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diff --git a/old/44795.txt b/old/44795.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36cac67 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44795.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18531 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aids to Reflection, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Aids to Reflection + And the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit + +Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge + +Release Date: January 30, 2014 [EBook #44795] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIDS TO REFLECTION *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Chris Pinfield, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's Note. + +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. + +Biblical references have been standardised on one of the more common +formats, viz. "1 John iv. 5.". + +The Erratum has been incorporated in the text. + +Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, although +inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained. + +Italics are indicated by _underscores_ and transliterated Greek by ++plus signs+. Small capitals have been converted to full capitals and +"oe" ligatures have been removed. + + + + + AIDS TO REFLECTION + + AND + + THE CONFESSIONS OF AN + INQUIRING SPIRIT. + + BY + + SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. + + TO WHICH ARE ADDED + + HIS ESSAYS ON FAITH AND THE BOOK OF + COMMON PRAYER, ETC. + + _NEW EDITION, REVISED._ + + LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, + COVENT GARDEN. + 1884. + + + CHISWICK PRESS: C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, + CHANCERY LANE. + + + + +NOTE TO THIS EDITION. + + +The 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. + +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. + +Coleridge's posthumous 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit' is from +Mr. H. N. Coleridge's text, which was printed from the author's MS. + +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 (_vide_ p. 257) but never published. The 'Nightly +Prayer' is also re-printed from Coleridge's 'Remains.' + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + AIDS TO REFLECTION: PAGE + + Author's Original Title-page, 1825 ix + + Mr. H. N. Coleridge's Advertisement to the Fourth Edition xi + + Author's Address to the Reader xiii + + Author's Preface and Advertisement xv + + Dr. Marsh's Preliminary Essay xxiii + + Introductory Aphorisms 1 + + On Sensibility 22 + + Prudential Aphorisms 27 + + Moral and Religious Aphorisms 35 + + Elements of Religious Philosophy 88 + + Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion 96 + + Aphorisms on that which is indeed Spiritual Religion 102 + + On the Difference in kind of Reason and the Understanding + (after Aphorism VIII.) 143 + + On Instinct in Connection with the Understanding + (in Comment on Aphorism IX) 162 + + On Original Sin (Aphorism X.) 172 + + Paley not a Moralist (Aphorism XII.) 196 + + On Redemption (in Comment on Aphorism XIX.) 223 + + On Baptism 242 + + Conclusion 258 + + Appendix A: Summary of the Argument on Reason and the + Understanding 277 + + Appendix B: On Instinct; by Prof. J. H. Green 278 + + CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT: Letters on the + Inspiration of the Scriptures 285 + + The Pentad of Operative Christianity 288 + + Questions as to the Divine Origin of the Bible 289 + + Letter I. 291 + + Letter II. 296 + + Letter III. 301 + + Letter IV. 308 + + Letter V. 321 + + Letter VI. 322 + + Letter VII. 333 + + ESSAY ON FAITH 341 + + NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 350 + + A NIGHTLY PRAYER 360 + + INDEX 363 + + + + + [_ORIGINAL TITLE-PAGE, 1825._] + + AIDS TO REFLECTION + IN THE + FORMATION OF A MANLY CHARACTER, + ON THE SEVERAL GROUNDS OF + PRUDENCE, MORALITY, AND RELIGION. + + ILLUSTRATED BY + SELECT PASSAGES FROM OUR ELDER DIVINES, ESPECIALLY + FROM ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. + + By S. T. COLERIDGE. + + + This makes, that whatsoever here befalls, + You in the region of yourself remain, + Neighb'ring on Heaven: and that no foreign land. + + DANIEL. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION. + +[BY HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE.] + + +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 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:-- + + _In causaque valet, causamque juvantibus armis._ + +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;[1]--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. + +Lincoln's Inn, 25th April, 1839. + +[1] 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.--ED. + + + + +THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE READER. + + +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 +_through_: 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.[2] + +[2] 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.--ED. + + + + ++Outos panta pros heauten epagousa, kai sunethroismene psuche, aute +eis hauten, raista kai mala bebaios makarizetai+. + +MARINUS. + + +_Omnis divinae atque humanae eruditionis elementa tria, Nosse, Velle, +Posse; quorum principium unum Mens; cujus oculus Ratio; cui lumen * * +praebet Deus._ + +VICO. + + +_Naturam hominis hanc Deus ipse voluit, ut duarum rerum cupidus et +appetens esset, religionis et sapientiae. Sed homines ideo falluntur, +quod aut religionem suscipiunt omissa sapientia; aut sapientiae soli +student omissa religione; cum alterum sine altero esse non possit +verum._ + +LACTANTIUS. + + + + +THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +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. + +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. _What?_ For _Whom?_ and _For_ what? + +I. WHAT? The answer is contained in the title-page.[3] It belongs to +the class of _didactic_ works. Consequently, those who neither wish +_instruction_ for themselves, nor assistance in instructing others, +have no interest in its contents. _Sis sus, sis Divus: sum caltha, et +non tibi spiro._ + +II. FOR WHOM? _Generally_, 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, for all who feel an interest in the Position, I +have undertaken to defend--this, namely, that the CHRISTIAN FAITH (_in +which I include every article of belief and doctrine professed by the +first Reformers in common_)[4] IS THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN +INTELLIGENCE,--an interest sufficiently strong to insure a patient +attention to the arguments brought in its support. + +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 _especially_ 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; _first_, as in duty bound, to the members +of our two Universities: _secondly_, (but only in respect of this +mental precedency _second_) 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. + +III. FOR WHAT? 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. + +1. To direct the reader's attention to the value of the Science of +Words, their use and abuse (see _Note, p. 5_) 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 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, "+Epea pteroenta+, Winged Words": or Language, not only the +_Vehicle_ of Thought but the _Wheels_. With my convictions and views, +for +pea+ I should substitute +logoi+, that is, Words _select_ and +_determinate_, and for +pteroenta zoontes+, that is, _living_ Words. +The _Wheels_ of the Intellect I admit them to be; but such as Ezekiel +beheld in _the visions of God_ as he sate among the captives by the +river of Chebar. _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._ + +2. To establish the _distinct_ 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. (_See pp. 20, 21._) + +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 Understanding the primacy +due to the Reason, loses the one and spoils the other. + +4. To exhibit a full and consistent Scheme of the Christian +Dispensation, and more largely of all the _peculiar_ 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 _are_ Reason, Reason in its highest form of +Self-affirmation. + +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--_Sic accipite, ut +mereamini intelligere. Fides enim debet praecedere intellectum, ut +sit intellectus fidei praemium._ Now without a certain portion of +gratuitous and (as it were) _experimentative_ faith in the writer, a +reader will scarcely give that degree of continued attention, without +which no _didactic_ work worth reading can be read to any wise or +profitable purpose. In _this_ sense, therefore, and to _this_ extent, +_every_ 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 _instruction_ in the following pages, will +not fail to find _entertainment_ likewise; but that whoever seeks +entertainment only will find neither. + +READER!--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 REFLECTION. If you are not a +_thinking_ man, to what purpose are you a _man_ at all? In like +manner, there is one knowledge, which it is every man's interest and +duty to acquire, namely, SELF-KNOWLEDGE: or to what end was man alone, +of all animals, endued by the Creator with the faculty of +_self-consciousness_? Truly said the Pagan moralist, _e caelo +descendit_, +Gnothi seauton+. + +But you are likewise born in a CHRISTIAN 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 _habit_ of +reflection,--accustom yourself to reflect on the words you use, hear, +or read, their birth, derivation and history. For if words are not +THINGS, they are LIVING POWERS, 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." + +[ADVERTISEMENT.[5]--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 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 +_Editor_, 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 (_avowedly_) interpolated.[6] 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. + +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 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 +(_Idea_); 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. + +S. T. C.] + +[3] 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.--ED. + +[4] This parenthesis was in editions one to three, but was dropped out +of the fourth.--ED. + +[5] Coleridge's advertisement to the first edition, 1825. It has been +omitted since, until now.--ED. + +[6] 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."--ED. + + + + +PRELIMINARY ESSAY. + +BY THE REV. JAMES MARSH.[7] + + +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 it +with the attention and thoughtfulness, which it demands and deserves, +it will be found by experience to furnish, what its title imports, +"AIDS TO REFLECTION" on subjects, upon which every man is bound to +reflect deeply and in earnest. + +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 REFLECTION, 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 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, and in its +relation to our highest interests as rational beings but the +patch-work of vanity. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, 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 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, 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. + +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 A PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENT AND +VINDICATION OF THE DISTINCTIVELY SPIRITUAL AND PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF +THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 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 _peculiar doctrines of +Christianity_, and what he means by the terms _spirit_ and +_spiritual_. 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 ORIGINAL +SIN and REDEMPTION,[8] 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 +_spiritual_, 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, _spiritual_ and _natural_ are contradistinguished, so +that what is spiritual is different in kind from that which is +natural, and is in fact _super_-natural. So, too, while morality is +something more than prudence, religion, the spiritual life, is +something more than morality. + +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, CHRISTIAN FAITH IS THE +PERFECTION OF HUMAN REASON. 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."[9] 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 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 _nature_ and _free-will_, and between the +_understanding_ and _reason_. 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 _passeth all understanding_, we +_cannot_ believe what is _absurd_, or contradictory to _reason_. + +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. + +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 +_philosophy_ and _metaphysics_, even _reason_ and _rational_, 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. + +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. _Rational_, as contradistinguished from +_irrational_ and _absurd_, certainly denotes a quality, which every +man would be disposed to claim, not only for himself, but for his +religious opinions. Now, the adjective _reasonable_ having acquired a +different use and signification, the word _rational_ is the adjective +corresponding in sense to the substantive _reason_, 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. + +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. + +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 +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 _cannot_ 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. + +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 _universal reason_, and _unity +of reason_, 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 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 _rational_ 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."[10] + +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.[11] + +If then it be our prerogative, as rational beings, and our duty as +Christians, to think, as well as to act, _rationally_,--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 _are_ 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 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 _possibility_ of a truly spiritual religion. The +_reality_ 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. 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. + +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 _it passeth all understanding_, 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 _that_ 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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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, +_ought_ 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, _will_ almost unavoidably, modify more or less +our theoretical views of religious truth _generally_, 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 independent of the discursions +of philosophy, and in its proper nature beyond the reach "of positive +science and theoretical _insight_." "Christianity is not a _theory_ or +a _speculation_; but a _life_. Not a _philosophy_ 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. _There are +diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit_: and it is no less true now +than in the age of the Apostles, that in all lands, and in every +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 +_one_ in _Christ Jesus_. The essential faith is not to be found in the +understanding or the speculative theory, but "the _life_, the +_substance_, the _hope_, the _love_--in one word, the _faith_--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. + +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 _practical +reason_ 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 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. + +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 _receive with meekness the ingrafted word_. But +in the minds of the better educated, especially those who think and +follow out their conclusions with resolute independence of 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 +WORD, 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 _words of +man's wisdom_, rather than a simple _demonstration of the Spirit, and +of power_. Hence, although such as have experienced 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 _the law of the Spirit of life_ which is in +them, may at length be made _free from the law of sin and death_, 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 _living bread which came down from +heaven_? 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, _alienated from the life +of God_, and groping in the darkness of their own understandings? + +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 _free course, +and run, and be glorified_. 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 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. + +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 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 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 _natural_, and that which +is _spiritual_, but we cannot even find rational grounds for the +feeling of _moral obligation_, and the distinction between _regret_ +and _remorse_. + +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 _out of the will_, 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. + +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 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 _natural_. 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 _law_ 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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,[12] 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 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 "_nucleus_ 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 _motives_, the law of _cause and effect_, and the +_freedom of the will_, 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 _free_ +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. + +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 _original_ or the +_acquired_ 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, _there was power +to the contrary_; 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 +_power to the contrary_ 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 _actual_ power to rise above the demands of appetite, +&c., above the law of nature and to decide _arbitrarily_, whether to +yield or not to yield, then they admit that the will is not determined +_absolutely_ by the extraneous _cause_, but is in fact _self_-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. + +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 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. + +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 _philosophical grounds_, on which we are +accustomed to defend our faith, are unsafe, and that their _natural +tendency_ is to error. If the spirit of the Gospel still exert its +influence; if a truly spiritual religion be maintained, it is in +_opposition_ 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 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. + +It must have been observed by the reader of the foregoing pages, that +I have used several words, especially _understanding_ and _reason_, 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 _terms_ 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 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 _image_ 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 _reason_ and +_free-will_. But understanding these in their strict and proper sense, +and according to the true _ideas_ 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 + + _Fancy_ and _understanding_, whence the soul + REASON receives. And reason is her _being_, + Discursive or intuitive. + +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 +_understanding_, "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, 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 +"CONTRIVANCE," a power obviously and confessedly belonging to brutes, +is necessary to constitute _personality_. 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 _system_, if this be the genuine philosophy, and founded in the +nature of things, there is no help for us, and we must believe it--_if +we can_. 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 _more_ +understanding than other animals--can abstract and generalize and +forecast events, and the consequences of our actions, and compare +motives _more_ skilfully than they: though we have thus _more_ +knowledge and can circumvent them; though we have _more_ power and can +subdue them; yet, as to any _distinctive_ and _peculiar_ +characteristic--as to any inherent and essential _worth_, 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 _personal rights_, and whether a dog +charged with trespass may not _rationally_ claim to be tried by a jury +of his _peers_. 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 _absurdity_ of the one +does not _demonstrate_ 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 _image of God_ in which we are created? Is it a +thing of _degrees_? And is it simply because we have something _more_ +of the same faculties which belong to brutes, that we become the +objects of God's special and fatherly care, the _distinguished_ +objects of his Providence, and the _sole_ objects of his Grace?--_Doth +God take care for oxen?_ But why not? + +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 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 _phenomena_ +which are presented to our observation in our own consciousness? Would +any supposable addition to the _degree_ merely of those powers which +we ascribe to brutes, render them _rational_ 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 _ideas_ 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 _law of moral rectitude_ and _to +conscience_--to the feelings of moral _responsibility_ and _remorse_? +Would it awaken them to a reflective self-consciousness, and lead them +to form and contemplate the _ideas_ of the _soul_, of _free-will_, of +_immortality_, 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 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 _peculiar_ powers--of some source of ideas +_distinct_ from the understanding, differing _in kind_ from any and +all of those which belong to us in common with inferior and irrational +animals. + +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 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. + +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 _in all +respects_; 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 +treasures of ancient wisdom as unworthy the attention of "this +enlightened age." Be it so--yet the _foolishness_ of antiquity, if it +be _of God_, may prove _wiser than men_. 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. + +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 all, except those adherents, +the _system_--the philosophical _theory_--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 _essentials_ +of their mutual faith, do not each consider the other as holding a +philosophical _theory_ subversive of orthodoxy? If I am not +misinformed, this is the simple fact. + +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 +RELIGION, to stand in doubt of this PHILOSOPHY _altogether_; 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? + +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 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 _Novum +Organum_, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +With regard to the more important objection, that the _thoughts_ of +Coleridge are _unintelligible_, 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 _knows_ 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. + +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 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 _deep_ 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. + +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 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 _phaenomena_ 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. + +The system of philosophy here taught does not profess to make men +philosophers, or--which ought to mean the same 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 _things hard to +be understood_ of St. Paul and of the _beloved disciple_. 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 _as man_, 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 "heaven +descended +gnothi seauton+" 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. + +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. _He_, says the son of +Sirach, _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_. 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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 _comprehend_ 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 + + ---- truths that wake, + To perish never, + +the possession of which will be for their benefit, and connected with +which, in the language of the Son of Sirach,--_His own memorial shall +not depart away, and his name shall live from generation to +generation_. + +J. M.[13] + +[7] 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, +_ante_, p. xii.--ED. + +[8] See pp. 172, 208, 223, &c.--ED. + +[9] Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria,' p. 301, Bohn's edition.--ED. + +[10] Introductory Aphorisms, XVI., p. 8.--ED. + +[11] Also in Appendix B of the 'Statesman's Manual, Bohn's edition p, +337.--ED. + +[12] 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.--ED. + +[13] Dr. Marsh's signature to the "Advertisement" published with the +above essay in its revised American edition was dated "Burlington, +Dec. 26, 1839."--ED. + + + + +AIDS TO REFLECTION. + +INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. + + +APHORISM I. + +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. + + +APHORISM II. + +There is one sure way of giving freshness and importance to the most +_common-place_ maxims--that of _reflecting_ on them in direct +reference to our own state and conduct, to our own past and future +being. + + +APHORISM III. + +To restore a common-place truth to its first _uncommon_ lustre, you +need only _translate_ it into action. But to do this, you must have +_reflected_ on its truth. + + +APHORISM IV. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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, _The eyes of the fool are in the ends of the earth_. + +A reflecting mind, says an ancient writer, is the spring and +source of every good thing. ('_Omnis boni principium intellectus +cogitabundus._') 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 +_instinct_ of a beast. + + +APHORISM V. + +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: + +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 _foreign_ to us, as soon as it is altogether +unconnected with our intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. To be +_ours_, it must be referred to the mind either as motive, or +consequence, or symptom. + + +APHORISM VI. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM VII. + +In order to learn we must _attend_: in order to profit by what we have +learnt, we must _think_--_i.e._ reflect. He only thinks who +_reflects_.[14] + +[14] The indisposition, nay, the angry aversion to _think_, even in +persons who are most willing to _attend_, and on the subjects to which +they are giving studious _attention_--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 _feeling_ and a +determination of _will_, 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. + + +APHORISM VIII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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[15] and the inclination to +exercise it. For alas! the largest part of mankind are nowhere greater +strangers than at home. + +[15] _Distinction between Thought and Attention._--By THOUGHT 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 ATTENTION, we keep the mind _passive_: in THOUGHT we rouse it +into activity. In the former, we submit to an impression--we keep the +mind steady in order to _receive_ the stamp. In the latter, we seek to +_imitate_ 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 _self_-knowledge, or an insight into +the laws and constitutions of the human mind, and the _grounds_ of +religion and true morality, in addition to the effort of attention +requires the energy of THOUGHT. + + +APHORISM IX. + +Life is the one universal soul, which, by virtue of the enlivening +BREATH, and the informing WORD, all organized bodies have in common, +each _after its kind_. 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 _possess_ it, he _became_ it. +It was his proper _being_, his truest _self_, _the_ man _in_ the man. +None then, not one of human kind, so poor and destitute, but there is +provided for him, even in his present state, _a house not built with +hands_. Aye, and spite of the philosophy (falsely so called) which +mistakes the causes, the conditions, and the occasions of our becoming +_conscious_ 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 _seeing_ light, this _enlightening_ eye, is +Reflection.[16] 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 _but_ a reflection. This, too, is THOUGHT; and all +thought is but unthinking that does not flow out of this, or tend +towards it. + +[16] The "_dianoia_" of 1 John v. 20, inaccurately rendered +"understanding" in our translation. To exhibit the full force of the +Greek word, we must say, _a power of discernment by Reason_. + + + +APHORISM X. + +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, + + ---- Unless _above_ himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is man! + + +APHORISM XI. + +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 +_faculty_, and form the _habit_, of reflection, than a year's study in +the schools without them. + + +APHORISM XII. + +In a world, the opinions of which are drawn from outside shows, many +things may be _paradoxical_, (that is, contrary to the common notion) +and nevertheless true: nay, _because_ 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 _is_ and abides, and which, _because_ it is the +substance,[17] 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. + +COMMENT. + +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 _knowledge_, and to knowledge _manly +energy_: for this is the proper rendering of +areten+, and not +_virtue_, at least in the present and ordinary acceptation of the +word.[18] + +[17] _Quod stat subtus_, that which stands _beneath_, 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 _word_, than by the history of a campaign. + +[18] 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 _Pagan_ 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. + + +APHORISM XIII. + +Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine Word (by whom +_light_, 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.[19] + +COMMENT. + +If acquiescence without insight; if warmth without light; if an +immunity from doubt, given and guaranteed by a resolute ignorance; if +the habit of _taking for granted_ the words of a catechism, remembered +or forgotten; if a mere _sensation_ of positiveness substituted--I +will not say, for the _sense_ of _certainty_; 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 _know and comprehend_ the things that are freely given to us of +God? On what grounds could he denounce the sincerest _fervour_ of +spirit as _defective_, where it does not likewise bring forth fruits +in the UNDERSTANDING? + +[19] 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. + + +APHORISM XIV. + +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. + + +APHORISM XV. + +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 CHERUBIM, that is, (according to the interpretation +of the ancient Hebrew doctors) the _intellectual_ powers and energies, +that we must 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. _Give me understanding_ (is the prayer of the +Royal Psalmist), _and I shall observe thy law with my whole +heart_.[20]--_Thy law is exceeding broad_--that is, comprehensive, +pregnant, containing far more than the apparent import of the words on +a first perusal. _It is my meditation all the day._[21] + +COMMENT. + +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. + +[20] Ps. cxix. 34.--ED. + +[21] Ps. cxix. 97.--ED. + + +APHORISM XVI. + +The word _rational_ 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. + + +APHORISM XVII. + +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: _The entrance +of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the +simple_.[22] + +[22] Ps. cxix. 130.--ED. + + + +APHORISM XVIII. + +Examine the journals of our zealous missionaries, I will not say among +the Hottentots or Esquimaux, but in the highly _civilized_, though +fearfully _uncultivated_, 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 _easier_ than wisdom, it being often so very much more +_grievous_, 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 _difficult_, +demands so much less exertion of the will than to _reflect_, and by +reflection to gain knowledge and tranquillity! + +COMMENT. + +It is not true, that ignorant persons have no notion of the +_advantages_ 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. + + +APHORISM XIX. + +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. 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 _out of sight_ of the conscience; some secret lodger, +whom they can neither resolve to eject or retain.[23] + +COMMENT. + +Few are so obdurate, few have sufficient strength of character, to be +able to draw forth an evil tendency or immoral practice into distinct +_consciousness_, without bringing it in the same moment before an +awaking _conscience_. 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. + +[23] 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. + + _Graces vouchsafed in a Christian land._ + + Lord! with what care hast thou begirt us round! + Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters + Deliver us to laws. They send us bound + To rules of reason. Holy messengers; + Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin; + Afflictions _sorted_; anguish of all sizes; + Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in! + Bibles laid open; millions of surprizes; + Blessings beforehand; ties of gratefulness; + The sound of glory ringing in our ears: + Without, our shame; within, our consciences; + Angels and grace; eternal hopes and fears! + Yet all these fences, and their whole array, + One cunning BOSOM-SIN blows quite away. + + +APHORISM XX. + +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 DIVINE IMAGE? The very +intention, if it be sincere, is a ray of its dawning. + +The requisites for the execution of this high intent may be comprised +under three heads; the prudential, the moral, and the spiritual. + + +APHORISM XXI. + +First, RELIGIOUS PRUDENCE.--What this is, will be best explained by +its effects and operations. PRUDENCE in the service of RELIGION +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 +_positive_ helps and furtherances which these circumstances afford. +But neither dare we, as Christians, forget whose and under what +dominion the things are, _quae nos circumstant_, that is, which _stand +around_ us. We are to remember, that it is the _world_ 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 of the +world are often _christened_, but seldom christianized. They are but +_proselytes of the outer gate_; or like the Saxons of old, enter the +land as auxiliaries, and remain in it as conquerors and lords. + + +APHORISM XXII. + +The rules of prudence in general, like the laws of the stone tables, +are for the most part prohibitive. _Thou shalt not_ 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 (+to +phronema tes Sarkos+, 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.) + +COMMENT. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXIII. + +The outward service (+Threskeia+[24]) of ancient religion, the rites, +ceremonies and ceremonial vestments of the old law, had morality for +their substance. They were the _letter_, of which morality was the +_spirit_; the enigma, of which morality was the _meaning_. But +morality itself is the service and ceremonial (cultus exterior, ++threskeia+) of the Christian religion. The scheme of grace and truth +that _became_[25] through Jesus Christ, the faith that _looks[26] +down into_ the perfect law of liberty, has _light for its garment: +its very robe is righteousness_. + +COMMENT. + +Herein the apostle places the pre-eminence, the peculiar and +distinguishing excellence, of the Christian religion. The ritual is of +the same kind, (+homoousion+) 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. + +[24] See the epistle of St. James, i. 26, 27, where, in the authorized +version, the Greek word +threskeia+ is falsely rendered _religion_; +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 +_set-off_ 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. + +[25] The Greek word +egeneto+, unites in itself the two senses of +_began to exist_ and _was made to exist_. It exemplifies the force of +the _middle voice_, 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. + + ---- +genet Ouranos, Okeanos te + Kai Ge.+ + +[26] James i. 25. +O de parakupsas eis nomon teleion ton tes +eleutherias+. The Greek word, _parakupsas_, signifies the incurvation +or bending of the body in the act of _looking down into_; 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. _Quantum sumus, +scimus._ 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. + +N.B. The Familists of the sixteenth century, and similar enthusiasts +of later date, overlooked the essential point, that it was a _law_, +and a law that involved its own end (+telos+), a _perfect_ law +(+teleios+) or law that perfects or completes itself; and therefore, +its obligations are called, in reference to human statutes, +_imperfect_ duties, i.e. incoercible from without. They overlooked +that it was a law that _portions out_ (+Nomos+ _from_ +nemo+ _to +allot, or make division of_) 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.)--+oi +amatheis kai asteriktoi streblousin, hos kai tas loipas graphas, pros +ten idian auton apoleian+. + + +APHORISM XXIV. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXV. + +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 +_in order to_ separate. Yea, in the clear distinction of good from +evil the process of separation commences. + +COMMENT. + +It was customary with religious men in former times, to make a rule of +taking every morning some text, or aphorism,[27] 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. + +[27] 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: + +_Aphorism_, determinate position, from the Greek, _ap_, from; and +_horizein_, 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 _aphorize_, and the result an _aphorism_. + + +APHORISM XXVI. + +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;[28] in the latter, of schism, heresy,[29] and a +seditious and sectarian spirit.[30] + +[28] +To Noeton dierekasin eis pollon Theon Idiotetas+.--_Damasc. de +Myst. Egypt_; that is, They _divided_ the intelligible into many and +several individualities. + +[29] From +hairesis+. Though well aware of its formal and apparent +derivation from _haireo_, I am inclined to refer both words to _airo_, +as the primitive term, containing the primary visual image, and +therefore should explain _haeresis_, 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. + +[30] I mean these words in their large and philosophic sense in +relation to the _spirit_, 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. + + +APHORISM XXVII. + +Exclusive of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion +of our knowledge consists of _aphorisms_: and the greatest and best of +men is but an _aphorism_. + + +APHORISM XXVIII. + + On the prudential influence which the fear or foresight of the + _consequences_ of his actions, in respect of his own loss or gain, + may exert on a newly-converted Believer. + +PRECAUTIONARY REMARK.--I meddle not with the dispute respecting +_conversion_, whether, and in what sense, necessary in all Christians. +It is sufficient for my purpose, that a very _large_ number of men, +even in Christian countries, _need_ 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[31] +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 forces of the flesh +and the world, and to convert[32] itself towards God. + +[31] Whereas Christ's other disciples had a breeding under him, St. +Paul was _born_ an apostle; not carved out, as the rest, by degrees +and in course of time, but a _fusile_ 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--_quoted from memory_. + +[32] From the Latin, _convertere_--that is, by an act of the WILL _to +turn towards_ the true pole, _at the same time_ (for this is the force +of the prepositive _con_) that the understanding is convinced and made +aware of its existence and direction. + + +APHORISM XXIX. + +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 +nomos teleios ho tes +heleutherias+) is below the horizon. Certain necessary _consequences_ +of his past life and his present undertaking will be _seen_ 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 _mould_ 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 +_beginning_ 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 _consequences_, +contemplated in their bearings on the individual's inherent[33] +desire of happiness and dread of pain, become _motives_: 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 +PRUDENCE, as belonging to one or other of its four very distinct +species. + +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 EVIL PRUDENCE. + +II. Or it may be a _neutral_ prudence, not incompatible with spiritual +growth: and to this we may, with especial propriety, apply the words +of our Lord, "What is not _against_ us is for us." It is therefore an +innocent, and (being such) a proper, and COMMENDABLE PRUDENCE. + +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 means and conditions of +EXERCISE; and by exercise, of establishing, _gradatim paulatim_, 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 _value_ in their present necessity, and their +_worth_ as they are the instruments of finally superseding it. This is +a faithful, a WISE PRUDENCE, having indeed, its birth-place in the +world, and the _wisdom of this world_ 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 +Phoenix, (the fond humour, I mean, of the mystic divines and +allegorizers of Holy Writ,) it is the _son of Terah from Ur of the +Chaldees_, who gives a tithe of all to the King of Righteousness, +without father, without mother, without descent, (+Nomos autonomos+), +and receives a blessing on the remainder. + +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 A HOLY PRUDENCE, the +steward faithful and discreet, (+oikonomos pistos kai phronimos+, Luke +xii. 42), the "eldest servant" in the family of faith, _born in the +house_, and "made the ruler over his lord's household." + +Let not, then, I entreat you, my purpose be misunderstood; as if, in +_distinguishing_ 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 _subordinates_ prudence +to virtue, cannot be supposed to _dispense_ 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. + +In general, Morality may be compared to the consonant, Prudence to the +vowel. The former cannot be _uttered_ (reduced to practice) but by +means of the latter. + +[33] The following extract from Leighton's 'Theological Lectures,' +sect. II. may serve as a comment on this sentence: + +"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, _not_ arbitrium) is carried towards +happiness not simply as _will_, but as _nature_." + +I venture to remark that this position, if not more _certainly_ would +be more _evidently_ true, if instead of _beatitudo_, the word +_indolentia_ (that is, freedom from pain, negative happiness) had been +used. But this depends on the exact meaning attached to the term +_self_, 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 _principle_ 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 _may_ be, and in +what it _ought_ 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 _regulated_, and +of course therefore a _subordinate_, end, this propensity, innate and +inalienable though it be, can never be realized or fulfilled. + + +APHORISM XXX. + +What the duties of MORALITY 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. + + +APHORISM XXXI. + +Last and highest, come the _spiritual_, 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, _as_ truth; +of the Good, _as_ good: and of God as both in one. It comprehends the +whole ascent from uprightness (morality, virtue, inward rectitude) to +_godlikeness_, 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.