Christian life and doctrine : sermons preached mostly in the chapel of Rugby School, 1831-1834

Introduction

The Sermons in this volume, although mostly preached before a peculiar congregation, will yet be found to relate to many questions of universal interest, and to contain views not adapted, in many instances, to one age more than to another. They embrace most of the great points of a Christian life ; and they will be followed, I hope, in a few weeks, by another volume, of which the particular object will be the illustration of the Scriptures ; either by explaining certain passages or portions of the Sacred Volume, or by stating some general rules of interpretation which may apply to the whole of it.

Meantime, it would be affectation were I to dissemble my knowledge that these volumes will be received in many quarters with a strong prejudice against them. I cannot regret this as far as regards the followers of a party ; to such, be the party what it may, I cannot wish to write acceptably. But for those who are not tied to any party, who love truth and goodness for their own sakes, and who are willing to think for themselves, I should greatly grieve if they were to be prevented by any prejudice from reading fairly and confidently what they will find in these volumes. Above all, let no sincere Christian be disturbed by the fear vi INTKODUCTION.

of finding any thing in them, low in principle or in feeling, any thing deserving the name of latitudinarian. He will find in them every Christian truth and every Christian virtue enforced with no qualifying or hesitating spirit. He will find no argument used which the writer did not himself believe ; no disproof of any statement suppressed which was within the writer's own knowledge. The only latitudinarianism to be met with in these Sermons, is a kind of which St. Paul has set the example. I have earnestly laboured to destroy that unchristian superstition, which, as a necessary consequence of its straining at the gnat, for ever swallows the camel. I have wished to inculcate Christian unity, the unity of the Spirit ; and therefore have condemned that craving for unity of opinion and of form by which the true unity is rendered impossible. I have endeavoured to assert the authority of law, which Fanaticism and Jacobinism are alike combining to destroy. I have upheld one standard and one authority in all moral points ; namely, the law of Grod ; and one standard and one authority in all points of form and order ; namely, the law of man : the first of these infallible and eternal ; the second fallible and changeable ; but both having an absolute claim in their respective departments to the implicit obedience of individuals.

It would also give me much concern if, because it is my fortune to oppose the stream of party opinion, I should be regarded as one who followed merely my own individual notions, ignorant or careless of the wisdom and experience of other men, whether past or present. It would be, indeed, a strong presumption against any man's understanding, if he did not venerate and listen to the wisdom

INTRODUCTION. vii of those great men whom God has raised up at different times as the intellectual lights of the world. But it has been my comfort to think, that all these, so far as I have been able to study them, have received for many years the constant tribute of my admiration ; that my mind has never been suffered to want their guidance and their instruction. And if in any principle, or in the application of any principle when the circumstances were similar, I should be found to differ from these really great authorities, it would be to me as much a matter of surprise as of regret. Unhappily these great men are not numerous, and the mass of writers on all subjects are naturally of a very different description. And although this has not happened especially in theology ; for the multitude of ordinary historians or biographers, or writers of travels, is as great in proportion as that of ordinary divines ; yet there is a reason why such writers are in theology particularly worthless. Where facts are to be communicated, a man of very moderate powers, if he happens to have had access to sources of information not generally accessible, can tell us much which it is well worth our while to read. But in interpreting the writings of others, in carrying on processes of reasoning, in discussing questions of practice, in analysing human nature, in all those matters which are the common province of the theologian, the salt that has lost its savour is not more unprofitable than the writings of a feeble or prejudiced mind. And therefore it may be perfectly consistent with a very sincere reverence for the authority of great men to attach but little respect to a large proportion of what is called Divinity.

No words have ever so well described the true excellence viii INTRODUCTION.

of a theologian as our Lord's own comparison, 'Every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a householder who bringeth out of his treasure things new and old.' Standing, as St. Paul expresses it, in the position of one who judges all things, the pre-eminent greatness of his task requires a cultivation of mind proportionally pre-eminent. His business is twofold, the interpretation of the Scriptures, and the application of them. The first is a matter of criticism and philology ; and every work that increases our knowledge of the languages in which the Scriptures were written ; that assists us to fix the age and circumstances of the authors of the several books ; or that throws light on the state of their times, in all its various divisions, is the proper study of a theologian with regard to this first part of his duty. But the second part of it, the application of the Scriptures, opens to him a still wider field. For this a complete knowledge of his own times is wanting ; and such a knowledge is impossible without a knowledge of former times also. The great events, if I may so speak, in the moral and intellectual, no less than in the political history of the human race ; the great vicissitudes of opinion, the great influences upon morals, the great social changes which have been affected by or have affected both ; — these, together with the general constitution of the human mind and character, such as it exists in all ages, are the magnificent subjects which he should study who really aspires to the name of a great theologian.

