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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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(T AMERICAN '
FROM
VAllIOUS AUTHORS.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
GEORGE R. NOTES, D.D.,
PBOKESSdll OF SACREU I.ITERATl'HE IN HARVARD UJilVERSITT.
BBVENTH EDITIOir.
BOSTON: AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
1880.
, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by The Amekicax Uxitarian Association, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusette
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Antroduction. By George R. Noyes t
Faith and Science. By M. Guizot 1
The Law and the Gospel. By Rev. Baden Powell. ... 27
The Doctrine of Inspiration. By Dr. F. A. D. Tholuck. . 65
Holy Scripture. By Rev. Jlowland Wil\|ams. ... 113 Servants of God speaking as moved by tie Holy Ghost. By Rev.
Rowland Williams .127
The Spirit and the Letter, or the Truth and the Book. By Rev.
Rowland Williams 147
On the Causes which probably conspired to produce our Saviour's
Agony. By Rev. Edward Harwood 167
Of our Lord's Fortitude. By Rev. William Newcome. . . 197
The Doctrine of the Atonement. By Benjamin Jowett. . . 221
On Righteousness by Faith. By Benjamin Jowett. . . . 239
On the Imputation of the Sin of Adam. By Benjamin Jowett. . 265
On Conversion and Changes of Character. By Benjamin Jowett. 273
Casuistry. .By Benjamin Jowett. 299
On the Connection of Immorality and Idolatry. By Benjamin
Jowett 321
The Old Testament. By Benjamin Jowett 325
On the Quotations from the Old Testament in the New. By Benja- min Jowett. 329
Fragment on the Character of St. Paul. By Benjamin Jowett. . 341
IV CONTENTS.
St. Paul and the Twe'ive. By BLUJaniin Jowett. . . . 357
Evils in the Church of the Apostolical Age. By Benjamin Jowett. 383 On the Belief in the Coming of Christ in the Apostolical Age. By
Benjamin Jowett 393
The Death of Christ, considered as a Sacrifice. By Kev. James
Foster. 403
The Epistles to the Corinthians, in Relation to the Gospel History.
•By R(#. Arthur P. StauLy 415
Apostolical Worship. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . . . 437
The Eucharist. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley 443
Unity and Variety of Spiritual Gifts. By Rev Arthur P. Stanley. 447 The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Proj)hesying. By Rev. Ar- thur P. Stanley 4.53
Love, the greatest of Gifts. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . . 472
The Resurrection of Christ. By Rev. Artliur P. Stanley. . . 477
The Resurrection of tlie Dead. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . 482
On the Credibility of Miracles. By Dr. Thomas Brown. . , 485
Note A 505
Note B . . , SIS
INTRODUCTION.
The following collection of Theological Essays is designed for students in divinity, Sunday-school teachers, and all intelligent readers who desire to gain correct views of religion, and especially of the char- acter, use, and meaning of the Scriptures. It was suggested by the recent excellent Commentary on the Epistles of Paul by Rev. Mr. Jowett, now Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford. Understanding that this work was not likely to be reprinted in this country, and that the high price of the English edition rendered it inaccessible to most readers, it appeared to me that a collection of Theological Essays, which should include the most important dissertations con- nected with that Commentary, would be a valuable publication. Mr. Jowett seems to me to have pene- trated more deeply into the views and spirit of Paul, and the circumstances under which he wrote, than any previous English commentator. Some of the best results of his labors are presented in the Essays which are now republished in this collection. Mr. Jowett's notes might have been more satisfactory in some respects if, in addition to other German commen- taries which he has mentioned, he had made use of those of De Wette and Meyer. But no illustrative dissertations in any German commentary with which
a*
INTRODUCTION.
we are acquainted are equal in value to those of Jowett. His freedom and independence are espe- cially to be admired in a member of the Church of England, and Professor in the University of Oxford.
In the selection of the dissertations by other writers, regard was had partly to their rarity, and partly to their intrinsic value, and the light which they throw on important subjects which occupy the minds of re- ligious inquirers at the present day. Three Essays are taken from Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, an English periodical conducted by clergymen of the Established Church, of which few copies are circu- lated in this country. The first, by M. Guizot, the eminent writer and statesman of France, presents the subject of Faith in an interesting point of view, and closes with an admirable lesson on the importance of the free discussion of religious subjects.
The second Essay, by Rev. Baden Powell, an emi- nent Professor in the University of Oxford, and author of several well-known publications, contains an able discussion of a very important subject, which appears to be now attracting some notice in this country ; distinguished divines of the Baptist denomination taking the view of Dr. Powell, and some of the Or- thodox Congregationalists opposing it. The prevalent ojHnion, which regards the Old Testament as an au- thority in rehgion and morals equally binding upon Christians with the New, appears to me to have had a disastrous influence on the interests of the Church and the interests of humanity. The history of the civil wars of England and Scotland, the early history of New England, and the state of opinion at the pres- ent day on the subjects of war, slavery, punishmeni for religious opinion, and indeed punishment in gen-
INTRODUCTION. TU
eral, illustrate the noxious influence of the prevalent sentiment. A writer in one of the most distinguished theological journals in this Cv^untry has been for some time engaged in the vain attempt to prove, in opposi- tion to the plainest language, that the laws of the Pentateuch do not sanction chattel slavery. It was not thus that the great champion of the Protestant Reformation proceeded, when the authority of the Old Testament was invoked to justify immorality. When some of his contemporaries were committing unjusti- fiable acts against the peace and order of the commu- lity, and vindicated themselves by appealing to the Old Testament, Luther wrote a treatise entitled " Instruc- tion on the Manner in which Moses is to be read," containing the following passage, which, in tlie clear- ness and force of its style, might have been imitated with advantage by some of his countrymen : " Moses was a mediator and lawgiver to the Jews alone, to whom he gave the Law. If I take Moses in one com- mandment, I must take the whole of Moses. Moses is dead. His dispensation is at an end. He has no longer any relation to us. I will accept Moses as an instructor, but not as a lawgiver, except where he agrees with the New Testament, or with the law of nature. When any one brings forward Moses and his precepts, and would oblige you to observe them, answer him thus : * Go to the Jews with your Moses ! I am no Jew. If I take Moses as a master in one point, I am bound to keep the whole law, says St
Paul.' If now the disorganizers say, ' Moses has
commanded it,' do you let Moses go, and say, ' I ask not what Moses has commanded.' * But,' say they, * Moses has commanded that we should believe in God, that we should not take Uis name in vain, that
•Ill INTRODUCTION.
we should honor our father and mother, &c. Must we not keep these commandments?' Answer them thus: * Nature has given these commandments. Na- ture teaches man to call upon God, and hemte it is natural to honor God, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to bear false witness, &c. Thus I keep the commandments which Moses has given, not be- cause he enjoined them, but because nature implanted
them in me.' But if any one say, ' It is all God's
word,' answer him thus : ' God's word here, God's word there. I must know and observe to ivhom this word is spoken. I must know not only that it is God's word, but whether it is spoken to me or to an- other. I listen to the word which concerns me, &c. We have the Gospel.' " * I would not be understood to maintain every sentiment which Dr. Powell has advanced ; but his views in general appear to me not only sound, but highly important.
The Essay on the subject of Inspiration, by Tho- luck, is to be found in English only in the same for- eign journal. The views of a biblical student who enjoys so great a reputation among Christians of various denominations in all parts of the world need no recommendation. The translation I have carefully compared with the original, and found to be made with great fidelity and accuracy.
The three Essays which follow on the use and character of the Scriptures are taken from a recent volume of sermons, entitled " Rational Godliness," by Rev. Rowland Williams, a clergyman and distin- guished scholar of the Established Church of Eng- land, having been delivered before the Chancellor and
♦ See the passage in Lutlicr's works, or as quoted by Brctschneider, Dogmuiik, Vol. 1. y. 181.
INTRODUCTION. IX
University uf Cambridge. They appear to mc suffi- ciently valuable to be reprinted. The writer may be thought by some to underv-alue external authority, while maintaining the rights of intuition and expe- rience as means of attaining Christian truth. But have not many Christians since the time of Paley paid too exclusive regard to the former? It seems to me that those who accept the New Testament records of miracles as genuine and authentic, will not fail to receive from them their due influence, and will be in no danger of attaching too great importance to intui- tive faith and Christian experience. The older the world grows, the less nmst religious faith depend on history and tradition, and the more on the power of the human soul, assisted by the promised Paraclete, to recognize revealed truth by its own light.
The four Essays which follow relate to the great subject of the Atonement by Christ, and are designed to establish the true view of it, in opposition to cer- tain false theories which human speculation has con- nected with it, dishonorable to the character of God, pernicious in their influence on man, and having no foundation in the Scriptures or in reason. The Essay on the Causes which probably conspired to produce our Saviour's Agony, is by a distinguished English scholar of the last century, the author of an Introduc- tion to the New Testament, and of a translation of the same, which, though it departs too much from the simplicity of the Common Version, is highly creditable to the author as a critic and a man of learning. The Essay which is here republished is commended by Archbicliop Newcome in his very valuable observa- tions, which follow, on substantially the same subject, — the Fortitude of our Saviour. The two Essays
K INTRODUCTION.
appear to me to give a triumphant vindication of the character of our Saviour from the charges which have been brought against it by unbelievers, and, hypothet- ically, by some Christian divines, founded on certain expressions of feeling manifested a short time before his death, which his faithful historians have recorded for our instruction and consolation.
It so happens that that part of one of the specula- five theories connected with the Christian doctrine of atonement which is most repulsive to the feelings of many Christians, is absolutely without foundation in tha Scriptures, or in the faith of the Church for many centuries .after the death of Christ. I refer to that opinion which represents him as receiving supernatu- ral pain or torture immediately from the hand of God, over and above that which was inflicted by human instrumentality, or which arose naturally from the circumstances in which he, as God's minister for es- tablishing the Christian religion, was placed, and from the peculiar sensibility of his natural constitution. The very statement of this theory by some distin- guished theologians shocks the feelings of many Chris- tians like the language of impiety. Thus Dr. Dwight says : " Omniscience and Omnipotence are certainly able to communicate, during even a short time, to a finite mind, such views of the hatred and contempt of God towards sin and sinners, and of course towards a substitute for sinners^ as would not only fill its capa- city for suffering, but probably put an end to its existence. In this manner, I apprehend, the chief distresses of Christ were produced." * What ideas ! The omnipotence and omniscience of God are first
* Dvvight's Theology, Vol. II. p. 214.
INTRODUCTION. XI
called in to communicate a sense of his hatred and contempt to a sinless man, and, secondly, the suffer- ings and even the death of Christ are represented as the immediate consequence of his sense of God's hatred and contempt!
Dr. Macknight, a theologian of considerable celeb- rity, gives a somewhat different view, but equally appalling. He says: "Our Lord's perturbation and agony, therefore, arose from the pains which were injiicted upon him by the hand of God, when he made
his soul an offering for sin Though Jesus knew
no sin, God might, by the immediate operation of his power, make him feel those pains which shall be the punishment of sin hereafter, in order that, by the visi- ble effects which they produced upon him, mankind might have a just notion of the greatness of these
pains His bearing those pains, with a view to
show how great they are, was by no means punish- ment. It was merely suffering." * Such is the repre- sentation of Dr. Macknight, in a treatise entitled " The Conversion of the World to Christianity " !
In his Institutes,! Calvin undoubtedly represents Christ as suffering the pains of hell in the present, not the future life. He expressly explains the seem- ing paradox that Christ should descend into hell before his death.
A recent work by Krummacher, which has been industriously circulated in New England, contains a representation similar to that of Dwight and Mac- knight, in language still more horrible. Other recent writers in New England have sanctioned the same
o
view.
* See Macknight, in Watson's Tracts, Vol. V. p. 183. t Book II. ch. 16,$ 10, 11.
XU INTRODUCTION.
Now to this theory a decisive objection is, that it has not the least foundation in the Scriptures, and that it is in fact inconsistent with the general tenor ot the New Testament, which speaks of Christ's suffer- ings in connection with the obvious second causes of them, recorded in the history; namely, the reviling and persecuting of his enemies, the coldness and desertion of his disciples, the dark prospects of his mission,* his blood, his death, and the terrible persecution of his followers, which were to precede the estabhshment of his religion. Of the immediate infliction of pain by the Deity, over and above what Jewish malice in- flicted upon him, we find not a word. There is not a particle of evidence to show that any of the sufl*erings of Christ were inflicted upon him by any more direct or immediate agency on the part of God, than those of other righteous men who have been persecuted to death in the cause of truth and righteousness. The text in Isa. liii. 10, — " Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin," &c., — is often referred to. But such an application of this text can be shown to be wrong in two ways : — 1. It can be de- monstrated, on principles of interpretation universally acknowledged, that the " servant of God," in this and the preceding chapters, denotes, at least in its primary sense, the Jewish church, the Israel of God, who suffered on account of the sins of others in the time of the captivity at Babylon. 1 cannot, for want of space, go into a defence of this view. But I fully believe it to be correct, and it is maintained by the most unbiassed and scientific interpreters of the Old
* Luke xvili. 8 ; Matt. xxiv. 24.
INTRODUCTION. Xlfl
Testament.* 2. The language in question denotes no more direct and immediate agency of the Deity, than that which is everywhere, both in the Old Tes- tament and the New, ascribed to the Deity in refer- ence to the sufferings of the prophets and apostles. Comp. Ps. xxxix. 9, 10 ; Jer. xv. 17, 18 ; xx. 7, &c. ; xi. 18, 19; Lam. iii. So in the New Testament, if St. Paul tells us that Christ was " set forth as a pro- pitiatory sacrifice," he also says, " For 1 think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death." Indeed, there is no idiom in the Scriptures more obvious than that which represents all the blessings and adlictions of life, by whatever instrumentality produced, as coming from God.
Modern speculative theologians, not finding in the sacred history, or in any Scripture statement,- any au- thority for their supposition of a miraculous suffering or torment, inconceivable in degree, inflicted by the immediate agency of God upon the soul of Christ, resort to mere theory to support their position. If, say they, Christ was not enduring " vicarious suffer- ing," inconceivable in degree, inflicted on his soul by the immediate exertion of Almighty power, then it follows that he did not bear his sufferings so well as many martyrs, — so well as " the thieves on the cross," so well as " thousands and millions of common men without God and without hope in the world." t
Without repeating the explanations of Dr. Harwood
* That the phrase " servant of God " is a collective term, denoting the people of God, comprehending the Jewish nation, or the better part of the Jewish nation, that is, the Jewish church, has been maintained by such critics as Doderlein, Rosenmilller, Jalm, Gesenius, Maurcr, Knobel, Ew.ild, Hitzig ; also by the old Jewish critics, such as Abcn Ezra, Jar- chi, Aharhanel, and Kimchi.
T See Stuart on Hebrews, Exc. XI. p. 575. b
XW INTRODUCTION.
and Archbishop Newcome, it may be remarked, — 1. That at best this is only an argument ad Christior num. The sceptic and the scoffer are ready to accept the statement of the orthodox divine, and to tell him that, while the manner in which Christ endured his sufferings is matter of history, his way of accounting for them is pure theory.
2. It is very remarkable that the speculative theolo- gians have not seen that a quality exhibited in such perfection by "thousands and millions without God and without hope in the world," " by the thieves on the cross," and, it might have been added, by any number of bloodthirsty pirates and savage Indians, was one the absence of which implied no want of moral excellence ; that it was a matter of natural temperament, of phys- ical habits, and of the firm condition of the nervous system, rather than of moral or religious character.' Moral excellence is seen, not in insensibility to pain or danger, but in unwavering obedience to duty in defiance of pain and danger. The greater sense Jesus had and expressed of the sufferings which lay in his path, the greater is the moral excellence exhibited in overcoming them. In order to satisfy myself of the perfection of the character of Jesus, all I wish to know is that his obedience was complete ; that his grief, fears, and doubts were momentary ; that his most earnest expostulations and complaints, if so they may be called, were wrung from him by causes which are plainly set forth in the sacred history, while he was engaged without hesitation, without voluntary reluctance, nay, with the most supreme devotion of his will, in the greatest work ever wrought for man.
For my part, I am not ashamed to say, that I have a distinct feeling of gratitude, not only for the work
INTRODUCTION. XT
which Christ performed, but for every expression of human feeling, whether of grief, or momentary doubt, or fear, or interrupted sense of communion with God, which he manifested. I should feel that I was robbed of an invaluable treasure of encouragement and con- solation, if any one expression of feeling, whether in his words or otherwise, caused by such sufferings as all men, in a greater or less degree, are called to en- dure, should be blotted fi*om the sacred record. In the midst of deep affliction, and the fear of deeper, noth- ing has given me greater support than the repetition of the prayer in Gethsemane, once uttered in agony of soul, '' If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ! Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt!" Now I know that '* we have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 3. Those who maintain that the character of Christ was imperfect or sinful, unless he received immediate- ly from the hand of God inconceivably greater suffer- ings than were occasioned by human instrumentalities, and the second causes which are matters of history, do not make it clear how by their theory they relieve his character from the charges which they have hypo- thetically brought against it. K the manner in which Christ endured his sufferings was unworthy of him, — if it was faulty or sinful, — if his expressions in the garden of Gethsemane, or upon the cross, were wrong, — then no degree of suffering which the hu- man imagination can conceive to have been endured by him can make them right. Strength of temptation can palliate what is wrong, but cannot make it right. Whatever was the nature of Christ's sufferings, how- ever great in degree, and however immediately they
XVi INTRODUCTION.
were inflicted by God, still, unless his memory of the past, as recorded in the Gospels, Avas wholly efTaced, he had greater advantages than other men. He knew what testimonials and powers he had received from God. He knew that he was the object of Divine love. He knew that he had consented to his sufferings, and that they were a part of his work ; he had no sense of sin to aggravate them ; he knew that they were for a short time, and that they were certainly to be fol- lowed by a glorious resurrection, and by endless bless- edness for himself and his followers. How then are what Dr. D wight calls " the bitter complaints " of Jesus absolutely justifiable on his theory of the nature and causes of Christ's sufferings, if not on that view which has its basis, not in mere reasoning, but in the Scripture history, and which is set forth by Dr. Har- wood and Archbishop Newcome in this volume ? If all the mental and bodily sufferings naturally caused to Jesus by the malice of the Jews, the desertion of his disciples, and all the circumstances in which he was placed, cannot justify our Saviour's expressions, whether in language or otherwise, then no sufferings or torments the human imagination can conceive to have been immediately inflicted by God can justify them. In fact, the knowledge that they were inflicted immediately by the hand of God would have a ten- dency to make them more tolerable. Who would not drink the cup certainly known to be presented to his lips by the hand of his Almighty Father ? I have no difficulty in the case, because I believe all the expres- sions of Jesus in relation to his sufferings, which have been supposed to indicate a want of fortitude, to have been momentary, extorted from him by overpowering pain of body and mind.
INTRODUCTION. Xvil
It is also to be observed, in connection with the preceding remarks, that what may be called the rich imagination of Jesus, as displayed in the tJeauty of his illustrations and his parables, as well as various expressions of strong feeling on several occasions in the course of his ministry, indicate an exquisite sensibility, which no debasement of sin had ever blunted.
Without anticipating what is said in the excellent Essays of Dr. Harwood and Archbishop Newcome, I may make one more remark. Injustice seems to me to have been done to Jesus by comparing his short distress of mind on two or three occasions with what may have been as short a composure of some distin- guished martyrs, — Socrates for instance, — without taking into view the habitual fortitude of Christ. Now if any one believes that the feelings which Socrates exhibited when he drank the hemlock in prison, as described by Plato, were all which entered his mind from the time when he incurred the deadly hatred and persecution of the Athenians, and that no doubts or fears or misgivings occurred to him at any moment, in the solitude of his prison or elsewhere, I have only to say that his view of what is incident to human nature is very different from mine. Would Jesug have prayed, an hour before his suffering in Geth- semane, that his disciples might have the peace, and even the joy, which he possessed, had not the habitual state of his feelings been tranquil and composed ? Panegyrists have described the bravery with which some martyrs have endured their sufferings before the eyes of their admirers.. Jesus, who suffered not with a view to human applause, but to human consolation and salvation, was not ashamed or afraid to express
XVUl INTRODUCTION.
all which he felt, and his faithful biographers were not ashamed or afraid to record it.
