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diff --git a/16791.txt b/16791.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f26743c --- /dev/null +++ b/16791.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24922 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The English Church in the Eighteenth Century, +by Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The English Church in the Eighteenth Century + + +Author: Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton + + + +Release Date: October 2, 2005 [eBook #16791] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +by + +CHARLES J. ABBEY +Rector of Checkendon: Formerly Fellow of University College, Oxford + +and + +JOHN H. OVERTON +Canon of Lincoln and Rector of Epworth + +Revised and Abridged +New Edition + +Longmans, Green, and Co. +London, New York, and Bombay + +1896 + + + + + + + +PREFACE + +TO + +THE SECOND EDITION + + +Although this edition has been shortened to about half the length of the +original one, it is essentially the same work. The reduction has been +effected, partly by the omission of some whole chapters, partly by +excisions. The chapters omitted are those upon the Jacobites, the +Essayists, Church Cries, and Sacred Poetry--subjects which have only a +more or less incidental bearing on the Church history of the period. The +passages excised are, for the most part, quotations, discursive +reflections, explanatory notes, occasional repetitions, and, speaking +generally, whatever could be removed without injury to the general +purpose of the narrative. There has been no attempt at abridgment in any +other form. + +The authors are indebted to their reviewers for many kind remarks and +much careful criticism. They have endeavoured to correct all errors +which have been thus pointed out to them. + +As the nature of this work has sometimes been a little misapprehended, +it should be added that its authors at no time intended it to be a +regular history. When they first mapped out their respective shares in +the joint undertaking, their design had been to write a number of short +essays relating to many different features in the religion and Church +history of England in the Eighteenth Century. This general purpose was +adhered to; and it was only after much deliberation that the word +'Chapters' was substituted for 'Essays.' There was, however, one +important modification. Fewer subjects were, in the issue, specifically +discussed, but these more in detail; while some questions--such, for +instance, as that of the Church in the Colonies--were scarcely touched +upon. Hence a certain disproportion of treatment, which a general +introductory chapter could but partially remedy. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO + +THE FIRST EDITION + + +Some years have elapsed since the authors of this work first entertained +the idea of writing upon certain aspects of religious life and thought +in the Eighteenth Century. If the ground is no longer so unoccupied as +it was then, it appears to them that there is still abundant room for +the book which they now lay before the public. Their main subject is +expressly the English Church, and they write as English Churchmen, +taking, however, no narrower basis than that of the National Church +itself. + +They desire to be responsible each for his own opinions only, and +therefore the initials of the writer are attached to each chapter he has +written. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +Revived interest in the religious life of the eighteenth century, 1 +Lowered tone prevalent during a great part of the period, 2 +Loss of strength in the Puritan and Nonjuring ejections, 3 +Absorbing speculations connected with the Deistical controversy, 4 +Development of the ground principles of the Reformation, 5 +Fruits of the Deistical controversy, 6 +Its relation to the Methodist and Evangelical revivals, 7 +Impetus to Protestant feeling in the Revolution of 1689, 8 +Projects of Church comprehension, 8 +Methodism and the Church, 9 +The French Revolution, 10 +Passive Obedience and Divine Right, 10 +Jacobitism, 11 +Loss of the Nonjuring type of High Churchmen, 12 +Toleration, 13 +Church and State, 15 +Respect for the Church, 16 +Early part of the century richest in incident, 17 +Religious societies, 17 +The Sacheverell trial, 18 +Convocation, 19 +The later Nonjurors, 19 +The Essayists, 20 +Hoadly and the Bangorian controversy, 21 +The Methodist and Evangelical movements, 21 +Evidence writers, 22 +Results of the Evidential theology, 23 +Revival of practical activity at the end of the century, 24 +The Episcopate, 24 +General condition of religion and morality, 25 +Clergy and people, 25 + + +CHAPTER II. + +ROBERT NELSON: HIS FRIENDS AND CHURCH PRINCIPLES. + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +Contrast with the coarser forms of High Churchmanship in that + age, 26 +Robert Nelson: general sketch of his life and doings, 27 +His Nonjuring friends, 31 + Ken, 31 + Bancroft and Frampton, 32 + Kettlewell, 33 + Dodwell, 34 + Hickes, 36 + Lee, 38 + Brokesby, Jeremy Collier, &c., 39 + Exclusiveness among many Nonjurors, 39 +His friends in the National Church, 40 + Bull, 40 + Beveridge, 42 + Sharp, 44 + Smalridge, 46 + Grabe, 47 + Bray, 48 + Oglethorpe, Mapletoft, &c., 49 +R. Nelson a High Churchman of wide sympathies, 50 +Deterioration of the later type of eighteenth century + Anglicanism, 51 +Harm done to the English Church from the Nonjuring secession, 51 +Coincidence at that time of political and theological parties, 52 +Passive obedience as 'a doctrine of the Cross', 53 +Decline of the doctrine, 55 +Loyalty, 56 +The State prayers, 57 +Temporary difficulties and permanent principles, 58 +Nonjuring Church principles scarcely separable from those of most High + Churchmen of that age in the National Church, 60 +Nonjuror usages, 61 +Nonjuror Protestantism, 63 +Isolated position of the Nonjurors, 64 +Communications with the Eastern Church, 65 +General type of the Nonjuring theology and type of piety, 68 +Important function of this party in a Church, 73 +Religious promise of the early years of the century, 74 +Disappointment in the main of these hopes, 75 + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DEISTS. + +(_J.H. Overton._) + +Points at issue in the Deistical controversy, 75-6 +Deists not properly a sect, 76 +Some negative tenets of the Deists, 77 +Excitement caused by the subject of Deism, 78 +Toland's 'Christianity not mysterious', 79 +Shaftesbury's 'Characteristics', 80-2 +His protest against the Utilitarian view of Christianity, 81 +Collins's 'Discourse of Freethinking', 82-3 +Bentley's 'Remarks' on Collins', 83-4 +Collins's 'Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian + Religion', 84-5 +Woolston's 'Six Discourses on the Miracles', 85 +Sherlock's 'Tryal of the Witnesses', 86 +Annet's 'Resurrection of Jesus Considered', 86 +Tindal's 'Christianity as old as the Creation', 86-7 +Conybeare's 'Defence of Revealed Religion', 87 +Tindal the chief exponent of Deism, 88 +Morgan's 'Moral Philosopher', 89 +Chubbs's works, 90-1 +'Christianity not founded on argument', 92-3 +Bolingbroke's 'Philosophical Works', 93-6 +Butler's 'Analogy', 96-7 +Warburton's 'Divine Legation of Moses', 97-8 +Berkeley's 'Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher', 98-9 +Leland's 'View of the Deistical Writers', 100-1 +Pope's 'Essay on Man', 101-2 +John Locke's relation to Deism, 102-5 +Effects of the Deistical controversy, 106-8 +Collapse of Deism, 108 +Want of sympathy with the Deists, 110 +Their unpopularity, 111 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LATITUDINARIAN CHURCHMANSHIP. + +(1.) CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S THEOLOGY. + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +Use of the term 'Latitudinarian', 112 +In the eighteenth century, 113 +Archbishop Tillotson:-- + His close relationship with the eighteenth century, 115 + His immense repute as a writer and divine, 115 + Vehemence of the attack upon his opinions, 117 + His representative character, 118 + His appeal to reason in all religious questions, 119 + On spiritual influence, 119 + On Christian evidences, 119 + On involuntary error, 120 + On private judgment, its rights and limitations, 121 + Liberty of thought and 'Freethinking' in Tillotson's and the + succeeding age, 125 + Tillotson on 'mysteries', 127 + On the doctrine of the Trinity, 129 + On Christ's redemption, 130 + Theory of accommodation, 131 + The future state, 133 + Inadequate insistance on distinctive Christian doctrine, 140 + Religion and ethics, 141 + Goodness and happiness, 142 + Prudential religion, 143 + General type of Tillotson's latitudinarianism, 145 + + +CHAPTER V. + +LATITUDINARIAN CHURCHMANSHIP. + +(2.) CHURCH COMPREHENSION AND CHURCH REFORMERS. + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +Comprehension in the English Church, 147 +Attitude towards Rome in eighteenth century, 148 + Strength of Protestant feeling, 148 + Exceptional interest in the Gallican Church, 149 +Archbishop Wake and the Sorbonne divines, 149 + Alienation unmixed with interest in the middle of the eighteenth + century, 152 + The exiled French clergy, 154 +The reformed churches abroad:-- + Relationship with them a practical question of great interest since + James II.'s time, 155 + Alternation of feeling on the subject since the Reformation, 156 + The Protestant cause at the opening of the eighteenth century, 158 + The English Liturgy and Prussian Lutherans, 160 + Subsidence of interest in foreign Protestantism, 163 +Nonconformists at home:-- + Strong feeling in favour of a national unity in Church + matters, 164 + Feeling at one time in favour of comprehension, both among Churchmen + and Nonconformists, 166 + General view of the Comprehension Bills, 169 + The opportunity transitory, 174 + Church comprehension in the early part of the eighteenth century + confessedly hopeless, 175 + Partial revival of the idea in the middle of the century, 177 +Comprehension of Methodists, 180 +Occasional conformity:-- + A simple question complicated by the Test Act, 183 + The Occasional Conformity Bill, 184 + Occasional conformity, apart from the test, a 'healing + custom', 185 + But by some strongly condemned, 186 + Important position it might have held in the system of the National + Church, 187 +Revision of Church formularies; subscription:-- + Distaste for any ecclesiastical changes, 188 + The 'Free and Candid Disquisitions', 189 + Subscription to the Articles, 190 + Arian subscription, 193 + Proposed revision of Church formularies, 195 +Isolation of the English Church at the end of the last century, 195 +The period unfitted to entertain and carry out ideas of Church + development, 196 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY. + +(_J.H. Overton._) + +Importance of the question at issue, 197 +Four different views on the subject, 198 +Bull's 'Defensio Fidei Nicaenae', 199 +Sherlock, Wallis, and South on the Trinity, 200 +Charles Leslie on Socinianism, 201-2 +William Whiston on the Trinity, 202-4 +Samuel Clarke the reviver of modern Arianism, 204 +Opponents of Clarke, 205 +Waterland on the Trinity, 205-13 +Excellences of Waterland's writings, 213 +Convocation and Dr. Clarke, 214 +Arianism among Dissenters, 215 +Arianism lapses into Socinianism.--Faustus Socinus, 215 +Modern Socinianism, 216 +Isaac Watts on the Trinity, 217-9 +Blackburne's 'Confessional', 219 +Jones of Nayland on the Trinity, 219-20 +Priestley on the Trinity, 220 +Horsley's replies to Priestley, 220-4 +Unitarians and Trinitarians (nomenclature), 225 +Deism and Unitarianism, 226 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +'ENTHUSIASM.' + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +Meaning of 'Enthusiasm' as generally dreaded in the eighteenth + century, 226 +A vague term, but important in the history of the period, 227 +As entering into most theological questions then under + discussion, 229 +Cambridge Platonists: Cudworth, Henry More, 230 +Influence of Locke's philosophy, 234 +Warburton's 'Doctrine of Grace', 237 +Sympathy with the reasonable rather than the spiritual side of + religion, 237 +Absence of Mysticism in the last century, on any conspicuous + scale, 238 +Mysticism found its chief vent in Quakerism 240 +Quakerism in eighteenth century 241 +Its strength, its decline, its claim to attention, 244 +French Mysticism in England. The 'French Prophets', 246 +Fenelon, Bourignon, and Guyon, 249 +German Mysticism in England. Behmen, 251 +William Law, 253 +His active part in theological controversy, 254 +Effects of Mysticism on his theology, 255 + His breadth of sympathy and appreciation of all spiritual + excellence, 257 + Position of, in the Deist controversy, 259 + Views on the Atonement, 259 + On the Christian evidences, 260 + Controversy with Mandeville on the foundations of moral + virtue, 261 + His speculation on the future state, 261 + On Enthusiasm, 263 + His imitator in verse, John Byrom, 264 +The Moravians, 265 + Wesley's early intimacy with W. Law and with the Moravians, 266 + Lavington and others on the enthusiasm of Methodists, 269 + Points of resemblance and difference between Methodism and the Mystic + revivals, 271 +Bearing of Berkeley's philosophy on the Mystic theology, 274 +William Blake, 275 +Dean Graves on enthusiasm, 276 +Samuel Coleridge, 277 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CHURCH ABUSES. + +(_J.H. Overton._) + +Fair prospect at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 279 +Contrast between promise and performance, 279 +Shortcomings of the Church exaggerated on many sides, 280 +_General causes of the low tone of the Church:_-- + (1) Her outward prosperity, 280 + (2) Influence and policy of Sir R. Walpole, 281 + (3) The controversies of her own and previous generations, 282 + (4) Political complications, 282 + (5) Want of synodal action, 282-4 +Pluralities and non-residence, 284-6 +Neglect of parochial duties, 286-7 +Clerical poverty, 287-9 +Clerical dependents, 289 +Abuse of Church patronage, 290-2 +Evidence in the autobiography of Bishop T. Newton, 292-3 + " " " Bishop Watson, 293-6 + " " " Bishop Hurd, 296-7 +Clergy too much mixed up with politics, 297-8 +Want of parochial machinery, 298-300 +Sermons of period too sweepingly censured, 300 +But marked by a morbid dread of extremes, 301 +Political sermons, 302 +Low state of morals, 303 +Clergy superior to their contemporaries, 301 +The nation passed through a crisis in the eighteenth century, 306 +A period of transition in the Church, 307 +Torpor extended to all forms of Christianity, 308 +Decay of Church discipline, 309-310 +England better than her neighbours, 311 +Good influences in the later part of the century, 311-2 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL. + +(_J.H. Overton._) + +(1.) THE METHODIST MOVEMENT. + +Strength and weakness of the Church in the middle of the eighteenth + century, 313 +Propriety of the term 'Evangelical Revival', 314 +Contrast between Puritans and Evangelicals, 315 +William Law, 316 +John Wesley, 316-336 +George Whitefield, 337-340 +Charles Wesley, 340-3 +Fletcher of Madeley, 343-6 +Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, 347-354 +Other Methodist worthies, 355 + +(2.) THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY. + +Feebleness and unprofitableness of the controversy, 356 +The disputes between Wesley and Whitefield, 357-8 +Minutes of the Conference of 1770, 358-360 +The 'Circular printed Letter', 360 +Conference of 1771, 361 +Controversy breaks out afresh in 1772, 362 +Fletcher's checks to Antinomianism, 363-5 +Toplady's writings, 365 + +(3.) THE EVANGELISTS. + +James Hervey, 366-370 +Grimshaw of Haworth, 370-1 +Berridge of Everton, 371-2 +William Romaine, 372-4 +Henry Venn, 374-7 +Evangelicalism and Methodism contemporaneous, 377-8 +John Newton, 378-381 +William Cowper, 381-3 +Thomas Scott, 384-8 +Richard Cecil, 388 +Joseph Milner, 388-392 +Isaac Milner, 392-3 +Robinson of Leicester, 393-4 +Bishop Porteus, 394 +'The Clapham Sect', 394 +John and Henry Thornton, 395 +William Wilberforce, 395-8 +Lords Dartmouth and Teignmouth, 398 +Dr. Johnson, 398-9 +Hannah More, 399-402 +Strength and weakness of the Evangelical leaders, 402-3 + + +CHAPTER X. + +CHURCH FABRICS AND SERVICES. + +(_C.J. Abbey._) + +The 'Georgian Age', 403 +General sameness in the externals of worship, 404 +Church architecture, 405 +Vandalisms, 407 +Whitewash, 408 +Repairs of churches, 409 +Church naves; relics of mediaeval usage, 411 +Pews and galleries, 411 +Other adjuncts of eighteenth century churches, 414 +Chancels and their ornaments, 416 +Paintings in churches, 419 +Stained glass, 423 +Church bells, 425 +Churchyards, 427 +Church building, 428 +Daily services, 429 +Wednesday and Friday services; Saints' days; Lent; Passion Week; + Christmas Day, &c., 432 +Wakes; Perambulations, 436 +State services, 437 +Church attendance, 439 +Irreverence in church, 441 +Variety of ceremonial, 444 +The vestment rubric; copes, 445 +The surplice; hood; scarf, &c., 446 +Clerical costume, 447 +Postures of worship; Responses, &c., 449 +Liturgical uniformity, 451 +Division of services, 452 +The Eucharist; Sacramental usages, 453 +Parish clerks, 456 +Organs; church music, 458 +Cathedrals, 459 +The 'bidding' and the 'pulpit' prayer, 461 +Preaching, 463 +Lecturers, 466 +Funeral sermons, 468 +Baptism, 468 +Catechising, 469 +Confirmation, 470 +Marriage, 471 +Funerals, 471 +Church discipline; excommunication; penance, 472 +Sunday observance, 474 +Conclusion, 475 + +APPENDIX: List of Authorities, 477 + +INDEX, 489 + + + + +THE ENGLISH CHURCH + +IN THE + +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +The claim which the intellectual and religious life of England in the +eighteenth century has upon our interest has been much more generally +acknowledged of late years than was the case heretofore. There had been, +for the most part, a disposition to pass it over somewhat slightly, as +though the whole period were a prosaic and uninteresting one. Every +generation is apt to depreciate the age which has so long preceded it as +to have no direct bearing on present modes of life, but is yet not +sufficiently distant as to have emerged into the full dignity of +history. Besides, it cannot be denied that the records of the eighteenth +century are, with two or three striking exceptions, not of a kind to +stir the imagination. It was not a pictorial age; neither was it one of +ardent feeling or energetic movement. Its special merits were not very +obvious, and its prevailing faults had nothing dazzling in them, nothing +that could be in any way called splendid; on the contrary, in its weaker +points there was a distinctly ignoble element. The mainsprings of the +religious, as well as of the political, life of the country were +relaxed. In both one and the other the high feeling of faith was +enervated; and this deficiency was sensibly felt in a lowering of +general tone, both in the domain of intellect and in that of practice. +The spirit of feudalism and of the old chivalry had all but departed, +but had left a vacuum which was not yet supplied. As for loyalty, the +half-hearted feeling of necessity or expedience, which for more than +half the century was the main support of the German dynasty, was +something different not in degree only, but in kind, from that which had +upheld the throne in time past. Jacobitism, on the other hand, was not +strong enough to be more than a faction; and the Republican party, who +had once been equal to the Royalists in fervour of enthusiasm, and +superior to them in intensity of purpose, were now wholly extinct. The +country increased rapidly in strength and in material prosperity; its +growth was uninterrupted; its resources continued to develop; its +political constitution gained in power and consolidation. But there was +a deficiency of disinterested principle. There was an open field for the +operation of such sordid motives and debasing tactics as those which +disgraced Walpole's lengthened administration. + +In the following chapters there will be only too frequent occasion to +refer to a somewhat corresponding state of things in the religious life +of the country. For two full centuries the land had laboured under the +throes of the Reformation. Even when William III. died, it could +scarcely be said that England had decisively settled the form which her +National Church should take. The 'Church in danger' cries of Queen +Anne's reign, and the bitter war of pamphlets, were outward indications +that suspense was not yet completely over, and that both friends and +enemies felt they had still occasion to calculate the chances alike of +Presbyterianism and of the Papacy. But when George I. ascended the +throne in peace, it was at last generally realised that the 'Settlement' +of which so much had been spoken was now effectually attained. Church +and State were so far secured from change, that their defenders might +rest from anxiety. It was not a wholesome rest that followed. +Long-standing disputes and the old familiar controversies were almost +lulled to silence, but in their place a sluggish calm rapidly spread +over the Church, not only over the established National Church, but over +it and also over every community of Nonconformists. It is remarkable how +closely the beginning of the season of spiritual lassitude corresponds +with the accession of the first George. The country had never altogether +recovered from the reaction of lax indifference into which it had fallen +after the Restoration. Nevertheless, a good deal had occurred since that +time to keep the minds of Churchmen, as well as of politicians, awake +and active: and a good deal had been done to stem the tide of immorality +which had then broken over the kingdom. The Church of England was +certainly not asleep either in the time of the Seven Bishops, when James +II. was King, or under its Whig rulers at the end of the century. And in +Queen Anne's time, amid all the virulence of hostile Church parties, +there was a healthy stream of life which made itself very visible in the +numerous religious associations which sprang up everywhere in the great +towns. It might seem as if there were a certain heaviness in the English +mind, which requires some outward stimulus to keep alive its zeal. For +so soon as the press of danger ceased, and party strifes abated, with +the accession of the House of Brunswick, Christianity began forthwith to +slumber. The trumpet of Wesley and Whitefield was needed before that +unseemly slumber could again be broken. + +It will not, however, be forgotten that twice in successive generations +the Church of England had been deprived, through misfortune or through +folly, of some of her best men. She had suffered on either hand. By the +ejection of 1602, through a too stringent enforcement of the new Act of +Uniformity, she had lost the services of some of the most devoted of her +Puritan sons, men whose views were in many cases no way distinguishable +from those which had been held without rebuke by some of the most +honoured bishops of Elizabeth's time. By the ejection of 1689, through +what was surely a needless strain upon their allegiance, many +high-minded men of a different order of thought were driven, if not from +her communion, at all events from her ministrations. It was a juncture +when the Church could ill afford to be weakened by the defection of some +of the most earnest and disinterested upholders of the Primitive and +Catholic, as contrasted with the more directly Protestant elements of +her Constitution. This twofold drain upon her strength could scarcely +have failed to impair the robust vitality which was soon to be so +greatly needed to combat the early beginnings of the dead resistance of +spiritual lethargy. + +But this listlessness in most branches of practical religion must partly +be attributed to a cause which gives the history of religious thought in +the eighteenth century its principal importance. In proportion as the +Church Constitution approached its final settlement, and as the +controversies, which from the beginning of the Reformation had been +unceasingly under dispute, gradually wore themselves out, new questions +came forward, far more profound and fundamental, and far more important +in their speculative and practical bearings, than those which had +attracted so much notice and stirred so much excitement during the two +preceding centuries. The existence of God was scarcely called into +question by the boldest doubters; or such doubts, if they found place at +all, were expressed only under the most covert implications. But, short +of this, all the mysteries of religion were scrutinized; all the deep +and hidden things of faith were brought in question, and submitted to +the test of reason. Is there such a thing as a revelation from God to +men of Himself and of His will? If so, what is its nature, its purposes, +its limits? What are the attributes of God? What is the meaning of life? +What is man's hereafter? Does a divine spirit work in man? and if it +does, what are its operations, and how are they distinguishable? What is +spirit? and what is matter? What does faith rest upon? What is to be +said of inspiration, and authority, and the essential attributes of a +church? These, and other questions of the most essential religious +importance, as the nature and signification of the doctrines of the +Trinity, of the Incarnation of Christ, of Redemption, of Atonement, +discussions as to the relations between faith and morals, and on the +old, inevitable enigmas of necessity and liberty, all more or less +entered into that mixed whirl of earnest inquiry and flippant scepticism +which is summed up under the general name of the Deistic Controversy. +For it is not hard to see how intimately the secondary controversies of +the time were connected with that main and central one, which not only +engrossed so much attention on the part of theologians and students, but +became a subject of too general conversation in every coffee-house and +place of public resort. + +In mental, as well as in physical science, it seems to be a law that +force cannot be expended in one direction without some corresponding +relaxation of it in another. And thus the disproportionate energies +which were diverted to the intellectual side of religion were exercised +at some cost to its practical part. Bishops were writing in their +libraries, when otherwise they might have been travelling round their +dioceses. Men were pondering over abstract questions of faith and +morality, who else might have been engaged in planning or carrying out +plans for the more active propagation of the faith, or a more general +improvement in popular morals. The defenders of Christianity were +searching out evidences, and battling with deistical objections, while +they slackened in their fight against the more palpable assaults of the +world and the flesh. Pulpits sounded with theological arguments where +admonitions were urgently needed. Above all, reason was called to decide +upon questions before which man's reason stands impotent; and +imagination and emotion, those great auxiliaries to all deep religious +feeling, were bid to stand rebuked in her presence, as hinderers of the +rational faculty, and upstart pretenders to rights which were not +theirs. 