With respect to the first division of the theologian's studies, the interpretation of the Scriptures, I shall reserve what I have to say for another occasion. On the second

INTRODUCTION. ix division, the application of the Scriptures, it may not be amiss to add a few observations now.

I suppose that the Scriptures themselves are constantly studied, and that the student is careful meanwhile to keep himself in a healthy condition morally, by cultivating his religious and his charitable affections ; the first by the exercises of devotion, prayer, and meditation, and by reading works of a directly practical character : l the second by habitual intercourse with the poor. It is needless to say, that without this no merely intellectual study will be likely to bring forth its proper fruits. But suppose these points to be carefully attended to, and let us imagine a young man, after having taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts, commencing his professional studies previously to his ordination. Now in addition to his Scriptural studies which are to furnish him with his principles of teaching, and acting, he wants to learn how to apply these principles for the benefit of his own generation. He is destined to lead a life eminently active, to be thrown amongst his brethren without any more particular occupation than that of promoting their good in every way, temporal and spiritual. It is manifest, therefore, that he ought fully to understand the nature of that society which he is to endeavour to influence ; the relations of its several parts to one another ; what may have disordered those relations ; the views which the several classes entertain of each other and of themselves ; and how far these are founded on pre-

1 I mean such works as Bishop Wilson's most admirable ' Maxims,' and 'Sacra Privata,' Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying,' and many others of the same class. I should rank with them Pascal's ' Pensees,' if I did not consider it to belong also to a class of works separately noticed elswhere, ' the master works of human genius.'

INTEODUCTION.

judice or on truth. The irritation against their richer neighbours, which he will often find prevailing in the minds of the poor, renders it expedient that he should be acquainted with the elements, at least, of political economy, so as to explain to the poor the true causes of their difficulties on the one hand, and their only possible remedies on the other. The existence of religious dissent, combined as it often is with political party feelings, makes it fitting that he should well imderstand the history of his own country, in the true sense of the term. This knowledge is not to be gained by reading what is called ecclesiastical history only ; for works of this sort, even when they are not the mere statement of one sect or faction, are yet too limited in their range to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject ; but by reading ecclesiastical and civil history together, and by so endeavouring to obtain a clear knowledge of the several parties and sects in their complex character, part political and part religious, and to understand which of these two elements has predominated, and how it has acted upon the other. But the parties of English history are not original in England ; — both in religious matters and political they run up into divisions far more universal, and belong to questions which have agitated mankind since the first beginnings of political society. And here is the enduring value of the great philosophers and historians of Greece and Eome.: that with a perfect abstraction from those particular names and associations which are for ever biassing our judgment in modern and domestic instances, the great principles of all political questions, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are perfectly discussed and illustrated, with entire freedom, with most

INTRODUCTION. XI attractive eloquence, and with profoundest wisdom. By the perpetual study of Thucydides and Tacitus, of Plato and Cicero, and above all, of the ethics and politics of Aristotle, a man's mind is kept fresh and comprehensive, and he may follow up English history with the spirit of a philosopher, not the narrow-minded zeal of a partizan.