I havl intimated that the view of the cause of our Saviour's principal sufferings, which 1 have endeavored to oppose, is not found in the Scriptures, nor in the general faith of the Church. It is the fruit of com- paratively modern speculation. For proof of the last assertion, 1 refer to the standard works on the history of Christian doctrines. In regard to the principal ut- terance of our Saviour, to which reference has been made in relation to this subject, in the words of the first verse of the twenty-second Psalm, I cannot agree with those who find in them no expression of anguish or tone of expostulation, and who suppose them to be cited by our Saviour merely in order to suggest the confidence and triumph with which the Psalm ends ; but which do not begin before the twenty-second verse. Under the circumstances of the case, the words appear to have had substantially the same meaning when uttered by Christ as when uttered by the Psalmist. They should not be interpreted as the deliberate result of calm reflection, but as an outburst of strong involuntary emotion, forced from our Saviour by anguish of body and mind, in the words which naturally occurred to him, implying momentary expos- tulation, or even complaint. But that the interruption of the consciousness of God's presence and love was only momentary, both in the case of the Psalmist and of the Saviour, is evident, first, from the expression. My God! my God I repeated with earnestness; secondly, from the expressions of confidence in the course of the Psalm, which might follow in the mind of Christ as well as in that of the Psalmist ; and thirdly, from the usage of language, according to which the expression
INTRODUCTION. XIX
** to be ibrsaken by God " merely means " not to be delivered from actual or impending distress." The very parallel line in the verse under consideration, " Why art thou so far from helping me ? " is, accord- ing to the laws of Hebrew parallelism, a complete exposition of the language, " Why hast thou forsaken me ? " So Ps. xxxviii. 21, 22, " Forsake me not, O Lord ! O my God, be not far from me ! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation I " Other passages are Ps. x. 1, xiii. 1, Ixxiv. 1, Ixxxviii. 14.
As the historical passages in which Christ expressed his feelings under the sufferings which he endured or feared, are of great interest, it may be satisfactory to many readers if I translate, and place in a note at the end of the volume,* the expositions of them given by men who are regarded by competent judges of all denominations of Christians as standing in the very first rank as unbiassed, learned, scientific expositors of the Scriptures. De Wette, Liicke, Meyer, Bleek, and Liinemann will be admitted by all who are acquainted with their writings to stand in that rank.
After the Essays on the nature and causes of the sufferings of Christ, and the manner in which he bore them, I have selected two on the design and influence of these sufferings in the atonement which he effected: one by that admirable writer, James Foster,! the most celebrated preacher of his day, of whom Pope wrote, long ago,
" Let modest Foster, if he will, excel Ten metropolitans in preaching well " ;
and the other by Professor Jowett, of whom I have al- ready spoken. The two dissertations, taken together,
* See Note A.
t By accident this Essay does not appcai- in its proper place ia thit Tolame, but will U" found on page 403.
XX INTRODUCTION.
appear to me to give a very fair and Scriptural vie"W of the Christian doctrine of atonement.
The great variety of theories which the specula- tions of Protestants have connected with the Christian doctrine of atonement is alone sufficient to show on what a sandy foundation some of them rest. As sacrifices of blood, in which certain false views of Christian redemption had their origin, passed away from the world's regard gradually, so one error after another has been from time to time expunged from the theory of redemption which prevailed at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Luther laid it down plain- ly, that the sins of all mankind were imputed to Christ, so that he was regarded as guilty of them and pun- ished for them. Thns he says : " And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulter- er, thief, rebel, and blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world. For he, being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent person and without sin ; is not now the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; but a sinner, which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor ; of Peter, which denied Christ ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murder- er, &c Whatsoever sins I, thou, and we all
have done, or shall do hereafter, they are Christ's own
sins as verily as if he himself had done them
But wherefore is Christ punished ? Is it not because he hath sin, and beareth sin ? " * Luther's theory was once the prevalent one in the Protestant Church.
It is also to be observed, as it contributes to the better understanding of the New England theories
* Luther on Gal. ill. 13.
INTRODUCTION. ZZi
which prevail at the present day, that the view of Luther was at one time almost universal in New England. In the year 1650, William Pynchon, a gen- tleman of learning and talent, and chief magistrate of Springfield, wrote a book in which, in the language of Cotton Mather, " he pretends to prove that Christ suffered not for us those unutterable torments of God's wrath which are commonly called hell torments, to redeem our souls from Ihem, and that Christ bore not our sins by God's imputation, and therefore also did not bear the curse of the law for them."
The General Court of Massachusetts, as soon as the book was received from England, where it was printed, immediately called Mr. Pynchon to account for his heresy, dismissed him from his magistracy, caused his book to be publicly burned in Boston mar- ket, and appointed three elders to confer with him, and bring him to an acknowledgment of his error.* They also chose Rev. John Norton, of Ipswich, to answer his book, after they had condemned all the copies of it to be burned, f Mr. Norton's answer is now before us, in which he repeats over and over again the prevalent doctrine of the time: — " Christ sufl'ered a penal hell, but not a local ; he descended into hell virtually, not locally ; that is, he suffered the pains of hell due unto the elect, who for their sin de- served to be damned." " Christ suffered the essential penal wrath of God, which answers the suffering of the second death, due to the elect for their sin, before he suffered his natural death." " Christ was tor- mented without any forgiveness ; God spared him nothing of the due debt."
* See Records of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. IV. Part I. pp. 29, 30; ai?o Holland's History of Western Massachusetts, Vol. I. p. 37, &c. t iSec Note 13.
XXU INTRODUCTION.
Flavcl, a Nonconformist clergynnan in England, whose writings continue to be published by the Amer- ican Tract Society, and who was contemporaneous with John Norton, thus writes : '^ To wrath, to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture, to the very torments of hell, was Christ delivered, and that by the hands of his own Father." * "As it was all the wrath of God that lay upon Christ, so it was his wrath aggravated in diverse respects beyond that which the damned themselves do suffer." f
In the Confession of Faith J owned and consented to by the churches assembled in Boston, New Eng- land, May 12, 1680, and recommended to all the churches by the General Court held October 5, 1679, is contained the following (Ch. VIII. 4) : " The Lord
Jesus Christ underwent the punishment due to
us, which we should have borne and suffered, being made sin and a curse for us, enduring most excruciat- ing torments immediately from God in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body." This was copied verbatim into the celebrated Saybrook Plat- form, adopted by the churches of Connecticut, Sep- tember 9, 1708.
Some of the preceding views, for questioning which one of the wisest and best men in Massachusetts was so much harassed as to feel obliged to leave the Commonwealth, are now as universally rejected as
* Fountain of Life Opened, p. 10, Ser. IV. fol. edit.
t Ibid., p. 106.
X This Confession was taken, with a few slight vanations in confonnity with the Westminster Confession, from the " Savoy Declaration," that is, "A Declaration of tlic Faith and Order owned and pmctised in the Congregational Churches in England ; agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers at the Savoy [a part of London] Octol)er 1 2th, IG.'iS," which may be seen in " Hanbury's Historical Me- morials," p. 532, &c.
INTRODUCTION. XXIU
iliey were once received. But the most objectionable part of them, in a religions point of view, that which supposes supernatural sufferings or tortures to have been immediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, is still retained by many. The late Pro- fessor Stuart, as we have seen, supported this view on the ground that the character of Christ for fortitude would otherwise suffer. Many of the books indus- triously circulated by the Orthodox sects among the laity contain the doctrine in a very offensive form. The Assembly's Catechism, which declares that Christ " endured the wi'ath of God," evidently in the sense of Norton and Flavel, is scattered by thousands among the people, and made the standard of faith in the principal theological school of this Common- wealth. Vincent, whose explanation of the Assem- bly's Catechism has just been republished by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, says : '* He, to- gether with the pain of his body on the cross, endured the wrath of God, due for man's sin, in his soul."
With the progress of intellectual and moral philos- ophy, however, the doctrine of the imputation of sin to one who had not committed it, came to be held as a mere fiction by many, who yet retained that part of the old doctrine which maintains that Christ bore the punishment of the sins of all mankind. This view avoids the now evident fiction involved in charging the sins of the guilty upon the innocent; but it has no advantage over Luther's doctrine in reference to the character of the Deity. Luther's theory paid so much homage to the natural sentiments of justice in the human soul, as to make the atten)pt, though a vain one, to reconcile the conduct which his theology ascribed to God with those sentiments. I«ather, with
XXiV INTRODUCTION.
John Norton and others of his school, felt as strongly as any Unitarian of the present day, that, where there is punishment, there must be guilt, and an accusing conscience.* They held, therefore, that Christ was punished because he was guilty, and " sensible of an accusing conscience." But the more modern theory, which holds that Christ bore the punishment of all men's sins without bearing their guilt, involves the idea of punishment without guilt in him who suffers it. It takes away the hypothesis which alone gave it even the show of consistency with the justice of God. The perception of the incongruity involved in the supposition that one should receive punishment who is without guilt, has therefore led many theologians to give up this part of the old theory. It was aban- doned by many in England as long ago as the time of Baxter. In New England, since the time of Dr. Edwards the younger, several theological writers have maintained that, as there can be no punishment with- out a sense of guilt and condemnation of conscience, but only pain, suffering, torment, it is erroneous to say that Christ endured vicarious punishment for the sins of mankind. Vicarious pain or torment might be en- dured by the innocent, but not vicarious punishment. Some, also, on the ground that the sufferings of Christ bear no proportion, in amount and duration, to the punishment which was threatened against sinners, have even rejected the term vicarious as inapplicable. Dr. Dwight says : " It will not be supposed, as plainly it cannot, that Christ suffered in his divine nature. Nor will it be believed that any created nature could in that short space of time suffer what would be equivalent to even a slight distress extended through
* See Norton's Answer, &c. p. 119.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
eternity." * " When, therefore, we are told that it pleased Jehovah to bruise him, it was not as a punish- ment." t " It is not true," says Edwards the younger, " that Christ endured an equal quantity of niisery to that which would have been endured by all his people,
had they suffered the curse of the law As the
eternal Logos was capable of neither enduring misery nor losing happiness, all the happiness lost by the. substitution of Christ was barely that of the man Christ Jesus, during only thirty-three years ; or rather during the last three years of his life." J Dr. Em- mons says : " His sufferings were no punishment, much less our punishment. His sufferings were by no means equal in degree or duration to the eternal sufferings we deserve, and which God has threatened to inflict upon us. So that he did in no sense bear the penalty of the law which we have broken, and justly deserve." §
But this concession of the more modern New Eng- land theologians to the imperative claims of reason is not of so much importance as it may at first view appear. To say that Christ did not endure the punish- ment of the sins of mankind, nor indeed any punish- ment whatever, but only an amount of suffering or torment which, in its effect as an expression of the Di- vine mind, and in upholding the honor of the Divine government, was an equivalent to the infliction of the punishment threatened against sin, is of little avail, so long as it is maintained that the chief sufferings of our Saviour were of a miraculous character, incon- ceivable in degree, immediately inflicted upon him by
* Ser. LVI.Vo1.il p. 217. ~~'
t Ibid., p. 211,
X Sermons on the Atonement, Works, Vol. IT. p. 43. \ Works, Vol. V. p. 32. c
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
the hand of God over and above those which he in- curred from hunrian opposition and persecution in the accomplishment of his work. The concession is made to philosophy, not to religion. So far as the Divine character is concerned, it is of little consequence whether you call the sufferings of Chust pu?iishmentj or only torture immediately/ inflicted by God for the mere purpose of being contemplated by intelligent beings.
Suppose that Christ had ordered the beloved Apos- tle John to be crucified, in order to show his dis- pleasure at sin, when he forgave Peter, of what conse- quence would it be to say that John was not punished, but only tortured, for the sin of Peter ? Would Christ deserve the more to be regarded as a righteous being, an upholder of law, a wise moral governor, for inflicting inconceivable anguish of body and mind upon John as the sole ground and condition of forgiv- ing the sin of Peter ?
How many of the theologians of New England at the present day retain this theory of miraculous suf- fering immediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, I have no means of ascertaining. It is not easy to see why the advocates of the govern- mental theory, after admitting that the sufferings of Christ were finite and of brief duration, that they were not the punishment, nor, as a penalty, equivalent to the punishment, of the sinner, should seek by mere ratiocination to magnify the sufferings of Christ be- yond what the sacred history has recorded them to be, and to bring in the omnipotence and the omniscience of the Deity to inflict a pain which human malice and second causes could not inflict. The mere amount of sufTtiring does not seem to be essential to this theory. The Scriptures contain, as we have seen,
INTRODUCTION. XXVU
nothing for it On the contrary, they sev^m to be positively against it, in insisting, as they do, on the Llood of Christ, the death of Christ as a sacrifice, rather than on what he sufl'ered before he died. It is just to state that I do not find, in the sermons on the atonement by Dr. Edwards the younger, Dr. Em- mons, and Dr. Woods, reference to any sufferings of Christ, except those which were naturally incident to the discharge of his duty. True, they say nothing against the view held by Dr. D wight, Dr. Mack night, and some recent writers. But it is to be hoped that they omitted the theory of miraculous suffering, im- mediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, because they had abandoned it. May the time soon come when all the advocates of the govern- mental theory shall cease to insist on a fragment of the old theory of penal satisfaction, which has no his- torical foundation, which is shocking to the feelings of many Christians, and strengthens the objections of the enemies of Christianity.
On the other hand, it appears to me that some writers, looking at the subject chiefly in the light of the principles of moral and religious philosophy, have given a somewhat imperfect view of the sentiments of St. Paul respecting the significance of the death of Christ, by maintaining that he limited the influence of it to its immediate effect in producing the refor- mation and sanctification of the sinner. This latter view is indeed prominent throughout the Apostle's writings. Christians are represented as being bap- tized to the death of Christ ; that is, to die to sin as he died for it ; to be buried in baptism to sin, and to rise to a new spiritual life, as he was buried and rose to a new^ life. But the Apostle regards the death of Christ,
XXTUl INTRODUCTIOA.
not only as exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, but as having a meaning and significance, con- sidered as an event taking place under the moral government of God, according to his will. Its mean- ing serves, according to him, at the same time to manifest the righteousness of God, and his mercy in accepting the true believer. " Whom in his blood, through faith, God has set forth as a propitiatory sacri- fice, in order to manifest his righteousness on account of his passing by, in his forbearance, the sins of former times." * It is true that the design of this providential event was still manifestation^ and that the contemplation of the sacrifice, and the appropriation of it by faith, were regarded by the Apostle as leading to repentance and sanotification, as well as to peace of mind. But he contemplates it in this passage under another aspect. He has what may be called a transcendental, as well as a practical, view of this, as of all events. He contemplates the death of Christ, taking place according to God's will, as illustrating the mind of God ; as manifesting his righteousness, though he forbore adequately to punish the sins of former times, and in mercy accepted as righteous the true Christian believer. His view seems to be that God, by suflering such a person as Jesus, standing in such a relation to him, having a sinless character, and sustaining such an office in relation to the world as Christ did, to suffer and die a painful and ignomin- ious death, has declared how great an evil he regards sin to be, and how great a good he regards holiness to be ; in other words, his hatred of sin, and love of holiness. The greatness of the evil of sin, and of the
* Rora. iii. 25.
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
good of righteousness, are to be seen in the greatness of the sacrifice which God, in his high providential government of the world, appointed, and which in the fulness of time Christ made. Why is not this view of St. Paul correct ? God is surely to be seen, not only in the works of nature, in the intuitions of the IjOuI, in immediate revelation, but also in the events of Providence. Especially the fact, that under the moral government of God the most righteous men, those in whom the spirit of God dwells most fully and most constantly^ are willing to incur reproach and suf- fering in the cause of truth, righteousness, and human happiness, shows that the Giver of the Holy Spirit, the Source of all righteousness, regards sin as a great evil, and righteousness as a great good ; that is, hates sin, and loves holiness. Much more, then, if Christ, in whom was the spirit of God without measure, who knew no sin, and who was in various ways exalted above the sons of men, becomes, according to the will of God, and by his own consent, a sacrifice for sin, does he illustrate his Father's hatred of sin, and love of holiness.
It appears to me that Edwards the younger, and other advocates of what is called the governmental theory, have connected with the view of the Apostle Paul two great errors. One consists in regarding that as the direct and immediate design of the death of Christ which was only incidental to it, as a providen- tial event. This appears from the fact that the death of Christ is everywhere in the New Testament de- nounced as an evil and a crime. Of course, then, it was opposed to the direct revealed will of God. Everywhere in the New Testament we may learn that the direct design of God in sending his Son waa
XXX INTRODUCTION.
that the Jews, as well as others, should reverence him. " This is my beloved Son, hear ye him." " He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father." " Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed." It is admitted by all, that the direct will of God is declared in his commands rather than in his providence. Unless the Jews had acted against the will of God, it could not be said that by '* wicked hands" they had crucified and slain the Saviour. But when, instead of hearing and reverencing Christ, they persecuted and crucified him, this event was overruled by Divine Providence, so as to convey a re- ligious lesson concerning the attributes of God, and his government of the world. There is no more evi- dence that the Jews were instigated by God to crucify Christ, than to kill any prophet who had preceded him. There is no more evidence that this was ac- cording to the will of God, than any murder which ever took place. The Apostle Paul undoubtedly de- clares that Christ gave himself for us according to the will of God (Gal. i. 4) ; and that God had set him forth as a propitiatory sacrifice to manifest his right- eousness (Rom. iii. 25). But he uses similar language in regard to many other events. Thus he declares that Pharaoh, the tyrant, was raised up to make known the power of God. (Rom. ix. 17.) But will it be pretended that God gave existence and power to Pharaoh for the direct and exclusive purpose of mak- ing known his power, and that his power could not be made known in any other way ? Was it not the will of God that Pharaoh should be a just and beneti- cent sovereign ? It is evident from the nature of the case, as well as from the current phraseology of the Scriptures, that the treachery of Judas, and the cruci-
INTRODUCTION. XXXI
fixion of Christ, were not more immediately ordained by God, than any other case of treachery and murder which ever took place in the world. It is plain, then, that the manifestation of the righteousness of God by th^ sacrifice of Christ, referred to by St. Paul, was the incidental or indirect design of it, as an event taking place under the government of God, against his re- vealed will. The crucifixion of Christ declares the righteousness of God, just as the wrath of man in all cases is caused to praise him.
That the manifestation of the righteousness of God was only the incidental design of the sacrifice of Christ, appears also from this circumstance, that it is only when so regarded that it conveys to a rational mind an impression either of his righteousness or his wisdom. That God should so love the world as to send Christ to enlighten, reform, and bless it, though he foresaw that he would not accomplish his purpose without falling a sacrifice to human passions, gives an impression of his benevolence, and of his hatred of sin and love of holiness. But if he had imme- diately and directly commanded the Jewish priests to sacrifice him, or the Jewish rulers to insult, torture, and crucify him, simply that as an object of human contemplation he might manifest the righteousness of God, and his hatred of sin by his infliction of tor- ture on an innocent being, then no such effect would be produced by it. The Jewish priests themselves would have said that such a sacrifice was heathenish, an offering such as the Gentiles used to make to Moloch. All the world would say, that such a God- commanded sacrifice, such a direct and immediate infliction of suffering by the Almighty upon an inno- cent being, for the main purpose of making known ilia
XXXU INTRODUCTION.
dispositions, and maintaining the honor of his govern^ ment, was a manifestation of any attribute rather than righteousness. We might believe an express verbal declaration, that such a direct infliction was designed to show God's righteousness; but in the fact itself of such torture, one could perceive neither righteousness nor wisdom. This may be clearly illus- trated by an example.
If a human sovereign, the emperor of Russia for in- stance, being engaged in war with a rebellious prov- ince, and having a son distinguished by military skill, courage, and humanity above all his subjects, should send him at the head of an army, and expose him to all the casualties of war, in order to bring the province into submission, and this son should actually suffer death through the opposition of the rebels, who would not admire the self-denial and benevolence ex- hibited by the monarch ?
Suppose now, on the other hand, that the rebels should, by the labors and sacrifices of that son, have been brought to repentance and submission, and should humbly sue for pardon, and that the monarch should say, " I will forgive you, but in order to express my feelings concerning the crime of rebellion, and to uphold the honor of my government, and maintain the cause of order, I must, as the condition of the for- giveness of your crime, inflict inconceivable anguish of mind and body upon my well-beloved son in the sight of all my subjects," and should actually do it with his own hands, would not the whole civilized world condemn such a monarch as guilty of injustice, cruelty, and folly? The conser t of the son, could it be obtained, would only serve to deepen the cruelty and folly of the father.
