 here the remotest reference to the possibility of Timothy's dis- 
 pensing with the Scriptures ? We can scarcely conceive such 
 a notion coming into the mind of any one, imless he was 
 seeking about for some mode of evading so plain and explicit 
 declarations as those contained in vv. 14 — 16. 
 
 ^ Numb. xii. 3. ^ Numb, xxxiii. 2. 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 89 
 
 certainly written under the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit, the question is of comparatively 
 little importance, and that in general "the 
 writers of Holy Writ being full of the Holy 
 Ghost were lifted above their own nature, 
 and as it were put out of themselves, and in 
 this manner deliver sentiments about them- 
 selves as though about other persons \" 
 
 This method is to be traced yet more 
 distinctly in the book of Psalms, where the 
 Psalmist constantly addresses himself to the 
 people, assuming, as it were, the person of 
 the Most High, " Hear, O my people, and I 
 will testify unto thee : O Israel, if thou wilt 
 hearken unto me^" " Give ear, O my people, 
 unto my law : incline your ears to the words 
 of my mouth^." And in the Gospels it cannot 
 have escaped our observation, that with the 
 exception of the brief preface to S. Luke's 
 Gospel the Evangelists are kept entirely out 
 of sight ; that of two among them no action or 
 speech is recorded ; that S. Matthew in the 
 account of his own conversion makes no allu- 
 sion to the circumstance that he is himself 
 relating it ; that S. John, who took so distin- 
 guished a part in the events which he relates, 
 discovers his authorship by omission, and not 
 
 1 S. Gregor. Moral, in Job. Pref. § 3. Eng. Transl. 
 
 2 Psal. Ixxxi. 8. ^ Psal. Ixxviii. 1. 
 
90 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 by description, denoting himself as " that 
 other disciple \" "the disciple whom Jesus 
 loved-;" and that the most direct assertion 
 as to his position has reference to the validity 
 of his testimony : " He that saw it bare record, 
 and his record is true : and he knoweth that he 
 saith true, that ye might believel" So in the 
 Acts the writer is designated merely by the 
 preface, which carries us back to the Gospel 
 of S. Luke ; and his presence is on certain 
 occasions intimated by a change of the pro- 
 noun employed in the narrative : while the 
 Epistles, which from their nature are more 
 concerned with the circumstances of the 
 writers, contain constant declarations that 
 the words are not to be regarded as the 
 utterance of mere men. The promise of 
 special assistance made to the Apostles by 
 Christ*, is there exhibited in its fulfilment. We 
 are told that God hath shined in their hearts, 
 that they had the treasure in an earthen 
 vessel, that the excellency of power might be 
 of God, and not of them^ — that Christ speaketh 
 in them^ — and that Paul hath written accord- 
 ing to the wisdom given unto him'. "The 
 
 1 John XX. 3. 2 John xiii. 23. 
 
 3 John xix. 35. * Matth. x. 19. 
 
 5 2 Cor. iv. 7. ^2 Cor. xiii. 3. 
 7 2 Pet. iii. 15. 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 91 
 
 Apostles," to use the words of S. Chrysostom, 
 ** came not down like Moses from the mount 
 with tables of stone in their hands ; but bearing 
 about the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and 
 pouring forth a kind of treasure and stream 
 of doctrines, graces, and all good things, they 
 went abroad, having been made by grace living 
 books and living laws. Thus they converted 
 the three thousand, thus the five thousand, 
 thus they drew to themselves the nations of the 
 world, God speaking through their voice to all 
 that came unto Him. Thus was it that being 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, they have written 
 what they have written. Nor need we disguise 
 the humble character of their occupations: for 
 so is made more manifest not only their excel- 
 lency, but also the grace of the Holy Spirits" 
 But further, the subjects of inspiration 
 were commonly fitted to be the organs of re- 
 velation by preparation of the hearty and by 
 instruction of wisdom. In the days that the 
 word of the Lord was precious, the Lord 
 called unto Samuel, because he was in favour 
 both with God and also with men 3. The 
 Spirit of the Lord came upon David, because 
 the Lord looked at the hearts And they who 
 
 1 S. Chrys. Horn, in Matth. Horn. i. p. 4. C. 
 
 2 Prov. xvi. 1. ^1 Sam. iii. 1. 
 * 1 Sam. xvi. 7, 13. 
 
92 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 were to exercise the functions of prophets, or 
 men of God, were under the old dispensation 
 trained in schools, and collected in companies 
 of prophets^ — the special grace not dispensing 
 commonly with the necessity for those attain- 
 ments which were capable of being acquired 
 by ordinary methods. For the case of Amos 
 was manifestly an exception, who was no pro- 
 phet, neither a prophet's son, but a herdsman, 
 and gathering sycamore fruit, when the Lord 
 took him as he followed the flock, and said 
 unto him, Go, prophesy unto my people Israeli 
 And although under the New Dispensation 
 the Spirit was poured out in fuller measure 
 upon all flesh, this informed, but did not de- 
 stroy the original character, sanctified, but 
 did not abolish the feelings of the heart; 
 while the example of S. Paul (to appeal 
 to no other), and his instructions to Ti- 
 mothy, prove, to use the words of Bishop 
 Bull, that " even divinely-inspired persons 
 and ministers of God did not so depend upon 
 Divine inspiration but that they made use 
 also of the ordinary helps and means, such 
 as reading of books, and study and medi- 
 tation on them, for their assistance in dis- 
 charge of their office^" 
 
 ' 1 Sam. X. 5—12. 2 ^mos vii. 14, 15. 
 
 « Bull's Serm. on 2 Tim. iv. 13. 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 93 
 
 We find apparent in the books of Holy 
 Scripture exactly such a character as might 
 have been expected under an economy like this. 
 The culture of the human intellect and the 
 exercise of human thought have left their im- 
 press on the several books of the Old and New 
 Testament ; while human feelings and human 
 affections, which have play even in those on 
 whom the Spirit rests, find their utterance in 
 the compositions of inspired writers. Indivi- 
 duality of manner, style, and expression, dero- 
 gate not from the substantial authority of the 
 Sacred Volume. The prophecies, whether ex- 
 pressed with the majestic imagery of Isaiah, or 
 in the pathetic strains of Jeremiah, are equally 
 the words of God. The loving fervour of S. 
 John, the dauntless energy of S. Paul, the 
 eager vehemence of S. Peter, have been per- 
 mitted to affect in various ways the characters 
 of their respective Epistles. And more par- 
 ticularly the Epistles of S. Paul seem to reveal 
 to us the character and feelings of the very 
 man — working with his own hands, that he 
 might be chargeable to no man'— earnestly 
 zealous for the salvation of others, his heart's 
 desire for Israel was that they might be saved-, 
 so that he could even write himself accursed 
 
 ' 2 Cor. xi. 9. ^ Rom. x. 1 . 
 
94 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 for his brethren's sake^ — feelingly solicitous for 
 his converts, lest their minds be corrupted^, lest 
 by any means he had bestowed labour upon 
 them in vain' — conscious of his sincere love 
 for Christ, from which he was not to be sepa- 
 rated S yet tremblingly alive to the possibility 
 of becoming a castaway ^ — despising death, 
 yet broken down by a brother's tears (" what 
 mean ye to weep and to break mine heart^? ") — 
 longing affectionately for the society of his 
 friends^ — sensibly alive to sorrow (for he writes 
 out of much affliction and anguish of heart^), 
 yet rejoicing in tribulation — firm to withstand 
 even a brother Apostle when he was to blame^ 
 yet willing to become all things to all men if 
 so be that he might win some — ready to be 
 offered when his time was come, and humbly 
 confident in the crown of righteousness laid 
 up for him with the Lord^°. For Paul was 
 a man partaking of the same nature with us, 
 who exhibits himself in his Epistles so that 
 we may fancy him all but present to our 
 sight, and behold him as it were conversing 
 with us, and may be aroused and animated 
 by a voice which being human would kindle 
 
 ^ Rom. ix. 3. 2 2 Cor. xi. 3. 
 
 3 Gal. iv. 11. 4 Rom. viii. 35. 
 
 5 1 Cor. ix. 27. 6 Acts xxi. 13. 
 
 7 1 Thess. ii. 17- s 2 Cor. ii. 4. 
 
 9GaI. ii. 11. '" 2 Tim. iv. 6, 8. 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 95 
 
 our emulation, crying aloud, "Be ye imitators 
 of me, as I am of Christ^" 
 
 The observation of this twofold character 
 of Holy Writ, wherein the Divine and the 
 human are blended together, might have suf- 
 ficed for every purpose, had man been con- 
 tented simply to read, mark, and learn ; to 
 gather the instruction, admonition and reproof 
 thus conveyed. The doubts and questionings 
 that have arisen upon the subject of Inspira- 
 tion have been generally owing to the partial 
 and one-sided views of men, who having dwelt 
 exclusively upon one class of facts observed, 
 have given little or no heed to the other. 
 
 The scholastic practice of arguing syllo- 
 gistically from isolated texts had thrown into 
 the background those peculiarities which dis- 
 tinguished one partof ScriptureTrom another. 
 But the development of various branches of 
 critical and exegetical learning at the time of 
 the Reformation soon produced a reaction ; 
 and men of originality delighted to bring to 
 bear upon the explanation of Holy Writ the 
 fresh and varied acquisitions of science and 
 literature. The discovery of a new field of 
 speculations, and the sense of liberty now 
 
 ' 1 Cor. xi. 1. See the noble panegyrick upon the cha- 
 racter of St. Paul, as discovered in his Epistles, by St Chrysos- 
 tom in his Preface and Conclusion to his Homilies upon the 
 Romans. 
 
96 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 freshly awakened, naturally inclined theolo- 
 gians of the new school in the contrary direc- 
 tion to the method of the old divines. But 
 among the reformers there was no want of 
 reverence for the word of God, no forget- 
 fulness of its inspired character. Indeed, 
 it was to the Scripture in its simplicity that 
 they appealed against the unauthorized inno- 
 i^ations of ecclesiastical tradition. But while 
 the decision of the Bible was with them final, 
 their mode of arriving at that decision was 
 very different from that of bygone ages. The 
 Master of the Sentences, or the Angelic Doc- 
 tor, had little weight with them ; and they 
 felt no scruple in opposing their own opinion 
 to writers hitherto held all but infallible. The 
 result was a far more comprehensive view of 
 Scripture than had hitherto been obtained ; 
 and most valuable additions were now made 
 to the means of a right interpretation. But 
 the free exercise of human intellect upon 
 sacred objects was not without its danger. 
 The supernatural was sometimes lost sight 
 of in the contemplation of the natural, and 
 criticism, proud of its ingenuity, was often 
 rash and self-sufficient. This became appa- 
 rent when the reformed Church had won for 
 itself an independent position, and its divines 
 were less occupied with combating Roman- 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 97 
 
 ists, than with reducing their own views to a 
 system. The question of the Inspiration of 
 Scripture was one constantly discussed, and 
 while one party were inclined to make too free 
 use of their reason, the other were more and 
 more disposed to confine speculation within 
 narrow limits. This gave rise to definitions not 
 merely expressive of the Divine character of 
 the revealed word, but also descriptive of the 
 mode of the Divine operation. And so questions 
 were raised and discussed less by a reference 
 to what had been declared, than by arguments 
 based upon some determinate theory framed 
 by preconceived notions as to the nature of 
 Divine Inspiration. Thus it was ruled that 
 "if all Scripture be inspired, there must be 
 nothing in the Scriptures which was not sug- 
 gested and inspired to the sacred writers : 
 for if there were but any 'particle of Scripture 
 derived from human knowledge and memory 
 and thought, all Scripture could not be said 
 universally to be inspired of God^:" and that 
 " not only the matter, but also the words and 
 syllables, were inspired^" 
 
 The obvious difficulties in the way of ac- 
 
 ' Calovius, quoted by Pusey in his Enquiry into the Cause 
 of the Rationalistic Views in Germany, Part ii. p. 70- 
 
 * Non res solum sed et omnia verba et syllabas esse inspi- 
 ratas. Ibid, p. 71- 
 
 C. H. L. 7 
 
98 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 cepting such a theory of verbal and literal dic- 
 tation were quickly brought forward, and the 
 advocates for free examination of Holy Writ, 
 as of an ordinary book, had this advantage, 
 that more was advanced by their opponents 
 than could be maintained. And accordingly 
 there arose a school of interpreters who de- 
 rived every characteristic of the Sacred Vo- 
 lume from the individualities of the various 
 writers, and sought therein for an explanation 
 of all its contents. 
 
 It has not unfrequently been represented 
 that the question as to the Inspiration of the 
 Bible admits of only two alternatives ; that 
 we must either maintain a dictation of such 
 a nature as to exclude all exercise of thought 
 in the writer, and to leave him little more 
 freedom than the pen which he holds, or else 
 reject the notion of any Divine superinten- 
 dence to secure him from errors in fact, or 
 unsoundness of argument. 
 
 Yet supposing God to have revealed Him- 
 self through the instrumentality of man, the 
 twofold character of the communication, to 
 which we have referred, seems what we might 
 have looked for. The Almighty has enabled 
 man to influence his fellow-mortal by vigour 
 of expression, earnestness of thought, depth 
 of feeling, and power of reasoning. And we 
 
IVJ INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 99 
 
 might have expected that these gifts would 
 be employed to the glory of God. It is na- 
 tural for man to think and feel; and we can 
 almost as easily conceive an address made 
 by an Apostle without the use of his tongue 
 as without the exercise of his thought. The 
 character thus found to exist in the spoken 
 language, would not unnaturally be impressed 
 upon the written language. This is, however, 
 perfectly compatible with such an exercise 
 of controlling influence by the Holy Spirit as 
 to render the written word the very word of 
 God : in the same manner as the words spoken 
 by Apostles had the sanction of Divine autho- 
 rity. "It is not ye that speak, but the Holy 
 Ghost \" The structure and authorship of a 
 particular portion of Holy Writ may have been 
 permitted to assume a character determined 
 by the individualities of the writer, and by 
 the circumstances of those for whom he was 
 guided to write, and yet the matter of the 
 narrative be made up of facts presented to 
 him from without ^ 
 
 The employment of human thought and 
 feeling in the work of revelation has certainly 
 served a purpose, though it may be a subor- 
 
 * Mark xiii. 11. 
 
 ^ See an admirable note on this subject by Dr. Mil], on the 
 Genealogies, p. 142. 
 
 7—2 
 
100 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 dinate one, in furnishing room for evincing 
 upon human principles the fidelity of the 
 narrative and the veracity of the narrators. 
 Most of the arguments regarding the Evi- 
 dences of Christianity are founded upon an 
 examination of the several books as human 
 compositions; which examination by no means 
 implies a forgetfulness of their higher value 
 and more sacred character, but endeavours to 
 establish their human authority as a first step 
 to lead up to the Divine. 
 
 But without confining ourselves to the con- 
 sideration of evidences, we may remark in 
 this dispensation a merciful adaptation of the 
 word of God to the wants and to the nature of 
 man. It has been my endeavour to shew that 
 for the assurance of faith man needs to be 
 confirmed by a reference both to reason and 
 authority. The human element, so to call it, 
 of the Divine Word affords exactly that oppor- 
 tunity for the exercise of the reason which is 
 suitable to our nature, while its Divine charac- 
 ter asserts authority such as man is not only 
 capable but desirous of acknowledging. So 
 that here, as elsewhere, the external corre- 
 sponds to the internal. The sphere in which 
 man is placed answers to the capacities with 
 which he is endowed : the objects seen or 
 heard, to the eye or to the ear which perceives 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 101 
 
 them — the things to be understood, to the 
 power of understanding them. " Well," says 
 S. Chrysostom, *' but what says the enemy of 
 truth ? Is it in vain that God gives us the 
 power of reasoning ? Is it in vain that we 
 have received the faculty whereby we judge? 
 We are bound by reasoning to scrutinize our 
 faith, and not leave our religion unexamined. 
 But let the Divine Oracles be the limit and 
 guide of our examination, and the rules therein 
 laid down the rules of our religion. But thou 
 transgressest these rules, walking not by the 
 divinely-inspired Scriptures {Ta1<s OeoirvevaToi^ 
 ypacpais), but prying into the Divine counsels, 
 dost violence to the truth, preferring to follow 
 even the incongruities of reasoning, rather 
 than submit thyself to faiths" 
 
 We must however constantly bear in 
 mind, and there never was a time at which 
 it was more needful than the present, that the 
 application of critical knowledge to the con- 
 tents of the Sacred Volume must not be 
 pushed beyond its proper limits. It must be 
 remembered, 1st, that its claims are established 
 upon external evidence, that it professes to 
 possess extraordinary properties, and that the 
 effects produced corroborate this profession; 
 
 ' St Chryst. Horn, in Matt. xxi. 23, quoted by Fabricius, 
 Ver. Christ. Relig. ch. xxiv. p. 491. 
 
102 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 that thus it has an authority peculiar to itself, 
 controlling, but not precluding, the exercise 
 of reason. 2d, That consequently we cannot 
 adopt without qualification the ordinary me- 
 thods of examination, which we employ in 
 the investigation of other books. 3d, That we 
 do not know beforehand what a Revelation 
 would contain, and are not at liberty to raise 
 objections because it contains things different 
 in substance or in arrangement from what we 
 should have expected. 4th, More particu- 
 larly in the case of the four Gospels, (which 
 are so frequently brought under discussion,) 
 that the variety observed constitutes one 
 branch of evidence, and that it is precisely 
 such as is most calculated to convince us of 
 the truthfulness of the several narratives. 5th, 
 That these books were evidently not intended 
 to be complete or regular histories, and that 
 there is no reason to suppose that the chrono- 
 logical order of events recorded was accurately 
 preserved. 6th, That many apparent difficul- 
 ties might be easily cleared up by a knowledge 
 of the times and of the persons brought under 
 notice. 7th, That when a particular fact is 
 recorded by more than one writer, the inser- 
 tion or omission of some circumstances by 
 one, and of other circumstances by another 
 (all these circumstances having actually oc- 
 
IV.] mSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 103 
 
 curred), may give a variety of narrative more 
 apparent than real : and 8th, That in any 
 arrangement we may adopt of the various 
 accounts so as to form one narrative, we can 
 seldom be sure that we have arrived at the true 
 order ; for there are often two or more arrange- 
 ments equally consistent with the information 
 handed down to us. — *' These supposed con- 
 tradictions," says Luther, *' are questions, and 
 remain but questions, which I will not solve, 
 nor do they much signify, though there are 
 many people so over-curious and sharp-witted 
 that they must needs bring up all sorts of 
 questions, and would fain have accurate ac- 
 counts given of them. But if we have a 
 right understanding of Scripture, and the 
 right Articles of our belief, that Jesus Christ 
 the Son of God died and suffered for us, 
 it is no great loss if we cannot answer all 
 other questions which may be asked. If a 
 discrepancy arises in Holy Scripture, and we 
 cannot reconcile it, then let it go^:" remarks 
 which by no means imply that Luther sought 
 a solution of these difficulties in the errors, 
 ignorance, and forgetfulness of the writers, 
 but that, accepting the whole Scriptures as 
 the true word of God, he deemed it superfluous 
 to exaggerate the importance of circumstan- 
 tial details, and was content to receive the 
 
 ' Quoted in Pusey's Enquiry, p. 68. 
 
104 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 facts upon Divine authority, even though he 
 could not explain all the circumstances of the 
 narrative. 
 
 We accept the Holy Scriptures then as the 
 word of God. We believe that we possess 
 those books which the Holy Spirit caused to 
 be written for the reproof, for the correction, 
 and for the instruction of mankind. We ac- 
 knowledge the facts no less than the doctrines 
 as incontestably true, and believe that in the 
 selection of facts, and in the manner of relating 
 them, the narrators were subjected to the 
 Divine guidance, in order that these sacred 
 pages should form, when collected into one, a 
 sufficient harmonious and complete account 
 of the scheme of man's redemption, and of 
 his consequent obligations. And although 
 we do not assert that accuracy of transcrip- 
 tion has been secured by a perpetual miracle, 
 yet we recognize in the institution of a Church, 
 and in other circumstances attending the pro- 
 mulgation of Christianity, divinely-appointed 
 means partly natural and partly supernatural, 
 for preserving to us the copies of Holy Writ 
 free from material error: — so that we have 
 the deliberate testimony of a great master 
 of criticism, that of all ancient books none 
 has suffered so little as the New Testament 
 from errors of transcribers ; that the real text 
 of the sacred writers is competently exact 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 105 
 
 even in the worst manuscript which we pos- 
 sess; and that not one article of faith or 
 moral precept is perverted or lost in them^ 
 The aspect of the Scripture with which we 
 are most concerned is that wherein we find no 
 discrepancy ; and it was not ill said by Bucer, 
 that the sacred writers were prompted to touch 
 lightly upon particulars in themselves of no 
 great moment, in order to draw us to subjects 
 more serious and solemn, and send back the 
 too curious enquirer into matters not neces- 
 sary to be known to the study of the Sacred 
 Volume itself^. 
 
 The supernatural character of the Holy 
 Scripture has been made from the earliest 
 days a subject of dispute. The Ebionites 
 received so much of the historical facts as 
 was consistent with ordinary experience ; 
 and without disputing the authenticity and 
 genuineness of the several books, endeavour- 
 ed to explain away all that was miraculous, 
 referring the events related to natural instead 
 of supernatural agency, and conceiving that 
 the writers were mistaken not in their facts, 
 but in the causes which they assigned to 
 them. The Gnostics, equally disallowing the 
 
 ' Bentley's Phil. Lips. Part i. § xxxii. 
 * Quoted by Spanh. D. E. Pars i. p. 37. Comp. S. Chry- 
 sost. Homil. in S. Matth. Horn. i. p. 5. 
 
1<)S INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 divine authority of the Scriptures as they 
 were commonly explained, resolved all the 
 miraculous and supernatural parts of the his- 
 tory into mythical narratives, intended as 
 mystical not actual representations. These 
 two forms of error have been of late years re- 
 produced, the former being exhibited in the 
 earlier, the latter in the more recent school of 
 German Rationalism. The forced explana- 
 tions necessary to support the theories of 
 Semler, Paulus, and Eichhorn, have been al- 
 ready exploded. New error has at least been 
 serviceable in demolishing the old. Theory 
 after theory has been produced destructive 
 of each other, but all based upon the common 
 fallacy of allowing in Scripture nothing be- 
 yond the province of reason. 
 
 The assailants of Scriptural authority in 
 the present day would dispose of all that is 
 supernatural by a reference to myth and alle- 
 gory. Mysticism has ever had its admirers. 
 Many of the early Fathers of the Church were 
 inclined to give considerable weight to this 
 method of interpretation. But the orthodox 
 differed from the heretics in this, that the 
 former preserved the utmost reverence for 
 the word of God, and maintained the literal 
 together with the mystical sense; the latter 
 insisted upon the mystical, to the denial of 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OP SCRIPTURE. 107 
 
 the literaP. It is the latter kind of mysticism 
 which has lately re-appeared. Uncontrolled 
 by that reverent regard to authority, which 
 kept in check even the most imaginative 
 among the Fathers, it has proceeded to the 
 examination of the Scripture eager to dis- 
 cover some new thing. There is no attempt, 
 as among the earlier Rationalists, to account 
 for miracles by natural causes, but every 
 portion of Scripture which contains super- 
 natural events is at once pronounced mythical, 
 not perhaps without its hidden meaning, but 
 this widely removed from the obvious sense. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter upon any 
 detailed examination of these speculations. 
 We may observe in general, that the idea of 
 mythical narration is quite foreign to the age 
 and country in which the Gospels appeared. 
 Had the Evangelists lived in the ancient days 
 of Grecian song there might have been some 
 colour for the hypothesis. But the time of 
 their appearance when historians were so 
 much more critical than imaginative, when 
 every statement was subjected to the jealous 
 scrutiny of opposing parties and sects, was 
 as unfavourable to the substitution of myth 
 for history, as the simple and unaffected style 
 
 ^ See this subject fully discussed, with passages from the 
 Fathers, in Tract 89 — Tracts for the Times. 
 
108 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 of the narratives themselves is opposed to 
 such a theory. 
 
 These vague speculations, however, seem 
 to have charms for some minds which the 
 cold and barren disquisitions of early Rati- 
 onalism never possessed : and we have had 
 unhappy instances in our own day, and in our 
 own country, of those who have been misled 
 by the haze of this false philosophy. The 
 historical evidence has been depreciated, and 
 the historical difficulties have been exagge- 
 rated. Miracles have been represented as 
 repugnant to our reason, and the moral pur- 
 pose which gives them credibility has been 
 overlooked. The emphatical assertions of the 
 Apostles, that they had the Spirit of God, 
 have been either represented to denote mere 
 consciousness of sincerity and earnestness of 
 spirit, or have been attributed to false views 
 of psychology ; while the necessity of some 
 such inspiration in order to any Divine Re- 
 velation has been entirely forgotten. But 
 the conclusion drawn has not been that Chris- 
 tianity is absolutely false and delusive, but 
 that it is a spiritual power independent of all 
 the facts and circumstances of its promul- 
 gation. 
 
 We have been told by one^ who has re- 
 
 ^ Mr. F. W. Newman. 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE, 109 
 
 corded the stages of belief or unbelief through 
 which he has passed, that he has given up 
 the letter of the Bible, that he recognizes no 
 historical certainty in the facts which it re- 
 cords, that he sees in the Apostles no more 
 than human teachers, with neither accurate 
 knowledge nor correct powers of reasoning ; 
 nay, that he acknowledges not the Divinity 
 of the Messiahship, the perfection or the au- 
 thority of our blessed Lord Himself; and yet 
 that nothing of this ought to blind us to the 
 truly spiritual and holy development of his- 
 torical Christianity. 
 
 Such is the melancholy result of paying 
 no regard to outward authority, and trusting 
 to " the inward instincts of the soul." Surely 
 if every distinctive fact of Christianity is to 
 be given up, if all its characteristic doctrines 
 are to be thrown aside, it is more reasonable 
 to adopt the bolder assertions of early scep- 
 tics, and stigmatize the whole as an imposture, 
 than thus to shelter ourselves beneath a name 
 which we will not have to be more than a 
 name. But if Christianity stands before us 
 as a fact which cannot be denied, if its docu- 
 ments are recommended by overwhelming 
 evidences, external and internal, if we can- 
 not deny that every advance of the Religion 
 has been based upon these documents, if 
 these documents profess to contain the mes- 
 
110 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. 
 
 sage from God to men, if their morality is 
 inseparable from their doctrines, their doc- 
 trines from their facts, — we may well accept 
 them in a humble and reverent spirit, ready 
 to believe no less than to understand, to trust 
 for our knowledge of divine things to what 
 has been thus proved to be God's Word. 
 "Why was it," asks Justin Martyr, "that 
 the heathen philosophers were so at variance 
 with each other, and so inconsistent with 
 themselves ? It was because they would not 
 learn from those who had knowledge, but 
 thought themselves able by human ingenuity 
 to know clearly the things of heaven, though 
 they could not master even those on earth." 
 The difficulties which lie before our feet in 
 the world wherein the Creator manifests him- 
 self to His creatures are neither fewer nor 
 less serious than those which are to be found 
 in His Word, wherein He declares Himself 
 to His children. In each case much must be 
 taken on trust. Reason is not supreme, nor 
 is she intended so to be. She is the hand- 
 maid, and yet the support, of authority. She 
 must bow before the sovereign whom she has 
 aided in establishing upon the throne. 
 
 The painful controversies arising from a 
 neglect of due authority have not been with- 
 out their benefit. In the land wherein they 
 have principally prevailed they have called 
 
IV.] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. Ill 
 
 forth an array of learned and earnest men 
 who have contended, and are contending, for 
 the faith once delivered to the saints. We 
 need not accept all that these champions of 
 the Truth maintain, because we recognize 
 their zealous services in a warfare of no com- 
 mon interest. And if we mourn the baneful 
 influence exerted by anti-christian writers 
 amongst ourselves, let us hope that these 
 efforts will only be productive of increased 
 activity in the defenders of the faith. Let 
 us hope that the warning will not be lost 
 upon others who are inclined to step beyond 
 the bounds assigned to them by God's watch- 
 ful care, that they will search more constantly 
 that treasure-house of Divine Truth whence 
 they have been taught to seek wisdom — ab- 
 juring all idle endeavours to separate those 
 things which God has joined together, the 
 letter and the spirit of Christianity. 
 
 May the Holy Spirit impress upon the 
 hearts of all, especially of my younger bre- 
 thren, a deep sense of the reverence with 
 which we are bound to enter upon any study 
 of the inspired word of God. Let not this 
 holy word be made the subject of careless 
 discussion, wherein love of paradox, and de- 
 sire for victory, may haply suggest arguments, 
 half believed by him who produces them, but 
 injurious both to himself and to all who hear 
 
112 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. [Lect. IV. 
 
 them. And may no specious appearance of 
 spiritual feeling incline you to view with less 
 suspicion the writers who would make light 
 of the facts and doctrines of our Religion. 
 The testimony borne by one who was of all 
 men most able to estimate history, and has 
 certainly never been suspected of credulity, 
 deserves to be impressed deeply upon all sin- 
 gleminded enquirers after truth. " The man," 
 says Niebuhr, " who does not hold Christ's 
 earthly life, with all its miracles, to be as 
 properly and really historical as any event 
 in the sphere of history, and who does not 
 receive all points of the Apostolic Creed with 
 the fullest conviction, I do not conceive to be 
 a Protestant Christian ; and as for that Chris- 
 tianity which is such according to the modern 
 philosophers and Pantheists, without a per- 
 sonal God, without immortality, without in- 
 dividuality of men, without historical faith, 
 it may be a very ingenious and subtle philo- 
 sophy, but it is no Christianity at all. Again 
 and again have I said, that I know not what 
 to do with a metaphysical God, and that I 
 will have no other but the God of the Bible, 
 who is heart to heart'." 
 
