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diff --git a/44795-h/44795-h.htm b/44795-h/44795-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9183c29 --- /dev/null +++ b/44795-h/44795-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,21750 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <!--utf-8 adopted to render Greek--> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of + Aids to Reflection and + the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, + by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. + </title> + + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .5em; text-indent: 1em; + text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .5em; + line-height: 125%; } /* allow room for fn anchors */ + + h1 {text-align: center; font-weight: normal; + clear: both; line-height: 200%; font-size: 200%; } + h1 span.small {font-size: 90%; } + h1 span.x-small {font-size: 50%; 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} + .tbl th {text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: small; } + .tbl tr.gap {height: 2em; } + .tbl td {vertical-align: top; padding-left: 0.5em; + padding-right: 0.5em; } + + /* style for page numbers */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: small; text-align: right; } + .pagenum-hide {visibility:hidden; position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: small; text-align: right; } + + /* styles for font dropcaps */ + p.dropcap {text-indent: 0; } + p.dropcap:first-letter {float: left; margin: 0.1em 0.1em 0 0; + font-size: 250%; line-height: 1em; } + + /* styles for poems */ + .poem {margin-left:5%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; } + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; } + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; } + + /* styles for index */ + div.index {font-size: 90%; margin-left: -2em; } + ul {list-style-type: none; font-size: inherit;} + li {margin-top: 0; margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; } + + /* styles for footnotes; fnanchor styled to fit within line height */ + .fnanchor {vertical-align: 0.3em; font-size: small; font-style: normal; } + .footnote {margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%; margin-top: 2em; font-size: 95%; } + + /* misc styles */ + .topgap {margin-top: 2em; } + .low {vertical-align: -0.4em; } + .nodent {text-indent: 0; } + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps; } + .right {text-align: right; } + .center {text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .center-small {text-align: center; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .smallcond {font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; } + .break-before {page-break-before: always; } + + /* alternative styles for handheld devices */ + @media handheld { + p.dropcap:first-letter {float: none; margin: 0; font-size: 100%; } + } + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44795 ***</div> + +<div class="tnote"> + +<p>Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p>The "Aphorisms on that which is indeed Spiritual Religion" extend from +p. 102 to p. 241. They are interspersed with other material that is +listed in the Table of Contents. In addition some of the Aphorisms are +listed separately in the Table. It has been modified to clarify this.</p> + +<p>Biblical references have been standardised on one of the more common +formats, viz. "1 John iv. 5.".</p> + +<p>There are extensive footnotes that can extend over several pages. +Where a topic in the index refers to material in a footnote, the page +reference refers to the original position of that material and may +differ from its position in this text.</p> + +<p>The Erratum has been incorporated in the text.</p> + +<p>Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, although +inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained.</p> + +<p>Greek accents have been omitted though rough-breathing marks have +been retained.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="break-before"> + +<h1>AIDS TO REFLECTION<br /> +<span class="x-small">AND</span><br /> +<span class="small">THE CONFESSIONS OF AN<br />INQUIRING SPIRIT.</span></h1> + +<div class="frontm"> + +<p><span class="small">BY</span><br /> +SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.</p> + +<p><span class="small">TO WHICH ARE ADDED</span><br /> +HIS ESSAYS ON FAITH AND THE BOOK OF<br /> +COMMON PRAYER, ETC.</p> + +<p class="small"><i>NEW EDITION, REVISED.</i></p> + +<p class="small">LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,<br /> +COVENT GARDEN.<br /> +1884.</p> + +<p class="small">CHISWICK PRESS: C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,<br /> +CHANCERY LANE.</p> + +</div> +</div> + +<h2>NOTE TO THIS EDITION.</h2> + +<p class="nodent"><span class="smcap">The</span> present re-print of +the 'Aids to Reflection' is mainly from +Mr. H. N. Coleridge's, or the fourth edition. In some points, +however, the earlier editions, which have been carefully consulted +throughout, have been followed.</p> + +<p>Dr. Marsh's Preliminary Essay to the 'Aids to Reflection' is +printed from his own second edition, published with the 'Aids' at +Burlington, U.S., in 1840.</p> + +<p>Coleridge's posthumous 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit' is +from Mr. H. N. Coleridge's text, which was printed from the +author's MS.</p> + +<p>The 'Essay on Faith' and 'Notes on the Book of Common +Prayer' are re-printed from Coleridge's 'Remains,' as being, +possibly, parts of the "supplementary volume" to the 'Aids to +Reflection,' which the author contemplated (<i>vide</i> p. 257) but never +published. The 'Nightly Prayer' is also re-printed from +Coleridge's 'Remains.'</p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table id="toc" summary="table of contents"> +<tr><th> </th> + <th></th> + <th>PAGE</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">Aids to Reflection</span>:</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Author's Original Title-page, 1825</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Mr. H. N. Coleridge's Advertisement to the Fourth Edition</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Author's Address to the Reader</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Author's Preface and Advertisement</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_xv">xv</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Dr. Marsh's Preliminary Essay</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_xxiii">xxiii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Introductory Aphorisms</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On Sensibility</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Prudential Aphorisms</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Moral and Religious Aphorisms</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Elements of Religious Philosophy</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Aphorisms on that which is indeed Spiritual Religion</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On the Difference in kind of Reason and the + Understanding (after Aphorism VIII.)</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On Instinct in Connection with the Understanding + (in Comment on Aphorism IX.)</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On Original Sin (Aphorism X.)</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Paley not a Moralist (Aphorism XII.)</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On Redemption (in Comment on Aphorism XIX.)</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">On Baptism</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Conclusion</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Appendix A: Summary of the Argument on Reason and the Understanding</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Appendix B: On Instinct; by Prof. J. H. Green</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">Confessions of an +Inquiring Spirit</span>: Letters on the Inspiration of the +Scriptures</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">The Pentad of Operative Christianity</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Questions as to the Divine Origin of the Bible</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter I.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter II.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter III.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter IV.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter V.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter VI.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td class="name">Letter VII.</td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">Essay on Faith</span></td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">Notes on the Book of Common Prayer</span></td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">A Nightly Prayer</span></td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_360">360</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="name"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td> + <td class="page"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">{ix}</a></span></p> + +<div class="break-before"> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p class="small">[<i>ORIGINAL TITLE-PAGE, 1825.</i>]</p> +</div> + +<h2>AIDS TO REFLECTION<br /> +<span class="x-small">IN THE</span><br /> +<span class="small">FORMATION OF A MANLY CHARACTER,</span><br /> +<span class="x-small">ON THE SEVERAL GROUNDS OF</span><br /> +<span class="small">PRUDENCE, MORALITY, AND RELIGION.</span></h2> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p><span class="small">ILLUSTRATED BY</span><br /> +SELECT PASSAGES FROM OUR ELDER DIVINES,<br /> +ESPECIALLY FROM ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.</p> +<p>By S. T. COLERIDGE.</p> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">This makes, that whatsoever here befalls,</span> +<span class="i2">You in the region of yourself remain,</span> +<span class="i2">Neighb'ring on Heaven: and that no foreign land.</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><span class="smcap">Daniel.</span></span> +</div> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">{xi}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.</h3> + +<p class="center">[BY HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE.]</p> + +<p class="dropcap">THIS corrected Edition of the Aids to Reflection is +commended to Christian readers, in the hope and +the trust that the power which the book has already exercised +over hundreds, it may, by God's furtherance, hereafter +exercise over thousands. No age, since Christianity +had a name, has more pointedly needed the mental discipline +taught in this work than that in which we now +live; when, in the Author's own words, all the great ideas +or verities of religion seem in danger of being condensed +into idols, or evaporated into metaphors. Between the +encroachments, on the one hand, of those who so magnify +means that they practically impeach the supremacy of the +ends which those means were meant to subserve; and of +those, on the other hand, who, engrossed in the contemplation +of the great Redemptive Act, rashly disregard or +depreciate the appointed ordinances of grace;—between +those who, confounding the sensuous Understanding, varying +in every individual, with the universal Reason, the +image of God, the same in all men, inculcate a so-called +faith, having no demonstrated harmony with the attributes +of God, or the essential laws of humanity, and being sometimes +inconsistent with both; and those again who requiring +a logical proof of that which, though not contradicting, +does in its very kind, transcend, our reason, +virtually deny the existence of true faith altogether;—between +these almost equal enemies of the truth, Coleridge,—in +all his works, but pre-eminently in this—has kindled +an inextinguishable beacon of warning and of guidance. +In so doing, he has taken his stand on the sure word of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">{xii}</a></span> +Scripture, and is supported by the authority of almost +every one of our great divines, before the prevalence of +that system of philosophy, (Locke's,) which no consistent +reasoner can possibly reconcile with the undoubted meaning +of the Articles and Formularies of the English +Church:—</p> + +<p class="center"><i>In causaque valet, causamque juvantibus armis.</i></p> + +<p>The Editor had intended to offer to the reader a few +words by way of introduction to some of the leading points +of philosophy contained in this Volume. But he has been +delighted to find the work already done to his hand, in a +manner superior to anything he could have hoped to +accomplish himself, by an affectionate disciple of Coleridge +on the other side of the Atlantic. The following Essay +was written by the Rev. James Marsh, President of the +University of Vermont, United States of America, and +prefixed by him to his Edition of the Aids to Reflection, +published at Burlington in 1829. The Editor has printed +this Essay entire;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_1" id="Ref_1" href="#Foot_1">[1]</a></span> +—as well out of respect for its author, +as believing that the few paragraphs in it having a more +special reference to the state of opinion in America, will +not be altogether without an interest of their own to the +attentive observers of the progress of Truth in this or any +other country.</p> + +<p>Lincoln's Inn, 25th April, 1839.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_1" id="Foot_1" href="#Ref_1">[1]</a> +See pp. xxiii-lxxvi. Mr. H. N. Coleridge gave the first edition of +Dr. Marsh's Essay. The reader has in the present volume the essay +as it appeared in its second and revised edition, 1840.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">{xiii}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE READER.</h3> + +<p class="dropcap">FELLOW-CHRISTIAN! the wish to be admired as a +fine writer held a very subordinate place in my +thoughts and feelings in the composition of this volume. +Let then its comparative merits and demerits, in respect +of style and stimulancy, possess a proportional weight, +and no more, in determining your judgment for or against +its contents. Read it <i>through</i>: then compare the state of +your mind, with the state in which your mind was, when +you first opened the book. Has it led you to reflect? Has +it supplied or suggested fresh subjects for reflection? +Has it given you any new information? Has it removed +any obstacle to a lively conviction of your responsibility as +a moral agent? Has it solved any difficulties, which had +impeded your faith as a Christian? Lastly, has it increased +your power of thinking connectedly? Especially +on the Scheme and purpose of the Redemption by Christ? +If it have done none of these things, condemn it aloud as +worthless: and strive to compensate for your own loss of +time, by preventing others from wasting theirs. But if +your conscience dictates an affirmative answer to all or any +of the preceding questions, declare this too aloud, and +endeavour to extend my utility.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_2" id="Ref_2" href="#Foot_2">[2]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_2" id="Foot_2" href="#Ref_2">[2]</a> +In the place of this Address the first edition, 1825, had the Advertisement +which we now print at the end of the Author's Preface, p. xix.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="topgap"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">{xiv}</a></span></p> + +<div class="break-before"> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2"><span title="Outôs panta pros heautên epagousa, kai +sunêthroismenê psuchê">Ουτως παντα προς ἑαυτην επαγουσα, και +συνηθροισμενη ψυχη</span>,</span> +<span class="i2"><span title="autê eis hautên, raista kai mala bebaiôs +makarizetai">αυτη εις αὑτην, ραιστα και μαλα βεβαιως +μακαριζεται</span>.</span> +</div> + +<p class="center">MARINUS.</p> + +<p><i>Omnis divinæ atque humanæ eruditionis elementa tria, Nosse, Velle, +Posse; quorum principium unum Mens; cujus oculus Ratio; cui lumen +* * præbet Deus.</i></p> + +<p class="center">VICO.</p> + +<p><i>Naturam hominis hanc Deus ipse voluit, ut duarum rerum cupidus et +appetens esset, religionis et sapientiæ. Sed homines ideo falluntur, quod +aut religionem suscipiunt omissa sapientia; aut sapientiæ soli student +omissa religione; cum alterum sine altero esse non possit verum.</i></p> + +<p class="center">LACTANTIUS.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">{xv}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.</h3> + +<p class="dropcap">AN Author has three points to settle: to what sort his +work belongs, for what description of readers it is +intended, and the specific end, or object, which it is to +answer. There is indeed a preliminary question respecting +the end which the writer himself has in view, +whether the number of purchasers, or the benefit of the +readers. But this may be safely passed by; since where +the book itself or the known principles of the writer do +not supersede the question, there will seldom be sufficient +strength of character for good or for evil, to afford +much chance of its being either distinctly put or fairly +answered.</p> + +<p>I shall proceed therefore to state as briefly as possible +the intentions of the present volume in reference to the +three first-mentioned points, viz. <i>What?</i> For <i>Whom?</i> and +<i>For</i> what?</p> + +<p>I. <span class="smcap">What?</span> The answer is contained in the title-page.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_3" id="Ref_3" href="#Foot_3">[3]</a></span> +It belongs to the class of <i>didactic</i> works. Consequently, +those who neither wish <i>instruction</i> for themselves, nor +assistance in instructing others, have no interest in its +contents. <i>Sis sus, sis Divus: sum caltha, et non tibi spiro.</i></p> + +<p>II. <span class="smcap">For whom?</span> <i>Generally</i>, for as many in all classes as +wish for aid in disciplining their minds to habits of +reflection—for all who, desirous of building up a manly +character in the light of distinct consciousness, are content +to study the principles of moral architecture on the several +grounds of prudence, morality, and religion. And lastly, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">{xvi}</a></span> +for all who feel an interest in the Position, I have undertaken +to defend—this, namely, that the <span class="smcap">Christian Faith</span> +(<i>in which I include every article of belief and doctrine professed +by the first Reformers in common</i>)<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_4" id="Ref_4" href="#Foot_4">[4]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">is the Perfection +of Human Intelligence</span>,—an interest sufficiently strong to +insure a patient attention to the arguments brought in its +support.</p> + +<p>But if I am to mention any particular class or description +of readers, that were prominent in my thought during +the composition of the volume, my reply must be; that it +was <i>especially</i> designed for the studious Young at the close +of their education or on their first entrance into the duties +of manhood and the rights of self-government. And of +these, again, in thought and wish I destined the work (the +latter and larger portion, at least) yet more particularly to +Students intended for the Ministry; <i>first</i>, as in duty bound, +to the members of our two Universities: <i>secondly</i>, (but +only in respect of this mental precedency <i>second</i>) to all +alike of whatever name, who have dedicated their future +lives to the cultivation of their race, as Pastors, Preachers, +Missionaries, or Instructors of Youth.</p> + +<p>III. <span class="smcap">For what?</span> The worth of an author is estimated +by the ends, the attainment of which he proposed to himself +by the particular work; while the value of the work +depends on its fitness, as the Means. The objects of the +present volume are the following, arranged in the order of +their comparative importance.</p> + +<p>1. To direct the reader's attention to the value of the +Science of Words, their use and abuse (see <i>Note, p. 5</i>) and +the incalculable advantages attached to the habit of using +them appropriately, and with a distinct knowledge of their +primary, derivative, and metaphorical senses. And in +furtherance of this Object I have neglected no occasion of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">{xvii}</a></span> +enforcing the maxim, that to expose a sophism and to +detect the equivocal or double meaning of a word is, in the +great majority of cases, one and the same thing. Horne +Tooke entitled his celebrated work, "<span title="Epea pteroenta">Επεα πτεροεντα</span>, Winged +Words": or Language, not only the <i>Vehicle</i> of Thought but +the <i>Wheels</i>. With my convictions and views, for <span title="pea">πεα</span> I +should substitute <span title="logoi">λογοι</span>, that is, Words +<i>select</i> and <i>determinate</i>, +and for <span title="pteroenta zôontes">πτεροεντα ζωοντες</span>, that +is, <i>living</i> Words. The +<i>Wheels</i> of the Intellect I admit them to be; but such as +Ezekiel beheld in <i>the visions of God</i> as he sate among the +captives by the river of Chebar. <i>Whithersoever the Spirit +was to go, the wheels went, and thither was their Spirit to go: +for the Spirit of the living creature was in the wheels also.</i></p> + +<p>2. To establish the <i>distinct</i> characters of Prudence, +Morality, and Religion: and to impress the conviction, +that though the second requires the first, and the third +contains and supposes both the former; yet still Moral +Goodness is other and more than Prudence, or the Principle +of Expediency; and Religion more and higher +than Morality. For this distinction the better schools +even of Pagan Philosophy contended. (<i>See pp. 20 21.</i>)</p> + +<p>3. To substantiate and set forth at large the momentous +distinction between Reason and Understanding. Whatever +is achievable by the Understanding for the purposes of +worldly interest, private or public, has in the present age +been pursued with an activity and a success beyond all +former experience, and to an extent which equally demands +my admiration and excites my wonder. But likewise it +is, and long has been, my conviction, that in no age since +the first dawning of Science and Philosophy in this island +have the truths, interests, and studies that especially +belong to the Reason, contemplative or practical, sunk into +such utter neglect, not to say contempt, as during the last +century. It is therefore one main object of this volume +to establish the position, that whoever transfers to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">{xviii}</a></span> +Understanding the primacy due to the Reason, loses the +one and spoils the other.</p> + +<p>4. To exhibit a full and consistent Scheme of the Christian +Dispensation, and more largely of all the <i>peculiar</i> +doctrines of the Christian Faith; and to answer all the +objections to the same, which do not originate in a corrupt +Will rather than an erring Judgment; and to do this in +a manner intelligible for all who, possessing the ordinary +advantages of education, do in good earnest desire to form +their religious creed in the light of their own convictions, +and to have a reason for the faith which they profess. +There are indeed Mysteries, in evidence of which no reasons +can be brought. But it has been my endeavour to show, +that the true solution of this problem is, that these Mysteries +<i>are</i> Reason, Reason in its highest form of Self-affirmation.</p> + +<p>Such are the special Objects of these "Aids to Reflection." +Concerning the general character of the work, let +me be permitted to add the few following sentences. St. +Augustine, in one of his Sermons, discoursing on a high +point of theology, tells his auditors—<i>Sic accipite, ut +mereamini intelligere. Fides enim debet præcedere intellectum, +ut sit intellectus fidei præmium.</i> Now without a +certain portion of gratuitous and (as it were) <i>experimentative</i> +faith in the writer, a reader will scarcely give that +degree of continued attention, without which no <i>didactic</i> +work worth reading can be read to any wise or profitable +purpose. In <i>this</i> sense, therefore, and to <i>this</i> extent, <i>every</i> +author, who is competent to the office he has undertaken, +may without arrogance repeat St. Augustine's words in +his own right, and advance a similar claim on similar +grounds. But I venture no further than to imitate the +sentiment at a humble distance, by avowing my belief that +he who seeks <i>instruction</i> in the following pages, will not +fail to find <i>entertainment</i> likewise; but that whoever seeks +entertainment only will find neither.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">{xix}</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Reader!</span>—You have been bred in a land abounding with +men, able in arts, learning, and knowledges manifold, this +man in one, this in another, few in many, none in all. But +there is one art, of which every man should be master, the +art of <span class="smcap">reflection</span>. If you are not a <i>thinking</i> man, to what +purpose are you a <i>man</i> at all? In like manner, there is one +knowledge, which it is every man's interest and duty to +acquire, namely, <span class="smcap">self-knowledge</span>: or to what end was man +alone, of all animals, endued by the Creator with the faculty +of <i>self-consciousness</i>? Truly said the Pagan moralist, <i>e cælo +descendit</i>, <span title="Gnôthi seauton">Γνωθι σεαυτον</span>.</p> + +<p>But you are likewise born in a <span class="smcap">christian</span> land: and +Revelation has provided for you new subjects for reflection, +and new treasures of knowledge, never to be unlocked by +him who remains self-ignorant. Self-knowledge is the key +to this casket; and by reflection alone can it be obtained. +Reflect on your own thoughts, actions, circumstances, and—which +will be of especial aid to you in forming a <i>habit</i> of +reflection,—accustom yourself to reflect on the words you +use, hear, or read, their birth, derivation and history. For +if words are not <span class="smcap">things</span>, they are <span +class="smcap">living powers</span>, by which +the things of most importance to mankind are actuated, +combined, and humanized. Finally, by reflection you may +draw from the fleeting facts of your worldly trade, art, or +profession, a science permanent as your immortal soul; +and make even these subsidiary and preparative to the +reception of spiritual truth, "doing as the dyers do, who +having first dipt their silks in colours of less value, then +give them the last tincture of crimson in grain."</p> + +<div class="smallcond"> + +<p>[<span class="smcap">Advertisement.</span><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_5" id="Ref_5" href="#Foot_5">[5]</a></span> +—In the bodies of several species of animals +there are found certain parts of which neither the office, the +functions, nor the relations could be ascertained by the Comparative +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">{xx}</a></span> +Anatomist till he had become acquainted with the +state of the animal before birth. Something sufficiently like +this (for the purpose of an illustration at least) applies to the +work here offered to the public. In the introductory portion +there occur several passages, which the reader will be puzzled to +decipher, without some information respecting the original +design of the volume, and the changes it has undergone during +its immature and embryonic state. On this account only, I +think myself bound to make it known, that the work was +begun as a mere selection from the Writings of Archbishop +Leighton, under the usual title of "The Beauties of Archbishop +Leighton," with a few notes and a biographical preface by the +Selector. Hence the term <i>Editor</i>, subscribed to the notes, and +prefixed, alone or conjointly to the Aphorisms, according as the +passage was written entirely by myself, or only modified and +(<i>avowedly</i>) interpolated.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_6" id="Ref_6" href="#Foot_6">[6]</a></span> +I continued the use of the word on +the plea of uniformity; though, like most other deviations from +propriety of language, it would, probably, have been a wiser +choice to have omitted or exchanged it. The various Reflections, +however, that pressed on me while I was considering the motives +for selecting this or that passage; the desire for enforcing, and +as it were entegrating, the truths contained in the original +author, by adding those which the words suggested or recalled +to my own mind; the conversations with men of eminence in +the literary and religious circles, occasioned by the objects which +I had in view; and, lastly, the increasing disproportion of the +Commentary to the Text, and the too marked difference in the +frame, character, and colours of the two styles; soon induced +me to recognize and adopt a revolution in my plan and object, +which had in fact actually taken place without my intention, +and almost unawares. It would indeed be more correct to say, +that the present volume owed its accidental origin to the intention +of compiling one of a different description than to speak of +it as the same work. It is not a change in the child, but a +changeling.</p> + +<p>Still, however, the selections from Leighton, which will be +found in the Prudential and Moral sections of this work, and +which I could retain consistently with its present form and +matter, will both from the intrinsic excellence and from the +characteristic beauty of the passages, suffice to answer two +prominent purposes of the original plan, that of placing in a clear +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">{xxi}</a></span> +light the principle which pervades all Leighton's writings—his +sublime view, I mean, of Religion and Morality as the means of +reforming the human Soul in the Divine Image (<i>Idea</i>); and that +of exciting an interest in the works, and an affectionate reverence +for the name and memory of this severely tried and truly primitive +Churchman.</p> + +<p class="right">S. T. C.]</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_3" id="Foot_3" href="#Ref_3">[3]</a> +Coleridge's original title-page, viz., that to the 1825 edition, is given +at p. ix. That edition bore the imprint of Taylor and Hessey, 93, +Fleet Street, and 13, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_4" id="Foot_4" href="#Ref_4">[4]</a> +This parenthesis was in editions one to three, but was dropped out +of the fourth.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_5" id="Foot_5" href="#Ref_5">[5]</a> +Coleridge's advertisement to the first edition, 1825. It has been +omitted since, until now.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_6" id="Foot_6" href="#Ref_6">[6]</a> +In the first edition the Aphorisms were superscribed "Leighton," +&c., when selected, and "Editor" when by Coleridge himself. Some +later editions excluded these useful headings. We revert to the author's +first plan, substituting the name Coleridge for "Editor."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">{xxiii}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">PRELIMINARY ESSAY.</h3> + +<p class="center">BY THE REV. JAMES MARSH.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_7" id="Ref_7" href="#Foot_7">[7]</a></span></p> + +<p class="dropcap">WHETHER the present state of religions feeling, and +the prevailing topics of theological inquiry among us, +are particularly favourable to the success of the Work herewith +offered to the Public can be determined only by the result. +The question, however, has not been left unconsidered; +and however that may be, it is not a work, the value of +which depends essentially upon its relation to the passing +controversies of the day. Unless I distrust my own feelings +and convictions altogether, I must suppose, that for some, +I hope for many, minds, it will have a deep and enduring +interest. Of those classes, for whose use it is more especially +designated in the Author's Preface, I trust there are many +also in this country, who will justly appreciate the objects +at which it aims, and avail themselves of its instruction and +assistance. I could wish it might be received, by all who +concern themselves in religious inquiries and instruction +especially, in the spirit which seems to me to have animated +its great and admirable author; and I hesitate not to say, +that to all of every class, who shall so receive it, and peruse +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">{xxiv}</a></span> +it with the attention and thoughtfulness, which it demands +and deserves, it will be found by experience to furnish, what +its title imports, "<span class="smcap">Aids to Reflection</span>" on subjects, upon +which every man is bound to reflect deeply and in earnest.</p> + +<p>What the specific objects of the Work are, and for whom +it is written, may be learned in a few words from the +Preface of the Author. From this, too, it will be seen to +be professedly didactic. It is designed to aid those who +wish for instruction, or assistance in the instruction of +others. The plan and composition of the Work will to +most readers probably appear somewhat anomalous; but +reflection upon the nature of the objects aimed at, and some +little experience of its results, may convince them that the +method adopted is not without its advantages. It is important +to observe, that it is designed, as its general +characteristic, to aid <span class="smcap">reflection</span>, and for the most part +upon subjects which can be learned and understood only +by the exercise of reflection in the strict and proper sense of +that term. It was not so much to teach a speculative +system of doctrines built upon established premises, for +which a different method would have been obviously preferable, +as to turn the mind continually back upon the +premises themselves—upon the inherent grounds of truth +and error in its own being. The only way in which it is +possible for any one to learn the science of words, which is +one of the objects to be sought in the present Work, and the +true import of those words especially, which most concern +us as rational and accountable beings, is by reflecting upon +and bringing forth into distinct consciousness, those mental +acts which the words are intended to designate. We must +discover and distinctly apprehend different meanings, before +we can appropriate to each a several word, or understand +the words so appropriated by others. Now it is not too +much to say, that most men, and even a large proportion +of educated men, do not reflect sufficiently upon their own +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">{xxv}</a></span> +inward being, upon the constituent laws of their own +understanding, upon the mysterious powers and agencies +of reason, and conscience, and will, to apprehend with +much distinctness the objects to be named, or of course to +refer the names with correctness to their several objects. +Hence the necessity of associating the study of words with +the study of morals and religion; and that is the most +effectual method of instruction, which enables the teacher +most successfully to fix the attention upon a definite +meaning, that is, in these studies, upon a particular act, or +process, or law of the mind—to call it into distinct consciousness, +and assign to it its proper name, so that the +name shall thenceforth have for the learner a distinct, +definite, and intelligible sense. To impress upon the +reader the importance of this, and to exemplify it in the +particular subjects taken up in the Work, is a leading aim +of the Author throughout; and it is obviously the only +possible way by which we can arrive at any satisfactory and +conclusive results on subjects of philosophy, morals, and +religion. The first principles, the ultimate grounds, of +these, so far as they are possible objects of knowledge for +us, must be sought and found in the laws of our being, or +they are not found at all. The knowledge of these, terminates +in the knowledge of ourselves, of our rational and +personal being, of our proper and distinctive humanity, and +of that Divine Being, in whose image we are created. "We +must retire inward," says St. Bernard, "if we would ascend +upward." It is by self-inspection, by reflecting upon the +mysterious grounds of our own being, that we can alone +arrive at any rational knowledge of the central and absolute +ground of all being. It is by this only, that we can discover +that principle of unity and consistency, which reason instinctively +seeks after, which shall reduce to an harmonious system +all our views of truth and of being, and destitute of which all +the knowledge that comes to us from without is fragmentary, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">{xxvi}</a></span> +and in its relation to our highest interests as rational beings +but the patch-work of vanity.</p> + +<p>Now, of necessity, the only method, by which another can +aid our efforts in the work of reflection, is by first reflecting +himself, and so pointing out the process and marking the +result by words, that we can repeat it, and try the conclusions +by our own consciousness. If he have reflected +aright, if he have excluded all causes of self-deception, and +directed his thoughts by those principles of truth and +reason, and by those laws of the understanding, which +belong in common to all men, his conclusions must be true +for all. We have only to repeat the process, impartially to +reflect ourselves, unbiassed by received opinions, and undeceived +by the idols of our own understandings, and we +shall find the same truths in the depths of our own self-consciousness. +I am persuaded that such, for the most +part, will be found to be the case with regard to the principles +developed in the present Work, and that those who, +with serious reflection and an unbiassed love of truth, will +refer them to the laws of thought in their own minds, to the +requirements of their own reason, will find there a witness +to their truth.</p> + +<p>Viewing the Work in this manner, therefore, as an instructive +and safe guide to the knowledge of what it concerns +all men to know, I cannot but consider it in itself as +a work of great and permanent value to any Christian community. +Whatever indeed tends to awaken and cherish the +power, and to form the habit, of reflection upon the great +constituent principles of our own permanent being and +proper humanity, and upon the abiding laws of truth and +duty, as revealed in our reason and conscience, cannot but +promote our highest interests as moral and rational beings. +Even if the particular conclusions, to which the Author has +arrived, should prove erroneous, the evil is comparatively of +little importance, if he have at the same time communicated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">{xxvii}</a></span> +to our minds such powers of thought, as will enable us to +detect his errors, and attain by our own efforts to a more +perfect knowledge of the truth. That some of his views +may not be erroneous, or that they are to be received on +his authority, the Author, I presume, would be the last to +affirm; and although in the nature of the case it was impossible +for him to aid reflection without anticipating, and +in some measure influencing, the results, yet the primary +tendency and design of the Work is, not to establish this or +that system, but to cultivate in every mind the power and +the will to seek earnestly and steadfastly for the truth in the +only direction, in which it can ever be found. The work is +no further controversial, than every work must be, "that is +writ with freedom and reason" upon subjects of the same +kind; and if it be found at variance with existing opinions +and modes of philosophizing, it is not necessarily to be considered +the fault of the writer.</p> + +<p>In republishing the Work in this country, I could wish +that it might be received by all, for whose instruction it was +designed, simply as a didactic work, on its own merits, and +without controversy. I must not, however, be supposed +ignorant of its bearing upon those questions, which have so +often been, and still are, the prevailing topics of theological +controversy among us. It was indeed incumbent on me, +before inviting the attention of the religious community to +the Work, to consider its relation to existing opinions, and +its probable influence on the progress of truth. This I have +done with as severe thought as I am capable of bestowing +upon any subject, and I trust too with no want of deference +and conscientious regard to the feelings and opinions of +others. I have not attempted to disguise from myself, nor +do I wish to disguise from the readers of the Work, the +inconsistency of some of its leading principles with much +that is taught and received in our theological circles. Should +it gain much of the public attention in any way, it will become, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">{xxviii}</a></span> +as it ought to do, an object of special and deep interest +to all, who would contend for the truth, and labour to +establish it upon a permanent basis. I venture to assure +such, even those of them who are most capable of comprehending +the philosophical grounds of truth in our speculative +systems of theology, that in its relation to this whole +subject they will find it to be a Work of great depth and +power, and, whether right or wrong, eminently deserving +their attention. It is not to be supposed that all who read, +or even all who comprehend it, will be convinced of the +soundness of its views, or be prepared to abandon those +which they have long considered essential to the truth. +To those, whose understandings by long habit have become +limited in their powers of apprehension, and as it were +identified with certain schemes of doctrine, certain modes +of contemplating all that pertains to religious truth, it may +appear novel, strange, and unintelligible, or even dangerous +in its tendency, and be to them an occasion of offence. +But I have no fear that any earnest and single-hearted +lover of the truth as it is in Jesus, who will free his mind +from the idols of preconceived opinion, and give himself +time and opportunity to understand the Work by such +reflection as the nature of the subject renders unavoidable, +will find in it any cause of offence, or any source of alarm. +If the Work become the occasion of controversy at all, I +should expect it from those, who, instead of reflecting +deeply upon the first principles of truth in their own reason +and conscience and in the word of God, are more accustomed +to speculate—that is, from premises given or assumed, +but considered unquestionable, as the constituted +point of observation, to look abroad upon the whole field of +their intellectual vision, and thence to decide upon the true +form and dimensions of all which meets their view. To +such I would say with deference, that the merits of this +Work cannot be determined by the merely relative aspect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">{xxix}</a></span> +of its doctrines, as seen from the high ground of any prevailing +metaphysical or theological system. Those on the +contrary who will seek to comprehend it by reflection, to +learn the true meaning of the whole and of all its parts, by +retiring into their own minds and finding there the true +point of observation for each, will not be in haste to question +the truth or the tendency of its principles. I make +these remarks because I am anxious, as far as may be, to +anticipate the causeless fears of all, who earnestly pray and +labour for the promotion of the truth, and to preclude that +unprofitable controversy, which might arise from hasty or +prejudiced views of a Work like this. At the same time I +should be far from deprecating any discussion which might +tend to unfold more fully the principles which it teaches, +or to exhibit more distinctly its true bearing upon the +interests of theological science and of spiritual religion. It +is to promote this object, indeed, that I am induced in the +remarks which follow to offer some of my own thoughts on +these subjects, imperfect I am well aware, and such as, for +that reason, as well as others, worldly prudence might +require me to suppress. If, however, I may induce reflecting +men, and those who are engaged in theological inquiries +especially, to indulge a suspicion that all truth, which it is +important for them to know, is not contained in the systems +of doctrine usually taught, and that this Work may be +worthy of their serious and reflecting perusal, my chief +object will be accomplished. I shall of course not need to +anticipate in detail the contents of the Work itself, but +shall aim simply to point out what I consider its distinguishing +and essential character and tendency, and then +direct the attention of my readers to some of those general +feelings and views on the subjects of religious truth, and +of those particulars in the prevailing philosophy of the age, +which seem to me to be exerting an injurious influence on +the cause of theological science and of spiritual religion, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">{xxx}</a></span> +and not only to furnish a fit occasion, but to create an +imperious demand, for a Work like that which is here +offered to the public.</p> + +<p>In regard then to the distinguishing character and tendency +of the Work itself, it has already been stated to be +didactic, and designed to aid reflection on the principles +and grounds of truth in our own being; but in another +point of view, and with reference to my present object, it +might rather be denominated <span class="smcap">a philosophical statement +and vindication of the distinctively spiritual and peculiar +doctrines of the christian system</span>. In order to understand +more clearly the import of this statement, and the relation +of the Author's views to those exhibited in other systems, +the reader is requested to examine in the first place, what +he considers the <i>peculiar doctrines of Christianity</i>, and what +he means by the terms <i>spirit</i> and <i>spiritual</i>. A synoptical +view of what he considers peculiar to Christianity as a +revelation is given in Aphorism VII., on Spiritual Religion, +and, if I mistake not, will be found essentially to coincide, +though not perhaps in the language employed, with what +among us are termed the Evangelical doctrines of religion. +Those who are anxious to examine further into the orthodoxy +of the Work in connection with this statement, may consult +the articles on <span class="smcap">original sin</span> and <span +class="smcap">redemption</span>,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_8" id="Ref_8" href="#Foot_8">[8]</a></span> +though I must +forewarn them that it will require much study in connection +with the other parts of the Work, before one unaccustomed +to the Author's language, and unacquainted with his views, +can fully appreciate the merit of what may be peculiar in +his mode of treating those subjects. With regard to the +term <i>spiritual</i>, it may be sufficient to remark here, that he +regards it as having a specific import, and maintains that +in the sense of the New Testament, <i>spiritual</i> and <i>natural</i> +are contradistinguished, so that what is spiritual is different +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">{xxxi}</a></span> +in kind from that which is natural, and is in fact <i>super</i>-natural. +So, too, while morality is something more than +prudence, religion, the spiritual life, is something more +than morality.</p> + +<p>In vindicating the peculiar doctrines of the Christian +system so stated, and a faith in the reality of agencies and +modes of being essentially spiritual or supernatural, he +aims to show their consistency with reason and with the +true principles of philosophy, and that indeed, so far from +being irrational, <span class="smcap">christian faith is the perfection of +human reason</span>. By reflection upon the subjective grounds +of knowledge and faith in the human mind itself, and by +an analysis of its faculties, he developes the distinguishing +characteristics and necessary relations of the natural and +the spiritual in our modes of being and knowing, and the +all-important fact, that although the former does not comprehend +the latter, yet neither does it preclude its existence. +He proves, that "the scheme of Christianity, * * * though +not discoverable by human reason, is yet in accordance +with it; that link follows link by necessary consequence; +that Religion passes out of the ken of Reason only where +the eye of Reason has reached its own horizon—and that +Faith is then but its continuation."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_9" id="Ref_9" href="#Foot_9">[9]</a></span> +Instead of adopting, +like the popular metaphysicians of the day, a system of +philosophy at war with religion, and which tends inevitably +to undermine our belief in the reality of any thing spiritual +in the only proper sense of that word, and then coldly and +ambiguously referring us for the support of our faith to the +authority of Revelation, he boldly asserts the reality of +something distinctively spiritual in man, and the futility of +all those modes of philosophizing, in which this is not +recognized, or which are incompatible with it. He considers +it the highest and most rational purpose of any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxii" id="Page_xxxii">{xxxii}</a></span> +system of philosophy, at least of one professing to be +Christian, to investigate those higher and peculiar attributes, +which distinguish us from the brutes that perish—which +are the image of God in us, and constitute our +proper humanity. It is in his view the proper business and +the duty of the Christian philosopher to remove all appearance +of contradiction between the several manifestations of +the one Divine Word, to reconcile reason with revelation, and +thus to justify the ways of God to man. The methods by +which he accomplishes this, either in regard to the terms in +which he enunciates the great doctrines of the Gospel, or +the peculiar views of philosophy by which he reconciles +them with the subjective grounds of faith in the universal +reason of man, need not be stated here. I will merely +observe, that the key to his system will be found in the +distinctions, which he makes and illustrates between <i>nature</i> +and <i>free-will</i>, and between the <i>understanding</i> and <i>reason</i>. +It may meet the prejudices of some to remark farther, that +in philosophizing on the grounds of our faith he does not +profess or aim to solve all mysteries, and to bring all truth +within the comprehension of the understanding. A truth +may be mysterious, and the primary ground of all truth +and reality must be so. But though we may believe what +<i>passeth all understanding</i>, we <i>cannot</i> believe what is <i>absurd</i>, +or contradictory to <i>reason</i>.</p> + +<p>Whether the Work be well executed, according to the +idea of it, as now given, or whether the Author have accomplished +his purpose, must be determined by those who +are capable of judging, when they shall have examined and +reflected upon the whole as it deserves. The inquiry which I +have now to propose to my readers is, whether the idea itself +be a rational one, and whether the purpose of the Author be +one which a wise man and a Christian ought to aim at, or +which in the present state of our religious interests, and of +our theological science, specially needs to be accomplished.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiii" id="Page_xxxiii">{xxxiii}</a></span> +No one, who has had occasion to observe the general +feelings and views of our religious community for a few +years past, can be ignorant, that a strong prejudice exists +against the introduction of philosophy, in any form, in the +discussion of theological subjects. The terms <i>philosophy</i> +and <i>metaphysics</i>, even <i>reason</i> and <i>rational</i>, seem, in the +minds of those most devoted to the support of religious +truth, to have forfeited their original, and to have acquired +a new import, especially in their relation to matters of +faith. By a philosophical view of religious truth would +generally be understood a view, not only varying from the +religion of the Bible in the form and manner of presenting +it, but at war with it; and a rational religion is supposed +to be of course something diverse from revealed religion. +A philosophical and rational system of religious truth +would by most readers among us, if I mistake not, be +supposed a system deriving its doctrines not from revelation, +but from the speculative reason of men, or at least +relying on that only for their credibility. That these +terms have been used to designate such systems, and that +the prejudice against reason and philosophy so employed +is not, therefore, without cause, I need not deny; nor +would any friend of revealed truth be less disposed to give +credence to such systems, than the Author of the Work +before us.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, a moment's reflection only can +be necessary to convince any man, attentive to the use of +language, that we do at the same time employ these terms +in relation to truth generally in a better and much higher +sense. <i>Rational</i>, as contradistinguished from <i>irrational</i> +and <i>absurd</i>, certainly denotes a quality, which every man +would be disposed to claim, not only for himself, but for +his religious opinions. Now, the adjective <i>reasonable</i> having +acquired a different use and signification, the word +<i>rational</i> is the adjective corresponding in sense to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiv" id="Page_xxxiv">{xxxiv}</a></span> +substantive <i>reason</i>, and signifies what is conformed to +reason. In one sense, then, all men would appeal to reason +in behalf of their religious faith; they would deny that it +was irrational or absurd. If we do not in this sense adhere +to reason, we forfeit our prerogative as rational beings, and +our faith is no better than the bewildered dream of a man +who has lost his reason. Nay, I maintain that when we +use the term in this higher sense, it is impossible for us to +believe on any authority what is directly contradictory to +reason and seen to be so. No evidence from another source, +and no authority could convince us, that a proposition in +geometry, for example, is false, which our reason intuitively +discovers to be true. Now if we suppose (and we may at +least suppose this,) that reason has the same power of +intuitive insight in relation to certain moral and spiritual +truths, as in relation to the truths of geometry, then it +would be equally impossible to divest us of our belief of +those truths.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, we are not only unable to believe the same +proposition to be false, which our reason sees to be true, +but we cannot believe another proposition, which by the +exercise of the same rational faculty we see to be incompatible +with the former, or to contradict it. We may, and +probably often do, receive with a certain kind and degree +of credence opinions, which reflection would show to be +incompatible. But when we have reflected, and discovered +the inconsistency, we cannot retain both. We cannot +believe two contradictory propositions knowing them to be +such. It would be irrational to do so.</p> + +<p>Again, we cannot conceive it possible, that what by the +same power of intuition we see to be universally and +necessarily true should appear otherwise to any other +rational being. We cannot, for example, but consider the +propositions of geometry as necessarily true for all rational +beings. So, too, a little reflection, I think, will convince +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxv" id="Page_xxxv">{xxxv}</a></span> +any one, that we attribute the same necessity of reason to +the principles of moral rectitude. What in the clear daylight +of our reason, and after mature reflection, we see to +be right, we cannot believe to be wrong in the view of other +rational beings in the distinct exercise of their reason. +Nay, in regard to those truths, which are clearly submitted +to the view of our reason, and which we behold with +distinct and steadfast intuitions, we necessarily attribute to +the Supreme Reason, to the Divine Mind, views the same, +or coincident, with those of our own reason. We cannot, +(I say it with reverence and I trust with some apprehension +of the importance of the assertion,) we <i>cannot</i> believe that +to be right in the view of the Supreme Reason, which is +clearly and decidedly wrong in the view of our own. It +would be contradictory to reason, it would be irrational, to +believe it, and therefore we cannot do so, till we lose our +reason, or cease to exercise it.</p> + +<p>I would ask, now, whether this be not an authorized use +of the words reason and rational, and whether so used they +do not mean something. If it be so—and I appeal to the +mind of every man capable of reflection, and of under +standing the use of language, if it be not—then there is +meaning in the terms <i>universal reason</i>, and <i>unity of reason</i>, +as used in this Work. There is, and can be, in this highest +sense of the word but one reason, and whatever contradicts +that reason, being seen to do so, cannot be received as +matter either of knowledge or faith. To reconcile religion +with reason used in this sense, therefore, and to justify the +ways of God to man, or in the view of reason, is so far +from being irrational that reason imperatively demands it +of us. We cannot, as rational beings, believe a proposition +on the grounds of reason, and deny it on the authority of +revelation. We cannot believe a proposition in philosophy, +and deny the same proposition in theology; nor can we +believe two incompatible propositions on the different +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvi" id="Page_xxxvi">{xxxvi}</a></span> +grounds of reason and revelation. So far as we compare +our thoughts, the objects of our knowledge and faith, and +by reflection refer them to their common measure in the +universal laws of reason, so far the instinct of reason impels +us to reject whatever is contradictory and absurd, and to +bring unity and consistency into all our views of truth. +Thus, in the language of the Author of this Work, though +"the word <i>rational</i> has been strangely abused of late times, +this must not disincline us to the weighty consideration, +that thoughtfulness, and a desire to rest all our convictions +on grounds of right reason, are inseparable from the +character of a Christian."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_10" id="Ref_10" href="#Foot_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>But I beg the reader to observe, that in relation to the +doctrines of spiritual religion—to all that he considers the +peculiar doctrines of the Christian revelation, the Author +assigns to reason only a negative validity. It does not +teach us what those doctrines are, or what they are not, +except that they are not, and cannot be, such as contradict +the clear convictions of right reason. But his views on +this point are fully stated in the Work.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_11" id="Ref_11" href="#Foot_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p>If then it be our prerogative, as rational beings, and our +duty as Christians, to think, as well as to act, <i>rationally</i>,—to +see that our convictions of truth rest on the grounds of +right reason; and if it be one of the clearest dictates of +reason, that we should endeavour to shun, and on discovery +should reject, whatever is contradictory to the universal +laws of thought, or to doctrines already established, I know +not by what means we are to avoid the application of +philosophy, at least to some extent, in the study of theology. +For to determine what <i>are</i> the grounds of right reason, +what are those ultimate truths, and those universal laws of +thought, which we cannot rationally contradict, and by +reflection to compare with these whatever is proposed for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvii" id="Page_xxxvii">{xxxvii}</a></span> +our belief, is in fact to philosophize; and whoever does this +to a greater or less extent, is so far a philosopher in the +best and highest sense of the word. To this extent we are +bound to philosophize in theology, as well as in every other +science. For what is not rational in theology, is, of course, +irrational, and cannot be of the household of faith; and to +determine whether it be rational in the sense already explained +or not, is the province of philosophy. It is in this +sense that the Work before us is to be considered a philosophical +work, namely, that it proves the doctrines of the +Christian Faith to be rational, and exhibits philosophical +grounds for the <i>possibility</i> of a truly spiritual religion. The +<i>reality</i> of those experiences, or states of being, which constitute +experimental or spiritual religion, rests on other +grounds. It is incumbent on the philosopher to free them +from the contradictions of reason, and nothing more; and +who will deny, that to do this is a purpose worthy of the +ablest philosopher and the most devoted Christian? Is it +not desirable to convince all men that the doctrines, which +we affirm to be revealed in the Gospel, are not contradictory +to the requirements of reason and conscience? Is it not, on +the other hand, vastly important to the cause of religious +truth, and even to the practical influence of religion on our +own minds, and the minds of the community at large, that +we should attain and exhibit views of philosophy and doctrines +in metaphysics, which are at least compatible with, +if they do not specially favour, those views of religion, +which, on other grounds, we find it our duty to believe and +maintain? For, I beg it may be observed, as a point of +great moment, that it is not the method of the genuine +philosopher to separate his philosophy and religion, and +adopting his principles independently in each, to leave +them to be reconciled or not, as the case may be. He has, +and can have, rationally but one system, in which his philosophy +becomes religious, and his religion philosophical. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxviii" id="Page_xxxviii">{xxxviii}</a></span> +Nor am I disposed in compliance with public opinion to +limit the application of this remark, as is usually done, to +the mere external evidences of revelation. The philosophy +which we adopt will and must influence not only our decision +of the question, whether a book be of divine authority, but +our views also of its meaning.</p> + +<p>But this is a subject, on which, if possible, I would avoid +being misunderstood, and must, therefore, exhibit it more +fully, even at the risk of repeating what was said before, +or is elsewhere found in the Work. It has been already, I +believe, distinctly enough stated, that reason and philosophy +ought to prevent our reception of doctrines claiming the +authority of revelation only so far as the very necessities +of our rational being require. However mysterious the +thing affirmed may be, though <i>it passeth all understanding</i>, +if it cannot be shown to contradict the unchangeable principles +of right reason, its being incomprehensible to our +understandings is not an obstacle to our faith. If it contradict +reason, we cannot believe it, but must conclude, +either that the writing is not of divine authority, or that +the language has been misinterpreted. So far it seems to +me, that our philosophy ought to modify our views of +theological doctrines, and our mode of interpreting the +language of an inspired writer. But then we must be +cautious, that we philosophize rightly, and "do not call <i>that</i> +reason which is not so." Otherwise we may be led by the +supposed requirements of reason to interpret metaphorically, +what ought to be received literally, and evacuate the Scriptures +of their most important doctrines. But what I mean +to say here is, that we cannot avoid the application of our +philosophy in the interpretation of the language of Scripture, +and in the explanation of the doctrines of religion generally. +We cannot avoid incurring the danger just alluded to of +philosophizing erroneously, even to the extent of rejecting +as irrational that which tends to the perfection of reason +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxix" id="Page_xxxix">{xxxix}</a></span> +itself. And hence I maintain, that instead of pretending +to exclude philosophy from our religious inquiries, it is +very important that we philosophize in earnest—that we +should endeavour by profound reflection to learn the real +requirements of reason, and attain a true knowledge of +ourselves.</p> + +<p>If any dispute the necessity of thus combining the study +of philosophy with that of religion, I would beg them to +point out the age since that of the Apostles, in which the +prevailing metaphysical opinions have not distinctly manifested +themselves in the prevailing views of religion; and +if, as I fully believe will be the case, they fail to discover a +single system of theology, a single volume on the subject +of the Christian religion, in which the author's views are +not modified by the metaphysical opinions of the age or of +the individual, it would be desirable to ascertain, whether +this influence be accidental or necessary. The metaphysician +analyzes the faculties and operations of the human mind, +and teaches us to arrange, to classify, and to name them, +according to his views of their various distinctions. The +language of the Scriptures, at least to a great extent, +speaks of subjects that can be understood only by a reference +to those same powers and processes of thought and feeling, +which we have learned to think of, and to name, according +to our particular system of metaphysics. How is it possible +then to avoid interpreting the one by the other? Let us +suppose, for example, that a man has studied and adopted +the philosophy of Brown, is it possible for him to interpret +the 8th chapter of Romans, without having his views of its +meaning influenced by his philosophy? Would he not unavoidably +interpret the language and explain the doctrines, +which it contains, differently from one, who should have +adopted such views of the human mind as are taught in +this Work? I know it is customary to disclaim the influence +of philosophy in the business of interpretation, and every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xl" id="Page_xl">{xl}</a></span> +writer now-a-days on such subjects will assure us, that he +has nothing to do with metaphysics, but is guided only by +common sense and the laws of interpretation. But I should +like to know how a man comes by any common sense in +relation to the movements and laws of his intellectual and +moral being without metaphysics. What is the common +sense of a Hottentot on subjects of this sort? I have no +hesitation in saying, that from the very nature of the case, +it is nearly, if not quite, impossible for any man entirely +to separate his philosophical views of the human mind +from his reflections on religious subjects. Probably no +man has endeavoured more faithfully to do this, perhaps no +one has succeeded better in giving the truth of Scripture +free from the glosses of metaphysics, than Professor Stuart. +Yet, I should risk little in saying that a reader deeply +versed in the language of metaphysics, extensively acquainted +with the philosophy of different ages, and the +peculiar phraseology of different schools, might ascertain +his metaphysical system from many a passage of his Commentary +on the Epistle to the Hebrews. What then, let +me ask, is the possible use to the cause of truth and of +religion, from thus perpetually decrying philosophy in +theological inquiries, when we cannot avoid it if we would? +Every man, who has reflected at all, has his metaphysics; +and if he reads on religious subjects, he interprets and +understands the language which he employs, by the help +of his metaphysics. He cannot do otherwise.—And the +proper inquiry is, not whether we admit our philosophy +into our theological and religious investigations, but whether +our philosophy be right and true. For myself, I am fully +convinced that we can have no right views of theology, till +we have right views of the human mind; and that these +are to be acquired only by laborious and persevering +reflection. My belief is, that the distinctions unfolded in +this Work will place us in the way to truth, and relieve us +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xli" id="Page_xli">{xli}</a></span> +from numerous perplexities, in which we are involved by +the philosophy which we have so long taken for our guide. +For we are greatly deceived, if we suppose for a moment +that the systems of theology which have been received +among us, or even the theoretical views which are now +most popular, are free from the entanglements of worldly +wisdom. The readers of this Work will be able to see, I +think, more clearly the import of this remark, and the +true bearing of the received views of philosophy on our +theological inquiries. Those who study the Work without +prejudice, and adopt its principles to any considerable +extent, will understand too how deeply an age may be +ensnared in the metaphysical webs of its own weaving, or +entangled in the net which the speculations of a former +generation have thrown over it, and yet suppose itself +blessed with a perfect immunity from the dreaded evils of +metaphysics.</p> + +<p>But before I proceed to remark on those particulars, in +which our prevailing philosophy seems to be dangerous in +its tendency, and unfriendly to the cause of spiritual +religion, I must beg leave to guard myself and the Work +from misapprehension on another point of great importance +in its relation to the whole subject. While it is maintained +that reason and philosophy, in their true character, <i>ought</i> +to have a certain degree and extent of influence in the formation +of our religious system, and that our metaphysical +opinions, whatever they may be, <i>will</i> almost unavoidably, +modify more or less our theoretical views of religious truth +<i>generally</i>, it is yet a special object of the Author of the +Work to show that the spiritual life, or what among us is +termed experimental religion, is, in itself, and in its own +proper growth and development, essentially distinct from +the forms and processes of the understanding; and that, +although a true faith cannot contradict any universal +principle of speculative reason, it is yet in a certain sense +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlii" id="Page_xlii">{xlii}</a></span> +independent of the discursions of philosophy, and in its +proper nature beyond the reach "of positive science and +theoretical <i>insight</i>." "Christianity is not a <i>theory</i> or a +<i>speculation</i>; but a <i>life</i>. Not a <i>philosophy</i> of life, but a life +and a living process." It is not, therefore, so properly a +species of knowledge, as a form of being. And although +the theoretical views of the understanding, and the motives +of prudence which it presents, may be, to a certain extent, +connected with the development of the spiritual principle +of religious life in the Christian, yet a true and living faith +is not incompatible with at least some degree of speculative +error. As the acquisition of merely speculative knowledge +cannot of itself communicate the principle of spiritual life, +so neither does that principle, and the living process of its +growth, depend wholly, at least, upon the degree of speculative +knowledge with which it co-exists. That religion, of +which our blessed Saviour is himself the essential Form +and the living Word, and to which he imparts the actuating +Spirit, has a principle of unity and consistency in itself +distinct from the unity and consistency of our theoretical +views. Of this we have evidence in every day's observation +of Christian character; for how often do we see and +acknowledge the power of religion, and the growth of a +spiritual life in minds but little gifted with speculative +knowledge, and little versed in the forms of logic or philosophy! +How obviously, too, does the living principle of +religion manifest the same specific character, the same +essential form, amidst all the diversities of condition, of +talents, of education, and natural disposition, with which it +is associated; every where rising above nature, and the +powers of the natural man, and unlimited in its goings on +by the forms in which the understanding seeks to comprehend +and confine its spiritual energies. <i>There are diversities +of gifts, but the same Spirit</i>: and it is no less true now than +in the age of the Apostles, that in all lands, and in every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xliii" id="Page_xliii">{xliii}</a></span> +variety of circumstances, the manifestations of spiritual +life are essentially the same; and all who truly believe in +heart, however diverse in natural condition, in the character +of their understandings, and even in their theoretical views +of truth, are <i>one</i> in <i>Christ Jesus</i>. The essential faith is not +to be found in the understanding or the speculative theory, +but "the <i>life</i>, the <i>substance</i>, the <i>hope</i>, the <i>love</i>—in one word, +the <i>faith</i>—these are derivatives from the practical, moral, +and spiritual nature and being of man." Speculative +systems of theology indeed have often had little connection +with the essential spirit of religion, and are usually little +more than schemes resulting from the strivings of the finite +understanding to comprehend and exhibit under its own +forms and conditions a mode of being and spiritual truths +essentially diverse from their proper objects, and with +which they are incommensurate.</p> + +<p>This I am aware is an imperfect, and I fear may be an +unintelligible, view of a subject exceedingly difficult of +apprehension at the best. If so, I must beg the reader's +indulgence, and request him to suspend his judgment, as +to the absolute intelligibility of it, till he becomes acquainted +with the language and sentiments of the Work itself. It +will, however, I hope, be so far understood, at least, as to +answer the purpose for which it was introduced—of precluding +the supposition that, in the remarks which preceded, +or in those which follow, any suspicion was intended to be +expressed, with regard to the religious principles or the +essential faith of those who hold the opinions in question. +According to this view of the inherent and essential nature +of Spiritual Religion, as existing in the <i>practical reason</i> of +man, we may not only admit, but can better understand +the possibility of what every charitable Christian will +acknowledge to be a fact, so far as human observation can +determine facts of this sort—that a man may be truly +religious, and essentially a believer at heart, while his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xliv" id="Page_xliv">{xliv}</a></span> +understanding is sadly bewildered with the attempt to +comprehend and express philosophically, what yet he feels +and knows spiritually. It is indeed impossible for us to +tell, how far the understanding may impose upon itself by +partial views and false disguises, without perverting the +will, or estranging it from the laws and the authority of +reason and the divine word. We cannot say to what extent +a false system of philosophy and metaphysical opinions, +which in their natural and uncounteracted tendency would +go to destroy all religion, may be received in a Christian +community, and yet the power of spiritual religion retain +its hold and its efficacy in the hearts of the people. We +may perhaps believe that in opposition to all the might of +false philosophy, so long as the great body of the people +have the Bible in their hands, and are taught to reverence +and receive its heavenly instructions, though the Church +may suffer injury from unwise and unfruitful speculations, +it will yet be preserved; and that the spiritual seed of the +divine word, though mingled with many tares of worldly +wisdom and philosophy falsely so called, will yet spring up, +and bear fruit unto everlasting life.</p> + +<p>But though we may hope and believe this, we cannot +avoid believing, at the same time, that injury must result +from an unsuspecting confidence in metaphysical opinions, +which are essentially at variance with the doctrines of +Revelation. Especially must the effect be injurious, where +those opinions lead gradually to alter our views of religion +itself and of all that is peculiar in the Christian system. +The great mass of the community, who know little of +metaphysics, and whose faith in Revelation is not so readily +influenced by speculations not immediately connected with +it, may, indeed, for a time, escape the evil, and continue to +<i>receive with meekness the ingrafted word</i>. But in the minds +of the better educated, especially those who think and +follow out their conclusions with resolute independence of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlv" id="Page_xlv">{xlv}</a></span> +thought, the result must be either a loss of confidence in +the opinions themselves, or a rejection of all those parts of +the Christian system which are at variance with them. +Under particular circumstances, indeed, where both the +metaphysical errors, and the great doctrines of the Christian +Faith, have a strong hold upon the minds of a community, +a protracted struggle may take place, and earnest and +long-continued efforts may be made to reconcile opinions +which we are resolved to maintain, with a faith which our +consciences will not permit us to abandon. But so long as +the effort continues and such opinions retain their hold +upon our confidence, it must be by some diminution of the +fulness and simplicity of our faith. To a greater or less +degree, according to the education and habits of thought +in different individuals, the word of God is received with +doubt, or with such glozing modifications as enervate its +power. Thus the light from heaven is intercepted, and we +are left to a shadow-fight of metaphysical schemes and +metaphorical interpretations. While one party, with conscientious +and earnest endeavours, and at great expense of +talent and ingenuity, contends for the Faith, and among +the possible shapings of the received metaphysical system, +seeks that which will best comport with the simplicity of +the Gospel,—another more boldly interprets the language +of the Gospel itself in conformity with those views of +religion to which their philosophy seems obviously to conduct +them. The substantial being and the living energy +of the <span class="smcap">Word</span>, which is not only the light but the life of +men, is either misapprehended or denied by all parties: +and even those who contend for what they conceive the +literal import of the Gospel, do it—as they must, to avoid +too glaring absurdity—with such explanations of its import +as make it to become, in no small degree, the <i>words of +man's wisdom</i>, rather than a simple <i>demonstration of the +Spirit, and of power</i>. Hence, although such as have experienced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlvi" id="Page_xlvi">{xlvi}</a></span> +the spiritual and life-giving power of the Divine +Word, may be able, through the promised aids of the Spirit, +to overcome the natural tendency of speculative error, and, +by <i>the law of the Spirit of life</i> which is in them, may at +length be made <i>free from the law of sin and death</i>, yet who +can tell how much they may lose of the blessings of the +Gospel, and be retarded in their spiritual growth when +they are but too often fed with the lifeless and starveling +products of the human understanding, instead of that +<i>living bread which came down from heaven</i>? Who can tell, +moreover, how many, through the prevalence of such +philosophical errors as lead to misconceptions of the truth +or create a prejudice against it, and thus tend to intercept +the light from heaven, may continue in their ignorance, +<i>alienated from the life of God</i>, and groping in the darkness +of their own understandings?</p> + +<p>But however that may be, enlightened Christians, and +especially Christian instructors, know it to be their duty, +as far as possible, to prepare the way for the full and +unobstructed influence of the Gospel, to do all in their +power to remove those natural prejudices, and those errors +of the understanding, which are obstacles to the truth, +that the word of God may find access to the heart, and +conscience, and reason of every man, that it may have <i>free +course, and run, and be glorified</i>. My own belief, that such +obstacles to the influence of truth exist in the speculative +and metaphysical opinions generally adopted in this +country, and that the present Work is in some measure at +least calculated to remove them, is pretty clearly indicated +by the remarks which I have already made. But, to be +perfectly explicit on the subject I do not hesitate to express +my conviction, that the natural tendency of some of the +leading principles of our prevailing system of metaphysics, +and those which must unavoidably have more or less +influence on our theoretical views of religion, are of an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlvii" id="Page_xlvii">{xlvii}</a></span> +injurious and dangerous tendency, and that so long as we +retain them, however we may profess to exclude their +influence from our theological inquiries, and from the +interpretation of Scripture, we can maintain no consistent +system of Scriptural theology, nor clearly and distinctly +apprehend the spiritual import of the Scripture language. +The grounds of this conviction I shall proceed to exhibit, +though only in a partial manner, as I could not do more +without anticipating the contents of the Work itself, +instead of merely preparing the reader to peruse them with +attention. I am aware, too, that some of the language, +which I have already employed, and shall be obliged to +employ, will not convey its full import to the reader, till he +becomes acquainted with some of the leading principles and +distinctions unfolded in the Work. But this also is an evil +which I saw no means of avoiding without incurring a +greater, and writing a book instead of a brief essay.</p> + +<p>Let it be understood, then, without further preface, that +by the prevailing system of metaphysics, I mean the system, +of which in modern times Locke is the reputed author, and +the leading principles of which, with various modifications, +more or less important, but not altering its essential character, +have been almost universally received in this country. +It should be observed, too, that the causes enumerated by +the Author, as having elevated it to its "pride of place" in +Europe, have been aided by other favouring circumstances +here. In the minds of our religious community, especially, +some of its most important doctrines have become associated +with names justly loved and revered among ourselves, and +so connected with all our theoretical views of religion, that +a man can hardly hope to question their validity without +hazarding his reputation, not only for orthodoxy, but even +for common sense. To controvert, for example, the prevailing +doctrines with regard to the freedom of the will, the +sources of our knowledge, the nature of the understanding +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlviii" id="Page_xlviii">{xlviii}</a></span> +as containing the controlling principles of our whole being, +and the universality of the law of cause and effect, even in +connection with the argument and the authority of the +most powerful intellect of the age, may even now be worse +than in vain. Yet I have reasons for believing there are +some among us, and that their number is fast increasing, +who are willing to revise their opinions on these subjects, +and who will contemplate the views presented in this +Work with a liberal, and something of a prepared feeling, +of curiosity. The difficulties in which men find themselves +involved by the received doctrines on these subjects, in +their most anxious efforts to explain and defend the peculiar +doctrines of spiritual religion, have led many to suspect +that there must be some lurking error in the premises. It +is not that these principles lead us to mysteries which we +cannot comprehend; they are found, or believed at least by +many, to involve us in absurdities which we can comprehend. +It is necessary indeed only to form some notion of the distinctive +and appropriate import of the term spiritual, as +opposed to natural in the New Testament, and then to look +at the writings, or hear the discussions, in which the +doctrines of the Spirit and of spiritual influences are taught +and defended, to see the insurmountable nature of the obstacles, +which these metaphysical dogmas throw in the way +of the most powerful minds. To those who shall read this +Work with any degree of reflection, it must, I think, be +obvious, that something more is implied in the continual +opposition of these terms in the New Testament, than can +be explained consistently with the prevailing opinions on +the subjects above enumerated; and that through their +influence our highest notions of that distinction have been +rendered confused, contradictory, and inadequate. I have +already directed the attention of the reader to those parts +of the Work, where this distinction is unfolded; and had +I no other grounds than the arguments and views there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlix" id="Page_xlix">{xlix}</a></span> +exhibited, I should be convinced that so long as we hold +the doctrines of Locke and the Scotch metaphysicians +respecting power, cause and effect, motives, and the freedom +of the will, we not only can make and defend no essential +distinction between that which is <i>natural</i>, and that which +is <i>spiritual</i>, but we cannot even find rational grounds for +the feeling of <i>moral obligation</i>, and the distinction between +<i>regret</i> and <i>remorse</i>.</p> + +<p>According to the system of these authors, as nearly and +distinctly as my limits will permit me to state it, the same +law of cause and effect is the law of the universe. It +extends to the moral and spiritual—if in courtesy these +terms may still be used—no less than to the properly natural +powers and agencies of our being. The acts of the free-will +are pre-determined by a cause <i>out of the will</i>, according +to the same law of cause and effect which controls the +changes in the physical world. We have no notion of +power but uniformity of antecedent and consequent. The +notion of a power in the will to act freely is therefore +nothing more than an inherent capacity of being acted +upon, agreeably to its nature, and according to a fixed law, +by the motives which are present in the understanding. +I feel authorized to take this statement partly from Brown's +Philosophy, because that work has been decidedly approved +by our highest theological authorities; and indeed it would +not be essentially varied, if expressed in the precise terms +used by any of the writers most usually quoted in reference +to these subjects.</p> + +<p>I am aware that variations may be found in the mode +of stating these doctrines, but I think every candid reader, +who is acquainted with the metaphysics and theology of +this country, will admit the above to be a fair representation +of the form in which they are generally received. I am +aware, too, that much has been said and written to make +out, consistently with these general principles, a distinction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_l" id="Page_l">{l}</a></span> +between natural and moral causes, natural and moral +ability, and inability, and the like. But I beg all lovers of +sound and rational philosophy to look carefully at the +general principles, and see whether there be, in fact, ground +left for any such distinctions of this kind as are worth +contending for. My first step in arguing with a defender +of these principles, and of the distinctions in question, as +connected with them, would be to ask for his definition of +nature and <i>natural</i>. And when he had arrived at a distinctive +general notion of the import of these, it would +appear, if I mistake not, that he had first subjected our +whole being to the law of nature, and then contended for +the existence of something which is not nature. For in +their relation to the law of moral rectitude, and to the +feeling of moral responsibility, what difference is there, +and what difference can there be, between what are called +natural and those which are called moral powers and affections, +if they are all under the control of the same universal +<i>law</i> of cause and effect? If it still be a mere nature, and +the determinations of our will be controlled by causes out +of the will, according to our nature, then I maintain that a +moral nature has no more to do with the feeling of responsibility +than any other nature.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the difficulty may be made more obvious in this +way. It will be admitted that brutes are possessed of +various natures, some innocent or useful, otherwise noxious, +but all alike irresponsible in a moral point of view. But +why? Simply because they act in accordance with their +natures. They possess, each according to its proper nature, +certain appetites and susceptibilities which are stimulated +and acted upon by their appropriate objects in the world +of the senses; and the relation—the law of action and +reaction—subsisting between these specific susceptibilities +and their corresponding outward objects, constitutes their +nature. They have a power of selecting and choosing in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_li" id="Page_li">{li}</a></span> +the world of sense the objects appropriate to the wants of +their nature; but that nature is the sole law of their being. +Their power of choice is but a part of it, instrumental in +accomplishing its ends, but not capable of rising above it, +of controlling its impulses, and of determining itself with +reference to a purely ideal law, distinct from their nature. +They act in accordance with the law of cause and effect, +which constitutes their several natures, and cannot do +otherwise. They are, therefore not responsible—not capable +of guilt, or of remorse.</p> + +<p>Now let us suppose another being, possessing, in addition +to the susceptibilities of the brute, certain other specific +susceptibilities with their correlative objects, either in the +sensible world, or in a future world, but that these are subjected, +like the other, to the same binding and inalienable +law of cause and effect. What, I ask, is the amount of the +difference thus supposed between this being and the brute? +The supposed addition, it is to be understood, is merely an +addition to its nature; and the only power of will belonging +to it is, as in the case of the brute, only a capacity of +choosing and acting uniformly in accordance with its +nature. These additional susceptibilities still act but as +they are acted upon; and the will is determined accordingly. +What advantage is gained in this case by calling +these supposed additions moral affections, and their correlative +stimulants moral causes? Do we thereby find any +rational ground for the feeling of moral responsibility, for +conscience, for remorse? The being acts according to its +nature, and why is it blameworthy more than the brute? +If the moral law existing out of the will be a power or +cause which, in its relation to the specific susceptibility of +the moral being, produces under the same circumstances +uniformly the same result, according to the law of cause +and effect; if the acts of the will be subject to the same +law, as mere links in the chain of antecedents and consequents, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lii" id="Page_lii">{lii}</a></span> +and thus a part of our nature, what is gained, I +ask again, by the distinction of a moral and a physical +nature? It is still only a nature under the law of cause and +effect, and the liberty of the moral being is under the same +condition with the liberty of the brute. Both are free to +follow and fulfil the law of their nature, and both are alike +bound by that law, as by an adamantine chain. The very +conditions of the law preclude the possibility of a power to +act otherwise than according to their nature. They preclude +the very idea of a free-will, and render the feeling of moral +responsibility not an enigma merely, not a mystery, but a +self-contradiction and an absurdity.</p> + +<p>Turn the matter as we will—call these correlatives, +namely, the inherent susceptibilities and the causes acting +on them from without, natural, or moral, or spiritual—so +long as their action and reaction, or the law of reciprocity, +which constitutes their specific natures, is considered as the +controlling law of our whole being, so long as we refuse to +admit the existence in the will of a power capable of rising +above this law, and controlling its operation by an act of +absolute self-determination, so long we shall be involved in +perplexities both in morals and religion. At all events, the +only method of avoiding them will be to adopt the creed of +the Necessitarians entire, to give man over to an irresponsible +nature as a better sort of animal, and resolve the will +of the Supreme Reason into a blind and irrational Fate.</p> + +<p>I am well aware of the objections that will be made to +this statement, and especially the demonstrated incomprehensibleness +of a self-determining power. To this I may +be permitted to answer, that, admitting the power to +originate an act or state of mind may be beyond the +capacity of our understandings to comprehend, it is still +not contradictory to reason; and that I find it more easy +to believe the existence of that which is simply incomprehensible +to my understanding, than of that which involves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_liii" id="Page_liii">{liii}</a></span> +an absurdity for my reason. I venture to affirm, moreover, +that however we may bring our understandings into bondage +to the more comprehensible doctrine, simply because it is +comprehensible under the forms of the understanding, +every man does, in fact, believe himself possessed of freedom +in the higher sense of self-determination. Every man's +conscience commands him to believe it, as the only rational +ground of moral responsibility. Every man's conscience, +too, betrays the fact that he does believe it, whenever for +a moment he indulges the feeling either of moral self-approbation, +or of remorse. Nor can we on any other +grounds justify the ways of God to man upon the supposition +that he inflicts or will inflict any other punishment +than that which is simply remedial or disciplinary. But +this subject will be found more fully explained in the course +of the Work. My present object is merely to show the +necessity of some system in relation to these subjects different +from the received one.</p> + +<p>It may perhaps be thought, that the language used +above is too strong and too positive. But I venture to ask +every candid man, at least every one who has not committed +himself by writing and publishing on the subject, whether +in considering the great questions connected with moral +accountability and the doctrine of rewards and punishments, +he has not felt himself pressed with such difficulties +as those above stated; and whether he has ever been able +fully to satisfy his reason, that there was not a lurking +contradiction in the idea of a being created and placed +under the law of its nature, and possessing at the same +time a feeling of moral obligation to fulfil a law above its +nature. That many have been in this state of mind I know. +I know, too, that some whose moral and religious feelings +had led them to a full belief in the doctrines of spiritual +religion, but who at the same time had been taught to +receive the prevailing opinions in metaphysics, have found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_liv" id="Page_liv">{liv}</a></span> +these opinions carrying them unavoidably, if they would be +consequent in their reasonings, and not do violence to their +reason, to adopt a system of religion which does not profess +to be spiritual, and thus have been compelled to choose +between their philosophy and their religion. In most cases +indeed, where men reflect at all, I am satisfied that it +requires all the force of authority, and all the influence of +education, to carry the mind over these difficulties; and +that then it is only by a vague belief that, though we +cannot see how, there must be some method of reconciling +what seems to be so contradictory.</p> + +<p>If examples were wanting to prove that serious and +trying difficulties are felt to exist here, enough may be +found, as it has appeared to me, in the controversy respecting +the nature and origin of sin, which is at this +moment interesting the public mind. Let any impartial +observer trace the progress of that discussion, and after +examining the distinctions which are made or attempted +to be made, decide whether the subject, as there presented, +be not involved in difficulties, which cannot be solved on +the principles to which, hitherto, both parties have adhered; +whether, holding as they do the same premises in regard to +the freedom of the will, they can avoid coming to the same +conclusion in regard to the nature and origin of sin; whether +in fact the distinctions aimed at must not prove +merely verbal distinctions, and the controversy a fruitless +one. But in the September number of the "Christian +Spectator" for 1829,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_12" id="Ref_12" href="#Foot_12">[12]</a></span> +the reader will find remarks on this +subject, to which I beg leave to refer him, and which I +could wish him attentively to consider in connection with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lv" id="Page_lv">{lv}</a></span> +the remarks which I have made. I allude to the correspondence +with the editors near the end of the number. +The letter there inserted is said to be, and obviously is, +from the pen of a very learned and able writer; and I +confess it has been no small gratification and encouragement +to me, while labouring to bring this Work and this +subject before the public, to find such a state of feeling +expressed, concerning the great question at issue, by such a +writer. It will be seen by reference to p. 545 of the C. S., +that he places the "<i>nucleus</i> of the dispute" just where +it is placed in this Work and in the above remarks. +It will be seen, too, that by throwing authorities aside, +and studying his own mind, he has "come seriously to +doubt," whether the received opinions with regard to +<i>motives</i>, the law of <i>cause and effect</i>, and the <i>freedom of the +will</i>, may not be erroneous. They appear to him "to be +bordering on fatalism, if not actually embracing it." He +doubts whether the mind may not have within itself the +adequate cause of its own acts; whether indeed it have +not a self-determining power, "for the power in question +involves the idea of originating volition. Less than this +it cannot be conceived to involve, and yet be <i>free</i> agency." +Now, this is just the view offered in the present Work; +and, as it seems to me, these are just the doubts and conclusions +which every one will entertain, who lays aside +authority, and reflects upon the goings-on of his own mind, +and the dictates of his own reason and conscience.</p> + +<p>But let us look for a moment at the remarks of the +editors in reply to the letter above quoted. They maintain, +in relation to original sin and the perversion of the will, +that from either the <i>original</i> or the <i>acquired</i> strength of +certain natural appetites, principles of self-love, &c., "left +to themselves," the corruption of the heart will certainly +follow. "In every instance the will does, in fact, yield to +the demands of these. But whenever it thus yielded, <i>there</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lvi" id="Page_lvi">{lvi}</a></span> +<i>was power to the contrary</i>; otherwise there could be no +freedom of moral action." Now I beg leave to place my +finger on the phrase in italics, and ask the editors what +they mean by it. If they hold the common doctrines with +regard to the relation of cause and effect, and with regard to +power as connected with that relation, and apply these to +the acts of the will, I can see no more possibility of conceiving +a <i>power to the contrary</i> in this case, than of +conceiving such a power in the current of a river. But if +they mean to assert the existence in the will of an <i>actual</i> +power to rise above the demands of appetite, &c., above the +law of nature and to decide <i>arbitrarily</i>, whether to yield or +not to yield, then they admit that the will is not determined +<i>absolutely</i> by the extraneous <i>cause</i>, but is in fact <i>self</i>-determined. +They agree with the letter-writer; and the question +for them is at rest. Thus, whatever distinctions may be +attempted here, there can be no real distinction but between +an irresponsible nature and a will that is self-determined.</p> + +<p>I cannot but be aware, that the views of the Will here +exhibited will meet with strong prejudices in a large +portion, at least, of our religious community. I could wish +that all such would carefully distinguish between the +Author's views of the doctrines of religion and the philosophical +grounds on which he supposes those doctrines are to +be defended. If no one disputes, and I trust no one will +dispute, the substantial orthodoxy of the Work, without +first carefully examining what has been the orthodoxy of +the church in general, and of the great body of the +Reformers, then I should hope it may be wisely considered, +whether, as a question of philosophy, the metaphysical +principles of this Work are not in themselves more in +accordance with the doctrines of a spiritual religion, and +better suited to their explanation and defence, than those +above treated of. If on examination it cannot be disputed +that they are, then, if not before, I trust the two systems +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lvii" id="Page_lvii">{lvii}</a></span> +may be compared without undue partiality, and the simple +question of the truth of each may be determined by that +calm and persevering reflection, which alone can determine +questions of this sort.</p> + +<p>If the system here taught be true, then it will follow, +not, be it observed, that our religion is necessarily wrong, +or our essential faith erroneous, but that the <i>philosophical +grounds</i>, on which we are accustomed to defend our faith, +are unsafe, and that their <i>natural tendency</i> is to error. If +the spirit of the Gospel still exert its influence; if a truly +spiritual religion be maintained, it is in <i>opposition</i> to our +philosophy, and not at all by its aid. I know it will be +said, that the practical results of our peculiar forms of +doctrine are at variance with these remarks. But this I +am not prepared to admit. True, religion and religious +institutions have flourished; the Gospel, in many parts of +our country, has been affectionately and faithfully preached +by great and good men; the word and the Spirit of God +have been communicated to us in rich abundance; and I +rejoice with heartfelt joy and thanksgiving, in the belief, +that thereby multitudes have been regenerated to a new +and spiritual life. But so were equal or greater effects +produced under the preaching of Baxter, and Howe, and +other good and faithful men of the same age, with none of +the peculiarities of our theological systems. Neither +reason nor experience indeed furnish any ground for +believing that the living and life-giving power of the +Divine Word has ever derived any portion of its efficacy, +in the conversion of the heart to God, from the forms of +metaphysical theology, with which the human understanding +has invested it. It requires, moreover, but little +knowledge of the history of philosophy, and of the writings +of the 16th and 17th centuries to know, that the opinions +of the Reformers, and of all the great divines of that period, +on subjects of this sort, were far different from those of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lviii" id="Page_lviii">{lviii}</a></span> +Mr. Locke and his followers, and were in fact essentially +the same with those taught in this Work. This last +remark applies not only to the views entertained by the +eminent philosophers and divines of that period on the +particular subject above discussed, but to the distinctions +made, and the language employed, by them with reference +to other points of no less importance in the constitution of +our being.</p> + +<p>It must have been observed by the reader of the foregoing +pages, that I have used several words, especially +<i>understanding</i> and <i>reason</i>, in a sense somewhat diverse from +their present acceptation; and the occasion of this I suppose +would be partly understood from my having already +directed the attention of the reader to the distinction +exhibited between these words in the Work, and from the +remarks made on the ambiguity of the word "reason" in +its common use. I now proceed to remark, that the ambiguity +spoken of, and the consequent perplexity in regard +to the use and authority of reason, have arisen from the +habit of using, since the time of Locke, the terms understanding +and reason indiscriminately, and thus confounding +a distinction clearly marked in the philosophy and in the +language of the older writers. Alas! had the <i>terms</i> only +been confounded, or had we suffered only an inconvenient +ambiguity of language, there would be comparatively little +cause for earnestness upon the subject; or had our views +of the things signified by these terms been only partially +confused, and had we still retained correct notions of our +prerogative, as rational and spiritual beings, the consequences +might have been less deplorable. But the misfortune +is, that the powers of understanding and reason +have not merely been blended and confounded in the view +of our philosophy, the higher and far more characteristic, +as an essential constituent of our proper humanity, has been +as it were obscured and hidden from our observation in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lix" id="Page_lix">{lix}</a></span> +inferior power, which belongs to us in common with the +brutes which perish. According to the old, the more +spiritual, and genuine philosophy, the distinguishing attributes +of our humanity—that <i>image</i> of God in which man +alone was created of all the dwellers upon earth, and in +virtue of which he was placed at the head of this lower +world, was said to be found in the <i>reason</i> and <i>free-will</i>. +But understanding these in their strict and proper sense, +and according to the true <i>ideas</i> of them, as contemplated +by the older metaphysicians, we have literally, if the system +of Locke and the popular philosophy of the day be true, +neither the one nor the other of these—neither reason nor +free-will. What they esteemed the image of God in the +soul, and considered as distinguishing us specifically, and +so vastly too, above each and all of the irrational animals, +is found, according to this system, to have in fact no real +existence. The reality neither of the free-will, nor of any +of those laws or ideas, which spring from, or rather constitute +reason, can be authenticated by the sort of proof +which is demanded, and we must therefore relinquish our +prerogative, and take our place with becoming humility +among our more unpretending companions. In the ascending +series of powers, enumerated by Milton, with so much +philosophical truth, as well as beauty of language, in the +fifth book of Paradise Lost, he mentions</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2"><i>Fancy</i> and <i>understanding</i>, whence the soul</span> +<span class="i2"><span class="smcap">Reason</span> receives. And reason is her <i>being</i>,</span> +<span class="i2">Discursive or intuitive.</span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent">But the highest power here, that which is the being of the +soul, considered as any thing differing in kind from the +understanding, has no place in our popular metaphysics. +Thus we have only the <i>understanding</i>, "the faculty judging +according to sense," a faculty of abstracting and generalizing, +of contrivance and forecast, as the highest of our +intellectual powers; and this, we are expressly taught, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lx" id="Page_lx">{lx}</a></span> +belongs to us in common with brutes. Nay, these views +of our essential being, consequences and all, are adopted by +men, whom one would suppose religion, if not philosophy, +should have taught their utter inadequateness to the true +and essential constituents of our humanity. Dr. Paley +tells us in his Natural Theology, that only "<span class="smcap">contrivance</span>," +a power obviously and confessedly belonging to brutes, is +necessary to constitute <i>personality</i>. His whole system both +of theology and morals neither teaches, nor implies, the +existence of any specific difference either between the +understanding and reason, or between nature and the will. +It does not imply the existence of any power in man, which +does not obviously belong, in a greater or less degree, to +irrational animals. Dr. Fleming, another reverend prelate +in the English Church, in his "Philosophy of Zoology," +maintains in express terms that we have no faculties +differing in kind from those which belong to brutes. How +many other learned, and reverend, and wise men adopt the +same opinions, I know not: though these are obviously not +the peculiar views of the individuals, but conclusions +resulting from the essential principles of their system. If, +then, there is no better <i>system</i>, if this be the genuine philosophy, +and founded in the nature of things, there is no help +for us, and we must believe it—<i>if we can</i>. But most +certainly it will follow, that we ought, as fast as the prejudices +of education will permit, to rid ourselves of certain +notions of prerogative, and certain feelings of our own +superiority, which somehow have been strangely prevalent +among our race. For though we have indeed, according to +this system, a little <i>more</i> understanding than other animals—can +abstract and generalize and forecast events, and the +consequences of our actions, and compare motives <i>more</i> +skilfully than they: though we have thus <i>more</i> knowledge +and can circumvent them; though we have <i>more</i> power +and can subdue them; yet, as to any <i>distinctive</i> and <i>peculiar</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxi" id="Page_lxi">{lxi}</a></span> +characteristic—as to any inherent and essential <i>worth</i>, we +are after all but little better—though we may be better +off—than our dogs and horses. There is no essential +difference, and we may rationally doubt—at least we might +do so, if by the supposition we were rational beings—whether +our fellow animals of the kennel and the stall are +not unjustly deprived of certain <i>personal rights</i>, and whether +a dog charged with trespass may not <i>rationally</i> claim to be +tried by a jury of his <i>peers</i>. Now however trifling and +ridiculous this may appear, I would ask in truth and soberness, +if it be not a fair and legitimate inference from the +premises, and whether the <i>absurdity</i> of the one does not +<i>demonstrate</i> the utter falsity of the other. And where, I +would beg to know, shall we look, according to the popular +system of philosophy, for that <i>image of God</i> in which we +are created? Is it a thing of <i>degrees</i>? And is it simply +because we have something <i>more</i> of the same faculties +which belong to brutes, that we become the objects of +God's special and fatherly care, the <i>distinguished</i> objects of +his Providence, and the <i>sole</i> objects of his Grace?—<i>Doth +God take care for oxen?</i> But why not?</p> + +<p>I assure my readers, that I have no desire to treat with +disrespect and contumely the opinions of great or good +men; but the distinction in question, and the assertion and +exhibition of the higher prerogatives of reason, as an essential +constituent of our being, are so vitally important, in +my apprehension, to the formation and support of any +rational system of philosophy, and—no less than the distinction +before treated of—so pregnant of consequences to +the interests of truth, in morals, and religion, and indeed of +all truth, that mere opinion and the authority of names may +well be disregarded. The discussion, moreover, relates to +facts, and to such facts, too, as are not to be learned from +the instruction, or received on the authority, of any man. +They must be ascertained by every man for himself, by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxii" id="Page_lxii">{lxii}</a></span> +reflection upon the processes and laws of his own inward +being, or they are not learned at all to any valuable purpose. +We do indeed find in ourselves then, as no one will deny, +certain powers of intelligence, which we have abundant +reason to believe the brutes possess in common with us in a +greater or less degree. The functions of the understanding, +as treated of in the popular systems of metaphysics, its +faculties of attention, of abstraction, of generalization, the +power of forethought and contrivance, of adapting means +to ends, and the law of association, may be, so far as we can +judge, severally represented more or less adequately in the +instinctive intelligence of the higher orders of brutes. But, +not to anticipate too far a topic treated of in the Work, do +these, or any and all the faculties which we discover in +irrational animals, satisfactorily account to a reflecting +mind for all the <i>phenomena</i> which are presented to our +observation in our own consciousness? Would any supposable +addition to the <i>degree</i> merely of those powers +which we ascribe to brutes, render them <i>rational</i> beings, and +remove the sacred distinction, which law and reason have +sanctioned, between things and persons? Will any such +addition account for our having—what the brute is not +supposed to have—the pure <i>ideas</i> of the geometrician, the +power of ideal construction, the intuition of geometrical or +other necessary and universal truths? Would it give rise, +in irrational animals, to a <i>law of moral rectitude</i> and <i>to +conscience</i>—to the feelings of moral <i>responsibility</i> and +<i>remorse</i>? Would it awaken them to a reflective self-consciousness, +and lead them to form and contemplate the +<i>ideas</i> of the <i>soul</i>, of <i>free-will</i>, of <i>immortality</i>, and of God. +It seems to me, that we have only to reflect for a serious +hour upon what we mean by these, and then to compare +them with our notion of what belongs to a brute, its +inherent powers and their correlative objects, to feel that +they are utterly incompatible—that in the possession of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxiii" id="Page_lxiii">{lxiii}</a></span> +these we enjoy a prerogative which we cannot disclaim +without a violation of reason, and a voluntary abasement of +ourselves—and that we must therefore be possessed of +some <i>peculiar</i> powers—of some source of ideas <i>distinct</i> from +the understanding, differing <i>in kind</i> from any and all of +those which belong to us in common with inferior and +irrational animals.</p> + +<p>But what these powers are, or what is the precise nature +of the distinction between the understanding and reason, +it is not my province, nor have I undertaken, to show. My +object is merely to illustrate its necessity, and the palpable +obscurity, vagueness, and deficiency, in this respect, of the +mode of philosophizing, which is held in so high honour +among us. The distinction itself will be found illustrated +with some of its important bearings in the Work, and in +the notes attached to it; and cannot be too carefully studied—in +connection with that between nature and the will—by +the student who would acquire distinct and intelligible +notions of what constitutes the truly spiritual in our being, +or find rational grounds for the possibility of a truly +spiritual religion. Indeed, could I succeed in fixing the +attention of the reader upon this distinction, in such a way +as to secure his candid and reflecting perusal of the Work, +I should consider any personal effort or sacrifice abundantly +recompensed. Nor am I alone in this view of its importance. +A literary friend, whose opinion on this subject +would be valued by all who knew the soundness of his +scholarship, says in a letter just now received,—"if you +can once get the attention of thinking men fixed on his +distinction between the reason and the understanding, you +will have done enough to reward the labour of a life. As +prominent a place as it holds in the writings of Coleridge, +he seems to me far enough from making too much of it." +No person of serious and philosophical mind, I am confident, +can reflect upon the subject, enough to understand +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxiv" id="Page_lxiv">{lxiv}</a></span> +it in its various aspects, without arriving at the same views +of the importance of the distinction, whatever may be his +conviction with regard to its truth.</p> + +<p>But, indeed, the only grounds which I find, to apprehend +that the reality of the distinction and the importance of the +consequence resulting from it, will be much longer denied +and rejected among us, is in the overweening assurance +which prevails with regard to the adequateness and perfection +of the system of philosophy which is already +received. It is taken for granted, as a fact undisputed and +indisputable, that this is the most enlightened age of the +world, not only with regard to the more general diffusion +of certain points of practical knowledge; in which, probably, +it may be so, but <i>in all respects</i>; that our whole +system of the philosophy of mind as derived from Lord +Bacon, especially, is the only one, which has any claims to +common sense; and that all distinctions not recognized in +that are consequently unworthy of our regard. What +those Reformers, to whose transcendant powers of mind, +and to whose characters as truly spiritual divines, we are +accustomed to look with feelings of so much general regard, +might find to say in favour of their philosophy, few take +the pains to inquire. Neither they nor the great philosophers +with whom they held communion on subjects of +this sort can appear among us to speak in their own +defence: and even the huge folios and quartos, in which, +though dead, they yet speak—and ought to be heard—have +seldom strayed to this side of the Atlantic. All our information +respecting their philosophical opinions, and the +grounds on which they defended them, has been received +from writers, who were confessedly advocating a system of +recent growth, at open war with every thing more ancient, +and who, in the great abundance of their self-complacency, +have represented their own discoveries as containing the +sum and substance of all philosophy, and the accumulated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxv" id="Page_lxv">{lxv}</a></span> +treasures of ancient wisdom as unworthy the attention of +"this enlightened age." Be it so—yet the <i>foolishness</i> +of antiquity, if it be <i>of God</i>, may prove <i>wiser than men</i>. It +may be found that the philosophy of the Reformers and +their religion are essentially connected, and must stand or +fall together. It may at length be discovered that a system +of religion essentially spiritual, and a system of philosophy +which excludes the very idea of all spiritual power and +agency, in their only distinctive and proper character, +cannot be consistently associated together.</p> + +<p>It is our peculiar misfortune in this country that, while +the philosophy of Locke and the Scottish writers has been +received in full faith, as the only rational system, and its +leading principles especially passed off as unquestionable, +the strong attachment to religion, and the fondness for +speculation, by both of which we are strongly characterized, +have led us to combine and associate these principles, such +as they are, with our religious interests and opinions, so +variously and so intimately, that by most persons they are +considered as necessary parts of the same system; and +from being so long contemplated together, the rejection of +one seems impossible without doing violence to the other. +Yet how much evidence might not an impartial observer +find in examining the theological discussions which have +prevailed, the speculative systems which have been formed +and arrayed against each other, for the last seventy years, +to convince him that there must be some discordance in +the elements, some principle of secret but irreconcilable +hostility between a philosophy and a religion, which, under +every ingenious variety of form and shaping, still stand +aloof from each other and refuse to cohere. For is it not +a fact, that in regard to every speculative system which has +been formed on these philosophical principles,—to every +new shaping of theory which has been devised and has +gained adherents among us,—is it not a fact, I ask, that, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxvi" id="Page_lxvi">{lxvi}</a></span> +all, except those adherents, the <i>system</i>—the philosophical +<i>theory</i>—has seemed dangerous in its tendency, and at war +with orthodox views of religion—perhaps even with the +attributes of God? Nay, to bring the matter still nearer +and more plainly to view, I ask, whether at this moment +the organs and particular friends of our leading theological +seminaries in New England, both devotedly attached to an +orthodox and spiritual system of religion, and expressing +mutual confidence as to the <i>essentials</i> of their mutual faith, +do not each consider the other as holding a philosophical +<i>theory</i> subversive of orthodoxy? If I am not misinformed, +this is the simple fact.</p> + +<p>Now, if these things be so, I would ask again with all +earnestness, and out of regard to the interests of truth +alone, whether serious and reflecting men may not be +permitted, without the charge of heresy in <span class="smcap">Religion</span>, to +stand in doubt of this <span class="smcap">Philosophy</span> <i>altogether</i>; whether +these facts which will not be disputed, do not furnish just +grounds for suspicion, that the principles of our philosophy +may be erroneous, or at least induce us to look with +candour and impartiality at the claims of another and a +different system?</p> + +<p>What are the claims of the system, to which the attention +of the public is invited in this Work, can be +understood fully, only by a careful and reflecting examination +of its principles in connection with the conscious wants +of our own inward being—the requirements of our own +reason and consciences. Its purpose and tendency, I have +endeavoured in some measure to exhibit; and if the +influence of authority, which the prevailing system furnishes +against it, can and must be counteracted by anything of a +like kind—(and whatever professions we may make, the +influence of authority produces at least a predisposing effect +upon our minds)—the remarks which I have made, will +show, that the principles here taught are not wholly unauthorized +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxvii" id="Page_lxvii">{lxvii}</a></span> +by men, whom we have been taught to reverence +among the great and good. I cannot but add, as a matter +of simple justice to the question, that however our prevailing +system of philosophizing may have appealed to the +authority of Lord Bacon, it needs but a candid examination +of his writings, especially the first part of his <i>Novum +Organum</i>, to be convinced that such an appeal is without +grounds; and that in fact the fundamental principles of +his philosophy are the same with those taught in this +work. The great distinction especially, between the understanding +and the reason, is clearly and fully recognized; +and as a philosopher he would be far more properly +associated with Plato, or even Aristotle, than with the +modern philosophers, who have miscalled their systems by +his name. In our own times, moreover, there is abundant +evidence, whatever may be thought of the principles of this +Work here, that the same general views of philosophy are +regaining their ascendancy elsewhere. In Great Britain +there are not few, who begin to believe that the deep-toned +and sublime eloquence of Coleridge on these great +subjects may have something to claim their attention +besides a few peculiarities of language. In Paris, the +doctrines of a rational and spiritual system of philosophy +are taught to listening and admiring thousands by one of +the most learned and eloquent philosophers of the age; +and in Germany, if I mistake not, the same general views +are adopted by the serious friends of religious truth among +her great and learned men.</p> + +<p>Such—as I have no doubt—must be the case, wherever +thinking men can be brought distinctly and impartially to +examine their claims; and indeed to those who shall study +and comprehend the general history of philosophy, it must +always be matter of special wonder, that in a Christian +community, anxiously striving to explain and defend the +doctrines of Christianity in their spiritual sense, there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxviii" id="Page_lxviii">{lxviii}</a></span> +should have been a long-continued and tenacious adherence +to philosophical principles, so subversive of their faith in +everything distinctively spiritual; while those of an +opposite tendency, and claiming a near relationship and +correspondence with the truly spiritual in the Christian +system, and the mysteries of its sublime faith, were looked +upon with suspicion and jealousy, as unintelligible or +dangerous metaphysics.</p> + +<p>And here I must be allowed to add a few remarks with +regard to the popular objections against the system of +philosophy, the claims of which I am urging, especially +against the writings of the Author, under whose name it +appears in the present Work. These are various and +often contradictory, but usually have reference either to +his peculiarities of language, or to the depth—whether +apparent or real,—and the unintelligibleness, of his +thoughts.</p> + +<p>To the first of these it seems to me a sufficient answer, +for a mind that would deal honestly and frankly by itself, +to suggest that in the very nature of things it is impossible +for a writer to express by a single word any truth, or to +mark any distinction, not recognized in the language of +his day, unless he adopts a word entirely new, or gives to +one already in use a new and more peculiar sense. Now +in communicating truths, which the writer deems of great +and fundamental importance, shall he thus appropriate a +single word old or new, or trust to the vagueness of +perpetual circumlocution? Admitting for example, the +existence of the important distinction, for which this writer +contends, between the understanding and reason, and that +this distinction when recognized at all, is confounded in +the common use of language by employing the words +indiscriminately, shall he still use these words indiscriminately, +and either invent a new word, or mark the distinction +by descriptive circumlocutions, or shall he assign +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxix" id="Page_lxix">{lxix}</a></span> +a more distinctive and precise meaning to the words already +used? It seems to me obviously more in accordance with +the laws and genius of language to take the course which +he has adopted. But in this case and in many others, +where his language seems peculiar, it cannot be denied +that the words had already been employed in the same +sense, and the same distinctions recognized, by the older and +many of the most distinguished writers in the language.</p> + +<p>With regard to the more important objection, that the +<i>thoughts</i> of Coleridge are <i>unintelligible</i>, if it be intended to +imply, that his language is not in itself expressive of an +intelligible meaning, or that he affects the appearance of +depth and mystery, while his thoughts are common-place, +it is an objection, which no one who has read his Works +attentively, and acquired a feeling of interest for them, will +treat their Author with so much disrespect as to answer at +all. Every such reader <i>knows</i> that he uses words uniformly +with astonishing precision, and that language becomes, in +his use of it—in a degree, of which few writers can give us +a conception—a living power, "consubstantial" with the +power of thought, that gave birth to it, and awakening and +calling into action a corresponding energy in our own +minds. There is little encouragement, moreover, to answer +the objections of any man, who will permit himself to be +incurably prejudiced against an Author by a few peculiarities +of language, or an apparent difficulty of being +understood, and without inquiring into the cause of that +difficulty, where at the same time he cannot but see and +acknowledge the presence of great intellectual and moral +power.</p> + +<p>But if it be intended by the objection to say simply, that +the thoughts of the Author are often difficult to be apprehended—that +he makes large demands not only upon the +attention, but upon the reflecting and thinking powers, of +his readers, the fact is not, and need not be, denied; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxx" id="Page_lxx">{lxx}</a></span> +it will only remain to be decided, whether the instruction +offered, as the reward, will repay us for the expenditure of +thought required, or can be obtained for less. I know it +is customary in this country, as well as in Great Britain—and +that too among men from whom different language +might be expected—to affect either contempt or modesty, +in regard to all that is more than common-place in philosophy, +and especially "Coleridge's Metaphysics," as "too +deep for them." Now it may not be every man's duty, or +in every man's power, to devote to such studies the time +and thought necessary to understand the deep things of +philosophy. But for one who professes to be a scholar, +and to cherish a manly love of truth for the truth's sake, to +object to a system of metaphysics because it is "too <i>deep</i> +for him," must be either a disingenuous insinuation, that +its depths are not worth exploring—which is more than the +objector knows—or a confession, that—with all his professed +love of truth and knowledge—he prefers to "sleep +after dinner." The misfortune is, that men have been +cheated into a belief, that all philosophy and metaphysics +worth knowing are contained in a few volumes, which can +be understood with little expense of thought; and that +they may very well spare themselves the vexation of trying +to comprehend the depths of "Coleridge's Metaphysics." +According to the popular notions of the day, it is a very +easy matter to understand the philosophy of mind. A new +work on philosophy is as easy to read as the last new novel; +and superficial, would-be scholars, who have a very sensible +horror at the thought of studying Algebra, or the doctrine +of fluxions, can yet go through a course of moral sciences, +and know all about the philosophy of the mind.</p> + +<p>Now why will not men of sense, and men who have any +just pretensions to scholarship, see that there must of +necessity be gross sophistry somewhere in any system of +metaphysics, which pretends to give us an adequate and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxi" id="Page_lxxi">{lxxi}</a></span> +scientific self-knowledge—to render comprehensible to us +the mysterious laws of our own inward being, with less +manly and persevering effort of thought on our part, than +is confessedly required to comprehend the simplest of those +sciences, all of which are but some of the <i>phænomena</i> from +which the laws in question are to be inferred?—Why will +they not see and acknowledge—what one would suppose a +moment's reflection would teach them—that to attain true +self-knowledge by reflection upon the objects of our inward +consciousness—not merely to understand the motives of +our conduct as conscientious Christians, but to know ourselves +scientifically as philosophers—must, of necessity, be +the most deep and difficult of all our attainments in knowledge? +I trust that what I have already said will be +sufficient to expose the absurdity of objections against +metaphysics in general, and do something towards showing, +that we are in actual and urgent need of a system somewhat +deeper than those, the contradictions of which have +not without reason made the name of philosophy a terror +to the friends of truth and of religion. "False metaphysics +can be effectually counteracted by true metaphysics alone; +and if the reasoning be clear, solid, and pertinent, the truth +deduced can never be the less valuable on account of the +depth from which it may have been drawn." It is a fact, +too, of great importance to be kept in mind, in relation to +this subject, that in the study of ourselves—in attaining a +knowledge of our own being,—there are truths of vast +concernment, and lying at a great depth, which yet no man +can draw for another. However the depth may have been +fathomed, and the same truth brought up by others, for a +light and a joy to their own minds, it must still remain, +and be sought for by us, each for himself, at the bottom of +the well.</p> + +<p>The system of philosophy here taught does not profess to +make men philosophers, or—which ought to mean the same +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxii" id="Page_lxxii">{lxxii}</a></span> +thing—to guide them to the knowledge of themselves, without +the labour both of attention and of severe thinking. +If it did so, it would have, like the more popular works of +philosophy, far less affinity than it now has, with the mysteries +of religion, and those profound truths concerning our +spiritual being and destiny, which are revealed in the <i>things +hard to be understood</i> of St. Paul and of the <i>beloved disciple</i>. +For I cannot but remind my readers again, that the Author +does not undertake to teach us the philosophy of the human +mind, with the exclusion of the truths and influences of +religion. He would not undertake to philosophize respecting +the being and character of man, and at the same time +exclude from his view the very principle which constitutes +his proper humanity: he would not, in teaching the doctrine +of the solar system, omit to mention the sun, and the law +of gravitation. He professes to investigate and unfold the +being of man <i>as man</i>, in his higher, his peculiar, and distinguishing +attributes. These it is, which are hard to be +understood, and to apprehend which requires the exercise +of deep reflection and exhausting thought. Nor in aiming +at this object would he consider it very philosophical to +reject the aid and instruction of eminent writers on the +subject of religion, or even of the volume of Revelation +itself. He would consider St. Augustine as none the less a +philosopher, because he became a Christian. The Apostles +John and Paul were, in the view of this system of philosophy, +the most rational of all writers, and the New Testament +the most philosophical of all books. They are so because +they unfold more fully, than any other, the true and essential +principles of our being; because they give us a clearer and +deeper insight into those constituent laws of our humanity, +which as men, and therefore as philosophers, we are most +concerned to know. Not only to those, who seek the +practical self-knowledge of the humble, spiritually-minded +Christian, but to those also, who are impelled by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxiii" id="Page_lxxiii">{lxxiii}</a></span> +"heaven descended <span title="gnôthi seauton">γνωθι σεαυτον</span>" to study themselves as +philosophers, and to make self-knowledge a science, the +truths of Scripture are a light and a revelation. The more +earnestly we reflect upon these and refer them, whether as +Christians or as philosophers, to the movements of our +inward being—to the laws which reveal themselves in our +own consciousness, the more fully shall we understand, not +only the language of Scripture, but all that most demands +and excites the curiosity of the genuine philosopher in the +mysterious character of man. It is by this guiding light, +that we can best search into and apprehend the constitution +of that "marvellous microcosm," which, the more it has +been known, has awakened more deeply the wonder and +admiration of the true philosopher in every age.</p> + +<p>Nor would the Author of this Work, or those who have +imbibed the spirit of his system, join with the philosophers +of the day in throwing aside and treating with a contempt, +as ignorant as it is arrogant, the treasures of ancient wisdom. +<i>He</i>, says the son of Sirach, <i>that giveth his mind to the law of +the Most High, and is occupied in the meditation thereof, will +seek out the wisdom of all the ancient</i>. In the estimation of +the true philosopher, the case should not be greatly altered +in the present day; and now that two thousand years have +added such rich and manifold abundance to those ancient +"sayings of the wise," he will still approach them with +reverence, and receive their instruction with gladness of +heart. In seeking to explore and unfold these deeper and +more solemn mysteries of our being, which inspire us with +awe, while they baffle our comprehension, he will especially +beware of trusting to his own understanding, or of contradicting, +in compliance with the self-flattering inventions +of a single age, the universal faith and consciousness of the +human race. On such subjects, though he would call no +man master, yet neither would he willingly forego the aids +to be derived, in the search after truth, from those great +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxiv" id="Page_lxxiv">{lxxiv}</a></span> +oracles of human wisdom—those giants in intellectual +power who from generation to generation were admired +and venerated by the great and good. Much less could he +think it becoming, or consistent with his duty to hazard +the publication of his own thoughts on subjects of the +deepest concernment, and on which minds of greatest depth +and power had been occupied in former ages, while confessedly +ignorant alike of their doctrines and of the arguments +by which they are sustained.</p> + +<p>It is in this spirit, that the Author of the work here +offered to the public has prepared himself to deserve the +candid and even confiding attention of his readers, with +reference to the great subject of which he treats.</p> + +<p>And although the claims of the Work upon our attention, +as of every other work, must depend more upon its inherent +and essential character, than upon the worth and authority +of its Author, it may yet be of service to the reader to +know, that he is no hasty or unfurnished adventurer in the +department of authorship to which the Work belongs. +The discriminating reader of this Work cannot fail to discover +his profound knowledge of the philosophy of language, +the principles of its construction, and the laws of its interpretation. +In others of his works, perhaps more fully than +in this, there is evidence of an unrivalled mastery over all +that pertains both to logic and philology. It has been +already intimated, that he is no contemner of the great +writers of antiquity and of their wise sentences; and probably +few English scholars, even in those days when there +were giants of learning in Great Britain, had minds more +richly furnished with the treasures of ancient lore. But +especially will the reader of this Work observe with admiration +the profoundness of his philosophical attainments, +and his thorough and intimate knowledge, not only of the +works and systems of Plato and Aristotle, and of the celebrated +philosophers of modern times, but of those too much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxv" id="Page_lxxv">{lxxv}</a></span> +neglected writings of the Greek and Roman Fathers, and +of the great leaders of the Reformation, which more particularly +qualified him for discussing the subjects of the +present Work. If these qualifications, and—with all these, +and above all—a disposition professed and made evident +seriously to value them, chiefly as they enable him more +fully and clearly to apprehend and illustrate the truths of +the Christian system,—if these, I say, can give an Author +a claim to serious and thoughtful attention, then may the +Work here offered urge its claim upon the reader. My own +regard for the cause of truth, for the interests of philosophy, +of reason, and of religion, lead me to hope that they may +not be urged in vain.</p> + +<p>Of his general claims to our regard, whether from exalted +personal and moral worth, or from the magnificence of his +intellectual powers, and the vast extent and variety of his +accumulated stores of knowledge, I shall not venture to +speak. If it be true indeed that a really great mind can +be worthily commended only by those who adequately both +appreciate and <i>comprehend</i> its greatness, there are few who +should undertake to estimate, and set forth in appropriate +terms, the intellectual power and moral worth of Samuel +Taylor Coleridge. Neither he, nor the public, would be +benefited by such commendations as I could bestow. The +few among us who have read his works with the attention +which they deserve, are at no loss what rank to assign him +among the writers of the present age; to those who have +not, any language which I might use would appear hyperbolical +and extravagant. The character and influence of +his principles as a philosopher, a moralist, and a Christian, +and of the writings by which he is enforcing them, do not +ultimately depend upon the estimation in which they may +now be held; and to posterity he may safely entrust those +"productive ideas" and "living words"—those</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">—— truths that wake,</span> +<span class="i2">To perish never,</span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxvi" id="Page_lxxvi">{lxxvi}</a></span> +the possession of which will be for their benefit, and connected +with which, in the language of the Son of Sirach,—<i>His +own memorial shall not depart away, and his name shall +live from generation to generation</i>.