according to the society with which they are from time to time thrown, and they know that contradictory statements cannot be true, they are often glad to prevent themselves from thinking, rejoice to give up theology altogether, and will gladly take refuge in any other pursuit of literature or science which promises to divert their minds." Lastly, says the author, page 127— "It is impossible that the very youngest member of this University, who knows that in a few years he is to be called to provide for the spiritual wants of hundreds of souls......can fail to inquire often in these days, where sound theology is to be found. Nay, no intelligent man whatsoever, who knows that in some sphere of domestic or public life his opinions must, directly or indirectly, affect and guide others, will be able to escape this inquiry altogether. THE ANSWER TO IT IS NOT EASY; AND THE DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES WHICH GATHER ROUND HIM, WILL OFTEN MAKE A MAN ALMOST DESPAIR, AS IF TRUTH WERE UNATTAINABLE." Now, my friends, these remarks speak for themselves. We have had a Tractarian movement, an Evangelical movement, and now we are recommended a Rationalistic movement; that is to say, the introduction of German criticism, which, it would seem, according to the respected lecturer, is the only remaining hope for the Church of England; and this is what is meant by the suggestions offered to the theological student under present difficulties. Whether these suggestions are likely to relieve the Church from her present difficulties, we may, in some measure, conclude from the effects produced by German criticism in Germany itself. Ample illustrations of this part of the subject may be adduced from an account of the present state of German Protestantism, by Edward H. Dewar, M.A., late of Exeter College, Oxford, and chaplain to the British residents at Hamburg, who observes, page 104— The Holy Scriptures were now subjected to a searching process of criticism and exegesis, the result of which was, that as this branch of theological study advanced, so in the same proportion was the doctrine of inspiration abandoned. The more men fancied they were ascertaining the exact meaning of the words of the Bible, the more did they cease to reverence it as the word of God, the work of the Holy Ghost." After a further examination of the principles and results of German criticism, the author observes, page 134 "Thus do we behold the Protestant Church of Germany, the Church which was founded and which exists upon this principle, that the Bible alone is the rule of faith, denying the authority of at least five-sixths of that New Testament from which her members profess to frame their creed and to guide their practice. I do not mean that any great number of her children have studied the arguments and deliberately arrived at this conclusion. But what reverence can there be for the whole Bible, as the word of God, in a land where the teachers and guardians of the Holy Scriptures, men distinguished for their diligence and their learning, have doubted the genuineness of almost every book which they contain, have questioned its authority, have denied its credibility ?" Mr. Dewar, in his History of the Rise and Progress of Rationalism, gives a description of the present state of German criticism, and a display of the principles of two of its most recent and distinguished advocates, Feuerbach and Bauer. With regard to Feuerbach, the following is a specimen of the results to which his rationalism has led him, page 199:— 66 "If," says he, we believe in the existence of God, it is only because we ourselves exist. In a word, the existence of a God out of man is a dream, an illusion, which owes its origin to the fact, that man has regarded that which is divine within himself as having an external objective reality. There is no deity except the spiritual attributes of man-his understanding, his will, his love." With regard to Bauer, he says, page 201— "He enters at considerable length into the details of the life of Jesus as they are presented to us in these records; and I need hardly say, that he decides every part of it which would invest our Lord with a divine or supernatural character,-His descent from David, His miraculous conception, the mission of the Baptist, the baptism of our Saviour, the miracles He wrought, the parables He spake, the sending out of His disciples, His resurrection from the dead, His descent into hell, His ascension into heaven,-all-all he decides to be a tissue of pure fictions!" Mr. Dewar closes his account of German theology in the following manner, page 202: "Here, having followed the stream from its pure and sparkling source, an unbounded reverence, a jealous love for the Word of God, down to the turbid ocean of infidelity; having seen the rejection of every human authority, becoming, not by any accidental train of circumstances, but by the consistent and unavoidable development of its principle, a denial of the Divine Inspiration, a rejection of the authenticity of these Holy Scriptures; having beheld a spurious philosophy usurping the place of the Christian Faith, a philosophy which has already arrived at a denial of the existence of a personal God, of a Providence, of a future state, and which must terminate in the temporary success of some wild chimera, and in an entire revolution of every social and political and religious institution, before Christianity can once more occupy the place from which it has been thrust, or the faith once delivered to the saints be again the religion of Germany;--here we may pause, and ask ourselves what can the right of private judgment give in return for all of which it may rob us? What good can it confer which may compensate for all the evil which it can inflict upon a Church?" To understand this question, it should be considered that Mr. Dewar regards the only alternative to be between the authority of the Church, and rationalism which, he says, is the result of private judgment. Hence he discards the right of private judgment, and betakes himself to the testimony and authority of the Catholic Church, on which alone he seems to rest the inspiration of the Scriptures. This is a sad state of things; which, indeed, is not much bettered by the recommendation of Dr. Tait, who seems rather inclined to consider Church authority as having been the source of all evils, and to have become, in the present day, a practical impossibility, while German criticism is to be the universal remedy. 