[34] + +[34] It is worthy of observation, and may furnish a fruitful subject +for future reflection, how nearly this scriptural division coincides +with the Platonic, which, _commencing_ with the prudential, or the +habit of act and purpose proceeding from enlightened self-interest, +[_qui animi imperio, corporis servitio, rerum auxilio, in proprium sui +commodum et sibi providus utitur, hunc esse prudentem statuimus_] +_ascends_ to the moral, that is, to the _purifying_ and _remedial_ +virtues; and seeks its _summit_ 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, +theoparadotos +sophia+, 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 (_Romans_ 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, + + Che 'n quella schiera ando piu presso al segno + Al qual aggiunge, a chi dal cielo e dato. + + _Petrarch: Del Trionfo della Fama, Cap. III. 5, 6._ + + +APHORISM XXXII. + +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. + + + + +REFLECTIONS, + +INTRODUCTORY TO + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. + +ON SENSIBILITY. + + +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 GOOD HEART, though among the most common meanings of +that many-meaning and too commonly misapplied expression. + +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. + +Prudence is an _active_ Principle, and implies a sacrifice of Self, +though only to the same Self _projected_, as it were, to a distance. +But the very term Sensibility, marks its _passive_ nature; and in its +mere self, apart from Choice and Reflection, it proves little more +than the coincidence or contagion of pleasurable or painful +Sensations in different persons. + +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, _nervous_. How +many are[35] 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, + + ---- pampering the coward heart, + With feelings all too delicate for use. + Sweet are the Tears, that from a Howard's eye + Drop on the cheek of one, he lifts from earth: + And he, who works me good with unmoved face, + Does it but half. He chills me, while he aids, + My Benefactor, not my Brother Man. + But even this, this _cold_ benevolence, + Seems Worth, seems Manhood, when there rise before me, + The sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe, + Who sigh for wretchedness yet shun the wretched, + Nursing in some delicious solitude, + Their slothful Loves and dainty Sympathies.[36] + +Lastly, where Virtue is, Sensibility is the ornament and becoming +Attire of Virtue. On certain occasions it may almost be said to +_become_[37] Virtue. But Sensibility and all the amiable qualities +may likewise become, and too often _have_ become, the panders of Vice +and the instruments of Seduction. + +So must it needs be with all qualities that have their rise only in +_parts_ and _fragments_ 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 _part_ 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. + +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 STERNE, and +his numerous imitators. The vilest appetites and the most remorseless +inconstancy towards their objects, acquired the titles of _the Heart, +the irresistible Feelings, the too tender Sensibility;_ and if the +Frosts of Prudence, the icy chains of Human Law thawed and vanished at +the genial warmth of Human _Nature_, who _could help it_? It was an +amiable Weakness! + +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, _rouged_ 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. + +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 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 _manly_, 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,[38] becomes Love by an inward FIAT +of the Will, by a completing and sealing Act of Moral Election, and +lays claim to permanence only under the form of DUTY. + +[35] This paragraph is abridged from the _Watchman_, No. IV. March 25, +1796; respecting which the inquisitive Reader may consult my 'Literary +Life.'--_Author's note_ in editions 1 (1825) and 1836, since +suppressed.--ED. + +[36] Coleridge's 'Reflections On Having Left a Place of Retirement,' +l. 48, &c. ('Sibylline Leaves,' 1797).--ED. + +[37] There sometimes occurs an apparent _play_ 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, +_become_. I have known persons so anxious to have their dress _become_ +them, as to convert it at length into their proper self, and thus +actually to _become_ the dress. Such a one, (safeliest spoken of by +the _neuter_ pronoun), I consider as but a suit of _live_ finery. It +is indifferent whether we say--It _becomes_ he, or, he _becomes_ it. + +[38] 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 _sacramental_ ordinance, and not +retained by the Reformed Churches as one of THE Sacraments, for two +reasons; first, that the Sign is not _distinctive_ 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 _Church_, but only of certain +Individual Members of the Church. It is evident, however, that neither +of these reasons affect or diminish the _religious_ nature and +dedicative force of the marriage Vow, or detract from the solemnity in +the Apostolic Declaration: THIS IS A GREAT MYSTERY. + +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 _religious_ 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 _in fact_, whatever it might be in intention, _reverential_ 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. + + + + +PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. + + +APHORISM I. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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. + +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 _hap_ (that is, chance)), I +assert that there is such a thing as human happiness, as _summum +bonum_, 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, _Come unto me, all ye that labour, and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest_."[39] + +COMMENT. + +Felicity, _in its proper_ 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 _equivocal_ +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 _think_, and _reason_, 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 _aids to_ reflection, place the +following maxim prominent: let distinctness in expression advance side +by side with distinction in thought. 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 _distinguishing_ the indifferent, I +would show ten mischievous delusions from the habit of _confounding_ +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 _has been_) 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 _quid pro quo_. 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 _quid pro quo_ 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. + +[39] _Apud Ciceronem et Platonem, aliosque ejusmodi scriptores, multa +sunt acute dicta, et leniter calentia, sed in iis omnibus hoc non +invenio, Venite ad me_, &c. [Matt. xii. 28.] + + +APHORISM II. + +LEIGHTON. + +If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall find the saying of +the wise king Solomon to be unexceptionably true: _Her ways are ways +of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace_.[40] + +Doth religion require anything of us more than that we live _soberly, +righteously, and godly in this present world_? 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." + +COMMENT. + +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 _pleasure_, &c. + +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 _to_, though they do not proceed +_from_, 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 _vice_. 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 +_because_ they are prescribed by prudence), the animals fulfil by +natural instinct. + +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 _motive_ 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 can form no idea. It may +_add_, 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 +_warmth_ to the body. + +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 _know_ 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 _kind_ 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 _agreeable_ 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 +eutuchia+, that is, good-hap, or more +religiously +eudaimonia+, 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, _quantum_, not _quale_? _How much on the whole?_ the contrary, +that is, the painful and disagreeable having been subtracted. The +quality is a matter of _taste_: _et de gustibus non est disputandum_. +No man can judge for another. + +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." + +At all events, I should rely far more confidently on the converse, +namely, that to be vicious is to be _miserable_. 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, +_dum desaeviunt irae_, 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 _found_ him? Then let +us in befitting _detail_, and by a series of questions that ask no +loud, and are secure against any _false_, 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 _wholly_ bereaved of pleasurable sensations, vice +is found to be misery, what must it not be in the world to come? +There, where even the _crime_ 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. + +The _advantages_ of a life passed in conformity with the 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 _couched_; 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 _consequences_ of which may be plainly foreseen, and +yet cannot be made our proper and primary _motives_ 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 _found out_ 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? + +[40] Proverbs iii. 17.--ED. + + +APHORISM III. + +Though prudence in itself is neither virtue nor spiritual holiness, +yet without prudence, or in opposition to it, neither virtue nor +holiness can exist. + + +APHORISM IV. + +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 +_prudence_ from prudential and self-interested motives be virtue or +merit, when the _not_ listening is guilt, misery, madness, and +despair! The best, the most _Christianlike_ 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 _thyself_. + + + + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. + + +APHORISM I. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM II. + +_On the Feelings Natural to Ingenuous Minds towards those who have +first led them to Reflect._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM III. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +The worth and value of Knowledge is in proportion to the worth and +value of its object. What, then, is the best knowledge? + +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. + + +APHORISM IV. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + +REMARK. + +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 +the score of Morality, by the just and impressive view which the +Archbishop here gives of those occasional revolutionary moments, that +_Turn of the Tide_ 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 EFFECTUAL CALLING. 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 _innocuous_, and may be both holden and +taught without any practical ill-consequences, and without detriment +to the moral frame. + + +APHORISM V. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + +If _election_, _effectual calling_, and _salvation_ 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 is sure; and this is the way +wherein we may attain and ought to seek, the comfortable assurance of +the love of God. Therefore _make your calling sure_, and by that your +_election_; 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 _pole-star_, 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 _in_ 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. + +Although from present unsanctification, a man cannot infer that he is +not _elected_; 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. + +REMARK. + +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 _specified_ by a genitive case +following; this being a Hebraism instead of the adjective which the +writer would have used if he had _thought_, as well as _written_, 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 _manifests_ 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 +_immediate_ knowledge or consciousness is impossible; and every +pretence to such knowledge is either hypocrisy or fanatical delusion. + + +APHORISM VI. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. _He +that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, +and the truth is not in him._ (1 John ii. 4.) + +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: _If any man have not the +Spirit of Christ, he is none of his._[41] 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. + +COMMENT. + +There are many serious and sincere Christians who have not attained to +a fulness of knowledge and insight, but are 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 _moral_ +equivalents; saying to themselves--This may not be _all_ that is +meant, but this _is_ meant, and it is that portion of the meaning, +which belongs to _me_ 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. + +We need only reflect on our own experience to be convinced, that the +man makes the _motive_, 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, _in part_ it is; and +therefore the Will is pre-eminently the _spiritual_ Constituent in our +Being. But will any reflecting man admit, that his own Will is the +only and sufficient determinant of all he _is_, 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 _on_ the will, though, +doubtless, _with_ 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. + +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 _as_ 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 +_size_ and visibility of the crocus, had been attracted from 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 _to_ all and _in_ 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 _Objects_, which without a _Subject_ (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 _this_ too, in the great +Community of _Persons_, 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? + +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 _in_ the Will? and by +what fitter names can we call this than the LAW, as empowering; THE +WORD, as informing; and THE SPIRIT, as actuating? + +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 _positive_ 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 _conceivable_; 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"[42]--that is, with +_the Will_, as the supernatural in man and the Principle of our +Personality--of that, I mean, by which we are responsible Agents; +_Persons_, and not merely living _Things_.[43] + +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;"[44] that is, _act on_ the Will by a +predisposing influence _from without_, 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 _in_ the will; that uniting +and becoming one[45] with our will or spirit, it may make +"intercession for us;"[46] 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 _full_ +import be given to the term _unutterable_ or _incommunicable_, 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 _cannot_, 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 _in +itself_ the object of his direct and immediate consciousness. It +cannot be the object of _my own_ direct and immediate Consciousness; +but must be _inferred_. Inferred it may be _from_ its workings; it +cannot be perceived _in_ 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 _Effects_ 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. + +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 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, _nihil in intellectu +quod non prius in sensu_, 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 +_imagine_, we cannot, in the proper sense of the word, conceive. + +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 _originate_ its actions, cannot be contemplated +in any of the forms of Space and Time; it must, therefore, be +considered as _Spirit_ or _Spiritual_ 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 _negative_ +conceptions, _negative_ convictions; and by _spiritual_ I do not +pretend to determine _what_ the Will _is_, but what it is +_not_--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 WILL[47] +of the river), will suppose it _below_ Nature, we may safely add, that +it is super-natural; and this without the least pretence to any +positive Notion or Insight. + +Now Morality accompanied with Convictions like these, I have ventured +to call _Religious_ 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) _metaphysical_; though how it is possible that a work not +_physical_, that is, employed on objects known or believed on the +evidence of the senses, should be other than _meta_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. + +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 _AEolists_, whose fruitful +imaginations lead them into certain notions, which, although in +appearance _very unaccountable, are not without their mysteries and +their meanings_; furnishing plenty of matter for such, _whose +converting Imaginations dispose them to reduce all things into TYPES; +who can make SHADOWS, no thanks to the Sun; and then mould them into +SUBSTANCES, no thanks to Philosophy: whose peculiar Talent lies in +fixing TROPES and ALLEGORIES to the LETTER, and refining what is +LITERAL into FIGURE and MYSTERY._"--_Tale of the Tub_, Sect. xi. + +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. + +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 _promises_, and their conformity with the _idea_ of the +Divine Giver. No! they all alike, it will be found, lay claim (or at +least look forward), to an inward perception of the Spirit itself and +of its operating. + +Whatever must be misrepresented in order to be ridiculed, is in fact +_not_ 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, +_pilloried_ by Butler, sent to Bedlam by Swift, and (on their +re-appearance in public) _gibbetted_ by Warburton, and _anatomized_ by +Bishop Lavington, one and all have _this_ 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 _taste_; but with the same absurdity for the +_reason_, 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, _not_ +supersensual. + +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. + +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 Church, and from _prudential_ +considerations did not attack the doctrine _in toto_: that is _their_ +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 _lie for God_, 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. + +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.--_Unless ye believe_, says the prophet, _ye cannot +understand_. 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. + +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 _Moral_ 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 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 +_understand_ 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, _can_ arise +out of the _right_ 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. + +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 _suppose_ 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 _Animal-Magnetism_ +to be brought about by a wilful eclipse of the reason, and a temporary +_make-believe_ on the part of the self-magnetizer! + +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 _peculiar_ 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. + +[41] Romans viii. 9.--ED. + +[42] Romans viii. 16.--ED. + +[43] Whatever is comprised in the Chain and Mechanism of Cause and +Effect, of course _necessitated_, and having its necessity in some +other thing, antecedent or concurrent--this is said to be _Natural_; +and the Aggregate and System of all such things is NATURE. It is, +therefore, a contradiction in terms to include in this the Free-will, +of which the verbal definition is--that which _originates_ 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. + +[44] Romans viii. 26.--ED. + +[45] Some distant and faint _similitude_ 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. + +[46] Romans viii. 26.--ED. + +[47] + + "The river windeth[48] at his own sweet will." + + _Wordsworth's exquisite Sonnet on Westminster-bridge at Sun-rise._ + +But who does not see that here the poetic charm arises from the known +and felt _impropriety_ of the expression, in the technical sense of +the word _impropriety_, among grammarians? + +[48] The latest editions of Wordsworth have "glideth" for +"windeth."--ED. + + +APHORISM VII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 _Sense_ 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 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 _sense_, 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. +_Thou didst hide thy face_, saith David, _and I was troubled_.[49] 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. + +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. _There is no peace to the wicked, +saith my God._ Isa. lvii. 21. + +[49] Psalm xxx. 7.--ED. + + +APHORISM VIII. + +_Worldly Hopes._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + +A living hope, living in death itself! The world dares say no more for +its device, than _Dum spiro spero_: but the children of God can add, +by virtue of this living hope, _Dum exspiro spero_. + + +APHORISM IX. + +_The Worldling's Fear._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _before_, but at the utmost _then_, all of them;) +but _the righteous hath hope in his death_, Prov. xiv. 32.[50] + +[50] 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. + + +APHORISM X. + +_Worldly Mirth._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +_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_, 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 _Nepenthe_, the cordial of fainting spirits: +so, Psal. iv. 7. _He hath put joy into my heart._ This mirth makes way +for itself, which other mirth cannot do. These songs are sweetest in +the night of distress. + +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. + + +APHORISM XI. + +Plotinus thanked God, that his soul was not tied to an immortal body. + + +APHORISM XII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 _In_finite, _In_comprehensible, _Im_mutable, &c., the other as +_in_corruptible, _un_defiled, and that passeth _not_ 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. + +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 _reality_ of the former; and that as +we truly _are_, only as far as God is with us, so neither can we truly +_possess_ (that is, enjoy) our Being or any other real Good, but by +living in the sense of his holy presence. + +A life of wickedness is a life of lies; and an evil being, or the +being of evil, the last and darkest mystery. + + +APHORISM XIII. + +_The Wisest Use of the Imagination._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 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) _fortes in tabula_, 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. + + +APHORISM XIV. + +_The Language of Scripture._ + +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 _to walk on the sea_ 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 _spiritual_ +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. + +Now the Spirit in Man (that is, the Will) knows its own State in and +by its Acts alone: even as in geometrical reasoning the Mind knows +its constructive _faculty_ in the _act_ of constructing, and +contemplates the act in the _product_ (that is, the mental figure or +diagram) which is inseparable from the act and co-instaneous. + +Let the reader join these two positions: first, that the Divine Spirit +acting _in_ the Human Will is described as _one with_ 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 _speaking of himself_, says to Abraham, _Now I +know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy +only son, from me_[51]--may be more than merely _figurative_. An +_accommodation_ I grant; but in the _thing expressed_, 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 _like_ 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 _getting rid_ 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. + +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. p. 7-12; and to the +Note in p. 62-67, of the author's second 'Lay-Sermon.'[52] + +[51] Gen. xxii. 12.--ED. + +[52] 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."--ED. + + +APHORISM XV. + +_The Christian no Stoic._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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. + +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 _solely_) 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 _begin_ 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 _act_, indeed, +whatever the agent's _feelings_ 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. + +COROLLARIES TO APHORISM XV. + +I. The more _consciousness_ 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 LOVE, even as there is a blindness of Life, yea and of +Genius too, in the moment of productive Energy. + +II. Motives are symptoms of weakness, and supplements for the +deficient Energy of the living PRINCIPLE, the LAW 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 _protozoa_, the +_polypi_ 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 _external_ influence; next are seen the knots +or ganglions, as so many _foci_ of _instinctive_ agency, that +imperfectly imitate the yet wanting _centre_.--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 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.[53] + +[53] See Prof. J. H. Green's 'Vital Dynamics,' 1840.--ED. + + +APHORISM XVI. + +LEIGHTON. + +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,[54] 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. + +[54] 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 _Humoral_ Physiology +long exploded, but which are far more popular then any description +would be from the theory that has taken its place. + + +APHORISM XVII. + +_Inconsistency._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +It is a most unseemly and unpleasant thing, to see a man's life full +of ups and downs, one step like a Christian, and another like a +worldling; it cannot choose but both pain himself and mar the +edification of others. + +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. + + God and the World we worship both together, + Draw not our Laws to Him, but His to ours; + Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither, + The imperfect Will brings forth but barren Flowers! + Unwise as all distracted Interests be, + Strangers to God, Fools in Humanity: + Too good for great things, and too great for good, + While still "I dare not" waits upon "I wou'd." + +APHORISM XVII. CONTINUED. + +_The Ordinary Motive to Inconsistency._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XVIII. + +_Superficial Reconciliations, and Self-deceit in Forgiving._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XIX. + +_Of the Worth and the Duties of the Preacher._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _that ingrafted word which is able +to save our souls_ (James i. 21). + +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. + +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? + + +APHORISM XX. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + +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 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. + +COMMENT. + +_On an Intermediate State, or State of Transition from Morality to +Spiritual Religion._ + +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 aera 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 (_insania amabilis_, and the 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 _natural_ on the one hand, and +yet not assumed to be _miraculous_[55] on the other, we have no apter +name than _spiritual_. 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[56] consists in Morality, has attained under these +convictions, can the existence of a _transitional_ 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. + +[55] In check of fanatical pretensions, it is expedient to confine the +term _miraculous_, to cases where the _senses_ are appealed to in +proof of something that transcends, or can be a part of the Experience +derived from the senses. + +[56] 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. + + +APHORISM XXI. + +LEIGHTON. + +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, before he would answer them, he asked them concerning their own +qualities and course of life. + + +APHORISM XXII. + +_Knowledge not the ultimate End of Religious Pursuits._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +The Hearing and Reading of the Word, under which I comprise +theological studies generally, are alike defective when pursued +_without_ increase of Knowledge, and when pursued chiefly _for_ +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. _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._ 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. + + +APHORISM XXIII. + +_The sum of Church History._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXIV. + + _Worthy to be framed and hung up in the Library of every + Theological Student._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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. + +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: + + +APHORISM XXV. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXVI. + + _The Absence of Disputes, and a general Aversion to Religious + Controversies, no proof of True Unanimity._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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, _De gustibus non est +disputandum_. And many there be among these of Gallio's temper, who +_care for none of these things_, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + +APHORISM XXVII. + + _The Influence of Worldly Views (or what are called a Man's + Prospects in Life), the Bane of the Christian Ministry._ + +LEIGHTON + +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. + + +APHORISM XXVIII. + +_Despise none: Despair of none._ + +LEIGHTON. + +The Jews would not willingly tread upon the smallest piece of paper in +their way, but took it up; for possibly, 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. + + +APHORISM XXIX. + + _Men of Least Merit most apt to be Contemptuous, Because most + Ignorant and most Overweening of Themselves._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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! + + +APHORISM XXX. + + _Vanity may strut in rags, and Humility be arrayed in purple + and fine linen._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. _Magnus qui fictilibus ubitur tanquam argento, nec ille +minor qui argento tanquam fictilibus_, says Seneca: Great is he who +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. + + +APHORISM XXXI. + +_Of the Detraction among Religious Professors._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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. + +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. IT IS NOT EXPRESSIBLE HOW DEEP A WOUND A TONGUE SHARPENED TO +THIS WORK WILL GIVE, WITH NO NOISE AND A VERY LITTLE WORD. This is the +true _white_ 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." + + +APHORISM XXXII. + +_The Remedy._ + +LEIGHTON. + +All true remedy must begin at the heart; otherwise it will be but a +mountebank cure, a false imagined conquest. The weights and wheels +are _there_, 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, _a +heart and a heart_, as the Psalmist hath it: Psalm xii. 2. + + +APHORISM XXXIII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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, _truth in the inward parts_, powerfully +redresses it; therefore it is expressed, Psal. xv. 2, _That speaketh +the truth from his heart_; 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 +_loves that truth within_, and who is himself at once THE TRUTH and +THE LIFE, He alone can work it there! Seek it of him. + +It is characteristic of the Roman dignity and sobriety, that, in the +Latin, _to favour with the_ tongue (_favere lingua_) means _to be +silent_. We say, Hold your tongue! as if it were an injunction, that +could not be carried into effect 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. + + +APHORISM XXXIV. + +_On the Passion for New and Striking Thoughts._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _grow in grace and in knowledge_ too. + + +APHORISM XXXV. + + _The Radical Difference between the Good Man and the + Vicious Man._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 _sincere_ Christian, +there is that predominant sincerity and desire of holy walking, +according to which he is called a _righteous person_, the Lord is +pleased to give him that name, and account him so, being upright in +heart, though often failing. + +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, _if_ 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. + +"A Righteousness" (Leighton continues) "that is not _in_ him, but +_upon_ him. He is _clothed_ with it." This, reader! is the +controverted Doctrine, so warmly asserted and so bitterly decried +under the name of "IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS." 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 +_things_ and _persons_, and therefore opposed to _modern_ Calvinism. +But what it was, I have not (I own) been able to discover. The sense, +however, in which I think he _might_ 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 _doubts_ on the secure _taking-for-granted_, 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 _ipse dixit_ should be received for +argument) I here avow my conviction, that the doctrine of IMPUTED +Righteousness, rightly and scripturally interpreted, is so far from +being either _irrational_ or _immoral_, that Reason itself prescribes +the idea in order to give a _meaning_ and an ultimate object to +Morality; and that the Moral Law in the Conscience demands its +reception in order to give reality and substantive existence to the +idea presented by the Reason. + + +APHORISM XXXVI. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + +COMMENT. + +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 _of the Generations of +the Heaven and the Earth, in the days that the Lord God made the Earth +and the Heavens_.[57] 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 +intelligent[58] 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 _reflections_ 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-- + + Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is man![59] + +[57] Gen. ii. 4.--ED. + +[58] See Hueber on Bees, and on Ants. + +[59] Samuel Daniel, 1562-1619:-- + + Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how poor a thing is man! + + _To the Countess of Cumberland_, stanza 12.--ED. + + +APHORISM XXXVII. + +LEIGHTON. + +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 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 _imitators of that which +is good_, 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. + + +APHORISM XXXVIII. + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXXIX. + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _into himself_, and think to quiet him so; but the +truth 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, _Fear not their fear, but sanctify the Lord your +God in your hearts_; and if you can attain this latter, the former +will follow of itself. + + +APHORISM XL. + +_Worldly Troubles Idols._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _troubles_ (_tegirim_), +other two that signify _terrors_ (_miphletzeth_ and _emim_). 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. + + +APHORISM XLI. + +_On the right Treatment of Infidels._ + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +A regardless contempt of infidel writings is usually the fittest +answer; _Spreta vilescerent_. 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. + +Christian prudence goes a great way in the regulating of 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. + +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 _betes puantes_ and _enfans de diable_, as their +four-footed brethren, the skink and squash, are treated[60] 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 _thraso_ 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 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. + +On the other hand, we are to answer every one that _inquires a +reason_, 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. + +[60] About the end of the same year (says Kalm), another of these +Animals (_Mephitis Americana_) crept into our cellar; but did not +exhale the smallest scent, _because it was not disturbed_. _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._ + +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. + + +APHORISM XLII. + +_Passion no Friend to Truth._ + +LEIGHTON. + +Truth needs not the service of passion; yea, nothing so disserves it, +as passion when set to serve it. The _Spirit of truth_ is withal the +_Spirit of meekness_. 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. + +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.[61] + +[61] To the same purpose are the two following sentences from Hilary: + +_Etiam quae_ pro _Religione dicimus, cum grandi motu et disciplina +dicere debemus_.--Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7. + +_Non relictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus alius quam Dei +sermo._--Idem. + +The latter, however, must be taken with certain _qualifications_ and +_exceptions_; 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 (_My Father is +greater than I_), in the equal Deity (_My Father and I are one_). + + +APHORISM XLIII. + +_On the Conscience_. + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _the mind of a man, under the notion of a particular reference to +himself_ and his own actions. + +COMMENT. + +_What_ Conscience is, and that it is the ground and antecedent of +human (or _self-_) 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.[62] I have selected the preceding +extract as an Exercise for Reflection; and _because_ I think that in +too closely following Thomas a 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 _human +mind_? the answer must at least _contain_, if not consist of, the +words, "a mind capable of _Conscience_." 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, _Self_-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 the learned +and been the subjects of many successive controversies, for one +instance of mere logomachy I could bring ten instances of +_logodaedaly_, or verbal legerdemain, which have perilously confirmed +prejudices, and withstood the advancement of truth in consequence of +the neglect of _verbal debate_, 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 _root_ 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. + +[62] See Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion, p. 103.--ED. + + +APHORISM XLIV. + + _The Light of Knowledge a necessary accompaniment of a + Good Conscience._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XLV. + + _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._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 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. + + +APHORISM XLVI. + +_The Depth of the Conscience._ + +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 _judgments_, executions of a sentence passed by an +_invisible_ 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 _regrets_ from +him. Remorse extinguishes all Regret; and Remorse is the _implicit_ +Creed of the Guilty. + + +APHORISM XLVII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _finding no rest for the sole of his foot_; the _waters_ +of inconstancy and vanity _covering the whole face of the earth_. + +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, _the Father of +Spirits_, 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. _All that forsake Thee shall be +ashamed_, says the Prophet, Jer. xvii. 13; and the Psalmist, _They +that are far off from thee shall perish_, Psalm lxxiii. 27. And this +is indeed our natural miserable condition, and it is often expressed +this way, by estrangedness and distance from God. + +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. + + +APHORISM XLVIII. + + _A contracted Sphere, or what is called Retiring from the Business + of the World, no Security from the Spirit of the World._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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. + + +APHORISM XLIX. + + _On Church-going, as a part of Religious Morality, when not in + reference to a Spiritual Religion._ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 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! + + +APHORISM L. + + _On the Hopes and Self-Satisfaction of a religious Moralist, + independent of a Spiritual Faith--on what are they grounded?_ + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _correlate_ 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 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 _is come_ that +judgment must begin at the house of God: and if _it_ first _begin_ at +us, what shall the end _be_ 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. + +COMMENT. + +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, _the +Passing into a new mind_, into a new and contrary Principle of Action, +this METANOIA,[63] 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 _Transubstantiation_ +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 _Transmentation_, this Self-change, as the easy[64] +means of Self-salvation! But the reflections of our evangelical author +on this subject will appropriately commence the Aphorisms relating to +Spiritual Religion. + +[63] +Metanoia+, the New Testament word which we render by Repentance, +compounded of +meta+, _trans_, and +nous+, _mens_, the Spirit, or +practical Reason. + +[64] May I without offence be permitted to record the very appropriate +title, with which a stern Humorist _lettered_ a collection of +Unitarian Tracts?--"Salvation made easy; or, Every Man his own +Redeemer." + + + + +ELEMENTS OF + +RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, + +PRELIMINARY TO THE + +APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. + + + Philip saith unto him: Lord, _show_ 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, _Show_ 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 _Spirit_ of + Truth: whom the world _cannot_ receive, because it seeth him not, + neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth _with_ you and + _shall_ be _in_ 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. + +PRELIMINARY. + +If there be aught _Spiritual_ in Man, the Will must be such. + +_If_ there be a Will, there must be a Spirituality in Man. + +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, +_vice versa_, in asserting the _fact_ of the latter he presumes and +instances the truth of the former--just as in our common and received +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. + +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 _animal_," +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. + +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. + +We have begun, as in geometry, with defining our Terms; and we +proceed, like the Geometricians, with stating our POSTULATES; the +difference being, that the postulates of Geometry _no_ man _can_ deny, +those of Moral Science are such as no _good_ man _will_ deny. For it +is _not_ in our power to disclaim our nature, as _sentient_ beings; +but it _is_ in our power to disclaim our nature as _moral_ beings.[65] +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 _make_ 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. + +This then is the distinction of Moral Philosophy--_not_ that I begin +with one or more _assumptions_: for this is common to _all_ science; +but--that I assume a something, the proof of which no man can _give_ +to another, yet every man may _find_ for himself. If any man assert, +that he _can_ not find it, I am _bound_ to disbelieve him. I cannot do +otherwise without unsettling the very foundations of my own moral +nature. For I either find it as an _essential_ of the Humanity +_common_ to him and me: or I have not _found_ it at all, except as an +hypochondriast finds _glass_ legs. If, on the other hand, he _will_ +not find it, he excommunicates himself. He forfeits his _personal_ +rights, and becomes a _Thing_: that is, one who may rightfully be +_employed_, or _used_ as[66] means to an end, against his will, and +without regard to his interest. + +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 +_granted_, which the Objection supposes _not_ granted. The term +_presumes_ what the objection denies, and in denying _presumes_ the +contrary. For it is most important to observe, that the reasoners on +_both_ 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 _obligation_ to assume, and +demands what he _can_ have no _right_ to demand: for _he_ denies the +reality of _all_ moral Obligation, the existence of _any_ Right. If he +use the _words_, 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 argument. He desires you only to _take for granted_, +that _all_ reality is _in_cluded in Nature, and he may then safely +defy you to ward off his conclusion--that _nothing_ is _ex_cluded! + +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 +_Index Expurgatorius_ of any European dictionary constructed on the +principles of a consistent and strictly consequential Materialism. + +The _Christian_ likewise grounds _his_ philosophy on assertions; but +with the best of all _reasons_ for making them--namely, that he +_ought_ so to do. He asserts what he can neither prove, nor account +for, nor himself comprehend; but with the strongest _inducements_, +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 +_facts_; namely, the Reality of the LAW OF CONSCIENCE; the existence +of a RESPONSIBLE WILL, as the subject of that law; and lastly, the +existence of EVIL--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. + +_Omnia exeunt in mysterium_, says a schoolman; that is, _There is +nothing, the absolute ground of which is not a Mystery_. 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. + +If I rested here, I should merely have placed my Creed in direct +opposition to that of the Necessitarians, who assume (for observe +_both_ Parties begin in an _Assumption_, 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 SHAFTESBURY 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 _persuade_ 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 _idea_ +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 _fallen_ creature, not by +accidents of bodily constitution, or any other cause, which _human_ +wisdom in a course of ages might be supposed capable of removing; but +as diseased in his _Will_, 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. + +But the place of starting was at the meeting of _four_ 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 _weakness_ of the Will into an +absolute privation of all Freedom, thereby making moral +responsibility, not a mystery _above_ 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 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 _Justice_ is explained +away into a mere right of absolute _Property_; 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 _Will_, 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 _signals_, and preceding links of the same iron chain!" + +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 _no sense_ 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 _could_ not be. And this _every_ human being +_knows_ with equal _clearness_, though different minds may _reflect_ +on it with different degrees of _distinctness_; for who would not +smile at the notion of a rose _willing_ to put forth its buds and +expand them into flowers? That such a phrase would be deemed a +_poetic_ 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 _human_ +Intelligence, with whatever power it might manifest itself, is _alone_ +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 _given_ us the faculty of Reason, or that the Redeemer would in +so many varied forms of argument and persuasion have _appealed_ to it, +if it had been either 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 _subordination_ to, and in a dependent _alliance_ 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. + + * * * * * + +We may now proceed to our reflections on the _Spirit_ 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 _not_, what is _not_ a +Religious Spirit, and what are _not_ 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 _Familists_, +_Vanists_, _Seekers_, _Behmenists_, 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. + +"These things I could not forbear to write. For _the Light within me_, +that is, _my Reason and Conscience_, does assure me, that the Ancient +and Apostolic Faith according to the _historical_ meaning thereof, and +in the _literal_ sense of the Creed, is solid and true: and that +_Familism_[67] in its fairest form and under whatever disguise, is a +smooth tale to seduce the simple from their Allegiance to Christ." + +HENRY MORE.[68] + +[65] In a leaf of corrections to the text of the first edition +Coleridge directed that "prerogative as _moral_ beings" should be read +here. The correction seems to have been overlooked by Coleridge's +editors.--ED. + +[66] On this principle alone is it possible to justify _capital_, or +_ignominious_ punishments (or indeed any punishment not having the +reformation of the Criminal, as _one_ of its objects). Such +punishments, like those inflicted on Suicides, must be regarded as +_posthumous_: 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 _Expedience_, which +is the anarchy of Morals. + +[67] The religion of the Dutch sect called the "Family of Love," +originated by Henry Nicholas about 1540.--ED. + +[68] More's 'Mystery of Godliness.'--ED. + + + + +APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. + + +And here it will not be impertinent to observe, that what the eldest +Greek Philosophy entitled _the Reason_ (+NOUS+) and _Ideas_, the +philosophic Apostle names _the Spirit_ and _Truths spiritually_ +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 +_vulgar_ enthusiasm, I submit the following sentences from a Pagan +philosopher, a nobleman and a minister of state--"Ita dico, Lucili! +SACER INTRA NOS SPIRITUS SEDET, malorum bonorumque nostrorum +observator et custos. Hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse +tractat. BONUS VIR SINE DEO NEMO EST." SENECA, _Epist._ xli. + + +APHORISM I. + +H. MORE. + +Every one is _to give a reason of his faith_; 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 _grounds_ from whence they speak, he shall not have +one syllable or the least tittle of a pertinent answer. Only they will +talk big of THE SPIRIT, and inveigh against _Reason_ 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. + + +APHORISM II. + +H. MORE. + +There are two very bad things in this resolving of men's Faith and +Practice into _the immediate suggestion_ 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 REASON; and secondly, it takes away that advantage, +which raises Christianity above all other religions, that she dare +appeal to so solid a faculty. + + +APHORISM III. + +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: +_that_ the Representative of his majesty and universal justice, _this_ +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 +_his_ 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 _King's_ +Mandates aught that is not stamped with the Great Seal of the +Conscience, and countersigned by the Reason. + + +APHORISM IV. + + _On an Unlearned Ministry, under pretence of a Call of the Spirit, + and inward Graces superseding Outward helps._ + +H. MORE. + +Tell me, Ye high-flown _Perfectionists_, ye boasters of the _Light +within_ 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 _Light within_, 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 _helps +without_, 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? + + +APHORISM V. + +H. MORE. + +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 the more imperious sects having put such +unhandsome vizards on Christianity, and the sincere milk of the _Word_ +having been every where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions +of men, it has driven these anxious melancholists to seek for _a +teacher_ that cannot deceive, the voice of the _eternal_ 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. + + +APHORISM VI. + +BISHOP HACKET. + +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. _Omnes +quae sua sunt quaerunt._ All seek their own.[69] + +COMMENT. + +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" and the general readiness to contribute +to the public good, in science and in religion, in patriotism and in +philanthropy, stand prominent[70] 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 _desiderata_, and the theme of his complaints.--"We want +_thinking_ Souls, we _want them_." + +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 _proper_ +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 _spirit_ 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 +_Spirit_. And when he calls to mind, how _this_ 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 lucid interval he should fairly put the question +to his own mind, how far this is _analogous_ to his own case, and +whether the exception does not confirm the rule. The _Letter_ 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? + +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. + +[69] Hacket's Sermons, p. 449.--ED. + +[70] The very marked _positive_ as well as comparative, magnitude and +prominence of the bump, entitled BENEVOLENCE (_see Spurzheim's Map of +the Human Skull_) 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 MY mind this fact (for a _fact_ 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 _new-name_ 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 +_potentiated_ by the absence or imperfect development of the glands of +Reason and Conscience in this, "_unfortunate Gentleman_!" + + + + +APHORISMS + +ON THAT + +WHICH IS INDEED SPIRITUAL RELIGION. + + +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. + +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 of +_Reflection_, 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 "_Aids_ +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 _moral_ 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, _intended_ by the +above-mentioned, my principal attention has been directed. + +But lastly, the whole Scheme of the Christian Faith, including _all_ +the Articles of Belief common to the Greek and Latin, the Roman, and +the Protestant Churches, with the threefold proof, that it is +_ideally_, _morally_, and _historically_ 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 _involving_ +Revelation; and of Christianity, as the only Revelation of permanent +and universal validity.'[71] + +[71] A work left incomplete by Coleridge, and not yet given to the +world.--ED. + + +APHORISM I. + +LEIGHTON. + +Where, if not in Christ, is the Power that can persuade a Sinner to +return, that can _bring home a heart to God_? + +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, _Return return_. Let the +noise of the rod speak it too, and both join together to make the cry +the louder, _yet the wicked will do wickedly_: Dan. xii. 10. + +COMMENT. + +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 _spiritual_ Truth is of necessity +immediate and _intuitive_: and the World or Natural Man possesses no +higher intuitions than those of the pure _Sense_, which are the +subjects of _mathematical_ science. But _aids_, observe! Therefore, +not _by_ Will of man alone; but neither _without_ 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 +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 _in kind_ between REGRET AND REMORSE. 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 +_Sovereign Grace_. + +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 _boastful_, 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 _end_ and +consummation of the redemptive process, and the same with the entrance +of the Soul into Glory, that is, its union with Christ: "GLORY" +(_John_ 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 _no_ Will at all, such is the difference between the +_Lutheranism_ of Calvin and the Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards. + + +APHORISM II. + +LEIGHTON. + +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 _Gospel_ sense, the necessity of a change in the +_principle_ 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 +_future_, or can have this imagined _futurition_, but _as_ it is +decreed, and _because_ it is decreed by God so to be. + +COMMENT. + +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 Church at the return of +Charles II., been as generally [72] 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 _Grotianism_, 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 _specimen_ of the _reasonings_ by +which Leighton strove to invalidate or counterpoise the _reasonings_ +of the innovators. + +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, _scripturally +treated, and taken as co-organized parts of a great organic whole_, +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,[73] 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. + +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 _Moral_ Being, and to the reception of which as +true _objectively_ (that is, as corresponding to a _reality_ out of +the human mind) we are determined by a _practical_ interest +exclusively, may not, like theoretical or speculative Positions, be +pressed onward into all their possible _logical_ consequences.[74] The +Law of Conscience, and not the Canons of discursive Reasoning, must +decide in such cases. At least, the latter have no validity, which the +single _veto_ of the former is not sufficient to nullify. The most +pious conclusion is here the most legitimate. + +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 _universal_, 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 _subsistence_. +Hence they are called _entia rationalia_: the conversion of which into +_entia realia_, 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 _forms_ 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 _reality_ +attributable to any notion, but what is given to it by Revelation, or +the Law of Conscience, or the necessary interests of Morality. + +Take an instance: + +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 could reflect connectedly neither +on nature nor our own minds. Now this is possible only on the +assumption or hypothesis of a ONE 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 ONE must be contemplated as +Eternal and Immutable. + +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 (_extra-mundane_) existence and personality +of the supreme ONE, as our Creator, Lord, and Judge. + +The hypothesis of a _one_ Ground and Principle of the Universe +(necessary as an _hypothesis_; but having only a _logical_ and +_conditional_ necessity) is thus raised into the Idea of the LIVING +GOD, 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 _Emanation_, 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 _must_ be false. For were they true, the Idea would lose +the sole ground of its _reality_. It would be no longer the Idea +intended by the Believer in _his_ 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 +_believe_; but a stoical FATE, or the superessential ONE of Plotinus, +to whom neither Intelligence, nor Self-consciousness, nor Life, nor +even _Being_ can be attributed; nor lastly, the world itself, the +indivisible one and only substance (_substantia una et unica_) of +Spinoza, of which all _phaenomena_, all particular and individual +things, lives, minds, thoughts, and actions are but modifications. + +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 _result_ 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 _legitimate_ notion. The +_notion_ may have its mould in the understanding; but its realization +must be the work of the FANCY. + +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 _consequences_, of some sort or other. But these +_consequences_ 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, 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 _all_ men are _not_ on the +right road. He cannot help judging, that even in Christian countries, +many, a fearful many! have not their faces turned toward it. + +This then is a mere matter of fact. Now comes the question. Shall the +believer, who thus hopes on the appointed _grounds_ 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 _sorts_ 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. + +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 _mirages_ of Speculative Theology; if instead of +seeking after the _marks_ of Election in himself he undertakes to +determine the ground and origin, the possibility and mode of election +itself _in relation to God_;--in this case, and whether he does it for +the satisfaction 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 +_abracadabra_ 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. + +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 _hope_, which if it spring out of Christian +principles, be examined by the tests and nourished by the means +prescribed in Scripture, will become a _lively_, an _assured_ hope, +but which cannot in this life pass into _knowledge_, 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. + +But though I hold the doctrine handled as Leighton handles it (that is +practically, morally, _humanly_) rational, safe, and of essential +importance, I see many[75] reasons 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 _term_, +and express the _meaning_ in other words perfectly equivalent and +equally Scriptural; lest in _saying_ truth he may convey error. + +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 _all_ doctrinal +tenets, and especially to the (so called) mysteries of the Christian +Faith: to provide a _Safety-lamp_ 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 _for_ 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 _real_ 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 _science_ and +theoretical _insight_, is _not_ such a reason. At the utmost, it has +only a _negative_ 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, 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 ONE of the Ontologists, and the idea of the +Living God. + +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 _practical_ +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 _Wisdom_, and (as far as man is concerned) the +source of living and actual Truths. + +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 _there is no name under Heaven, by which a +man can be saved, but the name of Jesus_. If the word here rendered +_name_, 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 _the_ Redeemer: not the Redeemer of the +_World_, not the Jesus (_i.e._ Saviour) of man_kind_. 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 +_to all intents and purposes_. 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 _Light_ of the +Gospel, and making _known_ the name of the only Saviour and Redeemer. +For even though the uninformed Heathens should _not_ perish, the +_guilt_ of their perishing will attach to those who not only had no +certainty of their safety, but who are commanded to _act_ 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. + +One other instance will, I trust, prevent all misconception of my +meaning. I am clearly convinced, that the scriptural and only true[76] +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. + +I form a certain notion in my mind, and say:--This is what _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 _formal_ sciences, unused to the +process of abstraction, neither Logician nor Metaphysician; but +sensible and single-minded, _an Israelite indeed_, trusting in _the +Lord God of his Fathers, even the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of +Jacob_. If I speak of God to _him_, what will _he_ understand me to be +speaking of? What does he mean, and suppose me to mean, by the word? +An accident 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,[77] a real and personal Being--even the +_Person_, the I AM, who sent Moses to his forefathers in Egypt. Of the +actual existence of the divine Being he has the same historical +assurance 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 _notion_ 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 _realizing_ 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 be on the same grounds. Revelation must have +assured it, my Conscience required it--or in some way or other I must +have an _interest_ in this belief. It must _concern_ 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 _Faith_, the _Duty_, 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 _Revelation_. 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 "_Revealed_ 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 _statement_ of my +opinions. The grounds on which they rest, and the arguments by which +they are to be vindicated, are for another place. + +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, 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 _Objectivity_ of the Idea. _If_ 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.[80] + +On this account I do not demand of a _Deist_, that he should adopt the +doctrine of the Trinity. For he might very well be justified in +replying, that he rejected the doctrine, _not_ because it could not be +_demonstrated_, 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; _but_ +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 _not_ believe the Trinity; you must show me some cogent +reason why I _should_. + +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, _because_ the literal and obvious +interpretation is (according to _his_ notions) absurd and contrary to +reason. _He_ 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 ONE, who _created_ 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 _concerning_ and coercive +_subjectively_, that is, in the economy of his own soul, than are all +the inducements that can influence the Deist _objectively_, that is, +in the interpretation of Nature. + +Do I then utterly exclude the speculative Reason from Theology? No! It +is its office and rightful privilege to determine on the _negative_ +truth of whatever we are required to believe. The Doctrine must not +_contradict_ 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 _Idea_ to itself; +and that _if_ we determine to contemplate, or _think_ 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 _duty_, and +in some cases and for some persons even the _right_, of thinking on +subjects beyond the bounds of sensible experience; the grounds of the +_real_ truth; the _life_, the _substance_, the _hope_, the _love_, in +one word, the _Faith_: these are Derivatives from the practical, +moral, and spiritual Nature and Being of Man. + +[72] 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 _Anti-bibliolatry_, 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 _of_, though not _from_, 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." + +"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 +_sure_ he had _three_ excellent men of his mind in this controversy: +1. _Padre Paolo_ (Father Paul) whose letter is extant in Heinsius, +_anno_ 1604: 2. _Thomas Aquinas_: 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 +_not so_: 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 _Popishly_ inclined, when so +many Dominicians and Jansenists were rigid followers of Augustine in +these points: and no less foolish to say that the _Anti-Arminians_ +were Puritans or Presbyterians, when _Ward_, and _Davenant_, 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." + +[73] _Aranea prodigiosa._ See Baker's Microscopic Experiments. + +[74] May not this Rule be expressed more intelligibly (to a +mathematician at least) thus:--Reasoning from _finite_ to _finite_, on +a basis of truth, also, reasoning from _infinite_ to _infinite_, on a +basis of truth, will always lead to truth, as intelligibly as the +basis on which such truths respectively rest.--While, reasoning from +_finite_ to _infinite_, or from _infinite_ to _finite_, will lead to +apparent absurdity, although the basis be true: and is not _such_ +apparent absurdity, another expression for "truth unintelligible by a +_finite_ mind"? + +[75] 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 _name_ 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 _eccalumeni, ecclesia_, that +is, those who have been _called out_ 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 _opposition to the +called_. (Many are _called_ but few _chosen_.) 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 _kyriak, AEdes Dominicae_, Lord's House, _kirk_; and +_ecclesia_, the sum total of the _eccalumeni, evocati, called out_; +are both rendered by the same word Church. + +[76] Or (I may add) _any_ Idea which does not either identify the +Creator with the Creaton; or else represent the Supreme Being as a +mere impersonal Law or _ordo ordinans_, differing from the Law of +Gravitation only by its _universality_. + +[77] I have elsewhere remarked on the assistance which those that +labour after distinct conceptions would receive from the +re-introduction of the terms _objective_, and _subjective_, +_objective_ and _subjective reality_, and the like, as substitutes for +_real_ and _notional_, and to the exclusion of the false antithesis +between _real_ and _ideal_. For the Student in that noblest of the +sciences, the _scire teipsum_, the advantage would be especially +great.[78] The few sentences that follow, in illustration of the terms +here advocated, will not, I trust, be a waste of the reader's time. + +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 _sound_ 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 _subjectively_ +true, though not objectively--or that the mathematical arch possessed +a _subjective reality_ though incapable of being realized +_objectively_. + +In like manner if I had to express my conviction, that space was not +itself a _thing_, but a _mode_ or _form_ 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 _subjective_, or space is real in and for the +_subject_ alone. + +If I am asked, Why not say in and for the _mind_, 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 _subject_, and without any exertion of +poetic privilege poets may speak of the _soul_ of the flower. But the +man would be a dreamer, who otherwise than poetically should speak of +roses and lilies as _self-conscious_ 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 +(_Ratiocinatio discursiva formas suas sive canonas recipit ab +intuitu_) I may be permitted to elucidate my present meaning. Every +line may be, and by the ancient Geometricians _was_, considered as a +point _produced_, 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 + + I + T-----------------------A + +we have T = Thesis, A = Antithesis, and I = Punctum Indifferens sive +_amphotericum_, which latter is to be conceived as _both_ in as far as +it may be _either_ of the two former. Observe: not both at the same +time in the same relation; for this would be the _identity_ of T and +A, not the _indifference_:--but so, that relatively to A, I is equal +to T, and relatively to T it becomes = A. For the purposes of the +universal _Noetic_, in which we require terms of most comprehension +and least specific import, might not the Noetic Pentad be,-- + + 1. Prothesis. + 2. Thesis. 4. Mesothesis. 3. Antithesis. + 5. Synthesis. + + Prothesis. + Sum. + Thesis. Methosesis. Antithesis. + Res. Agere. Ago, Patior. + Synthesis. + Agens. + +1. Verb Substantive = Prothesis, as expressing the _identity_ or +coinherence of Act and Being. + +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 +_generated_, 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. _Facit, non patitur._ This was the _punctum invisible, et +presuppositum_: 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 PROTHESIS. 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 _absolutely_, this finds its +application in the Supreme Being alone, the Pythagorean TETRACTYS; the +INEFFABLE NAME, to which no Image can be attached; the Point, which +has no (real) Opposite or Counter-point. But _relatively_ taken and +inadequately, the germinal power of every seed[79] 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. + +And now for the answer to the question. What is an IDEA, 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 _which you please_, it is worse than +superfluous. See the 'Statesman's Manual,' Appendix _ad finem_.) But +supposing the word to have a meaning of its own, what does it +mean?--What is an IDEA?--In answer to this I commence with the +absolutely Real as the PROTHESIS; the _subjectively_ Real as the +THESIS; the _objectively_ Real as the ANTITHESIS: and I affirm, that +Idea is the INDIFFERENCE 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 +IDEA conceived as subsisting in an Object becomes a LAW; and a Law +contemplated _subjectively_ (in a mind) is an Idea. + +[78] See the 'Selection from Mr. Coleridge's Literary Correspondence' +in _Blackwood's Magazine_, 1821, Letter II.--ED. + +[79] See Comment on Moral and Religious Aphorism VI., p. 40.--ED. + +[80] 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 +_fact_ 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 _advertize_ himself, +with a _Cavete omnes! Scelus sum._ 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 _be helping him on with a +wrap-rascal_." + + +APHORISM III. + +BURNET AND COLERIDGE. + +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 +_probationary_--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 _special_ 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.[81] + +COMMENT. + +This Aphorism should be borne in mind, whenever a theological +_Resolve_ 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 +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 _par eminence_! 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 _extra-scriptural_ 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 _improved_, I must be +assured that it _exists_. On all these dark sayings, therefore, of +Dort or Trent, it is quite sufficient to ask, by what _faculty_, +_organ_, or _inlet_ of knowledge, we are to assure ourselves that the +words _mean_ 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 _on_, after all the materials for thinking have been exhausted, +can be called an _object_. 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 _matter_ 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 _improved_ 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. _Ergo_, &c. I sum up the whole in one +great practical Maxim. The Object of _religious_ Contemplation, and of +a truly Spiritual Faith, is "THE WAYS OF GOD TO MAN." Of the Workings +of the Godhead, God himself has told us, _My Ways are not as your +Ways, nor my Thoughts as your Thoughts_. + +[81] 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.--ED. + + +APHORISM IV. + + _The characteristic Difference between the Discipline of the + Ancient Philosophers and the Dispensation of the Gospel._ + +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. + +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 _heart_. But the benefit did not stop here. In +preventing the rank vapours that steam up from the corrupt _heart_, +Christianity restores the _intellect_ likewise to its natural +clearness. By relieving the mind from the distractions and +importunities of the unruly passions, she improves the _quality_ 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 CHRISTENDOM. + +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 _heart_, the _moral_ 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 _the substance of things hoped for_ (Heb. xi. 1.) passed off +into _Notions_; and for the unlearned the Surfaces of things +became[82] 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 _unreflecting_, the one from defect of the +_act_, the other from the absence of an _object_. + +[82] _Virium et proprietatum, quae non nisi de substantibus predicari +possunt, formis superstantibus attributio, est_ SUPERSTITIO. + + +APHORISM V. + +There is small chance of Truth at the goal where there is not a +child-like Humility at the starting-post. + +COMMENT. + +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 _desideratum_ be found of a +child-like Humility. Do I then say, that I am to be influenced by _no_ +interest? Far from it! There is an Interest of Truth: or how could +there be a Love of Truth? 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 _lene clinamen_, +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 _all_ men it must needs concern the very _essentials_ of +my being, and because these essentials, as existing in _me_, are +especially intrusted to my particular charge. + +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 _distinguishing_ yourself from other men, in order to be +distinguished by them. Hoc revera _est inter_ 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 _taken stock_, best +know by recollection of their own state. To be admired you must make +your auditors believe at 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 _will_ not, but ye +_can_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. + +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 _notional_ 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 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 _it_ for ourselves: +and bearing in mind the old adage, _Quis custodiet ipsum +custodem?_--we will value it the more, yea, then only will we allow it +true spiritual _worth_, when we possess it as a gift of _grace_, a +boon of mercy undeserved, a fulfilment of a free _promise_ (1 Corinth. +x. 13.). What more is meant in this last paragraph, let the venerable +HOOKER say for me in the following. + + +APHORISM VI. + +HOOKER. + +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 _not_ assisted, but permitted (and that grievously) to +transgress. Whereby, as they were through over-great liking of +themselves supplanted (_tripped up_), 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.[83] + +[83] Hooker 'On the Nature of Pride,' Works, p. 521.--ED. + + +APHORISM VII. + +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[84] utmost height, breadth, and +purity, a State of Retribution after Death; the[85] 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 _whole +being_ of man, head, heart, and spirit, by the truths and influences +of the Gospel. + + * * * * * + +Peculiar to Christianity are: + +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. + +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. + +III. The belief in the reception (by as many as _shall be heirs of +salvation_) 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. + +IV. The belief in the awakening of the spirit[86] in them that truly +believe, and in the communion of the spirit, thus awakened, with the +Holy Spirit. + +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. + +VI. Further, as Christians we are taught, that these WORKS are the +appointed signs and evidences of our FAITH; 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 _what spirit we are_. + +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. + +COMMENT. + +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 MORALITY arising out of the +Reason and Conscience of Men, and PRUDENCE, 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 +_worth_ 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 +_trust_ to it? Dare _you_ trust to it? To _it_, and to it alone? If +so, well! It is at your own risk. I 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, _Come unto me: and I will give you +rest_. This is the Voice of Christ: and the conditions, under which +the promise was given by him, are that you believe _in_ him, and +believe his words. And he has further assured you, that _if_ you do +so, you will obey him. You are, in short, to embrace the _Christian_ +Faith as your Religion--those Truths which St. Paul believed _after_ +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 _these_ +truths. (John i. 17.) + +While doing this, I was aware that the Positions, in the first +paragraph of the preceding Aphorism, to which the numerical _marks_ +are affixed, will startle some of my Readers. Let the following +sentences serve for the notes corresponding to the marks: + +1 _Be you holy: even as God is holy._--_What more does he require of +thee, O man! than to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the +Lord thy God?_[87] 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 _selection_, and the famous passage [The hour +is now coming, &c., John v. 28, 29.] a _citation_ by our Lord from the +liturgy of the Jewish Church. But it will be sufficient to remind the +reader, that the apparent difference between the prominent _moral_ +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 _both_ instances immediate and literal--in the +Old Testament from the Hebrew Original, in the New Testament from the +freer Greek translation. The text, _I give you a new commandment_, has +no connection with the present subject. + +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 _sect_, +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 _Evangelicals_ and strict +_professors_ of the day. The latter, the Sadducees, whose opinions +much more nearly resembled those of the _Stoics_ 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, _Romanized_ 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. + + * * * * * + +I will now suppose the reader to have thoughtfully re-perused 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 _Life_;--not a _Philosophy_ 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 _conditionally_. 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 _one_, +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 _warned +it out_, and waited only for its ejection to enter and take possession +of the same. + +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 +nous+ or _mens_ 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 _contradict_ each other. + +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 _in the direction_ 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 _knowledge_ of the one disposes +us to the _belief_ 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 _purport_, the second +respecting the _language_ of the Gospel. + +First then of the _purport_, namely, what the Gospel does _not_, and +what it _does_ profess to be. The Gospel is not a system of Theology, +nor a _syntagma_ 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 _are_, +most important doctrinal Truths; but still _Facts_ and Declaration of +_Facts_. + +Secondly of the _language_. This is a wide subject. But the point, to +which I chiefly advert, is the necessity of thoroughly understanding +the distinction between _analogous_, and _metaphorical_ language. +_Analogies_ are used in aid of _Conviction_: Metaphors, as means of +_Illustration_. 