The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS. much or any affinity to intellectual belief. Faith, in the scriptural sense, is surely not what it is here represented, the result of a sifting of evidence and weighing of authorities, but of a sudden illumination which neither reasons nor doubts, but without a moment's pause or any kind of question—accepts. And though we readily admit that the days of miracle are past, and that we are not entitled to expect the same instant obedience which, as in the case of Peter and Andrew, succeeded the command, " Follow me ; " that we are not entitled to reason of the present age by the facts of that time when our Lord trod the earth, when miracles followed his words, and his disciples, sustained by supernatural suc cour, took no thought of what they should say or what they should do, but acted under the immediate influence of inspiration ; yet we still think that the highest, the purest, the most favoured faith is that which does not know what doubt is, which trusts absolutely and implicitly in the promises revealed with out scrutiny of their evidences, and which is eminently confiding and trustful, reposing on God as a pillow by night, and in his presence as a guardian spirit by day. The Laureate, Mr. Tennyson, has doubtless expressed the conviction of many minds in his maxim : There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, that in half the creeds. But this can only be true when creeds are accepted as mere formulie, not when heart and mind, through obedience and love which have never faltered, are brought into complete sub jection to God's will. We are satisfied that faith, in the scriptural meaning, does not re quire that " prior intellectual process, the con " viction of the understanding by force of " proof " (p. 92), on which Dr. Jackson lays so much stress, nor do we think it wise to attempt to define at what stage of thought, or on what faculties of the mind, the agency of the Spirit may be expected to operate. That " faith is the " evidence of things not seen " we take to be as true of the perceptions of the intellect as of visual sight. A similar tone, or one more inclining to utilitarianism, pervades the sermon on " The Character and Blessing of the Predestinate." Dr. Jackson hardly appears to be aware of the difficult ground he is treading here, and he seems to place too much confidence in his in- tellectual power to fathom mysteries which to man on earth must for ever remain unfathom able. " Your final destiny," he says, "inscribed " in the page of God's foreknowledge is visible "to him alone " (75). But he essays to show that predestination is, on either alternative which may be taken, a profitable doctrine. He reasons : The called according to His purpose are they who love Him. Do you then love Him ? . . . If so, what mat ters it whether you can reconcile metaphysically the pre destination of God with the free will of man? You have chosen the good part ; and He has predestinated, called, justified, sanctified you. You have His seal and are His, and what shall separate you from Him? . . . But if not—if the heart, interrogated sincerely, gives an unwilling and unwelcome reply—what . . shall we say ? Certainly, that you have no evidence that you are " the called according to God's purpose ;" that you are under God's condemnation, and in a state of extreme danger. But as certainly that the present is yours to repent and seek salvation; that the offers and promises of God are made to you; that now He is waiting to be gracious. This is one mode of stating the case, though the logic of the latter part of this extract seems to contradict that of the former part, for there would seem as much reason for despair in one case as for security in the other. But there is obviously another way of looking at the effects of the doctrine. - - • If you are truly Christian, of what service can the doctrine of predestination be to you, except to inflate you with spiritual pride, and to assure you that your salvation is secure, no matter what errors you may fall into? if you have no such assurance, yet receive the doc trine, the motive to repentance and amend ment is lost through the sense of the un• changeableness of the decree. In the one case the mind is likely to be filled with the frenzy of exaltation—in the other with the frenzy of despair. And we believe that no concessions which Dr. Jackson can make to the rationalism of the age—to gifts of grace and assurances of faith through " prior intel " lectual processes"—will materially alter this view. SATURDAY, We have touched on this subject with reluc• tance, but it is from a sincere conviction that there are scriptural subjects and doctrines which are wholly beyond the province of reason, and can be received by faith—humble, confiding, childlike faith—alone, the faith which Tertullian indicated by his celebrated Credo, quid impossibue est. Dr. Jackson can scarcely be ignorant of what the great masters of thought have written on this subject. But the following weighty sentences of Locke, from one of his letters to Molyneux, might well operate to prevent speculations on a point which never can be satisfactorily settled : I own freely to yon the weakness of my understanding that though it be unquestionable that there is omnipotence and omniscience in God our maker, yet I cannot make freedom in man consistent with omnipotence and om niscience in God, though 1 am as fully persuaded of both as of any truths I most firmly assent to ; and therefore I have lung left off the consideration of that question, resolv ing all into this short conclusion—that if it be possible for God to make a free agent, then man is free, though I see not the way of it. With all respect for Dr. Jackson's attain ments, we think he need not feel ashamed to cease at that point of reasoning which Locke declared himself unable to carry further. Essays on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, the Unity of Worlds, and the Philosophy of Creation. By the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A. London : Longmans. SINCE writing the above notice of Bishop Jackson's sermons, a volume of essays by Professor Powell has reached us, which tend to the illustration of Bishop Jackson's views, and indicate probably to somo extent the school of theology now coming into vogue. Professor Powell in these three essays en deavours to establish a distinction between physical and spiritual truth. The Bible is to be taken as a guide upon the latter only. In the mind of man we may look for direct manifes tations of God's will and power, but in the physical universe we must expect to see only a chain of effects reaching back into "the un fathomable depths of time," and proceeding from recondite causes. The following passages fairly exhibit the Professor's views on what are termed the "physical difficulties " of Scrip ture : Even at the present day there are not wanting