'Enthusiasm' was frowned down, and no small part of the light +and fire of religion fell with it. + +Yet an age in which great questions were handled by great men could not +be either an unfruitful or an uninteresting one. It might be unfruitful, +in the sense of reaping no great harvest of results; and it might be +uninteresting, in respect of not having much to show upon the surface, +and exhibiting no great variety of active life. But much good fruit for +the future was being developed and matured; and no one, who cares to see +how the present grows out of the past, will readily allow that the +religious thought and the religious action of the eighteenth century are +deficient in interest to our times. Our debt is greater than many are +inclined to acknowledge. People see clearly that the Church of that age +was, in many respects, in an undoubtedly unsatisfactory condition, +sleepy and full of abuses, and are sometimes apt to think that the +Evangelical revival (the expression being used in its widest sense) was +the one redeeming feature of it. And as in theological and +ecclesiastical thought, in philosophy, in art, in poetry, the general +tendency has been reactionary, the students and writers of the +eighteenth century have in many respects scarcely received their due +share of appreciation. Moreover, negative results make little display. +There is not much to show for the earnest toil that has very likely been +spent in arriving at them; and a great deal of the intellectual labour +of the last century was of this kind. Reason had been more completely +emancipated at the Reformation than it was at first at all aware of. Men +who were engaged in battling against certain definite abuses, and +certain specified errors, scarcely discovered at first, nor indeed for +long afterwards, that they were in reality contending also for +principles which would affect for the future the whole groundwork of +religious conviction. They were not yet in a position to see that +henceforward authority could take only a secondary place, and that they +were installing in its room either reason or a more subtle spiritual +faculty superior even to reason in the perception of spiritual things. +It was not until near the end of the seventeenth century that the mind +began to awaken to a full perception of the freedom it had won--a +freedom far more complete in principle than was as yet allowed in +practice. In the eighteenth century this fundamental postulate of the +Reformation became for the first time a prominent, and, to many minds, +an absorbing subject of inquiry. For the first time it was no longer +disguised from sight by the incidental interest of its side issues. The +assertors of the supremacy of reason were at first arrogantly, or even +insolently, self-confident, as those who were secure of carrying all +before them. Gradually, the wiser of them began to feel that their +ambition must be largely moderated, and that they must be content with +far more negative results than they had at first imagined. The question +came to be, what is reason unable to do? What are its limits? and how is +it to be supplemented? An immensity of learning, and of arguments good +and bad, was lavished on either side in the controversy between the +deists and the orthodox. In the end, it may perhaps be said that two +axioms were established, which may sound in our own day like +commonplaces, but which were certainly very insufficiently realised when +the controversy began. It was seen on the one hand that reason was free, +and that on the other it was encompassed by limitations against which it +strives in vain. The Deists lost the day. Their objections to revelation +fell through; and Christianity rose again, strengthened rather than +weakened by their attack. Yet they had not laboured in vain, if success +may be measured, not by the gaining of an immediate purpose, but by +solid good effected, however contrary in kind to the object proposed. So +far as a man works with a single-hearted desire to win truth, he should +rejoice if his very errors are made, in the hands of an overruling +Providence, instrumental in establishing truth. Christianity in England +had arrived in the eighteenth century at one of those periods of +revision when it has become absolutely necessary to examine the +foundations of its teaching, at any risk of temporary disturbance to the +faith of individuals. The advantage ultimately gained was twofold. It +was not only that the vital doctrines of Christian faith had been +scrutinised both by friends and enemies, and were felt to have stood the +proof. But also defenders of received doctrine learnt, almost +insensibly, very much from its opponents. They became aware--or if not +they, at all events their successors became aware--that orthodoxy must, +in some respects, modify the stringency of its conclusions; that there +was need, in other instances, of disentangling Christian verities from +the scholastic refinements which had gradually grown up around them; and +that there were many questions which might safely be left open to debate +without in any way impairing the real defences of Christianity. A +sixteenth or seventeenth-century theologian regarded most religious +questions from a standing point widely different in general character +from that of his equal in piety and learning in the eighteenth century. +The circumstances and tone of thought which gave rise to the Deistic and +its attendant controversies mark with tolerable definiteness the chief +period of transition. + +The Evangelical revival, both that which is chiefly connected with the +name of the Wesleys and of Whitefield, and that which was carried on +more exclusively within the Church of England, closely corresponded in +many of its details to what had often occurred before in the history of +the Christian Church. But it had also a special connection with the +controversies which preceded it. When minds had become tranquillised +through the subsidence of discussions which had threatened to overthrow +their faith, they were the more prepared to listen with attention and +respect to the stirring calls of the Evangelical preacher. The very +sense of weariness, now that long controversy had at last come to its +termination, tended to give a more entirely practical form to the new +religious movement. And although many of its leaders were men who had +not come to their prime till the Deistical controversy was almost over, +and who would probably have viewed the strife, if it had still been +raging, with scarcely any other feeling than one of alarmed concern, +this was at all events not the case with John Wesley. There are +tolerably clear signs that it had materially modified the character of +his opinions. The train of thought which produced the younger Dodwell's +'Christianity not Founded upon Argument'--a book of which people +scarcely knew, when it appeared, whether it was a serious blow to the +Deist cause, or a formidable assistance to it--considerably influenced +Wesley's mind, as it also did that of William Law and his followers. He +entirely repudiated the mysticism which at one time had begun to attract +him; but, like the German pietists, who were in some sense the religious +complement of Rationalism, he never ceased to be comparatively +indifferent to orthodoxy, so long as the man had the witness of the +Spirit proving itself in works of faith. In whatever age of the Church +Wesley had lived, he would have been no doubt an active agent in the +holy work of evangelisation. But opposed as he was to prevailing +influences, he was yet a man of his time. We can hardly fancy the John +Wesley whom we know living in any other century than his own. Spending +the most plastic, perhaps also the most reflective period of his life in +a chief centre of theological activity, he was not unimpressed by the +storm of argument which was at that time going on around him. It was +uncongenial to his temper, but it did not fail to leave upon him its +lasting mark. + +The Deistical and other theological controversies of the earlier half of +the century, and the Wesleyan and Evangelical revival in its latter +half, are quite sufficient in themselves to make the Church history of +the period exceedingly important. They are beyond doubt its principal +and leading events. But there was much more besides in the religious +life of the country that is well worthy of note. The Revolution which +had so lately preceded the opening of the century, and the far more +pregnant and eventful Revolution which convulsed Europe at its close, +had both of them many bearings, though of course in very different ways, +upon the development of religious and ecclesiastical thought in this +country. One of the first and principal effects of the change of dynasty +in 1688 had been to give an immense impetus to Protestant feeling. This +was something altogether different in kind from the Puritanism which had +entered so largely into all the earlier history of that century. It was +hardly a theological movement; neither was it one that bore primarily +and directly upon personal religion. It was, so to say, a strategical +movement of self defence. The aggression of James II. upon the +Constitution had not excited half the anger and alarm which had been +caused by his attempts to reintroduce Popery. And now that the exiled +King had found a refuge in the court of the monarch who was not only +regarded as the hereditary enemy of England, but was recognised +throughout Europe as the great champion of the Roman Catholic cause, +religion, pride, interest, and fear combined to make all parties in +England stand by their common Protestantism. Not only was England prime +leader in the struggle against Papal dominion; but Churchmen of all +views, the great bulk of the Nonconformists, and all the reformed +Churches abroad, agreed in thinking of the English Church as the chief +bulwark of the Protestant interest. + +Projects of comprehension had ended in failure before the eighteenth +century opened. But they were still fresh in memory, and men who had +taken great interest in them were still living, and holding places of +honour. For years to come there were many who greatly regretted that the +scheme of 1689 had not been carried out, and whose minds constantly +recurred to the possibility of another opportunity coming about in their +time. Such ideas, though they scarcely took any practical form, cannot +be left out of account in the Church history of the period. In the midst +of all that strife of parties which characterised Queen Anne's reign, a +longing desire for Church unity was by no means absent. Only these +aspirations had taken by this time a somewhat altered form. The history +of the English Constitution has ever been marked by alternations, in +which Conservatism and attachment to established authority have +sometimes been altogether predominant, at other times a resolute, even +passionate contention for the security and increase of liberty. In Queen +Anne's reign a reaction of the former kind set in, not indeed by any +means universal, but sufficient to contrast very strongly with the +period which had preceded it. One of the symptoms of it was a very +decided current of popular feeling in favour of the Church. People began +to think it possible, or even probable, that with the existing +generation of Dissenters English Nonconformity would so nearly end, as +to be no longer a power that would have to be taken into any practical +account. Concession, therefore, to the scruples of 'weak brethren' +seemed to be no longer needful; and if alterations were not really +called for, evidently they would be only useless and unsettling. In +this reign, therefore, aspirations after unity chiefly took the form of +friendly overtures between Church dignitaries in England and the +Lutheran and other reformed communities abroad, as also with such +leaders of the Gallican party as were inclined, if possible, to throw +off the Papal supremacy and to effect at the same time certain religious +and ecclesiastical reforms. Throughout the middle of the century there +was not so much any craving for unity as what bore some outward +resemblance to it, an indolent love of mere tranquillity. The +correspondence, however, that passed between Doddridge and some of the +bishops, and the interest excited by the 'Free and Candid +Disquisitions,' showed that ideas of Church comprehension were not yet +forgotten. About this date, another cause, in addition to the _quieta +non movere_ principle, interfered to the hindrance of any such +proposals. Persons who entertained Arian and other heterodox opinions +upon the doctrine of the Trinity were an active and increasing party; +and there was fear lest any attempt to enlarge the borders of the Church +should only, or chiefly, result in their procuring some modifications of +the Liturgy in their favour. Later in the century, the general question +revived in immediate interest under a new form. It was no longer asked, +how shall we win to our national communion those who have hitherto +declined to recognise its authority? The great ecclesiastical question +of the day--if only it could have been taken in hand with sufficient +earnestness--was rather this: how shall we keep among us in true Church +fellowship this great body of religiously minded men and women who, by +the mouth of their principal leader, profess real attachment to the +Church of England, and yet want a liberty and freedom from rule which we +know not how to give? No doubt it was a difficulty--more difficult than +may at first appear--to incorporate the activities of Methodism into the +general system of the National Church. Only it is very certain that +obstacles which might have been overcome were not generally grappled +with in the spirit, or with the seriousness of purpose, which the crisis +deserved. Meanwhile, at the close of the period, when this question had +scarcely been finally decided, the Revolution broke out in France. In +the terror of that convulsion, when Christianity itself was for the +first time deposed in France, and none knew how widely the outbreak +would extend, or what would be the bound of such insurrection against +laws human and divine, the unity of a common Christianity could not fail +to be felt more strongly than any lesser causes of disunion. There was a +kindness and sympathy of feeling manifested towards the banished French +clergy, which was something almost new in the history of Protestantism. +The same cause contributed to promote the good understanding which at +this time subsisted between a considerable section of Churchmen and +Dissenters. Possibly some practical efforts might have been set on foot +towards healing religious divisions, if the open war waged against +Christianity had long been in suspense. As it was, other feelings came +in, which tended rather to widen than to diminish the breach between men +of strong and earnest opinions on different sides. In some men of warm +religious feeling the Revolution excited a fervent spirit of Radicalism. +However much they deplored the excesses and horrors which had taken +place in France, they did not cease to contemplate with passionate hope +the tumultuous upheaval of all old institutions, trusting that out of +the ruins of the past a new and better future would derive its birth. +The great majority of Englishmen, on the other hand, startled and +terrified with what they saw, became fixed in a resolute determination +that they would endure no sort of tampering with the English +Constitution in Church or State. Whatever changes might be made for +better or for worse, they would in any case have no change now. +Conservatism became in their eyes a sort of religious principle from +which they could not deviate without peril of treason to their faith. +This was an exceedingly common feeling; among none more so than with +that general bulk of steady sober-minded people of the middle classes +without whose consent changes, in which they would feel strongly +interested, could never be carried out. The extreme end of the last +century was not a time when Church legislation, for however excellent an +object, was likely to be carried out, or even thought of. + +To return to the beginning of the period under review. 'Divine right,' +'Passive obedience,' 'Non-resistance,' are phrases which long ago have +lost life, and which sound over the gulf of time like faint and shadowy +echoes of controversies which belong to an already distant past. Even in +the middle of the century it must have been difficult to realise the +vehemence with which the semi-religious, semi-political, doctrines +contained in those terms had been disputed and maintained in the +generation preceding. Yet round those doctrines, in defence or in +opposition, some of the best and most honourable principles of human +nature used to be gathered--a high-minded love of liberty on the one +hand, a no less lofty spirit of self-sacrifice and loyalty on the other. + +The open or half-concealed Jacobitism which, for many years after the +Revolution, prevailed in perhaps the majority of eighteenth-century +parsonages could scarcely fail of influencing the English Church at +large, both in its general action, and in its relation to the State. +This influence was in many respects a very mischievous one. In country +parishes, and still more so in the universities, it fostered an unquiet +political spirit which was prejudicial both to steady pastoral work and +to the advancement of sound learning. It also greatly disturbed the +internal unity of the Church, and that in a manner peculiarly +prejudicial to its well-being. Strong doctrinal and ecclesiastical +differences within a Church may do much more good in stirring a +wholesome spirit of emulation, and in keeping thought alive and +preventing a Church from narrowing into a sect, than they do harm by +creating a spirit of division. But the semi-political element which +infused its bitterness into Church parties during the first half of the +eighteenth century, had no such merit. It did nothing to promote either +practical activity or theological inquiry. Under its influence High and +Broad Church were too often not so much rival schools of religious +thought, and representatives of different tones of religious feeling, as +rival factions. King William's bishops--a set of men who, on the whole, +did very high honour to his selection--were regarded by a number of the +clergy with suspicion and aversion, as his pledged supporters both in +political and ecclesiastical matters, no less ready to upset the +established order of the Church than they had been to change the ancient +succession of the throne. These, in their turn, scarcely cared to +conceal, if not their scorn, at all events their supreme mistrust, for +men who seemed in their eyes like bigoted disturbers of a Constitution +in which the country had every reason to rejoice. + +More than this, Jacobitism brought the National Church into peril of +downright schism. There was already a nucleus for it. If the Nonjuring +separation had been nothing more than the secession of a number of High +Churchmen--some of them conspicuous for their piety and learning, and +almost all worthy of respect as disinterested men who had strong +convictions and stood by them--the loss of such men would, even so, have +been a serious matter. But the evil did not end there. Although the +Nonjurors, especially after the return of Nelson and others into the lay +communion of the Established Church, were often spoken of with contempt +as an insignificant body, an important Jacobite success might at any +time have vastly swelled their number. A great many clergymen and +leading country families had simply acquiesced in the rule of William as +king _de facto_, and would have transferred their allegiance without a +scruple if there had seemed a strong likelihood that James or the +Pretender would win the crown back again. In this case the Nonjuring +communion, which always proudly insisted that it alone was the true old +Church of England, might have received an immense accession of +adherents. It would not by any means have based its distinctive +character upon mere Jacobite principles. It would have claimed to be +peculiarly representative of the Catholic claims of the English Church, +while Whigs and Low Churchmen would have been more than ever convertible +terms. As it was, High Churchism among country squires took a different +turn. But if the Stuart cause had become once more a promising one, and +had associated itself, in its relations towards the Church, with the +opinions and ritual to which the Nonjurors were no less attached than +Laud and his followers were in Charles I.'s day, it is easy to guess +that such distinctive usages might soon be welcomed with enthusiasm by +Jacobites, if for no other reason, yet as hallowed symbols of a party. +At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Church parties had been +already strained and most unhappily embittered by political dissensions; +under the circumstances supposed, division might readily have been +aggravated into hopeless schism. But Jacobitism declined; and a less, +but still a serious evil to the Church ensued. Jacobitism and the Papacy +had become in most people's minds closely connected ideas. Hence the +opinions upon Church matters prevalent among Nonjurors and their +ecclesiastical sympathisers in the Established Church became also +unpopular, and tainted with an unmerited suspicion of leaning towards +Rome. This was no gain to the Church of the Georgian era. Quite +independently of any bias which a person may feel towards this or that +shade of opinion upon debated questions, it may be asserted with perfect +confidence that the Church of that period would decidedly have gained by +an increase of life and earnestness in any one section of its members. A +colourless indifferentism was the pest of the age. Some movement in the +too still waters was sorely needed. A few Ritualists, as they would now +be called, in the metropolitan churches, zealous and active men, would +have stimulated within the Church a certain interest and excitement +which, whether it were friendly or hostile, would have been almost +certainly beneficial. But, in the middle of the century, High Churchmen +of this type would scarcely be found, except in Nonjuror 'conventicles,' +and among the oppressed Episcopalians of Scotland. + +The public relations of civil society towards religion attracted in the +eighteenth century--especially in the earlier part of it--very universal +attention. Of the various questions that come under this head, there was +none of such practical and immediate importance as that which was +concerned with the toleration of religious differences. The Toleration +Act had been carried amid general approval. There had been little +enthusiasm about it, but also very little opposition. Though it fell far +short of what would now be understood by tolerance, it was fully up to +the level of the times. It fairly expressed what was thoroughly the +case; that the spirit of intolerance had very much decreased, and that a +feeling in favour of religious liberty was decidedly gaining ground. +Meanwhile, in King William's reign, and still more so in that of his +successor, there was a very strongly marked contention and perplexity of +feeling as to what was really meant by toleration, and where its limits +were to be fixed. Everybody professed to be in favour of it, so long as +it was interpreted according to his own rule. The principle was granted, +but there were few who had any clear idea as to the grounds upon which +they granted it, and still fewer who did not think it was a principle to +be carefully fenced round with limitations. The Act of Toleration had +been itself based in great measure upon mere temporary considerations, +there being a very strong wish to consolidate the Protestant interest +against Papal aggression. Its benefits were strictly confined to the +orthodox Protestant dissenters; and even they were left under many +oppressive disabilities. A great principle had been conceded, and a +great injustice materially abated. Henceforth English Dissenters, whose +teachers had duly attested their allegiance, and duly subscribed to the +thirty-six doctrinal articles of the Church of England, might attend +their certified place of worship without molestation from vexatious +penal laws. It was bare toleration, accorded to certain favoured bodies; +and there for a long time it ended. Two wide-reaching limitations of the +principle of tolerance intervened to close the gate against other +Nonconformists than these. Open heresy could not be permitted, nor any +worship that was adjudged to be distinctly prejudicial to the interests +of the State. No word could yet be spoken, without risk of heavy +penalty, against the received doctrine of the Trinity. Nonjurors and +Scotch Episcopalians could only meet by stealth in private houses. As +for Romanists, so far from their condition being in any way mitigated, +their yoke was made the harder, and they might complain, with Rehoboam's +subjects, that they were no longer chastised with whips, but with +scorpions. William's reign was marked by a long list of new penal laws +directed against them. There were many who quoted with great approval +the advice (published in 1690, and republished in 1716) of 'a good +patriot, guided by a prophetic spirit.' His 'short and easy method' was, +to 'expel the whole sect from the British dominions,' and, laying aside +'the feminine weakness' of an unchristian toleration, 'once for all, to +clear the land of these monsters, and force them to transplant +themselves.' Much in the same way there were many good people who would +have very much liked to adopt violent physical measures against +'freethinkers' and 'atheists.' Steele in the 'Tatler,' Budgell in the +'Spectator,' and Bishop Berkeley in the 'Guardian,' all express a +curious mixture of satisfaction and regret that such opinions could not +be summarily punished, if not by the severest penalties of the law, at +the very least by the cudgel and the horsepond. Whiston seems to have +thought it possible that heterodox opinions upon the mystery of the +Trinity might even yet, under certain contingencies, bring a man into +peril of his life. In a noticeable passage of his memoirs, written +perhaps in a moment of depression, he speaks of learning the prayer of +Polycarp, 'if it should be my lot to die a martyr.' The early part of +the eighteenth century abounds in indications that amid a great deal of +superficial talk about the excellence of toleration the older spirit of +persecution was quite alive, ready, if circumstances favoured it, to +burst forth again, not perhaps with firebrand and sword, but with the no +less familiar weapons of confiscations and imprisonment. Toleration was +not only very imperfectly understood, even by those who most lauded it, +but it was often loudly vaunted by men whose lives and opinions were +very far from recommending it. In an age notorious for laxity and +profaneness, it was only too obvious that great professions of tolerance +were in very many cases only the fair-sounding disguise of flippant +scepticism or shallow indifference. The number of such instances made +some excuse for those who so misunderstood the Christian liberalism of +such men as Locke and Lord Somers, as to charge it with irreligion or +even atheism. + +Nevertheless the growth of toleration was one of the most conspicuous +marks of the eighteenth century. If one were to judge only from the +slowness of legislation in this respect, and the grudging reluctance +with which it conceded to Nonconformists the first scanty instalments of +complete civil freedom, or from the words and conduct of a considerable +number of the clergy, or from certain fierce outbursts of mob riot +against Roman Catholics, Methodists, and Jews, it might be argued that +if toleration did indeed advance, it was but at tortoise speed. In +reality, the advance was very great. Mosheim, writing before the middle +of the century, spoke of the 'unbounded liberty' of religious thought +which existed in England. Perhaps the expression was somewhat +exaggerated. But in what previous age could it have been used at all +without evident absurdity? Dark as was the general view which Doddridge, +in his sermon on the Lisbon Earthquake, took of the sins and corruption +of the age, freedom from religious oppression he