m' 
 
THE DOCTEINES AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHEISTIAN FAITH 
 
 CONTEMPLATED FEOM THE STANDING GROUND AFFORDED 
 
 BY THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE BEING OF 
 
 OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 Wijt mul^tan ^tttuxta 
 
 FOR THE YEAR M.DCCC.LV. 
 
 THE REV. HARVEY GOODWIN, M.A 
 
 I.ATE FETXOW OF <iONVII,TF: ASV fAIUS OOT.LEGE, AND 
 
 jrrsT.sTj';!! of st kdward's, cambripoe. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. 
 
 LONDON : BELL AND DALDY. 
 
 185 6. 
 
PRINTED AT THE UNIVERlSITY PRESS 
 
TO 
 
 EDWIN GUEST, ESQ. LL.D. 
 
 MASTER OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, 
 LATE VWE-CIIANCELWH. 
 
 TO 
 
 THE REVEREND WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 AND TO 
 
 THE REVEREND RALPH TATHAM, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OP 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 Pro- 
 phecies and Miracles; direct or collateral proofs of 
 the Christian Religion, especially the collateral argu- 
 ments; the more difBcult texts, or obscure parts of 
 Holy Scripture;" or any one or more of these topics, 
 at the discretion of the Ijccturer. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The description of the subject of these Lectures, 
 given upon the title-page, must not be taken as 
 intended to imply, that I have attempted to 
 discuss all doctrines and all difficulties. My 
 purpose has been rather to exhibit a point of 
 view, from which, as I believe, doctrines and 
 difficulties can be most successfully contemplated, 
 to illustrate by a certain number of examples the 
 method of regarding divine truth proposed, and 
 to suggest the application of it in others. It 
 seems to me to be practically much more im- 
 portant to have found the right point from which 
 to look at difficulties, than to be supplied with 
 ingenious theories for getting over them ; it is 
 well to know, that certain objections against the 
 doctrines of the Faith have been answered, but it 
 is still better to be in the habit of contemplating 
 the doctrines from a point of view, from which 
 the difficulties are not perceived, not felt to he 
 difficulties. Herein consists, as I conceive, the 
 true value of Butler's Analogy, as compared with 
 books of evidences in general, that it supplies us 
 with a method of dealing with a whole class of 
 objections, all those, namely, which are analogous 
 to objections capable of being raised against the 
 ordinary course of nature ; and the mind, which 
 has once gained the point of view, which forms the 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 basis of Bishop Butler's work, is led to perceive 
 that a great number of apparently plausible diffi- 
 culties require only to be looked at steadily from 
 that point, in order to be recognised as belonging 
 to a class, which ought not to torment the mind 
 of a Christian, and which an opponent of the 
 faith parades in vain. 
 
 This then is the idea of the following course 
 of Lectures; and I beseech the reader — and the 
 critics — to consider them according to their idea, 
 and so only. The subjects of the several Lectures 
 have no party character; they are not discussed in 
 support of any party views ; they are treated, as in 
 the sight of God, with reference to the spiritual 
 need of those — whether High Church, Low Church, 
 or to whatever school they may fancy themselves 
 to belong — who may have been led by sad experi- 
 ence to fear, lest the sun of their souls should be 
 hidden from them by any of the mists and clouds 
 which belong to an intellectual age. By such 
 persons I confidently trust that I shall not be 
 misunderstood ; and to them I heartily commend 
 the Lectures, with the conviction, that I shall have 
 carried out the intention of the Founder in order- 
 ing them to be printed, if the vision of Jesus 
 Christ shall have been made clearer to any one 
 doubting soul. 
 
 H. G. 
 
 C'AMBIUDOE, 
 
 December, 18:;:;. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS II. 2. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 / determined not to know anything among you, save 
 
 Jesus Christ, and Him crucified ... 1 
 
 LECTUEE 11. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 S. JOHN III. 16, 17. 
 
 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that ivhosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
 For God sent not His Son into the world to 
 condemn the ivorld; but that the ivorld through 
 Him might be saved . . . . .19 
 
 LECTURE IIL 
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 ACTS XXVI. 8. 
 
 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with 
 
 you, that God should raise the dead ? . .38 
 
X Contents. 
 
 LI'XTURE IV. 
 
 THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST. 
 
 S. JOHN I. 1. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Word was God 56 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 S. JOHN V. 39. 
 
 Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life: and they are they luhich testify 
 of Me 75 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 II. TIMOTHY III. ItJ, 17. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and 
 is j)rofitahle for doctrine, for reproof for cor- 
 rection, for instruction in righteousness: That 
 the man of God may he perfect, throughly 
 furnished unto all good ivorks . . .90 
 
 LECTURE VIL 
 
 CHARACTER OF GOU IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 ROMANS IX. 4, 5. 
 
 Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and 
 the glory, and tJie covenants, and the giving of 
 the law, and the service of God, and the pro- 
 mises; Whose are the fathers, and of ivhom 
 as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is 
 overall, God blessed for ever. Amen . . 116 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 'IIIK DKALINGS OK GOD WITH THE HEATHEN WORLD. 
 
 S. JOHN V. 2(3, 27, 28. 
 
 PA(iE 
 
 For as the Father hath life in Hhnself; so hath 
 He given to the Son to have life in Himself ; 
 And hath given Him authoritij to execute 
 judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 
 Marvel not at this . . . . .137 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 SCIENCE IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHBISTIAN FAITH. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY VI. 20, 21. 
 
 O Timothy, keep that ivhich is committed to thy 
 trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and 
 oppositions of science falsely so called: Which 
 some prof essing have erred concerning the faith. 
 Grace be with thee. Amen . . .158 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 CONCLUDING LECTURE. THE GIRDLE Ol' TRUTH. 
 
 EPHESIANS VI. 14. 
 
 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about ivith 
 
 truth 180 
 

 LECTURE 1. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Preached on Palm Sunday. 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS II. 2. 
 
 / determined not to knoio anything among you^ save Jesus 
 Christ, and Him crucified. 
 
 In entering upon the duties of the office, in legt. 
 virtue of which I occupy this pulpit to-day, I must — — — 
 crave your attention while I explain the view which 
 I have been led to take of the nature of those 
 duties, and the plan which I propose to pursue in 
 the fulfilment of them. 
 
 The great aim of Mr Hulse in his various Designs of 
 benefactions would seem to have been this, to pro- 
 vide that the momentous question of the evidences 
 of the Christian faith should be continually and 
 systematically brought under the notice of the 
 members of this University; and that so the 
 worldly wealth which God had given him might 
 be made instrumental to the propagation of the 
 truth throughout the land, of which Cambridge 
 is one of the spiritual centres. The circumstances 
 of the times in which Mr Hulse lived will to a 
 certain extent account for the fact, that a man wish- 
 ing to do something after his decease for the glory 
 of God should choose this manner of doing it : 
 for the scheme for his various benefactions was 
 
 C 
 
2 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. matured at an epoch ''^ at which infidelity had attained 
 ^' to a very extraordinary and alarming prominence : 
 not only those views of religion, which may in a 
 certain, though not very strict, sense be called 
 speculative, had been by many rejected, but the 
 practical rules of purity and holiness, with which 
 we usually connect the epithet Christian, had been 
 by not a few set aside under cover of the supposed 
 disproof of the truth of revealed religion. We 
 find Bishop Butler describing the temper of the 
 infidelity of those times in such M^ords as these : 
 Vol. I. " All of those who reject Christianity (he ^^Tites 
 Oxford Ed. in the conclusion of the Analogy) do not content 
 '^•♦•*- themselves with a bare neglect of religion, and 
 enjoying their imaginary freedom from its re- 
 straints. Some go much beyond this. They de- 
 ride God's moral government of the world. They 
 renounce His protection, and defy His justice. 
 They ridicule and vilify Christianity and blaspheme 
 the Author of it; and take all occasions to manifest 
 a scorn and contempt of revelation." And we 
 find the same ^vriter speaking in another place of 
 Vol. I. p. "a certain fearlessness, with regard to what may 
 ^^- be hereafter under the government of God," which 
 
 cliaractcrized the age in which he lived, and which, 
 as he truly remarks, nothing could justify, but 
 "an universally acknowledged demonstration on 
 the side of atheism." It is not wonderful that a 
 thoughtful man should consider, that he would be 
 See Note I. doiug good scrvico both to God and to his country, 
 
 * The date of Mr IIulsc's will is July 21, 1777. A full account 
 of it, and of all Mr IIulsc's foundations, will be found in the 
 introduction to Mr Parkinson's Ilulscan Lectures for the year 
 1S37. 
 
Introductory Lecture. ^ 
 
 if being dead he could yet speak against such lect. 
 a spirit of infidehty as this. ^' 
 
 When however the University accepted a^^^'^f^^y 
 loundation^ which was intended to give a perma- ting evi- 
 nent character to the consideration of Christian the re- 
 Evidences, it must undoubtedly have been under 2? ihT^''*^ 
 the persuasion, that she was not providing merely *''^'®^' 
 for a present emergency, but possessing herself of 
 the means of effectively directing attention to a 
 question of perennial and inexhaustible interest. 
 Nor can such a persuasion be deemed erroneous : 
 for it is to be observed, that although the Christian 
 faith be ever objectively one and the same, yet 
 the manner of apprehending it, and the mode of 
 substantiating its claims, will vary extremely from 
 one age to another. The grounds of faith being 
 moral, it is impossible to reduce the whole subject 
 to a string of definite propositions, to be demon- 
 strated with mathematical precision, and then 
 never to be questioned again. It may be joossible 
 to lay down certain rules of a lasting character, 
 as to the general method and principles of dealing 
 with evidences; and certain classes of objections 
 may be so thoroughly exploded, as never to be 
 able to shew their faces any more; but still the 
 question. What reason shall I give for the faith 
 that is in me? must ever be one, the answer to 
 which will vary from one time to another, and 
 will depend not only upon the objections madfe, 
 but also upon the character of the mind to which 
 the objections are offered. 
 
 And so perhaps in reviewing old methods of See Note 2. 
 defending the faith against aggression, we may be 
 led to look upon some of them with the same kind 
 
4 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 .ECT. of feelings with which we regard the armour whicli 
 , our forefathers used : unable, it may be, to defend 
 
 the wearer against modern missiles, but to be 
 reverenced, nevertheless, as memorials of noble 
 champions, and as proofs of the zeal with which 
 they contended in their days for the faith once 
 delivered to the saints. 
 
 It has been intended therefore, that as the 
 progress of years produces new phases of the ques- 
 tion of the truth of the revelation of God to us in 
 Jesus Christ, so attention should be given to the 
 changes necessary in the manner of presenting the 
 Christian argument, and that the defensive armour 
 of Christian soldiers should be adapted to tlie 
 offensive weapons of the times. 
 
 Different But, as I liavc Said, not only do the objections 
 
 made to the Christian faith vary from one time 
 to another, but also at the same period the manner 
 
 persons, jjj whicli tlic faith will be apprehended, and the 
 effective cogency of objections made to it, will be 
 very different for different persons: age, natural 
 temperament, early education, the line of study 
 adopted by a man, his moral habits, the character 
 of his companions, and many other circumstances 
 which might be mentioned, will all have their in- 
 fluence upon his mind with reference to the great 
 question of belief in Christ. I notice this point, 
 however, not for the sake of pursuing the subject 
 just now into its consequences, but because I would 
 remark that the frequent change of the person 
 holding the office of Hulsean Lecturer may per- 
 haps be regarded as useful, with reference to this 
 view of the subject with which he has to deal ; and 
 at all events the short tenure of the office can 
 
 views of 
 evidences 
 taken by 
 different 
 
Introductory Lecture. 5 
 
 hardly fail to suggest, that the duties are most lect. 
 likely to be profitably performed, if the Lecturer ' 
 endeavours to put before his hearers that kind of 
 view, which to his own mind has been most satis- 
 factory, or to clear the faith from any class of 
 difficulties, of which he has himself experienced 
 the force. Upon this principle therefore I myself 
 propose to act : and in that view of our holy reli- 
 gion, which it will be the purpose of my course of 
 Sermons to present, I shall endeavour to describe 
 that which has given to my own mind a refuge 
 from many spiritual difficulties ; I shall not attempt 
 to represent it as the only view, nor will I under- 
 take to say that there may not be other lines of 
 argument to some persons much more satisfactory ; 
 but I shall indulge the thought, that amongst those 
 who listen to me there may be some, who will be able 
 to find a light to their paths in a view of the sub- 
 ject, which I have found to be a light to my own. 
 
 I have just now spoken of a course of Ser- Huisean 
 mons, and have done so advisedly. The will of properly 
 the founder specifies a course of sermons; and I sermons. 
 have taken occasion for once to use this name, 
 rather than the more usual name of Lectures, be- 
 cause I wish to mark, that according to my appre- 
 hension, there need not be any essential difference 
 between the tone assumed by the Huisean Lec- 
 turer, and that assumed by other preachers: a 
 lecture upon Christian Evidences is too apt to 
 suggest to our minds the thought of a discussion 
 with an infidel, with one who is prepared to dis- 
 pute with us ex animo every step we take, and in 
 arguing with whom no weapons may be used but 
 those of the most rigid logic, — a person to be 
 
6 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. subdued and silenced by argument, not to be 
 — '- — encouraged and supported by those who have a 
 message for the weary and heavy laden. And I 
 am not at all desirous to hint, that the coldest and 
 driest investigation of religious truth may not have 
 its value, or to insinuate that he who has con- 
 structed a system of evidences with reference to 
 some particular class of objections, which in the 
 minds of all reasonable men demolishes those 
 objections, has done anything but good service to 
 the Church; but I think that before a congrega- 
 tion, not of infidels but of Christians, assembled in 
 a place like this, not to argue but to listen, there 
 are modes of treating the evidences of our faith 
 more appropriate and more practically useful. 
 Wliy should I forget — nay, what right have I to 
 forget — that those who are here present have this 
 day repeated such words as these? 
 
 I beheve in Jesus Christ, the only Son of 
 God, Begotten of His Father before all worlds, 
 God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very 
 God, Begotten not made, Being of one sub- 
 stance with the Father, By whom all things 
 were made — 
 — that I am therefore speaking to those, who 
 have declared themselves Christians in the fullest 
 Catholic sense of the word, and who might be 
 justly indignant if I were to question their title to 
 be recognized as disciples of Christ? No — what- 
 ever is uttered within these walls by me shall, by 
 God's help, be of the nature of a sermon to Chris- 
 tians, tending to stablish them in a faith which 
 they already hold, and not of the nature of a 
 lecture, which assumes the trutli of Christ to be 
 
Introductory Lecture. 7 
 
 tin open question, or of an argument directed to lect. 
 professed unbelievers. 
 
 If it be said that thus to deal with the sub- utiuty of 
 ject is to make lectures upon evidences supei-fluous, monsrand 
 it may be repHed, that although the field be con- a^m^o?^^'^ 
 tracted by the consideration, that the lectures are *^®'"- 
 to be of the nature of sermons addressed to a 
 Christian congregation, there is still abundance of 
 room left for useful and not illogical treatment 
 of the subject. For the Christian faith being, as 
 I have said, incapable of being cut up into a string 
 of propositions and demonstrated once for all, a 
 real believer in Christ may sometimes have his 
 faith shaken, at least for a time, by some new 
 view of the subject, with which a new course of 
 reading or a new line of thinking may have made 
 him acquainted. The person whose faith is thus 
 shaken, may have no desire to doubt concerning 
 the truth of Christ ; there may be no impure and 
 immoral root to his speculative difficulties; he 
 may be simply unable to see the answer to ob- 
 jections, with which as an educated man he must 
 be conversant; and he may feel a kind of dis- 
 honesty in professing with his mouth the creed 
 of his baptism, while he is cognizant of what seem 
 to him to be grave objections to the truth of what 
 he professes. The intellectual difficulties, which 
 a Christian thus encounters, are in a certain sense 
 the price which he pays for freedom of thought, 
 and for the privilege of study : an ignorant person 
 will be safe from the pains and struggles which 
 such difficulties involve ; and if a man be ignorant, 
 merely because he has been placed by God's provi- 
 dence in a position, in which the acquisition of 
 
8 Introductory Lectu7'e. 
 
 LECT. knowledge has been rendered impossible by the 
 
 '. necessity of labouring for daily bread, one might 
 
 perhaps without blame venture to assign to such 
 a man a portion of that blessing which Christ 
 s. Luke vi. gave wlicu He said, Blessed he ye poor, for yours 
 is the kmgdom of God; for indeed there is fre- 
 quently in tlie simple faith of unlettered persons, 
 who have sat at Jesus' feet and heard His words, 
 a substance, a truth, and a life, which men of 
 profounder knowledge upon other subjects may 
 well be content to envy ; but if our lot be thrown 
 in the world of thought rather than in the world 
 of labour, we must walk worthy of our vocation ; 
 we may not offer up the powers which God has 
 given us, as a Moloch sacrifice to Him who de- 
 lights in truth; and if opportunities of knowing 
 be also made occasions of doubting, then the doubts 
 must be grappled wdth, and in the strength of 
 God overcome. And I do not know that a 
 Christian minister can desire any more blessed 
 office, for there is none more like that of the 
 holy angels, than to succour his brethren in spi- 
 ritual conflicts, and help to stablish them in the 
 faith. 
 These Lee- I would remark further, that in the choice of a 
 silmed*"" subject it seems right to take into consideration 
 oSdeii"' *lie fact, that although the Lecturer is bound both 
 very, to prcach and also to print a course of sermons, 
 yet the former method of teaching w^ould appear 
 to be that which ought to be borne chiefly in 
 mind. The existence of a twin foundation, the 
 purpose of which is the annual jDublication of a 
 book bearing upon the evidences of the faith, would 
 alone appear sufficient to shew, that it is for the 
 
Introductory Lecture. 9 
 
 Lecturer to select such topics for his discourses as lect. 
 can best be treated orally, while he leaves to the ' 
 Christian Advocate those subjects, the discussion 
 of which is adapted for a book rather than for the 
 pulpit, comprehended more easily through the me- 
 dium of the eye than through that of the ear. 
 And I make this observation in this opening 
 sermon, because it is obvious, that as certain sub- 
 jects are almost incapable of being treated success- 
 fully in the pulpit, assuming perhaps an acquaint- 
 ance with books which many of the audience have 
 not, or requiring frequent reference to preceding 
 parts of the argument and the like, and as such 
 subjects are sometimes most interesting and in- 
 structive when studied in a book by those whose 
 taste and knowledge lead them to the study, and 
 most dry and uninstructive when merely listened 
 to from the pulpit by a mixed congregation; so 
 contrariwise there are subjects, which are specially 
 fit for the pulpit, which gain instead of losing by 
 oral treatment, which are better in sermons than 
 in books. A preacher may not use bad reasoning, 
 and substitute rhetoric for logic ; but he may very 
 well appeal to something besides the reason, and 
 rely upon something in man's moral being lying 
 deeper than his intellectual faculties; and such an 
 appeal certainly comes with the greatest force, 
 when it is addressed by the living voice to the 
 hearts of living men. 
 
 This leads me also to say, that I think myself and ad- 
 justified in the discharge of the duties of mypeSyto 
 office, in holding in view especially the spiritual J^^J^"^ p^"" 
 wants of the younger members of the University. 
 The conflict of faith with the intellectual difficulties 
 
S. John 
 
 10 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. wliicli lie in its way is peculiarly a conflict for 
 
 — '- 3^oiing men. Children are in liajipy ignorance of 
 
 difliculties, and can find a sure pathway of peace 
 in the practical piety of obedience. Men of mature 
 age, on the other hand, are for the most part 
 fixed in faith as in stature, and have a relis^ious 
 character formed for evil or for good; so that to 
 them a course of sermons on evidences, though 
 they may be a matter of interest, can scarcely be 
 felt to involve questions of life and death. But the 
 young man has his religious character to form, 
 and the grounds of his faith to settle: much as 
 he may feel the truth of the principle, that in 
 order to know the reality of Christ's doctrine he 
 must do God's mil, he still feels that the peace of 
 his soul and even his sense of honesty require, that 
 he should be able to give a reasonable account of 
 his faith. He finds, perhaps, that truths, which he 
 had been taught from his childhood to hold as 
 sacred, are assailed; and not only so, but that in 
 the form in which he has hitherto held them, some 
 of them seem to be only too easily assailable. He 
 meets with men, who tell him that the Bible is in 
 conflict with modern science; that a miracle is a 
 thing incredible; that the creeds of Christendom 
 are tinged with Jewish superstitions and oriental 
 fancies, and require to be purged ; that Christianity 
 is true, only as many other religious systems are 
 true, that is, as embodying a certain amount of 
 universal religious truth; and that it, like others, 
 will gradually make way for new and clearer ex- 
 pressions of that which is eternal and divine. And 
 he finds the same views echoed in books ; and that 
 not in books which profess to ridicule what is holy. 
 
Notes. 
 
 Int7'oductorij Lecture. It 
 
 and which therefore he might be ashamed to read; lect. 
 but in books which assume a character of high . ^' 
 rehgious spirituaHsm, and which make it the very ' 
 gravamen of their charge against the faith of 
 Christians, that it is not pure and spiritual enough. 
 It is probably the lot of the greater number of 
 thoughtful young men in these days to undergo a 
 conflict, such as that which I have described; and 
 God and good angels and their own hearts best 
 know the pain which such conflicts sometimes oc- 
 casion : many a young man would gladly shun the 
 strife, if he knew how; he would willingly shut 
 up all books of cold dry evidences, while in the 
 strength of early teaching his heart should declare 
 its allegiance; he would be thankful if his thoughts 
 could ever fi.nd their genuine utterance in such 
 words as these : 
 
 Sun of my soul! Thou Saviour dear, Christian 
 
 It is not night if Thou be near: Year. 
 
 Oh! may no earthborn cloud arise, 
 To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes. 
 
 These exquisite lines express a tone of feeling, 
 which I believe that many a young man will con- 
 fess that he once had, and which he would give 
 worlds to have again. 
 
 And may not the peace of simple faith be 
 regained by him, who on coming to the age of 
 serious thought has felt the pressure of the intel- 
 lectual difficulties belonging to the times, in which 
 God has been pleased to cast his lot? Beyond 
 doubt it may; and I am most anxious to state as 
 clearly, and admit as fully, as possible, the reality 
 of the conflict, and the almost necessity in these 
 days of enduring it, in order that anything which 
 
12 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. may be said hereafter may have the advantage of 
 
 '- — being received by those who are engaged in the 
 
 SeeNote4. strife, as the words of one who sympathizes with 
 
 them, and who would willingly minister to their 
 
 wants. 
 An iUus- In leavinof this part of the subject let me add, 
 
 tration i i • n 
 
 from the that tlic mental history of many young persons 
 th^Trans- may perhaps be seen typified, in a somewhat 
 guration. gj-j,j]^jj^g manner, in the experience of those three 
 disciples, who were permitted to see Christ trans- 
 figured in the mount. As these discij^les talked 
 s. Luke ix. with Jcsus, WO read that a cloud o vershadoiced 
 ' them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud; 
 but there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, 
 This is my beloved Son, hear Him; and when the 
 voice ivas past, Jesus ivcts found alone. And so I 
 believe, that although a cloud, ''an earthborn 
 cloud," may in these days overshadow some of 
 the disciples, who hold converse with their Lord 
 and are even highly favoured above their brethren, 
 and although they may well fear as they feel the 
 chill cloud coming over them, and hiding the Sa- 
 viour from their eyes, yet if they listen they will 
 hear a voice through the cloud, proclaiming the 
 beloved Son; and that then the cloud will pass 
 away, and Jesus will be found alone, the one ob- 
 ject of their faith and love, the Way, the Truth, 
 and the Life. 
 
 S. Jolin 
 xiv. 6. 
 
 Subject I will now explain the nature of the subject, 
 
 propose . ^j^-^j^ -J- pj.QpQgg ^Q ^j.gg^^ -j^ ^j^-g course of Sermons. 
 
 I have already said, that I shall take it as a fun- 
 damental principle, that I am exhorting Christians, 
 not arguing with infidels; hi the words of the text. 
 
Introductory Lecture. 13 
 
 I have determined not to know anything among yon, lect. 
 save Jesus Christ. I propose, therefore, that wc '- 
 
 Some of 
 the doc- 
 
 should take our stand upon the Catholic doctrine 
 of the being of our Lord, and that from the ele- attendant 
 vation so given us we should make a survey of '^^^^i^i^^ 
 some of the doctrines and attendant difficulties of christian 
 the Christian faith. Instead of regarding this veyed in 
 great cardinal doctrine as a proposition to be the Catho- 
 proved, which however is obviously a legitimate ofthebew 
 course of proceeding, I shall look upon it as the °^ Chnst. 
 great postulate of the faith; and if we find tliat 
 the assumption brings a variety of phenomena into 
 connexion with each other, and gives consistency 
 to other doctrines, and illuminates a thousand dif- 
 ficulties, we may perhaps be led by the examination 
 to an increased conviction, that the postulate is 
 one granted by God Himself Instead of travelling s.Matt. ii. 
 in search of Christ, like the wise men from the 
 East, who, following the flickering light of a star, 
 asked where Christ should be born, I would rather 
 (so to speak) take you at once to the summit of 
 Calvary, and say, " This is Christ the King ! stand 
 reverently by the side of His cross, and contem- 
 plate the world from thence." 
 
 The method, which it is thus proposed to adopt, illustrated 
 may be illustrated by reference to the modes of renceto 
 exhibiting the evidences of the truths of science, methods! 
 If it be required to make a student believe in that 
 most mysterious, and to an untaught mind almost 
 incredible, doctrine of physics, the universal gravi- 
 tation of matter, there are two courses which may 
 be conceived to be adopted. We may either dis- 
 cuss a variety of phenomena, and from them endea- 
 vour by a process of induction gradually to ascend 
 
14 Introdiictory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. to the great principle which harmonizes them all; 
 
 ^_ or we may, and in the present state of science 
 
 may justly, assume the great principle, and from 
 it deduce its consequences; and then, by shewing 
 how the assumption of the principle explains the 
 phenomena of nature and solves its difficulties, we 
 may rest in the conclusion, that the assumption 
 itself was true. Now it appears to me, that this 
 latter mode of proceeding is the clearest and best 
 method of conveying truth; and that it is one, 
 which will be almost instinctively followed by a 
 teacher, who has no doubt in his own mind con- 
 cerning the truth of his doctrines, and therefore 
 feels sure that they have only to be seen from 
 the right point of view in order to be heartily 
 received. If I may venture so to speak, the 
 Catholic doctrine of the being of Christ is to the 
 spiritual world something like that which the doc- 
 trine of the universal gravitation of matter is to 
 the physical: both are mysterious; and one per- 
 haps as hard to believe as the other, when con- 
 templated as a solitary naked dogma ; but one like 
 the other is received with full assurance of faith, 
 when it is found that each in its own sphere is the 
 true centre of the universe, and each the key of 
 divine mysteries. 
 An oi.jcc- Nor can it be rightly deemed an objection to 
 the course proposed, that it is the very mode, 
 according to which our mothers taught us our first 
 lessons concerning Christ. On the other hand, I 
 feel persuaded, that the manner in which children 
 learn the lessons of the faith does not in maturer 
 years require to be altogether set aside, but rather 
 needs only a proper scientific development, in order 
 
 tion ol 
 viated. 
 
Introductory Lecture. 15 
 
 to fit it for use when they have put away childish lect. 
 
 things. Is it not in fact sometimes, because young '. 
 
 men forget the teaching of the Church Catechism, 
 that they find themselves in religious difficulties? 
 The Church Catechism, laying the foundation of 
 its teaching in this, that the child has been " made 
 a member of Christ, a child of God, and an in- 
 heritor of the kingdom of heaven," bids it rehearse 
 the articles of its behef ; and then instructs the 
 child, that in those articles it learns to believe 
 in God the Father who made us, in God the 
 Son who redeemed us, and in God the Holy 
 Ghost who sanctifies us — a noble creed, if ever 
 there was one: — the Catechism does thus base 
 the child's spiritual life upon the great cardinal 
 facts of God's love, facts which are almost self- 
 demonstrated by being thus capable of being 
 revealed to babes, facts for prince and peasant, 
 facts upon which the simplest men have lived and 
 set rare examples of duty towards God and duty 
 towards their neighbours, and which at the same 
 time the wisest and most thoughtful of mankind 
 have accepted as the clearest revelation of the 
 wisdom and power of God. And the Church 
 Catechism does not do this : it does not commence 
 with such a principle as that ''the Bible, and the SeeNotes. 
 Bible only, is the religion of Protestants," and so 
 make it necessary to clear away all critical and 
 historical difficulties from each of the ancient 
 records, the aggregate of which we call the Bible, 
 before it can permit the child in the true spirit of 
 philosophy to eat of the bread of life : it does not 
 puzzle the child with hard questions concerning 
 the nature of inspiration and the like : it tells the 
 
16 Introductory Lecture. 
 
 LECT. child what God has said and what He lias done, 
 
 '- leaving it to be settled afterw^ards, if necessary, 
 
 how God has spoken and how He has acted. 
 Plan of the J repeat then, that the plan of my lectures will 
 
 Lectures ^ ^ ' ^ "^ 
 
 restated, be tliis : I proposc that we take our stand upon 
 the great Catholic doctrine of the being of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Creeds of the 
 Church, and that from the point of view so gained 
 we contemj^late some of the doctrines and accom- 
 panying difficulties of the Christian religion. Suc- 
 cessive sermons will form successive applications 
 of the same principle; and though one thread of 
 reasoning will run through them all, yet the plan 
 proposed will enable me to satisfy that condition, 
 which is desirable in all courses of sermons, and 
 quite necessary when the beginning and end are 
 separated by an interval of some months, namely, 
 that the sermons shall be separately intelligible. 
 
 And I trust, by God's help, that I may be able 
 to make the course of sermons such as, according 
 to the expression used in the will of the founder, 
 
 Mriiuise's " shall shcw the evidence for revealed religion, and 
 demonstrate in the most convincing and persuasive 
 manner the truth and excellence of Christianity;" 
 and yet not desert the ground announced in my 
 text, the only ground upon which any preacher 
 of the Gospel can safely stand, namely, the deter- 
 mination to know nothing among Christians, save 
 Jesus Clirist. Nor would I desire to exclude from 
 the motto of my sermons the concluding words of 
 the text, and Him crucified; for, in truth, whether 
 we regard the Lord Jesus Christ as having come 
 into this w^orld to do God's will, or as having 
 taught us by His example how we should serve 
 
Tnirodiictorii Lecture. 17 
 
 Him and offer up our bodies, souls, and spirits, a lect. 
 
 living sacrifice, or in whatever other way we con- 
 
 template His work upon earth, so much turns 
 upon the mysterious fact of His human death, 
 that we may say that to know Christ is impossible 
 unless we know Him as crucified. And especially 
 on a day like this, when we have entered upon 
 the week of the Passion, and are about to com- 
 memorate, day after day, those last solemn scenes 
 of our Saviour's life, and above all the solemn 
 scene on Calvary, I should feel it to be altogether 
 out of keeping with the spirit of the season, to 
 speak to you of Christ, and not to speak of Him 
 emphatically as Clwist crucified. 
 
 Allow me therefore to say in conclusion, that a Conciu- 
 course of sermons, such as that proposed, could not 
 commence at a fitter season than this. Indeed the 
 season itself may be said to symbolize the princii^le . 
 of discerning Christian truth, which I have endea- 
 voured in this introductory'- Lecture to lay down, 
 and which I hope hereafter to illustrate. I wish 
 to begin with Passion week : not to contemplate 
 the cross of Christ in the distance, as something 
 which may perchance be reached after a weary 
 pilgrimage, if we do not faint by the way; but to 
 regard it as our Christian privilege, to take our 
 stand at once upon Calvary, and view the promised 
 land from thence. And I feel confident that Christ 
 thus apprehended, will approve Himself, as He 
 did to the men of S. Paul's days, to be neither a iCor.i. 23, 
 stumblingblock nor foolishness, but the very wis- '^^' 
 dom and power of God ; nor can I doubt but that 
 He will in these days make true to truehearted 
 men that promise, which He spake in the days 
 
18 Introductorn Lecture. 
 
 LECT. of i^\^ flesh, that the weary and heavy laden who 
 
 — ; come to Him shall be able in Him to find rest for 
 
 ■28, 29. ' their souls. Each age of the Church has its own 
 peculiar burdens; and they, whose lot is cast in 
 the present day of active and sometimes presump- 
 tuous speculation, can have no greater blessing to 
 ask, than that which is pledged to them in this 
 j^romise of the Lord ; it is not rest from persecution 
 that they need, nor emancipation from spiritual 
 despotism, nor freedom of thought or of worship, — 
 these are necessities of bygone times, we may 
 thank God that they have no place in this country 
 now; the burden which men are now most likely 
 to feel is the burden of doubt ; their weariness that 
 which arises from the manner, in which the answer 
 to the question, What is Truth? seems to elude 
 their grasp ; the rest which they need is rest from 
 religious perplexities and difficulties, so that they 
 may be able to take Christ's yoke upon them and 
 serve God without distraction : and their comfort 
 must be this, that Christ who promised us rest, 
 and who died that He might be able to fulfil His 
 Heb. xiii. promise, knows no change of purpose, but is the 
 same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Preached on Good Friday. 
 
 S. JOHN III. 1 6, 17. 
 
 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only he- 
 gotten Son, that ivhosoever helieveth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life. 
 
 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the 
 luorld; hut that the world through Him might he 
 
 The Nicene Creed teaches us to profess our faith lect, 
 in Jesus Christ, " by Whom all things were made, 
 
 Who for us men and for our salvation came down '^l^^^^^^^ 
 from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost tfaches 
 
 , . "^ "^ that Christ 
 
 of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was suffered/or 
 crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate." The 
 mysterious humiHation of Him, who being very God 
 became very Man and died a human death, is thus 
 asserted, not merely as a fact, but as a fact which 
 was emphatically ybr us,—" for us men, and for our 
 salvation :" and indeed no one can read the history 
 of the life and death of Jesus Christ, as we find 
 it in the Gospels, without observing that self- 
 denial and labour on behalf of His brethren, and 
 sympathy with all their sorrows, were so tho- 
 roughly characteristic of the whole, that it would be 
 
 C2 
 
20 Tlit Atonement. 
 
 LECT. impossible to doubt the truth, that all, which He 
 
 '- — suffered and did, was in some sense suffered and 
 
 done ^'for us." 
 Difficulty But if we wish to declare in ivhat sense the suf- 
 
 in what"^ ferings and deeds of Christ were " for us," we find 
 sense /«• Q^j-selves at once upon difficult ground. The diffi- 
 culty may be said to be gathered up and embodied 
 in what is called the doctrine of the Atonement, — 
 a term, which, although not used (so far as I am 
 See Note 6. awaro) in any of the formularies of the Church of 
 England, and only once in the authorized Version 
 of the New Testament, may yet be conveniently 
 adopted as expressing in one word that full doc- 
 trine of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, which 
 the Nicene Creed appears to declare, and which 
 also has often been denied, not merely by professed 
 unbelievers, but by those who have taken their 
 stand upon Scripture, and called themselves by the 
 name of Christ. I could have wished upon a day 
 like this, when the sufferings of Christ are brought 
 so vividly before us, and when it seems to be almost 
 a profanation of His sacred passion to enter into 
 controversy concerning its healing virtues, that we 
 should have been content to profess that the suffer- 
 ings were " for us men and for our salvation," and 
 then to adore in humble gratitude Him who con- 
 descended to suffer. Nor should I have thought 
 it necessary to discuss such a doctrine as that of 
 the Atonement, if the difficulties belonging to it 
 were merely those which belong to the Unitarian 
 view of our Lord; but it appears to me that in 
 reference to those newer forms of semi-Christianity, 
 which are now so prevalent, and which all rest 
 upon a basis of Rationalism, this is just one of 
 
The Atone^nent. 21 
 
 those doctrines, upon the maintenance of which in lect. 
 
 its integrity the safety of the CathoHc faith chiefly '- 
 
 depends. Moreover, it is precisely one of those 
 doctrines, which, though essentially mysterious 
 and indeed to human powers incomprehensible, do 
 nevertheless shine brightly in the light of Heaven, 
 when regarded from that elevated point of view, at 
 which we projDOse to station ourselves in the sur- 
 vey of Christian doctrines and difficulties, which 
 is to form the subject of these Lectures. I pur- 
 pose therefore, upon the assumption of the truth 
 of the Catholic doctrine concerning the being of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, to examine what light 
 we can find shining upon the doctrine of the 
 Atonement. 
 
 Now I advisedly abstain from endeavouring to Meaning- 
 define at present the meaning of the Atonement Atone- 
 more exactly than it is defined in the Creed, which jlerf d"°* 
 tells us that Christ suffered " for us men and for ^"^'*- 
 our salvation." But the doctrine, whatever it be, 
 must be contained in the New Testament ; and we 
 can adopt no better method of ascertaining what 
 Christ has done, than that of observing the man- 
 ner, in which He speaks of His own work, or in 
 which the Apostles describe it. In making such 
 observations it is however necessary to bear in 
 mind, that the persons to whom the Christian doc- 
 trines were dehvered, both during the life of our 
 Lord and in ApostoHc times, were for the most ian^^doc-^^ 
 part persons of a peculiar religious education, that ^"1"% ad- 
 is, they were Jews. I do not refer to this, with caressed to 
 
 ' >J ' Jews, to 
 
 the intention of weakeninaf the force of any Scrip- whom the 
 ture argument, by saying that it has reierence to an atone- 
 Je wish prejudices; but I do think, that in order familiar. 
 
22 The Atonement. 
 
 LECT. to attain to an intelligent apprehension of the 
 '■ — meaning of the New Testament Scriptures, it is ne- 
 cessary to remember that we om'selves are not Jews, 
 and therefore can hardly see all things in the same 
 light as they did to whom those things were origi- 
 nally addressed. For you will bear in mind, that 
 the whole religious education of the Jew was based 
 upon sacrifice; if a Christian teacher spoke to a 
 Jew of a sacrifice for sin, there would be no need 
 that he should explain what he meant ; the Jew's 
 mind would at once turn to the ordinances of the 
 Exod. XXX. Law, and especially to the great atonement for sin ; 
 Levit. xvi. all his thoughts of the meaning and reality of sin, 
 ' '* the existence of which in himself and in the world 
 he could not but acknowledge, and the issues of 
 which he could not but dread, would be connected 
 with that institution which he had ever been 
 taught to regard as divine. The greater number of 
 those who were brought up in the practice of the 
 Law, and who continued in it blameless, would 
 perhaps hardly trouble themselves with the ques- 
 tion, how or why the blood of bulls and goats 
 could take away their sins ; but that they in truth 
 did so, no devout Jew would for a moment doubt. 
 Yet it may be remarked, that the careful manner 
 in which the taking away of sin was ever connected 
 with the death of a victim, and that victim not 
 taken at random from the flock but chosen so as to 
 be free from all spot and blemish, would suggest to 
 all but the most thoughtless, that there was a mys- 
 tery in the ordinance of sacrifice, the full solution 
 of which was not to be found in the books of 
 Moses. But certainly, whether a Jew had philoso- 
 phized upon his religion or not, he could not have 
 
The Atonement. 23 
 
 been conversant with the practice of it, without lect. 
 being able at once to put a meaning upon such 
 
 words as those which John the Baptist used of our 
 Lord, when he said, Behold the Lamb of God, ivhich John \. 29. 
 taketh aivay the sins of the ivorld. No difficult 
 question concerning the meaning and possibility of 
 an atonement would rise up in the mind of a Jew, 
 who heard these words; whether he accepted Christ 
 as the Saviour or not, it would at least be an easy 
 thing for him, who had hitherto believed in the 
 atonement for sin made by the sacrifice of a lamb, 
 to recognize the substance, of which his previous 
 faith had been the shadow, in the death of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 And this view of the matter is that, which is The leia- 
 worked out with such singular completeness and christian*' 
 power in the Epistle to the Hebrews. That Epi- J**;™'* 
 stle, addressed as it is to Jews and Jews only, has Jewish ex- 
 
 "^ ' planied in 
 
 this for its purpose, namely, to shew how a Jew, the Epistle 
 without in any true sense of the word apostatizing brews. 
 from the faith of his fathers, but contrariwise 
 taking his stand upon this very ground that God 
 had indeed spoken to them in times past, and 
 recognizing the validity and meaning of the ordi- 
 nances in which he had been brought up, might 
 yet consistently hold the faith of Christ, and see in 
 His life and death the consummation of the older 
 dispensation. It is unnecessary to do more than 
 refer in passing to the argument of this Epistle; 
 what I wish to enforce is, that the tone of thought 
 and education, which is there assumed, and upon 
 which the writer of the Epistle desires to find a 
 firm foundation for the more perfect doctrine of 
 the sacrifice of Christ, is to be borne in mind as 
 
24 The Atonement. 
 
 LECT. belonging generally to those, to whom the Scriptures 
 
 '- — of the New Testament were chiefly written. And 
 
 my reason for laying stress upon the point is 
 this, that in consideration of the character of 
 the recipients of those Scriptures, we are not to 
 expect any careful definition of the Atonement 
 effected by the deatli of our Lord; in writings 
 addressed to those, whose religious system was 
 entirely based upon a doctrine of atonement, the 
 point to be shewn was, not that an atonement for 
 sin was necessary, but that the Atonement itself, 
 of which intelligent Jews must see that the blood 
 of lambs and he-goats could only be a type and a 
 Heb. X. 4. shadow, was to be found in its full substance and 
 
 reality in the Cross of Jesus Christ. 
 Sacrifice It will be wcll also to remark in this connexion, 
 
 menrnoT ^^lat thc doctrino of atonement or sacrifice for sin 
 stitutedb "^^0^1^ li^YQ all the firmer hold upon the mind of 
 Moses. a Jew, from the fact that Moses did not pretend 
 to have given a new institution when he prescribed 
 the various offerings of the law. A Jew, conver- 
 sant with the contents of the sacred books, would 
 know that from the beginning there had been 
 a religious mystery in the sacrifice of slain beasts ; 
 and the fact that there ivas a mystery, the fact that 
 it might be hard to trace an organic connexion 
 between the sacrifice and its results, to say, for 
 SeeNote 7. instance, why Abel's sacrifice was acceptable and 
 Cain's the contrary, so far from darkening the 
 subject when looked upon in relation to the teach- 
 ing of the Apostles, would be the very thing which 
 would seem to render luminous their doctrine of 
 the perfect sacrifice : if the death of Christ were 
 indeed a sacrifice for sins, then certainly those 
 
Tlie Atonement. 25 
 
 sacrifices migiit well be supposed to be of the lect. 
 
 sweetest savour, which were the most striking pre '- — 
 
 hides of the true one. 
 
 Nor is it right to omit allusion to this other Sacrifice a 
 fact, which has been often noticed before, namely, dhmnce of 
 that by some means (it matters not what) sacrifice ^ori^^""*'^^ 
 was, before the time of our Lord, a very general 
 ordinance of the Gentile world. These sacrifices 
 might possibly involve very low views of the being 
 and character of God ; they might, perhaps, some- 
 times contemplate Him as a cruel demon, whose 
 wrath must be appeased by horrid rites ; I am not 
 at all desiring to insinuate the notion of a near 
 parallel between Gentile and Jewish sacrifices ; the 
 Jewish might be, as no doubt they were, protests 
 against the corrupt views involved in the Gentile ; 
 and so, when the Israelites entered Canaan, they 
 were not more carefully enjoined to sacrifice to 
 Jehovah, than they were cautioned not to join in 
 the sacrifices of the people of the land ; but, taking- 
 all this into account, we have still the important 
 fact on record, that either in consequence of ancient 
 tradition, or else in virtue of a human instinct, the 
 worship of God was not made by the Gentiles to 
 consist in prayer only, but was based generally 
 upon sacrifice. And, therefore, even in speaking 
 to Gentiles, a preacher of the Gospel would not be 
 using an entirely strange language, when he spoke 
 of the sacrifice of the death of Christ : a thought- 
 ful Gentile, when he heard of that death, especially 
 in connexion with the tale of Christ's pure and 
 holy life, might very well be led to reflect, that 
 perhaps, here, indeed, was revealed at length in 
 the fulness of time that wondrous birth, with 
 
New-Testa 
 ment no- 
 tion of an 
 atonement 
 
 26 The Atonement. 
 
 LECT. which the whole creation had hitherto travailed 
 
 II. 
 in pain. 
 
 Hence the What I have now been savins^ has been directed 
 to this point, — to shew, that in the New Testament 
 the Evangelists and Apostles were not introducing 
 
 for sin not ^ ^iQYf thous^ht, whcii thcv SDoke in various forms 
 
 entu-ely . t/ i 
 
 new either of Christ making an atonement for sin ; they were 
 
 to Jew or . 
 
 Gentile, rather representing Christ to be the substance oi 
 which men already had the shadow, and arguing 
 that faith in Him was necessary to give meaning 
 and reality to doctrines, which they already pro- 
 fessed to hold. Hence, therefere, we are not to 
 expect to find in the New Testament any careful 
 definition of the manner in which the sacrifice of 
 Christ was a true and perfect sacrifice ; nor are we 
 to wonder, if we who approach the doctrines of the 
 What is Gospel from a very different point of view from 
 that occupied by those, to whom the first preachers 
 addressed themselves, find some little difficulty in 
 giving at once a clear answer to the question, — 
 What do you mean by an Atonement for sin ? 
 The qucs- Now, the answer to this question seems to be 
 hy'a phi'io- sometimes obscured by the apparent neglect of the 
 by'a Jew"!* ^^^^y ^^^^^j i^ asked at all in these days, it will be 
 asked by a person who is, or assumes to be, a phi- 
 losopher, and not by a Jew. Thus I find the most 
 Magecon well-kiiown Writer upon this subject very justly 
 ment, Vol complainlug, that sometimes '^ the nature of sacri- 
 ^' ^'' ■*"■ fices, as generally practised and understood, ante- 
 cedent to the time of Christ, has been first examined ; 
 and from that, as a ground of explanation, the 
 notion of Christ's sacrifice has been derived : 
 whereas," he continues, " in fact, by this, all former 
 sacrifices are to be interpreted, and in reference to 
 
 meant hy 
 an atone- 
 ment for 
 sin ? 
 
The Atonement. 27 
 
 it only, can they be understood." And yet this lect. 
 same writer, almost immediately afterwards, speaks ^_ 
 
 of the sacrifice of Christ as being "a true and 
 proper sacrifice," in apparent neglect of the fact 
 that the very point of difficulty is this, — what 
 constitutes ''a true and proper sacrifice"? is an 
 atonement morally conceivable ? and can a sacrifice 
 for sins be in any sense admitted as the true 
 foundation of the spiritual life ? I propose then, 
 in pursuance of the general plan which has been 
 laid down, and (I may add) in entire accordance 
 with the principle enunciated in the passage which 
 has just now been quoted, to contemplate the life 
 and death of our Lord in the light of His divine 
 nature, and see what hints we can gain from such 
 contemplation towards the interpretation of the 
 language of the Creed, that the Incarnation and 
 Sufferings and Death of the Eternal Son were 
 " for us men and for our salvation," 
 
 If then we inquire what Christ has done for what has 
 
 T , . , 1 , -, , Chi-istdone 
 
 US, we can obtain at least several answers, such as for us? 
 the following : 
 
 (i) In the first place, the very assumption of First 
 human nature by the Son of God not only stamps ' 
 a dignity upon human nature which nothing else 
 could have stamjDed upon it, and illuminates with 
 a brighter light than had ever shone upon it before 
 the great charter of humanity, that God created Gen. i. 27. 
 man in His own image, but also it implies a stoop- 
 ing to our infirmities, and a condescending sym- 
 pathy with our condition, which could, perhaps, 
 have been by no other means made intelligible to 
 us. If we are to be permitted in Theology to use 
 words in anything like the meaning which they 
 
28 Tlie Atonement. 
 
 LECT. bear in comnion life, I do not know liow we can 
 
 '- — - describe this act on the part of the Son of God by 
 
 any better name than that of self-sacrifice ; I am 
 not saying how such an act is conceivable, I am 
 professedly grounding my views upon the myste- 
 rious revelation that in the person of Jesus Christ 
 God did become man ; and I say that this very 
 fact may be rightly described as a sacrifice of the 
 Eternal Son for the sake of men. For if it had 
 done no more than this, namely, assured us of the 
 love of God, and given us ground for hoping and 
 believing great things concerning a race so entirely 
 differenced from all other Hving creatures, — if it 
 had only given the fullest sanction to the truth 
 which philosophers have recognized, namely, that 
 the appearance of man upon the globe is a pheno- 
 menon of an altogether different order from that 
 of the previous creations, — the Incarnation might 
 well be regarded as a sacrifice of Himself, for the 
 love of men, on the part of the Eternal Son. 
 Second (2) But again : we can hardly be at a loss for 
 
 at least a partial answer to the question, What has 
 Christ done for us ? when we look at the effect 
 produced by His coming upon the condition of the 
 world. If we say that Christ has thrown a new 
 life into the world, and, in the highest sense of the 
 word, civilized it, and persuaded men to act upon 
 principles which their conscience approves, but 
 which other influences frequently lead them to 
 neglect, we assert nothing (I apprehend) which is 
 not admitted even by the greater number of those, 
 who, nevertheless, object to the representation of 
 Christ given in the Gospels, and embodied in the 
 creeds and ordinances of the Church. For this, be 
 
 answer. 
 
The Atonement. 29 
 
 it observed, is characteristic of the unbelief of the lect. 
 
 i:)resent day, that it is not in general a scoffing at 1- 
 
 religion, but rather a professed attempt to free 
 Christianity from errors, and to substitute a kind 
 of spiritualism in the place of historical faith ; and 
 however divergent may be the views expressed by 
 wiiters from the orthodox faith^ yet almost all 
 boast themselves in this, that they are at least 
 touching the hem of Christ's garment. I say then, 
 that in attributing to the coming of Christ a very 
 remarkable regeneration of humanity, we are only 
 doing that to which most thoughtful persons will 
 assent. And if the almost utter impotence of 
 those, who had themselves arrived at some know- 
 ledge of God, to make their knowledge diffusive 
 and influential, — if the moral confusion of the 
 Heathen world, which no one will venture to 
 palliate or deny, had been causes sufficient to in- 
 duce the Son of God to become the Son of Man, 
 and to assume a garb in which teaching with 
 human voice He could teach ivith authority, and s. iiaik \ 
 give such lessons and examples of unselfishness 
 and purity, and brotherly love, as should be a seed 
 of regeneration in the world ever afterwards, — 
 Avould it not be right to say, that in this sense also, 
 Christ had come into the world to put away sin, 
 and bring in everlasting righteousness, by the 
 sacrifice of Himself? 
 
 (3) But once more : did not the coming of our Third 
 Lord into the world enable Him to assure us of 
 truths very important for us to know, of which, 
 nevertheless, we had no other means of certain 
 knowledge? Take for an instance the great ques- 
 tion, whether the present life constitutes the whole 
 
30 The Atonement. 
 
 LECT. of man's being: how are we to obtain a reliable 
 
 '- — answer? that the instinct of man points to a higher 
 
 and better life is, I suppose, undeniable ; that there 
 has consequently been a very general guess at the 
 true solution of the question is perhaps not to be 
 wondered at, and we all know that some of the 
 greatest and best of philosophers have devoted 
 their powers to an attempt to demonstrate the 
 truth : but I think also we all feel, that a demon- 
 stration of the whole truth is not jDossible, or at all 
 events has not yet been given, and that perhaps 
 the utmost we can do is to shew, that no valid 
 reason can be alleged for asserting the destruction of 
 a human body to be of necessity the destruction of 
 human life; and it is to be remarked, that in our 
 own times, some of those who have given up belief 
 in Christ in the Catholic sense of the phrase, have 
 See Note 8. also bccn led to profess a total scepticism concern- 
 ing the life to come, not by any means denying it, 
 but alleging that there are not sufficient data upon 
 which to ground a rational opinion. Now I sup- 
 pose that to a Christian the real gi'ound upon 
 which he practically believes "in the resurrection 
 of the body, and the life everlasting," is this, that 
 1 Tim. i. Christ has told us that these things are true : life 
 and immortality have been brought to light by the 
 GospeV' : and a Christian may very well say, that 
 although he cannot dogmatize as to how these 
 things shall be, yet he cannot doubt concerning 
 truths which were uttered by the human lips of 
 Him, who became Man that He might be the 
 Light of men. And hence, if to the question. What 
 
 * See Archbishop Whately's essay on the " Revelation of a 
 Future State," in his Peculiarities of the Christian Religion. 
 
 lO. 
 
 S. Jolin i 
 4,9- 
 
The Atonement. 31 
 
 has Christ done? we had this as the chief point of lect. 
 
 our answer, that He has given us a certaint}^ of 
 
 truths which we could not otherwise know, and has 
 made that a matter of faith which could otherwise 
 be only one of speculation, and upon which, never- 
 theless, the exalted character of men very much 
 depends, and that He has emptied Himself of His 
 glory and humbled Himself for the purpose of de- 
 claring these truths in the only way in which we 
 can conceive them by possibility to have been de- 
 clared, — then should we not have good reason to 
 speak of Christ, as having made a sacrifice of Him- 
 self for the sake of us men? 
 
 Now these and the like answers, which may be These 
 made concerning the results of the Incarnation, imply m- 
 deal with it as leading to consequences and confer- sequences 
 ring benefits upon mankind, according to principles ^^ ^'j'^^io'J," 
 which we can estimate and understand. Are we 
 therefore to say, this is a rational account of the 
 matter, and with this we will be content ? This is 
 by no means the conclusion to which I am desiring 
 to conduct the argument; I rather wish to put in 
 the strongest light possible this great truth, that 
 however important and comprehensive such benefits 
 as those already described may appear to be, they 
 by no means exhaust the Scripture account of the 
 Incarnation ; but liaving recognized these benefits, 
 I proceed to ask, is it unreasonable to suppose, 
 that if the Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation be 
 true, there will be in addition to these conse- 
 quences, which I may call in a certain sense natural, 
 other transcendental consequences, — consequences, There may 
 I mean, which do really result according to Sicln^ntai 
 divine law of causation, and which yet cannot be ^^ ^^^^' 
 
32 Tilt Atonenicnt. 
 
 LECT. connected witli their origin by any process of human 
 '- — logic ? Of course the nature of the case precludes 
 
 SeeNoteg. yg from predicating the necessity of such conse- 
 quences; but when I find such asserted or hinted 
 at in Scripture, is there anything to shock my 
 reason? Need Christ on this account become a 
 stumblingblock, or His cross foolishness? Or 
 rather^ is it not hard to believe in the possibility of 
 so stupendous a fact, as that of the incarnation of 
 the Son of God, without also expecting that results 
 would flow from it, such as human philosophy could 
 never have guessed the right way of accomplishing. 
 
 See Note and such as human reason can never measure? 
 
 lO. 
 
 When therefore we find in Scripture such phrases 
 i^m.ii.6. as these, — that Christ gave Himself a ransom for 
 i8.^ all; that He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, 
 
 20. that He might bring us to God; that ive are bought 
 
 I johnii.''^t^'?^^^ a price; that He redeemed us from the curse 
 Heb vdi <f t^c Laif, being made a curse for us; that He is 
 Heb ii I ^^"^^ advocate, our lyropitiation, our intercessor; that 
 V. 9- He was made perfect through sufferings, and so 
 19. became the author of salvation; that God was in 
 
 Christ reconciling the tvorld to Himself, not im- 
 puting their trespasses unto them; — when we read 
 such phrases as these, phrases which (with many 
 others like them) seem all to point in one direction, 
 and by their very variety and multiplicity forbid 
 us to explain them away, — w^hy should we say 
 s. John iii. gceptically, How can these things bef why not 
 deem it the more reasonable course, to recognize 
 in the alleged results of the Incarnation, and Suf- 
 ferings, and Death of Christ, something at least 
 corresponding in moral magnitude with the mag- 
 nitude of the operating cause? And here, as I 
 
The AtonemerU. 33 
 
 apprehend, we come upon the doctrine of the Atone- lect. 
 
 ment, properly so called; that is, we are led to the '- — 
 
 recognition of the truth, that the spiritual con- 
 dition of the race of man has been changed, as the 
 result of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Per- 
 sons may of course easily misrepresent this doctrine, 
 and say that it is derogatory to the character of 
 the Almighty, that He should require a human 
 sacrifice to appease His wrath ; that God is love ^ John iv. 
 and cannot be propitiated by the sufferings of the 
 innocent; and that it is impossible for a man of 
 honourable feeling to wish for a boon so ob- See Note 
 tained; — but U'lio preaches such doctrines as those 
 which are thus reprobated? ivho does not maintain 
 the doctrine of the text, as the only ground of that 
 of the Atonement, namely, that God so loved the 
 world, that He even stooped Himself to save it? 
 And before we venture upon any decided opinion 
 as to what might or might not be necessary to 
 reconcile man with God, would it not be well, that 
 we should first ascertain whether we can measure 
 the meaning of moral evil, and satisfy ourselves how 
 it could come to pass, that the handiwork of a holy 
 God could ever become so unholy and impure as 
 this earth undeniably has become ? For indeed the 
 evil condition of the world, and the atonement for 
 human sin, are only mystery for mystery ; and may 
 it not be found more difiicult to believe, that God 
 should have suffered His creation to be defiled, 
 than that He should have done all, that the Creed 
 alleges Him to have done, for the purpose of 
 repairing the evil ? 
 
