Nature and the supernatural, as together constituting the one system of God.

Front matter

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Chapter I. Dttkoductory — Question Statew

Mankind naturally predisposod to believe in supernatural facte, 1. Neologists spring up, whom the Greeks called Sophists, 2. The Romans had their Sophists also, 2. And now the turn of Christianity is come, 3. The Naturalism of our day reduces Christianity to a myth, in the same way, 3. This issue is precipitated by modem science, 5. "With tokens, on all sides, adverse to Christianity, 7. First, we have the Atheistic school of Mr Hume, 7. Next, Pantheism, 8. Next, the Physicalists, represented by Phrenology, 8. The naturalistic characters of Unitarianism, 9. The Associationists, 9. The Magnetic necromancy, 9. The classes mostly occupied with the material laws and forces, 10. Modern politics, 10. The popular literature, 12. Evangelical teachers fall into naturalism without being aware of it, 12. But we undertake no issue with science, 13. Our object is to find a legitimate place for the supernatural, as included in the system of God, 14. Ani this, with an. ultimate reference to the authentication of the gospel history, 15.

Chapter II. 10efinitions — Nature And The Supernatural

Naicm defined, 18. The supernatural denned, 19. Do not design to lirjit 1 1 deny the propriety of other uses, 20. Definition makes us supernatural beings ourselves, 23. Our supernatural action illustrated, 24. We operate supernaturally, by making new conjunctions of causes, 24. Not acted on ourselves, by causes that are efficient through us, 25. Not scale-beams, in our will, as governed necessarily by the strongest motive, 26. In wrong, we consciously follow the weakest motive, 27. The other functions of the soul, exterior to the will, are a nature, 29. Atlantic Monthly on executive limitations of power 30. And yet we are eons* ious, none the less, of liberty, 31. Self-determination indestructible, 32. Hence the honour we put on heroes and • martyrs, 33. If we act supernaturally, why not also God ? 34. Not enough that God acts in the causes of nature, 35.

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VI CONTENTS.

Chapter III

NATURE IS NOT THE SYSTEM OF GOD — THINGS AND POWERS, HOW RELATED.

Nature oppresses our mind, at first, by her magnitudes, 38. Men, after all, demand something supernatural, 39. Hence the appetite we discover for the demonstrations of necromancy, 40. Shelley, the atheist, makes a mythology, 40. The defect of our new literature, that it has and yields no inspiration, 41. The agreement of so many modes of naturalism signifies nothing, because they have no agreement among themselves, 43. Familiarized to the subordination of causes in nature, that we may not be disturbed by the same fact in religion, 44. Strauss takes note of this fact when denying the possibility of miracles, 45. Geology shows tb at God thus subordinates nature, on a large scale, 47. In the creation of so many new races in place of the extinct races, 47. He created their germs, 48. But man must have been created in maturity, 49. The development theory inverts all the laws of organic and inorganic substance, 50. The aspect of nature indicates interruptive and clashing forces, that are not in the merely mineral causes, 51. Distinction of Things and Powers, 53. Both fully contrasted, 54. Nature not the universe, 54. A subordinate part or member of the great universal system, 54. The principal interest and significance of the universe is in the powers, 56-

Chapter IV. Problem Of Existence As Related To The Fact Of Evil

?he world of nature, a tool-house for the practice and moral training of powers, 57. Their training, a training of consent, which supposes a power of non-consent, i.e., sin, 58. Possibility of evil necessarily involved, 58. No limitation of omnipotence, 59. "Why, then, does God create with such a possibility ? 60. May be God's plan to establish in holiness, in despite of wrong, 61. No breach of unity involved in His plan, 62. The real problem of existence is character or the perfection of liberty, 62. Which require a trial in society, 63. And this an embodiment in matter, 64. Will the powers break loose from God, as they may? 66. God desires no such result, 66. When it comes, no surprise upon His plan, or annihilation of it, 67. Illustrated by the founding of a school, 67. No causes of sin, only conditions privative, 69. What is meant by the term, 69. First condition privative — defect of knowledge, 71. Have all categorical but no experimental knowledge, 72. The subject guilty, as having the former without the latter, 74. Second condition privative — unacquainted with law, and therefore unqualified for liberty, 76. A kind of prior necessity, therefore, that he be passed through a twofold economy, 76. Discover this twofold economy in other matters, 78. A third condition privative, as regards social exposure to the irruptions of bad powers, 80. This fact admitted by the necromancers, 81. Sin then cannot be accounted for, 84. No validity in the objection, that God has been able to educate angels without sin, 84. Proof-text in Jude explained by Faber, 85. No objection lies that sin is made a necessary means of good, 87. The existence of Satan explained or conceived, 88. The supremacy of God not diminished but increased by an eternal purpose to reduce the bad possibility, 91.

