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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f46d4e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54793 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54793) diff --git a/old/54793-8.txt b/old/54793-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b4e9732..0000000 --- a/old/54793-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5114 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Paul and Protestantism, by Matthew Arnold - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: St. Paul and Protestantism - With an Essay on Puritanism and the Church of England - -Author: Matthew Arnold - -Release Date: May 27, 2017 [EBook #54793] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM *** - - - - -Produced by Delphine Lettau, Tony Browne & the Online -Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net - - - - - - - - - -ST. PAUL & PROTESTANTISM - - - "We often read the Scripture without comprehending its full - meaning; however, let us not be discouraged. The light, in God's - good time, will break out, and disperse the darkness; and we - shall see the mysteries of the Gospel." - - BISHOP WILSON. - - - "With them (the Puritans) nothing is more familiar than to plead - in their causes _the Law of God, the Word of the Lord_; who - notwithstanding, when they come to allege what word and what law - they mean, their common ordinary practice is to quote - by-speeches, and to urge them as if they were written in most - exact form of law. What is to add to the Law of God if this be - not?" - - HOOKER. - - - "It will be found at last, that unity, and the peace of the - Church, will conduce more to the saving of souls, than the most - specious sects, varnished with the most pious, specious - pretences." - - BISHOP WILSON. - - - * * * * * - - - - - ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM - - - _WITH AN ESSAY ON PURITANISM AND - THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND_ - - BY - - MATTHEW ARNOLD - - FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD - AND FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE - - _THIRD EDITION_ - - LONDON - - SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE - - 1875 - - (_The right of translation is reserved_) - - - * * * * * - -PREFACE. - -(1870.) - - -The essay following the treatise on St. Paul and Protestantism, was -meant to clear away offence or misunderstanding which had arisen out of -that treatise. There still remain one or two points on which a word of -explanation may be useful, and to them this preface is addressed. - -The general objection, that the scheme of doctrine criticised by me is -common to both Puritanism and the Church of England, and does not -characterise the one more essentially than the other, has been removed, -I hope, by the concluding essay. But it is said that there is, at -any rate, a large party in the Church of England,--the so-called -_Evangelical_ party,--which holds just the scheme of doctrine I have -called Puritan; that this large party, at least, if not the whole Church -of England, is as much a stronghold of the distinctive Puritan tenets as -the Nonconformists are; and that to tax the Nonconformists with these -tenets, and to say nothing about the Evangelical clergy holding them -too, is injurious and unfair. - -The Evangelical party in the Church of England we must always, -certainly, have a disposition to treat with forbearance, inasmuch as -this party has so strongly loved what is indeed the most loveable of -things,--religion. They have also avoided that unblessed mixture of -politics and religion by which both politics and religion are spoilt. -This, however, would not alone have prevented our making them jointly -answerable with the Puritans for that body of opinions which calls -itself Scriptural Protestantism, but which is, in truth, a perversion of -St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. But there is this difference between -the Evangelical party in the Church of England and the Puritans outside -her;--the Evangelicals have not added to the first error of holding this -unsound body of opinions, the second error of separating for them. They -have thus, as we have already noticed, escaped the mixing of politics -and religion, which arises directly and naturally out of this separating -for opinions. But they have also done that which we most blame -Nonconformity for not doing;--they have left themselves in the way of -development. Practically they have admitted that the Christian Church is -built, not on the foundation of Lutheran and Calvinist dogmas, but on -the foundation: _Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart -from iniquity._[1] Mr. Ryle or the Dean of Ripon may have as erroneous -notions as to what _truth_ and _the gospel_ really is, as Mr. Spurgeon -or the President of the Wesleyan Conference; but they do not tie -themselves tighter still to these erroneous notions, nor do their best -to cut themselves off from outgrowing them, by resolving _to have no -fellowship with the man of sin_ who holds different notions. On the -contrary, they are worshippers in the same Church, professors of the -same faith, ministers of the same confraternity, as men who hold that -their _Scriptural Protestantism_ is all wrong, and who hold other -notions of their own quite at variance with it. And thus they do homage -to an ideal of Christianity which is larger, higher, and better than -either their notions or those of their opponents, and in respect of -which both their notions and those of their opponents are inadequate; -and this admission of the relative inadequacy of their notions is itself -a stage towards the future admission of their positive inadequacy. - -[Footnote 1: II _Timothy_, ii, 19.] - -In fact, the popular Protestant theology, which we have criticised as -such a grave perversion of the teaching of St. Paul, has not in the -so-called Evangelical party of the Church of England its chief centre -and stronghold. This party, which, following in the wake of Wesley and -others, so felt in a day of general insensibility the power and comfort -of the Christian religion, and which did so much to make others feel -them, but which also adopted and promulgated a scientific account so -inadequate and so misleading of the religion which attracted it,--this -great party has done its work, and is now undergoing that law of -transformation and development which obtains in a national Church. The -power is passing from it to others, who will make good some of the -aspects of religion which the Evangelicals neglected, and who will then, -in their turn, from the same cause of the scientific inadequacy of their -conception of Christianity, change and pass away. The Evangelical clergy -no longer recruits itself with success, no longer lays hold on such -promising subjects as formerly. It is losing the future and feels that -it is losing it. Its signs of a vigorous life, its gaiety and audacity, -are confined to its older members, too powerful to lose their own -vigour, but without successors to whom to transmit it. It was impossible -not to admire the genuine and rich though somewhat brutal humour of the -Dean of Ripon's famous similitude of the two lepers.[2] But from which -of the younger members of the Evangelical clergy do such strokes now -come? The best of their own younger generation, the soldiers of their -own training, are slipping away from them; and he who looks for the -source whence popular Puritan theology now derives power and -perpetuation, will not fix his eyes on the Evangelical clergy of the -Church of England. - -[Footnote 2: In a letter to the _Times_ respecting Dr. Pusey and Dr. -Temple, during the discussion caused by Dr. Temple's appointment to -the see of Exeter. Dr. Temple was the total leper, so evidently a -leper that all men would instinctively avoid him, and he ceased to -be dangerous; Dr. Pusey was the partial leper, less deeply tainted, -but on that very account more dangerous, because less likely to -terrify people from coming near him. A piece of polemical humour, -racy, indeed, but hardly urbane, and still less Christian!] - -Another point where a word of explanation seems desirable is the -objection taken on a kind of personal ground to the criticism of St. -Paul's doctrine which we have attempted. 'What!' it is said, 'if this -view of St. Paul's meaning, so unlike the received view, were the true -one, do you suppose it would have been left for you to discover it? Are -you wiser than the hundreds of learned people who for generation after -generation have been occupying themselves with St. Paul and little else? -Has it been left for you to bring in a new religion and found a new -church?' Now on this line of expostulation, which, so far as it draws -from unworthiness of ours its argument, appears to have, no doubt, great -force, there are three remarks to be offered. In the first place, even -if the version of St. Paul which we propound were both new and true, yet -we do not, on that account, make of it a new religion or set up a new -church for its sake. That would be _separating for opinions_, heresy, -which is just what we reproach the Nonconformists with. In the seventh -century, there arose near the Euphrates a sect called Paulicians, who -professed to form themselves on the pure doctrine of St. Paul, which -other Christians, they said, had misunderstood and corrupted. And we, I -suppose, having discovered how popular Protestantism perverts St. Paul, -are expected to try and make a new sect of Paulicians on the strength of -this discovery; such being just the course which our Puritan friends -would themselves eagerly take in like case. But the Christian Church is -founded, not on a correct speculative knowledge of the ideas of Paul, -but on the much surer ground: _Let every one that nameth the name of -Christ depart from iniquity_; and, holding this to be so, we might -change the current strain of doctrinal theology from one end to the -other, without, on that account, setting up any new church or bringing -in any new religion. - -In the second place, the version we propound of St. Paul's line of -thought is not new, is not of our discovering. It belongs to the -'Zeit-Geist,' or _time-spirit_, it is in the air, and many have long -been anticipating it, preparing it, setting forth this and that part of -it, till there is not a part, probably, of all we have said, which has -not already been said by others before us, and said more learnedly and -fully than we can say it. All we have done is to take it as a whole, and -give a plain, popular, connected exposition of it; for which, perhaps, -our notions about culture, about the many sides to the human spirit, -about making these sides help one another instead of remaining enemies -and strangers, have been of some advantage. For most of those who read -St. Paul diligently are Hebraisers; they regard little except the -Hebraising impulse in us and the documents which concern it. They have -little notion of letting their consciousness play on things freely, -little ear for the voice of the 'Zeit-Geist;' and they are so immersed -in an order of thoughts and words which are peculiar, that, in the broad -general order of thoughts and words, which is the life of popular -exposition, they are not very much at home. - -Thirdly, and in the last place, we by no means put forth our version of -St. Paul's line of thought as true, in the same fashion as Puritanism -put forth its _Scriptural_ _Protestantism_, or _gospel_, as true. Their -truth the Puritans exhibit as a sort of cast-iron product, rigid, -definite, and complete, which they have got once for all, and which can -no longer have anything added to it or anything withdrawn from it. But -of our rendering of St. Paul's thought we conceive rather as of a -product of nature, which has grown to be what it is and which will grow -more; which will not stand just as we now exhibit it, but which will -gain some aspects which we now fail to show in it, and will drop some -which we now give it; which will be developed, in short, farther, just -in like manner as it has reached its present stage by development. - -Thus we present our conceptions, neither as something quite new nor as -something quite true; nor yet as any ground, even supposing they were -quite new and true, for a separate church or religion. But so far they -are, we think, new and true, and a fruit of sound development, a genuine -product of the 'Zeit-Geist,' that their mere contact seems to make the -old Puritan conceptions look unlikely and indefensible, and begin a sort -of re-modelling and refacing of themselves. Let us just see how far this -change has practically gone. - -The formal and scholastic version of its theology, Calvinist or -Arminian, as given by its seventeenth-century fathers, and enshrined in -the trust-deeds of so many of its chapels,--of this, at any rate, modern -Puritanism is beginning to feel shy. Take the Calvinist doctrine of -election. 'By God's decree a certain number of angels and men are -predestinated, out of God's mere free grace and love, without any -foresight of faith or good works in them, to everlasting life; and -others foreordained, according to the unsearchable counsel of his will, -whereby he extends or withholds mercy as he pleases, to everlasting -death.' In that scientific form, at least, the doctrine of election -begins to look dubious to the Calvinistic Puritan, and he puts it a good -deal out of sight. Take the Arminian doctrine of justification. 'We -could not expect any relief from heaven out of that misery under which -we lie, were not God's displeasure against us first pacified and our -sins remitted. This is the signal and transcendent benefit of our free -justification through the blood of Christ, that God's offence justly -conceived against us for our sins (which would have been an eternal bar -and restraint to the efflux of his grace upon us) being removed, the -divine grace and bounty may freely flow forth upon us.' In that -scientific form, the doctrine of justification begins to look less -satisfactory to the Arminian Puritan, and he tends to put it out of -sight. - -The same may be said of the doctrine of election in its plain popular -form of statement also. 'I hold,' says Whitefield, in the forcible style -which so took his hearers' fancy,--'I hold that a certain number are -elected from eternity, and these must and shall be saved, and the rest -of mankind must and shall be damned.' A Calvinistic Puritan now-a-days -must be either a fervid Welsh Dissenter, or a strenuous Particular -Baptist in some remote place in the country, not to be a little -staggered at this sort of expression. As to the doctrine of -justification in its current, popular form of statement, the case is -somewhat different. 'My own works,' says Wesley, 'my own sufferings, my -own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so -far from making any atonement for the least of those sins which are more -in number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of them need -an atonement themselves; that, having the sentence of death in my heart -and nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being -justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus. The faith I -want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of -Christ my sins are forgiven and I reconciled to the favour of God. -Believe and thou shalt be saved! He that believeth is passed from death -to life. Faith is the free gift of God, which he bestows not on those -who are worthy of his favour, not on such as are previously holy and so -fit to be crowned with all the blessings of his goodness, but on the -ungodly and unholy, who till that hour were fit only for everlasting -damnation. Look for sanctification just as you are, as a poor sinner -that has nothing to pay, nothing to plead but _Christ died_.' -Deliverances of this sort, which in Wesley are frequent and in Wesley's -followers are unceasing, still, no doubt, pass current everywhere with -Puritanism, are expected as of course, and find favour; they are just -what Puritans commonly mean by _Scriptural Protestantism, the truth, the -gospel-feast_. Nevertheless they no longer quite satisfy; the better -minds among Puritans try instinctively to give some fresh turn or -development to them; they are no longer, to minds of this order, an -unquestionable word and a sure stay; and from this point to their final -transformation the course is certain. The predestinarian and solifidian -dogmas, for the very sake of which our Puritan churches came into -existence, begin to feel the irresistible breath of the 'Zeit-Geist;' -some of them melt quicker, others slower, but all of them are doomed. -Under the eyes of this generation Puritan Dissent has to execute an -entire change of front, and to present us with a new reason for its -existing. What will that new reason be? - -There needs no conjuror to tell us. It will be the Rev. Mr. Conder's -reason, which we have quoted in our concluding essay. It will be -Scriptural Protestantism in _church-order_, rather than Scriptural -Protestantism in _church-doctrine_. 'Congregational Nonconformists can -never be incorporated into an organic union with Anglican Episcopacy, -because there is not even the shadow of an outline of it in the New -Testament, and it is our assertion and profound belief that Christ and -the Apostles have given us all the laws that are necessary for the -constitution and government of the Church.' This makes church-government -not a secondary matter of form, growth, and expediency, but a matter of -the essence of Christianity and ordained in Scripture. Expressly set -forth in Scripture it is not; so it has to be gathered from Scripture by -collection, and every one gathers it in his own way. Unity is of no -great importance; but that every man should live in a church-order which -he judges to be scriptural, is of the greatest importance. This brings -us to Mr. Miall's standard-maxim: _The Dissidence of Dissent, and the -Protestantism of the Protestant religion_! The more freely the sects -develop themselves, the better. The Church of England herself is but -_the dominant sect_; her pretensions to bring back the Dissenters within -her pale are offensive and ridiculous. What we ought to aim at is -perfect equality, and that the other sects should balance her. - -On the old, old subject of the want of historic and philosophic sense -shown by those who would make church-government a matter of scriptural -regulation, I say nothing at present. A Wesleyan minister, the Rev. Mr. -Willey, said the other day at Leeds: 'He did not find anything in either -the Old or New Testament to the effect that Christian ministers should -become State-servants, like soldiers or excisemen.' He might as well -have added that he did not find there anything to the effect that they -should wear braces! But on this point I am not here going to enlarge. -What I am now concerned with is the relation of this new ground of -existence, which more and more the Puritan Churches take and will take -as they lose their old ground, to the Christian religion. In the speech -which Mr. Winterbotham[3] made on the Education Bill, a speech which I -had the advantage of hearing, there were uncommon facilities supplied -for judging of this relation; indeed that able speech presented a -striking picture of it. - -[Footnote 3: Mr. Winterbotham has since died. Nothing in my remarks -on his speech need prevent me from expressing here my high esteem -for his character, accomplishments, oratorical faculty and general -promise, and my sincere regret for his loss.] - -And what a picture it was, good heavens! The Puritans say they love -righteousness, and they are offended with us for rejoining that the -righteousness of which they boast is the righteousness of the earlier -Jews of the Old Testament, which consisted mainly in smiting the Lord's -enemies and their own under the fifth rib. And we say that the newer and -specially Christian sort of righteousness is something different from -this; that the Puritans are, and always have been, deficient in the -specially Christian sort of righteousness; that men like St. Francis of -Sales, in the Roman Catholic Church, and Bishop Wilson, in the Church of -England, show far more of it than any Puritans; and that St. Paul's -signal and eternally fruitful growth in righteousness dates just from -his breach with the Puritans of his day. Let us revert to Paul's list of -fruits of the spirit, on which we have so often insisted in the pages -which follow: _love_, _joy_, _peace_, _long-suffering_, _kindness_, -_goodness_, _faith_, _mildness_, _self-control_.[4] We keep to this -particular list for the sake of greater distinctness; but St. Paul has -perpetually lists of the kind, all pointing the same way, and all -showing what he meant by Christian righteousness, what he found -specially in Christ. They may all be concluded in two qualities, the -qualities which Jesus Christ told his disciples to learn of him, the -qualities in the name of which, as specially Christ's qualities, Paul -adjured his converts. 'Learn of me,' said Jesus, '_that I am mild and -lowly in heart_.' 'I beseech you,' said Paul, '_by the mildness and -gentleness of Christ_.'[5] The word which our Bibles translate by -'gentleness' means more properly 'reasonableness with sweetness,' 'sweet -reasonableness.' 'I beseech you by _the mildness and sweet -reasonableness of Christ_.' This mildness and sweet reasonableness it -was, which, stamped with the individual charm they had in Jesus Christ, -came to the world as something new, won its heart and conquered it. -Every one had been asserting his ordinary self and was miserable; to -forbear to assert one's ordinary self, to place one's happiness in -mildness and sweet reasonableness, was a revelation. As men followed -this novel route to happiness, a living spring opened beside their way, -the spring of charity; and out of this spring arose those two heavenly -visitants, Charis and Irene, _grace_ and _peace_, which enraptured the -poor wayfarer, and filled him with a joy which brought all the world -after him. And still, whenever these visitants appear, as appear for a -witness to the vitality of Christianity they daily do, it is from the -same spring that they arise; and this spring is opened solely by the -mildness and sweet reasonableness which forbears to assert our ordinary -self, nay, which even takes pleasure in effacing it. - -[Footnote 4: _Gal._, v, 22, 23.] - -[Footnote 5: +dia ts prattos kai epieikeias tou Christou.+ -II _Cor._, x, 1.] - -And now let us turn to Mr. Winterbotham and the Protestant Dissenters. -He interprets their very inner mind, he says; that which he declares in -their name, they are all feeling, and would declare for themselves if -they could. '_There was a spirit of watchful jealousy on the part of the -Dissenters, which made them prone to take offence; therefore statesmen -should not introduce the Established Church into all the institutions of -the country._' That is positively the whole speech! 'Strife, jealousy, -wrath, contentions, backbitings,'[6]--we know the catalogue. And the -Dissenters are, by their own confession, so full of these, and the very -existence of an organisation of Dissent so makes them a necessity, that -the State is required to frame its legislation in consideration of them! -Was there ever such a confession made? Here are people existing for the -sake of a religion of which the essence is mildness and sweet -reasonableness, and the forbearing to assert our ordinary self; and they -declare themselves so full of the very temper and habits against which -that religion is specially levelled, that they require to have even the -occasion of forbearing to assert their ordinary self removed out of -their way, because they are quite sure they will never comply with it! - -[Footnote 6: II _Cor._, xii, 20.] - -Never was there a more instructive comment on the blessings of -separation, which we are so often invited by separatists to admire. Why -does not Dissent forbear to assert its ordinary self, and help to win -the world to the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, without -this vain contest about machinery? Why does not the Church? is the -Dissenter's answer. What an answer for a Christian! We are to defer -giving up our ordinary self until our neighbour shall have given up his; -that is, we are never to give it up at all. But I will answer the -question on more mundane grounds. Why are we to be more blamed than the -Church for the strife arising out of our rival existences? asks the -Dissenter. Because the Church cannot help existing, and you can! -Therefore, _contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus_, as Baxter himself said in -his better moments. Because the Church is there; because strife, -jealousy, and self-assertion are sure to come with breaking off from -her; and because strife, jealousy, and self-assertion are the very -miseries against which Christianity is firstly levelled;--therefore we -say that a Christian is inexcusable in breaking with the Church, except -for a departure from the primal ground of her foundation: _Let every one -that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity_. - -The clergyman,--poor soul!--cannot help being the parson of the parish. -He is there like the magistrate; he is a national officer with an -appointed function. If one or two voluntary performers, dissatisfied -with the magisterial system, were to set themselves up in each parish of -the country, called themselves magistrates, drew a certain number of -people to their own way of thinking, tried differences and gave -sentences among their people in the best fashion they could, why, -probably the established magistrate would not much like it, the leading -people in the parish would not much like it, and the newcomers would -have mortifications and social estrangements to endure. Probably the -established magistrate would call them interlopers; probably he would -count them amongst his difficulties. On the side of the newcomers 'a -spirit of watchful jealousy,' as Mr. Winterbotham says, would thus be -created. The public interest would suffer from the ill blood and -confusion prevailing. The established magistrate might naturally say -that the newcomers brought the strife and disturbance with them. But who -would not smile at these lambs answering: 'Away with that wolf the -established magistrate, and all ground for jealousy and quarrel between -us will disappear!' - -And it is a grievance that the clergyman talks of Dissent as one of the -spiritual hindrances in his parish, and desires to get rid of it! Why, -by Mr. Winterbotham's own showing, the Dissenters live 'in a spirit of -watchful jealousy,' and this temper is as much a spiritual -hindrance,--nay, in the view of Christianity it is even a more direct -spiritual hindrance,--than drunkenness or loose living. Christianity is, -first and above all, a temper, a disposition; and a disposition just the -opposite to 'a spirit of watchful jealousy.' Once admit a spirit of -watchful jealousy, and Christianity has lost its virtue; it is impotent. -All the other vices it was meant to keep out may rush in. Where there is -jealousy and strife among you, asks St. Paul, _are ye not carnal_?[7] -are ye not still in bondage to your mere lower selves? But from this -bondage Christianity was meant to free us; therefore, says he, get rid -of what causes divisions, and strife, and 'a spirit of watchful -jealousy.' 'I exhort you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye -all speak the same thing, and that there be not divisions among you, but -that ye all be perfectly joined in the same mind and the same -judgment.'[8] - -[Footnote 7: I _Cor._, iii, 3.] - -[Footnote 8: I _Cor._, i, 10.] - -Well, but why, says the Dissenting minister, is the clergyman to impress -St. Paul's words upon me rather than I upon the clergyman? Because the -clergyman is the one minister of Christ in the parish who did not invent -himself, who cannot help existing. He is not asserting his ordinary self -by being there; he is placed there on public duty. He is charged with -teaching the lesson of Christianity, and the head and front of this -lesson is to get rid of 'a spirit of watchful jealousy,' which, -according to the Dissenter's own showing, is the very spirit which -accompanies Dissent. How he is to get rid of it, how he is to win souls -to the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, it is for his own -conscience to tell him. Probably he will best do it by never speaking -against Dissent at all, by treating Dissenters with perfect cordiality -and as if there was not a point of dispute between them. But that, so -long as he exists, it is his duty to get rid of it, to win souls to the -unity which is its opposite, is clear. It is not the Bishop of -Winchester[9] who classes Dissent, full of 'a spirit of watchful -jealousy,' along with spiritual hindrances like beer-shops,--a pollution -of the spirit along with pollutions of the flesh;[10] it is St. Paul. -It is not the clergyman who is chargeable with wishing to 'stamp out' -this spirit; it is the Christian religion. - -[Footnote 9: The late Bishop Wilberforce.] - -[Footnote 10: I _Cor._, vii, 1.] - -But what is to prevent the Dissenting minister from being joined with -the clergyman in the same public function, and being his partner instead -of his rival? Episcopal ordination.[11] If I leave the service of a -private company, and enter the public service, I receive admission at -the hands of the public officer designated to give it me. Sentiment and -the historic sense, to say nothing of the religious feeling, will -certainly put more into ordination than this, though not precisely what -the Bishop of Winchester, perhaps, puts; this which we have laid down, -however, is really all which the law of the land puts there. A bishop is -a public officer. Why should I trouble myself about the name his office -bears? The name of his office cannot affect the service or my labour in -it. Ah, but, says Mr. Winterbotham, he holds opinions which I do not -share about the sort of character he confers upon me! What can that -matter, unless he compels you, too, to profess the same opinions, or -refuses you admission if you do not? But I should be joined in the -ministry with men who hold opinions which I do not share! What does that -matter either, unless they compel you also to hold these opinions, as -the price of your being allowed to work on the foundation: _Let every -one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity_? To recur to -our old parallel. It is as if a man who desired the office of a public -magistrate and who was fitted for it, were to hold off because he had to -receive institution from a Lord-Lieutenant, and he did not like the -title of Lord-Lieutenant; or because the Lord-Lieutenant who was to -institute him had a fancy about some occult quality which he conferred -on him at institution; or because he would find himself, when he was -instituted, one of a body of magistrates of whom many had notions which -he thought irrational. The office itself, and his own power to fill it -usefully, is all which really matters to him. - -[Footnote 11: It has been inferred from what is here said that we -propose to make re-ordination a condition of admitting Dissenting -ministers to the ministry of the Church of England. Elsewhere I have -said how undesirable it seems to impose this condition; and to what -respectful treatment and fair and equal terms, in case of reunion, -Protestant Nonconformity is, in my opinion, entitled. See the -Preface to _Culture and Anarchy_. What is said in the text is -directed simply against the objection to episcopal ordination as -something wrong in itself and a ground for schism.] - -The Bishop of Winchester believes in apostolical succession;--therefore -there must be Dissenters. Mr. Liddon asserts the real -presence;--therefore there must be Dissenters. Mr. Mackonochie is a -ritualist;--therefore there must be Dissenters. But the Bishop of -Winchester cannot, and does not, exclude from the ministry of the Church -of England those who do not believe in apostolical succession; and -surely not even that acute and accomplished personage is such a -magician, that he can make a Puritan believe in apostolical succession -merely by believing in it himself! In the same way, eloquent as is Mr. -Liddon, and devoted as is Mr. Mackonochie, their gifts cannot yield them -the art of so swaying a brother clergyman's spirit as to make him admit -the real presence against his conviction, or practise ritualism against -his will; and official, material control over him, or power of -stipulating what he shall admit or practise, they have absolutely none. - -But can anything more tend to make the Church what the Puritans reproach -it with being,--a mere lump of sacerdotalism and ritualism,--than if the -Puritans, who are free to come into it with their disregard of -sacerdotalism and ritualism and so to leaven it, refuse to come in, and -leave it wholly to the sacerdotalists and ritualists? What can be harder -upon the laity of the national Church, what so inconsiderate of the -national good and advantage, as to leave us at the mercy of one single -element in the Church, and deny us just the elements fit to mix with -this element and to improve it? - -The current doctrines of apostolical succession and the real presence -seem to us unsound and unedifying. To be sure, so does the current -doctrine of imputed righteousness. For us, sacerdotalism and -solifidianism stand both on the same footing; they are, both of them, -erroneous human developments. But as in the ideas and practice of -sacerdotalists or ritualists there is much which seems to us of value, -and of great use to the Church, so, too, in the ideas and practice of -Nonconformists there is very much which we value. To take points only -that are beyond controversy: they have cultivated the gift of preaching -much more than the clergy, and their union with the Church would -renovate and immensely amend Church preaching. They would certainly -bring with them, if they came back into the Church, some use of what -they call _free prayer_; to which, if at present they give far too much -place, it is yet to be regretted that the Church gives no place at all. -Lastly, if the body of British Protestant Dissenters is in the main, as -it undoubtedly is, the Church of the Philistines, nevertheless there -could come nothing but health and strength from blending this body with -the Establishment, of which the very weakness and danger is that it -tends, as we have formerly said, to be an appendage to the Barbarians. - -So long as the Puritans thought that the essence of Christianity was -their doctrine of predestination or of justification, it was natural -that they should stand out, at any cost, for this essence. That is why, -when the 'Zeit-Geist' and the general movement of men's religious ideas -is beginning to reveal that the Puritan gospel is not the essence of -Christianity, we have been desirous to spread this revelation to the -best of our power, and by all the aids of plain popular exposition to -help it forward. Because, when once it is clear that the essence of -Christianity is not Puritan solifidianism, it can hardly long be -maintained that the essence of Christianity is Puritan church-order. -When once the way is made clear, by removing the solifidian heresy, to -look and see what the essence of Christianity really is, it cannot but -soon force itself upon our minds that the essence of Christianity is -something not very far, at any rate, from this: _Grace and peace by the -annulment of our ordinary self through the mildness and sweet -reasonableness of Jesus Christ_. This is the more particular description -of that general ground, already laid down, of the Christian Church's -existence: _Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity_. If this general ground, particularised in the way above -given, is not 'the sincere milk' of the evangelical word, it is, at all -events, something very like it. And matters of machinery and outward -form, like church-order, have not only nothing essentially to do with -the sincere milk of Christianity, but are the very matters about which -this sincere milk should make us easy and yielding. - -If there were no national and historic form of church-order in -possession, a genuine Christian would regret having to spend time and -thought in shaping one, in having so to encumber himself with serving, -to busy himself so much about a frame for his religious life as well as -about the contents of the frame. After all, a man has only a certain sum -of force to spend; and if he takes a quantity of it for outward things, -he has so much the less left for inward things. It is hardly to be -believed, how much larger a space the mere affairs of his denomination -fill in the time and thoughts of a Dissenter, than in the time and -thoughts of a Churchman. Now all machinery-work of this kind is, to a -man filled with a real love of the essence of Christianity, something of -a hindrance to him in what he most wants to be at, something of a -concession to his ordinary self. When an established and historic form -exists, such a man should be, therefore, disposed to use it and comply -with it. But,--as if it were not satisfied with proving its -unprofitableness by corroding us with jealousy and so robbing us of the -mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, which is our -mainstay,--political Dissent, Dissent for the sake of church-polity and -church-management, proves it, too, by stimulating our ordinary self -through over-care for what flatters this. In fact, what is it that the -everyday, middle-class Philistine,--not the rare flower of the -Dissenters but the common staple,--finds so attractive in Dissent? Is it -not, as to discipline, that his self-importance is fomented by the fuss, -bustle, and partisanship of a private sect, instead of being lost in the -greatness of a public body? As to worship, is it not that his taste is -pleased by usages and words that come down to _him_, instead of drawing -him up to _them_; by services which reflect, instead of the culture of -great men of religious genius, the crude culture of himself and his -fellows? And as to doctrine, is it not that his mind is pleased at -hearing no opinion but its own, by having all disputed points taken for -granted in its own favour, by being urged to no return upon itself, no -development? And what is all this but the very feeding and stimulating -of our ordinary self, instead of the annulling of it? No doubt it is -natural; to indulge our ordinary self is the most natural thing in the -world. But Christianity is not natural; and if the flower of -Christianity be the grace and peace which comes of annulling our -ordinary self, then to this flower it is fatal. - -So that if, in order to gratify in the Dissenters one of the two faults -against which Christianity is chiefly aimed, a jealous, contentious -spirit, we were to sweep away our national and historic form of -religion, and were all to tinker at our own forms, we should then just -be flattering the other chief fault which Christianity came to cure, and -serving our ordinary self instead of annulling it. What a happy -furtherance to religion! - -For my part, so far as the best of the Nonconformist ministers are -concerned, of whom I know something, I disbelieve Mr. Winterbotham's -hideous confession. I imagine they are very little pleased with him for -making it. I do not believe that they, at any rate, live in the -ulcerated condition he describes, fretting with watchful jealousy. I -believe they have other things to think of. But why? Because they are -men of genius and character, who react against the harmful influences of -the position in which they find themselves placed, and surmount its -obvious dangers. But their genius and character might serve them still -better if they were placed in a less trying position. And the rank and -file of their ministers and people do yield to the influences of their -position. Of these, Mr. Winterbotham's picture is perfectly true. They -are more and more jealous for their separate organisation, pleased with -the bustle and self-importance which its magnitude brings them, -irritably alive to whatever reduces or effaces it; bent, in short, on -affirming their ordinary selves. However much the chiefs may feel the -truth of modern ideas, may grow moderate, may perceive the effects of -religious separatism upon worship and doctrine, they will probably avail -little or nothing; the head will be overpowered and out-clamoured by the -tail. The Wesleyans, who used always to refuse to call themselves -Dissenters, whose best men still shrink from the name, the Wesleyans, a -wing of the Church, founded for godliness, the Wesleyans more and more, -with their very growth as a separate denomination, feel the secular -ambition of being great as a denomination, of being effaced by nobody, -of giving contentment to this self-importance, of indulging this -ordinary self; and I should not wonder if within twenty years they were -keen political Dissenters. A triumph of Puritanism is abundantly -possible; we have never denied it. What we, whose greatest care is -neither for the Church nor for Puritanism, but for human perfection, -what we labour to show is, that the triumph of Puritanism will be the -triumph of our ordinary self, not the triumph of Christianity; and that -the type of Hebraism it will establish is one in which neither general -human perfection, nor yet Hebraism itself, can truly find their account. - -Elsewhere we have drawn out a distinction between Hebraism and -Hellenism,[12]--between the tendency and powers that carry us towards -doing, and the tendency and powers that carry us towards perceiving and -knowing. Hebraism, we said, has long been overwhelmingly preponderant -with us. The sacred book which we call the Word of God, and which most -of us study far more than any other book, serves Hebraism. Moses -Hebraises, David Hebraises, Isaiah Hebraises, Paul Hebraises, John -Hebraises. Jesus Christ himself is, as St. Paul truly styles him, 'a -minister _of the circumcision_ to the truth of God.'[13] That is, it is -by our powers of moral action, and through the perfecting of these, that -Christ leads us 'to be partakers of the divine nature.'[14] By far our -chief machinery for spiritual purposes has the like aim and character. -Throughout Europe this is so. But, to speak of ourselves only, the -Archbishop of Canterbury is an agent of Hebraism, the Archbishop of York -is an agent of Hebraism, Archbishop Manning is an agent of Hebraism, the -President of the Wesleyan Conference is an agent of Hebraism, all the -body of the Church clergy and Dissenting ministers are agents of -Hebraism. Now, we have seen how we are beginning visibly to suffer harm -from attending in this one-sided way to Hebraism, and how we are called -to develop ourselves more in our totality, on our perceptive and -intelligential side as well as on our moral side. If it is said that -this is a very hard matter, and that man cannot well do more than one -thing at a time, the answer is that here is the very sign and condition -of each new stage of spiritual progress,--_increase of task_. The more -we grow, the greater is the task which is given us. This is the law of -man's nature and of his spirit's history. The powers we have developed -at our old task enable us to attempt a new one; and this, again, brings -with it a new increase of powers. - -[Footnote 12: See _Culture and Anarchy_ (2nd edition), chap. iv.] - -[Footnote 13: _Romans_, xv, 8.] - -[Footnote 14: II _Peter_, i, 4.] - -Hebraism strikes too exclusively upon one string in us. Hellenism does -not address itself with serious energy enough to morals and -righteousness. For our totality, for our general perfection, we need to -unite the two; now the two are easily at variance. In their lower forms -they are irreconcileably at variance; only when each of them is at its -best, is their harmony possible. Hebraism at its best is beauty and -charm; Hellenism at its best is also beauty and charm. As such they can -unite; as anything short of this, each of them, they are at discord, and -their separation must continue. The flower of Hellenism is a kind of -amiable grace and artless winning good-nature, born out of the -perfection of lucidity, simplicity, and natural truth; the flower of -Christianity is grace and peace by the annulment of our ordinary self -through the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ. Both are -eminently _humane_, and for complete human perfection both are required; -the second being the perfection of that side in us which is moral and -acts, the first, of that side in us which is intelligential and -perceives and knows. - -But lower forms of Hebraism and Hellenism tend always to make their -appearance, and to strive to establish themselves. On one of these forms -of Hebraism we have been commenting;--a form which had its first origin, -no doubt, in that body of impulses whereby we Hebraise, but which lands -us at last, not in the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, but -in 'a spirit of watchful jealousy.' We have to thank Mr. Winterbotham -for fixing our attention on it; but we prefer to name it from an eminent -and able man who is well known as the earnest apostle of the Dissidence -of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion, and to call -it _Mialism_. Mialism is a sub-form of Hebraism, and itself a somewhat -spurious and degenerated form; but this sub-form always tends to -degenerate into forms lower yet, and yet more unworthy of the ideal -flower of Hebraism. In one of these its further stages we have formerly -traced it, and we need not enlarge on them here.[15] - -[Footnote 15: See _Culture and Anarchy_ (2nd edition), chap. ii.] - -Hellenism, in the same way, has its more or less spurious and -degenerated sub-forms, products which may be at once known as -degenerations by their deflexion from what we have marked as the flower -of Hellenism,--'a kind of humane grace and artless winning good-nature, -born out of the perfection of lucidity, simplicity, and natural truth.' -And from whom can we more properly derive a general name for these -degenerations, than from that distinguished man, who, by his -intelligence and accomplishments, is in many respects so admirable and -so truly Hellenic, but whom his dislike for 'the dominant sect,' as he -calls the Church of England,--the Church of England, in many aspects so -beautiful, calming, and attaching,--seems to transport with an almost -feminine vehemence of irritation? What can we so fitly name the somewhat -degenerated and inadequate form of Hellenism as _Millism_? This is the -Hellenic or Hellenistic counterpart of Mialism; and like Mialism it has -its further degenerations, in which it is still less commendable than in -its first form. For instance, what in Mr. Mill is but a yielding to a -spirit of irritable injustice, goes on and worsens in some of his -disciples, till it becomes a sort of mere blatancy and truculent -hardness in certain Millites, in whom there appears scarcely anything -that is truly sound or Hellenic at all. - -Mankind, however, must needs draw, however slowly, towards its -perfection; and our only real perfection is our totality. Mialism and -Millism we may see playing into one another's hands, and apparently -acting together; but, so long as these lower forms of Hellenism and -Hebraism prevail, the real union between Hellenism and Hebraism can -never be accomplished, and our totality is still as far off as ever. -Unhappy and unquiet alternations of ascendency between Hebraism and -Hellenism are all that we shall see;--at one time, the indestructible -religious experience of mankind asserting itself blindly; at another, a -revulsion of the intellect of mankind from this experience, because of -the audacious assumptions and gross inaccuracies with which men's -account of it is intermingled. - -At present it is such a revulsion which seems chiefly imminent. Give the -churches of Nonconformity free scope, cries an ardent Congregationalist, -and we will renew the wonders of the first times; we will confront this -modern bugbear of physical science, show how hollow she is, and how she -contradicts herself! In his mind's eye, this Nonconforming enthusiast -already sees Professor Huxley in a white sheet, brought up at the Surrey -Tabernacle between two deacons,--whom that great physicist, in his own -clear and nervous language, would no doubt describe like his disinterred -Roman the other day at Westminster Abbey, as 'of weak mental -organisation and strong muscular frame,'--and penitently confessing that -_Science contradicts herself_. Alas, the real future is likely to be -very different! Rather are we likely to witness an edifying solemnity, -where Mr. Mill, assisted by his youthful henchmen and apparitors, will -burn all the Prayer Books. Rather will the time come, as it has been -foretold, when we shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, -and shall not see it; when the mildness and sweet reasonableness of -Jesus Christ, as a power to work the annulment of our ordinary self, -will be clean disregarded and out of mind. Then, perhaps, will come -another re-action, and another, and another; and all sterile. - -Therefore it is, that we labour to make Hebraism raise itself above -Mialism, find its true self, show itself in its beauty and power, and -help, not hinder, man's totality. The endeavour will very likely be in -vain; for growth is slow and the ages are long, and it may well be that -for harmonising Hebraism with Hellenism more preparation is needed than -man has yet had. But failures do something, as well as successes, -towards the final achievement. The cup of cold water could be hardly -more than an ineffective effort at succour; yet it counted. To disengage -the religion of England from unscriptural Protestantism, political -Dissent, and a spirit of watchful jealousy, may be an aim not in our day -reachable; and still it is well to level at it. - - - * * * * * - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM - -PURITANISM AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND - - - * * * * * - - - - -ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM. - - -I. - -M. Renan sums up his interesting volume on St. Paul by saying:--'After -having been for three hundred years, thanks to Protestantism, the -Christian doctor _par excellence_, Paul is now coming to an end of his -reign.' All through his book M. Renan is possessed with a sense of this -close relationship between St. Paul and Protestantism. Protestantism has -made Paul, he says; Pauline doctrine is identified with Protestant -doctrine; Paul is a Protestant doctor, and the counterpart of Luther. M. -Renan has a strong distaste for Protestantism, and this distaste extends -itself to the Protestant Paul. The reign of this Protestant is now -coming to an end, and such a consummation evidently has M. Renan's -approval. - -_St. Paul is now coming to an end of his reign._ Precisely the contrary, -I venture to think, is the judgment to which a true criticism of men and -of things, in our own country at any rate, leads us. The Protestantism -which has so used and abused St. Paul is coming to an end; its -organisations, strong and active as they look, are touched with the -finger of death; its fundamental ideas, sounding forth still every week -from thousands of pulpits, have in them no significance and no power for -the progressive thought of humanity. But the reign of the real St. Paul -is only beginning; his fundamental ideas, disengaged from the elaborate -misconceptions with which Protestantism has overlaid them, will have an -influence in the future greater than any which they have yet had,--an -influence proportioned to their correspondence with a number of the -deepest and most permanent facts of human nature itself. - -Elsewhere[16] I have pointed out how, for us in this country, -Puritanism is the strong and special representative of Protestantism. -The Church of England existed before Protestantism, and contains much -besides Protestantism. Remove the schemes of doctrine, Calvinistic or -Arminian, which for Protestantism, merely as such, have made the very -substance of its religion, and all that is most valuable in the Church -of England would still remain. These schemes, or the ideas out of which -they spring, show themselves in the Prayer Book; but they are not what -gives the Prayer Book its importance and value. But Puritanism exists -for the sake of these schemes; its organisations are inventions for -enforcing them more purely and thoroughly. Questions of discipline and -ceremonies have, originally at least, been always admitted to be in -themselves secondary; it is because that conception of the ways of God -to man which Puritanism has formed for itself appeared to Puritanism -superlatively true and precious, that Independents and Baptists and -Methodists in England, and Presbyterians in Scotland, have been impelled -to constitute for inculcating it a church-order where it might be less -swamped by the additions and ceremonies of men, might be more simply and -effectively enounced, and might stand more absolute and central, than in -the church-order of Anglicans or Roman Catholics. - -[Footnote 16: See _Culture and Anarchy_, chap. iv.] - -Of that conception the cardinal points are fixed by the terms _election_ -and _justification_. These terms come from the writings of St. Paul, and -the scheme which Puritanism has constructed with them professes to be -St. Paul's scheme. The same scheme, or something very like it, has been, -and still is, embraced by many adherents of the Churches of England and -Rome; but these Churches rest their claims to men's interest and -attachment not on the possession of such a scheme, but on other grounds -with which we have for the present nothing to do. Puritanism's very -reason for existing depends on the worth of this its vital conception, -derived from St. Paul's writings; and when we are told that St. Paul is -a Protestant doctor whose reign is ending, a Puritan, keen, pugnacious, -and sophisticating simple religion of the heart into complicated -theories of the brain about election and justification, we in England, -at any rate, can best try the assertion by fixing our eyes on our own -Puritans, and comparing their doctrine and their hold on vital truth -with St. Paul's. - -This we propose now to do, and, indeed, to do it will only be to -complete what we have already begun. For already, when we were speaking -of Hebraism and Hellenism,[17] we were led to remark how the -over-Hebraising of Puritanism, and its want of a wide culture, do so -narrow its range and impair its vision that even the documents which it -thinks all-sufficient, and to the study of which it exclusively rivets -itself, it does not rightly understand, but is apt to make of them -something quite different from what they really are. In short, no man, -we said, who knows nothing else, knows even his Bible. And we showed how -readers of the Bible attached to essential words and ideas of the Bible -a sense which was not the writer's; and in particular how this had -happened with regard to the Pauline doctrine of resurrection. Let us -take the present opportunity of going further in the same road; and -instead of lightly disparaging the great name of St. Paul, let us see if -the needful thing is not rather to rescue St. Paul and the Bible from -the perversions of them by mistaken men. - -[Footnote 17: See _Culture and Anarchy_, chap. v.] - -So long as the well-known habit, on which we have so often enlarged, -prevails amongst our countrymen, of holding mechanically their ideas -themselves, but making it their chief aim to work with energy and -enthusiasm for the organisations which profess those ideas, English -Puritanism is not likely to make such a return upon its own thoughts, -and upon the elements of its being, as to accomplish for itself an -operation of the kind needed; though it has men whose natural faculties, -were they but free to use them, would undoubtedly prove equal to the -task. The same habit prevents our Puritans from being reached by -philosophical works, which exist in sufficient numbers and of which M. -Reuss's history of the growth of Christian theology[18] is an admirable -specimen,--works where the entire scheme of Pauline doctrine is laid out -with careful research and impartial accuracy. To give effect to the -predominant points in Paul's teaching, and to exhibit these in so plain -and popular a manner as to invite and almost compel men's comprehension, -is not the design of such works; and only by writings with this design -in view will English Puritanism be reached. - -[Footnote 18: _Histoire de la Thologie Chrtienne au Sicle -Apostolique_, par Edouard Reuss; Strasbourg et Paris (in 2 vols. -8vo.) There is now (1875) an English translation of M. Reuss's -work.] - -Our one qualification for the business in hand lies in that belief of -ours, so much contested by our countrymen, of the primary needfulness of -seeing things as they really are, and of the greater importance of ideas -than of the machinery which exists for them. If by means of letting our -consciousness work quite freely, and by following the methods of -studying and judging thence generated, we are shown that we ought in -real truth neither to abase St. Paul and Puritanism together, as M. -Renan does, nor to abase St. Paul but exalt Puritanism, nor yet to exalt -both Puritanism and St. Paul together, but rather to abase Puritanism -and exalt St. Paul, then we cannot but think that even for Puritanism -itself, also, it will be the best, however unpalatable, to be shown -this. Puritanism certainly wishes well to St. Paul; it cannot wish to -compromise him by an unintelligent adhesion to him and a blind adoption -of his words, instead of being a true child to him. Yet this is what it -has really done. What in St. Paul is secondary and subordinate, -Puritanism has made primary and essential; what in St Paul is figure and -belongs to the sphere of feeling, Puritanism has transported into the -sphere of intellect and made formula. On the other hand, what is with -St. Paul primary, Puritanism has treated as subordinate: and what is -with him thesis, and belonging (so far as anything in religion can -properly be said thus to belong) to the sphere of intellect, Puritanism -has made image and figure. - -And first let us premise what we mean in this matter by primary and -secondary, essential and subordinate. We mean, so far as the apostle is -concerned, a greater or less approach to what really characterises him -and gives his teaching its originality and power. We mean, so far as -truth is concerned, a greater or less agreement with facts which can be -verified, and a greater or less power of explaining them. What -essentially characterises a religious teacher, and gives him his -permanent worth and vitality, is, after all, just the scientific value -of his teaching, its correspondence with important facts, and the light -it throws on them. Never was the truth of this so evident as now. The -scientific sense in man never asserted its claim so strongly; the -propensity of religion to neglect those claims, and the peril and loss -to it from neglecting them, never were so manifest. The license of -affirmation about God and his proceedings, in which the religious world -indulge, is more and more met by the demand for verification. When -Calvinism tells us: 'It is agreed between God and the Mediator Jesus -Christ, the Son of God, surety for the redeemed, as parties-contractors, -that the sins of the redeemed should be imputed to innocent Christ, and -he both condemned and put to death for them, upon this very condition, -that whosoever heartily consents unto the covenant of reconciliation -offered through Christ, shall, by the imputation of his obedience unto -them, be justified and holden righteous before God;'--when Calvinism -tells us this, is it not talking about God just as if he were a man in -the next street, whose proceedings Calvinism intimately knew and could -give account of, could verify that account at any moment, and enable us -to verify it also? It is true, when the scientific sense in us, the -sense which seeks exact knowledge, calls for that verification, -Calvinism refers us to St. Paul, from whom it professes to have got this -history of what it calls 'the covenant of redemption.' But this is only -pushing the difficulty a stage further back. For if it is St. Paul, and -not Calvinism, that professes this exact acquaintance with God and his -doings, the scientific sense calls upon St. Paul to produce the facts by -which he verifies what he says; and if he cannot produce them, then it -treats both St. Paul's assertion, and Calvinism's assertion after him, -as of no real consequence. - -No one will deny that such is the behaviour of science towards religion -in our day, though many may deplore it. And it is not that the -scientific sense in us denies the rights of the poetic sense, which -employs a figured and imaginative language. But the language we have -just been quoting is not figurative and poetic language, it is -scholastic and scientific language. Assertions in scientific language -must stand the tests of scientific examination. Neither is it that the -scientific sense in us refuses to admit willingly and reverently the -name of God, as a point in which the religious and the scientific sense -may meet, as the least inadequate name for that universal order which -the intellect feels after as a law, and the heart feels after as a -benefit. 'We, too,' might the men of science with truth say to the men -of religion--'we, too, would gladly say _God_, if only, the moment one -says _God_, you would not pester one with your pretensions of knowing -all about him.' That _stream of tendency by which all things strive to -fulfil the law of their being_, and which, inasmuch as our idea of real -welfare resolves itself into this fulfilment of the law of one's being, -man rightly deems the fountain of all goodness, and calls by the -worthiest and most solemn name he can, which is God, science also might -willingly own for the fountain of all goodness, and call God. But -however much more than this the heart may with propriety put into its -language respecting God, this is as much as science can with strictness -put there. Therefore, when the religious world, following its bent of -trying to describe what it loves, amplifying and again amplifying its -description, and guarding finally this amplified description by the most -precise and rigid terms it can find, comes at last, with the best -intentions, to the notion of a sort of magnified and non-natural man, -who proceeds in the fashion laid down in the Calvinistic thesis we have -quoted, then science strikes in, remarks the difference between this -second notion and the notion it originally admitted, and demands to have -the new notion verified, as the first can be verified, by facts. But -this does not unsettle the first notion, or prevent science from -acknowledging the importance and the scientific validity of propositions -which are grounded upon the first notion, and shed light over it. - -Nevertheless, researches in this sphere are now a good deal eclipsed in -popularity by researches in the sphere of physics, and no longer have -the vogue which they once had. I have related how an eminent physicist -with whose acquaintance I am honoured, imagines me to have invented the -author of the _Sacra Privata_; and that fashionable newspaper, the -_Morning Post_, undertaking,--as I seemed, it said, very anxious about -the matter,--to supply information as to who the author really was, laid -it down that he was Bishop of Calcutta, and that his ideas and writings, -to which I attached so much value, had been among the main provocatives -of the Indian mutiny. Therefore it is perhaps expedient to refresh our -memory as to these schemes of doctrine, Calvinistic or Arminian, for the -upholding of which, as has been said, British Puritanism exists, before -we proceed to compare them, for correspondence with facts and for -scientific validity, with the teaching of St. Paul. - -Calvinism, then, begins by laying down that God from all eternity -decreed whatever was to come to pass in time; that by his decree a -certain number of angels and men are predestinated, out of God's mere -free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works in -them, to everlasting life; and others foreordained, according to the -unsearchable counsel of his will, whereby he extends or withholds mercy -as he pleases, to everlasting death. God made, however, our first -parents, Adam and Eve, upright and able to keep his law, which was -written in their hearts; at the same time entering into a contract with -them, and with their posterity as represented in them, by which they -were assured of everlasting life in return for perfect obedience, and of -everlasting death if they should be disobedient. Our first parents, -being enticed by Satan, a fallen angel speaking in the form of a -serpent, broke this _covenant of works_, as it is called, by eating the -forbidden fruit; and hereby they, and their posterity in them and with -them, became not only liable to eternal death, but lost also their -natural uprightness and all ability to please God; nay, they became by -nature enemies to God and to all spiritual good, and inclined only to -evil continually. This, says Calvinism, is our original sin; the bitter -root of all our actual transgressions, in thought, word, and deed. - -Yet, though man has neither power nor inclination to rise out of this -wretched fallen state, but is rather disposed to lie insensible in it -till he perish, another covenant exists by which his condition is -greatly affected. This is the _covenant of redemption_, made and agreed -upon, says Calvinism, between God the Father and God the Son in the -Council of the Trinity before the world began. The sum of the covenant -of redemption is this: God having, by the eternal decree already -mentioned, freely chosen to life a certain number of lost mankind, gave -them before the world began to God the Son, appointed Redeemer, on -condition that if he humbled himself so far as to assume the human -nature in union with the divine nature, submit himself to the law as -surety for the elect, and satisfy justice for them by giving obedience -in their name, even to suffering the cursed death of the cross, he -should ransom and redeem them from sin and death, and purchase for them -righteousness and eternal life. The Son of God accepted the condition, -or _bargain_ as Calvinism calls it; and in the fulness of time came, as -Jesus Christ, into the world, was born of the Virgin Mary, subjected -himself to the law, and completely paid the due ransom on the cross. - -God has in his word, the Bible, revealed to man this covenant of grace -or redemption. All those whom he has predestinated to life he in his own -time effectually calls to be partakers in the release offered. Man is -altogether passive in this call, until the Holy Spirit enables him to -answer it. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, applies to -the elect the redemption purchased by Christ, through working faith in -them. As soon as the elect have faith in Jesus Christ, that is, as soon -as they give their consent heartily and repentantly, in the sense of -deserved condemnation, to the covenant of grace, God justifies them by -imputing to them that perfect obedience which Christ gave to the law, -and the satisfaction also which upon the cross Christ gave to justice in -their name. They who are thus called and justified are by the same power -likewise sanctified; the dominion of carnal lusts being destroyed in -them, and the practice of holiness being, in spite of some remnants of -corruption, put in their power. Good works, done in obedience to God's -moral law, are the fruits and evidences of a true faith; and the persons -of the faithful elect being accepted through Christ, their good works -also are accepted in him and rewarded. But works done by other and -unregenerate men, though they may be things which God commands, cannot -please God and are sinful. The elect can after justification and -sanctification no more fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly -persevere to the end and be eternally saved; and of this they may, even -in the present life, have the certain assurance. Finally, after death, -their souls and bodies are joyfully joined together again in the -resurrection, and they remain thenceforth for ever with Christ in glory; -while all the wicked are sent away into hell with Satan, whom they have -served. - -We have here set down the main doctrines of Calvinistic Puritanism -almost entirely in words of its own choosing. It is not necessary to -enter into distinctions such as those between sublapsarians and -supralapsarians, between Calvinists who believe that God's decree of -election and reprobation was passed in foresight of original sin and on -account of it, and Calvinists who believe that it was passed absolutely -and independently. The important points of Calvinism,--original sin, -free election, effectual calling, justification through imputed -righteousness,--are common to both. The passiveness of man, the activity -of God, are the great features in this scheme; there is very little of -what man thinks and does, very much of what God thinks and does; and -what God thinks and does is described with such particularity that the -figure we have used of the man in the next street cannot but recur -strongly to our minds. - -The positive Protestantism of Puritanism, with which we are here -concerned, as distinguished from the negative Protestantism of the -Church of England, has nourished itself with ardour on this scheme of -doctrine. It informs and fashions the whole religion of Scotland, -established and nonconforming. It is the doctrine which Puritan flocks -delight to hear from their ministers. It was Puritanism's constant -reproach against the Church of England, that this essential doctrine was -not firmly enough held and set forth by her. At the Hampton Court -Conference in 1604, in the Committee of Divines appointed by the House -of Lords in 1641, and again at the Savoy Conference in 1661, the -reproach regularly appeared. 'Some have defended,' is the Puritan -complaint, 'the whole gross substance of Arminianism, that the act of -conversion depends upon the concurrence of man's free will; some do -teach and preach that good works are concauses with faith in the act of -justification; some have defended universal grace, some have absolutely -denied original sin.' As Puritanism grew, the Calvinistic scheme of -doctrine hardened and became stricter. Of the Calvinistic confessions of -faith of the sixteenth century,--the Helvetic Confession, the Belgic -Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism,--the Calvinism is so moderate as -to astonish any one who has been used only to its later developments. -Even the much abused canons of the Synod of Dort no one can read -attentively through without finding in parts of them a genuine movement -of thought,--sometimes even a philosophic depth,--and a powerful -religious feeling. In the documents of the Westminster Assembly, -twenty-five years later, this has disappeared; and what we call the -British Philistine stands in his religious capacity, sheer and stark, -before us. Seriousness is the one merit of these documents, but it is a -seriousness too mixed with the alloy of mundane strife and hatred to be -called a religious feeling. Not a trace of delicacy of perception, or of -philosophic thinking; the mere rigidness and contentiousness of the -controversialist and political dissenter; a Calvinism exaggerated till -it is simply repelling; and to complete the whole, a machinery of -covenants, conditions, bargains, and parties-contractors, such as could -have proceeded from no one but the born Anglo-Saxon man of business, -British or American. - -However, a scheme of doctrine is not necessarily false because of the -style in which its adherents may have at a particular moment enounced -it. From the faults which disfigure the performance of the Westminster -divines the profession of faith prefixed to the Congregational -_Year-Book_ is free. The Congregationalists form one of the two great -divisions of English Puritans. 