INTRODUCTION. XXXlH
The incidental effect of the sufferings of the Apostles is spoken of as designed, as expressly as that of the sufferings of Christ. Thus St. Paul says, '* Wheth- er we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation." * Again, " Yea, and if I be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," f &c. Again, he speaks of himself as " filling up what is wanting of the sufferings of Christ," J thus implying that his own sufferings had the same general purpose as those of his Master. Again, the casting away of the Jews is reuresented by Paul in one verse as the reconciling or atonement of the world ; in another, as the punishment of the Jews for their unbelief. §
It is readily conceded that a greater prominence, importance, and influence are assigned by Paul and other New Testament writers to the sacrifice of Christ, than to that of other righteous men. This is owing in part to his pre-eminent character, his supernatural powers and qualifications, the dignity of his office as head of the Church, and to the peculiar circumstances of his life and death. He had a greater agency than others in the work of the Christian atonement, of which, however, the Apostles were yet ministers. || He was the head of the Church.
The minds and feelings of the Apostles must have been in the highest degree affected by the ignominious death of their Master. It was the subject of the deepest gratitude that the blessings which they en- joyed were purchased by his blood. They had lost all ho|)es when he expired. His death was opposed to all their views of the Messiah. They had supposed that he would live for ever. ^ This expectation waa
♦ 2 Cor. i. 6. t Phil. ii. 17. J Col. i. 24. ^ Rom. xi. 15, 20. 0 2 Cor. V. 18. 1 See John xii. 34 ; Matt. xvi. 22.
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
probably not wholly effaced from their minds till they saw him expire. When they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles, they preached the religion of one who had suffered like the vilest malefactor. The circum- stance that the death of Christ was so ignominious was a strong reason for their insisting upon it the more, as the means through which they enjoyed the blessings of Christianity. The cross was a stum- bling-block to the Jew, and folly to the Gentile. The oftener objections were made to it, the more would the Apostles be led to dwell upon it, and to present it in every light in which it could be presented. In re- flecting upon the meaning of it as a providential event, the analogy between it and the sin-offerings of the Jews struck their imaginations forcibly. Certain passages in the prophetic writings, especially Isa. liii., which was originally spoken of the Jewish Church, were adapted to impart additional emphasis to this analogy.
It is also very possible that I may have too closely defined the meaning of Paul and other Apostles, in representing the death of Christ as a sacrifice. This idea having once taken full possession of their imagi- nations, they may not always have kept in mind the boundary which divides figurative from plain lan- guage. They may have connected certain sacrificial ideas or feelings with the death of Christ, which a modern cannot fully appreciate, or strictly define. Being born Jews, familiar with sacrifices from their infancy, and writing to those who, whether Jews or Gentiles, had been accustomed to attach the same importance and efficacy to them, it was natural that they should represent the death of Christ in language borrowed from the Jewish ritual, and that they should
INTRODUCTION. XX O
attach an importance to it which savors more of the religion which they had renounced, than of that which they had adopted. But so far as the question whether the atonement by Christ was effected by vica- rious punishment, or vicarious suffering, is concerned, it is of no consequence how much importance the Apostles attached to the sacrificial view. For there is no reason to believe that in literal sacrifices vicarious punishment, or suffering, was denoted, or that the pain endured by the animals offered had anything to do with their efficacy or significance.*
The other orror in the theory of Edwards the younger, and other advocates of the governmental theory, consists in representing the sufferings of Christ as absolutely necessary, as the ground of forgiveness, in the nature of things, or in the nature of the Divine government, or on account of the Divine veracity in reference to the declaration, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now in regard to this last consideration, that of the Divine veracity, it is certain that the threat- ened penalty of transgression is no more executed when the sinner is forgiven in consequence of severe suffering inflicted upon Christ, than if he were for- given, without such an infliction, in consequence of the eternal mercy of God. For the penalty was never threatened except against the sinner. Of course it can never be executed except upon the sinner.
It has also been maintained by the advocates of the governmental theory, that to forgive sin on any other ground than that of the infliction of suffering upon Christ, equivalent, in the impression produced by it, to the eternal punishment of all the wicked, would
^ * See Christian Examiner for September, 1855.
XXXTl INTRODUCTION.
operate as encouragement of wickedness. But it is not easy to see why those who would be encouraged in sin by the hope of being forgiven through the eter- nal mercy of God, would not also be encouraged in sin by the hope of being forgiven through the suffer- ing inflicted upon Christ, or through any consideration founded on past historical fact. The forgiveness is certain to him who repents and becomes a righteous man on either theory, and may encourage an evil- minded person in one case as well as the other. He who can harden himself in sin in consequence of the infinite mercy of God in forgivir^g the penitent, can do the same thing in consequence of the exceed- ing love of Christ as manifested in his death.
That the advocates of some of the old theories should maintain the absolute necessity of vicarious suffering, does not appear strange. But that the ad- vocates of the governmental theory should maintain its absolute necessity as the condition of the forgive- ness of sin, so that the Divine mercy could not be exercised, and the honor of the Divine government maintained without it, is surprising. Having denied that the sufferings of Christ are in any sense the punishment of the sins of men, or that they are in any sense penal in their nature, it is singular that they should believe them to be absolutely necessary in order to vindicate the righteousness of God, and cause his government to be respected, so that, witiiout these sufferings as a condition, the mercy of God could not and would not have been exercised in the forgiveness of sin. What! Have men no reason to believe in the righteousness of God, and to respect his moral government, unless they can be convinced of the historical fact that he immediately and directly
INTRODUCTION. XXXVH
caused inconceivable sufferings to Christ, as the in<lis- pensable ground of his forgiving a single sin ? Have the unnumbered millions of the human race, who never heard of Christ, and yet believe in the forgive- ness of sins, no reason to have faith in the righteous- ness of God, and to respect his moral government ? Have the instinctive faith of the human soul in all the perfections of God, the condemnation of sin in the conscience, the retributions of Divine Providence, the intimations of a judgment to come in the human heart and in Divine revelation, no force to convince men that God hates sin and loves holiness, though he be long-sutfering and ready to forgive ? Would all these considerations lose their force with one who should believe that God could forgive a penitent, thoroughly regenerated transgressor for his own eter- nal mercy's sake alone ? Cannot a father forgive a penitent son, without conveying the impression that he is pleased with sin ?
It has been alleged by Edwards the younger, and others, that the very fact of the suflerings and death of Christ as means of manifesting the righteousness of God, and maintaining the honor of his government, implies their absolute necessity; because otherwise they would not have been allowed by the Deity to take place. I am wholly unable to perceive on what principle the mere occurrence of the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews shows its absolute necessity, more than the occurrence of the murder of any prophet or apostle shows its absolute necessity. Bat it will not be pretended that the purposes of God in the renova- tion of the world could not have been accomplished unless Stephen had been stoned to death, and James beheaded, and Peter crucified, however great may d
XXXVlli INTRODUCTION.
liave been the actual influence of these cases of mjir- tyrdom in the regeneration of the world. Indeed, to argue the absolute necessity of the saci-ifice of Christ from the fact of its actual occurrence, is to argue the absolute necessity of every murder that ever occurred in the world. Of course no one has ever denied the necessity of the sufferings of Christ in the same gen- eral sense in which the sufferings of all righteous men are necessary, or in which all the evil in the world is necessary. Bishop Butler, in the fifth chapter of Part Second of his Analogy, has shown that by the stripes of righteous men in general, under the government of God, the people are often healed ; and of course that Christ might suffer in a similar way, and for similar ends. But he did not attempt to find anything on earth analogous to the theories on which I have been remarking. If he had made the attempt, he would have found such analogy only in the practice of the most barbarous Oriental despots. It appears to me that he is guilty of a gross violation of the common use of language w^hen he says, that " vicarious pun- ishment is a providential appointment of every day's experience." No one has ever doubted or denied the vicarious punishment of Christ in the sense in which vicarious punishment is matter of every day's expe- rience. Every Unitarian, every 'Deist, would accept such a creed. But this paradoxical use of language has been generally rejected and condemned by mod- ern theological writers of every name.* It serves only to confound things which differ.
Dr. Edwards and others have also argued the ne- cessity of the sacrifice of Christ from the ancient sacrifices of the Jews. But as there was no absolute
* See pp. xxiv, xxv.
INTRODUCTION. XXXlX
necessity foi these sacrifices of animals, — as they were of human origin, and onl) tolerated, or at most sanctioned, by the Deity, — of course there could be no absolute necessity for the sacrifice of Christ; though when it was made, its good eft'ects might be pointed out by the Apostle glancing his eye of faith over the events which took place under the government of God. As to the verse, " Without shedding of blood, there was no remission," the meaning is, that under the actual dispensation of the Jewish law, as per- mitted or appointed by God, there was no remission without a sacrifice.* The remark has no relation to the nature of things, or to the absolute necessity of the Divine government, but only to a usage which had passed away.
Some passages from the New Testament have also been adduced for the purpose of proving that the sacrifice of Christ was absolutely necessary, as the ground of Divine forgiveness, in the nature of things, or of the Divine government ; such as Luke xxiv. 26, " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ? " Also verse 46, " It behoved Christ to suffer," &c. But it is evident that the neces- sity here referred to by Christ arises simply from that of the fulfilment of prophecy. That he did not con- sider them absolutely necessary, is evident from his prayer to have the cup pass from him. See New- come's remarks, pages 207, 210 of this volume.
Allowing, as we have done, that the sacrifice of Christ incidentally illustrates the righteousness as well as the love of God, its absolute necessity as a ground of Divine forgiveness is not more evident from
* On the subject of tlie Jewish sacrifices, in their bearing on the worir of Christ, see Christian Examiner for September, 1855.
Xl INTRODUCTION.
any language of Scripture, than the absolute necessity of such a tyrant and oppressor as Pharaoh. For the Apostle adopts similar language respecting Pharaoh : *' Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." Will it be pretended that the power and the name of Jehovah could not have been made known except by raising up just such a tyrant as Pharaoh ? The Apos- tle is quite as explicit in declaring the design of the exaltation of Pharaoh to be that of manifesting the power of God, as in declaring the design of the sacri- fice of Christ to be that of manifesting the righteous- ness of God.
My general conclusion is, that the Apostle Paul considers the death of Christ under two aspects : — 1. He regards it as an event taking place under the prov- idence of God, and according to the Divine will, and in some sense a sacrifice incidentally manifesting the righteousness of God in connection with the exercise of his mercy. See Rom. iii. 21 - 26. 2. He regards it in its immediate moral and religious influence upon the heart and life of the believer. See Rom. vi., vii., &c. He does not appear to regard it as an indispen- sable evidence of the Divine righteousness, without which it could not be seen, but only as a new and signal illustration of it in connection with his mercy. The latter view is the most prevalent. The first view relates to the enlightening influence of ChriU's death; the second to its sanctifying influence. In both cases the influence of it is upon God's sub- jects, not upon God himself. Perhaps both views are united in the text, " He made him who knew no sill to suffer as a sinner in our behalf, that we through
INTRODUCTION. zB
him might attain the righteousness which God will accept." *
I have preferred, for obvious considerations, to dis- cuss the subject in the light of Scripture rather than of mere reason. But in regard to the sufficiency of the governmental theory to satisfy the reason, I cannot forbear quoting a few lines from a recent Orthodox writer, the author of the Sermon on the Atonement in the Monthly Religious Magazine, which has re- ceived some attention among us. " How could the suffering of one human being, either in amount, or as an expression of God's feelings towards his law, sin, and holiness, be equivalent to the eternal punishment of the wicked, to the smoke of their torment ascend- ing for ever? The sutFering of one created being for a few days or years would be, in comparison, as a
drop to an ocean We are quite familiar with
the answer which is made to reasoning of this kind, — with the argument, that the union of the Divine na- ture with the human gave a boundless dignity and worth to the sufferings of that human nature, though having no part in them. But we are constrained to say, that it never commended itself to our judg- ment, or gave us the least satisfaction. We cannot see how the Divine nature had, we think we see that it had not, any share in the atonement, if it had no share in the sacrifice which constituted it ; nor how it could give dignity and worth to sufferings by which it was entirely unaffected. We have heard illustration after illustration upon this point ; but to our mind it is like sailing in the face of the wind." f These re- marks are the plain dictates of common sense. I have
* 2 Cor. V. 21,
t See the New Englander for July, 1847, p. 432. d*
Xlii INTRODUCTION.
no doubt that the time will come when the doctrine that a clear perception of the righteousness of God absolutely depended on the sufferings " of the man Christ Jesus during only thirty years, or rather during the last three years of his life," * will be regarded with greater wonder than the doctrine of Luther and Fla- vel and John Norton now is.
There are some other differences of opinion among New England theologians, which it will be sufficient only to mention. Thus, while some limit the suffer- ings necessary for the atonement to the death of Christ, others take in those of his whole life. Again, while some suppose his sufferings to have been only such as were inflicted by the instrumentality of man, and arose naturally out of h's peculiar circumstances and character, others regard his chief sufferings as miraculous, inflicted by the immediate hand of God, independent of those inflicted by human instrumen- tality.
There is also a great difference of opinion among the New England theologians as to what constituted tlie atonement. Even among those who have rejected the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ, some make the perfect obedience of Christ a constitu- ent part of it; others not. Dr. D wight and some recent writers have maintained, with much earnest- ness, that the obedience of Christ is an essential oart of it. But Dr. Jonathan Edwards the younger, who seems to be followed by the majority, writes ; " I venture to say further, that not only did not the atone- ment of Christ consist essentially in his active obe- dience, but that his active obedience was no part of his atonement, properly so called, nor essential to it." f
♦ Edwards the younger. See Works, Vol. II. p. 43. t Works, Vol. il. p 41.
INTRODUCTION. xlui
On the other hand, the most distinguished New England writer in the Baptist denomination, Dr. Way- land, has expressed the opinion, that the perfect obe- dience of Christ was all that was essential to the atonement. " In what manner did Christ's appearing on earth have any effect upon our moral relations ? To this various replies have been presented. It has been said that his unparalleled humiliation, or his lowly and painful life, his bitter death, were of the nature of a suffering of the penalty of the law. I, however, apprehend that this explanation has not al- ways been satisfactory to those who have borne in mind the character of the law which we have violated, and the awful holiness of the Being against whom we have sinned. Besides, the sufferings of Christ, considered by themselves, were not severer, nor was his death itself more excruciating, than that of many martyrs, confessors, and missionaries His obe- dience had been so transcendent in virtue, he had so triumphantly vanquished all our spiritual enemies, and put to shame all the powers of darkness, that I know not whether anything more was demanded. * The Lord was well pleased for his righteousness' sake ' [his obedience], for he had magnified the law and made it honorable. That this was the case would seem prob- able, because there is no reference in the Scriptures to his suffering after death." *
There is also a difference of opinion among New England theologians as to the question whether the Divine, or only the human, nature of Jesus suffered and lied. Thus a recent writer, the Rev. Mr. Dutton, whose Sermon on the Atonement has been thought worthy of being republished in the Boston Monthly
* Wayland's University Sermons, pp. 147, 160.
Xliv INTRODUCTION.
Religious Magazine, maintains the former opinion, — an opinion wliich strikes me as not only unchristian, but atheistic in its tendency. In the language of Paul, it changes " the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man." It is but just to say, however, that this view has found very few advocates. All the distinguished New p]n gland theologians, such as Hopkins, Edwards the younger, Dwight, Emmons, Woods, and others, limit the sufferings of Christ to his human nature.* Nor has a different opinion ever found its way, so far as I know, into the confession of faith of any church in Christendom. John Norton undoubtedly gave the orthodox or generally received opinion on this point when he wrote, " The second person of the Trinity,
together with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
did inflict the torments of hell upon the human na- ture.^^ t
The dissertations selected from the Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles by Mr. Jowett are those which were thought to be most suitable for publication in this volume. I should have been glad to insert two other dissertations from the same work ; namely, that on Natural Religion, and that on the Compar- ison of St. Paul with Philo. But the former, .in set- ting aside some of the usual proofs of the existence of the Deity, did not appear to me to contain such explanations and qualifications as might make it useful to readers unacquainted with the writer's philosophy. The latter was omitted because, though learned and valuable, it was not likely to be useful to persons un- acquainted with the Greek language.
* See page xxv. t Nortoa's Answer to Pynchop, p. 122.
INTRODUCTION. xlv
Several valuable Essays have been selected from the recent Commentary on the Epistles to the Corin- thians, in two octavo volumes, by the Rev. Arthur P. Stanley, Canon of Canterbury, who is somewhat known in this country by his Life of Dr. Arnold. His work on the Epistles to the Corinthians manifests the same scholarship and independence, united with rev- erence, which distinguish the Commentary by Pro- fessor Jowett.
The closing Essay on the Credibility of Miracles, by Dr. Thomas Brown, the distinguished author of the well-known Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, has been for some time out of print. It appears to me to meet the objections of Mr. Hume in a far more satisfactory manner than they have been met by most writers on the subject.
It cannot escape the notice of the reader, that very few of the Essays in this volume were written by pro- fessed Unitarians. .Most of them are by eminent divines and scholars of the Church of England. But in the circulation of books the great question should be whether they contain true and just views, and not by whom they were written. That we have been able to select so large a volume of Essays on very important subjects from writers of the Established Church of England in harmony with the views of Unitarians, is a fact highly encouraging in regard to the progress of truth, and at the same time highly creditable, not only to the independence of the writers, but to the practical freedom which at present prevails in that church. No one of them, I believe, has yet incurred any higher penalty on account of his publica- tions than that of rewriting his rame. It is to be
Xlvi INTRODUCTION.
hoped that the results to which several of the learned writers have arrived, notwithstanding the natural bias arising from their ecclesiastical connections, will se- cure for them, from different classes of readers, that candid and attentive consideration which their impor- tance demands. The voice which comes from this volume is the united utterance of Episcopalians, Lu- therans, and Unitarians.
Cam'hbidoe, May 7, 1856.
ES SAYS
FAITH AND SCIENCE*
By M. GUIZOT.
One of the questions which theology has oftenest debated, — the foremost, perhaps, at least in the sense that it serves for a prologue to all others, — is the eternal antithesis of rea- son and faith. From the powerlessness of reason and the necessity of faith, certain writers make the point of departure and the termination of their works. The same idea at this time inspires and fills almost entirely a multitude of religious writings, whose object is to invoke faith, not to regulate, but to oppress, the reason. I shall not pretend to treat this ques- tion in all its extent, as it involves the entire problem of hu- man nature and knowledge. I wish, in fact, rather to investi- gate the real and natural acceptation of the word faith, so powerful and so mysterious, and exercising such a diiferent empire over the soul of man, sometimes illuminating, and Bometimes misleading it ; — here, the source of the most won- derful actions ; there, the veil thrown over the basest designs. I wish to ascertain if, according to plain language and the common thought of mankind, there is, in reality, that oppo- sition and incompatibility which certain writers endeavor to institute between faith and reason, between science and faith. Such an examination is, perhaps, the best means of solving
t* Translated in Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, Vol. V., New eries, from Meditations et Etudes Morales, par M. Guizot. 2de 6ditioii.
2 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
the question which lies concealed under these terms, — of ob- taining from them, at least, glimpses of the solution.
No one can doubt that the word faith (foi) has an especial meaning, which is not properly represented by belief (croy- ance), conviction (conviction), or certitude (certitude). Cus- tom and universal opinion confirm this view. There are many simple and customary phrases in which the word faith (foi) could not be replaced by any other. Almost all lan- guages have a specially appropriated word * to express that which in French is expressed by foi, and which is essentially ditferent from all analogous words.
This word, then, corresponds to a certain state of the hu- man soul; — it expresses a moral fact which has rendered such a word necessary.
We commonly understand by faith (foi) a certain belief of facts and dogmas, — religious facts and dogmas. In fact, the word has no other sense when, employing it absolutely and by itself, we speak of the faith.
That is not, however, its unique, nor even its fundamental sense ; it has one more extensive, and from which the relig- ious sense is derived. We say : " I have full faith in your words ; this man hsis faith in himself, in his power," &c. This employment of the word in civil matters, so to speak, has become more frequent in our days: it is not, however, of modem invention; nor have religious ideas ever been an exclusive sphere, out of which the notion, and the vrord, faith, were without application.
It is, then, proved by the testimony of language and com- mon opinion, first, that the word faith designates a certain interior state of him who believes, and not merely a certain kind of belief; that it proceeds from the very nature of con- viction, and not from its object. Secondly, that it is, however, to a certain species of belief — religious belief — that it has been at first, and most generally, applied.