 ' Niebuhr quoted in Neander, Pref. to Life of Christ, 
 p. XX. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 2 TIM. I. 12. 
 
 I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
 that he is able to keep that which I have com- 
 mitted unto him against that day. 
 
 n^HlS passage has been variously under- 
 stood. The majority of commentators 
 have adopted that interpretation which is 
 most in accordance with our authorized ver- 
 sion — considering the soul as a sacred deposit 
 which God had as it were accepted at S. 
 Paul's hands, and was able to keep against 
 the day when He shall reckon up His jewels, 
 and none shall be wanting. 
 
 The repetition of the word {irapaKaraQriKri^ 
 or as some read, wapaOriKr}) in the fourteenth 
 verse, "That good thing which was committed 
 unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which 
 dwelleth in us," inclines us to assign to the 
 same word in the twelfth verse the same 
 meaning, while the reference in the context to 
 the appointment of S. Paul as " a preacher 
 and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles," 
 C.H.L. 8 
 
114 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 and the direction to Timothy, " Hold fast the 
 form of sound words, which thou hast heard 
 of me, in faith and love which is in Christ 
 Jesus," seems to point to the sacred deposit 
 of doctrinal truth committed by the Holy 
 Spirit to the Apostle's keeping, such as that 
 to which the same Apostle elsewhere refers : 
 *' O Timothy, keep that which is committed 
 
 to thy trust {tijp irapaKaraOriKriv) ^" 
 
 Some light is thrown upon my text by 
 the phraseology of Jewish writers, who make 
 mention of two deposits of God, the lamp 
 within us which is ths soul, and the lamp 
 without us which is the Law, (or, as Philo 
 
 expresses it, Qe'icov TrapaKaraO^Krjv opyiwvy the de- 
 posit of the divine mysteries,) and who intro- 
 duce the Almighty speaking thus : " My light 
 or lamp is in thine hand, and thy lamp which 
 is thy soul is in mine. If thou shalt diligently 
 keep my lamp, I will keep thine ; if thou ex- 
 tinguishest mine, I will put out thine 2." We 
 may probably conclude that reference is in- 
 tended by S. Paul to both these sacred de- 
 posits, that in committing his soul to the 
 hands of Him that gave it, the Apostle was 
 not forgetful of that precious truth through 
 which death was abolished, life and immor- 
 tality brought to light^ and that his sure and 
 
 ' 1 Tim. vi. 20. 2 Whitby in loc. 3 ygr. 10. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 115 
 
 certain hope of the Resurrection from the 
 dead was bound up with the Gospel ; that he 
 was quitting the scene of his labours confi- 
 dent that the cause would prosper, and that 
 He in whom he had believed was able to 
 keep the sacred deposit, when the Apostle 
 himself should be removed from the scene 
 of his earthly labours. 
 
 Adopting this view of the passage before 
 us, we may conceive that S. Paul is herein 
 expressing his confidence that the truth which 
 is in Christ Jesus, the truth which is to make 
 men free, will prove superior to all the oppo- 
 sition which may be set up against it — that 
 the vain imaginings of the nations, and the 
 furious rage of the heathen, shall be brought 
 to nought — that the gates of Hell shall not 
 prevail against the Church purchased by the 
 blood of Christ — that our Saviour's promise 
 will find its sure fulfilment, " I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the worlds" 
 
 The difi*usion and maintenance of Chris- 
 tianity in the world is the fulfilment of this 
 promise ; for Christianity (properly so called) 
 and Christian truth are absolutely inseparable. 
 However much it may have been the fashion 
 with some of late years to distinguish between 
 the form and spirit of Christianity, the Scrip- 
 
 ' Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 8—2 
 
116 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect 
 
 tures recognize no such distinction. We find 
 indeed frequent declarations of the deadness 
 of the form, if the animating spirit be absent — 
 we find no abstraction of the spirit, to the 
 abandonment or even the disparagement of 
 the form. The description of the danger of 
 being carried away by strange doctrines', of 
 being spoiled through philosophy and vain 
 deceit, after the traditions of men, after the 
 rudiments of the world, and not after God*, 
 and of the deadly character of heresy % pre- 
 clude any idea of indifference as to dogmatic 
 truth. But further, we find the importance 
 of such truth expressly and constantly in- 
 sisted upon. " Take heed to thyself, and to 
 the doctrine*.". " Give attendance to reading, 
 to exhortation, to doctrine^." " I besought 
 thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went 
 into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge 
 some that they teach no other doctrine^" 
 "God our Saviour will have all men to be 
 saved, and to come to the knowledge of the 
 truth '^." Nor can we doubt what this doctrine 
 and this truth is, when we observe that " the 
 
 ' Heb. xiii. 9. Comp. Eph. iv. 14; 1 Joh, iv. 1, sqq. ; 
 1 Tim. iv. 1, sqq. 
 
 2 Col. ii. 8. 3 Gal. v. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 1 ; Tit. iii. 10. 
 
 4 1 Tim. iv. 16. * 1 Tim. iv. 13. 
 
 e 1 Tim. i. 3. M xim. ii. 4. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 117 
 
 mystery of His will*," " the mystery of God*," 
 "the mystery of the Gospel'," are the signi- 
 ficant appellations of the things made known 
 to them to whom it it was given to know the 
 mysteries of the Kingdom*, and are synony- 
 mous with "the mystery of godliness," ex- 
 plained to be "God manifested in the flesh, 
 justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached 
 unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, 
 received up into glory ^" And so the essential 
 characteristic of those who have their fruit 
 unto holiness is said to be, that they have 
 ceased to be servants of sin, and have obeyed 
 from the heart that form of doctrine which 
 was delivered unto them^," — the original ex- 
 pression rendered "form of doctrine," {rvirov 
 Si^a-x^^s,) corresponding substantially, though 
 not verbally, with an expression already cited, 
 
 " the form of sound WOrds\" (vTroTvirwaiv vyim- 
 
 vovTODv \6ywv) — both indicating in some degree, 
 the latter more decidedly, a kind of summary 
 or abridgment of doctrines to be received and 
 believed by the disciples of Christ^ 
 
 1 Eph. i. 9. 2 Col, ii, 2. 
 
 3 Eph. vi. 19. * Matt. xiii. 11. 
 
 5 1 Tim. iii, 16. ® Rom. vi. 17- 
 
 7 2 Tim. i. 13. 
 
 ^ Est autem uVotuttuo-*? adumbratio et institutio brevis 
 qua oJs ev rvnto fit sive Tvirwlm^ ut loquitur Suidas in opo^ et 
 accuratiori uberiorique tractationi opponitur, ut pridem magnj 
 
118 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 The religion of Christ, then, was pro- 
 pounded in the Gospel in a distinct form, 
 containing definite doctrines, and the preser- 
 vation of the religion was authoritatively 
 connected with the preservation of these 
 doctrines in their original purity. In these 
 lay the rule according to which the Church 
 was to be fitly framed together upon the 
 foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner stone'. 
 And the Church thus built up was to preserve 
 and keep alive religion in this form, as being 
 •' the house of God, which is the church of the 
 living God, the pillar and ground of truths" 
 
 Of the province of the Church to be a 
 witness and keeper of Holy Writ I have 
 already spoken at larger Of the part assigned 
 to this Body in the maintenance of doctrinal 
 truth I have now to speak — this part no less 
 than the former representing that union of 
 reason and authority which it is my object 
 throughout these Lectures to exhibit and illus- 
 trate. 
 
 Casaubono observatum notis ad Theophrastum 'rTep\ elpuveia^. 
 Itaque ut passim Sextus negat se prolixius posse singula per- 
 sequi propter irpoQeixiv^ ■^apaKTtjpa^ et Tpoirov uttoti/ttiotikoi/ 
 T»7?] ypacpfj^ et quoniam uVotuttwtikw? h. e. ut infra cap. 14. 
 loquitur awropup \6ym ac compendio omnia tradere instituit. 
 Fabric, ad Sext. Empir. apud Wolf, ad 2 Tim. i. 13. 
 ' Eph. ii. 20. 2 1 xim. i. 15. ^ Lect. III. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 119 
 
 The eccentricities and extravagances to 
 which the individual reason is readily led 
 astray is a matter of common observation and 
 constant experience. The necessity imposed 
 upon us by our nature and our condition to 
 connect ourselves in some society is a correc- 
 tive to this liability in the ordinary affairs 
 of life. Law, whether express or implicit, 
 supplies the authoritative restraint necessary 
 for our well-being. And not only are our 
 wills controlled, but our opinions are materially 
 influenced, by the relation in which we stand 
 to the community. So that the Church viewed 
 as Scripture represents it, in the light of a 
 body composed of individuals bound to have 
 respect to the general good, and to subordinate 
 individual interests and individual will to the 
 common weal, is an institution, if not neces- 
 sarily arising from, at least strictly harmonizing 
 with, the very first principles of our nature, 
 and the first conditions of our existence. And 
 as it would be monstrous for any individual 
 to pretend to abjure all obligations to the 
 community to which he belongs, and yet it is 
 indisputable that he cannot thereby evade 
 individual responsibility on the plea of the 
 sanction of society for deeds which his con- 
 science condemns, so it is plain that every 
 Christian, responsible though he be for his 
 
J 20 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 actions and for his belief, cannot separate him- 
 self from obligations to the authority of the 
 body of which he is a member. The proposi- 
 tion, that a man's religion is a matter between 
 himself and his Maker, if it means to assert 
 more than that the individual must be judged 
 by God alone, is false and delusive. Let a 
 man be isolated from his fellows in his reli- 
 gious capacity, and he is no more in a normal 
 state than the wild man of the woods, whom 
 it was once the fashion to esteem as the repre- 
 sentative of humanity in its most simple and 
 abstract form. He is debarred from the high- 
 est exercise of the faculty of association ; nor 
 is individual piety likely to flourish, if culti- 
 vated upon a principle opposed alike to the 
 natural and scriptural desire of being com- 
 forted together with mutual faiths But if 
 piety is to be fostered in a religious community, 
 there must reside in this community some 
 authority and some control. There must be 
 some law to call into harmonious action the 
 variety of individual wills and individual 
 opinions. 
 
 This principle of authority was necessarily 
 most clearly manifested in the days when the 
 disciples were not only of one soul by holy 
 concord, but actually constituted one society, 
 
 ' Rom. i. 12. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 121 
 
 organized by common laws and common 
 ceremonies no less than common faith, when 
 the civil constitution of the world forwarded 
 the complete amalgamation of the disciples 
 of Christ, widely separated perhaps in locality, 
 into one body under one government. The 
 known world then presented the spectacle of 
 one vast empire, acknowledging one chief, in 
 the midst of which was the body of believers 
 gathering to itself continually fresh members, 
 and absorbing the vast mass to a new confede- 
 ration, until the emperor having given in his 
 adherence, the whole empire became pro- 
 fessedly Christian, and the Church attained 
 its highest degree of external unity. What 
 were even then the conditions to this external 
 unity, how far it was answered by internal 
 union, and how far the profession of Christian 
 principles carried with it their actual exercise, 
 it is not necessary now to enquire. Internal 
 corruption in all cases leads the way to disso- 
 lution ; and it is an invariable law of nature, 
 that decay is productive of new life, commonly 
 under an altered or modified form. Such was 
 the case with the Church soon after its union 
 with the Roman State. The breaking up of 
 the empire itself led to the greater indepen- 
 dence of national Churches, and the intro- 
 duction of error caused serious and lasting 
 
122 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 division. So that the Universal Church soon 
 existed only in that form, in which we recog- 
 nize it at present, in branches more or less 
 separated from each other, more or less varying 
 in doctrine and in discipline, but all possessing 
 a common band of union in the worship of 
 Christ, and in the acknowledgment of His 
 Gospel. One of the direct consequences of 
 this subdivision was that certain portions of 
 the authority originally exercised by the 
 Church in common devolved upon the several 
 Churches in particular : such as the power of 
 appointing rites and ceremonies in themselves 
 indifferent, which power is claimed by our 
 Church in her XXXIVth Article, and is 
 necessary to the preservation of good order in 
 any society. But this is far from the chief 
 portion of the Church's authority, nor is it this 
 with which we are at present concerned. To 
 hand down pure Christianity from generation 
 to generation is the great office of the Visible 
 Church of Christ, and each particular Church 
 performs this office as a branch of the Church 
 Catholic, and so far as she executes the task 
 faithfully is deserving of reverential regard. 
 " The Church hath authority in controversies 
 of faiths" We need not deny the sufficiency 
 of Holy Scripture, or disparage the clearness 
 
 ' Art. XX. 
 
V.]' THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 123 
 
 with which the doctrines of salvation are 
 therein set forth, because we maintain that 
 men need to be instructed in the principles 
 of the doctrine of Christ, in order that they 
 may go on to perfection \ Indeed, the whole 
 system of the Apostolic Church, the careful 
 appointment of evangelists, prophets, and 
 interpreters, the earnest exhortations to Tim- 
 othy and Titus to maintain the truth by 
 imparting sound learning, and the constant 
 language of the Apostles themselves, prove 
 beyond dispute, to those who acknowledge 
 the Scriptures, the necessity of authorized in- 
 struction in order to keep alive the knowledge 
 of Christ. The instincts of our nature con- 
 firm it. Man will seek instruction, the false 
 if not the true ; and those who most rudely 
 rebel against the Church's authority seldom 
 fail to band themselves together in little 
 companies with appointed teachers, while 
 they draw, often unconsciously, from the wells 
 which they depreciate, the most salutary 
 waters they possess, although these pure 
 waters are diminished and defiled by the 
 broken cisterns which they have hewn out 
 for themselves. It is observable that in his 
 controversies with heretics, Irenaeus more 
 
 1 Heb. vi. 1. 
 
124 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 than once appeals to the " traditio apostolica^" 
 as the security for the preservation of the 
 truth ; meaning thereby not additional know- 
 ledge derived by word of mouth from the 
 Apostles, as supplemental to the written law, 
 but the transmission of the great truths 
 evidently contained in Scripture, through an 
 unbroken succession of bishops and presby- 
 ters, commencing with the Apostles themselves. 
 It is obvious that such a succession, whether 
 essential or not to the existence of a Church, 
 must conduce greatly to the preservation of 
 identity of doctrine, as well as to the safe 
 custody of the documents of which the Church 
 is the keeper. And if a confirmation of this 
 opinion be needed, it may be found in the 
 departure of those who have neglected it 
 from the ground first occupied, so that it has 
 not unfrequently come to pass that original 
 seceders are represented in process of time 
 by persons professing tenets repudiated by 
 the founders whose names are still preserved, 
 although their principles have been forgotten. 
 It is well known that many nonconformist 
 associations have lapsed into Unitarian doc- 
 trine. And the great separation which took 
 place in the Church of Geneva some few 
 years back was upon the alleged ground that 
 
 ' Iren. adv. Hter. in. 3, 4. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 125 
 
 the teaching of the establishment had become 
 Socinian^ The important service rendered 
 to the cause of Christianity by a national 
 Church as a depository of Christian doctrine 
 has been recognized indeed by the most pious 
 and learned of the nonconformists themselves, 
 vrho while differing in point of discipline or in 
 minor points of doctrine, have yet looked to 
 the national Church as the bulwark of the 
 national faiths It is then an admitted fact, 
 that a national Church is calculated to per- 
 form, and does perform, a very important part 
 
 ^ In this secession some of the most eminent and able 
 ministers joined. The recollection of the part which Calvin 
 acted towards the unhappy Servetus makes this position of the 
 Genevan Church the more remarkable. 
 
 • A very memorable instance of this is to be found in the 
 writings of some of the original movers of Methodism in Wales. 
 See an Article in Quart, Rev. No. clxx. Williams of Pant- 
 y-celym thus writes in one of his last letters, after fifty years' 
 experience : 
 
 "Believe me, dear Charles, the Antitrinitarian, Socinian, 
 and Arian doctrines gain ground daily. Our unwary new-born 
 Methodist preachers know nothing of these things : therefore 
 pray much that no drop of the pernicious liquor may be thrown 
 into the divine fountain of which the honest Methodist drinks. 
 Exhort the young preachers to study next to the Scriptures the 
 doctrines of our old celebrated Reformers as set forth in the 
 Articles of the Church of England, and the three Creeds, the 
 Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian. They will see 
 there the great truths of the Gospel set forth in a most excel- 
 lent and suitable manner : they are a most sound form of words 
 on the highest spiritual things of God." 
 
126 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 in the maintenance both of the name and of 
 the form of Christianity. The fact supplies a 
 presumption in favour of its authority. But 
 it remains to be seen in a particular case 
 whether the authority is legitimately exercised, 
 what are its limits and conditions, and how we 
 are to distinguish true from false claims upon 
 our obedience. The Church is a witness of 
 the truth, as she is a witness of Holy Writ. 
 It is her office to hand down what has been 
 delivered to her : not to decree new Articles 
 of Faith upon the authority whether of so- 
 called General Councils, or of a supposed 
 earthly head. 
 
 The publication of the peculiar Creed ^ of 
 the Church of Rome furnishes a lamentable 
 instance of the unlawful exercise of authority 
 by a Church professing to be Catholic. For, 
 to lay aside the objections which naturally 
 arise from the irregularity of its enactment by 
 the mere decree of the Supreme Pontiff, and 
 the presumption of setting up additions as of 
 equal authority with the original articles of 
 the ancient Creeds, after a lapse of more than 
 1200 years, even were these additions merely 
 expressive of truths having the support of 
 Scripture and antiquity, the examination of 
 
 ' The Creed of Pope Pius IV., published on Sunday, Dec. 
 9, 1564. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 127 
 
 the Creed of Pope Pius, accompanied by a 
 reference to history, will convince us that the 
 origin of every one of the added articles is to 
 be found in a comparatively late age, and that 
 the propositions can only be maintained by 
 the assumption of inherent power in the Church 
 to decree Articles of Faith upon her own 
 authority \ For example — The Sacraments 
 of Baptism and of the Eucharist are plainly 
 
 ^ This authority is expressly claimed for the Church by Mr 
 J. H. Newman, who bases upon it what he himself calls the 
 Deification of S. Mary, arguing that the Church assigned to 
 her the position which the Arians had given to Christ, " all but 
 confessing that Christ was the Almighty, but leaving him a 
 creature;" and arguing by the strangest possible logic: "The 
 votaries of Mary do not exceed the true faith, unless the blas- 
 phemers of her Son come up to it. The Church of Rome is 
 not idolatrous unless Arianism is orthodoxy ; " i. e. there is no 
 such thing as idolatry except the object of it be declared to be 
 the Supreme and Almighty God. What then was the hea- 
 then worship of heroes and of men ? How will Mr Newman 
 reconcile this with the account of the origin of idolatry in 
 Wisdom ch. xiv. which he as a Romanist must acknowledge 
 as Canonical Scripture. Late proceedings in the Roman Church 
 in reference to the "Immaculate Conception of the Virgin," 
 prove the assumption of this power by the Pope alone. On 
 Feb. 2, 1849, the present Pope issued from Gaeta an encyclic 
 requesting the clergy to inform him if the faithful wished him 
 to pronounce on the Immaculate Conception. See Eng. Review, 
 Vol. XI. pp. 23P, 240. The extraordinary way in which this 
 was received by the French bishops is described in Eng. Review, 
 Vol. XII. pp. 226 — 235. The provincial council of Avignon 
 expressly declared its desire to have the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion made an article of faith. Eng. Rev. Vol. xin.p. 241. This 
 
128 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 declared in Scripture to have been instituted 
 by our Lord : the institution of the other five 
 Sacraments, which is equally ascribed to our 
 Lord in the third Article of this Creed, is no- 
 where stated in Scripture ; and its assertion 
 must therefore rest upon independent author- 
 ity. The transmutation of the bread and wine 
 into the substance of the body and blood of 
 Christ^ is, as is well known, a doctrine not 
 introduced before the eleventh century^, nor 
 formally decreed until the thirteenth ^ The 
 
 is not yet done, but there are manifest tokens that it will be. 
 And at all events all this shews the acknowledgment of the 
 power of the Pope to do it. 
 
 1 Art. V. 
 
 2 At the Council of Placentia, a.d. 1095. 
 ^ At the Council of Constance, a.d. 1215. 
 
 It has been said that the Homish doctrine of Transubstan- 
 tiation has been much misrepresented, and that the word sub- 
 stance, which, Hke the Greek vTToa-Taa-i'i^ was intended to repre- 
 sent the scholastic form supposed to belong to every object 
 independently of its accidental qualities, has been misunderstood 
 to bear the sense which substance usually bears in common lan- 
 guage, and so that the doctrine of Transubstantiation has been 
 attacked for an absurdity which does not belong to it. It is 
 true that the origin of the word Transubstantiation was scho- 
 lastic, and that the terms in which it is maintained in the 
 Tridentine Canons (Sessio xiii. de Eucharistia) seem to have 
 been cautiously worded in order to admit of the scholastic in- 
 terpretation. But the numerous legends authorized by the 
 Roman Church of the Wafer seen to assume the shape of a 
 child, &c., are contradictory to the more subtle and scholastic 
 interpretation. And the actual teaching of the Romanists on 
 this head is proved by a statement of Dr. Wiseman in reply to 
 
V.J THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 129 
 
 doctrine of Purgatory is one which we can 
 trace through various changes from the time 
 when Origen first propounded his theory of a 
 middle state, until the belief of the efficacy 
 of the prayers of the living to release the dead 
 found its ultimate issue in the monstrous pro- 
 positions of TetzelS and the scandalous sale 
 of Indulgences, the efficacy of which is main- 
 
 Dr. Turton. " In stating the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist 
 we use every term in precisely the same meaning as we attribute 
 to it in John vi., and believe the Jews to have attributed to it ; 
 the four cardinal words eat, drink, Jiesh, blood, have, in our 
 doctrine, the same simple, literal, usual sense, which they every 
 day bear, — which they have, as the primary radical significa- 
 tion, in every dictionary, — and which the Jews, in listening 
 to our Lord's discourse, attributed to them. By his^e*^, we 
 mean that sacred body which, born of Mary, was nailed to the 
 cross, after it had been bufieted and scourged ; by blood, we 
 mean that very stream, which, flowing from his blessed wounds 
 on Calvary, redeemed the world ; by eating and drinking, we 
 understand, the actual oral participation of these most precious 
 and adorable gifts. Can any thing be more literal than this ? 
 Was what the Jews meant more so ? Nay, was it not precisely 
 the same ?" Wiseman's Reply, p. 125. 
 
 ^ These are thus summed up by Luther in his letter to 
 Albert, Abp. of Mentz and Magdeburgh, dated 1 Nov. 1517 : 
 Credunt infelices animae si literas Indulgentiarum redemerint 
 se securas esse de salute sua. Item quod animae de Purga- 
 torio statim evolent, ubi contributionem in cistam conjecerint. 
 Deinde tantas esse has gratias ut nullum sit adeo magnum pec- 
 catum etiam (ut aiunt) si per impossible quis matrem Dei 
 violasset quin possit solvi. Item quod homo per istas Indul- 
 gentias liber sit ab omni poena et culpa. — Luth. Op. Tom. i. 
 p. 93. 
 
 C. H. L. 9 
 
130 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 tained in this same Creed of Pius IV. ^ The 
 honour and observation due not merely to 
 those whom images represent, but to images 
 themselves, propounded in unqualified terms% 
 brings before us the remembrance of the pain- 
 ful struggles without which this innovation 
 was not effected. We cannot forget how one 
 of the earliest Councils expressly prohibited 
 the use of images ^ how the judgment of 
 Gregory the Great even in allowing their 
 use, disallowed the abuse of rendering them 
 worship or veneration^, how the formal sanc- 
 tion of them by the second Council of Nice^ 
 was procured by the infamous Irene — a sanc- 
 tion actually condemned by other Councils ^ 
 
 The Articles thus adduced being plainly 
 without the sanction of Scripture or of Primi- 
 tive Antiquity, their very promulgation implies 
 the assumption of authority differing not 
 merely in degree but in kind from that which 
 we claim for the Church. And this is expressly 
 asserted in the first two Articles of this Creed 
 maintaining the authority of Ecclesiastical no 
 
 1 Art. IX. 2 j^jt. VIII. 
 
 2 The Council of Illiberis in Spain, a.d. 305. 
 * Hoare's Eccl. Hist. p. 74. 
 
 ' A. D. 786, called indeed the 7th General Council by the 
 Latins, while the Greeks call the 4th Council of Constantinople 
 (a. d. 754) the 7th General Council. 
 
 ^ Council of Frankfort a.d. 7^^> and Council of Paris 
 A.D. 824. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 131 
 
 less than Apostolical Tradition \ and the abso- 
 lute right which the Church has held, and 
 does still hold, of judging of the true sense 
 and interpretation of the Holy Scripture ^ To 
 decree new Articles of Faith such as these is 
 in the power not even of the Church Catholic 
 itself, if the sense of the whole Church could 
 in any way be taken, much less of a parti- 
 cular branch, least of all of one that lays claim 
 to a dominion illegitimate and unscriptural. 
 
 The voice of the Catholic Church to which 
 attention is due is very different from this. 
 The often-quoted maxim of Vincentius of 
 Lerins' was highly valued at the time of the 
 Reformation, and deserves attention at all 
 times. It is true that there are few cases in 
 which it holds absolutely that there is scarcely 
 any truth which has not been controverted by 
 individual perverseness. Nor are we to ex- 
 pect to obtain from this rule a solution of all 
 difficulties. When we have accepted it there 
 remains the task of discovering what may be 
 deemed generally received truth, and the 
 task requires the exercise of calm and dis- 
 passionate judgment, and very often we must 
 at last be contented with something far less 
 than universal acceptance, and must there- 
 
 1 Art. I. 2 Art. II. 
 
 ^ " Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus." 
 
 9 — 2 
 
132 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 fore take the approximation to such accept- 
 ance as a weighty presumption rather than 
 an indisputable proof. 
 
 The subdivision of the Church to which 
 we have already alluded makes it impossible 
 that its present decision upon any point should 
 be formally enunciated. Yet are there great 
 and leading truths, which may lay claim 
 to something like universal acceptance, and 
 which gain for themselves a hold upon the 
 mind of every Christian, though many find 
 it more easy to feel than to define them. Even 
 in the present distracted state of Christendom 
 in which particular Churches have so widely 
 erred, there is not wanting a basis of common 
 truth. But in our enquiries after Catholic 
 truth we are naturally carried back to the 
 times more near to the Apostles, when the 
 external unity of the Church was undisturbed. 
 And besides the records we possess in the 
 writings of pious and learned men, whose 
 names have ever been had in honour, we have 
 also testimonies more formal and authori- 
 tative. 
 
 There are three chief sources of such testi- 
 mony, — Creeds, Councils, and Liturgies. 
 
 I. It is worthy to note how soon the Church 
 was assailed by error under the most varied 
 forms, as is testified by the Epistles of S. 
 
V.J THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHUECH. 133 
 
 Paul, S. Peter and S. Jude. And while we 
 discover herein a melancholy proof of man's 
 corruption we cannot but regard it as a Pro- 
 vidential dispensation working good out of 
 evil, that the truth was so exercised as to 
 shine forth more pure and bright by reason 
 of the fiery trial to which it was early sub- 
 jected. The Primitive Church has bequeathed 
 to succeeding ages the precious legacy of the 
 Creeds not only speaking to us of past error 
 overcome by the abiding Spirit of God, and 
 comforting us with the assurance that truth 
 is mighty and will prevail, but also furnishing 
 a safeguard against future error, which is 
 constantly raising afresh its many heads when 
 they had seemed to be cut off for ever. We 
 have already spoken of " the form of sound 
 words " mentioned by S. Paul, and have said 
 that the original implies a sketch or summary 
 of doctrine. Such a summary is the Creed 
 commonly called the Apostles' Creed, whose 
 composition if it cannot be assigned to the 
 Apostles themselves, may at least be traced 
 back to ages very near the Apostolic ; some 
 of the main Articles being collected by S. 
 Paul as that which he had received and de- 
 liveredS while traces of a similar method of 
 inculcating doctrine are discoverable in other 
 
 1 1 Cor. XV. 4. 
 
134) THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 parts of Scripture ^ To this Creed the Nicene 
 and the Athanasian Creeds add no new Article 
 of beliefs, but expatiate upon those therein 
 contained, guarding the several Articles against 
 heresies which had since arisen and created 
 so much discussion and danger in the Church 
 ' — heresies over whose ashes we walk as over 
 an extinct volcano, losing the recollection of 
 the fires that once raged, in the beauteous 
 harmony and order, the ultimate issue of past 
 havock and devastation. 
 
 II. If a promise has been made in Holy 
 Writ, that if any man lack wisdom let him 
 ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, 
 and upbraideth not, and it shall be given 
 him 3, much more may we appropriate the 
 same promise to a body of Christians met 
 together to learn God's will. But as the 
 individual must ask faithfully, so must the 
 assembly seek wisdom from above in pure 
 and godly simplicity. It is not the mere 
 external condition that makes the decrees of 
 a Council valid and binding. Had the Coun- 
 cil of Trent possessed every requisite of a 
 general Council as to its formal constitution, 
 the intrigues of worldly interest and ambition 
 
 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 2 Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, p. 75. Lond. 1702. 
 
 3 James i. 5. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 135 
 
 that influenced its decision would have been 
 sufficient to destroy all its authority. So that 
 were we to admit to the full the authority of 
 general Councils, we should still be at a loss 
 for any external test to determine the obliga- 
 tions of particular decrees. It was a saying 
 of S. Gregory, that he had the first four 
 Councils in esteem and veneration next to 
 the Evangelists. " I suppose it was," says 
 Bishop Taylor^ "because he did believe them 
 to have proceeded according to rule, and to 
 have judged righteous judgment. But why 
 had he not the same opinion of other Councils 
 too which were celebrated before his death? 
 for he lived after the Fifth General ; not be- 
 cause they had not the same authority, for 
 that which was warrant for one is warrant for 
 all, but because he was not so confident that 
 they did their duty nor proceeded so without 
 interest as the first four had done, and the 
 following Councils did never get again that 
 reputation which all the Catholic Church 
 acknowledged due to the first four." To this 
 it may be added, that the recognition of the 
 four Councils alike by Eastern and Western 
 Churches brings them out in marked pre- 
 eminence and dignity as compared to those 
 which have been disputed — and that the 
 
 ^ Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, p. 139. 
 