</p> + +<p class="right">J. M.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_13" id="Ref_13" href="#Foot_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_7" id="Foot_7" href="#Ref_7">[7]</a> +President of the University of Vermont, United States, where his +Essay was first published with Dr. Marsh's edition of the 'Aids,' 1829. +See Mr. H. N. Coleridge's Advertisement to the Fourth Edition, <i>ante</i>, +p. xii.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_8" id="Foot_8" href="#Ref_8">[8]</a> +See pp. 172, 208, 223, &c.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_9" id="Foot_9" href="#Ref_9">[9]</a> +Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria,' p. 301, Bohn's edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_10" id="Foot_10" href="#Ref_10">[10]</a> +Introductory Aphorisms, XVI., p. 8.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_11" id="Foot_11" href="#Ref_11">[11]</a> +Also in Appendix B of the 'Statesman's Manual, Bohn's edition +p, 337.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_12" id="Foot_12" href="#Ref_12">[12]</a> +The 'Quarterly Christian Spectator,' of New Haven, U.S. The +letter referred to is signed "Pacificus," and appeared in answer to a +review of "Taylor and Harvey" (American divines), "On Human +Depravity," which had appeared in the previous number of the +Q.C.S.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_13" id="Foot_13" href="#Ref_13">[13]</a> +Dr. Marsh's signature to the "Advertisement" published with the +above essay in its revised American edition was dated "Burlington, +Dec. 26 1839."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">{1}</a></span></p> + +<div class="break-before"> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p class="large">AIDS TO REFLECTION.</p> +</div> + +<h3>INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS.</h3> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM I.</h4> + +<p class="dropcap">IN philosophy equally as in poetry, it is the highest and +most useful prerogative of genius to produce the +strongest impressions of novelty, while it rescues admitted +truths from the neglect caused by the very circumstance +of their universal admission. Extremes meet. Truths, of +all others the most awful and interesting, are too often +considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, +and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by +side with the most despised and exploded errors.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM II.</h4> + +<p>There is one sure way of giving freshness and importance +to the most <i>common-place</i> maxims—that of <i>reflecting</i> +on them in direct reference to our own state and conduct, +to our own past and future being.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM III.</h4> + +<p>To restore a common-place truth to its first <i>uncommon</i> +lustre, you need only <i>translate</i> it into action. But to do +this, you must have <i>reflected</i> on its truth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">{2}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM IV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>It is the advice of the wise man, 'Dwell at home,' or, +with yourself; and though there are very few that do this, +yet it is surprising that the greatest part of mankind cannot +be prevailed upon, at least to visit themselves sometimes; +but, according to the saying of the wise Solomon, <i>The eyes +of the fool are in the ends of the earth</i>.</p> + +<p>A reflecting mind, says an ancient writer, is the spring +and source of every good thing. ('<i>Omnis boni principium +intellectus cogitabundus.</i>') It is at once the disgrace and +the misery of men, that they live without fore-thought. +Suppose yourself fronting a mirror. Now what the objects +behind you are to their images at the same apparent distance +before you, such is Reflection to Fore-thought. As +a man without Fore-thought scarcely deserves the name of +a man, so Fore-thought without Reflection is but a metaphorical +phrase for the <i>instinct</i> of a beast.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM V.</h4> + +<p>As a fruit-tree is more valuable than any one of its fruits +singly, or even than all its fruits of a single season, so the +noblest object of reflection is the mind itself, by which we +reflect:</p> + +<p>And as the blossoms, the green, and the ripe, fruit, of an +orange-tree are more beautiful to behold when on the tree +and seen as one with it, than the same growth detached +and seen successively, after their importation into another +country and different clime; so is it with the manifold +objects of reflection, when they are considered principally +in reference to the reflective power, and as part and parcel +of the same. No object, of whatever value our passions +may represent it, but becomes <i>foreign</i> to us, as soon as it is +altogether unconnected with our intellectual, moral, and +spiritual life. To be <i>ours</i>, it must be referred to the mind +either as motive, or consequence, or symptom.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">{3}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM VI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>He who teaches men the principles and precepts of +spiritual wisdom, before their minds are called off from +foreign objects, and turned inward upon themselves, might +as well write his instructions, as the Sibyl wrote her prophecies, +on the loose leaves of trees, and commit them to +the mercy of the inconstant winds.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM VII.</h4> + +<p>In order to learn we must <i>attend</i>: in order to profit by +what we have learnt, we must <i>think</i>—<i>i.e.</i> reflect. He only +thinks who <i>reflects</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_14" id="Ref_14" href="#Foot_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_14" id="Foot_14" href="#Ref_14">[14]</a> +The indisposition, nay, the angry aversion to <i>think</i>, even in persons +who are most willing to <i>attend</i>, and on the subjects to which they are +giving studious <i>attention</i>—as Political Economy, Biblical Theology, +Classical Antiquities, and the like,—is the phenomenon that forces itself +on my notice afresh, every time I enter into the society of persons in +the higher ranks. To assign a <i>feeling</i> and a determination of <i>will</i>, as +a satisfactory reason for embracing or rejecting this or that opinion +or belief, is of ordinary occurrence, and sure to obtain the sympathy +and the suffrages of the company. And yet to me, this seems little less +irrational than to apply the nose to a picture, and to decide on its +genuineness by the sense of smell.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM VIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>It is a matter of great difficulty, and requires no ordinary +skill and address, to fix the attention of men on the +world within them, to induce them to study the processes +and superintend the works which they are themselves +carrying on in their own minds; in short, to awaken in +them both the faculty of thought<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_15" id="Ref_15" href="#Foot_15">[15]</a></span> +and the inclination to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">{4}</a></span> +exercise it. For alas! the largest part of mankind are +nowhere greater strangers than at home.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_15" id="Foot_15" href="#Ref_15">[15]</a> +<i>Distinction between Thought and Attention.</i>—By <span class="smcap">thought</span> is here +meant the voluntary reproduction in our own minds of those states of +consciousness, or (to use a phrase more familiar to the religious reader) +of those inward experiences, to which, as to his best and most authentic +documents, the teacher of moral or religious truth refers us. In <span class="smcap">attention</span>, +we keep the mind <i>passive</i>: in <span class="smcap">thought</span> we rouse it into activity. +In the former, we submit to an impression—we keep the mind steady in +order to <i>receive</i> the stamp. In the latter, we seek to <i>imitate</i> the artist, +while we ourselves make a copy or duplicate of his work. We may +learn arithmetic, or the elements of geometry, by continued attention +alone; but <i>self</i>-knowledge, or an insight into the laws and constitutions +of the human mind, and the <i>grounds</i> of religion and true morality, in +addition to the effort of attention requires the energy of <span class="smcap">thought</span>.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM IX.</h4> + +<p>Life is the one universal soul, which, by virtue of the +enlivening <span class="smcap">Breath</span>, and the informing <span +class="smcap">Word</span>, all organized +bodies have in common, each <i>after its kind</i>. This, therefore, +all animals possess, and man as an animal. But, in +addition to this, God transfused into man a higher gift, +and specially imbreathed:—even a living (that is, self-subsisting) +soul, a soul having its life in itself. "And +man became a living soul." He did not merely <i>possess</i> it, +he <i>became</i> it. It was his proper <i>being</i>, his truest <i>self</i>, <i>the</i> +man <i>in</i> the man. None then, not one of human kind, so +poor and destitute, but there is provided for him, even in +his present state, <i>a house not built with hands</i>. Aye, and +spite of the philosophy (falsely so called) which mistakes +the causes, the conditions, and the occasions of our becoming +<i>conscious</i> of certain truths and realities for the +truths and realities themselves—a house gloriously furnished. +Nothing is wanted but the eye, which is the light +of this house, the light which is the eye of this soul. This +<i>seeing</i> light, this <i>enlightening</i> eye, is Reflection.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_16" id="Ref_16" href="#Foot_16">[16]</a></span> +It is more, +indeed, than is ordinarily meant by that word; but it is +what a Christian ought to mean by it, and to know too, +whence it first came, and still continues to come—of what +light even this light is <i>but</i> a reflection. This, too, is +<span class="smcap">thought</span>; and all thought is but unthinking that does not +flow out of this, or tend towards it.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_16" id="Foot_16" href="#Ref_16">[16]</a> +The "<i>dianoia</i>" of 1 John v. 20, inaccurately rendered +"understanding" in our translation. To exhibit the full force of the +Greek word, we must say, <i>a power of discernment by Reason</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">{5}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM X.</h4> + +<p>Self-superintendence! that anything should overlook +itself! Is not this a paradox, and hard to understand? It +is, indeed, difficult, and to the imbruted sensualist a direct +contradiction: and yet most truly does the poet exclaim,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">—— Unless <i>above</i> himself he can</span> +<span class="i2">Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!</span> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XI.</h4> + +<p>An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, +or the conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion or +"subtle bosom sin," will teach us more of thought, will +more effectually awaken the <i>faculty</i>, and form the <i>habit</i>, of +reflection, than a year's study in the schools without them.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XII.</h4> + +<p>In a world, the opinions of which are drawn from outside +shows, many things may be <i>paradoxical</i>, (that is, contrary +to the common notion) and nevertheless true: nay, +<i>because</i> they are true. How should it be otherwise, as long +as the imagination of the Worldling is wholly occupied by +surfaces, while the Christian's thoughts are fixed on the +substance, that which <i>is</i> and abides, and which, <i>because</i> it +is the substance,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_17" id="Ref_17" href="#Foot_17">[17]</a></span> +the outward senses cannot recognize. +Tertullian had good reason for his assertion, that the +simplest Christian (if indeed a Christian) knows more than +the most accomplished irreligious philosopher.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">{6}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Let it not, however, be forgotten, that the powers of the +understanding and the intellectual graces are precious gifts +of God; and that every Christian, according to the opportunities +vouchsafed to him, is bound to cultivate the one +and to acquire the other. Indeed, he is scarcely a Christian +who wilfully neglects so to do. What says the apostle? +Add to your faith <i>knowledge</i>, and to knowledge <i>manly +energy</i>: for this is the proper rendering of <span title="aretên">αρετην</span>, and not +<i>virtue</i>, at least in the present and ordinary acceptation of +the word.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_18" id="Ref_18" href="#Foot_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_17" id="Foot_17" href="#Ref_17">[17]</a> +<i>Quod stat subtus</i>, that which stands <i>beneath</i>, and (as it were) supports, +the appearance. In a language like ours, where so many words +are derived from other languages, there are few modes of instruction +more useful or more amusing than that of accustoming young people to +seek for the etymology, or primary meaning, of the words they use. +There are cases, in which more knowledge of more value may be conveyed +by the history of a <i>word</i>, than by the history of a campaign.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_18" id="Foot_18" href="#Ref_18">[18]</a> +I am not ashamed to confess that I dislike the frequent use of the +word virtue, instead of righteousness, in the pulpit: and that in prayer +or preaching before a Christian community, it sounds too much like +<i>Pagan</i> philosophy. The passage in St. Peter's epistle is the only scripture +authority that can be pretended for its use, and I think it right, +therefore, to notice that it rests either on an oversight of the translators, +or on a change in the meaning of the word since their time.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XIII.</h4> + +<p>Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine Word +(by whom <i>light</i>, as well as immortality, was brought into +the world), which did not expand the intellect, while it +purified the heart;—which did not multiply the aims and +objects of the understanding, while it fixed and simplified +those of the desires and passions.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_19" id="Ref_19" href="#Foot_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">{7}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>If acquiescence without insight; if warmth without +light; if an immunity from doubt, given and guaranteed +by a resolute ignorance; if the habit of <i>taking for granted</i> +the words of a catechism, remembered or forgotten; if a +mere <i>sensation</i> of positiveness substituted—I will not say, +for the <i>sense</i> of <i>certainty</i>; but—for that calm assurance, +the very means and conditions of which it supersedes; if a +belief that seeks the darkness, and yet strikes no root, +immovable as the limpet from the rock, and like the +limpet, fixed there by mere force of adhesion; if these +suffice to make men Christians, in what sense could the +apostle affirm that believers receive, not indeed worldly +wisdom, that comes to nought, but the wisdom of God, +that we might <i>know and comprehend</i> the things that are +freely given to us of God? On what grounds could he +denounce the sincerest <i>fervour</i> of spirit as <i>defective</i>, where it +does not likewise bring forth fruits in the <span class="smcap">understanding</span>?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_19" id="Foot_19" href="#Ref_19">[19]</a> +The effects of a zealous ministry on the intellects and acquirements +of the labouring classes are not only attested by Baxter, and the Presbyterian +divines, but admitted by Bishop Burnet, who, during his +mission in the west of Scotland, was "amazed to find a poor commonalty +so able to argue," &c. But we need not go to a sister church for +proof or example. The diffusion of light and knowledge through this +kingdom, by the exertions of the Bishops and clergy, by Episcopalians +and Puritans, from Edward VI. to the Restoration, was as wonderful as +it is praiseworthy, and may be justly placed among the most remarkable +facts of history.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XIV.</h4> + +<p>In our present state, it is little less than impossible that +the affections should be kept constant to an object which +gives no employment to the understanding, and yet cannot +be made manifest to the senses. The exercise of the +reasoning and reflecting powers, increasing insight, and +enlarging views, are requisite to keep alive the substantial +faith in the heart.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XV.</h4> + +<p>In the state of perfection, perhaps, all other faculties +may be swallowed up in love, or superseded by immediate +vision; but it is on the wings of the <span class="smcap">cherubim</span>, that is, +(according to the interpretation of the ancient Hebrew +doctors) the <i>intellectual</i> powers and energies, that we must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">{8}</a></span> +first be borne up to the "pure empyrean." It must be +seraphs, and not the hearts of imperfect mortals, that can +burn unfuelled and self-fed. <i>Give me understanding</i> (is the +prayer of the Royal Psalmist), <i>and I shall observe thy law +with my whole heart</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_20" id="Ref_20" href="#Foot_20">[20]</a></span> +—<i>Thy law is exceeding broad</i>—that is, +comprehensive, pregnant, containing far more than the +apparent import of the words on a first perusal. <i>It is my +meditation all the day.</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_21" id="Ref_21" href="#Foot_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>It is worthy of especial observation, that the Scriptures +are distinguished from all other writings pretending to +inspiration, by the strong and frequent recommendations +of knowledge, and a spirit of inquiry. Without reflection, +it is evident that neither the one can be acquired nor the +other exercised.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_20" id="Foot_20" href="#Ref_20">[20]</a> +Ps. cxix. 34.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_21" id="Foot_21" href="#Ref_21">[21]</a> +Ps. cxix. 97.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVI.</h4> + +<p>The word <i>rational</i> has been strangely abused of late +times. This must not, however, disincline us to the +weighty consideration, that thoughtfulness, and a desire to +rest all our convictions on grounds of right reasoning, are +inseparable from the character of a Christian.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XVII.</h4> + +<p>A reflecting mind is not a flower that grows wild, or +comes up of its own accord. The difficulty is indeed +greater than many, who mistake quick recollection for +thought, are disposed to admit; but how much less than it +would be, had we not been born and bred in a Christian +and Protestant land, few of us are sufficiently aware. Truly +may we, and thankfully ought we to, exclaim with the +Psalmist: <i>The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth +understanding unto the simple</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_22" id="Ref_22" href="#Foot_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_22" id="Foot_22" href="#Ref_22">[22]</a> +Ps. cxix. 130.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XVIII.</h4> + +<p>Examine the journals of our zealous missionaries, I will +not say among the Hottentots or Esquimaux, but in the +highly <i>civilized</i>, though fearfully <i>uncultivated</i>, inhabitants +of ancient India. How often, and how feelingly, do they +describe the difficulty of rendering the simplest chain of +thought intelligible to the ordinary natives, the rapid +exhaustion of their whole power of attention, and with +what distressful effort it is exerted while it lasts! Yet it +is among these that the hideous practices of self-torture +chiefly prevail. O, if folly were no <i>easier</i> than wisdom, +it being often so very much more <i>grievous</i>, how certainly +might these unhappy slaves of superstition be converted to +Christianity! But, alas! to swing by hooks passed +through the back, or to walk in shoes with nails of iron +pointed upwards through the soles—all this is so much less +<i>difficult</i>, demands so much less exertion of the will than to +<i>reflect</i>, and by reflection to gain knowledge and tranquillity!</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>It is not true, that ignorant persons have no notion of +the <i>advantages</i> of truth and knowledge. They confess, +they see and bear witness to these advantages in the +conduct, the immunities, and the superior powers of the +possessors. Were they attainable by pilgrimages the most +toilsome, or penances the most painful, we should assuredly +have as many pilgrims and self-tormentors in the service of +true religion, as now exist under the tyranny of Papal +or Brahman superstition.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XIX.</h4> + +<p>In countries enlightened by the gospel, however, the +most formidable and (it is to be feared) the most frequent +impediment to men's turning the mind inward upon themselves, +is that they are afraid of what they shall find there. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span> +There is an aching hollowness in the bosom, a dark cold +speck at the heart, an obscure and boding sense of +somewhat, that must be kept <i>out of sight</i> of the conscience; +some secret lodger, whom they can neither resolve to eject +or retain.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_23" id="Ref_23" href="#Foot_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Few are so obdurate, few have sufficient strength of +character, to be able to draw forth an evil tendency or +immoral practice into distinct <i>consciousness</i>, without bringing +it in the same moment before an awaking <i>conscience</i>. +But for this very reason it becomes a duty of conscience to +form the mind to a habit of distinct consciousness. An +unreflecting Christian walks in twilight among snares and +pitfalls! He entreats the heavenly Father not to lead him +into temptation, and yet places himself on the very edge of +it, because he will not kindle the torch which his Father +had given into his hands, as a means of prevention, and +lest he should pray too late.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_23" id="Foot_23" href="#Ref_23">[23]</a> +The following sonnet was extracted by me from Herbert's 'Temple,' +in a work long since out of print, for the purity of the language and the +fulness of the sense. But I shall be excused, I trust, in repeating it +here for higher merits and with higher purposes, as a forcible comment +on the words in the text.</p> + +<div class="poem"> + <span class="i4"><i>Graces vouchsafed in a Christian land.</i></span><br /> + <span class="i4">Lord! with what care hast thou begirt us round!</span> + <span class="i4">Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters</span> + <span class="i4">Deliver us to laws. They send us bound</span> + <span class="i4">To rules of reason. Holy messengers;</span> + <span class="i4">Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin;</span> + <span class="i4">Afflictions <i>sorted</i>; anguish of all sizes;</span> + <span class="i4">Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in!</span> + <span class="i4">Bibles laid open; millions of surprizes;</span> + <span class="i4">Blessings beforehand; ties of gratefulness;</span> + <span class="i4">The sound of glory ringing in our ears:</span> + <span class="i4">Without, our shame; within, our consciences;</span> + <span class="i4">Angels and grace; eternal hopes and fears!</span> + <span class="i4">Yet all these fences, and their whole array,</span> + <span class="i4">One cunning <span class="smcap">bosom-sin</span> blows quite away.</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XX.</h4> + +<p>Among the various undertakings of men, can there be +mentioned one more important, can there be conceived one +more sublime, than an intention to form the human mind +anew after the <span class="smcap">divine image</span>? The very intention, if it be +sincere, is a ray of its dawning.</p> + +<p>The requisites for the execution of this high intent may +be comprised under three heads; the prudential, the moral, +and the spiritual.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXI.</h4> + +<p>First, <span class="smcap">religious prudence</span>.—What this is, will be best +explained by its effects and operations. <span class="smcap">Prudence</span> in the +service of <span class="smcap">religion</span> consists in the prevention or abatement +of hindrances and distractions; and consequently in +avoiding, or removing, all such circumstances as, by +diverting the attention of the workman, retard the progress +and hazard the safety of the work. It is likewise +(I deny not) a part of this unworldly prudence, to place +ourselves as much and as often as it is in our power so to +do, in circumstances directly favourable to our great design; +and to avail ourselves of all the <i>positive</i> helps and furtherances +which these circumstances afford. But neither dare +we, as Christians, forget whose and under what dominion +the things are, <i>quæ nos circumstant</i>, that is, which <i>stand +around</i> us. We are to remember, that it is the <i>world</i> that +constitutes our outward circumstances; that in the form of +the world, which is evermore at variance with the Divine +form (or idea) they are cast and moulded; and that of the +means and measures which the same prudence requires in +the forming anew of the Divine Image in the soul, the far +greater number suppose the world at enmity with our +design. We are to avoid its snares, to repel its attacks, to +suspect its aids and succours, and even when compelled to +receive them as allies within our trenches, we are to +commit the outworks alone to their charge, and to keep +them at a jealous distance from the citadel. The powers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span> +of the world are often <i>christened</i>, but seldom christianized. +They are but <i>proselytes of the outer gate</i>; or like the Saxons +of old, enter the land as auxiliaries, and remain in it as +conquerors and lords.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXII.</h4> + +<p>The rules of prudence in general, like the laws of the +stone tables, are for the most part prohibitive. <i>Thou shalt +not</i> is their characteristic formula: and it is an especial +part of Christian prudence that it should be so. Nor would +it be difficult to bring under this head, all the social +obligations that arise out of the relations of the present life, +which the sensual understanding (<span title="to phronêma tês Sarkos">το φρονημα της Σαρκος</span>, +Romans viii. 6.) is of itself able to discover, and the performance +of which, under favourable circumstances, the +merest worldly self-interest, without love or faith, is sufficient +to enforce; but which Christian Prudence enlivens +by a higher principle, and renders symbolic and sacramental. +(Ephesians v. 32.)</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>This then, under the appellation of prudential requisites, +comes first under consideration: and may be regarded as +the shrine and frame-work for the Divine image, into +which the worldly human is to be transformed. We are +next to bring out the Divine Portrait itself, the distinct +features of its countenance, as a sojourner among men; its +benign aspect turned towards its fellow-pilgrims, the extended +arm, and the hand that blesseth and healeth.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIII.</h4> + +<p>The outward service (<span title="Thrêskeia">Θρησκεια</span><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_24" id="Ref_24" href="#Foot_24">[24]</a></span>) +of ancient religion, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span> +rites, ceremonies and ceremonial vestments of the old law, +had morality for their substance. They were the <i>letter</i>, +of which morality was the <i>spirit</i>; the enigma, of which +morality was the <i>meaning</i>. But morality itself is the +service and ceremonial (cultus exterior, <span title="thrêskeia">θρησκεια</span>) of the +Christian religion. The scheme of grace and truth that +<i>became</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_25" id="Ref_25" href="#Foot_25">[25]</a></span> +through Jesus Christ, the faith that <i>looks<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_26" id="Ref_26" href="#Foot_26">[26]</a></span> +down</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span> +<i>into</i> the perfect law of liberty, has <i>light for its garment: +its very robe is righteousness</i>.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Herein the apostle places the pre-eminence, the peculiar +and distinguishing excellence, of the Christian religion. +The ritual is of the same kind, (<span title="homoousion">ὁμοουσιον</span>) though not of +the same order, with the religion itself—not arbitrary or +conventional, as types and hieroglyphics are in relation +to the things expressed by them; but inseparable, consubstantiated +(as it were), and partaking therefore of the same +life, permanence, and intrinsic worth with its spirit and +principle.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_24" id="Foot_24" href="#Ref_24">[24]</a> +See the epistle of St. James, i. 26 27, where, in the authorized +version, the Greek word <span title="thrêskeia">θρησκεια</span> is +falsely rendered <i>religion</i>; whether +by mistake of the translator, or from the intended sense having become +obsolete, I cannot decide. At all events, for the English reader of our +times it has the effect of an erroneous translation. It not only obscures +the connexion of the passage, and weakens the peculiar force and +sublimity of the thought, rendering it comparatively flat and trivial, +almost indeed tautological, but has occasioned this particular verse to be +perverted into a support of a very dangerous error; and the whole +epistle to be considered as a <i>set-off</i> against the epistles and declarations +of St. Paul, instead of (what in fact it is) a masterly comment and confirmation +of the same. I need not inform the religious reader, that +James i. 27, is the favourite text and most boasted authority of +those divines who represent the Redeemer of the world as little more than +a moral reformer, and the Christian faith as a code of ethics, differing +from the moral system of Moses and the prophets by an additional +motive; or rather, by the additional strength and clearness which the +historical fact of the resurrection has given to the same motive.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_25" id="Foot_25" href="#Ref_25">[25]</a> +The Greek word <span title="egeneto">εγενετο</span>, unites in itself the two senses of <i>began to +exist</i> and <i>was made to exist</i>. It exemplifies the force of the <i>middle voice</i>, +in distinction from the verb reflex. In answer to a note on John i. 2., +in the Unitarian version of the New Testament, I think it worth +noticing, that the same word is used in the very same sense by Aristophanes +in that famous parody on the cosmogonies of the Mythic poets, or +the creation of the finite, as delivered, or supposed to be delivered, in +the Cabiric or Samothracian mysteries, in the Comedy of the Birds.</p> + +<div class="poem"> + <span class="i2">—— <span title="genet Ouranos, + Ôkeanos te">γενετ Ουρανος, Ωκεανος τε</span></span> + <span class="i2"><span title="Kai Gê">Και Γη</span>.</span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_26" id="Foot_26" href="#Ref_26">[26]</a> +James i. 25. <span title="O de parakupsas eis nomon teleion ton tês +eleutherias">Ο δε παρακυψας εις νομον τελειον τον της ελευθεριας</span>. +The Greek word, <i>parakupsas</i>, signifies the incurvation or +bending of the body in the act of <i>looking down into</i>; as, for instance, in +the endeavour to see the reflected image of a star in the water at the +bottom of a well. A more happy or forcible word could not have been +chosen to express the nature and ultimate object of reflection, and to enforce +the necessity of it, in order to discover the living fountain and +spring-head of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, +and at the same time to point out the seat and region, where alone it is +to be found. <i>Quantum sumus, scimus.</i> That which we find within ourselves, +which is more than ourselves, and yet the ground of whatever +is good and permanent therein, is the substance and life of all other +knowledge.</p> + +<p class="nodent">N.B. The Familists of the sixteenth century, and similar enthusiasts +of later date, overlooked the essential point, that it was a <i>law</i>, and a +law that involved its own end (<span title="telos">τελος</span>), a +<i>perfect</i> law (<span title="teleios">τελειος</span>) or law that +perfects or completes itself; and therefore, its obligations are called, in +reference to human statutes, <i>imperfect</i> duties, i.e. incoercible from +without. They overlooked that it was a law that <i>portions out</i> +(<span title="Nomos">Νομος</span> <i>from</i> <span +title="nemô">νεμω</span> <i>to allot, or make division of</i>) to each +man the sphere and limits within which it is to be +exercised—which as St. Peter notices of certain profound +passages in the writings of St. Paul, (2 Pet. iii. +16.)—<span title="oi amatheis kai astêriktoi streblousin, hôs +kai tas loipas graphas, pros tên idian autôn apôleian">oι αμαθεις και +αστηρικτοι στρεβλουσιν, ὡς και τας λοιπας γραφας, προς την ιδιαν αυτων +απωλειαν</span>.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIV.</h4> + +<p>Morality is the body, of which the faith in Christ is the +soul—so far indeed its earthly body, as it is adapted to its +state of warfare on earth, and the appointed form and instrument +of its communion with the present world; yet not +"terrestrial," nor of the world, but a celestial body, and +capable of being transfigured from glory to glory, in accordance +with the varying circumstances and outward relations +of its moving and informing spirit.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXV.</h4> + +<p>Woe to the man, who will believe neither power, freedom, +nor morality; because he nowhere finds either entire, or +unmixed with sin, thraldom and infirmity. In the natural +and intellectual realms, we distinguish what we cannot +separate; and in the moral world, we must distinguish <i>in +order to</i> separate. Yea, in the clear distinction of good +from evil the process of separation commences.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>It was customary with religious men in former times, to +make a rule of taking every morning some text, or aphorism,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_27" id="Ref_27" href="#Foot_27">[27]</a></span> +for their occasional meditation during the day, and thus to +fill up the intervals of their attention to business. I do not +point it out for imitation, as knowing too well, how apt +these self-imposed rules are to degenerate into superstition +or hollowness; otherwise I would have recommended the +following as the first exercise.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_27" id="Foot_27" href="#Ref_27">[27]</a> +In accordance with a preceding remark, on the use of etymology in +disciplining the youthful mind to thoughtful habits, and as consistent +with the title of this work, 'Aids to Reflection,' I shall offer no apology +for the following and similar notes:</p> + +<p class="nodent"><i>Aphorism</i>, determinate position, from the Greek, +<i>ap</i>, from; and <i>horizein</i>, +to bound or limit; whence our horizon.—In order to get the full +sense of a word, we should first present to our minds the visual image +that forms its primary meaning. Draw lines of different colours round +the different counties of England, and then cut out each separately, as in +the common play-maps that children take to pieces and put together—so +that each district can be contemplated apart from the rest, as a whole in +itself. This twofold act of circumscribing, and detaching, when it is +exerted by the mind on subjects of reflection and reason, is to <i>aphorize</i>, +and the result an <i>aphorism</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVI.</h4> + +<p>It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order +to distinguish; but it is a still worse, that distinguishes in +order to divide. In the former, we may contemplate the +source of superstition and idolatry;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_28" id="Ref_28" href="#Foot_28">[28]</a></span> +in the latter, of schism, heresy,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_29" id="Ref_29" href="#Foot_29">[29]</a></span> +and a seditious and sectarian spirit.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_30" id="Ref_30" href="#Foot_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_28" id="Foot_28" href="#Ref_28">[28]</a> +<span title="To Noêton diêrêkasin eis pollôn Theôn Idiotêtas">Το +Νοητον διηρηκασιν εις πολλων Θεων Ιδιοτητας</span>.—<i>Damasc. +de Myst. Egypt</i>; that is, They <i>divided</i> the intelligible into +many and several individualities.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_29" id="Foot_29" href="#Ref_29">[29]</a> +From <span title="hairesis">αἱρεσις</span>. Though well aware of its formal and apparent derivation +from <i>haireo</i>, I am inclined to refer both words to <i>airo</i>, as the +primitive term, containing the primary visual image, and therefore +should explain <i>hæresis</i>, as a wilful raising into public notice, an uplifting +(for display) of any particular opinion differing from the established +belief of the church at large, and making it a ground of schism, that +is, division.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_30" id="Foot_30" href="#Ref_30">[30]</a> +I mean these words in their large and philosophic sense in relation +to the <i>spirit</i>, or originating temper and tendency, and not to any one +mode under which, or to any one class, in or by which it may be displayed. +A seditious spirit may (it is possible, though not probable) exist +in the council-chamber of a palace as strongly as in a mob in Palace-Yard; +and a sectarian spirit in a cathedral, no less than in a conventicle.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVII.</h4> + +<p>Exclusive of the abstract sciences, the largest and +worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of <i>aphorisms</i>: +and the greatest and best of men is but an <i>aphorism</i>.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVIII.</h4> + +<p class="smallcond">On the prudential influence which the fear or foresight of the +<i>consequences</i> of his actions, in respect of his own loss or +gain, may exert on a newly-converted Believer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Precautionary remark.</span>—I meddle not with the dispute +respecting <i>conversion</i>, whether, and in what sense, +necessary in all Christians. It is sufficient for my purpose, +that a very <i>large</i> number of men, even in Christian countries, +<i>need</i> to be converted, and that not a few, I trust, have been. +The tenet becomes fanatical and dangerous, only when rare +and extraordinary exceptions are made to be the general +rule;—when what was vouchsafed to the apostle of the Gentiles +by especial grace, and for an especial purpose, namely, +a conversion<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_31" id="Ref_31" href="#Foot_31">[31]</a></span> +begun and completed in the same moment, +is demanded or expected of all men, as a necessary sign and +pledge of their election. Late observations have shown, +that under many circumstances the magnetic needle, even +after the disturbing influence has been removed, will keep +wavering, and require many days before it points aright, +and remains steady to the pole. So is it ordinarily with +the soul, after it has begun to free itself from the disturbing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span> +forces of the flesh and the world, and to convert<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_32" id="Ref_32" href="#Foot_32">[32]</a></span> +itself towards God.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_31" id="Foot_31" href="#Ref_31">[31]</a> +Whereas Christ's other disciples had a breeding under him, St. Paul +was <i>born</i> an apostle; not carved out, as the rest, by degrees and in +course of time, but a <i>fusile</i> apostle, an apostle poured out and cast in a +mould. As Adam was a perfect man in an instant, so was St. Paul a +perfect Christian. The same spirit was the lightning that melted, and +the mould that received and shaped him.—Donne's Sermons—<i>quoted +from memory</i>.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_32" id="Foot_32" href="#Ref_32">[32]</a> +From the Latin, <i>convertere</i>—that is, by an act of the +<span class="smcap">will</span> <i>to turn +towards</i> the true pole, <i>at the same time</i> (for this is the force of the prepositive +<i>con</i>) that the understanding is convinced and made aware of its +existence and direction.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIX.</h4> + +<p>Awakened by the cock-crow, (a sermon, a calamity, a +sick bed, or a providential escape) the Christian pilgrim +sets out in the morning twilight, while yet the truth (the +<span title="nomos teleios ho tês heleutherias">νομος τελειος ὁ της +ἑλευθεριας</span>) is below the horizon. Certain +necessary <i>consequences</i> of his past life and his present undertaking +will be <i>seen</i> by the refraction of its light: more will +be apprehended and conjectured. The phantasms, that had +predominated during the hours of darkness, are still busy. +Though they no longer present themselves as distinct forms, +they yet remain as formative motions in the pilgrim's soul, +unconscious of its own activity and overmastered by its +own workmanship. Things take the signature of thought. +The shapes of the recent dream become a <i>mould</i> for the +objects in the distance; and these again give an outwardness +and a sensation of reality to the shapings of the +dream. The bodings inspired by the long habit of selfishness, +and self-seeking cunning, though they are now commencing +the process of their purification into that fear +which is the <i>beginning</i> of wisdom, and which, as such, is +ordained to be our guide and safeguard, till the sun of love, +the perfect law of liberty, is fully arisen—these bodings +will set the fancy at work, and haply, for a time, transform +the mists of dim and imperfect knowledge into determinate +superstitions. But in either case, whether seen clearly or +dimly, whether beholden or only imagined, the <i>consequences</i>, +contemplated in their bearings on the individual's inherent<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_33" id="Ref_33" href="#Foot_33">[33]</a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span> +desire of happiness and dread of pain, become <i>motives</i>: and +(unless all distinction in the words be done away with, and +either prudence or virtue be reduced to a superfluous +synonyme, a redundancy in all the languages of the civilized +world), these motives, and the acts and forbearances directly +proceeding from them, fall under the head of <span class="smcap">prudence</span>, as +belonging to one or other of its four very distinct species.</p> + +<p>I. It may be a prudence, that stands in opposition to a +higher moral life, and tends to preclude it, and to prevent +the soul from ever arriving at the hatred of sin for its own +exceeding sinfulness (Rom. vii. 13): and this is an <span class="smcap">evil +prudence</span>.</p> + +<p>II. Or it may be a <i>neutral</i> prudence, not incompatible +with spiritual growth: and to this we may, with especial +propriety, apply the words of our Lord, "What is not +<i>against</i> us is for us." It is therefore an innocent, and +(being such) a proper, and <span class="smcap">commendable prudence</span>.</p> + +<p>III. Or it may lead and be subservient to a higher +principle than itself. The mind and conscience of the +individual may be reconciled to it, in the foreknowledge of +the higher principle, and with a yearning towards it that +implies a foretaste of future freedom. The enfeebled convalescent +is reconciled to his crutches, and thankfully makes +use of them, not only because they are necessary for his +immediate support, but likewise, because they are the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span> +means and conditions of <span class="smcap">exercise</span>; and by exercise, of +establishing, <i>gradatim paulatim</i>, that strength, flexibility, +and almost spontaneous obedience of the muscles, which +the idea and cheering presentiment of health hold out to +him. He finds their <i>value</i> in their present necessity, and +their <i>worth</i> as they are the instruments of finally superseding +it. This is a faithful, a <span class="smcap">wise prudence</span>, having indeed, its +birth-place in the world, and the <i>wisdom of this world</i> for +its father; but naturalized in a better land, and having the +wisdom from above for its sponsor and spiritual parent. +To steal a dropt feather from the spicy nest of the Phœnix, +(the fond humour, I mean, of the mystic divines and allegorizers +of Holy Writ,) it is the <i>son of Terah from Ur of the +Chaldees</i>, who gives a tithe of all to the King of Righteousness, +without father, without mother, without descent, +(<span title="Nomos autonomos">Νομος αυτονομος</span>), and receives a +blessing on the remainder.</p> + +<p>IV. Lastly, there is a prudence that co-exists with +morality, as morality co-exists with the spiritual life: a +prudence that is the organ of both, as the understanding is +to the reason and the will, or as the lungs are to the heart +and brain. This is <span class="smcap">a holy prudence</span>, the steward faithful +and discreet, (<span title="oikonomos pistos kai phronimos">οικονομος +πιστος και φρονιμος</span>, Luke xii. 42), +the "eldest servant" in the family of faith, <i>born in the +house</i>, and "made the ruler over his lord's household."</p> + +<p>Let not, then, I entreat you, my purpose be misunderstood; +as if, in <i>distinguishing</i> virtue from prudence, I +wished to divide the one from the other. True morality is +hostile to that prudence only, which is preclusive of true +morality. The teacher, who <i>subordinates</i> prudence to virtue, +cannot be supposed to <i>dispense</i> with it; and he who teaches +the proper connexion of the one with the other, does not +depreciate the lower in any sense; while by making it a +link of the same chain with the higher, and receiving the +same influence, he raises it.</p> + +<p>In general, Morality may be compared to the consonant, +Prudence to the vowel. The former cannot be <i>uttered</i> +(reduced to practice) but by means of the latter.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_33" id="Foot_33" href="#Ref_33">[33]</a> +The following extract from Leighton's 'Theological Lectures,' sect. +II. may serve as a comment on this sentence:</p> + +<p class="nodent">"The human mind, however stunned and weakened by the fall, still +retains some faint idea of the good it has lost; a kind of languid sense +of its misery and indigence, with affections suitable to these obscure +notions. This at least is beyond all doubt and indisputable, that all +men wish well to themselves; nor can the mind divest itself of this propensity, +without divesting itself of its being. This is what the schoolmen +mean, when in their manner of expression they say, that 'the will +(voluntas, <i>not</i> arbitrium) is carried towards happiness not simply as <i>will</i>, +but as <i>nature</i>."</p> + +<p class="nodent">I venture to remark that this position, if not more <i>certainly</i> would be +more <i>evidently</i> true, if instead of <i>beatitudo</i>, the word <i>indolentia</i> (that is, +freedom from pain, negative happiness) had been used. But this depends +on the exact meaning attached to the term <i>self</i>, of which more in another +place. One conclusion, however, follows inevitably from the preceding +position, namely, that this propensity can never be legitimately made the +<i>principle</i> of morality, even because it is no part or appurtenance of the +moral will; and because the proper object of the moral principle is to +limit and control this propensity, and to determine in what it <i>may</i> be, +and in what it <i>ought</i> to be gratified; while it is the business of philosophy +to instruct the understanding, and the office of religion to convince the +whole man, that otherwise than as a <i>regulated</i>, and of course therefore a +<i>subordinate</i>, end, this propensity, innate and inalienable though it be, +can never be realized or fulfilled.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXX.</h4> + +<p>What the duties of <span class="smcap">morality</span> are, the apostle instructs +the believer in full, comprising them under the two heads +of negative and positive; negative, to keep himself pure +from the world; and positive, beneficence from loving-kindness, +that is, love of his fellow-men (his kind) as himself.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXI.</h4> + +<p>Last and highest, come the <i>spiritual</i>, comprising all the +truths, acts, and duties that have an especial reference to the +Timeless, the Permanent, the Eternal: to the sincere love +of the True, <i>as</i> truth; of the Good, <i>as</i> good: and of God +as both in one. It comprehends the whole ascent from +uprightness (morality, virtue, inward rectitude) to <i>godlikeness</i>, +with all the acts, exercises, and disciplines of mind, +will, and affection, that are requisite or conducive to the +great design of our Redemption from the form of the evil +one, and of our second creation or birth in the divine +image.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_34" id="Ref_34" href="#Foot_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_34" id="Foot_34" href="#Ref_34">[34]</a> +It is worthy of observation, and may furnish a fruitful subject for +future reflection, how nearly this scriptural division coincides with the +Platonic, which, <i>commencing</i> with the prudential, or the habit of act and +purpose proceeding from enlightened self-interest, [<i>qui animi imperio, +corporis servitio, rerum auxilio, in proprium sui commodum et sibi providus +utitur, hunc esse prudentem statuimus</i>] <i>ascends</i> to the moral, that is, +to the <i>purifying</i> and <i>remedial</i> virtues; and seeks its <i>summit</i> in the imitation +of the Divine nature. In this last division, answering to that which we +have called the Spiritual, Plato includes all those inward acts and aspirations, +waitings, and watchings, which have a growth in godlikeness for +their immediate purpose, and the union of the human soul with the +Supreme Good as their ultimate object. Nor was it altogether without +grounds that several of the Fathers ventured to believe that Plato had +some dim conception of the necessity of a Divine Mediator, whether +through some indistinct echo of the patriarchal faith, or some rays of +light refracted from the Hebrew prophets through a Phoenician medium, +(to which he may possibly have referred in his phrase, <span title="theoparadotos +sophia">θεοπαραδοτος σοφια</span>, the wisdom delivered from God), or +by his own sense of the mysterious +contradiction in human nature between the will and the reason, +the natural appetences and the not less innate law of conscience (<i>Romans</i> +ii. 14 15.), we shall in vain attempt to determine. It is not impossible +that all three may have co-operated in partially unveiling these awful +truths to this plank from the wreck of paradise thrown on the shores of +idolatrous Greece, to this Divine Philosopher,</p> + +<div class="poem"> + + <span class="i4">Che 'n quella schiera andó più presso al segno</span> + <span class="i4">Al qual aggiunge, a chi dal cielo è dato.</span><br /> + + <span class="i4"><i>Petrarch: Del Trionfo della Fama, Cap. III. 5 6.</i></span> + +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXII.</h4> + +<p>It may be an additional aid to reflection, to distinguish +the three kinds severally, according to the faculty to which +each corresponds, the part of our human nature which is +more particularly its organ. Thus: the prudential corresponds +to the sense and the understanding; the moral to the +heart and the conscience; the spiritual to the will and the +reason, that is, to the finite will reduced to harmony with, +and in subordination to, the reason, as a ray from that true +light which is both reason and will, universal reason, and +will absolute.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span></p> + +<div class="break-before"> + +<div class="frontm"> + +<p>REFLECTIONS,<br /> +<span class="x-small">INTRODUCTORY TO<br /></span> +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS.</p> + +</div> + +<h3>ON SENSIBILITY.</h3> + +</div> + +<p class="dropcap">IF Prudence, though practically inseparable from Morality, +is not to be confounded with the Moral Principle; +still less may Sensibility, that is, a constitutional quickness +of Sympathy with Pain and Pleasure, and a keen sense of +the gratifications that accompany social intercourse, mutual +endearments, and reciprocal preferences, be mistaken, or +deemed a Substitute for either. Sensibility is not even a +sure pledge of a <span class="smcap">good heart</span>, though among the most +common meanings of that many-meaning and too commonly +misapplied expression.</p> + +<p>So far from being either Morality, or one with the +Moral Principle, it ought not even to be placed in the same +rank with Prudence. For Prudence is at least an offspring +of the Understanding; but Sensibility (the Sensibility, I +mean, here spoken of), is for the greater part a quality of +the nerves, and a result of individual bodily temperament.</p> + +<p>Prudence is an <i>active</i> Principle, and implies a sacrifice +of Self, though only to the same Self <i>projected</i>, as it were, +to a distance. But the very term Sensibility, marks its +<i>passive</i> nature; and in its mere self, apart from Choice and +Reflection, it proves little more than the coincidence or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span> +contagion of pleasurable or painful Sensations in different +persons.</p> + +<p>Alas! how many are there in this over-stimulated age, +in which the occurrence of excessive and unhealthy sensitiveness +is so frequent, as even to have reversed the current +meaning of the word, <i>nervous</i>. How many are<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_35" id="Ref_35" href="#Foot_35">[35]</a></span> +there whose sensibility prompts them to remove those evils alone, +which by hideous spectacle or clamorous outcry are present +to their senses and disturb their selfish enjoyments. +Provided the dunghill is not before their parlour window, +they are contented to know that it exists, and perhaps +as the hotbed on which their own luxuries are reared. +Sensibility is not necessarily Benevolence. Nay, by rendering +us tremblingly alive to trifling misfortunes, it frequently +prevents it, and induces an effeminate Selfishness +instead,</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i2">—— pampering the coward heart,</span> +<span class="i2">With feelings all too delicate for use.</span> +<span class="i2">Sweet are the Tears, that from a Howard's eye</span> +<span class="i2">Drop on the cheek of one, he lifts from earth:</span> +<span class="i2">And he, who works me good with unmoved face,</span> +<span class="i2">Does it but half. He chills me, while he aids,</span> +<span class="i2">My Benefactor, not my Brother Man.</span> +<span class="i2">But even this, this <i>cold</i> benevolence,</span> +<span class="i2">Seems Worth, seems Manhood, when there rise before me,</span> +<span class="i2">The sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe,</span> +<span class="i2">Who sigh for wretchedness yet shun the wretched,</span> +<span class="i2">Nursing in some delicious solitude,</span> +<span class="i2">Their slothful Loves and dainty Sympathies.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_36" id="Ref_36" href="#Foot_36">[36]</a></span></span> + +</div> + +<p>Lastly, where Virtue is, Sensibility is the ornament and +becoming Attire of Virtue. On certain occasions it may +almost be said to <i>become</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_37" id="Ref_37" href="#Foot_37">[37]</a></span> +Virtue. But Sensibility and all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span> +the amiable qualities may likewise become, and too often +<i>have</i> become, the panders of Vice and the instruments of +Seduction.</p> + +<p>So must it needs be with all qualities that have their +rise only in <i>parts</i> and <i>fragments</i> of our nature. A man of +warm passions may sacrifice half his estate to rescue a +friend from prison; for he is naturally sympathetic, and +the more social <i>part</i> of his nature happened to be uppermost. +The same man shall afterwards exhibit the same +disregard of money in an attempt to seduce that friend's +wife or daughter.</p> + +<p>All the evil achieved by Hobbes, and the whole School +of Materialists will appear inconsiderable, if it be compared +with the mischief effected and occasioned by the sentimental +Philosophy of <span class="smcap">Sterne</span>, and his numerous imitators. +The vilest appetites and the most remorseless inconstancy +towards their objects, acquired the titles of <i>the Heart, the +irresistible Feelings, the too tender Sensibility;</i> and if the +Frosts of Prudence, the icy chains of Human Law thawed +and vanished at the genial warmth of Human <i>Nature</i>, who +<i>could help it</i>? It was an amiable Weakness!</p> + +<p>About this time, too, the profanation of the word Love, +rose to its height. The French Naturalists, Buffon and +others, borrowed it from the sentimental Novelists: the +Swedish and English Philosophers took the contagion; and +the Muse of Science condescended to seek admission into +the Saloons of Fashion and Frivolity, <i>rouged</i> like a harlot, +and with the harlot's wanton leer. I know not how the +Annals of Guilt could be better forced into the service of +Virtue, than by such a Comment on the present paragraph, +as would be afforded by a selection from the sentimental +correspondence produced in Courts of Justice within the +last thirty years, fairly translated into the true meaning of +the words, and the actual Object and Purpose of the infamous +writers.</p> + +<p>Do you in good earnest aim at Dignity of Character? +By all the treasures of a peaceful mind, by all the charms +of an open countenance, I conjure you, O youth! turn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span> +away from those who live in the Twilight between Vice +and Virtue. Are not Reason, Discrimination, Law, and +deliberate Choice, the distinguishing Characters of Humanity? +Can aught, then, worthy of a human Being, +proceed from a Habit of Soul, which would exclude all +these and (to borrow a metaphor from Paganism) prefer +the den of Trophonius to the Temple and Oracles of the +God of Light? Can any thing <i>manly</i>, I say, proceed from +those, who for Law and Light would substitute shapeless +feelings, sentiments, impulses, which as far as they differ +from the vital workings in the brute animals, owe the +difference to their former connexion with the proper Virtues +of Humanity; as dendrites derive the outlines, that constitute +their value above other clay-stones, from the casual +neighbourhood and pressure of the plants, the names of +which they assume? Remember, that Love itself in its +highest earthly Bearing, as the ground of the marriage +union,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_38" id="Ref_38" href="#Foot_38">[38]</a></span> +becomes Love by an inward <span class="smcap">fiat</span> of the Will, by a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span> +completing and sealing Act of Moral Election, and lays +claim to permanence only under the form of <span class="smcap">duty</span>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_35" id="Foot_35" href="#Ref_35">[35]</a> +This paragraph is abridged from the <i>Watchman</i>, No. IV. March +25 1796; respecting which the inquisitive Reader may consult my +'Literary Life.'—<i>Author's note</i> in editions 1 (1825) and 1836, +since suppressed.—<span class="smcap">ed</span>.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_36" id="Foot_36" href="#Ref_36">[36]</a> +Coleridge's 'Reflections On Having Left a Place of Retirement,' +l. 48, &c. ('Sibylline Leaves,' 1797).—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_37" id="Foot_37" href="#Ref_37">[37]</a> +There sometimes occurs an apparent <i>play</i> on words, which not only +to the Moralizer, but even to the philosophical Etymologist, appears +more than a mere Play. Thus in the double sense of the word, <i>become</i>. +I have known persons so anxious to have their dress <i>become</i> them, as to +convert it at length into their proper self, and thus actually to <i>become</i> +the dress. Such a one, (safeliest spoken of by the <i>neuter</i> pronoun), I +consider as but a suit of <i>live</i> finery. It is indifferent whether we say—It +<i>becomes</i> he, or, he <i>becomes</i> it.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_38" id="Foot_38" href="#Ref_38">[38]</a> +It might be a mean of preventing many unhappy marriages, if the +youth of both sexes had it early impressed on their minds, that Marriage +contracted between Christians is a true and perfect Symbol or Mystery; +that is, the actualizing Faith being supposed to exist in the Receivers, +it is an outward Sign co-essential with that which it signifies, or a living +Part of that, the whole of which it represents. Marriage, therefore, in +the Christian sense (Ephesians v. 22-33), as symbolical of the union of +the Soul with Christ the Mediator, and with God through Christ, is perfectly +a <i>sacramental</i> ordinance, and not retained by the Reformed +Churches as one of <span class="smcap">the</span> Sacraments, for two reasons; first, that the +Sign is not <i>distinctive</i> of the Church of Christ, and the Ordinance not +peculiar nor owing its origin to the Gospel Dispensation; secondly, it is +not of universal obligation, not a means of Grace enjoined on all Christians. +In other and plainer words, Marriage does not contain in itself +an open Profession of Christ, and it is not a Sacrament of the <i>Church</i>, +but only of certain Individual Members of the Church. It is evident, +however, that neither of these reasons affect or diminish the <i>religious</i> +nature and dedicative force of the marriage Vow, or detract from the +solemnity in the Apostolic Declaration: <span class="smcap">This is a great Mystery</span>.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The interest which the state has in the appropriation of one woman +to one man, and the civil obligations therefrom resulting, form an altogether +distinct consideration. When I meditate on the words of the +Apostle, confirmed and illustrated as they are, by so many harmonies +in the Spiritual Structure of our proper Humanity, (in the image of God, +male and female created he the man), and then reflect how little claim +so large a number of legal cohabitations have to the name of Christian +marriages—I feel inclined to doubt whether the plan of celebrating +marriages universally by the Civil Magistrate, in the first instance, and +leaving the <i>religious</i> Covenant and sacramental Pledge to the election of +the parties themselves, adopted during the Republic in England, and in +our own times by the French Legislature, was not <i>in fact</i>, whatever it +might be in intention, <i>reverential</i> to Christianity. At all events, it was +their own act and choice, if the parties made bad worse by the profanation +of a Gospel Mystery.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS.</h3> + +<h4>APHORISM I.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="dropcap">WITH respect to any final aim or end, the greater part +of mankind live at hazard. They have no certain +harbour in view, nor direct their course by any fixed star. +But to him that knoweth not the port to which he is +bound, no wind can be favourable; neither can he who has +not yet determined at what mark he is to shoot, direct his +arrow aright.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, the less true, that there is a proper +object to aim at; and if this object be meant by the term +happiness, (though I think that not the most appropriate +term for a state, the perfection of which consists in the +exclusion of all <i>hap</i> (that is, chance)), I assert that there is +such a thing as human happiness, as <i>summum bonum</i>, or +ultimate good. What this is, the Bible alone shows clearly +and certainly, and points out the way that leads to the +attainment of it. This is that which prevailed with St. +Augustine to study the Scriptures, and engaged his affection +to them. "In Cicero, and Plato, and other such +writers," says he, "I meet with many things acutely said, +and things that excite a certain warmth of emotion, but +in none of them do I find these words, <i>Come unto me, +all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you +rest</i>."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_39" id="Ref_39" href="#Foot_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Felicity, <i>in its proper</i> sense, is but another word for +fortunateness, or happiness; and I can see no advantage in +the improper use of words, when proper terms are to be +found, but, on the contrary, much mischief. For, by +familiarizing the mind to <i>equivocal</i> expressions, that is, +such as may be taken in two or more different meanings, +we introduce confusion of thought, and furnish the sophist +with his best and handiest tools. For the juggle of +sophistry consists, for the greater part, in using a word in +one sense in the premise, and in another sense in the conclusion. +We should accustom ourselves to <i>think</i>, and +<i>reason</i>, in precise and stedfast terms; even when custom, +or the deficiency, or the corruption of the language will +not permit the same strictness in speaking. The mathematician +finds this so necessary to the truths which he is +seeking, that his science begins with, and is founded on, +the definition of his terms. The botanist, the chemist, the +anatomist, &c., feel and submit to this necessity at all +costs, even at the risk of exposing their several pursuits to +the ridicule of the many, by technical terms, hard to be +remembered, and alike quarrelsome to the ear and the +tongue. In the business of moral and religious reflection, +in the acquisition of clear and distinct conceptions of our +duties, and of the relations in which we stand to God, our +neighbour, and ourselves, no such difficulties occur. At +the utmost we have only to rescue words, already existing +and familiar, from the false or vague meanings imposed on +them by carelessness, or by the clipping and debasing +misusage of the market. And surely happiness, duty, +faith, truth, and final blessedness, are matters of deeper and +dearer interest for all men, than circles to the geometrician, +or the characters of plants to the botanist, or the affinities +and combining principle of the elements of bodies to the +chemist, or even than the mechanism (fearful and wonderful +though it be!) of the perishable Tabernacle of the Soul +can be to the anatomist. Among the <i>aids to</i> reflection, +place the following maxim prominent: let distinctness in +expression advance side by side with distinction in thought. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span> +For one useless subtlety in our elder divines and moralists, +I will produce ten sophisms of equivocation in the writings +of our modern preceptors: and for one error resulting from +excess in <i>distinguishing</i> the indifferent, I would show ten +mischievous delusions from the habit of <i>confounding</i> the +diverse. Whether you are reflecting for yourself, or reasoning +with another, make it a rule to ask yourself the +precise meaning of the word, on which the point in question +appears to turn; and if it may be (that is, by writers of +authority <i>has been</i>) used in several senses, then ask which +of these the word is at present intended to convey. By +this mean, and scarcely without it, you will at length +acquire a facility in detecting the <i>quid pro quo</i>. And +believe me, in so doing you will enable yourself to disarm +and expose four-fifths of the main arguments of our most +renowned irreligious philosophers, ancient and modern. +For the <i>quid pro quo</i> is at once the rock and quarry, on and +with which the strong-holds of disbelief, materialism, and +(more pernicious still) epicurean morality are built.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_39" id="Foot_39" href="#Ref_39">[39]</a> +<i>Apud Ciceronem et Platonem, aliosque ejusmodi scriptores, multa sunt +acute dicta, et leniter calentia, sed in iis omnibus hoc non invenio, Venite +ad me</i>, &c. [Matt. xii. 28.]</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM II.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall find +the saying of the wise king Solomon to be unexceptionably +true: <i>Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths +are peace</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_40" id="Ref_40" href="#Foot_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>Doth religion require anything of us more than that we +live <i>soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world</i>? +Now what, I pray, can be more pleasant or peaceable +than these? Temperance is always at leisure, luxury +always in a hurry: the latter weakens the body and +pollutes the soul; the former is the sanctity, purity, and +sound state of both. It is one of Epicurus's fixed maxims, +"That life can never be pleasant without virtue."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>In the works of moralists, both Christian and Pagan, it +is often asserted (indeed there are few common-places of +more frequent recurrence) that the happiness even of this +life consists solely, or principally, in virtue; that virtue is +the only happiness of this life; that virtue is the truest +<i>pleasure</i>, &c.</p> + +<p>I doubt not that the meaning, which the writers intended +to convey by these and the like expressions, was true and +wise. But I deem it safer to say, that in all the outward +relations of this life, in all our outward conduct and +actions, both in what we should do, and in what we should +abstain from, the dictates of virtue are the very same with +those of self-interest, tending <i>to</i>, though they do not proceed +<i>from</i>, the same point. For the outward object of virtue +being the greatest producible sum of happiness of all men, +it must needs include the object of an intelligent self-love, +which is the greatest possible happiness of one individual; +for what is true of all, must be true of each. Hence, you +cannot become better (that is, more virtuous), but you will +become happier: and you cannot become worse (that is, +more vicious), without an increase of misery (or at the best +a proportional loss of enjoyment) as the consequence. If +the thing were not inconsistent with our well-being, and +known to be so, it would not have been classed as a <i>vice</i>. +Thus what in an enfeebled and disordered mind is called +prudence, is the voice of nature in a healthful state: as is +proved by the known fact, that the prudential duties, (that +is, those actions which are commanded by virtue <i>because</i> +they are prescribed by prudence), the animals fulfil by +natural instinct.</p> + +<p>The pleasure that accompanies or depends on a healthy +and vigorous body will be the consequence and reward of a +temperate life and habits of active industry, whether this +pleasure were or were not the chief or only determining +<i>motive</i> thereto. Virtue may, possibly, add to the pleasure +a good of another kind, a higher good, perhaps, than the +worldly mind is capable of understanding, a spiritual complacency, +of which in your present sensualized state you +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span> +can form no idea. It may <i>add</i>, I say, but it cannot detract +from it. Thus the reflected rays of the sun that gave +light, distinction, and endless multiformity to the mind, +afford at the same time the pleasurable sensation of <i>warmth</i> +to the body.</p> + +<p>If then the time has not yet come for any thing higher, +act on the maxim of seeking the most pleasure with +the least pain: and, if only you do not seek where you +yourself <i>know</i> it will not be found, this very pleasure and +this freedom from the disquietude of pain may produce in +you a state of being directly and indirectly favourable +to the germination and up-spring of a nobler seed. If it +be true, that men are miserable because they are wicked, it +is likewise true, that many men are wicked because they +are miserable. Health, cheerfulness, and easy circumstances, +the ordinary consequence of Temperance and +Industry, will at least leave the field clear and open, will +tend to preserve the scales of the judgment even: while +the consciousness of possessing the esteem, respect, and +sympathy of your neighbours, and the sense of your own +increasing power and influence, can scarcely fail to give a +tone of dignity to your mind, and incline you to hope nobly +of your own Being. And thus they may prepare and predispose +you to the sense and acknowledgment of a principle, +differing not merely in degree but in <i>kind</i> from the faculties +and instincts of the higher and more intelligent species +of animals, (the ant, the beaver, the elephant), and which +principle is therefore your proper humanity. And on this +account and with this view alone may certain modes of +pleasurable or <i>agreeable</i> sensation, without confusion of +terms, be honoured with the title of refined, intellectual, +ennobling pleasures. For Pleasure (and happiness in its +proper sense is but the continuity and sum-total of the +pleasure which is allotted or happens to a man, and hence +by the Greeks called <span title="eutuchia">ευτυχια</span>, that is, +good-hap, or more religiously <span +title="eudaimonia">ευδαιμονια</span>, that is, favourable +providence)—pleasure, I say, consists in the harmony between the +specific excitability of a living creature, and the exciting causes +correspondent thereto. Considered therefore exclusively in and for +itself, the only question is, <i>quantum</i>, not <i>quale</i>? <i>How +much on the whole?</i> the contrary, that is, the painful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span> +and disagreeable having been subtracted. The quality is a +matter of <i>taste</i>: <i>et de gustibus non est disputandum</i>. No +man can judge for another.</p> + +<p>This, I repeat, appears to me a safer language than the +sentences quoted above, (that virtue alone is happiness; +that happiness consists in virtue, &c.) sayings which I +find it hard to reconcile with other positions of still more +frequent occurrence in the same divines, or with the declaration +of St. Paul: "If in this life only we have hope, we +are of all men most miserable."</p> + +<p>At all events, I should rely far more confidently on the +converse, namely, that to be vicious is to be <i>miserable</i>. Few +men are so utterly reprobate, so imbruted by their vices, +as not to have some lucid, or at least quiet and sober, +intervals; and in such a moment, <i>dum desæviunt iræ</i>, few +can stand up unshaken against the appeal to their own +experience—what have been the wages of sin? what has +the devil done for you? What sort of master have you +<i>found</i> him? Then let us in befitting <i>detail</i>, and by a +series of questions that ask no loud, and are secure against +any <i>false</i>, answer, urge home the proof of the position, +that to be vicious is to be wretched: adding the fearful +corollary, that if even in the body, which as long as life +is in it can never be <i>wholly</i> bereaved of pleasurable sensations, +vice is found to be misery, what must it not be in +the world to come? There, where even the <i>crime</i> is no +longer possible, much less the gratifications that once +attended it—where nothing of vice remains but its guilt +and its misery—vice must be misery itself, all and utter +misery.—So best, if I err not, may the motives of prudence +be held forth, and the impulses of self-love be awakened, +in alliance with truth, and free from the danger of confounding +things (the Laws of Duty, I mean, and the +Maxims of Interest) which it deeply concerns us to keep +distinct, inasmuch as this distinction and the faith therein +are essential to our moral nature, and this again the +ground-work and pre-condition of the spiritual state, in +which the Humanity strives after Godliness, and, in the +name and power, and through the prevenient and assisting +grace, of the Mediator, will not strive in vain.</p> + +<p>The <i>advantages</i> of a life passed in conformity with the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span> +precepts of virtue and religion, and in how many and +various respects they recommend virtue and religion, even +on grounds of prudence, form a delightful subject of meditation, +and a source of refreshing thought to good and +pious men. Nor is it strange if, transported with the view, +such persons should sometimes discourse on the charms of +forms and colours to men whose eyes are not yet <i>couched</i>; +or that they occasionally seem to invert the relations of +cause and effect, and forget that there are acts and determinations +of the will and affections, the <i>consequences</i> of +which may be plainly foreseen, and yet cannot be made +our proper and primary <i>motives</i> for such acts and determinations, +without destroying or entirely altering the distinct +nature and character of the latter. Sophron is well informed +that wealth and extensive patronage will be the consequence +of his obtaining the love and esteem of Constantia. +But if the foreknowledge of this consequence were, and +were <i>found out</i> to be, Sophron's main and determining +motive for seeking this love and esteem; and if Constantia +were a woman that merited, or was capable of feeling, +either the one or the other; would not Sophron find (and +deservedly too) aversion and contempt in their stead? +Wherein, if not in this, differs the friendship of worldlings +from true friendship? Without kind offices and useful +services, wherever the power and opportunity occur, love +would be a hollow pretence. Yet what noble mind would +not be offended, if he were thought to value the love for +the sake of the services, and not rather the services for the +sake of the love?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_40" id="Foot_40" href="#Ref_40">[40]</a> +Proverbs iii. 17.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM III.</h4> + +<p>Though prudence in itself is neither virtue nor spiritual +holiness, yet without prudence, or in opposition to it, +neither virtue nor holiness can exist.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM IV.</h4> + +<p>Art thou under the tyranny of sin? a slave to vicious +habits? at enmity with God, and a skulking fugitive from +thy own conscience? O, how idle the dispute, whether +the listening to the dictates of <i>prudence</i> from prudential +and self-interested motives be virtue or merit, when the +<i>not</i> listening is guilt, misery, madness, and despair! The +best, the most <i>Christianlike</i> pity thou canst show, is to take +pity on thy own soul. The best and most acceptable service +thou canst render, is to do justice and show mercy to +<i>thyself</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS.</h3> + +<h4>APHORISM I.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p class="dropcap">WHAT the Apostles were in an extraordinary way, befitting +the first annunciation of a Religion for all Mankind, +this all Teachers of Moral Truth, who aim to prepare +for its reception by calling the attention of men to the Law in +their own hearts, may, without presumption, consider themselves +to be, under ordinary gifts and circumstances; namely, +Ambassadors for the Greatest of Kings, and upon no mean +employment, the great Treaty of Peace and Reconcilement +betwixt him and Mankind.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM II.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On the Feelings Natural to Ingenuous Minds towards those<br /> +who have first led them to Reflect.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Though Divine Truths are to be received equally from +every Minister alike, yet it must be acknowledged that +there is something (we know not what to call it) of a more +acceptable reception of those which at first were the means +of bringing men to God, than of others; like the opinion +some have of physicians, whom they love.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM III.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>The worth and value of Knowledge is in proportion to the +worth and value of its object. What, then, is the best +knowledge?</p> + +<p>The exactest knowledge of things, is, to know them in +their causes; it is then an excellent thing, and worthy of +their endeavours who are most desirous of knowledge, to +know the best things in their highest causes; and the +happiest way of attaining to this knowledge, is, to possess +those things, and to know them in experience.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM IV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is one main point of happiness, that he that is happy +doth know and judge himself to be so. This being the +peculiar good of a reasonable creature, it is to be enjoyed in +a reasonable way. It is not as the dull resting of a stone, +or any other natural body in its natural place; but the +knowledge and consideration of it is the fruition of it, the +very relishing and tasting of its sweetness.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Remark.</span></h5> + +<p>As in a Christian land we receive the lessons of +Morality in connexion with the Doctrines of Revealed +Religion, we cannot too early free the mind from prejudices +widely spread, in part through the abuse, but far more +from ignorance, of the true meaning of doctrinal Terms, +which, however they may have been perverted to the +purposes of Fanaticism, are not only scriptural, but of too +frequent occurrence in Scripture to be overlooked or passed +by in silence. The following extract, therefore, deserves +attention, as clearing the doctrine of Salvation, in connexion +with the divine Foreknowledge, from all objections on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span> +the score of Morality, by the just and impressive view which +the Archbishop here gives of those occasional revolutionary +moments, that <i>Turn of the Tide</i> in the mind and character +of certain Individuals, which (taking a religious course, +and referred immediately to the Author of all Good) were +in his day, more generally than at present, entitled <span class="smcap">effectual +calling</span>. The theological interpretation and the philosophic +validity of this Apostolic Triad, Election, Salvation, and +Effectual Calling, (the latter being the intermediate), will +be found among the Comments on the Aphorisms of +Spiritual Import. For our present purpose it will be +sufficient if only I prove, that the Doctrines are in themselves +<i>innocuous</i>, and may be both holden and taught without +any practical ill-consequences, and without detriment to the +moral frame.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM V.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Two Links of the Chain (namely, Election and Salvation) +are up in heaven in God's own hand; but this middle one +(that is, Effectual Calling) is let down to earth, into the +hearts of his children, and they laying hold on it have sure +hold on the other two: for no power can sever them. If, +therefore, they can read the characters of God's image in +their own souls, those are the counterpart of the golden characters +of his love, in which their names are written in the +book of life. Their believing writes their names under the +promises of the revealed book of life (the Scriptures) and +thus ascertains them, that the same names are in the secret +book of life which God hath by himself from eternity. So +that finding the stream of grace in their hearts, though they +see not the fountain whence it flows, nor the ocean into +which it returns, yet they know that it hath its source in +their eternal election, and shall empty itself into the ocean +of their eternal salvation.</p> + +<p>If <i>election</i>, <i>effectual calling</i>, and <i>salvation</i> be inseparably +linked together, then, by any one of them a man +may lay hold upon all the rest, and may know that his hold +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span> +is sure; and this is the way wherein we may attain and +ought to seek, the comfortable assurance of the love of God. +Therefore <i>make your calling sure</i>, and by that your <i>election</i>; +for that being done, this follows of itself. We are not to +pry immediately into the decree, but to read it in the performance. +Though the mariner sees not the <i>pole-star</i>, yet +the needle of the compass which points to it, tells him which +way he sails: thus the heart that is touched with the loadstone +of divine love, trembling with godly fear, and yet +still looking towards God by fixed believing, interprets the +fear by the love <i>in</i> the fear, and tells the soul that its course +is heavenward, towards the haven of eternal rest. He that +loves may be sure he was loved first; and he that chooses +God for his delight and portion, may conclude confidently, +that God has chosen him to be one of those that shall enjoy +him, and be happy in him for ever; for that our love and +electing of him is but the return and repercussion of the +beams of his love shining upon us.</p> + +<p>Although from present unsanctification, a man cannot +infer that he is not <i>elected</i>; for the decree may, for part of +a man's life, run (as it were) underground; yet this is sure, +that that estate leads to death, and unless it be broken, will +prove the black line of reprobation. A man hath no portion +amongst the children of God, nor can read one word of +comfort in all the promises that belong to them, while he +remains unholy.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Remark.</span></h5> + +<p>In addition to the preceding, I select the following paragraphs, +as having nowhere seen the terms, Spirit, the Gifts +of the Spirit, and the like, so effectually vindicated from +the sneers of the Sciolist on the one hand, and protected +from the perversions of the Fanatic on the other. In these +paragraphs the Archbishop at once shatters and precipitates +the only draw-bridge between the fanatical and the orthodox +doctrine of Grace, and the Gifts of the Spirit. In Scripture +the term Spirit, as a power or property seated in the human +soul, never stands singly, but is always <i>specified</i> by a genitive +case following; this being a Hebraism instead of the +adjective which the writer would have used if he had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span> +<i>thought</i>, as well as <i>written</i>, in Greek. It is "the Spirit of +Meekness" (a meek Spirit), or "the Spirit of Chastity," +and the like. The moral Result, the specific Form and +Character in which the Spirit <i>manifests</i> its presence, is the +only sure pledge and token of its presence; which is to be, +and which safely may be, inferred from its practical effects, +but of which an <i>immediate</i> knowledge or consciousness is +impossible; and every pretence to such knowledge is either +hypocrisy or fanatical delusion.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM VI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>If any pretend that they have the Spirit, and so turn +away from the straight rule of the Holy Scriptures, they +have a spirit indeed, but it is a fanatical spirit, the spirit of +delusion and giddiness; but the Spirit of God, that leads +his children in the way of truth, and is for that purpose +sent them from Heaven to guide them thither, squares their +thoughts and ways to that rule whereof it is author, and +that word which was inspired by it, and sanctifies them to +obedience. <i>He that saith I know him, and keepeth not +his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.</i> +(1 John ii. 4.)</p> + +<p>Now this Spirit which sanctifieth, and sanctifieth to +obedience, is within us the evidence of our election, and the +earnest of our salvation. And whoso are not sanctified and +led by this Spirit, the Apostle tells us what is their condition: +<i>If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_41" id="Ref_41" href="#Foot_41">[41]</a></span> +The stones which are appointed for that glorious +temple above, are hewn, and polished, and prepared for it +here; as the stones were wrought and prepared in the +mountains, for building the temple at Jerusalem.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>There are many serious and sincere Christians who have +not attained to a fulness of knowledge and insight, but are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span> +well and judiciously employed in preparing for it. Even +these may study the master-works of our elder Divines +with safety and advantage, if they will accustom themselves +to translate the theological terms into their <i>moral</i> +equivalents; saying to themselves—This may not be <i>all</i> +that is meant, but this <i>is</i> meant, and it is that portion +of the meaning, which belongs to <i>me</i> in the present stage of +my progress. For example: render the words, sanctification +of the Spirit, or the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, by +Purity in Life and Action from a pure Principle.</p> + +<p>We need only reflect on our own experience to be convinced, +that the man makes the <i>motive</i>, and not the motive +the man. What is a strong motive to one man, is no motive +at all to another. If, then, the man determines the motive, +what determines the man—to a good and worthy act, we +will say, or a virtuous Course of Conduct? The intelligent +Will, or the self-determining Power? True, <i>in part</i> it is; +and therefore the Will is pre-eminently the <i>spiritual</i> Constituent +in our Being. But will any reflecting man admit, +that his own Will is the only and sufficient determinant of +all he <i>is</i>, and all he does? Is nothing to be attributed to +the harmony of the system to which he belongs, and to the +pre-established Fitness of the Objects and Agents, known +and unknown, that surround him, as acting <i>on</i> the will, +though, doubtless, <i>with</i> it likewise? a process, which the +co-instantaneous yet reciprocal action of the air and the +vital energy of the lungs in breathing may help to render +intelligible.</p> + +<p>Again: in the world we see every where evidences of a +Unity, which the component parts are so far from explaining, +that they necessarily pre-suppose it as the cause and +condition of their existing <i>as</i> those parts; or even of their +existing at all. This antecedent Unity, or Cause and +Principle of each Union, it has since the time of Bacon and +Kepler been customary to call a law. This crocus, for +instance: or any other flower the reader may have in +sight or choose to bring before his fancy. That the root, +stem, leaves, petals, &c. cohere to one plant, is owing to an +antecedent Power or Principle in the Seed, which existed +before a single particle of the matters that constitute the +<i>size</i> and visibility of the crocus, had been attracted from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span> +the surrounding soil, air, and moisture. Shall we turn to +the seed? Here too the same necessity meets us. An +antecedent Unity (I speak not of the parent plant, but of +an agency antecedent in the order of operance, yet remaining +present as the conservative and reproductive Power) +must here too be supposed. Analyze the seed with the +finest tools, and let the Solar Microscope come in aid of +your senses, what do you find? Means and instruments, a +wondrous Fairy-tale of Nature, magazines of food, stores +of various sorts, pipes, spiracles, defences—a house of +many chambers, and the owner and inhabitant invisible! +Reflect further on the countless millions of seeds of the +same name, each more than numerically differenced from +every other: and further yet, reflect on the requisite harmony +of all surrounding things, each of which necessitates +the same process of thought, and the coherence of all of +which to a System, a World, demands its own adequate +Antecedent Unity, which must therefore of necessity be +present <i>to</i> all and <i>in</i> all, yet in no wise excluding or suspending +the individual Law or Principle of Union in each. +Now will Reason, will common Sense, endure the assumption, +that in the material and visible system, it is highly +reasonable to believe a Universal Power, as the cause and +pre-condition of the harmony of all particular Wholes, each +of which involves the working Principle of its own Union—that +it is reasonable, I say, to believe this respecting the +Aggregate of <i>Objects</i>, which without a <i>Subject</i> (that is, a sentient +and intelligent Existence) would be purposeless; and +yet unreasonable and even superstitious or enthusiastic +to entertain a similar Belief in relation to the System of +intelligent and self-conscious Beings, to the moral and +personal World? But if in <i>this</i> too, in the great Community +of <i>Persons</i>, it is rational to infer a One universal Presence, +a One present to all and in all, is it not most irrational to +suppose that a finite Will can exclude it?</p> + +<p>Whenever, therefore, the man is determined (that is, +impelled and directed) to act in harmony of inter-communion, +must not something be attributed to this all-present +power as acting <i>in</i> the Will? and by what fitter names +can we call this than the <span class="smcap">law</span>, as empowering; <span class="smcap">the word</span>, +as informing; and <span class="smcap">the spirit</span>, as actuating?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span> +What has been here said amounts (I am aware) only to +a negative conception; but this is all that is required for +a mind at that period of its growth which we are now supposing, +and as long as Religion is contemplated under the +form of Morality. A <i>positive</i> insight belongs to a more +advanced stage; for spiritual truths can only spiritually be +discerned. This we know from Revelation, and (the existence +of spiritual truths being granted) Philosophy is compelled +to draw the same conclusion. But though merely +negative, it is sufficient to render the union of Religion +and Morality <i>conceivable</i>; sufficient to satisfy an unprejudiced +inquirer, that the spiritual Doctrines of the Christian +Religion are not at war with the reasoning Faculty, and +that if they do not run on the same Line (or Radius) with +the Understanding, yet neither do they cut or cross it. It +is sufficient, in short, to prove, that some distinct and consistent +meaning may be attached to the assertion of the +learned and philosophic Apostle, that "the Spirit itself +beareth witness with our spirit"<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_42" id="Ref_42" href="#Foot_42">[42]</a></span> +—that is, with <i>the Will</i>, +as the supernatural in man and the Principle of our Personality—of +that, I mean, by which we are responsible +Agents; <i>Persons</i>, and not merely living <i>Things</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_43" id="Ref_43" href="#Foot_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will suffice to satisfy a reflecting mind, that even at +the porch and threshold of Revealed Truth there is a great +and worthy sense in which we may believe the Apostle's +assurance, that not only doth "the Spirit aid our infirmities;"<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_44" id="Ref_44" href="#Foot_44">[44]</a></span> +that is, <i>act on</i> the Will by a predisposing influence <i>from +without</i>, as it were, though in a spiritual manner, and +without suspending or destroying its freedom (the possibility +of which is proved to us in the influences of education, +of providential occurrences, and, above all, of example) +but that in regenerate souls it may act <i>in</i> the will; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span> +that uniting and becoming one<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_45" id="Ref_45" href="#Foot_45">[45]</a></span> +with our will or spirit, it +may make "intercession for us;"<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_46" id="Ref_46" href="#Foot_46">[46]</a></span> +nay, in this intimate +union taking upon itself the form of our infirmities, may intercede +for us "with groanings that cannot be uttered." Nor +is there any danger of Fanaticism or Enthusiasm as the consequence +of such a belief, if only the attention be carefully +and earnestly drawn to the concluding words of the sentence +(Romans viii. 26); if only the due force and <i>full</i> import +be given to the term <i>unutterable</i> or <i>incommunicable</i>, in St. +Paul's use of it. In this, the strictest and most proper use +of the term, it signifies, that the subject, of which it is +predicated, is something which I <i>cannot</i>, which from the +nature of the thing it is impossible that I should, communicate +to any human mind (even of a person under the +same conditions with myself) so as to make it <i>in itself</i> the +object of his direct and immediate consciousness. It cannot +be the object of <i>my own</i> direct and immediate Consciousness; +but must be <i>inferred</i>. Inferred it may be <i>from</i> its +workings; it cannot be perceived <i>in</i> them. And, thanks +to God! in all points in which the knowledge is of high +and necessary concern to our moral and religious welfare, +from the <i>Effects</i> it may safely be inferred by us, from the +Workings it may be assuredly known; and the Scriptures +furnish the clear and unfailing Rules for directing the inquiry, +and for drawing the conclusion.</p> + +<p>If any reflecting mind be surprised that the aids of the +Divine Spirit should be deeper than our Consciousness can +reach, it must arise from the not having attended sufficiently +to the nature and necessary limits of human Consciousness. +For the same impossibility exists as to the +first acts and movements of our own will—the farthest +distance our recollection can follow back the traces, never +leads us to the first foot-mark—the lowest depth that the +light of our Consciousness can visit even with a doubtful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span> +glimmering, is still at an unknown distance from the +ground: and so, indeed, must it be with all Truths, and all +modes of Being that can neither be counted, coloured, or +delineated. Before and After, when applied to such Subjects, +are but allegories, which the Sense or Imagination +supplies to the Understanding. The Position of the Aristotelians, +<i>nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu</i>, on which +Mr. Locke's Essay is grounded, is irrefragable: Locke +erred only in taking half the Truth for a whole Truth. +Conception is consequent on Perception. What we cannot +<i>imagine</i>, we cannot, in the proper sense of the word, conceive.</p> + +<p>I have already given one definition of Nature. Another, +and differing from the former in words only, is this: Whatever +is representable in the forms of Time and Space, is +Nature. But whatever is comprehended in Time and Space, +is included in the Mechanism of Cause and Effect. And +conversely, whatever, by whatever means, has its principle +in itself, so far as to <i>originate</i> its actions, cannot be +contemplated in any of the forms of Space and Time; it must, +therefore, be considered as <i>Spirit</i> or <i>Spiritual</i> by a mind in +that stage of its developement which is here supposed, and +which we have agreed to understand under the name of +Morality, or the Moral State: for in this stage we are concerned +only with the forming of <i>negative</i> conceptions, <i>negative</i> +convictions; and by <i>spiritual</i> I do not pretend to +determine <i>what</i> the Will <i>is</i>, but what it is <i>not</i>—namely, that +it is not Nature. And as no man who admits a Will at all, +(for we may safely presume that no man not meaning to +speak figuratively, would call the shifting current of a +stream the <span class="smcap">will</span><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_47" id="Ref_47" href="#Foot_47">[47]</a></span> +of the river), will suppose it <i>below</i> +Nature, we may safely add, that it is super-natural; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span> +this without the least pretence to any positive Notion or +Insight.</p> + +<p>Now Morality accompanied with Convictions like these, +I have ventured to call <i>Religious</i> Morality. Of the importance +I attach to the state of mind implied in these convictions, +for its own sake, and as the natural preparation +for a yet higher state and a more substantive knowledge, +proof more than sufficient, perhaps, has been given in the +length and minuteness of this introductory Discussion, and +in the foreseen risk which I run of exposing the volume at +large to the censure which every work, or rather which +every writer, must be prepared to undergo, who, treating +of subjects that cannot be seen, touched, or in any other +way made matters of outward sense, is yet anxious both to +attach to, and to convey a distinct meaning by, the words +he makes use of—the censure of being dry, abstract, and +(of all qualities most scaring and opprobrious to the ears of +the present generation) <i>metaphysical</i>; though how it is +possible that a work not <i>physical</i>, that is, employed on +objects known or believed on the evidence of the senses, +should be other than <i>meta</i>physical, that is, treating on +Subjects, the evidence of which is not derived from the +senses, is a problem which critics of this order find it convenient +to leave unsolved.</p> + +<p>The author of the present volume will, indeed, have +reason to think himself fortunate, if this be all the +charge!—How many smart quotations, which (duly +cemented by personal allusions to the author's supposed +pursuits, attachments, and infirmities), would of themselves +make up "a review" of the volume, might be supplied +from the works of Butler, Swift, and Warburton. For instance: +"It may not be amiss to inform the Public, that +the Compiler of the Aids to Reflection, and Commenter on +a Scotch Bishop's Platonico-Calvinistic commentary on St. +Peter, belongs to the sect of the <i>Æolists</i>, whose fruitful +imaginations lead them into certain notions, which, although +in appearance <i>very unaccountable, are not without their mysteries +and their meanings</i>; furnishing plenty of matter for such, +<i>whose converting Imaginations dispose them to reduce all +things into <span class="smcap">types</span>; who can make <span +class="smcap">shadows</span>, no thanks to the +Sun; and then mould them into <span class="smcap">substances</span>, no thanks to</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span> +<i>Philosophy: whose peculiar Talent lies in fixing <span class="smcap">tropes</span> and +<span class="smcap">allegories</span> to the <span +class="smcap">letter</span>, and refining what is <span +class="smcap">literal</span> into +<span class="smcap">figure</span> and <span +class="smcap">mystery</span>.</i>"—<i>Tale of the Tub</i>, Sect. +xi.</p> + +<p>And would it were my lot to meet with a Critic, who, in +the might of his own Convictions, and with arms of equal +point and efficiency from his own forge, would come forth +as my assailant; or who, as a friend to my purpose, would +set forth the objections to the matter and pervading Spirit +of these Aphorisms, and the accompanying Elucidations. +Were it my task to form the mind of a young man of talent, +desirous to establish his opinions and belief on solid principles, +and in the light of distinct understanding,—I would +commence his theological studies, or, at least, that most +important part of them respecting the aids which Religion +promises in our attempts to realize the ideas of Morality, by +bringing together all the passages scattered throughout +the writings of Swift and Butler, that bear on Enthusiasm, +Spiritual Operations, and pretences to the Gifts of the Spirit, +with the whole train of New Lights, Raptures, Experiences, +and the like. For all that the richest Wit, in intimate +union with profound Sense and steady Observation, can +supply on these topics, is to be found in the works of these +satirists; though unhappily alloyed with much that can +only tend to pollute the imagination.</p> + +<p>Without stopping to estimate the degree of caricature in +the portraits sketched by these bold masters, and without +attempting to determine in how many of the Enthusiasts, +brought forward by them in proof of the influence of false +Doctrines, a constitutional Insanity that would probably +have shown itself in some other form, would be the truer +solution, I would direct my pupil's attention to one feature +common to the whole group—the pretence, namely, of +possessing, or a Belief and Expectation grounded on other +men's assurances of their possessing, an immediate Consciousness, +a sensible Experience, of the Spirit in and +during its operation on the soul. It is not enough that you +grant them a consciousness of the Gifts and Graces infused, +or an assurance of the Spiritual Origin of the same, grounded +on their correspondence to the Scripture <i>promises</i>, and +their conformity with the <i>idea</i> of the Divine Giver. No! +they all alike, it will be found, lay claim (or at least look +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span> +forward), to an inward perception of the Spirit itself and of +its operating.</p> + +<p>Whatever must be misrepresented in order to be +ridiculed, is in fact <i>not</i> ridiculed; but the thing substituted +for it. It is a satire on something else, coupled with a lie +on the part of the satirist, who knowing, or having the +means of knowing the truth, chose to call one thing by the +name of another. The Pretensions to the Supernatural, +<i>pilloried</i> by Butler, sent to Bedlam by Swift, and (on their +re-appearance in public) <i>gibbetted</i> by Warburton, and +<i>anatomized</i> by Bishop Lavington, one and all have <i>this</i> +for their essential character, that the Spirit is made the +immediate Object of Sense or Sensation. Whether the +spiritual Presence and Agency are supposed cognizable by +indescribable Feeling or unimaginable Vision by some +specific visual energy; whether seen, or heard, or touched, +smelt and tasted—for in those vast Store-houses of +fanatical assertion, the volumes of Ecclesiastical History +and religious Auto-biography, instances are not wanting +even of the three latter extravagancies;—this variety in +the mode may render the several pretensions more or less +offensive to the <i>taste</i>; but with the same absurdity for the +<i>reason</i>, this being derived from a contradiction in terms +common and radical to them all alike,—the assumption of +a something essentially supersensual, that is nevertheless +the object of Sense, that is, <i>not</i> supersensual.</p> + +<p>Well then!—for let me be allowed still to suppose the +Reader present to me, and that I am addressing him in the +character of Companion and Guide—the positions recommended +for your examination not only do not involve, but +they exclude, this inconsistency. And for aught that hitherto +appears, we may see with complacency the arrows of satire +feathered with Wit, weighted with Sense, and discharged by +a strong arm, fly home to their mark. Our conceptions +of a possible Spiritual Communion, though they are but +negative and only preparatory to a faith in its actual +existence, stand neither in the level or in the direction of +the shafts.</p> + +<p>If it be objected, that Swift and Warburton did not +choose openly to set up the interpretations of later and +more rational divines against the decisions of their own +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span> +Church, and from <i>prudential</i> considerations did not attack +the doctrine <i>in toto</i>: that is <i>their</i> concern (I would answer), +and it is more charitable to think otherwise. But we are +in the silent school of Reflection, in the secret confessional +of Thought. Should we <i>lie for God</i>, and that to our +own thoughts? They, indeed, who dare do the one, will +soon be able to do the other.—So did the Comforters of +Job: and to the divines, who resemble Job's Comforters, +we will leave both attempts.</p> + +<p>But, (it may be said), a possible Conception is not necessarily +a true one; nor even a probable one, where the +Facts can be otherwise explained. In the name of the +supposed pupil I would reply—That is the very question I +am preparing myself to examine; and am now seeking the +Vantage-ground where I may best command the Facts. In +my own person, I would ask the Objector, whether he +counted the Declarations of Scripture among the Facts to be +explained. But both for myself and my pupil, and in +behalf of all rational inquiry, I would demand that the +decision should not be such, in itself or in its effects, as +would prevent our becoming acquainted with the most +important of these Facts; nay, such as would, for the mind +of the decider, preclude their very existence.—<i>Unless ye +believe</i>, says the prophet, <i>ye cannot understand</i>. Suppose +(what is at least possible) that the facts should be consequent +on the belief, it is clear that without the belief the +materials, on which the understanding is to exert itself, +would be wanting.</p> + +<p>The reflections that naturally arise out of this last +remark, are those that best suit the stage at which we last +halted, and from which we now recommence our progress—the +state of a <i>Moral</i> Man, who has already welcomed +certain truths of Religion, and is inquiring after other and +more special doctrines: still however as a Moralist, +desirous indeed to receive them into combination with +Morality, but to receive them as its Aid, not as its Substitute. +Now, to such a man I say; Before you reject the Opinions +and Doctrines asserted and enforced in the following +extract from Leighton, and before you give way to the +Emotions of Distaste or Ridicule, which the Prejudices of +the circle in which you move, or your own familiarity with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span> +the mad perversions of the doctrine by fanatics in all +ages, have connected with the very words, Spirit, Grace, +Gifts, Operations, &c., re-examine the arguments advanced +in the first pages of this Introductory Comment, +and the simple and sober view of the doctrine, contemplated +in the first instance as a mere idea of the reason, +flowing naturally from the admission of an infinite omnipresent +Mind as the Ground of the Universe. Reflect again +and again, and be sure that you <i>understand</i> the doctrine +before you determine on rejecting it. That no false judgments, +no extravagant conceits, no practical ill-consequences +need arise out of the Belief of the Spirit, and its possible +communion with the Spiritual Principle in man, <i>can</i> +arise out of the <i>right</i> Belief, or are compatible with the +doctrine truly and scripturally explained, Leighton, and +almost every single period in the passage here transcribed +from him, will suffice to convince you.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, reflect on the consequences of rejecting +it. For surely it is not the act of a reflecting mind, +nor the part of a man of sense to disown and cast out one +tenet, and yet persevere in admitting and clinging to +another that has neither sense nor purpose, that does not +<i>suppose</i> and rest on the truth and reality of the former! +If you have resolved that all belief of a divine Comforter +present to our inmost Being and aiding our infirmities, +is fond and fanatical—if the Scriptures promising and +asserting such communion are to be explained away into +the action of circumstances, and the necessary movements +of the vast machine, in one of the circulating chains of +which the human Will is a petty Link—in what better +light can Prayer appear to you, than the groans of a +wounded lion in his solitary den, or the howl of a dog with +his eyes on the moon? At the best, you can regard it +only as a transient bewilderment of the Social Instinct, as a +social Habit misapplied! Unless indeed you should adopt +the theory which I remember to have read in the writings +of the late Dr. Jebb, and for some supposed beneficial +re-action of praying on the prayer's own mind, should +practise it as a species of <i>Animal-Magnetism</i> to be brought +about by a wilful eclipse of the reason, and a temporary +<i>make-believe</i> on the part of the self-magnetizer!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span> +At all events, do not pre-judge a Doctrine, the utter +rejection of which must oppose a formidable obstacle to +your acceptance of Christianity itself, when the books, +from which alone we can learn what Christianity is and +what it teaches, are so strangely written, that in a series of +the most concerning points, including (historical facts +excepted) all the <i>peculiar</i> Tenets of the Religion, the plain +and obvious meaning of the words, that in which they were +understood by learned and simple, for at least sixteen +centuries, during the far larger part of which the language +was a living language, is no sufficient guide to their actual +sense or to the writer's own meaning! And this, too, +where the literal and received Sense involves nothing impossible, +or immoral, or contrary to reason. With such a +persuasion, Deism would be a more consistent creed. But, +alas! even this will fail you. The utter rejection of all +present and living communion with the Universal Spirit +impoverishes Deism itself, and renders it as cheerless as +Atheism, from which indeed it would differ only by an +obscure impersonation of what the Atheist receives unpersonified, +under the name of Fate or Nature.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_41" id="Foot_41" href="#Ref_41">[41]</a> +Romans viii. 9.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_42" id="Foot_42" href="#Ref_42">[42]</a> +Romans viii. 16.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_43" id="Foot_43" href="#Ref_43">[43]</a> +Whatever is comprised in the Chain and Mechanism of Cause and +Effect, of course <i>necessitated</i>, and having its necessity in some other +thing, antecedent or concurrent—this is said to be <i>Natural</i>; and the +Aggregate and System of all such things is <span class="smcap">Nature</span>. It is, therefore, +a contradiction in terms to include in this the Free-will, of which the +verbal definition is—that which <i>originates</i> an act or state of Being. In +this sense, therefore, which is the sense of St. Paul, and indeed of the +New Testament throughout, Spiritual and Supernatural are synonymous.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_44" id="Foot_44" href="#Ref_44">[44]</a> +Romans viii. 26.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_45" id="Foot_45" href="#Ref_45">[45]</a> +Some distant and faint <i>similitude</i> of this, that merely as a similitude +may be innocently used to quiet the Fancy, provided it be not imposed +on the understanding as an analogous fact or as identical in kind, is presented +to us in the power of the Magnet to awaken and strengthen the +magnetic power in a bar of Iron, and (in the instance of the compound +Magnet) acting in and with the latter.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_46" id="Foot_46" href="#Ref_46">[46]</a> +Romans viii. 26.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_47" id="Foot_47" href="#Ref_47">[47]</a> </p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">"The river windeth<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_48" id="Ref_48" href="#Foot_48">[48]</a></span> +at his own sweet will."</span><br /> + +<span class="i2"><i>Wordsworth's exquisite Sonnet on Westminster-bridge at Sun-rise.</i></span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent">But who does not see that here the poetic charm arises from the known +and felt <i>impropriety</i> of the expression, in the technical sense of the word +<i>impropriety</i>, among grammarians?</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_48" id="Foot_48" href="#Ref_48">[48]</a> +The latest editions of Wordsworth have "glideth" for "windeth."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM VII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>The proper and natural Effect, and in the absence of all +disturbing or intercepting forces, the certain and sensible +accompaniment of Peace, (or Reconcilement) with God, is +our own inward Peace, a calm and quiet temper of mind. And +where there is a consciousness of earnestly desiring, and of +having sincerely striven after the former, the latter may +be considered as a <i>Sense</i> of its presence. In this case, I +say, and for a soul watchful, and under the discipline of +the Gospel, the Peace with a man's self may be the medium +or organ through which the assurance of his Peace with +God is conveyed. We will not therefore condemn this +mode of speaking, though we dare not greatly recommend +it. Be it, that there is, truly and in sobriety of speech, +enough of just analogy in the subjects meant, to make +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span> +this use of the words, if less than proper, yet something +more than metaphorical; still we must be cautious not to +transfer to the Object the defects or the deficiency of the +Organ, which must needs partake of the imperfections of +the imperfect beings to whom it belongs. Not without +the co-assurance of other senses and of the same sense in +other men, dare we affirm that what our eye beholds, is +verily there to be beholden. Much less may we conclude +negatively, and from the inadequacy, or the suspension, or +from any other affection of sight infer the non-existence, +or departure, or changes of the thing itself. The chameleon +darkens in the shade of him who bends over it to +ascertain its colours. In like manner, but with yet greater +caution, ought we to think respecting a tranquil habit of +inward life, considered as a spiritual <i>sense</i>, as the medial +Organ in and by which our Peace with God, and the lively +Working of his Grace on our Spirit, are perceived by us. +This Peace which we have with God in Christ, is inviolable; +but because the sense and persuasion of it may be +interrupted, the soul that is truly at peace with God may +for a time be disquieted in itself, through weakness of +faith, or the strength of temptation, or the darkness of +desertion, losing sight of that grace, that love and light of +God's countenance, on which its tranquillity and joy depend. +<i>Thou didst hide thy face</i>, saith David, <i>and I was troubled</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_49" id="Ref_49" href="#Foot_49">[49]</a></span> +But when these eclipses are over, the soul is revived with +new consolation, as the face of the earth is renewed and +made to smile with the return of the sun in the spring; +and this ought always to uphold Christians in the saddest +times, namely, that the grace and love of God towards +them depend not on their sense, nor upon anything in +them, but is still in itself, incapable of the smallest alteration.</p> + +<p>A holy heart that gladly entertains grace, shall find that +it and peace cannot dwell asunder; while an ungodly man +may sleep to death in the lethargy of carnal presumption +and impenitency; but a true, lively, solid peace, he cannot +have. <i>There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.</i> Isa. +lvii. 21.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_49" id="Foot_49" href="#Ref_49">[49]</a> +Psalm xxx. 7.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM VIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Worldly Hopes.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Worldly hopes are not living, but lying hopes; they die +often before us, and we live to bury them, and see our own +folly and infelicity in trusting to them; but at the utmost, +they die with us when we die, and can accompany us no +further. But the lively Hope, which is the Christian's +Portion, answers expectation to the full, and much beyond +it, and deceives no way but in that happy way of far exceeding +it.</p> + +<p>A living hope, living in death itself! The world dares +say no more for its device, than <i>Dum spiro spero</i>: but the +children of God can add, by virtue of this living hope, +<i>Dum exspiro spero</i>.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM IX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Worldling's Fear.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is a fearful thing when a man and all his hopes die +together. Thus saith Solomon of the wicked, Prov. xi. 7.—When +he dieth, then die his hopes; (many of them <i>before</i>, +but at the utmost <i>then</i>, all of them;) but <i>the righteous hath +hope in his death</i>, Prov. xiv. 32.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_50" id="Ref_50" href="#Foot_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_50" id="Foot_50" href="#Ref_50">[50]</a> +One of the numerous proofs against those who with a strange inconsistency +hold the Old Testament to have been inspired throughout, and +yet deny that the doctrine of a future state is taught therein.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM X.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Worldly Mirth.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p><i>As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as +vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span> +Prov. xxv. 20. Worldly mirth is so far from curing +spiritual grief, that even worldly grief, where it is great +and takes deep root, is not allayed but increased by it. A +man who is full of inward heaviness, the more he is encompassed +about with mirth, it exasperates and enrages +his grief the more; like ineffectual weak physic, which +removes not the humour, but stirs it and makes it more unquiet. +But spiritual joy is seasonable for all estates: in +prosperity, it is pertinent to crown and sanctify all other +enjoyments, with this which so far surpasses them; and in +distress, it is the only <i>Nepenthe</i>, the cordial of fainting +spirits: so, Psal. iv. 7. <i>He hath put joy into my heart.</i> This +mirth makes way for itself, which other mirth cannot do. +These songs are sweetest in the night of distress.</p> + +<p>There is something exquisitely beautiful and touching +in the first of these similes: and the second, though less +pleasing to the imagination, has the charm of propriety, +and expresses the transition with equal force and liveliness. +A grief of recent birth is a sick infant that must have its +medicine administered in its milk, and sad thoughts are +the sorrowful heart's natural food. This is a complaint +that is not to be cured by opposites, which for the most +part only reverse the symptoms while they exasperate the +disease—or like a rock in the mid-channel of a river +swoln by a sudden rain-flush from the mountains, which +only detains the excess of waters from their proper outlet, +and makes them foam, roar, and eddy. The soul in her +desolation hugs the sorrow close to her, as her sole remaining +garment: and this must be drawn off so gradually, +and the garment to be put in its stead so gradually slipt +on and feel so like the former, that the sufferer shall be +sensible of the change only by the refreshment.—The true +Spirit of Consolation is well content to detain the tear in +the eye, and finds a surer pledge of its success, in the smile +of Resignation that dawns through that, than in the +liveliest shows of a forced and alien exhilaration.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XI.</h4> + +<p>Plotinus thanked God, that his soul was not tied to an +immortal body.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>What a full Confession do we make of our dissatisfaction +with the Objects of our bodily senses, that in our +attempts to express what we conceive the Best of Beings, +and the Greatest of Felicities to be, we describe by the +exact Contraries of all, that we experience here—the one +as <i>In</i>finite, <i>In</i>comprehensible, <i>Im</i>mutable, &c., the other as +<i>in</i>corruptible, <i>un</i>defiled, and that passeth <i>not</i> away. At all +events, this Coincidence, say rather, Identity of Attributes, +is sufficient to apprize us, that to be inheritors of bliss we +must become the children of God.</p> + +<p>This remark of Leighton's is ingenious and startling. +Another, and more fruitful, perhaps more solid inference +from the fact would be, that there is something in the +human mind which makes it know (as soon as it is sufficiently +awakened to reflect on its own thoughts and notices), +that in all finite Quantity there is an Infinite, in all measures +of Time an Eternal; that the latter are the basis, the +substance, the true and abiding <i>reality</i> of the former; and +that as we truly <i>are</i>, only as far as God is with us, so +neither can we truly <i>possess</i> (that is, enjoy) our Being or +any other real Good, but by living in the sense of his holy +presence.</p> + +<p>A life of wickedness is a life of lies; and an evil being, +or the being of evil, the last and darkest mystery.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Wisest Use of the Imagination.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is not altogether unprofitable; yea, it is great wisdom +in Christians to be arming themselves against such temptations +as may befal them hereafter, though they have not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span> +as yet met with them; to labour to overcome them beforehand, +to suppose the hardest things that may be incident +to them, and to put on the strongest resolutions they can +attain unto. Yet all that is but an imaginary effort; and +therefore there is no assurance that the victory is any more +than imaginary too, till it come to action, and then, they +that have spoken and thought very confidently, may prove +but (as one said of the Athenians) <i>fortes in tabula</i>, patient +and courageous in picture or fancy; and, notwithstanding +all their arms, and dexterity in handling them by way of +exercise, may be foully defeated when they are to fight in +earnest.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XIV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Language of Scripture.</i></p> + +<p>The Word of God speaks to men, and therefore it speaks +the language of the Children of Men. This just and pregnant +thought was suggested to Leighton by Gen. xxii. 12. +The same text has led me to unfold and expand the +remark.—On moral subjects, the Scriptures speak in the +language of the affections which they excite in us; on +sensible objects, neither metaphysically, as they are known +by superior intelligences; nor theoretically, as they would +be seen by us were we placed in the sun; but as they are +represented by our human senses in our present relative +position. Lastly, from no vain, or worse than vain, ambition +of seeming <i>to walk on the sea</i> of Mystery in my way +to Truth, but in the hope of removing a difficulty that +presses heavily on the minds of many who in heart and +desire are believers, and which long pressed on my own +mind, I venture to add: that on <i>spiritual</i> things, and allusively +to the mysterious union or conspiration of the Divine +with the Human in the Spirits of the Just, spoken of in +Romans viii. 27, the word of God attributes the language +of the Spirit sanctified to the Holy One, the Sanctifier.</p> + +<p>Now the Spirit in Man (that is, the Will) knows its +own State in and by its Acts alone: even as in geometrical +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span> +reasoning the Mind knows its constructive <i>faculty</i> in the +<i>act</i> of constructing, and contemplates the act in the <i>product</i> +(that is, the mental figure or diagram) which is inseparable +from the act and co-instaneous.</p> + +<p>Let the reader join these two positions: first, that the +Divine Spirit acting <i>in</i> the Human Will is described as +<i>one with</i> the Will so filled and actuated: secondly, that our +actions are the means, by which alone the Will becomes +assured of its own state; and he will understand, though +he may not perhaps adopt my suggestion, that the verse, +in which God <i>speaking of himself</i>, says to Abraham, <i>Now I +know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld +thy son, thy only son, from me</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_51" id="Ref_51" href="#Foot_51">[51]</a></span> +—may be more than merely +<i>figurative</i>. An <i>accommodation</i> I grant; but in the <i>thing +expressed</i>, and not altogether in the Expressions. In arguing +with infidels, or with the weak in faith, it is a part of religious +Prudence, no less than of religious Morality, to avoid +whatever looks <i>like</i> an evasion. To retain the literal sense, +wherever the harmony of Scripture permits, and reason +does not forbid, is ever the honester, and, nine times in ten, +the more rational and pregnant interpretation. The contrary +plan is an easy and approved way of <i>getting rid</i> of a +difficulty; but nine times in ten a bad way of solving it. +But alas! there have been too many Commentators who +are content not to understand a text themselves, if only +they can make the reader believe that they do.</p> + +<p>Of the figures of speech in the sacred volume, that are +only figures of speech, the one of most frequent occurrence +is that which describes an effect by the name of its +most usual and best known cause: the passages, for +instance, in which grief, fury, repentance, &c., are attributed +to the Deity.—But these are far enough from justifying +the (I had almost said, dishonest) fashion of +metaphorical glosses, in as well as out of the Church; and +which our fashionable divines have carried to such an +extent, as in the doctrinal part of their creed, to leave little +else but metaphors. But the reader who wishes to find +this latter subject, and that of the Aphorism, treated more +at large, is referred to Mr. Southey's 'Omniana,' Vol. II. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span> +p. 7-12; and to the Note in p. 62-67, of the author's +second 'Lay-Sermon.'<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_52" id="Ref_52" href="#Foot_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_51" id="Foot_51" href="#Ref_51">[51]</a> +Gen. xxii. 12.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_52" id="Foot_52" href="#Ref_52">[52]</a> +An edition of the 'Lay Sermons' is published with Bohn's edition +of Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria.' The corresponding pages to those +referred to would be pp. 409-10. The passages in 'Omniana' referred to +are in Coleridge's own contributions to that work, and are reprinted in +his 'Remains' (1836, v. 1, pp. 321-330), under the heads "Pelagianism" +and "The Soul and its Organs of Sense."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Christian no Stoic.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>Seek not altogether to dry up the stream of Sorrow, but +to bound it, and keep it within its banks. Religion doth +not destroy the life of nature, but adds to it a life more +excellent; yea, it doth not only permit, but requires some +feeling of afflictions. Instead of patience, there is in some +men an affected pride of spirit suitable only to the doctrine +of the Stoics as it is usually taken. They strive not to feel +at all the afflictions that are on them; but where there is no +feeling at all, there can be no patience.</p> + +<p>Of the sects of ancient philosophy the Stoic is, perhaps, +the nearest to Christianity. Yet even to this sect +Christianity is fundamentally opposite. For the Stoic +attaches the highest honour (or rather, attaches honour +<i>solely</i>) to the person that acts virtuously in spite of his +feelings, or who has raised himself above the conflict by +their extinction; while Christianity instructs us to place +small reliance on a virtue that does not <i>begin</i> by bringing +the Feelings to a conformity with the commands of the +Conscience. Its especial aim, its characteristic operation, +is to moralize the affections. The Feelings, that oppose a +right act, must be wrong feelings. The <i>act</i>, indeed, whatever +the agent's <i>feelings</i> might be, Christianity would +command; and under certain circumstances would both +command and commend it—commend it, as a healthful +symptom in a sick patient; and command it, as one of the +ways and means of changing the feelings, or displacing +them by calling up the opposite.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Corollaries To Aphorism XV.</span></h5> + +<p>I. The more <i>consciousness</i> in our Thoughts and Words, +and the less in our Impulses and general Actions, the +better and more healthful the state both of head and heart. +As the flowers from an orange tree in its time of blossoming, +that burgeon forth, expand, fall and are momently +replaced, such is the sequence of hourly and momently +charities in a pure and gracious soul. The modern fiction +which depictures the son of Cytherea with a bandage round +his eyes, is not without a spiritual meaning. There is a +sweet and holy blindness in Christian <span class="smcap">Love</span>, even as there +is a blindness of Life, yea and of Genius too, in the moment +of productive Energy.</p> + +<p>II. Motives are symptoms of weakness, and supplements +for the deficient Energy of the living <span +class="smcap">Principle</span>, the <span class="smcap">Law</span> +within us. Let them then be reserved for those momentous +Acts and Duties, in which the strongest and best +balanced natures must feel themselves deficient, and where +Humility, no less than Prudence, prescribes Deliberation. +We find a similitude of this, I had almost said a remote +analogy, in organized bodies. The lowest class of animals +or <i>protozoa</i>, the <i>polypi</i> for instance, have neither brain nor +nerves. Their motive powers are all from without. The +sun, light, the warmth, the air are their nerves and +brain. As life ascends, nerves appear; but still only as +the conductors of an <i>external</i> influence; next are seen the +knots or ganglions, as so many <i>foci</i> of <i>instinctive</i> agency, +that imperfectly imitate the yet wanting <i>centre</i>.—And now +the promise and token of a true Individuality are disclosed; +both the reservoir of Sensibility and the imitative +power that actuates the organs of Motion (the muscles) +with the net-work of conductors, are all taken inward and +appropriated; the Spontaneous rises into the Voluntary, +and finally after various steps and a long ascent, the +Material and Animal Means and Conditions are prepared +for the manifestations of a Free Will, having its Law within +itself and its motive in the Law—and thus bound to originate +its own Acts, not only without, but even against, alien +Stimulants. That in our present state we have only the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span> +Dawning of this inward Sun (the perfect Law of Liberty) +will sufficiently limit and qualify the preceding position if +only it have been allowed to produce its twofold consequence—the +excitement of Hope and the repression of +Vanity.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_53" id="Ref_53" href="#Foot_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_53" id="Foot_53" href="#Ref_53">[53]</a> +See Prof. J. H. Green's 'Vital Dynamics,' 1840.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>As excessive eating or drinking both makes the body +sickly and lazy, fit for nothing but sleep, and besots the +mind, as it clogs up with crudities the way through which +the spirits should pass,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_54" id="Ref_54" href="#Foot_54">[54]</a></span> +bemiring them, and making them +move heavily, as a coach in a deep way; thus doth all +immoderate use of the world and its delights wrong the +soul in its spiritual condition, makes it sickly and feeble, +full of spiritual distempers and inactivity, benumbs the +graces of the Spirit, and fills the soul with sleepy vapours, +makes it grow secure and heavy in spiritual exercises, and +obstructs the way and motion of the Spirit of God, in the +soul. Therefore, if you would be spiritual, healthful, and +vigorous, and enjoy much of the consolations of Heaven, be +sparing and sober in those of the earth, and what you abate +of the one, shall be certainly made up in the other.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_54" id="Foot_54" href="#Ref_54">[54]</a> +Technical phrases of an obsolete System will yet retain their places, +nay, acquire universal currency, and become sterling in the language, +when they at once represent the feelings, and give an apparent solution of +them by visual images easily managed by the fancy. Such are many +terms and phrases from the <i>Humoral</i> Physiology long exploded, but +which are far more popular then any description would be from the +theory that has taken its place.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Inconsistency.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>It is a most unseemly and unpleasant thing, to see a +man's life full of ups and downs, one step like a Christian, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span> +and another like a worldling; it cannot choose but both +pain himself and mar the edification of others.</p> + +<p>The same sentiment, only with a special application +to the maxims and measures of our Cabinet and Statesmen, +has been finely expressed by a sage Poet of the preceding +generation, in lines which, no generation will find inapplicable +or superannuated.</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i2">God and the World we worship both together,</span> + <span class="i4">Draw not our Laws to Him, but His to ours;</span> +<span class="i2">Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither,</span> + <span class="i4">The imperfect Will brings forth but barren Flowers!</span> +<span class="i2">Unwise as all distracted Interests be,</span> +<span class="i2">Strangers to God, Fools in Humanity:</span> +<span class="i2">Too good for great things, and too great for good,</span> +<span class="i2">While still "I dare not" waits upon "I wou'd."</span> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVII. CONTINUED.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Ordinary Motive to Inconsistency.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>What though the polite man count thy fashion a little +odd and too precise, it is because he knows nothing above +that model of goodness which he hath set himself, and +therefore approves of nothing beyond it: he knows not +God, and therefore doth not discern and esteem what is +most like Him. When courtiers come down into the +country, the common home-bred people possibly think their +habit strange; but they care not for that, it is the fashion +at court. What need, then, that Christians should be so +tender-foreheaded, as to be put out of countenance because +the world looks on holiness as a singularity? It is the +only fashion in the highest court, yea, of the King of +Kings himself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XVIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Superficial Reconciliations, and Self-deceit in Forgiving.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>When, after variances, men are brought to an agreement, +they are much subject to this, rather to cover their remaining +malices with superficial verbal forgiveness, than +to dislodge them, and free the heart of them. This is a +poor self-deceit. As the philosopher said to him, who +being ashamed that he was espied by him in a tavern in +the outer room, withdrew himself to the inner, he called +after him, "That is not the way out, the more you go that +way, you will be the further in!" So when hatreds are +upon admonition not thrown out, but retire inward to hide +themselves, they grow deeper and stronger than before; +and those constrained semblances of reconcilement are but +a false healing, do but skin the wound over, and therefore +it usually breaks forth worse again.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XIX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Of the Worth and the Duties of the Preacher.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The stream of custom and our profession bring us to +the Preaching of the Word, and we sit out our hour under +the sound; but how few consider and prize it as the great +ordinance of God for the salvation of souls, the beginner +and the sustainer of the Divine life of grace within us! +And certainly, until we have these thoughts of it, and seek +to feel it thus ourselves, although we hear it most frequently, +and let slip no occasion, yea, hear it with attention +and some present delight, yet still we miss the right use of +it, and turn it from its true end, while we take it not +as <i>that ingrafted word which is able to save our souls</i> +(James i. 21).