 I readily admit, that statements concerning the ^j^/j'/'^j^g 
 redemptive work of our Lord may have obtained Atone- 
 
34 The Atonement. 
 
 LEGT. currency in popular theology, which have no foun- 
 
 1 dation in Scripture, or at least in Scripture rightly 
 
 hlllmis- interpreted, I think it not at all impossible, that 
 represent- i\^q doctrinc of the Atonemont may frequently 
 popular have been stated in a manner justly liable to excep- 
 tion ; and I would willingly believe, that much 
 which has been supposed to be alleged against the 
 doctrine has been in fact alleo-ed ao^ainst unau- 
 See Note thorized representations of the same. When for 
 instance we hear of the sufferings of Christ being 
 vicarious, in the sense of Christ having literally 
 undergone pains which should have been inflicted 
 upon ourselves, and of the righteousness of Christ 
 being reckoned to us, so that we being in reality 
 sinful are counted righteous in virtue of Christ's 
 righteousness imputed to us, and the like, it seems 
 to me, that we get ourselves involved in a maze of 
 notions, which, though possibly the vehicles of truth 
 to some devout minds, are incapable of being sub- 
 stantiated as doctrines, and are, if taken in the 
 strict sense of the terms, for the most part untrue. 
 And I do not wonder, that the mind of a man 
 should shrink from the thought of exchanging the 
 principle of being judged according to his works, — 
 a principle clearly announced in the Scriptures both 
 Ps. ixii. Old and New, and ever held sacred by the Chris- 
 Rom, xiv. tian Church, — for the notion of being saved from 
 See each of the conscqucnces of his deeds, by a kind of legal 
 cl-eetk.'^" process, I had almost said a legal fiction, which 
 upsets his notions of right and wrong. But holding 
 sacred, as we are bound to do, the great truth of 
 human responsibility, ivho will undertake to say, 
 what may have been the moral effect produced, not 
 I Joiinii.2. upon a few persons only, but u])on the entire race of 
 
The Atonement. 35 
 
 man, — upon their pros^Dects as sinners, — upon the lect. 
 possibihty of their being called to be saints, — by '- 
 
 the assumption of human nature on the part of the 
 Eternal Son ? If the sin of one man could pollute Rom. v. 19. 
 a whole race, which not Scripture alone but every 
 day's experience at least proves to be possible, who 
 shall say what might not be the effect of the perfect 
 obedience of Him, who in unspeakable self-abnega- Heb. x. 5, 
 tion and humility came to do the will of God 1 ' '' 
 And when we find so remarkable a doctrine as the 
 redemption of the race, the possibility of the pardon 
 of sin, the title to eternal life, ever connected in the 
 most consistent manner with the no less remarkable 
 doctrine of the coming of the Son of God into the 
 world in the likeness of sinful flesh, are we not in 
 danger of being guilty of that "infinitely absurd 
 assumption," (of which Bishop Butler warns us,) Analogy, 
 that we know the whole of the case, if we under- chap. v. 
 take to say, that the doctrine of an atonement for 
 sin is one which cannot be believed ? 
 
 And if there be a feeling in the mind of any The prac- 
 one, — and it is possible that the feeling may lurk of the d"c- 
 in the minds of some, who would not venture to Atmie-^ ^^^ 
 oppugn the doctrine in set terms, — a feeling, that "'"''*• 
 the doctrine after all is dry and unpractical, a 
 dogma for the schools rather than a living truth 
 for livinof Christian men, I would remind such a 
 person, that the doctrine ever appears in Scripture 
 as the very spring of Christian life. That principle 
 of conduct, which S. Paul enunciated, when he said 
 Tlie love of Christ constraineth us, was no other ^ cm-. v. 
 than the practical form of the doctrine of the a- '*• 
 tonement for sins : S. Paul contemplated the cross 
 of Christ, as we may contemplate it this day, not 
 
 D2 
 
36 The Atonement. 
 
 LECT. as the support of any school-dogma, but as the 
 
 affecting sjmabol of a great work undertaken for 
 
 s. John X. mankind by Him, who of His own accord died 
 upon it ; he might not fasten any mere thesis for 
 subtle disputation to that wood, upon which the 
 Col. ii. 14. sins of the world were nailed ; he knew that him- 
 self and all the race of mankind had been by that 
 cross redeemed, and therefore he felt that he was 
 no longer his own, but bound by the doctrine of 
 
 I Cor. vi. the cross to do the will of his Redeemer without 
 20. 
 
 reserve. 
 
 Con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Here then I close that, which must be at best 
 a most imperfect essay towards the description and 
 vindication of this great doctrine. It has been no 
 part of my design to enter into details concerning 
 the Mediatorial character of Christ ; neither have 
 I dwelt upon that work, which He even now per- 
 
 ijohnii. I. forms for us, as our Advocate with the Father; 
 nor again have I discussed that phase of the 
 doctrine, which is brought before us by such words 
 
 s. John vi. as those of our Lord, — Whoso eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my hlood, hath eternal life ; and I ivill 
 raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat 
 indeed, and my hlood is drink indeed, — and which 
 is brought before our minds also by the words of 
 the Liturgy, ''The body of Jesus Christ, which was 
 given for thee," and "the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 which was shed for thee," " preserve thy body and 
 soul unto everlasting life:" my chief aim has been 
 rather to exhibit this point in a clear light, that if 
 any one can take his stand upon the Catholic 
 doctrine of the being of Jesus Christ, and upon 
 that ground endeavour to estimate tlie mysterious 
 
The Atonement. 37 
 
 and awful character of the event of this day, it will lect. 
 be no difficult thing for him to accept the doctrine, 
 
 that what was then done was in the most true and 
 wonderful and efficient sense "for us men and for 
 our salvation." Men may have darkened this doc- 
 trine by mixing it with human speculations, or by 
 endeavouring to measure the infinite by human 
 measures, but I feel confident that the doctrine 
 itself involves nothing of which a philosopher need 
 be ashamed; and perhaps the highest point of 
 philosophy has then been reached, when a man 
 has learnt to say, with full understanding of the 
 meaning of his words, God foi'hid that I shoidd Gai. vi. 14. 
 glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 May that blessed Spirit, whose office it is to 
 take of the things of Christ and shew them to s. John 
 men, teach us all to estimate aright the work ^^^" 
 which has been wrought "for us men and for our 
 salvation;" and if in any way the truth has been 
 by me misstated or obscured, may He, who hung 
 upon the cross this day, and the glory of whose 
 sacrifice I would fain have made to appear, — may 
 He pardon what has been done amiss. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 Preached on Easter Day. 
 
 ACTS XXVI. 8. 
 
 Why should it be thought a thing incredible ivith you, 
 that God shoidd raise the dead ? 
 
 LECT. It would seem impossible upon this most solemn 
 
 Feast of the Christian year to choose any subject 
 
 T/the Re-"^ of discourse in an assembly of Christians, except 
 
 surrection that whicli the day itself suggests, namely, the 
 
 Christian Resurrectiou of our blessed Lord from the dead. 
 
 IS ory. -p,^^ ^j^^ Resurrection, perhaps, more than any other 
 
 event in the history of Christ, is bound up with 
 
 the hopes of His disciples, and with the character 
 
 of His Church. The Birth, for instance, would be 
 
 admitted to be one of the most blessed events 
 
 which the world has witnessed, by many who 
 
 would be unwilling to subscribe to the Catholic 
 
 faith, but who would willingly admit the primacy 
 
 of the human race to belong to Jesus Christ. The 
 
 Crucifixion also leaves no room for doubt upon 
 
 historical grounds, and may well be recognised as 
 
 a fact of immeasurable moral value by those, who 
 
 yet may be unable to apprehend tlie full meaning 
 
 and mystery of the Lord's sufferings and death. 
 
 But the Besurrection is a fact of another class ; it is 
 
The Resurrection. 39 
 
 an alleged preternatural occurrence, upon the truth lect, 
 
 of which the character of the Apostles is staked, '. 
 
 and upon which as a foundation the Church of 
 Christ stands : it is impossible either for friend or 
 foe to separate the Christian faith from the truth 
 of Christ having risen again : the Resurrection is 
 either a cardinal fact in the history of the human 
 race, or else it is a deplorable example of impos- 
 ture, the more deplorable on account of its very 
 general success. 
 
 And be it observed, that the Resurrection Distinction 
 stands distinguished from all other recorded Chris- the Resm- 
 tian miracles in this, namely, that the Christian otLr" '^"' 
 faith is bound up with it in a manner in which it "™'^''i*'^- 
 is bound up with no other individual miracle. No 13. 
 doubt the Christian faith has in general a miracu- 
 lous basis, its truth is inseparably connected with 
 the belief in miracles ; but of all those recorded in 
 the Gosj^els there is not one, with which the faith 
 can be said to stand or fall, except that of the 
 Resurrection of our Lord. For if we take any 
 individual miracle, reported by one or more of the 
 Evangelists, it may be open to criticism in several 
 w^ays, and even its historical value may be shaken, 
 without essentially damaging the fabric of which 
 it professes to form a part. Thus, for example, it 
 is always a fair question concerning any individual 
 passage in one of the Gospels, as in the case of any 
 other book, whether it be a genuine portion of the 
 work as the Evangelist wi'ote it ; and, therefore, 
 the genuineness of any particular miraculous history 
 might fairly be open to critical discussion. Or, 
 again, some persons, without any feeling of hostility 
 to the faith, might think it justifiable to consider. 
 
40 The Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. whether in any particular case the internal evidence 
 
 justified us in understanding the Lord's conduct in 
 
 precisely that manner in which the Gospels have 
 represented it, whether it be quite clear that in 
 every case, in which the disciples imagined that 
 they perceived the miraculous power of our Lord, 
 there really was a miracle. I am not saying whe- 
 ther this mode of treating the writings of the 
 Evangelists is right or wrong, but only that 
 admitting for argument's sake its propriety, and 
 even supposing that it*should be proved by modern 
 criticism that some one or more particular miracles, 
 alleged to have occurred in our Lord's history, 
 must be struck out of the catalogue, still the Chris- 
 tian faith stands essentially where it did before. 
 But this cannot be affirmed concerning the Resur- 
 rection. For this we know to have been the very 
 basis of the preaching of the Apostles ; this was 
 the very truth, of which they believed themselves 
 to be the appointed witnesses ; when the place of 
 Actsi. 2 2. Judas was to be filled up, this was regarded as one 
 main qualification for his successor, that he should 
 be able to bear witness concerning the Resurrection, 
 And hence, in all ages, he who preaches Christ 
 r Cor. XV. must prcach Him not only as cmcified, but as risen 
 again ; and he whose office it is to sjDeak concern- 
 ing Christian evidences must ever be driven upon 
 the question, Is it a thing incredible that God 
 should raise the dead ? 
 TheResur- It had been my intention to make the miracles 
 may pro- of our Lord oue of the earliest applications of the 
 trcatedV ^^^^hod of vlewlng Christian doctrines and diffi- 
 itseif. culties, which has been chosen for the subject of 
 this course of Sermons. But the preceding remarks 
 
The Resmi^ection. 41 
 
 will perhaps be sufficient to shew, that in confining lect. 
 
 our attention to-day, as the greatness of the Easter '- 
 
 Feast would seem to require, to the particular 
 question of the Resurrection of our Lord, I am, 
 in fact, treating of a miracle, which may fairly be 
 separated from the rest. If an opponent of the 
 faith can shew, either that the testimony for the 
 Resurrection is false, or that the event is in itself 
 incredible, he need not trouble himself to do more. 
 
 And here let me remark by the way, the con- Contrast 
 
 -,-.., between 
 
 trast between the subiect broue^ht before us to-day the event 
 and that which we considered on Good Friday. Day and 
 In the case of the Crucifixion the historical fact is Good° 
 at once admitted ; no one will venture to assert ^"'^'^y- 
 that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Apostles 
 preached, was not crucified under Pontius Pilate ; 
 the difficulty begins when we desire to put an in- 
 terpretation upon that death, and when we declare 
 that it was not merely the death of a righteous 
 man cruelly delivered up by the jealousy of Jewish 
 priests, but a death totally different in its character 
 and its consequences from all others which the 
 world has seen. On the other hand, in the case of 
 the Resurrection it is the historical fact that wiU 
 be questioned; while the beauty of the doctrine, 
 of which it may be taken as the symbol, when 
 regarded as a mythical representation of the resur- 
 rection of humanity, or the like, will be gladly 
 recognised by those, who would not for a moment 
 entertain the thought of its objective historical 
 reality. Whereas, therefore, on Good Friday we 
 had to consider the truth and meaning of a doctrine, 
 this day we are concerned entirely with the credi- 
 bility of an historical fact. 
 
42 The Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. Now it is my principal purpose, not to attemjit 
 
 '- — a complete summary of the evidence upon which 
 
 marki ^^ ^^® truth of the E-esurrection depends, but rather 
 upon the to shcw the lio^ht in which the evidence ouffht to 
 
 evidence y , ^ 
 
 oftheKe- bo regarded, in order that it may be capable of 
 ' producing conviction. Nevertheless it will conduce 
 to clearness and completeness, if a few words be 
 first devoted to the question of the evidence itself 
 
 First The first thino^ to be remarked is, that however 
 
 Kemark. . ^ 
 
 extraordinary the tale of the Resurrection may be, 
 there can be no doubt of the fact of its having 
 been constantly affirmed by those, who had the 
 best means of knowing the truth. It is not that 
 the fact is incidentally noticed in one or two Chris- 
 tian writings of an early date, but that it is noticed 
 or implied, or taken for granted, in almost every 
 Christian document which we possess. Sometimes 
 Acts i. 3. it is referred to historically, sometimes as a sign of 
 9, 10. " ' Christ's Majesty, sometimes as a ground of exhor- 
 25'. '■ "^ "■ tation ; and even when no express reference is made 
 to the fact, still the whole circle of early Christian 
 literature ever speaks of Christ not as a man who 
 was once crucified and there an end, but as one 
 who having been crucified is alive and employed 
 actively in the care of His Church upon earth. In 
 fact, it is palpable, that all the utterances of the 
 early Christians, whether by speech or by letter, 
 assume this as an underlying fact, without which 
 they are by no means intelligible, that Jesus 
 Christ was not dead. This extraordinary consent 
 in the assertion of so remarkable a story, and not 
 merely consent in the assertion, but consent in 
 building up a society in the face of a most deter- 
 mined opposition upon the assertion, may be re- 
 
 Acts XXV. 
 
 19. 
 
llie Resurrection. 43 
 
 garded as putting the fact upon as strong an lect 
 historical basis as it is possible to conceive : so that ^ 
 
 it may be confidently asked, whether there be any is there 
 fact in history, in favour of which a greater amount dence for 
 
 P , , • 1 T any other 
 
 01 testimony can be secured. foct? 
 
 Of course it may be said, that the whole story Second 
 
 • • mi • T 1 •11 -r 1 • 1 -tiiGlTlJirK. 
 
 IS an miposture. This used to be said, but I think is the 
 that the time for the charge has gone by. In fact, inJ*postiue 
 taking the charge in its more palpable and gross 
 form, as it was urged in the school of English 
 Deism, we might almost be content to leave the 
 refutation to the conscience of any man, who would 
 undertake to read the New Testament with care. 
 Any one, who will take the trouble to make himself 
 familiar with the character of the Apostles, will 
 say, that they were not the men willingly to invent 
 a lie, nor the men to propagate it cunningly even 
 if they had invented it. The charge of their being 
 enthusiasts is, I apprehend, the charge of imposture 
 in a more gentle form, and may be deemed to be 
 refuted by the same kind of internal evidence. 
 The rationalistic view, which supposes the Lord 
 not to have actually died upon the cross, may now 
 be treated as a thing of the past. And the mythi- 
 cal theory would seem to attribute to the simplicity 
 of the early Christians an abstract apprehension of 
 the genius of Christianity, totally diverse from 
 anything of which we find a record in the earhest 
 Christian writings. In fact, the various attempts 
 to explain aw^ay the preternatural character of the . 
 story, upon which the New Testament is founded, 
 can scarcely be regarded as views naturally arising 
 from the history itself, or from the quality of its 
 evidence, but rather as efforts to get rid of the 
 
44 21ie Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. record of facts, which upon other grounds it is 
 
 '. — deemed necessaiy to expunge from the pages of 
 
 authentic history. 
 Third There is one point, which has been noticed by 
 
 See Note ^hose who have discussed the historical character 
 '4- of the story of our Lord's Resurrection, and which 
 
 may perhaps with advantage be referred to in 
 passing, because it is one of those the vahie of 
 which it is easy to recognise and appreciate, and 
 for which it is scarcely jDOssible to give a reasonable 
 account upon any supposition except that of the 
 truth of the story. This point depends upon a 
 comparison of the temper of mind, evinced by the 
 Apostles at the time of their Master's death, with 
 that exhibited by them afterwards. The Evange- 
 hsts tell us, that at the time of the apprehension 
 and execution of the Lord, His chosen followers 
 were utterly cast down and broken-spirited, as well 
 s. Matt, they might be ; they all forsooh Him and fled ; 
 s. Luke' *^^y ^^^^ trusted that He would have redeemed 
 Israel, but they gave up their hopes when they saw 
 Him actually hang upon the cross ; there can be 
 hardly any ground for doubting all this, even with 
 the most sceptical ; it is so entirely in accordance 
 with all that might have been expected, that we 
 believe it at once. Now let us pass over a few 
 weeks or months, and look at the same disciples 
 again. Not only is their mourning over, but it is 
 changed to a joy which they never had before. It 
 ^s not that they have grieved a decent time, as 
 people do for deceased friends, and have now 
 returned to society again ; but they are palpably 
 different men, their whole tone of mind chano-ed : 
 they glory in that very cross, which struck dismay 
 
 XXIV. 2] 
 
The Resurrection. 45 
 
 into their minds ; they are penetrated with the con- lect. 
 viction, that they have a Gospel to preach concern- ' 
 
 ing Jesus Christ, and that very cross of shame, 
 which it concerns all men to know. Now it seems 
 absolutely necessary to suppose, in order to make 
 these two parts of the histoiy hang together, — 
 neither part (be it observed) involving anything 
 preternatural, or affording a point upon which a 
 sceptic can very well fix a doubt, — to suj^pose, that 
 there is some mysterious event in the middle. 
 "Whatever notion a person may have formed of the 
 character of the sacred writings, still viewing them 
 merely as documents, which certainly cannot be 
 dismissed by the boldest critic as altogether spuri- 
 ous, it is manifest that there must have been some- 
 thing very remarkable intervening between the 
 unquestioned fact of Christ's death upon the cross, 
 and the no less unquestioned fact of the preaching 
 of the Gospel by His disciples. What could it be ? 
 The Evangelists tell us, that it was the reappearance 
 of Him who was crucified; such an event at least 
 renders the whole story consistent ; if that be de- 
 clared incredible, what other shall we put in its 
 place ? 
 
 The truth is, that as a matter of mere evidence The Resur- 
 there is probably no fact in history, which can bejected"(i7 
 put upon surer ground than that of the Resurrec- tL^JJiound 
 tion of our Lord from the dead ; but it is equally ^^t of in- 
 
 ■i «^ sumcient 
 
 the truth, that it is not a defect of historical evidence, 
 evidence, which is likely to render it doubtful in sentiai ia- 
 the mind of any one who studies the Gospels. ^"^^ ' ' '*^' 
 The ground of modern infidelity has been, not so 
 much the insufficiency of historical evidence, as the 
 supposed intrinsic incredibility of alleged events of 
 
4() The Resuri'ectiort. 
 
 LECT. a certain class ; what are called miracles are sup- 
 
 '- — posed to be incredible in their very essence ; Hume 
 
 gave currency to the principle in this country, and 
 has been followed abundantly in others; and the 
 Resurrection of our Lord, coming under this general 
 character, w^ould be placed at once in the class of 
 incredihilia. The question, how are the phenomena 
 presented by the Christian documents to be dis- 
 posed of, becomes from this point of view a secondary 
 consideration ; it may be upon the ground of im- 
 posture, or of enthusiasm, or of misapprehension, 
 or of the poetical accretions to the stoiy in after- 
 times, but the phenomena must be disposed of in 
 some way, because the event with which they are 
 connected is in the nature of things incredible. 
 Is the Re- We comc tlicu to the question, Is the Resur- 
 i^^CTediSe? roctiou of our Lord a thing incredible ? Manifestly 
 in one sense at least it is not; because we find it to 
 be matter of fact, not only that the Apostles and 
 early martyrs were willing to lay down their lives 
 Asamatterin tcstimouy of their belief of it, but that hundreds 
 believed, and thousauds of persons do believe it in the jDre- 
 sent day : and not only believe it, in the sense of 
 repeating it as an article of a Creed, which their 
 mothers or the priests have put in their mouths, 
 but regard it as emphatically the thing which they 
 do believe, the fact upon which they live, and in 
 the faith of which they hope to die. And if it be 
 said, that this assertion holds only of poor igno- 
 rant folks, or of those who are not in the habit of 
 analyzing their thoughts and distinguishing be- 
 tween what they really believe and what they 
 fancy they believe, it is to be replied, that the 
 assertion cannot be confined to such persons; for it 
 
TJie Resurrection. 47 
 
 is certainly the fact, that a multitude of men well lect. 
 
 . Ill 
 educated and well informed, every way calculated '- — 
 
 to estimate aright the difficulties belonging to such 
 
 an article of faith, are of the number of those, who 
 
 do receive the resurrection of the Lord as a simple 
 
 reality. And not only so ; for the number of be- "«* ^y the 
 
 . n ^ • 1 simple and 
 
 lievers mcludes many of the most penetrating and ignorant 
 profound minds, bred under those very conditions, by the most 
 which are supposed to render impossible faith in tmnkers"^ 
 things transcending ordinary human experience. 
 Thus, if I may venture to single out from those 
 belonging to our own country one of the most re- 
 markable intellects of recent times, I would call to 
 mind, that Coleridge in the maturity of his thoughts 
 found in the Christian faith, not that which the 
 onward progress of modern thought must of neces- 
 sity obliterate, or at least transform so as to be 
 something quite different from what it was, but 
 (as he himself testifies) " the perfection of human Preface to 
 intelligence." And even with regard to the Ger- Reflection. 
 man schools of divines, upon which many of us are See Note 
 accustomed to look with so much jealousy, it is to 
 be observed, that if there be waiters of eminence who 
 profess to deem such a fact as the Resurrection in- 
 credible, names of other eminent writers, — names 
 quite as weighty, to say the least, — may be men- 
 tioned, as those of men, who, with precisely the 
 same data before them, have arrived at the pre- 
 cisely opposite conclusion. 
 
 It may possibly appear strange, that in a ques- Apology 
 tion, such as that now under consideration, I should ence to 
 venture to introduce a reference to the authority names'! 
 of human names ; but it seems to me, that the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case render such a 
 
48 The Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. proceeding not only pai'donable, but desirable. Of 
 
 '— course, in a question of demonstration, the quotation 
 
 of names, either for or against a proj)Osition, is 
 futile : but when the ground taken is virtually this, 
 not that the truth of a fact has not been demon- 
 strated, but that the fact itself is of a kind which 
 cannot be demonstrated, — which can by no testi- 
 mony be substantiated, — then it is of great import- 
 ance to remark, that men of very acute intellect, 
 minds undeniably of the very first class, have, in 
 reality, thought otherwise. It is not argued that 
 we are right in our judgment upon a certain point, 
 because we can quote the names of a certain num- 
 ber of illustrious men who have believed the 
 same ; but unquestionably it is something like a 
 guarantee, that we are not deceiving ourselves in 
 believing a thing which is altogether incapable of 
 being true, when we find that we have on our side, 
 as fellow-believers mth ourselves, men quite as 
 considerable as those, who would endeavom- to 
 override our convictions by the alleged results of 
 modern science, and the necessities of the modern 
 tone of thought. For, indeed, it can scarcely fail 
 to make a student of divine truth, who is modestly 
 conscious of his own infirmities and diffident of his 
 own powers, somewhat anxious concerning the 
 scientific ground upon which he stands, when he 
 observes the manner, in which men of unquestioned 
 ability either assert or take for granted that such 
 ground is untenable : and the anxiety may be 
 allayed by observing, that there is in the hitherto 
 recorded convictions of mankind no such consensus 
 against the facts of the Christian faith as to justify- 
 any man in the assertion, that they are in them- 
 
The Resurrection. 49 
 
 selves incredible. A man may possibly have a right lect. 
 
 to say that he does not believe them himself, and '- — 
 
 that is a matter between him and God : but no 
 man has a right to say, that they are in themselves 
 incredible, so long as in matter of fact they are 
 believed by some of the acutest intellects that 
 God has made. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that a fact is credible, The credi- 
 
 ^ ' • ^ Til L ^ ' i\ bility of a 
 
 — that IS, subjectively credible, — or not, chieily fact de- 
 according to the ground from which it is contem- much JpJn 
 plated. If we regard the race of mankind asfj^^^^j^jj 
 merely one of many, the highest amongst living ^'^^^^^^ 
 races, but only the highest, distinct from the lower 
 animals in degree, but not essentially diiferent in 
 kind, then undoubtedly the alleged resuscitation of 
 one or more of the race from death would appear 
 to be a circumstance well nigh incredible. But 
 suppose the race of mankind to be one totally 
 distinct from all others, — one which it implies the 
 utmost confusion of thought to judge by rules 
 applicable to the mere physical developments of 
 animal life, — one, the idea of whose constitution is 
 essentially not physical, but moral and spiritual, — 
 and then w^hat right have we to apply to such 
 a race conclusions founded upon the merely phy- 
 sical phenomena of the lives and deaths of brutes? 
 Even without any distinct revelation from Heaven, 
 is there not an instinct of the human mind, which 
 rebels against the thought of ordinary material 
 rules being made applicable to the destinies of 
 those, with whom matter is but the case and tene- 
 ment of something much nobler and better ? 
 
 And if the various indications of nobility be- The Resur- 
 
 1 • 11 11- PI rection not 
 
 longing to our race be but the hints of the great incredible, 
 
 E 
 
50 The Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. truth which underHes the whole Scripture Revela- 
 
 '- — tion, namely, that the nature of man has been 
 
 tempiS assumed by God Himself, then have we not an 
 Joun*d of altogether new ground upon which to stand, in 
 
 the incar- i^dg^ii^o' of what is, or what is not, credible con- 
 nation 01 »J o ~ ' •' 
 
 the Eter- ccminof tlic liistorv of man ? Here, then, we come 
 
 nalSon. ^ ,. Y „ , . . , 
 
 upon the application ot our general principle : we 
 suppose it to be granted, that God has assumed 
 our nature, that this truth which is morally so 
 conceivable, and so accordant with all the indica- 
 tions of the divine which we distinguish in the 
 history of man, had its actual fulfilment in time by 
 the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 We suppose this to be granted, and we then ask, 
 what shall we venture to predicate as credible or 
 incredible concerning the child who is thus born to 
 
 isai. ix. 6. us, and whose Name is emphatically, Wonderful? 
 Shall we say that the experience of four thousand 
 years, even though it should be allowed to have 
 been broken by no one single exception, by an 
 Enoch for instance, or an Elijah, must necessarity 
 exhibit all the facts and j^henomena of such an 
 Incarnation ? Shall we venture to apply empirical 
 material laws, without any doubt concerning their 
 perfect generality, to such a case as this ? Or shall 
 we not be more philosophical, as well as more reli- 
 gious, if we acquiesce in the conclusion, that it was 
 
 Ads w. T,\ ; impossible for the body of this Holy One to see 
 corriqytion f 
 
 Error of Looking upou tlic matter from this point of 
 
 those who . ^ 
 
 deny the vicw, wc may pcrliaps venture to say, that the 
 
 tion. error of those, who assert it to be a thing incredible 
 
 that God should raise the dead, consists essentially 
 
 in this, that they assume the true law of liuman 
 
The Resurrection. 51 
 
 existence to be deducible from a certain number of lect. 
 particular cases ; whereas the Incarnation and L_ 
 
 Death and Resurrection of Christ prove, that the 
 true law is (as we might have hoped) something 
 transcending the mere laws of matter, and that the 
 laws of material decay do not apply in their full 
 force and generality to the human race, in conse- 
 quence of a higher law stepping in. In fact, 
 whereas an unbeliever would assert, that the gene- 
 ral death and decay and corruption of the human 
 body exhibit the normal condition of mankind, 
 the Christian would maintain that that condition 
 is not normal but diseased, that it is the condition 
 of men who through transgression have lost access 
 to the Tree of Life, and that the Resurrection of Gen. in. ^4. 
 Christ through God's mercy exhibits the true xxH. 2, 'il. 
 history of redeemed man. 
 
 I say the true history of redeemed man: for The real 
 this is indeed the distinction of sacred from other is Re- 
 history, and the key to many of its mysteries, that credible? 
 it contemplates man from that point of view which 
 is afforded by the fact, that God has taken his 
 nature into union with Himself And the great 
 question to be considered by any one, who wishes 
 to take a really philosophical view of the Christian 
 faith and to estimate its difficulties aright, is this, 
 whether this great moral fact be credible or no : 
 and if he find nothing incredible here, but rather 
 the exhibition of a truth which all mankind have 
 been feehng after, and to which his own heart's 
 sense of spiritual need urges his assent, then he 
 will hardly be surprised to find, that ordinary 
 material laws deduced from a limited experience 
 do not entirely suffice to express the conditions of 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Tlie Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. a life, which is thus seen to be in its essence 
 III . . 
 
 ' spiritual. In fact, the question, Is it credible that 
 
 God should raise the dead ? requires for its solution 
 an answer to the preliminary question. What else 
 do you deem credible ? If you contemplate God 
 as the mere personification of what we call laws of 
 nature, it is difficult to say what it is possible to 
 believe, or, indeed, whether there is anything much 
 worth believing : but if you contemplate God not 
 as a 'personification but as a person, as the Father 
 of the human race, who made them in His own 
 image, and loved them so as to send His Son to 
 redeem and His Holy Spirit to sanctify them, then 
 it is equally difficult to say what may not be 
 believed. If the love of God sent His Son into 
 the world, why should it be thought a thing incre- 
 dible that He should even raise Him from the 
 dead ? 
 
 And thus, although the Resurrection of our 
 heUef are Lord may be in one sense regarded as a material 
 or physical miracle, being a deviation from the 
 general empirical law of human decay, still the 
 grounds for believing it are essentially moral 
 grounds ; and it may therefore rightly form a por- 
 tion of a Creed, which is intended to be the support 
 not of the wise and prudent only, but of the simple 
 and of very babes. Hence, we find, that the 
 Resurrection of Christ does strike the minds of 
 Christians in general, not as a mere tale of wonder, 
 but as a fact which comes more closely home to 
 themselves than almost any other, — the event 
 which they celebrate, not as magical, but as most 
 joyful and soul-stirring, — Easter-day ever coming 
 round to them as tlie aimiversary of their deliver- 
 
 Thus the 
 
 grounds of 
 belief 
 moral 
 ground 
 
The Resurrection. 53 
 
 ance from the bondage of corruption, the date of lect. 
 
 their patent of immortality, the birthday of their '- — 
 
 spiritual bodies. And the sophism, that it is more 
 probable that testimony should be false than a 
 miracle true, or the still bolder assertion that an 
 event like the Resurrection of the Lord is in itself 
 incredible, do not come near the minds of simple 
 Christians to hurt them, because they do instinct- 
 ively and practically stand upon that ground, 
 which is the only true ground either for philosopher 
 or for peasant, the Incarnation of God's eternal 
 Son. He ivho helieves in this Son of God has the ^ ^^"^^ ^• 
 
 lO. 
 
 witness in himself. 
 
 The true foundation of faith then is, as it ought The danger 
 to be, a moral one. The felt necessities of man's wiBg at in- 
 spiritual nature forbid him to reject the Gospel of cufficui^es 
 an Immanuel, God ivith us; and having recognised s. Matt, i 
 the wonderful being of the Child born into the 
 world to bear this w^onderful name, we can scarcely 
 be surprised, if we find in His death, as in His 
 birth, something transcending the ordinary laws of 
 humanity. But while all this is admitted, and 
 while it is also admitted as a consequence, that 
 faith can best be strengthened by practical holiness, 
 by doing God's will, by imitating the example 
 rather than discussing the mysteries of the life of 
 Christ, it is at the same time to be acknowledged 
 that a man is liable to be seduced from his alle- 
 giance by intellectual difficulties, and that more in 
 our own perhaps than in any preceding times. So, jiiuatrated 
 however, it was even in the days of Christ Him- ence to a 
 self Did it ever strike you, in reading the Gospels, thrnfe of 
 that the only instance of many of His disciples 
 going hack and ivalking no more with Him, was 
 
S. J ohii vi. 
 51- 
 
 54 The Resurrection. 
 
 LECT. one, in which the minds of the deserters had been 
 III 
 '. puzzled with that which seemed to them to be 
 
 incredible doctrine ? We read in S. John's Gospel, 
 s. Johnvi. that at a certain epoch many of His discijjlesfrom 
 that time tvent hack, and walked no mot^e tcith 
 Him : and what had happened ? had Christ repre- 
 sented His service as unpromising, as demanding 
 much self-sacrifice, much leaving of fathers, and 
 mothers, and homes ? He did do this no doubt, 
 but we do not read of any desertion following. 
 "Was there a jDrospect of persecution? Not more 
 than at any other time. Had Christ failed in any 
 promises or pledges given ? There is no hint of 
 such a charge against Him. No : but He had 
 spoken on this fashion : / am the living bread 
 which came doivn from Heaven : if any man eat 
 of this bread, he shall live for ever : and the bread 
 that I ivill give is My flesh, luhich I ivill give for 
 the life of the ivorld. He had spoken thus, and 
 much more in the same mysterious tone ; and 
 ver. 60. many of His disciples said, This is an hard saying; 
 ivho can hear it ? This revelation of a mystery, at 
 which the. intellect of the disciples, who regarded 
 His words from an unspiritual point of view, was 
 tempted to rebel, caused many of them to go back 
 and walk no more ivith Him. A hard doctrine 
 was able to do that, which the prospect of personal 
 hardship could not do. 
 The And if this part of the story represents to us 
 
 grounds of -. ■■ ■■ „ ^-^■, . j t • i 
 
 stability 11- only too truly the case of Christ s discijDles m these 
 
 ily thl" days, sometimes staggered by an apparently hard 
 
 same. doctHue, and on that account going back and 
 
 w^alking with Him no more, the remainder of it 
 
 will perhaps represent as truly the ground of stcd- 
 
The ResLivrection. 55 
 
 fastness in the faith. Jesus said to the tivelve, lect. 
 
 Ill 
 Will ye also go aivay f Then Simon Peter an- '- — 
 
 sivered Him, Lord to tvhom shall ive gof ^^^oiielf^l^^^] 
 hast the ivords of eternal life. And ive believe and 
 are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God. They were sure of this : their hearts 
 told them, that they were not deceived in Christ : 
 and this being so, why should their faith give way, 
 because their intellect was for a moment puzzled ? 
 And why should not disciples of Christ in our own 
 days, when tempted to give up their faith by the 
 exhibition of intellectual difficulties, which they 
 cannot explain by the formulae of every-day expe- 
 rience, — why should they not follow the example of 
 S. Peter, and fall back upon truths, which their 
 hearts will not allow them to let go ? Why not 
 take their stand upon the blessed truth, that God 
 has visited and redeemed His people, and say, 
 To ivhom shall we gof Christ has the 'words of 
 eternal life. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Preached on the Sunday after Easter. 
 
 S. JOHN I. I. 
 
 The Word luas God. 
 
 LECT. It was remarked in my last Lecture, that in con- 
 IV . . 
 '- — templating the miraculous events connected with 
 
 Stwee'n''''' *1^® Hfc of our blcsscd Lord, the Resurrection 
 the Resur- occupied a placc quite distinct from that which can 
 
 rection ^ ^ ^ ■*• 
 
 and other bc assiguod to any other individual miracle. You 
 may take any one out of the general catalogue of 
 mighty works recorded in the Gospel histories, 
 and you may beheve that you have found grounds, 
 historical, critical, or of any other kind, such as to 
 justify you in doubting the reality of the miracle ; 
 or to put the case in the strongest light possible, 
 I will supjDose that after due investigation you feel 
 persuaded, that some one or more of the alleged 
 miracles of Christ ought not to have been recorded 
 as miracles performed by Him, that they are inter- 
 polations in the genuine evangelical narrative, or 
 were wrongly reported, so that the history as we 
 now have it does not accurately represent what 
 took place ; I will suppose even as much as this, 
 and I say, that even if this should be the result of 
 your examination, you may still hold your faith in 
 the divine character of the Lord Jesus unshaken ; 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 57 
 
 you may very well declare, that you will not give lect. 
 
 up your faith and your hope, because you find that — 
 
 the records of the life of Christ have not come 
 down to us in as pure a condition as you might 
 have expected, or because you have found it neces- 
 sary to modify the views which you had formed of 
 the nature of the sacred books themselves, and of 
 the divine influence under which they were penned ; 
 but you are untrue to your highest spiritual inter- 
 ests, if you allow a supposed blemish, in the j^icture 
 which the Gospels contain, to cheat you out of the 
 belief, that it is a genuine portrait of the Saviour of 
 mankind. But the Resurrection certainly stands 
 upon a ground of its own ; the whole credit of the 
 Apostles is so bound up with its truth ; the tale 
 runs so completely through and through their 
 recorded thoughts, and words, and deeds ; that it 
 is quite impossible to separate a complete and 
 honest reception of the Gospel from the belief of 
 this great transcendental fact. If Christ he not i Cor. xv. 
 raised, we are in every sense of the words yet in '' 
 our sins. 
 
 Observe, that it is not by any means my desire it is de- 
 to insinuate the thought, that there is in reality a consider" 
 difference in the degrees of evidence and credibility ^-etsary 
 belono-ino; to the different miracles of our Lord. *° /^^^ ^''; 
 
 ^ , , . ... istence of 
 
 But I think it well that in dealing with evidences, the faith, 
 
 •r>i r»i ^^^ what 
 
 we should consider what is oi the essence of the not. 
 Christian faith and what not, what is destructive 
 of the Gospel, and what touches only certain fami- 
 liar forms of conceiving the Gospel ; and though I 
 am well aware, that I am here treading upon delicate 
 and perhaps dangerous ground, inasmuch as it has 
 been the plea, even of those who have to ordinary 
 
58 The Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. apprehension utterly subverted the whole fabric of 
 
 '- — Christianity, and turned its history into a fable, 
 
 that they have not all the while touched the true 
 kernel of the religion, still this shall not deter me 
 from calling the attention of young Christians to 
 the fact, that they may possibly be sometimes 
 reduced to their wit's end, as to their tenure of 
 the faith, by an objection, which, if valid, will only 
 go the length of modifying their conception of 
 some particular portion of the scheme. Thus a man 
 may be summoned to surrender unconditionally his 
 faith in Christ, because he does not see how to 
 reconcile with science the statements in the first 
 chapter of Genesis ; or the same alternative may 
 be placed before him, if he finds that he cannot 
 justify some j)articular theory in which he may 
 have been educated concerning the inspiration of 
 the holy Scriptures. Therefore, although I would 
 not encourage the disposition to criticise with too 
 great boldness the various facts of the Lord's his- 
 tory, believing that we should ever take the shoes 
 from our feet when standing upon such ground, 
 and that we may well expect to be answered ac- 
 cording to our folly if we consult in a proud self- 
 conceited spirit the oracles of God, still I think 
 that regarding the various joortions of the sacred 
 Scriptures, not as connected with practical piety 
 and devotion, but in their relation to evidences, 
 we should do well to observe for our own peace' 
 sake, what points those are, in which if a wound be 
 received it may be regarded as touching the vitals, 
 and what points are those, concerning which this 
 cannot be averred. 
 
 Now it does not admit of a reasonable doubt. 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 59 
 
 that the history of our Lord Jesus Christ is a mira- lect. 
 
 . . IV 
 
 culous history. It represents Him, as doing, not ^— 
 
 once or twice, but frequently, acts transcending J^'^hS?^ 
 human power and ordinary experience : even if one undeniably 
 
 ■•- J L ^ miracu- 
 
 of them should be struck from the catalogue here, lo^s. 
 and another there, the general character of the hfe 
 would not be altered ; and the notion of retaining 
 Christianity and freeing it from all supernatural 
 elements, is one which cannot easily be regarded 
 as otherwise than utterly hopeless ; unless indeed 
 you choose arbitrarily to define as Christianity a 
 certain system of civilised morality, which the 
 Apostles, if we may judge from their writings, 
 would not have called by that name. We must, 
 therefore, as Christians, hold ourselves committed 
 in the most unqualified manner to a miraculous 
 account of our Master ; and if indeed miracles be 
 objectively impossible, or (which in fact comes to 
 much the same thing) subjectively incredible, then 
 upon the proof of their impossibility or incredibility, 
 I think we are bound as honest men to resign our 
 faith. 
 
 It is not necessary for my present purpose, nor Not neces- 
 indeed is it desirable, to attempt to define a miracle; define a 
 because we might thus perhaps introduce a diffi- ^^'^^^^f' 
 culty concerning the word, when we should all i6. 
 probably be agreed concerning the thing. If, for 
 instance, we should speak of a miracle, as being an 
 event transcending the course of nature, it might 
 be necessary to define nature, and also to say what 
 extent of experience should be sufficient to deter- 
 mine its course, inasmuch as in very remote epochs 
 its course (upon the clear evidence of geology) 
 was very different from what it is now. We will 
 
60 The Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. therefore endeavour to avoid such difficulties by re- 
 
 IV. . 
 
 '- — f erence to the acknowledged fact, that the history of 
 
 our Lord does contain the account of deeds, which 
 would not be admissible in ordinary biogi-aphy, — 
 blind men made to see, the lame to walk, the dead 
 raised up, and the like. It may be, and doubtless 
 it is, very desirable, that the essential idea of a 
 miracle should be investigated, that the definition 
 of a miracle should be accurately framed in words ; 
 but so far as we are just now concerned, we may 
 safely omit the inquiry. 
 
 The sup- The point, to which at present I wish chiefly to 
 
 posed in- . . , . , , . 
 
 credibility dircct attention, is this, that the fundamental prm- 
 thefounda- ciple of almost, if not quite, all the intellectual 
 
 opposition in modern times to the truth of the Gos- 
 
 modern 
 
 opposition 
 to the 
 
 pel, is the supposed incredibility of a miracle in 
 Faith. itself This ground of opposition had clearly no 
 existence in the time of our Lord Himself ; for the 
 question, which then occurred to the minds of those 
 s. johnvii. ^lio wituesscd His deeds, was. When Christ cometh, 
 ivill He do more miracles than these which this man 
 hath done f Nor indeed could such a ground of 
 opposition very easily suggest itself, either to the 
 men of those days, or to those of the earlier ages 
 of Christianity : it is peculiarly a modern objection. 
 Nor can the fact, that such an objection should 
 have great weight in modern days mth the mind 
 of a man regarding the Gospel from a purely 
 intellectual point of view, be matter of surprise to 
 any one, who considers how much the discovery of 
 physical laws, and of the regularity of cosmical 
 phenomena, is likely to tempt the mind to the 
 rash generalization, that we have here revealed to 
 us the whole of God's manner of working, and that 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 61 
 
 all things in heaven and earth can be included in lect. 
 
 . . IV 
 
 the formulse of a mechanical philosophy. Though ^ . 
 
 indeed it may be remarked, that science has herself 
 corrected the errors which might seem to have 
 been drawn from her, and has given quite as dis- 
 tinct indications, as can be found in Scripture 
 itself, of a personal Creator, and not a dead law of 
 matter, being the God of the universe. But not 
 to dwell upon this point now, I say that the line 
 which has been taken by modern unbeHef has been 
 one, which we might have expected from observing 
 the tone of mind likely to be fostered by modern 
 science, and that this consists in disbelief in mira- 
 cles as such, — not in objections to the character of 
 Christ's miracles in particular, or the evidence for 
 their truth, but fundamentally to miracles in them- 
 selves. The distinction amongst the various schools 
 of unbelief may be said to consist chiefly in the 
 manner, in which the miraculous phenomena of the 
 Christian history are got rid of and explained. 
 
 And because it is very desirable, that we should Various 
 perceive how thoroughly this is the character of getting rid 
 the unbelief of modern times, and how it lies at ofmiracies. 
 
 See Note 
 
 the root of systems as much opposed to each other 17. 
 as any one of them to the orthodox faith, I will in 
 a few words call to your minds the features of two 
 or three of the schools, with the principles of which 
 we are most famihar. 
 
 In the first place I will remind you of ■ the Method of 
 method proposed by Hume, and with which we gee Note 
 are well acquainted in this University, as being ^^• 
 that against which Paley chiefly directed his evi- 
 dences. Hume considered that he had supplied for 
 all subsequent times a sufficient antidote to belief 
 
62 The Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. in miracles, by the enunciation of the principle, 
 
 ^ that belief in a miracle involves the question of the 
 
 relative value of experience and testimony, and 
 that it is much more probable that testimony 
 should be false than a miracle true. This principle, 
 whether it were intended that such should be the 
 result or no, brings into question the honesty and 
 truthfulness of the Apostles, or rather it puts their 
 dishonesty and imposture practically beyond ques- 
 tion ; and, viewed in this light, it belongs perhaps 
 to the most mischievous kind of attack that can be 
 made upon the faith, and connects itself quite natu- 
 rally with that school of licentious infidelity which 
 for a time flourished in this country, and still more 
 in France. The point, however, which I wish 
 especially to observe is this, that although the 
 principle of this method is professedly sceptical, 
 yet the underlying postulate of it is the impossi- 
 bility, and consequent incredibility, of a miracle. 
 The attempt to shake the testimony of the early 
 Christian writers does not profess to have originated 
 in any strong grounds for suspicion of their honesty, 
 in any peculiar looseness of their records, in any 
 noticeable deficiency of their means of observation, 
 or in any the like legitimate grounds of scepticism, 
 but rather it is the presence of all those circum- 
 stances which give colour and credibility to testi- 
 mony, — the coincidence of many witnesses, — the 
 general reception of their story at the time, — the 
 apparent disinterestedness of their conduct, — the 
 impression of candour and honesty and conscious 
 rectitude which must be produced by a study of 
 their writings, — which rendered it necessary to 
 propound a principle, strong enougli to over-ride 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 63 
 
 all these ordinary arguments in favour of the truth lect. 
 of the Gospel history. 
 
 But again : we may notice that mode of dealina^ Method of 
 
 Paulus. 
 
 with the Christian faith and of getting rid of the g^^ ^'^^^ 
 miraculous element, which is commonly distin- '9- 
 guished as the Kationalistic. One essential differ- 
 ence between this method and that already noticed 
 is this, that instead of taking its rise from the mind 
 of a man, who wished to do away with the Christian 
 faith as an historicpJ imposture, it may be chiefly 
 claimed as the property of one, who shewed the 
 value which he attributed to the Christian records 
 by writing a commentary upon them. The method 
 consisted in the attempt, now universally regarded 
 as hopeless, to explain the miracles of our Lord 
 upon natural principles. It was thought, that by 
 judicious investigation the supernatural element 
 could be eliminated, and the moral and spiritual 
 part of the Gospel left; that Jesus of Nazareth 
 might be regarded as a mere man, and yet be looked 
 upon as the great Teacher and Reformer of the 
 human race, and the honesty of His disciples be 
 left unimpeached. Whether this mode of treat- 
 ment were in reality less mischievous than the 
 former, is a question with which we need not now 
 concern ourselves ; though certainly this conclusion 
 may be drawn by the way, (and it is a very valuable 
 one), namely, that the method, which Hume pro- 
 pounded as the great escape from miracles, did .not 
 seem, in the eyes of a profoundly philosophic 
 nation, adequate to perform the task assigned to 
 it. And it may also be received as a satisfactory^ 
 result, that the notion of imposture and priestcraft 
 should be virtually given up, as not an adequate 
 
64 Tlie Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. explanation of the phenomena of the faith ; and 
 
 '- — that the phenomena themselves should be admitted 
 
 to be such, as are at least worthy of the labour of 
 studying them, and not such as can be exploded 
 and forgotten under the influence of ridicule. But 
 that which I chiefly wish to remark is this, that 
 however different the rationalistic method may be 
 from its predecessor, and however inadequate it 
 may have proved, yet the postulate of the impossi- 
 bility of a miracle is still the foundation of it : it 
 was an attempt to get rid of the miraculous without 
 destroying the whole fabric, and without damaging 
 the moral character of the witnesses ; and instead 
 of making use of the circumstance of the miraculous 
 character of the history to get rid of the Christian 
 relio-ion, it was an endeavour to save the religion 
 by giving up the miraculous part of it. The whole 
 tone and character of the schools therefore may be 
 diflerent, but they have this as the common basis 
 of their existence, the assumed incredibility of a 
 miracle. 
 Method of There is one other method of treating the 
 See Note Christian history, which it will be desirable to 
 ^o- mention, because it is the one which has of late 
 
 been in the ascendant. This consists in the attempt 
 to shew, that the life of Christ was originally alto- 
 gether human in its proportions, and that it has 
 subsequently been dilated into its present super- 
 natural and assumed mythical condition. The 
 writers of this school take their stand upon criti- 
 cal ground, and propose to themselves to shew 
 what the original tale was, and how and why the 
 various transcendental additions were made. They 
 admit the entire inadequacy of the method, to 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 65 
 
 which I last referred, as a means of accounting for lect. 
 
 the phenomena presented by the Christian history, '- — 
 
 and propose to substitute for it a method depend- 
 ing upon recognised principles of criticism, and to 
 clear the story from the fabulous accretions of 
 time, as has in other cases been successfully done. 
 How much would be left of what we usually regard 
 as the Christian faith, supposing this critical pro- 
 cess to be correct, and whether we could in any 
 proper sense assert that we have not followed 
 cunningly devised fables, when we have professed 
 to believe the scriptural account of Christ, are 
 questions upon which I will not touch, except to 
 observe by the way, that the writer who has put 
 together in his " Life of Jesus " the net results (as Strauss : 
 it were) of this mode of treating our Creed, does Preface to' 
 nevertheless in the preface assert his conviction, tion.^" 
 that no injury is threatened to the Christian faith; 
 the supernatural birth of Christ, His miracles. 
 His resurrection and ascension still remaining as 
 eternal truths, and so the essence resting invio- 
 late ; destroying, as he professes to do, the whole 
 worth and character of the Gospels as vehicles 
 of credible facts, annihilating the Creed of the 
 Catholic Church, he still declares his admiration 
 for Christianity, his unwillingness to injure its 
 essence, and his persuasion that he has not in- 
 jured it. If this declaration be made in irony, it 
 is, of course, very contemptible ; if it be serious, 
 it must not be allowed to blind us to the dangers 
 of following one, who, under the pretence of freeing 
 our faith from spurious additions, destroys the 
 possibility of faith altogether : but either way, it 
 is a remarkable fact, that there should be found in 
 
QQ TJie Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. these days such an anxiety not to repudiate the 
 
 '- — name of Christ, such a desire (as I expressed it on 
 
 a former occasion) to touch at least the hem of 
 His garment, such a willingness, and more than 
 willingness, to be reckoned amongst His disciples ; 
 it is for believers a tribute to the truth, which they 
 cannot fail to notice, while to those whose faith 
 has been shaken it may well be suggested as a 
 question worthy of consideration, whether it be 
 not probable, that the Catholic faith, having (as it 
 has) points of contact with almost all the schools 
 of unbehef, may not be the real centre of all, from 
 which alone the truth can be discerned in its right 
 proportions, and the various forms of error seen in 
 their divergence from the truth. The principal 
 remark however to be made is this, that in the 
 case of this method of dealing with our rehgion, 
 as in the case of others, the essential incredibility 
 of a miracle is clearly the foundation of all ; the 
 necessity of setting free the history fi'om all that 
 can be called supernatural, in order to adapt it to 
 the tone of philosophy and supposed requirements 
 of a scientific age, is the thought which runs 
 through the whole of this method of treating the 
 recorded life of Christ. 
 Writers of Some writers have advocated of late years the 
 schools cause of unbehef, who would probably not allow 
 theincredi- themsclvcs to belong to any one of the schools of 
 which I have spoken ; their main ground of objec- 
 tion to the Catholic faith would probably be alleged 
 to be of a different class; nevertheless, I apprehend 
 that they would give their assent to the principle 
 of the incredibility of all recorded miracles, and 
 that they would all agree in regarding the life of 
 
 bility of 
 miracles, 
 
The Miracles of Christ. f)7 
 
 our Lord, as commonly understood, in the light of lect. 
 
 an impossibility, however they might prefer to '- 
 
 rest their main objections upon other grounds. 
 And I think, therefore, that we are justified in 
 saying, that we have here one great fundamental 
 objection to the Christian faith, recognised by 
 almost all its opponents, namely, the incredibility 
 of miracles from the point of view occupied by 
 modern Europe. Let us look at the objection Are mira- 
 carefully ; and all the more so, because it would diSeT'^'' 
 appear to be (as we have seen) the comiecting link 
 of so many different schools. 
 
 And first let us remember, that when we are The ques- 
 speaking of miracles being credible or incredible, becoSed 
 we are not speaking of miracles in general, but ofchnS'''"^ 
 certain particular miracles, namely, those of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Hume, in his famous essay, See Note 
 having explained the nature of the princijDle upon ' 
 which he proposed to deal with miracles, confines 
 his application of it to the case of the miracles 
 recorded in the Pentateuch ; and having, as he 
 supposes, destroyed the credit of these, leaves it to 
 be inferred that the principle which will destroy 
 the miracles of Moses will do as much for those of 
 Christ. In which method of proceeding he seems 
 to me to have been guilty of great, though it may 
 be unintentional, injustice ; since it ought at least 
 to be proved, and not assumed, that the credit 
 due to the history of our Lord depends upon the 
 integrity of the ancient books of the Jews ; it is 
 an injustice, however, which I should not have 
 thought it necessary in these days to comment 
 upon, if it had not been for the purpose of illus- 
 trating what has just now been said, namely, that 
 
 f2 
 
68 The Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. in speaking of the credibility of miracles we do 
 
 '- — not speak of miracles in general, but of Christ's 
 
 miracles. I do not say, that Moses did not per- 
 form the mighty works attributed to him in the 
 book of Exodus ; I have no desire even to suggest 
 such a view of the history ; but I do say, that even 
 if it were proved that he did not, the question of 
 the miracles of Christ would still remain to be 
 dealt with upon its own ground. I think that we 
 are bound in honesty to allow, that the Christian 
 faith is inevitably bound up with a miraculous 
 history ; but I protest against being called ujDon to 
 give up my faith, in the event of its being ren- 
 dered probable that the deeds of Moses, or Joshua, 
 or Samson have been in any way magnified or 
 modified in the narrative which has come down to 
 our days. Pray observe, that I am not now express- 
 ing any opinion concerning the Holy Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament ; I am only endeavouring 
 to throw as strong a light as possible upon the 
 fact, that it is the miracles of Clirist, with which we 
 as Christians are vitally concerned: if they be 
 tine, our faith is whole ; if they be false, our faith 
 is destroyed. This can be asserted of no other 
 miracles whatsoever ; and it may be added, that the 
 right way to consider any other miraculous history 
 is to look first at the miracles of Christ, and to 
 discuss and estimate all other miracles when we 
 have rightly studied them. 
 Tiie ques- Lookiug tlicn to the miracles of Christ, shall 
 
 credibih?/ we say, that they are credible, or no ? The answer 
 miSdef ^ to the questiou would seem to be contingent upon 
 depends that which WO are prepared to give to this other 
 upon our one, Whcit think ye of Christ? irhose Son is Ilef 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 69 
 
 If tlie answer be, that He is only the Son of lect 
 Man, only like ourselves, then I do not say that 
 
 cerning the 
 nature < 
 Christ. 
 
 His miracles become incredible, because we find ^''^'''^ *'°"' 
 that persons who have prided themselves on their "•""^''''^ °^ 
 
 philosophical cast of mind, and who have repudiated 
 the divinity of our Lord, have yet believed them ; 
 but certainly grave difficulties are thrown in the 
 M^ay ; and one cannot be surprised if there should 
 be manifested a tendency, either by shaking the 
 credit of witnesses, or by natural explanations of 
 apjDarently supernatural phenomena, or by critical 
 examination of documents, to reduce to the standard 
 of man the acts of Him, who is supposed to have 
 been but a man. Let it, however, be granted that 
 on moral grounds we see no impossibility, but quite 
 the contrary, in the alleged fact of God having 
 taken our nature upon Himself, of Jesus Christ 
 being rightly described as the Woi'd, ivho was in s. John i, 
 the beginning, ivho was tvith God, and who was 
 God, and then what becomes of the impossibility 
 or incredibility of what we call miracles? The 
 wonderful works of Christ would then seem to be 
 the natural spontaneous outcoming of the divine 
 power, which was in Him ; the omnipotence of the 
 word of Christ would seem at once to connect the 
 Word ivho was God, spoken of in the first chapter 
 of S. John's Gospel, with that creative word, of 
 which we read in the first chapter of Genesis, 
 ivhich spake, and it vms done ; which commanded, Ps. xxxiii. 
 a7id it stood fast. The great miracle, in truth, is The great 
 one, of the reality of which we cannot doubt, ^Jjj! '' 
 namely, the entrance of evil into this world, which ^^^f^^f^ of 
 
 •^ ' _ ' evil. 
 