136 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 general acceptance of their decrees by the 
 Christian world for so many ages is itself a 
 voice of the Catholic Church claiming no 
 little consideration. 
 
 Upon the whole, I would by no means 
 deny the importance of considering the ex- 
 ternal circumstances of a general council, 
 but we must not consider them alone. The 
 internal circumstances must also have their 
 weight ; and so our acceptance of the decrees 
 rests not upon mathematical certainty, but 
 upon that moral evidence which is in all cases 
 the guide of life. 
 
 III. That which contributes mainly to 
 the maintenance of pure doctrine no less than 
 of pious feeling among a people is the Public 
 Office of Religion. It is herein that know- 
 ledge and piety grow together. The precious 
 legacy of ancient devotion is not only valuable 
 to keep alive religion in our hearts, to make 
 us sensible of communion with saints of old 
 in uttering the prayers and singing the praises 
 which they uttered and sung, but is a testi- 
 mony perhaps more valuable than all others, 
 because less formal, of the doctrines of the 
 ancient Church. And accordingly S. Augus- 
 tin, when arguing with those who were as 
 yet slow of heart, would quicken their under- 
 standings by referring them to the prayers 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 137 
 
 which they themselves daily use, which the 
 Church has always possessed, and will pos- 
 sess even unto the end of the world. " For 
 these truths," he proceeds, " which we are 
 now compelled not to advance but to defend, 
 have been ever uttered in her prayers, although 
 not drawn forth into formal propositions so 
 long as no enemy assailed them'." It is true 
 that we must beware of making false deduc- 
 tions by insisting exclusively or mainly upon 
 one particular portion of these formularies. 
 The analogy of faith, the harmony of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, wherein each part bears its due 
 proportion, and so helps to convey a correct 
 idea of the whole, is here to be especially 
 regarded. To depress or to exaggerate one 
 feature is to distort the whole figure. But 
 when this precaution is adopted, an examina- 
 tion of Primitive Liturgies is an admirable 
 method of ascertaining the opinions of the 
 Primitive Church, and therefore of setting us 
 onward in our honest search after truth. 
 
 Having thus considered the means of 
 obtaining the sense of the Church Catholic 
 we may look to our own branch of it, and 
 ascertain with what voice she speaks to her 
 sons : and we see at once that she opens all 
 these sources of antiquity. She upholds the 
 
 ^ S. August, de Dono Perseverantiap, c xxiii. 
 
138 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 ancient creeds, abjuring the added errors. 
 She maintains the decrees of the first four 
 General Councils, and respects though she 
 does not idolize the Primitive Fathers. She 
 puts into our mouths a Liturgy wherein the 
 utmost care has been bestowed to preserve all 
 that is truly primitive, and reject what is 
 spurious and addititious. And while her doc- 
 trines are pure and primitive, the manner in 
 which she recommends them is no less primi- 
 tive and pure. They are set forth indeed with 
 authority, but this authority is accompanied 
 by a rule establishing all that is recommended. 
 The supremacy of Holy Scripture is not for- 
 gotten. There is no mention of things left 
 unsaid in the written word to be maintained 
 by oral tradition ; but nothing is asserted with- 
 out the declaration that it can be proved by 
 Holy Writ. This is the method constantly 
 adopted by the ancient Fathers, on whose 
 authority the Church of Rome so strongly 
 insists. And if we refuse to accept implicitly 
 particular opinions stated by individuals 
 among them, we are justified by these very 
 writers, who claim no more than we are willing 
 to conceded Hear as one among many the 
 
 ^ Vos autem qui me multum diligitis, si talem asseritis 
 adversus eos quorum malitia vel imperitia vel intellifrentia 
 rcprehendor, ut me nusquam scriptorum meorum errasse dicatis, 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 139 
 
 words of Origen : " We ought therefore for the 
 testimony of the words we produce in doctrine 
 to produce the sense of the Scripture, as it 
 were confirming the sense that we expound." 
 And the same writer mentioning the practice 
 of S. Paul in this respect, " But afterwards, 
 as it is his custom, the Apostle will confirm 
 what he has said from the Holy Scripture, 
 setting also before the doctors of the Church 
 an example that in those things which they 
 speak to the people they do not utter what is 
 presumed upon in their own opinions, but what 
 is strengthened by Divine testimonies. For 
 if he such and so great an apostle did not 
 believe that the authority of his words would 
 be sufficient unless he shews that what he 
 saith is written in the Law and in the Prophets, 
 how much more ought we, the weakest of 
 creatures, to observe this, that when we teach 
 we should not produce our own, but the doc- 
 trines of the Holy Spirits" And S. Augustin, 
 when he was strongly tempted by the course 
 of his arguments to pronounce upon a ques- 
 tion not decided in Scripture, forbore to do so, 
 
 frustra laboratis non bonam causam suscepistis, facile in ea me 
 ipso judice superamini. Quoniam non mihi placeat eum a 
 charissimis meis talis esse existimor qualis non sura. S. Aug. 
 Ep. 143 ad Marcellinum, quoted by Neand. Ch. Hist. Vol. iv. 
 p. 384. 
 
 ^ Origen quoted by Beveridge on Art. xx. 
 
140 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lect. 
 
 assigning as a reason, that " where Scripture 
 gives no certain testimony human presump- 
 tion must beware how it decides either in 
 favour of one side or the other. If it were 
 necessary for man's salvation to know any- 
 thing on these points the Scripture would be 
 more explicit on them^" 
 
 In examining the authority of Creeds, 
 Councils, and Liturgies, we have seen that we 
 are in no case provided with absolutely certain 
 external tests : we have found it necessary to 
 make limitations and qualifications, and have 
 therefore seen that to maintain authority is 
 far from precluding reason. Just so in the 
 most important mode of testing Church au- 
 thority. The appeal to Scripture necessarily 
 implies an appeal to reason, and shews not 
 merely that each individual may exercise his 
 judgment, but that he is bound to exercise 
 it, and responsible for exercising it right. It 
 implies that a mere unthinking reception of 
 Divine truth is not that reception which God 
 requires of a reasonable creature, that these 
 
 ^ This passage is adduced by Neander (Ch. Hist. Vol. iv. 
 p. 353), who remarks, that S. Augustin gave a striking proof of 
 his self-denial in not insisting upon anything which the Scrip- 
 tures do not assert, that he expressly refused to decide upon the 
 question of the Traducianism or Creatianism of souls, though 
 the former theory would have so manifestly strengthened his 
 theory of original sin. 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 141 
 
 are to be appropriated as well as acknow- 
 ledged. This is in fact the chief province of 
 the reasoning faculty of man. Nor does the 
 legitimate exercise of this faculty approximate 
 to the cold spirit which professes to consider 
 all subjects with like indifference, and allows 
 of nothing peculiar to the sacred volume, or 
 nothing extraordinary in its contents. To over- 
 look its supernatural character, to overlook 
 its spiritual import, is the abuse and not the 
 use of reason. It is to apply laws where 
 from the nature of the subject they are only 
 partially applicable. It is to neglect elements 
 of calculation, which manifestly exist. And 
 the starting point being false, the most elabo- 
 rate reasonings and careful deductions only 
 disguise the fundamental error which vitiates 
 the whole process. And in the same way it is 
 unreasonable to pay no regard to those safe- 
 guards with which God has fenced round 
 His people, because we are to examine the 
 strength of the bulwarks that close us in. 
 
 The mode of the transmission of Religion 
 in a doctrinal form, by means of an organized 
 Body, and its formularies, appears natural and 
 reasonable. But it is supernatural too. The 
 truths transmitted differ in kind from those 
 of which the natural reason is cognizant. So 
 is it in accordance with the general scheme, 
 
142 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. [Lkct. 
 
 that supernatural aid and supernatural bless- 
 ings should rest upon those channels through 
 which it is conveyed. 
 
 Let it not be thought that in thus enlarg- 
 ing upon the question of Church Authority, 
 we have departed from the general topics of 
 the Evidences for our Religion. We may 
 not neglect any of the methods by which 
 God has appointed us to be guided into 
 truth. It has been found that the attempts 
 to undermine the edifice of our faith have 
 been very commonly directed against Church 
 authority and Church formularies. And the 
 attempt to destroy the outworks has been 
 invariably followed by an onset upon the 
 citadel. 
 
 Scripture and antiquity are both to be 
 examined carefully and without prejudice ; 
 but the latter is to be kept in subjection to 
 the former. Reason and authority must each 
 have their place, but both must be illuminated 
 by the Spirit if they are to lead to faith. And 
 above all, while we remember God's promises 
 to the Church, we must remember that they 
 were to the Church Catholic, not to a Church 
 particular. We may not doubt that the Chris- 
 tian Church will stand firm whoever may be 
 its assailants. The Holy Spirit will never 
 forsake her — But the candlestick of a parti- 
 
v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 143 
 
 cular people may be, as it has before been, 
 removed. Its preservation with ourselves will 
 depend upon the use made of the blessings 
 received. But if our candlestick be removed, 
 whether for lukewarmness, for pride, or for 
 contentiousness, it will not be that God is 
 unable or unwilling to save, but that we will 
 not embrace salvation. If we keep His word, 
 He will keep our souls. His lamp will burn 
 brightly within us if we purchase the oil of 
 devotion, of submission, and of love, or rather 
 if we take freely of those hallowed stores 
 which the Spirit of grace will open to us, 
 faithfully trusting in Him in whom we have 
 believed, and confident that He will keep 
 that which He has committed unto us against 
 that day. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 SIN. 
 
 S. MATTH. IX. 13. 
 
 / am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to 
 repentance. 
 
 TTAVING endeavoured in my previous 
 -^^ Lectures to describe the method by which 
 Christian truth is to be discovered and main- 
 tained, I proceed to apply this method to the 
 doctrines which constitute the very founda- 
 tions of Christianity, and have therefore been 
 most determinately assailed ; the misappre- 
 hension of which has at all times paved the 
 way for the inroads of infidelity. 
 
 The essence of Christianity lies in the 
 revelation of a remedy against sin — a remedy 
 obtained by that which Christ has wrought 
 for us and without us, and applied by that 
 which He worketh in us through the Spirit 
 whom He hath sent unto us from the Father. 
 
 The topics to which we are thus led are 
 Sin, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and 
 Grace ; and these I purpose to bring succes- 
 sively before your notice. 
 
 It will require no arguments to prove that 
 
VI.] SIN. 145 
 
 the words of my text were intended to ex- 
 press not a limitation as to the persons called — 
 for God " will have all men to be saved, and 
 to come unto the knowledge of the truth^" — 
 but a definition of the state of those to call 
 whom Christ came; and the moral lesson con- 
 nected with this enunciation is, that they who 
 do not recognize their real condition will not 
 participate in the benefits which this con- 
 dition has provided. It is the office of the 
 Comforter to reprove the world of sin, because 
 they believe not in the Son of man 2. And 
 as unbelief produces sin, so does sin beget 
 infidelity; and while a consciousness of guilt 
 naturally inclines us to seek Him who can 
 remove it, the absence of this consciousness 
 keeps us aloof from our Redeemer. 
 
 The same which is true as to the sense of 
 our own particular guilt holds also in regard 
 to the general perception of the sinfulness of 
 human nature and of the heinoiisness of sin. 
 And the subject acquires fresh interest, be- 
 cause it is closely connected with the views 
 propounded by modern infidels in the country 
 where the greatest efforts have been made to 
 mould infidelity into shape and consistency. 
 The Pantheistic theory sees in evil no more 
 than the shadow which necessarily accom- 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. ii. 4. 2 Joh. xvi. 9. 
 
 C. H. L. 10 
 
146 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 panies and brings to light good^ and merging 
 the parts in the whole loses sight of indi- 
 vidual responsibility, and therefore of the 
 possibility of guilt. Accordingly those who 
 have been immediately engaged in the con- 
 flict have seen it to be of the first import- 
 ance to recognize distinctly the Idea of Sin 2. 
 And this renders it not unsuitable for us to 
 dwell for a time upon this topic, lest by some 
 vain deceit we be spoiled of our part in the 
 faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into 
 the world to save sinners^. 
 
 The acknowledgement of personality in 
 God and man must carry with it some sense 
 of the relation of man to God, some con- 
 sciousness of actions inconsistent with these 
 relations, and consequently some perception 
 of sin. Yet how faint and inadequate are 
 such perceptions in themselves may be seen 
 in the history of the heathen world. Gleams, 
 
 ^ This, like many other Pantheistic notions, is a revival of 
 old Gnostic errors. Tertullian says of Hermogenes, Expugnat 
 quorundam argumentationes dicentium mala necessaria esse 
 ad illuminationem bonorum ex contrariis intelligendorum. Ter- 
 tuU. adv. Hermog. c. 15. quoted by Neand. Ch. Hist. Vol. 11. 
 p. 278. 
 
 2 This is constantly the aim of Neander and Tholuck. We 
 may refer to the recent work of Julius Miiller, Ueberdie Siindey 
 as treating this subject systematically with an especial view to 
 modem Pantheism. 
 
 3 1 Tim. i. 15. 
 
VI.] sm. 147 
 
 indeed, of the truth were not wanting, and 
 partial as these were they shed radiance on 
 philosophy, giving rise to all that was most 
 valuable in the speculations upon the nature 
 of man. The full knowledge of sin is a truth 
 of revelation declared authoritatively to man. 
 Let us consider in what manner this is done. 
 I. Upon this head Scripture is full and 
 explicit. In the brief notices of the early 
 history of mankind, sin stands recorded both 
 in its acts and its consequences. A brother 
 slain is among the earliest and most prac- 
 tical proofs that sin lieth at the door; and 
 the brief description of the antediluvian world 
 speaks decisively to this point : " God saw 
 that the wickedness of man was great upon 
 the earth, and that every imagination of the 
 thoughts of his heart was only evil continu- 
 ally\" But lest there should be a doubt 
 how hateful sin is to the Almighty, its na- 
 ture was further revealed by its consequences. 
 A world deluged by the waters, and cities 
 swallowed up amid the fires of heaven, are 
 fearful testimonies to its destroying power. 
 Its ravages are traced in blood by the con- 
 querors of Canaan dealing out wrath, tribu- 
 lation and anguish, upon the nations of whom 
 the land was defiled; dealing them out not 
 
 ' Gen. vi. 5. 
 
 10—2 
 
148 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 as the outburst of human passion, but as 
 the expression of Divine indignation against 
 sin, which man's interests and inclination 
 were constantly leading him to neglect or 
 extenuate. We observe them in the history 
 of the chosen race no less than in that of their 
 enemies ; in their repeated subjugation to 
 foreign princes, in their defeats no less than 
 their triumphs, in their famines and in their 
 pestilences, in their captivity and in their 
 dispersion. And Scripture itself makes the 
 application which other history leaves us to 
 make for ourselves. " For so it was, that 
 the children of Israel had sinned against 
 the Lord their God . . . therefore the Lord was 
 very angry with Israel, and removed them 
 out of his sights" And, "The Lord spake 
 by his servants the prophets, saying. Because 
 Manasseh king of Judah hath done all these 
 abominations, and hath done wickedly above 
 all that the Amorites did which were before 
 him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his 
 idols; therefore thus saith the Lord God of 
 Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon 
 Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth 
 of it both his ears shall tingle"." Nor were 
 the punishments of individual sins less con- 
 spicuous and instructive. The judgments in- 
 
 1 2 Kings xvii. 7—18. 2 2 Kings xxi. 11, 12. 
 
VI.] SIN. 149 
 
 flicted upon Cozbi, upon Korah, upon Achan, 
 upon Hophni and Phinehas, the miserable 
 deaths of Ahab, Jezebel and Athaliah, were 
 all examples of the just severity of God, who 
 had proclaimed by the ministration of con- 
 demnation, "The soul that sinneth it shall 
 die\" 
 
 The Mosaic Law announces formally that 
 which God's dispensations proclaimed prac- 
 tically. The enactments of the Law exacted 
 severe retribution, pronouncing death without 
 pity upon sabbath-breakers, murderers, adul- 
 terers, thieves, perjurers, and undutiful ; nay, 
 stopping in some cases the natural inlets of 
 compassion in the minds of relatives and 
 friends, that all Israel might hear and fear, 
 and do no more any such wickedness^ Thus 
 did sin, that it might appear sin, work death ; 
 that sin might by the commandment become 
 exceeding sinfuP. And while the Law or- 
 dained the penalty for sin, God's messengers 
 were employed to waken the corresponding 
 consciousness of guilt. In the Psalms we are 
 admitted to an intimate acquaintance with 
 the man after God's own heart, and witness 
 the working of those deep feelings of humi- 
 liation which won for David a free and gra- 
 
 ' Ezek. xviii. 20. ^ Dgut. xiii. 6—11. 
 
 2 Rom. vii. 13. 
 
150 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 cious forgiveness, in answer to his simple 
 confession, *' I have sinned against the Lord^" 
 And in the Prophets we have at the same 
 time the enforcement of the Divine laws, and 
 the sense of sinfulness produced in those who 
 were commissioned to declare the heinous- 
 ness and the punishment of sin. The reve- 
 lation of the glory of the Lord of Hosts which 
 shook the posts of the door, and the founda- 
 tions of the house, made the spirit of Isaiah 
 to tremble, and discovered to him the cor- 
 ruption of man through the manifestation of 
 the Majesty of God. "Then said I, Woe is 
 me ! for I am undone, because I am a man of 
 unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a 
 people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have 
 seen the King, the Lord of Hosts ^" The sin 
 of Judah was seen by Jeremiah written with 
 a pen of iron, and with the point of a dia- 
 mond — not merely upon the horns of their 
 altars, but also upon the table of their hearts, 
 so that the Prophet learnt from it the true 
 conclusion: "The heart is deceitful above 
 all things, and desperately wicked^." The 
 coming desolation of the nations cries out 
 against pride, idolatry, treachery and cruelty, 
 such as they were stained with, and the last 
 promise of the last prophet predicts the fore- 
 
 ' 2 Sam. xii. 13. ' Isai, vi. 5. ' Jcr. xvii. 1 and 9. 
 
VI.] sm. J 51 
 
 runner of Messiah's kingdom in the character 
 of Elijah, the fearless reprover of sin, turn- 
 ing the hearts of the fathers and of the chil- 
 dren, lest the Almighty come and smite the 
 earth with a curse'. 
 
 The legal and the prophetical were but 
 preparatory to the evangelical demonstration 
 of sin. The Baptist commenced the office 
 assigned to him by Malachi with uncompro- 
 mising denunciations of all who would not 
 confess and put away their sins. And He 
 whose shoes' latchet John was unworthy to 
 loose came to baptize with the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire — throughly purging his floor, 
 gathering the wheat into his garner, but 
 burning the chaff with fire unquenchable^ ; 
 being set, as the holy Simeon had declared, 
 that the thoughts of many hearts might be 
 revealed ^ The tenderness with which our 
 Blessed Lord treated sinners, so inexplicable 
 to the self-satisfied Pharisee, was part of that 
 perception of the nature of sin, which He who 
 alone knew it as it was, perfectly possessed. 
 His touching forbearance to the adulteress, ac- 
 companied with the exhortation, "Go, and sin 
 no more*," must have struck her conscience 
 with a more piercing wound than the loud 
 
 ^ Mai. iv. 6. 2 Luke iii. 16, 17- 
 
 3 Luke ii. 35. * joh. viii. 11. 
 
152 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 condemnations of those who were constrained 
 to retire in confusion when He whom they had 
 constituted their judge said, " He that is with- 
 out sin among you let him first cast a stone 
 at her." The words with which He addressed 
 his disciples and the multitude penetrating 
 beyond the acts to the motives of the agents, 
 were all directed to awaken in his hearers the 
 consciousness of sin that had so long slept in 
 their hearts : as He closed the controversy 
 upon the blind man's cure (a miracle so signi- 
 ficant in its nature and in its circumstaxices) 
 "Jesus said, For judgment am I come into 
 this world, that they which see not might see, 
 and that they which see might be made blind. 
 And some of the Pharisees which were with 
 him, heard these words, and said unto him, 
 Are we blind also ? Jesus said unto them, If 
 ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; but 
 now ye say, We see; therefore your sin re- 
 maineth'." 
 
 Nor can we fail to observe the mysterious 
 connexion discoverable in Scripture between 
 physical and moral disease. Not only in the 
 dsemoniacs, where as of old with Job Satan 
 was plainly permitted to exercise extraordi- 
 nary powers, but also in what appear mere 
 ordinary cases of sickness, there are intima- 
 
 ' Joh. ix. 39—41. 
 
VI.] SIN. 153 
 
 tions of such connexion. The Evangelist's ap- 
 plication of a prophecy in Isaiah which repre- 
 sents the cure of diseases as one of the modes in 
 which Christ took away the hurden of sorrows 
 caused by transgression' ; the employment of 
 the same word to describe the rescue from 
 disease and from sin^ ; the requirement of the 
 same condition (faith) in each case ; the words 
 with which our Lord healed the paralytic, 
 " Thy sins be forgiven thee^" and those em- 
 ployed by Him in reference to the woman 
 who had " a spirit of infirmity," "Ought not 
 this woman, being a daughter of Israel, whom 
 Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, to 
 be loosed from this bond*?" S. Paul's descrip- 
 tion of his own thorn in the flesh as " the 
 messenger of Satan^;" discover a link be- 
 tween the disorders of body and of soul, cor- 
 respondent to the proposition that sorrow 
 and death have entered into the world by 
 sin. And while the higher uses of affliction 
 guard us against mistaking the chastisement 
 of love for the outpouring of wrath, and teach 
 us that in a state of probation both tempta- 
 tion and trials may have their perfect work^ 
 
 * Comp. Matth. viii. 17, with Isai. liii. 4. 
 ^ <ra)'^e»i/, Luke viii. 50, she shall be made whole, criaOtjcreTat. 
 3 Matth. ix. 2. * Luke xiii. 16. « 2 Cor. xii. 7. 
 ^ Comp. James i. 2, and observe that the same Greek word 
 
154 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 — this interchange in Scriptural language of 
 ideas connected with the diseases of body and 
 of soul, harmonizes with the affinity between 
 mental and physical disorganization, so pal- 
 pable and so mysterious, and with the inter- 
 penetration of sin and suffering throughout 
 the whole constitution of the world we live in. 
 The more systematic exposition of the 
 nature of sin — of its derivation from Adam to 
 his posterity, and the misery in which it in- 
 volves the whole human race — was entrusted 
 to S. Paul, who was likewise inspired to depict 
 the struggles of sin within the breast of one 
 who had been aroused to a sense of its enor- 
 mity. The well-known delineation in the 
 seventh and eighth chapters of the Romans 
 of the state of wrath and the state of grace, 
 are doubtless of universal application. But 
 the ascription of the various emotions to him- 
 self is surely more than a mere rhetorical 
 figure employed to heighten the force of the 
 language of the Apostle. Surely we may 
 believe that S. Paul, when awakened from his 
 day-dream of obstinate intolerance, felt acutely 
 the power of sin which had hitherto lain un- 
 suspected within his breast — that Satan did 
 not relinquish his hold without a struggle — 
 
 expresses the external trials of suffering, and the internal temp- 
 tations of lust. 
 
VI.] SIN. 155 
 
 that the future Apostle found out experiment- 
 ally the fierceness of the war between his 
 members and his better mind, and that the 
 pathetic cry for the delivery from the body of 
 this death was uttered by him not as person- 
 ating an imaginary character, but as summing 
 up the agony through which he had himself 
 past before attaining the well-grounded hope 
 of one for whom there is no condemnation 
 in Christ Jesus. Full of warning, full of in- 
 struction, full of encouragement is this repre- 
 sentation of a victory over sin, leading us to 
 the recognition and appreciation of the fact 
 that *' Scripture hath concluded all under sin, 
 that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
 might be given to them that believe\" Such 
 is the testimony of the Scripture upon this 
 point — gathered not simply from such brief 
 notices as have been here drawn together, but 
 running through the whole — the very key- 
 note to the strain. What likelihood then is 
 there that those who approach the subject 
 of Christianity, with their eyes shut to this 
 fundamental principle, will arrive at the know- 
 ledge of the truth ? 
 
 II. Let us endeavour to ascertain the 
 sense of the Church on this subject. Here, 
 as in other cases, so long as controversy slept, 
 
 ' Gal. iii. 22. 
 
156 SIN. [LEcr. 
 
 the expression of opinion was less definite, 
 and our conclusions must be inferential rather 
 than positive. Yet in the writings of the ear- 
 lier fathers we have sufficient to guide us to 
 the opinion of their times. Polycarp condemns 
 hastiness of judgment on the ground that all 
 are debtors to sin '. Justin Martyr speaks of 
 the evil concupiscence inherent in our nature ^ 
 of the subjection of the race of mankind to 
 death, and the deceit of the serpent from the 
 time of Adam ^; and tells us that men work out 
 for themselves death by imitating the disobe- 
 dience of Adam ; and that though they have 
 power to be the sons of God, are worthy, each 
 for his own sin, of judgment and of condem- 
 nation *. And TertuUian with equal distinct- 
 
 ^ fxri a-TTOTOfXoi. ev Kpia-ei, 6t3oTCS on Trai/re? ocpeiXeTai eafxev 
 dfxapr'ia^. S. Polyc. ad Philip, c. 6. 
 
 2 crvfXfiayou Xapovre? Ttjv ev CKacrTU) KUKtjv koi rrpo^ nravra 
 notKiXrjv (pv<ret itriQvfx'iav. Apol. I. p. 58, E. 
 
 ^ Kcu ovK £05 ivZea aVTov tov f3a'rrTta-drjvai fj tov eneXdovTo^ 
 ev eihei •/repicrTepa<; TrvevfxaTO^ oiZafxev avrou eXrjXvoevai eiri tov 
 iroTafxov, iSa-irep ouSe to yevvtjdfjvai avTov koi cTTavpwOrjvai to? 
 ei/Sei;? tovthov vnefxetvev, dXX' virep tov yevovi tov twi/ dudpmTroav 
 o atro tov AZajj. Jtto tov OavaTOv kui wXavtjv tvjv tov o(p€<a<: 
 eTrewTOiKei trapa Ttjv Idiav aiTiav eKutTTOV avTwv irovripevcrafxevov- 
 
 Tryph. p. 316, A. 
 
 ^ KOI OVTOl OfXo'lW: T(0 KZdfjL KOLl Tt] Eua €^OfXOlOVfXevOl 
 
 QdvaTov eavTol<: epya^^ovTaC e^eTw kcli r] ep/j-riveta tov yjyaX/jiov 
 «Js /SovXeade^ Kai outw? avodeheiKTai, otl Geo! KaTr]^i(t)VTai 
 •yeveaOatf Ka\ vio\ v\lri.(rTov irai'Te? ^vvdaOai •yevecrQai KaTrj^iutvTai 
 KOt trap iavTow kcli KpiveaOai koj KaTaSiKa'^fo-0ai fxeXXovatv 
 
 oj? Koi 'A8aV Kai Eva. Trypb. p. 354, A. We must observe 
 
VI.] SES*. 157 
 
 ness lays down, that all men have sinned, that 
 Christ alone is without sin^ 
 
 But these informal expressions were soon 
 succeeded by more precise and accurate defi- 
 nition. The Oriental notion of darkness ex- 
 isting separately from and antagonistically to 
 the light, was embraced by heretical teachers, 
 and spread widely in the Christian Church 
 under the form of Manicheism ; and the re- 
 action which followed was among the main 
 causes of the errors promulgated by the Pela- 
 gians, who constantly branded their opponents 
 with the name of Manichees, in consequence 
 of their views as to the nature of sin. It was 
 given to S. Augustine to be instrumental in 
 bringing out in a consistent form the true 
 Catholic doctrine, removed from either of the 
 extremes, into which the one or the other party 
 
 that the Pelagian notion of the sin of men consisting va follow- 
 ing Adam, had not then been broached, or probably Justin 
 would have expressed himself on this point more precisely ; 
 but the acknowledgment of the universality of sin is at all 
 events most clearly declared, and the sinfulness of man con- 
 trasted with the sinlessness of the Redeemer. 
 
 ' Proinde qui ilium amularis donando delicta si nihil ipse 
 deliquisti, plane patere pro me : si vero peccator es, quomodo 
 oleum faculse tuee sufficere et tibi etmihi poterit? Habeoetiam 
 nunc quo probem Christum. Tertull. de Pudic. c. 22, quoted 
 by Bp. Kaye (Tertull. p. 318), who adds other references, and 
 remarks the agreement of Tertullian with our fourth article, 
 and his opposition to the notion of the impeccability of the 
 Virgin Mary. 
 