'Congregational churches believe,' their -_Year-Book_ tells us, 'that the first man disobeyed the divine command, -fell from his state of innocence and purity, and involved all his -posterity in the consequences of that fall. They believe that all who -will be saved were the objects of God's eternal and electing love, and -were given by an act of divine sovereignty to the Son of God. They -believe that Christ meritoriously obtained eternal redemption for us, -and that the Holy Spirit is given in consequence of Christ's mediation.' -The essential points of Calvinism are all here. To this profession of -faith, annually published in the _Year-Book_ of the Independents, -subscription is not required; Puritanism thus remaining honourably -consistent with the protests which, at the Restoration, it made against -the call for subscription. But the authors of the _Year-Book_ say with -pride, and it is a common boast of the Independent churches, that though -they do not require subscription, there is, perhaps, in no religious -body, such firm and general agreement in doctrine as among -Congregationalists. This is true, and it is even more true of the flocks -than of the ministers, of whom the abler and the younger begin to be -lifted by the stream of modern ideas. Still, up to the present time, the -Protestantism of one great division of English Puritans is undoubtedly -Calvinist; the Baptists holding in general the scheme of Calvinism yet -more strictly than the Independents. - -The other great division of English Puritanism is formed by the -Methodists. Wesleyan Methodism is, as is well known, not Calvinist, but -Arminian. The _Methodist Magazine_ was called by Wesley the _Arminian -Magazine_, and kept that title all through his life. Arminianism is an -attempt made with the best intentions, and with much truth of practical -sense, but not in a very profound philosophical spirit, to escape from -what perplexes and shocks us in Calvinism. The God of Calvinism is a -magnified and non-natural man who decrees at his mere good pleasure some -men to salvation and other men to reprobation; the God of Arminianism is -a magnified and non-natural man who foreknows the course of each man's -life, and who decrees each of us to salvation or reprobation in -accordance with this foreknowledge. But so long as we remain in this -anthropomorphic order of ideas the question will always occur: Why did -not a being of infinite power and infinite love so make all men as that -there should be no cause for this sad foreknowledge and sad decree -respecting a number of them? In truth, Calvinism is both theologically -more coherent, and also shows a deeper sense of reality than -Arminianism, which, in the practical man's fashion, is apt to scrape the -surface of things only. - -For instance, the Arminian Remonstrants, in their zeal to justify the -morality, in a human sense, of God's ways, maintained that he sent his -word to one nation rather than another according as he saw that one -nation was more worthy than another of such a preference. The Calvinist -doctors of the Synod of Dort have no difficulty in showing that Moses -and Christ both of them assert, with respect to the Jewish nation, the -direct contrary; and not only do they here obtain a theological triumph, -but in rebutting the Arminian theory they are in accordance with -historical truth and with the real march of human affairs. They allow -more for the great fact of the _not ourselves_ in what we do and are. -The Calvinists seize, we say, that great fact better than the Arminians. -The Calvinist's fault is in his scientific appreciation of the fact; in -the reasons he gives for it. God, he says, sends his word to one nation -rather than another at _his mere good pleasure_. Here we have again the -magnified and non-natural man, who likes and dislikes, knows and -decrees, just as a man, only on a scale immensely transcending anything -of which we have experience, and whose proceedings we nevertheless -describe as if he were in the next street for people to verify all we -say about him. - -Arminian Methodism, however, puts aside the Calvinistic doctrine of -predestination. The foremost place, which in the Calvinist scheme -belongs to the doctrine of predestination, belongs in the Methodist -scheme to the doctrine of justification by faith. More and more -prominently does modern Methodism elevate this as its essential -doctrine; and the era in their founder's life which Methodists select to -celebrate is the era of his conversion to it. It is the doctrine of -Anselm, adopted and developed by Luther, set forth in the Confession of -Augsburg, and current all through the popular theology of our day. We -shall find it in almost any popular hymn we happen to take, but the -following lines of Milton exhibit it classically. By the fall of our -first parents, says he:-- - - Man, losing all, - To expiate his treason hath nought left, - But to destruction sacred and devote - He with his whole posterity must die; - Die he or justice must; unless for him - Some other able, and as willing, pay - The rigid satisfaction; death for death. - -By Adam's fall, God's justice and mercy were placed in conflict. God -could not follow his mercy without violating his justice. Christ by his -satisfaction gave the Father the right and power (_nudum jus Patri -acquirebat_, said the Arminians) to follow his mercy, and to make with -man the covenant of free justification by faith, whereby, if a man has a -sure trust and confidence that his sins are forgiven him in virtue of -the satisfaction made to God for them by the death of Christ, he is held -clear of sin by God, and admitted to salvation. - -This doctrine, like the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, involves a -whole history of God's proceedings, and gives, also, first and almost -sole place to what God does, with disregard to what man does. It has -thus an essential affinity with Calvinism; indeed, Calvinism is but this -doctrine of original sin and justification, _plus_ the doctrine of -predestination. Nay, the Welsh Methodists, as is well known, have no -difficulty in combining the tenet of election with the practices and -most of the tenets of Methodism. The word _solifidian_ points precisely -to that which is common to both Calvinism and Methodism, and which has -made both these halves of English Puritanism so popular,--their -_sensational_ side, as it may be called, their laying all stress on a -wonderful and particular account of what God gives and works for us, not -on what we bring or do for ourselves. 'Plead thou singly,' says Wesley, -'the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud stubborn -soul.' Wesley's doctrines of conversion, of the new birth, of -sanctification, of the direct witness of the spirit, of assurance, of -sinless perfection, all of them thus correspond with doctrines which we -have noticed in Calvinism, and show a common character with them. The -instantaneousness Wesley loved to ascribe to conversion and -sanctification points the same way. 'God gives in a moment such a faith -in the blood of his Son as translates us out of darkness into light, out -of sin and fear into holiness and happiness.' And again, 'Look for -sanctification just as you are, as a poor sinner that has nothing to -pay, nothing to plead but _Christ died_.' This is the side in Wesley's -teaching which his followers have above all seized, and which they are -eager to hold forth as the essential part of his legacy towards them. - -It is true that from the same reason which prevents, as we have said, -those who know their Bible and nothing else from really knowing even -their Bible, Methodists, who for the most part know nothing but Wesley, -do not really know even Wesley. It is true that what really -characterises this most interesting and most attractive man, is not his -doctrine of justification by faith, or any other of his set doctrines, -but is entirely what we may call his _genius for godliness_. Mr. -Alexander Knox, in his remarks on his friend's life and character, -insists much on an entry in Wesley's Journal in 1767, where he seems -impatient at the endless harping on the tenet of justification, and -where he asks 'if it is not high time to return to the plain word: "He -that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him."' Mr. -Knox is right in thinking that the feeling which made Wesley ask this is -what gave him his vital worth and character as a man; but it is not what -gives him his character as the teacher of Methodism. Methodism rejects -Mr. Knox's version of its founder, and insists on making the article of -justification the very corner-stone of the Wesleyan edifice. - -And the truth undoubtedly is, that not by his assertion of what man -brings, but by his assertion of what God gives, by his doctrines of -conversion, instantaneous justification and sanctification, assurance, -and sinless perfection, does Wesley live and operate in Methodism. 'You -think, I must first be or do thus or thus (for sanctification). Then you -are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may -expect it as you are; then expect it now. It is of importance to observe -that there is an inseparable connection between these three points: -expect it _by faith_, expect it _as you are_, and expect it _now_. To -deny one of them is to deny them all; to allow one is to allow them -all.' This is the teaching of Wesley, which has made the great Methodist -half of English Puritanism what it is, and not his hesitations and -recoils at the dangers of his own teaching. - -No doubt, as the seriousness of Calvinism, its perpetual conversance -with deep matters and with the Bible, have given force and fervency to -Calvinist Puritans, so the loveliness of Wesley's piety, and what we -have called his genius for godliness, have sweetened and made amiable -numberless lives of Methodist Puritans. But as a religious teacher, -Wesley is to be judged by his doctrine; and his doctrine, like the -Calvinistic scheme, rests with all its weight on the assertion of -certain minutely described proceedings on God's part, independent of us, -our experience, and our will; and leads its recipients to look, in -religion, not so much for an arduous progress on their own part, and the -exercise of their activity, as for strokes of magic, and what may be -called a sensational character. - -In the Heidelberg Catechism, after an answer in which the catechist -rehearses the popularly received doctrine of original sin and vicarious -satisfaction for it, the catechiser asks the pertinent question: '_Unde -id scis?_'--how do you know all that? The Apostle Paul is, as we have -already shown, the great authority for it whom formal theology invokes; -his name is used by popular theology with the same confidence. I open a -modern book of popular religion at the account of a visit paid to a -hardened criminal seized with terror the night before his execution. The -visitor says: '_I now stand in Paul's place_, and say: In Christ's stead -we pray you, be ye reconciled to God. I beg you to accept the pardon of -all your sins, which Christ has purchased for you, and which God freely -bestows on you for his sake. If you do not understand, I say: God's ways -are not as our ways.' And the narrative of the criminal's conversion -goes on: 'That night was spent in singing the praises of the Saviour who -had purchased his pardon.' - -Both Calvinism and Methodism appeal, therefore, to the Bible, and, above -all, to St. Paul, for the history they propound of the relations between -God and man; but Calvinism relies most, in enforcing it, on man's fears, -Methodism on man's hopes. Calvinism insists on man's being under a -curse; it then works the sense of sin, misery, and terror in him, and -appeals pre-eminently to the desire to flee from the wrath to come. -Methodism, too, insists on his being under a curse; but it works most -the sense of hope in him, the craving for happiness, and appeals -pre-eminently to the desire for eternal bliss. No one, however, will -maintain that the particular account of God's proceedings with man, -whereby Methodism and Calvinism operate on these desires, proves itself -by internal evidence, and establishes without external aid its own -scientific validity. So we may either directly try, as best we can, its -scientific validity in itself; or, as it professes to have Paul's -authority to support it, we may first inquire what is really Paul's -account of God's proceedings with man, and whether this tallies with the -Puritan account and confirms it. The latter is in every way the safer -and the more instructive course to follow. And we will follow -Puritanism's example in taking St. Paul's mature and greatest work, the -Epistle to the Romans, as the chief place for finding what he really -thought on the points in question. - -We have already said elsewhere,[19] indeed, what is very true, and what -must never be forgotten, that what St. Paul, a man so separated from us -by time, race, training and circumstances, really thought, we cannot -make sure of knowing exactly. All we can do is to get near it, reading -him with the sort of critical tact which the study of the human mind and -its history, and the acquaintance with many great writers, naturally -gives for following the movement of any one single great writer's -thought; reading him, also, without preconceived theories to which we -want to make his thoughts fit themselves. It is evident that the English -translation of the Epistle to the Romans has been made by men with their -heads full of the current doctrines of election and justification we -have been noticing; and it has thereby received such a bias,--of which a -strong example is the use of the word _atonement_ in the eleventh verse -of the fifth chapter,--that perhaps it is almost impossible for any one -who reads the English translation only, to take into his mind Paul's -thought without a colouring from the current doctrines. But besides -discarding the English translation, we must bear in mind, if we wish to -get as near Paul's real thought as possible, two things which have -greatly increased the facilities for misrepresenting him. - -[Footnote 19: See _Culture and Anarchy_, chap. v.] - -In the first place, Paul, like the other Bible-writers, and like the -Semitic race in general, has a much juster sense of the true scope and -limits of diction in religious deliverances than we have. He uses within -the sphere of religious emotion expressions which, in this sphere, have -an eloquence and a propriety, but which are not to be taken out of it -and made into formal scientific propositions. - -This is a point very necessary to be borne in mind in reading the Bible. -The prophet Nahum says in the book of his vision: '_God is jealous, and -the Lord revengeth_;'[20] and the authors of the Westminster -Confession, drawing out a scientific theology, lay down the proposition -that God is a jealous and vengeful God, and think they prove their -proposition by quoting in a note the words of Nahum. But this is as if -we took from a chorus of schylus one of his grand passages about guilt -and destiny, just put the words straight into the formal and exact cast -of a sentence of Aristotle, and said that here was the scientific -teaching of Greek philosophy on these matters. The Hebrew genius has -not, like the Greek, its conscious and clear-marked division into a -poetic side and a scientific side; the scientific side is almost absent. -The Bible utterances have often the character of a chorus of schylus, -but never that of a treatise of Aristotle. We, like the Greeks, possess -in our speech and thought the two characters; but so far as the Bible is -concerned we have generally confounded them, and have used our double -possession for our bewilderment rather than turned it to good account. -The admirable maxim of the great medival Jewish school of Biblical -critics: _The Law speaks with the tongue of the children of men_,--a -maxim which is the very foundation of all sane Biblical criticism,--was -for centuries a dead letter to the whole body of our Western exegesis, -and is a dead letter to the whole body of our popular exegesis still. -Taking the Bible language as equivalent with the language of the -scientific intellect, a language which is adequate and absolute, we have -never been in a position to use the key which this maxim of the Jewish -doctors offers to us. But it is certain that, whatever strain the -religious expressions of the Semitic genius were meant, in the minds of -those who gave utterance to them, to bear, the particular strain which -we Western people put upon them is one which they were not meant to -bear. - -[Footnote 20: _Nahum_ i, 2.] - -We have used the word _Hebraise_[21] for another purpose, to denote the -exclusive attention to the moral side of our nature, to conscience, and -to doing rather than knowing; so, to describe the vivid and figured way -in which St. Paul, within the sphere of religious emotion, uses words, -without carrying them outside it, we will use the word _Orientalise_. -When Paul says: 'God hath concluded them all in unbelief _that he might_ -have mercy upon all,'[22] he Orientalises; that is, he does not mean to -assert formally that God acted with this set design, but, being full of -the happy and divine end to the unbelief spoken of, he, by a vivid and -striking figure, represents the unbelief as actually caused with a view -to this end. But when the Calvinists of the Synod of Dort, wishing to -establish the formal proposition that faith and all saving gifts flow -from election and nothing else, quote an expression of Paul's similar to -the one we have quoted, 'He hath chosen us,' they say, 'not because we -were, but _that we might be_ holy and without blame before him,' they go -quite wide of the mark, from not perceiving that what the apostle used -as a vivid figure of rhetoric, they are using as a formal scientific -proposition. - -[Footnote 21: See _Culture and Anarchy_, chap. iv.] - -[Footnote 22: _Rom._ xi, 32.] - -When Paul Orientalises, the fault is not with him when he is -misunderstood, but with the prosaic and unintelligent Western readers -who have not enough tact for style to comprehend his mode of expression. -But he also Judaises; and here his liability to being misunderstood by -us Western people is undoubtedly due to a defect in the critical habit -of himself and his race. A Jew himself, he uses the Jewish Scriptures in -a Jew's arbitrary and uncritical fashion, as if they had a talismanic -character; as if for a doctrine, however true in itself, their -confirmation was still necessary, and as if this confirmation was to be -got from their mere words alone, however detached from the sense of -their context, and however violently allegorised or otherwise wrested. - -To use the Bible in this way, even for purposes of illustration, is -often an interruption to the argument, a fault of style; to use it in -this way for real proof and confirmation, is a fault of reasoning. An -example of the first fault may be seen in the tenth chapter of the -Epistle to the Romans, and in the beginning of the third chapter. The -apostle's point in either place,--his point that faith comes by hearing, -and his point that God's oracles were true though the Jews did not -believe them,--would stand much clearer without their scaffolding of -Bible-quotation. An instance of the second fault is in the third and -fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians, where the Biblical -argumentation by which the apostle seeks to prove his case is as unsound -as his case itself is sound. How far these faults are due to the apostle -himself, how far to the requirements of those for whom he wrote, we need -not now investigate. It is enough that he undoubtedly uses the letter of -Scripture in this arbitrary and Jewish way; and thus Puritanism, which -has only itself to blame for misunderstanding him when he Orientalises, -may fairly put upon the apostle himself some of its blame for -misunderstanding him when he Judaises, and for Judaising so strenuously -along with him. - -To get, therefore, at what Paul really thought and meant to say, it is -necessary for us modern and western people to translate him. And not as -Puritanism, which has merely taken his letter and recast it in the -formal propositions of a modern scientific treatise; but his letter -itself must be recast before it can be properly conveyed by such -propositions. And as the order in which, in any series of ideas, the -ideas come, is of great importance to the final result, and as Paul, who -did not write scientific treatises, but had always religious edification -in direct view, never set out his doctrine with a design of exhibiting -it as a scientific whole, we must also find out for ourselves the order -in which Paul's ideas naturally stand, and the connexion between one of -them and the other, in order to arrive at the real scheme of his -teaching, as compared with the schemes exhibited by Puritanism. - -We remarked how what sets the Calvinist in motion seems to be the desire -to flee from the wrath to come; and what sets the Methodist in motion, -the desire for eternal bliss. What is it which sets Paul in motion? It -is the impulse which we have elsewhere noted as the master-impulse of -Hebraism,--_the desire for righteousness._ 'I exercise myself,' he told -Felix, '_to have a conscience void of offence towards God and men -continually_.'[23] To the Hebrew, this moral order, or righteousness, -was pre-eminently the universal order, the law of God; and God, the -fountain of all goodness, was pre-eminently to him the giver of the -moral law. The end and aim of all religion, _access to God_,--the sense -of harmony with the universal order--the partaking of the divine -nature--that our faith and hope might be in God--that we might have life -and have it more abundantly,--meant for the Hebrew, access to the source -of the _moral_ order in especial, and harmony with it. It was the -greatness of the Hebrew race that it felt the authority of this order, -its preciousness and its beneficence, so strongly. 'How precious are thy -thoughts unto me, O God!'--'The law of thy mouth is better than -thousands of gold and silver.'--'My soul is consumed with the very -fervent desire that it hath alway unto thy judgments.'[24] It was the -greatness of their best individuals that in them this feeling was -incessantly urgent to prove itself in the only sure manner,--in action. -'Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and _keep_ it.' 'If thou -wouldst enter into life, _keep_ the commandments.' 'Let no man deceive -you, he that _doeth_ righteousness is righteous.'[25] What -distinguishes Paul is both his conviction that the commandment is holy, -and just, and good; and also his desire to give effect to the -commandment, to _establish_ it. It was this which gave to his endeavour -after a clear conscience such meaning and efficacity. It was this which -gave him insight to see that there could be no radical difference, in -respect of salvation and the way to it, between Jew and Gentile. 'Upon -every soul of man that _worketh evil_, whoever he may be, tribulation -and anguish; to every one that _worketh good_, glory, honour, and -peace!'[26] - -[Footnote 23: _Acts_, xxiv, 16.] - -[Footnote 24: _Ps._ cxxxix, 7; cxix, 72; _Ibid._, 20.] - -[Footnote 25: _Luke_, xi, 28; _Matth._, xix, 17; I _John_, iii, 7.] - -[Footnote 26: _Rom._, ii, 9, 10.] - -St. Paul's piercing practical religious sense, joined to his strong -intellectual power, enabled him to discern and follow the range of the -commandment, both as to man's actions and as to his heart and thoughts, -with extraordinary force and closeness. His religion had, as we shall -see, a preponderantly mystic side, and nothing is so natural to the -mystic as in rich single words, such as faith, light, love, to sum up -and take for granted, without specially enumerating them all good moral -principles and habits; yet nothing is more remarkable in Paul than the -frequent, nay, incessant lists, in the most particular detail, of moral -habits to be pursued or avoided. Lists of this sort might in a less -sincere and profound writer be formal and wearisome; but to no attentive -reader of St. Paul will they be wearisome, for in making them he touched -the solid ground which was the basis of his religion,--the solid ground -of his hearty desire for righteousness and of his thorough conception of -it,--and only on such a ground was so strong a superstructure possible. -The more one studies these lists, the more does their significance come -out. To illustrate this, let any one go through for himself the -enumeration, too long to be quoted here, in the four last verses of the -first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, of 'things which are not -convenient;' or let him merely consider with attention this catalogue, -towards the end of the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, of -fruits of the spirit: 'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, -goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.'[27] The man who wrote with -this searching minuteness knew accurately what he meant by sin and -righteousness, and did not use these words at random. His diligent -comprehensiveness in his plan of duties is only less admirable than his -diligent sincerity. The sterner virtues and the gentler, his conscience -will not let him rest till he has embraced them all. In his deep resolve -'to make out by actual trial what is that good and perfect and -acceptable will of God,'[28] he goes back upon himself again and again, -he marks a duty at every point of our nature, and at points the most -opposite, for fear he should by possibility be leaving behind him some -weakness still indulged, some subtle promptings to evil not yet brought -into captivity. - -[Footnote 27: Verses 22, 23.] - -[Footnote 28: _Rom._, xii, 2.] - -It has not been enough remarked how this incomparable honesty and depth -in Paul's love of righteousness is probably what chiefly explains his -conversion. Most men have the defects, as the saying is, of their -qualities. Because they are ardent and severe they have no sense for -gentleness and sweetness; because they are sweet and gentle they have no -sense for severity and ardour. A Puritan is a Puritan, and a man of -feeling is a man of feeling. But with Paul the very same fulness of -moral nature which made him an ardent Pharisee, 'as concerning zeal, -persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, -blameless,' was so large that it carried him out of Pharisaism and -beyond it, when once he found how much needed doing in him which -Pharisaism could not do. - -Every attentive regarder of the character of Paul, not only as he was -before his conversion but as he appears to us till his end, must have -been struck with two things: one, the earnest insistence with which he -recommends 'bowels of mercies,' as he calls them: meekness, humbleness -of mind, gentleness, unwearying forbearance, crowned all of them with -that emotion of charity 'which is the bond of perfectness;' the other, -the force with which he dwells on the _solidarity_ (to use the modern -phrase) of man,--the joint interest, that is, which binds humanity -together,--the duty of respecting every one's part in life, and of doing -justice to his efforts to fulfil that part. Never surely did such a -controversialist, such a master of sarcasm and invective, commend, with -such manifest sincerity and such persuasive emotion, the qualities of -meekness and gentleness! Never surely did a worker, who took with such -energy his own line, and who was so born to preponderate and predominate -in whatever line he took, insist so often and so admirably that the -lines of other workers were just as good as his own! At no time, -perhaps, did Paul arrive at practising quite perfectly what he thus -preached; but this only sets in a stronger light the thorough love of -righteousness which made him seek out, and put so prominently forward, -and so strive to make himself and others fulfil, parts of righteousness -which do not force themselves on the common conscience like the duties -of soberness, temperance, and activity, and which were somewhat alien, -certainly, to his own particular nature. Therefore we cannot but believe -that into this spirit, so possessed with the hunger and thirst for -righteousness, and precisely because it was so possessed by it, the -characteristic doctrines of Jesus, which brought a new aliment to feed -this hunger and thirst,--of Jesus whom, except in vision, he had never -seen, but who was in every one's words and thoughts, the teacher who was -meek and lowly in heart, who said men were brothers and must love one -another, that the last should often be first, that the exercise of -dominion and lordship had nothing in them desirable, and that we must -become as little children,--sank down and worked there even before Paul -ceased to persecute, and had no small part in getting him ready for the -crisis of his conversion. - -Such doctrines offered new fields of righteousness to the eyes of this -indefatigable explorer of it, and enlarged the domain of duty of which -Pharisaism showed him only a portion. Then, after the satisfaction thus -given to his desire for a full conception of righteousness, came -Christ's injunctions to make clean the inside as well as the outside, to -beware of the least leaven of hypocrisy and self-flattery, of saying and -not doing;--and, finally, the injunction to feel, after doing all we -can, that, as compared with the standard of perfection, we are still -unprofitable servants. These teachings were, to a man like Paul, for the -practice of righteousness what the others were for the -theory;--sympathetic utterances, which made the inmost chords of his -being vibrate, and which irresistibly drew him sooner or later towards -their utterer. Need it be said that he never forgot them, and that in -all his pages they have left their trace? It is even affecting to see, -how, when he is driven for the very sake of righteousness to put the law -of righteousness in the second place, and to seek outside the law itself -for a power to fulfil the law, how, I say, he returns again and again to -the elucidation of his one sole design in all he is doing; how he -labours to prevent all possibility of misunderstanding, and to show that -he is only leaving the moral law for a moment in order to establish it -for ever more victoriously. What earnestness and pathos in the -assurance: 'If there had been a law given which could have given life, -verily, righteousness should have been by the law!'[29] 'Do I condemn -the law?' he keeps saying; 'do I forget that the commandment is holy, -just, and good? Because we are no longer under the law, are we to sin? -Am I seeking to make the course of my life and yours other than a -service and an obedience?' This man, out of whom an astounding criticism -has deduced Antinomianism, is in truth so possessed with horror of -Antinomianism, that he goes to grace for the sole purpose of extirpating -it, and even then cannot rest without perpetually telling us why he is -gone there. This man, whom Calvin and Luther and their followers have -shut up into the two scholastic doctrines of election and justification, -would have said, could we hear him, just what he said about circumcision -and uncircumcision in his own day: 'Election is nothing, and -justification is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.' - -[Footnote 29: _Gal._, iii, 21.] - -This foremost place which righteousness takes in the order of St. Paul's -ideas makes a signal difference between him and Puritanism. Puritanism, -as we have said, finds its starting-point either in the desire to flee -from eternal wrath or in the desire to obtain eternal bliss. Puritanism -has learned from revelation, as it says, a particular history of the -first man's fall, of mankind being under a curse, of certain contracts -having been passed concerning mankind in the Council of the Trinity, of -the substance of those contracts, and of man's position under them. The -great concern of Puritanism is with the operation of those contracts on -man's condition; its leading thought, if it is a Puritanism of a gloomy -turn, is of awe and fear caused by the threatening aspect of man's -condition under these contracts; if of a cheerful turn, of gratitude and -hope caused by the favourable aspect of it. But in either case, foregone -events, the covenant passed, what God has done and does, is the great -matter. What there is left for man to do, the human work of -righteousness, is secondary, and comes in but to attest and confirm our -assurance of what God has done for us. We have seen this in Wesley's -words already quoted: the first thing for a man is to be justified and -sanctified, and to have the assurance that, without seeking it by works, -he is justified and sanctified; then the desire and works of -righteousness follow as a proper result of this condition. Still more -does Calvinism make man's desire and works of righteousness mere -evidences and benefits of more important things; the desire to work -righteousness is among the saving graces applied by the Holy Spirit to -the elect, and the last of those graces. _Denique_, says the Synod of -Dort, _last of all_, after faith in the promises and after the witness -of the Spirit, comes, to establish our assurance, a clear conscience and -righteousness. It is manifest how unlike is this order of ideas to -Paul's order, who starts with the thought of a conscience void of -offence towards God and man, and builds upon that thought his whole -system. - -But this difference constitutes from the very outset an immense -scientific superiority for the scheme of Paul. Hope and fear are -elements of human nature like the love of right, but they are far -blinder and less scientific elements of it. 'The Bible is a divine -revelation; the Bible declares certain things; the things it thus -declares have the witness of our hopes and fears;'--this is the line of -thought followed by Puritanism. But what science seeks after is a -satisfying rational conception of things. A scheme which fails to give -this, which gives the contrary of this, may indeed be of a nature to -move our hopes and fears, but is to science of none the more value on -that account. - -Nor does our calling such a scheme _a revelation_ mend the matter. -Instead of covering the scientific inadequacy of a conception by the -authority of a revelation, science rather proves the authority of a -revelation by the scientific adequacy of the conceptions given in it, -and limits the sphere of that authority to the sphere of that adequacy. -The more an alleged revelation seems to contain precious and striking -things, the more will science be inclined to doubt the correctness of -any deduction which draws from it, within the sphere of these things, a -scheme which rationally is not satisfying. That the scheme of Puritanism -is rationally so little satisfying inclines science, not to take it on -the authority of the Bible, but to doubt whether it is really in the -Bible. The first appeal which this scheme, having begun outside the -sphere of reality and experience, makes in the sphere of reality and -experience,--its first appeal, therefore, to science,--the appeal to the -witness of human hope and fear, does not much mend matters; for science -knows that numberless conceptions not rationally satisfying are yet the -ground of hope and fear. - -Paul does not begin outside the sphere of science; he begins with an -appeal to reality and experience. And the appeal here with which he -commences has, for science, undoubted force and importance; for he -appeals to a rational conception which is a part, and perhaps the chief -part, of our experience; the conception of the law of _righteousness_, -the very law and ground of human nature so far as this nature is moral. -Things as they truly are,--facts,--are the object-matter of science; and -the moral law in human nature, however this law may have originated, is -in our actual experience among the greatest of facts. - -If I were not afraid of intruding upon Mr. Ruskin's province, I might -point out the witness which etymology itself bears to this law as a -prime element and _clue_ in man's constitution. Our word righteousness -means going straight, going the way we are meant to go; there are -languages in which the word 'way' or 'road' is also the word for right -reason and duty; the Greek word for justice and righteousness has for -its foundation, some say, the idea of describing a certain line, -following a certain necessary orbit. But for these fanciful helps there -is no need. When Paul starts with affirming the grandeur and necessity -of the law of righteousness, science has no difficulty in going along -with him. When he fixes as man's right aim 'love, joy, peace, -long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control,'[30] -he appeals for witness to the truth of what he says to an experience too -intimate to need illustration or argument. - -[Footnote 30: _Gal._, v, 22, 23.] - -The best confirmation of the scientific validity of the importance which -Paul thus attaches to the law of righteousness, the law of reason and -conscience, God as moral law, is to be found in its agreement with the -importance attached to this law by teachers the most unlike him; since -in the eye of science an experience gains as much by having -universality, as in the eye of religion it seems to gain by having -uniqueness. 'Would you know,' says Epictetus, 'the means to perfection -which Socrates followed? they were these: in every single matter which -came before him he made the rule of reason and conscience his one rule -to follow.' Such was precisely the aim of Paul also; it is an aim to -which science does homage as a satisfying rational conception. And to -this aim hope and fear properly attach themselves. For on our following -the clue of moral order, or losing it, depends our happiness or misery; -our life or death in the true sense of those words; our harmony with the -universal order or our disharmony with it; our partaking, as St. Paul -says, of the wrath of God or of the glory of God. So that looking to -this clue, and fearing to lose hold on it, we may in strict scientific -truth say with the author of the Imitation: _Omnia vanitas, prter amare -Deum, et illi soli servire_. - -But to serve God, to follow that central clue in our moral being which -unites us to the universal order, is no easy task; and here again we are -on the most sure ground of experience and psychology. In some way or -other, says Bishop Wilson, every man is conscious of an opposition in -him between the flesh and the spirit. _Video meliora proboque, deteriora -sequor_, say the thousand times quoted lines of the Roman poet. The -philosophical explanation of this conflict does not indeed attribute, -like the Manichan fancy, any inherent evil to the flesh and its -workings; all the forces and tendencies in us are, like our proper -central moral tendency the desire of righteousness, in themselves -beneficent. But they require to be harmonised with this tendency, -because this aims directly at our total moral welfare,--our harmony as -moral beings with the law of our nature and the law of God,--and derives -thence a pre-eminence and a right to moderate. And, though they are not -evil in themselves, the evil which flows from these diverse workings is -undeniable. The lusts of the flesh, the law in our members, _passion_, -according to the Greek word used by Paul, _inordinate affection_, -according to the admirable rendering of Paul's Greek word in our English -Bible,[31] take naturally no account of anything but themselves; this -arbitrary and unregulated action of theirs can produce only confusion -and misery. The spirit, the law of our mind, takes account of the -universal moral order, the will of God, and is indeed the voice of that -order expressing itself in us. Paul talks of a man sowing to _his_ -flesh,[32] because each of us has of his own this individual body, this -_congeries_ of flesh and bones, blood and nerves, different from that of -every one else, and with desires and impulses driving each of us his own -separate way; and he says that a man who sows to this, sows to a -thousand tyrants, and can reap no worthy harvest. But he talks of sowing -to _the_ spirit; because there is one central moral tendency which for -us and for all men is the law of our being, and through reason and -righteousness we move in this universal order and with it. In this -conformity to _the will of God_, as we religiously name the moral order, -is our peace and happiness. - -[Footnote 31: _Col._, iii, 5.] - -[Footnote 32: _Gal._, vi, 8.] - -But how to find the energy and power to bring all those self-seeking -tendencies of the flesh, those multitudinous, swarming, eager, and -incessant impulses, into obedience to the central tendency? Mere -commanding and forbidding is of no avail, and only irritates opposition -in the desires it tries to control. It even enlarges their power, -because it makes us feel our impotence; and the confusion caused by -their ungoverned working is increased by our being filled with a -deepened sense of disharmony, remorse, and dismay. 'I was alive without -the law once,'[33] says Paul; the natural play of all the forces and -desires in me went on smoothly enough so long as I did not attempt to -introduce order and regulation among them. But the condition of immoral -tranquillity could not in man be permanent. That natural law of reason -and conscience which all men have, was sufficient by itself to produce a -consciousness of rebellion and disquietude. Matters became only worse by -the exhibition of the Mosaic law, the offspring of a moral sense more -poignant and stricter, however little it might show of subtle insight -and delicacy, than the moral sense of the mass of mankind. The very -stringency of the Mosaic code increased the feeling of dismay and -helplessness; it set forth the law of righteousness more authoritatively -and minutely, yet did not supply any sufficient power to keep it. -Neither the law of nature, therefore, nor the law of Moses, availed to -blind men to righteousness. So we come to the word which is the -governing word of the Epistle to the Romans,--the word _all_. As the -word _righteousness_ is the governing word of St. Paul's entire mind and -life, so the word _all_ is the governing word of this his chief epistle. -The Gentile with the law of nature, the Jew with the law of Moses, alike -fail to achieve righteousness. '_All_ have sinned, and come short of the -glory of God.'[34] All do what they would not, and do not what they -would; all feel themselves enslaved, impotent, guilty, miserable. 'O -wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this -death?'[35] - -[Footnote 33: _Rom._, vii, 9.] - -[Footnote 34: _Rom._, iii, 23.] - -[Footnote 35: _Rom._, vii, 24.] - - -Hitherto, we have followed Paul in the sphere of morals; we have now -come with him to the point where he enters the sphere of religion. -Religion is that which binds and holds us to the practice of -righteousness. We have accompanied Paul, and found him always treading -solid ground, till he is brought to straits where a binding and holding -power of this kind is necessary. Here is the critical point for the -scientific worth of his doctrine. 'Now at last,' cries Puritanism, 'the -great apostle is about to become even as one of us; there is no issue -for him now, but the issue we have always declared he finds. He has -recourse to our theurgy of election, justification, substitution, and -imputed righteousness.' We will proceed to show that Paul has recourse -to nothing of the kind. - - -II. - -We have seen how Puritanism seems to come by its religion in the first -instance theologically and from authority; Paul by his, on the other -hand, psychologically and from experience. Even the points, therefore, -in which they both meet, they have not reached in the same order or by -the same road. The miserable sense of sin from unrighteousness, the -joyful witness of a good conscience from righteousness, these are points -in which Puritanism and St. Paul meet. They are facts of human nature -and can be verified by science. But whereas Puritanism, so far as -science is concerned, ends with these facts, and rests the whole weight -of its antecedent theurgy upon the witness to it they offer, Paul begins -with these facts, and has not yet, so far as we have followed him, -called upon them to prove anything but themselves. The scientific -difference, as we have already remarked, which this establishes between -Paul and Puritanism is immense, and is all in Paul's favour. Sin and -righteousness, together with their eternal accompaniments of fear and -hope, misery and happiness, can prove themselves; but they can by no -means prove, also, Puritanism's history of original sin, election and -justification. - -Puritanism is fond of maintaining, indeed, that Paul's doctrines derive -their sanction, not from any agreement with science and experience, but -from his miraculous conversion, and that this conversion it was which in -his own judgment gave to them their authority. But whatever sanction the -miracle of his conversion may in his own eyes have lent to the doctrines -afterwards propounded by Paul, it is clear that, for science, his -conversion adds to his doctrines no force at all which they do not -already possess in themselves. Paul's conversion is for science an event -of precisely the same nature as the conversions of which the history of -Methodism relates so many; events described, for the most part, just as -the event of Paul's conversion is described, with perfect good faith, -and which we may perfectly admit to have happened just in the manner -related, without on that account attributing to those who underwent them -any source of certitude for a scheme of doctrine which this doctrine -does not on other and better grounds possess. - -Surely this proposition has only to be clearly stated in order to be -self-evident. The conversion of Paul is in itself an incident of -precisely the same order as the conversion of Sampson Staniforth, a -Methodist soldier in the campaign of Fontenoy. Staniforth himself -relates his conversion as follows, in words which bear plainly marked on -them the very stamp of good faith:-- - - 'From twelve at night till two it was my turn to stand sentinel - at a dangerous post. I had a fellow-sentinel, but I desired him - to go away, which he willingly did. As soon as I was alone, I - knelt down and determined not to rise, but to continue crying - and wrestling with God till he had mercy on me. How long I was - in that agony I cannot tell; but as I looked up to heaven I saw - the clouds open exceeding bright, and I saw Jesus hanging on the - cross. At the same moment these words were applied to my heart: - "Thy sins are forgiven thee." All guilt was gone, and my soul - was filled with unutterable peace: the fear of death and hell - was vanished away. I was filled with wonder and astonishment. I - closed my eyes, but the impression was still the same; and for - about ten weeks, while I was awake, let me be where I would, the - same appearance was still before my eyes, and the same - impression upon my heart, _Thy sins are forgiven thee_.' - -Not the narrative, in the Acts, of Paul's journey to Damascus, could -more convince us, as we have said, of its own honesty. But this honesty -makes nothing, as every one will admit, for the scientific truth of any -scheme of doctrine propounded by Sampson Staniforth, which must prove -itself and its own scientific value before science can admit it. -Precisely the same is it with Paul's doctrine; and we repeat, therefore, -that he and his doctrine have herein a great advantage over Puritanism, -in that, so far as we have yet followed them, they, unlike Puritanism, -rely on facts of experience and assert nothing which science cannot -verify. - -We have now to see whether Paul, in passing from the undoubted facts of -experience, with which he begins, to his religion properly so called, -abandons in any essential points of his teaching the advantage with -which he started, and ends, as Puritanism commences, with a batch of -arbitrary and unscientific assumptions. - -We left Paul in collision with a fact of human nature, but in itself a -sterile fact, a fact on which it is possible to dwell too long, although -Puritanism, thinking this impossible, has remained intensely absorbed in -the contemplation of it, and indeed has never properly got beyond -it,--the sense of sin. Sin is not a monster to be mused on, but an -impotence to be got rid of. All thinking about it, beyond what is -indispensable for the firm effort to get rid of it, is waste of energy -and waste of time. We then enter that element of morbid and subjective -brooding, in which so many have perished. This sense of sin, however, it -is also possible to have not strongly enough to beget the firm effort to -get rid of it, and the Greeks, with all their great gifts, had this -sense not strongly enough; its strength in the Hebrew people is one of -this people's mainsprings. And no Hebrew prophet or psalmist felt what -sin was more powerfully than Paul. 'Mine iniquities have taken hold upon -me so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of -mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.'[36] _They are more than the -hairs of mine head._ The motions of what Paul calls 'the law in our -members' are indeed a hydrabrood; when we are working against one fault, -a dozen others crop up without our expecting it; and this it is which -drives the man who deals seriously with himself to difficulty, nay to -despair. Paul did not need James to tell him that whoever offends on one -point is, so far at least as his own conscience and inward satisfaction -are concerned, guilty of all;[37] he knew it himself, and the unrest -this knowledge gave him was his very starting-point. He knew, too, that -nothing outward, no satisfaction of all the requirements men may make of -us, no privileges of any sort, can give peace of conscience;--of -conscience, 'whose praise is not of men but of God.'[38] He knew, also, -that the law of the moral order stretches beyond us and our private -conscience, is independent of our sense of having kept it, and stands -absolute and what in itself it is; even, therefore, though I may know -nothing against myself, yet this is not enough, I may still not be -just.[39] Finally, Paul knew that merely to know all this and say it, -is of no use, advances us nothing; 'the kingdom of God is not in word -but in power.'[40] - -[Footnote 36: _Ps._ xl, 12.] - -[Footnote 37: _James_, ii, 10.] - -[Footnote 38: _Rom._, ii, 29.] - -[Footnote 39: I _Cor._, iv, 4.] - -[Footnote 40: _Ibid._, 20.] - -We have several times said that the Hebrew race apprehended God,--the -universal order by which all things fulfil the law of their -being,--chiefly as the moral order in human nature, and that it was -their greatness that they apprehended him as this so distinctly and -powerfully. But it is also characteristic of them, and perhaps it is -what mainly distinguishes their spirit from the spirit of medival -Christianity, that they constantly thought, too, of God as the source of -life and breath and all things, and of what they called 'fulness of -life' in all things. This way of thinking was common to them with the -Greeks; although, whereas the Greeks threw more delicacy and imagination -into it, the Hebrews threw more energy and vital warmth. But to the -Hebrew, as to the Greek, the gift of life, and health, and the world, -was divine, as well as the gift of morals. 'God's righteousness,' -indeed, 'standeth like the strong mountains, his judgments are like the -great deep; he is a righteous judge, strong and patient, who is provoked -every day.'[41] This is the Hebrew's first and deepest conception of -God,--as the source of the moral order. But God is also, to the Hebrew, -'our rock, which is higher than we,' the power by which we have been -'upholden ever since we were born,' that has 'fashioned us and laid his -hand upon us' and envelops us on every side, that has 'made us fearfully -and wonderfully,' and whose 'mercy is over all his works.'[42] He is -the power that 'saves both man and beast, gives them drink of his -pleasures as out of the river,' and with whom is 'the well of -life.'[43] In his speech at Athens, Paul shows how full he, too, was of -this feeling; and in the famous passage in the first chapter of the -Epistle to the Romans, where he asserts the existence of the natural -moral law, the source he assigns to this law is not merely God in -conscience, the righteous judge, but God in the world and the workings -of the world, the eternal and divine power from which all life and -wholesome energy proceed.[44] - -[Footnote 41: _Ps._ xxxvi, 6; vii, 11.] - -[Footnote 42: _Ps._ lxi, 2; lxii, 6; cxxxix, 5, 14; cxlv, 9.] - -[Footnote 43: _Ps._ xxxvi, 6, 8, 9.] - -[Footnote 44: _Rom._, i, 19-21.] - -This element in which we live and move and have our being, which -stretches around and beyond the strictly moral element in us, around and -beyond the finite sphere of what is originated, measured, and controlled -by our own understanding and will,--this infinite element is very -present to Paul's thoughts, and makes a profound impression on them. By -this element we are receptive and influenced, not originative and -influencing; now, we all of us receive far more than we originate. Our -pleasure from a spring day we do not make; our pleasure, even, from an -approving conscience we do not make. And yet we feel that both the one -pleasure and the other can, and often do, work with us in a wonderful -way for our good. So we get the thought of an impulsion outside -ourselves which is at once awful and beneficent. 'No man,' as the Hebrew -psalm says, 'hath quickened his own soul.'[45] 'I know,' says Jeremiah, -'that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to -direct his steps.'[46] Most true and natural is this feeling; and the -greater men are, the more natural is this feeling to them. Great men -like Sylla and Napoleon have loved to attribute their success to their -fortune, their star; religious great men have loved to say that their -sufficiency was of God.[47] But through every great spirit runs a train -of feeling of this sort; and the power and depth which there undoubtedly -is in Calvinism, comes from Calvinism's being overwhelmed by it. Paul is -not, like Calvinism, overwhelmed by it; but it is always before his mind -and strongly agitates his thoughts. The voluntary, rational, and human -world, of righteousness, moral choice, effort, filled the first place in -his spirit. But the necessary, mystical, and divine world, of influence, -sympathy, emotion, filled the second; and he could pass naturally from -the one world to the other. The presence in Paul of this twofold feeling -acted irresistibly upon his doctrine. What he calls 'the power that -worketh in us,'[48] and that produces results transcending all our -expectations and calculations, he instinctively sought to combine with -our personal agencies of reason and conscience. - -[Footnote 45: _Ps._ xxii, 29.] - -[Footnote 46: _Jer._, x, 23.] - -[Footnote 47: II _Cor._, iii, 5.] - -[Footnote 48: _Eph._, iii, 20.] - -Of such a mysterious power and its operation some clear notion may be -got by anybody who has ever had any overpowering attachment, or has -been, according to the common expression, in love. Every one knows how -being in love changes for the time a man's spiritual atmosphere, and -makes animation and buoyancy where before there was flatness and -dulness. One may even say that this is the reason why being in love is -so popular with the whole human race,--because it relieves in so -irresistible and delightful a manner the tedium or depression of -common-place human life. And not only does it change the atmosphere of -our spirits, making air, light, and movement where before was stagnation -and gloom, but it also sensibly and powerfully increases our faculties -of action. It is matter of the commonest remark how a timid man who is -in love will show courage, or an indolent man will show diligence. Nay, -a timid man who would be only the more paralysed in a moment of danger -by being told that it is his bounden duty as a man to show firmness, and -that he must be ruined and disgraced for ever if he does not, will show -firmness quite easily from being in love. An indolent man who shrinks -back from vigorous effort only the more because he is told and knows -that it is a man's business to show energy, and that it is shameful in -him if he does not, will show energy quite easily from being in love. -This, I say, we learn from the analogy of the most everyday -experience;--that a powerful attachment will give a man spirits and -confidence which he could by no means call up or command of himself; and -that in this mood he can do wonders which would not be possible to him -without it. - -We have seen how Paul felt himself to be for the sake of righteousness -_apprehended_, to use his own expression, by Christ. 'I seek,' he says, -'to apprehend that for which also I am apprehended by Christ.'[49] This -for which he is thus apprehended is,--still to use his own words,--_the -righteousness of God_; not an incomplete and maimed righteousness, not a -partial and unsatisfying establishment of the law of the spirit, -dominant to-day, deposed to-morrow, effective at one or two points, -failing in a hundred; no, but an entire conformity at all points with -the divine moral order, the will of God, and, in consequence, a sense of -harmony with this order, of acceptance with God. - -[Footnote 49: _Philipp._, iii, 12.] - -In some points Paul had always served this order with a clear -conscience. He did not steal, he did not commit adultery. But he was at -the same time, he says himself, 'a blasphemer and a persecutor and an -insulter,'[50] and the contemplation of Jesus Christ made him see this, -impressed it forcibly upon his mind. Here was his greatness, and the -worth of his way of appropriating Christ. We have seen how Calvinism, -too,--Calvinism which has built itself upon St. Paul,--is a blasphemer, -when it speaks of good works done by those who do not hold the Calvinist -doctrine. There would need no great sensitiveness of conscience, one -would think, to show that Calvinism has often been, also, a persecutor, -and an insulter. Calvinism, as well as Paul, professes to study Jesus -Christ. But the difference between Paul's study of Christ and -Calvinism's is this: that Paul by studying Christ got to know himself -clearly, and to transform his narrow conception of righteousness; while -Calvinism studies both Christ and Paul after him to no such good -purpose. - -[Footnote 50: I _Tim._, i, 13.] - -These, however, are but the veriest rudiments of the history of Paul's -gain from Jesus Christ, as the particular impression mentioned is but -the veriest fragment of the total impression produced by the -contemplation of Christ upon him. The sum and substance of that total -impression may best be conveyed by two words,--_without sin_. - -We must here revert to what we have already said of the importance, for -sound criticism of a man's ideas, of the order in which his ideas come. -For us, who approach Christianity through a scholastic theology, it is -Christ's divinity which establishes his being without sin. For Paul, who -approached Christianity through his personal experience, it was Jesus -Christ's being without sin which establishes his divinity. The large and -complete conception of righteousness to which he himself had slowly and -late, and only by Jesus Christ's help, awakened, in Jesus he seemed to -see existing absolutely and naturally. The devotion to this conception -which made it meat and drink to carry it into effect, a devotion of -which he himself was strongly and deeply conscious, he saw in Jesus -still stronger, by far, and deeper than in himself. But for attaining -the righteousness of God, for reaching an absolute conformity with the -moral order and with God's will, he saw no such impotence existing in -Jesus Christ's case as in his own. For Jesus, the uncertain conflict -between the law in our members and the law of the spirit did not appear -to exist. Those eternal vicissitudes of victory and defeat, which drove -Paul to despair, in Jesus were absent. Smoothly and inevitably he -followed the real and eternal order, in preference to the momentary and -apparent order. Obstacles outside him there were plenty, but obstacles -within him there were none. He was led by the spirit of God; he was dead -to sin, he lived to God; and in this life to God he persevered even to -the cruel bodily death of the cross. As many as are led by the spirit of -God, says Paul, are the sons of God.[51] If this is so with even us, -who live to God so feebly and who render such an imperfect obedience, -how much more is he who lives to God entirely and who renders an -unalterable obedience, the unique and only Son of God? - -[Footnote 51: _Rom._, viii, 14.] - -This is undoubtedly the main line of movement which Paul's ideas -respecting Jesus Christ follow. He had been trained, however, in the -scholastic theology of Judaism, just as we are trained in the scholastic -theology of Christianity; would that we were as little embarrassed with -our training as he was with his! The Jewish theological doctrine -respecting the eternal word or wisdom of God, which was with God from -the beginning before the oldest of his works, and through which the -world was created, this doctrine, which appears in the Book of Proverbs -and again in the Book of Wisdom,[52] Paul applied to Jesus Christ, and -in the Epistle to the Colossians there is a remarkable passage[53] with -clear signs of his thus applying it. But then this metaphysical and -theological basis to the historic being of Jesus is something added by -Paul from outside to his own essential ideas concerning him, something -which fitted them and was naturally taken on to them; it is secondary, -it is not an original part of his system, much less the ground of it. It -fills a very different place in his system from the place which it fills -in the system of the author of the Fourth Gospel, who takes his -starting-point from it. Paul's starting-point, it cannot be too often -repeated, is the idea of righteousness; and his concern with Jesus is as -the clue to righteousness, not as the clue to transcendental ontology. -Speculations in this region had no overpowering attraction for Paul, -notwithstanding the traces of an acquaintance with them which we find in -his writings, and notwithstanding the great activity of his intellect. -This activity threw itself with an unerring instinct into a sphere -where, with whatever travail and through whatever impediments to clear -expression, directly practical religious results might yet be won, and -not into any sphere of abstract speculation. - -[Footnote 52: _Prov._, viii, 22-31; and _Wisd._, vii, 25-27.] - -[Footnote 53: _Col._, i, 15-17.] - -Much more visible and important than his identification of Jesus with -the divine hypostasis known as the Logos, is Paul's identification of -him with the Messiah. Ever present is his recognition of him as the -Messiah to whom all the law and prophets pointed, of whom the heart of -the Jewish race was full, and on whom the Jewish instructors of Paul's -youth had dwelt abundantly. The Jewish language and ideas respecting the -end of the world and the Messiah's kingdom, his day, his presence, his -appearing, his glory, Paul applied to Jesus, and constantly used. Of the -force and reality which these ideas and expressions had for him there -can be no question; as to his use of them, only two remarks are needed. -One is, that in him these Jewish ideas,--as any one will feel who calls -to mind a genuine display of them like that in the Apocalypse,--are -spiritualised; and as he advances in his course they are spiritualised -increasingly. The other remark is, that important as these ideas are in -Paul, of them, too, the importance is only secondary, compared with that -of the great central matter of his thoughts: _the righteousness of God, -the non-fulfilment of it by man, the fulfilment of it by Christ_. - -Once more we are led to a result favourable to the scientific value of -Paul's teaching. That Jesus Christ was the divine Logos, the second -person of the Trinity, science can neither deny nor affirm. That he was -the Jewish Messiah, who will some day appear in the sky with the sound -of trumpets, to put an end to the actual kingdoms of the world and to -establish his own kingdom, science can neither deny nor affirm. The very -terms of which these propositions are composed are such as science is -unable to handle. But that the Jesus of the Bible follows the universal -moral order and the will of God, without being let and hindered as we -are by the motions of private passion and by self-will, this is evident -to whoever can read the Bible with open eyes. It is just what any -criticism of the Gospel-history, which sees that history as it really -is, tells us; it is the scientific result of that history. And this is -the result which pre-eminently occupies Paul. Of Christ's life and -death, the all-importance for us, according to Paul, is that by means of -them, 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, -righteously, and godly;' should be enabled to 'bear fruit to God' in -'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, -self-control.'[54] Of Christ's life and death the scope was 'to redeem -us from all iniquity, and make us purely zealous for good works.'[55] -Paul says by way of preface, that we are to live thus in the actual -world which now is, 'with the expectation of the appearing of the glory -of God and Christ.'[56] By nature and habit, and with his full belief -that the end of the world was nigh at hand, Paul used these words to -mean a Messianic coming and kingdom. Later Christianity has transferred -them, as it has transferred so much else of Paul's, to a life beyond the -grave, but it has by no means spiritualised them. Paul, as his spiritual -growth advanced, spiritualised them more and more; he came to think, in -using them, more and more of a gradual inward transformation of the -world by a conformity like Christ's to the will of God, than of a -Messianic advent. Yet even then they are always second with him, and not -first; the essence of saving grace is always to make us righteous, to -bring us into conformity with the divine law, to enable us to 'bear -fruit to God.' - -[Footnote 54: _Tit._, ii, 12; _Rom._, vii, 4; _Gal._, v, 22, 23.] - -[Footnote 55: _Tit._, ii, 14.] - -[Footnote 56: _Ibid._, 13.] - -'Jesus Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from -iniquity.' First of all, he rendered an unbroken obedience to the law of -the spirit; he served the spirit of God; he came, not to do his own -will, but the will of God. Now, the law of the spirit makes men one; it -is only by the law in our members that we are many. Secondly, therefore, -Jesus Christ had an unfailing sense of what we have called, using an -expressive modern term, the _solidarity_ of men: that it was not God's -will that one of his human creatures should perish. Thirdly, Jesus -Christ persevered in this uninterrupted obedience to the law of the -spirit, in this unfailing sense of human solidarity, even to the death; -though everything befell him which might break the one or tire out the -other. Lastly, he had in himself, in all he said and did, that ineffable -force of attraction which doubled the virtue of everything said or done -by him. - -If ever there was a case in which the wonder-working power of -attachment, in a man for whom the moral sympathies and the desire of -righteousness were all-powerful, might employ itself and work its -wonders, it was here. Paul felt this power penetrate him; and he felt, -also, how by perfectly identifying himself through it with Jesus, and in -no other way, could he ever get the confidence and the force to do as -Jesus did. He thus found a point in which the mighty world outside man, -and the weak world inside him, seemed to combine for his salvation. The -struggling stream of duty, which had not volume enough to bear him to -his goal, was suddenly reinforced by the immense tidal wave of sympathy -and emotion. - -To this new and potent influence Paul gave the name of _faith_. More -fully he calls it: 'Faith that worketh _through love_.'[57] The word -_faith_ points, no doubt, to 'coming by hearing,' and has possibly a -reminiscence, for Paul, of his not having with his own waking eyes, like -the original disciples, seen Jesus, and of his special mission being to -Gentiles who had not seen Jesus either. But the essential meaning of the -word is 'power of holding on to the unseen,' 'fidelity.' Other -attachments demand fidelity in absence to an object which, at some time -or other, nevertheless, has been seen; this attachment demands fidelity -to an object which both is absent and has never been seen by us. It is -therefore rightly called not constancy, but faith; a power, -pre-eminently, of _holding fast to an unseen power of goodness_. -Identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ through this attachment we -become as he was. We live with his thoughts and feelings, and we -participate, therefore, in his freedom from the ruinous law in our -members, in his obedience to the saving law of the spirit, in his -conformity to the eternal order, in the joy and peace of his life to -God. 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' says Paul, 'freed -me from the law of sin and death.'[58] This is what is done for us by -_faith_. - -[Footnote 57: _Gal._, v, 6.] - -[Footnote 58: _Rom._, viii, 2.] - -It is evident that some difficulty arises out of Paul's adding to the -general sense of the word faith,--_a holding fast to an unseen power of -goodness_,--a particular sense of his own,--_identification with -Christ_. It will at once appear that this faith of Paul's is in truth a -specific form of holding fast to an unseen power of goodness; and that -while it can properly be said of Abraham, for instance, that he was -justified by faith, if we take faith in its plain sense of holding fast -to an unseen power of goodness, yet it cannot without difficulty and -recourse to a strained figure be said of him, if we take faith in Paul's -specific sense of identification with Christ. Paul however, undoubtedly, -having conveyed his new specific sense into the word faith, still uses -the word in all cases where, without this specific sense, it was before -applicable and usual; and in this way he often creates ambiguity. Why, -it may be asked, does Paul, instead of employing a special term to -denote his special meaning, still thus employ the general term faith? We -are inclined to think it was from that desire to get for his words and -thoughts not only the real but also the apparent sanction and -consecration of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we have called his tendency -to Judaise. It was written of the founder of Israel, Abraham, that he -_believed_ God and it was counted to him for righteousness. The prophet -Habakkuk had the famous text: 'The just shall live by _faith_.'[59] -Jesus, too, had used and sanctioned the use of the word _faith_ to -signify cleaving to the unseen God's power of goodness as shown in -Christ.[60] Peter and John and the other apostles habitually used the -word in the same sense, with the modification introduced by Christ's -departure. This was enough to make Paul retain for that vital operation, -which was the heart of his whole religious system, the name of faith, -though he had considerably developed and enlarged the name's usual -meaning. Fraught with this new and developed sense, the term does not -always quite well suit the cases to which it was in its old sense, with -perfect propriety, applied; this, however, Paul did not regard. The term -applied with undeniable truth, though not with perfect adequacy, to the -great spiritual operation whereto he affixed it; and it was at the same -time the name given to the crowning grace of the great father of the -Jewish nation, Abraham; it was the prophet Habakkuk's talismanic and -consecrated term, _faith_. - -[Footnote 59: _Gen._, xv, 6; _Habakkuk_, ii, 4.] - -[Footnote 60: _Mark_, xi, 22.] - -In this word _faith_, as used by St. Paul,[61] we reach a point round -which the ceaseless stream of religious exposition and discussion has -for ages circled. Even for those who misconceive Paul's line of ideas -most completely, faith is so evidently the central point in his system -that their thoughts cannot but centre upon it. Puritanism, as is well -known, has talked of little else but faith. And the word is of such a -nature, that, the true clue once lost which Paul has given us to its -meaning, every man may put into it almost anything he likes, all the -fancies of his superstition or of his fanaticism. To say, therefore, -that to have faith in Christ means to be attached to Christ, to embrace -Christ, to be identified with Christ, is not enough; the question is, to -be attached to him _how_, to embrace him _how_? - -[Footnote 61: With secondary uses of the word, such as its use with -the article, '_the_ faith,' in expressions like 'the words of the -faith,' to signify the body of tenets and principles received by -believers from the apostle, we need not here concern ourselves. They -present no difficulty.] - -A favourite expression of popular theology conveys perfectly the popular -definition of faith: _to rest in the finished work of the Saviour_. In -the scientific language of Protestant theology, to embrace Christ, to -have saving faith, is 'to give our consent heartily to the covenant of -grace, and so to receive the benefit of justification, whereby God -pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous for the righteousness -of Christ imputed to us.' This is mere theurgy, in which, so far as we -have yet gone, we have not found Paul dealing. Wesley, with his genius -for godliness, struggled all his life for some deeper and more edifying -account of that faith, which he felt working wonders in his own soul, -than that it was a hearty consent to the covenant of grace and an -acceptance of the benefit of Christ's imputed righteousness. Yet this -amiable and gracious spirit, but intellectually slight and shallow -compared to Paul, beat his wings in vain. Paul, nevertheless, had solved -the problem for him, if only he could have had eyes to see Paul's -solution. - -'He that believes in Christ,' says Wesley, 'discerns spiritual things: -he is enabled to taste, see, hear, and feel God.' There is nothing -practical and solid here. A company of Cornish revivalists will have no -difficulty in tasting, seeing, hearing, and feeling God, twenty times -over, to-night, and yet may be none the better for it to-morrow morning. -When Paul said, _In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything -nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh through love; Have faith in -Christ!_ these words did not mean for him: 'Give your hearty belief and -consent to the covenant of grace; Accept the offered benefit of -justification through Christ's imputed righteousness.' They did not -mean: 'Try and discern spiritual things, try and taste, see, hear, and -feel God.' They did not mean: 'Rest in the finished work of Christ the -Saviour.' No, they meant: _Die with him!