Part 11 (2/2)

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?e?? p??????--p 337

THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM

1 _The Creed of Christendom; its Foundations and Superstructure_ By WILLIAM RATHBONE GREG London: Chapman 1851

2 _St Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians; an Attenificance_ By JOHN HAMILTON THOM London: Chapether without the least intention to intimate a rese in the conclusions of the other They are, indeed, concerned with opposite sides of the same subject; viewed, moreover, from the separate stations of the layly contrasteddeals principally with the external vehicle of the primitive Christianity; Mr Thom with its internal essence The one seeks in vain for any outward title in the records to suppress the operations of natural reason; the other clears away from the interior every interference with the free action of conscience and affection The one, in the naic hich the shrine of faith has been dangerously guarded: the other, in the na deep truths froion into a philosophy; the other, with eye upon His person as an ioodness, would develop it from a sentiment As all opposites, however, are embraced in the circumference of the same circle, so are these works co, in common with the Catholics and the Unitarians, evidently looks for the strength of Christianity in the Gospels; Mr Thom, with the majority of Protestants, in the Epistles For want of so harmony between the two, each perhaps requires some correction: the historical picture of Christ saved by the forre outline; while the Pauline ideal presented by the latter is a glow of rich but undefined coloring Mr Greg, who, in spite of particular errors, elists, appears to have, in his own sympathies, no way of access to athe place of the Apostle both as a witness and a power in the organization of Christian tradition and doctrine Had the acuteness and severity of his understanding been a little more qualified by such reflective depth and s to the work of interpretation, his religion, we fancy, would have retained a less slender remnant of the primitive Christianity

Measured by the standard of common Protestantism, there can be no doubt that the second of these books would be condely words, however, have been too often applied to what is fullest of truth and faith, to express , froht They have lost their effect on all who are coion, and are fast taking their place in the scandalous vocabulary of professional pole offensive to _just_ , or been too dull to entertain, doubts which rend the soul of genius and faithfulness, and insist on a veracious answer, meet them, not with sympathy, still less with mastery, but with the commonplaces of incompetent pity and holy malediction And the offence is doubled in the eyes of _instructed_ ht the theology of the Reformation It is notorious that, in the revolt from Rome, the Scriptures--like a dictator suddenly created for the perils of a crisis--were forced into a position where it was impossible for them permanently to repose; that they cannot be treated as infallible oracles of either fact or doctrine, and were never ht of such unnatural claims; that the authority once concentrated in theainst_ the reason and conscience, must now be distributed, and ask their concurrence These are not questionable positions, but so irresistibly established, that learning of the highest order would no ainst theainst the rotation of the earth

When a clergyman, therefore, treats them with horror, and denounces them as infidelity, he produces no conviction, except that he himself is either ill-inforainst a book so h-'s, are but a s which he resigns; wein the date of a Gospel or the construction of a rounds of immortal hope and the ways of eternal Providence: but we do not envy, and cannot understand, the religion which can feel no thankful coht so elevated, and trust so sound and real No candid reader of the ”Creed of Christendoation and clear exposition; that it is conceived in the true spirit of serious and faithful research; and that whatever the author wants of being an ecclesiastical Christian is plainly not essential to the noble guidance of life, and the devout earnestness of the affections