158 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 had fallen. The life and temperament of this 
 remarkable man fitted him admirably for his 
 task. The headstrong and impetuous youth 
 who had given loose to the wild passions that 
 stirred within him, had been arrested in his 
 course of unbridled indulgence, and had tasted 
 the bitterness of the cup which he had drained 
 even to the dregs. The natural vehemence 
 of his disposition contributed to heighten his 
 remorse for past transgressions and to quicken 
 his sense of the deformity of her whom he 
 had wooed with unrestrained ardour. Sin 
 had become to him exceedingly hateful and 
 hideous, and he was eager to tear the mask 
 from her features lest she should seduce others 
 by her false exterior. The promises of teachers 
 who pretended to shew the mode of rescuing 
 the soul from the trammels of impurity, and 
 separating the light from the darkness — who 
 professed to discern and to teach the essential 
 difference between good and evil, attracted 
 the reclaimed prodigal to wander for a time 
 in the by-paths of Manichean error. But 
 when he found that notwithstanding all their 
 boasts, they were practically unacquainted 
 with sin's real character, and often claimed a 
 licence of indulgence in those acts which he 
 had learned to loathe — the same earnest con- 
 viction which once caused him to seek their 
 
VI.] SIN. 159 
 
 company, now disjoined him from them for 
 ever. No sooner however did the reactionary 
 movement indicate superficial views of man's 
 corruption, and of the sinfulness of sin, than 
 he pressed eagerly forward to correct such a 
 tendency, and to impress the mind of the 
 Christian world with a sense of the blessed- 
 ness of Redemption by pointing out the depth 
 of misery into which man had fallen. This 
 keen perception of sin made him recognize so 
 clearly the scope of our Saviour's exhortations, 
 as to the letter and the spirit ; maintain so 
 earnestly the universality of sin (Christ only 
 excepted), insisting upon the corruption of 
 our nature, and the derivation of sin from 
 Adam to his posterity ^ 
 
 The depravity of human nature was too 
 apparent, and man's sense of guilt and weak- 
 ness too prevalent, to leave these declarations 
 of S. Augustine without support and appro- 
 bation. They recommended themselves to 
 the consciousness of those to whom they were 
 addressed, and therefore were the efforts of 
 Pelagius and Coelestius (both probably ear- 
 nest though mistaken men) effectual only to 
 promote the establishment of the truth in 
 contradiction to the inadequate views they 
 had been too ready to propound. 
 
 ' De Pecc. Orig. c. 32. 
 
160 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 The same spirit which gave birth to Pe- 
 lagianism has manifested itself in various 
 forms in the subsequent history of Christi- 
 anity, and has been met from time to time 
 by the energy of spiritual life, always sub- 
 sisting, though sometimes less apparently 
 active, within the Church of Christ. The 
 external penances imposed upon sinners, 
 painful and real as they were at first, may be 
 conceived to have originated in a sense of 
 the heinousness of sin ; but the application 
 of outward remedies, and the endurance of 
 outward hardship, required to be watched and 
 spiritualized, lest it should beget reliance on 
 man's own exertions and sufferings. This 
 notion did in fact spring up, and being fos- 
 tered by the interests and passions of different 
 parties, resulted in a kind of bargain with the 
 offended Deity, at first of physical pain, and 
 at last of pecuniary loss for moral guilt. The 
 gradual deadening of the conscience con- 
 firmed the system by which it was produced, 
 and engendered, as its inevitable consequence, 
 the most fearful corruption both of principle 
 and of practice. The treasures of literature 
 and art which adorned the Vatican in its 
 days of splendour were a poor substitute for 
 the spirit of religion that should have lived 
 and flourished in the central home of Christi- 
 
VI.] SIN. 161 
 
 anity. The glittering pageantry of the Medi- 
 cean court cannot conceal from us the ab- 
 sence of true principle, nor can the polish of 
 literary culture disguise the baseness of the 
 material in which religion and morality had 
 no part\ But while rulers in high places 
 by their hypocrisy and immorality spread the 
 poison of infidelity through Christendom, 
 there were yet men of a more earnest spirit 
 constantly arising in different localities to cry 
 out against the vices which surrounded them, 
 and to testify their conviction of sin — a con- 
 viction genuine and true, though often clouded 
 by delusion and fanaticism ^ In these irre- 
 gular and eccentric movements we recognize 
 the impulse of true life within the Church, a 
 spirit that penetrated beneath the surface 
 
 ' " Go to these ceremonial prelates, they have ready the 
 fairest words. Complain to them of the present needs of the 
 Church, they will answer you, ' True, we cannot live, unless 
 God renews us — faith is on the decay.' But in their hearts 
 they cherish their iniquity, and make the Table of the Lord 
 the table of devils. One says to another, ' AVhat think you 
 of our Christian faith ? Why do you believe ?' And he makes 
 answer, ' Nay, you are but a simpleton — faith is a dream fit 
 only for mad monks, and foolish women.'" Savonarola, quoted 
 by Hundeshagen, Deutsch. Protestant, p. 56. 
 
 * Such was the origin of the new monastic orders, the 
 Minorites, the Beguins, the Brethren and Sisters of the Free 
 Spirit in the thirteenth century, of the Bohemian Brethren and 
 the Picards or Beghards in the fourteenth century, and such 
 the actuating principle of such men as Wiclif, Wesselus, and 
 Savonarola. 
 
 C. H. L. 11 
 
162 SIN. [Lect 
 
 down into the very depth of human nature, 
 and finding the whole head sick, the whole 
 heart faint, sought out some new and effica- 
 cious means of applying the remedy which 
 had been provided by the Author of their reli- 
 gion for the healing of nations. It was the 
 work of Luther to give effect to these and 
 similar endeavours which had hitherto been 
 repressed and overborne. Nor are we to as- 
 cribe his success simply to his individual 
 energy and power. The times in which he 
 lived were no less fitted for him than h^ for 
 the times. Religious principle, though hidden 
 for a time, had worked silently and power- 
 fully, and had already done something towards 
 leavening the mass. Luther was raised up 
 to carry on this process, and mould the rude 
 material into a goodly form. The writings of 
 the great doctor of his order may well be 
 supposed to have exercised no inconsiderable 
 influence with the Augustinian monk. But 
 the similarity of temperament in Luther and 
 S. Augustine seems to have been that which 
 led them both to the same intimate knowledge 
 of the human heart. Arrested by an inci- 
 dent^ closely resembling that which had so 
 striking an effect upon S. Augustine, Luther's 
 
 ' The death ofa friend by lightning at his side. Compare the 
 account of the death of Nebridius in S. Aug. Confess. Book iv. 
 
VI.] SIN. 163 
 
 impetuous heart beat with no common ear- 
 nestness when it began to know its own 
 bitterness. The fiery trials through which he 
 passed while at the monastery in Erfurt, the 
 temptations to doubt and despair that so ve- 
 hemently assailed him, were the struggles of 
 a true and ardent spirit wrestling with sin. 
 Upon this spirit dawned at last the dayspring 
 of peace, through the sense of reconciliation 
 with God through Christ Jesus. Sin was not 
 less hateful than before; his unassisted powers 
 to overcome it were not more effectual ; but he 
 learnt that Christ had died to put away sin ; 
 he learnt that by faith he could become par- 
 taker of the benefits thus procured, and to 
 thank Him who giveth the victory through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. But Luther's work 
 was not then ended, but begun. His warm 
 love for his fellow-creatures, his earnest sym- 
 pathy with sufferings of which he knew the 
 intensity, urged him on to help others in the 
 storm through which he had happily passed. 
 The question of indulgences was the occasion 
 rather than the cause of his entering the field. 
 We can scarcely doubt that with his convic- 
 tions he would have found some other occa- 
 sion had this been wanting. He had already 
 raised his voice against the scholastic theo- 
 logy as insufficiently representing the cor- 
 
 11—2 
 
164 SIN. [Lect 
 
 ruption of human nature, and the necessity of 
 divine grace antecedent to any good works'. 
 And here was an act most suited to move 
 him, sin weighed in the scales against a few 
 poor coins, and the beam of the balance de- 
 clared to be even between the two. Well 
 might this be revolting to one who had found 
 out so much of the heinousness of sin. This 
 monstrous traffic was but one form in which 
 the corruption of the head-quarters of Chris- 
 tianity was made apparent. Luther's visit to 
 Rome had prepared him for his work, and 
 while it was only step by step that he with- 
 drew himself from the Papal yoke, he seemed 
 at every step to be actuated by real feeling 
 for the people of Christ, spoiled and laid 
 waste by those who should have fed and sus- 
 tained them. The affecting account of his 
 inward struggles in detaching himself from 
 
 ' In a sermon on the first Commandment preached at 
 Wittenburgh in 1516, Luther inveighs against the worship of 
 saints, and then proceeds to condemn the scholastic theologians 
 for nonrecognition of the principle of sin, " qui pro vero Deo 
 idolum sapientiee et justitite sua colunt." " Igitur sicut supra 
 diximus, cum simus juxta B. Augustinum una massa perdi- 
 tionis, nemo justificatur nisi per puram sine meritis gratiam 
 Christi." This sermon was preached before Luther broke with 
 Rome, and he evidently considers that his exhortations to the 
 people are quite compatible with his being a member of that 
 Church. It therefore gives evidence of the predominating 
 feeling of his mind, before he was brought into collision with 
 authorities. 
 
VI.] Slir. 165 
 
 those associations that once had so firm hold 
 upon his affections, speaks, no doubt, in the 
 language of truth, the feelings of his hearts 
 And if in the course of his resistance to power 
 unduly strained, personal feelings had their 
 weight with one little inclined to brook op- 
 pression, we cannot doubt that the mainspring 
 of his opposition was his perception of sin, 
 and of the inadequacy of the remedies autho- 
 ritatively proposed for this terrible disease. 
 Luther's mind was not naturally much given 
 to the logic of the schools. He made use, 
 indeed, of the controversial weapons of his 
 day, carrying on his disputations in the form 
 in which alone they could then proceed, and 
 displaying therein the force of an original 
 and educated mind. But he was disposed to 
 depreciate rather than overvalue logical con- 
 clusions. One strong and overpowering feel^ 
 ing had possession of his soul. The people 
 of God are bound with the chain of sin, and 
 they who should loose them are forging ad- 
 ditional fetters for their limbs. He felt within 
 himself an impulse (not unaccompanied by a 
 sense of power) to strike off these fetters. 
 His soul yearned towards his brethren. And 
 as he deemed a knowledge of sin to be the 
 very essence of Christianity, and considered 
 
 ' See Preface of Luther to his 95 Propositions. 
 
166 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 that this knowledge had been obstructed and 
 obliterated by the imposition of formal works 
 and laborious penances, the watchword of 
 liberty which he proclaimed to the world was 
 Justification by Faith. The appreciation of 
 this doctrine has been impaired by those who 
 have dwelt upon it rather as a logical formula 
 than as a living principle. The exclusion of 
 good works properly so called from the cycle 
 of Christian duties conditional to salvation 
 was never contemplated by Luther, and was 
 abjured by him so soon as it was propounded. 
 His desire was to deduce good works from 
 the true source, and shew that no acts can 
 be approved of God excepting as they spring 
 from a good principle, and that the good prin- 
 ciple which can alone combat sin in its mani- 
 fold forms must be none other than the grace 
 which is sent into the heart by the Holy 
 Spirit, transforming, renewing, and restoring 
 the fallen nature of the man of wrath into the 
 glorious liberty of the sons of God. The 
 voice of Luther found an echo in the hearts 
 of thousands who had felt but could not ex- 
 press their want. It was not merely his lofty 
 and manly spirit, nor his warm love to the 
 people; it was not merely his high endow- 
 ments, and unrivalled eloquence in his mother- 
 tongue, which drew after him the hearts of so 
 
VI.] SIN. 167 
 
 many ; it was that he so thoroughly knew the 
 wants and spoke home to the consciences of 
 the Christian multitude, who, with little com- 
 prehension and less care for the subtleties of 
 the schools, felt their wretchedness, and pined 
 for delivery. 
 
 The Reformation was the great issue of 
 the consciousness of sin ; but the history of 
 the Church presents other though less move- 
 ments arising from the same cause. I have 
 before alluded to those w^hich preceded and 
 ushered in this great climax ; and we trace in 
 subsequent events the operation of the same 
 principle even among those who had little 
 sympathy with Luther himself. The protests 
 of this Reformer were not without their influ- 
 ence upon his most resolute opponents. The 
 hollow system of practical infidelity was 
 shaken to the base, and many who defended 
 the old cause allowed that it needed reform 
 and examination. And although the Church 
 of Rome has unhappily reasserted all those 
 abuses which either occasioned or were occa- 
 sioned by moral corruption, it must be allowed 
 that in many parts of it a more lively sense 
 of religion has sprung up since the time of 
 the Reformation. The convictions of Ignatius 
 Loyola and Xavier were doubtless deep and 
 real, and the influence which they exercised 
 
168 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 arose from their recurrence to the common 
 feeling of individual and universal corruption. 
 For when their successors were led to encou- 
 rage the pride of human nature, the response 
 which the appeals of Jansenius and his follow- 
 ers received from pious and earnest men, goes 
 far to shew how deeply rooted in the heart of 
 Christianity is the consciousness of sin, a con- 
 sciousness which chimes in with the external 
 testimony we possess that the Church of Christ 
 has in all ages maintained as the starting 
 point of all her doctrines, the universal pre- 
 valence of sin, expressing it in every prayer 
 which she offers to the throne of grace, and 
 asserting it in her Creeds by the declaration 
 not so much of its existence, which is presup- 
 posed, as of its remission and forgiveness. 
 
 III. Faith requiring from its very nature 
 much to be taken on trust, may in all cases avail 
 herself of the corroboration of reason. And 
 we may bring together from this source many 
 topics to confirm the doctrine which we are 
 at present concerned to establish. 
 
 1. The existence of sorrow and suffering 
 in a world abounding with so multiplied con- 
 trivances for the happiness of its inhabitants, 
 is an anomaly that has arrested and must 
 still arrest the attention of reflecting beings. 
 Some have accounted for it by supposing the 
 
VI.] SIN. 169 
 
 existence of a malignant Power independent 
 of the beneficent Creator, whom it is prudent 
 and serviceable to appease by offerings and 
 worship ; but the more general belief of hea- 
 thendom has attributed it to the anger of the 
 gods for sacrifices withheld, worship neg- 
 lected, and duties unperformed. Frivolous as 
 were often the supposed causes of calamity 
 where the conceptions of duty were unworthy 
 and low, this belief recognized in sin the 
 transgression of law, involving guilt in the 
 transgressor. And if we put aside the notion 
 of a multiplicity of gods, which will be readily 
 allowed to be unreasonable, and substitute 
 that of One Almighty Being, the Creator and 
 Governor of the Universe, it is difficult to 
 render any account of the existence of pain 
 so rational, as that which connects its origin 
 with the violation of that Being's laws. 
 
 2. But further, the God of nature has in 
 many ways connected suffering with a certain 
 course of conduct : not that all who suffer have 
 earned their reward, or that all who thus act, 
 suffer. But actions of a certain kind very 
 constantly, though not invariably, find out the 
 agent, and carry with them their own con- 
 demnation as productive of distress and 
 misery. And if the prevalence of certain 
 habits produce in a society confusion and dis- 
 
170 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 order, this opposition to the principles of social 
 organization bespeaks a contradiction to the 
 will of Him who gave man a social nature 
 apt for political combination under the protec- 
 tion and sanction of law. 
 
 3. The condition of the heathen world at 
 the time of Christ's coming affords an illus- 
 tration of the practical working of sin, its 
 deadly harvest of calamity and woe. *' What 
 fruit," asks the Apostle of the converts from 
 Paganism, *' had ye then in those things 
 whereof ye are now ashamed^?" And do we 
 not observe now, that so far as heathen vices 
 are indulged in a community nominally Chris- 
 tian, heathen degradation follows ? The spec- 
 tacle of a community struggling with misery 
 occasioned by the conduct of its members (a 
 spectacle to be beheld in every age) awakens 
 at once the idea of guilt and of retribution, 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 21. Tholuck, in an "Essay on the Nature and 
 Moral Influence of Heathenism," sets forth these corruptions 
 very fully, remarking at the same time that nothing but a 
 sense of the evil results which have been produced by attempts 
 to gloss them over through a wrong predilection for heathen- 
 ism, could have induced him to enter into such revolting de- 
 tails, and that much yet remains untold too impure to be 
 brought forward by a Christian writer. If any of my readers 
 should unfortunately be actuated by any such predilection for 
 heathenism as that which Tholuck mentions, it is enough to 
 refer them to the abovenamed treatise. May no admiration for 
 the arts and literature of the heathen induce us to close our 
 eyes for an instant to tlie corruptions amid which they lived ! 
 
VL] SIN. 171 
 
 and forces us to consider laws imposed and 
 violated. 
 
 4. But further, there is a witness in the 
 hearts of men recording the condemnation of 
 certain actions, and these the same in general 
 as those against which the course of Providence 
 reclaims. Men know the judgment of God, 
 that they which commit such things are worthy 
 of deaths Conscience or the moral sense tells 
 us that there is a right and wrong, and that if 
 we choose the wrong it is sin. And conscience 
 not only witnesses that there is a law, and 
 therefore transgression, but instructs us in the 
 law, and by its sharp stings reminds us of 
 the heinousness of neglecting it. The general 
 belief in a state of punishment after death is 
 no weak and dreamy imagination, but the 
 natural concomitant of a conscience, a true 
 voice of a true monitor. But this voice is not 
 at all times or to all persons equally clear and 
 full. The moral sense, like all other senses, is 
 quickened by use, and deadened by neglect. 
 The idolater is answered according to the 
 multitude of his idols% of whatever nature 
 these idols be. The true perception of sin is 
 reserved for the spiritually-minded. "Fools 
 make a mock at sin^." He who has striven 
 against it, can alone know its power. Thus is 
 
 ^ Rom. i. 32. ^ Ezek. xiv. 4. ^ Prov. xiv. 9. 
 
172 SIN. [Lect. 
 
 it that the most fervent expressions of the 
 corruption of their nature, of the deceitfulness 
 and wickednessof their hearts, have often been 
 uttered by those who have most earnestly con- 
 tended against their evil passions, and devoted 
 themselves most entirely to the service of 
 God. 
 
 Is it not true, my younger brethren, that 
 such records of Christian experience often 
 sound harshly in your ears, and that you are 
 yourselves very slow to make such confessions 
 of sinfulness? Partly it may be from the un- 
 willingness to lay bare the feelings of the 
 heart ; a reserve not unnatural nor reprehen- 
 sible, so long as you conceal not from your- 
 selves that which you shrink from detailing 
 to others, nor fling recklessly the charge of 
 hypocrisy on those who more openly and 
 freely announce to you what they feel. 
 
 It is however to be feared that the distaste 
 for the acknowledgement of guilt, arises at 
 least as frequently from an inadequate appre- 
 hension of sin. And this defect constantly 
 produces speculative doubts, which trouble 
 but little the truly penitent sinner, whose 
 anxiety to be forgiven is too sincere to allow 
 him to question his need of forgiveness. 
 
 Let us not regard the question of the 
 nature of sin as merely doctrinal — or rather 
 
VI.] SIN. 173 
 
 let us regard it as doctrinal in the true Chris- 
 tian sense — fraught with duties not to be 
 severed from it : and therefore let us look 
 closer into our hearts, that our consciences 
 may speak the truth within us, telling us of 
 our misery and therefore of our happiness — 
 for our misery has constituted our claim to a 
 Saviour's redeeming love, and will furnish us 
 with our best plea in that dreadful day when 
 the righteous scarcely shall be saved, and yet 
 the pardoned sinner may appear'. 
 
 ' 1 Pet. iv. 18. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 S. JOHN I. 14. 
 
 The Word was made fleshy and dwelt among us, {and 
 tve beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-he- 
 gotten of the Father,) fidl of grace and truth. 
 
 TN interrogating the Scriptures as to the 
 -*- doctrine of the Incarnation, we naturally 
 turn to that part of Holy Writ wherein this 
 central truth of our religion seems to be most 
 fully set forth, the introduction to the Gospel 
 of S. John. But this introduction throws us 
 back at the very outset to earlier records. 
 The evident reference in the opening words 
 to the Mosaic account of the Creation intro- 
 duces this verity not simply as one declared 
 in the Gospel, but as entering into the whole 
 constitution of the Church of God from the 
 beginning of the world. The revelation of the 
 One True God as opposed to the many gods 
 of the nations, is accompanied even in the 
 Old Testament by a reference to His Word 
 and Wisdom ; expressions plainly employed 
 to indicate far more than the utterance of His 
 will, or the depth of His counsels. To the 
 
lect. vil] the incarnation. 175 
 
 Word of God are attributed all the commu- 
 nications made to man ; by the Word of God 
 we are told the heavens were made, and all 
 the host of them by the breath of His mouth'. 
 The man that came out of Judah to Bethel, 
 came by the Word of the Lord 2, was charged 
 by the Word of the Lord', it was said to him 
 by the Word of the Lord^ To the Prophets 
 the Word of the Lord came^ and the vision 
 of Christ's Kingdom is the Word that Isaiah 
 the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and 
 Jerusalem"; the common usage of word (in) 
 to denote a thing revealed, intimating, per- 
 haps, the Author of such revelation. Again, 
 the description of Wisdom in the Book of 
 Proverbs goes far beyond a mere personifi- 
 cation of one of the attributes of the Most 
 High. For after the ascription of the might 
 of kings, the honour of princes and of nobles 
 to the presence of wisdom, follow the re- 
 markable words: "The Lord possessed me in 
 the beginning of his way, before his works 
 of old . . . When he prepared the heavens, I 
 was there ; when he set a compass upon the 
 face of the deep ; when he established the 
 clouds above ; when he strengthened the foun- 
 
 ^ Ps. xxxiii. 6. 2 2 Kings xiii. 1. 
 
 ^ 1 Kings xiii. 9. * 1 Kings xiii. 17- 
 
 ^ Jer. i. 4, et passim. " Isai. ii. 1. 
 
176 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 tains of the deep ; when he gave to the sea 
 his decree, that the waters should not pass 
 his commandment; when he appointed the 
 foundations of the earth ; then I was by him, 
 as one brought up Avith him ; and I was daily 
 his delight, rejoicing always before him ; re- 
 joicing in the habitable parts of his earth, 
 and my delights were with the sons of men . . . 
 Whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall ob- 
 tain favour of the Lord^" At the same time 
 that the Word or the Wisdom of God are 
 proclaimed to be the agents through whom 
 He reveals Himself to men, the Messiah is 
 foretold as the Everlasting Son of the Father, 
 the King who should rule over all the world, 
 the Judge who should execute Divine judg- 
 ment, the Prophet who should declare the 
 Divine will. So that the identity of the Word 
 of God with the Son of David, whom David 
 in spirit called Lord, was intimated not ob- 
 scurely in the writings of the Old Testament; 
 and this should have proved a safeguard 
 against carnal notions of Messiah and Mes- 
 siah's kingdom. That the idea of the perso- 
 nality of the Word or Wisdom of God, indi- 
 cated rather than revealed in the Canonical 
 Scriptures, had through them become familiar 
 to the Jews, is made manifest by the Chaldee 
 ' Prov. viii. 22—35. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 177 
 
 paraphrases, and the apocryphal books of 
 Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and Wisdom. Where- 
 ever in the original the presence of God in the 
 world is more or less clearly represented, the 
 paraphrasts Onkelos and Jonathan substitute 
 for the name and the person of God, "the 
 Angel of the Lord," "the Majesty of the 
 Lord," "the Shechinah," or "The Word of 
 the Lord" (mn^ a^O^D). And this is done in so 
 marked a manner, as to leave little doubt as 
 to the opinions of those who employed such 
 terms upon the subject of the separate exist- 
 ence of the Word'. 
 
 The son of Sirach pursues and enlarges 
 upon the description of Wisdom given in the 
 Book of Proverbs 2 ; and Baruch speaks of 
 the revelation of Wisdom to Jacob in terms 
 very striking and peculiar : " Who hath gone 
 up into heaven, and taken her (Wisdom), and 
 brought her down from the clouds ? Who 
 hath gone over the sea, and found her, and 
 will bring her for pure gold ? No man know- 
 eth her way, nor thinketh of her path. But 
 he that knoweth all things knoweth her, and 
 
 LUcke (Comment, iiber Evang. Johann.) upon the Pro- 
 logue of S. John's Gospel gives an account of the Jewish and 
 Alexandrian notions of the Logos. I disclaim all agreement 
 with this commentator's own views upon this subject. 
 
 ' Ecclus. i. 1—20; iv. 11— 19;vi. 18—31; xiv. 20—27; 
 XV. 1 — 8 ; xxiv. 
 
 C.H.L. 12 
 
178 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 hath found her out with his understanding : 
 he that prepared the earth for evermore hath 
 filled it with fourfooted beasts : he that send- 
 eth forth light, and it goeth, calleth it again, 
 and it obeyeth him with fear. The stars 
 shined in their watches, and rejoiced: when 
 he calleth them, they say. Here we be ; and 
 so with cheerfulness they shewed light unto 
 him that made them. This is our God, and 
 there shall none other be accounted of in 
 comparison of him. He hath found out all 
 the way of knowledge, and hath given it to 
 Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. 
 Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, 
 and conversed with men^" 
 
 And in the Wisdom of Solomon she is 
 thus described : *' For wisdom, which is the 
 worker of all things, taught me : for in her 
 is an understanding spirit, holy, one only, 
 manifold, subtil, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, 
 not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is 
 good, quick, which cannot be letted, ready to 
 do good, kind to man, steadfast, sure, free 
 from care, having all power, overseeing all 
 things, and going through all understanding, 
 pure, and most subtil spirits. For wisdom is 
 more moving than any motion : she passeth 
 and goeth through all things by reason of her 
 
 ' Baruch iii. 29—37. 
 
VII.J THE INCARNATION. 179 
 
 pureness. For she is the breath of the power 
 of God, and a pure influence flowing from the 
 glory of the Almighty : therefore can no 
 defiled thing fall into her. For she is the 
 brightness of the everlasting light, the un- 
 spotted mirror of the power of God, and the 
 image of his goodness. And being but one, 
 she can do all things: and remaining in her- 
 self, she maketh all things new : and in all 
 ages entering into holy souls, she maketh 
 them friends of God and prophets. For God 
 loveth none but him that dwelleth with wis- 
 dom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, 
 and above all the order of stars : being com- 
 pared with the light, she is found before it'." 
 It may indeed be doubted whether these 
 expressions are so nearly coincident with the 
 declarations of the Gospel as at first sight 
 appears : they at least shew that the idea of 
 a Personal Word was evolved, and that the 
 passages now appealed to by Christians were 
 similarly understood by the Jews some cen- 
 turies prior to the coming of our Lord. But 
 after the Captivity the Jews lost sight of the 
 identity of the promised Messiah with the 
 Word of God, and so learned to expect in 
 the Messiah a temporal ruler, and to re- 
 cognize the Divine Word in the creations of 
 
 • Wisd. vii. 22—29. 
 
 12—2 
 
180 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 Oriental or Hellenic imagination. This sepa- 
 ration may have been less decided among the 
 Jews of Palestine, of whose opinions we 
 possess little accurate information. But we 
 know that the Alexandrian Jews did thus 
 deviate from the truth. For although Philo 
 applies to the Word m_any of the titles by 
 which S. John and S. Paul designated Christ, 
 as Archangel, High Priest, Son of God, the 
 Man of God, the First-born, the Only-be- 
 gotten, the Image of God, the Life, the Light, 
 although he plainly conceives of the Word 
 as personally existent, and attributes to Him 
 the creation of the world, yet it is manifest, 
 after due examination, that the Word thus 
 conceived is entirely different from the very 
 Word of God. The mixture of Oriental, 
 Hellenic, and Jewish philosophy, makes itself 
 felt in the introduction under a Jewish appel- 
 lation of the Archetypal Idea of Plato, and 
 of the Light of Orientalism emanating from 
 the Deity. Thus Philo made his Word con- 
 substantial with the Father, yet possessing 
 a real and independent existence : but the 
 contrast between this and the true Word is 
 seen by the comparison of the words of my 
 text, "The word became flesh," with those of 
 Philo, '* The heavenly man being born after 
 the image of God is incapable of partaking 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 181 
 
 of a corruptible, and in short, earthly sub- 
 stance ^" It has not been unusual to seek an 
 explanation of the introduction to S. John's 
 Gospel in the opinions broached by Cerin- 
 thus, against whose pernicious teaching it is 
 known that the Evangelist so strongly pro- 
 tested. And without denying that the refu- 
 tation of these and similar errors lay within 
 the scope of this part of Holy Writ, we are 
 carried back by the terms employed to the 
 original system from which Cerinthus bor- 
 rowed them, and thus arrive at a more com- 
 prehensive sense than if we suppose the 
 passage to have been merely directed to con- 
 trovert a particular heresy. For it implies 
 an assertion of the identity of the Messiah 
 with the Word of God in one who, possessing 
 all the attributes assigned by Jewish philo- 
 sophers to the Word, fulfilled at the same 
 time all the prophecies of the Messiah, by 
 taking upon Him the nature of men in the 
 person of Jesus of Nazareth. In this refer- 
 ence to Alexandrian conceptions we are con- 
 firmed by the use of the word " dwelt," or 
 rather '* tabernacled," (eo-KJ/Vwo-e), a term carry- 
 ing the mind at once to the Shechinah once 
 
 o ovpavio<; (sc. ai/flowTro?) aVe kot eiKova Qeou yeyovwv 
 <p0apTfj<: Ka£ <ri/i/oA.(09 yew}iov<s oJcrj'a? dneToyoi. Alleg. 1. § 12. 
 fj noted by Lucke. 
 