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span> +Thus ought they who preach to speak the word; to +endeavour their utmost to accommodate it to this end, that +sinners may be converted, begotten again, and believers +nourished and strengthened in their spiritual life; to +regard no lower end, but aim steadily at that mark. Their +hearts and tongues ought to be set on fire with holy zeal +for God and love to souls, kindled by the Holy Ghost, that +came down on the apostles in the shape of fiery tongues.</p> + +<p>And those that hear, should remember this as the end of +their hearing, that they may receive spiritual life and +strength by the word. For though it seems a poor despicable +business, that a frail sinful man like yourselves +should speak a few words in your hearing, yet, look upon it +as the way wherein God communicates happiness to those +who believe, and works that believing unto happiness, +alters the whole frame of the soul, and makes a new +creation, as it begets it again to the inheritance of glory. +Consider it thus, which is its true notion; and then, what +can be so precious?</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The difference is great in our natural life, in some +persons especially; that they who in infancy were so feeble, +and wrapped up as others in swaddling clothes, yet, afterwards +come to excel in wisdom and in the knowledge of +sciences, or to be commanders of great armies, or to be +kings: but the distance is far greater and more admirable, +betwixt the small beginnings of grace, and our after perfection, +that fulness of knowledge that we look for, and +that crown of immortality which all they are born to who +are born of God.</p> + +<p>But as in the faces or actions of some children, characters +and presages of their after-greatness have appeared (as a +singular beauty in Moses's face, as they write of him, and +as Cyrus was made king among the shepherds' children +with whom he was brought up, &c.) so also, certainly, in +these children of God, there be some characters and evidences +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span> +that they are born for Heaven by their new birth. +That holiness and meekness, that patience and faith which +shine in the actions and sufferings of the saints, are characters +of their Father's image, and show their high original, +and foretell their glory to come; such a glory as doth not +only surpass the world's thoughts, but the thoughts of the +children of God themselves. 1 John iii. 2.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p class="center"><i>On an Intermediate State, or State of Transition from +Morality to Spiritual Religion.</i></p> + +<p>This Aphorism would, it may seem, have been placed +more fitly in the Chapter following. In placing it here, I +have been determined by the following convictions: 1. +Every state, and consequently that which we have described +as the state of Religious Morality, which is not progressive, +is dead, or retrograde. 2. As a pledge of this progression, +or, at least, as the form in which the propulsive tendency +shows itself, there are certain Hopes, Aspirations, Yearnings, +that, with more or less of consciousness, rise and stir +in the Heart of true Morality as naturally as the sap in +the full-formed stem of a rose flows towards the bud, +within which the flower is maturing. 3. No one, whose +own experience authorizes him to confirm the truth of this +statement, can have been conversant with the volumes of +religious biography, can have perused (for instance) the +lives of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Wishart, Sir Thomas +More, Bernard Gilpin, Bishop Bedel, or of Egede, Swartz, +and the missionaries of the frozen world, without an +occasional conviction, that these men lived under extraordinary +influences, which in each instance and in all ages +of the Christian æra bear the same characters, and both in +the accompaniments and the results evidently refer to a +common origin. And what can this be? is the question +that must needs force itself on the mind in the first moment +of reflection on a phenomenon so interesting and apparently +so anomalous. The answer is as necessarily contained in +one or the other of two assumptions. These influences are +either the Product of Delusion (<i>insania amabilis</i>, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span> +re-action of disordered nerves), or they argue the existence +of a relation to some real agency, distinct from what is +experienced or acknowledged by the world at large, for +which as not merely <i>natural</i> on the one hand, and yet not +assumed to be <i>miraculous</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_55" id="Ref_55" href="#Foot_55">[55]</a></span> +on the other, we have no apter +name than <i>spiritual</i>. Now if neither analogy justifies nor +the moral feelings permit the former assumption, and we +decide therefore in favour of the reality of a State other +and higher than the mere Moral Man, whose Religion<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_56" id="Ref_56" href="#Foot_56">[56]</a></span> +consists in Morality, has attained under these convictions, +can the existence of a <i>transitional</i> state appear other than +probable? or that these very convictions, when accompanied +by correspondent dispositions and stirrings of the +heart, are among the marks and indications of such a +state? And thinking it not unlikely that among the +readers of this volume, there may be found some Individuals, +whose inward state, though disquieted by doubts +and oftener still perhaps by blank misgivings, may, nevertheless, +betoken the commencement of a Transition from a +not irreligious Morality to a Spiritual Religion, with a +view to their interests I placed this Aphorism under the +present head.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_55" id="Foot_55" href="#Ref_55">[55]</a> +In check of fanatical pretensions, it is expedient to confine the term +<i>miraculous</i>, to cases where the <i>senses</i> are appealed to in proof of something +that transcends, or can be a part of the Experience derived from +the senses.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_56" id="Foot_56" href="#Ref_56">[56]</a> +For let it not be forgotten, that Morality, as distinguished from +Prudence, implying (it matters not under what name, whether of Honour, +or Duty, or Conscience, still, I say, implying), and being grounded in, +an awe of the Invisible and a Confidence therein beyond (nay, occasionally +in apparent contradiction to) the inductions of outward Experience, +is essentially religious.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The most approved teachers of wisdom, in a human way, +have required of their scholars, that to the end their minds +might be capable of it, they should be purified from vice +and wickedness. And it was Socrates' custom, when any +one asked him a question, seeking to be informed by him, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span> +before he would answer them, he asked them concerning +their own qualities and course of life.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Knowledge not the ultimate End of Religious Pursuits.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>The Hearing and Reading of the Word, under which I +comprise theological studies generally, are alike defective +when pursued <i>without</i> increase of Knowledge, and when +pursued chiefly <i>for</i> increase of Knowledge. To seek no +more than a present delight, that evanisheth with the sound +of the words that die in the air, is not to desire the Word +as meat, but as music, as God tells the prophet Ezekiel of +his people, Ezek. xxxiii. 32. <i>And lo, thou art unto them as +a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can +play well upon an instrument; for they hear thy words, and +they do them not.</i> To desire the word for the increase of +knowledge, although this is necessary and commendable, +and, being rightly qualified, is a part of spiritual accretion, +yet, take it as going no further, it is not the true end of the +Word. Nor is the venting of that knowledge in speech and +frequent discourse of the Word and the divine truths that +are in it; which, where it is governed with Christian prudence, +is not to be despised, but commended; yet, certainly, +the highest knowledge, and the most frequent and skilful +speaking of the Word, severed from the growth here mentioned, +misses the true end of the Word. If any one's head +or tongue should grow apace, and all the rest stand at a +stay, it would certainly make him a monster; and they are +no other, who are knowing and discoursing Christians, and +grow daily in that respect, but not at all in holiness of +heart, and life, which is the proper growth of the children +of God. Apposite to their case is Epictetus's comparison +of the sheep; they return not what they eat in grass, but +in wool.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The sum of Church History.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>In times of peace, the Church may dilate more, and build +as it were into breadth, but in times of trouble, it arises +more in height; it is then built upwards; as in cities +where men are straitened, they build usually higher than +in the country.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Worthy to be framed and hung up in the Library of every +Theological Student.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>When there is a great deal of smoke, and no clear flame, +it argues much moisture in the matter, yet it witnesseth +certainly that there is fire there; and therefore dubious +questioning is a much better evidence, than that senseless +deadness which most take for believing. Men that know +nothing in sciences, have no doubts. He never truly +believed, who was not made first sensible and convinced of +unbelief.</p> + +<p>Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have the disposition +to believe, and doubt in order that you may end in believing +the Truth. I will venture to add in my own name and +from my own conviction the following:</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXV.</h4> + +<p>He, who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, +will proceed by loving his own Sect or Church better than +Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Absence of Disputes, and a general Aversion to Religious +Controversies, no proof of True Unanimity.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>The boasted peaceableness about questions of Faith too +often proceeds from a superficial temper, and not seldom +from a supercilious disdain of whatever has no marketable +use or value, and from indifference to religion itself. +Toleration is a herb of spontaneous growth in the Soil of +Indifference; but the weed has none of the virtues of the +medicinal plant, reared by Humility in the Garden of +Zeal. Those, who regard religions as matters of taste, +may consistently include all religious differences in the old +adage, <i>De gustibus non est disputandum</i>. And many there +be among these of Gallio's temper, who <i>care for none of these +things</i>, and who account all questions in religion, as he did, +but matter of words and names. And by this all religions +may agree together. But that were not a natural union +produced by the active heat of the spirit, but a confusion +rather, arising from the want of it; not a knitting together, +but a freezing together, as cold congregates all bodies, how +heterogeneous soever, sticks, stones, and water; but heat +makes first a separation of different things, and then unites +those that are of the same nature.</p> + +<p>Much of our common union of minds, I fear, proceeds +from no other than the afore-mentioned causes, want of +knowledge, and want of affection to religion. You that +boast you live conformably to the appointments of the +Church, and that no one hears of your noise, we may thank +the ignorance of your minds for that kind of quietness.</p> + +<p>The preceding extract is particularly entitled to our +serious reflections, as in a tenfold degree more applicable +to the present times than to the age in which it was written. +We all know, that Lovers are apt to take offence and wrangle +on occasions that perhaps are but trifles, and which assuredly +would appear such to those who regard Love itself as folly. +These quarrels may, indeed, be no proof of wisdom; but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span> +still, in the imperfect state of our nature the entire absence +of the same, and this too on far more serious provocations, +would excite a strong suspicion of a comparative indifference +in the parties who can love so coolly where they profess to +love so well. I shall believe our present religious tolerancy +to proceed from the abundance of our charity and good +sense, when I see proofs that we are equally cool and forbearing +as litigants and political partizans.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Influence of Worldly Views (or what are called a Man's +Prospects in Life), the Bane of the Christian Ministry.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton</span></p> + +<p>It is a base, poor thing for a man to seek himself; far +below that royal dignity that is here put upon Christians, +and that priesthood joined with it. Under the Law, those +who were squint-eyed were incapable of the priesthood: +truly, this squinting toward our own interest, the looking +aside to that, in God's affairs especially, so deforms the +face of the soul, that it makes it altogether unworthy the +honour of this spiritual priesthood. Oh! this is a large +task, an infinite task. The several creatures bear their +part in this; the sun says somewhat, and moon and stars, +yea, the lowest have some share in it; the very plants and +herbs of the field speak of God; and yet, the very highest +and best, yea all of them together, the whole concert of +Heaven and earth, cannot show forth all His praise to the +full. No, it is but a part, the smallest part of that glory, +which they can reach.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXVIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Despise none: Despair of none.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The Jews would not willingly tread upon the smallest +piece of paper in their way, but took it up; for possibly, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span> +said they, the name of God may be on it. Though there +was a little superstition in this, yet truly there is nothing +but good religion in it, if we apply it to men. Trample +not on any; there may be some work of grace there, that +thou knowest not of. The name of God may be written +upon that soul thou treadest on; it may be a soul that +Christ thought so much of, as to give His precious blood +for it; therefore despise it not.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Men of Least Merit most apt to be Contemptuous, Because most +Ignorant and most Overweening of Themselves.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Too many take the ready course to deceive themselves; +for they look with both eyes on the failings and defects of +others, and scarcely give their good qualities half an eye, +while on the contrary, in themselves, they study to the full +their own advantages, and their weaknesses and defects, +(as one says), they skip over, as children do their hard +words in their lesson, that are troublesome to read; and +making this uneven parallel, what wonder if the result be +a gross mistake of themselves!</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Vanity may strut in rags, and Humility be arrayed in purple +and fine linen.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is not impossible that there may be in some an affected +pride in the meanness of apparel, and in others, under +either neat or rich attire, a very humble unaffected mind: +using it upon some of the afore-mentioned engagements, +or such like, and yet the heart not at all upon it. <i>Magnus +qui fictilibus ubitur tanquam argento, nec ille minor qui +argento tanquam fictilibus</i>, says Seneca: Great is he who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span> +enjoys his earthenware as if it were plate, and not less +great is the man to whom all his plate is no more than +earthenware.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Of the Detraction among Religious Professors.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>They who have attained to a self-pleasing pitch of +civility or formal religion, have usually that point of presumption +with it, that they make their own size the model +and rule to examine all by. What is below it, they condemn +indeed as profane; but what is beyond it, they account +needless and affected preciseness; and therefore are as +ready as others to let fly invectives or bitter taunts against +it, which are the keen and poisoned shafts of the tongue, +and a persecution that shall be called to a strict account.</p> + +<p>The slanders, perchance, may not be altogether forged +or untrue; they may be the implements, not the inventions, +of Malice. But they do not on this account escape the +guilt of detraction. Rather, it is characteristic of the evil +spirit in question, to work by the advantage of real faults; +but these stretched and aggravated to the utmost. <span class="smcap">It is +not expressible how deep a wound a tongue sharpened to +this work will give, with no noise and a very little +word.</span> This is the true <i>white</i> gunpowder, which the dreaming +Projectors of silent Mischiefs and insensible Poisons +sought for in the Laboratories of Art and Nature, in a World +of Good; but which was to be found, in its most destructive +form, in "the World of Evil, the Tongue."</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Remedy.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>All true remedy must begin at the heart; otherwise it +will be but a mountebank cure, a false imagined conquest. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span> +The weights and wheels are <i>there</i>, and the clock strikes +according to their motion. Even he that speaks contrary +to what is within him, guilefully contrary to his inward +conviction and knowledge, yet speaks conformably to what +is within him in the temper and frame of his heart, which +is double, <i>a heart and a heart</i>, as the Psalmist hath it: +Psalm xii. 2.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>It is an argument of a candid ingenuous mind, to delight +in the good name and commendations of others; to pass by +their defects, and take notice of their virtues; and to speak +and hear of those willingly, and not endure either to speak +or hear of the other; for in this indeed you may be little +less guilty than the evil speaker, in taking pleasure in it, +though you speak it not. He that willingly drinks in tales +and calumnies, will, from the delight he hath in evil hearing, +slide insensibly into the humour of evil speaking. It is +strange how most persons dispense with themselves in this +point, and that in scarcely any societies shall we find a +hatred of this ill, but rather some tokens of taking pleasure +in it; and until a Christian sets himself to an inward +watchfulness over his heart, not suffering in it any thought +that is uncharitable, or vain self-esteem, upon the sight of +others' frailties, he will still be subject to somewhat of this, +in the tongue or ear at least. So, then, as for the evil of +guile in the tongue, a sincere heart, <i>truth in the inward +parts</i>, powerfully redresses it; therefore it is expressed, +Psal. xv. 2, <i>That speaketh the truth from his heart</i>; thence it +flows. Seek much after this, to speak nothing with God, +nor men, but what is the sense of a single unfeigned heart. +O sweet truth! excellent but rare sincerity! he that <i>loves +that truth within</i>, and who is himself at once <span class="smcap">the truth</span> and +<span class="smcap">the life</span>, He alone can work it there! Seek it of him.</p> + +<p>It is characteristic of the Roman dignity and sobriety, +that, in the Latin, <i>to favour with the</i> tongue (<i>favere lingua</i>) +means <i>to be silent</i>. We say, Hold your tongue! as if it +were an injunction, that could not be carried into effect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span> +but by manual force, or the pincers of the Forefinger and +Thumb! And verily—I blush to say it—it is not Women +and Frenchmen only that would rather have their tongues +bitten than bitted, and feel their souls in a strait-waistcoat, +when they are obliged to remain silent.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXIV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On the Passion for New and Striking Thoughts.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>In conversation seek not so much either to vent thy +knowledge, or to increase it, as to know more spiritually +and effectually what thou dost know. And in this way +those mean despised truths, that everyone thinks he is +sufficiently seen in, will have a new sweetness and use in +them, which thou didst not so well perceive before (for +these flowers cannot be sucked dry), and in this humble +sincere way thou shalt <i>grow in grace and in knowledge</i> too.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Radical Difference between the Good Man and the +Vicious Man.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>The godly man hates the evil he possibly by temptation +hath been drawn to do, and loves the good he is frustrated +of, and, having intended, hath not attained to do. The sinner, +who hath his denomination from sin as his course, hates +the good which sometimes he is forced to do, and loves that +sin which many times he does not, either wanting occasion +and means, so that he cannot do it, or through the check +of an enlightened conscience possibly dares not do; and +though so bound up from the act, as a dog in a chain, yet +the habit, the natural inclination and desire in him, is still +the same, the strength of his affection is carried to sin. So +in the weakest <i>sincere</i> Christian, there is that predominant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span> +sincerity and desire of holy walking, according to which +he is called a <i>righteous person</i>, the Lord is pleased to give +him that name, and account him so, being upright in heart, +though often failing.</p> + +<p>Leighton adds, "There is a Righteousness of a higher +strain." I do not ask the reader's full assent to this +position: I do not suppose him as yet prepared to yield it. +But thus much he will readily admit, that here, <i>if</i> any +where, we are to seek the fine Line which, like stripes of +Light in Light, distinguishes, not divides, the summit of +religious Morality from Spiritual Religion.</p> + +<p>"A Righteousness" (Leighton continues) "that is not <i>in</i> +him, but <i>upon</i> him. He is <i>clothed</i> with it." This, reader! +is the controverted Doctrine, so warmly asserted and so +bitterly decried under the name of "<span class="smcap">imputed righteousness</span>." +Our learned Archbishop, you see, adopts it; and it +is on this account principally, that by many of our leading +Churchmen his orthodoxy has been more than questioned, +and his name put in the list of proscribed divines, as a +Calvinist. That Leighton attached a definite sense to the +words above quoted, it would be uncandid to doubt; and +the general spirit of his writings leads me to presume that +it was compatible with the eternal distinction between +<i>things</i> and <i>persons</i>, and therefore opposed to <i>modern</i> Calvinism. +But what it was, I have not (I own) been able +to discover. The sense, however, in which I think he <i>might</i> +have received this doctrine, and in which I avow myself a +believer in it, I shall have an opportunity of showing in +another place. My present object is to open out the road +by the removal of prejudices, so far at least as to throw +some disturbing <i>doubts</i> on the secure <i>taking-for-granted</i>, +that the peculiar Tenets of the Christian Faith asserted in +the articles and homilies of our National Church are in +contradiction to the common sense of mankind. And +with this view, (and not in the arrogant expectation or +wish, that a mere <i>ipse dixit</i> should be received for argument) +I here avow my conviction, that the doctrine of +<span class="smcap">imputed</span> Righteousness, rightly and scripturally interpreted, +is so far from being either <i>irrational</i> or <i>immoral</i>, that Reason +itself prescribes the idea in order to give a <i>meaning</i> and an +ultimate object to Morality; and that the Moral Law in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">{74}</a></span> +the Conscience demands its reception in order to give +reality and substantive existence to the idea presented by +the Reason.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXVI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Your blessedness is not,—no, believe it, it is not where +most of you seek it, in things below you. How can that +be? It must be a higher good to make you happy.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Every rank of creatures, as it ascends in the scale of +creation, leaves death behind it or under it. The metal +at its height of being seems a mute prophecy of the +coming vegetation, into a mimic semblance of which it +crystallizes. The blossom and flower, the acme of vegetable +life, divides into correspondent organs with reciprocal +functions, and by instinctive motions and approximations +seems impatient of that fixure, by which it is differenced +in kind from the flower-shaped Psyche, that flutters +with free wing above it. And wonderfully in the insect +realm doth the Irritability, the proper seat of Instinct, +while yet the nascent Sensibility is subordinated thereto—most +wonderfully, I say, doth the muscular life in the +insect, and the musculo-arterial in the bird, imitate and +typically rehearse the adaptive Understanding, yea, and +the moral affections and charities, of man. Let us carry +ourselves back, in spirit, to the mysterious Week, the +teeming Work-days of the Creator: as they rose in vision +before the eye of the inspired historian <i>of the Generations +of the Heaven and the Earth, in the days that the +Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_57" id="Ref_57" href="#Foot_57">[57]</a></span> +And who that hath watched their ways with an understanding heart, +could, as the vision evolving, still advanced towards him, +contemplate the filial and loyal bee; the home-building, +wedded, and divorceless swallow; and above all the manifoldly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></span> +intelligent<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_58" id="Ref_58" href="#Foot_58">[58]</a></span> +ant tribes, with their Commonwealths +and Confederacies, their warriors and miners, the husbandfolk, +that fold in their tiny flocks on the honeyed leaf, +and the virgin sisters, with the holy instincts of maternal +love, detached and in selfless purity—and not say to himself, +Behold the Shadow of approaching Humanity, the +Sun rising from behind, in the kindling Morn of Creation! +Thus all lower Natures find their highest Good in semblances +and seekings of that which is higher and better. +All things strive to ascend, and ascend in their striving. +And shall man alone stoop? Shall his pursuits and desires, +the <i>reflections</i> of his inward life, be like the reflected +image of a tree on the edge of a pool, that grows downward, +and seeks a mock heaven in the unstable element +beneath it, in neighbourhood with the slim water-weeds +and oozy bottom-grass that are yet better than itself and +more noble, in as far as Substances that appear as Shadows +are preferable to Shadows mistaken for Substance! No! +it must be a higher good to make you happy. While you +labour for any thing below your proper Humanity, you +seek a happy Life in the region of Death. Well saith the +moral poet—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">Unless above himself he can</span> +<span class="i2">Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_59" id="Ref_59" href="#Foot_59">[59]</a></span></span> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_57" id="Foot_57" href="#Ref_57">[57]</a> +Gen. ii. 4.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_58" id="Foot_58" href="#Ref_58">[58]</a> +See Hüber on Bees, and on Ants.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_59" id="Foot_59" href="#Ref_59">[59]</a> +Samuel Daniel, 1562-1619:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i4">Unless above himself he can</span> +<span class="i2">Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!</span><br /> + +<span class="i4"><i>To the Countess of Cumberland</i>, stanza 12.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></span> + +</div> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXVII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>There is an imitation of men that is impious and wicked, +which consists in taking a copy of their sins. Again, there +is an imitation which though not so grossly evil, yet is +poor and servile, being in mean things, yea, sometimes descending +to imitate the very imperfections of others, as +fancying some comeliness in them: as some of Basil's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span> +scholars, who imitated his slow speaking, which he had a +little in the extreme, and could not help. But this is +always laudable, and worthy of the best minds, to be +<i>imitators of that which is good</i>, wheresoever they find it; for +that stays not in any man's person, as the ultimate pattern, +but rises to the highest grace, being man's nearest likeness +to God, His image and resemblance, bearing his stamp +and superscription, and belonging peculiarly to Him, in +what hand soever it be found, as carrying the mark of no +other owner than Him.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXVIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Those who think themselves high-spirited, and will bear +least, as they speak, are often, even by that, forced to bow +most, or to burst under it; while humility and meekness +escape many a burden, and many a blow, always keeping +peace within, and often without too.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXXIX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Our condition is universally exposed to fears and +troubles, and no man is so stupid but he studies and projects +for some fence against them, some bulwark to break +the incursion of evils, and so to bring his mind to some +ease, ridding it of the fear of them. Thus men seek safety +in the greatness, or multitude, or supposed faithfulness of +friends; they seek by any means to be strongly underset +this way; to have many, and powerful, and trust-worthy +friends. But wiser men, perceiving the unsafety and +vanity of these and all external things, have cast about for +some higher course. They see a necessity of withdrawing +a man from externals, which do nothing but mock and +deceive those most who trust most to them; but they +cannot tell whither to direct him. The best of them bring +him <i>into himself</i>, and think to quiet him so; but the truth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span> +is, he finds as little to support him there; there is nothing +truly strong enough within him, to hold out against the +many sorrows and fears which still from without do assault +him. So then, though it is well done, to call off a man +from outward things, as moving sands, that he build not +on them, yet, this is not enough; for his own spirit is +as unsettled a piece as is in all the world, and must have +some higher strength than its own, to fortify and fix it. +This is the way that is here taught, <i>Fear not their fear, but +sanctify the Lord your God in your hearts</i>; and if you can +attain this latter, the former will follow of itself.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XL.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Worldly Troubles Idols.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The too ardent love or self-willed desire of power, or +wealth, or credit in the world, is (an Apostle has assured +us) Idolatry. Now among the words or synonimes for +idols, in the Hebrew language, there is one that in its +primary sense signifies <i>troubles</i> (<i>tegirim</i>), other two that +signify <i>terrors</i> (<i>miphletzeth</i> and <i>emim</i>). And so it is certainly. +All our idols prove so to us. They fill us with +nothing but anguish and troubles, with cares and fears, +that are good for nothing but to be fit punishments of the +folly, out of which they arise.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On the right Treatment of Infidels.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>A regardless contempt of infidel writings is usually the +fittest answer; <i>Spreta vilescerent</i>. But where the holy +profession of Christians is likely to receive either the main +or the indirect blow, and a word of defence may do any +thing to ward it off, there we ought not to spare to do it.</p> + +<p>Christian prudence goes a great way in the regulating of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span> +this. Some are not capable of receiving rational answers, +especially in Divine things; they were not only lost upon +them, but religion dishonoured by the contest.</p> + +<p>Of this sort are the vulgar railers at religion, the foul-mouthed +beliers of the Christian faith and history. Impudently +false and slanderous assertions can be met only +by assertions of their impudent and slanderous falsehood: +and Christians will not, must not, condescend to this. +How can mere railing be answered by them who are +forbidden to return a railing answer? Whether, or on what +provocations, such offenders may be punished or coerced +on the score of incivility, and ill-neighbourhood, and for +abatement of a nuisance, as in the case of other scolds and +endangerers of the public peace, must be trusted to the +discretion of the civil magistrate. Even then, there is +danger of giving them importance, and flattering their +vanity, by attracting attention to their works, if the +punishment be slight; and if severe, of spreading far and +wide their reputation as martyrs, as the smell of a dead +dog at a distance is said to change into that of musk. +Experience hitherto seems to favour the plan of treating +these <i>bêtes puantes</i> and <i>enfans de diable</i>, as their four-footed +brethren, the skink and squash, are treated<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_60" id="Ref_60" href="#Foot_60">[60]</a></span> +by the American woodmen, who turn their backs upon the fetid +intruder, and make appear not to see him, even at the cost +of suffering him to regale on the favourite viand of these +animals, the brains of a stray goose or crested <i>thraso</i> of +the dunghill. At all events, it is degrading to the +majesty, and injurious to the character of Religion, to make +its safety the plea for their punishment, or at all to connect +the name of Christianity with the castigation of indecencies +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span> +that properly belong to the beadle, and the perpetrators of +which would have equally deserved his lash, though the +religion of their fellow-citizens, thus assailed by them, had +been that of Fo or Juggernaut.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we are to answer every one that +<i>inquires a reason</i>, or an account; which supposes something +receptive of it. We ought to judge ourselves engaged to +give it, be it an enemy, if he will hear; if it gain him not, +it may in part convince and cool him; much more, should +it be one who ingenuously inquires for satisfaction, and +possibly inclines to receive the truth, but has been, prejudiced +by misrepresentations of it.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_60" id="Foot_60" href="#Ref_60">[60]</a> +About the end of the same year (says Kalm), another of these Animals +(<i>Mephitis Americana</i>) crept into our cellar; but did not exhale the +smallest scent, <i>because it was not disturbed</i>. <i>A foolish old woman, however, +who perceived it at night, by the shining, and thought, I suppose, +that it would set the world on fire, killed it: and at that moment its +stench began to spread.</i></p> + +<p class="nodent">We recommend this anecdote to the consideration of sundry old +women, on this side of the Atlantic, who, though they do not wear the +appropriate garment, are worthy to sit in their committee-room, like +Bickerstaff in the Tatler, under the canopy of their grandam's hoop-petticoat.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XLII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Passion no Friend to Truth.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Truth needs not the service of passion; yea, nothing so +disserves it, as passion when set to serve it. The <i>Spirit +of truth</i> is withal the <i>Spirit of meekness</i>. The Dove that +rested on that great champion of truth, who is The Truth +itself, is from Him derived to the lovers of truth, and they +ought to seek the participation of it. Imprudence makes +some kind of Christians lose much of their labour, in +speaking for religion, and drive those further off, whom +they would draw into it.</p> + +<p>The confidence that attends a Christian's belief makes +the believer not fear men, to whom he answers, but still he +fears his God, for whom he answers, and whose interest is +chief in those things he speaks of. The soul that hath the +deepest sense of spiritual things, and the truest knowledge +of God, is most afraid to miscarry in speaking of Him, +most tender and wary how to acquit itself when engaged +to speak of and for God.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_61" id="Ref_61" href="#Foot_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_61" id="Foot_61" href="#Ref_61">[61]</a> +To the same purpose are the two following sentences from Hilary:</p> + +<p class="nodent"><i>Etiam quæ</i> pro <i>Religione dicimus, cum grandi motu et disciplina dicere +debemus</i>.—Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><i>Non relictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus alius +quam Dei sermo.</i>—Idem.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The latter, however, must be taken with certain <i>qualifications</i> and +<i>exceptions</i>; as when any two or more texts are in apparent contradiction, +and it is required to state a Truth that comprehends and reconciles +both, and which, of course, cannot be expressed in the words of +either,—for example, the filial subordination (<i>My Father is greater than +I</i>), in the equal Deity (<i>My Father and I are one</i>).</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On the Conscience</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is a fruitless verbal debate, whether Conscience be +a Faculty or a Habit. When all is examined, Conscience +will be found to be no other than <i>the mind of a man, under +the notion of a particular reference to himself</i> and his own +actions.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p><i>What</i> Conscience is, and that it is the ground and antecedent +of human (or <i>self-</i>) consciousness, and not any +modification of the latter, I have shown at large in a work +announced for the press, and described in the Chapter following.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_62" id="Ref_62" href="#Foot_62">[62]</a></span> +I have selected the preceding extract as an +Exercise for Reflection; and <i>because</i> I think that in too +closely following Thomas à Kempis, the Archbishop has +strayed from his own judgment. The definition, for +instance, seems to say all, and in fact says nothing; for if +I asked, How do you define the <i>human mind</i>? the answer +must at least <i>contain</i>, if not consist of, the words, "a mind +capable of <i>Conscience</i>." For Conscience is no synonime of +Consciousness, nor any mere expression of the same as +modified by the particular Object. On the contrary, a Consciousness +properly human (that is, <i>Self</i>-consciousness), +with the sense of moral responsibility, presupposes the Conscience, +as its antecedent condition and ground. Lastly, +the sentence, "It is a fruitless verbal debate," is an assertion +of the same complexion with the contemptuous sneers, +at verbal criticism by the contemporaries of Bentley. In +questions of Philosophy or Divinity, that have occupied +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span> +the learned and been the subjects of many successive controversies, +for one instance of mere logomachy I could +bring ten instances of <i>logodædaly</i>, or verbal legerdemain, +which have perilously confirmed prejudices, and withstood +the advancement of truth in consequence of the neglect +of <i>verbal debate</i>, that is, strict discussion of terms. In +whatever sense, however, the term Conscience may be +used, the following Aphorism is equally true and important. +It is worth noticing, likewise, that Leighton himself in a +following page (vol. ii. p. 97), tells us that a good Conscience +is the <i>root</i> of a good Conversation: and then quotes +from St. Paul a text, Titus i. 15, in which the Mind and +the Conscience are expressly distinguished.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_62" id="Foot_62" href="#Ref_62">[62]</a> +See Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion, p. 103.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XLIV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Light of Knowledge a necessary accompaniment of a +Good Conscience.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>If you would have a good conscience, you must by all +means have so much light, so much knowledge of the will +of God, as may regulate you, and show you your way, may +teach you how to do, and speak, and think, as in His presence.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Yet the Knowledge of the Rule, though Accompanied by an endeavour +to accommodate our conduct to this Rule, will not of itself form a +Good Conscience.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>To set the outward actions right, though with an honest +intention, and not so to regard and find out the inward +disorder of the heart, whence that in the actions flows, is +but to be still putting the index of a clock right with your +finger, while it is foul, or out of order within, which is a +continual business, and does no good. Oh! but a purified +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span> +conscience, a soul renewed and refined in its temper and +affections, will make things go right without, in all the +duties and acts of our calling.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLVI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The Depth of the Conscience.</i></p> + +<p>How deeply seated the conscience is in the human soul +is seen in the effect which sudden calamities produce on +guilty men, even when unaided by any determinate notion +or fears of punishment after death. The wretched Criminal, +as one rudely awakened from a long sleep, bewildered with +the new light, and half recollecting, half striving to recollect, +a fearful something, he knows not what, but which he will +recognize as soon as he hears the name, already interprets +the calamities into <i>judgments</i>, executions of a sentence +passed by an <i>invisible</i> Judge; as if the vast pyre of the +Last Judgment were already kindled in an unknown distance, +and some flashes of it, darting forth at intervals +beyond the rest, were flying and lighting upon the face of +his soul. The calamity may consist in loss of fortune, or +character, or reputation; but you hear no <i>regrets</i> from +him. Remorse extinguishes all Regret; and Remorse is +the <i>implicit</i> Creed of the Guilty.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLVII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>God hath suited every creature He hath made with a +convenient good to which it tends, and in the obtainment +of which it rests and is satisfied. Natural bodies have all +their own natural place, whither, if not hindered, they +move incessantly till they be in it; and they declare, by +resting there, that they are (as I may say) where they +would be. Sensitive creatures are carried to seek a sensitive +good, as agreeable to their rank in being, and, attaining +that, aim no further. Now, in this is the excellency of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span> +Man, that he is made capable of a communion with his +Maker, and, because capable of it, is unsatisfied without it: +the soul, being cut out (so to speak) to that largeness, cannot +be filled with less. Though he is fallen from his right +to that good, and from all right desire of it, yet, not from a +capacity of it, no, nor from a necessity of it, for the answering +and filling of his capacity.</p> + +<p>Though the heart once gone from God turns continually +further away from Him, and moves not towards Him till +it be renewed, yet, even in that wandering, it retains that +natural relation to God, as its centre, that it hath no true +rest elsewhere, nor can by any means find it. It is made +for Him, and is therefore still restless till it meet with Him.</p> + +<p>It is true, the natural man takes much pains to quiet +his heart by other things, and digests many vexations with +hopes of contentment in the end and accomplishment of +some design he hath; but still the heart misgives. Many +times he attains not the thing he seeks; but if he do, yet +he never attains the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it, +but only learns from that to desire something further, and +still hunts on after a fancy, drives his own shadow before +him, and never overtakes it; and if he did, yet it is but a +shadow. And so, in running from God, besides the sad +end, he carries an interwoven punishment with his sin, the +natural disquiet and vexation of his spirit, fluttering to and +fro, and <i>finding no rest for the sole of his foot</i>; the <i>waters</i> of +inconstancy and vanity <i>covering the whole face of the earth</i>.</p> + +<p>These things are too gross and heavy. The soul, the +immortal soul, descended from heaven, must either be more +happy, or remain miserable. The Highest, the Increated +Spirit, is the proper good, <i>the Father of Spirits</i>, that pure +and full good which raises the soul above itself; whereas +all other things draw it down below itself. So, then, it is +never well with the soul but when it is near unto God, yea, +in its union with Him, married to Him: mismatching itself +elsewhere, it hath never anything but shame and sorrow. +<i>All that forsake Thee shall be ashamed</i>, says the Prophet, +Jer. xvii. 13; and the Psalmist, <i>They that are far off from +thee shall perish</i>, Psalm lxxiii. 27. And this is indeed our +natural miserable condition, and it is often expressed this +way, by estrangedness and distance from God.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span> +The same sentiments are to be found in the works of +Pagan philosophers and moralists. Well then may they +be made a subject of Reflection in our days. And well +may the pious deist, if such a character now exists, reflect +that Christianity alone both teaches the way, and provides +the means, of fulfilling the obscure promises of this great +Instinct for all men, which the Philosophy of boldest pretensions +confined to the sacred few.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLVIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>A contracted Sphere, or what is called Retiring from the Business +of the World, no Security from the Spirit of the World.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>The heart may be engaged in a little business, as much, +if thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. A man +may drown in a little brook or pool, as well as in a great +river, if he be down and plunge himself into it, and put his +head under water. Some care thou must have, that thou +mayest not care. Those things that are thorns indeed, thou +must make a hedge of them, to keep out those temptations +that accompany sloth, and extreme want that waits on it; +but let them be the hedge; suffer them not to grow within +the garden.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XLIX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On Church-going, as a part of Religious Morality, when not in +reference to a Spiritual Religion.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>It is a strange folly in multitudes of us, to set ourselves +no mark, to propound no end in the hearing of the Gospel.—The +merchant sails not merely that he may sail, but for +traffic, and traffics that he may be rich. The husbandman +plows not merely to keep himself busy, with no further +end, but plows that he may sow, and sows that he may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span> +reap with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent +and fruitful work fruitlessly,—hear only to hear, and look +no further? This is indeed a great vanity, and a great +misery, to lose that labour, and gain nothing by it, which, +duly used, would be of all others most advantageous and +gainful: and yet all meetings are full of this!</p> + +<h4>APHORISM L.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On the Hopes and Self-Satisfaction of a religious Moralist, +independent of a Spiritual Faith—on what are they grounded?</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>There have been great disputes one way or another, about +the merit of good works; but I truly think they who have +laboriously engaged in them have been very idly, though +very eagerly, employed about nothing, since the more sober +of the schoolmen themselves acknowledge there can be no +such thing as meriting from the blessed God, in the human, +or, to speak more accurately, in any created nature whatsoever: +nay, so far from any possibility of merit, there can +be no room for reward any otherwise than of the sovereign +pleasure and gracious kindness of God; and the more +ancient writers, when they use the word merit, mean +nothing by it but a certain <i>correlate</i> to that reward which +God both promises and bestows of mere grace and benignity. +Otherwise, in order to constitute what is properly +called merit, many things must concur, which no man in +his senses will presume to attribute to human works, though +ever so excellent; particularly, that the thing done must +not previously be matter of debt, and that it be entire, or +our own act, unassisted by foreign aid; it must also be +perfectly good, and it must bear an adequate proportion to +the reward claimed in consequence of it. If all these +things do not concur, the act cannot possibly amount to +merit. Whereas I think no one will venture to assert, +that any one of these can take place in any human action +whatever. But why should I enlarge here, when one +single circumstance overthrows all those titles: the most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span> +righteous of mankind would not be able to stand, if his +works were weighed in the balance of strict justice; how +much less then could they deserve that immense glory +which is now in question! Nor is this to be denied only +concerning the unbeliever and the sinner, but concerning +the righteous and pious believer, who is not only free from +all the guilt of his former impenitence and rebellion, but +endowed with the gift of the Spirit. "For the time <i>is +come</i> that judgment must begin at the house of God: and +if <i>it</i> first <i>begin</i> at us, what shall the end <i>be</i> of them that +obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely +be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" +1 Peter iv. 17 18. The Apostle's interrogation expresses +the most vehement negation, and signifies that no mortal, +in whatever degree he is placed, if he be called to the strict +examination of Divine Justice, without daily and repeated +forgiveness, could be able to keep his standing, and much +less could he arise to that glorious height. "That merit," +says Bernard, "on which my hope relies, consists in these +three things; the love of adoption, the truth of the promise, +and the power of its performance." This is the +threefold cord which cannot be broken.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Often have I heard it said by advocates for the Socinian +scheme—True! we are all sinners; but even in the Old +Testament God has promised forgiveness on repentance. +One of the Fathers (I forget which) supplies the retort—True! +God has promised pardon on penitence: but has he +promised penitence on sin?—He that repenteth shall be +forgiven: but where is it said, He that sinneth shall +repent? But repentance, perhaps, the repentance required +in Scripture, <i>the Passing into a new mind</i>, into a new and +contrary Principle of Action, this <span class="smcap">Metanoia</span>,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_63" id="Ref_63" href="#Foot_63">[63]</a></span> +is in the sinner's own power? at his own liking? He has but to +open his eyes to the sin, and the tears are close at hand to +wash it away!—Verily, the exploded tenet of <i>Transubstantiation</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span> +is scarcely at greater variance with the common +sense and experience of mankind, or borders more closely +on a contradiction in terms, than this volunteer <i>Transmentation</i>, +this Self-change, as the easy<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_64" id="Ref_64" href="#Foot_64">[64]</a></span> +means of Self-salvation! +But the reflections of our evangelical author on this subject +will appropriately commence the Aphorisms relating +to Spiritual Religion.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_63" id="Foot_63" href="#Ref_63">[63]</a> +<span title="Metanoia">Μετανοια</span>, the New Testament word +which we render by Repentance, compounded of <span +title="meta">μετα</span>, <i>trans</i>, and <span +title="nous">νους</span>, <i>mens</i>, the Spirit, or practical Reason.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_64" id="Foot_64" href="#Ref_64">[64]</a> +May I without offence be permitted to record the very appropriate +title, with which a stern Humorist <i>lettered</i> a collection of Unitarian +Tracts?—"Salvation made easy; or, Every Man his own Redeemer."</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">ELEMENTS<br /><span class="x-small">OF</span><br /> +RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY,</h3> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p><span class="x-small">PRELIMINARY TO THE</span><br /> +APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION.</p> +</div> + +<p class="smallcond">Philip saith unto him: Lord, <i>show</i> us the Father, and it +sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen me hath seen +the Father; and how sayest thou then, <i>Show</i> us the Father? +Believest thou not, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? +And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, +even the <i>Spirit</i> of Truth: whom the world <i>cannot</i> +receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know +him, for he dwelleth <i>with</i> you and <i>shall</i> be <i>in</i> +you. And in that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in +me, and I in you. John xiv. 8 9 10 16 17 20.</p> + +<p class="center">PRELIMINARY.</p> + +<p class="dropcap">IF there be aught <i>Spiritual</i> in Man, the Will +must be such.</p> + +<p><i>If</i> there be a Will, there must be a Spirituality in Man.</p> + +<p>I suppose both positions granted. The Reader admits +the reality of the power, agency, or mode of Being expressed +in the term, Spirit; and the actual existence of a Will. +He sees clearly, that the idea of the former is necessary to +the conceivability of the latter; and that, <i>vice versá</i>, in +asserting the <i>fact</i> of the latter he presumes and instances +the truth of the former—just as in our common and received +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span> +Systems of Natural Philosophy, the Being of imponderable +Matter is assumed to render the lode-stone +intelligible, and the Fact of the lode-stone adduced to +prove the reality of imponderable Matter.</p> + +<p>In short, I suppose the reader, whom I now invite to +the third and last division of the work, already disposed +to reject for himself and his human brethren the insidious +title of "Nature's noblest <i>animal</i>," or to retort it as +the unconscious irony of the Epicurean poet on the animalizing +tendency of his own philosophy. I suppose him +convinced, that there is more in man than can be rationally +referred to the life of Nature and the mechanism of Organization; +that he has a will not included in this mechanism; +and that the Will is in an especial and pre-eminent +sense the spiritual part of our Humanity.</p> + +<p>Unless, then, we have some distinct notion of the Will, +and some acquaintance with the prevalent errors respecting +the same, an insight into the nature of Spiritual Religion +is scarcely possible; and our reflections on the particular +truths and evidences of a Spiritual State will remain obscure, +perplexed, and unsafe. To place my reader on this +requisite vantage-ground, is the purpose of the following +exposition.</p> + +<p>We have begun, as in geometry, with defining our Terms; +and we proceed, like the Geometricians, with stating our +<span class="smcap">postulates</span>; the difference being, that the postulates of +Geometry <i>no</i> man <i>can</i> deny, those of Moral Science are +such as no <i>good</i> man <i>will</i> deny. For it is <i>not</i> in our power +to disclaim our nature, as <i>sentient</i> beings; but it <i>is</i> in our +power to disclaim our nature as <i>moral</i> beings.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_65" id="Ref_65" href="#Foot_65">[65]</a></span> +It is possible (barely possible, I admit) that a man may have remained +ignorant or unconscious of the Moral Law within +him: and a man need only persist in disobeying the Law +of Conscience to <i>make</i> it possible for himself to deny its +existence, or to reject or repel it as a phantom of Superstition. +Were it otherwise, the Creed would stand in the +same relation to Morality as the multiplication table.</p> + +<p>This then is the distinction of Moral Philosophy—<i>not</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span> +that I begin with one or more <i>assumptions</i>: for this is +common to <i>all</i> science; but—that I assume a something, +the proof of which no man can <i>give</i> to another, yet every +man may <i>find</i> for himself. If any man assert, that he <i>can</i> +not find it, I am <i>bound</i> to disbelieve him. I cannot do +otherwise without unsettling the very foundations of my +own moral nature. For I either find it as an <i>essential</i> of +the Humanity <i>common</i> to him and me: or I have not <i>found</i> +it at all, except as an hypochondriast finds <i>glass</i> legs. If, +on the other hand, he <i>will</i> not find it, he excommunicates +himself. He forfeits his <i>personal</i> rights, and becomes a +<i>Thing</i>: that is, one who may rightfully be <i>employed</i>, or +<i>used</i> as<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_66" id="Ref_66" href="#Foot_66">[66]</a></span> +means to an end, against his will, and without +regard to his interest.</p> + +<p>All the significant objections of the Materialist and +Necessitarian are contained in the term, Morality, all the +objections of the infidel in the term, Religion. The very +terms, I say, imply a something <i>granted</i>, which the Objection +supposes <i>not</i> granted. The term <i>presumes</i> what the +objection denies, and in denying <i>presumes</i> the contrary. +For it is most important to observe, that the reasoners +on <i>both</i> sides commence by taking something for granted, +our assent to which they ask or demand: that is, both +set off with an Assumption in the form of a Postulate. +But the Epicurean assumes what according to himself he +neither is nor can be under any <i>obligation</i> to assume, and +demands what he <i>can</i> have no <i>right</i> to demand: for <i>he</i> +denies the reality of <i>all</i> moral Obligation, the existence of +<i>any</i> Right. If he use the <i>words</i>, Right and Obligation, he +does it deceptively, and means only Power and Compulsion. +To overthrow the Faith in aught higher or other than +Nature and physical Necessity, is the very purpose of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span> +argument. He desires you only to <i>take for granted</i>, that <i>all</i> +reality is <i>in</i>cluded in Nature, and he may then safely defy +you to ward off his conclusion—that <i>nothing</i> is <i>ex</i>cluded!</p> + +<p>But as he cannot morally demand, neither can he rationally +expect, your assent to this premiss: for he cannot +be ignorant, that the best and greatest of men have devoted +their lives to the enforcement of the contrary, that the vast +majority of the human race in all ages and in all nations +have believed in the contrary; and there is not a language +on earth, in which he could argue, for ten minutes, in +support of his scheme, without sliding into words and +phrases, that imply the contrary. It has been said, that +the Arabic has a thousand names for a lion; but this +would be a trifle compared with the number of superfluous +words and useless synonyms that would be found in an +<i>Index Expurgatorius</i> of any European dictionary constructed +on the principles of a consistent and strictly consequential +Materialism.</p> + +<p>The <i>Christian</i> likewise grounds <i>his</i> philosophy on assertions; +but with the best of all <i>reasons</i> for making them—namely, +that he <i>ought</i> so to do. He asserts what he can +neither prove, nor account for, nor himself comprehend; but +with the strongest <i>inducements</i>, that of understanding thereby +whatever else it most concerns him to understand aright. +And yet his assertions have nothing in them of theory or +hypothesis; but are in immediate reference to three ultimate +<i>facts</i>; namely, the Reality of the <span class="smcap">law of conscience</span>; +the existence of a <span class="smcap">responsible will</span>, as the subject of that +law; and lastly, the existence of <span class="smcap">Evil</span>—of Evil essentially +such, not by accident of outward circumstances, not derived +from its physical consequences, nor from any cause, +out of itself. The first is a Fact of Consciousness; the +second a Fact of Reason necessarily concluded from the +first; and the third a Fact of History interpreted by both.</p> + +<p><i>Omnia exeunt in mysterium</i>, says a schoolman; that is, +<i>There is nothing, the absolute ground of which is not a Mystery</i>. +The contrary were indeed a contradiction in terms: for how +can that, which is to explain all things, be susceptible of +an explanation? It would be to suppose the same thing +first and second at the same time.</p> + +<p>If I rested here, I should merely have placed my Creed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span> +in direct opposition to that of the Necessitarians, who +assume (for observe <i>both</i> Parties begin in an <i>Assumption</i>, +and cannot do otherwise) that motives act on the Will, as +bodies act on bodies; and that whether mind and matter +are essentially the same, or essentially different, they are +both alike under one and the same law of compulsory +Causation. But this is far from exhausting my intention. +I mean at the same time to oppose the disciples of <span class="smcap">Shaftesbury</span> +and those who, substituting one Faith for another, +have been well called the pious Deists of the last century, +in order to distinguish them from the Infidels of the present +age, who <i>persuade</i> themselves, (for the thing itself is +not possible) that they reject all Faith. I declare my dissent +from these too, because they imposed upon themselves +an <i>idea</i> for a fact: a most sublime idea indeed, and so +necessary to human nature, that without it no virtue is +conceivable: but still an idea. In contradiction to their +splendid but delusory tenets, I profess a deep conviction +that man was and is a <i>fallen</i> creature, not by accidents of +bodily constitution, or any other cause, which <i>human</i> +wisdom in a course of ages might be supposed capable of +removing; but as diseased in his <i>Will</i>, in that Will which is +the true and only strict synonime of the word, I, or the +intelligent Self. Thus at each of these two opposite roads +(the philosophy of Hobbes and that of Shaftesbury), I +have placed a directing post, informing my fellow-travellers, +that on neither of these roads can they see the +Truths to which I would direct their attention.</p> + +<p>But the place of starting was at the meeting of <i>four</i> +roads, and one only was the right road. I proceed, therefore, +to preclude the opinion of those likewise, who indeed +agree with me as to the moral Responsibility of man in +opposition to Hobbes and the Anti-Moralists, and that he +is a fallen creature, essentially diseased, in opposition to +Shaftesbury and the misinterpreters of Plato; but who +differ from me in exaggerating the diseased <i>weakness</i> of the +Will into an absolute privation of all Freedom, thereby +making moral responsibility, not a mystery <i>above</i> comprehension, +but a direct contradiction, of which we do distinctly +comprehend the absurdity. Among the consequences +of this doctrine, is that direful one of swallowing up all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span> +the attributes of the Supreme Being in the one Attribute of +infinite Power, and thence deducing that things are good +and wise because they were created, and not created through +Wisdom and Goodness. Thence too the awful Attribute +of <i>Justice</i> is explained away into a mere right of absolute +<i>Property</i>; the sacred distinction between things and persons +is erased; and the selection of persons for virtue and +vice in this life, and for eternal happiness or misery in +the next, is represented as the result of a mere <i>Will</i>, acting +in the blindness and solitude of its own Infinity. The +title of a work written by the great and pious Boyle is +"Of the Awe, which the human Mind owes to the Supreme +Reason." This, in the language of these gloomy doctors, +must be translated into—"The horror, which a Being +capable of eternal Pleasure or Pain is compelled to feel at +the idea of an Infinite Power, about to inflict the latter on +an immense majority of human Souls, without any power +on their part either to prevent it or the actions which are +(not indeed its causes but) its assigned <i>signals</i>, and preceding +links of the same iron chain!"</p> + +<p>Against these tenets I maintain, that a Will conceived +separately from Intelligence is a Non-entity and a mere +phantasm of abstraction; and that a Will, the state of +which does in <i>no sense</i> originate in its own act, is an absolute +contradiction. It might be an Instinct, an Impulse, +a plastic Power, and, if accompanied with consciousness, a +Desire; but a Will it <i>could</i> not be. And this <i>every</i> human +being <i>knows</i> with equal <i>clearness</i>, though different minds +may <i>reflect</i> on it with different degrees of <i>distinctness</i>; for +who would not smile at the notion of a rose <i>willing</i> to put +forth its buds and expand them into flowers? That such +a phrase would be deemed a <i>poetic</i> licence proves the +difference in the things: for all metaphors are grounded on +an apparent likeness of things essentially different. I utterly +disclaim the notion, that any <i>human</i> Intelligence, with +whatever power it might manifest itself, is <i>alone</i> adequate +to the office of restoring health to the Will: but at the +same time I deem it impious and absurd to hold, that the +Creator would have <i>given</i> us the faculty of Reason, or that +the Redeemer would in so many varied forms of argument +and persuasion have <i>appealed</i> to it, if it had been either +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span> +totally useless or wholly impotent. Lastly, I find all these +several Truths reconciled and united in the belief, that the +imperfect human understanding can be effectually exerted +only in <i>subordination</i> to, and in a dependent <i>alliance</i> with, +the means and aidances supplied by the All-perfect and +Supreme Reason; but that under these conditions it is not +only an admissible, but a necessary, instrument of bettering +both ourselves and others.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>We may now proceed to our reflections on the <i>Spirit</i> of +Religion. The first three or four Aphorisms I have selected +from the Theological Works of Dr. Henry More, a contemporary +of Archbishop Leighton, and like him, holden in +suspicion by the Calvinists of that time as a Latitudinarian +and Platonizing Divine, and who probably, like him, would +have been arraigned as a Calvinist by the Latitudinarians +(I cannot say, Platonists) of this day, had the suspicion +been equally groundless. One or two I have ventured to +add from my own Reflections. The purpose, however, is +the same in all—that of declaring, in the first place, what +Spiritual Religion is <i>not</i>, what is <i>not</i> a Religious Spirit, and +what are <i>not</i> to be deemed influences of the Spirit. If +after these declaimers I shall without proof be charged by +any with renewing or favouring the errors of the <i>Familists</i>, +<i>Vanists</i>, <i>Seekers</i>, <i>Behmenists</i>, or by whatever other names +Church History records the poor bewildered Enthusiasts, +who in the swarming time of our Republic turned the +facts of the Gospel into allegories, and superseded the +written ordinances of Christ by a pretended Teaching and +sensible Presence of the Spirit, I appeal against them to +their own consciences, as wilful slanderers. But if with +proof, I have in these Aphorisms signed and sealed my own +condemnation.</p> + +<p class="topgap">"These things I could not forbear to write. For <i>the Light within +me</i>, that is, <i>my Reason and Conscience</i>, does assure me, +that the Ancient and Apostolic Faith according to the +<i>historical</i> meaning thereof, and in the <i>literal</i> sense +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span> +of the Creed, is solid and true: and that <i>Familism</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_67" id="Ref_67" href="#Foot_67">[67]</a></span> +in its fairest form and under whatever disguise, is a smooth tale to seduce +the simple from their Allegiance to Christ."</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Henry More.</span><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_68" id="Ref_68" href="#Foot_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_65" id="Foot_65" href="#Ref_65">[65]</a> +In a leaf of corrections to the text of the first edition Coleridge +directed that "prerogative as <i>moral</i> beings" should be read here. The +correction seems to have been overlooked by Coleridge's editors.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_66" id="Foot_66" href="#Ref_66">[66]</a> +On this principle alone is it possible to justify <i>capital</i>, or <i>ignominious</i> +punishments (or indeed any punishment not having the reformation +of the Criminal, as <i>one</i> of its objects). Such punishments, like +those inflicted on Suicides, must be regarded as <i>posthumous</i>: the wilful +extinction of the moral and personal life being, for the purposes of +punitive Justice, equivalent to a wilful destruction of the natural life. +If the speech of Judge Burnet to the horse-stealer (You are not hanged +for stealing a horse; but, that horses may not be stolen) can be vindicated +at all, it must be on this principle; and not on the all-unsettling +scheme of <i>Expedience</i>, which is the anarchy of Morals.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_67" id="Foot_67" href="#Ref_67">[67]</a> +The religion of the Dutch sect called the "Family of Love," +originated by Henry Nicholas about 1540.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_68" id="Foot_68" href="#Ref_68">[68]</a> +More's 'Mystery of Godliness.'—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION.</h3> + +<p class="smallcond">And here it will not be impertinent to observe, that what the eldest +Greek Philosophy entitled <i>the Reason</i> (<span +title="NOUS">ΝΟΥΣ</span>) and <i>Ideas</i>, the philosophic +Apostle names <i>the Spirit</i> and <i>Truths spiritually</i> discerned: while to +those who in the pride of learning or in the over-weening meanness of +modern metaphysics decry the doctrine of the Spirit in Man and its +possible communion with the Holy Spirit, as <i>vulgar</i> enthusiasm, I +submit the following sentences from a Pagan philosopher, a nobleman +and a minister of state—"Ita dico, Lucili! <span class="smcap">sacer intra nos Spiritus +sedet</span>, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos. Hic +prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. <span class="smcap">Bonus vir sine Deo +nemo est</span>." <span class="smcap">Seneca</span>, <i>Epist.</i> xli.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM I.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">H. More.</span></p> + +<p class="dropcap">EVERY one is <i>to give +a reason of his faith</i>; but Priests +and Ministers more punctually than any, their province +being to make good every sentence of the Bible to a rational +inquirer into the truth of these Oracles. Enthusiasts find +it an easy thing to heat the fancies of unlearned and +unreflecting hearers; but when a sober man would be +satisfied of the <i>grounds</i> from whence they speak, he shall +not have one syllable or the least tittle of a pertinent +answer. Only they will talk big of <span class="smcap">the spirit</span>, and +inveigh against <i>Reason</i> with bitter reproaches, calling it +carnal or fleshly, though it be indeed no soft flesh, but +enduring and penetrant steel, even the sword of the Spirit, +and such as pierces to the heart.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM II.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">H. More.</span></p> + +<p>There are two very bad things in this resolving of men's +Faith and Practice into <i>the immediate suggestion</i> of a Spirit +not acting on our understandings, or rather into the illumination +of such a Spirit as they can give no account +of, such as does not enlighten their reason or enable them +to render their doctrine intelligible to others. First, it +defaces and makes useless that part of the Image of God +in us, which we call <span class="smcap">reason</span>; and secondly, it takes away +that advantage, which raises Christianity above all other +religions, that she dare appeal to so solid a faculty.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM III.</h4> + +<p>It is the glory of the Gospel Charter and the Christian +Constitution, that its Author and Head is the Spirit of +Truth, Essential Reason as well as Absolute and Incomprehensible +Will. Like a just Monarch, he refers even his +own causes to the Judgment of his high Courts. He has +his King's Bench in the Reason, his Court of Equity in +the Conscience: <i>that</i> the Representative of his majesty and +universal justice, <i>this</i> the nearest to the King's heart, and +the dispenser of his particular decrees. He has likewise +his Court of Common Pleas in the Understanding, his +Court of Exchequer in the Prudence. The Laws are <i>his</i> +Laws. And though by Signs and Miracles he has mercifully +condescended to interline here and there with his +own hand the great Statute-book, which he had dictated to +his Amanuensis, Nature; yet has he been graciously +pleased to forbid our receiving as the <i>King's</i> Mandates +aught that is not stamped with the Great Seal of the +Conscience, and countersigned by the Reason.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM IV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On an Unlearned Ministry, under pretence of a Call of the Spirit, +and inward Graces superseding Outward helps.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">H. More.</span></p> + +<p>Tell me, Ye high-flown <i>Perfectionists</i>, ye boasters of the +<i>Light within</i> you, could the highest perfection of your +inward Light ever show to you the history of past ages, +the state of the world at present, the knowledge of arts +and tongues, without books or teachers? How then can +you understand the Providence of God, or the age, the +purpose, the fulfilment of Prophecies, or distinguish such +as have been fulfilled from those to the fulfilment of which +we are to look forward? How can you judge concerning +the authenticity and uncorruptedness of the Gospels, and +the other sacred Scriptures? And how without this +knowledge can you support the truth of Christianity? +How can you either have, or give a reason for the faith +which you profess? This <i>Light within</i>, that loves darkness, +and would exclude those excellent Gifts of God to Mankind, +Knowledge and Understanding, what is it but a +sullen self-sufficiency within you, engendering contempt of +superiors, pride and a spirit of division, and inducing +you to reject for yourselves and to undervalue in others +the <i>helps without</i>, which the Grace of God has provided +and appointed for his Church—nay, to make them grounds +or pretexts of your dislike or suspicion of Christ's Ministers +who have fruitfully availed themselves of the Helps +afforded them?</p> + +<h4>APHORISM V.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">H. More.</span></p> + +<p>There are wanderers, whom neither pride nor a perverse +humour have led astray; and whose condition is such, that +I think few more worthy of a man's best directions. For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span> +the more imperious sects having put such unhandsome +vizards on Christianity, and the sincere milk of the <i>Word</i> +having been every where so sophisticated by the humours +and inventions of men, it has driven these anxious melancholists +to seek for <i>a teacher</i> that cannot deceive, the +voice of the <i>eternal</i> Word within them; to which if they +be faithful, they assure themselves it will be faithful to +them in return. Nor would this be a groundless presumption, +if they had sought this voice in the Reason and the +Conscience, with the Scripture articulating the same, +instead of giving heed to their fancy and mistaking bodily +disturbances, and the vapours resulting therefrom, for +inspiration and the teaching of the Spirit.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM VI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Bishop Hacket.</span></p> + +<p>When every man is his own end, all things will come to +a bad end. Blessed were those days, when every man +thought himself rich and fortunate by good success of +the public wealth and glory. We want public souls, we +want them. I speak it with compassion: there is no sin +and abuse in the world that affects my thought so much. +Every man thinks, that he is a whole Commonwealth +in his private family. <i>Omnes quæ sua sunt quærunt.</i> All +seek their own.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_69" id="Ref_69" href="#Foot_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Selfishness is common to all ages and countries. In all +ages Self-seeking is the Rule, and Self-sacrifice the +Exception. But if to seek our private advantage in harmony +with, and by the furtherance of, the public prosperity, +and to derive a portion of our happiness from sympathy +with the prosperity of our fellow-men—if this be Public +Spirit, it would be morose and querulous to pretend that +there is any want of it in this country and at the present +time. On the contrary, the number of "public souls" +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span> +and the general readiness to contribute to the public good, +in science and in religion, in patriotism and in philanthropy, +stand prominent<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_70" id="Ref_70" href="#Foot_70">[70]</a></span> +among the characteristics of this +and the preceding generation. The habit of referring actions +and opinions to fixed laws; convictions rooted in principles; +thought, insight, system;—these, had the good +Bishop lived in our times, would have been his <i>desiderata</i>, +and the theme of his complaints.—"We want <i>thinking</i> +Souls, we <i>want them</i>."</p> + +<p>This and the three preceding extracts will suffice as +precautionary Aphorisms. And here again, the reader +may exemplify the great advantages to be obtained from +the habit of tracing the <i>proper</i> meaning and history of +words. We need only recollect the common and idiomatic +phrases in which the word "spirit" occurs in a physical +or material sense (as, fruit has lost its <i>spirit</i> and flavour), +to be convinced that its property is to improve, enliven, +actuate some other thing, not to constitute a thing in its +own name. The enthusiast may find one exception to this +where the material itself is called <i>Spirit</i>. And when +he calls to mind, how <i>this</i> spirit acts when taken _alone_ +by the unhappy persons who in their first exultation will +boast that it is meat, drink, fire, and clothing to them, +all in one—when he reflects, that its properties are to +inflame, intoxicate, madden, with exhaustion, lethargy, +and atrophy for the sequels—well for him, if in some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span> +lucid interval he should fairly put the question to his own +mind, how far this is <i>analogous</i> to his own case, and +whether the exception does not confirm the rule. The +<i>Letter</i> without the Spirit killeth; but does it follow, that +the Spirit is to kill the Letter? To kill that which it is +its appropriate office to enliven?</p> + +<p>However, where the Ministry is not invaded, and the +plain sense of the Scriptures is left undisturbed, and the +Believer looks for the suggestions of the Spirit only or +chiefly in applying particular passages to his own individual +case and exigences; though in this there may be much +weakness, some delusion and imminent danger of more, I +cannot but join with Henry More in avowing, that I feel +knit to such a man in the bonds of a common faith far +more closely, than to those who receive neither the Letter +nor the Spirit, turning the one into metaphor, and oriental +hyperbole, in order to explain away the other into the +influence of motives suggested by their own understandings, +and realized by their own strength.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_69" id="Foot_69" href="#Ref_69">[69]</a> +Hacket's Sermons, p. 449.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_70" id="Foot_70" href="#Ref_70">[70]</a> +The very marked <i>positive</i> as well as comparative, magnitude and +prominence of the bump, entitled <span class="smcap">Benevolence</span> (<i>see Spurzheim's Map +of the Human Skull</i>) on the head of the late Mr. John Thurtel, has +woefully unsettled the faith of many ardent Phrenologists, and +strengthened the previous doubts of a still greater number into utter +disbelief. On <span class="smcap">my</span> mind this fact (for a +<i>fact</i> it is) produced the directly +contrary effect; and inclined me to suspect, for the first time, that there +may be some truth in the Spurzheimian Scheme. Whether future +Craniologists may not see cause to <i>new-name</i> this and one or two other +of these convex gnomons, is quite a different question. At present, and +according to the present use of words, any such change would be +premature; and we must be content to say, that Mr. Thurtel's Benevolence +was insufficiently modified by the unprotrusive and unindicated +convolutes of the brain, that secrete honesty and common-sense. The +organ of Destructiveness was indirectly <i>potentiated</i> by the absence or +imperfect development of the glands of Reason and Conscience in this, +"<i>unfortunate Gentleman</i>!"</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">APHORISMS<br /><span class="x-small">ON THAT</span><br /> +WHICH IS INDEED SPIRITUAL RELIGION.</h3> + +<p class="dropcap">IN the selection of the extracts that form the remainder +of this volume and of the comments affixed, I had the +following objects principally in view:—first, to exhibit the +true and scriptural meaning and intent of several Articles +of Faith, that are rightly classed among the Mysteries and +peculiar Doctrines of Christianity:—secondly, to show the +perfect rationality of these Doctrines, and their freedom +from all just objection when examined by their proper +organs, the Reason and Conscience of Man:—lastly, to +exhibit from the works of Leighton, who perhaps of all +our learned Protestant Theologians best deserves the title +of a Spiritual Divine, an instructive and affecting picture +of the contemplations, reflections, conflicts, consolations and +monitory experiences of a philosophic and richly-gifted +mind, amply stored with all the knowledge that books and +long intercourse with men of the most discordant characters +could give, under the convictions, impressions, and habits +of a Spiritual Religion.</p> + +<p>To obviate a possible disappointment in any of my +readers, who may chance to be engaged in theological +studies, it may be well to notice, that in vindicating the +peculiar tenets of our Faith, I have not entered on the +Doctrine of the Trinity, or the still profounder Mystery of +the Origin of Moral Evil—and this for the reasons following. +1. These Doctrines are not (strictly speaking) subjects +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span> +of <i>Reflection</i>, in the proper sense of this word: and +both of them demand a power and persistency of Abstraction, +and a previous discipline in the highest forms of +human thought, which it would be unwise, if not presumptuous, +to expect from any, who require "<i>Aids</i> to Reflection," +or would be likely to seek them in the present work. +2. In my intercourse with men of various ranks and ages, +I have found the far larger number of serious and inquiring +persons little, if at all, disquieted by doubts respecting +Articles of Faith, that are simply above their comprehension. +It is only where the belief required of them jars +with their <i>moral</i> feelings; where a doctrine in the sense, +in which they have been taught to receive it, appears to +contradict their clear notions of right and wrong, or +to be at variance with the divine attributes of goodness +and justice; that these men are surprised, perplexed, and +alas! not seldom offended and alienated. Such are the +Doctrines of Arbitrary Election and Reprobation; the +Sentence to everlasting Torment by an eternal and necessitating +decree; vicarious Atonement, and the necessity of +the Abasement, Agony and ignominious Death of a most +holy and meritorious Person, to appease the wrath of God. +Now it is more especially for such persons, unwilling +sceptics, who believing earnestly ask help for their unbelief, +that this volume was compiled, and the comments written: +and therefore to the Scripture Doctrines, <i>intended</i> by the +above-mentioned, my principal attention has been directed.</p> + +<p>But lastly, the whole Scheme of the Christian Faith, +including <i>all</i> the Articles of Belief common to the Greek +and Latin, the Roman, and the Protestant Churches, with +the threefold proof, that it is <i>ideally</i>, <i>morally</i>, and <i>historically</i> +true, will be found exhibited and vindicated in a proportionally +larger work, the principal labour of my life +since manhood, and which I am now preparing for the press +under the title, 'Assertion of Religion, as necessarily <i>involving</i> +Revelation; and of Christianity, as the only +Revelation of permanent and universal validity.'<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_71" id="Ref_71" href="#Foot_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_71" id="Foot_71" href="#Ref_71">[71]</a> +A work left incomplete by Coleridge, and not yet given to the +world.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM I.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>Where, if not in Christ, is the Power that can persuade +a Sinner to return, that can <i>bring home a heart to God</i>?</p> + +<p>Common mercies of God, though they have a leading +faculty to repentance, (Rom. ii. 4.) yet, the rebellious heart +will not be led by them. The judgments of God, public or +personal, though they ought to drive us to God, yet the +heart, unchanged, runs the further from God. Do we not +see it by ourselves and other sinners about us? They look +not at all towards Him who smites, much less do they +return; or if any more serious thoughts of returning arise +upon the surprise of an affliction, how soon vanish they, +either the stroke abating, or the heart, by time, growing +hard and senseless under it! Leave Christ out, I say, and +all other means work not this way; neither the works nor +the word of God sounding daily in his ear, <i>Return return</i>. +Let the noise of the rod speak it too, and both join together +to make the cry the louder, <i>yet the wicked will do wickedly</i>: +Dan. xii. 10.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>By the phrase "in Christ," I understand all the supernatural +aids vouchsafed and conditionally promised in the +Christian dispensation; and among them the Spirit of +Truth, which the world cannot receive, were it only that the +knowledge of <i>spiritual</i> Truth is of necessity immediate and +<i>intuitive</i>: and the World or Natural Man possesses no +higher intuitions than those of the pure <i>Sense</i>, which are +the subjects of <i>mathematical</i> science. But <i>aids</i>, observe! +Therefore, not <i>by</i> Will of man alone; but neither <i>without</i> +the Will. The doctrine of modern Calvinism as laid down +by Jonathan Edwards and the late Dr. Williams, which +represents a Will absolutely passive, clay in the hands of a +potter, destroys all Will, takes away its essence and definition, +as effectually as in saying: This circle is square—I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span> +should deny the figure to be a circle at all. It was in +strict consistency therefore, that these writers supported +the Necessitarian scheme, and made the relation of Cause +and Effect the Law of the Universe, subjecting to its +mechanism the moral World no less than the material or +physical. It follows, that all is Nature. Thus, though +few writers use the term Spirit more frequently, they in +effect deny its existence, and evacuate the term of all its +proper meaning. With such a system not the wit of man +nor all the Theodicies ever framed by human ingenuity +before and since the attempt of the celebrated Leibnitz, can +reconcile the Sense of Responsibility, nor the fact of the +difference <i>in kind</i> between <span class="smcap">regret and remorse</span>. The +same compulsion of consequence drove the Fathers of +Modern (or Pseudo-) Calvinism to the origination of +Holiness in power, of Justice in right of Property, and +whatever other outrages on the common sense and moral +feelings of mankind they have sought to cover, under the +fair name of <i>Sovereign Grace</i>.</p> + +<p>I will not take on me to defend sundry harsh and inconvenient +expressions in the works of Calvin. Phrases equally +strong and assertions not less rash and startling are no +rarities in the writings of Luther; for catachresis was the +favourite figure of speech in that age. But let not the +opinions of either on this most fundamental subject be +confounded with the New England System, now entitled +Calvinistic. The fact is simply this. Luther considered the +pretensions to Free-will <i>boastful</i>, and better suited to the +"budge doctors of the Stoic Fur," than to the preachers +of the Gospel, whose great theme is the Redemption of the +Will from Slavery; the restoration of the Will to perfect +Freedom being the <i>end</i> and consummation of the redemptive +process, and the same with the entrance of the Soul +into Glory, that is, its union with Christ: "<span class="smcap">glory</span>" (<i>John</i> +xvii. 5.) being one of the names or tokens or symbols of +the Spiritual Messiah. Prospectively to this we are to +understand the words of our Lord. "At that day ye shall +know that I am in my Father, and ye in me," John xiv. +20: the freedom of a finite will being possible under this +condition only, that it has become one with the will of God. +Now as the difference of a captive and enslaved Will, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span> +<i>no</i> Will at all, such is the difference between the <i>Lutheranism</i> +of Calvin and the Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM II.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>There is nothing in religion farther out of Nature's reach, +and more remote from the natural man's liking and +believing, than the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour, +and by a crucified Saviour. It is comparatively easy to +persuade men of the necessity of an amendment of conduct; +it is more difficult to make them see the necessity of +Repentance in the <i>Gospel</i> sense, the necessity of a change +in the <i>principle</i> of action; but to convince men of the +necessity of the Death of Christ is the most difficult of all. +And yet the first is but varnish and white-wash without +the second; and the second but a barren notion without +the last. Alas! of those who admit the doctrine in words, +how large a number evade it in fact, and empty it of all its +substance and efficacy, making the effect the efficient cause, +or attributing their election to Salvation to a supposed +Foresight of their Faith and Obedience.—But it is most +vain to imagine a faith in such and such men, which being +foreseen by God, determined him to elect them for salvation: +were it only that nothing at all is <i>future</i>, or can have +this imagined <i>futurition</i>, but <i>as</i> it is decreed, and <i>because</i> it +is decreed by God so to be.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>No impartial person, competently acquainted with the +history of the Reformation, and the works of the earlier +Protestant Divines, at home and abroad, even to the close +of Elizabeth's reign, will deny that the doctrines of Calvin +on Redemption and the natural state of fallen man, are in +all essential points the same as those of Luther, Zuinglius, +and the first Reformers collectively. These Doctrines +have, however, since the re-establishment of the Episcopal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span> +Church at the return of Charles II., been as generally <span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_72" id="Ref_72" href="#Foot_72">[72]</a></span> +exchanged for what is commonly entitled Arminianism, +but which, taken as a complete and explicit Scheme of +Belief, it would be both historically and theologically more +accurate to call <i>Grotianism</i>, or Christianity according to +Grotius. The change was not, we may readily believe, +effected without a struggle. In the Romish Church this +latitudinarian system, patronized by the Jesuits, was manfully +resisted by Jansenius, Arnauld, and Pascal; in our +own Church by the Bishops Davenant, Sanderson, Hall, +and the Archbishops Usher and Leighton: and in the +latter half of the preceding Aphorism the reader has a +<i>specimen</i> of the <i>reasonings</i> by which Leighton strove to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span> +invalidate or counterpoise the <i>reasonings</i> of the innovators.</p> + +<p>Passages of this sort are, however, of rare occurrence in +Leighton's works. Happily for thousands, he was more +usefully employed in making his readers feel that the +doctrines in question, <i>scripturally treated, and taken as co-organized +parts of a great organic whole</i>, need no such reasonings. +And better still would it have been, had he left +them altogether for those, who severally detaching the +great features of Revelation from the living context of +Scripture, do by that very act destroy their life and purpose. +And then, like the eyes of the Indian spider,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_73" id="Ref_73" href="#Foot_73">[73]</a></span> +they become clouded microscopes, to exaggerate and distort all +the other parts and proportions.—No offence then will be +occasioned, I trust, by the frank avowal that I have given +to the preceding passage a place among the Spiritual +Aphorisms for the sake of the Comment: the following +Remarks having been the first marginal note I had pencilled +on Leighton's pages, and thus (remotely, at least) the +occasion of the present work.</p> + +<p>Leighton, I observed, throughout his inestimable work, +avoids all metaphysical views of Election, relatively to God, +and confines himself to the doctrine in its relation to Man: +and in that sense too, in which every Christian may judge +of it who strives to be sincere with his own heart. The +following may, I think, be taken as a safe and useful Rule +in religious inquiries. Ideas, that derive their origin and +substance from the <i>Moral</i> Being, and to the reception of +which as true <i>objectively</i> (that is, as corresponding to a +<i>reality</i> out of the human mind) we are determined by a +<i>practical</i> interest exclusively, may not, like theoretical or +speculative Positions, be pressed onward into all their possible +<i>logical</i> consequences.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_74" id="Ref_74" href="#Foot_74">[74]</a></span> +The Law of Conscience, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span> +not the Canons of discursive Reasoning, must decide in +such cases. At least, the latter have no validity, which the +single <i>veto</i> of the former is not sufficient to nullify. The +most pious conclusion is here the most legitimate.</p> + +<p>It is too seldom considered though most worthy of consideration, +how far even those Ideas or Theories of pure +Speculation, that bear the same name with the Objects of +Religious Faith, are indeed the same. Out of the principles +necessarily presumed in all discursive thinking, and which +being, in the first place <i>universal</i>, and secondly, antecedent +to every particular exercise of the understanding, are +therefore referred to the reason, the human mind (wherever +its powers are sufficiently developed, and its attention +strongly directed to speculative or theoretical inquiries,) +forms certain essences, to which for its own purposes it +gives a sort of notional <i>subsistence</i>. Hence they are called +<i>entia rationalia</i>: the conversion of which into <i>entia realia</i>, +or real objects, by aid of the imagination, has in all times +been the fruitful stock of empty theories, and mischievous +superstitions, of surreptitious premises and extravagant +conclusions. For as these substantiated notions were in +many instances expressed by the same terms, as the objects +of religious Faith; as in most instances they were applied, +though deceptively, to the explanation of real experiences; +and lastly, from the gratifications, which the pride and +ambition of man received from the supposed extension of +his knowledge and insight; it was too easily forgotten or +overlooked, that the stablest and most indispensable of +these notional beings were but the necessary <i>forms</i> of +thinking, taken abstractedly: and that like the breadthless +lines, depthless surfaces, and perfect circles of geometry, +they subsist wholly and solely in and for the mind, that +contemplates them. Where the evidence of the senses +fails us, and beyond the precincts of sensible experience, +there is no <i>reality</i> attributable to any notion, but what is +given to it by Revelation, or the Law of Conscience, or the +necessary interests of Morality.</p> + +<p>Take an instance:</p> + +<p>It is the office, and, as it were, the instinct of Reason to +bring a unity into all our conceptions and several knowledges. +On this all system depends; and without this we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span> +could reflect connectedly neither on nature nor our own +minds. Now this is possible only on the assumption or +hypothesis of a <span class="smcap">one</span> as the ground and cause of the Universe, +and which in all succession and through changes is the +subject neither of Time nor Change. The <span class="smcap">one</span> must be +contemplated as Eternal and Immutable.</p> + +<p>Well! the Idea, which is the basis of Religion, commanded +by the Conscience and required by Morality, contains +the same truths, or at least truths that can be expressed +in no other terms; but this idea presents itself to +our mind with additional attributes, and these too not +formed by mere Abstraction and Negation—with the attributes +of Holiness, Providence, Love, Justice, and Mercy. +It comprehends, moreover, the independent (<i>extra-mundane</i>) +existence and personality of the supreme <span class="smcap">one</span>, as our Creator, +Lord, and Judge.</p> + +<p>The hypothesis of a <i>one</i> Ground and Principle of the +Universe (necessary as an <i>hypothesis</i>; but having only a +<i>logical</i> and <i>conditional</i> necessity) is thus raised into the Idea +of the <span class="smcap">living god</span>, the supreme Object of our Faith, Love, +Fear, and Adoration. Religion and Morality do indeed +constrain us to declare him Eternal and Immutable. But +if from the Eternity of the Supreme Being a Reasoner +should deduce the impossibility of a Creation; or conclude +with Aristotle, that the Creation was co-eternal; or, like +the latter Platonists, should turn Creation into <i>Emanation</i>, +and make the universe proceed from Deity, as the Sunbeams +from the Solar Orb;—or if from the divine Immutability +he should infer, that all prayer and supplication +must be vain and superstitious: then however evident and +logically necessary such conclusions may appear, it is +scarcely worth our while to examine, whether they are so +or not. The positions themselves <i>must</i> be false. For were +they true, the Idea would lose the sole ground of its <i>reality</i>. +It would be no longer the Idea intended by the Believer in +<i>his</i> premise—in the premise, with which alone Religion +and Morality are concerned. The very subject of the discussion +would be changed. It would no longer be the God +in whom we <i>believe</i>; but a stoical <span class="smcap">fate</span>, or the superessential +<span class="smcap">one</span> of Plotinus, to whom neither Intelligence, nor Self-consciousness, +nor Life, nor even <i>Being</i> can be attributed; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span> +nor lastly, the world itself, the indivisible one and only +substance (<i>substantia una et unica</i>) of Spinoza, of which all +<i>phænomena</i>, all particular and individual things, lives, +minds, thoughts, and actions are but modifications.</p> + +<p>Let the believer never be alarmed by objections wholly +speculative, however plausible on speculative grounds such +objections may appear, if he can but satisfy himself, that +the <i>result</i> is repugnant to the dictates of conscience, and +irreconcilable with the interests of morality. For to baffle +the objector we have only to demand of him, by what right +and under what authority he converts a thought into a +substance, or asserts the existence of a real somewhat +corresponding to a notion not derived from the experience +of his senses. It will be of no purpose for him to answer, +that it is a <i>legitimate</i> notion. The <i>notion</i> may have its +mould in the understanding; but its realization must be +the work of the <span class="smcap">fancy</span>.</p> + +<p>A reflecting reader will easily apply these remarks to +the subject of Election, one of the stumbling stones in the +ordinary conceptions of the Christian Faith, to which the +infidel points in scorn, and which far better men pass by in +silent perplexity. Yet surely, from mistaken conceptions +of the doctrine, I suppose the person, with whom I am +arguing, already so far a believer, as to have convinced +himself, both that a state of enduring bliss is attainable +under certain conditions; and that these conditions consist +in his compliance with the directions given and rules prescribed +in the Christian Scriptures. These rules he likewise +admits to be such, that, by the very law and constitution +of the human mind, a full and faithful compliance +with them cannot but have <i>consequences</i>, of some sort or +other. But these <i>consequences</i> are moreover distinctly +described, enumerated, and promised in the same Scriptures, +in which the conditions are recorded; and though +some of them may be apparent to God only, yet the greater +number of them are of such a nature that they cannot exist +unknown to the individual, in and for whom they exist. +As little possible is it, that he should find these consequences +in himself, and not find in them the sure marks and the +safe pledges, that he is at the time in the right road to the +Life promised under these conditions. Now I dare assert, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span> +that no such man, however fervent his charity, and however +deep his humility may be, can peruse the records of +History with a reflecting spirit, or look round the world +with an observant eye, and not find himself compelled +to admit, that <i>all</i> men are <i>not</i> on the right road. He +cannot help judging, that even in Christian countries, +many, a fearful many! have not their faces turned toward +it.</p> + +<p>This then is a mere matter of fact. Now comes the +question. Shall the believer, who thus hopes on the +appointed <i>grounds</i> of hope, attribute this distinction exclusively +to his own resolves and strivings? or if not +exclusively, yet primarily and principally? Shall he refer +the first movements and preparations to his own Will and +Understanding, and bottom his claim to the promises on +his own comparative excellence? If not, if no man dare +take this honour to himself, to whom shall he assign it, if +not to that Being in whom the promise originated, and on +whom its fulfilment depends? If he stop here, who shall +blame him? By what argument shall his reasoning be +invalidated, that might not be urged with equal force +against any essential difference between obedient and disobedient, +Christian and worldling? that would not imply +that both <i>sorts</i> alike are, in the sight of God, the Sons of +God by adoption? If he stop here, I say, who shall drive +him from his position? For thus far he is practically concerned—this +the Conscience requires, this the highest +interests of Morality demand. It is a question of facts, of +the will and the deed, to argue against which on the +abstract notions and possibilities of the speculative reason, +is as unreasonable, as an attempt to decide a question of +colours by pure Geometry, or to unsettle the classes and +specific characters of Natural History by the Doctrine of +Fluxions.</p> + +<p>But if the self-examinant will abandon this position, and +exchange the safe circle of Religion and practical Reason +for the shifting sand-wastes and <i>mirages</i> of Speculative +Theology; if instead of seeking after the <i>marks</i> of Election +in himself he undertakes to determine the ground and +origin, the possibility and mode of election itself <i>in relation +to God</i>;—in this case, and whether he does it for the satisfaction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span> +of curiosity, or from the ambition of answering +those, who would call God himself to account, why and by +what right certain souls were born in Africa instead of +England:—or why (seeing that it is against all reason and +goodness to choose a worse, when being omnipotent He +could have created a better) God did not create beasts +men, and men angels:—or why God created any men but +with fore-knowledge of their obedience, and left any occasion +for Election?—in this case, I say, we can only regret, +that the inquirer had not been better instructed in the +nature, the bounds, the true purposes and proper objects of +his intellectual faculties, and that he had not previously +asked himself, by what appropriate sense, or organ of +knowledge, he hoped to secure an insight into a Nature +which was neither an object of his senses, nor a part of +his self-consciousness; and so leave him to ward off +shadowy spears with the shadow of a shield, and to retaliate +the nonsense of blasphemy with the <i>abracadabra</i> of +presumption. He that will fly without wings must fly in +his dreams: and till he awakes, will not find out, that to +fly in a dream is but to dream of flying.</p> + +<p>Thus then the doctrine of Election is in itself a necessary +inference from an undeniable fact—necessary at least for +all who hold that the best of men are what they are through +the grace of God. In relation to the believer it is a <i>hope</i>, +which if it spring out of Christian principles, be examined +by the tests and nourished by the means prescribed in +Scripture, will become a <i>lively</i>, an <i>assured</i> hope, but which +cannot in this life pass into <i>knowledge</i>, much less certainty +of fore-knowledge. The contrary belief does indeed make +the article of Election both tool and parcel of a mad and +mischievous fanaticism. But with what force and clearness +does not the Apostle confute, disclaim, and prohibit the +pretence, treating it as a downright contradiction in terms! +See Romans viii. 24.</p> + +<p>But though I hold the doctrine handled as Leighton +handles it (that is practically, morally, <i>humanly</i>) rational, +safe, and of essential importance, I see many<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_75" id="Ref_75" href="#Foot_75">[75]</a></span> +reasons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span> +resulting from the peculiar circumstances, under which St. +Paul preached and wrote, why a discreet minister of the +Gospel should avoid the frequent use of the <i>term</i>, and express +the <i>meaning</i> in other words perfectly equivalent and +equally Scriptural; lest in <i>saying</i> truth he may convey +error.</p> + +<p>Had my purpose been confined to one particular tenet, +an apology might be required for so long a Comment. But +the reader will, I trust, have already perceived, that my +object has been to establish a general rule of interpretation +and vindication applicable to <i>all</i> doctrinal tenets, and +especially to the (so called) mysteries of the Christian +Faith: to provide a <i>Safety-lamp</i> for religious inquirers. +Now this I find in the principle, that all Revealed Truths +are to be judged of by us, as far as they are possible subjects +of human conception, or grounds of practice, or in +some way connected with our moral and spiritual interests. +In order to have a reason <i>for</i> forming a judgment on any +given article, we must be sure that we possess a reason, +by and according to which a judgment may be formed. +Now in respect of all Truths, to which a <i>real</i> independent +existence is assigned, and which yet are not contained in, +or to be imagined under, any form of space or time, it is +strictly demonstrable, that the human reason, considered +abstractly, as the source of positive <i>science</i> and theoretical +<i>insight</i>, is <i>not</i> such a reason. At the utmost, it has only +a <i>negative</i> voice. In other words, nothing can be allowed +as true for the human mind, which directly contradicts +this reason. But even here, before we admit the existence +of any such contradiction, we must be careful to ascertain, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span> +that there is no equivocation in play, that two different +subjects are not confounded under one and the same word. +A striking instance of this has been adduced in the difference +between the notional <span class="smcap">One</span> of the Ontologists, and the +idea of the Living God.</p> + +<p>But if not the abstract or speculative reason, and yet a +reason there must be in order to a rational belief—then +it must be the <i>practical</i> reason of man, comprehending +the Will, the Conscience, the Moral Being with its inseparable Interests +and Affections—that Reason, namely, which +is the Organ of <i>Wisdom</i>, and (as far as man is concerned) +the source of living and actual Truths.</p> + +<p>From these premises we may further deduce, that every +doctrine is to be interpreted in reference to those, to whom +it has been revealed, or who have or have had the means +of knowing or hearing the same. For instance: the Doctrine +that <i>there is no name under Heaven, by which a man +can be saved, but the name of Jesus</i>. If the word here +rendered <i>name</i>, may be understood (as it well may, and as +in other texts it must be) as meaning the Power, or originating +Cause, I see no objection on the part of the practical +reason to our belief of the declaration in its whole extent. +It is true universally or not true at all. If there be any +redemptive Power not contained in the Power of Jesus, +then Jesus is not <i>the</i> Redeemer: not the Redeemer of the +<i>World</i>, not the Jesus (<i>i.e.</i> Saviour) of man<i>kind</i>. But if with +Tertullian and Augustine we make the Text assert the +condemnation and misery of all who are not Christians by +Baptism and explicit belief in the Revelation of the +New Covenant—then I say, the doctrine is true <i>to all intents +and purposes</i>. It is true, in every respect, in which +any practical, moral, or spiritual interest or end can be +connected with its truth. It is true in respect to every +man who has had, or who might have had, the Gospel +preached to him. It is true and obligatory for every Christian +community and for every individual believer, wherever +the opportunity is afforded of spreading the <i>Light</i> of +the Gospel, and making <i>known</i> the name of the only Saviour +and Redeemer. For even though the uninformed Heathens +should <i>not</i> perish, the <i>guilt</i> of their perishing will attach to +those who not only had no certainty of their safety, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span> +who are commanded to <i>act</i> on the supposition of the contrary. +But if, on the other hand, a theological dogmatist +should attempt to persuade me, that this text was intended +to give us an historical knowledge of God's future actions +and dealings—and for the gratification of our curiosity to +inform us, that Socrates and Phocion, together with all the +savages in the woods and wilds of Africa and America, +will be sent to keep company with the devil and his angels +in everlasting torments—I should remind him, that the +purpose of Scripture was to teach us our duty, not to +enable us to sit in judgment on the souls of our +fellow creatures.</p> + +<p>One other instance will, I trust, prevent all misconception +of my meaning. I am clearly convinced, that the +scriptural and only true<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_76" id="Ref_76" href="#Foot_76">[76]</a></span> +Idea of God will, in its development, +be found to involve the Idea of the Tri-unity. But +I am likewise convinced, that previously to the promulgation +of the Gospel the doctrine had no claim on the +faith of mankind; though it might have been a legitimate +contemplation for a speculative philosopher, a theorem in +metaphysics valid in the Schools.</p> + +<p>I form a certain notion in my mind, and say:—This is +what <i>I</i> understand by the term, God. From books and +conversation I find, that the learned generally connect +the same notion with the same word. I then apply the +rules, laid down by the masters of logic, for the involution +and evolution of terms, and prove (to as many as +agree with me in my premises) that the notion, God, involves +the notion, Trinity. I now pass out of the Schools, +and enter into discourse with some friend or neighbour, +unversed in the <i>formal</i> sciences, unused to the process of +abstraction, neither Logician nor Metaphysician; but sensible +and single-minded, <i>an Israelite indeed</i>, trusting in +<i>the Lord God of his Fathers, even the God of Abraham, +of Isaac, and of Jacob</i>. If I speak of God to <i>him</i>, what +will <i>he</i> understand me to be speaking of? What does he +mean, and suppose me to mean, by the word? An accident +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span> +or product of the reasoning faculty, or an abstraction +which the human mind forms by reflecting on its own +thoughts and forms of thinking? No. By God he understands +me to mean an existing and self-subsisting reality,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_77" id="Ref_77" href="#Foot_77">[77]</a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span> +a real and personal Being—even the <i>Person</i>, the <span class="smcap">i am</span>, who +sent Moses to his forefathers in Egypt. Of the actual existence +of the divine Being he has the same historical assurance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span> +as of theirs; confirmed indeed by the Book of +Nature, as soon and as far as that stronger and better +light has taught him to read and construe it—confirmed +by it, I say, but not derived from it. Now by what right +can I require this man (and of such men the great majority +of serious believers consisted, previously to the light of +the Gospel) to receive a <i>notion</i> of mine, wholly alien from +his habits of thinking, because it may be logically deduced +from another notion, with which he was almost as little +acquainted, and not at all concerned? Grant for a moment, +that the latter (that is, the notion, with which I first set out) +as soon as it is combined with the assurance of a corresponding +Reality becomes identical with the true and effective +Idea of God! Grant, that in thus <i>realizing</i> the notion I am +warranted by Revelation, the Law of Conscience, and the +interests and necessities of my Moral Being! Yet by what +authority, by what inducement, am I entitled to attach the +same reality to a second notion, a notion drawn from a +notion? It is evident, that if I have the same right, it must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span> +be on the same grounds. Revelation must have assured it, +my Conscience required it—or in some way or other I +must have an <i>interest</i> in this belief. It must <i>concern</i> me, +as a moral and responsible Being. Now these grounds +were first given in the Redemption of Mankind by Christ, +the Saviour and Mediator: and by the utter incompatibility +of these offices with a mere creature. On the doctrine of +Redemption depends the <i>Faith</i>, the <i>Duty</i>, of believing in +the Divinity of our Lord. And this again is the strongest +Ground for the reality of that Idea, in which alone this +Divinity can be received without breach of the faith in the +unity of the Godhead. But such is the Idea of the Trinity. +Strong as the motives are that induce me to defer the full +discussion of this great Article of the Christian creed, I +cannot withstand the request of several divines, whose +situation and extensive services entitle them to the utmost +deference, that I should so far deviate from my first intention +as at least to indicate the point on which I stand, and +to prevent the misconception of my purpose: as if I held +the doctrine of the Trinity for a truth which Men could be +called on to believe by mere force of reasoning, independently +of any positive <i>Revelation</i>. In short, it had been +reported in certain circles, that I considered this doctrine as +a demonstrable part of the Religion of Nature. Now +though it might be sufficient to say, that I regard the very +phrase "<i>Revealed</i> Religion" as a pleonasm, inasmuch as a +religion not revealed is, in my judgment, no religion at all; +I have no objection to announce more particularly and distinctly +what I do and what I do not maintain on this point: +provided that in the following paragraph, with this view +inserted, the reader will look for nothing more than a plain +<i>statement</i> of my opinions. The grounds on which they rest, +and the arguments by which they are to be vindicated, are +for another place.</p> + +<p>I hold then, it is true, that all the (so called) demonstrations +of a God either prove too little, as that from the order +and apparent purpose in Nature; or too much, namely, that +the World is itself God: or they clandestinely involve the +conclusion in the premises, passing off the mere analysis or +explication of an Assertion for the Proof of it,—a species of +logical legerdemain not unlike that of the jugglers at a fair, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span> +who putting into their mouths what seems to be a walnut, +draw out a score yards of ribbon—as in the Postulate of a +First Cause. And lastly, in all these demonstrations the +demonstrators presuppose the Idea or Conception of a God +without being able to authenticate it, that is, to give an +account whence they obtained it. For it is clear, that the +proof first mentioned and the most natural and convincing +of all (the Cosmological I mean, or that from the Order in +Nature) presupposes the Ontological—that is, the proof of +a God from the necessity and necessary <i>Objectivity</i> of the +Idea. <i>If</i> the latter can assure us of a God as an existing +Reality, the former will go far to prove his power, wisdom, +and benevolence. All this I hold. But I also hold, that this +truth, the hardest to demonstrate, is the one which of all +others least needs to be demonstrated; that though there may +be no conclusive demonstrations of a good, wise, living, and +personal God, there are so many convincing reasons for it, +within and without—a grain of sand sufficing, and a whole +universe at hand to echo the decision!—that for every mind +not devoid of all reason, and desperately conscience-proof, +the Truth which it is the least possible to prove, it is little +less than impossible not to believe! only indeed just so much +short of impossible, as to leave some room for the will and +the moral election, and thereby to keep it a truth of Religion, +and the possible subject of a Commandment.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_80" id="Ref_80" href="#Foot_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>On this account I do not demand of a <i>Deist</i>, that he should +adopt the doctrine of the Trinity. For he might very well +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span> +be justified in replying, that he rejected the doctrine, <i>not</i> +because it could not be <i>demonstrated</i>, nor yet on the score +of any incomprehensibilities and seeming contradictions +that might be objected to it, as knowing that these might +be, and in fact had been, urged with equal force against a +personal God under any form capable of love and veneration; +<i>but</i> because he had not the same theoretical necessity, +the same interests and instincts of reason for the one hypothesis +as for the other. It is not enough, the Deist might +justly say, that there is no cogent reason why I should <i>not</i> +believe the Trinity; you must show me some cogent reason +why I <i>should</i>.</p> + +<p>But the case is quite different with a Christian, who +accepts the Scriptures as the Word of God, yet refuses his +assent to the plainest declarations of these Scriptures, and +explains away the most express texts into metaphor and +hyperbole, <i>because</i> the literal and obvious interpretation is +(according to <i>his</i> notions) absurd and contrary to reason. +<i>He</i> is bound to show, that it is so in any sense, not equally +applicable to the texts asserting the Being, Infinity, and +Personality of God the Father, the Eternal and Omnipresent +<span class="smcap">one</span>, who <i>created</i> the Heaven and the Earth. And the more +is he bound to do this, and the greater is my right to demand +it of him, because the doctrine of Redemption from sin +supplies the Christian with motives and reasons for the +divinity of the Redeemer far more <i>concerning</i> and coercive +<i>subjectively</i>, that is, in the economy of his own soul, than +are all the inducements that can influence the Deist <i>objectively</i>, +that is, in the interpretation of Nature.</p> + +<p>Do I then utterly exclude the speculative Reason from +Theology? No! It is its office and rightful privilege to +determine on the <i>negative</i> truth of whatever we are required +to believe. The Doctrine must not <i>contradict</i> any universal +principle: for this would be a Doctrine that contradicted +itself. Or Philosophy? No. It may be and has been the +servant and pioneer of Faith by convincing the mind, that +a doctrine is cogitable, that the soul can present the <i>Idea</i> to +itself; and that <i>if</i> we determine to contemplate, or <i>think</i> of, +the subject at all, so and in no other form can this be +effected. So far are both logic and philosophy to be received +and trusted. But the <i>duty</i>, and in some cases and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span> +for some persons even the <i>right</i>, of thinking on subjects +beyond the bounds of sensible experience; the grounds of +the <i>real</i> truth; the <i>life</i>, the <i>substance</i>, the <i>hope</i>, the <i>love</i>, +in one word, the <i>Faith</i>: these are Derivatives from the +practical, moral, and spiritual Nature and Being of Man.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_72" id="Foot_72" href="#Ref_72">[72]</a> +At a period, in which Doctors Marsh and Wordsworth have, by the +Zealous on one side, being charged with Popish principles on account of +their <i>Anti-bibliolatry</i>, and the sturdy adherents of the doctrines +common to Luther and Calvin, and the literal interpreters of the Articles +and Homilies, are, (I wish I could say, altogether without any fault of +their own) regarded by the Clergy generally as virtual Schismatics, +dividers <i>of</i>, though not <i>from</i>, the Church, it is serving the cause of +charity to assist in circulating the following instructive passage from +the Life of Bishop Hackett respecting the dispute between the Augustinians, +or Luthero-Calvinistic divines and the Grotians of his age: in +which Controversy (says his biographer) he, Hackett, "was ever very +moderate."</p> + +<p class="nodent">"But having been bred under Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward in +Cambridge, he was addicted to their sentiments. Archbishop Usher +would say, that Davenant understood those controversies better than +ever any man did since St. Augustine. But he (Bishop Hackett) used +to say, that he was <i>sure</i> he had <i>three</i> excellent men of his mind in this +controversy: 1. <i>Padre Paolo</i> (Father Paul) whose letter is extant in +Heinsius, <i>anno</i> 1604: 2. <i>Thomas Aquinas</i>: 3. St. Augustine. But +besides and above them all, he believed in his Conscience that St. Paul +was of the same mind likewise. Yet at the same time he would profess, +that he disliked no Arminians, but such as revile and defame every one +who is <i>not so</i>: and he would often commend Arminius himself for his +excellent wit and parts, but only tax his want of reading and knowledge +in Antiquity. And he ever held, it was the foolishest thing in +the world to say the Arminians were <i>Popishly</i> inclined, when so many +Dominicians and Jansenists were rigid followers of Augustine in these +points: and no less foolish to say that the <i>Anti-Arminians</i> were Puritans +or Presbyterians, when <i>Ward</i>, and <i>Davenant</i>, and Prideaux, and +Brownrig, those stout champions for Episcopacy, were decided Anti-Arminians; +while Arminius himself was ever a Presbyterian. Therefore +he greatly commended the moderation of our Church, which +extended equal Communion to both."</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_73" id="Foot_73" href="#Ref_73">[73]</a> +<i>Aranea prodigiosa.</i> See Baker's Microscopic Experiments.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_74" id="Foot_74" href="#Ref_74">[74]</a> +May not this Rule be expressed more intelligibly (to a mathematician +at least) thus:—Reasoning from <i>finite</i> to <i>finite</i>, on a basis of truth, also, +reasoning from <i>infinite</i> to <i>infinite</i>, on a basis of truth, will always lead +to truth, as intelligibly as the basis on which such truths respectively +rest.—While, reasoning from <i>finite</i> to <i>infinite</i>, or from <i>infinite</i> to <i>finite</i>, +will lead to apparent absurdity, although the basis be true: and is not +<i>such</i> apparent absurdity, another expression for "truth unintelligible by +a <i>finite</i> mind"?</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_75" id="Foot_75" href="#Ref_75">[75]</a> +For example: at the date of St. Paul's Epistles, the (Roman) +world may be resembled to a mass in the furnace in the first moment +of fusion, here a speck and there a spot of the melted metal shining pure +and brilliant amid the scum and dross. To have received the <i>name</i> of +Christian was a privilege, a high and distinguished favour. No wonder +therefore, that in St. Paul's writings the words, elect, and election, often, +nay, most often, mean the same as <i>eccalumeni, ecclesia</i>, that is, those +who have been <i>called out</i> of the world: and it is a dangerous perversion +of the Apostle's word to interpret it in the sense, in which it was used +by our Lord, viz. in <i>opposition to the called</i>. (Many are <i>called</i> but few +<i>chosen</i>.) In St. Paul's sense and at that time the believers collectively +formed a small and select number; and every Christian real or nominal, +was one of the Elect. Add too, that this ambiguity is increased by the +accidental circumstance, that the <i>kyriak, Ædes Dominicæ</i>, Lord's House, +<i>kirk</i>; and <i>ecclesia</i>, the sum total of the <i>eccalumeni, evocati, called out</i>; +are both rendered by the same word Church.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_76" id="Foot_76" href="#Ref_76">[76]</a> +Or (I may add) <i>any</i> Idea which does not either identify the Creator +with the Creaton; or else represent the Supreme Being as a mere +impersonal Law or <i>ordo ordinans</i>, differing from the Law of Gravitation +only by its <i>universality</i>.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_77" id="Foot_77" href="#Ref_77">[77]</a> +I have elsewhere remarked on the assistance which those that labour +after distinct conceptions would receive from the re-introduction of the +terms <i>objective</i>, and <i>subjective</i>, <i>objective</i> and <i>subjective reality</i>, and the +like, as substitutes for <i>real</i> and <i>notional</i>, and to the exclusion of the false +antithesis between <i>real</i> and <i>ideal</i>. For the Student in that noblest of +the sciences, the <i>scire teipsum</i>, the advantage would be especially great.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_78" id="Ref_78" href="#Foot_78">[78]</a></span> +The few sentences that follow, in illustration of the terms here advocated, +will not, I trust, be a waste of the reader's time.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The celebrated Euler having demonstrated certain properties of arches, +adds: "All experience is in contradiction to this; but this is no reason +for doubting its truth." The words <i>sound</i> paradoxical; but mean no +more than this—that the mathematical properties of figure and space +are not less certainly the properties of figure and space because they +can never be perfectly realized in wood, stone, or iron. Now this assertion +of Euler's might be expressed at once, briefly and simply, by saying, +that the properties in question were <i>subjectively</i> true, though not objectively—or +that the mathematical arch possessed a <i>subjective reality</i> +though incapable of being realized <i>objectively</i>.</p> + +<p class="nodent">In like manner if I had to express my conviction, that space was not +itself a <i>thing</i>, but a <i>mode</i> or <i>form</i> of perceiving, or the inward ground +and condition in the percipient, in consequence of which things are seen +as outward and co-existing, I convey this at once by the words, space is +<i>subjective</i>, or space is real in and for the <i>subject</i> alone.</p> + +<p class="nodent">If I am asked, Why not say in and for the <i>mind</i>, which every one +would understand? I reply: we know indeed, that all minds are Subjects; +but are by no means certain, that all subjects are minds. For a +mind is a subject that knows itself, or a subject that is its own object. +The inward principle of Growth and individual Form in every seed and +plant is a <i>subject</i>, and without any exertion of poetic privilege poets +may speak of the <i>soul</i> of the flower. But the man would be a dreamer, +who otherwise than poetically should speak of roses and lilies as <i>self-conscious</i> +subjects. Lastly, by the assistance of the terms, Object and +Subject, thus used as correspondent opposites, or as negative and positive +in physics (for example, negative and positive electricity) we may +arrive at the distinct import and proper use of the strangely misused +word, idea. And as the forms of logic are all borrowed from geometry +(<i>Ratiocinatio discursiva formas suas sive canonas recipit ab intuitu</i>) I may +be permitted to elucidate my present meaning. Every line may be, and +by the ancient Geometricians <i>was</i>, considered as a point <i>produced</i>, the +two extremes being its poles, while the point itself remains in, or is at +least represented by, the midpoint, the indifference of the two poles or +correlative opposites. Logically applied, the two extremes or poles are +named Thesis and Antithesis: thus in the line</p> + +<table class="tblc" summary="Punctum Indifferens"> +<tr><td>I</td></tr> +<tr><td>T-----------------------A</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="nodent">we have T = Thesis, A = Antithesis, and I = Punctum Indifferens sive +<i>amphotericum</i>, which latter is to be conceived as <i>both</i> in as far as it may +be <i>either</i> of the two former. Observe: not both at the same time in the +same relation; for this would be the <i>identity</i> of T and A, not the <i>indifference</i>:—but +so, that relatively to A, I is equal to T, and relatively to +T it becomes = A. For the purposes of the universal <i>Noetic</i>, in which +we require terms of most comprehension and least specific import, +might not the Noetic Pentad be,—</p> + +<table class="tbl" summary="Prothesis"> + +<tr><td></td> + <td>1. Prothesis.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td>2. Thesis.</td> + <td>4. Mesothesis.</td> + <td>3. Antithesis.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td>5. Synthesis.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr class="gap"><td></td> + <td>Prothesis.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> Sum.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td>Thesis.</td> + <td>Methosesis.</td> + <td> Antithesis.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Res.</td> + <td> Agere.</td> + <td>Ago, Patior.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td>Synthesis.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> Agens.</td> + <td></td></tr> + +</table> + +<p class="nodent">1. Verb Substantive = Prothesis, as expressing the <i>identity</i> or coinherence +of Act and Being.</p> + +<p class="nodent">2. Substantive = Thesis, expressing Being. 3. Verb = Antithesis, expressing, +Act. 4. Infinite = Mesothesis, as being either Substantive or +Verb, or both at once, only in different relations. 5. Participle = Synthesis. +Thus in Chemistry Sulphuretted Hydrogen is an Acid relatively +to the more powerful Alkalis, and an Alkali relatively to a powerful +Acid. Yet one other remark, and I pass to the question. In order +to render the constructions of pure Mathematics applicable to Philosophy, +the Pythagoreans, I imagine, represented the Line as <i>generated</i>, +or, as it were, radiated, by a Point not contained in the Line +but independent, and (in the language of that School) transcendent +to all production, which it caused but did not partake in. <i>Facit, non +patitur.</i> This was the <i>punctum invisible, et presuppositum</i>: and in this +way the Pythagoreans guarded against the error of Pantheism, into +which the later schools fell. The assumption of this Point I call the +logical <span class="smcap">prothesis</span>. We have now therefore four Relations of Thought +expressed: 1. Prothesis, or the Identity of T and A, which is neither, +because in it, as the transcendent of both, both are contained and exist +as one. Taken <i>absolutely</i>, this finds its application in the Supreme +Being alone, the Pythagorean <span class="smcap">tetractys</span>; the +<span class="smcap">ineffable name</span>, to +which no Image can be attached; the Point, which has no (real) Opposite +or Counter-point. But <i>relatively</i> taken and inadequately, the germinal +power of every seed<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_79" id="Ref_79" href="#Foot_79">[79]</a></span> +might be generalized under the relation of +Identity. 2. Thesis, or position. 3. Antithesis, or Opposition. 4. Indifference. +To which when we add the Synthesis or Composition, in +its several forms of Equilibrium, as in quiescent Electricity; of Neutralization, +as of Oxygen and Hydrogen in water; and of Predominance, +as of Hydrogen and Carbon with Hydrogen, predominant, in pure alcohol; +or of Carbon and Hydrogen, with the comparative predominance of the +Carbon, in Oil; we complete the five most general Forms or Preconceptions +of Constructive Logic.</p> + +<p class="nodent">And now for the answer to the question. What is an <span class="smcap">idea</span>, if it mean +neither an Impression on the Senses, nor a definite Conception, nor an +abstract Notion? (And if it does mean either of these, the word is superfluous: +and while it remains undetermined which of these is meant by +the word, or whether it is not <i>which you please</i>, it is worse than superfluous. +See the 'Statesman's Manual,' Appendix <i>ad finem</i>.) But +supposing the word to have a meaning of its own, what does it mean?—What +is an <span class="smcap">idea</span>?—In answer to this I +commence with the absolutely Real as the <span +class="smcap">prothesis</span>; the <i>subjectively</i> Real as the +<span class="smcap">thesis</span>; the <i>objectively</i> Real as the +<span class="smcap">Antithesis</span>: and I affirm, that Idea is the +<span class="smcap">indifference</span> +of the two—so namely, that if it be conceived as in the Subject, the Idea +is an Object, and possesses Objective Truth; but if in an Object, it is then +a Subject and is necessarily thought of as exercising the powers of a +Subject. Thus an <span class="smcap">idea</span> conceived as subsisting in an Object becomes +a <span class="smcap">law</span>; and a Law contemplated <i>subjectively</i> (in a mind) is an Idea.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_78" id="Foot_78" href="#Ref_78">[78]</a> +See the 'Selection from Mr. Coleridge's Literary Correspondence' +in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, 1821, Letter II.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_79" id="Foot_79" href="#Ref_79">[79]</a> +See Comment on Moral and Religious Aphorism VI., p. 40.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_80" id="Foot_80" href="#Ref_80">[80]</a> +In a letter to a friend on the mathematical atheists of the French +Revolution, La Lande and others, or rather on a young man of distinguished +abilities, but an avowed and proselyting partizan of their +tenets, I concluded with these words: "The man who will believe +nothing but by force of demonstrative evidence (even though it is strictly +demonstrable that the demonstrability required would countervene all the +purposes of the truth in question, all that render the belief of the same +desirable or obligatory) is not in a state of mind to be reasoned with on +any subject. But if he further denies the <i>fact</i> of the Law of Conscience, +and the essential difference between right and wrong, I confess, he +puzzles me. I cannot without gross inconsistency appeal to his Conscience +and Moral Sense, or I should admonish him that, as an honest +man, he ought to <i>advertize</i> himself, with a <i>Cavete omnes! Scelus sum.</i> +And as an honest man myself, I dare not advise him on prudential +grounds to keep his opinions secret, lest I should make myself his accomplice, +and <i>be helping him on with a wrap-rascal</i>."</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM III.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Burnet and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>That Religion is designed to improve the nature and +faculties of man, in order to the right governing of our +actions, to the securing the peace and progress, external +and internal, of individuals and of communities, and +lastly, to the rendering us capable of a more perfect state, +entitled the kingdom of God, to which the present life is +<i>probationary</i>—this is a Truth, which all who have truth +only in view, will receive on its own evidence. If such then +be the main end of religion altogether (the improvement +namely of our nature and faculties), it is plain, that every +part of religion is to be judged by its relation to this main +end. And since the Christian scheme is religion in its +most perfect and effective form, a revealed religion, and +therefore, in a <i>special</i> sense proceeding from that Being +who made us and knows what we are, of course therefore +adapted to the needs and capabilities of human nature; +nothing can be a part of this holy faith that is not duly +proportioned to this end.