CONTENTS. \Ttl

Chapter V. The Fact Of Sin

All naturalism begins with some professed or tacitly assumed denial of the fact of sin, 93. On this point Mr Parker is ambiguous, 94. Fourier charges all evil against society, 96. Dr Strauss, all against the individual, and none against society, 97. The popular, pantheistic literature denies the fact of sin, 97. Appeal to observation for evidence, 99. We blame ourselves, as wrong-doers, 100. Our demonstrations show us to be exercised by the consciousness of sin, 102. We act on the supposition that sin is ever to be expected, dreaded, provided against, 103. Forgiveness supposes the fact, 106. So the pleasure we take in satire, 106. So the feeling of sublimity in the tragic sentiment, 107. Solutions offered by naturalists insufficient and futile, 108. They call it " misdirection," but it is self-direction, therefore sin, 108.

Chapter VI. The Consequences Of Sin

Sin has two forces, a spiritual and a dynamic, 110. By the latter, as a power of disturbance among causes, it raises storms of retribution against itself, 111. It also makes new conjunctions of causes that are destructive and disorderly, 113. So that nature answers to it with groans, 114. Thus it is with all the four great departments of life, and first, with the soul, or with souls, 115. No law or function is discontinued, but all its functions are become irregular and discordant, 116. Similar effects in the body, or in bodies, 116. Hence disease, and, to some extent, certainly mortality itself, 118. Society is disordered by inheritance, through the principle of organic unity involved in propagation, 119. Objection considered, that God, in this way, does not give us a fair opportunity, 120. Two modes of production possible ; by propagation, and by the direct creation of each man, 120. The mode by propagation, with all its disadvantages of hereditary corruption, shown to be greatly preferable, 122. And yet, in this manner, society becomes organically disordered, 123. Similar effects of mischief in the material world, 125. Not true that nature, as we know it, represents the beauty of God, 126. Swedenborg holds that God creates through man, 127. And somehow it is clear that the creation becomes a type of man, as truly as of God, 127. Battle of the ants, 129. Deformities generally, consequences of sin, 129. Not true that they are introduced to make contrasts for beauty, 130.

Chapter VII. Anticipative Consequences

We find disorder ,. prey, deformity, in the world, before man's arrival — what account shall be made of such a fact? 131. There are two modes of consequences, the subsequent, which are physical effects, and the anticipative, which respect the same facts before the time, 133. Propose now the question of the anticipative consequences, 134. Evil beings in the world before the arrival of man ; how far disorders in it may be due to the effect of their sin, 135. Anticipative consequences just as truly consequences as those which come after, 136. Intelligence must give tokens beforehand of what it perceives, 136. Agassiz and Dana — premeditations and prophetic types, 137. Such anticipative tokens necessary to show that God understands His empire beforehand,

Vlll CONTENTS.

139. The more impressive, that they are fresh creations, to a great extent, as shown hy Mr Agassiz, 140. Misshapen forms shown by Hugh Miller to increase, as the era of man approaches — as in the serpent race and many kinds of fishes, 141. God will moderate the pride of science thus by the facts of science, 143. The world as truly a conatus as an existing fact, 143. The Pantheistic naturalism gives a different account of these deformities, 143. Which account neither meets our want, nor even explains the facts, 144. Sin is seen to be a very great fact, as it must be, if it is anything, 145. Objection considered, that there was never, in this view, any real kosmos at all, 146. Unnature is the grand result of sin, 147. The bad miracle has transformed the world. 148.

