often been quoted by modern writers as a proof of the general diffusion of a religious belief among the ancient nations:-"In the midst of universal disagreement and discord as to the divine attributes, and as to laws and customs, (he says,) one uniform maxim and doctrine may be seen in every land-that there is one God, the supreme governor and father of all, and many Gods, his sons and joint rulers. This the Greek says this the barbarian this the dweller on the mainland and the dweller on the sea-coast-the wise and foolish."*

Among modern writers it is sufficient to cite the words of Bishop Burnet:-"That there is a God, is a proposition which, in all ages, has been so universally received and believed, some very few instances being only assigned of such as either have denied or doubted of it, that the very consent of so many ages and nations, of such different tempers and languages, so vastly remote from one another, has been long esteemed a good argument to prove that either there is somewhat in the nature of man, that by a secret sort of instinct does dictate this to him; or that all mankind has descended from one common stock, and that this belief has passed down from the first man to all his posterity. If the more polite nations had only received this, some might suggest that wise men had introduced it as a mean to govern human society, and to keep it in order: or if only the more barbarous had received this, it might be thought to be the effect of their fear and their ignorance; but since all sorts, as well as all ages, of men have re

* Diss. XVII. 5, vol. i. p. 316; Reiske. Compare Cudworth, Syst. Intellect. vol. i. p. 685; ed. Mosheim, 1773; and Leland, Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation shown from the State of Religion in the Ancient World, vol. i. p. 422.

ceived it, this alone goes a great way to assure us of the being of a God.”*

It is, undoubtedly, true that, in the positive religions, and in the sacred rites, practices, and doctrines of the pagan world, the greatest diversity has existed; and not only between barbarous or half-civilized tribes, but among the Greek and Roman philosophers, whose controversies on the nature of the gods were interminable. But in the substantial recognition of a Divine power, superhuman and imperceptible by our senses, all nations have agreed.

§3. The agreement, moreover, does not stop here. All the civilized nations of the modern world, together with their colonies and settlements, in all parts of the earth, agree, not merely in believing in the existence of a God-a belief which they have in common with Mahometans, Hindus, and heathens generally-but in recognising some form of the Christian religion. Christendom includes the entire civilized world-that is to say, all nations whose agreement on a matter of opinion has any real weight or authority.

§ 4. When, however, we advance a step beyond this point, and inquire how far there is a general agreement throughout Christendom with respect to any particular form of Christianity, and whether all Christians are members of one church, recognising the same set of doctrines, we find a state of things wholly different. We

Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles. On Art. I.

† Qui vero deos esse dixerunt, tanta sunt in varietate ac dissensione, ut eorum molestum sit dinumerare sententias. Nam et de figuris deorum, et de locis atque sedibus, et actione vitæ multa dicuntur: deque his summa philosophorum dissensione certatur.CICERO de Nat. Deor. I. 1.

perceive a variety of churches, some confined to a single country, some common to several countries, but each with its own ecclesiastical superiors and peculiar creed, and each condemning the members of other churches as heretics, schismatics, separatists, and dissenters, or, at least, as infected with grave errors; and sometimes not even recognising them as Christians.*

§ 5. Various causes have conspired to prevent a general agreement throughout the civilized world respecting the particular doctrines of Christianity. The Christian religion first assumed a dogmatic form in the hands of the later Greeks, who had received from their ancestors the inheritance of a subtle, refined, and abstruse metaphysical philosophy. This instrument of reasoning and exposition they applied to the Christian religion, and particularly to its more mysterious portions; such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the relations of the three Divine persons, and their common essence or substance; the union of the Divine and human natures in the Saviour; and the procession of the Holy Ghost. At a later time, the Christian theology, now reduced to a more systematic form, passed through the hands of the schoolmen, and was treated in the spirit of the scho

* For a complete account of the distribution of the several Christian communions over the world, the constitution and tenets of each church, their mutual relations, and other characteristics, see the Kirchliche Statistik of Dr. Wiggers, 2 vols. 8vo; Hamburg, 1842 and 1843. According to a calculation cited by him in vol. i. p. 22, the chief divisions of Christendom consist of the following numbers:

lastic philosophy.* Afterwards, the Reformation awakened new controversies, or gave increased importance to old ones, concerning the eucharistic sacrament, the communion of the laity in both kinds, and the alleged substantial change and real presence in the consecrated elements; also as to the nature and operation of grace and good works, and the theory of original sin, regeneration, justification, and predestination. These, combined with other questions as to church authority, tradition, general councils, the power of the pope and of national churches, episcopal government, ecclesiastical ceremonies and vestments, monastic vows, ordination, celibacy of the clergy, auricular confession, purgatory, baptism, individual inspiration, &c., have served to divide Christians into numerous churches and sects, and to keep up continual controversies between their respective advocates, which have never received any final settlement, and, when intermitted, are rather discontinued than decided.

The difficulty of determining the controversies re

* "It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the Council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to save the phenomena, though they knew there were no such things; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems to save the practice of the Church."-Lord BACON, Essay XVII.

In his Novum Organon he speaks of the Theologi Scholastici― "qui cum theologiam (satis pro potestate) in ordinem redegerint et in artis formam effinxerint, hoc insuper effecerunt, ut pugnax et spinosa Aristotelis philosophia corpori religionis plus quam par erat immisceretur."—Lib. I. Aph. 89. Compare his Apophthegms, 274, 275, where a dictum of some Roman divines concerning the canons of the Council of Trent is reported; "that they were beholden to Aristotle for many articles of their faith."

specting the different questions to which the interpretation of the Christian records has given rise is, in great measure, owing to the fact that religion, as such, is conversant with matters which are neither the subjects of consciousness or intuition, nor within the range of the senses. This is necessarily the case with all questions concerning the nature of the Deity and his attributes; his permanent relations with mankind; and the state of human existence after death. Upon these subjects, we have no experience, derived either from internal consciousness or external sensation, to guide us; and, accordingly, not only the abstract reasonings of natural religion, but the interpretation of the records of revealed religion, give rise to questions, for the settlement of which it is difficult to find any decisive rule of judgment.

§ 6. Owing to the operation of these causes, the various Christian churches and sects into which the civilized world is divided continue to co-exist side by side with one another, and show little or no tendency to coalesce into a common belief, or to recognise a common organ of religious truth. Religious opinions thus become hereditary, and national or local; they sometimes run on for centuries in parallel lines, without converging to a central focus of agreement.

Opinions on scientific matters, although they may spring from different sources, and follow for a time distinct courses, at last flow together into one main stream; whereas the distinctive tenets of the several Christian churches not only spring from different sources, but continue to run in different channels.

The religious state of Europe since the Reformation bears witness to the truth of this description. The boundaries of religion, which were fixed in the sixteenth