Bases of belief, an examination of Christianity as a divine revelation by the light of recognised facts and principles

Front matter

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BASES OF BELIEF.

NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION.

Preface To The Third Edition

THE following treatise was first published in 1853, and was received with greater favour than the Author had ven tured to anticipate. Two library editions having been all but exhausted, a third and cheaper edition is now offered to the public. This step has been taken in consequence, chiefly, of the appearance of the Essays and Revieivs. It is believed that the main drift of those i^>w cele brated productions is turned aside by the argument maintained in this volume—at any rate, it was originally written with an express view to fortify the reader against speculations, criticisms, and reasonings similar in almost every respect to those put forth in that work. In truth, the Author recognised in them old acquaintances. Not withstanding their more friendly air, their more reverent bearing, and their substitution of a thoroughly English for a foreign dress, it was impossible to mistake their identity. It would seem that after having been exposed and dis credited elsewhere, they have at length found an asylum in the bosom of Oxford University— nor, perhaps, is it matter of wonder that inquiring and honest minds, wearied and offended by the exacting demands made upon them by vi PEEFACE TO THE THIED EDITION.

High Church authority, should be predisposed to welcome the advent of rationalistic freedom. Whether the eminent men who have had the courage to set the example of shaking hands with this popularly-reputed foe to Chris tianity really imagined that they were giving it a first introduction to the British public, it would be presumptuous to offer an opinion — but it may be confidently stated that the results which dogmatic philosophy and critical analysis have put before us afresh in the Essays and Reviews, were already as familiar to speculative readers in this country as Hume's Essay on Miracles used to be about the beginning of the century.

There is no necessity, however, for supposing that these Church of England divines had in view any such purpose as that which undoubtedly animated the school to which the world is indebted for modern rationalistic theology. Whatever may be the tendency of their writings, nothing but an entire absence of charity can attribute to the writers a conscious design of undermining the basis of Divine Kevelation, and destroying the very system of truth which it is their special duty to preach and to teach. Great latitude ought to be allowed to the intellectual conclusions of specu lative minds as to what constitutes the authority which should govern the Reason in determining what has and what has not come to us as a Revelation from God — and it is much to be regretted that men, earnestly professing that they accept Christianity as a spiritual showing forth of the Divine character and will, should be set down as unbelievers because they repudiate the customary process by which the great majority of their fellows reach the same end. It is surely more just to infer that, in the ardour of an intellec-

tual pursuit, sudi persons have allowed themselves to be borne ;i\v;iv beyond the limits which logically bound their own professions — and that subsequent reflection will con vince them that they cannot go so far as they have done on the road on which they have set out, without being com pelled to go much farther. It is hardly wise, it cannot be kind, to set up a shout of execration, the only effect of which must be to prevent their retracing their steps to less dangerous paths, and to drive them farther and farther from the conclusions from which we could have wished they had never departed.

But whilst the utmost tenderness and charity are due to the writers who have unitedly set forth their speculations in the Essays and Revieivs, none whatever can be claimed for the speculations themselves. Their manifest tendency, if not their avowed design, is to eliminate supernaturalism from the Christian faith. It is evident that a historical revelation based on miracles is assumed to be unworthy of God to give, because unfit for man to receive. And this is assumed as a sort of axiom — as a self-demonstrative pro position. At least, no proof of it is attempted. But itseems to underlie the whole collection of these far-famed papers. It constitutes the rampart upon which the ar tillery of Biblical criticism is mounted. Let this assumption be shown to be unreasonable, and the entire machinery of assault which rests upon it becomes harmless.

That the assumption is unreasonable it is the main object of the following pages to show. How far that object has been attained it is for others to judge. But so far as success has been reached in this respect, so far it supplies an antidote to the erroneous teaching of the Essays and Reviews.

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Possibly, it does more — for it points out that there is a sphere within which criticism may freely range without loosening the foundations upon which the faith of so large a portion of mankind is based. Let us once for all get rid of the dogma which tyrannises over Reason — namely, that no historical miraculous revelation is worthy of credit — and we may then find a fitting office and suitable functions for honest and fearless Biblical criticism. Much that is given to the world in these Essays and Revie^vs will still remain — but with this difference, that it will remain to enlarge and purify men's notions of Revelation, instead of, as now to eat into its very substance.