_ - -The object of this treatise is not religious edification, but the true -criticism of a great and misunderstood author. Yet it is impossible to -be in presence of this Pauline conception of faith without remarking on -the incomparable power of edification which it contains. It is indeed a -crowning evidence of that piercing practical religious sense which we -have attributed to Paul. It is at once mystical and rational; and it -enlists in its service the best forces of both worlds,--the world of -reason and morals, and the world of sympathy and emotion. The world of -reason and duty has an excellent clue to action, but wants motive-power; -the world of sympathy and influence has an irresistible force of -motive-power, but wants a clue for directing its exertion. The danger of -the one world is weariness in well-doing; the danger of the other is -sterile raptures and immoral fanaticism. Paul takes from both worlds -what can help him, and leaves what cannot. The elemental power of -sympathy and emotion in us, a power which extends beyond the limits of -our own will and conscious activity, which we cannot measure and -control, and which in each of us differs immensely in force, volume, and -mode of manifestation, he calls into full play, and sets it to work with -all its strength and in all its variety. But one unalterable object is -assigned by him to this power: _to die with Christ to the law of the -flesh, to live with Christ to the law of the mind_. - -This is the doctrine of the _necrosis_,[62]--Paul's central doctrine, -and the doctrine which makes his profoundness and originality. His -repeated and minute lists of practices and feelings to be followed or -suppressed, now take a heightened significance. They were the matter by -which his faith tried itself and knew itself. Those multitudinous -motions of appetite and self-will which reason and conscience -disapproved, reason and conscience could yet not govern, and had to -yield to them. This, as we have seen, is what drove Paul almost to -despair. Well, then, how did Paul's faith, working through love, help -him here? It enabled him to reinforce duty by affection. In the central -need of his nature, the desire to govern these motions of -unrighteousness, it enabled him to say: _Die to them! Christ did._ If -any man be in Christ, said Paul--that is, if any man identifies himself -with Christ by attachment so that he enters into his feelings and lives -with his life,--he is a new creature;[63] he can do, and does, what -Christ did. First, he suffers with him. Christ throughout his life and -in his death presented his body a living sacrifice to God; every -self-willed impulse blindly trying to assert itself without respect of -the universal order, he died to. You, says Paul to his disciple, are to -do the same. Never mind how various and multitudinous the impulses are; -impulses to intemperance, concupiscence, covetousness, pride, sloth, -envy, malignity, anger, clamour, bitterness, harshness, unmercifulness. -Die to them all, and to each as it comes! Christ did. If you cannot, -your attachment, your faith, must be one that goes but a very little -way. In an ordinary human attachment, out of love to a woman, out of -love to a friend, out of love to a child, you can suppress quite easily, -because by sympathy you enter into their feelings, this or that impulse -of selfishness which happens to conflict with them, and which hitherto -you have obeyed. _All_ impulses of selfishness conflict with Christ's -feelings, he showed it by dying to them all; if you are one with him by -faith and sympathy, you can die to them also. Then, secondly, if you -thus die with him, you become transformed by the renewing of your mind, -and rise with him. The law of the spirit of life which is in Christ -becomes the law of your life also, and frees you from the law of sin and -death. You rise with him to that harmonious conformity with the real and -eternal order, that sense of pleasing God who trieth the hearts, which -is life and peace, and which grows more and more till it becomes glory. -If you suffer with him, therefore, you shall also be glorified with him. - -[Footnote 62: II _Cor._, iv, 10.] - -[Footnote 63: II _Cor._, v, 17.] - -The real worth of this mystical conception depends on the fitness of the -character and history of Jesus Christ for inspiring such an enthusiasm -of attachment and devotion as that which Paul's notion of faith implies. -If the character and history are eminently such as to inspire it, then -Paul has no doubt found a mighty aid towards the attainment of that -righteousness of which Jesus Christ's life afforded the admirable -pattern. A great solicitude is always shown by popular Christianity to -establish a radical difference between Jesus and a teacher, like -Socrates. Ordinary theologians establish this difference by -transcendental distinctions into which science cannot follow them. But -what makes for science the radical difference between Jesus and -Socrates, is that such a conception as Paul's would, if applied to -Socrates, be out of place and ineffective. Socrates inspired boundless -friendship and esteem; but the inspiration of reason and conscience is -the one inspiration which comes from him, and which impels us to live -righteously as he did. A penetrating enthusiasm of love, sympathy, pity, -adoration, reinforcing the inspiration of reason and duty, does not -belong to Socrates. With Jesus it is different. On this point it is -needless to argue; history has proved. In the midst of errors the most -prosaic, the most immoral, the most unscriptural, concerning God, -Christ, and righteousness, the immense emotion of love and sympathy -inspired by the person and character of Jesus has had to work almost by -itself alone for righteousness; and it has worked wonders. The -surpassing religious grandeur of Paul's conception of faith is that it -seizes a real salutary emotional force of incalculable magnitude, and -reinforces moral effort with it. - -Paul's mystical conception is not complete without its relation of us to -our fellow-men, as well as its relation of us to Jesus Christ. Whoever -identifies himself with Christ, identifies himself with Christ's idea of -the solidarity of men. The whole race is conceived as one body, having -to die and rise with Christ, and forming by the joint action of its -regenerate members the mystical body of Christ. Hence the truth of that -which Bishop Wilson says: 'It is not so much our neighbour's interest as -our own that we love him.' Jesus Christ's life, with which we by faith -identify ourselves, is not complete, his aspiration after the eternal -order is not satisfied, so long as only Jesus himself follows this -order, or only this or that individual amongst us men follows it. The -same law of emotion and sympathy, therefore, which prevails in our -inward self-discipline, is to prevail in our dealings with others. The -motions of sin in ourselves we succeed in mortifying, not by saying to -ourselves that they are sinful, but by sympathy with Christ in his -mortification of them. In like manner, our duties towards our neighbour -we perform, not in deference to external commands and prohibitions, but -through identifying ourselves with him by sympathy with Christ who -identified himself with him. Therefore, we owe no man anything but to -love one another; and he who loves his neighbour fulfils the law towards -him, because he seeks to do him good and forbears to do him harm just as -if he was himself. - -Mr. Lecky cannot see that the command to speak the truth to one's -neighbour is a command which has a natural sanction. But according to -these Pauline ideas it has a clear natural sanction. For, if my -neighbour is merely an extension of myself, deceiving my neighbour is -the same as deceiving myself; and than self-deceit there is nothing by -nature more baneful. And on this ground Paul puts the injunction. He -says: 'Speak every man truth to his neighbour, _for_ we are members one -of another.'[64] This direction to identify ourselves in Jesus Christ -with our neighbours is hard and startling, no doubt, like the direction -to identify ourselves with Jesus and die with him. But it is also, like -that direction, inspiring; and not, like a set of mere mechanical -commands and prohibitions, lifeless and unaiding. It shows a profound -practical religious sense, and rests upon facts of human nature which -experience can follow and appreciate. - -[Footnote 64: _Eph._, iv, 25.] - -The three essential terms of Pauline theology are not, therefore, as -popular theology makes them: _calling_, _justification_, -_sanctification_. They are rather these: _dying with Christ_, -_resurrection from the dead_, _growing into Christ_.[65] The order in -which these terms are placed indicates, what we have already pointed out -elsewhere, the true Pauline sense of the expression, _resurrection from -the dead_. In Paul's ideas the expression has no essential connexion -with physical death. It is true, popular theology connects it with this -almost exclusively, and regards any other use of it as purely figurative -and secondary. For popular theology, Christ's resurrection is his bodily -resurrection on earth after his physical death on the cross; the -believer's resurrection is his bodily resurrection in a future world, -the golden city of our hymns and of the Apocalypse. For this theology, -the force of Christ's resurrection is that it is a miracle which -guarantees the promised future miracle of our own resurrection. It is a -common remark with Biblical critics, even with able and candid Biblical -critics, that Christ's resurrection, in this sense of a physical -miracle, is the central object of Paul's thoughts and the foundation of -all his theology. Nay, the preoccupation with this idea has altered the -very text of our documents; so that whereas Paul wrote, 'Christ died and -lived,' we read, 'Christ died and rose again and revived.'[66] But -whoever has carefully followed Paul's line of thought as we have -endeavoured to trace it, will see that in his mature theology, as the -Epistle to the Romans exhibits it, it cannot be this physical and -miraculous aspect of the resurrection which holds the first place in his -mind; for under this aspect the resurrection does not fit in with the -ideas which he is developing. - -[Footnote 65: +apothanein syn Christ+, _Col._, ii, 20; +exanastasis -ek nekrn+, _Philipp._, iii, 11; +auxsis eis Christon+, _Eph._, iv, -15.] - -[Footnote 66: _Rom._, xiv, 9.] - -Not for a moment do we deny that in Paul's earlier theology, and notably -in the Epistles to the Thessalonians and Corinthians, the physical and -miraculous aspect of the resurrection, both Christ's and the believer's, -is primary and predominant. Not for a moment do we deny that to the very -end of his life, after the Epistle to the Romans, after the Epistle to -the Philippians, if he had been asked whether he held the doctrine of -the resurrection in the physical and miraculous sense, as well as in his -own spiritual and mystical sense, he would have replied with entire -conviction that he did. Very likely it would have been impossible to him -to imagine his theology without it. But:-- - - Below the surface-stream, shallow and light, - Of what we _say_ we feel--below the stream, - As light, of what we _think_ we feel--there flows - With noiseless current strong, obscure and deep, - The central stream of what we feel indeed; - -and by this alone are we truly characterised. Paul's originality lies in -the effort to find a moral side and significance for all the processes, -however mystical, of the religious life, with a view of strengthening, -in this way, their hold upon us and their command of all our nature. -Sooner or later he was sure to be drawn to treat the process of -resurrection with this endeavour. He did so treat it; and what is -original and essential in him is his doing so. - -Paul's conception of life and death inevitably came to govern his -conception of resurrection. What indeed, as we have seen, is for Paul -life, and what is death? Not the ordinary physical life and death. -Death, for him, is living after the flesh, obedience to sin; life is -mortifying by the spirit the deeds of the flesh, obedience to -righteousness. Resurrection, in its essential sense, is therefore for -Paul, the rising, within the sphere of our visible earthly existence, -from death in this sense to life in this sense. It is indubitable that, -so far as the human believer's resurrection is concerned, this is so. -Else, how could Paul say to the Colossians (to take only one out of a -hundred clear texts showing the same thing): '_If ye then be risen with -Christ_, seek the things that are above.'[67] But when Paul repeats -again and again, in the Epistle to the Romans, that the matter of our -faith is 'that God raised Jesus from the dead,' the essential meaning of -this resurrection, also, is just the same. Real life for Paul, begins -with the mystical death which frees us from the dominion of the external -_shalls_ and _shall nots_ of the law.[68] From the moment, therefore, -that Jesus Christ was content to do God's will, he died. Paul's point -is, that Jesus Christ in his earthly existence obeyed the law of the -spirit and bore fruit to God; and that the believer should, in his -earthly existence, do the same. That Christ 'died to sin,' that he -'pleased not himself,' and that, consequently, through all his life -here, he was risen and living to God, is what occupies Paul. Christ's -physical resurrection after he was crucified is neither in point of time -nor in point of character the resurrection on which Paul, following his -essential line of thought, wanted to fix the believer's mind. The -resurrection Paul was striving after for himself and others was a -resurrection _now_, and a resurrection to _righteousness_.[69] - -[Footnote 67: _Col._, iii, 1.] - -[Footnote 68: See _Rom._, vii, 1-6.] - -[Footnote 69: It has been said that this was the error of Hymenus -and Philetas (II _Tim._, ii, 17). It might be rejoined, with much -plausibility, that their error was the error of popular theology, -the fixing the attention on the past miracle of Christ's physical -resurrection, and losing sight of the continuing miracle of the -Christian's spiritual resurrection. Probably, however, Hymenus and -Philetas controverted some of Paul's tenets respecting the -approaching Messianic advent and the resurrection then to take place -(I _Thess._, iv, 13-17). If they rejected these tenets, they were -right where Paul was wrong. But if they disputed and separated on -account of them, they were _heretics_; that is, they had their -hearts and minds full of a speculative contention, instead of their -proper chief-concern,--_putting on the new man_, and the imitation -of Christ.] - -But Jesus Christ's obeying God and not pleasing himself culminated in -his death on the cross. All through his career, indeed, Jesus Christ -pleased not himself and died to sin. But so smoothly and so inevitably, -as we have before said, did he always appear to follow that law of the -moral order, which to us it costs such effort to obey, that only in the -very wrench and pressure of his violent death did any pain of dying, any -conflict between the law of the flesh and the law of the spirit, in -Christ become visible. But the Christian needs to find in Christ's dying -to sin a fellowship of suffering and a conformity of death. Well, then, -the point of Christ's trial and crucifixion is the only point in his -career where the Christian can palpably touch what he seeks. In all -dying there is struggle and weakness; in our dying to sin there is great -struggle and weakness. But only in his crucifixion can we see, in Jesus -Christ, a place for struggle and weakness.[70] That self-sacrificing -obedience of Jesus Christ's whole life, which was summed up in this -great, final act of his crucifixion, and which is palpable as sacrifice, -obedience, dolorous effort, only there, is, therefore, constantly -regarded by Paul under the figure of this final act, as is also the -believer's conformity to Christ's obedience. The believer is crucified -with Christ when he mortifies by the spirit the deeds of -unrighteousness; Christ was crucified when he pleased not himself, and -came to do not his own will but God's. - -[Footnote 70: +estaurth ex astheneias+, II _Cor._, xiii, 4.] - -It is the same with life as with death; it turns on no physical event, -but on that central concern of Paul's thoughts, righteousness. If we -have the spirit of Christ, we live, as he did, by the spirit, 'serve the -spirit of God,'[71] and follow the eternal order. The spirit of God, -the spirit of Christ is the same,--the one eternal moral order. If we -are led by the spirit of God we are the sons of God, and share with -Christ the heritage of the sons of God,--eternal life, peace, felicity, -glory. The spirit, therefore, is life _because of righteousness_. And -when, through identifying ourselves with Christ, we reach Christ's -righteousness, then eternal life begins for us;--a continuous and -ascending life, for the eternal order never dies, and the more we -transform ourselves into servants of righteousness and organs of the -eternal order, the more we are and desire to be this eternal order and -nothing else. Even in this life we are 'seated in heavenly places,'[72] -as Christ is; so entirely, for Paul, is righteousness the true life and -the true heaven. But the transformation cannot be completed here; the -physical death is regarded by Paul as a stage at which it ceases to be -impeded. However, at this stage we quit, as he himself says, the ground -of experience and enter upon the ground of hope. But, by a sublime -analogy, he fetches from the travail of the whole universe proof of the -necessity and beneficence of the law of transformation. Jesus Christ -entered into his glory when he had made his physical death itself a -crowning witness to his obedience to righteousness; we, in like manner, -within the limits of this earthly life and before we have yet persevered -to the end, must not look for full adoption, for the glorious revelation -in us of the sons of God.[73] - -[Footnote 71: According to the true reading in _Philipp._, iii, 3.] - -[Footnote 72: _Eph._, ii, 6.] - -[Footnote 73: _Rom._, viii, 18-25.] - -That Paul, as we have said, accepted the physical miracle of Christ's -resurrection and ascension as a part of the signs and wonders which -accompanied Christianity, there can be no doubt. Just in the same manner -he accepted the eschatology, as it is called, of his nation,--their -doctrine of the final things and of the summons by a trumpet in the sky -to judgment; he accepted Satan, hierarchies of angels, and an -approaching end of the world. What we deny is, that his acceptance of -the former gives to his teaching its essential characters, any more than -his acceptance of the latter. We should but be continuing, with strict -logical development, Paul's essential line of thought, if we said that -the true ascension and glorified reign of Christ was the triumph and -reign of his spirit, of his real life, far more operative after his -death on the cross than before it; and that in this sense, most truly, -he and all who persevere to the end as he did are 'sown in weakness but -raised in power.' Paul himself, however, did not distinctly continue his -thought thus, and neither will we do so for him. How far Paul himself -knew that he had gone in his irresistible bent to find, for each of the -data of his religion, that side of moral and spiritual significance -which, as a mere sign and wonder, it had not and could not have,--what -data he himself was conscious of having transferred, through following -this bent, from the first rank in importance to the second,--we cannot -know with any certainty. That the bent existed, that Paul felt it -existed, and that it establishes a wide difference between the earliest -epistles and the latest, is beyond question. Already, in the Second -Epistle to the Corinthians, he declares that, 'though he had known -Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth he knew him so no more;'[74] and -in the Epistle to the Romans, shortly afterwards, he rejects the notion -of dwelling on the miraculous Christ, on the descent into hell and on -the ascent into heaven, and fixes the believer's attention solely on the -faith of Christ and on the effects produced by an acquaintance with -it.[75] In the same Epistle, in like manner, the kingdom of God, of -which to the Thessalonians he described the advent in such materialising -and popularly Judaic language, has become 'righteousness, and peace, and -joy in the holy spirit.'[76] - -[Footnote 74: II _Cor._, v, 16.] - -[Footnote 75: _Rom._, x, 6-10.] - -[Footnote 76: _Rom._, xiv, 17.] - -These ideas, we repeat, may never have excluded others, which absorbed -the most part of Paul's contemporaries as they absorb popular religion -at this day. To popular religion, the real kingdom of God is the New -Jerusalem with its jaspers and emeralds; righteousness and peace and joy -are only the kingdom of God figuratively. The real sitting in heavenly -places is the sitting on thrones in a land of pure delight after we are -dead; serving the spirit of God is only sitting in heavenly places -figuratively. Science exactly reverses this process. For science, the -spiritual notion is the real one, the material notion is figurative. The -astonishing greatness of Paul is, that, coming when and where and whence -he did, he yet grasped the spiritual notion, if not exclusively and -fully, yet firmly and predominantly; more and more predominantly through -all the last years of his life. And what makes him original and himself, -is not what he shares with his contemporaries and with modern popular -religion, but this which he develops of his own; and this which he -develops of his own is just of a nature to make his religion a theology -instead of a theurgy, and at bottom a scientific instead of a -non-scientific structure. 'Die and come to life!' says Goethe,--an -unsuspected witness, assuredly, to the psychological and scientific -profoundness of Paul's conception of life and death:--'Die and come to -life! for, so long as this is not accomplished, thou art but a troubled -guest upon an earth of gloom.'[77] - -[Footnote 77: Stirb und werde! - Denn so lang du das nicht hast, - Bist du nur ein trber Gast - Auf der dunkeln Erde.] - -The three cardinal points in Paul's theology are not therefore, we -repeat, those commonly assigned by Puritanism, _calling_, -_justification_, _sanctification_; but they are these: _dying with -Christ_, _resurrection from the dead_, _growing into Christ_. And we -will venture, moreover, to affirm that the more the Epistle to the -Romans is read and re-read with a clear mind, the more will the -conviction strengthen, that the sense indicated by the order in which we -here class the second main term of Paul's conception, is the essential -sense which Paul himself attaches to this term, in every single place -where in that Epistle he has used it. Not tradition and not theory, but -a simple impartial study of the development of Paul's central line of -thought, brings us to the conclusion, that from the very outset of the -Epistle, where Paul speaks of Christ as 'declared to be the son of God -with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the -dead,'[78] to the very end, the essential sense in which Paul uses the -term _resurrection_ is that of a rising, in this visible earthly -existence, from the death of obedience to blind selfish impulse, to the -life of obedience to the eternal moral order;--in Christ's case first, -as the pattern for us to follow; in the believer's case afterwards, as -following Christ's pattern through identifying himself with him. - -[Footnote 78: _Rom._, i, 4.] - -We have thus reached Paul's fundamental conception without even a -glimpse of the fundamental conceptions of Puritanism, which, -nevertheless, professes to have learnt its doctrine from St. Paul and -from his Epistle to the Romans. Once, for a moment, the term _faith_ -brought us in contact with the doctrine of Puritanism, but only to see -that the essential sense given to this word by Paul Puritanism had -missed entirely. Other parts, then, of the Epistle to the Romans than -those by which we have been occupied must have chiefly fixed the -attention of Puritanism. And so it has in truth been. Yet the parts of -the Epistle to the Romans that have occupied us are undoubtedly the -parts which not our own theories and inclinations,--for we have -approached the matter without any,--but an impartial criticism of Paul's -real line of thought, must elevate as the most important. If a somewhat -pedantic form of expression may be forgiven for the sake of clearness, -we may say that of the eleven first chapters of the Epistle to the -Romans,--the chapters which convey Paul's theology, though not, as we -have seen, with any scholastic purpose or in any formal scientific mode -of exposition,--of these eleven chapters, the first, second, and third -are, in a scale of importance fixed by a scientific criticism of Paul's -line of thought, sub-primary; the fourth and fifth are secondary; the -sixth and eighth are primary; the seventh chapter is sub-primary; the -ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters are secondary. Furthermore, to the -contents of the separate chapters themselves this scale must be carried -on, so far as to mark that of the two great primary chapters, the sixth -and the eighth, the eighth is primary down only to the end of the -twenty-eighth verse; from thence to the end it is, however eloquent, yet -for the purpose of a scientific criticism of Paul's essential theology, -only secondary. - -The first chapter is to the Gentiles. Its purport is: You have not -righteousness. The second is to the Jews; and its purport is: No more -have you, though you think you have. The third chapter announces faith -in Christ as the one source of righteousness for all men. The fourth -chapter gives to the notion of righteousness through faith the sanction -of the Old Testament and of the history of Abraham. The fifth insists on -the causes for thankfulness and exultation in the boon of righteousness -through faith in Christ; and applies illustratively, with this design, -the history of Adam. The sixth chapter comes to the all-important -question: 'What _is_ that faith in Christ which I, Paul, mean?'--and -answers it. The seventh illustrates and explains the answer. But the -eighth, down to the end of the twenty-eighth verse, develops and -completes the answer. The rest of the eighth chapter expresses the sense -of safety and gratitude which the solution is fitted to inspire. The -ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters uphold the second chapter's -thesis,--so hard to a Jew, so easy to us,--that righteousness is not by -the Jewish law; but dwell with hope and joy on a final result of things -which is to be favourable to Israel. - -We shall be pardoned this somewhat formal analysis in consideration of -the clearness with which it enables us to survey the Puritan scheme of -original sin, predestination, and justification. The historical -transgression of Adam occupies, it will be observed, in Paul's ideas by -no means the primary, fundamental, all-important place which it holds in -the ideas of Puritanism. 'This' (the transgression of Adam) 'is our -original sin, the bitter root of all our actual transgressions in -thought, word, and deed.' Ah, no! Paul did not go to the Book of Genesis -to get the real testimony about sin. He went to experience for it. '_I -see_,' he says, 'a law in my members fighting against the law of my -mind, and bringing me into captivity.'[79] This is the essential -testimony respecting the rise of sin to Paul,--this rise of it in his -own heart and in the heart of all the men who hear him. At quite a later -stage in his conception of the religious life, in quite a subordinate -capacity, and for the mere purpose of illustration, comes in the -allusion to Adam and to what is called original sin. Paul's desire for -righteousness has carried him to Christ and to the conception of the -righteousness which is of God by faith, and he is expressing his -gratitude, delight, wonder, at the boon he has discovered. For the -purpose of exalting it he reverts to the well-known story of Adam. It -cannot even be said that Paul Judaises in his use here of this story; so -entirely does he subordinate it to his purpose of illustration, using it -just as he might have used it had he believed, which undoubtedly he did -not, that it was merely a symbolical legend, having the advantage of -being perfectly familiar to himself and his hearers. 'Think,' he says, -'how in Adam's fall one man's one transgression involved all men in -punishment; then estimate the blessedness of our boon in Christ, where -one man's one righteousness involves a world of transgressors in -blessing![80] This is not a scientific doctrine of corruption inherited -through Adam's fall; it is a rhetorical use of Adam's fall in a passing -allusion to it. - -[Footnote 79: _Rom._, vii, 23.] - -[Footnote 80: _Rom._, v, 12-21.] - -We come to predestination. We have seen how strong was Paul's -consciousness of that power, not ourselves, in which we live and move -and have our being. The sense of life, peace, and joy, which comes -through identification with Christ, brings with it a deep and grateful -consciousness that this sense is none of our own getting and making. No, -it is grace, it is the free gift of God, who gives abundantly beyond all -that we ask or think, and calls things that are not as though they were. -'It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that -showeth mercy.'[81] As moral agents, for whom alone exist all the -predicaments of merit and demerit, praise and blame, effort and failure, -vice and virtue, we are impotent and lost;--we are saved through that in -us which is passive and involuntary; we are saved through our -affections, it is as beings _acted upon_ and _influenced_ that we are -saved! Well might Paul cry out, as this mystical but profound and -beneficent conception filled his soul: 'All things work together for -good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his -purpose.'[82] Well might he say, in the gratitude which cannot find -words enough to express its sense of boundless favour, that those who -reached peace with God through identification with Christ were vessels -of mercy, marked from endless ages; that they had been foreknown, -predestinated, called, justified, glorified. - -[Footnote 81: _Rom._, ix, 16.] - -[Footnote 82: _Rom._, viii, 28.] - -It may be regretted, for the sake of the clear understanding of his -essential doctrine, that Paul did not stop here. It might seem as if the -word 'prothesis,' _purpose_, lured him on into speculative mazes, and -involved him, at last, in an embarrassment, from which he impatiently -tore himself by the harsh and unedifying image of the clay and the -potter. But this is not so. These allurements of speculation, which have -been fatal to so many of his interpreters, never mastered Paul. He was -led into difficulty by the tendency which we have already noticed as -making his real imperfection both as a thinker and as a writer,--the -tendency to Judaise. - -Already, in the fourth chapter, this tendency had led him to seem to -rest his doctrine of justification by faith upon the case of Abraham, -whereas, in truth, it needs all the good will in the world, and some -effort of ingenuity, even to bring the case of Abraham within the -operation of this doctrine. That righteousness is life, that all men by -themselves fail of righteousness, that only through identification with -Jesus Christ can they reach it,--these propositions, for us at any rate, -prove themselves much better than they are proved by the thesis that -Abraham in old age believed God's promise that his seed should yet be as -the stars for multitude, and that this was counted to him for -righteousness. The sanction thus apparently given to the idea that faith -is a mere belief, or opinion of the mind, has put thousands of Paul's -readers on a false track. - -But Paul's Judaising did not end here. To establish his doctrine of -righteousness by faith, he had to eradicate the notion that his people -were specially privileged, and that, having the Mosaic law, they did not -need anything farther. For us, this one verse of the tenth chapter: -_There is no difference between Jew and Greek, for it is the same Lord -of all, who is rich to all that call upon him_,--and these four words of -another verse: _For righteousness, heart-faith necessary!_--effect far -more for Paul's object than his three chapters bristling with Old -Testament quotations. By quotation, however, he was to proceed, in order -to invest his doctrine with the talismanic virtues of a verbal sanction -from the law and the prophets. He shows, therefore, that the law and the -prophets had said that only a remnant, an _elect remnant_, of Israel -should be saved, and that the rest should be blinded. But to say that -peace with God through Jesus Christ inspires such an abounding sense of -gratitude, and of its not being our work, that we can only speak of -ourselves as _called_ and _chosen_ to it, is one thing; in so speaking, -we are on the ground of personal experience. To say, on the other hand, -that God has blinded and reprobated other men, so that they shall not -reach this blessing, is to quit the ground of personal experience, and -to begin employing the magnified and non-natural man in the next street. -We then require, in order to account for his proceedings, such an -analogy as that of the clay and the potter. - -This is Calvinism, and St. Paul undoubtedly falls into it. But the -important thing to remark is, that this Calvinism, which with the -Calvinist is primary, is with Paul secondary, or even less than -secondary. What with Calvinists is their fundamental idea, the centre of -their theology, is for Paul an idea added to his central ideas, and -extraneous to them; brought in incidentally, and due to the necessities -of a bad mode of recommending and enforcing his thesis. It is as if -Newton had introduced into his exposition of the law of gravitation an -incidental remark, perhaps erroneous, about light or colours; and we -were then to make this remark the head and front of Newton's law. The -theological idea of reprobation was an idea of Jewish theology as of -ours, an idea familiar to Paul and a part of his training, an idea which -probably he never consciously abandoned. But its complete secondariness -in him is clearly established by other considerations than those which -we have drawn from the place and manner of his introduction of it. The -very phrase about the clay and the potter is not Paul's own; he does but -repeat a stock theological figure. Isaiah had said: 'O Lord, we are the -clay, and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand.'[83] -Jeremiah had said, in the Lord's name, to Israel: 'Behold, as the clay -in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.'[84] -And the son of Sirach comes yet nearer to Paul's very words: 'As the -clay is in the potter's hand to fashion it at his pleasure, so man is in -the hand of him that made him, to render to them as liketh him -best.'[85] Is an original man's essential, characteristic idea, that -which he adopts thus bodily from some one else? But take Paul's truly -essential idea. 'We are buried with Christ through baptism into death, -that like as he was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, -even so we also shall walk in newness of life.'[86] Did Jeremiah say -that? Is any one the author of it except Paul? Then there should -Calvinism have looked for Paul's secret, and not in the commonplace -about the potter and the vessels of wrath. A commonplace which is so -entirely a commonplace to him, that he contradicts it even while he is -Judaising; for in the very batch of chapters we are discussing he says: -'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'[87] -Still more clear is, on this point, his real mind, when he is not -Judaising: 'God is the saviour of all men, specially of those that -believe.'[88] And anything, finally, which might seem dangerous in the -grateful sense of a calling, choosing, and leading by eternal -goodness,--a notion as natural as the Calvinistic doctrine of -predestination is monstrous,--Paul abundantly supplies in more than one -striking passage; as, for instance, in that incomparable third chapter -of the Philippians (from which, and from the sixth and eighth chapters -of the Romans, Paul's whole theology, if all his other writings were -lost, might be reconstructed), where he expresses his humble -consciousness that the mystical resurrection which is his aim, glory, -and salvation, he does not yet, and cannot, completely attain. - -[Footnote 83: _Is._, lxiv, 8.] - -[Footnote 84: _Jer._, xviii, 6.] - -[Footnote 85: _Ecclesiasticus_, xxxiii, 13.] - -[Footnote 86: _Rom._, vi, 4.] - -[Footnote 87: _Rom._, x, 13.] - -[Footnote 88: I _Tim._, iv, 10.] - -The grand doctrine, then, which Calvinistic Puritanism has gathered from -Paul, turns out to be a secondary notion of his, which he himself, too, -has contradicted or corrected. But, at any rate, 'Christ meritoriously -obtained eternal redemption for us.' 'If there be anything,' the -quarterly organ of Puritanism has lately told us in its hundredth -number, 'that human experience has made certain, it is that man can -never outgrow his necessity for the great truths and provisions of the -Incarnation and the sacrificial Atonement of the Divine Son of God.' -God, his justice being satisfied by Christ's bearing according to -compact our guilt and dying in our stead, is appeased and set free to -exercise towards us his mercy, and to justify and sanctify us in -consideration of Christ's righteousness imputed to us, if we give our -hearty belief and consent to the satisfaction thus made. This hearty -belief being given, 'we rest,' to use the consecrated expression already -quoted, 'in the finished work of a Saviour.' This doctrine of imputed -righteousness is now, as predestination formerly was, the favourite -thesis of popular Protestant theology. And, like the doctrine of -predestination, it professes to be specially derived from St. Paul. - -But whoever has followed attentively the main line of St. Paul's -theology, as we have tried to show it, will see at once that in St. -Paul's essential ideas this popular notion of a substitution, and -appeasement, and imputation of alien merit, has no place. Paul knows -nothing of a sacrificial atonement; what Paul knows of is a reconciling -sacrifice. The true substitution, for Paul, is not the substitution of -Jesus Christ in men's stead as victim on the cross to God's offended -justice; it is the substitution by which the believer, in his own -person, repeats Jesus Christ's dying to sin. Paul says, in real truth, -to our Puritans with their magical and mechanical salvation, just what -he said to the men of circumcision: 'If I preach resting in the finished -work of a Saviour, _why am I yet persecuted? why do I die daily? then is -the stumbling-block of the cross annulled._'[89] That hard, that -well-nigh impossible doctrine, that our whole course must be a -crucifixion and a resurrection, even as Christ's whole course was a -crucifixion and a resurrection, becomes superfluous. Yet this is my -central doctrine.' - -[Footnote 89: _Gal._, v, 2.] - -The notion of God as a magnified and non-natural man, appeased by a -sacrifice and remitting in consideration of it his wrath against those -who had offended him,--this notion of God, which science repels, was -equally repelled, in spite of all that his nation, time, and training -had in them to favour it, by the profound religious sense of Paul. In -none of his epistles is the reconciling work of Christ really presented -under this aspect. One great epistle there is, however, which does -apparently present it under this aspect,--the Epistle to the Hebrews. - -Paul's phraseology, and even the central idea which he conveys in that -phraseology, were evidently well known to the writer of the Epistle to -the Hebrews. Nay, if we merely sought to prove a thesis, rather than to -ascertain the real bearing of the documents we canvass, we should have -no difficulty in making it appear, by texts taken from the Epistle to -the Hebrews, that the doctrine of this epistle, no less than the -doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans, differs entirely from the common -doctrine of Puritanism. This, however, we shall by no means do; because -it is our honest opinion that the popular doctrine of 'the sacrificial -Atonement of the Divine Son of God' derives, if not a real, yet at any -rate a strong apparent sanction from the Epistle to the Hebrews. Even -supposing, what is probably true, that the popular doctrine is really -the doctrine neither of the one epistle nor of the other, yet it must be -confessed that while it is the reader's fault,--a fault due to his fixed -prepossessions, and to his own want of penetration,--if he gets the -popular doctrine out of the Epistle to the Romans, it is on the other -hand the writer's fault and no longer the reader's, if out of the -Epistle to the Hebrews he gets the popular doctrine. For the author of -that epistle is, if not subjugated, yet at least preponderantly occupied -by the idea of the Jewish system of sacrifices, and of the analogies to -Christ's sacrifice which are furnished by that system. - -If other proof were wanting, this alone would make it impossible that -the Epistle to the Hebrews should be Paul's; and indeed of all the -epistles which bear his name, it is the only one which we may not, -perhaps, in spite of the hesitation caused by grave difficulties, be -finally content to leave in considerable part to him.[90] Luther's -conjecture, which ascribes to Apollos the Epistle to the Hebrews, -derives corroboration from the one account of Apollos which we have; -that 'he was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures.' The Epistle -to the Hebrews is just such a performance as might naturally have come -from an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures; in whom the -intelligence, and the powers of combining, type-finding, and expounding, -somewhat dominated the religious perceptions. The Epistle to the Hebrews -is full of beauty and power; and what may be called the exterior conduct -of its argument is as able and satisfying as Paul's exterior conduct of -his argument is generally embarrassed. Its details are full of what is -edifying; but its apparent central conception of Christ's death, as a -perfect sacrifice which consummated the imperfect sacrifices of the -Jewish law, is a mere notion of the understanding, and is not a -religious idea. Turn it which way we will, the notion of appeasement of -an offended God by vicarious sacrifice, which the Epistle to the Hebrews -apparently sanctions, will never truly speak to the religious sense, or -bear fruit for true religion. It is no blame to Apollos if he was -somewhat overpowered by this notion, for the whole world was full of it, -up to his time, in his time, and since his time; and it has driven -theologians before it like sheep. The wonder is, not that Apollos should -have adopted it, but that Paul should have been enabled, through the -incomparable power and energy of religious perception informing his -intellectual perception, in reality to put it aside. Figures drawn from -the dominant notion of sacrificial appeasement he used, for the notion -has so saturated the imagination and language of humanity that its -figures pass naturally and irresistibly into all our speech. Popular -Puritanism consists of the apparent doctrine from the Epistle to the -Hebrews, set forth with Paul's figures. But the doctrine itself Paul had -really put aside, and had substituted for it a better. - -[Footnote 90: Considerations drawn from date, place, the use of -single words, the development of a church organisation, the -development of an ascetic system, are not enough to make us wholly -take away certain epistles from St. Paul. The only decisive -evidence, for this purpose, is that internal evidence furnished by -the whole body of the thoughts and style of an epistle; and this -evidence that Paul was not its author the Epistle to the Hebrews -furnishes. From the like evidence, the Apocalypse is clearly shown -to be not by the author of the fourth Gospel. This clear evidence -against the tradition which assigns them to St. Paul, the Epistles -to Timothy and Titus do not offer. The serious ground of difficulty -as to these epistles will to the genuine critic be, that much in -them fails to produce that peculiarly _searching_ effect on the -reader, which it is in general characteristic of Paul's own real -work to exercise. But they abound with Pauline things, and are, in -any case, written by an excellent man, and in an excellent and large -spirit.] - -The term _sacrifice_, in men's natural use of it, contains three -notions: the notion of winning the favour or buying off the wrath of a -powerful being by giving him something precious; the notion of parting -with something naturally precious; and the notion of expiation, not now -in the sense of buying off wrath or satisfying a claim, but of suffering -in that wherein we have sinned. The first notion is, at bottom, merely -superstitious, and belongs to the ignorant and fear-ridden childhood of -humanity; it is the main element, however, in the Puritan conception of -justification. The second notion explains itself; it is the main element -in the Pauline conception of justification. Jesus parted with what, to -men in general, is the most precious of things,--individual self and -selfishness; he pleased not himself, obeyed the spirit of God, died to -sin and to the law in our members, consummated upon the cross this -death; here is Paul's essential notion of Christ's sacrifice. - -The third notion may easily be misdealt with, but it has a profound -truth; in Paul's conception of justification there is much of it. In -some way or other, he who would 'cease from sin' must nearly always -'suffer in the flesh.' It is found to be true, that 'without shedding of -blood is no remission.' 'If you can be good with pleasure,' says Bishop -Wilson with his genius of practical religious sense, 'God does not envy -you your joy; but such is our corruption, that every man cannot be so.' -The substantial basis of the notion of expiation, so far as we ourselves -are concerned, is the bitter experience that the habit of wrong, of -blindly obeying selfish impulse, so affects our temper and powers, that -to withstand selfish impulse, to do right, when the sense of right -awakens in us, requires an effort out of all proportion to the actual -present emergency. We have not only the difficulty of the present act in -itself, we have the resistance of all our past; fire and the knife, -cautery and amputation, are often necessary in order to induce a vital -action, which, if it were not for our corrupting past, we might have -obtained from the natural healthful vigour of our moral organs. This is -the real basis of our personal sense of the need of expiating, and thus -it is that man expiates. - -Not so the just, who is man's ideal. He has no indurated habit of wrong, -no perverse temper, no enfeebled powers, no resisting past, no spiritual -organs gangrened, no need of the knife and fire; smoothly and inevitably -he follows the eternal order, and hereto belongs happiness. What sins, -then, has the just to expiate?--_ours._ In truth, men's habitual -unrighteousness, their hard and careless breaking of the moral law, do -so tend to reduce and impair the standard of goodness, that, in order to -keep this standard pure and unimpaired, the righteous must actually -labour and suffer far more than would be necessary if men were better. -In the first place, he has to undergo our hatred and persecution for his -justice. In the second place, he has to make up for the harm caused by -our continual shortcomings, to step between us foolish transgressors and -the destructive natural consequences of our transgression, and, by a -superhuman example, a spending himself without stint, a more than mortal -scale of justice and purity, to save the ideal of human life and conduct -from the deterioration with which men's ordinary practice threatens it. -In this way Jesus Christ truly 'became for our sakes poor, though he was -rich,' he was truly 'bruised for our iniquities,' he 'suffered in our -behoof,' 'bare the sin of many,' and 'made intercession for the -transgressors.'[91] In this way, truly, 'he was sacrificed as a -blameless lamb to redeem us from the vain conversation which had become -our second nature;'[92] in this way, 'he was made to be sin for us, who -knew no sin.'[93] Such, according to that true and profound perception -of the import of Christ's sufferings, which, in all St. Paul's writings, -and in the inestimable First Epistle of St. Peter, is presented to us, -is the expiation of Christ. - -[Footnote 91: II _Cor._, viii, 9; _Is._, liii, 5; I _Pet._, ii, 21; -_Is._, liii, 12.] - -[Footnote 92: I _Pet._, i, 18, 19.] - -[Footnote 93: II _Cor._, v, 21.] - -The notion, therefore, of _satisfying and appeasing an angry God's -wrath_, does not come into Paul's real conception of Jesus Christ's -sacrifice. Paul's foremost notion of this sacrifice is, that by it Jesus -died to the law of selfish impulse, parted with what to men in general -is most precious and near. Paul's second notion is, that whereas Jesus -suffered in doing this, his suffering was not _his_ fault, but ours; not -for _his_ good, but for ours. In the first aspect, Jesus is the -_martyrion_,--the testimony in his life and in his death, to -righteousness, to the power and goodness of God. In the second aspect he -is the _antilytron_ or ransom. But, in either aspect, Jesus Christ's -solemn and dolorous condemnation of sin does actually loosen sin's hold -and attraction upon us who regard it,--makes it easier for us to -understand and love goodness, to rise above self, to die to sin. - -Christ's sacrifice, however, and the condemnation of sin it contained, -was made for us while we were yet sinners; it was made irrespectively of -our power or inclination to sympathise with it and appreciate it. Yet, -even thus, in Paul's view, the sacrifice reconciled us to God, to the -eternal order; for it contained the means, the only possible means, of -our being brought into harmony with this order. Jesus Christ, -nevertheless, was delivered for our sins while we were yet sinners,[94] -and before we could yet appreciate what he did. But presently there -comes a change. Grace, the goodness of God, _the spirit_,--as Paul loved -to call that awful and beneficent impulsion of things within us and -without us, which we can concur with, indeed, but cannot create,--leads -us to _repentance towards God_,[95] a change of the inner man in regard -to the moral order, duty, righteousness. And now, to help our impulse -towards righteousness, we have a power enabling us to turn this impulse -to full account. Now _the spirit_ does its greatest work in us; now, for -the first time, the influence of Jesus Christ's pregnant act really -gains us. For now awakens the sympathy for the act and the appreciation -of it, which its doer dispensed with or was too benign to wait for; -_faith working through love towards Christ_[96] enters into us, masters -us. We identify ourselves,--this is the line of Paul's thought,--with -Christ; we repeat, through the power of this identification, Christ's -death to the law of the flesh and self-pleasing, his condemnation of sin -in the flesh; the death how imperfectly, the condemnation how -remorsefully! But we rise with him, Paul continues, to life, the only -true life, of imitation of God, of putting on the new man which after -God is created in righteousness and true holiness,[97] of following the -eternal law of the moral order which by ourselves we could not follow. -Then God justifies us. We have the righteousness of God and the sense of -having it; we are freed from the oppressing sense of eternal order -guiltily outraged and sternly retributive; we act in joyful conformity -with God's will, instead of in miserable rebellion to it; we are in -harmony with the universal order, and feel that we are in harmony with -it. If, then, Christ was delivered for our sins, he was raised for our -justification. If by Christ's death, says Paul, we were reconciled to -God, by the means being thus provided for our else impossible access to -God, much more, when we have availed ourselves of these means and died -with him, are we saved by his life which we partake.[98] Henceforward -we are not only justified but sanctified; not only in harmony with the -eternal order and at peace with God, but consecrated[99] and -unalterably devoted to them; and from this devotion comes an -ever-growing union with God in Christ, an advance, as St. Paul says, -from glory to glory.[100] - -[Footnote 94: _Rom._, v, 8.] - -[Footnote 95: _Acts_, xx, 21.] - -[Footnote 96: _Gal._, v, 6.] - -[Footnote 97: _Eph._, iv, 24.] - -[Footnote 98: _Rom._, v, 10.] - - -[Footnote 99: The endless words which Puritanism has wasted upon -_sanctification_, a magical filling with goodness and holiness, flow -from a mere mistake in translating; +hagiasmos+ means _consecration_, -a setting apart to holy service.] - -[Footnote 100: II _Cor._, iii, 18.] - -This is Paul's conception of Christ's sacrifice. His figures of ransom, -redemption, propitiation, blood, offering, all subordinate themselves to -his central idea of _identification with Christ through dying with him_, -and are strictly subservient to it. The figured speech of Paul has its -own beauty and propriety. His language is, much of it, eastern language, -imaginative language; there is no need for turning it, as Puritanism has -done, into the methodical language of the schools. But if it is to be -turned into methodical language, then it is the language into which we -have translated it that translates it truly. - -We have before seen how it fares with one of the two great tenets which -Puritanism has extracted from St. Paul, the tenet of predestination. We -now see how it fares with the other, the tenet of justification. Paul's -figures our Puritans have taken literally, while for his central idea -they have substituted another which is not his. And his central idea -they have turned into a figure, and have let it almost disappear out of -their mind. His essential idea lost, his figures misused, an idea -essentially not his substituted for his,--the unedifying patchwork thus -made, Puritanism has stamped with Paul's name, and called _the gospel_. -It thunders at Romanism for not preaching it, it casts off Anglicanism -for not setting it forth alone and unreservedly, it founds organisations -of its own to give full effect to it; these organisations guide -politics, govern statesmen, destroy institutions;--and they are based -upon a blunder! - -It is to Protestantism, and this its Puritan gospel, that the reproaches -thrown on St. Paul, for sophisticating religion of the heart into -theories of the head about election and justification, rightly attach. -St. Paul himself, as we have seen, begins with seeking righteousness and -ends with finding it; from first to last, the practical religious sense -never deserts him. If he could have seen and heard our preachers of -predestination and justification, they are just the people he would have -called 'diseased about questions and word-battlings.'[101] He would have -told Puritanism that every Sunday, when in all its countless chapels it -reads him and preaches from him, the veil is upon its heart. The moment -it reads him right, a veil will seem to be taken away from its -heart;[102] it will feel as though scales were fallen from its eyes. - -[Footnote 101: I _Tim._, vi, 4.] - -[Footnote 102: II _Cor._, iii, 15, 16.] - - -And now, leaving Puritanism and its errors, let us turn again for a -moment, before we end, to the glorious apostle who has occupied us so -long. He died, and men's familiar fancies of bargain and appeasement, -from which, by a prodigy of religious insight, Paul had been able to -disengage the death of Jesus, fastened on it and made it their own. Back -rolled over the human soul the mist which the fires of Paul's spiritual -genius had dispersed for a few short years. The mind of the whole world -was imbrued in the idea of blood, and only through the false idea of -sacrifice did men reach Paul's true one. Paul's idea of dying with -Christ the _Imitation_ elevates more conspicuously than any Protestant -treatise elevates it; but it elevates it environed and dominated by the -idea of appeasement;--of the magnified and non-natural man in Heaven, -wrath-filled and blood-exacting; of the human victim adding his piacular -sufferings to those of the divine. Meanwhile another danger was -preparing. Gifted men had brought to the study of St. Paul the habits of -the Greek and Roman schools, and philosophised where Paul Orientalised. -Augustine, a great genius, who can doubt it?--nay, a great religious -genius, but unlike Paul in this, and inferior to him, that he confused -the boundaries of metaphysics and religion, which Paul never -did,--Augustine set the example of finding in Paul's eastern speech, -just as it stood, the formal propositions of western dialectics. Last -came the interpreter in whose slowly relaxing grasp we still lie,--the -heavy-handed Protestant Philistine. Sincere, gross of perception, -prosaic, he saw in Paul's mystical idea of man's investiture with the -righteousness of God nothing but a strict legal transaction, and -reserved all his imagination for Hell and the New Jerusalem and his -foretaste of them. A so-called Pauline doctrine was in all men's mouths, -but the ideas of the true Paul lay lost and buried. - -Every one who has been at Rome has been taken to see the Church of St. -Paul, rebuilt after a destruction by fire forty years ago. The church -stands a mile or two out of the city, on the way to Ostia and the -desert. The interior has all the costly magnificence of Italian -churches; oh the ceiling is written in gilded letters: '_Doctor -Gentium_.' Gold glitters and marbles gleam, but man and his movement are -not there. The traveller has left at a distance the _fumum et opes -strepitumque Rom_; around him reigns solitude. There is Paul, with the -mystery which was hidden from ages and from generations, which was -uncovered by him for some half score years, and which then was buried -with him in his grave! Not in our day will he relive, with his incessant -effort to find a moral side for miracle, with his incessant effort to -make the intellect follow and secure all the workings of the religious -perception. Of those who care for religion, the multitude of us want the -materialism of the Apocalypse; the few want a vague religiosity. -Science, which more and more teaches us to find in the unapparent the -real, will gradually serve to conquer the materialism of popular -religion. The friends of vague religiosity, on the other hand, will be -more and more taught by experience that a theology, a scientific -appreciation of the facts of religion, is wanted for religion; but a -theology which is a true theology, not a false. Both these influences -will work for Paul's re-emergence. The doctrine of Paul will arise out -of the tomb where for centuries it has lain buried. It will edify the -church of the future; it will have the consent of happier generations, -the applause of less superstitious ages. All will be too little to pay -half the debt which the church of God owes to this 'least of the -apostles, who was not fit to be called an apostle, because he persecuted -the church of God.'[103] - -[Footnote 103: I _Cor._, xv, 9.] - - - * * * * * - - - - -PURITANISM - -AND THE - -CHURCH OF ENGLAND. - - -In the foregoing treatise we have spoken of Protestantism, and have -tried to show, how, with its three notable tenets of predestination, -original sin, and justification, it has been pounding away for three -centuries at St. Paul's wrong words, and missing his essential doctrine. -And we took Puritanism to stand for Protestantism, and addressed -ourselves directly to the Puritans; for the Puritan Churches, we said, -seem to exist specially for the sake of these doctrines, one or more of -them. It is true, many Puritans now profess also the doctrine that it is -wicked to have a church connected with the State; but this is a later -invention,[104] designed to strengthen a separation previously made. It -requires to be noticed in due course; but meanwhile, we say that the aim -of setting forth certain Protestant doctrines purely and integrally is -the main title on which Puritan Churches rest their right of existing. -With historic Churches, like those of England or Rome, it is otherwise; -these doctrines may be in them, may be a part of their traditions, their -theological stock; but certainly no one will say that either of these -Churches was made for the express purpose of upholding these three -theological doctrines, jointly or severally. A little consideration will -show quite clearly the difference in this respect between the historic -Churches and the churches of separatists. - -[Footnote 104: In his very interesting history, _The Church of the -Restoration_, Dr. Stoughton says, most truly of both Anglicans and -Puritans in 1660: 'It is necessary to bear in mind this -circumstance, that _both parties were advocates for a national -establishment of religion_.' Vol. i, p. 113.] - -People are not necessarily monarchists or republicans because they are -born and live under a monarchy or republic. They avail themselves of the -established government for those general purposes for which governments -and politics exist, but they do not, for the most part, trouble their -heads much about particular theoretical principles of government. Nay, -it may well happen that a man who lives and thrives under a monarchy -shall yet theoretically disapprove the principle of monarchy, or a man -who lives and thrives under a republic, the principle of republicanism. -But a man, or body of men, who have gone out of an established polity -from zeal for the principle of monarchy or republicanism, and have set -up a polity of their own for the very purpose of giving satisfaction to -this zeal, are in a false position whenever it shall appear that the -principle, from zeal for which they have constituted their separate -existence, is unsound. So predestinarianism and solifidianism, Calvinism -and Lutherism, may appear in the theology of a national or historic -Church, charged ever since the rise of Christianity with the task of -developing the immense and complex store of ideas contained in -Christianity; and when the stage of development has been reached at -which the unsoundness of predestinarian and solifidian dogmas becomes -manifest, they will be dropped out of the Church's theology, and she and -her task will remain what they were before. But when people from zeal -for these dogmas find their historic Church not predestinarian or -solifidian enough for them, and make new associations of their own, -which shall be predestinarian or solifidian absolutely, then, when the -dogmas are undermined, the associations are undermined too, and have -either to own themselves without a reason for existing, or to discover -some new reason in place of the old. Now, nothing which exists likes to -be driven to a strait of this kind; so every association which exists -because of zeal for the dogmas of election or justification, will -naturally cling to these dogmas longer and harder than other people. -Therefore we have treated the Puritan bodies in this country as the -great stronghold here of these doctrines; and in showing what a -perversion of Paul's real ideas these doctrines commonly called Pauline -are, we have addressed ourselves to the Puritans. - -But those who speak in the Puritans' name say that we charge upon -Puritanism, as a sectarian peculiarity, doctrine which is not only the -inevitable result of an honest interpretation of the writings of St. -Paul, but which is, besides, the creed held in common by Puritans and by -all the churches in Christendom, with one insignificant exception. Nay, -they even declare that 'no man in his senses can deny that the Church of -England was meant to be a thoroughly Protestant and Evangelical, and it -may be said Calvinistic Church.' To saddle Puritanism in special with -the doctrines we have called Puritan is, they say, a piece of unfairness -which has its motive in mere ill-will to Puritanism, a device which can -injure nobody but its author. - -Now, we have tried to show that the Puritans are quite wrong in -imagining their doctrine to be the inevitable result of an honest -interpretation of St. Paul's writings. That they are wrong we think is -certain; but so far are we from being moved, in anything that we do or -say in this matter, by ill-will to Puritanism and the Puritans, that it -is, on the contrary, just because of our hearty respect for them, and -from our strong sense of their value, that we speak as we do. Certainly -we consider them to be in the main, at present, an obstacle to progress -and to true civilisation. But this is because their worth is, in our -opinion, such that not only must one for their own sakes wish to see it -turned to more advantage, but others, from whom they are now separated, -would greatly gain by conjunction with them, and our whole collective -force of growth and progress be thereby immeasurably increased. In -short, our one feeling when we regard them, is a feeling, not of -ill-will, but of regret at waste of power; our one desire is a desire of -comprehension. - -But the waste of power must continue, and the comprehension is -impossible, so long as Puritanism imagines itself to possess, in its two -or three signal doctrines, what it calls _the gospel_; so long as it -constitutes itself separately on the plea of setting forth purely _the -gospel_, which it thus imagines itself to have seized; so long as it -judges others as not holding _the gospel_, or as holding additions to it -and variations from it. This fatal self-righteousness, grounded on a -false conceit of knowledge, makes comprehension impossible; because it -takes for granted the possession of the truth, and the power of deciding -how others violate it; and this is a position of superiority, and suits -conquest rather than comprehension. - -The good of comprehension in a national Church is, that the larger and -more various the body of members, the more elements of power and life -the Church will contain, the more points will there be of contact, the -more mutual support and stimulus, the more growth in perfection both of -thought and practice. The waste of power from not comprehending the -Puritans in the national Church is measured by the number and value of -elements which Puritanism could supply towards the collective growth of -the whole body. The national Church would grow more vigorously towards a -higher stage of insight into religious truth, and consequently towards a -greater perfection of practice, if it had these elements; and this is -why we wish for the Puritans in the Church. But, meanwhile, Puritanism -will not contribute to the common growth, mainly because it believes -that a certain set of opinions or scheme of theological doctrine is _the -gospel_; that it is possible and profitable to extract this, and that -Puritans have done so; and that it is the duty of men, who like -themselves have extracted it, to separate themselves from those who have -not, and to set themselves apart that they may profess it purely. - -To disabuse them of this error, which, by preventing collective life, -prevents also collective growth, it is necessary to show them that their -extracted scheme of theological doctrine is not really _the gospel_; and -that at any rate, therefore, it is not worth their while to separate -themselves, and to frustrate the hope of growth in common, merely for -this scheme's sake. And even if it were true, as they allege, that the -national and historic Churches of Christendom do equally with Puritanism -hold this scheme, or main parts of it, still it would be to Puritanism, -and not to the historic Churches, that in showing the invalidity and -unscripturalness of this scheme we should address ourselves, because the -Puritan Churches found their very existence on it, and the historic -Churches do not. And not founding their existence on it, nor falling -into separatism for it, the historic Churches have a collective life -which is very considerable, and a power of growth, even in respect of -the very scheme of doctrine in question, supposing them to hold it, far -greater than any which the Puritan Churches show, but which would be yet -greater and more fruitful still, if the historic Churches combined the -large and admirable contingent of Puritanism with their own forces. -Therefore, as we have said, it is out of no sort of malice or ill-will, -but from esteem for their fine qualities and from desire for their help, -that we have addressed ourselves to the Puritans. We propose to complete -now our dealings with this subject by showing how, as a matter of fact, -the Church of England (which is the historic Church practically in -question so far as Puritanism is concerned) seems to us to have -displayed with respect to those very tenets which we have criticised, -and for which we are said to have unfairly made Puritanism alone -responsible, a continual power of growth which has been wanting to the -Puritan congregations. This we propose to show first; and we will show -secondly, how, from the very theory of a historic or national Church, -the probability of this greater power of growth seems to follow, that we -may try and commend that theory a little more to the thoughts and favour -of our Puritan friends. - -The two great Puritan doctrines which we have criticised at such length -are the doctrines of predestination and justification. Of the aggressive -and militant Puritanism of our people, predestination has, almost up to -the present day, been the favourite and distinguishing doctrine; it was -the doctrine which Puritan flocks greedily sought, which Puritan -ministers powerfully preached, and called others _carnal gospellers_ for -not preaching. This Geneva doctrine accompanied the Geneva discipline. -Puritanism's first great wish and endeavour was to establish both the -one and the other absolutely in the Church of England, and it became -nonconforming because it failed. Now, it is well known that the High -Church divines of the seventeenth century were Arminian, that the Church -of England was the stronghold of Arminianism, and that Arminianism is, -as we have said, an effort of man's practical good sense to get rid of -what is shocking to it in Calvinism. But what is not so well known, and -what is eminently worthy of remark, is the constant pressure applied by -Puritanism upon the Church of England, to put the Calvinistic doctrine -more distinctly into her formularies, and to tie her up more strictly to -this doctrine; the constant resistance offered by the Church of England, -and the large degree in which Nonconformity is really due to this cause. - -Everybody knows how far Nonconformity is due to the Church of England's -rigour in imposing an explicit declaration of adherence to her -formularies. But only a few, who have searched out the matter, know how -far Nonconformity is due, also, to the Church of England's invincible -reluctance to narrow her large and loose formularies to the strict -Calvinistic sense dear to Puritanism. Yet this is what the record of -conferences shows at least as signally as it shows the domineering -spirit of the High Church clergy; but our current political histories, -written always with an anti-ecclesiastical bias, which is natural -enough, inasmuch as the Church party was not the party of civil liberty, -leaves this singularly out of sight. Yet there is a very catena of -testimonies to prove it; to show us, from Elizabeth's reign to Charles -the Second's, Calvinism, as a power both within and without the Church -of England, trying to get decisive command of her formularies; and the -Church of England, with the instinct of a body meant to live and grow, -and averse to fetter and engage its future, steadily resisting. - -The Lambeth Articles of 1595 exhibit Calvinism potent in the Church of -England herself, and among the bishops of the Church. True; but could it -establish itself there? No; the Lambeth Articles were recalled and -suppressed, and Archbishop Whitgift was threatened with the penalties of -a _prmunire_ for having published them. Again, it was usual from 1552 -onwards to print in the English Bibles a catechism asserting the -Calvinistic doctrine of absolute election and reprobation. In the first -Bibles of the authorised version this catechism appeared; but it was -removed in 1615. Yet the Puritans had met James the First, at his -accession in 1603, with the petition that _there may be an uniformity of -doctrine prescribed_; meaning an uniformity in this sense of strict -Calvinism. Thus from the very commencement the Church, as regards -doctrine, was for opening; Puritanism was for narrowing. - -Then came, in 1604, the Hampton Court Conference. Here, as usual, -political historians reproach the Church with having conceded so little. -These historians, as we have said, think solely of the Puritans as the -religious party favourable to civil liberty, and on that account desire -the preponderance of Puritanism in its disputes with the Church. But, as -regards freedom of thought and truth of ideas, what was it that the -Church was pressed by Puritanism to concede, and what was the character -and tendency of the Church's refusal? The first Puritan petition at this -Conference was 'that the _doctrine_ of the Church might be preserved in -purity according to God's Word.' That is, according to the Calvinistic -interpretation put upon God's Word by Calvin and the Puritans after him; -an interpretation which we have shown to be erroneous and unscriptural. -This Calvinistic doctrine of predestination the Puritans wanted to plant -hard and fast in the Church's formularies, and the Church resisted. The -Puritan foreman complained of the loose wording of the Thirty-nine -Articles because it allowed an escape from the strict doctrine of -Calvinism, and moved that the Lambeth Articles, strictly Calvinistic, -might be inserted into the Book of Articles. The Bishops resisted, and -here are the words of their spokesman, the Bishop of London. 'The Bishop -of London answered, that too many in those days, neglecting holiness of -life, _laid all their religion upon predestination_,--"If I shall be -saved, I shall be saved," which he termed a desperate doctrine, showing -it to be contrary to good divinity, which teaches us to reason rather -_ascendendo_ than _descendendo_, thus: "I live in obedience to God, in -love with my neighbour, I follow my vocation, &c., therefore I trust -that God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation;" not thus, -which is the usual course of argument: "God hath predestinated and -chosen me to life, therefore, though I sin never so grievously, I shall -not be damned, for whom he once loveth he loveth to the end."' Who will -deny that this resistance of the Church to the Puritans, who, _laying -all their religion upon predestination_, wanted to make the Church do -the same, was as favourable to growth of thought and to sound -philosophy, as it was consonant to good sense? - -We have already, in the foregoing treatise, quoted from the complaints -against the Church by the Committee of Divines appointed by the House of -Lords in 1641, when Puritanism was strongly in the ascendent. Some in -the Church teach, say the Puritan complainers, 'that good works are -concauses with faith in the act of justification; some have oppugned the -certitude of salvation; some have maintained that the Lord's day is kept -merely by ecclesiastical constitution; some have defended the whole -gross substance of Arminianism, that the act of conversion depends upon -the concurrence of men's free will; some have denied original sin; some -have broached out of Socinus a most uncomfortable and desperate -doctrine, that late repentance,--that is, upon the last bed of -sickness,--is unfruitful, at least, to reconcile the penitent to God.' -What we insist upon is, that the growth and movement of thought, on -religious matters, are here shown to be in the Church; and that on these -two cardinal doctrines of predestination and justification, with which -we are accused of unfairly saddling Puritanism alone, Puritanism did -really want to make the national religion hinge, while the Church did -not, but resisted. - -The resistance of the Church was at that time vanquished, not by -importing strict Calvinism into the Prayer Book, but by casting out the -Prayer Book altogether. By ordinance in 1645, the use of the Prayer -Book, which for churches had already been forbidden, was forbidden also -for all private places and families; all copies to be found in churches -were to be delivered up, and heavy penalties were imposed on persons -retaining them. - -We come to the occasion where the Church is thought to have most -decisively shown her unyieldingness,--the Savoy Conference in 1661, -after King Charles the Second's restoration. The question was, what -alterations were to be made in the Prayer Book, so as to enable the -Puritans to use it as well as the Church party. Having in view doctrine -and free development of thought, we say again it was the Puritans who -were for narrowing, it was the Churchmen who were for keeping open. -Their heads full of these tenets of predestination, original sin, and -justification, which we are accused of charging upon them exclusively -and unfairly, the Puritans complain that the Church Liturgy seems very -defective,--why? Because 'the systems of doctrine of a church should -summarily comprehend all such doctrines as are necessary to be -believed,' and the liturgy does not set down these explicitly enough. -For instance, 'the Confession,' they say, 'is very defective, not -clearly expressing original sin. The Catechism is defective as to many -necessary doctrines of our religion, some even of the essentials of -Christianity not being mentioned except in the Creed, and there not so -explicit as ought to be in a catechism.' And what is the answer of the -bishops? It is the answer of people with an instinct that this -definition and explicitness demanded by the Puritans are incompatible -with the conditions of life of a historic church. 