In the works of these great men, the skeleton as it were of civil society, the true form of its parts, their simplest relations to one another, and by what means those relations are disordered and preserved, may be most clearly perceived. But our society derives its immediate growth from the chaos of the middle ages, and there we must trace out the source of its peculiar evils. The main use of ecclesiastical history is thus to be obtained from studying it analytically ; from following upwards those evil currents of neglect, of uncharitableness, and of ignorance whose full streams we find now so pestilent. We thus arrive at the pretended conversion of the barbarians ; an event of immense importance, as explaining the more confirmed separation of the clergy and laity in modern times, and the incomplete influence which Christianity has exercised upon the institutions even of Christian countries. But the barbarians found the Eoman world in no healthy state : and Christianity had shared in the general corruption. Social helplessness, and intellectual frivolousness, had long characterized the state of society ; the first derivable in the eastern provinces from a period earlier than the Eoman conquest, but encouraged and heightened alike under the proconsular and imperial governments : the other to be traced to a still older date, and connected with xii INTRODUCTION.

more complicated causes : the showiness of ancient literature, calculated, owing to the dearness of books, for recitation to a number rather than for solitary reading: the unavoidable difficulties which obstructed the path of physical inquiry; — the artificial difficulties opposed under a despotic system to the prosecution of political science ; and the undue concentration of men's attention from those causes upon rhetoric and metaphysics — studies indispensable in an active state of society, when physical and social inquiries are pursued with vigour — studies which we are unwisely neglecting, whilst all our danger lies the other way, — but which are wholly unfit to be the sole or principal intellectual food of our nature ; unfit to be followed for their own sake, but most useful as a guide and strengthener of our minds for more practical and particular inquiries; ennobling when they withdraw us from the exclusive dominion of Utilitarianism, but enfeebling and paralyzing when they injure practical wisdom, and turn us from Christians and citizens into disputants about words and abstractions. These two evils then of the Eoman world, social helplessness and intellectual frivolousness, infected the Christian church from its earliest period, and have been the principal causes of the abandonment by the church of its own government, and leaving it in the hands of the clergy ; and of those fatal strifes of words, which, whatever was the proportion of error on the side of the respective disputants, were in themselves, and in the very fact of their agitation, a corruption of the simplicity of Christian faith.

But while the student is thus engaged, there is great need that he should keep his spirit and his intellect con-

INTRODUCTION. Xill tinually refreshed, by constant recourse to the great springs of truth, divine and human. It is a perilous employment for any man to be perpetually contemplating narrow-mindedness and weakness in conjunction with much of piety and goodness. It is perilous either to his understanding or his faith, according as the moral or intellectual part of his own nature may happen to be predominant. And therefore let all who study ecclesiastical history, or the mass of ecclesiastical writers, preserve a lively knowledge of the Scriptures on the one hand, and of the master works of human wisdom on the other. Both these are alike necessary : for if the Scriptures had been sufficient we should not have had Milner and other writers of that party : if the greatest works of human wisdom had been sufficient without the Scriptures, we should not have had Gibbon. Both are necessary, — I am not now speaking of moral improvement, but of the understanding's perception of truth : — the Scriptures, to remind us without ceasing that Christianity in itself is wholly free from the foolishness thrown around it by some of its professors ; the great works of human genius, to save us from viewing the Scriptures themselves through the medium of ignorance and prejudice, and lowering them by our perverse interpretations, in order to make them countenance our errors.

Some perhaps even now may object to the notion that human wisdom can enable us to interpret Grod's word. I need not quote here the various texts of Scripture which are commonly brought forward to support this objection ; and which, forced as they are from their real meaning, confirm the statement which they are supposed to confute.

xiv INTRODUCTION.

Undoubtedly no bad man, no careless liver, is likely, by the mere aids of criticism or intellectual ability, to enter into the full meaning of the Scriptures. But I have been all along supposing the case not of a bad or careless man, but of a Christian student, desirous to use every means which God has given him in order to arrive at the truth as it is in Christ. Is such an one the better or the holier for letting his understanding grow feeble for want of exercise, or is a good man's folly more likely to discover truth than his wisdom ? The great fault in the writings of that party who are supposed to attach the least value to what they call profane learning, appears to me to consist in their frequent misquotations and misinterpretations of Scripture ; they can quote detached texts, but are by no means remarkable for a comprehensive view of large portions of the Sacred Volume taken together : and with the very best intentions they interpret St. Paul no better than they would interpret Aristotle, and for the same reason : because they do not sufficiently exercise and cultivate their minds to become masters of the meaning of a profound and difficult writer.