The Author is satisfied that very much of the danger to which Christianity seems to be exposed from the most searching criticism, arises from the prevailing habit of con founding God's Revelation to man by Christ Jesus, with the Record of it which is contained in the Holy Scriptures- Men have gradually come to identify faith in the plenary inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testa ments with faith in Him who declared that " he who has seen ME hath seen the Father/' They are more anxious to save the casket than the Pearl of great price which it en closes. The consequence is, that they place the evidence in support of Christianity, as a revelation of God, in a position of serious disadvantage. That Jesus Christ was the Anointed of God — that his mission was to show unto men the Father — and that it was inaugurated, recognised, and authenticated as divine, by " signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost," constitute a position capable of being sustained by consistent and overwhelming proof. But such proof is wholly independent of any

VTIEF.VCE TO THE THIRD EDITION. IX

theories we may see reason to maintain as to the kind or degree of inspiration necessary to put men into possession of a true account of that mission, and to give them an accurate and sufficient interpretation of its spiritual signi ficance. The writer, in the progress of his argument, has kept this fundamental distinction constantly before him, and, he presumes to think, with advantage to both questions. He has thereby, as it appears to him, gained a surer basis for faith, while he leaves to legitimate criticism as wide a sphere as reason can demand for it. His justification for doing so, such as it is, will be found in Part IV., of his treatise, under the general title of " The Record."

And now, having strongly repudiated what he under stands to be the main purport of the Essays and Reviews, which, indeed, it was ana is the object of the following pages to frustrate, the Author desires to express his belief that these productions, viewed apart from what is generally taken to be their principal design, lay before the Christian world many thoughts worthy of its calm consideration. Failing, as it is to be earnestly hoped they may fail, of their primary object, they are not ill-adapted to sub serve some useful ends. They teach us some lessons needing to be learned. They smite down some idols un worthy of the homage we have paid them. And, above all, they warn us of the necessity of seeking for our faith a broad and deep foundation in admitted facts and universally recognised principles, rather than in traditional and conventional theories which shrink from the rough handling of rigid investigation. In these, and in some other respects, they may yet do some service — though whether such service, rendered in its present shape

X PBEFACE TO THE THIKD EDITION".

comes appropriately from Professors and Divines of the Church of England, may admit of question.

While these sheets have been passing through the press, a formal and authoritative condemnation of the Essays and Reviews, signed by the whole bench of Bishops, has been promulgated. What may be its effect, beyond that of vastly increasing the number of the readers of that volume, remains to be seen. It will be found, perhaps, that speculative rationalism is not likely, in the present age of the world, to succumb to Church authority. It is, no doubt, encouraging to be assured that the spirit of scepticism which pervades the condemned volume has not yet taken possession of the minds of those who occupy the highest places in the National Church — but it will be very much more so, to be furnished with evidence that these Right Reverend Fathers in God have power of intellect competent to cast out the spirit which they unanimously denounce. In other words, what is wanted is, not an autho ritative condemnation of the book, but a refutation of its errors. This would be a peculiarly appropriate service for the fathers and guides of the Church of England to render to their spiritual children. Some of them, perhaps, are already engaged in the preparation of such a work — in which case, the writer of this volume craves pardon for his pre sumption in seeming to forestall them by asking public attention to the argument maintained in the present volume. He is not chargeable with the vanity of imagining that his treatise will supersede the necessity of a more specific and detailed reply to the criticisms and reasonings of the Essays and Reviews ; but, pending the appearance of such a reply, he believes that a calm and searching

PREFACE TO THE TllIBD EDITION. XI

examination of the philosophy which constitutes the basis of rationalistic theology will not be without its use in the present controversy. It may prevent many minds from being hurried into premature conclusions. It may con vince them that Reason is not necessarily at war with Faith. It may dispose them to wait with some confidence for that fuller light which Episcopal erudition may well be expected to throw upon the question.

Such, at any rate, has been the effect upon the Author's own mind of the line of argument pursued in this volume. He dares not pretend that it has solved every doubt raised by the writers of the Essays and Reviews. But it has, at least, prevented any such doubts from unsettling the bases of his belief in Divine Revelation. The vary ing fortunes, therefore, of Biblical critics in their contests over the text of Scripture, although deeply interesting to him, never shake his convictions. He can await the issue, whatever it may be, without any perturbation of spirit. The facts and principles upon which his faith in Chris tianity rests, lie too deep to be destroyed by mere scratchings upon the surface. He wishes that this may be the case with others. He thinks that a thoughtful perusal of this volume will tend to make it so. And in this hope, which he prays God, by the aid of his good Spirit, to fulfil, he sends forth this Third Edition of his work, originally prepared to meet precisely the same kind of reasoning which pervades the pages of the Essays and Reviews.

