tion to the the time. to private judgment fortified by the verdict of historical inquiry, its standing-point fits it expressly for the work of reconcilement between a traditional faith and the rationalizing forces of progress. The anarchy of criticism which marks the process Its adapta of severance and reunion has been mistaken by wants of Comte and others for the ultimate issue of centuries of unreasoning credulity. Protestantism, it is asserted with much injustice, has made no converts, and nowhere enlarges the area of its conquests.2 Since the treaty of Westphalia, it is said, no new territory has been added to its sway. But its work Its true lies deeper, and must be traced in a re-animation of the spiritual vigour of Christianity, in a general rehabilitation of its beliefs, and in re-arming it to meet the developments of increased knowledge and 1 See Phil. Pos., V. 354. "L'esprit d'inconséquence," &c. V. 299, 327. He is so prejudiced as to see no difference between Primitive Lutheranism and pure Deism. 2 Macaulay's remarks are well known, Essays, pp. 352, 536: "During these two hundred and fifty years Protestantism has made no conquests worth speaking of. Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Rome." So also Mr. Lecky, Hist. Rat., I. 187, who adds, "Whatever is lost by Catholicism is gained by Rationalism." The same writer, however, in another passage makes this important admission, "Protestantism as a dogmatic system makes no converts, but it has shown itself capable of blending with and consecrating the prevailing Rationalism."-1b., II. 93. Prof. Westcott very justly observes, "However imposing the apparent unity of the religious life of the middle ages may be, it cannot be questioned that socially and individually the principles of Christianity are more powerful now than then. We lose the sense of their general action in the variety of forms through which they work."-Cont. Rev., VI. 416. function. Practical limits to advancing civilization. It, at least, has no Syllabus to retract, no Decrees to disannul. Liable, indeed, to an excess of critical bias, its true mean lies in a spirit which, ever ready to give an answer of its faith, still tempers faith with charity, and enlarges to the utmost the bounds of agreement in belief; "made all things to all men," if by any means some may be saved; seeing it is "the same Spirit of God which worketh all in all." Doubtless there must arise out of the limitation of human nature itself an ultimate boundary even to Christian charity. It seems a duty to "mete the bounds of hate1 and love;" and yet As far as may be to carve out Free space for every human doubt It seems practically impossible to grasp truth, toleration the truth of sacred things, firmly and yet not jealously; to be as earnest in the propagation of right belief without asserting its confession to be individually necessary to salvation as with such a creed; to hold fast the convictions of personal assurance, and yet to recognize that to all it is not given "to arrive at the knowledge of the truth." 1 Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22: "Do not I (should I not) hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? . . . I hate them with perfect hatred." Dr. Kay in his note on this passage cites Archbishop Trench, "Hatred of evil, purely as evil, is eminently a Christian grace," and Dean Stanley (Lect. on J. Ch., p. 253), "The duty of keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burning indignation against moral evil, against selfishness, against injustice, against untruth, in ourselves as well as in others,that is as much a part of the Christian as of the Jewish dispensation." of genuine hopeful ness. Yet this weakness springs really from a want of faith. Principle Toleration, if it is not to be indifference, must be toleration. grounded on the perception of counter-views as necessarily complementary and tending to establish the ultimate mean of truth. Thus, He who came among men to found "the everlasting Gospel," may be trusted to work with it to its more perfect reception, according to the light and knowledge of the time. Only, let not "the wrath of man think "to work out the righteousness of God." Grounds of Christianity has survived revolutions of opinion, which, beforehand, might not unjustly have been deemed fatal to it. "It is I be not afraid," is the lesson eternally stamped on the changes through which it has passed, and which now, if ever, is applicable in an age saturated with the idea of continuous and universal development, "stirring all science to its very depth, and revolutionizing all historical literature.' Such a prospect, in earlier times, may be thought to have offered the only plausible defence of persecution of unbelief. But if so, it is valid no longer. It has Chrispleased God, by the teachings of experience, to power. "increase our faith." We have learned to believe in the Religion of Jesus Christ, not as an abstract creed, vulnerable in every article; not as "the law of a carnal commandment," which "decayeth and 1 Lecky, Hist. Rut., I. 283. "Filiation and development," says M. Littré, Les Barbares, p. 139, “constitute the essence of history." tianity a waxeth old;" but as a power,' regenerative of our race, subtle and continuous as the agencies of nature, "the power of an endless life." Faith is reassured; we are no longer "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ;" for it is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 1 Compare the opening reflections of Neander, Ch. Hist., I. p. 2. C. Schwarz, Gesch. der neuesten Theologie, p. 43, criticises unduly this view of Neander, who, he says, has given accordingly a history of piety, not of the Church. LECTURE V. OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED. "Naturam hominis hanc Deus esse voluit, ut duarum rerum cupidus et appetens esset, religionis et sapientiæ. Sed homines ideo falluntur, quod aut religionem suscipiunt, omissâ sapientiâ; aut sapientiæ soli student, omissâ religione; cum alterum sine altero esse non possit verum."-LACTANTIUS. "Meantime it seemed as if mankind in Europe, and especially in England and France, had now for the first time opened its eyes to Nature and to its strict conformity with law and they who yielded themselves unreservedly to this tendency more and more lost sight of the independence and existence of spirit."-DORNER, Hist. Prot. Theol., II. 258. |