occasional attempts to keep up the hopeless chimera of erecting theories of geology on the Mosaic narrative. It is need less to observe that, as all notion of an accommodation of the facts of the text has long since been given up by all sane inquirers, these attempts are now merely directed to explaining away the sense of the text; in which they no doubt succeed by such principles of verbal interpretation as, if fairly applied to other parts, would readily enable us to put on any given passage any required construction. AU inquirers, possessing at once a sound knowledge of geology, and capable of perceiving the undeniable sense of a plain circumstantial narrative, now acknowledge that the whole tenor of geology is in entire contradiction to the cosmogony delivered from Sinai ; a contradiction which no philological refinements can remove or diminish; a case which no detailed interpretations can meet, and which can only be dealt with as a whole. • • • Whenever the sacred writers introduce physical state ments, they may fairly be understood as speaking conform ably to the existing state of knowledge, or adapting themselves to the ideas, belief, and capacities of those they addressed. In any such cases it would be irrational for us at the present day to insist too literally on such repre sentations, and especially to reason on them in cases where we are precluded from examining into all the cir cumstances, or canvassing the evidence. But if, after all, in any instance the letter of the narrative or form of ex pression may he found irreconcileably at variance with physical truth—without trenching on the integrity of the text, or of the testimony—we may allow the alternative of understanding them in a figurative or poetical sense. The idea in the latter passage is not new. It has been put forward in various shapes by the greatest divines. Thus Bossuet, in speaking of the creation of man, and of God's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, says : The soul of man, created in the image of God, and capable of happiness in possessing it, had to be produced by a new creation—it was to come from on high, and this is what we are to understand by the breath of life which came from the mouth of God. We must remember that Moses set forth to carnal men pure and spiritual truths by physical images. We do not think, however, that any divine has ever stated so broadly as Professor Powell has done in the following passage what is termed the " palpable contradiction " be- lIMIIIMMN.....__ ittraturt. Tice Witness of the Spirit. Sermons preached before the University of Oxford. By the Bishop of Lincoln. London: Skeffington. THESE sermons, as may be supposed from the audience to which they were addressed, are mainly of a doctrinal character; they are argumentative, touch on metaphysical themes, and favour the language and allusions of science.—Ex. gr.:— It may be said indeed that the language of Scripture is not only framed on the phraseology, but accommodated to the ideas of the age when it was revealed, and to the state of knowledge psychological, no less than physical, which had then been attained, and that as we find little difficulty in modifying scriptural statements of natural laws or phenomena by the more accurate science of modern times, so there is no reason why we should not consider the terms by which spiritual influences are expressed, as adjusted to the ideas and belief then prevalent, and to be now trans lated into their equivalents in the present advanced state of mental and moral philosophy. This is the kind of statement for whi ch Charles Fox was celebrated, when he represented his opponent's argument so forcibly that his friends feared he could not possibly answer it. Dr. Jackson admits the premises in the above passage, but denies the conclusion. Yet are we to suppose that he is prepared to give up all the physical miracles of the Bible and limit the influence of supernatural power to the spiritual world ? His language leads to that inference, though we cannot suppose ho intends it. Of his fondness for scientific allusion take the following, directed to show why the per ception of religious may be more difficult than that of physical truth: — It is obvious how many disturbing influences must be set at work, when the truth or falsehood of such claims and obligations is in question ; how many hopes, and fears, and desires ; how great a mist of prejudice, distorting some facts, magnifying others, concealing others ; what a phan tasmagona of objections, bright with the borrowed colours of the feelings, and refracted to undue magnitude by the wishes of the heart. Generally it appears to be the aim of Dr. Jackson to reconcile the claims of science and revelation, and to remove the doubts which rationalism may urge against Christian theo logy. But we cannot think highly of his success. He is, for example, willing to ac knowledge that in science modern intellect is fast advancing to clearer perceptions of truth or fact : In every science new discoveries are making daily. The landmarks of knowledge are perpetually being moved for• ward. Acknowledged facts are shown to be vulgar errors ; and popular belief has ceased to be a guarantee, or even a presumption, of truth. But the corruption of our moral nature pre vents us, he intimates, from obtaining equally clear views of religious truth : Each doctrine, being practical and involving certain duties, acts upon the moral choice ; and accordingly as this is warped by natural pravity, or rectified by divine grace, the presumpt►ons for and against the doctrine may be partially or impartially considered, and the conclusion may be error, or truth. This is hardly satisfactory ; as in purely in tellectual processes there seems no ground for establishing the distinction the author con tends for, and it is previously intimated that there are natural reasons which may warp our perception of scientific as well as of religious truth. b Several of these sermons are on predesti nation and on the influences of the Spirit. The one from which we have quoted is entitled " Faith a Gift of the Spirit." Yet faith is described as a "habit of the intellect," and belief, so far as the intellect is concerned, is presumed to incline with the balance of evidence:— - - - It seems to be a law of the intellect, that belief neces sarily follows the preponderance of apprehended proof, as the scale falls in which the weight is greatest. We can no more refuse to believe what is proved, or believe what is destitute of apparent proof, than the eye can reject or change the forms and colours thrown by external objects on the retina. The operation of the Spirit is supposed to take effect, not in influencing the intellect, but in removing the impediments which our corrupt nature opposes to the reception of re ligious, as distinguished from other forms of, truth. This looks like refining too far. We doubt whether faith properly so called has 356