182 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 visibly resident among the Jews, by the repe- 
 tition of the words " grace and truth," the 
 attributes of the Almighty, {-n-oXveXeos kuI dXtjOtj^^) 
 in the seventeenth verse, ascribing to Jesus 
 Christ the qualities ascribed in my text to 
 the Word, and by the connexion of the eigh- 
 teenth with the seventeenth verse, wherein 
 Jesus Christ is identified with the Only-be- 
 gotten, (i.e. the Word) whose office it is to 
 declare God to man. " For the law was 
 given by Moses, but grace and truth came by 
 Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any 
 time ; the only-begotten Son, which is in the 
 bosom of the Father, he hath declared him^" 
 
 The passages in the Epistles and in the 
 Revelation which illustrate the portion of 
 Scripture we have been considering, seem 
 also to contain allusions to the Jewish notion 
 of the Word of God, and to be concerned 
 with the identification of the Word with Jesus 
 Christ : " That which was from the beginning, 
 which we have heard, which we have seen 
 wdth our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
 and our hands have handled, of the Word of 
 life; (for the life was manifested, and we have 
 seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you 
 that eternal life, which was with the Father, 
 and was manifested unto us ;) that which we 
 1 Exod. xxxiv. 6. 2 joh. i. I7, 18. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 188 
 
 have seen and heard declare we unto you, that 
 ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly 
 our fellowship is with the Father and with 
 his Son Jesus Christ'." So the same Apos- 
 tle makes it the test of spirits whether they 
 are from God : " Every spirit that confesseth 
 that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of 
 God^." And in the Revelation describes him- 
 self by reference to this mission, as " John 
 who bare record of the word of God, and of the 
 testimony of Jesus Christ^" With the same 
 significance S. Paul speaks of "Christ who 
 is the image of God*," and leads the Hebrews 
 from previous manifestations of God to the 
 final manifestation of His Son, the heir of 
 all things, by whom He made the worlds, the 
 brightness of His glory, the express image of 
 His person, upholding all things by the word 
 of His power^ ; and having shewn the sin- 
 gular dignity with which He invested His 
 Son, exalting human nature through Him, 
 S. Paul brings all to the conclusion: "Where- 
 fore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly 
 calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest 
 of our profession, Christ Jesus ^" And so 
 in the Colossians, an Epistle especially cor- 
 
 1 1 Joh. i. 1—3. 2 1 Job. iv. 2. 
 
 3 Rev. i. 2. 4 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 
 ^ Heb. i. 1—3. 6 Heb. iii. I. 
 
184) THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 recti ve of Jewish errors, S. Paul ascribes to 
 Christ Jesus the attributes assigned by the 
 Jews to the Word of God, "who is the image 
 of the invisible God, the first-born of every 
 creature : for by him were all things created, 
 that are in heaven, and that are in earth, 
 visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, 
 or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all 
 things were created by him, and for him : and 
 he is before all things, and by him all things 
 consist'," — warning and teaching every man 
 in all wisdom, that he might present every 
 man perfect in Christ Jesus^. 
 
 These considerations will, I trust, make 
 plain what the Evangelist meant by such 
 striking passages as my text. And while we 
 observe the Providential dispensation by which 
 the conceptions of philosophy were made to 
 prepare the way for the truth, and to shadow 
 out, as it were in outline, some of the excel- 
 lencies of the Incarnate Word, we remark 
 also that the enumeration of the properties of 
 Him who was deemed the Emanation from 
 the One God, personally existent, and de- 
 scribed in the language of philosophy as the 
 •Second God (o ^t-vrepos Geos), removed every 
 pretence for the theory broached in modern 
 days, that S. John is merely speaking of a 
 
 1 Col. i. 15— 17. -^ Col. i. 28. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 185 
 
 Divine influence, and that the creation as- 
 cribed to Jesus is the moral creation of the 
 new heart — and renders it what might ahnost 
 be called incontestable, that we cannot hold 
 to the Scripture without acccepting in its 
 plain and literal meaning the scriptural truth, 
 that " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us." And it were Avell if those who, 
 without denying the Scripture, advance the 
 objection of the Jews of old, *'It is incredible 
 and impossible," would listen to the answer 
 of Justin Martyr: "If I asserted it upon mere 
 human arguments you would rightly refuse 
 your acquiescence, but if Scripture be on my 
 side, to deny it must be from hardness of 
 hea^t^" 
 
 II. We have in the witness borne by 
 the Church strong confirmation of our inter- 
 pretation of Scripture. The doctrine of the 
 Incarnation is impressed upon the history of 
 the first four centuries, enunciated with ever- 
 increasing clearness, as misconceptions arose 
 and were removed, misstatements were made 
 and were corrected. This sublime mystery 
 did indeed from the first present obstacles to 
 the reception of Christianity among Jews and 
 Gentiles ; but the preachers of the Gospel did 
 not on that account suppress or qualify it. Of 
 
 1 Tryph. pi.292, E. 
 
186 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 the method in which Jews were addressed the 
 dialogue with Trypho is a specimen, where 
 Justin presses upon the Jew, as two distinct 
 truths, the Messiahship and the Divinity of 
 Jesus\ In the demonstration of His Divinity, 
 the course pursued seems to have been pointed 
 out by the Alexandrian and Jewish notions 
 of the Word. The Christian Apologist details 
 the manifestations of the Deity in the works 
 of creation, and in those communications with 
 the patriarchs wherein the paraphrasts and 
 Alexandrians discover the Word of God. 
 He produces from the Proverbs the descrip- 
 tion of Wisdom, to which I have referred, 
 maintains that the Word begotten before all 
 creatures was the Wisdom, the Power, and 
 the Glory of the Father^ and shews that pro- 
 phecy indicated distinctly that this Word 
 should take our nature upon Him, and be born 
 of a virgin — and appeals to Daniel as the 
 predictor of the Son of man inheriting the 
 everlasting Kingdom — of the stone cut with- 
 out hands (i. e. not begotten by man) growing 
 unto a great mountain — and adduces from 
 Isaiah, for the ineffable character of Messiah's 
 birth, " His generation who shall declare^ ?" 
 Whatever be the value of Justin's arguments 
 
 * Tryph. p. 2G7, B. ' Tryph. p. 284, D. 
 3 Tryph. p. 301, B. 
 
Vn.] THE INCARNATION. 187 
 
 (and they were repeated by his successors as 
 the common topics of persuasion to the Jews), 
 the dialogue at least evinces the opinion not 
 only of the writer himself, but by inference of 
 the Church of the first and second centuries. 
 Again, TertuUian in recommending Christian- 
 ity to the Heathen sets forth most distinctly 
 this its fundamental truth, which he illustrates 
 indeed by the instance of the creative word of 
 the Stoics, but does not evacuate or explain 
 away, but pronounces clearly that He whom 
 the Jews had at first deemed man on account 
 of His humility, and afterwards a magician on 
 account of His works, did by these works shew 
 Himself to be the Word of God, i.e. the Word 
 which was in the beginning, the First-begotten, 
 accompanied by His power, and His presence, 
 and upheld by His Spirit, the same who by a 
 word both did and had done all things ^ 
 
 As we advance we find Irenaeus dealing not 
 with the objections of the heathen, but with 
 the misconceptions of heretics within the 
 Church ; and accordingly disallowing, as par- 
 tial and insuflicient, illustrations adopted by 
 Justin Martyr and TertuUian for the persua- 
 sion of unbelievers^. But the whole aim of 
 the writings of Irenseus is to exhibit the true 
 
 1 Tertull. Apolog. ch. 21. 
 
 2 Tryph. p. 284, C. Tertull. Apol.ch. 21. Otto (in Tryph. 
 1. c.) quotes Tatian. Orat. c. Graec. c. 5, and remarks that 
 Irenteii«, ii. c. 13, disallows such analogies. 
 
188 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 doctrine as to the Word of God, that doctrine 
 which through Polycarp he must have re- 
 ceived from S. John, and which he constantly 
 maintains to be not his own, but what the 
 Church holds, and has ever held, as derived 
 from the Apostles themselves. We observe, 
 moreover, that Justin Martyr and TertuUian 
 are the representatives of what may be called 
 different schools of theology — and it has 
 been with justice remarked, that " if the idea 
 of the Word of God had not a connexion with 
 Christianity resting on the authority of an 
 apostolical type, and ought rather to be con- 
 sidered as a fusion of Platonism or of the 
 Alexandrian-Jewish theology with Christian 
 doctrines, then its wide diffusion, as testified 
 by its reception by Church Fathers of other- 
 wise the most opposite tendencies, could 
 hardly be accounted for. If in such a case 
 it might have recommended itself to teachers 
 in whom the Platonic element predominated, 
 still those who looked with suspicion on every 
 thing that came from that quarter must for this 
 very reason have been prejudiced against it^" 
 While this mysterious truth that He who 
 had appeared upon earth in the form of man 
 was verily the Eternal Word, who was with 
 God and was God from the beginning, was 
 assailed from the first by the adversaries of 
 1 Ncand. Cli. Hist. Vol. ii. p. 290. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 189 
 
 his religion, it is worthy of observation, that the 
 earliest heresies within the Church were con- 
 cerned with the denial rather of the humanity 
 than of the Divinity of Christ. S. John speaks 
 in his Epistles of those who deny that Jesus 
 Christ is come in the flesh ^ ; and the multitude 
 of Gnostic sects, varying as they did in par- 
 ticular tenets, and designated by diiferent 
 appellations, had this in common, that they 
 supposed the person of Christ to be invested 
 with a peculiar emanation of the Deity, some 
 conceiving this emanation to have joined itself, 
 but only for a time, to the man Jesus ; others 
 regarding His human acts, sufferings, and 
 person, to be apparent, and not real ; some 
 imagining that in Him Divinity stood in the 
 place of a human soul: all missing the truecon- 
 ception of the substantial union of the two na- 
 tures, but all maintaining, though in erroneous 
 forms, the Divinity of our Lord. This agree- 
 ment even among heretics affords incidentally 
 the strongest proof how firm a hold this doc- 
 trine possessed upon the Christian mind in 
 the ages nearest to that in which His mighty 
 and marvellous works had testified His power. 
 But as the subject was again and again 
 brought under discussion, human reason from 
 time to time raised up difficulties and doubts 
 requiring further and more particular exposi- 
 
 1 1 Joh. iv. 2, 3; 2Joh. 7. 
 
190 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 tion. Speculations upon the nature of man, 
 and upon the nature of God, arguments resting; 
 upon the Unity of the Godhead, questions as 
 to the mode of union of the Divine and human 
 natures, furnished successively subject-matter 
 for thought and deliberation. Hence arose 
 the instinctive desire to employ the collective 
 wisdom of the members of Christ's Bodv, 
 and to obtain formal records of the general 
 sense of the Church upon these topics. 
 Each of the first four General Councils were 
 called together in order to guard the truth 
 of the Incarnation against opinions broach- 
 ed by different heresiarchs. And it is illus- 
 trative of the remarks made on a previous 
 occasion as to the province of Councils, that 
 the great Council of Nice was preceded by 
 three local Councils which were occupied with 
 the same questions, and that in the second of 
 these it was especially set forth that the 
 fathers there assembled " said that which they 
 had learnt," and that "all the Catholics agreed 
 with them." There was indeed no necessity, 
 and therefore no attempt in the four Councils, 
 to lay down any new truth. The purpose was 
 to detect and obviate the consequence of erro- 
 neous modes of apprehension \ It was of the 
 
 ^ The first two were directed against the Sabellian tenets 
 of Noetus and of Beryllus, the third against Paul of Samosata. 
 See Wilberforce on the Incarnation. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 191 
 
 utmost importance to point out and condemn 
 the tenets of Arius, of Eutyches, and of Nes- 
 torius, because they subverted either directly, 
 or consequentially, the truth of the Incarnation 
 as contained in Scripture, and received by 
 theChurch; butthe heretics themselves started 
 from the assumption of the doctrine in name, 
 which they would in fact have explained away. 
 And although they were subsequently com- 
 pelled to reject parts of Scripture, as too 
 plainly opposed to them, they at first pro- 
 ceeded merely to theorize upon the scriptural 
 declarations. So that the Councils not only 
 in their decrees, but in the incidental testi- 
 mony which they supply, bear witness to the 
 Catholic truth, that the Word was made flesh. 
 
 We proceed to the other sources whence 
 we derive evidence of primitive truth. 
 
 Of Creeds, we bear in mind not merely 
 the three, that together furnish so complete 
 an exposition of this doctrine, but also the 
 shorter and still earlier expressions of faith, 
 less formally drawn up, and handed to us in 
 many cases in a fragmentary form. Many of 
 these are preserved in ancient writers as the 
 confessions required of candidates for bap- 
 tism, and adopted by particular Churches in 
 times antecedent to the Nicene Council. Of 
 these summaries of Christian doctrine we 
 possess very copious information. Irenaeus, 
 
192 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 Origen,Tertullian, and Cyprian, have handed 
 to us various forms to which the assent of 
 catechumens was required, differing from one 
 another in words, but agreeing in substance. 
 And there have been preserved to us the an- 
 cient creeds of Jerusalem, Caesarea, Antioch, 
 and Alexandria. All these testimonies have 
 been collected by the learned Bingham, and 
 to his valuable work it is sufficient to refer, 
 noting only that none of these summaries 
 fails to declare Jesus Christ as the Son of 
 God, or, which is the same thing, the Only- 
 begotten, of one substance with the Father^ 
 
 The well-known statement of Pliny, that 
 the Christians met together upon a stated day 
 to sing a hymn to Christ as God^, introduces 
 us at once to the ancient Liturgies of the 
 Church. And while we have in Pliny an 
 unimpeachable witness to the divine honours 
 rendered to Christ, we also possess sufficient 
 information as to the Liturgies themselves to 
 
 ^ Bingh. Antiq. Book x. cli. 4. 
 
 2 Plin. Epist. Lib. x. Ep. 101. This is confirmed by Ter- 
 tuUian who incidentally alludes to some liturgical forms, among 
 which is one distinctly recognizing Christ's Divinity. " Quale 
 est enim de Ecclesia Dei in Ecclesiam diaboli tendere ? de coelo 
 (quod aiunt) in coenum ? illas manus quas ad Dominum ex- 
 tuleris, postmodum laudando histrionem fatigare ? ex ore quo 
 Amen in Sanctum protulcris,, gladiatori testimonium reddere? 
 €i<i alwvai dtr aiwi/o? alii oninino dicere nisi Deo Christo ? " 
 De Spectac. c 25. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. }9$ 
 
 shew the full force of his declaration. The 
 common doxology ascribing Glory alike to 
 the three Persons of the Godhead — the form of 
 Baptism prescribed by our Lord Himself, in 
 the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 imply an equality in those who are thus 
 brought together. And Justin Martyr, in his 
 account of the public prayers of the Church, 
 connects the petitions offered in the celebra- 
 tion of the Eucharist with the commemoration 
 of the Incarnation of our Lord^ When Paul 
 of Samosata propounded notions respecting 
 Christ "low, grovelling, and contrary to the 
 teaching of the Churchy" the letter condemn- 
 ing his heresy charges him with having dis- 
 continued the ancient psalms sung in honour 
 of Christ Jesus our Lord, and introducing in 
 their stead new hymns, the composition of 
 recent authors^ And in reference to a yet 
 
 * Just. M. Apol. I. p. 98, A. See Bishop Kaye's remarks 
 on this passage, Kaye's Just. M. p. 87. 
 
 ' raireivd ■^anaiireTrj trapa Trjv eKK\r]<rta<TTiKr}v hiia<TKa\iav 
 (ppov^a-avTov. Euseb. E. H, VII. 27. The letter referred to is 
 given by Euseb. E. H. vii. 30. 
 
 ■ We have a striking illustration in the attempt made by 
 Dr Clarke and others in the beginning of the last century to 
 substitute for the accustomed form of doxology in the singing 
 Psalms another more conformable to their own persuasions. 
 Van Mildert remarks that " this attempt gave occasion for a 
 more full investigation of the primitive doxologies, as bearing 
 testimony to our Lord's Divinity." Life of Waterland, p. 64. 
 C. H. L. 13 
 
194 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 earlier heresy of a similar kind, Eusebius 
 quotes from an ancient author, whose name 
 he does not profess to know, words declaratory 
 of the opinion of the Church, and appealing 
 expressly to liturgical forms: "They say 
 indeed that the earliest Christians and the 
 Apostles taught the same doctrines with 
 themselves, and that the truth was maintain- 
 ed till the time of Victor, but perverted by 
 his successor Zephyrinus. These assertions 
 might seem more probable were not Scripture 
 against them. But besides we have the writ- 
 ings of fathers earlier than Victor's time, ad- 
 dressed both to unbelievers and to Christians, 
 Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, and many 
 others, in all of which Christ is declared to 
 be God. And who knows not the books of 
 Irenaeus, Melito, and the rest, pronouncing 
 Christ to be both God and man ? And how 
 many psalms and hymns, written by faithful 
 brethren, celebrate as God, Christ the Word 
 of God ! How is it possible then, when the 
 sense of the Church has been so many years 
 declared, to pretend that those who were before 
 Victor maintained what these maintain^?" 
 
 Again, if we examine the testimony afford- 
 ed by the Church in subsequent times, we 
 remark that for many centuries controversies 
 
 1 Euseb. E. H. v. 28. 
 
VIL] THE INCARNATION. 195 
 
 about Chrisfs Divinity ceased entirely in tlie 
 Western Church, except in a few isolated 
 cases, while in the Eastern the Nestorians 
 differed indeed from the orthodox, but pro- 
 Jessed to maintain this Catholic doctrine pure 
 and unimpaired. In a later age, when the 
 re-action produced, and the corruption caused 
 by the overstrain of ecclesiastical authority, 
 led some to the contrary extreme of trusting 
 all to human reason, the lamentable errors of 
 Servetus and the Socini were advanced in a 
 form that if rightly considered gave evidence 
 of the general sentiment of the Churchy 
 
 * See Mosheim's History of the Socinians, in his Eccle- 
 siastical History, Cent. xvi. Pt. 2. eh. iv. The opinions of 
 Servetus seem to have been rather Gnostic than what were 
 afterwards called Socinian : but his system was so visionary 
 that it is difficult to ascertain accurately his meaning. Mo- 
 sheim has brought to light a very curious Catechism or Con- 
 fession of Faith, drawn up at Cracow in 1574, which gives us 
 information as to the early opinions of the Socinians previously 
 to the publication of the Racovian Catechism. It is remarkable 
 that the title expresses that it was set forth " in the name of 
 Christ Jesus our Lord, who was crucified and raised from the 
 dead." Even in this early Catechism the rulers of that sect 
 had adopted it as a maxim that nothing incomprehensible or 
 mysterious was to be admitted in their religious system — and 
 fundamental errors as to the nature of our Lord were pro- 
 pounded. But the caution with which these views were 
 put forth is seen in the frequent application to our Lord of 
 those titles, which had been always adopted as expressive 
 of His Divinity. Thus in the preface, " To all those who thirst 
 after eternal salvation the little and afflicted flock in Poland, 
 which is baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, sendeth 
 
 13—2 
 
196 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 With such caution did the first founders of 
 the Socinian heresy proceed, glossing over 
 their errors with language that might have 
 seemed to assert the truths it was their main 
 purpose to deny. And although in recent 
 days the denial has been more boldly made^ 
 and the modern Unitarians have on many 
 points gone far beyond the old Socinians, 
 their opinions have at no time recommended 
 themselves to the multitude. For the few 
 who have refused to accept any mystery, 
 there have been many in whose hearts the 
 belief in an Incarnate Saviour has struck 
 deep root and brought forth abundantly, 
 there have been more to whom it has been 
 given partially to comprehend what they do 
 not with sufficient earnestness embrace, and 
 the popular voice of Christendom has ever 
 been on the side of those who own a Divine 
 Redeemer. And if in particular places the 
 vitality of this belief has declined, the conse- 
 quence has invariably been a corresponding 
 declension in piety and in love. But no 
 sooner has life been partially restored, and 
 devotion in some degree rekindled, than the 
 most earnest promoters of such spiritual 
 
 greeting and praying most earnestly, that grace and peace may 
 be shed upon them by the One supreme God and Father, 
 through His only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 was crucified." 
 
Vn.3 THE INCARNATION. 197 
 
 revival have dwelt upon the Incarnation of 
 the Son of God as the mainspring of all their 
 energy. No longer are men content with 
 the general assertion of Almighty Power and 
 All-ruling Providence, but their love to God 
 craves its fitting object in Him who first 
 loved us and gave Himself for us, that we 
 might have life in His name — yearnings these 
 of the highest part of our nature testifying 
 of the truth which can alone satisfy them by 
 realizing to the utmost the earnest expecta- 
 tion of the creature that waiteth for the 
 manifestation of the sons of God^ 
 
 III. But in a subject so manifestly mi- 
 raculous what room is there for the exercise 
 of reason ? 
 
 1. The early Apologists of Christianity, 
 when dealing with the heathens who did not 
 acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures 
 or of the Church, were wont to press them 
 home with the tales of ancient mythology 
 that bore some seeming resemblance to the 
 Christian mystery. The descent of gods upon 
 the earth in human form, and the reception 
 of mortals after death into the number of 
 divinities, furnished many a topic in their 
 reasoning with Pagans. Such comparisons 
 were not unfitly employed to remove objec- 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 19. 
 
198 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 tions urged by the heathen against the un- 
 reasonableness of the Christian Religion ^ No 
 doubt there were then many who believed in 
 no religion, but they did not profess such un- 
 belief. They strove to prop up the tottering 
 edifice of Paganism, which was crumbling to 
 pieces before the growing Temple of Chris- 
 tianity. So that the issue to be tried was, 
 which is true? And for this purpose the 
 appeal to mythology is valid. In the present 
 day the champions of the Faith among our- 
 selves have rather to hold their ground, than 
 transfer the war into the country of their 
 enemy. Each assailant has his own theory, 
 and has no respect for that of his confederate 
 in arms. So that in general the Christian 
 warfare must be defensive ; and this must be 
 borne in mind in the selection of our weapons. 
 Such topics as those to which I have alluded 
 have ceased to weigh much, and I cannot 
 but think that forced resemblances, nominal 
 rather than real, have sometimes been injudi- 
 ciously insisted upon, and a depth of meaning 
 been discovered in absurd fables that really 
 little belongs to them. If we may conclude 
 anything from Grecian story, or from Hindoo 
 
 * See, for instance, Just. M. Apol. i. p. 67. TertuU. Apolog. 
 ch. 10. Magee (on the Atonement, Dissert. Lxix.) makes 
 some judicious remarks as to tlie use of such comparisons. 
 
VIL] THE INCARNATION. 199 
 
 fable, wherein such resemblances have been 
 often too freely admitted, it must simply be 
 that the notion of intimate connexion between 
 God and man is not foreign to man's natural 
 reason, or that the vestiges of an original 
 revelation are discoverable among the mon- 
 strous superstitions with which it has been 
 overlaid. 
 
 But reason will dictate to us that in a 
 subject such as this it is absurd to esti- 
 mate objections as in a matter of ordinary 
 experience, and that its probability must be 
 tested not by its internal features considered 
 by themselves, which are past man's power 
 of estimation, but by external evidence, and 
 by the harmony of the doctrine with the 
 natural wants of man, and with the whole of 
 God's dispensations. Each of these consi- 
 derations lies within the region of human 
 thought. 
 
 The accumulation of external evidence is 
 briefly and powerfully drawn out by S. Chry- 
 sostom from the assertion of S. Paul, that 
 Jesus Christ was made of the seed of David 
 according to the flesh, and declared to be the 
 Son of God with power'. "Whence," asks he, 
 "is it plain that this Incarnate Person was 
 also the Son of God? First, it is from the 
 
 ' Rom. i. 3. See Chrysost. Horn, in loc. 
 
200 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 prophets ; wherefore he says, which he had pro- 
 mised afore hy the prophets in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. And this way of demonstration is no 
 weak one. And next also from the very way 
 of generation, which also he sets forth by 
 saying, of the seed of David according to the 
 flesh ; for he brake the rule of nature. Thirdly, 
 from the miracles He did, yielding a demon- 
 stration of much power; for in power means this. 
 Fourthly, from the Spirit which He gave to 
 them that believe upon him, and through 
 which He makes all holy ; wherefore he saith, 
 according to the Spirit of holiness. For it was 
 of God only to grant such gifts. Fifthly, from 
 the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead ; 
 for He first alone raised Himself, and this 
 Himself too said to be above all a miracle 
 sufficient to stop the mouth even of them that 
 behaved shamelessly ; for, Destroy this tem- 
 ple^ and in three days I will raise it up, and, 
 when ye have lifted me up from the earth then 
 shall ye know that I am He ; and again. This 
 generation seeheth after a sign, and there shall 
 no sign he given unto it but the sign of the pro- 
 phet Jonas. What then is the being declared? 
 The being shewn, being manifested, being 
 judged, being confessed by the feeling and 
 suffrage of all, by the prophets, by the mar- 
 vellous birth after the flesh, by the power 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 201 
 
 which was in the miracles, by the Spirit 
 through which He gave sanctification, by the 
 Resurrection whereby he put an end to the 
 tyranny of death." 
 
 Again, in his natural desire after commu- 
 nion with his Maker man has ever sought out 
 mediators. Prayers were addressed by the 
 heathen to their inferior deities that they 
 would propitiate and persuade the mighty 
 Jove. And the link between man and God 
 was supplied by demigods partaking of man's 
 nature, and therefore more accessible to man. 
 It is a want which the Incarnation of the Son 
 of God has alone supplied. It has given us a 
 *' Mediator between God and man, the man 
 Christ Jesus\" a High Priest who for ever sat 
 down on the right hand of God, and yet can 
 be touched by our infirmities, through whom 
 we may come boldly to the throne of grace. 
 
 Once more, if we regard man as a mere 
 unit among the multitude of created beings, 
 we are impressed with his insignificance and 
 confused by the thought that God has thus 
 regarded him ; but if we investigate his nature 
 more closely we find traces of a dignity not 
 insignificant of such high regard. The quali- 
 ties of the Almighty as indicated by His 
 works are answered by their images in the 
 
 1 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
 
202 THE INCARNATION. [Lect. 
 
 nature of man. Our condition calls upon us to 
 exercise functions corresponding in some sort 
 to those of the Governor of the Universe — 
 to convey life, support, instruction and assist- 
 ance to others; and a voice within us urges us 
 to be like unto Him by judging righteous 
 judgment, doing justice, shewing kindness, 
 by assisting the needy, and being merciful 
 unto all men. Thus we discover rudiments 
 as it were of excellence, indicating man's 
 capacity for higher things, and pointing out 
 the perfection of his nature to consist in the 
 imitation of the Divine perfection. In Christ, 
 and in Christ alone, was this realized, and 
 so the highest aspirations of our nature were 
 fulfilled in the Incarnate Son of God. 
 
 Lastly, of the Divine economy connected 
 with this mystery we must be content to know 
 in part. Yet the parts disclosed to us are 
 recognized by our reason as consistent and 
 harmonious. For Scripture represents the 
 renewal of the image of God in man, to be 
 the process through which he is fitted for 
 eternal glory, " for in this we groan, earn- 
 estly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
 house which is from heaven ^" And this 
 renewal is effected by Him who has shared 
 and exalted our nature— whereby are given to 
 
 1 2 Cor. V. 2. 
 
VII.] THE INCARNATION. 203 
 
 US exceeding great and precious promises, 
 that we might become partakers of the Divine 
 nature, having escaped the corruption that is 
 in the world through lust\ 
 
 To put on Christy to become a new crea- 
 ture in Christy to be members of His body, of 
 His flesh, and of His bones ^ these are the 
 scriptural terms to express the union by 
 which we are thus to be renewed, and the 
 inference that we are not only bound, but 
 empowered to attain unto holiness, is natural 
 and obvious. For we learn in this economy 
 how reasonable and how practicable are the 
 requirements of the Divine word. It invites 
 us to holiness by making us partakers of the 
 holiness of Christ. It holds out to us immor- 
 tality in Him who is the life of the world. It 
 calls us to become the children of God, as 
 joint-heirs with Christ, forasmuch as He took 
 part of the flesh and blood whereof children 
 are partakers^ For it tells us that we are 
 the temple of the living God, and therefore 
 bids us be separate from the unclean thing, 
 as having become entitled to the gracious 
 address of the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ: "I will receive you, and will be a 
 Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons 
 and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty^." 
 
 ^ 2 Pet. i. 4. 2 Rom. xiii. 14. ^2 Cor. v. 17. 
 4 Eph. V. 30. 5 i^eb. ii. 14. « 2 Cor. vi. 18. 
 
LECTURE VIIL 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 JOHN I. 29. 
 
 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
 of the world. 
 
 OUCH were the terms in which the Baptist 
 ^ introduced to his disciples the mightier 
 Teacher who was to follow and supersede him, 
 an introduction indicating truths but partially 
 comprehended, yet pointing out with suffi- 
 cient clearness the provision of a sacrificial 
 remedy for sin, and speaking words which 
 since the event has interpreted the prediction, 
 can scarcely be misunderstood. Thus at the 
 very outset the peculiar doctrines of Christi- 
 anity were not unremembered. Its morality 
 presented a bright contrast to heathen im- 
 purity and Jewish hypocrisy; but this was 
 not all. It was a new revelation of things 
 otherwise undiscoverable, and as such it was 
 promulgated to mankind. There have, indeed, 
 been some who have professed to allow the one 
 part without the other, to see in Christianity 
 the purest system of morals, and so far to 
 concede to it a Divine origin, but to reject all 
 its peculiar doctrines as human inventions 
 
Lect. VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 205; 
 
 undeserving of credit. It is this attempt to 
 escape from the unphilosophical and unrea- 
 sonable position, that the greatest blessing 
 man ever received is the product of falsehood 
 and imposture, which makes it necessary to 
 recur to the form in which our Religion over- 
 came the world ; — that if victory bespeaks 
 strength, we may assign it to Christianity, as 
 it was and is, not as vain philosophers would 
 have it to be. Hence it follows that the exa- 
 mination of Scripture is valuable, not merely 
 as inducing conviction in those who own its 
 authority, but also as supplying a refutation of 
 those who would substitute a system of their 
 own for the Religion of the Bible. We take 
 the general ground of proving the authority 
 of Scripture, and thus calling upon men to 
 receive its witness ; and we take the special 
 ground of setting forth what Scripture says, 
 and so reduce our opponents to the alterna- 
 tive of rejecting absolutely Religion and its 
 documents, or of accepting it freely with all 
 its essential elements. 
 
 I shall accordingly proceed with the sub- 
 ject of the Atonement, as I have already done 
 with the Incarnation, gathering the sense of 
 Scripture and of the Church, and confirming 
 by reason the conclusion to which we have 
 thus been led. 
 