'The Church,' they -say, 'hath been careful to put nothing into the Liturgy but that which -is either evidently the Word of God, or what hath been generally -received in the Catholic Church. The Catechism is not intended as a -whole body of divinity.' The Puritans had requested that 'the Church -prayers might contain _nothing questioned by pious, learned, and -orthodox persons_.' Seizing on this expression, wherein is contained the -ground of that _separatism for opinions_ which we hold to be so fatal -not only to Church life but also to the natural growth of religious -thought, the bishops ask, and in the very language of good sense: 'Who -are _pious, learned, and orthodox persons_? Are we to take for such all -who shall confidently affirm themselves to be such? If by orthodox be -meant those who adhere to Scripture and the Catholic consent of -antiquity, we do not yet know that any part of our Liturgy has been -questioned by such. It was the wisdom of our reformers to draw up _such -a liturgy as neither Romanist nor Protestant could justly except -against_. Persons want the book to be altered for their own -satisfaction.' - -This allegation respecting the character of the Liturgy is undoubtedly -true, for the Puritans themselves expressly admitted its truth, and -urged this as a reason for altering the Liturgy. It is in consonance -with what is so often said, and truly said, of the Thirty-nine Articles, -that they are _articles of peace_. This, indeed, makes the Articles -scientifically worthless. Metaphysical propositions, such as they in the -main are, drawn up with a studied design for their being vague and -loose, can have no metaphysical value. But no one then thought of doing -without metaphysical articles; so to make them articles of peace showed -a true conception of the conditions of life and growth in a church. The -readiness to put a lax sense on subscription is a proof of the same -disposition of mind. Chillingworth's judgment about the meaning of -subscription is well known. 'For the Church of England, I am persuaded -that the constant doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox, that whosoever -believes it and lives according to it, undoubtedly he shall be saved; -and that there is no error in it which may necessitate or warrant any -man to disturb the peace or renounce the communion of it. _This, in my -opinion, is all that is intended by subscription._' And Laud, a very -different man from Chillingworth, held on this point a like opinion with -him. - -Certainly the Church of England was in no humour, at the time of the -Savoy Conference, to deal tenderly with the Puritans. It was too much -disposed to show to the Puritans the same sort of tenderness which the -Puritans had shown to the Church. The nation, moreover, was nearly as -ill-disposed as the Church to the Puritans; and this proves well what -the narrowness and tyrannousness of Puritanism dominant had really been. -But the Church undoubtedly said and did to Puritanism after the -Restoration much that was harsh and bitter, and therefore inexcusable in -a Christian church. Examples of Churchmen so speaking and dealing may be -found in the transactions of 1661; but perhaps the most offensive -example of a Churchman of this kind, and who deserves therefore to be -studied, is a certain Dr. Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford -and Dean of Gloucester, who was put forward to thwart Tillotson's -projects of comprehension in 1689. A certain number of Dr. Janes there -have always been in the Church. There are a certain number of them in -the Church now, and there always will be a certain number of them. No -Church could exist with many of them; but one should have a sample or -two of them always before one's mind, and remember how to the excluded -party a few, and those the worst, of their excluders, are always apt to -stand for the whole, in order to comprehend the full bitterness and -resentment of Puritanism against the Church of England. Else one would -be inclined to say, after attentively and impartially observing the two -parties, that the persistence of the Church in pressing for conformity -arose, not as the political historians would have it, from the lust of -haughty ecclesiastics for dominion and for imposing their law on the -vanquished, but from a real sense that their formularies were made so -large and open, and the sense put upon subscription to them was so -indulgent, that any reasonable man could honestly conform; and that it -was perverseness and determination to impose their special ideas on the -Church, and to narrow the Church's latitude, which made the Puritans -stand out. - -Nay, and it was with the diction of the Prayer Book, as it was with its -doctrine; the Church took the side which most commands the sympathy of -liberal-minded men. Baxter had his rival Prayer Book which he proposed -to substitute for the old one. And this is how the 'Reformed Liturgy' -was to begin: 'Eternal, incomprehensible and invisible God, infinite in -power, wisdom and goodness, dwelling in the light which no man can -approach, where thousand thousands minister unto thee, and ten thousand -times ten thousand stand before thee,' &c. This, I say, was to have -taken the place of our old friend, _Dearly beloved brethren_; and here, -again, we can hardly refuse approval to the Church's resistance to -Puritan innovations. We could wish, indeed, the Church had shown the -same largeness in consenting to relax ceremonies, which she showed in -refusing to tighten dogma, or to spoil diction. Worse still, the angry -wish to drive by violence, when the other party will not move by reason, -finally no doubt appears; and the Church has much to blame herself for -in the Act of Uniformity. Blame she deserves, and she has had it -plentifully; but what has not been enough perceived is, that really the -conviction of her own moderation, openness, and latitude, as far as -regards doctrine, seems to have filled her mind during her dealings with -the Puritans; and that her impatience with them was in great measure -impatience at seeing these so ill-appreciated by them. Very -ill-appreciated by them they certainly were; and, as far as doctrine is -concerned, the quarrel between the Church and Puritanism undoubtedly -was, that for the doctrines of predestination, original sin, and -justification, Puritanism wanted more exclusive prominence, more -dogmatic definition, more bar to future escape and development; while -the Church resisted. - -And as the instinct of the Church always made her avoid, on these three -favourite tenets of Puritanism, the stringency of definition which -Puritanism tried to force upon her, always made her leave herself room -for growth in regard to them,--so, if we look for the positive -beginnings and first signs of growth, of disengagement from the stock -notions of popular theology about predestination, original sin, and -justification, it is among Churchmen, and not among Puritans, that we -shall find them. Few will deny that as to the doctrines of -predestination and original sin, at any rate, the mind of religious men -is no longer what it was in the seventeenth century or in the -eighteenth. There has been evident growth and emancipation; Puritanism -itself no longer holds these doctrines in the rigid way it once did. To -whom is this change owing? who were the beginners of it? They were men -using that comparative openness of mind and accessibility to ideas which -was fostered by the Church. The very complaints which we have quoted -from the Puritan divines prove that this was so. Henry More, saying in -the heat of the Calvinistic controversy, what it needed insight to say -then, but what almost every one's common sense says now, that 'it were -to be wished the Quinquarticular points were all reduced to this one, -namely, _That none shall be saved without sincere obedience_;' Jeremy -Taylor saying in the teeth of the superstitious popular doctrine of -original sin: 'Original sin, as it is at this day commonly explicated, -was not the doctrine of the primitive church; but when Pelagius had -puddled the stream, St. Austin was so angry that he stamped and puddled -it more,'--this sort of utterance from Churchmen it was, that first -introduced into our religious world the current of more independent -thought concerning the doctrines of predestination and original sin, -which has now made its way even amidst Puritans themselves. - -Here the emancipation has reached the Puritans; but it proceeded from -the Church. That Puritanism is yet emancipated from the popular doctrine -of justification cannot be asserted. On the contrary, the more it -loosens its hold on the doctrine of predestination the more it tightens -it on that of justification. We shall have occasion by and by to discuss -Wesley's words: '_Plead thou solely the blood of the Covenant, the -ransom paid for thy proud stubborn soul!_' and to show how modern -Methodism glories in holding aloft as its standard this teaching of -Wesley's, and this teaching above all. The many tracts which have lately -been sent me in reference to this subject go all the same way. Like -Luther, they hold that 'all heretics have continually failed in this one -point, that they do not rightly understand or know the article of -_justification_:' 'do not see' (to continue to use Luther's words,) -'that by none other sacrifice or offering could God's fierce anger be -appeased, but by the precious blood of the Son of God.' That this -doctrine is founded upon an entire misunderstanding of St. Paul's -writings we have shown; that there is very visible a tendency in the -minds of religious people to outgrow it, is true, but where alone does -this tendency manifest itself with any steadiness or power? In the -Church. The inevitable movement of growth will in time extend itself to -Puritanism also. Let it be remembered in that day that not only does the -movement come to Puritanism from the Church, but it comes to Churchmen -of our century from a seed of growth and development inherent in the -Church, and which was manifest in the Church long ago! - -That the accompaniments of the doctrine of justification, the tenets of -conversion, instantaneous sanctification, assurance, and sinless -perfection,--tenets which are not the essence of Wesley, but which are -the essence of Wesleyan Methodism, and which have in them so much that -is delusive and dangerous,--that these should have been discerningly -judged by that mixture of piety and sobriety which marks Anglicans of -the best type, such as Bishop Wilson,[105] will surprise no one. But -years before Wesley was born, the fontal doctrine itself,--Wesley's -'_Plead thou solely the blood of the Covenant!_'--had been criticised by -Hammond thus, and the signal of deliverance from the Lutheran doctrine -of justification given: 'The solifidian looks upon his faith as the -utmost accomplishment and end, and not only as the first elements of his -task, which is,--_the superstructing of good life_. The solifidian -believes himself to have the only sanctified necessary doctrines, that -having them renders his condition safe, and every man who believes them -a pure Christian professor. In respect of solifidianism it is worth -remembering what Epiphanius observes of the primitive times, that -_wickedness was the only heresy_, that impious and pious living divided -the whole Christian world into erroneous and orthodox.' - -[Footnote 105: For example, what an antidote to the perilous -Methodist doctrine of instantaneous sanctification is this saying of -Bishop Wilson: 'He who fancies that his mind may effectually be -changed in a short time, deceives himself.'] - -In point of fact, therefore, the historic Church in England, not -existing for special opinions, but proceeding by development, has shown -much greater freedom of mind as regards the doctrines of election, -original sin, and justification, than the Nonconformists have; and has -refused, in spite of Puritan pressure, to tie herself too strictly to -these doctrines, to make them all in all. She thus both has been and is -more serviceable than Puritanism to religious progress; because the -separating for opinions, which is proper to Puritanism, rivets the -separatist to those opinions, and is thus opposed to that development -and gradual exhibiting of the full sense of the Bible and Christianity, -which is essential to religious progress. To separate for the doctrine -of predestination, of justification, of scriptural church-discipline, is -to be false to the idea of development, to imagine that you can seize -the absolute sense of Scripture from your own present point of view, and -to cut yourself off from growth and gradual illumination. That a -comparison between the course things have taken in Puritanism and in the -Church goes to prove the truth of this as a matter of fact, is what I -have been trying to show hitherto; in what remains I purpose to show -how, as a matter of theory and antecedent likelihood, it seems probable -and natural that so this should be. - -A historic Church cannot choose but allow the principle of development, -for it is written in its institutions and history. An admirable writer, -in a book which is one of his least known works, but which contains, -perhaps, even a greater number of profound and valuable ideas than any -other one of them, has set forth, both persuasively and truly, the -impression of this sort which Church-history cannot but convey. 'We have -to account,' says Dr. Newman, in his _Essay on Development_, 'for that -apparent variation and growth of doctrine which embarrasses us when we -would consult history for the true idea of Christianity. The increase -and expansion of the Christian creed and ritual, and the variations -which have attended the process in the case of individual writers and -churches, are the necessary attendants on any philosophy or polity which -takes possession of the intellect and heart, and has had any wide or -extended dominion. From the nature of the human mind, time is necessary -for the full comprehension and perfection of great ideas. The highest -and most wonderful truths, though communicated to the world once for all -by inspired teachers, could not be comprehended all at once by the -recipients; but, as admitted and transmitted by minds not inspired, and -through media which were human, have required only the longer time and -deeper thought for their full elucidation.' And again: 'Ideas may remain -when the expression of them is indefinitely varied. Nay, one cause of -corruption in religion is the refusal to follow the course of doctrine -as it moves on, and an obstinacy in the notions of the past. So our Lord -found his people precisians in their obedience to the letter; he -condemned them for not being led on to its spirit,--that is, its -development. The Gospel is the development of the Law; yet what -difference seems wider than that which separates the unbending rule of -Moses from the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? The more -claim an idea has to be considered living, the more various will be its -aspects; and the more social and political is its nature, the more -complicated and subtle will be its developments, and the longer and more -eventful will be its course. Such is Christianity.' And yet once more: -'It may be objected that inspired documents, such as the Holy -Scriptures, at once determine doctrine without further trouble. But they -were intended to create _an idea_, and that idea is not in the sacred -text, but in the mind of the reader; and the question is, whether that -idea is communicated to him in its completeness and minute accuracy on -its first apprehension, or expands in his heart and intellect, and comes -to perfection in the course of time. If it is said that inspiration -supplied the place of this development in the first recipients of -Christianity, still the time at length came when its recipients ceased -to be inspired; and on these recipients the revealed truths would fall -as in other cases, at first vaguely and generally, and would afterwards -be completed by developments.' - -The notion thus admirably expounded of a gradual understanding of the -Bible, a progressive development of Christianity, is the same which was -in Bishop Butler's mind when he laid down in his _Analogy_ that 'the -Bible contains many truths as yet undiscovered.' 'And as,' he says, 'the -whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood, so, if it ever comes to -be understood, before the restitution of all things and without -miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural -knowledge is come at,--by the continuance and progress of learning and -of liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and -pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and -disregarded by the generality of the world. For this is the way in which -all improvements are made; by thoughtful men's tracing on obscure hints, -as it were, dropped as by nature accidentally, or which seem to come -into our minds by chance.' And again: 'Our existence is not only -successive, as it must be of necessity, but one state of our life and -being is appointed by God to be a preparation for another, and that to -be the means of attaining to another succeeding one; infancy to -childhood, childhood to youth, youth to mature age. Men are impatient -and for precipitating things; but the author of nature appears -deliberate throughout his operations, accomplishing his natural ends by -slow successive steps. Thus, in the daily course of natural providence, -God operates in the very same manner as in the dispensation of -Christianity; making one thing subservient to another, this to somewhat -further; and so on, through a progressive series of means which extend -both backward and forward, beyond our utmost view. Of this manner of -operation everything we see in the course of nature is as much an -instance as any part of the Christian dispensation.' - -All this is indeed incomparably well said; and with Dr. Newman we may, -on the strength of it all, beyond any doubt, 'fairly conclude that -Christian doctrine admits of formal, legitimate, and true developments;' -that 'the whole Bible is written on the principle of development.' - -Dr. Newman, indeed, uses this idea in a manner which seems to us -arbitrary and condemned by the idea itself. He uses it in support of the -pretensions of the Church of Rome to an infallible authority on points -of doctrine. He says, with much ingenuity, to Protestants: The doctrines -you receive are no more on the face of the Bible, or in the plain -teaching of the ante-Nicene Church, which alone you consider pure, than -the doctrines you reject. The doctrine of the Trinity is a development, -as much as the doctrine of Purgatory. Both of them are developments made -by the Church, by the post-Nicene Church. The determination of the Canon -of Scripture, a thing of vital importance to you who acknowledge no -authority but Scripture, is a development due to the post-Nicene -Church.--And thus Dr. Newman would compel Protestants to admit that -which is, he declares, in itself reasonable,--namely, 'the probability -of the appointment in Christianity of an external authority to decide -upon the true developments of doctrine and practice in it, thereby -separating them from the mass of mere human speculation, extravagance, -corruption, and error, in and out of which they grow. This is the -doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, of faith and obedience -towards the Church, founded on the probability of its never erring in -its declarations or commands.' - -Now, asserted in this absolute way, and extended to doctrine as well as -discipline, to speculative thought as well as to Christian practice, Dr. -Newman's conclusion seems at variance with his own theory of -development, and to be something like an instance of what Bishop Butler -criticises when he says: 'Men are impatient, and for precipitating -things.' But Dr. Newman has himself supplied us with a sort of -commentary on these words of Butler's which is worth quoting, because it -throws more light on our point than Butler's few words can throw on it -by themselves. Dr. Newman says: 'Development is not an effect of wishing -and resolving, or of forced enthusiasm, or of any mechanism of -reasoning, or of any mere subtlety of intellect; but comes of its own -innate power of expansion within the mind in its season, though with the -use of reflection and argument and original thought, more or less as it -may happen, with a dependence on the ethical growth of the mind itself, -and with a reflex influence upon it.' - -It is impossible to point out more sagaciously and expressively the -natural, spontaneous, free character of true development; how such a -development must follow laws of its own, may often require vast periods -of time, cannot be hurried, cannot be stopped. And so far as -Christianity deals,--as, in its metaphysical theology, it does -abundantly deal,--with thought and speculation, it must surely be -admitted that for its true and ultimate development in this line more -time is required, and other conditions have to be fulfilled, than we -have had already. So far as Christian doctrine contains speculative -philosophical ideas, never since its origin have the conditions been -present for determining these adequately; certainly not in the medival -Church, which so dauntlessly strove to determine them. And therefore on -every Creed and Council is judgment passed in Bishop Butler's sentence: -'_The Bible contains many truths as yet undiscovered._' - -The Christian religion has practice for its great end and aim; but it -raises, as anyone can see, and as Church-history proves, numerous and -great questions of philosophy and of scientific criticism. Well, for the -true elucidation of such questions, and for their final solution, time -and favourable developing conditions are confessedly necessary. From the -end of the apostolic age and of the great fontal burst of Christianity, -down to the present time, have such conditions ever existed in the -Christian communities, for determining adequately the questions of -philosophy and scientific criticism which the Christian religion starts? -_God_, _creation_, _will_, _evil_, _propitiation_, _immortality_,--these -terms and many more of the same kind, however much they might in the -Bible be used in a concrete and practical manner, yet plainly had in -themselves a provocation to abstract thought, carried with them the -occasions of a criticism and a philosophy, which must sooner or later -make its appearance in the Church. It did make its appearance, and the -question is whether it has ever yet appeared there under conditions -favourable to its true development. Surely this is best elucidated by -considering whether questions of criticism and philosophy in general -ever had one of their happy moments, their times for successful -development, in the early and middle ages of Christendom at all, or have -had one of them in the Christian churches, as such, since. All these -questions hang together, and the time that is improper for solving one -sort of them truly, is improper for solving the others. - -Well, surely, historic criticism, criticism of style, criticism of -nature, no one would go to the early or middle ages of the Church for -illumination on these matters. How then should those ages develop -successfully a philosophy of theology, or in other words, a criticism of -physics and metaphysics, which involves the three other criticisms and -more besides? Church-theology is an elaborate attempt at a philosophy of -theology, at a philosophical criticism. In Greece, before Christianity -appeared, there had been a favouring period for the development of such -a criticism; a considerable movement of it took place, and considerable -results were reached. When Christianity began, this movement was in -decadence; it declined more and more till it died quite out; it revived -very slowly, and as it waxed, the medival Church waned. The doctrine of -universals is a question of philosophy discussed in Greece, and -re-discussed in the middle ages. Whatever light this doctrine receives -from Plato's treatment of it, or Aristotle's, in whatever state they -left it, will anyone say that the Nominalists and Realists brought any -more light to it, that they developed it in any way, or could develop -it? For the same reason, St. Augustine's criticism of God's eternal -decrees, original sin, and justification, the criticism of St. Thomas -Aquinas on them, the decisions of the Church on them, are of necessity, -and from the very nature of things, inadequate, because, being -philosophical developments, they are made in an age when the forces for -true philosophical development are waning or wanting. - -So when Hooker says most truly: 'Our belief in the Trinity, the -co-eternity of the Son of God with his Father, the proceeding of the -Spirit from the Father and the Son, with other principal points the -necessity whereof is by none denied, are notwithstanding in Scripture -nowhere to be found by express literal mention, only deduced they are -out of Scripture by collection;'--when Hooker thus points, out, what is -undoubtedly the truth, that these Church-doctrines are developments, we -may add this other truth equally undoubted,--that being _philosophical_ -developments, they are developments of a kind which the Church has never -yet had the right conditions for making adequately, any more than it has -had the conditions for developing out of what is said in the Book of -Genesis a true philosophy of nature, or out of what is said in the Book -of Daniel, a true philosophy of history. It matters nothing whether the -scientific truth was there, and the problem was to extract it; or not -there, and the problem was to understand why it was not there, and the -relation borne by what was there to the scientific truth. The Church had -no means of solving either the one problem or the other. And this from -no fault at all of the Church, but for the same reason that she was -unfitted to solve a difficulty in Aristotle's _Physics_ or Plato's -_Timus_, and to determine the historical value of Herodotus or Livy; -simply from the natural operation of the law of development, which for -success in philosophy and criticism requires certain conditions, which -in the early and medival Church were not to be found. - -And when the movement of philosophy and criticism came with the -Renascence, this movement was almost entirely outside the Churches, -whether Catholic or Protestant, and not inside them. It worked in men -like Descartes and Bacon, and not in men like Luther and Calvin; so that -the doctrine of these two eminent personages, Luther and Calvin, so far -as it was a philosophical and critical development from Scripture, had -no more likelihood of being an adequate development than the doctrine of -the Council of Trent. And so it has gone on to this day. Philosophy and -criticism have become a great power in the world, and inevitably tend to -alter and develop Church-doctrine, so far as this doctrine is, as to a -great extent it is, philosophical and critical. Yet the seat of the -developing force is not in the Church itself, but elsewhere; its -influences filter strugglingly into the Church, and the Church slowly -absorbs and incorporates them. And whatever hinders their filtering in -and becoming incorporated, hinders truth and the natural progress of -things. - -While, therefore, we entirely agree with Dr. Newman and with the great -Anglican divines that the whole Bible is written on the principle of -development, and that Christianity in its doctrine and discipline is and -must be a development of the Bible, we yet cannot agree that for the -adequate development of Christian doctrine, so far as theology exhibits -this metaphysically and scientifically, the Church, whether ante-Nicene -or post-Nicene, has ever yet furnished a channel. Thought and science -follow their own law of development, they are slowly elaborated in the -growth and forward pressure of humanity, in what Shakspeare calls,-- - - ... the prophetic soul - Of the wide world dreaming on things to come; - -and their ripeness and unripeness, as Dr. Newman most truly says, are -not an effect of our wishing or resolving. Rather do they seem brought -about by a power such as Goethe figures by the _Zeit-Geist_ or -Time-Spirit, and St. Paul describes as a divine power _revealing_ -additions to what we possess already. - -But sects of men are apt to be shut up in sectarian ideas of their own, -and to be less open to new general ideas than the main body of men; -therefore St. Paul in the same breath exhorts to unity. What may justly -be conceded to the Catholic Church is, that in her idea of a continuous -developing power in united Christendom to work upon the data furnished -by the Bible, and produce new combinations from them as the growth of -time required it, she followed a true instinct. But the right -_philosophical_ developments she vainly imagined herself to have had the -power to produce, and her attempts in this direction were at most but a -prophecy of this power, as alchemy is said to have been a prophecy of -chemistry. - -With developments of discipline and church-order it is very different. -The Bible raises, as we have seen, many and great questions of -philosophy and criticism; still, essentially the Church was not a -corporation for speculative purposes, but a corporation for purposes of -moral growth and of practice. Terms like _God_, _creation_, _will_, -_evil_, _propitiation_, _immortality_, evoke, as we have said, and must -evoke, sooner or later, a philosophy; but to evoke this was the accident -and not the essence of Christianity. What, then, was the essence? - -An ingenious writer, as unlike Dr. Newman as it is possible to conceive, -has lately told us. In an article in _Fraser's Magazine_,--an article -written with great vigour and acuteness,--this writer advises us to -return to Paley, whom we were beginning to neglect, because the real -important essence of Christianity, or rather, to quote quite literally, -'the only form of Christianity which is worthy of the serious -consideration of rational men, is Protestantism as stated by Paley and -his school.' And why? 'Because this Protestantism enables the saint to -prove to the worldly man that Christ threatened him with hell-fire, and -proved his power to threaten by rising from the dead and ascending into -heaven; _and these allegations are the fundamental assertions of -Christianity_.' - -Now it may be said that this is a somewhat contracted view of 'the -unsearchable riches of Christ;' but we will not quarrel with it. And -this for several reasons. In the first place, it is the view often taken -by popular theology. In the second place, it is the view best fitted to -serve its Benthamite author's object, which is to get Christianity out -of the way altogether. In the third place, its shortness gives us -courage to try and do what is the hardest thing in the world, namely, to -pack a statement of the main drift of Christianity into a few lines of -nearly as short compass. - -What then was, in brief, the Christian gospel, or 'good news'? It was -this: _The kingdom of God is come unto you_. The power of Jesus upon the -multitudes who heard him gladly, was not that by rising from the dead -and ascending into heaven he enabled the saint to prove to the worldly -man the certainty of hell-fire (for he had not yet done so); but that -_he talked to them about the kingdom of God_.[106] And what is the -kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven? It is this: _God's will done, as in -heaven so on earth_. And how was this come to mankind? Because _Jesus is -come to save his people from their sins_. And what is being saved from -our sins? This: _Entering into the kingdom of heaven by doing the will -of our Father which is in heaven_. And how does Christ enable us to do -this? By teaching us _to take his yoke upon us, and learn of him to deny -ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him, and to lose our -life for the purpose of saving it_. So that St. Paul might say most -truly that the seal of the sure foundation of God in Christianity was -this: _Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity_: or, as he elsewhere expands it: _Let him bring forth the -fruits of the Spirit,--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, -goodness, faith, mildness, self-control._[107] - -[Footnote 106: Nothing can be more certain than that the _kingdom of -God_ meant originally, and was understood to mean, a Messianic -kingdom speedily to be revealed; and that to this idea of the -_kingdom_ is due much of the effect which its preaching exercised on -the imagination of the first generation of Christians. But nothing -is more certain, also, than that while the end itself, the Messianic -kingdom, was necessarily something intangible and future, the _way_ -to the end, the doing the will of God by intently following the -voice of the moral conscience, in those duties, above all, for which -there was then in the world the most crying need,--the duties of -humbleness, self-denial, pureness, justice, charity,--became from -the very first in the teaching of Jesus something so ever-present -and practical, and so associated with the essence of Jesus himself, -that the _way_ to the kingdom grew inseparable, in thought, from the -kingdom itself, and was bathed in the same light and charm. Then, -after a time, as the vision of an approaching Messianic kingdom was -dissipated, the idea of the perfect accomplishment on earth of the -will of God had to take the room of it, and in its own realisation -to place the ideal of the true kingdom of God.] - -[Footnote 107: II _Tim._, ii, 19; _Gal._, v, 22, 23.] - -On this foundation arose the Christian Church, and not on any foundation -of speculative metaphysics. It was inevitable that the speculative -metaphysics should come, but they were not the foundation. When they -came, the danger of the Christian Church was that she should take them -for the foundation. The people who were built on the real foundation, -who were united in the joy of Christ's good news, naturally, as they -came to know of one another's existence, as their relations with one -another multiplied, as the sense of sympathy in the possession of a -common treasure deepened,--naturally, I say, drew together in one body, -with an organisation growing out of the needs of a growing body. It is -quite clear that the more strongly Christians felt their common business -in setting forward upon earth, through Christ's spirit, the kingdom of -God, the more they would be drawn to coalesce into one society for this -business, with the natural and true notion that the acting together in -this way offers to men greater helps for reaching their aim, presents -fewer distractions, and above all, supplies a more animating force of -sympathy and mutual assurance, than the acting separately. Only the -sense of differences greater than the sense of sympathy could defeat -this tendency. - -Dr. Newman has told us what an impression was once made upon his mind by -the sentence: _Securus judicat orbis terrarum_. We have shown how, for -matters of philosophical judgment, not yet settled but requiring -development to clear them, the consent of the world, at a time when this -clearing development cannot have happened, seems to carry little or no -weight at all; indeed, as to judgment on these points, we should rather -be inclined to lay down the very contrary of Dr. Newman's affirmation, -and to say: _Securus delirat orbis terrarum_. But points of speculative -theology being out of the question, and the practical ground and purpose -of man's religion being broadly and plainly fixed, we should be quite -disposed to concede to Dr. Newman, that _securus =colit= orbis -terrarum_;--those pursue this purpose best who pursue it together. For -unless prevented by extraneous causes, they manifestly tend, as the -history of the Church's growth shows, to pursue it together. - -Nonconformists are fond of talking of the unity which may co-exist with -separation, and they say: 'There are four evangelists, yet one gospel; -why should there not be many separate religious bodies, yet one Church?' -But their theory of unity in separation is a theory palpably invented to -cover existing facts, and their argument from the evangelists is a -paralogism. For the Four Gospels arose out of no thought of divergency; -they were not designed as corrections of one prior gospel, or of one -another; they were concurring testimonies borne to the same fact. But -the several religious bodies of Christendom plainly grew out of an -intention of divergency; clearly they were designed to correct the -imperfections of one prior church and of each other; and to say of -things sprung out of discord that they may make _one_, because things -sprung out of concord may make _one_, is like saying that because -several agreements may make a peace, therefore several wars may make a -peace too. No; without some strong motive to the contrary, men united by -the pursuit of a clearly defined common aim of irresistible -attractiveness naturally coalesce; and since they coalesce naturally, -they are clearly right in coalescing and find their advantage in it. - -All that Dr. Newman has so excellently said about development applies -here legitimately and fully. Existence justifies additions and stages in -existence. The living edifice planted on the foundation, _Let every one -that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity_, could not but -grow, if it lived at all. If it grew, it could not but make -developments, and all developments not inconsistent with the aim of its -original foundation, and not extending beyond the moral and practical -sphere which was the sphere of its original foundation, are legitimated -by the very fact of the Church having in the natural evolution of its -life and growth made them. A boy does not wear the clothes or follow the -ways of an infant, nor a man those of a boy; yet they are all engaged in -the one same business of developing their growing life, and to the -clothes to be worn and the ways to be followed for the purpose of doing -this, nature will, in general, direct them safely. The several scattered -congregations of the first age of Christianity coalesced into one -community, just as the several scattered Christians had earlier still -coalesced into congregations. Why?--because such was the natural course -of things. It had nothing inconsistent with the fundamental ground of -Christians, _Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity_; and it was approved by their growing and enlarging in it. -They developed a church-discipline with a hierarchy of bishops and -archbishops, which was not that of the first times; they developed -church-usages, such as the practice of infant baptism, which were not -those of the first times; they developed a church-ritual with ceremonies -which were not those of the first times;--they developed all these, just -as they developed a church-architecture which was not that of the first -times, because they were no longer in the first times, and required for -their expanding growth what suited their own times. They coalesced with -the State because they grew by doing so. They called the faith they -possessed in common the _Catholic_, that is, the general or universal -faith. They developed, also, as we have seen, dogma or a theological -philosophy. Both dogma and discipline became a part of the Catholic -faith, or profession of the general body of Christians. - -Now to develop a discipline, or form of outward life for itself, the -Church, as has been said, had necessarily, like every other living -thing, the requisite qualifications; to develop scientific dogma it had -not. But even of the dogma which the Church developed it may be said, -that, from the very nature of things, it was probably, as compared with -the opposing dogma over which it prevailed, the more suited to the -actual condition of the Church's life, and to the due progress of the -divine work for which she existed. For instance, whatever may be -scientifically the rights of the question about grace and free-will, it -is evident that, for the Church of the fifth century, Pelagianism was -the less inspiring and edifying doctrine, and the sense of _being in the -divine hand_ was the feeling which it was good for Christians to be -filled with. Whatever may be scientifically the merits of the dispute -between Arius and Athanasius, for the Church of their time whatever most -exalted or seemed to exalt Jesus Christ was clearly the profitable -doctrine, the doctrine most helpful to that moral life which was the -true life of the Church. - -People, however, there were in abundance who differed on points both of -discipline and of dogma from the rule which obtained in the Church, and -who separated from her on account of that difference. These were the -heretics: _separatists_, as the name implies, _for the sake of -opinions_. And the very name, therefore, implies that they were wrong in -separating, and that the body which held together was right; because the -Church exists, not for the sake of opinions, but for the sake of moral -practice, and a united endeavour after this is stronger than a broken -one. Valentinians, Marcionites, Montanists, Donatists, Manichans, -Novatians, Eutychians, Apollinarians, Nestorians, Arians, Pelagians,--if -they separated on points of discipline they were wrong, because for -developing its own fit outward conditions of life the body of a -community has, as we have seen, a real natural power, and individuals -are bound to sacrifice their fancies to it; if they separated on points -of dogma they were wrong also, because, while neither they nor the -Church had the means of determining such points adequately, the true -instinct lay in those who, instead of separating for such points, -conceded them as the Church settled them, and found their bond of union, -where it in truth really was, not in notions about the co-eternity of -the Son, but in the principle: _Let every one that nameth the name of -Christ depart from iniquity_. - -Does any one imagine that all the Church shared Augustine's speculative -opinions about grace and predestination? that many members of it did not -rather incline, as a matter of speculative opinion, to the notions of -Pelagius? Does any one imagine that all who stood with the Church and -did not join themselves to the Arians, were speculatively Athanasians? -It was not so; but they had a true feeling for what purpose the Gospel -and the Church were given them, and for what they were not given them; -they could see that 'impious and pious living,' according to that -sentence of Epiphanius we have quoted from Hammond, 'divided the whole -Christian world into erroneous and orthodox;' and that it was not worth -while to suffer themselves to be divided for anything else. - -And though it will be said that separatists for opinions on points of -discipline and dogma have often asserted, and sometimes believed, that -piety and impiety were vitally concerned in these points; yet here again -the true religious instinct is that which discerns,--what is seldom so -very obscure,--whether they are in truth thus vitally concerned or not; -and, if they are not, cannot be perverted into fancying them concerned -and breaking unity for them. This, I say, is the true religious -instinct, the instinct which most clearly seizes the essence and aim of -the Christian Gospel and of the Christian Church. But fidelity to it -leaves, also, the way least closed to the admission of true developments -of speculative thought, when the time is come for them, and to the -incorporation of these true developments with the ideas and practice of -Christians. - -Is there not, then, any separation which is right and reasonable? Yes, -separation on plain points of morals. For these involve the very essence -of the Christian Gospel, and the very ground on which the Christian -Church is built. The sale of indulgences, if deliberately instituted and -persisted in by the main body of the Church, afforded a valid reason for -breaking unity; the doctrine of purgatory, or of the real presence, did -not. - -However, a cosmopolitan church-order, commenced when the political -organisation of Christians was also cosmopolitan,--when, that is, the -nations of Europe were politically one in the unity of the Roman -Empire,--might well occasion difficulties as the nations solidified into -independent states with a keen sense of their independent life; so that, -the cosmopolitan type disappearing for civil affairs, and being replaced -by the national type, the same disappearance and replacement tended to -prevail in ecclesiastical affairs also. But this was a political -difficulty, not a religious one, and it raised no insuperable bar to -continued religious union. A Church with Anglican liberties might very -well, the English national spirit being what it is, have been in -religious communion with Rome, and yet have been safely trusted to -maintain and develop its national liberties to any extent required. - -The moral corruptions of Rome, on the other hand, were a real ground for -separation. On their account, and solely on their account, if they could -not be got rid of, was separation not only lawful but necessary. It has -always been the averment of the Church of England, that the change made -in her at the Reformation was the very least change which was absolutely -necessary. No doubt she used the opportunity of her breach with Rome to -get rid of several doctrines which the human mind had outgrown; but it -was the immoral practice of Rome that really moved her to separation. -And she maintained that she merely got rid of Roman corruptions which -were immoral and intolerable, and remained the old, historic, Catholic -Church of England still. - -The right to this title of _Catholic_ is a favourite matter of -contention between bodies of Christians. But let us use names in their -customary and natural senses. To us it seems that unless one chooses to -fight about words, and fancifully to put into the word _Catholic_ some -occult quality, one must allow that the changes made in the Church of -England at the Reformation impaired its Catholicity. The word _Catholic_ -was meant to describe the common or general profession and worship of -Christendom at the time when the word arose. Undoubtedly this general -profession and worship had not a strict uniformity everywhere, but it -had a clearly-marked common character; and this well-known type Bede, or -Anselm, or Wiclif himself, would to this day easily recognise in a Roman -Catholic religious service, but hardly in an Anglican; while, on the -other hand, in a Roman Catholic religious service an ordinary Anglican -finds himself as much in a strange world and out of his usual course, as -in a Nonconformist meeting-house. Something precious was no doubt lost -in losing this common profession and worship; but the loss was, as we -Protestants maintain, incurred for the sake of something yet more -precious still,--the purity of that moral practice which was the very -cause for which the common profession and worship existed. Now, it seems -captious to incur voluntarily a loss for a great and worthy object, and -at the same time, by a conjuring with words, to try and make it appear -that we have not suffered the loss at all. So on the word _Catholic_ we -will not insist too jealously; but thus much, at any rate, must be -allowed to the Church of England,--that she kept enough of the past to -preserve, as far as this nation was concerned, her continuity, to be -still the _historic Church of England_; and that she avoided the error, -to which there was so much to draw her, and into which all the other -reformed Churches fell, of making improved speculative doctrinal -opinions the main ground of her separation. - -A Nonconformist newspaper, it is true, reproaching the Church with what -is, in our opinion, her greatest praise, namely, that on points of -doctrinal theology she is 'a Church that does not know her own mind,' -roundly asserts, as we have already mentioned, that 'no man in his -senses can deny that the Church of England was meant to be a thoroughly -Protestant and Evangelical, and it may be said Calvinistic Church.' But -not only does the whole course of Church-history disprove such an -assertion, and show that this is what the Puritans always wanted to make -the Church, and what the Church would never be made, but we can disprove -it, too, out of the mouths of the very Puritans themselves. At the Savoy -Conference the Puritans urged that 'our first reformers out of their -great wisdom did at that time (of the Reformation) so compose the -Liturgy, as to win upon the Papists, and to draw them into their Church -communion _by varying as little as they could from the Romish forms -before in use_;' and this they alleged as their great plea for purging -the Liturgy. And the Bishops resisted, and upheld the proceeding of the -reformers as the essential policy of the Church of England; as indeed it -was, and till this day has continued to be. No; the Church of England -did not give her energies to inventing a new church-order for herself -and fighting for it; to singling out two or three speculative dogmas as -the essence of Christianity, and fighting for them. She set herself to -carry forward, and as much as possible on the old lines, the old -practical work and proper design of the Christian Church; and this is -what left her mind comparatively open, as we have seen, for the -admission of philosophy and criticism, as they slowly developed -themselves outside the Church and filtered into her; an admission which -confessedly proves just now of capital importance. - -This openness of mind the Puritans have not shared with the Church, and -how _should_ they have shared it? They are founded on the negation of -that idea of development which plays so important a part in the life of -the Church; on the assumption that there is a divinely appointed -church-order fixed once for all in the Bible, and that they have adopted -it; that there is a doctrinal scheme of faith, justification, and -imputed righteousness, which is the test of a standing or falling church -and the essence of the gospel, and that they have extracted it. These -are assumptions which, as they make union impossible, so also make -growth impossible. The Church makes church-order a matter of -ecclesiastical constitution, is founded on moral practice, and though -she develops speculative dogma, does not allow that this or that dogma -is the essence of Christianity. - -'Congregational Nonconformists,' say the Independents, 'can never be -incorporated into an organic union with Anglican Episcopacy, because -there is not even the shadow of an outline of it in the New Testament, -and it is our assertion and profound belief that Christ and the Apostles -have given us all the laws that are necessary for the constitution and -government of the Church.'[108] 'Whatever may come,' says the President -of the Wesleyan Conference, 'we are determined to be simple, earnest -preachers of _the gospel_. Whatever may come, we are determined to be -true to _Scriptural Protestantism_. We would be friendly with all -evangelical churches, but we will have no fellowship with the man of -sin. We will give up life itself rather than be unfaithful to _the -truth_. It is ours to cry everywhere: "Come, sinners, to _the -gospel-feast_!"' And this _gospel_, this _Scriptural Protestantism_, -this _truth_, is the doctrine of justification by 'pleading solely the -blood of the covenant,' of which we have said so much. Methodists cannot -unite with a church which does not found itself on this doctrine of -justification, but which holds the doctrine of priestly absolution, of -the real presence, and other doctrines of like stamp; Congregationalists -cannot unite with a church which, besides not resting on the doctrine of -justification, has a church-order not prescribed in the New Testament. - -[Footnote 108: Address of the Rev. G. W. Conder at Liverpool, in the -_Lancashire Congregational Calendar_ for 1869-70.] - -Now as Hooker truly says of those who 'desire to draw all things unto -the determination of bare and naked Scripture,' as Dr. Newman, too, has -said, and as many others have said, the Bible does not exhibit, drawn -out in black and white, the precise tenets and usages of any Christian -society; some inference and criticism must be employed to get at them. -'For the most part, even such as are readiest to cite for one thing five -hundred sentences of Scripture, what warrant have they that any one of -them doth mean the thing for which it is alleged?' Nay, 'it is not the -word of God itself which doth, or possibly can, assure us that we do -well to think it his word.' So says Hooker, and what he says is -perfectly true. A process of reasoning and collection is necessary to -get at the Scriptural church-discipline and the Scriptural Protestantism -of the Puritans; in short, this discipline and this doctrine are -developments. And the first is an unsound development, in a line where -there was a power of making a true development, and where the Church -made it; the second is an unsound development in a line where neither -the Church nor Puritanism had the power of making true developments. But -as it is the truth of its Scriptural Protestantism which in Puritanism's -eyes especially proves the truth of its Scriptural church-order which -has this Protestantism, and the falsehood of the Anglican church-order -which has much less of it, to abate the confidence of the Puritans in -their Scriptural Protestantism is the first step towards their union, so -much to be desired, with the national Church. - -We say, therefore, that the doctrine: 'It is agreed between God and the -mediator Jesus Christ the Son of God, surety for the redeemed, as -parties-contractors, that the sins of the redeemed should be imputed to -innocent Christ, and he both condemned and put to death for them upon -this very condition, that whosoever heartily consents unto the covenant -of reconciliation offered through Christ shall, by the imputation of his -obedience unto them, be justified and holden righteous before God,'--we -say that this doctrine is as much a human development from the text, -'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,' as the doctrine of -priestly absolution is a human development from the text, 'Whosesoever -sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them,' or the doctrine of the real -presence from the text, 'Take, eat, this is my body.' In our treatise on -St. Paul we have shown at length that the received doctrine of -justification is an unsound development. It may be said that the -doctrine of priestly absolution and of the real presence are unsound -developments also. True, in our opinion they are so; they are, like the -doctrine of justification, developments made under conditions which -precluded the possibility of sound developments in this line. But the -difference is here: the Church of England does not identify Christianity -with these unsound developments; she does not call either of them -_Scriptural Protestantism_, or _truth_, or _the gospel_; she does not -insist that all who are in communion with her should hold them; she does -not repel from her communion those who hold doctrines at variance with -them. She treats them as she does the received doctrine of -justification, to which she does not tie herself up, but leaves people -to hold it if they please. She thus provides room for growth and further -change in these very doctrines themselves. But to the doctrine of -justification Puritanism ties itself up, just as it tied itself up -formerly to the doctrine of predestination; it calls it _Scriptural -Protestantism_, _truth_, _the gospel_; it will have communion with none -who do not hold it; it repels communion with any who hold the doctrines -of priestly absolution and the real presence, because they seem to -interfere with it. Yet it is really itself no better than they. But how -can growth possibly find place in this doctrine, while it is held in -such a fashion? - -Every one who perceives and values the power contained in Christianity, -must be struck to see how, at the present moment, the progress of this -power seems to depend upon its being able to disengage itself from -speculative accretions that encumber it. A considerable movement to this -end is visible in the Church of England. The most nakedly speculative, -and therefore the most inevitably defective, parts of the Prayer -Book,--the Athanasian Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles,--our -generation will not improbably see the Prayer Book rid of. But the -larger the body in which this movement works, the greater is the power -of the movement. If the Church of England were disestablished to-day it -would be desirable to re-establish her to-morrow, if only because of the -immense power for development which a national body possesses. It is -because we know something of the Nonconformist ministers, and what -eminent force and faculty many of them have for contributing to the work -of development now before the Church, that we cannot bear to see the -waste of power caused by their separatism and battling with the -Establishment, which absorb their energies too much to suffer them to -carry forward the work of development themselves, and cut them off from -aiding those in the Church who carry it forward. - -The political dissent of the Nonconformists, based on their condemnation -of the Anglican church-order as unscriptural, is just one of those -speculative accretions which we have spoken of as encumbering religion. -Politics are a good thing, and religion is a good thing; but they make a -fractious mixture. 'The Nonconformity of England, and the Nonconformity -alone, has been the salvation of England from Papal tyranny and kingly -misrule and despotism.'[109] This is the favourite boast, the familiar -strain; but this is really politics, and not religion at all. But -righteousness is religion; and the Nonconformists say: 'Who have done so -much for righteousness as we?' For as much righteousness as will go with -politics, no one; for the sterner virtues, for the virtues of the Jews -of the Old Testament; but these are only half of righteousness and not -the essentially Christian half. We have seen how St. Paul tore himself -in two, rent his life in the middle and began it again, because he was -so dissatisfied with a righteousness which was, after all, in its main -features, Puritan. And surely it can hardly be denied that the more -eminently and exactly _Christian_ type of righteousness is the type -exhibited by Church worthies like Herbert, Ken, and Wilson, rather than -that exhibited by the worthies of Puritanism; the cause being that these -last mixed politics with religion so much more than did the first. - -[Footnote 109: The Rev. G. W. Conder, _ubi supra_.] - -Paul, too, be it remembered, condemned disunion in the society of -Christians as much as he declined politics. This does not, we freely -own, make against the Puritans' refusal to take the law from their -adversaries, but it does make against their allegation that it does not -matter whether the society of Christians is united or not, and that -there are even great advantages in separatism. If Anglicans maintained -that their church-order was written in Scripture and a matter of divine -command, then, Congregationalists maintaining the same thing, to the -controversy between them there could be no end. But now, Anglicans -maintaining no such thing, but that their church-order is a matter of -historic development and natural expediency, that it has _grown_,--which -is evident enough,--and that the essence of Christianity is in no-wise -concerned with such matters, why should not the Nonconformists adopt -this moderate view of the case, which constrains them to no admission of -inferiority, but only to the renouncing an imagined divine superiority -and to the recognition of an existing fact, and allow Church bishops as -a development of Catholic antiquity, just as they have allowed Church -music and Church architecture, which are developments of the same? Then -might there arise a mighty and undistracted power of joint life, which -would transform, indeed, the doctrines of priestly absolution and the -real presence, but which would transform, equally, the so-called -_Scriptural Protestantism_ of imputed righteousness, and which would do -more for real righteousness and for Christianity than has ever been done -yet. - -Tillotson's proposals for comprehension, drawn up in 1689, cannot be too -much studied at the present juncture. These proposals, with which his -name and that of Stillingfleet, two of the most estimable names in the -English Church, are specially associated, humiliate no one, refute no -one; they take the basis of existing facts, and endeavour to build on it -a solid union. They are worth quoting entire, and I conclude with them. -Their details our present circumstances would modify; their spirit any -sound plan of Church-reform must take as its rule. - -'1. That the ceremonies enjoined or recommended in the Liturgy or Canons -be left indifferent. - -'2. That the Liturgy be carefully reviewed, and such alterations and -changes be therein made as may supply the defects and remove as much as -possible all ground of exception to any part of it, by leaving out the -apocryphal lessons and correcting the translation of the psalms used in -the public service where there is need of it, and in many other -particulars. - -'3. That instead of all former declarations and subscriptions to be made -by ministers, it shall be sufficient for them that are admitted to the -exercise of their ministry in the Church of England to subscribe one -general declaration and promise to this purpose, viz.: _That we do -submit to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church of England -as it shall be established by law, and promise to teach and practise -accordingly_. - -'4. That a new body of ecclesiastical Canons be made, particularly with -a regard to a more effectual provision for the reformation of manners -both in ministers and people. - -'5. That there be an effectual regulation of ecclesiastical courts to -remedy the great abuses and inconveniences which by degrees and length -of time have crept into them; and particularly that the power of -excommunication be taken out of the hands of lay officers and placed in -the bishop, and not to be exercised for trivial matters, but upon great -and weighty occasions. - -'6. That for the future those who have been ordained in any of the -foreign churches be not required to be re-ordained here, to render them -capable of preferment in the Church. - -'7. That for the future none be capable of any ecclesiastical benefice -or preferment in the Church of England that shall be ordained in England -otherwise than by bishops; and that those who have been ordained only by -presbyters shall not be compelled to renounce their former ordination. -But because many have and do still doubt of the validity of such -ordination, where episcopal ordination may be had, and is by law -required, it shall be sufficient for such persons to receive ordination -from a bishop in this or the like form: "If thou art not already -ordained, I ordain thee," &c.; as in case a doubt be made of any one's -baptism, it is appointed by the Liturgy that he be baptized in this -form: "If thou art not baptized, I baptize thee."' - -These are proposals 'to be made by the Church of England for the union -of _Protestants_.' Who cannot see that the power of joint life already -spoken of would be far greater and stronger if it comprehended Roman -Catholics too. And who cannot see, also, that in the churches of the -most strong and living Roman Catholic countries,--in France and -Germany,--a movement is in progress which may one day make a general -union of Christendom possible? But this will not be in our day, nor is -it business which the England of this generation is set to do. What may -be done in our day, what our generation has the call and the means, if -only it has the resolution, to bring about, is the union of Protestants. -But this union will never be on the basis of the actual _Scriptural -Protestantism_ of our Puritans; and because, so long as they take this -for the gospel or good news of Christ, they cannot possibly unite on any -other basis, the first step towards union is showing them that this is -not the gospel. If we have succeeded in doing even so much towards union -as to convince one of them of this, we have not written in vain. - - - - -THE END. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes:- - -Text originally written in Greek has been transliterated and framed -between plus marks, thus: +hagiasmos+. - -Minor punctuation errors and omissions corrected. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's St. Paul and Protestantism, by Matthew Arnold - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: St. Paul and Protestantism - With an Essay on Puritanism and the Church of England - -Author: Matthew Arnold - -Release Date: May 27, 2017 [EBook #54793] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM *** - - - - -Produced by Delphine Lettau, Tony Browne & the Online -Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="image-center"> - <img id="cover" src="images/cover.jpg" width="411" height="600" alt="Book cover" /> -</div> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<h1>ST. PAUL & PROTESTANTISM</h1> -<p> </p> -<blockquote><p>"We often read the Scripture without comprehending its full -meaning; however, let us not be discouraged. The light, in God's -good time, will break out, and disperse the darkness; and we -shall see the mysteries of the Gospel."</p></blockquote> - -<h5><span class="smcaps">Bishop Wilson.</span></h5> - -<blockquote><p>"With them (the Puritans) nothing is more familiar than to plead -in their causes <i>the Law of God, the Word of the Lord</i>; who -notwithstanding, when they come to allege what word and what law -they mean, their common ordinary practice is to quote -by-speeches, and to urge them as if they were written in most -exact form of law. What is to add to the Law of God if this be -not?"</p></blockquote> - -<h5><span class="smcaps">Hooker.</span></h5> - -<blockquote><p>"It will be found at last, that unity, and the peace of the -Church, will conduce more to the saving of souls, than the most -specious sects, varnished with the most pious, specious -pretences."</p></blockquote> - -<h5><span class="smcaps">Bishop Wilson.</span></h5> - -<hr /> - -<h2>ST. PAUL<br /> -AND<br /> -PROTESTANTISM</h2> - -<h3><i>WITH AN ESSAY ON PURITANISM AND<br /> -THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND</i></h3> - -<h4>BY</h4> - -<h3>MATTHEW ARNOLD</h3> - -<h4>FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD<br /> -AND FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE</h4> - -<h4><i>THIRD EDITION</i></h4> - -<h4>LONDON</h4> - -<h3>SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE</h3> - -<h4>1875</h4> - -<h5>(<i>The right of translation is reserved</i>)</h5> - -<hr /> - -<h2>PREFACE.</h2> - -<h3>(1870.)</h3> - -<p>The essay following the treatise on St. Paul and Protestantism, was -meant to clear away offence or misunderstanding which had arisen out of -that treatise. There still remain one or two points on which a word of -explanation may be useful, and to them this preface is addressed.</p> - -<p>The general objection, that the scheme of doctrine criticised by me is -common to both Puritanism and the Church of England, and does not -characterise the one more essentially than the other, has been removed, -I hope, by the concluding essay. But it is said that there is, at any -rate, a large party in the Church of England,—the so-called -<i>Evangelical</i> party,—which holds just the scheme of doctrine I have -called Puritan; that this large party, at least, if not the whole Church -of England, is as much a stronghold of the distinctive Puritan tenets as -the Nonconformists are; and that to tax the Nonconformists with these -tenets, and to say nothing about the Evangelical clergy holding them -too, is injurious and unfair.</p> - -<p>The Evangelical party in the Church of England we must always, -certainly, have a disposition to treat with forbearance, inasmuch as -this party has so strongly loved what is indeed the most loveable of -things,—religion. They have also avoided that unblessed mixture of -politics and religion by which both politics and religion are spoilt. -This, however, would not alone have prevented our making them jointly -answerable with the Puritans for that body of opinions which calls -itself Scriptural Protestantism, but which is, in truth, a perversion of -St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. But there is this difference between -the Evangelical party in the Church of England and the Puritans outside -her;—the Evangelicals have not added to the first error of holding this -unsound body of opinions, the second error of separating for them. They -have thus, as we have already noticed, escaped the mixing of politics -and religion, which arises directly and naturally out of this separating -for opinions. But they have also done that which we most blame -Nonconformity for not doing;—they have left themselves in the way of -development. Practically they have admitted that the Christian Church is -built, not on the foundation of Lutheran and Calvinist dogmas, but on -the foundation: <i>Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart -from iniquity.</i><a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Mr. Ryle or the Dean of Ripon may have as erroneous -notions as to what <i>truth</i> and <i>the gospel</i> really is, as Mr. Spurgeon -or the President of the Wesleyan Conference; but they do not tie -themselves tighter still to these erroneous notions, nor do their best -to cut themselves off from outgrowing them, by resolving <i>to have no -fellowship with the man of sin</i> who holds different notions. On the -contrary, they are worshippers in the same Church, professors of the -same faith, ministers of the same confraternity, as men who hold that -their <i>Scriptural Protestantism</i> is all wrong, and who hold other -notions of their own quite at variance with it. And thus they do homage -to an ideal of Christianity which is larger, higher, and better than -either their notions or those of their opponents, and in respect of -which both their notions and those of their opponents are inadequate; -and this admission of the relative inadequacy of their notions is itself -a stage towards the future admission of their positive inadequacy.</p> - -<p>In fact, the popular Protestant theology, which we have criticised as -such a grave perversion of the teaching of St. Paul, has not in the -so-called Evangelical party of the Church of England its chief centre -and stronghold. This party, which, following in the wake of Wesley and -others, so felt in a day of general insensibility the power and comfort -of the Christian religion, and which did so much to make others feel -them, but which also adopted and promulgated a scientific account so -inadequate and so misleading of the religion which attracted it,—this -great party has done its work, and is now undergoing that law of -transformation and development which obtains in a national Church. The -power is passing from it to others, who will make good some of the -aspects of religion which the Evangelicals neglected, and who will then, -in their turn, from the same cause of the scientific inadequacy of their -conception of Christianity, change and pass away. The Evangelical clergy -no longer recruits itself with success, no longer lays hold on such -promising subjects as formerly. It is losing the future and feels that -it is losing it. Its signs of a vigorous life, its gaiety and audacity, -are confined to its older members, too powerful to lose their own -vigour, but without successors to whom to transmit it. It was impossible -not to admire the genuine and rich though somewhat brutal humour of the -Dean of Ripon's famous similitude of the two lepers.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> But from which -of the younger members of the Evangelical clergy do such strokes now -come? The best of their own younger generation, the soldiers of their -own training, are slipping away from them; and he who looks for the -source whence popular Puritan theology now derives power and -perpetuation, will not fix his eyes on the Evangelical clergy of the -Church of England.</p> - -<p>Another point where a word of explanation seems desirable is the -objection taken on a kind of personal ground to the criticism of St. -Paul's doctrine which we have attempted. 