LECTURE VI.

THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE.

"Ne quisquam nos aliena tantum redarguisse, non autem nostra asseruisse reprehenderet; id agit pars altera operis hujus."-AUGUSTINE, Retract., II.

"Imperium facile his artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est."— SALLUST, Bell. Cutil., II. iv.

LECTURE VI.

"Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"-1 John v. 5.

§ 1.

THE

the in

of Reli

threefold.

'HE direct or positive proof originally pro- Stage of posed to be offered in these Lectures in quiry. respect of the permanence of the Christian Religion led first to the inquiry, what are the vital forces of any Religion; and next, in what degree are these exhibited in the past history and present condition of Christianity? These forces, common to all systems Vital forces of Religion, may be compared with the powers of gions nutrition, reproduction, and growth in organic bodies. Such are the hold exercised by the theory of belief upon the spirit and conscience of its professors; the tendency of the system to extend itself by conversion; and, thirdly, the power of assimilating healthfully the varying conditions of progressive civilization. With the last of these lines of proof we have been indirectly occupied throughout the four preceding Lectures. For the objections which In part have been considered to the progress of Christianity consihave been such as belong to the highest stages of culture and scientific research as yet reached by the most civilized portion of mankind. Lastly, since Concludevery form of Religion asserts for itself an absolute ment for

already

dered.

ing argu

manence

of Chris

tianity

from the

character

trines.

the per- possession of Divine Truth, its announcements are to be considered final, or, at least, as preparative1 to one complete scheme. A concluding argument will of its doc- hence arise in favour of the truth of Christianity from the universality of its tenets and their adaptation to the history and circumstances of mankind, warranting in this manner its assumption of doctrinal finality. If its morality is sound and universal; its type of character perfect and complete, not partial, national, local, or generic,' but correspondent to the unity of our race; if its revelations, replacing earlier creeds and inheriting all they held of truth, reach on to the horizon of humanity, and assure for ever the destinies of man, we need not greatly fear for the future of a Religion which can only be coeval with our race. We now proceed to examine, in the first place, the character and extent of the influence exercised by extent of Christianity at various periods on the consciences fluence of of its converts.

Present inquiry into the

nature and

the in

Christianity as evidenced

at different periods.

§2. It has been asked by a leading thinker of

1 Such as the Mosaic system; which cannot therefore be properly attacked, as it has been by Kant and others (see Religion innerhalb, &c., Werke, VI. 301, ed. Hartenstein), as not Divine, because it did not preach immortality. Warburton's proposition on this subject is well known.

2 "The ceremonial law was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition of mankind."-Gibbon, c. xv. Compare Palmer (Treatise on the Church, I. vii.) on the catholicity of Christianity. "The New Testament," says Prof. Seeley, Lect. and Essays, p. 276, "is the text-book of universal or natural morality." On the objection that if Christianity be in harmony with human nature, it may be viewed as a human invention, see Merivale, Conv. of N. Nations, p. 3.

nary ex

of the

necessary

cess of a

our time, "what are the conditions necessary to constitute a religion ?" "There must," he replies, "be a creed, or conviction, claiming authority over the whole of human life; a belief or set of beliefs Prelimi deliberately adopted respecting human destiny and amination duty, to which the believer inwardly acknowledges elements that all his actions ought to be subordinate. More- to the sucover, there must be a sentiment connected with religious this creed, or capable of being evoked by it, suffi- system, ciently powerful to give it, in fact, the authority over human conduct to which it lays claim in theory." In other words, the success of a religion may be held to result from the relation of its doctrines to the organ of belief in man, from the convictions which it furnishes to the faculty of Faith. For Faith, the outcome of our spiritual nature in its apprehension of God, is the vital spark of all Religion. If Faith be on the wane, there is a canker at viz. the rethe root of the creed. The external organization, doctrines the ecclesiastical arrangements, may look vigorous principle enough, but the end draws on. In criticising, then, the claims of a religion to acceptance from the side of experience, i. e. from its past success and present

1 Mr. J. S. Mill, A. Comte and Positivism, p. 133. He adds: “It is a great advantage, though not absolutely indispensable, that this sentiment should crystallize, as it were, round a positive object—if possible, a really existing one-though in all the more important cases only ideally present. Such an object Theism and Christianity offer to the believer." Mr. Lecky, H. R., I. 389, speaking of the first ages of Christianity, remarks that "it was then strictly a religion; that is to say, it consisted of modes of emotion, and not of intellectual propositions."

lation of its

to the

of faith.