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. _That which is born of the flesh, is +flesh; that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit._ The latter half +of the verse contains the fact _asserted_; the former half the +_analogous_ fact, by which it is rendered intelligible. If any man +choose to call this _metaphorical_ 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 _metaphorical_ term, a mere figure of speech? If he +disclaims this, then I answer, neither do I regard the words, _born +again_, or _spiritual life_, as figures or metaphors. I have only to +add, that these analogies are the material, or (to speak chemically) +the _base_, of Symbols and symbolical expressions; the nature of which +is always _tau_tegorical, that is, expressing the _same_ subject but +with a _difference_, in contra-distinction from metaphors and +similitudes, that are always _alle_gorical, that is, expressing a +_different_ subject but with a resemblance. + +Of _metaphorical_ 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 +_cause_, is transcendent; but which produces sundry _effects_, 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 or +designate this transcendent act, in exclusive reference to these its +_effects_, 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 _metaphorically_. And in this +case to confound _the similarity_, in respect of the effects +relatively to the recipients, with _an identity_ 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. + +[84 and 85] 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 _in the text_.--ED. + +[86] See Comment on Moral and Religious Aphorism VI., p. 45.--ED. + +[87] Lev. xix. 2, and Micah vi. 8.--ED. + + +APHORISM VIII. + +LEIGHTON. + +FAITH 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. + +COMMENT. + +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 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."[88] + +Sir Thomas Browne, in his _Religio Medici_, 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: _Certum est quia impossibile +est_. It is certainly true because it is quite impossible!" Now this I +call ULTRAFIDIANISM.[89] + +Again, there is a scheme constructed on the principle of retaining the +social sympathies, that attend on the name of Believer, at the least +possible expenditure of Belief; a scheme of picking and choosing +Scripture texts for the support of doctrines, that had been learned +beforehand from the higher oracle of Common Sense; which, as applied +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 MINIMIFIDIANISM. + +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 +_Novum Organum_ 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.[93] 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 (_lumen siccum_), the lucific vision, and the like, +meaning thereby nothing more than Reason in contra-distinction from +the Understanding. Thus too in the preceding Aphorism, 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." + +[88] See 'The Friend,' vol. i., p. 263; or p. 95 in Bohn's one vol. +edition; and 'The Statesman's Manual,' Appendix (Note C.).--ED. + +[89] 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 _religious_ 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 +_Unitarians_: 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 _Unity_ or Unition, and indistinguishable +_Unicity_ or Sameness, are incompatible terms. We never speak of the +unity of attraction, or the unity of repulsion; but of the unity of +attraction _and_ 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 _a +fortiori_ 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 +_mere_ humanity of Christ.[90] + +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 _manner_, the _means_, that constitute +the _crime_. 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, _Judge not, lest ye be judged_. 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 _we_ 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 _liberality_ in the adoption of admitted +_misnomers_ in the naming of doctrinal systems, if only they have been +negatively legalized, is but an equivocal proof of liberality towards +the _persons_ 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 _these_ 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. + +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 _essential_ to the Christian +Religion, but those which contra-distinguish the religion as +_Christian_, I merely _repeat_ this persuasion in another form, when I +assert, that (in _my_ 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.[91] Let a friendly antagonist retort on _my_ 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, +HYMAN HURWITZ, as often as I read what every Reverer of Holy Writ and +of the English Bible ought to read, his admirable VINDICIAE HEBRAICAE! +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,-- + + _Cujus cura, sequi naturam, legibus uti, + Et mentem vitiis, ora negare dolis; + Virtutes opibus, verum praeponere falso + Nil vacuum sensu dicere, nil facere._ + + Post obitum vivam[92] secum, secum requiescam, + Nec fiat melior sors mea sorte sua! + + _From a poem of Hildebert on his Master, + the persecuted Berengarius._ + +Under the same feelings I conclude this _Aid to Reflection_ 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.--_Romish_, to mark that the corruptions +in discipline, doctrine, and practice do, for the larger part, owe +both their origin and perpetuation to the Romish _Court_, and the +local Tribunals of the _City_ of Rome; and neither are or ever have +been _Catholic_, that is, universal, throughout the Roman _Empire_, or +even in the whole Latin or Western Church--and _Anti_-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 _negative_ +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." + +"My censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at +first. I then thought that their errors in the _doctrines of faith_ +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. + +"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. _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._ 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. + +[90] See the second 'Lay Sermon,' Bohn's edition, pp. 406-7.--ED. + +[91] See Coleridge's 'Table Talk,' April 4, 1832, On +Unitarianism.--ED. + +[92] I do not answer for the corrupt Latin. + +[93] See 'The Friend,' Bohn's edition, pp. 95-100, and 319-27.--ED. + + +ON THE DIFFERENCE IN KIND OF REASON + +AND THE UNDERSTANDING. + +SCHEME OF THE ARGUMENT. + +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 _necessity_ of the position affirmed: this necessity being +_conditional_, when a truth of Reason is applied to Facts of +Experience, or to the rules and maxims of the Understanding; but +_absolute_, 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 +_ideas_. Contemplated distinctively in reference to _formal_ (or +abstract) truth, it is the _speculative_ reason; but in reference to +_actual_ (or moral) truth, as the fountain of ideas, and the _light_ +of the conscience, we name it the _practical_ reason. Whenever by +self-subjection to this universal light, the will of the individual, +the _particular_ will, has become a will of reason, the man is +regenerate: and reason is then the _spirit_ 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. _And so it is written: the +first man Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening +Spirit._ (1 Cor. xv. 45.) We need only compare the passages in the +writings of the Apostles Paul and John, concerning the _spirit_ and +spiritual Gifts, with those in the Proverbs and in the Wisdom of +Solomon respecting _reason_, to be convinced that the terms are +synonymous.[94] In this at once most comprehensive and most +appropriate acceptation of the word, reason is pre-eminently +spiritual, and a spirit, even _our_ spirit, through an effluence of +the same grace by which we are privileged to say Our Father! + +On the other hand, the Judgments of the Understanding are binding only +in relation to the objects of our Senses, which we _reflect_ under the +forms of the Understanding. It is, as Leighton rightly defines it, +"the faculty judging according to sense." Hence we add the epithet +_human_, without tautology: and speak of the _human_ understanding, in +disjunction from that of beings higher or lower than man. But there +is, in this sense, no _human_ reason. There neither is nor can be but +one reason, one and the same: even the light that lighteth every man's +individual Understanding (_Discursus_), and thus maketh it a +reasonable understanding, _discourse of reason--one only_, yet +_manifold: it goeth through all understanding, and remaining in itself +regenerateth all other powers_. The same writer calls it likewise _an +influence from the Glory of the Almighty_, this being one of the names +of the Messiah, as the _Logos_, 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 DIVINE WORD." + +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 Hueber'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 Hueber, and the +several eminent naturalists, French and English, Swiss, German, and +Italian, by whom Hueber'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 _in genere_ by the _specific_ and +_accessional_ perfections which the _human_ 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? + +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 _words_ 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 +_meaning_ out of all doubt. + +I. Hueber 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 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 manoeuvre till Hueber, pitying their hard case, &c. + +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 _en forme de gouttiere_ 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 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."--_Hueber's Natural History of Ants_, +p. 38-41. + +Now I assert, that the faculty manifested in the acts here narrated +does not differ _in kind_ from Understanding, and that it _does_ 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 _men_, and in exclusive reference to its +_intelligential_ functions; and it is in this sense of the word that I +am to prove the necessity of contra-distinguishing it from reason. + +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 _not_ fall under this definition, must differ in kind from +each and all of those that _do_. Difference in degree does indeed +suppose sameness in kind; and difference in kind precludes distinction +from difference of degree. _Heterogenea non comparari, ergo nec +distingui, possunt._ The inattention to this rule gives rise to the +numerous sophisms comprised by Aristotle under the head of +metabasis +eis allo genos+, 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 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 _slipt in_, is in its own nature +insusceptible of degree: such as, for instance, Certainty, or +Circularity, contrasted with Strength, or Magnitude. + +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. + + UNDERSTANDING. REASON. + + 1. Understanding is discursive. 1. Reason is fixed. + + 2. The Understanding in 2. The Reason in all its decisions + all its judgments refers to appeals to itself, as the ground + some other Faculty as its and _substance_ of their truth. + ultimate Authority. (Hebrews vi. 13.) + + 3. Understanding is the 3. Reason of Contemplation. + Faculty of _Reflection_. Reason indeed is much nearer to + SENSE than to Understanding: + for Reason (says our great + HOOKER) is a direct aspect + of Truth, an inward Beholding, + having a similar relation to + the Intelligible or Spiritual, + as SENSE has to the Material + or Phenomenal. + +The Result is: that neither falls under the definition of the other. +They differ _in kind_: 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 _power_ is +to be cultivated, as well as their particular reflections to be called +forth and guided. Now the main chance of their _reflecting_ on +religious subjects _aright_, and of their attaining to the +_contemplation_ of spiritual truths _at all_, rests on their insight +into the _nature_ 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. + +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 _total impression_. 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 _common +characters_, by virtue of which the several objects are referred to +one and the same sort.[95] 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. + +[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,[96] the resemblances and differences must be +subsumed in order to be conceivable, and _a fortiori_ therefore in +order to be comparable. The senses do not compare, but merely furnish +the materials for comparison. But this the reader will find explained +in the note; and will now cast his eye back to the sentence +immediately preceding this parenthesis.] + +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, (_nomen_, +noumenon, to+ +_intelligible_, _id quod intelligitur_) expresses that which is +_understood_ in an appearance, that which we place (or make to +_stand_) _under_ it, as 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 _apparition_, that is, an appearance that +is _only_ an appearance. (See Gen. ii. 19, 20, and in Psalm xx. 1, and +in many other places of the Bible, the identity of _nomen_ with +_numen_, that is, invisible power and presence, the _nomen +substantivum_ 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 _discourse_ +(_discursio intellectus, discursus_, 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 _understand_ 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 _phenomenon_, 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 _sees_ the colour, and had seen it +before in a vast number and variety of objects; and he understands the +_word_ red, as referring his fancy or memory to this his collective +experience. + +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 _names_: of referring +particular notices (that is, impressions or sensations) to their +proper names; and, _vice versa_, 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." + +Now whether in defining the speculative Reason (that is, the Reason +considered abstractedly as an _intellective_ power) we call it "the +source of necessary and universal principles, 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:"[97] it is +equally evident that the two definitions differ in their essential +characters, and consequently the subjects differ in _kind_. + +The dependence of the Understanding on the representations of the +senses, and its consequent posteriority thereto, as contrasted with +the independence and antecedency of 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. + +[94] See Wisd. of Sol. vii. 22, 23, 27.--H. N. C. + +[95] Accordingly as we attend more or less to the differences, the +_sort_ 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 _genus_ and +_species_, _i.e._ the comprehending and the comprehended. + +[96] 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 +_order_ to do this, we must have the conception of measure. Now these +antecedent and most general conceptions are what is meant by the +constituent _forms_ of the Understanding: we call them _constituent_ +because they are not _acquired_ 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 _forms_, or ways of conceiving. This is what Leibnitz meant, +when to the old adage of the Peripatetics, _Nihil in intellectu quod +non prius in sensu_ (There is nothing in the Understanding not derived +from the Senses, or--There is nothing _con_ceived that was not +previously _per_ceived;) he replied--_praeter intellectum ipsum_ +(except the Understanding itself). + +And here let me remark for once and all: whoever would _reflect_ 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 _kind_ or a high +_degree_ 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 _precise_ meaning with equal +clearness, but have been as likely to draw attention to _this_ 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 _go_ 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 +_generalific_ or _generific_ rather than general, and concipiences or +conceptive acts rather than conceptions. + +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 "+outos +kosmos+" (_this world_) of the Apostle, and we shall perhaps find no +great difficulty in accounting for the fact. To arrive at the _root_, +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 _kind_ 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 _unkindness_. It is a sense of +_un_kind, and not the mere negation but the positive Opposite of the +sense of _kind_. 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 _not_ 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 _mis_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, _will_ 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. + +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 _may_ 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." + +Well! but in their _studious_ hours, when their bow is to be bent, +when they are _apud Musas_, or amidst the Muses? Alas! it is just the +same! The same craving for _amusement_, 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 _ennui_--in plain English, from themselves! For, +spite of their antipathy to _dry_ 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 _fine_ language, in which it +would gratify their vanity to express them in their own conversation, +and with which they can imagine themselves _showing off:_ 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 _sine +qua non_ of their patronage, a sufficient arc must be left for the +Reader's mind to _oscillate_ in--freedom of choice, + + To make the shifting cloud be what you please, + +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. + +In former times a _popular_ work meant one that adapted the _results_ +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. +_Now_, 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 THE PUBLIC, 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. + +[97] Take a familiar illustration. My sight and touch convey to me a +certain impression, to which my Understanding applies its +pre-conceptions (_conceptus antecedentes et generalissimi_) 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 _unequal_ sides--and in these too the same +proportion has been found without exception, till at length it becomes +a fact of _experience_, that in _all_ 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 _inferior_ animals, +if not in the same, yet in instances analogous and fully equivalent. + +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 +_certainty_, that in all possible triangles any two of the inclosing +lines _will_ and _must_ 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. + +Yea, this is the test and character of a truth so affirmed, that in +its own proper form it is _inconceivable_. For _to conceive_ 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 _expressible_. 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 _expression_ (the +_exponent_) of a truth _beyond_ conception and inexpressible. +Examples: Before Abraham _was_, I _am_.--God is a Circle, the centre +of which is everywhere, and circumference nowhere. The soul is all in +every part. + +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 Fenelon. 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 _Intuition_ or _im_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 _construed_ by _pure_ 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 _mediate_ 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 _general_, 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 +_Demonstration_.) 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 _intelligence_;" or "She always concludes +_rationally_, though not a woman of much _understanding_") to see that +we cannot reverse the order--_i.e._ call the higher gift +Understanding, and the lower Reason. What _should_ prevent us? I +asked. Alas! that which _has_ prevented us--the _cause_ of this +confusion in the terms--is only too obvious; namely, inattention to +the momentous distinction in the _things_, and (generally) to the duty +and habit recommended in the fifth Introductory Aphorism of this +volume, (_see_ p. 2). But the cause of this, and of all its lamentable +effects and subcauses, _false doctrine_, _blindness of heart and +contempt of the word_, is best declared by the philosophic Apostle: +_they did not_ like _to retain God in their knowledge_, (Rom. i.28,) +and though they could not _extinguish the light that lighteth every +man_, and which _shone in the darkness_; yet because the darkness +could not _comprehend_ the light, they refused to bear witness of the +light, and worshipped, instead, the shaping mist, which the light had +drawn upward from _the ground_ (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. + + +APHORISM IX. + +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 +_apotheosis_. + +_Sequelae: or Thoughts suggested by the preceding Aphorism._ + +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 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 _reality_ 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 _identified_, 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 _its_ 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 PROOFS 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. + +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 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, _the mind of the flesh_, 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 _wish_ 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 _cure_) of the +pugnacious dogmatism of _partial_ 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 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, _De Fato_.[98] + +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 _non-suit_ 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! _The words I speak +unto you, are Spirit_, and such only _are life_, that is, have an +inward and actual power abiding in them. + +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 insight into the proper +functions and subaltern rank of the Understanding may not, indeed, +disarm the Psilanthropist of his metaphorical glosses, or of his +_versions_ 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. + +COMMENT. + +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, _casting my bread upon the +waters_ 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.[99] 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 _term_, which is required by the facts[100]--the Professor +explained the nature of what I have elsewhere called the _adaptive +power_, that is, the faculty of adapting means to proximate ends. [N. +B. I mean here a _relative_ end--that which relatively to one thing is +an _end_, though relatively to some other it is in itself a _mean_. It +is to be regretted, that we have no single word to express those ends, +that are not _the_ 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 _in +genere_, and, secondly, the distinct character of the _same_ power as +it exists _specifically_ and exclusively in the _human_ 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--_omnem offendiculi_[101] _ansam praecidens_. It is, indeed, +for the _fragmentary_ 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 _consequences_,--that faithless and +loveless spirit of fear which plunged Galileo into a prison[102]--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. + +_On Instinct in Connection with the Understanding._ + +It is evident, that the definition of a Genus or class is an +_adequate_ definition only of the lowest _species_ 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 _all_ the species. Consequently it _describes_ the lowest +only. Now I distinguish a genus or _kind_ 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 _species_ 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 +_congesta_) to the proximate end, that is, the growth or reproduction +of the insect's body. This we call VITAL POWER, or _vita propria_ of +the stomach; and this being the _lowest_ species, its definition is +the same with the definition of the _kind_. + +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 _larva_. Here I see a power +of selecting and adapting means to proximate ends _according to +circumstances_: and this higher species of Adaptive Power we call +INSTINCT. + +Lastly, I reflect on the facts narrated and described in the preceding +extracts from Hueber, and see a power of selecting and adapting the +proper means to the proximate ends, according to _varying_ +circumstances. And what shall we call this yet higher species? We name +the former, Instinct: we must call this INSTINCTIVE INTELLIGENCE. + +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 _result_ 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 _choice_: volition rather than will. The +possible _knowledge_ of a thing, or the desire to have that _thing_ +representable by a distinct correspondent _thought_, does not, in the +animal, suffice to render the thing an _object_, 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 of its primary crystals, or, perhaps, for no better reason +than the apparent _difficulty_ of loosening the stone--_sit pro +ratione voluntas_--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. + +Now what is the conclusion from these premises? Evidently this: that +if I suppose the Adaptive Power in its highest _species_, or form of +Instinctive Intelligence, to co-exist with Reason, _Free_ will, and +Self-consciousness, it instantly becomes UNDERSTANDING: 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. INSTINCT in a rational, responsible, +and self-conscious Animal, is Understanding. + +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 _species_ of the +Adaptive Power, in connexion with an apparently _moral_ end--with an +_end_ in the proper sense of the word. _Here_ the Adaptive Power +co-exists with a purpose apparently _voluntary_, 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 _value_ the faithful brute: we +attribute _worth_ 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 _moral_ nature unaccompanied by any the least evidence of +_reason_, in whichever of the two senses we interpret the +word--whether as the _practical_ reason, that is, the power of +proposing an _ultimate_ end, the determinability of the Will by IDEAS; +or as the _sciential_ reason, that is, the faculty of concluding +universal and necessary truths from particular and 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 _analogon_ of WORDS, which I have elsewhere shown to be the +proper objects of the "faculty, judging according to sense." + +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 _in kind_ with the Understanding, however inferior +_in degree_.--Or should he even in these instances prefer calling it +_Instinct_, and this in _contra_-distinction from _Understanding_, 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 _consequences_, 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 +_degree_ from Instinct and _in kind_ 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 _peculiar_ doctrines of the +Gospel, of the _characteristic_ Articles of the Christian Faith, with +which the Advocates of the truth in Christ have to contend;--the evil +_heart_ of Unbelief alone excepted. + +[98] 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.] + +[99] 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.--ED. + +[100] 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 _negatively_ only--that is, the word does not explain +_what_ this common ground is; but simply indicates that there _is_ +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, Hueber, 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 _solution_ of the facts expressed by it, yet a +finger-mark pointing to the road on which this solution is to be +sought. + +[101] _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 quaerit +nisi quod calumnietur._ (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. + +[102] 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 +(_in_ his ears and eyes) as he was losing his senses, it was taken for +granted that _the bad spirit_ had destroyed them. Frederic Hoffman +admitted that it was a _very bad_ spirit that had _tempted_ them, the +Spirit of Avarice and Folly; and that a very _noxious_ Spirit (gas, or +_geist_,) was the immediate cause of their death. But he contended +that this latter spirit was the _spirit_ 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 _direct_ +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. + + +_Reflections Introductory to Aphorism X._ + +The most _momentous_ question a man can ask is, Have I a Saviour? And +yet as far as the individual querist is concerned, 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 _needs_ 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 _is_ 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, _in +what_ the necessity consists? secondly, _whence_ 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 _antithesis_ to the other: +so that the most general and _negative_ definition of Nature is, +Whatever is not Spirit; and _vice versa_ 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: _Natura_, that which is _about to be_ born, that +which is always _becoming_. It follows, therefore, that whatever +originates its own acts, or in any sense contains in itself the cause +of its own state, must be _spiritual_, and consequently +_super-natural_: yet not on that account necessarily _miraculous_. And +such must the responsible WILL in us be, if it be at all. + +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 with the Spiritual principle in +individuals; and the analogy offered by the most undeniable truths of +Natural Philosophy.[103] + +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;[104] but still the habit of using Reason and Understanding as +synonyms, acted as a disturbing force. Some it led into mysticism, +others it set on explaining away a clear difference _in kind_ into a +mere superiority in degree: and it partially eclipsed the truth for +all. + +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 _natural_ world are applied to +_spiritual_ realities, it may be truly said, that the more strictly +logical the reasoning is in all its _parts_, the more irrational it is +as a _whole_. + +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 WORD. 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 Reason and +Experience have convinced me, that in the greater number of our ALOGI, +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 _eodem genere_. + +This _hint_ I have thrown out as a _spark_ 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 +_practical_ 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 _fact_ 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 _Faith_) to overbalance the manifest +absurdity and contradiction in the notion of a mediator between God +and the human race, at the same infinite distance from God as the race +for whom he mediates. + +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 _certain_, 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 _that_ +evil which most concerns himself, and of which he _may_ find the +origin. + +The entire Scheme of _necessary_ 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 ORIGINAL SIN, +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." (_Milton._) NOT the Origin of Evil, NOT +the _Chronology_ 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 +_instrument_ of Causation, but no one of them a Cause;--NOT with Sin +_inflicted_, which would be a Calamity;--NOT with Sin (that is, an +evil tendency) _implanted_, for which let the planter be responsible; +but I begin with _Original_ Sin. And for this purpose I have selected +the Aphorism from the ablest and most formidable antagonist of this +doctrine, Bishop JEREMY TAYLOR, and from the most eloquent work of +this most eloquent of divines.[106] Had I said, of men, Cicero would +forgive me, and Demosthenes nod assent![107] + + +APHORISM X. + +_On Original Sin._ + +JEREMY TAYLOR. + +Is there any such thing? That is not the question. For it is a fact +acknowledged on all hands almost: and even those who will not confess +it in words, confess it in their complaints. For my part I cannot but +confess that _to be_, which I feel and groan under, and by which all +the world is miserable. + +Adam turned his back on the sun, and dwelt in the dark and the shadow. +He sinned, and brought evil into his _supernatural_ endowments, and +lost the Sacrament and Instrument of Immortality, the Tree of Life in +the centre of the garden.[108] 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 +_nature_: 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 _every_ man's evil +became _all_ 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 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.[109] + +COMMENT. + +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 _mean_ by all this? And the second question should be, What +does he intend by all this? In the passage before us, Taylor's +_meaning_ 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 _derives_ from the +circumstances; and therefore (in the Apostle's sense of the word, sin, +when he speaks of the exceeding sinfulness of sin) such _evil_ is not +_sin_; and the person who suffers it, or who is the compelled +instrument of its infliction on others, may feel _regret_, but cannot +feel _remorse_. 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 _link_ in a chain of effects, where each, indeed, stands in the +relation of a _cause_ to those that follow, but is at the same time +the _effect_ of all that precede. For in these cases a cause amounts +to little more than an antecedent. At the utmost it means only a +_conductor_ of the causative influence; and the old axiom, _causa +causae causa causati_, applies, with a never-ending regress to each +several link, up the whole chain of nature. But this _is_ Nature: and +no _natural_ thing or act can be called originant, or be truly said +to have an _origin_[110] in any other. The moment we assume an origin +in nature, a true _beginning_, an actual first--that moment we rise +_above_ nature, and are compelled to assume a _supernatural_ power. +(Gen. i. 1.) + +It will be an equal convenience to myself and to my 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, or his own inmost sensations, we will regard +them as _circumstantial, extrinsic_, or _from without_. + +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 _original_; and a state or act, that has not its +origin in the will, may be calamity, deformity, disease, or mischief; +but a _sin_ 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 _his_ ends; but his _ends_ 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 _condition_, +the _sine qua non_ of a _Free_-will. + +We will now return to the extract from Jeremy Taylor on a theme of +deep interest in itself, and trebly important from its _bearings_. 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 _fact_ 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 _means_, and what matters the name? for the _nature_ +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 _sufferings_, 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 PSYCHE, I should think it no Stoical flight to doubt, how +far I was authorized to declare the Circumstance an _evil_ 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. + +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 _actions_--though I do not see how we can represent the +properties even of inanimate bodies (of poisonous substances for +instance) except as _acts_ resulting from the constitution of such +bodies. Or if this sense, though not unknown to the Mystic divines, +should be _too_ comprehensive and remote, we will suppose the Bishop +to comprise under the term sin, the evil accompanying or consequent on +_human_ 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 +_human_ 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 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. + +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 _imply_ the sense which I have +given--namely, that Sin is Evil having an _Origin_. But inasmuch as it +is _evil_, in God it cannot originate: and yet in some _Spirit_ (that +is, in some _supernatural_ power) it _must_. For in _Nature_ 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 _nature_ 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 _nature_ of the Will." I might add, that the +admission of a _nature_ into a spiritual essence by its own act is a +corruption. + +Such, I repeat, would be the inevitable conclusion, _if_ 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 _Nature_. + +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 _not_ to punish it by everlasting +torment? Or need we be surprised if he found nothing that could +reconcile his mind to such a belief, in the circumstance that the acts +now _consequent_ on this calamity and either directly or indirectly +_effects_ of the same, were, five or six thousand years ago in the +instance of a certain individual and his accomplice, _anterior_ to the +calamity, and the _Cause_ or _Occasion_ of the same;--that what in all +other men is _disease_, in these two persons was _guilt_;--that what +in us is _hereditary_, and consequently _nature_, in _them_ was +_original_, and consequently _sin_? 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.[111] An instance will explain my +meaning. In as far as, from the known frequency of dishonest or +mischievious persons, it may have been found _necessary_, in so far +is the law _justifiable_ 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 _wrong_ in the proprietor to exercise the _right_, which yet it +may be highly _expedient_ that he should possess. On this ground it +is, that Religion is the sustaining opposite of Law. + +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 _substitutes_, 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 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 _consequence_ 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 _penalty_ 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 _consequence_ he conveyed to his offspring, and through +them to all his posterity, that is, to all mankind. They were _born_ +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, _asserts_, that though perfect obedience became +incomparably more difficult, it was not, however, absolutely +_impossible_. Yet he himself admits that the contrary was _universal_; +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[113] 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 _possible_ for a man, with +a bandage over his eyes, to keep within the path for two or three +paces: therefore, it is _possible_ for him to walk blindfold for two +or three leagues without a single deviation! And this _possibility_ +would suffice to acquit me of _injustice_, 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! + +This _assertion_, 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 _infinitesimal_ 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. + +Observe, that all these _results_ 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 +_mathematical_ 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 the human Will.[114] 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 _non_-actualization of such +power is, _a priori_, 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 _the truth is not in +him_, 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, 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 _temptibility_;--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! + +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 _punished_ 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." [_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_, (2 Samuel, xxi.) _no crime was laid to their charge, no blame +imputed to them_. _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--_] "all +equally innocent. David took the five sons of Michal, for she had +left him unhandsomely. Jonathan was his friend: and therefore he +spared _his_ son, Mephibosheth. Here it was indifferent as to the +guilt of the persons" (_Bear in mind, reader, that no guilt was +attached to either of them!_) "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."[115] + +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 _exasperated_ 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 _did_ 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 _Deus Justificatus_ +in my own copy; and which, though twenty years[116] 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 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."[117] + +With these expositions I hasten to contrast the _Scriptural_ 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 FACT, affirmed, indeed, in the Christian Scriptures alone with +the force and frequency proportioned to its consummate importance; but +a fact acknowledged in _every_ religion that retains the least +glimmering of the patriarchal faith in a God infinite, yet +_personal_--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 AM, the +_Creator_, 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 +_absolute_ 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 _phaenomenon_, 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 +delusions natural to man, which, together with other superstitions +grounded on a supposed _essential_ difference between right and wrong, +_the sage_ is to decompose and precipitate from the _menstruum_ of +_his_ more refined apprehensions! Thus in denying the Fact, they +virtually acknowledge it. + +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 _Fact_, and as characteristic of the human _race_, +stated in that earliest and most venerable _mythus_ (or symbolic +parable) of Prometheus--that truly wonderful Fable, in which the +characters of the rebellious Spirit and of the Divine Friend of +Mankind (+Theos philanthropos+) 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 _rival_ FALL OF MAN: and the fact of a +moral corruption connatural with the human race was again recognized. +In the assertion of ORIGINAL SIN the Greek Mythology rose and set. + +But not only was the _fact_ 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, _ipso facto_, positive evil;) it was +likewise an acknowledged MYSTERY, 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 _Fact_ itself, was demonstrably +_impossible_. 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 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 _idea_, 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 +_Will_ under the law of perfect freedom, but a _nature_ 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 +_Fall_ of Man, inasmuch as his Will is the condition of his +personality; the ground and condition of the attribute which +constitutes him _man_. And the ground work of _personal_ 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.