The course of theological study which I have here suggested, and which seems to follow naturally from the two divisions of a Christian minister's business, the interpretation and application of the Scriptures, would, I am sure, amply repay any individual who would resolve to make trial of it. It seems to me exactly to answer to the office of the Christian minister. For as a minister should be a more perfect specimen of the Christian character, so the course of study here recommended is only a more perfect Christian education ; carrying on to a greater

INTKODUCTION. XV proficiency that knowledge which in a lower degree is essential to every Christian, the knowledge of the Scriptures, and of the common duties and relations of life. It is an education indeed which no man will ever exhaust ; but as the very lowest elements of it are valuable, so in proportion as we advance in it, shall we find ourselves wiser both theoretically and practically ; the play of our minds will be freer and more active, their grasp stronger and more comprehensive, their thoughts more lively and beautiful, their knowledge fuller, their judgment more accurate.

Nor let it be said that it is out of the reach of an ordinary student ; as requiring too much time and labour. Let those who say so look at the lists of books that are actually recommended from authority to young men preparing themselves for orders. And these lists being mostly confined to what is called Divinity, suppose that a man will provide himself over and above with that common knowledge which the state of the times and the ordinary demands of society render necessary. But I would have him regard this common knowledge as one great branch of his professional studies ; for such the comprehensive character of his profession justly makes it. I would have him turn to a definite account knowledge which he now picks up carelessly, and often leaves undigested ; I would have him master of those subjects upon which all not only talk but act, and on which it is to be desired that some at least should be able to talk and act sensibly. I would have him never lay aside the greatest works of human genius, of whatever age or country ; they are not so numerous as to overwhelm him ; and whatever xvi INTRODUCTION.

be his particular studies, some of these, whether philosophers, poets, or historians, should be always on his table, and daily in his hand, till his mind, catching a portion of their excellence, is able to work with tenfold power upon whatever subjects he may submit to it. And if for these great instructors, he be content to leave unopen many of the volumes which are now thought so essential to theological learning, let him not be afraid of the results of his exchange. Always supposing as a foundation a constant, critical, and devout study of the Scriptures themselves, and the use of those philological and antiquarian works which are essential, and alone essential, to the understanding of them; he will find that in the comparison of human works, both spiritually and intellectually, the works of the greatest minds will be most useful to him ; that he may well be content to be ignorant even of Bull and Pearson, if he is thus enabled to become more intimately familiar with Bacon and Aristotle.

There is however one branch of study which deserves especially to be recommended, as not only forming a most valuable part of Church history, but as amounting almost to a devotional exercise at the same time ; I mean the biography of good Christians of all ages ; l and above all,

1 Would it not be possible and desirable to make more use than Protestants have commonly done of the ancient Christian biographies, known by the name of the Lives of the Saints ? I profess to know only a few specimens of these ; but it could not be difficult, I should imagine, to select a sufficient number, wholly unexceptionable, and which would unite the interest of tales of heroic action and suffering with sound Christian edification. I should not object to retaining the miracles in these narratives, providing there was nothing grotesque or profane in them ; for it might be stated in the preface that they were rather stories with a foundation in fact, than perfectly true in all their details. But they would, at any rate, show the feelings of the

INTRODUCTION. XVll whenever it is to be obtained, their own expression of their

spiritual wants and affections and the record of their

deaths. It is not desirable to think that error is truth, or

foolishness wisdom, because a good man has uttered it.

But it is even less desirable that our sense of his errors or

foolishness should destroy our sympathy with his goodness.

The pursuit of ecclesiastical history will necessarily show

us too much of the quarrels and infirmities of Christians ;

it is most wholesome to turn to a picture which will

display their union and their strength. And in those

portions of good men's lives which exhibit them in their

direct relations towards Grod, opening their hearts before

Him convinced of their own sin and of His mercy in Christ,

showing the true marks of Christ's servants, a quick and

tender conscience, and an entire trust in Grod, — we see in

all ages, and in all countries, the true unity of Christ's

Spirit, the true agreement of Christ's people. Or again,

if in the lives and writings of Christians we have found too

many marks of human weakness, marks which show that

they still are surrounded with this world's infirmities ; yet

how delightful is it to watch them in their deaths, when

being delivered from their several temptations, their lamps

are seen to burn with the same heavenly brilliance, inastimes in which they were written ; and they would help to fill up that wide chasm in our Christian sympathies which extends with many almost from the apostles to Luther ; with no objects of interest in this long interval, except the churches of the Vaudois, and a few individuals who may have denounced the abuses of Popery. Whereas hundreds of good men are recorded in the Lives of the Saints, who well deserve, like Boromeo and Pascal at a later period, to be ranked with the truest members of our Christian brotherhood ; and in whose sufferings a id active holiness we might find a support and example for ourselves.