It is highly honorable to an English layman, amid the pressure of affairs, to take up a class of critical inquiries, which the clergy seem to have abandoned for a narrower and more passionate polee, that, when theattacks arechurches, nobody repels the is offered to break their effect, except the inertia of the reat sceptical work of the last century there was some score of reputable answers; but half a dozen books of the same tendency have appeared within a few years, all of which have been copiously reviewed, have spread exciteical hair on end, but not one of which has received any adequate reply Yet the slightest of these productions would favorably compare, in all the requisites for successful persuasion,--in learning, in te only the philosophical disquisitions of Hume and the ecclesiastical chapters of Gibbon The first in tiin of Christianity,”--though the h an unmolested existence; and its influence, considerable in itself, and increased by the sweet and truthful character of the author, is still traceable in the pages of Mr Greg To the effect of Strauss's extraordinary work, the good Neander's _Leben Jesu_ offers but a h the extent of its concessions, an open proclay can never be restored to the state in which all churches assume them to be Parker was excommunicated by his sect; but his ”Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion” has walked the course unchallenged, and displayed the splendor of its gifts, within the entire lines of the English language New have since entered their naatorius_ of Orthodoxy; but they also will be simply excluded from the sacred circle of readers bound over not to think; and, beyond this, will es of threatening power in the intellectual atmosphere which surrounds the Church Whence this pusillaniotten that creeds always assailed and never defended are sure to perish? Or is it felt that the defence, to be sound and strong, must be so partial--so limited to points of detail--as to proerous than the attitude of passiveness? Or does the Church resignedly give up her hold on the class of earnest, intellectual ion into a second-hand tradition, but must ”knohat they worshi+p”? Certain it is that her whole activity has long abandoned this class, and addressed itself exclusively to the narrower and lower order of iven creed, and whose life is satisfied with the squabbles and the gossip of articles forced into neighborhood, but no longer on speaking terms If the efficacy of ”holy orders” is called in question, streams of sacerdotal refutation flow from the press; but if the inspiration of the twelve Apostles is denied, it is a thing that neither bishop nor priest will care to vindicate If a word of mistake is uttered about the drops of water on the face of a baptized baby, it conjures up a storm that rolls froion has no rite or sacrament at all, the ecclesiastic at The deepest interest is felt about the origin of liturgies, and the history of articles, but nobody heeds theevidence that three of the Gospels are second-hand aggregations of hearsay reports, and the fourth of questionable authenticity You deny the self-consistency of the Church of England and call it a coowns and sleeves proclaireat sensation You analyze the accounts of Christ's resurrection; you ask whether they are not discrepant; you point out that, apparently, the oldest record (Mark's) contained, in its original form, no account of the event at all, and that the others bear see traces of distinct and incompatible traditions You cry aloud for help in this perplexity, and hold yourselves ready to follow any vestiges of truth; and, except that the creeds are still muttered every Sunday, all the oracles are duic pass into heaven, scores of rival professors press round you with obtrusive supply: if you ask in your sorrow, Who can tell me whether there be a heaven at all? every soul will keep aloof and leave you alone Allfroious wants live with eager power, and who yet are too clear of soul to unthink a thought and falsify a truth, receive in these days no help and no response The Church feels its interest, as an _educated_ corporation, to consist in overlaying and covering up the foundations of faith with huge piles of curious learning, history, and art, which, by affording endless occupation,rock, or notice of the under flood And, as an _established_ corporation, she relies on the lazy conservatism of mental possession; on the dislike felt by the coht and the disturbance of feeling, and their usual willingness to hand over these operations to the prayer-book and the priest We are grateful to Mr Greg for shaking this ignoble and precarious reliance, which he notices in these adenuine and important objection to the consequences of our views is felt by indolent minds on their own account They shrink fro out truth for themselves out of thefor the precious metal, but loathe the rude ore out of which it has to be extricated by the laborious alcheht A ready- of authoritative, dogmatic propositions comprises the whole mental wealth which they desire The volume of nature--the volume of history--the volume of life--appall and terrify theood catholics of all sects areand submissive flocks which rejoice the hearts of all priesthoods Let such cling to the faith of their forefathers, if they can But men whose minds are cast in a nobler mould, and are instinct with a diviner life,--who love truth more than rest, and the peace of Heaven rather than the peace of Eden,--to whos severer cares,'--

'Who know man does not live by joy alone, But by the presence of the power of God,'--

such must cast behind them the hope of any repose or tranquillity, save that which is the last reward of long agonies of thought; they must relinquish all prospect of any heaven, save that of which tribulation is the avenue and portal; they ird up their loins and trim their lamp for a hich cannot be put by, and which ently done 'He,' says Zschokke, 'who does not like living in the _furnished lodgings of tradition_, ht and faith for hi derives its interest, not froian, but from the freshness and force hich it presents the results of the author's reading and reflection on both the clai the ordinary notion of ”inspiration,” as equivalent to a supernaturally provided ”infallibility,” he reviews and condes by which this attribute has been associated with the Bible; and decides that the mere discovery of a statement in the Scriptures is no sufficient reason for our i cleared away this obstacle to all intelligent criticisuidance of De Wette, through the earlier literature of the Hebrews; and adds another to the lish divines, to reconcile the cosony of Genesis with modern science; attempts which we should call obsolete, did we not re, and have not yet attained the episcopal bench Mr Greg adopts the views of which Baur is the best known recent expositor, but which Lessing long ago traced out, as to the gradual for contrast between the family Jehovah of the Patriarchs and the universal God of the later Prophets