[118] This, and this +alone, is _positive_ Good; good in itself, and independent of all +relations. Whatever resists, and, as a positive force, opposes _this_ +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 _of_ 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, _ad infinitum_, without +advancing a step. + +We call an individual a _bad_ man, not because an action is contrary +to the law, but because it has led us to conclude from it some +_Principle_ 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 _ground_ 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 acquired, another's work not our own. +Consequently, neither act nor principle could be imputed; and +relatively to the agent, not _original_, not _sin_. + +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 _every_ instance, and concerning all men: so that the +fact is asserted of the individual, _not_, because he has committed +this or that crime, or because he has shown himself to be _this_ or +_that_ man, but simply because he is _a_ 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 _in_ time nor _out of_ 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 _doctrine_ of Original Sin; or rather of the +Fact acknowledged in all ages, and recognized but not originating, in +the Christian Scriptures. + +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 all religion. Is there +a disputant who scorns a mere _postulate_, as the basis of any +argument in support of the Faith; who is too high-minded _to beg_ his +ground, and will take it by a strong hand? Let him fight it out with +the Atheists, or the Manichaeans; but not stoop to pick up their +arrows, and then run away to discharge them at Christianity or the +Church! + +The only true way is to state the doctrine, believed as well by Saul +of Tarsus, _yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against_ the +Church of Christ, as by Paul the Apostle _fully preaching the Gospel +of Christ_. 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 _mystery_, 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 _Will_) it must be, +if it be truth at all. + +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 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 _heart_ 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." + +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 _him_ as the author and first +introducer of the notion, though of the numerous medical works +composed ages before _his_ 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? + +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 _essential_ difference between +good and evil have been recognised. _Peculiar_ 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 _moral_ 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. + +Should a professed Believer ask you whether that, which is the ground +of responsible action in _your_ will, could in any way be responsibly +present in the Will of Adam,--answer him in these words: "_You_, Sir! +can no more demonstrate the negative, than I can conceive the +affirmative. The corruption of my will may very warrantably be spoken +of as a _consequence_ 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 _on account_ of +Adam; or that this evil principle was, _a priori_, 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 _Will_--_this_ is nowhere +asserted in Scripture explicitly or by implication." It belongs to the +very essence of the doctrine, that in respect of Original Sin _every_ +man is the adequate representative of _all_ men. What wonder, then, +that where no inward ground of preference existed, the choice should +be determined by outward relations, and that the first _in time_ +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 _the_ +Adam, so as to express the _genus_, not the individual--or rather, +perhaps, I should say, _as well as_ the individual. But that the word +with its equivalent, _the old man_, 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. + +I conclude with this remark. The doctrine of Original Sin concerns all +men. But it concerns Christians _in particular_ 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. BEWARE OF ARGUMENTS AGAINST +CHRISTIANITY, WHICH CANNOT STOP THERE, AND CONSEQUENTLY OUGHT NOT TO +HAVE COMMENCED THERE. 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[119] 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 subject of a Spiritual Fall or Apostacy +_antecedent_ 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. + +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 +_data_--that is, matters of fact _given_ to us through the medium of +the senses--though these _data_ may have been the occasion, or may +even be an indispensable condition, of our reflecting on the former, +and thereby becoming _conscious_ of the same. On the other hand, a +connected series of conclusions grounded on empirical _data_, in +contra-distinction from science, I beg leave (no better term +occurring) in this place and for this purpose, to denominate a scheme. + +[103] 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 _his_ philosophy. Hence in the progress of his reasoning, he +confounds the _natura naturata_ (that is, the sum total of the facts +and phaenomena of the Senses) with an hypothetical _natura naturans_, a +_Goddess_ Nature, that has no better claim to a place in any sober +system of Natural Philosophy than the Goddess _Multitudo_; 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 _Nature_ becomes itself but an _hypothesis_, 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 _genuine_ works, _included in_) the +Universe: which most grievous error it is the great and characteristic +merit of Plato to have avoided and denounced. + +[104] Take one passage among many from the posthumous Tracts (1660) of +John Smith,[105] 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 +kata methexin+ and not +kat' +ousien+. 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 _mine_." This _pure_, +intelligence he then proceeds to contrast with the _Discursive_ +Faculty, that is, the Understanding. + +[105] There is a Note on John Smith and his 'Select Discourses' in +Coleridge's 'Literary Remains,' 1838, v. iii. pp. 415-19.--ED. + +[106] See Coleridge on Jeremy Taylor: 'Literary Remains,' 1838, v. +iii. pp. 295-334, &c.--ED. + +[107] 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: + + Inque rei signum _serpentem serpere_ jussum; + +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 _means_ to _proximate_ or _medial_, ends, analogous to the +_instinct_ of the more intelligent animals, ant, bee, beaver, and the +like, and opposed to the practical reason, as the determinant of the +_ultimate_ end; and again, it typifies the understanding as the +discursive and logical faculty possessed individually by each +individual--the +logos en hekasto+, in distinction from the +nous+, +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.e._ _the spiritual mind_ of St. Paul, and _the light that +lighteth every man_ of St. John) this understanding (+phronema +sarkos+, or carnal mind) becomes the _sophistic_ 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 _Desire_, as the inferior nature in man, the _woman_ in our +humanity; and through the DESIRE prevailing on the WILL (the +_Man_-hood, _Vir_tus) against the command of the universal reason, and +against the light of reason in the WILL itself. This essential +inherence of an intelligential principle (+phos noeron+) in the Will +(+arche pheletike+) or rather the Will itself thus considered, the +Greeks expressed by an appropriate word +boule+. This, but little +differing from Origen's interpretation or hypothesis, is supported and +confirmed by the very old tradition of the _homo androgynus_, that is, +that the original man, the individual first created, was bi-sexual: a +chimaera, of which and of many other mythological traditions the most +probable explanation is, that they were originally symbolical _glyphs_ +or sculptures, and afterwards translated into _words_, yet +_literally_, that is into the common names of the several figures and +images composing the symbol, while the symbolic _meaning_ 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 _gloss_ 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 _un_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 +_results_ of scientific meditation, observation, and experiment, as +far as they are _generally_ 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 _index_ of its average +judgment and information. Without metaphysics science could have had +no language, and common sense no materials. + +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 _phaenomenal_ sin +(_peccatum phaenomenon; crimen primarium et commune_), that is, of sin +as it reveals itself _in time_, 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 EVE 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: _Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust +shalt thou eat all the days of thy life._ I have shown elsewhere, that +as the Instinct of the mere intelligence differs in degree not in +kind, and circumstantially, not essentially, from the _vis vitae_, 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 _a beast of the +field_, though _more subtle than any beast of the field_, and +therefore in its corruption and perversion _cursed above any_--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 _Understanding_ which in its +_every thought_ is to be brought _under obedience to Faith_; 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 _intelligible_ realities, the _living_ and +_substantial_ truths, that are even in this life its most proper +objects. + +I have thus put the reader in possession of my own opinions respecting +the narrative in Gen. ii. and iii. +Estin oun de, hos emoige dokei, +hieros mythos, alethestaton kai archaiotaton philosophema, eusebesi +men sebasma, synetois te phonan; es de to pan hermeneos chatizei+. 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 FIRST MAN be a SYMBOL 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 _part_ chosen to represent the +_whole_, as a lip with a chin prominent is a symbol of man; or a +_lower_ form or species used as the representative of a higher in the +same _kind_: 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 _toto genere_ from the +allegoric and metaphorical. But, perhaps, parables, allegories, and +allegorical or typical applications, are incompatible with _inspired_ +Scripture! The writings of St. Paul are sufficient proof of the +contrary. Yet I readily acknowledge, that allegorical _applications_ +are one thing, and allegorical _interpretation_ 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. + +[108] Rom. v. 14. Who were they, who _had_ not _sinned after the +similitude of Adam's transgression_; and over whom, notwithstanding, +_death reigned_? + +[109] 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.--ED. + +[110] This sense of the word is implied even in its metaphorical or +figurative use. Thus we may say of a _river_ that it _originates_ in +such or such a _fountain_; but the water of a _canal_ is _derived_ +from such or such a river. The Power which we call Nature, may be thus +defined: A Power subject to the Law of Continuity (_lex continui; nam +in natura non datur saltus_) which law the human understanding, by a +necessity arising out of its own constitution, can _conceive_ only +under the form of Cause and Effect. That this _form_ (or law) of Cause +and Effect is (relatively to the world _without_, or to things as they +subsist independently of our perceptions) only a form or mode of +_thinking_; 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 _vice versa_ 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 +(_Wechselwirkung_) would be both more accurate and more expressive. + +These are truths which can scarcely be too frequently impressed on the +mind that is in earnest in the wish to _reflect_ aright. Nature is a +line in constant and continuous evolution. Its _beginning_ is lost in +the super-natural: and _for our understanding_, 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 _nature_ is but a shadow of our own casting. It is a +reflection from our own _Will_ or Spirit. Herein, indeed, the Will +consists. This is the essential character by which WILL is _opposed_ to +Nature, as _Spirit_, and raised _above_ Nature, as _self-determining_ +Spirit--this namely, that it is a power of _originating_ an act or +state. + +A young friend or, as he was pleased to describe himself, _a pupil of +mine, who is beginning to learn to think_, asked me to explain by an +instance what is meant by "_originating_ 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 _volition (voluntas +sensorialis seu mechanica_) the very pain seemed to _hold me back_, 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 _the goings-on_ within you, you +will learn what I mean by _originating_ an act. At the same time you +will see that it belongs _exclusively_ to the Will (_arbitrium_); 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 +_act_ of your own, and to the peculiar self-consciousness preceding +and accompanying it. As we know what Life is by _Being_, so we know +what Will is by _Acting_. That in _willing_ (replied my young friend) +we _appear_ to ourselves to constitute an actual _Beginning_ and that +this seems _unique_, and without any example in our _sensible_ +experience, or in the phaenomena of nature, is an undeniable _fact_. +But may it not be an illusion arising from our ignorance of the +antecedent causes? You _may_ suppose this (I rejoined):--that the soul +of every man should impose a _Lie_ 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 +_impossible_ 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 +_command_, no part of a moral or religious _duty_. You would not, +however, suppose it _without a reason_. But all the pretexts that ever +have been or ever can be offered for this supposition, are built on +certain _notions_ of the Understanding that have been generalized from +_conceptions_; 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 _super_-sensual, by that faculty +of your mind, the very definition of which is "the faculty judging +_according_ to sense"? These then are unworthy the name of _reasons_: +they are only pretexts. But _without_ reason to contradict your own +consciousness in defiance of your own conscience, is _contrary_ to +reason. Such and such writers, you say, have made a great _sensation_. +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 +_understood_. When he is in full possession of my _meaning_, then let +him consider whether it deserves to be received as _the truth_. Had it +been my immediate purpose to make him _believe_ me as well as +_understand_ me, I should have thought it necessary to warn him that a +_finite_ Will does indeed originate an _act_, and may originate a +_state_ of being; but yet only _in_ and _for_ the Agent himself. A +finite Will _constitutes_ a true Beginning; but with regard to the +series of motions and chants by which the free act is manifested and +made _effectual_, the _finite_ Will _gives_ a beginning only by +co-incidence with that _absolute_ WILL, which is at the same time +_Infinite_ POWER! 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. + +[111] 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 _noun substantive_, 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 _adjective_, 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 +_right_ way to obtain the _right_ 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 _god_liness, that is, godlikeness. + +I should be tempted to subjoin a few words on a predominating doctrine +closely connected with the present argument--the Paleyan principle of +GENERAL CONSEQUENCES; but the inadequacy of this Principle as a +criterion of Right and Wrong, and above all its utter unfitness as a +Moral _Guide_ have been elsewhere so fully stated ('The Friend,' vol. +ii. Essay xi.[112]), 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 _any_ form of Generalization to the +All-perfect Mind. To _generalize_ 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 +_intuitive_ (that is, immediate) knowledge. As a substitute, it is a +gift of inestimable value to a finite intelligence, such as _man_ in +his present state is endowed with and capable of exercising; but yet a +_substitute_ 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. + +[112] Essay xv. p. 204, Bohn's edition.--ED. + +[113] 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 +_impossibility_ 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.--ED.] + +[114] Availing himself of the equivocal sense and (I most readily +admit) the injudicious use, of the word "free" in the--even on this +account--_faulty_ phrase, "_free only to sin_," 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 "_foolery_." 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 _propounded_ 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 _is_ the truth? If a +Will _be_ at all, what must a will be?--he might, I think, have seen +that a nature in a Will implies already a _corruption_ of that Will; +that a _nature_ is as inconsistent with _freedom_ as free choice with +an incapacity of choosing aught but evil. And lastly, a free power in +a _nature_ to fulfil a law _above_ 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 +_foolery_; but I find it a paradox as startling to my _reason_ as any +of the hard sayings of the Dort divines were to his _understanding_. + +[115] Vol. ix. pp. 5, 6, Heber's edit. ['Doctrine and Practice of +Repentance,' c. vi. sec. I.--ED.] + +[116] This passage appears as here in the first edition of the 'Aids,' +1825.--ED. + +[117] The same, slightly different, appears in Coleridge's 'Literary +Remains,' 1838, v. iii., p. 328.--ED. + +[118] If the Law worked _on_ the Will, it would be the working of an +extrinsic and alien force, and, as St. Paul profoundly argues, would +prove the Will sinful. + +[119] 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. + + +APHORISM XI. + +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, _the World of their Senses_, by +signs, instruments, and mementos of its connexion with a future state +and a spiritual world;--where the Mysteries of Faith are brought +within the _hold_ 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, _there_ Religion is. _There_, +however obscured by the hay and straw of human Will-work, the +foundation is safe. In _that_ country, and under the predominance of +such maxims the National Church is no mere State-_Institute_. 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 +_integrity_. Our outward acts are efficient, and most often possible, +only by coalition. As an efficient power, the agent, is but _a +fraction_ of unity: he becomes an _integer_ 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 _as_ +morality, has no existence for _a people_. It is either absorbed and +lost in the quicksands of prudential _calculus_, or it is taken up and +transfigured into the duties and mysteries of religion. And no wonder: +since morality (including the _personal_ being, the I AM, as its +subject) is itself a mystery, and the ground and _suppositum_ of all +other mysteries, relatively to man. + + +APHORISM XII. + +_Paley not a Moralist._ + +Schemes of conduct, grounded on calculations of self-interest; or on +the average consequences of actions, supposing them _general_; form a +branch of Political Economy, 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 _foreign_, and, when substituted for +it, _hostile_. Ethics, or the _Science_ of Morality, does indeed in no +wise exclude the consideration of _action_; but it contemplates the +same in its originating spiritual _source_, without reference to space +or time or sensible existence. Whatever springs out of _the perfect +law of freedom_, 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--_that_ (according to the principles of Moral Science) is GOOD--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 EVIL--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, _collectorium_ or inventory of single duties; nor +does it seek in the multitudinous sea, in the pre-determined waves, +and tides and currents of _nature_ that freedom, which is exclusively +an attribute of _spirit_. Like all other pure sciences, whatever it +enunciates, and whatever it concludes, it enunciates and concludes +_absolutely_. Strictness is its essential character: and its first +Proposition is, _Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in +one point, he is guilty of all_. 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 +_organismus_ that the law of life reflects itself?--Much less, then, +can the law of the Spirit work in fragments. + + +APHORISM XIII. + +Wherever there exists a permanent[120] learned class, having authority +and possessing the respect and confidence of the country; and wherever +the Science of Ethics is acknowledged, and taught in _this_ 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;--_there_ the Article of Original Sin will be +an AXIOM of Faith in _all_ classes. Among the learned an undisputed +_truth_, 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, _subjective_ indeed, yet virtually equivalent to that which +we intuitively give to the objects of our senses. + +With the learned this will be the case, because the Article is the +first--I had almost said, _spontaneous_--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 contemplation +of a human skeleton, flashed conviction on the mind of Galen, and +kindled meditation into a hymn of praise. + +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 PEOPLE 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. + +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 +SCIENCE 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 _have_ 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[121] +Interpretation is every thing and the Church nothing--_there_ 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. + +[120] 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.] + +[121] 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 _license_ 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 _no-grounds_ on which the +judgment is formed and relied on. + +My fixed principle is: that A CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT A CHURCH EXERCISING +SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY IS VANITY AND DISSOLUTION. And my _belief_ is, +that when Popery is rushing in on us like an inundation, the nation +will find it to be so. I say _Popery_; for this too I hold for a +delusion, that Romanism or _Roman_ Catholicism is separable from +Popery. Almost as readily could I suppose a circle without a centre. + + +APHORISM XIV. + +LEIGHTON. + +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 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. + + +APHORISM XV. + +LUTHER. + +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! + +COMMENT. + +In irrational agents, namely, the brute animals, the will is hidden or +absorbed in the law. The law is their _nature_. 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 _divine_ Will, we may say, that in the unfallen rational agent the +Will _constitutes_ the Law.[122] But it is evident that the holy and +spiritual power and light, which by a _prolepsis_ or anticipation we +have _named_ 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 _Law_ for you; that it acts _on_ the +Will not _in_ it; that it exercises an agency _from without_, 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 LAW. 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 (+nomon teleion ton tes eleutherias+, James i. 25.,)--he +says--_For the law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by +Jesus Christ_. That by the Law St. Paul meant only the _ceremonial_ +law, is a notion that could originate only in utter inattention to the +whole strain and bent of the Apostle's argument. + +[122] 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 _idea_, as a +Reason, and it gives causative force to the Idea, as a _practical_ +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 _constitutes_ the Law, supplying both the +Elements of which it consists--namely, the Idea, and the realizing +Power. + + +APHORISM XVI. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 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 _was it possible for him to +be holden of it; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the +Spirit_, 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. _Through the eternal +Spirit he offered himself._ And even from Peter's words, and without +the epithet, eternal, to aid the interpretation, it is evident that +_the Spirit_, here opposed to the flesh, body or animal life, is of a +higher nature and power than the individual _soul_, which cannot of +itself return to re-inhabit or quicken the body. + +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 _without him_ +able for nothing. Take comfort then, thou that believest! _It is he +that lifts up the Soul from the Gates of Death_: and he hath said, _I +will raise thee up at the last day_. Thou that believest _in_ 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. + + +APHORISM XVII. + +LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. + +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 +_common_ disease. But would you be cured of the fear and fearful +questionings 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 _cold_ bed: for thy Saviour has +warmed it, and made it fragrant. + +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, _quickened by the Spirit_: 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 _power_--for +so the _wicked_ likewise to their grief shall be raised: but _they by +his life as their life_. + +COMMENT. + +_On the three Preceding Aphorisms._ + +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. + +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 _is_ a Spiritual principle in +Man,[123] 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 _not_ the Spirit, what is _not_ Spiritual +Religion.[124] 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 _peculiar_ 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 +_insight_ 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 UNDERSTANDING, and in evincing its _diversity_ +from REASON. 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 _wasted_. +Nevertheless, I cannot conceal, that the subject itself supposes, on +the part of the reader, a steadiness in _self-questioning_, 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 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 _understanding_ the +author's meaning, whatever he may have in _adopting_ it. + +The two great moments of the Christian Religion are, Original Sin and +Redemption; _that_ the Ground, _this_ 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[125] +scheme of a contemporary Arminian divine; and lastly, in contrast +with both schemes, I have placed what I firmly believe to be the +_Scriptural_ sense of this article, and vindicated its entire +conformity with reason and experience. I now proceed to the other +momentous article--from the necessitating _Occasion_ 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 that _it passeth all +understanding_;--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--_this_ 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 THE +REDEMPTIVE ACT, as the transcendent _Cause_ of Salvation--in the +express and definite words, in which it was enunciated by the Redeemer +himself? + +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. +_This_ 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)[127] 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. + +[123] Elements of Religious Philosophy, _ante_, p. 88--ED. + +[124] See _ante_, pp. 96-101.--ED. + +[125] 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 _penalty_ +resolves itself into the _consequence_, and this the natural and +_naturally_ inevitable consequence of Adam's crime. For Adam, indeed, +it was a _positive_ 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 _not_ 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 +_men_, 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. + +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 _worst_ evil that the impenitent have to +apprehend in a future state; and that the spiritual Death declared and +foretold by Christ, _the death eternal where the worm never dies_, is +neither Death nor eternal, but a certain _quantum_ 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 _few_--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! + +In another place I have ventured to question the spirit and tendency +of Taylor's work on Repentance.[126] 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. + +[126] 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.--ED. + +[127] See also "Notes on Field on the Church" (1628), in Coleridge's +'Remains,' 1838, v. iii., pp. 57-92.--ED. + + +APHORISM XVIII. + +_Stedfast by Faith._ 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 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 (_miasma_) 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--_stedfast by faith_. Nor yet stedfast in your Will, but +_stedfast in the faith_. 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 _merit_ +to ourselves of the former. But we are to look to CHRIST and _him +crucified_. The Law _that is very nigh to thee, even in thy heart_; +the Law that condemneth and hath no promise; that stoppeth the guilty +PAST 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! _Appeal to Caesar!_ 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 believe! +Lord! help my unbelief!_ Disclaim all right of property in thy +fetters. Say, that they belong to the _old man_, and that thou dost +but carry them to the Grave, to be buried with their owner! Fix thy +thought on what _Christ_ did, what _Christ_ suffered, what _Christ_ +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? [128] By what +other means, in what other form, is it _possible_ for thee to stand +in the presence of the Holy One? With _what_ mind wouldst thou come +before God, if not with the mind of Him, in whom _alone_ 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 _admission-right_, thy _qualification_, to Him who _charged his +angels with folly_![129] 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! _the beloved Son, in whom the Father +is_ indeed _well pleased_! + +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![130] +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 +he gave himself for us that we might live in him and he in us. There +is but one robe of Righteousnes, even the 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 _which he had with his Father before +the world began_, only to _show_ us a way to life, to _teach_ truths, +to _tell_ us of a resurrection? Or saith he not, I _am_ the way--I +_am_ the truth--I _am_ the Resurrection and the Life? + +[128] _God manifested in the flesh_ 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 _Fiat_ 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 _opus perfectum_, 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 _have been_ +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 _dead in law_, that is, no longer imputable as _guilt_, has +destroyed the _objective reality_ 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, _stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae_. 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 _quite_ 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 +_insight_ 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. + +[129] Job. iv. 18.--ED. + +[130] St. Paul blends both forms of expression, and asserts the same +doctrine when speaking of the _celestial body_ provided for _the new +man_ 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 _celestial body_, +as a _house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens_, yet brought +down to us, made appropriable by faith, and _ours_--he adds, _for in +this earthly house_ (that is, this mortal life, as the inward +principle or energy of our Tabernacle, or outward and sensible body) +_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_. 2 Cor. v. 1-4. + +The four last words of the first verse (_eternal in the heavens_) +compared with the conclusion of v. 2, (_which is from heaven_) 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 +oudeis+, so frequent in St. John, should not be rendered +literally, _no one_; and there may be a reason why it should. I have +some doubt likewise respecting the omission of the definite articles ++ton+, +tou+, +to+--and a greater, as to the +ho on+, both in this +place and in John i. 18, being _adequately_ rendered by our _which +is_. What sense some of the Greek Fathers attached to, or inferred +from, St. Paul's _in the Heavens_, 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.] + +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 _allegorizers_ of Holy +Writ."[131] There is, believe me, a wide difference between +_symbolical_ and _allegorical_. If I say that the flesh and blood +(_corpus noumenon_) of the Incarnate Word are power and life, I say +likewise that this mysterious power and life are _verily_ and +_actually_ the flesh and blood of Christ. _They_ are the allegorizers, +who turn the 6th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John,--_the +hard saying,--who can hear it?_--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, _This is indeed the Christ_,--went back and walked no +more with him!--the hard sayings, which even THE TWELVE 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!--_they_, I repeat, are the +allegorizers who moralize these hard sayings, these high words of +mystery, into a hyperbolical metaphor _per catachresin_, which only +means a belief of the doctrine which Paul believed, an obedience to +the law, respecting which Paul _was blameless_, 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 _many_ of HIS 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!--_Credat Judaeus! Non ego._ 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, Irenaeus, and +(if he does not err) by the whole Christian Church then existing. + +[131] See Introductory Aphorisms, xxix., p. 19.--ED. + + +APHORISM XIX. + +FIELD. + +The _Romanists_ 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. [_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!_] 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 +_our_ satisfaction is required as a condition, without which +_Christ's_ 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, [_and essentially_ +_involveth_,] 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.][132] + +COMMENT. + +(_Containing an Application of the Principles laid down in pp. 135, +136._) + +Forgiveness of sin, the abolition of guilt, through the redemptive +power of Christ's love, and of his perfect obedience during his +voluntary assumption of humanity, is expressed, on account of the +resemblance of the consequences in both cases, by the payment of a +debt for another, which debt the payer had not himself incurred. Now +the _impropriation_ of this metaphor--(that is, the taking it +_literally_) by transferring the sameness from the consequents to the +antecedents, or 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. + +Indeed, I know not in what other instance I could better exemplify the +species of sophistry noticed in p. 147, as the Aristotelean +metabasis +eis allo genos+, 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 _antecedent_, +that is, the Redeemer's act as the efficient cause and condition of +redemption; and in relation to the _consequent_, that is, the effects +in and for the Redeemed. Now it is the latter relation, in which the +subject is treated of, set forth, expanded, and enforced by St. Paul. +The mysterious act, the operative cause is _transcendent_. _Factum +est_: and beyond the information contained in the enunciation of the +_Fact_, it can be characterized only by the _consequences_. It is the +_consequences_ 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 _a Hebrew of +the Hebrews_; intimately versed _in the Jews' religion above many, his +equals, in his own nation, and above measure zealous of the traditions +of his fathers_. 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 _past_, 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. + +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 _consequences_ of Christ's redemption +of mankind. These are: 1. Sin-offerings, sacrificial expiation. 2. +Reconciliation, atonement, +katallage+.[133] 3. Ransom from slavery, +Redemption, the buying back again, or being bought back. 4. +Satisfaction of a creditor's claims by a payment of the debt. To one +or other of these four heads all the 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 _periphrases_ used by him to +express one and the same thing furnish the strongest presumptive +proof, that all alike were used _metaphorically_. [In the following +notation, let the small letters represent the _effects_ or +_consequences_, and the capitals the efficient _causes_ or +_antecedents_. Whether by causes we mean acts or agents, is +indifferent. Now let X signify a _transcendent_, 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 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 _metaphorical_ +exponents of X.] + +Now John, the beloved Disciple, who leaned on the Lord's bosom, the +Evangelist +kata pneuma+, that is, according to the _Spirit_, 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 +_without any metaphor_, by identifying it _in kind_ with a fact of +hourly occurrence--_expressing_ it, I say, by a familiar fact the same +_in kind_ with that intended, though of a far lower _dignity_;--by a +fact of every man's experience, _known_ to all, yet not better +_understood_ than the fact described by it. In the Redeemed it is a +re-_generation_, a _birth_, a spiritual seed impregnated and evolved, +the germinal principle of a higher and enduring life, of a _spiritual_ +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 +_differential_ of immortality, of which the assimilative power of +faith and love is the _integrant_, and the life in Christ the +_integration_. + +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 _the_ 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. + +Respecting the redemptive act itself, and the Divine Agent, we know +from revelation that he _was made a quickening_ (+zoopoioun+, +_life-making_) _spirit_: and that in order to this it was necessary, +that God should be _manifested in the flesh_, that the Eternal Word, +through whom and by whom the world (+kosmos+, the order, beauty, and +sustaining law of 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 _natural_ life, and _its_ 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 +_effect_ 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 _all_ his hearers with +feelings of joy, confidence, and gratitude. + +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. + +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 slavery of sin unto death; and he, who +gave himself for the ransom, has taken captivity captive. + +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? + +Had you involved yourself in a heavy DEBT 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 DEBT for +you, had made SATISFACTION to your creditor? But you have incurred a +debt of Death to the EVIL NATURE! you have sold yourself over to SIN! +and relatively to _you_, and to all _your_ means and resources, the +seal on the bond is the seal of necessity! Its stamp is the _nature_ +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. + +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 +_Alogi_ 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 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 _all_ mankind contracted +in and through Adam, as a _homo publicus_, 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 _consequence_, 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! + +It is easy to say--"O but I do not hold this, or _we_ do not make this +an article of our belief!" The true question is: "Do you take any +_part_ of it: and can you reject the rest without being +_inconsequent_?" Are debt, satisfaction, payment in full, creditor's +_rights_, and the like, _nomina propria_, 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: _then_, as your whole theory +is grounded on a notion of _justice_, I ask you--Is this justice a +_moral_ 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 _do_ you mean? And 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 _law_ +in the conscience, dictates to _man_, 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. + +A sum of L1,000 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 +_satisfaction_ had been made to Peter. Matthew's L1,000 is a perfect +equivalent for the sum which James was bound to have paid, and which +Peter had lent. _It is the same thing_: and this is altogether a +question of _things_. 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 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 _made +it up_." What other reply could the swelling heart of the mother +dictate than this? "O misery! and is it possible that _you_ are in +league with my unnatural child to insult me? Must not the very +necessity of _your_ abandonment of your proper sphere form an +additional evidence of _his_ 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?" + +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--_then_ +doubtless the mother would be wholly satisfied! But then the case is +no longer a question of _things_, or a matter of _debt_ payable by +another. Nevertheless, the _effect_,--and the reader will remember, +that it is the _effects_ and _consequences_ of Christ's mediation, on +which St. Paul is dilating--the effect to _James_ 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 _difference is_, that in the +former case (namely, the payment of the debt) the beneficial act is +_singly_, and without requiring any re-action or co-agency on the part +of James, the efficient _cause_ of his liberation: while in the latter +case (namely, that of Redemption) the beneficial act is the _first_, +the indispensable _condition_, and _then_ the _coefficient_. + +The professional student of theology will, perhaps, understand the +different positions asserted in the preceding argument more readily if +they are presented _synoptically_, 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. + +_Synopsis of the Constituent Points in the Doctrine of Redemption, in +Four Questions, with Correspondent Answers._ + +_Questions._ + + { 1. _Agens Causator?_ + Who (or What) is the { 2. _Actus Causativus?_ + { 3. _Effectum Causatum?_ + { 4. _Consequentia ab Effecto?_ + +_Answers._ + +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 (_agonistes_ +agonizomenos+), crucified, submitting +to death, resurgent, communicant of his Spirit, ascendent, and +obtaining for his Church the Descent, and Communion of the Holy +Spirit, the Comforter. + +II. The causative act is--a spiritual and transcendent Mystery, _that +passeth all understanding_. + +III. The Effect caused is--the being born anew: as before in the +_flesh_ to the world, so now born in the _spirit_ to Christ. + +IV. The Consequences from the Effect are--Sanctification from Sin, and +Liberation from the inherent and penal 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. + +Now I complain that this metaphorical _naming_ of the transcendent +causative act through the _medium_ 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 _de omni_ what was spoken _de singulo_, and +magnified a _partial equation_ into a _total identity_. + +I will merely hint, to my more _learned_ 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 _abysmal_ subject of the +divine _A-seity_, and the distinction between the +thelema+ and the ++boule+, that is, the Absolute Will, as the universal _ground_ of +_all_ 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 _show_ 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: _et si non vis intelligi, cur vis legi?