♦ In Greek i/o/xiff ii/, niarevdv ; in Latin, sententia, fides ; in Italian, crtdema, fide ; in English, /«7A, hdief; in German (if I mistake not). glauben.
FAITH AND SCIENCE. S
Thus, the sense of the word has been special, in fact and in its origin, although'it is not fundamentally so ; or rather, the occasion of the employment of the word has been special, although its sense is not so.
It would but be a fact without importance, and sufficiently common in the history of the formation of languages and ideas, if the true and general sense of the word faith was reproduced entire in its special employment ; but it has been otherwise. The specialty of the usual acceptation of the word has profoundly obscured the general sense; the true notion o^ faith has undergone an alteration under the notion of religious faith. And from this disagreement between the historical senses, so to speak, and the philosophical sense of the term, have resulted the obscurity of the moral fact which it expresses, and the greater part of the errors to which it has given place.
In truth, the words which express an interior disposition, a certain state of the human soul, have almost always a fixed and identical sense, which is independent of the interior object to which the disposition refers, and of the external cause which produced it. Thus, men love different objects ; — they have contrary certitudes ; — but the words love^ certitude^ in ordinary language and common life, do not less preserve, always and for all, the same sense ; their general acceptiition remains and prevails, whatever be the specialty of their em- ployment ; and the passions, interests, and errors of those who make use of them do not want, nor have they the power, to alter it.
The destiny of the word faith has been different. Ahnost exclusively applied to religious subjects, what changes its sense has undergone, and still undergoes every day !
Men who teach and preach a religion, a doctrine, or a re- 1 srious reformation, in making their appeal with all the energy of the freed human spirit, produce in their followers an en- tire, pro ound, and powerful conviction of the truth of their doctrine. This conviction is called faith ; neither masters nor disciples, nor even enemies, refuse it this appellation.
4 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
Faith, then, is but a profound and imperious conviction of a reh'gious dogma ; it matters but little whether it has come in the way of reasoning, or controversy, or of free and liberal investigation : that which characterizes it, and gives it a claim to be called /m^A, is its energy, and the dominion it exercises, by this title, over the entire man. Such has been at all times — in the sixteenth century for example — the faith of great reformers and their most illustrious disciples, Calvin after Luther, and Knox after Calvin, &c.
The same men have presented the same doctrine to persons whom they were not able to convince by methods of reason- ing, examination, or science, — to women and to multitudes in- capable of long reflection : they have made their appeals to the imagination, to the moral affections, and to the suscepti- bility of being moved and of believing through emotion. And they have given the name of faith to the result of this work, as to that of a work essentially intellectual, of which I spake just now. Faith has become a rehgious conviction which was not acquired by reasoning, and which took its rise in the sensuous faculties of man. This is the idea which mystic sects attach to faith.
The appeal to man's sensuous nature, and the resulting emotion, have not always sufficed to bring forth this faith. Other sources have then been appealed to. They have en- joined practices, and imposed habits. It is absolutely neces- sary that a man should, sooner or later, attach ideas to his actions, and that he should attribute a certain meaning to that which produces in him a certain effect. The practices and habits have conducted the mind to the beliefs from which they themselves were derived. A new faith has appeared, which has had for its principal and dominant characteristic submission of the mind to an authority invested with a right to regulate the thoughts whilst governing the hps.
In short, neither the free exercise of the intelligence, nor the sentiment, nor practices, have elsewhere succeeded in producing faith. We have said that it is not communicated, and that it is not in the power of man to give it, nor to ac-
FAITH AND SCIENCE. O
quire it by his own peculiar endeavors ; that it demands the interposition of God, — the action of grace ; — grace has become the preliminary condition, and the definitive charac- teristic of faith.
Thus by turns the word faith expresses : —
Istly. A conviction acquired by the free labor of the hu- man mind.
2dly. A conviction obtained by means of the sensitivity (sensibilite), and without the concurrence, often even against the authority, of the reason.
3dly. A conviction acquired by the very submission of the man to a power which has received from on high the right to command.
4thly. A conviction wrought by superhuman means, — by divine grace.
And according as the one or the other of these different faiths^ if we may so speak, has prevailed, religion, philosophy, government, and the whole of society have been observed to vary, simultaneously and by a necessary correspondence.
How has the same word been able to subserve so many different, and even contradictory acceptations ? What is that mysterious fact which presents itself to minds under such different aspects ? Has the necessity of legitimating the fun- damental principle, and the system of the government of dif- ferent religious behefs, alone caused the variation of the notion of faith ? or rather, do all these definitions correspond, on some one side, with that state of the human soul ; and have they no other irregularity than that of being partial and exclusive ?
These are questions which cannot be solved, so long as men persist, as they have done to this day, in characterizing faith by its causes, or its external effects. It is in itself that the fact must be considered ; we must search out what is the state of mind where faith reigns, independently of its origin and its object
Two kinds of beliefs co-exist in man : — the one, which I will not call innate, — an inexact and justly-debated oxpres- 1*
6 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
gion, — but natural and spontaneous, which gei-minate and establish themselves in his mind, if not without his knowl- edge, at least without the co-operation of his reflection and will, by the development solely of his nature, and the in- fluence of that external world in the midst of which his Ufe is spent. The others, laborious and learned, the fruit of voluntary study, and of the power which a man has, whether to direct all his faculties towards an especial object with the design of knowing it, or of reflecting upon himself, and of perceiving that which passes within him, and of giving himself an account of it, and thus of acquiring, by an act of the will and reflection, a science which he possessed not before, although the facts which it has for its object subsist equally under his eyes, or within him.
That there is moral good and evil, and that man is bound to avoid the evil, and to fulfil the good, — this is a natural, prim- itive, and universal belief. Man is so constituted that it de- velops itself in him spontaneously, by the course merely of his life, from the first appearance of the facts to which it must apply itself, very long before he could know himself, and could be able to know that he believed. Once originated, this belief acts on the soul of man almost as the blood circulates in his veins, without his willing it, and without his thinking of it. The greater part of mankind have never given it a name, nor formed for themselves a general and distinct idea of it : it does not, however, the less subsist in them, revealing itself every time that the occasion presents itself, by an action, a judgment, or a simple emotion. Human morality is a fact which does not stand in need of human science to throw light upon it.
Like every other fact, this also can become a matter of science. The moral being beholds itself, and studies itself: it renders account to itself of the principle of its actions, judg- ments, and moral sentiments : it assists at the spectacle of its own nature, and pretends not only to know, hut to govern it, according to its acquired knowledge. Naturally and sponta- neously, belief in the distinction of moral good and evil thus
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 7
becomes reflective and scientific. Man remains the same; but he was self-ignorant, and acted simply according to his nature ; nevertheless he knows himself, and his science pre- sides over his action.
This is but an example ; I could cite a thousand others of the same kind. Man carries within himself a multitude of beliefs of which he has the consciousness, but not the science ; which external facts awaken in him, though they have never been the chosen objects and the special aim of his thoughts. It is by beliefs of this kind that the human race is enlightened and guided ; they abound in the spirit of the most meditative philosophy, and direct it oftener than the reflective convictions to which it has arrived. Divine wisdom has not delivered over the soul and life of man to the hazards of human science ; it has not condemned it to expect all its intellectual riches from its own proper work. It is, — it lives ; that is enough : by this sole title, and by the progressive development of this fact alone, it will possess lights indispensable for guiding its life, and for the accomplishment of its destiny. It can aspire higher ; it can elevate itself to the science of the world, and of itself; and, by the aid of science, can exercise over the world and itself a power analogous to creative power. But then it will be required that it should only build on the prim- itive foundation which it has received from Providence ; for just as all natural and spontaneous belief can become scien- tific, so all scientific conviction received its source and it« point of support in natural belief.
Of these two kinds of belief, which merits the name of faiih'l
It appears, at first sight, that this name agrees perfectly with natural and spontaneous beliefs ; they are exempt from doubts and disquietude ; they direct man in his judgments and actions with an imperial authority which he does not dream of eluding or contesting ; they are natural, sure, practical, and Bovereign. Who does not recognize in all this the character- istics of faith f
Faith has in efiect these characteristics; but it has also
8 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
others which are wanting to natural beliefs. Almost unknown by the very man whom they direct, they are tor him, in a certain way, as external laws, which he has received, but not appropriated, and which he obeys by instinct, but without having given to them an intimate and personal assent. They suffice for the wants of his life ; they guide, warn, urge on, or restrain him, but without, so to speak, his own concurrence with them, and without awakening within him the sentiment of an interior, energetic, and powerful activity ; and without procuring for him the profound joy of contemplating, loving, and adoring the truth which reigns over him. Faith has this power. It is not science, still less is it ignorance. The mind which is penetrated by it has never, perhaps, rendered, and perhaps never will render, an account of the idea which has obtained its faith ; but it knows that it believes it ; it is before it, present and living ; it is no longer a general belief, a law of human nature, which governs the moral man, as the laws of gravity govern bodies ; it is a personal conviction, a truth which the moral individual has appropriated to himself by contemplation, by free obedience and love. From that time this truth does much more than suffice for his hfe ; it satisfies his soul ; and still more than directing, it enlightens it. It is surprising how men live under the dominion of this natural belief that there is moral good or evil, without our being able to say that it has their faith ! It is in them as a master to whom they belong and whom they obey, but without seeing him, and without loving or rendering him homage. That any cause whatever, revealing, so to speak, the consciousness to itself, should draw and fix their regards upon this law of their nature ; that they acknowledge and accept it, as their legiti- mate sovereign ; that their understanding should honor itseli in contemplating it, and their liberty in obeying it ; that they should conceive of their soul, if I may so speak, as a hearth where truth concentrates itself to spread from thence its light, or as the sanctuary where God deigns to dwell ; all this is more than simple and natural belief, — it is faith.
The difference between these two states of the sciul is so
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 9
real and so profound, that it has been at all times, and still is, one of the principal sources of the diversity of religions and the division of churches. The one is principally applied to spread, or to maintain, general beliefs, fixed and incorporated, in some way, in the habits and practices of life : in short, analogous, by the mode of their influence, to those irreflective and almost instinctive beliefs whereof God has made the moral condition of the human race. The others have had, above all, to awaken for the heart and in the soul of each individual, a personal and intimate belief, which should give him a lively feeling of his own intellectual activity and liber- ty, and which he might consider as his own peculiar treasure. The former have marched, so to speak, torch in hand, at the head of nations ; the latter have sought to place within each man movement and light. Neither the one nor the other tendency ever could become exclusive ; there have been facts, beliefs profoundly individual in religions, which least of all provoke their development ; there are, also, men governed by general and legal beliefs, external, in some sense, to their soul, in religions the most favorable to the interior life of the individual. It is not the less true, that, at all times, one or the other of these tendencies has ruled in various religions ; and not only in various religions, but, by turns, in the same religion at various epochs of its existence ; so that the differ- ence of the two corresponding states of the soul, and the character of that to which truly the name o^ faith belongs, are clearly imprinted in the history of humanity.
Reflective and scientific beliefs, on the contrary, have this in common with faith, that they are profoundly individual, and give a lively feeling of interior and voluntary activity. Nothing belongs more to the individual than his science ; he knows where it commenced, and how it has become enlarged, and what means and efforts have been used to acquire it ; and what it has added, so to speak, to his intellectual worth, and to the extent of his existence. But if, by that means, scientific beliefs are nearer to faith than natural and irreflec- tive beliefs, yet, on other sides, they remain much farther
10 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
removed from them, and from the first they are confined to doubt and uncertainty. They measure, and ahnost admit, various degrees of probability ; and even when tliey are con- fident of their legitimacy, they do not deny that they can be modified, and even overturned, by a wider and more exact science ; — whilst the most entire and immovable certitude is the fundamental characteristic of faith. All science is felt to be bounded and incomplete ; every man who studies, what- ever be the object of his study, however advanced and as- sured he himself may be of his own knowledge knows that he has not reached the boundary of his career, and that for him, as for every other, fresh efforts will lead to fresh progress. Faith^ on the contrary, is in its own eyes a complete and finished belief; and if it should appear that something yet remains for it to acquire, it would not be faith. It has noth- ing progressive, — it excludes all idea that anything is want- ing, and judges itself to be in full possession of the truth which is its object. From thence proceeds a vast inequality of power between the different kinds of conviction ; faith, freed from all intellectual labor and from all study, (since, so far as knowledge is concerned, it is complete,) turns all the force of. its possessor towards action. As soon as he becomes penetrated by it, only one task remains for his accomplish- ment, — that of causing the idea which has taken possession of his faith to reign and to be realized without. The history of religions — of all religions — proves, at each step, this ex- pansive and practical energy of belief, with which the char- acters of faith have been converted. It displays itself even on occasions when in no way it appears provoked or sustained by the moral importance or the visible grandeur of results.
I could cite a singular example of it. In the course of our Revolution, the theoretical and actual superiority of the new system of weights and measures quickly became for some men, who were the subordinate servants of an administration charged with establishing it, a complete and imperious truth, to which nothing could be objected, added, or refused. They pursued from that time its triumphs with an ardor, an obsti-
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 11
nacy, and sometimes a prodigious devotion. I have known a public officer, who, more than twenty years after the birth of the system, and when no one scarcely dreamed of disturb- ing himself any more about it, gave himself up, day and night, to extraordinary labors, letters, instructions, and verifi- cations, which his superiors did not demand, and which he had often great trouble in causing to be adopted, in order to accelerate its extension and strength. The new system of weights and measures was for this man the object of a true faith ; he would reproach himself for his repose, whilst any- thing remained to be done for its success. Scientific beliefs, even when they would admit of immediate application, rarely carry a man so to struggle against the outer world as to re- duce it under his dominion. When the human mind is, above all, preoccupied with the design or the pleasure of knowledge, it there concentrates, and, so to speak, exhausts itself; and there remain for it neither desires nor powers to be otherwise employed. Scientific beliefs, accustomed to doubts, to groping in darkness, and to contempts, hesitate to command : without efforts and without anger, they make their appeals to igno- rance, uncertainty, and even error, and scarcely know how to propagate themselves, or to act, but by methods which con- duct to science ; that is to say, by inciting to meditation and study, they proceed too slowly to be able to exercise outward- ly an extensive and actual power.
Perhaps, also, the very origin of scientific beliefs might be counted amongst the causes which deprive them of that em- pire, and that confidence in action and command, which is the general characteristic of faith. It is to himself that man owes his science ; it is his own work, the fruit of his own labor, and the reward of his own merit Perhaps, even in the midst of the pride which such a conquest often inspires, a secret warning feeling comes over him, that, in claiming and exercising authority in the name of his science, it is to the reason and the understanding of one man that he pretends to subjugate men, — a feeble and doubtful title to great power ; and which, at the moment of action, can certainly, without
12 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
their own consciousness, cast into the soul of the proudest some timidity. Nothing hke this is met with in faith. How- ever profoundly individual it is, from the time it has entered into the heart of man, it signifies not by what- means, it ban- ishes all idea of a conquest which can be his own, or of a discovery the glory of which he can attribute to himself. He is no longer occupied with himself; wholly absorbed by the truth which he beUeves, no personal sentiment any longer raises itself with his knowledge, excepting the sentiment of the liappiness it procures for him, and of the mission it im- poses upon him. The learned man is the conqueror and « the inventor of his science ; the believer is the agent and thf servant of his faith. It is not in the name of his own su- periority, but in the name of that truth to which he has yielded himself, that the believer claims obedience. Charged to procure for it sovereignty, he bears himself, in reference to it, with a passionate disinterestedness ; and this persuasion impresses upon his language and upon his acts a confidence and authority, with which the proudest science would in vain endeavor to invest itself. Let us consider how different is the pride which is produced by science, from that which accom- panies faith : the one is scornful and full of personality ; the other is imperious and full of blindness. The learned man isolates himself from those who do not comprehend what he knows ; the believer pursues with his indignation or his pity those who do not yield themselves to what he believes. The first desires personal distinction ; the other desires that all should unite themselves under the law of the master whom he serves. What can this variety of the same fault import, excepting that the learned man beholds himself, and reckons himself, in his science, whilst the beUeving man forgets and abdicates himself in favor of his faith ? It is further necessary to explain how the same idea, the same doctrine, can remain cold and inactive in the hands of the learned man, and with- out any practical use even in men whose understanding it has illuminated ; whilst, in the hands of the believer, it can be- come communicative, expansive, and an energetic principle of action and power.
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 13
Faith does not, then, enter exclusively either into the one jr the other of these two kinds of beliefs, which, at first sight, appear to share the soul of man. It partakes of, and at the same time differs from, natural and scientific beliefs. It is, like the latter, individual and particular : like the former, it is firm, complete, active, and sovereign. Considered in itself, and independent of all comparison with this or that analogous condition, faith is the full security of the man in the possession of his belief ; a possession freed as much from labor as from doubt ; in the midst of which every thought of the path by which it has been reached disappears, and leaves no othei sentiment but that of the natural and pre-established harmony between the human mind and truth. As soon as faith exists, all search after truth ceases ; man considers himself to have arrived at his object ; his belief is no longer for him anything but a source of enjoyments and precepts ; it satisfies his un- derstanding and governs his Kfe, bestows upon him repose, and regulates and absorbs, without extinguishing, his intellect- ual activity ; and directs his liberty without destroying it. Is he disposed to contemplation ? his faith opens an illimitable field for his thoughts ; they can run over it in all directions, and without fatigue, for he is no longer vexed by the ne- cessity of reaching the object, and discovering the path to it; he has touched the boundary, and has nothing more to do but to cultivate, at his leisure, a world which belongs to him. Is he called to action ? He throws himself wholly into it, sure of never wanting impulse and guidance, tranquil and animated, urged on and sustained by the double force of duty and passion. For the man, in short, being penetrated by faith, and within the sphere which is its object, the under- standing and the will have no more problems to solve, and no more interior obstacles to surmount : he feels himself to be in the full possession of the truth for enlightening and guiding him, and of himself for acting according to the truth.
But if such is the state of the human soul, if faith differs essentially from other kinds of belief, it is evident at the same lime that neither natural nor scientific beliefs have anything
14 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
which excludes faith ; that both one and the other can invest their characters with it ; and, further still, that either one or the other is always the foundation on which faith supports itself, or the path which leads to it.
See a man in whom the idea of God has been nothing but a vague and spontaneous belief, the simple result of a course of life and of external circumstances, — an idea which holds a place in his mind and conduct, but on which he has never fallen back and fixed his intellectual regards, and which he has never appropriated to himself by an act of voluntary and briefly-sustained reflection. Let any cause whatsoever — as a great danger or sorrow — strike him with a powerful emo- tion, and present to him the misery of his condition and the weakness of his nature, and awaken within him this need of superior succor, — this instinct of prayer, often lulled to sleep, but never extinguished in the heart of man. All at once the idea of God, till then abstract, cold, and proud, will appear to this man, living, urgent, and particular ; it has attached itself to him with ardor, — it will penetrate into all his thoughts, — his belief will become faith ; and Pascal will be borne out when he said, " Faith is God sensibly realized by the heart."
Another has lived in submission to religious practices, with- out having associated with them any truly personal convic- tion; as an infant, others might make a law for him; as master of himself, he has retained the habit of obedience, docile to a fact rather than attached to a duty, and not dream- ing of penetrating farther into the sense of the rule than to verify its authority. A time has arrived when occasions and temptations to offend against this law have presented them- selves ; a contest has arisen between the habits and tastes, between the desires, and, perhaps, the passions. What this person could practise without thought has now become a sub- ject of reflection, anxiety, and inward sorrow. To preserve its empire, it becomes necessary that the rule, until then mis- tress only of the exterior life of the man, should penetrate and establish itself within his soul. It has succeeded in that ;
k
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 15
and to remain true to his practices, he has been required to make sacrifices for them ; and he has made them. The state of his soul is changed : habit is converted into conviction ; practice into duty ; and observance into moral want. In the day of trial, the long submission to a general rule, and to a power clothed with the right to prescribe, has brought forth a particular and individual adhesion of thought and will, — that is to say, what was wanting to faith.
For scientific beliefs this transition to the state of faith is more difficult and more rare. Even when, by meditation, rea- soning, and study, any one has attained to conviction, he re- mains nearly always occupied with the labor which has con- ducted to it, his long uncertainties, the deviations by which he has been misled, and the false steps he has made. He has arrived at his object, but the remembrance of the route is present to him, with all its embarrassments, accidents, and chances. He has come into the presence of light, but the impression of the darkness, and the dubious lights he has crossed, are yet present to his thoughts. In vain his convic- tion is entire ; there are yet to be discovered traces of the labor which has presided over its formation. It wants sim- plicity and confidence. There is a certain fatigue connected with it, which enervates its practical virtue and fruitfulness. lie finds trouble in forgetting and overthrowing the scaffold- ing of the science, in order that the truth, of which it is the object, may wholly belong to his nature. We might say, the butterfly is restrained by the shell in which it was born, and from which it is not fully disengaged.