Whatever be the origin of the doctrine of a Messiah, and under whatever varieties it appeared, it never pointed, the author conceives, to such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, or such a product as the Christian Church; and it is only by perverse interpretations, unendurable out of the field of theology, that any passages in the Old Testaure the events in the New In the argument, therefore, between the earlymaintains that the latter were the more faithful to their sacred books The phenomena of the first three Gospels are next examined sufficiently to explain the several hypotheses respecting the order and materials of their composition

The author rests on Schleierroundwork, partly coile He thus removes us, in this portion of the Scriptures, froether; and throws upon internal criticisinal and reliable elements on the one hand, and those on the other which did not escape the accidents of floating tradition and the coloring of later ideas This delicate task the author attehout an acquaintance with thehiment which he sums up in these words:--

”In conclusion, then, it appears certain that in all the synoptical Gospels we have events related that did not really occur, and words ascribed to Jesus which Jesus did not utter; and that nificance In the great majority of these instances, however, this incorrectness does not ielists, but merely indicates that they adopted and embodied, without much scrutiny or critical acumen, whatever probable and honorable narratives they found current in the Christian community”--p 137

The peculiarities of the fourth Gospel are next dealt with: its apparent polenosis of the first and second centuries; its absence of dema of its discourses, and their uniformity of complexion with the historian's own narrative and reflections; the narrowness of its charity, and the apocryphal appearance of its ”firstthe probability that within the contents of this Gospel is secreted a nucleus of facts, Mr Greg thinks the book so clearly ihout with the writer's idiosyncrasy, as to be inferior in historical value to the Synoptics; and the discourses of Jesus, in particular, elist In our author's ement of this subject there seeht peculiar to John, as well as that characteristic of Paul, lies out of the latitude native to him; and with every intention to be just in his appreciation, he fails, we think, to reach the point of syed The realism of his mind makes him a better critic of the hard Judaical element of the Christian Scriptures, with its objective distinctness and its redients, where a subjective dialectic traces forht in the intense fires of spiritual consciousness

In a separate discussion of the question of miracles they are restored to the subordinate position, as coned to the the position of Locke, that ”the ed by the doctrines, and not the doctrines by the miracles,” he can admit with the less pain his conviction, that, even in the instance of the resurrection of Jesus, the historical evidence is too conflicting and uncertain to bear the supernatural weight imposed upon it He admits, indeed, that Jesus _may_ have risen from the dead; the Apostles e in their character and conduct, froest evidence of the sustaining energy of this belief But, in our ignorance of the grounds of this belief, (the Gospels and book of Acts containing no correct or first-hand report of the facts,) it is impossible, he conceives, to for's decision on this important point, we see the effect of his entrance on the problem of Christianity fro himself first to the Gospels which lie ion, and represent the latest and un with the earliest remains of Christian literature, and traced the doctrine of the resurrection froelists, we think he would have arrived at a different conclusion

In disht,” he throay the main evidence of the whole case We can understand the critic who, having put the ically inadht of the Pauline statements on this matter, and appeals to their writer's openness to i unsoundness of ards this _a priori_ incredulity as an unphilosophical prejudice, and upon whose list of real causes, never precluded from possible action, supernatural power finds a place, cannot consistently conde in concrete instances what he hieneral; and put the Apostle out of court, on the plea that we have no evidence but _his assertion_ of his intercourse with the risen Christ Is not _his assertion_ the only evidence possible of a subjectivesupernatural agency to an objective direction?