 God has made ; I grant that there is some- 
 thing inconceivably strange, something well-nigh 
 
70 The Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. incredible, something which it would scarcely have 
 
 '- — been impiety in the absence of experience to have 
 
 pronounced impossible, in the fact of the kingdom 
 of God, wdiom our reason infallibly teaches us to 
 be perfect in wisdom and goodness, having been 
 invaded by an evil power, — that this earth which 
 was created by God very good should exhibit the 
 appearance of a divided government, and have 
 seemed sometimes almost wholly given up to the 
 devil : but this state of the case is undeniable ; it 
 is no tale of j^riests ; no mere dogma of the Church ; 
 no view resting upon the authority of Scripture 
 only; it is the plain and painful truth, of w^hich 
 all history gives evidence, which daily experience 
 forbids us to contradict, and to which our ovm 
 hearts give a sorrowful assent : and supposing that 
 the view of the diseased condition of a race, whom 
 He had made in His own image and inspired with 
 His own breath, render it not incredible, that God 
 should for the healing of our infirmities become 
 manifest to us in the flesh, why should we not also 
 suppose that the phenomena of that wonderful 
 manifestation would transcend ordinary human 
 experience ? Indeed, if Christ be that which He 
 professed to be, would not the wonder be found in 
 His performing no works, resembling those which 
 He wrought when the worlds were made, rather 
 than in His dealing with His creatures (as He is 
 reported in the Gospels to have done) with an air 
 of conscious authority, with the demeanour of a 
 The con- Mastcr in His own house ? 
 
 Hcious fiu- 
 
 thority of And let me beg of you to notice, how entirely 
 
 Christ in 
 
 the per- the mode of performing His miracles, attributed 
 oTnliSs. t<^ ^11*3 Lord in the Gospels, accords with this view 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 71 
 
 of the character in which He performed them, and li^t. 
 
 how remarkably it stands out in contrast with the — 
 
 tone assumed by all others, to whom in Holy 22. 
 Scripture wonderful works are attributed. Moses 
 is professedly an instrument in the hands of God : 
 Thus saith the Lord, the burden of his message : 
 the rod, with which he worked wonders, a type of 
 his own impotence in himself to do any mighty 
 deed : and be it observed, the only instance of a 
 mighty work performed with an appearance of an 
 assumption of personal power actually visited upon 
 him as a sin ; Hear now, ye rebels, said Moses, Numb, xx 
 must we fetch you water out of this rockf and 
 Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he 
 smote the rock twice, and the water came out 
 abunda^iily ; but Moses and A aron lost the privi- 
 lege of bringing the people into the promised land, 
 because they had not believed God to sanctify Him 
 in the eyes of the children of Israel. So, again, 
 we find Samson strong by reason of his vow : 
 Ehjah and Ehsha, not examples of inherent power, s. James a 
 but witnesses for the God of Israel and examples 
 of the efficacy of prayer : Naaman altogether mis- 2 Kings 
 took the matter, w^hen he thought that the prophet 
 would strike his hand upon him, and so recover the 
 leper. And once more, if we pass from the Old 
 Testament to the New, we find the Apostles of 
 Christ imitating to a certain extent their Master's 
 works, but with this great distinction, that all is 
 done in His Name, and that the very thing Avhich 
 they dread, as the source of all error and confusion 
 and heresy, is the notion that they have any power 
 in themselves. Ye men of Israel, said Peter, after Acts in. ^ 
 the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, 
 
LECT. 
 IV. 
 
 Acta xiv 
 14, 15- 
 
 72 TJie Miracles of Christ. 
 
 why marvel ye at thisf or ivhy look ye so earnestly 
 on us, as though by our oivn i^ower or holiness ive 
 had made this 7nan to ivalkf And again before 
 Acts iv. the Council, Iftve this day he examined of the good 
 ^' '°" deed done to the impotent man, by what means he 
 is made whole; be it known imto you all, and to all 
 the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus 
 Christ of Nazareth, ivhom ye cynicifed, ivhom God 
 raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man 
 stand here before you whole. And in the Hke spirit 
 Paul and Barnabas repressed the zeal of the crowd, 
 who imagined that they saw in them gods in 
 human form. To Jesus Christ alone it belongs to 
 depend upon the inherent power of His own word, 
 — to appeal to none higher than Himself, — to be 
 conscious of no effort, but to give in the simplicity 
 of omnipotent majesty the infallible word of com- 
 mand, — to illustrate by His deeds those phrases of 
 s. John I. g^ John, the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
 among us, and the Word vms God. Thus it was 
 that He commanded the winds and the waves : 
 thus that the diseases of men's bodies yielded to 
 His touch : thus that the blind were able to see, 
 when He, the Light of the world, gave them 
 light : thus that the lame walked when He bade 
 them : thus that, even in the case of the dead, 
 s. Luke the words, / say unto thee, Arise ! or, Lazarus, come 
 viii. 54.' forth! were sufficient at once to break the bands of 
 ^2 o in XI. ^^j^^Ij^ ^^^^ ^Q throw new life into a corpse. 
 Import- This character of our Lord's miracles is worthy 
 
 ance of n 1^ •^ ^ • • i 1 • • i n 
 
 the distinc- oi all possible attention ; indeed it is the leature, 
 tw^en^ upon which to fix our minds if we Avould compare 
 miracii ^^^^ miraclcs of Clirist with any other, whether pre- 
 aiici otiiers. tended or real. It is easy to say, that all religions 
 
The Miracles of Christ. 73 
 
 profess to be affirmed by miracles, and that the lect. 
 
 Christian religion is in that respect only like many '- 
 
 others : but let any one reverently contemplate the 
 miracles of Christ and say whether they really arc 
 like other miracles, whether they do not differ in 
 kind from all others, recorded either in Scripture 
 or elsewhere : and let him further note that they 
 cease to be miracles, in so far as a miracle is con- 
 nected with a sense of wonder, when we regard 
 them in the light of that revelation concerning the 
 person of the doer of them, which such passages as 
 the text contain. 
 
 If it be suggested, that it is quite as hard to Objection 
 believe, that God should manifest Himself in the difficuu to 
 flesh, as that Jesus of Nazareth should have worked the i^car- 
 miracles, I might reply, that the purpose of these Jjjjacies^'^ 
 lectures is not to explain that one great fundamental answered. 
 mystery, but rather to shew, how in the light of it, 
 as an admitted Catholic truth, all other doctrines 
 are seen in harmony, and almost all other difficul- 
 ties vanish. But besides this, I would have you to 
 observe, that although the manifestation of God 
 in the flesh is confessedly a mystery, — always put 
 forward in Scripture as such, — characterised in one 
 well-known passage as emphatically the mystery 
 of godliness, — yet the difficulty of believing in the 
 truth of this mystery is one of an altogether difl"er- 
 ent class, from that of believing in the mere naked 
 fact of a man having performed such deeds as we 
 call miraculous. We have here no question of the 
 relative value of testimony and experience, no 
 objections from a supposed course of nature ; we 
 have risen into a higher and sj^iritual region, in 
 which there are other opinions to be taken besides 
 
74 Tlie Miracles of Christ. 
 
 LECT. those of the wise and prudent. The question of mere 
 '— miracles is one, which may present itself in different 
 
 forms to different men, according to their educa- 
 tion, or tone of thought ; but the question of the 
 manifestation of God in the flesh is one, of which 
 the universal heart of mankind can and will form a 
 judgment. The voice of a man speaking in man's 
 words the love of God to His creatures, declaring 
 to them the pardon of their sins, sympathising 
 with their infirmities, revealing to them those 
 things which it chiefly concerns them to know and 
 which no other had been able to reveal, — this 
 Ts.xxix. 4. glorious voice of God is one which speaks too 
 boTk'^ clearly to the heart, which realises too completely 
 Version, ^j^^ longing dreams of humanity, which is too com- 
 pletely a Gospel to mankind, to allow the confessed 
 mystery of the manner of its utterance to make 
 men in general sceptical concerning the truth of 
 the utterance itself And of this I am persuaded, 
 that he, who, burdened with a sense of sin and 
 infirmity, has felt in his own soul the truth, that 
 s. Mark ii. the SoH of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, 
 need not stumble at any intellectual difficulties, 
 when called upon to believe, that the same Son of 
 Man was able to say with authority in the days of 
 ver. 9. His flesh, Aiise, take tip thy bed, and ivalk. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, April 22, 1855. 
 
 S. JOHN V. 39. 
 
 Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life : and they are they which testify of me. 
 
 From whatever point of view it may be proposed to lect. 
 regard the doctrines of our religion, with reference 
 
 Necessity 
 fconsider- 
 
 to the difficulties which may attach to the reception ^ 
 
 of them in our own days, it is scarcely possible to g"f ^^J ^^ 
 
 omit from our consideration the meaning^ and na- luspira- 
 
 tion. 
 
 ture of that divine inspiration, which we attribute 
 to the Holy Scriptures. Hence I feel bound in 
 this course of sermons not to shrink from dealing 
 with a subject, which upon some grounds I would 
 gladly have left untouched. 
 
 Looked upon merely in the light of an example Reasons 
 
 n 1 ••! 1'TTi for desiring 
 
 ot the apphcation oi the prmciple, which i have to avoid it. 
 already in several instances endeavoured to illus- 
 trate, I could not wish for a better instance, nor 
 one more hkely to be practically useful, of the man- 
 ner in which that principle throws light into the 
 dark places of doctrine, than that afforded by the 
 question of the Inspiration of the Bible. And yet it 
 is not inconsistent to speak of Inspiration^ as of a 
 subject which one would desire, if possible, to have 
 left untouched. For in approaching it from any 
 side, I see clearly two dangers lying in the way. 
 
7Q The liisjnration 
 
 LECT. On the one hand there is the danger of shaking 
 
 '. the confidence of devout and faithful persons in the 
 
 geTrijdng authority of the Word of God. It is no light thing 
 intheway. gygj^ ^Q liold as a questiou to be argued and dis- 
 cussed, any doctrine upon which the spiritual lives 
 of thousands depend : and it is possible that you 
 may do a man an almost irreparable injury, even 
 in endeavouring to prove to him that what he 
 believes is true, if in the proof you deal with his 
 faith so roughly as to disorganise his religious and 
 reverential feelings : just as we may fancy a picture 
 to be proved to be genuine, but to have lost its 
 finer tones by the rude handling of those who ex- 
 amined it. Hence, even though we may have no 
 intention of broaching new and strange doctrines, 
 though to pretend to any theological discovery 
 may be the thing furthest from our thoughts, — we 
 cannot but remain mindful of the fact, that we are 
 treading on holy ground, and very delicate ground, 
 when we approach the question of the Inspiration 
 of the Word of God. Then on the other hand, 
 there is always the danger of doing mischief by 
 advancing, with the best intentions, views ujDon a 
 subject of this kind, which will not bear the test 
 of close examination, A person may easily build 
 up a theory of inspiration, and the theory may 
 satisfy himself; but when it comes to be carefully 
 criticised, it may be found that as a scientific 
 theory, it cannot be upheld : and so it falls : and 
 if it fall alone, no great harm may be done ; but 
 unhappily there is danger of the general apprecia- 
 tion of the character of the Bible being injured 
 by the breaking down of theories concerning it ; 
 as though an architect should )»uild a buttress 
 
of Holy Scripture. 77 
 
 against an ancient building, and should build it lect. 
 
 upon a bad foundation, and the buttress should '. — 
 
 fall, and throw suspicion upon the foundations of 
 the building which it was intended to support. 
 And in matter of fact I believe it will be found to 
 be true, that the chief difficulties concerning the 
 question of Inspiration have arisen, not from any- 
 thing in the Bible itself, so much as from theories See Note 
 respecting it, which have been built upon insecure 
 foundations by pious men zealous for the integrity 
 of the truth. 
 
 It is therefore with a full sense of the dehcate No theory 
 
 1 . -I .of Inspira- 
 
 nature of the subject upon which we are entermg, tionwiiibe 
 and an earnest prayer to the Author of inspiration theTe^Lec- 
 in these as in past days to preserve me from*"''^^' 
 speaking anything contrary to the truth, that I 
 venture to invite your attention to a consideration 
 of the character of the Holy Scriptures from the 
 point of view belonging to this course of Sermons. 
 I need hardly say, that I neither hope nor desire 
 to exhaust such a subject as this ; but it will be 
 found possible to embrace within (comparatively 
 speaking) narrow limits, that view of it which I 
 propose to give ; and I have the better hope of 
 being able to avoid the dangers belonging to the 
 subject, and of being able to treat it in such a 
 manner as to make it subservient to the great 
 purpose of encouraging faith and reverence and 
 love towards the Word of God, in consequence of 
 the very fact, that I do 7iot intend to offer you a 
 complete theory of Inspiration, but rather to sug- 
 gest that such a theory is unnecessary and perhaps 
 impossible, and to urge as the most sound and 
 wholesome view that which may be taken of this. 
 
78 TJie Insjnratoin 
 
 LECT. as of so many other subjects, from the standing 
 
 '- — point which is suppHed by the CathoHc doctrine of 
 
 the being of our blessed Lord. 
 The diffi- And here let me make this sreneral remark, that 
 
 cultyofthe -, ^ t n^ -, n ■ i • 
 
 suiyect lies thc wholc difhculty of this subject Avould seem to 
 tificVnat- he in its scientific treatment. So long as a person 
 '"""'■ regards the Bible in the light of a practical guide 
 to his life, and as the storehouse of spiritual and 
 Christian truths, he will be able without any sense 
 of difficulty to speak of it as the Word of God, or 
 as the Volume of Inspiration, or to describe it by 
 any of those titles in which devout Christians in 
 all ages have endeavoured to embody their sense 
 of the unique and precious character of the book. 
 And so we find, as a matter of experience, that 
 thousands of plain practical men and women do 
 reverence the Bible as the utterance of God's 
 Spirit, and make it the rule of their life, and never 
 find any cause to imagine that they have been 
 following a delusion, but contrariwise gain from 
 year to year an increased and evergrowing convic- 
 tion, that they liave been following the true light, 
 which God has in His mercy given for their guid- 
 ance in the darkness of this world. But as soon 
 as the question, — AYliat is the Bible ? becomes one 
 of science and not of religion, then forthwith a 
 hundred difficulties start up, which were not seen 
 before ; those phrases which embodied the reveren- 
 tial feelings of a Christian soul, and which were 
 precious as discharging that office, are found to 
 lose much of their meaning as soon as they are 
 submitted to a scientific analysis,— or at least, those 
 words and phrases which seemed to the religious 
 mind to express the whole truth of tlie matter, and 
 
of Holy Scriptu7'e. 79 
 
 which indeed were to such a mind vehicles of most lect. 
 
 V. 
 
 valuable truth, are found to require definition and L_ 
 
 exjilanation before they possess any scientific value 
 at all. The simple Christian may well be content 
 to believe, that all Scripture is given hy inspiration ^ J^"^- "i- 
 of God, and is profitahle for doctrine, for reproof 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that 
 the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished 
 unto all good weighs ; but the theologian has to ask 
 and answer the question, — What does Inspiration 
 mean ? 
 
 Of course such questions as this must be asked: The scien- 
 it is with no desire of representing scientific theo- ment is' 
 logical inquiries as unnecessary or mischievous, 2ecSsary. 
 that I draw the distinction between the manner in 
 which the character of the Bible, as the inspired 
 book, presents itself to a simple Christian, and 
 that in which it presents itself to the mind of a 
 theological student. I know very well, that all 
 investigations of truth rightly conducted must be 
 for good ; and not only so, but that positive evil 
 must arise from the absence of such investiga- 
 tions : for this result would almost certainly follow, 
 that views which have approved themselves to 
 certain devotional minds would be maintained as 
 being scientifically true, and necessary to be held 
 by all Christians as articles of faith ; and the 
 attempt to fix upon all minds a yoke, which they 
 would certainly be unable to bear, would probably 
 have the effect of driving many to indifference, and 
 some to infidelity. And indeed it is a question 
 worthy of solemn consideration, whether almost as 
 much mischief has not been done to the cause of 
 Christian faith, by those who have endeavoured to 
 
80 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. force upon their brethren untenable views of the 
 - — ^ — nature of the Holy Scriptures, as by those who 
 have rudely treated them as merely human books. 
 The true And here I would observe, that the question of 
 
 inspiration tlic meaning of the term inspiration, as applied to 
 c^ssfnUy ^lic Scripturcs, is one, concerning which we cannot 
 chn^tkn ^^°P® ^^ ^^"^ ^^ much light from the opinions of 
 antiquity. Christian antiquity, as we may in the case of some 
 others. Indeed it seems to me to be essentially a 
 modern question ; —one, the great interest and im- 
 portance of which are found in the general tone 
 given to human thought by the accuracy of modern 
 methods in all branches of scientific and learned 
 research. It may perhaps be said with truth, that 
 to have to deal with questions of this kind, is one 
 of the peculiar trials of thinking men in this age ; 
 and to shew how they may be treated, without 
 turning our backs upon principles recognised in all 
 branches of human knowledge, is a work, which, if 
 well performed, would be almost the greatest boon 
 conceivable to the Christian Church. It helps us 
 little to be able to say, that the Scriptures were in 
 all ages reverenced as inspired, to quote the devout 
 expressions of respect with which they were ever 
 mentioned by the fithers of the Church ; for though 
 See Note ^g jj^^y coucludo from this, that a doctrine of in- 
 spiration was always held (concerning which in 
 fact there can be no manner of doubt), we may still 
 find ourselves at a loss, when we endeavour to say, 
 what that doctrine was, or whether it be now 
 tenable. 
 Allusion to On this account I shall not dwell upon that, 
 tion in the wliicli somo pcrsons might consider to be a very 
 (jreej''" important view of this subject, namely, the general 
 
of Holy Scripture. 81 
 
 opinion of ancient Cliristian writers. I shall how- lect. 
 
 ever not fail to notice, that the almost total omis- '. 
 
 sion of any reference to a doctrine of Inspiration 
 in the Creeds of the Church is a fact of some im- 
 portance, both as illustrating the feeling upon 
 the question in early times, and as indicating the 
 probable danger of dogmatizing too positively in 
 the present day. The only allusion to the subiect See Lee 
 
 appears to be the sentence in the Nicene Creed, in sjnmtmi 
 which we profess our faith in the Holy Ghost, luho sa-ipture, 
 spale hy the prophets; the Creed thus declaring ^^^^ ^^' 
 that the Third Person in the blessed Trinity, in 
 whom we Christians believe, was no new agent in 
 the world, sent into it for the first time by our 
 Lord Christ at His Ascension, but the same who 
 had dwelt in the ancient Church, and had taught 
 the prophets to speak mysteries. And here, be it 
 observed, we have a full declaration of the fact, 
 that the Holy Spirit does speak in the Church, but 
 no attempt whatever to define the mode or measure 
 of His Inspiration. 
 
 Nor can I fail to observe also in this connec- The ab- 
 tion, that although English divines have written fiSon of 
 so often and so much upon the question of inspira- J/oS'Sm 
 tion, and have sometimes assumed that there is a ^^''. ^^™^" 
 
 ' lanes oi 
 
 certain orthodox view on the subject, still if we t^e Church 
 look to the formularies of the Church of England land. 
 we shall find, that there is a remarkable absence 
 of dogmatic determination of the question. The 
 Articles speak of Holy Scripture containing all Art. vi. 
 things necessary to salvation, and they tell us that 
 under the name of Holy Scripture are understood 
 certain Canonical Boohs, of ivhose authority ivas 
 never any doubt in the Chnrch ; they affirm more- 
 
82 21ie Inspiration 
 
 LECT. over, that the Chuix-h, although it has authority in 
 
 '. Controversies of Faith, yet may not so expound 
 
 one place of Scy^ipture that it he repugnant to 
 Art. XX. another ; and in speaking of rites and ceremonies, 
 it is provided, that in them nothing be ordained 
 contrary to God's Word. Thus the supremacy 
 of the Holy Scriptures, the inappellable character 
 of their authority, their truly divine nature as 
 emphatically God's Word, all this is acknowledged ; 
 but no phrase, or word, or hint occurs, as to the 
 manner in which that divine influence was com- 
 municated to the writers, in virtue of which they 
 are said to have been inspired. And perhaps from 
 such omission it might be deemed no unfair con- 
 clusion, that in the judgment of the Church of 
 England this subject is most safely left in obscurity ; 
 but whether we draw this conclusion or not, this we 
 certainly may do, we may claim the liberty which 
 the Church allows us, and we may refuse to admit the 
 authority of any private decision of a question, which 
 the Church has, aj^parently with design, left open. 
 This Let me however guard against being misunder- 
 
 tobe^^°^ stood. I by no means wish to turn the liberty, 
 abused, ^hich the Church gives us, into license. I do not 
 wish to take advantage of the absence of dogmatic 
 determination of the question of the manner of 
 the inspiration of Holy Scripture, for the purpose 
 of insinuating any low and insufficient views of 
 that inspiration : it would be dishonest to pretend 
 to mistake an abstinence from definition of the 
 manner, for an implied negation of the fact. Doubt- 
 less no words could have expressed too strongi}- 
 for the judgment of those concerned in the compo- 
 sition of the Articles of the Church of England, the 
 
of Holy Scripture. 83 
 
 doctrine of the infallible authority of Holy Writ ; lect. 
 
 the instances which have been quoted prove this '- — 
 
 abundantly ; and indeed, when they spoke of the 
 Scriptures as God's Word, what could they do 
 more ? What more plenary inspiration could they 
 assert for the Bible, than by calling it the Word 
 of God ? All that they omitted to do was, to 
 define scientifically, in what manner the message 
 of God to mankind came to assume the form of a 
 human book, — by what process God's speech be- 
 came clothed in human language, — how much of 
 human fallibility was introduced by this human 
 garb, — how far the indwelling Spirit of God pre- 
 served the book from possibility of corruption : 
 all this, the consideration of which the Articles of 
 the Church of England have expressly avoided, 
 precisely constitutes the task, with which some- 
 times modern divines have perplexed themselves, 
 and not unfrequently their readers too. And while 
 I admit that divines have a right to speculate 
 upon such points if they will, I think we may 
 protest against their conclusions being canonized as 
 ortliodox, — not only on the ground of the injustice 
 of putting upon our necks a yoke which the Church 
 does not put upon them, but also upon much more 
 general grounds, — because the freezing up of the 
 living principle of the utterance of the Holy Ghost 
 by human lips into some dry formula of plenary, 
 verbal, or literal inspiration, does seem as well 
 fitted as almost any process conceivable to expose 
 the whole fabric of the faith, and the character of 
 Holy Scripture, to the rude attacks of subtle ad- 
 versaries. In one word, I would desire to maintain 
 the freedom which the Church of England permits, 
 
 g2 
 
See Note 
 25. 
 
 84 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. not because I wish to degi'ade the Bible into a 
 
 '- — human book, but just because I am anxious to 
 
 uphold its character as the Book of Scripture given 
 hy inspiration of God. 
 Objection Now it will not bc according to the plan of this 
 
 theories of Lccturo to discuss the various theories, which have 
 tiT"" been devised by different divines, of the Inspiration 
 of Holy Scripture : but it will be necessary for me 
 to state an objection, which appears to me to lie 
 against the greater number of such theories. At- 
 tention does not seem to have been duly given to 
 the fact, that the word inspiration must in the 
 nature of things be a word used to express a certain 
 quality of a book known upon other grounds to 
 exist, and cannot rightly be regarded as a word 
 from which by a deductive process the qualities of 
 the book can be determined. A writer starts for 
 instance with the principle, that the Bible is in- 
 spired, — is the Word of God, — is the message of 
 God to man, — or the like ; and from this principle 
 undertakes to assert, that certain propositions must 
 be true concerning it. He says, for example, that it 
 cannot contain any statements contrary to the truths 
 of science, or that it cannot contain historical eiTors 
 as to matters of fact, or that it cannot contain inter- 
 nal discrepancies. Now I do not say, that any one 
 of these characteristics, declared to be impossible, 
 does in reality belong to the Bible ; but I wish to 
 know upon what principle any one can venture to 
 assert positively, that the discovery of their exist- 
 ence strips the Bible of its divine character ? If 
 we had any other instance of a divine record, from 
 the examination of which we could deduce a know- 
 ledge of the general features which belong to such 
 
of Holy Scripture. 85 
 
 utterances of God's Spirit, we might then perhaps lect. 
 
 be in a state to say, whether the Bible satisfies the ^ 
 
 necessary conditions or not ; but seeing that by 
 hypothesis the Bible stands by itself, — that its very 
 name asserts for it an unique existence, as the 
 Book, /car' e^oxnv, — it seems manifestly contrary to 
 all sound principles of reasoning to undertake to 
 say, a p7'iori, what it must or must not be, to make 
 its name the rule for judging of its contents, instead 
 of an expression descriptive ■ of contents whose 
 quality is otherwise determined. Yet this is the 
 principle, upon which the question of inspiration is 
 frequently argued ; and so it is, that writers fret 
 themselves, for instance, to shew that the Mosaic 
 cosmogony can be brought into harmony with 
 modern science, and that many who read their 
 wiitings feel an anxiety about the issue ; or that 
 some speak unworthily of scientific results, because 
 it is assumed that a discrepancy established would 
 damage the claim of the Scriptures to divine in- 
 spiration. And the notion of the possibility of 
 historical inaccuracies, errors as to matters of fact, 
 is combated upon ground of the same kind. Now, 
 of course, the Mosaic cosmogony is a fair subject 
 for examination; any one, who reverences the 
 Scriptures, will beheve that there are good reasons 
 why it should be such as it is ; so also is the 
 historical character of the various sacred books, 
 and our faith must be small if we fear the results 
 of the study of them ; but I submit, that it is 
 contrary to all sound principles to examine either 
 the one or the other, with the foregone conclusion 
 that certain results will destroy the claim to in- 
 spiration, when we have no other means of knowing 
 
An illus 
 tration. 
 
 86 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. what the inspkation of a book means, besides the 
 
 — '- — examination of these very writings. 
 
 Let me illustrate, by reference to a somewhat 
 parallel case, the danger of asserting a priori what 
 inspiration must or must not imply. I say a some- 
 ivhat jKirallel case, because there are obvious dis- 
 tinctions between the case which I am about to 
 adduce and that of Holy Scripture, while at the 
 same time there is enough of resemblance to enable 
 us to transfer to one a lesson of caution gained 
 from the other. Of all God's works there is one, 
 which stands out conspicuously from the rest as 
 the fairest and most noble : that work is Man : and 
 of Man we read, that God breathed into his nostrils 
 the breath of life, and man became a living soid, — 
 an inspired work of God this, if ever there were 
 one : now suppose that we should take our stand 
 upon the assertion of man's inspiration, and pretend 
 to declare what must be the character and properties 
 of a being created in God's image, and inspired by 
 His Spirit ; what attributes should we consider to 
 be too exalted ? and should we not shrink with 
 instinctive horror from the thought, that this in- 
 spired work of God would rebel against his Maker 
 upon the first temptation offered ? I do not msh to 
 overstate the analogy between this case and that of 
 Holy Scripture, regarded as inspired ; but certainly 
 we are justified in making use of such analogy as 
 exists, for the purpose of warning us, that as the 
 history of man's fall would have unquestionably 
 belied any previously drawn conclusions as to the 
 character of man, so it is unwise and dangerous in 
 any other case to fancy, that we can certainly de- 
 clare, what must be the characteristics of any person 
 
of Holy Scripture. 87 
 
 or thing, in which God's Spirit is said to dwell. If lect. 
 
 w^e are deceived in the case of a man, why should '- 
 
 we dogmatize positively in that of a book ? 
 
 It may be further remarked, that the modest ^te 
 
 . cautious 
 
 and cautious tone of mind, taught by the expe- tone of 
 rience of modern science, might well have suggested cuicated 
 the rashness of the method of treating theological sdence.^™ 
 subjects, so frequently adopted by divines. The 
 old Greek philosopher would take some general 
 principle, the truth of which he imagined that he 
 could discover in the nature of things, or which he 
 assumed as a mere hypothesis, and from this prin- ^'^'^ 
 
 '^ ^ ' i Whewell's 
 
 ciple he would construct a cosmos ; and we all History of 
 know the result of this philosophizing ; we all the Sd- 
 know that it issued in emptiness, that it did not ^"'^'^^' 
 (as indeed it could not) lead to any knowledge 
 of the secrets of nature ; it led to systems, and 
 schools, and strifes, and debates, but did not 
 advance mankind upon the road to truth ; and the 
 real path of truth was then entered upon, when 
 throwing aside all vague hypotheses, as to what 
 must or what must not be, philosophers were 
 content to become as little children, and to examine 
 teach ably and humbly what really was. It may 
 seem strange, that this same principle of seeking 
 truth should not have entered more fully than it 
 has into theological investigations. I do not say, 
 that the method of physics requires no modification 
 when it is applied to theology ; but certainly the 
 principle of seeking truth must in the two sciences 
 be the same; and certainly also, we frequently 
 find in our own days methods apj^lied in divinity, 
 partaking of that same fallacious character, which 
 in physics has been long ago exploded, and the 
 
88 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. destruction of which gives date to the true birth- 
 - — '- — day of modern scientific knowledge, 
 inspira- Kes^arding then the question of the Inspiration 
 
 tion re- o o T. 1 
 
 garded of the Bible from the point of view proposed as 
 point of the basis of these Lectures, I may, perhaps, best 
 Toning express what I wish to convey by saying, that 
 Lectures i^^^^^d of making faith in our Lord Jesus Christ 
 depend upon the doctrine of inspiration, I would 
 rather give as the chief ground for my belief that 
 the Bible is an inspired book, — that it may, in the 
 truest sense, be called the Word of God, — this 
 great and weighty reason, that it testifies of Christ. 
 Professing to believe in Jesus Christ, according to 
 the Nicene Creed, and taking the Bible as the 
 record of Him, who is that which the Creed de- 
 clares Him to be, and who has done that which 
 the Creed declares Christ to have done, I see no 
 better way of describing that book than by saying 
 that it is emphatically God's own book, — His mes- 
 sage, — His word. I may be told that the Creeds 
 rest upon the Bible, and that, therefore, the Bible 
 must not be made to rest upon the Creeds ; this 
 however is scarcely a true representation of the 
 fact, for, historically, the Creeds do not rest on the 
 Bible, they are well-known to have an independent 
 foundation ; and though we rightly say that they 
 may be proved out of Scripture, still they have an 
 additional value, as having not been themselves 
 extracted from Scripture, and, therefore, as inde- 
 pendent epitomes of the faith throwing a very 
 valuable light upon Scripture. But granting that 
 this were otherwise, that is, granting that the 
 Creeds should be regarded merely as formulae 
 drawn from the Bible, as any Christian might 
 
of Holy Scripture. 89 
 
 extract the chief articles of faith from that source lect. 
 
 ill our own days, still there would be nothing illo- — 
 
 gical in the view now given ; because, in order to 
 fix our faith upon our Lord Jesus Christ, in ac- 
 cordance with the Creeds, we should manifestly 
 have no absolute need of any doctrine of inspiration 
 whatever, but only of the persuasion that the four 
 Gospels were worthy of credit, regarded simply as 
 ordinary human histories. The question of belief 
 in Christ may obviously be argued, independently 
 of any doctrine of inspiration ; and, indeed, there 
 are undeniably many earnest Christians, — men who 
 hold all the mysterious facts and doctrines con- 
 cerning our blessed Lord, — who would, neverthe- 
 less, reject every one of the theories of inspiration 
 usually supported in this country. I am not say- 
 ing, that there is no true doctrine of inspiration, 
 but only that belief in our Lord Jesus Christ is 
 possible without any question concerning inspira- 
 tion being mooted ; just as belief was possible 
 during His own abode upon earth, when men were 
 able to see with their eyes and hear with their i joim i. 
 ears, and handle with their hands the very Word 
 of Life, and no written medium of His Gospel 
 was needed at alj. Suppose, then, that we have 
 been led (it matters not how) to believe in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, which is the prime necessity of 
 every human soul ; it may have been by learning 
 the faith from our mothers' lips, or we may have 
 found it in the Creeds of the Catholic Church, or 
 have gained it by study of the Gospels, or in any 
 other way ; but suppose that we have been led to 
 faith in Christ, then may we not fairly stand upon 
 this Rock, this sure foundation, this corner-stone 
 
90 TJie Inspiration 
 
 LECT. laid in Zion, and from it contemplate the structure 
 and character of the Bible ? And if we find, that 
 
 the very end and purpose of that book are to tes- 
 tify of Christ, that His person crosses the first 
 page of it in a mystic shadow, and that the sub- 
 stance of that person becomes more and more 
 clearly portrayed in it as the fulness of time 
 approaches, and that it is His birth, and life, and 
 death, and resurrection, and ascension, and the 
 development of His kingdom, which alone give 
 unity to all the scattered elements of which the 
 Bible is composed, — that this is what makes it 
 a hook, and not a mere bundle of Hebrew anti- 
 quities, — then may we not rightly make use of 
 this its great aim and purpose, in order to describe 
 the character of its contents ? Need we fear to 
 say, that the book has been inspired by God's 
 Spirit, that it is in the highest sense God's Word, 
 when we recognise Christ as the great subject of 
 its teaching ? 
 
 .\n objec- It may perhaps be urged, that the Scriptures 
 
 were regarded as inspired before Christ came into 
 the world ; and I might answer, that, although this 
 is perfectly true, yet the thing which we need is, 
 not so much the fact that the Jews reverenced their 
 Scriptures as the word of God, as a locus standi 
 from which we as Christians can conscientiously 
 do the same. But I would rather lay stress upon 
 the following remark, namely, that in reality the 
 Jews did estimate their books upon a principle 
 nearly identical with that which I am proposing 
 for Christians ; they valued those books, because 
 they contained the history of their national re- 
 demption ; they did not regard themselves as the 
 
 tion con 
 sidered, 
 
of Holy ScrijDtiire. 91 
 
 Church of God, merely because they had the lect. 
 authority of a book to which to appeal, but they ' 
 beheved what they had heard with their ears, and 
 what their fathers had told them of the great works 
 done in the time of old; they joined in the worship 
 of Jehovah, they kept His sabbath, they pre- 
 sented themselves at the Passover, they believed 
 in the efficacy of sacrifice and in the forgiveness of 
 sins, and they valued their sacred books because 
 they threw more light than anything else upon 
 the privileges which they enjoyed. At least, 
 whether this be actually the view taken of the 
 Scriptures by a Jew or no, certainly it is a view ^fe Deut. 
 
 1^ '^ "^ . VI. 20 — 23. 
 
 which he might very reasonably have taken, if the 
 tone of thought in olden days had led men to 
 analyze the meaning of their words, when they 
 spoke of their sacred books as being the Word of 
 God ; and be it observed, it is a view, from which 
 he could not have been driven, by the alleged 
 existence in the books, either of historical inaccu- 
 racies or of scientific errors. 
 
 I professed in the opening of this sermon, that Perhaps 
 
 Til • • n I • 1 I J 1 '^*^ theoi-y 
 
 i had no intention 01 presenting a complete theory possible. 
 of inspiration ; indeed I believe that no theory is 
 necessary, and that probably all theories will be 
 found incomplete ; as the operation of the Spirit in 
 the heart and life of man, according to our Lord's 
 own words to Nicodemus, is past human ken, the s. .John iii 
 commencement and conclusion of the regenerating 
 work alike lying beyond the limits of a theory, so 
 probably the same character will be found to belong 
 to the operations of the same Spirit, when its work 
 is to convey the mind of God in human utterances 
 to man. You will bear in mind, however, that 
 
92 The Iiwpiration 
 
 LECT. what has been said in this sermon by no means 
 '. — adjudicates between different theories of inspira- 
 tion ; whether any of them be tenable, or whether 
 it be a question which is the least untenable, still 
 we need a ground upon which to stand, deeper 
 and stronger than them all, and that ground is 
 Christ Himself; Christ is greater than all theories, 
 and he who believes in Him will not be confounded. 
 The true support of the human soul, which realises 
 the horror of being without God in the world, is 
 not to believe that God has spoken by a book 
 precisely in this manner, or precisely in that, but 
 to believe that God, who has spoken to mankind 
 Heb, i. 1, 2. at various times and in divers manners, has spoken 
 unto us hy His Son. If this be the uppermost 
 thought in an earnest mind, all other things will 
 be added ; and a devout Christian may say con- 
 The cha- corning the Bible, — there is much in the form and 
 the Bible the substance of this book, which I find it diflScult 
 to^' ■ to reconcile with any theory ; much perhaps that 
 is different from what I should have expected to 
 discover in the Scriptures of God ; much which 
 when I think upon it appears too hard for me ; but 
 I am sure, that I am right in speaking of it, and 
 prizing it, as the Word of God, because I find that 
 from one end to the other it testifies of Christ. 
 
 The limits, which it is desirable to put to a 
 pulpit discourse, prevent me from developing more 
 fully to-day the view which I have attempted to 
 lay before you; and I must defer to my next 
 lecture some additional remarks, which I think 
 very necessary to be made. I wish especially to 
 shew the advantage of the mode of considering the 
 
 Christ. 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
of Holy Scripture. 93 
 
 subject here advocated, with reference to that class lect. 
 
 of difficulties, which some of the ordinary views of '- 
 
 inspiration enable a caviller, or a scoffer, to throw 
 in a young Christian's way. And I wish also to 
 guard what has been said against perversion, and 
 to shew that it is no bar to the reception of the 
 profoundest view of the contents of the Bible, that 
 the devoutest Christian was ever yet led to take. 
 Leaving then for my next lecture this very neces- 
 sary supplement to what has been already advanced, 
 allow me to conclude the present with a few words 
 of exhortation, arising immediately from those of 
 our Lord in the text. 
 
 Search the Scriptures, said Christ, for in them The Scrip- 
 ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they studied 
 
 ivhich testify of Me; — epeware Tas ypacpd^ — the '*'^'^''''*^^' 
 
 words may be imperative according to our English 
 version, or they may be a testimony to the zeal with 
 which the Scriptures were studied by the Jews : for 
 ourselves it matters little which way the words 
 be taken, because either way they imply that the 
 Jews had not found the treasures which their 
 books contained, and therefore either way they 
 may be regarded as a warning, that we too may 
 have the Scriptures in our hands, and may not use 
 them aright. 
 
 Now I shrink from the thought of saying any- but with 
 thing concerning the Scriptures, which shall savour 
 of narrow and superstitious views concerning them, 
 and to which the consciences of good and reason- 
 able men will not assent : but these two plain re- 
 marks I submit to you with confidence. 
 
 First. — You cannot search the Scriptures aright, 
 if you treat them as mere subjects for human 
 
 two pre- 
 cautions. 
 
94 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. scliolarsliip, and expect their meaning to be evolved 
 
 '- — by mere exegesis and ingenuity. Useful and 
 
 necessary as all human apphances are, still it is 
 clear, that if the Bible be insj^ired by God's Spirit, 
 it must address itself to what is spiritual in man, 
 and not to his understanding only. It is a book 
 not for scholars, but for men ; and if it be read 
 amiss, what wonder that it should sometimes verify 
 that divine dispensation of which our Lord spoke, 
 5. Luke X. when He rejoiced that things hidden from the wise 
 and prudent were revealed to babes ? 
 
 Secondly. — You cannot search the Scriptures 
 aright, if you approach thein with the assumj^tion, 
 that you are competent to assign beforehand the 
 form which shall belong to an inspired book. If 
 the Bible be God's book, it will certainly partake 
 of that mysterious character which belongs to all 
 the works of God, And therefore to approach in 
 the spirit of one, who would dictate to our Hea- 
 venly Father how He ought to speak, is to come 
 with a temper of mind, which can only be right on 
 the supposition of the Bible not being God's book 
 at all. 
 
 In such ways as these you cannot search aright. 
 You may become learned biblical scholars ; or you 
 may rend the Bible to tatters by ingenious specu- 
 lations, and weave religious theories out of the 
 shreds of it; but you cannot love the Scriptures 
 as the fountain of eternal life. And I know of 
 only one way in which you can do this, — ever 
 finding in the Scriptures new treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge, — ever recognising them, from the 
 very depths of your conscience, and in the full light 
 of your manly reason, as the guide M^liich God has 
 
of Holy Scripture. 95 
 
 given you, — and that way is, to regard them as lect. 
 testifying of Christ. They are they which testify of — ' — 
 Me, said our Lord, speaking of the Old Testament 
 only : much more may we find in the words an 
 argument for searching the Scriptures with diligence 
 and humility and thankfulness, now that the New 
 Testament has been added as the solution of the 
 enigmas of the Old. He who searches thus will 
 not find himself in darkness, because his book will 
 be illuminated by that true light which lightens s. John i 
 every man ivho comes into the ivorlcl. ^' 
 
LECTUEE VI. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, April 29, 1855. 
 
 2 TIM. III. 16, 17. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction in righteousness : 
 
 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly fur- 
 nished unto all good ivorks. 
 
 LECT. In taking this passage as a text for a sermon, in 
 
 '- — continuation of the subject discussed last Sunday, 
 
 repres'e'lits I do not propose to enter into the question, whe- 
 in H^pirc* tlier the English version gives correctly the mean- 
 ticaihear- jj^^. ^f g^ Paul's words, or whether the Apostle 
 
 ing upon o J- 
 
 Christian ghould rather be understood to assert, that all 
 Scripture given by divine inspiration is profitable 
 for doctrine, and the rest : because both methods 
 of construing the language would assume the 
 existence of certain Scriptures, which could be 
 properly characterised as given by inspiration of 
 God ; and neither method would seem to give us 
 more assistance than the other, in defining dogma- 
 tically the limits of the influence described under 
 the name of inspiration. But T have quoted the 
 words of the text for this reason, namely, that they 
 put the whole subject of the inspiration of the 
 Word of Cod in the light, in whicli it ought always 
 
of Holy Scripture. 97 
 
 to be viewed ; they represent the subject in its lect. 
 
 practical bearing upon the Christian life ; Holy '- 
 
 Scripture, being given by inspiration of God, be- 
 comes thereby, according to S. Paul, not a curious 
 problem- for the ingenious, not a stumbling-block 
 for the weak in faith, not a convenient point of 
 attack for the enemy, but profitable to the man of 
 God, — profitable for doctririe, for reproof for cor- 
 rection, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
 man of God may he 'perfect, throughly fiiryiished 
 unto all good works. This is a view of the Scrip- 
 tures which is wholesome at all times ; it is 
 especially one, which I would desire to leave im- 
 pressed upon the minds of those who have listened 
 to these lectures, at a time when for a season the 
 course is brought to a close""" : I should be grieved 
 if the impression remained, that we had been 
 engaged in doubtful disputations, and that the 
 effort had not been honestly made, to bring the 
 subjects discussed into connexion with the practical 
 concerns of Christian life. 
 
 Now, I endeavoured to point out in my last General 
 lecture, that instead of laying down a theory of spiration 
 inspiration, discussing whether it was to be under- Ih^^rT- 
 stood that the writers were by inspiration made L^tlfre. 
 the involuntary penmen of a higher power, or 
 whether they were only preserved from error in 
 matters of fact, or whether they acted under a 
 mere general superintendence, — instead of pursuing 
 a course of this kind, we might very well follow 
 the exactly opposite one ; and, commencing with 
 the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, might 
 
 * The months of April and Octolter are those allotted to the 
 Ilulsean Lectures. 
 
98 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. speak of the Scriptures as the Word of God, or as 
 
 '- — inspired^ with reference to this their great aim and 
 
 purpose, and that having secured this standing- 
 point, we might, without anxiety, examine the 
 Bible, and see what its character appeared to be. 
 Of course it is conceivable, — at least, it is an 
 hypothesis Avhich an unbeliever has a right to 
 make, — that the examination of the book may 
 lead to the discovery of its being so entirely 
 opposed to all principles of morality, as to make it 
 incredible that it should be in an}^ sense the organ 
 of a divine voice speaking to man : but I wish to 
 insist upon the point, that short of some such 
 complete breaking down of the character of the 
 Bible, against which the estimation in which it 
 has been held by thousands of good men, may, 
 perhaps, be deemed a sufficient guarantee, no 
 discrepancy between the notions which we may have 
 formed a priori of what must be or ought to be, and 
 the conclusions which we are compelled to adopt 
 by the examination of facts, ought to have any 
 weight in troubling our minds. Shew me that the 
 incarnation of the Eternal Son is a fact unworthy 
 of the loving character of our Father in Heaven, 
 or that the message of God to man by the human 
 lips of Christ is one which man did not require, or 
 in any way break down the possibility of faith in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and then I admit that the 
 w^hole idea of the Bible vanishes, and that the 
 very notion of inspiration may be a dream; but I 
 submit, that you cannot, by attacking inspiration 
 first, overthrow the Christian faith afterwards, and 
 that it is a matter very nearly concerning our peace 
 not to attach our minds to any such particular 
 
of Holy Sci'ijJture. 99 
 
 view of the Bible, as that we should tremble for lect. 
 
 the stability of our faith in the event of that view '- — 
 
 being placed in jeopardy. 
 
 For be it observed, (and I think that it is worth The entire 
 
 . loss oi the 
 
 while to consider the extreme case,) that the entire Scriptures 
 loss of the Scriptures would not of necessity destroy be the loss 
 the Christian faith : great as would be the loss F^ith. 
 involved, and deeply as all wise and good men 
 would deplore it, still the entire disappearance of 
 the book from the earth would not prevent us 
 from holding our faith in Him, who is the ever- 
 living Word of God. And this being so, it is 
 incredible that the safety of the faith should be 
 dependent upon the maintenance of some particu- 
 lar theory, as to the manner in which the contents 
 of the Bible came to be that which they are. Of 
 course, any demonstration of the falsity of what the 
 New Testament contains would be a disproof of 
 the Christian faith ; but I am not now arguing 
 concerning the credit due to the writers of the 
 New Testament, regarded as human authors, but 
 as to the claim which they may have to be regarded 
 in a light higher than human, and as to what that 
 light may be : and I wish to lay stress upon the 
 point, that it is both unwise and unnecessary to 
 predicate a certain character as belonging to the 
 Scriptures, the disproof of which may damage our 
 faith in Christ, and the proof of which is not 
 essential to that faith. 
 
 I now return to the position from which we Apphca- 
 have already contemplated the doctrine of inspira- views of 
 tion, and shall endeavour to point out the manner ^^^^ll ^q' 
 in which it enables us to regard several questions pprtlnt"" 
 of considerable importance. And the principle q^iestions. 
 
TOO The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. upon which I desire to rest is this, that having 
 '- — taken the term insjm^ed to imply the great aim 
 
 and purpose of Holy Scripture, as the record of 
 the revelation of God to man in Jesus Christ, we 
 may safely trust ourselves to examine candidly the 
 phenomena of the structure of the Bible, and need 
 not be either alarmed or surprised, if we find that 
 in this, as in many other instances, God's ways are 
 different from our own, and His manner of inspiring 
 His book different from what we might have ex- 
 pected it to be. 
 The purity For cxamplc, it was not an unnatural, nor by 
 of Scrip^-^ any means a discreditable thought, that God would 
 ^^^^' by His special providence preserve the purity of 
 His own Word, so far as the text is concerned, in a 
 manner which does not belong to books in general. 
 See Note Reasouiug « priovi men came to the conclusion, 
 that if the Bible were inspired, it must be so pre- 
 served: if not, they foresaw possible evils, which 
 might destroy its character; it might in process of 
 time become seriously corrupt, one copy might 
 contradict another, it might be impossible to say 
 what God had really spoken. Much pious feehng 
 would be on the side of this view; and it would 
 maintain its ground, until scholars collated the 
 copies ; and then they would see, that in matter of 
 fact there were varieties of reading in this, as in 
 other books, — that the same rules, which were 
 necessary to correct the errors of other manuscripts, 
 applied to those of the Scriptures, — that here, as in 
 the case of human books, there was employment 
 for all the skill that could be brought to bear. 
 Now I do not know, to what extent the faith of a 
 person, who had been educated in tlio belief that 
 
of Holy Scri2yture. 101 
 
 the purity of the text of Scripture was preserved lect. 
 by superhuman means, would be shaken by the '— 
 
 discovery that the purity was not absolute ; but I 
 wish to observe, that according to that view of the 
 question which I am advocating, there ought to be 
 no connexion between the stability of a Christian's 
 faith and such a discovery ; because the state of the 
 text of the Bible, the manner in which the copies 
 had been preserved, and all the accompanying 
 circumstances, would be regarded as matters not to 
 be determined upon speculative princijDles, but to 
 be submitted to examination and inquiry. And if 
 it be found, that the copies of the Scriptures are 
 not free from errors of text and the like, then I 
 conclude that the inspiration of them does not 
 involve the preservation of writings in perfect 
 purity ; I might have fancied that it would, but I 
 find as a matter of fact, that it does not. The in- 
 vestigation of the question may probably lead us to 
 perceive, that the copies of the Scriptures have in 
 reality been preserved with remarkable care ; and 
 there may be found, in the midst of trifling varia- 
 tions, a substantial purity, which we may attribute 
 to the reverence with which the books were ever 
 regarded, or to the good providence of God, ac- 
 cording to the point of view from which we 
 accustom ourselves to regard such matters; but 
 whatever be the result, it will flow from observa- 
 tion of facts, and not from the definition of a term. 
 
 Again : it may be argued, that if the Holy Jj'j'e possi- 
 Scriptures be insi^ired, they cannot contain any- scientific 
 
 . II' errors in 
 
 thing contrary to science ; that their contents must Scripture. 
 be true, and therefore in accordance with the truths ^^^ ^°^^ 
 which human investigation has discovered; and 
 
102 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. some persons will say, that if there be a discrepancy 
 
 '- — human science must give way to inspiration. With 
 
 regard to which last point, I will remark by the 
 way, that persons holding such language prove 
 that they do not know what science is, that they 
 have not the preparation of mind necessary to 
 enable them to estimate the meaning of scientific 
 certainty ; for if they had, they w^ould not speak of 
 human science giving way to any source of informa- 
 tion whatever, they would know that the accredited 
 conclusions of science are of a nature to force 
 assent from all those, whose education and powers 
 of mind enable them to appreciate the evidence. 
 Hence it is sheer folly to talk of influencing the 
 conclusions of science ; she has an apj^ointed, and a 
 divinely appointed, path, in which no man is able 
 successfully, and no wise man will attempt, to in- 
 terfere with her. But there has been, as we know, 
 from the days of Galileo downwards, a constant 
 fear, lest the conclusions of science should contra- 
 dict the statements of the Bible, and abundance of 
 books have been written in order to prevent a 
 collision : how far such books have been successful, 
 it does not now concern me to inquire ; that which 
 my present subject leads me to assert is this, that 
 the question Avhether the physical statements of 
 the Bible are scientifically accurate is not to be 
 prejudicated by any assumed view of inspiration, 
 but after due inquiry to be decided upon the 
 evidence. Divine inspiration may imply an absence 
 of errors upon physical questions, or it may not : 
 who shall venture to say positively a priori whe- 
 ther it does, or no ? much general reasoning might 
 probably be brought on either side, — but why 
 
of Holy Scripture. 103 
 
 have recourse to general reasoning ? is it clear that lect. 
 the question needs to be settled definitively at all'? 
 
 or if there be such a need, why not endeavour by 
 looking to the evidence to see on which side the 
 truth lies ? and if it should appear upon examina- 
 tion, that the first chapter of Genesis, or any other 
 chapter, contains statements not in accordance 
 with science, then, instead of coming to the con- 
 clusion that the Scriptures are not inspired, I should 
 rather come to this, namely, that the idea of in- 
 spiration does not involve that accuracy concerning 
 physics, which many persons have imagined that it 
 does. Observe, I am not now making any state- 
 ment of opinion concerning the scientific character 
 of the Bible, but am maintaining, that if it should 
 prove that an adherence to scientific precision has 
 not been one of the laws of its composition, we are 
 not thereby compelled to say, that it cannot be the 
 AVord of God. 
 
 A similar remark holds concerninsf the histori- Possibility 
 
 of histori- 
 cal character of the Bible. Doubtless we have a cai errors. 
 
 right to expect historical accuracy, on the part of^®®^*'*® 
 
 those who undertake to chronicle events, whether 
 
 sacred or profane ; and I should suppose, that no 
 
 one in these days would venture to support the 
 
 charge of wilful falsehood against the sacred 
 
 writers ; on the other hand, there are in the writers 
 
 of the New Testament, with whom we are chiefly 
 
 concerned, most patent marks of honesty and 
 
 sincerity, which a person must be blind not to see ; 
 
 but whether in virtue of that quality, which we call 
 
 inspiration, there be in the case of the writers of 
 
 Scripture an absolute safety from error, whether by 
 
 any superintending power they have been preserved 
 
104 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. from mistake as to matters of fact, is a point not to 
 
 '- — be assumed but to be investigated. It may be so, 
 
 and there may be probable grounds for thinking 
 that it is so ; but to say that it must be so, in virtue 
 of the imputed quality of inspiration, is to beg the 
 whole question of what inspiration means. It is 
 very easy to imagine a flij^pant style of criticism, 
 which our reverence for a book regarded by us as 
 the Word of God may render offensive to devout 
 minds, and which may be injurious to those who 
 practise it ; but if the accuracy of the Scripture 
 records be tested by sound methods of historical 
 criticism, we should shew ourselves very faint- 
 hearted believers if we trembled for the result ; and 
 if it should be shewn, beyond reasonable doubt, 
 that the Scripture story is not free from those 
 historical errors, which we discover in the most 
 carefully written of human productions, then the 
 only necessary conclusion is this, that inspiration 
 does not involve that quality, which we might have 
 been led to expect that it would. 
 Possibility And so once more, with rea^ard to alleg-ed 
 discrepan- coutradictions between one part of Scripture and 
 Ste Note ^^^other ; we might be disposed to deny on general 
 29- religious grounds, the possibility of such contra- 
 
 dictions ; it might very plausibly be argued, that 
 the Bible is all the utterance of the same God, and 
 must be therefore ever consistent with itself; and 
 so, no doubt, as to its great purposes and aims, it 
 not only must he, but manifestly is; but whether 
 this general unity and consistency necessitates an 
 exact agreement in all subordinate statements of 
 fact, and the like, is a question to be decided upon 
 the evidence. And I think that the man, who is 
 
of Holy Scripture. 105 
 
 most distant in feeling from a simplehearted Chris- lect. 
 
 tian, will not wonder, that they who reverence the L- 
 
 Scriptures as we reverence them, should be very 
 jealous of allowing the existence of anything which 
 might even seem to be a defect; and this jealousy 
 has led to a careful examination of many alleged dis- 
 crepancies, and the entire removal of some of them ; 
 and the investigations thereby necessitated have (I 
 believe) frequently led to a more grounded convic- 
 tion of the trustworthy character of the records. 
 As to whether all alleged discrepancies have been 
 cleared away, it is beyond the scope of my argu- 
 ment to hazard an opinion ; I only desire to press 
 the point, that the question of inspiration or non- 
 inspiration does not depend upon the issue. If 
 indeed it should appear, that among the multitude 
 of independent writers, of places and times so 
 widely different as those occupied by the sacred 
 authors, there can be discovered no discrepancy of 
 statement of the minutest kind, then the result is 
 so marvellous, that it may very well be concluded 
 that there was some special agency at work to 
 bring it about; but if on the other hand it should 
 appear, that there are discrepancies, admitted to be 
 such by all competent judges, then why should we 
 peril the character of the faith by an assertion that 
 such things cannot be? and why not rather make 
 the reply, the reasonableness of which I am endea- 
 vouring to impress, namely, that the result proves, 
 that inspiration does not involve that minute in- 
 fallibility, which we were disposed upon general 
 grounds to imagine that it did ? Misunde 
 
 And here let me be pardoned, if, in considera- standing 
 
 /.TIT PI 1 guarded 
 
 tion of the delicate nature oi the ground upon against. 
 