Nevertheless, although the difficulty is great, it is not in- surmountable. More than once, for the glory of humanity, man, by the force of his intelligence and scientific meditations, has reached to behefs, to which there has been wanting none of the characteristics of faith, — neither fulness nor certainty of conviction, nor the forgetfulness of personality, nor expan- siveness and practical power, nor the pure and profound enjoyments of contemplation. Who would refuse to recognize in the belief of the most illustrious Stoics in the sovereignty
16 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
of moral good, — in Cleanthes, Epictetus, and Marcus Aure- lius, — a true faith ? And was not the religious faith of the principal Reformers, or Reformed, of the sixteenth century, Zwingle, Melancthon, Duplessis Momay, the fruit of study and science, as well as the philosophical doctrines of Descartes and Leibnitz ? And lately, under the idea that falsehood is the source of all the vices of man, and that at no price, in no moment, and for no cause, can it be necessary to swerve from the truth, did not Kant arrive, by a long series of medi- tations, to a conviction perfectly analogous to faith? The analogy was such, that the day when his certainty of the prin- ple became complete and definite constituted an epoch in his memory and Hfe, as others call to mind the event or the emo- tion which has changed the condition of the soul ; so that, dating from that day, according to his own testimony, he lived constantly in the presence, and under the empire, of this idea ; just as a Christian lives in the presence, and under the em- pire, of the faith from which he expects salvation.
Reflective and scientific beliefs can be converted into faith : the difficulties of the transformation are much greater, and the success much more rare, than when natural and sponta- neous beliefs are concerned. Nevertheless, the transforma- tion of science into faith can be, and sometimes is, accom- plished ; and if more frequently science stops far short of faith, it is not because there exists something opposed and irreconcilable in their nature, but because faith is placed at the boundary of that course which science is not in a con- dition wholly, and of itself, to accomplish.
Nevertheless, it is easy, if I mistake not, to observe the fault of these theories which I enumerated at the commence- ment, and which men and the world so ardently dispute. It is their fundamental error, that they have not regarded faith in itself, and as a special state of the human mind, but in the mode of its formation. They have been thus induced to assign for its essential and exclusive characteristic such and such origins, from which it is possible that faith may be de- rived, not admitting it as legitimate, however, or even real,
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 17
but when it had a certain especial power ; and rejecting and denying all faith when derived from a different source, al- though it should place the soul of man in the same disposition, and produce the same effects. It is true that faith often re- ceives its origin from an emotion, as the mystics contend ; but it is also produced by submission to authority, as the Roman Catholic doctors with reason say ; and also from reflection, science, and a full and free exercise of the human under- standing, although both the one and the other refuse their assent to this. In his liberal wisdom, God has offered more than one way for arriving at that happy state when, tranquil at length in the possession of his belief, man dreams of noth- ing but of enjoying and obeying what he regards as the truth. There is faith in knowledge, since it has truth for its object ; and man can reach it by the faculties which he has received for knowing. There is also love in faith ; for man cannot see the fulness of truth without loving it. The sensuous faculties and the emotions of the soul are sufficient to engender faith. In short, in faith there are respect and submission ; for truth commands, at the same time that it charms and enlightens. Faith can be the sincere and pure submission to a power which is regarded as the depository of truth. Thus the va- riety of the origins of faith, of which human pride would make a principle of exclusion and privilege, is a benefit be- stowed by the Divine will, which, so to speak, has placed faith within reach of all, in permitting it to take its origin from each of the moral elements which constitute faith, — namely, knowledge, submission, and love.
As for those who, rejecting every kind of explanation and origin of faith merely human, will see nothing in it but the direct and actual interposition of God and especial grace, their notion, if apparently more strange, is at bottom more natural ; for it touches the problems which do not belong to man to solve. In the external and material world, when a powerful, sudden, and unexpected phenomenon appears, which, at a stroke, changes the face of things, and seems not to at- tach itself to their ordinary course, nor to explain itself by
2*
18 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
their anterior state, man instantly refers it to a real and par- ticular act of the will of the Master of the World. The presence of God can alone explain for man that which strikes his imagination and escapes his reason ; and where science and experience cannot reach, there he assigns an especial and immediate act of God. Thus the thunderbolt, the tempest, earthquakes, vast floods, concussions, and extraordinary revo- lutions of the globe, have been taken for signs and effects of the direct action of God, up to the time when man has dis- covered for them a place and an explanation in the general course of facts and their laws. The same want and the same inclination rule man in the ideas he has formed about the in- terior world, and . the phenomena of which he himself is the theatre and the witness. When a great change and moral revolution have been accomplished in his soul, when he per- ceives himself to be illuminated by a light, and w^armed by a fire, hitherto unknown, — he has taken no notice of the myste- rious progress, the slow and concealed action, of ideas, senti- ments, and influences which were probably for a long time preparing him for this state. He cannot attribute it to an act of his own will ; and he knows not how, so to speak, to trace back the course of his interior life for the purpose of discov- ering its origin. He refers it, therefore, to a divine will, special and actual. Grace alone could have produced this revolution in his soul, for he himself did not make it, nor does he know how it was produced. The birth of faith, above all when it proceeds from natural and irreflective beliefs which pass, without the intervention of science, to this new state, often bears this character of a sudden revolution, unforeseen and obscure for him who undergoes it. It is, then, very plain that the idea of the direct interposition of God has been in- voked on this occasion. In the sense which people have com- monly attributed to< this idea, it withdraws itself and retires, here as elsewhere, before a more attentive study and a more complete knowledge of facts, their connection, and their laws. We are led to acknowledge that this state of the soul, which is called faith, is the development — differently conducted,
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 19
Bometlmes sudden and sometimes progressive, but always natural — of certain anterior facts, with which, although essen- tially distinct, it is connected by an intimate and necessary tie. But supposing this recognized, and faith thus conducted to the place which belongs to it in the general and regular course of moral phenomena, a grand question always remains, the question lying hid at the bottom of the doctrine of grace, and which indirectly this doctrine attempts to solve. In ceasing to see God in the tempest and thunder, narrow and weak minds figure to themselves that they shall no more meet with him, and that they shall nowhere any more have need of him. But the First Cause hovers over all second causes, and over all facts and their laws. When all the secrets of the universe shall have unveiled themselves to human science, the universe will yet be a secret to it ; and God appears to withdraw himself from before it, only to invite and constrain it to elevate itself more and more towards himself. In the science of the moral world the same thing happens. When people shall have ceased every moment to invoke grace, and grace alone, to explain faith, it will always remain to be learnt what power presides over the life of the soul ; how truth reveals itself to man, who is un- able either to seize or reject it, according to his own will ; from whence comes that fire whose hearth is evidently ex- ternal to himself; what relations and communications exist between God and man ; what, in short, in the interior life of the human soul, is the share of its own activity and freedom, and what it must attribute to that action which proceeds from without, and to that influence from on high which the pride or the levity of the human mind endeavors not to know. This is the grand problem, the problem that presents itself the moment we touch that point where the things of earth and man are joined to that higher order on which man and the earth so clearly depend. The doctrine of grace is one of the attempts of the human mind to solve it. The solution, at least in my opinion, is beyond the limits assigned to human knowledge.
I have endeavored to determine with precision what faith
20 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
is in itself, independently of its object ; I have laid down the characteristics of this state of the soul, and the different paths by which man can be conducted to it, whatever may be, so to speak, its materials. By this means we may be able to suc- ceed in ascertaining the true nature of faith, and in bringing it into clearer light, disengaging from every foreign element the moral fact concealed under this name. I hasten to add,' nevertheless, that this moral fact is not produced indifferently in all cases ; that all human beliefs, whether natural or scien- tific, are not equally susceptible of passing from the condition of faith ; and that, in the vast field where human thought is exercised, there are objects especially calculated to awaken a conviction of this kind, to become materials for faith.
This is a fact which is attested even by the history of the word, and which I noticed at the beginning ; its common ac- ceptation is also special. At first sight, it seems to be exclu- sively consecrated to religious belief; and although it lends itself to other uses, and although, even in our own days, its sphere seems to be enlarged, it is evident that, in a multitude of cases where it is concerned (for example, with geography, botany, technology, &c.), the word faith is out of place ; that is to say, the moral state to which this word corresponds is not produced by such subjects.
As faith has its pecuKar interior characteristics, so it has also its exterior necessary conditions ; and it is distinguished from other modes of belief of man, not only by its nature, but by its object.
But what are the conditions, and what is the external sphere, of faith ?
Up to a certain point we can determine and catch glimpses of them, from the very nature of this state of the soul, and its effects. A belief so complete, so accomplished, that all intel- lectual labor seems to have reached its termination, and that man, wholly united with the truth of which he thinks himself to be in possession, loses all thought of the path which has conducted him to it, — so powerful, that it takes possession of the exterior activity, as well as of the hiiman mind, and makes
I
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 21
Bubmission to its empire in all things a passionate necessity, as well as a duty, — an intellectual state, which can be the fruit, not only of the exercise of the reason, but also of a powerful emotion, and of a long submission to certain prac- tices, and in the midst of which, when it has been once de- veloped, the three grand human faculties are actively em- ployed, and at the same time satisfied, — the sensibility, the intelligence, and the will ; — such a condition of soul, and such a belief, demand in some sort occasions worthy of it, and must be produced by subjects which embrace the entire man, and put into play all his faculties, and answer to all the demands of his moral nature, and have a right, in turn, to his devoted- ness.
Intellectual beauty, and practical importance, appear then, d, priori, to be the characteristics of the ideas proper for becoming the materials of faith. An idea which should pre- sent itself as true, but at the same time without arresting by the extent and the gravity of its consequences, would produce certitude ; hut faith would not spring from it. And so prac- tical merit — the usefulness of an idea — would not suffice for begetting faith ; it must also draw attention by the pure beauty of truth. In other words, in order that a simple belief, natural or scientific, should become faith, it is necessary that its ob- ject should be able to procure the pleasures of activity, as well as of contemplation, that it may awaken within the double sentiment of its high origin and power ; in short, that it should present itself before man's eyes as the mediator between the moral and the ideal world, — as the missionary charged with modelling the one on the other, and of uniting them.
Facts fully confirm these inductions, drawn from the mere nature of the moral phenomenon I am studying. Whether we regard the history of the human race, or whether we penetrate into the soul of the individual, we see faith through- out applying itself to objects in which the two aforesaid con- ditions are united. And if sometimes the one or the other of those conditions is wanting, — if, on some occasions, the
22 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
object of faith should appear in itself denuded of ideal beauty or practical importance, — we may hold it for certain, that it is not so in the thought of the believer. He will have Boon discovered, from the truth which is the object of his faith, consequences and applications which for others are obscure and distant, but for him clear and infaUible. Before long his ideas, which appear to have but one aim and one useful merit, will be elevated in his mind to the rank of a disinterested theory, and will possess in his eyes all the dignity and all the charm of truth. It is possible that the believer is deceived, and that he exaggerates the practical worth or intellectual beauty of his idea ; but even his error, agreeing in this with the reason and experience of the whole human race, is but a new proof of the necessity of these two conditions for the production of faith.
We can understand, however, why the name o^ faith is almost the exclusive privilege of religious beliefs : these are, in fact, those whose object possesses in the highest degree the two characters which excite the development of faith. Many scientific notions are beautiful and fruitful in their apphca- tion ; political theories may forcibly strike the mind by the purity of their principles and the grandeur of their results ; moral doctrines are yet more surely and generally invested with this twofold power ; and either has often awoke faith in the soul of man. Nevertheless, in order to receive a clear and lively impression, sometimes of their intellectual beauty and sometimes of their practical importance, there is almost always required a certain amount of science, or sagacity, or, at all events, a certain turn of public manners and the social state, which are not the portion of all men, nor of all times. Religious beliefs have no need of any such aids ; they carry with themselves, and in their simple nature, their infallible means for effect. As soon as they penetrate into the heart of man, however bounded in other respects may be the develop- ment of his intelligence, however rude and inferior may be his condition, they will appear to him as truths at once sub- lime and common, wliich are applicable to all the details of
FAITH AND SCIENCE. * 28
his earthly existence, and open for him those high regions, and those treasures of intellectual life, which, without theii light, he would never have known. They exercise over him the charm of truth the most pure, and the empire of interest the mos^ powerful. Can we be astonished that, as soon as they exist, their passage to the state of faith should be so rapid, and so general ?
There is yet another reason more hidden, but not less decisive, and which I regret I can only refer to ; — the object of religious beliefs is, in a certain and large measure, inacces- sible to human science. It can verify their reality; it can reach even to the limits of this mysterious world, and assure itself that there are facts to which the destiny of man infallibly attaches itself; but it is not permitted to reach these facts themselves, so as to submit them to its examination. Struck by this impossibility, more than one philosopher has concluded that there was nothing in them, since reason could perceive nothing, and that religious beliefs address themselves but to the fancy. Others, blinded by their impotence, have tardily sprung forward towards the sphere of superhuman things, and, as though they had succeeded in penetrating into it, have described facts, solved problems, and assigned laws. It MS difficult to say which mind is the most foolishly proud, that which maintains that what it cannot know is not, or that which pretends to be capable of knowing all that is. What- ever may be the case, neither the one nor the other assertion has ever obtained for a single day the avowal of the human race ; its instinct and practices have constantly disavowed the nothing of the incredulous, and the confidence of theologians. In spite of the first, it has persisted in believing in the exist- ence of an unknown world, and in the reality of those relar tions which hold mankind united to it ; and notwithstanding the power of the second, it has refused to admit that they have attained the object, and lifted the veil ; and it has con- tinued to agitate the same problems, and to pursue the same truths, as ardently and laboriously as at the first day, and as if nothing had yet been done.
24 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
See, then, what, in this respect, is the situation of man. Natural and spontaneous religious beliefs are produced in him, which, by reason of their object, tend at once towards the state of faith. They can arrive at it by means foreign to reasoning and science, — by the emotions and by jiractices ; and the transition is often thus actually brought about. One other way appears open before man. Religious beliefs natu- rally awaken within him the want of science, which not only desires to render an account of them, but aspires to go much fai'ther than they can conduct it, to know truly this world of mysteries, of which they afford it glimpses. Oftentimes, though, if I mistake not, wrongly, it flatters itself it has suc- ceeded ; and thus theology, or the science of divine things, is formed, which is the origin of that rational and learned faith, of which so many illustrious examples do not permit us to contest the reality. Often, also, man, by his own confession, fails in his enterprise ; the science which he has pursued after resists his most skilful endeavors, and then he falls into doubt and confusion, — he sees those natural and irreflective beliefs darkened, which served him for his starting-point ; or, in fact, despairing of the variety of his attempts, and always tor- mented by the want of that faith which he has promised him- self to estabhsh by science, he returns to his early beliefs, and requires of them to conduct him to faith, without the help of science ; that is to say, by the exaltation of his sensuous faculties, or by submission to a legal power, the depository of the truth which his reason cannot seize.
Theology itself, from the moment when it announces itself as a science of the relations of God with man and the world, and presents to the human mind its solutions of the religious problems which besiege it, proclaims nothing less than that these problems are impenetrable mysteries, and that this science is interdicted to human reason ; and that faith, bora of love, submission, or grace, is alone able to open the under- standing to truths, which, however, theologians undert^ike to reduce to systematic doctrine, in order to be able to teach or demonstrate them to the reason. To such an extent does a
FAITH AND SCIENCE. 25
feeling of the power] essness of human science, in this matter, remain imprinted upon him in fact; although everywhere man appears to boast himself of having escaped it.
Thus, also, is explained that obscure physiognomy, if I may so express myself, which appears to be inherent in the word faith^ and which has so often made it an object of a kind of distrust and dislike to strict and free minds. Frequent above all within the religious domain, and there oftentimes invoked by the powerful and learned, sometimes for the purpose of making up for the silence of the reason, and sometimes for the purpose of constraining the reason to be silent, faith has been considered only under this point of view, and judged only after the employment to which it lends itself on this occa- sion. People have concluded that this belief was essentially irrational, blind, and the fruit of ungoverned imaginations ; or else imposed by force, or fraud, on the weakness or ser- vility of the mind. If I have truly observed and described the nature of that which bears the name of faiih^ the error is evident. On the contrary, faith is the aim and boundary of human knowledge, the definite state to which man aspires in his progress towards truth. He begins his intellectual career with spontaneous and irreflective behefs ; at its termi- nation is faith. There is more than one way — but none certain — for leaping over this interval ; but it is only when it has been leaped over, and when belief has become faith^ that man feels his' nature to be fully satisfied, and gives him- self up wholly to his mission. Legitimate faith, that is to say, that which is not mistaken in its object, and addresses itself really to the truth, is then the most elevated and most perfect state to which, in its actual condition, the human mind can arrive. But faith may be illegitimate ; it may be the state of mind which error has produced. The chance of error (experience at every step proves it) is here even much greater, as the paths which lead to it are more multiplied, and its effects more powerful. Man may be misled in his faith by feelings, habits, and the empire of the moral affections, or of external circumstances, as well as by the insuflSciency or 3
26 FAITH AND SCIENCE.
the bad employment of his intellectual faculties ; for faith can take its origin from these different sources. And, neverthe- less, from the time of its existence, faith is hardy and am- bitious ; it aspires passionately to expand itself, to invade, to rule, and to become the law both of minds and facts. And not only is it ambitious, but bold ; it possesses and displays, for the support of its pretensions and designs, an energy, address, and perseverance, which are wanting to almost all scientific opinions. So that there is in this mode of belief, far more than in any other, chance of error for the individual, and chance of oppression for society. For these perils there is but one remedy, — liberty. Whether man beHeves,-or acts, his nature is the same; and to avoid becoming absurd or guilty, his thought stands in need of constant opposition and constraint, as well as his will. Where faith is wanting, there power and moral dignity are equally wanting ; where liberty is wanting, faith usurps, then misleads, and at length is lost. Let human beliefs pass into the state of faith ; it is their natural progress and their glory ; and in their effort towards this object, and when they have reached it, let them constant- ly continue under the control of the free intellect ; it is the guaranty of society against tyranny, and the condition of their own legitimacy. In the coexistence and mutual respect of these two forces reside the beauty and the security of social order.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
By the Rev. BADEN POWELL, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S.,
BAVrUAN PE0FE8S0R OP OEOMETET m THE XJNIVEKSITT OP OXPORD.
O yap XpiOTLaviarfios ovk as *lov8ai(rfibv eirlareva-ev dWa 'lov- ialafios €is XpiaTiaviafjLov, as rraaa yXcocra-a TnoTfixraaa els Qeop ovvt]xOtj. — Ignatius ad Magnes, § x.
"For Christianity hath not believed in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity ; — that every tongue having believed in God might sound forth together." *
Introduction.
Among persons professing to receive the Bible as the au- thentic record of what in general they beheve is Divine Reve lation, it is remarkable how little attention is commonly given to the obvious diversity of nature and purport in those very- distinct portions of which the sacred volume consists. To any one who does but for a moment reflect on the widely remote dates, the extremely diversified character of the contents, the totally dissimilar circumstances and occasions of the composition, of the several writings, it must be ob- vious how essentially they require to be viewed with cai'e- ful discrimination as to the variety of conditions and objects which they evince, if they are to be in any degree rightly understood, or applied as they were intended to be. But manifest as these considerations are, and readily admitted
k* I should translate the last clause of this quotation, " that every —
28 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
when simply put before any reader of the most ordinary attainments and discernment, it is singular to observe how commonly they are practically lost sight of in the too preva- lent modes of reading and applying Scripture.
In this point of view it must be allowed a matter of the most primary importance, as bearing on the whole purport and design of the Bible, to apprehend rightly the general relation, but at the same time the characteristic differences, of the Old and New Testament, the Law and the Gospel, the distinctive character to be traced and the sort of connection actually subsisting between them. Nor does this turn on con- siderations of any nice or critical kind, demanding extensive learning to appreciate, or deep study to judge of; it implies a mere reference to matters of fact, which require but to be indicated to be understood, so that it is the more remarkable how commonly they are overlooked.