206 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 I. The idea conveyed by the word Atone- 
 ment implies, in the first place, the reconcili- 
 ation of God with man after an estrangement; 
 and in the second, that this reconciliation has 
 been effected by an operation extraneous to 
 ourselves; that operation being no less than 
 the Passion and Death of the Son of God. 
 
 These two notions are constantly presented 
 by Scripture in close connexion. The his- 
 tory of the original estrangement of mankind 
 from God through Adam's transgression is 
 immediately succeeded by the account of 
 Abel's sacrifice. After the wickedness of the 
 antediluvian world had been swept away by 
 the general Deluge, the renewal of God's 
 blessing upon earth and earth's inhabitants 
 followed upon the acceptance of a sacrifice 
 offered by Noah in behalf of himself and his 
 family. And when the descendants of Noah 
 again separated themselves from the favour 
 of the Lord, the selection of one family to be 
 a peculiar people marked a restoration of 
 forfeited privileges to those who were called 
 from out of the world : a restoration ratified 
 in the most solemn manner after the exhi- 
 bition of Abraham's faith in the significant 
 act of offering up his son as a lamb for the 
 burnt-offering. In the nation which pro- 
 ceeded from this patriarch, separated as it 
 
Vm.] THE ATONEMENT. 207 
 
 was unto the Lord, there was still kept up a 
 remembrance of the need of further recon- 
 ciliation. Let us study the law by which the 
 Israelites were organized, and formed into a 
 body politic, and we shall find the idea of 
 reconciliation pervading its statutes, ordi- 
 nances, and ceremonies. And it may tend 
 to give us juster notions of the Divine cha- 
 racter of Holy Writ to observe that particular 
 portions of it have ceased to be of perpetual 
 obligation without ceasing to be of perpetual 
 interest. The Levitical statutes are not dead 
 or obsolete, although they bind us not by 
 formal enactments. They form an essential 
 part of the scheme of Revelation, and as such 
 yet speak. The peace-offerings, the meat- 
 offerings, the wave-offerings, the heave-offer- 
 ings were intended, without doubt, to express 
 men's thankfulness to the Lord by rendering 
 the first-fruits of those good things wherewith 
 He had blessed them. But even in these the 
 idea of Atonement had place, and much more 
 in the trespass-offerings, sin-offerings, and 
 burnt-offerings. They were often made a 
 substitute for the life of him who presented 
 them ; being appointed means for removing 
 the penalty of death. And if in most cases 
 such offerings provided rather for legal un- 
 cleanness and involuntary transgression than 
 
208 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 for moral guilt and wilful sin, an examination 
 of the system of which they form part will 
 shew that even such provision bears directly 
 upon the general purpose of reconciling sin- 
 ners with God. The congregation of Israel 
 was all holy ; to be cut off from it was to be 
 severed from the Lord ; to be readmitted was 
 to be restored to His favour. The very ves- 
 sels and other furniture were sanctified by 
 formal rites, as if naturally unfit for His ser- 
 vice, but capable of having that unfitness 
 removed. Thus were priests, people, and 
 things continually sanctified from their un- 
 cleanness, such sanctification being commonly 
 effected by sacrifice, that they might cease 
 to bear their iniquity, and might be accepted 
 of the Lord. 
 
 As we ascend to the more important rites 
 of the Law we find this scheme of recon- 
 ciliation more fully developed. The great 
 day of expiation, and the sacrifice then per- 
 formed, at once suggest themselves to our 
 mind. It is not my intention to follow the 
 numerous particulars wherein we may dis- 
 cern in this solemnity the shadow of better 
 things to come^ I will but refer to certain 
 considerations which shew that Atonement 
 
 * This subject is fully treated in Patrick's notes on Leviticus 
 eh, xvi. 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 209 
 
 was the prevailing principle throughout the 
 whole celebration. 
 
 1. The entrance into the peculiar place 
 of the Presence of the Almighty, permitted 
 only upon this day to the High Priest as the 
 representative of the people, betokens an 
 act of renewal of their union with Him who 
 had declared that He would be their glory. 
 2. The preparations for this entrance were 
 strictly enjoined, and very significant. The 
 priest who was to perform this high office 
 was to be sanctified not only by repeated 
 washings, but by the sacrifice of a bullock 
 and a ram for his own sins and for the sins 
 of the priests and LevitesS in order that the 
 ministrants in holy things might first be re- 
 conciled themselves, before they should make 
 reconciliation for the people. And with the 
 same purpose, it seems, was the blood of the 
 bullock sprinkled in the sanctuary before the 
 mercy-seat^ as a preliminary purification of 
 the place wherein the chief sacrifice was to 
 be made. 3. The Atonement was extended 
 not merely to persons, but to things. There 
 was an atonement for the holy place, an 
 atonement for the Tabernacle of the Congre- 
 gation, an atonement for the altar^ in order 
 
 ' Lev. xvi. 3 and 6. ^ Lev. xvi. 14. 
 
 * "Reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the 
 congregation and the altar," Lev. xvi. 20, 
 
 C. H. L. 14 
 
210 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 to remove any defilement that might arise 
 from involuntary transgression of the law by 
 priests or people, that they may be clean 
 from all their sins before the LordK But 4, 
 while this solemn reference to legal unclean- 
 ness was calculated forcibly to remind the 
 Israelites of their natural estrangement from 
 God, the atonement made for the people had 
 a further reference. Over the head of the 
 scapegoat were to be confessed " all the ini- 
 quities of the children of Israel, all their 
 transgressions in all their sins^" the three 
 words being employed to include the various 
 kinds of voluntary and involuntary offences. 
 5. Further, in the admonition, " afflict your 
 souls^" we are reminded of the rebuke uttered 
 by Isaiah for the perversion of such solemn 
 fast-days into mere formal ceremonies, in 
 words that carry our thoughts at once to the 
 day of expiation, and indicate the true nature 
 of the prescribed affliction : *' Is it such a 
 fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to 
 afflict his soul?... Is not this the fast that I 
 have chosen, to loose the bands of wicked- 
 ness*?" 6. The two goats form together but 
 one sacrifice, both are presented before the 
 Lord ; on the head of the one the sins of the 
 
 * Lev.xvi.30. * Lev. xvi. 21. 
 
 ' Lev. xvi. 31. * Isai. Iviii. 5, 6. 
 
VIIL] THE ATONEMENT. 21 J 
 
 people are solemnly imposed, and he is sent 
 into the wilderness to bear them away from 
 the congregation ; the other is slain and 
 the blood sprinkled before the mercy-seat, 
 the place of propitiation {'iXaar^piovy. So that 
 the two goats represent the two parts of 
 atonement, the removal of guilt from man, 
 and the oblation of a propitiatory offering to 
 God. And 7, from this twofold sacrifice the 
 Jews gathered that the imposition of hands 
 implied a confession of sins, (for imposition 
 of hands, they say, belongs to confession^), 
 and that the sprinkling of blood denoted a 
 remission of sins : for S. Paul only spoke 
 the commonly-received opinion when he 
 said, "without shedding of blood is no re- 
 mission^," and Moses expressly connected 
 the two in reference to this very sacrifice : 
 " For the life of the flesh is in the blood, 
 and I have given it you upon the altar to 
 make an atonement for your souls ; for it is 
 the blood that maketh an atonement for the 
 souP." 
 
 The most important rite of all, that of the 
 Passover, may seem at its first appointment to 
 differ from sacrificial institutions. The lamb 
 was to be slain in each household, and the 
 
 ^ Lev. xvi. 15 and 21. ^ Patrick onLev. xvi. 21. 
 
 3 Heb. ix. 22. * Lev. xvii. 11. 
 
 14—2 
 
212 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 continuance of the festival was to commemo- 
 rate the deliverance of the Israelites out of the 
 house of bondage. But this was far from all. 
 Even at its celebration in Egypt there was the 
 blood-sprinkling indicative, as we have seen, 
 of atonement, and it was called prospectively 
 the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover ^ And 
 after the appointment of the ritual, each day 
 of the paschal week was celebrated with meat- 
 offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings*, 
 and the place of celebration limited to the 
 spot wherein the Lord should choose to set 
 his name^; while the custom observed by the 
 Jews, of bringing the paschal lamb to be slain 
 in the temple and there sprinkling the blood, 
 supplies a comment as to the light in which 
 this solemnity was regarded. The observation 
 of the passover under Hezekiah represents, 
 however, most fully the import of this festival. 
 The object was to reunite the remnant of 
 Israelites under their proper king, and to bind 
 anew the whole people to the covenant the 
 terms of which had been so often violated. 
 They are told that *' the Lord your God is 
 gracious and merciful, and will not turn away 
 his face from you if ye return unto him^" They 
 are prayed for: "The good Lord pardon every 
 
 1. Exod.xii. 27. 2 Numb, xxviii. 15—21. 
 
 3 Deut. xvi. 2. ^2 Cliron. xxx. 9. 
 
VIIL] THE ATONEMENT. 2J3 
 
 one that prepareth his heart to seek God'." 
 And they "eat throughout the feast seven 
 days, offering peace-offerings, and making con- 
 fession to the Lord God of their fathers^." So 
 the decree of Darius for the rebuilding of the 
 house of j God mentions especially that the 
 burnt-offerings and sacrifices might be per- 
 formed therein 3; and after the dedication of 
 this second temple we are told that they 
 "killed the passover for all the children of 
 the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, 
 and for themselves ;" and that they who did 
 eat "had separated themselves from the fil- 
 thiness of the heathen of the land, to seek 
 the Lord God of Israel\" 
 
 The prophets (including the Psalmist), the 
 moral and spiritual interpreters of the Law, 
 take up the received system of sacrificial 
 propitiation. They speak of God being pleased 
 with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the 
 burnt-offerings and oblations, with the offer- 
 ing of bullocks upon the altar^ of their burnt- 
 offerings and sacrifices being accepted upon 
 the altar ^. They reprove their countrymen 
 for the irregular, careless and profane way in 
 which these services were performed ^ But 
 
 ^ 2 Chron. xxx. 19. ^ 2 Chron. xxx. 22. 
 
 3 Ezra vi. 10. * Ezra vi. 20, 21. 
 
 ' Ps. li. 19. e^Isai. Ivi. 7. 
 7 Mai. i. 7. 8, 13. 
 
214 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 they insist also upon the moral qualifications 
 required in those who should offer before the 
 Lord. They depress the value of the formal 
 rite in comparison with the spirit in which it 
 is celebrated ^ This is however so far from 
 depreciating sacrifice in itself, that it revives 
 the remembrance of its import, and by conse- 
 quence raises its true value. It was not 
 simply an offering to the Lord, it was an 
 acknowledgement and propitiation for sin. 
 They who forgot the latter part, forgot the 
 very essence of sacrifice, imagining that they 
 were appeasing the Lord by material offerings, 
 instead of representing some mightier work 
 by which this was to be effected. Therefore 
 while the prophets were employed to cor- 
 rect low views of acts so mysterious, they 
 were inspired to point to the substance of 
 which these were the shadow. The sacrificial 
 terms employed by Isaiah in his 53d chapter 
 viewed in this light are full of meaning — the 
 figure of the Lamb brought to the slaughter — 
 the chastisement of our peace upon him — the 
 iniquity of us all laid upon his head — cut off 
 out of the land of the living, stricken for the 
 transgression of the people — his soul made an 
 offering for sin ; — all these bring the mind to 
 the circumstances of the legal sacrifices, and 
 
 1 See Isai. xliii. 23; Ps. 1. 12— 15. 
 
 i 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 215 
 
 indicate some person who should hereafter 
 supply the place of the victims slain and 
 offered upon the material altar. And the 
 pure offering foretold by Malachi^ leads to 
 that in which were summed up the less per- 
 fect offerings of the law ; while Daniel, to whom 
 it was given to predict most clearly Messiah's 
 kingdom, foretells the finishing of the trans- 
 gression, the making an end of sins, the 
 making reconciliation for iniquity, the bring- 
 ing in of everlasting righteousness, the sealing 
 up of the vision of the Most High — the cutting 
 off of Messiah, but not for Himself 2. 
 
 A study of the sacrificial system of the 
 Mosaic Law, and a knowledge of the rites 
 and of the conception of atonement which the 
 Jews grafted upon it, will explain the force 
 with which the Gospel annunciations of the 
 Christian Sacrifice must have come home to 
 those to whom they were spoken. What 
 ideas would the words of my text at once 
 awaken in all who were familiar with these 
 notions : " The Lamb of God, that taketh 
 away the sins of the world" ? Would they not 
 call to mind the offering of a lamb for a tres- 
 pass offering in the purification of lepers^ and 
 in the cleansing of a Nazarite from the defile- 
 
 ^ Mai. i. 11. 2 Dan. ix. 24, 26. 
 
 ^ Lev. xiv. 12. 
 
216 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 merit of a corpse, in which defilement the 
 remembrance of the contamination of sin was 
 preserved and expressed, the priest being re- 
 quired to make an atonement for him, " for 
 that he sinned by the dead*"? Would not the 
 thought of pardon, of reconciliation, and of 
 expiation, so bound up with the Paschal lamb, 
 arise at once in their breasts, and might not 
 the expectation that He in whom the Father 
 was well pleased was to supply the place of 
 the great sacrifice, dawn upon them so as to 
 prepare their minds for the time when our 
 Lord should proceed to unfold the amazing 
 truth that He must suffer many things^? 
 
 The position of those who were addressed 
 by prophets and evangelists illustrates the 
 meaning of the terms employed. Let us 
 bear in mind the imposition of sins upon the 
 victim, the connexion of pardon with blood- 
 shedding, of the renewal of the Covenant 
 with sacrifice, and then determine in what 
 possible sense but one such passages as the 
 following would be applied and understood : 
 " All things are of God, who hath reconciled 
 us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given 
 to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, 
 
 1 Numb. vi. 11, 12; see Grot, de Satisf. Christ. Op. Tom. 
 IV. p. 333. 
 
 2 Matt. xvi. 21. 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 217 
 
 that God was in Christ reconciling the world 
 unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
 unto them, and hath committed unto us the 
 word of reconciliation. Now then we are 
 ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
 beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath 
 made him to be sin for us who knew no sin ; 
 that we might be made the righteousness of 
 God in him^" But not only is our Lord set 
 forth as the Reconciler of mankind, but His 
 life is said to have been a ransom for many 2, 
 and He is called the propitiation for sins ; 
 the original word (tXao-/xos) being the same as 
 that employed in the Septuagint to indicate 
 sacrificial remedy. "If any man sin we have 
 an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
 the righteous; and he is the propitiation 
 (tXacr/mos) for our sins, and not for ours only, 
 but also for the sins of the whole world^;" a 
 truth which the same Evangelist delivered 
 in reference to a saying of Caiaphas, where, 
 in other words, the reconciliation of man to 
 God is conspicuously displayed^. Again, the 
 connexion between salvation and propitiation 
 
 ' 2 Cor. V. 18-.2I. 
 
 * \vTpov, Matth. XX. 28 ; dvTtXvTpov, Mark x. 45 ; avri- 
 yj/v^^ov, 1 Tim. ii. 6. 
 
 ' IJohnii. 1, 2. * John xi. 51, 52. 
 
218 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 is explained in the same Epistle: "Herein 
 is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
 loved us, and sent his Son to be the propi- 
 tiation for our sins^" And the same truth 
 is maintained by S. Peter, " Ye were not 
 redeemed with corruptible things, as silver 
 and gold, from your vain conversation re- 
 ceived by tradition from your fathers; but 
 with the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
 lamb without blemish and without spot, who 
 verily was foreordained before the foundation 
 of the world, but was manifest in these last 
 times for you 2." And by S. Paul, " For all 
 have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
 God ; being justified freely by His grace 
 through the faith that is in Christ Jesus: 
 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation^ 
 
 1 1 John iv. 10. 2 1 Pet. i. 18—20. 
 
 3 iXaa-Ttjptov. Although the words /A.a<r/xo9, IxdrTKecrQai, are 
 elsewhere used in the LXX. and Greek Testament, iKaa-Tijptov 
 itself is only used twice in the Greek Testament, viz. Rom. iii. 
 25, and Heb. ix. 5. In the latter passage it is applied to the 
 covering of the ark, the mercy-seat: a term which seems to 
 have arisen from the rendering of the Heb. JT1^3, covering, 
 in the LXX. by iKacrTtjpiov e-n-ldeixa, which was thence adopted 
 in the Latin. The particular word may be uncommon, but the 
 frequent application of the derivatives from tXda-Keadat in the 
 sense of propitiation can leave no doubt as to the force of the 
 expression in the Romans. See Michaelis' Introd. to New 
 Testament, and Marsh's Notes, Part i. ch. iv. sect. 14. Mi- 
 chaelis quotes from Joseph us a striking instance of the use of 
 the word : " Josephus having previously observed that the blood 
 
Vm.] THE ATONEMENT. 219 
 
 through faith in his blood, to declare his 
 righteousness for the remission of sins that 
 are past, through the forbearance of God\" 
 And in a passage most striking of all : 
 "It pleased the Father that in him should 
 all fulness dwell ; and, having made peace 
 through the blood of his cross, by him to 
 reconcile all things unto himself 2." 
 
 But lest it should be possible to mistake 
 the application of sacrificial terms to Christ, 
 one whole Epistle is devoted to the compa- 
 rison of the ordinances of the Law with the 
 dispensation of the Gospel, and to the de- 
 monstration that all those sacrifices were 
 types of the one great sacrifice once offered ^ 
 
 The attempts to explain away these and 
 similar passages have been so unsatisfactory 
 as to require little comment. To represent 
 the scriptural reconciliation with God to be 
 simply the natural consequence of our aban- 
 doning our sins in obedience to the moral 
 teaching of Christ, or to suppose that Christ 
 takes away the sins of the world only by 
 
 of the martyrs had made atonement for their countrymen, and 
 that they were wa-irep dvTt\lrv^oi/ (victima substituta) t^? tov 
 edvovi dfxapTta^^ continues as follows : koj S<a tov oiixaTO': twv 
 €v<Tef3(iov EKetvuv^ Ka\ rov i\a<TTr]plov tov davuTov avTtou t] Qeia 
 mpovoid TOV IcrpatjX Oiecrwcre. 
 
 * Rom. iii. 23—25. ' Col. i. 19, 20. 
 
 ' Heb. ix. 
 
220 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 preserving us from the commission of future 
 sins, or by giving evidence and earnest of 
 God's forgiveness, or to maintain that the 
 death of Christ is a requisite for the pardon 
 of past sins, only because it was necessary 
 to set before us the pattern of obedience even 
 unto the end, in order to stimulate our faith 
 and quicken our repentance ^* — these hypo- 
 theses leave entirely unexplained the whole 
 system of sacrifice, and can only preserve the 
 word in a most constrained and unnatural 
 sense. Nor will it be necessary, after what 
 has been said, to enter into any further re- 
 futation of them. The plain meaning of 
 scriptural language is preserved, and the 
 harmony of the Law and Gospel secured, 
 only by the doctrine which is asserted in our 
 second Article, that " He who was very God, 
 and very man, truly suffered, was crucified, 
 dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to 
 us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original 
 guilt, but also for all actual sins ;" or in the 
 brief and forcible words of the Homily on 
 Salvation, " He for them paid a ransom by 
 His death^" 
 
 II. In collecting the opinion of the Church 
 
 ^ These are the principal hypotheses of the Socinians and 
 Unitarians. See Grot, de Satisf. Christ. Tom. iv. p. 336. 
 2 Homily on Salvation, first Part. 
 
Vm.] THE ATONEMENT. 221 
 
 upon this subject, the only difficulty is to 
 make a selection out of the numerous testi- 
 monies which offer themselves to our notice. 
 It has indeed been pretended that we look 
 in vain for the doctrine of the Atonement in 
 the writings of the earlier fathers. But it 
 seems to require the utmost ingenuity to 
 evade so plain a statement as that of Clemens 
 Romanus : " Let us look steadfastly to the 
 blood of Christ, and see how precious is His 
 blood with God, which being shed for our 
 salvation has obtained the grace of repentance 
 for the whole worlds" where we observe that 
 this reference to our Saviour's blood stands 
 at the head of the promises of remission of 
 sins set forth to the Corinthians as an induce- 
 ment to repentance. What again can be 
 more clear than the words of Ignatius, who, 
 having recounted the sufferings and death of 
 Christ as real and not apparent, adds, " All 
 this he suffered for our sakes, that we may be 
 saved^"? Or those of Polycarp, " Let us 
 abide without fail in our hope and earnest of 
 righteousness, which is Christ Jesus, who bore 
 our sins in His own body upon the tree, who 
 did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
 mouth, but endured all things for our sakes, 
 
 1 S. Clem, ad Corinth, c. 7- 
 
 2 Ignat. ad Smyr. c. 2. 
 
222 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 that we may live in Him^" ? How distinct is 
 Justin Martyr ! " By Christ's stripes we are 
 healed^;" " by His stripes all are healed who 
 approach the Father through Him^;" "by His 
 blood all who believe in Him are purified^ ;" 
 " the Father willed that He should bear for 
 the whole human race the curse due to alP,'' 
 " He endured the servitude even of the Cross 
 in behalf of the various races of men, having 
 purchased them by His blood and by the 
 mystery of the Cross^" And not less dis- 
 
 1 S. Polyc. ad Philip, c. 8. 
 
 2 Tryph. p. 366, D. 3 Tryph. p. 234, E. 
 * Apol. I. p. 74, A. 5 Tryph. p. 322, E. 
 
 ^ Tryph. p. 364, D. All these passages from Justin M. 
 are quoted and put together by Kaye, Just. M. p. 77- I have 
 adduced them on account of Dr Priestley's assertion that the 
 doctrine of the Atonement is not found in the apostolical 
 Fathers. The work of Dr Priestley, " Corruptions of Chris- 
 tianity," is indeed now less read than it once was, yet as his 
 fallacies are often repeated in the present day, it will not be 
 inappropriate to subjoin a few remarks as to this portion of 
 the work, which is directly connected with the subject before 
 us. Dr Priestley, in order to prove his point, attempts to ex- 
 plain away the passage in Clemens R., endeavouring to gather 
 from the context that the apparent meaning is not the real, 
 but that the passage is equivalent to the statement in the Acts, 
 that Christ was exalted as a Prince and Saviour to give 
 remissioii of sins. Bp. Bull remarks on this passage of 
 Clemens. " Digna mihi semper visa sunt hjEc verba, quas 
 aureis Uteris exarentur, atque a veraj theologije studiosis 
 Eetemas memorias mandentur, utpote qu» maxime genuinam 
 satisfactionis Christi notionem ab apostolorum a-vufxva-Tr} expH- 
 catam contineant." Exam. Censur. vii. § 24. Dr Priestley 
 
VIIL] THE ATONEMENT. 223 
 
 tinctly Tertullian declares the whole weight 
 and benefit of the Christian name to be " the 
 
 quotes a passage from S. Barnabas as to the spirituality of 
 the new Law, and says that this is not substituting the 
 sacrifice of Christ but moral virtue itself, in the place of the 
 sacrifices under the Law, and omits all reference to such 
 passages as this : el ovv o vJo? tov Oeov kui ij-eWoav npivetu 
 ^wvTU^ Km vEKOov^ eTradev 't'va t\ irXriyr] avrov ^wottoij/ctj/ »;/xa? 
 in<7Tev(70fi€v oTi o VJ09 TOV Oeov oi/K rjhvvaTo iraQeiv el nrj hid 
 t]ixa<:, S. Barn. Ep. ch. vi. He says nothing of the quotation 
 of Isai. liii., as applicable to Christ, of the parallel drawn 
 between Christ and the goats offered on the day of expiation, 
 where S. Barnabas says expressly, that Christ was the goat 
 offered on the fast for all sins, vrrep -Kavrwy afxapTiuv — and 
 finds an appropriateness in the vinegar given our Saviour to 
 drink, putting in his mouth these words : eireilri efxe ellov virep 
 afxapriuv fxeWovTa tov Xaov tov kuwov ^rpocrcpepeiv Trjv crapKa 
 fiov fxeWeTC iroTil^eiv ^o\>;V juera o^ovs. Ep. S. Bam. ch. VII. 
 He omits entirely the testimonies of Ignatius and Polycarp 
 given above ; and passes over the Apologies of Justin M., 
 Athenagoras, and Tertullian, as saying nothing on the point ; 
 he never alludes to the existence of the Dialogue with Trypho, 
 which exhibits the doctrine so distinctly ; or hints that Tertul- 
 lian in other of his works speaks plainly out. Dr Priestley 
 does not mention the name of Irenasus, whose testimony see 
 below (p. 237> n. I), but passes on at once to Lactantius, and 
 enlarges upon the absence of this doctrine in this writer as con- 
 clusive evidence that up to the time of S. Augustine it was 
 unknown. We cannot allow that Lactantius entirely fails 
 to recognize the Atonement. He speaks of Christ as the Lamb 
 without blemish of whom the Paschal Lamb was the type: 
 "Hebrffii soli signo sanguinis tuti fuerunt, non quia cruor 
 pecudis tantam in se vim gerebat ut hominibus saluti esset, 
 sed imago fuerat rerum futurarum. Nam agnus candidus sine 
 macula Christus fuit, id est innocens et Justus et sauctus, qui 
 ab iisdem Judjeis immolatus saluti est omnibus qui signum 
 sanguinis, id est crucis quae sanguinem fudit, in sua fronte con- 
 
224 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 death of Christ, which the Apostle so impres- 
 sively lays down as especially true, making 
 it the main foundation of the Gospel of His 
 preaching, and of our salvation ^" Enough 
 
 scripserint." D. I. iv. 26. It may however be allowed that 
 the philosophical Lactantius insists more especially upon the 
 moral effects of Christ's death as affording an example of pa- 
 tience and obedience ; but this does not shew that he did not 
 acknowledge the other effects. Nor if a single writer in the 
 fourth century laid little stress upon the Atonement does it 
 prove that the doctrine was unknown to the early Church, in 
 face of the numerous passages from early fathers which can be 
 adduced to establish the contrary. As to S. Augustine, of 
 whom Dr Priestley also asserts that he did not know of the 
 doctrine of the Atonement, I will only adduce one passage 
 from his sermons (Serm. 152), which seems as conclusive as 
 words can be ; " Prorsus, prorsus Christus Dominus noster, 
 Jesus Salvator noster, Redemptor noster, peccatum factus est, 
 ut nos essemus justitia Dei in ipso. Quomodo ? Audite legem. 
 Qui noverunt, sciunt quod dico : et qui non noverunt, legant 
 vel audiant. In lege peccata vocabantur etiam sacrificia quse 
 pro peccatis offerebantur. Habes, cum victima pro peccato 
 adduceretur, dicit Lex, Ponant manus suas sacerdotes super 
 peccatum, (Levit. iv.) id est super victimam pro peccato. Et 
 quod est aliud quam Christus sacrificium pro peccato ? Sicut et 
 Christus^ inquit, dilexit vos et tradidit semetipsum pro vohis 
 ohlationem et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis (Eph. v. 2). 
 Ecce de quo peccato daranavit peccatum : de sacrificio quod 
 factus est pro peccatis, inde damnavit peccatum." Surely there 
 can be no reasonable doubt as to the opinions of the early 
 Church upon the question of the Atonement. 
 
 * Tertull. adv. Marc. lib. in. c. 8, quoted by Kaye (Tertull. 
 p. 316), who also cites, "Non sumus nostri sed pretio empti. 
 Quo pretio ? sanguine Dei." Ad Uxor. lib. ii. c. 3. " Atque 
 si exinde quo statim vertit (care) et in Christum tincta induit 
 Christum et magno redempta est, sanguine scilicet Domini et 
 Agni." De Pudic. c 6. 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 225 
 
 seems to have been said to shew what was 
 the doctrine of the early Christians. Nor 
 does it detract from the force of their testi- 
 mony, that the earlier fathers confine them- 
 selves very much to the language and expres- 
 sions of Scripture. The constant reference 
 to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah alone 
 speaks volumes ^ If it was long before logical 
 definitions were introduced, it was on account 
 of the unanimous agreement which subsisted 
 for so many centuries. And one of the op- 
 ponents of this verity makes a memorable 
 admission, that there was nothing like a con- 
 troversy on the subject of this doctrine in all 
 the Western Church down to the Reforma- 
 tion ; and that we find nothing of this kind 
 in the Greek Church, except that in the 
 twelfth century the Emperor Emanuel Com- 
 nenus exercised himself and his divines with 
 this question, "in what sense it might be af- 
 firmed that an incarnate God was at the same 
 time the offerer and the oblation^." Surely 
 if we couple this admission with such pas- 
 sages as those which we have quoted, and 
 which might so easily be multiplied, we can 
 
 ^ Besides numerous citations of particular passages in re- 
 ference to Christ, this chapter is referred to at length by S. 
 Barnabas, S. Clemens Romanus, and others. 
 
 2 Dr Priestley's Corr. Christ, i. p. 2.58. 
 
 C. H. L. 15 
 
226 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 scarcely with reason come to any other con- 
 clusion, than that the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment was held in its essential features by the 
 whole Church for the first sixteen centuries. 
 
 This general agreement explains why on 
 this point the early Creeds are less full and 
 explicit than in other cases. The facts of the 
 death and passion of our Saviour Christ are 
 stated plainly with little further definition 
 than that He was crucified for us, an asser- 
 tion sufficient at times when all who admitted 
 the fact admitted the purpose. The testi- 
 mony of the Creeds is not expanded on topics 
 on which heresy called not for expansion. 
 This incidentally gives proof of agreement; 
 and if the Articles need afterwards to be 
 guarded in consequence of later errors, we 
 may feel more confidence in the correctness 
 of conclusions gathered from writers of old 
 time, because the structure of the Creeds in- 
 dicates that these conclusions were received 
 by all without dispute. 
 