106 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. which I am treading, and the danger of giving 
 
 '■ — offence to religious feelings, which I would desire 
 
 on all accounts not to offend, I urge in general as 
 to all the points now mentioned that which has 
 already been said with regard to some of them, 
 that I am not at this present time desiring to sup- 
 port an oj^inion as to the side upon which the truth 
 lies, but only to protest against the character of our 
 most holy faith being staked upon foregone con- 
 clusions as to what the Bible must or must not be. 
 I desire to speak of its inspiration with reference 
 to those great purposes and aims which manifestly 
 belong to it, to recognise it as God's Word chiefly 
 because it is a record of God's revelation to our 
 race in Jesus Christ His Son, and then to leave it 
 as a matter for reverent and cautious inquiry, what 
 (as regards details) the nature and character of the 
 book may be. And if it should prove different in 
 many respects from our anticipations, we shall have 
 studied the works of God in nature to little pur- 
 pose, if we have not learned to hush rebellious 
 thoughts, when we find that in revelation as in 
 nature His ways are different from those which 
 man would attribute to Him. We find in science 
 a long record of things proving to be different from 
 what men rashly imagined that they must be ; yet, 
 in all cases, the law which science has revealed has 
 been far more simple and beautiful than that which 
 men had imagined ; we find also, that the progress 
 of science has had the effect of producing a more 
 thorough appreciation of the mysteries of the 
 universe, and a deeper sense of the narrow limits 
 of human knowledge ; and we see also in the same 
 progress the continual crushing of rash theories by 
 
of Holy Scripture. 107 
 
 stern fact, and the continual proof that God is ^ect. 
 
 above them all. Then why may not the like be '- — 
 
 true in matters concerning religion? why not pre- 
 pare ourselves for the result, that God's actual 
 mode of revealing Himself to us has been wiser 
 and better than we thought, — the true theory of 
 the heavens simpler than the cycles and epicycles, 
 which we had laboriously contrived ? why give up 
 our fliith in Him, who seems to be the one Light 
 of our darkness, because God may be found to 
 have sj)oken to mankind according to other laws, 
 than those anticipated by some amongst ourselves? 
 
 But I now proceed to remark, that although ^'^^^^^^^ 
 the best aground for contemplating the Bible as the tion ex- 
 
 ^ * tended by 
 
 inspired book of God, seems to me to be that examma- 
 which is afforded by the consideration that Jesus scrip^ture^. 
 Christ is the great end of its revelations, I by no 
 means desire to hold back the student of Scripture 
 from further views of the nature of its inspiration, 
 which may probably present themselves if he study 
 God's word aright. Indeed it can hardly be 
 doubted, but that if Jesus Christ be the light which 
 shines from each page of the Bible, there will be 
 mysteries hidden in that book as there are in Him- Coios. n. 3. 
 self, which will make themselves kno^vn only to 
 the liumble and meek : and if the devout student 
 of the Scriptures be led to take of them such 
 views, as to a person looking on from a merely 
 external standing-point seem to be enthusiastic. and 
 untenable, the latter will be guilty of rashness if 
 he venture to condemn views, which he has not 
 taken the right means to understand. It may be 
 true in spiritual things, as in natural, that the light 
 of Heaven has its invisible rays. 
 
108 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. Let me adduce a few examples in illustration 
 
 '- — of the different impressions which will be produced 
 
 ofThTs^eT- upon the minds of different students, according to 
 tension. ^|^^ poiut of vlcw from wliich the Scriptures are 
 contemplated ; — examples which will also help us to 
 perceive, how that intimate and reverential study- 
 may possibly lead us to the adoption of views, 
 which would not have recommended themselves to 
 us on merely external grounds. 
 Form in Let US look, for a first instance, to the form in 
 
 which the ^ • ^ ^ ^• t* t» T 11 1 11 tTT 
 
 Gospel which the life of our Lord has been recorded. We 
 has been havo four liistories, manifestly in a certain sense 
 sir^Ite independent, and yet as manifestly connected : the 
 3°- coincidences between them and the discrepancies 
 
 alike so remarkable, that I believe I am right in 
 saying, that no theory has been yet devised, which 
 has been generally accepted as affording a satis- 
 factory account of the process, through which it 
 came about, that the histories are such as they are. 
 Looked upon from without, this condition of the 
 evangelical history affords a curious literary pro- 
 blem, and perhaps nothing more ; but may not a 
 devout Christian possibly recognise in it something 
 of the operation of that Spirit, by whose direction 
 the Evangelists wrote ? I do not suggest, that this 
 is the way, in which we should have expected inspired 
 documents to manifest their character ; but when we 
 find, that out of all the attempts to portray the 
 Saviour, four alone have by some means stood forth 
 as genuine portraits, that these four recognised origi- 
 nals have yet some connection with each other which 
 no one has been able hitherto to define, and that 
 the fourfold structure of the history is so peculiar, 
 that there is scarcely any objection to the truthful- 
 
of Holy Scripture. 109 
 
 ness of the story which cannot be by the character lect, 
 of the Gospels refuted, — then may. we not recognise ' 
 here a very remarkable form of the Providence of 
 God, watching over the record of His revelation 
 to us in Jesus Christ ? Imagine the Gospels to be 
 other than they are, — more numerous or fewer, — 
 more free from coincidences or less, — exhibiting 
 more apparent discrepancies than the present or 
 not so many, — and I believe that ujDon almost any 
 hypothesis you will find, that the cord upon which 
 the faith hangs would be weakened, and that the 
 evangelical history would be laid more open to the 
 attacks of the ingenious, than in its actual form it 
 is found to be. 
 
 Again : look at the question of prophecy. Here Prophecy. 
 we have abundance of oj^portunity for cavils from ^'''^ ^°*^ 
 those, who look upon the faith wholly from without. 
 It may be maintained, that there really is no such 
 thing as prophecy, — that the predictions of the old 
 Jewish seers referred to the immediate prospects 
 and fortunes of their own country, that even upon 
 this view of them they were seldom fulfilled, — 
 that the announcement of the fulfilment of pro- 
 phecy in the New Testament (especially in S. Mat- 
 thew's Gospel) can only be accounted for from a 
 Jewish standing-point, — and the rest. Objections 
 of this kind may be easily made ; and I quite 
 admit, that the bare notion of the fitting of pre- 
 diction and fulfilment, as of lock and key, is by no 
 means sufiftcient to afli'ord a satisfactory basis for a 
 complete theory of prophecy ; nor do I question, 
 that the visions of the old Jewish seers were in 
 general directed to the condition of their own 
 country, — they said, themselves, that such was the 
 
110 The Iiisjnration 
 
 LECT. case, and I know not why we should disbelieve 
 
 '- — them, — and as to whether their prophecies were 
 
 all fulfilled, that is a question which in the present 
 day it is at least rash to decide in the negative ; 
 but suppose, that setting aside particular considera- 
 tions of this kind, we regard the Christian student 
 as looking to this broad fact, that by some means 
 it came to j^ass that the light of Christ did not burst 
 upon the world in an altogether unexjDected man- 
 ner, — that when the Sun rose men were certainly 
 looking towards the East, — that those old j^rophecies 
 undeniably had had the effect of raising an expec- 
 tation that God would visit His people, — and then 
 you will not wonder, that in this great result he 
 should be led to see the operation of God's Spirit ; 
 you will not wonder that he should speak of those 
 writings as inspired, which did thus prepare the 
 world for the coming of Christ. A minute criticism 
 of language will not break away such a broad 
 ground as this : and further, it will be no occasion 
 for surprise, if it should appear that a student of 
 Scripture starting from this point should not stop 
 here, — if, standing upon this broad ground, he 
 should be led to perceive in a thousand Httle hints 
 and words and phrases, foreshadowings of the 
 kingdom of Christ, which might escape a sceptical 
 inquirer ; even as a mere look may sometimes be 
 full of meaning to hearts which arc sure of each 
 other, and yet may be quite unperccived by those 
 who stand by. 
 ^Iq^'^^J'' Again : we are told by some who have studied 
 tirt-H 't?' the Scriptures, that they find in them an adapta- 
 ourspi- tion to their spiritual wants, which they find no 
 
 ritual . 
 
 wants. where else, or only in such books as have been 
 
of Holy Scripture. Ill 
 
 drawn more or less from the Bible. To say on lect. 
 
 VI 
 
 this ground that the book is inspired, would be to '— 
 
 say that, which, to a person looking upon the ques- 
 tion from without, would have no meaning and 
 carry no weight ; but yet, if a Christian student, See Note 
 who reverences the Scriptures as the revelation of 
 Jesus Christ, should be led by his reading to per- 
 ceive that they reveal to him something more, I 
 do not know why we should lightly question his 
 experience. Nay, if such a reader should be carried 
 into some apparent extravagance in his estimate of 
 the contents of the book which he prizes, and if 
 he should put upon its every word and letter a value 
 which can scarcely be expected to pass current in 
 the world at large, though scientifically we may 
 pronounce him wrong, yet there may possibly be 
 more truth in his error than in our mode of cor- 
 recting him. That woman of Samaria, who had 
 the privilege of an interview with Christ, went 
 back (as you will remember) to her own city, and 
 declared that she had seen a man who told her all s. John iv 
 things that ever she did. Was this true, or was it " ' 
 not ? In one sense it was not ; and the men of 
 Sychar, if disposed to criticise, might easily have 
 proved the woman in error, and might have plau- 
 sibly accused her of allowing religious feeling to 
 run beyond the dictates of cool reason. And yet, 
 was not her statement in the deepest sense true ? 
 She did but express in plain intelligible language 
 the great truth which she felt in her inmost soul, 
 that she had been with one, who could see into her 
 hecirt, who knew what was in her, to whose eye 
 her thoughts were bare : and if any of the Sama- 
 ritans carped and criticised, she might probably 
 
112 The Inspiration 
 
 LECT. find a sufficient explanation of their conduct in 
 
 '- — tliis, that tliey had not been with Christ, and she 
 
 had. You will remember also, that when the men 
 of the city had themselves known Christ and en- 
 tertained Him amongst them, then they also 
 s. John iv. believed, because (as they said) they had heard 
 Him themselves, and known that He was indeed the 
 Christ, the Saviour of the ivorld. It would be 
 endless to refer to all the features of the Bible 
 which illustrate this point : but I will mention one. 
 Think for a moment of the Psalms, — old Hebrew 
 hymns you may call them, if you please, — yes truly, 
 old Hebrew hymns, — some written by a shepherd- 
 boy, who, as he watched his flock by night, medi- 
 tated upon the heavens which declared to him the 
 glory of God, — some by a young hero, who had 
 avenged the insults offered to his country and to 
 his God, and who had excited jealousy and perse- 
 cution by his victory, — some by a king, who had 
 forgotten himself in his prosperity, and who fell 
 into deadly crimes, and, coming to himself again, 
 by repentance poured out his heart in the most 
 touching tones of sorrow, — some recording the 
 mercies of God to Israel, — some lamenting with 
 deepest pathos the sorrows of banishment from 
 their own land, — hymns, in fact, written at divers 
 times and under divers external influences, and yet 
 speaking to the hearts of Christian men and 
 women in these days as the fresh utterance of the 
 voice of God, expressing for them what they think 
 and feel better than they can express it themselves, 
 y revealing to them their own experience, telling them 
 
 all tilings that ever they did, supplying them with 
 meditations in times of sorrow, and words of thank- 
 
of Holy Scripture. 113 
 
 fulness in times of joy, — think, I say, of these lect. 
 
 Psalms, which have been the constant vehicle of '- — 
 
 the worship of the Church in all ages, and which 
 thousands of Christians from S. Augustine down See Note 
 to the patient in Addenbrooke's Hospital, including 
 such men as Richard Hooker, have endorsed as 
 the best expressions of their thoughts and wishes, 
 and joys and sorrows ; and then say, whether we 
 have any light to wonder, that a person who 
 studies and loves them should see in them in a 
 marvellously true sense the work of the Holy 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 And once more : I would say in general, that 2*ures 
 almost all those features of Scripture, which to an suggestive 
 external critic may seem to afford good ground for influence. 
 attack upon its divine character, will probably 
 appear in a very different light to him, who 
 approaches the subject (if I may so speak) from 
 within, who recognises the Scripture as God's word 
 on the ground of its being the record of Christ, 
 and studies it accordingly. The remarkable man- 
 ner of its composition, the apparently fortuitous 
 aggregation of elements so distinct in their origin 
 and their dates, and the harmony which neverthe- 
 less pervades them, the providence which has 
 watched over its preservation, its susceptibility of 
 translation into all human languages, the vitality 
 w^hich is evidenced by its outliving all attacks, the 
 strength of internal evidence with which it com- 
 mends itself to the hearts of the simple, — these, and 
 many other points which cannot be touched upon 
 now, do so thoroughly difference the Bible from any 
 other book, that we cannot wonder if very strong 
 views of its inspiration should be taken by many 
 
 I 
 
114 Tlie Inspiration 
 
 LECT. of those who study it devoutly, and who endeavour 
 ' to act upon its precej^ts. Indeed, I cannot express 
 too strongly my conviction, that views concerning 
 Holy Scripture, which upon merely external grounds 
 may not be capable of being supported, may, 
 nevertheless, commend themselves to devout minds 
 with a power of evidence which no external argu- 
 ment can shake : and while I would protest against 
 particular theories of inspiration being regarded as 
 tests of orthodoxy, and grieve over them when 
 made the shibboleths of party, believing the true 
 ground for speaking of the Bible as God's written 
 word to be this, that it testifies of the living Word 
 s. Johni. who was made flesh, I would equally deprecate any 
 ^'^' attempt to cut down the views of the work of the 
 
 Spirit in the co mposition of the Scripture to such 
 a standard as can be substantiated upon external 
 grounds. They who have studied the Scriptures 
 carefully, and have examined them w4th prayer, 
 and have restrained their souls with discipline, and 
 refreshed them with sacraments, and who have 
 thus communed devoutly and earnestly with that 
 Spirit by whose agency the Scriptures were com- 
 posed, may have obtained an insight into the 
 mysteries of God, which no criticism can give and 
 no criticism can take away : they have laboured 
 for their knowledge, and have a right to the reward 
 which they have earned. Mary was more blessed 
 than Martha, — Martha served Christ in outward 
 
 s. Luke X. thing^s, but Mary sat at His feet and heard His 
 39- ? ' ^ 
 
 words. 
 
 Conciu- Hence, then, we are not to be surprised if we 
 
 find, that persons, looking upon the question of the 
 
 inspiration of Scripture from different points of 
 
 sion 
 
of Hob/ Scripture. 115 
 
 view, adopt different conclusions ; nor even if we lect. 
 
 ourselves should be led by a devotional study of '— 
 
 God's word, to regard it in a way, which might 
 possibly have seemed ujDon external grounds unreal, 
 and enthusiastic, and fanciful. One point only I 
 will endeavour to impress upon you in conclusion, 
 as suggested by the words of the text; and it is 
 this, that the question of inspiration is chiefly im- 
 portant in its practical bearing upon the life of 
 a Christian : All Scrijjtw^e, says the Apostle, is 
 given hy inspiration of God, and is 'p)^'ofitahle, — 
 for what ? for controversy ? for a shibboleth of 
 party? for a test of heresy? for a fulcrum of attack 
 upon the Catholic faith? No; but for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction, for instruction m right- 
 eousness; that the man of God may he perfect, 
 thoi'oughly famished unto all good works. In fact, 
 the Scriptures have truly testified of Christ, when 
 they have constrained Christians to copy the pattern 
 of their Lord : and they have chiefly approved 
 themselves to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, when 
 they have made Christians holy, and brought forth ^■'^i- ^- ^- 
 the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. 
 
 I 2 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 CHARACTER OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, October 7, 1855. 
 
 ROMANS IX. 4, 5. 
 
 Israelites; to ivhom pertaineth the adoption, and the 
 glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, 
 and the service of God, and the promises ; 
 
 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the 
 flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 LECT. In resuming this course of Lectures, it will be 
 
 '- — desirable, in a few words, to call to mind the 
 
 principle upon which they are founded, and the 
 illustrations which have already been given of 
 the application of that principle. 
 Eeference It was proposcd in the introductoiy Lecture 
 pian'of to examine some of the doctrines and accompany- 
 tures. ^^'^' iiig difficulties (for such there ever mil be) of the 
 Christian religion, from the standing-point afforded 
 by the Catholic doctrine of the being of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Regarding that doctrine as the 
 centre of our faith — the highest point in the City 
 of God — it seemed to me to be probable, that we 
 should see from thence other doctrines in such 
 mutually confirming harmony, as should be at 
 once an evidence of their truth, and of the cor- 
 rectness of the point of view from which they 
 
Character of God in tJie Old Testament. 117 
 
 had been examined; and not only so, but that lect. 
 some of the difficulties, which may be raised con- !_ 
 
 cerning the faith, and which may be made to 
 appear from some points of view formidable to a 
 certain class of inquirers, would be reduced to their 
 just proportions, if not put out of sight altogether. 
 In proposing such a course, I took care to explain, 
 that I by no means regarded it as the one only 
 mode of considering the Christian religion, but 
 that I desired to exhibit a view, which had been 
 to my own mind one of singular comfort and 
 support, in the hope that others might find in it 
 the like satisfaction, when harassed by those intel- 
 lectual trials of faith, from which no thoughtful 
 man can hope always to be free. And this ex- Special 
 
 , . -p , , , reason for 
 
 planation i the rather lay stress upon, because this 
 I have reason to fear, that my purpose has been ^^ ® ®" 
 (to some extent at least) mistaken; as though I 
 had abandoned some ground which the Church 
 had occupied, and had not taken such a view of 
 certain doctrines as would be warranted or re- 
 quired by the principles of the Church Catholic, 
 or in particular by those of the Church of Eng- 
 land. It should however be considered, that I 
 neither depreciated nor interfered with other views 
 which might be taken of the doctrines discussed, 
 or of the grounds upon which they were to be 
 held : but I reasoned thus, — the Church of Christ 
 appears to be built upon the great doctrine, that 
 God has become manifest to us in the flesh. This ^^'^- "^• 
 is a mystery, and Scrii^ture ever represents it as 
 a mystery ; but still, on the one hand it does so 
 entirely meet all the wishes and wants of our 
 hearts, seems to Ido so thoroughly the medicine 
 
118 Character of God 
 
 LECT. for our infirmity, so comjDletely the counterpoise 
 
 - — ~ — to the awful facts of sin and death, and on the 
 other hand, from the stupendous character of the 
 doctrine, seems so incapable of supporting itself 
 upon any other foundation except essential truth, 
 that it would appear to be a reasonable and useful 
 course to take this doctrine as the great postulate 
 of the faith, and then see in what light other 
 doctrines stand. Accordingly w^e discussed the 
 
 Lecture ii. doctrinc of the Atonement, which was brought 
 before us by Good Friday, and the history of the 
 
 Lecture iii. Resurroction, which was brought before us by the 
 Feast of Easter; then we directed our attention 
 
 Lecture iv. to the Miraclcs of our Lord, as supplementary to 
 the history of the great Gospel Miracle of the 
 Resurrection ; and, lastly, w^e considered the as- 
 
 Lectures pect of the Bible, as the inspired book of God, 
 when regarded emjDhatically as the witness to the 
 coming of Christ. Whether any light was thrown 
 upon the doctrines discussed, or w^hether (as I 
 hoped) any of the difficulties, which are forced 
 upon the attention of young Christians by the 
 speculations and criticisms of our day, were re- 
 moved, or reduced in iragnitude to the a})prehen- 
 sion of any of those who listened to me, I have 
 no desire to express an opinion, and no right to 
 judge; but I do wash to lay stress upon the point, 
 that my intention was not to substitute a new 
 system for that ujDon which the Church of Eng- 
 land builds the faith of her children, but simply 
 to suggest a point of view, from which, if the facts 
 and doctrines of the Christian religion be habitu- 
 ally contemplated, they will not (as I apprehend) 
 be obnoxious to the objections, or easily assailable 
 
in the Old Testament. 119 
 
 by the weapons, of the opponents of the faith who lect. 
 belonof to our time. '— 
 
 and the 
 manner of 
 His deal- 
 ings as ex- 
 
 And now, in pursuing the same line of argu- ^f^^^ 
 ment, I propose to call attention to a subject, Lecture: 
 which very naturally connects itself with that ter of God 
 last discussed, or wliich may perhaps be regarded 
 as a branch of the same. The subject last dis- 
 cussed was the Inspiration of Holy Scripture ; Jj^'Q^y'' 
 and as connected with the question so brought Testament. 
 before us, we shall do well to direct our attention 
 to the character of God, and the manner of His 
 dealings, as they come before us in the Old Testa- 
 ment. It is an objection not unfrequently brought 
 against the faith, and which sometimes tinges 
 literature not directly concerned with theological 
 questions, that the character attributed to God 
 in the Old Testament is an unworthy character, 
 and the alleged manner of His dealings an un- 
 worthy manner; and it is clear that such a charge 
 requires consideration : it is a fact which we can- 
 not pass by, even in justice to ourselves, that the 
 picture of God, given to us in one volume of His 
 Word, should be accounted by any number of per- 
 sons as unworthy of the dignity of Him whom 
 it purports to represent, as exhibiting features of 
 which their reverence for God compels them to 
 assert, that they cannot possibly be His. This 
 charge, it will be observed, is far deeper and more 
 fundamental than any depending upon the critical 
 character of the books of Scripture; questions 
 concerning the integrity of the text, the minute 
 exactness of the details of the history, the un- 
 deviating consistency of one writer with another, 
 and the like, however important they may appear 
 
120 Character of God 
 
 ^^^^- to some minds, are manifestly not worthy to be 
 
 named in comjoarison with a question concerning 
 
 the moral character of the Kevelation itself, and 
 the possibility of believing the Old Testament 
 history to be the history of the acts and a picture 
 of the character of Him, to whom alone belong 
 all attributes of holiness and perfection. 
 
 This charge, then, which is often and very 
 confidently brought against the Christian faith, 
 requires consideration, — nay, will force itself upon 
 the consideration of many; and much light \n\\ 
 (as I imagine) be thrown upon the diflficulties 
 involved in it, when we regard the Old Testa- 
 ment, equally with the New, as emphatically 
 K. Matt. i. the hooh of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son 
 of David, the Son of Abraham, or, in other words, 
 as the history of the manifestation of God in 
 the flesh. 
 
 But, before I discuss the question according 
 to the special line of argument belonging to these 
 Lectures, I wish to make one or two observa- 
 tions, which will help us in coming at the truth. 
 Charges In the first place, it will occur to many of us, 
 
 olii Testa-'^ that chargos against the character of God, as ex- 
 mentnot j^jj^j^g^j jj^ ^j^g Q\^ Testamcut, are by no means 
 new in the history of the Church. Indeed, it 
 would perhaps be hard to find any error or heresy, 
 which modern times can claim as truly and dis- 
 tinctively their own; and certainly, as concerning 
 the question now before us, it had attained its full 
 growth and development in the early centuries. 
 The Manichseans probably left little to be said 
 by their successors in the way of objection to the 
 Old Testament; and, in fact, when we find the 
 
 Prelimi- 
 nary obser- 
 vations. 
 
in the Old Testament. 121 
 
 historian of that sect speaking of the author of lect. 
 the heresy as '^having ventured to reject the Old '— 
 
 Testament alto2:ether, and to reform the New," ^®® ^°*^ 
 we might almost fancy that he was describing the 
 views of some in our own days, who have thought 
 to find the truth by the same process. Of course 
 it may be argued, that the antiquity of objections 
 to the faith is a ground for holding their validity; 
 but it will perhaps be thought a sounder view of 
 the matter, to consider that objections, which have 
 been often raised, and often combated, and which 
 have not been able to destroy the faith, or even 
 sensibly weaken its hold upon men's hearts, are 
 not so deep as they seem, not so conclusive as 
 their supporters imagine and represent them 
 to be. 
 
 Let it however be remarked, that to deny the a caution 
 
 1 . T n 1 • • • 1 1 • founded 
 
 validity of an objection is not the same thing as upon the 
 to deny the existence of the difficulty, which is of Butie?s 
 probably at the root of the objection. We may ^""^'^^• 
 often feel ourselves justified in denying, that an 
 alleged objection is fatal to the claims of that 
 which purports to be revealed truth, while we 
 should be unreasonable in asserting, that the truth 
 as revealed presented no difficulty, was in no de- 
 gree or sense opposed to notions which we might 
 have been led on independent grounds to form: 
 and because I believe this remark to be peculiarly 
 applicable in the present case, — that is to say, 
 that there is a difficulty, which will in all ages 
 of the Church make itself felt in one form or 
 another, but no valid objection, which can in any 
 aofe of the Church be substantiated, therefore 1 
 will make this observation, the value of which all 
 
122 Character of God 
 
 LECT. students of Butler's Analogy will admit, namely, 
 '- — that we have no right to demand a complete re- 
 conciliation of the character and dealings of God 
 See Note as exhibited in the Old Testament with the idea 
 of God supplied by the reason, until we have fully 
 reconciled with that idea all that we know of the 
 character and dealings of the same God from ob- 
 servation of the world in which we hve. Of course, 
 to demonstrate a contrariety, and not to be able 
 to exhibit a reconciliation, are two very different 
 things; and if it could be shewn that any alleged 
 history of divine doings was contrary to the view 
 which reason gives of the divine perfections, I 
 would not be the man to lower those perfections 
 in order to adapt them to a history; but if we 
 find that a history merely exhibits the same difii- 
 culties, and the same anomalies, which are pre- 
 sented by the experience of every day, then it is 
 clear that we ought to be at least very cautious 
 in the conclusions to which we come, concerninsf 
 the compatibility of the truth of that history with 
 the character and perfections of God. God is 
 holy, just, and merciful ; who shall deny these 
 great truths, which reason infalhbly teaches us? 
 Yet these truths we hold, not because all expe- 
 rience confirms them, but rather in the face of 
 ten thousand apparently opposing facts, which we 
 rightly judge that we should be able to perceive 
 to be in perfect harmony, if only we knew the 
 whole; and this being the way, in which we are 
 compelled to guard against being robbed by ex- 
 perience of the most precious truths we hold, it 
 manifestly requires much consideration, before we 
 l^ermit any difficulties of a book, professing to be 
 
in the Old Testameiit. 123 
 
 from God, to drive us to the conclusion that it lect. 
 
 . VII. 
 
 cannot be His book indeed. '- 
 
 Bearing this caution in mind then, allow me to Remarks 
 offer two or three remarks concerning the general general 
 character of the Old Testament, which may serve of ThToid 
 to obviate a certain class of difficulties, and in- ''^^^*=^™^^*- 
 troduce that particular view of the subject which ^^^^ ^°*® 
 more especially belongs to these Lectures. 
 
 (i) In the first place, let it never be forgotten, ^J,"ji[f 
 that the Old Testament constantly represents God revealed in 
 as the one sole author and ruler of all things. To Testament. 
 say that the rehgion of the Jews was monotheistic, 
 though the statement is a true one, does yet not 
 convey to the mind (I think) a due notion of the 
 infinite gulf between the religion of the Old 
 Testament and the polytheisms of heathendom. 
 The revelation of God to Moses, and through him 
 to the children of Israel, as the I AM, is in fact Exodus iii. 
 the revelation of the one Lord which pervades Deut. vi. 4. 
 the whole book; it was no new revelation, it 
 never professed to be such, it was emphatically 
 the God of theii' fathers, who had revealed Him- Exodus iii. 
 self long before, and now, in His mercy, revealed '^' '^" 
 Himself again. Indeed, it is a revelation of the 
 one God with which the book opens; In the 6e- Gen. i. i. 
 ginning God, created the heaven and the earth; 
 and it was He who made man and breathed into 
 him His own breath, who gave him a law to keep, 
 and punished him when he broke it; and whether 
 truly or not, whether consistently or not, the book 
 purports to relate to us the dealings of this one God 
 who created the heaven and the earth with man 
 His rebellious creature. Thus, in the Old Testa- 
 ment, God is one, not as being merely numerically 
 
124 Character of God 
 
 LECT. the only Being of infinite power, but as the self- 
 
 existing, unchangeable Lord of all, and ground 
 
 of all: and the deaHngs of God as represented in 
 Scripture stand out consequently in a contrast 
 See Note with heatlieu mythologies, which Strauss himself 
 has noticed; for whereas such mythologies deal 
 with the history of the gods, the Old Testament 
 assumes throughout that God can have no history, 
 being ever and unchangeably the same, and ac- 
 cordingly is occupied only with the history of men, 
 and the change of their relations with reference to 
 Him who changeth not. And although so much 
 of Scrij:)ture is occupied with the deeds of Him, 
 who is called the God of Israel, yet it is ever 
 implied that such a title belongs to Him, not as 
 the God of that nation only, but as the God of 
 all nations, who for wise purposes had revealed 
 Himself to Israel in a clearer and more personal 
 manner, than to the Gentile world at large. 
 The rbjiit- (2) Again : it is to bo noticed, that it is mani- 
 Godas*re° fcstly ouc main design to represent the character 
 veaied in ^£ Qodi in prcciscly that light, in which it is thought 
 by some that the Old Testament character of God 
 is faulty, namely, as a just and righteous God. It 
 would be begging the question to assert, that 
 every action spoken of as an act of di\dne per- 
 formance can be reconciled to the idea of justice; 
 but certainly we cannot be wrong in saying, that 
 the book bears the strongest marks possible of a 
 design to exhibit this character more prominently 
 than almost any other ; certainly it is quite as pro- 
 minent as that of power, or that of lovingkindness. 
 Thus on the earliest page of man's moral history 
 we have the picture of God sitting in judgment 
 
 liom 
 29. 
 
 the Okl 
 
 Testament. 
 
in the Old Testament. 125 
 
 upon his transgression, and pronouncing a sentence lect. 
 
 so temjDered with mercy, yet so severe, as to force '- — 
 
 upon us the conviction, that the eternal laws of 
 right forbade the passing over of the act of sin. 
 The very next chapter represents man as a mur- 
 derer, God again as a Judge. Then, again, in the 
 history of the Flood, we have the same lesson on a 
 large scale, the punishment of the wicked, the pre- 
 servation of the righteous. The same thing stands 
 out as the moral of the overthrow of the cities of 
 the plain; in connection with which it is to be 
 remarked, how completely the belief in the right- 
 eousness of God as the Judge of all the earth had 
 worked itself into the mind of Abraham : shall not 
 the Judge of all the earth do right f — those were his Gen. xviii. 
 words when he pleaded for the devoted cities. So 
 likewise the rioiiteousness of God was one of the 
 great lessons, which purported to be taught to the 
 Israelites by all God's dealings with them, — a lesson 
 to be taught by the rejection of themselves, by the 
 desertion of His sanctuary, the destruction of His 
 own temple, if it could be impressed in no other 
 way; and you will remember, how, when in their 
 captivity they questioned the righteousness of God, 
 and spoke of the fathers eating sour grapes and 
 the children's teeth being set on edge, the prophet 
 Ezekiel republished with tremendous emphasis the 
 great law by which that righteousness was vindi- 
 cated, namelv, that the sold ichich sinneth, it shall die. Ezekiel 
 
 "^ . . xviii. 4. 
 
 These examples will be sufficient to suggest the 
 truth, that throug^hout the entire Old Testament 
 there is a uniform witness, whether adequate or 
 not, to the righteousness of God; His righteous- 
 ness ever stands out upon the ground of the history 
 
12G Character of God 
 
 LECT. as the strong mountains, however it may be also 
 
 '- — true that some of His judgments are like the great 
 
 xxTvL 6. deep ; and when the righteousness of the character 
 of God, as it appears in the Old Testament, is 
 questioned, it is certainly not without advantage 
 to observe, how striking is the efFoi-t (so to speak) 
 which is made, to bring out in the strongest 
 manner possible this very side of the divine per- 
 fection. We may not be able to explain e very- 
 action of which the Scripture gives us notice — 
 that is a totally different question — but we shall 
 be, or at least we ought to be, very slow in allow- 
 ing the impression, made upon our minds by the 
 broad lights of the picture of God's righteousness, 
 to be confused by the small shadows thrown by 
 particular facts, the character of which we are un- 
 able to explain, especially if those facts be nearly 
 analogous to the dealings of God's Pro^ddence in 
 the ordinary course of human affairs. 
 The com- (o) There is one other feature in the Old Tes- 
 
 mand to 
 
 love God tament representation of God to which I desire to 
 Testament. Call attention, esiDecially in connection with the 
 revelation of His righteousness, of which I have 
 been just now sj^eaking. It is the feature con- 
 veyed to our minds by the command to love God 
 — that first and great commandment according 
 Dent. vi. to our blcsscd Lord : Hear, Israel, said Moses, 
 the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God ivith all thine heart, and ivith all 
 thy soul, and with all thy might. The Israelite 
 had strong personal grounds for loving the God 
 who had redeemed him from the house of bondage ; 
 still when we consider the terrors of Sinai, the 
 strictness of the law, the weight of the penalties 
 
in the Old Testament. 127 
 
 for transgressing it, we may fancy perhaps that the lect. 
 
 command to fear would be found more easy to '- 
 
 obey than the command to love; and so possibly 
 it might be; but I wish to observe, that anyhow 
 the command to love is quite as distinct as the 
 command to fear, that the duty is made to flow at 
 once as a corollary from the great truth of the 
 unity of God, and that the command to love is 
 worthy of notice, not only as a witness that the 
 righteous God desired to be loved, but as being of 
 a complexion so utterly distinct from any relation 
 which can be conceived to exist between a human 
 being and an idol. A man may fear an idol, or he 
 may hate it, or he may despise it, but I am at a 
 loss to conceive how he can love it ; nor do I know 
 of any command, which more testifies to the truth 
 of the revelation of God in the Old Testament, or 
 which more clearly shadows forth the better things 
 of the New, than this unqualified command to love 
 God with all the heart. Possibly it might some- 
 times appear to an Israelite a command hard to 
 fulfil; certainly the full scope of the command, 
 and the manner in which the keeping of it lies at 
 the root of the whole spiritual life, could never be 
 thoroughly understood, until Christ had called i s. .Joim 
 forth all the deepest feelings of the human heart Tg.^' '°' 
 by the mystery of His self-sacrificing and redeem- 
 ing love. 
 
 Such features as these seem to be proper points Christ the 
 upon which to fix attention, when considering the to^'the oui 
 character of God, as it appears in the Old Testa- ^®^*''™®°*- 
 ment : and it will probably be found, that a mind 
 accustomed to dwell upon these general and large 
 views will not be easily alarmed by the exhibition 
 
See Note 
 38. 
 
 128 Character of God 
 
 LECT. of difficulties, depending upon the interpretation 
 
 given to certain particular facts. Nevertheless, I 
 
 by no means desire to represent this as the only 
 mode of dealing with the subject ; on the other 
 hand, my purpose is, to point out, that, whatever 
 be the advantage gained from taking large \dews 
 of the teaching of the Old Testament, the true key 
 to its difficulties is then only completely in our 
 hands when we regard it as the preface to the life 
 of Christ; and that although there may still be 
 points which we cannot explain, yet the problem is 
 indefinitely simplified to him, who regards all other 
 revelations of God in their connection with His 
 great revelation of Himself in the j)erson of the 
 Incarnate Son. 
 The Old Let us observe then, that the true startinor- 
 
 Testament • ^ /-vi i m 
 
 the history pomt 01 Old Testament history is the call of 
 family of Abraham. Up to that point the book contains 
 becIusHf ^ certain number of detached pictures — the crea- 
 ckrist""^^ tion, the fall, the flood, the confusion of tongues- 
 came, pictures no doubt of deepest human interest, and 
 necessary as an introduction to what follows, yet 
 still forming no complete history: but from the 
 call of Abraham the book may be rightly described 
 as that of the memorials of the patriarch's family — 
 a family worthy of being made the subject of such 
 a record, because it was to number amongst its 
 members the Lord Jesus Christ. The true theory 
 of the Old Testament is in fact given by St Paul 
 in that passage which I have taken as a text for 
 this sermon : he therein speaks of the Israelites as 
 Horn. ix. those, to ivhom 2^ertained the adoption, and the glonj, 
 a7id the covenants, and the giving of the laiv, and the 
 service of God, and the promises; whose are the 
 
in the Old Testament. 12.9 
 
 fathers, aiid of ivhom as concerning the flesh Christ lect. 
 
 came, who is over all, God blessed for ever : — yes, '- — 
 
 Christ came; here is the great fact, which makes 
 the history of Abraham's family not a mere family 
 history, but the history of a seed in which the 
 whole world should be blessed; this is why the 
 history has not lost its interest, now that the 
 family of Abraham has become like the sand on Gen. jtxii. 
 the sea-shore, not in the blessing of multitude, 
 but in the curse of scattered incoherence and 
 division; this is why the history has outlived the 
 family, and has become far more generally read 
 and known since the fall and dispersion of those, 
 who might have seemed to be the persons chiefly 
 interested in its records. Yes — Christ came of the 
 seed of Abraham, and therefore the history of that 
 seed has been the divine gift to mankind, the first 
 volume of the book of God's covenant. 
 
 Now there is undeniably something very re- Remark- 
 markable, in the fact of the annals of a family features 
 having assumed such a prominent position in the Testement 
 literature and religious teaching of the world : and ^Ji^tory. 
 the fact becomes more remarkable, when we observe 
 that there is no effort on the part of the Scriptures 
 to exaggerate the importance of Abraham himself 
 All his importance is attributed to the fact of God 
 having called him, having revealed Himself to 
 him, having made him the depository of certain 
 promises. He is not even represented as being at 
 the head of the civilisation of his age ; Egypt is 
 already a great city, having its king and its 
 institutions, while Abraham is a wandering herds- 
 man. But he is represented as receiving promises 
 in trust for the world, and therefore is made the 
 
130 Character of God 
 
 LECT. origin of the world's spiritual history. And in 
 
 \ . connection with this peculiarity in the choice of a 
 
 subject for the sacred books, it may be well to 
 remark also, how different is the tone of the 
 narrative from that of ordinary ancient history ; 
 how little there is in it of what is sometimes 
 called Hero-ivorsJiip ; how thoroughly human are 
 the personages introduced, and how little care is 
 taken to hide the faults and failings of the best 
 and most notable amongst them. This of course 
 is no new remark ; if it had not been made by 
 devout students, it would not have escaped the 
 attention of scoffers, with whom it has often 
 been an easy and pleasant exercise for their wit 
 to display the weaknesses and sins of some whom 
 Scripture describes as men of God ; but I allude 
 to the matter here, because the tone of Scripture 
 to which I have referred is a good indication of 
 its aim and meaning: if the men whose lives are 
 recorded are represented as not differing from 
 their brethren, liable to the same weaknesses, 
 evidently of the same flesh and blood, then it 
 may well be concluded that to exhibit those men 
 as spotless examples was not the intention of 
 Scripture ; their lives may well be believed to 
 have been recorded as they have been, simply 
 because such their lives were ; the history to be 
 such as it is, simply because it is true ; and if 
 Abraham was guilty of deception, and Isaac of 
 the same, and Jacob obtained his flither's blessinor 
 by an unworthy trick, and the like, then these 
 things were so recorded because so they were. 
 And it is obvious to remark by the way, that 
 they who blame the sacred documents should 
 
in the Old Testame^it. 181 
 
 consider, how easy it would have been to have ^ect. 
 
 hidden all defects, seeing that it is only through 
 
 the writers, who have honestly disclosed them, 
 that we have any knowledge of the history at 
 all. But what I chiefly wish to observe is, that 
 by all this we are driven upon the question. 
 Why was this particular thread of history chosen 
 as the basis of the Old Testament ? The thing 
 to be asked is, not why Abraham or Isaac or 
 Jacob or David or Solomon did this or that, not 
 whether their lives were pure, according to the 
 Gospel standard of purity, but, supposing the 
 biography of the Old Testament to be honest 
 and true. Why was that biography made the 
 subject of a book claiming to have a deep interest 
 for the whole family of man ? This is the real 
 question to be asked concerning the construction 
 of the Old Testament ; and the answer is, that 
 from these men according to the flesh Christ 
 came, and because He came from them and He 
 is the light of the ivorld, therefore they are the Job 
 true morning stars, at whose rising the sons of 
 God may shout for joy. 
 
 It is important also for my present purpose, ^l''^^^^ 
 to notice the manner in which the Old Testament Testament 
 comes to a close. It follows the ups and downs able, 
 of the chosen family, the family of which Christ 
 was to be a member, until it brings them back 
 from their school of captivity and leaves them 
 once more in Canaan ; but leaves them wrapped 
 up in prophecy, their hopes still in the future as 
 for a long time they had been, and the last 
 utterance of the book of the Old Covenant is 
 that, which speaks of the Lord whom the faitliful Mai. iii. r. 
 
132 Character of God 
 
 LECT. seeh, suddenly coming to His Temple. The end 
 
 '— of the chosen family then has not yet arrived, the 
 
 promises have not yet been fulfilled, the nations 
 of the world have not yet been blessed in Abra- 
 ham's seed ; but the promises are as distinct 
 as ever, and we, who have the Old and New 
 Testament by God's mercy joined together, can 
 understand what was meant by those promises, 
 and by the dark cloud of prophecy in which the 
 chosen people disappear from our view ; we can 
 understand it, because we can look at the first 
 verse of S. Matthew's Gospel, and there read of 
 the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, 
 the Son of Abraham. 
 How does ;But it mav be said, how does all this bear 
 
 this bear '', pit p/-^i 
 
 upon the upon the question of the character of God as 
 thT VicT ° given in the Old Testament ? If that character 
 chaSe?^ be really unworthy of Him in ivhom we live and 
 of God? ^yiove and have our being, how does it help us to 
 say, that the Old Testament is a history of the 
 family of Abraham ; and that it is so, because of 
 the family of Abraham Christ came ? It helps 
 us thus : it turns our eyes to the one great 
 revelation of God in human flesh, and teaches us 
 to put the previous revelation in proper subordi- 
 nation to that ; it reminds us, that a dispensation 
 may be really divine, and yet may not have in 
 it that grace and truth which are declared by 
 s. John i. S. John to have come by Jesus Christ. For, 
 supposing that we find in the revelation of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ all that our spirits can desire, 
 supposing that the revelation of God in human 
 flesh appear to us to be in reality the only reve- 
 lation of the invisible God which is possible for 
 
in the Old Testament. 133 
 
 our faculties or adequate to our wants, or supposing lect. 
 
 that the incomprehensible evil introduced into the 1 
 
 world by transgression required for its relief the 
 incarnation of the Eternal Son, then the questions 
 to be answered by the sacred books are such as 
 these : — How was this revelation made ? What 
 is its history in time ? How or by what external 
 facts were God's purposes developed ? And to 
 questions such as these the Old Testament re- 
 turns answers ; it purports to give a preface to 
 the New, a preface to the life and history of 
 Christ: and the valid objection to it would be, to 
 shew that it is not a true preface, that this 
 was not the way in which according to the flesh 
 Christ came ; any such objection well sustained 
 would of course deprive the Old Testament of 
 its chief value, and any disproof of the reality 
 of the mission and work of Christ would as cer- 
 tainly render it superfluous; but, supposing a 
 person to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 I wish to press this point, that the kind of dif- 
 ficulty urged against the Old Testament need 
 not trouble him, because, from the standing-ground 
 of the Christian faith, such difficulties may be 
 seen to belong to that class, of which it is only 
 necessary to say, that at present we are not in 
 a condition fully to explain them. For it will 
 be found, that questions concerning the morality 
 of the Old Testament, the character of God as 
 revealed in it, and the mode of His dealings, — 
 those questions at least, which can be made 
 formidable upon these subjects, — do ultimately 
 resolve themselves into this : In what manner was 
 it best, or was it possible, for Almighty God to 
 
134 Character of God 
 
 LECT. make known to mankind His love to them in 
 
 VII. 
 
 ^ — Jesus Christ ? The most orthodox behever does 
 
 not deny — he would be a heretic if he did not 
 firmly hold — that the revelation of the attributes 
 of God in the person of Christ is far more com- 
 plete than the revelation to Israel in olden days; 
 that the whole atmosphere of the Christian Church 
 is purer and milder and better, than that of the 
 Tabernacle or the Temple ; and therefore you 
 may say, in a certain sense, that the morahty 
 of the New Testament is higher than that of 
 the Old, and the character of God as exhibited 
 in the Old different from that in the New, and 
 different from that supphed by human reason ; but 
 then to found any charge against the Old Testa- 
 ment upon these admitted truths, is to beg the 
 question of the possibility of exhibiting to mankind 
 the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ by some other method than that, of which 
 the Scriptures give us information ; and so, an 
 impeachment of the character of the Old Testa- 
 ment does in fact become an impeachment of the 
 manner, in which God has caused His light to 
 shine upon the world, the light itself (be it 
 observed) being admitted all the while to be 
 very good. 
 The And thus I think it will become more and 
 
 answered moro clear to those who dwell upon the subject, 
 mgli7 ' that as questions concerning the inspiration of 
 Bible as Scripture can be answered in the most satisfactory 
 
 the^ 
 
 to Christ, manner by regarding the Bible as the witness to 
 Christ, so also questions concerning the morality 
 of the Old Testament and the picture which it 
 gives us of the character and dealings of God can 
 
in the Old Testament. 135 
 
 be answered best in the same way. It is easy lect. 
 
 to put the Old Testament in a position which it is '— 
 
 not intended to occupy, to forget that we are hving 
 under the hght of Christ, to do in fact that against 
 which S. Paul would have protested with all his 
 soul, namely, bring us again iinde?' hondage to Gai. iv. 9; 
 weak and, beggarly . elements from which Christ ^' ^' 
 has set us free ; and this mode of dealing with 
 the Old Testament may sometimes perhaps have 
 given advantage to those, who would make it the 
 basis of operations in an attack upon the New ; 
 but I am convinced, that to any one who takes 
 his stand upon the faith of Christ, as God manifest 
 in the flesh, and who regards all utterances of God's 
 Spirit as subordinate to the message brought to us 
 by the incarnate Son, all difficulties raised ujoon 
 the Old Testament will be perceived to belong to 
 that extensive and perhaps infinite class, which 
 depend for their apparent force upon our own 
 inherent weakness. 
 
 In concluding my Lecture at this point, as Conciu- 
 my limits compel me to do, I am sensible that ^^''^' 
 I may appear to have acted too much on the 
 defensive, and to have done little justice to the 
 fulness and sufficiency of Holy Scripture. This 
 defect however is not so important as it may 
 seem, just because Holy Scripture has this fulness 
 and sufficiency ; he who studies it, with Christ as 
 his light, will not need to be informed what trea- 
 sures there are in its pages ; and on the other 
 hand, I beheve that a man may sometimes be 
 perplexed by the oijpositions of science falsely so i Tim. vi. 
 called, by the cavils and objections of ingenious ^°" 
 man, because he does not sufficiently bear in 
 
136 Character of God in the Old Testament. 
 LECT. mind that Christ is the end of the Laiv. A man 
 
 VII. . 
 
 '- — may read the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 
 in these days, like that Ethiopian Eunuch of 
 Actsviii. whom wc are told in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and like him may find himself in a desert and 
 have no good answer to give to the question 
 Understandest thou ivhat thou i^eadestf but when 
 s. John i. Jesus Christ is seen to be He of ivhom Moses in 
 the Law and the Prophets did ivrite, then difficul- 
 ties vanish, the desert blossoms as the rose, and 
 strong in the faith of Christ the man may go on 
 his way rejoicing. 
 
 45- 
 
LECTUKE VIII. 
 
 THE DEALINGS OF GOD WITH THE HEATHEN 
 WORLD. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, October 14, 1855. 
 
 S. JOHN V. 26, 27, 28. 
 
 For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given 
 
 to the Son to have life in Himself; 
 And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, 
 
 because He is the Son of Man. 
 Marvel not at this. 
 
 — Hath given Him authority to execute judgment, lect. 
 
 because He is the Son of Man — these words, not- '—- 
 
 withstanding the caution not to marvel, can diffiSy 
 scarcely fail to strike a reader of the Gospels as "' ^^'^ *'^''*' 
 containing a view of our Lord's prerogatives at 
 first sight strange. For, when declaring the high 
 office which had been committed to His hands 
 by the Father, — an office no less than that of 
 pronouncing judgment uj)on the whole human 
 race, — it might perhaps have been expected, that 
 our Lord would have referred the ground of the 
 commission to the fact of His coeternity and 
 coequality with the Father, rather than to the op- 
 posite fact of His humanity and humiliation. And 
 any one, who should be led upon this considera- 
 tion to question the correctness of the speech 
 attributed to Christ by our English version, or 
 
138 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. by the Greek original as usually construed, would 
 be able to quote some great authorities on his 
 
 s. Chrysos- gj^jg^ g_ Chrysostom, for example, expresses him- 
 inteqireta- self Very plainly and strongly, saying, that to 
 See Note take the language in the sense which our English 
 ^^" version assiofns to it is to make our Lord's rea- 
 
 soning inconsequent, for that He did not receive 
 the office of Judge because He was man, (since 
 in that case there would be nothing to hinder 
 other men also from being judges,) but because 
 He is the Son of the ineffable Being, — that is, 
 of God. To explain the apparent difficulty there- 
 fore, Chrysostom would connect the first clause 
 of the 28th verse with the last clause of the 
 preceding, and make the language run thus: — 
 That He is the Son of Man, marvel not at this; 
 as though the allusion to His humihty were intro- 
 duced by our Lord, as that which needed expla- 
 nation and apology, rather than as that, which, 
 according to the English version, is the ground 
 and justification of His commission to be the 
 Judge of mankind. 
 Another Qthcr interpreters, to whom this mode of 
 
 method of • i i 
 
 interpreta- dealing With tlic passagc has probably appeared 
 hard and forced, but w^ho nevertheless may have 
 felt something of the difficulty urged by S. Chry- 
 sostom, have availed themselves of the fact that 
 the title So7i of Man is in Scripture a well-known 
 synonyme for the Messiah, and have therefore 
 considered that the assertion of Christ in the 
 text is equivalent to this, that because He is 
 the Messiah, therefore He is also the Judge : 
 concerning which mode of treatment it will be 
 only necessary to observe, that although upon 
 
loith the Heathen World. 139 
 
 examination it does not appear to give a view lect. 
 of the passage essentially distinct from that given '— 
 
 ain 
 meaning 
 
 by our English version, yet certainly it does not 
 in so pointed a manner attribute the judicial 
 character of Christ to the fact of His stooping 
 to our infirmities. 
 
 Perhaps however we shall s^ain the deepest '^'^^ p^' 
 insight into the words of Him, who spake astbebest 
 never man spake, and in whose language there- 
 fore there may probably be sometimes depths 
 where there seem to be only difficulties, if we take 
 His assertion that He has received from the Father 
 authority to execute judgment hecause He is the 
 Son of Man, in that plain obvious sense, which 
 S. Chrysostom rejected as an insufl&cient exposi- 
 tion of our Saviour's words. In doing so we 
 shall have a ground deeper than that, upon which 
 the words Son of 3Ian are regarded as merely 
 synonymous with Messiah; for our ground will 
 be that upon which the possibility of Messiahship 
 rests: and we may perhaps venture to say, that 
 Christ is Messiah as also He is Judge, for the 
 same one great mysterious reason alleged by 
 Himself in the text, namely, hecause He is the 
 Son of Man; that is to say, it is the fact of the 
 incarnation of the Eternal Son, the essential in- 
 efi^able union thereby effected betw^een the human 
 race and Himself, which at once qualified Him 
 to be the Saviour of mankind, and also has made 
 it necessary and fitting that He should be their 
 Judge as well. Of course it would have been 
 impossible for us to have asserted a priori, what 
 would be the conditions necessary for the re- 
 demption of our race ; we might have fancied 
 
Phil. ii. 
 
 6— II. 
 
 140 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. that the higher the position of the Mediator and 
 '— Advocate, so much the more effectual His media- 
 tion and advocacy; and this indeed in a certain 
 sense is true; but forasmuch as we know that the 
 stooping to our infirmities, the emptying Himself 
 of His glory, and humbling Himself to death, 
 even the death of the cross, were in the wisdom 
 of God the necessary conditions of human re- 
 demption, and the ground of His title to the 
 character of Saviour, so also it is not hard to 
 believe, that those same acts of self-humiliation 
 may have been no less essential to all other parts 
 of the divine relation, in which He stands to man- 
 kind : it is not hard to believe, that as Christ, 
 though the Son of God, could not have redeemed 
 the world otherwise than by becoming the Son of 
 Man, so it may be equally true, that Christ could 
 not have become the Judge of the world upon 
 any other condition than this same assumption 
 of humanity. 
 The view Now it sccms to me, that, if we res^ard our 
 
 of Christ . . ' * , . 
 
 blessed -Lord as asserting m the text a relation- 
 ship to the whole family of mankind as their 
 ficuSes!^'^ Judge, at whose voice the graves must open and 
 the dead come forth to a resurrection of life or 
 a resurrection of damnation, according as their 
 deeds in the body have been good or evil, and as 
 asserting this deep and universal relationship upon 
 the ground of His having Himself become the 
 Son of Man, we shall be able to obtain some 
 light upon a difficulty, which attaches to certain 
 modes of viewing the Christian dispensation, and 
 which in our own days is not unlikely to come 
 into prominence. The difficulty is that, which is 
 
 given m 
 the text a 
 light in 
 
ivith the Heathen World. 141 
 
 presented to the mind by the consideration of the lect. 
 relation in which the kino^dom of Christ stands 1 
 
 to the rest of the world, by the contemplation of 
 the life and death of our Saviour and their results 
 in relation to the remainder of God's government, 
 His general economy, His providential direction 
 of human affairs; — a difficulty, which is perhaps 
 exaggerated into something more than a difficulty, 
 when it is concluded that the sole design and 
 effect of the Incarnation is the salvation of a few 
 chosen persons; and which, on the other hand, is 
 (as I believe) one which we may easily be content 
 to regard as necessarily incident to creatures situ- 
 ated and constituted as we ourselves are, when 
 we look upon the being and work of Christ in 
 the light thrown upon them by such words as 
 those of the text. Christ, in the fulness of His 
 godhead, as having life in Himself even as the «• John v. 
 Father has life in Himself, and yet in virtue of 
 His manhood having acquired power over the 
 whole human race, — Christ, in fact, in the two- 
 fold character asserted by and for Himself in the 
 text, and proclaimed as the basis of all true faith 
 by the Creeds of the Catholic Church, — Christ, 
 thus declared, is the great Light of the world, and 
 if in His light difficulties do not altogether vanish, 
 they at least cease to be difficulties of practice, 
 and may be generally referred to a class, which 
 ought not to trouble those, by wdiom the imper- 
 fection of human faculties and the infinite mys- 
 teries of the ordinary course of God's government 
 are admitted and appreciated facts. The subject 
 
 The subiect which I have thus indicated, is contracted 
 
 '^ ^ , ' to two 
 
 manifestly one of very wide extent ; but, if we points. 
 
142 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. regard the Christian dispensation as it exhibits 
 
 L_ itself historically, or as a part of the general 
 
 history of the world, there are two points which 
 may perhaps especially occur to our minds as 
 possible roots of difficulties; and upon these two 
 I propose to concentrate attention in the present 
 Lecture. 
 Thereia- I. The first poiut may be stated thus: — We 
 
 Christ as speak of Christ our Lord as the Light of the 
 
 the Light 
 of the 
 world to 
 other 
 
 9- 
 
 world ; we have the authority of Scripture for 
 so describing Him : as His faithful servants we 
 
 Ughts. rightly deem, that it is impossible to exaggerate 
 the fulness of meaning which belongs to such 
 
 s. John i. passages, as that which speaks of Him as the true 
 light which lighteth every man who cometh into 
 the world, and the like; and we naturally and 
 justly expect to find, that the character of Christ 
 given in Scripture has been borne out by expe- 
 rience and history ; we expect to find, that, having 
 been called the Light of the world. He has not 
 been merely a Light to some few persons in the 
 world, but that the illumination of the world may 
 be properly spoken of as due to Him. If, for 
 illustration's sake, the whole world had been at the 
 coming of Christ in the condition of the African 
 tribes, and the people who so sat in darkness had 
 been humanized and civilised by the Gospel which 
 He brought from Heaven, then we should clearly 
 recognise in the working of such a Gospel that 
 which would justify us in applying to the bearer 
 of it the title — The Light of the ivorld: of course 
 we believe — indeed it is very difficult for any 
 one to deny — that the Gospel has much of this 
 humanizing and civilising power : certainly we 
 
ivith the Heathen World. 143 
 
 ourselves, as the descendants of wild tribes, who lect. 
 
 have been raised through God's mercy and provi- '- 
 
 dence to the forefront of the human family, may well 
 acknowledge the illuminating power of the Gospel, 
 and confess that, whatever He may have been to 
 others, Christ has been indeed a light to us; and 
 if He has been a light to us, there need not be, 
 and probably there will not be, any practical diffi- 
 culty to him, who is willing in simplicity of heart 
 to follow the light when he sees it. But still 
 it may easily come to pass, that the conclusions, 
 drawn from an inspection of the actual history 
 and economy of the world, should somewhat jar 
 and clash with theories, formed from the glowing 
 views of the illuminating power of Christ's Ad- 
 vent, to which the expressions of Scripture might 
 naturally lead. For, when we examine the history 
 of the world, we cannot but perceive, that much 
 of what is really great and admirable in it has 
 been, in the good providence of God, due to other 
 sources, besides that joeculiar fountain of illumi- 
 nation which we recognise in the coming of Christ ; 
 we may attempt, if ^q please, in the spirit of the 
 Puritans, to ostracise all that we cannot trace to 
 the Holy Scriptures, but we shall assuredly find 
 by the result that we have wofully mistaken God's 
 deahngs, and shall discover that the conscience of 
 mankind is against us ; and we shall be forced 
 in candour to admit, that if the education of the 
 human race to the highest point of education, of 
 which it is susceptible, be rightly accounted one 
 great end of God's moral government, and if the 
 process by which that education is effected be 
 rightly described as the illumination of the world, 
 
144 TJiG Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. then certainly God has adopted other means of 
 viii. .... . 
 