Yet on no subject, perhaps, are more confused and unsatis- factory ideas more commonly prevalent ; not only among or- dinary, careless, or formal readers of Scripture, but even among many of better information and more serious religious views, a habit is too general of confounding together the con- tents of all parts of the sacred volume, whether of the old or new dispensations, of the Hebrew or of the Christian Scrip- tures, into one promiscuous mass, regarding them, as it were, all as one book, or code of religion, and of citing detached texts from both, and promiscuously taking precepts and insti- tutions, promises and threatenings, belonging to peculiar dis- pensations, and applying them universally, without regai'd to times, persons, or circumstances. And such a mode of appeal- ing to Scripture is sometimes even defended, as evincing a meritorious reverence for its divine character, and upheld as a consequence from the belief in its inspiration. Yet in whatever sense that belief be entertained, adopting even the strictest meaning of the term, it surely by no means follows but that inspired authority may have a reference to one ob- ject and not to another, — a precept or declaration may have been addressed to one party or in one age, and not designed
THE LAW A5D THE GOSPEL. 29
)r anotlipr, — without any disparagement to its divine char- ;ter.
From a thoughtless, desuhory, or merely formal habit of reading the divine Word, it is not surprising that there should result an adoption of those low and unworthy notions which prevail so commonly as to the character and genius of the Christian religion ; and which especially arise from the con- , fused combination of its prmciples with those of older and lesa jrfect dispensations. That such ideas should obtain ready acceptance with the many will not surprise those who con- sider the various causes in different ways operating to lower and degrade the exalted purity and simplicity of the Gospel to the level of the corrupt apprehensions of human nature, especially among the mass of the ignorant and unthinking nominal professors of a belief in its doctrine.
But it must be a matter of more astonishment that such notions should find encouragement with some who professedly look at Christianity in a more enlightened sense, and avowed- ly seek to receive it in no blind, formal manner, but in the spirit of its evangelical purity. Yet such unhappily is the case. And whether from mere want of thought on the one hand, or from preconceived theories on the other, or even in some cases (we must fear) from more mixed motives, so un- prepared are men to entertain more distinct views, that the very announcement of them is commonly altogether startling and even painful to their prepossessions, and especially when these questions are found to be mixed up with certain points of supposed practical obligation and religious observance ; it follows, that when a more explanatory view of the subject is presented, the hearers too generally turn away with impa- tience, or even with disgust and offence.
Without indulging the hope of being able to remove or conciliate such opposing feelings in all instances, it will be at least the endeavor, in the following exposition, to avoid giving offence by the assumption of a polemical tone ; yet to state the case of Christianity as independent of previous dispensa- tions, simply in reference to the matter of fact, with that plain- 3*
80 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
ness which the cause of truth demands, according to the tenor of the evidence furnished by Scripture, and in the desire to maintain and elucidate the pure and enlightening principles of the New Testament, according to what appears, at least to the author, their unadulterated and evangelical simplicity.
I. The Primeval Dispensations.
The general nature, character, and connection of the suc- cessive divine dispensations recorded in the Bible, as briefly described by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (i. 1), — the announcements in various measures and "portions," and under various " forms " or " aspects," * made in times past to the fathers by the prophets, — fully accords with what we collect in detail from the writings of the Old Testament, and affords the only simple and satisfactory clew to the inter- pretation of them.
The view presented to us is that of successive revelations, systems, covenants, laws, given to different individuals, fami- Hes, or nations, containing gradual, progressive, and partial developments of the truth, and intimations of the Divine vdYL for their guidance, accompanied with peculiar positive insti- tutions, adapted to the ideas of the age and the condition of the parties to whom they were vouchsafed.
Thus peculiar revelations are represented as having been made — each distinct from the other, though in some instances including repetitions — to Adam, to Noah, to Job, to Abra- ham, to Isaac and Jacob, to the Israelites, first by Moses, afterwards by a succession of prophets, as well as in some instances to other people; as, for example, to the Nine- vites (if the book of Jonah be regarded as historical) ; — while, in contradistinction to all these, we are told, " in these last days God hath spoken unto us by his Son" (^^.), in a universal, permanent, and perfect dispensation ; — the earlier and more partial were not made " to us," or designed "for u-s."
Yet it is important to trace the history and character of
* This is clearly the force of the original, 7roXv/xfpa>s koI 7roXvrpo7ra>s. Heb. i. 1.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 31
these former dispensations, in order more fully to elucidate the distinct nature and independence of the last ; and espe- cially to remove prevalent misconceptions from a subject which, however plain when historically and rationally con- sidered, has been involved in much difficulty from gratuitous and often visionary theories.
When we consider the very imperfect intimations, often mere hints and allusions, given in the Hebrew records, as to these early religious institutions and the design of them, as well as the obvious and wide differences in the circumstances of those people and times from our own, the discerning reader at once sees how little they can have been intended to be understood as containing any permanent elements of a uni- versal religion, as seems to have been sometimes imagined. In the plain terms of the narrative we discover nothing of the kind, and in the comment on it which the New Testament supplies, we have direct assurance to the contrary.
In general, we find only that the servants of God in those ages were accepted in walking each according to the lights vouchsafed to him ; while in other respects we see peculiar institutions and announcements specially adapted to the pecu- liar ends and purposes of the dispensations. Thus we trace from the first the approach to God through sacrifices, offer-- ings, and formal services.
Some infer from the account of the Divine rest after the creation, that there was a primeval institution of the Sabbath, though certainly no precept is recorded as having been given to man to keep it up. But since, from the irreconcilable con- tradictions disclosed by geological discovery, the whole narra- tive of the six days' creation cannot now be regarded by any competently informed person as historical* the historical character of the distinction conferred on the seventh day falls to the ground along with it. Yet even without reference to
* I do not here pretend to enter on the etndence in support of this con- ^ elusion. It will be found fully discussed in my work, On the Connection of Natural and Divine Truth, 1838, and in my article " Creation," ia ^ Kitto's Cychpoedia of Bib. Lit.
I
82 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
this consideration, some of the best commentators have re- garded the passage as proleptical, or anticipatory.
Afterwards we find the distinction of clean and unclean animals introduced, and the prohibition of eating blood, in the covenant with Noah (Gen. ix. 1), of which the Sabbath formed no part ; nor can we find any indication of it in the history of the other patriarchs : a point particularly dwelt upon by the early Christian divines, who adopted the belief of the Jews of their age in interpreting their Scriptures.* Some have dwelt on the mention of the division of time by weeks f in several parts of the early Mosaic history : yet
* Justin Martyr {Dial. c. Trypho, 236, 261) says, "The patriarchs were justified before God not keeping Sabbaths," and " from Abraham originated circumcision and from Moses the Sabbath," &c. Irenaeus (IV. 30) and Tertullian {Ad Jud., II. 4) both declare that " Abraham without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths believed in God," &c.
t The early and general adoption of the division of time into weeka may be obviously and rationally derived from the simple consideration, that among all rude nations the first periodical division of time which obtains is that of lunar months, while those conspicuous phenomena, the phases or quarters of the moon, correspond to a week nearly enough for the common purposes of such nations.
The universal prevalence of this division by weeks among Eastern nations from a very remote period is attested by various ancient writers. Dio Cassius ascribes the invention of it to the Egyptians, and assigns the origin of the planetary names of the days. ( Hist. Bom., XXXVII. 18, 19.) Oldendorf found it in the interior of Africa. ( Jahn, Archceol. Bib., art. " Week.") The Brahmins also have the week distinguished by the ■planetary names. {Life of Galileo, 12 ; Laplace, Precis de I' Hist. d'Astron. 16.) The Peruvians divide lunar months into halves and quarters, i. e. weeks, by the phases of the moon, and besides have a period of nine days, the approximate third part of a lunation : thus showing the com- mon origin of both. (Garcilasso, Hist, of the Incas, in Taylor's Nat. Hist, of Society, I. 291, 292.)
So also the Romans had their " Nundinae." On the other hand, the Mexicans have periods of five and of thirteen days, with names to each day. (Norman on Yucatan, i. 85, and Trans, of American Elhnorj. Soc, I. .S8. ) And the week is not known to the Chinese, nor to the North Ameri- can Indians (Catlin, II. 234) ; facts opposed to the idea of any universal primitive tradition.
Allusions to a sanctity ascribed to the seventh day by the early Greek
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 33
it by no means follows that, because the historian adopts a particular mode of reckoning, it was therefore used by the people of whom he is writing : but were it so, this would not imply the institution of the Sabbath.
In all the early dispensations religious truths are conveyed under figures, and obligations enforced by motives, specially adapted to the capacities and wants of the parties addressed. Thus temporal prospects are always held out as the immediate sanctions ; and the mode of announcement adopted is always that in which God is represented as vouchsafing to enter into a covenant with his creatures ; — the form is always that of a
poets, such as the e^^ofxarrj 8' eneiTa KarrjXvdev Upov r^fiap of Homer, and like expressions of Callimachus, Hesiod, &c., arc quoted by Clemens Alexandrin. {Strom., V.), and expressly described by him to have been derived from the Jews, with whose Scriptures so many parallelisms are found in the classic authors.
Generally, however, the universal superstition of the sacredness of the number 7, combined with the equally common propensity to attach sanc- tity to particular periods and days, are sufficient elements out of which such ideas would naturally take their rise.
Among the ancient Romans festivals were held in honor of Saturn, with a reference to commemorating- the Satumian or Golden age, and with this idea it was unlawful on the day sacred to Satuni to go out to war (Macrobius, Lib. I. ; Saturn., c. 16), and it was held unlucky to commence a jouniey or undertake any business : a superstition alluded to by TibuUus {Elcg. I. 3, v. 18), " Satumi aut sacram me tenuisse diem."
What particular feast is here referred to there is nothing to show. The supposition of some of his commentators, that it meant the seventh day of the weelf,*is wholly gratuitous. But if it were so, the idea would be naturally and obviously boiTowed from the Jews, whose customs, espe- cially the Sabbath, are so frequently alluded to by the Roman writers ; and, from their wide dispersion, must have been generally familiar, as iu fact we learn from the boast of Josephus (Adi\ Ap., II.) and of Philo, that " there is no place where the Sabbath is not known," and the testi- mony of Theophilus Antiochus (Lib. II., Ad Arist.) to the same effect, as well as others often cited : which show the strict preservation of the ob- servance among the scattered Jews ; and-it may possibly have been con- formed to by others, or the occasion laid hold of as convenient for other purposes : as, e. g., we are told by Suetonius (Lib. XXXIL), "Diogenes grammaticus disputare sabbatis Rhodi solitus."
34 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
stipulation of certain conditions to be fulfilled, and certain blessings or punishments to be awarded as they are fulfilled or not ; — and these conditions, always of a precise, formal, positive kind, not implying merely moral obligations. The spirit of all these covenants was that of " touch not, taste not, handle not" (Col. ii. 21), involving a ground and motive of obedience precisely adapted to the very infancy of the human race. Such was the very covenant with Adam in Paradise : " Eat not of the tree, — or thou shalt die." Nor can it be denied that, if the Sabbath had formed a part of that covenant, it was an institution exactly in keeping with it : Eat not of the tree, — keep holy the seventh day. The same idea of a covenanted stipulation of positive observances, in which sacri- fice was the most prominent, characterizes all the succeeding announcements, — from the covenant of circumcision with Abraham down to the more detailed and complete scheme of the Mosaic Law.
In these early and imperfect dispensations it is idle to look for any great principles of universal moral application, as has been sometimes fancied : — for instance, finding authority for capital punishment in the precept given to Noah (Gen. ix. 6), or for tithes in the example of Melchisedec (Gen xiv. 20). So far from perceiving any support for the idea, that because a precept or institution was from the beginning, it was there- fore designed to be of universal and perpetual obligation, on the contrary, we rather see in its very antiquity a strong pre- sumption that it was of a nature suited and intended only for the earliest stage of the religious development of man.
But apart from these peculiarities, we trace all along the announcement of " the promise " (Gal. iii. 19), which was before the covenant, and to which the fathers looked as not transitory. Christianity, by fulfilling the promise, supersedes all previous imperfect dispensations: itself emphatically a New covenant, the very reverse of a recurrence to a primitive religion (as fancied by some). The patriarchs, and especially Abraham, are set forth as examples of faith in the promise ; and in this respect Christian believers are called children of
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
85
Abraham (Gal. iii. 7) : but manifestly not in the sense of their retrograding to an older and less perfect state of things : the whole tenor of the Divine revelation is clearly stamped with the character of advance.
n. The Judaical Law.
The manifest design of the book of Genesis was not to tea:5h W5 a primitive religion, but to form an introduction to the Law for the Jews. It has been well observed, that " to understand Genesis we must begin with Exodus " ; from the actual history and circumstances of the people we can best appreciate what their books spoke to them.
Those events in the previous history are always selected and enlarged upon which have a direct reference to points in the subsequent institutions, or were anticipations of the Law, or the rudiments out of which its ordinances were framed.
Thus, the narrative of the six days' creation, first announced in the Decalogue, and afterwards amplified in Genesis, as has been already observed, can now only be regarded as an adaptation of a poetical cosmogony (doubtless already familiar to the Israelites) to the purpose of enforcing on them the in- stitution of the Sabbath. And in like manner the other insti- tutions of primeval worship (already adverted to) — the sacrifices, the distinctions of clean and unclean animals, the prohibition of blood, and afterwards the appointment of circumcision, the choice of a peculiar people, the promise of Canaan — form the prominent topics, as being the begin- nings of the Mosaic covenant, and approximations towards the system of the Law.
The object of the Law was declared to be, in the first in- stance, to separate the people of Israel by peculiar marks and badges from all other nations, as a people chosen for the high ends and purposes of the Divine counsels (see especially Exod. xix. 5 ; xxxi. 13 - 17 ; Deut. xiv. 1 ; xxvi. 16 ; Ezek. XX. 9-12). This was to be effected especially by such dis- tinctions as those of circumcision, the prohibition of inter- maii'iages, or any participation with idolaters ; by all their
86 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
exclusive usages and ceremonies, but chiefly by the marked singularity of the Sabbath, which, along with the Passover, was appointed earlier than the rest of the Law, and was em- phatically declared (Exod. xxxi. 16 ; Ezek. xx. 12 ; Neh. ix. 14, &c.) to be a distinctive sign between God and the people of Israel, which they were always to remember to keep up ; a peculiarity further evinced by its being always prominently coupled with the sanctity of the temple, the new moons and other feasts (Lev. xix. 30 ; Isa. i. 13 ; Ixvi. 23 ; Hos. ii. 11 ; Ezek. xlv. 17), and one of the pledges by which the proselyte was to take hold of the covenant (Isa. Ivi. 6). The directions for the mode of observing it were minute and strict ; and the precepts always precisely regard the observance, not of one day in seven, but of the seventh day of the week as such, in commemoration of the rest after the Creation,* though in one respect also it is afterwards urged as reminding them of their dehverance out of Egypt (Deut. v. 14). These distinctions constituted at once their security and their motives of obe- dience. The Law throughout is a series of adaptations to them and' their national peculiarities.
Yet it is often spoken of as something general, as " a pre- liminary education of the human race " ; f but the plain history discloses nothing but the training of one single people for a specific purpose.
We see continued exemplifications of wise adaptation to the Jewish national mind in the entire mode of the delivery of the Law amid terrors, signs, and wonders ; and especially in the oral announcement of the Decalogue from Sinai ; while its consignment to tables of stone is expressly stated to be for
* The Jewish Rabbis have always understood the institution to belong to the jmrticular day of the cessation of the Creation, enjoined on the peo- ple of Israel, as they say, " that they might fasten in their minds the be- lief that the world had a beginning, which is a thread that draws after it all the foundations of the Law or principles of religion." (Rabbi Ltvi of Barcelona, quoted by Patrick, on Exod. xix.) The same idea occurs in a Jewish form of prayer quoted also by Patrick.
t See Pusey on Rationalism, 1. 156.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 37
a memorial or "testimony" (Exod. xxxi. 18; xxxiv. 29) to the covenant, of which these precepts constituted some of the more primary stipulations. And throughout the whole Law we trace equal adaptations in the form and manner of the precepts and injunctions : all minute and literal, not rising to any broad principles, which the Israelites at that time would have been incapable of comprehending.
The distinction adopted by many modern divines between the " ceremonial " and the " moral '* law appears nowhere in the books of Moses. No one portion or code is ,held out as comprising the rules of moral obligation distinct and apart from those of a positive nature : such a distinction would have been unintelligible to them ; and " the Law *' is always spoken of in Scripture as a whole, without reference to any such classification ; and the obligations of all parts of it, as of the same kind.
Li particular, what is termed the moral law is certainly in no way peculiarly to be identified with the Decalogue. Though moral duties, are specially enjoined in many places of the Law, yet the Decalogue certainly does not contain aU moral duties, even by remote implication, and on the widest construction. It totally omits many such, as, e. g., beneficence, truth, justice, temperance, control of temper, and others ; and some moral precepts omitted here are introduced in other places.
Equally in the Decalogue and the rest of the Law, we find precepts referring to what are properly moral duties scattered and intermixed with those of a positive and formal kind, and in no way distinguished from them in authority or impor- tance ; but both connected with the peculiarities of the dis- pensation, expressed in a form accompanied with sanctions and enforced by motives precisely adapted to the character tmd capacity of the people, and such as formed part of the exact stipulations of the covenant.
Their duties were urged more generally in some passages (as, e. g., in Deut. xi. 21, 22 ; iv. 27, &c.) on the consid- eration of national blessings ; in others on more particular 4
38 THE LAW AND THE GOStFY.
grounds, such as the motives assigned for filial obedience (Exod. XX. 12) in a long life ; the recompense for benefi- cence and equity (Prov. xix. 17 ; Ps. xli. 1 ; xxxvii. 25, &c.) ; the appeal to the dread of Divine vengeance (Exod. xxiv. 17; Deut. iv. 24; Isa. Ixvi. 16; Deut. iv. 31) ; and the remembrance of benefits conferred. In general their reward was to be found in obedience : to keep the statutes and ordinances was to be " their wisdom and their righteous- ness " ; and the great maxim and promise was, " He that doeth these things shall live in them " (Deut. iv. 6 ; vi. 25 ; Lev. xviii. 5).
The Law conformed to many points of human infirmity : it offered splendid rites and ceremonies to attract popular rever- ence, and wean the people from their proneness to the gross ceremonies of idolatry. It indulged the disposition to observe " days, and times, and seasons " by the Sabbaths and feasts, and by occasional fasts, originally only a symbol of ordinary mourning, but afterwards invested with a religious character (Isa. Iviii. 5 ; Joel ii. 12). It commended avenging and san- guinary zeal, especially in the punishment of blasphemers (Lev. xxiv. 14; Deut. xiii. 9). It sanctioned the " /ea: talio- nis" (Exod. xxi. 23), — "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth," — that most perfect idea of retributive justice to the uncivihzed mind ; and in general it connected the idea of 'punishment with that of vengeance, the most congenial to a barbarous apprehension. If it restricted marriages within certain degrees of kindred, it at least connived at polygamy ; and allowed a law of divorce suited " to the hardness of their hearts" (Matt. xix. 8). The Law altogether was established with a regard to the infirmity and blindness of the people, " in consideration to transgressions " * (Gal. iii. 19).
While it prohibited idolatry, it represented the Deity under human similitudes, with human passions and bodily members,
♦ This appears to me to be the proper force of the adverb x'^P'-^ ^^^^ nsed by the Apostle. From its etymology it must be supposed to imply " because of," in a favorable or indulging sense. It seems to correspond to irpos in Matt. xix. 8.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. ^0
as, e. g., weary and resting from his work, angry, repenting, and jealous of other gods ; and designated more particularly as " Jehovah," the national God of Israel, &c. It is not one of the least remarkable of these anthropomorphisms that (as in former instances) the disclosure of the Divine purposes is made under the figure of Jehovah entering into a covenant with his people, an idea specially adapted to a nation of the lowest moral capacity. All points of duty were proposed under the form of precise stipulations, (just as in other times religious vows, temperance pledges, subscriptions to creeds, &c. have been adopted,) to keep a stronger hold on those in- capable of higher motives. The immediate appeal to divine sanctions sensibly present, and the enforcement of moral duties under the form of a positive engagement, were pre- cisely calculated to influence those who had no apprehension of pure principles of moral obligation, or of a higher spiritual service.