 For liturgical evidence, the address to 
 Christ as "the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sins of the world," adopted from my text 
 and found in the earliest Liturgies, and the 
 ancient form of concluding our petitions, " for 
 Jesus Christ's sake," concur in confirming 
 this doctrine as primitive ; while in the Cle- 
 
VIII. ] THE ATONEMENT. 227 
 
 mentine Liturgy contained in the Apostolical 
 Constitutions Christ is called a high priest^ 
 and said to be the sacrifice, the shepherd, and 
 also the sheep, " to appease his God and 
 Father, to reconcile him to the world, and to 
 deliver all men from the impending wraths" 
 
 But yet more striking testimony on this 
 head is derived from the most solemn act of 
 Christian worship, the celebration of the Eu- 
 charist. The very term sacrifice, so constantly 
 applied to it from the very earliest times, 
 though by no means implying that which the 
 Romanists attribute to it, would be utterly 
 inexplicable if the death commemorated were 
 no sacrifice at all. Nor would it be easy to 
 discover why it should be especially enjoined 
 to shew forth the Lord's death till He come 2, 
 if this death were no more than an example 
 of patience, a seal of his obedience, and a 
 confirmation of his moral precepts. 
 
 And while we have abundant tokens of the 
 opinions of the early Church, we have also 
 signs of the convictions of Christendom in the 
 phenomena of the Reformation. With what 
 religious truth was the awakening of the spirit, 
 the reanimation of moral principle, most closely 
 
 ^ It is remarkable that these expressions are referred to by 
 Dr Priestley (Corr, Christ, i. p. 232), who attempts very in- 
 effectually to explain them away. 
 
 2 1 Cor. xi. 26. 
 
 15—2 
 
228 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 connected ? What was the note to which 
 the chord of Christian feeling most readily 
 vibrated ? The strain which told of Christ 
 crucified, God reconciled to sinners through 
 the death of his Son. The terrible heresy of 
 Socinus which shortly appeared proves to us 
 what was the topic then most prominently 
 brought into notice. That heresy was the 
 resistance offered to the great truth now so 
 freely and fully proclaimed throughout the 
 world. And the persecutions experienced by 
 the unhappy followers of Socinus, lamentable 
 indeed as are all acts of persecution, shew at 
 least that the common voice was against them. 
 It is true that this is no proof of their being 
 in the wrong, but it is r presumption, when we 
 find those who had so widely differed uniting 
 on this one point, and remember that many 
 who were most forward to resist these new 
 opinions, were no blind followers of authority, 
 nor accustomed to be satisfied with anything 
 short of full conviction. And it may without 
 prejudice be said, that by far the greater num- 
 ber of those who have testified their sincerity 
 by suffering the loss of all things, have clung 
 to the Cross as their chiefest treasure, as the 
 stronghold of their confidence, their consola- 
 tion, and their joy : while many who have well 
 nigh fainted under spiritual trials, and have 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 229 
 
 found it hard to emerge from the darkness 
 which has for a time gone over their soul, 
 have struggled forth into life and hope by 
 laying fast hold of the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment. The light which streamed upon the 
 mind of one truly Christian poet, clouded as 
 it had been by painful delusion, speaks in- 
 struction to all who read his words : " The 
 happy period which was to shake off my 
 fetters, and afford me a full opening of the 
 free mercy of God in Christ Jesus, was now 
 arrived. ... I saw the sufficiency of the atone- 
 ment made by the Son of righteousness, my 
 pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fulness 
 and completeness of His justification ^" And 
 so in our own days, some among the most 
 zealous defenders of Christianity in Germany 
 have been rescued from the shoals of unbelief 
 by the guiding beacon of the Cross^ And if 
 
 ^ Cowper's Letters. 
 
 2 Tholuck was in early days an infidel. Neander was by 
 birth a Jew. His biographer remarks, " His love for Christi- 
 anity was a living affection, dwelling in the present as truly and 
 actively as in the past. His faith remained firm and lively to 
 the end. It was not a dry rationalism ; it was not a vague 
 latitudinarianism. He believed profoundly in Jesus Christ as 
 the Son of God, the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, the 
 only true Mediator between God and man. He admitted the 
 supernatural facts of the Gospel — the Incarnation, Expiation, 
 Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ." Neander's Life in 
 Vol. I. of Eng. Transl. of his Church History, p. xxvi. 
 
230 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 even these have indulged their national habit 
 of free speculation, and have woven theories 
 not always consistent with one another in 
 regard to particulars of the scheme of Atone- 
 ment, they have been forward to disclaim all 
 sympathy with the cold and rationalizing spi- 
 rit of the ancient Socinians and the modern 
 Unitarians. 
 
 III. Reason has at times lifted up her 
 voice (but it is a false not true reason) to 
 gainsay this manifold testimony. I will ad- 
 vert very briefly to some of the objections 
 urged. 1. It has been said that it abridges the 
 power of God, to maintain the necessity of any 
 sacrifice, much more such a sacrifice, in order 
 to the salvation of mankind. But after all, it 
 is only improperly that any one has talked of 
 necessity in such a case as this : what God 
 could have done concerns us little, what He 
 has done concerns us much. But 2, if salva- 
 tion could have been procured in any other 
 way, can we believe that He would have 
 adopted such a way as this ? How presump- 
 tuous the question ! The mysteries of Creation, 
 natural or spiritual, are unknown to us — we 
 are ignorant of half the purposes which any 
 one act subserves. And shall we speak of 
 fitter means to an end above all others beyond 
 our comprehension? " Shall he that contendeth 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 231 
 
 with the Almighty instruct him ? he that re- 
 proveth God, let him answer it^" 3. It 
 has been much insisted upon, in fact it has 
 been a chief argument employed by those 
 who deny the Atonement, that the notion of 
 substitution is inconsistent with God's justice, 
 and that of satisfaction with His mercy^. 
 But in truth the very terms which we employ, 
 "justice," "mercy," and the like, are not com- 
 prehensible to us as they exist in the Divine 
 Being', Reason teaches us to attribute to 
 God the highest perfection of the qualities 
 which we approve in man, but we see them 
 only as shadowed out in imperfect beings, 
 and therefore are incapable of predicating, 
 beyond what has been revealed to us, what 
 they are in God, in whom justice and mercy 
 meet together, righteousness and benevolence 
 are not only in harmony, but are identical, as 
 
 1 Job xl. 2. 
 
 2 The partial notion of a love whicli excludes justice in the 
 Deity found an advocate of old in Marcion. The treatise of 
 TertuUian against Marcion is occupied with combating such 
 exclusive views. See some remarks on Anthropopatheism by 
 Neander, Ch. Hist. Vol. ii. p. 271. 
 
 3 Iran. ii. 13. 4. Est autem et super hac et propter hac 
 inenarrabilis. Sensns enim capax omnium bene et recte dicitur, 
 sed non similis hominum sensui. Et lumen rectissime dicitur, 
 sed nihil ei, quod est secundum nos, lumini. Sic autem et in 
 reliquis omnibus nulli similis erit omnium Pater hominum 
 ])usillitati. 
 
232 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 being different phases of the one Absolute 
 Good. 4. To remove all the difficulties which 
 may be raised on a subject so mysterious, is 
 neither necessary nor possible. Angels de- 
 sire to look unto it, let us veil our faces with 
 the wings of humility before the Mighty 
 Saviour, the Incarnate God, the crucified 
 Redeemer. 
 
 But let right reason stand forth, and see 
 if she cannot add something to the cloud of 
 witnesses which attest this article of our 
 Faith. 
 
 1. That we suffer through others, and 
 that even to the death, is undeniable. And as 
 the acts of men often entail pain upon their 
 fellows, so do the sufferings and labours of 
 others contribute largely, nay mainly, to our 
 support and enjoyment. How many of our 
 pleasures are procured by efforts, often pain- 
 ful efforts, of our neighbours ! and if it is 
 reasonable to suppose that there will be 
 some correspondence between the natural 
 and supernatural dispensations of the same 
 God, a scheme which supposes vicarious 
 suffering can at least be liable to no antece- 
 dent improbability. 
 
 2. The infinity of the suffering! Stu- 
 pendous indeed it is, and awful beyond 
 description or imagination, but yet far from 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 233 
 
 unreasonable. This will be seen most clearly 
 by those who are sensible of the heinousness 
 of sin. Let us consider what it is for a crea- 
 ture to rebel against his Creator, a finite being 
 to resist an Infinite, a mortal to interrupt the 
 harmony of the world of the Immortal. Yet 
 if there be such a thing as sin, it is this. And 
 it is far more marvellous that we should be 
 able to resist God at all, than that having 
 resisted Him, it should require a dispensa- 
 tion past human thought to avert the conse- 
 quences. 
 
 3. Nor will reason incline us to believe, 
 that repentance would of itself do this. What 
 efficacy there may be in repentance must be 
 owing to the promises which God has an- 
 nexed to it. When we have been cast down 
 so low as sin has cast us, it seems but reason 
 to conclude that we need some help beyond 
 our own to raise us up. It is only He who 
 can tread the winepress of God's wrath alone, 
 who when He looks and finds none to help, 
 when He wonders there is none to uphold, 
 can bring salvation with his own arm, speak- 
 ing in righteousness mighty to save^ " The 
 doctrines of revelation," it was once said by 
 a celebrated moral philosopher, "coincide in 
 
 * Isai. Ixiii. 1 — 5. 
 
234 TPIE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 every respect with those original anticipations 
 of our nature, and while they teach us how 
 little we can depend upon the imperfection 
 of our own virtue, so they shew us at the same 
 time that the most painful intercession has 
 been made, and the most dreadful atonement 
 has been paid, for our manifold transgression 
 and iniquities^" 
 
 4. Reason cannot fail to observe that this 
 idea of man's incapacity to avert the penalty 
 of past acts by mere internal motions, or to 
 bring himself into favour with the powers 
 above him, has impressed itself upon the cus- 
 toms of mankind in the universal, or all but 
 universal, prevalence of sacrifices in the an- 
 cient world and among savage nations ; a 
 prevalence which can only be explained by 
 the supposition of the Divine appointment of 
 sacrifice immediately after the fall, or by the 
 concession that there is in the human breast 
 an instinctive feeling prompting man to at- 
 tempt by some offering the expiation of his 
 guilt and the propitiation of his God. There 
 are not wanting in heathen story accounts 
 
 1 A. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1st Ed. 1759), 
 quoted by Magee (Vol. i. p. 211), who remarks, that it was 
 suppressed in the later editions, but that this suppression does 
 not in any way affect the truth of what was said by the author, 
 or the justness of the sentiments which he had uttered in a 
 pure and unsophisticated state of mind. 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 235 
 
 of sacrifice which may be thought to resem- 
 ble closely some parts of the Christian sacri- 
 fice, or the acts which typified it\ Even 
 the horrible practice of human sacrifice may 
 seem to throw some light upon the principle 
 of vicarious suffering. But without dwelling 
 upon special resemblances, the general fact 
 of the custom of propitiatory sacrifices affords 
 a reasonable proof, either of primal revela- 
 tion, or of natural instinct, developed and 
 satisfied only by the death of Christ. 
 
 5. But reason may derive further con- 
 firmation from the harmony of Christian doc- 
 trines. The Incarnation and the Atonement 
 give and receive mutual corroboration. If it 
 be true that the Eternal Word became flesh, 
 it is inconceivable that this should not have 
 been for the purpose of performing some 
 work amazing and incomprehensible. And 
 if it was possible for the Son of God to suffer, 
 it was in consequence of His having been 
 invested with human nature and all its attri- 
 butes. For if the act of expiation is to be 
 performed, it must be by one who partakes 
 of the nature to be redeemed ^ Against this 
 
 1 Tills subject is fully discussed, and numerous instances 
 adduced from ancient history, by Grotius, De Satisf. Christ, 
 eh. X. Grotii Op. Tom. iv. pp. 334-336. 
 
 2 One of the objections made to the notion that sacrifice 
 
236 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 necessity is set the inability of man to redeem 
 his brother. And the two conditions which 
 might at first sight appear irreconcileable are 
 fulfilled in One who was man, yet free from 
 sin, and who suffered, though innocent. The 
 expiation effected by Christ was not simply 
 the satisfaction of the Divine wrath, but the 
 renewal of the union of man with God. And 
 as the severance was made by the founder 
 of our race, so is it appropriate that the act 
 of reconciliation should belong to Him who, 
 as the federal Head of mankind, and the 
 only-begotten Son of God, is qualified to draw 
 men to the Father, them in Him, and He in 
 them, as He and the Father are one. Thus 
 do the several parts of the Christian scheme 
 interpenetrate one with another, as it is well 
 expressed by Irenseus, in a passage wherein 
 he asserts the doctrines both of the Incar- 
 nation and Atonement : *' The Lord hath 
 redeemed us with His own blood, and giveth 
 His life for our lives. His flesh for our flesh, 
 and poureth out the Spirit of the Father in 
 
 was intended to transfer the punishment from man to the 
 victim illustrates the Christian position that the victim was 
 the representative of Christ. " Socinus ait non potuisse errata 
 hominum in bestiis puniri, quia nulla inter homines et hcstias 
 sit speciei conimunio." Grot, de Satisf. Christ, p. 332. Grotius 
 very needlessly disputes this assertion of Socinus. It would 
 have been better to shew what truth lay beneath it. 
 
VIII.] THE ATONEMENT. 237 
 
 order to the union and communion of God 
 with man, bringing down God to man by the 
 Spirit, and again taking up man to God by 
 His Incarnation, surely and truly in His Ad- 
 vent endowing us with incorruption through 
 the communion we enjoy with Him\" 
 
 To conclude, the instincts of nature, the 
 voice of reason, the traditions of antiquity, 
 the declarations of Scripture, and the testi- 
 mony of the Church, point to a sacrifice and 
 expiation, such as was foreshadowed in the 
 sacrifices of the Law, and completed in the 
 sacrifice of Christ. But the antitype is more 
 than the type, the substance than the shadow. 
 There was restoration to the earthly taber- 
 nacle, here to the pattern of the tabernacle 
 in heaven. There the removal of legal un- 
 cleanness and involuntary transgression, here 
 the purification of the inner man and the 
 abolition of sin. There the ratification of a 
 covenant of works, here the confirmation of 
 
 ' Tw IZico ovv alixttTi XvTouxranevov i^fxciv tov Kup/ou, Ka\ 
 ovTO^ Trfv \fvyriv virep toou rjfxeTepayv \l/v^u)v Kai Tt)v <rapKa Ttjv 
 eavTov dvTi twi/ ^fxerepmv arapKMv et effundente Spiritum Patris 
 in adunationem et communionem Dei et hominis, ad homines 
 quidem deponente Deum per Spiritum, ad Deum autem rursus 
 imponente hominem per suam incarnationem, et firme et vere 
 in adventu suo donante nobis incorruptelam per communionem 
 quffi est ad eum ; perierunt omnes haereticorum doctrinse. S. 
 Iren. v. i. 1. 
 
238 THE ATONEMENT. [Lect. 
 
 the covenant of faith by the death of Him 
 who established it. There the blood of bulls 
 and goats, here the blood of Christ at once 
 the Victim and the High Priest. There ad- 
 mission to the congregation on earth, here 
 communion with the Church in Heaven. Re- 
 demption there from temporal, here from 
 eternal death : there the possession of the 
 earthly Canaan, here an entrance into the 
 everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 abundantly ministered unto us^ by Him who 
 is the Mediator of the New Testament, that 
 by means of death for the redemption of the 
 transgressions that were under the first testa- 
 ment, they which are called might receive the 
 promise of eternal inheritance 2. 
 
 But let us not close our meditations upon 
 a subject so deeply affecting as well as so 
 inexpressibly awful and mysterious, with a 
 mere appeal to our reasoning faculties. Let 
 us rather endeavour to awaken our spiritual 
 apprehension to that which has been the sup- 
 port of martyrs in their hour of anguish, of 
 sufferers upon their bed of pain. For is not 
 the comfort which departing spirits have felt 
 and expressed an evidence real and good of 
 the truth that Christ has died for us ? 
 
 Who is there in whom the record of the 
 
 1 2Pet. i. 11. 2 Heb. ix. 15. 
 
VIIL] THE ATONEMENT. 239 
 
 last words of martyrs of old rejoicing to be 
 made like unto Christ, but resting all their 
 hopes upon the blood shed for them upon 
 the Cross, has not stirred up some deeper 
 feeling of the living reality of the stupendous 
 scenes in which the Son of God passed 
 through torture unto death? Who is there 
 that has not at some time witnessed and 
 shared the holy calm diffused through the 
 chamber of death by the recital of the Scrip- 
 tural narrative of the sufferings of our Re- 
 deemer? Who is there who has not felt at 
 such times each lingering cloud of doubt or 
 misconception roll away before the clear light 
 of Truth, and lifted up from the heart the 
 fervent petition, "By Thine agony and bloody 
 sweat, by Thy Cross and Passion, by Thy 
 precious death and burial, good Lord, deli- 
 ver us"? 
 
 May God of His infinite mercy grant that 
 none of us may harden our hearts against 
 this witness of the Spirit, but that each and 
 every one may cling to the Cross of Christ, 
 and so be borne safe over the stormy billows 
 of temptation unto the wished-for haven of 
 everlasting rest. " Blessed are they which 
 are called unto the marriage-supper of the 
 Lamb\" 
 
 ^ Rev. xix. 9. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 GRACE. 
 
 S. JOHN XVII. 17. 
 Sanctify them through thy truth. 
 
 rpHE subject of Divine grace may seem to 
 -■- partake too much of a controversial cha- 
 racter to find a fitting place in a course of 
 Lectures, whose object is to make good the 
 common grounds of Christianity, without de- 
 scending into the divisions among Christians 
 themselves. 
 
 Debates connected with such divisions 
 have often been pursued with an acrimony 
 that has lost sight of substantial agreement. 
 The scholastic distinctions of preventing, rege- 
 nerating, converting and saving grace, though 
 not without their value in a well-ordered 
 system of divinity, have given rise to verbal 
 disputes, wherein differences have been made 
 to appear greater than they really are, and 
 each party has misconceived the assertions 
 of the other — and has perhaps in the heat of 
 argument been carried on to advance opi- 
 nions, of which the consequences have been 
 ill foreseen. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 241 
 
 I am not engaged at present to determine 
 the limits of speculation upon the subject of 
 grace. But it may tend to promote charity 
 and forbearance, without which unity cannot 
 subsist, to remark, that it is perfectly possible 
 to differ as to the mode in which Divine 
 grace operates, and yet to agree as to the 
 Divine Person by whom, and the channels 
 through which, it is communicated ; that the 
 differences of Christians have in general con- 
 cerned the modes of operation, and that their 
 agreement constitutes an essential feature by 
 which they are distinguished from unbe- 
 lievers. For amidst various opinions, there 
 is one broad truth held in common, that man 
 needs inward help from God, and that this 
 need has been supplied by the peculiar gift 
 of Christian grace. 
 
 This truth has at all times found oppo- 
 nents sufficiently numerous and determined 
 to render it necessary for the Christian apolo- 
 gist to proclaim and maintain it. The self- 
 sufficiency {avTapKeia) of wllich the StoicS 
 dreamed has never been without its advo- 
 cates. The perfectibility of human nature 
 by its own unassisted efforts has constantly 
 been a favourite topic with men by whom 
 the truths of Christianity and of religion have 
 C.H.L. 16 
 
242 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 been most recklessly assailed' ; while those 
 who acknowledge in Christ a great Teacher 
 of morality and of natural religion, but see 
 nothing more than human in His birth, in His 
 life, or in His death, carry out their system by 
 averring that the reformation which He came 
 to effect was to be produced simply by the 
 inculcation of purer precepts than had before 
 been known, and that man is of himself 
 capable of apprehending and acting up to 
 the precepts thus delivered. 
 
 I shall proceed, therefore, in the course 
 which I have hitherto pursued, and endeavour 
 to discover the doctrine of Divine grace as 
 declared by Scripture, by the Church, and by 
 reason. 
 
 I. While the personality of the Holy 
 Spirit was more especially the subject of 
 Gospel-revelation, His operations were ex- 
 hibited and declared under the Old Covenant. 
 The valour by which captains conquered, and 
 the wisdom by which princes governed, were 
 attributed to the Spirit of the Lord. The 
 Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel, when 
 he judged Israel, and went out to war^ The 
 Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah when 
 
 ' See Condorcet, sur le Progres de I'esprit humain. Quart. 
 Rev. No. 173, p. 33. 
 * Judges iii. 10. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 243 
 
 he passed over Gilead unto the children of 
 Ammon'. Pharaoh when making provision 
 for the seven years of famine was guided in 
 his choice of a superintendent by observation 
 of the more than human wisdom of Joseph. 
 " Can we find such a man as this is, in whom 
 the Spirit of God is^?" When Moses was 
 directed to appoint assistants in the adminis- 
 tration of justice, the Lord said, " I will take 
 of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put 
 it upon them ; and they shall bear the burden 
 of the people with thee, that thou bear it not 
 thyself alone^." Joshua was selected to suc- 
 ceed Moses as "a man in whom is the spirit\" 
 And upon the choice of David, and rejection 
 of Saul, "the Spirit of the Lord," it is said, 
 " came upon David from that day forward. . . 
 but the Spirit of the Lord departed from 
 SauP." 
 
 Again, the presence of the Holy Spirit was 
 indicated of old time by the power of pro- 
 phecy. The Spirit of God came upon Ba- 
 laam^ The Spirit of the Lord rested upon 
 Elijah, and was transferred from him in a 
 double portion (i. e. in exceeding abundance), 
 to Elisha, his servant and successor : while 
 
 * Judges xi. 29. 2 Qen. xli. 38. 
 
 ^ Numb. xi. 17« * Numb, xxvii. 18. 
 
 = 1 Sam. xvi. 13, 14. ^ Numb. xxiv. 2. 
 
 16—2 
 
244j grace. [Lect. 
 
 upon the whole siijccession of holy prophets, 
 from David unto Malachi, the Spirit came 
 down, and their mouths were touched as it 
 were with a live coal from the altar of their 
 God'. The spirit of wisdom and understand- 
 ing, the spirit of counsel and might, the 
 spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Je- 
 hovah, were all different manifestations of 
 the Spirit of the Lord^. 
 
 And if under the old Covenant the power 
 of the Holy Ghost was displayed by the in- 
 spiration of extraordinary grace for special 
 functions, equally if not more evident were 
 His operations upon the heart. In the his- 
 toric portions of the Sacred Volume, persons 
 are described as servants of the Lord, men 
 that fear God, that do right in the sight of 
 the Lord ; and we are left to gather the full 
 import of such appellations from their actions 
 and from their fortunes, (for they lived under 
 a system of temporal rewards and punish- 
 ments) ; but in the prophetic pages the inward 
 motions of the Spirit are more fully deve- 
 loped. Whence is it that the Psalms of 
 David form a manual of devotion in all ages ? 
 Whence that the impassioned addresses of 
 prophets to Israel, and to Judah, are no less 
 eloquent to us than to those who have passed 
 
 ^ Isai. vi. 6. ^ Isai. xi. 2. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 245 
 
 away? It is because being uttered by the 
 Spirit of God, they speak home to the spirit 
 of man. The Psalmist's heartfelt acknow- 
 ledgement of the transgression, that is ever 
 before him — his consciousness that God re- 
 quires truth in the inward parts, leads up to 
 the recognition of the cleansing hand of Him 
 who will wash him with hyssop that he may 
 be clean, and purge him that he may be 
 whiter than snow ; who will create a new 
 heart, and renew a right spirit within him, 
 w^ho will not cast him away from His pre- 
 sence, nor take His Holy Spirit from him — 
 will make him to know wisdom in the hidden 
 parts, restore unto him the joy of salvation, 
 and establish him with His free Spirits If 
 the prophets who wept sore for the sin of 
 their countrymen, and its destined punish- 
 ment, rejoiced also to see beforehand the 
 future day of restoration, their hopes were 
 connected with the promise of the sanctifying 
 operation of the Lord turning the hearts, in 
 order to turn their captivity. "Then will I 
 turn to the people a pure language, that they 
 may all call upon the name of the Lord 2." 
 The name of the Lord was to be sanctified by 
 the recall of his people from bondage, but in 
 preparation of this recall, He should sprinkle 
 
 ^ See Psalm li. ^ Zeph. iii. 9. 
 
24(6 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 clean water upon them, and cleanse them 
 from all their filthiness — giving a new heart, 
 putting a new spirit within them, and causing 
 them to walk in His judgements'. For the 
 promises of the latter days were bound up 
 wijh the effusion of the Spirit, to the purifi- 
 cation and sanctification of all fiesh. " I will 
 pour upon the house of David, and upon the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace 
 and of supplications^" " I will give them a 
 heart to know me that I am the Lord, and 
 they shall be my people, and I will be their 
 God, for they shall return unto me with their 
 whole heart^." " Upon Mount Zion shall be 
 deliverance, and there shall be holiness*." 
 "This is my covenant with thee, saith the 
 Lord ; My spirit that is upon thee, and my 
 words which I have put in thy mouth, shall 
 not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy 
 seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth 
 and for ever^" " I will put my spirit within 
 you, and cause you to walk in my statutes^." 
 In this as in all respects. He who became 
 the Head of the human race fulfilled the 
 conditions of humanity in partaking of those 
 
 1 Ezek. xxxvi. 25. ^ ^ecli. xii. 10. 
 
 3 Jer. xxiv. 7. ^ Obad. I7. 
 
 5 Isai. Hx. 21. ^ ^ Ezek. xxxvi. 27- 
 
rx.] GRACE. 247 
 
 gifts which had been promised to man. On 
 Him " the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily 
 shaped" " He was led up of the spirit into 
 the wilderness^" He " returned in the power 
 of the Spirit into Galilee^" and proclaimed 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
 he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to 
 the poor*." And as it seems to have been part 
 of the perfection of our Lord's humanity that 
 the Holy Spirit should rest upon him, so did 
 He by such participation secure unto those 
 whom He should call to be holy as He is holy 5. 
 And thus is it that the members of Christ's 
 Church are designated as " saints," or *' holy 
 men," because it is their birthright to become 
 partakers of the Holy Spirit, that being re- 
 newed in the spirit of their mind, they may 
 put on the new man, which after God is cre- 
 ated in righteousness and true holiness ^ 
 
 The last discourses of our Lord with his 
 disciples were expressly directed to the pur- 
 pose of teaching them the nature of the mis- 
 sion of the Comforter, whom He would send 
 unto them from the Father. The prayer 
 wherein He connects together his immediate 
 followers and those who should hereafter be- 
 
 1 Luke iii. 22. 2 M^tt. iv. 1. 
 
 3 Luke iv. 14. ^ Lukeiv. 18. 
 
 5 1 Pet. i. 16. 6 Eph. iv. 23, 24. 
 
248 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 lieve in His name, shews that this mission 
 was not confined to those who had conversed 
 with Him in the flesh. The office of the 
 Spirit of truth was declared to be to reprove 
 the world, to guide the disciples unto all 
 truth, to shew them things to come, to glorify 
 the Father, to aid them towards the accom- 
 plishment of His prayer, " Sanctify them 
 through thy truth." These express declara- 
 tions of the ministry of the Spirit might, per- 
 haps, have been thought sufficient to preclude 
 all controversy upon the subject. If the gift 
 of the Comforter was so great as to make it 
 expedient even that Jesus should Himself 
 depart from them, if it was so peculiar that 
 if He went not away the Comforter should 
 not come, if it was so universal as to be ex- 
 tended to all that should believe on Him — if 
 the operations of the Comforter were such as 
 our Saviour described them — there seems to 
 be little room for questioning the assertion 
 that the precious legacy bequeathed to His 
 Church by our dying Master was the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost, conferring through His mi- 
 nistration special power upon those who were 
 called to be the sons of God, " through sanc- 
 tification of the Spirit, unto obedience and 
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ'." 
 
 ' 1 Pet. i. 2. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 249 
 
 The Epistles, however, set forth this doctrine 
 if possible in a clearer light. For the evil 
 principle which would seduce man to magnify 
 his own powers, and rely upon his own vir- 
 tues, manifested itself in the very earliest 
 ages, and was combated by the Apostles 
 themselves. And consequently the doctrine 
 of grace is exhibited in so many shapes, in 
 commendation and in rebuke, in exposition 
 and in exhortation, in appeals to the con- 
 science, and in the narration of personal ex- 
 perience, that we cannot turn to one page of 
 these sacred writings without finding, amid 
 the instructions as to what we are to believe 
 and do, admonitions of our insufficiency of 
 ourselves either to do or to believe. Does S. 
 Paul desire to extol the righteousness which 
 is by faith, he declares that God has dealt to 
 every man the measure of faith \ Does he 
 enlarge upon the release from the death of 
 sin, it is the grace of God, and the gift by 
 grace which hath abounded unto many ; and 
 they which receive abundance of grace shall 
 reign in life by one, Christ Jesus 2. Does he 
 strive to draw closer the bonds of love and 
 union between those who have put on Christ, 
 he reminds them that by one Spirit are we 
 
 ^ Rom. xii. 3. 2 Rom. v. 17. 
 
2S0 GRACE. [Leot. 
 
 all baptized into one Body^ Would he check 
 the pride of reason, he tells us *' that we have 
 received not the spirit of the world, but the 
 spirit which is of God ; that we might know 
 the things that are freely given to us of 
 God 2." Is he constrained to refer to his 
 own sufferings, he ascribes all to God : "I 
 am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live ; 
 yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the 
 life which I now live in the flesh, I live by 
 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, 
 and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate 
 the grace of God^" Does S. Peter urge the 
 strangers of the dispersion to obedience and 
 purity, the groundwork of his exhortation is, 
 '* Seeing ye have purified your souls in obey- 
 ing the truth through the Spirit*/' More 
 forcible than all is the denomination of Chris- 
 tians as "the house of God^" "the temple 
 of the Lord^." And lest these appellations 
 should be deemed applicable to them only as 
 a community, they are employed to enforce 
 personal purity : " Every sin that a man 
 doeth is without the body ; but he that com- 
 mitteth fornication sinneth against his own 
 body. What? know ye not that your body 
 
 1 ] Cor. xii. 13. 2 1 Cor. ii. 12. 
 