 '— illumination, besides that which has been supplied 
 
 by the publication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 Two prin- There are two examples of this kind of illu- 
 am'pies of mlnatlon, which are perhaps the principal, and cer- 
 tioTimfe- tainly those to which, in a place like this, attention 
 the Gospd: ^'^7 ^^ ^o^t profitably directed. 
 Eomr^"'^ I speak of the examples afforded by the in- 
 fluence produced upon the world by Greece and 
 Home, There are other nations whose thoughts 
 and deeds have had a very weighty efiect upon 
 the condition of mankind at large; and there have 
 been individual men, neither Greek nor Koman, 
 who have been genuine lights to their own and 
 subsequent ages; but we may refer in a peculiar 
 manner to the influence of Greece and Rome, and 
 of the great men of those two nations, not only 
 because their influence has exceeded that of any 
 other people, but because their history and htera- 
 ture continue to receive from us an amount of 
 study, which as Christians we ought not to concede, 
 unless we can honestly justify it upon grounds 
 such as Christ Himself will approve. It is not 
 necessary to do more than hint, in passing, at the 
 kind of influence, which has been produced by the 
 history and literature of Greece : I miglit speak 
 of her poets having been the fathers of modern 
 poetry, her historians the models of history, her 
 philosophers the chief lights of philosoj^hy, her fine 
 sense of beauty the undying standard of the beau- 
 tiful ; but, taking all this for granted, I wish to 
 lay stress upon the point, that the work, which 
 God has done for the world by agency of this 
 kind, is to be ever regarded as that, which is not 
 
with the Heathen World. 145 
 
 to be looked down upon with contempt from the lect. 
 
 high ground upon which the Church of Christ L_ 
 
 stands, but rather to be regarded as a definite part 
 of the scheme of operations whereby the great 
 purposes of God are being carried out. Nor have 
 we any right to forget the great and direct in- 
 fluence, which has been exercised upon Christian 
 thinkers and writers by Plato and Aristotle, and 
 the close connection between the revival of ancient 
 learning and the revival of religion after the twi- 
 light of the dark ages. So also with regard to 
 Home; though less indebted to her for assistance 
 in the higher regions of thought, still we cannot 
 fail to perceive, in the impress made by the charac- 
 ter of the imperial nation upon the world, in the 
 communication to others of those ideas of law 
 and right, which in so peculiar a manner belonged 
 to herself, and which survived and bore fruit in 
 other nations after they had been smothered in 
 her by luxury and vice, important means of bring- 
 ing about that civilisation of the world, which we 
 are justified in regarding as part of the divine 
 illumination that comes from the source of all 
 light. What then are we to do with such cases as How to 
 these ? how are we to bring them into connection these with 
 with the Christian revelation ? are we to depreciate tian reve- 
 the wholesome influences, which have been shed^^*"^°' 
 upon mankind from other springs of God's bounty, 
 in order to exalt by comparison the light which shone 
 upon the earth from the face of Jesus Christ? and 
 how can we reconcile the importance, which we do 
 practically attach (in education, for instance) to the 
 influences derived from Heathen sources, with our 
 professed belief in Him as the Light of the world \ 
 
146 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. I press this view of what may seem a difficulty, 
 
 ^ the rather because it brings us in sight of that no- 
 
 Christian- tion, which in these days finds considerable favour, 
 times re- and which, not denying altogether the truth and 
 fne form^of value of Christianity, regards it as one form of reli- 
 reu^on"^^^^ giou out of many, and grants it a place as a useful 
 influence in the world, in conjunction with others 
 differing from it in degree only, and not in kind. 
 Now the very point, for which, as Christians, we 
 are bound to contend, is, that the revelation of 
 God in Jesus Christ does stand altogether by 
 itself, — the knowledge so derived distinct from 
 all other knowledge: but in contending for this 
 point we may easily seem to run into an incon- 
 sistency. I think, for example, that we cannot get 
 free from a charge of inconsistency, in representing 
 the Holy Scriptures as our only Hght, and at the 
 same time devoting a large portion of our time 
 to the study of the thoughts of Heathen, upon 
 the plea of a sharp line drawn between rehgious 
 and secular teaching, as though we read the Bible 
 for one purpose, and all other books for another; 
 for all teaching, which tends to form a high cha- 
 racter, to bring out of a man what is noble in 
 him, to lead him to manly and exalted thought, 
 is in its very nature religious: and it seems to 
 me, that by the place wdiich we assign to what 
 is called profane learning, we do practically admit 
 that God has made use of other influences, besides 
 that of the direct preaching of the Gospel, for 
 the purpose of regenerating mankind. AVhy should 
 we not admit this ? are we sure that the Church 
 of Christ could have existed, if a certain prepara- 
 tory work had not been done, which according to 
 
with the Heathen World. 147 
 
 God's providence was done by Heathen nations ? lect. 
 
 is it not, in fact, implied by the expression, the — 
 
 fulness of time, that there was a work to be ac- Gai. iv. 4. 
 complished, prejDaratory to the sending forth of the 
 Son of God, — a work not necessarily limited to 
 the Jewish nation? But indeed the truth seems 
 to be this, that the whole difficulty, presented by 
 the fact of the world being largely indebted for 
 spiritual benefits to Heathen influences, arises 
 from an imperfect perception of our Lord's rela- 
 tion to the human race: He, who could use such 
 words as those of the text, needs no depreciation 
 of the softening, ennobling, enlightening influences, 
 which have at sundry times and in divers manners 
 blessed the world, in order to exalt His name: 
 He who could declare, that in virtue of His hu- 
 manity He had received authority to judge the 
 world, and who thus claims the nearest bonds of 
 connection with the whole human race, may very 
 well be a light to the world in a much wider sense, 
 than would appear from any computation of the 
 visible effects produced by the preaching of the 
 Gospel hitherto. 
 
 I trust that in thus speaking, I shall not ap- Toacknow- 
 pear unduly to exaggerate the benefits received by beifefits * 
 mankind independently of the Church, nor to de- froS'^''ther 
 predate the greatness of the light which fell from sources is 
 the cross of Christ upon the nations who at the predate 
 very best walked in great darkness before. So tian 
 far as we Christians are personally concerned, the "'^ ' 
 calling of His Church, the indwelling in that Church 
 by His Spirit, and the feeding of the Church by 
 His "Word and Sacraments, are the results of 
 our Lord's mission, upon which alone our minds 
 
 L 2 
 
148 The Dealings of God 
 
 i.ECT. need dwell : the answer of the blind man, who 
 
 VIII 
 
 '— had received his sight from Christ, to those who 
 
 desired to underrate the character of his Saviour, 
 
 s. John ix, may very well serve cur turn — One thing we hiow, 
 
 '^' that ivhereas we ivere blind, noiv loe see; but when 
 
 the thought comes before our minds, either in our 
 own musings or by the suggestion of others, that 
 the relation of Christ to the world is not such 
 as belongs to the idea of a Saviour, as exhibited 
 by Scripture, and recognised as a worthy idea by 
 our own hearts, then it is necessary to remember, 
 that the relations of Christ to the human race are 
 much wider and deeper than those, whicli come 
 before us in contemplating His relations to the 
 Church. The union with Himself, granted to be- 
 Hevers in Him, is no doubt the nearest and closest 
 communion with God granted to man; but Christ, 
 because He is the Son of Man, has relations of a 
 vital kind with all members of the human family, 
 of which He is the Redeemer and the Head, and 
 of which He will ultimately be the Judge. I 
 cannot define these relations, because Scripture 
 has not defined them ; but I am sure that He, 
 who through His Incarnation has received the un- 
 speakable office of calling men from their^ graves, 
 and declaring their true character and deserts, 
 and fixing their eternal condition, must [have a 
 relation to every man who shares the human na- 
 ture assumed by Himself, which, if philosophy 
 cannot define, scepticism has at least no] right 
 to deny. 
 
 Christ the And thus, without pretending to dive into 
 
 real source . . i i , 
 
 of all light, mysteries not mtended to be fathomed by man, 
 I think we may say, that the relation in which 
 
with the Heathen World. 149 
 
 the faith of Christ stands to other influences which lect. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 have been brought to bear upon the world, need '- 
 
 not be a source of disquietude to him, who bears 
 in mind the doctrine of the being of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, We know little as to what was neces- 
 sary, in order to prepare for His coming, and to 
 ensure the reception of His Gospel and the safety 
 of His Church; but we may well believe, that 
 whatever has contributed to these great results 
 has been His doing, and that He, who communed 
 with Abraham and the prophets, was also at work 
 in other nations beside that of Israel, preparing 
 the wa}'' for His own coming, making the nations 
 of the world ready to receive Him. 
 
 II. The same kind of reasoning holds with Relation of 
 respect to the other point, which I projDosed to the Hea- 
 bring before you. It seems to me, that a difficulty 
 must often strike the mind of a thoughtful man, 
 when he considers the relation in which the un- 
 converted and unbaptized nations stand to the 
 Church of Christ. I know very well, that, so far as 
 practice is concerned, we should do wisely to bear 
 in mind the charge of our Saviour, who, when 
 asked whether few would be saved, answered, 
 Strive to enter in at the strait gate ! I know s. Luke 
 that we have enough to do to make our own ^'"' ^'^' 
 calling and election sure, without inquiring con- ^ Pet. i, 
 ceniing the calling and election of those who are 
 less highly blessed than ourselves; still it must 
 be remembered, that this view of the case may 
 be easily perverted, so as to become merely un- 
 generous and selfish ; moreover, the religion of 
 Christ is, and ever will be, canvassed in this 
 aspect, and sometimes answers are given to the 
 
150 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT, question — Are there few that he saved? when 
 
 VIII, . 
 
 ^ asked concerning the men before the time of 
 
 Christ and the Heathen who have never heard 
 See Note His name, so different from His own answer, so 
 ''°' dreadful in themselves, and so destructive to the 
 
 cause of Christian truth, that it seems to me not 
 an unnecessary meddling with divine mysteries 
 to say a few words upon the subject, mysterious 
 though it be. 
 Theories on The first thing to be remarked is, that any- 
 sure to be thing of the nature of a theory upon a subject 
 sTe^Note' of this kind must be almost certainly erroneous. 
 ^^' That limbus loatrum, which some of the later 
 
 fathers invented for the holy men before the 
 coming of our Lord, is an instance of the danger 
 of theorizing in a matter essentially beyond hu- 
 man cognisance: it is an attempt to express by 
 a formula the ways of God, which in the spiritual 
 world never has been effected, and, in the nature 
 of things, never can and never will be. For 
 ourselves, who have been baptized into Christ's 
 Church, we know that our justification depends 
 Gal. V. 6. u-pon faith which ivorketh hy love; and no one has 
 any right to complain of want of light, if he miss 
 the road to heaven; but to conclude from this, 
 that we are competent to pronounce concerning 
 God's dealings in another world, towards those, 
 with whom in this He has dealt in so different 
 a manner from that adopted towards ourselves, is 
 unnecessary, presumptuous, unjustifiable, and mis- 
 chievous. 
 The great Again : tliough we are not entirely enlightened 
 judgiJSnt concerning the ways of God in matters not touch- 
 accor ing j^^ ^^^. ^^^ couduct, yet we have one principle 
 
with the Heatheyi World. 151 
 
 of God's dealings revealed to us in both Old Testa- lect. 
 ment and New, upon which we may securely rest. 
 
 The principle is that of judgment according to ligirupoiT 
 works, — deeds do7ie in the body, whether good or]J^\''"^' 
 had; a principle, put in its most striking form, 
 and the most suitable to my present purpose, 
 when we find it thus enunciated in the words of 
 the Psalm — Thou, Lord, art merciful, for Thou Fa.ixu. 12. 
 rewardest every man according to his worh. Yes — 
 merciful, because this is the righteous rule of His 
 judgment, — merciful, because He will not adopt 
 any of the capricious rules of discrimination that 
 man would attribute to Him, but act upon a prin- 
 ciple to which all men perforce agree, as being the 
 one only rule of righteousness and truth. Now 
 if, instead of endeavouring to define precisely the 
 relation in which untaught Heathen stand to the 
 Saviour of mankind, we hold fast the great truth 
 that they and we shall be equally judged right- 
 eously, then we may possibly find it a mystery, 
 that the Gospel has not been more generally 
 spread and received, but we shall not be afflicted 
 by the thought, that the good news of a Saviour 
 to the few have been a message of wrath to the 
 many. 
 
 The chief light, however, which lightens the The chief 
 darkness of this question, is that which shines which 
 upon it from a revelation of Christ to mankind, JheTexr'" 
 such as that which the text contains. Christ has 
 received authority to execute judgment, because 
 He is the Son of Man ; — that stooping to our in- 
 firmities, that assumption of human flesh, that 
 experimental knowledge of temptations and trials, 
 that dearly bought power of sympathising with 
 
152 TJw Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. human sorrow, constitute the very ground of the 
 
 exaltation of Christ to the office of supreme Judge 
 
 of mankind: and if we needed a guarantee, that 
 the judgment of God will be one of mercy and 
 justice and truth, I do not know what better gua- 
 rantee we could have, than that which is involved 
 in the inseparable union of the human and divine 
 in Him, by whose mouth the judgment is to be 
 given. For, although any notion which we may 
 form of the final judgment, — a judgment, be it 
 observed, the certainty of which can only be denied 
 See Note upou principles of the grossest materialism — al- 
 ^'^' though any notion of this judgment, I say, must 
 
 of necessity be inadequate, and probably in many 
 respects false, and at best can only be an imper- 
 fect image and shadow of the great reality, yet 
 certainly we may suppose that we are intended to 
 learn something concerning the nature of it from 
 the truth first revealed by the lips of Christ, and 
 afterwards impressed by His Apostles, namely, that 
 the office of judging belongs to that Person of the 
 blessed Trinity, to whom belongs the work of re- 
 demption: the guilt of those, who have sinned 
 against the light of the Gospel, and have trampled 
 under foot the mercies of God, and crucified Christ 
 and put Him to open shame, may well be supposed 
 to appear in its most overwhelming character, when 
 the sentence upon unrepented sin is pronounced 
 by the lips of Him, who humbled Himself that 
 He might put sin away: and on the other hand, 
 the announcement of such a Judge forbids us to 
 harbour in our minds theories concerning the judg- 
 ment of those, who have never heard the name 
 of Christ, such as men who permit themselves to 
 
with the Heathen World. 153 
 
 indulge in theories have sometimes not hesitated lect. 
 
 to construct. '^ 
 
 If it be said that thus to speak is to depreciate The autho- 
 the value of the Gospel, it may be answered, that Paul 
 the same view is distinctly urged by S. Paul. You *^"° ^ " 
 will remember, that, in the opening of the Epistle 
 to the Romans, he deals very severely with those, 
 who seemed to imagine that a different judgment 
 remained for them from that reserved for the 
 Heathen, in virtue of their being the chosen people 
 of God : and he declares, that God will render to Rom. li. 6, 
 every man according to his deeds, to the Jeiv ^°' ''' 
 Jirst, and also to the Gentile, because there is no 
 res2?ect of persons ivith Him, and that all this will 
 come to pass in the day when God shall judge the ii. 16; 
 secrets of men by Jesus Christ. And so far does 
 the Apostle press this argument, that he imagines 
 himself to be met by the objection, What advan- i". i. 
 tage then hath the Jeiv? — an objection precisely 
 analogous to that which may be made against 
 those, who, not desiring to undervalue the bless- 
 ings of the Christian Church, would yet maintain 
 the great truth, that all men must be judged accord- 
 ing to their works. I might therefore be satisfied 
 to cover the argument with the broad shield of 
 S. Paul ; but I would rather add this remark, that 
 to any one looking on from without, contemplat- 
 ing the Church from a merely intellectual point of 
 view, it seems to me that there will be always 
 great force in the objection, parallel to that sup- 
 posed by S. Paul to be urged against himself: 
 What advantage hath the Jew? and what profit 
 is there of circumcision? may very readily be 
 translated into this, — WJiat advantage hath the 
 
154 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. 
 VIII. 
 
 43. 
 
 Christian f and what 'profit is there of baptism into 
 Christ? For the dilemma may be made to seem 
 complete, — either there is no salvation to any but 
 Christians, and then all others are certainly lost, — 
 or else salvation is open to all according to a judg- 
 ment by works, and then the Church is useless. 
 See Note But, indeed, the fallacy consists in attempting to 
 reduce to a dilemma the inscrutable ways of God. 
 God never bade us theorize upon His deeds : He 
 has told us that all men will be judged accord- 
 ing to their works, because that is the great law 
 of His righteous government, and it concerns us 
 to know it; He has given us the light of Christ, 
 and bid us walk in that light, and spread the bless- 
 ings of it to our brethren who sit in darkness : and 
 forasmuch as we know little or nothing beyond 
 this, there will (as I have said) be always a diffi- 
 culty for the intellect, which they, who look upon 
 the Church from without, may dwell upon as much 
 and as loudly as they please. And the best — ■ 
 perhaps the only — solution of the difficulty is that, 
 which is to be found in the personal knowledge 
 of Christ; I mean, that any one, whose eyes have 
 been opened by the sanctifying Spirit to see in the 
 man Jesus the Son of God and the Saviour of the 
 world, who has realised the truth of the Catechism, 
 that he has been made by baptism a member of 
 Christ, a child of God, and an heir of heaven, and 
 who has nourished his soul with those blessed 
 memorials of the Lord's cross and passion, which 
 He Himself declared to be His body and blood, 
 will have no practical difficulty in giving an answer 
 to the question — What advantage hath a member 
 of Christ f If ever there were men, upon whom 
 
icitk the Heathen Wo^id. 155 
 
 the mystery of God's dealings pressed with almost lect. 
 
 insupportable weight, it must have been the '- 
 
 Apostles themselves: standing as they did, few 
 in number, in the midst of a terrific and polluted 
 and almost universal idolatry and fearful corrup- 
 tion of morals, what must have been their thoughts 
 if they ventured to speculate beyond the practical 
 line of duty ? but they never questioned the value 
 of the Gospel of which they were the bearers, be- 
 cause they knew Christ and His love constrained 
 them ; they did not doubt that they had a treasure 
 in their keeping, and that it was their duty and 
 work to dispense it; and so they did not speculate, 
 but they acted; they did not concern themselves 
 with the condition of those without, so much as 
 with the infinite blessing conferred upon those 
 who had come to the knowledge of the truth, and 
 so had been made free. And this apostolical ex- 
 ample must ever be followed by those, who desire 
 to have that peace, which Christ left as a legacy 
 to His Church : it is not in the intellectual master- 
 ing of every difficulty, that such peace is to be 
 sought, but in that knowledge of Christ, of which 
 the Apostle speaks in connection with growth 2 Pet. m. 
 in grace : at the same time it is well, and indeed ^ ' 
 necessary, to look all difficulties in the face, and 
 to satisfy ourselves that they arise not from any 
 want of truth in the Gospel, but from our own 
 essential incapacity to fathom the mysteries of 
 God. 
 
 Hence it has been my design in this Lecture, Conciu- 
 not to deny that difficulties arise from the con- 
 sideration of the relation in which the kingdom 
 of Christ stands to the rest of the world, nor yet 
 
XXI. ig; 
 
 156 The Dealings of God 
 
 LECT. to assert that those difficulties are easily explained 
 viii. . . . 
 — and incapable of assuming a formidable appearance 
 
 to an honest mind ; but rather to suggest, that he 
 
 who fixes his mind upon the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 as the Judge as well as Redeemer of mankind 
 
 in virtue of his humanity, can afford to leave the 
 
 difficulties unravelled, knowing that the Judge of 
 
 all the earth is He who humbled Himself to dwell 
 
 tS^rtbn ^ upon it in human flesh. And now, in bringing the 
 
 taken from subject to a close, allow me to remind you of a pas- 
 
 the history . , , . . ^ 
 
 of our sage m the history of our Lord, which well illus- 
 trates at once both our danger and our duty. We 
 
 S.John read in the conclusion of S. John's Gospel, that 
 S. Peter, having declared in a very emphatic man- 
 ner his love and allegiance to Christ, received the 
 command, Folloiv Me; and that, looking round, 
 and seeing S. John also following, he asked the 
 question, Lo7^d, and ivhat shall this man dof Jesus 
 said unto hiin, If I will that he tarry till I come, 
 ivhat is that to theef Folloiv thou Me! Now here 
 we have in a parable the command which Christ 
 gives to all who love Him, namely. Follow thou 
 Me ! a plain practical precept, which we may per- 
 form if we will, and for the neglect of which there 
 is for us no possible excuse. But the tendency of 
 the human mind not unfrequently is to ask con- 
 cerning others, Lo7xl, and what shall this man dof 
 Here is a jDoor heathen, who has never heard Thy 
 name — what shall he do? Here is a man, who 
 has been brought up in a nominally Christian 
 country, and yet in as dire pollution and as intense 
 ignorance as any Heathen land can shew — what 
 shall he do? Here is a man, who has enlightened 
 the world with his noble thoughts, whom Chris- 
 
with the Heathen World. 157 
 
 tian writers have deemed almost inspired, who has lect. 
 been one of the great agents in the purification of — ^HL- 
 mankind, yet he too a Heathen, — what shall he 
 do? And here are others — thousands and millions 
 — whose spiritual condition I can shape into no 
 theory, but concerning whom theories have been 
 made, at which my blood curdles, and my inmost 
 sense of right revolts — gracious Lord, who art 
 the Judge of all men, and who hast Thyself con- 
 descended to become the Son of Man, what shall 
 all these do? — Have we any right to deem the 
 answer insufficient, if to such questions as these, 
 which in no way touch our practice, except as 
 arguments for spreading the knowledge of the 
 Gospel among mankind, we receive from Him, 
 who loved the race made in His own image, who 
 redeemed them with His own blood, and who 
 cannot be either unreasonable or unjust, such a 
 reply as this. What is that to thee? Folloiv thou 
 Me! 
 
LECTUEE IX. 
 
 SCIENCE IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHRISTIAN 
 FAITH. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, October 7\, 1855. 
 
 I TIMOTHY VI. 20, 21. 
 
 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, 
 avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions 
 of science falsely so called: 
 
 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. 
 Grace be with thee. Amen. 
 
 LECT. Nothing can be easier than to misapply and 
 
 L misuse these words, as they stand in the Enghsh 
 
 Possible iQ^\^^ Nothing^ can be easier than to found upon 
 
 misappli- '=> _ ■!_ 
 
 cation of them Warning's concernino^ the danglers of scientific 
 
 the text. 1 1 -1 1-1 T 1 . 
 
 and philosophical studies, the necessity of making 
 human knowledge boAV to revelation, of subordi- 
 nating books of science to the one Book of God, — 
 to make the Apostle an authority for speaking 
 doubtfully of intellectual investigation in general, 
 and more than doubtfully of some branches of 
 study, which are thought to have come into collision 
 with Holy Scripture. Nothing can be easier, in 
 fact, than to take advantage of such a passage as 
 the text, for the purpose of endeavouring to stul- 
 tify the whole system of study, adopted advisedly 
 in this place of (as we believe) " sound learning 
 and religious education." 
 
Science in Relation to Christian Faith. 159 
 
 That such a proceeding as this would in reality lect. 
 
 be a misuse of S. Paul's words is manifest at once to ^~ 
 
 any one, who examines the original, and sees what in^g o?&\" 
 his words were. He is exhorting Timothy to ^^^^'^ 
 guard carefully that deposit of faith, that know- 
 ledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of 
 God — ri TTapanaTad^Krj — which our version para- 
 phrases by the words, that which is committed to 
 thy trust; and with this definite creed, this sure 
 knowledge, he contrasts as things to be utterly 
 avoided, profane and empty talk, and that which 
 was called knowledge, yet had no right to the 
 name — >J ^evlwwixo^ yvwai^ — knowledge whose very 
 name was a He, because it was speculation and 
 not knowledge, blind guesses at truth instead of 
 truth itself. No person, acquainted with early 
 Christian history, and aware of the mists of 
 false philosophy, and speculation, and theosophy, 
 through which the light of the Gospel had to 
 shine upon the world, and who knows the luxu- 
 riance with which the weeds of gnostic heresies 
 grew up in the Church, will wonder that S. Paul 
 should make it a most solemn charge to Timothy, 
 as one of the overseers of that Church, to hold 
 fast the faith, — those articles concerning which he 
 was able to say, not / think or / speculate, but 
 / believe, and / know, — that form of sound words 
 in which were contained the mysteries of the 
 Birth, and Death, and Resurrection, and Ascen- 
 sion of Christ, — to hold fast this knowledge, and 
 not to allow his mind to wander from this sure 
 ground to the enticing fields of speculation, which 
 the promoters of it gloried in calling by the name 
 of knowledge, but called it by that name falsely. 
 Nor was the charge thus given to Timothy one 
 
160 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. of private interpretation only; it was useful to 
 
 '- — him, more than to others, because upon him as 
 
 a bishojD an especial responsibility devolved con- 
 cerning the safety of the faith; and so it may 
 be also, that in our own days an exhortation like 
 that of the text, if it speak one word to the laity, 
 may speak ten to the clergy; but besides this, 
 S. Paul does in the text mark out, for the benefit 
 of the whole Church, the distinction between the 
 Christian faith and all religious speculations which 
 can be put in competition with it, namely, that it is 
 a knowledge, a deposit of something which is cer- 
 tainly t7nie, and may be surely helieved, — a hioiv- 
 ledge which may be applied in various ways, may 
 be meditated upon, may be more thoroughly appre- 
 hended through the medium of prayer and re- 
 ligious exercises and sacramental ordinances, but 
 which as to its facts is complete, to which therefore 
 no additions may be made, and for which no other 
 knowledge may be safely put as a substitute. 
 Cases in Viewed, then, in this way — and beyond doubt 
 
 Fault ^' ^^i^ i^ *^® ^^u® '^^y ^^ viewing them — S. Paul's 
 waiiiing is ^ords in no manner apply to science or knowledg-e 
 
 not apph- ^ ^ i. I J o 
 
 cable. that is rightly so named. Even if we take the 
 word given in our version, science, not in the 
 restricted sense in which S. Paul probably used 
 it, but in that more general signification which 
 the word now usually bears, making it to com- 
 prehend all branches of knowledge which are the 
 subject of scientific investigation, still, as soon as 
 ever it can be made to appear that a science is 
 truly such, and not such falsely and in name only, 
 then it is removed from all application of S. Paul's 
 warning to Timothy. So that if any science, or 
 that which pretends to be such, satisfies these two 
 
to the Christian Faith. 161 
 
 conditions, — first, that it is conducted upon prin- lect. 
 
 cij^les, which leave us no room for doubt concern- '- 
 
 ing the certainty of the results which flow from 
 our premises; and, secondly, that its conclusions 
 are applied entirely within the sphere of the 
 science in question; then we may say, that there 
 is no reason on religious grounds, why we should 
 look upon that science with suspicion : rather 
 should it be maintained, that a science which 
 satisfies such conditions is to be deemed free of 
 the Christian commonwealth, and to be so es- 
 teemed that to speak of it disparagingly should 
 be regarded as irreligious and. unchristian. 
 
 Now, I do not assert that there is no philo- Science 
 sophy or science or speculation, or whatever it is iS/stm 
 to be denominated, in our own days, which S. Paul '^^°^'''^^' 
 would regard as science falsely so called: on the 
 other hand, I think that ours are times in which 
 such falsely called science is unusually rife, and in 
 which, as much as in any age since the time of 
 the Apostles, we have need of the exhortation to 
 hold fast the deposit of the faith ; to hold it fast — 
 just because it seems demonstrable, that the mis- 
 take made by the great captains of the army of 
 error usually resolves itself into this, that they have 
 let go the deposit, the form of sound words, the 
 traditional historical faith, — in fact, the Apostles' 
 Creed, — and have wished to substitute for the one 
 unchangeable revelation of God in the Trinity 
 of His ineffable Being, and specially in the per- 
 son of our Lord Jesus Christ, speculations con- 
 cerning God and man, which assume shapes and 
 phases varying with the mind speculating, and 
 which must almost infallibly reduce themselves to 
 
162 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. Pantheism for the wise and prudent, and Atheism 
 
 IX 
 
 ^ — for the simple and the babes. It is not my 
 
 Lecture intention however to deal with questions con- 
 devoted J nected with what S. Paul would certainly have 
 denSrof ^^^S^^^^^®^ ^^ ^ false philosophy, but rather to 
 ^*- take occasion from the subject, which the text 
 
 brings before us, to regard from the point of view 
 belonging to these Lectures a kind of science, 
 which he would not have rej^robated, and with 
 the religious bearings of which we in this Uni- 
 versity are specially and very deeply concerned. 
 
 The pur- J speak of thosc infallible processes of reason- 
 
 pose 01 _ ••• ^ 
 
 this Lee- ing and the exact study of the physical universe 
 
 turetocon- f> ^ ^ • ^ • 
 
 sider the by mcaus 01 them, which constitute one of the 
 which °he chiof fcaturcs, — 'in the minds of the country at 
 mathema- l^rgc pcrhaps the most characteristic feature, — 
 of this place. In the remarks which I make, I 
 shall not separate the processes of reasoning from 
 regarded, tlieir applications, nor shall I exclude reference 
 to branches of science, which, although not com- 
 pletely mathematical, are yet so pervaded by the 
 mathematical spirit, as to entitle their conclusions 
 to be received as established truths. Now, that 
 S. Paul would not have described this kind of 
 science as science falsely so called, we may perhaps 
 feel satisfied from the mere fact, that it clearly is 
 not so ; you may hold what opinion you please con- 
 cerning its absolute or relative value, or the 
 pleasure that it is capable of affording to the 
 mind, or the advantage of using it as a means 
 of education, or the danger of doing so, and the 
 See Note like; but beyond doubt it is truly science, truly 
 hiowledge, and in this differs from almost every 
 other department of human thought, that in it you 
 
 tical and 
 physical 
 scieuce 
 should be 
 
to the Cliristian Faith. 163 
 
 can say positively, I hiow this or I hnoiv that; lect. 
 you may enunciate the most stupendous proposi- 
 
 tions concerning the laws of God's universe, and 
 say, these propositions are true, — no one may deny 
 them ; any one who denies them can only do so 
 in conjunction with the admission, that he has not 
 the means of looking into the evidence. Science 
 which has this standing-ground undoubtedly is 
 wot falsely so called; on the other hand, science, as 
 synonymous with hnowledge, and as distinguished 
 from speculation, or opinion, or guessing, or asser- 
 tion mthout authority, seems to be precisely the 
 name which answers the requirements of the case : 
 and hence I think we may certainly conclude, that 
 the warning contained in the text may not fairly 
 and honestly be used, with reference to that kind 
 of science, to which this University gives so much 
 attention, and to the study of which she invites 
 her younger sons, as the best means (according 
 to her judgment) of occupying their time, and 
 of preparing themselves for future work. Never- 
 theless, one would be glad to know, what S. Paul 
 would have said of scientific studies, or (which 
 comes perhaps to the same thing) what ought to 
 be said of them by any one who takes his stand 
 as a member of Christ, and who can say from his 
 heart, / count all things hut loss, for the excellency ofv\n\. wi. 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For indeed 
 we ought to be able to see the propriety and wisdom 
 of our studies, not merely when regarded from the 
 low level of this world, but when contemplated from 
 the high ground of Christ's cross; no special plead- 
 ing ought to be required to justify them; there 
 ought to be no feeling of an inconsistency between 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. the studies of the University and her professedly 
 '- — reUgious character; we ought to be able to say 
 
 45 
 
 as Christians, we believe in the sight of God that 
 
 our system is holy and good. 
 No general I do uot liowover proposo to enter into a 
 University defeuso of the studies of the University — this has 
 temptecf* ^ecu douo by much more able hands — but only 
 See Note ^^ regard the study in question in the manner 
 
 appropriate to this course of Lectures: and this 
 
 I shall do by directing attention to some of the 
 The possi- forms of rcligious difficulty and danger belonging 
 ami'coun- to the study, and then exhibiting the countervail- 
 adv^ntales ing advantages, and especially shewing how the 
 stm^/^in spiritual twilight of science is illuminated by, and 
 question ^Iso reudors all the more Sflorious, that lio^ht of 
 
 wall be ex- . . 
 
 hibited. the glory of God which shines upon the hearts of 
 men from the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
 (a) In the first place, it is obvious, that the 
 very feature of mathematical and physical science, 
 to which I have already alluded, as redeeming it 
 from the charge of being science falsely so called, — 
 that power which it gives to the human mind of 
 saying, / knoiv, with regard to questions of the 
 most complicated difficulty, and of challenging 
 assent on pain of confession of ignorance, — may 
 be abused to very mischievous results. A mind 
 accustomed to the mode of investigating truth, 
 appropriate to this branch of science, may easily 
 become so fascinated with the certainty and beauty 
 of its results as to sacrifice to the net with which 
 
 Hab. i. 1 6. it lias fislied the sea of knowledge, to burn incense 
 to its calculus, and so to expect rigid demonstra- 
 tion in departments of truth in which it is not 
 to be had. Every mind is, in fact, liable to become 
 
 First dan 
 ger. 
 
to the Christian Faith. 165 
 
 onesided by a particular course of study; but the lect, 
 result of such onesidedness is, in the case in ques- — ^^ 
 tion, of more seriously evil tendency than in many 
 others : for, if any one addict himself to those 
 studies, which come more nearly home to questions 
 of duty and practical life, or which involve more 
 of human relations, — studies connected with history 
 and morals and religion, and the like, — he may (it 
 is true) give up his right of entrance into one of 
 the grandest fields of human thought, or may 
 deprive himself of much intellectual delight, but 
 he has done nothing to unfit his mind for ap- 
 preciating the arguments, belonging to the most 
 solemn and sacred subjects; but if a man learn 
 so to idolize the methods and processes, which 
 in physical science have led to such noble results, 
 as to be unable to see truth except in the light 
 of those methods and processes, then it is clear 
 that he has injured his mind morally, strengthened 
 one side of it at the expense of the other, and 
 brought himself to the condition, not of intel- 
 lectual strength, but of intellectual deformity. 
 Hence the very excellence of the study constitutes 
 its danger; its high character, as leading in the 
 truest sense to science, makes it possible to turn 
 its methods to bad account ; and the complete and 
 absolute conviction, of having attained to truth 
 of a certain and very noble kind, may be the 
 means of hindering a man from attaining to truth 
 in other dej^artments of knowledge quite as noble, 
 and of far deeper human interest and more mo- 
 mentous personal concernment. 
 
 (/3) But again; it is, I think, undeniable that Second 
 the kind of study, of which I am speaking, has 
 
166 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. a tendency to bring the mind into collision with 
 
 a number of religious difficulties, from which 
 
 perhaps it might otherwise have escaped. Take, 
 
 as a principal examjDle, the character of Holy 
 
 Scripture, regarded from the side of natural 
 
 science. I should suppose that there is scarcely 
 
 any one, who has read the account of the creation 
 
 in the Book of Genesis — not to go any further — 
 
 and who has studied God's works by the light of 
 
 science, who has not spent a considerable amount 
 
 of anxious thought uj^on the connection between 
 
 the results obtained from the two sources, who 
 
 See Note has not Weighed with some attention the various 
 46. . 
 
 speculations and hypotheses and theories, which 
 
 some writers have deemed necessary for the pur- 
 pose of reconciling Moses with modern science. 
 I do not adduce this as a difficulty, through which 
 the greater number of men may not think their 
 way ; probably to many, the flaws, which are 
 imagined to exist in the Mosaic dehneation of 
 the creative week, will appear in the same light, 
 as though an ingenious man were to examine with 
 a microscope the background of some sacred pic- 
 ture, forgetting that the painter's art consisted 
 in concentrating attention on the central figure 
 of a Christ ; or, if this should seem to be a saving 
 of Scripture by a metaphor, we might probably 
 be well content to rest its character upon the trial, 
 whether now, with all the light which science has 
 thrown upon the vestiges of creation, we could give 
 any account of the great phenomenon of the origin 
 of the human race so simple, so intelligible, and 
 so true, as that which Moses has left to us; cer- 
 tainly if we may judge from some recent attempts 
 
to the Christian Faith. 167 
 
 to take the creation out of the hands of Moses, we lect, 
 
 may say, that neither science, nor philosophy, nor '— 
 
 rehgion are hkely to reap much benefit by the 
 change. But this by the way : I merely intended 
 to allude to the well-known and continually argued 
 difficulties, connected with the character of Scrip- 
 ture viewed in the light of natural science, for 
 the purpose of illustrating the position, that there 
 are religious difficulties, or rather intellectual diffi- 
 culties connected with the Christian religion, to 
 which the eyes are very much opened by the study 
 of physical science, to which, in fact, they cannot 
 be shut; a simple man may be not aware of 
 the difficulties; and a man, whose thoughts have 
 been exercised chiefly in another direction, may 
 have no keen perception of them, — they lie beside 
 his path, they are not actual stumbling-blocks 
 in his way; but to a man, whose mind has been 
 habitually exercised in the accurate investigation 
 of the laws of God's works, any apparent dis- 
 crepancy between what he has been taught to 
 believe as true from reading the Bible, and what 
 he knows to be true from reading the book of 
 nature, may become a difficulty of very appalling 
 magnitude, 
 
 (7) Once more : I think it must be allowed. Third dar 
 that the habit of contemplating God's works in 
 nature, under the guidance of exact science, may 
 possibly tempt the mind to regard God as the 
 law of the universe, rather than as the one di- 
 vine person from whom all law proceeds, — as the 
 moving-spring existing in the universe, rather than 
 as Him in whom all things exist. I am speaking 
 now rather of a habit of mind, which possibly may 
 
168 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. be produced, and which probably often has been 
 
 '- — produced, than of that which ought legitimately to 
 
 follow from the study of science pursued aright. 
 And if this effect should follow, it is not to be 
 denied, that it is one of very mischievous result 
 to the mind; for it hides that side of the character 
 and being of God, with which we, as His respon- 
 sible creatures, have most to do, — His righteous- 
 ness, His holiness. His hatred of sin, — and fixes 
 the thoughts chiefly upon that side, with which 
 personally and practically we are the least con- 
 cerned. The necessary consequence of this dis- 
 torted, or at least imperfect view of God, is to 
 diminish the perception of moral evil, the sense 
 of sin, the feeling of estrangement from God, and 
 desire of union with Him as the only source of 
 peace, — in fact, to injure the spiritual part of a 
 man's being, and weaken its hold upon tliose 
 mighty truths, with which the great interests of 
 himself and his brethren are almost exclusively 
 bound up. 
 The coun- In tliese, then, and jDossibly in other ways, which 
 IXitn-"^ might be mentioned did time allow or my subject 
 tagee. rcquirc, the study of exact science may have a 
 mischievous effect. I desire neither to deny nor 
 to exaggerate the possibility of evil results; but 
 simply to admit it in all honesty and candour, 
 and then to pass on to the other side of the 
 question. 
 General re- And in doiug SO I would obscrvc in general, 
 advan- ^^ that any branch of knowledge which deals with 
 cefudn^ ^ t^^® absolutely true, must of necessity be reve- 
 road to renced by us, whose minds have been constructed 
 
 truth of "^ ' 
 
 any kind, for thc purposc of kiiowiug truth. Even if we 
 
to the Christian Faith. 169 
 
 should confine our attention entirely to that de- lect. 
 
 IX 
 
 partment which deals with the mere properties '— 
 
 of number and space, to be able to say of a pro- 
 position, " I know this to be true," is to have 
 attained a mental position of not inconsiderable 
 elevation, and which ought to be accounted valu- 
 able. It is not the truth of the proposition, but 
 the fact that the mind can assert it to he true, by 
 which we are to estimate the value of a study 
 which enables us to assume this ground: for the 
 mind, which has been so enabled, ought to have 
 obtained great advantage in its views of truth in 
 general, its appreciation of the value of truth, 
 the difference between arguing and proving, be- 
 tween speculating and knowing. But when we 
 come to the application of mathematical processes 
 to the investigation of the phenomena of God's 
 world, to trace out the chain of cause and effect 
 which binds together the universe, to examine the 
 marvellous mechanism by which the heavens and 
 the earth are sustained, and thus to arrive at a 
 kind of knowledge totally inaccessible (be it ob- 
 served) by any other means, then in addition to 
 the more abstract benefits to be derived, we have 
 a treasure in the concrete knowledge obtained, 
 which ought to be highly precious, and to be 
 deemed worthy of all exertion. For if, indeed, 
 it were a religious thing for David to contemplate Psaim 
 the heavens, and see in them a declaration of the 
 glory of God and the excellence of His handi- 
 work, then it may equally tend to piety with 
 ourselves, to examine, according to the best means 
 that the wit of man has devised, the mechanism 
 of those heavens ; and it ought to be regarded 
 
170 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. as no small privilege, belonging to the times in 
 
 ' which God has cast om^ lot, that every man of 
 
 average abilities and opportunities of study is able 
 See Note to kuow Something, in the true sense of the word 
 '^'' knowledge, concerning the wonderful order and 
 
 beauty of the handiwork of God. 
 The ethical Moroovcr, the cthical effect of the study of a 
 study science, which is at once difficult to master and 
 to infaut ^ Certain in its results, ought not to be left out of 
 bie results. ^\g{^\^^ Engaged in a study of this kind, a man 
 cannot easily -deceive himself concerning the extent 
 or profundity of his knowledge ; or, if he has suc- 
 ceeded in doing so, he is easily undeceived. I do 
 not say, that the exact sciences alone possess this 
 advantage, but certainly they do possess it in a 
 remarkable degree ; a man may possibly be jDuffed 
 up by his knowledge, but he is much more likely 
 to be humbled by a sense of his weakness; and 
 if a man's secular studies tend to produce a cau- 
 tiousness in expressing opinions, a modesty of 
 mind, a sense of the folly of wishing to seem wiser 
 than he really is, then those secular studies not 
 only harmonize with, but are the best allies and 
 supporters of, those, which are more distinctly re- 
 ligious. In fact, the spirit of true science and the 
 See Note gpi^t of the Gospcl are one. 
 
 The tone But furtlicr ; it might perhaps have been ex- 
 
 fostered by pected on d priori grounds, and has been demon- 
 study\ strated, so far as such a thing can be demonstrated, 
 preserva- ^q \^q ^\^q fr^^t, that tlic tono of miud imparted by 
 
 tiveagainst ^ ^ , ^ ^ ^ 
 
 religious the pccuHar studies of this place is a good pre- 
 
 ' servative against that feverish feeling of unrest, 
 
 which has led some eminent men of late years 
 
 to seek religious peace in secession from the 
 
to the Chiistian Faith. 171 
 
 English Church. It is not to my purpose to lect. 
 
 attempt to analyse this phenomenon — one of the '— 
 
 most remarkable and most melancholy that this 
 age has produced — but I think that we should do 
 injustice to the place of our education, if we did 
 not gratefully recognise the fact, that no one — 
 (I believe I am correct in the assertion) — that 
 no one, who has given evidence of having applied 
 himself to the peculiar studies of Cambridge, has 
 been found amongst the number of the seceders. 
 Nor do I perceive any reason, why we should be 
 surprised at this result; for it would seem to me, 
 that the effect of pursuing a line of study in which 
 truth can be surely attained, and of observing 
 philosophically the conditions which have in that 
 study rendered the sure attainment of truth pos- 
 sible, ought to a thoughtful mind to be legiti- 
 mately this, namely, to make it obvious in what 
 departments of thought the same infallible cer- 
 tainty cannot be expected: this conclusion is not 
 at all inconsistent with the admission, that mathe- 
 matical study may sometimes blind a man's eyes 
 to the cogency of moral evidence, — this is a very 
 possible abuse, — but a mind, which is too keen to 
 be led away into such an error, will be taught to 
 see, more clearly than it otherwise could, the kind 
 of reasoning a2:)propriate to, and the kind of cer- 
 tainty attainable in, the various departments of 
 human thought. How entirely antagonistic, for 
 example, is such a tone of mind to that vicious 
 system of canonizing new articles of faith, and 
 making additions to the Apostles' Creed, of which 
 we have lately seen at Rome so lamentable an 
 instance! — an instance, which affords me a special 
 
See Note 
 49- 
 
 172 Science m its Relation 
 
 LECT. illustration of the point upon which I am now 
 insisting, because it enables me to call to mind 
 the emphatic manner, in which one of our own 
 most eminent theologians, (now gone to his rest,) 
 warned us from this pulpit of the monstrous 
 character of the innovation, and reminded us that 
 any argument, which could prove the immaculate 
 conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, must 
 infallibly prove the same for all her ancestors, 
 and so reduce itself to an absurdity. 
 The true But ouco morc : as the pursuit of a study 
 
 oHuTh a which is an infallible road to truth may lead to 
 kadmtnto pi'ido and self-conceit, yet ought to lead to mo- 
 Chnst. desty, and as the same j^ursuit may lead to an 
 obtuseness of vision concerning moral evidence, 
 yet ought to have the precisely opposite result, 
 so also it is especially to be enforced, that although 
 the possible abuse of science is to make men 
 forget the higher attributes of God, the j^roper 
 use of it is to lead men to Christ. If Christ be 
 I Cor. i. indeed the ivisdom and power of God, if He came 
 s!joiin into the ivorld to hear witness to the Truth, if with- 
 out Him was not anything made that was made, then 
 it may certainly be concluded on general grounds, 
 that any knowledge we may have from other 
 sources of the wisdom and power of God, any 
 means of ascertaining truth, any insight into the 
 wonders of those things which have been made, 
 must have a necessary and important bearing 
 upon the great work of knowing Christ and God 
 as revealed in Him: and contrariwise, we may 
 feel satisfied, that Christ, as the great Light of the 
 world, will be able to cast a light peculiarly His 
 own even into those regions of thought, which the 
 
 xvui. 37 
 i-3- 
 
to the Christian Faith. 173 
 
 torch of science lias chiefly been able to illuminate, lect. 
 
 . IX 
 
 But, besides such general reasoning, we may see '- 
 
 particular grounds for asserting, that the legiti- 
 mate result of science upon a thoughtful and 
 religious mind is to demonstrate, in the most 
 forcible manner, the need of such a standing-point 
 for contemplating the difficulties and anomalies 
 of the universe, as that which is afforded by the 
 Cathohc doctrine of the Being of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. For, in truth, the contemplation of the 
 handiwork of God must ever result, as it did in 
 the case of David, in the question, What is manf vh^/". 
 — aye, what is rnanf for this is the question of 
 questions for those who themselves are men: we 
 may obtain much accurate knowledge concerning 
 the Heavens and the Earth, — we may gain such 
 insight into the mysteries of the laws of the mate- 
 rial world as shall quite astonish ourselves, — we 
 may arrive, in fact, by science at a kind of know- 
 ledge, which an uninstructed man not only does 
 not possess, but is incapable of apprehending so 
 far as to appreciate his poverty; but if after all 
 we have learned nothing concerning ourselves, 
 have found no answer to those spiritual questions 
 which men have in all ages asked, we are un- 
 doubtedly deficient in a knowledge, for which we 
 might well be content to sacrifice all that we 
 know. Yet, if science cannot tell us what we 
 require to know, it can at least do this — it can 
 assure us of the need of some other light: when 
 we ask the question — TFAere shall wisdom he J°^ ^'^''''^• 
 found f and lohere is the place of under staiidingf 
 it can enable us fully to appreciate the answer — 
 The depth saith, It is not in me; ayid the sea saith, 14. 
 
which 
 science 
 cannot 
 answer. 
 
 174 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. It is not with me! — no — the physical universe 
 IX . . 
 '- does not contain that wisdom which man's needs 
 
 require; and he, who has fathomed most deeply 
 the mysteries of God's creation, ought to have 
 the most thorough and the most abiding con- 
 viction, that he needs some other and quite 
 different manifestation of the wisdom and power 
 and goodness of God. 
 Christ the Here, then, we come to a point, from which 
 queSns tlic transitiou is easy from human science to divine 
 knowledge, from God as seen in creation to God 
 as revealed in Christ ; and I wish you to perceive 
 how that the coming of Christ into the world, and 
 See Note the historj of His life and death, and resurrection, 
 and ascension, supply answers to questions which 
 we ever feel ourselves impelled to ask, and to 
 which in the material universe we can obtain no 
 sufficient answer. I find myself thus brought to 
 the threshold of a wide, indeed almost infinite, 
 subject, when my sermon is drawing towards a 
 close; and I must therefore be content with offer- 
 ing some few illustrations of a view of the mission 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, the importance of which 
 I am convinced will commend itself to all thought- 
 ful minds. 
 
 Thus, if the contemj:>lation of the universe 
 presses upon us the question What is manf and 
 gives no answer to the question in which we can 
 without difficulty acquiesce, no answer which re- 
 conciles the conflicting evidence of his greatness 
 and his insignificance, or which gives an intelligi- 
 ble theory of the distinction between his relation 
 to God and that of other creatures, then we find 
 in the birth of Christ the very answer we need. 
 
 Answer to 
 the ques- 
 tion, W/tat 
 
 is 771(1 It ? 
 
to the Christian Faith. 175 
 
 The Word, ivho ivas ivith God and was God, became lect. 
 
 flesh : the Son of God became the Son of man. '- — 
 
 Then men ar^e precious in the eyes of God : the'i^i^/'^* 
 race of man is glorified in the manhood of Christ : 
 and each individual man may rejoice, when he 
 remembers that he is clothed in flesh, which God 
 Himself condescended to assume. 
 
 Or again : if the question of the purpose of Answer to 
 man's existence, his chief good, be one which tion, wimt 
 thoughtful men have in all ages agitated, smd chief ILd? 
 conchided in various ways, which the tendencies 
 of the flesh, lead us to conclude in a very gross and 
 sensual way, and concerning which the manifesta- 
 tion of God in the physical world supplies no aid, 
 then we may see the question answered once for 
 all in a plain and practical manner by the life of 
 Christ; — answered in a manner intelligible to all 
 men from the greatest to the least, and perhaps in 
 the only way which could thus be made universally 
 intelligible. He, who ca77ie doivn from Heaven i John vi. 
 not to do His oivn ivill, hut the will of Hiin that 
 sent Him, is at once the proof and the example of 
 what all men were sent into the world to do : and 
 He, who, being equal with God, humbled Himself 
 with unspeakable humiliation, and tooh upon Him Phu. li. s. 
 the form of a servant, has given us a lesson, which 
 we could obtain nowhere else, as to the character 
 of mind, which is pleasing to God, and which 
 ought to be considered best and noblest amongst 
 ourselves. 
 
 Again : the race of mankind have ever groaned ^^^^Zb^ 
 under a sense of sin : the feeling of some spiri- ^^^> ^^2^} 
 tual gap between themselves and God is ^odonsini 
 universal, so painfully attested by sacrifices and 
 
176 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. dreadful rites, that it may almost be regarded as 
 '- — a human instinct. Yet the visible world affords 
 
 no consolation : God, as seen in His works, is not 
 God the pardoner of sin. Now this is the cha- 
 racter, in which above all others God appears to 
 us, as seen in Jesus Christ : there is no occasion 
 to say a word in proof that this is so, because 
 by the ordinary titles of Redeemer and Saviour 
 we ever bear testimony to the fact ; but that 
 which I desire to do is to impress upon you, 
 how thoroughly the experience of the fulness 
 and the emptiness of human science ought to lead 
 us to welcome this revelation of God ; to have 
 searched the universe, and found in it no answer, 
 nor anything like an answer, to a question, which 
 men have asked with agonizing cries in all coun- 
 tries and in all generations, ought to a wise man 
 to be the best preparation possible for receiving 
 that divine answer, which has been sent from 
 Heb. ix. Heaven in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who put 
 
 away sin by the sacrijice of Himself. 
 
 Answer to And in near connection with this point, ob- 
 
 tions,^/r serve how the absence, or at all events the defi- 
 
 fan?\l7 ciency, of proof in the physical world of the 
 
 loir, man P^rsonal lovo of Almighty God towards us ought 
 
 kind? to prepare us for such an unspeakable proof as 
 
 that, which He gave by the assumption of our 
 
 human nature. I have spoken of the tendency 
 
 of physical science to make men contemplate 
 
 God as the law of the physical universe, the 
 
 mainspring of the machine, the soul of the world; 
 
 but surely the conviction of the reason, that this 
 
 cannot be God, ought to lead us to hope, that 
 
 somewhere God has made a revelation of Himself, 
 
to the Christian Faith. 177 
 
 hisfher and better than that which the material lect. 
 
 . . . IX. 
 
 world contains ; and he who is driven thus to 1— 
 
 search for a revelation of God may be satisfied 
 that he has found what he needs, when he finds 
 God speaking to him, and sympathising with him, 
 in the person of Jesus Christ. 
 
 And once more : if the question of their future ^"swer to 
 
 . . *''i6 ques- 
 
 condition has ever perplexed mankind, if the tion, ]vai 
 
 7H(lll live 
 
 physical universe tells only of decay, and yet after 
 man's spirit recoils from the thought, then we 
 may find a divine solution of the question in the 
 union of the human and divine in the person of 
 Christ, and the impossibility that His holy body 
 should see corruption. The resurrection and as- 
 cension of Christ, however much they may differ 
 in their circumstances from anything which can 
 befall ourselves, do yet declare in a manner which 
 simple men and philosophers can alike understand, 
 the will and purpose of God concerning those, 
 whom He created in His own image, and whom 
 His blessed Son has redeemed. 
 
 These are but a few hints of the divers ways, The pre- 
 
 cedinj^ 
 
 m which Christ comes in as the revealer of mys- pamgrapLs 
 teries, as the true light which shines upon the only hints 
 darkness of this world. You will perceive, that rli view.^ 
 I have led you to a point of view, rather than 
 exhausted or attempted to exhaust the subject ; 
 I have wished to make it appear, not only that 
 the kind of science to which we give so much 
 attention has advantages as a noble and manly 
 exercise of thous^ht, and as leadino^ to truth with 
 a certainty belonging to no other subject, but 
 that in reality it is a good prejDaration for receiv- 
 ing that revelation of God, which teaches precisely 
 
 N 
 
178 Science in its Relation 
 
 LECT. those truths which science cannot teach, and sup- 
 ' plies precisely those wants which science cannot 
 supply : I have wislied to urge, that if the mind 
 be deeply exercised with this kind of science, then 
 it ought not to be thereby rendered so wise in 
 its own conceit as to account the cross of Christ 
 foolishness, but should rather be led by the extent 
 of its knowledge to seek in Christ, as the wisdom 
 and power of God, a knowledge which we all 
 need, not as philosophers but as men, and for 
 which we may search elsewhere in vain. 
 This sub- ^nd one reason why I thouarht it well to treat 
 
 ject may /.-i. -, • ^ • • i • t 
 
 be profit- of this subjoct at tlic prcscut time is this : i am 
 derl/by^^ probably speaking to many who are just entering 
 terinV upon their course of study, the majority of tliem 
 Cambiid'e pe^haps intended, like Timothy, to have in future 
 course, days pastoral charge in Christ's Church : in prepar- 
 ing for this charge the University invites them to 
 give their attention in a large degree to human 
 science, and the question therefore naturally arises 
 — nay, it forces itself upon our attention as honest 
 men, — is it science falsely so called ? or if not 
 falsely so called, is it science to be looked upon 
 with suspicion, to be disparaged by those who 
 have the great work in hand of preaching the 
 Gospel to their brethren ? in fact, would S. Paul, 
 if now on earth, have charged us to avoid the 
 oppositions of science, and to hold fast the faith ? 
 Beyond doubt he would have charged us to hold 
 fast the faith, now as in the beginning ; but I 
 think that he would also have subscribed to the 
 principle, that the faith will be best defended, 
 indeed, in these days can only be effectually 
 defended, by those who have drunk deeply of 
 
to the Clwistian Faith. 179 
 
 human knowledge. The true antidote to science lect. 
 
 falsely so called, that science which now as of old '— 
 
 degenerates into profane and vain babblings, which 
 confounds speculation with truth, and makes scep- 
 ticism the paradise of the human soul, — the true 
 antidote (I say) is science rightly so called, science 
 which is cautious in its generalizations, and modest 
 in its pretensions, which knows its weakness as 
 well as its strength, which is ready to accept in 
 simplicity and with gratitude the revelation of 
 God manifest in the flesh, because it has ran- 
 sacked the universe and not found the revelation 
 which man requires. O my young Christian 
 brethren, avoid 'profane and vain babblings and 
 oppositions of science falsely so called, but do not 
 avoid such science as this : rather make use of true 
 science for the destruction of error, for the defense 
 of God's truth, for the keeping of that which is or 
 will be committed to your trust ! And so grace be 
 with you. Amen. 
 
 N 2 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 CONCLUDING LECTURE— THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH. 
 
 Preached on Sunday, October 28, 1855. 
 
 EPHESIANS VI. 14. 
 
 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about ivith truth. 
 