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_81" id="Ref_81" href="#Foot_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>This Aphorism should be borne in mind, whenever a +theological <i>Resolve</i> is proposed to us as an article of Faith. +Take, for instance, the determinations passed at the Synod +of Dort, concerning the Absolute Decrees of God in connection +with his Omniscience and Fore-knowledge. Or +take the decision in the Council of Trent on the difference +between the two kinds of Transubstantiation, the one in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span> +which both the substance and the accidents are changed, the +same matter remaining—as in the conversion of water to +wine at Cana: the other, in which the matter and the +substance are changed, the accidents remaining unaltered, +as in the Eucharist—this latter being Transubstantiation +<i>par eminence</i>! Or rather take the still more tremendous +dogma, that it is indispensable to a saving faith carefully +to distinguish the one kind from the other, and to believe +both, and to believe the necessity of believing both in order +to Salvation! For each or either of these <i>extra-scriptural</i> +Articles of Faith the preceding Aphorism supplies a safe +criterion. Will the belief tend to the improvement of any +of my moral or intellectual faculties? But before I can +be convinced that a faculty will be <i>improved</i>, I must be assured +that it <i>exists</i>. On all these dark sayings, therefore, of +Dort or Trent, it is quite sufficient to ask, by what <i>faculty</i>, +<i>organ</i>, or <i>inlet</i> of knowledge, we are to assure ourselves that +the words <i>mean</i> any thing, or correspond to any object out +of our own mind or even in it: unless indeed the mere +craving and striving to think <i>on</i>, after all the materials for +thinking have been exhausted, can be called an <i>object</i>. +When a number of trust-worthy persons assure me, that a +portion of fluid which they saw to be water, by some change +in the fluid itself or in their senses, suddenly acquired the +colour, taste, smell, and exhilarating property of wine, +I perfectly understand what they tell me, and likewise by +what faculties they might have come to the knowledge of +the fact. But if any one of the number not satisfied with +my acquiescence in the fact, should insist on my believing, +that the <i>matter</i> remained the same, the substance and the +accidents having been removed in order to make way for +a different substance with different accidents, I must +entreat his permission to wait till I can discover in myself +any faculty, by which there can be presented to me a matter +distinguishable from accidents, and a substance that is different +from both. It is true, I have a faculty of articulation; +but I do not see that it can be <i>improved</i> by my using +it for the formation of words without meaning, or at best, +for the utterance of thoughts, that mean only the act of so +thinking, or of trying so to think. But the end of Religion +is the improvement of our Nature and Faculties. <i>Ergo</i>, &c. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span> +I sum up the whole in one great practical Maxim. The +Object of <i>religious</i> Contemplation, and of a truly Spiritual +Faith, is "<span class="smcap">the ways of God to Man</span>." Of the Workings +of the Godhead, God himself has told us, <i>My Ways are not +as your Ways, nor my Thoughts as your Thoughts</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_81" id="Foot_81" href="#Ref_81">[81]</a> +Slightly altered from Burnet's Preface to Part ii. of his 'History of +the Reformation.' See pp. 26 27, v. ii. Clarendon Press edition, +1865.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM IV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>The characteristic Difference between the Discipline of the +Ancient Philosophers and the Dispensation of the Gospel.</i></p> + +<p>By undeceiving, enlarging, and informing the Intellect, +Philosophy sought to purify, and to elevate the Moral +Character. Of course, those alone could receive the latter +and incomparably greater benefit, who by natural capacity +and favourable contingencies of fortune were fit recipients +of the former. How small the number, we scarcely need +the evidence of history to assure us. Across the night of +Paganism, Philosophy flitted on, like the lantern-fly of +the Tropics, a light to itself, and an ornament, but alas! +no more than an ornament of the surrounding darkness.</p> + +<p>Christianity reversed the order. By means accessible to +all, by inducements operative on all, and by convictions, +the grounds and materials of which all men might find in +themselves, her first step was to cleanse the <i>heart</i>. But +the benefit did not stop here. In preventing the rank +vapours that steam up from the corrupt <i>heart</i>, Christianity +restores the <i>intellect</i> likewise to its natural clearness. By +relieving the mind from the distractions and importunities +of the unruly passions, she improves the <i>quality</i> of the +Understanding: while at the same time she presents for its +contemplations, objects so great and so bright as cannot +but enlarge the organ, by which they are contemplated. +The fears, the hopes, the remembrances, the anticipations, +the inward and outward Experience, the belief and +the Faith, of a Christian, form of themselves a philosophy +and a Sum of Knowledge, which a life spent in the Grove +of Academus, or the "painted Porch," could not have +attained or collected. The result is contained in the fact +of a wide and still widening <span class="smcap">Christendom</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span> +Yet I dare not say, that the effects have been proportionate +to the divine wisdom of the scheme. Too soon did +the Doctors of the Church forget that the <i>heart</i>, the <i>moral</i> +nature, was the beginning and the end; and that truth, +knowledge, and insight were comprehended in its expansion. +This was the true and first apostasy—when in council +and synod the Divine Humanities of the Gospel gave +way to speculative Systems, and Religion became a Science +of Shadows under the name of Theology, or at best a bare +Skeleton of Truth, without life or interest, alike inaccessible +and unintelligible to the majority of Christians. For +these therefore there remained only rites and ceremonies +and spectacles, shows and semblances. Thus among the +learned <i>the substance of things hoped for</i> (Heb. xi. 1.) +passed off into <i>Notions</i>; and for the unlearned the Surfaces +of things became<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_82" id="Ref_82" href="#Foot_82">[82]</a></span> +Substance. The Christian world was +for centuries divided into the Many, that did not think at +all, and the Few who did nothing but think—both alike +<i>unreflecting</i>, the one from defect of the <i>act</i>, the other from +the absence of an <i>object</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_82" id="Foot_82" href="#Ref_82">[82]</a> +<i>Virium et proprietatum, quæ non nisi de substantibus predicari possunt, +formis superstantibus attributio, est</i> <span class="smcap">Superstitio</span>.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM V.</h4> + +<p>There is small chance of Truth at the goal where there +is not a child-like Humility at the starting-post.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Humility is the safest Ground of Docility: and Docility +the surest Promise of Docibility. Where there is no working +of self-love in the heart that secures a leaning before-hand; +where the great magnet of the planet is not overwhelmed +or obscured by partial masses of Iron in close +neighbourhood to the compass of the judgment, though +hidden or unnoticed; there will this great <i>desideratum</i> be +found of a child-like Humility. Do I then say, that I am +to be influenced by <i>no</i> interest? Far from it! There is an +Interest of Truth: or how could there be a Love of Truth? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span> +And that a love of truth for its own sake, and merely as +truth, is possible, my soul bears witness to itself in its +inmost recesses. But there are other interests—those of +goodness, of beauty, of utility. It would be a sorry proof +of the humility I am extolling, were I to ask for angel's +wings to overfly my own human nature. I exclude none +of these. It is enough if the <i>lene clinamen</i>, the gentle +bias, be given by no interest that concerns myself other +than as I am a man, and included in the great family of +mankind; but which does therefore especially concern me, +because being a common interest of <i>all</i> men it must needs +concern the very <i>essentials</i> of my being, and because these +essentials, as existing in <i>me</i>, are especially intrusted to my +particular charge.</p> + +<p>Widely different from this social and truth-attracted +bias, different both in its nature and its effects, is the interest +connected with the desire of <i>distinguishing</i> yourself +from other men, in order to be distinguished by them. Hoc +revera <i>est inter</i> te et veritatem. This Interest does indeed +stand between thee and truth. I might add between thee +and thy own soul. It is scarcely more at variance with the +love of truth than it is unfriendly to the attainment that +deserves that name. By your own act you have appointed +the Many as your judges and appraisers: for the anxiety +to be admired is a loveless passion, ever strongest with regard +to those by whom we are least known and least cared +for, loud on the hustings, gay in the ball-room, mute and +sullen at the family fireside. What you have acquired by +patient thought and cautious discrimination, demands a +portion of the same effort in those who are to receive it +from you. But applause and preference are things of +barter; and if you trade in them, Experience will soon +teach you that there are easier and less unsuitable ways to win +golden judgments than by at once taxing the patience and +humiliating the self-opinion of your judges. To obtain your +end, your words must be as indefinite as their thoughts: +and how vague and general these are even on objects of +sense, the few who at a mature age have seriously set +about the discipline of their faculties, and have honestly +<i>taken stock</i>, best know by recollection of their own state. +To be admired you must make your auditors believe at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span> +least that they understand what you say; which, be assured, +they never will, under such circumstances, if it be worth +understanding, or if you understand your own soul. But +while your prevailing motive is to be compared and appreciated, +is it credible, is it possible, that you should in earnest +seek for a knowledge which is and must remain a hidden +light, a secret treasure? Have you children, or have you +lived among children, and do you not know, that in all +things, in food, in medicine, in all their doings and abstainings +they must believe in order to acquire a reason for their +belief? But so is it with religious truths for all men. +These we must all learn as children. The ground of the +prevailing error on this point is the ignorance, that in +spiritual concernments to believe and to understand are +not diverse things, but the same thing in different periods +of its growth. Belief is the seed, received into the will, +of which the Understanding or Knowledge is the Flower, +and the thing believed is the fruit. Unless ye believe +ye cannot understand: and unless ye be humble as children, +ye not only <i>will</i> not, but ye <i>can</i>not believe. Of such +therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven. Yea, blessed is the +calamity that makes us humble: though so repugnant +thereto is our nature, in our present state, that after a +while, it is to be feared, a second and sharper calamity +would be wanted to cure us of our pride in having become +so humble.</p> + +<p>Lastly, there are among us, though fewer and less in +fashion than among our ancestors, persons who, like +Shaftesbury, do not belong to "the herd of Epicurus," yet +prefer a philosophic Paganism to the morality of the Gospel. +Now it would conduce, methinks, to the child-like humility, +we have been discoursing of, if the use of the term, +Virtue, in that high, comprehensive, and <i>notional</i> sense in +which it was used by the ancient Stoics, were abandoned, +as a relic of Paganism, to these modern Pagans: and if +Christians restoring the word to its original import, namely, +Manhood or Manliness, used it exclusively to express the +quality of Fortitude; Strength of Character in relation to +the resistance opposed by Nature and the irrational Passions +to the Dictates of Reason; Energy of Will in preserving +the Line of Rectitude tense and firm against the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span> +warping forces and treacheries of temptation. Surely, it +were far less unseemly to value ourselves on this moral +strength than on strength of body, or even strength of +intellect. But we will rather value <i>it</i> for ourselves: and +bearing in mind the old adage, <i>Quis custodiet ipsum +custodem?</i>—we will value it the more, yea, then only will +we allow it true spiritual <i>worth</i>, when we possess it as a +gift of <i>grace</i>, a boon of mercy undeserved, a fulfilment of +a free <i>promise</i> (1 Corinth. x. 13.). What more is meant +in this last paragraph, let the venerable <span class="smcap">Hooker</span> say for me +in the following.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM VI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hooker.</span></p> + +<p>What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a wound?—Yea, +we have so often deeply wounded ourselves with +medicine, that God hath been fain to make wounds medicinable; +to cure by vice where virtue hath stricken; to +suffer the just man to fall, that being raised he may be +taught what power it was which upheld him standing. I +am not afraid to affirm it boldly with St. Augustine, that +men puffed up through a proud opinion of their own sanctity +and holiness receive a benefit at the hands of God, +and are assisted with his grace when with his grace they +are <i>not</i> assisted, but permitted (and that grievously) to +transgress. Whereby, as they were through over-great +liking of themselves supplanted (<i>tripped up</i>), so the dislike +of that which did supplant them may establish them +afterwards the surer. Ask the very soul of Peter, and it +shall undoubtedly itself make you this answer: My eager +protestations made in the glory of my spiritual strength I +am ashamed of. But my shame and the tears, with which +my presumption and my weakness were bewailed, recur +in the songs of my thanksgiving. My Strength had been +my ruin, my Fall hath proved my stay.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_83" id="Ref_83" href="#Foot_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_83" id="Foot_83" href="#Ref_83">[83]</a> +Hooker 'On the Nature of Pride,' Works, p. 521.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM VII.</h4> + +<p>The Being and Providence of One Living God, holy, +gracious, merciful, the creator and preserver of all things, +and a father of the righteous; the Moral Law in its<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_84" id="Ref_84" href="#Foot_84">[84]</a></span> +utmost height, breadth, and purity, a State of Retribution +after Death; the<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_85" id="Ref_85" href="#Foot_85">[85]</a></span> +Resurrection of the Dead; and a Day of +Judgment—all these were known and received by the +Jewish people, as established articles of the national +faith, at or before the proclaiming of Christ by the Baptist. +They are the ground-work of Christianity, and essentials +in the Christian Faith, but not its characteristic and +peculiar Doctrines: except indeed as they are confirmed, +enlivened, realized and brought home to the <i>whole being</i> of +man, head, heart, and spirit, by the truths and influences +of the Gospel.</p> + +<p class="topgap">Peculiar to Christianity are:</p> + +<p>I. The belief that a Means of Salvation has been effected +and provided for the human race by the incarnation of +the Son of God in the person of Jesus Christ; and that his +life on earth, his sufferings, death, and resurrection, are +not only proofs and manifestations, but likewise essential +and effective parts of the great redemptive Act, whereby +also the Obstacle from the corruption of our Nature is rendered +no longer insurmountable.</p> + +<p>II. The belief in the possible appropriation of this benefit +by Repentance and Faith, including the aids that render +an effective faith and repentance themselves possible.</p> + +<p>III. The belief in the reception (by as many as <i>shall +be heirs of salvation</i>) of a living and spiritual principle, a +seed of life capable of surviving this natural life, and of +existing in a divine and immortal state.</p> + +<p>IV. The belief in the awakening of the spirit<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_86" id="Ref_86" href="#Foot_86">[86]</a></span> +in them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span> +that truly believe, and in the communion of the spirit, +thus awakened, with the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p>V. The belief in the accompanying and consequent gifts, +graces, comforts, and privileges of the Spirit, which acting +primarily on the heart and will, cannot but manifest themselves +in suitable works of love and obedience, that is, in +right acts with right affections, from right principles.</p> + +<p>VI. Further, as Christians we are taught, that these +<span class="smcap">Works</span> are the appointed signs and evidences +of our <span class="smcap">Faith</span>; +and that, under limitation of the power, the means, and the +opportunities afforded us individually, they are the rule and +measure, by which we are bound and enabled to judge, of +<i>what spirit we are</i>.</p> + +<p>VII. All these, together with the doctrine of the Fathers +re-proclaimed in the everlasting Gospel, we receive in the +full assurance, that God beholds and will finally judge us +with a merciful consideration of our infirmities, a gracious +acceptance of our sincere though imperfect strivings, a forgiveness +of our defects through the mediation, and a completion +of our deficiencies by the perfect righteousness, of +the Man Christ Jesus, even the Word that was in the beginning +with God, and who, being God, became Man for +the redemption of Mankind.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>I earnestly entreat the reader to pause awhile, and to +join with me in reflecting on the preceding Aphorism. It +has been my aim throughout this work to enforce two +points: 1. That <span class="smcap">Morality</span> arising out of the Reason and +Conscience of Men, and <span class="smcap">Prudence</span>, which in like manner +flows out of the Understanding and the natural Wants and +Desires of the Individual, are two distinct things. 2. That +Morality with Prudence as its instrument has, considered +abstractedly, not only a value but a <i>worth</i> in itself. Now +the question is (and it is a question which every man must +answer for himself)—From what you know of yourself; of +your own heart and strength; and from what history and +personal experience have led you to conclude of mankind +generally; dare you <i>trust</i> to it? Dare <i>you</i> trust to it? To +<i>it</i>, and to it alone? If so, well! It is at your own risk. I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span> +judge you not. Before Him, who cannot be mocked, you +stand or fall. But if not, if you have had too good reason +to know, that your heart is deceitful and your strength +weakness: if you are disposed to exclaim with Paul—the +Law indeed is holy, just, good, spiritual; but I am carnal, +sold under sin: for that which I do, I allow not; and what +I would, that I do not!—in this case, there is a voice that +says, <i>Come unto me: and I will give you rest</i>. This is the +Voice of Christ: and the conditions, under which the +promise was given by him, are that you believe <i>in</i> him, +and believe his words. And he has further assured you, +that <i>if</i> you do so, you will obey him. You are, in short, to +embrace the <i>Christian</i> Faith as your Religion—those Truths +which St. Paul believed <i>after</i> his conversion, and not those +only which he believed no less undoubtingly while he was +persecuting Christ, and an enemy of the Christian Religion. +With what consistency could I offer you this +volume as Aids to Reflection, if I did not call on you to +ascertain in the first instance what these truths are? But +these I could not lay before you without first enumerating +certain other points of belief, which though truths, indispensable +truths, and truths comprehended or rather presupposed +in the Christian scheme, are yet not <i>these</i> truths. +(John i. 17.)</p> + +<p>While doing this, I was aware that the Positions, in the +first paragraph of the preceding Aphorism, to which the +numerical <i>marks</i> are affixed, will startle some of my Readers. +Let the following sentences serve for the notes corresponding +to the marks:</p> + +<p>1 <i>Be you holy: even as God is holy.</i>—<i>What more does he +require of thee, O man! than to do justice, love mercy, +and walk humbly with the Lord thy God?</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_87" id="Ref_87" href="#Foot_87">[87]</a></span> +To these summary +passages from Moses and the Prophets (the first +exhibiting the closed, the second the expanded, Hand of +the Moral Law) I might add the Authorities of Grotius +and other more orthodox and not less learned Divines, +for the opinion that the Lord's Prayer was a <i>selection</i>, and +the famous passage [The hour is now coming, &c., John v. +28 29.] a <i>citation</i> by our Lord from the liturgy of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span> +Jewish Church. But it will be sufficient to remind the +reader, that the apparent difference between the prominent +<i>moral</i> truths of the Old and those of the New Testament +results from the latter having been written in Greek; while +the conversations recorded by the Evangelists took place in +Hebrew or Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic.—Hence it happened +that where our Lord cited the original text, his biographers +substituted the Septuagint version, while our English +version is in <i>both</i> instances immediate and literal—in the +Old Testament from the Hebrew Original, in the New +Testament from the freer Greek translation. The text, +<i>I give you a new commandment</i>, has no connection with the +present subject.</p> + +<p>2 There is a current mistake on this point likewise, +though this article of the Jewish Belief is not only asserted +by St. Paul, but is elsewhere spoken of as common to the +Twelve Tribes. The mistake consists in supposing the +Pharisees to have been a distinct <i>sect</i>, and in strangely +over-rating the number of the Sadducees. The former +were distinguished not by holding, as matters of religious +belief, articles different from the Jewish Church at large; +but by their pretences to a more rigid orthodoxy, a more +scrupulous performance. They were, in short (if I may +dare use a phrase which I dislike as profane, and denounce +as uncharitable), the <i>Evangelicals</i> and strict <i>professors</i> of +the day. The latter, the Sadducees, whose opinions much +more nearly resembled those of the <i>Stoics</i> than the Epicureans +(a remark that will appear paradoxical to those only +who have abstracted their notions of the Stoic Philosophy +from Epictetus, Mark Antonine, and certain brilliant inconsistencies +of Seneca), were a handful of rich men, +<i>Romanized</i> Jews, not more numerous than infidels among +us, and holden by the People at large in at least equal +abhorrence. Their great argument was: that the belief +of a future state of rewards and punishments injured or +destroyed the purity of the Moral Law for the more enlightened +classes, and weakened the influence of the Laws +of the Land for the people, the vulgar multitude.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>I will now suppose the reader to have thoughtfully re-perused +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span> +the paragraph containing the tenets peculiar to +Christianity, and if he have his religious principles yet to +form, I should expect to overhear a troubled murmur: +How can I comprehend this? How is this to be proved? +To the first question I should answer: Christianity is not a +Theory, or a Speculation; but a <i>Life</i>;—not a <i>Philosophy</i> of +Life, but a Life and a living Process. To the second: +TRY IT. It has been eighteen hundred years in existence: +and has one individual left a record, like the following? +"I tried it; and it did not answer. I made the experiment +faithfully according to the directions; and the result has +been, a conviction of my own credulity." Have you, in your +own experience, met with any one in whose words you could +place full confidence, and who has seriously affirmed:—"I +have given Christianity a fair trial. I was aware, that +its promises were made only <i>conditionally</i>. But my heart +bears me witness, that I have to the utmost of my power +complied with these conditions. Both outwardly and in +the discipline of my inward acts and affections, I have performed +the duties which it enjoins, and I have used the +means, which it prescribes. Yet my assurance of its truth +has received no increase. Its promises have not been fulfilled: +and I repent me of my delusion!" If neither your +own experience nor the History of almost two thousand +years has presented a single testimony to this purport; and +if you have read and heard of many who have lived and +died bearing witness to the contrary: and if you have +yourself met with some <i>one</i>, in whom on any other point +you would place unqualified trust, who has on his own experience +made report to you, that He is faithful who +promised, and what he promised He has proved Himself +able to perform; is it bigotry, if I fear that the Unbelief, +which prejudges and prevents the experiment, has its +source elsewhere than in the uncorrupted judgment; that +not the strong free mind, but the enslaved will, is the +true original infidel in this instance? It would not be +the first time, that a treacherous bosom-sin had suborned +the understandings of men to bear false witness against +its avowed enemy, the right though unreceived owner +of the house, who had long <i>warned it out</i>, and waited +only for its ejection to enter and take possession of the same.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span> +I have elsewhere in the present work explained the difference +between the Understanding and the Reason, by reason meaning +exclusively the speculative or scientific power so called, the <span +title="nous">νους</span> or <i>mens</i> of the ancients. And wider +still is the distinction between the Understanding and the Spiritual +Mind. But no gift of God does or can contradict any other gift, except +by misuse or misdirection. Most readily therefore do I admit, that +there can be no contrariety between Revelation and the Understanding; +unless you call the fact, that the skin, though sensible of the warmth +of the sun, can convey no notion of its figure or its joyous light, or +of the colours, which it impresses on the clouds, a contrariety +between the skin and the eye; or infer that the cutaneous and the +optic nerves <i>contradict</i> each other.</p> + +<p>But we have grounds to believe, that there are yet other +rays or effluences from the sun, which neither feeling +nor sight can apprehend, but which are to be inferred from +the effects. And were it even so with regard to the Spiritual +Sun, how would this contradict the Understanding +or the Reason? It is a sufficient proof of the contrary, +that the mysteries in question are not <i>in the direction</i> of the +understanding or the (speculative) reason. They do not +move on the same line or plane with them, and therefore +cannot contradict them. But besides this, in the mystery +that most immediately concerns the believer, that of the +birth into a new and spiritual life, the common sense and +experience of mankind come in aid of their faith. The +analogous facts, which we know to be true, not only facilitate +the apprehension of the facts promised to us, and +expressed by the same words in conjunction with a distinctive +epithet; but being confessedly not less incomprehensible, +the certain <i>knowledge</i> of the one disposes us to the +<i>belief</i> of the other. It removes at least all objections to the +truth of the doctrine derived from the mysteriousness of +its subject. The life, we seek after, is a mystery; but so +both in itself and in its origin is the life we have. In +order to meet this question, however, with minds duly +prepared, there are two preliminary inquiries to be decided; +the first respecting the <i>purport</i>, the second respecting the +<i>language</i> of the Gospel.</p> + +<p>First then of the <i>purport</i>, namely, what the Gospel does +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span> +<i>not</i>, and what it <i>does</i> profess to be. The Gospel is not a system +of Theology, nor a <i>syntagma</i> of theoretical propositions +and conclusions for the enlargement of speculative knowledge, +ethical or metaphysical. But it is a history, a series +of facts and events related or announced. These do indeed +involve, or rather I should say they at the same time +<i>are</i>, most important doctrinal Truths; but still <i>Facts</i> and +Declaration of <i>Facts</i>.</p> + +<p>Secondly of the <i>language</i>. This is a wide subject. But +the point, to which I chiefly advert, is the necessity of +thoroughly understanding the distinction between <i>analogous</i>, +and <i>metaphorical</i> language. <i>Analogies</i> are used in +aid of <i>Conviction</i>: Metaphors, as means of <i>Illustration</i>. +The language is analogous, wherever a thing, power, or +principle in a higher dignity is expressed by the same +thing, power, or principle in a lower but more known form. +Such, for instance, is the language of John iii. 6. <i>That +which is born of the flesh, is flesh; that which is born of the +Spirit, is Spirit.</i> The latter half of the verse contains the +fact <i>asserted</i>; the former half the <i>analogous</i> fact, by which +it is rendered intelligible. If any man choose to call this +<i>metaphorical</i> or figurative, I ask him whether with Hobbes +and Bolingbroke he applies the same rule to the moral +attributes of the Deity? Whether he regards the divine +Justice, for instance, as a <i>metaphorical</i> term, a mere figure +of speech? If he disclaims this, then I answer, neither do +I regard the words, <i>born again</i>, or <i>spiritual life</i>, as figures +or metaphors. I have only to add, that these analogies are +the material, or (to speak chemically) the <i>base</i>, of Symbols +and symbolical expressions; the nature of which is always +<i>tau</i>tegorical, that is, expressing the <i>same</i> subject but with a +<i>difference</i>, in contra-distinction from metaphors and similitudes, +that are always <i>alle</i>gorical, that is, expressing a +<i>different</i> subject but with a resemblance.</p> + +<p>Of <i>metaphorical</i> language, on the other hand, let the +following be taken as instance and illustration. I am +speaking, we will suppose, of an act, which in its own +nature, and as a producing and efficient <i>cause</i>, is transcendent; +but which produces sundry <i>effects</i>, each of which +is the same in kind with an effect produced by a cause well +known and of ordinary occurrence. Now when I characterize +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span> +or designate this transcendent act, in exclusive +reference to these its <i>effects</i>, by a succession of names borrowed +from their ordinary causes; not for the purpose of +rendering the act itself, or the manner of the agency, +conceivable, but in order to show the nature and magnitude +of the benefits received from it, and thus to excite the due +admiration, gratitude, and love in the receivers; in this +case I should be rightly described as speaking <i>metaphorically</i>. +And in this case to confound <i>the similarity</i>, in +respect of the effects relatively to the recipients, with <i>an +identity</i> in respect of the causes or modes of causation relatively +to the transcendent act or the Divine Agent, is a +confusion of metaphor with analogy, and of figurative with +literal; and has been and continues to be a fruitful source +of superstition or enthusiasm in believers, and of objections +and prejudices to infidels and sceptics. But each +of these points is worthy of a separate consideration: and +apt occasions will be found of reverting to them severally +in the following Aphorisms, or the comments thereto +attached.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_84" id="Foot_84" href="#Ref_84">[84]</a> +(and <a name="Foot_85" id="Foot_85" href="#Ref_85">[85]</a>) +These reference marks are the author's own, for which, however, +he supplied no notes here; but further on, in the Comment, at +pp. 132-3, he gives them <i>in the text</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_86" id="Foot_86" href="#Ref_86">[86]</a> +See Comment on Moral and Religious Aphorism VI., p. 45.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_87" id="Foot_87" href="#Ref_87">[87]</a> +Lev. xix. 2, and Micah vi. 8.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM VIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Faith</span> elevates the soul not only above sense and sensible +things, but above reason itself. As reason corrects the +errors which sense might occasion, so supernatural faith +corrects the errors of natural reason judging according to +sense.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>My remarks on this Aphorism from Leighton cannot be +better introduced, or their purport more distinctly announced, +than by the following sentence from Harrington, +with no other change than was necessary to make the +words express, without aid of the context, what from the +context it is evident was the writer's meaning. "The +definition and proper character of Man—that, namely, +which should contra-distinguish him from the Animals—is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span> +to be taken from his reason rather than from his understanding: +in regard that in other creatures there may +be something of understanding, but there is nothing of +reason."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_88" id="Ref_88" href="#Foot_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Browne, in his <i>Religio Medici</i>, complains, +that there are not impossibilities enough in Religion for his +active faith; and adopts by choice and in free preference, +such interpretations of certain texts and declarations of +Holy Writ, as place them in irreconcilable contradiction to +the demonstrations of science and the experience of mankind, +because (says he) "I love to lose myself in a +mystery, and 'tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension +with those involved enigmas and riddles of the +Trinity and Incarnation;"—and because he delights (as +thinking it no vulgar part of faith) to believe a thing not +only above but contrary to reason, and against the evidence +of our proper senses. For the worthy knight could +answer all the objections of the devil and reason "with +the odd resolution he had learnt of Tertullian: <i>Certum +est quia impossibile est</i>. It is certainly true because it is +quite impossible!" Now this I call <span class="smcap">Ultrafidianism</span>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_89" id="Ref_89" href="#Foot_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span> +Again, there is a scheme constructed on the principle of +retaining the social sympathies, that attend on the name of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span> +Believer, at the least possible expenditure of Belief; a +scheme of picking and choosing Scripture texts for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span> +support of doctrines, that had been learned beforehand +from the higher oracle of Common Sense; which, as applied +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span> +to the truths of Religion, means the popular part of the +philosophy in fashion. Of course, the scheme differs at +different times and in different individuals in the number +of articles excluded; but, it may always be recognized by +this permanent character, that its object is to draw religion +down to the believer's intellect, instead of raising +his intellect up to religion. And this extreme I call <span class="smcap">Minimifidianism</span>.</p> + +<p>Now if there be one preventive of both these extremes +more efficacious than another, and preliminary to all the +rest, it is the being made fully aware of the diversity of +Reason and Understanding. And this is the more expedient, +because though there is no want of authorities ancient and +modern for the distinction of the faculties, and the distinct +appropriation of the terms, yet our best writers too often +confound the one with the other. Even Lord Bacon himself, +who in his <i>Novum Organum</i> has so incomparably set +forth the nature of the difference, and the unfitness of the +latter faculty for the objects of the former, does nevertheless +in sundry places use the term Reason where he means +the Understanding, and sometimes, though less frequently, +Understanding for Reason.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_93" id="Ref_93" href="#Foot_93">[93]</a></span> +In consequence of thus confounding +the two terms, or rather of wasting both words +for the expression of one and the same faculty, he left himself +no appropriate term for the other and higher gift of +Reason, and was thus under the necessity of adopting fantastical +and mystical phrases, for example, the dry light +(<i>lumen siccum</i>), the lucific vision, and the like, meaning +thereby nothing more than Reason in contra-distinction from +the Understanding. Thus too in the preceding Aphorism, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span> +by Reason Leighton means the human Understanding, the +explanation annexed to it being (by a noticeable coincidence), +word for word, the very definition which the +founder of the Critical Philosophy gives of the Understanding—namely, +"the faculty judging according to sense."</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_88" id="Foot_88" href="#Ref_88">[88]</a> +See 'The Friend,' vol. i., p. 263; or p. 95 in Bohn's one vol. edition; +and 'The Statesman's Manual,' Appendix (Note C.).—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_89" id="Foot_89" href="#Ref_89">[89]</a> +There is this advantage in the occasional use of a newly minted term +or title, expressing the doctrinal schemes of particular sects or parties, +that it avoids the inconvenience that presses on either side, whether we +adopt the name which the party itself has taken up by which to express +its peculiar tenets, or that by which the same party is designated by its +opponents. If we take the latter, it most often happens that either the +persons are invidiously aimed at in the designation of the principles, or +that the name implies some consequence or occasional accompaniment +of the principles denied by the parties themselves, as applicable to them +collectively. On the other hand, convinced as I am, that current +appellations are never wholly indifferent or inert; and that, when employed +to express the characteristic belief or object of a <i>religious</i> +confederacy, they exert on the many a great and constant, though +insensible, influence; I cannot but fear that in adopting the former I +may be sacrificing the interests of Truth beyond what the duties of +courtesy can demand or justify. I have elsewhere stated my objections +to the word <i>Unitarians</i>: as a name which in its proper sense can belong +only to the maintainers of the truth impugned by the persons, who have +chosen it as their designation. For <i>Unity</i> or Unition, and indistinguishable +<i>Unicity</i> or Sameness, are incompatible terms. We never speak of the +unity of attraction, or the unity of repulsion; but of the unity of attraction +<i>and</i> repulsion in each corpuscle. Indeed, the essential diversity of the +conceptions, Unity and Sameness, was among the elementary principles of +the old logicians; and Leibnitz, in his critique on Wissowatius, has ably +exposed the sophisms grounded on the confusion of the two terms. But +in the exclusive sense, in which the name, Unitarian, is appropriated by +the sect, and in which they mean it to be understood, it is a presumptuous +boast, and an uncharitable calumny. No one of the Churches to +which they on this article of the Christian Faith stand opposed, Greek +or Latin, ever adopted the term, Trini—or Tri-uni-tarians as their +ordinary and proper name: and had it been otherwise, yet Unity is +assuredly no logical Opposite to Tri-unity, which expressly includes it. +The triple alliance is <i>a fortiori</i> alliance. The true designation of their +characteristic Tenet, and which would simply and inoffensively express +a fact admitted on all sides, is Psilanthropism, or the assertion of the +<i>mere</i> humanity of Christ.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_90" id="Ref_90" href="#Foot_90">[90]</a></span></p> + +<p class="nodent">I dare not hesitate to avow my regret, that any scheme of doctrines +or tenets should be the subject of penal law: though I can easily conceive, +that any scheme, however excellent in itself, may be propagated, +and however false or injurious, may be assailed, in a manner and by +means that would make the advocate or assailant justly punishable. +But then it is the <i>manner</i>, the <i>means</i>, that constitute the <i>crime</i>. The +merit or demerit of the opinions themselves depends on their originating +and determining causes, which may differ in every different believer, +and are certainly known to Him alone, who commanded us, <i>Judge not, +lest ye be judged</i>. At all events, in the present state of the law, I do +not see where we can begin, or where we can stop, without inconsistency +and consequent hardship. Judging by all that <i>we</i> can pretend to know +or are entitled to infer, who among us will take on himself to deny that +the late Dr. Priestley was a good and benevolent man, as sincere in his +love, as he was intrepid and indefatigable in his pursuit, of truth? +Now let us construct three parallel tables, the first containing the +Articles of Belief, moral and theological, maintained by the venerable +Hooker, as the representative of the Established Church, each article +being distinctly lined and numbered; the second the Tenets and Persuasions +of Lord Herbert, as the representative of the platonizing +Deists; and the third, those of Dr. Priestley. Let the points, in which +the second and third agree with or differ from the first, be considered +as to the comparative number modified by the comparative weight and +importance of the several points—and let any competent and upright +man be appointed the arbiter, to decide according to his best judgment, +without any reference to the truth of the opinions, which of the two +differed from the first the more widely. I say this, well aware that it +would be abundantly more prudent to leave it unsaid. But I say it in +the conviction, that the <i>liberality</i> in the adoption of admitted <i>misnomers</i> +in the naming of doctrinal systems, if only they have been negatively +legalized, is but an equivocal proof of liberality towards the <i>persons</i> who +dissent from us. On the contrary, I more than suspect that the former +liberality does in too many men arise from a latent pre-disposition to +transfer their reprobation and intolerance from the doctrines to the +doctors, from the belief to the believers. Indecency, abuse, scoffing +on subjects dear and awful to a multitude of our fellow-citizens, appeals +to the vanity, appetites, and malignant passions of ignorant and incompetent +judges—these are flagrant overt-acts, condemned by the law +written in the heart of every honest man, Jew, Turk, and Christian. +These are points respecting which the humblest honest man feels it his +duty to hold himself infallible, and dares not hesitate in giving utterance +to the verdict of his conscience, in the jury-box as fearlessly as by his +fireside. It is far otherwise with respect to matters of faith and inward +conviction: and with respect to <i>these</i> I say—Tolerate no Belief, that +you judge false and of injurious tendency: and arraign no Believer. +The Man is more and other than his Belief: and God only knows, how +small or how large a part of him the Belief in question may be, for good +or for evil. Resist every false doctrine: and call no man heretic. The +false doctrine does not necessarily make the man a heretic; but an evil +heart can make any doctrine heretical.</p> + +<p class="nodent">Actuated by these principles, I have objected to a false and deceptive +designation in the case of one System. Persuaded that the doctrines, +enumerated in pp. 130-132, are not only <i>essential</i> to the Christian Religion, +but those which contra-distinguish the religion as <i>Christian</i>, I merely +<i>repeat</i> this persuasion in another form, when I assert, that (in <i>my</i> sense +of the word, Christian) Unitarianism is not Christianity. But do I say, +that those, who call themselves Unitarians, are not Christians? God +forbid! I would not think, much less promulgate, a judgment at once +so presumptuous and so uncharitable.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_91" id="Ref_91" href="#Foot_91">[91]</a></span> +Let a friendly antagonist retort +on <i>my</i> scheme of faith, in the like manner: I shall respect him all the +more for his consistency as a reasoner, and not confide the less in his +kindness towards me as his neighbour and fellow-Christian. This +latter and most endearing name I scarcely know how to withhold even +from my friend, <span class="smcap">Hyman Hurwitz</span>, as often as I read what every +Reverer of Holy Writ and of the English Bible ought to read, his admirable +<span class="smcap">Vindiciæ Hebraicæ</span>! It has trembled on the verge, as it were, +of my lips, every time I have conversed with that pious, learned, strong-minded, +and single-hearted Jew, an Israelite indeed, and without guile,—</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i2"><i>Cujus cura, sequi naturam, legibus uti,</i></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Et mentem vitiis, ora negare dolis;</i></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Virtutes opibus, verum præponere falso</i></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Nil vacuum sensu dicere, nil facere.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2">Post obitum vivam<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_92" + id="Ref_92" href="#Foot_92">[92]</a></span> secum, + secum requiescam,</span> +<span class="i2">Nec fiat melior sors mea sorte suâ!</span> +<span class="i4"><i>From a poem of Hildebert on his Master, the persecuted Berengarius.</i></span> + +</div> + +<p class="nodent">Under the same feelings I conclude this <i>Aid to Reflection</i> by applying +the principle to another misnomer not less inappropriate and far more +influential. Of those whom I have found most reason to respect and +value, many have been members of the Church of Rome: and certainly +I did not honour those the least, who scrupled even in common parlance +to call our Church a reformed Church. A similar scruple would not, +methinks, disgrace a Protestant as to the use of the words, Catholic or +Roman Catholic; and if (tacitly at least, and in thought) he remembered +that the Romish Anti-catholic Church would more truly express +the fact.—<i>Romish</i>, to mark that the corruptions in discipline, doctrine, +and practice do, for the larger part, owe both their origin and perpetuation +to the Romish <i>Court</i>, and the local Tribunals of the <i>City</i> of Rome; +and neither are or ever have been <i>Catholic</i>, that is, universal, throughout +the Roman <i>Empire</i>, or even in the whole Latin or Western Church—and +<i>Anti</i>-catholic, because no other Church acts on so narrow and excommunicative +a principle, or is characterized by such a jealous spirit of +monopoly. Instead of a Catholic (universal) spirit, it may be truly +described as a spirit of Particularism counterfeiting Catholicity by a +<i>negative</i> totality and heretical self-circumscription—in the first instances +cutting off, and since then cutting herself off from, all the other members +of Christ's body. For the rest, I think as that man of true catholic +spirit and apostolic zeal, Richard Baxter, thought; and my readers will +thank me for conveying my reflections in his own words, in the following +golden passage from his Life, "faithfully published from his own +original MSS. by Matthew Silvester, 1696."</p> + +<p class="nodent">"My censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at +first. I then thought that their errors in the <i>doctrines of faith</i> were +their most dangerous mistakes. But now I am assured that their misexpressions +and misunderstanding us, with our mistakings of them and +inconvenient expressing of our own opinions, have made the difference +in most points appear much greater than it is; and that in some it is +next to none at all. But the great and unreconcileable differences lie in +their Church Tyranny; in the usurpations of their Hierarchy, and +Priesthood, under the name of spiritual authority exercising a temporal +Lordship; in their corruptions and abasement of God's Worship; but +above all their systematic befriending of Ignorance and Vice.</p> + +<p class="nodent">"At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved, that a Papist cannot +go beyond a reprobate; but now I doubt not that God hath many +sanctified ones among them, who have received the true doctrine of +Christianity so practically, that their contradictory errors prevail not +against them, to hinder their love of God and their salvation: but that +their errors are like a conquerable dose of poison, which a healthful +nature doth overcome. <i>And I can never believe that a man may not be +saved by that religion, which doth but bring him to the true Love of God +and to a heavenly mind and life; nor that God will ever cast a Soul into +hell, that truly loveth him.</i> Also at first it would disgrace any doctrine +with me, if I did but hear it called Popery and Anti-Christian; but I +have long learned to be more impartial, and to know that Satan can use +even the names of Popery and Antichrist, to bring a truth into suspicion +and discredit."—Baxter's Life, part I. p. 131.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_90" id="Foot_90" href="#Ref_90">[90]</a> +See the second 'Lay Sermon,' Bohn's edition, pp. 406-7.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_91" id="Foot_91" href="#Ref_91">[91]</a> +See Coleridge's 'Table Talk,' April 4, 1832, On Unitarianism.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_92" id="Foot_92" href="#Ref_92">[92]</a> +I do not answer for the corrupt Latin.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_93" id="Foot_93" href="#Ref_93">[93]</a> +See 'The Friend,' Bohn's edition, pp. 95-100, and 319-27.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>ON THE DIFFERENCE IN KIND OF REASON AND THE UNDERSTANDING.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scheme of the Argument.</span></p> + +<p>On the contrary, Reason is the Power of Universal and +necessary Convictions, the Source and Substance of Truths +above Sense, and having their evidence in themselves. Its +presence is always marked by the <i>necessity</i> of the position +affirmed: this necessity being <i>conditional</i>, when a truth of +Reason is applied to Facts of Experience, or to the rules +and maxims of the Understanding; but <i>absolute</i>, when the +subject matter is itself the growth or offspring of the +Reason. Hence arises a distinction in the Reason itself, +derived from the different mode of applying it, and from +the objects to which it is directed: accordingly as we consider +one and the same gift, now as the ground of formal +principles, and now as the origin of <i>ideas</i>. Contemplated +distinctively in reference to <i>formal</i> (or abstract) truth, it +is the <i>speculative</i> reason; but in reference to <i>actual</i> (or +moral) truth, as the fountain of ideas, and the <i>light</i> of the +conscience, we name it the <i>practical</i> reason. Whenever by +self-subjection to this universal light, the will of the +individual, the <i>particular</i> will, has become a will of +reason, the man is regenerate: and reason is then the +<i>spirit</i> of the regenerated man, whereby the person is +capable of a quickening inter-communion with the Divine +Spirit. And herein consists the mystery of Redemption, +that this has been rendered possible for us. <i>And so it is +written: the first man Adam, was made a living soul, the +last Adam a quickening Spirit.</i> (1 Cor. xv. 45.) We need +only compare the passages in the writings of the Apostles +Paul and John, concerning the <i>spirit</i> and spiritual Gifts, +with those in the Proverbs and in the Wisdom of Solomon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span> +respecting <i>reason</i>, to be convinced that the terms are +synonymous.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_94" id="Ref_94" href="#Foot_94">[94]</a></span> +In this at once most comprehensive and +most appropriate acceptation of the word, reason is pre-eminently +spiritual, and a spirit, even <i>our</i> spirit, through +an effluence of the same grace by which we are privileged +to say Our Father!</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the Judgments of the Understanding +are binding only in relation to the objects of our Senses, +which we <i>reflect</i> under the forms of the Understanding. It +is, as Leighton rightly defines it, "the faculty judging +according to sense." Hence we add the epithet <i>human</i>, +without tautology: and speak of the <i>human</i> understanding, +in disjunction from that of beings higher or lower than +man. But there is, in this sense, no <i>human</i> reason. There +neither is nor can be but one reason, one and the same: +even the light that lighteth every man's individual Understanding +(<i>Discursus</i>), and thus maketh it a reasonable understanding, +<i>discourse of reason—one only</i>, yet <i>manifold: it +goeth through all understanding, and remaining in itself +regenerateth all other powers</i>. The same writer calls it likewise +<i>an influence from the Glory of the Almighty</i>, this being +one of the names of the Messiah, as the <i>Logos</i>, or co-eternal +Filial Word. And most noticeable for its coincidence +is a fragment of Heraclitus, as I have indeed +already noticed elsewhere;—"To discourse rationally it +behoves us to derive strength from that which is common +to all men: for all human Understandings are nourished +by the one <span class="smcap">Divine Word</span>."</p> + +<p>Beasts, we have said, partake of understanding. If any +man deny this, there is a ready way of settling the question. +Let him give a careful perusal to Hüber's two small +volumes, on bees and ants (especially the latter), and to +Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology; and one +or other of two things must follow. He will either change +his opinion as irreconcilable with the facts; or he must +deny the facts, which yet I cannot suppose, inasmuch as +the denial would be tantamount to the no less extravagant +than uncharitable assertion, that Hüber, and the several +eminent naturalists, French and English, Swiss, German, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span> +and Italian, by whom Hüber's observations and experiments +have been repeated and confirmed, had all conspired to +impose a series of falsehoods and fairy-tales on the world. +I see no way at least, by which he can get out of this +dilemma, but by over-leaping the admitted rules and +fences of all legitimate discussion, and either transferring +to the word, Understanding, the definition already appropriated +to Reason, or defining Understanding <i>in genere</i> by +the <i>specific</i> and <i>accessional</i> perfections which the <i>human</i> +understanding derives from its co-existence with reason +and free-will in the same individual person; in plainer +words, from its being exercised by a self-conscious and +responsible creature. And, after all, the supporter of Harrington's +position would have a right to ask him, by what +other name he would designate the faculty in the instances +referred to? If it be not Understanding, what is it?</p> + +<p>In no former part of this volume has the author felt the +same anxiety to obtain a patient attention. For he does +not hesitate to avow, that on his success in establishing +the validity and importance of the distinction between +Reason and Understanding, he rests his hopes of carrying +the reader along with him through all that is to follow. +Let the student but clearly see and comprehend the diversity +in the things themselves, the expediency of a correspondent +distinction and appropriation of the <i>words</i> will +follow of itself. Turn back for a moment to the Aphorism, +and having re-perused the first paragraph of this Comment +thereon, regard the two following narratives as the illustration. +I do not say proof: for I take these from a multitude +of facts equally striking for the one only purpose of +placing my <i>meaning</i> out of all doubt.</p> + +<p>I. Hüber put a dozen bumble-bees under a bell-glass +along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons so unequal +in height as not to be capable of standing steadily. To +remedy this two or three of the bumble-bees got upon the +comb, stretched themselves over its edge, and with their +heads downwards fixed their fore-feet on the table on which +the comb stood, and so with their hind-feet kept the comb +from falling. When these were weary, others took their +places. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees +relieving their comrades at intervals, and each working in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span> +its turn, did these affectionate little insects support the +comb for nearly three days: at the end of which they had +prepared sufficient wax to build pillars with. But these +pillars having accidentally got displaced, the bees had +recourse again to the same manœuvre till Hüber, pitying +their hard case, &c.</p> + +<p>II. "I shall at present describe the operations of a single +ant that I observed sufficiently long to satisfy my curiosity. +One rainy day, I observed a labourer digging the ground +near the aperture which gave entrance to the ant-hill. +It placed in a heap the several fragments it had scraped +up, and formed them into small pellets, which it deposited +here and there upon the nest. It returned constantly +to the same place, and appeared to have a marked design, +for it laboured with ardour and perseverance. I remarked +a slight furrow, excavated in the ground in a +straight line, representing the plan of a path or gallery. +The Labourer, the whole of whose movements fell under +my immediate observation, gave it greater depth and +breadth, and cleared out its borders: and I saw at length, +in which I could not be deceived, that it had the intention +of establishing an avenue which was to lead from one of +the stories to the underground chambers. This path, which +was about two or three inches in length, and formed by a +single ant, was opened above and bordered on each side by +a buttress of earth; its concavity <i>en forme de gouttière</i> was +of the most perfect regularity, for the architect had not +left an atom too much. The work of this ant was so well +followed and understood, that I could almost to a certainty +guess its next proceeding, and the very fragment it was +about to remove. At the side of the opening where this +path terminated, was a second opening to which it was +necessary to arrive by some road. The same ant engaged +in and executed alone this undertaking. It furrowed out +and opened another path, parallel to the first, leaving +between each a little wall of three or four lines in height. +Those ants who lay the foundation of a wall, chamber, or +gallery, from working separately, occasion now and then a +want of coincidence in the parts of the same or different +objects. Such examples are of no unfrequent occurrence, +but they by no means embarrass them. What follows +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span> +proves that the workman, on discovering his error, knew +how to rectify it. A wall had been erected with the view +of sustaining a vaulted ceiling, still incomplete, that had +been projected from the wall of the opposite chamber. The +workman who began constructing it, had given it too little +elevation to meet the opposite partition upon which it was +to rest. Had it been continued on the original plan, it +must infallibly have met the wall at about one half of its +height, and this it was necessary to avoid. This state of +things very forcibly claimed my attention, when one of the +ants arriving at the place, and visiting the works, appeared +to be struck by the difficulty which presented itself; but +this it as soon obviated, by taking down the ceiling and +raising the wall upon which it reposed. It then, in my +presence, constructed a new ceiling with the fragments of +the former one."—<i>Hüber's Natural History of Ants</i>, p. 38-41.</p> + +<p>Now I assert, that the faculty manifested in the acts +here narrated does not differ <i>in kind</i> from Understanding, +and that it <i>does</i> so differ from Reason. What I conceive +the former to be, physiologically considered, will be shown +hereafter. In this place I take the understanding as it +exists in <i>men</i>, and in exclusive reference to its <i>intelligential</i> +functions; and it is in this sense of the word that I am to +prove the necessity of contra-distinguishing it from reason.</p> + +<p>Premising then, that two or more subjects having the +same essential characters are said to fall under the same +general definition, I lay it down, as a self-evident truth,—(it +is, in fact, an identical proposition) that whatever subjects +fall under one and the same general definition are of +one and the same kind: consequently, that which does <i>not</i> +fall under this definition, must differ in kind from each +and all of those that <i>do</i>. Difference in degree does indeed +suppose sameness in kind; and difference in kind precludes +distinction from difference of degree. <i>Heterogenea non comparari, +ergo nec distingui, possunt.</i> The inattention to this +rule gives rise to the numerous sophisms comprised by +Aristotle under the head of <span title="metabasis eis allo +genos">μεταβασισ εις αλλο γενος</span>, that is, transition into a new +kind, or the falsely applying to X what had been truly asserted of A, +and might have been true of X, had it differed from A in its degree +only. The sophistry consists in the omission to notice what not being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span> +noticed will be supposed not to exist; and where the silence +respecting the difference in kind is tantamount to an assertion +that the difference is merely in degree. But the fraud +is especially gross, where the heterogeneous subject, thus +clandestinely <i>slipt in</i>, is in its own nature insusceptible of +degree: such as, for instance, Certainty, or Circularity, contrasted +with Strength, or Magnitude.</p> + +<p>To apply these remarks for our present purpose, we have +only to describe Understanding and Reason, each by its +characteristic qualities. The comparison will show the +difference.</p> + +<table class="tbl" summary="Reason-Understanding"> +<tr><th>UNDERSTANDING.</th> + <th>REASON.</th></tr> +<tr><td>1. Understanding is discursive.</td> + <td>1. Reason is fixed.</td></tr> +<tr><td>2. The Understanding in all its judgments refers to + some other Faculty as its ultimate Authority.</td> + <td>2. The Reason in all its decisions appeals to itself, + as the ground and <i>substance</i> of their truth. + (Hebrews vi. 13.)</td></tr> +<tr><td>3. Understanding is the Faculty of <i>Reflection</i>.</td> + <td>3. Reason of Contemplation. Reason indeed is much nearer to + <span class="smcap">Sense</span> than to Understanding: + for Reason (says our great <span class="smcap">Hooker</span>) + is a direct aspect of Truth, an inward Beholding, having + a similar relation to the Intelligible or Spiritual, + as <span class="smcap">sense</span> has to the Material + or Phenomenal.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The Result is: that neither falls under the definition of +the other. They differ <i>in kind</i>: and had my object been +confined to the establishment of this fact, the preceding +columns would have superseded all further disquisition. +But I have ever in view the especial interest of my youthful +readers, whose reflective <i>power</i> is to be cultivated, as +well as their particular reflections to be called forth and +guided. Now the main chance of their <i>reflecting</i> on religious +subjects <i>aright</i>, and of their attaining to the <i>contemplation</i> +of spiritual truths <i>at all</i>, rests on their insight into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span> +the <i>nature</i> of this disparity still more than on their conviction +of its existence. I now, therefore, proceed to a brief +analysis of the Understanding, in elucidation of the definitions +already given.</p> + +<p>The Understanding then (considered exclusively as an +organ of human intelligence,) is the faculty by which we +reflect and generalize. Take, for instance, any objects consisting +of many parts, a house, or a group of houses: and if it +be contemplated, as a Whole, that is, as many constituting +a one, it forms what in the technical language of Psychology, +is called a <i>total impression</i>. Among the various component +parts of this, we direct our attention especially to such +as we recollect to have noticed in other total impressions. +Then, by a voluntary act, we withhold our attention from all +the rest to reflect exclusively on these; and these we henceforward +use as <i>common characters</i>, by virtue of which the +several objects are referred to one and the same sort.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_95" id="Ref_95" href="#Foot_95">[95]</a></span> +Thus, the whole process may be reduced to three acts, all depending +on and supposing a previous impression on the senses: +first, the appropriation of our Attention; second, (and in +order to the continuance of the first) Abstraction, or the +voluntary withholding of the Attention; and third, Generalization. +And these are the proper Functions of the Understanding: +and the power of so doing, is what we mean, +when we say we possess Understanding, or are created +with the faculty of Understanding.</p> + +<p>[It is obvious, that the third function includes the act +of comparing one object with another. In a note (for, not +to interrupt the argument, I avail myself of this most useful +contrivance,) I have shown, that the act of comparing +supposes in the comparing faculty, certain inherent forms, +that is, modes of reflecting not referable to the objects +reflected on, but pre-determined by the constitution and +(as it were) mechanism of the Understanding itself. And +under some one or other of these forms,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_96" id="Ref_96" href="#Foot_96">[96]</a></span> +the resemblances +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span> +and differences must be subsumed in order to be conceivable, +and <i>a fortiori</i> therefore in order to be comparable. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span> +The senses do not compare, but merely furnish the materials +for comparison. But this the reader will find explained +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span> +in the note; and will now cast his eye back to the +sentence immediately preceding this parenthesis.] </p> + +<p>Now when a person speaking to us of any particular +Object or Appearance refers it by means of some common +character to a known class (which he does in giving it a +Name), we say, that we understand him; that is, we understand +his words. The Name of a thing, in the original sense +of the word Name, (<i>nomen</i>, <span title="noumenon, to">νουμενον, +το</span> <i>intelligible</i>, <i>id quod intelligitur</i>) expresses +that which is <i>understood</i> in an appearance, that which we place +(or make to <i>stand</i>) <i>under</i> it, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span> +the condition of its real existence, and in proof that it is +not an accident of the senses, or affection of the individual, +not a phantom or <i>apparition</i>, that is, an appearance that is +<i>only</i> an appearance. (See Gen. ii. 19 20, and in Psalm xx. 1, +and in many other places of the Bible, the identity of <i>nomen</i> +with <i>numen</i>, that is, invisible power and presence, the <i>nomen +substantivum</i> of all real objects, and the ground of their +reality, independently of the affections of sense in the percipient). +In like manner, in a connected succession of names, +as the speaker passes from the one to the other, we say that +we can understand his <i>discourse</i> (<i>discursio intellectûs, discursus</i>, +his passing rapidly from one thing to another). Thus, in all +instances, it is words, names, or, if images, yet images used +as words or names, that are the only and exclusive subjects +of Understanding. In no instance do we understand a thing +in itself; but only the name to which it is referred. Sometimes +indeed, when several classes are recalled conjointly, we +identify the words with the object—though by courtesy of +idiom rather than in strict propriety of language. Thus +we may say that we <i>understand</i> a rainbow, when recalling +successively the several Names for the several sorts of +colours, we know that they are to be applied to one and the +same <i>phenomenon</i>, at once distinctly and simultaneously; +but even in common speech we should not say this of a +single colour. No one would say he understands red or +blue. He <i>sees</i> the colour, and had seen it before in a vast +number and variety of objects; and he understands the +<i>word</i> red, as referring his fancy or memory to this his collective +experience.</p> + +<p>If this be so, and so it most assuredly is—if the proper +functions of the Understanding be that of generalizing the +notices received from the senses in order to the construction +of <i>names</i>: of referring particular notices (that is, impressions +or sensations) to their proper names; and, <i>vice versâ</i>, names +to their correspondent class or kind of notices—then it follows +of necessity, that the Understanding is truly and accurately +defined in the words of Leighton and Kant, a +"faculty judging according to sense."</p> + +<p>Now whether in defining the speculative Reason (that is, +the Reason considered abstractedly as an <i>intellective</i> power) +we call it "the source of necessary and universal principles, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span> +according to which the notices of the senses are either +affirmed or denied;" or describe it as "the power by +which we are enabled to draw from particular and contingent +appearances universal and necessary conclusions:"<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_97" id="Ref_97" href="#Foot_97">[97]</a></span> +it is equally evident that the two definitions differ in their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span> +essential characters, and consequently the subjects differ +in <i>kind</i>.</p> + +<p>The dependence of the Understanding on the representations +of the senses, and its consequent posteriority thereto, +as contrasted with the independence and antecedency of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span> +Reason, are strikingly exemplified in the Ptolemaic System +(that truly wonderful product and highest boast of the +faculty, judging according to the senses!) compared with +the Newtonian, as the offspring of a yet higher power, +arranging, correcting, and annulling the representations of +the senses according to its own inherent laws and constitutive +ideas.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_94" id="Foot_94" href="#Ref_94">[94]</a> +See Wisd. of Sol. vii. 22 23 27.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_95" id="Foot_95" href="#Ref_95">[95]</a> +Accordingly as we attend more or less to the differences, the <i>sort</i> +becomes, of course, more or less comprehensive. Hence there arises for +the systematic naturalist, the necessity of subdividing the sorts into +orders, classes, families, &c.: all which, however, resolve themselves +for the mere logician into the conception of <i>genus</i> and <i>species</i>, <i>i.e.</i> the +comprehending and the comprehended.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_96" id="Foot_96" href="#Ref_96">[96]</a> +Were it not so, how could the first comparison have been possible?—It +would involve the absurdity of measuring a thing by itself. But if +we think on some one thing, the length of our own foot, or of our hand +and arm from the elbow joint, it is evident that in <i>order</i> to do this, we +must have the conception of measure. Now these antecedent and most +general conceptions are what is meant by the constituent <i>forms</i> of the +Understanding: we call them <i>constituent</i> because they are not <i>acquired</i> +by the Understanding, but are implied in its constitution. As rationally +might a circle be said to acquire a centre and circumference, as the +Understanding to acquire these, its inherent <i>forms</i>, or ways of conceiving. +This is what Leibnitz meant, when to the old adage of the Peripatetics, +<i>Nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu</i> (There is nothing in the +Understanding not derived from the Senses, or—There is nothing <i>con</i>ceived +that was not previously <i>per</i>ceived;) he replied—<i>præter intellectum +ipsum</i> (except the Understanding itself).</p> + +<p class="nodent">And here let me remark for once and all: whoever would <i>reflect</i> to +any purpose—whoever is in earnest in his pursuit of Self-knowledge, and +of one of the principal means to this, an insight into the meaning of the +words he uses, and the different meanings properly or improperly conveyed +by one and the same word, accordingly as it is used in the schools or +the market, accordingly as the <i>kind</i> or a high <i>degree</i> is intended (for example, +heat, weight, and the like, as employed scientifically, compared with the +same word used popularly)—whoever, I say, seriously proposes this as +his object, must so far overcome his dislike of pedantry, and his dread +of being sneered at as a pedant, as not to quarrel with an uncouth word +or phrase, till he is quite sure that some other and more familiar one +would not only have expressed the <i>precise</i> meaning with equal clearness, +but have been as likely to draw attention to <i>this</i> meaning exclusively. +The ordinary language of a Philosopher in conversation or popular +writings, compared with the language he uses in strict reasoning, is as +his watch compared with the chronometer in his observatory. He sets +the former by the Town-clock, or even, perhaps, by the Dutch clock in +his kitchen, not because he believes it right, but because his neighbours +and his cook <i>go</i> by it. To afford the reader an opportunity for exercising +the forbearance here recommended, I turn back to the phrase, +"most general conceptions," and observe, that in strict and severe propriety +of language I should have said <i>generalific</i> or <i>generific</i> rather than +general, and concipiences or conceptive acts rather than conceptions.</p> + +<p class="nodent">It is an old complaint, that a man of genius no sooner appears, but +the host of dunces are up in arms to repel the invading alien. This +observation would have made more converts to its truth, I suspect, had +it been worded more dispassionately, and with a less contemptuous +antithesis. For "dunces," let us substitute "the many," or the "<span title="outos +kosmos">ουτος κοσμος</span>" (<i>this world</i>) of the Apostle, and we shall perhaps find no great +difficulty in accounting for the fact. To arrive at the <i>root</i>, indeed, and +last ground of the problem, it would be necessary to investigate the +nature and effects of the sense of difference on the human mind where +it is not holden in check by reason and reflection. We need not go to +the savage tribes of North America, or the yet ruder natives of the +Indian Isles, to learn, how slight a degree of difference will, in uncultivated +minds, call up a sense of diversity, and inward perplexity and +contradiction, as if the strangers were, and yet were not, of the same +<i>kind</i> with themselves. Who has not had occasion to observe the effect +which the gesticulations and nasal tones of a Frenchman produce on our +own vulgar? Here we may see the origin and primary import of our +<i>unkindness</i>. It is a sense of <i>un</i>kind, and not the mere negation but +the positive Opposite of the sense of <i>kind</i>. Alienation, aggravated now +by fear, now by contempt, and not seldom by a mixture of both, aversion, +hatred, enmity, are so many successive shapes of its growth and +metamorphosis.—In application to the present case, it is sufficient to say, +that Pindar's remark on sweet music holds equally true of genius: as +many as are not delighted by it are disturbed, perplexed, irritated. The +beholder either recognizes it as a projected form of his own Being, that +moves before him with a Glory round its head, or recoils from it as from +a Spectre. But this speculation would lead me too far; I must be content +with having referred to it as the ultimate ground of the fact, and +pass to the more obvious and proximate causes. And as the first, I +would rank the person's <i>not</i> understanding what yet he expects to understand, +and as if he had a right to do so. An original mathematical +work, or any other that requires peculiar and (so to say) technical +marks and symbols, will excite no uneasy feelings—not in the mind of +a competent reader, for he understands it; and not with others, because +they neither expect nor are expected to understand it. The second place +we may assign to the <i>mis</i>understanding, which is almost sure to follow +in cases where the incompetent person, finding no outward marks +(diagrams, arbitrary signs, and the like) to inform him at first sight, +that the subject is one which he does not pretend to understand, and to +be ignorant of which does not detract from his estimation as a man of +abilities generally, <i>will</i> attach some meaning to what he hears or reads; +and as he is out of humour with the author, it will most often be such +a meaning as he can quarrel with and exhibit in a ridiculous or offensive +point of view.</p> + +<p class="nodent">But above all, the whole world almost of minds, as far as we regard +intellectual efforts, may be divided into two classes of the Busy-indolent +and Lazy-indolent. To both alike all Thinking is painful, and all +attempts to rouse them to think, whether in the re-examination of their +existing convictions, or for the reception of new light, are irritating. +"It <i>may</i> all be very deep and clever; but really one ought to be quite +sure of it before one wrenches one's brain to find out what it is. I take +up a Book as a Companion, with whom I can have an easy cheerful chit-chat +on what we both know beforehand, or else matters of fact. In our +leisure hours we have a right to relaxation and amusement."</p> + +<p class="nodent">Well! but in their <i>studious</i> hours, when their bow is to be bent, when +they are <i>apud Musas</i>, or amidst the Muses? Alas! it is just the same! The +same craving for <i>amusement</i>, that is, to be away from the Muses! for relaxation, +that is, the unbending of a bow which in fact had never been +strung! There are two ways of obtaining their applause. The first is: +Enable them to reconcile in one and the same occupation the love of Sloth +and the hatred of Vacancy! Gratify indolence, and yet save them from +<i>ennui</i>—in plain English, from themselves! For, spite of their antipathy +to <i>dry</i> reading, the keeping company with themselves is, after all, the +insufferable annoyance: and the true secret of their dislike to a work of +thought and inquiry lies in its tendency to make them acquainted with +their own permanent Being. The other road to their favour is, to introduce +to them their own thoughts and predilections, tricked out in the +<i>fine</i> language, in which it would gratify their vanity to express them in +their own conversation, and with which they can imagine themselves +<i>showing off:</i> and this (as has been elsewhere remarked) is the characteristic +difference between the second-rate writers of the last two or +three generations, and the same class under Elizabeth and the Stuarts. +In the latter we find the most far-fetched and singular thoughts in the +simplest and most native language; in the former, the most obvious and +common-place thoughts in the most far-fetched and motley language. But +lastly, and as the <i>sine quâ non</i> of their patronage, a sufficient arc must +be left for the Reader's mind to <i>oscillate</i> in—freedom of choice,</p> + +<p class="center">To make the shifting cloud be what you please,</p> + +<p class="nodent">save only where the attraction of curiosity determines the line of motion. +The attention must not be fastened down: and this every work of +genius, not simply narrative, must do before it can be justly appreciated.</p> + +<p class="nodent">In former times a <i>popular</i> work meant one that adapted the <i>results</i> of +studious meditation or scientific research to the capacity of the people, +presenting in the concrete, by instances and examples, what had been +ascertained in the abstract and by discovery of the Law. <i>Now</i>, on the +other hand, that is a popular work which gives back to the people their +own errors and prejudices, and flatters the many by creating them, under +the title of <span class="smcap">the public</span>, into a supreme and +inappellable Tribunal of intellectual Excellence. P.S. In a continuous +work, the frequent insertion and length of Notes would need an +Apology: in a book like this of Aphorisms and detached Comments none +is necessary, it being understood beforehand, that the sauce and the +garnish are to occupy the greater part of the dish.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_97" id="Foot_97" href="#Ref_97">[97]</a> +Take a familiar illustration. My sight and touch convey to me a +certain impression, to which my Understanding applies its pre-conceptions +(<i>conceptus antecedentes et generalissimi</i>) of quantity and relation, and +thus refers it to the class and name of three-cornered bodies—we will +suppose it the iron of a turf-spade. It compares the sides, and finds +that any two measured as one are greater than the third; and according +to a law of the imagination, there arises a presumption that in all other +bodies of the same figure (that is, three-cornered and equilateral) the same +proportion exists. After this, the senses have been directed successively +to a number of three-cornered bodies of <i>unequal</i> sides—and in these too +the same proportion has been found without exception, till at length it +becomes a fact of <i>experience</i>, that in <i>all</i> triangles hitherto seen, the two +sides together are greater than the third: and there will exist no ground +or analogy for anticipating an exception to a rule, generalized from so +vast a number of particular instances. So far and no farther could the +Understanding carry us: and as far as this "the faculty, judging according +to sense," conducts many of the <i>inferior</i> animals, if not in the +same, yet in instances analogous and fully equivalent.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The Reason supersedes the whole process, and on the first conception +presented by the Understanding in consequence of the first sight of a +tri-angular figure, of whatever sort it might chance to be, it affirms with +an assurance incapable of future increase, with a perfect <i>certainty</i>, that +in all possible triangles any two of the inclosing lines <i>will</i> and <i>must</i> be +greater than the third. In short, Understanding in its highest form of +experience remains commensurate with the experimental notices of the +senses from which it is generalized. Reason, on the other hand, either +predetermines Experience, or avails itself of a past Experience to supersede +its necessity in all future time; and affirms truths which no sense +could perceive, nor experiment verify, nor experience confirm.</p> + +<p class="nodent">Yea, this is the test and character of a truth so affirmed, that in its own +proper form it is <i>inconceivable</i>. For <i>to conceive</i> is a function of the Understanding, +which can be exercised only on subjects subordinate thereto. +And yet to the forms of the Understanding all truth must be reduced, +that is to be fixed as an object of reflection, and to be rendered <i>expressible</i>. +And here we have a second test and sign of a truth so affirmed, that it +can come forth out of the moulds of the Understanding only in the disguise +of two contradictory conceptions, each of which is partially true, +and the conjunction of both conceptions becomes the representative or +<i>expression</i> (the <i>exponent</i>) of a truth <i>beyond</i> conception and inexpressible. +Examples: Before Abraham <i>was</i>, I <i>am</i>.—God is a Circle, the centre of +which is everywhere, and circumference nowhere. The soul is all in +every part.</p> + +<p class="nodent">If this appear extravagant, it is an extravagance which no man can +indeed learn from another, but which, (were this possible,) I might have +learnt from Plato, Kepler, and Bacon; from Luther, Hooker, Pascal, +Leibnitz, and Fénélon. But in this last paragraph I have, I see, +unwittingly overstepped my purpose, according to which we were to take +Reason as a simply intellectual power. Yet even as such, and with all +the disadvantage of a technical and arbitrary Abstraction, it has been +made evident—1. that there is an <i>Intuition</i> or <i>im</i>mediate Beholding, +accompanied by a conviction of the necessity and universality of the truth +so beholden not derived from the senses, which intuition, when it is +<i>construed</i> by <i>pure</i> sense, gives birth to the Science of Mathematics, and +when applied to objects supersensuous or spiritual is the organ of +Theology and Philosophy:—and 2. that there is likewise a reflective +and discursive faculty, or <i>mediate</i> Apprehension which, taken by itself +and uninfluenced by the former, depends on the senses for the materials, +on which it is exercised, and is contained within the sphere of the senses. +And this faculty it is, which in generalizing the notices of the senses +constitutes Sensible Experience, and gives rise to Maxims or Rules which +may become more and more <i>general</i>, but can never be raised into universal +Verities, or beget a consciousness of absolute Certainty; though they +may be sufficient to extinguish all doubt. (Putting Revelation out of +view, take our first progenitor in the 50th or 100th year of his existence. +His experience would probably have freed him from all doubt, as the sun +sank in the horizon that it would re-appear the next morning. But +compare this state of assurance with that which the same man would have +had of the 37th Proposition of Euclid, supposing him, like Pythagoras, to +have discovered the <i>Demonstration</i>.) Now is it expedient, I ask, or +conformable to the laws and purposes of language, to call two so +altogether disparate subjects by one and the same name? Or, having two +names in our language, should we call each of the two diverse subjects +by both—that is, by either name, as caprice might dictate? If not, then, +as we have the two words, Reason and Understanding (as indeed what +language of cultivated man has not?) what should prevent us from +appropriating the former to the Power distinctive of humanity? We +need only place the derivatives from the two terms in opposition (for +example, "A and B are both rational beings; but there is no comparison +between them in point of <i>intelligence</i>;" or "She always concludes <i>rationally</i>, +though not a woman of much <i>understanding</i>") to see that we cannot +reverse the order—<i>i.e.</i> call the higher gift Understanding, and the lower +Reason. What <i>should</i> prevent us? I asked. Alas! that which <i>has</i> +prevented us—the <i>cause</i> of this confusion in the terms—is only too +obvious; namely, inattention to the momentous distinction in the <i>things</i>, +and (generally) to the duty and habit recommended in the fifth Introductory +Aphorism of this volume, (<i>see</i> p. 2). But the cause of this, and +of all its lamentable effects and subcauses, <i>false doctrine</i>, <i>blindness of +heart and contempt of the word</i>, is best declared by the philosophic +Apostle: <i>they did not</i> like <i>to retain God in their knowledge</i>, (Rom. i.28,) +and though they could not <i>extinguish the light that lighteth every man</i>, +and which <i>shone in the darkness</i>; yet because the darkness could not +<i>comprehend</i> the light, they refused to bear witness of the light, and +worshipped, instead, the shaping mist, which the light had drawn upward +from <i>the ground</i> (that is, from the mere animal nature and instinct), +and which that light alone had made visible, that is, by superinducing +on the animal instinct the principle of Self-consciousness.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM IX.</h4> + +<p>In Wonder all Philosophy began: in Wonder it ends: +and Admiration fills up the interspace. But the first +Wonder is the offspring of Ignorance: the last is the +parent of Adoration. The first is the birth-throe of our +knowledge: the last is its euthanasy and <i>apotheosis</i>.</p> + +<h5><i>Sequelæ: or Thoughts suggested by the preceding Aphorism.</i></h5> + +<p>As in respect of the first wonder we are all on the same +level, how comes it that the philosophic mind should, in all +ages, be the privilege of a few? The most obvious reason +is this: The wonder takes place before the period of reflection, +and (with the great mass of mankind) long before +the individual is capable of directing his attention freely +and consciously to the feeling, or even to its exciting +causes. Surprise (the form and dress which the Wonder +of Ignorance usually puts on) is worn away, if not precluded, +by custom and familiarity. So is it with the +objects of the senses, and the ways and fashions of the +world around us; even as with the beat of our own hearts, +which we notice only in moments of fear and perturbation. +But with regard to the concerns of our inward being, there +is yet another cause that acts in concert with the power in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span> +custom to prevent a fair and equal exertion of reflective +thought. The great fundamental truths and doctrines of +religion, the existence and attributes of God, and the life +after death, are in Christian countries taught so early, +under such circumstances, and in such close and vital association +with whatever makes or marks <i>reality</i> for our infant +minds, that the words ever after represent sensations, +feelings, vital assurances, sense of reality—rather than +thoughts, or any distinct conception. Associated, I had +almost said <i>identified</i>, with the parental voice, look, touch, +with the living warmth and pressure of the Mother, on +whose lap the child is first made to kneel, within whose +palms its little hands are folded, and the motion of whose +eyes <i>its</i> eyes follow and imitate—(yea, what the blue sky is +to the mother, the mother's upraised eyes and brow are to +the child, the Type and Symbol of an invisible Heaven!)— +from within and without, these great First Truths, these +good and gracious Tidings, these holy and humanizing +Spells, in the preconformity to which our very humanity +may be said to consist, are so infused, that it were but +a tame and inadequate expression to say, we all take them +for granted. At a later period, in youth or early manhood, +most of us, indeed, (in the higher and middle classes +at least) read or hear certain <span class="smcap">Proofs</span> of these truths—which +we commonly listen to, when we listen at all, with +much the same feelings as a popular Prince on his Coronation +Day, in the centre of a fond and rejoicing nation, may +be supposed to hear the Champion's challenge to all the +non-existents, that deny or dispute his Rights and Royalty. +In fact, the order of Proof is most often reversed or transposed. +As far, at least as I dare judge from the goings +on in my own mind, when with keen delight I first read the +works of Derham, Nieuwentiet, and Lyonet, I should say, +that the full and life-like conviction of a gracious Creator +is the Proof (at all events, performs the office and answers +all the purpose of a Proof) of the wisdom and benevolence +in the construction of the Creature.</p> + +<p>Do I blame this? Do I wish it to be otherwise? God +forbid! It is only one of its accidental, but too frequent +consequences, of which I complain, and against which +I protest. I regret nothing that tends to make the Light +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span> +become the Life of men, even as the Life in the eternal +Word is their only and single true light. But I do regret, +that in after years—when by occasion of some new dispute +on some old heresy, or any other accident, the attention has +for the first time been distinctly attracted to the super-structure +raised on these fundamental truths, or to truths +of later revelation supplemental of these and not less +important—all the doubts and difficulties, that cannot but +arise where the Understanding, <i>the mind of the flesh</i>, is +made the measure of spiritual things; all the sense of +strangeness and seeming contradiction in terms; all the +marvel and the mystery, that belong equally to both, are +first thought of and applied in objection exclusively to the +latter. I would disturb no man's faith in the great articles +of the (falsely so called) Religion of Nature. But before +the man rejects, and calls on other men to reject, the revelations +of the Gospel and the Religion of all Christendom, I +would have him place himself in the state and under all the +privations of a Simonides, when in the fortieth day of his +meditation the sage and philosophic poet abandoned the +problem in despair. Ever and anon he seemed to have +hold of the truth; but when he asked himself what he +meant by it, it escaped from him, or resolved itself into +meanings, that destroyed each other. I would have the +sceptic, while yet a sceptic only, seriously consider whether +a doctrine, of the truth of which a Socrates could obtain no +other assurance than what he derived from his strong <i>wish</i> +that it should be true; and which Plato found a mystery +hard to discover, and when discovered, communicable only +to the fewest of men; can, consonantly with history or +common sense, be classed among the articles, the belief of +which is ensured to all men by their mere common sense? +Whether, without gross outrage to fact, they can be said to +constitute a Religion of Nature, or a Natural Theology +antecedent to Revelation, or superseding its necessity? +Yes! in prevention (for there is little chance, I fear, of +a <i>cure</i>) of the pugnacious dogmatism of <i>partial</i> reflection, +I would prescribe to every man, who feels a commencing +alienation from the Catholic Faith, and whose studies and +attainments authorise him to argue on the subject at all, a +patient and thoughtful perusal of the arguments and representations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span> +which Bayle supposes to have passed through +the mind of Simonides. Or I should be fully satisfied if I +could induce these eschewers of mystery to give a patient, +manly, and impartial perusal to the single Treatise of Pomponatius, +<i>De Fato</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_98" id="Ref_98" href="#Foot_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>When they have fairly and satisfactorily overthrown the +objections and cleared away the difficulties urged by this +sharp-witted Italian against the doctrines which they profess +to retain, then let them commence their attack on +those which they reject. As far as the supposed irrationality +of the latter is the ground of argument, I am much +deceived if, on reviewing their forces, they would not find +the ranks woefully thinned by the success of their own fire +in the preceding engagement—unless, indeed, by pure +heat of controversy, and to storm the lines of their antagonists, +they can bring to life again the arguments which +they had themselves killed off in the defence of their own +positions. In vain shall we seek for any other mode of +meeting the broad facts of the scientific Epicurean, or the +requisitions and queries of the all-analysing Pyrrhonist, +than by challenging the tribunal to which they appeal, as +incompetent to try the question. In order to <i>non-suit</i> the +infidel plaintiff, we must remove the cause from the +faculty, that judges according to sense, and whose judgments, +therefore, are valid only on objects of sense, to the +Superior Courts of Conscience and intuitive Reason! <i>The +words I speak unto you, are Spirit</i>, and such only <i>are life</i>, +that is, have an inward and actual power abiding in them.</p> + +<p>But the same truth is at once shield and bow. The +shaft of Atheism glances aside from it to strike and pierce +the breast-plate of the heretic. Well for the latter, if +plucking the weapon from the wound he recognizes an +arrow from his own quiver, and abandons a cause that +connects him with such confederates! Without further +rhetoric, the sum and substance of the argument is this:—an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span> +insight into the proper functions and subaltern rank of +the Understanding may not, indeed, disarm the Psilanthropist +of his metaphorical glosses, or of his <i>versions</i> fresh +from the forge, and with no other stamp than the private +mark of the individual manufacturer; but it will deprive +him of the only rational pretext for having recourse to +tools so liable to abuse, and of such perilous example.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>Since the preceding pages were composed, and during an +interim of depression and disqualification, I heard with a +delight and an interest, that I might without hyperbole +call medicinal, that the contra-distinction of Understanding +from Reason, for which during twenty years I have been +contending, <i>casting my bread upon the waters</i> with a perseverance, +which in the existing state of the public taste +nothing but the deepest conviction of its importance could +have inspired—has been lately adopted and sanctioned by +the present distinguished Professor of Anatomy, in the +Course of Lectures given by him at the Royal College of +Surgeons, on the zoological part of Natural History; and, +if I am rightly informed, in one of the eloquent and +impressive introductory Discourses.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_99" id="Ref_99" href="#Foot_99">[99]</a></span> +In explaining the +Nature of Instinct, as deduced from the actions and +tendencies of animals successively presented to the observation +of the comparative physiologist in the ascending +scale of organic life—or rather, I should have said, in an +attempt to determine that precise import of the <i>term</i>, which +is required by the facts<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_100" id="Ref_100" href="#Foot_100">[100]</a></span> +—the Professor explained the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">{161}</a></span> +nature of what I have elsewhere called the <i>adaptive power</i>, +that is, the faculty of adapting means to proximate ends. +[N. B. I mean here a <i>relative</i> end—that which relatively to +one thing is an <i>end</i>, though relatively to some other it is in +itself a <i>mean</i>. It is to be regretted, that we have no +single word to express those ends, that are not <i>the</i> end: for +the distinction between those and an end in the proper +sense of the term is an important one.] The Professor, I +say, not only explained, first, the nature of the adaptive +power <i>in genere</i>, and, secondly, the distinct character of the +<i>same</i> power as it exists <i>specifically</i> and exclusively in the +<i>human</i> being, and acquires the name of Understanding; +but he did it in a way which gave the whole sum and substance +of my convictions, of all I had so long wished, and +so often, but with such imperfect success, attempted to +convey, free from all semblance of paradoxy, and from all +occasion of offence—<i>omnem offendiculi</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_101" id="Ref_101" href="#Foot_101">[101]</a></span> +<i>ansam præcidens</i>. +It is, indeed, for the <i>fragmentary</i> reader only that I have +any scruple. In those who have had the patience to +accompany me so far on the up-hill road to manly principles, +I can have no reason to guard against that disposition +to hasty offence from anticipation of <i>consequences</i>,—that +faithless and loveless spirit of fear which plunged Galileo +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">{162}</a></span> +into a prison<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_102" id="Ref_102" href="#Foot_102">[102]</a></span> +—a spirit most unworthy of an educated man, +who ought to have learnt that the mistakes of scientific +men have never injured Christianity, while every new truth +discovered by them has either added to its evidence, or +prepared the mind for its reception.</p> + +<h5><i>On Instinct in Connection with the Understanding.</i></h5> + +<p>It is evident, that the definition of a Genus or class is +an <i>adequate</i> definition only of the lowest <i>species</i> of that +Genus: for each higher species is distinguished from the +lower by some additional character, while the general +definition includes only the characters common to <i>all</i> the +species. Consequently it <i>describes</i> the lowest only. Now +I distinguish a genus or <i>kind</i> of Powers under the name of +Adaptive power, and give as its generic definition—the +power of selecting, and adapting means to proximate ends; +and as an instance of the lowest <i>species</i> of this genus, I take +the stomach of a caterpillar. I ask myself, under what +words I can generalize the action of this organ; and I see, +that it selects and adapts the appropriate means (that is, the +assimilable part of the vegetable <i>congesta</i>) to the proximate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">{163}</a></span> +end, that is, the growth or reproduction of the insect's +body. This we call <span class="smcap">vital power</span>, or <i>vita propria</i> of the +stomach; and this being the <i>lowest</i> species, its definition +is the same with the definition of the <i>kind</i>.</p> + +<p>Well! from the power of the stomach, I pass to the +power exerted by the whole animal. I trace it wandering +from spot to spot, and plant to plant, till it finds the +appropriate vegetable; and again on this chosen vegetable, +I mark it seeking out and fixing on the part of the plant, +bark, leaf, or petal, suited to its nourishment: or (should +the animal have assumed the butterfly form), to the deposition +of its eggs, and the sustentation of the future <i>larva</i>. +Here I see a power of selecting and adapting means to +proximate ends <i>according to circumstances</i>: and this higher +species of Adaptive Power we call <span class="smcap">Instinct</span>.</p> + +<p>Lastly, I reflect on the facts narrated and described in +the preceding extracts from Hüber, and see a power of +selecting and adapting the proper means to the proximate +ends, according to <i>varying</i> circumstances. And what shall +we call this yet higher species? We name the former, +Instinct: we must call this <span class="smcap">Instinctive Intelligence</span>.</p> + +<p>Here then we have three Powers of the same kind; Life, +Instinct, and instinctive Intelligence: the essential characters +that define the genus existing equally in all three. +But in addition to these, I find one other character common +to the highest and lowest: namely, that the purposes are all +manifestly predetermined by the peculiar organization of +the animals; and though it may not be possible to discover +any such immediate dependency in all the actions, yet the +actions being determined by the purposes, the <i>result</i> is +equivalent: and both the actions and the purposes are all +in a necessitated reference to the preservation and continuance +of the particular animal or the progeny. There is +selection, but not <i>choice</i>: volition rather than will. The +possible <i>knowledge</i> of a thing, or the desire to have that +<i>thing</i> representable by a distinct correspondent <i>thought</i>, +does not, in the animal, suffice to render the thing an <i>object</i>, +or the ground of a purpose. I select and adapt the proper +means to the separation of a stone from a rock, which I +neither can, or desire to make use of, for food, shelter, or +ornament: because, perhaps, I wish to measure the angles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">{164}</a></span> +of its primary crystals, or, perhaps, for no better reason +than the apparent <i>difficulty</i> of loosening the stone—<i>sit pro +ratione voluntas</i>—and thus make a motive out of the absence +of all motive, and a reason out of the arbitrary will to act +without any reason.</p> + +<p>Now what is the conclusion from these premises? +Evidently this: that if I suppose the Adaptive Power in +its highest <i>species</i>, or form of Instinctive Intelligence, to +co-exist with Reason, <i>Free</i> will, and Self-consciousness, it +instantly becomes <span class="smcap">understanding</span>: in other words, that +Understanding differs indeed from the noblest form of +Instinct, but not in itself or in its own essential properties, +but in consequence of its co-existence with far higher +Powers of a diverse kind in one and the same subject. +<span class="smcap">Instinct</span> in a rational, responsible, and self-conscious +Animal, is Understanding.</p> + +<p>Such I apprehend to have been the Professor's view and +Exposition of Instinct—and in confirmation of its truth, I +would merely request my readers, from the numerous well-authenticated +instances on record, to recall some one of the +extraordinary actions of dogs for the preservation of their +masters' lives, and even for the avenging of their deaths. +In these instances we have the third <i>species</i> of the Adaptive +Power, in connexion with an apparently <i>moral</i> end—with +an <i>end</i> in the proper sense of the word. <i>Here</i> the Adaptive +Power co-exists with a purpose apparently <i>voluntary</i>, and +the action seems neither pre-determined by the organization +of the animal, nor in any direct reference to his own +preservation, or to the continuance of his race. It is +united with an imposing semblance of gratitude, fidelity, +and disinterested love. We not only <i>value</i> the faithful +brute: we attribute <i>worth</i> to him. This, I admit, is a problem, +of which I have no solution to offer. One of the +wisest of uninspired men has not hesitated to declare the +dog a great mystery, on account of this dawning of a <i>moral</i> +nature unaccompanied by any the least evidence of <i>reason</i>, +in whichever of the two senses we interpret the word—whether +as the <i>practical</i> reason, that is, the power of proposing +an <i>ultimate</i> end, the determinability of the Will by +<span class="smcap">ideas</span>; or as the <i>sciential</i> reason, +that is, the faculty of concluding universal and necessary truths from +particular and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">{165}</a></span> +contingent appearances. But in a question respecting the +possession of reason, the absence of all truth is tantamount +to a proof of the contrary. It is, however, by no means +equally clear to me, that the dog may not possess an +<i>analogon</i> of <span class="smcap">Words</span>, which I have elsewhere shown to be +the proper objects of the "faculty, judging according to +sense."</p> + +<p>But to return to my purpose: I intreat the reader to +reflect on any one fact of this kind, whether occurring in +his own experience, or selected from the numerous anecdotes +of the dog preserved in the writings of zoologists. +I will then confidently appeal to him, whether it is in his +power not to consider the faculty displayed in these actions +as the same <i>in kind</i> with the Understanding, however +inferior <i>in degree</i>.—Or should he even in these instances +prefer calling it <i>Instinct</i>, and this in <i>contra</i>-distinction from +<i>Understanding</i>, I call on him to point out the boundary +between the two, the chasm or partition-wall that divides +or separates the one from the other. If he can, he will +have done what none before him have been able to do, +though many and eminent men have tried hard for it: and +my recantation shall be among the first trophies of his +success. If he cannot, I must infer that he is controlled +by his dread of the <i>consequences</i>, by an apprehension of +some injury resulting to Religion or Morality from this +opinion; and I shall console myself with the hope, that in +the sequel of this work he will find proofs of the directly +contrary tendency.—Not only is this view of the Understanding, +as differing in <i>degree</i> from Instinct and <i>in kind</i> +from Reason, innocent in its possible influences on the +religious character, but it is an indispensable preliminary +to the removal of the most formidable obstacles to an +intelligent Belief of the <i>peculiar</i> doctrines of the Gospel, of +the <i>characteristic</i> Articles of the Christian Faith, with which +the Advocates of the truth in Christ have to contend;—the +evil <i>heart</i> of Unbelief alone excepted.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_98" id="Foot_98" href="#Ref_98">[98]</a> +The philosopher, whom the Inquisition would have burnt alive as an +atheist, had not Leo X. and Cardinal Bembo decided that the work +might be formidable to those semi-pagan Christians who regarded Revelation +as a mere make-weight to their boasted Religion of Nature; but +contained nothing dangerous to the Catholic Church or offensive to a true +believer. [He was born in 1462, and died in 1525.—H. N. C.]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_99" id="Foot_99" href="#Ref_99">[99]</a> +A discourse by Prof. J. H. Green. This, "On Instinct," was +afterwards printed by Prof. Green with his 'Vital Dynamics,' 1840. +We give it as so published in the Appendix to the present edition; +though, of course, the "report," apparently verbal, on which Coleridge's +remarks of 1825 are founded, may have differed somewhat from the +Professor's text as published in 1840.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_100" id="Foot_100" href="#Ref_100">[100]</a> +The word, Instinct, brings together a number of facts into one class +by the assertion of a common ground, the nature of which ground it +determines <i>negatively</i> only—that is, the word does not explain <i>what</i> this +common ground is; but simply indicates that there <i>is</i> such a ground, +and that it is different in kind from that in which the responsible and +consciously voluntary actions of men originate. Thus, in its true and +primary import, Instinct stands in antithesis to Reason; and the +perplexity and contradictory statements into which so many meritorious +naturalists, and popular writers on natural history (Priscilla Wakefield, +Kirby, Spence, Hüber, and even Reimarus) have fallen on this +subject, arise wholly from their taking the word in opposition to Understanding. +I notice this, because I would not lose any opportunity of +impressing on the mind of my youthful readers the important truth that +language (as the embodied and articulated Spirit of the Race, as the +growth and emanation of a People, and not the work of any individual +wit or will) is often inadequate, sometimes deficient, but never false or +delusive. We have only to master the true origin and original import +of any native and abiding word, to find in it, if not the <i>solution</i> of the +facts expressed by it, yet a finger-mark pointing to the road on which +this solution is to be sought.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_101" id="Foot_101" href="#Ref_101">[101]</a> +<i>Neque quiquam addubito, quin ea candidis omnibus faciat satis. +Quid autem facias istis qui vel ob ingenii pertinaciam sibi satisfieri nolint, +vel stupidiores sint quam ut satisfactionem intelligant? Nam quemadmodum +Simonides dixit, Thessalos hebetiores esse quam ut possint a se +decipi, ita quosdam videas stupidiores quam ut placari queant. Adhuc +non mirum est invenire quod calumnietur qui nihil aliud quærit nisi quod +calumnietur.</i> (Erasmi Epist. ad Dorpium.) At all events, the paragraph +passing through the medium of my own prepossessions, if any fault +be found with it, the fault probably, and the blame certainly, belongs +to the reporter.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_102" id="Foot_102" href="#Ref_102">[102]</a> +And which (I may add) in a more enlightened age, and in a +Protestant country, impelled more than one German University to +anathematize Fr. Hoffman's discovery of carbonic acid gas, and of its +effects on animal life, as hostile to religion, and tending to atheism! +Three or four students at the university of Jena, in the attempt to raise +a spirit for the discovery of a supposed hidden treasure, were strangled +or poisoned by the fumes of the charcoal they had been burning in a +close garden-house of a vineyard near Jena, while employed in their +magic fumigations and charms. One only was restored to life: and +from his account of the noises and spectres (<i>in</i> his ears and eyes) as he +was losing his senses, it was taken for granted that <i>the bad spirit</i> had +destroyed them. Frederic Hoffman admitted that it was a <i>very bad</i> +spirit that had <i>tempted</i> them, the Spirit of Avarice and Folly; and that +a very <i>noxious</i> Spirit (gas, or <i>geist</i>,) was the immediate cause of their +death. But he contended that this latter spirit was the <i>spirit</i> of charcoal, +which would have produced the same effect, had the young men +been chaunting psalms instead of incantations: and acquitted the devil +of all <i>direct</i> concern in the business. The Theological Faculty took +the alarm: even physicians pretended to be horror-stricken at Hoffman's +audacity. The controversy and its appendages embittered several +years of this great and good man's life.</p> + +</div> + +<h5><i>Reflections Introductory to Aphorism X.</i></h5> + +<p>The most <i>momentous</i> question a man can ask is, Have I a +Saviour? And yet as far as the individual querist is concerned, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">{166}</a></span> +it is premature and to no purpose, unless another +question has been previously put and answered, (alas! too +generally put after the wounded conscience has already +given the answer!) namely, Have I any need of a Saviour? +For him who <i>needs</i> none, (O bitter irony of the evil Spirit, +whose whispers the proud Soul takes for its own thoughts, +and knows not how the Tempter is scoffing the while!) +there <i>is</i> none, as long as he feels no need. On the other +hand, it is scarcely possible to have answered this question +in the affirmative, and not ask—first, <i>in what</i> the necessity +consists? secondly, <i>whence</i> it proceeded? and, thirdly, +how far the answer to this second question is or is not +contained in the answer to the first? I intreat the intelligent +reader, who has taken me as his temporary guide on +the straight, but yet, from the number of cross roads, +difficult way of religious Inquiry, to halt a moment, and +consider the main points, that, in this last division of my +work, have been already offered for his reflection. I have +attempted then to fix the proper meaning of the words, +Nature and Spirit, the one being the <i>antithesis</i> to the +other: so that the most general and <i>negative</i> definition of +Nature is, Whatever is not Spirit; and <i>vice versâ</i> of Spirit, +That which is not comprehended in Nature: or in the +language of our elder divines, that which transcends +Nature. But nature is the term in which we comprehend +all things that are representable in the forms of time and +space, and subjected to the relations of cause and effect: +and the cause of the existence of which, therefore, is to be +sought for perpetually in something antecedent. The +word itself expresses this in the strongest manner possible: +<i>Natura</i>, that which is <i>about to be</i> born, that which is always +<i>becoming</i>. It follows, therefore, that whatever originates +its own acts, or in any sense contains in itself the cause of +its own state, must be <i>spiritual</i>, and consequently <i>super-natural</i>: +yet not on that account necessarily <i>miraculous</i>. +And such must the responsible <span class="smcap">Will</span> in us be, if it be +at all.</p> + +<p>A prior step had been to remove all misconceptions from +the subject; to show the reasonableness of a belief in the +reality and real influence of a universal and divine Spirit; +the compatibility and possible communion of such a Spirit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">{167}</a></span> +with the Spiritual principle in individuals; and the analogy +offered by the most undeniable truths of Natural Philosophy.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_103" id="Ref_103" href="#Foot_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>These views of the Spirit, and of the Will as Spiritual, +form the ground-work of my scheme. Among the numerous +corollaries or appendents, the first that presented +itself respects the question, Whether there is any faculty +in man by which a knowledge of spiritual truths, or of any +truths not abstracted from nature, is rendered possible? +and an Answer is attempted in the Comment on Aphorism +VIII. And here I beg leave to remark, that in this comment +the only novelty, and, if there be merit, the only +merit is—that there being two very different Meanings, +and two different Words, I have here and in former Works +appropriated one meaning to one of the Words, and the +other to the other—instead of using the words indifferently +and by haphazard: a confusion, the ill effects of which in +this instance are so great and of such frequent occurrence +in the works of our ablest philosophers and divines, that I +should select it before all others in proof of Hobbes's +Maxim:—that it is a short, downhill passage from errors +in words to errors in things. The difference of the +Reason from the Understanding, and the imperfection and +limited sphere of the latter, have been asserted by many +both before and since Lord Bacon;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_104" id="Ref_104" href="#Foot_104">[104]</a></span> +but still the habit of +using Reason and Understanding as synonyms, acted as a +disturbing force. Some it led into mysticism, others it set +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">{168}</a></span> +on explaining away a clear difference <i>in kind</i> into a mere +superiority in degree: and it partially eclipsed the truth +for all.</p> + +<p>In close connexion with this, and therefore forming the +Comment on the Aphorism next following, is the subject +of the legitimate exercise of the Understanding and its +limitation to Objects of Sense; with the errors both of unbelief +and of misbelief, which result from its extension +beyond the sphere of possible Experience. Wherever the +forms of reasoning appropriate only to the <i>natural</i> world +are applied to <i>spiritual</i> realities, it may be truly said, that +the more strictly logical the reasoning is in all its <i>parts</i>, +the more irrational it is as a <i>whole</i>.</p> + +<p>To the reader thus armed and prepared, I now venture to +present the so called mysteries of Faith, that is, the peculiar +tenets and especial constituents of Christianity, or Religion +in spirit and in truth. In right order I must have commenced +with the Articles of the Trinity and Apostacy, +including the question respecting the Origin of Evil, and +the Incarnation of the <span class="smcap">Word</span>. And could I have followed +this order, some difficulties that now press on me would +have been obviated.—But (as has already been explained) +the limits of the present volume rendered it alike impracticable +and inexpedient; for the necessity of my argument +would have called forth certain hard though most true +sayings, respecting the hollowness and tricksy sophistry of +the so called "Natural Theology," "Religion of Nature," +"Light of Nature," and the like, which a brief exposition +could not save from innocent misconceptions, much less +protect against plausible misinterpretation.—And yet both +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">{169}</a></span> +Reason and Experience have convinced me, that in the +greater number of our <span class="smcap">Alogi</span>, who feed on the husks of Christianity, +the disbelief of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ +included, has its origin and support in the assumed self-evidence +of this Natural Theology, and in their ignorance +of the insurmountable difficulties which (on the same mode +of reasoning) press upon the fundamental articles of their +own Remnant of a Creed. But arguments, which would +prove the falsehood of a known truth, must themselves be +false, and can prove the falsehood of no other position in +<i>eodem genere</i>.</p> + +<p>This <i>hint</i> I have thrown out as a <i>spark</i> that may perhaps +fall where it will kindle. And worthily might the +wisest of men make inquisition into the three momentous +points here spoken of, for the purposes of speculative +insight, and for the formation of enlarged and systematic +views of the destination of man, and the dispensation +of God. But the <i>practical</i> Inquirer (I speak not of +those who inquire for the gratification of curiosity, and +still less of those who labour as students only to shine +as disputants; but of one, who seeks the truth, because he +feels the want of it,) the practical Inquirer, I say, hath +already placed his foot on the rock, if he have satisfied +himself that whoever needs not a Redeemer is more than +human. Remove for him the difficulties and objections, +that oppose or perplex his belief of a crucified Saviour; +convince him of the reality of sin, which is impossible without +a knowledge of its true nature and inevitable consequences; +and then satisfy him as to the <i>fact</i> historically, +and as to the truth spiritually, of a redemption therefrom +by Christ; do this for him, and there is little fear that he +will permit either logical quirks or metaphysical puzzles to +contravene the plain dictate of his common sense, that the +Sinless One that redeemed mankind from sin, must have +been more than man; and that He who brought Light +and Immortality into the world, could not in his own +nature have been an inheritor of Death and Darkness. It +is morally impossible that a man with these convictions +should suffer the objection of Incomprehensibility (and +this on a subject of <i>Faith</i>) to overbalance the manifest +absurdity and contradiction in the notion of a mediator +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">{170}</a></span> +between God and the human race, at the same infinite +distance from God as the race for whom he mediates.</p> + +<p>The origin of evil, meanwhile, is a question interesting +only to the metaphysician, and in a system of moral and +religious philosophy. The man of sober mind, who seeks +for truths that possess a moral and practical interest, is +content to be <i>certain</i>, first, that evil must have had a beginning, +since otherwise it must either be God, or a co-eternal +and co-equal rival of God; both impious notions, +and the latter foolish to boot:—secondly, that it could not +originate in God; for if so, it would be at once evil and +not evil, or God would be at once God (that is, infinite +Goodness) and not God—both alike impossible positions. +Instead therefore of troubling himself with this barren controversy, +he more profitably turns his inquiries to <i>that</i> +evil which most concerns himself, and of which he <i>may</i> +find the origin.</p> + +<p>The entire Scheme of <i>necessary</i> Faith may be reduced to +two heads;—first, the object and occasion, and, secondly, the +fact and effect,—of our redemption by Christ: and to this +view does the order of the following Comments correspond. +I have begun with <span class="smcap">Original Sin</span>, and proceeded in the following +Aphorism to the doctrine of Redemption. The Comments +on the remaining Aphorisms are all subsidiary to +these, or written in the hope of making the minor tenets of +general belief be believed in a spirit worthy of these. They +are, in short, intended to supply a febrifuge against aguish +scruples and horrors, the hectic of the soul;—and "for +servile and thrall-like fear to substitute that adoptive and +cheerful boldness, which our new alliance with God requires +of us as Christians." (<i>Milton.</i>) <span class="smcap">Not</span> the Origin of Evil, +NOT the <i>Chronology</i> of Sin, or the chronicles of the original +Sinner; but Sin originant, underived from without, and +no passive link in the adamantine chain of Effects, each of +which is in its turn an <i>instrument</i> of Causation, but no one +of them a Cause;—<span class="smcap">not</span> with Sin <i>inflicted</i>, which would be a +Calamity;—<span class="smcap">not</span> with Sin (that is, an evil tendency) <i>implanted</i>, +for which let the planter be responsible; but I begin +with <i>Original</i> Sin. And for this purpose I have selected the +Aphorism from the ablest and most formidable antagonist +of this doctrine, Bishop <span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor</span>, and from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">{171}</a></span> +most eloquent work of this most eloquent of divines.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_106" id="Ref_106" href="#Foot_106">[106]</a></span> +Had I said, of men, Cicero would forgive me, and Demosthenes nod assent!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_107" id="Ref_107" href="#Foot_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">{172}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM X.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>On Original Sin.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor.</span></p> + +<p>Is there any such thing? That is not the question. For +it is a fact acknowledged on all hands almost: and even +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">{173}</a></span> +those who will not confess it in words, confess it in their +complaints. For my part I cannot but confess that <i>to be</i>, +which I feel and groan under, and by which all the world +is miserable.</p> + +<p>Adam turned his back on the sun, and dwelt in the dark +and the shadow. He sinned, and brought evil into his +<i>supernatural</i> endowments, and lost the Sacrament and Instrument +of Immortality, the Tree of Life in the centre of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">{174}</a></span> +the garden.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_108" id="Ref_108" href="#Foot_108">[108]</a></span> +He then fell under the evils of a sickly body, +and a passionate and ignorant soul. His sin made him +sickly, his sickness made him peevish: his sin left him +ignorant, his ignorance made him foolish and unreasonable. +His sin left him to his <i>nature</i>: and by nature, whoever +was to be born at all, was to be born a child, and to do +before he could understand, and to be bred under laws to +which he was always bound, but which could not always be +exacted; and he was to choose when he could not reason, +and had passions most strong when he had his understanding +most weak; and the more need he had of a curb, the +less strength he had to use it! And this being the case of +all the world, what was <i>every</i> man's evil became <i>all</i> men's +greater evil; and though alone it was very bad, yet when +they came together it was made much worse. Like ships +in a storm, every one alone hath enough to do to outride +it; but when they meet, besides the evils of the storm, +they find the intolerable calamity of their mutual concussion; +and every ship that is ready to be oppressed with +the tempest, is a worse tempest to every vessel against +which it is violently dashed. So it is in mankind. Every +man hath evil enough of his own, and it is hard for a man +to live up to the rule of his own reason and conscience. +But when he hath parents and children, friends and +enemies, buyers and sellers, lawyers and clients, a +family and a neighbourhood—then it is that every man +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">{175}</a></span> +dashes against another, and one relation requires what +another denies; and when one speaks another will contradict +him; and that which is well spoken is sometimes +innocently mistaken; and that upon a good cause produces +an evil effect; and by these, and ten thousand other concurrent +causes, man is made more than most miserable.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_109" id="Ref_109" href="#Foot_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>The first question we should put to ourselves, when we +have to read a passage that perplexes us in a work of +authority, is; What does the writer <i>mean</i> by all this? And +the second question should be, What does he intend by all +this? In the passage before us, Taylor's <i>meaning</i> is not quite +clear. A sin is an evil which has its ground or origin in the +agent, and not in the compulsion of circumstances. Circumstances +are compulsory from the absence of a power to +resist or control them: and if this absence likewise be the +effect of Circumstance (that is, if it have been neither +directly nor indirectly caused by the agent himself) the +evil <i>derives</i> from the circumstances; and therefore (in the +Apostle's sense of the word, sin, when he speaks of the +exceeding sinfulness of sin) such <i>evil</i> is not <i>sin</i>; and the +person who suffers it, or who is the compelled instrument of +its infliction on others, may feel <i>regret</i>, but cannot feel +<i>remorse</i>. So likewise of the word origin, original, or originant. +The reader cannot too early be warned that it is +not applicable, and, without abuse of language, can never +be applied, to a mere <i>link</i> in a chain of effects, where each, +indeed, stands in the relation of a <i>cause</i> to those that follow, +but is at the same time the <i>effect</i> of all that precede. For +in these cases a cause amounts to little more than an antecedent. +At the utmost it means only a <i>conductor</i> of the +causative influence; and the old axiom, <i>causa causæ causa +causati</i>, applies, with a never-ending regress to each several +link, up the whole chain of nature. But this <i>is</i> Nature: +and no <i>natural</i> thing or act can be called originant, or be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">{176}</a></span> +truly said to have an <i>origin</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_110" id="Ref_110" href="#Foot_110">[110]</a></span> +in any other. The moment +we assume an origin in nature, a true <i>beginning</i>, an actual +first—that moment we rise <i>above</i> nature, and are compelled +to assume a <i>supernatural</i> power. (Gen. i. 1.)</p> + +<p>It will be an equal convenience to myself and to my +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">{177}</a></span> +readers, to let it be agreed between us, that we will generalize +the word Circumstance, so as to understand by it, as +often as it occurs in this Comment, all and every thing not +connected with the Will, past or present, of a Free Agent. +Even though it were the blood in the chambers of his heart, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">{178}</a></span> +or his own inmost sensations, we will regard them as <i>circumstantial, +extrinsic</i>, or <i>from without</i>.</p> + +<p>In this sense of the word Original, and in the sense +before given of Sin, it is evident that the phrase, original +sin, is a pleonasm, the epithet not adding to the thought, +but only enforcing it. For if it be sin, it must be <i>original</i>; +and a state or act, that has not its origin in the will, may +be calamity, deformity, disease, or mischief; but a <i>sin</i> it +cannot be. It is not enough that the act appears voluntary, +or that it is intentional; or that it has the most +hateful passions or debasing appetite for its proximate +cause and accompaniment. All these may be found in a +mad-house, where neither law nor humanity permit us +to condemn the actor of sin. The reason of law declares +the maniac not a free-agent; and the verdict follows of +course—Not guilty. Now mania, as distinguished from +idiocy, frenzy, delirium, hypochondria, and derangement +(the last term used specifically to express a suspension or +disordered state of the understanding or adaptive power) +is the occultation or eclipse of reason, as the power of +ultimate ends. The maniac, it is well known, is often found +clever and inventive in the selection and adaptation of +means to <i>his</i> ends; but his <i>ends</i> are madness. He has lost +his reason. For though Reason, in finite Beings, is not +the Will—or how could the Will be opposed to the Reason?—yet +it is the <i>condition</i>, the <i>sine qua non</i> of a <i>Free</i>-will.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">{179}</a></span> +We will now return to the extract from Jeremy Taylor +on a theme of deep interest in itself, and trebly important +from its <i>bearings</i>. For without just and distinct views respecting +the Article of Original Sin, it is impossible to +understand aright any one of the peculiar doctrines of +Christianity. Now my first complaint is, that the eloquent +Bishop, while he admits the <i>fact</i> as established beyond controversy +by universal experience, yet leaves us wholly in the +dark as to the main point, supplies us with no answer to +the principal question—why he names it Original Sin. It +cannot be said, We know what the Bishop <i>means</i>, and what +matters the name? for the <i>nature</i> of the fact, and in what +light it should be regarded by us, depends on the nature of +our answer to the question, whether Original Sin is or is +not the right and proper designation. I can imagine the +same quantum of <i>sufferings</i>, and yet if I had reason to +regard them as symptoms of a commencing change, as +pains of growth, the temporary deformity and misproportions +of immaturity, or (as in the final sloughing of the +caterpillar) the throes and struggles of the waxing or +evolving <span class="smcap">Psyche</span>, I should think it no Stoical flight to doubt, +how far I was authorized to declare the Circumstance an +<i>evil</i> at all. Most assuredly I would not express or describe +the fact as an evil having an origin in the sufferers themselves +or as sin.</p> + +<p>Let us, however, waive this objection. Let it be supposed +that the Bishop uses the word in a different and more comprehensive +sense, and that by sin he understands evil of +all kind connected with or resulting from <i>actions</i>—though +I do not see how we can represent the properties even of +inanimate bodies (of poisonous substances for instance) +except as <i>acts</i> resulting from the constitution of such +bodies. Or if this sense, though not unknown to the +Mystic divines, should be <i>too</i> comprehensive and remote, +we will suppose the Bishop to comprise under the term +sin, the evil accompanying or consequent on <i>human</i> +actions and purposes:—though here too, I have a right to +be informed, for what reason and on what grounds Sin is +thus limited to <i>human</i> agency? And truly, I should be at +no loss to assign the reason. But then this reason would +instantly bring me back to my first definition; and any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">{180}</a></span> +other reason, than that the human agent is endowed with +Reason, and with a Will which can place itself either in +subjection or in opposition to his Reason—in other words, +that man is alone of all known animals a responsible creature—I +neither know nor can imagine.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, the sense which Taylor—and with him the +antagonists generally of this Article as propounded by the +first Reformers—attaches to the words, Original Sin, needs +only be carried on into its next consequence, and it will be +found to <i>imply</i> the sense which I have given—namely, that +Sin is Evil having an <i>Origin</i>. But inasmuch as it is <i>evil</i>, +in God it cannot originate: and yet in some <i>Spirit</i> (that is, +in some <i>supernatural</i> power) it <i>must</i>. For in <i>Nature</i> there is +no origin. Sin therefore is spiritual Evil: but the spiritual +in man is the Will. Now when we do not refer to any particular +sins, but to that state and constitution of the Will, +which is the ground, condition, and common Cause of all +Sins; and when we would further express the truth, that +this corrupt <i>nature</i> of the Will must in some sense or other +be considered as its own act, that the corruption must have +been self-originated;—in this case and for this purpose we +may, with no less propriety than force, entitle this dire +spiritual evil and source of all evil, that is absolutely such, +Original Sin. I have said, "the corrupt <i>nature</i> of the +Will." I might add, that the admission of a <i>nature</i> into a +spiritual essence by its own act is a corruption.</p> + +<p>Such, I repeat, would be the inevitable conclusion, <i>if</i> +Taylor's sense of the term were carried on into its immediate +consequences. But the whole of his most eloquent +Treatise makes it certain that Taylor did not carry it on: +and consequently Original Sin, according to his conception, +is a calamity which being common to all men must be supposed +to result from their common nature: in other words, +the universal Calamity of Human <i>Nature</i>.</p> + +<p>Can we wonder, then, that a mind, a heart like Taylor's +should reject, that he should strain his faculties to explain +away, the belief that this calamity, so dire in itself, should +appear to the All-merciful God a rightful cause and motive +for inflicting on the wretched sufferers a calamity infinitely +more tremendous; nay, that it should be incompatible with +Divine Justice <i>not</i> to punish it by everlasting torment? Or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">{181}</a></span> +need we be surprised if he found nothing that could reconcile +his mind to such a belief, in the circumstance that the +acts now <i>consequent</i> on this calamity and either directly or +indirectly <i>effects</i> of the same, were, five or six thousand years +ago in the instance of a certain individual and his accomplice, +<i>anterior</i> to the calamity, and the <i>Cause</i> or <i>Occasion</i> of +the same;—that what in all other men is <i>disease</i>, in these +two persons was <i>guilt</i>;—that what in us is <i>hereditary</i>, and +consequently <i>nature</i>, in <i>them</i> was <i>original</i>, and consequently +<i>sin</i>? Lastly, might it not be presumed, that so enlightened, +and at the same time so affectionate, a divine, would even +fervently disclaim and reject the pretended justifications of +God grounded on flimsy analogies drawn from the imperfections +of human ordinances and human justice-courts—some +of very doubtful character even as human institutes, +and all of them just only as far as they are necessary, and +rendered necessary chiefly by the weakness and wickedness, +the limited powers and corrupt passions, of mankind? The +more confidently might this be presumed of so acute and +practised a logician, as Taylor, in addition to his other +extraordinary gifts, is known to have been, when it is demonstrable +that the most current of these justifications +rests on a palpable equivocation: namely, the gross misuse +of the word right.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_111" id="Ref_111" href="#Foot_111">[111]</a></span> +An instance will explain my meaning. +In as far as, from the known frequency of dishonest or mischievious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">{182}</a></span> +persons, it may have been found <i>necessary</i>, in so +far is the law <i>justifiable</i> in giving landowners the right of +proceeding against a neighbour or fellow-citizen for even a +slight trespass on that which the law has made their property:—nay, +of proceeding in sundry instances criminally +and even capitally. But surely, either there is no religion +in the world, and nothing obligatory in the precepts of the +Gospel, or there are occasions in which it would be very +<i>wrong</i> in the proprietor to exercise the <i>right</i>, which yet it +may be highly <i>expedient</i> that he should possess. On this +ground it is, that Religion is the sustaining opposite of +Law.</p> + +<p>That Taylor, therefore, should have striven fervently +against the Article so interpreted and so vindicated, is, +(for me, at least) a subject neither of surprise nor of complaint. +It is the doctrine which he <i>substitutes</i>, it is the +weakness and inconsistency betrayed in the defence of this +substitute; it is the unfairness with which he blackens the +established Article—for to give it, as it has been caricatured +by a few Ultra-Calvinists during the fever of the (so called) +Quinquarticular controversy, was in effect to blacken it—and +then imposes another scheme, to which the same objections +apply with even increased force, a scheme which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">{183}</a></span> +seems to differ from the former only by adding fraud and +mockery to injustice; these are the things that excite my +wonder; it is of these that I complain. For what does the +Bishop's scheme amount to?