Again, obedience was to be rewarded and sin to be visited by blessings or judgments on the 'posterity of the offender (Exod..xx. 5), not merely in the sense of the ordinary conse- quences of good or bad conduct in the parents naturally in- fluencing the fortunes of the children, but by a peculiar providential interposition. And in connection with this was another striking peculiarity of the covenant, that obedience and disobedience were both regarded as national, for which national rewards and judgments were to be awarded; the whole people in the aggregate being represented as possessing a collective and common responsibility. These peculiarities were obviously connected with the absence of those higher motives and sanctions which would be derived from the doc- trine of a future state ; which clearly /orwfc? no part of the covenant, even if believed by some pious and enlightened in- dividuals, and in later times hinted at by the prophets.
The obligations of the Law were strongly declared to be perpetual (as, e. g., Exod. xxxi. 17 ; Lev. xvi. 34 ; xxiv. 8 ; 2 Kings xvii. 87, &c. ; Isa. Iv. 3), and the covenant everlast- ing, — expressions which cannot now be taken literally.
40 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
Its privileges might at all times be extended to strangers by their undergoing the initiatory rite. This was in later ages extensively realized (see Exod. xii. 48 ; comp. with Isa. Ivi. 6; and Deut. xxix. 11).
The prophecies of the future extension of the Mosaic re- ligion might in a first sense apply literally to this extension of proselytism, — the coming in of remote nations to the Jewish church and worship, resorting to its temple, adopting its rites and offerings, and keeping its festivals and Sabbaths : as we know was in fact largely fulfilled before the introduction of the Gospel (Isa. Ivi. 3 ; Ixvi. 11, 12, 19 -23 ; Micah iv. 1 ; Zech. viii. 21 ; Amos ix. 11 ; comp. Acts ii. 5, &c.).
These predictions are, however, also figuratively interpreted of the spread of the Gospel and the glories of the spiritual Zion. If so, all the particulars in the description must be interpreted by the same analogy ; if Israel and the temple be metaphorical, then the sacrifices, new moons, and Sabbaths must be so likewise ; if these latter are taken literally, we can only understand the whole literally, or we violate all rules of interpretation and analogy.
The precision and formality of the Law were in some de- gree extended and spiritualized by the Prophets. The words of Ezekiel (xviii. 3) have been understood as positively ab- rogating the punishment of the posterity for the sins of the father; and Isaiah (i. 13, &c.) strongly decries the sacrifices and Sabbaths. They also gave intimations that the Law was to come to an end, or rather to be superseded by a better and more spiritual covenant (Isa. ii. 2 ; Jer. xxxi. 31 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; MaJ. iv. 2-6). Malachi, the last, connects the two dispensations, — looking backwards to Moses and for- wards to Christ and his forerunner.
John the Baptist was the minister of an intermediate or preparatory dispensation. He accordingly recognized all ex- isting obligations, but reproved hypocrisy and formality, and urged repentance and its practical fruits (Luke iii. 10-14; Matt. iii. 7). He more especially announced the kingdom of heaven as at hand, and pointed to Jesus as " the Christ," " the
THE LAW AND THE GOSPBL.
41
Lamb of God " who should bring it in (John i. 27, 29), and " take away the sin of the world."
m. The Teaching of Christ,
In the teaching of Jesus we find no repeal of an old dis- pensation to introduce a new ; but a gradual method of prep- aration by spiritual instruction for a better system.
During his ministry on earth, the kingdom of heaven was still only " at hand " and " to come " (Mark i. 15 ; Matt. vi. 10). Serious misconceptions often arise from applying his instructions without remembering that he was himself em- phatically " made under the Law " (Gal. iv. 4), and address- ing those under it as still in force.
To the Jews in general he inculcated moral and spiritual duties ; not any change in existing grounds and principles, but reform in practice. He censured severely the hypocrisy and ostentation of the Pharisees and their followers ; their exces- sive minuteness even in matters ordained, and their " making of none effect " the divine law by human additions (Mai'k vii. 13). Yet he offered no disparagement to the Law as such. While he insisted on its weightier matters, he would not have its lesser points neglected (Matt, xxiii. 23). He enlarged its spirit, yet acknowledged its letter as the rule still in force on the Jews. His own example was emphatic. His plain declaration implies none of those refined distinctions which have been sometimes drawn as to the meaning of the terms "destroy" and "fulfil" (Matt. v. 17) ; to quiet the apprehen- sions of the Jews as to his having a design hostile to the Law and the Prophets, he assures them that the very aim of his life was to obey it in every particular, "to fulfil," in their phrase, " all righteousness " (Matt. iii. 15). And so his Jew- ish followers were exhorted to " keep the commandments " if they " would enter into life " (Matt. xix. 17) ; and doing so, they were " not far from the kingdom of God " (Mark xii. 34), though not yet in it. Not the least of the commandments was to be broken ; no part of it«i force to fail during that age or dispensation (Matt. v. 18).
4*
42 TfiE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
Thus far in general : in more special instances we find him upholding the authority of the existing church and its teach- ers, and the appeal to its tribunals (Matt, xxiii. 1 ; xviii. 1 7). He recognized the Mosaic law of marriage and divorce, and though he limited the latter more strictly (Matt. xix. 8), it was to repress the gross abuse of it which then prevailed ; and this only under an express reference to what was the original design of the institution from the authority of the books of Moses.
He referred to fasting as an existing rite under the Law, though sternly reproving the hypocritical and ostentatious performance of it (Matt. vi. 18 ; comp. Isa. Iviii. 5). In the same terms he censured formality and ostentation in almsgiv- ing and prayer (Matt. vi. 1-5) ; and taught that offerings at the altar were not to be omitted, though reconciliation was of more importance (Matt. v. 23).
He particularly and repeatedly reproved the Pharisaical moroseness in the observance of the Sa,bbath : himself wrought cures on it, and vindicated works of charity and necessity (Matt. xii. 1) ; yet only by such arguments and examples as ihe Jewish teachers themselves allowed, and their own Scrip- tures afforded authority for. But he did not in any way modify or abolish it, or substitute any other for it, though he fully asserted his power to do so ; and expressly urged upon them the consideration that it was made for " the man " * (i. e. those to whom it was appointed), and not " the man " for it ; as an institution of a permanent kind connected with the moral ends of man's being ; adapted to the parties for whom it was designed, but having nothing in its nature of unchange- able or general obligation to which mankind were to conform.
He defeated insidious questions by an appeal to the Law itself: "What is written?" (Luke x. 26; Mark x. 3, &c.) ; and taking occasion from a point disputed among them, he enforced the two great commandments (Matt. xxii. 37 ;
* This is clearly the force of the original (Mai*k ii. 27), hui rov av Bpamov.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL,
43
comp. with Deut. vi. 5 ; Lev. xix. 18 ; Matt. vii. 12; Tobit iv. 15) as the sura of the Law and the Prophets, and in general urged obedience on the very principle and promise of the Law itself: " Do this, and thou shalt live " (Luke x. 28 ; Rom. X. 3 ; Gal. iii. 12 ; comp. with Lev. xviii. 5 ; Ezek. xx. 11 ; Neh. ix. 29).
He took the Decalogue as the text of his instructions to the Jews (Mark x. 19 ; Matt. v. 21, &c. ; xix. 16, &c.) ; and raade many enlargements upon it : giving them new precepts expressly in addition to it, and not as unfoldiny anything already contained or implied in it, and expressly contrasting his own teaching with what " was said of old." But we find no modification or softening of the Law, no repeal of one part and retaining another, as is often imagined.
Christ's teaching during his ministry was plainly but pre- liminary and preparatory to the establishment of the new dis- pensation. His general discourses were simply practical, yet with an obvious peculiarity of adaptation to the ideas of the Jewish people. " The mysteries of the kingdom " were veiled in parables to the multitude, explained to the disciples in private, and understood only by those who " had ears to hear " (Matt. xiii. 9-17). During his ministry "the kingdom of heaven suffered violence" (Matt. xi. 12), the more enlight- ened partially understood it, and the strong in spirit forced an entrance.
He pointed to the necessity of a new beginning from first principles (Matt. ix. 17 ; xviii. 1), for becoming as little chil- dren ; holding out the prospect of a progressive enlighten- ment (John viii. 31), urging the Jews especially to search their own Scriptures (John v. 39), (those in which ye think ye have eternal life,) in support of his claims, and insisting especially on a new and higher " regeneration " than that ac- knowledged by the Rabbis (John iii. 3).
He repeatedly declared his mission to be only to the House of Israel. In some few instances, indeed. Gentiles came to him ; but no distinct instruction was given, except in the one remarkable case of the woman of Samaria, which is peculiar-
44 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
ly important as' being the only distinct reference in Christ^a teaching to the new dispensation as extending to the Gentiles, and the termination of the old with respect to the Jews (John iv. 21).
According to the whole system disclosed in the New Testa- ment, it is clear that Christ's kingdom could not properly begin till after his death and resurrection (Luke xxiv. 46). Its ex- tension to all nations, though more than once hinted at m \m discourses (Matt. viii. 11 ; John x. 16, &c.), and indirectly figured out in several of the parables, was not positively an- nounced till the final charge was given to the Apostles (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Mark xvi. 16 ; Luke xxiv. 47 ; Acts i. 8).
IV. The Teaching of the Apostles.
The preaching of the Apostles in the first instance was confined to Jews and proselytes, who continued under the Law and in the worship of the synagogue, simply adding the belief in Jesus as the Messiah, and joining in Christian communion.
The Apostles themselves conformed to the Law in all par- ticulars, even St. Paul, while he claimed the liberty of doing otherwise ; and St. Peter was reproached with inconsistency in deviating from it even in one point (Acts xxi. 24 ; GaL ii. 11).
The first great step was the announcement of the abolition of the separation between Jew and Gentile, commenced in the commission to Peter to convert Cornelius (Acts x. 34). Yet in fact Christianity was long confined chiefly to Jews or proselytes, or Gentile converts from among those who had previously in some degree conformed to the Law. In address- ing such parties the appeal would be naturally made to the Old Testament as furnishing proofs of Christianity.
Of the preaching to the Samaritans nothing is recorded, but it was doubtless accordant with the words of Christ to the Samaritan woman, and could involve little reference to Jewish obligations.
When purely Gentiles, or heathens, were addressed, there is no evidence or instance of any reference being made to
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 45
Old Testament authority, to the Law as 'preliminary to tJie Gospel, or to any supposed primitive religion, as to a sort of prior, but forgotten, obligation. The appeal was (in all the few cases recorded) to the natural evidences of one God, to the moral law of conscience, and then directly to the fact of Christ's resurrection and its consequences. Such was the tenor of St. Paul's discourse at Lystra and at Athens (Acts xvii. 22 ; xiv. 17), and such the purport of his whole elabo- rate argument in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. i. 18 ; ii. 14, &c.), where he positively and pointedly makes his appeal to the Gentiles, not on the ground of the revealed law, but solely on that of natural reason and con- science. And just as he referred the Jews to their Scrip- tures, so, to enforce his argument with authorities to the hea- then, he quotes their own poets (Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Tit. i. 12).
The omission of any reference to previous obligations (which, if they had existed, were certainly unknown) is em- phatic. Any supposed universal law given to the Patriarchs would clearly have required to be revived, but no intimation or even allusion of the kind is to be found in the records of the Apostolic teaching. Such a reference, for example, was manifestly requisite for any revival of a primeval Sabbath, had it been contemplated ; but it is needless to say, no such intimation can be found. The only allusion to the subject at all is addressed to the Hebrews (Heb. iv. 4), and the turn of the allusion is figurative and obviously quite different.
The very natural belief of the Jews, that the Gentiles were incapable of justification, except through conformity to the covenant of circumcision, at a very early period led to attempts to impose the Law on Gentile converts (Acts xv. 1 - 28), until the Apostolic decree finally settled the question, in which cer- tain observances only are retained and prescribed, described kas practically "necessary" from the circumstances of the times : the omission of all others, as meats. Sabbaths, &c., is emphatic, as well as the absence of any recognition, whether generally of the Law as such, or of any previous dispensation,
46 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
or of any part of it, or an enlarged or modified view of its precepts to be made the rule of Christian obedience. Bui 60 inveterate were the prepossessions of the Jews, that later attempts of this kind were continually made, which called forth the special censures of St. Paul, and the strongest argu- ments against these notions so destructive to the real spirit of the Gospel, such as form the main purport of his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians, of material portions of those to the Romans, and the Second to the Corinthians (as, e. g., 2 Cor. iii., &c.), and of scattered declarations in nearly all.
Hence the expression Christian " liberty " obviously applies only by way of contrast to the particular instance of Judaiz- ing, while the assurance " ye are not under the Law, but under grace," (the necessity for which arose solely from the same cause,) is most carefully guarded against any such misapplica- tion as would sanction sin, any tendency to the preposterous doctrine of Antinomianism (Rom. vi. 1, 14), No such lan- guage need have been used with respect to Gentile converts but for such attempts at enslaving them. The Apostle ad- dressed distinctly both those " under the Law," — the Jews, — and those " not under the Law," — the Gentiles ; the former generally were still under it, though they might have been released from it. But the latter could not he released from that to which they had never been subject. To say that they were free from the law of the Hebrews was indeed true, but superfluous ; they needed not to be told so ; what was to bring them under it ? certainly not the Gospel.
The strong feeling of the Jews with respect to the distinc- tion of circumcision appears, however, very reasonable ; it was not a mere national prejudice, but arose purely out of the belief in the Divine authority of the covenant, and to them seemed to involve all the other obhgations of the Law, not to be abrogated without the loss of that distinction. Hence the difficulty of the argument with them. It is, however, con- ducted with consummate skill by the Apostle, directing his reasoning with admirable effect, so us at once to bear on the case of the Gentiles, and with equal force on that of the Jews,
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
47
a way which they must acknowledge as conclusive on their )wn principles (as in Rom. xi. 13, &c.).
He maintained himself a compliance with the ordinances
ret subsisting : " to the Jews he became a Jew," as " under
the Law " ; to the Gentiles as " without the Law " (1 Cor. ix.
20) : but this was no deceptive assumption, since he actually
toas in one sense both.
The distinction of meats, clean or unclean, of days to be kept holy or not, remained actually in force to the Jewish Christians until their convictions became sufficiently enlight- ened to see the abolition of those distinctions. To the Gen- tile it was equally clear that they were not obligatory on him, while his service was a spiritual one in faith. In Sabbaths and meats each might judge for himself (Rom. xiv. 5, 6) ; there was no moral immutable obligation, but neither was to judge the other. Both acting in faith were exhorted to mu- tual charity, a line of conduct pre-eminently recommended by the Apostle's own example (1 Cor. x. 23 ; viii. 13, &c.). But there was no compromise of essential truths ; we cannot but be struck with the contrast of the Apostle's liberality of sen- timent with his strenuous assertion of Christian freedom. " Christ crucified " (1 Cor. i. 25) was preached alike to Jew and Greek, the Author of Salvation equally to those under the Law and those without it (Rom. xv. 8, 9).
To both parties it was argued that they stood equally con- demned in the sight of God. The Gentiles were expressly «hown to be in this state of condemnation from their own moral depravity, not from any sentence of a covenant which their remote forefathers had broken, as some have fancied. Setting aside the total unreasonableness of such an imagina- tion, nothing can be more clear or positive than the argument ^-of St. Paul, that they stood condemned expressly without any Buch revealed law, and solely by their violation of the law of conscience, written by natural light in their hearts (Rom. ii. 15). Still less were they to be awakened by any terrors of tlie law of Sinai given to the Jews.
On the other hand, the Jew stood condemned because he
48 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
had transgi'essed the law of revelation, which he acknowl- edged to be holy, and just, and good, and in which he beHeved himself justified. St. Paul therefore expressly argues, that he was not only not justified^ hut positively condemned, by that very Law in which he trusted and made his boast, which " he approved " and " served with his mind " ; yet in truth, " with his flesh he served sin " (Rom. vii. 25, &c.).* The difficulty was to convince the Jew, that he stood condemned hy his own law ; that " by it he had the knowledge of sin," that " the strength of sin was the Law," but the victory in Christ.
Both being thus cdike under condemnation, though by differ- ent laws, it followed that both were to be accepted and justi- fied on another, a new and common ground, that of faith in Jesus Clirist ; and the grand point thus was, that the line of separation was removed ; all distinctions were merged and lost in the greater privilege now conferred by the Gospel, " of the twain was made one new man " (Eph. ii. 11 - 22 ; 1 Cor. vii. 19; Gal. vi. 15; Col. iii. 11), Christ was to be all and in aJl.
Christ redeemed the Jews " from the curse of the Law " (Gal. iii. 15 ; iv. 3) ; the Gentile " from all iniquity " (Tit. ii. 14). Both were called to repentance and faith, but on differ- ent grounds; both led, though by different ways, to moral duties ; to the Jew obedience was " the fulfilment of the Law " (Gal. V. 14; Rom. xiii. 8), "the end of the commandment" (1 Tim. i. 5), " the pure service " (James i. 27 [^pT/o-<feta]), " the royal law according to the Scripture " (James ii. 8) ; to the Gentile without any such reference it was simply "the things just, and pure, and true" (Phil. iv. 3), in accordance with the natural moral sense ; to " live soberly, righteously, and godly" (Tit. ii. 12) ; to walk "honestly " (Rom. xiii. 13) ; but all this based on the high and peculiar motives of Chris- tian faith.
To the Jews the grounds of Christian obligation were often
♦ Such at least appears to rao to be the real and plain tenor of this chapter, so often imagined difficult to rescue from the eager grasp of the Antinomian.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 49
represented and enforced by analogies drawn from the Old Testament. Thus the Gospel itself is by analogy, and with especial reference to the words of the Prophets, called a covenant {Yi^h. viii. 6; comp. Jer. xxxi. 31): not implying that there was really any covenant, but only that it stood in the same relation to Christians as the covenant did to the Jews ; sin ;e it is expressly distinguished (indeed the whole argument of the Apostle turns on the distinction, Gal. iii. 18)* as not really a covenant, but a free promise and gift ; not the act or deed of two parties as a compact, but of one as a gift or a testament.
The Jew was to be brought gradually to see his deliverance from the "bondage" (Gal. iv. 25; 2 Cor. iii. 6-14; Heb. xii. 18) of Sinai, effected by his increasing faith and knowl- edge, supported by the arguments from Abraham (Gal. iii. 6 ; Rom. iv. 1), and the Prophets (Hab. ii. 9 ; Heb. vii. 18) ; " the Law being his schoolmaster to bring him to Christ " (Gal. iii. 24). The Law ceased at no one time, but to each indi- vidual as his belief and enlightenment progressively emanci- pated him (Rom. xiv. 1 - 6).t It was never formally re- scinded : it died a natural death.
Wherever the cessation ot the Law is spoken of, it is ow a whole, without reference to moral or ceremonial, letter or spirit. We find no such distinction as that " the Law, as being of Moses, was abrogated, yet, as the Law of the Spirit, still binding"; J the language of St. Paul is utterly opposed to any such idea.
But if all this had been otherwise, it would little concern us ; the Law should be contemplated as a national and local,
* The obscurity of the passage is admitted ; but what I have here stated appears to me to be the real tenor of it, though fully aware of the existence of difference of opinion among commentators.
t The Rabbis held that distinctions of meats and even the Law itself were to cease when the Messiah came, as also the Sabbath, arguing ex- presslt/ from Isa. Ixvi. 23. (R. Samuel, in Talmud, in titulo Mdr, Cited by Grotius de Ver., V. 9, 10.)
X See Life of Dr. Arnold, I. 355. ft
50 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
rather than as a temporary dispensation ; for, had it not been temporary, it would still have been restricted to one people : the Gentiles would have had no part or concern in its con- tinuance (unless as becoming proselytes to it), nor had they in its cessation. Christianity as addressed to the Gentiles was not founded on Judaism : * nor does it imply any substitution of one obligation for another : it stands simply on its own ground : the essential character of its institutions is indepen- dent. Its few observances were in fact at first adopted along with those of Mosaism, by the churches " of the circum- cision," who formed so large a part of the early Christian community.
From this circumstance the teaching of the Apostles would necessarily exhibit a large infusion of Judaical ideas ; and we accordingly find them introducing a multitude of adapta- tions of passages from the Old Testament; besides maxims and proverbial sayings (e. g. Rom. xii. 20 ; James v. 20 ; 1 Pet. iv. 8) and forms of expression, habitual among the Jews, which sometimes, mistaken for original sentiments, lead to serious misconceptions. Their reasonings would naturally be built upon opinions currently received, and on appeals to the Jewish Scriptures, of undeniable force to those who recognized its authority; and the introduction of analogies and applications of the incidents and language of the Old Testament (e. g. Rom. vii. 1 ; Eph. vi. 1 ; 1 Pet. iii. 10 ; 1 Tim. V. 18) for the instruction of converts who could only be convinced through such associations of the new truths with the old.