'What!' it is said, 'if this -view of St. Paul's meaning, so unlike the received view, were the true -one, do you suppose it would have been left for you to discover it? Are -you wiser than the hundreds of learned people who for generation after -generation have been occupying themselves with St. Paul and little else? -Has it been left for you to bring in a new religion and found a new -church?' Now on this line of expostulation, which, so far as it draws -from unworthiness of ours its argument, appears to have, no doubt, great -force, there are three remarks to be offered. In the first place, even -if the version of St. Paul which we propound were both new and true, yet -we do not, on that account, make of it a new religion or set up a new -church for its sake. That would be <i>separating for opinions</i>, heresy, -which is just what we reproach the Nonconformists with. In the seventh -century, there arose near the Euphrates a sect called Paulicians, who -professed to form themselves on the pure doctrine of St. Paul, which -other Christians, they said, had misunderstood and corrupted. And we, I -suppose, having discovered how popular Protestantism perverts St. Paul, -are expected to try and make a new sect of Paulicians on the strength of -this discovery; such being just the course which our Puritan friends -would themselves eagerly take in like case. But the Christian Church is -founded, not on a correct speculative knowledge of the ideas of Paul, -but on the much surer ground: <i>Let every one that nameth the name of -Christ depart from iniquity</i>; and, holding this to be so, we might -change the current strain of doctrinal theology from one end to the -other, without, on that account, setting up any new church or bringing -in any new religion.</p> - -<p>In the second place, the version we propound of St. Paul's line of -thought is not new, is not of our discovering. It belongs to the -'<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Zeit-Geist</span>,' or <i>time-spirit</i>, it is in the air, and many have long -been anticipating it, preparing it, setting forth this and that part of -it, till there is not a part, probably, of all we have said, which has -not already been said by others before us, and said more learnedly and -fully than we can say it. All we have done is to take it as a whole, and -give a plain, popular, connected exposition of it; for which, perhaps, -our notions about culture, about the many sides to the human spirit, -about making these sides help one another instead of remaining enemies -and strangers, have been of some advantage. For most of those who read -St. Paul diligently are Hebraisers; they regard little except the -Hebraising impulse in us and the documents which concern it. They have -little notion of letting their consciousness play on things freely, -little ear for the voice of the '<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Zeit-Geist</span>;' and they are so immersed -in an order of thoughts and words which are peculiar, that, in the broad -general order of thoughts and words, which is the life of popular -exposition, they are not very much at home.</p> - -<p>Thirdly, and in the last place, we by no means put forth our version of -St. Paul's line of thought as true, in the same fashion as Puritanism -put forth its <i>Scriptural</i> <i>Protestantism</i>, or <i>gospel</i>, as true. Their -truth the Puritans exhibit as a sort of cast-iron product, rigid, -definite, and complete, which they have got once for all, and which can -no longer have anything added to it or anything withdrawn from it. But -of our rendering of St. Paul's thought we conceive rather as of a -product of nature, which has grown to be what it is and which will grow -more; which will not stand just as we now exhibit it, but which will -gain some aspects which we now fail to show in it, and will drop some -which we now give it; which will be developed, in short, farther, just -in like manner as it has reached its present stage by development.</p> - -<p>Thus we present our conceptions, neither as something quite new nor as -something quite true; nor yet as any ground, even supposing they were -quite new and true, for a separate church or religion. But so far they -are, we think, new and true, and a fruit of sound development, a genuine -product of the '<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Zeit-Geist</span>,' that their mere contact seems to make the -old Puritan conceptions look unlikely and indefensible, and begin a sort -of re-modelling and refacing of themselves. Let us just see how far this -change has practically gone.</p> - -<p>The formal and scholastic version of its theology, Calvinist or -Arminian, as given by its seventeenth-century fathers, and enshrined in -the trust-deeds of so many of its chapels,—of this, at any rate, modern -Puritanism is beginning to feel shy. Take the Calvinist doctrine of -election. 'By God's decree a certain number of angels and men are -predestinated, out of God's mere free grace and love, without any -foresight of faith or good works in them, to everlasting life; and -others foreordained, according to the unsearchable counsel of his will, -whereby he extends or withholds mercy as he pleases, to everlasting -death.' In that scientific form, at least, the doctrine of election -begins to look dubious to the Calvinistic Puritan, and he puts it a good -deal out of sight. Take the Arminian doctrine of justification. 'We -could not expect any relief from heaven out of that misery under which -we lie, were not God's displeasure against us first pacified and our -sins remitted. This is the signal and transcendent benefit of our free -justification through the blood of Christ, that God's offence justly -conceived against us for our sins (which would have been an eternal bar -and restraint to the efflux of his grace upon us) being removed, the -divine grace and bounty may freely flow forth upon us.' In that -scientific form, the doctrine of justification begins to look less -satisfactory to the Arminian Puritan, and he tends to put it out of -sight.</p> - -<p>The same may be said of the doctrine of election in its plain popular -form of statement also. 'I hold,' says Whitefield, in the forcible style -which so took his hearers' fancy,—'I hold that a certain number are -elected from eternity, and these must and shall be saved, and the rest -of mankind must and shall be damned.' A Calvinistic Puritan now-a-days -must be either a fervid Welsh Dissenter, or a strenuous Particular -Baptist in some remote place in the country, not to be a little -staggered at this sort of expression. As to the doctrine of -justification in its current, popular form of statement, the case is -somewhat different. 'My own works,' says Wesley, 'my own sufferings, my -own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so -far from making any atonement for the least of those sins which are more -in number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of them need -an atonement themselves; that, having the sentence of death in my heart -and nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being -justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus. The faith I -want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of -Christ my sins are forgiven and I reconciled to the favour of God. -Believe and thou shalt be saved! He that believeth is passed from death -to life. Faith is the free gift of God, which he bestows not on those -who are worthy of his favour, not on such as are previously holy and so -fit to be crowned with all the blessings of his goodness, but on the -ungodly and unholy, who till that hour were fit only for everlasting -damnation. Look for sanctification just as you are, as a poor sinner -that has nothing to pay, nothing to plead but <i>Christ died</i>.' -Deliverances of this sort, which in Wesley are frequent and in Wesley's -followers are unceasing, still, no doubt, pass current everywhere with -Puritanism, are expected as of course, and find favour; they are just -what Puritans commonly mean by <i>Scriptural Protestantism, the truth, the -gospel-feast</i>. Nevertheless they no longer quite satisfy; the better -minds among Puritans try instinctively to give some fresh turn or -development to them; they are no longer, to minds of this order, an -unquestionable word and a sure stay; and from this point to their final -transformation the course is certain. The predestinarian and solifidian -dogmas, for the very sake of which our Puritan churches came into -existence, begin to feel the irresistible breath of the '<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Zeit-Geist</span>;' -some of them melt quicker, others slower, but all of them are doomed. -Under the eyes of this generation Puritan Dissent has to execute an -entire change of front, and to present us with a new reason for its -existing. What will that new reason be?</p> - -<p>There needs no conjuror to tell us. It will be the Rev. Mr. Conder's -reason, which we have quoted in our concluding essay. It will be -Scriptural Protestantism in <i>church-order</i>, rather than Scriptural -Protestantism in <i>church-doctrine</i>. 'Congregational Nonconformists can -never be incorporated into an organic union with Anglican Episcopacy, -because there is not even the shadow of an outline of it in the New -Testament, and it is our assertion and profound belief that Christ and -the Apostles have given us all the laws that are necessary for the -constitution and government of the Church.' This makes church-government -not a secondary matter of form, growth, and expediency, but a matter of -the essence of Christianity and ordained in Scripture. Expressly set -forth in Scripture it is not; so it has to be gathered from Scripture by -collection, and every one gathers it in his own way. Unity is of no -great importance; but that every man should live in a church-order which -he judges to be scriptural, is of the greatest importance. This brings -us to Mr. Miall's standard-maxim: <i>The Dissidence of Dissent, and the -Protestantism of the Protestant religion</i>! The more freely the sects -develop themselves, the better. The Church of England herself is but -<i>the dominant sect</i>; her pretensions to bring back the Dissenters within -her pale are offensive and ridiculous. What we ought to aim at is -perfect equality, and that the other sects should balance her.</p> - -<p>On the old, old subject of the want of historic and philosophic sense -shown by those who would make church-government a matter of scriptural -regulation, I say nothing at present. A Wesleyan minister, the Rev. Mr. -Willey, said the other day at Leeds: 'He did not find anything in either -the Old or New Testament to the effect that Christian ministers should -become State-servants, like soldiers or excisemen.' He might as well -have added that he did not find there anything to the effect that they -should wear braces! But on this point I am not here going to enlarge. -What I am now concerned with is the relation of this new ground of -existence, which more and more the Puritan Churches take and will take -as they lose their old ground, to the Christian religion. In the speech -which Mr. Winterbotham<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> made on the Education Bill, a speech which I -had the advantage of hearing, there were uncommon facilities supplied -for judging of this relation; indeed that able speech presented a -striking picture of it.</p> - -<p>And what a picture it was, good heavens! The Puritans say they love -righteousness, and they are offended with us for rejoining that the -righteousness of which they boast is the righteousness of the earlier -Jews of the Old Testament, which consisted mainly in smiting the Lord's -enemies and their own under the fifth rib. And we say that the newer and -specially Christian sort of righteousness is something different from -this; that the Puritans are, and always have been, deficient in the -specially Christian sort of righteousness; that men like St. Francis of -Sales, in the Roman Catholic Church, and Bishop Wilson, in the Church of -England, show far more of it than any Puritans; and that St. Paul's -signal and eternally fruitful growth in righteousness dates just from -his breach with the Puritans of his day. Let us revert to Paul's list of -fruits of the spirit, on which we have so often insisted in the pages -which follow: <i>love</i>, <i>joy</i>, <i>peace</i>, <i>long-suffering</i>, <i>kindness</i>, -<i>goodness</i>, <i>faith</i>, <i>mildness</i>, <i>self-control</i>.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> We keep to this -particular list for the sake of greater distinctness; but St. Paul has -perpetually lists of the kind, all pointing the same way, and all -showing what he meant by Christian righteousness, what he found -specially in Christ. They may all be concluded in two qualities, the -qualities which Jesus Christ told his disciples to learn of him, the -qualities in the name of which, as specially Christ's qualities, Paul -adjured his converts. 'Learn of me,' said Jesus, '<i>that I am mild and -lowly in heart</i>.' 'I beseech you,' said Paul, '<i>by the mildness and -gentleness of Christ</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The word which our Bibles translate by -'gentleness' means more properly 'reasonableness with sweetness,' 'sweet -reasonableness.' 'I beseech you by <i>the mildness and sweet -reasonableness of Christ</i>.' This mildness and sweet reasonableness it -was, which, stamped with the individual charm they had in Jesus Christ, -came to the world as something new, won its heart and conquered it. -Every one had been asserting his ordinary self and was miserable; to -forbear to assert one's ordinary self, to place one's happiness in -mildness and sweet reasonableness, was a revelation. As men followed -this novel route to happiness, a living spring opened beside their way, -the spring of charity; and out of this spring arose those two heavenly -visitants, Charis and Irene, <i>grace</i> and <i>peace</i>, which enraptured the -poor wayfarer, and filled him with a joy which brought all the world -after him. And still, whenever these visitants appear, as appear for a -witness to the vitality of Christianity they daily do, it is from the -same spring that they arise; and this spring is opened solely by the -mildness and sweet reasonableness which forbears to assert our ordinary -self, nay, which even takes pleasure in effacing it.</p> - -<p>And now let us turn to Mr. Winterbotham and the Protestant Dissenters. -He interprets their very inner mind, he says; that which he declares in -their name, they are all feeling, and would declare for themselves if -they could. '<i>There was a spirit of watchful jealousy on the part of the -Dissenters, which made them prone to take offence; therefore statesmen -should not introduce the Established Church into all the institutions of -the country.</i>' That is positively the whole speech! 'Strife, jealousy, -wrath, contentions, backbitings,'<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>—we know the catalogue. And the -Dissenters are, by their own confession, so full of these, and the very -existence of an organisation of Dissent so makes them a necessity, that -the State is required to frame its legislation in consideration of them! -Was there ever such a confession made? Here are people existing for the -sake of a religion of which the essence is mildness and sweet -reasonableness, and the forbearing to assert our ordinary self; and they -declare themselves so full of the very temper and habits against which -that religion is specially levelled, that they require to have even the -occasion of forbearing to assert their ordinary self removed out of -their way, because they are quite sure they will never comply with it!</p> - -<p>Never was there a more instructive comment on the blessings of -separation, which we are so often invited by separatists to admire. Why -does not Dissent forbear to assert its ordinary self, and help to win -the world to the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, without -this vain contest about machinery? Why does not the Church? is the -Dissenter's answer. What an answer for a Christian! We are to defer -giving up our ordinary self until our neighbour shall have given up his; -that is, we are never to give it up at all. But I will answer the -question on more mundane grounds. Why are we to be more blamed than the -Church for the strife arising out of our rival existences? asks the -Dissenter. Because the Church cannot help existing, and you can! -Therefore, <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus</i></span>, as Baxter himself said in -his better moments. Because the Church is there; because strife, -jealousy, and self-assertion are sure to come with breaking off from -her; and because strife, jealousy, and self-assertion are the very -miseries against which Christianity is firstly levelled;—therefore we -say that a Christian is inexcusable in breaking with the Church, except -for a departure from the primal ground of her foundation: <i>Let every one -that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity</i>.</p> - -<p>The clergyman,—poor soul!—cannot help being the parson of the parish. -He is there like the magistrate; he is a national officer with an -appointed function. If one or two voluntary performers, dissatisfied -with the magisterial system, were to set themselves up in each parish of -the country, called themselves magistrates, drew a certain number of -people to their own way of thinking, tried differences and gave -sentences among their people in the best fashion they could, why, -probably the established magistrate would not much like it, the leading -people in the parish would not much like it, and the newcomers would -have mortifications and social estrangements to endure. Probably the -established magistrate would call them interlopers; probably he would -count them amongst his difficulties. On the side of the newcomers 'a -spirit of watchful jealousy,' as Mr. Winterbotham says, would thus be -created. The public interest would suffer from the ill blood and -confusion prevailing. The established magistrate might naturally say -that the newcomers brought the strife and disturbance with them. But who -would not smile at these lambs answering: 'Away with that wolf the -established magistrate, and all ground for jealousy and quarrel between -us will disappear!'</p> - -<p>And it is a grievance that the clergyman talks of Dissent as one of the -spiritual hindrances in his parish, and desires to get rid of it! Why, -by Mr. Winterbotham's own showing, the Dissenters live 'in a spirit of -watchful jealousy,' and this temper is as much a spiritual -hindrance,—nay, in the view of Christianity it is even a more direct -spiritual hindrance,—than drunkenness or loose living. Christianity is, -first and above all, a temper, a disposition; and a disposition just the -opposite to 'a spirit of watchful jealousy.' Once admit a spirit of -watchful jealousy, and Christianity has lost its virtue; it is impotent. -All the other vices it was meant to keep out may rush in. Where there is -jealousy and strife among you, asks St. Paul, <i>are ye not carnal</i>?<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -are ye not still in bondage to your mere lower selves? But from this -bondage Christianity was meant to free us; therefore, says he, get rid -of what causes divisions, and strife, and 'a spirit of watchful -jealousy.' 'I exhort you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye -all speak the same thing, and that there be not divisions among you, but -that ye all be perfectly joined in the same mind and the same -judgment.'<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> - -<p>Well, but why, says the Dissenting minister, is the clergyman to impress -St. Paul's words upon me rather than I upon the clergyman? Because the -clergyman is the one minister of Christ in the parish who did not invent -himself, who cannot help existing. He is not asserting his ordinary self -by being there; he is placed there on public duty. He is charged with -teaching the lesson of Christianity, and the head and front of this -lesson is to get rid of 'a spirit of watchful jealousy,' which, -according to the Dissenter's own showing, is the very spirit which -accompanies Dissent. How he is to get rid of it, how he is to win souls -to the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, it is for his own -conscience to tell him. Probably he will best do it by never speaking -against Dissent at all, by treating Dissenters with perfect cordiality -and as if there was not a point of dispute between them. But that, so -long as he exists, it is his duty to get rid of it, to win souls to the -unity which is its opposite, is clear. It is not the Bishop of -Winchester<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> who classes Dissent, full of 'a spirit of watchful -jealousy,' along with spiritual hindrances like beer-shops,—a pollution -of the spirit along with pollutions of the flesh;<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> it is St. Paul. -It is not the clergyman who is chargeable with wishing to 'stamp out' -this spirit; it is the Christian religion.</p> - -<p>But what is to prevent the Dissenting minister from being joined with -the clergyman in the same public function, and being his partner instead -of his rival? Episcopal ordination.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> If I leave the service of a -private company, and enter the public service, I receive admission at -the hands of the public officer designated to give it me. Sentiment and -the historic sense, to say nothing of the religious feeling, will -certainly put more into ordination than this, though not precisely what -the Bishop of Winchester, perhaps, puts; this which we have laid down, -however, is really all which the law of the land puts there. A bishop is -a public officer. Why should I trouble myself about the name his office -bears? The name of his office cannot affect the service or my labour in -it. Ah, but, says Mr. Winterbotham, he holds opinions which I do not -share about the sort of character he confers upon me! What can that -matter, unless he compels you, too, to profess the same opinions, or -refuses you admission if you do not? But I should be joined in the -ministry with men who hold opinions which I do not share! What does that -matter either, unless they compel you also to hold these opinions, as -the price of your being allowed to work on the foundation: <i>Let every -one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity</i>? To recur to -our old parallel. It is as if a man who desired the office of a public -magistrate and who was fitted for it, were to hold off because he had to -receive institution from a Lord-Lieutenant, and he did not like the -title of Lord-Lieutenant; or because the Lord-Lieutenant who was to -institute him had a fancy about some occult quality which he conferred -on him at institution; or because he would find himself, when he was -instituted, one of a body of magistrates of whom many had notions which -he thought irrational. The office itself, and his own power to fill it -usefully, is all which really matters to him.</p> - -<p>The Bishop of Winchester believes in apostolical succession;—therefore -there must be Dissenters. Mr. Liddon asserts the real -presence;—therefore there must be Dissenters. Mr. Mackonochie is a -ritualist;—therefore there must be Dissenters. But the Bishop of -Winchester cannot, and does not, exclude from the ministry of the Church -of England those who do not believe in apostolical succession; and -surely not even that acute and accomplished personage is such a -magician, that he can make a Puritan believe in apostolical succession -merely by believing in it himself! In the same way, eloquent as is Mr. -Liddon, and devoted as is Mr. Mackonochie, their gifts cannot yield them -the art of so swaying a brother clergyman's spirit as to make him admit -the real presence against his conviction, or practise ritualism against -his will; and official, material control over him, or power of -stipulating what he shall admit or practise, they have absolutely none.</p> - -<p>But can anything more tend to make the Church what the Puritans reproach -it with being,—a mere lump of sacerdotalism and ritualism,—than if the -Puritans, who are free to come into it with their disregard of -sacerdotalism and ritualism and so to leaven it, refuse to come in, and -leave it wholly to the sacerdotalists and ritualists? What can be harder -upon the laity of the national Church, what so inconsiderate of the -national good and advantage, as to leave us at the mercy of one single -element in the Church, and deny us just the elements fit to mix with -this element and to improve it?</p> - -<p>The current doctrines of apostolical succession and the real presence -seem to us unsound and unedifying. To be sure, so does the current -doctrine of imputed righteousness. For us, sacerdotalism and -solifidianism stand both on the same footing; they are, both of them, -erroneous human developments. But as in the ideas and practice of -sacerdotalists or ritualists there is much which seems to us of value, -and of great use to the Church, so, too, in the ideas and practice of -Nonconformists there is very much which we value. To take points only -that are beyond controversy: they have cultivated the gift of preaching -much more than the clergy, and their union with the Church would -renovate and immensely amend Church preaching. They would certainly -bring with them, if they came back into the Church, some use of what -they call <i>free prayer</i>; to which, if at present they give far too much -place, it is yet to be regretted that the Church gives no place at all. -Lastly, if the body of British Protestant Dissenters is in the main, as -it undoubtedly is, the Church of the Philistines, nevertheless there -could come nothing but health and strength from blending this body with -the Establishment, of which the very weakness and danger is that it -tends, as we have formerly said, to be an appendage to the Barbarians.</p> - -<p>So long as the Puritans thought that the essence of Christianity was -their doctrine of predestination or of justification, it was natural -that they should stand out, at any cost, for this essence. That is why, -when the '<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Zeit-Geist</span>' and the general movement of men's religious ideas -is beginning to reveal that the Puritan gospel is not the essence of -Christianity, we have been desirous to spread this revelation to the -best of our power, and by all the aids of plain popular exposition to -help it forward. Because, when once it is clear that the essence of -Christianity is not Puritan solifidianism, it can hardly long be -maintained that the essence of Christianity is Puritan church-order. -When once the way is made clear, by removing the solifidian heresy, to -look and see what the essence of Christianity really is, it cannot but -soon force itself upon our minds that the essence of Christianity is -something not very far, at any rate, from this: <i>Grace and peace by the -annulment of our ordinary self through the mildness and sweet -reasonableness of Jesus Christ</i>. This is the more particular description -of that general ground, already laid down, of the Christian Church's -existence: <i>Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity</i>. If this general ground, particularised in the way above -given, is not 'the sincere milk' of the evangelical word, it is, at all -events, something very like it. And matters of machinery and outward -form, like church-order, have not only nothing essentially to do with -the sincere milk of Christianity, but are the very matters about which -this sincere milk should make us easy and yielding.</p> - -<p>If there were no national and historic form of church-order in -possession, a genuine Christian would regret having to spend time and -thought in shaping one, in having so to encumber himself with serving, -to busy himself so much about a frame for his religious life as well as -about the contents of the frame. After all, a man has only a certain sum -of force to spend; and if he takes a quantity of it for outward things, -he has so much the less left for inward things. It is hardly to be -believed, how much larger a space the mere affairs of his denomination -fill in the time and thoughts of a Dissenter, than in the time and -thoughts of a Churchman. Now all machinery-work of this kind is, to a -man filled with a real love of the essence of Christianity, something of -a hindrance to him in what he most wants to be at, something of a -concession to his ordinary self. When an established and historic form -exists, such a man should be, therefore, disposed to use it and comply -with it. But,—as if it were not satisfied with proving its -unprofitableness by corroding us with jealousy and so robbing us of the -mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, which is our -mainstay,—political Dissent, Dissent for the sake of church-polity and -church-management, proves it, too, by stimulating our ordinary self -through over-care for what flatters this. In fact, what is it that the -everyday, middle-class Philistine,—not the rare flower of the -Dissenters but the common staple,—finds so attractive in Dissent? Is it -not, as to discipline, that his self-importance is fomented by the fuss, -bustle, and partisanship of a private sect, instead of being lost in the -greatness of a public body? As to worship, is it not that his taste is -pleased by usages and words that come down to <i>him</i>, instead of drawing -him up to <i>them</i>; by services which reflect, instead of the culture of -great men of religious genius, the crude culture of himself and his -fellows? And as to doctrine, is it not that his mind is pleased at -hearing no opinion but its own, by having all disputed points taken for -granted in its own favour, by being urged to no return upon itself, no -development? And what is all this but the very feeding and stimulating -of our ordinary self, instead of the annulling of it? No doubt it is -natural; to indulge our ordinary self is the most natural thing in the -world. But Christianity is not natural; and if the flower of -Christianity be the grace and peace which comes of annulling our -ordinary self, then to this flower it is fatal.</p> - -<p>So that if, in order to gratify in the Dissenters one of the two faults -against which Christianity is chiefly aimed, a jealous, contentious -spirit, we were to sweep away our national and historic form of -religion, and were all to tinker at our own forms, we should then just -be flattering the other chief fault which Christianity came to cure, and -serving our ordinary self instead of annulling it. What a happy -furtherance to religion!</p> - -<p>For my part, so far as the best of the Nonconformist ministers are -concerned, of whom I know something, I disbelieve Mr. Winterbotham's -hideous confession. I imagine they are very little pleased with him for -making it. I do not believe that they, at any rate, live in the -ulcerated condition he describes, fretting with watchful jealousy. I -believe they have other things to think of. But why? Because they are -men of genius and character, who react against the harmful influences of -the position in which they find themselves placed, and surmount its -obvious dangers. But their genius and character might serve them still -better if they were placed in a less trying position. And the rank and -file of their ministers and people do yield to the influences of their -position. Of these, Mr. Winterbotham's picture is perfectly true. They -are more and more jealous for their separate organisation, pleased with -the bustle and self-importance which its magnitude brings them, -irritably alive to whatever reduces or effaces it; bent, in short, on -affirming their ordinary selves. However much the chiefs may feel the -truth of modern ideas, may grow moderate, may perceive the effects of -religious separatism upon worship and doctrine, they will probably avail -little or nothing; the head will be overpowered and out-clamoured by the -tail. The Wesleyans, who used always to refuse to call themselves -Dissenters, whose best men still shrink from the name, the Wesleyans, a -wing of the Church, founded for godliness, the Wesleyans more and more, -with their very growth as a separate denomination, feel the secular -ambition of being great as a denomination, of being effaced by nobody, -of giving contentment to this self-importance, of indulging this -ordinary self; and I should not wonder if within twenty years they were -keen political Dissenters. A triumph of Puritanism is abundantly -possible; we have never denied it. What we, whose greatest care is -neither for the Church nor for Puritanism, but for human perfection, -what we labour to show is, that the triumph of Puritanism will be the -triumph of our ordinary self, not the triumph of Christianity; and that -the type of Hebraism it will establish is one in which neither general -human perfection, nor yet Hebraism itself, can truly find their account.</p> - -<p>Elsewhere we have drawn out a distinction between Hebraism and -Hellenism,<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>—between the tendency and powers that carry us towards -doing, and the tendency and powers that carry us towards perceiving and -knowing. Hebraism, we said, has long been overwhelmingly preponderant -with us. The sacred book which we call the Word of God, and which most -of us study far more than any other book, serves Hebraism. Moses -Hebraises, David Hebraises, Isaiah Hebraises, Paul Hebraises, John -Hebraises. Jesus Christ himself is, as St. Paul truly styles him, 'a -minister <i>of the circumcision</i> to the truth of God.'<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> That is, it is -by our powers of moral action, and through the perfecting of these, that -Christ leads us 'to be partakers of the divine nature.'<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> By far our -chief machinery for spiritual purposes has the like aim and character. -Throughout Europe this is so. But, to speak of ourselves only, the -Archbishop of Canterbury is an agent of Hebraism, the Archbishop of York -is an agent of Hebraism, Archbishop Manning is an agent of Hebraism, the -President of the Wesleyan Conference is an agent of Hebraism, all the -body of the Church clergy and Dissenting ministers are agents of -Hebraism. Now, we have seen how we are beginning visibly to suffer harm -from attending in this one-sided way to Hebraism, and how we are called -to develop ourselves more in our totality, on our perceptive and -intelligential side as well as on our moral side. If it is said that -this is a very hard matter, and that man cannot well do more than one -thing at a time, the answer is that here is the very sign and condition -of each new stage of spiritual progress,—<i>increase of task</i>. The more -we grow, the greater is the task which is given us. This is the law of -man's nature and of his spirit's history. The powers we have developed -at our old task enable us to attempt a new one; and this, again, brings -with it a new increase of powers.</p> - -<p>Hebraism strikes too exclusively upon one string in us. Hellenism does -not address itself with serious energy enough to morals and -righteousness. For our totality, for our general perfection, we need to -unite the two; now the two are easily at variance. In their lower forms -they are irreconcileably at variance; only when each of them is at its -best, is their harmony possible. Hebraism at its best is beauty and -charm; Hellenism at its best is also beauty and charm. As such they can -unite; as anything short of this, each of them, they are at discord, and -their separation must continue. The flower of Hellenism is a kind of -amiable grace and artless winning good-nature, born out of the -perfection of lucidity, simplicity, and natural truth; the flower of -Christianity is grace and peace by the annulment of our ordinary self -through the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ. Both are -eminently <i>humane</i>, and for complete human perfection both are required; -the second being the perfection of that side in us which is moral and -acts, the first, of that side in us which is intelligential and -perceives and knows.</p> - -<p>But lower forms of Hebraism and Hellenism tend always to make their -appearance, and to strive to establish themselves. On one of these forms -of Hebraism we have been commenting;—a form which had its first origin, -no doubt, in that body of impulses whereby we Hebraise, but which lands -us at last, not in the mildness and sweet reasonableness of Christ, but -in 'a spirit of watchful jealousy.' We have to thank Mr. Winterbotham -for fixing our attention on it; but we prefer to name it from an eminent -and able man who is well known as the earnest apostle of the Dissidence -of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion, and to call -it <i>Mialism</i>. Mialism is a sub-form of Hebraism, and itself a somewhat -spurious and degenerated form; but this sub-form always tends to -degenerate into forms lower yet, and yet more unworthy of the ideal -flower of Hebraism. In one of these its further stages we have formerly -traced it, and we need not enlarge on them here.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>Hellenism, in the same way, has its more or less spurious and -degenerated sub-forms, products which may be at once known as -degenerations by their deflexion from what we have marked as the flower -of Hellenism,—'a kind of humane grace and artless winning good-nature, -born out of the perfection of lucidity, simplicity, and natural truth.' -And from whom can we more properly derive a general name for these -degenerations, than from that distinguished man, who, by his -intelligence and accomplishments, is in many respects so admirable and -so truly Hellenic, but whom his dislike for 'the dominant sect,' as he -calls the Church of England,—the Church of England, in many aspects so -beautiful, calming, and attaching,—seems to transport with an almost -feminine vehemence of irritation? What can we so fitly name the somewhat -degenerated and inadequate form of Hellenism as <i>Millism</i>? This is the -Hellenic or Hellenistic counterpart of Mialism; and like Mialism it has -its further degenerations, in which it is still less commendable than in -its first form. For instance, what in Mr. Mill is but a yielding to a -spirit of irritable injustice, goes on and worsens in some of his -disciples, till it becomes a sort of mere blatancy and truculent -hardness in certain Millites, in whom there appears scarcely anything -that is truly sound or Hellenic at all.</p> - -<p>Mankind, however, must needs draw, however slowly, towards its -perfection; and our only real perfection is our totality. Mialism and -Millism we may see playing into one another's hands, and apparently -acting together; but, so long as these lower forms of Hellenism and -Hebraism prevail, the real union between Hellenism and Hebraism can -never be accomplished, and our totality is still as far off as ever. -Unhappy and unquiet alternations of ascendency between Hebraism and -Hellenism are all that we shall see;—at one time, the indestructible -religious experience of mankind asserting itself blindly; at another, a -revulsion of the intellect of mankind from this experience, because of -the audacious assumptions and gross inaccuracies with which men's -account of it is intermingled.</p> - -<p>At present it is such a revulsion which seems chiefly imminent. Give the -churches of Nonconformity free scope, cries an ardent Congregationalist, -and we will renew the wonders of the first times; we will confront this -modern bugbear of physical science, show how hollow she is, and how she -contradicts herself! In his mind's eye, this Nonconforming enthusiast -already sees Professor Huxley in a white sheet, brought up at the Surrey -Tabernacle between two deacons,—whom that great physicist, in his own -clear and nervous language, would no doubt describe like his disinterred -Roman the other day at Westminster Abbey, as 'of weak mental -organisation and strong muscular frame,'—and penitently confessing that -<i>Science contradicts herself</i>. Alas, the real future is likely to be -very different! Rather are we likely to witness an edifying solemnity, -where Mr. Mill, assisted by his youthful henchmen and apparitors, will -burn all the Prayer Books. Rather will the time come, as it has been -foretold, when we shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, -and shall not see it; when the mildness and sweet reasonableness of -Jesus Christ, as a power to work the annulment of our ordinary self, -will be clean disregarded and out of mind. Then, perhaps, will come -another re-action, and another, and another; and all sterile.</p> - -<p>Therefore it is, that we labour to make Hebraism raise itself above -Mialism, find its true self, show itself in its beauty and power, and -help, not hinder, man's totality. The endeavour will very likely be in -vain; for growth is slow and the ages are long, and it may well be that -for harmonising Hebraism with Hellenism more preparation is needed than -man has yet had. But failures do something, as well as successes, -towards the final achievement. The cup of cold water could be hardly -more than an ineffective effort at succour; yet it counted. To disengage -the religion of England from unscriptural Protestantism, political -Dissent, and a spirit of watchful jealousy, may be an aim not in our day -reachable; and still it is well to level at it.</p> - - -<hr /> -<h2 id="contents"> -CONTENTS. -</h2> -<hr class="short" /> -<div class="centered"><table summary="Table of Contents" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"> - -<tbody><tr><td align="left"><a href="#part1"><span class="smcaps">St. Paul and Protestantism</span></a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="left"><a href="#part2"><span class="smcaps">Puritanism and the Church of England</span></a></td></tr> -</tbody></table></div> - -<hr /> - - - -<h2> -ST. PAUL -<br /> -AND -<br /> -PROTESTANTISM. -</h2> - -<h4 id="part1">I.</h4> - -<p><span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">M. Renan</span> sums up his interesting volume on St. Paul by saying:—'After -having been for three hundred years, thanks to Protestantism, the -Christian doctor <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr"><i>par excellence</i></span>, Paul is now coming to an end of his -reign.' All through his book <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">M. Renan</span> is possessed with a sense of this -close relationship between St. Paul and Protestantism. Protestantism has -made Paul, he says; Pauline doctrine is identified with Protestant -doctrine; Paul is a Protestant doctor, and the counterpart of Luther. <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">M. -Renan</span> has a strong distaste for Protestantism, and this distaste extends -itself to the Protestant Paul. The reign of this Protestant is now -coming to an end, and such a consummation evidently has <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">M. Renan</span>'s -approval.</p> - -<p><i>St. Paul is now coming to an end of his reign.</i> Precisely the contrary, -I venture to think, is the judgment to which a true criticism of men and -of things, in our own country at any rate, leads us. The Protestantism -which has so used and abused St. Paul is coming to an end; its -organisations, strong and active as they look, are touched with the -finger of death; its fundamental ideas, sounding forth still every week -from thousands of pulpits, have in them no significance and no power for -the progressive thought of humanity. But the reign of the real St. Paul -is only beginning; his fundamental ideas, disengaged from the elaborate -misconceptions with which Protestantism has overlaid them, will have an -influence in the future greater than any which they have yet had,—an -influence proportioned to their correspondence with a number of the -deepest and most permanent facts of human nature itself.</p> - -<p>Elsewhere<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> I have pointed out how, for us in this country, -Puritanism is the strong and special representative of Protestantism. -The Church of England existed before Protestantism, and contains much -besides Protestantism. Remove the schemes of doctrine, Calvinistic or -Arminian, which for Protestantism, merely as such, have made the very -substance of its religion, and all that is most valuable in the Church -of England would still remain. These schemes, or the ideas out of which -they spring, show themselves in the Prayer Book; but they are not what -gives the Prayer Book its importance and value. But Puritanism exists -for the sake of these schemes; its organisations are inventions for -enforcing them more purely and thoroughly. Questions of discipline and -ceremonies have, originally at least, been always admitted to be in -themselves secondary; it is because that conception of the ways of God -to man which Puritanism has formed for itself appeared to Puritanism -superlatively true and precious, that Independents and Baptists and -Methodists in England, and Presbyterians in Scotland, have been impelled -to constitute for inculcating it a church-order where it might be less -swamped by the additions and ceremonies of men, might be more simply and -effectively enounced, and might stand more absolute and central, than in -the church-order of Anglicans or Roman Catholics.</p> - -<p>Of that conception the cardinal points are fixed by the terms <i>election</i> -and <i>justification</i>. These terms come from the writings of St. Paul, and -the scheme which Puritanism has constructed with them professes to be -St. Paul's scheme. The same scheme, or something very like it, has been, -and still is, embraced by many adherents of the Churches of England and -Rome; but these Churches rest their claims to men's interest and -attachment not on the possession of such a scheme, but on other grounds -with which we have for the present nothing to do. Puritanism's very -reason for existing depends on the worth of this its vital conception, -derived from St. Paul's writings; and when we are told that St. Paul is -a Protestant doctor whose reign is ending, a Puritan, keen, pugnacious, -and sophisticating simple religion of the heart into complicated -theories of the brain about election and justification, we in England, -at any rate, can best try the assertion by fixing our eyes on our own -Puritans, and comparing their doctrine and their hold on vital truth -with St. Paul's.</p> - -<p>This we propose now to do, and, indeed, to do it will only be to -complete what we have already begun. For already, when we were speaking -of Hebraism and Hellenism,<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> we were led to remark how the -over-Hebraising of Puritanism, and its want of a wide culture, do so -narrow its range and impair its vision that even the documents which it -thinks all-sufficient, and to the study of which it exclusively rivets -itself, it does not rightly understand, but is apt to make of them -something quite different from what they really are. In short, no man, -we said, who knows nothing else, knows even his Bible. And we showed how -readers of the Bible attached to essential words and ideas of the Bible -a sense which was not the writer's; and in particular how this had -happened with regard to the Pauline doctrine of resurrection. Let us -take the present opportunity of going further in the same road; and -instead of lightly disparaging the great name of St. Paul, let us see if -the needful thing is not rather to rescue St. Paul and the Bible from -the perversions of them by mistaken men.</p> - -<p>So long as the well-known habit, on which we have so often enlarged, -prevails amongst our countrymen, of holding mechanically their ideas -themselves, but making it their chief aim to work with energy and -enthusiasm for the organisations which profess those ideas, English -Puritanism is not likely to make such a return upon its own thoughts, -and upon the elements of its being, as to accomplish for itself an -operation of the kind needed; though it has men whose natural faculties, -were they but free to use them, would undoubtedly prove equal to the -task. The same habit prevents our Puritans from being reached by -philosophical works, which exist in sufficient numbers and of which M. -Reuss's history of the growth of Christian theology<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> is an admirable -specimen,—works where the entire scheme of Pauline doctrine is laid out -with careful research and impartial accuracy. To give effect to the -predominant points in Paul's teaching, and to exhibit these in so plain -and popular a manner as to invite and almost compel men's comprehension, -is not the design of such works; and only by writings with this design -in view will English Puritanism be reached.</p> - -<p>Our one qualification for the business in hand lies in that belief of -ours, so much contested by our countrymen, of the primary needfulness of -seeing things as they really are, and of the greater importance of ideas -than of the machinery which exists for them. If by means of letting our -consciousness work quite freely, and by following the methods of -studying and judging thence generated, we are shown that we ought in -real truth neither to abase St. Paul and Puritanism together, as <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">M. -Renan</span> does, nor to abase St. Paul but exalt Puritanism, nor yet to exalt -both Puritanism and St. Paul together, but rather to abase Puritanism -and exalt St. Paul, then we cannot but think that even for Puritanism -itself, also, it will be the best, however unpalatable, to be shown -this. Puritanism certainly wishes well to St. Paul; it cannot wish to -compromise him by an unintelligent adhesion to him and a blind adoption -of his words, instead of being a true child to him. Yet this is what it -has really done. What in St. Paul is secondary and subordinate, -Puritanism has made primary and essential; what in St Paul is figure and -belongs to the sphere of feeling, Puritanism has transported into the -sphere of intellect and made formula. On the other hand, what is with -St. Paul primary, Puritanism has treated as subordinate: and what is -with him thesis, and belonging (so far as anything in religion can -properly be said thus to belong) to the sphere of intellect, Puritanism -has made image and figure.</p> - -<p>And first let us premise what we mean in this matter by primary and -secondary, essential and subordinate. We mean, so far as the apostle is -concerned, a greater or less approach to what really characterises him -and gives his teaching its originality and power. We mean, so far as -truth is concerned, a greater or less agreement with facts which can be -verified, and a greater or less power of explaining them. What -essentially characterises a religious teacher, and gives him his -permanent worth and vitality, is, after all, just the scientific value -of his teaching, its correspondence with important facts, and the light -it throws on them. Never was the truth of this so evident as now. The -scientific sense in man never asserted its claim so strongly; the -propensity of religion to neglect those claims, and the peril and loss -to it from neglecting them, never were so manifest. The license of -affirmation about God and his proceedings, in which the religious world -indulge, is more and more met by the demand for verification. When -Calvinism tells us: 'It is agreed between God and the Mediator Jesus -Christ, the Son of God, surety for the redeemed, as parties-contractors, -that the sins of the redeemed should be imputed to innocent Christ, and -he both condemned and put to death for them, upon this very condition, -that whosoever heartily consents unto the covenant of reconciliation -offered through Christ, shall, by the imputation of his obedience unto -them, be justified and holden righteous before God;'—when Calvinism -tells us this, is it not talking about God just as if he were a man in -the next street, whose proceedings Calvinism intimately knew and could -give account of, could verify that account at any moment, and enable us -to verify it also? It is true, when the scientific sense in us, the -sense which seeks exact knowledge, calls for that verification, -Calvinism refers us to St. Paul, from whom it professes to have got this -history of what it calls 'the covenant of redemption.' But this is only -pushing the difficulty a stage further back. For if it is St. Paul, and -not Calvinism, that professes this exact acquaintance with God and his -doings, the scientific sense calls upon St. Paul to produce the facts by -which he verifies what he says; and if he cannot produce them, then it -treats both St. Paul's assertion, and Calvinism's assertion after him, -as of no real consequence.</p> - -<p>No one will deny that such is the behaviour of science towards religion -in our day, though many may deplore it. And it is not that the -scientific sense in us denies the rights of the poetic sense, which -employs a figured and imaginative language. But the language we have -just been quoting is not figurative and poetic language, it is -scholastic and scientific language. Assertions in scientific language -must stand the tests of scientific examination. Neither is it that the -scientific sense in us refuses to admit willingly and reverently the -name of God, as a point in which the religious and the scientific sense -may meet, as the least inadequate name for that universal order which -the intellect feels after as a law, and the heart feels after as a -benefit. 'We, too,' might the men of science with truth say to the men -of religion—'we, too, would gladly say <i>God</i>, if only, the moment one -says <i>God</i>, you would not pester one with your pretensions of knowing -all about him.' That <i>stream of tendency by which all things strive to -fulfil the law of their being</i>, and which, inasmuch as our idea of real -welfare resolves itself into this fulfilment of the law of one's being, -man rightly deems the fountain of all goodness, and calls by the -worthiest and most solemn name he can, which is God, science also might -willingly own for the fountain of all goodness, and call God. But -however much more than this the heart may with propriety put into its -language respecting God, this is as much as science can with strictness -put there. Therefore, when the religious world, following its bent of -trying to describe what it loves, amplifying and again amplifying its -description, and guarding finally this amplified description by the most -precise and rigid terms it can find, comes at last, with the best -intentions, to the notion of a sort of magnified and non-natural man, -who proceeds in the fashion laid down in the Calvinistic thesis we have -quoted, then science strikes in, remarks the difference between this -second notion and the notion it originally admitted, and demands to have -the new notion verified, as the first can be verified, by facts. But -this does not unsettle the first notion, or prevent science from -acknowledging the importance and the scientific validity of propositions -which are grounded upon the first notion, and shed light over it.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, researches in this sphere are now a good deal eclipsed in -popularity by researches in the sphere of physics, and no longer have -the vogue which they once had. I have related how an eminent physicist -with whose acquaintance I am honoured, imagines me to have invented the -author of the <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Sacra Privata</i></span>; and that fashionable newspaper, the -<i>Morning Post</i>, undertaking,—as I seemed, it said, very anxious about -the matter,—to supply information as to who the author really was, laid -it down that he was Bishop of Calcutta, and that his ideas and writings, -to which I attached so much value, had been among the main provocatives -of the Indian mutiny. Therefore it is perhaps expedient to refresh our -memory as to these schemes of doctrine, Calvinistic or Arminian, for the -upholding of which, as has been said, British Puritanism exists, before -we proceed to compare them, for correspondence with facts and for -scientific validity, with the teaching of St. Paul.</p> - -<p>Calvinism, then, begins by laying down that God from all eternity -decreed whatever was to come to pass in time; that by his decree a -certain number of angels and men are predestinated, out of God's mere -free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works in -them, to everlasting life; and others foreordained, according to the -unsearchable counsel of his will, whereby he extends or withholds mercy -as he pleases, to everlasting death. God made, however, our first -parents, Adam and Eve, upright and able to keep his law, which was -written in their hearts; at the same time entering into a contract with -them, and with their posterity as represented in them, by which they -were assured of everlasting life in return for perfect obedience, and of -everlasting death if they should be disobedient. Our first parents, -being enticed by Satan, a fallen angel speaking in the form of a -serpent, broke this <i>covenant of works</i>, as it is called, by eating the -forbidden fruit; and hereby they, and their posterity in them and with -them, became not only liable to eternal death, but lost also their -natural uprightness and all ability to please God; nay, they became by -nature enemies to God and to all spiritual good, and inclined only to -evil continually. This, says Calvinism, is our original sin; the bitter -root of all our actual transgressions, in thought, word, and deed.</p> - -<p>Yet, though man has neither power nor inclination to rise out of this -wretched fallen state, but is rather disposed to lie insensible in it -till he perish, another covenant exists by which his condition is -greatly affected. This is the <i>covenant of redemption</i>, made and agreed -upon, says Calvinism, between God the Father and God the Son in the -Council of the Trinity before the world began. The sum of the covenant -of redemption is this: God having, by the eternal decree already -mentioned, freely chosen to life a certain number of lost mankind, gave -them before the world began to God the Son, appointed Redeemer, on -condition that if he humbled himself so far as to assume the human -nature in union with the divine nature, submit himself to the law as -surety for the elect, and satisfy justice for them by giving obedience -in their name, even to suffering the cursed death of the cross, he -should ransom and redeem them from sin and death, and purchase for them -righteousness and eternal life. The Son of God accepted the condition, -or <i>bargain</i> as Calvinism calls it; and in the fulness of time came, as -Jesus Christ, into the world, was born of the Virgin Mary, subjected -himself to the law, and completely paid the due ransom on the cross.</p> - -<p>God has in his word, the Bible, revealed to man this covenant of grace -or redemption. All those whom he has predestinated to life he in his own -time effectually calls to be partakers in the release offered. Man is -altogether passive in this call, until the Holy Spirit enables him to -answer it. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, applies to -the elect the redemption purchased by Christ, through working faith in -them. As soon as the elect have faith in Jesus Christ, that is, as soon -as they give their consent heartily and repentantly, in the sense of -deserved condemnation, to the covenant of grace, God justifies them by -imputing to them that perfect obedience which Christ gave to the law, -and the satisfaction also which upon the cross Christ gave to justice in -their name. They who are thus called and justified are by the same power -likewise sanctified; the dominion of carnal lusts being destroyed in -them, and the practice of holiness being, in spite of some remnants of -corruption, put in their power. Good works, done in obedience to God's -moral law, are the fruits and evidences of a true faith; and the persons -of the faithful elect being accepted through Christ, their good works -also are accepted in him and rewarded. But works done by other and -unregenerate men, though they may be things which God commands, cannot -please God and are sinful. The elect can after justification and -sanctification no more fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly -persevere to the end and be eternally saved; and of this they may, even -in the present life, have the certain assurance. Finally, after death, -their souls and bodies are joyfully joined together again in the -resurrection, and they remain thenceforth for ever with Christ in glory; -while all the wicked are sent away into hell with Satan, whom they have -served.</p> - -<p>We have here set down the main doctrines of Calvinistic Puritanism -almost entirely in words of its own choosing. It is not necessary to -enter into distinctions such as those between sublapsarians and -supralapsarians, between Calvinists who believe that God's decree of -election and reprobation was passed in foresight of original sin and on -account of it, and Calvinists who believe that it was passed absolutely -and independently. The important points of Calvinism,—original sin, -free election, effectual calling, justification through imputed -righteousness,—are common to both. The passiveness of man, the activity -of God, are the great features in this scheme; there is very little of -what man thinks and does, very much of what God thinks and does; and -what God thinks and does is described with such particularity that the -figure we have used of the man in the next street cannot but recur -strongly to our minds.</p> - -<p>The positive Protestantism of Puritanism, with which we are here -concerned, as distinguished from the negative Protestantism of the -Church of England, has nourished itself with ardour on this scheme of -doctrine. It informs and fashions the whole religion of Scotland, -established and nonconforming. It is the doctrine which Puritan flocks -delight to hear from their ministers. It was Puritanism's constant -reproach against the Church of England, that this essential doctrine was -not firmly enough held and set forth by her. At the Hampton Court -Conference in 1604, in the Committee of Divines appointed by the House -of Lords in 1641, and again at the Savoy Conference in 1661, the -reproach regularly appeared. 'Some have defended,' is the Puritan -complaint, 'the whole gross substance of Arminianism, that the act of -conversion depends upon the concurrence of man's free will; some do -teach and preach that good works are concauses with faith in the act of -justification; some have defended universal grace, some have absolutely -denied original sin.' As Puritanism grew, the Calvinistic scheme of -doctrine hardened and became stricter. Of the Calvinistic confessions of -faith of the sixteenth century,—the Helvetic Confession, the Belgic -Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism,—the Calvinism is so moderate as -to astonish any one who has been used only to its later developments. -Even the much abused canons of the Synod of Dort no one can read -attentively through without finding in parts of them a genuine movement -of thought,—sometimes even a philosophic depth,—and a powerful -religious feeling. In the documents of the Westminster Assembly, -twenty-five years later, this has disappeared; and what we call the -British Philistine stands in his religious capacity, sheer and stark, -before us. Seriousness is the one merit of these documents, but it is a -seriousness too mixed with the alloy of mundane strife and hatred to be -called a religious feeling. Not a trace of delicacy of perception, or of -philosophic thinking; the mere rigidness and contentiousness of the -controversialist and political dissenter; a Calvinism exaggerated till -it is simply repelling; and to complete the whole, a machinery of -covenants, conditions, bargains, and parties-contractors, such as could -have proceeded from no one but the born Anglo-Saxon man of business, -British or American.</p> - -<p>However, a scheme of doctrine is not necessarily false because of the -style in which its adherents may have at a particular moment enounced -it. From the faults which disfigure the performance of the Westminster -divines the profession of faith prefixed to the Congregational -<i>Year-Book</i> is free. The Congregationalists form one of the two great -divisions of English Puritans. 'Congregational churches believe,' their -<i>Year-Book</i> tells us, 'that the first man disobeyed the divine command, -fell from his state of innocence and purity, and involved all his -posterity in the consequences of that fall. They believe that all who -will be saved were the objects of God's eternal and electing love, and -were given by an act of divine sovereignty to the Son of God. They -believe that Christ meritoriously obtained eternal redemption for us, -and that the Holy Spirit is given in consequence of Christ's mediation.' -The essential points of Calvinism are all here. To this profession of -faith, annually published in the <i>Year-Book</i> of the Independents, -subscription is not required; Puritanism thus remaining honourably -consistent with the protests which, at the Restoration, it made against -the call for subscription. But the authors of the <i>Year-Book</i> say with -pride, and it is a common boast of the Independent churches, that though -they do not require subscription, there is, perhaps, in no religious -body, such firm and general agreement in doctrine as among -Congregationalists. This is true, and it is even more true of the flocks -than of the ministers, of whom the abler and the younger begin to be -lifted by the stream of modern ideas. Still, up to the present time, the -Protestantism of one great division of English Puritans is undoubtedly -Calvinist; the Baptists holding in general the scheme of Calvinism yet -more strictly than the Independents.</p> - -<p>The other great division of English Puritanism is formed by the -Methodists. Wesleyan Methodism is, as is well known, not Calvinist, but -Arminian. The <i>Methodist Magazine</i> was called by Wesley the <i>Arminian -Magazine</i>, and kept that title all through his life. Arminianism is an -attempt made with the best intentions, and with much truth of practical -sense, but not in a very profound philosophical spirit, to escape from -what perplexes and shocks us in Calvinism. The God of Calvinism is a -magnified and non-natural man who decrees at his mere good pleasure some -men to salvation and other men to reprobation; the God of Arminianism is -a magnified and non-natural man who foreknows the course of each man's -life, and who decrees each of us to salvation or reprobation in -accordance with this foreknowledge. But so long as we remain in this -anthropomorphic order of ideas the question will always occur: Why did -not a being of infinite power and infinite love so make all men as that -there should be no cause for this sad foreknowledge and sad decree -respecting a number of them? In truth, Calvinism is both theologically -more coherent, and also shows a deeper sense of reality than -Arminianism, which, in the practical man's fashion, is apt to scrape the -surface of things only.</p> - -<p>For instance, the Arminian Remonstrants, in their zeal to justify the -morality, in a human sense, of God's ways, maintained that he sent his -word to one nation rather than another according as he saw that one -nation was more worthy than another of such a preference. The Calvinist -doctors of the Synod of Dort have no difficulty in showing that Moses -and Christ both of them assert, with respect to the Jewish nation, the -direct contrary; and not only do they here obtain a theological triumph, -but in rebutting the Arminian theory they are in accordance with -historical truth and with the real march of human affairs. They allow -more for the great fact of the <i>not ourselves</i> in what we do and are. -The Calvinists seize, we say, that great fact better than the Arminians. -The Calvinist's fault is in his scientific appreciation of the fact; in -the reasons he gives for it. God, he says, sends his word to one nation -rather than another at <i>his mere good pleasure</i>. Here we have again the -magnified and non-natural man, who likes and dislikes, knows and -decrees, just as a man, only on a scale immensely transcending anything -of which we have experience, and whose proceedings we nevertheless -describe as if he were in the next street for people to verify all we -say about him.</p> - -<p>Arminian Methodism, however, puts aside the Calvinistic doctrine of -predestination. The foremost place, which in the Calvinist scheme -belongs to the doctrine of predestination, belongs in the Methodist -scheme to the doctrine of justification by faith. More and more -prominently does modern Methodism elevate this as its essential -doctrine; and the era in their founder's life which Methodists select to -celebrate is the era of his conversion to it. It is the doctrine of -Anselm, adopted and developed by Luther, set forth in the Confession of -Augsburg, and current all through the popular theology of our day. We -shall find it in almost any popular hymn we happen to take, but the -following lines of Milton exhibit it classically. By the fall of our -first parents, says he:—</p> -<table summary="centered poem"><tbody><tr><td><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> - <p class="i12">Man, losing all,</p> -<p>To expiate his treason hath nought left,</p> -<p>But to destruction sacred and devote</p> -<p>He with his whole posterity must die;</p> -<p>Die he or justice must; unless for him</p> -<p>Some other able, and as willing, pay</p> -<p>The rigid satisfaction; death for death.</p> -</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table> -<p class="cont">By Adam's fall, God's justice and mercy were placed in conflict. God -could not follow his mercy without violating his justice. Christ by his -satisfaction gave the Father the right and power (<span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>nudum jus Patri -acquirebat</i></span>, said the Arminians) to follow his mercy, and to make with -man the covenant of free justification by faith, whereby, if a man has a -sure trust and confidence that his sins are forgiven him in virtue of -the satisfaction made to God for them by the death of Christ, he is held -clear of sin by God, and admitted to salvation.</p> - -<p>This doctrine, like the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, involves a -whole history of God's proceedings, and gives, also, first and almost -sole place to what God does, with disregard to what man does. It has -thus an essential affinity with Calvinism; indeed, Calvinism is but this -doctrine of original sin and justification, <i>plus</i> the doctrine of -predestination. Nay, the Welsh Methodists, as is well known, have no -difficulty in combining the tenet of election with the practices and -most of the tenets of Methodism. The word <i>solifidian</i> points precisely -to that which is common to both Calvinism and Methodism, and which has -made both these halves of English Puritanism so popular,—their -<i>sensational</i> side, as it may be called, their laying all stress on a -wonderful and particular account of what God gives and works for us, not -on what we bring or do for ourselves. 'Plead thou singly,' says Wesley, -'the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud stubborn -soul.' Wesley's doctrines of conversion, of the new birth, of -sanctification, of the direct witness of the spirit, of assurance, of -sinless perfection, all of them thus correspond with doctrines which we -have noticed in Calvinism, and show a common character with them. The -instantaneousness Wesley loved to ascribe to conversion and -sanctification points the same way. 'God gives in a moment such a faith -in the blood of his Son as translates us out of darkness into light, out -of sin and fear into holiness and happiness.' And again, 'Look for -sanctification just as you are, as a poor sinner that has nothing to -pay, nothing to plead but <i>Christ died</i>.' This is the side in Wesley's -teaching which his followers have above all seized, and which they are -eager to hold forth as the essential part of his legacy towards them.</p> - -<p>It is true that from the same reason which prevents, as we have said, -those who know their Bible and nothing else from really knowing even -their Bible, Methodists, who for the most part know nothing but Wesley, -do not really know even Wesley. It is true that what really -characterises this most interesting and most attractive man, is not his -doctrine of justification by faith, or any other of his set doctrines, -but is entirely what we may call his <i>genius for godliness</i>. Mr. -Alexander Knox, in his remarks on his friend's life and character, -insists much on an entry in Wesley's Journal in 1767, where he seems -impatient at the endless harping on the tenet of justification, and -where he asks 'if it is not high time to return to the plain word: "He -that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him."' Mr. -Knox is right in thinking that the feeling which made Wesley ask this is -what gave him his vital worth and character as a man; but it is not what -gives him his character as the teacher of Methodism. Methodism rejects -Mr. Knox's version of its founder, and insists on making the article of -justification the very corner-stone of the Wesleyan edifice.</p> - -<p>And the truth undoubtedly is, that not by his assertion of what man -brings, but by his assertion of what God gives, by his doctrines of -conversion, instantaneous justification and sanctification, assurance, -and sinless perfection, does Wesley live and operate in Methodism. 'You -think, I must first be or do thus or thus (for sanctification). Then you -are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may -expect it as you are; then expect it now. It is of importance to observe -that there is an inseparable connection between these three points: -expect it <i>by faith</i>, expect it <i>as you are</i>, and expect it <i>now</i>. To -deny one of them is to deny them all; to allow one is to allow them -all.' This is the teaching of Wesley, which has made the great Methodist -half of English Puritanism what it is, and not his hesitations and -recoils at the dangers of his own teaching.</p> - -<p>No doubt, as the seriousness of Calvinism, its perpetual conversance -with deep matters and with the Bible, have given force and fervency to -Calvinist Puritans, so the loveliness of Wesley's piety, and what we -have called his genius for godliness, have sweetened and made amiable -numberless lives of Methodist Puritans. But as a religious teacher, -Wesley is to be judged by his doctrine; and his doctrine, like the -Calvinistic scheme, rests with all its weight on the assertion of -certain minutely described proceedings on God's part, independent of us, -our experience, and our will; and leads its recipients to look, in -religion, not so much for an arduous progress on their own part, and the -exercise of their activity, as for strokes of magic, and what may be -called a sensational character.