less objec

from vari

belief.

tended to restore this mode of its operation,' and so have ever exhibited degrees of non-conformity. The irony of the lofty author of the Variations of GroundProtestantism' may be and has been turned with tion drawn equal force from the disagreements of opposed ations of sects and rival Churches upon the claims of Christianity at large. The conclusion drawn, it is true, is no more valid in the one case than in the other, and for the same reasons. Indeed, to a fair mind. it would rather furnish a presumption against the truth of Christianity, if it did not or had not in its progress exhibited that amount of variation which is alone compatible with the course of human reason on all subjects of thought. The pathology of a religious system assumes the reality of a true core of belief. The existence of controversy is to a certain extent a test of the power and vitality of Christianity. "If any country," says Bacon,3 "decline into Atheism, then controversies wax dainty; because men do think religion scarce worth the falling out." The co-existence and competition of sects has therefore not unreasonably

1 Dean Hook, Lives of Archbishops, in his Introduction to the New Series, remarks on "the tendency of the Reformation to individualize Christianity."

2 "Si l'argument de M. de Meaux vaut quelque chose contre la Réformation, il a la même force contre le Christianisme."-Beausobre, Hist. de Manichée, I. 526, and see Mr. Buckle's remarks, II. C. E., II. 283. The objection raised disappears when the nature of the subject-matter of Revelation, with its difficulties of application and interpretation, is considered. Compare Hallam, Literature of Europe, III. 268.

3 Bacon's Works (ed. Spedding), VIII. 165.

A warning, however, to

been held to be the system most in conformity with the nature of society, and most favourable to the solidity and general efficiency of religion. Some, however, may be inclined to attribute to the objection, suggested by the argument of Bossuet, an importance disproportioned to its worth. It certainly entails on the Christian advocate the task of showing that the disagreement among Christians has not been vital, nor its degree such as to neutralize the common effect due to the religion of Christ as a whole. In accomplishing the work whereunto it is sent, the robe of Christ is still "without seam, woven from the top throughout." Moreover, whatever have been its fortunes, its proper tendencies remain; and these undoubtedly act to "draw men together in spite of their worst differences, proving it to be quite as abhorrent of divisions in itself as Nature ever

"2

was of a vacuum.' Still, if union is strength, persistent differences mean permanent weakness. increase of It is then surely time for the great sections of the Christian world to study unity and not division;

study the

unity.

3

1 See Guizot's Meditations, Pt. II., pp. 5, 165 (E. T.); Paley, Evid., II. c. vii. ; and compare Ffoulkes' Divisions of Christendom, p. 246. "There is even consolation," &c. It is true, however, as Dr. Westcott has remarked, after Comte, that the tendencies of Protestantism go to obscure the conception of continuity in human progress, reposing too much on logical deduction. "To erect any one age (whether primitive or mediæval) into an idol is to deny implicitly that the Gospel is life."-Contemp. Review, VI. 420. See also Dorner, Hist. Protestant Theology, Vol. I., p. xviii., E. T.

Compare Guizot, Meditations, Pt. I., Pref., pp. ix.-xvii, "Je dis

alliance and not mutual elimination; to give up claims to a several infallibility; to join at least for the defence of the faith "once delivered to the saints"; to exhibit the bases of a common belief; to cherish more strongly than hitherto their underlying points of agreement; to drop dissensions, and go forth to conquer.

nence an

of truth.

§ 4. But it may be asked at the outset-is Per- Permamanence of itself a test of truth? Is that which actual test is true always enduring and error never so? Have not unreal systems held sway and made progress in the history of mankind? Is there no such thing as a prescription of ignorance ?? Is retrogression a thing impossible, and is there no historical proof of it? Are periods of "denuda

2

l'Église Chrétienne : c'est toute l'Église Chrétienne en effet, et non pas telle ou telle des églises chrétiennes qui est maintenant et radicalement attaquée."

1 It will perhaps be said that truth is strictly an attribute of propositions only; and in this sense no one will deny that what is true is true for always, though it may not at all times be recognized. But the term seems not improperly used of whatever answers to the definition of a thing. In the case of institutions, some come up to the idea or notion commonly held of their nature and function; some fall short of it. Christianity is sometimes regarded as a set of dogmas or propositions (such as have been termed fundamentals), of which truth is immediately predicable. Sometimes it is identified with the Church, which is the witness and keeper of these truths. In this capacity, as liable to the admixture of error, it may be compared with rival religious systems, and may vary at different periods relatively to itself. Permanence in the form of persistence in consciousness seems to lie at the basis of all reality. See Mr. Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 226.

2 "Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est."-Cyprian, Ep. 74. Opp., p. 282.

tion" unknown in the intellectual eras of our race? Does truth always emerge from behind the mists of falsehood and make daylight in the world? Perhaps not; and yet the answer to such doubts. may be in no wise doubtful. The day is really past, notwithstanding some pretentious objections, for questioning the tendencies of God's moral Liable to government. Exceptions, which constitute only exceptions, the disorder of Nature, yield no argument against

apparent

its general laws. "God," says Bishop Butler, "makes use of a variety of means, what we often think tedious ones, in the natural course of Providence for the accomplishment of all His ends." The analogy of reason as against force, which has been employed by the same author to illustrate the tendency of right to prevail in the economy of the world, affords a similar explanation of the victories of error over truth in the working of religious systems.

Virtute semper prævalet sapientia.

The lesson gained from a criticism of the past is this; that while it is consistent with an overruling Providence to allow the existence of falsehood, extravagance, self-delusion in almost every form, yet there is, on the whole, a constant steady advance towards convictions which are finally recognized

1 Analogy, Pt. II. c. iv. Comp. Eurip. Orestes, 420:

Μέλλει τὸ θεῖον· ἐστὶ τοιοῦτον φύσει.

as immutably true. And this progress of truth is not dependent on blind tendencies, but on an intellectual activity which, gradually disposing of error, transforms opinion into knowledge. This which is evident in the experience of the physical sciences holds good equally for the more complex subjects of theology and morals. But the results must naturally be sought not among the least but among the most civilized portions of mankind. Length of time together with reasonable opportunity may be requisite for the extinction of error. Duration and stress of persecution, stamping out conscientious belief, may, in some instances, account for the depression of truth. To some extent they explain and help on its progress.1 Degradation, partial or temporary, seems to be an historical condition of the general advance of civilization."

1 "Le besoin perfectionne l'instrument," was a maxim of Turgot. "In times of peace," says Archbishop Leighton, "the Church may dilate more and build as it were into breadth, but in times of trouble it arises more in height. It is then built upwards, as in cities where men are straitened, they build usually higher than in the country."-Op. Coleridge, Aids to R., p. 73.

2 "Ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall, and the several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes and diminish our apprehensions."- Gibbon, Vol. IV. 409 (ed. Milman). "Humanity accomplishes its necessary destiny but (being composed of free persons) with an element of liberty; so that error and crime find their place in its course, and we behold centuries which do not advance, but even recede, days of illness, and years of wandering. . . . But mankind never entirely or irremediably errs. The light burns somewhere which is to go to the front of the straying generation and bring it along in its wake. When the Gospel failed in the