_ + +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 _scholia_. A single glance of the +eye will enable the reader to re-connect each with the sentence it is +supposed to follow. + +SCHOLIUM TO ANSWER II. + +Nevertheless, _the fact or actual truth having been assured to us by +Revelation_, it is not impossible, by stedfast meditation on the idea +and super-natural character of a personal WILL, for a mind spiritually +disciplined to satisfy itself, that the redemptive act _supposes_ (and +that our redemption is even negatively _conceivable_ only on the +supposition of) an agent who can at once act _on_ the Will as an +exciting cause, _quasi ab extra_; and _in_ the Will, as the +_condition_ of its potential, and the _ground_ of its actual, being. + +SCHOLIUM TO ANSWER III. + +Where two subjects, that stand to each other in the relation of +_antithesis_ or contradistinction, are connected by a middle term +common to _both_, the sense of this middle term is indifferently +determinable by _either_; 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 _this_ +connexion. Thus, if I put hydrogen and oxygen gas, as opposite poles, +the term _gas_ 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 _convenient_ 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. + +Now let us apply this to the case in hand. The two opposites _here_ +are Flesh and Spirit, _this_ in relation to _Christ_, _that_ in +relation to the _World_; and these two opposites are connected by the +middle term, _Birth_, 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 +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 +_essentially_ (in _kind_ 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 _is_), the _punctum indifferens_, or _nota +communis_, of the _thesis_, Flesh; or the World, and the _antithesis_ +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. + +There is, I am aware, a numerous and powerful party in our Church, so +numerous and powerful as not seldom to be entitled _the_ 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[134] 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 _type_ or _sign_. For this +would be to supplant their own assertion, that Regeneration means +Baptism, by the contradictory admission, that Regeneration is the +_significatum_, of which Baptism is the significant. Unless, indeed, +they would incur the absurdity of saying, that Regeneration is a type +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. + +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 +_insufflation_, and _extreme unction_, 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."[135] + +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,[136] Peter Martyr, and presumably Cranmer himself)--these +convictions and this belief will, I doubt not, be deemed by the +Orthodox _de more Grotii_, who improve the _letter_ of Arminius with +the _spirit_ 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 _called_ irrational, is a trifle; to _be_ 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) _against_ reason, or _without_ 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 aera 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 _ad populum_, 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 _discussion_, interpose +the following Aphorism.[137] + +[132] Dr. Richard Field's "Of the Church," folio ed., Oxford, 1628, p. +58.--ED. + +[133] This word occurs but once in the New Testament, Romans v. 11, +the marginal rendering being _reconciliation_. The personal noun, ++katallaktes+, 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 _catallage_, +that is, the difference. In the elder Greek writers, the verb means +_to exchange for an opposite_, as, +katallasseto ten echthren tois +stasiotais+.--He exchanged within himself enmity for friendship, (that +is, he reconciled himself) with his party;--or, as we say, _made it +up_ with them, an idiom which (with whatever loss of dignity) gives +the exact force of the word. He made _up the difference_. The Hebrew +word of very frequent occurrence in the Pentateuch, which we render by +the substantive, _atonement_, has its radical or visual image, in +_copher_, pitch. Gen. vi. 14: _Thou shalt pitch it within and without +with pitch_. Hence to unite, to fill up a breach, or leak, the word +expressing both the _act_, namely, the bringing together what had been +previously separated, and the _means_, or material, by which the +re-union is effected, as in our English verbs, _to caulk_, _to +solder_, _to poy_ or _pay_ (from _poix_, pitch), and the French +_suiver_. Thence, metaphorically, _expiation_, the _piacula_ having +the same root, and being grounded on another property or use of gums +and resins, the supposed _cleansing_ powers of their fumigation. +Numbers viii. 21: _made atonement for the Levites to cleanse +them_.--Lastly (or if we are to believe the Hebrew Lexicons, +_properly_ and most _frequently_) it means _ransom_. But if by +_proper_ the Interpreters mean _primary_ and _radical_, 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 _frequency_, +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 _ransom_: though beyond all doubt _ransom_ is used in +the Epistle to Timothy, as an _equivalent_ term. + +[134] Review of the Memoirs of the Rev. J. Scott and Rev. J. Newton, +'Quarterly Review,' April, 1824.--ED. + +[135] Dedication to Taylor's 'Holy Dying,' p. 295, Bohn's Standard +Library edition.--ED. + +[136] Appendix to Strype's 'Life of Cranmer.'--ED. + +[137] Slightly altered from the 'Worthy Communicant,' chap. iii. sect. +v.; p. 523, vol. xv. of Heber's edition of Jeremy Taylor's works.--ED. + + +APHORISM XX. + +JEREMY TAYLOR. + +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 +[_speculative_] reason, and _take_ something into her heart, that +reason can never take into her eye; yet in all our creed there can be +nothing _against_ 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 _that_ reason, +which is not so (_see_ p. 122). For although reason is a right +judge,[138] yet it ought not to pass sentence in an inquiry of faith, +until all the information be brought in; all that is 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. + +[138] 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) _Discourse_ (_discursus seu facultas discursiva vel +discursoria_). 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.--ED.] + + +APHORISM XXI. + +JEREMY TAYLOR. + +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. + + +APHORISM XXII. + +JEREMY TAYLOR. + +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. IN NO CASE CAN TRUE REASON AND A RIGHT FAITH OPPOSE EACH OTHER. + + +NOTE PREFATORY TO + +APHORISM XXIII.--Less on my own account, than in the hope of +fore-arming my youthful friends, I add one other 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, _regular_ Church-divines, voted orthodox by a great majority +of suffrages, and the so-called Free-thinking Christians, and +Unitarian divines. It is the _former_ class alone that I wish to +conciliate: so far at least as it may be done by removing the +aggravation of _novelty_ 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 _extinguisher_, 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 _finest_ prose +passage in English literature.[139] Be it so. I bow to so great an +authority. But if the learned Doctor would impose it on me as the +_truest_ as well as the finest, or expect me to admire the logic +equally with the rhetoric--+aphistamai+--I start off! As I have been +_un-English_ 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 _discover_ +and _prove_, 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 case, brought as instance +and confirmation. I _doubt_ the validity of the assertion as a +_general_ rule; and I _deny_ it, as applied to matters of _faith_, to +the verities of religion, in the belief of which there must always be +somewhat of moral election, "an act of the _Will_ in it as well as of +the Understanding, as much _love_ 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."[140] 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 HE was indeed +come who had promised and declared to their forefathers, _Behold your +God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense_. _He will +come and save you._[141] I receive them as proofs, therefore, of the +truth of every word, which he taught who was himself THE WORD: and as +sure evidences of the final victory over death and of the life to +come, in that they were manifestations of HIM, who said: _I am the +resurrection and the Life!_ + +The obvious inference from the passage in question, if not its express +import, is: _Miracula experimenta crucis esse, quibus solis probandum +erat, homines non, pecudum instar, omnino perituros esse_. Now this +doctrine I hold to be altogether alien from the _spirit_, and without +authority in the _letter_, 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 _those_ divines in _hoc +Paleii dictum ore pleno jurare, qui nihil aliud in toto Evangelio +invenire posse profitentur_. 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 _here +and there_ at least have even dipped under the garden-fence of the +Church, and blunted the edge of the labourer's spade in the gayest +_parterres_ 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 _the rent has not reached +the foundation_[142]--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 +_fundamental_ 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 _presupposed_ 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 _every_ 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 +contain the three dialectic flaws, _petitio principii_, _argumentum in +circulo_, and _argumentum contra rem a premisso rem ipsam includente_. + +Yes! fervently do I contend, that to satisfy the understanding, that +there is a future state, was not the _specific_ Object of the +Christian Dispensation; and that neither the belief of a future state, +nor the _rationality_ of this belief, is the _exclusive_ attribute of +the Christian religion. An _essential_, a _fundamental_, article of +_all_ religion it is, and therefore of the Christian; but otherwise +than as in connexion with the salvation of mankind from the _terrors_ +of that state among the essential articles _peculiar_ to the Gospel +Creed (those, for instance, by which it is _contra_-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, +_neither would he believe, though a man should be raised from the +dead_. + +Again, I am questioned as to my _proofs_ of a future state by men who +are so far, and _only_ 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 _these_ men; may I not +remind them, WHO 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 HE held such questioners, who +could not find a sufficing proof of this great all-concerning verity +in the words, _The God of Abraham_, _the God of Isaac_, _and the God +of Jacob_ unworthy of any other answer--men not to be satisfied by +_any_ 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 +_malo cum Platone errare_, and take refuge behind the ample shield of +BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR. + +APHORISM XXIII. + +JEREMY TAYLOR. + +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 TWO GREAT +THINGS. 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 _Christ to suffer_, +and so to enter into glory. The other great thing was: that God did +_not only by Revelation_ and the Sermons of the Prophets _to his +Church_, but even to ALL MANKIND _competently_ teach, and +_effectively_ 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. _And all these +received not the promise._ 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 +_another_ 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: _and sometimes proved it well, +and when they did not, yet they believed strongly_; _and_ THEY WERE +SURE OF THE THING, WHEN THEY WERE NOT SURE OF THE ARGUMENT.[143] + +COMMENT. + +A fact may be truly stated, and yet the Cause or Reason assigned for +it mistaken; or inadequate; or _pars pro toto_--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 _something_ in man +different _in kind_, 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 _contradiction_ 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 +_contra_-distinctive constituent of humanity, in the _something_ of +human nature which is exclusively human;--and--as the objects +discoverable by the senses, as all the bodies and 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 _cease_ to be, together with all the +properties which we ourselves have in common with these perishable +things, differ _in kind_ 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 _have_ 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 _peculia_ of humanity, are all _congenera_ of Mind and +Will, without which indeed they would not only exist in vain, as +pictures for moles, but actually not _exist_ 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 _painted_ 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. + +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 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 +_extent_ of efficacy which he in this passage attributes to it. I am +persuaded, that as the belief of all mankind, of all[144] 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 _tap-root_ 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 _fact_--for two very different objects may be +intended, and two, or more, diverse and even contradictory conceptions +may be expressed, by the same _name_--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 +_butts_ 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.[145] All other +prophecies of nature have their exact fulfilment--in every other +_ingrafted word_ of promise, nature is found true to her word; and is +it in 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 + + ---- with gentle heart + Had worshipp'd Nature in the hill and valley, + Not knowing what he loved, but loved it all!) + +Whether, however, the introductory part of the Bishop's argument is to +be received with more or less qualification, the _fact_ itself, as +stated in the concluding sentence of the Aphorism, remains unaffected, +and is beyond exception true. + +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 +_stumble at the stumbling-stone_ 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 _use_ of the new revelation. Thus the object +of the Epistle to the Hebrews was to prove the _superiority_ of the +Christian Religion; the object of the Epistle to the Romans to prove +its _necessity_. 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 _possibility_ of the +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 _superseding_ +character, which _he_ 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. _He +is the Rock, and his Work is perfect._ (Deuter. xxxii. 4.) If then the +religion revealed by God himself to our forefathers is _perfect_, 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[146]--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 +_this_ question to him:--"What do _you_ 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 _fact_. It is a +_fact_, that your Religion is (in _your_ sense of the word) _not_ +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 _religio dimidiata_; 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 _evidences_." + +But _is_ this the Apostle's answer to the Jewish oppugners, and the +Judaizing false brethren, of the Church of Christ?--It is _not_ 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 _chord_ that +traverses them all, and only touches where it cuts across. In the +Epistle to the Hebrews the directly contrary position is repeatedly +_asserted_: and in the Epistle to the Romans it is every where +_supposed_. The death to which the Law sentenced all sinners (and +which even the Gentiles without the _revealed_ Law had announced to +them by their consciences, _the judgment of God having been made known +even to them_) must be the same death, from which they were saved by +the faith of the Son of God; or the Apostle's reasoning would be +senseless, his antithesis a mere equivoque, a play on a word, _quod +idem sonat, aliud vult_. Christ _redeemed mankind from the curse of +the Law_: 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 _Jews_, and written in the hearts of _all_ men (Rom. +ii. 15.)--the Law _holy and spiritual_! 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, _that_ there is a Life to come, +and a future state; but _what_ 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--_these_ are +the _peculiar_ and _distinguishing_ 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 _Grace and Truth that came by +Jesus Christ_! I believe Moses, I believe Paul; but I believe _in_ +Christ. + +[139] Coleridge quotes this passage in his Conclusion.--ED. + +[140] J. Taylor's 'Worthy Communicant.'--H.N.C. + +[141] Isaiah xxxiv. compared with Matt. x. 34, and Luke xii. +49.--H.N.C. + +[142] Conclusion, Part III. ch. 8.--H.N.C. + +[143] Sermon at the Funeral of Sir George Dalston.--H.N.C. + +[144] I say, _all_: for the accounts of one or two travelling French +_philosophers_, 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 _Fort_-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. + +[145] 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. + +[146] 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 _study_ 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. + + + + +APHORISM. + +ON BAPTISM. + +LEIGHTON. + + +_In those days came John the Baptist, preaching._--It will suffice for +our present purpose, if by these[147] words we direct the attention to +the origin, or at least first Scriptural record, of BAPTISM, and to +the combinement of PREACHING 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. + +But truly the word is a light and the sacraments have in them of the +same light illuminating them. This _sacrament_ of Baptism, the +ancients do particularly express by _light_. 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. + +COMMENT. + + _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._ + +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. + +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 _into_ Scripture, and every attempt to +explain any thing _out of_ 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 _Grotian_ Divines +to _explain away_ positive assertions of Scripture on the pretext, +that the _literal sense_ is not agreeable to reason, that is, THEIR +_particular_ reason. And inasmuch as (in the only right sense of the +word), there is no such thing as a _particular_ reason, they must, and +in fact they _do_, mean, that the literal sense is not accordant to +their _understanding_, that is, to the _notions_ which _their_ +understandings have been taught and accustomed to form in _their_ +school of 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 _Minimi-fidian_ party[148] err +grievously in the latter point, so I must concede to you, that too +many Paedo-baptists (_assertors of Infant Baptism_) 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 _ergo_ 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 "_nobody_" and +"_all_" 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, _he and all his household_. 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 _petitio principii_, though +there had been nothing else against it. But when we turn back to the +Scriptures preceding the narrative, and find repentance and belief +demanded as the terms and indispensable conditions of Baptism--_then_ +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 _premier class_ 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 _all_ 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 _attempts_ to overthrow his +own arguments. I had almost said, _affects_: 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 Paedo-baptist; and would prove, if they proved any thing, +that both were wrong, and the Quakers only in the right. + +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 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[149] 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. (_The reader understands, that I suppose myself +conversing with a Baptist._) I am of opinion, that the divines on your +side are chargeable with a far more grievous mistake, that of giving a +carnal and _Judaizing_ interpretation to the various Gospel texts in +which the terms, _baptism_ and _baptize_, 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 _positive_ evidence, that the Baptism of infants was +instituted by the Apostles in the practice of the Apostolic age.[150] + +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 _clothed upon_ 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 _visible rite_ 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 +_inconsistency_ 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 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! + +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 _pateris et auro_ 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 _ejusdem generis_ with the latter--the Water of Repentance, +reformation in _conduct_; and the Spirit that which purifies the +inmost _principle_ of action, as fire purges the metal substantially +and not cleansing the surface only! + +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 _ceremony_. It is no reason +why, knowing and experiencing even in the majority of her own members +the proneness of the human mind to[151] superstition, 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. + +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 _the time_, 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--_then_ 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 _publicly manifest_, first, what +individuals were to be regarded by the _world_ (Phil. ii. 15.) as +belonging to the visible communion of Christians: inasmuch as by their +demeanour and apparent condition, the general estimation of _the city +set on a hill and not to be hid_ (Matth. v. 14.) could not but be +affected--the city that even _in the midst of a crooked and perverse +nation_ was bound not only to give no cause, but by all innocent means +to prevent every occasion, of _rebuke_. Secondly, to mark out, for the +Church itself, those that were entitled to that _especial_ dearness, +that watchful and disciplinary love and loving-kindness, which _over +and above_ 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,--_A New +Commandment I give unto you, that ye love_ 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 _kind_ these +Christians are to the poor and afflicted, without distinction of +religion or country; but how they _love each other_!" + +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 +_object_, (yea, a dear and precious _object_) of spiritual duties, +though the _conscious_ 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 _brought_ to him--the children _in +arms_, respecting whom _Jesus was much displeased with his disciples, +who had rebuked those that brought them_! What more expressive of the +true character of that originant yet _generic_ 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 _crime_, in whom the evil principle +was present only as _potential_ being, and whose outward semblance +represented the kingdom of Heaven? And can it--to a man, who would +hold himself deserving of _anathema maranatha_ (1 Cor. xvi. 22.) if he +did not _love the Lord Jesus_--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 _one_ 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 _ruled_ 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 _beautiful_ effects, of this ordinance _now_ 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 _mollia tempora fandi_. + +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 afterwards _cast into the sweet waters from +this fountain_, and made them like _the waters of Marah_, 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 _durus pater infantum_ drew from the article +thus perverted. It is not, however, to the predecessors of this +African, whoever they were that authorized Paedo-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. _This_ office of religion, the +essentially moral and spiritual nature of which could not be mistaken, +this most _solemn_ office the Bishop alone was to perform. + +Thus--as soon as the _purposes_ of the ceremonial rite were by change +of circumstances divided, that is, took place at different periods of +the believer's life--to the _outward_ purposes, where the effect was +to be produced on the consciousness of others, the Church continued to +affix the _outward rite_; 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 _means_ to the _end_. + +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 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 RIGHTS OF BRUTES to the subversion of all the +DUTIES OF MEN. 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 _accident_, the same code of _Caliban_ +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 _time for all +things_, 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. + +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 +_disputable_ 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 _at any time_ can regard this difference as _singly_ +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. + +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)[152] "does not require assent and consent" to either opinion +"in order to _lay_ communion." But I will suppose the person a +_minister_: 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 _precluding_ a +different sense, yet the more probable interpretation is in favour of +A, that is, of those who do not consider the Baptism of an Infant as +_prospective_, but hold it to be an _opus operans et in praesenti_. +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, + +"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 +_one body, one household, one temple fitly framed together_: 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. + +"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?" + + _Marginal Note written (in 1816) by the Author in his own copy of + Wall's work._ + + 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 + _most_ 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.[154] + + * * * 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.[155] + +[147] 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 _revisions and enlargements_ 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 +kata sarka+ (that is, _according to the flesh_), in +distinction from St. John's or the Gospel +kata pneuma+ (that is, +_according to the Spirit_). + +[148] See Comment to Aphorism VIII., par. 3.--ED. + +[149] That every the least _permissible_ 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 +_there_, ought to be allowed _no where_--this has been _asserted_. But +that it has been _proved_, or that the tenet is not to be placed among +the _revulsionary_ 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, _Scrutamini Scripturas_, had set the world in +an uproar. + +Extremes _appear_ 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 _by pairs_, +like the two Hungarian sisters, always quarrelling and _inveterately +averse_, but yet joined at the trunk. + +[150] 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 Paedo-baptists before +and since the publication of his work. I confine myself to the +assertion--not that Infant Baptism was _not_; but--that there exist no +sufficient proofs that it _was_ the practice of the Apostolic age. + +[151] Let me be permitted to repeat and apply the _note_ in a former +page. Superstition may be defined as _super_stantium (_cujusmodi sunt +ceremoniae et signa externa quae, nisi in significando nihili sunt et +paene nihil_) _sub_stantiatio. + +[152] 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 _generally_ from many passages, +and in perfect accordance with the _spirit_ of the whole. + +A mighty wrestler in the cause of Spiritual Religion and _Gospel_ +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 _ex tempore_, 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. + +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 _had_ 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--_then_ indeed, +as the only way of removing the apparent contradiction, it _might_ be +allowable to call on the Anti-paedobaptist to prove the negative--namely, +that an infant a week old is not a subject capable or susceptible of +spiritual agency. And, _vice versa_, should it be made known to us, that +infants are not without reflection and self-consciousness--_then_, +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 +_assertion_, 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 _you_, honoured IRVING, are as little disposed, as myself, to +favour _such_ doctrine! + + Friend, pure of heart and fervent! we have learnt + A different lore! We may not thus profane + The Idea and Name of Him whose absolute Will + _Is_ Reason--Truth Supreme!--Essential Order![153] + +[153] For a further opinion upon Edward Irving see note at pp. 153-4 +of the 1839 edition of Coleridge's 'Church and State.'--ED. + +[154] 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.--ED. + +[155] 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.--ED. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +I am not so ignorant of the temper and tendency of the age in which I +live, as either to be unprepared for the _sort_ 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! (_as if novelty were any merit +in questions of Revealed Religion!_) It is _Mysticism_, 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. + +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, if possible, to preclude both the one and the +other stands prominent among its avowed objects.[156] + +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[157] 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 +Irenaeus, 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! + +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 _tolerable_ 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 _all_ 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 +chapter of this Gospel as a faithful, nay, _inspired_ 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 _most_ +appropriate; and which, after the most decisive proofs, that they +_were_ misinterpreted by the greater number of his hearers, and not +understood by any, he nevertheless repeated with stronger emphasis and +_without comment_ as the _only_ appropriate symbols of the great truth +he was declaring, and to realize which +egeneto sarx+;[158]--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 _mysterious_ and _spiritual_, 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;--_this_ I may, perhaps, +_understand_; but _this_ I am not able to vindicate or excuse. + +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 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.[159] + + +MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM. + +_Antinoeus._--"What do you call Mysticism? And do you use the word in a +good or a bad sense?" + +_Noeus._--"In the latter only; as far, at least, as we are now +concerned with it. When a man refers to _inward feelings_ and +_experiences_, 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 _idiosyncrasies_ 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 _reality_, 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 _every man_ 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 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 +_contagious_. It is apt to collect a swarm and cluster _circum fana_, +around the new _fane_: and therefore merits the name of Fanaticism, or +as the Germans say, _Schwaermerey_, that is, _swarm-making_." + + * * * * * + +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[160] the Child of Cain to have +found. And here, hungry 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 _outness_ 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 _piece +out_ 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. + +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. _He_ 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, 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 +_him_ 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. _He_ 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. + +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. ONLY NOT ALL +ARE MATERIALISTS. 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 _subject_ of his consciousness from the _objects_ of the +same. The former is his mind: and he says, it is immaterial. But +though _subject_ and _substance_ are words of kindred roots, nay, +little less than equivalent terms, yet nevertheless it is exclusively +to sensible _objects_, 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 _in fact_ he thinks of +his _mind_, as a _property_, or _accident_ of a something else, that +he calls a _soul_ or _spirit_: 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. + +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 _dynamic_ 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 _taught_, they have compelled us +to admit, that the immediate objects of our _senses_, or rather the +grounds of the visibility and tangibility of all objects of sense, +bear the same _relation_ and similar proportion to the _intelligible_ +object--that is, to the object which we actually _mean_ 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 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 _stuffs_ or elements, that are _sensuously_ 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 _eye_, by our _body_. But perhaps it may be a particular +_combination_ of these? But here comes a question: In this term do you +or do you not include the _principle_, the _operating cause_, of the +combination? If _not_, 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 _the light of the body_? Is this the _Micranthropos_ in the +marvellous microcosm? Is this what you _mean_ when you well define the +eye as the telescope and the mirror of the soul, the seat and agent of +an almost magical power? + +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 _these_ are indeed the living _flesh_, the +_blood_ of life? Or not far rather--I speak of what, as a man of +common sense, you really _do_, not what, as a philosopher, you _ought_ +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 strictest propriety of +language may I say, _speaks_. It is to the coarseness of our senses, +or rather to the defect and limitation of our percipient faculty, that +the _visible_ 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 _size_, the visibility of an organic +structure[162] 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 _bodily_ eyes transmit to +us; which our palates taste; which our hands touch. + +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 the solid ivory. That what you see _is_ blood, _is_ 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 _their_ kind;--these are not +fancies, conjectures, or even hypotheses, but _facts_; 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 _Subjective Idolism_, on the other: the one +obtruding on us a World of Spectres and Apparitions; the other a mazy +Dream! + +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. + +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 _positive_ properties, and obliged to +consider bodies as differing from equal portions of space[163] only by +figure and mobility. And as a _fiction of science_, 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 +(_Genesis i._) and to the tone and spirit of the Scriptures +throughout, Des Cartes propounded it as _truth of fact_: and instead +of a World _created_ and filled with productive forces by the Almighty +_Fiat_, 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! + +Holy! Holy! Holy! let me be deemed mad by all men, if such be thy +ordinance: but, O! from _such_ madness save and preserve me, my God! + +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 _vortices_;[164] then the +necessity of an active power, 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 _Law_ without an Agent +to realize it, a _Constitution_ without an abiding Executive, is, in +fact, not a Law but _an Idea_. 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 _Deity itself_ 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 _is_ every thing. _Jupiter +est quodcunque vides._ 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 +_pleuronectae_ (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. + +And what has been the consequence? An increasing unwillingness to +contemplate the Supreme Being in his _personal_ 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 _fastidium_. Alas! even the +sincerest seekers after light are not safe from the contagion. Some +have I known, constitutionally religious--I speak feelingly; for I +speak of that which for a brief period was my own state--who under +this unhealthful influence have been so estranged from the heavenly +_Father_, the _Living_ 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 _taste_ co-operates with the +prevailing fashion: many, who find the God of Abraham, Isaac, and +Jacob, far too _real_, too substantial; who feel it more in harmony +with their indefinite sensations + + To worship Nature in the hill and valley, + Not knowing what they love:-- + +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 + + A sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air; + A motion and a spirit, that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things! + + WORDSWORTH. + +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! + +Be it, however, that the number of such men is _comparatively_ small! +And be it (as in fact it often _is_) 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 _substratum_, a FATE, 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 _necessitated_ +Being; those, for whom justice is but a scheme 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. _Evidences_ of Christianity! I am weary of +the word. Make a man feel the _want_ of it; rouse him, if you can, to +the self-knowledge of his _need_ only the express declaration of +Christ himself: _No man cometh to me, unless the Father leadeth him_. +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. + +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 _criteria_ of reality, namely, Permanence, Power, +Will manifested in Act, and Truth operating as Life. _My words_, said +Christ, _are spirit_: and they (that is, the spiritual powers +expressed by them) _are truth_; that is, _very_ Being. For this end +our Lord, who came from heaven to _take captivity captive_, 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 _phaenomena_, 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 _understand_ +them--_res, quae sub apparitionibus istis statuendae sunt_. And this +awful recalling of the drowsed soul from the dreams and phantom world +of sensuality to _actual_ 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 _spiritually_ discerned,--were mere +metaphors, figures of speech, oriental hyperboles! "All this means +_only_ Morality!" Ah! how far nearer to the truth would these men have +been, had they said that Morality means all this! + +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. + +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 +_peculiar_ doctrines of 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 +_something_; but _what_ 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 +(_ad normam Grotianam_) 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. + +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 _Make-faith_; 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 _rational_ Christian--or with +a sighing, self-soothing sound between an Ay and an Ah!--_I_ am +content to think, with the great Dr. Paley, and the learned Archbishop +of Dublin---- + +Man of Sense! Dr. Paley _was_ a great man, and Dr. Magee _is_ a +learned and exemplary prelate; but YOU do not _think_ at all! + +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 quae +forsitan vere perhibeantur. Minus hercule calles, pravissimis +opinionibus _ea putari mendacia, quae vel auditu nova, vel visu rudia, +vel certe supra captum cogitationis (extemporaneae tuae) ardua +videantur_: quae si paulo accuratius exploraris, non modo compertu +evidentia, sed etiam factu facilia, senties.[165] + + * * * * * + +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:-- + +"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." + +Paedianus says of Virgil,--_Usque adeo expers invidiae, ut siquid +erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gauderet ac si suum +esset_. 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 and feelings, when +they respect himself. The cordial admiration with which I peruse the +preceding passage, as _a master-piece of composition_, 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 +_doctrine_. + +[156] See Preliminary to Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion, &c.--ED. + +[157] So in first edition, 1825.--ED. + +[158] Of which our _he was made flesh_, 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. + +[159] 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.--ED. + +[160] 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? + + "Encinctur'd with a twine of leaves, + That leafy twine his only dress! + A lovely boy was plucking fruits + In a moonlight wilderness.[161] + The moon was bright, the air was free, + And fruits and flowers together grew + On many a shrub and many a tree: + And all put on a gentle hue, + Hanging in the shadowy air + Like a picture rich and rare. + It was a climate where, they say, + The night is more belov'd than day. + But who that beauteous boy beguil'd, + That beauteous boy to linger here? + Alone, by night, a little child, + In place so silent and so wild-- + Has he no friend, no loving mother near?" + + WANDERINGS OF CAIN. + +[161] "By moonlight, in a wilderness."--'Poetical Works,' edit. +1863.--ED. + +[162] See p. 40.--ED. + +[163] Such is the conception of body in Des Cartes' own system, _body_ +is every where confounded with _matter_, 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 _plurality_ of +self-subsisting souls, and we have Berkeleyanism; assume one only +(_unam et unicam substantiam_), and you have Spinosism, that is, the +assertion of one infinite self-subsistent, with the two attributes of +thinking and appearing. _Cogitatio infinita sine centro, et omniformis +apparitio._ How far the Newtonian _vis inertiae_ (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--_Gedanken von der wahren +Schaetzung der lebendigen Kraefte_: 1747--in which Kant demonstrates the +_right reasoning_ to be with the latter; but the Truth of _Fact_, the +evidence of _Experience_, 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 _vis inertiae_. And +Leibnitz, with the Bernouillis, erred in the attempt to demonstrate +geometrically a problem not susceptible of geometrical construction.