considered to be the +one most redeeming feature of it. The stern intolerant spirit, which for +ages past had prompted multitudes, even of the kindest and most humane +of men, to regard religious error as more mischievous than crime, was +not to be altogether rooted out in the course of a generation or two. +But all the most influential and characteristic thought of the +eighteenth century set full against it. In this one respect, the virtues +and vices of the day made, it might almost be said, common cause. It +might be hard to say whether its carelessness and indifference had most +to do with the general growth of toleration, or its practical common +sense, its professed veneration for sound reason, its love of sincerity. +It is more remarkable that there was so much toleration in the last +century, than that there was also so much intolerance. + +A crowd of writers, of every variety of opinion, had something to write +or say on the subject of Church establishments. But until the time of +Priestley few ever disputed the advantages derivable from a National +Church. Many would have warmly agreed with Hoadly that 'an establishment +which did not allow of toleration would be a blight and a lethargy.' So +long as this was conceded, scarcely any one wished that the ancient +union of Church and State should be dissolved. With rare exceptions, +even Nonconformists did not wish it. However much fault they might find +with the existing constitution of the Church, however much they might +inveigh against what they considered to be its errors, however much they +might point to the abuses which deformed it, and to the uncharitable +spirit of some of its clergy, they by no means desired its downfall. +Probably, it is not too much to say that to some extent they were even +proud of it, as the chief bulwark in Europe of the reformed faith. The +Presbyterians at the beginning of the century, a declining, but still a +strong body, were almost Churchmen in their support of the national +communion. Doddridge, towards the middle of the century, was a hearty +advocate of religious establishments. Even Watts, a more decided +Dissenter than he, in a poem written in the earlier part of Queen Anne's +reign, spoke as if he would be thoroughly content to see a National +Church working side by side with voluntary bodies, each labouring in the +way most fitted to its spirit in the common cause of religion. Mrs. +Barbauld, towards the end of the century, expressed the same thought; +and a great number of the more intelligent and moderate Dissenters would +have agreed in it. On the general question, we are told that about the +time of the Revolution of 1688 there was scarcely one Dissenter in a +hundred who did not think the State was bound to use its authority in +the interests of the religion of the people. Half the last century had +passed before any considerable number of them had begun to think +differently. John Wesley is sometimes quoted as unfavourable to the +connection of Church and State. Doubtless he did not greatly value it, +and perhaps he may have used some expressions which, taken by +themselves, might seem in some degree to warrant the inference just +mentioned. But the love and loyalty which, all his life through, he bore +towards the English Church was certainly connected not only with a high +estimation of its doctrines and modes of worship, but with respect for +it as the acknowledged Church of the realm. The Evangelical party in the +Church were, without exception, thorough Church and State men. John +Newton's 'Apologia' was, in particular, a very vigorous defence of +Church establishments. During the earlier stages of the French +Revolution--a period when unaccustomed thoughts of radical changes in +society became very attractive to some ardent minds in every class--the +party among the Dissenters who would have welcomed disestablishment +received the accession of a few cultivated Churchmen. But Samuel +Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth found reason afterwards wholly to +change their views in this, as in many other respects. Furthermore, the +increased radicalism of the few was more than counterbalanced by the +intensified conservatism of the many. The glowing sentences in which +Edmund Burke dwelt upon religion as the basis of civil society, and +proclaimed the purpose of Englishmen, that, instead of quarrelling 'with +establishments as some do, who have made a philosophy and a religion of +their hostility to such institutions, they would cleave closely to +them,' found an echo in the minds of the vast majority of his +countrymen. This had been the general feeling throughout the century. +With all its faults--and in many respects its condition was by no means +satisfactory--the Church of England had never ceased to be popular. +Sometimes it met with contumely, often with neglect; occasionally its +alleged faults and shortcomings were sharply criticised, and people +never ceased to relish a jest at the expense of its ministers. But they +were not the least inclined to subvert an institution which had not only +rooted itself into the national habits, but was felt to be the mainstay +throughout the country of religion and morals. Although too often +deficient in the power of evoking and sustaining the more fervent +emotions of piety, it was representative to the great bulk of society of +most of their aspirations towards a higher life, most of their +realisations of spiritual things. It was sleepy, but it was not corrupt; +it was genuine in its kind, so that the good it did was received without +distrust. Nor could anyone deny that throughout the country it did an +immense deal of quiet but not unrecognised good. There were few places +where the general level would not have been lower without it. It had +fought a good battle against Rome, and against the Deists; and the hold +which, since the middle of the century, had been gained in it by the +Evangelical revival proved it not incapable of kindling with a zeal +which some had begun to think was foreign to its nature. The Church, +therefore, as a great national institution, was perfectly safe. +Circumstances had no doubt forced a good deal of attention to its +relation with the State. But these discussions had few direct practical +bearings. Hence the theoretical and abstract character which they wear +in the writings of Warburton and others. + +In casting a general glance over the history of the English Church in +the eighteenth century, it will be at once seen that there is a greater +variety of incident in its earlier years than in any subsequent portion +of the period. There were controversies with Rome, with Dissenters, with +Nonjurors, with Arians, and above all, with Deists. There was +correspondence and negotiation with the French and Swiss Reformed +Churches, with German Lutherans, with French Gallicans. Schemes of +comprehension, though no longer likely to be carried out, were discussed +with strong feeling on either side. There was much to be said about +occasional conformity, about toleration, about the relation between +Church and State. There was the exciting subject of 'danger to the +Church' from Rome, or from Presbyterianism, or from treason within. For +there was vehement party feeling and hot discussion in ecclesiastical +matters. Some looked upon the Low or Broad Church bishops as the most +distinguished ornaments of the English Church; others thought that if +they had their way, they would break down all the barriers of the +Church, and speedily bring it to ruin. With some, High Churchmen were +the only orthodox representatives of the English Church; in the eyes of +others they were firebrands, Jacobites, if not Jesuits, in disguise, a +greater danger to the ecclesiastical establishment than any peril from +without. No doubt party feeling ran mischievously high. There was much +bigotry, and much virulence. Such times, however, were more favourable +to religious activity than the dull and heavy stormless days that +followed. In the earlier part of the eighteenth century there were very +many men worthy to be spoken of with the utmost honour, both in the High +and Low Church parties. A great deal of active Christian work was set on +foot about this time. Thus the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge +was founded, and gathered round the table of its committee-room men of +very different opinions, but all filled with the same earnest desire to +promote God's glory, and to make an earnest effort to stem the +irreligion of the times. From its infancy, this society did a vast deal +to promote the object for which it had been established. The sister +Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts attested the +rise of missionary activity. Societies for the suppression of vice, and +for the reformation of public manners, sprang up in most of the large +towns, and displayed a great, some thought an excessive, zeal in +bringing to the bar of justice offenders against morality. Numerous +associations were formed--on much the same model as that adopted in +later years by the founders of the Methodist movement--of men who banded +to further their mutual edification, and a more devotional life, through +a constant religious observance of the ordinances and services of the +Church. In many cases they made arrangements to provide public daily +prayers where before there had been none, or to keep them up when +otherwise they would have fallen through. Parochial libraries were +organised in many parts of the kingdom, sometimes to provide religious +and sound moral literature for general public use, more often to give +the poorer clergy increased facilities for theological study. A most +beneficent work was set on foot in the foundation of Charity Schools. +During the five years which elapsed between the forming of the Christian +Knowledge Society in 1699, and the first assemblage of the Metropolitan +Charity School children in 1704, fifty-four schools had started in and +about London alone; and their good work went on increasing. The new +Churches--fifty in intention, twelve in fact--built in London and +Westminster by public grant were another proof of the desire to +administer to spiritual needs. Nor should mention be omitted of the +provision made by Queen Anne's Bounty for the augmentation of poor +livings, many of which had become miserably depauperised. By this +liberal act the Queen gave up to Church uses the first fruits and +tenths, which before the Reformation had been levied on the English +clergy by the Pope, but from Henry VIII.'s time had swelled the income +of the Crown. + +The Sacheverell 'phrensy,' and the circumstances which led to the +prorogation of Convocation, are less satisfactory incidents in the +Church history of Queen Anne's reign. In either case we find ourselves +in the very midst of that semi-ecclesiastical, semi-political strife, +which is so especially jarring upon the mind, when brought into +connection with the true interests of religion. In either case there is +an uncomfortable feeling of being in a mob. There is little greater +edification in the crowd of excited clergymen who collected in the +Jerusalem Chamber, than in the medley throng which huzzaed round +Westminster Hall and behind the wheels of Sacheverell's chariot. The +Lower House of Convocation evidently contained a great many men who had +been returned as proctors for the clergy, not so much for the higher +qualifications of learning, piety, and prudence, as for the active part +they took in Church politics. There were some excellent men in it, and +plenty of a kind of zeal; but the general temper of the House was +prejudiced, intemperate, and inquisitorial. The Whig bishops, on the +other hand, in the Upper House were impatient of opposition, and often +inconsiderate and ungracious to the lower clergy. Such, for example, +were just the conditions which brought out the worse and disguised the +more excellent traits of Burnet's character. It is not much to be +wondered at, that many people who were very well affected to the Church +thought it no great evil, but perhaps rather a good thing, that +Convocation should be permanently suspended. Reason and common sense +demand that a great Church should have some sort of deliberative +assembly. If it were no longer what it ought to be, and the reason for +this were not merely temporary, a remedy should have been found in +reform, not in compelled silence. But even in the midst of the factions +which disturbed its peace and hindered its usefulness, Convocation had +by no means wholly neglected to deliberate on practical matters of +direct religious concern. And unless its condition had been indeed +degenerate, there can be little doubt that it would have materially +assisted to keep up that healthy current of thought which the stagnation +of Church spirit in the Georgian age so sorely needed. The history, +therefore, of Convocation in Queen Anne's reign, turbulent as it was, +had considerable interest of its own. So also the Sacheverell riots (for +they deserve no more honourable name) have much historical value as an +index of feeling. Ignorance and party faction, and a variety of such +other unworthy components, entered largely into them. Yet after every +abatement has been made, they showed a strength of popular attachment to +the Church which is very noteworthy. The undisputed hold it had gained +upon the masses ought to have been a great power for good, and it has +been shown that there was about this time a good deal of genuine +activity stirring in the English Church. Unhappily, those signs of +activity in it decreased, instead of being enlarged and deepened. In +whatever other respects during the years that followed it fulfilled some +portion of its mission, it certainly lost, through its own want of +energy, a great part of the influence it had enjoyed at this earlier +date. + +The first twenty years of the period include also a principal part of +the history of the Nonjurors. Later in the century, they had entirely +drifted away from any direct association with the Established Church. +Their numbers had dwindled; and as there seemed to be no longer any +tangible reason for their continued schism, sympathy with them had also +faded away. There are some interesting incidents in their later history, +but these are more nearly related to the annals of the Episcopal Church +of Scotland than to our own. Step by step in the earlier years of the +century the ties which linked them with the English Church were broken. +First came the death of the venerable bishops, Ken and Frampton; then +the return to the established communion of Nelson, and Dodwell, and +other moderate Nonjurors; then the wilful perpetuation of the schism by +the consecration of bishops; then the division into two parties of those +who adopted the Communion Book of Edward VI., with its distinctive +usages, and those who were opposed to any change. All this took place +before 1718. By that time the schism was complete. + +One more characteristic feature of the early part of the century must be +mentioned. The essayists belong not only to the social history of the +period, but also to that of the Church. Few preachers were so effective +from their pulpits as were Addison and his fellow-contributors in the +pages of the 'Spectator' and other kindred serials. It was not only in +those Saturday papers which were specially devoted to graver musings +that they served the cause of religion and morality. They were true sons +of the Church; and if they did not go far below the surface, nor profess +to do more as a rule than satirise follies and censure venial forms of +vice, their tone was ever that of Christian moralists. They did no +scanty service as mediators, so to say, between religion and the world. +This phase of literature lived on later into the century, but it became +duller and less popular. It never again was what it had been in +Addison's time, and never regained more than a small fraction of the +social power which it had then commanded. + +After Queen Anne's reign, the main interest of English Church history +rests for a time on the religious thought of the age rather than on its +practice. The controversy with the Deists (which lasted for several +years longer with unabated force), and that in which Waterland and +Clarke were the principal figures, are discussed separately in this +work. But our readers are spared the once famous Bangorian controversy. +Its tedious complications are almost a by-word to those who are at all +acquainted with the Church history of the period. Some of the subjects +with which it dealt have ceased to be disputed questions, or no longer +attract much interest. Above all, its course was clouded and confused by +verbal misunderstandings, arising in part, perhaps, from the occasional +prolixity of Hoadly's style, but chiefly from the distorting influence +of strong prejudices. + +It is unquestionable that Hoadly's influence upon his generation was +great. Some, looking upon the defects of the period that followed, have +thought of that influence as distinctly injurious. They have considered +that it strongly conduced to a negligent belief and indifference to the +specific doctrines of Christian faith, making men careless of truth, so +long as they thought themselves to be sincere; also that it loosened the +hold of the Church on the people by impairing respect for authority, and +by tending to reduce all varieties of Christian faith to one equal +level. It is a charge which has some foundation. The religious +characteristics of the age, whatever they were, were independent in the +main of anything the Whig bishop did or wrote. Still, he was one of +those representative men who give form and substance to a great deal of +floating thought. He caught the ear of the public, and engrossed an +attention which was certainly very remarkable. In this character as a +leader of religious thought he was deficient in some very essential +points. He was too much of a controversialist, and his tone was too +political. There was more light than heat in what he wrote. So long as +it was principally a question of right reason, of sincerity, or of +justice, he deserved much praise, and did much good. In all the +qualities which give fire, energy, enthusiasm, he was wanting. The form +in which his religion was cast might suit some natures, but was too cold +and dispassionate for general use. It fell in only too well with the +prevailing tendencies of the times. It might promote, under favouring +circumstances, a kind of piety which could be genuine, reflective, and +deeply impressed by many of the divine attributes, but which, in most +cases, would need to be largely reinforced by other properties not so +easily to be found in Hoadly's writings--tenderness, imagination, +sympathy, practical activity, spiritual intensity. + +The rise and advance of Methodism, and its relationship with the English +Church, is a subject of very great interest, and one that has occupied +the attention of many writers. In these papers it has been chiefly +discussed as one of the two principal branches of the general +Evangelical movement. + +Treatises on the evidences of Christianity constitute a principal part +of the theological literature of the eighteenth century. No systematic +record of the religious history of that period could omit a careful +survey of what was said and thought on a topic which absorbed so great +an amount of interest. But if the subject is not entered into at length, +a writer upon it can do little more than repeat what has already been +concisely and comprehensively told in Mr. Pattison's well-known essay. +The authors, therefore, of this work have felt that they might be +dispensed from devoting to it a separate chapter. Many incidental +remarks, however, which have a direct bearing upon the search into +evidences will be found scattered here and there in the course of this +work. The controversy with the Deists necessitated a perpetual reference +to the grounds upon which belief is based both in the Christian +revelation, and in those fundamental truths of natural religion upon +which arguers on either side were agreed. A great deal also, which in +the eighteenth century was proscribed under the name of 'enthusiasm' was +nothing else in reality than an appeal of the soul of man to the +evidence of God's spirit within him to facts which cannot be grasped by +any mere intellectual power. By the greater part of the writers of that +period all reference to an inward light of spiritual discernment was +regarded with utter distrust as an illusion and a snare. From the +beginning to the end of the century, theological thought was mainly +concentrated on the effort to make use of reason--God's plain and +universal gift to man--as the one divinely appointed instrument for the +discovery or investigation of all truth. The examination of evidences, +although closely connected with the Deistical controversy, was +nevertheless independent of it. Horror of fanaticism, distrust of +authority, an increasing neglect of the earlier history of Christianity, +the comparative cessation of minor disputes, and the greater +emancipation of reason through the recent Act of Toleration, all +combined to encourage it. Besides this, physical science was making +great strides. The revolution of ideas effected by Newton's great +discovery made a strangely wide gap between seventeenth and eighteenth +century modes of thinking and speaking on many points connected with the +material universe. It was felt more or less clearly by most thinking men +that the relations of theology to the things of outward sense needed +readjustment. Newton himself, like his contemporaries, Boyle, Flamsteed, +and Halley, was a thoroughly religious man, and his general faith as a +Christian was confirmed rather than weakened by his perception of the +vast laws which had become disclosed to him. On many others the first +effect was different. Either they were impressed with exorbitant ideas +of the majesty of that faculty of reasoning which could thus transcend +the bounds of all earthly space, or else the sense of a higher spiritual +life was overpowered by the revelation of uniform physical laws +operating through a seeming infinite expanse of material existence. The +one cause tended to create a notion that unassisted reason was +sufficient for all human needs; the other developed a frequent bias to +materialism. Both alike rendered it imperative to earnest minds that +felt competent to the task to inquire what reason had to say about the +nature of our spiritual life, and the principles and religious motives +which chiefly govern it. Difficulties arising out of man's position as a +part of universal nature had scarcely been felt before. Nor even in the +last century did they assume the proportions they have since attained. +But they deserve to be largely taken into account in any review of the +evidence writers of that period. Not to speak of Derham's +'Physico-Theology' and other works of that class, neither Berkeley, +Butler, nor Paley--three great names--can be properly understood without +reference to the greatly increased attention which was being given to +the physical sciences. Berkeley's suggestive philosophy was distinctly +based upon an earnest wish to release the essence of all theology from +an embarrassing dependence upon the outward world of sense. Butler's +'Analogy'--by far the greatest theological work of the century--aims +throughout at creating a strong sense of the unity and harmony which +subsists between the operations of God's providence in the material +world of nature, and in that inner spiritual world which finds its +chiefmost exposition in Revelation. Paley's 'Natural Theology,' though +not the most valuable, is by no means the least interesting of his +works, and was intended by him to stand in the same relation to natural, +as his 'Evidences' to revealed religion. + +The evidence writers did a great work, not lightly to be disparaged. The +results of their labours were not of a kind to be very perceptible on +the surface, and are therefore particularly liable to be +under-estimated. There was neither show nor excitement in the gradual +process by which Christianity regained throughout the country the +confidence which for a time had been most evidently shaken. Proofs and +evidences had been often dinned into careless ears without much visible +effect, and often before weary listeners, to whom the great bulk of what +they heard was unintelligible and profitless. Very often in the hands of +well-intentioned, but uninstructed and narrow-minded men, fallacious or +thoroughly inconclusive arguments had been confidently used, to the +detriment rather than to the advantage of the cause they had at heart. +But at the very least, a certain acquiescence in the 'reasonableness of +Christianity,' and a respect for its teaching, had been secured which +could hardly be said to have been generally the case about the time when +Bishop Butler began to write. Meanwhile the revived ardour of religion +which had sprung up among Methodists and Evangelicals, and which at the +end of the century was stirring, in different forms but with the same +spirit, in the hearts of some of the most cultivated and intellectual of +our countrymen, was a greater practical witness to the living power of +Christianity than all other evidences. + +In quite the early part of the period with which these chapters deal +there was, as we have seen, a considerable amount of active and hopeful +work in the Church of England. The same may be said of its closing +years. The Evangelical movement had done good even in quarters where it +had been looked upon with disfavour. A better care for the religious +education of the masses, an increased attention to Church missions, the +foundation of new religious societies, greater parochial activity, +improvement in the style of sermons, a disposition on the part of +Parliament to reform some glaring Church abuses--all showed that a stir +and movement had begun, which might be slow to make any great advance, +but which was at all events promising for the future. Agitation against +slavery had been in great part a result of quickened Christian feeling, +and, in a still greater degree, a promoting cause of it. And when the +French Revolution broke out, it quickly appeared how resolutely bent the +vast majority of the people were to hold all the more firmly to their +Christianity and their Church. Some of the influences which in the early +part of the century had done so much to counteract the religious promise +of the time, were no longer, or no longer in the same degree, actively +at work. There was cause, therefore, for confident hope that the good +work which had begun might go on increasing. How far this was the case, +and what agencies contributed to hinder or advance religious life in the +Church of England and elsewhere, belongs to the history of a time yet +nearer to our own. + +Bishops, both as fathers of the Church and as holding high places, and +living therefore in the presence of the public, cannot, without grave +injury not to themselves only, but to the body over which they preside, +suffer their names to be in any way mixed up with the cabals of +self-interest and faction. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, +the Episcopal bench numbered among its occupants many men, both of High +and Low Church views, who were distinctly eminent for piety, activity, +and learning. And throughout the century there were always some bishops +who were thoroughly worthy of their high post. But towards the middle of +it, and on to its very close, there was an undoubted lowering in the +general tone of the Episcopal order. Average men, who had succeeded in +making themselves agreeable at Court, or who had shown that they could +be of political service to the administration of the time, too often +received a mitre for their reward. Amid the general relaxation of +principle which by the universal confession of all contemporary writers +had pervaded society, even worthy and good men seem to have condescended +at times to a discreditable fulsomeness of manner, and to an immoderate +thirst for preferments. There were many scandals in the Church which +greatly needed reform, but none which were so keenly watched, or which +did so much to lower its reputation, as unworthy acts of subserviency +on the part of certain bishops. The evil belonged to the individuals +and to the period, not by any means to the system of a National Church. +Yet those who disapproved of that system found no illustration more +practically effective to illustrate their argument. + +Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century, almost all writers who +had occasion to speak of the general condition of society joined in one +wail of lament over the irreligion and immorality that they saw around +them. This complaint was far too universal to mean little more than a +general, and somewhat conventional tirade upon the widespread corruption +of human nature. The only doubt is whether it might not in some measure +have arisen out of a keener perception, on the part of the more +cultivated and thoughtful portion of society, of brutal habits which in +coarser ages had been passed over with far less comment. Perhaps also +greater liberty of thought and speech caused irreligion to take a more +avowed and visible form. Yet even if the severe judgment passed by +contemporary writers upon the spiritual and moral condition of their age +may be fairly qualified by some such considerations, it must certainly +be allowed that religion and morality were, generally speaking, at a +lower ebb than they have been at many other periods. For this the +National Church must take a full share, but not more than a full share, +of responsibility. The causes which elevate or depress the general tone +of society have a corresponding influence, in kind if not in degree, +upon the whole body of the clergy. Church history, throughout its whole +course, shows very clearly that although the average level of their +spiritual and moral life has always been, except, possibly, in certain +very exceptional times, higher in some degree than that of the people +over which they are set as pastors, yet that this level ordinarily rises +or sinks with the general condition of Christianity in the Church and +country at large. If, for instance, a corrupt state of politics have +lowered the standard of public virtue, and have widely introduced into +society the unblushing avowal of self-seeking motives, which in better +times would be everywhere reprobated, the edge of principle is likely to +become somewhat blunted even where it might be least expected. In the +last century unworthy acts were sometimes done by men who were +universally held in high honour and esteem, which would most certainly +not have been thought of by those same persons if they had lived in our +own day. The national clergy, taken as they are from the general mass of +educated society, are sure to share very largely both in the merits and +defects of the class from which they come. Except under some strong +impulse, they are not likely, as a body, to assume a very much higher +tone, or a very much greater degree of spiritual activity, than that +which they had been accustomed to in all their earlier years. It was so +with the clergy of the eighteenth century. Their general morality and +propriety was never impeached, and their lives were for the most part +formed on a higher standard than that of most of the people among whom +they dwelt. But they were (speaking again generally) not nearly active +enough; the spiritual inertness which clung over the face of the country +prevailed also among them. Although, therefore, the Church retained the +respect and to a certain extent the affection of the people, it fell +evidently short in the Divine work entrusted to it. + +C.J.A. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ROBERT NELSON, HIS FRIENDS, AND CHURCH PRINCIPLES. + + +High Churchmanship, as it was commonly understood in Queen Anne's reign, +did not possess many attractive features. Its nobler and more spiritual +elements were sadly obscured amid the angry strife of party warfare, and +all that was hard, or worldly, or intolerant in it was thrust into +exaggerated prominence. Indeed, the very terms 'High' and 'Low' Church +must have become odious in the ears of good men who heard them bandied +to and fro like the merest watchwords of political faction. It is a +relief to turn from the noise and virulence with which so-called Church +principles were contested in Parliament and Convocation, in lampoons and +pamphlets, in taverns and coffee-houses, from Harley and Bolingbroke, +from Swift, Atterbury, and Sacheverell, to a set of High Churchmen, +belonging rather to the former than to the existing generation, whose +names were not mixed up with these contentions, and whose pure and +primitive piety did honour to the Church which had nurtured such +faithful and worthy sons. If, at the opening of the eighteenth century, +the English Church derived its chief lustre from the eminent qualities +of some of the Broad Church bishops, it must not be forgotten that it +was also adorned with the virtues of men of a very different order of +thought, as represented by Ken and Nelson, Bull and Beveridge. Some of +them, it is true, had been unable to take the oaths to the recently +established Government, and were therefore, as by a kind of accident, +excluded, if not from the services, at all events from the ministry of +the National Church. But none as yet ventured to deny that, saving the +question of political allegiance, they were thoroughly loyal alike to +its doctrine and its order. + +It is proposed in this chapter to make Robert Nelson the central figure, +and to group around him some of the most distinguished of his Juror and +Nonjuror friends. A special charm lingers around the memory of Bishop +Ken, but his name can scarcely be made prominent in any sketch which +deals only with the eighteenth century. He lived indeed through its +first decade, but his active life was over before it began. Nelson, on +the other hand, though he survived him by only four years, took an +active part throughout Queen Anne's reign in every scheme of Church +enterprise. He was a link, too, between those who accepted and those who +declined the oaths. Even as a member of the Nonjuring communion he was +intimately associated with many leading Churchmen of the Establishment; +and when, to his great gratification, he felt that he could again with +an easy conscience attend the services of his parish church, the +ever-widening gap that had begun to open was in his case no hindrance to +familiar intercourse with his old Nonjuring friends. + +Greatly as Robert Nelson was respected and admired by his +contemporaries, no complete record of his life was published until the +present century. His friend Dr. Francis Lee, author of the 'Life of +Kettlewell,' had taken the work on hand, but was prevented by death from +carrying it out. There are now, however, three or four biographies of +him, especially the full and interesting memoir published in 1860 by Mr. +Secretan. It is needless, therefore, to go over ground which has already +been completely traversed; a few notes only of the chief dates and +incidents of his life may be sufficient to introduce the subject. + +Robert Nelson was born in 1656. In his early boyhood he was at St. +Paul's School, but the greater part of his education was received under +the guidance of Mr. Bull, afterwards Bishop of St. Davids, by whose life +and teaching he was profoundly influenced. The biography of his +distinguished tutor occupied the labour of his last years, and was no +doubt a grateful offering to the memory of a man to whom he owed many of +his best impressions. About 1679 he went to London, where he became +intimate with Tillotson, then Dean of Canterbury. In later years this +intimacy was somewhat interrupted by great divergence of views on +theological and ecclesiastical subjects; but a strong feeling of mutual +respect remained, and, in his last illness, Tillotson was nursed by his +friend with the most affectionate love, and died in his arms. In 1680 +Nelson went to France with Halley, his old schoolfellow and fellow +member of the Royal Society, and during their journey watched with his +friend the celebrated comet which bears Halley's name. While in Paris he +received the offer of a place in Charles II.'s Court, but took the +advice of Tillotson, who said he should be glad 'if England were so +happy as that the Court might be a fit place for him to live in.'[1] He +therefore declined the offer, and travelled on to Rome, where he made +the acquaintance of Lady Theophila Lucy and married her the next year. +It was no light trouble to him that on their return to London she avowed +herself a Romanist. Cardinal Howard at Rome, and Bossuet at Paris, had +gained her over to their faith, and with the ardour of a proselyte she +even entered, on the Roman side, into the great controversy of the day. +Robert Nelson himself was entirely unaffected by the current which just +at this time seemed to have set in in favour of Rome. He maintained, +indeed, a cordial friendship with Bossuet, but was not shaken by his +arguments, and in 1688 published, as his first work, a treatise against +transubstantiation. Though controversy was little to his taste, these +were times when men of earnest conviction could scarcely avoid engaging +in it.[2] Nelson valued the name of Protestant next only to that of +Catholic, and was therefore drawn almost necessarily into taking some +part in the last great dispute with Rome.[3] But polemics would be +deprived of their gall of bitterness if combatants joined in the strife +with as much charity and generosity of feeling as he did.[4] + +From the first Nelson felt himself unable to transfer his allegiance to +the new Government. The only question in his mind was whether he could +consistently join in Church services in which public prayers were +offered in behalf of a prince whose claims he utterly repudiated. He +consulted Archbishop Tillotson on the point; and his old friend answered +with all candour that if his opinions were so decided that he was verily +persuaded such a prayer was sinful, there could be no doubt as to what +he should do. Upon this he at once joined the Nonjuring communion. He +remained in it for nearly twenty years, on terms of cordial intimacy +with most of its chief leaders. When, however, in 1709, Lloyd, the +deprived Bishop of Norwich, died, Nelson wrote to Ken, now the sole +survivor of the Nonjuring bishops, and asked whether he claimed his +allegiance to him as his rightful spiritual father. As regards the State +prayers, time had modified his views. He retained his Jacobite +principles, but considered that non-concurrence in certain petitions in +the service did not necessitate a prolonged breach of Church unity. Ken, +who had welcomed the accession of his friend Hooper to the see of Bath +and Wells, and who no longer subscribed himself under his old episcopal +title, gave a glad consent, for he also longed to see the schism healed. +Nelson accordingly, with Dodwell and other moderate Nonjurors, rejoined +the communion of the National Church. + +It is much to Robert Nelson's honour that in an age of strong party +animosities he never suffered his political predilections to stand in +the way of union for any benevolent purpose. He had taken an active +interest in the religious associations of young men which sprang up in +London and other towns and villages about 1678, a time when the zeal of +many attached members of the Church of England was quickened by the +dangers which were besetting it. A few years later, when 'Societies for +the Reformation of Manners' were formed, to check the immorality and +profaneness which was gaining alarming ground, he gave his hearty +co-operation both to Churchmen and Dissenters in a movement which he +held essential to the welfare of the country. Although a Jacobite and +Nonjuror, he was enrolled, with not a few of the most distinguished +Churchmen of the day, among the earliest members of the Society for +Promoting Christian Knowledge at its formation in 1699; and long before +his re-entering into the Established communion we find him not only a +constant attendant, but sometimes chairman at its weekly meetings. He +took a leading part in the organisation of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701, and sat at its +board in friendly conference with Burnet and many another whose very +names were odious to his Nonjuring friends. And great as his +disappointment must have been at the frustration of Jacobite hopes in +the quiet accession of George I., the interest and honourable pride +which he felt in the London charity schools so far triumphed over his +political prejudices that he found pleasure in marshalling four thousand +of the children to witness the new sovereign's entry, and to greet him +with the psalm which bids the King rejoice in the strength of the Lord +and be exceeding glad in His salvation. + +In such works as these--to which must be added his labours as a +commissioner in 1710 for the erection of new churches in London, his +efforts for the promotion of parochial and circulating clerical +libraries throughout the kingdom, for advancing Christian teaching in +grammar schools, for improving prisons, for giving help to French +Protestants in London and Eastern Christians in Armenia--Robert Nelson +found abundant scope for the beneficent energies of his public life. The +undertakings he carried out were but a few of the projects which engaged +his thoughts. If we cast our eyes over the proposed institutions which +he commended to the notice of the influential and the rich, it is +surprising to see in how many directions he anticipated the +philanthropical ideas of the age in which we live. Ophthalmic and +consumptive hospitals, and hospitals for the incurable; ragged schools; +penitentiaries; homes for destitute infants; associations of gentlewomen +for charitable and religious purposes; theological, training, and +missionary colleges; houses for temporary religious retirement and +retreat--such were some of the designs which, had he lived a few years +longer, he would certainly have attempted to carry into execution.[5] + +He was no less active with his pen in efforts aimed at infusing an +earnest spirit of practical piety, and bringing home to men's thoughts +an appreciative feeling of the value of Church ordinances. He published +his 'Practice of True Devotion' in 1698, an excellent work, which +attracted little attention when it first came out, but reached at least +its twenty-second edition before the next century was completed. His +treatise on the 'Christian Sacrifice' appeared in 1706, his 'Life of +Bishop Bull' in 1713; but it is by his 'Festivals and Fasts' that his +name has been made familiar to every succeeding generation of Churchmen. +Its catechetical form, and the somewhat formal composure of its style, +did not strike past readers as defects. It certainly was in high favour +among English Churchmen generally. Dr. Johnson said of it in 1776 that +he understood it to have the greatest sale of any book ever printed in +England except the Bible.[6] In the first four years and a half after +its issue from the press more than 10,000 copies were printed.[7] + +Robert Nelson died in the January of 1715, a man so universally esteemed +that it would be probably impossible to find his name connected in any +writer with a single word of disparagement. It would be folly to speak +of one thus distinguished by singular personal qualities as if he were, +to any great extent, representative of a class. If the Church of England +had been adorned during Queen Anne's reign by many such men, it could +never have been said of it that it failed to take advantage of the +signal opportunities then placed within its reach. Yet his views on all +Church questions, and many of the characteristic features of his +character, were shared by many of his friends both in the Established +Church and among the Nonjurors. He survived almost all of them, so that +with him the type seemed nearly to pass away for a length of time, as if +the spiritual atmosphere of the eighteenth century were uncongenial to +it. His younger acquaintances in the Nonjuring body, however sincere and +generous in temperament, were men of a different order. It was but +natural that, as the schism became more pronounced and Jacobite hopes +more desperate, the Church views of a dwindling minority should become +continually narrower, and lose more and more of those larger sympathies +which can scarcely be altogether absent in any section of a great +national Church. + +First in order among Nelson's friends--not in intimacy, but in the +affectionate honour with which he always remembered him--must be +mentioned Bishop Ken. He was living in retirement at Longleat; but +Nelson must have frequently met him at the house of their common friend +Mr. Cherry of Shottisbrooke,[8] and they occasionally corresponded. +Nelson may have been the more practical, Ken the more meditative. The +one was still in the full vigour of his benevolent activity while the +other was waiting for rest, and soothing with sacred song the pains +which told of coming dissolution. In his own words, to 'contemplate, +hymn, love, joy, obey,' was the tranquil task which chiefly remained for +him on earth. But they were congenial in their whole tone of thought. +Their views on the disputed questions of the day very nearly coincided. +Nelson, as might be expected of a layman who throughout his life had +seen much of good men of all opinions, was the more tolerant; but both +were kindly and charitable towards those from whom they most differed, +and both were attached with such deep loyalty of love to the Church in +whose bosom they had been nurtured that they desired nothing more than +to see what they believed to be its genuine principles fully carried +out, and could neither sympathise with nor understand religious feelings +which looked elsewhere for satisfaction. Both were unaffectedly devout, +without the least tinge of moroseness or gloom. Nelson specially +delighted in Ken's morning, evening, and midnight hymns. He entreated +his readers to charge their memory with them. 'The daily repeating of +them will make you perfect in them, and the good fruit of them will +abide with you all your days.'[9] He subjoined them to his 'Practice of +True Devotion;' and Samuel Wesley tells us that he personally knew how +much he delighted in them. It was with these that-- + + He oft, when night with holy hymns was worn, + Prevented prime and wak'd the rising morn.[10] + +He has made use of many of Ken's prayers, together with some from +Taylor, Kettlewell, and Hickes, in his 'Companion for the Festivals and +Fasts.' There is an intensity and effusion of spirit in them, in which +his own more studied compositions are somewhat wanting. + +Among the other Nonjuring bishops Nelson was acquainted with, but not +very intimately, were Bancroft and Frampton. The former he loved and +admired; and spoke very highly of his learning and wisdom, his prudent +zeal for the honour of God, his piety and self-denying integrity.[11] +The little weaknesses and gentle intolerances of the good old man were +not such as he would censure, nor would he be altogether out of sympathy +with them. Bishop Frampton was in a manner an hereditary friend. He had +gone out to Aleppo as a young man, half a century before, in capacity of +chaplain of the Levant Company, at the urgent recommendation of John +Nelson, father of Robert,[12] who had the highest opinion of his merits. +From his cottage at Standish in Gloucestershire, where he had retired +after his deprivation, he occasionally wrote to Robert Nelson, and must +have often heard of him from John Kettlewell, the intimate and very +valued friend of both. He was a man who could not fail to be +esteemed[13] and loved by all who had the privilege of his acquaintance. +He had been a preacher of great fame, whom people crowded to hear. Pepys +said of him that 'he preached most like an apostle that he ever heard +man;'[14] and Evelyn, noting in his diary that he had been to hear him, +calls him 'a pious and holy man, excellent in the pulpit for moving the +affections.' His letters, of which several remain, written to Ken, +Lloyd, and Sancroft, about the end of the seventeenth and the beginning +of the eighteenth centuries, give the idea of a man of unaffected +humility and simple piety, of a happy, kindly disposition, and full of +spirit and innocent mirth. Though he could not take the oaths, he +regularly communicated at the parish church.[15] Controversy he +abhorred; it seemed to him, he said to Kettlewell, as if the one thing +needful were scarcely heard, amidst the din and clashings of _pros_ and +_cons_, and he wished the men of war, the disputants, would follow his +friend's example, and beat their swords and spears into ploughshares and +pruning hooks.[16] + +John Kettlewell died in 1695, to Nelson's great loss, for he was indeed +a bosom friend. Nelson had unreservedly entrusted him with his schemes +for doing good, his literary projects, his spiritual perplexities, and +'the nicest and most difficult emergencies of his life; such an opinion +had he of his wisdom, as well as of his integrity.'[17] More than once, +observes Dr. Lee, he said how much gratitude he owed to Kettlewell for +his good influence, sometimes in animating him to stand out boldly in +the cause of religion, sometimes in concerting with him schemes of +benevolence, sometimes in suggesting what he could best write in the +service of the Church. They planned out together the 'Companion for the +Festivals and Fasts;' they encouraged one another in that gentler mode +of conducting controversy which must have seemed like mere weakness to +many of the inflamed partisans of the period. Nelson proposed to +preserve the memory of his friend in a biography. He carefully collected +materials for the purpose, and though he had not leisure to carry out +his design, was of great assistance to Francis Lee in the life which was +eventually written.[18] + +Bishop Ken used to speak of Kettlewell in terms of the highest reverence +and esteem. In a letter to Nelson, acknowledging the receipt of some of +Kettlewell's sermons, which his correspondent had lately edited, he +calls their author 'as saintlike a man as ever I knew;'[19] and when, in +1696, he was summoned before the Privy Council to give account for a +pastoral letter drawn up by the nonjuring bishops on behalf of the +deprived clergy, he spoke of it as having been first proposed by 'Mr. +Kettlewell, that holy man who is now with God.'[20] There can be no +doubt he well merited the admiration of his friends. Perhaps the most +beautiful element in his character was his perfect guilelessness and +transparent truth. Almost his last words, addressed to his nephew, were +'not to tell a lie, no, not to save a world, not to save your King nor +yourself.'[21] He had lived fully up to the spirit of this rule. +Anything like show and pretence, political shifts and evasions, +dissimulations for the sake of safety or under an idea of doing +good--'acting,' as he expressed it, 'deceitfully for God, and breaking +religion to preserve religion,' were things he would never in the +smallest degree condescend to. In no case would he allow that a jocose +or conventional departure from accuracy was justifiable, and even if a +nonjuring friend, under the displeasure, as might often be, of +Government, assumed a disguise, he was uneasy and annoyed, and declined +to call him by his fictitious name.[22] Happily, perhaps, for his peace +of mind, his steady purpose 'to follow truth wherever he might find +it,'[23] without respect of persons or fear of consequences, though it +led to a sacrifice, contentedly, and even joyfully borne, of worldly +means, led him no tittle astray from the ancient paths of orthodoxy. +Like most High Churchmen of his day, he held most exaggerated views as +to the duty of passive obedience, a doctrine which he held to be vitally +connected with the whole spirit of Christian religion. He sorely +lamented 'the great and grievous breach' caused by the nonjuring +separation,[24] and earnestly trusted that a time of healing and reunion +might speedily arrive; and though he adhered staunchly to the communion +of the deprived bishops, whom he held to be the only rightful fathers of +the Church, and believed that there alone he could find 'orthodox and +holy ministrations,'[25] he never for an instant supposed that he +separated himself thereby from the Church of England, in which, he said +in his dying declaration, 'as he had lived and ministered, so he still +continued firm in its faith, worship, and communion.'[26] Such was +Kettlewell, a thorough type of the very best of the Nonjurors, a man so +kindly and large-hearted in many ways, and so open to conviction, that +the term bigoted would be harshly applied to him, but whose ideas ran +strongly and deeply in a narrow channel. He lived a life unspotted from +the world; nor was there any purer and more fervent spirit in the list +of those whose active services were lost to the Church of England by the +new oath of allegiance. + +Henry Dodwell was another of Robert Nelson's most esteemed friends. +After the loss of his Camdenian Professorship of History, he lived among +his nonjuring acquaintances at Shottisbrooke, immersed in abstruse +studies. His profound learning--for he was acknowledged to be one of the +most learned men in Europe[27]--especially his thorough familiarity with +all precedents drawn from patristic antiquity, made him a great +authority in the perplexities which from time to time divided the +Nonjurors. It was mainly to him that Nelson owed his return to the +established Communion. Dodwell had been very ardent against the oaths; +when he conceived the possibility of Ken's accepting them, he had +written him a long letter of anxious remonstrance; he had written +another letter of indignant concern to Sherlock, on news of his +intended compliance.[28] But his special standing point was based upon +the argument that it was schism of the worst order to side with bishops +who had been intruded by mere lay authority into sees which had other +rightful occupiers. When, therefore, this hindrance no longer existed, +he was of opinion that political differences, however great, should be +no bar to Church Communion, and that the State prayers were no +insurmountable difficulty. Nelson gladly agreed, and the bells of +Shottisbrooke rang merrily when he and Dodwell, and the other Nonjurors +resident in that place, returned to the parish church.[29] + +Dodwell is a well-known example of the extravagances of opinion, into +which a student may be led, who, in perfect seclusion from the world, +follows up his views unguided by practical considerations. Greatly as +his friends respected his judgment on all points of precedent and +authority, they readily allowed he had more of the innocency of the dove +than the wisdom of the serpent.