Chapter VIII. No Remedy In Development Or Self-reformation

Two rival gospels, 151. The first, which is development, or the progress of the race, will not restore the fall of sin, 151. No race begins at the savage state, and in that state there is no root of progress, 153. All the advanced races appear, more or less distinctly, to have had visitations of supernatural influence, 154. If there is a law of progress, why are so many races degraded or extirpated ? 154. The first stage of man is a crude state, and the advanced and savage races are equally distant from it, 155. Geology shows that God does not mend all disasters by development, 155. Healing is not development, 156. Generally associated with supernatural power, of which it is the type, 158. No one dares, in fact, to practically trust the development principle, whether in the state or in the family, 159. The second rival gospel proposes self-reformation or self-culture, with as little ground of hope, 160. No willpractice, or ethical observance, can mend the disorder of souls, 161. These cannot restore harmony, 162. Nor liberty, 162. The only sufficient help or reliance is God, 162. There is really no speculative difficulty in the disabilities of sin , 163. Even Plato denies the possibility of virtue, by any mere human force, 165. Seneca, Ovid, Zenophanes, to the same effect, 167. Plato, Strabo, Pliny, all indicate a want of some supernatural light or revelation, 169. The conversion of Clement shows the fact in practical exhibition, 170,

Chapter IX. The Supernatural Compatible With Nature And Subject To Fixed Laws

The world is a thing into which all the powers may rightfully act themselves, 172. Children at the play of ball, a good image of this higher truth, 173. Not the true doctrine of a supernatural agency, that God acts through nature, 175. Did not so act in producing the new races of geology, 175. Office of nature, as being designed to mediate the effects implied in duties and wrongs, 176. Nature the constant, and the supernatural the variable agency, 177. God really governs the world, and by a supernatural method, 178. Without this He has no liberty in nature, more than if it were a tomb, 178. Manifestly we want a God living and acting now, 179. And yet all this action of God supposes no contravention of laws, 180. Keasons why this is inadmissible, 180. Several kinds of law, but all agree in supposing the character of uniformity, 181. Thus we have natural law and moral law, but God's supernatural action not determined by these, is submitted always to the law of His end, 182. His end being always

CONTENTS. IX die same, He will be as exactly submitted to it as nature to her laws, 184. No returning here into the same circle as in nature, but a perpetually onward motion, 185. "What occurs but once here is done by a fixed law, 185. Many of the laws of the Spirit we know, 186. The idea of superiority in nature, as being uniformly corrected, 187. Also, the impression of a superior magnitude in nature, 189.

Chapter X. The Character Of Jesus Forbids His Possible Classification With Men

The superhuman personality of Christ is fully attested by His character, 192. And the description verifies itself, 192. Represented as beginning with a perfect childhood,

193. Which childhood is described naturally, and without exaggerations of fancy,

194. Represented always as an innocent being, yet with no loss of force, 196. His piety is unrepentant, yet successfully maintained, 197. He united characters which men are never able to unite perfectly, 198. His amazing pretensions are sustained so as never even to shock the sceptic, 200. Excels as truly in the passive virtues, 203. Bears the common trials in a faultless manner of patience, 204. His passion, as regards the time and the intensity, is not human, 205. His undertaking to organize, on earth, a kingdom of God, is superhuman, 207. His plan is universal in time, 208. He takes rank with the poor, and begins with them for His material, 209. Becoming the head thus of a class, He never awakens a partisan feeling, 212. His teachings are perfectly original and independent, 213. He teaches by no human or philosophic methods, 214. He never veers to catch the assent of multitudes, 214. He is comprehensive, in the widest sense, 215. He is perfectly clear of superstition in a superstitious age, 216. He is no liberal, yet shows a perfect charity, 217. The simplicity of His teaching is perfect, 218. His morality is not artificial or artistic, 220. He is never anxious for His success, 221. He impresses His superiority and His real greatness the more deeply, the more familiarly He is known, 223. Did any such character exist, or is it a myth, or a human invention ? 225. Is the character sinless ? 226. Mr Parker and Mr Hennel think Him imperfect, 227. Answer of Milton to one of their accusations, 229. How great a matter that one such character has lived in our world, 220.

CHAPTER XL

CHRIST PERFORMED MIRACLES

Miracles do not prove the gospel, but the problem itself is to prove the miracles, 232. General assumption of the sceptics, that miracles are incredible — Spinoza, Hume, Strauss, Parker, 233. Miracles defined, 233. What miracle is not, 234. Some concessions noted of the deniers of miracles — Hennel, 236. Also of Dr Strauss, 237. His solution of the immediate and the mediate action of God, 238. Proofs — That the supernatural action of man involves all the difficulties, 241. That sin is near in appearance to a miracle, 241. That nature, assumed to be perfect and not to be interrupted by God, is in fact become unnature already, 242. That without something equivalent, the restoration of man is impossible, 243. That nature was never designed to be the complete empire of God, 244. That if God has ever done anything,

CONTENTS.