--The +tract, with the succeeding _Himmels-system_, may with propriety be +placed, after the _Principia_ 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.--ED.] + +[164] For Newton's own doubtfully suggested ether, or _most_ 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 _ens imaginarium_ into physical science, a suf_fiction_ +in the place of a legitimate sup_position_; 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 _put_ 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. + +[165] _Apul. Metam._ 1.--H. N. C. + + + + +APPENDIX A. + +A SYNOPTICAL SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME OF THE ARGUMENT TO PROVE THE +DIVERSITY IN KIND[166] OF THE REASON AND THE UNDERSTANDING. +SEE P. 143. + + +The Position to be proved is the _difference in kind_ of the +Understanding from the Reason. + +The Axiom, on which the Proof rests, is: Subjects, which require +essentially different General Definitions, differ _in kind_ and not +merely _in degree_. For difference _in degree_ forms the ground of +_specific_ definitions, but not of _generic_ or general. + +Now Reason is considered either in relation to the Will and Moral +Being, when it is termed the[167] Practical Reason = A: or relatively, +to the intellective and Sciential Faculties, when it is termed +Theoretic or Speculative Reason = _a_. In order therefore to be +compared with the Reason; the Understanding must in like manner be +distinguished into the Understanding as a Principle of _Action_, 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 = _b_. Accordingly, I give the General Definitions of +these four: that is, I describe each severally by its _essential +characters_: and I find, that the definition of A differs _toto +genere_ from that of B, and the definition of _a_ from that of _b_. + +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. + +[166] This summary did not appear in the first edition.--ED. + +[167] N. B. The Practical Reason alone _is_ Reason in the full and +substantive sense. It is reason in its own sphere of _perfect +freedom_; as the source of _IDEAS_, 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 _conclusion_ is rather the _Light_ of Reason in the +_Understanding_, and known to be such by its contrast with the +contingency and particularity which characterize all the proper and +indigenous growths of the Understanding. + + + + +APPENDIX B. + +ON INSTINCT: + +BY PROFESSOR J. H. GREEN. + +[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"[168] 1840, where it appears at pp. 88-96. It was +then given without the Professor's introductory words, which we now +add.--ED.] + + +The following remarks on the import of instinct are those to which +Coleridge refers in the "Aids to Reflection" (p. 177, last +edition[169]) 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 discourse, and with the writings of Coleridge on this +important subject. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 Hueber'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; +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 +manoeuvre. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _storge_ 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, 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 _de supra_, 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. + +[168] '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.--ED. + +[169] 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.--ED. + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT. + +(_Letters on the Inspiration of the Scriptures._) + +BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. + + +The 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.--[HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE.] + +LINCOLN'S INN, _September 22, 1840_. + + + + +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.--_Hooker._ + +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, _vice versa_, 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.--[COLERIDGE'S _Literary Remains_.] + +Faith subsists in the _synthesis_ 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,--_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._ Now, as _Life_ 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.--[COLERIDGE'S _Essay on Faith: Literary Remains_, vol. iv. +page 437. We reprint the entire essay at the end of the present +volume. See p. 339.--ED.] + + + + +THE PENTAD OF OPERATIVE CHRISTIANITY + + + _Prothesis_ + Christ, the Word. + + _Thesis_ _Mesothesis_, _Antithesis_ + or the Indifference, + + The Scriptures. The Holy Spirit. The Church. + + _Synthesis_ + The Preacher.[170] + +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 _Prothesis_, or +identity;--the Scriptures and the Church are the two poles, or +_Thesis_ and _Antithesis_; and the Preacher in direct line under the +Spirit, but likewise the point of junction of the Written Word and the +Church, is the _Synthesis_. + +This is God's Hand in the World. + +[170] Coleridge gives this same "Pentad" in his "Notes on Donne," +"Literary Remains," v. iii. pp. 92-153.--ED. + + + + +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:-- + +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?-- + +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. + + + + +LETTERS ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. + + +LETTER I. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +I employed the compelled and most unwelcome leisure of severe +indisposition in reading _The Confessions of a fair Saint_ in Mr. +Carlyle's recent translation of the _Wilhelm Meister_, which might, I +think, have been better rendered literally _The Confessions of a +Beautiful Soul_.[171] 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-- + + In darkness there to house unknown, + Far underground, + Pierc'd by no sound + Save such as live in Fancy's ear alone. + That listens for the uptorn mandrake's parting groan! + +I should, perhaps, be a happier--at all events a more 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. + +I shall best communicate the state of my faith by taking the creed, +or system of _credenda_, 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 _quantum_ of recipiency and coincidence in +myself relatively thereto, in order to complete my Confession of +Faith. + +I. The Absolute; the innominable +Autopator+ et _Causa Sui_, in whose +transcendant I AM, as the Ground, _is_ whatever _verily_ is:--the +Triune God, by whose Word and Spirit, as the transcendant Cause, +_exists_ whatever _substantially_ exists:--God Almighty--Father, Son, +and Holy Ghost, undivided, unconfounded, co-eternal. This class I +designate by the word, +Stasis+. + +II. The Eternal Possibilities; the actuality of which hath not its +origin in God: _Chaos spirituale:_--+Apostasis+. + +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 +(+metanoia+):--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:--+Metatasis+--+Anastasis+. + +IV. But these offers, gifts, and graces are not for one, 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--+tes apostaseos+--; so also +in those of the Change at the Redemption--+tes metastaseos, kai tes +anastaseos+. We too shall be raised _in the Body_. 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, _phaenomena_ 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. + +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. + +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 A.D. 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 +rather, a work, _cujus particulas et sententiolas omnes et singulas +recogniturus sum_, 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 _up into the mountain_, and hold secret +commune with my Bible above the contagious blastments of prejudice, +and the fog-blight of selfish superstition. _For fear hath torment._ +And what though _my_ 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 _the +Word that was in the beginning_;--the Light, of which light itself is +but the _shechinah_ 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 +_lie for God_, but seek as I may, be thankful for what I have--and +wait. + +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 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 _finds_ me, bears witness for itself that it has +proceeded from a Holy Spirit, even from the same Spirit, _which +remaining in itself, yet regenerateth all other powers, and in all +ages entering into holy souls maketh them friends of God, and +prophets_. (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,[172] 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. + +[171] _Bekenntnisse einer schoenen Seele_.--H. N. C. + +[172] _Si quis--(Esdrae primum et secundum, Tobiam, Judith, Esther, +&c.)--pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit, ... anathema sit._ Conc. +Trid. Decr. Sess. IV.--H. N. C. + + +LETTER II. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +In my last Letter I said that in the Bible there is more that _finds_ +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, 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? + +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 _phaenomena_ 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. + +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 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 _he_ 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,[173]--the conclusion drawn from them involving +likewise so obviously a _petitio principii_, 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, _obitaneously_, 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 +theopneustia+ 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 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 _Elder to the elect lady and her children, whom he loved +in the truth_. 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 _theopneusty_, 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 _one Word_, 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." + +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 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 _Hagiographa_, 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 +_Hagiographa_ 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. + +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,[174] 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. + +[173] With only one seeming exception, the texts in question refer to +the Old Testament alone. That exception is 2 Peter iii. 16. The word ++loipas (graphas)+ 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. + +[174] 2 Tim. iii. 16. + + +LETTER III. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +Having 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. + +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. + +"The present Bible is the Canon, to which Christ and the Apostles +referred?" + +Doubtless. + +"And in terms which a Christian must tremble to tamper with?" + +Yea. The expressions are as direct as strong; and a true believer will +neither attempt to divert nor dilute their strength. + +"The doctrine which is considered as the orthodox view seems the +obvious and most natural interpretation of the text in question?" + +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. + +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 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 _petitio principii_ of +which I complain. + +Still less do the words of our Lord[175] 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 +_Word of the Lord came_ 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? + +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 _dicta_ 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 _ab extra_ could be applied, the far larger part bore +witness in itself of the same spirit and origin; 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 _Dicta et Facta Francisci de Verulam_. 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! _He_ will set you right;" or,--"_There_ 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 _this_ +instance; but in that of the Bible it is quite otherwise;--for (I take +it as an admitted point that) it _is_ quite otherwise!" + +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 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. + +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! _Why_ 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 _which is the +life_,--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 _panharmonicon_, +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. _Why_ should I not?--Because the Doctrine +evacuates of all sense and efficacy the 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,[176] 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. + +_Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the +inhabitants thereof_--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 _mother in Israel_; +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 +_jeoparded their lives unto the death_ against the oppressors; and the +bitterness, awakened and borne aloft by the same love, she +precipitated in curses on the selfish and coward recreants who _came +not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord, against the +mighty_. 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 _Divina Commedia_ 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 _many-stringed instrument_ 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 _sweet Psalmist of +Israel_ was himself as mere an instrument as his harp, an _automaton_ +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. + +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 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 _liars for God_ 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 _routiniers_ 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. + +Farewell. + +[175] John v. 39. + +[176] I use the adverb _diversly_ from the adjective _divers_ 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 +_diversely_, from _diverse_, that is, different in kind, +heterogeneous. The same Spirit may act and impel diversly, but, being +a good Spirit, it cannot act diversely. + + +LETTER IV. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +You reply to the conclusion of my Letter: "What have we to do with +_routiniers_? _Quid mihi cum homunculis putata putide reputantibus?_ +Let nothings count for nothing, and the dead bury the dead! Who but +such ever understood the Tenet in this sense?"-- + +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 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 _is_ the +Doctrine which the generality of our popular divines receive as +orthodox, and this the sense which they attach to the words. + +For on what other ground can I account for the whimsical +_subintelligiturs_ 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 _criteria_ 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 +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 _ad libitum_, and _ad +libitum_ 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? + +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 _must_ 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 _Cherethi_ and +_Phelethi_[177] 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 _amanuensis_ 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 _minor_ 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? + +In fact, it is clear that the harmonists and their admirers held and +understood the Doctrine literally. And must not 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.[178] In the latter instance it 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 _witch_;--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. + +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 _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_. 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 _an evil +heart of unbelief_, and an alien spirit--what boots for them the +assertion that every sentence was miraculously communicated to the +nominal author by God himself? Will it not rather present additional +temptations to the unhappy scoffers, and furnish them with a pretext +of self-justification? + +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 _millennium_, +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. +_Jude_ 9),--fancies and anachronisms imported from the synagogue of +Alexandria into Palestine by, or together with, the Septuagint +Version, and applied as mere _argumenta ad homines_--(for example, the +delivery of the Law by the disposition of Angels, _Acts_ 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 _theses_, and then brought together to produce or sanction +some new _credendum_, 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 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.[179] + +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 word, it +expresses an important truth, but which by means of that word is made +to convey a most dangerous error. + +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. + +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 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 _their_ 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 _stat adhuc sub lite_. Every sentence found in a +canonical Book, rightly interpreted, contains the _dictum_ 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. + +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 _ultra_-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 _a priori_ +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, 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." + +If I should reason thus--but why do I say _if_?--I have reasoned thus +with more than one serious and well-disposed Sceptic; and what was the +answer?--"_You_ 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 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!--" + +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! + +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 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 _budded_ and, like the rod of +Aaron, _brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds_. +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:-- + +"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,--_quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab +omnibus_. 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 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. + +"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 _Urim and Thummim from the +breastplate of judgment_, 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." + +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. + +[177] 2 Sam. xx. 23; 1 Chron. xviii. 17.--H. N. C. + +[178] 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. _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._ +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."--_State Trials_, vi. p. +700.--H. N. C. + +[179] "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 +_junior soph_ 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."--_Lit. Remains_, III. pp. 175 and 183, [_Notes on +the Life of Bishop Hacket._]--H. N. C.--[See also the 'Aids,' ante, +pp. 99 and 107.--ED.] + + +LETTER V. + +Yes! 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 _faith that cometh by hearing_; 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 _out of the mouth_ 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 _fearing God_ 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 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." + +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." + +Farewell. + + +LETTER VI. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +In 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 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[180] may be reduced to a single question:-- + +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? + +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! + +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 rust is not rust, or that it is a rust +_sui generis_, 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?-- + +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 I AM, the Ever-living WORD, of whom all the elect +from the archangel before the throne to the poor wrestler with the +Spirit _until the breaking of day_ 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 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? + +Whatever is spiritual, is _eo nomine_ 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 saw thee under the fig tree_, +sufficed to make a Nathanael believe. + +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 _automaton_ 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 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. + +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 +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 +SPIRIT from the revelation of the informing WORD,--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. + +In the sacred Volume they saw and reverenced the bounden wheat-sheaf +that _stood upright_ and had _obeisance_ 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, + + and furrow-weeds, + Darnel and many an idle flower that grew + Mid the sustaining corn; + +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 _bread from heaven_; 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 +_fiat_--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 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! + +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 _ordo traditionis, quam tradiderunt Apostoli +iis quibus committebant ecclesias_, and which we should have been +bound to follow, says Irenaeus, _si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas +reliquissent_. This is that _regula fidei_, that _sacramentum symboli +memoriae mandatum_, of which St. Augustine says;--_noveritis hoc esse +Fidei Catholicae fundamentum super quod edificium surrexit Ecclesiae_. +This is the _norma Catholici et Ecclesiastici sensus_, 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 +paradosis +ekklesiastike+, _cui_, says Irenaeus, _assentiunt multae gentes eorum +qui in Christum credunt sine charta et atramento, scriptam habentes +per Spiritum in cordibus suis salutem, et veterum traditionem +diligenter custodientes_. 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:-- + +"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 (_2 Sam._ 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 _the love of God toward us was manifested in sending his only +begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him_ (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 _if God so loved +us, we ought also to love one another_ (1 John iv. 11), even our +enemies, yea, _to bless them that curse_ us, and to _do good to them +that hate_ 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!" + +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 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 _Hagiographa_, 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? + +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 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. + +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 _his_ religion. +For he has found it in his Bible, and the Bible is the Religion of +Protestants! + +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 and +gathering comfort, as it is scattered through the whole field of the +Scripture." + +Farewell. + +[180] It is remarkable that both parties might appeal to the same text +of St. Paul,--+pasa graphe theopneustos kai ophelimos pros +didaskalian, k.t.l.+ (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 +kai+. + +[The English version is:--_All Scripture is given by inspiration of +God, and is profitable, &c._ And in this rendering of the original the +English is countenanced by the established Version of the Dutch +Reformed Church:--_Alle de Schrift is van Godt ingegeven, ende is +nuttigh, &c._ And by Diodati:--_Tutta la Scrittura e divinamente +inspirata, e utile, &c._ And by Martin:--_Toute l'Ecriture est +divinement inspiree, et profitable, &c._ And by Beza:--_Tota Scriptura +divinitus est inspirata, et utilis, &c._ + +The other rendering is supported by the Vulgate:--_Omnis Scriptura, +divinitus inspirata, utilis est ad, &c._ By Luther:--_Denn alle +Schrift von Gott eingegeben, ist nuetse zur, &c._ And by +Calmet:--_Toute l'Ecriture, qui est inspiree de Dieu, est utile, &c._ +And by the common Spanish translation:--_Toda Escritura, divinamente +inspirada, es util para ensenar, &c._ 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:--_Legimus, Omnem +Scripturam, aedificationi habilem, divinitus inspirari._ De Habit. Mul. +c. iii. Origen has it several times, +Theopneustos ousa, ophelimos +esti+, and once as in the received text.--H. N. C.] + + +LETTER VII. + +You 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. + +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 shadowed out the everlasting Gospel. +But with regard to the second, neither the holy writers--the so called +_Hagiographi_--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 _this_ 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. + +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 _opus operatum_,--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, 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! + +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. + +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--_as_ subjective and +supernatural. + +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, I have named the Indifference.[181] +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. + +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 +_the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit_, that we have +received the _spirit of adoption_; 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 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 _cloak +left at Troas with Carpus_, 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. + +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 _are in Him that is true_, they seek with vain precautions _to +guard against the possible inferences_ which perverse and distempered +minds may pretend, whose whole Christianity,--do what we will--is and +will remain nothing but a Pretence. + +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. + +Farewell.[182] + +[181] "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 _mesothesis_ [or +indifference] of the two, and substituted an alien compound for the +genuine Preacher, who should be the _synthesis_ of the Scriptures and +the Church, and the sensible voice of the Holy Spirit."--_Lit. Rem._ +v. iii. p. 93, [_Notes on Donne._]--H. N. C. See also p. 288, +_ante_.--ED. + +[182] 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.--ED. + + + + +AN ESSAY ON FAITH; + +NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER; AND + +A NIGHTLY PRAYER. + +BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. + +(REPRINTED FROM HIS LITERARY REMAINS.) + + +[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 _ante_. +They are otherwise fairly supplementary of the two works which +constitute the bulk of the present volume. + +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. + +In the latter connexion, too, the dates appended by the author +(apparently) to the 'Notes on the Book of Common Prayer,' _in two +places_, pp. 352, 358, and to the 'Nightly Prayer,' p. 359, have +considerable biographical interest.--ED.] + + + + +ESSAY ON FAITH + + +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 (_regula maxima_, 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; 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 (_patientes_)--not, as in the other case, _simply_ +passive. + +The result is, the consciousness of responsibility; and the proof is +afforded by the inward experience of the diversity between regret and +remorse. + +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 the conscience exist, either as +a good conscience or as a bad conscience. + +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, _scire possunt hoc +vel illud una cum seipsis_; that is, _conscire vel scire aliquid +mecum_, or to know a thing in relation to myself, and in the act of +knowing myself as acted upon by that something. + +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 take it as the same, and therefore as +incapable of comparison, that is, of any application of the will. If +then, I _minus_ the will be the _thesis_;[183] Thou _plus_ will must +be the _antithesis_, 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,--_a fortiori_, the precondition of all +experience,--and that the conscience cannot have been in its first +revelation deduced from experience. + +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 _plus_ will, the other as _minus_ will, so is it +here: and it is obvious that the reason or _super_-individual of each +man, whereby he is a man, is the factor we are to take as _minus_ +will; and that the individual will or personalizing principle of free +agency (arbitrement is Milton's word) is the factor marked _plus_ +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 +_synthesis_ 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 _prothesis_, 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 +_syntheses_; for example, appetite _plus_ personal will = sensuality; +lust of power, _plus_ personal will, = ambition, and so on, equally as +in the _synthesis_, on which the conscience is grounded. Not this, +therefore, but the other _synthesis_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _eminenter_. 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. + +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 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, _discursus_, _discursio_, +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." + +We will now take up our reasoning again from the words "motion in +itself." + +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 _synthesis_ 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 (+phronema sarkos+), 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. + +IV. Reason, as one with the absolute will (_In the beginning was the +Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God_), 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 selves, to the +personal will as seeking its objects in the manifestation of itself +for itself--_sit pro ratione voluntas_;--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. + +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 _idem_ is modified by +the _alter_. And there arise impulses and objects from this +_synthesis_ of the _alter et idem_, 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 _antithesis_ in the abdominal system: but hence +arises a _synthesis_ 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 _alter_, than when it is +confined to the _idem_; 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 _per medium +commune_ 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, _He that loves father or mother more than me, is +not worthy of me_; 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. + +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. + +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 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 ++phronema sarkos+ 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. + +Thus, then, to conclude. Faith subsists in the _synthesis_ 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,--_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._ Now, as _Life_ +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. + +[183] There are four kinds of _Theses_, +Theseis+, puttings or +placings. + + 1. _Prothesis._ + 2. _Thesis._ 3. _Antithesis._ + 4. _Synthesis._ + +A and B are said to be thesis and antithesis, when if A be the +_thesis_, B is the _antithesis_ to A, and if B be made the _thesis_, +then A becomes the _antithesis_. Thus making me the _thesis_, you are +thou to me, but making you the _thesis_, I become thou to you. +_Synthesis_ is a putting together of the two, so that a third +something is generated. Thus the _synthesis_ 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 _synthesis_, +but still remain a blade and a handle. And as a _synthesis_ is a unity +that results from the union of two things, so a _prothesis_ is a +primary unity that gives itself forth into two things. + + + + +NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. + + +PRAYER. + +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. _Pray always_, 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. + + +THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST. + +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; _the light which lighteth every man_, so that what we call +reason, is itself a light from that light, _lumen a luce_, 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. _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._ John i. 9-14. Again--_We will come unto him, and make our +abode with him._ 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. + +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 sacrament; +but it is, _Do this in remembrance of me_,--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. + + +COMPANION TO THE ALTAR. + + 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. + +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? + + 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. + +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. + + +COMMUNION SERVICE. + +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 a solemn, eminent, and representative instance, an +instance and the symbol, Christ is our spiritual food and sustenance. + + +MARRIAGE SERVICE. + +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. + + +COMMUNION OF THE SICK. + +Third rubric at the end. + + But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, &c. + +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"?[184] + + +XI. SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. + +Epistle.--1 Cor. xv. 1. + +_Brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you._ + +Why should the obsolete, though faithful, Saxon translation of ++euangelion+ 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? + +Ib. + +---- _how that Christ died for our sins._ + +But the meaning of +hyper ton hamartion hemon+ is, that +Christ died through the sins, and for the sinners. He +died through our sins, and we live through his righteousness. + +Gospel.--Luke xviii. 14. + +_This man went down to his house justified rather than the other_. + +Not simply justified, observe; but justified rather than the other, +e +ekeinos+,--that is less remote from salvation. + + +XXV. SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. + +Collect. + + ---- that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, + may of thee be plenteously rewarded. + +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." + + +PS. VIII. + + V. 2. _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._ + +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 _because of the enemies_, 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. + +Ib. v. 5. + + _Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and + worship_. + +Power + idea = angel. + +Idea - power = man, or Prometheus. + + +PS. LXVIII. + + V. 34. _Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel: his worship and + strength is in the clouds_. + +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. + + +PS. LXXII. + +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. + + V. 1. _Give the king thy judgments, O God; and thy righteousness + unto the king's son._ + +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! + + +PS. LXXIV. + + V. 2. _O think upon thy congregation, whom thou hast purchased and + redeemed of old._ + +The Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, the God-Man, the +Judge, the self-promised Redeemer to Adam in the garden! + + V. 15. _Thou smotest the heads of the Leviathan in pieces; and + gavest him to be meat for the people in the wilderness._ + +Does this allude to any real tradition?[185] The Psalm appears to have +been composed shortly before the captivity of Judah. + + +PS. LXXXII. VV. 6-7. + +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. + + +PS. LXXXVII. + +I would fain understand this Psalm; but first I must collate it word +by word with the original Hebrew. It seems clearly Messianic. + + +PS. LXXXVIII. + +Vv. 10-12. _Dost thou show wonders among the dead, or shall the dead +rise up again and praise thee? &c._ + +Compare Ezekiel, xxxvii. + + +PS. CIV. + +I think the Bible version might with advantage be substituted for +this, which in some parts is scarcely intelligible. + + V. 6--_the waters stand in the hills._ + +No; _stood above the mountains_. The reference is to the Deluge. + + +PS. CV. + + V. 3. _Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord._ + +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! + + +PS. CX. + +V. 2. _The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion_; (saying) +_Rule, &c._ + +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." + +V. 5. "He shall shake," concuss, _concutiet reges die irae suae_. + +V. 6. For "smite in sunder, or wound the heads;" some word answering +to the Latin _conquassare_. + +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. + +N.B.--I see no poetic discrepancy between vv. 1 and 5. + + +PS. CXVIII. + +To be interpreted of Christ's Church. + + +PS. CXXVI. + + V. 5. _As the rivers in the south._ + +Does this allude to the periodical rains?[186] + +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![187] 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! + + +ARTICLES OF RELIGION. + +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 _jure +proprio_: on matters of faith her judgment is to be received with +reverence, and not gainsayed but after repeated inquiries, and on +weighty grounds. + + XXXVII. It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the + magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in wars. + +This is a very good instance of an unseemly matter neatly wrapped up. +The good men recoiled from the plain words--"It is lawful for +Christian men at the command of a king to slaughter as many Christians +as they can"! + +Well! I could most sincerely subscribe to all these articles. +September, 1831. + +[184] "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.--ED.] + +[185] According to Bishop Home, the allusion is to the destruction of +Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.--H. N. C. + +[186] See Horne in loc. note.--H. N. C. + +[187] See p. 140, _ante_. 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.--ED. + + + + +A NIGHTLY PRAYER. 1831. + + +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 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 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. + +_Our Father, &c._ + +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. + +Glory be to thee, O God! + + + + +ERRATUM. + + +At p. 140, line 23 of the foot-note, for p. 123, 124, _read_ pp. +130-132. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Absolute Will, the, 224, 225. + + Absurd, the, xxxii, 227. + + Act, originating an, 176-7. + + Adam, the word, in Genesis, and as used by St. Paul, 194. + + ---- and his posterity, God's anger against, 186. + + ---- possible Spiritual Fall antecedent to him, 195. + + ---- and Eve, assertions respecting their state, 194. + + Adam's Fall, 172. + + ---- sin, its penalty, death, 183. + + Admiration, love of, 127. + + AEolists, the, 45. + + 'Aids to Reflection,' the author's aims in the work, ix, xi, xiii, xv, + xix, xxiii, lxvi, 102, 103, 205. + Republication of it in America, xii, xxvii. + Importance of the work, xxvi, xl. + Doctrines propounded in it, xxvii. + Its orthodoxy, xxi, lvi. + Objections to it answered, lxviii. + Criticism of it anticipated, 45, 258. + Its origin, xx, 108. + Its first edition, ix, xv, xix. + Dr. Marsh's essay on it, xii, xxiii. + Break in the work through the author's illness, 160. + Its plan, 204. + The notes to it, 152, 205. + Purposed supplement to it, 257. + See also under Reason and Understanding, the Will, &c. + + Alcohol, 100. + + Allegory and Symbol in Scripture Interpretation, 212. + + _Alogi_, the modern, 219. + + Altar, Companion to the, 352. + + America, Dr. Jas. Marsh, a disciple of Coleridge there, xii. + + Amusements, the care for, and the neglect of study, 151. + + Anabaptism, 253. + + Analogy in the New Testament, 136. + + _Anathema Maranatha_, 251. + + Anatomy, Comparative, xx. + + Ancient wisdom, the treasures of, lxxiii; + Coleridge no contemner of them, _ib_., lxxiv. + + Animal development in the _polypi_, &c., 58. + + ---- life typical of the understanding and the moral affections, 74. + + Antinoues and Noues, their Dialogue on Mystics and Mysticism, 261. + + Antithesis, 225. + + Ants and bees, intelligence of, Hueber, &c., on, 145-147. + + Aphorisms, 15. + + Apocrypha, the, 295. + + Apostasy, 342. + + ---- possible, antecedent to Adam, 195. + + Apostolic Church, the, 257. + + Arbitrement, the word, 344. + + Argument and Belief, 234. + + Aristotle and Locke, 44. + + ---- and Plato, ideas of God, 167. + Their philosophy and that of Bacon, lxvii. + + Arminianism, or Grotianism, 107. + + Arminius, Bp. Hacket on, 107. + + Arnauld's work on Transubstantiation, 260. + + Art, Nature and, 167. + + Arts, trades, &c., and thinking, xix. + + Articles of the Church of England, 358. + They show the Church as not infallible, 257. + Locke's philosophy opposed to them, xii. + + Aseity, the divine, 224. + + Astronomy, modern, and the Bible, 312. + + Atheists, the, of the French Revolution, 121. + + Atonement, 215, 216. + + ---- vicarious, 103. + + Attention, thought and, 3. + + Augustine and Original Sin and Infant Baptism, 247, 252. + On Faith and Understanding, xviii. + + Augustinians, the, 107. + + Authority and power, distinction between, 358. + + Author, an, and his readers, xv, xviii. + The worth of an author, xvi. + + Author's, an, view of his own work, 275. + + Autobiography, religious, 49. + + + Bacon, Lord, 317, 304. + + ---- his philosophy that of the divines of the Reformation, and + opposed to that of Locke, lxiv, lxvii, + while agreeing with that of Coleridge, lxvii. + + ---- his philosophy and that of Plato and Aristotle, lxvii. + + ---- on Reason and the Understanding, lxvii, 143. + + Baptism, on, 242, 243, _et sq._, 250. + Baxter on, 247. + Differences on no ground for schism, 254, 257. + D'Oyly and Mant and the Evangelicals on, 254. + Edward Irving on, 254-5. + Coleridge's answer to Irving, _ib._ + Robinson's History of, 246. + Wall on, 247, 254. + Superstitions respecting, 249. + + ---- of infants, origin of, 246, 251. + Argument for, 250. + + ---- and Preaching, 242. + + ---- and Redemption, 209. + + ---- and Regeneration, 136. + + ---- not Regeneration, 226. + + Baptism, See also Anabaptism. + + Baptist, conversation with a, on infant and adult baptism, 243, _et sq._ + + Basil and his scholars, 75. + + Baxter, on Baptism, 247. + + ---- his "censures of the Papists," quoted, 141. + + ---- and Howe, religious teaching of their times, liii. + + Beasts, understanding in, 144. + + Bee, the, 74. + + Bees and ants, intelligence of, Hueber, &c., on, 145-147, 281. + + ---- and instinct, 281. + + Behmen, Jacob, 258, 263. + + Behmenists, &c., 94. + + Belief, xxxvi, 66, 122, 127. + + ---- ground of, xxxi, xxxii. + + Belief, the, of children, 128. + + ---- of the absurd, impossible, xxxii. + + ---- and argument, 234. + + ---- and superstition, 287. + + ---- and truth, 293. + + Belsham's version of the Testament, 316. + + Berkleyanism, 268. + + Bernard, St., xxv. + + Bernouillis, 269. + + Bible, the, 293, 296. + Its divine origin, 289. + A source of true belief, but not itself a creed, 315. + George III. on, 200. + Historical discrepancies in, 309. + Inspiration of, 52. + Reading it, 65. + See also under New Testament, Psalms, Scripture, Inspiration, &c. + + ---- the, and Christian Faith, 289. + + Biblical criticism, Coleridge's, 285, 289. + + Bibliolatry, and mis-interpretation of the Bible, 107, 313. + + Birth, the word as used by Christ, 272. + + Blood, the word as used by Christ, 27. + + Bonnet's view of instinct, 279. + + Book-making, 152. + + Books for the indolent, 151. + + Books, popular, _ib._ + + Bosom-sin, 10. + + Bread, the word as used by Christ, 272. + + Breath, the enlivening, 4. + + Brown's Philosophy, xxxix, xlix. + + Browne, Sir T., and his strong faith, 137. + + Brutes and man, 2, 341, 343; + Paley, Fleming, and others on, lx. + + ---- and the will, 201. + + Bruno, Giordano, 269. + + Bucer, 227. + + Buffon, 24. + + Bull and Waterland, their works, 211-12. + + Burnet, extract from, 123. + + Butler, S., 45. + + + Cabbala, the, of the Hutchinsonians, 314. + + Cabbalists, the, 299. + + Calling, effectual, doctrine of, 37. + + Calumny, 70. + + Calvin, the works of, 105. + + Calvinism, modern, 73, 104. + That of Jonathan Edwards, 105. + That of New England, 105. + + Calvinists, the, of Leighton's day, 94. + + Capital punishment, 90. + + Carbonic-acid gas, Hoffman's discovery of, 162. + + Carlyle's translation of 'Wilhelm Meister,' 291. + + Cartesian and Newtonian philosophies, the, 268. + + Catholic, and Roman Catholic, the terms, 141. + + Cause, an Omnipresent, 40. + + ---- and effect, xlviii, 42, 44, 175. + + Cephas, and the Jews who followed him, 215. + + Ceremonies, 12, 13. + + Ceremony and Faith, 248. + + Cherubim, 7. + + Children, the belief of, 128. + + ---- Jesus and the, 250. + + Christ, 234, 350, 360. + His agony and death, 103. + His Cross and Passion, 207. + His _hard sayings_, 212. + His _New commandment_, 249. + His death, 202. + + Christ, the Christian's pattern, 203. + + ---- contemplation of, 350. + + ---- faith in, 208. + + ---- present in every creature, 351. + + ---- the Redeemer of "every creature," 350. + + ---- the Word, 288. + + ---- and His Apostles, 212. + + ---- and the children, 250. + + ---- Paul and Moses, 241. + + ---- Redemption by, 106. + + "Christ, In," the phrase, 104. + + Christ's aids to the sinner, 104. + + ---- use of the words, water, flesh, blood, birth, and bread, 272. + + Christian, the, no Stoic, 57. + + ---- Dispensation, the, xviii; + and the Law of Moses, 240. + + Christian Faith, xvi, xviii, 232. + A vindication of its whole scheme promised by the author, 103. + + ---- Faith and the Bible, 289. + + ---- love, 58. + + ---- ministry, the, 35, 68, 96. + + ---- Philosophy, 91. + + ---- Religion, the, 123. + + _Christian Spectator_, 1829, Controversy there on the Origin of Sin, liv. + + Christians, early, and the Jews, 215. + + ---- and war, 358. + + ---- should be united in one Church (extract from Wall), 256. + + Christianity, 272. + Arguments against, 194. + Is a vanity without a Church, 200. + Coleridge's views on, xxx. + The essentials of, 247. + The "Evidences of," 134, 272, 319. + The doctrines peculiar to, 11, 73, 130. + The knowledge required by, 5, 7. + Not to be preferred to truth, 66. + Not a theory but a Life, 134. + Operative, the Pentad of, 288. + TRY IT! 134. + + ---- and Mythology, 188. + + ---- and the old philosophy, 84. + + Church, the word, 114. + + Church, Christianity a vanity without a Church 200. + + ---- a National, 196. + + ---- the, 288. Field's work on, 208. + + ---- the _most_ Apostolic, 257. + + ---- of England, the, 73. See also Articles, &c. + + ---- divines, orthodox, 230. + + ---- going, 84. Undue love of Church, or sect, 66. + + ---- History, the sum of, 66. + + ---- ordinances and the New Testament, 246. + + 'Church and State,' Coleridge's, 198, 261, 273. + + Circumcision, 245. + + Circumstance and the Will, 177. + + Coleridge, S. T.--_Personal._-- + To a friend halting in his belief of Christianity, 320. + C.'s Baptist friend, 243. + C.'s convictions, 300, 301. + His conversation, &c., 278. + His defence of his work, 274. + His editors, 337. + They remiss, 103, 337. + His friends, 361. + His proficiency in Hebrew, and friendship with Hyman Hurwitz, 358. + His language and style, xxx, lxix. + His alleged unintelligibility, lxix. + His philosophical and philological attainments, intellectual powers, + and moral worth, lxxiv. + His attempts at proselytizing, 337. + His religious experiences, 291. + He was not at war with religion, xxxi. + His "twenty years" of contention for the contra-distinction of Reason + and the Understanding, 160. + His love of truth, 291. + + Coleridge, S. T.--_His works._-- + His lengthy notes to the 'Aids to Reflection', 153, 205. + Criticism of the 'Aids' anticipated, 45. + 'The Ancient Mariner' referred to, 262. + His promised 'Assertion of Religion,' &c., 103. + 'Christabel' alluded to, 262. + 'Church and State' referred to, 273. + His correspondent in the 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' 301. + 'The Friend' referred to, 181. + The Hebrew Tales in 'The Friend,' 358. + 'Israel's Lament,' _ib._ + The 'Lay Sermons' referred to, 56, 273. + His 'Lectures on Shakspere,' &c., referred to, 302. + His 'Literary Correspondence' in _Blackwood's Magazine_, + referred to, 117. + His 'Literary Remains,' 188, 314, 340. + His MS. Note-Books, 257. + His 'Nightly Prayer,' 340, 360. + His 'Wanderings of Cain' alluded to, and quoted, 262. + Tendency of his works, xi. + His _Watchman_, 23. + See also under 'Aids to Reflection,' 'Confessions,' &c. + + Coleridge. S. T.--_His Views._-- + He was no contemner of the ancient wisdom, lxxiii. + His views those of Bacon, lxiii; + and of the Reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries, lxiv. + Early views on Baptism, 252. + His Biblical criticism, 285. + He repudiates sympathy with the ideas of the Behmenists, &c., 94. + His view of Christianity, xxx, xxxvi; + an Evangelical view, xxx. + His Confession of Faith, 292. + On Edward Irving, 254-5. + Opposed to Locke, lvii. + The philosophy of the 'Aids,' lxvii. + "Coleridge's Metaphysics," lxx. + Views on the relations of prudence and morality, xxxi. + On Redemption, _ib._, 208. + On Religion, or the Spiritual life, xxxi, xxxvi, 339. + His transitional state of religious belief, 271. + His view of reason in relation to spiritual religion, xxxvi. + The key to his system, the distinctions between nature and free-will + and between understanding and reason, xxxii, lxiii. + His views on Original Sin, xxx. + On the terms _spiritual_ and _natural_, _ib._ + + Coleridge, S. T.--_Criticism of, &c._-- + C. termed un-English, 230. + Arguments for "extinguishing" him, _ib._ + C. and his critics, 258. + His alleged Mysticism, _ib._ + + Coleridge, H. N., on the 'Aids', xi; + on the tendency of Coleridge's works, _ib._; + on the 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' 285; + on Locke's philosophy and the Church, xii; + on Dr. Marsh's Essay, _ib._; + on reason and the understanding, xi. + + _Commandment, the New_, given by Christ, 249. + + Commonplace truths, 1. + + Common Prayer, Book of. See Prayer. + + Common-sense, 172. + + Commonwealth, religion of that time, 94. + + Communion Service, proposed emendations of, 352. + + Communion of the Sick, 353. + + Confession of sins, 352. + Luther on, _ib._ + + 'Confessions of a Fair Saint,' Goethe's, 291. + + 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,' v, 261, 284. + Is a key to Coleridge's Biblical criticism, 286. + H. N. Coleridge's advertisement to, _ib._ + Author's advertisement to, 289. + + Conscience, the, 80. + Is the only practical contradistinction between man and the brutes, 341. + Things opposed to it, 344. + + ---- and reason, 229, 345. + + ---- and the senses, 342. + + ---- and the will, _ib._ + + Consciousness, 58. + + Consequences, General, Paley's principle of, 181. + + Contemplation, religious, 124. + + Contempt, 68, 69. + + Content, 69. + + Controversies, religious, 67. + + Conversation, 72. + + Conversion, 16. + + Corpuscular philosophy, the, 265. + + Corruption and Redemption, 185. + + Cranmer, 227. + + Creation, the week of, 74. + + Creed, the, of the Reformed Churches, 292. + + Criticism of the 'Aids' anticipated, 45. + + ---- anonymous, &c., 258. + + Critics replied to, 258. + + Cupid and Psyche, and the Fall of Man, 189. + + Cyprian, and infant baptism, 251. + + Cyrus, 62. + + + Daniel, the Book of, 302. + + Daniel, S., quoted, ix, 75. + + Danton, 253. + + Darkest before day, 203. + + Darwin (E.) on instinct, 279. + + David and the sons of Michal, 186. + + Davy, Sir H., 265, 317. + + Death, the penalty of Adam's sin, 183. + The debt of, 219. + Fear of, 203. + Death the loss of immortality, and death eternal, 206. + Spiritual death, 217. + + ---- and the Resurrection, 204. + + Deborah, 306. + + Deceit, self, 61. + + Demonstrations of a God, &c., 120. + + Des Cartes, 268. + His theory of instinct, 279. + + Despair of none, 68. + + Despise none, and despair of none, 68. + + Detraction, 69, 70. + + Devil, the. See Tempter. + + Discourse = Understanding, 228. + + ---- and Shakspere's "discourse of reason," 346. + + Disputes in Religious Communities, 67. + + Dissent and the Church, 257. + + Diversely and diversly, the words, 306. + + Divines, our elder, 40. + + Docility is grounded in humility, 126. + + Doctrinal terms, 36. + + Dog, the, its species of moral nature, 164. + + Donne, quoted. 16. + + Doubt. 66. + + + Earthenware, enjoy your, as if it were plate, and think your plate + no more than earthenware. 69. + + Ecclesiastical history, 47, 272. + + Education of the young, xvi. + + Edwards, Jonathan, his Calvinism, 105. + + Election, the doctrine of, 37, 108, 111. + The word in St. Paul's writings 113. + + ---- arbitrary, and Reprobation, the doctrines of, 103. + + England, xix. + + Entertainment and instruction, xviii. + + Enthusiasm, 261. + Satire and, 46. + + Enthusiasts, the, of our Commonwealth time 94. + + Equivocation 29. + + Error, intellectual effect of, xlii, xlvii, lviii. + + Esther, the Book of, 302. + + Eternal death, 206. + + Eternal life, the promise of, 234. + + Eternity and Time, 209. + + Ethics, or the Science of Morality, 197. + + Eucharist, the, 200, 227, 257, 350. + Keble on Hooker's view of it, 353. + + Evangelical, Coleridge an, xxx. + + ---- clergy, the, on Baptism, 254. + + Evangelicals, the, 133, 210. + + Eve, the Serpent and, 171. + + Everlasting torment, 103. + + Evil, the origin of, liv, 102, 170. + + ---- and good, 197. + + ---- resistance to, 208. + + Examination, self, 11. + + Expedience is the anarchy of morals, 90. + + Expediency, xvii. + + Experience, 154. + + Expiation and pay, the words, 216. + + Extreme unction, the Romish doctrine of, 227. + + Extremes, 246. + + Eye, the, the body, &c., 266. + + Ezekiel, xvii, 356. + + + Faith, Essay on, 339. + + ---- xxxi, 7, 13, 137, 287. + The articles of, assimilation by, 259. + Christian Faith, 232. + Faith defined, 341. + St. Augustine on it, xviii. + The essay on it, 257. + The kinds of it, 348. + Its mysteries, 168. + Faith necessary, _ib._ Spiritual Faith, 85. + The strong faith of Sir T. Browne, 137. + + Faith and Ceremony, 248. + + ---- and Duty, 314. + + ---- and right reason, 228, 229. + + ---- Steadfast by, 208. + + Fall, the, 189, 293. + + ---- a Spiritual, possible before Adam, 195. + + Falstaff, the lying of, 310. + + Familists, 13, 94. + + Fanatic, when the mystic becomes one, 261. + + Fashion and holiness, 60. + + Fatalism, Locke's opinions tending to, lv. + + Fate, 271. + + Fathers, the, uncritical study of, 314. + + Fears, worldly, 52. + + Feeble, the, always popular, 274. + + Feelings, 57. + + Fenelon, a, 264. + + Fidianism, 138, 142. + + Field, Dr. R., and his work on the Church, 208. + + ---- extract from, 213. + + "Finds me," that (the utterance) which, 295, 296. + + Finite, the, faculty of, 346. + + Fleming, Dr., on man and the brutes, lx. + + Flesh, the word, as used by Christ, 272. + + ---- _according to the_, 242. + + ---- _manifested in the_, 217. + + ---- and Spirit, 225, 242. + + Flowers, 74. + + Forethought, 2. + + Forgiveness, 86. + Self-deceit in, 61. + The Socinian doctrine of, 86. + + Fortune and circumstance, the riddle of, 235. + + Freedom, the highest form of, 204. + + Free-thinking Christians, 230. + + Free-will, Luther's view of it, 105. + See also Will, &c. + + ---- and nature, xlix. + + French Revolution, the, 253. + The Atheists of it, 121. + + French people, and women, their talkativeness, 72. + + 'Friend, The,' Coleridge's, 269. + An essay there referred to, 181. + The Hebrew Tales in it, 358. + + Friendship, 33. + + Future life, the, and the present, 195. + + ---- state, belief in, 233, 237. + The same taught in the Old Testament, 52. + + + Galileo, 161. + + Geist = gas, 162. + + Generalization, 182. + + Genius and the dunces, 151. + + Genus and species, 149, 162. + + George III., on the Bible, 200. + + German Biblical philologists, 242. + Their views of the Gospels and St. John, _ib._ + + God, the idea of, 76, 81, 116, 120, 191, 255. + Ideas of Aristotle and Plato, 167. + Demonstrations of a God, 120. + God _is_ reason, 255. + God present in every creature, 351. + His anger with Adam and his posterity, 186. + His communion with man, 82. + His hand in the world, 288. + His personal attributes, 270. + Two great things given us by him, 234. + + ---- _manifested in the flesh_, 209. + + ---- and the world, serving, 60. + + Godless Revolution, the, 199. + + Goethe's 'Confessions of a Fair Saint' ('Wilhelm Meister'), 291. + + Good and evil, 197. + + Good men and vicious, radical difference between, 72. + + Goodness more than prudence, xvii. + + "Good tidings," 354. + + Gospel, hearing the, 84. + Its language and purport, 135. + The word Gospel in the Prayer-Book, 354. + + Gospel, the, and Philosophy, 122, 124, 125. + + Gospels, the, 242. + + Grace, 200. + The doctrine of, 38. Growth in, 10, 62. + Warburton's tract on, 258. + + Grammar and Logic--parts of speech, 117. + + Gravity, the law of, 270. + + Green, Prof. J. H., his essay on Instinct, 278. + His exposition of the difference between Reason and the + Understanding, 160. + His 'Vital Dynamics,' referred to, 59; + and quoted, 278. + His remarks upon Coleridge's conversation, &c., _ib._ + + Grief, worldly, 52, 57. + + Grotian interpretation of the Scriptures, 243. + + Grotianism, or Arminianism, 107. + + Gunpowder, white, slander so termed, 70. + + + Hacket, Bishop, 107, 314. + Extract from, 99. + + Hagiographa, the, 300. + + Hale, Sir Matthew, his belief in witchcraft, 311. + + Happiness, 28, 74. + The desire of the natural heart for it, 17. + + "Hard sayings," the, of Christ, 212. + + Harmonists of the Scriptures, 309. + See also Bible, inspiration of, &c. + + Harrington quoted, on reason in man, 137. + + Hawker, Dr., 316. + + Hearne on the Indians, 237. + + Hebrew theocracy, the, 307. + + ---- Tales in 'The Friend', 358. + + 'Henry VI.,' Shakspere's, 302. + + Herbert, Lord, 139. + + Herbert's 'Temple,' quoted, 10. + + Hereditary sin is not original sin, 200. + + Heresies, the rise of, 314. + + Heresy, 15, 140. + + Hildebert, quoted, 141. + + Historical discrepancies in the Bible, 309. + + Hobbes, 24. + His philosophy, 92. + + Hoffman's discovery of carbonic-acid gas, 162. + + Holy Spirit, 360. + See also Spirit, &c. + + Hooker, 139. + Extract from, 129. + On the Eucharist, 353. + On Truth, 287. + + Hopes, worldly, 52. + + Howe and Baxter, the religious teaching of their times, lvii. + + Hueber on bees and ants, 75, 147. + The same as bearing upon instinct, 281. + + Humility the first requisite in the search for Truth, 126. + The ground of docility, 126. + + ---- and vanity, 69, 76. + + Hungarian sisters, the, 246. + + Hunter, John, 265. + + Hurwitz, Hyman, 140, 358. + + Hutchinsonians, the, 314. + + + I, the first person. See Person. + + I AM, the, 196, 360. + + Idealism, Materialism, &c., 268. + + Ideas, 277, 284. + + Idols, xi. + Worldly troubles are idols, 77. + + Imagination, wisest use of the, 54. + + Imitators and Imitation, 75. + + Immortality opposed to Death, 206. + + Imprudence, 79. + + Incomprehensible, the, 227. + Incomprehensibility no obstacle to belief, xxxvi. + + Inconsistency, 59. + + Indians, the, Hearne on, 237. + + Indolent, the busy indolent, and the lazy indolent, their + requirements in books, 151. + + Infallibility, 257, 296, 316. + + Infants, Baptism of. See Baptism. + + ---- the Presentation of, 252. + + Infidel arguments against the Bible, 316. + + Infidelity, and how to treat it, 77. + + ---- and Jacobinism, 253. + + Infinite, the, and the Finite, 54. + + 'Inquiring Spirit, Confessions of an.' See 'Confessions,'&c. + + Inquisition, the, and the Bible, 313. + + Insanity, 342. + + Insects, 74. + Vital power of, &c., 163. + + Inspiration of every word in the Bible, the doctrine argued + against, 296, 309. + See also Bible, Scriptures, &c. + + Instinct, 74, 160, 162, 279. + Its nature, 280. + Hueber's bees and, 281. + Prof. J. H. Green, on, 278. + How it is identical with understanding; and how diverse from + reason, _ib._ + Maternal instinct, or storge, 283. + The instinct of anticipation in all animated nature, 237. + Right use of the term, 279. + + Instruction, early, 156. + + Instruction and entertainment, xviii. + + Insufflation, Roman Catholic, 227. + + Interpretation. See Bible, &c. + + Irrational, the, 228. + + Irritability, 74. + + Irving, Edward. His view of baptism answered, 255. + + + Jacobinism and Infidelity, 253. + + Jael, the morality of, 311. + + _James, Epistle_ (i. 21), 61; (i. 25), 13, 202; (i. 26, 27), 12, 13. + + Jebb, Dr., 49. + + Jesus. See Christ. + + ---- "the name of", 115. + + Jewish faith, articles of the, 130, 132. + + ---- Church and people, the, 250. + Their canonical books, 298. + + ---- history and sacred records, 358. + + Jews and Christians, foundations of their religious beliefs, 238. + See also Rabbinical. + + ---- the, and the early Christians, 215, 238. + + Jews, Coleridge's attempt to convert one, 337. + + Job, the Book of, 307. + + John (i. 2), 13. + + ---- (i. 18), 212. + + ---- (iii. 13), 211. + + ---- (v. 39), 246. + + ---- (vi.) 212. + + ---- (1 v. 20), 4. + + John the Baptist, 242. + + John, St., the Evangelist, 217. + His Gospel, 242, 258, 350. + His writings, 211. + See also, for passages, John (i. 18), &c. + + Jonah, the Book of, parabolical, 174. + + + Kant, 269. + + Keble on Hooker quoted, 353. + + Kepler, 269. + + Knowledge, 36, 65, 81. + The sort required for Christianity, 5, 7. + Purity requisite for its attainment, 64. + Knowledge not the ultimate end of religious pursuits, 65. + Knowledge, if right, not enough to do right, 81. + + + Lactantius quoted, xiv. + + Language, 160. + Coleridge's precision of, lxix. + Strictures of, 127. + + Lavington, Bishop, 47. + + Law, 12, 40, 270. + + ---- and Religion, 186. + + ---- the word, St. Paul's and St. John's use of, 202. + + ---- the, and Christ, 201. + + ---- the, of Moses, and the Christian dispensation, 240. + + ---- W., his mysticism, 'Serious Call,' &c., 258-9. + + Learned class, the, 198. + + Leibnitz, 269. + + Leighton, Archbishop, extracts from, 2, 3, 17, 27, 29, 35, 36, 37, 39, + 50, 52, 54, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74, + 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 104, 106, 137, 200, 202, 203, 242. + + ---- remarks on, xviii, 94, 102. + His sublime view of religion and morality, xxi. + + Lessing, 232. + + Liars for God, 308. + + Lies, Falstaff's, 310. + + Life, 4. + + ---- prospects, the fear of injuring, 68. + + Literary bravos and buffoons, their attacks upon Coleridge, 258. + + 'Literary Remains,' Coleridge's, 188, 314, 340. + + Liturgy, spots on the, 257. See also Prayer Book, &c. + + Locke, his philosophy and that of Coleridge and Bacon, lviii, lxvi. + His opinions and Fatalism, lv. + Dangerous tendency of his views, xii, xlix. + + ---- and Aristotle, 44. + + Logic and Grammar--parts of speech, 117. + + Logodaedaly and logomachy, 81. + + Lord's Prayer, the, 132. + + Love, 24. + + ---- and Christian love, 58. + + ---- and the will, 25. + + "Love, the Family of," Dutch religious sect, 95. + + Lovers' quarrels, 67. + + Luther, 210, 213, 254. + Extract from, 201. + His view of Freewill, 105. + + + Madness, 269. + The passage of wickedness into madness, 342. + + Magee, Dr., on Redemption, 274. + + Maimonides, 232. + + Man fleeing from God, 83. + + ---- reason in, 345. Man a thinking animal, xix. + See also Reason, &c. + + ---- and the brutes and lower creatures, 2, 75, 341, 343. + See also Reason, Instinct, &c. + + Maniac, 25, 178. + + _Manifested in the flesh_, 217. + + Mant and D'Oyly on Baptism, 254. + + Marat, 253. + + Marinus quoted, xiv. + + Marriage, 25. + And the marriage service, 353. + + Marsh, Dr., 107. + + ---- Dr. James, of Vermont, U.S., and his Essay on the 'Aids,' xii, + xxiii. + + Materialism, 91. + And Idealism, &c., 265. + + Materialists, the, 24. + Avowed and unavowed, 264. + + Maternal instinct, 283. + + Mathematical atheists, the, of the French Revolution, 121. + + Meekness, 79. + + Mendelssohn, Moses, 232. + + Merit, 85. + Men of little merit, 69. + + Metanoia, 86. + + Metaphor, xi, 214. + The same in the Gospels, 136. + + Metaphors in Scripture interpretation, 200. + + Metaphysical opinions and the doctrines of Revelation, xliv. + + Metaphysics, 45, 171. + + ---- the objections to, lxxi. + + Methodist fanatics, 210. + + Michal, the sons of, David's treatment of them, 186. + + Milton on reason and the understanding, lix. + + Milton's word arbitrement = free agency, 344. + + Mind, the human, 2, 80. + Differences in, 149. + + "Mind of the flesh," St. Paul's, 346. + + Minimifidianism, 142, 244. + See also Fidianism. + + Ministry, the Christian, 2, 35, 68, 96. + Worldly views in, 68. + Students for it addressed, xvi. + An unlearned ministry incapable, 98. + + Miracles, those worked by Christ, 231. + + Miraculous, the term, 64. + + Mirth, 52. + + Moral Law, the, 130, 132. + + ---- Philosophy, 199. + + ---- Science, 89. The same and Political Economy,196. + + ---- and Religious Aphorisms, 35. + + Moralist, Paley not a, 196. + + Morality, 12, 14, 20, 62, 131. + Of the Bible, 311. + Morality less than religion, xvii. + Religious morality, 45, 85. + Transition from morality to religion, 63. + + ---- and the people, 196. + And prudence, xvii, xxxi, 19, 64, 131, 273. + + Morality and religion, xvii. + See also Religion and morality. + + Morals, Expedience is the anarchy of, 90. + + More, Dr. H., 94. + Extracts from, 95, 96, 98. + + Moses, 62. + The books of, 299. + + ---- Paul and Christ, 241. + + Motannabbi, his _Fort_-philosophy, 237. + + Motives, xlix, 39, 58. + + Mysteries of Religion, xviii, 158. + + Mysticism, 227, 258, 260, 261. + + Mythology and Christianity, 188. + + + Name, the word, 152. + As applied to God and Christ in Scripture, 351. + + Natural and Spiritual, the terms, Coleridge's view of, xxx. + + ---- Theology, 272. + + Naturalist, a, 238. + + Nature, 44. + The fairy-tale of, 41. + The term, &c., 166. + The Religion of (so called), 158. + The worship of, 271. + + ---- and Art, 167. + + ---- and Free-will, xxxii, xlix, 42, 44, 167, 176. + + ---- and religion, 57. + + Necessitarians, creed of the, lii. + + New England Calvinism, 105. + + ----, religion in, lxvi. + + New Jerusalemites, and Coleridge's attempt to convert one, 337. + + New Testament, the misinterpretations in, xlviii. + The authorized version defective, 12. + + ---- and the Church, 246. + + Newton, Pope's epigram on, 230. + + Newtonian and Cartesian philosophies, the, 268. + + Newtonian system, the, 156. + + Nicholas, H., the Familist, 95. + + Novelty, 258. + Its use, 1. + The fault of, 230. + The passion for novelty in thought, 72. + + + Obedience, total, impossible, 183. + + Oersted, 265. + + _Old man, the_, St. Paul's use of the term, 194. + + Order, 255. + + Origin of Sin, controversy on, in the _Christian Spectator_, 1829, liv. + + Originating an act, 176-7. + + Original, the word, 175, 178. + + Original Sin, 172. + Apologue illustrating the bearings of Christianity on the fact and + doctrine, 192. + Original sin not hereditary sin, 200. + Augustine and Original sin, 247. + + ---- and Redemption, 206. + Coleridge's view of, xxx. + + Orthodoxy, 78. + Popular orthodoxy, 309. + + + Pagan philosophy, xvii. + See also Philosophy, the old, &c. + + Paedo-Baptists, 244. + + Paley, Dr., 239, 273, 274, 275. + Not a moralist, 196. + His principle of General Consequences, 181. + His 'Evidences,' 232. + On man and the brutes, lx. + A passage in his Moral and Political Philosophy criticized, 230. + + Papists, Baxter's censures of the, 141. + + Paradox, 5. + + Parr, Dr., on Paley, 230. + + Passion no friend to Truth, 79. + + Paul, St, 16, 212. + His use of the names Adam, and _the old man_, 194. + The word "election" in his writings, 113. + His Epistles to the Romans, and to the Hebrews, 238. + His use of the word Law, 202. + On the remission of sin, 213, 215. + His view of schism, 254. + His writings, 211. + For St. Paul's writings, see also under _Romans_, &c. + + Paul, Moses, and Christ, 241. + + Pay and expiation, the words, 216. + + Peace (or Reconcilement), 50. + + Peasants' War, the, and other revolutionary outbreaks, 253. + + Pelagianism, 57, 247, 252. + + Pentad, the, of Operative Christianity, 288. + + Pentateuch, the, 299. + See also Bible, &c. + + People, the, and the ministry, 6. + + ---- the, and morality, 196. + + Perfectionists, 98. + + Person, the first--No I possible without a Thou, 343. + + Peter Martyr, 227. + + _Peter, St._, Epistle II., 298. + + Petrarch quoted, 21. + + Pharaoh, destruction of, 356. + + Pharisees and Sadducees, the, 133. + + Philosophic Paganism, modern, 128. + + Philosophy, + prejudice against in religious communities, xxxiii. + Modern philosophy, xlvii, lx, 156. + The Scottish, xlix, lxv. + + ---- and religion, necessity of combining their study, xxxix. + + ---- the old, and Christianity, 84. + + ---- and the Gospel, 122, 124. + + Phrenology, 100. + + Physico-Theology, 272. + + Pity, 23, 34. + + Plato, the misinterpreters of, 92. + + ---- and Aristotle, ideas of God, 167. + + Platonic philosophy, lxvii. + Platonic view of the Spiritual, 20. + + Pleasure, 30. + + Plotinus on the soul, 53. + + Political Economy and Moral Science, 196. + + Polypi, &c., development in, 58. + + Pomponatus, and his _De Fato_, 159. + + Pope's epigram on Newton, 230. + + Popery and the Bible, 313. + + ---- See Roman Catholicism, &c. + + Popular Theology, 274. + + Power, xlix. + + ---- and authority, distinction between, 358. + + Prayer, 350, 361. + The philosophy of, 257. + + ---- The Lord's, 132. + + ---- A Nightly, 340, 360. + + ---- Book of Common, Notes on, 257, 337, 338, 350. + Proposed alterations in, 352, _et sq._ + + Preacher, the, 288. + + Preaching, 61. + Baptism and preaching, 242. + + Pride, 69, 76. + + ---- and humility, 75. + + Priestley, Dr., 139, 239, 270. + + Principle, 40. + + Prometheus, 189, 270. + + Promise, the _ingrafted word of_, 237. + + Proselytizing, Coleridge's attempts at, 337. + + Prospects in life, fear of injuring, 68. + + Protestantism and schism, 316. + + Prothesis, Thesis, &c., forms of Logic, 118, 343. + + Prudence, 11, 17, 18, 22, 33, 34, 131. + Prudence distinct from Morality, xvii, 131. + + ---- and Morality, Coleridge's views of their relations, xxxi, 64. + + Prudential Aphorisms, 27. + + Psalms, the, 302. See also Prayer Book. + + Psilanthropism, 139, 160. + + Psilanthropists, 138. + + Ptolemaic system, the, 156. + + Public, pampering the, 152. + + Public Good, the: "We want public souls," 98. + + Pulpit, + insincerity in the, 318. + Pulpit "routiniers," 308. + + Purgatory, 206. + And the Bible, 313. + + Purity requisite to the attainment of knowledge, 64. + + + _Quarterly Review_, the, on Baptism and Regeneration, 226. + + + Rabbinical and other dotages on the Scriptures, 194. + + Railers at religion, 78. + + Ransom, the word, 216. + + _Rational_ Christian, the, 274. + + Rational interpretation of the Scriptures, xxxviii. + + ---- and reason, the words in relation to religion, xxxiii, 8. + + Readers and authors, xv, xviii. + + Reason + In man, 137. + Neglect of studies belonging to it, xvii. + Discernment by, 4. + Reason not the faculty of finite, 345. + God _is_ reason, 255. + Practical reason, 97, 115, 164, 277, 283. + Right reason and Faith, 228, 229. + Reason is super-individual, 346. + + ---- and its antagonists in man, 345. + And the conscience, 229, 345. + Reason and rational, use of the words in relation to religion, xxxiii. + Reason and the Spirit, 96; and Spiritual religion, xxxvi. + + ---- the, and the Understanding, xi, 135, 142, 143, 171. + Their difference in kind, 143, 148. + Coleridge's "twenty years" of contention for this distinction, 160. + The distinction a key to Coleridge's system, xxxii. + Prof. J. H. Green's view, 278. + Milton's view, lix. + Summary of the scheme of the argument, 277. + [For this argument see also Understanding, &c., the 'Aids' throughout, + _passim_, and the 'Confessions' in part.] + + Reason and the will, 344. + See also Will. + + Reasoning in religion, rule for, 108. + + Reconcilement, 50. + + Reconciliation, 61, 215. + The word and its connection with money-changing, 215. + + Redeemer, the, 13. + See also Christ, &c + + ---- "every man his own," 87. + + Redemption, 143, 200, 257, 293. + Coleridge's view of, 208. + The doctrine of, xiii, 106, 195, 223. + Dr. Magee on, 274. Its mystery, 208. + + ---- and Baptism, 209. + + ---- and corruption, 185. + + ---- and Original Sin, 194, 206. + + Reflection, xxv, xxvi, 1, 2, 4. + Art of, xiii, xix. + Need of, xiii, xix. + + Reformation, the, Bacon and, lxiv. + + Reformed churches, the creed of the, 292. + Religion in New England, lxvi. + Railers at religion, 78; + and satirical critics of it, 45. + Speculative systems of religion, 126. + The spiritual in religion, 20, 61. + The three kinds of religion corresponding with the faculties + in man, 21. + Where religion is, 196. + See also Spiritual religion, &c. + + Reformers, the, of the 16th and 17th centuries, lvi, lvii. + + Regeneration, 200, 217. + + ---- and Baptism, 136. + The doctrine that "Regeneration is only Baptism" refuted, 226. + + Regret and remorse, 105, 342. + + Religion, 29, 156, 158. + Advantages of, 32. + Coleridge's views on, xxx, xxxii. + The mysteries of religion, xviii, 158. + Natural religion, 120, 157. + The "Religion of Nature," &c., 158. + Rule for reasoning in religion, 108. + The word in _James_ (i. 26, 27), 12. + + ---- and Law, 190. + + ---- and Morality, xvii, xxi, 273. + 'Lay Sermons' referred to, 273. + + ---- and Nature, 57. + + ---- and philosophy, necessity of combining their study, xxxiii, xxxix. + + ---- and science, 162. + + 'Religion, Assertion of,' &c., Coleridge's unpublished work, 103. + + Religious amalgamation, 67. + + ---- Aphorisms, Moral and, 35. + + ---- autobiography, 49. + + ---- communities, disputes in, 67. + Their prejudice against philosophy, xxxiii. + + Religious contemplation, 124. + + ---- controversies, 67. + + ---- experiences, 291. + + ---- morality, 45. + + ---- philosophy, elements of, 88. + + ---- professors, detraction among, 70. + + ---- pursuits, 65. + + ---- teaching of the time, and of that of Baxter and Howe, lvii. + + ---- toleration, the limitations of, 139. + + ---- truths and speculative science, 205. + + ---- unions, 67. + + Remorse, 82. + Remorse and regret, 105, 342. + + Repentance, 85. + Jeremy Taylor's work on, 207, 213. + + ---- and forgiveness, 86. + + Reprobation, doctrine of, 103. + + Responsibility, 342. + + Resurrection, death and the, 204. + + Revelation, the doctrines of, and metaphysical opinions, xliv. + + Revolution, the Godless, 199. + + Revolutionary, Geryon, the, 253. + + Ridicule, 47. + + Right, a knowledge of the right not enough for doing right, 81. + + ---- misuse of the word, 181. + + ---- and wrong, 81, 181. + + Righteousness, imputed, 73. + + ---- and virtue, 6. + + Rites and ceremonies, 12, 358. + + Robespierre, 253. + + Robinson, Wall, and Baxter on Baptism, 247. + + Robinson's 'History of Baptism,' 246. + + Roman Catholic, and Catholic, the terms, 141. + + ---- Catholic Church. See also Romish Church, &c. + + ---- Catholics, 141. + Coleridge's attempts to convert, 337. + Their doctrine of the punishment of sin, 213. + + ---- Catholicism, 239, Is inseparable + from Popery, 200. + Insufflation and extreme unction in, 227. + + _Romans_, Epistles, quoted, &c. xxxix, 39, 42, 43, 113, 174. + + Romish Church, the, 199, 246. + See also Roman Catholic, &c. + + ---- hierarchy, source of their power, 213. + + ---- superstition respecting the Eucharist, 353. + + + Sacrament, doctrine of the, 260. + Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the best preparation for it, 350. + + Sacramentaries, the "freezing poison" of their doctrine + of the Eucharist, 351. + + Sadducees and Pharisees, the, 133. + + Saint, and St. See the names of the Saints, as John, Paul, &c. + + Salvation, the doctrine of, 36. + + Satire and enthusiasm, 46. + + Satirical critics of religion, 45. + + Savages, their belief in a future life, 237. + + Saviour, The, 165, 169. + + Scepticism, origin of, 29. + + Sceptics, unwilling, 103. + + Scheme, a, not a science, 195. + + Schism, and St. Paul's view of it, 254, 256, 257. + + ---- and Protestantism, 316. + + Science and religion, 162, 205. + + ---- what is, and what is merely a scheme, 195. + + Scottish philosophy at fault, xlix, lxv. + + Scripture, 8, 288. + Figure of speech in, 56, 313. + Its language, 55. + Its literal sense the safer, 56. + See also Bible, Inspiration, &c. + + ---- interpretation, 101, 194, 205, 243. + Private interpretation denounced, 199. + Rational interpretation, xxxix. + See also Allegory, Metaphor, Bible, &c. + + Scriptures, Letters on the Inspiration of the. + See 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit.' "Search ye," &c., 246. + + _Scrutamini Scripturas_, Selden on, 246. + + Sect, or Church, lovers, aphorism for, 66. + + Seed analyzed, 41. + + Seekers, the, 94. + + Selden on _Scrutamini Scripturas_, 246. + + Self, 306. + + Self-deceit, 61. + + Self-interest, prudent, 34. + + Self-knowledge, xix, lxxi. + + Selfishness, 99. + + Self-questioning, 205. + + Seneca quoted on spiritual truths, 96. + + Senses, conscience and the, 342. + + Sensibility, 22. + + Serpent, the, and Eve, 171. + + Shaftesbury, 128. + His philosophy, 92. + + Shakspere, and his doubtful works, 302. + His "discourse of reason," 346. + His Falstaff, 310. + + ---- Coleridge's 'Lectures' on, referred to, 302. + + Sick bed, a, 207. + + Silence, the virtue of, 71. + + Sin,--"The subtle bosom sin,", 5, 10. + Original Sin, 172. + Roman Catholic doctrine of the punishment of sin, 213. + The remedy for sin, 70. + The tyranny of sin, 34. + See also Origin of Sin, Original Sin, &c. + + Sins, confession of. See Confession. + Imitating sins, 75. + + Skink, the, 78. + + Slander, 70. + + Smith, John, his Tracts (1660), quoted, 167. + + Socinian doctrine of forgiveness, 86. + + Socinianism, 231. + + Socrates, 64. + + Sophisms, exposing, xvii. + + Sorrow, 57. + + Soul, the, 83. + Its different faculties assigned to parts of Religion, 21. + Its immortality, 236. + Its organs of sense, 57. + Plotinus on the soul, 53. + Soul and Spirit, 203. + See also Spirit, &c. + + South, Dr., and his speculations upon the state of Adam and Eve, 194. + + Southey's 'Omniana' referred to, 55. + + Space, 116. + + Spanish refugee, a, on Christianity and Protestantism, 239. + + Species and genus, 149. + + Speculative reason and Theology, 122. + + Spinoza, 227. + + Spinozism, 268. + + Spirit, 43, 99. + The Holy Spirit, 39, 50, 56, 96, 101, 288, 361. + How the Holy Spirit's presence is known, 39. + Pretended call of the Spirit, 98. + The term Spirit, 38, 100. + The Spirit in man is the Will, 55, 88. + + Spirit, _according to the_, 242. + + ---- body, soul and, 361. + + ---- and flesh, 225, 242. + + ---- and reason, 96. + + ---- and soul, 203. + + ---- and the will, 167. + + ---- and the Word, 317. + + Spiritual, the, Platonic view of, 20. + The Spiritual in man, 88, 204. + In religion, 20, 61. + + ---- and natural, the terms, xxx. + Misinterpretation of the terms in the New Testament, xlviii. + + ---- Communion, 200. + + ---- influences, rational, 39, 50. + + ---- life and spiritual death, 217. + + ---- religion, xxxvi, xlii, 272. + That which is it indeed, 102. + Aphorisms on, 88, 96. + The transition from morality to spiritual religion, 63. + + Squash, the, 78. + + St., and Saint. See the names of the Saints, as John, Paul, &c. + + 'Statesman's Manual,' Coleridge's referred to, 199. + + Sterne, 24. + + Stoic, the, 57. + + Storge, or maternal instinct, 283. + + Stuart, Prof. (? Moses), and his Commentary on the Epistle + to the Hebrews, xl. + + Student, the Theological, an aphorism for him, 66. + + Students for the ministry addressed, xvi. + + Study neglected for amusement, 151. + + Subjective and Objective, 117. + + Success and desert, 235. + + Superstition, 126, 248. + + ---- and belief, 287. + + Superstitions go in pairs, 246. + + Superstitions respecting Baptism, 249. + + Swallow, the, 74. + + Swedenborgian, Coleridge's, alleged conversion of a, 337. + + Swift, 45. + + Symbol, 173. + + Symbolical and allegorical, difference between, 212. + + + 'Table Talk,' Coleridge's, editions of, 337. + + Talkativeness of women and Frenchmen, 72. + + Taylor, Jeremy, 170, 228, 230. + Extracts from his works, 172, 187, 228, 229, 234. + His 'Deus Justificatus,' 172, 187. + His 'Liberty of Prophesying,' and his alteration of it, 245. + His work on Repentance, 207, 213. + + Technical phrases, 59. + + Temperance inculcated, 59. + + Temple, the light of the, 292. + + Temptation, 186. + + Tempter, the, 166. + + Terms, Doctrinal, 36. + Technical, 59. + See also Words. + + Testament, New. See New Testament. + + ---- Old. See Bible. + + ---- the Old and the New, 133. + + Theological student, aphorism for the, 66. + + "Theology, Natural," so called 168, 272. + + Theology, Physico, 272. + + ---- popular, 274. + + ---- speculative, and reason, 122. + + Theses, kinds of, Prothesis, Thesis, &c., 118, 343. + + Thinking man, the, xix. + + "Thinking souls, we want," 100. + + Thought, the faculty of, 3. + The passion for novelty in, 72. + Thought and attention, 3. + + Thurtel, the murderer, his "bump of benevolence," 100. + + Time and Eternity, 209. + + 'Titus Andronicus,' Shakspere's, 302. + + Toleration, 67, 68. + + Tongue, the, and detraction, 70, 71. + The phrase "Hold your tongue!" _ib._ + + Tooke, Home, his Winged words, xv. + + Torment, everlasting, 103. + + Trades, arts, &c., and thinking, xix. + + Transfiguration, the, 312. + + Transgressions, the saving power of, 129. + + Transubstantiation, 87, 123. + Arnauld's work on, 260. + + Trinity, The, 116, 121. + The doctrine of, 102. + + Troubles, refuge from, 76. + Worldly troubles, 77. + + Truth, 71. + Christianity is not better than truth, 66. + Hooker on, 287. + Truth must be sought in humility, 126. + Love of truth, 291. + Truth Supreme!, 255. + + ---- and belief, 293. + + ---- partial, zealots of, 251. + + Truths, the most useful, 1. + + + Ultrafidianism, 138. + + Understanding = discourse, 228. + How modified in man, 283. + St. Augustine on, xviii. + The word in St. John, 4. + + ---- and instinct, 162. + + ---- and reason, 135, 346. + The distinction between, xxxii, 205. + Confusion of the terms, lviii, lxi, 167. + See also Reason and Understanding. + + Unicity, 138. + + Unions, Religious, 67. + + Unitarian, the word, 138. + + Unitarianism not Christianity, 140. + Its doctrine of self-salvation, 87. + See also Psilanthropism, &c. + + Unitarians, 230, 232. + They should be called "Psilanthropists," 138. + + Unity, 40. + + ---- and the Unitarians, 138. + + Unkindness, 151. + + + Vanists, the, 94. + + Vanity and humility, 69. + + Vice a wound, 129. + + ---- and virtue, the twilight between, 24. + + Vico, G. B., quoted, xiv. + + Vicious men and good, 72. + + Virgil, 275. + + Virtue, 30, 128. + Virtue a medicine and vice a wound, 129. + Virtue and righteousness, 6. + + 'Vital Dynamics,' Prof. Green's, referred to, 59; quoted, 278. + + Vital power of insects, &c., 163. + + + Wall, W., his tract on Baptism, 254, 255. + On the Church, and unity among Christians, 256-57. + + Warburton, 45, 239. + His tract on Grace, 258. + + Wars and Christian men, 358. + + Water, the word as used by Christ, 272. + + Waterland and Bull, their works, 211-12. + + _Watchman_, the, Coleridge's, 23. + + Wesley, John, and the Bible, 311. + + Wickedness, 54. + When it passes into madness, 342. + + Will, 176. + The Absolute Will, 224, 255. + A good will, 197. + When will constitutes law, 201. + The will of the Spirit, 203. + The will = the spirit in man, 88. + Jeremy Taylor on the will, 231. + See also Original Sin, &c. + + ---- and the brute animals, 201. + + Will and Free-will, 342. + + ---- and the judgment, xviii. + + ---- and love, 25. + + ---- and reason, 344. + + ---- Free, xlix, 39, 40, 42, 56, 104, 163, 176, 185, 190. + + Wind-harp, a, 207. + + Witch of Endor, the, and misinterpretation of the word witch, 311. + + Witchcraft, and Sir M. Hale, 311. + + Women and Frenchmen, talkativeness of, 72. + + ---- and religious fanaticism, 210. + + Wonder, 156. + + "Word, the, that was in the beginning", 294. + The Divine Word, 6. + The informing Word, 4. + The Word as a Light, 242. + The Word and the Spirit, 317. + + Words, xvi. + Their force as used by Coleridge, lxix. + Hobbes on, 167. + Importance of a knowledge of words, 5. + Legerdemain with words, 23, 81. + Meaning and history of words, 15, 100. + The science of words, xvi. + The use of words, 150. + See also Terms, and some words under their several names. + + Wordsworth, 44, 271. + + Works, Good, 85. + + World, the, its unsatisfying nature, 54, 76, 82, 235. + Retiring from the world, 84. + + Worldliness and Godliness, 56, 60. + + Worldly activity, xvii; hopes and fears, 52. + Worldly views, influence of, 68. + + Wrapped up, unseemly matter, 358. + + Wrap-rascal, a, 121. + + + Young, the, education of, xvi. + + + Zealots of partial truth, 251. + + + + +CHISWICK PRESS:--C. 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