—God, he tells us, required of +Adam a perfect obedience, and made it possible by endowing +him "with perfect rectitudes and super-natural heights +of grace" proportionate to the obedience which he required. +As a <i>consequence</i> of his disobedience, Adam lost +this rectitude, this perfect sanity and proportionateness of +his intellectual, moral and corporeal state, powers and impulses; +and as the <i>penalty</i> of his crime, he was deprived of +all super-natural aids and graces. The death, with whatever +is comprised in the Scriptural sense of the word, death, +began from that moment to work in him, and this <i>consequence</i> +he conveyed to his offspring, and through them to all +his posterity, that is, to all mankind. They were <i>born</i> diseased +in mind, body and will. For what less than disease +can we call a necessity of error and a predisposition to sin +and sickness? Taylor, indeed, <i>asserts</i>, that though perfect +obedience became incomparably more difficult, it was not, +however, absolutely <i>impossible</i>. Yet he himself admits +that the contrary was <i>universal</i>; that of the countless +millions of Adam's posterity, not a single individual ever +realized, or approached to the realization of, this possibility; +and (if my memory<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_113" id="Ref_113" href="#Foot_113">[113]</a></span> +does not deceive me) Taylor +himself has elsewhere exposed—and if he has not, yet +Common Sense will do it for him—the sophistry in asserting +of a whole what may be true of the whole, but—is in +fact true only, of each of its component parts. Any one +may snap a horse-hair: therefore, any one may perform +the same feat with the horse's tail. On a level floor (on +the hardened sand, for instance, of a sea-beach) I chalk +two parallel straight lines, with a width of eight inches. It is +<i>possible</i> for a man, with a bandage over his eyes, to keep +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">{184}</a></span> +within the path for two or three paces: therefore, it is <i>possible</i> +for him to walk blindfold for two or three leagues +without a single deviation! And this <i>possibility</i> would +suffice to acquit me of <i>injustice</i>, though I had placed man-traps +within an inch of one line, and knew that there were +pit-falls and deep wells beside the other!</p> + +<p>This <i>assertion</i>, therefore, without adverting to its discordance +with, if not direct contradiction to, the tenth and +thirteenth Articles of our Church, I shall not, I trust, be +thought to rate below its true value, if I treat it as an <i>infinitesimal</i> +possibility that may be safely dropped in the +calculation:—and so proceed with the argument. The consequence +then of Adam's crime was, by a natural necessity, +inherited by persons who could not (the Bishop +affirms) in any sense have been accomplices in the crime or +partakers in the guilt: and yet consistently with the divine +holiness, it was not possible that the same perfect obedience +should not be required of them. Now what would +the idea of equity, what would the law inscribed by the +Creator in the heart of man, seem to dictate in this case? +Surely, that the supplementary aids, the super-natural +graces correspondent to a law above nature, should be +increased in proportion to the diminished strength of the +agents, and the increased resistance to be overcome by +them. But no! not only the consequence of Adam's act, +but the penalty due to his crime, was perpetuated. His +descendants were despoiled or left destitute of these aids +and graces, while the obligation to perfect obedience was +continued; an obligation too, the non-fulfilment of which +brought with it death and the unutterable woe that +cleaves to an immortal soul for ever alienated from its +Creator.</p> + +<p>Observe, that all these <i>results</i> of Adam's fall enter +into Bishop Taylor's scheme of Original Sin equally as into +that of the first Reformers. In this respect the Bishop's +doctrine is the same with that laid down in the Articles +and Homilies of the Established Church. The only difference +that has hitherto appeared, consists in the aforesaid +<i>mathematical</i> possibility of fulfilling the whole law, which +in the Bishop's scheme is affirmed to remain still in human +nature, or (as it is elsewhere expressed) in the nature of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">{185}</a></span> +the human Will.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_114" id="Ref_114" href="#Foot_114">[114]</a></span> +But though it were possible to grant +this existence of a power in all men, which in no man +was ever exemplified, and where the <i>non</i>-actualization of +such power is, <i>a priori</i>, so certain, that the belief or imagination +of the contrary in any individual is expressly given +us by the Holy Spirit as a test, whereby it may be known +that <i>the truth is not in him</i>, as an infallible sign of imposture +or self-delusion! Though it were possible to grant +this, which, consistently with Scripture and the principles +of reasoning which we apply in all other cases, it is not +possible to grant;—and though it were possible likewise to +overlook the glaring sophistry of concluding in relation to +a series of indeterminate length, that whoever can do any +one, can therefore do all; a conclusion, the futility of which +must force itself on the common-sense of every man who +understands the proposition;—still the question will arise—Why, +and on what principle of equity, were the unoffending +sentenced to be born with so fearful a disproportion +of their powers to their duties? Why were they subjected +to a law, the fulfilment of which was all but impossible, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">{186}</a></span> +yet the penalty on the failure tremendous? Admit +that for those who had never enjoyed a happier lot, it was +no punishment to be made to inhabit a ground which the +Creator had cursed, and to have been born with a body +prone to sickness, and a soul surrounded with temptation, +and having the worst temptation within itself in its own +<i>temptibility</i>;—to have the duties of a spirit with the wants +and appetites of an animal! Yet on such imperfect Creatures, +with means so scanty and impediments so numerous, +to impose the same task-work that had been required of a +Creature with a pure and entire nature, and provided with +super-natural aids—if this be not to inflict a penalty;—yet +to be placed under a law, the difficulty of obeying +which is infinite, and to have momently to struggle with +this difficulty, and to live momently in hazard of these consequences—if +this be no punishment;—words have no +correspondence with thoughts, and thoughts are but shadows +of each other, shadows that own no substance for +their anti-type!</p> + +<p>Of such an outrage on common-sense, Taylor was incapable. +He himself calls it a penalty; he admits that in +effect it is a punishment: nor does he seek to suppress the +question that so naturally arises out of this admission;—on +what principle of equity were the innocent offspring of +Adam <i>punished</i> at all? He meets it, and puts-in an answer. +He states the problem, and gives his solution—namely, +that "God on Adam's account was so exasperated with mankind, +that being angry he would still continue the punishment"! +"The case" (says the Bishop) "is this: Jonathan +and Michal were Saul's children. It came to pass, that +seven of Saul's issue were to be hanged: all equally innocent, +equally culpable." [<i>Before I quote further, I feel +myself called on to remind the reader, that these two last words +were added by Jeremy Taylor without the least grounds in +Scripture, according to which</i>, (2 Samuel, xxi.) <i>no crime was +laid to their charge, no blame imputed to them</i>. <i>Without any +pretence of culpable conduct on their part, they were arraigned +as children of Saul, and sacrificed to a point of state-expedience. +In recommencing the quotation, therefore, the reader +ought to let the sentence conclude with the words—</i>] "all +equally innocent. David took the five sons of Michal, for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">{187}</a></span> +she had left him unhandsomely. Jonathan was his friend: +and therefore he spared <i>his</i> son, Mephibosheth. Here +it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons" (<i>Bear in +mind, reader, that no guilt was attached to either of them!</i>) +"whether David should take the sons of Michal or of Jonathan; +but it is likely that as upon the kindness that +David had to Jonathan, he spared his son; so upon the +just provocation of Michal, he made that evil fall upon +them, which, it may be, they should not have suffered, if +their mother had been kind. Adam was to God, as Michal +to David."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_115" id="Ref_115" +href="#Foot_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>This answer, this solution proceeding too from a divine +so pre-eminently gifted, and occurring (with other passages +not less startling) in a vehement refutation of the +received doctrine on the express ground of its opposition +to the clearest conceptions and best feelings of mankind—this +it is that surprises me! It is of this that I complain! +The Almighty Father <i>exasperated</i> with those, whom the +Bishop has himself in the same treatise described as "innocent +and most unfortunate"—the two things best fitted to +conciliate love and pity! Or though they did not remain +innocent, yet those whose abandonment to a mere nature, +while they were left amenable to a law above nature, he +affirms to be the irresistible cause, that they one and all +<i>did</i> sin! And this decree illustrated and justified by its +analogy to one of the worst actions of an imperfect mortal! +From such of my readers as will give a thoughtful perusal +to these works of Taylor, I dare anticipate a concurrence +with the judgment which I here transcribe from the +blank space at the end of the <i>Deus Justificatus</i> in my own +copy; and which, though twenty years<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_116" id="Ref_116" href="#Foot_116">[116]</a></span> +have elapsed since +it was written, I have never seen reason to recant or +modify. "This most eloquent Treatise may be compared +to a statue of Janus, with the one face, which we must +suppose fronting the Calvinistic tenet, entire and fresh, as +from the master's hand: beaming with life and force, witty +scorn on the lip, and a brow at once bright and weighty +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">{188}</a></span> +with satisfying reason:—the other, looking toward the +"something to be put in its place," maimed, featureless, +and weather-bitten into an almost visionary confusion and +indistinctness."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_117" id="Ref_117" href="#Foot_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>With these expositions I hasten to contrast the <i>Scriptural</i> +article respecting Original Sin, or the corrupt and sinful +Nature of the Human Will, and the belief which alone is +required of us, as Christians. And here the first thing to +be considered, and which will at once remove a world of +error, is; that this is no tenet first introduced or imposed +by Christianity, and which, should a man see reason to +disclaim the authority of the Gospel, would no longer have +any claim on his attention. It is no perplexity that a man +may get rid of by ceasing to be a Christian, and which has +no existence for a philosophic Deist. It is a <span class="smcap">Fact</span>, affirmed, +indeed, in the Christian Scriptures alone with the force and +frequency proportioned to its consummate importance; but +a fact acknowledged in <i>every</i> religion that retains the +least glimmering of the patriarchal faith in a God infinite, +yet <i>personal</i>—a Fact assumed or implied as the basis of +every religion, of which any relics remain of earlier date +than the last and total apostacy of the Pagan world, when +the faith in the great I <span class="smcap">am</span>, the <i>Creator</i>, was extinguished +in the sensual Polytheism, which is inevitably the final +result of Pantheism or the worship of nature; and the +only form under which the Pantheistic scheme—that, +according to which the world is God, and the material +universe itself the one only <i>absolute</i> Being—can exist for a +people, or become the popular creed. Thus in the most +ancient books of the Brahmins, the deep sense of this Fact, +and the doctrines grounded on obscure traditions of the +promised remedy, are seen struggling, and now gleaming, +now flashing, through the mist of Pantheism, and producing +the incongruities and gross contradictions of the Brahmin +Mythology: while in the rival sect—in that most strange +<i>phænomenon</i>, the religious atheism of the Buddhists: with +whom God is only universal matter considered abstractedly +from all particular forms—the Fact is placed among the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">{189}</a></span> +delusions natural to man, which, together with other superstitions +grounded on a supposed <i>essential</i> difference between +right and wrong, <i>the sage</i> is to decompose and precipitate +from the <i>menstruum</i> of <i>his</i> more refined apprehensions! +Thus in denying the Fact, they virtually acknowledge it.</p> + +<p>From the remote East turn to the mythology of Lesser Asia, to the +descendants of Javan who dwelt in the tents of Shem, and possessed the +Isles. Here again, and in the usual form of an historic solution we +find the same <i>Fact</i>, and as characteristic of the human +<i>race</i>, stated in that earliest and most venerable <i>mythus</i> +(or symbolic parable) of Prometheus—that truly wonderful Fable, +in which the characters of the rebellious Spirit and of the Divine +Friend of Mankind (<span title="Theos philanthrôpos">Θεος +φιλανθρωπος</span>) are united in the same person; and thus in the +most striking manner noting the forced amalgamation of the Patriarchal +tradition with the incongruous scheme of Pantheism. This and the +connected tale of Io, which is but the sequel of the Prometheus, stand +alone in the Greek Mythology, in which elsewhere both gods and men are +mere powers and products of nature. And most noticeable it is, that +soon after the promulgation and spread of the Gospel had awakened the +moral sense, and had opened the eyes even of its wiser enemies to the +necessity of providing some solution of this great problem of the +Moral World, the beautiful Parable of Cupid and Psyche was brought +forward as a <i>rival</i> <span class="smcap">Fall of Man</span>: and +the fact of a moral corruption connatural with the human race was +again recognized. In the assertion of <span class="smcap">Original +Sin</span> the Greek Mythology rose and set.</p> + +<p>But not only was the <i>fact</i> acknowledged of a law in the +nature of man resisting the law of God; (and whatever +is placed in active and direct oppugnancy to the good is, +<i>ipso facto</i>, positive evil;) it was likewise an acknowledged +<span class="smcap">Mystery</span>, and one which by the nature of the subject must +ever remain such—a problem, of which any other solution, +than the statement of the <i>Fact</i> itself, was demonstrably +<i>impossible</i>. That it is so, the least reflection will suffice to +convince every man, who has previously satisfied himself +that he is a responsible being. It follows necessarily +from the postulate of a responsible Will. Refuse to grant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">{190}</a></span> +this, and I have not a word to say. Concede this and you +concede all. For this is the essential attribute of a Will, +and contained in the very <i>idea</i>, that whatever determines +the Will acquires this power from a previous determination +of the Will itself. The Will is ultimately self-determined, +or it is no longer a <i>Will</i> under the law of perfect freedom, +but a <i>nature</i> under the mechanism of cause and effect. +And if by an act, to which it had determined itself, it has +subjected itself to the determination of nature (in the language +of St. Paul, to the law of the flesh), it receives a +nature into itself, and so far it becomes a nature: and this +is a corruption of the Will and a corrupt nature. It is +also a <i>Fall</i> of Man, inasmuch as his Will is the condition +of his personality; the ground and condition of the attribute +which constitutes him <i>man</i>. And the ground work +of <i>personal</i> Being is a capacity of acknowledging the Moral +Law (the Law of the Spirit, the Law of Freedom, the +Divine Will) as that which should, of itself, suffice to +determine the Will to a free obedience of the law, the law +working therein by its own exceeding lawfulness.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_118" id="Ref_118" href="#Foot_118">[118]</a></span> +This, and this alone, is <i>positive</i> Good; good in itself, and independent +of all relations. Whatever resists, and, as a positive force, +opposes <i>this</i> in the Will is therefore evil. But an evil in the +Will is an evil Will; and as all moral evil (that is, all evil +that is evil without reference to its contingent physical +consequences) is <i>of</i> the Will, this evil Will must have its +source in the Will. And thus we might go back from act to +act, from evil to evil, <i>ad infinitum</i>, without advancing a step.</p> + +<p>We call an individual a <i>bad</i> man, not because an action +is contrary to the law, but because it has led us to conclude +from it some <i>Principle</i> opposed to the law, some +private maxim, or by-law in the Will contrary to the +universal law of right reason in the conscience, as the +<i>ground</i> of the action. But this evil principle again must +be grounded in some other principle which has been made +determinant of the Will by the Will's own self-determination. +For if not, it must have its ground in some necessity +of nature, in some instinct or propensity imposed, not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">{191}</a></span> +acquired, another's work not our own. Consequently, +neither act nor principle could be imputed; and relatively +to the agent, not <i>original</i>, not <i>sin</i>.</p> + +<p>Now let the grounds on which the fact of an evil +inherent in the Will is affirmable in the instance of any +one man, be supposed equally applicable in <i>every</i> instance, +and concerning all men: so that the fact is asserted of the +individual, <i>not</i>, because he has committed this or that +crime, or because he has shown himself to be <i>this</i> or <i>that</i> +man, but simply because he is <i>a</i> man. Let the evil be +supposed such as to imply the impossibility of an individual's +referring to any particular time at which it might +be conceived to have commenced, or to any period of his +existence at which it was not existing. Let it be supposed, +in short, that the subject stands in no relation whatever to +time, can neither be called <i>in</i> time nor <i>out of</i> time; but +that all relations of time are as alien and heterogeneous in +this question, as the relations and attributes of space +(north or south, round or square, thick or thin) are to our +affections and moral feelings. Let the reader suppose +this, and he will have before him the precise import of the +Scriptural <i>doctrine</i> of Original Sin; or rather of the Fact +acknowledged in all ages, and recognized but not originating, +in the Christian Scriptures.</p> + +<p>In addition to this it will be well to remind the inquirer, +that the stedfast conviction of the existence, personality, +and moral attributes of God, is presupposed in +the acceptance of the Gospel, or required as its indispensable +preliminary. It is taken for granted as a point which +the hearer had already decided for himself, a point finally +settled and put at rest: not by the removal of all difficulties, +or by any such increase of insight as enabled him to meet +every objection of the Epicurean or the sceptic with a full +and precise answer; but because he had convinced himself +that it was folly as well as presumption in so imperfect a +creature to expect it; and because these difficulties and +doubts disappeared at the beam, when tried against the +weight and convictive power of the reasons in the other +scale. It is, therefore, most unfair to attack Christianity, +or any article which the Church has declared a Christian +doctrine, by arguments, which, if valid, are valid against +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">{192}</a></span> +all religion. Is there a disputant who scorns a mere <i>postulate</i>, +as the basis of any argument in support of the Faith; +who is too high-minded <i>to beg</i> his ground, and will take it +by a strong hand? Let him fight it out with the Atheists, +or the Manichæans; but not stoop to pick up their arrows, +and then run away to discharge them at Christianity or the +Church!</p> + +<p>The only true way is to state the doctrine, believed as +well by Saul of Tarsus, <i>yet breathing out threatenings +and slaughter against</i> the Church of Christ, as by Paul +the Apostle <i>fully preaching the Gospel of Christ</i>. A moral +Evil is an evil that has its origin in a Will. An evil +common to all must have a ground common to all. But +the actual existence of moral evil we are bound in conscience +to admit; and that there is an evil common to all +is a fact; and this evil must therefore have a common +ground. Now this evil ground cannot originate in the +Divine Will: it must therefore be referred to the will of +man. And this evil ground we call Original Sin. It is a +<i>mystery</i>, that is, a fact, which we see, but cannot explain; +and the doctrine a truth which we apprehend, but can +neither comprehend nor communicate. And such by the +quality of the subject (namely, a responsible <i>Will</i>) it must +be, if it be truth at all.</p> + +<p>A sick man, whose complaint was as obscure as his +sufferings were severe and notorious, was thus addressed +by a humane stranger: "My poor Friend! I find you dangerously +ill, and on this account only, and having certain +information of your being so, and that you have not wherewithal +to pay for a physician, I have come to you. Respecting +your disease, indeed, I can tell you nothing, that you +are capable of understanding, more than you know already, +or can only be taught by reflection on your own experience. +But I have rendered the disease no longer irremediable. +I have brought the remedy with me: and I now offer you +the means of immediate relief, with the assurance of gradual +convalescence, and a final perfect cure; nothing more +being required on your part, but your best endeavours to +follow the prescriptions I shall leave with you. It is, +indeed, too probable, from the nature of your disease, that +you will occasionally neglect or transgress them. But even +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">{193}</a></span> +this has been calculated on in the plan of your cure, and +the remedies provided, if only you are sincere and in right +earnest with yourself, and have your <i>heart</i> in the work. +Ask me not how such a disease can be conceived possible. +Enough for the present that you know it to be real: and I +come to cure the disease not to explain it."</p> + +<p>Now, what if the patient or some of his neighbours +should charge this good Samaritan, with having given rise +to the mischievous notion of an inexplicable disease, involving +the honour of the King of the country;—should +inveigh against <i>him</i> as the author and first introducer of +the notion, though of the numerous medical works composed +ages before <i>his</i> arrival, and by physicians of the +most venerable authority, it was scarcely possible to open +a single volume without finding some description of the +disease, or some lamentation of its malignant and epidemic +character:—and, lastly, what if certain pretended friends +of this good Samaritan, in their zeal to vindicate him +against this absurd charge, should assert that he was a perfect +stranger to this disease, and boldly deny that he had +ever said or done any thing connected with it, or that implied +its existence?</p> + +<p>In this Apologue or imaginary case, reader, you have +the true bearings of Christianity on the fact and doctrine +of Original Sin. The doctrine (that is, the confession of +a known fact) Christianity has only in common with every +religion, and with every philosophy, in which the reality +of a responsible Will and the <i>essential</i> difference between +good and evil have been recognised. <i>Peculiar</i> to the +Christian religion are the remedy and (for all purposes but +those of a merely speculative curiosity) the solution. By +the annunciation of the remedy it affords all the solution +which our <i>moral</i> interests require; and even in that which +remains, and must remain, unfathomable, the Christian +finds a new motive to walk humbly with the Lord his God.</p> + +<p>Should a professed Believer ask you whether that, which +is the ground of responsible action in <i>your</i> will, could in +any way be responsibly present in the Will of Adam,—answer +him in these words: "<i>You</i>, Sir! can no more demonstrate +the negative, than I can conceive the affirmative. +The corruption of my will may very warrantably be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">{194}</a></span> +spoken of as a <i>consequence</i> of Adam's fall, even as my +birth of Adam's existence; as a consequence, a link in the +historic chain of instances, whereof Adam is the first. +But that it is <i>on account</i> of Adam; or that this evil principle +was, <i>a priori</i>, inserted or infused into my Will by the +will of another—which is indeed a contradiction in terms, +my Will in such case being no <i>Will</i>—<i>this</i> is nowhere asserted +in Scripture explicitly or by implication." It belongs +to the very essence of the doctrine, that in respect of +Original Sin <i>every</i> man is the adequate representative of +<i>all</i> men. What wonder, then, that where no inward ground +of preference existed, the choice should be determined by +outward relations, and that the first <i>in time</i> should be taken +as the diagram? Even in Genesis the word, Adam, is +distinguished from a proper name by an Article before it. +It is <i>the</i> Adam, so as to express the <i>genus</i>, not the individual—or +rather, perhaps, I should say, <i>as well as</i> the +individual. But that the word with its equivalent, <i>the old +man</i>, is used symbolically and universally by St. Paul, +(1 Cor. xv. 22 45. Eph. iv. 22. Col. iii. 9. Rom. vi. 6.) +is too evident to need any proof.</p> + +<p>I conclude with this remark. The doctrine of Original +Sin concerns all men. But it concerns Christians <i>in particular</i> +no otherwise than by its connexion with the doctrine +of Redemption; and with the Divinity and Divine Humanity +of the Redeemer as a corollary or necessary inference +from both mysteries. <span class="smcap">Beware of Arguments +against Christianity, which cannot stop there, and consequently +ought not to have commenced there.</span> Something +I might have added to the clearness of the preceding +views, if the limits of the work had permitted me to clear +away the several delusive and fanciful assertions respecting +the state<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_119" id="Ref_119" href="#Foot_119">[119]</a></span> +of our first parents, their wisdom, science, and +angelic faculties, assertions without the slightest ground +in Scripture:—Or, if consistently with the wants and preparatory +studies of those for whose use the volume was +especially intended, I could have entered into the momentous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">{195}</a></span> +subject of a Spiritual Fall or Apostacy <i>antecedent</i> +to the formation of man—a belief, the scriptural grounds +of which are few and of diverse interpretation, but which +has been almost universal in the Christian Church. +Enough, however, has been given, I trust, for the Reader +to see and (as far as the subject is capable of being understood) +to understand this long controverted Article, in the +sense in which alone it is binding on his faith. Supposing +him therefore, to know the meaning of original sin, and to +have decided for himself on the fact of its actual existence, +as the antecedent ground and occasion of Christianity, we +may now proceed to Christianity itself, as the Edifice raised +on this ground, that is, to the great Constituent Article of +the Faith in Christ, as the Remedy of the Disease—The +Doctrine of Redemption.</p> + +<p>But before I proceed to this momentous doctrine let +me briefly remind the young and friendly pupil, to whom +I would still be supposed to address myself, that in the +following Aphorism the word science is used in its strict +and narrowest sense. By a Science I here mean any chain +of truths which are either absolutely certain, or necessarily +true for the human mind, from the laws and constitution of +the mind itself. In neither case is our conviction derived, +or capable of receiving any addition, from outward experience, +or empirical <i>data</i>—that is, matters of fact <i>given</i> to +us through the medium of the senses—though these <i>data</i> +may have been the occasion, or may even be an indispensable +condition, of our reflecting on the former, and +thereby becoming <i>conscious</i> of the same. On the other +hand, a connected series of conclusions grounded on empirical +<i>data</i>, in contra-distinction from science, I beg +leave (no better term occurring) in this place and for this +purpose, to denominate a scheme.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_103" id="Foot_103" href="#Ref_103">[103]</a> +It has in its consequences proved no trifling evil to the Christian +world, that Aristotle's Definitions of Nature are all grounded on the +petty and rather rhetorical than philosophical Antithesis of Nature to +Art—a conception inadequate to the demands even of <i>his</i> philosophy. +Hence in the progress of his reasoning, he confounds the <i>natura +naturata</i> (that is, the sum total of the facts and phænomena of the +Senses) with an hypothetical <i>natura naturans</i>, a <i>Goddess</i> Nature, that +has no better claim to a place in any sober system of Natural Philosophy +than the Goddess <i>Multitudo</i>; yet to which Aristotle not rarely gives the +name and attributes of the Supreme Being. The result was, that the +idea of God thus identified with this hypothetical <i>Nature</i> becomes itself +but an <i>hypothesis</i>, or at best but a precarious inference from incommensurate +premises and on disputable principles: while in other passages, +God is confounded with (and every where, in Aristotle's <i>genuine</i> works, +<i>included in</i>) the Universe: which most grievous error it is the great and +characteristic merit of Plato to have avoided and denounced.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_104" id="Foot_104" href="#Ref_104">[104]</a> +Take one passage among many from the posthumous Tracts (1660) of +John Smith,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_105" id="Ref_105" href="#Foot_105">[105]</a></span> +not the least star in that bright constellation of +Cambridge men, the contemporaries of Jeremy Taylor. "While we reflect +on our idea of Reason, we know that our Souls are not it, but only +partake of it; and that we have it <span title="kata methexin">κατα +μεθεξιν</span> and not <span title="kat' ousiên">κατ᾽ ουσιην</span>. +Neither can it be called a Faculty, but far rather a Light, which we +enjoy, but the Source of which is not in ourselves, nor rightly by any +individual to be denominated <i>mine</i>." This <i>pure</i>, +intelligence he then proceeds to contrast with the <i>Discursive</i> +Faculty, that is, the Understanding.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_105" id="Foot_105" href="#Ref_105">[105]</a> +There is a Note on John Smith and his 'Select Discourses' in +Coleridge's 'Literary Remains,' 1838, v. iii. pp. 415-19.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_106" id="Foot_106" href="#Ref_106">[106]</a> +See Coleridge on Jeremy Taylor: 'Literary Remains,' 1838, v. iii. +pp. 295-334, &c.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_107" id="Foot_107" href="#Ref_107">[107]</a> +We have the assurance of Bishop Horsley, that the Church of England +does not demand the literal understanding of the document contained +in the second (from verse 8) and third Chapters of Genesis as a +point of faith, or regard a different interpretation as affecting the orthodoxy +of the interpreter; divines of the most unimpeachable orthodoxy, +and the most averse to the allegorizing of Scripture history in general, +having from the earliest ages of the Christian Church adopted or permitted +it in this instance. And indeed no unprejudiced man can pretend +to doubt, that if in any other work of Eastern origin he met with Trees +of Life and of Knowledge; talking and conversable snakes:</p> + +<p class="center">Inque rei signum <i>serpentem serpere</i> jussum;</p> + +<p class="nodent">he would want no other proofs that it was an allegory he was reading, +and intended to be understood as such. Nor, if we suppose him +conversant with Oriental works of any thing like the same antiquity, +could it surprise him to find events of true history in connexion +with, or historical personages among the actors and interlocutors of, +the parable. In the temple-language of Egypt the serpent was the +symbol of the understanding in its twofold function, namely as the +faculty of <i>means</i> to <i>proximate</i> or <i>medial</i>, ends, +analogous to the <i>instinct</i> of the more intelligent animals, ant, +bee, beaver, and the like, and opposed to the practical reason, as the +determinant of the <i>ultimate</i> end; and again, it typifies the +understanding as the discursive and logical faculty possessed +individually by each individual—the <span title="logos en +hekastô">λογος εν ἑκαστω</span>, in distinction from the <span +title="nous">νους</span>, that +is, intuitive reason, the source of ideas and ABSOLUTE Truths, and the +principle of the necessary and the universal in our affirmations and +conclusions. Without or in contra-vention to the reason (<i>i.e.</i> +<i>the spiritual mind</i> of St. Paul, and <i>the light that lighteth +every man</i> of St. John) this understanding (<span title="phronêma +sarkos">φρονημα σαρκος</span>, or +carnal mind) becomes the <i>sophistic</i> principle, the wily tempter +to evil by counterfeit good; the pander and advocate of the passions +and appetites; ever in league with, and always first applying to, the +<i>Desire</i>, as the inferior nature in man, the <i>woman</i> in our +humanity; and through the <span class="smcap">Desire</span> prevailing +on the <span class="smcap">Will</span> (the <i>Man</i>-hood, +<i>Vir</i>tus) against the command of the universal reason, and +against the light of reason in the <span class="smcap">Will</span> +itself. This essential inherence of an intelligential principle (<span title="phôs +noeron">φως νοερον</span>) in the Will (<span title="archê +phelêtikê">αρχη φελητικη</span>) or rather the Will itself +thus considered, the Greeks expressed by an appropriate word <span title="boulê">βουλη</span>. +This, but little differing from Origen's interpretation or hypothesis, +is supported and confirmed by the very old tradition of the <i>homo +androgynus</i>, that is, that the original man, the individual first +created, was bi-sexual: a chimæra, of which and of many other +mythological traditions the most probable explanation is, that they +were originally symbolical <i>glyphs</i> or sculptures, and afterwards +translated into <i>words</i>, yet <i>literally</i>, that is into the +common names of the several figures and images composing the symbol, +while the symbolic <i>meaning</i> was left to be deciphered as before, +and sacred to the initiate. As to the abstruseness and subtlety of the +conceptions, this is so far from being an objection to this oldest +<i>gloss</i> on this venerable relic of Semitic, not impossibly +ante-diluvian, philosophy, that to those who have carried their +researches farthest back into Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian +antiquity, it will seem a strong confirmation. Or if I chose to +address the sceptic in the language of the day, I might remind him, +that as alchemy went before chemistry, and astrology before astronomy, +so in all countries of civilized man have metaphysics outrun common +sense. Fortunately for us that they have so! For from all we know of +the <i>un</i>metaphysical tribes of New Holland and elsewhere, a +common sense not preceded by metaphysics is no very enviable +possession. O be not cheated, my youthful reader, by this shallow +prate! The creed of true common sense is composed of the +<i>results</i> of scientific meditation, observation, and experiment, +as far as they are <i>generally</i> intelligible. It differs therefore +in different countries and in every different age of the same country. +The common sense of a people is the moveable <i>index</i> of its +average judgment and information. Without metaphysics science could +have had no language, and common sense no materials.</p> + +<p class="nodent">But to return to my subject. It cannot be denied, that the Mosaic +Narrative thus interpreted gives a just and faithful exposition of the +birth and parentage and successive moments of <i>phænomenal</i> sin (<i>peccatum +phænomenon; crimen primarium et commune</i>), that is, of sin as +it reveals itself <i>in time</i>, and is an immediate object of consciousness. +And in this sense most truly does the Apostle assert, that in Adam we +all fell. The first human sinner is the adequate representative of all +his successors. And with no less truth may it be said, that it is the +same Adam that falls in every man, and from the same reluctance to +abandon the too dear and undivorceable Eve: and the same <span class="smcap">Eve</span> tempted +by the same serpentine and perverted understanding, which, framed +originally to be the interpreter of the reason and the ministering angel +of the Spirit, is henceforth sentenced and bound over to the service of +the Animal Nature, its needs and its cravings, dependent on the senses +for all its materials, with the World of Sense for its appointed sphere: +<i>Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy +life.</i> I have shown elsewhere, that as the Instinct of the mere intelligence +differs in degree not in kind, and circumstantially, not essentially, +from the <i>vis vitæ</i>, or vital power in the assimilative and digestive functions +of the stomach and other organs of nutrition, even so the Understanding, +in itself and distinct from the Reason and Conscience, differs in +degree only from the Instinct in the animal. It is still but <i>a beast of +the field</i>, though <i>more subtle than any beast of the field</i>, and therefore +in its corruption and perversion <i>cursed above any</i>—a pregnant word! of +which, if the reader wants an exposition or paraphrase, he may find +one more than two thousand years old among the fragments of the poet +Menander. (See Cumberland's Observer, No. CL. vol. iii. p. 289 290.) +This is the <i>Understanding</i> which in its <i>every thought</i> is to be brought +<i>under obedience to Faith</i>; which it can scarcely fail to be, if only it be first +subjected to the Reason, of which spiritual Faith is even the blossoming +and the fructifying process. For it is indifferent whether I say that +Faith is the interpenetration of the Reason and the Will, or that it is +at once the Assurance and the Commencement of the approaching Union +between the Reason and the <i>intelligible</i> realities, the <i>living</i> and +<i>substantial</i> truths, that are even in this life its most proper objects.</p> + +<p class="nodent">I have thus put the reader in possession of my own opinions respecting +the narrative in Gen. ii. and iii. <span title="Estin oun dê, hôs emoige dokei, hieros +mythos, alêthestaton kai archaiotaton philosophêma, eusebesi men sebasma, +synetois te phônan; es de to pan hermêneôs chatizei">Εστιν ουν δη, ὡς +εμοιγε δοκει, ἱερος μυθος, αληθεστατον και αρχαιτατον φιλοσοφημα, +ευσεβεσι μεν σεβασμα, συνετοις τε φωναν· ες δε το παν ἑρμηνεως χατιζει</span>. +Or I might ask with Augustine, Why not both? Why not at once symbol and history? or +rather how should it be otherwise? Must not of necessity the <span class="smcap">first +man</span> be a <span class="smcap">Symbol</span> of Mankind, in the fullest force of the word, +Symbol, rightly defined—that is, a sign included in the idea, which it +represents;—an actual <i>part</i> chosen to represent the <i>whole</i>, as a lip with +a chin prominent is a symbol of man; or a <i>lower</i> form or species used +as the representative of a higher in the same <i>kind</i>: thus Magnetism +is the Symbol of Vegetation, and of the vegetative and reproductive +power in animals; the Instinct of the ant-tribe, or the bee, is a symbol +of the human understanding. And this definition of the word is of +great practical importance, inasmuch as the symbolical is hereby distinguished +<i>toto genere</i> from the allegoric and metaphorical. But, +perhaps, parables, allegories, and allegorical or typical applications, are +incompatible with <i>inspired</i> Scripture! The writings of St. Paul are +sufficient proof of the contrary. Yet I readily acknowledge, that +allegorical <i>applications</i> are one thing, and allegorical <i>interpretation</i> +another: and that where there is no ground for supposing such a sense +to have entered into the intent and purpose of the sacred penman, they +are not to be commended. So far, indeed, am I from entertaining any +predilection for them, or any favourable opinion of the Rabbinical commentators +and traditionists, from whom the fashion was derived, that in +carrying it as far as our own Church has carried it, I follow her +judgment, not my own. But in the first place, I know but one other +part of the Scriptures not universally held to be parabolical, which, not +without the sanction of great authorities, I am disposed to regard as an +Apologue or Parable, namely, the book of Jonah; the reasons for +believing the Jewish nation collectively to be therein impersonated, +seeming to me unanswerable. Secondly, as to the Chapters now in +question—that such interpretation is at least tolerated by our Church, +I have the word of one of her most zealous champions. And lastly it +is my deliberate and conscientious conviction, that the proofs of such +having been the intention of the inspired writer or compiler of the book +of Genesis, lie on the face of the narrative itself.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_108" id="Foot_108" href="#Ref_108">[108]</a> +Rom. v. 14. Who were they, who <i>had</i> not <i>sinned after the similitude +of Adam's transgression</i>; and over whom, notwithstanding, <i>death +reigned</i>?</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_109" id="Foot_109" href="#Ref_109">[109]</a> +Slightly altered from Jeremy Taylor's 'Deus Justificatus; or a +Vindication of the Glory of the Divine Attributes in the Question of +Original Sin, Against the Presbyterian way of Understanding it.' See +Heber's edition of Taylor's works, 1822, v. ix. pp. 315-16.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_110" id="Foot_110" href="#Ref_110">[110]</a> +This sense of the word is implied even in its metaphorical or figurative +use. Thus we may say of a <i>river</i> that it <i>originates</i> in such or such +a <i>fountain</i>; but the water of a <i>canal</i> is <i>derived</i> from such or such a river. +The Power which we call Nature, may be thus defined: A Power +subject to the Law of Continuity (<i>lex continui; nam in naturâ non datur +saltus</i>) which law the human understanding, by a necessity arising out +of its own constitution, can <i>conceive</i> only under the form of Cause and +Effect. That this <i>form</i> (or law) of Cause and Effect is (relatively to the +world <i>without</i>, or to things as they subsist independently of our perceptions) +only a form or mode of <i>thinking</i>; that it is a law inherent in +the Understanding itself (just as the symmetry of the miscellaneous +objects seen by the kaleidoscope inheres in, or results from, the +mechanism of the kaleidoscope itself)—this becomes evident as soon as +we attempt to apply the pre-conception directly to any operation of +nature. For in this case we are forced to represent the cause as being +at the same instant the effect, and <i>vice versâ</i> the effect as being the +cause—a relation which we seek to express by the terms Action and +Re-action; but for which the term Reciprocal Action or the law of +Reciprocity (<i>Wechselwirkung</i>) would be both more accurate and more +expressive.</p> + +<p class="nodent">These are truths which can scarcely be too frequently impressed on +the mind that is in earnest in the wish to <i>reflect</i> aright. Nature is a +line in constant and continuous evolution. Its <i>beginning</i> is lost in the +super-natural: and <i>for our understanding</i>, therefore, it must appear as +a continuous line without beginning or end. But where there is no +discontinuity there can be no origination, and every appearance of +origination in <i>nature</i> is but a shadow of our own casting. It is a +reflection from our own <i>Will</i> or Spirit. Herein, indeed, the Will +consists. This is the essential character by which <span +class="smcap">will</span> is <i>opposed</i> to Nature, as +<i>Spirit</i>, and raised <i>above</i> Nature, as +<i>self-determining</i> Spirit—this namely, that it is a power +of <i>originating</i> an act or state.</p> + +<p class="nodent">A young friend or, as he was pleased to describe himself, <i>a pupil of +mine, who is beginning to learn to think</i>, asked me to explain by an +instance what is meant by "<i>originating</i> an act or state." My answer +was—This morning I awoke with a dull pain, which I knew from experience +the getting up would remove; and yet by adding to the +drowsiness and by weakening or depressing the <i>volition (voluntas +sensorialis seu mechanica</i>) the very pain seemed to <i>hold me back</i>, to fix +me (as it were) to the bed. After a peevish ineffectual quarrel with +this painful disinclination, I said to myself: Let me count twenty, +and the moment I come to nineteen I will leap out of bed. So said, +and so done. Now should you ever find yourself in the same or in +a similar state, and should attend to <i>the goings-on</i> within you, you +will learn what I mean by <i>originating</i> an act. At the same time you +will see that it belongs <i>exclusively</i> to the Will (<i>arbitrium</i>); that there +is nothing analogous to it in outward experiences; and that I had, +therefore, no way of explaining it but by referring you to an <i>act</i> of +your own, and to the peculiar self-consciousness preceding and accompanying +it. As we know what Life is by <i>Being</i>, so we know what Will +is by <i>Acting</i>. That in <i>willing</i> (replied my young friend) we <i>appear</i> +to ourselves to constitute an actual <i>Beginning</i> and that this seems +<i>unique</i>, and without any example in our <i>sensible</i> experience, or in the +phænomena of nature, is an undeniable <i>fact</i>. But may it not be an +illusion arising from our ignorance of the antecedent causes? You +<i>may</i> suppose this (I rejoined):—that the soul of every man should impose +a <i>Lie</i> on itself; and that this Lie, and the acting on the faith of +its being the most important of all truths and the most real of all +realities, should form the main contra-distinctive character of Humanity, +and the only basis of that distinction between Things and Persons on +which our whole moral and criminal Law is grounded;—you may +suppose this; I cannot, as I could in the case of an arithmetical or +geometrical proposition, render it <i>impossible</i> for you to suppose it. +Whether you can reconcile such a supposition with the belief of an all-wise +Creator, is another question. But, taken singly, it is doubtless +in your power to suppose this. Were it not, the belief of the contrary +would be no subject of a <i>command</i>, no part of a moral or religious +<i>duty</i>. You would not, however, suppose it <i>without a reason</i>. But all +the pretexts that ever have been or ever can be offered for this supposition, +are built on certain <i>notions</i> of the Understanding that have +been generalized from <i>conceptions</i>; which conceptions, again, are +themselves generalized or abstracted from objects of sense. Neither +the one nor the other, therefore, have any force except in application to +objects of sense and within the sphere of sensible Experience. What +but absurdity can follow, if you decide on Spirit by the laws of Matter? +if you judge that which, if it be at all, must be <i>super</i>-sensual, by that +faculty of your mind, the very definition of which is "the faculty +judging <i>according</i> to sense"? These then are unworthy the name of +<i>reasons</i>: they are only pretexts. But <i>without</i> reason to contradict your +own consciousness in defiance of your own conscience, is <i>contrary</i> to +reason. Such and such writers, you say, have made a great <i>sensation</i>. +If so, I am sorry for it; but the fact I take to be this. From a +variety of causes the more austere Sciences have fallen into discredit, +and impostors have taken advantage of the general ignorance to give a +sort of mysterious and terrific importance to a parcel of trashy sophistry, +the authors of which would not have employed themselves more irrationally +in submitting the works of Raffaelle or Titian to canons of +criticism deduced from the sense of smell. Nay, less so. For here +the objects and the organs are only disparate: while in the other case +they are absolutely diverse. I conclude this note by reminding the +reader, that my first object is to make myself <i>understood</i>. When he is +in full possession of my <i>meaning</i>, then let him consider whether it +deserves to be received as <i>the truth</i>. Had it been my immediate purpose +to make him <i>believe</i> me as well as <i>understand</i> me, I should have +thought it necessary to warn him that a <i>finite</i> Will does indeed +originate an <i>act</i>, and may originate a <i>state</i> of being; but yet only <i>in</i> +and <i>for</i> the Agent himself. A finite Will <i>constitutes</i> a true Beginning; +but with regard to the series of motions and chants by which the +free act is manifested and made <i>effectual</i>, the <i>finite</i> Will <i>gives</i> a beginning +only by co-incidence with that <i>absolute</i> <span class="smcap">Will</span>, which is at the same +time <i>Infinite</i> <span class="smcap">Power</span>! Such is the language of Religion, and of +Philosophy too in the last instance. But I express the same truth in +ordinary language when I say, that a finite Will, or the Will of a +finite free-agent, acts outwardly by confluence with the laws of nature.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_111" id="Foot_111" href="#Ref_111">[111]</a> +It may conduce to the readier comprehension of this point if I say, +that the equivoque consists in confounding the almost technical sense of +the <i>noun substantive</i>, right, (a sense most often determined by the genitive +case following, as the right of property, the right of husbands to +chastise their wives, and so forth) with the popular sense of the <i>adjective</i>, +right: though this likewise has, if not a double sense, yet a double +application;—the first, when it is used to express the fitness of a mean to +a relative end, for example, "the <i>right</i> way to obtain the <i>right</i> distance +at which a picture should be examined," and the like; and the other, +when it expresses a perfect conformity and commensurateness with the +immutable idea of equity, or perfect rectitude. Hence the close connexion +between the words righteousness and <i>god</i>liness, that is, godlikeness.</p> + +<p class="nodent">I should be tempted to subjoin a few words on a predominating doctrine +closely connected with the present argument—the Paleyan principle +of <span class="smcap">General Consequences</span>; but the inadequacy of this Principle as a +criterion of Right and Wrong, and above all its utter unfitness as a +Moral <i>Guide</i> have been elsewhere so fully stated ('The Friend,' vol. ii. +Essay xi.<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_112" id="Ref_112" +href="#Foot_112">[112]</a></span>), that even in again referring to +the subject, I must shelter +myself under Seneca's rule, that what we cannot too frequently think of, +we cannot too often be made to recollect. It is, however, of immediate +importance to the point in discussion, that the reader should be made to +see how altogether incompatible the principle of judging by General +Consequences is with the Idea of an Eternal, Omnipresent, and Omniscient +Being;—that he should be made aware of the absurdity of attributing +<i>any</i> form of Generalization to the All-perfect Mind. To <i>generalize</i> +is a faculty and function of the human understanding, and from the +imperfection and limitation of the understanding are the use and the +necessity of generalizing derived. Generalization is a Substitute for +Intuition, for the power of <i>intuitive</i> (that is, immediate) knowledge. +As a substitute, it is a gift of inestimable value to a finite intelligence, +such as <i>man</i> in his present state is endowed with and capable of exercising; +but yet a <i>substitute</i> only, and an imperfect one to boot. To attribute +it to God is the grossest anthropomorphism: and grosser instances +of anthropomorphism than are to be found in the controversial writings +on Original Sin and Vicarious Satisfaction, the records of superstition +do not supply.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_112" id="Foot_112" href="#Ref_112">[112]</a> +Essay xv. p. 204, Bohn's edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_113" id="Foot_113" href="#Ref_113">[113]</a> +I have since this page was written, met with several passages in the +Treatise on Repentance, the Holy Living and Dying, and the Worthy +Communicant, in which the Bishop asserts without scruple the <i>impossibility</i> +of total obedience; and on the same grounds as I have given. +[See Taylor's 'Doctrine and Practice of Repentance,' c. I. sec. ii., "On +the Possibility or Impossibility of Keeping the Precepts of the Gospel;" +Heber's ed. of the 'Works,' v. 8, p. 265.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_114" id="Foot_114" href="#Ref_114">[114]</a> +Availing himself of the equivocal sense and (I most readily admit) +the injudicious use, of the word "free" in the—even on this account—<i>faulty</i> +phrase, "<i>free only to sin</i>," Taylor treats the notion of a power +in the Will of determining itself to evil without an equal power of +determining itself to good, as a "<i>foolery</i>." I would this had been the +only instance in his "Deus Justificatus" of that inconsiderate contempt +so frequent in the polemic treatises of minor divines, who will have +ideas of reason, spiritual truths that can only be spiritually discerned, +translated for them into adequate conceptions of the understanding. +The great articles of Corruption and Redemption are <i>propounded</i> to us +as spiritual mysteries; and every interpretation, that pretends to explain +them into comprehensible notions, does by its very success furnish presumptive +proof of its failure. The acuteness and logical dexterity, with +which Taylor has brought out the falsehood or semblance of falsehood +in the Calvinistic scheme, are truly admirable. Had he next concentered +his thoughts in tranquil meditation, and asked himself: What then +<i>is</i> the truth? If a Will <i>be</i> at all, what must a will be?—he might, I +think, have seen that a nature in a Will implies already a <i>corruption</i> +of that Will; that a <i>nature</i> is as inconsistent with <i>freedom</i> as free choice +with an incapacity of choosing aught but evil. And lastly, a free power +in a <i>nature</i> to fulfil a law <i>above</i> nature!—I, who love and honour this +good and great man with all the reverence that can dwell "on this side +idolatry," dare not retort on this assertion the charge of <i>foolery</i>; but I +find it a paradox as startling to my <i>reason</i> as any of the hard sayings +of the Dort divines were to his <i>understanding</i>.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_115" id="Foot_115" href="#Ref_115">[115]</a> +Vol. ix. pp. 5, 6, Heber's edit. ['Doctrine and Practice of +Repentance,' c. vi. sec. I.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_116" id="Foot_116" href="#Ref_116">[116]</a> +This passage appears as here in the first edition of the 'Aids,' +1825.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_117" id="Foot_117" href="#Ref_117">[117]</a> +The same, slightly different, appears in Coleridge's 'Literary +Remains,' 1838, v. iii., p. 328.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_118" id="Foot_118" href="#Ref_118">[118]</a> +If the Law worked <i>on</i> the Will, it would be the working of an extrinsic +and alien force, and, as St. Paul profoundly argues, would prove +the Will sinful.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_119" id="Foot_119" href="#Ref_119">[119]</a> +For a specimen of these Rabbinical dotages I refer, not to the +writings of mystics and enthusiasts, but to the shrewd and witty Dr. +South, one of whose most elaborate sermons stands prominent among +the many splendid extravaganzas on this subject.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XI.</h4> + +<p>In whatever age and country it is the prevailing mind +and character of the nation to regard the present life as +subordinate to a life to come, and to mark the present +state, <i>the World of their Senses</i>, by signs, instruments, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">{196}</a></span> +mementos of its connexion with a future state and a +spiritual world;—where the Mysteries of Faith are brought +within the <i>hold</i> of the people at large, not by being explained +away in the vain hope of accommodating them to +the average of their understanding, but by being made +the objects of love by their combination with events and +epochs of history, with national traditions, with the monuments +and dedications of ancestral faith and zeal, with +memorial and symbolical observances, with the realizing +influences of social devotion, and above all, by early and +habitual association with Acts of the Will, <i>there</i> Religion +is. <i>There</i>, however obscured by the hay and straw of +human Will-work, the foundation is safe. In <i>that</i> country, +and under the predominance of such maxims the National +Church is no mere State-<i>Institute</i>. It is the State itself in +its intensest federal union; yet at the same moment the +Guardian and Representative of all personal Individuality. +For the Church is the Shrine of Morality; and in Morality +alone the citizen asserts and reclaims his personal independence, +his <i>integrity</i>. Our outward acts are efficient, +and most often possible, only by coalition. As an efficient +power, the agent, is but <i>a fraction</i> of unity: he becomes +an <i>integer</i> only in the recognition and performance of the +Moral Law. Nevertheless it is most true (and a truth +which cannot with safety be overlooked) that morality <i>as</i> +morality, has no existence for <i>a people</i>. It is either absorbed +and lost in the quicksands of prudential <i>calculus</i>, +or it is taken up and transfigured into the duties and +mysteries of religion. And no wonder: since morality +(including the <i>personal</i> being, the I <span class="smcap">am</span>, as its subject) is +itself a mystery, and the ground and <i>suppositum</i> of all +other mysteries, relatively to man.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Paley not a Moralist.</i></p> + +<p>Schemes of conduct, grounded on calculations of self-interest; +or on the average consequences of actions, supposing +them <i>general</i>; form a branch of Political Economy, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">{197}</a></span> +to which let all due honour be given. Their utility is not +here questioned. But however estimable within their own +sphere, such schemes, or any one of them in particular, +may be, they do not belong to Moral Science, to which +both in kind and purpose, they are in all cases <i>foreign</i>, and, +when substituted for it, <i>hostile</i>. Ethics, or the <i>Science</i> of +Morality, does indeed in no wise exclude the consideration +of <i>action</i>; but it contemplates the same in its originating +spiritual <i>source</i>, without reference to space or time or +sensible existence. Whatever springs out of <i>the perfect +law of freedom</i>, which exists only by its unity with the +will of God, its inherence in the Word of God, and its +communion with the Spirit of God—<i>that</i> (according to the +principles of Moral Science) is <span class="smcap">good</span>—it is light and +righteousness and very truth. Whatever seeks to separate +itself from the Divine Principle, and proceeds from a +false centre in the agent's particular will, is <span class="smcap">evil</span>—a work +of darkness and contradiction. It is sin and essential +falsehood. Not the outward deed, constructive, destructive, +or neutral,—not the deed as a possible object of +the senses,—is the object of Ethical Science. For this is +no compost, <i>collectorium</i> or inventory of single duties; nor +does it seek in the multitudinous sea, in the pre-determined +waves, and tides and currents of <i>nature</i> that freedom, +which is exclusively an attribute of <i>spirit</i>. Like all other +pure sciences, whatever it enunciates, and whatever it concludes, +it enunciates and concludes <i>absolutely</i>. Strictness is +its essential character: and its first Proposition is, <i>Whosoever +shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is +guilty of all</i>. For as the Will or Spirit, the Source and +Substance of Moral Good, is one and all in every part; so +must it be the totality, the whole articulated series of single +acts, taken as unity, that can alone, in the severity of +science, be recognised as the proper counterpart and adequate +representative of a good Will. Is it in this or that +limb, or not rather in the whole body, the entire <i>organismus</i> +that the law of life reflects itself?—Much less, then, can +the law of the Spirit work in fragments.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">{198}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XIII.</h4> + +<p>Wherever there exists a permanent<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_120" id="Ref_120" href="#Foot_120">[120]</a></span> +learned class, having authority and possessing the respect and confidence +of the country; and wherever the Science of Ethics +is acknowledged, and taught in <i>this</i> class as a regular part +of a learned education, to its future members generally, but +as the special study and indispensable ground-work of such +as are intended for holy orders;—<i>there</i> the Article of +Original Sin will be an <span class="smcap">Axiom</span> of Faith in <i>all</i> classes. +Among the learned an undisputed <i>truth</i>, and with the +people a fact, which no man imagines it possible to deny: +and the doctrine, thus inwoven in the faith of all, and coeval +with the consciousness of each, will for each and all, +possess a reality, <i>subjective</i> indeed, yet virtually equivalent to +that which we intuitively give to the objects of our senses.</p> + +<p>With the learned this will be the case, because the +Article is the first—I had almost said, <i>spontaneous</i>—product +of the application of moral science to history, of +which it is the interpreter. A mystery in its own right, +and by the necessity and essential character of its subject—(for +the Will, like the Life, in every act and product +pre-supposes to itself, a Past always present, a Present that +evermore resolves itself into a Past)—the doctrine of +Original Sin gives to all the other mysteries of religion a +common basis, a connection of dependency, an intelligibility +of relation, and total harmony, that supersede extrinsic +proof. There is here that same proof from unity of +purpose, that same evidence of symmetry, which, in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">{199}</a></span> +contemplation of a human skeleton, flashed conviction on +the mind of Galen, and kindled meditation into a hymn of +praise.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the People, not goaded into doubt by the +lessons and examples of their teachers and superiors; not +drawn away from the fixed stars of heaven, the form and +magnitude of which are the same for the naked eye of the +shepherd as for the telescope of the sage—from the immediate +truths, I mean, of Reason and Conscience to an +exercise to which they have not been trained,—of a faculty +which has been imperfectly developed,—on a subject not +within the sphere of the faculty, nor in any way amenable +to its judgment;—the <span class="smcap">People</span> will need no arguments to +receive a doctrine confirmed by their own experience from +within and from without, and intimately blended with the +most venerable traditions common to all races, and the +traces of which linger in the latest twilight of civilization.</p> + +<p>Among the revulsions consequent on the brute bewilderments +of a Godless revolution, a great and active zeal for the +interests of religion may be one. I dare not trust it, till I +have seen what it is that gives religion this interest, till I +am satisfied that it is not the interests of this world; +necessary and laudable interests, perhaps, but which may, I +dare believe, be secured as effectually and more suitably by +the prudence of this world, and by this world's powers +and motives. At all events, I find nothing in the fashion +of the day to deter me from adding, that the reverse of the +preceding—that where religion is valued and patronized +as a supplement of law, or an aid extraordinary of police; +where Moral <span class="smcap">Science</span> is exploded as the mystic jargon of +dark ages; where a lax System of Consequences, by which +every iniquity on earth may be (and how many <i>have</i> been!) +denounced and defended with equal plausibility, is publicly +and authoritatively taught as Moral Philosophy; where the +mysteries of religion, and truths supersensual, are either +cut and squared for the comprehension of the understanding, +"the faculty judging according to sense," or desperately +torn asunder from the reason, nay, fanatically opposed +to it; lastly, where Private<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_121" id="Ref_121" href="#Foot_121">[121]</a></span> +Interpretation is every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">{200}</a></span> +thing and the Church nothing—<i>there</i> the mystery of +Original Sin will be either rejected, or evaded, or perverted +into the monstrous fiction of Hereditary Sin,—guilt inherited; +in the mystery of Redemption metaphors will be +obtruded for the reality; and in the mysterious appurtenants +and symbols of Redemption (Regeneration, Grace, +the Eucharist, and Spiritual Communion) the realities will +be evaporated into metaphors.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_120" id="Foot_120" href="#Ref_120">[120]</a> +A learned order must be supposed to consist of three classes. +First, those who are employed in adding to the existing sum of power +and knowledge. Second, and most numerous class, those whose office +it is to diffuse through the community at large the practical Results of +science, and that kind and degree of knowledge and cultivation, which +for all is requisite or clearly useful. Third, the formers and instructors +of the second—in schools, halls, and universities, or through the medium +of the press. The second class includes not only the parochial clergy, +and all others duly ordained to the ministerial office; but likewise all +the members of the legal and medical professions, who have received a +learned education under accredited and responsible teachers. [See 'The +Church and State,' p. 45, &c., third edition—H. N. C.]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_121" id="Foot_121" href="#Ref_121">[121]</a> +The author of 'The Statesman's Manual' must be the most inconsistent +of men, if he can be justly suspected of a leaning to the Romish +Church; or if it be necessary for him to repeat his fervent Amen to the +wish and prayer of our late good old King, that "every adult in the +British Empire should be able to read his Bible, and have a Bible to +read!" Nevertheless, it may not be superfluous to declare, that in thus +protesting against the <i>license</i> of private interpretation, I do not mean to +condemn the exercise or deny the right of individual judgment. I +condemn only the pretended right of every individual, competent and +incompetent, to interpret Scripture in a sense of his own, in opposition +to the judgment of the Church, without knowledge of the originals or +of the languages, the history, the customs, opinions, and controversies +of the age and country in which they were written; and where the interpreter +judges in ignorance or contempt of uninterrupted tradition, the +unanimous consent of Fathers and Councils, and the universal Faith of +the Church in all ages. It is not the attempt to form a judgment, which +is here called in question; but the grounds, or rather the <i>no-grounds</i> on +which the judgment is formed and relied on.</p> + +<p class="nodent">My fixed principle is: that <span class="smcap">a Christianity without a Church +exercising Spiritual authority is Vanity and Dissolution</span>. And +my <i>belief</i> is, that when Popery is rushing in on us like an inundation, +the nation will find it to be so. I say <i>Popery</i>; for this too I hold for a +delusion, that Romanism or <i>Roman</i> Catholicism is separable from +Popery. Almost as readily could I suppose a circle without a centre.</p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XIV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p>As in great maps or pictures you will see the border +decorated with meadows, fountains, flowers, and the like, +represented in it, but in the middle you have the main +design: so amongst the works of God is it with the foreordained +Redemption of Man. All his other works in the +world, all the beauty of the creatures, the succession of ages, +and the things that come to pass in them, are but as the +border to this as the mainpiece. But as a foolish unskilful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">{201}</a></span> +beholder, not discerning the excellency of the principal piece +in such maps or pictures, gazes only on the fair border, +and goes no farther—thus do the greatest part of us as to +this great Work of God, the redemption of our personal +Being, and the re-union of the Human with the Divine, by +and through the Divine Humanity of the Incarnate Word.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XV.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luther.</span></p> + +<p>It is a hard matter, yea, an impossible thing for thy +human strength, whosoever thou art (without God's assistance), +at such a time when Moses setteth on thee with the +Law (see Aphorism XII.),—when the holy Law written in +thy heart accuseth and condemneth thee, forcing thee to a +comparison of thy heart therewith, and convicting thee of +the incompatibleness of thy will and nature with Heaven +and holiness and an immediate God—that then thou +shouldest be able to be of such a mind as if no Law nor +sin had ever been! I say it is in a manner impossible that +a human creature, when he feeleth himself assaulted with +trials and temptations, and the conscience hath to do with +God, and the tempted man knoweth that the root of temptation +is within him, should obtain such mastery over his +thoughts as then to think no otherwise than that from +everlasting nothing hath been but only and alone Christ, +altogether Grace and Deliverance!</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>In irrational agents, namely, the brute animals, the will is +hidden or absorbed in the law. The law is their <i>nature</i>. In +the original purity of a rational agent the uncorrupted will is +identical with the law. Nay, inasmuch as a Will perfectly +identical with the Law is one with the <i>divine</i> Will, we may +say, that in the unfallen rational agent the Will <i>constitutes</i> +the Law.<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_122" id="Ref_122" href="#Foot_122">[122]</a></span> +But it is evident that the holy and spiritual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">{202}</a></span> +power and light, which by a <i>prolepsis</i> or anticipation we +have <i>named</i> law, is a grace, an inward perfection, and +without the commanding, binding and menacing character +which belongs to a law, acting as a master or sovereign +distinct from, and existing, as it were, externally for, the +agent who is bound to obey it. Now this is St. Paul's +sense of the word; and on this he grounds his whole +reasoning. And hence too arises the obscurity and apparent +paradoxy of several texts. That the Law is a <i>Law</i> for you; +that it acts <i>on</i> the Will not <i>in</i> it; that it exercises an agency +<i>from without</i>, by fear and coercion; proves the corruption of +your Will, and presupposes it. Sin in this sense came by +the law: for it has its essence, as sin, in that counter-position +of the holy principle to the will, which occasions +this principle to be a <span class="smcap">law</span>. Exactly (as in all other points) +consonant with the Pauline doctrine is the assertion of John, +when speaking of the re-adoption of the redeemed to be sons +of God, and the consequent resumption (I had almost said +re-absorption) of the Law into the Will (<span title="nomon teleion ton +tês eleutherias">νομον τελειον τον της ελευθεριας</span>, James i. +25.,)—he says—<i>For the law was +given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ</i>. +That by the Law St. Paul meant only the <i>ceremonial</i> law, +is a notion that could originate only in utter inattention to +the whole strain and bent of the Apostle's argument.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_122" id="Foot_122" href="#Ref_122">[122]</a> +In fewer words thus: For the brute animals, their nature is their law;—for +what other third law can be imagined, in addition to the law of +nature, and the law of reason? Therefore: in irrational agents the +law constitutes the will. In moral and rational agents the will constitutes, +or ought to constitute, the law: I speak of moral agents, unfallen. +For the personal Will comprehends the <i>idea</i>, as a Reason, and it +gives causative force to the Idea, as a <i>practical</i> Reason. But Idea with the +power of realizing the same is a Law; or say:—the Spirit comprehends +the Moral Idea, by virtue of its rationality, and it gives to the Idea +causative Power, as a Will: In every sense therefore, it <i>constitutes</i> the +Law, supplying both the Elements of which it consists—namely, the +Idea, and the realizing Power.</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>Christ's death was both voluntary and violent. There +was external violence: and that was the accompaniment, +or at most the occasion, of his death. But there was internal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">{203}</a></span> +willingness, the spiritual Will, the Will of the Spirit, +and this was the proper cause. By this Spirit he was +restored from death: neither indeed <i>was it possible for him +to be holden of it; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened +by the Spirit</i>, says St. Peter. But he is likewise declared +elsewhere to have died by that same Spirit, which here, in +opposition to the violence, is said to quicken him. Thus +Hebrews ix. 14. <i>Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself.</i> +And even from Peter's words, and without the +epithet, eternal, to aid the interpretation, it is evident that +<i>the Spirit</i>, here opposed to the flesh, body or animal life, is +of a higher nature and power than the individual <i>soul</i>, +which cannot of itself return to re-inhabit or quicken the +body.</p> + +<p>If these points were niceties, and an over-refining in +doctrine, is it to be believed that the Apostles, John, Peter +and Paul, with the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, +would have laid so great stress on them? But the true +life of Christians is to eye Christ in every step of his life—not +only as their Rule but as their Strength: looking to +him as their Pattern both in doing and in suffering, and +drawing power from him for going through both: being +<i>without him</i> able for nothing. Take comfort then, thou +that believest! <i>It is he that lifts up the Soul from the Gates +of Death</i>: and he hath said, <i>I will raise thee up at the last +day</i>. Thou that believest <i>in</i> him, believe him and take +comfort. Yea, when thou art most sunk in thy sad apprehensions, +and he far off to thy thinking, then is he nearest +to raise and comfort thee: as sometimes it grows darkest +immediately before day.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XVII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton and Coleridge.</span></p> + +<p>Would any of you be cured of that common disease, the +fear of death? Yet this is not the right name of the +disease, as a mere reference to our armies and navies is +sufficient to prove: nor can the fear of death, either as loss +of life or pain of dying, be justly held a <i>common</i> disease. +But would you be cured of the fear and fearful questionings +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">{204}</a></span> +connected with the approach of death? Look this way, and +you shall find more than you seek. Christ, the Word that +was from the beginning and was made flesh and dwelt +among men, died. And he, who dying conquered death in +his own person, conquered Sin, and Death which is the +Wages of Sin, for thee. And of this thou mayest be +assured, if only thou believe in him, and love him. I need +not add, keep his commandments: since where Faith and +Love are, Obedience in its threefold character, as Effect, +Reward, and Criterion, follows by that moral necessity +which is the highest form of freedom. The Grave is thy +bed of rest, and no longer the <i>cold</i> bed: for thy Saviour +has warmed it, and made it fragrant.</p> + +<p>If then it be health and comfort to the Faithful that +Christ descended into the grave, with especial confidence +may we meditate on his return from thence, <i>quickened by +the Spirit</i>: this being to those who are in him the certain +pledge, yea, the effectual cause of that blessed resurrection, +for which they themselves hope. There is that union betwixt +them and their Redeemer, that they shall rise by the +communication and virtue of his rising: not simply by his +<i>power</i>—for so the <i>wicked</i> likewise to their grief shall be +raised: but <i>they by his life as their life</i>.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p class="center"><i>On the three Preceding Aphorisms.</i></p> + +<p>To the reader, who has consented to submit his mind to +my temporary guidance, and who permits me to regard him +as my pupil, or junior fellow-student, I continue to address +myself. Should he exist only in my imagination, let the +bread float on the waters! If it be the Bread of Life, it will +not have been utterly cast away.</p> + +<p>Let us pause a moment, and review the road we have +passed over since the transit from Religious Morality to +Spiritual Religion. My first attempt was to satisfy you, +that there <i>is</i> a Spiritual principle in Man,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_123" id="Ref_123" href="#Foot_123">[123]</a></span> +and to expose the sophistry of the arguments in support of the contrary. +Our next step was to clear the road of all counterfeits, +by showing what is <i>not</i> the Spirit, what is <i>not</i> Spiritual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">{205}</a></span> +Religion.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_124" id="Ref_124" href="#Foot_124">[124]</a></span> +And this was followed by an attempt to establish +a difference in kind between religious truths and +the deductions of speculative science; yet so as to prove, +that the former are not only equally rational with the +latter, but that they alone appeal to reason in the fulness +and living reality of their power. This and the state +of mind requisite for the formation of right convictions +respecting spiritual truths, afterwards employed our attention. +Having then enumerated the Articles of the Christian +Faith <i>peculiar</i> to Christianity, I entered on the great +object of the present work; namely, the removal of all valid +objections to these articles on grounds of right reason or +conscience. But to render this practicable it was necessary, +first, to present each article in its true Scriptural purity, by +exposure of the caricatures of misinterpreters; and this, +again, could not be satisfactorily done till we were agreed +respecting the faculty entitled to sit in judgment on such +questions. I early foresaw, that my best chance (I will not +say, of giving an <i>insight</i> into the surpassing worth and +transcendent reasonableness of the Christian scheme, but) +of rendering the very question intelligible, depended on my +success in determining the true nature and limits of the +human <span class="smcap">Understanding</span>, and in evincing its <i>diversity</i> from +<span class="smcap">Reason</span>. In pursuing this momentous subject, I was +tempted in two or three instances into disquisitions, which +if not beyond the comprehension, were yet unsuited to the +taste, of the persons for whom the work was principally +intended. These, however, I have separated from the +running text, and compressed into notes. The reader will +at worst, I hope, pass them by as a leaf or two of waste +paper, willingly given by him to those for whom it may +not be paper <i>wasted</i>. Nevertheless, I cannot conceal, that +the subject itself supposes, on the part of the reader, a +steadiness in <i>self-questioning</i>, a pleasure in referring to his +own inward experience for the facts asserted by the author, +which can only be expected from a person who has fairly set +his heart on arriving at clear and fixed conclusions in +matters of Faith. But where this interest is felt, nothing +more than a common capacity, with the ordinary advantages +of education, is required for the complete comprehension +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">{206}</a></span> +both of the argument and the result. Let but one +thoughtful hour be devoted to the pages 143-165. In all +that follows, the reader will find no difficulty in <i>understanding</i> +the author's meaning, whatever he may have in +<i>adopting</i> it.</p> + +<p>The two great moments of the Christian Religion are, +Original Sin and Redemption; <i>that</i> the Ground, <i>this</i> the +Superstructure of our faith. The former I have exhibited, +first, according to the scheme of the Westminster Divines +and the Synod of Dort; then, according to the<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_125" id="Ref_125" href="#Foot_125">[125]</a></span> +scheme of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">{207}</a></span> +a contemporary Arminian divine; and lastly, in contrast +with both schemes, I have placed what I firmly believe to +be the <i>Scriptural</i> sense of this article, and vindicated its +entire conformity with reason and experience. I now proceed +to the other momentous article—from the necessitating +<i>Occasion</i> of the Christian Dispensation to Christianity +itself. For Christianity and Redemption are equivalent +terms. And here my Comment will be comprised in a few +sentences: for I confine my views to the one object of +clearing this awful mystery from those too current misrepresentations +of its nature and import that have laid it +open to scruples and objections, not to such as shoot forth +from an unbelieving heart—(against these a sick bed will +be a more effectual antidote than all the argument in the +world)—but to such scruples as have their birth-place in +the reason and moral sense. Not that it is a mystery—not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">{208}</a></span> +that <i>it passeth all understanding</i>;—if the doctrine be +more than an hyperbolical phrase, it must do so;—but that +it is at variance with the Law revealed in the conscience; +that it contradicts our moral instincts and intuitions—<i>this</i> is +the difficulty, which alone is worthy of an answer. And +what better way is there of correcting the misconceptions +than by laying open the source and occasion of them? +What surer way of removing the scruples and prejudices, +to which these misconceptions have given rise, than by propounding +the mystery itself—namely <span class="smcap">the Redemptive Act</span>, +as the transcendent <i>Cause</i> of Salvation—in the express and +definite words, in which it was enunciated by the Redeemer +himself?</p> + +<p>But here, in addition to the three Aphorisms preceding, +I interpose a view of redemption as appropriated by faith, +coincident with Leighton's, though for the greater part expressed +in my own words. <i>This</i> I propose as the right +view. Then follow a few sentences transcribed from Field +(an excellent divine of the reign of James I., of whose +work on the Church it would be difficult to speak too +highly)<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_127" id="Ref_127" href="#Foot_127">[127]</a></span> +containing the questions to be solved, and which is +numbered, as an Aphorism, rather to preserve the uniformity +of appearance, than as being strictly such. Then +follows the Comment: as part and commencement of which +the Reader will consider the two paragraphs of pp. 135 136, +written for this purpose and in the foresight of the present +inquiry: and I entreat him therefore to begin the Comment +by re-perusing these.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_123" id="Foot_123" href="#Ref_123">[123]</a> +Elements of Religious Philosophy, <i>ante</i>, p. 88—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_124" id="Foot_124" href="#Ref_124">[124]</a> +See <i>ante</i>, pp. 96-101.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_125" id="Foot_125" href="#Ref_125">[125]</a> +To escape the consequences of this scheme, some Arminian divines +have asserted that the penalty inflicted on Adam, and continued in his +posterity, was simply the loss of immortality, Death as the utter extinction +of personal Being: immortality being regarded by them (and not, I +think, without good reason) as a supernatural attribute, and its loss +therefore involved in the forfeiture of supernatural graces. This theory +has its golden side; and as a private opinion, is said to have the countenance +of more than one dignitary of our Church, whose general orthodoxy +is beyond impeachment. For here the <i>penalty</i> resolves itself into +the <i>consequence</i>, and this the natural and <i>naturally</i> inevitable consequence +of Adam's crime. For Adam, indeed, it was a <i>positive</i> punishment: +a punishment of his guilt, the justice of which who could have +dared arraign? While for the Offspring of Adam it was simply a <i>not</i> +super-adding to their nature the privilege by which the original man +was contra-distinguished from the brute creation—a mere negation, of +which they had no more right to complain than any other species +of animals. God in this view appears only in his attribute of mercy, +as averting by supernatural interposition a consequence naturally inevitable. +This is the golden side of the theory. But if we approach to +it from the opposite direction, it first excites a just scruple, from the +countenance it seems to give to the doctrine of Materialism. The supporters +of this scheme do not, I presume, contend, that Adam's offspring +would not have been born <i>men</i>, but have formed a new species of beasts! +And if not, the notion of a rational, and self-conscious soul, perishing +utterly with the dissolution of the organized body, seems to require, nay, +almost involves, the opinion that the soul is a quality or accident of the +body—a mere harmony resulting from organization.</p> + +<p class="nodent">But let this pass unquestioned. Whatever else the descendants of +Adam might have been without the intercession of Christ, yet (this intercession +having been effectually made) they are now endowed with +souls that are not extinguished together with the material body. Now +unless these divines teach likewise the Romish figment of Purgatory, +and to an extent in which the Church of Rome herself would denounce +the doctrine as an impious heresy: unless they hold, that a punishment +temporary and remedial is the <i>worst</i> evil that the impenitent have to apprehend +in a future state; and that the spiritual Death declared and +foretold by Christ, <i>the death eternal where the worm never dies</i>, is +neither Death nor eternal, but a certain <i>quantum</i> of suffering in a state +of faith, hope, and progressive amendment—unless they go these lengths +(and the divines here intended are orthodox Churchmen, men who +would not knowingly advance even a step on the road towards them)—then +I fear, that any advantage their theory might possess over the +Calvinistic scheme in the article of Original Sin, would be dearly purchased +by increased difficulties, and an ultra-Calvinistic narrowness in the +article of Redemption. I at least find it impossible, with my present +human feelings, not to imagine otherwise than that even in heaven it +would be a fearful thing to know, that in order to my elevation to a lot +infinitely more desirable than by nature it would have been, the lot of so +vast a multitude had been rendered infinitely more calamitous; and +that my felicity had been purchased by the everlasting misery of the +majority of my fellow-men, who if no redemption had been provided, +after inheriting the pains and pleasures of earthly existence during the +numbered hours, and the few and evil—evil yet <i>few</i>—days of the years +of their mortal life, would have fallen asleep to wake no more,—would +have sunk into the dreamless sleep of the grave, and have been as the +murmur and the plaint, and the exulting swell and the sharp scream, which +the unequal gust of yesterday snatched from the strings of a wind-harp!</p> + +<p class="nodent">In another place I have ventured to question the spirit and tendency +of Taylor's work on Repentance.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_126" id="Ref_126" href="#Foot_126">[126]</a></span> +But I ought to have added, that to +discover and keep the true medium in expounding and applying the Efficacy +of Christ's Cross and Passion, is beyond comparison the most difficult +and delicate point of practical divinity—and that which especially +needs a guidance from above.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_126" id="Foot_126" href="#Ref_126">[126]</a> +Perhaps in his "Unum Necessarium; or the Doctrine and Practice +of Repentance," part of his "Notes on Jeremy Taylor," pp. 295-325, +v. iii., of the 'Remains,' 1838.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_127" id="Foot_127" href="#Ref_127">[127]</a> +See also "Notes on Field on the Church" (1628), in Coleridge's +'Remains,' 1838, v. iii., pp. 57-92.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XVIII.</h4> + +<p><i>Stedfast by Faith.</i> This is absolutely necessary for resistance +to the Evil Principle. There is no standing out +without some firm ground to stand on: and this Faith +alone supplies. By Faith in the Love of Christ the power +of God becomes ours. When the soul is beleaguered by +enemies, weakness on the walls, treachery at the gates, +and corruption in the citadel, then by Faith she says—Lamb +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">{209}</a></span> +of God, slain from the foundation of the World! +thou art my strength! I look to thee for deliverance! +And thus she overcomes. The pollution (<i>miasma</i>) of sin +is precipitated by his blood, the power of sin is conquered +by his Spirit. The Apostle says not—stedfast by your +own resolutions and purposes; but—<i>stedfast by faith</i>. Nor +yet stedfast in your Will, but <i>stedfast in the faith</i>. We +are not to be looking to, or brooding over ourselves, either +for accusation or for confidence, or (by a deep yet too +frequent self-delusion) to obtain the latter by making a +<i>merit</i> to ourselves of the former. But we are to look to +<span class="smcap">Christ</span> and <i>him crucified</i>. The Law <i>that is very nigh to +thee, even in thy heart</i>; the Law that condemneth and hath +no promise; that stoppeth the guilty <span class="smcap">Past</span> in its swift +flight, and maketh it disown its name; the Law will +accuse thee enough. Linger not in the Justice-court, listening +to thy indictment! Loiter not in waiting to hear the +Sentence! No! Anticipate the verdict! <i>Appeal to Cæsar!</i> +Haste to the King for a pardon! Struggle thitherward, +though in fetters; and cry aloud, and collect the whole +remaining strength of thy Will in the outcry—<i>I believe! +Lord! help my unbelief!</i> Disclaim all right of property +in thy fetters. Say, that they belong to the <i>old man</i>, and +that thou dost but carry them to the Grave, to be buried +with their owner! Fix thy thought on what <i>Christ</i> did, +what <i>Christ</i> suffered, what <i>Christ</i> is—as if thou wouldst fill +the hollowness of thy Soul with Christ! If he emptied +himself of glory to become sin for thy salvation, must not +thou be emptied of thy sinful Self to become Righteousness +in and through his agony and the effective merits of his +Cross?<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_128" id="Ref_128" href="#Foot_128">[128]</a></span> +By what other means, in what other form, is it +<span class="pagenum-hide"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">{210}</a></span> +<i>possible</i> for thee to stand in the presence of the Holy One? +With <i>what</i> mind wouldst thou come before God, if not with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">{211}</a></span> +the mind of Him, in whom <i>alone</i> God loveth the world? +With good advice, perhaps, and a little assistance, thou +wouldst rather cleanse and patch up a mind of thy own, +and offer it as thy <i>admission-right</i>, thy <i>qualification</i>, to Him +who <i>charged his angels with folly</i>!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_129" id="Ref_129" href="#Foot_129">[129]</a></span> +Oh! take counsel of thy Reason! It will show thee how impossible it is, that +even a world should merit the love of Eternal Wisdom and +all sufficing Beatitude, otherwise than as it is contained in +that all-perfect Idea, in which the Supreme Spirit contemplateth +itself and the plenitude of its infinity—the Only-Begotten +before all ages! <i>the beloved Son, in whom the Father +is</i> indeed <i>well pleased</i>!</p> + +<p>And as the Mind, so the Body with which it is to be +clothed! as the Indweller, so the House in which it is to +be the Abiding-place!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_130" id="Ref_130" href="#Foot_130">[130]</a></span> +There is but one wedding-garment, +in which we can sit down at the marriage-feast +of Heaven: and that is the Bridegroom's own gift, when +<span class="pagenum-hide"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">{212}</a></span> +he gave himself for us that we might live in him and he in +us. There is but one robe of Righteousnes, even the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">{213}</a></span> +Spiritual Body, formed by the assimilative power of faith +for whoever eateth the flesh of the Son of Man and drinketh +his blood. Did Christ come from Heaven, did the Son of +God leave the glory <i>which he had with his Father before +the world began</i>, only to <i>show</i> us a way to life, to <i>teach</i> +truths, to <i>tell</i> us of a resurrection? Or saith he not, I <i>am</i> +the way—I <i>am</i> the truth—I <i>am</i> the Resurrection and the +Life?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_128" id="Foot_128" href="#Ref_128">[128]</a> +<i>God manifested in the flesh</i> is Eternity in the form of Time. But +Eternity in relation to Time is the absolute to the conditional, or the +real to the apparent, and Redemption must partake of both;—always +perfected, for it is a <i>Fiat</i> of the Eternal;—continuous, for it is a process +in relation to man; the former, the alone objectively, and therefore +universally, true. That Redemption in an <i>opus perfectum</i>, a finished +work, the claim to which is conferred in Baptism; that a Christian +cannot speak or think as if his Redemption by the blood, and his Justification +by the Righteousness of Christ alone, were future or contingent +events, but must both say and think, I <i>have been</i> redeemed, I am justified; +lastly, that for as many as are received into his Church by baptism, +Christ has condemned sin in the flesh, has made it <i>dead in law</i>, that +is, no longer imputable as <i>guilt</i>, has destroyed the <i>objective reality</i> +of sin:—these are truths, which all the Reformed Churches, +Swedish, Danish, Evangelical, (or Lutheran,) the Reformed (the Calvinistic +in mid-Germany, France, and Geneva, so called,) lastly, the +Church of England, and the Church of Scotland—nay, the best and +most learned divines of the Roman Catholic Church have united in +upholding as most certain and necessary articles of faith, and the +effectual preaching of which Luther declares to be the appropriate +criterion, <i>stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiæ</i>. The Church is standing or +falling, according as this doctrine is supported, or overlooked, or countervened. +Nor has the contrary doctrine, according to which the baptized +are yet, each individually, to be called, converted, and chosen, +with all the corollaries from this assumption, the watching for signs and +sensible assurances, "the frames," and "the states," and "the feelings," +and "the sudden conversions," the contagious fever-boils, of the (most +unfitly, so called) Evangelicals, and Arminian Methodists of the day, +been in any age taught or countenanced by any known and accredited +Christian Church, or by any body and succession of learned divines. +On the other hand it has rarely happened, that the Church has not +been troubled by pharisaic and fanatical individuals, who have sought, +by working on the fears and feelings of the weak and unsteady that +celebrity, which they could not obtain by learning and orthodoxy: and +alas! so subtle is the poison, and so malignant in its operation, that it +is almost hopeless to attempt the cure of any person, once infected, +more particularly when, as most often happens, the patient is a woman. +Nor does Luther in his numerous and admirable discourses on this +point, conceal or palliate the difficulties, which the carnal mind, that +works under many and different disguises, throws in the way to +prevent the laying firm hold of the truth. One most mischievous and +very popular mis-belief must be cleared away in the first instance—the +presumption, I mean, that whatever is not <i>quite</i> simple, and what any +plain body can understand at the first hearing, cannot be of necessary +belief, or among the fundamental articles or essentials of Christian +faith. A docile, child-like mind, a deference to the authority of the +Churches, a presumption of the truth of doctrines that have been received +and taught as true by the whole Church in all times; reliance on +the positive declarations of the Apostle—in short, all the convictions of +the truth of a doctrine that are previous to a perfect <i>insight</i> into its +truth, because these convictions, with the affections and dispositions +accompanying them, are the very means and conditions of attaining to +that insight—and study of, and quiet meditation on, them, with a gradual +growth of spiritual knowledge, and earnest prayer for its increase; all +these, to each and all of which the young Christian is so repeatedly and +fervently exhorted by St. Paul, are to be superseded, because, forsooth, +truths needful for all men, must be quite simple and easy, and adapted +to the capacity of all, even of the plainest and dullest understanding! +What cannot be poured all at once on a man, can only be supererogatory +drops from the emptied shower-bath of religious instruction! But +surely, the more rational inference would be, that the faith, which is to +save the whole man, must have its roots and justifying grounds in the +very depths of our being. And he who can read the Writings of the +Apostles, John and Paul, without finding in almost every page a confirmation +of this, must have looked at them, as at the sun in an eclipse, +through blackened glasses.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_129" id="Foot_129" href="#Ref_129">[129]</a> +Job. iv. 18.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_130" id="Foot_130" href="#Ref_130">[130]</a> +St. Paul blends both forms of expression, and asserts the same doctrine +when speaking of the <i>celestial body</i> provided for <i>the new man</i> in +the spiritual flesh and blood, (that is, the informing power and vivific +life of the incarnate Word: for the Blood is the Life, and the Flesh +the Power)—when speaking, I say, of this <i>celestial body</i>, as a <i>house not +made with hands, eternal in the heavens</i>, yet brought down to us, made +appropriable by faith, and <i>ours</i>—he adds, <i>for in this earthly house</i> (that +is, this mortal life, as the inward principle or energy of our Tabernacle, +or outward and sensible body) <i>we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed +upon with our house which is from heaven: not that we would be unclothed, +but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life</i>. 2 Cor. +v. 1-4.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The four last words of the first verse (<i>eternal in the heavens</i>) compared +with the conclusion of v. 2, (<i>which is from heaven</i>) present a coincidence +with John iii. 13, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he +that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in +heaven." [Would not the coincidence be more apparent, if the words +of John had been rendered word for word, even to a disregard of the +English idiom, and with what would be servile and superstitious fidelity +in the translation of a common classic? I can see no reason why the +<span title="oudeis">ουδεις</span>, so frequent in St. John, should +not be rendered literally, <i>no one</i>; and there may be a reason +why it should. I have some doubt likewise respecting the omission of +the definite articles <span title="ton">τον</span>, <span +title="tou">του</span>, <span title="tô">τω</span>—and a +greater, as to the <span title="ho ôn">ὁ ων</span>, both in this place +and in John i. 18, being <i>adequately</i> rendered by our <i>which +is</i>. What sense some of the Greek Fathers attached to, or inferred +from, St. Paul's <i>in the Heavens</i>, the theological student (and +to theologians is this note principally addressed) may find in +Waterland's Letters to a Country Clergyman—a divine, whose +judgment and strong sound sense are as unquestionable as his learning +and orthodoxy. A clergyman in full orders, who has never read the +works of Bull and Waterland, has a duty yet to perform.]</p> + +<p class="nodent">Let it not be objected, that, forgetful of my own professed aversion +to allegorical interpretations, I have, in this note, fallen into "the fond +humour of the mystic divines, and <i>allegorizers</i> of Holy Writ."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_131" id="Ref_131" href="#Foot_131">[131]</a></span> +There is, believe me, a wide difference between <i>symbolical</i> and <i>allegorical</i>. If +I say that the flesh and blood (<i>corpus noumenon</i>) of the Incarnate Word +are power and life, I say likewise that this mysterious power and life +are <i>verily</i> and <i>actually</i> the flesh and blood of Christ. <i>They</i> are the +allegorizers, who turn the 6th chapter of the Gospel according to St. +John,—<i>the hard saying,—who can hear it?</i>—after which time many of +Christ's disciples, who had been eye-witnesses of his mighty miracles, +who had heard the sublime morality of his Sermon on the Mount, had +glorified God for the wisdom which they had heard, and had been prepared +to acknowledge, <i>This is indeed the Christ</i>,—went back and walked +no more with him!—the hard sayings, which even <span class="smcap">the Twelve</span> were not +yet competent to understand farther than that they were to be spiritually +understood; and which the chief of the Apostles was content to receive +with an implicit and anticipative faith!—<i>they</i>, I repeat, are the allegorizers +who moralize these hard sayings, these high words of mystery, +into a hyperbolical metaphor <i>per catachresin</i>, which only means a belief +of the doctrine which Paul believed, an obedience to the law, respecting +which Paul <i>was blameless</i>, before the voice called him on the road to +Damascus! What every parent, every humane preceptor, would do +when a child had misunderstood a metaphor or apologue in a literal +sense, we all know. But the meek and merciful Jesus suffered <i>many</i> of +<span class="smcap">his</span> disciples to fall off from eternal life, when, to retain them, he had +only to say,—O ye simple-ones! why are ye offended? My words, indeed, +sound strange; but I mean no more than what you have often and often +heard from me before, with delight and entire acquiescence!—<i>Credat +Judæus! Non ego.</i> It is sufficient for me to know that I have used the +language of Paul and John, as it was understood and interpreted by +Justin Martyr. Tertullian, Irenæus, and (if he does not err) by the whole +Christian Church then existing.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_131" id="Foot_131" href="#Ref_131">[131]</a> +See Introductory Aphorisms, xxix., p. 19.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XIX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Field.</span></p> + +<p>The <i>Romanists</i> teach that sins committed after baptism +(that is, for the immense majority of Christians having Christian +parents, all their sins from the cradle to the grave) +are not so remitted for Christ's sake, but that we must suffer +that extremity of punishment which they deserve: and +therefore either we must afflict ourselves in such sort and +degree of extremity as may answer the demerit of our sins, +or be punished by God, here or in the world to come, in +such degree and sort that his Justice may be satisfied. +[<i>As the encysted venom, or poison-bag, beneath the Adder's +fang, so does this doctrine lie beneath the tremendous power +of the Romish Hierarchy. The demoralizing influence of +this dogma, and that it curdled the very life-blood in the +veins of Christendom, it was given to Luther beyond all men +since Paul to see, feel, and promulgate. And yet in his +large Treatise on Repentance, how near to the spirit of this +doctrine—even to the very walls and gates of Babylon—was +Jeremy Taylor driven, in recoiling from the fanatical extremes +of the opposite error!</i>] But they that are orthodox, teach +that it is injustice to require the payment of one debt +twice. * * * It is no less absurd to say, as the Papists do, +that <i>our</i> satisfaction is required as a condition, without +which <i>Christ's</i> satisfaction is not applicable unto us, than to +say, Peter hath paid the debt of John, and He, to whom it +was due, accepteth of the same payment on the condition +that John pay it himself also. * * * The satisfaction of +Christ is communicated and applied unto us without +suffering the punishment that sin deserveth, [<i>and essentially</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">{214}</a></span> +<i>involveth</i>,] upon the condition of our faith and repentance. +[To which I would add: Without faith there is no power +of repentance: without a commencing repentance no power +to faith: and that it is in the power of the will either +to repent or to have faith in the Gospel sense of the words, +is itself a consequence of the redemption of mankind, a +free gift of the Redeemer: the guilt of its rejection, the +refusing to avail ourselves of the power, being all that we +can consider as exclusively attributable to our own act.]<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_132" id="Ref_132" href="#Foot_132">[132]</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p class="center">(<i>Containing an Application of the Principles laid down in pp. 135, +136.</i>)</p> + +<p>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 <i>impropriation</i> of this metaphor—(that is, the taking +it <i>literally</i>) by transferring the sameness from the consequents +to the antecedents, or inferring 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 un-Scriptural.</p> + +<p>Indeed, I know not in what other instance I could better +exemplify the species of sophistry noticed in p. 147, as the +Aristotelean <span title="metabasis eis allo genos">μεταβασις εις αλλο +γενος</span>, or clandestine passing +over into a diverse kind. The purpose of a metaphor is to +illustrate a something less known by a partial identification +of it with some other thing better understood, or at least +more familiar. Now the article of Redemption may be +considered in a two-fold relation—in relation to the <i>antecedent</i>, +that is, the Redeemer's act as the efficient cause and +condition of redemption; and in relation to the <i>consequent</i>, +that is, the effects in and for the Redeemed. Now it is the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">{215}</a></span> +latter relation, in which the subject is treated of, set forth, +expanded, and enforced by St. Paul. The mysterious act, +the operative cause is <i>transcendent</i>. <i>Factum est</i>: and +beyond the information contained in the enunciation of the +<i>Fact</i>, it can be characterized only by the <i>consequences</i>. It +is the <i>consequences</i> of the Act of Redemption, which 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 +authority of Christ's original apostles and the Church in +Jerusalem, set themselves up against Paul as followers of +Cephas. Add too, that Paul himself was <i>a Hebrew of +the Hebrews</i>; intimately versed <i>in the Jews' religion above +many, his equals, in his own nation, and above measure +zealous of the traditions of his fathers</i>. It might, therefore, +have been anticipated, that his reasoning would receive +its outward forms and language, that it would take its +predominant colours, from his own <i>past</i>, and his opponents' +present, habits of thinking; and that his figures, +images, analogies, and references would be taken preferably +from objects, opinions, events, and ritual observances ever +uppermost in the imaginations of his own countrymen. +And such we find 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, that then prevailed through the +whole Roman world, and were common to Jew and Gentile.</p> + +<p>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 from which the learned Apostle +has drawn the four principal metaphors, by which he +illustrates the blessed <i>consequences</i> of Christ's redemption +of mankind. These are: 1. Sin-offerings, sacrificial expiation. +2. Reconciliation, atonement, <span +title="katallagê">καταλλαγη</span>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_133" id="Ref_133" href="#Foot_133">[133]</a></span> +3. Ransom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">{216}</a></span> +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 numerous forms and exponents of Christ's +mediation in St. Paul's writings may be referred. And the +very number and variety of the words or <i>periphrases</i> used +by him to express one and the same thing furnish the +strongest presumptive proof, that all alike were used <i>metaphorically</i>. +[In the following notation, let the small letters +represent the <i>effects</i> or <i>consequences</i>, and the capitals the +efficient <i>causes</i> or <i>antecedents</i>. Whether by causes we mean +acts or agents, is indifferent. Now let X signify a <i>transcendent</i>, +that is, a cause beyond our comprehension and not +within the sphere of sensible experience; and on the other +hand, let A, B, C, and D represent each some one known +and familiar cause, in reference to some single and characteristic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">{217}</a></span> +effect: namely, A in reference to k, B to l, C to m, +and D to n. Then I say X + k l m n is in different places +expressed by A + k; B + l; C + m; D + n.—And these I +should call <i>metaphorical</i> exponents of X.]</p> + +<p>Now John, the beloved Disciple, who leaned on the +Lord's bosom, the Evangelist <span title="kata pneuma">κατα πνευμα</span>, that is, according +to the <i>Spirit</i>, the inner and substantial truth of the +Christian creed—John, recording the Redeemer's own +words, enunciates the fact itself, to the full extent in which +it is enunciable for the human mind, simply and <i>without +any metaphor</i>, by identifying it <i>in kind</i> with a fact of hourly +occurrence—<i>expressing</i> it, I say, by a familiar fact the same +<i>in kind</i> with that intended, though of a far lower <i>dignity</i>;—by +a fact of every man's experience, <i>known</i> to all, yet not +better <i>understood</i> than the fact described by it. In the +Redeemed it is a re-<i>generation</i>, a <i>birth</i>, a spiritual seed +impregnated and evolved, the germinal principle of a higher +and enduring life, of a <i>spiritual</i> life—that is, a life the +actuality of which is not dependent on the material body, +or limited by the circumstances and processes indispensable +to its organization and subsistence. Briefly, it is the +<i>differential</i> of immortality, of which the assimilative power +of faith and love is the <i>integrant</i>, and the life in Christ the +<i>integration</i>.</p> + +<p>But even this would be an imperfect statement, if we +omitted the awful truth, that besides that dissolution of +our earthly tabernacle which we call death, there is another +death, not the mere negation of life, but its positive opposite. +And as there is a mystery of life and an assimilation +to the principle of life, even to him who is <i>the</i> Life; so is +there a mystery of death and an assimilation to the principle +of evil; a fructifying of the corrupt seed, of which death +is the germination. Thus the regeneration to spiritual +life is at the same time a redemption from the spiritual +death.</p> + +<p>Respecting the redemptive act itself, and the Divine +Agent, we know from revelation that he <i>was made a quickening</i> +(<span title="zôopoioun">ζωοποιουν</span>, <i>life-making</i>) +<i>spirit</i>: and that in order to this +it was necessary, that God should be <i>manifested in the flesh</i>, +that the Eternal Word, through whom and by whom the +world (<span title="kosmos">κοσμος</span>, the order, beauty, and sustaining law of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">{218}</a></span> +visible natures) was and is, should be made flesh, assume +our humanity personally, fulfil all righteousness, and so +suffer and so die for us as in dying to conquer 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 apostacy, +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 mystery of +our <i>natural</i> life, and <i>its</i> conjunction with mind and will and +personal identity. Even the truths that are given to us to +know, we can know only through faith in the spirit. They +are spiritual things which must be spiritually discerned. +Such, however, being the means and the effects 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 <i>effect</i> to describe the superlative 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 <i>all</i> his hearers with feelings of joy, +confidence, and gratitude.</p> + +<p>Do you rejoice when the atonement made by the priest +has removed the civil stain from your name, restored you +to your privileges as a son of Abraham, and replaced you +in the respect of your brethren?—Here is an atonement +which takes away a deeper and worse stain, an eating +canker-spot in the very heart of your personal being. This, +to as many as receive it, gives the privilege to become sons +of God (John i. 12); this will admit you to the society of +angels, and insure to you the rights of brotherhood with +spirits made perfect.—(Heb. xii. 22.) Here is a sacrifice, +a sin-offering for the whole world: and a High Priest, who +is indeed a Mediator, who not in type or shadow but in very +truth and in his own right stands in the place of Man to +God, and of God to Man; and who receives as a Judge +what he offered as an Advocate.</p> + +<p>Would you be grateful to one who had ransomed you +from slavery under a bitter foe, or who brought you out of +captivity? Here is redemption from a far direr slavery, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">{219}</a></span> +slavery of sin unto death; and he, who gave himself for +the ransom, has taken captivity captive.</p> + +<p>Had you by your own fault alienated yourself from your +best, your only sure friend;—had you, like a prodigal, cast +yourself out of your father's house;—would you not love +the good Samaritan, who should reconcile you to your +friend? Would you not prize above all price the intercession, +which had brought you back from husks, and the +tending of swine, and restored you to your father's arms, +and seated you at your father's table?</p> + +<p>Had you involved yourself in a heavy <span class="smcap">debt</span> for certain +gew-gaws, for high seasoned meats, and intoxicating drinks, +and glistering apparel, and in default of payment had made +yourself over as a bondsman to a hard creditor, who it was +foreknown, would enforce the bond of judgment to the last +tittle;—with what emotions would you not receive the glad +tidings, that a stranger, or a friend whom in the days of +your wantonness you had neglected and reviled, had paid +the <span class="smcap">debt</span> for you, had made <span +class="smcap">satisfaction</span> to your creditor? +But you have incurred a debt of Death to the <span class="smcap">Evil Nature</span>! +you have sold yourself over to <span class="smcap">Sin</span>! and relatively to <i>you</i>, +and to all <i>your</i> means and resources, the seal on the bond is +the seal of necessity! Its stamp is the <i>nature</i> of evil. But +the stranger has appeared, the forgiving friend has come, +even the Son of God from heaven: and to as many as have +faith in his name, I say—the Debt is paid for you. The +Satisfaction has been made.</p> + +<p>Now to simplify the argument and at the same time to +bring the question to the test, we will confine our attention +to the figure last mentioned, viz. the satisfaction of a debt. +Passing by our modern <i>Alogi</i> who find nothing but metaphors +in either Apostle, let us suppose for a moment with +certain divines, that our Lord's words, recorded by John, +and which in all places repeat and assert the same analogy, +are to be regarded as metaphorical; and that it is the +varied expressions of St. Paul that are to be literally interpreted:—for +example, that sin is, or involves, an infinite +debt, (in the proper and law-court sense of the word debt)—a +debt owing by us to the vindictive justice of God the +Father, which can only be liquidated by the everlasting +misery of Adam and all his posterity, or by a sum of suffering +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">{220}</a></span> +equal to this. Likewise, that God the Father by his +absolute decree, or (as some divines teach) through the +necessity of his unchangeable justice, had determined to +exact the full sum; which must, therefore, be paid either +by ourselves or by some other in our name and behalf. +But besides the debt which <i>all</i> mankind contracted in and +through Adam, as a <i>homo publicus</i>, even as a nation is bound +by the acts of its head or its plenipotentiary, every man +(say these divines) is an insolvent debtor on his own score. +In this fearful predicament the Son of God took compassion +on mankind, and resolved to pay the debt for us, and to +satisfy the divine justice by a perfect equivalent. Accordingly, +by a strange yet strict <i>consequence</i>, it has been holden +by more than one of these divines, that the agonies suffered +by Christ were equal in amount to the sum total of the +torments of all mankind here and hereafter, or to the infinite +debt, which in an endless succession of instalments we +should have been paying to the divine justice, had it not +been paid in full by the Son of God incarnate!</p> + +<p>It is easy to say—"O but I do not hold this, or <i>we</i> do +not make this an article of our belief!" The true question +is: "Do you take any <i>part</i> of it: and can you reject the +rest without being <i>inconsequent</i>?" Are debt, satisfaction, +payment in full, creditor's <i>rights</i>, and the like, <i>nomina propria</i>, +by which the very nature of Redemption and its +occasion is expressed;—or are they, with several others, +figures of speech for the purpose of illustrating the nature +and extent of the consequences and effects of the redemptive +Act, and to excite in the receivers a due sense of the magnitude +and manifold operation of the Boon, and of the Love +and gratitude due to the Redeemer? If still you reply, the +former: <i>then</i>, as your whole theory is grounded on a notion +of <i>justice</i>, I ask you—Is this justice a <i>moral</i> attribute? But +morality commences with, and begins in, the sacred distinction +between thing and person: on this distinction all +law human and divine is grounded: consequently, the law +of justice. If you attach any meaning to the term justice, +as applied to God, it must be the same to which you refer +when you affirm or deny it of any other personal agent—save +only, that in its attribution to God, you speak of it as +unmixed and perfect. For if not, what <i>do</i> you mean? And +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">{221}</a></span> +why do you call it by the same name? I may, therefore, +with all right and reason, put the case as between man and +man. For should it be found irreconcilable with the justice, +which the light of reason, made <i>law</i> in the conscience, +dictates to <i>man</i>, how much more must it be incongruous +with the all-perfect justice of God! Whatever case I should +imagine would be felt by the reader as below the dignity of +the subject, and in some measure jarring with his feelings; +and in other respects the more familiar the case, the better +suited to the present purpose.</p> + +<p>A sum of £1,000 is owing from James to Peter, for +which James has given a bond. He is insolvent, and the +bond is on the point of being put in suit against him, to +James's utter ruin. At this moment Matthew steps in, +pays Peter the thousand pounds and discharges the bond. +In this case, no man would hesitate to admit, that a complete +<i>satisfaction</i> had been made to Peter. Matthew's +£1,000 is a perfect equivalent for the sum which James +was bound to have paid, and which Peter had lent. <i>It is +the same thing</i>: and this is altogether a question of <i>things</i>. +Now instead of James's being indebted to Peter for a sum +of money, which (he having become insolvent) Matthew +pays for him, we will put the case, that James had been +guilty of the basest and most hard-hearted ingratitude to a +most worthy and affectionate mother, who had not only +performed all the duties and tender offices of a mother, +but whose whole heart was bound up in this her only +child—who had foregone all the pleasures and amusements +of life in watching over his sickly childhood, had sacrificed +her health and the far greater part of her resources to +rescue him from the consequences of his follies and excesses +during his youth and early manhood; and to procure for +him the means of his present rank and affluence—all +which he had repaid by neglect, desertion, and open profligacy. +Here the mother stands in the relation of the +creditor: and here too I will suppose the same generous +friend to interfere, and to perform with the greatest tenderness +and constancy all those duties of a grateful and +affectionate son, which James ought to have performed. +Will this satisfy the Mother's claims on James, or entitle +him to her esteem, approbation, and blessing? Or what +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">{222}</a></span> +if Matthew, the vicarious son, should at length address +her in words to this purpose:—"Now, I trust, you are +appeased, and will be henceforward reconciled to James. +I have satisfied all your claims on him. I have paid his +debt in full: and you are too just to require the same +debt to be paid twice over. You will therefore regard +him with the same complacency, and receive him into your +presence with the same love, as if there had been no difference +between him and you. For I have <i>made it up</i>." +What other reply could the swelling heart of the mother +dictate than this? "O misery! and is it possible that <i>you</i> +are in league with my unnatural child to insult me? Must +not the very necessity of <i>your</i> abandonment of your proper +sphere form an additional evidence of <i>his</i> guilt? Must +not the sense of your goodness teach me more fully to +comprehend, more vividly to feel, the evil in him? Must +not the contrast of your merits magnify his demerit in his +mother's eye, and at once recall and embitter the conviction +of the canker-worm in his soul?"</p> + +<p>If indeed by the force of Matthew's example, by persuasion +or by additional and more mysterious influences, or +by an inward co-agency, compatible with the existence of +a personal will, James should be led to repent; if through +admiration and love of this great goodness gradually +assimilating his mind to the mind of his benefactor, he +should in his own person become a grateful and dutiful +child—<i>then</i> doubtless the mother would be wholly satisfied! +But then the case is no longer a question of <i>things</i>, or +a matter of <i>debt</i> payable by another. Nevertheless, the +<i>effect</i>,—and the reader will remember, that it is the <i>effects</i> +and <i>consequences</i> of Christ's mediation, on which St. Paul +is dilating—the effect to <i>James</i> is similar in both cases, +that is, in the case of James the debtor, and of James the +undutiful son. In both cases, James is liberated from a +grievous burthen; and in both cases he has to attribute his +liberation to the act and free grace of another. The only +<i>difference is</i>, that in the former case (namely, the payment +of the debt) the beneficial act is <i>singly</i>, and without +requiring any re-action or co-agency on the part of James, +the efficient <i>cause</i> of his liberation: while in the latter +case (namely, that of Redemption) the beneficial act +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">{223}</a></span> +is the <i>first</i>, the indispensable <i>condition</i>, and <i>then</i> the <i>coefficient</i>.</p> + +<p>The professional student of theology will, perhaps, understand +the different positions asserted in the preceding +argument more readily if they are presented <i>synoptically</i>, +that is, brought at once within his view, in the form of +answers to four questions, comprising the constituent +parts of the Scriptural Doctrine of Redemption. And I +trust that my lay readers of both sexes will not allow +themselves to be scared from the perusal of the following +short catechism by half a dozen Latin words, or rather +words with Latin endings, that translate themselves into +English, when I dare assure them, that they will encounter +no other obstacle to their full and easy comprehension of +the contents.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Synopsis of the Constituent Points in the Doctrine of Redemption, +in Four Questions, with Correspondent Answers.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Questions.</i></p> + +<table class="tbl" summary="Redemption"> + +<tr><td></td> + <td> 1. <i>Agens Causator?</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Who (or What) is the</td> + <td> 2. <i>Actus Causativus?</i></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> 3. <i>Effectum Causatum?</i></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> 4. <i>Consequentia ab Effecto?</i></td></tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"><i>Answers.</i></p> + +<p>I. The Agent and Personal Cause of the Redemption +of Mankind is—the co-eternal Word and only begotten +Son of the Living God, incarnate, tempted, agonizing +(<i>agonistes</i> <span title="agônizomenos">αγωνιζομενος</span>), +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.</p> + +<p>II. The causative act is—a spiritual and transcendent +Mystery, <i>that passeth all understanding</i>.</p> + +<p>III. The Effect caused is—the being born anew: as +before in the <i>flesh</i> to the world, so now born in the <i>spirit</i> to +Christ.</p> + +<p>IV. The Consequences from the Effect are—Sanctification +from Sin, and Liberation from the inherent and penal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">{224}</a></span> +consequences of Sin in the World to come, with all the +means and processes 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.</p> + +<p>Now I complain that this metaphorical <i>naming</i> of the +transcendent causative act through the <i>medium</i> of its proper +effects from actions and causes of familiar occurrence +connected with the former by similarity of result, has been +mistaken for an intended designation of the essential +character of the causative act itself; and that thus divines +have interpreted <i>de omni</i> what was spoken <i>de singulo</i>, and +magnified a <i>partial equation</i> into a <i>total identity</i>.</p> + +<p>I will merely hint, to my more <i>learned</i> readers, and to +the professional students of theology, that the origin of this +error is to be sought for in the discussions of the Greek +Fathers, and (at a later period) of the Schoolmen, on the +obscure and <i>abysmal</i> subject of the divine <i>A-seity</i>, and the +distinction between the <span title="thelêma">θελημα</span> and the +<span title="boulê">βουλη</span>, that is, the +Absolute Will, as the universal <i>ground</i> of <i>all</i> Being, and +the election and purpose of God in the personal idea, as the +Father. And this view would have allowed me to express +what I believe to be the true import and scriptural idea of +Redemption in terms much more nearly resembling those +used ordinarily by the Calvinistic divines, and with a +conciliative <i>show</i> of coincidence. But this motive was +outweighed by the reflection, that I could not rationally +have expected to be understood by those to whom I most +wish to be intelligible: <i>et si non vis intelligi, cur vis legi?</i></p> + +<p>Not to countervene the purpose of a Synopsis, I have +detached the confirmative or explanatory remarks from the +Answers to Questions II. and III., and place them below +as <i>scholia</i>. A single glance of the eye will enable the +reader to re-connect each with the sentence it is supposed +to follow.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">{225}</a></span></p> + +<p class="center-small">SCHOLIUM TO ANSWER II.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, <i>the fact or actual truth having been assured +to us by Revelation</i>, it is not impossible, by stedfast meditation +on the idea and super-natural character of a personal +<span class="smcap">Will</span>, for a mind spiritually disciplined to satisfy itself, +that the redemptive act <i>supposes</i> (and that our redemption +is even negatively <i>conceivable</i> only on the supposition of) +an agent who can at once act <i>on</i> the Will as an exciting +cause, <i>quasi ab extra</i>; and <i>in</i> the Will, as the <i>condition</i> of +its potential, and the <i>ground</i> of its actual, being.</p> + +<p class="center-small">SCHOLIUM TO ANSWER III.</p> + +<p>Where two subjects, that stand to each other in the +relation of <i>antithesis</i> or contradistinction, are connected by +a middle term common to <i>both</i>, the sense of this middle +term is indifferently determinable by <i>either</i>; the preferability +of the one or the other in any given case being +decided by the circumstance of our more frequent experience +of, or greater familiarity with, the Term, in <i>this</i> +connexion. Thus, if I put hydrogen and oxygen gas, as +opposite poles, the term <i>gas</i> is common to both; and it is a +matter of indifference, by which of the two bodies I ascertain +the sense of the term. But if for the conjoint purposes +of connexion and contrast, I oppose transparent +crystallized alumen to opaque derb, or uncrystallized +alumen;—it may easily happen to be far more <i>convenient</i> +for me to show the sense of the middle term, that is, +alumen, by a piece of pipe-clay than by a sapphire or ruby; +especially if I should be describing the beauty and preciousness +of the latter to a peasant woman, or in a district +where a ruby was a rarity which the fewest only had an +opportunity of seeing. This is a plain rule of common +logic directed in its application by common sense.</p> + +<p>Now let us apply this to the case in hand. The two +opposites <i>here</i> are Flesh and Spirit, <i>this</i> in relation to <i>Christ</i>, +<i>that</i> in relation to the <i>World</i>; and these two opposites are +connected by the middle term, <i>Birth</i>, which is of course +common to both. But for the same reason, as in the +instance last mentioned, the interpretation of the common +term is to be ascertained from its known sense, in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">{226}</a></span> +more familiar connexion—birth, namely, in relation to our +natural life and to the organized body, by which we belong +to the present world.—Whatever the word signifies in this +connexion, the same <i>essentially</i> (in <i>kind</i> though not in +dignity and value) must be its signification in the other. +How else could it be (what yet in this text it undeniably +<i>is</i>), the <i>punctum indifferens</i>, or <i>nota communis</i>, of the <i>thesis</i>, +Flesh; or the World, and the <i>antithesis</i> Spirit; or Christ? +We might therefore, upon the supposition of a writer having +been speaking of river-water in distinction from rain-water, +as rationally pretend that in the latter phrase the term, +water, was to be understood metaphorically, as that the +word, birth, is a metaphor, and means only so and so, in +the Gospel according to St. John.</p> + +<p>There is, I am aware, a numerous and powerful party in +our Church, so numerous and powerful as not seldom to be +entitled <i>the</i> Church, who hold and publicly teach, that +"Regeneration is only Baptism." Nay, the writer of the +article on the Lives of Scott and Newton in our ablest and +most respectable Review<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_134" id="Ref_134" href="#Foot_134">[134]</a></span> +is but one among many who +do not hesitate to brand the contrary opinion as heterodoxy, +and schismatical superstition. I trust, that I think +as seriously as most men, of the evil of schism; but with +every disposition to pay the utmost deference to an acknowledged +majority including, it is said, a very large proportion +of the present dignitaries of our Church, I cannot but +think it a sufficient reply, that if Regeneration means +Baptism, Baptism must mean Regeneration; and this too, +as Christ himself has declared, a Regeneration in the +Spirit. Now I would ask these divines this simple +question: Do they believingly suppose a spiritual regenerative +power and agency inhering in or accompanying the +sprinkling a few drops of water on an infant's face? They +cannot evade the question by saying that Baptism is a <i>type</i> +or <i>sign</i>. For this would be to supplant their own assertion, +that Regeneration means Baptism, by the contradictory +admission, that Regeneration is the <i>significatum</i>, of which +Baptism is the significant. Unless, indeed, they would +incur the absurdity of saying, that Regeneration is a type +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">{227}</a></span> +of Regeneration, and Baptism a type of itself—or that +Baptism only means Baptism! And this indeed is the +plain consequence to which they might be driven, should +they answer the above question in the negative.</p> + +<p>But if their answer be, "Yes! we do suppose and believe +this efficiency in the Baptismal act"—I have not another +word to say. Only, perhaps, I might be permitted to express +a hope, that for consistency's sake they would speak +less slightingly of the <i>insufflation</i>, and <i>extreme unction</i>, used +in the Romish Church; notwithstanding the not easily to +be answered arguments of our Christian Mercury, the +all-eloquent Jeremy Taylor, respecting the latter, which, +"since it is used when the man is above half dead, when +he can exercise no act of understanding, it must needs be +nothing; for no rational man can think that any ceremony can +make a spiritual change without a spiritual act of him that +is to be changed; nor work by way of nature, or by charm, +but morally and after the manner of reasonable creatures."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_135" id="Ref_135" href="#Foot_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is too obvious to require suggestion, that these words +here quoted apply with yet greater force and propriety to the +point in question: as the babe is an unconscious subject, +which the dying man need not be supposed to be. My +avowed convictions respecting Regeneration with the spiritual +Baptism, as its condition and initiative (Luke iii. +16; Matt. i. 7; Matt. iii. 11), and of which the sacramental +rite, the Baptism of John, was appointed by Christ to +remain as the sign and figure; and still more, perhaps, my +belief respecting the Mystery of the Eucharist, (concerning +which I hold the same opinions as Bucer,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_136" id="Ref_136" href="#Foot_136">[136]</a></span> +Peter Martyr, +and presumably Cranmer himself)—these convictions and +this belief will, I doubt not, be deemed by the Orthodox <i>de +more Grotii</i>, who improve the <i>letter</i> of Arminius with the +<i>spirit</i> of Socinus, sufficient data to bring me in guilty of +irrational and Superstitious Mysticism. But I abide by a +maxim, which I learnt at an early period of my theological +studies, from Benedict Spinoza:—Where the alternative +lies between the Absurd and the Incomprehensible, no wise +man can be at a loss which of the two to prefer. To be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">{228}</a></span> +<i>called</i> irrational, is a trifle; to <i>be</i> so, and in matters of religion, +is far otherwise: and whether the irrationality consists +in men's believing (that is, in having persuaded themselves +that they believe) <i>against</i> reason, or <i>without</i> reason, +I have been early instructed to consider it as a sad and +serious evil, pregnant with mischiefs, political and moral. +And by none of my numerous instructors so impressively, +as by that great and shining light of our Church in the +æra of our intellectual splendour, Bishop Jeremy Taylor: +from one of whose works, and that of especial authority +for the safety as well as for the importance of the principle, +inasmuch as it was written expressly <i>ad populum</i>, I will +now, both for its own intrinsic worth, and to relieve the +attention, wearied, perhaps, by the length and argumentative +character of the preceding <i>discussion</i>, interpose the following +Aphorism.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_137" id="Ref_137" href="#Foot_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_132" id="Foot_132" href="#Ref_132">[132]</a> +Dr. Richard Field's "Of the Church," folio ed., Oxford, 1628, +p. 58.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_133" id="Foot_133" href="#Ref_133">[133]</a> +This word occurs but once in the New Testament, Romans v. +11, the marginal rendering being <i>reconciliation</i>. The personal noun, +<span title="katallaktês">καταλλακτης</span>, is still in use with the +modern Greeks for a money-changer, +or one who takes the debased currency, so general in countries under a +despotic or other dishonest government, in exchange for sterling coin +or bullion; the purchaser paying the <i>catallage</i>, that is, the difference. In +the elder Greek writers, the verb means <i>to exchange for an opposite</i>, as, +<span title="katallasseto tên echthrên tois stasiôtais">κατακκασσετο +την εχθρην τοις στασιωταις</span>.—He exchanged within himself +enmity for friendship, (that is, he reconciled himself) with his party;—or, +as we say, <i>made it up</i> with them, an idiom which (with whatever +loss of dignity) gives the exact force of the word. He made <i>up the +difference</i>. The Hebrew word of very frequent occurrence in the Pentateuch, +which we render by the substantive, <i>atonement</i>, has its radical +or visual image, in <i>copher</i>, pitch. Gen. vi. 14: <i>Thou shalt pitch it within +and without with pitch</i>. Hence to unite, to fill up a breach, or leak, the +word expressing both the <i>act</i>, namely, the bringing together what had been +previously separated, and the <i>means</i>, or material, by which the re-union +is effected, as in our English verbs, <i>to caulk</i>, <i>to solder</i>, <i>to poy</i> or <i>pay</i> +(from <i>poix</i>, pitch), and the French <i>suiver</i>. Thence, metaphorically, +<i>expiation</i>, the <i>piacula</i> having the same root, and being grounded on +another property or use of gums and resins, the supposed <i>cleansing</i> +powers of their fumigation. Numbers viii. 21: <i>made atonement for +the Levites to cleanse them</i>.—Lastly (or if we are to believe the Hebrew +Lexicons, <i>properly</i> and most <i>frequently</i>) it means <i>ransom</i>. But if by <i>proper</i> +the Interpreters mean <i>primary</i> and <i>radical</i>, the assertion does not need a +confutation: all radicals belonging to one or other of three classes. 1. +Interjections, or sounds expressing sensations or passions. 2. Imitations +of sounds, as splash, roar, whiz, &c. 3. and principally, visual images, +objects of sight. But as to <i>frequency</i>, in all the numerous (fifty, I +believe,) instances of the word in the Old Testament, I have not found +one in which it can, or at least need, be rendered by <i>ransom</i>: though +beyond all doubt <i>ransom</i> is used in the Epistle to Timothy, as an +<i>equivalent</i> term.