He may as well do a miracle now, 244. Then He is shown, even by science, to have performed miracles, 245. But the great proof is Jesus Himself, having power without suspending any law of nature, 245. On an errand high enough to justify miracles, 246. It is also significant that the deniers can make no account of the history which is at all rational — Strauss, 248. Mr Parker concedes the fact that Christ Himself is a miracle, 249. Objection — why not also maintain the ecclesiastical miracles ? 250. That, according to our definition, there may be false miracles, 251. That if they are credible in a former age they also should be now, 252. That miracles are demonstrations of force, 253. But we rest in Jesus the chief miracle, 255.

Chapter XII. Water-marks In The Christian Doctrine

The most convincing evidence, that which is already on hand, as in water-mark, undiscovered, 256. Principal evidence of the kind, the two economies, letter and spirit, as being inherently necessary, 257. Overlooked by our philosophers, 258. More nearly discerned by the heathen, 258. Once thought of as necessary, the necessity is seen, 259. Scriptures anticipate all human wisdom here, 260. And, in this precedence, we discover that they are not of man, 262. Another strong proof in the gospels, not commonly observed, that the supernatural fact of the incarnation is so perfectly and systematically carried out, 262. There is no such concinnity of facts in any of the mythological supernaturalisms, 263. It appears in a multitude of points, as in the name gospel, 263. In the name, salvation, 264. In salvation by faith, 265. In justification by faith, 266. In the setting up of a kingdom of God on earth, 268. In the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and His works, as related to Christ and His, 269. In the doctrine of spiritual regeneration, 271. In the sacred mystery of the Trinity, 273. Hence Napoleon, Hennel, and others, express their admiration of the compactness and firm order of Christianity, 277. Whence came this close, internal adaptation of parts in a matter essentially miraculous ? 278. Only rational supposition, that the fabric is all of God, as it pretends to be, 279. May see in Mormonism, Mohammedanism, and Romanism, what man can do' in compounding supernaturals, 280.

Chapter XIII

THE WORLD IS GOVERNED SUPERNATURAL!/? IN THE INTEREST OF CHRISTIANITY

There is but one God, who, governing the world, must do it coincidently with what He is doing in Christ, 283. And this Christ Himself boldly affirms, 284. Two kinds of Providence, the natural and supernatural — nature the fixed term between us and God, 285. And then there is a variable mode, in which we come into reciprocal relation with God — this is the supernatural, 285. And in this field God rules for Christianity's sake, 286. The evidences are, first, that things do not take place as they should, if the effects of sin were left to the endless propagation of causes, 287. Hence then, while the great teachers of the world and their schools disappear. Christianity remains, 289. Itself an institution, in the very current of the flood. 289

CONTENTS. XI

A second evidence, that the events of the world show a divine hand, even that of Christ bearing rule, 291. The Jevdsh dispersion, the Greek philosophy already waning, the Greek tongue everywhere, the Eoman empire universal, a state of general peace, and so the way of Christ iB made ready, 291. So with the events that followed, 292. But what of the dark ages, and other adverse facts ? 294. Enough that this mystery of iniquity must work, till the gospel is proved out, 295. Some events confessedly dark, and yet they might be turned to wear a look of advantage, if only we could fathom their import, 297. A third evidence, in the spiritual changes wrought in men — difficult to change a character, 299. The cases of Paul, Augustine, and others, 302. The changes are facts ; if Christianity did not work them, a supernatural Providence did, for Christianity's sake, 304. Not changed by their own ideas, 305. Not by theologic preconceptions — case of a short-witted person — Brainard's conjurer, etc., 307. More satisfactory to conceive these results to be wrought by the Holy Spirit, which comes to really the same thing, 309. How the critics venture, with great defect of modesty, to show the subjects of such changes, that they misconceive their experience, 311.