[30] His faculties were in fact +over-burdened with the weight of his learning, and his published works, +which followed one another in quick succession, contained +eccentricities, strange to the verge of madness. A layman himself, he +held views as to the dignities and power of the priesthood, of which the +'Tatler'[31] might well say that Rome herself had never forged such +chains for the consciences of the laity as he would have imposed. +Starting upon an assumption, common to him with many whose general +theological opinions he was most averse to, that the Divine counsels +were wholly beyond the sphere of human faculties, and unimpeded +therefore by any consideration of reason in his inferences from +Scripture and primitive antiquity, he advanced a variety of startling +theories, which created some dismay among his friends, and gave endless +opportunity to his opponents. Much that he has written sounds far more +like a grave caricature of high sacerdotalism, after the manner of De +Foe's satires on intolerance, than the sober conviction of an earnest +man.[32] It is needless to dwell on crotchets for which, as Dr. Hunt +properly observes, nobody was responsible but himself.[33] Ken, who had +great respect for him--'the excellent' Mr. Dodwell, as he calls +him--remarked of his strange ideas on the immortality of the soul, that +he built high on feeble foundations, and would not have many proselytes +to his hypotheses.[34] The same might be said of much else that he +wrote on theological subjects. As for nonjuring principles, he was so +wedded to them that he could see nothing but deadly schism outside the +fold over which 'our late invalidly deprived fathers' presided. It only, +as orthodox and unschismatic, 'was entitled to have its communions and +excommunications ratified in heaven.'[35] No wonder he longed to see +union restored, that so he might die in peace.[36] + +With the ever understood proviso that they could not fall in with many +of his views, Nelson and most of his friends loved Mr. Dodwell and were +proud of him. They admired his great learning, his fervent and ascetic +piety, his deep attachment to the doctrine and usages of the English +Church, and many attractive features in personal character. 'He was a +faithful and sincere friend,' says Hearne, 'very charitable to the poor +(notwithstanding the narrowness of his fortune), free and open in his +discourse and conversation (which he always managed without the least +personal reflection), courteous and affable to all people, facetious +upon all proper occasions, and ever ready to give his counsel and +advice, and extremely communicative of his great knowledge.'[37] +Although a man of retiring habits and much personal humility, he was +bold as a lion when occasion demanded, and never hesitated to sacrifice +interest of any kind to his sincere, but often strangely contracted +ideas of truth and duty. It was his lot to suffer loss of goods under +either king, James II. and William. Under the former he not only lost +the rent of his Irish estates,[38] but had his name[39] on the murderous +act of attainder to which James, to his great disgrace, attached his +signature in 1689. Under the latter he was deprived of his preferment in +Oxford, and under a harsher rule might have incurred yet graver +penalties. 'He has set his heart,' said William of him, 'on being a +martyr, and I have set mine on disappointing him.'[40] He died at +Shottisbrooke in 1711. + +After Kettlewell's death, no one was so intimate with Robert Nelson as +Dr. George Hickes. They lived near together[41] in Ormond Street, and +for the last eleven years of Nelson's life met almost daily. In forming +any estimate of Hickes's character, the warm-hearted esteem with which +Nelson regarded him[42] should not be lost sight of. Whatever were his +faults, he must have possessed many high qualities to have thus +completely won the heart of so good a man. The feeling was fully +reciprocated; and those who knew with what intensity of blind zeal +Hickes attached himself to the interests of his party, must have been +surprised that this intimacy was not interrupted even by his sore +disappointment at Nelson's defection from the nonjuring communion. In +Hickes there was nothing of the calm and tempered judgment which ruled +in Nelson's mind. From the day that he vacated his deanery, and fixed up +his indignant protest in Worcester Cathedral,[43] he threw his heart and +soul into the nonjuring cause. Unity might be a blessing, and schism a +disaster; but it is doubtful whether he would have made the smallest +concession in order to attain the one, or avoid the other. Even Bishop +Ken said of him that he showed zeal to make the schism incurable.[44] A +good man, and a scholar of rare erudition, he possessed nevertheless the +true temper of a bigot. In middle life he had been brought into close +acquaintance with the fanatic extravagances of Scotch Covenanters, his +aversion to which might seem to have taught him, not the excellence of a +more temperate spirit, but the desirability of rushing toward similar +extremes in an opposite direction. He delighted in controversy in +proportion to its heat, and too often his pen was dipped in gall, when +he directed the acuteness and learning which none denied to him against +any who swerved, this way or that, from the narrow path of dogma and +discipline which had been marked with his own approval. Tillotson was +'an atheist,'[45] freethinkers were 'the first-born sons of Satan,' the +Established Church was 'fallen into mortal schism,'[46] Ken, for +thinking of reunion, was 'a half-hearted wheedler,'[47] Roman Catholics +were 'as gross idolaters as Egyptian worshippers of leeks,'[48] +Nonconformists were 'fanatics,' Quakers were 'blasphemers.'[49] From the +peaceful researches, on which he built a lasting name, in Anglo-Saxon +and Scandinavian antiquities, he returned each time with renewed zest to +polemical disputes, and found relaxation in the strife of words. It was +no promising omen for the future of the nonjuring party, that the Court +of St. Germains should have appointed him and Wagstaffe first bishops of +that Communion. The consecration was kept for several years a close +secret, and Robert Nelson himself may probably have been ignorant[50] of +the high dignity to which 'my neighbour the Dean' had attained. + +One other of Nelson's nonjuring friends must be mentioned. Francis Lee, +a physician, had been a Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, but was deprived +for declining the oaths. At the end of the seventeenth century, after +travelling abroad, he joined[51] one of those societies of mystics which +at that time abounded throughout Europe. A long correspondence with +Dodwell ensued, and convinced at last that he had been in error, he not +only left the brotherhood and its presiding 'prophetess' (it appears to +have been a society of a somewhat fanatical order), but published in +1709, under the title of 'A History of Montanism, by a Lay Gentleman,' a +work directed against fanaticism in general. He writes it in the tone of +one who has lately recovered from a sort of mental fever which may break +out in anyone, and sometimes becomes epidemic, inflaming and throwing +into disorder certain obscure impulses which are common to all human +nature.[52] He became intimate with Nelson, and subscribes one of his +letters to him, 'To the best of friends, from the most affectionate of +friends.'[53] He helped him in his devotional publications; took in +hand, at his instigation, and from materials which Nelson and Hickes had +collected, the life of Kettlewell; and took an active part in furthering +the benevolent schemes in which his friend was so deeply interested. It +was he who suggested[54] to him the founding of charity schools after +the model of the far-famed orphanage and other educational institutions +lately established by Francke and Spener at Halle, the centre of German +pietism. In other ways we see favourable traces of his earlier mystical +associations. He had been cured of fanaticism; but the higher element, +the exalted vein of spiritual feeling, remained, and perceptibly +communicated itself to Nelson, whose last work--a preface to Lee's +edition of Thomas a Kempis--is far more in harmony with the general tone +of mystical thought than any of his former writings. During the last few +months of Nelson's life, they were much together. One of the very last +incidents in his life was a drive with Lee in the park, when they +watched the sun 'burst from behind a cloud, and accepted it for an +emblem of the eternal brightness that should shortly break upon +him.'[55] + +Nelson was more or less intimate with several other Nonjurors; such as +were Francis Cherry, of Shottisbrooke, a generous and popular country +gentleman, whose house was always a hospitable refuge for Nonjurors and +Jacobites;[56] Brokesby, Mr. Cherry's chaplain, author of the 'Life of +Dodwell,' and of a history of the Primitive Church, to whom Nelson owed +much valuable help in his 'Festivals and Fasts;' Jeremy Collier, whom +Macaulay ranks first among the Nonjurors in ability; Nathanael +Spinckes,[57] afterwards raised to the shadowy honours and duties of the +nonjuring episcopate, Nelson's trustee for the money bequeathed by him +to assist the deprived clergy; and lastly, Charles Leslie, an ardent and +accomplished controversialist, whom Dr. Johnson excepted from his dictum +that no Nonjuror could reason.[58] It may be added here, that when +Pepys, author of the well-known 'Diary,' cast about in 1703, the last +year of his life, for a spiritual adviser among the nonjuring clergy, +Robert Nelson was the one among his acquaintances to whom he naturally +turned for information. + +The decision of many a conscientious man hung wavering for a long time +on the balance as he debated whether or not he could accept the new oath +of allegiance. Friends, whose opinions on public matters and on Church +questions were almost identical, might on this point very easily arrive +at different determinations. But the resolve once made, those who took +different courses often became widely separated. Many acquaintances, +many friendships were broken off by the divergence. Some of the more +rigid Nonjurors, headed by Bancroft himself, went so far as to refuse +all Church communion with those among their late brethren who had +incurred the sin of compliance; and it was plainly impossible to be on +any terms of intimacy with one who could be welcomed back into the +company of the faithful only as 'a true penitent for the sin of +schism.'[59] There were some, on the other hand, who were fully aware of +the difficulties that beset the question, and had not a word or thought +of condemnation for those who did not share in the scruples they +themselves felt. They could not take the oath, but neither did they make +it any cause of severance, or discontinue their attendance at the public +prayers. But for the most part even those Nonjurors who held no extreme +views fell gradually into a set of their own, with its own ideas, hopes, +prejudices, and sympathies. They could scarcely help making a great +principle of right or wrong of that for which most of them had +sacrificed so much. It was intolerable, after loss of home and property +in the cause, as they believed, of truth and duty, to be called factious +separatists, authors of needless schism. Hence, in very self-defence, +they were driven to attach all possible weight to the reasons which had +placed them, loyal Churchmen as they were, in a Nonconformist position, +to rally round their own standard, and to strive to the utmost of their +power to show that it was they, and not their opponents, not the Jurors +but the Nonjurors, who were the truest and most faithful sons of the +Anglican Church. Under such circumstances, the gap grew ever wider which +had sprung up between themselves and those who had not scrupled at the +oath. Even between such friends as Ken and Bull, Nelson and Tillotson, a +temporary estrangement was occasioned. But Robert Nelson was not of a +nature to allow minor differences, however much exaggerated in +importance, to stand long in the way of friendship or works of Christian +usefulness. He lived chiefly in a nonjuring circle; but even during the +years when he wholly absented himself from parochial worship, he was on +friendly and even intimate terms with many leading members of the +establishment, and their active co-operator in every scheme for +extending its beneficial influences. + +First in honour among his conforming friends stood Bishop Bull, his old +tutor and warm friend, to whom he always acknowledged a deep debt of +gratitude. Three years after his death Nelson published his life and +works, shortening, it is said, his own days by the too assiduous labour +which he bestowed upon the task. But it was a work of love which he was +exceedingly anxious to accomplish. In the preface, after recording his +high admiration of his late friend's merits, he solemnly ends with the +words, 'beseeching God to enable me to finish what I begin in His name, +and dedicate it to His honour and glory.'[60] + +Both in his lifetime and afterwards, Bull has always been held in +deserved repute as one of the most illustrious names in the roll of +English bishops. Nelson called him 'a consummate divine,' and by no +means stood alone in his opinion. Those who attach a high value to +original and comprehensive thought will scarcely consider him entitled +to such an epithet. He was a man of great piety, sound judgment, and +extensive learning, but not of the grasp and power which signally +influences a generation, and leaves a mark in the history of religious +progress. He loved the Church of England with that earnestness of +affection which in the seventeenth century specially characterised +those who remembered its prostration, and had shared its depressed +fortunes. Dr. Skinner, ejected Bishop of Oxford, had admitted him into +orders at the early age of twenty-one. The Canon, he said, could not be +strictly observed in such times of difficulty and distress. They were +not days when the Church could afford to wait for the services of so +zealous and able an advocate. He proved an effective champion, against +all its real and presumed adversaries--Puritans and Nonconformists, +Roman Catholics, Latitudinarians and Socinians. An acute +controversialist, skilled in the critical knowledge of Scripture, +thoroughly versed in the annals of primitive antiquity, he was an +opponent not lightly to be challenged. A devoted adherent of the English +Church, scrupulously observant of all its rites and usages, and +convinced as of 'a certain and evident truth that the Church of England +is in her doctrine, discipline, and worship, most agreeable to the +primitive and apostolical institution,'[61] his only idea of improvement +and reform in Church matters was to remove distinct abuses, and to +restore ancient discipline. Yet he was not so completely the High +Churchman as to be unable to appreciate and enter to some extent into +the minds of those who within his own Church had adopted opposite views. +He used to speak, for example, with the greatest respect of Dr. Conant, +a distinguished Churchman of Puritan views, who had been his rector at +Exeter College, and whose instructions and advice had made, he said, +very deep impression on him.[62] So, on the other hand, although a +strenuous opponent of Rome, he did not fail to discriminate and do +justice to what was Catholic and true in her system. And it tells +favourably for his candour, that while he defended Trinitarian doctrine +with unequalled force and learning, he should have had to defend himself +against a charge of Arian tendencies,[63] simply because he did not +withhold authorities which showed that the primitive fathers did not +always express very defined views upon the subject. His most notable and +unique distinction consisted in the thanks he received, through Bossuet, +from the whole Gallican Church, for his defence of the Nicene faith; his +most practical service to religion was the energetic protest of his +'Harmonia Apostolica' in favour of a healthy and fruitful faith in +opposition to the Antinomian doctrines of arbitrary grace which, at the +time when he published his 'Apostolic Harmony,' had become most widely +prevalent in England. + +Bull had been ordained at twenty-one; he was consecrated, in 1705, +Bishop of St. Davids, at the almost equally exceptional age of seventy. +He succeeded a bad man who had been expelled from his see for glaring +simony; and it was felt, not without justice, that the cause of religion +and the honour of the Episcopate would gain more by the elevation of a +man of the high repute in which Bull was universally held, than it would +lose by the growing infirmities of his old age. He accepted the dignity +with hesitation, in hopes that his son, the Archdeacon of Llandaff, who +however died before him, would be able greatly to assist him in the +discharge of his duties. But as he was determined that if he could not +be as active as he would wish, he would at all events reside strictly in +his diocese, he saw little or no more of his friend Nelson, of whom he +had said that 'he scarce knew any one in the world for whom he had +greater respect and love.'[64] During the first four years of the +century there had been a frequent correspondence between them on the +subject of his controversy with Bossuet, with whom Nelson had long been +in the habit of interchanging friendly courtesies. The Bishop of Meaux +had written, in 1700, to Nelson, expressing admiration of Bull's work on +the Trinity, and wonder as to what he meant by the term 'Catholic,' and +why it was that, having such respect for primitive antiquity, he +remained nevertheless separated from the unity of Rome. Bull wrote in +answer his 'Corruptions of the Church of Rome,' and sent the manuscript +of it to Nelson in 1704. It did not, however, reach Bossuet, who died +that year. Bishop Bull followed him in 1709. + +Nelson was well acquainted, though scarcely intimate, with Bishop +Beveridge, Bull's contemporary at St. Asaph. The two prelates were men +of much the same stamp. Both were divines of great theological learning; +but while Bull's great talents were chiefly conspicuous in his +controversial and argumentative works, Beveridge was chiefly eminent as +a student and devotional writer. His 'Private Thoughts on Religion and +Christian Life,' and his papers on 'Public Prayer' and 'Frequent +Communions,' have always maintained a high reputation. Like Bull, he was +profoundly read in the history of the primitive Church, but possessed an +accomplishment which his brother bishop had not, in his understanding of +several oriental languages. Like him, he had been an active and +experienced parish clergyman, and, like him, he was attached almost to +excess to a strict and rigid observance of the appointed order of the +English Church. It was to him that Dean Tillotson addressed the often +quoted words, 'Doctor, Doctor, Charity is above rubrics.'[65] Yet it +must not be inferred therefore, that he was stiffly set against all +change. In a sermon preached before Convocation at their very important +meeting of 1689, he had remarked of ecclesiastical laws other than those +which are fundamental and eternal, 'that they ought not indeed to be +altered without grave reasons; but that such reasons were not at that +moment wanting. To unite a scattered flock in one fold under one +shepherd, to remove stumbling-blocks from the path of the weak, to +reconcile hearts long estranged, to restore spiritual discipline to its +primitive vigour, to place the best and purest of Christian societies on +a base broad enough to stand against all the attacks of earth and +hell--these were objects which might well justify some modification, not +of Catholic institutions, but of national and provincial usages.'[66] + +Beveridge was one of the bishops for whom the moderate Nonjurors had +much regard. In most respects he was of their school of thought; and +although, like Wilson of Sodor and Man, and Hooper of Bath and Wells, he +had no scruple, for his own part, to take the oath of allegiance to +William and Mary, he fully understood the reasonings of those who had. +He greatly doubted the legality and right of appointing new bishops to +sees not canonically vacant, so that when he was nominated in the place +of Ken, he after some deliberation declined the office. He and Nelson +saw a good deal of each other. They were both constant attendants at the +weekly meetings of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, an +association which Beveridge zealously promoted,[67] and to which he left +the greater part of his property. The minutes of the society refer to +private consultations between him and Nelson for arranging about a +popular edition in Welsh of the Prayer-book, and to the bishop +distributing largely in his diocese a translation of Nelson's tract on +Confirmation. They also frequently met at the committees of the Society +for the Propagation of the Gospel. In his 'Life of Bull' Nelson speaks +in terms of much admiration for Beveridge, whom he calls 'a pattern of +true primitive piety.' He praises his plain and affecting sermons; and +says that 'he had a way of gaining people's hearts and touching their +consciences which bore some resemblance to the apostolical age,' and +that he could mention many 'who owed the change of their lives, under +God, to his instructions.'[68] Like Bull and Ken, the latter of whom +was born in the same year with him, his life belongs chiefly to the +history of the preceding century, for he died in 1707; his short +episcopal career however lay, as was the case with Bull, only in the +first decade of the eighteenth. + +Sharp, Archbishop of York, must by no means be omitted from the list of +Robert Nelson's friends, the more so as he was mainly instrumental in +overcoming the scruples which for many years had deterred Nelson from +the communion of the national Church. 'It was impossible,' writes the +Archbishop's son, 'that such religious men, who were so intimate with +each other, and spent many hours together in private conversation, +should not frequently discuss the reasons that divided them in Church +communion.'[69] Sharp's diary shows that early in 1710 they had many +interviews on the subject. His arguments prevailed; and he records with +satisfaction that on Easter Day that year his friend, for the first time +since the Revolution, received the Communion at his hands. The +Archbishop was well fitted to act this part of a conciliator. In the +first place, Nelson held him in high esteem as a man of learning, piety, +and discernment, 'who fills one of the archiepiscopal thrones with that +universal applause which is due to his distinguishing merit.'[70] This +general satisfaction which had attended his promotion qualified him the +more for a peacemaker in the Church. At a time when party spirit was +more than usually vehement, it was his rare lot to possess in a high +degree the respect and confidence of men of all opinions. From his +earliest youth he had learnt to appreciate high Christian worth under +varied forms. His father had been a fervent Puritan, his mother a +strenuous Royalist; and he speaks with equal gratitude of the deep +impressions left upon his mind by the grave piety of the one, and of the +admiration instilled into him by the other of the proscribed Liturgy of +the English Church. He went up to Cambridge a Calvinist; he learnt a +larger, a happier, and no less spiritual theology under the teaching of +More and Cudworth. His studies then took a wide range. He delighted in +imaginative literature, especially in Greek poetry, became very fairly +versed in Hebrew and the interpretation of the Old Testament, took much +pleasure in botany and chemistry, and was at once fascinated with the +Newtonian philosophy. He was also an accomplished antiquary. At a later +period, as rector of St. Giles in the Fields, and Friday lecturer at St. +Lawrence Jewry, he gained much fame as one of the most persuasive and +affecting preachers of his age. Tillotson and Clagett were his most +intimate friends; and among his acquaintances were Stillingfleet, +Patrick, Beveridge, Cradock, Whichcot, Calamy, Scot, Sherlock, Wake, and +Cave, including all that eminent circle of London clergy who were at +that time the distinguishing ornament of the English Church, and who +constantly met at one another's houses to confer on the religious and +ecclesiastical questions of the day. There was perhaps no one eminent +divine, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth +century, who had so much in sympathy with men of either section of the +English Church. He was claimed by the Tories and High Churchmen; and no +doubt, on the majority of subjects his views agreed with theirs, +particularly in the latter part of his life. But his opinions were very +frequently modified by a more liberal training and by more generous and +considerate ideas than were common among them. He voted with them +against occasional Conformity, protested against any enfeebling of the +Test Acts, and took, it must be acknowledged, a far from tolerant line +generally in the debates of 1704-9 relating to the liberties of +Dissenters. On the other hand, he indignantly resented the unworthy +attempt of the more extreme Tories to force the occasional Conformity +Act through the House of Lords by 'tacking' it to a money bill. He +expressed the utmost displeasure against anything like bitterness and +invective; he had been warmly in favour of a moderate comprehension of +Dissenters, had voted that Tillotson should be prolocutor when the +scheme was submitted to Convocation, and had himself taken part of the +responsibility of revision. As in 1675 he had somewhat unadvisedly +accepted, in the discussion with Nonconformists, the co-operation of +Dodwell, so, in 1707, he bestowed much praise on Hickes' answer to +Tindal (sent to him by Nelson) on behalf of the rights of the Christian +priesthood. But Dodwell's Book of Schism maintained much more exclusive +sentiments than Sharp's sermon on Conscience, of which it was +professedly a defence; nor could the Archbishop by any means coincide in +the more immoderate opinions of the hot-tempered nonjuring Dean. And so +far from agreeing with Hickes and Dodwell, who would acknowledge none +other than Episcopal Churches, he said that if he were abroad he should +communicate with the foreign Reformed Churches wherever he happened to +be.[71] On many points of doctrine he was a High Churchman; he entirely +agreed, for example, with Nelson and the Nonjurors in general, in +regretting the omission in King Edward's second Prayer-book of the +prayer of oblation.[72] He bestowed much pains in maintaining the +dignity and efficiency of his cathedral;[73] but, with a curious +intermixture of Puritan feeling, told one of his Nonconformist +correspondents that he did not much approve of musical services, and +would be glad if the law would permit an alteration.[74] In regard of +the questions specially at issue with the Nonjurors, he heartily +assented for his own part to the principles of the Revolution, +maintaining 'for a certain truth that as the law makes the king, so the +same law extends or limits or transfers our obedience and +allegiance.'[75] This being the case, it may at first appear +unintelligible that an ardent nonjuring champion of passive obedience +and non-resistance should assert that 'by none are these truly Catholic +doctrines more openly avowed than by the present excellent metropolitan +of York.'[76] But Dodwell was correct. Archbishop Sharp, with perfect +consistency, combined with Whig politics the favourite High Church tenet +of the Jacobean era. He strenuously maintained the duty of passive +obedience, not however to the sovereign monarch, but to the sovereign +law.