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_134" id="Foot_134" href="#Ref_134">[134]</a> +Review of the Memoirs of the Rev. J. Scott and Rev. J. Newton, +'Quarterly Review,' April, 1824.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_135" id="Foot_135" href="#Ref_135">[135]</a> +Dedication to Taylor's 'Holy Dying,' p. 295, Bohn's Standard +Library edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_136" id="Foot_136" href="#Ref_136">[136]</a> +Appendix to Strype's 'Life of Cranmer.'—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_137" id="Foot_137" href="#Ref_137">[137]</a> +Slightly altered from the 'Worthy Communicant,' chap. iii. sect. v.; +p. 523, vol. xv. of Heber's edition of Jeremy Taylor's works.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor.</span></p> + +<p>Whatever is against right reason, that no faith can oblige +us to believe. For though reason is not the positive and +affirmative measure of our faith, and our faith ought to be +larger than our [<i>speculative</i>] reason, and <i>take</i> something +into her heart, that reason can never take into her eye; yet +in all our creed there can be nothing <i>against</i> reason. If +reason justly contradicts an article, it is not "of the household +of Faith." In this there is no difficulty, but that in +practice we take care that we do not call <i>that</i> reason, which +is not so (<i>see</i> p. 122). For although reason is a right +judge,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_138" id="Ref_138" href="#Foot_138">[138]</a></span> +yet it ought not to pass sentence in an inquiry of +faith, until all the information be brought in; all that is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">{229}</a></span> +within, and all that is without, all that is above, and all +that is below; all that concerns it in experience, and all +that concerns it in act: whatsoever is of pertinent observation +and whatsoever is revealed. For else reason may +argue very well and yet conclude falsely. It may conclude +well in logic, and yet infer a false proposition in theology +(p. 115). But when our judge is fully and truly informed +in all that whence she is to make her judgment, we may +safely follow her whithersoever she invites us.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_138" id="Foot_138" href="#Ref_138">[138]</a> +Which it could not be, in respect of spiritual truths and objects +super-sensuous, if it were the same with, and merely another name for +"the faculty judging according to sense"—that is, the Understanding, +or (as Taylor most often calls it in distinction from Reason) <i>Discourse</i> +(<i>discursus seu facultas discursiva vel discursoria</i>). The Reason, so instructed +and so actuated as Taylor requires in the sentences immediately +following, is what I have called the Spirit. [See also note near the end +of Aphorism VIII.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> +</div> + +<h4>APHORISM XXI.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor.</span></p> + +<p>He that speaks against his own reason, speaks against +his own conscience: and therefore it is certain, no man +serves God with a good conscience, who serves him against +his reason.</p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor.</span></p> + +<p>By the eye of reason through the telescope of faith, that +is, Revelation, we may see what without this telescope we +could never have known to exist. But as one that shuts +the eye hard, and with violence curls the eye-lid, forces a +fantastic fire from the crystalline humour, and espies a +light that never shines, and sees thousands of little fires +that never burn; so is he that blinds the eye of reason, +and pretends to see by an eye of faith. He makes little +images of notions, and some atoms dance before him; but +he is not guided by the light, nor instructed by the proposition, +but sees like a man in his sleep. <span class="smcap">In no case can +true Reason and a right Faith oppose each other</span>.</p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Note Prefatory to Aphorism XXIII.</span></h5> + +<p>Less on my own account, than in the +hope of fore-arming my youthful friends, I add one other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">{230}</a></span> +transcript from Bishop Taylor, as from a writer to whose +name no taint or suspicion of Calvinistic or schismatical +tenets can attach, and for the purpose of softening the +offence which, I cannot but foresee, will be taken at the +positions asserted in paragraph the first of Aphorism VII., +and the documental proofs of the same in the next pages; +and this by a formidable party composed of men ostensibly +of the most dissimilar creeds, <i>regular</i> Church-divines, voted +orthodox by a great majority of suffrages, and the so-called +Free-thinking Christians, and Unitarian divines. It is the +<i>former</i> class alone that I wish to conciliate: so far at least +as it may be done by removing the aggravation of <i>novelty</i> +from the offensive article. And surely the simple re-assertion +of one of "the two great things," which Bishop Taylor +could assert as a fact,—which, he took for granted, that +no Christian would think of controverting,—should at +least be controverted without bitterness by his successors +in the Church. That which was perfectly safe and orthodox +in 1657, in the judgment of a devoted Royalist and +Episcopalian, ought to be at most but a venial heterodoxy +in 1825. For the rest, I am prepared to hear in answer—what +has already been so often, and with such theatrical +effect dropped, as an <i>extinguisher</i>, on my arguments—the +famous concluding period of one of the chapters in Paley's +Moral and Political Philosophy, declared by Dr. Parr to +be the <i>finest</i> prose passage in English literature.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_139" id="Ref_139" href="#Foot_139">[139]</a></span> +Be it so. I bow to so great an authority. But if the learned +Doctor would impose it on me as the <i>truest</i> as well as the +finest, or expect me to admire the logic equally with the +rhetoric—<span title="aphistamai">αφισταμαι</span>—I start +off! As I have been <i>un-English</i> +enough to find in Pope's tomb-epigram on Sir +Isaac Newton nothing better than a gross and wrongful +falsehood, conveyed in an enormous and irreverent hyperbole; +so with regard to this passage in question, free as it +is from all faults of taste, I have yet the hardihood to confess, +that in the sense in which the words <i>discover</i> and +<i>prove</i>, are here used and intended, I am not convinced of +the truth of the principle, (that he alone discovers who +proves), and I question the correctness of the particular +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">{231}</a></span> +case, brought as instance and confirmation. I <i>doubt</i> the +validity of the assertion as a <i>general</i> rule; and I <i>deny</i> it, +as applied to matters of <i>faith</i>, to the verities of religion, in +the belief of which there must always be somewhat of +moral election, "an act of the <i>Will</i> in it as well as of the +Understanding, as much <i>love</i> in it as discursive power. +True Christian Faith must have in it something of in-evidence, +something that must be made up by duty and by +obedience."<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_140" id="Ref_140" href="#Foot_140">[140]</a></span> +But most readily do I admit, and most fervently +do I contend, that the miracles worked by Christ, +both as miracles and as fulfilments of prophecy, both as +signs and as wonders, made plain discovery, and gave unquestionable +proof, of his divine character and authority; +that they were to the whole Jewish nation true and appropriate +evidences, that <span class="smcap">He</span> was indeed come who had promised +and declared to their forefathers, <i>Behold your God +will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense</i>. <i>He +will come and save you.</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_141" id="Ref_141" href="#Foot_141">[141]</a></span> +I receive them as proofs, therefore, +of the truth of every word, which he taught who was +himself <span class="smcap">The Word</span>: and as sure evidences of the final +victory over death and of the life to come, in that they +were manifestations of <span class="smcap">Him</span>, who said: <i>I am the resurrection +and the Life!</i></p> + +<p>The obvious inference from the passage in question, if +not its express import, is: <i>Miracula experimenta crucis esse, +quibus solis probandum erat, homines non, pecudum instar, +omnino perituros esse</i>. Now this doctrine I hold to be +altogether alien from the <i>spirit</i>, and without authority in +the <i>letter</i>, of Scripture. I can recall nothing in the history +of human belief, that should induce me, I find nothing in +my own moral being that enables me, to understand it. I +can, however, perfectly well understand, the readiness of +<i>those</i> divines in <i>hoc Paleii dictum ore pleno jurare, qui nihil +aliud in toto Evangelio invenire posse profitentur</i>. The most +unqualified admiration of this superlative passage I find +perfectly in character for those, who while Socinianism and +Ultra-Socinianism are spreading like the roots of an elm, +on and just below the surface, through the whole land, and +<i>here and there</i> at least have even dipped under the garden-fence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">{232}</a></span> +of the Church, and blunted the edge of the labourer's +spade in the gayest <i>parterres</i> of our Baal-hamon, who,—while +heresies, to which the framers and compilers of our +Liturgy, Homilies, and Articles would have refused the +very name of Christianity, meet their eyes on the list of +religious denominations for every city and large town +throughout the kingdom—can yet congratulate themselves +with Dr. Paley, in his book on the Evidences, that <i>the rent +has not reached the foundation</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_142" id="Ref_142" href="#Foot_142">[142]</a></span> +—that is, that the corruption +of man's will; that the responsibility of man in any sense +in which it is not equally predicable of dogs and horses; +that the divinity of our Lord, and even his pre-existence; +that sin, and redemption through the merits of Christ; +and grace; and the especial aids of the Spirit; and +the efficacy of prayer; and the subsistency of the Holy +Ghost; may all be extruded without breach or rent in the +essentials of Christian Faith;—that a man may deny and +renounce them all, and remain a <i>fundamental</i> Christian, +notwithstanding. But there are many who cannot keep +up with Latitudinarians of such a stride; and I trust that +the majority of serious believers are in this predicament. +Now for all these it would seem more in character to be of +Bishop Taylor's opinion, that the belief in question is <i>presupposed</i> +in a convert to the Truth in Christ—but at all +events not to circulate in the great whispering gallery of +the religious public suspicions and hard thoughts of those +who, like myself, are of this opinion; who do not dare +decry the religious instincts of humanity as a baseless +dream; who hold, that to excavate the ground under the +faith of all mankind, is a very questionable method of +building up our faith, as Christians; who fear, that instead +of adding to, they should detract from, the honour of the +Incarnate Word by disparaging the light of the Word, +that was in the beginning, and which lighteth <i>every</i> man; +and who, under these convictions, can tranquilly leave it to +be disputed, in some new Dialogues in the shades, between +the fathers of the Unitarian Church on the one side, and +Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, and Lessing on the other, +whether the famous passage in Paley does or does not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">{233}</a></span> +contain the three dialectic flaws, <i>petitio principii</i>, <i>argumentum +in circulo</i>, and <i>argumentum contra rem a premisso rem +ipsam includente</i>.</p> + +<p>Yes! fervently do I contend, that to satisfy the understanding, +that there is a future state, was not the <i>specific</i> +Object of the Christian Dispensation; and that neither the +belief of a future state, nor the <i>rationality</i> of this belief, is +the <i>exclusive</i> attribute of the Christian religion. An <i>essential</i>, +a <i>fundamental</i>, article of <i>all</i> religion it is, and therefore +of the Christian; but otherwise than as in connexion with +the salvation of mankind from the <i>terrors</i> of that state +among the essential articles <i>peculiar</i> to the Gospel Creed +(those, for instance, by which it is <i>contra</i>-distinguished +from the creed of a religious Jew) I do not place it. And +before sentence is passed against me, as heterodox, on this +ground, let not my judges forget, who it was that assured +us, that if a man did not believe in a state of retribution +after death, previously and on other grounds, <i>neither would +he believe, though a man should be raised from the dead</i>.</p> + +<p>Again, I am questioned as to my <i>proofs</i> of a future state +by men who are so far, and <i>only</i> so far, professed believers, +that they admit a God, and the existence of a Law from +God: I give them: and the questioners turn from me with +a scoff or incredulous smile. Now should others of a less +scanty Creed infer the weakness of the reasons assigned by +me from their failure in convincing <i>these</i> men; may I not +remind them, <span class="smcap">Who</span> it was, to whom a similar question was +proposed by men of the same class? But at all events it +will be enough for my own support to remember it; and +to know that <span class="smcap">He</span> held such questioners, who could not find +a sufficing proof of this great all-concerning verity in the +words, <i>The God of Abraham</i>, <i>the God of Isaac</i>, <i>and the God +of Jacob</i> unworthy of any other answer—men not to be +satisfied by <i>any</i> proof—by any such proofs, at least, as are +compatible with the ends and purposes of all religious conviction; +by any proofs, that would not destroy the faith +they were intended to confirm, and reverse the whole +character and quality of its effects and influences. But if, +notwithstanding all here offered in defence of my opinion, I +must still be adjudged heterodox and in error,—what can +I say, but that <i>malo cum Platone errare</i>, and take refuge +behind the ample shield of <span class="smcap">Bishop Jeremy Taylor</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">{234}</a></span></p> + +<h4>APHORISM XXIII.</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremy Taylor.</span></p> + +<p>In order to his own glory, and for the manifestation of +his goodness, and that the accidents of this world might not +overmuch trouble those good men who suffered evil things, +God was pleased to do <span class="smcap">two great things</span>. The one was: +that he sent his Son into the world to take upon him our +nature, that every man might submit to a necessity, from +which God's own Son was not exempt, when it behoved +even <i>Christ to suffer</i>, and so to enter into glory. The other +great thing was: that God did <i>not only by Revelation</i> and +the Sermons of the Prophets <i>to his Church</i>, but even to <span class="smcap">all +Mankind</span> <i>competently</i> teach, and <i>effectively</i> persuade, that +the soul of man does not die; that though things were ill +here, yet to the good who usually feel most of the evils of +this life, they should end in honour and advantages. And +therefore Cicero had reason on his side to conclude, that +there is a time and place after this life, wherein the wicked +shall be punished, and the virtuous rewarded; when he +considered that Orpheus and Socrates, and many others, +just men and benefactors of mankind, were either slain or +oppressed to death by evil men. <i>And all these received not +the promise.</i> But when virtue made men poor; and free +speaking of brave truths made the wise to lose their +liberty; when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious +death, and the obeying Reason and our Conscience lost us +our lives, or at least all the means and conditions of enjoying +them: it was but time to look about for <i>another</i> state +of things, where justice should rule, and virtue find her +own portion. And therefore men cast out every line, and +turned every stone, and tried every argument: <i>and sometimes +proved it well, and when they did not, yet they believed +strongly</i>; <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">they were sure of the thing, when they +were not sure of the argument</span>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_143" id="Ref_143" href="#Foot_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">{235}</a></span></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h5> + +<p>A fact may be truly stated, and yet the Cause or Reason +assigned for it mistaken; or inadequate; or <i>pars pro toto</i>—one +only or few of many that might or should have been +adduced. The preceding Aphorism is an instance in point. +The phenomenon here brought forward by the Bishop, as +the ground and occasion of men's belief of a future state—viz. +the frequent, not to say ordinary, disproportion +between moral worth and worldly prosperity—must, indeed, +at all times and in all countries of the civilized world have +led the observant and reflecting few, the men of meditative +habits and strong feelings of natural equity, to a nicer +consideration of the current belief, whether instinctive or +traditional. By forcing the Soul in upon herself, this +enigma of saint and sage, from Job, David and Solomon to +Claudian and Boetius,—this perplexing disparity of success +and desert, has, I doubt not, with such men been the +occasion of a steadier and more distinct consciousness of a +<i>something</i> in man different <i>in kind</i>, and which not merely +distinguishes but contra-distinguishes, him from brute +animals—at the same time that it has brought into closer +view an enigma of yet harder solution—the fact, I mean, +of a <i>contradiction</i> in the human being, of which no traces +are observable elsewhere, in animated or inanimate nature. +A struggle of jarring impulses; a mysterious diversity +between the injunctions of the mind and the elections of +the will; and (last not least) the utter incommensurateness +and the unsatisfying qualities of the things around us, that +yet are the only objects which our senses discover, or our +appetites require us to pursue:—hence for the finer and +more contemplative spirits the ever-strengthening suspicion, +that the two phenomena must in some way or other stand +in close connexion with each other, and that the Riddle of +Fortune and Circumstance is but a form or effluence of the +Riddle of Man:—and hence again, the persuasion, that the +solution of both problems is to be sought for—hence the +presentiment, that this solution will be found—in the +<i>contra</i>-distinctive constituent of humanity, in the <i>something</i> +of human nature which is exclusively human;—and—as the +objects discoverable by the senses, as all the bodies and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">{236}</a></span> +substances that we can touch, measure, and weigh, are +either mere totals, the unity of which results from the +parts, and is of course only apparent; or substances, the +unity of action of which is owing to the nature or arrangement +of the partible bodies which they actuate or set in +motion, (steam for instance, in a steam-engine); as on the +one hand the conditions and known or conceivable properties +of all the objects which perish and utterly <i>cease</i> to +be, together with all the properties which we ourselves have +in common with these perishable things, differ <i>in kind</i> from +the acts and properties peculiar to our humanity, so that +the former cannot even be conceived, cannot without a +contradiction in terms be predicated, of the proper and +immediate subject of the latter—(for who would not smile +at an ounce of Truth, or a square foot of Honour?)—and as, +on the other hand, whatever things in visible nature <i>have</i> +the character of Permanence, and endure amid continual +flux unchanged like a rainbow in a fast-flying shower, (for +example, Beauty, Order, Harmony, Finality, Law,) are all +akin to the <i>peculia</i> of humanity, are all <i>congenera</i> of Mind +and Will, without which indeed they would not only exist +in vain, as pictures for moles, but actually not <i>exist</i> at all;—hence, +finally, the conclusion, that the soul of man, as the +subject of Mind and Will, must likewise possess a principle +of permanence, and be destined to endure. And were these +grounds lighter than they are, yet as a small weight will +make a scale descend, where there is nothing in the +opposite scale, or <i>painted</i> weights, which have only an +illusive relief or prominence; so in the scale of immortality +slight reasons are in effect weighty, and sufficient to determine +the judgment, there being no counter-weight, no +reasons against them, and no facts in proof of the contrary, +that would not prove equally well the cessation of the eye +on the removal or diffraction of the eye-glass, and the +dissolution or incapacity of the musician on the fracture of +his instrument or its strings.</p> + +<p>But though I agree with Taylor so far, as not to doubt +that the misallotment of worldly goods and fortunes was +one principal occasion, exciting well-disposed and spiritually-awakened +natures by reflections and reasonings, such as I +have here supposed, to mature the presentiment of immortality +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">{237}</a></span> +into full consciousness, into a principle of action and +a well-spring of strength and consolation; I cannot concede +to this circumstance any thing like the importance and +<i>extent</i> of efficacy which he in this passage attributes to it. +I am persuaded, that as the belief of all mankind, of all<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_144" id="Ref_144" href="#Foot_144">[144]</a></span> +tribes, and nations, and languages, in all ages, and in all +states of social union, it must be referred to far deeper +grounds, common to man as man; and that its fibres are to +be traced to the <i>tap-root</i> of humanity. I have long entertained, +and do not hesitate to avow, the conviction, that +the argument, from Universality of belief, urged by Barrow +and others in proof of the first article of the Creed, is neither +in point of <i>fact</i>—for two very different objects may be +intended, and two, or more, diverse and even contradictory +conceptions may be expressed, by the same <i>name</i>—nor in +legitimacy of conclusion as strong and unexceptionable, as +the argument from the same ground for the continuance of +our personal being after death. The bull-calf <i>butts</i> with +smooth and unarmed brow. Throughout animated nature, +of each characteristic organ and faculty there exists a +pre-assurance, an instinctive and practical anticipation; and no +pre-assurance common to a whole species does in any +instance prove delusive.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_145" id="Ref_145" href="#Foot_145">[145]</a></span> +All other prophecies of nature +have their exact fulfilment—in every other <i>ingrafted word</i> +of promise, nature is found true to her word; and is it in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">{238}</a></span> +her noblest creature, that she tells her first lie?—(The +reader will, of course, understand, that I am here speaking +in the assumed character of a mere naturalist, to whom no +light of revelation had been vouchsafed; one, who</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">—— with gentle heart</span> +<span class="i2">Had worshipp'd Nature in the hill and valley,</span> +<span class="i2">Not knowing what he loved, but loved it all!)</span> +</div> + +<p>Whether, however, the introductory part of the Bishop's +argument is to be received with more or less qualification, +the <i>fact</i> itself, as stated in the concluding sentence of the +Aphorism, remains unaffected, and is beyond exception true.</p> + +<p>If other argument and yet higher authority were required, +I might refer to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and to +the Epistle to the Hebrews, which whether written by Paul +or, as Luther conjectured, by Apollos, is out of all doubt +the work of an Apostolic man filled with the Holy Spirit, +and composed while the Temple and the glories of the +Temple worship were yet in existence. Several of the +Jewish and still Judaizing converts had begun to vacillate +in their faith, and to <i>stumble at the stumbling-stone</i> of the +contrast between the pomp and splendour of the old Law +and the simplicity and humility of the Christian Church. +To break this sensual charm, to unfascinate these bedazzled +brethren, the writer to the Hebrews institutes a comparison +between the two religions, and demonstrates the superior +spiritual grandeur, the greater intrinsic worth and dignity +of the religion of Christ. On the other hand, at Rome +where the Jews formed a numerous, powerful, and privileged +class (many of them, too, by their proselyting zeal and frequent +disputations with the priests and philosophers trained +and exercised polemics) the recently-founded Christian +Church was, it appears, in greater danger from the reasonings +of the Jewish doctors and even of its own Judaizing +members, respecting the <i>use</i> of the new revelation. Thus +the object of the Epistle to the Hebrews was to prove the +<i>superiority</i> of the Christian Religion; the object of the +Epistle to the Romans to prove its <i>necessity</i>. Now there +was one argument extremely well calculated to stagger a +faith newly transplanted and still loose at its roots, and +which, if allowed, seemed to preclude the <i>possibility</i> of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">{239}</a></span> +Christian religion, as an especial and immediate revelation +from God—on the high grounds, at least, on which the +Apostle of the Gentiles placed it, and with the exclusive +rights and <i>superseding</i> character, which <i>he</i> claimed for it. +"You admit" (said they) "the divine origin and authority +of the Law given to Moses, proclaimed with thunders and +lightnings and the voice of the Most High heard by all the +people from Mount Sinai, and introduced, enforced, and +perpetuated by a series of the most stupendous miracles. +Our religion then was given by God: and can God give a +perishable imperfect religion? If not perishable, how can +it have a successor? If perfect, how can it need to be superseded?—The +entire argument is indeed comprised in the +latter attribute of our Law. We know, from an authority +which you yourselves acknowledge for divine, that our +religion is perfect. <i>He is the Rock, and his Work is perfect.</i> +(Deuter. xxxii. 4.) If then the religion revealed by God +himself to our forefathers is <i>perfect</i>, what need have we of +another?"—This objection, both from its importance and +from its extreme plausibility, for the persons at least, to +whom it was addressed, required an answer in both Epistles. +And accordingly, the answer is included in the one (that to +the Hebrews) and it is the especial purpose and main +subject of the other. And how does the Apostle answer it? +Suppose—and the case is not impossible<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_146" id="Ref_146" href="#Foot_146">[146]</a></span> +—a man of sense, +who had studied the evidences of Priestley and Paley with +Warburton's Divine Legation, but who should be a perfect +stranger to the Writings of St. Paul: and that I put <i>this</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">{240}</a></span> +question to him:—"What do <i>you</i> think, will St. Paul's +answer be?" "Nothing," he would reply, "can be more +obvious. It is in vain, the Apostle will urge, that you bring +your notions of probability and inferences from the arbitrary +interpretation of a word in an absolute rather than a relative +sense, to invalidate a known <i>fact</i>. It is a <i>fact</i>, that +your Religion is (in <i>your</i> sense of the word) <i>not</i> perfect: +for it is deficient in one of the two essential constituents of +all true religion, the belief of a future state on solid and +sufficient grounds. Had the doctrine indeed been revealed, +the stupendous miracles, which you most truly affirm to +have accompanied and attested the first promulgation of +your religion, would have supplied the requisite proof. But +the doctrine was not revealed; and your belief of a future +state rests on no solid grounds. You believe it (as far as +you believe it, and as many of you as profess this belief) +without revelation, and without the only proper and sufficient +evidence of its truth. Your religion, therefore, though +of divine Origin is, (if taken in disjunction from the new +revelation, which I am commissioned to proclaim) but a +<i>religio dimidiata</i>; and the main purpose, the proper character, +and the paramount object of Christ's mission and +miracles, is to supply the missing half by a clear discovery +of a future state;—and (since "he alone discovers who +proves") by proving the truth of the doctrine, now for the +first time declared with the requisite authority, by the +requisite, appropriate, and alone satisfactory <i>evidences</i>."</p> + +<p>But <i>is</i> this the Apostle's answer to the Jewish oppugners, +and the Judaizing false brethren, of the Church of Christ?—It +is <i>not</i> the answer, it does not resemble the answer returned +by the Apostle. It is neither parallel nor corradial +with the line of argument in either of the two Epistles, or +with any one line; but it is a <i>chord</i> that traverses them all, +and only touches where it cuts across. In the Epistle to +the Hebrews the directly contrary position is repeatedly +<i>asserted</i>: and in the Epistle to the Romans it is every where +<i>supposed</i>. The death to which the Law sentenced all sinners +(and which even the Gentiles without the <i>revealed</i> Law had +announced to them by their consciences, <i>the judgment of God +having been made known even to them</i>) must be the same death, +from which they were saved by the faith of the Son of God; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">{241}</a></span> +or the Apostle's reasoning would be senseless, his antithesis +a mere equivoque, a play on a word, <i>quod idem sonat, aliud +vult</i>. Christ <i>redeemed mankind from the curse of the Law</i>: +and we all know, that it was not from temporal death, or +the penalties and afflictions of the present life, that believers +have been redeemed. The Law, of which the inspired sage +of Tarsus is speaking, from which no man can plead excuse; +the Law miraculously delivered in thunders from Mount +Sinai, which was inscribed on tables of stone for the <i>Jews</i>, +and written in the hearts of <i>all</i> men (Rom. ii. 15.)—the +Law <i>holy and spiritual</i>! what was the great point, of which +this Law, in its own name, offered no solution? the mystery, +which it left behind the veil, or in the cloudy tabernacle of +types and figurative sacrifices? Whether there was a judgment +to come, and souls to suffer the dread sentence? Or +was it not far rather—what are the means of escape; where +may grace be found, and redemption? St. Paul says, the +latter. The Law brings condemnation: but the conscience-sentenced +transgressor's question, "What shall I do to be +saved? Who will intercede for me?" she dismisses as +beyond the jurisdiction of her court, and takes no cognizance +thereof, save in prophetic murmurs or mute outshadowings +of mystic ordinances and sacrificial types.—Not, +therefore, <i>that</i> there is a Life to come, and a future +state; but <i>what</i> each individual Soul may hope for itself +therein; and on what grounds; and that this state has +been rendered an object of aspiration and fervent desire, +and a source of thanksgiving and exceeding great joy; and +by whom, and through whom, and for whom, and by what +means and under what conditions—<i>these</i> are the <i>peculiar</i> +and <i>distinguishing</i> fundamentals of the Christian Faith! +These are the revealed Lights and obtained Privileges of +the Christian Dispensation! Not alone the knowledge of +the boon, but the precious inestimable Boon itself, is the +<i>Grace and Truth that came by Jesus Christ</i>! I believe Moses, +I believe Paul; but I believe <i>in</i> Christ.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_139" id="Foot_139" href="#Ref_139">[139]</a> +Coleridge quotes this passage in his Conclusion.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_140" id="Foot_140" href="#Ref_140">[140]</a> +J. Taylor's 'Worthy Communicant.'—H.N.C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_141" id="Foot_141" href="#Ref_141">[141]</a> +Isaiah xxxiv. compared with Matt. x. 34, and Luke xii. 49.—H.N.C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_142" id="Foot_142" href="#Ref_142">[142]</a> +Conclusion, Part III. ch. 8.—H.N.C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_143" id="Foot_143" href="#Ref_143">[143]</a> +Sermon at the Funeral of Sir George Dalston.—H.N.C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_144" id="Foot_144" href="#Ref_144">[144]</a> +I say, <i>all</i>: for the accounts of one or two travelling French <i>philosophers</i>, +professed atheists and partizans of infidelity, respecting one or +two African hordes, Caffres, and poor outlawed Boschmen, hunted out +of their humanity, ought not to be regarded as exceptions. And as to +Hearne's assertion respecting the non-existence and rejection of the +belief among the Copper-Indians, it is not only hazarded on very weak +and insufficient grounds, but he himself, in another part of his work, +unconsciously supplies data, from whence the contrary may safely be +concluded. Hearne, perhaps, put down his friend Motannabbi's <i>Fort</i>-philosophy +for the opinion of his tribe; and from his high appreciation +of the moral character of this murderous gymnosophist, it might, I fear, +be inferred, that Hearne himself was not the very person one would, of +all others, have chosen for the purpose of instituting the inquiry.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_145" id="Foot_145" href="#Ref_145">[145]</a> +See Baron Field's Letters from New South Wales. The poor +natives, the lowest in the scale of humanity, evince no symptom of any +religion, or the belief of any superior power as the maker of the world; +but yet have no doubt that the spirits of their ancestors survive in the +form of porpoises, and mindful of their descendants with imperishable +affection, drive the whales ashore for them to feast on.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_146" id="Foot_146" href="#Ref_146">[146]</a> +The case here supposed actually occurred in my own experience in +the person of a Spanish refugee, of English parents, but from his tenth +year resident in Spain, and bred in a family of wealthy, but ignorant and +bigoted, Roman Catholics. In mature manhood he returned to England, +disgusted with the conduct of the priests and monks, which had indeed +for some years produced on his mind its so common effect among the +better-informed natives of the South of Europe—a tendency to Deism. +The results, however, of the infidel system in France, with his opportunities +of observing the effects of irreligion on the French officers in +Spain, on the one hand; and the undeniable moral and intellectual +superiority of Protestant Britain on the other; had not been lost on him: +and here he began to think for himself and resolved to <i>study</i> the subject. +He had gone through Bishop Warburton's Divine Legation, and Paley's +Evidences; but had never read the New Testament consecutively, and +the Epistles not at all.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">{242}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">APHORISM.<br /><span class="small">ON BAPTISM.</span></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leighton.</span></p> + +<p><i>In those days came John the Baptist, preaching.</i>—It will +suffice for our present purpose, if by these<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_147" id="Ref_147" href="#Foot_147">[147]</a></span> +words we direct +the attention to the origin, or at least first Scriptural record, +of <span class="smcap">Baptism</span>, and to the combinement of <span +class="smcap">Preaching</span> therewith; +their aspect each to the other, and their concurrence +to one excellent end: the Word unfolding the Sacrament, +and the Sacrament sealing the Word; the Word as a Light, +informing and clearing the sense of the Seal; and this +again, as a Seal, confirming and ratifying the truth of the +Word; as you see some significant seals, or engraven +signets, have a word about them expressing their sense.</p> + +<p>But truly the word is a light and the sacraments have in +them of the same light illuminating them. This <i>sacrament</i> +of Baptism, the ancients do particularly express by <i>light</i>. +Yet are they both nothing but darkness to us, till the same +light shine in our hearts; for till then we are nothing but +darkness ourselves, and therefore the most luminous things +are so to us. Noonday is as midnight to a blind man. +And we see these ordinances, the word and the sacrament, +without profit or comfort for the most part, because we +have not of that Divine Light within us. And we have it +not, because we ask it not.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">{243}</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Comment.</span></h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Or an Aid to Reflection in the forming of a sound Judgment +respecting the purport and purpose of the Baptismal Rite, and a just +appreciation of its value and importance.</i></p> + +<p>A born and bred Baptist, and paternally descended from +the old orthodox Non-conformists, and both in his own and +in his father's right a very dear friend of mine, had married +a member of the National Church. In consequence of an +anxious wish expressed by his lady for the baptism of their +first child, he solicited me to put him in possession of my +Views respecting this controversy; though principally as +to the degree of importance which I attached to it. For as +to the point itself, his natural prepossession in favour of +the persuasion in which he was born, had been confirmed +by a conscientious examination of the arguments on both +sides. As the Comment on the preceding Aphorism, or +rather as an expansion of its subject matter, I will give the +substance of the conversation: and amply shall I have +been remunerated, should it be read with the interest and +satisfaction with which it was heard. More particularly, +should any of my readers find themselves under the same +or similar circumstances.</p> + +<p>Our discussion is rendered shorter and more easy by our +perfect agreement in certain preliminary points. We both +disclaim alike every attempt to explain any thing <i>into</i> +Scripture, and every attempt to explain any thing <i>out of</i> +Scripture. Or if we regard either with a livelier aversion, +it is the latter, as being the more fashionable and prevalent. +I mean the practice of both high and low <i>Grotian</i> Divines +to <i>explain away</i> positive assertions of Scripture on the +pretext, that the <i>literal sense</i> is not agreeable to reason, +that is, <span class="smcap">their</span> <i>particular</i> reason. And inasmuch as (in the +only right sense of the word), there is no such thing as a +<i>particular</i> reason, they must, and in fact they <i>do</i>, mean, +that the literal sense is not accordant to their <i>understanding</i>, +that is, to the <i>notions</i> which <i>their</i> understandings have +been taught and accustomed to form in <i>their</i> school of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">{244}</a></span> +philosophy. Thus a Platonist who should become a +Christian, would at once, even in texts susceptible of a +different interpretation, recognize, because he would expect +to find, several doctrines which the disciple of the Epicurean +or mechanic school will not receive on the most +positive declarations of the Divine Word. And as we +agree in the opinion, that the <i>Minimi-fidian</i> party<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_148" id="Ref_148" href="#Foot_148">[148]</a></span> +err grievously in the latter point, so I must concede to you, +that too many Pædo-baptists (<i>assertors of Infant Baptism</i>) +have erred, though less grossly, in the former. I have, I +confess, no eye for these smoke-like wreaths of inference, +this ever widening spiral <i>ergo</i> from the narrow aperture of +perhaps a single text; or rather an interpretation forced +into it by construing an idiomatic phrase in an artless narrative +with the same absoluteness, as if it had formed part of +a mathematical problem. I start back from these inverted +Pyramids, where the apex is the base. If I should inform +any one that I had called at a friend's house, but had found +nobody at home, the family having all gone to the play; +and if he on the strength of this information, should take +occasion to asperse my friend's wife for unmotherly conduct +in taking an infant, six months old, to a crowded +theatre; would you allow him to press on the words +"<i>nobody</i>" and "<i>all</i>" the family, in justification of the +slander? Would you not tell him, that the words were to +be interpreted by the nature of the subject, the purpose of +the speaker, and their ordinary acceptation; and that he +must, or might have known, that infants of that age would +not be admitted into the theatre? Exactly so, with regard +to the words, <i>he and all his household</i>. Had Baptism of +infants at that early period of the Gospel been a known +practice, or had this been previously demonstrated,—then +indeed the argument, that in all probability there were one +or more infants or young children in so large a family, +would be no otherwise objectionable than as being superfluous, +and a sort of anticlimax in logic. But if the words +are cited as the proof, it would be a clear <i>petitio principii</i>, +though there had been nothing else against it. But when we +turn back to the Scriptures preceding the narrative, and find +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">{245}</a></span> +repentance and belief demanded as the terms and indispensable +conditions of Baptism—<i>then</i> the case above imagined +applies in its full force. Equally vain is the pretended +analogy from Circumcision, which was no Sacrament at +all; but the means and mark of national distinction. In +the first instance it was, doubtless, a privilege or mark of +superior rank conferred on the descendants of Abraham. +In the Patriarchal times this rite was confined (the first +governments being Theocracies) to the priesthood, who +were set apart to that office from their birth. At a later +period this token of the <i>premier class</i> was extended to +Kings. And thus, when it was re-ordained by Moses for +the whole Jewish nation, it was at the same time said—Ye +are <i>all</i> Priests and Kings; ye are a consecrated People. +In addition to this, or rather in aid of this, Circumcision +was intended to distinguish the Jews by some indelible +sign: and it was no less necessary, that Jewish children +should be recognizable as Jews, than Jewish adults—not to +mention the greater safety of the rite in infancy. Nor +was it ever pretended that any Grace was conferred with +it, or that the rite was significant of any inward or spiritual +operation. In short, an unprejudiced and competent +reader need only peruse the first thirty-three paragraphs of +the eighteenth section of Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying; +and then compare with these the remainder of the Section +added by him after the Restoration: those, namely, in +which he <i>attempts</i> to overthrow his own arguments. I had +almost said, <i>affects</i>: for such is the feebleness, and so +palpable the sophistry of his answers, that I find it difficult +to imagine, that Taylor himself could have been satisfied +with them. The only plausible arguments apply with +equal force to Baptist and Pædo-baptist; and would prove, +if they proved any thing, that both were wrong, and the +Quakers only in the right.</p> + +<p>Now, in the first place, it is obvious, that nothing conclusive +can be drawn from the silence of the New Testament +respecting a practice, which, if we suppose it already +in use, must yet, from the character of the first converts, +have been of comparatively rare occurrence; and which +from the predominant, and more concerning, objects and +functions of the Apostolic writers (1 Corinth. i. 17.) was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">{246}</a></span> +not likely to have been mentioned otherwise than incidentally, +and very probably therefore might not have occurred +to them to mention at all. But, secondly, admitting that +the practice was introduced at a later period than that in +which the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles were composed: +I should yet be fully satisfied, that the Church +exercised herein a sound<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_149" id="Ref_149" href="#Foot_149">[149]</a></span> +discretion. On either supposition, +therefore, it is never without regret that I see a +divine of our Church attempting to erect forts on a position +so evidently commanded by the strong-hold of his antagonists. +I dread the use which the Socinians may make of +their example, and the Papists of their failure. Let me +not, however, deceive you. (<i>The reader understands, that I +suppose myself conversing with a Baptist.</i>) I am of opinion, +that the divines on your side are chargeable with a far +more grievous mistake, that of giving a carnal and <i>Judaizing</i> +interpretation to the various Gospel texts in which the +terms, <i>baptism</i> and <i>baptize</i>, occur, contrary to the express +and earnest admonitions of the Apostle Paul. And this I +say, without in the least retracting my former concession, +that the texts appealed to, as commanding or authorizing +Infant Baptism, are all without exception made to bear a +sense neither contained nor deducible: and likewise that +(historically considered) there exists no sufficient <i>positive</i> +evidence, that the Baptism of infants was instituted by the +Apostles in the practice of the Apostolic age.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_150" id="Ref_150" href="#Foot_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">{247}</a></span> +Lastly, we both coincide in the full conviction, that it is +neither the outward ceremony of Baptism, under any form +or circumstances, nor any other ceremony, but such a faith +in Christ as tends to produce a conformity to his holy doctrines +and example in heart and life, and which faith is +itself a declared mean and condition of our partaking of +his spiritual body, and of being <i>clothed upon</i> with his +righteousness,—that properly makes us Christians, and can +alone be enjoined as an Article of Faith necessary to Salvation, +so that the denial thereof may be denounced as a +damnable heresy. In the strictest sense of essential, this +alone is the essential in Christianity, that the same spirit +should be growing in us which was in the fulness of all +perfection in Christ Jesus. Whatever else is named +essential is such because, and only as far as, it is instrumental +to this, or evidently implied herein. If the Baptists +hold the <i>visible rite</i> to be indispensable to salvation, with +what terror must they not regard every disease that befalls +their children between youth and infancy! But if they are +saved by the faith of the parent, then the outward rite is +not essential to salvation, otherwise than as the omission +should arise from a spirit of disobedience: and in this case +it is the cause, not the effect, the wilful and unbaptized +heart, not the unbaptizing hand, that perils it. And surely +it looks very like an <i>inconsistency</i> to admit the vicarious +faith of the parents and the therein implied promise, that +the child shall be Christianly bred up, and as much as in +them lies prepared for the communion of saints—to admit +this, as safe and sufficient in their own instance, and yet to +denounce the same belief and practice as hazardous and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">{248}</a></span> +unavailing in the Church—the same, I say, essentially, and +only differing from their own by the presence of two or +three Christian friends as additional securities, and by the +promise being expressed!</p> + +<p>But you, my filial friend! have studied Christ under a +better teacher—the Spirit of Adoption, even the spirit that +was in Paul, and which still speaks to us out of his +writings. You remember and admire the saying of an old +divine, that a ceremony duly instituted was a Chain of +Gold round the Neck of Faith; but if in the wish to make +it co-essential and consubstantial, you draw it closer and +closer, it may strangle the Faith it was meant to deck and +designate. You are not so unretentive a scholar as to +have forgotten the <i>pateris et auro</i> of your Virgil: or if you +were, you are not so inconsistent a reasoner, as to translate +the Hebraism, spirit and fire in one place by spiritual fire, +and yet to refuse to translate water and spirit by spiritual +water in another place: or if, as I myself think, the +different position marks a different sense, yet that the +former must be <i>ejusdem generis</i> with the latter—the Water +of Repentance, reformation in <i>conduct</i>; and the Spirit +that which purifies the inmost <i>principle</i> of action, as fire +purges the metal substantially and not cleansing the surface +only!</p> + +<p>But in this instance, it will be said, the ceremony, the +outward and visible sign, is a Scripture ordinance. I will +not reply, that the Romish priest says the same of the +anointing of the sick with oil and the imposition of hands. +No, my answer is: that this is a very sufficient reason for +the continued observance of a ceremonial rite so derived +and sanctioned, even though its own beauty, simplicity, +and natural significancy had pleaded less strongly in its +behalf. But it is no reason why the Church should forget, +that the perpetuation of a thing does not alter the nature +of the thing, and that a ceremony to be perpetuated is to +be perpetuated as a <i>ceremony</i>. It is no reason why, knowing +and experiencing even in the majority of her own +members the proneness of the human mind to<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_151" id="Ref_151" href="#Foot_151">[151]</a></span> +superstition, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">{249}</a></span> +the Church might not rightfully and piously adopt the +measures best calculated to check this tendency, and to +correct the abuse, to which it had led in any particular +rite. But of superstitious notions respecting the baptismal +ceremony, and of abuse resulting, the instances were +flagrant and notorious. Such, for instance, was the frequent +deferring of the baptismal rite to a late period of +life, and even to the death-bed, in the belief that the +mystic water would cleanse the baptized person from all +sin and (if he died immediately after the performance of +the ceremony) send him pure and spotless into the other +world.</p> + +<p>Nor is this all. The preventive remedy applied by the +Church is legitimated as well as additionally recommended +by the following consideration. Where a ceremony answered +and was intended to answer several purposes, which +purposes at its first institution were blended in respect of +<i>the time</i>, but which afterwards, by change of circumstances +(as when, for instance, a large and ever-increasing proportion +of the members of the Church, or those who at least +bore the Christian name, were of Christian parents), were +necessarily dis-united—<i>then</i> either the Church has no +power or authority delegated to her (which is shifting the +ground of controversy)—or she must be authorized to +choose and determine, to which of the several purposes the +ceremony should be attached.—Now one of the purposes of +Baptism was—the making it <i>publicly manifest</i>, first, what +individuals were to be regarded by the <i>world</i> (Phil. ii. 15.) +as belonging to the visible communion of Christians: inasmuch +as by their demeanour and apparent condition, the +general estimation of <i>the city set on a hill and not to be hid</i> +(Matth. v. 14.) could not but be affected—the city that even +<i>in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation</i> was bound not +only to give no cause, but by all innocent means to prevent +every occasion, of <i>rebuke</i>. Secondly, to mark out, for the +Church itself, those that were entitled to that <i>especial</i> +dearness, that watchful and disciplinary love and loving-kindness, +which <i>over and above</i> the affections and duties of +philanthropy and universal charity, Christ himself had +enjoined, and with an emphasis and in a form significant of +its great and especial importance,—<i>A New Commandment I</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">{250}</a></span> +<i>give unto you, that ye love</i> one another. By a charity wide +as sunshine, and comprehending the whole human race, the +body of Christians was to be placed in contrast with the +proverbial misanthropy and bigotry of the Jewish Church +and people: while yet they were to be distinguished and +known to all men, by the peculiar love and affection displayed +by them towards the members of their own community; +thus exhibiting the intensity of sectarian attachment, +yet by the no less notorious and exemplary practice +of the duties of universal benevolence, secured from the +charge so commonly brought against it, of being narrow +and exclusive. "How <i>kind</i> these Christians are to the poor +and afflicted, without distinction of religion or country; +but how they <i>love each other</i>!"</p> + +<p>Now combine with this the consideration before urged—the +duty, I mean, and necessity of checking the superstitious +abuse of the baptismal rite: and I then ask, with +confidence, in what way could the Church have exercised a +sound discretion more wisely, piously, or effectively, than +by fixing, from among the several ends and purposes of +Baptism, the outward ceremony to the purposes here +mentioned? How could the great body of Christians be +more plainly instructed as to the true nature of all outward +ordinances? What can be conceived better calculated +to prevent the ceremony from being regarded as other and +more than a ceremony, if not the administration of the +same on an <i>object</i>, (yea, a dear and precious <i>object</i>) of +spiritual duties, though the <i>conscious</i> subject of spiritual +operations and graces only by anticipation and in hope;—a +subject unconscious as a flower of the dew falling on it, +or the early rain, and thus emblematic of the myriads who +(as in our Indian empire, and henceforward, I trust, in +Africa) are temporally and even morally benefited by the +outward existence of Christianity, though as yet ignorant +of its saving truth! And yet, on the other hand, what +more reverential than the application of this, the common +initiatory rite of the East sanctioned and appropriated by +Christ—its application, I say, to the very subjects, whom +he himself commanded to be <i>brought</i> to him—the children +<i>in arms</i>, respecting whom <i>Jesus was much displeased with +his disciples, who had rebuked those that brought them</i>! What +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">{251}</a></span> +more expressive of the true character of that originant yet +<i>generic</i> stain, from which the Son of God, by his mysterious +incarnation and agony and death and resurrection, and by +the Baptism of the Spirit, came to cleanse the children of +Adam, than the exhibition of the outward element to +infants free from and incapable of <i>crime</i>, in whom the +evil principle was present only as <i>potential</i> being, and +whose outward semblance represented the kingdom of +Heaven? And can it—to a man, who would hold himself +deserving of <i>anathema maranatha</i> (1 Cor. xvi. 22.) if he +did not <i>love the Lord Jesus</i>—can it be nothing to such a +man, that the introduction and commendation of a new +inmate, a new spiritual ward, to the assembled brethren in +Christ (—and this, as I have shown above, was <i>one</i> purpose +of the baptismal ceremony) does in the baptism of an +infant recall our Lord's own presentation in the Temple on +the eighth day after his birth? Add to all these considerations +the known fact of the frequent exposure and the +general light regard of infants, at the time when Infant +Baptism is by the Baptists supposed to have been first +<i>ruled</i> by the Catholic Church, not overlooking the humane +and charitable motives, that influenced Cyprian's decision +in its favour. And then make present to your imagination, +and meditatively contemplate the still continuing +tendency, the profitable, the <i>beautiful</i> effects, of this ordinance +<i>now</i> and for so many centuries back, on the great +mass of the population throughout Christendom—the +softening, elevating exercise of faith and the conquest +over the senses, while in the form of a helpless crying babe +the presence, and the unutterable worth and value, of an +immortal being made capable of everlasting bliss are +solemnly proclaimed and carried home to the mind and +heart of the hearers and beholders! Nor will you forget +the probable influence on the future education of the child, +the opportunity of instructing and impressing the friends, +relatives, and parents in their best and most docile mood. +These are, indeed, the <i>mollia tempora fandi</i>.</p> + +<p>It is true, that by an unforeseen accident, and through the +propensity of all zealots to caricature partial truth into +total falsehood—it is too true, that a tree the very contrary +in quality of that shown to Moses (Exod. xv. 25.) was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">{252}</a></span> +afterwards <i>cast into the sweet waters from this fountain</i>, and +made them like <i>the waters of Marah</i>, too bitter to be drunk. +I allude to the Pelagian controversy, the perversion of the +article of Original Sin by Augustine, and the frightful conclusions +which this <i>durus pater infantum</i> drew from the +article thus perverted. It is not, however, to the predecessors +of this African, whoever they were that authorized +Pædo-baptism, and at whatever period it first became +general—it is not to the Church at the time being, that +these consequences are justly imputable. She had done +her best to preclude every superstition, by allowing in +urgent cases any and every adult, man and woman, to +administer the ceremonial part, the outward rite, of baptism: +but reserving to the highest functionary of the +Church (even to the exclusion of the co-presbyters) the +more proper and spiritual purpose, namely, the declaration +of repentance and belief, the free Choice of Christ, as his +Lord, and the open profession of the Christian title by an +individual in his own name and by his own deliberate act. +<i>This</i> office of religion, the essentially moral and spiritual +nature of which could not be mistaken, this most <i>solemn</i> +office the Bishop alone was to perform.</p> + +<p>Thus—as soon as the <i>purposes</i> of the ceremonial rite +were by change of circumstances divided, that is, took +place at different periods of the believer's life—to the +<i>outward</i> purposes, where the effect was to be produced on +the consciousness of others, the Church continued to affix +the <i>outward rite</i>; while to the substantial and spiritual +purpose, where the effect was to be produced on the +individual's own mind, she gave its beseeming dignity by +an ordinance not figurative, but standing in the direct +cause and relation of <i>means</i> to the <i>end</i>.</p> + +<p>In fine, there are two great purposes to be answered, +each having its own subordinate purposes, and desirable +consequences. The Church answers both, the Baptists one +only. If, nevertheless, you would still prefer the union of +the Baptismal rite with the Confirmation, and that the +Presentation of Infants to the assembled Church had +formed a separate institution, avowedly prospective—I +answer: first, that such for a long time and to a late +period was my own judgment. But even then it seemed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">{253}</a></span> +to me a point, as to which an indifference would be less inconsistent +in a lover of truth, than a zeal to separation in +a professed lover of peace. And secondly, I would revert +to the history of the Reformation, and the calamitous +accident of the Peasants' War: when the poor ignorant +multitude, driven frantic by the intolerable oppressions of +their feudal lords, rehearsed all the outrages that were +acted in our own times by the Parisian populace headed by +Danton, Marat, and Robespierre; and on the same outrageous +principles, and in assertion of the same <span class="smcap">Rights of +Brutes</span> to the subversion of all the <span class="smcap">Duties of Men</span>. In our +times, most fortunately for the interest of religion and +morality, or of their prudential substitutes at least, the +name of Jacobin was every where associated with that of +Atheist and Infidel. Or rather, Jacobinism and Infidelity +were the two heads of the Revolutionary Geryon—connatural +misgrowths of the same monster-trunk. In the +German Convulsion, on the contrary, by a mere but most +unfortunate <i>accident</i>, the same code of <i>Caliban</i> jurisprudence, +the same sensual and murderous excesses, were +connected with the name of Anabaptist. The abolition of +magistracy, community of goods, the right of plunder, +polygamy, and whatever else was fanatical were comprised +in the word, Anabaptism. It is not to be imagined, +that the Fathers of the Reformation could, without +a miraculous influence, have taken up the question of +Infant Baptism with the requisite calmness and freedom +of spirit. It is not to be wished, that they should have +entered on the discussion. Nay, I will go farther. Unless +the abolition of Infant Baptism can be shown to be involved +in some fundamental article of faith, unless the +practice could be proved fatal or imminently perilous to +salvation, the Reformers would not have been justified in +exposing the yet tender and struggling cause of Protestantism +to such certain and violent prejudices as this +innovation would have excited. Nothing less than the +whole substance and efficacy of the Gospel faith was the +prize, which they had wrestled for and won; but won +from enemies still in the field, and on the watch to retake, +at all costs, the sacred treasure, and consign it +once again to darkness and oblivion. If there be a <i>time</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">{254}</a></span> +<i>for all things</i>, this was not the time for an innovation, +that would and must have been followed by the triumph +of the enemies of Scriptural Christianity, and the alienation +of the governments, that had espoused and protected +it.</p> + +<p>Remember, I say this on the supposition of the question's +not being what you do not pretend it to be, an essential of +the Faith, by which we are saved. But should it likewise +be conceded, that it is a <i>disputable</i> point—and that in point +of fact it is and has been disputed by divines, whom no +pious Christian of any denomination will deny to have been +faithful and eminent servants of Christ; should it, I say, +be likewise conceded that the question of Infant Baptism +is a point, on which two Christians, who perhaps differ on +this point only, may differ without giving just ground for +impeaching the piety or competence of either—in this case +I am obliged to infer, that the person who <i>at any time</i> can +regard this difference as <i>singly</i> warranting a separation +from a religious Community, must think of schism under +another point of view, than that in which I have been +taught to contemplate it by St. Paul in his Epistles to the +Corinthians.</p> + +<p>Let me add a few words on a diversity of doctrine closely +connected with this: the opinions of Doctors Mant and +D'Oyly as opposed to those of the (so called) Evangelical +clergy. "The Church of England" (says Wall)<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_152" id="Ref_152" href="#Foot_152">[152]</a></span> +"does not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">{255}</a></span> +require assent and consent" to either opinion "in order to +<i>lay</i> communion." But I will suppose the person a <i>minister</i>: +but minister of a Church which has expressly disclaimed +all pretence to infallibility; a Church which in the construction +of its Liturgy and Articles is known to have +worded certain passages for the purpose of rendering them +subscribable by both A and Z—that is, the opposite +parties as to the points in controversy. I suppose this +person's convictions those of Z, and that out of five passages +there are three, the more natural and obvious sense of +which is in his favour; and two of which, though not +absolutely <i>precluding</i> a different sense, yet the more probable +interpretation is in favour of A, that is, of those who do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">{256}</a></span> +not consider the Baptism of an Infant as <i>prospective</i>, but +hold it to be an <i>opus operans et in præsenti</i>. Then I say, +that if such a person regards these two sentences or single +passages as obliging or warranting him to abandon the +flock entrusted to his charge, and either to join such, as +are the avowed Enemies of the Church on the double +ground of its particular Constitution and of its being an +Establishment, or to set up a separate Church for himself—I +cannot avoid the conclusion, that either his conscience +is morbidly sensitive in one speck to the exhaustion of the +sensibility in a far larger portion; or that he must have +discovered some mode, beyond the reach of my conjectural +powers, of interpreting the Scriptures enumerated in the +following excerpt from the popular tract before cited, in +which the writer expresses an opinion, to which I assent +with my whole heart: namely,</p> + +<p>"That all Christians in the world that hold the same +fundamentals ought to make one Church, though differing +in lesser opinions; and that the sin, the mischief, and +danger to the souls of men, that divide into those many +sects and parties among us, does (for the most of them) +consist not so much in the opinions themselves, as in their +dividing and separating for them. And in support of this +tenet, I will refer you to some plain places of Scripture, +which if you please now to peruse, I will be silent the +while. See what our Saviour himself says, John x. 16. +John xvii. 11. And what the primitive Christians practised, +Acts ii. 46, and iv. 32. And what St. Paul says, 1 Cor. i. +10 11 12, and 2 3 4; also the whole 12th chapter: Eph. +ii. 18, &c. to the end. Where the Jewish and Gentile +Christians are showed to be <i>one body, one household, one +temple fitly framed together</i>: and yet these were of different +opinions in several matters.—Likewise chap. iii. 6, iv. +1-13. Phil. ii. 1 2, where he uses the most solemn adjurations +to this purpose. But I would more especially recommend +to you the reading of Gal. v. 20 21. Phil. iii. 15, +16, the 14th chapter to the Romans, and part of the 15th, +to verse 7, and also Rom. xv. 17.</p> + +<p>"Are not these passages plain, full, and earnest? Do +you find any of the controverted points to be determined +by Scripture in words nigh so plain or pathetic?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">{257}</a></span></p> + +<div class="smallcond"> + +<p class="center"><i>Marginal Note written (in 1816) by the Author in his own copy of +Wall's work.</i></p> + +<p>This and the two following pages are excellent. If I addressed the +ministers recently seceded, I would first prove from Scripture and +Reason the justness of their doctrines concerning Baptism and +Conversion. 2. I would show, that even in respect of the Prayer-book, +Homilies, &c. of the Church of England, taken as a whole, their +opponents were comparatively as ill off as themselves, if not worse. +3. That the few mistakes or inconvenient phrases of the Baptismal +Service did not impose on the conscience the necessity of resigning +the pastoral office. 4. That even if they did, this would by no means +justify schism from Lay-membership: or else there could be no schism +except from an immaculate and infallible Church. Now, as our Articles +have declared that no Church is or ever was such, it would follow +that there is no such sin as that of Schism—that is, that St. Paul +wrote falsely or idly. 5. That the escape through the channel of +Dissent is from the frying-pan to the fire—or, to use a less worn +and vulgar simile, the escape of a leech from a glass-jar of water +into the naked and open air. But never, never, would I in one breath +allow my Church to be fallible, and in the next contend for her +absolute freedom from all error—never confine inspiration and +perfect truth to the Scriptures, and then scold for the perfect truth +of each and every word in the Prayer-book. Enough for me, if in my +heart of hearts, free from all fear of man and all lust of +preferment, I believe (as I do) the Church of England to be the +<i>most</i> Apostolic Church; that its doctrines and ceremonies +contain nothing dangerous to Righteousness or Salvation; and that the +imperfections in its Liturgy are spots indeed, but spots on the sun, +which impede neither its light nor its heat, so as to prevent the +good seed from growing in a good soil and producing fruits of +Redemption.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_154" id="Ref_154" href="#Foot_154">[154]</a></span></p> + +<p>* <span class="low">*</span> * The author had written and intended to insert a similar +exposition on the Eucharist. But as the leading view has been given +in the Comment on Redemption, its length induces him to defer it, +together with the Articles on Faith and the philosophy of Prayer, to +a small supplementary volume.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_155" id="Ref_155" href="#Foot_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_147" id="Foot_147" href="#Ref_147">[147]</a> +By certain Biblical philologists of the Teutonic school (men distinguished +by learning, but still more characteristically by hardihood in +conjecture, and who suppose the Gospels to have undergone several +successive <i>revisions and enlargements</i> by, or under the authority of, the +sacred historians) these words are contended to have been, in the first +delivery, the common commencement of all the Gospels <span title="kata sarka">κατα σαρκα</span> +(that is, <i>according to the flesh</i>), in distinction from St. John's or the +Gospel <span title="kata pneuma">κατα πνευμα</span> (that is, <i>according to the Spirit</i>).</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_148" id="Foot_148" href="#Ref_148">[148]</a> +See Comment to Aphorism VIII., par. 3.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_149" id="Foot_149" href="#Ref_149">[149]</a> +That every the least <i>permissible</i> form and ordinance, which at +different times it might be expedient for the Church to enact, are pre-enacted +in the New Testament; and that whatever is not to be found +<i>there</i>, ought to be allowed <i>no where</i>—this has been <i>asserted</i>. But that it +has been <i>proved</i>, or that the tenet is not to be placed among the <i>revulsionary</i> +results of the Scripture-slighting Will-worship of the Romish +Church; it will be more sincere to say, I disbelieve, than that I doubt. +It was chiefly, if not exclusively, in reference to the extravagances built +on this tenet, that the great Selden ventured to declare, that the words, +<i>Scrutamini Scripturas</i>, had set the world in an uproar.</p> + +<p class="nodent">Extremes <i>appear</i> to generate each other; but if we look steadily, +there will most often be found some common error, that produces both +as its positive and negative poles. Thus superstitions go <i>by pairs</i>, like +the two Hungarian sisters, always quarrelling and <i>inveterately averse</i>, +but yet joined at the trunk.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_150" id="Foot_150" href="#Ref_150">[150]</a> +More than this I do not consider as necessary for the argument. +And as to Robinson's assertions in his History of Baptism, that infant +Baptism did not commence till the time of Cyprian, who condemning it +as a general practice, allowed it in particular cases by a dispensation +of charity; and that it did not actually become the ordinary rule of the +Church, till Augustine in the fever of his Anti-Pelagian dispute had +introduced the Calvinistic interpretation of Original Sin, and the dire +state of Infants dying unbaptized—I am so far from acceding to them, +that I reject the whole statement as rash, and not only unwarranted by +the authorities he cites, but unanswerably confuted by Baxter, Wall, +and many other learned Pædo-baptists before and since the publication of +his work. I confine myself to the assertion—not that Infant Baptism +was <i>not</i>; but—that there exist no sufficient proofs that it <i>was</i> the +practice of the Apostolic age.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_151" id="Foot_151" href="#Ref_151">[151]</a> +Let me be permitted to repeat and apply the <i>note</i> in a former page. +Superstition may be defined as <i>super</i>stantium (<i>cujusmodi sunt ceremoniæ +et signa externa quæ, nisi in significando nihili sunt et pæne nihil</i>) +<i>sub</i>stantiatio.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_152" id="Foot_152" href="#Ref_152">[152]</a> +Conference between Two Men that had Doubts about Infant +Baptism. By W. Wall, Author of the History of Infant Baptism, and +Vicar of Shoreham in Kent. A very sensible little tract, and written in +an excellent spirit: but it failed, I confess, in satisfying my mind as to +the existence of any decisive proofs or documents of Infant Baptism +having been an Apostolic usage, or specially intended in any part of the +New Testament: though deducible <i>generally</i> from many passages, and +in perfect accordance with the <i>spirit</i> of the whole.</p> + +<p class="nodent">A mighty wrestler in the cause of Spiritual Religion and <i>Gospel</i> +morality, in whom more than in any other contemporary I seem to see +the spirit of Luther revived, expressed to me his doubts whether we have +a right to deny that an infant is capable of a spiritual influence. To such +a man I could not feel justified in returning an answer <i>ex tempore</i>, or +without having first submitted my convictions to a fresh revisal. I owe +him, however, a deliberate answer; and take this opportunity of discharging +the debt.</p> + +<p class="nodent">The objection supposes and assumes the very point which is denied, or +at least disputed—namely, that Infant Baptism is specially injoined in the +Scriptures. If an express passage to this purport <i>had</i> existed in the New +Testament—the other passages, which evidently imply a spiritual operation +under the condition of a preceding spiritual act on the part of the person +baptized, remaining as now—<i>then</i> indeed, as the only way of removing +the apparent contradiction, it <i>might</i> be allowable to call on the Anti-pædobaptist +to prove the negative—namely, that an infant a week old is +not a subject capable or susceptible of spiritual agency. And, <i>vice +versa</i>, should it be made known to us, that infants are not without reflection +and self-consciousness—<i>then</i>, doubtless, we should be entitled +to infer that they were capable of a spiritual operation, and consequently +of that which is signified in the baptismal rite administered to adults. +But what does this prove for those, who (as D. D. Mant and D'Oyly) +not only cannot show, but who do not themselves profess to believe, the +self-consciousness of a new-born babe, but who rest the defence of Infant +Baptism on the <i>assertion</i>, that God was pleased to affix the performance +of this rite to his offer of Salvation, as the indispensable, though +arbitrary, condition of the infant's salvability?—As Kings in former +ages, when they conferred lands in perpetuity, would sometimes, as the +condition of the tenure, exact from the beneficiary a hawk, or some +trifling ceremony, as the putting on or off of their sandals, or whatever +else royal caprice or the whim of the moment might suggest. But <i>you</i>, +honoured <span class="smcap">Irving</span>, are as little disposed, as myself, to favour <i>such</i> +doctrine!</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i4">Friend, pure of heart and fervent! we have learnt</span> +<span class="i4">A different lore! We may not thus profane</span> +<span class="i4">The Idea and Name of Him whose absolute Will</span> +<span class="i4"><i>Is</i> Reason—Truth Supreme!—Essential Order!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_153" id="Ref_153" href="#Foot_153">[153]</a></span></span> + +</div> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_153" id="Foot_153" href="#Ref_153">[153]</a> +For a further opinion upon Edward Irving see note at pp. 153-4 of +the 1839 edition of Coleridge's 'Church and State.'—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_154" id="Foot_154" href="#Ref_154">[154]</a> +Here the editor of the 1843 edition was able to give two pages of +additional matter by the author, tending, as Coleridge said, to the +"clearing up" of "the chapter on Baptism," and the proving "the +substantial accordance of my scheme with that of our Church." The +addition is from Coleridge's MS. Note-books, and bears date May 8, +1828.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_155" id="Foot_155" href="#Ref_155">[155]</a> +This note appeared in the early editions only. The "supplementary +volume" was never published, though the "Essay on Faith," at p. 425, +v. 4, of Coleridge's "Remains" (1838), and "Notes on the Book of +Common Prayer" (p. 5, v. 3, the same), may be the parts here mentioned +as written to appear in it. We republish these two fragments at the +end of the present volume, pp. 341 and 350.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">{258}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">CONCLUSION.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">I am</span> not so ignorant of the temper and tendency of the age +in which I live, as either to be unprepared for the <i>sort</i> of +remarks which the literal interpretation of the Evangelist +will call forth, or to attempt an answer to them. Visionary +ravings, obsolete whimsies, transcendental trash, and the +like, I leave to pass at the price current among those who +are willing to receive abusive phrases as substitutes for +argument. Should any suborner of anonymous criticism +have engaged some literary bravo or buffoon beforehand, +to vilify this work, as in former instances, I would give a +friendly hint to the operative critic that he may compile an +excellent article for the occasion, and with very little +trouble, out of Warburton's tract on Grace and the Spirit, +and the Preface to the same. There is, however, one +objection which will so often be heard from men, whose +talents and reputed moderation must give a weight to their +words, that I owe it both to my own character and to the +interests of my readers, not to leave it unnoticed. The +charge will probably be worded in this way:—There is +nothing new in all this! (<i>as if novelty were any merit in +questions of Revealed Religion!</i>) It is <i>Mysticism</i>, all taken +out of William Law, after he had lost his senses, poor +man! in brooding over the visions of a delirious German +cobbler, Jacob Behmen.</p> + +<p>Of poor Jacob Behmen I have delivered my sentiments +at large in another work. Those who have condescended +to look into his writings must know, that his characteristic +errors are; first, the mistaking the accidents and peculiarities +of his own over-wrought mind for realities and +modes of thinking common to all minds: and secondly, +the confusion of nature, that is, the active powers communicated +to matter, with God the Creator. And if the +same persons have done more than merely looked into the +present volume, they must have seen, that to eradicate, and, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">{259}</a></span> +if possible, to preclude both the one and the other stands +prominent among its avowed objects.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_156" id="Ref_156" href="#Foot_156">[156]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of William Law's works I am acquainted with the +"Serious Call;" and besides this I remember to have read +a small tract on Prayer, if I mistake not, as I easily may, +it being at least six-and-twenty years<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_157" id="Ref_157" href="#Foot_157">[157]</a></span> +since I saw it. +He may in this or in other tracts have quoted the same +passages from the fourth Gospel as I have done. But +surely this affords no presumption that my conclusions are +the same with his; still less, that they are drawn from the +same premisses: and least of all, that they were adopted +from his writings. Whether Law has used the phrase, +assimilation by faith, I know not; but I know that I +should expose myself to a just charge of an idle parade of +my reading, if I recapitulated the tenth part of the authors, +ancient, and modern, Romish and Reformed, from Law +to Clemens Alexandrinus and Irenæus, in whose works +the same phrase occurs in the same sense. And after all, +on such a subject how worse than childish is the whole +dispute!</p> + +<p>Is the fourth Gospel authentic? And is the interpretation +I have given, true or false? These are the only +questions which a wise man would put, or a Christian be +anxious to answer. I not only believe it to be the true +sense of the texts; but I assert that it is the only true, +rational, and even <i>tolerable</i> sense. And this position alone +I conceive myself interested in defending. I have studied +with an open and fearless spirit the attempts of sundry +learned critics of the Continent, to invalidate the authenticity +of this Gospel, before and since Eichhorn's Vindication. +The result has been a clearer assurance and (as far +as this was possible) a yet deeper conviction of the genuineness +of <i>all</i> the writings, which the Church has attributed +to this Apostle. That those, who have formed an opposite +conclusion, should object to the use of expressions which +they had ranked among the most obvious marks of spuriousness, +follows as a matter of course. But that men, +who with a clear and cloudless assent receive the sixth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">{260}</a></span> +chapter of this Gospel as a faithful, nay, <i>inspired</i> record of +an actual discourse, should take offence at the repetition of +words which the Redeemer himself, in the perfect foreknowledge +that they would confirm the disbelieving, +alienate the unsteadfast, and transcend the present capacity +even of his own Elect, had chosen as the <i>most</i> appropriate; +and which, after the most decisive proofs, that they <i>were</i> +misinterpreted by the greater number of his hearers, and +not understood by any, he nevertheless repeated with +stronger emphasis and <i>without comment</i> as the <i>only</i> appropriate +symbols of the great truth he was declaring, and to +realize which <span title="egeneto sarx">εγενετο +σαρξ</span>;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_158" id="Ref_158" href="#Foot_158">[158]</a></span> +—that in their own discourses +these men should hang back from all express reference to +these words, as if they were afraid or ashamed of them, +though the earliest recorded ceremonies and liturgical +forms of the primitive Church are absolutely inexplicable, +except in connexion with this discourse, and with the +<i>mysterious</i> and <i>spiritual</i>, not allegorical and merely ethical, +import of the same; and though this import is solemnly +and in the most unequivocal terms asserted and taught by +their own Church, even in her Catechism, or compendium +of doctrines necessary for all her members;—<i>this</i> I may, +perhaps, <i>understand</i>; but <i>this</i> I am not able to vindicate or +excuse.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one opprobrious phrase which it may +be profitable for my younger readers that I should explain, +namely, Mysticism. And for this purpose I will quote a +sentence or two from a Dialogue which, had my prescribed +limits permitted, I should have attached to the present +work; but which with an Essay on the Church, as instituted +by Christ, and as an establishment of the State, and a +series of letters on the right and the superstitious use and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">{261}</a></span> +estimation of the Bible, will appear in a small volume by +themselves, should the reception given to the present +volume encourage or permit the publication.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_159" id="Ref_159" href="#Foot_159">[159]</a></span></p> + +<h4>MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM.</h4> + +<p><i>Antinöus.</i>—"What do you call Mysticism? And do you +use the word in a good or a bad sense?"</p> + +<p><i>Nöus.</i>—"In the latter only; as far, at least, as we are +now concerned with it. When a man refers to <i>inward +feelings</i> and <i>experiences</i>, of which mankind at large are not +conscious, as evidences of the truth of any opinion—such a +man I call a Mystic: and the grounding of any theory or +belief on accidents and anomalies of individual sensations +or fancies, and the use of peculiar terms invented, or perverted +from their ordinary significations, for the purpose +of expressing these <i>idiosyncrasies</i> and pretended facts of +interior consciousness, I name Mysticism. Where the +error consists simply in the Mystic's attaching to these +anomalies of his individual temperament the character of +<i>reality</i>, and in receiving them as permanent truths, having +a subsistence in the Divine Mind, though revealed to himself +alone; but entertains this persuasion without demanding +or expecting the same faith in his neighbours—I +should regard it as a species of enthusiasm, always indeed +to be deprecated, but yet capable of co-existing with many +excellent qualities both of head and heart. But when the +Mystic by ambition or still meaner passions, or (as sometimes +is the case) by an uneasy and self-doubting state of +mind which seeks confirmation in outward sympathy, is +led to impose his faith, as a duty, on mankind generally: +and when with such views he asserts that the same experiences +would be vouchsafed, the same truths revealed, +to <i>every man</i> but for his secret wickedness and unholy will—such +a Mystic is a Fanatic, and in certain states of the +public mind a dangerous member of society. And most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">{262}</a></span> +so in those ages and countries in which Fanatics of elder +standing are allowed to persecute the fresh competitor. +For under these predicaments, Mysticism, though originating +in the singularities of an individual nature, and therefore +essentially anomalous, is nevertheless highly <i>contagious</i>. +It is apt to collect a swarm and cluster <i>circum fana</i>, +around the new <i>fane</i>: and therefore merits the name of +Fanaticism, or as the Germans say, <i>Schwärmerey</i>, that is, +<i>swarm-making</i>."</p> + +<p class="topgap">We will return to the harmless species—the enthusiastic +Mystics;—a species that may again be subdivided into +two ranks. And it will not be other than germane to +the subject, if I endeavour to describe them in a sort of +allegory, or parable. Let us imagine a poor pilgrim benighted +in a wilderness or desert, and pursuing his way in +the starless dark with a lantern in his hand. Chance or +his happy genius leads him to an Oasis or natural Garden, +such as in the creations of my youthful fancy I supposed +Enos<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_160" id="Ref_160" href="#Foot_160">[160]</a></span> +the Child of Cain to have found. And here, hungry +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">{263}</a></span> +and thirsty, the way-wearied man rests at a fountain; and +the taper of his lantern throws its light on an over-shadowing +tree, a boss of snow-white blossoms, through +which the green and growing fruits peeped, and the ripe +golden fruitage glowed. Deep, vivid, and faithful are the +impressions, which the lovely Imagery comprised within the +scanty circle of light, makes and leaves on his memory! +But scarcely has he eaten of the fruits and drunk of the +fountain, ere scared by the roar and howl from the desart +he hurries forward: and as he passes with hasty steps +through grove and glade, shadows and imperfect beholdings +and vivid fragments of things distinctly seen blend +with the past and present shapings of his brain. Fancy +modifies sight. His dreams transfer their forms to real +objects; and these lend a substance and an <i>outness</i> to his +dreams. Apparitions greet him; and when at a distance +from this enchanted land, and on a different track, the +dawn of day discloses to him a caravan, a troop of his +fellow-men, his memory, which is itself half fancy, is +interpolated afresh by every attempt to recall, connect, and +<i>piece out</i> his recollections. His narration is received as a +madman's tale. He shrinks from the rude laugh and +contemptuous sneer, and retires into himself. Yet the +craving for sympathy, strong in proportion to the intensity +of his convictions, impels him to unbosom himself to +abstract auditors; and the poor Quietist becomes a Penman, +and, all too poorly stocked for the writer's trade, he +borrows his phrases and figures from the only writings to +which he has had access, the sacred books of his religion. +And thus I shadow out the enthusiast Mystic of the first +sort; at the head of which stands the illuminated Teutonic +theosopher and shoemaker, honest Jacob Behmen, born +near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia, in the 17th of our +Elizabeth's reign, and who died in the 22nd of her successor's.</p> + +<p>To delineate a Mystic of the second and higher order, +we need only endow our pilgrim with equal gifts of nature, +but these developed and displayed by all the aids and arts +of education and favourable fortune. <i>He</i> is on his way to +the Mecca of his ancestral and national faith, with a well-guarded +and numerous procession of merchants and fellow-pilgrims, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">{264}</a></span> +on the established track. At the close of day +the caravan has halted: the full moon rises on the desert: +and he strays forth alone, out of sight but to no unsafe +distance; and chance leads <i>him</i> too, to the same oasis or +Islet of Verdure on the Sea of Sand. He wanders at +leisure in its maze of beauty and sweetness, and thrids his +way through the odorous and flowering thickets into open +spots of greenery, and discovers statues and memorial +characters, grottos, and refreshing caves. But the moonshine, +the imaginative poesy of nature, spreads its soft +shadowy charm over all, conceals distances, and magnifies +heights, and modifies relations: and fills up vacuities with +its own whiteness, counterfeiting substance; and where +the dense shadows lie, makes solidity imitate hollowness; +and gives to all objects a tender visionary hue and softening. +Interpret the moonlight and the shadows as the +peculiar genius and sensibility of the individual's own +spirit: and here you have the other sort: a Mystic, an +Enthusiast of a nobler breed—a Fenelon. But the residentiary, +or the frequent visitor of the favoured spot, who +has scanned its beauties by steady day-light, and mastered +its true proportions and lineaments, he will discover that +both pilgrims have indeed been there. <i>He</i> will know, that +the delightful dream, which the latter tells, is a dream of +truth; and that even in the bewildered tale of the former +there is truth mingled with the dream.</p> + +<p>But the Source, the Spring-head, of the Charges which +I anticipate, lies deep. Materialism, conscious and avowed +Materialism, is in ill repute: and a confessed Materialist +therefore a rare character. But if the faith be ascertained +by the fruits: if the predominant, though most often unsuspected, +persuasion is to be learnt from the influences, +under which the thoughts and affections of the man move +and take their direction; I must reverse the position. +<span class="smcap">Only not all are Materialists.</span> Except a few individuals, +and those for the most part of a single sect: every one, +who calls himself a Christian, holds himself to have a soul +as well as a body. He distinguishes mind from matter, +the <i>subject</i> of his consciousness from the <i>objects</i> of the same. +The former is his mind: and he says, it is immaterial. +But though <i>subject</i> and <i>substance</i> are words of kindred +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">{265}</a></span> +roots, nay, little less than equivalent terms, yet nevertheless +it is exclusively to sensible <i>objects</i>, to bodies, to modifications +of matter, that he habitually attaches the attributes +of reality, of substance. Real and tangible, substantial +and material, are synonyms for him. He never indeed +asks himself, what he means by Mind? But if he did, and +tasked himself to return an honest answer—as to what, at +least, he had hitherto meant by it—he would find, that he +had described it by negatives, as the opposite of bodies, for +example, as a somewhat opposed to solidity, to visibility, +and the like, as if you could abstract the capacity of a +vessel, and conceive of it as a somewhat by itself, and then +give to the emptiness the properties of containing, holding, +being entered, and so forth. In short, though the proposition +would perhaps be angrily denied in words, yet <i>in fact</i> +he thinks of his <i>mind</i>, as a <i>property</i>, or <i>accident</i> of a something +else, that he calls a <i>soul</i> or <i>spirit</i>: though the very +same difficulties must recur, the moment he should attempt +to establish the difference. For either this soul or spirit is +nothing but a thinner body, a finer mass of matter: or the +attribute of self-subsistency vanishes from the soul on the +same grounds, on which it is refused to the mind.</p> + +<p>I am persuaded, however, that the dogmatism of the +Corpuscular School, though it still exerts an influence on +men's notions and phrases, has received a mortal blow +from the increasingly <i>dynamic</i> spirit of the physical sciences +now highest in public estimation. And it may safely be +predicted that the results will extend beyond the intention +of those, who are gradually effecting this revolution. It is +not chemistry alone that will be indebted to the genius of +Davy, Oersted, and their compeers: and not as the +founder of physiology and philosophic anatomy alone, will +mankind love and revere the name of John Hunter. These +men have not only <i>taught</i>, they have compelled us to admit, +that the immediate objects of our <i>senses</i>, or rather the +grounds of the visibility and tangibility of all objects of +sense, bear the same <i>relation</i> and similar proportion to the +<i>intelligible</i> object—that is, to the object which we actually +<i>mean</i> when we say, "It is such or such a thing," or "I +have seen this or that,"—as the paper, ink, and differently +combined straight and curved lines of an edition of Homer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">{266}</a></span> +bear to what we understand by the words Iliad and +Odyssey. Nay, nothing would be more easy than so to +construct the paper, ink, painted capitals, and the like, of a +printed disquisition on the eye, or the muscles and cellular +texture (the flesh) of the human body, as to bring together +every one of the sensible and ponderable <i>stuffs</i> or elements, +that are <i>sensuously</i> perceived in the eye itself, or in the +flesh itself. Carbon and nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen, +sulphur, phosphorus, and one or two metals and metallic +bases, constitute the whole. It cannot be these, therefore, +that we mean by an <i>eye</i>, by our <i>body</i>. But perhaps it may +be a particular <i>combination</i> of these? But here comes a +question: In this term do you or do you not include the +<i>principle</i>, the <i>operating cause</i>, of the combination? If <i>not</i>, +then detach this eye from the body. Look steadily at it—as +it might lie on the marble slab of a dissecting room. +Say it were the eye of a murderer, a Bellingham: or +the eye of a murdered patriot, a Sidney!—Behold it, +handle it, with its various accompaniments or constituent +parts, of tendon, ligament, membrane, blood-vessel, gland, +humours; its nerves of sense, of sensation, and of motion. +Alas! all these names like that of the organ itself, are so +many Anachronisms, figures of speech to express that +which has been: as when the Guide points with his finger +to a heap of stones, and tells the traveller, "That is Babylon, +or Persepolis."—Is this cold jelly <i>the light of the body</i>? Is +this the <i>Micranthropos</i> in the marvellous microcosm? Is +this what you <i>mean</i> when you well define the eye as the +telescope and the mirror of the soul, the seat and agent of +an almost magical power?</p> + +<p>Pursue the same inquisition with every other part of the +body, whether integral or simply ingredient; and let a +Berzelius or a Hatchett be your interpreter, and demonstrate +to you what it is that in each actually meets your +senses. And when you have heard the scanty catalogue, +ask yourself if <i>these</i> are indeed the living <i>flesh</i>, the <i>blood</i> of +life? Or not far rather—I speak of what, as a man of +common sense, you really <i>do</i>, not what, as a philosopher, +you <i>ought</i> to believe—is it not, I say, far rather the distinct +and individualized agency that by the given combinations +utters and bespeaks its presence? Justly and with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">{267}</a></span> +strictest propriety of language may I say, <i>speaks</i>. It is to +the coarseness of our senses, or rather to the defect and +limitation of our percipient faculty, that the <i>visible</i> object +appears the same even for a moment. The characters, +which I am now shaping on this paper, abide. Not only +the forms remain the same, but the particles of the colouring +stuff are fixed, and, for an indefinite period at least, +remain the same. But the particles that constitute the +<i>size</i>, the visibility of an organic structure<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_162" id="Ref_162" href="#Foot_162">[162]</a></span> +are in perpetual +flux. They are to the combining and constitutive power +as the pulses of air to the voice of a discourser; or of +one who sings a roundelay. The same words may be +repeated; but in each second of time the articulated air +hath passed away, and each act of articulation appropriates +and gives momentary form to a new and other portion. As +the column of blue smoke from a cottage chimney in the +breathless summer noon, or the steadfast-seeming cloud on +the edge-point of a hill in the driving air-current, which +momently condensed and recomposed is the common phantom +of a thousand successors;—such is the flesh, which +our <i>bodily</i> eyes transmit to us; which our palates taste; +which our hands touch.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the material particles possess this combining +power by inherent reciprocal attractions, repulsions, +and elective affinities; and are themselves the joint artists +of their own combinations? I will not reply, though well +I might, that this would be to solve one problem by +another, and merely to shift the mystery. It will be sufficient +to remind the thoughtful querist, that ever herein +consists the essential difference, the contra-distinction, of +an organ from a machine; that not only the characteristic +shape is evolved from the invisible central power, but the +material mass itself is acquired by assimilation. The germinal +power of the plant transmutes the fixed air and the +elementary base of water into grass or leaves; and on +these the organific principle in the ox or the elephant +exercises an alchemy still more stupendous. As the unseen +agency weaves its magic eddies, the foliage becomes +indifferently the bone and its marrow, the pulpy brain, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">{268}</a></span> +the solid ivory. That what you see <i>is</i> blood, <i>is</i> flesh, is +itself the work, or shall I say, the translucence, of the +invisible Energy, which soon surrenders or abandons them +to inferior powers (for there is no pause nor chasm in the +activities of Nature), which repeat a similar metamorphosis +according to <i>their</i> kind;—these are not fancies, +conjectures, or even hypotheses, but <i>facts</i>; to deny which +is impossible, not to reflect on which is ignominious. +And we need only reflect on them with a calm and silent +spirit to learn the utter emptiness and unmeaningness of +the vaunted Mechanico-corpuscular Philosophy, with both +its twins, Materialism on the one hand, and Idealism, +rightlier named <i>Subjective Idolism</i>, on the other: the one +obtruding on us a World of Spectres and Apparitions; the +other a mazy Dream!</p> + +<p>Let the Mechanic or Corpuscular Scheme, which in its +absoluteness and strict consistency was first introduced by +Des Cartes, be judged by the results. By its fruits shall +it be known.</p> + +<p>In order to submit the various phenomena of moving +bodies to geometrical construction, we are under the +necessity of abstracting from corporeal substance all its +<i>positive</i> properties, and obliged to consider bodies as differing +from equal portions of space<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_163" id="Ref_163" href="#Foot_163">[163]</a></span> +only by figure and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">{269}</a></span> +mobility. And as a <i>fiction of science</i>, it would be difficult +to overvalue this invention. It possesses the same merits +in relation to Geometry that the atomic theory has in +relation to algebraic calculus. But in contempt of common +sense, and in direct opposition to the express declarations +of the inspired historian (<i>Genesis i.</i>) and to the tone and +spirit of the Scriptures throughout, Des Cartes propounded +it as <i>truth of fact</i>: and instead of a World <i>created</i> +and filled with productive forces by the Almighty <i>Fiat</i>, +left a lifeless Machine whirled about by the dust of its +own Grinding: as if Death could come from the living +Fountain of Life; Nothingness and Phantom from +the Plenitude of Reality! the Absoluteness of Creative +Will!</p> + +<p>Holy! Holy! Holy! let me be deemed mad by all men, +if such be thy ordinance: but, O! from <i>such</i> madness save +and preserve me, my God!</p> + +<p>When, however, after a short interval, the genius of +Kepler, expanded and organized in the soul of Newton, and +there (if I may hazard so bold an expression) refining +itself into an almost celestial clearness, had expelled the +Cartesian <i>vortices</i>;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_164" id="Ref_164" href="#Foot_164">[164]</a></span> +then the necessity of an active power, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">{270}</a></span> +of positive forces present in the material universe, forced +itself on the conviction. For as a Law without a Law-giver +is a mere abstraction; so a <i>Law</i> without an Agent +to realize it, a <i>Constitution</i> without an abiding Executive, +is, in fact, not a Law but <i>an Idea</i>. In the profound +emblem of the great tragic poet, it is the powerless +Prometheus fixed on a barren Rock. And what was the +result? How was this necessity provided for? God himself—my +hand trembles as I write! Rather, then, let me +employ the word, which the religious feeling, in its perplexity +suggested as the substitute—the <i>Deity itself</i> was +declared to be the real agent, the actual gravitating power! +The law and the law-giver were identified. God (says +Dr. Priestley) not only does, but <i>is</i> every thing. <i>Jupiter +est quodcunque vides.</i> And thus a system, which commenced +by excluding all life and immanent activity from the visible +universe and evacuating the natural world of all nature, +ended by substituting the Deity, and reducing the Creator +to a mere anima mundi: a scheme that has no advantage +over Spinosism but its inconsistency, which does indeed +make it suit a certain Order of intellects, who, like +the <i>pleuronectæ</i> (or flat fish) in ichthyology which have +both eyes on the same side, never see but half of a subject +at one time, and forgetting the one before they get to the +other are sure not to detect any inconsistency between +them.</p> + +<p>And what has been the consequence? An increasing +unwillingness to contemplate the Supreme Being in his +<i>personal</i> attributes: and thence a distaste to all the +peculiar doctrines of the Christian Faith, the Trinity, the +Incarnation of the Son of God, and Redemption. The +young and ardent, ever too apt to mistake the inward +triumph in the detection of error for a positive love of +truth, are among the first and most frequent victims to this +epidemic <i>fastidium</i>. Alas! even the sincerest seekers after +light are not safe from the contagion. Some have I +known, constitutionally religious—I speak feelingly; for I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">{271}</a></span> +speak of that which for a brief period was my own state—who +under this unhealthful influence have been so estranged +from the heavenly <i>Father</i>, the <i>Living</i> God, as even to +shrink from the personal pronouns as applied to the Deity. +But many do I know, and yearly meet with, in whom a +false and sickly <i>taste</i> co-operates with the prevailing +fashion: many, who find the God of Abraham, Isaac, and +Jacob, far too <i>real</i>, too substantial; who feel it more in +harmony with their indefinite sensations</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">To worship Nature in the hill and valley,</span> +<span class="i2">Not knowing what they love:—</span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent">and (to use the language, but not the sense or purpose of +the great poet of our age) would fain substitute for the +Jehovah of their Bible</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i10">A sense sublime</span> +<span class="i2">Of something far more deeply interfused,</span> +<span class="i2">Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,</span> +<span class="i2">And the round ocean and the living air;</span> +<span class="i2">A motion and a spirit, that impels</span> +<span class="i2">All thinking things, all objects of all thought,</span> +<span class="i2">And rolls through all things!</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent">And this from having been educated to understand the +Divine Omnipresence in any sense rather than the alone +safe and legitimate one, the presence of all things to God!</p> + +<p>Be it, however, that the number of such men is <i>comparatively</i> +small! And be it (as in fact it often <i>is</i>) but a +brief stage, a transitional state, in the process of intellectual +Growth! Yet among a numerous and increasing class of +the higher and middle ranks, there is an inward withdrawing +from the Life and Personal Being of God, a turning of +the thoughts exclusively to the so-called physical attributes, +to the Omnipresence in the counterfeit form of ubiquity, to +the Immensity, the Infinity, the Immutability;—the attributes +of space with a notion of Power as their <i>substratum</i>, +a <span class="smcap">Fate</span>, in short, not a Moral Creator and Governor! Let +intelligence be imagined, and wherein does the conception +of God differ essentially from that of Gravitation (conceived +as the cause of Gravity) in the understanding of those, who +represent the Deity not only as a necessary but as a +<i>necessitated</i> Being; those, for whom justice is but a scheme +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">{272}</a></span> +of general laws; and holiness, and the divine hatred of sin, +yea and sin itself, are words without meaning or accommodations +to a rude and barbarous race? Hence, I more than +fear, the prevailing taste for books of Natural Theology, +Physico-Theology, Demonstrations of God from Nature, +Evidences of Christianity, and the like. <i>Evidences</i> of +Christianity! I am weary of the word. Make a man feel +the <i>want</i> of it; rouse him, if you can, to the self-knowledge +of his <i>need</i> only the express declaration of +Christ himself: <i>No man cometh to me, unless the Father +leadeth him</i>. Whatever more is desirable—I speak now +with reference to Christians generally, and not to professed +students of theology—may, in my judgment, be far more +safely and profitably taught, without controversy or the +supposition of infidel antagonists, in the form of Ecclesiastical +history.</p> + +<p>The last fruit of the mechanico-corpuscular philosophy, +say rather of the mode and direction of feeling and thinking +produced by it on the educated class of society; or +that result, which as more immediately connected with my +present theme I have reserved for the last—is the habit of +attaching all our conceptions and feelings, and of applying +all the words and phrases expressing reality, to the objects +of the senses: more accurately speaking, to the images and +sensations by which their presence is made known to us. +Now I do not hesitate to assert, that it was one of the +great purposes of Christianity, and included in the process +of our Redemption, to rouse and emancipate the soul from +this debasing slavery to the outward senses, to awaken the +mind to the true <i>criteria</i> of reality, namely, Permanence, +Power, Will manifested in Act, and Truth operating as +Life. <i>My words</i>, said Christ, <i>are spirit</i>: and they (that is, +the spiritual powers expressed by them) <i>are truth</i>; that is, +<i>very</i> Being. For this end our Lord, who came from heaven +to <i>take captivity captive</i>, chose the words and names, that +designate the familiar yet most important objects of sense, +the nearest and most concerning things and incidents of +corporeal nature:—Water, Flesh, Blood, Birth, Bread! +But he used them in senses, that could not without +absurdity be supposed to respect the mere <i>phænomena</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">{273}</a></span> +water, flesh, and the like, in senses that by no possibility +could apply to the colour, figure, specific mode of touch or +taste produced on ourselves, and by which we are made +aware of the presence of the things, and <i>understand</i> them—<i>res, +quæ sub apparitionibus istis statuendæ sunt</i>. And this +awful recalling of the drowsed soul from the dreams and +phantom world of sensuality to <i>actual</i> reality,—how has it +been evaded! These words, that were Spirit! these +Mysteries, which even the Apostles must wait for the +Paraclete, in order to comprehend,—these spiritual things +which can only be <i>spiritually</i> discerned,—were mere metaphors, +figures of speech, oriental hyperboles! "All this +means <i>only</i> Morality!" Ah! how far nearer to the truth +would these men have been, had they said that Morality +means all this!</p> + +<p>The effect, however, has been most injurious to the best +interests of our Universities, to our incomparably constituted +Church, and even to our national character. The +few who have read my two Lay Sermons are no strangers +to my opinions on this head; and in my Treatise on the +Church and Churches, I shall, if Providence vouchsafe, +submit them to the Public, with their grounds and historic +evidences in a more systematic form.</p> + +<p>I have, I am aware, in this present work furnished +occasion for a charge of having expressed myself with slight +and irreverence of celebrated Names, especially of the late +Dr. Paley. O, if I were fond and ambitious of literary +honour, of public applause, how well content should I be to +excite but one third of the admiration which, in my inmost +being, I feel for the head and heart of Paley! And how +gladly would I surrender all hope of contemporary praise, +could I even approach to the incomparable grace, propriety, +and persuasive facility of his writings! But on this very +account I believe myself bound in conscience to throw the +whole force of my intellect in the way of this triumphal +car, on which the tutelary genius of modern Idolatry is +borne, even at the risk of being crushed under the wheels! +I have at this moment before my eyes the eighteenth of +his Posthumous Discourses: the amount of which is briefly +this,—that all the words and passages in the New Testament +which express and contain the <i>peculiar</i> doctrines of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">{274}</a></span> +Christianity, the paramount objects of the Christian Revelation, +all those which speak so strongly of the value, +benefit, and efficacy, of the death of Christ, assuredly mean +<i>something</i>; but <i>what</i> they mean, nobody, it seems can tell! +But doubtless we shall discover it, and be convinced that +there is a substantial sense belonging to these words—in a +future state! Is there an enigma, or an absurdity, in the +Koran or the Vedas which might not be defended on the +same pretence? A similar impression, I confess, was left +on my mind by Dr. Magee's statement or exposition (<i>ad +normam Grotianam</i>) of the doctrine of Redemption; and +deeply did it disappoint the high expectations, sadly did it +chill the fervid sympathy, which his introductory chapter, +his manly and masterly disquisition on the sacrificial rites +of Paganism, had raised in my mind.</p> + +<p>And yet I cannot read the pages of Paley, here referred +to, aloud, without the liveliest sense, how plausible and +popular they will sound to the great majority of readers. +Thousands of sober, and in their way pious, Christians, +will echo the words, together with Magee's kindred interpretation +of the death of Christ, and adopt the doctrine for +their <i>Make-faith</i>; and why? It is feeble. And whatever +is feeble is always plausible: for it favours mental +indolence. It is feeble: and feebleness, in the disguise of +confessing and condescending strength, is always popular. +It flatters the reader by removing the apprehended distance +between him and the superior author; and it flatters +him still more by enabling him to transfer to himself, and +to appropriate, this superiority; and thus to make his +very weakness the mark and evidence of his strength. +Ay, quoth the <i>rational</i> Christian—or with a sighing, +self-soothing sound between an Ay and an Ah!—<i>I</i> am +content to think, with the great Dr. Paley, and the learned +Archbishop of Dublin——</p> + +<p>Man of Sense! Dr. Paley <i>was</i> a great man, and Dr. +Magee <i>is</i> a learned and exemplary prelate; but <span class="smcap">You</span> do not +<i>think</i> at all!</p> + +<p>With regard to the convictions avowed and enforced in +my own Work, I will continue my address to the man of +sense in the words of an old philosopher:—Tu vero crassis +auribus et obstinato corde respuis quæ forsitan vere perhibeantur. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">{275}</a></span> +Minus hercule calles, pravissimis opinionibus <i>ea +putari mendacia, quæ vel auditu nova, vel visu rudia, vel certe +supra captum cogitationis (extemporaneæ tuæ) ardua videantur</i>: +quæ si paulo accuratius exploraris, non modo compertu +evidentia, sed etiam factu facilia, senties.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_165" id="Ref_165" href="#Foot_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>In compliance with the suggestion of a judicious friend, +the celebrated conclusion of the fourth Book of Paley's +Moral and Political Philosophy, referred to in p. 230 of this +volume, is here transprinted for the convenience of the +reader:—</p> + +<p>"Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declaration than +the following—'The hour is coming, in the which all that +are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: +they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and +they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation:'—he +had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, +and well worthy of that splendid apparatus of +prophecy and miracles with which his mission was introduced +and attested: a message in which the wisest of mankind +would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and +rest to their inquiries.—It is idle to say, that a future +state had been discovered already:—it had been discovered +as the Copernican system was;—it was one guess among +many. He alone discovers, who proves; and no man can +prove this point, but the teacher who testifies by miracles +that his doctrine comes from God."</p> + +<p>Pædianus says of Virgil,—<i>Usque adeo expers invidiæ, ut +siquid erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gauderet +ac si suum esset</i>. My own heart assures me, that this is less +than the truth: that Virgil would have read a beautiful +passage in the work of another with a higher and purer +delight than in a work of his own, because free from the +apprehension of his judgment being warped by self-love, and +without that repressive modesty akin to shame, which in a +delicate mind holds in check a man's own secret thoughts +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">{276}</a></span> +and feelings, when they respect himself. The cordial +admiration with which I peruse the preceding passage, as +<i>a master-piece of composition</i>, would, could I convey it, serve +as a measure of the vital importance I attach to the +convictions which impelled me to animadvert on the same +passage as <i>doctrine</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_156" id="Foot_156" href="#Ref_156">[156]</a> +See Preliminary to Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion, &c.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_157" id="Foot_157" href="#Ref_157">[157]</a> +So in first edition, 1825.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_158" id="Foot_158" href="#Ref_158">[158]</a> +Of which our <i>he was made flesh</i>, is an inadequate translation.—The +Church of England in this as in other doctrinal points, has preserved the +golden mean between the superstitious reverence of the Romanists, and +the avowed contempt of the Sectarians, for the writings of the Fathers, +and the authority and unimpeached traditions of the Church during the +first three or four centuries. And how, consistently with this honourable +characteristic of our Church, a minister of the same could, on the +Sacramentary scheme now in fashion, return even a plausible answer +to Arnauld's great work on Transubstantiation (not without reason the +boast of the Romish Church), exceeds my powers of conjecture.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_159" id="Foot_159" href="#Ref_159">[159]</a> +These were the afterwards published 'On the Church and State, +according to the Idea of Each,' 1830, and 'Confessions of an Inquiring +Spirit,' 1840. The latter we republish in the present volume; see +p. 285.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_160" id="Foot_160" href="#Ref_160">[160]</a> +Will the reader forgive me if I attempt at once to illustrate and +relieve the subject by annexing the first stanza of the poem composed +in the same year in which I wrote the Ancient Mariner and the first +book of Christabel?</p> + +<div class="poem"> + +<span class="i4">"Encinctur'd with a twine of leaves,</span> +<span class="i4">That leafy twine his only dress!</span> +<span class="i4">A lovely boy was plucking fruits</span> +<span class="i4">In a moonlight wilderness.<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_161" + id="Ref_161" href="#Foot_161">[161]</a></span></span> +<span class="i4">The moon was bright, the air was free,</span> +<span class="i4">And fruits and flowers together grew</span> +<span class="i4">On many a shrub and many a tree:</span> +<span class="i4">And all put on a gentle hue,</span> +<span class="i4">Hanging in the shadowy air</span> +<span class="i4">Like a picture rich and rare.</span> +<span class="i4">It was a climate where, they say,</span> +<span class="i4">The night is more belov'd than day.</span> +<span class="i4">But who that beauteous boy beguil'd,</span> +<span class="i4">That beauteous boy to linger here?</span> +<span class="i4">Alone, by night, a little child,</span> +<span class="i4">In place so silent and so wild—</span> +<span class="i4">Has he no friend, no loving mother near?"</span> +<span class="i10"><span class="smcap">Wanderings of Cain.</span></span> + +</div> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_161" id="Foot_161" href="#Ref_161">[161]</a> +"By moonlight, in a wilderness."—'Poetical Works,' edit. 1863.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_162" id="Foot_162" href="#Ref_162">[162]</a> +See p. 40.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_163" id="Foot_163" href="#Ref_163">[163]</a> +Such is the conception of body in Des Cartes' own system, <i>body</i> is +every where confounded with <i>matter</i>, and might in the Cartesian sense +be defined, Space or Extension, with the attribute of Visibility. As +Des Cartes at the same time zealously asserted the existence of intelligential +beings, the reality and independent Self-subsidence of the +soul, Berkeleyanism or Spinosism was the immediate and necessary +consequence. Assume a <i>plurality</i> of self-subsisting souls, and we +have Berkeleyanism; assume one only (<i>unam et unicam substantiam</i>), +and you have Spinosism, that is, the assertion of one infinite self-subsistent, +with the two attributes of thinking and appearing. <i>Cogitatio +infinita sine centro, et omniformis apparitio.</i> How far the Newtonian +<i>vis inertiæ</i> (interpreted any otherwise than as an arbitrary term = +x y z, to represent the unknown but necessary supplement or integration +of the Cartesian notion of body) has patched up the flaw, I leave +for more competent judges to decide. But should any one of my +Readers feel an interest in the speculative principles of Natural +Philosophy, and should be master of the German language, I warmly +recommend for his perusal the earliest known publication of the great +founder of the Critical Philosophy (written in the twenty-second year +of his age!), on the then eager controversy between the Leibnitzian +and the French and English Mathematicians, respecting the living +forces—<i>Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte</i>: +1747—in which Kant demonstrates the <i>right reasoning</i> to be with the +latter; but the Truth of <i>Fact</i>, the evidence of <i>Experience</i>, with the +former; and gives the explanation, namely: Body, or Corporeal +Nature, is something else and more than geometrical extension, even +with the addition of a <i>vis inertiæ</i>. And Leibnitz, with the Bernouillis, +erred in the attempt to demonstrate geometrically a problem not susceptible +of geometrical construction.—The tract, with the succeeding +<i>Himmels-system</i>, may with propriety be placed, after the <i>Principia</i> of +Newton, among the striking instances of early Genius; and as the +first product of the Dynamic Philosophy in the Physical Sciences, +from the time, at least, of Giordano Bruno, whom the idolaters burnt +for an Atheist, at Rome, in the year 1600. See the 'Friend,' pp. 151-55. +[Or pp. 69 70, Bohn's edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_164" id="Foot_164" href="#Ref_164">[164]</a> +For Newton's own doubtfully suggested ether, or <i>most</i> subtle +fluid, as the ground and immediate Agent in the phenomena of universal +gravitation, was either not adopted or soon abandoned by his disciples; +not only as introducing, against his own canons of right reasoning, +an <i>ens imaginarium</i> into physical science, a suf<i>fiction</i> in the place of a +legitimate sup<i>position</i>; but because the substance (assuming it to exist) +must itself form part of the problem, it was meant to solve. Meantime +Leibnitz's pre-established harmony, which originated in Spinosa, found +no acceptance; and, lastly, the notion of a corpuscular substance, with +properties <i>put</i> into it, like a pincushion hidden by the pins, could pass +with the unthinking only for any thing more than a confession of +ignorance, or technical terms expressing a hiatus of scientific insight.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_165" id="Foot_165" href="#Ref_165">[165]</a> +<i>Apul. Metam.</i> 1.—H. N. C.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">{277}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">APPENDIX A.</h3> + +<p class="nodent"><span class="smcap">a synoptical summary of the scheme of the argument to +prove the diversity in kind<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_166" id="Ref_166" href="#Foot_166">[166]</a></span> +of the reason and the +understanding. see p.</span> 143.</p> + +<p>The Position to be proved is the <i>difference in kind</i> of the +Understanding from the Reason.</p> + +<p>The Axiom, on which the Proof rests, is: Subjects, +which require essentially different General Definitions, +differ <i>in kind</i> and not merely <i>in degree</i>. For difference +<i>in degree</i> forms the ground of <i>specific</i> definitions, but not of +<i>generic</i> or general.</p> + +<p>Now Reason is considered either in relation to the Will +and Moral Being, when it is termed the<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_167" id="Ref_167" href="#Foot_167">[167]</a></span> +Practical Reason + = A: or relatively, to the intellective and Sciential +Faculties, when it is termed Theoretic or Speculative +Reason = <i>a</i>. In order therefore to be compared with the +Reason; the Understanding must in like manner be +distinguished into the Understanding as a Principle of +<i>Action</i>, in which relation I call it the Adaptive Power, or +the faculty of selecting and adapting Means and Medial of +proximate ends = B: and the Understanding, as a mode +and faculty of thought, when it is called Reflection = <i>b</i>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">{278}</a></span> +Accordingly, I give the General Definitions of these four: +that is, I describe each severally by its <i>essential characters</i>: +and I find, that the definition of A differs <i>toto genere</i> from +that of B, and the definition of <i>a</i> from that of <i>b</i>.</p> + +<p>Now subjects that require essentially different definitions +do themselves differ in kind. But Understanding and +Reason require essentially different definitions. Therefore +Understanding and Reason differ in kind.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_166" id="Foot_166" href="#Ref_166">[166]</a> +This summary did not appear in the first edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_167" id="Foot_167" href="#Ref_167">[167]</a> +N. B. The Practical Reason alone <i>is</i> Reason in the full and substantive +sense. It is reason in its own sphere of <i>perfect freedom</i>; as the +source of <i>IDEAS</i>, which Ideas, in their conversion to the responsible +Will, become Ultimate Ends. On the other hand, Theoretic Reason, as +the ground of the Universal and Absolute in all logical <i>conclusion</i> is +rather the <i>Light</i> of Reason in the <i>Understanding</i>, and known to be such +by its contrast with the contingency and particularity which characterize +all the proper and indigenous growths of the Understanding.</p> + +</div> + +<h3 class="break-before">APPENDIX B.</h3> + +<p class="center">ON INSTINCT:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Professor J. H. Green.</span></p> + +<p class="smallcond">[This is the discourse an early report of which was the +foundation of Coleridge's remarks upon instinct, &c., which +appear at pp. 160-164. It was first added as an +Appendix to the "Aids to Reflection," in the edition of +1843; being extracted from an Appendix to Professor +Green's "Vital Dynamics"<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_168" id="Ref_168" href="#Foot_168">[168]</a></span> +1840, where it appears at pp. +88-96. It was then given without the Professor's introductory +words, which we now add.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p>The following remarks on the import of instinct are those +to which Coleridge refers in the "Aids to Reflection" (p. +177, last edition<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_169" id="Ref_169" +href="#Foot_169">[169]</a></span>) as in accordance with his view of +the understanding, differing in degree from instinct, and in +kind from reason; and whatever merit they possess must +have been derived from his instructive conversation. They +are here inserted in the hope that they may interest the +reader in connexion both with the passages of the preceding +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">{279}</a></span> +discourse, and with the writings of Coleridge on this +important subject.</p> + +<p>What is Instinct? As I am not quite of Bonnet's +opinion "that philosophers will in vain torment themselves +to define instinct, until they have spent some time in the +head of the animal without actually being that animal," I +shall endeavour to explain the use of the term. I shall +not think it necessary to controvert the opinions which +have been offered on this subject, whether the ancient +doctrine of Descartes, who supposed that animals were +mere machines; or the modern one of Lamarck, who +attributes instincts to habits impressed upon the organs of +animals, by the constant efflux of the nervous fluid to these +organs, to which it has been determined in their efforts to +perform certain actions, to which their necessities have +given birth. And it will be here premature to offer any +refutation of the opinions of those who contend for the +identity of this faculty with reason, and maintain that all the +actions of animals are the result of invention and experience;—an +opinion maintained with considerable plausibility by +Dr. Darwin.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most ready and certain mode of coming to +a conclusion in this intricate enquiry will be by the +apparently circuitous route of determining first, what we +do not mean by the word. Now we certainly do not +mean, in the use of the term, any act of the vital power in +the production or maintenance of an organ: nobody thinks +of saying that the teeth grow by instinct, or that when the +muscles are increased in vigour and size in consequence of +exercise, it is from such a cause or principle. Neither do +we attribute instinct to the direct functions of the organs +in providing for the continuance and sustentation of the +whole co-organized body. No one talks of the liver +secreting bile, or of the heart acting for the propulsion of +the blood, by instinct. Some, indeed, have maintained +that breathing, even voiding the excrement and urine, are +instinctive operations; but surely these, as well as the +former, are automatic, or at least are the necessary result +of the organization of the parts in and by which the actions +are produced. These instances seem to be, if I may so +say, below instinct. But again, we do not attribute +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">{280}</a></span> +instinct to any actions preceded by a will conscious of its +whole purpose, calculating its effects, and predetermining +its consequences, nor to any exercise of the intellectual +powers, of which the whole scope, aim, and end are intellectual. +In other terms, no man, who values his words, +will talk of the instinct of a Howard, or of the instinctive +operations of a Newton or Leibnitz, in those sublime efforts, +which ennoble and cast a lustre, not less on the individuals +than on the whole human race.</p> + +<p>To what kind or mode of action shall we then look for +the legitimate application of the term? In answer to this +query, we may, I think, without fear of the consequences, +put the following cases as exemplifying and justifying the +use of the term Instinct in an appropriate sense. First: +when there appears an action, not included either in the +mere functions of life, acting within the sphere of its own +organismus; nor yet an action attributable to the intelligent +will or reason; yet, at the same time, not referable to any +particular organ,—we then declare the presence of an +Instinct. We might illustrate this in the instance of a +bull-calf butting before he has horns, in which the action +can have no reference to its internal economy, to the +presence of a particular organ, or to an intelligent will. +Secondly, likewise (if it be not indeed included in the +first), we attribute Instinct where the organ is present; if +only the act is equally anterior to all possible experience on +the part of the individual agent, as for instance, when the +beaver employs its tail for the construction of its dwelling; +the tailor-bird its bill for the formation of its pensile +habitation; the spider its spinning organ for fabricating +its artfully woven nets, or the viper its poison fang for its +defence. And lastly, generally, where there is an act of the +whole body as one animal, not referable to a will conscious of +its purpose, nor to its mechanism, nor to a habit derived from +experience, nor previous frequent use. Here with most +satisfaction, and without doubt of the propriety of the +word, we declare an Instinct; as examples of which, we +may adduce the migratory habits of birds; the social +instincts of the bees, the construction of their habitations, +composed of cells formed with geometrical precision, +adapted in capacity to different orders of the society, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">{281}</a></span> +forming storehouses for containing a supply of provisions;—not +to mention similar instances in wasps, ants, termites; +and the endless contrivances for protecting the future +progeny.</p> + +<p>But if it be admitted that we have rightly stated the +application of the term, what, we may ask, is contained in +the examples adduced, or what inferences are we to make +as to the nature of Instinct itself, as a source and principle +of action? We shall, perhaps, best aid ourselves in the +enquiry by an example, and let us take a very familiar one +of a caterpillar taking its food. The caterpillar seeks at +once the plant which furnishes the appropriate aliment, and +this even as soon as it creeps from the ovum; and the food +being taken into the stomach, the nutritious part is +separated from the innutritious, and is disposed of for the +support of the animal. The question then is, what is +contained in this instance of instinct? In the first place +what does the vital power in the stomach do, if we +generalize the account of the process, or express it in its +most general terms? Manifestly it selects and applies +appropriate means to an immediate end, prescribed by the +constitution;—first, of the particular organ, and then of +the whole body or organismus. This we have admitted is +not instinct. But what does the caterpillar do? Does it +not also select and apply appropriate means to an immediate +end, prescribed by its particular organization and constitution? +But there is something more; it does this according +to circumstances;—and this we call Instinct. But +may there not be still something more involved? What +shall we say of Hüber's humble-bees? A dozen of these +were put under a bell glass along with a comb of about ten +silken cocoons, so unequal in height as not to be capable of +standing steadily. To remedy this, two or three of the +humble-bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves over +its edge, and with their heads downwards, fixed their forefeet +on the table on which the comb stood, and so with +their hindfeet kept the comb from falling. When these +were weary others took their places. In this constrained +and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their comrades at +intervals, and each working in its turn, did these affectionate +little insects support the comb for nearly three days; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">{282}</a></span> +at the end of which time they had prepared sufficient wax +to build pillars with it. And what is still further curious, +the first pillars having got displaced, the bees had again +recourse to the same manœuvre. What then is involved in +this case? Evidently the same selection and appropriation +of means to an immediate end as before; but observe! +according to varying circumstances.</p> + +<p>And here we are puzzled;—for this becomes Understanding. +At least no naturalist, however predetermined to +contrast and oppose Instinct to Understanding, but ends +at last in facts in which he himself can make out no +difference. But are we hence to conclude that the instinct +is the same, and identical with the human understanding? +Certainly not;—though the difference is not in the essential +of the definition, but in an addition to, or modification of, +that which is essentially the same in both. In such cases, +namely, as that which we have last adduced, in which +instinct assumes the semblance of understanding, the act +indicative of instinct is not clearly prescribed by the +constitution or laws of the animal's peculiar organization, +but arises out of the constitution and previous circumstances +of the animal, and those habits, wants, and that +predetermined sphere of action and operation which belong +to the race, and beyond the limits of which it does not +pass. If this be the case, I may venture to assert that I +have determined an appropriate sense for instinct:—namely, +that it is a Power of selecting and applying +appropriate means to an immediate end, according to +circumstances, and the changes of circumstances, these +being variable and varying; but yet so as to be referable +to the general habits, arising out of the constitution and +previous circumstances of the animal considered not as an +individual, but as a race.</p> + +<p>We may here, perhaps, most fitly explain the error of +those who contend for the identity of Reason and Instinct, +and believe that the actions of animals are the result of invention +and experience. They have, no doubt, been deceived, +in their investigation of Instinct, by an efficient cause simulating +a final cause; and the defect in their reasoning has +arisen in consequence of observing in the instinctive operations +of animals the adaptation of means to a relative +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">{283}</a></span> +end, from the assumption of a deliberate purpose. To this +freedom or choice in action and purpose, instinct, in any +appropriate sense of the word, cannot apply, and to justify +and explain its introduction, we must have recourse to +other and higher faculties than any manifested in the +operations of instinct. It is evident, namely, in turning +our attention to the distinguishing character of human +actions, that there is, as in the inferior animals, a selection +and appropriation of means to ends—but it is (not only +according to circumstances, not only according to varying +circumstances, but it is) according to varying Purposes. +But this is an attribute of the intelligent will, and no longer +even mere understanding.</p> + +<p>And here let me observe that the difficulty and delicacy +of this investigation are greatly increased by our not +considering the understanding (even our own) in itself, and +as it would be were it not accompanied with, and modified +by, the co-operation of the will, the moral feeling, and that +faculty, perhaps best distinguished by the name of Reason, +of determining that which is universal and necessary, of +fixing laws and principles whether speculative or practical, +and of contemplating a final purpose or end. This +intelligent will,—having a self-conscious purpose, under the +guidance and light of the reason, by which its acts are +made to bear as a whole upon some end in and for itself, +and to which the understanding is subservient as an organ +or the faculty of selecting and appropriating the means—seems +best to account for that progressiveness of the +human race, which so evidently marks an insurmountable +distinction and impassable barrier between man and the +inferior animals; but which would be inexplicable were +there no other difference than in the degree of their intellectual +faculties.</p> + +<p>Man doubtless has his instincts, even in common with +the inferior animals, and many of these are the germs of +some of the best feelings of his nature. What, amongst +many, might I present as a better illustration, or more +beautiful instance, than the <i>storgè</i> or maternal instinct? +But man's instincts are elevated and ennobled by the +moral ends and purposes of his being. He is not destined +to be the slave of blind impulses, a vessel purposeless, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">{284}</a></span> +unmeant. He is constituted by his moral and intelligent +will, to be the first freed being, the master-work and the +end of nature; but this freedom and high office can only +co-exist with fealty and devotion to the service of truth +and virtue. And though we may even be permitted to +use the term Instinct, in order to designate those high +impulses, which in the minority of man's rational being, +shape his acts unconsciously to ultimate ends, and which in +constituting the very character and impress of the humanity +reveal the guidance of Providence; yet the convenience of +the phrase, and the want of any other distinctive appellation +for an influence <i>de supra</i>, working unconsciously in and +on the whole human race, should not induce us to forget +that the term instinct is only strictly applicable to the +Adaptive Power, as the faculty, even in its highest proper +form, of selecting and adapting appropriate means to proximate +ends according to varying circumstances,—a faculty +which however, only differs from human understanding in +consequence of the latter being enlightened by reason,—and +that the principles which actuate man as ultimate ends, +and are designed for his conscious possession and guidance, +are best and most properly named Ideas.