</p> - -<p>In the Heidelberg Catechism, after an answer in which the catechist -rehearses the popularly received doctrine of original sin and vicarious -satisfaction for it, the catechiser asks the pertinent question: '<span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Unde -id scis?</i></span>'—how do you know all that? The Apostle Paul is, as we have -already shown, the great authority for it whom formal theology invokes; -his name is used by popular theology with the same confidence. I open a -modern book of popular religion at the account of a visit paid to a -hardened criminal seized with terror the night before his execution. The -visitor says: '<i>I now stand in Paul's place</i>, and say: In Christ's stead -we pray you, be ye reconciled to God. I beg you to accept the pardon of -all your sins, which Christ has purchased for you, and which God freely -bestows on you for his sake. If you do not understand, I say: God's ways -are not as our ways.' And the narrative of the criminal's conversion -goes on: 'That night was spent in singing the praises of the Saviour who -had purchased his pardon.'</p> - -<p>Both Calvinism and Methodism appeal, therefore, to the Bible, and, above -all, to St. Paul, for the history they propound of the relations between -God and man; but Calvinism relies most, in enforcing it, on man's fears, -Methodism on man's hopes. Calvinism insists on man's being under a -curse; it then works the sense of sin, misery, and terror in him, and -appeals pre-eminently to the desire to flee from the wrath to come. -Methodism, too, insists on his being under a curse; but it works most -the sense of hope in him, the craving for happiness, and appeals -pre-eminently to the desire for eternal bliss. No one, however, will -maintain that the particular account of God's proceedings with man, -whereby Methodism and Calvinism operate on these desires, proves itself -by internal evidence, and establishes without external aid its own -scientific validity. So we may either directly try, as best we can, its -scientific validity in itself; or, as it professes to have Paul's -authority to support it, we may first inquire what is really Paul's -account of God's proceedings with man, and whether this tallies with the -Puritan account and confirms it. The latter is in every way the safer -and the more instructive course to follow. And we will follow -Puritanism's example in taking St. Paul's mature and greatest work, the -Epistle to the Romans, as the chief place for finding what he really -thought on the points in question.</p> - -<p>We have already said elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> indeed, what is very true, and what -must never be forgotten, that what St. Paul, a man so separated from us -by time, race, training and circumstances, really thought, we cannot -make sure of knowing exactly. All we can do is to get near it, reading -him with the sort of critical tact which the study of the human mind and -its history, and the acquaintance with many great writers, naturally -gives for following the movement of any one single great writer's -thought; reading him, also, without preconceived theories to which we -want to make his thoughts fit themselves. It is evident that the English -translation of the Epistle to the Romans has been made by men with their -heads full of the current doctrines of election and justification we -have been noticing; and it has thereby received such a bias,—of which a -strong example is the use of the word <i>atonement</i> in the eleventh verse -of the fifth chapter,—that perhaps it is almost impossible for any one -who reads the English translation only, to take into his mind Paul's -thought without a colouring from the current doctrines. But besides -discarding the English translation, we must bear in mind, if we wish to -get as near Paul's real thought as possible, two things which have -greatly increased the facilities for misrepresenting him.</p> - -<p>In the first place, Paul, like the other Bible-writers, and like the -Semitic race in general, has a much juster sense of the true scope and -limits of diction in religious deliverances than we have. He uses within -the sphere of religious emotion expressions which, in this sphere, have -an eloquence and a propriety, but which are not to be taken out of it -and made into formal scientific propositions.</p> - -<p>This is a point very necessary to be borne in mind in reading the Bible. -The prophet Nahum says in the book of his vision: '<i>God is jealous, and -the Lord revengeth</i>;'<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and the authors of the Westminster -Confession, drawing out a scientific theology, lay down the proposition -that God is a jealous and vengeful God, and think they prove their -proposition by quoting in a note the words of Nahum. But this is as if -we took from a chorus of Æschylus one of his grand passages about guilt -and destiny, just put the words straight into the formal and exact cast -of a sentence of Aristotle, and said that here was the scientific -teaching of Greek philosophy on these matters. The Hebrew genius has -not, like the Greek, its conscious and clear-marked division into a -poetic side and a scientific side; the scientific side is almost absent. -The Bible utterances have often the character of a chorus of Æschylus, -but never that of a treatise of Aristotle. We, like the Greeks, possess -in our speech and thought the two characters; but so far as the Bible is -concerned we have generally confounded them, and have used our double -possession for our bewilderment rather than turned it to good account. -The admirable maxim of the great mediæval Jewish school of Biblical -critics: <i>The Law speaks with the tongue of the children of men</i>,—a -maxim which is the very foundation of all sane Biblical criticism,—was -for centuries a dead letter to the whole body of our Western exegesis, -and is a dead letter to the whole body of our popular exegesis still. -Taking the Bible language as equivalent with the language of the -scientific intellect, a language which is adequate and absolute, we have -never been in a position to use the key which this maxim of the Jewish -doctors offers to us. But it is certain that, whatever strain the -religious expressions of the Semitic genius were meant, in the minds of -those who gave utterance to them, to bear, the particular strain which -we Western people put upon them is one which they were not meant to -bear.</p> - -<p>We have used the word <i>Hebraise</i><a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> for another purpose, to denote the -exclusive attention to the moral side of our nature, to conscience, and -to doing rather than knowing; so, to describe the vivid and figured way -in which St. Paul, within the sphere of religious emotion, uses words, -without carrying them outside it, we will use the word <i>Orientalise</i>. -When Paul says: 'God hath concluded them all in unbelief <i>that he might</i> -have mercy upon all,'<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> he Orientalises; that is, he does not mean to -assert formally that God acted with this set design, but, being full of -the happy and divine end to the unbelief spoken of, he, by a vivid and -striking figure, represents the unbelief as actually caused with a view -to this end. But when the Calvinists of the Synod of Dort, wishing to -establish the formal proposition that faith and all saving gifts flow -from election and nothing else, quote an expression of Paul's similar to -the one we have quoted, 'He hath chosen us,' they say, 'not because we -were, but <i>that we might be</i> holy and without blame before him,' they go -quite wide of the mark, from not perceiving that what the apostle used -as a vivid figure of rhetoric, they are using as a formal scientific -proposition.</p> - -<p>When Paul Orientalises, the fault is not with him when he is -misunderstood, but with the prosaic and unintelligent Western readers -who have not enough tact for style to comprehend his mode of expression. -But he also Judaises; and here his liability to being misunderstood by -us Western people is undoubtedly due to a defect in the critical habit -of himself and his race. A Jew himself, he uses the Jewish Scriptures in -a Jew's arbitrary and uncritical fashion, as if they had a talismanic -character; as if for a doctrine, however true in itself, their -confirmation was still necessary, and as if this confirmation was to be -got from their mere words alone, however detached from the sense of -their context, and however violently allegorised or otherwise wrested.</p> - -<p>To use the Bible in this way, even for purposes of illustration, is -often an interruption to the argument, a fault of style; to use it in -this way for real proof and confirmation, is a fault of reasoning. An -example of the first fault may be seen in the tenth chapter of the -Epistle to the Romans, and in the beginning of the third chapter. The -apostle's point in either place,—his point that faith comes by hearing, -and his point that God's oracles were true though the Jews did not -believe them,—would stand much clearer without their scaffolding of -Bible-quotation. An instance of the second fault is in the third and -fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians, where the Biblical -argumentation by which the apostle seeks to prove his case is as unsound -as his case itself is sound. How far these faults are due to the apostle -himself, how far to the requirements of those for whom he wrote, we need -not now investigate. It is enough that he undoubtedly uses the letter of -Scripture in this arbitrary and Jewish way; and thus Puritanism, which -has only itself to blame for misunderstanding him when he Orientalises, -may fairly put upon the apostle himself some of its blame for -misunderstanding him when he Judaises, and for Judaising so strenuously -along with him.</p> - -<p>To get, therefore, at what Paul really thought and meant to say, it is -necessary for us modern and western people to translate him. And not as -Puritanism, which has merely taken his letter and recast it in the -formal propositions of a modern scientific treatise; but his letter -itself must be recast before it can be properly conveyed by such -propositions. And as the order in which, in any series of ideas, the -ideas come, is of great importance to the final result, and as Paul, who -did not write scientific treatises, but had always religious edification -in direct view, never set out his doctrine with a design of exhibiting -it as a scientific whole, we must also find out for ourselves the order -in which Paul's ideas naturally stand, and the connexion between one of -them and the other, in order to arrive at the real scheme of his -teaching, as compared with the schemes exhibited by Puritanism.</p> - -<p>We remarked how what sets the Calvinist in motion seems to be the desire -to flee from the wrath to come; and what sets the Methodist in motion, -the desire for eternal bliss. What is it which sets Paul in motion? It -is the impulse which we have elsewhere noted as the master-impulse of -Hebraism,—<i>the desire for righteousness.</i> 'I exercise myself,' he told -Felix, '<i>to have a conscience void of offence towards God and men -continually</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> To the Hebrew, this moral order, or righteousness, -was pre-eminently the universal order, the law of God; and God, the -fountain of all goodness, was pre-eminently to him the giver of the -moral law. The end and aim of all religion, <i>access to God</i>,—the sense -of harmony with the universal order—the partaking of the divine -nature—that our faith and hope might be in God—that we might have life -and have it more abundantly,—meant for the Hebrew, access to the source -of the <i>moral</i> order in especial, and harmony with it. It was the -greatness of the Hebrew race that it felt the authority of this order, -its preciousness and its beneficence, so strongly. 'How precious are thy -thoughts unto me, O God!'—'The law of thy mouth is better than -thousands of gold and silver.'—'My soul is consumed with the very -fervent desire that it hath alway unto thy judgments.'<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> It was the -greatness of their best individuals that in them this feeling was -incessantly urgent to prove itself in the only sure manner,—in action. -'Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and <i>keep</i> it.' 'If thou -wouldst enter into life, <i>keep</i> the commandments.' 'Let no man deceive -you, he that <i>doeth</i> righteousness is righteous.'<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> What -distinguishes Paul is both his conviction that the commandment is holy, -and just, and good; and also his desire to give effect to the -commandment, to <i>establish</i> it. It was this which gave to his endeavour -after a clear conscience such meaning and efficacity. It was this which -gave him insight to see that there could be no radical difference, in -respect of salvation and the way to it, between Jew and Gentile. 'Upon -every soul of man that <i>worketh evil</i>, whoever he may be, tribulation -and anguish; to every one that <i>worketh good</i>, glory, honour, and -peace!'<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<p>St. Paul's piercing practical religious sense, joined to his strong -intellectual power, enabled him to discern and follow the range of the -commandment, both as to man's actions and as to his heart and thoughts, -with extraordinary force and closeness. His religion had, as we shall -see, a preponderantly mystic side, and nothing is so natural to the -mystic as in rich single words, such as faith, light, love, to sum up -and take for granted, without specially enumerating them all good moral -principles and habits; yet nothing is more remarkable in Paul than the -frequent, nay, incessant lists, in the most particular detail, of moral -habits to be pursued or avoided. Lists of this sort might in a less -sincere and profound writer be formal and wearisome; but to no attentive -reader of St. Paul will they be wearisome, for in making them he touched -the solid ground which was the basis of his religion,—the solid ground -of his hearty desire for righteousness and of his thorough conception of -it,—and only on such a ground was so strong a superstructure possible. -The more one studies these lists, the more does their significance come -out. To illustrate this, let any one go through for himself the -enumeration, too long to be quoted here, in the four last verses of the -first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, of 'things which are not -convenient;' or let him merely consider with attention this catalogue, -towards the end of the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, of -fruits of the spirit: 'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, -goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.'<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The man who wrote with -this searching minuteness knew accurately what he meant by sin and -righteousness, and did not use these words at random. His diligent -comprehensiveness in his plan of duties is only less admirable than his -diligent sincerity. The sterner virtues and the gentler, his conscience -will not let him rest till he has embraced them all. In his deep resolve -'to make out by actual trial what is that good and perfect and -acceptable will of God,'<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> he goes back upon himself again and again, -he marks a duty at every point of our nature, and at points the most -opposite, for fear he should by possibility be leaving behind him some -weakness still indulged, some subtle promptings to evil not yet brought -into captivity.</p> - -<p>It has not been enough remarked how this incomparable honesty and depth -in Paul's love of righteousness is probably what chiefly explains his -conversion. Most men have the defects, as the saying is, of their -qualities. Because they are ardent and severe they have no sense for -gentleness and sweetness; because they are sweet and gentle they have no -sense for severity and ardour. A Puritan is a Puritan, and a man of -feeling is a man of feeling. But with Paul the very same fulness of -moral nature which made him an ardent Pharisee, 'as concerning zeal, -persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, -blameless,' was so large that it carried him out of Pharisaism and -beyond it, when once he found how much needed doing in him which -Pharisaism could not do.</p> - -<p>Every attentive regarder of the character of Paul, not only as he was -before his conversion but as he appears to us till his end, must have -been struck with two things: one, the earnest insistence with which he -recommends 'bowels of mercies,' as he calls them: meekness, humbleness -of mind, gentleness, unwearying forbearance, crowned all of them with -that emotion of charity 'which is the bond of perfectness;' the other, -the force with which he dwells on the <i>solidarity</i> (to use the modern -phrase) of man,—the joint interest, that is, which binds humanity -together,—the duty of respecting every one's part in life, and of doing -justice to his efforts to fulfil that part. Never surely did such a -controversialist, such a master of sarcasm and invective, commend, with -such manifest sincerity and such persuasive emotion, the qualities of -meekness and gentleness! Never surely did a worker, who took with such -energy his own line, and who was so born to preponderate and predominate -in whatever line he took, insist so often and so admirably that the -lines of other workers were just as good as his own! At no time, -perhaps, did Paul arrive at practising quite perfectly what he thus -preached; but this only sets in a stronger light the thorough love of -righteousness which made him seek out, and put so prominently forward, -and so strive to make himself and others fulfil, parts of righteousness -which do not force themselves on the common conscience like the duties -of soberness, temperance, and activity, and which were somewhat alien, -certainly, to his own particular nature. Therefore we cannot but believe -that into this spirit, so possessed with the hunger and thirst for -righteousness, and precisely because it was so possessed by it, the -characteristic doctrines of Jesus, which brought a new aliment to feed -this hunger and thirst,—of Jesus whom, except in vision, he had never -seen, but who was in every one's words and thoughts, the teacher who was -meek and lowly in heart, who said men were brothers and must love one -another, that the last should often be first, that the exercise of -dominion and lordship had nothing in them desirable, and that we must -become as little children,—sank down and worked there even before Paul -ceased to persecute, and had no small part in getting him ready for the -crisis of his conversion.</p> - -<p>Such doctrines offered new fields of righteousness to the eyes of this -indefatigable explorer of it, and enlarged the domain of duty of which -Pharisaism showed him only a portion. Then, after the satisfaction thus -given to his desire for a full conception of righteousness, came -Christ's injunctions to make clean the inside as well as the outside, to -beware of the least leaven of hypocrisy and self-flattery, of saying and -not doing;—and, finally, the injunction to feel, after doing all we -can, that, as compared with the standard of perfection, we are still -unprofitable servants. These teachings were, to a man like Paul, for the -practice of righteousness what the others were for the -theory;—sympathetic utterances, which made the inmost chords of his -being vibrate, and which irresistibly drew him sooner or later towards -their utterer. Need it be said that he never forgot them, and that in -all his pages they have left their trace? It is even affecting to see, -how, when he is driven for the very sake of righteousness to put the law -of righteousness in the second place, and to seek outside the law itself -for a power to fulfil the law, how, I say, he returns again and again to -the elucidation of his one sole design in all he is doing; how he -labours to prevent all possibility of misunderstanding, and to show that -he is only leaving the moral law for a moment in order to establish it -for ever more victoriously. What earnestness and pathos in the -assurance: 'If there had been a law given which could have given life, -verily, righteousness should have been by the law!'<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> 'Do I condemn -the law?' he keeps saying; 'do I forget that the commandment is holy, -just, and good? Because we are no longer under the law, are we to sin? -Am I seeking to make the course of my life and yours other than a -service and an obedience?' This man, out of whom an astounding criticism -has deduced Antinomianism, is in truth so possessed with horror of -Antinomianism, that he goes to grace for the sole purpose of extirpating -it, and even then cannot rest without perpetually telling us why he is -gone there. This man, whom Calvin and Luther and their followers have -shut up into the two scholastic doctrines of election and justification, -would have said, could we hear him, just what he said about circumcision -and uncircumcision in his own day: 'Election is nothing, and -justification is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.'</p> - -<p>This foremost place which righteousness takes in the order of St. Paul's -ideas makes a signal difference between him and Puritanism. Puritanism, -as we have said, finds its starting-point either in the desire to flee -from eternal wrath or in the desire to obtain eternal bliss. Puritanism -has learned from revelation, as it says, a particular history of the -first man's fall, of mankind being under a curse, of certain contracts -having been passed concerning mankind in the Council of the Trinity, of -the substance of those contracts, and of man's position under them. The -great concern of Puritanism is with the operation of those contracts on -man's condition; its leading thought, if it is a Puritanism of a gloomy -turn, is of awe and fear caused by the threatening aspect of man's -condition under these contracts; if of a cheerful turn, of gratitude and -hope caused by the favourable aspect of it. But in either case, foregone -events, the covenant passed, what God has done and does, is the great -matter. What there is left for man to do, the human work of -righteousness, is secondary, and comes in but to attest and confirm our -assurance of what God has done for us. We have seen this in Wesley's -words already quoted: the first thing for a man is to be justified and -sanctified, and to have the assurance that, without seeking it by works, -he is justified and sanctified; then the desire and works of -righteousness follow as a proper result of this condition. Still more -does Calvinism make man's desire and works of righteousness mere -evidences and benefits of more important things; the desire to work -righteousness is among the saving graces applied by the Holy Spirit to -the elect, and the last of those graces. <i>Denique</i>, says the Synod of -Dort, <i>last of all</i>, after faith in the promises and after the witness -of the Spirit, comes, to establish our assurance, a clear conscience and -righteousness. It is manifest how unlike is this order of ideas to -Paul's order, who starts with the thought of a conscience void of -offence towards God and man, and builds upon that thought his whole -system.</p> - -<p>But this difference constitutes from the very outset an immense -scientific superiority for the scheme of Paul. Hope and fear are -elements of human nature like the love of right, but they are far -blinder and less scientific elements of it. 'The Bible is a divine -revelation; the Bible declares certain things; the things it thus -declares have the witness of our hopes and fears;'—this is the line of -thought followed by Puritanism. But what science seeks after is a -satisfying rational conception of things. A scheme which fails to give -this, which gives the contrary of this, may indeed be of a nature to -move our hopes and fears, but is to science of none the more value on -that account.</p> - -<p>Nor does our calling such a scheme <i>a revelation</i> mend the matter. -Instead of covering the scientific inadequacy of a conception by the -authority of a revelation, science rather proves the authority of a -revelation by the scientific adequacy of the conceptions given in it, -and limits the sphere of that authority to the sphere of that adequacy. -The more an alleged revelation seems to contain precious and striking -things, the more will science be inclined to doubt the correctness of -any deduction which draws from it, within the sphere of these things, a -scheme which rationally is not satisfying. That the scheme of Puritanism -is rationally so little satisfying inclines science, not to take it on -the authority of the Bible, but to doubt whether it is really in the -Bible. The first appeal which this scheme, having begun outside the -sphere of reality and experience, makes in the sphere of reality and -experience,—its first appeal, therefore, to science,—the appeal to the -witness of human hope and fear, does not much mend matters; for science -knows that numberless conceptions not rationally satisfying are yet the -ground of hope and fear.</p> - -<p>Paul does not begin outside the sphere of science; he begins with an -appeal to reality and experience. And the appeal here with which he -commences has, for science, undoubted force and importance; for he -appeals to a rational conception which is a part, and perhaps the chief -part, of our experience; the conception of the law of <i>righteousness</i>, -the very law and ground of human nature so far as this nature is moral. -Things as they truly are,—facts,—are the object-matter of science; and -the moral law in human nature, however this law may have originated, is -in our actual experience among the greatest of facts.</p> - -<p>If I were not afraid of intruding upon Mr. Ruskin's province, I might -point out the witness which etymology itself bears to this law as a -prime element and <i>clue</i> in man's constitution. Our word righteousness -means going straight, going the way we are meant to go; there are -languages in which the word 'way' or 'road' is also the word for right -reason and duty; the Greek word for justice and righteousness has for -its foundation, some say, the idea of describing a certain line, -following a certain necessary orbit. But for these fanciful helps there -is no need. When Paul starts with affirming the grandeur and necessity -of the law of righteousness, science has no difficulty in going along -with him. When he fixes as man's right aim 'love, joy, peace, -long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control,'<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> -he appeals for witness to the truth of what he says to an experience too -intimate to need illustration or argument.</p> - -<p>The best confirmation of the scientific validity of the importance which -Paul thus attaches to the law of righteousness, the law of reason and -conscience, God as moral law, is to be found in its agreement with the -importance attached to this law by teachers the most unlike him; since -in the eye of science an experience gains as much by having -universality, as in the eye of religion it seems to gain by having -uniqueness. 'Would you know,' says Epictetus, 'the means to perfection -which Socrates followed? they were these: in every single matter which -came before him he made the rule of reason and conscience his one rule -to follow.' Such was precisely the aim of Paul also; it is an aim to -which science does homage as a satisfying rational conception. And to -this aim hope and fear properly attach themselves. For on our following -the clue of moral order, or losing it, depends our happiness or misery; -our life or death in the true sense of those words; our harmony with the -universal order or our disharmony with it; our partaking, as St. Paul -says, of the wrath of God or of the glory of God. So that looking to -this clue, and fearing to lose hold on it, we may in strict scientific -truth say with the author of the Imitation: <i>Omnia vanitas, præter amare -Deum, et illi soli servire</i>.</p> - -<p>But to serve God, to follow that central clue in our moral being which -unites us to the universal order, is no easy task; and here again we are -on the most sure ground of experience and psychology. In some way or -other, says Bishop Wilson, every man is conscious of an opposition in -him between the flesh and the spirit. <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Video meliora proboque, deteriora -sequor</i></span>, say the thousand times quoted lines of the Roman poet. The -philosophical explanation of this conflict does not indeed attribute, -like the Manichæan fancy, any inherent evil to the flesh and its -workings; all the forces and tendencies in us are, like our proper -central moral tendency the desire of righteousness, in themselves -beneficent. But they require to be harmonised with this tendency, -because this aims directly at our total moral welfare,—our harmony as -moral beings with the law of our nature and the law of God,—and derives -thence a pre-eminence and a right to moderate. And, though they are not -evil in themselves, the evil which flows from these diverse workings is -undeniable. The lusts of the flesh, the law in our members, <i>passion</i>, -according to the Greek word used by Paul, <i>inordinate affection</i>, -according to the admirable rendering of Paul's Greek word in our English -Bible,<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> take naturally no account of anything but themselves; this -arbitrary and unregulated action of theirs can produce only confusion -and misery. The spirit, the law of our mind, takes account of the -universal moral order, the will of God, and is indeed the voice of that -order expressing itself in us. Paul talks of a man sowing to <i>his</i> -flesh,<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> because each of us has of his own this individual body, this -<i>congeries</i> of flesh and bones, blood and nerves, different from that of -every one else, and with desires and impulses driving each of us his own -separate way; and he says that a man who sows to this, sows to a -thousand tyrants, and can reap no worthy harvest. But he talks of sowing -to <i>the</i> spirit; because there is one central moral tendency which for -us and for all men is the law of our being, and through reason and -righteousness we move in this universal order and with it. In this -conformity to <i>the will of God</i>, as we religiously name the moral order, -is our peace and happiness.</p> - -<p>But how to find the energy and power to bring all those self-seeking -tendencies of the flesh, those multitudinous, swarming, eager, and -incessant impulses, into obedience to the central tendency? Mere -commanding and forbidding is of no avail, and only irritates opposition -in the desires it tries to control. It even enlarges their power, -because it makes us feel our impotence; and the confusion caused by -their ungoverned working is increased by our being filled with a -deepened sense of disharmony, remorse, and dismay. 'I was alive without -the law once,'<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> says Paul; the natural play of all the forces and -desires in me went on smoothly enough so long as I did not attempt to -introduce order and regulation among them. But the condition of immoral -tranquillity could not in man be permanent. That natural law of reason -and conscience which all men have, was sufficient by itself to produce a -consciousness of rebellion and disquietude. Matters became only worse by -the exhibition of the Mosaic law, the offspring of a moral sense more -poignant and stricter, however little it might show of subtle insight -and delicacy, than the moral sense of the mass of mankind. The very -stringency of the Mosaic code increased the feeling of dismay and -helplessness; it set forth the law of righteousness more authoritatively -and minutely, yet did not supply any sufficient power to keep it. -Neither the law of nature, therefore, nor the law of Moses, availed to -blind men to righteousness. So we come to the word which is the -governing word of the Epistle to the Romans,—the word <i>all</i>. As the -word <i>righteousness</i> is the governing word of St. Paul's entire mind and -life, so the word <i>all</i> is the governing word of this his chief epistle. -The Gentile with the law of nature, the Jew with the law of Moses, alike -fail to achieve righteousness. '<i>All</i> have sinned, and come short of the -glory of God.'<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> All do what they would not, and do not what they -would; all feel themselves enslaved, impotent, guilty, miserable. 'O -wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this -death?'<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p>Hitherto, we have followed Paul in the sphere of morals; we have now -come with him to the point where he enters the sphere of religion. -Religion is that which binds and holds us to the practice of -righteousness. We have accompanied Paul, and found him always treading -solid ground, till he is brought to straits where a binding and holding -power of this kind is necessary. Here is the critical point for the -scientific worth of his doctrine. 'Now at last,' cries Puritanism, 'the -great apostle is about to become even as one of us; there is no issue -for him now, but the issue we have always declared he finds. He has -recourse to our theurgy of election, justification, substitution, and -imputed righteousness.' We will proceed to show that Paul has recourse -to nothing of the kind.</p> - - -<h4 id="part1_ii">II.</h4> - -<p>We have seen how Puritanism seems to come by its religion in the first -instance theologically and from authority; Paul by his, on the other -hand, psychologically and from experience. Even the points, therefore, -in which they both meet, they have not reached in the same order or by -the same road. The miserable sense of sin from unrighteousness, the -joyful witness of a good conscience from righteousness, these are points -in which Puritanism and St. Paul meet. They are facts of human nature -and can be verified by science. But whereas Puritanism, so far as -science is concerned, ends with these facts, and rests the whole weight -of its antecedent theurgy upon the witness to it they offer, Paul begins -with these facts, and has not yet, so far as we have followed him, -called upon them to prove anything but themselves. The scientific -difference, as we have already remarked, which this establishes between -Paul and Puritanism is immense, and is all in Paul's favour. Sin and -righteousness, together with their eternal accompaniments of fear and -hope, misery and happiness, can prove themselves; but they can by no -means prove, also, Puritanism's history of original sin, election and -justification.</p> - -<p>Puritanism is fond of maintaining, indeed, that Paul's doctrines derive -their sanction, not from any agreement with science and experience, but -from his miraculous conversion, and that this conversion it was which in -his own judgment gave to them their authority. But whatever sanction the -miracle of his conversion may in his own eyes have lent to the doctrines -afterwards propounded by Paul, it is clear that, for science, his -conversion adds to his doctrines no force at all which they do not -already possess in themselves. Paul's conversion is for science an event -of precisely the same nature as the conversions of which the history of -Methodism relates so many; events described, for the most part, just as -the event of Paul's conversion is described, with perfect good faith, -and which we may perfectly admit to have happened just in the manner -related, without on that account attributing to those who underwent them -any source of certitude for a scheme of doctrine which this doctrine -does not on other and better grounds possess.</p> - -<p>Surely this proposition has only to be clearly stated in order to be -self-evident. The conversion of Paul is in itself an incident of -precisely the same order as the conversion of Sampson Staniforth, a -Methodist soldier in the campaign of Fontenoy. Staniforth himself -relates his conversion as follows, in words which bear plainly marked on -them the very stamp of good faith:—</p> - -<blockquote><p>'From twelve at night till two it was my turn to stand sentinel -at a dangerous post. I had a fellow-sentinel, but I desired him -to go away, which he willingly did. As soon as I was alone, I -knelt down and determined not to rise, but to continue crying -and wrestling with God till he had mercy on me. How long I was -in that agony I cannot tell; but as I looked up to heaven I saw -the clouds open exceeding bright, and I saw Jesus hanging on the -cross. At the same moment these words were applied to my heart: -"Thy sins are forgiven thee." All guilt was gone, and my soul -was filled with unutterable peace: the fear of death and hell -was vanished away. I was filled with wonder and astonishment. I -closed my eyes, but the impression was still the same; and for -about ten weeks, while I was awake, let me be where I would, the -same appearance was still before my eyes, and the same -impression upon my heart, <i>Thy sins are forgiven thee</i>.'</p></blockquote> - -<p>Not the narrative, in the Acts, of Paul's journey to Damascus, could -more convince us, as we have said, of its own honesty. But this honesty -makes nothing, as every one will admit, for the scientific truth of any -scheme of doctrine propounded by Sampson Staniforth, which must prove -itself and its own scientific value before science can admit it. -Precisely the same is it with Paul's doctrine; and we repeat, therefore, -that he and his doctrine have herein a great advantage over Puritanism, -in that, so far as we have yet followed them, they, unlike Puritanism, -rely on facts of experience and assert nothing which science cannot -verify.</p> - -<p>We have now to see whether Paul, in passing from the undoubted facts of -experience, with which he begins, to his religion properly so called, -abandons in any essential points of his teaching the advantage with -which he started, and ends, as Puritanism commences, with a batch of -arbitrary and unscientific assumptions.</p> - -<p>We left Paul in collision with a fact of human nature, but in itself a -sterile fact, a fact on which it is possible to dwell too long, although -Puritanism, thinking this impossible, has remained intensely absorbed in -the contemplation of it, and indeed has never properly got beyond -it,—the sense of sin. Sin is not a monster to be mused on, but an -impotence to be got rid of. All thinking about it, beyond what is -indispensable for the firm effort to get rid of it, is waste of energy -and waste of time. We then enter that element of morbid and subjective -brooding, in which so many have perished. This sense of sin, however, it -is also possible to have not strongly enough to beget the firm effort to -get rid of it, and the Greeks, with all their great gifts, had this -sense not strongly enough; its strength in the Hebrew people is one of -this people's mainsprings. And no Hebrew prophet or psalmist felt what -sin was more powerfully than Paul. 'Mine iniquities have taken hold upon -me so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of -mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.'<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> <i>They are more than the -hairs of mine head.</i> The motions of what Paul calls 'the law in our -members' are indeed a hydrabrood; when we are working against one fault, -a dozen others crop up without our expecting it; and this it is which -drives the man who deals seriously with himself to difficulty, nay to -despair. Paul did not need James to tell him that whoever offends on one -point is, so far at least as his own conscience and inward satisfaction -are concerned, guilty of all;<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> he knew it himself, and the unrest -this knowledge gave him was his very starting-point. He knew, too, that -nothing outward, no satisfaction of all the requirements men may make of -us, no privileges of any sort, can give peace of conscience;—of -conscience, 'whose praise is not of men but of God.'<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> He knew, also, -that the law of the moral order stretches beyond us and our private -conscience, is independent of our sense of having kept it, and stands -absolute and what in itself it is; even, therefore, though I may know -nothing against myself, yet this is not enough, I may still not be -just.<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Finally, Paul knew that merely to know all this and say it, -is of no use, advances us nothing; 'the kingdom of God is not in word -but in power.'<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> - -<p>We have several times said that the Hebrew race apprehended God,—the -universal order by which all things fulfil the law of their -being,—chiefly as the moral order in human nature, and that it was -their greatness that they apprehended him as this so distinctly and -powerfully. But it is also characteristic of them, and perhaps it is -what mainly distinguishes their spirit from the spirit of mediæval -Christianity, that they constantly thought, too, of God as the source of -life and breath and all things, and of what they called 'fulness of -life' in all things. This way of thinking was common to them with the -Greeks; although, whereas the Greeks threw more delicacy and imagination -into it, the Hebrews threw more energy and vital warmth. But to the -Hebrew, as to the Greek, the gift of life, and health, and the world, -was divine, as well as the gift of morals. 'God's righteousness,' -indeed, 'standeth like the strong mountains, his judgments are like the -great deep; he is a righteous judge, strong and patient, who is provoked -every day.'<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> This is the Hebrew's first and deepest conception of -God,—as the source of the moral order. But God is also, to the Hebrew, -'our rock, which is higher than we,' the power by which we have been -'upholden ever since we were born,' that has 'fashioned us and laid his -hand upon us' and envelops us on every side, that has 'made us fearfully -and wonderfully,' and whose 'mercy is over all his works.'<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> He is -the power that 'saves both man and beast, gives them drink of his -pleasures as out of the river,' and with whom is 'the well of -life.'<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> In his speech at Athens, Paul shows how full he, too, was of -this feeling; and in the famous passage in the first chapter of the -Epistle to the Romans, where he asserts the existence of the natural -moral law, the source he assigns to this law is not merely God in -conscience, the righteous judge, but God in the world and the workings -of the world, the eternal and divine power from which all life and -wholesome energy proceed.<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> - -<p>This element in which we live and move and have our being, which -stretches around and beyond the strictly moral element in us, around and -beyond the finite sphere of what is originated, measured, and controlled -by our own understanding and will,—this infinite element is very -present to Paul's thoughts, and makes a profound impression on them. By -this element we are receptive and influenced, not originative and -influencing; now, we all of us receive far more than we originate. Our -pleasure from a spring day we do not make; our pleasure, even, from an -approving conscience we do not make. And yet we feel that both the one -pleasure and the other can, and often do, work with us in a wonderful -way for our good. So we get the thought of an impulsion outside -ourselves which is at once awful and beneficent. 'No man,' as the Hebrew -psalm says, 'hath quickened his own soul.'<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> 'I know,' says Jeremiah, -'that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to -direct his steps.'<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Most true and natural is this feeling; and the -greater men are, the more natural is this feeling to them. Great men -like Sylla and Napoleon have loved to attribute their success to their -fortune, their star; religious great men have loved to say that their -sufficiency was of God.<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> But through every great spirit runs a train -of feeling of this sort; and the power and depth which there undoubtedly -is in Calvinism, comes from Calvinism's being overwhelmed by it. Paul is -not, like Calvinism, overwhelmed by it; but it is always before his mind -and strongly agitates his thoughts. The voluntary, rational, and human -world, of righteousness, moral choice, effort, filled the first place in -his spirit. But the necessary, mystical, and divine world, of influence, -sympathy, emotion, filled the second; and he could pass naturally from -the one world to the other. The presence in Paul of this twofold feeling -acted irresistibly upon his doctrine. What he calls 'the power that -worketh in us,'<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> and that produces results transcending all our -expectations and calculations, he instinctively sought to combine with -our personal agencies of reason and conscience.</p> - -<p>Of such a mysterious power and its operation some clear notion may be -got by anybody who has ever had any overpowering attachment, or has -been, according to the common expression, in love. Every one knows how -being in love changes for the time a man's spiritual atmosphere, and -makes animation and buoyancy where before there was flatness and -dulness. One may even say that this is the reason why being in love is -so popular with the whole human race,—because it relieves in so -irresistible and delightful a manner the tedium or depression of -common-place human life. And not only does it change the atmosphere of -our spirits, making air, light, and movement where before was stagnation -and gloom, but it also sensibly and powerfully increases our faculties -of action. It is matter of the commonest remark how a timid man who is -in love will show courage, or an indolent man will show diligence. Nay, -a timid man who would be only the more paralysed in a moment of danger -by being told that it is his bounden duty as a man to show firmness, and -that he must be ruined and disgraced for ever if he does not, will show -firmness quite easily from being in love. An indolent man who shrinks -back from vigorous effort only the more because he is told and knows -that it is a man's business to show energy, and that it is shameful in -him if he does not, will show energy quite easily from being in love. -This, I say, we learn from the analogy of the most everyday -experience;—that a powerful attachment will give a man spirits and -confidence which he could by no means call up or command of himself; and -that in this mood he can do wonders which would not be possible to him -without it.</p> - -<p>We have seen how Paul felt himself to be for the sake of righteousness -<i>apprehended</i>, to use his own expression, by Christ. 'I seek,' he says, -'to apprehend that for which also I am apprehended by Christ.'<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> This -for which he is thus apprehended is,—still to use his own words,—<i>the -righteousness of God</i>; not an incomplete and maimed righteousness, not a -partial and unsatisfying establishment of the law of the spirit, -dominant to-day, deposed to-morrow, effective at one or two points, -failing in a hundred; no, but an entire conformity at all points with -the divine moral order, the will of God, and, in consequence, a sense of -harmony with this order, of acceptance with God.</p> - -<p>In some points Paul had always served this order with a clear -conscience. He did not steal, he did not commit adultery. But he was at -the same time, he says himself, 'a blasphemer and a persecutor and an -insulter,'<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> and the contemplation of Jesus Christ made him see this, -impressed it forcibly upon his mind. Here was his greatness, and the -worth of his way of appropriating Christ. We have seen how Calvinism, -too,—Calvinism which has built itself upon St. Paul,—is a blasphemer, -when it speaks of good works done by those who do not hold the Calvinist -doctrine. There would need no great sensitiveness of conscience, one -would think, to show that Calvinism has often been, also, a persecutor, -and an insulter. Calvinism, as well as Paul, professes to study Jesus -Christ. But the difference between Paul's study of Christ and -Calvinism's is this: that Paul by studying Christ got to know himself -clearly, and to transform his narrow conception of righteousness; while -Calvinism studies both Christ and Paul after him to no such good -purpose.</p> - -<p>These, however, are but the veriest rudiments of the history of Paul's -gain from Jesus Christ, as the particular impression mentioned is but -the veriest fragment of the total impression produced by the -contemplation of Christ upon him. The sum and substance of that total -impression may best be conveyed by two words,—<i>without sin</i>.</p> - -<p>We must here revert to what we have already said of the importance, for -sound criticism of a man's ideas, of the order in which his ideas come. -For us, who approach Christianity through a scholastic theology, it is -Christ's divinity which establishes his being without sin. For Paul, who -approached Christianity through his personal experience, it was Jesus -Christ's being without sin which establishes his divinity. The large and -complete conception of righteousness to which he himself had slowly and -late, and only by Jesus Christ's help, awakened, in Jesus he seemed to -see existing absolutely and naturally. The devotion to this conception -which made it meat and drink to carry it into effect, a devotion of -which he himself was strongly and deeply conscious, he saw in Jesus -still stronger, by far, and deeper than in himself. But for attaining -the righteousness of God, for reaching an absolute conformity with the -moral order and with God's will, he saw no such impotence existing in -Jesus Christ's case as in his own. For Jesus, the uncertain conflict -between the law in our members and the law of the spirit did not appear -to exist. Those eternal vicissitudes of victory and defeat, which drove -Paul to despair, in Jesus were absent. Smoothly and inevitably he -followed the real and eternal order, in preference to the momentary and -apparent order. Obstacles outside him there were plenty, but obstacles -within him there were none. He was led by the spirit of God; he was dead -to sin, he lived to God; and in this life to God he persevered even to -the cruel bodily death of the cross. As many as are led by the spirit of -God, says Paul, are the sons of God.<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> If this is so with even us, -who live to God so feebly and who render such an imperfect obedience, -how much more is he who lives to God entirely and who renders an -unalterable obedience, the unique and only Son of God?</p> - -<p>This is undoubtedly the main line of movement which Paul's ideas -respecting Jesus Christ follow. He had been trained, however, in the -scholastic theology of Judaism, just as we are trained in the scholastic -theology of Christianity; would that we were as little embarrassed with -our training as he was with his! The Jewish theological doctrine -respecting the eternal word or wisdom of God, which was with God from -the beginning before the oldest of his works, and through which the -world was created, this doctrine, which appears in the Book of Proverbs -and again in the Book of Wisdom,<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Paul applied to Jesus Christ, and -in the Epistle to the Colossians there is a remarkable passage<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> with -clear signs of his thus applying it. But then this metaphysical and -theological basis to the historic being of Jesus is something added by -Paul from outside to his own essential ideas concerning him, something -which fitted them and was naturally taken on to them; it is secondary, -it is not an original part of his system, much less the ground of it. It -fills a very different place in his system from the place which it fills -in the system of the author of the Fourth Gospel, who takes his -starting-point from it. Paul's starting-point, it cannot be too often -repeated, is the idea of righteousness; and his concern with Jesus is as -the clue to righteousness, not as the clue to transcendental ontology. -Speculations in this region had no overpowering attraction for Paul, -notwithstanding the traces of an acquaintance with them which we find in -his writings, and notwithstanding the great activity of his intellect. -This activity threw itself with an unerring instinct into a sphere -where, with whatever travail and through whatever impediments to clear -expression, directly practical religious results might yet be won, and -not into any sphere of abstract speculation.</p> - -<p>Much more visible and important than his identification of Jesus with -the divine hypostasis known as the Logos, is Paul's identification of -him with the Messiah. Ever present is his recognition of him as the -Messiah to whom all the law and prophets pointed, of whom the heart of -the Jewish race was full, and on whom the Jewish instructors of Paul's -youth had dwelt abundantly. The Jewish language and ideas respecting the -end of the world and the Messiah's kingdom, his day, his presence, his -appearing, his glory, Paul applied to Jesus, and constantly used. Of the -force and reality which these ideas and expressions had for him there -can be no question; as to his use of them, only two remarks are needed. -One is, that in him these Jewish ideas,—as any one will feel who calls -to mind a genuine display of them like that in the Apocalypse,—are -spiritualised; and as he advances in his course they are spiritualised -increasingly. The other remark is, that important as these ideas are in -Paul, of them, too, the importance is only secondary, compared with that -of the great central matter of his thoughts: <i>the righteousness of God, -the non-fulfilment of it by man, the fulfilment of it by Christ</i>.</p> - -<p>Once more we are led to a result favourable to the scientific value of -Paul's teaching. That Jesus Christ was the divine Logos, the second -person of the Trinity, science can neither deny nor affirm. That he was -the Jewish Messiah, who will some day appear in the sky with the sound -of trumpets, to put an end to the actual kingdoms of the world and to -establish his own kingdom, science can neither deny nor affirm. The very -terms of which these propositions are composed are such as science is -unable to handle. But that the Jesus of the Bible follows the universal -moral order and the will of God, without being let and hindered as we -are by the motions of private passion and by self-will, this is evident -to whoever can read the Bible with open eyes. It is just what any -criticism of the Gospel-history, which sees that history as it really -is, tells us; it is the scientific result of that history. And this is -the result which pre-eminently occupies Paul. Of Christ's life and -death, the all-importance for us, according to Paul, is that by means of -them, 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, -righteously, and godly;' should be enabled to 'bear fruit to God' in -'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, -self-control.'<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> Of Christ's life and death the scope was 'to redeem -us from all iniquity, and make us purely zealous for good works.'<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> -Paul says by way of preface, that we are to live thus in the actual -world which now is, 'with the expectation of the appearing of the glory -of God and Christ.'<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> By nature and habit, and with his full belief -that the end of the world was nigh at hand, Paul used these words to -mean a Messianic coming and kingdom. Later Christianity has transferred -them, as it has transferred so much else of Paul's, to a life beyond the -grave, but it has by no means spiritualised them. Paul, as his spiritual -growth advanced, spiritualised them more and more; he came to think, in -using them, more and more of a gradual inward transformation of the -world by a conformity like Christ's to the will of God, than of a -Messianic advent. Yet even then they are always second with him, and not -first; the essence of saving grace is always to make us righteous, to -bring us into conformity with the divine law, to enable us to 'bear -fruit to God.'</p> - -<p>'Jesus Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from -iniquity.' First of all, he rendered an unbroken obedience to the law of -the spirit; he served the spirit of God; he came, not to do his own -will, but the will of God. Now, the law of the spirit makes men one; it -is only by the law in our members that we are many. Secondly, therefore, -Jesus Christ had an unfailing sense of what we have called, using an -expressive modern term, the <i>solidarity</i> of men: that it was not God's -will that one of his human creatures should perish. Thirdly, Jesus -Christ persevered in this uninterrupted obedience to the law of the -spirit, in this unfailing sense of human solidarity, even to the death; -though everything befell him which might break the one or tire out the -other. Lastly, he had in himself, in all he said and did, that ineffable -force of attraction which doubled the virtue of everything said or done -by him.</p> - -<p>If ever there was a case in which the wonder-working power of -attachment, in a man for whom the moral sympathies and the desire of -righteousness were all-powerful, might employ itself and work its -wonders, it was here. Paul felt this power penetrate him; and he felt, -also, how by perfectly identifying himself through it with Jesus, and in -no other way, could he ever get the confidence and the force to do as -Jesus did. He thus found a point in which the mighty world outside man, -and the weak world inside him, seemed to combine for his salvation. The -struggling stream of duty, which had not volume enough to bear him to -his goal, was suddenly reinforced by the immense tidal wave of sympathy -and emotion.</p> - -<p>To this new and potent influence Paul gave the name of <i>faith</i>. More -fully he calls it: 'Faith that worketh <i>through love</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> The word -<i>faith</i> points, no doubt, to 'coming by hearing,' and has possibly a -reminiscence, for Paul, of his not having with his own waking eyes, like -the original disciples, seen Jesus, and of his special mission being to -Gentiles who had not seen Jesus either. But the essential meaning of the -word is 'power of holding on to the unseen,' 'fidelity.' Other -attachments demand fidelity in absence to an object which, at some time -or other, nevertheless, has been seen; this attachment demands fidelity -to an object which both is absent and has never been seen by us. It is -therefore rightly called not constancy, but faith; a power, -pre-eminently, of <i>holding fast to an unseen power of goodness</i>. -Identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ through this attachment we -become as he was. We live with his thoughts and feelings, and we -participate, therefore, in his freedom from the ruinous law in our -members, in his obedience to the saving law of the spirit, in his -conformity to the eternal order, in the joy and peace of his life to -God. 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' says Paul, 'freed -me from the law of sin and death.'<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> This is what is done for us by -<i>faith</i>.</p> - -<p>It is evident that some difficulty arises out of Paul's adding to the -general sense of the word faith,—<i>a holding fast to an unseen power of -goodness</i>,—a particular sense of his own,—<i>identification with -Christ</i>. It will at once appear that this faith of Paul's is in truth a -specific form of holding fast to an unseen power of goodness; and that -while it can properly be said of Abraham, for instance, that he was -justified by faith, if we take faith in its plain sense of holding fast -to an unseen power of goodness, yet it cannot without difficulty and -recourse to a strained figure be said of him, if we take faith in Paul's -specific sense of identification with Christ. Paul however, undoubtedly, -having conveyed his new specific sense into the word faith, still uses -the word in all cases where, without this specific sense, it was before -applicable and usual; and in this way he often creates ambiguity. Why, -it may be asked, does Paul, instead of employing a special term to -denote his special meaning, still thus employ the general term faith? We -are inclined to think it was from that desire to get for his words and -thoughts not only the real but also the apparent sanction and -consecration of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we have called his tendency -to Judaise. It was written of the founder of Israel, Abraham, that he -<i>believed</i> God and it was counted to him for righteousness. The prophet -Habakkuk had the famous text: 'The just shall live by <i>faith</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> -Jesus, too, had used and sanctioned the use of the word <i>faith</i> to -signify cleaving to the unseen God's power of goodness as shown in -Christ.<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> Peter and John and the other apostles habitually used the -word in the same sense, with the modification introduced by Christ's -departure. This was enough to make Paul retain for that vital operation, -which was the heart of his whole religious system, the name of faith, -though he had considerably developed and enlarged the name's usual -meaning. Fraught with this new and developed sense, the term does not -always quite well suit the cases to which it was in its old sense, with -perfect propriety, applied; this, however, Paul did not regard. The term -applied with undeniable truth, though not with perfect adequacy, to the -great spiritual operation whereto he affixed it; and it was at the same -time the name given to the crowning grace of the great father of the -Jewish nation, Abraham; it was the prophet Habakkuk's talismanic and -consecrated term, <i>faith</i>.</p> - -<p>In this word <i>faith</i>, as used by St. Paul,<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> we reach a point round -which the ceaseless stream of religious exposition and discussion has -for ages circled. Even for those who misconceive Paul's line of ideas -most completely, faith is so evidently the central point in his system -that their thoughts cannot but centre upon it. Puritanism, as is well -known, has talked of little else but faith. And the word is of such a -nature, that, the true clue once lost which Paul has given us to its -meaning, every man may put into it almost anything he likes, all the -fancies of his superstition or of his fanaticism. To say, therefore, -that to have faith in Christ means to be attached to Christ, to embrace -Christ, to be identified with Christ, is not enough; the question is, to -be attached to him <i>how</i>, to embrace him <i>how</i>?</p> - -<p>A favourite expression of popular theology conveys perfectly the popular -definition of faith: <i>to rest in the finished work of the Saviour</i>. In -the scientific language of Protestant theology, to embrace Christ, to -have saving faith, is 'to give our consent heartily to the covenant of -grace, and so to receive the benefit of justification, whereby God -pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous for the righteousness -of Christ imputed to us.' This is mere theurgy, in which, so far as we -have yet gone, we have not found Paul dealing. Wesley, with his genius -for godliness, struggled all his life for some deeper and more edifying -account of that faith, which he felt working wonders in his own soul, -than that it was a hearty consent to the covenant of grace and an -acceptance of the benefit of Christ's imputed righteousness. Yet this -amiable and gracious spirit, but intellectually slight and shallow -compared to Paul, beat his wings in vain. Paul, nevertheless, had solved -the problem for him, if only he could have had eyes to see Paul's -solution.</p> - -<p>'He that believes in Christ,' says Wesley, 'discerns spiritual things: -he is enabled to taste, see, hear, and feel God.' There is nothing -practical and solid here. A company of Cornish revivalists will have no -difficulty in tasting, seeing, hearing, and feeling God, twenty times -over, to-night, and yet may be none the better for it to-morrow morning. -When Paul said, <i>In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything -nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh through love; Have faith in -Christ!</i> these words did not mean for him: 'Give your hearty belief and -consent to the covenant of grace; Accept the offered benefit of -justification through Christ's imputed righteousness.' They did not -mean: 'Try and discern spiritual things, try and taste, see, hear, and -feel God.' They did not mean: 'Rest in the finished work of Christ the -Saviour.' No, they meant: <i>Die with him!</i></p> - -<p>The object of this treatise is not religious edification, but the true -criticism of a great and misunderstood author. Yet it is impossible to -be in presence of this Pauline conception of faith without remarking on -the incomparable power of edification which it contains. It is indeed a -crowning evidence of that piercing practical religious sense which we -have attributed to Paul. It is at once mystical and rational; and it -enlists in its service the best forces of both worlds,—the world of -reason and morals, and the world of sympathy and emotion. The world of -reason and duty has an excellent clue to action, but wants motive-power; -the world of sympathy and influence has an irresistible force of -motive-power, but wants a clue for directing its exertion. The danger of -the one world is weariness in well-doing; the danger of the other is -sterile raptures and immoral fanaticism. Paul takes from both worlds -what can help him, and leaves what cannot. The elemental power of -sympathy and emotion in us, a power which extends beyond the limits of -our own will and conscious activity, which we cannot measure and -control, and which in each of us differs immensely in force, volume, and -mode of manifestation, he calls into full play, and sets it to work with -all its strength and in all its variety. But one unalterable object is -assigned by him to this power: <i>to die with Christ to the law of the -flesh, to live with Christ to the law of the mind</i>.</p> - -<p>This is the doctrine of the <i>necrosis</i>,<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>—Paul's central doctrine, -and the doctrine which makes his profoundness and originality. His -repeated and minute lists of practices and feelings to be followed or -suppressed, now take a heightened significance. They were the matter by -which his faith tried itself and knew itself. Those multitudinous -motions of appetite and self-will which reason and conscience -disapproved, reason and conscience could yet not govern, and had to -yield to them. This, as we have seen, is what drove Paul almost to -despair. Well, then, how did Paul's faith, working through love, help -him here? It enabled him to reinforce duty by affection. In the central -need of his nature, the desire to govern these motions of -unrighteousness, it enabled him to say: <i>Die to them! Christ did.</i> If -any man be in Christ, said Paul—that is, if any man identifies himself -with Christ by attachment so that he enters into his feelings and lives -with his life,—he is a new creature;<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> he can do, and does, what -Christ did. First, he suffers with him. Christ throughout his life and -in his death presented his body a living sacrifice to God; every -self-willed impulse blindly trying to assert itself without respect of -the universal order, he died to. You, says Paul to his disciple, are to -do the same. Never mind how various and multitudinous the impulses are; -impulses to intemperance, concupiscence, covetousness, pride, sloth, -envy, malignity, anger, clamour, bitterness, harshness, unmercifulness. -Die to them all, and to each as it comes! Christ did. If you cannot, -your attachment, your faith, must be one that goes but a very little -way. In an ordinary human attachment, out of love to a woman, out of -love to a friend, out of love to a child, you can suppress quite easily, -because by sympathy you enter into their feelings, this or that impulse -of selfishness which happens to conflict with them, and which hitherto -you have obeyed. <i>All</i> impulses of selfishness conflict with Christ's -feelings, he showed it by dying to them all; if you are one with him by -faith and sympathy, you can die to them also. Then, secondly, if you -thus die with him, you become transformed by the renewing of your mind, -and rise with him. The law of the spirit of life which is in Christ -becomes the law of your life also, and frees you from the law of sin and -death. You rise with him to that harmonious conformity with the real and -eternal order, that sense of pleasing God who trieth the hearts, which -is life and peace, and which grows more and more till it becomes glory. -If you suffer with him, therefore, you shall also be glorified with him.</p> - -<p>The real worth of this mystical conception depends on the fitness of the -character and history of Jesus Christ for inspiring such an enthusiasm -of attachment and devotion as that which Paul's notion of faith implies. -If the character and history are eminently such as to inspire it, then -Paul has no doubt found a mighty aid towards the attainment of that -righteousness of which Jesus Christ's life afforded the admirable -pattern. A great solicitude is always shown by popular Christianity to -establish a radical difference between Jesus and a teacher, like -Socrates. Ordinary theologians establish this difference by -transcendental distinctions into which science cannot follow them. But -what makes for science the radical difference between Jesus and -Socrates, is that such a conception as Paul's would, if applied to -Socrates, be out of place and ineffective. Socrates inspired boundless -friendship and esteem; but the inspiration of reason and conscience is -the one inspiration which comes from him, and which impels us to live -righteously as he did. A penetrating enthusiasm of love, sympathy, pity, -adoration, reinforcing the inspiration of reason and duty, does not -belong to Socrates. With Jesus it is different. On this point it is -needless to argue; history has proved. In the midst of errors the most -prosaic, the most immoral, the most unscriptural, concerning God, -Christ, and righteousness, the immense emotion of love and sympathy -inspired by the person and character of Jesus has had to work almost by -itself alone for righteousness; and it has worked wonders. The -surpassing religious grandeur of Paul's conception of faith is that it -seizes a real salutary emotional force of incalculable magnitude, and -reinforces moral effort with it.</p> - -<p>Paul's mystical conception is not complete without its relation of us to -our fellow-men, as well as its relation of us to Jesus Christ. Whoever -identifies himself with Christ, identifies himself with Christ's idea of -the solidarity of men. The whole race is conceived as one body, having -to die and rise with Christ, and forming by the joint action of its -regenerate members the mystical body of Christ. Hence the truth of that -which Bishop Wilson says: 'It is not so much our neighbour's interest as -our own that we love him.' Jesus Christ's life, with which we by faith -identify ourselves, is not complete, his aspiration after the eternal -order is not satisfied, so long as only Jesus himself follows this -order, or only this or that individual amongst us men follows it. The -same law of emotion and sympathy, therefore, which prevails in our -inward self-discipline, is to prevail in our dealings with others. The -motions of sin in ourselves we succeed in mortifying, not by saying to -ourselves that they are sinful, but by sympathy with Christ in his -mortification of them. In like manner, our duties towards our neighbour -we perform, not in deference to external commands and prohibitions, but -through identifying ourselves with him by sympathy with Christ who -identified himself with him. Therefore, we owe no man anything but to -love one another; and he who loves his neighbour fulfils the law towards -him, because he seeks to do him good and forbears to do him harm just as -if he was himself.</p> - -<p>Mr. Lecky cannot see that the command to speak the truth to one's -neighbour is a command which has a natural sanction. But according to -these Pauline ideas it has a clear natural sanction. For, if my -neighbour is merely an extension of myself, deceiving my neighbour is -the same as deceiving myself; and than self-deceit there is nothing by -nature more baneful. And on this ground Paul puts the injunction. He -says: 'Speak every man truth to his neighbour, <i>for</i> we are members one -of another.'<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> This direction to identify ourselves in Jesus Christ -with our neighbours is hard and startling, no doubt, like the direction -to identify ourselves with Jesus and die with him. But it is also, like -that direction, inspiring; and not, like a set of mere mechanical -commands and prohibitions, lifeless and unaiding. It shows a profound -practical religious sense, and rests upon facts of human nature which -experience can follow and appreciate.