[77] At the same time he felt much sympathy with the Nonjurors, and +was sometimes accused of Jacobitism because he would not drop his +acquaintance with them, nor disguise his pity for the sacrifices in +which their principles involved them. When a choice was given him of two +or three of the sees vacated by the deprivation of the nonjuring +bishops, he declined the offer. He would not allow that there had been +any real unlawfulness or irregularity in their dispossession, but as a +matter of personal feeling he disliked the idea of accepting promotion +under such circumstances. Although therefore, in many ways, he differed +much in opinion from the Nonjurors, he possessed in a great degree their +attachment and respect. Robert Nelson was neither the only one of them +with whom he was on terms of cordial friendship, nor was he by any means +the only one whom he persuaded to return to the Established Communion. + +Bishop Smalridge of Bristol should be referred to, however briefly, in +connection with the truly worthy man who is the main subject of this +paper. He was constantly associated with Nelson in his various works of +charity, especially in forwarding missionary undertakings, in assisting +Dr. Bray's projects of parochial lending libraries, and as a royal +commissioner with him for the increase of church accommodation. Nelson +bequeathed to him his Madonna by Correggio 'as a small testimony of that +great value and respect I bear to his lordship;'[78] and to his +accomplished pen is owing the very beautiful Latin epitaph placed to his +friend's memory in St. George the Martyr's, Queen Square.[79] Under the +name of 'Favonius,' he is spoken of in the 'Tatler' in the warmest +language of admiring respect, as a very humane and good man, of +well-tempered zeal and touching eloquence, and 'abounding with that sort +of virtue and knowledge which makes religion beautiful.'[80] Bishop +Newton has also spoken very highly of him, and adds that he was a man of +much gravity and dignity and of great complacency and sweetness of +manner. In reference to this last feature of his character, it was said +of him, when he succeeded Atterbury as Dean of Carlisle, that he carried +the bucket to extinguish the fires which the other had kindled. His +political sympathies, however, accorded with those of Atterbury, and +brought him into close relation with the Nonjurors. Although he had +submitted to the new Constitution, he was a thorough Jacobite in +feeling. His Thirtieth of January sermons were sometimes marked with an +extravagance of expression[81] foreign to his usual manner; and he and +Atterbury, with whom he had recently edited Lord Clarendon's History, +were the only bishops who refused to sign the declaration of abhorrence +of the Rebellion of 1715.[82] + +Smalridge and Nelson had a mutual friend,[83] whom they both highly +valued, in Dr. Ernest Grabe, a Prussian of remarkable character and +great erudition, who had settled in England under the especial favour of +King William. Dissatisfied as to the validity of Lutheran orders, he had +at first turned his thoughts to Rome, not unaware that he should find in +that Church many departures from the simplicity of the early faith, but +feeling that it possessed at all events that primitive constitution +which he had learnt to consider essential. He was just about to take +this step, when he met with Spener, the eminent leader of the German +Pietists, to whom he communicated his difficulties, and who pointed out +to him the Church of England as a communion likely to meet his wants. He +came to this country[84] at the end of the seventeenth century, received +a royal pension, took priest's orders, and continued with indefatigable +labour his patristic studies. It became the great project of his life to +maintain a close communication between the English and Lutheran +Churches,[85] to bring about in Prussia a restoration of episcopacy, and +to introduce there a liturgy composed upon the English model. It cannot +be said that the general course of theological thought in England was at +this time very congenial to his aspirations; but his great learning and +the earnest sincerity of his ideas were widely appreciated, and within a +somewhat confined circle of High Churchmen and Nonjurors he was +cordially welcomed, and his services highly valued. He pushed his +conformity to what he considered the usages of the Primitive Church to +the verge of eccentricity. Yet 'indeed,' says Kennet, without any +sympathy in his practices, but with a kindly smile, 'his piety and our +charity may cover all this.'[86] + +Dr. Thomas Bray may stand as a fit representative of another class of +Nelson's friends and associates. So far from agreeing with Nelson in his +Nonjuring sentiments, the prospect of the constitutional change had +kindled in him enthusiastic expectations. 'Good Dr. Bray,' remarks +Whiston, 'had said how happy and religious the nation would become when +the House of Hanover came, and was very indignant when Mr. Mason said +that matters would not be mended.'[87] He accepted a living which had +been vacated by a Nonjuring clergyman, but spent alike his clerical and +private means in the benevolent and Christian hearted schemes to which +the greater part of his life was dedicated.[88] It is not the purpose of +this chapter to discuss the missionary and other philanthropical +activities which at the close of the seventeenth and the opening of the +eighteenth centuries resulted in the formation of the Society for +Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Society for the Propagation of the +Gospel in Foreign Parts, and other kindred associations. It may be +sufficient here to repeat the warm-hearted encomium of his fellow +labourer in this noble work:--'I am sure he has been one of the greatest +instruments for propagating Christian knowledge this age has produced. +The libraries abroad, our society (the S.P.C.K.), and the Corporation +(the S.P.G.), are owing to his unwearied solicitations.'[89] In +organising the American Church, in plans for civilising and +christianising the Indians, in establishing libraries for the use of +missionaries and the poorer clergy in the colonies, on shipboard, in +seaport towns, and in the secluded parishes of England and Wales, in +translations of the Liturgy and other devotional books, in the +reformation of prisons, in measures taken for the better suppression of +crime and profligacy,--Bray and Nelson, with General Oglethorpe and +other active coadjutors, helped one another with all their heart. They +met in the board-room of the two great societies, in one another's +houses, and sometimes they may have talked over their projects with +Bishop Ken at the seat of their generous supporter, Lord Weymouth.[90] + +The names of many other men, more or less eminent in their day for piety +or learning, might be added to the list of those who possessed and +valued Robert Nelson's friendship; among them may be mentioned--Dr. John +Mapletoft, with whom he maintained a close correspondence for no less +than forty years: a man who had travelled much and learnt many +languages, a celebrated physician, and afterwards, when he took orders, +an accomplished London preacher; Francis Gastrell, Bishop of Chester, +Mapletoft's son-in-law;[91] Sir Richard Blackmore, another physician of +note, and, like Mapletoft, most zealous in all plans for doing good, but +whose unlucky taste for writing dull verses brought down upon him the +unmerciful castigation of the wits; John Johnson of Cranbrook, with +whose writings on the Eucharistic Sacrifice Nelson most warmly +sympathised; Edmund Halley, the mathematician, his school playmate and +life-long friend; Ralph Thoresby, an antiquarian of high repute, a +moderate Dissenter in earlier life, a thoughtful and earnest Churchman +in later years, but who throughout life maintained warm and intimate +relations with many leading members of either communion; Dr. Charlett, +Master of University College, Oxford; Dr. Cave, the well-known writer of +early Church History, to whose literary help he was frequently indebted; +John Evelyn; Samuel, father of John and Charles Wesley, whose verses, +written on the fly-leaf of his copy of the 'Festivals and Fasts,' +commemorative of his attachment to Nelson and of his reverence for his +virtues, used to be prefixed to some editions of his friend's works; nor +should the list be closed without the addition of the name of the +eminent Gallican bishop Bossuet, with whom he had become acquainted in +France, and had kept up the interesting correspondence already noticed +in connection with Bishop Bull. + +The group composed of Nelson and his friends, of whom he had many, and +never lost one, would be pleasant to contemplate, if for no other +reason, yet as the picture of a set of earnest men, united in common +attachment to one central figure, varying much on some points of +opinion, but each endeavouring to live worthily of the Christian faith. +From one point of view the features of dissimilarity among his friends +are more interesting than those of resemblance. A Churchman, with whom +Jurors and Nonjurors met on terms of equal cordiality, who was intimate +alike with Tillotson and Hickes--whose love for Ken was nowise +incompatible with much esteem for Kidder, the 'uncanonical usurper' of +his see--and who consulted for the advancement of Christian knowledge as +readily with Burnet, Patrick, and Fowler, as with Bull, Beveridge, and +Sharp--represents a sort of character which every national Church ought +to produce in abundance, but which stands out in grateful relief from +the contentions which embittered the first years of the century and the +spiritual dulness which set in soon afterwards. + +Yet, though Robert Nelson had too warm a heart to sacrifice the +friendship of a good man to any difference of opinion, and too hearty a +zeal in good works to let his personal predilections stand in the way of +them, he belonged very distinctively to the High Church party. Some of +his best and most prominent characteristics did not connect him with one +more than with another section of the Church. The philanthropical +activity, which did so much to preserve him from narrowness and +intolerance, was, as Tillotson has observed, one of the most redeeming +features of the period in which he lived;[92] the genial serenity of his +religion is like the spirit that breathed in Addison. But all his deeper +sympathies were with the High Churchmen and Nonjurors--men who had been +brought up in that spirit of profound attachment to Anglo-Catholic +theology and feeling which was prominent among Church of England divines +in the age that preceded the Commonwealth. + +The Church party of which, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, +Nelson and his friends were worthy representatives, was rapidly losing +strength. Soon after his death it had almost ceased to exist as a +visible and united power. The general tone of feeling in Church matters +became so unfavourable to its continued vigour, that it gradually +dwindled away. Not that there was no longer a High Church, and even a +strong High Church party. There has been no period in the history of the +Reformed English Church in which the three leading varieties of opinion, +so familiar to us at the present day, may not be distinctly traced. The +eighteenth century is certainly no exception; from its first to its last +year so-called High Churchmen were abundant everywhere, especially among +the clergy. But they would scarcely have been recognised as such by +Nelson, or by those with whom he chiefly sympathised. The type became +altered, and not for the better. A change had already set in before the +seventeenth century closed; and when in quick succession Bull and +Beveridge, Ken and Nelson, passed away, there were no new men who could +exactly supply their places. The High Churchmen who belonged more +distinctly to Queen Anne's reign, and those of the succeeding Georgian +era, lacked some of the higher qualities of the preceding generations. +They numbered many worthy, excellent men, but there was no longer the +same depth of feeling, the same fervour, the same spirit of willing +self-denial, the same constant reference to a supposed higher standard +of primitive usage. Their High Churchmanship took rather the form of an +ecclesiastical toryism, persuaded more than ever of the unique +excellence of the English Church, its divinely constituted government, +and its high, if not exclusive title to purity and orthodoxy of +doctrine. The whole party shared, in fact, to a very great extent in the +spiritual dulness which fell like a blight upon the religious life of +the country at large. A secondary, but still an important difference, +consisted in the change effected by the Revolution in the relation +between the Church and the Crown. The harsh revulsion of sentiment, +however beneficial in its ultimate consequences, could not fail to +detract for the time from that peculiar tone of semi-religious loyalty +which in previous generations had been at once the weakness and the +glory of the English Church. + +The nonjuring separation was a serious and long-lasting loss to the +Church of England; a loss corresponding in kind, if not in degree, to +what it might have endured, if by a different turn of political and +ecclesiastical circumstances, the most zealous members of the section +headed by Tillotson and Burnet had been ejected from its fold. It is the +distinguishing merit of the English Church that, to a greater extent +probably than any other religious body, it is at once Catholic and +Protestant, and that without any formal assumption of reconciling the +respective claims of authority and private judgment, it admits a wide +field for the latter, without ceasing to attach veneration and deference +to primitive antiquity and to long established order. It is most true +that 'the Church herself is greater, wider, older than any of the +parties within her;'[93] but it is no less certain, that when a leading +party becomes enfeebled in character and influence, as it was by the +defection to the Nonjurors of so many learned and self-sacrificing High +Churchmen, the diminution of vital energy in the whole body is likely to +be far more than proportionate to the number of the seceders, or even to +their individual weight. + +Judged by modern feeling, there might seem no very apparent reason why +the Nonjurors should have belonged nearly, if not quite exclusively, to +the same general school of theological thought. In our own days, the +nature of a man's Churchmanship is no key whatever to his opinions upon +matters which trench on politics. High sacramental theories, or profound +reverence for Church tradition and ancient usage, or decided views as to +the exclusive rights of an episcopally ordained ministry, are almost as +likely to be combined with liberal, or even with democratic politics, as +with the most staunch conservative opinions. No one imagines that any +possible change of constitutional government would greatly affect the +general bias, whatever it might be, of ecclesiastical thought. But the +Nonjurors were all High Churchmen, and that in a much better sense of +that word than when, in Queen Anne's time, Tory and High Church were in +popular language convertible terms. And though they were not by any +means the sole representatives of the older High Church spirit--for some +who were deeply imbued with it took the oath of allegiance with perfect +conscientiousness, and without the least demur--yet in them it was +chiefly embodied. Professor Blunt remarks with much truth, that to a +great extent they carried away with them that regard for primitive +times, which with them was destined by degrees almost to expire.[94] If +the Nonjurors were nearly allied with the Jacobites on the one side, +they were also the main supporters of religious opinions which were in +no way related with one dynasty of sovereigns rather than with another, +but which have always formed a very important element of English Church +history, and could not pass for the time into comparative oblivion +without a corresponding loss. + +The doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience, in defence of +which so much was once written, and so many sacrifices endured, are no +longer heard of. It is difficult now to realise with what passionate +fervour of conviction these obsolete theories were once maintained by +many Englishmen as a vital portion, not only of their political, but of +their religious creed. Lord Chancellor Somers, whose able treatise upon +the Rights of Kings brought to bear against the Nonjurors a vast array +of arguments from Reason, Scripture, History, and Law, remarked in it +that there were some divines of the Church of England who instilled +notions of absolute power, passive obedience, and non-resistance, as +essential points of religion, doctrines necessary to salvation.[95] Put +in this extreme form, the belief might have been repudiated; but +undoubtedly passages may be quoted in great abundance from nonjuring and +other writers which, literally understood, bear no other construction. +At all events, sentiments scarcely less uncompromising were continually +held, not by mere sycophants and courtiers, but by many whose opinions +were adorned by noble Christian lives, willing self-sacrifice, and +undaunted resolution. Good Bishop Lake of Chichester said on his +death-bed that 'he looked upon the great doctrine of passive obedience +as the distinguishing character of the Church of England,'[96] and that +it was a doctrine for which he hoped he could lay down his life. Bishop +Thomas of Worcester, who died the same year, expressed the same belief +and the same hope. Robert Nelson spoke of it as the good and wholesome +doctrine of the Church of England, 'wherein she has gloried as her +special characteristic.... Papists and Presbyterians have both been +tardy on these points, and I wish the practice of some in the Church of +England had been more blameless,'[97] but he was sure that it had been +the doctrine of the primitive Christians, and that it was very plainly +avowed both by the Church and State of England. Sancroft vehemently +reproved 'the apostacy of the National Church'[98] in departing from +this point of faith. Even Tillotson and Burnet[99] were at one time no +less decided about it. The former urged it upon Lord Russell as 'the +declared doctrine of all Protestant Churches,' and that the contrary was +'a very great and dangerous mistake,' and that if not a sin of +ignorance, 'it will appear of a much more heinous nature, as in truth it +is, and calls for a very particular and deep repentance.'[100] Just +about the time when the new oath of allegiance was imposed, the doctrine +of non-resistance received the very aid it most needed, in the invention +of a new term admirably adapted to inspire a warmer feeling of religious +enthusiasm in those who were preparing to suffer in its cause. The +expression appears to have originated with Kettlewell, who had strongly +felt the force of an objection which had been raised to Bishop Lake's +declaration. It had been said that to call this or that doctrine the +distinguishing characteristic of a particular Church was so far forth to +separate it from the Church Catholic. Kettlewell saw at once that this +argument wounded High Churchmen in the very point where they were most +sensitive, and for the future preferred to speak of non-resistance as +characteristically 'a Doctrine of the Cross.'[101] The epithet was +quickly adopted, and no doubt was frequently a source of consolation to +Nonjurors. At other times it might have conveyed a painful sense of +disproportion in its application to what, from another point of view, +was a mere political revolution. But with them passive obedience and +divine right had been raised to the level of a great religious principle +for which they were well content to be confessors. It must have added +much to the moral strength of the nonjuring separation. Argument or +ridicule would not make much impression upon men who had always this to +fall back upon, that 'non-resistance is after all too much a doctrine of +the Cross, not to meet with great opposition from the prejudices and +passions of men. Flesh and blood and corrupt reason will set up the +great law of self-preservation against it, and find a thousand +absurdities and contradictions in it.'[102] How thoroughly Kettlewell's +term was adopted, and how deeply the feeling which it represented was +cherished by the saintliest of the High Churchmen of that age, is +nowhere more remarkably instanced than in some very famous words of +Bishop Ken. In that often quoted passage of his will where he professed +the faith in which he died, the closing words refer to the Church of +England 'as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Puritan +innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross.' The +special interpretation to be placed upon the final clause somewhat jars +upon the ear, although not without interest in illustrating the strong +religious principle which forbade the transfer of his political +allegiance. Dr. Lee, who had excellent opportunities of knowing, says, +'there cannot remain any manner of doubt'[103] that Ken used the +expression with particular reference to the sense in which his friend +Kettlewell had used it. + +When once the Hanoverian succession was established, the doctrine of a +divine right of kings, with the theories consequent upon, it, passed +gradually away; and many writers, forgetting that it was once a +generally received dogma in Parliament as in Convocation, in the laws +as much as in the homilies, have sought to attach to the Church of +England the odium of servility and obsequiousness for its old adherence +to it. But as the tenet died not without honour, dignified in many +instances by high Christian feeling, and noble sacrifice of worldly +interest, so also it had gained much of its early strength in one of the +most important principles of the Reformation. When England rejected the +Papacy, the Church, as in the old English days before the Conquest, +gathered round its sovereign as the emblem and as the centre of its +national independence. Only the tie was a personal one; much in the same +way as the Pope had been far more than an embodied symbol of Church +authority. The sovereign represented the people, but no one then spoke +of 'sovereignty residing in the whole body of the people,'[104] or +dreamt of asserting that the supremacy of the King was a fiction, +meaning only the supremacy of the three estates.[105] So it long +continued, especially in the Church. Ecclesiastical is ever wont to lag +somewhat in the rear of political improvement. In the State, the +personal supremacy of the sovereign, though a very strong reality in the +hands of the Tudors, had been tutored into a moderately close conformity +with the wishes of the popular representatives. In the Church, the same +process was going on, but it was a far more gradual one; and the spirit +of loyal deference which long remained unaltered in the one, gained +increasing strength in the other. Upon the reaction which succeeded +after the Commonwealth, the Church, as it had been ever faithful to the +royal fortunes in their time of reverse, shared to the full in the +effusion with which the nation in general greeted the return of +monarchy, and was more than ever dazzled by the 'divinity which hedges +round a King.' But under James II., the Church had cause to feel the +perils of arbitrary power as keenly, or even more keenly than the nation +in its civil capacity. By a remarkable leading of events, the foremost +of the High Church bishops found themselves, amid the acclamations of +the multitude, in the very van of a resistance which was indeed in a +sense passive, but which plainly paved the way to active resistance on +the part of others, and which, as they must themselves have felt, +strained to the utmost that doctrine of passive obedience which was +still dear to them as ever. Some even of the most earnest champions of +the divine right of kings were at last compelled to imagine +circumstances under which the tenet would cease to be tenable. What if +James should propose to hand over Ireland to France as the price of help +against his own people? Ken, it is said, acknowledged that under such a +contingency he should feel wholly released from his allegiance. + +The revolution of 1688 dissipated the halo which had shed a fictitious +light round the throne. Queen Anne may have flattered herself that it +was already reviving. George I. in his first speech to parliament laid +claim to the ancient prestige of it. The old theories lingered long in +manor-houses and parsonages, and among all whose hearts were with the +banished Stuarts. But they could not permanently survive under such +altered auspices; and a sentiment which had once been of real service +both to Church and State, but which had become injurious to both, was +disrooted from the constitution and disentangled from the religion of +the country. The ultimate gain was great; yet it must be acknowledged +that at the time a great price was paid for it. In the State, there was +a notable loss of the old loyalty, a blunting in public matters of some +of the finer feelings, an increase among State officers of selfish and +interested motives, a spirit of murmuring and disaffection, a lowering +of tone, an impaired national unity. In the Church, as the revulsion was +greater, and in some respects the benefit greater, so also the temporary +loss was both greater and more permanent. The beginning of the +eighteenth century saw almost the last of the old-fashioned Anglicans, +who dated from the time of Henry VIII.--men whose ardent love of what +they considered primitive and Catholic usage had no tinge of Popery, and +whose devoted attachment to the throne was wholly free from all unmanly +servility. The High Church party was deprived of some of the best of its +leaders, and was altogether divided, disorganised, and above all, +lowered in tone; and the whole Church suffered in the deterioration of +one of its principal sections. + +In relation both to Nonjurors and to persons who, as a duty or a +necessity, had accepted the new constitution, but were more or less +Jacobite in their sympathies, a question arose of far more than +temporary interest. It is one which frequently recurs, and is of much +practical importance, namely, how far unity of worship implies, or ought +to imply, a close unity of belief; and secondly, how far a clergyman is +justified in continuing his ministrations if, agreeing in all +essentials, he strongly dissents to some particular petitions or +expressions in the services of which he is constituted the mouthpiece. +The point immediately at issue was whether those who dissented from the +State prayers could join with propriety in the public services. This was +very variously decided. There were some who denied that this was +possible to persons who had any strict regard to consistency and +truth.[106] How, said they, could they assist by their presence at +public prayers which were utterly contradictory to their private ones? +Many Nonjurors therefore, and many who had taken the oath on the +understanding that it only bound them to submission, absented themselves +entirely from public worship, or attended none other than nonjuring +services. There was a considerable party, headed unfortunately by +Bancroft himself, whose regret at the separation thus caused was greatly +tempered by a kind of exultation at being, as they maintained, the +'orthodox and Catholic remnant' from which the main body of the English +Church had apostatised.[107] Far different were the feelings of those +whose opinions on the subject were less strangely exaggerated. If they +joined the nonjuring communion, and forsook the familiar parish church, +they did so sadly and reluctantly, and looked forward in hope to some +change of circumstances which might remove their scruples and end the +schism. It was thoroughly distasteful to men like Ken, Nelson, and +Dodwell, to break away from a communion to which they were deeply +attached, and which they were quite persuaded was the purest and best in +Christendom. When the new Government was fairly established, when the +heat of feeling was somewhat cooled by time, when the High Church +sympathies of Anne had begun to reconcile them to the new succession, +and when the last of the ejected bishops had withdrawn all claim on +their obedience, many moderate Nonjurors were once more seen in church. +They agreed that the offence of the State prayers should be no longer an +insuperable bar.