 3 Gal. ii. 20, 21. * 1 Pet. i. 22. 
 
 5 Heb. iii. 6. ^ Eph. ii. 21. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 251 
 
 is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
 you, which ye have of God^ ?" 
 
 It is then perfectly clear that the writers 
 of the New Testament represent the Gospel- 
 system to have fulfilled that which had been 
 promised under the old Covenant ; that they 
 assume in all who have been incorporated 
 into Chrisf s Church new power to do and to 
 know God's will ; that the revelation of the 
 Son and of the Spirit as distinct Persons in 
 the Unity of the Godhead, is essentially con- 
 nected with the renovation of man from dis- 
 obedience unto holiness by the energizing 
 influence of peculiar grace. 
 
 Of such a scheme Sacramental grace na- 
 turally forms part. We might almost have 
 presumed, even had it not been distinctly 
 revealed, that there would be some such plain 
 and sensible tokens as the two Sacraments to 
 give notice of the glorious presence of the 
 Invisible God. 
 
 The subject of the Sacraments is far too 
 comprehensive to be in anyway adequately 
 discussed within my present limits; it is suf- 
 ficient to observe the part assigned to them 
 in the system of grace, and the light thus 
 thrown upon the nature of that system. 
 
 The birth by water and by the Spirit^ the 
 
 ' 1 Cor. vi. 18, 19. -" John iii. 5. 
 
252 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 sanctification by washing', the death unto 
 sin through burial with Christ in baptism ^ 
 the victory of faith in those who are born of 
 God^ the renewal of the Holy Ghost follow- 
 ing upon the washing of regeneration*, speak 
 not only of initial grace conveyed, but of the 
 legitimate results produced, in those who 
 quench not the Spirit, but pressing forward to 
 the mark of their high calling grow in grace. 
 The dwelling with Christ in eating His flesh 
 and drinking His blood^ the attainment of 
 eternal life and a joyful resurrection in conse- 
 quence of such participation ^ the communion 
 of the body and blood of Christ in the bread 
 broken, and the cup blessed', are plainly the 
 legitimate, not the necessary results of com- 
 municating — annexed by promise, not to a 
 formal, but to a faithful reception of the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 In the Word of God the Sacraments are 
 contemplated in full and unrestrained opera- 
 tion, effecting all which it is their purpose 
 to effect, and which they will effect when no 
 hindrance is presented. Nor are they less 
 important because they work upon man mo- 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 11. 2 Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 3 1 John V. 4. 4 Tit. iii. 5. 
 
 ^ John vi. 56. ^ John vi, 54. 
 7 1 Cor. X. 16. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 253 
 
 rally and progressively, because the growth 
 of grace conveyed by them is fostered and 
 promoted by supplies flowing into the soul 
 through different channels. Nor does the 
 circumstance that there are other means of 
 grace dispense with those which our Lord 
 instituted, and commanded to be perpetually 
 observed. There have been times and places 
 where a magical effect has been ascribed to 
 formal ordinances. At all times, and in all 
 places, man is tempted to repose in vain secu- 
 rity upon external rites, and to put the letter 
 for the spirit. But the necessity of inward 
 vitality does not dispense with outward or- 
 dained conditions. And while we must beware 
 of ascribing to mere participation, the full 
 effects which Scripture annexes to holy ordi- 
 nances upon the assumption of clue partici- 
 pation, the terms descriptive of these full 
 effects are such as to suggest the general 
 necessity of reception of the Sacraments in 
 the preservation of the prescribed order of 
 man's sanctification and salvation. A part 
 is assigned to them in the work of man's 
 redemption which God does not ordinarily 
 perform otherwise, — for the engrafting into the 
 body of Christ, and the indwelling in that 
 body must be more than a name. Of the 
 mode in which these means of grace operate 
 
254 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 we have no precise information from Scrip- 
 ture, but whatever that mode may be, it is 
 plain that means so peculiar in their institu- 
 tion, so pregnant with moral results can only 
 have place in a system wherein obedience 
 and holiness are required of a being whose 
 strength is made perfect in weakness S be- 
 cause God supplies all his needs according 
 to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus 2. 
 
 For we must never lose sight of the fact, 
 that men are moral beings, responsible for 
 their actions, subject to reward or punish- 
 ment, according to their works. On the case 
 of the heathen we need not enter, as the 
 question is purely speculative, and therefore 
 less necessary to be determined. The Gospel 
 wherein we stand addresses its exhortations 
 to believers, to partakers of grace, able to 
 work because God worketh in them : insisting 
 upon two classes of truths, the one connected 
 with the natural weakness, the other with the 
 free will of man. Exclusive regard to the one 
 or the other class, will lead, as it has led, to 
 partial and erroneous views. Both lie side by 
 side in God's word, and man may not sunder 
 them. The remembrance of this will supply 
 a corrective to the habit, sometimes too freely 
 indulged, of pushing either principle to what 
 ' 2 Cor. xii. 9. 2 Phil. iv. 19. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 255 
 
 are called its logical consequences, seeing 
 that the forces are not antagonistic, but acting 
 in different, though not opposite directions, 
 together guide us along the straight path of 
 righteousness in Christ Jesus. 
 
 II. In the writings of the Fathers we 
 find ambiguities of expression arising from 
 reference to these two principles, which re- 
 quire to be guarded against misrepresenta- 
 tion. The earlier among them insist upon 
 the freedom of the will, because they had to 
 oppose the Pagan notions of necessity, and 
 the Manichean principle of dualism — both of 
 which, in various ways, caused the subject- 
 matter of debate to be, not whether the image 
 of God was to be renewed by Divine power, 
 but whether the image of God could be re- 
 newed at all in the children of darkness and 
 disobedience. If we turn to Justin Martyr 
 we find him indeed laying down in the 
 broadest terms the universality of Redemp- 
 tion, the capability of all to repent, and the 
 necessity of freedom of will, in order to the 
 justice of punishment' ; but we also remark, 
 that he asserts more than once the necessity 
 of grace from God, in order to understand the 
 
 ^ Just. M. (Tryph. p. 370, B) in answer to a statement of 
 the Jews, that they were guiltless of the Saviour's blood, 
 because it was pre-ordained that he should be slain of them. 
 
256 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 Scriptures and comprehend the scheme of 
 salvation^ ; and in a passage wherein he 
 ascribes the withholding of the Divine judg- 
 ments to the favour with which God regards 
 those who have turned to Him, he sees in 
 this conversion the gift of God, and the 
 sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit. "He 
 has delayed, and still delays, to execute 
 judgment, because He knows that there are 
 some being rescued from the way of error, 
 and being taught to acknowledge the name 
 of Christ, who receive gifts each according to 
 their desert, being illuminated by the name 
 of Christ ; for one receiveth the spirit of wis- 
 dom, another of counsel, a third of strength, 
 of healing, of foreknowledge, of teaching, and 
 ofthefearofGod^" 
 
 The controversy which sprung up at the 
 end of the second century in regard to the 
 tenets of Montanus furnishes us with evidence 
 of the opinions of the Christian Church upon 
 the subject of grace. For Montanism was 
 the result of a one-sided view of the superna- 
 tural powers which were brought to life by 
 Christianity. As S. Paul dwelt upon the 
 gifts of the Spirit which illuminated and 
 sanctified all the natural powers and dispo- 
 
 ^ See Bishop Kaye's Just. M. p. 77- 
 2 Tryph. p. 258, A. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 257 
 
 sitions of the mind, and referred such illu- 
 mination to none other than the Holy Spirit 
 Himself, the Montanists especially enlarged 
 upon those extraordinary operations which 
 accompanied a new and authoritative reve- 
 lation of truth. They conceived that the spi- 
 ritual, who were the true Church, received 
 communications having all the force of Divine 
 oracles, that with them the Paraclete was 
 present as He was with the Apostles, not only 
 for the sanctification of the heart, but also 
 for the further development of Christian doc- 
 trine. So that each succeeding generation 
 was wiser than their predecessors, and w^ere 
 partakers in a yet more perfect dispensation 
 than that of the Gospel which Christ preach- 
 ed, and his Apostles promulgated ^ Without 
 pausing to consider wherein these views were 
 erroneous, we remark, that they presume 
 the actuation of man by the Spirit of God. 
 The whole discussion turns not upon the 
 question whether man \\as or was not the 
 subject of Divine illumination, but what was 
 the mode and effect of such illumination. 
 And if the tendency of the Alexandrian school 
 (especially opposed to Montanism) was to 
 exaggerate the powers of reason, and the 
 
 ' See Neand. Ch. Hist. Vol. ii. pp. 199, et sqq. 
 C.H.L. 17 
 
258 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 value of philosophy, it took the direction of 
 discovering traces of the Holy Spirit in the 
 wisest among the heathens, and of enlarging 
 upon the assistance rendered to them, in- 
 stead of denying the necessity of grace in 
 order to true knowledge or true obedience. 
 The ascription of all that was excellent in 
 heathens to the presence of the Holy Spirit 
 only produced erroneous conclusions when it 
 led to the disparagement of the difference 
 between philosophy and Christianity. And 
 this was less regarded in the earlier days 
 when Christianity occupied an antagonistic 
 position. If Alexandrian Christians endea- 
 voured to win over heathens to their ranks 
 by persuading them that in the writings of 
 their most valued sages there were adumbra- 
 tions of Christian principles and Christian 
 mysteries, it would probably not occur to 
 them that the essence of Christianity might 
 be impaired by too close approximation to 
 its opponents. The Christians had then to 
 dare and die for their religion. They shewed 
 how vast they deemed the difference by suf- 
 fering tortures and death rather than overlook 
 it, and their comparisons of the two systems 
 were applied rhetorically in order to disarm 
 their adversaries, without any thought of 
 giving up on their own part the cause for 
 
IX.] GRACE. 259 
 
 which they suffered. The evil attendant upon 
 these speculations was perceived at a later 
 time, when the triumph of Christianity was 
 so far complete that it occupied the imperial 
 throne, and was dominant instead of tolerated. 
 This position was in many respects full of 
 danger. It was dangerous as being likely to 
 weaken man's sense of his need of Divine 
 aid by rescuing him from the emergencies 
 wherein it had been sorely felt. Moreover, 
 the grosser abominations of Paganism were 
 now put aside as it were with one consent, 
 and those who clung to it, clung to it in 
 a philosophical spirit, endeavouring, like 
 Julian, to build up the old religion upon 
 foundations not its own, and to evacuate the 
 peculiar force of Christianity by pretending 
 to discover its principles in heathen philo- 
 sophy. It was in such times that Pelagius 
 arose, it was the sense of such dangers that 
 caused S. Augustine so vigorously to oppose 
 him. The history of the discussions upon 
 this subject shews that the point which S. 
 Augustine laboured to establish was the dis- 
 tinctive recognition of Christian grace. Pela- 
 gius himself was not unwilling to allow the 
 necessity of the Divine assistance, and of 
 grace in a certain sense; but he shrunk from 
 clearly and distinctly tracing the line of de- 
 
 17—2 
 
260 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 marcation between the Divine influence by 
 which the heathen were enabled to think 
 and act, and the peculiar gift of the Holy 
 Ghost accorded to the members of the Church 
 as engrafted into the body of Christ by the 
 Spirit of adoption which He promised and 
 bequeathed to them. It may be admitted that 
 S. Augustine was led by his desire of pre- 
 serving logical consistency to determine too 
 boldly the case of the heathens and of un- 
 baptized infants, and that he may have pushed 
 the principles of Pelagianism to consequences 
 of which Pelagius never dreamed ; but the sum 
 of the argument was of vital importance. It 
 concerned the essence of Christianity as a 
 system of grace ; it concerned the efficacy of 
 the Sacraments as means of grace; it con- 
 cerned the acknowledgment of the Holy 
 Spirit as specially sent by the Son from the 
 Father to those who should believe in His 
 name. The extent of the prevarication of in- 
 dividuals may be questioned. At all events, 
 the controversy drew forth from Pelagius and 
 Ccelestius very important admissions, which, 
 whether made in sincerity or not, are suffi- 
 cient to prove what were the opinions then 
 maintained in the Church. For they pro- 
 fessed to hold the redemption of the world 
 by Christ's merits, and the necessity of Di- 
 
IX.] GRACE. 261 
 
 vine grace to free men from the dominion 
 of sin ^ 
 
 It is observable that S. Augustine in these 
 discussions makes frequent reference to the 
 Creeds and to the liturgical forms then sanc- 
 tioned by antiquity^ ; and it has been forcibly 
 
 ' The course pursued by Coelcstius and Pelagius in this 
 respect gives us instructive information as to the mode in which 
 we indirectly may obtain the sense of the Catholic Church. 
 Item in libello quem Romae dedit [^Coelestius] cum fidem suam 
 a Trinitate unius Deitatis usque ad resurrectionem qualis futura 
 est mortuorum, de quibus eum nuUus interrogaverat, et unde 
 illi nulla quasstio movebatur, quantum dicere libuit, expli- 
 casset; ubi ad id quod agebatur ejus sermo pervenit, "si quae 
 vero," inquit, "praeter fidem quaestiones natae sunt, de quibus 
 esset inter plerosque contentio ; iion ego quasi auctor alicujus 
 dogmatis definita hoc auctoritate statui, sed ea qu£e de Pro- 
 phetarum et Apostolorum fonte suscepi, vestri Apostolatus 
 offerimus probanda esse judicio." Aug. de Pecc. Orig. c. 23. 
 So also Pelagius gives important testimony as to Infant Bap- 
 tism : " Nunquam se vel impium ^liquem haereticum audisse 
 qui hoc de parvulis diceret" — " quis tarn impius est, qui cujus- 
 libet astatis parvulo interdicat communem humani generis re- 
 demptionem, et in perpetuam certamque vitam renasci neget 
 eum qui natus sit ad incertam ?" — De Pecc. Orig. c. 18. And 
 then having asserted the fact of man's sin and the necessity of 
 grace, though not in such explicit terms as to satisfy Augustine, 
 he adds, '' Hsec est fides quam in Ecclesia Catholica didicimus 
 quamque semper tenuimus et tenemus." See Prsef. ad Aug. 
 Oper, Tom. x. pp. 62, 63. 
 
 * See, for instance, Op. Imperf. cont. Julian, Lib. vi. ch. 41. 
 Quas EcclesiaB sanctas preces toto terrarum orbe crescentes et 
 ferventes opprimere ac extinguere cupiunt, qui contra istam Dei 
 gratiam humanae voluntatis arbitrium, ut gravius de alto prje- 
 cipitent, extoUunt potius quam defendunt. 
 
262 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 remarked by a Church historian, who records 
 the defeat of Pelagianism^ that " the doctrine 
 which in this case gained the victory was not 
 a doctrine forced upon the external develop- 
 ment of the Church by the secular power, 
 and therefore to be followed at some subse- 
 quent period by a violent reaction; but that 
 doctrine conquered which had on its side the 
 voice of the universal Christian consciousness, 
 since this declared itself against the Pela- 
 gian tendency — the doctrine conquered which 
 found a ready point of union in the whole life 
 and experience of the Church as expressed in 
 its prayers and in its liturgical forms." 
 
 And it is equally true of this as of the 
 Christian doctrines of the Incarnation and 
 Atonement, that general consent gives testi- 
 mony to the truth. The voice of Christendom, 
 if rightly heard, has never been on the side 
 of those who deny the necessity and the be- 
 stowal of Christian grace. There have been 
 many differences as to the definition of it. 
 The substantial truth that we are insufficient 
 of ourselves, and that our sufficiency is of 
 God, is one that has prevailed in every age 
 and in every country, prompting all who have 
 made practical advance in real religion to 
 confess readily and hopefully with S. Paul, 
 
 ' Neand. Ch. Hist. Vol. iv. p. 335. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 263 
 
 *' By the grace of God I am what I am: and 
 his grace which was bestowed upon me was 
 not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly 
 than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God 
 which was with me\" 
 
 In a previous Lecture^ I have alluded to 
 the condition of the world without Christ, 
 which is sufficient evidence of the need of 
 grace. Blessed be God, that we may appeal 
 to the evidence of its presence and of its 
 power in the development of Christian life 
 in the Church. The mass which the kingdom 
 of heaven was to leaven might, indeed, have 
 well seemed hopeless. Venality, extortion, 
 cruelty and treachery, entered into all poli- 
 tical relations, and if natural affections did 
 not entirely fail to enforce domestic duties, 
 their observance was so rare as to make the 
 general corruption only more apparent. Sa- 
 vage masters, perfidious slaves, licentious hus- 
 bands, faithless wives, unloving parents and 
 disobedient children, were the elements of 
 which society was made up. The Divine au- 
 thority of the powers that be utterly ignored 
 amid perpetual conspiracies ; the sanctity of 
 the marriage-tie annulled by repeated di- 
 vorces; parental tenderness forgotten in the 
 
 '1 Cor. XV. 10. * Lect. VI. p. 170. 
 
264 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 barbarous exposure of infants — these were the 
 features of heathen life, independently of the 
 grosser and more abominable vices which 
 prevailed. Such were the social relations of 
 mankind as yet unchristianized. The pic- 
 ture drawn by Tertullian of the transition 
 state of society when the Pagans were still 
 in the ascendant, but felt their strength fast 
 ebbing away, is striking and significant. In 
 every town and in every village the conflict 
 was carried on, and the Pagans themselves 
 confessed that the issue was to their disad- 
 vantage. The streets, the courts, and market- 
 places, were all thronged with this sect, who 
 were defamed without probability, accused 
 without reason, and condemned without proof. 
 In the midst of all this their adversaries bore 
 involuntary testimony to their innocence, and 
 to the transforming influence of their reli- 
 gion. The slave became faithful, the son 
 obedient, and the wife chaste; and though, by 
 a strange perversity, they who had patiently 
 endured wrongs would not tolerate their cor- 
 rective, though they were ready to impute 
 hidden crimes, as concealed beneath apparent 
 purity, the influence of growing good was so 
 widely diff'used — good plainly contrary to all 
 that had been before — that they who witnessed 
 it were gradually won to own the Divinity of 
 
IX.] GRACE. 265 
 
 that faith which had such power over the 
 hearts of men^ 
 
 As Christianity progressed the sanctity of 
 the various relations of life was gradually 
 unfolded. Obedience to magistrates and the 
 civil power was recognized as a matter of 
 conscience, not of expediency. Marriage was 
 seen to be a state honourable and holy, whose 
 tie was not to be severed by man. Parental 
 love and filial obedience, enforced by the 
 sanction of Divine command, and by a regard 
 to the parental character of our Father in 
 heaven. The services of a slave to his master 
 were dignified as being rendered through fear, 
 not of men, but of God ; and the falseness of 
 the whole system of slavery demonstrated to 
 masters, who learnt the equality of those whom 
 they had despised as inferiors. Principles 
 hitherto unknown made their way even in 
 mixed households, and the unbeliever won- 
 dered at that which he could not comprehend 
 — the newborn fidelity of converted members 
 of his family. Their fullest and purest exer- 
 cise was exhibited in the Christian community 
 itself, where rank, wealth, and dignity, were 
 forgotten in the higher relation common to all 
 of brotherhood to Christ, where the new and 
 old commandment of love was duly kept, 
 
 ^ See Tertull. Apolog. c. 3. 
 
266 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 and they who had broken through earthly 
 ties for Christ's sake, found the spiritual bonds 
 to be yet closer than the natural; and being 
 admitted into the band of Christian brothers, 
 experienced the literal fulfilment of our Lord's 
 promise : " Verily I say unto you, There is 
 no man that hath left house, or brethren, or 
 sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil- 
 dren, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he 
 shall receive an hundredfold now in this 
 time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and 
 mothers, and children, and lands, with per- 
 secutions \" 
 
 The sanctifying energy of Christian life 
 in the society into which it was infused was 
 seen more evidently when persecutions ren- 
 dered it comparatively free from baser alloy ; 
 but the same process is at all times going on. 
 The true Christian is ever the salt of the 
 earth, preserving the body to which he belongs 
 from corruption and dissolution. To what 
 are we to attribute the notions of morality 
 professed throughout Christendom, elevated 
 so far above the highest flights of Pagan 
 virtue, and the spurious imitations of Maho- 
 metanism, but to the religion which has dif- 
 fused them? But has this diffusion been 
 merely one of instruction ? Is it by a better 
 
 1 Mark x. 29, 30. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 267 
 
 knowledge of truth alone that this result has 
 been produced? The precepts are carried 
 home to the heart by their practical exhi- 
 bition in the lives of those who deliver or 
 assent to them. And whence does this living 
 doctrine proceed ? Is it not from Him who 
 breathed into man the breath of life, who 
 left not even the heathen without a witness, 
 who made himself known in sundry manners 
 to His people of old, but reserved for the holy 
 priesthood of the new dispensation that pe- 
 culiar grace which has to a certain extent 
 purified and hallowed the world in which it 
 has appeared, but has evinced its divinest 
 powers in those faithful and humble souls, 
 the eyes of whose understanding have been 
 enlightened by the spirit of wisdom and reve- 
 lation in the knowledge of Christ \ 
 
 III. These effects and these experiences 
 are not merely an historic record of what 
 Christians have done and felt, but are rea- 
 sonable proofs to all, who own a Providence, 
 of the Divine origin of the scheme under 
 which they have been produced. I will add 
 but one consideration which may serve to 
 strengthen this position. 
 
 The existence of a want implies the pro- 
 bability that it will be supplied. The subjects 
 
 ' Eph. i. 18. 
 
268 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 of the God of nature desire in general objects 
 within their reach. For He who gives them 
 the appetite makes provision for its gratifica- 
 tion. So the want of extraordinary aid, whether 
 made manifest by outward destitution, or in- 
 ward longing, creates a presumption that such 
 aid will be supplied. The philosopher whose 
 chief glory it was to have directed his 
 thoughts to man's nature, was led by the 
 examination of its phsenomena to anticipate, 
 in a certain sense, some of the declarations 
 of the Gospel — propounding to his hearers 
 the need of Divine assistance, and recognizing 
 within himself the prompting or dissuading 
 voice of a divinity. And it is a profound 
 remark of Pascal, that no reasonable account 
 has ever been given of the observed dualit}- of 
 our nature but that contained in the Bible. 
 Some have placed the springs of action in the 
 senses, others have neglected them altogether ; 
 on this side raising man to the gods, on that 
 depressing him to the brutes. Some have 
 deemed him a mere creature of inevitable 
 necessity, with no power to step beyond the 
 course destined for him by fate. Others have 
 maintained for him an absolute independence 
 of all external control. Neither correspond 
 to what we see and feel. The war of the 
 
 ^ Pascal, Pensees, § 3. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 269 
 
 members and of the mind, the alternation of 
 strength and weakness, is the rule of life. 
 When Scripture tells us that this conflict 
 arises from the corruption of human nature, 
 and the new creation of a better spirit, it 
 tells us that of which we at once comprehend 
 the truth. And when it proceeds to enunciate 
 the wonderful dispensations, external and 
 internal, by which renovation from corrup- 
 tion is effected, it instructs us only that 
 Infinite Mercy has miraculously effected that 
 for which less than Infinite Mercy might 
 even to human apprehension have seemed 
 inadequate. 
 
 Finally, we recognize in the doctrine of 
 Christian grace the completion of that system 
 whose harmony affords so strong evidence of 
 its truth. The same God who has done so 
 much for us works within us. The power of 
 believing and living up to the doctrines of our 
 faith is no less a Divine gift than our Re- 
 demption itself. He who made the light, 
 made the visual organ to perceive it, and 
 the faculty to profit by it. The seeing eye, 
 the hearing ear, the believing heart, and the 
 understanding spirit, are all of God. 
 
 Behold then a scheme whose several parts 
 combine together, in wondrous order and fair 
 proportion, the external evidence for its au- 
 
270 GRACE. [Lect. 
 
 thority illustrated and confirmed by every 
 examination to which we subject it, a scheme 
 held together by doctrinal truth, each doc- 
 trine receiving and giving light to the rest. 
 View it as it bears upon the instincts and dis- 
 positions of man, explaining what were else 
 incomprehensible and discovering the noblest 
 purpose of his being. See how by reason of 
 its adaptation to human nature it has grown 
 and prospered under circumstances most 
 various, and ask yourselves, what is all this 
 if it be not the very truth of God ? 
 
 What is this world, what this our nature, 
 if all these harmonious combinations, all 
 these magnificent effects, are but the result of 
 chance and misconception, and if we must 
 throw aside that which has satisfied the most 
 powerful intellects, and prompted the noblest 
 actions, that history records — throw them 
 aside, in order that the spirit may wander 
 forth in desolate places seeking rest and 
 consolation, but finding none ? 
 
 Christianity speaks a language which stirs 
 the soul within us. The cold and chilling 
 rationalism, or the vague and dreamy mys- 
 ticism which would rob us of our richest 
 treasure, unnerves our energies, benumbs our 
 feelings, depriving us of that hope which we 
 feel after, even when we cannot grasp. 
 
IX.] GRACE. 271 
 
 Dreary is it to wend our way through the 
 difficulties that surround us, unconscious of 
 any Power on whose help we may rely : 
 painful in our hours of conscious weakness to 
 have no confidence in strength beyond our 
 own, — so dreary and so painful, that many an 
 unbeliever has owned his misery, in terms 
 that have given affecting proof of the vitality 
 of religion'. And the sense of insufficiency 
 
 ^ A curious illustration of the extent of the anti-religious 
 movement in Germany, and of the natural instincts of the soul 
 on the side of religion, is given in a narrative quoted by Hun- 
 deshagen in his Deutsche Protestantismus, p. 221. I quote it 
 as it is narrated, notwithstanding some painful expressions of 
 irreligion it contains, because it seems to me very striking and 
 instructive; the more so, considering the sentiments of the 
 narrator. At the festival, with which the assembly of authors 
 at Leipzig in the summer of 1845 concluded, one M. Jordan 
 of Kbnigsberg rose up to give " a toast to the Atheists." 
 *' Under this name," the president of the day informs us, in a 
 narrative of the proceedings, " he had announced it to me, and 
 I had in vain advised him to give it up, as we were not en- 
 gaged in a demonstration of opinions, but in an expression of 
 opinions in which a certain company could join. Atheism at 
 least had a harsh sound, and was not calculated in the form of 
 a toast to meet with much sympathy ; and the success of such 
 a meeting depended to a certain extent upon sympathy. Dr 
 Jordan however persisted, and I had no right to say more to 
 dissuade him. However, just as I had predicted, there was 
 no applause to greet ' The free German spirit' (which was 
 ■what his toast meant) ' which is yet to come, which will at 
 some time or other have freed itself from the fetters of all 
 power, whether the actual power on earth, or the imagined 
 ghostly power in Heaven.' During his speech an ice-cold 
 shudder passed through the assembly, and at the close of it 
 
272 GRACE. [Lect 
 
 ill times of trial has called many a wanderer 
 back from the paths of delusion, to the only 
 true source of comfort, — the only rock of de- 
 liverance. 
 
 the stillness of death prevailed. Characteristic enough for an 
 assembly of some hundred authors, among whom we in Berlin 
 might expect to find fifty of the so-called free spirits. But we 
 are all so enfeebled by education and training that we feel the 
 want of a God, and I could guess in the universal silence that 
 there would be some one to give this feeling vent. This some 
 one was not far from me, in the person of the honest Suabian 
 Auerbach, who had studied his Spinoza without having got 
 rid of his God. With lively emotion he spoke the following 
 words : ' Gentlemen, I do not force myself upon you, but the 
 word I am to speak forces itself upon me. Gentlemen, I am 
 so poor-spirited as to believe in a Spirit who governs me, whom 
 I do not govern. Gentlemen, there is such a thing as reason 
 run mad, that has gone beyond itself. You must all of you, 
 gentlemen, ere this have found yourselves in a dream falling 
 but finding no ground. It is reason run mad which dreams 
 thus of futurity. Gentlemen, I can lay aside all softness, 
 and use the sword of the spirit as freely as the sword of steel. 
 There is a holy name — I will not give up the word holy — 
 the name of freedom. May it never come to this, that the 
 freedom which we are entitled to obtain be withdrawn from 
 us. Therefore we must not pass the boundary or shoot at 
 random beyond the mark, and say, we are they that have 
 found out a new thought ! No, gentlemen, God in us ! God 
 with us ! We are all for freedom — we all follow our inward 
 determination. I am not here to discuss a theological prin- 
 ciple — but we all know that there is a law which will conduct 
 us to the mark, within us and without us, in nature and in 
 the spirit, which has certain knowledge of God. True freedom 
 for ever !' Here followed an immense acclamation of assent 
 and approval, and there was cheering and shouting and em- 
 bracing, as if they had found again a home which they had 
 believed to have beci lost." 
 
IX.J GRACE. 273 
 
 Let us, my brethren, animate our thoughts, 
 our hopes, and our prayers, by stirring up the 
 gift of God, — meditating upon these things — 
 giving ourselves wholly to them, that our pro- 
 fiting may appear to alP : " for God hath not 
 given us the spirit of fear ; but of power, and 
 of love, and of a sound mind'." We will not 
 be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, the 
 testimony that we have a Father who made 
 us, a Saviour who redeemed us, a Spirit who 
 dwells within us — bearing witness with our 
 spirit, sanctifying the highest part of our 
 nature, and revealing things which the na- 
 tural man receiveth not, shewing us that to 
 be spiritually-minded is to discern what the 
 Holy Ghost teacheth, not according to the 
 wisdom of the world, but according to the 
 hidden wisdom of Him who hath called us : 
 for of Him are we in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 who of God is made unto us wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 tion : that, according as it is written, He that 
 glorieth let him glory in the Lord^. 
 
 1 1 Tim. iv. 15. 2 2 Tim. i. 7- ' 
 
 3 1 Cor. i. 30, 31. 
 
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