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_168" id="Foot_168" href="#Ref_168">[168]</a> +'Vital Dynamics: The Hunterian Oration before the Royal College +of Surgeons in London, 14th February, 1840; by Joseph Henry Green, +F.R.S., Late Professor of Anatomy to the College: Professor of +Anatomy to the Royal Academy: One of the Surgeons to St. Thomas's +Hospital.' 8vo. William Pickering, 1840.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_169" id="Foot_169" href="#Ref_169">[169]</a> +This must have been the 4th edition, 1839, the latest corrected by +the author, and that which supplies our text in the main. Coleridge's +reference is at pp. 166-170 of the present edition.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">{285}</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT.</h2> + +<div class="frontm"> + +<p class="small">(<i>Letters on the Inspiration of the Scriptures.</i>)</p> + +<p class="small">BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">{286}</a></span></p> + +<h3>ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> following Letters on the Inspiration of the Scriptures +were left by Mr. Coleridge in MS. at his death. +The Reader will find in them a key to most of the Biblical +criticism scattered throughout the Author's own writings, +and an affectionate, pious, and, as the Editor humbly +believes, a profoundly wise attempt to place the study of +the Written Word on its only sure foundation,—a deep +sense of God's holiness and truth, and a consequent reverence +for that Light—the image of Himself—which He +has kindled in every one of his rational creatures.—[<span class="smcap">Henry +Nelson Coleridge</span>.]</p> + +<div class="smallcond"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Inn</span>, <i>September 22, 1840</i>.</p> + +<p class="topgap"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">{287}</a></span> +Being persuaded of nothing more than of this, that whether it +be matter of speculation or of practice, no untruth can +possibly avail the patron and defender long, and that things most +truly are likewise most behovefully spoken.—<i>Hooker.</i></p> + +<p>Any thing will be pretended rather than admit the necessity of +internal evidence, or acknowledge, among the external proofs, +the convictions and experiences of Believers, though they should +be common to all the faithful in every age of the Church. But +in all superstition there is a heart of unbelief; and, <i>vice versâ</i>, +where a man's belief is but a superficial acquiescence, credulity +is the natural result and accompaniment, if only he be not +required to sink into the depths of his being, where the sensual +man can no longer draw breath.—[<span class="smcap">Coleridge's</span> <i>Literary +Remains</i>.]</p> + +<p>Faith subsists in the <i>synthesis</i> of the Reason and the individual +Will. By virtue of the latter, therefore, it must be an energy, and, +inasmuch as it relates to the whole moral man, it must be exerted +in each and all of his constituents or incidents, faculties and tendencies:—it +must be a total, not a partial—a continuous, not a +desultory or occasional—energy. And by virtue of the former, +that is, Reason, Faith must be a Light, a form of knowing, a beholding +of Truth. In the incomparable words of the Evangelist, +therefore,—<i>Faith must be a Light originating in the Logos, or +the substantial Reason, which is co-eternal and one with the Holy +Will, and which Light is at the same time the Life of men.</i> Now, +as <i>Life</i> is here the sum or collective of all moral and spiritual +acts, in suffering, doing, and being, so is Faith the source and +the sum, the energy and the principle of the fidelity of Man to +God, by the subordination of his human Will, in all provinces of +his nature, to his Reason, as the sum of spiritual Truth, representing +and manifesting the Will Divine.—[<span class="smcap">Coleridge's</span> <i>Essay +on Faith: Literary Remains</i>, vol. iv. page 437. We reprint the +entire essay at the end of the present volume. See p. 339.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">{288}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before">THE PENTAD OF OPERATIVE CHRISTIANITY</h3> + +<table class="tblc" summary="pentad"> + +<tr><td></td> + <td><i>Prothesis</i></td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr class="gap"><td></td> + <td>Christ, the Word.</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td><i>Thesis</i></td> + <td><i>Mesothesis</i>,</td> + <td><i>Antithesis</i></td></tr> +<tr class="gap"><td></td> + <td>or the Indifference,</td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td></td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr class="gap"><td>The Scriptures.</td> + <td>The Holy Spirit.</td> + <td>The Church.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td></td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td><i>Synthesis</i></td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td>The Preacher.<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_170" + id="Ref_170" href="#Foot_170">[170]</a></span></td> + <td></td></tr> + +</table> + +<p>The Scriptures, the Spirit, and the Church, are co-ordinate; +the indispensable conditions and the working causes of the perpetuity, +and continued renascence and spiritual life of Christ +still militant. The Eternal Word, Christ from everlasting, is the +<i>Prothesis</i>, or identity;—the Scriptures and the Church are the +two poles, or <i>Thesis</i> and <i>Antithesis</i>; and the Preacher in direct +line under the Spirit, but likewise the point of junction of the +Written Word and the Church, is the <i>Synthesis</i>.</p> + +<p>This is God's Hand in the World.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_170" id="Foot_170" href="#Ref_170">[170]</a> +Coleridge gives this same "Pentad" in his "Notes on Donne," +"Literary Remains," v. iii. pp. 92-153.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="topgap"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">{289}</a></span> +Seven Letters to a Friend concerning the bounds between +the right, and the superstitious, use and estimation of the +Sacred Canon; in which the Writer submissively discloses +his own private judgment on the following Questions:—</p> + +<p>I. Is it necessary, or expedient, to insist on the belief of +the divine origin and authority of all, and every part of the +Canonical Books as the Condition, or first principle, of +Christian Faith?—</p> + +<p>II. Or, may not the due appreciation of the Scriptures +collectively be more safely relied on as the result and consequence +of the belief in Christ; the gradual increase—in +respect of particular passages—of our spiritual discernment +of their truth and authority supplying a test and measure +of our own growth and progress as individual believers, +without the servile fear that prevents or overclouds the +free honour which cometh from love? 1 John iv. 18.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">{291}</a></span></p> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p>LETTERS ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER I.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p> <span class="smcap">I employed</span> the compelled and most unwelcome +leisure of severe indisposition in reading <i>The Confessions of a +fair Saint</i> in Mr. Carlyle's recent translation of the <i>Wilhelm +Meister</i>, which might, I think, have been better rendered +literally <i>The Confessions of a Beautiful Soul</i>.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_171" id="Ref_171" href="#Foot_171">[171]</a></span> +This, acting in conjunction with the concluding sentences of your Letter, +threw my thoughts inward on my own religious experience, +and gave the immediate occasion to the following Confessions +of one, who is neither fair nor saintly, but who—groaning +under a deep sense of infirmity and manifold +imperfection—feels the want, the necessity, of religious +support;—who cannot afford to lose any the smallest +buttress, but who not only loves Truth even for itself, and +when it reveals itself aloof from all interest, but who loves +it with an indescribable awe, which too often withdraws +the genial sap of his activity from the columnar trunk, the +sheltering leaves, the bright and fragrant flower, and the +foodful or medicinal fruitage, to the deep root, ramifying +in obscurity and labyrinthine way-winning—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">In darkness there to house unknown,</span> +<span class="i2">Far underground,</span> +<span class="i2">Pierc'd by no sound</span> +<span class="i2">Save such as live in Fancy's ear alone.</span> +<span class="i2">That listens for the uptorn mandrake's parting groan!</span> +</div> + +<p>I should, perhaps, be a happier—at all events a more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">{292}</a></span> +useful—man if my mind were otherwise constituted. But +so it is: and even with regard to Christianity itself, like +certain plants, I creep towards the light, even though it +draw me away from the more nourishing warmth. Yea, I +should do so, even if the light had made its way through +a rent in the wall of the Temple. Glad, indeed, and +grateful am I, that not in the Temple itself, but only in +one or two of the side chapels—not essential to the edifice, +and probably not coeval with it—have I found the light +absent, and that the rent in the wall has but admitted the +free light of the Temple itself.</p> + +<p>I shall best communicate the state of my faith by taking +the creed, or system of <i>credenda</i>, common to all the Fathers +of the Reformation—overlooking, as non-essential, the differences +between the several Reformed Churches—according +to the five main classes or sections into which the +aggregate distributes itself to my apprehension. I have +then only to state the effect produced on my mind by each, +of these, or the <i>quantum</i> of recipiency and coincidence in +myself relatively thereto, in order to complete my Confession +of Faith.</p> + +<p>I. The Absolute; the innominable <span title="Autopatôr">Αυτοπατωρ</span> et <i>Causa +Sui</i>, in whose transcendant <span class="smcap">I Am</span>, as the Ground, <i>is</i> whatever +<i>verily</i> is:—the Triune God, by whose Word and Spirit, +as the transcendant Cause, <i>exists</i> whatever <i>substantially</i> +exists:—God Almighty—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, +undivided, unconfounded, co-eternal. This class I designate +by the word, <span title="Stasis">Στασις</span>.</p> + +<p>II. The Eternal Possibilities; the actuality of which +hath not its origin in God: <i>Chaos spirituale:</i>—<span +title="Apostasis">Αποστασις</span>.</p> + +<p>III. The Creation and Formation of the heaven and +earth by the Redemptive Word:—The Apostasy of Man:—The Redemption +of Man:—the Incarnation of the Word +in the Son of Man:—the Crucifixion and Resurrection of +the Son of Man:—the Descent of the Comforter:—Repentance +(<span title="metanoia">μετανοια</span>):—Regeneration:—Faith:—Prayer:— +Grace: Communion with the Spirit: Conflict: Self-abasement: +Assurance through the righteousness of Christ: +Spiritual Growth: Love: Discipline: Perseverance: Hope +in death:—<span title="Metatasis">Μεταστασις</span>—<span +title="Anastasis">Αναστασις</span>.</p> + +<p>IV. But these offers, gifts, and graces are not for one, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">{293}</a></span> +or for a few. They are offered to all. Even when the +Gospel is preached to a single individual, it is offered to +him as to one of a great Household. Not only Man, but, +says St. Paul, the whole Creation is included in the consequences +of the Fall—<span title="tês apostaseôs">της +αποστασεως</span>—; so also in those of the Change at the +Redemption—<span title="tês metastaseôs, kai tês anastaseôs">της +μεταστασεως, και της αναστασεως</span>. We too shall be raised <i>in +the Body</i>. Christianity is fact no less than truth. It is +spiritual, yet so as to be historical; and between these two poles +there must likewise be a midpoint, in which the historical and +spiritual meet. Christianity must have its history—a history of +itself, and likewise the history of its introduction, its spread, and +its outward-becoming; and, as the midpoint above-mentioned, a portion +of these facts must be miraculous, that is, <i>phænomena</i> in nature +that are beyond nature. Furthermore, the history of all historical +nations must in some sense be its history;—in other words, all +history must be providential, and this a providence, a preparation, +and a looking forward to Christ.</p> + +<p>Here, then, we have four out of the five classes. And +in all these the sky of my belief is serene, unclouded by a +doubt. Would to God that my faith, that faith which +works on the whole man, confirming and conforming, were +but in just proportion to my belief, to the full acquiescence +of my intellect, and the deep consent of my conscience! +The very difficulties argue the truth of the whole scheme +and system for my understanding, since I see plainly that +so must the truth appear, if it be the truth.</p> + +<p>V. But there is a Book, of two parts,—each part consisting +of several books. The first part—(I speak in the +character of an uninterested critic or philologist)—contains +the reliques of the literature of the Hebrew people, while +the Hebrew was still the living language. The second +part comprises the writings, and, with one or two inconsiderable +and doubtful exceptions, all the writings of the +followers of Christ within the space of ninety years from +the date of the Resurrection. I do not myself think that +any of these writings were composed as late as <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 120; +but I wish to preclude all dispute. This Book I resume, +as read, and yet unread,—read and familiar to my mind in +all parts, but which is yet to be perused as a whole;—or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">{294}</a></span> +rather, a work, <i>cujus particulas et sententiolas omnes et singulas +recogniturus sum</i>, but the component integers of which, +and their conspiration, I have yet to study. I take up this +work with the purpose to read it for the first time as I +should read any other work,—as far at least as I can or +dare. For I neither can, nor dare, throw off a strong and +awful prepossession in its favour—certain as I am that a +large part of the light and life, in and by which I see, love, +and embrace the truths and the strengths co-organized +into a living body of faith and knowledge in the four preceding +classes, has been directly or indirectly derived to +me from this sacred volume,—and unable to determine +what I do not owe to its influences. But even on this +account, and because it has these inalienable claims on my +reverence and gratitude, I will not leave it in the power of +unbelievers to say, that the Bible is for me only what the +Koran is for the deaf Turk, and the Vedas for the feeble +and acquiescent Hindoo. No; I will retire <i>up into the +mountain</i>, and hold secret commune with my Bible above +the contagious blastments of prejudice, and the fog-blight +of selfish superstition. <i>For fear hath torment.</i> And what +though <i>my</i> reason be to the power and splendour of the +Scriptures but as the reflected and secondary shine of the +moon compared with the solar radiance:—yet the sun +endures the occasional co-presence of the unsteady orb, +and leaving it visible seems to sanction the comparison. +There is a Light higher than all, even <i>the Word that was in +the beginning</i>;—the Light, of which light itself is but the +<i>shechinah</i> and cloudy tabernacle;—the Word that is light +for every man, and life for as many as give heed to it. If +between this Word and the written Letter I shall any where +seem to myself to find a discrepance, I will not conclude +that such there actually is; nor on the other hand will I +fall under the condemnation of them that would <i>lie for +God</i>, but seek as I may, be thankful for what I have—and +wait.</p> + +<p>With such purposes, with such feelings, have I perused +the books of the Old and New Testaments,—each book as +a whole, and also as an integral part. And need I say +that I have met every where more or less copious sources +of truth, and power, and purifying impulses;—that I have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">{295}</a></span> +found words for my inmost thoughts, songs for my joy, +utterances for my hidden griefs, and pleadings for my +shame and my feebleness? In short whatever <i>finds</i> me, +bears witness for itself that it has proceeded from a Holy +Spirit, even from the same Spirit, <i>which remaining in itself, +yet regenerateth all other powers, and in all ages entering into +holy souls maketh them friends of God, and prophets</i>. (Wisd. +vii.) And here, perhaps, I might have been content to +rest, if I had not learned that, as a Christian, I cannot,—must +not—stand alone; or if I had not known that more +than this was holden and required by the Fathers of the +Reformation, and by the Churches collectively, since the +Council of Nice at latest;—the only exceptions being that +doubtful one of the corrupt Romish Church implied, though +not avowed, in its equalization of the Apocryphal Books +with those of the Hebrew Canon,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_172" id="Ref_172" href="#Foot_172">[172]</a></span> +and the irrelevant one +of the few and obscure Sects who acknowledge no historical +Christianity. This somewhat more, in which Jerome, +Augustine, Luther, and Hooker, were of one and the same +judgment, and less than which not one of them would have +tolerated—would it fall within the scope of my present +doubts and objections? I hope it would not. Let only +their general expressions be interpreted by their treatment +of the Scriptures in detail, and I dare confidently trust +that it would not. For I can no more reconcile the Doctrine +which startles my belief with the practice and particular +declarations of these great men, than with the +convictions of my own understanding and conscience. At +all events—and I cannot too early or too earnestly guard +against any misapprehension of my meaning and purpose—let +it be distinctly understood that my arguments and +objections apply exclusively to the following Doctrine or +Dogma. To the opinions which individual divines have +advanced in lieu of this doctrine, my only objection, as far +as I object, is—that I do not understand them. The precise +enunciation of this doctrine I defer to the commencement +of the next Letter. Farewell.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_171" id="Foot_171" href="#Ref_171">[171]</a> +<i>Bekenntnisse einer schönen Seele</i>.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_172" id="Foot_172" href="#Ref_172">[172]</a> +<i>Si quis—(Esdræ primum et secundum, Tobiam, Judith, Esther, &c.)—pro +sacris et canonicis non susceperit, ... anathema sit.</i> Conc. Trid. +Decr. Sess. <span class="smcap">IV.</span>—H. N. C.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">{296}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER II.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p> <span class="smcap">In</span> my last Letter I said that in the Bible there is +more that <i>finds</i> me than I have experienced in all other +books put together; that the words of the Bible find me +at greater depths of my being; and that whatever finds +me brings with it an irresistible evidence of its having proceeded +from the Holy Spirit. But the Doctrine in question +requires me to believe, that not only what finds me, but +that all that exists in the sacred volume, and which I am +bound to find therein, was—not alone inspired by, that is, +composed by, men under the actuating influence of the +Holy Spirit, but likewise—dictated by an Infallible Intelligence;—that +the writers, each and all, were divinely informed +as well as inspired. Now here all evasion, all +excuse, is cut off. An Infallible Intelligence extends to +all things, physical no less than spiritual. It may convey +the truth in any one of the three possible languages,—that +of Sense, as objects appear to the beholder on this earth; +or that of Science, which supposes the beholder placed in +the centre;—or that of Philosophy, which resolves both +into a supersensual reality. But whichever be chosen—and +it is obvious that the incompatibility exists only between +the first and second, both of them being indifferent +and of equal value to the third—it must be employed consistently; +for an Infallible Intelligence must intend to be +intelligible, and not to deceive. And, moreover, whichever +of these three languages be chosen, it must be translatable +into Truth. For this is the very essence of the Doctrine, +that one and the same Intelligence is speaking in the unity +of a Person; which unity is no more broken by the diversity +of the pipes through which it makes itself audible, than is +a tune by the different instruments on which it is played +by a consummate musician, equally perfect in all. One +instrument may be more capacious than another, but as +far as its compass extends, and in what it sounds forth, it +will be true to the conception of the master. I can conceive +no softening here which would not nullify the Doctrine, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">{297}</a></span> +and convert it to a cloud for each man's fancy to shift and +shape at will. And this Doctrine, I confess, plants the +vineyard of the Word with thorns for me, and places snares +in its pathways. These may be delusions of an evil spirit; +but ere I so harshly question the seeming angel of light—my +reason, I mean, and moral sense in conjunction with +my clearest knowledge—I must inquire on what authority +this Doctrine rests. And what other authority dares a +truly catholic Christian admit as coercive in the final +decision, but the declarations of the Book itself,—though +I should not, without struggles and a trembling reluctance, +gainsay even a universal tradition?</p> + +<p>I return to the Book. With a full persuasion of soul +respecting all the articles of the Christian Faith, as contained +in the first four Classes, I receive willingly also the +truth of the history, namely, that the Word of the Lord +did come to Samuel, to Isaiah, to others;—and that the +words which gave utterance to the same are faithfully +recorded. But though the origin of the words, even as of +the miraculous acts, be supernatural—yet the former once +uttered—the latter once having taken their place among +the <i>phænomena</i> of the senses, the faithful recording of the +same does not of itself imply, or seem to require, any +supernatural working, other than as all truth and goodness +are such. In the books of Moses, and once or twice in the +prophecy of Jeremiah, I find it indeed asserted that not +only the words were given, but the recording of the same +enjoined by the special command of God, and doubtless +executed under the special guidance of the Divine Spirit. +As to all such passages, therefore, there can be no dispute; +and all others in which the words are by the sacred historian +declared to have been the Word of the Lord supernaturally +communicated, I receive as such with a degree +of confidence proportioned to the confidence required of me +by the writer himself, and to the claims he himself makes +on my belief.</p> + +<p>Let us, therefore, remove all such passages, and take +each Book by itself; and I repeat that I believe the writer +in whatever he himself relates of his own authority, and of +its origin. But I cannot find any such claim, as the Doctrine +in question supposes, made by these writers, explicitly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">{298}</a></span> +or by implication. On the contrary, they refer to other +documents, and in all points express themselves as sober +minded and veracious writers under ordinary circumstances +are known to do. But, perhaps, they bear testimony, the +successor to his predecessor?—Or some one of the number +has left it on record, that by especial inspiration <i>he</i> was +commanded to declare the plenary inspiration of all the +rest?—The passages, which can without violence be appealed +to as substantiating the latter position, are so few, +and these so incidental,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_173" id="Ref_173" href="#Foot_173">[173]</a></span> +—the conclusion drawn from them +involving likewise so obviously a <i>petitio principii</i>, namely, +the supernatural dictation, word by word, of the book in +which the question is found; (for until this is established, +the utmost that such a text can prove, is the current belief +of the writer's age and country concerning the character +of the books, then called the Scriptures;)—that it cannot +but seem strange, and assuredly is against all analogy of +Gospel Revelation, that such a Doctrine—which, if true, +must be an article of faith, and a most important, yea, +essential article of faith,—should be left thus faintly, thus +obscurely, and, if I may so say, <i>obitaneously</i>, declared and +enjoined. The time of the formation and closing of the +Canon unknown;—the selectors and compilers unknown, +or recorded by known fabulists;—and (more perplexing +still,) the belief of the Jewish Church—the belief, I mean, +common to the Jews of Palestine and their more cultivated +brethren in Alexandria, (no reprehension of which is to be +found in the New Testament)—concerning the nature and +import of the <span title="theopneustia">θεοπνευστια</span> attributed to the precious remains +of their Temple Library;—these circumstances are such, +especially the last, as in effect to evacuate the Tenet, of +which I am speaking, of the only meaning in which it +practically means any thing at all, tangible, steadfast, or +obligatory. In infallibility there are no degrees. The +power of the High and Holy One is one and the same, +whether the sphere, which it fills, be larger or smaller;—the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">{299}</a></span> +area traversed by a comet, or the oracle of the house, +the holy place beneath the wings of the Cherubim;—the +Pentateuch of the Legislator, who drew near to the thick +darkness where God was, and who spake in the cloud +whence the thunderings and lightnings came, and whom +God answered by a voice;—or but a Letter of thirteen +verses from the affectionate <i>Elder to the elect lady and her +children, whom he loved in the truth</i>. But at no period was +this the judgment of the Jewish Church respecting all the +canonical books. To Moses alone—to Moses in the recording +no less than in the receiving of the Law—and to all +and every part of the five books, called the Books of Moses, +the Jewish Doctors of the generation before, and coeval +with, the Apostles assigned that unmodified and absolute +<i>theopneusty</i>, which our divines, in words at least, attribute +to the Canon collectively. In fact it was from the Jewish +Rabbis,—who, in opposition to the Christian scheme, contended +for a perfection in the Revelation by Moses, which +neither required nor endured any addition, and who strained +their fancies in expressing the transcendency of the books +of Moses in aid of their opinion,—that the founders of the +Doctrine borrowed their notions and phrases respecting +the Bible throughout. Remove the metaphorical drapery +from the doctrine of the Cabbalists, and it will be found to +contain the only intelligible and consistent idea of that +plenary inspiration, which later divines extend to all the +canonical books; as thus:—"The Pentateuch is but <i>one +Word</i>, even the Word of God; and the letters and articulate +sounds, by which this Word is communicated to our human +apprehensions, are likewise divinely communicated."</p> + +<p>Now, for 'Pentateuch' substitute 'Old and New Testament,' +and then I say that this is the doctrine which I +reject as superstitious and unscriptural. And yet as long +as the conceptions of the Revealing Word and the Inspiring +Spirit are identified and confounded, I assert that whatever +says less than this, says little more than nothing. For how +can absolute infallibility be blended with fallibility? Where +is the infallible criterion? How can infallible truth be +infallibly conveyed in defective and fallible expressions? +The Jewish teachers confined this miraculous character to +the Pentateuch. Between the Mosaic and the Prophetic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">{300}</a></span> +inspiration they asserted such a difference as amounts to a +diversity; and between both the one and the other, and +the remaining books comprised under the title of <i>Hagiographa</i>, +the interval was still wider, and the inferiority in +kind, and not only in degree, was unequivocally expressed. +If we take into account the habit, universal with the Hebrew +Doctors, of referring all excellent or extraordinary things to +the great First Cause, without mention of the proximate and +instrumental causes,—a striking illustration of which may +be obtained by comparing the narratives of the same event +in the Psalms and in the Historical Books; and if we further +reflect that the distinction of the Providential and the +Miraculous did not enter into their forms of thinking,—at +all events not into their mode of conveying their thoughts,—the +language of the Jews respecting the <i>Hagiographa</i> will +be found to differ little, if at all, from that of religious +persons among ourselves, when speaking of an author +abounding in gifts, stirred up by the Holy Spirit, writing +under the influence of special grace, and the like.</p> + +<p>But it forms no part of my present purpose to discuss +the point historically, or to speculate on the formation of +either Canon. Rather, such inquiries are altogether alien +from the great object of my pursuits and studies, which is, +to convince myself and others, that the Bible and Christianity +are their own sufficient evidence. But it concerns +both my character and my peace of mind to satisfy unprejudiced +judges, that if my present convictions should in +all other respects be found consistent with the faith and +feelings of a Christian,—and if in many and those important +points they tend to secure that faith and to deepen +those feelings—the words of the Apostle,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_174" id="Ref_174" href="#Foot_174">[174]</a></span> +rightly interpreted, do not require their condemnation. Enough, if +what has been stated above respecting the general doctrine +of the Hebrew Masters, under whom the Apostle was bred, +shall remove any misconceptions that might prevent the +right interpretation of his words. Farewell.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_173" id="Foot_173" href="#Ref_173">[173]</a> +With only one seeming exception, the texts in question refer to +the Old Testament alone. That exception is 2 Peter iii. 16. The +word <span title="loipas (graphas)">λοιπας (γραφας)</span> is, +perhaps, not necessarily so to be interpreted; and this very text +formed one of the objections to the Apostolic antiquity of the Epistle +itself.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_174" id="Foot_174" href="#Ref_174">[174]</a> +2 Tim. iii. 16.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">{301}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER III.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p> <span class="smcap">Having</span> in the former two Letters defined the +doctrine which I reject, I am now to communicate the +views that I would propose to substitute in its place.</p> + +<p>Before, however, I attempt to lay down on the theological +chart the road-place, to which my bark has drifted, and to +mark the spot and circumscribe the space, within which I +swing at anchor, let me, first, thank you for, and then +attempt to answer, the objections,—or at least the questions,—which +you have urged upon me.</p> + +<p>"The present Bible is the Canon, to which Christ and +the Apostles referred?"</p> + +<p>Doubtless.</p> + +<p>"And in terms which a Christian must tremble to tamper +with?"</p> + +<p>Yea. The expressions are as direct as strong; and a +true believer will neither attempt to divert nor dilute their +strength.</p> + +<p>"The doctrine which is considered as the orthodox view +seems the obvious and most natural interpretation of the +text in question?"</p> + +<p>Yea, and Nay. To those whose minds are prepossessed +by the Doctrine itself,—who from earliest childhood have +always meant this doctrine by the very word, Bible,—the +doctrine being but its exposition and paraphrase—Yea. In +such minds the words of our Lord and the declarations of +St. Paul can awaken no other sense. To those on the +other hand, who find the doctrine senseless and self-confuting, +and who take up the Bible as they do other books, +and apply to it the same rules of interpretation,—Nay.</p> + +<p>And, lastly, he who, like myself, recognizes in neither of +the two the state of his own mind,—who cannot rest in the +former, and feels, or fears, a presumptuous spirit in the +negative dogmatism of the latter,—he has his answer to +seek. But so far I dare hazard a reply to the question,—In +what other sense can the words be interpreted?—beseeching +you, however, to take what I am about to offer +but as an attempt to delineate an arc of oscillation,—that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">{302}</a></span> +the eulogy of St. Paul is in no wise contravened by the +opinion, to which I incline, who fully believe the Old Testament +collectively, both in the composition and in its preservation, +a great and precious gift of Providence;—who +find in it all that the Apostle describes, and who more than +believe that all which the Apostle spoke of was of divine +inspiration, and a blessing intended for as many as are in +communion with the Spirit through all ages. And I freely +confess that my whole heart would turn away with an +angry impatience from the cold and captious mortal, who, +the moment I had been pouring out the love and gladness +of my soul,—while book after book, Law, and Truth, and +Example, Oracle and lovely Hymn, and choral Song of ten +thousand thousands, and accepted Prayers of Saints and +Prophets, sent back, as it were, from Heaven, like doves, +to be let loose again with a new freight of spiritual joys +and griefs and necessities, were passing across my memory,—at +the first pause of my voice, and whilst my countenance +was still speaking—should ask me, whether I was thinking +of the Book of Esther, or meant particularly to include the +first six chapters of Daniel, or verses 6-20 of the 109th +Psalm, or the last verse of the 137th Psalm? Would any +conclusion of this sort be drawn in any other analogous +case? In the course of my Lectures on Dramatic Poetry, +I, in half a score instances, referred my auditors to the +precious volume before me—Shakspeare—and spoke enthusiastically, +both in general and with detail of particular +beauties, of the plays of Shakspeare, as in all their kinds, +and in relation to the purposes of the writer, excellent. +Would it have been fair, or according to the common +usage and understanding of men, to have inferred an intention +on my part to decide the question respecting Titus +Andronicus, or the larger portion of the three parts of +Henry VI.? Would not every genial mind understand by +Shakspeare that unity or total impression comprising, and +resulting from, the thousandfold several and particular +emotions of delight, admiration, gratitude excited by his +works? But if it be answered, "Aye! but we must not +interpret St. Paul as we may and should interpret any +other honest and intelligent writer or speaker,"—then, I +say, this is the very <i>petitio principii</i> of which I complain.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">{303}</a></span> +Still less do the words of our Lord<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_175" id="Ref_175" href="#Foot_175">[175]</a></span> +apply against my +view. Have I not declared—do I not begin by declaring—that +whatever is referred by the sacred Penman to a direct +communication from God, and wherever it is recorded that +the Subject of the history had asserted himself to have +received this or that command, this or that information or +assurance, from a superhuman Intelligence, or where the +writer in his own person, and in the character of an historian, +relates that the <i>Word of the Lord came</i> unto priest, +prophet, chieftain, or other individual—have I not declared +that I receive the same with full belief, and admit its inappellable +authority? Who more convinced than I am—who +more anxious to impress that conviction on the minds +of others—that the Law and the Prophets speak throughout +of Christ? That all the intermediate applications and +realizations of the words are but types and repetitions—translations, +as it were, from the language of letters and +articulate sounds into the language of events and symbolical +persons?</p> + +<p>And here again let me recur to the aid of analogy. +Suppose a Life of Sir Thomas More by his son-in-law, or +a Life of Lord Bacon by his chaplain; that a part of the +records of the Court of Chancery belonging to these periods +were lost; that in Roper's or in Bawley's biographical work +there were preserved a series of <i>dicta</i> and judgments attributed +to these illustrious Chancellors, many and important +specimens of their table discourses, with large extracts from +works written by them, and from some that are no longer +extant. Let it be supposed, too, that there are no grounds, +internal or external, to doubt either the moral, intellectual, +or circumstantial competence of the biographers. Suppose, +moreover, that wherever the opportunity existed of collating +their documents and quotations with the records and works +still preserved, the former were found substantially correct +and faithful, the few differences in no wise altering or disturbing +the spirit and purpose of the paragraphs in which +they were found, and that of what was not collatable, and +to which no test <i>ab extra</i> could be applied, the far larger +part bore witness in itself of the same spirit and origin; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">{304}</a></span> +and that not only by its characteristic features, but by its +surpassing excellence, it rendered the chances of its having +had any other author than the giant-mind, to whom the +biographer ascribes it, small indeed! Now, from the nature +and objects of my pursuits, I have, we will suppose, frequent +occasion to refer to one or other of these works; for +example, to Bawley's <i>Dicta et Facta Francisci de Verulam</i>. +At one time I might refer to the work in some such words +as,—"Remember what Francis of Verulam said or judged;" +or,—"If you believe not me, yet believe Lord Bacon." At +another time I might take the running title of the volume, +and at another, the name of the biographer;—"Turn to +your Rawley! <i>He</i> will set you right;" or,—"<i>There</i> you +will find a depth, which no research will ever exhaust;" +or whatever other strong expression my sense of Bacon's +greatness and of the intrinsic worth and the value of the +proofs and specimens of that greatness, contained and preserved +in that volume, would excite and justify. But let +my expressions be as vivid and unqualified as the most +sanguine temperament ever inspired, would any man of +sense conclude from them that I meant—and meant to +make others believe—that not only each and all of these +anecdotes, adages, decisions, extracts, incidents had been +dictated, word by word, by Lord Bacon; and that all +Rawley's own observations and inferences, all the connectives +and disjunctives, all the recollections of time, place, +and circumstance, together with the order and succession +of the narrative, were in like manner dictated and revised +by the spirit of the deceased Chancellor? The answer will +be—must be;—No man in his senses! "No man in his +senses—in <i>this</i> instance; but in that of the Bible it is quite +otherwise;—for (I take it as an admitted point that) it +<i>is</i> quite otherwise!"</p> + +<p>And here I renounce any advantage I might obtain for +my argument by restricting the application of our Lord's +and the Apostle's words to the Hebrew Canon. I admit +the justice—I have long felt the full force—of the remark''"We +have all that the occasion allowed." And if the +same awful authority does not apply so directly to the +Evangelical and Apostolical writings as to the Hebrew +Canon, yet the analogy of faith justifies the transfer. If +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">{305}</a></span> +the doctrine be less decisively Scriptural in its application +to the New Testament or the Christian Canon, the temptation +to doubt it is likewise less. So at least we are led +to infer; since in point of fact it is the apparent or imagined +contrast, the diversity of spirit which sundry individuals +have believed themselves to find in the Old Testament and +in the Gospel, that has given occasion to the doubt;—and, +in the heart of thousands who yield a faith of acquiescence +to the contrary, and find rest in their humility,—supplies +fuel to a fearful wish that it were permitted to make a +distinction.</p> + +<p>But, lastly, you object, that—even granting that no +coercive, positive, reasons for the belief—no direct and not +inferred assertions,—of the plenary inspiration of the Old +and New Testament, in the generally received import of +the term, could be adduced, yet,—in behalf of a doctrine +so catholic, and during so long a succession of ages affirmed +and acted on by Jew and Christian, Greek, Romish, and +Protestant, you need no other answer than;—"Tell me, +first, why it should not be received! Why should I not +believe the Scriptures throughout dictated, in word and +thought, by an infallible Intelligence?"—I admit the fairness +of the retort; and eagerly and earnestly do I answer: +For every reason that makes me prize and revere these +Scriptures;—prize them, love them, revere them, beyond +all other books! <i>Why</i> should I not? Because the Doctrine +in question petrifies at once the whole body of Holy Writ +with, all its harmonies and symmetrical gradations,—the +flexile and the rigid,—the supporting hard and the clothing +soft,—the blood <i>which is the life</i>,—the intelligencing nerves, +and the rudely woven, but soft and springy, cellular substance, +in which all are imbedded and lightly bound +together. This breathing organism, this glorious <i>panharmonicon</i>, +which I had seen stand on its feet as a man, and +with a man's voice given to it, the Doctrine in question +turns at once into a colossal Memnon's head, a hollow passage +for a voice, a voice that mocks the voices of many +men, and speaks in their names, and yet is but one voice, +and the same;—and no man uttered it, and never in a +human heart was it conceived. <i>Why</i> should I not?— +Because the Doctrine evacuates of all sense and efficacy the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">{306}</a></span> +sure and constant tradition, that all the several books bound +up together in our precious family Bible were composed in +different and widely distant ages, under the greatest diversity +of circumstances, and degrees of light and information, +and yet that the composers, whether as uttering or as recording +what was uttered and what was done, were all +actuated by a pure and holy Spirit, one and the same—(for +is there any spirit pure and holy, and yet not proceeding +from God—and yet not proceeding in and with the +Holy Spirit?)—one Spirit, working diversly,<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_176" id="Ref_176" href="#Foot_176">[176]</a></span> +now awakening strength, and now glorifying itself in weakness, now +giving power and direction to knowledge, and now taking +away the sting from error! Ere the summer and the +months of ripening had arrived for the heart of the race; +while the whole sap of the tree was crude, and each and +every fruit lived in the harsh and bitter principle; even +then this Spirit withdrew its chosen ministers from the +false and guilt-making centre of Self. It converted the +wrath into a form and an organ of love, and on the passing +storm-cloud impressed the fair rainbow of promise to all +generations. Put the lust of Self in the forked lightning, +and would it not be a Spirit of Moloch? But God maketh +the lightnings his ministers, fire and hail, vapours and +stormy winds fulfilling his word.</p> + +<p><i>Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly +the inhabitants thereof</i>—sang Deborah. Was it that she +called to mind any personal wrongs—rapine or insult—that +she or the house of Lapidoth had received from Jabin +or Sisera? No; she had dwelt under her palm tree in the +depth of the mountain. But she was a <i>mother in Israel</i>; +and with a mother's heart, and with the vehemency of a +mother's and a patriot's love, she had shot the light of love +from her eyes, and poured the blessings of love from her +lips, on the people that had <i>jeoparded their lives unto the +death</i> against the oppressors; and the bitterness, awakened +and borne aloft by the same love, she precipitated in curses +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">{307}</a></span> +on the selfish and coward recreants who <i>came not to the help +of the Lord, to the help of the Lord, against the mighty</i>. As +long as I have the image of Deborah before my eyes, and +while I throw myself back into the age, country, circumstances, +of this Hebrew Bonduca in the not yet tamed chaos +of the spiritual creation;—as long as I contemplate the +impassioned, high-souled, heroic woman in all the prominence +and individuality of will and character,—I feel as +if I were among the first ferments of the great affections—the +proplastic waves of the microcosmic chaos, swelling up +against—and yet towards—the outspread wings of the +Dove that lies brooding on the troubled waters. So long +all is well,—all replete with instruction and example. In +the fierce and inordinate I am made to know and be grateful +for the clearer and purer radiance which shines on a +Christian's paths, neither blunted by the preparatory veil, +nor crimsoned in its struggle through the all-enwrapping +mist of the world's ignorance: whilst in the self-oblivion +of these heroes of the Old Testament, their elevation above +all low and individual interests,—above all, in the entire +and vehement devotion of their total being to the service +of their divine Master, I find a lesson of humility, a ground +of humiliation, and a shaming, yet rousing, example of +faith and fealty. But let me once be persuaded that all +these heart-awakening utterances of human hearts—of men +of like faculties and passions with myself, mourning, rejoicing, +suffering, triumphing—are but as a <i>Divina Commedia</i> +of a superhuman—O bear with me, if I say—Ventriloquist;—that +the royal Harper, to whom I have so often submitted +myself as a <i>many-stringed instrument</i> for his fire-tipt fingers +to traverse, while every several nerve of emotion, passion, +thought, that thrids the flesh-and-blood of our common +humanity, responded to the touch,—that this <i>sweet Psalmist +of Israel</i> was himself as mere an instrument as his harp, an +<i>automaton</i> poet, mourner, and supplicant;—all is gone,—all +sympathy, at least, and all example. I listen in awe +and fear, but likewise in perplexity and confusion of spirit.</p> + +<p>Yet one other instance, and let this be the crucial test of +the Doctrine. Say that the Book of Job throughout was +dictated by an infallible Intelligence. Then re-peruse the +book, and still, as you proceed, try to apply the tenet: try +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">{308}</a></span> +if you can even attach any sense or semblance of meaning +to the speeches which you are reading. What! were the +hollow truisms, the unsufficing half-truths, the false assumptions +and malignant insinuations of the supercilious bigots, +who corruptly defended the truth:—were the impressive +facts, the piercing outcries, the pathetic appeals, and the +close and powerful reasoning with which the poor sufferer—smarting +at once from his wounds, and from the oil of +vitriol which the orthodox <i>liars for God</i> were dropping into +them—impatiently, but uprightly and holily, controverted +this truth, while in will and in spirit he clung to it;—were +both dictated by an infallible Intelligence?—Alas! if I +may judge from the manner in which both indiscriminately, +are recited, quoted, appealed to, preached upon, by the +<i>routiniers</i> of desk and pulpit, I cannot doubt that they think +so,—or rather, without thinking, take for granted that so +they are to think;—the more readily, perhaps, because the +so thinking supersedes the necessity of all after-thought.</p> + +<p class="right">Farewell.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_175" id="Foot_175" href="#Ref_175">[175]</a> +John v. 39.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_176" id="Foot_176" href="#Ref_176">[176]</a> +I use the adverb <i>diversly</i> from the adjective <i>divers</i> in order to distinguish +the Scriptural and Pauline sense of the word—the sense in +which I here use it—from the logical usage of the term <i>diversely</i>, from +<i>diverse</i>, that is, different in kind, heterogeneous. The same Spirit may +act and impel diversly, but, being a good Spirit, it cannot act diversely.</p> + +</div> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER IV.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p> <span class="smcap">You</span> reply to the conclusion of my Letter: "What +have we to do with <i>routiniers</i>? <i>Quid mihi cum homunculis +putata putide reputantibus?</i> Let nothings count for nothing, +and the dead bury the dead! Who but such ever understood +the Tenet in this sense?"—</p> + +<p>In what sense then, I rejoin, do others understand it? +If, with exception of the passages already excepted, namely, +the recorded words of God—concerning which no Christian +can have doubt or scruple,—the Tenet in this sense be inapplicable +to the Scripture, destructive of its noblest purposes, +and contradictory to its own express declarations,—again +and again I ask:—What am I to substitute? What +other sense is conceivable that does not destroy the doctrine +which it professes to interpret—that does not convert it +into its own negative? As if a geometrician should name +a sugar loaf an ellipse, adding—"By which term I here +mean a cone;"—and then justify the misnomer on the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">{309}</a></span> +pretext that the ellipse is among the conic sections! And +yet—notwithstanding the repugnancy of the Doctrine, in +its unqualified sense, to Scripture, Reason, and Common +Sense theoretically, while to all practical uses it is intractable, +unmalleable, and altogether unprofitable—notwithstanding +its irrationality, and in the face of your expostulation, +grounded on the palpableness of its irrationality,—I +must still avow my belief that, however flittingly and +unsteadily, as through a mist, it <i>is</i> the Doctrine which the +generality of our popular divines receive as orthodox, and +this the sense which they attach to the words.</p> + +<p>For on what other ground can I account for the whimsical +<i>subintelligiturs</i> of our numerous harmonists,—for the +curiously inferred facts, the inventive circumstantial detail, +the complemental and supplemental history which, in the +utter silence of all historians and absence of all historical +documents, they bring to light by mere force of logic?—And +all to do away some half score apparent discrepancies +in the chronicles and memoirs of the Old and New Testaments;—discrepancies +so analogous to what is found in all +other narratives of the same story by several narrators,—so +analogous to what is found in all other known and +trusted histories by contemporary historians, when they are +collated with each other (nay, not seldom when either +historian is compared with himself), as to form in the eyes +of all competent judges a characteristic mark of the genuineness, +independency, and (if I may apply the word to a book,) +the veraciousness of each several document; a mark the +absence of which would warrant a suspicion of collusion, +invention, or at best of servile transcription;—discrepancies +so trifling in circumstance and import, that, although in +some instances it is highly probable, and in all instances, +perhaps, possible that they are only apparent and reconcilable, +no wise man would care a straw whether they were +real or apparent, reconciled or left in harmless and friendly +variance. What, I ask, could have induced learned and +intelligent divines to adopt or sanction subterfuges, which, +neutralizing the ordinary <i>criteria</i> of full or defective evidence +in historical documents, would, taken as a general rule, +render all collation and cross-examination of written records +ineffective, and obliterate the main character by which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">{310}</a></span> +authentic histories are distinguished from those traditional +tales, which each successive reporter enlarges and fashions +to his own fancy and purpose, and every different edition, +of which more or less contradicts the other? Allow me to +create chasms <i>ad libitum</i>, and <i>ad libitum</i> to fill them up +with imagined facts and incidents, and I would almost +undertake to harmonise Falstaff's account of the rogues in +buckram into a coherent and consistent narrative. What, +I say, could have tempted grave and pious men thus to +disturb the foundation of the Temple, in order to repair a +petty breach or rat-hole in the wall, or fasten a loose stone +or two in the outer court, if not an assumed necessity arising +out of the peculiar character of Bible history?</p> + +<p>The substance of the syllogism, by which their procedure +was justified to their own minds, can be no other than this. +That, without which two assertions—both of which <i>must</i> +be alike true and correct—would contradict each other, +and consequently be, one or both, false or incorrect, must +itself be true. But every word and syllable existing in the +original text of the Canonical Books, from the <i>Cherethi</i> and +<i>Phelethi</i><span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_177" id="Ref_177" href="#Foot_177">[177]</a></span> +of David to the name in the copy of a family +register, the site of a town, or the course of a river, were +dictated to the sacred <i>amanuensis</i> by an infallible Intelligence. +Here there can be neither more or less. Important +or unimportant gives no ground of difference; and the +number of the writers as little. The secretaries may have +been many,—the historian was one and the same, and he +infallible. This is the <i>minor</i> of the syllogism; and if it +could be proved, the conclusion would be at least plausible; +and there would be but one objection to the procedure, +namely, its uselessness. For if it have been proved already, +what need of proving it over again, and by means—the +removal, namely, of apparent contradictions—which the +infallible Author did not think good to employ? But if +it have not been proved, what becomes of the argument +which derives its whole force and legitimacy from the +assumption?</p> + +<p>In fact, it is clear that the harmonists and their admirers +held and understood the Doctrine literally. And must not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">{311}</a></span> +that divine likewise have so understood it, who, in answer +to a question concerning the transcendant blessedness of +Jael, and the righteousness of the act, in which she inhospitably, +treacherously, perfidiously, murdered sleep, the +confiding sleep, closed the controversy by observing that he +wanted no better morality than that of the Bible, and no +other proof of an action's being praiseworthy than that the +Bible had declared it worthy to be praised?—an observation, +as applied in this instance, so slanderous to the morality +and moral spirit of the Bible as to be inexplicable, except +as a consequence of the Doctrine in dispute.—But let a +man be once fully persuaded that there is no difference +between the two positions—"The Bible contains the religion +revealed by God"—and "Whatever is contained in the +Bible is religion, and was revealed by God,"—and that +whatever can be said of the Bible, collectively taken, may +and must be said of each and every sentence of the Bible, +taken for and by itself,—and I no longer wonder at these +paradoxes. I only object to the inconsistency of those who +profess the same belief, and yet affect to look down with a +contemptuous or compassionate smile on John Wesley for +rejecting the Copernican system as incompatible therewith; +or who exclaim "Wonderful!" when they hear that Sir +Matthew Hale sent a crazy old woman to the gallows in +honour of the Witch of Endor.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_178" id="Ref_178" href="#Foot_178">[178]</a></span> +In the latter instance it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">{312}</a></span> +might, I admit, have been an erroneous (though even at +this day the all but universally received) interpretation of +the word, which we have rendered by <i>witch</i>;—but I challenge +these divines and their adherents to establish the compatibility +of a belief in the modern astronomy and natural +philosophy with their and Wesley's doctrine respecting the +inspired Scriptures, without reducing the Doctrine itself to +a plaything of wax;—or rather to a half-inflated bladder, +which, when the contents are rarefied in the heat of rhetorical +generalities, swells out round, and without a crease +or wrinkle; but bring it into the cool temperature of particulars, +and you may press, and as it were except, what +part you like—so it be but one part at a time—between +your thumb and finger.</p> + +<p>Now, I pray you, which is the more honest, nay, which +the more reverential, proceeding,—to play at fast and loose +in this way; or to say at once, "See here in these several +writings one and the same Holy Spirit, now sanctifying a +chosen vessel, and fitting it for the reception of heavenly +truths proceeding immediately from the mouth of God, and +elsewhere working in frail and fallible men like ourselves, +and like ourselves instructed by God's word and laws"?—The +first Christian martyr had the form and features of an +ordinary man, nor are we taught to believe that these +features were miraculously transfigured into superhuman +symmetry; but <i>he being filled with the Holy Ghost, they that +looked steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face +of an angel</i>. Even so has it ever been, and so it ever will +be, with all who with humble hearts and a rightly disposed +spirit scan the Sacred Volume. And they who read it with +<i>an evil heart of unbelief</i>, and an alien spirit—what boots for +them the assertion that every sentence was miraculously +communicated to the nominal author by God himself? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">{313}</a></span> +Will it not rather present additional temptations to the +unhappy scoffers, and furnish them with a pretext of self-justification?</p> + +<p>When, in my third Letter, I first echoed the question, +"Why should I not?"—the answers came crowding on my +mind. I am well content, however, to have merely suggested +the main points, in proof of the positive harm which, +both historically and spiritually, our religion sustains from +this Doctrine. Of minor importance, yet not to be overlooked, +are the forced and fantastic interpretations, the +arbitrary allegories and mystic expansions of proper names, +to which this indiscriminate Bibliolatry furnished fuel, +spark, and wind. A still greater evil, and less attributable +to the visionary humour and weak judgment of the individual +expositors, is the literal rendering of Scripture in +passages, which the number and variety of images employed +in different places, to express one and the same verity, +plainly mark out for figurative. And, lastly, add to all +these the strange—in all other writings unexampled—practice +of bringing together into logical dependency +detached sentences from books composed at the distance +of centuries, nay, sometimes a <i>millennium</i>, from each other, +under different dispensations, and for different objects. +Accommodations of elder Scriptural phrases—that favourite +ornament and garnish of Jewish eloquence—incidental +allusions to popular notions, traditions, apologues—(for +example, the dispute between the Devil and the Archangel +Michael about the body of Moses. <i>Jude</i> 9),—fancies and +anachronisms imported from the synagogue of Alexandria +into Palestine by, or together with, the Septuagint Version, +and applied as mere <i>argumenta ad homines</i>—(for example, +the delivery of the Law by the disposition of Angels, <i>Acts</i> +vii. 53, Gal. iii. 19, Heb. ii. 2)—these, detached from their +context, and, contrary to the intention of the sacred writer, +first raised into independent <i>theses</i>, and then brought +together to produce or sanction some new <i>credendum</i>, for +which neither separately could have furnished a pretence! +By this strange mosaic, Scripture texts have been worked +up into passable likenesses of Purgatory, Popery, the Inquisition, +and other monstrous abuses. But would you have +a Protestant instance of the superstitious use of Scripture +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">{314}</a></span> +arising out of this dogma? Passing by the Cabbala of the +Hutchinsonian School as the dotage of a few weak-minded +individuals, I refer you to Bishop Hacket's Sermons on the +Incarnation. And if you have read the same author's Life +of Archbishop Williams, and have seen and felt (as every +reader of this latter work must see and feel,) his talent, +learning, acuteness, and robust good sense, you will have +no difficulty in determining the quality and character of a +dogma, which could engraft such fruits on such a tree.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_179" id="Ref_179" href="#Foot_179">[179]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will perhaps appear a paradox, if, after all these +reasons, I should avow that they weigh less in my mind +against the Doctrine, than the motives usually assigned for +maintaining and enjoining it. Such, for instance, are the +arguments drawn from the anticipated loss and damage +that would result from its abandonment; as that it would +deprive the Christian world of its only infallible arbiter in +questions of Faith and Duty, suppress the only common and +inappellable tribunal; that the Bible is the only religious +bond of union and ground of unity among Protestants, and +the like. For the confutation of this whole reasoning it +might be sufficient to ask:—Has it produced these effects? +Would not the contrary statement be nearer to the fact? +What did the Churches of the first four centuries hold on +this point? To what did they attribute the rise and +multiplication of heresies? Can any learned and candid +Protestant affirm that there existed and exists no ground +for the charges of Bossuet and other eminent Romish +divines? It is no easy matter to know how to handle a +party maxim, so framed that, with the exception of a single +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">{315}</a></span> +word, it expresses an important truth, but which by means +of that word is made to convey a most dangerous error.</p> + +<p>The Bible is the appointed conservatory, an indispensable +criterion, and a continual source and support of true Belief. +But that the Bible is the sole source; that it not only contains, +but constitutes, the Christian Religion; that it is, in +short, a Creed, consisting wholly of articles of Faith; that +consequently we need no rule, help, or guide, spiritual or +historical, to teach us what parts are and what are not +articles of Faith—all being such,—and the difference between +the Bible and the Creed being this, that the clauses of the +latter are all unconditionally necessary to salvation, but +those of the former conditionally so, that is, as soon as the +words are known to exist in any one of the canonical +Books; and that, under this limitation, the belief is of the +same necessity in both, and not at all affected by the greater +or lesser importance of the matter to be believed;—this +scheme differs widely from the preceding, though its adherents +often make use of the same words in expressing their +belief. And this latter scheme, I assert, was brought into +currency by and in favour of those by whom the operation +of grace, the aids of the Spirit, the necessity of regeneration, +the corruption of our nature, in short, all the peculiar +and spiritual mysteries of the Gospel were explained and +diluted away.</p> + +<p>And how have these men treated this very Bible?—I, +who indeed prize and reverence this sacred library, as of all +outward means and conservatives of Christian faith and +practice the surest and the most reflective of the inward +Word;—I, who hold that the Bible contains the religion of +Christians, but who dare not say that whatever is contained +in the Bible is the Christian religion, and who shrink from +all question respecting the comparative worth and efficacy +of the written Word as weighed against the preaching of +the Gospel, the discipline of the Churches, the continued +succession of the Ministry, and the communion of Saints, +lest by comparing I should seem to detach them;—I tremble +at the processes, which the Grotian divines without scruple +carry on in their treatment of the sacred Writers, as soon +as any texts declaring the peculiar tenets of our Faith are +cited against them,—even tenets and mysteries which the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">{316}</a></span> +believer at his baptism receives as the title-writ and bosom-roll +of his adoption; and which, according to my scheme, +every Christian born in Church-membership ought to bring +with him to the study of the sacred Scriptures as the master-key +of interpretation. Whatever the doctrine of infallible +dictation may be in itself, in <i>their</i> hands it is to the last +degree nugatory, and to be paralleled only by the Romish +tenet of Infallibility,—in the existence of which all agree, +but where, and in whom, it exists <i>stat adhuc sub lite</i>. Every +sentence found in a canonical Book, rightly interpreted, +contains the <i>dictum</i> of an infallible Mind;—but what the +right interpretation is,—or whether the very words now +extant are corrupt or genuine—must be determined by the +industry and understanding of fallible, and alas! more or +less prejudiced theologians.</p> + +<p>And yet I am told that this Doctrine must not be resisted +or called in question, because of its fitness to preserve unity +of faith, and for the prevention of schism and sectarian byways!—Let +the man who holds this language trace the +history of Protestantism, and the growth of sectarian divisions, +ending with Dr. Hawker's <i>ultra</i>-Calvinistic Tracts, +and Mr. Belsham's New Version of the Testament. And +then let him tell me that for the prevention of an evil which +already exists, and which the boasted preventive itself +might rather seem to have occasioned, I must submit to be +silenced by the first learned infidel, who throws in my face +the blessing of Deborah, or the cursings of David, or the +Grecisms and heavier difficulties in the biographical chapters +of the Book of Daniel, or the hydrography and natural philosophy +of the Patriarchal ages.—I must forego the means +of silencing, and the prospect of convincing, an alienated +brother, because I must not thus answer:—"My Brother! +What has all this to do with the truth and the worth of +Christianity? If you reject <i>à priori</i> all communion with +the Holy Spirit, there is indeed a chasm between us, over +which we cannot even make our voices intelligible to each +other. But if—though but with the faith of a Seneca or +an Antonine—you admit the co-operation of a divine Spirit +in souls desirous of good, even as the breath of heaven +works variously in each several plant according to its kind, +character, period of growth, and circumstance of soil, clime, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">{317}</a></span> +and aspect;—on what ground can you assume that its presence +is incompatible with all imperfection in the subject,—even +with such imperfection as is the natural accompaniment +of the unripe season? If you call your gardener or +husbandman to account for the plants or crops he is raising, +would you not regard the special purpose in each, and judge +of each by that which it was tending to? Thorns are not +flowers, nor is the husk serviceable. But it was not for its +thorns, but for its sweet and medicinal flowers that the +rose was cultivated; and he who cannot separate the husk +from the grain, wants the power because sloth or malice +has prevented the will. I demand for the Bible only the +justice which you grant to other books of grave authority, +and to other proved and acknowledged benefactors of mankind. +Will you deny a spirit of wisdom in Lord Bacon, +because in particular facts he did not possess perfect science, +or an entire immunity from the positive errors which result +from imperfect insight? A Davy will not so judge his +great predecessor. For he recognizes the spirit that is now +working in himself, and which under similar defects of +light and obstacles of error had been his guide and guardian +in the morning twilight of his own genius. Must not the +kindly warmth awaken and vivify the seed, in order that +the stem may spring up and rejoice in the light? As the +genial warmth to the informing light, even so is the predisposing +Spirit to the revealing Word."</p> + +<p>If I should reason thus—but why do I say <i>if</i>?—I have +reasoned thus with more than one serious and well-disposed +Sceptic; and what was the answer?—"<i>You</i> speak rationally, +but seem to forget the subject. I have frequently attended +meetings of the British and Foreign Bible Society, where +I have heard speakers of every denomination, Calvinist and +Arminian, Quaker and Methodist, Dissenting Ministers +and Clergymen, nay, dignitaries of the Established Church,—and +still have I heard the same doctrine,—that the Bible +was not to be regarded or reasoned about in the way that +other good books are or may be;—that the Bible was different +in kind, and stood by itself. By some indeed this +doctrine was rather implied than expressed,but yet evidently +implied. But by far the greater number of the speakers it +was asserted in the strongest and most unqualified words +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">{318}</a></span> +that language could supply. What is more, their principal +arguments were grounded on the position, that the Bible +throughout was dictated by Omniscience, and therefore in +all its parts infallibly true and obligatory, and that the +men, whose names are prefixed to the several books or +chapters, were in fact but as different pens in the hand of +one and the same Writer, and the words the words of God +himself;—and that on this account all notes and comments +were superfluous, nay, presumptuous,—a profane mixing of +human with divine, the notions of fallible creatures with +the oracles of Infallibility,—as if God's meaning could be +so clearly or fitly expressed in man's as in God's own +words! But how often you yourself must have heard the +same language from the pulpit!—"</p> + +<p>What could I reply to this?—I could neither deny the +fact, nor evade the conclusion,—namely, that such is at +present the popular belief. Yes—I at length rejoined—I +have heard this language from the pulpit, and more than +once from men who in any other place would explain it +away into something so very different from the literal sense +of their words as closely to resemble the contrary. And +this, indeed, is the peculiar character of the doctrine, that +you cannot diminish or qualify but you reverse it. I have +heard this language from men, who knew as well as myself +that the best and most orthodox divines have in effect disclaimed +the doctrine, inasmuch as they confess it cannot +be extended to the words of the sacred Writers, or the +particular import,—that therefore the Doctrine does not +mean all that the usual wording of it expresses, though +what it does mean, and why they continue to sanction this +hyperbolical wording, I have sought to learn from them in +vain. But let a thousand orators blazon it at public meetings, +and let as many pulpits echo it, surely it behoves you +to inquire whether you cannot be a Christian on your own +faith; and it cannot but be beneath a wise man to be an +Infidel on the score of what other men think fit to include +in their Christianity!</p> + +<p>Now suppose—and, believe me, the supposition will vary +little from the fact—that in consequence of these views the +Sceptic's mind had gradually opened to the reception of all +the truths enumerated in my first Letter. Suppose that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">{319}</a></span> +the Scriptures themselves from this time had continued to +rise in his esteem and affection—the better understood, the +more dear; as in the countenance of one, whom through a +cloud of prejudices we have at least learned to love and +value above all others, new beauties dawn on us from day +to day, till at length we wonder how we could at any time +have thought it other than most beautiful. Studying the +sacred volume in the light and in the freedom of a faith +already secured, at every fresh meeting my Sceptic friend +has to tell me of some new passage, formerly viewed by +him as a dry stick on a rotten branch, which has <i>budded</i> +and, like the rod of Aaron, <i>brought forth buds and bloomed +blossoms, and yielded almonds</i>. Let these results, I say, be +supposed,—and shall I still be told that my friend is nevertheless +an alien in the household of Faith? Scrupulously +orthodox as I know you to be, will you tell me that I ought +to have left this Sceptic as I found him, rather than attempt +his conversion by such means; or that I was deceiving +him, when I said to him:—</p> + +<p>"Friend! The truth revealed through Christ has its +evidence in itself, and the proof of its divine authority in +its fitness to our nature and needs;—the clearness and +cogency of this proof being proportionate to the degree of +self-knowledge in each individual hearer. Christianity has +likewise its historical evidences, and these as strong as is +compatible with the nature of history, and with the aims +and objects of a religious dispensation. And to all these +Christianity itself, as an existing Power in the world, and +Christendom as an existing Fact, with the no less evident +fact of a progressive expansion, give a force of moral +demonstration that almost supersedes particular testimony. +These proofs and evidences would remain unshaken, even +though the sum of our religion were to be drawn from the +theologians of each successive century, on the principle of +receiving that only as divine which should be found in all,—<i>quod +semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus</i>. Be only, my +Friend! as orthodox a believer as you would have abundant +reason to be, though from some accident of birth, country, +or education, the precious boon of the Bible, with its additional +evidence, had up to this moment been concealed from +you;—and then read its contents with only the same piety +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">{320}</a></span> +which you freely accord on other occasions to the writings +of men, considered the best and wisest of their several +ages! What you find therein coincident with your pre-established +convictions, you will of course recognize as the +Revealed Word, while, as you read the recorded workings +of the Word and the Spirit in the minds, lives, and hearts +of spiritual men, the influence of the same Spirit on your +own being, and the conflicts of grace and infirmity in your +own soul, will enable you to discern and to know in and +by what spirit they spake and acted,—as far at least as +shall be needful for you, and in the times of your need.</p> + +<p>"Thenceforward, therefore, your doubts will be confined +to such parts or passages of the received Canon, as seem to +you irreconcilable with known truths, and at variance with +the tests given in the Scriptures themselves, and as shall +continue so to appear after you have examined each in +reference to the circumstances of the Writer or Speaker, +the dispensation under which he lived, the purpose of the +particular passage, and the intent and object of the Scriptures +at large. Respecting these, decide for yourself: and +fear not for the result. I venture to tell it you beforehand. +The result will be, a confidence in the judgment and fidelity +of the compilers of the Canon increased by the apparent +exceptions. For they will be found neither more nor +greater than may well be supposed requisite, on the one +hand, to prevent us from sinking into a habit of slothful, +undiscriminating acquiescence, and on the other to provide +a check against those presumptuous fanatics, who would +rend the <i>Urim and Thummim from the breastplate of judgment</i>, +and frame oracles by private divination from each +letter of each disjointed gem, uninterpreted by the Priest, +and deserted by the Spirit, which shines in the parts only +as it pervades and irradiates the whole."</p> + +<p>Such is the language in which I have addressed a halting +friend,—halting, yet with his face toward the right +path. If I have erred, enable me to see my error. Correct, +me, or confirm me. Farewell.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_177" id="Foot_177" href="#Ref_177">[177]</a> +2 Sam. xx. 23; 1 Chron. xviii. 17.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_178" id="Foot_178" href="#Ref_178">[178]</a> +He sent two; nor does it appear that the poor creatures were at all +crazy. Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, widows, of Lowestoft, Suffolk, +were tried for witchcraft, on the 10th of March, 1665, at Bury St. +Edmunds. Sir M. Hale told the jury, "that he would not repeat the +evidence unto them, lest by so doing he should wrong the evidence on +the one side or on the other. Only this [he] acquainted them, that +they had two things to enquire after: first, whether or no these children +were bewitched; secondly, whether the prisoners at the bar were guilty +of it. <i>That there were such creatures as witches, he made no doubt at all. +For, first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much. Secondly, the wisdom of +all nations had provided laws against such persons, which is an argument +of their confidence of such a crime.</i> And such hath been the judgment +of this kingdom, as appears by that Act of Parliament, which hath provided +punishments proportionable to the quality of the offence. And +desired them strictly to observe their evidence; and desired the great +God of heaven to direct their hearts in the weighty thing they had in +hand. For to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free were +both an abomination to the Lord." They were found guilty on thirteen +indictments. The bewitched got well of all their pains "within less +than half an hour" after the conviction (so "Mr. Pacy did affirm"—Mr. +Pacy being the father of one of the bewitched); "only Susan +Chandler felt a pain like pricking of pins in her stomach.... The +Judge and all the Court were fully satisfied with the verdict, and thereupon +gave judgment against the witches that they should be hanged. +They were much urged to confess, but would not.... They were +executed on Monday, the 17th of March following, but they confessed +nothing."—<i>State Trials</i>, vi. p. 700.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_179" id="Foot_179" href="#Ref_179">[179]</a> +"Did not the life of Archbishop Williams prove otherwise, I should +have inferred from these Sermons that Hacket from his first boyhood +had been used to make themes, epigrams, copies of verses, and the like +on all the Sunday feasts and festivals of the Church; had found abundant +nourishment for this humour of points, quirks, and quiddities, in the +study of the Fathers and glossers; and remained a <i>junior soph</i> all his +life long." ... "Let any competent judge read Hacket's Life of +Archbishop Williams, and then these Sermons, and so measure the +stultifying, nugifying effect of a blind and uncritical study of the +Fathers, and the exclusive prepossession in favour of their authority in +the minds of many of our Church dignitaries in the reign of Charles I."—<i>Lit. +Remains</i>, III. pp. 175 and 183, [<i>Notes on the Life of Bishop +Hacket.</i>]—H. N. C.—[See also the 'Aids,' ante, pp. 99 +and 107.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">{321}</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER V.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Yes!</span> my dear Friend, it is my conviction that in all +ordinary cases the knowledge and belief of the Christian +Religion should precede the study of the Hebrew Canon. +Indeed, with regard to both Testaments, I consider oral +and catechismal instruction as the preparative provided by +Christ himself in the establishment of a visible Church. +And to make the Bible, apart from the truths, doctrines, +and spiritual experiences contained therein, the subject of +a special article of faith, I hold an unnecessary and useless +abstraction, which in too many instances has the effect of +substituting a barren acquiescence in the letter for the +lively <i>faith that cometh by hearing</i>; even as the hearing is +productive of this faith, because it is the word of God that +is heard and preached. (Rom. x. 8 17.) And here I mean +the written word preserved in the armoury of the Church +to be the sword of faith <i>out of the mouth</i> of the preacher, as +Christ's ambassador and representative (Rev. i. 16), and +out of the heart of the believer, from generation to generation. +Who shall dare dissolve or loosen this holy bond, +this divine reciprocality, of Faith and Scripture? Who +shall dare enjoin aught else as an object of saving faith, +beside the truths that appertain to salvation? The imposers +take on themselves a heavy responsibility, however +defensible the opinion itself, as an opinion, may be. For +by imposing it, they counteract their own purposes. They +antedate questions, and thus in all cases aggravate the +difficulty of answering them satisfactorily. And not seldom +they create difficulties that might never have occurred. +But, worst of all, they convert things trifling or indifferent +into mischievous pretexts for the wanton, fearful, difficulties +for the weak, and formidable objections for the inquiring. +For what man <i>fearing God</i> dares think any the least point +indifferent, which he is required to receive as God's own +immediate word miraculously infused, miraculously recorded, +and by a succession of miracles preserved unblended +and without change?—Through all the pages of a large +and multifold volume, at each successive period, at every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">{322}</a></span> +sentence, must the question recur:—"Dare I believe—do +I in my heart believe—these words to have been dictated +by an infallible reason, and the immediate utterance of +Almighty God?"—No! It is due to Christian charity +that a question so awful should not be put unnecessarily, +and should not be put out of time. The necessity I deny. +And out of time the question must be put, if after enumerating +the several articles of the Catholic Faith I am bound +to add:—"and further you are to believe with equal faith, +as having the same immediate and miraculous derivation +from God, whatever else you shall hereafter read in any +of the sixty-six books collected in the Old and New +Testaments."</p> + +<p>I would never say this. Yet let me not be misjudged as +if I treated the Scriptures as a matter of indifference. I +would not say this: but where I saw a desire to believe, +and a beginning love of Christ, I would there say:—"There +are likewise sacred Writings, which, taken in connection +with the institution and perpetuity of a visible Church, all +believers revere as the most precious boon of God, next to +Christianity itself, and attribute both their communication +and preservation to an especial Providence. In them you +will find all the revealed truths, which have been set forth +and offered to you, clearly and circumstantially recorded; +and, in addition to these, examples of obedience and disobedience +both in states and individuals, the lives and +actions of men eminent under each dispensation, their sentiments, +maxims, hymns, and prayers,—their affections, +emotions, and conflicts;—in all which you will recognize +the influence of the Holy Spirit, with a conviction increasing +with the growth of your own faith and spiritual experience."</p> + +<p class="right">Farewell.</p> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER VI.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p> <span class="smcap">In</span> my last two Letters I have given the state of +the argument, as it would stand between a Christian thinking +as I do, and a serious well-disposed Deist. I will now +endeavour to state the argument, as between the former +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">{323}</a></span> +and the advocates for the popular belief,—such of them, I +mean, as are competent to deliver a dispassionate judgment +in the cause. And again, more particularly, I mean the +learned and reflecting part of them, who are influenced to +the retention of the prevailing dogma by the supposed +consequences of a different view, and, especially, by their +dread of conceding to all alike, simple and learned, the +privilege of picking and choosing the Scriptures that are +to be received as binding on their consciences. Between +these persons and myself the controversy<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_180" id="Ref_180" href="#Foot_180">[180]</a></span> +may be reduced to a single question:—</p> + +<p>Is it safer for the Individual, and more conducive to the +interests of the Church of Christ, in its twofold character +of pastoral and militant, to conclude thus:—The Bible is +the Word of God, and therefore, true, holy, and in all parts +unquestionable;—or thus,—The Bible, considered in reference +to its declared ends and purposes, is true and holy, +and for all who seek truth with humble spirits an unquestionable +guide, and therefore it is the Word of God?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">{324}</a></span> +In every generation, and wherever the light of Revelation +has shone, men of all ranks, conditions, and states of mind +have found in this Volume a correspondent for every movement +toward the Better felt in their own hearts. The +needy soul has found supply, the feeble a help, the sorrowful +a comfort; yea, be the recipiency the least that can +consist with moral life, there is an answering grace ready +to enter. The Bible has been found a spiritual World,—spiritual, +and yet at the same time outward and common +to all. You in one place, I in another, all men somewhere +or at some time, meet with an assurance that the hopes and +fears, the thoughts and yearnings that proceed from, or +tend to, a right spirit in us, are not dreams or fleeting singularities, +no voices heard in sleep, or spectres which the +eye suffers but not perceives. As if on some dark night a +pilgrim, suddenly beholding a bright star moving before +him, should stop in fear and perplexity. But lo! traveller +after traveller passes by him, and each, being questioned +whither he is going, makes answer, "I am following yon +guiding Star!" The pilgrim quickens his own steps, and +presses onward in confidence. More confident still will he +be, if by the way side he should find, here and there, ancient +monuments, each with its votive lamp, and on each the +name of some former pilgrim, and a record that there he +had first seen or begun to follow the benignant Star!</p> + +<p>No otherwise is it with the varied contents of the Sacred +Volume. The hungry have found food, the thirsty a living +spring, the feeble a staff, and the victorious warfarer songs +of welcome and strains of music; and as long as each man +asks on account of his wants, and asks what he wants, no +man will discover aught amiss or deficient in the vast and +many-chambered storehouse. But if instead of this, an +idler or a scoffer should wander through the rooms, peering +and peeping, and either detects, or fancies he has detected, +here a rusted sword or pointless shaft, there a tool of rude +construction, and superseded by later improvements (and +preserved, perhaps, to make us more grateful for them);—which +of two things will a sober-minded man,—who from +his childhood upward had been fed, clothed, armed, and +furnished with the means of instruction from this very +magazine,—think the fitter plan?—Will he insist that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">{325}</a></span> +rust is not rust, or that it is a rust <i>sui generis</i>, intentionally +formed on the steel for some mysterious virtue in it, and +that the staff and astrolabe of a shepherd-astronomer are +identical with, or equivalent to, the quadrant and telescope +of Newton or Herschel?—Or will he not rather give the +curious inquisitor joy of his mighty discoveries, and the +credit of them for his reward?—</p> + +<p>Or lastly, put the matter thus. For more than a thousand +years the Bible, collectively taken, has gone hand in hand +with civilization, science, law,—in short, with the moral +and intellectual cultivation of the species, always supporting, +and often leading the way. Its very presence, as a +believed Book, has rendered the nations emphatically a +chosen race, and this too in exact proportion as it is more +or less generally known and studied. Of those nations, +which in the highest degree enjoy its influences, it is not +too much to affirm, that the differences public and private, +physical, moral and intellectual, are only less than what +might be expected from a diversity in species. Good and +holy men, and the best and wisest of mankind, the kingly +spirits of history, enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, +have borne witness to its influences, have declared it to be +beyond compare the most perfect instrument, the only +adequate organ, of Humanity;—the organ and instrument +of all the gifts, powers, and tendencies, by which the +individual is privileged to rise above himself—to leave +behind, and lose his dividual phantom self, in order to find +his true Self in that Distinctness where no division can be,—in +the Eternal <span class="smcap">I Am</span>, the Ever-living <span class="smcap">Word</span>, of whom all +the elect from the archangel before the throne to the poor +wrestler with the Spirit <i>until the breaking of day</i> are but +the fainter and still fainter echoes. And are all these testimonies +and lights of experience to lose their value and +efficiency, because I feel no warrant of history, or Holy +Writ, or of my own heart for denying, that in the framework +and outward case of this instrument a few parts may +be discovered of less costly materials and of meaner workmanship? +Is it not a fact that the Books of the New +Testament were tried by their consonance with the rule, +and according to the analogy, of Faith? Does not the +universally admitted canon—that each part of Scripture +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">{326}</a></span> +must be interpreted by the spirit of the whole—lead to the +same practical conclusion as that for which I am now contending; +namely, that it is the spirit of the Bible, and not +the detached words and sentences, that is infallible and +absolute?—Practical, I say, and spiritual too;—and what +knowledge not practical or spiritual are we entitled to seek +in our Bibles? Is the grace of God so confined,—are the +evidences of the present and actuating Spirit so dim and +doubtful,—that to be assured of the same we must first +take for granted that all the life and co-agency of our +humanity is miraculously suspended?</p> + +<p>Whatever is spiritual, is <i>eo nomine</i> supernatural; but +must it be always and of necessity miraculous? Miracles +could open the eyes of the body; and he that was born +blind beheld his Redeemer. But miracles, even those of +the Redeemer himself, could not open the eyes of the self-blinded, +of the Sadducean sensualist or the self-righteous +Pharisee;—while to have said, <i>I saw thee under the fig tree</i>, +sufficed to make a Nathanael believe.</p> + +<p>To assert and to demand miracles without necessity was +the vice of the unbelieving Jews of old; and from the +Rabbis and Talmudists the infection has spread. And +would I could say that the symptoms of the disease are +confined to the Churches of the Apostasy! But all the +miracles, which the legends of Monk or Rabbi contain, can +scarcely be put in competition, on the score of complication, +inexplicableness, the absence of all intelligible use or purpose, +and of circuitous self-frustration, with those that must +be assumed by the maintainers of this doctrine, in order to +give effect to the series of miracles, by which all the nominal +composers of the Hebrew nation before the time of Ezra, +of whom there are any remains, were successively transformed +into <i>automaton</i> compositors,—so that the original +text should be in sentiment, image, word, syntax, and composition +an exact impression of the divine copy! In +common consistency the theologians, who impose this belief +on their fellow Christians, ought to insist equally on the +superhuman origin and authority of the Masora, and to use +more respectful terms, than has been their wont of late, in +speaking of the false Aristeas's legend concerning the +Septuagint. And why the miracle should stop at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">{327}</a></span> +Greek Version, and not include the Vulgate, I can discover +no ground in reason. Or if it be an objection to the latter, +that this belief is actually enjoined by the Papal Church, +yet the number of Christians who read the Lutheran, the +Genevan, or our own authorized, Bible, and are ignorant of +the dead languages, greatly exceeds the number of those +who have access to the Septuagint. Why refuse the writ +of consecration to these, or to the one at least appointed by +the assertors' own Church? I find much more consistency +in the opposition made under pretext of this doctrine to +the proposals and publications of Kennicot, Mill, Bentley, +and Archbishop Newcome.</p> + +<p>But I am weary of discussing a tenet, which the generality +of divines and the leaders of the Religious Public +have ceased to defend, and yet continue to assert or imply. +The tendency manifested in this conduct, the spirit of this +and the preceding century, on which, not indeed the tenet +itself, but the obstinate adherence to it against the clearest +light of reason and experience, is grounded,—this it is +which, according to my conviction, gives the venom to the +error, and justifies the attempt to substitute a juster view. +As long as it was the common and effective belief of all the +Reformed Churches, (and by none was it more sedulously +or more emphatically enjoined than by the great Reformers +of our Church), that by the good Spirit were the spirits +tried, and that the light, which beams forth from the +written Word, was its own evidence for the children of +light;—as long as Christians considered their Bible as a +plenteous entertainment, where every guest, duly called +and attired, found the food needful and fitting for him, and +where each—instead of troubling himself about the covers +not within his reach—beholding all around him glad and +satisfied, praised the banquet and thankfully glorified the +Master of the feast,—so long did the Tenet—that the +Scriptures were written under the special impulse of the +Holy Ghost remain safe and profitable. Nay, in the sense, +and with the feelings, in which it was asserted, it was a +truth—a truth to which every spiritual believer now and +in all times will bear witness by virtue of his own experience. +And if in the overflow of love and gratitude they confounded +the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, working alike +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">{328}</a></span> +in weakness and in strength, in the morning mists and in +the clearness of the full day;—if they confounded this +communion and co-agency of divine grace, attributable to +the Scripture generally, with those express, and expressly +recorded, communications and messages of the Most High, +which form so large and prominent a portion of the same +Scriptures;—if, in short, they did not always duly distinguish +the inspiration, the imbreathment, of the predisposing +and assisting <span class="smcap">Spirit</span> from the revelation of the +informing <span class="smcap">Word</span>,—it was at worst a harmless hyperbole. +It was holden by all, that if the power of the Spirit from +without furnished the text, the grace of the same Spirit +from within must supply the comment.</p> + +<p>In the sacred Volume they saw and reverenced the +bounden wheat-sheaf that <i>stood upright</i> and had <i>obeisance</i> +from all the other sheaves—(the writings, I mean, of the +Fathers and Doctors of the Church)—sheaves depreciated +indeed, more or less, with tares,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">and furrow-weeds,</span> +<span class="i2">Darnel and many an idle flower that grew</span> +<span class="i2">Mid the sustaining corn;</span> +</div> + +<p class="nodent">yet sheaves of the same harvest, the sheaves of brethren! Nor +did it occur to them, that, in yielding the more full and +absolute honour to the sheaf of the highly favoured of their +Father, they should be supposed to attribute the same +worth and quality to the straw-bands which held it together. +The bread of life was there. And this in an especial sense +was <i>bread from heaven</i>; for no where had the same been +found wild; no soil or climate dared claim it for its natural +growth. In simplicity of heart they received the Bible as +the precious gift of God, providential alike in origin, preservation, +and distribution, without asking the nice question, +whether all and every part were likewise miraculous. +The distinction between the providential and the miraculous, +between the divine Will working with the agency of natural +causes, and the same Will supplying their place by a special +<i>fiat</i>—this distinction has, I doubt not, many uses in speculative +divinity. But its weightiest practical application is +shown, when it is employed to free the souls of the unwary +and weak in faith from the nets and snares, the insidious +queries and captious objections, of the Infidel by calming +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">{329}</a></span> +the flutter of their spirits. They must be quieted, before +we can commence the means necessary for their disentanglement. +And in no way can this be better effected than +when the frightened captives are made to see in how many +points the disentangling itself is a work of expedience +rather than of necessity;—so easily and at so little loss +might the web be cut or brushed away!</p> + +<p>First, let their attention be fixed on the history of Christianity +as learnt from universal tradition, and the writers +of each successive generation. Draw their minds to the +fact of the progressive and still continuing fulfilment of +the assurance of a few fishermen, that both their own +religion, though of divine origin, and the religion of their +conquerors, which included or recognized all other religions +of the known world, should be superseded by the faith in +a man recently and ignominiously executed. Then induce +them to meditate on the universals of Christian Faith,—on +Christianity, taken as the sum of belief common to Greek +and Latin, to Romanist and Protestant. Show them that +this and only this is the <i>ordo traditionis, quam tradiderunt +Apostoli iis quibus committebant ecclesias</i>, and which we +should have been bound to follow, says Irenæus, <i>si neque +Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent</i>. This is that <i>regula +fidei</i>, that <i>sacramentum symboli memoriæ mandatum</i>, of which +St. Augustine says;—<i>noveritis hoc esse Fidei Catholicæ +fundamentum super quod edificium surrexit Ecclesiæ</i>. This +is the <i>norma Catholici et Ecclesiastici sensus</i>, determined and +explicated, but not augmented, by the Nicene Fathers, as +Waterland has irrefragably shown;—a norm or model of +Faith grounded on the solemn affirmations of the Bishops +collected from all parts of the Roman Empire, that this +was the essential and unalterable Gospel received by them +from their predecessors in all the churches as the <span +title="paradosis ekklêsiastikê">παραδοσισ εκκλησιαστικη</span>, +<i>cui</i>, says Irenæus, <i>assentiunt multæ gentes eorum +qui in Christum credunt sine charta et atramento, scriptam +habentes per Spiritum in cordibus suis salutem, et veterum +traditionem diligenter custodientes</i>. Let the attention of +such as have been shaken by the assaults of Infidelity be +thus directed, and then tell me wherein a spiritual physician +would be blameworthy, if he carried on the cure by addressing +his patient in this manner:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">{330}</a></span> +"All men of learning, even learned unbelievers, admit +that the greater part of the objections, urged in the popular +works of Infidelity, to this or that verse or chapter of the +Bible, prove only the ignorance or dishonesty 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?—See how the logic would look. +David cruelly tortured the inhabitants of Rabbah (<i>2 Sam.</i> +xii. 31; 1 Chron. xx. 3), and in several of the Psalms he +invokes the bitterest curses on his enemies; therefore it +is not to be believed that <i>the love of God toward us was +manifested in sending his only begotten Son into the world, +that we might live through Him</i> (1 John iv. 9). 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 (2 Chron. xiii. 3), 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 <i>if God so loved us, we ought also to love one +another</i> (1 John iv. 11), even our enemies, yea, <i>to bless them +that curse</i> us, and to <i>do good to them that hate</i> us (Matt. v. +44), cannot proceed from the Holy Spirit. Or: The first +six chapters of the Book of Daniel contain several words +and phrases irreconcilable with the commonly received +dates, and those chapters and the Book of Esther have a +traditional and legendary character unlike that of the other +historical books of the Old Testament; therefore, those +other books, by contrast with which the former appear +suspicious, and the historical document, 1 Cor. xv. 1-8, +are not to be credited!"</p> + +<p>We assuredly believe that the Bible contains all truths +necessary to salvation, and that therein is preserved the +undoubted Word of God. We assert likewise that, besides +these express oracles and immediate revelations, there are +Scriptures which to the soul and conscience of every Christian +man bear irresistible evidence of the Divine Spirit +assisting and actuating the authors; and that both these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">{331}</a></span> +and the former are such as to render it morally impossible +that any passage of the small inconsiderable portion, not +included in one or other of these, can supply either ground +or occasion of any error in faith, practice, or affection, +except to those who wickedly and wilfully seek a pretext +for their unbelief. And if in that small portion of the +Bible which stands in no necessary connection with the +known and especial ends and purposes of the Scriptures, +there should be a few apparent errors resulting from the +state of knowledge then existing—errors which the best +and holiest men might entertain uninjured, and which +without a miracle those men must have entertained; if I +find no such miraculous prevention asserted, and see no +reason for supposing it—may I not, to ease the scruples of +a perplexed inquirer, venture to say to him: "Be it so. +What then? The absolute infallibility even of the inspired +writers in matters altogether incidental and foreign to the +objects and purposes of their inspiration is no part of my +Creed; and even if a professed divine should follow the +doctrine of the Jewish Church so far as not to attribute to +the <i>Hagiographa</i>, in every word and sentence, the same +height and fulness of inspiration as to the Law and the +Prophets, I feel no warrant to brand him as a heretic for +an opinion, the admission of which disarms the Infidel +without endangering a single article of the Catholic Faith."—If +to an unlearned but earnest and thoughtful neighbour, +I give the advice;—"Use the Old Testament to express the +affections excited, and to confirm the faith and morals +taught you, in the New, and leave all the rest to the +students and professors of theology and Church history! +You profess only to be a Christian:"—am I misleading my +brother in Christ?</p> + +<p>This I believe by my own dear experience,—that the +more tranquilly an inquirer takes up the Bible as he would +any other body of ancient writings, the livelier and steadier +will be his impressions of its superiority to all other books, +till at length all other books and all other knowledge will +be valuable in his eyes in proportion as they help him to a +better understanding of his Bible. Difficulty after difficulty +has been overcome from the time that I began to study the +Scriptures with free and unboding spirit, under the conviction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">{332}</a></span> +that my faith in the Incarnate Word and his Gospel +was secure, whatever the result might be;—the difficulties +that still remain being so few and insignificant in my own +estimation, that I have less personal interest in the question +than many of those who will most dogmatically condemn +me for presuming to make a question of it.</p> + +<p>So much for scholars—for men of like education and +pursuits as myself. With respect to Christians generally, +I object to the consequence drawn from the Doctrine rather +than to the Doctrine itself;—a consequence not only +deducible from the premises, but actually and imperiously +deduced; according to which every man that can but read +is to sit down to the consecutive and connected perusal of +the Bible under the expectation and assurance that the +whole is within his comprehension, and that, unaided by +note or comment, catechism or liturgical preparation, he is +to find out for himself what he is bound to believe and +practise, and that whatever he conscientiously understands +by what he reads, is to be <i>his</i> religion. For he +has found it in his Bible, and the Bible is the Religion of +Protestants!</p> + +<p>Would I then withhold the Bible from the Cottager and +the Artisan?—Heaven forfend! The fairest flower that +ever clomb up a cottage window is not so fair a sight to +my eyes, as the Bible gleaming through the lower panes. +Let it but be read as by such men it used to be read; when +they came to it as to a ground covered with manna, even +the bread which the Lord had given for his people to eat; +where he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that +gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man +according to his eating. They came to it as to a treasure-house +of Scriptures; each visitant taking what was precious +and leaving as precious for others;—Yea, more, says our +worthy old Church-historian, Fuller, where "the same man +at several times may in his apprehension prefer several +Scriptures as best, formerly most affected with one place, +for the present more delighted with another, and afterwards, +conceiving comfort therein not so clear, choose other +places as more pregnant and pertinent to his purpose. +Thus God orders it, that divers men, (and perhaps the same +man at divers times) make use of all his gifts, gleaning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">{333}</a></span> +and gathering comfort, as it is scattered through the whole +field of the Scripture."</p> + +<p class="right">Farewell.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_180" id="Foot_180" href="#Ref_180">[180]</a> +It is remarkable that both parties might appeal to the same text +of St. Paul,—<span title="pasa graphê theopneustos kai ôphelimos +pros didaskalian, k.t.l.">πασα γραφη θεοπνευστος και ωφελιμος προς +διδασκαλιαν, κ τ. λ.</span> (2 Tim. iii. 16), which favours the +one or the other opinion accordingly as the words are construed; and +which, again, is the more probable construction, depends in great +measure on the preference given to one or other of two different +readings, the one having and the other omitting the conjunction +copulative <span title="kai">και</span>.</p> + +<p class="nodent">[The English version is:—<i>All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, +and is profitable, &c.</i> And in this rendering of the original the English +is countenanced by the established Version of the Dutch Reformed +Church:—<i>Alle de Schrift is van Godt ingegeven, ende is nuttigh, &c.</i> +And by Diodati:—<i>Tutta la Scrittura è divinamente inspirata, e utile, &c.</i> +And by Martin:—<i>Toute l'Ecriture est divinement inspirée, et profitable, +&c.</i> And by Beza:—<i>Tota Scriptura divinitus est inspirata, et utilis, &c.</i></p> + +<p class="nodent">The other rendering is supported by the Vulgate:—<i>Omnis Scriptura, +divinitus inspirata, utilis est ad, &c.</i> By Luther:—<i>Denn alle Schrift von +Gott eingegeben, ist nütse zur, &c.</i> And by Calmet:—<i>Toute l'Ecriture, +qui est inspirée de Dieu, est utile, &c.</i> And by the common Spanish +translation:—<i>Toda Escritura, divinamente inspirada, es util para enseñar, +&c.</i> This is also the rendering of the Syriac (Pesch.) and two Arabic +Versions, and is followed by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and most +of the Fathers. See the note in Griesbach. Tertullian represents the +sense thus:—<i>Legimus, Omnem Scripturam, ædificationi habilem, divinitus +inspirari.</i> De Habit. Mul. c. iii. Origen has it several times, +<span title="Theopneustos ousa, ôphelimos esti">Θεοπνευστος ουσα, +ωφελιμος εστι</span>, and once as in the received text.—H. N. C.]</p> + +</div> + +<h3 class="break-before"><span class="small">LETTER VII.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">You</span> are now, my dear Friend, in possession of my whole +mind on this point,—one thing only excepted which has +weighed with me more than all the rest, and which I have +therefore reserved for my concluding Letter. This is the +impelling principle, or way of thinking, which I have in +most instances noticed in the assertors of what I have +ventured to call Bibliolatry, and which I believe to be the +main ground of its prevalence at this time, and among men +whose religious views are any thing rather than enthusiastic. +And I here take occasion to declare, that my conviction of +the danger and injury of this principle was and is my chief +motive for bringing the Doctrine itself into question;—the +main error of which consists in the confounding of two +distinct conceptions, revelation by the Eternal Word, and +actuation of the Holy Spirit. The former indeed is not +always or necessarily united with the latter—the prophecy +of Balaam is an instance of the contrary,—but yet being +ordinarily, and only not always, so united, the term, +Inspiration, has acquired a double sense.</p> + +<p>First, the term is used in the sense of Information miraculously +communicated by voice or vision; and secondly, +where without any sensible addition or infusion, the writer +or speaker uses and applies his existing gifts of power and +knowledge under the predisposing, aiding, and directing +actuation of God's Holy Spirit. Now—between the first +sense, that is, inspired revelation, and the highest degree +of that grace and communion with the Spirit, which the +Church under all circumstances, and every regenerate +member of the Church of Christ, is permitted to hope, and +instructed to pray, for—there is a positive difference of +kind,—a chasm, the pretended overleaping of which constitutes +imposture, or betrays insanity. Of the first kind +are the Law and the Prophets, no jot or tittle of which can +pass unfulfilled, and the substance and last interpretation +of which passes not away; for they wrote of Christ, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">{334}</a></span> +shadowed out the everlasting Gospel. But with regard to +the second, neither the holy writers—the so called <i>Hagiographi</i>—themselves, +nor any fair interpretations of Scripture, +assert any such absolute diversity, or enjoin the belief +of any greater difference of degree, than the experience of +the Christian World, grounded on, and growing with, the +comparison of these Scriptures with other works holden in +honour by the Churches, has established. And <i>this</i> difference +I admit; and doubt not that it has in every generation +been rendered evident to as many as read these Scriptures +under the gracious influence of the spirit in which they +were written.</p> + +<p>But alas! this is not sufficient; this cannot but be vague +and unsufficing to those, with whom the Christian religion +is wholly objective, to the exclusion of all its correspondent +subjective. It must appear vague, I say, to those whose +Christianity, as matter of belief, is wholly external, and, +like the objects of sense, common to all alike;—altogether +historical, an <i>opus operatum</i>,—its existing and present +operancy in no respect differing from any other fact of +history, and not at all modified by the supernatural principle +in which it had its origin in time. Divines of this +persuasion are actually, though without their own knowledge, +in a state not dissimilar to that, into which the +Latin Church sank deeper and deeper from the sixth to +the fourteenth century; during which time religion was likewise +merely objective and superstitious,—a letter proudly +emblazoned and illuminated, but yet a dead letter that was +to be read by its own outward glories without the light of +the Spirit in the mind of the believer. The consequence +was too glaring not to be anticipated, and, if possible, prevented. +Without that spirit in each true believer, whereby +we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error in all +things appertaining to salvation, the consequence must be—So +many men, so many minds!—And what was the +antidote which the Priests and Rabbis of this purely objective +Faith opposed to this peril?—Why, an objective, outward +Infallibility; concerning which, however, the differences +were scarcely less or fewer than those which it was +to heal;—an Infallibility, which, taken literally and unqualified, +became the source of perplexity to the well-disposed, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">{335}</a></span> +of unbelief to the wavering, and of scoff and triumph +to the common enemy;—and which was, therefore, to be +qualified and limited, and then it meant so much and so +little, that to men of plain understandings and single hearts +it meant nothing at all. It resided here. No! there. No! +but in a third subject. Nay! neither here, nor there, nor +in the third, but in all three conjointly!</p> + +<p>But even this failed to satisfy; and what was the final +resource,—the doctrine of those who would not be called a +Protestant Church, but in which doctrine the Fathers of +Protestantism in England would have found little other +fault, than that it might be affirmed as truly of the +decisions of any other Bishop as of the Bishop of Rome? +The final resource was to restore what ought never to +have been removed—the correspondent subjective, that +is, the assent and confirmation of the Spirit promised to +all true believers, as proved and manifested in the reception +of such decision by the Church Universal in all its rightful +members.</p> + +<p>I comprise and conclude the sum of my conviction in +this one sentence. Revealed Religion (and I know of no +religion not revealed) is in its highest contemplation the +unity, that is, the identity or co-inherence, of Subjective +and Objective. It is in itself, and irrelatively, at once +inward Life and Truth, and outward Fact and Luminary. +But as all Power manifests itself in the harmony of correspondent +Opposites, each supposing and supporting the +other,—so has religion its objective, or historic and ecclesiastical +pole, and its subjective, or spiritual and individual +pole. In the miracles, and miraculous parts of religion—both +in the first communication of divine truths, and in the +promulgation of the truths thus communicated—we have +the union of the two, that is, the subjective and supernatural +displayed objectively—outwardly and phenomenally—<i>as</i> +subjective and supernatural.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in the Scriptures, as far as they are not included in +the above as miracles, and in the mind of the believing and +regenerate Reader and Meditater, there is proved to us the +reciprocity, or reciprocation, of the Spirit as subjective and +objective, which in conformity with the Scheme proposed +by me, in aid of distinct conception and easy recollection, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">{336}</a></span> +I have named the Indifference.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_181" id="Ref_181" href="#Foot_181">[181]</a></span> +What I mean by this, a +familiar acquaintance with the more popular parts of +Luther's Works, especially his Commentaries, and the +delightful volume of his Table Talk, would interpret for +me better than I can do for myself. But I do my best, +when I say that no Christian probationer, who is earnestly +working out his salvation, and experiences the conflict of +the spirit with the evil and the infirmity within him and +around him, can find his own state brought before him +and, as it were, antedated, in writings reverend even for +their antiquity and enduring permanence, and far more, +and more abundantly, consecrated by the reverence, love, +and grateful testimonies of good men through the long +succession of ages, in every generation, and under all states +of minds and circumstances of fortune,—that no man, I +say, can recognize his own inward experiences in such +Writings, and not find an objectiveness, a confirming and +assuring outwardness, and all the main characters of reality, +reflected therefrom on the spirit, working in himself and +in his own thoughts, emotions, and aspirations—warring +against sin, and the motions of sin. The unsubstantial, +insulated Self passes away as a stream; but these are the +shadows and reflections of the Rock of Ages, and of the +Tree of Life that starts forth from its side.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, as much of reality, as much of +objective truth, as the Scriptures communicate to the +subjective experiences of the Believer, so much of present +life, of living and effective import, do these experiences +give to the letter of these Scriptures. In the one <i>the Spirit +itself beareth witness with our spirit</i>, that we have received +the <i>spirit of adoption</i>; in the other our spirit bears witness +to the power of the Word, that it is indeed the Spirit that +proceedeth from God. If in the holy men thus actuated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">{337}</a></span> +all imperfection of knowledge, all participation in the +mistakes and limits of their several ages had been excluded, +how could these Writings be or become the history and +example, the echo and more lustrous image of the work +and warfare of the sanctifying Principle in us?—If after +all this, and in spite of all this, some captious litigator +should lay hold of a text here or there—St. Paul's <i>cloak left +at Troas with Carpus</i>, or a verse from the Canticles, and +ask: "Of what spiritual use is this?"—the answer is +ready:—It proves to us that nothing can be so trifling as +not to supply an evil heart with a pretext for unbelief.</p> + +<p>Archbishop Leighton has observed that the Church has +its extensive and intensive states, and that they seldom fall +together. Certain it is, that since kings have been her +nursing fathers, and queens her nursing mothers, our +theologians seem to act in the spirit of fear rather than in +that of faith; and too often instead of inquiring after the +Truth in the confidence, that whatever is truth must be +fruitful of good to all who <i>are in Him that is true</i>, they seek +with vain precautions <i>to guard against the possible inferences</i> +which perverse and distempered minds may pretend, whose +whole Christianity,—do what we will—is and will remain +nothing but a Pretence.</p> + +<p>You have now my entire mind on this momentous Question, +the grounds on which it rests, and the motives which +induce me to make it known; and I now conclude by +repeating my request—Correct me, or confirm me.</p> + +<p class="right">Farewell.<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_182" id="Ref_182" href="#Foot_182">[182]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_181" id="Foot_181" href="#Ref_181">[181]</a> +"The Papacy elevated the Church to the virtual exclusion or suppression +of the Scriptures; the modern Church of England, since Chillingworth, +has so raised up the Scriptures as to annul the Church; both +alike have quenched the Holy Spirit, as the <i>mesothesis</i> [or indifference] +of the two, and substituted an alien compound for the genuine Preacher, +who should be the <i>synthesis</i> of the Scriptures and the Church, and the +sensible voice of the Holy Spirit."—<i>Lit. Rem.</i> v. iii. p. 93, [<i>Notes on +Donne.</i>]—H. N. C. See also p. 288, <i>ante</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_182" id="Foot_182" href="#Ref_182">[182]</a> +Mr. H. N. Coleridge had the following note on Coleridge's liking +for proselytizing, in the first edition of the 'Table Talk', 1835, under +the date April 14 1830:—"Mr. C. once told me that he had for a long +time been amusing himself with a clandestine attempt upon the faith of +three or four persons, whom he was in the habit of seeing occasionally. +I think he was undermining, at the time he mentioned this to me, a Jew, +a Swedenborgian, a Roman Catholic, and a New Jerusalemite, or whatsoever +other name the members of that somewhat small, but very +respectable, church, planted in the neighbourhood of Lincoln's Inn +Fields, delight to be known. He said he had made most way with the +disciple of Swedenborg, who might be considered as a convert, that he +had perplexed the Jew, and had put the Roman Catholic into a bad +humour; but that upon the New Jerusalemite he had made no more +impression than if he had been arguing with the man in the moon." +This note was suppressed by the after-coming editors, Sarah and +Derwent Coleridge.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum-hide"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">{338}</a></span> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">{339}</a></span></p> + +<div class="frontm"> + +<p><span class="small">AN</span><br />ESSAY ON FAITH;<br /> +NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER;<br /> +<span class="small">AND</span><br />A NIGHTLY PRAYER.</p> + +<p class="small"><span class="smcap">By SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.</span></p> + +<p class="small">(<span class="smcap">Reprinted from his Literary Remains.</span>)</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">{340}</a></span></p> + +<div class="smallcond"> + +<p>[The following 'Essay on Faith' and 'Notes on the Book of Common +Prayer' are reprinted from the 'Literary Remains,' edited by Henry +Nelson Coleridge, and published in 1838-9 as possibly being portions of +the uncompleted "Supplementary volume" to 'Aids to Reflection' +spoken of by S. T. Coleridge in the latter work: see p. 257 <i>ante</i>. They +are otherwise fairly supplementary of the two works which constitute +the bulk of the present volume.</p> + +<p>The beautiful 'Nightly Prayer' is added (also from the 'Literary +Remains') as a suitable conclusion to a volume so much devoted to +setting forth the author's faith in, and views concerning, Religion, the +Bible, and Christianity.</p> + +<p>In the latter connexion, too, the dates appended by the author +(apparently) to the 'Notes on the Book of Common Prayer,' <i>in two +places</i>, pp. 352 358, and to the 'Nightly Prayer,' p. 359, have considerable +biographical interest.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">{341}</a></span></p> + +<h2><span class="small">ESSAY ON FAITH</span></h2> + +<p class="dropcap">FAITH may be defined as fidelity to our own being—so +far as such being is not and cannot become an +object of the senses; and hence, by clear inference or +implication, to being generally, as far as the same is not +the object of the senses: and again to whatever is affirmed +or understood as the condition, or concomitant, or consequence +of the same. This will be best explained by an +instance or example. That I am conscious of something +within me peremptorily commanding me to do unto others +as I would they should do unto me;—in other words, a +categorical (that is, primary and unconditional) imperative;—that +the maxim (<i>regula maxima</i>, or supreme rule) of my +actions, both inward and outward, should be such as I +could, without any contradiction arising therefrom, will to +be the law of all moral and rational beings;—this, I say, is +a fact of which I am no less conscious (though in a different +way), nor less assured, than I am of any appearance presented +by my outward senses. Nor is this all; but in the +very act of being conscious of this in my own nature, I +know that it is a fact of which all men either are or ought +to be conscious;—a fact, the ignorance of which constitutes +either the non-personality of the ignorant, or the guilt, in +which latter case the ignorance is equivalent to knowledge +wilfully darkened. I know that I possess this knowledge +as a man, and not as Samuel Taylor Coleridge; hence, +knowing that consciousness of this fact is the root of all +other consciousness, and the only practical contradistinction +of man from the brutes, we name it the conscience; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">{342}</a></span> +by the natural absence or presumed presence of which, the +law, both divine and human, determines whether X Y Z be +a thing or a person:—the conscience being that which +never to have had places the objects in the same order of +things as the brutes, for example, idiots; and to have lost +which implies either insanity or apostasy. Well, this we +have affirmed is a fact of which every honest man is as +fully assured as of his seeing, hearing, or smelling. But +though the former assurance does not differ from the latter +in the degree, it is altogether diverse in the kind; the +senses being morally passive, while the conscience is essentially +connected with the will, though not always, nor, +indeed, in any case, except after frequent attempts and +aversions of will, dependent on the choice. Thence we call +the presentations of the senses impressions, those of the conscience +commands or dictates. In the senses we find our +receptivity, and as far as our personal being is concerned, +we are passive;—but in the fact of the conscience we are +not only agents, but it is by this alone that we know ourselves +to be such; nay, that our very passiveness in this latter is +an act of passiveness, and that we are patient (<i>patientes</i>)—not, +as in the other case, <i>simply</i> passive.</p> + +<p>The result is, the consciousness of responsibility; and +the proof is afforded by the inward experience of the +diversity between regret and remorse.</p> + +<p>If I have sound ears, and my companion speaks to me +with a due proportion of voice, I may persuade him that I did +not hear, but cannot deceive myself. But when my conscience +speaks to me, I can, by repeated efforts, render +myself finally insensible; to which add this other difference, +namely, that to make myself deaf is one and the +same thing with making my conscience dumb, till at length +I became unconscious of my conscience. Frequent are the +instances in which it is suspended, and, as it were, drowned +in the inundation of the appetites, passions, and imaginations, +to which I have resigned myself, making use of my +will in order to abandon my free-will; and there are not, +I fear, examples wanting of the conscience being utterly +destroyed, or of the passage of wickedness into madness;—that +species of madness, namely, in which the reason is +lost. For so long as the reason continues, so long must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">{343}</a></span> +the conscience exist, either as a good conscience or as a bad +conscience.</p> + +<p>It appears then, that even the very first step, that the +initiation of the process, the becoming conscious of a conscience, +partakes of the nature of an act. It is an act in +and by which we take upon ourselves an allegiance, and +consequently the obligation of fealty; and this fealty or +fidelity implying the power of being unfaithful, it is the +first and fundamental sense of Faith. It is likewise the +commencement of experience, and the result of all other +experience. In other words, conscience, in this its simplest +form, must be supposed in order to consciousness, that is, +to human consciousness. Brutes may be, and are, scious, +but those beings only, who have an I, <i>scire possunt hoc vel +illud una cum seipsis</i>; that is, <i>conscire vel scire aliquid +mecum</i>, or to know a thing in relation to myself, and in +the act of knowing myself as acted upon by that something.</p> + +<p>Now the third person could never have been distinguished +from the first but by means of the second. There +can be no He without a previous Thou. Much less could +an I exist for us, except as it exists during the suspension +of the will, as in dreams; and the nature of brutes may be +best understood by considering them as somnambulists. +This is a deep meditation, though the position is capable +of the strictest proof,—namely, that there can be no I +without a Thou, and that a Thou is only possible by an +equation in which I is taken as equal to Thou, and yet not +the same. And this, again, is only possible by putting +them in opposition as correspondent opposites, or correlatives. +In order to this, a something must be affirmed in +the one, which is rejected in the other, and this something +is the will. I do not will to consider myself as equal to +myself, for in the very act of constructing myself <i>I</i>, I take +it as the same, and therefore as incapable of comparison, +that is, of any application of the will. If then, I <i>minus</i> +the will be the <i>thesis</i>;<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_183" id="Ref_183" href="#Foot_183">[183]</a></span> +Thou <i>plus</i> will must be the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">{344}</a></span> +<i>antithesis</i>, but the equation of Thou with I, by means +of a free act, negativing the sameness in order to establish +the equality, is the true definition of conscience. But as +without a Thou there can be no You, so without a You no +They, These, or Those; and as all these conjointly form +the materials and subjects of consciousness, and the conditions +of experience, it is evident that conscience is the +root of all consciousness,—<i>à fortiori</i>, the precondition of +all experience,—and that the conscience cannot have been +in its first revelation deduced from experience.</p> + +<p>Soon, however, experience comes into play. We learn +that there are other impulses beside the dictates of conscience; +that there are powers within us and without us +ready to usurp the throne of conscience, and busy in tempting +us to transfer our allegiance. We learn that there are +many things contrary to conscience, and therefore to be +rejected and utterly excluded, and many that can coexist +with its supremacy only by being subjugated, as beasts of +burthen; and others, again, as, for instance, the social +tendernesses and affections, and the faculties and excitations +of the intellect, which must be at least subordinated. The +preservation of our loyalty and fealty under these trials, +and against these rivals, constitutes the second sense of +Faith; and we shall need but one more point of view to +complete its full import. This is the consideration of what +is presupposed in the human conscience. The answer is +ready. As in the equation of the correlative I and Thou, +one of the twin constituents is to be taken as <i>plus</i> will, the +other as <i>minus</i> will, so is it here: and it is obvious that the +reason or <i>super</i>-individual of each man, whereby he is a +man, is the factor we are to take as <i>minus</i> will; and that +the individual will or personalizing principle of free agency +(arbitrement is Milton's word) is the factor marked <i>plus</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">{345}</a></span> +will;—and, again, that as the identity or coinherence of +the absolute will and the reason, is the peculiar character +of God; so is the <i>synthesis</i> of the individual will and the +common reason, by the subordination of the former to the +latter, the only possible likeness or image of the <i>prothesis</i>, +or identity, and therefore the required proper character of +man. Conscience, then, is a witness respecting the identity +of the will and the reason effected by the self-subordination +of the will, or self, to the reason, as equal to, or representing, +the will of God. But the personal will is a factor in +other moral <i>syntheses</i>; for example, appetite <i>plus</i> personal +will = sensuality; lust of power, <i>plus</i> personal will, = +ambition, and so on, equally as in the <i>synthesis</i>, on +which the conscience is grounded. Not this, therefore, +but the other <i>synthesis</i>, must supply the specific character +of the conscience; and we must enter into an analysis of +reason. Such as the nature and objects of the reason are, +such must be the functions and objects of the conscience. +And the former we shall best learn by recapitulating those +constituents of the total man which are either contrary to, +or disparate from, the reason.</p> + +<p>I. Reason, and the proper objects of reason, are wholly +alien from sensation. Reason is supersensual, and its +antagonist is appetite, and the objects of appetite the lust +of the flesh.</p> + +<p>II. Reason and its objects do not appertain to the world +of the senses, inward or outward; that is, they partake not +of sense or fancy. Reason is super-sensuous, and here its +antagonist is the lust of the eye.</p> + +<p>III. Reason and its objects are not things of reflection, +association, discursion, discourse in the old sense of the +word as opposed to intuition; "discursive or intuitive," as +Milton has it. Reason does not indeed necessarily exclude +the finite, either in time or in space, but it includes them +<i>eminenter</i>. Thus the prime mover of the material universe +is affirmed to contain all motion as its cause, but not to be, +or to suffer, motion in itself.</p> + +<p>Reason is not the faculty of the finite. But here I must +premise the following. The faculty of the finite is that +which reduces the confused impressions of sense to their +essential forms,—quantity, quality, relation, and in these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">{346}</a></span> +action and reaction, cause and effect, and the like; thus +raises the materials furnished by the senses and sensations +into objects of reflection, and so makes experience possible. +Without it, man's representative powers would be a delirium, +a chaos, a scudding cloudage of shapes; and it is therefore +most appropriately called the understanding, or substantiative +faculty. Our elder metaphysicians, down to Hobbes +inclusively, called this likewise discourse, <i>discursus</i>, <i>discursio</i>, +from its mode of action as not staying at any one +object, but running, as it were, to and fro to abstract, +generalize, and classify. Now when this faculty is employed +in the service of the pure reason, it brings out the necessary +and universal truths contained in the infinite into distinct +contemplation by the pure act of the sensuous imagination, +that is, in the production of the forms of space and time +abstracted from all corporeity, and likewise of the inherent +forms of the understanding itself abstractedly from the +consideration of particulars, as in the case of geometry, +numeral mathematics, universal logic, and pure metaphysics. +The discursive faculty then becomes what our +Shakespeare, with happy precision, calls "discourse of +reason."</p> + +<p>We will now take up our reasoning again from the words +"motion in itself."</p> + +<p>It is evident, then, that the reason as the irradiative +power, and the representative of the infinite, judges the understanding +as the faculty of the finite, and cannot without error +be judged by it. When this is attempted, or when the understanding +in its <i>synthesis</i> with the personal will, usurps the +supremacy of the reason, or affects to supersede the reason, +it is then what St. Paul calls the mind of the flesh (<span title="phronêma +sarkos">φρονημα σαρκος</span>), or the wisdom of this world. The result is, that the +reason is super-finite; and in this relation, its antagonist +is the insubordinate understanding, or mind of the flesh.</p> + +<p>IV. Reason, as one with the absolute will (<i>In the beginning +was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the +Logos was God</i>), and therefore for man the certain representative +of the will of God, is above the will of man as an +individual will. We have seen in III. that it stands in +antagonism to all mere particulars; but here it stands in +antagonism to all mere individual interests as so many +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">{347}</a></span> +selves, to the personal will as seeking its objects in the +manifestation of itself for itself—<i>sit pro ratione voluntas</i>;—whether +this be realized with adjuncts, as in the lust of +the flesh, and in the lust of the eye; or without adjuncts, +as in the thirst and pride of power, despotism, egoistic +ambition. The fourth antagonist, then, of reason, is the +lust of the will.</p> + +<p>Corollary. Unlike a million of tigers, a million of men +is very different from a million times one man. Each man +in a numerous society is not only coexistent with, but +virtually organized into, the multitude of which he is an +integral part. His <i>idem</i> is modified by the <i>alter</i>. And +there arise impulses and objects from this <i>synthesis</i> of the +<i>alter et idem</i>, myself and my neighbour. This, again, is +strictly analogous to what takes places in the vital organization +of the individual man. The cerebral system of the +nerves has its correspondent <i>antithesis</i> in the abdominal +system: but hence arises a <i>synthesis</i> of the two in the +pectoral system as the intermediate, and, like a drawbridge, +at once conductor and boundary. In the latter, as objectized +by the former, arise the emotions, affections, and, in +one word, the passions, as distinguished from the cognitions +and appetites. Now, the reason has been shown to be +super-individual, generally, and therefore not less so when +the form of an individualization subsists in the <i>alter</i>, than +when it is confined to the <i>idem</i>; not less when the emotions +have their conscious or believed object in another, than +when their subject is the individual personal self. For +though these emotions, affections, attachments, and the +like, are the prepared ladder by which the lower nature is +taken up into, and made to partake of, the highest room,—as +we are taught to give a feeling of reality to the higher +<i>per medium commune</i> with the lower, and thus gradually to +see the reality of the higher (namely, the objects of reason), +and finally to know that the latter are indeed, and pre-eminently +real, as if you love your earthly parents whom +you see, by these means you will learn to love your Heavenly +Father who is invisible;—yet this holds good only so far as +the reason is the president, and its objects the ultimate +aim; and cases may arise in which the Christ as the Logos, +or Redemptive Reason, declares, <i>He that loves father or</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">{348}</a></span> +<i>mother more than me, is not worthy of me</i>; nay, he that can +permit his emotions to rise to an equality with the universal +reason, is in enmity with that reason. Here, then, reason +appears as the love of God; and its antagonist is the attachment +to individuals wherever it exists in diminution of, or +in competition with, the love which is reason.</p> + +<p>In these five paragraphs I have enumerated and explained +the several powers or forces belonging or incidental to +human nature, which in all matters of reason the man is +bound either to subjugate or subordinate to reason. The +application to Faith follows of its own accord. The first +or most indefinite sense of faith is fidelity: then fidelity +under previous contract or particular moral obligation. +In this sense faith is fealty to a rightful superior: faith is +the duty of a faithful subject to a rightful governor. Then +it is allegiance in active service; fidelity to the liege lord +under circumstances, and amid the temptations of usurpation, +rebellion, and intestine discord. Next we seek for +that rightful superior on our duties to whom all our duties +to all other superiors, on our faithfulness to whom all our +bounden relations to all other objects of fidelity, are founded. +We must inquire after that duty in which all others find +their several degrees and dignities, and from which they +derive their obligative force. We are to find a superior, +whose rights, including our duties, are presented to the +mind in the very idea of that Supreme Being, whose +sovereign prerogatives are predicates implied in the subjects, +as the essential properties of a circle are co-assumed +in the first assumption of a circle, consequently underived, +unconditional, and as rationally unsusceptible, so probably +prohibitive, of all further question. In this sense, then, +faith is fidelity, fealty, allegiance of the moral nature to +God, in opposition to all usurpation, and in resistance to +all temptation to the placing any other claim above or +equal with our fidelity to God.