Chapter XIV. Miracles And Spiritual, Gifts Are Not Discontinued

If miracles are inherently incredible, nothing is gained by thrusting them back and cutting them short in time, 314. The closing up of the canon, no reason of discontinuance, 314. Certainlynot discontinued, for this reason, in the days of Chrysostom, 315. There have been suspensions, here and there, but no discontinuance, 315. Does not follow that they will occur, in later times, in the exact way of the former times, 316. The reason of miracles, in that oscillation towards extremes, which belongs to the state of sin, 318. First, we swing toward reason, order, uniformity , next, toward fanaticism, 318. Hence almost every appearance of supernatural gifts, that we can trace, has come to its end in some kind of excess, 319. Why it is that lying wonders are generally contemporaneous, 320. The first thing impressed by investigation here, that miracles could not have ceased at any given date — no such date can be found, which they do not pass over, 323. Newman and the ecclesiastical miracles, 323. Miracles of the " Scots "Worthies," 324. Les Trembleurs des Cevennes, or French prophets, 324. Les Convulsionnaires de Saint Medard, 325. George Fox's miracles, and those of the Friends, 325. Abundance of such facts in our own time, as in premonitions, answers to prayer, healings, tongues, of the Mac- Donalds and the followers of Irving, 327. Case of Miss Fancourt, 328. Not true that the verdict of the thinking men of our day is to decide such a question, 329. The thinking men can make nothing of Joan of Arc, of Cromwell, and many other well-attested characters, 331. But why do we only hear of such at a distance? — why not meet the persons, see the facts ? 333. We do — Captain Yonnt's dream, 334.

The testing of prayer by a physician, 335. Appear to have had the tongues in H ,

and other gifts, 836. Case of healing by an English disciple, 387. Case of a diseased cripple made whole, 839. The visit of a prophet, 341. Obliged to admit that, while such gifts are wholly credible, they are not so easily believed by one whose mind is pre-occupied by a contrary habit of expectation, 345.

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter XV. Conclusion Stated — Uses And Results

Argument recapitulated, 317. It does not settle, or at all move the question of inspiration, but sets the mind in a position to believe inspiration easily, 349. The mythical hypothesis virtually removed without any direct answer, 349. Have not proved all the miracles, but miracles — let every one discuss the particular questions for himself, 350. Objection that everything is thus surrendered, 351. Eelation of the argument to Mr Parker's, 352. Particularly to his view of natural inspiration, 353. The argument, if carried, will also effect the estimate held of natural theology, or modify the place given it, 356. And preserve the positive institutions by showing a rational basis for their authority, 359. And correct mat false ambition of philanthropy, which dispenses with Christianity as the regenerative institution of God, 361. And restore the true apostolic idea of preaching, 362. And require intellectual and moral philosophy to raise the great problem of existence, and recognize the fact of sin and supernatural redemption, 364. And, last of all, will give to faith and Christian experience that solid basis on which they may De expected to unfold greater results. B66.

NATURE iND THE SUPERNATURAL.

Chapter I

INTEODUCTOEY. QUESTION STATED.

In the remoter and more primitive ages of the world, sometimes called mythologic, it will be observed that mankind, whether by reason of some native instinct, as yet uncorrupted, or some native weakness yet 'uneradicated, are abundantly disposed to believe in things supernatural. Thus it was in the extinct religions of Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome ; and thus also it still is in the existing mythologic religions of the East. Under this apparently primitive habit of mind, we find men readiest, in fact, to believe in that which exceeds the terms of mere nature ; in deities and apparitions of deities, that fill the heavens and earth with their sublime turmoil ; in fates and furies ; in nymphs and graces ; in signs and oracles, and incantations ; in " gorgons and chimeras dire." Their gods are charioteering in the sun, presiding in the mountain tops, rising out of the foam of the sea, breathing inspirations in the gas that issues from caves and rocky fissures, loosing their rage in the storms, plotting against each other in the intrigues of courts, mixing in battles to give success to their own people or defeat the people of some rival deity. All departments and regions of the world are full of their miraculous activity. Above ground, they are managing the thunders ; distilling in showers, or settling in dews ; ripening or blasting the harvests ; breathing health, or poisoning the air with pestilential infections. - In the ground they stir up volcanic fires, and wrestle in earthquakes that shake down cities. In the deep world underground, they receive the ghosts of departed men, and preside in Tartarean majesty over the realms of the shades.