[108] They could at all events sufficiently signify +their objection to the obnoxious words by declining to say Amen, or by +rising from their knees, or by various other more or less demonstrative +signs of disapprobation. Some indeed of the Nonjurors, among whom Bishop +Frampton was prominent, and a great number of Jacobites, had never from +the first lent any countenance to the schism, and attended the Church +services as heretofore. The oath of allegiance being required before a +clergyman could take office, it is of course impossible to tell whether +any nonjuring clergyman would have consented to read, as well as to +listen to, the State prayers. But there was undoubtedly a large body of +Jacobite clergymen who in various ways reconciled this to their +conscience. Their argument, founded on the sort of provisional loyalty +due to a _de facto_ sovereignty, was a tolerably valid one in its kind; +a far more important one, in the extent and gravity of its bearings, was +that which met the difficulty in the face. It was that which rests on +the answer to the question whether a clergyman is guilty of insincerity, +either in reality or in semblance, in continuing to read a service to +part of which he strongly objects, though he is completely in accord +with the general tone and spirit of the whole. The answer must evidently +be a qualified one. Nothing could be worse for the interests of +religion, than that its ministers should be suspected of saying what +they do not mean; on the other hand, unless a Church concedes to its +clergy a sufficiently ample latitude in their mode of interpreting its +formularies, it will greatly suffer by losing the services of men of +independent thought or strongly marked religious convictions. Among +clergymen who submitted to the reigning powers, though their hopes and +sympathies were centred at St. Germains, the alternative of either +reading the State prayers or relinquishing office in the English Church +must have been singularly embarrassing. To offer up a prayer in which +the heart wholly belies the lip is infinitely more repugnant to +religious and moral feeling than to put a legitimate, though it may not +be the most usual, interpretation on words which contain a disputed +point of doctrine or discipline. Yet, from another point of view, it was +quite certain that as little weight as possible ought to be attached to +a quasi-political difference of opinion which in itself was no sort of +interruption to that confidence and sympathy in religious matters which +should subsist between pastor and people. It was a great strait for a +conscientious man to be placed in, and a difficulty which might fairly +be left to the individual conscience to solve. + +As for those Nonjurors and Jacobites who joined as laymen in the public +services, undeterred by prayers which they objected to, it is just that +question of dissent within, instead of without the Church, which has +gained increased attention in our own days. When Robert Nelson was in +doubt upon the subject, and asked Tillotson for his advice, the +Archbishop made reply, 'As to the case you put, I wonder men should be +divided in opinion about it. I think it plain, that no man can join in +prayers in which there is any petition which he is verily persuaded is +sinful. I cannot endure a trick anywhere, much less in religion.[109] +This honest and outspoken answer was however extremely superficial, and, +coming from a man of so much eminence, must have had an unfortunate +effect in extending the nonjuring schism. Although his opinion was +perfectly sound under the precise terms in which it is stated, the +whole force of it rests on the word 'sinful.' If any word is used which +falls the least short of this, Tillotson's remark becomes altogether +questionable. Of course no one can be justified in countenancing what +'he is verily persuaded is sinful.' From this point of view, there were +some Nonjurors to whom separation from the National Church was a moral +necessity. Those among them, for instance, who drew up, or cordially +approved, the 'Form for admitting penitents,' in which the +sorrow-stricken wanderer in ways of conformity returns humblest thanks +for his return from wrong to right, from error to truth, from schism to +unity, from rebellion to loyalty--in a word, 'from the broad into the +narrow way which leadeth to eternal life,'[110]--how could they be +justified in anything short of separation? They could no more continue +to attend their parish church, than one who had been a Roman Catholic +could attend the mass if he had become persuaded it was rank idolatry, +or a former Protestant his old place of worship when convinced that it +was a den of mortal heresy. But between Nonjurors of the stern +uncompromising type, and those semi-Jacobites who gave the allegiance of +reason to one master, and that of sentiment to another, there were all +grades of opinion; and to all except the most extreme among them the +propriety of attending the public prayers was completely an open +question. Tillotson ought to have known his old friend Nelson better, +than to conceive it possible that a man of such deep religious feeling, +and such sensitive honour, could be doubtful what to do, unless it might +fairly be considered doubtful. His foolish commonplace appears indeed to +have been sufficient to turn the scale. Nelson, almost immediately after +receiving this opinion, decided on abandoning the national communion, +though he took a different and a wiser view at a later period. + +The circumstances of the time threw into exaggerated prominence the +particular views entertained by Nelson's Juror and Nonjuror friends on +the disputed questions connected with transferred allegiance. But, great +as were the sacrifices which many of them incurred on account of these +opinions,--great as was the tenacity with which they clung to them, and +the vehemence with which they asserted them against all +impugners--great, above all, as was the religious and spiritual +importance with which their zeal for the cause invested these +semi-political doctrines, yet it is not on such grounds that their +interest as a Church party chiefly rests. No weight of circumstances +could confer a more than secondary value on tenets which have no +permanent bearing on the Christian life, and engage attention only +under external and temporary conditions. The early Nonjurors, and their +doctrinal sympathisers within the National Church, were a body of men +from whom many in modern times have taken pleasure in deriving their +ecclesiastical pedigree, not as upholders of nearly obsolete opinions +about divine right and passive obedience, but as the main link between +the High Churchmen of a previous age and their successors at a much +later period. To the revivers in this century of the Anglo-Catholic +theology, it seemed as though the direct succession of sound English +divines ended with Bull and Beveridge, was partially continued, as by a +side line, in some of the Nonjurors, and then dwindled and almost died +out, until after the lapse of a hundred years its vitality was again +renewed. + +On points of doctrine and discipline the early Nonjurors differed in +nothing from the High Churchmen whose communion they had deserted. Some +of them called themselves, it is true, 'the old Church of England,' 'the +Catholic and faithful remnant' which alone adhered to 'the orthodox and +rightful bishops,' and bitter charges, mounting up to that of apostacy, +were directed against the 'compliant' majority. But, wide as was the +gulf, and heinous as was the sin by which, according to such Nonjurors, +the Established Church had separated itself from primitive faith, the +asserted defection consisted solely in this, that it had committed the +sin of rebellion in forsaking its divinely appointed King, and the sin +of schism in rejecting the authority of its canonical bishops. No one +contended that there were further points of difference between the two +communions. Dr. Bowes asked Blackburn, one of their bishops, whether 'he +was so happy as to belong to his diocese?' 'Dear friend,' was the +answer, 'we leave the sees open that the gentlemen who now unjustly +possess them, upon the restoration, may, if they please, return to their +duty and be continued. We content ourselves with full episcopal power as +suffragans.' The introduction, however, in 1716, of the distinctive +'usages' in the communion service contributed greatly to the farther +estrangement of a large section of the Nonjurors; and those who adopted +the new Prayer-book drawn up in 1734 by Bishop Deacon, were alienated +still more. The only communion with which they claimed near relationship +was one which in their opinion had long ceased to exist. 'I am not of +your communion,' said Bishop Welton on his death-bed, in 1726, to the +English Chaplain at Lisbon, whose services he declined. 'I belong to the +Church of England as it was reformed by Archbishop Cranmer.'[111] Thus +too, when Bishop Deacon's son, a youth of little more than twenty, +suffered execution for his share in the Jacobite rising of 1745, his +last words upon the scaffold were that he died 'a member not of the +Church of Rome, nor yet of that of England, but of a pure Episcopal +Church, which has reformed all the errors, corruptions, and defects that +have been introduced into the modern Churches of Christendom.'[112] Yet +the divergence of these Nonjurors from the National Church was, after +all, far more apparent than real. It was only a very small minority, +beginning with Deacon and Campbell, who outstepped in any of their ideas +the tone of feeling which had long been familiar to many of the High +Church party. Ever since the reign of Edward VI. the Church of England +had included among its clerical and lay members some who had not ceased +to regret the changes which had been made in the second Liturgy issued +in his reign, and who hoped for a restoration of the rubrics and +passages which had been then expunged. Some of the practices and +expressions which, after the first ten or twenty years of the eighteenth +century, were looked upon as all but confined to a party of Nonjurors, +had been held almost as fully before yet the schism was thought of. + +This was certainly the case in regard of those 'usages' which related to +the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and to prayers for the dead. +Dr. Hickes complained in one of his letters that the doctrine of the +Eucharistic sacrifice had disappeared from the writings even of divines +who had treated on the subject.[113] How far this was correct became, +four years later, a disputed question. Bishop Trimnell declared it was a +doctrine that had never been taught in the English Church since the +Reformation.[114] John Johnson, on the other hand, vicar of Cranbrook, +who had originated the controversy by a book in which he ardently +supported the opinion in question, affirmed that no Christian bishop +before Trimnell ever denied it.[115] Evidently it was a point which had +not come very prominently forward for distinct assertion or +contradiction, and one in which there was great room for ambiguity. To +some it seemed a palpably new doctrine, closely trenching on a most +dangerous portion of the Romish system, and likely to lead to gross +superstition. To others it seemed a harmless and very edifying part of +belief, wholly void of any Romish tendencies, and plainly implied, if +not definitely expressed, in the English Liturgy. Most of the excellent +and pious High Churchmen who have been spoken of in this paper treasured +it as a valued article of their faith. Kettlewell used to dilate on the +great sacrificial feast of charity.[116] Bull used constantly to speak +of the Eucharist as no less a sacrifice commemorative of Christ's +oblation of Himself than the Jewish sacrifices had been typical of +it.[117] Dodwell, ever fruitful in learned instances, not only brought +forward arguments from Scripture and the Fathers, but adduced +illustrations from the bloodless sacrifices of Essenes and +Pythagoreans.[118] Robert Nelson, after the example of Jeremy Taylor in +his 'Holy Living and Dying,' introduced the subject in a more popular +and devotional form in his book upon the Christian Sacrifice.[119] +Archbishop Sharp regretted that a doctrine which he considered so +instructive had not been more definitely contained in the English +Liturgy, and preferred the Communion office of King Edward VI.'s Service +Book.[120] Beveridge argued that if the Jews were to be punctual and +constant in attending their sacrifices, how much more should Christians +honour by frequent observance the great commemorative offering which had +been instituted in their place, and contained within itself the benefits +of them all.[121] + +Some observations of a somewhat similar kind may be made in regard of +prayers for the departed, another subject which the English Church has +wisely left to private opinion. The nonjuring 'usages,' on the other +hand, restored to the Liturgy the clauses which the better judgment of +their ancestors had omitted. Some went farther, and insisted that +'prayer for their deceased brethren was not only lawful and useful, but +their bounden duty.'[122] All of them, however, without exception, +contested with perfect sincerity that their doctrine on these points was +not that of Rome, and that they entirely repudiated, as baseless and +unscriptural, the superstructure which that Church has raised upon it. +The nonjuring separation drew away from the National Church many who as +a matter of private opinion had held the tenet without rebuke; and +although, in the middle of the eighteenth century, John Wesley stoutly +defended it,[123] and Dr. Johnson always argued for its propriety and +personally maintained the practice,[124] an idea gained ground that it +was wholly unauthorised by the English Church and contrary to its +spirit. But at the opening of the century it appears to have been a +tenet not unfrequently maintained, especially among High Churchmen, +whether Jurors or Nonjurors. Dr. I. Barrow, says Hearne, 'was mighty for +it.'[125] In the form of prayer for Jan. 30th, 1661, there was a +perfectly undisguised prayer of this kind, drawn up apparently by +Archbishop Juxon.[126] It had however only the authority of the Crown, +and was expunged in the authorised form of prayer for 1662. Archbishop +Wake said he did not condemn the practice,[127] and Bishop Smalridge, +already spoken of in the list of Robert Nelson's friends, is said to +have been in favour of it.[128] So was Robert Nelson himself. After +describing the death of his old and honoured friend Bishop Bull, he adds +in reference to him and to his wife who had died previously: 'The Lord +grant unto them that they may find mercy of the Lord in that day.'[129] +Bishop Ken may be quoted to the same effect. Writing to Dr. Nicholas in +October 1677, of the death of their friend Mr. Coles, 'cujus anima,' he +continues, 'requiescat in pace.'[130] Dr. Ernest Grabe and Dean Hickes, +two more of R. Nelson's intimate associates, were also accustomed to +pray for those in either state.[131] + +The Nonjurors and High Churchmen in general, no less than the rest of +their countrymen, were stout Protestants, and gloried in the name. High +Churchmen had stood in the van of that great contest with Rome which had +so occupied the thoughts of theological writers and the whole English +people during the later years of the preceding century, and the +remembrance of which was still fresh. The acrimony of argument had been +somewhat abated by the very general respect entertained in England for +the great Gallican divines, Pascal, Fenelon, and Bossuet. Among the +Nonjurors it was further softened by political and social +considerations. English Roman Catholics were almost all Jacobites, and +were therefore in close sympathy with them on a matter of very absorbing +interest. But although these influences tended to remove prejudices, the +gap that separates Anglican and Roman divinity remained wide as ever. +When the Nonjurors, or a large section of them, cut themselves away from +the National Church, they did not in their isolation look towards Rome. +Even the most advanced among their leaders proved, by the energy with +which they continued the Protestant controversy, how groundless was the +charge sometimes brought against them, that they had adopted Popish +doctrines. + +It cannot be wondered at, that members of the nonjuring communion felt +very keenly the isolated, and, so to say, the sectarian condition in +which they were placed. There were few words dearer to them than that +word 'Catholic,' which breathes of loving brotherhood in one great +Christian body. And yet outside their own scanty fold they were repelled +on every side. They had been ardently attached to the English Church, +and had thought that whatever its imperfections might be in practice, +its theory, at all events, approached to perfection. But now, to the +minds of many of them, the ideal had passed away, or had become a +shadow. Since, then, the Church in which they had been brought up had +failed them, where should they find intercommunion and sympathy? Not +among English Nonconformists. Although they might have been willing at +one time to concede much to Nonconformist scruples, yet even as +fellow-members in one national Church they would have represented +opposite poles of ecclesiastical sentiment; and without such a mutual +bond of union, the interval which separated Dissenters and Nonjurors was +wider than ever it had been. To come to any terms with Rome was quite +out of the question. Such an alliance would indeed be, as Kettlewell +expressed it, 'concordia discors.'[132] Could they then combine with +Lutherans or other foreign Protestants? This at one time seemed +possible. English High Churchmen, Juror and Nonjuror, were inclined to +be lenient to deficiencies abroad, in order and ritual, of which they +would have been wholly intolerant at home. Even Dodwell, a man of +singularly straitened and rigid views, thought the prospect not +unhopeful. One condition, however, they laid down as absolutely +indispensable--the restoration of a legitimate episcopate. But the chief +promoters of the scheme died nearly coincidently; political questions of +immediate concern interfered with its farther consideration, and thus +the project was dropped. The Scotch Episcopal Church remained as a +communion with which English Nonjurors could fraternise. Ken and +Beveridge and Kettlewell, and English High Churchmen in general, had +long regarded that Church with compassion, sympathy, and interest. Dr. +Hickes, the acknowledged leader of the thorough Nonjurors, had become, +as chaplain to the Earl of Lauderdale, well acquainted with its bishops; +a large proportion of its clergy were Jacobites and Nonjurors; and, +like themselves, they were a depressed and often persecuted remnant. The +intimacy, therefore, between the Scotch Episcopalians and many of the +English Nonjurors became, as is well known, very close. + +There was, however, one other great body of Christians towards whom, +after a time, the nonjuring separatists turned with proposals of amity +and intercommunion. This was the Eastern Church. Various causes had +contributed to remove something of the obscurity which had once shrouded +this vast communion from the knowledge of Englishmen. As far back as the +earlier part of Charles I.'s reign, the attention of either party in the +English Church had been fixed for a time on the overtures made by +Cyrillus Lukaris,[133] patriarch, first of Alexandria, and then of +Constantinople, to whom we owe the precious gift of the 'Alexandrian +manuscript' of the Scriptures. Archbishop Abbot, a Calvinist, and one of +the first representatives of the so-called Latitudinarian party, had +been attracted by the inclinations evinced by this remarkable man +towards the theology of Holland and Geneva. His successor and complete +opposite, Archbishop Laud, had been no less fascinated by the idea of +closer intercourse with a Church of such ancient splendour and such +pretensions to primitive orthodoxy. At the close of the seventeenth +century this interest had been renewed by the visit of Peter the Great +to this island. With a mind greedy after all manner of information, he +had not omitted to inquire closely into ecclesiastical matters. People +heard of his conversations on these subjects with Tenison and +Burnet,[134] and wondered how far a monarch who was a kind of Pope in +his own empire would be leavened with Western and Protestant ideas. In +learned and literary circles too the Eastern Church had been discussed. +The Oxford and Cambridge Platonists, than whom England has never +produced more thoughtful and scholarlike divines, had profoundly studied +the Alexandrian fathers. Patristic reading, which no one could yet +neglect who advanced the smallest pretensions to theological +acquirements, might naturally lead men to think with longing of an ideal +of united faith 'professed' (to use Bishop Ken's familiar words) 'by the +whole Church before the disunion of East and West.'[135] Missionary +feeling, which at the beginning of the eighteenth century was showing so +many signs of nascent activity, had not failed to take notice of the +gross ignorance into which many parts of Greek Christendom had +fallen.[136] Henry Ludolph, a German by birth, and late secretary to +Prince George of Denmark, on his return to London in 1694 from some +lengthened travels in Russia, and after further wanderings a few years +later in Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Holy Land, persuaded some English +Churchmen to publish an impression of the New Testament in modern Greek, +which was dispersed in those countries through the Greeks with whom +Ludolph kept up a correspondence.[137] In 1701 University men at +Cambridge, when Bentley was Vice-Chancellor, were much interested by the +visit of Neophytos, Archbishop of Philippopolis, and Exarch of Thrace. +He was presented with a Doctor of Divinity's degree, and afterwards made +a speech in Hellenistic Greek.[138] About the same time the minutes of +the Christian Knowledge Society make report of a Catechism drawn up for +Greek Churchmen by Bishop Williams of Chichester, and translated from +the English by some Greeks then studying at Oxford.[139] This little +colony of Greek students had been established in 1689, through the +cordial relations then subsisting between Archbishop Sancroft and +Georgirenes, Metropolitan of Samos, who had recently been a refugee in +London. It was hoped that by their residence at Oxford they would be +able to promote in their own country a better understanding of 'the true +doctrine of the Church of England.' They were to be twenty in number, +were to dwell together at Gloucester Hall (afterwards Worcester +College), be habited all alike in the gravest sort of habit worn in +their own country, and stay at the University for five years.[140] +Robert Nelson, ever zealous and energetic in all the business of the +society, would naturally feel particularly interested in the condition +of Eastern Christians on account of the business connection with Smyrna +in which his family had been prosperously engaged. We are told of his +showing warm sympathy in the wish of the Archbishop of Gotchau in +Armenia to get works of piety printed in that language.[141] Similar +interest would be felt by another leader of the early Nonjurors, +Frampton, Bishop of Gloucester, who in his earlier years had served as +chaplain at Aleppo, and had formed a familiar acquaintance with some of +the most learned patriarchs and bishops of the Eastern Church.[142] The +man, however, who at the beginning of the eighteenth century must have +done most to turn attention towards the Eastern Church, was Dr. Grabe, +who has been already more than once spoken of as held in great esteem by +the Nonjuring and High Church party. He had found the Anglican Church +more congenial to him on the whole than any other, but it shared his +sympathies with the Lutheran and the Greek. He was a constant daily +attendant at the English, and more especially the nonjuring services, +but for many years he communicated exclusively at the Greek Church. He +also published a 'Defensio Graecae Ecclesiae.'