* See the whole paragraph in Ignatius (partially quoted at the begin- ning of this essay) for an eloquent exposition of this idea. It includes a passage which, as I think most unnecessarily, has been the subject of much discussion, as supposed to allude to the Lord's day ; but it appears to me that the simple sense of KvpiaKrj (a)r) is " the Lord's life," which was to become the pattern of the spiritual life of those Jewish converts who saw their emancipation from the Law, and therefore lived /nT/KcVt aa^^ari^ovres, — dWa Kara Kvpiaxfju (tahv ^cburcs. See my article " Lobd's Day," in Kitto's Ci/clopcuUa of Biblical Literature.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 51
It is in this way only that the Apostle Paul sanctions any use of the Old Testament Scriptures ; as in the practical and typical accommodation of passages to points of Christian in- struction (Rom. XV. 4 ; 1 Cor. x. 1, &c.). It was thus that even to Timothy the Old Testament was still to be " profit- able," but only when applied " through faith in Jesus Christ " (2 Tim. iii. 15). And thus St. Peter (the very Apostle of the circumcision) commends the use of the prophetical writ- ings, only as preparatory and auxiliary to the Gospel (2 Pet. i. 19).
The more we consider the nature of the precise points of analogy dwelt upon, the more we perceive the independent spiritual characteristics of the Gospel to which they point ; as in the typical application of the temple to the body of Christ, and thence to the community of Christians (1 Cor. iii. 16) ; of Jerusalem to that which is above (Gal. iv. 26 ; Heb. xii. 22) ; the laver to regeneration (Tit. iii. 5, Xovrpoi/ ; Exod. XXX. 18, &c.) ; the altar and sacrifices primarily to the death of Christ (Heb. xiii. 10 ; x. 1, &c.) ; and thence in a lower sense to almsgiving (Heb. xiii. 16 ; Phil. iv. 18) ; to praise ; to the reasonable service of Christians (Rom. xii. 1 ; Heb. xi. 20) ; the priesthood primarily to the person and office of Christ, though, in a secondary sense, to all Christians (1 Pet, ii. 9) ; circumcision to purity of heart (Deut. x. 16 ; xxx. 6 ; Jer. iv. 4; Rom. ii. 29 ; Col. ii. 11) ; the anointing to grace (1 John ii. 20) ; the Sabbath to the rest reserved for the faithful (Heb. iv. 9). In after times the same desire of adap- tation without apostolic warrant, and carried often to extrav- agant lengths, led to a larger use of the Old Testament among Christian writers, and the spirit of allegorizing and evangelizing all parts of it. The Apostles' arguments and representations, misunderstood from want of consideration of the circumstances, and appeals ad hominem taken positively, in modem times have become subjects of endless mistake and confusion.
But in the Apostles' teaching we find no dependence recog- uized of the one system on the other ; no such idea as that of
52 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
a transference of Old Testament ordinances to Christianity j or the fulfilment of one in the other : for example, we find no appeal to the Old Testament for the basis of marriage, the reference of St. Paul (Eph. v. 31 ; 1 Cor. vii. 2) to the pri- meval precepts being made only incidentally, and the Chris- tian institution essentially grounded on a different principle ; we perceive no carrying on of the priesthood in the Christiau ministry (which was derived from the officers of the syna- gogue, not of the temple) * ; no continuation of sacrifices in the Lord's supper, or of the Sabbath in the Lord's day (charitable collections were made on the first day of the week,t 1 Cor. xvi. 2), precisely because it was not the Sabbath, on which they were unlawful.
Yet, from a misconception of points of analogy in such cases, often directly at variance with the express words of the Apostles, opinions have prevailed on these and the like points tending not a little to perplex and impair the simplicity of the Grospel.
All the essentially Christian institutions were independent and simple. We must carefully distinguish from the more essential and permanent, some minor ordinances of a purely temporary and occasional character, which certainly bear a more formal appearance ; but were evidently adopted for the sake of peace and union, and especially for the great objects of mutually conciliating the Jewish and Gentile converts, or from a wish not abruptly to violate existing customs ; as, e. g., the injunctions in the apostolic decree (Acts xv.), already referred to; and some of those given by St. Paul to- the church at Corinth (as throughout 1 Cor. v., vi., and vii.), and to Tiraoty (1 Tim. v., &c.).
The same may be said of the practice of fasting (see Acts
* See Vitringa, De Si/nagogd, of which valuable work an excellent abridged translation has been published by the Rev. J. L. IBcmard. London. 1842.
t Cocceius, quoted by Vitringa, says : " This was ordained on the first day of the week, as being regarded non ut festum sed ut epydcrt^ov." See Bernard's Vitnnga, pp. 75 and 167.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 53
xiii. 2) ; there does not exist a single precept or hint for its general adoption by Christians, much less is there any sanc- tion for other ascetic observances, which soon claimed an avaihng merit utterly at variance with the spirit of the Gospel. So far as they had begun to prevail, they met with unequiv- ocal censure (Col. ii. 18-23 ; 1 Tim. iv. 3, 8) from St. Paul. Of other institutions of Christian worship, very little can be collected from the New Testament. At first the disciples met daily for prayer and communion (Acts ii. 26). In one in- stance afterwards it may he implied that they assembled peculiarly on the first day of the week (Acts xx. 7) ; and in the latest period of the New Testament age " the Lord's day '* is spoken of once, but wholly without explanation (Rev. i. 10).
The ministry and form of church government were bor- rowed directly from the synagogues, which were actually the churches of the Jewish converts. Certain peculiar regula- tions also were connected with the extraordinary gifts (Mark xvi. 17), as temporal visitations (1 Cor. xi. 30, &c.), and the power of inflicting them (1 Cor. v. 5), and the anointing of the sick (James v. 14, comp. with Mark xvi. 18, and vi. 13).
Christianity, as indeed it is hardly conceivable should have been otherwise, was at first communicated and established in the way of adaptation in its outward form to existing ideas and conditions. Thus it won its way at first according to the economic dispensations of divine grace ; while its spiritual essence asserted its internal influence over the disciple who had the capacity to receive it ; and under whatever outward aspect, the words of Christ were verified, " The kingdom of heaven is within you."
V. Subsequent Views of the Law and the Gospel,
The tendency to engraft Judaism in a greater or less degree on Christianity in the early Church, the steps by -which such a system advanced and gained ground, and the extent to which it was carried, are not difficult to trace or to explain. But Ihe peculiar turn which has been given to somewhat similar 5*
54 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
ideas in modern times is, apparently, much less easy to justify or account for on any rational principles.
The constant appeals of the Apostles to the Old Testament in their arguments with the Jews were doubtless of the most primary importance and convincing cogency with those they addressed ; to the Gentiles they would not have been so ; yet the peculiar character and result of the appeal was, no doubt, felt to be precisely that of valuable testimony extorted from an adverse party, and * brought to support our cause, and there- fore in constantly exhibiting which a sort of triumph is felt.
Hence the more general introduction in the early Church, even among the Gentiles, of the Old Testament Scriptures, and the prominence given to them, which continued by custom long after the original occasion had ceased.
But, for the Gentile converts, with the broad distinction between themselves and the Jewish churches before their eyes, this reference to the Jewish Scriptures could not by possibility degenerate into such inconsistent notions of their application as would suppose Gentile Christians brought under the obligations of the old precepts.
Without direct Judaizing, however, the gradual adoption of some Judaical forms in Christian worship naturally arose out of the synagogal model on which all the first churches were framed. And it would not be a matter of surprise if, occasionally, Judaical ideas should have been thus mixed up with Christian doctrines, institutions, and practices, even to a greater degree than we find was the case.
The Jewish converts continued, along with their other pe- cuharities, to observe the Sabbath, which, it is hardly neces- sary to say, the Gentiles did not. From an early period it seems probable that both Jewish and Gentile churches had begun to hold religious assemblies on the first day of the week. But it is from Justin Martyr* (a. d. 140) that we
* Justin., Apol. i. § 67. For other authorities on this point the reader is referred to my article, " Lord's Day," in Kitto's Cyclopcedia of Bib- lioal Literature,
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 55
first learn the regular establishment of this practice, as well as its professed ground and object ; as being the day on which the work of creation was begun, and on which also the new spiritual creation was commenced by the resurrection of Christ. Other writers * adopt more fanciful analogies, refer- ring to the Mosaic creation ; yet always distinctly such as to exclude all idea of any reference to a primitive Sabbath (had they believed in it), which would have been an entire con- fusion of ideas between the day of the commencement of the creation and that of its cessation.
In the course of the first few centuries many corruptions had crept in ; and we then for the first time trace some in- creasing precision in the observance of the Lord's day, upheld in certain expressions of TertuUian f (a. d. 200), Dionysius of Corinth (somewhat later), Clement of Alexandria,]: Hilary,§ and others.
These writers speak of the Lord's day in conjunction with the Sabbath, but always in the way of contrast, and as ob- viously distinct institutions. And doubtless, with the view of conciliating the Judaizing churches it was that the celebration of both days was afterwards enjoined, both in the so-called Apos- tolic Constitutions || (a forgery of the fourth century), and by Constantine,^ who first prohibited business on the Lord's day,
* In the spurious Epistle of Barnabas (which, as generally allowed a forgery of the second or third century, may be taken as evidence of views then held) the writer makes out a comparison of the six days of the Creation with six ages of the world, followed by a seventh of rest under the Gospel, to which is to succeed an eighth of final triumph, and " therefore," he adds, " we keep the eighth day with joy, on which also Jesus rose from the dead." (Ep. I. 15.)
t De Oral. § 23. J Strom. VII. 744.
§ Comm. in Psalm. ProL || Apost. Const. VII. 24.
1" Euseb. IV. De Vit. Const. 18. See also Jortin's Remarks, III. 326. A singular exemplification of the continuance of this twofold observ- ance, carried out even to a great degree of rigor, and preserved to mod- ern times, has been presented in the discovery by Major Harris of an ancient Judaized Christian church in the interior of Ethiopia. Some- thing similar has also been noticed by Mr. Grant among the Nestorians in Armenia.
56 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
with a special exception in favor of the labors of agriculture. The Council of Laodicea,* however, took an opposite tone, and censured the Sabbath, while it enjoined the Lord's day.
But though a certain kind of assimilation between the two institutions was carried farther by some later writers, yet neither was the observance itself pushed to the extent which has since been sometimes contended for ; nor was it possible for that confusion of ideas between the two institutions to arise which in modern times has occasionally prevailed ; and still less was such a notion as that of any transfer of the obli- gations of the one to the other, or any change in the day, ever conceived.f
Down to later times we trace some remains of the observ- ance of the Sabbath in the solemnization of Saturday as the eve or vigil of the Lord's day.
The constant reference to the Old Testament law on the part of the Jewish cx)n verts not unnaturally led to the disposi- tion to find for it at least some sort of allegorical application to the Gentiles. Thus, guided possibly by the figurative language of the Apostle (Heb. iv. 4), and the fondness for what they teimed evangelizing the Old Testament, some of the Fathers adopted the idea of a metaphorical interpretation of the fourth commandment (where, of course, the literal sense could not apply) in the case of Gentile converts, as meaning the perpetual service of a Christian life. %
More generally, the practice of introducing even thus in- directly the sanctions of the Old Testament in later times
* Counc. of Laodicea, Can. XXIX.
t Yet so inveterate has this absurd idea become in the minds of mod- em divines, that even so acute and independent a writer as Bishop War- burton, arguing too expressly against tlie Sabbatists, speaks inciden- tally of " a change in the day having been made by the primitive Church,'* which 'it most assuredly never was. {Div. Leg. IV. 34, note.)
t Thus Justin Martyr {Dial, am Trypho, 229) says, ^a^^arlCfi* fjnas 6 Kaiv6s vofios bianavrbi i$f\ei. And later, to the same effect, Augustine (Ep. 119) observes, "Inter omnia dcccm preecepta solum ibi quod do sabbato positura est figurate observandam praecipitur."
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 57
began to assume the character of a more direct habitual ac- knowledgment of its authority. And in the earlier stage of the Reformation, some more precise theories of this kind found ready support in the extravagant notions of the literal appU- cations of Scripture into which the violent reaction of opinions carried a portion of the Reformers, involving very peculiar notions of what was termed " the moral law " of the Old Tes- tament, and the obligation of the Sabbath as a chief point and instance of it : a phrase, the very use of which betrays some confusion of thought, and has been at the root of all the popular errors on the subject.
The main outline of the theory seems to have been this : it was held that the Old Testament, and more especially the Decalogue, was designed to convey a revelation of the moral law to all mankind ; that this law, without reference to any anterior distinctions of natural morality or the like, derives its whole force and obligation from the sole will of God positively declared, and is to be found specially summed up in these precise commandments ; that all men are really subject to it even though in ignorance of it, whether Jews or Gentiles ; but all, even when endeavoring to live by it, are in a state of bondage and stand condemned by it : from this bondage and condemnation the Gospel by grace and faith releases them, and they are then free from the law of works, and enjoy " Christian liberty." And there are not wanting some who pushed this idea still further, and would in fact make this freedom involve a release from the obligations of morality ; which is indeed no more than a direct consequence, if moral obligations are derived from no other source than those positive commandments. Such was the consistent theory of Antinomianism, a theory which might appear startling to those not versed in theological systems, but which re- ceived obvious proof from the hteral application of Scripture texts.
But against such tenets of legal and sabbatical formalism, Luther, with his accustomed masterly grasp of the breadth and depth of evangelical principles, most strenuously con
58 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
tended,* as did also Calvin,t especially denouncing the notion of the moral obligation of the Sabbath as one of the " follies of false prophets " (nugae pseudo-prophetarum), more forcibly still in his French version, as " mensonges des faux docteurs."
Calvin also appears once to have had an intention of fixing the day of Christian worship on Thursday, as he said, " to evince Christian liberty " ; and in a similar spirit Tindal says, " We are lords of the Sabbath, and may change it to Monday or any other day, or appoint every tenth day, or two days in a week, as we find it expedient." % The idea of changing a Divine institution, if obligatory at all, still shows some of the common confusion prevailing in the Reformer's mind.
The complete doctrine of an identification of the Lord's day with the Sabbath seems to have been first formally pro- pounded by Dr. Bound (1595), — a divine of great authority among the Puritans, — from whom it was adopted by the Westminster Assembly in their Confession, and thence has become a recognized tenet of the Scottish and other Presby- terian communions in Great Britain and America, though' as wholly unknown to the Continental Protestants as to the old unreformed Church.
In later times this idea has been variously modified. Some, acting up to the commandment in strictness, consistently keep holy the seventh day of the week. Many adopt the distinc- tion of the Jewish Sabbath, though we can find but one Sab- bath mentioned in the Bible, or speak of the Christian Sab- bath, — an institution wholly without warrant in the Christian Scriptures. Some turn away from all such distinctions, as mere questions of words and names. It is indeed wholly un- important by what name we choose to designate anything; but it is important that we are not misled by the name to miS' take the thing.
It is, however, a tenet nowhere inculcated in the authorized formularies of the Church of England. Th*» Decalogue in-
♦ Comm. on Gal. iv. 8 - 11. f iMtit., II. c. 8, § 28-34.
I Reply to Sir T. More. See Morer on Lord^s day, 216.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 69
troduced into the Communion Service is of course to be fairly interpreted by the Catechism ; where the explanation of the fourth commandment is simply, " to serve God truly all the days of my life," and that such a continual service is the only Christian Sabbath accords with the ideas of the Fathers before referred to.
It is true, among the divines of most approved reputation in the English Church there has been all along a division of opinion on the subject, not unmixed probably with the contin- ued struggle between the Puritanizing and the Catholicizmg extremes of the Keformation. They nearly all, however, even those most opposed to the Puritanical views, more or less seem intent rather on endeavoring to moderate between opposing opinions and attempting a middle path of compro- mise, than on grasping firmly the broad principle and main- taining a clear consistency in their own views.
With many the plea of idility prevails : they allege that the restraints of the Law are still requisite for the many : that " a preparatory discipline is as needful now as former- ly"; * that the terrors of the Law are necessary to prepare men for the mercies of the Gospel. Yet in the case of a divine appointment, what right have we to model its applica- tion according to our ideas of the necessity of the case, or our conceptions of utility ? Again, it is often elaborately argued, on the other hand, that such or such institutions are in their nature ceremonial, or would be burdensome or impracticable for general adoption, and on that account are to be believed not generally obligatory.
But the real question is. Supposing they were not so, were they intended to apply to us ? Li a question of divine obli- gation it is not the supposed excellence of an institution which would make it obligatory, any more than its inconvenience or inutility would annul it were it really enjoined.
Many who argue in support of the abrogation of the Law in fact take unnecessary trouble to prove the abolition of
* See Pusey on Rationalism, I. 134
60 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
obligations of which they have not shown the existence. Others, contending for the repeal of some parts of the Law, labor to defend the exceptions before they have established the rule. The onus prohandi hes on those who would im- pose the obligation, not on those who contend that it never existed.
It might be thought that the great natural principles of right and wrong evinced by reason would be too plain to admit of misapprehension or question. Yet when the refer- ence is made to such principles of moral sense implanted in our nature, there are many who object to such a view of moral obligation as carnal and unevangelical.
It is, however, on all hands admitted, that when we turn to the pages of the New Testament, in point of fact all duties which can come under the denomination of moral, on any theory, are distinctly included and laid down even in hteral precepts, (though certainly nowhere exhibited in any one code or summary,) but, much more, implied and involved in the whole spirit and tenor of the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles. This then to all parties may suffice to furnish a simple unassailable basis of Christian moral obhgation.
It is no doubt true also that some of the same moral duties (though by no means all of them) were enjoined in particular precepts of the Mosaic Law and the prophetical books.
But those who receive the Gospel simply as the universal revelation of God's will will surely acknowledge the obliga- tion of those duties, not because they may be found prescribed in the Old Testament, but because they form part of the spirit and principles of the New.
On any intelligible view of the principles of moral obliga- tion, it is perfectly clear that a precept to consecrate any por- tion of time is in its nature a positive, not a moral injunction : that on no moral grounds can we regard one day as more sacred than another ; and practical reasons for devoting set portions of time to religious purposes cannot apply to one seventh more than to any other portion of time. If so, just in the same way it might be argued, for example, cleanliness is a
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 61
virtue ; hence the ablutions and purifications of the Law are moral precepts perpetually binding.
But though there is no foundation for Sabbatism in natural morality, yet there is a deep-seated one in natural formalism. No moral or religious benefits, however, can justify a corrup- tion of Christianity or the encouragement of superstition.
The plea of civil and social benefits derivable from such observances has been the favorite argument with many who take up the question rather on the ground of external policy than of religious truth, — and especially as maintaining a con- venient hold on the minds of the multitude, which they are desirous to secure even by legislative coercion. In a word, their Sabbatism is precisely that of the legislators and philos- ophers of tlie heathen world, who by the very same arguments upheld their rehgious festivals.* Nor can we fail to trace precisely the same spirit in the Jewish Rabbis, who, well knowing human nature, avowed the maxim, doubtless most acceptable to the many, — " The Sabbath weigheth against all the commandments." t
Such, however, are the views which, in one form or an- other, have become very general among our countrymen, who, under the narrow prepossessions of an exclusive education, (in which the Decalogue, in its letter, wholly unexplained, too often forms the main religious instruction,) are commonly surprised and scandalized when they find in other Christian countries those tenets wholly unknown in which they have been kept studiously blindfolded by religious teachers, many of whom, too, know better.
Increased intercourse and information, however, it may be hoped, is now opening the eyes of many to the peculiarly
* Thus Seneca speaks of the practice of all legislators to enjoin pub- lic festivals and periods of relaxation as essential to the good of the state {De Tranq. Anim.) ] and Plato, carrying the matte r higher, says, " The gods, pitying mankind born to painful labor, appciinted for an ease and cessation of their toils the recurrence of festival seasons ob- served to the gods." {De Leg., II. 787.)
t Midrash, in Exod. xxvi. 6
62 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
national prejudices on these subjects ; an object to which nothing seems more likely to contribute than attention to the simple matter-of-fact view of the whole question here at- tempted to be followed up.
Conclusion.
To recapitulate and conclude : — " God spake in times past