 LECT. The design of this course of Lectures has been 
 ^' to shew, that the doctrines of our rehgion may 
 
 This course i^g advautageouslj contemplated, and its diffi 
 
 ofLectures 
 
 to be con- cultics safelj estimated, from the standing-point 
 
 with an ex- affordod to Christians by the Catholic doctrine of 
 
 to stead- the being of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have en- 
 
 thefaHh!" dcavourcd to enforce the principle, that if the 
 
 incarnation of the Eternal Son be admitted as 
 
 the great postulate of the faith, and if the rest 
 
 of God's dealings be regarded in the hght of this 
 
 one cardinal fact, a wonderful and most welcome 
 
 aid will be supplied to him, wdio meditates upon 
 
 the mysterious economy of God. The principle 
 
 has been illustrated by various examples, which 
 
 have commended themselves on different grounds 
 
 of fitness. To-day I propose to bring the course 
 
 to a close by an exhortation, of as plain and 
 
 practical a character as possible, to steadfastness 
 
 in the faith. 
 
 The whole With this vicw I havo chosen as a text a 
 
 amiourof passage from that well-known exhortation to the 
 
 Ephesians, in which S. Paul warns them of the 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 181 
 
 power and subtilty of their spiritual enemies, and lect. 
 charges them therefore to put on the whole armour ^ — 
 
 of God: twice he uses the expression — the whole 
 arwour of God — as if to impress upon the minds 
 of Christians the extreme danger of their position 
 in this world, and the infinite necessity of being 
 clothed in a panoply, such as no human skill can 
 forge. Take unto you, says S, Paul, the whole Ephes. vi. 
 armour of God, that ye may he able to withstand '■^' 
 in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
 
 Now there is very little difficulty in transfer- as neces- 
 ring to Christians of our own times the warning arJver.'^ 
 and advice given by the Apostle to the Ephesians. 
 If the iviles of the Devil be different now from 
 those to which S. Paul alluded, they are no less 
 crafty and quite as well suited to their purpose : 
 if S. Paul, though speaking to a Church, against 
 which the jiowers of this world were arrayed, 
 could yet say, ive ivrestle not against flesh and 
 hlood, perceiving (as he did) the much more for- 
 midable hostility of the spirits of evil, the same 
 thing may much more readily be said by us, in 
 whose days the grosser forms of opposition to the 
 Gospel have gone by, and have given way to an 
 opposition of a more subtle and intellectual kind : 
 and if S. Paul thought it necessary to urge the need 
 of divine assistance, in order that Christians might 
 overcome their adversaries, this too is a trath to 
 be insisted upon in all times, and one, of which 
 they, who have contended the most vigorously 
 against Satan, will be the most ready to acknow- 
 ledge the force. Hence the Apostle's catalogue 
 of armour is to be regarded as not out of date, 
 the art of war not so to have changed as to render 
 
182 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. it useless for us to be armed wdth the h^eastplate 
 
 '- — of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of 
 
 salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, luhich is the 
 ivord of God; and he, who would exhort his bre- 
 thren to resist the enemies of their souls, could 
 probably not do better than base his exhortations 
 ujDon the description, which S. Paul has given to us, 
 of the panoply of God. 
 One por- J have, liowcver, selected from that description 
 
 tion of the ■■■ 
 
 armour Only ouo sentcnco, — have taken, so to sjoeak, one 
 considera- portiou of the armour, the use of which I desire 
 
 tion in this , • i T i ^ i j i 
 
 Lecture, ^o luipress, — aucl i have done so, because the 
 exhortation contained in the words — Stand there- 
 fore, having your loins girt about with truth, sup- 
 pHes in itself abundant matter for our considera- 
 tion, and expresses as distinctly as I could desire 
 the moral which I would append to these Lec- 
 tures. Moreover, it is to be noted, that the girdle 
 of truth is that which S. Paul places at the head of 
 his catalogue, as though to be girt with this piece 
 of armour were the prerequisite for the proper 
 use of the rest; he speaks of it as that, by help 
 of which a man is emphatically to be made to 
 stand, being girt with which he is to be able to 
 hold that posture of uprightness, which belongs 
 to him as a man, and which enables him alone 
 of all living creatures to look up to Heaven. 
 There is thus apparently a peculiar importance 
 assigned to the fact of the soldier of Christ being 
 girded with truth; and it will not, therefore, be 
 deemed any disparagement of the rest of the 
 Christian armour, if I choose one particular por- 
 tion, and direct attention wholly to that. 
 
 wiifbe re- Now, in the exliortation, Stand therefore, having 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 183 
 
 your loins girt about ivith truth, S. Paul would lect. 
 
 seem to refer to truth abstractedly, — to honesty '. 
 
 and truthfulness of character, love of truth as fetlrring to 
 being from God, hatred of lies as being from the n™?Jf ciia- 
 Devil, — and not to refer so distinctly to the hold- 'f *«'" an<i 
 
 •^ , also to con- 
 
 ing of concrete truth, the knowledge and retention crete truth. 
 
 of what is true, especially of the revealed truth 
 of the Gospel. Nevertheless, I shall so far deal 
 freely with the text, as to consider it to be sugges- 
 tive of both meanings ; for both are unquestionably 
 in accordance with its spirit, and perhaps neither 
 of them can rightly be said to be more important 
 than the other. 
 
 (i.) Certainly that meaning of the text, ac- Truthful- 
 
 !• t * t • • t • 1 • r* ^ D6SS 01 CDR* 
 
 cordmg to which it implies the necessity of honesty racter ne- 
 and truthfulness of purpose, as primary conditions thrsofaieJ 
 of being strong in the Lord, is one, the importance ° ^"^^" 
 of which belongs to all ages of the Church. Ex- 
 hortations to the fear of God, or to faith in Christ, 
 though not contradicting the great truth of the 
 operation of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of 
 man being the only source of divine life, must 
 ever be based upon an appeal to the judgment, 
 as assenting to that which is propounded as true, 
 and to that which is demanded as reasonable. The 
 choice between the God who has revealed Him- 
 self in Jesus Christ, and all other objects of wor- 
 ship, must ever be made upon the principle enun- 
 ciated by Elijah upon Mount Carmel, as that upon 
 which it became the people of Israel to make their 
 election between Jehovah and Baal: the address 
 of the Prophet — Hoiv long halt ye between two i Kmgs 
 opinionsf if the Lord he God, follow him; hut 2^^^"'' 
 Baal, then follow him, may always be used, or 
 
184 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. rather no other argument has any right to be 
 — '- — used, in pressing the claims of revealed religion 
 upon the consciences of mankind ; and it is mani- 
 fest, that no homage can be worthy of being 
 received, except that which is offered upon the 
 same principle, — the principle, that is, of worship- 
 ping God, in accordance with the revelation which 
 He has been pleased to make of His person and 
 His purposes, because the reason and judgment 
 assent. And with regard to the Apostolic writings 
 in the New Testament it may be observed, that 
 however clear it may be that appeals are made 
 chiefly to the heart, however certain that the 
 argument for devotion to Christ is the love which 
 Christ first shewed towards ourselves, still there 
 is never any appearance of a wish to recommend 
 a course inconsistent with that which is in one 
 place so manfully enunciated — I speak as to wise 
 onefi, judge ye what I say. Nor, indeed, would 
 any other mode of dealing have been suitable to 
 the character of those, who professed to follow the 
 teaching and imitate the example of Him, who 
 s. John came into the ivorld to hear ivitness to the truth, and 
 who declared that they who ivere of the truth were 
 they ivho tuoidd hear His voice. 
 The need of Of courso, wlieu the principle of basing the 
 nels not claims of rcvcaled religion upon essential truth, 
 SHif*^ and appealing to the reason in behalf of God, is 
 word but enunciated in express terms, he would be a hardy 
 
 may be i . . 
 
 neglected man wlio would vcuturo to speak ai^ainst it : when 
 
 or may be -,^,.. , ,, , I'lx- 
 
 abused. Jlilijah made the appeal, to which 1 just now ad- 
 verted, we read, that the people answered him not 
 a word, for however much they had belied the 
 principle by their practice, they felt that against 
 
 1 Cor. X. 
 15- 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 185 
 
 the principle itself there was nothing to be said. lect. 
 And yet it appears to me, that the necessity to a '— 
 
 Christian of having his loins girt about with truth, 
 requires to be urged in these days for more reasons 
 than one. The principle may on the one hand 
 be admitted, and may be practically neglected; 
 and on the other it may be admitted, and may be 
 practically abused. When I speak of its being How it 
 admitted and practically neglected, I do not refer n^^ected. 
 to the case of those, who, admitting the solemn 
 truths of religion in word, are seduced by the 
 world, or the flesh, or the devil, from living the 
 life of holiness, which in consistency they are 
 bound to live ; I refer rather to the case of those, 
 who are led by the very love and zeal which they 
 have for the truths of revelation, and the value 
 which they cannot but attach to the Gospel, to 
 adopt insensibly, concerning subjects of divine 
 knowledge, methods of reasoning and principles 
 of judgment, which in human matters would be 
 seen at once to be faulty or worthless. Thus it 
 has come about, that persons, upon whose purity 
 of intention I would not cast the slightest sus- 
 jDicion, have sometimes endeavoured to falsify the 
 plain results of science in order to prop up some 
 theory concerning revelation, and that men have 
 been prevented from accepting what has been 
 proved to demonstration, because it interferes with 
 some notion which they have formed concerning 
 the construction of Holy Scripture. That injury 
 is likely to result to the mind from forsaking the 
 highroad of truth, upon any excuse whatever, is, I 
 suppose, sufficiently clear; it is not, however, with 
 this result that I am chiefly concerned now ; I 
 
186 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. desire rather to lay stress upon the injury that is 
 '- — done to the cause of truth itself, the stumbling- 
 
 block that is put in the way of weak consciences, 
 the opportunity of attack that is given to the 
 adversary. For, indeed, in an age of searching 
 investigation, when all subjects of human thought 
 are submitted to a severe analysis, and questions 
 which once seemed settled are reopened, and in 
 some cases ancient judgments reversed, nothing 
 can be more injurious to the character of the 
 Christian religion, than the suspicion, that it shuns 
 examination, that its claims are in antagonism 
 with demonstrated truth: the great point to be 
 borne in mind would seem to be this, that, while 
 oil the one hand, the claims of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ to be that which the Creeds assert Him 
 to be, and the cognate questions of the authen- 
 ticity of the sacred writings and the like, are open 
 to all investigation, and, if true, will bear every 
 test by which truth can be discerned, on the 
 other hand, it is not to be expected, nor has it 
 ever been maintained in the Church, that true 
 living faith in Christ and love for Him, can flourish 
 in the cold soil of mere intellectual conviction. 
 Had this point been duly regarded, it would not 
 See Note havc couio about, that whereas, Hume taunted 
 Christian believers with having no standing- 
 ground upon evidence, and therefore resting upon 
 faith, a recent writer should have given vent to 
 the precisely opposite taunt, that the Christian 
 religion is defective in spirituality, just because it 
 does rest upon evidence. Men in general are not 
 Christians because they have read books of evi- 
 dences, but because their mothers taught them to 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 187 
 
 say the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and because lect. 
 God blessed the seed which was sown in their '- 
 
 childish hearts ; but this admission is not at all in- 
 consistent with the fact, that the Gospel speaks 
 as unto wise men, who are bound to judge of its 
 truth, and with this other fact, that they, who, 
 led by their own jealousy for the cause of Christ, 
 advance arguments or adopt methods of reasoning, 
 which will not bear examination, do in reality, 
 though most unintentionally, labour upon the same 
 side as those who confessedly oppose it. 
 
 At the same time I quite admit, that there is How it 
 a kind of false liberalism concerning religious abused. 
 truth, to the support of which the language just 
 now used may jDossibly be perverted, but which it 
 is far from my intention to countenance. It is 
 easy for a man to fancy that his loins are girt 
 about with truth, when the fact is, that they are 
 girt about mth indifference ; and a person so 
 armed may without difficulty assume an attitude 
 of impartiality with regard to the discussion of 
 religious questions, because he cares nothing con- 
 cerning the issue ; and sometimes it seems to be 
 assumed, that a writer possesses a virtue, com- 
 pensating for almost all vices, if he is apparently 
 free from all bias either for or against revealed 
 truth. I need hardly say, that nothing can be 
 further from my thoughts than to encourage this 
 mode of dealing with our holy faith : indeed, it 
 seems to me, that the man, who is led by His 
 love to Christ to use weapons in His defense 
 which Christ Himself cannot approve, is far more 
 pardonable tlian he, who is indifferent whether 
 Christ be defended or not ; Simon Peter usinff 
 
188 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. the sword in the garden of Gethsemane is the type 
 
 '- — of the one ; those who cried, If Thou he the Christ, 
 
 save Thyself, may perhaps be taken as the type of 
 the other : but both are wrong ; and the true path 
 is taken by him, who, strong in his own faith and 
 love, fears no honest investigation, and shrinks 
 from adopting in matters of rehgion any tone of 
 thought or line of argument, which he cannot 
 justify upon the broadest grounds of calm judg- 
 ment and sober reason. 
 Truth, at- (2.) So much then concernino^ truthfulness, as 
 
 tamable by t \ •, n - ^ t . , , 
 
 human a habit 01 mmd, to be cultivated by all those w^ho 
 cessary for would acquit themsclves in a worthy manner as 
 of crrS!"^ soldiers of Christ. But in the next place it must 
 be observed, that, in applying to ourselves the 
 words of S. Paul in the text, we shall not err, if 
 we regard them as referring not only to truthful- 
 ness, but to truth itself, to that which we know 
 to be true. In sjDeaking thus, I am not at present 
 intending to point to that, which is sometimes 
 spoken of in Scri2:)ture as emphatically the truth, 
 the truth as revealed in Christ ; but I wish just 
 now briefly to urge, that it would not be unworthy 
 of an Apostle, if he should include under the title 
 of truth, necessary for the protection of a Christian 
 champion, all human knowledge, which is rightly 
 so called. Of course all particular branches of 
 knoAvledge have their own claims to be regarded 
 as important, or valuable, or interesting : some are 
 of direct practical utility, as tending to subdue 
 matter to the designs and uses of men ; some are 
 of singular interest to curious intellects for their 
 own sake ; others are valuable, as tending to 
 refine the taste, and to bring men into acquaint- 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 189 
 
 ance with the beautiful ; but I wish to urge, that, lect, 
 
 independently of all such claims, true knowledge '— 
 
 has a right to be regarded as part of the armour 
 of a Christian, specially as part of the armour of 
 those who are called upon to lead their fellow- 
 soldiers, as officers in Christ's army. I do not sup- 
 pose that there ever was a time, when Christians 
 could afford to despise the appliances of human 
 knowledge : the case of S. Paul may be sufficient 
 to remind us, that even an Apostle might be 
 partially fitted for his office by his studies in 
 human schools ; but anyhow, this present is cer- 
 tainly not such a time, and we, who make the 
 severe studies of this place the preparation for the 
 Christian ministry, bear testimony to our belief in 
 the need of human knowledge for the support and 
 due propagation of that which is divine. Many 
 things might be said upon this subject with ad- 
 vantage ; indeed, I know of hardly any subject 
 more capable of profitable treatment in this pulpit, 
 than that which teaches men upon the first day of 
 the week how to sanctify the knowledge, for which 
 they toil during the other six ; but the view, to 
 which I am chiefly led by the advice of S. Paul in 
 the text, is that, which brings before us human 
 knowledge as the girdle that a Christian is to be 
 always girded withal, as that which is actually 
 necessary for his supjDort in the evil day, — no 
 ornamental appendage, no loose accessory garment, 
 — a help to his weakness, quite needful to enable 
 him to stand firm, and to maintain his posture 
 erect. Quite needful, I say; and I am prepared 
 to stand by the words ; for though there might 
 possibly be danger in some congregations arising 
 
190 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. from the use of such language, as appearing to 
 
 —derogate from the simphcity of the Gospel, there 
 
 is no such danger here ; because here we do not 
 exhort men to go and seek for a knowledge that 
 they have not, in order that they may understand 
 divine mysteries, but we tell them how they should 
 use that knowledge which they are supposed to 
 possess, or at all events which it is their daily 
 work to seek ; and we say to them, Do not con- 
 sider that the progress, which you make in human 
 knowledge, lies beside your path as Christians : as 
 members of Christ, as His soldiers and servants, 
 take a nobler view of your work than that ; Christ 
 has taken the elements of this world, and sanctified 
 them for Himself; there is nothing really secular 
 but what is evil, and all that is not evil ought to 
 be used on the side of truth. 
 Revealed (3.) Tlius much I could uot abstain from sav- 
 
 truth ne- . ^"^ ^ . . . ^^ „ ^ . n . 
 
 cessaryto lug coucemmg the girdle of truth, considermg 
 tiansoi- t7mth to staud as the compendious expression for 
 ^^^' all that is known to be true by human investiga- 
 tion and proof. I have said that it would not be 
 unworthy of an Apostle to have such truth in 
 view ; at the same time I should quite admit, that 
 if S. Paul, in using the words of the text, did 
 refer to concrete truth, as forming a necessary 
 girdle for a Christian soldier, he would especially 
 have in mind that definite form of revealed truth, 
 which in Scripture is described as emphatically 
 the truth, or the faith, and which constitutes the 
 foundation of Christ's Holy Catholic Church. 
 Certainly S. Paul would never be afraid of lajdng 
 too much stress upon the importance of Christians 
 girding tightly about them, as that which was 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 191 
 
 essential to their support, the great doctrine of lect. 
 
 godhness, the incarnation of the Eternal Son, and '- — 
 
 all those truths which flow from this one mys- 
 terious spring : and it will be by no means incon- 
 sistent with the high character which has been 
 attributed to human knowledge, if an attempt be 
 made to do full justice to the distinctive peculia- 
 rities of that other kind of truth, which, according 
 to the words of our Lord to S. Peter, flesh and ^- ?^***- 
 hlood could not have 7'evealed to its, hut our 
 Father v)ho is in Heaven. Indeed, it is of extreme 
 importance, that, while it is perceived, that there 
 is no antagonism, and that there ought to be the 
 strictest most holy alliance, between Scriptural 
 and human knowledge, it should be at the same 
 time recognised, that there is a wide difference 
 between the sources from which they are derived, 
 the evidences by which they are established, and 
 the conditions of their being rightly apprehended. 
 
 Let it be observed then, that whereas other ?^^*,i ^"'i 
 
 ' _ ^ funda- 
 
 knowledge is the slow accumulation of the experi- mental dis 
 ence of ages, and the result of the guesses and between 
 labours of gifted men, and is consequently an human '^'^' 
 evergrowing and changing body of truth, Chris- ^^°^' 
 tian truth admits of no change and no growth : it 
 admits of application to new circumstances, and 
 indeed partially demonstrates its reality by its 
 adaptation to the evervarying wants of men ; it 
 admits too of growth, between the limits of a 
 mustard seed and a full-grown tree, in its subjective 
 apprehension by each believing heart ; but objec- 
 tively it knows neither of diminution nor of ex- 
 pansion, it is ever one and indivisible, because 
 it resolves itself ultimately into the one great 
 
192 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. mysterious fact, the manifestation of God in human 
 
 flesh. If it be asked, upon what does the assertion 
 
 of such a fact rest ? it may be rephed briefly, that 
 it has an historical and traditional basis which 
 ingenious men have not yet been able to move, 
 and a basis in its adaptation to human wants 
 which good men would hardly desire to move. 
 This short answer might of course be developed 
 into volumes ; but a very few words will be 
 sufficient for the purpose which I have in hand. 
 It may be alleged, for instance, that the historical 
 value of the Gospels has not been shaken, but 
 very much confirmed, by all the sifting and criti- 
 cism which they have undergone, — that their sub- 
 stantial truth and consistency have been made 
 more apparent, — and that even this is enough for 
 a foundation of the faith : because, if the gfeneral 
 character and tenour of the life of Jesus Christ 
 were anything like what it is represented in the 
 Gospels to have been, — I do not say, if it has been 
 reported accurately in every minute particular, but 
 if it was anything like the picture we have of it, 
 — there seems to be hardly any alternative, but to 
 say with S. Thomas, My Lord and my God ! Or, 
 if the evidence of the Gospels should seem insuffi- 
 cient, we might turn to the testimony of Christ's 
 living Church : when w^e consider that the great 
 end of our Lord in His own ministry, in His com- 
 mission to the Apostles, and in the work to which 
 they devoted themselves, is represented to have 
 been the founding of a Church, of a society to 
 bear His Name and testify of His Gospel, and 
 when we find as a matter of fact that such a 
 Church ever has existed, and that, notwithstanding 
 
 S. Jolin 
 XX. •28. 
 
TJie Girdle of Truth. 193 
 
 all divisions within it, and all defects arising lect. 
 
 X. 
 
 from human infirmity, or the malice of the gates 
 of Hell, it has never ceased to profess to rest 
 upon this great truth of the divine Being of 
 Christ, what a strong and most peculiar ground 
 have we for asserting, that what we believe con- 
 cerning Him is true ! And how much is this 
 ground strengthened, when we find the testimony 
 of the Church depending, not only upon word of 
 mouth, but upon the perpetual and unbroken 
 celebration of that Sacrament, in which the whole 
 mystery of the Gospel lies embalmed ! How cer- 
 tain does this celebration make it to be, that Jesus 
 Christ did command His death to be kept in mind 
 by a solemn ordinance, and consecrated symbols, 
 and spiritual eating and drinking of His flesh and 
 blood ; and how inconceivable that the command 
 should have been obeyed, as it has been, from the 
 rising of the sun to the going down of the same, Maiachi 
 if Jesus Christ had not been one who spake with 
 authority ! Nay, the very doctrinal abuses of the 
 Holy Sacrament may be perhaps regarded as 
 being, in the good providence of God, a testimony 
 to the awful light, in which the thought of cele- 
 brating Christ's death was ever regarded by the 
 faithful. So that the great doctrine of the Gospel 
 has not only an historical basis, but a traditional 
 ground peculiarly its own, which would serve to 
 establish it if we had no written books, — which in 
 fact did in early days serve to establish it in lands, 
 to which no written documents had penetrated ; 
 and it may be urged with confidence, that a candid 
 mind will be unable to find any supposition, which 
 will satisfy all the facts of the case, except that of 
 
 
 
194 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. the essential truth of the foundation upon which 
 
 ' all the facts stand. But then it is quite true, and 
 
 ought to be readily admitted, that this supposition 
 will not be made, unless the foundation in itself 
 be a worthy one ; that is to say, no historical or 
 traditional ground will suffice for the basis of a 
 religion for mankind, unless it appears that there 
 is also a moral fitness and sufficiency in that which 
 is proposed for their belief. We do not deny the 
 Deut. xiii. correctness of the principle laid down by Moses, 
 when he told the Israelites, that even signs and 
 wonders were not to seduce them from the worship 
 of the one God, and by S. Paul, when he bade the 
 Gal. i. 8. Galatians not to give heed to another Gospel, 
 though preached by an angel from Heaven. But 
 then we do not wish to deny it, because we are 
 here brought to see the very strongest side of the 
 Christian faith ; if there be one feature in the 
 faith more striking than another, it is just this, its 
 adaptation to the wants and instincts of mankind, 
 — the manner in which it is felt to be a Gospel, — 
 the readiness with which simple people receive it, 
 and rejoice in it, and live by it, notwithstanding 
 its mystery, or rather in virtue of its mysteri- 
 ous character. It would take me far beyond my 
 limits, and introduce matter unnecessary for my 
 purpose, if I were to enlarge upon that branch of 
 Christian evidence, which depends upon the adap- 
 tation of the Gospel to the heart of man, and 
 which after all exhibits itself with much greater 
 power of conviction in the lives of Christians, than 
 it ever can in sermons or in books ; but I desire 
 to remind you of this great and practically most 
 important part of the argument, in order to ac- 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 195 
 
 knowledge it as the necessary support and supple- lect. 
 ment of the historical and traditional side ; no '- — 
 
 amount of argument would ever turn religious 
 belief into religious life, if the articles of the creed 
 did not attest their divinity by filling up the void 
 of the human heart, and by their constraining 
 influence upon human conduct ; and on the other 
 hand, no religion could maintain its ground and 
 command the assent of thinking men, unless its 
 historical claims and its objective truth would 
 stand the test of the severest scrutiny. I desire 
 to remind you, that the Truth of Christ rests upon 
 both grounds, and that because this is so we are 
 bound to gird it about our loins, as our only sure 
 support in our conflict with the spiritual wicked- 
 nesses of this world, our support in the hour of 
 death, our support in the day of judgment. 
 
 I say, that we are bound to mrd our loins with The truth 
 
 . ^ of Christ 
 
 this truth ; to bmd it close about us ; to declare necessary 
 that come what may, we cannot part with this, otff 
 Indeed it was my purpose in this Lecture to press *''^*^" 
 upon you simply and earnestly the necessity of 
 being girt with the truth, rather than to enter 
 into the argument as to the ground upon which 
 the truth stands : but I have permitted myself to 
 hint briefly at some of the evidence, upon which 
 we rest in the matter of Christian truth, in order 
 to exhibit as clearly as possible the great distinc- 
 tion, which exists in kind, between the truth as 
 revealed in Christ, and all other truth whatever ; 
 it is not that there is any antagonism betw^een 
 reason and revelation, nor that there need be any 
 jealousy on the part of pious men of the operations 
 of human thought ; but in the nature of things 
 
 o 2 
 
196 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. there are two kinds of knowledo^e, and there is no 
 X .... 
 '- — wisdom or philosophy in ignoring either the one or 
 
 the other ; that which man can find out by search- 
 ing, he has been permitted so to find ; that which 
 he cannot find has been revealed by Him, who 
 s. John was able to say, Tie that hath seen Me hath seen the 
 ^v. 9. Father. And who is he that will not rejoice, as 
 having found a treasure of incomparable value, 
 when, in addition to all truths which he has been 
 able to discover for himself, he learns this great 
 and peculiar truth, that God has taken his human 
 nature into inseparable union with Himself? Is he 
 a philosopher, who despises such a truth ? Has 
 he any right to pique himself upon his discern- 
 ment, if he can see beauty in the other truths, 
 and yet can see none in this ? And, on the other 
 hand, if a man does profess to believe such a truth, 
 can he in consistency do otherwise than S. Paul 
 exhorts him in the text, that is, bind it close about 
 him as his chief spiritual support ? The man is 
 consistent, who, professing to believe the truth, 
 makes it the measure of the value of all other 
 truths and the guide of his life ; there is a melan- 
 choly consistency too in the conduct of him, who, 
 disbelieving the truth, opposes it, and endeavours 
 to uproot it ; but there is no consistency in him, 
 who repeats the Creed in Chapel or in Church, and 
 who, in the ordinary course of life, in the j^ursuit 
 of his studies, in his dealings with his brethren, 
 betrays no evidence of his faith. 
 A con- And because I feel deeply, as every one must 
 
 hortatton focl, tlio oxtremo importance of young men, — 
 tSangers young soldiors iu Christ's army, soldiers too in 
 intellectual ^jj()gg steadiness and courao-e and fitness for 
 
Tlie Girdle of Truth. 197 
 
 posts of tiiist many thousands have an interest lect, 
 besides themselves, — because I feel deeply the 
 
 importance of such soldiers, more than any others, „? y^^l 
 attending to S. Paul's exhortation to gird their gjjjjgj"^ *^^ 
 loins about with truth, therefore I will not permit 
 myself to be deterred, by the fear of saying things 
 too simple for the University Pulpit, from giving, 
 in the conclusion of these Lectures, a few plain 
 words concerning the dangers, to which young 
 soldiers of Christ are likely to be exposed. — It is 
 obvious to remark that those dangers are twofold, 
 intellectual and moral, and that from neither one 
 nor the other can there be any absolute security in 
 a place like this. With rep-ard to intellectual dan- inteiiec- 
 
 p -IT t^ial dan- 
 
 gers, of course, many sermons might be preached ; gers. 
 
 but the remarks which I have to make, as arising 
 from the tone adopted in these Lectures, may be 
 compressed into a very few words. It seems to 
 me, that a caution concerning intellectual dangers 
 may sometimes be received at a disadvantage, 
 because it may appear to imply a jealousy and 
 suspicion of human thought ; because it may appear 
 to advocate the shutting of the eyes to one source 
 of light, in order that the mind may be illumi- 
 nated by another; because, in fact, it may appear 
 to involve high treason to our Maker, who gave 
 us powers for the discernment of truth. Now I 
 think that no one, who has listened to the present 
 or any other of this course of Lectures, can suspect 
 me of any such leaning ; in this Lecture I have 
 urged, that when S. Paul bid Christians to be girt 
 about with truth, he insisted upon that honesty 
 and truthfulness of character, with which all 
 lying, though it be on the side of God and His 
 
198 Concluding Lecture. 
 
 LECT. truth, is totally and irreconcileably inconsistent ; 
 
 '- — and I have urged also, that if we suppose the 
 
 Apostle to have regarded concrete truth as a part 
 of the girdle which Christians are to wear, we 
 ought not to exclude, as having nothing to do with 
 Christian faith, and the stability of Christian charac- 
 ter, and the successful progress of Christ's kingdom, 
 that knowledge, which grows indeed upon earth, 
 but which yet ever looks towards Heaven ; hence 
 I think, that I have a right to be heard with atten- 
 tion and candour, when I warn young Christians 
 of the danger of omitting to gird tightly round 
 about them that other and principal band of which 
 the girdle of truth is composed, and which is the 
 revealed Gospel of Jesus Christ, — when I warn 
 them of the danger of losing sight of Christ as the 
 fountain of wisdom and knowledge, and seeking 
 peace in those various forms of rationalism, the 
 root of which is the refusal to acknowledge any 
 source of illumination, except that which is to be 
 found in our own intellectual powers. It would be 
 idle to deny that such danger exists, and it would 
 be ungrateful not to acknowledge, that tlie best 
 protection against it is a close adhesion to those 
 princijDles of Christian teaching, uj^on which we 
 have all been educated; other foundation can no 
 
 Cor. iii. man lay, than that, which by God's grace was 
 laid, when we were taught as children to bow the 
 head and say, I believe in Jesus Christ; that which 
 I have desired to enforce in these Lectures, that 
 which I desire especially to impress in bringing 
 them to a close, is this, that the truth which we 
 thus profess will be found to enlighten all other 
 truths, that it Mdll ever shine more brightly as it 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 199 
 
 is more devoutly contemplated, and that it is to lect. 
 
 be regarded as a prime necessary of every human — 
 
 soul, which he who holds is rich, though he have 
 nothing else which he can call his own, and which 
 he who has lost ought to excite our compassion see Note , 
 as a fellow-creature in extreme penury. '^'' 
 
 But while it is thus fully conceded, that there Moral dan- 
 are intellectual dangers, — dangers to which, of^'^'^*'" 
 course, some will be more liable than others, but 
 against which the one protection for all is the 
 holding fast the faith in Jesus Christ, — it is also 
 to be admitted, that there are moral dangers, which 
 practically are far more extensively felt. I should 
 imagine, that for one case of the girdle of Truth 
 being loosened or lost in consequence of intel- 
 lectual objections to wearing it, there are a hun- 
 dred cases of the same result being brought about 
 by moral difficulties : the girdle is felt to be a 
 weight, or it is fancied that it constrains the free- 
 dom of the limbs, — in other words, a young man 
 has been brought up in the true faith, and, so far 
 as his reason is concerned, is satisfied with the 
 lessons he has learned; his is not the subtle intel- 
 lect, which is sometimes at once the blessing and 
 the trial of the possessor, and if scepticism were 
 the only danger of the soul, he would surely be 
 safe; — but faith cannot be held only as faith, — 
 it must issue in practice, it must shew itself in the 
 life or else stamp a man as a hypocrite ; and there- 
 fore the man becomes uneasy, and the girdle frets 
 and galls him ; and then, how easy to find excuses 
 for relaxing it, or getting rid of it altogether ! 
 intellectual difficulties can be pressed into the 
 service ; this point has been rendered doubtful by 
 
200 ConcludiiKj Lecture. 
 
 LECT. Qjjg critic, and this by another, and Genesis must 
 
 X. 
 
 — give way to geology, and the Scriptures are con- 
 victed of contradictions, and Christian teachers 
 are at variance amongst themselves, and so forth: 
 such difficulties are ready at hand to him, who 
 wishes to find them ; in the nature of things they 
 must be ; they have been from the beginning, they 
 ever will be till the end of time : and this being 
 so, how easy for a man to apologize to his own 
 conscience for dropping into a quiet indifferentism, 
 which involves him in no exertion, no sacrifice, 
 no crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and 
 lusts ! how easy to talk of the overwhelming diffi- 
 culties under which the Christian scheme labours, 
 and the deficiency of its evidences! Evidences! 
 the true evidences for a young man, who has been 
 brought up in the nurture and fear of God, are 
 Temperance, Soberness, and Chastity ; the true 
 path of wisdom, is that which Solomon long ago 
 
 Prov. i. 8. marked out, namely, to hear the instruction of a 
 father, and not to forsake the law of a mother, — to 
 avoid those acts, which would make a mother's 
 heart bleed or a sister's cheek blush, — to comport 
 himself as one, who believes that he is the highest 
 creature in God's world, and that he has no right 
 to do homage either to the flesh or to the devil. 
 This practical doing of God's will is now, as it ever 
 was, and as our Saviour declared that it should 
 prove, the necessary evidence of the truth of the 
 GosjDcl; and so indispensable is it that young men 
 should recognise this, that I have sometimes la- 
 mented, that, according to the arrangements of 
 the University, the first attendance of our students 
 at S. Mary's Church should be at a season, when 
 
The Girdle of Truth. 201 
 
 the preacher is bound by his office to deal with lect. 
 
 the difficulties, rather than with the duties, belong- '- — 
 
 ing to the faith of Christ: a time will probably 
 arrive in the experience of almost all thoughtful 
 men, when such dealing with difficulties will be 
 required; to serve Christ may in the case of some 
 involve a warfare against the darts of infidelity, 
 quite as much as a struggle against selfishness and 
 sensuality, — no one can be more ready to admit 
 this than myself, — I admit that now, as of old, the 
 Christian has to wrestle with enemies far more 
 terrible than flesh and blood, — at the same time 
 I feel bound to remind you, young Christian Bre- 
 thren, that if ever a time does come to any one 
 of you, when the truth of the Creed in which you 
 have been instructed is no longer a question of dry 
 discussion, but one which haunts your dreams 
 and stirs the lowest depths of your being, and 
 upon the answ^er to which all your peace depends, 
 then a life pure, and self-denying, and Christ- 
 like, will be the surest anchor of your souls. 
 
 O Almighty God, w^hom truly to know is 
 everlasting life; grant us perfectly to know Thy 
 Son Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life ; that, following the steps of Thy holy 
 Apostles, we may steadfastly walk in the way 
 that leadeth to eternal hfe; through the same Thy 
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
i 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note 1. 
 
 It would be useless, or rather eudless, to give references iu 
 proof of the character of the infidelity belonging to the eighteenth 
 century ; but a few words may perhaps be not without good 
 result, in bringing out the contrast, which I wish to make, 
 between the licentious infidelity which started with English 
 Deism and cidminated in the proclamation of the " goddess of 
 reason" in the person of a French prostitute, and that very 
 difierent infidelity from which danger is just now chiefly to be 
 apprehended, and which aflects to consider orthodox Chris- 
 tianity as not sufiiciently pure and spiritual. Thus we find 
 Bishop Berkeley in The Minute Philosopher (jjublished in 1732) 
 dealing with the supposed " vulgar error, that vice is hm*tful," 
 and representing his freethinker expressing himself thus : 
 " There is nothing in that necessary connexion which some men 
 imagine between those principles you contend for, and the 
 public good. I freely own, that if this question was to be 
 decided by the authority of legislators or philosophers, it 
 must go against us. For those men generally take it for 
 granted, that vice is pernicious to the public; and that men 
 cannot be kept fi-om vice but by the fear of God, and the sense 
 of a futui'e state ; whence they are induced to think the belief 
 of such things necessary to the well-being of human kind. This 
 false notion hath prevailed for many ages in the world, and 
 done an infinite deal of mischief, being in truth the cause of 
 religious establishments, and gaining the protection and en- 
 couragement of laws and magistrates to the clergy and their 
 superstitions. Even some of the wisest amongst the ancients, 
 who agreed with our sect in denying a providence and the im- 
 mortality of the soul, had nevertheless the weakness to lie 
 under the common prejudice that vice was hurtful to societies 
 of men. But England hath of late produced great philosophei's 
 who have undeceived the world, and proved to a demonstration 
 
204 Notes. 
 
 that private vices are public benefits. Tbis discovery was 
 reserved to our times, and our sect bath the glory of it ^." 
 
 Again, Dr Wbewell in bis History of Moral Pldlosoplty in 
 England, writes thus : — 
 
 " The general diffusion of the estimate of moral good and 
 iU by the pleasure and pain to which it leads, produced a pro- 
 fligate and sensual tone of moral discussion. . . . As a prominent 
 example of this spirit, we may take the well-known Fahle of the 
 Bees. This was a short apologue in verse, published in 1714, 
 by a physician of the name of Mandeville, the professed object 
 of which was to shew that Private Vices are Public Benefits ; 
 that the vices, as they are usually held, of Selfishness, Luxmy, 
 and Lust, within certain limits, are the elements upon which 
 the prosperity of a state depends, and ' that all the moral 
 virtues are no better than the political offspring which flattery 
 begot upon pride.' The work possesses little or no literary 
 merit ; and is only remarkable for the notice it excited, and for 
 the mode in which the author, when put upon his defence, sup- 
 jjorted his tenets 
 
 " The book was presented as a nuisance, on account of its 
 profligacy, by the grand jury of the coimty of Middlesex, in 
 1723. And although this circumstance may be alleged, I hope 
 justly, as proving that the poison of the principles promulgated 
 by this author had not yet entirely pervaded English society, 
 we may observe, on the other hand, that the Presentment states 
 that many books and pamphlets are published almost every 
 week against religion and morals ; and it assigns this general 
 viciousness of literature as the reason for singling out this 
 book, and another which is mentioned, for condemnation. 
 
 "Similar comjilaints, most emphatically exjiressed, are made 
 by almost all the Divines and Moralists of the time. Attacks 
 on religion and on morals, (for these were, as may be supposed, 
 veiy generally combined), were so common and so licentious, 
 that many pious and good men appear to have looked upon 
 the progress of thought and feeling with despondency and 
 despair °." 
 
 Robert Hall, in his preface to a sermon, entitled Modern 
 Infidelity Considered, (preached in 1799) says, "To obliterate 
 
 1 Dialogue ii. 
 
 " Whewell's Lectures on the JJisiory of Moral Philosophy in Enyland, 
 p. 79. 
 
Notes. 205 
 
 the sense of Deity, of moral sanctions, and a future world ; and 
 by these means to prepare the way for the total subversion of 
 every institution, both social and religious, which men have 
 been hitherto accustomed to revere, is evidently the principal 
 object of modern sceptics." And in the sermon itself he has 
 the following fine passage : — 
 
 " The infidels of the present day are the first sophists, who 
 have presumed to innovate in the very substance of morals. 
 The disputes on moral questions, hitherto agitated amongst 
 philosophers, have respected the grounds of duty, not the nature 
 of duty itself ; or they have been merely metaj)liysical, and re- 
 lated to the history of moral sentiments in the mind, the sources 
 and principles from which they were most easily deduced ; they 
 never turned on the quality of those dispositions and actions 
 which were to be denominated virtuoxis. In the firm persua- 
 sion that the love and fear of the Supreme -Being, the sacred 
 observation of promises and oaths, reverence to magistrates, 
 obedience to parents, gratitude to benefactors, conjvigal fidelity, 
 and parental tenderness, were primary virtues, and the chief 
 support of every commonwealth, they were unanimous. The 
 curse denounced upon such as remove ancient landmarks, upon 
 those who call good evil, and evil good, put light for darkness, 
 and darkness for light, who employ their faculties to subvert the 
 eternal distinctions of right and wrong, and thus to poison 
 the streams of virtue at their source, falls with accumulated 
 weight on the advocates of modern infidelity, and on them alone." 
 
 The preceding extracts will abundantly answer the purpose 
 which I have in view. I think that we may well rejoice that 
 the state of things, to which such passages refer, does not exist 
 now ; but I wish the reader to contrast it with the popular 
 unbelief of the present day, in order that he may rightly esti- 
 mate its character and his own dangers arising from it. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 The necessity of adapting schemes of Christian evidences to 
 the mental circumstances of the times may be seen, by compar- 
 ing such arguments as are addixced in our own days against 
 opponents of the faith, with those adduced in any other age 
 from the days of the primitive apologists down to the present. 
 
206 Notes. 
 
 A very striking example will be found, of the change which has 
 taken place in (comparatively speaking) recent times by referring 
 to the system of evidences given in his Pattern of Catechistical 
 Doctrine, by Bishop Audi-ewes, a divine whose singular natural 
 powers and breadth of learning give gi*eat point to the illustra- 
 tion. — The following are some extracts : 
 
 " Of the Birth of Christ. 
 
 a. Sibylla almost setteth down every action and circum- 
 stance ; and by this many have been turned to Christianity, as 
 Marcellinus and Secundanus. 
 
 /i. And for this cause both Vespasian and Augustus would 
 have destroyed all the Jews, but especially the tribe of Judah. 
 
 J. And Rhodigiu and Yolateran leave us this of credit, that 
 there was an altar in Egypt that was dedicated virgini parituroe, 
 ' to the virgin bringing forth a child ;' like as that same temjylujn 
 jxicis, 'the temiile of peace,' should stand, donee virgo peperit, 
 ' until a virgin brought forth a child.' 
 
 6. So doth also Postellus shew that thei'e was another altai", 
 intitled ara 2}'>'imogenito Dei, ' an altar to the firstborn Son of 
 God.' 
 
 e. Also Augvistus understanding by the wise men that both 
 he and all the people should worship one that was born, would 
 not be called dominus orhis terrarum, ' the lord of the whole 
 world,' as he was before, but gave up that title. 
 
 ^. Also for that in the day of His birth there appeared 
 three suns ; but especially that of the star, whereof Pliny 
 witnesseth, calling it stella crinita sine crine, i. e. a comet ; but 
 it was a plain star ; of which many meditating have turned to 
 the truth, as Chseremon among the stoics, and Challadius among 
 the platonists, who thereupon went to Jewry and became Jews. 
 
 Of the Death of Christ. 
 
 a. The ancient Egyptians, when they WTite vitam ceternam, 
 ' everlasting life,' they write the sign of the cross, wherein how- 
 soever they were directed, the mark was like and agi-eeable to 
 the action of Christ's death upon the cross to purchase for us 
 everlasting life. 
 
 /3. The universal eclipse and earthquake which was at that 
 time tliat He died ; for by no natural causes can all the earth 
 move, but it must have something to stay upon, confessed by 
 
Notes. 207 
 
 Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 25. Plilegon Trallianus' Chronicle. Neither 
 is it by nature that the sun should be ecliiised the fourteenth 
 day of the moon, when the moon was just at full, quite against 
 the rules of astronomy. 
 
 7. In the reign of Tiberius the falling of the oracles ; as 
 Plutarch writeth, " there came a sound to the mariners that 
 great Pan was dead ;" which great Pan who it was, all the wise 
 men could not tell ; and Nicephorus reporteth that the oracle 
 at Delphos said it was 7ra?? e/3pa?o?, puer Hebrceus, ' an Hebrew 
 child.' 
 
 B. Ambrose, Justin Martyr, and TertuUian, as Eusebius 
 saith, testify that Pilate liimself did witness in a letter to the 
 Emperor Tiberius all these things of Ckrist Himself, His life, 
 death, &c. 
 
 Thus much for the credit of the Gospel, and the story of 
 His life and death'." 
 
 After reading this, let any one turn to the pages of any 
 modern apologist, and say whether some of the weapons of this 
 most learned divine are not quite as much out of date as the 
 military weapons of his contemporaries. At the same time 
 let it be borne in mind, that many objections to the truth of 
 the Chi'istian religion, when answered once, are answered for 
 ever, and that frequently modern objectors produce, as new, 
 arguments which have been answered many centuries ago. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 I refer here especially to such books as Mr P. W. New- 
 man's S'oul. The peculiarity of this book, and those of its 
 class, is, that they are full of Scripture phraseology and Christian 
 sentiments, while they contradict almost every ai*ticle of the 
 Christian Faith, and seem to delight in what is Christian, 
 provided only that it be admitted to possess no objective truth. 
 It is scarcely a caricature, when Mr Rogers says to one of 
 the disciples of tins school, "As I listen to you, I seem, to 
 see a hybrid between Prynne and Voltaire. So far from its 
 being true that you have renounced the letter of the Bible 
 and retained its spirit, I tliink it would be much more cor- 
 rect to say, comparing your infidel hypothesis with your most 
 1 Andrewes' Works, Vol. vi. p. 53. (Anglo-Cath. Library.) 
 
208 Notes. 
 
 spiritual dialect, that you have renounced tlie spirit of the 
 Bible and retained its letter'^.'''' 
 
 This spiritual school seems to have a profound abhoiTence 
 of evidences : nothing can exceed the contempt with which 
 Mr Newman speaks of such a mode of supporting the faith, 
 in the work above referred to. He speaks of " the unmanage- 
 able character of what are called Christian Evidences," and 
 paints very brilliantly the contrast between " the geniiine 
 champion of the Gospel," and the modern defender of Chris- 
 tianity — "a gentleman consulting dictionaries and grammars, 
 referring to Tacitvis and Pliny, &c. &c." How strange are the 
 paths in which religious conti'oversy moves ! When Hume, 
 (as I have remarked in Lectm'e X, page 186) made his attack 
 upon Christianity, he took as the basis of offensive operations 
 his great principle concerning testimony and experience, and 
 having shewn, as he supjjosed, that on the ground of evi- 
 dence the religion could make no stand, he congratulated 
 Christians in an ironical and scornful tone, that they did not 
 depend upon reason and evidence but upon faith. Chamjjions 
 rose up to answer Hume, "referred to Tacitus and PHny," 
 and shewed that they did not depend upon faith merely, but 
 that they could make out a case which woidd approve itself to 
 an honest and thoughtful mind ; and now we are twitted with 
 depending on evidences ; and whereas Himie laughed at us for 
 being obliged to rest upon faith, Mr Newman would have 
 us think that the principle which Hume derided was after 
 all the true one, with this exception, that according to him it 
 seems to be well-nigh heresy, to believe anything. Every one 
 will, I suppose, agree with Mr Newman, that an intellectual 
 conviction arising from a perusal of evidences has no sanctifying 
 influence on the heart ; this is the doctrine which we have 
 all heard from owe childhood ; indeed, few persons probably 
 are aware that there are such things as evidences, until long 
 after they have professed their faith in Christ. The notion 
 that a discussion of evidences is the recognised means in modern 
 times of converting the heathen is, I apprehend, a fiction of 
 Mr Newman's o^vn mind ; but why evidence should be denied 
 to have a legitimate province, and why the attacks of enemies 
 based upon evidences should not be rejiulsed if possible on their 
 own gi'ound, it is easier to ask than to answer. Only conceive 
 ^ Eclipse of Faith, p. 45. 
 
Notes. 209 
 
 the triumphant clamovir that would Z'esound throughout the 
 infidel camp, if it were admitted as a Catholic doctrine that the 
 Chi'istian faith had no historical ground upon which to rest ! 
 
 With regai'd to the contempt which Mr Newman's spiritu- 
 alism throws upon human study, I may refer the reader to 
 Bishop Bull's sermon on 2 Tim. iv. 13. "The cloke that I 
 left at Troas with Carpus, when thovi comest, bring ^vith thee, 
 and the books, but especially the parchments." 
 
 Note 4. 
 
 I wish to guard the observations here made with a quali- 
 fication, in order that the sympathy expressed with minds in 
 religious difficulty may not be misunderstood or abused. The 
 mind may be allowed to fall into a weak, cowardly condition, 
 in which difficulties may obtain a victory, of more or less im- 
 portance, because they have not been vigorously met ; or, diffi- 
 culties which are perhaps inevitable, but at the same time 
 anything but fundamental, may be allowed by a mind in a 
 morbid state to domineer over faith, in a way which could be 
 obviated by a manly effort and God's grace upon it. 
 
 Abundance of illustrations of this remark might be ga- 
 thered from Mr Froude's Nemesis of Faith, which might 
 perhaps be not imjjroperly designated by the alias of the 
 " Biography of a mind diseased." I do not at all deny, that 
 this book represents faithfully a great deal that has passed in 
 the minds of yovmg men diu-ing the last twenty years, but at 
 the same time, I feel in reading it, that, in many cases, what 
 the unhappy hero (I use the word unhappy as expressing the 
 condition which the writer himself ascribes to him) requires, is a 
 manly determination to look at the spectres, which haunt him, 
 and see whether they are living or not. The language of Hamlet 
 would be in keeping — 
 
 Be thou a spirit of health, or gobhn damn'd, 
 
 Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, 
 
 Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, 
 
 Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, 
 
 That I will speak to thee. 
 
 Yes, reader, if such spectres haunt you, speak to them, and 
 make them say who and what they are. I take the following 
 as an example of a state of mind, in which a man may be ever 
 
 P 
 
210 Notes. 
 
 frightened by religious difficulties, which will not bear the day- 
 light of manly thought. 
 
 " Newman talked much to us of the surrender of reason," 
 says Mr Froude; "Reason first of everything must be swept 
 away, &c. "While I was pei-plexing myself about this, there 
 came a sermon from him in S. Maiy's — once much spoken of — 
 containing a celebrated sentence. The sermon is that on the 
 development of religious doctrine ; the sentence is this : — 
 ' Sciiptiu-e says the earth is stationary and the sun moves ; 
 science, that the sun is stationary, and that the earth moves ; 
 and we never shall know which is true till we know what 
 •motion is.' For a moment it seemed as if every one present 
 heard, in these words, the very thing they had all wished for, 
 and had long waited for — the final mesothesis for the reconciling 
 the two great rivals — Science and Revelation ; and yet it was 
 that sentence which at once cleared up my doubts the other 
 way, and finally destroyed the faith I had in Newman, after 
 ' Tract 90 ' had shaken it. ' . . . ." 
 
 I do not wonder at this sentence destroying faith in Mr 
 Newman, but what I wish to remark is the marvellous phe- 
 nomenon of such a sentence producing any other efiect, than 
 that of the feeling of having listened to what was monstrously 
 absurd and untrue. I make all allowance for the influence which 
 Mr Newman's very remarkable intellect would be sure in his 
 better days to assert over young minds ; but here we have a 
 sentence, which is half a falsehood and half a sophism ; and yet 
 it appears, that the minds of his audience were in such a state 
 that they imagined they had found the solution of the supposed 
 difficulty of the opposition of i-evelation to reason. I assert the 
 dictum attributed to Mr Newman' to be half falsehood and half 
 
 ^ Nemesis of Faith. Second Edition, p. 157. 
 
 ^ The passage as given in Mr Newman's published volume (p. 350) does 
 not run word for word as given by Mr Froude, but thus : — 
 
 " Scripture, for instance, says that the sun moves and the earth is 
 stationary ; and science, that the earth moves, and the sun is comparatively 
 at rest. How can we determine which of these opposite statements is the 
 very truth, till we know what motion is ? If an idea of motion be but an 
 accidental result of our present senses, neither proposition is time, and both 
 are true ; neither true philosophically, both true for certain practical 
 purposes, in the system in which they are respectively found ; and physical 
 science will have no better meaning, when it says that the earth moves, than 
 plane astronomy when it says that the earth is still." 
 
 The word comparatively saves Mr Newman from the statement attri- 
 buted to him, but does not really much alter the spirit of the passage ; 
 because what science tells us is, that in accordance with dynamical laws the 
 
Notes. 211 
 
 sophism, because the Scripture nowhere says that the earth is 
 stationary and the sun moves, and science does not tell us 
 that the sun is stationary and the eai'th moves, but a very 
 different tale, as every one at all acquainted with dynamics 
 knows that it must; but suppose there did exist this contradic- 
 tion between Scripture and Science, which does not, still it 
 would be rank sophistry to pretend that the award of the truth 
 to one or the other could depend upon the knowledge of what 
 viotion is, seeing that motion can be explicitly defined, and 
 any tiling called motion, and not agreeing with the scientific 
 definition of motion, is not motion according to our definition. 
 
 Now, to minds which are in such a state as to be capable of 
 being moved either for or against the truth of revelation by 
 such statements as the above, I confess that I feel it difficult to 
 extend the sympathy spoken of in the Lectui'e. At least I 
 think that the patient requires food, exercise, fi-esh air, and 
 tonics ; not delicate handling and gentle treatment. 
 
 In connexion with this subject I will quote a passage from 
 Mr Rogers's tract, Reason and Faith; their Claims and Con- 
 flicts, which, though somewhat severe, has much truth in it, 
 and which I request any young reader of my Lectures to assirre 
 himself that he can read without wincing, before he claims 
 sympathy in his religious conflicts: — 
 
 " There are no doubt some minds amongst us, whose power 
 we admit, and whose perversion of power we lament, who have 
 bewildered themselves by really deep meditation on inexplicable 
 mysteries ; who demand certainty where certainty is not given 
 to man, or demand for truths which are established by sufficient 
 evidence, other evidence than those truths will admit. We 
 can even painfully sympathize in that ordeal of doubt to which 
 such minds are pecidiarly exposed — with their Titanic struggles 
 against the still mightier power of Him who has said to the 
 turbulent intellect of man, as well as to the strong ocean. Hitherto 
 shalt thou come, hut no farther, — and here shall thyproud waves 
 he staid. We cannot wish better to any such agitated mind 
 than that it may listen to those potent and majestic words — 
 Peace — he still! uttered by the voice of Him who so suddenly 
 hushed the billows of the Galilfean lake. 
 
 " But we are at the same time fully convinced that in our 
 
 sun cannot be at rest, and the comparison of the amount of its motion in a 
 given time with that of the earth has nothing to do with the question. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 Notes. 
 
 day there are thousaiuls of youths who are falling into the same 
 errors and perils from sheer vanity and affectation ; who admire 
 most what they least undei"stand, and adopt all the obscurities 
 and paradoxes they stumble upon, as a cheap path to a reputa- 
 tion for profundity; who awkwardly imitate the manner and 
 retail the phrases of the writers they stiidy; and, as usual in 
 such cases, exaggerate to caricature their least agreeable eccen- 
 tricities. We shovdd think that some of these more powerful 
 minds must be by this time ashamed of that ragged regiment 
 of most shallow thinkers, and obscure writers and talkers, who 
 at present infest oiu- literature, and whose j^arrot-like repetition 
 of their own stereotyped phraseology, mingled with some bar- 
 barous infusion of half-anglicized German, threatens to form as 
 odious a cant as ever polluted the stream of thought, or dis- 
 figiu'ed the ^^ni'ity of language. Happily it is not likely to be 
 more than a passing fashion ; but still it is a very unpleasant 
 fashion while it lasts. As in Johnson's day, every young 
 writer imitated as well as he could the ponderous diction and 
 everlasting antitheses of the great dictator; as in BjTon's day, 
 there were thousands to whom the world ' was a blank' at 
 twenty or thereabouts, and of whose ' dark imaginings,' as 
 Macaulay says, the waste was prodigious; so now there are 
 hunch-eds of dilettanti pantheists, mystics, and sceptics, to 
 whom eveiything is a ' sham,' an ' unreality ; ' who tell us that 
 the world stands in need of a great ' prophet,' a ' seer,' a * true 
 priest,' a ' large soul,' a 'god-like soul,' — who shall dive into 'the 
 depths of the human consciousness,' and whose ' utterances ' 
 shall rouse the human mind from the ' cheats and frauds ' 
 which have hitherto everywhere practised upon its simplicity. 
 They tell us, in relation to philosophy, religion, and especially 
 in relation to Chi-istianity, that all that has been believed by 
 mankind has been believed only on ' empirical ' grounds ; and 
 that the old answers to difficulties will do no longer. They shake 
 their sage heads at such men as Clarke, Paley, Butler, and 
 declare that such arguments do not satisfy them. We are 
 glad to admit that all this vague pretension is now but rarely 
 displayed in conjunction with the sciutHous spirit of that 
 elder unbelief, against which the long series of British apo- 
 logists for Christianity arose between 1700 and 1750; but 
 there is often in it an arrogance as real, though not in so 
 offensive a form. Sometimes the spirit of unbelief even assumes 
 
Notes. 213 
 
 an ail- of sentimeutal regret at its own inconvenient profundity. 
 Many a worthy youth tells us he almost wishes he could be- 
 lieve. He admires, of all things, the ' moral grandeur,' the 
 ' ethical beauty,' of many parts of Christianity ; he condescends 
 to patronize Jesus Christ, though he believes that the great 
 mass of words and actions, by which alone we know anything 
 about Him, are sheer fictions or legends; he believes — gra- 
 tuitously enough in this instance, for he has no ground for it — 
 that Jesus Christ was a very ' great man,' worthy of comparison 
 at least with Mahomet, Luther, Napoleon, and 'other heroes;' 
 he even admits the happiness of a simple, child-like faith, in the 
 puerilities of Christianit}' — it prodiTces such content of mind ! 
 But, alas! he cannot believe — his intellect is not satisfied — he 
 has resolved the matter too profoundly to be thus taken in ; he 
 must, he supjjoses, (and o\vc beardless philosopher sighs as he says 
 it,) bear the peualtyof a too restless intellect, and a too speculative 
 genius ; he knows all the usual arguments which satisfied Pascal, 
 Butler, Bacon, Leibnitz ; but they will do no longer : more radical, 
 more tremendous difficulties have suggested themselves, 'from the 
 depths of philosophy,' and far diflerent answers are required now ! '" 
 I have given this long extract from a little book which is 
 well worthy of the reader's notice, and which formed a kind of 
 prelude to the same author's more elaborate work, TJie Eclipse 
 of Faith, because it represents, in that pithy style in which 
 Reviews delight, a morbid state of mind, with which (as I have 
 said) I do not wish to express my sympathy. Mr Rogers is per- 
 haps somewhat severe upon his 'beardless philosopher;' because 
 it ought to be admitted that the progress of science and the 
 growth of criticism do make new difficulties, and it no more 
 ai-gues self-conceit on the part of a young man in these days to 
 say that he can find no satisfactory answer to these in the 
 older apologists, than it does when a young man in these days 
 says that he can see no difficulty in travelling from Cambridge 
 to London in an hour and a half, or in sending up a message in 
 two minutes, or in any of the like results of modern practical 
 science, at which Pascal, Butler, Bacon, or Leibnitz, would have 
 expi'essed reasonable doubt. In fact, it ought to be admitted 
 that each age and state of human thought has its own peculiar 
 difficulties, and it would be strange if an active age like our 
 
 ^ Reason and Faith; their Claims and Conflicts. Keprinted from he 
 Edinburgh Eeview. By Henry Rogers. Second Edition, pp. 62 — 65. 
 