Preface To The First Edition

IN reading or listening to the objections to Christianity which rest upon purely intellectual grounds, there are probably thousands who, whilst unable to furnish a satis factory reply, have felt the answer and have kept their faith. So, at least, it has been with the Author. It has long appeared to him that belief in the gospel rests ultimately upon deeper, surer, more incontestable prin ciples than will admit of being hacked to pieces by the utmost force of speculative or critical investigation. The present volume is the result of an effort to reduce that into palpable shape which heretofore has been held in solution by most reflective minds — to make visible what very many have felt to be present in them, but still without having assumed any definite form. If he has been successful in this attempt, then the argument which he has elaborated will seem so obvious that every reader will fancy himself familiar with it, and the Writer will have done nothing more than merely put into words, and arrange in logical order, thoughts which all intelligent believers in the Christian revelation will instantly recog nise as their own. And this, indeed, has been the sole object of his ambition — to express what is in the mind of nearly every one, but what, until now, has been left uncx-

XIV PEEFACE.

pressed — so that when once enunciated, the propositions, so far from assuming an appearance of novelty, should rather elicit some such response as this, at least from men not yet wholly surrendered to disbelief, " Just so ! that is what I always felt, although I have not been able to give distinct utterance to it ! "

This is- not, in any sense, a book of Evidences in support of Christianity, but a book on Evidences in relation to the question. The object has been to make out that the proof tendered on behalf of the gospel is of a kind which true philosophy is bound to accept. Of late, there has been a manifest disposition to pooh-pooh the labours of former champions of the faith, as if they were utterly beside the mark, now that the human mind has made such wonderful advances in its mode of examining this and similar sub jects. Certainly, the tone assumed by modern sceptics has not been that of self- diffidence — and, perhaps, it will be seen that they who are the most forward to take liberties with the name of philosophy, have been least careful to exemplify its spirit. But be this as it may, the Author has appealed from speculative dogmatism, to undeniable facts and universally recognised principles, with a view to establish some Rules of Court, in accordance with which credible testimony should be heard. If he is right, the greater proportion of the evidences which have been arbitrarily rejected, of late, as impertinent, are restored to their former credit — and the conclusion at which we arrive is this, that former lines of argument had become obsolete merely because unsound criteria of judgment had been adopted.

Nor is the present volume to be regarded by any as an

1'IIEFA.CE. XV

exposition of Christian doctrine. The main positions taken up by the Writer, and the phraseology employed, have been chosen with reference to this controversy. They represent so much truth as the argument seemed to call or, and no more. But it does not follow that he holds no more. He is not in the habit of concealing his conclusions — nor, where occasion does not call for it, of obtruding his professions. Perhaps, should life, health, and leisure be granted him, he may hereafter, at some time or o ther, sub mit to such as may be interested in the subject, what he has been accustomed to regard as the rationale of Christian truths — the philosophy of the New Testament doctrines- But this formed no part of his present purpose — and he would not destroy the simplicity of his argument, only to save himself from uncharitable suspicions.

Most of the works in our own language, which take the sceptical side of this controversy, the Author has diligently read — many also on his own side. But having collected his materials, and sketched out his plan, he abstained from looking at publications which have since appeared in defence of Christianity, lest, perchance, he might be diverted from his own line. He knows not, therefore, how far he may have been anticipated by The Eclipse of Faith, or by Dr. Wardlaw on Miracles. The first part of the Restoration of Belief he read with great pleasure, and found in it seme coincidence of thought with his own. But, on the whole, he has reason to suppose that the gist of his reasoning is peculiar to the present work, and that he has not incurred much peril of being charged with plagiarism.

If this book shall avail to point out to our intelligent

XVI PREFACE.

and free- thinking youth, of either sex, such Bases of Belief as may serve to underlie a genuine sympathy for Christ's gospel, and secure their minds from doubts, perplexity, and distress, the Writer's principal object will be answered. He can scarcely hope for more

Sydenham Park, January 26, 1853.

Contents

PAST I.

THE PHENOMENON.

PAGE