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the Church," and its introductory dedication to Archdeacon Manning, (who had advocated the opposite view,) and in the notes on this sermon and dedication, which will be found (both sermon and notes) in the two volumes of the "Mission of the Comforter." The same view is also maintained in his "Contest with Rome." While, however, on this point, and on the associated questions of the sacraments and the priesthood, differing from the Romeward section of the Anglican Church, the Broad Church agrees with the High Church of all grades, from the Bishop of Exeter and Dr. Pusey downward, in desiring to see Convocation revived, and the Church enabled to take independent action. On this point Hare long anticipated the recent movement, and he continued steadfastly to advocate the same view. Only it was his desire-as it is that of every Broad Churchman-to see the laity conjoined with the clergy in Convocation, and the clergy themselves much more fairly and adequately represented than according to the actual model. The evangelical section of the English clergy generally differ both from the High Church and the Broad Church, in regard to this question, deprecating the restoration of the Convocation to functional life. The reason of this is, that while, on the one hand, they lack breadth and boldness of view, such as would lead them to contend for a remodelled Convocation adequately representative of both the laity and the great body of the clergy; on the other hand, they feel a shrewd fear and strong foreboding lest, as the Convocation is actually constituted, the learning, eloquence, and general ability of the predominating High-Church element should prove utterly destructive to the prospects of evangelical religion in the Church of England.

Hare's twenty years of life, after his settlement at Herstmonceux, were years of quiet retirement, but yet of great mental activity. His attention was wakefully alive to all the important questions of the day, affecting the religion and social condition of the nation, and especially the interests of the Church of England. He evidently felt it to be his particular duty to do battle against the progress of Tractarianism and of Romanizing errors. While a recluse student at Cambridge, and conversant with the great Popish writers more than with Popery itself, he showed that indulgence to Popery which is shown by so many scholars. He understood its heresies and rightly estimated its usurpations; but he admired the glory and power of its earlier history; he sympathized, to a certain extent, with its love of ritual beauty and splendour; and could not be insensible to the musical power and pomp of its services. Indeed, to admire music and painting, sculpture and architecture was (liter

ally) a part of Hare's religion, as it was a part of his creed, a favourite tenet of his "broad" churchism, that music, painting, and all the arts not only may, but should, be made tributary to religion. To cultivate his taste was a dictate of his piety. And with what a keen and exquisite relish he had studied the works of the masters of art of all schools, but especially of those Italian masters whose genius was employed upon sacred subjects, will be remembered by all who have read the "Guesses at Truth." It is no wonder, then, that his æsthetical tastes, as well as his catholic sympathies as to all things human and humanizing, should have disposed him to regard with as much leniency as was possible in a good Protestant, the errors and sins of the Church of Rome, more particularly in the ages preceding the Reformation. For like reasons, he would be disposed to regard with indulgence the earlier movements of the Oxford High-Church party. But he never seems to have vacillated in his principles on these subjects. His acquaintance with medieval and modern history, his love of liberty and abhorrence of despotism, his independent spirit of investigation, which led him as strongly to require, as he freely conceded, the right of private judgment, and his profound admiration of the character of the German and English reformers, especially of Luther, all these things constituted for him a seven-fold shield against the influence of Romish principles and Romeward tendencies. His visit to Rome in 1833, of the effect of which upon his mind he speaks in his later editions of the "Guesses at Truth, First Series," seems to have added depth and vividness to his convictions of the essential evil and necessary curse of Romanism; and it may be justly affirmed, that during the last fifteen years of his life Hare was the most independent, fearless, effective, and in every way accomplished opponent of Tractarian sophistry and bigotry, and of Roman audacity and assumption, to be found in the ranks of the English clergy. His "Mission of the Comforter," and his "Contest with Rome," are mainly controversial. He was cut off in the midst of this work; his last charge, delivered not long before his death, having been a powerful and energetic admonition, suited to the needs of his Church. What his feelings were with reference to this work, and how his aspect toward Romanism had become changed in the course of years, is partly indicated in his Guesses at Truth, First Series, pp. 230-237, pp. 28-30, and pp. 51, 52.

Mr. Elliott, in his funeral sermon on Archdeacon Hare, justly says, in reference to his archidiaconal charges:

"In them, very conspicuous, was the genuine and outspoken love of what he held to be truth and righteousness, accompanied by a largeness of heart in seeking and discerning all the good that could be found in all. Some of us

were of opinion that his generosity of praise precluded him from the equal discernment of evil; and that his love of peace, which had its roots in his heart, attempted unions which too great difference of principles rendered impossible."

This is a feature of his character which must be borne in mind in estimating his conduct; and it may assist us to understand his grief and surprise at the ultimate secession of Archdeacon Manning, (which yet was in itself the natural termination of his previous course,) his unqualified praise of Maurice, and his undiscriminating veneration for Coleridge, in whom he seems only to have regarded the goodness and wisdom which were apparent, and to some extent predominant, in his writings, without caring to notice the error and evil which were sometimes intermingled, and oftener still, thickly set in tangled depths behind or underneath, in the shape of notes, appendices, &c. Acute as Hare was, and energetically as he opposed what he regarded as pernicious and threatening error or heresy, he had no delight in hunting for error through abstrusities of thought and language, or in beating the bush of mysticism to drive it into open day; and sometimes, like John Wesley, he suffered his charity to blindfold his acuteness.