214 Notes. 
 
 own liad not its full comjilement. Nevertheless, beyond doubt, 
 the extract given above does point to a real disease ; and there- 
 fore it is, that I have ventured to request every young reader to 
 try whether he can read it without wincing, before he claims 
 any of the sympathy spoken of in the text. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Mr Greg commences his work. The Creed of Christendom, 
 with this paragi'aph — "When an inquirer, brought up in the 
 popular Theology of England, questions his teachers as to the 
 foundations and evidence of the doctrines he has imbibed, he is 
 referred at once to the Bible as the som-ce and proof of all : ' The 
 Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Pi'otestants.' The 
 Bible, he is told, is a sacred book of reference and unquestionable 
 authority, being the j^roduction of writers directly inspired 
 by God to teach us truth, — being, in the ordinary phrase, The 
 Word of God. This view of the Bible he finds to be universal 
 among all religious sects, and nearly all religious teachers ; all, 
 at least, of whom, in this country, he is likely to hear. This 
 belief in the Insj^iration of the Scriptures (Qeo-Kveva-Tia) is, 
 indeed, stated with some slight variations by modern divines ; 
 some afiirming that every statement and word was immediately 
 dictated from on high : these are the advocates of Plenary, or 
 Verbal Inspiration; others merely holding that the Scrip- 
 tural writers were divinely informed and authorized teachers 
 of truth, and nari'ators of fact, thoroiighly imbued with, and 
 guided by, the Spirit of God, but that the words, the earthly 
 form in which they clothed the ideas, were their own. These 
 are the believers in the Essential Inspiration of the Bible." 
 
 It is with reference to this view of the foundation of Chris- 
 tian truth that I have said in. the Lecture, that the Chui-ch 
 Catechism does not commence with such a principle as that 
 " the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants ; " 
 indeed, I cannot fancy any method much more unfortunate, than 
 to base the Christian religion upon this dictum of Chilling- 
 worth ; I do not deny that many persons would adopt the 
 motto, and glory in it, and that what Mr Greg says of the 
 answer which would be made by religious teachers in England 
 is true as regards many of them, but I do deny that this is the 
 ground taken by the Church, and I appeal to her formularies 
 
Notes. 215 
 
 for the truth of what I say. The manner in which the Scrip- 
 tures are to be regarded is of course an important and interest- 
 ing question, and I have devoted Lectures V. and VI. to the 
 consideration of it, but it is by no means the first question, and 
 I pity from my heart any person who is led to think, that his 
 tenure of the Apostles' Creed and of his allegiance to Christ 
 depend upon his competence to solve all knotty questions, which 
 may be propounded, concerning the history, structure, and in- 
 spiration of Holy Scripture. 
 
 The manner in which Chillingworth's famous dictum has 
 been magnified into something like an article of faith, is very 
 curious; it is one of those sayings, which, taken in a certain 
 light, expresses an important truth, and, taken absolutely, ex- 
 presses a downright falsehood. The sense in which it is true 
 I take to be this, that we, as Protestants against certain cor- 
 ruptions of the Church of Kome, assert it to be unlawful on her 
 part to make any addition to those articles of faith which can 
 be proved from Holy Scripture ; we maintain, in fact, the 
 sufficiency and completeness of the faith once delivered to the 
 saints, and protest against the notion of new articles being 
 added ; for example, we may rightly, uj^on this principle, protest 
 against the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, lately canonized with so much pomp 
 at Rome. But, if we put the points of dispute between Rome 
 and ourselves out of view, and take the dictum concerning 
 the Bible as expressing that we begin and end ovir religious 
 system with the Bible, that we hold, for instance, that the 
 study of the Bible, and the Bible only, is the right road of 
 Christian knowledge, we certainly tui'n our backs upon the 
 Church of England, and (as I believe) run into a most mis- 
 chievous error. For why should we forget that we have the 
 Chiu-ch, and her Ministers, and her Sacraments, and the Creeds, 
 and history, both ecclesiastical and civil, and the fact of a large 
 and ever enlarging Christendom, and the evidence of the effects 
 of Christ's coming upon the world, and the like, all testifying 
 to Christ? — testimonies these, which would not cease to be 
 testimonies, even if we had no Scriptures. The Bible, in fact, 
 is the greatest and the most influential source of Christian 
 knowledge ; but when we profess our faith as Christians, we 
 do not say, " I believe in the Bible," but " I believe in God 
 the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Chi-ist His only Son our 
 Lord, and in the Holy Ghost." 
 
216 Notes. 
 
 Note 6. 
 
 The one instance of the occm-rence of the -word atonement 
 in the English version of the New Testament, is in Rom. v. 1 1 
 and it seems difficult to understand why it should have been 
 used here, for the use of the word destroys for English readers 
 the close connexion which exists between verse ii and the 
 preceding verse, in which the verb cognate to the substantive 
 rendered atonement occurs twice. The Greek runs thus : — 
 €1 yap e'^vpot oi/tec KaTrjWajtjuef tw 0ew Oia tov vavaTov tov 
 viov avTov, troWcp /maWou kuto Waje i>t£<; amdrja-oneOa ev -rrj 
 (jwJ7 avTov' ov fxovov Be, dWa ko.) Kav^^uinei/oi ev tw Qeta Sia tou 
 Kupi'ou rifkwv 'I>7<roi7 \ptaTov, hi" ov yui/ Tt]v KaTaWajtiv f\a(3ofxev. 
 And the rendering would have been more pointed if it had run 
 accordingly : " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled 
 to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, 
 we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also 
 joy in God through oui* Lord Jesus Christ, by "Whom we have 
 now received reconciliation." The word KaTaWayrj is trans- 
 lated by reconciling in Romans xi. 15, and by reconciliation 
 in 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. Probably the word atonement was used by 
 the translators as a synonyme, which it easily might be, if they 
 regarded it as equivalent to an at-one-ment, or a making of 
 two parties to be at one, a derivation which, though deemed by 
 some authorities incorrect, apjDears to be well supported. Thus 
 in his little work on The Study of Words, Mr Trench gives the 
 direction — " Tell them that atonement means at-one-ment — the 
 setting at one of those who were at twain before, namely, God 
 and man, and they will attach to the word a definite meaning, 
 which perhaps it no way else would have had for them'." And 
 the same derivation is given in Richardson's Dictionary, and 
 in some others. The whole truth of the matter would perhaps 
 be expressed by saying, that atonement in Scripture imjiLies 
 reconciliation, and has a pai'ticular reference to the mamier in 
 which reconciliation is procured, — that is, through tlie redemp- 
 tive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The word atonement is frequently used, as every one knows, 
 in the Old Testament, but the word used in the LXX to ex- 
 press it is not KUTaWayrj as in Rom. v. 11. Thus in Levit. 
 xvii. n, we have in the English version, "It is the blood that 
 
 1 Study of Words, p. 143. (First Edition.) Sec also Thomson's Bampton 
 Lectures. Note i. 
 
Notes. 217 
 
 raaketh an atonement for the soul," and in the LXX, to -yap 
 aJ/jia avTov di/Ti xfyv^rji eftAaVeraj ; and SO in many other passages. 
 The word /Aatr/xoV (propitiatio, expiatio, id quod vim expiandi 
 habet, ScJileusner : evfieveia, (rvy)^wpr](ri<;, ^laWayt], k a -ra A.A. a 7 »/, 
 Uesycli ;) occurs twice in the New Testament ; i John ii. 2, 
 a\iT6<:; IXaapo^ ea-rt 7rep\ twv apapTiwu tJixwV the J)ropltiatio7l for 
 our sins, and 7iot for ours only, hut also for the sins of the whole 
 world: and again, l John iv. 10, aTreo-TeiXe tov v'lov avrov i\a<7- 
 fxnv' sent His Son to he the frointiation for our sins. The 
 cognate verb occurs in Heb. ii. 17, where it is rendered, to make 
 reconciliation, and in S. Luke xviii. 13, where we have the 
 words, God hi merciful to me a sin7ier, iXda-driTi p-ot tw dpaprw- 
 Aw. Hence it would seem, that these words imply generally 
 pardon and reconciliation, and also particularly those means 
 whereby, under the old covenant, pardon and reconciliation 
 could be obtained. 
 
 Considering the frequent use of the term atonement in 
 recent times, I confess that it was to me a very striking fact, 
 that I was unable to find the word in any of the formidaries 
 of the Chiu'ch. I observe also that it does not occur in either 
 Pearson, Hooker, or Barrow, if the indices appended to the 
 editions which I have in use may be trusted. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 The question of the ground of the acceptance of Abel's ofier- 
 ing and the rejection of that of Cain, is one of gi-eat difficulty, 
 and upon which, therefore, I would not wish to give too positive 
 an opinion. The view given in the passage, to which this note 
 is appended, seems to me the most reasonable, and I confess 
 there appears to me to be a great difficulty in admitting the only 
 difference between the two sacrifices to have consisted in the 
 moral feelings of the two brothers; a view suppoi-ted by Mr 
 Maurice, in the first of his sermons on The Doctrine of Sacrifice, 
 and on behalf of which the following passage may be quoted 
 from S. Augustine : — 
 
 " Non fuit charitas in Cain ; et nisi esset charitas in Abel, 
 non acciperet Deus sacrificium ejus. Cum enim ambo obtuKs- 
 sent, ille de fructibus teiTse, ille de fetibus ovium ; quid putatis, 
 fratres, quia Deus fructus terrse neglexit, et fetus oA-ium dilexit ? 
 Non intendit Deus ad manus ; sed in corde vidit : et quern vidit 
 
218 Notes. 
 
 cum charitate ofFerre, ipsius sacrificium respexit; quern vidit 
 cum invidia oifen-e, alj ipsius sacrificio oculos avertit '." 
 
 For a discussion of tlie subject, I may refer to Outram, De 
 Sacrificiis, Diss. I. cap. i. Magee, Notes LX. LXI. LXII. 
 LXIII. and the passages to which, they refer. Davison's In- 
 quiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice, p. 127. 
 Faber, on Expiatory Sacrifice, § iii. Chap. I. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Mr F. W. Newman says, in his chaj^ter on " Hopes con- 
 cerning a Future Life," in The Soul: — 
 
 . . . . " Confidence thus there is none, and Aspiration is 
 her highest state. But then, there is herein nothing whatever 
 to distress her : no cloud of grief crosses the area of her vision, 
 as she gazes upward; for if her Lord, infinite in love and 
 wisdom, sees that it cannot be, she herself could not wish 
 it 
 
 "The general conclusion to which I personally come is, 
 that the state of aspiration to which alone I attain, is perhaps 
 the very best thing for me, until some other conditions of soul 
 are fulfilled, in which as yet I am deficient." 
 
 In referring to this chapter of The Soul, I cannot but ex- 
 press my surprise at a note appended by the author. " Chris- 
 tians," he says, " have added an argument of their OAvn for a 
 Future State, but unfortunately one that cannot bring personal 
 comfort or assurance. A Future State (it seems) is requisite 
 to redress the inequalities of this life. And can I go to the 
 Supreme Judge, and tell Him that I deserve more happiness 
 than He has granted me in tliis life 1 Whither is the logician's 
 common sense or self-knowledge gone?" To the former ques- 
 tion I shoidd reply, Certainly not, if you are a Christian ; and 
 to the latter, Whither is the spiritualist's candour gone, when 
 he can thus represent that ai-gument for a future state which 
 so continually forces itself upon the minds of men, whether 
 Christians or not, who contemplate the various anomalies of 
 this present world and yet believe that a Righteous Creator 
 is the Governor of it ? I observe that amongst other famous 
 men, who would come under Mr Newman's lash, woidd be Leib- 
 nitz, who, having quoted a passage from Luther, in which he 
 1 In Epist. Joan. Tract. V. 
 
Notes. 219 
 
 says that the inequality of things in this present life cannot 
 be explained, adds, " Mais il faut voir un peu apres, qu'il ne 
 I'entend que de ceux qui ignorent 1' autre vie \" 
 
 I find that Mr Newman's note, upon wiiich I have com- 
 mented, is noticed also in the section on "A Future Life" in 
 The jEclipse of Faith; the author says : " As to the Christian, 
 though he feels that he could not, and dare not, go to the 
 divine tribunal with any such absurd plea as Mr Newman is 
 pleased to put into his mouth, — though he cannot impeach the 
 divine goodness, — he nevertheless feels that that goodness, if 
 this scene be all, is open to very grievous impeachment in rela- 
 tion to millions who have suffered much, and done no wrong, 
 and to multitudes more who have inflicted infinite wrong, and 
 suffered next to nothing; and they would fain, if they coidd, 
 get over difficulties which Mr Newman chooses, from the mere 
 exigencies of his theology, to represent as no difficulties at all." 
 
 If any one wished to put in a clear point of view, the 
 miserable exchange which we should make by the substitution 
 of this modern spiritualism for the Catholic faith, he could 
 hardly do better than contrast Mr Newman's asp{ratio7is with 
 the sentences of the Creed, " I believe in the resiu'rection of the 
 body and the life everlasting." 
 
 Note 9. 
 
 I intended in this note to have made a reference to the 
 pages in Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, in which he discusses 
 the doctrine of Redemption; but as I fear that some of my 
 readers might be deterred from consulting the book, in conse- 
 quence of the apprehension of being lost in some bottomless 
 metaphysics, I will quote several passages which seem to me 
 to contain the pith of the argument, and commend them to the 
 attention of those whose minds are dii-ected to this important 
 and necessarily mysterious question. And here I cannot but 
 express my regi-et, that the late Dr Mill* should have given 
 the weight of his justly respected name in depreciation of the 
 value of this book : portions of it may be open to criticism, 
 and may involve erroneous opinions or conclusions, but viewed in 
 the light in which it professes to stand, namely, as a collection 
 
 1 Theodicce, § 67, p. 498. (Erdmann's Edition. 
 ^ University Sermons, 1844, p. 152. 
 
220 Notes. 
 
 of aids to the mind, wliicli desires or feels itself driven to 
 reflect upon the doctrines of our holy religion, I do not know 
 any book which is in my opinion more valuable ; and I believe 
 that there are many, who from personal experience are able to 
 testify to its worth. Certainly the extracts which follow are 
 free from the fault, so frequently alleged against Coleridge, of 
 obscurity ; right or "vsi'ong, their meaning is clearly expressed ; 
 and indeed it is certainly true, that, although in his more 
 abstruse speculations, Coleridge not unfrequeutly gets into 
 depths whei'e few can follow him, and where I would allow, 
 for argument's sake, that he might possibly not even himself 
 know his whereabout, still no man ever possessed a more re- 
 markable faculty of expressing himself clearly upon difficult 
 subjects, and the accuracy with which he uses language (a 
 great constituent of clearness of style) has few parallels amongst 
 authors. Wilh these prefatory remarks, I give the following 
 passages, which are part of an article in the Aids to Reflec- 
 tion, given in the form of a commentary upon a passage from 
 Field:— 
 
 " Forgiveness of sin, the abolition of guilt, through the 
 redemptive power of Christ's love, and of His perfect obedience 
 during His voluntary assumption of humanity, is expressed, on 
 account of the resemblance of the consequences in both cases, 
 by the payment of a debt for another, which debt the payer 
 had not Himself incurred. Now the impropriation of this 
 metaphor — (that is, the taking it literally) — by transferring 
 the sameness from the consequents to the antecedents, or in- 
 ferring the identity of the causes from a resemblance in the 
 effects, — this is the point on which I am at issue: and the view 
 or scheme of redemption grounded on this confusion I believe 
 to be altogether nn-Scriptviral. 
 
 " Indeed, I know not in what other instance I could better 
 exemplify the species of sophistry [before] noticed as the 
 Aristotelian fxeTcifjacri^ ek aWo ye'co?, or clandestine passing 
 over into a diverse kind. Tlie purpose of a metaphor is to 
 illustrate a something less known by a partial identification of 
 it by some other thing better understood, or at lejist more 
 familiar. Now the article of redemption may be considered 
 in a twofold relation — in relation to the antecedent, that is, the 
 Redeemer's act, as the efficient cause and condition of redemp- 
 tion ; and in relation to the consequent, that is, the eflecta in 
 
Notes. 221 
 
 and for the redeemed. Now it is the latter relation, in which 
 the subject is treated of, set forth, expanded, and enforced by 
 S. Paul. The mysterious act, the operative cause, is transcen- 
 dent. Factum est: and beyond the information contained in 
 the enunciation of the fact, it can be characterized only by the 
 conseqiiences. It is the consequences of the act of Redemption, 
 wliich the zealous Apostle would bring home to the minds and 
 affections both of Jews and Gentiles. Now the Apostle's 
 opponents and gainsayers were principally of the former class. 
 They were Jews : not only Jews unconverted, but such as had 
 partially received the Gospel, and who, sheltering their national 
 prejudices under the pretended avithority of Christ's original 
 Apostles and the Church in Jerusalem, set themselves ujj against 
 Paul as followers of Cephas. Add too, that Pavd himself was 
 a Hehreio of the Hebrews ; intimately versed in the Jews^ religion 
 above many his equals in his oion nation, and above measure 
 zealous of the traditions of his fathers. It might, thei'efore, 
 have been anticipated, that his reasoning would receive its out- 
 ward forms and language, that it would take its predominant 
 colours, from his own past, and his opponents' present, habits 
 of thinking; and that his figures, images, analogies, and re- 
 ferences would be taken preferably fi'om objects, opinions, 
 events, and ritual observances ever uppermost in the imagina- 
 tions of his own countrymen. And such we fi.nd them ; — yet 
 so judiciously selected, that the prominent forms, the figures 
 of most frequent recurrence, are drawn from points of belief 
 and practice, forms, laws, rites and customs, which then pre- 
 vailed through the whole Roman world, and were common to 
 Jew and Gentile. 
 
 "Now it would be difficult, if not impossible, to select 
 points better suited to this purpose, as being equally familiar 
 to all, and yet having a special interest for the Jewish converts, 
 than those are fi'om which the learned Apostle has drawn the 
 four principal metaphors, by which he illustrates the blessed 
 consequences of Christ's redemption of mankind. These are : 
 I. Sin offerings, sacrificial expiation. 2. Reconciliation, atone- 
 ment, KUTuWayt]. 3. Ransom from slavery, redemption, the 
 buying back again, or being bought back. 4. Satisfaction of 
 a creditor's claims by a payment of the debt. To one or other 
 of these four heads all the numeroiis forms and exponents of 
 Christ's mediation in S. Paul's writings may be referred. And 
 
222 Notes. 
 
 the very number and variety of the words or periphrases used 
 by him to express one and the same thing, furnish the strongest 
 presumptive proof that all alike were used metaphorically." 
 
 " Respecting the redemptive act itself, and the divine agent, 
 we know from revelation that He was made a quickening 
 (JjuDOTToiuvv, life-making) Spirit : and that in order to this it was 
 necessary that God should be manifested in the fiesh ; that the 
 Eternal Word, through whom the world (koVjuo?, the order, 
 beauty, and sustaining law of visible natui'e) was and is, should 
 be made flesh, assume an humanity personally, fulfil all right- 
 eousness, and so suffer and so die for us, as in dying to con- 
 quer death for as many as should receive Him. More than 
 this, the mode, the possibility, we are not competent to know. 
 It is, as hath been already observed concerning the primal act of 
 apostasy, a mystery by the necessity of the subject — a mystery, 
 which at all events it will be time enough for us to seek and 
 expect to understand, when we understand the mysteiy of our 
 natiu-al life, and its conjunction with mind, and will, and personal 
 identity. Even the truths that were given to us to know, we 
 can know only through faith in the Spii'it. They are spiritual 
 things which must be spiritually discerned. Such, however, 
 being the means and the efiects of our redemption, well might 
 the fervent apostle associate it with whatever was eminently 
 dear and precious to erring and afflicted mortals, and (where no 
 expression could be commensurate, no single title be other than 
 imperfect) seek from similitude of effect to describe the super- 
 lative boon, by successively transferring to it, as by a superior 
 claim, the name of each several act and ordinance, habitually 
 connected in the minds of all his hearei\s with feelings of joy, 
 confidence, and gratitude." 
 
 One remark I will venture to make upon the preceding 
 paragi-aphs : it might seem as though Coleridge intended to speak 
 of sacrifices, especially Jewish sacrifices, as happening to form 
 a convenient illustration for the purpose of illusti-ating the 
 mysteiy of redemption, and not as ordinances which were truly, 
 according to the counsel and foreknowledge of God, prevenient 
 types and shadows of the sacrifice and death of Chi'ist. I do 
 not think that this is likely to have been his meaning, but 
 inasmuch as some of the language may seem to favour the sup- 
 position, I wish to guard myself from being considered as 
 implicated in this to my mind imperfect view of the ancient 
 
Notes. 223 
 
 sacrifices. — With this qualification I commend the preceding 
 paragrajihs as containing most vahiable and important thoughts, 
 and I will now conclude my extracts with the folloAving 
 
 " Syno'psis of the constituent points in the doctrine of Re- 
 demption, in four questions, with correspondent answers. 
 
 Questions : — 
 
 A gens Causator ? 
 
 ■jTiTi /- \\T\ j-N • J.1 ; ^- -rictus Causativus? 
 Who (or What) is the / „ „ „ ^ 
 
 ^ ^ Effectum Causatum ? 
 
 Consequeoitia ah Effecto ? 
 Answers : 
 
 I. The agent and personal cause of the redemption of 
 mankind is — the co-etei'nal Word and only begotten Son of the 
 living God, incarnate, tempted, agonizing (agonistes, dywvi- 
 ^oVei'o?), crucified, submitting to death, resurgent, communicant 
 of His Spirit, ascendent, and obtaining for His church the 
 descent and communion of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. 
 
 II. The causative act is — a spiritual and transcendent mys- 
 tery, that 2yctsseth all understanding. 
 
 III. The efiect caused is — the being born anew: as before 
 in the flesh to the world, so now bom in the spirit to Christ. 
 
 IV. The consequences from the efiect are — sanctification from 
 sin, and liberation from the inherent and penal consequences of 
 sin in the world to come, with all the means and pi^ocesses of 
 sanctification by the Word and the Spirit : these consequents 
 being the same for the sinner relatively to God and His own 
 soul, as the satisfaction of a debt for a debtor relatively to his 
 creditor ; as the sacrificial atonement made by the priest for the 
 transgressor of the Mosaic law; as the reconciliation to an 
 alienated parent for a son who had estranged himself from his 
 father's house and presence ; and as a redemptive ransom for a 
 slave or captive." 
 
 I do not know that the view of the atonement, which I have 
 endeavoured to press as the true and Catholic view, is anywhere 
 more powerfully enforced than in one of the "Tracts for the 
 Times," from the pen (I believe) of Mr Newman in the days of 
 his giant strength, and which I may probably quote without 
 offence, as being one which (I think) was always recognised as 
 having done good service to the cause of truth, even in the days 
 of the greatest storm of indignation against the Tracts, and by 
 
224 Notes. 
 
 those who were the most warm in their indignation. The Tract 
 is No. 73, entitled "On the introduction of rationalistic princi- 
 ples into religion," and consists mainly of a re^dew of " Erskine's 
 Intei-nal Evidence," and "Abbott's Corner Stone." I will ven- 
 ture to quote a few sentences. 
 
 "Viewed in itself," says the writer, "Christ's death is, we 
 believe, a sacrifice acting in some unkno^vn way for the expia- 
 tion of human sin; but Mr Erskine views it, (as indeed it may 
 well be viewed, but exclusively as it should not be viewed,) as a 
 mark and pledge of God's love to us, which it would be, though 
 it were not an expiation — even though Christ's incarnation 
 issued in nothing more than His preaching to the world and 
 sealing His doctrines with His blood, it woiild be a great 
 sign of His love, and a pledge now of our receiving blessings 
 through Him ; for why should He die, except He meant to be 
 merciful to usl but this would not involve the necessity of an 
 expiation, &c." 
 
 This and mxich moi'e to the like effect brings out the point 
 with singular force, that it is the tendency of the rationalistic 
 systems of the age to bring down the effects of the death of our 
 Lord to the level of what we can understand, or to limit them 
 to such as can be seen to flow from the death as a source, ac- 
 cording to natural principles; the Catholic doctrine asserts 
 more than this, and I have wished to show that upon the pre- 
 sumption of our blessed Lord's Divine nature, it is not only 
 credible that results would flow from His human death, which 
 cannot be connected with it as a cause by any process of 
 the human understanding, but that it is scarcely possible to 
 believe the contrary. These results I call transcendent; and 
 I submit that although it is impossible in the nature of things 
 to predict the character of these results, it is equally impossible 
 to believe, that such an event should be capable of being mea- 
 sured in all its length and breadth by any human measuring 
 rod ; to bring down the death of Christ to the human under- 
 standing would be virtually to bring Christ Himself down to 
 the level of men ; the death of Christ must have in it something 
 of the mystery and the infinity of Godhead. ' 
 
 ' I will take this opportunity of saying, that, at the time of WTiting this 
 Lecture, I had not hail an opportunity of reading Mr. Thomson's Bampton 
 Lectures. I would refer to that work, as combining, in an admirable manner, 
 piety, thought and learning. 
 
Notes. 225 
 
 Note 10. 
 
 The passages of Scriptiu'e quoted as implying the doctrine 
 of the atonement are taken from Bishop Butler's chapter on 
 "the Appointment of a Mediator and Redeemer," being Pai"t ii. 
 Chap. 5. of the Analogy. I have adopted the passages as I 
 found them there, partly because they are as appropriate as any 
 that can be found in Scripture, partly because I wished to 
 make a distinct reference to that chapter, and to acknowledge 
 my obligations to it. Indeed, after having composed my lecture, 
 I was astonished to find, how much I had been indebted micon- 
 sciously to the expression of Bishop Butler's views ; the reader 
 may attribute as much to Butler as he pleases ; all that I would 
 desire to do, as respects the chapter on the appointment of a 
 Mediator and Redeemer, is this, to exhibit the arguments from 
 the point of view belonging to my course of Lectures, or rather 
 to select so much as is available for my purjjose and exhibit 
 that. 
 
 I ti-ust that some of my readers will not feel ungrateful to 
 me for directing theii- attention to the following passages of 
 Butler's chapter : — 
 
 "In this darkness, or this light of nature, call it which you 
 please, revelation comes in ; confirms every doubting fear, which 
 could enter into the heart of man, concerning the futm-e unpre- 
 vented consequences of wickedness ; supposes the world to be 
 in a state of ruin (a supposition which seems the very ground 
 of the Christian dispensation, and which, if not provable by 
 reason, yet is in no wise contrary to it) ; teaches us too, that 
 the rules of Divine government are such, as not to admit of 
 pardon immediately and directly upon repentance, or by the 
 sole etficacy of it : but then teaches at the same time, what 
 natiu'e might possibly have hoped, that the moral government 
 of the universe was not so rigid, but that there was room for 
 an interposition, to avert the fatal consequences of vice ; which 
 therefore, by this means, does admit of pardon. Revelation 
 teaches us, that the unknown laws of God's more general 
 government, no less than the particular laws by which we 
 experience He governs us at present, are compassionate as well 
 as good in the more general notion of goodness : and that He 
 hath successfully provided, that tliere sliould be an interposition 
 
 Q 
 
226 Notes. 
 
 to prevent the destruction of human kind; whatever that de- 
 struction unprevented wovdd have been. God so loved the world, 
 that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth, not 
 to be sure, in a speculative, but in a practical sense, that who- 
 soever believeth in Him, should not 2}erish : gave His Son in the 
 same way of goodness to the world, as He affords particular 
 persons the friendly assistance of their fellow-creatures; when, 
 without it, their temporal ruin would be the certain conse- 
 quence of their follies : in the same way of goodness, I say ; 
 though in a transcendent, and infinitely higher degree. And the 
 Son of God loved us and gave Himself/or us, with a love which 
 He Himself compares to that of human friendship : though, in 
 this case, all comparisons mixst fall infinitely short of the thing 
 intended to be illustrated by them. He interj^osed in such 
 manner as was necessary and efiectual to prevent that execu- 
 tion of justice upon sinners, which God had appointed should 
 otherwise have been executed upon them : or in such a manner 
 as to prevent that jDunishment from actually following, which, 
 according to the general laws of Di\'ine government, must have 
 followed the sins of the world, had it not been for such inter- 
 position." 
 
 " It cannot," adds Bishop Butler, in a note appended to 
 the preceding paragraph, — "it cannot, I suppose, be imagined 
 even by the most cvxrsory reader, that it is, in any sort, affirmed 
 or implied in anything said in this chapter, that none can have 
 the benefit of the general redemption, but such as have the 
 advantage of being made acquainted with it in the present life. 
 But it may be needful to mention, that several questions, which 
 have been brought into the siibject before us, and determined, 
 are not in the least entered into here: questions which have 
 been, I fear, rashly determined, and perhaps with equal rashness 
 contrary ways. For instance, whether God could have saved 
 the world by other means than the death of Christ, consistently 
 with the general laws of His government. And had not Christ 
 come into the world, what would have been the future con- 
 dition of the better sort of men ; those just persons over the 
 face of the earth, for whom, Manasses in his prayer asserts, 
 repentance was not appointed. The meaning of the first of 
 these questions is greatly ambiguous : and neither of them can 
 be properly answered without going upon that infinitely absurd 
 supposition, that we know the m Jiolo of the case. And perhaps 
 
Notes. 227 
 
 the very inquiry, What would have followed, if God had not done 
 as He has, may liave in it some very great impropriety ; and 
 ouglit not to be carried on any further than is necessary to 
 help our partial and inadequate conceptions of things." 
 
 that the Avisdom of these words of Butler could be infused 
 into the minds of all, who undei-take to handle sacred sub- 
 jects ! 
 
 1 must ask the reader to peruse another passage. 
 
 " The particular manner in wliich Christ interposed in the 
 redemption of the world, or His office as Mediator, in the largest 
 sense, between God and man, is thus represented to us in the 
 Scripture. He is the light of tJie world; the revealer of the will 
 of God in the most eminent sense. He is a propitiatory sacri- 
 fice ; the Lamh of God : and, as He voluntarily oflfered Himself up, 
 He is styled our High Priest. And, which seems of peculiar 
 weight, He is described beforehand in the Old Testament, 
 under the same characters of a priest, and an expiatory victim. 
 And whereas it is stated, that all this is merely by way of 
 allusion to the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, the Apostle on the 
 contrary affii-ms, that the Law was a shadow of good things to 
 come, and not the very image of tJie things; and that the priests 
 that offer gifts according to the Law — serve unto the example and 
 shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God, 
 when he was about to make tlie tabernacle. For see, saith He, 
 that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to tliee 
 in the mount : i. e. the Levitical priesthood was a shadow of the 
 priesthood of Christ ; in like manner as the tabernacle made 
 by Moses was according to that shewed him in the mount. The 
 priesthood of Chi'ist, and the tabernacle in the moimt, were 
 the originals : of the former of which the Levitical priesthood 
 was a type; and of the latter the tabernacle made by Moses 
 was a copy. The doctrine of this E2:)istle then plainly is, that 
 the legal sacrifices were alli;sions to the great and final atone- 
 ment to be made by the blood of Christ ; and not that this was au 
 allusion to those. Nor can anything be more express or detei'- 
 minate than the following passage, It is not possible that tlie blood 
 of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore v)hen He com- 
 eth into the world. He saith, Sacrifice, and offering, i. e. of bulls 
 and of goats. Thou ivoiddest not, but a body hast Thou prepared 
 me. Lo, I come to do thy will, God — by which vnll we are sanc- 
 tified throvgh the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 Notes. 
 
 And to add one passage more of the like kind : Christ was once 
 offered to bear the sins of Diany ; and unto tJiem that look for 
 Him shall He aj)pear the second time, without sin ; i. e. without 
 bearing sin, as He did at His first coming, by bearing an ofiering 
 for it; without having our iniquities again laid ^ipon Him, 
 without being any more a sin-offei*ing : unto them that look for 
 Him shall He appear the second time withoid sin, unto salvation. 
 Nor do the iuspii-ed wi-iters at all confine themselves to this 
 manner of speaking concerning the satisfaction of Christ ; but 
 declare an efficacy in what He did and suffered for us, additional 
 to and beyond mere instruction, example, and government, in 
 great variety of expression : that Jesus should die for that 
 7iation, the Jews : and not for that nation only, hut that also, 
 plainly by the efficacy of His death. He shoxdd gather together 
 in one the children of God that were scattered abroad: that He 
 suffered for sins, the just for the unjust : that He gave His life, 
 Himself, a ransom: that ive are bought, bought with a price: 
 that He redeemed us with His blood; redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law, being made a curse for us: that He is our 
 advocate, intercessor, and j^fopitiation : that He was made per- 
 fect, or consummate, through sufferings: and being thus made 
 perfect. He became the author of salvation: that God was in 
 Ch7'ist reconciling tlie world to Himself; by the death of His 
 Son, by the cross; not imputing their tresjmsses unto them: and 
 lastly, that through death He destroyed him that had the power 
 of death. Chi-ist then having thus humbled Himself, and 
 become obedient to death, even the death of the ci-oss; God also 
 hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name, which is above 
 every name: hath given all thhigs into His Imnds: hath com- 
 mitted all judgment tmto Him; that all men should honour the 
 Son, even as they honour thx Father. For, loorthy is ilie Lamb 
 that was slain, to receive ]}Oiver, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every 
 creature which is in heaven, and in the earth, heard I, saying, 
 Blessing, and honour, and glory, and j)oioer, be unto Him, that 
 sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.''' 
 
 Then, speaking of the sacrifice of Christ, the same author 
 writes : — 
 
 " How and in what particidar way it had this efficacy, there 
 are not wanting persons who have endeavom-ed to explain : but I 
 do not find tlint the Scriptiive Jins explained it. . . . And if the 
 
Notes. 229 
 
 Scripture has, as sitrely it has, left this matter of the satisfaction 
 of Christ, mysterious, left somewhat in it unrevealed, all conjec- 
 tures about it must be, if not e^ddently absurd, yet at least 
 uncertain. Nor has any one reason to complain for want of 
 further information, unless he can shew his claim to it." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " To object against the expediency or usefidness of particular 
 things, revealed to have been done or sufiered by Him, because 
 we do not see how they are conducive to those ends, is highly 
 absurd. Yet nothing is more common to be met with, than 
 this absmxlity. But if it be acknowledged beforehand, that we 
 are not judges in the case, it is evident that no objection can, 
 with any shadow of reason, be urged against any particular part 
 of Christ's mediatorial office revealed in Scripture, till it can 
 be shown positively not to be requisite or conduciA^e to the 
 ends proposed to be accomplished; or that it is in itself Tin- 
 reasonable." 
 
 Lastly : — 
 
 " Though it is highly right, and the most pious exercise 
 of oiu- understanding, to inquii-e with due reverence into the 
 ends and reasons of God's cUspensations : yet when those rea- 
 sons are concealed, to argue from our ignorance, that such 
 dispensations cannot be from God, is infinitely absurd. The 
 presumption of this kind of objections seems almost lost in the 
 folly of them. . . . Let reason be kept to : and if any part of the 
 Scripture account of the redemption of the world by Christ can 
 be shewn to be really contrary to it, let the Scripture, in the 
 name of God, be given up : but let not such poor creatures as 
 we go on objecting against an infinite scheme, that we do not 
 see the necessity or usefidness of all its pai'ts, and call this 
 reasoning." 
 
 The chapter of the Analogy, from which the above extracts 
 are made, appeal's to me second to none in weight and wisdom ; 
 but, like other parts of that wonderful book, it seems to suffer 
 from the fact of its conclusions being contemplated from that 
 point of view which is pecidiar to the whole, and which iu 
 reality constitutes its gi-eat value. This is paradoxical only in 
 appearance; for it was highly desirable that the objections made 
 to revelation should be viewed from the ground of human 
 weakness and ignorance, and that men should be taught how 
 much further their objections went than they imagined, and 
 
230 Notes. 
 
 that objections to the revealed will of God frequently involved 
 a denial of the admitted laws of the natural world; and 
 Bishoj^ Butler did inestimable service to mankind by putting 
 this subject iipon a foundation which has never yet been 
 shaken. But the very conditions of the problem have necessi- 
 tated a mode of treatment, which somewhat jars on the feelings 
 of a Christian, who is desirous of regarding the subject from the 
 point of view which the Creeds of the Church give him ; the 
 chapters seem to lack that warm light, which is poured upon 
 Christian mysteries from the cross of Christ, regarded as the 
 centre of our affections and love. 
 
 Note 11. 
 
 The hero of Mr Froude's Nemesis of Faith is represented 
 as saying : " To suppose that by oui' disobedience we have 
 taken something away from God, in the loss of which He 
 suffers, for which He requires satisfaction, and that this satis- 
 faction has been made to Him by the cross sacrifice, (as if doing 
 wrong wei'e incurring a debt to Him, which somehow must be 
 paid, though it matters not by whom,) is so infinitely derogatory 
 to His majesty, to every idea which I can form of His nature, 
 that to believe it in any such sense as this confounds and over- 
 whelms me. In the strength of my own soul, for myself, at 
 least, I would say boldly, rather let me bear the consequences 
 of my own acts myself, even if it be eternal vengeance, and God 
 requires it, than allow the shadow of my sin to fall ujDon the 
 innocent." The fallacies of such views are numerous, and will, 
 as I trust, be partly made manifest by the Lecture to which 
 tliis note is ajipended ; but I am tempted here to ask, whether 
 the fiillacy of the last sentence is not made very obvious by 
 Butler's line of reasoning from the analogy of God's dealings in 
 the ordinary course of nature and histoiy? Is it not remark- 
 able how thoroughly we are indebted for the chief blessings 
 we enjoy to the seli-sacrifice of others? If we are indebted for 
 the Gospel to the labours and sufterings of the Apostles, we are 
 no less indebted for freedom from Roman bondage to the blood 
 of the martyrs of the sixteenth centiuy, and for constitutional 
 government to the sufferings of our forefathers in the seven- 
 teenth, and for deliverance from the great French enemy of our 
 country to the death of Nelson and many other heroes : might 
 
Notes. 231 
 
 we not as consistently refuse the blessings gained for us in this 
 way, as speak of the gifts to ns by God through Jesus Christ 
 in the manner adopted in the passage just quoted? The great 
 law, which we may see verified in every day's experience, is, 
 that evil is subdued, and blessings obtained for mankind, by the 
 self-sacrifice of some amongst the number, and seldom in any 
 other way ; and this law would seem to be the reflexion of that, 
 according to which the victory over evil was gained for the 
 whole race by the self-denying humiliation of Him, who had 
 volimtarily taken the nature of the race upon Himself 
 
 In using the expression, " Who preaches such doctrines as 
 those which are thus reprobated ? " I do not intend to deny, that 
 such doctrines may be preached by some persons, and in some 
 places ; but I wish to intimate, that any view of the atonement, 
 which represents Almighty God as delighting in suflfering, re- 
 quiring a sacrifice to appease a mere feeling of vengeance, and 
 the like, is so manifestly contrary to truth, that it is hardly to 
 be treated as a doctrine worthy of serious refutation. 
 
 Note 12. 
 
 The thing here objected to is not the use of such Avords as 
 vicarious, satisfaction, iviputed righteousness, and the like, pro- 
 vided it be undei'stood that they are used in a proper scrip- 
 tural sense ; but it seems to me, that the words are not unfre- 
 quently used in a manner open to objection, and likely to bring 
 contempt upon the great doctrine of human redemption, and 
 that tliis is the case when it is impUed by them, that the punish- 
 ment of human sin has been been taken away by the sufierings 
 of Christ, according to a law which the human understanding 
 can enunciate. That Christ sufiered for sins is a scriptural 
 truth; but that He sufiered the punishment of sins, in such a 
 manner, that it is obviously contrary to the justice of God to 
 require from believers in Him the penalty of their transgres- 
 sions, I think he would be a bold man who would affirm. It 
 is very easy to ask questions concerning the efiects of the 
 Lord's passion, but it is generally difficult to answer them: 
 any one who wishes to see an attempt to answer almost every 
 conceivable question, can consult Thomas Aquinas, Summ. 
 Theol P. III. Qusest. xlvi— L. 
 
232 Noti 
 
 Note 13. 
 
 The reader will remember Paley's chapter, " Of the History 
 of the Resurrection," in the Evidences of Christianity. He is, 
 of course, looking at the mii-acle from quite a different point of 
 view, but he brings out with his usual clearness that unique 
 character of it, upon which I have remarked. He says, " It is 
 not that, as a mh'acle, the Resurrection ought to be accounted a 
 more decisive proof of supernatural agency than other miracles 
 are; it is not that, as it stands in the Gospels, it is better 
 attested than some others ; it is not, for either of these reasons, 
 that more weight belongs to it than to other miracles, but for 
 the following, that it is completely certain that the Apostles of 
 Christ, and the first teachers of Christianity, asserted the fact. 
 And this would have been certain, if the fom- Gospels had been 
 lost, or never written," &c. &c. 
 
 The distinction between the Resurrection and other miracles, 
 as regards the manner in which they enter into the Apostolic 
 writings, ought also to be noticed. " Out of the six-and-twenty 
 constituents of the Canon," observes the author of The Restora- 
 tion of Belief " fourteen are (as I here presume to call them,) 
 nonsxtpei-natui^al, saving only that one constant element, ex- 
 pressed or implied in every Christian writing, — the Resui-rection 
 of Christ."' 
 
 I trust that no ingenious critic will endeavoiu- to make it 
 appear, from anything said in the paragraph to which this note 
 is apj^euded, that the miracles of om* blessed Lord have been 
 disparaged by the distinction drawn between them and the 
 peculiar miracle of the Resvirrection. 
 
 Note 14. 
 
 The force of the argument here produced is singularly neg- 
 lected by Strauss, who, in his " Criteria, by which to distinguish 
 the unhistorical in the Gospel narrative," observes, " Another 
 law which controls the course of events is the law of succes- 
 sion, in accordance with which all occurrences, \wi excepting 
 the most violent convulsions and the most rapid clianges, follow 
 
 Page I 29. 
 
Notes. 233 
 
 in a certain order of sequence of increase and decrease. If, 
 therefore, we are told of a celebrated individual, that He at- 
 tracted at His birth and during His childliood that attention 
 which He excited in His manhood; that His followers, at a 
 single glance, recognised Him as being all that He actually was," 
 — which, by the way, the Gospels never do say, but quite the 
 contrary, — '■'if the transition from the deepest despondency to the 
 most ardent enthusiasm after His death is represented as the work 
 of a single hour ; we must feel more than doubtful, whether it 
 is a i-eal history which lies before us." 
 
 Neander, on tlie other hand, gives full weight to the argu- 
 ment, writing thus : " The death of Christ annihilated at a 
 stroke the Messianic expectations of the Apostles. Their dejec- 
 tion was complete. But if, of all that they had hoped, nothing 
 was ever realised, this dejection could not have passed away. It 
 is true, we may suppose it abstractly possible, that, after the 
 first consternation was over, the deep, spiritual impression which 
 Christ had made might have revived, and operated more power- 
 fully, and even more purely, now that they could no longer see 
 Him with their bodily eyes. But this view coidd not arise 
 except along with the recognition of a historical Christ, as the 
 personal ground and cause of such a new spiritual creation; 
 withoiit the pre-supposition of such a Christ there is no possible 
 foundation on which to conceive of such after-workings. 
 
 " And even loith it, we cannot explain (not bare conceivable 
 possibilities, but) the actual state of the case, namely, the 
 dejection of the Apostles at first, and what they were and did 
 afterwards. There must be some intermediate historical fact to 
 explain the transition; something must have occurred to revive, 
 with new power, the almost effaced impression ; to bring back 
 the flow of their faith which had so far ebbed away. The re- 
 appearance, then, of Christ among His disciples is a connecting 
 link in the cliain of events which cannot possibly be spared." ' 
 
 I observe that the same kind of argument is used by Mr 
 Frere, in his Testimony of the Holy Spirit to the Incarnation, 
 with reference to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of 
 Pentecost. He says^, " In the later chapters of the Gospels, 
 more especially of the fourth Gospel, we have proof sufficient, 
 
 Quoted from the xViuerican Translation of Neander's Lifr of Christ. 
 ■^ Page 48. 
 
234 Notes. 
 
 that, at the time subsequent to the Crucifixion and Resm-rection 
 of Christ, the Apostles were so disheartened, as to be altogether 
 unfitted for undertaking the task, which (as their Lord told 
 them) lay before them. In the Acts, from the third chapter 
 onwards, we have overwhelming evidence of their whole tem- 
 per and spirit having been changed It is clear then 
 
 that, in the interval between the two periods, in which they 
 shewed themselves in such different characters, something must 
 have taken place. The second chapter of the Acts tells us 
 ichat that something was " I confess that, having re- 
 gard to the account given of the state of the Apostles' minds 
 after the Ascension, and the account of their doings in Acts i. 
 I do not perceive the cogency of this argument as applied to 
 the Pentecostal outpom-ing of the Spirit : with regard to the 
 Resurrection, it seems to me to be one the force of which it is 
 veiy difficult to evade. 
 
 Note 15. 
 
 The name of Neander is suflicient to remind the reader, that 
 if Germany has supplied writers inimical to the Christian faith, 
 she has also supplied some of its strongest champions. We do 
 great injury to the cause of the truth by speaking indiscrimi- 
 nately of the German school of divines, as though the whole 
 intellect of that learned nation were arrayed against Christ ; it 
 is not without reason that Mr Morell remarks, "Were some 
 well-meaning, narrow-minded Lutheran to take the works of 
 Cudworth, Jeremy Taylor, and Henry More, — were he to add 
 those of Collins, Chubb, and Shaftesbury, — were he next to 
 point out the Puritanical theology of the old Calvinistic school, 
 — were he then to come down to modei'n times, and heap 
 together Dr Pusey, Sidney Smith, Baj^tist Noel, Chalmers, 
 Carlyle, Robert Owen, James Martineau, and Archbishop 
 Whateley, and stamp all these with the names of Anglicism 
 and Neology, he would not be one atom more unreasonable 
 in his procedure, or link together phenomena one atom more 
 heterogeneous, than is perpetually done by those who tlirow 
 the German theologians and philosophical speculators together 
 into one generalisation, and characterise their systems by one 
 single, and that a national, epithet." ' 
 
 Philosophy of Religion. Preface, p. 
 
Notes. 235 
 
 Note 16. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to refer tlie reader to Mr. Trench's 
 discussion of the character of miracles and their relation to 
 nature, in chapter ii. of the introduction to his Notes on the 
 Miracles. 
 
 Note 17. 
 
 In his chapter entitled "The Assaults on the Miracles," 
 Mr. Trench has distinguished seven classes, — the Jewish, the 
 Heathen, the Pantheistic, the Sceptical, the Miracles only re- 
 latively miraculous, the Rationalistic, and the Historico- critical. 
 Of these the first two did not come within the scope of my 
 Lecture, as not having any vitality in the present day. Of the 
 remaining five I have omitted the Pantheistic and the Rela- 
 tively Miraculous views, with which the names of Spinoza and 
 Schleiermacher have been respectively associated; but to both 
 I believe that the remark made in the Lecture is applicable, 
 namely, that the axiom of the impossibility of a miracle was at 
 the foundation of them. Certainly this is the case with regard 
 to Spinoza, whose gi-eat principle is that nature is the ex- 
 hibition of the power and will of God, and that consequently 
 any event which is contrary to nature is contrary to God. " Si 
 quid in natura contingeret, quod ejus universalibus legibus 
 repugnaret, id decreto et inteUectui et naturae divinse neces- 
 sario etiam repugnai-et; aut si quis statueret Deiun aliquid 
 contra leges naturse agere, is simul etiam cogeretur statuere, 
 Deum contra suam naturam agere, quo nihil absurdius."^ 
 Against those who view nature as distinct fi.-om God, that is, 
 who view nature as a machine put in motion by God, and a 
 miracle as an interruption of this machine, the reasoning seems 
 to be good; biit it ceases to be conclusive, as soon as it is 
 suggested, that the course of nature as we witness it, though it 
 may not be regarded as a machine independent of God, may be 
 as little assumed to be the complete exponent of the power and 
 will of God: they, against whom Spinoza's view is of force, 
 are in fact those described by himself, who hold, "Deum 
 tamdiu nihil agere, quamdiu natura solito ordine agit, et 
 contra, potentiam naturse et causas naturales tamdiu esse, 
 1 Tractat. Thmlog. Polit. Cap. vi. 
 
236 Notes. 
 
 otiosas, quamdiu Deus agit," — a mode of regarding the world, 
 which I fear has not yet qmte fallen into desuetude, and the 
 maintaining of which gives a great advantage to the oj)ponents 
 of miracles. 
 
 Sclileiermacher's view of miracles, though to my own mind 
 quite incompatible with the reception of the Gospel revelation, 
 is deeply interesting, when it is considei-ed that the holding of 
 such a view was not to him a bar to the most earnest faith in 
 Christ. I am in no way pledging myself to any opinions which 
 Schleiermacher may have held, but that siich a mind as his 
 should have been amongst those, which acknowledge the wis- 
 dom and redemptive work of Jesus Christ, notwithstanding his 
 views concerning the miracles, appears to me to be a witness to 
 the power of the Gospel of a very valuable kind. ' 
 
 Note 18. 
 
 Hume says, " A miracle is a violation of the laws of natiu'e ; 
 and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these 
 laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the 
 fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly 
 be imagined .... There must, therefore, be an uniform expe- 
 rience against any miraculous event, otherwise the event would 
 not merit that appellation. And as an uniform experience 
 amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and full proof, from 
 the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracle; 
 nor can such a proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered 
 credible, by an opposite proof which is superior." ^ Coleridge 
 somewhere (I think) expresses his compassion for a people with 
 whom Hume passes for profound, and certainly one would have 
 supposed the sophistry of the preceding passage to be suificiently 
 transparent. Paley, as remarked by Chalmers, (who, in his 
 Evidences, endeavoiu's to supply the defect,) does not deal with 
 the fundamental error of Hume's view, but points out its failure 
 in a particular case. 
 
 In a note Hume adds : '' A miracle may be accurately de- 
 fined, a transgression of a laio of nature by a particular volition 
 
 1 See Tleininiscenccs of Schleiermacher, by Dr. Liicke. There is an 
 English translation, prefixed to iich\eierma.cheT's Brief Outline of t/ie Study 
 of Thcolorjy. (Clark, Edinburgh.) 
 
 2 Essay On MiraclrK. 
 
Notes. 237 
 
 of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent ;" 
 concerning whicli, see what is said in the preceding note of the 
 cases to which Spinoza's objections are applicable. 
 
 Note 19. 
 
 Strauss thus describes the rise of Eationalism : " In the 
 purely human explanation of the Bible historically, besides the 
 method of the deists, to regard the subjects of these narratives 
 as wicked and deceitful men, there was yet another course 
 open : to divest these individuals of their immediate divinity, 
 but to accord to them an undegi'aded humanity; not, indeed, 
 to look upon their deeds as miraculous; — as little, on the other 
 hand, to decry them as impositions; — but to explain their 
 proceedings as altogether natiu-al, yet morally irreprehensible. 
 If the Naturalist was led by his special enmity to the Christi- 
 anity of the Church to the former explanation, the Rationalist, 
 anxious, on the contrary, to remain within the pale of the 
 Church, was attracted towards the latter." ' 
 
 On the strict definition of the term Rationalism as used 
 in Germany, see the Introduction to Rose's State of Protes- 
 tantism in Germany. 
 
 Note 20. 
 
 Strauss tells us plainly, that "no just notion of history is 
 possible, without a perception of the inviolability of the chain 
 of finite causes, and of the imjjossibility of miracles. This per- 
 ception, ivhich is wanting to so many minds of our own day, 
 was still more deficient in Palestine, and, indeed, throughout 
 the Roman Empire."^ 
 
 Dr. Mill observes, " The principle to which, amidst all incon- 
 sistencies of his speculation on other points, Strauss adheres 
 constantly and invariably, is, that the phenomena of Christianity 
 must be explained in some manner without the admission of a 
 miracle. . . . The miracle is impossible — is an axiom that stands 
 with him above all criticism, and all considerations of testimony."' 
 
 ' Leben Jesu. Vol. I. p. 15. (Eng. Transl.) 
 ^ Leben Jesu. Introd. § 13. 
 
 ^ Mill On the Attempted Application of Pantheistic Principles to the 
 Theory and Historic Criticism of the Gospel, p. r 30. 
 
238 Notes. 
 
 Strauss thus contrasts his owu method with those of the 
 Deists and Rationalists, — " As both the natural explanations of 
 the Rationalists, and the jesting expositions of the Deists, belong 
 to that form of opinion, which, while it sacrifices all divine 
 meaning in the sacred records, still upholds its historical cha- 
 racter ; the mythical mode of interj^retation agrees with the 
 allegorical, in relinquishing the historical reality of the sacred 
 nan-ative, in order to preserve to them an absolute inherent 
 truth." ' 
 
 And the process by which, according to tliis view, the New 
 Testament history assumed its actual form is thus concisely 
 described : — 
 
 " It is by no means conceivable that the early Jewish 
 Christians, gifted with the spirit, that is, animated with reli- 
 gious enthusiasm, as they were, and familiar wdth the Old 
 Testament, shoidd not have been in a condition to invent sym- 
 bolical scenes, such as the Temptation and other New Testa- 
 ment mythi. It is not, however, to be imagined that any one 
 individual seated himself at his table to invent them out of his 
 own head, and wrrite them down as he would a poem : on the 
 contrary, these narratives, like all other legends, were fashioned 
 by degrees — by steps w^hich can no longer be traced ; gradually 
 acquired consistency, and at length received a fixed form in our 
 written Gospels."^ 
 
 It appears to me that the best refutation of Strauss is Strauss 
 himself ' Such views of the mode of the formation of the New 
 Testament, as that just given, may look well enough, when left 
 in all their generality ; but when an attempt is made to apjily 
 them to the actual phenomena of the case, they seem to 
 break down as completely as the explanations of the school of 
 Paulus. 
 
 Note 21. 
 
 " I am the better pleased with the method of reasoning here 
 delivered, as I think it may serve to confound those dangerous 
 
 ' Lehen Jesu. Introd. § 12. * Leben Jesu. Vol. I. p. 25. 
 
 ' The same may be said of Hennell, concerning whom Strauss says 
 pathetically in his preface to the English Translation of the Leben Jesu: 
 "Qui (i. e. Britanni) si suum Hennellium non audiverunt, de iisdem rebus 
 cum Britannis Britannicfe agentem, quomodo audieut, si quis Germanus 
 flurget ? " 
 
Notes. 239 
 
 friends, or disguised enemies to the Christian Religion, who 
 have vmdertaken to defend it by the principles of human reason. 
 Our most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on reason ; and 
 it is a sure method of exposing it, to put it to such a trial as it 
 is by no means fitted to endure. To make this more evident, 
 let us examine these mii-acles related in Scripture ; and not to 
 lose ourselves in too wide a field, let us confine ourselves to 
 such as we find in the Pentateuch. '...." 
 
 Note 22. 
 
 It may be worth while to examine the miracles recorded as 
 having been wrought by the Apostles, in order that it may be 
 seen cleai'ly in what relation they stand to the miracles of 
 the Lord Himself The miracles recorded are remarkably few. 
 T do not include in this examination circumstances really or 
 apparently miraculous connected vnth the Apostolic history, 
 such as the Pentecostal and other manifestations of the Spirit, 
 the release of S. Peter from prison, and the like ; but only 
 those works, which were due to the personal agency of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 Acts III. This chapter contains the first and well-known 
 miracle performed by S. Peter, or rather by S. Peter and S. 
 John ; and it seems to be recorded partly as a representative 
 miracle, that is, as a specimen and type of Apostolical wonder- 
 works. The wonder-working words are these, "In the name 
 of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." The sermon 
 founded upon the miracle (verses 12 — 26) has for its aim to 
 press the spiritual claims of Him, whose name had been power- 
 ful in restoring the lame man ; and when brought before the 
 coimcil, the same lesson is impressed upon the priests and rulers 
 which had been before preached to the people : " If we this day 
 be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by 
 what means he is made whole ; be it known tmto you all, and 
 to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of 
 Nazareth, whom ye cracified, whom God raised from the dead, 
 even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This 
 is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is 
 become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in 
 
 ' Essay On Mirarlct. 
 