</p> - -<p>The three essential terms of Pauline theology are not, therefore, as -popular theology makes them: <i>calling</i>, <i>justification</i>, -<i>sanctification</i>. They are rather these: <i>dying with Christ</i>, -<i>resurrection from the dead</i>, <i>growing into Christ</i>.<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> The order in -which these terms are placed indicates, what we have already pointed out -elsewhere, the true Pauline sense of the expression, <i>resurrection from -the dead</i>. In Paul's ideas the expression has no essential connexion -with physical death. It is true, popular theology connects it with this -almost exclusively, and regards any other use of it as purely figurative -and secondary. For popular theology, Christ's resurrection is his bodily -resurrection on earth after his physical death on the cross; the -believer's resurrection is his bodily resurrection in a future world, -the golden city of our hymns and of the Apocalypse. For this theology, -the force of Christ's resurrection is that it is a miracle which -guarantees the promised future miracle of our own resurrection. It is a -common remark with Biblical critics, even with able and candid Biblical -critics, that Christ's resurrection, in this sense of a physical -miracle, is the central object of Paul's thoughts and the foundation of -all his theology. Nay, the preoccupation with this idea has altered the -very text of our documents; so that whereas Paul wrote, 'Christ died and -lived,' we read, 'Christ died and rose again and revived.'<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> But -whoever has carefully followed Paul's line of thought as we have -endeavoured to trace it, will see that in his mature theology, as the -Epistle to the Romans exhibits it, it cannot be this physical and -miraculous aspect of the resurrection which holds the first place in his -mind; for under this aspect the resurrection does not fit in with the -ideas which he is developing.</p> - -<p>Not for a moment do we deny that in Paul's earlier theology, and notably -in the Epistles to the Thessalonians and Corinthians, the physical and -miraculous aspect of the resurrection, both Christ's and the believer's, -is primary and predominant. Not for a moment do we deny that to the very -end of his life, after the Epistle to the Romans, after the Epistle to -the Philippians, if he had been asked whether he held the doctrine of -the resurrection in the physical and miraculous sense, as well as in his -own spiritual and mystical sense, he would have replied with entire -conviction that he did. Very likely it would have been impossible to him -to imagine his theology without it. But:—</p> -<table summary="centered poem"><tbody><tr><td><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p>Below the surface-stream, shallow and light,</p> -<p>Of what we <i>say</i> we feel—below the stream,</p> -<p>As light, of what we <i>think</i> we feel—there flows</p> -<p>With noiseless current strong, obscure and deep,</p> -<p>The central stream of what we feel indeed;</p> -</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table> -<p class="cont">and by this alone are we truly characterised. Paul's originality lies in -the effort to find a moral side and significance for all the processes, -however mystical, of the religious life, with a view of strengthening, -in this way, their hold upon us and their command of all our nature. -Sooner or later he was sure to be drawn to treat the process of -resurrection with this endeavour. He did so treat it; and what is -original and essential in him is his doing so.</p> - -<p>Paul's conception of life and death inevitably came to govern his -conception of resurrection. What indeed, as we have seen, is for Paul -life, and what is death? Not the ordinary physical life and death. -Death, for him, is living after the flesh, obedience to sin; life is -mortifying by the spirit the deeds of the flesh, obedience to -righteousness. Resurrection, in its essential sense, is therefore for -Paul, the rising, within the sphere of our visible earthly existence, -from death in this sense to life in this sense. It is indubitable that, -so far as the human believer's resurrection is concerned, this is so. -Else, how could Paul say to the Colossians (to take only one out of a -hundred clear texts showing the same thing): '<i>If ye then be risen with -Christ</i>, seek the things that are above.'<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> But when Paul repeats -again and again, in the Epistle to the Romans, that the matter of our -faith is 'that God raised Jesus from the dead,' the essential meaning of -this resurrection, also, is just the same. Real life for Paul, begins -with the mystical death which frees us from the dominion of the external -<i>shalls</i> and <i>shall nots</i> of the law.<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> From the moment, therefore, -that Jesus Christ was content to do God's will, he died. Paul's point -is, that Jesus Christ in his earthly existence obeyed the law of the -spirit and bore fruit to God; and that the believer should, in his -earthly existence, do the same. That Christ 'died to sin,' that he -'pleased not himself,' and that, consequently, through all his life -here, he was risen and living to God, is what occupies Paul. Christ's -physical resurrection after he was crucified is neither in point of time -nor in point of character the resurrection on which Paul, following his -essential line of thought, wanted to fix the believer's mind. The -resurrection Paul was striving after for himself and others was a -resurrection <i>now</i>, and a resurrection to <i>righteousness</i>.<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> - -<p>But Jesus Christ's obeying God and not pleasing himself culminated in -his death on the cross. All through his career, indeed, Jesus Christ -pleased not himself and died to sin. But so smoothly and so inevitably, -as we have before said, did he always appear to follow that law of the -moral order, which to us it costs such effort to obey, that only in the -very wrench and pressure of his violent death did any pain of dying, any -conflict between the law of the flesh and the law of the spirit, in -Christ become visible. But the Christian needs to find in Christ's dying -to sin a fellowship of suffering and a conformity of death. Well, then, -the point of Christ's trial and crucifixion is the only point in his -career where the Christian can palpably touch what he seeks. In all -dying there is struggle and weakness; in our dying to sin there is great -struggle and weakness. But only in his crucifixion can we see, in Jesus -Christ, a place for struggle and weakness.<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> That self-sacrificing -obedience of Jesus Christ's whole life, which was summed up in this -great, final act of his crucifixion, and which is palpable as sacrifice, -obedience, dolorous effort, only there, is, therefore, constantly -regarded by Paul under the figure of this final act, as is also the -believer's conformity to Christ's obedience. The believer is crucified -with Christ when he mortifies by the spirit the deeds of -unrighteousness; Christ was crucified when he pleased not himself, and -came to do not his own will but God's.</p> - -<p>It is the same with life as with death; it turns on no physical event, -but on that central concern of Paul's thoughts, righteousness. If we -have the spirit of Christ, we live, as he did, by the spirit, 'serve the -spirit of God,'<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> and follow the eternal order. The spirit of God, -the spirit of Christ is the same,—the one eternal moral order. If we -are led by the spirit of God we are the sons of God, and share with -Christ the heritage of the sons of God,—eternal life, peace, felicity, -glory. The spirit, therefore, is life <i>because of righteousness</i>. And -when, through identifying ourselves with Christ, we reach Christ's -righteousness, then eternal life begins for us;—a continuous and -ascending life, for the eternal order never dies, and the more we -transform ourselves into servants of righteousness and organs of the -eternal order, the more we are and desire to be this eternal order and -nothing else. Even in this life we are 'seated in heavenly places,'<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> -as Christ is; so entirely, for Paul, is righteousness the true life and -the true heaven. But the transformation cannot be completed here; the -physical death is regarded by Paul as a stage at which it ceases to be -impeded. However, at this stage we quit, as he himself says, the ground -of experience and enter upon the ground of hope. But, by a sublime -analogy, he fetches from the travail of the whole universe proof of the -necessity and beneficence of the law of transformation. Jesus Christ -entered into his glory when he had made his physical death itself a -crowning witness to his obedience to righteousness; we, in like manner, -within the limits of this earthly life and before we have yet persevered -to the end, must not look for full adoption, for the glorious revelation -in us of the sons of God.<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> - -<p>That Paul, as we have said, accepted the physical miracle of Christ's -resurrection and ascension as a part of the signs and wonders which -accompanied Christianity, there can be no doubt. Just in the same manner -he accepted the eschatology, as it is called, of his nation,—their -doctrine of the final things and of the summons by a trumpet in the sky -to judgment; he accepted Satan, hierarchies of angels, and an -approaching end of the world. What we deny is, that his acceptance of -the former gives to his teaching its essential characters, any more than -his acceptance of the latter. We should but be continuing, with strict -logical development, Paul's essential line of thought, if we said that -the true ascension and glorified reign of Christ was the triumph and -reign of his spirit, of his real life, far more operative after his -death on the cross than before it; and that in this sense, most truly, -he and all who persevere to the end as he did are 'sown in weakness but -raised in power.' Paul himself, however, did not distinctly continue his -thought thus, and neither will we do so for him. How far Paul himself -knew that he had gone in his irresistible bent to find, for each of the -data of his religion, that side of moral and spiritual significance -which, as a mere sign and wonder, it had not and could not have,—what -data he himself was conscious of having transferred, through following -this bent, from the first rank in importance to the second,—we cannot -know with any certainty. That the bent existed, that Paul felt it -existed, and that it establishes a wide difference between the earliest -epistles and the latest, is beyond question. Already, in the Second -Epistle to the Corinthians, he declares that, 'though he had known -Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth he knew him so no more;'<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> and -in the Epistle to the Romans, shortly afterwards, he rejects the notion -of dwelling on the miraculous Christ, on the descent into hell and on -the ascent into heaven, and fixes the believer's attention solely on the -faith of Christ and on the effects produced by an acquaintance with -it.<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> In the same Epistle, in like manner, the kingdom of God, of -which to the Thessalonians he described the advent in such materialising -and popularly Judaic language, has become 'righteousness, and peace, and -joy in the holy spirit.'<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> - -<p>These ideas, we repeat, may never have excluded others, which absorbed -the most part of Paul's contemporaries as they absorb popular religion -at this day. To popular religion, the real kingdom of God is the New -Jerusalem with its jaspers and emeralds; righteousness and peace and joy -are only the kingdom of God figuratively. The real sitting in heavenly -places is the sitting on thrones in a land of pure delight after we are -dead; serving the spirit of God is only sitting in heavenly places -figuratively. Science exactly reverses this process. For science, the -spiritual notion is the real one, the material notion is figurative. The -astonishing greatness of Paul is, that, coming when and where and whence -he did, he yet grasped the spiritual notion, if not exclusively and -fully, yet firmly and predominantly; more and more predominantly through -all the last years of his life. And what makes him original and himself, -is not what he shares with his contemporaries and with modern popular -religion, but this which he develops of his own; and this which he -develops of his own is just of a nature to make his religion a theology -instead of a theurgy, and at bottom a scientific instead of a -non-scientific structure. 'Die and come to life!' says Goethe,—an -unsuspected witness, assuredly, to the psychological and scientific -profoundness of Paul's conception of life and death:—'Die and come to -life! for, so long as this is not accomplished, thou art but a troubled -guest upon an earth of gloom.'<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<p>The three cardinal points in Paul's theology are not therefore, we -repeat, those commonly assigned by Puritanism, <i>calling</i>, -<i>justification</i>, <i>sanctification</i>; but they are these: <i>dying with -Christ</i>, <i>resurrection from the dead</i>, <i>growing into Christ</i>. And we -will venture, moreover, to affirm that the more the Epistle to the -Romans is read and re-read with a clear mind, the more will the -conviction strengthen, that the sense indicated by the order in which we -here class the second main term of Paul's conception, is the essential -sense which Paul himself attaches to this term, in every single place -where in that Epistle he has used it. Not tradition and not theory, but -a simple impartial study of the development of Paul's central line of -thought, brings us to the conclusion, that from the very outset of the -Epistle, where Paul speaks of Christ as 'declared to be the son of God -with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the -dead,'<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> to the very end, the essential sense in which Paul uses the -term <i>resurrection</i> is that of a rising, in this visible earthly -existence, from the death of obedience to blind selfish impulse, to the -life of obedience to the eternal moral order;—in Christ's case first, -as the pattern for us to follow; in the believer's case afterwards, as -following Christ's pattern through identifying himself with him.</p> - -<p>We have thus reached Paul's fundamental conception without even a -glimpse of the fundamental conceptions of Puritanism, which, -nevertheless, professes to have learnt its doctrine from St. Paul and -from his Epistle to the Romans. Once, for a moment, the term <i>faith</i> -brought us in contact with the doctrine of Puritanism, but only to see -that the essential sense given to this word by Paul Puritanism had -missed entirely. Other parts, then, of the Epistle to the Romans than -those by which we have been occupied must have chiefly fixed the -attention of Puritanism. And so it has in truth been. Yet the parts of -the Epistle to the Romans that have occupied us are undoubtedly the -parts which not our own theories and inclinations,—for we have -approached the matter without any,—but an impartial criticism of Paul's -real line of thought, must elevate as the most important. If a somewhat -pedantic form of expression may be forgiven for the sake of clearness, -we may say that of the eleven first chapters of the Epistle to the -Romans,—the chapters which convey Paul's theology, though not, as we -have seen, with any scholastic purpose or in any formal scientific mode -of exposition,—of these eleven chapters, the first, second, and third -are, in a scale of importance fixed by a scientific criticism of Paul's -line of thought, sub-primary; the fourth and fifth are secondary; the -sixth and eighth are primary; the seventh chapter is sub-primary; the -ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters are secondary. Furthermore, to the -contents of the separate chapters themselves this scale must be carried -on, so far as to mark that of the two great primary chapters, the sixth -and the eighth, the eighth is primary down only to the end of the -twenty-eighth verse; from thence to the end it is, however eloquent, yet -for the purpose of a scientific criticism of Paul's essential theology, -only secondary.</p> - -<p>The first chapter is to the Gentiles. Its purport is: You have not -righteousness. The second is to the Jews; and its purport is: No more -have you, though you think you have. The third chapter announces faith -in Christ as the one source of righteousness for all men. The fourth -chapter gives to the notion of righteousness through faith the sanction -of the Old Testament and of the history of Abraham. The fifth insists on -the causes for thankfulness and exultation in the boon of righteousness -through faith in Christ; and applies illustratively, with this design, -the history of Adam. The sixth chapter comes to the all-important -question: 'What <i>is</i> that faith in Christ which I, Paul, mean?'—and -answers it. The seventh illustrates and explains the answer. But the -eighth, down to the end of the twenty-eighth verse, develops and -completes the answer. The rest of the eighth chapter expresses the sense -of safety and gratitude which the solution is fitted to inspire. The -ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters uphold the second chapter's -thesis,—so hard to a Jew, so easy to us,—that righteousness is not by -the Jewish law; but dwell with hope and joy on a final result of things -which is to be favourable to Israel.</p> - -<p>We shall be pardoned this somewhat formal analysis in consideration of -the clearness with which it enables us to survey the Puritan scheme of -original sin, predestination, and justification. The historical -transgression of Adam occupies, it will be observed, in Paul's ideas by -no means the primary, fundamental, all-important place which it holds in -the ideas of Puritanism. 'This' (the transgression of Adam) 'is our -original sin, the bitter root of all our actual transgressions in -thought, word, and deed.' Ah, no! Paul did not go to the Book of Genesis -to get the real testimony about sin. He went to experience for it. '<i>I -see</i>,' he says, 'a law in my members fighting against the law of my -mind, and bringing me into captivity.'<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> This is the essential -testimony respecting the rise of sin to Paul,—this rise of it in his -own heart and in the heart of all the men who hear him. At quite a later -stage in his conception of the religious life, in quite a subordinate -capacity, and for the mere purpose of illustration, comes in the -allusion to Adam and to what is called original sin. Paul's desire for -righteousness has carried him to Christ and to the conception of the -righteousness which is of God by faith, and he is expressing his -gratitude, delight, wonder, at the boon he has discovered. For the -purpose of exalting it he reverts to the well-known story of Adam. It -cannot even be said that Paul Judaises in his use here of this story; so -entirely does he subordinate it to his purpose of illustration, using it -just as he might have used it had he believed, which undoubtedly he did -not, that it was merely a symbolical legend, having the advantage of -being perfectly familiar to himself and his hearers. 'Think,' he says, -'how in Adam's fall one man's one transgression involved all men in -punishment; then estimate the blessedness of our boon in Christ, where -one man's one righteousness involves a world of transgressors in -blessing!<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> This is not a scientific doctrine of corruption inherited -through Adam's fall; it is a rhetorical use of Adam's fall in a passing -allusion to it.</p> - -<p>We come to predestination. We have seen how strong was Paul's -consciousness of that power, not ourselves, in which we live and move -and have our being. The sense of life, peace, and joy, which comes -through identification with Christ, brings with it a deep and grateful -consciousness that this sense is none of our own getting and making. No, -it is grace, it is the free gift of God, who gives abundantly beyond all -that we ask or think, and calls things that are not as though they were. -'It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that -showeth mercy.'<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> As moral agents, for whom alone exist all the -predicaments of merit and demerit, praise and blame, effort and failure, -vice and virtue, we are impotent and lost;—we are saved through that in -us which is passive and involuntary; we are saved through our -affections, it is as beings <i>acted upon</i> and <i>influenced</i> that we are -saved! Well might Paul cry out, as this mystical but profound and -beneficent conception filled his soul: 'All things work together for -good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his -purpose.'<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> Well might he say, in the gratitude which cannot find -words enough to express its sense of boundless favour, that those who -reached peace with God through identification with Christ were vessels -of mercy, marked from endless ages; that they had been foreknown, -predestinated, called, justified, glorified.</p> - -<p>It may be regretted, for the sake of the clear understanding of his -essential doctrine, that Paul did not stop here. It might seem as if the -word 'prothesis,' <i>purpose</i>, lured him on into speculative mazes, and -involved him, at last, in an embarrassment, from which he impatiently -tore himself by the harsh and unedifying image of the clay and the -potter. But this is not so. These allurements of speculation, which have -been fatal to so many of his interpreters, never mastered Paul. He was -led into difficulty by the tendency which we have already noticed as -making his real imperfection both as a thinker and as a writer,—the -tendency to Judaise.</p> - -<p>Already, in the fourth chapter, this tendency had led him to seem to -rest his doctrine of justification by faith upon the case of Abraham, -whereas, in truth, it needs all the good will in the world, and some -effort of ingenuity, even to bring the case of Abraham within the -operation of this doctrine. That righteousness is life, that all men by -themselves fail of righteousness, that only through identification with -Jesus Christ can they reach it,—these propositions, for us at any rate, -prove themselves much better than they are proved by the thesis that -Abraham in old age believed God's promise that his seed should yet be as -the stars for multitude, and that this was counted to him for -righteousness. The sanction thus apparently given to the idea that faith -is a mere belief, or opinion of the mind, has put thousands of Paul's -readers on a false track.</p> - -<p>But Paul's Judaising did not end here. To establish his doctrine of -righteousness by faith, he had to eradicate the notion that his people -were specially privileged, and that, having the Mosaic law, they did not -need anything farther. For us, this one verse of the tenth chapter: -<i>There is no difference between Jew and Greek, for it is the same Lord -of all, who is rich to all that call upon him</i>,—and these four words of -another verse: <i>For righteousness, heart-faith necessary!</i>—effect far -more for Paul's object than his three chapters bristling with Old -Testament quotations. By quotation, however, he was to proceed, in order -to invest his doctrine with the talismanic virtues of a verbal sanction -from the law and the prophets. He shows, therefore, that the law and the -prophets had said that only a remnant, an <i>elect remnant</i>, of Israel -should be saved, and that the rest should be blinded. But to say that -peace with God through Jesus Christ inspires such an abounding sense of -gratitude, and of its not being our work, that we can only speak of -ourselves as <i>called</i> and <i>chosen</i> to it, is one thing; in so speaking, -we are on the ground of personal experience. To say, on the other hand, -that God has blinded and reprobated other men, so that they shall not -reach this blessing, is to quit the ground of personal experience, and -to begin employing the magnified and non-natural man in the next street. -We then require, in order to account for his proceedings, such an -analogy as that of the clay and the potter.</p> - -<p>This is Calvinism, and St. Paul undoubtedly falls into it. But the -important thing to remark is, that this Calvinism, which with the -Calvinist is primary, is with Paul secondary, or even less than -secondary. What with Calvinists is their fundamental idea, the centre of -their theology, is for Paul an idea added to his central ideas, and -extraneous to them; brought in incidentally, and due to the necessities -of a bad mode of recommending and enforcing his thesis. It is as if -Newton had introduced into his exposition of the law of gravitation an -incidental remark, perhaps erroneous, about light or colours; and we -were then to make this remark the head and front of Newton's law. The -theological idea of reprobation was an idea of Jewish theology as of -ours, an idea familiar to Paul and a part of his training, an idea which -probably he never consciously abandoned. But its complete secondariness -in him is clearly established by other considerations than those which -we have drawn from the place and manner of his introduction of it. The -very phrase about the clay and the potter is not Paul's own; he does but -repeat a stock theological figure. Isaiah had said: 'O Lord, we are the -clay, and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand.'<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> -Jeremiah had said, in the Lord's name, to Israel: 'Behold, as the clay -in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.'<a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> -And the son of Sirach comes yet nearer to Paul's very words: 'As the -clay is in the potter's hand to fashion it at his pleasure, so man is in -the hand of him that made him, to render to them as liketh him -best.'<a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> Is an original man's essential, characteristic idea, that -which he adopts thus bodily from some one else? But take Paul's truly -essential idea. 'We are buried with Christ through baptism into death, -that like as he was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, -even so we also shall walk in newness of life.'<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> Did Jeremiah say -that? Is any one the author of it except Paul? Then there should -Calvinism have looked for Paul's secret, and not in the commonplace -about the potter and the vessels of wrath. A commonplace which is so -entirely a commonplace to him, that he contradicts it even while he is -Judaising; for in the very batch of chapters we are discussing he says: -'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> -Still more clear is, on this point, his real mind, when he is not -Judaising: 'God is the saviour of all men, specially of those that -believe.'<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> And anything, finally, which might seem dangerous in the -grateful sense of a calling, choosing, and leading by eternal -goodness,—a notion as natural as the Calvinistic doctrine of -predestination is monstrous,—Paul abundantly supplies in more than one -striking passage; as, for instance, in that incomparable third chapter -of the Philippians (from which, and from the sixth and eighth chapters -of the Romans, Paul's whole theology, if all his other writings were -lost, might be reconstructed), where he expresses his humble -consciousness that the mystical resurrection which is his aim, glory, -and salvation, he does not yet, and cannot, completely attain.</p> - -<p>The grand doctrine, then, which Calvinistic Puritanism has gathered from -Paul, turns out to be a secondary notion of his, which he himself, too, -has contradicted or corrected. But, at any rate, 'Christ meritoriously -obtained eternal redemption for us.' 'If there be anything,' the -quarterly organ of Puritanism has lately told us in its hundredth -number, 'that human experience has made certain, it is that man can -never outgrow his necessity for the great truths and provisions of the -Incarnation and the sacrificial Atonement of the Divine Son of God.' -God, his justice being satisfied by Christ's bearing according to -compact our guilt and dying in our stead, is appeased and set free to -exercise towards us his mercy, and to justify and sanctify us in -consideration of Christ's righteousness imputed to us, if we give our -hearty belief and consent to the satisfaction thus made. This hearty -belief being given, 'we rest,' to use the consecrated expression already -quoted, 'in the finished work of a Saviour.' This doctrine of imputed -righteousness is now, as predestination formerly was, the favourite -thesis of popular Protestant theology. And, like the doctrine of -predestination, it professes to be specially derived from St. Paul.</p> - -<p>But whoever has followed attentively the main line of St. Paul's -theology, as we have tried to show it, will see at once that in St. -Paul's essential ideas this popular notion of a substitution, and -appeasement, and imputation of alien merit, has no place. Paul knows -nothing of a sacrificial atonement; what Paul knows of is a reconciling -sacrifice. The true substitution, for Paul, is not the substitution of -Jesus Christ in men's stead as victim on the cross to God's offended -justice; it is the substitution by which the believer, in his own -person, repeats Jesus Christ's dying to sin. Paul says, in real truth, -to our Puritans with their magical and mechanical salvation, just what -he said to the men of circumcision: 'If I preach resting in the finished -work of a Saviour, <i>why am I yet persecuted? why do I die daily? then is -the stumbling-block of the cross annulled.</i>'<a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> That hard, that -well-nigh impossible doctrine, that our whole course must be a -crucifixion and a resurrection, even as Christ's whole course was a -crucifixion and a resurrection, becomes superfluous. Yet this is my -central doctrine.'</p> - -<p>The notion of God as a magnified and non-natural man, appeased by a -sacrifice and remitting in consideration of it his wrath against those -who had offended him,—this notion of God, which science repels, was -equally repelled, in spite of all that his nation, time, and training -had in them to favour it, by the profound religious sense of Paul. In -none of his epistles is the reconciling work of Christ really presented -under this aspect. One great epistle there is, however, which does -apparently present it under this aspect,—the Epistle to the Hebrews.</p> - -<p>Paul's phraseology, and even the central idea which he conveys in that -phraseology, were evidently well known to the writer of the Epistle to -the Hebrews. Nay, if we merely sought to prove a thesis, rather than to -ascertain the real bearing of the documents we canvass, we should have -no difficulty in making it appear, by texts taken from the Epistle to -the Hebrews, that the doctrine of this epistle, no less than the -doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans, differs entirely from the common -doctrine of Puritanism. This, however, we shall by no means do; because -it is our honest opinion that the popular doctrine of 'the sacrificial -Atonement of the Divine Son of God' derives, if not a real, yet at any -rate a strong apparent sanction from the Epistle to the Hebrews. Even -supposing, what is probably true, that the popular doctrine is really -the doctrine neither of the one epistle nor of the other, yet it must be -confessed that while it is the reader's fault,—a fault due to his fixed -prepossessions, and to his own want of penetration,—if he gets the -popular doctrine out of the Epistle to the Romans, it is on the other -hand the writer's fault and no longer the reader's, if out of the -Epistle to the Hebrews he gets the popular doctrine. For the author of -that epistle is, if not subjugated, yet at least preponderantly occupied -by the idea of the Jewish system of sacrifices, and of the analogies to -Christ's sacrifice which are furnished by that system.</p> - -<p>If other proof were wanting, this alone would make it impossible that -the Epistle to the Hebrews should be Paul's; and indeed of all the -epistles which bear his name, it is the only one which we may not, -perhaps, in spite of the hesitation caused by grave difficulties, be -finally content to leave in considerable part to him.<a name="FNanchor_90" id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> Luther's -conjecture, which ascribes to Apollos the Epistle to the Hebrews, -derives corroboration from the one account of Apollos which we have; -that 'he was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures.' The Epistle -to the Hebrews is just such a performance as might naturally have come -from an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures; in whom the -intelligence, and the powers of combining, type-finding, and expounding, -somewhat dominated the religious perceptions. The Epistle to the Hebrews -is full of beauty and power; and what may be called the exterior conduct -of its argument is as able and satisfying as Paul's exterior conduct of -his argument is generally embarrassed. Its details are full of what is -edifying; but its apparent central conception of Christ's death, as a -perfect sacrifice which consummated the imperfect sacrifices of the -Jewish law, is a mere notion of the understanding, and is not a -religious idea. Turn it which way we will, the notion of appeasement of -an offended God by vicarious sacrifice, which the Epistle to the Hebrews -apparently sanctions, will never truly speak to the religious sense, or -bear fruit for true religion. It is no blame to Apollos if he was -somewhat overpowered by this notion, for the whole world was full of it, -up to his time, in his time, and since his time; and it has driven -theologians before it like sheep. The wonder is, not that Apollos should -have adopted it, but that Paul should have been enabled, through the -incomparable power and energy of religious perception informing his -intellectual perception, in reality to put it aside. Figures drawn from -the dominant notion of sacrificial appeasement he used, for the notion -has so saturated the imagination and language of humanity that its -figures pass naturally and irresistibly into all our speech. Popular -Puritanism consists of the apparent doctrine from the Epistle to the -Hebrews, set forth with Paul's figures. But the doctrine itself Paul had -really put aside, and had substituted for it a better.</p> - -<p>The term <i>sacrifice</i>, in men's natural use of it, contains three -notions: the notion of winning the favour or buying off the wrath of a -powerful being by giving him something precious; the notion of parting -with something naturally precious; and the notion of expiation, not now -in the sense of buying off wrath or satisfying a claim, but of suffering -in that wherein we have sinned. The first notion is, at bottom, merely -superstitious, and belongs to the ignorant and fear-ridden childhood of -humanity; it is the main element, however, in the Puritan conception of -justification. The second notion explains itself; it is the main element -in the Pauline conception of justification. Jesus parted with what, to -men in general, is the most precious of things,—individual self and -selfishness; he pleased not himself, obeyed the spirit of God, died to -sin and to the law in our members, consummated upon the cross this -death; here is Paul's essential notion of Christ's sacrifice.</p> - -<p>The third notion may easily be misdealt with, but it has a profound -truth; in Paul's conception of justification there is much of it. In -some way or other, he who would 'cease from sin' must nearly always -'suffer in the flesh.' It is found to be true, that 'without shedding of -blood is no remission.' 'If you can be good with pleasure,' says Bishop -Wilson with his genius of practical religious sense, 'God does not envy -you your joy; but such is our corruption, that every man cannot be so.' -The substantial basis of the notion of expiation, so far as we ourselves -are concerned, is the bitter experience that the habit of wrong, of -blindly obeying selfish impulse, so affects our temper and powers, that -to withstand selfish impulse, to do right, when the sense of right -awakens in us, requires an effort out of all proportion to the actual -present emergency. We have not only the difficulty of the present act in -itself, we have the resistance of all our past; fire and the knife, -cautery and amputation, are often necessary in order to induce a vital -action, which, if it were not for our corrupting past, we might have -obtained from the natural healthful vigour of our moral organs. This is -the real basis of our personal sense of the need of expiating, and thus -it is that man expiates.</p> - -<p>Not so the just, who is man's ideal. He has no indurated habit of wrong, -no perverse temper, no enfeebled powers, no resisting past, no spiritual -organs gangrened, no need of the knife and fire; smoothly and inevitably -he follows the eternal order, and hereto belongs happiness. What sins, -then, has the just to expiate?—<i>ours.</i> In truth, men's habitual -unrighteousness, their hard and careless breaking of the moral law, do -so tend to reduce and impair the standard of goodness, that, in order to -keep this standard pure and unimpaired, the righteous must actually -labour and suffer far more than would be necessary if men were better. -In the first place, he has to undergo our hatred and persecution for his -justice. In the second place, he has to make up for the harm caused by -our continual shortcomings, to step between us foolish transgressors and -the destructive natural consequences of our transgression, and, by a -superhuman example, a spending himself without stint, a more than mortal -scale of justice and purity, to save the ideal of human life and conduct -from the deterioration with which men's ordinary practice threatens it. -In this way Jesus Christ truly 'became for our sakes poor, though he was -rich,' he was truly 'bruised for our iniquities,' he 'suffered in our -behoof,' 'bare the sin of many,' and 'made intercession for the -transgressors.'<a name="FNanchor_91" id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> In this way, truly, 'he was sacrificed as a -blameless lamb to redeem us from the vain conversation which had become -our second nature;'<a name="FNanchor_92" id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> in this way, 'he was made to be sin for us, who -knew no sin.'<a name="FNanchor_93" id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> Such, according to that true and profound perception -of the import of Christ's sufferings, which, in all St. Paul's writings, -and in the inestimable First Epistle of St. Peter, is presented to us, -is the expiation of Christ.</p> - -<p>The notion, therefore, of <i>satisfying and appeasing an angry God's -wrath</i>, does not come into Paul's real conception of Jesus Christ's -sacrifice. Paul's foremost notion of this sacrifice is, that by it Jesus -died to the law of selfish impulse, parted with what to men in general -is most precious and near. Paul's second notion is, that whereas Jesus -suffered in doing this, his suffering was not <i>his</i> fault, but ours; not -for <i>his</i> good, but for ours. In the first aspect, Jesus is the -<i>martyrion</i>,—the testimony in his life and in his death, to -righteousness, to the power and goodness of God. In the second aspect he -is the <i>antilytron</i> or ransom. But, in either aspect, Jesus Christ's -solemn and dolorous condemnation of sin does actually loosen sin's hold -and attraction upon us who regard it,—makes it easier for us to -understand and love goodness, to rise above self, to die to sin.</p> - -<p>Christ's sacrifice, however, and the condemnation of sin it contained, -was made for us while we were yet sinners; it was made irrespectively of -our power or inclination to sympathise with it and appreciate it. Yet, -even thus, in Paul's view, the sacrifice reconciled us to God, to the -eternal order; for it contained the means, the only possible means, of -our being brought into harmony with this order. Jesus Christ, -nevertheless, was delivered for our sins while we were yet sinners,<a name="FNanchor_94" id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> -and before we could yet appreciate what he did. But presently there -comes a change. Grace, the goodness of God, <i>the spirit</i>,—as Paul loved -to call that awful and beneficent impulsion of things within us and -without us, which we can concur with, indeed, but cannot create,—leads -us to <i>repentance towards God</i>,<a name="FNanchor_95" id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> a change of the inner man in regard -to the moral order, duty, righteousness. And now, to help our impulse -towards righteousness, we have a power enabling us to turn this impulse -to full account. Now <i>the spirit</i> does its greatest work in us; now, for -the first time, the influence of Jesus Christ's pregnant act really -gains us. For now awakens the sympathy for the act and the appreciation -of it, which its doer dispensed with or was too benign to wait for; -<i>faith working through love towards Christ</i><a name="FNanchor_96" id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> enters into us, masters -us. We identify ourselves,—this is the line of Paul's thought,—with -Christ; we repeat, through the power of this identification, Christ's -death to the law of the flesh and self-pleasing, his condemnation of sin -in the flesh; the death how imperfectly, the condemnation how -remorsefully! But we rise with him, Paul continues, to life, the only -true life, of imitation of God, of putting on the new man which after -God is created in righteousness and true holiness,<a name="FNanchor_97" id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> of following the -eternal law of the moral order which by ourselves we could not follow. -Then God justifies us. We have the righteousness of God and the sense of -having it; we are freed from the oppressing sense of eternal order -guiltily outraged and sternly retributive; we act in joyful conformity -with God's will, instead of in miserable rebellion to it; we are in -harmony with the universal order, and feel that we are in harmony with -it. If, then, Christ was delivered for our sins, he was raised for our -justification. If by Christ's death, says Paul, we were reconciled to -God, by the means being thus provided for our else impossible access to -God, much more, when we have availed ourselves of these means and died -with him, are we saved by his life which we partake.<a name="FNanchor_98" id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> Henceforward -we are not only justified but sanctified; not only in harmony with the -eternal order and at peace with God, but consecrated<a name="FNanchor_99" id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> and -unalterably devoted to them; and from this devotion comes an -ever-growing union with God in Christ, an advance, as St. Paul says, -from glory to glory.<a name="FNanchor_100" id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> - -<p>This is Paul's conception of Christ's sacrifice. His figures of ransom, -redemption, propitiation, blood, offering, all subordinate themselves to -his central idea of <i>identification with Christ through dying with him</i>, -and are strictly subservient to it. The figured speech of Paul has its -own beauty and propriety. His language is, much of it, eastern language, -imaginative language; there is no need for turning it, as Puritanism has -done, into the methodical language of the schools. But if it is to be -turned into methodical language, then it is the language into which we -have translated it that translates it truly.</p> - -<p>We have before seen how it fares with one of the two great tenets which -Puritanism has extracted from St. Paul, the tenet of predestination. We -now see how it fares with the other, the tenet of justification. Paul's -figures our Puritans have taken literally, while for his central idea -they have substituted another which is not his. And his central idea -they have turned into a figure, and have let it almost disappear out of -their mind. His essential idea lost, his figures misused, an idea -essentially not his substituted for his,—the unedifying patchwork thus -made, Puritanism has stamped with Paul's name, and called <i>the gospel</i>. -It thunders at Romanism for not preaching it, it casts off Anglicanism -for not setting it forth alone and unreservedly, it founds organisations -of its own to give full effect to it; these organisations guide -politics, govern statesmen, destroy institutions;—and they are based -upon a blunder!</p> - -<p>It is to Protestantism, and this its Puritan gospel, that the reproaches -thrown on St. Paul, for sophisticating religion of the heart into -theories of the head about election and justification, rightly attach. -St. Paul himself, as we have seen, begins with seeking righteousness and -ends with finding it; from first to last, the practical religious sense -never deserts him. If he could have seen and heard our preachers of -predestination and justification, they are just the people he would have -called 'diseased about questions and word-battlings.'<a name="FNanchor_101" id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> He would have -told Puritanism that every Sunday, when in all its countless chapels it -reads him and preaches from him, the veil is upon its heart. The moment -it reads him right, a veil will seem to be taken away from its -heart;<a name="FNanchor_102" id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> it will feel as though scales were fallen from its eyes.</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p>And now, leaving Puritanism and its errors, let us turn again for a -moment, before we end, to the glorious apostle who has occupied us so -long. He died, and men's familiar fancies of bargain and appeasement, -from which, by a prodigy of religious insight, Paul had been able to -disengage the death of Jesus, fastened on it and made it their own. Back -rolled over the human soul the mist which the fires of Paul's spiritual -genius had dispersed for a few short years. The mind of the whole world -was imbrued in the idea of blood, and only through the false idea of -sacrifice did men reach Paul's true one. Paul's idea of dying with -Christ the <i>Imitation</i> elevates more conspicuously than any Protestant -treatise elevates it; but it elevates it environed and dominated by the -idea of appeasement;—of the magnified and non-natural man in Heaven, -wrath-filled and blood-exacting; of the human victim adding his piacular -sufferings to those of the divine. Meanwhile another danger was -preparing. Gifted men had brought to the study of St. Paul the habits of -the Greek and Roman schools, and philosophised where Paul Orientalised. -Augustine, a great genius, who can doubt it?—nay, a great religious -genius, but unlike Paul in this, and inferior to him, that he confused -the boundaries of metaphysics and religion, which Paul never -did,—Augustine set the example of finding in Paul's eastern speech, -just as it stood, the formal propositions of western dialectics. Last -came the interpreter in whose slowly relaxing grasp we still lie,—the -heavy-handed Protestant Philistine. Sincere, gross of perception, -prosaic, he saw in Paul's mystical idea of man's investiture with the -righteousness of God nothing but a strict legal transaction, and -reserved all his imagination for Hell and the New Jerusalem and his -foretaste of them. A so-called Pauline doctrine was in all men's mouths, -but the ideas of the true Paul lay lost and buried.</p> - -<p>Every one who has been at Rome has been taken to see the Church of St. -Paul, rebuilt after a destruction by fire forty years ago. The church -stands a mile or two out of the city, on the way to Ostia and the -desert. The interior has all the costly magnificence of Italian -churches; oh the ceiling is written in gilded letters: '<span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Doctor -Gentium</i></span>.' Gold glitters and marbles gleam, but man and his movement are -not there. The traveller has left at a distance the <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>fumum et opes -strepitumque Romæ</i></span>; around him reigns solitude. There is Paul, with the -mystery which was hidden from ages and from generations, which was -uncovered by him for some half score years, and which then was buried -with him in his grave! Not in our day will he relive, with his incessant -effort to find a moral side for miracle, with his incessant effort to -make the intellect follow and secure all the workings of the religious -perception. Of those who care for religion, the multitude of us want the -materialism of the Apocalypse; the few want a vague religiosity. -Science, which more and more teaches us to find in the unapparent the -real, will gradually serve to conquer the materialism of popular -religion. The friends of vague religiosity, on the other hand, will be -more and more taught by experience that a theology, a scientific -appreciation of the facts of religion, is wanted for religion; but a -theology which is a true theology, not a false. Both these influences -will work for Paul's re-emergence. The doctrine of Paul will arise out -of the tomb where for centuries it has lain buried. It will edify the -church of the future; it will have the consent of happier generations, -the applause of less superstitious ages. All will be too little to pay -half the debt which the church of God owes to this 'least of the -apostles, who was not fit to be called an apostle, because he persecuted -the church of God.'<a name="FNanchor_103" id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> - - -<hr /> - - - -<h2 id="part2"> -PURITANISM -<br /> -AND THE -<br /> -CHURCH OF ENGLAND. -</h2> - -<p>In the foregoing treatise we have spoken of Protestantism, and have -tried to show, how, with its three notable tenets of predestination, -original sin, and justification, it has been pounding away for three -centuries at St. Paul's wrong words, and missing his essential doctrine. -And we took Puritanism to stand for Protestantism, and addressed -ourselves directly to the Puritans; for the Puritan Churches, we said, -seem to exist specially for the sake of these doctrines, one or more of -them. It is true, many Puritans now profess also the doctrine that it is -wicked to have a church connected with the State; but this is a later -invention,<a name="FNanchor_104" id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> designed to strengthen a separation previously made. It -requires to be noticed in due course; but meanwhile, we say that the aim -of setting forth certain Protestant doctrines purely and integrally is -the main title on which Puritan Churches rest their right of existing. -With historic Churches, like those of England or Rome, it is otherwise; -these doctrines may be in them, may be a part of their traditions, their -theological stock; but certainly no one will say that either of these -Churches was made for the express purpose of upholding these three -theological doctrines, jointly or severally. A little consideration will -show quite clearly the difference in this respect between the historic -Churches and the churches of separatists.</p> - -<p>People are not necessarily monarchists or republicans because they are -born and live under a monarchy or republic. They avail themselves of the -established government for those general purposes for which governments -and politics exist, but they do not, for the most part, trouble their -heads much about particular theoretical principles of government. Nay, -it may well happen that a man who lives and thrives under a monarchy -shall yet theoretically disapprove the principle of monarchy, or a man -who lives and thrives under a republic, the principle of republicanism. -But a man, or body of men, who have gone out of an established polity -from zeal for the principle of monarchy or republicanism, and have set -up a polity of their own for the very purpose of giving satisfaction to -this zeal, are in a false position whenever it shall appear that the -principle, from zeal for which they have constituted their separate -existence, is unsound. So predestinarianism and solifidianism, Calvinism -and Lutherism, may appear in the theology of a national or historic -Church, charged ever since the rise of Christianity with the task of -developing the immense and complex store of ideas contained in -Christianity; and when the stage of development has been reached at -which the unsoundness of predestinarian and solifidian dogmas becomes -manifest, they will be dropped out of the Church's theology, and she and -her task will remain what they were before. But when people from zeal -for these dogmas find their historic Church not predestinarian or -solifidian enough for them, and make new associations of their own, -which shall be predestinarian or solifidian absolutely, then, when the -dogmas are undermined, the associations are undermined too, and have -either to own themselves without a reason for existing, or to discover -some new reason in place of the old. Now, nothing which exists likes to -be driven to a strait of this kind; so every association which exists -because of zeal for the dogmas of election or justification, will -naturally cling to these dogmas longer and harder than other people. -Therefore we have treated the Puritan bodies in this country as the -great stronghold here of these doctrines; and in showing what a -perversion of Paul's real ideas these doctrines commonly called Pauline -are, we have addressed ourselves to the Puritans.</p> - -<p>But those who speak in the Puritans' name say that we charge upon -Puritanism, as a sectarian peculiarity, doctrine which is not only the -inevitable result of an honest interpretation of the writings of St. -Paul, but which is, besides, the creed held in common by Puritans and by -all the churches in Christendom, with one insignificant exception. Nay, -they even declare that 'no man in his senses can deny that the Church of -England was meant to be a thoroughly Protestant and Evangelical, and it -may be said Calvinistic Church.' To saddle Puritanism in special with -the doctrines we have called Puritan is, they say, a piece of unfairness -which has its motive in mere ill-will to Puritanism, a device which can -injure nobody but its author.</p> - -<p>Now, we have tried to show that the Puritans are quite wrong in -imagining their doctrine to be the inevitable result of an honest -interpretation of St. Paul's writings. That they are wrong we think is -certain; but so far are we from being moved, in anything that we do or -say in this matter, by ill-will to Puritanism and the Puritans, that it -is, on the contrary, just because of our hearty respect for them, and -from our strong sense of their value, that we speak as we do. Certainly -we consider them to be in the main, at present, an obstacle to progress -and to true civilisation. But this is because their worth is, in our -opinion, such that not only must one for their own sakes wish to see it -turned to more advantage, but others, from whom they are now separated, -would greatly gain by conjunction with them, and our whole collective -force of growth and progress be thereby immeasurably increased. In -short, our one feeling when we regard them, is a feeling, not of -ill-will, but of regret at waste of power; our one desire is a desire of -comprehension.</p> - -<p>But the waste of power must continue, and the comprehension is -impossible, so long as Puritanism imagines itself to possess, in its two -or three signal doctrines, what it calls <i>the gospel</i>; so long as it -constitutes itself separately on the plea of setting forth purely <i>the -gospel</i>, which it thus imagines itself to have seized; so long as it -judges others as not holding <i>the gospel</i>, or as holding additions to it -and variations from it. This fatal self-righteousness, grounded on a -false conceit of knowledge, makes comprehension impossible; because it -takes for granted the possession of the truth, and the power of deciding -how others violate it; and this is a position of superiority, and suits -conquest rather than comprehension.</p> - -<p>The good of comprehension in a national Church is, that the larger and -more various the body of members, the more elements of power and life -the Church will contain, the more points will there be of contact, the -more mutual support and stimulus, the more growth in perfection both of -thought and practice. The waste of power from not comprehending the -Puritans in the national Church is measured by the number and value of -elements which Puritanism could supply towards the collective growth of -the whole body. The national Church would grow more vigorously towards a -higher stage of insight into religious truth, and consequently towards a -greater perfection of practice, if it had these elements; and this is -why we wish for the Puritans in the Church. But, meanwhile, Puritanism -will not contribute to the common growth, mainly because it believes -that a certain set of opinions or scheme of theological doctrine is <i>the -gospel</i>; that it is possible and profitable to extract this, and that -Puritans have done so; and that it is the duty of men, who like -themselves have extracted it, to separate themselves from those who have -not, and to set themselves apart that they may profess it purely.</p> - -<p>To disabuse them of this error, which, by preventing collective life, -prevents also collective growth, it is necessary to show them that their -extracted scheme of theological doctrine is not really <i>the gospel</i>; and -that at any rate, therefore, it is not worth their while to separate -themselves, and to frustrate the hope of growth in common, merely for -this scheme's sake. And even if it were true, as they allege, that the -national and historic Churches of Christendom do equally with Puritanism -hold this scheme, or main parts of it, still it would be to Puritanism, -and not to the historic Churches, that in showing the invalidity and -unscripturalness of this scheme we should address ourselves, because the -Puritan Churches found their very existence on it, and the historic -Churches do not. And not founding their existence on it, nor falling -into separatism for it, the historic Churches have a collective life -which is very considerable, and a power of growth, even in respect of -the very scheme of doctrine in question, supposing them to hold it, far -greater than any which the Puritan Churches show, but which would be yet -greater and more fruitful still, if the historic Churches combined the -large and admirable contingent of Puritanism with their own forces. -Therefore, as we have said, it is out of no sort of malice or ill-will, -but from esteem for their fine qualities and from desire for their help, -that we have addressed ourselves to the Puritans. We propose to complete -now our dealings with this subject by showing how, as a matter of fact, -the Church of England (which is the historic Church practically in -question so far as Puritanism is concerned) seems to us to have -displayed with respect to those very tenets which we have criticised, -and for which we are said to have unfairly made Puritanism alone -responsible, a continual power of growth which has been wanting to the -Puritan congregations. This we propose to show first; and we will show -secondly, how, from the very theory of a historic or national Church, -the probability of this greater power of growth seems to follow, that we -may try and commend that theory a little more to the thoughts and favour -of our Puritan friends.</p> - -<p>The two great Puritan doctrines which we have criticised at such length -are the doctrines of predestination and justification. Of the aggressive -and militant Puritanism of our people, predestination has, almost up to -the present day, been the favourite and distinguishing doctrine; it was -the doctrine which Puritan flocks greedily sought, which Puritan -ministers powerfully preached, and called others <i>carnal gospellers</i> for -not preaching. This Geneva doctrine accompanied the Geneva discipline. -Puritanism's first great wish and endeavour was to establish both the -one and the other absolutely in the Church of England, and it became -nonconforming because it failed. Now, it is well known that the High -Church divines of the seventeenth century were Arminian, that the Church -of England was the stronghold of Arminianism, and that Arminianism is, -as we have said, an effort of man's practical good sense to get rid of -what is shocking to it in Calvinism. But what is not so well known, and -what is eminently worthy of remark, is the constant pressure applied by -Puritanism upon the Church of England, to put the Calvinistic doctrine -more distinctly into her formularies, and to tie her up more strictly to -this doctrine; the constant resistance offered by the Church of England, -and the large degree in which Nonconformity is really due to this cause.</p> - -<p>Everybody knows how far Nonconformity is due to the Church of England's -rigour in imposing an explicit declaration of adherence to her -formularies. But only a few, who have searched out the matter, know how -far Nonconformity is due, also, to the Church of England's invincible -reluctance to narrow her large and loose formularies to the strict -Calvinistic sense dear to Puritanism. Yet this is what the record of -conferences shows at least as signally as it shows the domineering -spirit of the High Church clergy; but our current political histories, -written always with an anti-ecclesiastical bias, which is natural -enough, inasmuch as the Church party was not the party of civil liberty, -leaves this singularly out of sight. Yet there is a very catena of -testimonies to prove it; to show us, from Elizabeth's reign to Charles -the Second's, Calvinism, as a power both within and without the Church -of England, trying to get decisive command of her formularies; and the -Church of England, with the instinct of a body meant to live and grow, -and averse to fetter and engage its future, steadily resisting.</p> - -<p>The Lambeth Articles of 1595 exhibit Calvinism potent in the Church of -England herself, and among the bishops of the Church. True; but could it -establish itself there? No; the Lambeth Articles were recalled and -suppressed, and Archbishop Whitgift was threatened with the penalties of -a <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>præmunire</i></span> for having published them. Again, it was usual from 1552 -onwards to print in the English Bibles a catechism asserting the -Calvinistic doctrine of absolute election and reprobation. In the first -Bibles of the authorised version this catechism appeared; but it was -removed in 1615. Yet the Puritans had met James the First, at his -accession in 1603, with the petition that <i>there may be an uniformity of -doctrine prescribed</i>; meaning an uniformity in this sense of strict -Calvinism. Thus from the very commencement the Church, as regards -doctrine, was for opening; Puritanism was for narrowing.</p> - -<p>Then came, in 1604, the Hampton Court Conference. Here, as usual, -political historians reproach the Church with having conceded so little. -These historians, as we have said, think solely of the Puritans as the -religious party favourable to civil liberty, and on that account desire -the preponderance of Puritanism in its disputes with the Church. But, as -regards freedom of thought and truth of ideas, what was it that the -Church was pressed by Puritanism to concede, and what was the character -and tendency of the Church's refusal? The first Puritan petition at this -Conference was 'that the <i>doctrine</i> of the Church might be preserved in -purity according to God's Word.' That is, according to the Calvinistic -interpretation put upon God's Word by Calvin and the Puritans after him; -an interpretation which we have shown to be erroneous and unscriptural. -This Calvinistic doctrine of predestination the Puritans wanted to plant -hard and fast in the Church's formularies, and the Church resisted. The -Puritan foreman complained of the loose wording of the Thirty-nine -Articles because it allowed an escape from the strict doctrine of -Calvinism, and moved that the Lambeth Articles, strictly Calvinistic, -might be inserted into the Book of Articles. The Bishops resisted, and -here are the words of their spokesman, the Bishop of London. 'The Bishop -of London answered, that too many in those days, neglecting holiness of -life, <i>laid all their religion upon predestination</i>,—"If I shall be -saved, I shall be saved," which he termed a desperate doctrine, showing -it to be contrary to good divinity, which teaches us to reason rather -<i>ascendendo</i> than <i>descendendo</i>, thus: "I live in obedience to God, in -love with my neighbour, I follow my vocation, &c., therefore I trust -that God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation;" not thus, -which is the usual course of argument: "God hath predestinated and -chosen me to life, therefore, though I sin never so grievously, I shall -not be damned, for whom he once loveth he loveth to the end."' Who will -deny that this resistance of the Church to the Puritans, who, <i>laying -all their religion upon predestination</i>, wanted to make the Church do -the same, was as favourable to growth of thought and to sound -philosophy, as it was consonant to good sense?</p> - -<p>We have already, in the foregoing treatise, quoted from the complaints -against the Church by the Committee of Divines appointed by the House of -Lords in 1641, when Puritanism was strongly in the ascendent. Some in -the Church teach, say the Puritan complainers, 'that good works are -concauses with faith in the act of justification; some have oppugned the -certitude of salvation; some have maintained that the Lord's day is kept -merely by ecclesiastical constitution; some have defended the whole -gross substance of Arminianism, that the act of conversion depends upon -the concurrence of men's free will; some have denied original sin; some -have broached out of Socinus a most uncomfortable and desperate -doctrine, that late repentance,—that is, upon the last bed of -sickness,—is unfruitful, at least, to reconcile the penitent to God.' -What we insist upon is, that the growth and movement of thought, on -religious matters, are here shown to be in the Church; and that on these -two cardinal doctrines of predestination and justification, with which -we are accused of unfairly saddling Puritanism alone, Puritanism did -really want to make the national religion hinge, while the Church did -not, but resisted.</p> - -<p>The resistance of the Church was at that time vanquished, not by -importing strict Calvinism into the Prayer Book, but by casting out the -Prayer Book altogether. By ordinance in 1645, the use of the Prayer -Book, which for churches had already been forbidden, was forbidden also -for all private places and families; all copies to be found in churches -were to be delivered up, and heavy penalties were imposed on persons -retaining them.</p> - -<p>We come to the occasion where the Church is thought to have most -decisively shown her unyieldingness,—the Savoy Conference in 1661, -after King Charles the Second's restoration. The question was, what -alterations were to be made in the Prayer Book, so as to enable the -Puritans to use it as well as the Church party. Having in view doctrine -and free development of thought, we say again it was the Puritans who -were for narrowing, it was the Churchmen who were for keeping open. -Their heads full of these tenets of predestination, original sin, and -justification, which we are accused of charging upon them exclusively -and unfairly, the Puritans complain that the Church Liturgy seems very -defective,—why? Because 'the systems of doctrine of a church should -summarily comprehend all such doctrines as are necessary to be -believed,' and the liturgy does not set down these explicitly enough. -For instance, 'the Confession,' they say, 'is very defective, not -clearly expressing original sin. The Catechism is defective as to many -necessary doctrines of our religion, some even of the essentials of -Christianity not being mentioned except in the Creed, and there not so -explicit as ought to be in a catechism.' And what is the answer of the -bishops? It is the answer of people with an instinct that this -definition and explicitness demanded by the Puritans are incompatible -with the conditions of life of a historic church. 'The Church,' they -say, 'hath been careful to put nothing into the Liturgy but that which -is either evidently the Word of God, or what hath been generally -received in the Catholic Church. The Catechism is not intended as a -whole body of divinity.' The Puritans had requested that 'the Church -prayers might contain <i>nothing questioned by pious, learned, and -orthodox persons</i>.' Seizing on this expression, wherein is contained the -ground of that <i>separatism for opinions</i> which we hold to be so fatal -not only to Church life but also to the natural growth of religious -thought, the bishops ask, and in the very language of good sense: 'Who -are <i>pious, learned, and orthodox persons</i>? Are we to take for such all -who shall confidently affirm themselves to be such? If by orthodox be -meant those who adhere to Scripture and the Catholic consent of -antiquity, we do not yet know that any part of our Liturgy has been -questioned by such. It was the wisdom of our reformers to draw up <i>such -a liturgy as neither Romanist nor Protestant could justly except -against</i>. Persons want the book to be altered for their own -satisfaction.'</p> - -<p>This allegation respecting the character of the Liturgy is undoubtedly -true, for the Puritans themselves expressly admitted its truth, and -urged this as a reason for altering the Liturgy. It is in consonance -with what is so often said, and truly said, of the Thirty-nine Articles, -that they are <i>articles of peace</i>. This, indeed, makes the Articles -scientifically worthless. Metaphysical propositions, such as they in the -main are, drawn up with a studied design for their being vague and -loose, can have no metaphysical value. But no one then thought of doing -without metaphysical articles; so to make them articles of peace showed -a true conception of the conditions of life and growth in a church. The -readiness to put a lax sense on subscription is a proof of the same -disposition of mind. Chillingworth's judgment about the meaning of -subscription is well known. 'For the Church of England, I am persuaded -that the constant doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox, that whosoever -believes it and lives according to it, undoubtedly he shall be saved; -and that there is no error in it which may necessitate or warrant any -man to disturb the peace or renounce the communion of it. <i>This, in my -opinion, is all that is intended by subscription.</i>' And Laud, a very -different man from Chillingworth, held on this point a like opinion with -him.</p> - -<p>Certainly the Church of England was in no humour, at the time of the -Savoy Conference, to deal tenderly with the Puritans. It was too much -disposed to show to the Puritans the same sort of tenderness which the -Puritans had shown to the Church. The nation, moreover, was nearly as -ill-disposed as the Church to the Puritans; and this proves well what -the narrowness and tyrannousness of Puritanism dominant had really been. -But the Church undoubtedly said and did to Puritanism after the -Restoration much that was harsh and bitter, and therefore inexcusable in -a Christian church. Examples of Churchmen so speaking and dealing may be -found in the transactions of 1661; but perhaps the most offensive -example of a Churchman of this kind, and who deserves therefore to be -studied, is a certain Dr. Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford -and Dean of Gloucester, who was put forward to thwart Tillotson's -projects of comprehension in 1689. A certain number of Dr. Janes there -have always been in the Church. There are a certain number of them in -the Church now, and there always will be a certain number of them. No -Church could exist with many of them; but one should have a sample or -two of them always before one's mind, and remember how to the excluded -party a few, and those the worst, of their excluders, are always apt to -stand for the whole, in order to comprehend the full bitterness and -resentment of Puritanism against the Church of England. Else one would -be inclined to say, after attentively and impartially observing the two -parties, that the persistence of the Church in pressing for conformity -arose, not as the political historians would have it, from the lust of -haughty ecclesiastics for dominion and for imposing their law on the -vanquished, but from a real sense that their formularies were made so -large and open, and the sense put upon subscription to them was so -indulgent, that any reasonable man could honestly conform; and that it -was perverseness and determination to impose their special ideas on the -Church, and to narrow the Church's latitude, which made the Puritans -stand out.