vol. in. a xviii INTRODUCTION.

much as all are fed by the same oil. There the weak mind has parted with its weakness, the angry with its over- vehemence ; there the narrow-minded learns the largeness cf God's love, and the understanding which, perhaps, had felt too keen a consciousness of its power, is softened by the overwhelming sense of God's perfections now more clearly discerned. So in all Christ is glorified, and we can perceive even here the beginnings of that perfect communion, in which all shades of difference being melted away, Christ's servants will be one for ever in Him and in the Father.

These remarks have run out to a greater length than I had intended, yet I cannot think them unseasonable. That theological education in England is in an imperfect state at present is generally allowed, and various plans have been suggested for its improvement. But the evil appears to me to be too deeply seated to be removed by a more effective execution merely of the present system ; the system itself is faulty, leaving out much that is essential, requiring much that is needless. Far too little attention has been paid to the complete interpretation of the Scriptures on the one hand, and to the studies required for the actual application of them on the other ; far too much stress has been laid upon an acquaintance with the works of theologians who have written on points of controversy between Christians and Christians, or who have laboured to erect systems of dogmatical divinity. It is not enough considered that the great matter of Christianity, the way of saving souls, must be learnt from the Scriptures alone ; and that by getting at a full understanding of them we are getting at the only means of

INTRODUCTION. xix discovering Christian truth. Now if, after we have employed our utmost pains on the right understanding of the Scripture, there remain any doctrines fairly disputabtej any practices the advocates or opponents of which equally can appeal to Scripture as justifying or condemning them, — then we may be sure that those doctrines and practices are really unessential and indifferent, and that every man must be content with holding his own opinion about them, in perfect tolerance of the opposite opinion entertained by his neighbour.

If this be not so, and if the sense of the Scriptures as to any inportant point may fairly be doubted by honest and sensible men, it seems to me no better than a mockery to call them the rule of faith ; and it is imputing an obscurity to (rod's revelation, such as attaches to the works of no philosopher, and no human legislator; for where is the philosopher whose main principles are not to be clearly made out by his own disciples ? where is the law whose main enactments are differently interpreted by those who honestly study them ? But men in their zeal for their own articles of faith, have insisted on their necessity in the first place ; and then, if these cannot be proved beyond dispute from Scripture, they call in tradition or the voice of antiquity to assist in establishing their truth. This is done by the Eoman Catholics boldly and consistently; by Protestants it is insinuated awkwardly, and in contradiction to their own great distinguishing tenet, that Scripture is the only authority in matters of revelation. Whereas the true way of reasoning reverses this order ; it assumes nothing beforehand as to the necessity of this or that doctrine, but examines

a 2

XX INTRODUCTION.

carefully the view of Christianity which God Himself has given. What it finds prominently enforced in this, it considers as essential ; what it finds clearly stated in it, it regards as certain ; but what is noticed indirectly, or not so clearly as to prevent fair differences of interpretation, it regards as unessential and undetermined, as a means of trying men's love of truth, together with their charity ; their love of truth, in endeavouring to arrive at a probable conclusion for themselves as to the mind of the Spirit ; their charity, in not presuming to force their own conclusions on others, nor condemning them for concluding differently.

I leave it to those who think that by following this method we should sacrifice any essential point of Christian faith, to consider whether their faith stands upon the authority of Grod or of men. But for myself, I am fully convinced that a representation of Christianity, drawn solely from a faithful and sensible interpretation of the Scriptures, would abundantly justify the wisdom of God ; and while it put aside the presumption of much of our actual theology, would set forth Christ crucified with power, and would lead Christ's people to a more perfect holding of the truth in love.

Rugby : November, 1834.

Contents

SEEMON I.

CHRIST OUR FRIEND.

PAGE