240 Notes. 
 
 any other : for there is none other name under heaven given 
 among men whereby we must be saved." ' Nothing can be more 
 complete than the history of this miracle, nor anything more 
 e\'ident than that the miraculous power was inherent, not in 
 the Apostles, but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and that 
 the design of the miracle was to carry away the eyes of the 
 people, from the doers of the work, to Him in whose name it 
 was done. 
 
 Acts V. The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, though 
 having the character of a sign to the Church, are not to be 
 regarded as events having the natiu'e of a miracle. 
 
 In verses 12 — 16 of this chapter we have a compendious 
 account of a number of miracles performed by the Ajoostles, 
 doubtless in the name of Jesus Christ. The expression, " They 
 laid the sick on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow 
 of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them," must not 
 be unnoticed : the action on the pai-t of the multitude was as 
 natm-al as possible ; indeed, the account carries with it the 
 internal marks of truth. Nor is it inconceivable that the faith 
 of persons acting thus should be rewarded ; but it is not ex- 
 pressly mentioned that any cm*es were so effected. This part 
 of the history is, however, not sufficiently circumstantial to 
 bear forcibly upon the point with which we are now chiefly 
 concerned. 
 
 The deliverance recorded in verse 1 9, if miraculous, does yet 
 not come into our consideration, as before explained. I am not 
 sure that a miracle is here really intended. 
 
 Acts VIII. In this chapter we have a general account of 
 miracles and signs being done by Philip ; they ai-e spoken of in 
 immediate connexion with his preaching Christ to the city of 
 Samaria (verse 5), and there can be no question that they 
 were part and parcel of this pi'eaching. Philip's mii'acles 
 may desei-ve a special notice, because of their connexion with 
 the histoiy of Simon Magus. This Simon, being himself a sor- 
 cerer, no doubt looked upon Philip as a man superior to himself 
 in his own line, and the words which give an account of his life 
 after his baptism are very striking: "He continued with Philip, 
 and tvondered, heholding the miracles and signs tvhich toere 
 done." His conversion, such as it was, was the eflect of mere 
 
 ' Acts iv. 9 — 12. 
 
Notes. 241 
 
 wonder at Philip's power, not of the revehition to liis heart, 
 by means of Philip's wonderful woi'ks, of Him whom Philip 
 preached. And what was the result of this miracle-born con- 
 version 1 — that Simon imagined that spiritual gifts could be 
 bought with money, and that his conversion proved to be 
 a mere mistake. It may not be unprofitable to contrast 
 the conversion of Simon, in this chapter, with the conver- 
 sion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, also recorded in it. This latter 
 neither demanded nor witnessed a miracle : he heard of Him 
 " who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and who, like a lamb 
 dumb before his shearer, opened not His mouth ;" and when 
 Philip began at that Scripture and preached unto him Jesus, 
 his heart opened to receive Him, whom he felt that he needed, 
 and, being baptized in His name, " he went on his way re- 
 joicing." 
 
 Acts IX. In verse 40 we have a miracle wrought by S. 
 Peter ; a very great one, inasmuch as it in\ olved the raising of 
 one from the dead. The manner of performing it is important 
 to be noticed : " Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, 
 and prayed." This miracle was not of the nature of a sign, 
 like that of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, but rather of 
 a work of mercy, for the comfort of the disciples at Joppa. 
 Hence it was, I conceive, that " Peter pvit them all forth," and 
 then he betook himself to prayer ; thus owning, as distinctly as 
 possible, his own weakness, and incapability of performing the 
 act by his own power. 
 
 Acts XII. I do not dwell upon the deliverance of S. Peter 
 from prison, for reasons before explained. 
 
 Acts XIII. In vers. 9-11 we have S. Paul's first miracle; it 
 is performed with tlie words, " The hand of the Lord is upon 
 tlieej" and we read, as the result, that "the deputy, when he 
 saw what was done, believed ; being astonished at the doctrine of 
 the Lord." The effect was, therefore, not to make the deputy 
 look upon S. Paul as a magician, but to make him believe in 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Acts XIV. The miracle recorded in this chapter is worthy 
 of attention, because it has, at first sight, the appearance of con- 
 tradicting the general view which I have wished to give, but 
 does, upon nearer examination, confirm it. S. Paul, seeing a 
 cripple at Lystra, said to him with a loud voice, " Stand up- 
 right on thy feet;" it is mentioned incidentally, that Paul 
 
 H 
 
242 Notes, 
 
 perceived tliat " he liad foith to be healed," thus recognising 
 the fact, that, although he shoidd give the word of command, 
 yet it would not be the mere word of command, unconnected 
 with Christ as the creating Word, which would be effective in 
 performing the cure : however, so far as outward appearances 
 were concerned, Paul simply gave a command, which was 
 obeyed ; " he leaped and walked." There is the appearance, 
 then, here of a work performed by an apostle in his own name; 
 and now note the consequences. The people imijiediately cried 
 ovit, that " the gods were come do-wm in the likeness of men ;" 
 they discovered that Baraabas was Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, 
 and they would sacrifice to them at once ; and the two apostles 
 were compelled to bestir themselves right vigorously, to pre- 
 vent this sacrilegious honour being paid to them. This result, 
 then, exhibits to us what would have probably always taken 
 place, if it had not been made quite clear by the conduct 
 of the apostles, that their miracles were the declarations of 
 the power of a Name, which Name it was their biisiness to 
 jireach. 
 
 Acts XVI. The exorcism of the Pytliia may be noticed, on 
 account of the words used by S. Paul : " I command thee in 
 tlie name of Jesus Christ to come out of her" (ver. iS). 
 
 Acts XIX. The fact mentioned in vers, ii, 12, has the ap- 
 jiearance of representing the " handkerchiefs or aprons," brought 
 from the body of S. Paid, as acting in the way of charvis upon 
 the sick. I am willing to confess, that it may seem strange 
 to find this account of a certain class of miraculous works ; but 
 I tliink that a little examination will shew, that the notion of 
 a charm does not really enter into the histoiy, but only as in 
 other cases, that of the power of the Name of Chi-ist. For 
 in ver. 13, in which we read of the Jewish exorcists attempting 
 to imitate the Paidine miracles, we find that they " took upon 
 them to call over them which had evil spirits the Name of the 
 Lord Jesus, saying. We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul 
 preach eth ; " it woidd seem, then, that a reference to the sacred 
 Name as the som-ce of power was recognised as the basis of all 
 wonderful works, and therefore I think we may conclude, that, 
 in the case of the " handkerchiefs and aprons " also, though 
 no distinct mention is made of the mode of using them, the 
 application of them to the sick was with invocation of the 
 Name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
Notes. 243 
 
 Acts XX. The revival of Eutychus is very briefly men- 
 tioned ; my own impression from the history is, that there is 
 here no miracle, but that the historian, in saying that he " was 
 taken up dead," records only the belief of those who carried 
 up Eutychus, stunned with his fall. This conclusion I draw 
 from S. Paul's words in ver. lo.' 
 
 I have now noticed all the miracles of the apostles recorded 
 in the book of their Acts ; they appear to me consistent with 
 the view which I have given, — not testifying to inherent power 
 like those of Christ, not preaching the names of the apostles, 
 but re-echoing the Name of their Lord. 
 
 Note 23. 
 
 Theories of Inspiration are almost always liable to the 
 objection that they appear to be framed for a particular pur- 
 pose, — to be theological inventions rather than deductions from 
 theological data. Take, as an example, the following given by 
 Bishop Van Mildert : — " The kind of Inspiration, which it is 
 here intended to \'indicate, is that which may properly be 
 called a plenary Inspiration ; denoting by that term, that the 
 sacred writers constantly received from the Holy Spirit s'.iich a 
 degree of assistance, as might suffice to give to every part of Scrip- 
 ture its sanction and authority as the Word of God. To this end, 
 it is not necessary to suppose, that the sacred writers were on 
 every occasion favoured with direct communications from above ; 
 but rather that, under a Divine impulse, they at sundry times 
 committed to writing supernatural truths, the knowledge of 
 which, having been previously revealed to them, still remained 
 impressed upon their minds : and that a further super- 
 intendence of the Holy Spirit was vouchsafed, for the purpose 
 only of guarding them against any undue mixture of human 
 opinions with those Divine truths. This seems fully sufficient 
 to make the whole of Scripture binding upon us; without em- 
 
 1 I observe that this is the view of Olshausen, with whom however, I do 
 not agree wheu he says, tliat it is a case altogether parallel with that of the 
 raising of Jairus' daughter, concerning which Mr Trencli's remarks seem to 
 express the truth. Mr Alford says, " It seems to me, that the supposition of 
 a mere suspended animation is as absurd hei-e as in the miracle of Jairus* 
 daughter ; " to me, on the other hand, the whole spirit and character of tlie 
 two narrations appear different ; there is, however, no necessity for deciding 
 the point positively either way, as also there would seem to be no actual 
 gi-ound for a decision. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Notes. 
 
 barrassing the subject with needless difficulties."' The expression 
 here used, this seems fully sufficient, appears virtually to admit 
 the fact, that certain points are to be covered by a theory, and 
 that that theoiy is best which will cover them with the smallest 
 number of hypotheses. Or take as another example the follow- 
 ing from Bishop Warburton, who, after shewing the untenable 
 character of the view described by him as organic inspii-ation, 
 writes thus : " From the premises we can deduce no other notion 
 of [inspiration] but this, That the Holy Spirit so directed the 
 pens of these wi-iters that no considerable error should fall from 
 them : — by enlightening them with His immediate influence in 
 aJl such matters as were necessaiy for the instruction of the 
 Church, and which, either through ignorance or prejudice, they 
 would otherwise have represented imperfectly, pai-tially, or 
 falsely ; and by preserving them by the more ordinaiy means of 
 providence, from any mistakes of consequence, concerning those 
 things whereof they had acqviired a competent knowledge by the 
 common way of information. In a word, by watching over 
 them incessantly; but with so suspended a hand, as permitted 
 the use, and left them to the guidance, of their own faculties, 
 while they kept clear of error; and then only interposing 
 when, without this Divine assistance, they would have been 
 in danger of falling."* The difficulty of all such vie^ys of 
 Inspiration is powerfully set forth in Coleridge's Confessions 
 of an Inquiring Sinrit. An account of Modern Theories of 
 Inspiration is given by Mr Lee in Appendix C. of his work on 
 Tlie Ins])iration of Holy Scripture. The chapter on Inspira- 
 tion in Morell's Philosophy of Religion, is well worth reading, 
 as the exhibition of the views of an Englishman of the school 
 of Schleiermacher. 
 
 Note 24. 
 
 For an exposition of Tlce Immemorial Doctrine of the Church 
 of God on the subject of Inspiration, see Mr Lee's Lecture 
 bearing that title, being the second of his Lectui'es on TJie 
 Inspiration of Holy Scripture. I do not perceive that anything 
 said in that Lecture shakes the view advanced by myself Mr 
 Lee observes, " I shall not attempt here to give more than a 
 
 Boyk Lectures. Sermon xxiir. 
 
 On the Office and Operations of the Holji Spirit. Book I. Cliajx v 
 
Notes. 245 
 
 rapid sketch of the nature and weight of the proofs which may 
 be adduced; and I woukl merely observe, before entering upon 
 this branch of my subject, that we must not expect to find 
 in the annals of the early Church any such elaborate theory, 
 or series of systematised pi*opositions on the subject of Inspira- 
 tion, as we meet with in the case of other doctrines. The 
 absence, indeed, of dogmatic teaching on this question during 
 the first fifteen centuries of the Church, affords a clear illustra- 
 tion of the harmony of opinion which prevailed respecting it ; 
 while the unhappy distractions of modern times sufliciently 
 account for the want of any authoritative decision since the 
 sacred precincts have been invaded." Does it not rather shew 
 that the question is, as I have said, an essentially modem 
 question ? 
 
 See also Appendix B. of Mr Westcott's Elements of the 
 GosjJtl Harmony. 
 
 Note 25. 
 
 The following passages from Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics, 
 will illustrate this paragraph : — " The first law we shall men- 
 tion is, that tlie Bible does not contradict itself. If it proceed 
 from God, it must be consistent with itself. It matters not 
 through what instruments God has communicated His will, 
 unless it be proved that they have corrupted or changed it. In 
 the accomplishment of His purposes He may employ whatever 
 agency He pleases. But, whether He make use of the unlet- 
 tered or the learned, the high or the low, the revelation com- 
 municated is all His own, and must therefore harmonise in all 
 its parts. Thus Luke cannot make a difi'erent statement from 
 Paid, or Mark from John. They are to be regarded as the mere 
 media of intercourse between the Creator and the creature. 
 We look beyond them to the great Author of their inspiration. 
 Every one will at once admit, that it is a law acknowledged by 
 reason, that the Deity cannot state opposite things in different 
 portions of His revelation." ' 
 
 Again, speaking of the inspired writers : " Some superin- 
 tending care must have been exei'cised over them to prevent 
 them from falling into error. What may have been the degree 
 of this inspiration, it belongs not to iis to inquire at })resent. 
 
 p. 32. 
 
240 Notes. 
 
 One thing is cet-tain, that truth rmist have been directly com- 
 municated We take it for gi-anted, that the sacred 
 
 pemnen were kept from falling into any inconsistency in their 
 compositions, else t/ieir inspiration ivas absolutely valueless, &c, 
 
 &c;" 
 
 I the rather quote from this author, the value of whose 
 writings (by the way) I by no means desire to disparage, for 
 a reason which will be seen by reference to Note 29. 
 
 Note 26. 
 
 See Bishop Marsh's Lectures, On the Criticism of the Bible. 
 Letui-es III. and V. 
 
 As persons thought they could declare, a 2>i'iori, the jaurity 
 of the text of Scripture, so some imagined that they could, in 
 like manner, assert what must be its style. " The honour of the 
 sacred writers,' says a writer in the Christian Rememhrancer, 
 " was thought to be impugned by their being suspected of 
 having written in any other dialect than that of the purest 
 Attic." — Christian Remembrancer, 1848, page 282; where see 
 references and an account of the controversy. 
 
 Note 27. 
 
 On the question of the ridation of Scripture to modern 
 scientific discovery, I would refer the reader to Note C. in the 
 Appendix to Professor Sedgwick's Z>?5cowrse on the Studies of the 
 University of Cambridge. There are few books which are more 
 valuable, as a guide to manly thought upon this and cognate 
 subjects. 
 
 Note 2%. 
 
 It is perhaps almost unnecessary to refer to such books as 
 Paley's Horm Paulince, Blunt's Scriptural Coincidences, and 
 Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, or Sir G. Wilkinson's 
 Ancient Egyptians, and Mr Layard's various works on Nineveh, 
 for the pux-pose of shewing how much the tendency of modern 
 investigation has been to confirm the historical character of 
 both Old and New Testaments. From what has been done 
 already, it may be inferred as probable, that some of the his- 
 torical difficulties still remaining will be cleared up by further 
 
Notes. 247 
 
 knowledge. Nevertheless, it is perfectly gratuitous and very 
 foolish to stake the character of Holy Scripture upon the 
 assumption, that it must be free from historical inaccuracies. 
 The pi'actical mischief of such a notion will be illustrated in 
 the next note. ' 
 
 Note 29. 
 
 I wish to exhibit in this note by an example the danger of 
 d, priori notions concerning what 7)iust be the law of the com- 
 position of Scripture. In Note 25 I gave a quotation fi-om 
 Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics, in which certain assertions 
 are made as to what inust be the "case with Scripture : now, in 
 Kitto's Cyclopoidia of Biblical Literature^ there is an article upon 
 the book of Chronicles by the same hand, and we there find what 
 appears to me to be a very frightful application of Dr Davidson's 
 principles, and a warning concerning the danger of the like. 
 After speaking of some alleged discre]:)ancies between the books 
 of Chronicles and those of Samuel and Kings, which Dr David- 
 son does not allow to be real discrepancies, he goes on to remark, 
 " Yet there ai'e real contradictiotis. Thus, 
 2 Chron. viii. 18 . . .1 Kings ix. 28, 
 I Chron. xi. 1 1 . , . .2 Sam. xxiii. 8, 
 
 „ xxi. 5 . . . ,, xxiv. 0, where the numbers 
 
 of Judah are different- 
 
 ,, xviii. 4 ... 2 Sam. viii. 4, 
 
 „ xix. 18 . . . „ X. 18, 
 
 and other places that might be quoted, present real contradic- 
 tions. How, then, are they to be disposed of? To this we 
 reply, that the text is con-upt. It is well known that the text 
 of the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles is in a worse 
 
 condition than that of the other inspired wi-itings 
 
 " It is time that the text of these historical books should 
 be rectified in those instances, where an unquestionable neces- 
 sity exists. If there be not manuscript evidence to warrant 
 certain changes, we should not be deterred from making them. 
 Common sense, the credit of the inspired writers, and, above 
 all, their sacred authority, outweigh all scruples about correcting 
 
 ' The grecat advantage to be derived in an attack upon the Bible from a 
 priori views of inspiration has been quite appreciated by its enemies, as may 
 be seen from Middleton's Essay on the Gift of Tongues, and Warburton's 
 reply in Book i. Chap. Viil. of his Discourse On the Office and Oj)eratio7iS of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
248 Notes. 
 
 by conjecture. Real contradictions should never be allowed 
 to tarnisb a text, written under the immediate superintendence 
 of the Holy Spiiit. En-ors committed by copyists should be 
 at once removed, else evil-minded men may charge them on the 
 original authors " 
 
 The plain English of this is, that, without manuscript 
 authority, the text of historical books is to be tampered with, 
 in order to present to the eye of persons not acquainted with 
 the fraud practised an apparent harmony, which has no real 
 existence. If any one should think that I have acted unwisely, 
 in dealing as I have in these Lectures with theories concerning 
 Inspiration, I might rest my apology upon a passage such as 
 that above quoted: for here we have the actual example of a 
 learned man proposing, in deference to a notion of his own 
 concerning the character of Holy Writ, to falsify manuscript 
 authorities, and thereby to shake, in the minds of those who 
 are aware of the fact of the text having been tampered with, 
 but are not aware of the extent to which the process may have 
 been carried, the authority of the Scriptures as a whole. 
 
 Soon after preaching the Lecture to which this note refers, 
 I received an anonymous letter, in which the writer says, " If 
 you take so low a view of inspiration, you will make me an 
 infidel. I have always believed the Bible to be true in every 
 jot and tittle, and if I am induced to believe it to be otherwise, 
 I cannot possibly take it for my guide and standard." In general 
 I make it a ride to take no notice of anonymous letters ; never- 
 theless, as I have no reason to believe that the one in question 
 was not a genuine expression of religious feeling, and as I would 
 not willingly make a man an infidel because he does not sign 
 his name, I will take this opportunity of referring the writer, 
 and persons in the same state of mind as himself, to the pre- 
 ceding application of what would be called (I suppose) a, high view 
 of inspiration. When a person lays down the gratuitous hypo- 
 thesis, that in the Holy Scriptui'es there can be no cUscrepancies, 
 he may well ask with Dr Davidson, when he finds such actually 
 existing, "How are they to be disposed of?" but is it not 
 much more likely to make a man an infidel, — to shake his faith 
 not in the Scriptures only, but in the principles of common 
 honesty, — when he finds his only refuge, from the conclusions 
 deducible from his hypothesis, in the proposal to tamper without 
 authority with the text? But, in trutli, why are the views 
 
Notes. 249 
 
 propounded in these Lectures to be called low, when the principle 
 of them is simply this, not to assert that the Scriptures must 
 be this or that, but to examine them, and see what they actu- 
 ally are ? 
 
 As I have spoken strongly of the consequences, to my mind 
 most deplorable, to which certain views concerning the meaning 
 of Insjnration have conducted a man of real learning, I will 
 take this opportunity of acknowledging the very useful work 
 which Dr Davidson has performed in his Sacred Hermeneutics, 
 by bringing together under one view the greater number of 
 alleged discrepancies in Holy Scripture, and appending the 
 probable mode of reconciling them. 
 
 I venture to add here an essay made by myself, some years 
 ago, towards tjie removal of an apparent discrepancy between 
 the books of Kings and Chronicles, partly because it is not 
 included in the catalogue just now mentioned, partly because 
 I wish to shew, that I am by no means blind to the duty of 
 endeavouring to hairnonise the different statements of Scripture, 
 whenever it can be fairly done. 
 
 There appears at first sight to be a discrepancy between the 
 accoimts given in i Kings xxii. and 2 Chrou. xx. of the build- 
 ing of ships by Jehoshaphat to go to Ophir for gold. The 
 manner, however, in which the story is told in Chronicles, 
 indicating as it does that it is not merely a variation of that 
 in the book of Kings with a moral attached to it, but that the 
 historian was ch-awing from some other independent source, 
 seems to make it probable that the discrepancy is only appa- 
 rent ; and, in fact, the reconciliation of the two accounts does 
 not seem difficult. The history in i Kings is, that — 
 
 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish ; 
 
 The ships went not. 
 
 But were broken at Ezion-geber; 
 
 Then Ahaziah proposed to send pilots. 
 
 But Jehoshaphat would not. 
 The history in 2 Chronicles is, that — 
 
 Jehoshaphat made ships in partnership with Ahaziah ; , 
 
 The ships were made at Ezion-gaber ; 
 
 Eliezer, the son of Dodavah, rebuked Jehoshaphat for join- 
 ing with Ahaziah ; 
 
 The ships were broken so as not to be able to go to Tarshish. 
 Now a cursory reading might lead us to fancy, that, according 
 
250 Notes. 
 
 to one account, Jeliosliaj)hat refused the advances of Aliaziah, 
 that according to the other his misfortune in losing his ships 
 was diie to his partnership. A nioi'e careful examination of 
 the two stories, as above drawn out, will shew that this contra- 
 diction is not involved, i Kings does not say, that Jehosha- 
 phat and Ahaziab built the ships in partnership, but neither 
 does it state the contrary ; it does not say, that the destruction 
 was a judgment upon him for his sin in joining with Ahaziah, 
 but it does not deny the same; what it does state is, that after 
 the destruction of the fleet, Ahaziah proposed to supply pilots, 
 and that this Jehoshaphat refused, as was not unlikely, if Eliezer, 
 the son of Dodavah, had prophesied against him, as 2 Chron. tells 
 \is that he had. The necessity of having skilful j^ilots to take 
 ships from Ezion-geber appears from i Kings ix. 26, 27. 
 
 On the whole it will be found, that the following account 
 will include the two we possess, and not contradict either. 
 
 Jehoshaphat joined with Ahaziah in making ships of Tarshish ; 
 Eliezer, the son of Dodavah, rebuked him for his conduct, 
 
 and prophesied the destruction of the ships. 
 Tlie ships were accordingly destroyed at Ezion-gebei', the place 
 
 where they were built. 
 Then Ahaziah proposed to make another attempt bj' build- 
 ing a new fleet, and using his pilots; but this, Jehosha- 
 phat, warned by experience, refused. 
 It is implied, that in the first attempt Ahaziah's pilots were 
 not employed ; and it may seem strange, that he should not make 
 the same proposal the first time as the second ; but this may be 
 explained thus : it is possible that Jehoshaphat intended, in the 
 first instance, to work the ships in partnership with Ahaziah, 
 as he had built them, but that he was alarmed by Eliezer's 
 prophecies; then, when the ships were Avi-ecked, Ahaziah would 
 probably suggest, that the expedition would have succeeded, if 
 his sailors had been employed, and would laugh at Jehosha- 
 phat's religious scruples: or it is possible, that Jehoshaphat 
 might strain his conscience to accept of the assistance of Aha- 
 ziah on firm land, but might think idolaters and schismatics a 
 dangerous cargo, and so might never have intended that the 
 partnership should go beyond the building of the ships. 
 
 Viewed in this way, the accounts given of the transaction 
 in I Kings and 2 Chron., not only do not clash, but throw 
 considerable light upon each other. 
 
Notes. 251 
 
 Note 30. 
 
 A very valuable account of tke various views, wliicli have 
 been pi'opounded concerning the formation of the Gospels, will 
 be found in the introduction to the English translation of 
 Schleiermacher on S. Lukes Gospel, by the translator, (the 
 present Bishop of S. David's). The work itself is also of ex- 
 traordinary value to any one, who is considering the question 
 of the manner in which the Gospels come to be such as they 
 are, and of their mutual relations. 
 
 The difficulty of arriving at any conclusion which shall be 
 universally received may be illustrated, by comparing the tone 
 in which Schleiermacher speaks of S. Mark's Gospel with the 
 following sentence from Thiersch's History of the Christian 
 Chu7-ch : " Mark's Gospel is the oldest and shortest, the common 
 basis for those of Matthew and Luke." ' But this very diffi- 
 culty ought to arrest our attention, and to teach us to look 
 therein for marks of the care of God for the welfare of His 
 Church. 
 
 I need hardly refer the reader for information upon this 
 subject to Mr Alford's Prolegomena to the first volume of his 
 edition of the New Testament. 
 
 Note 31. 
 
 Prophecy used to be regarded, and by many is still regarded, 
 as a strong ground of Christian evidences. It is perhaps hardly 
 necessaiy to refer to such books as Newton on the Prophecies, 
 ISherlocJc, and Davidson : and the reader may see, if he wishes, 
 the difficulties which ingenuity can raise on the subject, in 
 Greg's Creed of Christendom (chap, iv.) I do not wish to 
 insinuate, that prophecy is not a part of Christian evidence; 
 this it must be, if it be a part of the divine economy in the 
 revelation of Jesus Chi-ist ; but the argument, that certain men 
 announced beforehand things which afterwards came to pass, 
 and were therefore inspired, is certainly accompanied with diffi- 
 culties. We perhaps still want a satisfactory treatise upon the 
 subject. There is much matter of interest bearing on the question 
 in Mr Maurice's Prophets and Kings of the Old Testameiit, in 
 
 ^ English Translation, Vol. i. p. 44. See also the Essay On the Sources 
 of S. Luke's Writings, in Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of S. Paul, and the 
 Dissertation on the Origin and Connexion of the Gospels, by the same Author. 
 
252 Notes. 
 
 the Advertisement prefixed to which he says, " The compilers of 
 the Lessons have been much more careful to exhibit the Pro- 
 phets as preachers of righteousness, than as mere predictors. 
 I have felt that this aspect of their lives has been greatly over- 
 looked in our day, and that there is none which we have more 
 need to contemplate. The history of the Hebrew Monarchy, 
 without the light which it receives from Jewish prophecy, seems 
 to me as unintelligible and incoherent, as it does to those who 
 reject it or try to reconstruct it. Seen by that light, I can find 
 nothing more orderly or continuous, nothing more consistent 
 with itself or more helpful in interpreting the modern world." 
 
 Note 32. 
 
 1 think that the tone of this paragraph ought to have 
 protected me from the suspicions, at which I have hinted in 
 the opening of the following Lecture. Ancients and Moderns, 
 Romanists and Protestants, Chiu'ch-of-England writers and 
 Dissenters, have all agreed in finding mysteries beneath the 
 surface of Scripture when devoutly studied ; and the efi*ect 
 produced upon the mind by such devout reading, is probably 
 in the greater number of cases the strongest practical argument 
 for the divine character of the book; the value of the argu- 
 ment, however, immediately evaporates, when an attempt is 
 made to give it a scientific form, appreciable by those who have 
 not studied the book in the same way. The prayer of the 
 Psalmist is the right prayer for eveiy reader of the Scriptures, 
 Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see the wonderful things of 
 Thy law : and the very necessity for such a prayer shews, that 
 the Scriptures have a power of self-demonstration to those 
 whose eyes have been purged to look into them aright, which 
 they have not for others. " Totius Ecclesia?," says S. Augustine, 
 " una sententia est, esse quidem omnem Legem spiritualem ; non 
 tamen ea qute spirat Lex esse hominibus nota, nisi iis solum 
 quibus gi-atia Spiritus sancti in verbo sapientise ac scientiae 
 condonatur." ' 
 
 I may take this opportunity of referring to a sermon on the 
 Inspiration of Scripture, by the Rev. C P. Eden, the spirit of 
 which is admirable, and with the concluding sentences of which 
 I cordially agree. " I am not sure that since the days of the 
 
 ' De Tncarnaiionc Vcrhi. 
 
Notes. 253 
 
 Arian dispute, a more impoi-taut question has arisen than that 
 which seems likely to be ere long forcing itself upon us, of the 
 Inspiration of Holy Writ. I freely permit myself to anticipate 
 that the simplest possible view of the subject, that on which rich 
 and poor may meet together, is the one to which we shall come 
 round : and how 1 by our getting to know more deeply, — that 
 which men do err by not knowing, — the Scriptures and the 
 power of God." ' 
 
 Note 33. 
 
 In speaking of Hooker, I of course refer to the beautiful 
 passage concerning the Psalms in the fifth book of the Eccle- 
 siastical Polity."^ S. Augustine, in expounding Psalm xxx., says, 
 "Si orat Psalmus, orate; et si gemit, gemite; et si gi-atulatur, 
 gaudete ; et si sperat, spei'ate ; et si timet, timete. Om)iia 
 enim, quae hie conscripta sunt, speculum nostrum sunt." And 
 again in his Confessions^ he writes — " Quas tibi, Deus mens, 
 voces dedi, cum legerem Psalmos David, cantica fidelia, et 
 sonos pietatis excludeutes turgidum spiritum ? . . . . Quas 
 tibi voces dabam in psalmis illis, et quomodo in te inflammabar 
 ex eis, et accendebai' eos recitare, si possem, toto orbe terrarum, 
 adversus typhum generis humani? Et tamen toto orbe can- 
 tantur, et non est qui se abscondat a calore tuo." In the same 
 chapter he uses the beautiful expression — " Litteras de melle 
 cceli melleas, et de lumine tuo luminosas." 
 
 Hengstenberg says, "Even the French Deists, the theo- 
 philanthropists, sworn enemies of the Bible, could only make 
 out their Liturgy by help of the Psalms. This [that is, the 
 testimony borne to the Being and perfections of God,] is one 
 chief reason why the Psalter is so precious to the afflicted. It 
 presents God se clearly and vividly before their eyes, that they 
 see Him, in a manner, with their bodily sight, and find thereby 
 the sting taken from their pains. In this, too, lies one great 
 element of the importance of the Psalter for the present times. 
 What men now most of all need is, that the blanched injage 
 (verblichene Bild) of God should be freshened up in them. 
 This, not the denial of particular tenets of revelation, which 
 is only a consequence of the other, and which can never be 
 
 ^ Sermons preached at S. Mary's in Oxford. Sermon IX. 
 ^Eccles. Pol. V. chap, xxxvii. § a, ^ Lib. ix. cap. iv. 
 
254 Notes. 
 
 thoroughly eradicated so long as the fundamental evil remains, 
 is the deepest giief of the Cliurch, and one which believers Mdll 
 still have to bear with. Those who would strive to effect, in this 
 respect, a reformation in themselves or others, will find in the 
 Psalms a mighty help. The more closely we connect ourselves 
 with them, the moi-e will God cease to be to us a shadowy form, 
 which can neither hear, nor help, nor judge us, and to which 
 we can present no sujjiilication." ' 
 
 Note 34. 
 
 "En vertu de cette mission di\dne Manichee osa rejetter le 
 Yieux Testament, et reformer le Nouveau."^ 
 
 Note 3.5. 
 
 See Butler's Analogy, Part ii. chap, iii., — a chapter worthy 
 of the most careful study, and of which the following sentence 
 is the key : — " If the natural and the revealed dispensation of 
 things are both from God, if they coincide with each other, 
 and together make up one scheme of Providence; oui* being 
 incompetent judges of one, must render it credible that we 
 may be incompetent judges also of the other. Since, upon ex- 
 perience, the acknowledged constitution and course of natm-e 
 is proved to be greatly different from what, before experience, 
 would have been expected; and such as, men fancy, there lie 
 great objections against : this renders it beforehand highl}-- 
 credible, that they may find the revealed dispensation likewise, 
 if they judge of it as they do of the constitution of nature, 
 veiy different from exj)ectations formed beforehand ; and liable, 
 in appearance, to great objections." 
 
 Note 36. 
 
 With regard to the paragi'aphs which follow I desire to 
 acknowledge my obligations to Mr Maurice, especially to his 
 little volume of Sermons on the Old Testament, or, as it is called 
 in the second edition lately published, Patriarchs and Laio- 
 givers of the Old Testament, some of which seem to me to be 
 
 ^ Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Psalms. Appendix i. § vii. (Clark '.s 
 English Edition.) 
 
 ^ Beausobre, IlUt. Crif. de Manichee ct du Manichc'isme. Preface. 
 
Notes. 255 
 
 amongst tlie most valuable of his writings, — obligations, of 
 course, not for particular passages or arguments, but for the 
 general tone of thought. 
 
 Note 37. 
 
 " It is obvious to every one, that there is something quite 
 different in the Old Testament declarations, that God made 
 a covenant with Noah and Abraham, led His people out of 
 Egypt, gave them laws, brought them into the promised land, 
 raised up for them judges, kings, and prophets, and punished 
 them at last for their disobedience by exile; — from the tales 
 concerning Jupiter, that he was born at Rhea in Crete, and 
 
 hidden from his father Saturn in a cave The essential 
 
 difference between the two representations is, that in the latter, 
 the Deity himself is the subject of progression, becomes another 
 being at the end of the process from what He was at the 
 beginning, something being effected in Himself, and for His 
 own sake : whilst in the former, change takes place only on the 
 side of the world; God remains fixed in His own identity as 
 the I AM, and the temporal is only a superficial reflexion cast 
 back upon His acting energy by that course of mundane events 
 which He both originates and guides. In the heathen mythology 
 the gods have a history : in the Old Testament God Himself has 
 none, but only His people : and if the proper meaning of 
 mythology be the history of gods, then the Hebrew religion has 
 no mythology." * 
 
 On the Pagan Theogonia, see Cudworth, Intel. Syst. Book i. 
 chap. iv. § xiv. 
 
 Note 38. 
 
 There is very much valuable matter bearing upon the 
 subject of this paragraph, in Coleridge's Confessions of an In- 
 quiring Spirit. I quote one passage. " All men of learning," 
 Coleridge su})poses " a spiritual physician " to say to one who 
 has been shaken by the assaidts of infidelity, — " all men of learn- 
 ing, even learned unbelievers, admit that the greater part of 
 the objections, urged in the popidar works of Infidelity, to this 
 or that verse or chapter of the Bible, prove only the ignorance 
 
 ' Strauss, Lehcn Jesn. English Translation. Introduction, § 14. 
 
256 Notes. 
 
 or the disliouesty of the objectors. But let it be supposed for 
 a moment that a few remain hitherto unanswered, — nay, that 
 to your judgment and feelings they appear unanswerable. What 
 follows ? That the Apostles' and Nicene Creed is not credible, 
 the Ten Commandments not to be obeyed, the clauses of the 
 Lord's Prayer not to be desired, or the Sermon on the Mount 
 not to be practised 1 See how the logic would look. David 
 cruelly tortui-ed the inliabitants of Eabbah, and in several of 
 the Psalms he invokes the bitterest curses on his enemies : 
 therefore it is not to be believed, tha,t the love of God towards 
 us was manifested in sending His only begotten Son into the 
 world, that we might live through Him. Or : Abijah is said to 
 have collected an army of 400,000 men, and Jeroboam to have 
 met him with an army of 800,000, each army consisting of 
 chosen men, and making together a host of 1,200,000, and Abijah 
 to have slain 500,000 out of the 800,000 : therefore, the words 
 which admonish us that if God so loved us, roe ought also to 
 love one another, even our enemies, yea, to bless them that curse 
 us, and to do good to them that hate us, cannot proceed fi'om 
 the Holy Spirit. Or : the first six chapters of the Book of 
 Daniel contain several words and phrases irreconcil cable -with 
 the commonly received dates, and these chapters and the Book 
 of Esther have a traditionally and legendary character unlike 
 that of the other historical books of the Old Testament : thei-e- 
 foi-e, these historical books, by contrast with which the former 
 appear suspicioiis, and the historical document, i Cor. xv. 1-8, 
 are not to be credited." ' 
 
 We have already seen (Note 29) the expedients to which 
 learned and well-meaning men may be dx-iven, by the difficulties 
 arising from particular theories of inspiration; the preceding 
 passage will shew how entirely inapplicable such difficulties 
 are to him, who sees in the Bible the work of the Spiilt, because 
 it is the record of the revelation of the Father in the person of 
 the Incarnate Son. 
 
 I will here take the opportunity of making a remark upon 
 the use of the passage, i Tim. iii. 16, in page 117, and I think 
 in other passages of these Lectures. Dean Milman remarks, in 
 a note upon a sneering observation in Gibbon (chap, xhii.), 
 that " the weight of authority is so much against the common 
 
 ' Letter vi. 
 
Notes. 257 
 
 reading on both these points, {i.e. i Tim. iii. i6, and i John 
 V. 7), that they are no longer urged by prudent controver- 
 sialists." My intention, in referring to the text in S. Paul's 
 Epistle to Timothy, was, not to imply that the doctrine rested 
 upon that text, (which, indeed, would be a very unsafe support 
 for such a doctrine,) but only to quote a verse, which (as it 
 stands in our Bibles) expresses concisely the doctrine, of which 
 the whole New Testament is full. 
 
 Note 39. 
 
 Xpj; he yivwa-neiv, oti 6 fxev YlavXoi 6 Sajuoo-areiy? ovrm (ptjo-tv, 
 " ed<i}K€v avTm npiaiv iroieTv, oti v1o<; dvQpmrrov €<tt'iv " a\X ovoefxlav 
 aKoXuvQ'iav e-)(£i. Ov jcip Sia tovto e\af3e Kpia-iv, on avdponro^ 
 ecTTiv, oAX' eireihrj t»j? dpptirov oJcr/a? cKeivr]^ ea-Ttu u/o?, did tovto 
 ecTTf Ka\ KptTij's' ovTO) Tolvvv dva'yvuxTTeov, " Ort w'os avupotnov 
 eVri, fxt^ Oavfxd^eTe tovto.' ^ 
 
 Since writing this Lecture I have noticed the following 
 passage in Wilberforce's Doctrine of the Incarnatioii: — 
 
 " The same infallible Scriptures which declare salvation to 
 the penitent, through the blood of the Incarnate Mediator, 
 declare that God ' hath given Him authority to execute judg- 
 ment also, because He is the Son of Man,' Except for His 
 gracious intervention in the world of created beings, om' race 
 had perished in its birth; it had been incapable of trial and 
 glory. The Incarnation of the Son of God involves examina- 
 tion, and makes acquittal possible. But then it teaches the 
 certainty of the trial. The very office of a judge is to examine 
 into actions; and to assign this function to one who is charac- 
 terised by participation in our material nature, if its shews 
 the leniency with which we may hope that judgment will be 
 exercised, shews also its reality and literal truth." ' 
 
 Mr Alford takes the view given by our English version. See 
 his note. 
 
 See also a veiy elaborate discussion in Llicke's Commen- 
 ta/ry; from which I will quote two short passages. 
 
 " Bey oTi vlo^ dvdpcoTTov ia-Ttv fragen wir nach der Structiu' und 
 Interpunction. Das natlirlichste scheint, den Satz als Causalsatz 
 mit dem Vorhergehenden zu verbinden. So construiren auch 
 
 1 Quoted from Cramer's Catena. * P- ii.34- 
 
258 Notes. 
 
 schon Origenes, Paul von Samosata, wie Chrysostomua bemerkt, 
 nachmalils Cyiill, Nonnus uud die Lateiner alle. Allein Chiy- 
 sostomus und nach ihm Euthymius und Theopliylakt verbinden, 
 wie die beyden Sp\ Uebersetziingen, den Satz mit dem folgen- 
 den fxri Qavixdt^iTe Tovro 
 
 " Es bleibt also nur ubrig, die stelle so zu verstehen, dass der 
 Vater dem Soline das Gericlit iibergeben habe, entweder weil er 
 der Messias sey und das Gericht wesentlich zuni Messianischen 
 epyov gehore, oder well er Menschensohn sey, d. h. der Mensch- 
 gewordene Logos. Diess letztere ist die Erklarung von de 
 Wette." 
 
 See also Olshausen, who refers for an explanation to Daniel 
 vii. 13, and does not admit that vio<: dvOpmirov = avBpwiro^. He 
 observes, however, that the connexion of the words with the 
 following verse, as proposed by some of the Fathers, and by 
 Dr Paulus amongst the modems, is altogether inadmissible. 
 
 Note 40. 
 
 The following extract from Bishop Colenso's Ten Weeks in 
 Natal, will illustrate my meaning : — 
 
 " I read the following passage upon a scrap of an American 
 Missionary Intelligencer. It was the report of a colpoi'teur, 
 who was describing to his employers the manner in which 
 he conducted his ministry, entering first into one house and then 
 another, and distributing according to the necessities of each. 
 In one, for instance, he would find the people careless and 
 negligent in divine things, and then he would talk to them 
 about the heathen, and what would become of them; and would 
 ask them what would become of themselves, if they lived like 
 heathen. They would pei'ish like those Jieathen ; and their 
 children, about whom they thought so much, would twine 
 about them, like creepers on a gnarled oak, and they would 
 bum — burn — bm*n on, for ever!" 
 
 " Here is another passage from the correspondence of a 
 Missionary. Speaking of the heathen, the writer says ; 
 ' Every hour, yea, every moment, they are dying ; and dying, 
 most of them, without any knowledge of the Saviour. On 
 whom now rests the responsibility"? If you fail to do all in 
 your ])0wer to save them, will you stand at the judgment 
 
Notes. 253 
 
 guiltless of their blood 1 Said a heathen child, after having 
 embraced the Gospel, to the writer, ' How long have they had 
 the Gospel in New England?' When told, she asked, with 
 great earnestness, ' Why did they not come and tell us before V 
 and then added, ' My mother died, and my father died, and my 
 brother died, without the Gospel!' Here she was unable to 
 restrain her emotions. But, at length, wiping away her tears, 
 she asked, ' Where do you think they have gone ? ' I, too 
 could not refrain from weeping, and, turning to her, I inquired, 
 'Where do you think they have gone?' She hesitated a few 
 moments, and then rejDlied, with much emotion, ' I suppose 
 they have gone down to the dark place — the dark place. Oh ! 
 why did they not tell us before 1 ' It wrung my heart, as she 
 repeated the question, — Why did they not tell us before ? ' 
 
 " I quote these passages, not for a moment wishing it to be 
 supposed, that the good American Missionaries of Natal hold 
 and preach, as a body, these fearful doctrines — God forbid ! — 
 but to enter my own solemn protest against them, as utterly 
 contrary to the whole spirit of the Gospel, &c." . . . .' 
 
 I entii-ely sympathise in the Bishop's protest, and have 
 quoted the preceding paragraphs the rather, because the charac- 
 ter of such doctrine comes out in much stronger colours, when 
 seen in its pi'actical bearing upon a little converted heathen 
 girl, weeping (as well she might under such teaching) over her 
 father and mother, than when exhibited in the dry form of a 
 theological dogma in the pages of a learned divine. 
 
 Note 41. 
 
 The reader may refer if he will to Thomas Aquinas, Summ. 
 Theol. Pars Tertia. Qusest. LII. De descensu Christi ad Inferos, 
 where he will find such questions as these discussed, Utrum 
 Christiis descendens ad inferos sanctos Patres inde liberaverit. 
 Utrmn Ghristus aliquos damnatos ah inferno liberaverit Utrum 
 pueri qui cum originali peccato decesserant fuerint d, Chi'isto 
 liberati. Utrum Ghristus sux) adscpnsu liberaverit animas a 
 purgatorio. He will find all these questions logically resolved, 
 and will see a good illustration of " the danger of theorising in 
 a matter essentially beyond human cognisance." Pearson says 
 
 1 Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 251. 
 
260 Notes. 
 
 " I conclude that there is no certainty of truth in that propo- 
 sition, which the schoohnen take for a matter of faith, That 
 Christ delivered the souls of the saints ft-om that place of Hell, 
 which they call Linibus of the Fathers, into Heaven." The notes 
 to Pearson's discussion of the Article, He descended into Hell, 
 ai'e full of illustrations of the same point, di'awn from the 
 speculations of the Fathers. 
 
 Note 42. 
 
 By saying that the certainty of a judgment can only be 
 denied upon principles of the grossest materialism, I mean to 
 assei't, that unless a person hold (as very few do in the present 
 day) that the dissolution of the body puts an end to the entire 
 being of a human creatiu'e, he cannot but admit that which 
 amounts in principle to a judgment. For if the entire being be 
 not dissolved, that is, if men live after death, their condition, 
 whatever it be, cannot be conceived as being entii-ely uncon- 
 nected with their condition in this life : the one must be in the 
 nature of things (to use a mathematical and expressive phrase) 
 a function of the other. Now if we admit as much as this, we 
 admit that which is tantamount to a judgment ; we of course 
 arrive at no knowledge of the organisation of the judgment, 
 but we allow of the reaKty of a future state of things to be de- 
 termined by the deeds of tliis present life ; that is, we do in fact 
 confess a judgment. 
 
 Note 43. 
 
 I observe, that I have here adopted a form of expression 
 used by Pi-ofessor Sedgwick, who says, " Is it not notorious, that 
 scoffing men, reasoning on like grounds and with like fallacy, have 
 impugned the benevolence of God, — have profanely dared to en- 
 tangle the great First Cause in a dilemma ; pretending to prove, 
 from the misery and desolation they saw arotmd them, that He 
 either wanted goodness or wanted power."* 
 
 Note 44. 
 
 There are some veiy valuable remarks on the effects of 
 mathematical study, in a paper presented by INIr R. L. Ellis to 
 the Cambridge University Commission. I shall probably be 
 
 ^ Discourse oil the S/iulieg of (he Uniirmili/, p. 6i. 
 
Notts. 261 
 
 doing good service by exhuming a few of them from the centre 
 of a parliamentary Blue-Book. Speaking of the gTounds, upon 
 which " the study of mathematics is made to form pai-t of our 
 system of education," Mr. Ellis observes : 
 
 " The grounds are twofold : mathematics are studied as 
 an aitxiliary to natural philosophy, and as a means of training 
 and developing the mind. In the latter point of view they 
 are chiefly valuable, because they deal with necessary and not 
 contingent truth. Of eveiy necessarily true proposition which 
 the mind distinctly apprehends as such, the conti-adiction is seen 
 to be inconceivable ; this inconceivableness of the contrary being 
 ex parte mentis the criterion of necessary truth. Nevertheless, 
 although when we think of any simple proposition in arithmetic 
 or geometry, we perceive not merely that it is true, but that it 
 must of necessity be so, this is nowise the case with respect to 
 all demonstrated or demonstrable results. The intuition, so to 
 speak, of the ablest mathematician is confined within a narrower 
 circle than that of the truths which he can prove. He may 
 satisfy liimself of the cogency of each step of the demonstration, 
 and yet the essence of the conclusion — ^the fimdamental principle 
 of its truth — remains unseen. The on is manifest, but the Iioti 
 obscure ; and consequently a proposition, contradictory to that 
 to which he has been led, does not appear to him as an absui-dity, 
 but simply as an imtruth. It might, for what he sees, have been 
 true, though he knows that actually it is not ; and thus while he 
 is aware that his conclusion is true necessarily, yet still it seems 
 as if it were so only contingently and as a matter of fact, the 
 demonstration appearing assensum constringere, non rem. In a 
 word, his conception of the matter is still imperfect. But 
 between this state of mind and that which is produced by the 
 contemplation of any elementary proposition, there is no fixed 
 or definite boundary. Every one, who has ideally studied mathe- 
 matics, must remember cases in which, after long and patient 
 thought, the reason of the truth of a proposition, with the 
 demonstration of which he may have been acquainted for years, 
 has seemed to dawn on him ; the proposition thenceforth becom- 
 ing as it were, a part of his own mind, — a matter concerning 
 which he is no more capable of doubting, than about the pri- 
 mary conceptions of form and magnitude. The mind thus 
 brought into nearer, if not immediate, contact with necessary 
 truth, is conscious of its own development ; and herein, I believe. 
 
2G2 Notes. 
 
 resides the special benefit to be derived from' the study of 
 mathematics, a benefit, that is, distinct from the exercise of 
 patience and attention which it undoubtedly requires, but which 
 is requii-ed also in other pursuits. The study of mathematics is 
 especially valuable, not because it gives the student practice in 
 ratiocination, but because it enlarges the sphere of his intuition, 
 by giving him distinct and conscious possession of truths which 
 lay hid in his conceptions of figure, number, and the like. But 
 in order to this kind of mental development, it is necessary not 
 only that the student should master the successive steps of the 
 demonsti-ations set before him and retain them in^ his memory, 
 but that his mind should become imbued with their spirit and 
 essence. His real progress therefore is not to be measured 
 simply by the extent of ground over which he has passed : it 
 varies also according to the degree in which he has approached 
 towards a complete intuition into the i-esults which he is able 
 to prove." 
 
 Leibnitz says of Mathematics : 
 
 On ne doit point s'etonner que je tache d'eclaircir ces choses 
 par des comparaisons prises des mathematiques pures, ou tout va 
 dans I'ordre, et ou il y a moyen de Jes demeler par une medita- 
 tion exacte, qui nous fait jouir, pour ainsi dire, de la vue des 
 idees de Dieu} 
 
 Note 45. 
 
 I allude chiefly to Professor Sedgwick's Discourse on the 
 Studies of tlie University, to which reference has been made 
 before, and wliich in its last edition, preceded by a copious 
 preface and followed by equally copious notes, is a repertory 
 of valuable thought which ought to be in the hands of every 
 Cambridge man. 
 
 Note 46. 
 
 I may refer for such speculations to Dr Buckland's Bridge- 
 water Treatise, Chap. ii. : ^ Simmer's Records of Creation : 
 Dr J. Pye Smith's Relation between the Holy Scriptures and 
 some parts of Geological Science. 
 
 Philo says of Moses : Tt]v yevea-iv dveypaxlre, nd\n a-envdv 
 Oeo\oyrj<Ta^.^ 
 
 1 Tkeodicec, § 242. '■^ Be Muadi Opif. 
 
Notes. 263 
 
 Note 47. 
 
 Take for example the amount of knowledge of the cosmos 
 contained in the second and third sections of Newton's Prin- 
 cipia ; these may be said to contain the firstfrnits, and only the 
 firstfruits, of the abimdant harvest which will reward the 
 patience of a man, who has toiled thus far in the path of exact 
 science. But even if a student go no further, what a very 
 sterling treasure is this which he has found already ! To know 
 Kepler's laws as the result of observation, and then to find 
 them all linked together and resulting from simple geometrical 
 and mechanical principles, is truly to know something of the 
 wonders of God's handiwork ; and it ought to be observed, in 
 the first place, that this knowledge is altogether diffei-ent in 
 kind from any that can be acquired from popular books giving 
 the results of investigations, and in the second place, that the 
 knowledge is within the reach of men of average abilities, with 
 average opportunities of improving them. 
 
 Note 48. 
 
 See Mr Newman's very striking Sermon, entitled The Fhi- 
 losophical Temper, first enjoined in the Gospel, being the first 
 in his volume of University Sermons. 
 
 Note 49. 
 
 I remember hearing the late Dr Mill express himself to the 
 efiect desciibed in the paragraph to which this note is appended, 
 but have been unable to find the passage in his published 
 Sermons. The argument, however, is given in the conclusion 
 of Note B on Sermon lY. of those preached in Advent and 
 Chi'istmas-tide, 1846. " In the view of those who have gone 
 out from us," wrote DrMill, "and who evince a disposition 
 very difierent from that of the best Roman Catholics upon 
 such matters, there is no reason why these contradictions to 
 primitive antiquity [the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary and of S. John] should not be accepted as legitimate 
 developments of doctrine ; or why the verity of S. John's 
 assumption should not be considered even as a logical deduction 
 from that of her, to whom the Divine Word had made him 
 
264 Notes. 
 
 a son. Such proceedings were worthy of those, who contend 
 earnestly that what was no part of the original deposit of 
 faith, may be made such at the present or any future time : 
 and who, as the most decisive example of this, anticipate 
 with undisguised pleasure the coming sanction, as an ai^ticle of 
 faith, of the Virgin Maiy's conception without sin. From that 
 moment it seems that it will be heresy to adopt the sentiments 
 and arguments of S. Bernai'd and S. Thomas Aquinas on that 
 matter ; and the Catholic world will be called on to surrender 
 and deny, on the pain of anathema, what all the Fathers of 
 the Church esteemed the Blessed Vii-gin's incommunicable and 
 most sacred prerogative, that of the sole immaculate Maternity; 
 to declare that it was shared by the Virgin's wedded mother ; 
 and why not eventually by her mother also, and the mother of 
 Joachim, and so on without limit 1 For who can set any limit 
 to the development of presumptuous disquisition on the text, 
 that to educe a clean thing from an unclean is impossible 1 " 
 
 Note 50. 
 
 The paragraphs which follow contain part of the substance 
 of a sermon preached by me in Great S. Mary's Church, on the 
 occasion of the Meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science, in June, 1845. In that sermon I said, 
 " that he who feels practically the want of some light upon the 
 mystery of his being will find it most easily by meditating on 
 the Life of oiu' Lord, and that the best guide to the Philosophy 
 of Life is the Creed of the Catholic Cluu-ch;" those who think 
 thus will consider, that the subject touched upon in the para- 
 graphs refen-ed to is one, upon which too much thought can 
 hardly be expended. 
 
 Note 51. 
 This matter has already been referred to in Note 3 ; which 
 
 see. 
 
 I have in Note 29 illustrated the danger of a priori the- 
 ories of Inspiration by reference to a proposal made in the 
 article Qhrmiides, in ^y^^^o\ Cyclopaedia of BVolical LiteraUcre, 
 to produce an apparent uniformity of statement in difierent his- 
 torical books of the Bible by alterations without MS. authority. 
 
Notes. 265 
 
 Facts of this kind may also be alleged, in illustration of the 
 danger arising from even an apparent deviation from the great 
 highroad of truth. With the same view we may also here again 
 refer to the same article. In combating the difficulty which 
 attaches to the supposition of Ezra having been the author of 
 the Books of Chronicles, arising from the fact of the genealogy 
 of Zerubbabel being brought down to a pei'iod later than that of 
 Ezra, the writer remarks, "was it not possible, however, for 
 Ezra to write the portion in question 1 if he was inspired, as 
 we believe, is there aught to forbid the suj^position that such 
 knowledge was directly communicated to him ? The fact of his 
 inspiration is quite sufficient to account for his recording the 
 genealogy of Zerubbabel." On behalf of such a view the 
 writer might no doubt quote S. Augustine, who maintained the 
 notion of the Psalms having been all written by David, not- 
 withstanding similar chi'onological difficulties. "Nee movere 
 debet ad hoc non credendum, quod nonnullorum nomina Pro- 
 phetarum, qui longe post David regis temj^ora fuerunt, quibus- 
 dam psalmis in eo libro leguntur inscripta ; et quae ibi dicuntur 
 velut ab eis dici videntiu*. Neque enim non potuit propheticus 
 Spiritus pi'ophetanti regi David hsec etiam futiu-orum Prophe- 
 tarum nomina revelare, ut aliquid, quod eorum personte con- 
 veniret, prophetice cantaretur." ^ The fact however of Augustine 
 having used such an argument seems to me only an illustration 
 of what I have said in Lecture V. (p. SO), namely, that the 
 peculiar difficulties of the doctrine of Inspiration arLse from the 
 habits of modern thought ; and I feel convinced that nothing 
 can be more mischievous, than to render all criticism of the 
 Sacred Writings impossible, (which is the necessary result,) by 
 this summaiy mode of dealing with difficulties. 
 
 With regard to the extravagant views, to which men may be 
 driven by zeal for the truth of Revelation, see Notes C and E 
 in the Appendix to Prof. Sedgwick's Discourse. 
 
 Note 52. 
 
 In writing this sentence I had in my mind a passage in a 
 speech of M. de Montalembert, in the French A ssembly, on the 
 education question (reported in the Guardian of January 23, 
 1850). Speaking of scepticism, M. de Montalembert said, 
 
 1 De Civ. Dei, Lib. xvii. Cap. xiv. 
 
266 Notes. 
 
 "Messieurs, cruyez bieu que je suis a luille lieues de vouloir 
 poursuivre le scepticisme dans le seci-et des jimes — rien n'est plus 
 loin de ma pensee. Quaiid je me trouve en presence de ces 
 S.mes ravagees, je m'incline avee une sorte de respect, si je puis 
 employer ce mot, comme devant une grande infortune ou devant 
 une grande indigence." 
 
 END OF THE NOTES. 
 
 CAMBRIDGK: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
Theological Sem.nary-Speer 
 
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