</p> + +<p>The will of God is the last ground and final aim of all +our duties, and to that the whole man is to be harmonized +by subordination, subjugation, or suppression alike in commission +and omission. But the will of God, which is one +with the supreme intelligence, is revealed to man through +the conscience. But the conscience, which consists in an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">{349}</a></span> +inappellable bearing-witness to the truth and reality of our +reason, may legitimately be construed with the term reason, +so far as the conscience is prescriptive; while as approving +or condemning, it is the consciousness of the subordination +or insubordination, the harmony or discord, of the personal +will of man to and with the representative of the will of +God. This brings me to the last and fullest sense of Faith, +that is, the obedience of the individual will to the reason, +in the lust of the flesh as opposed to the supersensual; in +the lust of the eye as opposed to the supersensuous; in the +pride of the understanding as opposed to the infinite; in +the <span title="phronêma sarkos">φρονημα σαρκος</span> in contrariety to the spiritual truth; in +the lust of the personal will as opposed to the absolute and +universal; and in the love of the creature, as far as it is +opposed to the love which is one with the reason, namely, +the love of God.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, to conclude. Faith subsists in the <i>synthesis</i> +of the Reason and the individual Will. By virtue of the +latter, therefore, it must be an energy, and, inasmuch as +it relates to the whole moral man, it must be exerted in +each and all of his constituents or incidents, faculties and +tendencies;—it must be a total, not a partial—a continuous, +not a desultory or occasional—energy. And by virtue of +the former, that is, Reason, Faith must be a Light, a form +of knowing, a beholding of Truth. In the incomparable +words of the Evangelist, therefore,—<i>Faith must be a Light +originating in the Logos, or the substantial Reason, which is +co-eternal and one with the Holy Will, and which Light is at +the same time the Life of men.</i> Now, as <i>Life</i> is here the sum +or collective of all moral and spiritual acts, in suffering, +doing, and being, so is Faith the source and the sum, the +energy and the principle of the fidelity of Man to God, by +the subordination of his human Will, in all provinces of +his nature, to his Reason, as the sum of spiritual Truth, +representing and manifesting the Will Divine.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_183" id="Foot_183" href="#Ref_183">[183]</a> +There are four kinds of <i>Theses</i>, <span title="Theseis">Θεσεις</span>, puttings or placings.</p> + +<table class="tblc" summary="Prothesis"> + +<tr><td></td> + <td>1. <i>Prothesis.</i></td> + <td></td></tr> +<tr><td>2. <i>Thesis.</i></td> + <td></td> + <td>3. <i>Antithesis.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td>4. <i>Synthesis.</i></td> + <td></td></tr> + +</table> + +<p class="nodent">A and B are said to be thesis and antithesis, when if A be the <i>thesis</i>, +B is the <i>antithesis</i> to A, and if B be made the <i>thesis</i>, then A becomes +the <i>antithesis</i>. Thus making me the <i>thesis</i>, you are thou to me, but +making you the <i>thesis</i>, I become thou to you. <i>Synthesis</i> is a putting +together of the two, so that a third something is generated. Thus the +<i>synthesis</i> of hydrogen and oxygen is water, a third something, neither +hydrogen nor oxygen. But the blade of a knife and its handle when +put together do not form a <i>synthesis</i>, but still remain a blade and a handle. +And as a <i>synthesis</i> is a unity that results from the union of two things, +so a <i>prothesis</i> is a primary unity that gives itself forth into two things.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">{350}</a></span></p> + +<h2><span class="small">NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.</span></h2> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Prayer.</span></span></h3> + +<p class="dropcap">A MAN may pray night and day, and yet deceive himself; +but no man can be assured of his sincerity, who +does not pray. Prayer is faith passing into act; a union +of the will and the intellect realizing in an intellectual act. +It is the whole man that prays. Less than this is wishing, +or lip-work; a charm or a mummery. <i>Pray always</i>, says the +Apostle;—that is, have the habit of prayer, turning your +thoughts into acts by connecting them with the idea of +the redeeming God, and even so reconverting your actions +into thoughts.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">The Sacrament of the Eucharist.</span></span></h3> + +<p>The best preparation for taking this sacrament, better +than any or all of the books or tracts composed for this +end, is, to read over and over again, and often on your +knees—at all events with a kneeling and praying heart—the +Gospel according to St. John, till your mind is +familiarized to the contemplation of Christ, the Redeemer +and Mediator of mankind, yea, of every creature, as the +living and self-subsisting Word, the very truth of all true +being, and the very being of all enduring truth; the reality, +which is the substance and unity of all reality; <i>the light</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">{351}</a></span> +<i>which lighteth every man</i>, so that what we call reason, is +itself a light from that light, <i>lumen a luce</i>, as the Latin +more distinctly expresses this fact. But it is not merely +light, but therein is life; and it is the life of Christ, the +co-eternal Son of God, that is the only true life-giving light +of men. We are assured, and we believe, that Christ is +God; God manifested in the flesh. As God, he must be +present entire in every creature;—(for how can God, or +indeed any spirit, exist in parts?)—but he is said to dwell +in the regenerate, to come to them who receive him by +faith in his name, that is, in his power and influence; for +this is the meaning of the word "name" in Scripture when +applied to God or his Christ. Where true belief exists, +Christ is not only present with or among us;—for so he is +in every man, even the most wicked;—but to us and for +us. <i>That was the true light, which lighteth every man that +cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world +was made by him, and the world knew him not. But as many +as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of +God, even to them that believe in his name; which were born, +not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, +but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among +us.</i> John i. 9-14. Again—<i>We will come unto him, and +make our abode with him.</i> John xiv. 23. As truly and as +really as your soul resides constitutively in your living +body, personally, and substantially does Christ dwell in +every regenerate man.</p> + +<p>After this course of study, you may then take up and +peruse sentence by sentence the communion service, the +best of all comments on the Scriptures appertaining to this +mystery. And this is the preparation which will prove, +with God's grace, the surest preventive of, or antidote +against, the freezing poison, the lethargizing hemlock, of +the doctrine of the Sacramentaries, according to whom the +Eucharist is a mere practical metaphor, in which things +are employed instead of articulated sounds for the exclusive +purpose of recalling to our minds the historical fact of our +Lord's crucifixion; in short—(the profaneness is with +them, not with me)—just the same as when Protestants +drink a glass of wine to the glorious memory of William +III.! True it is, that the remembrance is one end of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">{352}</a></span> +sacrament; but it is, <i>Do this in remembrance of me</i>,—of +all that Christ was and is, hath done and is still doing for +fallen mankind, and, of course, of his crucifixion inclusively, +but not of his crucifixion alone. 14 December, +1827.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Companion to the Altar.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">First, then, that we may come to this heavenly feast holy, and + adorned with the wedding garment, Matt. xxii. 11, we must + search our hearts, and examine our consciences, not only till we see + our sins, but until we hate them.</p> + +<p>But what if a man, seeing his sin, earnestly desire to +hate it? Shall he not at the altar offer up at once his +desire, and the yet lingering sin, and seek for strength? +Is not this sacrament medicine as well as food? Is it an +end only, and not likewise the means? Is it merely the +triumphal feast; or is it not even more truly a blessed +refreshment for and during the conflict?</p> + + <p class="smallcond">This confession of sins must not be in general terms only, that we + are sinners with the rest of mankind, but it must be a special + declaration to God of all our most heinous sins in thought, word, and + deed.</p> + +<p>Luther was of a different judgment. He would have us +feel and groan under our sinfulness and utter incapability +of redeeming ourselves from the bondage, rather than +hazard the pollution of our imaginations by a recapitulation +and renewing of sins and their images in detail. Do not, +he says, stand picking the flaws out one by one, but plunge +into the river, and drown them!—I venture to be of +Luther's doctrine.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Communion Service.</span></span></h3> + +<p>In the first Exhortation, before the words "meritorious +Cross and Passion," I should propose to insert "his assumption +of humanity, his incarnation, and". Likewise, +a little lower down, after the word "sustenance," I would +insert "as". For not in that sacrament exclusively, but in +all the acts of assimilative faith, of which the Eucharist is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">{353}</a></span> +a solemn, eminent, and representative instance, an instance +and the symbol, Christ is our spiritual food and sustenance.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Marriage Service.</span></span></h3> + +<p>Marriage, simply as marriage, is not the means "for the +procreation of children," but for the humanization of the +offspring procreated. Therefore, in the Declaration at the +beginning, after the words, "procreation of children," I +would insert, "and as the means of securing to the children +procreated enduring care, and that they may be", &c.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Communion of the Sick.</span></span></h3> + +<p>Third rubric at the end.</p> + + <p class="smallcond">But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, &c.</p> + +<p>I think this rubric, in what I conceive to be its true +meaning, a precious doctrine, as fully acquitting our church +of all Romish superstition, respecting the nature of the +Eucharist, in relation to the whole scheme of man's redemption. +But the latter part of it—"he doth eat and drink +the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his +soul's health, although he do not receive the sacrament +with his mouth"—seems to me very incautiously expressed, +and scarcely to be reconciled with the Church's own definition +of a sacrament in general. For in such a case, +where is "the outward and visible sign of the inward and +spiritual grace given"?<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_184" id="Ref_184" href="#Foot_184">[184]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">{354}</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">XI. Sunday after Trinity.</span></span></h3> + +<p>Epistle.—1 Cor. xv. 1.</p> + + <p class="smallcond"><i>Brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you.</i></p> + +<p>Why should the obsolete, though faithful, Saxon translation +of <span title="euangelion">ευαγγελον</span> be retained? Why not "good tidings"? +Why thus change a most appropriate and intelligible +designation of the matter into a mere conventional name +of a particular book?</p> + +<p>Ib.</p> + + <p class="smallcond">—— <i>how that Christ died for our sins.</i></p> + +<p>But the meaning of <span title="hyper tôn hamartiôn hêmôn">ὑπερ των +ἁμαρτιων ἡμων</span> is, that Christ died through the sins, and for +the sinners. He died through our sins, and we live through his +righteousness.</p> + +<p>Gospel.—Luke xviii. 14.</p> + + <p class="smallcond"><i>This man went down to his house justified rather than the other</i>.</p> + +<p>Not simply justified, observe; but justified rather than the other, +<span title="ê ekeinos">η εκεινος</span>,—that is less remote +from salvation.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">XXV. Sunday after Trinity.</span></span></h3> + +<p>Collect.</p> + + <p class="smallcond">—— that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, + may of thee be plenteously rewarded.</p> + +<p>Rather—"that with that enlarged capacity, which without +thee we cannot acquire, there may likewise be an +increase of the gift, which from thee alone we can wholly +receive."</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. VIII.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 2. <i>Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou + ordained strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still + the enemy and the avenger.</i></p> + +<p>To the dispensations of the twilight dawn, to the first +messengers of the redeeming word, the yet lisping utterers +of light and life, a strength and power were given <i>because</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">{355}</a></span> +<i>of the enemies</i>, greater and of more immediate influence, +than to the seers and proclaimers of a clearer day:—even +as the first re-appearing crescent of the eclipsed moon +shines for men with a keener brilliance than the following +larger segments, previously to its total emersion.</p> + +<p>Ib. v. 5.</p> + + <p class="smallcond"><i>Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and + worship</i>.</p> + +<p>Power + idea = angel.</p> + +<p>Idea - power = man, or Prometheus.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXVIII.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 34. <i>Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel: his worship and + strength is in the clouds</i>.</p> + +<p>The "clouds", in the symbolical language of the Scriptures, +mean the events and course of things, seemingly +effects of human will or chance, but overruled by +Providence.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXXII.</span></span></h3> + +<p>This psalm admits no other interpretation but of Christ, +as the Jehovah incarnate. In any other sense it would be +a specimen of more than Persian or Moghul hyperbole and +bombast, of which there is no other instance in Scripture, +and which no Christian would dare to attribute to an inspired +writer. We know, too, that the elder Jewish Church +ranked it among the Messianic Psalms. N.B. The Word +in St. John and the Name of the Most High in the Psalms +are equivalent terms.</p> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 1. <i>Give the king thy judgments, O God; and thy righteousness + unto the king's son.</i></p> + +<p>God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the +only begotten, the Son of God and God, King of Kings, +and the Son of the King of Kings!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">{356}</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXXIV.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 2. <i>O think upon thy congregation, whom thou hast purchased and + redeemed of old.</i></p> + +<p>The Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, +the God-Man, the Judge, the self-promised Redeemer to +Adam in the garden!</p> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 15. <i>Thou smotest the heads of the Leviathan in pieces; and + gavest him to be meat for the people in the wilderness.</i></p> + +<p>Does this allude to any real tradition?<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_185" id="Ref_185" href="#Foot_185">[185]</a></span> +The Psalm +appears to have been composed shortly before the captivity +of Judah.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXXXII. vv. 6-7.</span></span></h3> + +<p>The reference which our Lord made to these mysterious +verses, gives them an especial interest. The first apostasy, +the fall of the angels, is, perhaps, intimated.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXXXVII.</span></span></h3> + +<p>I would fain understand this Psalm; but first I must +collate it word by word with the original Hebrew. It +seems clearly Messianic.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. LXXXVIII.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">Vv. 10-12. <i>Dost thou show wonders among the dead, or shall the + dead rise up again and praise thee? &c.</i></p> + +<p>Compare Ezekiel, xxxvii.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. CIV.</span></span></h3> + +<p>I think the Bible version might with advantage be substituted +for this, which in some parts is scarcely intelligible.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">{357}</a></span></p> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 6—<i>the waters stand in the hills.</i></p> + +<p>No; <i>stood above the mountains</i>. The reference is to the +Deluge.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. CV.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 3. <i>Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.</i></p> + +<p>If even to seek the Lord be joy, what will it be to find +him? Seek me, O Lord, that I may be found by thee!</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. CX.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 2. <i>The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion</i>; + (saying) <i>Rule, &c.</i></p> + +<p>V. 3. Understand—"Thy people shall offer themselves +willingly in the day of conflict in holy clothing, in their +best array, in their best arms and accoutrements. As the +dew from the womb of the morning, in number and brightness +like dew-drops; so shall be thy youth, or the youth +of thee, the young volunteer warriors."</p> + +<p>V. 5. "He shall shake," concuss, <i>concutiet reges die iræ +suæ</i>.</p> + +<p>V. 6. For "smite in sunder, or wound the heads;" +some word answering to the Latin <i>conquassare</i>.</p> + +<p>V. 7. For "therefore," translate "then shall he lift up +his head again;" that is, as a man languid and sinking +from thirst and fatigue after refreshment.</p> + +<p>N.B.—I see no poetic discrepancy between vv. 1 and 5.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. CXVIII.</span></span></h3> + +<p>To be interpreted of Christ's Church.</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Ps. CXXVI.</span></span></h3> + + <p class="smallcond">V. 5. <i>As the rivers in the south.</i></p> + +<p>Does this allude to the periodical rains?<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_186" id="Ref_186" href="#Foot_186">[186]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">{358}</a></span> +As a transparency on some night of public rejoicing, +seen by common day, with the lamps from within removed—even +such would the Psalms be to me uninterpreted by +the Gospel. O honoured Mr. Hurwitz!<span +class="fnanchor"><a name="Ref_187" id="Ref_187" href="#Foot_187">[187]</a></span> +Could I but make +you feel what grandeur, what magnificence, what an everlasting +significance and import Christianity gives to every +fact of your national history—to every page of your sacred +records!</p> + +<h3><span class="small"><span class="smcap">Articles of Religion.</span></span></h3> + +<p>XX. It is mournful to think how many recent writers +have criminated our Church in consequence of their ignorance +and inadvertence in not knowing, or not noticing, the +contra-distinction here meant between power and authority. +Rites and ceremonies the Church may ordain <i>jure proprio</i>: +on matters of faith her judgment is to be received with +reverence, and not gainsayed but after repeated inquiries, +and on weighty grounds.</p> + +<p> XXXVII. It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the + magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in wars.</p> + +<p>This is a very good instance of an unseemly matter +neatly wrapped up. The good men recoiled from the plain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">{359}</a></span> +words—"It is lawful for Christian men at the command +of a king to slaughter as many Christians as they can"!</p> + +<p>Well! I could most sincerely subscribe to all these +articles. September, 1831.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_184" id="Foot_184" href="#Ref_184">[184]</a> +"Should it occur to any one that the doctrine blamed in the text is +but in accordance with that of the Church of England, in her rubric concerning +spiritual communion, annexed to the Office for Communion of +the Sick, he may consider, whether that rubric, explained (as, if possible, +it must be) in consistency with the definition of a sacrament in the +Catechism, can be meant for any but rare and extraordinary cases; +cases as strong in regard of the Eucharist, as that of martyrdom, or the +premature death of a well-disposed catechumen, in regard of Baptism." +Keble's Preface to Hooker, p. 85, n. 70.—H. N. C. [It should be mentioned +that "the doctrine blamed in the text," which Keble comments +upon, is not the doctrine blamed in Coleridge's text, above,—or, rather, +the "text" alluded to is not the text above. The text alluded to by +Keble is that with which he was then dealing, viz., the text of Hooker. +Keble's edition of Hooker's works was published in 1836, two years +before Coleridge's "Literary Remains" were first published.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_185" id="Foot_185" href="#Ref_185">[185]</a> +According to Bishop Home, the allusion is to the destruction of +Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_186" id="Foot_186" href="#Ref_186">[186]</a> +See Horne in loc. note.—H. N. C.</p> + +<p class="nodent"><a name="Foot_187" id="Foot_187" href="#Ref_187">[187]</a> +See p. 140, <i>ante</i>. In addition to the 'Vindiciae Hebraicae,' there +alluded to, Mr. Hyman Hurwitz was the author of 'Elements of the +Hebrew Language,' which reached a fourth edition in 1848, and other +works. He was Professor of Hebrew at the University of London, and +master of the Hebrew Academy at Highgate. Our author's intimacy +with him is indicated by the fact that on Hurwitz publishing his 'Dirge +Chaunted in the Great Synagogue, St. James's Place, Aldgate, on the Day +of the Funeral of the Princess Charlotte,' 1817, Coleridge added a translation +in English. The translation appears in late editions of Coleridge's +poems with the title 'Israel's Lament,' &c. The following also testifies +to the friendship, and likewise to Coleridge's proficiency in Hebrew. In +Hurwitz's preface to his collection of 'Hebrew Tales,' 1826, he says:—"Excepting +the three moral tales originally published in that valuable +work, 'The Friend,' ['Whoso Hath Found a Virtuous Wife,' &c., +'The Lord Helpeth Man and Beast,' and 'Conversation of a Philosopher +with a Rabbi:' see Standard Library edition, 1866, pp. 246-8], so +admirably translated by my friend Mr. S. T. Coleridge, and which are +by his kind permission inserted in this collection," &c., &c. See also +H. N. Coleridge's note to the 'Table Talk' of April 14 1830.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">{360}</a></span></p> + +<h2>A NIGHTLY PRAYER. 1831.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap">ALMIGHTY God, by thy eternal Word my Creator +Redeemer and Preserver! who hast in thy free communicative +goodness glorified me with the capability of knowing +thee, the one only absolute Good, the eternal I Am, as +the author of my being, and of desiring and seeking thee +as its ultimate end;—who, when I fell from thee into the +mystery of the false and evil will, didst not abandon me, +poor self-lost creature, but in thy condescending mercy +didst provide an access and a return to thyself, even to +thee the Holy One, in thine only begotten Son, the way +and the truth from everlasting, and who took on himself +humanity, yea, became flesh, even the man Christ Jesus, +that for man he might be the life and the resurrection!—O +Giver of all good gifts, who art thyself the one only +absolute Good, from whom I have received whatever good +I have, whatever capability of good there is in me, and +from thee good alone,—from myself and my own corrupted +will all evil and the consequents of evil,—with inward +prostration of will, mind, and affections I adore thy infinite +majesty; I aspire to love thy transcendant goodness!—In +a deep sense of my unworthiness, and my unfitness to +present myself before thee, of eyes too pure to behold +iniquity, and whose light, the beatitude of spirits conformed +to thy will, is a consuming fire to all vanity and corruption;—but +in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the dear Son of +thy love, in whose perfect obedience thou deignest to behold +as many as have received the seed of Christ into the body +of this death;—I offer this, my bounden nightly sacrifice +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">{361}</a></span> +of praise and thanksgiving, in humble trust, that the +fragrance of my Saviour's righteousness may remove from +it the taint of my mortal corruption. Thy mercies have +followed me through all the hours and moments of my +life; and now I lift up my heart in awe and thankfulness +for the preservation of my life through the past day, for +the alleviation of my bodily sufferings and languors, for +the manifold comforts which thou hast reserved for me, +yea, in thy fatherly compassion hast rescued from the wreck +of my own sins or sinful infirmities;—for the kind and +affectionate friends thou hast raised up for me, especially +for those of this household, for the mother and mistress of +this family, whose love to me hath been great and faithful, +and for the dear friend, the supporter and sharer of my +studies and researches; but, above all, for the heavenly +Friend, the crucified Saviour, the glorified Mediator, Christ +Jesus, and for the heavenly Comforter, source of all abiding +comforts, thy Holy Spirit! O grant me the aid of thy +Spirit, that I may with a deeper faith, a more enkindled +love, bless thee, who through thy Son hast privileged me +to call thee Abba, Father! O, thou, who has revealed thyself +in thy holy word as a God that hearest prayer; before +whose infinitude all differences cease of great and small; +who like a tender parent foreknowest all our wants, yet +listeneth well-pleased to the humble petitions of thy +children; who hast not alone permitted, but taught us, to +call on thee in all our needs,—earnestly I implore the continuance +of thy free mercy, of thy protecting providence, +through the coming night. Thou hearest every prayer +offered to thee believingly with a penitent and sincere +heart. For thou in withholding grantest, healest in inflicting +the wound, yea, turnest all to good for as many as truly +seek thee through Christ, the Mediator! Thy will be done! +But if it be according to thy wise and righteous ordinances, +O shield me this night from the assaults of disease, grant +me refreshment of sleep unvexed by evil and distempered +dreams; and if the purpose and aspiration of my heart be +upright before thee who alone knowest the heart of man, +O in thy mercy vouchsafe me yet in this my decay of life +an interval of ease and strength; if so (thy grace disposing +and assisting) I may make compensation to thy church for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">{362}</a></span> +the unused talents them hast entrusted to me, for the +neglected opportunities, which thy loving-kindness had +provided. O let me be found a labourer in the vineyard, +though of the late hour, when the Lord and Heir of the +vintage, Christ Jesus, calleth for his servant.</p> + +<p><i>Our Father, &c.</i></p> + +<p>To thee, great omnipresent Spirit, whose mercy is over +all thy works, who now beholdest me, who hearest me, who +hast framed my heart to seek and to trust in thee, in the +name of my Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, I humbly +commit and commend my body, soul, and spirit.</p> + +<p>Glory be to thee, O God!</p> + +<h2><span class="x-small">ERRATUM.</span></h2> + +<p class="smallcond">At p. 140, line 23 of the foot-note, for p. 123, 124, <i>read</i> pp. 130-132.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">{363}</a></span></p> + +<div class="index"> + +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + + <ul> + + <li>Absolute Will, the, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + + <li>Absurd, the, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Act, originating an, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-7.</li> + + <li>Adam, the word, in Genesis, and as used by St. Paul, <a + href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and his posterity, God's anger against, <a + href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + + <li>—— possible Spiritual Fall antecedent to him, <a + href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Eve, assertions respecting their state, <a + href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + + <li>Adam's Fall, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + + <li>—— sin, its penalty, death, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> + + <li>Admiration, love of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + + <li>Æolists, the, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + <li>'Aids to Reflection,' the author's aims in the work, <a + href="#Page_ix">ix</a>, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>, <a + href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>, <a + href="#Page_xix">xix</a>, <a href="#Page_xxiii">xxiii</a>, <a + href="#Page_lxvi">lxvi</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a + href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>. + <ul> + <li>Republication of it in America, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxvii">xxvii</a>.</li> <li>Importance of the work, <a + href="#Page_xxvi">xxvi</a>, <a href="#Page_xl">xl</a>.</li> + <li>Doctrines propounded in it, <a + href="#Page_xxvii">xxvii</a>.</li> <li>Its orthodoxy, <a + href="#Page_xxi">xxi</a>, <a href="#Page_lvi">lvi</a>.</li> + <li>Objections to it answered, <a + href="#Page_lxviii">lxviii</a>.</li> <li>Criticism of it + anticipated, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a + href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> <li>Its origin, <a + href="#Page_xx">xx</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> <li>Its + first edition, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>, <a + href="#Page_xv">xv</a>, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + <li>Dr. Marsh's essay on it, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxiii">xxiii</a>.</li> + <li>Break in the work through the author's illness, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + <li>Its plan, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> + <li>The notes to it, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + <li>Purposed supplement to it, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + <li>See also under Reason and Understanding, the Will, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Alcohol, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + + <li>Allegory and Symbol in Scripture Interpretation, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Alogi</i>, the modern, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + + <li>Altar, Companion to the, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + + <li>America, Dr. Jas. Marsh, a disciple of Coleridge there, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.</li> + + <li>Amusements, the care for, and the neglect of study, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + + <li>Anabaptism, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Analogy in the New Testament, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Anathema Maranatha</i>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + + <li>Anatomy, Comparative, <a href="#Page_xx">xx</a>.</li> + + <li>Ancient wisdom, the treasures of, <a href="#Page_lxxiii">lxxiii</a>; + <ul> + <li>Coleridge no contemner of them, <i>ib</i>., <a href="#Page_lxxiv">lxxiv</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Animal development in the <i>polypi</i>, &c., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>—— life typical of the understanding and the moral + affections, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Antinoüs and Noüs, their Dialogue on Mystics and Mysticism, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> + + <li>Antithesis, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + + <li>Ants and bees, intelligence of, Hüber, &c., on, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-147.</li> + + <li>Aphorisms, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + + <li>Apocrypha, the, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + + <li>Apostasy, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>—— possible, antecedent to Adam, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>Apostolic Church, the, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + + <li>Arbitrement, the word, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + + <li>Argument and Belief, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + + <li>Aristotle and Locke, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Plato, ideas of God, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their philosophy and that of Bacon, <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Arminianism, or Grotianism, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>Arminius, Bp. Hacket on, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>Arnauld's work on Transubstantiation, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> + + <li>Art, Nature and, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + + <li>Arts, trades, &c., and thinking, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + + <li>Articles of the Church of England, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>. + <ul> + <li>They show the Church as not infallible, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + <li>Locke's philosophy opposed to them, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Aseity, the divine, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> + + <li>Astronomy, modern, and the Bible, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + + <li>Atheists, the, of the French Revolution, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + + <li>Atonement, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + + <li>—— vicarious, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Attention, thought and, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> + + <li>Augustine and Original Sin and Infant Baptism, <a + href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>. + <ul> + <li>On Faith and Understanding, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Augustinians, the, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>Authority and power, distinction between, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Author, an, and his readers, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>. + <ul> + <li>The worth of an author, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Author's, an, view of his own work, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + + <li>Autobiography, religious, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + + </ul> + <ul> + + <li>Bacon, Lord, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> + + <li>—— his philosophy that of the divines of the + Reformation, and opposed to that of Locke, <a + href="#Page_lxiv">lxiv</a>, <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>, + <ul> + <li>while agreeing with that of Coleridge, <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— his philosophy and that of Plato and Aristotle, <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>.</li> + + <li>—— on Reason and the Understanding, <a + href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + + <li>Baptism, on, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a + href="#Page_243">243</a>, <i>et sq.</i>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>. + <ul> + <li>Baxter on, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> + <li>Differences on no ground for schism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + <li>D'Oyly and Mant and the Evangelicals on, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + <li>Edward Irving on, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-5.</li> + <li>Coleridge's answer to Irving, <i>ib.</i></li> + <li>Robinson's History of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + <li>Wall on, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + <li>Superstitions respecting, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— of infants, origin of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>. + <ul> + <li>Argument for, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Preaching, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Redemption, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Regeneration, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + + <li>—— not Regeneration, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + + <li>Baptism, See also Anabaptism.</li> + + <li>Baptist, conversation with a, on infant and adult baptism, <a + href="#Page_243">243</a>, <i>et sq.</i></li> + + <li>Basil and his scholars, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + + <li>Baxter, on Baptism, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> + + <li>—— his "censures of the Papists," quoted, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Howe, religious teaching of their times, <a href="#Page_liii">liii</a>.</li> + + <li>Beasts, understanding in, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> + + <li>Bee, the, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Bees and ants, intelligence of, Hüber, &c., on, <a + href="#Page_145">145</a>-147, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and instinct, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + + <li>Behmen, Jacob, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + + <li>Behmenists, &c., <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Belief, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>, <a + href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a + href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + + <li>—— ground of, <a href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>.</li> + + <li>Belief, the, of children, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> + + <li>—— of the absurd, impossible, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and argument, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and superstition, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and truth, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + + <li>Belsham's version of the Testament, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Berkleyanism, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + + <li>Bernard, St., <a href="#Page_xxv">xxv</a>.</li> + + <li>Bernouillis, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + + <li>Bible, the, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its divine origin, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + <li>A source of true belief, but not itself a creed, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + <li>George III. on, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + <li>Historical discrepancies in, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + <li>Inspiration of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + <li>Reading it, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + <li>See also under New Testament, Psalms, Scripture, Inspiration, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— the, and Christian Faith, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + + <li>Biblical criticism, Coleridge's, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + + <li>Bibliolatry, and mis-interpretation of the Bible, <a + href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> + + <li>Birth, the word as used by Christ, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Blood, the word as used by Christ, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + + <li>Bonnet's view of instinct, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + + <li>Book-making, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> + + <li>Books for the indolent, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + + <li>Books, popular, <i>ib.</i></li> + + <li>Bosom-sin, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + + <li>Bread, the word as used by Christ, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Breath, the enlivening, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + + <li>Brown's Philosophy, <a href="#Page_xxxix">xxxix</a>, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>.</li> + + <li>Browne, Sir T., and his strong faith, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> + + <li>Brutes and man, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + <ul> + <li>Paley, Fleming, and others on, <a href="#Page_lx">lx</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the will, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + + <li>Bruno, Giordano, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + + <li>Bucer, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Buffon, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + + <li>Bull and Waterland, their works, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-12.</li> + + <li>Burnet, extract from, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + + <li>Butler, S., <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + </ul> + <ul> + + <li>Cabbala, the, of the Hutchinsonians, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + + <li>Cabbalists, the, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> <li>Calling, + effectual, doctrine of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + + <li>Calumny, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + + <li>Calvin, the works of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + + <li>Calvinism, modern, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>. + <ul> + <li>That of Jonathan Edwards, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + <li>That of New England, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Calvinists, the, of Leighton's day, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Capital punishment, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + + <li>Carbonic-acid gas, Hoffman's discovery of, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>Carlyle's translation of 'Wilhelm Meister,' <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + + <li>Cartesian and Newtonian philosophies, the, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + + <li>Catholic, and Roman Catholic, the terms, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + + <li>Cause, an Omnipresent, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and effect, <a href="#Page_xlviii">xlviii</a>, <a + href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a + href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> + + <li>Cephas, and the Jews who followed him, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> + + <li>Ceremonies, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + + <li>Ceremony and Faith, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + + <li>Cherubim, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + + <li>Children, the belief of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Jesus and the, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + + <li>Christ, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>. + <ul> + <li>His agony and death, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + <li>His Cross and Passion, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + <li>His <i>hard sayings</i>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + <li>His <i>New commandment</i>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + <li>His death, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Christ, the Christian's pattern, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + + <li>—— contemplation of, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + + <li>—— faith in, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + + <li>—— present in every creature, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the Redeemer of "every creature," <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the Word, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and His Apostles, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the children, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Paul and Moses, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Redemption by, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + + <li>"Christ, In," the phrase, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> + + <li>Christ's aids to the sinner, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> + + <li>—— use of the words, water, flesh, blood, birth, and + bread, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Christian, the, no Stoic, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Dispensation, the, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>; + <ul> + <li>and the Law of Moses, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Christian Faith, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a + href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>. + <ul> + <li>A vindication of its whole scheme promised by the author, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— Faith and the Bible, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + + <li>—— love, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>—— ministry, the, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a + href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Philosophy, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Religion, the, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Christian Spectator</i>, 1829, Controversy there on the Origin + of Sin, <a href="#Page_liv">liv</a>.</li> + + <li>Christians, early, and the Jews, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and war, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>—— should be united in one Church (extract from Wall), <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + + <li>Christianity, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>. + <ul> + <li>Arguments against, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + <li>Is a vanity without a Church, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + <li>Coleridge's views on, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + <li>The essentials of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> + <li>The "Evidences of," <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a + href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> + <li>The doctrines peculiar to, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a + href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> + <li>The knowledge required by, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + <li>Not to be preferred to truth, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + <li>Not a theory but a Life, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + <li>Operative, the Pentad of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + <li><span class="smcap">Try it!</span> <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Mythology, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the old philosophy, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + + <li>Church, the word, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> + + <li>Church, Christianity a vanity without a Church <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + + <li>—— a National, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>. Field's work on, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the <i>most</i> Apostolic, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + + <li>—— of England, the, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>. See also Articles, &c.</li> + + <li>—— divines, orthodox, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + + <li>—— going, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>. Undue love of + Church, or sect, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>—— History, the sum of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>—— ordinances and the New Testament, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>'Church and State,' Coleridge's, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a + href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + + <li>Circumcision, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + + <li>Circumstance and the Will, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> + + <li>Coleridge, S. T.—<i>Personal.</i>— + <ul> + <li>To a friend halting in his belief of Christianity, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> + <li>C.'s Baptist friend, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + <li>C.'s convictions, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + <li>His conversation, &c., <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + <li>His defence of his work, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + <li>His editors, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + <li>They remiss, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + <li>His friends, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + <li>His proficiency in Hebrew, and friendship with Hyman Hurwitz, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + <li>His language and style, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>, <a href="#Page_lxix">lxix</a>.</li> + <li>His alleged unintelligibility, <a href="#Page_lxix">lxix</a>.</li> + <li>His philosophical and philological attainments, intellectual + powers, and moral worth, <a href="#Page_lxxiv">lxxiv</a>.</li> + <li>His attempts at proselytizing, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + <li>His religious experiences, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + <li>He was not at war with religion, <a href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>.</li> + <li>His "twenty years" of contention for the contra-distinction of + Reason and the Understanding, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + <li>His love of truth, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Coleridge, S. T.—<i>His works.</i>— + <ul> + <li>His lengthy notes to the 'Aids to Reflection', <a + href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + <li>Criticism of the 'Aids' anticipated, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + <li>'The Ancient Mariner' referred to, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + <li>His promised 'Assertion of Religion,' &c., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + <li>'Christabel' alluded to, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + <li>'Church and State' referred to, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + <li>His correspondent in the 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + <li>'The Friend' referred to, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + <li>The Hebrew Tales in 'The Friend,' <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + <li>'Israel's Lament,' <i>ib.</i></li> + <li>The 'Lay Sermons' referred to, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Lectures on Shakspere,' &c., referred to, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Literary Correspondence' in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, + referred to, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Literary Remains,' <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a + href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li> + <li>His MS. Note-Books, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Nightly Prayer,' <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Wanderings of Cain' alluded to, and quoted, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + <li>Tendency of his works, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>.</li> + <li>His <i>Watchman</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + <li>See also under 'Aids to Reflection,' 'Confessions,' &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Coleridge. S. T.—<i>His Views.</i>— + <ul> + <li>He was no contemner of the ancient wisdom, <a href="#Page_lxxiii">lxxiii</a>.</li> + <li>His views those of Bacon, <a href="#Page_lxiii">lxiii</a>; + <ul> + <li>and of the Reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries, <a href="#Page_lxiv">lxiv</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + <li>Early views on Baptism, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + <li>His Biblical criticism, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + <li>He repudiates sympathy with the ideas of the Behmenists, &c., <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + <li>His view of Christianity, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>; + <ul> + <li>an Evangelical view, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + <li>His Confession of Faith, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + <li>On Edward Irving, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-5.</li> + <li>Opposed to Locke, <a href="#Page_lvii">lvii</a>.</li> + <li>The philosophy of the 'Aids,' <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>.</li> + <li>"Coleridge's Metaphysics," <a href="#Page_lxx">lxx</a>.</li> + <li>Views on the relations of prudence and morality, <a href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>.</li> + <li>On Redemption, <i>ib.</i>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + <li>On Religion, or the Spiritual life, <a + href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>, <a + href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + <li>His transitional state of religious belief, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> + <li>His view of reason in relation to spiritual religion, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>.</li> + <li>The key to his system, the distinctions between nature and + free-will and between understanding and reason, <a + href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>, <a href="#Page_lxiii">lxiii</a>.</li> + <li>His views on Original Sin, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + <li>On the terms <i>spiritual</i> and <i>natural</i>, <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Coleridge, S. T.—<i>Criticism of, &c.</i>— + <ul> + <li>C. termed un-English, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + <li>Arguments for "extinguishing" him, <i>ib.</i></li> + <li>C. and his critics, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + <li>His alleged Mysticism, <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Coleridge, H. N., on the 'Aids', <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>; + <ul> + <li>on the tendency of Coleridge's works, <i>ib.</i>;</li> + <li>on the 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> + <li>on Locke's philosophy and the Church, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>;</li> + <li>on Dr. Marsh's Essay, <i>ib.</i>;</li> + <li>on reason and the understanding, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li><i>Commandment, the New</i>, given by Christ, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + + <li>Commonplace truths, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li> + + <li>Common Prayer, Book of. See Prayer.</li> + + <li>Common-sense, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + + <li>Commonwealth, religion of that time, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Communion Service, proposed emendations of, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + + <li>Communion of the Sick, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + + <li>Confession of sins, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>. + <ul> + <li>Luther on, <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>'Confessions of a Fair Saint,' Goethe's, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + + <li>'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' <a + href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>. + <ul> + <li>Is a key to Coleridge's Biblical criticism, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + <li>H. N. Coleridge's advertisement to, <i>ib.</i></li> + <li>Author's advertisement to, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Conscience, the, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>. + <ul> + <li>Is the only practical contradistinction between man and the brutes, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + <li>Things opposed to it, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and reason, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the senses, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the will, <i>ib.</i></li> + + <li>Consciousness, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>Consequences, General, Paley's principle of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + + <li>Contemplation, religious, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> + + <li>Contempt, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + + <li>Content, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + + <li>Controversies, religious, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>Conversation, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>Conversion, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + + <li>Corpuscular philosophy, the, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + + <li>Corruption and Redemption, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + + <li>Cranmer, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Creation, the week of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Creed, the, of the Reformed Churches, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + + <li>Criticism of the 'Aids' anticipated, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + <li>—— anonymous, &c., <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + + <li>Critics replied to, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + + <li>Cupid and Psyche, and the Fall of Man, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + + <li>Cyprian, and infant baptism, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + + <li>Cyrus, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> + + </ul> + <ul> + + <li>Daniel, the Book of, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + + <li>Daniel, S., quoted, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + + <li>Danton, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Darkest before day, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + + <li>Darwin (E.) on instinct, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + + <li>David and the sons of Michal, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + + <li>Davy, Sir H., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + + <li>Death, the penalty of Adam's sin, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>. + <ul> + <li>The debt of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + <li>Fear of, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + <li>Death the loss of immortality, and death eternal, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + <li>Spiritual death, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the Resurrection, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> + + <li>Deborah, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + + <li>Deceit, self, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + + <li>Demonstrations of a God, &c., <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + + <li>Des Cartes, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>. + <ul> + <li>His theory of instinct, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Despair of none, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + + <li>Despise none, and despair of none, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + + <li>Detraction, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + + <li>Devil, the. See Tempter.</li> + + <li>Discourse = Understanding, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Shakspere's "discourse of reason," <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + + <li>Disputes in Religious Communities, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>Dissent and the Church, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + + <li>Diversely and diversly, the words, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + + <li>Divines, our elder, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + + <li>Docility is grounded in humility, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + + <li>Doctrinal terms, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + + <li>Dog, the, its species of moral nature, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> + + <li>Donne, quoted. <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + + <li>Doubt. <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Earthenware, enjoy your, as if it were plate, and think your + plate no more than earthenware. <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + + <li>Ecclesiastical history, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Education of the young, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + + <li>Edwards, Jonathan, his Calvinism, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + + <li>Election, the doctrine of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a + href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>. + <ul> + <li>The word in St. Paul's writings <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— arbitrary, and Reprobation, the doctrines of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>England, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + + <li>Entertainment and instruction, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + + <li>Enthusiasm, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>. + <ul> + <li>Satire and, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Enthusiasts, the, of our Commonwealth time <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Equivocation <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + + <li>Error, intellectual effect of, <a href="#Page_xlii">xlii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xlvii">xlvii</a>, <a href="#Page_lviii">lviii</a>.</li> + + <li>Esther, the Book of, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + + <li>Eternal death, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + + <li>Eternal life, the promise of, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + + <li>Eternity and Time, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + + <li>Ethics, or the Science of Morality, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + + <li>Eucharist, the, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a + href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a + href="#Page_350">350</a>. + <ul> + <li>Keble on Hooker's view of it, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Evangelical, Coleridge an, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + + <li>—— clergy, the, on Baptism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + + <li>Evangelicals, the, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + + <li>Eve, the Serpent and, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> + + <li>Everlasting torment, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Evil, the origin of, <a href="#Page_liv">liv</a>, <a + href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and good, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + + <li>—— resistance to, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + + <li>Examination, self, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> + + <li>Expedience is the anarchy of morals, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + + <li>Expediency, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.</li> + + <li>Experience, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> + + <li>Expiation and pay, the words, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + + <li>Extreme unction, the Romish doctrine of, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Extremes, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Eye, the, the body, &c., <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> + + <li>Ezekiel, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Faith, Essay on, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + + <li>—— <a href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>, <a + href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a + href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>. + <ul> + <li>The articles of, assimilation by, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> + <li>Christian Faith, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + <li>Faith defined, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + <li>St. Augustine on it, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + <li>The essay on it, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + <li>The kinds of it, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li> + <li>Its mysteries, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + <li>Faith necessary, <i>ib.</i> Spiritual Faith, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + <li>The strong faith of Sir T. Browne, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Faith and Ceremony, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Duty, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and right reason, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Steadfast by, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + + <li>Fall, the, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + + <li>—— a Spiritual, possible before Adam, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>Falstaff, the lying of, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> + + <li>Familists, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Fanatic, when the mystic becomes one, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> + + <li>Fashion and holiness, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + + <li>Fatalism, Locke's opinions tending to, <a href="#Page_lv">lv</a>.</li> + + <li>Fate, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> + + <li>Fathers, the, uncritical study of, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + + <li>Fears, worldly, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + + <li>Feeble, the, always popular, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + + <li>Feelings, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>Fenelon, a, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + + <li>Fidianism, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> + + <li>Field, Dr. R., and his work on the Church, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + + <li>—— extract from, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + + <li>"Finds me," that (the utterance) which, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li> + + <li>Finite, the, faculty of, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + + <li>Fleming, Dr., on man and the brutes, <a href="#Page_lx">lx</a>.</li> + + <li>Flesh, the word, as used by Christ, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>—— <i>according to the</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>—— <i>manifested in the</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Spirit, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>Flowers, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Forethought, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> + + <li>Forgiveness, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>. + <ul> + <li>Self-deceit in, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + <li>The Socinian doctrine of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Fortune and circumstance, the riddle of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> + + <li>Freedom, the highest form of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> + + <li>Free-thinking Christians, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + + <li>Free-will, Luther's view of it, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Will, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and nature, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>.</li> + + <li>French Revolution, the, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>. + <ul> + <li>The Atheists of it, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>French people, and women, their talkativeness, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>'Friend, The,' Coleridge's, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>. + <ul> + <li>An essay there referred to, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + <li>The Hebrew Tales in it, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Friendship, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> + + <li>Future life, the, and the present, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>—— state, belief in, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>. + <ul> + <li>The same taught in the Old Testament, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Galileo, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + + <li>Geist = gas, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>Generalization, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> + + <li>Genius and the dunces, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + + <li>Genus and species, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>George III., on the Bible, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + + <li>German Biblical philologists, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their views of the Gospels and St. John, <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>God, the idea of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a + href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a + href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a + href="#Page_255">255</a>. + <ul> + <li>Ideas of Aristotle and Plato, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + <li>Demonstrations of a God, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + <li>God <i>is</i> reason, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + <li>God present in every creature, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + <li>His anger with Adam and his posterity, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + <li>His communion with man, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + <li>His hand in the world, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + <li>His personal attributes, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + <li>Two great things given us by him, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— <i>manifested in the flesh</i>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the world, serving, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + + <li>Godless Revolution, the, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + + <li>Goethe's 'Confessions of a Fair Saint' ('Wilhelm Meister'), <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + + <li>Good and evil, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + + <li>Good men and vicious, radical difference between, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>Goodness more than prudence, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.</li> + + <li>"Good tidings," <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + + <li>Gospel, hearing the, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its language and purport, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> + <li>The word Gospel in the Prayer-Book, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Gospel, the, and Philosophy, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a + href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + + <li>Gospels, the, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>Grace, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>. + <ul> + <li>The doctrine of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>. Growth in, <a + href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> + <li>Warburton's tract on, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Grammar and Logic—parts of speech, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + + <li>Gravity, the law of, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + + <li>Green, Prof. J. H., his essay on Instinct, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>. + <ul> + <li>His exposition of the difference between Reason and the + Understanding, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Vital Dynamics,' referred to, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; + <ul> + <li>and quoted, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + <li>His remarks upon Coleridge's conversation, &c., <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Grief, worldly, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>Grotian interpretation of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + + <li>Grotianism, or Arminianism, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>Gunpowder, white, slander so termed, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Hacket, Bishop, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>. + <ul> + <li>Extract from, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Hagiographa, the, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> + + <li>Hale, Sir Matthew, his belief in witchcraft, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + + <li>Happiness, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>. + <ul> + <li>The desire of the natural heart for it, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + + <li>"Hard sayings," the, of Christ, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + + <li>Harmonists of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Bible, inspiration of, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Harrington quoted, on reason in man, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> + + <li>Hawker, Dr., <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Hearne on the Indians, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + + <li>Hebrew theocracy, the, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Tales in 'The Friend', <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>'Henry VI.,' Shakspere's, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + + <li>Herbert, Lord, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + + <li>Herbert's 'Temple,' quoted, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + + <li>Hereditary sin is not original sin, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + + <li>Heresies, the rise of, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + + <li>Heresy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> + + <li>Hildebert, quoted, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + + <li>Historical discrepancies in the Bible, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + + <li>Hobbes, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>. + <ul> + <li>His philosophy, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Hoffman's discovery of carbonic-acid gas, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Spirit, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Hooker, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>. + <ul> + <li>Extract from, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + <li>On the Eucharist, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + <li>On Truth, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Hopes, worldly, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + + <li>Howe and Baxter, the religious teaching of their times, <a href="#Page_lvii">lvii</a>.</li> + + <li>Hüber on bees and ants, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>. + <ul> + <li>The same as bearing upon instinct, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Humility the first requisite in the search for Truth, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>. + <ul> + <li>The ground of docility, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and vanity, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + + <li>Hungarian sisters, the, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Hunter, John, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + + <li>Hurwitz, Hyman, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Hutchinsonians, the, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>I, the first person. See Person.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">I am</span>, the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + + <li>Idealism, Materialism, &c., <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + + <li>Ideas, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + + <li>Idols, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>. + <ul> + <li>Worldly troubles are idols, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Imagination, wisest use of the, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + + <li>Imitators and Imitation, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + + <li>Immortality opposed to Death, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + + <li>Imprudence, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + + <li>Incomprehensible, the, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>. + <ul> + <li>Incomprehensibility no obstacle to belief, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Inconsistency, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + + <li>Indians, the, Hearne on, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + + <li>Indolent, the busy indolent, and the lazy indolent, their + requirements in books, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + + <li>Infallibility, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a + href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Infants, Baptism of. See Baptism.</li> + + <li>—— the Presentation of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + + <li>Infidel arguments against the Bible, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Infidelity, and how to treat it, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Jacobinism, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Infinite, the, and the Finite, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + + <li>'Inquiring Spirit, Confessions of an.' See 'Confessions,'&c.</li> + + <li>Inquisition, the, and the Bible, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> + + <li>Insanity, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>Insects, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>. + <ul> + <li>Vital power of, &c., <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Inspiration of every word in the Bible, the doctrine argued + against, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Bible, Scriptures, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Instinct, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, + <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its nature, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + <li>Hüber's bees and, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + <li>Prof. J. H. Green, on, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + <li>How it is identical with understanding; and how diverse from reason, <i>ib.</i></li> + <li>Maternal instinct, or storgè, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + <li>The instinct of anticipation in all animated nature, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + <li>Right use of the term, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Instruction, early, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + + <li>Instruction and entertainment, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + + <li>Insufflation, Roman Catholic, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Interpretation. See Bible, &c.</li> + + <li>Irrational, the, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + + <li>Irritability, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Irving, Edward. His view of baptism answered, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Jacobinism and Infidelity, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Jael, the morality of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + + <li><i>James, Epistle</i> (i. 21), <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; + (i. 25), <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + (i. 26, 27), <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + + <li>Jebb, Dr., <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + + <li>Jesus. See Christ.</li> + + <li>—— "the name of", <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> + + <li>Jewish faith, articles of the, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Church and people, the, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their canonical books, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— history and sacred records, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Jews and Christians, foundations of their religious beliefs, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Rabbinical.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— the, and the early Christians, <a + href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + + <li>Jews, Coleridge's attempt to convert one, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + + <li>Job, the Book of, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + + <li>John (i. 2), <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + + <li>—— (i. 18), <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + + <li>—— (iii. 13), <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + + <li>—— (v. 39), <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>—— (vi.) <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + + <li>—— (1 v. 20), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + + <li>John the Baptist, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>John, St., the Evangelist, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>. + <ul> + <li>His Gospel, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a + href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + <li>His writings, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + <li>See also, for passages, John (i. 18), &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Jonah, the Book of, parabolical, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Kant, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + + <li>Keble on Hooker quoted, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + + <li>Kepler, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + + <li>Knowledge, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>. + <ul> + <li>The sort required for Christianity, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + <li>Purity requisite for its attainment, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + <li>Knowledge not the ultimate end of religious pursuits, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + <li>Knowledge, if right, not enough to do right, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Lactantius quoted, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>.</li> + + <li>Language, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>. + <ul> + <li>Coleridge's precision of, <a href="#Page_lxix">lxix</a>.</li> + <li>Strictures of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Lavington, Bishop, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + + <li>Law, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Religion, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the word, St. Paul's and St. John's use of, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the, and Christ, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the, of Moses, and the Christian dispensation, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + + <li>—— W., his mysticism, 'Serious Call,' &c., <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-9.</li> + + <li>Learned class, the, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + + <li>Leibnitz, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + + <li>Leighton, Archbishop, extracts from, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, + <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, + <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, + <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, + <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, + <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, + <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, + <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, + <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, + <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, + <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, + <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, + <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, + <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, + <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, + <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, + <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, + <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>—— remarks on, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>, <a + href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>. + <ul> + <li>His sublime view of religion and morality, <a href="#Page_xxi">xxi</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Lessing, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + + <li>Liars for God, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + + <li>Lies, Falstaff's, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> + + <li>Life, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + + <li>—— prospects, the fear of injuring, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + + <li>Literary bravos and buffoons, their attacks upon Coleridge, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + + <li>'Literary Remains,' Coleridge's, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a + href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li> + + <li>Liturgy, spots on the, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>. See also Prayer Book, &c.</li> + + <li>Locke, his philosophy and that of Coleridge and Bacon, <a + href="#Page_lviii">lviii</a>, <a href="#Page_lxvi">lxvi</a>. + <ul> + <li>His opinions and Fatalism, <a href="#Page_lv">lv</a>.</li> + <li>Dangerous tendency of his views, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Aristotle, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + + <li>Logic and Grammar—parts of speech, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + + <li>Logodædaly and logomachy, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + + <li>Lord's Prayer, the, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + + <li>Love, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Christian love, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the will, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + + <li>"Love, the Family of," Dutch religious sect, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li> + + <li>Lovers' quarrels, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>Luther, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>. + <ul> + <li>Extract from, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + <li>His view of Freewill, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Madness, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>. + <ul> + <li>The passage of wickedness into madness, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Magee, Dr., on Redemption, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + + <li>Maimonides, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + + <li>Man fleeing from God, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + + <li>—— reason in, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>. Man a + thinking animal, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Reason, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the brutes and lower creatures, <a + href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a + href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Reason, Instinct, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Maniac, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Manifested in the flesh</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + + <li>Mant and D'Oyly on Baptism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + + <li>Marat, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Marinus quoted, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>.</li> + + <li>Marriage, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>. + <ul> + <li>And the marriage service, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Marsh, Dr., <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Dr. James, of Vermont, U.S., and his Essay on the + 'Aids,' <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxiii">xxiii</a>.</li> + + <li>Materialism, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>. + <ul> + <li>And Idealism, &c., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Materialists, the, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>. + <ul> + <li>Avowed and unavowed, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Maternal instinct, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + + <li>Mathematical atheists, the, of the French Revolution, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + + <li>Meekness, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + + <li>Mendelssohn, Moses, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + + <li>Merit, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>. + <ul> + <li>Men of little merit, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Metanoia, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + + <li>Metaphor, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>. + <ul> + <li>The same in the Gospels, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Metaphors in Scripture interpretation, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + + <li>Metaphysical opinions and the doctrines of Revelation, <a href="#Page_xliv">xliv</a>.</li> + + <li>Metaphysics, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the objections to, <a href="#Page_lxxi">lxxi</a>.</li> + + <li>Methodist fanatics, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + + <li>Michal, the sons of, David's treatment of them, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + + <li>Milton on reason and the understanding, <a href="#Page_lix">lix</a>.</li> + + <li>Milton's word arbitrement = free agency, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + + <li>Mind, the human, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>. + <ul> + <li>Differences in, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>"Mind of the flesh," St. Paul's, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + + <li>Minimifidianism, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Fidianism.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Ministry, the Christian, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a + href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a + href="#Page_96">96</a>. + <ul> + <li>Worldly views in, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + <li>Students for it addressed, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + <li>An unlearned ministry incapable, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Miracles, those worked by Christ, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + + <li>Miraculous, the term, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li>Mirth, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + + <li>Moral Law, the, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Philosophy, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Science, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>. The same and Political Economy,196.</li> + + <li>—— and Religious Aphorisms, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> + + <li>Moralist, Paley not a, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + + <li>Morality, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, + <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a + href="#Page_131">131</a>. + <ul> + <li>Of the Bible, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + <li>Morality less than religion, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.</li> + <li>Religious morality, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + <li>Transition from morality to religion, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the people, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>. + <ul> + <li>And prudence, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a + href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a + href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Morality and religion, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Religion and morality.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Morals, Expedience is the anarchy of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + + <li>More, Dr. H., <a href="#Page_94">94</a>. + <ul> + <li>Extracts from, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Moses, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>. + <ul> + <li>The books of, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— Paul and Christ, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + + <li>Motannabbi, his <i>Fort</i>-philosophy, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + + <li>Motives, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>Mysteries of Religion, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + + <li>Mysticism, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a + href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a + href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> + + <li>Mythology and Christianity, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Name, the word, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>. + <ul> + <li>As applied to God and Christ in Scripture, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Natural and Spiritual, the terms, Coleridge's view of, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Theology, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Naturalist, a, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + + <li>Nature, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>. + <ul> + <li>The fairy-tale of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + <li>The term, &c., <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> + <li>The Religion of (so called), <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + <li>The worship of, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Art, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Free-will, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a + href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a + href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and religion, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>Necessitarians, creed of the, <a href="#Page_lii">lii</a>.</li> + + <li>New England Calvinism, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + + <li>——, religion in, <a href="#Page_lxvi">lxvi</a>.</li> + + <li>New Jerusalemites, and Coleridge's attempt to convert one, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + + <li>New Testament, the misinterpretations in, <a href="#Page_xlviii">xlviii</a>. + <ul> + <li>The authorized version defective, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the Church, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Newton, Pope's epigram on, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + + <li>Newtonian and Cartesian philosophies, the, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + + <li>Newtonian system, the, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + + <li>Nicholas, H., the Familist, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li> + + <li>Novelty, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its use, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li> + <li>The fault of, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + <li>The passion for novelty in thought, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Obedience, total, impossible, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> + + <li>Oersted, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Old man, the</i>, St. Paul's use of the term, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + + <li>Order, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + + <li>Origin of Sin, controversy on, in the <i>Christian Spectator</i>, + 1829, <a href="#Page_liv">liv</a>.</li> + + <li>Originating an act, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-7.</li> + + <li>Original, the word, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + + <li>Original Sin, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>. + <ul> + <li>Apologue illustrating the bearings of Christianity on the fact + and doctrine, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + <li>Original sin not hereditary sin, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + <li>Augustine and Original sin, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Redemption, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>. + <ul> + <li>Coleridge's view of, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Orthodoxy, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>. + <ul> + <li>Popular orthodoxy, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Pagan philosophy, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Philosophy, the old, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Pædo-Baptists, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + + <li>Paley, Dr., <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a + href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a + href="#Page_275">275</a>. + <ul> + <li>Not a moralist, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + <li>His principle of General Consequences, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Evidences,' <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + <li>On man and the brutes, <a href="#Page_lx">lx</a>.</li> + <li>A passage in his Moral and Political Philosophy criticized, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Papists, Baxter's censures of the, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + + <li>Paradox, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + + <li>Parr, Dr., on Paley, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + + <li>Passion no friend to Truth, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + + <li>Paul, St, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>. + <ul> + <li>His use of the names Adam, and <i>the old man</i>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + <li>The word "election" in his writings, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + <li>His Epistles to the Romans, and to the Hebrews, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + <li>His use of the word Law, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> + <li>On the remission of sin, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> + <li>His view of schism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + <li>His writings, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + <li>For St. Paul's writings, see also under <i>Romans</i>, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Paul, Moses, and Christ, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + + <li>Pay and expiation, the words, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + + <li>Peace (or Reconcilement), <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + + <li>Peasants' War, the, and other revolutionary outbreaks, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Pelagianism, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + + <li>Pentad, the, of Operative Christianity, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + + <li>Pentateuch, the, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Bible, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>People, the, and the ministry, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the, and morality, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + + <li>Perfectionists, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + + <li>Person, the first—No I possible without a Thou, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + + <li>Peter Martyr, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Peter, St.</i>, Epistle II., <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> + + <li>Petrarch quoted, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + + <li>Pharaoh, destruction of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + + <li>Pharisees and Sadducees, the, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + + <li>Philosophic Paganism, modern, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> + + <li>Philosophy, + <ul> + <li>prejudice against in religious communities, <a href="#Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</a>.</li> + <li>Modern philosophy, <a href="#Page_xlvii">xlvii</a>, <a + href="#Page_lx">lx</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + <li>The Scottish, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>, <a href="#Page_lxv">lxv</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and religion, necessity of combining their study, <a href="#Page_xxxix">xxxix</a>.</li> + + <li>—— the old, and Christianity, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the Gospel, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> + + <li>Phrenology, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + + <li>Physico-Theology, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Pity, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + + <li>Plato, the misinterpreters of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Aristotle, ideas of God, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + + <li>Platonic philosophy, <a href="#Page_lxvii">lxvii</a>. + <ul> + <li>Platonic view of the Spiritual, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Pleasure, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + + <li>Plotinus on the soul, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + + <li>Political Economy and Moral Science, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + + <li>Polypi, &c., development in, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + + <li>Pomponatus, and his <i>De Fato</i>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> + + <li>Pope's epigram on Newton, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + + <li>Popery and the Bible, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> + + <li>—— See Roman Catholicism, &c.</li> + + <li>Popular Theology, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + + <li>Power, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and authority, distinction between, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Prayer, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>. + <ul> + <li>The philosophy of, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— The Lord's, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + + <li>—— A Nightly, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Book of Common, Notes on, <a + href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a + href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>. + <ul> + <li>Proposed alterations in, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <i>et sq.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Preacher, the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + + <li>Preaching, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>. + <ul> + <li>Baptism and preaching, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Pride, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and humility, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + + <li>Priestley, Dr., <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a + href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + + <li>Principle, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + + <li>Prometheus, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + + <li>Promise, the <i>ingrafted word of</i>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + + <li>Proselytizing, Coleridge's attempts at, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + + <li>Prospects in life, fear of injuring, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + + <li>Protestantism and schism, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Prothesis, Thesis, &c., forms of Logic, <a + href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + + <li>Prudence, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, + <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a + href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a + href="#Page_131">131</a>. + <ul> + <li>Prudence distinct from Morality, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Morality, Coleridge's views of their + relations, <a href="#Page_xxxi">xxxi</a>, <a + href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li>Prudential Aphorisms, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + + <li>Psalms, the, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>. See also Prayer Book.</li> + + <li>Psilanthropism, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + + <li>Psilanthropists, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + + <li>Ptolemaic system, the, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + + <li>Public, pampering the, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> + + <li>Public Good, the: "We want public souls," <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + + <li>Pulpit, + <ul> + <li>insincerity in the, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> + <li>Pulpit "routiniers," <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Purgatory, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>. + <ul> + <li>And the Bible, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Purity requisite to the attainment of knowledge, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li><i>Quarterly Review</i>, the, on Baptism and Regeneration, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Rabbinical and other dotages on the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + + <li>Railers at religion, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + + <li>Ransom, the word, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Rational</i> Christian, the, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + + <li>Rational interpretation of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_xxxviii">xxxviii</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and reason, the words in relation to religion, <a + href="#Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> + + <li>Readers and authors, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + + <li>Reason + <ul> + <li>In man, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> + <li>Neglect of studies belonging to it, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.</li> + <li>Discernment by, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + <li>Reason not the faculty of finite, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + <li>God <i>is</i> reason, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + <li>Practical reason, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a + href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a + href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + <li>Right reason and Faith, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + <li>Reason is super-individual, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and its antagonists in man, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>. + <ul> + <li>And the conscience, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + <li>Reason and rational, use of the words in relation to religion, <a href="#Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</a>.</li> + <li>Reason and the Spirit, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; and Spiritual + religion, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— the, and the Understanding, <a + href="#Page_xi">xi</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a + href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a + href="#Page_171">171</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their difference in kind, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + <li>Coleridge's "twenty years" of contention for this distinction, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + <li>The distinction a key to Coleridge's system, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>.</li> + <li>Prof. J. H. Green's view, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + <li>Milton's view, <a href="#Page_lix">lix</a>.</li> + <li>Summary of the scheme of the argument, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + <li>[For this argument see also Understanding, &c., the 'Aids' + throughout, <i>passim</i>, and the 'Confessions' in part.]</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Reason and the will, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Will.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Reasoning in religion, rule for, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> + + <li>Reconcilement, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + + <li>Reconciliation, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>. + <ul> + <li>The word and its connection with money-changing, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Redeemer, the, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Christ, &c</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— "every man his own," <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + + <li>Redemption, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a + href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a + href="#Page_293">293</a>. + <ul> + <li>Coleridge's view of, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + <li>The doctrine of, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a + href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a + href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + <li>Dr. Magee on, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>. Its mystery, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Baptism, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and corruption, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Original Sin, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + + <li>Reflection, <a href="#Page_xxv">xxv</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxvi">xxvi</a>, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a + href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>. + <ul> + <li>Art of, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + <li>Need of, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Reformation, the, Bacon and, <a href="#Page_lxiv">lxiv</a>.</li> + + <li>Reformed churches, the creed of the, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>. + <ul> + <li>Religion in New England, <a href="#Page_lxvi">lxvi</a>.</li> + <li>Railers at religion, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + <ul> + <li>and satirical critics of it, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + <li>Speculative systems of religion, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + <li>The spiritual in religion, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + <li>The three kinds of religion corresponding with the faculties in man, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + <li>Where religion is, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + <li>See also Spiritual religion, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Reformers, the, of the 16th and 17th centuries, <a + href="#Page_lvi">lvi</a>, <a href="#Page_lvii">lvii</a>.</li> + + <li>Regeneration, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Baptism, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>. + <ul> + <li>The doctrine that "Regeneration is only Baptism" refuted, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Regret and remorse, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>Religion, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>. + <ul> + <li>Advantages of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + <li>Coleridge's views on, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>.</li> + <li>The mysteries of religion, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + <li>Natural religion, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> + <li>The "Religion of Nature," &c., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + <li>Rule for reasoning in religion, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> + <li>The word in <i>James</i> (i. 26, 27), <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Law, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Morality, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxi">xxi</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>. + <ul> + <li>'Lay Sermons' referred to, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and Nature, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and philosophy, necessity of combining their + study, <a href="#Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</a>, <a + href="#Page_xxxix">xxxix</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and science, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>'Religion, Assertion of,' &c., Coleridge's unpublished work, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Religious amalgamation, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Aphorisms, Moral and, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> + + <li>—— autobiography, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + + <li>—— communities, disputes in, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their prejudice against philosophy, <a href="#Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Religious contemplation, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> + + <li>—— controversies, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>—— experiences, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + + <li>—— morality, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + <li>—— philosophy, elements of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + + <li>—— professors, detraction among, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + + <li>—— pursuits, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + + <li>—— teaching of the time, and of that of Baxter and Howe, <a href="#Page_lvii">lvii</a>.</li> + + <li>—— toleration, the limitations of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + + <li>—— truths and speculative science, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + + <li>—— unions, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>Remorse, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>. + <ul> + <li>Remorse and regret, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Repentance, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>. + <ul> + <li>Jeremy Taylor's work on, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and forgiveness, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + + <li>Reprobation, doctrine of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Responsibility, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>Resurrection, death and the, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> + + <li>Revelation, the doctrines of, and metaphysical opinions, <a href="#Page_xliv">xliv</a>.</li> + + <li>Revolution, the Godless, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + + <li>Revolutionary, Geryon, the, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Ridicule, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + + <li>Right, a knowledge of the right not enough for doing right, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + + <li>—— misuse of the word, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and wrong, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + + <li>Righteousness, imputed, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and virtue, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + + <li>Rites and ceremonies, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Robespierre, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + + <li>Robinson, Wall, and Baxter on Baptism, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> + + <li>Robinson's 'History of Baptism,' <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Roman Catholic, and Catholic, the terms, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Catholic Church. See also Romish Church, &c.</li> + + <li>—— Catholics, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>. + <ul> + <li>Coleridge's attempts to convert, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + <li>Their doctrine of the punishment of sin, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— Catholicism, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, Is inseparable + <ul> + <li>from Popery, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + <li>Insufflation and extreme unction in, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li><i>Romans</i>, Epistles, quoted, &c. <a + href="#Page_xxxix">xxxix</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a + href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a + href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> + + <li>Romish Church, the, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>. + <ul> + <li>See also Roman Catholic, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— hierarchy, source of their power, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + + <li>—— superstition respecting the Eucharist, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Sacrament, doctrine of the, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>. + <ul> + <li>Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the best preparation for it, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Sacramentaries, the "freezing poison" of their doctrine of the + Eucharist, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + + <li>Sadducees and Pharisees, the, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + + <li>Saint, and St. See the names of the Saints, as John, Paul, &c.</li> + + <li>Salvation, the doctrine of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + + <li>Satire and enthusiasm, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + + <li>Satirical critics of religion, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + <li>Savages, their belief in a future life, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + + <li>Saviour, The, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> + + <li>Scepticism, origin of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + + <li>Sceptics, unwilling, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Scheme, a, not a science, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>Schism, and St. Paul's view of it, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, + <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and Protestantism, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + + <li>Science and religion, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + + <li>—— what is, and what is merely a scheme, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + + <li>Scottish philosophy at fault, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>, <a href="#Page_lxv">lxv</a>.</li> + + <li>Scripture, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>. + <ul> + <li>Figure of speech in, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> + <li>Its language, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + <li>Its literal sense the safer, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + <li>See also Bible, Inspiration, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— interpretation, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a + href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a + href="#Page_243">243</a>. + <ul> + <li>Private interpretation denounced, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + <li>Rational interpretation, <a href="#Page_xxxix">xxxix</a>.</li> + <li>See also Allegory, Metaphor, Bible, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Scriptures, Letters on the Inspiration of the. + <ul> + <li>See 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit.' "Search ye," &c., <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li><i>Scrutamini Scripturas</i>, Selden on, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Sect, or Church, lovers, aphorism for, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>Seed analyzed, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + + <li>Seekers, the, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Selden on <i>Scrutamini Scripturas</i>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Self, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + + <li>Self-deceit, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + + <li>Self-interest, prudent, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + + <li>Self-knowledge, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>, <a href="#Page_lxxi">lxxi</a>.</li> + + <li>Selfishness, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + + <li>Self-questioning, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + + <li>Seneca quoted on spiritual truths, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + + <li>Senses, conscience and the, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>Sensibility, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> + + <li>Serpent, the, and Eve, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> + + <li>Shaftesbury, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>. + <ul> + <li>His philosophy, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Shakspere, and his doubtful works, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>. + <ul> + <li>His "discourse of reason," <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + <li>His Falstaff, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— Coleridge's 'Lectures' on, referred to, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + + <li>Sick bed, a, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + + <li>Silence, the virtue of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> + + <li>Sin,—"The subtle bosom sin,", <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>. + <ul> + <li>Original Sin, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + <li>Roman Catholic doctrine of the punishment of sin, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + <li>The remedy for sin, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + <li>The tyranny of sin, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + <li>See also Origin of Sin, Original Sin, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Sins, confession of. See Confession. + <ul> + <li>Imitating sins, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Skink, the, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + + <li>Slander, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + + <li>Smith, John, his Tracts (1660), quoted, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + + <li>Socinian doctrine of forgiveness, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + + <li>Socinianism, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + + <li>Socrates, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li>Sophisms, exposing, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.</li> + + <li>Sorrow, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>Soul, the, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its different faculties assigned to parts of Religion, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + <li>Its immortality, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> + <li>Its organs of sense, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + <li>Plotinus on the soul, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + <li>Soul and Spirit, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + <li>See also Spirit, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>South, Dr., and his speculations upon the state of Adam and Eve, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + + <li>Southey's 'Omniana' referred to, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + + <li>Space, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li> + + <li>Spanish refugee, a, on Christianity and Protestantism, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> + + <li>Species and genus, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> + + <li>Speculative reason and Theology, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> + + <li>Spinoza, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + + <li>Spinozism, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + + <li>Spirit, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>. + <ul> + <li>The Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a + href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a + href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a + href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + <li>How the Holy Spirit's presence is known, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + <li>Pretended call of the Spirit, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + <li>The term Spirit, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + <li>The Spirit in man is the Will, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Spirit, <i>according to the</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>—— body, soul and, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and flesh, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and reason, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and soul, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the will, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the Word, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + + <li>Spiritual, the, Platonic view of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>. + <ul> + <li>The Spiritual in man, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> + <li>In religion, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and natural, the terms, <a href="#Page_xxx">xxx</a>. + <ul> + <li>Misinterpretation of the terms in the New Testament, <a href="#Page_xlviii">xlviii</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— Communion, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + + <li>—— influences, rational, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + + <li>—— life and spiritual death, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + + <li>—— religion, <a href="#Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</a>, <a + href="#Page_xlii">xlii</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>. + <ul> + <li>That which is it indeed, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + <li>Aphorisms on, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + <li>The transition from morality to spiritual religion, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Squash, the, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + + <li>St., and Saint. See the names of the Saints, as John, Paul, &c.</li> + + <li>'Statesman's Manual,' Coleridge's referred to, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + + <li>Sterne, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + + <li>Stoic, the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li>Storgè, or maternal instinct, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + + <li>Stuart, Prof. (? Moses), and his Commentary on the Epistle to the + Hebrews, <a href="#Page_xl">xl</a>.</li> + + <li>Student, the Theological, an aphorism for him, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>Students for the ministry addressed, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + + <li>Study neglected for amusement, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + + <li>Subjective and Objective, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + + <li>Success and desert, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> + + <li>Superstition, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and belief, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + + <li>Superstitions go in pairs, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + + <li>Superstitions respecting Baptism, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + + <li>Swallow, the, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Swedenborgian, Coleridge's, alleged conversion of a, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + + <li>Swift, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + + <li>Symbol, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> + + <li>Symbolical and allegorical, difference between, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>'Table Talk,' Coleridge's, editions of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + + <li>Talkativeness of women and Frenchmen, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>Taylor, Jeremy, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>. + <ul> + <li>Extracts from his works, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a + href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a + href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Deus Justificatus,' <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + <li>His 'Liberty of Prophesying,' and his alteration of it, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + <li>His work on Repentance, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Technical phrases, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + + <li>Temperance inculcated, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + + <li>Temple, the light of the, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + + <li>Temptation, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + + <li>Tempter, the, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> + + <li>Terms, Doctrinal, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>. + <ul> + <li>Technical, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + <li>See also Words.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Testament, New. See New Testament.</li> + + <li>—— Old. See Bible.</li> + + <li>—— the Old and the New, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + + <li>Theological student, aphorism for the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>"Theology, Natural," so called <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Theology, Physico, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>—— popular, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + + <li>—— speculative, and reason, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> + + <li>Theses, kinds of, Prothesis, Thesis, &c., <a + href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + + <li>Thinking man, the, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + + <li>"Thinking souls, we want," <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + + <li>Thought, the faculty of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>. + <ul> + <li>The passion for novelty in, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + <li>Thought and attention, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Thurtel, the murderer, his "bump of benevolence," <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + + <li>Time and Eternity, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + + <li>'Titus Andronicus,' Shakspere's, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + + <li>Toleration, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + + <li>Tongue, the, and detraction, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>. + <ul> + <li>The phrase "Hold your tongue!" <i>ib.</i></li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Tooke, Home, his Winged words, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>.</li> + + <li>Torment, everlasting, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + + <li>Trades, arts, &c., and thinking, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + + <li>Transfiguration, the, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + + <li>Transgressions, the saving power of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + + <li>Transubstantiation, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>. + <ul> + <li>Arnauld's work on, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Trinity, The, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>. + <ul> + <li>The doctrine of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Troubles, refuge from, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>. + <ul> + <li>Worldly troubles, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Truth, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>. + <ul> + <li>Christianity is not better than truth, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + <li>Hooker on, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + <li>Truth must be sought in humility, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + <li>Love of truth, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + <li>Truth Supreme!, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and belief, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + + <li>—— partial, zealots of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + + <li>Truths, the most useful, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Ultrafidianism, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + + <li>Understanding = discourse, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>. + <ul> + <li>How modified in man, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + <li>St. Augustine on, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + <li>The word in St. John, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and instinct, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and reason, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>. + <ul> + <li>The distinction between, <a href="#Page_xxxii">xxxii</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + <li>Confusion of the terms, <a href="#Page_lviii">lviii</a>, <a + href="#Page_lxi">lxi</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + <li>See also Reason and Understanding.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Unicity, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + + <li>Unions, Religious, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + + <li>Unitarian, the word, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + + <li>Unitarianism not Christianity, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>. + <ul> + <li>Its doctrine of self-salvation, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + <li>See also Psilanthropism, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Unitarians, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>. + <ul> + <li>They should be called "Psilanthropists," <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Unity, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the Unitarians, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + + <li>Unkindness, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Vanists, the, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li>Vanity and humility, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + + <li>Vice a wound, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and virtue, the twilight between, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + + <li>Vico, G. B., quoted, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>.</li> + + <li>Vicious men and good, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>Virgil, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + + <li>Virtue, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>. + <ul> + <li>Virtue a medicine and vice a wound, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + <li>Virtue and righteousness, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>'Vital Dynamics,' Prof. Green's, referred to, <a + href="#Page_59">59</a>; quoted, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + + <li>Vital power of insects, &c., <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Wall, W., his tract on Baptism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>. + <ul> + <li>On the Church, and unity among Christians, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-57.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Warburton, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>. + <ul> + <li>His tract on Grace, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Wars and Christian men, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Water, the word as used by Christ, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + + <li>Waterland and Bull, their works, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-12.</li> + + <li><i>Watchman</i>, the, Coleridge's, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + + <li>Wesley, John, and the Bible, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + + <li>Wickedness, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>. + <ul> + <li>When it passes into madness, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Will, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>. + <ul> + <li>The Absolute Will, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + <li>A good will, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + <li>When will constitutes law, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + <li>The will of the Spirit, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + <li>The will = the spirit in man, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + <li>Jeremy Taylor on the will, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + <li>See also Original Sin, &c.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>—— and the brute animals, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + + <li>Will and Free-will, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and the judgment, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and love, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and reason, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + + <li>—— Free, <a href="#Page_xlix">xlix</a>, <a + href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a + href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a + href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a + href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a + href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> + + <li>Wind-harp, a, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + + <li>Witch of Endor, the, and misinterpretation of the word witch, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + + <li>Witchcraft, and Sir M. Hale, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + + <li>Women and Frenchmen, talkativeness of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li>—— and religious fanaticism, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + + <li>Wonder, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + + <li>"Word, the, that was in the beginning", <a href="#Page_294">294</a>. + <ul> + <li>The Divine Word, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + <li>The informing Word, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + <li>The Word as a Light, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + <li>The Word and the Spirit, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Words, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>. + <ul> + <li>Their force as used by Coleridge, <a href="#Page_lxix">lxix</a>.</li> + <li>Hobbes on, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + <li>Importance of a knowledge of words, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + <li>Legerdemain with words, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + <li>Meaning and history of words, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + <li>The science of words, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + <li>The use of words, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + <li>See also Terms, and some words under their several names.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Wordsworth, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> + + <li>Works, Good, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + + <li>World, the, its unsatisfying nature, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, + <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a + href="#Page_235">235</a>. + <ul> + <li>Retiring from the world, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Worldliness and Godliness, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + + <li>Worldly activity, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>; hopes and fears, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>. + <ul> + <li>Worldly views, influence of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Wrapped up, unseemly matter, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + + <li>Wrap-rascal, a, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Young, the, education of, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.</li> + +</ul> +<ul> + + <li>Zealots of partial truth, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +</ul> + +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="frontm"> +<p class="small">CHISWICK PRESS:—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44795 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44795-h/images/cover.jpg b/44795-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba026f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/44795-h/images/cover.jpg |