No doubt, facts presented to external perception have the advantage of being open to more witnesses than one; and if it be deliberately laid down as a canon, that in no case can any anomalous event be admitted on onea hearing to the Apostle But such a rule would only be an example of the futility of all attempts to reduce moral evidence to mathematical expression Facts of the most extraordinary nature have always been, and will always be, received on solitary attestation; and if so, it ical difference whether they be called ”objective,” or ”subjective” Awhat passes within hiround for trusting the latter which does not hold equally good for the former

If it be said that the reporter of a miracle not only announces what he sees or feels,--which we may accept on his veracity,--but proclaims its supernatural source,--which we ment,--the remark is perfectly just, only that it applies alike to _all_ testimony, and not exclusively to miraculous reports Our disposition to receive the evidence of a witness assu the same preconceptions of causation with hiround is sure to exist, and therefore remains a mere latent condition of belief But the slowness to adround; and if the hearer reserved in the background of his mind, and in equal readiness for action, the same supernatural power to which the witness's assertion refers, he would feel noto some matter of course

The reluctance to believe, is proof that his store of causation is limited to the natural sphere; and every phenomenon irreducible to this drops away fro as a fact perceived without a judgment formed, so is there no belief in the attestation of a fact without reliance on the soundness of a judg the same list of causes in hisholds, with Paul, that the power exists whence a subjective ht issue, and if from the nature of the case such miracle must remain a matter of personal consciousness, why reject the Apostle's report of his experience? In choosing fro the causes which both parties adhts upon that which, _if there_, gives the easiest and in for his iencies is so difficult, that critics would never attement of miracle On his own principles we do not see how our author could excuse hi his testimony; which does but communicate, in the only conceivable way, that which is allowed to be possible enough, and which best clears up therevolution in personal character, and in the convictions of an earnest and powerful mind

The whole question of miracles, however, loses its anxious importance with those who, like our author, would still, amid their constant occurrence, look to other sources for the credentials ofis positively and incontrovertibly known respecting the Apostles,--and in proportion as we trust the synoptical Gospelsto extend the remark to their Master,--it is this: that whatever powers they exercised, and whatever communications they received, were inadequate to preserve the to the world, as a substantive part of their e, a most solemn expectation which was not to be fulfilled This fact, no longer denied by any reputable theologian, alone shows that, even in the presence of the highest Christian authority, the natural criteria of reason and conscience cannot be dispensed with In the application of these to the teachings and life of Christ, our author finds, if not any truths of supernatural dictation, at least the highest object of veneration and affection yet given to this world

”Now on this subject,” he says, ”we hope our confession of faith will be acceptable to all save the narrowly orthodox It is difficult, without exhausting superlatives, even to unexpressive and wearisome satiety, to do justice to our intense love, reverence, and adard him, not as the perfection of the intellectual or philosophic mind, but as the perfection of the spiritual character,--as surpassing all men of all times in the closeness and depth of his cos, we feel that we are holding converse with the wisest, purest, noblest Being that ever clothed thought in the poor language of hu the footsteps of the highest ideal yet presented to us upon earth 'Blessed be God that so muchh the tides of divine life have risen in the world of ether from our author in his notion of inspiration, and his reduction of Christianity within the limits of human resource But we must say, that while there is such an estimate as this of what Jesus Christ _was_, it is a ht about the mode in which he _became so_