</p> - -<p>Nay, and it was with the diction of the Prayer Book, as it was with its -doctrine; the Church took the side which most commands the sympathy of -liberal-minded men. Baxter had his rival Prayer Book which he proposed -to substitute for the old one. And this is how the 'Reformed Liturgy' -was to begin: 'Eternal, incomprehensible and invisible God, infinite in -power, wisdom and goodness, dwelling in the light which no man can -approach, where thousand thousands minister unto thee, and ten thousand -times ten thousand stand before thee,' &c. This, I say, was to have -taken the place of our old friend, <i>Dearly beloved brethren</i>; and here, -again, we can hardly refuse approval to the Church's resistance to -Puritan innovations. We could wish, indeed, the Church had shown the -same largeness in consenting to relax ceremonies, which she showed in -refusing to tighten dogma, or to spoil diction. Worse still, the angry -wish to drive by violence, when the other party will not move by reason, -finally no doubt appears; and the Church has much to blame herself for -in the Act of Uniformity. Blame she deserves, and she has had it -plentifully; but what has not been enough perceived is, that really the -conviction of her own moderation, openness, and latitude, as far as -regards doctrine, seems to have filled her mind during her dealings with -the Puritans; and that her impatience with them was in great measure -impatience at seeing these so ill-appreciated by them. Very -ill-appreciated by them they certainly were; and, as far as doctrine is -concerned, the quarrel between the Church and Puritanism undoubtedly -was, that for the doctrines of predestination, original sin, and -justification, Puritanism wanted more exclusive prominence, more -dogmatic definition, more bar to future escape and development; while -the Church resisted.</p> - -<p>And as the instinct of the Church always made her avoid, on these three -favourite tenets of Puritanism, the stringency of definition which -Puritanism tried to force upon her, always made her leave herself room -for growth in regard to them,—so, if we look for the positive -beginnings and first signs of growth, of disengagement from the stock -notions of popular theology about predestination, original sin, and -justification, it is among Churchmen, and not among Puritans, that we -shall find them. Few will deny that as to the doctrines of -predestination and original sin, at any rate, the mind of religious men -is no longer what it was in the seventeenth century or in the -eighteenth. There has been evident growth and emancipation; Puritanism -itself no longer holds these doctrines in the rigid way it once did. To -whom is this change owing? who were the beginners of it? They were men -using that comparative openness of mind and accessibility to ideas which -was fostered by the Church. The very complaints which we have quoted -from the Puritan divines prove that this was so. Henry More, saying in -the heat of the Calvinistic controversy, what it needed insight to say -then, but what almost every one's common sense says now, that 'it were -to be wished the Quinquarticular points were all reduced to this one, -namely, <i>That none shall be saved without sincere obedience</i>;' Jeremy -Taylor saying in the teeth of the superstitious popular doctrine of -original sin: 'Original sin, as it is at this day commonly explicated, -was not the doctrine of the primitive church; but when Pelagius had -puddled the stream, St. Austin was so angry that he stamped and puddled -it more,'—this sort of utterance from Churchmen it was, that first -introduced into our religious world the current of more independent -thought concerning the doctrines of predestination and original sin, -which has now made its way even amidst Puritans themselves.</p> - -<p>Here the emancipation has reached the Puritans; but it proceeded from -the Church. That Puritanism is yet emancipated from the popular doctrine -of justification cannot be asserted. On the contrary, the more it -loosens its hold on the doctrine of predestination the more it tightens -it on that of justification. We shall have occasion by and by to discuss -Wesley's words: '<i>Plead thou solely the blood of the Covenant, the -ransom paid for thy proud stubborn soul!</i>' and to show how modern -Methodism glories in holding aloft as its standard this teaching of -Wesley's, and this teaching above all. The many tracts which have lately -been sent me in reference to this subject go all the same way. Like -Luther, they hold that 'all heretics have continually failed in this one -point, that they do not rightly understand or know the article of -<i>justification</i>:' 'do not see' (to continue to use Luther's words,) -'that by none other sacrifice or offering could God's fierce anger be -appeased, but by the precious blood of the Son of God.' That this -doctrine is founded upon an entire misunderstanding of St. Paul's -writings we have shown; that there is very visible a tendency in the -minds of religious people to outgrow it, is true, but where alone does -this tendency manifest itself with any steadiness or power? In the -Church. The inevitable movement of growth will in time extend itself to -Puritanism also. Let it be remembered in that day that not only does the -movement come to Puritanism from the Church, but it comes to Churchmen -of our century from a seed of growth and development inherent in the -Church, and which was manifest in the Church long ago!</p> - -<p>That the accompaniments of the doctrine of justification, the tenets of -conversion, instantaneous sanctification, assurance, and sinless -perfection,—tenets which are not the essence of Wesley, but which are -the essence of Wesleyan Methodism, and which have in them so much that -is delusive and dangerous,—that these should have been discerningly -judged by that mixture of piety and sobriety which marks Anglicans of -the best type, such as Bishop Wilson,<a name="FNanchor_105" id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> will surprise no one. But -years before Wesley was born, the fontal doctrine itself,—Wesley's -'<i>Plead thou solely the blood of the Covenant!</i>'—had been criticised by -Hammond thus, and the signal of deliverance from the Lutheran doctrine -of justification given: 'The solifidian looks upon his faith as the -utmost accomplishment and end, and not only as the first elements of his -task, which is,—<i>the superstructing of good life</i>. The solifidian -believes himself to have the only sanctified necessary doctrines, that -having them renders his condition safe, and every man who believes them -a pure Christian professor. In respect of solifidianism it is worth -remembering what Epiphanius observes of the primitive times, that -<i>wickedness was the only heresy</i>, that impious and pious living divided -the whole Christian world into erroneous and orthodox.'</p> - -<p>In point of fact, therefore, the historic Church in England, not -existing for special opinions, but proceeding by development, has shown -much greater freedom of mind as regards the doctrines of election, -original sin, and justification, than the Nonconformists have; and has -refused, in spite of Puritan pressure, to tie herself too strictly to -these doctrines, to make them all in all. She thus both has been and is -more serviceable than Puritanism to religious progress; because the -separating for opinions, which is proper to Puritanism, rivets the -separatist to those opinions, and is thus opposed to that development -and gradual exhibiting of the full sense of the Bible and Christianity, -which is essential to religious progress. To separate for the doctrine -of predestination, of justification, of scriptural church-discipline, is -to be false to the idea of development, to imagine that you can seize -the absolute sense of Scripture from your own present point of view, and -to cut yourself off from growth and gradual illumination. That a -comparison between the course things have taken in Puritanism and in the -Church goes to prove the truth of this as a matter of fact, is what I -have been trying to show hitherto; in what remains I purpose to show -how, as a matter of theory and antecedent likelihood, it seems probable -and natural that so this should be.</p> - -<p>A historic Church cannot choose but allow the principle of development, -for it is written in its institutions and history. An admirable writer, -in a book which is one of his least known works, but which contains, -perhaps, even a greater number of profound and valuable ideas than any -other one of them, has set forth, both persuasively and truly, the -impression of this sort which Church-history cannot but convey. 'We have -to account,' says Dr. Newman, in his <i>Essay on Development</i>, 'for that -apparent variation and growth of doctrine which embarrasses us when we -would consult history for the true idea of Christianity. The increase -and expansion of the Christian creed and ritual, and the variations -which have attended the process in the case of individual writers and -churches, are the necessary attendants on any philosophy or polity which -takes possession of the intellect and heart, and has had any wide or -extended dominion. From the nature of the human mind, time is necessary -for the full comprehension and perfection of great ideas. The highest -and most wonderful truths, though communicated to the world once for all -by inspired teachers, could not be comprehended all at once by the -recipients; but, as admitted and transmitted by minds not inspired, and -through media which were human, have required only the longer time and -deeper thought for their full elucidation.' And again: 'Ideas may remain -when the expression of them is indefinitely varied. Nay, one cause of -corruption in religion is the refusal to follow the course of doctrine -as it moves on, and an obstinacy in the notions of the past. So our Lord -found his people precisians in their obedience to the letter; he -condemned them for not being led on to its spirit,—that is, its -development. The Gospel is the development of the Law; yet what -difference seems wider than that which separates the unbending rule of -Moses from the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? The more -claim an idea has to be considered living, the more various will be its -aspects; and the more social and political is its nature, the more -complicated and subtle will be its developments, and the longer and more -eventful will be its course. Such is Christianity.' And yet once more: -'It may be objected that inspired documents, such as the Holy -Scriptures, at once determine doctrine without further trouble. But they -were intended to create <i>an idea</i>, and that idea is not in the sacred -text, but in the mind of the reader; and the question is, whether that -idea is communicated to him in its completeness and minute accuracy on -its first apprehension, or expands in his heart and intellect, and comes -to perfection in the course of time. If it is said that inspiration -supplied the place of this development in the first recipients of -Christianity, still the time at length came when its recipients ceased -to be inspired; and on these recipients the revealed truths would fall -as in other cases, at first vaguely and generally, and would afterwards -be completed by developments.'</p> - -<p>The notion thus admirably expounded of a gradual understanding of the -Bible, a progressive development of Christianity, is the same which was -in Bishop Butler's mind when he laid down in his <i>Analogy</i> that 'the -Bible contains many truths as yet undiscovered.' 'And as,' he says, 'the -whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood, so, if it ever comes to -be understood, before the restitution of all things and without -miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural -knowledge is come at,—by the continuance and progress of learning and -of liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and -pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and -disregarded by the generality of the world. For this is the way in which -all improvements are made; by thoughtful men's tracing on obscure hints, -as it were, dropped as by nature accidentally, or which seem to come -into our minds by chance.' And again: 'Our existence is not only -successive, as it must be of necessity, but one state of our life and -being is appointed by God to be a preparation for another, and that to -be the means of attaining to another succeeding one; infancy to -childhood, childhood to youth, youth to mature age. Men are impatient -and for precipitating things; but the author of nature appears -deliberate throughout his operations, accomplishing his natural ends by -slow successive steps. Thus, in the daily course of natural providence, -God operates in the very same manner as in the dispensation of -Christianity; making one thing subservient to another, this to somewhat -further; and so on, through a progressive series of means which extend -both backward and forward, beyond our utmost view. Of this manner of -operation everything we see in the course of nature is as much an -instance as any part of the Christian dispensation.'</p> - -<p>All this is indeed incomparably well said; and with Dr. Newman we may, -on the strength of it all, beyond any doubt, 'fairly conclude that -Christian doctrine admits of formal, legitimate, and true developments;' -that 'the whole Bible is written on the principle of development.'</p> - -<p>Dr. Newman, indeed, uses this idea in a manner which seems to us -arbitrary and condemned by the idea itself. He uses it in support of the -pretensions of the Church of Rome to an infallible authority on points -of doctrine. He says, with much ingenuity, to Protestants: The doctrines -you receive are no more on the face of the Bible, or in the plain -teaching of the ante-Nicene Church, which alone you consider pure, than -the doctrines you reject. The doctrine of the Trinity is a development, -as much as the doctrine of Purgatory. Both of them are developments made -by the Church, by the post-Nicene Church. The determination of the Canon -of Scripture, a thing of vital importance to you who acknowledge no -authority but Scripture, is a development due to the post-Nicene -Church.—And thus Dr. Newman would compel Protestants to admit that -which is, he declares, in itself reasonable,—namely, 'the probability -of the appointment in Christianity of an external authority to decide -upon the true developments of doctrine and practice in it, thereby -separating them from the mass of mere human speculation, extravagance, -corruption, and error, in and out of which they grow. This is the -doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, of faith and obedience -towards the Church, founded on the probability of its never erring in -its declarations or commands.'</p> - -<p>Now, asserted in this absolute way, and extended to doctrine as well as -discipline, to speculative thought as well as to Christian practice, Dr. -Newman's conclusion seems at variance with his own theory of -development, and to be something like an instance of what Bishop Butler -criticises when he says: 'Men are impatient, and for precipitating -things.' But Dr. Newman has himself supplied us with a sort of -commentary on these words of Butler's which is worth quoting, because it -throws more light on our point than Butler's few words can throw on it -by themselves. Dr. Newman says: 'Development is not an effect of wishing -and resolving, or of forced enthusiasm, or of any mechanism of -reasoning, or of any mere subtlety of intellect; but comes of its own -innate power of expansion within the mind in its season, though with the -use of reflection and argument and original thought, more or less as it -may happen, with a dependence on the ethical growth of the mind itself, -and with a reflex influence upon it.'</p> - -<p>It is impossible to point out more sagaciously and expressively the -natural, spontaneous, free character of true development; how such a -development must follow laws of its own, may often require vast periods -of time, cannot be hurried, cannot be stopped. And so far as -Christianity deals,—as, in its metaphysical theology, it does -abundantly deal,—with thought and speculation, it must surely be -admitted that for its true and ultimate development in this line more -time is required, and other conditions have to be fulfilled, than we -have had already. So far as Christian doctrine contains speculative -philosophical ideas, never since its origin have the conditions been -present for determining these adequately; certainly not in the mediæval -Church, which so dauntlessly strove to determine them. And therefore on -every Creed and Council is judgment passed in Bishop Butler's sentence: -'<i>The Bible contains many truths as yet undiscovered.</i>'</p> - -<p>The Christian religion has practice for its great end and aim; but it -raises, as anyone can see, and as Church-history proves, numerous and -great questions of philosophy and of scientific criticism. Well, for the -true elucidation of such questions, and for their final solution, time -and favourable developing conditions are confessedly necessary. From the -end of the apostolic age and of the great fontal burst of Christianity, -down to the present time, have such conditions ever existed in the -Christian communities, for determining adequately the questions of -philosophy and scientific criticism which the Christian religion starts? -<i>God</i>, <i>creation</i>, <i>will</i>, <i>evil</i>, <i>propitiation</i>, <i>immortality</i>,—these -terms and many more of the same kind, however much they might in the -Bible be used in a concrete and practical manner, yet plainly had in -themselves a provocation to abstract thought, carried with them the -occasions of a criticism and a philosophy, which must sooner or later -make its appearance in the Church. It did make its appearance, and the -question is whether it has ever yet appeared there under conditions -favourable to its true development. Surely this is best elucidated by -considering whether questions of criticism and philosophy in general -ever had one of their happy moments, their times for successful -development, in the early and middle ages of Christendom at all, or have -had one of them in the Christian churches, as such, since. All these -questions hang together, and the time that is improper for solving one -sort of them truly, is improper for solving the others.</p> - -<p>Well, surely, historic criticism, criticism of style, criticism of -nature, no one would go to the early or middle ages of the Church for -illumination on these matters. How then should those ages develop -successfully a philosophy of theology, or in other words, a criticism of -physics and metaphysics, which involves the three other criticisms and -more besides? Church-theology is an elaborate attempt at a philosophy of -theology, at a philosophical criticism. In Greece, before Christianity -appeared, there had been a favouring period for the development of such -a criticism; a considerable movement of it took place, and considerable -results were reached. When Christianity began, this movement was in -decadence; it declined more and more till it died quite out; it revived -very slowly, and as it waxed, the mediæval Church waned. The doctrine of -universals is a question of philosophy discussed in Greece, and -re-discussed in the middle ages. Whatever light this doctrine receives -from Plato's treatment of it, or Aristotle's, in whatever state they -left it, will anyone say that the Nominalists and Realists brought any -more light to it, that they developed it in any way, or could develop -it? For the same reason, St. Augustine's criticism of God's eternal -decrees, original sin, and justification, the criticism of St. Thomas -Aquinas on them, the decisions of the Church on them, are of necessity, -and from the very nature of things, inadequate, because, being -philosophical developments, they are made in an age when the forces for -true philosophical development are waning or wanting.</p> - -<p>So when Hooker says most truly: 'Our belief in the Trinity, the -co-eternity of the Son of God with his Father, the proceeding of the -Spirit from the Father and the Son, with other principal points the -necessity whereof is by none denied, are notwithstanding in Scripture -nowhere to be found by express literal mention, only deduced they are -out of Scripture by collection;'—when Hooker thus points, out, what is -undoubtedly the truth, that these Church-doctrines are developments, we -may add this other truth equally undoubted,—that being <i>philosophical</i> -developments, they are developments of a kind which the Church has never -yet had the right conditions for making adequately, any more than it has -had the conditions for developing out of what is said in the Book of -Genesis a true philosophy of nature, or out of what is said in the Book -of Daniel, a true philosophy of history. It matters nothing whether the -scientific truth was there, and the problem was to extract it; or not -there, and the problem was to understand why it was not there, and the -relation borne by what was there to the scientific truth. The Church had -no means of solving either the one problem or the other. And this from -no fault at all of the Church, but for the same reason that she was -unfitted to solve a difficulty in Aristotle's <i>Physics</i> or Plato's -<i>Timæus</i>, and to determine the historical value of Herodotus or Livy; -simply from the natural operation of the law of development, which for -success in philosophy and criticism requires certain conditions, which -in the early and mediæval Church were not to be found.</p> - -<p>And when the movement of philosophy and criticism came with the -Renascence, this movement was almost entirely outside the Churches, -whether Catholic or Protestant, and not inside them. It worked in men -like Descartes and Bacon, and not in men like Luther and Calvin; so that -the doctrine of these two eminent personages, Luther and Calvin, so far -as it was a philosophical and critical development from Scripture, had -no more likelihood of being an adequate development than the doctrine of -the Council of Trent. And so it has gone on to this day. Philosophy and -criticism have become a great power in the world, and inevitably tend to -alter and develop Church-doctrine, so far as this doctrine is, as to a -great extent it is, philosophical and critical. Yet the seat of the -developing force is not in the Church itself, but elsewhere; its -influences filter strugglingly into the Church, and the Church slowly -absorbs and incorporates them. And whatever hinders their filtering in -and becoming incorporated, hinders truth and the natural progress of -things.</p> - -<p>While, therefore, we entirely agree with Dr. Newman and with the great -Anglican divines that the whole Bible is written on the principle of -development, and that Christianity in its doctrine and discipline is and -must be a development of the Bible, we yet cannot agree that for the -adequate development of Christian doctrine, so far as theology exhibits -this metaphysically and scientifically, the Church, whether ante-Nicene -or post-Nicene, has ever yet furnished a channel. Thought and science -follow their own law of development, they are slowly elaborated in the -growth and forward pressure of humanity, in what Shakspeare calls,—</p> -<table summary="centered poem"><tbody><tr><td><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p>. . . . . the prophetic soul</p> -<p class="i2">Of the wide world dreaming on things to come;</p> -</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table> -<p class="cont">and their ripeness and unripeness, as Dr. Newman most truly says, are -not an effect of our wishing or resolving. Rather do they seem brought -about by a power such as Goethe figures by the <span xml:lang="de" lang="de"><i>Zeit-Geist</i></span> or -Time-Spirit, and St. Paul describes as a divine power <i>revealing</i> -additions to what we possess already.</p> - -<p>But sects of men are apt to be shut up in sectarian ideas of their own, -and to be less open to new general ideas than the main body of men; -therefore St. Paul in the same breath exhorts to unity. What may justly -be conceded to the Catholic Church is, that in her idea of a continuous -developing power in united Christendom to work upon the data furnished -by the Bible, and produce new combinations from them as the growth of -time required it, she followed a true instinct. But the right -<i>philosophical</i> developments she vainly imagined herself to have had the -power to produce, and her attempts in this direction were at most but a -prophecy of this power, as alchemy is said to have been a prophecy of -chemistry.</p> - -<p>With developments of discipline and church-order it is very different. -The Bible raises, as we have seen, many and great questions of -philosophy and criticism; still, essentially the Church was not a -corporation for speculative purposes, but a corporation for purposes of -moral growth and of practice. Terms like <i>God</i>, <i>creation</i>, <i>will</i>, -<i>evil</i>, <i>propitiation</i>, <i>immortality</i>, evoke, as we have said, and must -evoke, sooner or later, a philosophy; but to evoke this was the accident -and not the essence of Christianity. What, then, was the essence?</p> - -<p>An ingenious writer, as unlike Dr. Newman as it is possible to conceive, -has lately told us. In an article in <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>,—an article -written with great vigour and acuteness,—this writer advises us to -return to Paley, whom we were beginning to neglect, because the real -important essence of Christianity, or rather, to quote quite literally, -'the only form of Christianity which is worthy of the serious -consideration of rational men, is Protestantism as stated by Paley and -his school.' And why? 'Because this Protestantism enables the saint to -prove to the worldly man that Christ threatened him with hell-fire, and -proved his power to threaten by rising from the dead and ascending into -heaven; <i>and these allegations are the fundamental assertions of -Christianity</i>.'</p> - -<p>Now it may be said that this is a somewhat contracted view of 'the -unsearchable riches of Christ;' but we will not quarrel with it. And -this for several reasons. In the first place, it is the view often taken -by popular theology. In the second place, it is the view best fitted to -serve its Benthamite author's object, which is to get Christianity out -of the way altogether. In the third place, its shortness gives us -courage to try and do what is the hardest thing in the world, namely, to -pack a statement of the main drift of Christianity into a few lines of -nearly as short compass.</p> - -<p>What then was, in brief, the Christian gospel, or 'good news'? It was -this: <i>The kingdom of God is come unto you</i>. The power of Jesus upon the -multitudes who heard him gladly, was not that by rising from the dead -and ascending into heaven he enabled the saint to prove to the worldly -man the certainty of hell-fire (for he had not yet done so); but that -<i>he talked to them about the kingdom of God</i>.<a name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> And what is the -kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven? It is this: <i>God's will done, as in -heaven so on earth</i>. And how was this come to mankind? Because <i>Jesus is -come to save his people from their sins</i>. And what is being saved from -our sins? This: <i>Entering into the kingdom of heaven by doing the will -of our Father which is in heaven</i>. And how does Christ enable us to do -this? By teaching us <i>to take his yoke upon us, and learn of him to deny -ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him, and to lose our -life for the purpose of saving it</i>. So that St. Paul might say most -truly that the seal of the sure foundation of God in Christianity was -this: <i>Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity</i>: or, as he elsewhere expands it: <i>Let him bring forth the -fruits of the Spirit,—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, -goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.</i><a name="FNanchor_107" id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> - -<p>On this foundation arose the Christian Church, and not on any foundation -of speculative metaphysics. It was inevitable that the speculative -metaphysics should come, but they were not the foundation. When they -came, the danger of the Christian Church was that she should take them -for the foundation. The people who were built on the real foundation, -who were united in the joy of Christ's good news, naturally, as they -came to know of one another's existence, as their relations with one -another multiplied, as the sense of sympathy in the possession of a -common treasure deepened,—naturally, I say, drew together in one body, -with an organisation growing out of the needs of a growing body. It is -quite clear that the more strongly Christians felt their common business -in setting forward upon earth, through Christ's spirit, the kingdom of -God, the more they would be drawn to coalesce into one society for this -business, with the natural and true notion that the acting together in -this way offers to men greater helps for reaching their aim, presents -fewer distractions, and above all, supplies a more animating force of -sympathy and mutual assurance, than the acting separately. Only the -sense of differences greater than the sense of sympathy could defeat -this tendency.</p> - -<p>Dr. Newman has told us what an impression was once made upon his mind by -the sentence: <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Securus judicat orbis terrarum</i></span>. We have shown how, for -matters of philosophical judgment, not yet settled but requiring -development to clear them, the consent of the world, at a time when this -clearing development cannot have happened, seems to carry little or no -weight at all; indeed, as to judgment on these points, we should rather -be inclined to lay down the very contrary of Dr. Newman's affirmation, -and to say: <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>Securus delirat orbis terrarum</i></span>. But points of speculative -theology being out of the question, and the practical ground and purpose -of man's religion being broadly and plainly fixed, we should be quite -disposed to concede to Dr. Newman, that <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>securus</i> colit <i>orbis -terrarum</i></span>;—those pursue this purpose best who pursue it together. For -unless prevented by extraneous causes, they manifestly tend, as the -history of the Church's growth shows, to pursue it together.</p> - -<p>Nonconformists are fond of talking of the unity which may co-exist with -separation, and they say: 'There are four evangelists, yet one gospel; -why should there not be many separate religious bodies, yet one Church?' -But their theory of unity in separation is a theory palpably invented to -cover existing facts, and their argument from the evangelists is a -paralogism. For the Four Gospels arose out of no thought of divergency; -they were not designed as corrections of one prior gospel, or of one -another; they were concurring testimonies borne to the same fact. But -the several religious bodies of Christendom plainly grew out of an -intention of divergency; clearly they were designed to correct the -imperfections of one prior church and of each other; and to say of -things sprung out of discord that they may make <i>one</i>, because things -sprung out of concord may make <i>one</i>, is like saying that because -several agreements may make a peace, therefore several wars may make a -peace too. No; without some strong motive to the contrary, men united by -the pursuit of a clearly defined common aim of irresistible -attractiveness naturally coalesce; and since they coalesce naturally, -they are clearly right in coalescing and find their advantage in it.</p> - -<p>All that Dr. Newman has so excellently said about development applies -here legitimately and fully. Existence justifies additions and stages in -existence. The living edifice planted on the foundation, <i>Let every one -that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity</i>, could not but -grow, if it lived at all. If it grew, it could not but make -developments, and all developments not inconsistent with the aim of its -original foundation, and not extending beyond the moral and practical -sphere which was the sphere of its original foundation, are legitimated -by the very fact of the Church having in the natural evolution of its -life and growth made them. A boy does not wear the clothes or follow the -ways of an infant, nor a man those of a boy; yet they are all engaged in -the one same business of developing their growing life, and to the -clothes to be worn and the ways to be followed for the purpose of doing -this, nature will, in general, direct them safely. The several scattered -congregations of the first age of Christianity coalesced into one -community, just as the several scattered Christians had earlier still -coalesced into congregations. Why?—because such was the natural course -of things. It had nothing inconsistent with the fundamental ground of -Christians, <i>Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from -iniquity</i>; and it was approved by their growing and enlarging in it. -They developed a church-discipline with a hierarchy of bishops and -archbishops, which was not that of the first times; they developed -church-usages, such as the practice of infant baptism, which were not -those of the first times; they developed a church-ritual with ceremonies -which were not those of the first times;—they developed all these, just -as they developed a church-architecture which was not that of the first -times, because they were no longer in the first times, and required for -their expanding growth what suited their own times. They coalesced with -the State because they grew by doing so. They called the faith they -possessed in common the <i>Catholic</i>, that is, the general or universal -faith. They developed, also, as we have seen, dogma or a theological -philosophy. Both dogma and discipline became a part of the Catholic -faith, or profession of the general body of Christians.</p> - -<p>Now to develop a discipline, or form of outward life for itself, the -Church, as has been said, had necessarily, like every other living -thing, the requisite qualifications; to develop scientific dogma it had -not. But even of the dogma which the Church developed it may be said, -that, from the very nature of things, it was probably, as compared with -the opposing dogma over which it prevailed, the more suited to the -actual condition of the Church's life, and to the due progress of the -divine work for which she existed. For instance, whatever may be -scientifically the rights of the question about grace and free-will, it -is evident that, for the Church of the fifth century, Pelagianism was -the less inspiring and edifying doctrine, and the sense of <i>being in the -divine hand</i> was the feeling which it was good for Christians to be -filled with. Whatever may be scientifically the merits of the dispute -between Arius and Athanasius, for the Church of their time whatever most -exalted or seemed to exalt Jesus Christ was clearly the profitable -doctrine, the doctrine most helpful to that moral life which was the -true life of the Church.</p> - -<p>People, however, there were in abundance who differed on points both of -discipline and of dogma from the rule which obtained in the Church, and -who separated from her on account of that difference. These were the -heretics: <i>separatists</i>, as the name implies, <i>for the sake of -opinions</i>. And the very name, therefore, implies that they were wrong in -separating, and that the body which held together was right; because the -Church exists, not for the sake of opinions, but for the sake of moral -practice, and a united endeavour after this is stronger than a broken -one. Valentinians, Marcionites, Montanists, Donatists, Manichæans, -Novatians, Eutychians, Apollinarians, Nestorians, Arians, Pelagians,—if -they separated on points of discipline they were wrong, because for -developing its own fit outward conditions of life the body of a -community has, as we have seen, a real natural power, and individuals -are bound to sacrifice their fancies to it; if they separated on points -of dogma they were wrong also, because, while neither they nor the -Church had the means of determining such points adequately, the true -instinct lay in those who, instead of separating for such points, -conceded them as the Church settled them, and found their bond of union, -where it in truth really was, not in notions about the co-eternity of -the Son, but in the principle: <i>Let every one that nameth the name of -Christ depart from iniquity</i>.</p> - -<p>Does any one imagine that all the Church shared Augustine's speculative -opinions about grace and predestination? that many members of it did not -rather incline, as a matter of speculative opinion, to the notions of -Pelagius? Does any one imagine that all who stood with the Church and -did not join themselves to the Arians, were speculatively Athanasians? -It was not so; but they had a true feeling for what purpose the Gospel -and the Church were given them, and for what they were not given them; -they could see that 'impious and pious living,' according to that -sentence of Epiphanius we have quoted from Hammond, 'divided the whole -Christian world into erroneous and orthodox;' and that it was not worth -while to suffer themselves to be divided for anything else.</p> - -<p>And though it will be said that separatists for opinions on points of -discipline and dogma have often asserted, and sometimes believed, that -piety and impiety were vitally concerned in these points; yet here again -the true religious instinct is that which discerns,—what is seldom so -very obscure,—whether they are in truth thus vitally concerned or not; -and, if they are not, cannot be perverted into fancying them concerned -and breaking unity for them. This, I say, is the true religious -instinct, the instinct which most clearly seizes the essence and aim of -the Christian Gospel and of the Christian Church. But fidelity to it -leaves, also, the way least closed to the admission of true developments -of speculative thought, when the time is come for them, and to the -incorporation of these true developments with the ideas and practice of -Christians.</p> - -<p>Is there not, then, any separation which is right and reasonable? Yes, -separation on plain points of morals. For these involve the very essence -of the Christian Gospel, and the very ground on which the Christian -Church is built. The sale of indulgences, if deliberately instituted and -persisted in by the main body of the Church, afforded a valid reason for -breaking unity; the doctrine of purgatory, or of the real presence, did -not.</p> - -<p>However, a cosmopolitan church-order, commenced when the political -organisation of Christians was also cosmopolitan,—when, that is, the -nations of Europe were politically one in the unity of the Roman -Empire,—might well occasion difficulties as the nations solidified into -independent states with a keen sense of their independent life; so that, -the cosmopolitan type disappearing for civil affairs, and being replaced -by the national type, the same disappearance and replacement tended to -prevail in ecclesiastical affairs also. But this was a political -difficulty, not a religious one, and it raised no insuperable bar to -continued religious union. A Church with Anglican liberties might very -well, the English national spirit being what it is, have been in -religious communion with Rome, and yet have been safely trusted to -maintain and develop its national liberties to any extent required.</p> - -<p>The moral corruptions of Rome, on the other hand, were a real ground for -separation. On their account, and solely on their account, if they could -not be got rid of, was separation not only lawful but necessary. It has -always been the averment of the Church of England, that the change made -in her at the Reformation was the very least change which was absolutely -necessary. No doubt she used the opportunity of her breach with Rome to -get rid of several doctrines which the human mind had outgrown; but it -was the immoral practice of Rome that really moved her to separation. -And she maintained that she merely got rid of Roman corruptions which -were immoral and intolerable, and remained the old, historic, Catholic -Church of England still.</p> - -<p>The right to this title of <i>Catholic</i> is a favourite matter of -contention between bodies of Christians. But let us use names in their -customary and natural senses. To us it seems that unless one chooses to -fight about words, and fancifully to put into the word <i>Catholic</i> some -occult quality, one must allow that the changes made in the Church of -England at the Reformation impaired its Catholicity. The word <i>Catholic</i> -was meant to describe the common or general profession and worship of -Christendom at the time when the word arose. Undoubtedly this general -profession and worship had not a strict uniformity everywhere, but it -had a clearly-marked common character; and this well-known type Bede, or -Anselm, or Wiclif himself, would to this day easily recognise in a Roman -Catholic religious service, but hardly in an Anglican; while, on the -other hand, in a Roman Catholic religious service an ordinary Anglican -finds himself as much in a strange world and out of his usual course, as -in a Nonconformist meeting-house. Something precious was no doubt lost -in losing this common profession and worship; but the loss was, as we -Protestants maintain, incurred for the sake of something yet more -precious still,—the purity of that moral practice which was the very -cause for which the common profession and worship existed. Now, it seems -captious to incur voluntarily a loss for a great and worthy object, and -at the same time, by a conjuring with words, to try and make it appear -that we have not suffered the loss at all. So on the word <i>Catholic</i> we -will not insist too jealously; but thus much, at any rate, must be -allowed to the Church of England,—that she kept enough of the past to -preserve, as far as this nation was concerned, her continuity, to be -still the <i>historic Church of England</i>; and that she avoided the error, -to which there was so much to draw her, and into which all the other -reformed Churches fell, of making improved speculative doctrinal -opinions the main ground of her separation.</p> - -<p>A Nonconformist newspaper, it is true, reproaching the Church with what -is, in our opinion, her greatest praise, namely, that on points of -doctrinal theology she is 'a Church that does not know her own mind,' -roundly asserts, as we have already mentioned, that 'no man in his -senses can deny that the Church of England was meant to be a thoroughly -Protestant and Evangelical, and it may be said Calvinistic Church.' But -not only does the whole course of Church-history disprove such an -assertion, and show that this is what the Puritans always wanted to make -the Church, and what the Church would never be made, but we can disprove -it, too, out of the mouths of the very Puritans themselves. At the Savoy -Conference the Puritans urged that 'our first reformers out of their -great wisdom did at that time (of the Reformation) so compose the -Liturgy, as to win upon the Papists, and to draw them into their Church -communion <i>by varying as little as they could from the Romish forms -before in use</i>;' and this they alleged as their great plea for purging -the Liturgy. And the Bishops resisted, and upheld the proceeding of the -reformers as the essential policy of the Church of England; as indeed it -was, and till this day has continued to be. No; the Church of England -did not give her energies to inventing a new church-order for herself -and fighting for it; to singling out two or three speculative dogmas as -the essence of Christianity, and fighting for them. She set herself to -carry forward, and as much as possible on the old lines, the old -practical work and proper design of the Christian Church; and this is -what left her mind comparatively open, as we have seen, for the -admission of philosophy and criticism, as they slowly developed -themselves outside the Church and filtered into her; an admission which -confessedly proves just now of capital importance.</p> - -<p>This openness of mind the Puritans have not shared with the Church, and -how <i>should</i> they have shared it? They are founded on the negation of -that idea of development which plays so important a part in the life of -the Church; on the assumption that there is a divinely appointed -church-order fixed once for all in the Bible, and that they have adopted -it; that there is a doctrinal scheme of faith, justification, and -imputed righteousness, which is the test of a standing or falling church -and the essence of the gospel, and that they have extracted it. These -are assumptions which, as they make union impossible, so also make -growth impossible. The Church makes church-order a matter of -ecclesiastical constitution, is founded on moral practice, and though -she develops speculative dogma, does not allow that this or that dogma -is the essence of Christianity.</p> - -<p>'Congregational Nonconformists,' say the Independents, 'can never be -incorporated into an organic union with Anglican Episcopacy, because -there is not even the shadow of an outline of it in the New Testament, -and it is our assertion and profound belief that Christ and the Apostles -have given us all the laws that are necessary for the constitution and -government of the Church.'<a name="FNanchor_108" id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> 'Whatever may come,' says the President -of the Wesleyan Conference, 'we are determined to be simple, earnest -preachers of <i>the gospel</i>. Whatever may come, we are determined to be -true to <i>Scriptural Protestantism</i>. We would be friendly with all -evangelical churches, but we will have no fellowship with the man of -sin. We will give up life itself rather than be unfaithful to <i>the -truth</i>. It is ours to cry everywhere: "Come, sinners, to <i>the -gospel-feast</i>!"' And this <i>gospel</i>, this <i>Scriptural Protestantism</i>, -this <i>truth</i>, is the doctrine of justification by 'pleading solely the -blood of the covenant,' of which we have said so much. Methodists cannot -unite with a church which does not found itself on this doctrine of -justification, but which holds the doctrine of priestly absolution, of -the real presence, and other doctrines of like stamp; Congregationalists -cannot unite with a church which, besides not resting on the doctrine of -justification, has a church-order not prescribed in the New Testament.</p> - -<p>Now as Hooker truly says of those who 'desire to draw all things unto -the determination of bare and naked Scripture,' as Dr. Newman, too, has -said, and as many others have said, the Bible does not exhibit, drawn -out in black and white, the precise tenets and usages of any Christian -society; some inference and criticism must be employed to get at them. -'For the most part, even such as are readiest to cite for one thing five -hundred sentences of Scripture, what warrant have they that any one of -them doth mean the thing for which it is alleged?' Nay, 'it is not the -word of God itself which doth, or possibly can, assure us that we do -well to think it his word.' So says Hooker, and what he says is -perfectly true. A process of reasoning and collection is necessary to -get at the Scriptural church-discipline and the Scriptural Protestantism -of the Puritans; in short, this discipline and this doctrine are -developments. And the first is an unsound development, in a line where -there was a power of making a true development, and where the Church -made it; the second is an unsound development in a line where neither -the Church nor Puritanism had the power of making true developments. But -as it is the truth of its Scriptural Protestantism which in Puritanism's -eyes especially proves the truth of its Scriptural church-order which -has this Protestantism, and the falsehood of the Anglican church-order -which has much less of it, to abate the confidence of the Puritans in -their Scriptural Protestantism is the first step towards their union, so -much to be desired, with the national Church.</p> - -<p>We say, therefore, that the doctrine: 'It is agreed between God and the -mediator Jesus Christ the Son of God, surety for the redeemed, as -parties-contractors, that the sins of the redeemed should be imputed to -innocent Christ, and he both condemned and put to death for them upon -this very condition, that whosoever heartily consents unto the covenant -of reconciliation offered through Christ shall, by the imputation of his -obedience unto them, be justified and holden righteous before God,'—we -say that this doctrine is as much a human development from the text, -'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,' as the doctrine of -priestly absolution is a human development from the text, 'Whosesoever -sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them,' or the doctrine of the real -presence from the text, 'Take, eat, this is my body.' In our treatise on -St. Paul we have shown at length that the received doctrine of -justification is an unsound development. It may be said that the -doctrine of priestly absolution and of the real presence are unsound -developments also. True, in our opinion they are so; they are, like the -doctrine of justification, developments made under conditions which -precluded the possibility of sound developments in this line. But the -difference is here: the Church of England does not identify Christianity -with these unsound developments; she does not call either of them -<i>Scriptural Protestantism</i>, or <i>truth</i>, or <i>the gospel</i>; she does not -insist that all who are in communion with her should hold them; she does -not repel from her communion those who hold doctrines at variance with -them. She treats them as she does the received doctrine of -justification, to which she does not tie herself up, but leaves people -to hold it if they please. She thus provides room for growth and further -change in these very doctrines themselves. But to the doctrine of -justification Puritanism ties itself up, just as it tied itself up -formerly to the doctrine of predestination; it calls it <i>Scriptural -Protestantism</i>, <i>truth</i>, <i>the gospel</i>; it will have communion with none -who do not hold it; it repels communion with any who hold the doctrines -of priestly absolution and the real presence, because they seem to -interfere with it. Yet it is really itself no better than they. But how -can growth possibly find place in this doctrine, while it is held in -such a fashion?</p> - -<p>Every one who perceives and values the power contained in Christianity, -must be struck to see how, at the present moment, the progress of this -power seems to depend upon its being able to disengage itself from -speculative accretions that encumber it. A considerable movement to this -end is visible in the Church of England. The most nakedly speculative, -and therefore the most inevitably defective, parts of the Prayer -Book,—the Athanasian Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles,—our -generation will not improbably see the Prayer Book rid of. But the -larger the body in which this movement works, the greater is the power -of the movement. If the Church of England were disestablished to-day it -would be desirable to re-establish her to-morrow, if only because of the -immense power for development which a national body possesses. It is -because we know something of the Nonconformist ministers, and what -eminent force and faculty many of them have for contributing to the work -of development now before the Church, that we cannot bear to see the -waste of power caused by their separatism and battling with the -Establishment, which absorb their energies too much to suffer them to -carry forward the work of development themselves, and cut them off from -aiding those in the Church who carry it forward.</p> - -<p>The political dissent of the Nonconformists, based on their condemnation -of the Anglican church-order as unscriptural, is just one of those -speculative accretions which we have spoken of as encumbering religion. -Politics are a good thing, and religion is a good thing; but they make a -fractious mixture. 'The Nonconformity of England, and the Nonconformity -alone, has been the salvation of England from Papal tyranny and kingly -misrule and despotism.'<a name="FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> This is the favourite boast, the familiar -strain; but this is really politics, and not religion at all. But -righteousness is religion; and the Nonconformists say: 'Who have done so -much for righteousness as we?' For as much righteousness as will go with -politics, no one; for the sterner virtues, for the virtues of the Jews -of the Old Testament; but these are only half of righteousness and not -the essentially Christian half. We have seen how St. Paul tore himself -in two, rent his life in the middle and began it again, because he was -so dissatisfied with a righteousness which was, after all, in its main -features, Puritan. And surely it can hardly be denied that the more -eminently and exactly <i>Christian</i> type of righteousness is the type -exhibited by Church worthies like Herbert, Ken, and Wilson, rather than -that exhibited by the worthies of Puritanism; the cause being that these -last mixed politics with religion so much more than did the first.</p> - -<p>Paul, too, be it remembered, condemned disunion in the society of -Christians as much as he declined politics. This does not, we freely -own, make against the Puritans' refusal to take the law from their -adversaries, but it does make against their allegation that it does not -matter whether the society of Christians is united or not, and that -there are even great advantages in separatism. If Anglicans maintained -that their church-order was written in Scripture and a matter of divine -command, then, Congregationalists maintaining the same thing, to the -controversy between them there could be no end. But now, Anglicans -maintaining no such thing, but that their church-order is a matter of -historic development and natural expediency, that it has <i>grown</i>,—which -is evident enough,—and that the essence of Christianity is in no-wise -concerned with such matters, why should not the Nonconformists adopt -this moderate view of the case, which constrains them to no admission of -inferiority, but only to the renouncing an imagined divine superiority -and to the recognition of an existing fact, and allow Church bishops as -a development of Catholic antiquity, just as they have allowed Church -music and Church architecture, which are developments of the same? Then -might there arise a mighty and undistracted power of joint life, which -would transform, indeed, the doctrines of priestly absolution and the -real presence, but which would transform, equally, the so-called -<i>Scriptural Protestantism</i> of imputed righteousness, and which would do -more for real righteousness and for Christianity than has ever been done -yet.</p> - -<p>Tillotson's proposals for comprehension, drawn up in 1689, cannot be too -much studied at the present juncture. These proposals, with which his -name and that of Stillingfleet, two of the most estimable names in the -English Church, are specially associated, humiliate no one, refute no -one; they take the basis of existing facts, and endeavour to build on it -a solid union. They are worth quoting entire, and I conclude with them. -Their details our present circumstances would modify; their spirit any -sound plan of Church-reform must take as its rule.</p> -<ol> -<li>That the ceremonies enjoined or recommended in the Liturgy or Canons -be left indifferent.</li> - -<li>That the Liturgy be carefully reviewed, and such alterations and -changes be therein made as may supply the defects and remove as much as -possible all ground of exception to any part of it, by leaving out the -apocryphal lessons and correcting the translation of the psalms used in -the public service where there is need of it, and in many other -particulars.</li> - -<li>That instead of all former declarations and subscriptions to be made -by ministers, it shall be sufficient for them that are admitted to the -exercise of their ministry in the Church of England to subscribe one -general declaration and promise to this purpose, viz.: <i>That we do -submit to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church of England -as it shall be established by law, and promise to teach and practise -accordingly</i>.</li> - -<li>That a new body of ecclesiastical Canons be made, particularly with -a regard to a more effectual provision for the reformation of manners -both in ministers and people.</li> - -<li>That there be an effectual regulation of ecclesiastical courts to -remedy the great abuses and inconveniences which by degrees and length -of time have crept into them; and particularly that the power of -excommunication be taken out of the hands of lay officers and placed in -the bishop, and not to be exercised for trivial matters, but upon great -and weighty occasions.</li> - -<li>That for the future those who have been ordained in any of the -foreign churches be not required to be re-ordained here, to render them -capable of preferment in the Church.</li> - -<li>That for the future none be capable of any ecclesiastical benefice -or preferment in the Church of England that shall be ordained in England -otherwise than by bishops; and that those who have been ordained only by -presbyters shall not be compelled to renounce their former ordination. -But because many have and do still doubt of the validity of such -ordination, where episcopal ordination may be had, and is by law -required, it shall be sufficient for such persons to receive ordination -from a bishop in this or the like form: "If thou art not already -ordained, I ordain thee," &c.; as in case a doubt be made of any one's -baptism, it is appointed by the Liturgy that he be baptized in this -form: "If thou art not baptized, I baptize thee."'</li> -</ol> -<p>These are proposals 'to be made by the Church of England for the union -of <i>Protestants</i>.' Who cannot see that the power of joint life already -spoken of would be far greater and stronger if it comprehended Roman -Catholics too. And who cannot see, also, that in the churches of the -most strong and living Roman Catholic countries,—in France and -Germany,—a movement is in progress which may one day make a general -union of Christendom possible? But this will not be in our day, nor is -it business which the England of this generation is set to do. What may -be done in our day, what our generation has the call and the means, if -only it has the resolution, to bring about, is the union of Protestants. -But this union will never be on the basis of the actual <i>Scriptural -Protestantism</i> of our Puritans; and because, so long as they take this -for the gospel or good news of Christ, they cannot possibly unite on any -other basis, the first step towards union is showing them that this is -not the gospel. If we have succeeded in doing even so much towards union -as to convince one of them of this, we have not written in vain.</p> - - - - -<h2>THE END.</h2> - -<h4> -LONDON: PRINTED BY<br /> -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br /> -AND PARLIAMENT STREET<br /> -</h4> - - - -<h2>Footnotes</h2> - - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Timothy</i>, ii, 19.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> In a letter to the <i>Times</i> respecting Dr. Pusey and Dr. -Temple, during the discussion caused by Dr. Temple's appointment to -the see of Exeter. Dr. Temple was the total leper, so evidently a -leper that all men would instinctively avoid him, and he ceased to -be dangerous; Dr. Pusey was the partial leper, less deeply tainted, -but on that very account more dangerous, because less likely to -terrify people from coming near him. A piece of polemical humour, -racy, indeed, but hardly urbane, and still less Christian!</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Mr. Winterbotham has since died. Nothing in my remarks -on his speech need prevent me from expressing here my high esteem -for his character, accomplishments, oratorical faculty and general -promise, and my sincere regret for his loss.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, v, 22, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <span title="dia tês praütêtos kai epieikeias tou Christou." xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">διὰ τῆς πραΰτητος καὶ ἐπιεικείας τοῦ Χριστοῦ.</span> -<span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, x, 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, xii, 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iii, 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Cor.</i>, i, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The late Bishop Wilberforce.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Cor.</i>, vii, 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> It has been inferred from what is here said that we -propose to make re-ordination a condition of admitting Dissenting -ministers to the ministry of the Church of England. Elsewhere I have -said how undesirable it seems to impose this condition; and to what -respectful treatment and fair and equal terms, in case of reunion, -Protestant Nonconformity is, in my opinion, entitled. See the -Preface to <i>Culture and Anarchy</i>. What is said in the text is -directed simply against the objection to episcopal ordination as -something wrong in itself and a ground for schism.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i> (2nd edition), chap. iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Romans</i>, xv, 8.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Peter</i>, i, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i> (2nd edition), chap. ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i>, chap. iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i>, chap. v.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr"><i>Histoire de la Théologie Chrétienne au Siècle -Apostolique</i>, par Edouard Reuss; Strasbourg et Paris</span> (in 2 vols. -8vo.) There is now (1875) an English translation of M. Reuss's -work.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i>, chap. v.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Nahum</i> i, 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See <i>Culture and Anarchy</i>, chap. iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i> xi, 32.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Acts</i>, xxiv, 16.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> cxxxix, 7; cxix, 72; <i>Ibid.</i>, 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Luke</i>, xi, 28; <i>Matth.</i>, xix, 17; <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>John</i>, iii, 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, ii, 9, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Verses 22, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, xii, 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, iii, 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, v, 22, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Col.</i>, iii, 5.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, vi, 8.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, vii, 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, iii, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, vii, 24.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> xl, 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>James</i>, ii, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, ii, 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iv, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> xxxvi, 6; vii, 11.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> lxi, 2; lxii, 6; cxxxix, 5, 14; cxlv, 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> xxxvi, 6, 8, 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, i, 19-21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Ps.</i> xxii, 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Jer.</i>, x, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iii, 5.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Eph.</i>, iii, 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Philipp.</i>, iii, 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Tim.</i>, i, 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, viii, 14.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Prov.</i>, viii, 22-31; and <i>Wisd.</i>, vii, 25-27.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Col.</i>, i, 15-17.</p></div> - - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Tit.</i>, ii, 12; <i>Rom.</i>, vii, 4; <i>Gal.</i>, v, 22, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Tit.</i>, ii, 14.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, v, 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, viii, 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Gen.</i>, xv, 6; <i>Habakkuk</i>, ii, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Mark</i>, xi, 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> With secondary uses of the word, such as its use with -the article, '<i>the</i> faith,' in expressions like 'the words of the -faith,' to signify the body of tenets and principles received by -believers from the apostle, we need not here concern ourselves. They -present no difficulty.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iv, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, v, 17.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Eph.</i>, iv, 25.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <span title="apothanein syn Christô" xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">ἀποθανεῖν σὺν Χριστῷ</span>, <i>Col.</i>, ii, 20; <span title="exanastasis ek nekrôn" xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">ἐξανάστασις -ἐκ νεκρῶν</span>, <i>Philipp.</i>, iii, 11; <span title="auxêsis eis Christon" xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">αὔξησις εἰς Χριστόν</span>, <i>Eph.</i>, iv, -15.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, xiv, 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> <i>Col.</i>, iii, 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> See <i>Rom.</i>, vii, 1-6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> It has been said that this was the error of Hymenæus -and Philetas (<span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Tim.</i>, ii, 17). It might be rejoined, with much -plausibility, that their error was the error of popular theology, -the fixing the attention on the past miracle of Christ's physical -resurrection, and losing sight of the continuing miracle of the -Christian's spiritual resurrection. Probably, however, Hymenæus and -Philetas controverted some of Paul's tenets respecting the -approaching Messianic advent and the resurrection then to take place -(<span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Thess.</i>, iv, 13-17). If they rejected these tenets, they were -right where Paul was wrong. But if they disputed and separated on -account of them, they were <i>heretics</i>; that is, they had their -hearts and minds full of a speculative contention, instead of their -proper chief-concern,—<i>putting on the new man</i>, and the imitation -of Christ.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <span title="estaurôthê ex astheneias" xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">ἐσταυρώθη ἐξ ἀσθενείας</span>, <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, xiii, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> According to the true reading in <i>Philipp.</i>, iii, 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> <i>Eph.</i>, ii, 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, viii, 18-25.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, v, 16.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, x, 6-10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, xiv, 17.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote" xml:lang="de" lang="de"><p><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a></p><table class="footnote" summary="centered poem"><tbody><tr><td><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p>Stirb und werde!</p> -<p>Denn so lang du das nicht hast,</p> -<p>Bist du nur ein trüber Gast</p> -<p>Auf der dunkeln Erde.</p> -</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, i, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, vii, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, v, 12-21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, ix, 16.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, viii, 28.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> <i>Is.</i>, lxiv, 8.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Jer.</i>, xviii, 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Ecclesiasticus</i>, xxxiii, 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, vi, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, x, 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Tim.</i>, iv, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, v, 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90" id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Considerations drawn from date, place, the use of -single words, the development of a church organisation, the -development of an ascetic system, are not enough to make us wholly -take away certain epistles from St. Paul. The only decisive - -evidence, for this purpose, is that internal evidence furnished by -the whole body of the thoughts and style of an epistle; and this -evidence that Paul was not its author the Epistle to the Hebrews -furnishes. From the like evidence, the Apocalypse is clearly shown -to be not by the author of the fourth Gospel. This clear evidence -against the tradition which assigns them to St. Paul, the Epistles -to Timothy and Titus do not offer. The serious ground of difficulty -as to these epistles will to the genuine critic be, that much in -them fails to produce that peculiarly <i>searching</i> effect on the -reader, which it is in general characteristic of Paul's own real -work to exercise. But they abound with Pauline things, and are, in -any case, written by an excellent man, and in an excellent and large -spirit.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91" id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, viii, 9; <i>Is.</i>, liii, 5; <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Pet.</i>, ii, 21; -<i>Is.</i>, liii, 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92" id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Pet.</i>, i, 18, 19.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93" id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, v, 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94" id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, v, 8.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95" id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Acts</i>, xx, 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96" id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> <i>Gal.</i>, v, 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97" id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> <i>Eph.</i>, iv, 24.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98" id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Rom.</i>, v, 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99" id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> The endless words which Puritanism has wasted upon -<i>sanctification</i>, a magical filling with goodness and holiness, flow -from a mere mistake in translating; <span title="hagiasmos" xml:lang="grc" lang="grc">ἁγιασμός</span> means <i>consecration</i>, -a setting apart to holy service.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100" id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iii, 18.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101" id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Tim.</i>, vi, 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102" id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Cor.</i>, iii, 15, 16.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103" id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">I</span> <i>Cor.</i>, xv, 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104" id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> In his very interesting history, <i>The Church of the -Restoration</i>, Dr. Stoughton says, most truly of both Anglicans and -Puritans in 1660: 'It is necessary to bear in mind this -circumstance, that <i>both parties were advocates for a national -establishment of religion</i>.' Vol. i, p. 113.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105" id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> For example, what an antidote to the perilous -Methodist doctrine of instantaneous sanctification is this saying of -Bishop Wilson: 'He who fancies that his mind may effectually be -changed in a short time, deceives himself.'</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Nothing can be more certain than that the <i>kingdom of -God</i> meant originally, and was understood to mean, a Messianic -kingdom speedily to be revealed; and that to this idea of the -<i>kingdom</i> is due much of the effect which its preaching exercised on -the imagination of the first generation of Christians. But nothing -is more certain, also, than that while the end itself, the Messianic -kingdom, was necessarily something intangible and future, the <i>way</i> -to the end, the doing the will of God by intently following the -voice of the moral conscience, in those duties, above all, for which -there was then in the world the most crying need,—the duties of -humbleness, self-denial, pureness, justice, charity,—became from -the very first in the teaching of Jesus something so ever-present -and practical, and so associated with the essence of Jesus himself, -that the <i>way</i> to the kingdom grew inseparable, in thought, from the -kingdom itself, and was bathed in the same light and charm. Then, -after a time, as the vision of an approaching Messianic kingdom was -dissipated, the idea of the perfect accomplishment on earth of the -will of God had to take the room of it, and in its own realisation -to place the ideal of the true kingdom of God.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <span class="smcaps">II</span> <i>Tim.</i>, ii, 19; <i>Gal.</i>, v, 22, 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Address of the Rev. G. W. Conder at Liverpool, in the -<i>Lancashire Congregational Calendar</i> for 1869-70.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> The Rev. G. W. Conder, <span xml:lang="la" lang="la"><i>ubi supra</i></span>.</p></div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's St. Paul and Protestantism, by Matthew Arnold - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM *** - -***** This file should be named 54793-h.htm or 54793-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/7/9/54793/ - -Produced by Delphine Lettau, Tony Browne & the Online -Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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