Hare had, for some years before his death, been subject to a very painful internal disease. Its returns had latterly become increasingly frequent and severe, and one of these carried him off on the 23d of January, 1855, at Herstmonceux. He died in the faith and consolation of the Gospel. His last clear words were remarkable. In answer to the question how he would be moved, he said, in a voice more distinct and strong than he had reached for several past days, with his eyes raised toward heaven, and a look of indescribable brightness, "Upwards! Upwards!" His age was fifty-nine. We have already, in the foregoing sketch, afforded our reader the means of forming some estimate of the position, character, and accomplishments of Archdeacon Hare, whom, so long as he lived, the public rightly regarded as the principal and ablest representative of the loose and somewhat nebulous party known as the Broad Church. We should very insufficiently perform our task, however, if we did not add some more specific remarks upon his character and qualifications as philosopher, critic, controversialist, and religious teacher.

We begin with Hare's philosophy, for philosophy should lie at the basis of criticism, and the truths which it is in search of, or which it professes to have found, are, for the most part, such as religion rather assumes than expressly reveals, although consistency with the plain teachings and implications of Divine revelation is the highest test, so far as it can be applied, of the correctness of

philosophical conclusions. We have already seen how emphatically Hare acknowledges his obligations to the teaching and influence of Coleridge. Such acknowledgments are very thickly scattered over his writings. Indeed, he quotes Coleridge expressly, and in a way of full and exact citation, not only more frequently than any other uninspired writer, but in his notes to the "Mission of the Comforter," more frequently than the Scriptures themselves, and he yields to him an authority and reverence, after the sacred writers, only inferior, if inferior, to that which he pays to Luther. From this, and from Hare's eulogies of his brother-in-law, Maurice, it has been very naturally inferred by many, that Hare had fully embraced Coleridge's peculiar philosophical and metaphysical views. Hence, not only by the writers in the "English Review," but by others, he has been involved along with Coleridge, Maurice, Sterling, Francis Newman, and even Blanco White, in one common sentence of undiscriminating condemnation. There can be no doubt that the philosophy of Coleridge and of Maurice has shaped their theology, and been at the root of their religious heresies. Hence it would be very natural to expect, that if Hare agreed with them in philosophy, he would at any rate approximate toward them in his theological views. If, therefore, justice is to be done to him, it is a vital inquiry to what extent his philosophical views coincided with those of Coleridge. It is true, indeed, that what is expressly philosophical does not take up much of Hare's writings; but the inquiry may not be the less vital and important on that account. It is plain that he had a settled philosophy, and that his philosophy imbued his criticism, and gave a hue and tone to his theology. Nor can his relation to Coleridge and to English theology be understood, or a complete view of his character and genius be gained, unless this inquiry be determined.

Hare calls himself one of Coleridge's "pupils;" yet we doubt if he was one of his disciples. It is probable that Coleridge had not finally settled his philosophico-theological views until Hare had for some time been an independent student of German literature and philosophy. It is certain that the "Aids to Reflection" were not published until Hare's principles were determined, and his position as a thinker and scholar fixed. In 1816, Coleridge, shattered in body, all but wrecked in mind, and palsied in moral power through his terrible vice of opium-eating, found refuge and guardianship under the vigilant, though tender and reverent care of the Gillmans, at Highgate. Hare was then a man of established reputation at Cambridge. We gather from the "Guesses at Truth," and the "Notes to the Mission of the Comforter," that Hare, in middle age, had been for many years familiarly acquainted with the philosophical

writings of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling, and that he had. exercised upon them his independent powers of criticism. Probably he had a much more extensive and profound acquaintance for many years of his life, with not only German theology, but German philosophy, than Coleridge ever had.* It is scarcely to be supposed, therefore, that in the maturity of his own powers and learning, he would adopt at second hand from Coleridge that philosopher's rendering and adaptation of Kant's philosophy of Pure Reason and Schelling's Dynamic Philosophy.

What was the amount of Hare's personal intercourse with Coleridge, or when it commenced, we know not; but it is not difficult to understand the general reason which led him to hail with gratitude Coleridge's appearance and influence as a moral teacher and philosophical reformer. Let it be remembered that, during the latter part of the last century, and the early years of the present, the received philosophy in England was sensationalism in intelligence and thought, and utilitarianism in morals; and that the received theology contented itself with dealing forth, when didactic, the dry husks of a powerless moralism, and when argumentative, with insisting upon the external evidences of Christianity. Grotius and Paley (whose Moral Philosophy was a text-book at Cambridge) were the oracles on the subject of the Christian evidences. The sermons of Blair were the favourite model of preaching. True, even then there were such men as Venn, Simeon, Newton, and Scott in the pulpits of the Establishment, but these were stigmatized as enthusiasts and Methodists. There was, indeed, also the learning, logic, orthodoxy, and eloquence of Horsley. But his eloquence was academic, not popular; his orthodoxy was wholly wanting in evangelical feeling and fervour; his preaching utterly lacked the spirit of holiness and love. It was a heartless, pithless, powerless, Christless age. Arianism and Unitarianism, always found alongside of sensationalism and materialism, had crept like a fog-blight over half the face of British Christianity. From such a condition of things, and from all its causes and accessories, the spirit of such men as Hare revolted. We can scarcely wonder that they were ready to fly for refuge from Condillac and Priestley to Kant; from the cold, aguey flat of British thought and feeling to the transcendental heights of

Writing in February, 1849, Hare says, in his "letter to the editor of the English Review," "That there is such a thing as German faith, that there are precious masses of German thought, I know, from an experience of more than thirty years, for which I shall ever be thankful." It follows from this that his direct and independent acquaintance with German philosophy and theology must have commenced at least as early as 1818.

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