By a process of ”Christian Eclecticis draws forth froards as characteristic of the religion of Jesus; distinguishi+ng those which make it the purest of faiths from others which appear to him irreconcilable with a just philosophy The doctrine of a future life is reserved for a separate discussion; the general result of which we know not how to describe, otherwise than by saying that the author discards all the evidence and yet retains the conclusion All the arguments, metaphysical and moral, for human immortality, he condemns as absolutely worthless; he confesses that he has no new ones to propose; he affirms that all appearances, without exception, proclaim the permanence of death, the absence of any spiritual essence in anization; yet, on the report of that very ”soul” within him, whose existence nature disowns, he holds the doctrine of a future existence by the irresistible tenure of a first truth We do not wonder that the rigor hich Mr Greg has pushed his principles through other subjects of thought should relent at this point, and refuse to cast the sublimest of human hopes over the brink of darkness We respect, as a holy abstinence, his refusal to silence the pleadings of the inner voice But we admire his faith more than his philosophy; and are astonished that he does not suspect the soundness of a scientific method which lands him in results he cannot hold No scepticism is so fatal,--for none has so wide a sweep,--as that which despairs of the self-reconciliation of hu our faculties the reproach of irretrievable contradiction; which sets up first truths against deductions, conscience against science, faith against logic Ever since Kant balanced his Antinoravitation of _Practical_ reason to turn the irresolute scales of the _Speculative_, this unwholeso an ulti powers of the e of rhetoric or poetry, in the discussion of popular notions on ion, it would be hypercritical to co,--sense and soul But to an exact thinker it must be apparent that an ambidextrous intellect is no intellect at all; and that, were this all our endowment, the life of the wisest would be but a chase afterwords of our author, with all their tranquil appearance, describe a state of things which, were it real, ht well strike us with disious belief, regarding which intuition (or instinct) and logic are at variance,--the efficacy of prayer, man's free-will, and a future existence If believed, they must be believed, the last without the countenance, the two foric”--p 303

This is absolute Pyrrhonision, is subversive alike of knowledge and of faith The pretended ”logic” can be good for very little, which comes out with so suicidal an achievement as the _disproof of first truths_ The condition under which alone logic can exist as a science is the unity in the human mind of the laws of belief,--a condition which would be violated if any first truth contradicted another in itself, or in its deductions The moment, therefore, such a contradiction turns up, a consistent thinker will either regard it as a mere semblance, and proceed to re-exa; or he will treat it as real; and then it throws conteates it into impossibility In neither case can his reliance incline to the logical side Mr Greg, however, sticks to his logic whenever, as in the two cases atives_ a point of religious belief; and abandons it only where it restricts itself to cold and duic, and a firic of nature, would perhaps have har voices of the intellect and the soul, blending them in a faith neither afraid to think nor ashamed to pray

Had our author been as familiar with the Catholic and Arminian divines, as with the literature of inductive science and Calvinistic theology, he would have known that there is a philosophy fronance; and would, at least, have noticed its offer of mediation between Faith and Reason He is, however, entirely shut up within the formulas of a different school, which press with their resistance on his religious feeling in every direction, and produce a conflict which he can neither appease nor terminate With an intellect entirely overridden by the ideas of Law and Necessity, no man can escape the force of the coiveness of sin; and if those ideas possess universal validity, the very discussion of such doctrines is, in the last degree, idle and absurd But what if soner of the Baconian orthodoxy, were to suggest that, though Law is coextensive with outward nature, Nature is not coextensive with God, and that beyond the range where his agency is bound by the pledge of predeterin, where his spirit is free? And what if, in aggravation of his heresy, he were to contend that Man also, as counterpart of God, belongs not wholly to the realm of nature, but transcends it by a certain endow reeable to ”intuitive” feeling, and not less so to external evidence, than the one-sidedness of their opposites, est that room is now found for a doctrine of prayer? Not that any event bespoken and planted in the sphere of nature can be turned aside by the urgency of desire and devotion; not that the slightest swerving is to be expected froes of creation, or of the mind; wherever law is established--without us or within us--there let it be absolute as the everlasting faithfulness

But God has not spent hied his infinite resources to nature; nor has he closed up with rules every avenue through which his fresh energy ht find entrance into life; but has left in the hued, and whose drama is ever open to new developments Between the free centre of the soul in in of the activity of God, what hinders the existence of a real and living coht and counterthought? If, in response to huher mood is infused into the entle hope steals in; and if these should be the touch of divine sympathy and pity, what law is prejudiced?

what faith is broken? what province of nature has any title to coht our mediaeval friend continue,) with respect to the doctrine of forgiveness Ifof ard their unfaithfulness with disapproval Of his sentis which constitute the natural punish These are incorporated in the very structure of the world and the constitution of life; and to persistence in their infliction, the Supreme Ruler is committed by the assurance of his constancy They fasten on the guilty a chain which no pardon will strike off, but which he will drag till it is worn away