2 THE GREEK SOPHISTS

The unity of reason was nothing to these Gentiles. They had little thought of nature as an existing scheme of order and law. Everything was supernatural. The universe itself, in all its parts, was only a vast theatre in which the gods and demigods were acting their parts.

But there sprang up at length among the Greeks, some four or five centuries before the time of Christ, a class of speculative neologists and rationalizing critics called Sophists, who began to put these wild myths of religion to the test of argument. If we may trust the description of Plato, they were generally men without much character, either as respects piety or even good morals ; a conceited race of Illuminati, who more often scoffed than argued against the sacred things of their religion. Still it was no difficult thing for them to shake, most effectually, the confidence of the people in schemes of religion so intensely mythical. And it was done the more easily that the more moderate and sober-minded of the Sophists did not propose to overthrow and obliterate the popular religion, but only to resolve the mythic tales and deities into certain great facts and powers of nature ; and so, as they pretended, to find a more sober and rational ground of support for their religious convictions. In this manner we are informed that one of their number, Eumerus, a Cyrenian, ''resolved the whole doctrine concerning the gods into a history of nature." 1

The religion of the Romans, at a later period, underwent a similar process, and became an idle myth, having no earnest significance and as little practical authority in the convictions of the people. And when Christ came, the Saclducees were practising on the Jewish faith in much the same way. As philosophy entered, religion was falling everywhere before its rationalizing processes. It was poetry on one side and dialectics on the other ; and the dialectics were, in this case, more than a match for the poetry, — as they ever must be, until their real weakness and the cheat of their pretensions are discovered. What the Christian father, Justin Martyr, says of the Sophists of his time, was doubtless a sufficiently accurate account of the others in times previous, and may be taken as a faithful picture of the small residuum of religious conviction left by them all. "They seek," he says, "to convince us that the divinity extends his care to the great whole and to the several kinds, but

1 Neander, vol. i. p. 6.

AND THEIR TIMES. 3

not to me and to you — not to men as individuals. Hence it is useless to pray to him ; for everything occurs according to the unchangeable law of an endless cycle." 1

Or, we may take the declaration of Pliny, from the side of the heathen philosophy itself, though many were not ready to go the same length, preferring to retain religion, which they oftener called superstition, as a good instrument for the state, and useful as a restraint upon the common people. He says : — " All religion is the offspring of necessity, weakness, and fear. What God is, if in truth he be anything distinct from the world, it is beyond the compass of man's understanding to know." 2

Thus, between the destructive processes of reason entering on one side to demolish, and Christianity on the other to offer itself as a substitute, the old mythologic religions fell, and were completely swept away.

And now, at last, the further question comes, viz., whether Christianity itself is also, in its turn, to experience the same fate, and be exterminated by the same or a closely similar process ? It is now to be found that Christianity is only another form of myth, and is it so to be resolved into the mere " history of nature," as the other religions were before it? Is it now to be discovered that the prophecy and miracle of the Old Testament, and all the formally historic matters even of the gospels and epistles of the New, are reducible to mere natural occurrences, "under the unchangeable laws of an endless cycle ?" Is this process now to end in the discovery, beyond which there can be no other, that God himself is, in truth, nothing " distinct from the world ?"

This is the new infidelity : not that rampant, crude-minded, and malignant scoffing which, in a former age, undertook to rid the world of all religion ; on the contrary, it puts on the air and speaks in the character of a genuine scholarship and philosophy. It simply undertakes, if we can trust its professions, to interpret and apply to the facts of Scripture, the true laws of historic criticism. It more generally speaks in the name of religion, and does not commonly refuse even the more distinctive name of Christianity. Coming thus in shapes of professed deference to revealed religion, many persons appear to be scarcely aware

1 Neander, vol. i. p. 9. 2 Neander, vol. i. p. 10-

4 THE CHRISTIAN SOPHISTS,

of the questions it is raising, the modes of thought it is generating, and the general progress toward mere naturalism it is beginning to set in motion. Many, also, are the more effectually blinded to the tendency of the times, that so many really true opinions and so many right sentiments, honourable to God and religion, are connected with the pernicious and false method by which it is, in one way or another, extinguishing the faith of religion in the world. It proposes to make a science of religion, and what can be more plausible than to have religion become a science ?