1 Such is the contest of principles now going on. Dr. Tait considers that Romanism is the great parent of infidelity; Mr. Dewar considers that the right of private judgment is the great parent of infidelity. Unhappy theological student, how unfortunate is your position! Move not to the right, for there is the pitfall of Romanism! Move not to the left, for there is the pitfall of Rationalism! Move not straightforward, for you may meet with some dangerous quicksand! Stand still you cannot, for the very ground you are upon is moving, nay, all around you is in motion ! What alternative remains? Shall we say, go backward? Let us hear the suggestion to the theological student under present difficulties, page 124, offered from the University pulpit: "He is told that, whenever he diverges from the straight and narrow line of the received theology, there is danger lest he stumble on some pitfall, and be precipitated into error. On one side Romanism, on the other Rationalism, are the words of warning which call him to tread cautiously. Nay, he is almost afraid even to move straight forwards, lest the path on which he has been accustomed to walk from his childhood, may itself lead him to some dangerous quicksand, on which there is no sure standing; and he is tempted, not unnaturally, to sit down in DESPAIR." Hear, now, what the Romanist periodical, the Dublin Review, for March, 1846, says upon this state of things. In the article on Developments of Protestantism, page 224, it is remarked as follows: 66 Already men are seen almost in every part of the world, ranging themselves, some unconsciously and some of design, into one or other of two great classes. Rome, as they have openly declared in Geneva, is confessed once more to be, as in the days when she merited even the praises of St. Paul, the defence and bulwark of Christianity; while it is under the banners of Protestantism that the enemies are crowding and thronging together, from whom Christianity is to receive its last assault, and over whom it is to gain its final victory. Rome and unbelief, says one who has lately chosen his side in this coming conflict, and, by divine grace, chosen aright,-Rome and unbelief are the two vortices round which and into which all other modes of opinion are visibly edging, in more or less quickening circles. And let us add, in the words of the same amiable writer, It is a sight to make those breathless who have a care for their fellow-men." Hear now the other side of the question, as maintained by Dr. Tait, in his lectures, page 103:— "Yet surely, if we examine the real state of our country, and of Europe altogether, we must allow that the great conflict of this age is not that between the Romanist and the Protestant, but between the infidel and the Christian; and that Romanism is for us principally formidable only from the advantage it must give to infidelity, by the false foundation on which it teaches men to build their faith, and the poor, human superstructure by which it weakens, while it overloads, the inestimable power of Christ's simple truth. It is certain that, as Romanism spreads, infidelity will spread also." Alas, my friends, how lamentable it is to see two professedly Chris tian churches each charging the other with being antichristian,-the Roman church charging the Protestant with being the parent of infidelity, and the Protestant charging the same upon the Roman! How lamentable is it to see two churches reduced to this state, more particucularly when we consider, that what each says of the other may for the most part be true; and, if true, are not both unconsciously giving their evidence to the necessity of the formation of a New Church? That the churches of Christendom have come to an end, is a position which was long since announced in the theological writings of Swedenborg, for printing and publishing which this society was established. I cannot, however, close these remarks without adding the following quotations from a Diary in France, by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Canon of St. Peter's, Westminster, second edition. Speaking of the Frères Gaume, who have been distinguished by their valuable editions of St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and St. Bernard, he says, page 152 "I asked M. Gaume for a book lately published by his brother, the Abbè Gaume, Histoire de la Societè Domestique, to which is prefixed a long and interesting discourse concerning the signs of the times, especially as seen in France, which, in his opinion, indicate the manifestation of the Antichristian sway, and the presence of the Latter Days." Dr. Wordsworth likewise observes, with regard to the Abbè de la Mennais, who had formerly been a popular advocate of the claims of the Church of Rome, but had now adopted a system of sceptical philosophy peculiar to himself, that, in a conversation, the Abbè, page 200— "Stated fully the evils inherent in the Papal system, and having so done, proceeded to shew that Protestantism (by which he understood the mere Protestantism of negations, with which alone he seemed to be conversant), was by no means suited to satisfy the spiritual wants of men, as a substitute for that system to which, he said, for many strong reasons, it was justly opposed. He seemed to think that Christianity looked for a further development of itself, in which its positive rules, liturgical, ritual, &c., would be absorbed in a universal spiritual adoration of the Supreme Being, and in a plenum of peace and charity to all mankind." Look, then, my Christian friends, at the signs of the times, and can you deny, that on ourselves, as members of a New Church, devolve duties and responsibilities at once awful and delightful? Awful when we consider the darkness which has to be removed, the anxieties which have to be tranquillized, the prejudices which have to be surmounted, the despondency, nay, almost despair, in the minds of some, which has to be cast out; and yet delightful, when we consider, that to us the Lord has committed the heavenly privilege of giving bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty,—of diffusing the knowledge of that Word which by its power opens the eyes of the blind, sets the prisoner free, and raises the dead into spiritual life. Of all the duties we undertake, what can be so important as this? And yet this is the principal society which, in the present day, can assist you in the performance of these duties; duties the importance of which I leave you to infer from the signs of the times which have been set before you. Allow me, then, to conclude this address with repeating the resolution I have been requested to move; that— "The signs of the times preeminently require that the most efficient "aid be given to the Society for Printing and Publishing the Theological Writings of the Hon. E. Swedenborg." 66 MATERIALS FOR MORAL CULTURE. * "Keep the channel open."-No. CCL. CCLXXXVIII. "ALL my best thoughts must bear relation to my actions, and must be regarded solely as means to this end; otherwise they are idle and aimless,―a mere waste of time and strength, and the perversion of a noble power."-(Fichte.) CCLXXXIX. By "ceasing to do evil,” a man may become a sincere Christian; but in order to become an intelligent Christian, he must "learn to do well,” in other words, he must become a spiritual moralist. CCXC. A readiness to make reparation, is an indispensable mark of sincere religion. Some are willing to make reparation in words, but not in deeds; others in deeds, but not in words: the former sin from covetousness, the latter from pride. CCXCI. Parental love is an image of the Divine love. It does not depend on the value of the creature loved. True Christian love is of the same generous character. Love to persons merely because of their value to us, when unsanctified by a more interior love, is nothing but self-love. The parallel thus appears between parental love, Divine love, and charity. Parental love intensely burns towards the sickly, helpless, and demented * ERRATA.-No. CCLXXVII, line 3, for distributial read distributive. No. CCLXXXVII, line 1, for ultimately read alternately. |