[143] Thus, in many different +ways, the Oriental Church had come to be regarded, especially by the +more studious of the High Church clergy, in quite another light from +that of Rome. + +In 1716 Arsenius, Metropolitan of Thebais, came to London on a +charitable mission in behalf of the suffering Christians of Egypt. It +will be readily understood with what alacrity a number of the Scotch and +English Nonjurors seized the opportunity of making 'a proposal for a +concordat betwixt the orthodox and Catholic remnant of the British +Churches and the Catholic and Apostolic Oriental Church.' The +correspondence, of which a full account is given in Lathbury's History +of the Nonjurors,[144] although in many respects an interesting one, was +wholly abortive. There appears indeed to have been a real wish on the +part of Peter the Great and of some of the patriarchs to forward the +project; but the ecclesiastical synod of Russia was evidently not quite +clear from whom the overtures proceeded. Their answers were directed 'To +the Most Reverend the Bishops of the Catholic Church in Great Britain, +our dearest brothers,' and, somewhat to the dismay of the Nonjurors, +copies of the letters were even sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to +Archbishop Wake. Above all, the proposals were essentially one-sided. +The nonjuring bishops, while remaining perfectly faithful to their +principles, were willing to make large concessions in points which +involved no departure from what they considered to be essential truths. +The Patriarchs would have been glad of intercommunion on their own +terms, but in the true spirit of the Eastern Church, would concede +nothing. It was 'not lawful either to add any thing or take away any +thing' from 'what has been defined and determined by ancient Fathers and +the Holy Oecumenical Synods from the time of the apostles and their +holy successors, the Fathers of our Church, to this time. We say that +those who are disposed to agree with us must submit to them, with +sincerity and obedience, and without any scruple or dispute. And this is +a sufficient answer to what you have written.' Perhaps the result might +not have been very different, even if the overtures in question had been +backed by the authority of the whole Anglican Church--a communion which +at this period was universally acknowledged as the leader of Protestant +Christendom. And even if there were less immutability in Eastern +counsels, Bishop Campbell and his coadjutors could scarcely have been +sanguine in hoping for any other issue. Truth and right, as they +remarked in a letter to the Czar, do not depend on numbers; but if the +Oriental synod were thoroughly aware how exceedingly scanty was 'the +remnant' with which they were treating, and how thoroughly apart from +the main current of English national life, it was highly improbable that +they would purchase so minute an advance towards a wider unity by +authorising what would certainly seem to them innovations dangerously +opposed to all ancient precedent. It must be some far greater and deeper +movement that will first tempt the unchanging Eastern Church to approve +of any deviation from the trodden path of immemorial tradition. + +There was great variety of individual character in the group of +Churchmen who have formed the subject of this chapter. They did not all +come into contact with one another, and some were widely separated by +the circumstances of their lives. The one fact of some being Jurors and +some Nonjurors was quite enough in itself to make a vast difference of +thoughts and sympathies among those who had taken different sides. But +they were closely united in what they held to be the divinely appointed +constitution of the Church. All looked back to primitive times as the +unalterable model of doctrine, order, and government; all were firmly +persuaded that the English Reformation was wholly based on a restoration +of the ancient pattern, and had fallen short of its object only so far +forth as that ideal had as yet been unattained; all looked with +suspicion and alarm at such tendencies of their age as seemed to them to +contradict and thwart the development of these principles. They were +good men in a very high sense of the word, earnestly religious, bent +upon a conscientious fulfilment of their duties, and centres, in their +several spheres, of active Christian labours. Ken, Nelson, and +Kettlewell, among Nonjurors--Bull, Beveridge, and Sharp, among those who +accepted the change of dynasty--are names deservedly held in special +honour by English Churchmen. Their piety was of a type more frequent +perhaps in the Church of England than in some other communions, very +serious and devout, but wholly free from all gloom and moroseness; +tinged in some instances, as in Dodwell, Ken, and Hooper, with +asceticism, but serene and bright, and guarded against extravagance and +fanaticism by culture, social converse, and sound reading. Such men +could not fail to adorn the faith they professed, and do honour to the +Church in which they had been nurtured. At the same time, some of the +tenets which they ardently maintained were calculated to foster a +stiffness and narrowness, and an exaggerated insistence upon certain +forms of Church government, which contained many elements of real +danger. Within the National Church there was a great deal to +counterbalance these injurious tendencies and check their growth. The +Latitudinarian party, whose faults and temptations lay in a very +opposite direction, was very strong. Ecclesiastical as well as political +parties were no doubt strongly defined, and for a time strongly +antagonistic. But wherever in a large body of men different views are +equally tolerated, opinions will inevitably shade one into another to a +great extent, and extreme or unpractical theories will be tempered and +toned down, or be regarded at most as merely the views of a minority. +Among the Nonjurors Henry Dodwell, for example, was a real power, as a +man of holy life and profound learning, whose views, although carried to +an extreme in which few could altogether concur, were still in general +principle, and when stated in more moderate terms, those of the great +majority of the whole body. As a member, on the other hand, of the +National Church, his goodness and erudition were widely respected, but +his theoretical extravagances were only the crotchets of a retired +student, who advanced in their most extreme form the opinions of a +party. + +But, Jurors or Nonjurors, the very best men of the old High Church party +certainly exhibited a strong bearing towards the faults of exclusiveness +and ecclesiasticism. It was a serious loss to the English Church to be +deprived of the services of such men as Ken and Kettlewell, but it would +have been a great misfortune to it to have been represented only by men +of their sentiments. Their Christianity was as true and earnest as ever +breathed in the soul; nevertheless, there was much in it that could not +fail to degenerate in spirits less pure and elevated than their own. +They were apt to fall into the common error of making orthodoxy a far +more strait and narrow path than was ever warranted by any terms of the +Church apostolic or of the Church of their own country. Its strict +limits, on all points which Scripture has left uncertain, had been, as +it appeared to them, providentially maintained throughout the first +three centuries. Then began a long period of still increasing error; +until the time of reformation came, and the Church of England fulfilled +its appointed task of retracing the old landmarks, and restoring +primitive truth to its ancient purity. Allowing for such trifling +modifications as the difference of time and change of circumstances +absolutely necessitated, the Anglican was in their estimation the +Ante-Nicene Church revived. If, in the doctrine, order, and government +of the English Church there was anything which would not have approved +itself to the early fathers and to the first Councils, it was so far +forth a falling short of its fundamental principles. They were persuaded +that at all events there was nowhere outside its borders such near +approach to this perfection. As for other religious bodies, the degree +of their separation from the spirit and constitution of the English +Church might be fairly taken as the approximate measure of their +departure from the practice of primitive antiquity. Romanism, +Latitudinarianism, Mysticism, Calvinism, Puritanism--whatever form +dissent might take from what they believed to be the true principles of +the English Church, it was, as such, a departure from Catholic and +orthodox tradition, it was but one or another phase of the odious sin of +schism. + +The High Anglican custom of appealing to early ecclesiastical records as +an acknowledged standard of authority on all matters which Scripture has +left uncertain, necessarily led this section of the English Church to +repeat many of the failings as well as many of the virtues which had +characterised the Church of the third and fourth centuries. It copied, +for instance, far too faithfully, the disposition which primitive ages +had early manifested, to magnify unduly the spiritual power and +prerogatives of the priesthood. No doubt the outcry against +sacerdotalism was often perverted to disingenuous uses. Many a hard blow +was dealt against vital Christian doctrine under the guise of righteous +war against the exorbitant pretensions of the clergy. But Sacerdotalism +certainly attained a formidable height among some of the High Churchmen +of the period, both Jurors and Nonjurors. Dodwell, who declined orders +that he might defend all priestly rights from a better vantage ground, +did more harm to the cause he had espoused than any one of its +opponents, by fearlessly pressing the theory into consequences from +which a less thorough or a more cautious advocate would have recoiled +with dismay. Robert Nelson's sobriety of judgment and sound practical +sense made him a far more effective champion. He too, like Dodwell, +rejoiced that from his position as a layman he could without prejudice +resist what he termed a sacrilegious invasion of the rights of the +priests of the Lord.[145] The beginning of the eighteenth century was +felt to be a time of crisis in the contest which, for the last three or +four hundred years, has been incessantly waged between those whose +tendency is ever to reduce religion into its very simplest elements, and +those, on the other hand, in whose eyes the whole order of Church +government and discipline is a divinely constituted system of mysterious +powers and superhuman influences. It is a contest in which opinions may +vary in all degrees, from pure Deism to utter Ultramontanism. The High +Churchmen in question insisted that their position, and theirs only, was +precisely that of the Church in early post-Apostolic times, when +doctrine had become fully defined, but was as yet uncorrupted by later +superstitions. It was not very tenable ground, but it was held by them +with a pertinacity and sincerity of conviction which deepened the +fervour of their faith, even while it narrowed its sympathies and +cramped it with restrictions. A Church in which they found what they +demanded; which was primitive and reformed; which was free from the +errors of Rome and Geneva; which was not only Catholic and orthodox on +all doctrines of faith, but possessed an apostolical succession, with +the sacred privileges attached to it; which was governed by a lawful and +canonical episcopate; which was blessed with a sound and ancient +liturgy; which was faithful (many Nonjurors would add) to its divinely +appointed king; such a Church was indeed one for which they could live +and die. So far it was well. Their love for their own Church, and their +perfect confidence in it, added both beauty and character to their +piety. The misfortune was, that it left them unable to understand the +merits of any form of faith which rejected, or treated as a thing +indifferent, what they regarded as all but essential. + +Fervid as their Christianity was, it was altogether unprogressive in its +form. It was inelastic, incompetent to adapt itself to changing +circumstances. Some of their leaders were inclined at one time to favour +a scheme of comprehension. It is, however, impossible to believe they +would have agreed to any concession which was not evidently superficial. +They longed indeed for unity; and there is no reason to believe that +they would have hesitated to sacrifice, though it would not be without a +pang, many points of ritual and ceremony if it would further so good an +end. But in their scheme of theology the essentials of an orthodox +Church were numerous, and they would have been inflexible against any +compromise of these. To abandon any part of the inheritance of primitive +times would be gross heresy, a fatal dereliction of Christian duty. No +one can read the letters of Bishop Ken without noticing how the calm and +gentle spirit of that good prelate kindles into indignation at the +thought of any departure from the ancient 'Depositum' of the Church. He +did not fail to appreciate and love true Christian piety when brought +into near contact with it, even in those whose principles, in what he +considered essential matters, differed greatly from his own. He was on +cordial, and even intimate terms of friendship, for example, with Mr. +Singer, a Nonconformist gentleman of high standing, who lived in the +neighbourhood of Longleat. But this only serves to illustrate that there +is an unity of faith far deeper than very deeply marked outward +distinctions, a bond of Christian communion which, when once its +strength is felt, is stronger than the strongest theories. Where the +stiffness of his 'Catholic and orthodox' opinions was not counteracted +or mitigated by feelings of warm personal respect, Ken could only view +with unmixed aversion the working of principles which paid little regard +to Church authority and attached small importance to any part of a +Church system that did not clearly rest on plain words of Scripture. No +one, reading without farther information the frequent laments made in +Ken's letters and poems, that his flock had been left without a +shepherd, that it was no longer folded in Catholic and hallowed grounds, +and that it was fed with empoisoned instead of wholesome food, would +think how good a man his successor in the see of Bath and Wells really +was. Bishop Kidder was 'an exemplary and learned man of the simplest and +most charitable character.'[146] Robert Nelson had strongly recommended +him to Archbishop Tillotson. But he held a Low Church view of the +Sacraments; he was inclined to admit, on what some considered too +lenient terms, Dissenters of high character into the ministry of the +English Church; his reverence for primitive tradition was slight; he had +no respect for doctrines of passive obedience and divine right. In Ken's +eyes he was therefore a 'Latitudinarian Traditour.' The deprived bishop +had no wish to resume his see. It was more than once offered to him in +Queen Anne's reign, when the oath of allegiance would no longer have +been an insuperable obstacle. But throughout the life of his first +successor his anxiety about his former diocese was very great, and his +satisfaction was extreme when Kidder was succeeded by Hooper, a bishop +of kindred principles to his own. And Ken was in these respects a fair +representative of many who thought with him. To them the Christian +faith, not in its fundamentals only, but in all the principal +accessories of its constitution and government, was stereotyped in +forms which could not be departed from without heresy or schism. There +was scarcely any margin left for self-adaptation to changed requirements +and varied modes of thought, no ready scope for elasticity and +development. As Christianity had been left in the age of the first three +councils, so it was to remain until the end of time. The first reformers +had reformed it from its corruptions once and for all. The guardians of +its purity had only to walk loyally in their steps, carry out their +principles, and not be misled by any so-called reformer of a later day, +whose meddling hands would only have marred the finished beauty of an +accomplished work of restoration. + +Such opinions, when rich in vitality and warmth of conviction, have a +very important function to fulfil. Admirably adapted to supply the +spiritual wants of a certain class of minds, they represent one very +important side of Christian truth. Good men such as those who have been +the subject of this chapter are, in the Church, much what disinterested +and patriotic Conservatives are in the State. It is their special +function to resist needless changes and a too compliant subservience to +new or popular ideas, to maintain unbroken the continuity of Christian +thought, to guard from disparagement and neglect whatever was most +valuable in the religious characteristics of an earlier age. Theirs is a +school of thought which has neither a greater nor a less claim to +genuine spirituality than that which is usually contrasted with it. Only +its spirituality is wont to take, in many respects, a different tone. +Instead of shrinking from forms which by their abuse may tend to +formalism, and simplifying to the utmost all the accessories of worship, +in jealous fear lest at any time the senses should be impressed at the +expense of the spirit, it prefers rather to recognise as far as possible +a lofty sacramental character in the institutions of religion, to see a +meaning, and an inward as well as an outward beauty, in ceremonies and +ritual, and to uphold a scrupulous and reverential observance of all +sacred services, as conducing in a very high degree to spiritual +edification. Churchmen of this type may often be blind to other sides of +truth; they may rush into extremes; they may fall into grave errors of +exclusiveness and prejudice. But if they certainly cannot become +absolutely predominant in a Church without serious danger, they cannot +become a weak minority without much detriment to its best interests. And +since it is hopeless to find on any wide scale minds so happily tempered +as to combine within themselves the best characteristics of different +religious parties, a Church may well be congratulated which can count +among its loyal and attached members many men on either side conspicuous +for their high qualities. + +The beginning of Queen Anne's reign was in this respect a period of +great promise. Not only was the Church of England popular and its +opponents weak, but both High and Low Churchmen had leaders of +distinguished eminence. Tillotson and Stillingfleet had passed away, but +the Low Church bishops, such as Patrick and Fleetwood, Burnet, Tenison, +and Compton, held a very honourable place in general esteem. The High +Churchmen no longer had Lake and Kettlewell, but Bull and Beveridge, +Sharp, and Ken, and Nelson were still living, and held in high honour. +This latter party had been rent asunder by the nonjuring schism. The +breach, however, was not yet irreparable; and if it could be healed, and +the cordial feeling could be restored which, under the influence of +common Protestant sympathies, had begun to draw the two sections of the +Church together, the National Church might seem likely to root itself +more deeply in the attachment of the people than at any previous time +since the Reformation. These fair promises were frustrated, and the +opportunity lost. Before many years had passed there was a perceptible +loss of tone and power in the Low Church party, when King William's +bishops had gradually died off. Among High Churchmen, weakened by the +secession, the growth of degeneracy was still more evident. The contrast +is immense between the lofty-minded and single-hearted men who worked +with Ken and Nelson and the factious partisans who won the applause of +'High Church' mobs in the time of Sacheverell. Perhaps the Church +activity which, at all events in many notable instances, distinguished +the first few years of the eighteenth century, is thrown into stronger +relief by the comparative inertness which set in soon afterwards. For a +few years there was certainly every appearance of a growing religious +movement. Church brotherhoods were formed both in London and in many +country towns and villages, missions were started, religious education +was promoted, plans for the reformation of manners were ardently engaged +in, churches were built, the weekly and daily services were in many +places frequented by increasing congregations, and communicants rapidly +increased. It might seem as if the Wesleyan movement was about to be +forestalled, in general character though not in detail, under the full +sanction and direction of some of the principal heads of the English +Church: or as if the movement were begun, and only wanted such another +leader as Wesley was. There was not enough fire in Robert Nelson's +character for such a part. Yet, had he lived a little longer, the +example of his deep devotion and untiring zeal might have kindled the +flame in some younger men of congenial but more impetuous temperament, +whose zeal would have stirred the masses, and left a deep mark upon the +history of the age. + +As it was, things took a different course. The chief promoters of these +noble efforts died, and much of their work died with them. Or it may be +that the times were not yet ripe for such a revival. It may even have +been better in the end for English Christianity, that no special period +of religious excitement should interfere with the serious intellectual +conflict, in which all who could give any attention to theology were +becoming deeply interested. Great problems involved in the principles of +the Reformation, but obscured up to that time by other and more +superficial controversies, were being everywhere discussed. An interval +of religious tranquillity amounting almost to stagnation may have been +not altogether unfavourable to a crisis when the fundamental axioms of +Christianity were being reviewed and tested. And, after all, dulness is +not death. The responsibilities of each individual soul are happily not +dependent upon unusual helps and extraordinary opportunities. Yet great +efforts of what may be called missionary zeal are most precious, and +fall like rain upon the thirsty earth. It is impossible not to feel +disappointment that the practical energies which at the beginning of the +eighteenth century seemed ready to expand into full life should have +proved comparatively barren of permanent results. But though the effort +was not seconded as it should have been, none the less honour is due to +the exemplary men who made it. It was an effort by no means confined to +any one section of the Church. There were few more earnest in it than +many of the London clergy who had worked heart and soul with Tillotson. +But wherever any great religious undertaking, any scheme of Christian +benevolence, was under consideration, wherever any plan was in hand for +carrying out more thoroughly and successfully the work of the Church, +there at all events was Robert Nelson, and the pious, earnest-hearted +Churchmen who enjoyed his friendship. + +C.J.A. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, lxi.] + +[Footnote 2: Ken and a few others are conspicuous as exceptions.] + +[Footnote 3: W.H. Teale, _Life of Nelson_, 221.] + +[Footnote 4: Dr. S. Clarke called him a model controversialist. Teale, +330.] + +[Footnote 5: See his _Address to Persons of Quality_, and +_Representation of the several Ways of doing Good_. Secretan, 149. +Teale, 338.] + +[Footnote 6: _Life_, by Boswell, ii. 457.] + +[Footnote 7: G.G. Perry, _History of the Church of England_, iii. 110.] + +[Footnote 8: Secretan, 50, 71.] + +[Footnote 9: _Practice of True Devotion_, 28.] + +[Footnote 10: S. Wesley's poem on R. Nelson, prefixed to some editions +of the _Practice, &c._. He adds in a note that this was a personal +reminiscence of his friend.] + +[Footnote 11: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 303.] + +[Footnote 12: Secretan, 2.] + +[Footnote 13: 'A man,' says his biographer, 'of singular earnestness, +honesty, and practical ability, who was never wanting in times of +danger, and never hesitated to discharge his duty at the cost of worldly +advantage.'--_Life of Frampton_, by T.S. Evans. Preface, x.] + +[Footnote 14: Quoted in _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 753.] + +[Footnote 15: And even, by the permission of the Bishop of London, +assisted in the service.--_Evans_, 208.] + +[Footnote 16: Frampton to Kettlewell. _Life of Kettlewell_, App. No. +18.] + +[Footnote 17: _Life of Kettlewell_, p. 169.] + +[Footnote 18: Id. 162, Secretan, 61.] + +[Footnote 19: _Life of Kettlewell_, App. No. 25.] + +[Footnote 20: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 676.] + +[Footnote 21: _Life of Kettlewell_, 176.] + +[Footnote 22: Id. pp. 95, 182.] + +[Footnote 23: Id. 14.] + +[Footnote 24: Id. 172.] + +[Footnote 25: Id. 134.] + +[Footnote 26: Id. 172.] + +[Footnote 27: Hearne said of him, 'I take him to be the greatest scholar +in Europe, when he died; but what exceeds that, his piety and sanctity +were beyond compare.'--June 15, 1711, p. 228.] + +[Footnote 28: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 540.] + +[Footnote 29: _Reliq. Hearnianae_, 1710, March 4, p. 188.] + +[Footnote 30: Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, 534.] + +[Footnote 31: No. 187.] + +[Footnote 32: Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, chap. x. 73.] + +[Footnote 33: Hunt, J., _Religious Thought in England_, ii. 85.] + +[Footnote 34: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 705.] + +[Footnote 35: Dodwell's _Append. to Case in View, now in Fact_, and his +_On Occasional Communion, Life_, pp. 474 and 419.] + +[Footnote 36: _Life of Kettlewell_, 128.] + +[Footnote 37: Quoted in Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, 546.] + +[Footnote 38: Id. 541.] + +[Footnote 39: Macaulay's _History of England_, chap. 12.] + +[Footnote 40: Id.] + +[Footnote 41: Secretan, 63.] + +[Footnote 42: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 439.] + +[Footnote 43: _Life of Kettlewell_, App. No. 3.] + +[Footnote 44: _Life of Ken_, &c., 718.] + +[Footnote 45: Hunt, ii. 375.] + +[Footnote 46: Letter to Nelson. _Life of Bull_, 441.] + +[Footnote 47: _Life of Ken_, &c., 719.] + +[Footnote 48: Hunt, ii. 76.] + +[Footnote 49: Hickes, 9, _Enthusiasm Exorcised_, 64.] + +[Footnote 50: Lathbury's _History of the Nonjurors_, 216. Seward speaks +of him as 'this learned prelate.'--_Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_, +250.] + +[Footnote 51: Secretan, 70. He was much fascinated by the writings of +Madame Bourignon.--Hearne to Rawlinson, quoted in Wilson's _History of +Merchant Taylors_, 957.] + +[Footnote 52: _History of Montanism_, &c., 344.] + +[Footnote 53: Secretan, 273.] + +[Footnote 54: Id. 70.] + +[Footnote 55: Secretan, 171. Wilson quotes from the Rawlinson MSS. a +very beautiful prayer composed by Lee soon before his death, for 'all +Christians, however divided or distinguished ... throughout the whole +militant Church upon earth.'--_History of Merchant Taylors_, 956.] + +[Footnote 56: Hearne dwells enthusiastically on his high qualities, his +religious conscientiousness, his learning, modesty, sweet temper, his +charity in prosperity, his resignation in adverse fortune.--_Reliquiae_, +i. 287.] + +[Footnote 57: Secretan, 50, 69, 284. He was a learned man, a student of +many languages.--_Nichols_, i. 124.] + +[Footnote 58: Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, iv. 256.] + +[Footnote 59: A regular form of admission 'into the true and Catholic +remnant of the Britannick Churches,' was drawn up for this +purpose.--_Life of Kettlewell_, App. xvii.] + +[Footnote 60: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 4.] + +[Footnote 61: Speech before the House of Lords, 1705.--Nelson's _Life of +Bull_, 355.] + +[Footnote 62: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 11. Archdeacon Conant stood very +high in Tillotson's estimation, as a man 'whose learning, piety, and +thorough knowledge of the true principles of Christianity would have +adorned the highest station.'--Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, _Works_, i. +ccxii.] + +[Footnote 63: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 243-9. Dorner, ii. 83.] + +[Footnote 64: Secretan, 255.] + +[Footnote 65: Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, lxxxviii.] + +[Footnote 66: 'Concio ad Synodum,' quoted by Macaulay, _History of +England_, chap. xiv.] + +[Footnote 67: Secretan, 135.] + +[Footnote 68: _Life of Bull_, 64.] + +[Footnote 69: Sharp's _Life_, by his Son, ii. 32. Secretan, 78-9.] + +[Footnote 70: _Life of Bull_, 238.] + +[Footnote 71: _Life_, by his Son, ii. 28.] + +[Footnote 72: Secretan, 178.] + +[Footnote 73: 'None,' said Willis in his _Survey of Cathedrals_, 'were +so well served as that of York, under Sharp.'--_Life of Sharp_, i. 120.] + +[Footnote 74: _Thoresby's Correspondence_, i. 274.] + +[Footnote 75: _Life_, i. 264.] + +[Footnote 76: Dodwell's 'Case in View,' quoted in Lathbury's _History of +the Nonjurors_, 197.] + +[Footnote 77: _Life_, i. 264.] + +[Footnote 78: Secretan, 285.] + +[Footnote 79: Nichols' _Lit. An._ i. 190.] + +[Footnote 80: Nos. 72 and 114.] + +[Footnote 81: 'Animadversions on the two last January 30 sermons,' 1702. +The same might be said of his 'Sermon before the Court of Aldermen,' +January 30, 1704.] + +[Footnote 82: Lord Mahon's _History of England_, chap. 12.] + +[Footnote 83: Secretan, 223.] + +[Footnote 84: The parallel with an interesting portion of I. Casaubon's +life is singularly close. See Pattison's _Isaac Casaubon_, chap. 5.] + +[Footnote 85: In conjunction with Archbishop Sharp, Smalridge, and +Jablouski, &c. See Chapter on 'Comprehension, &c.'] + +[Footnote 86: Secretan, 221, note. Nelson gives a full account of Dr. +Grabe in his _Life of Bull_, 343-6.] + +[Footnote 87: Memoirs, 154.] + +[Footnote 88: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 619-20.] + +[Footnote 89: Secretan, 142.] + +[Footnote 90: Oglethorpe and Nelson sometimes met here. Secretan, 211.] + +[Footnote 91: He was one of the many writers against the Deists. It was +to his credit, that although he had been strongly opposed to Atterbury +in controversy, he earnestly supported him in what he thought an +oppressive prosecution.--Williams' _Memoirs of Atterbury_, i. 417.] + +[Footnote 92: S. xx _Works_, ii. 252.] + +[Footnote 93: Bishop Magee, Charge at Northampton, October 1872.] + +[Footnote 94: J.J. Blunt, _Early Fathers_, 19; also Archbishop Manning's +_Essays_, Series 2, 4.] + +[Footnote 95: Lord Somers' 'Judgment of whole Kingdoms.... As to Rights +of Kings,' 1710, Sec. 117.] + +[Footnote 96: _Life of Kettlewell_, App. No. 13. Kettlewell uses the +same words, Id. p. 87.] + +[Footnote 97: Letter to his Nephew, Nichols' _Lit. An._ iv. 219.] + +[Footnote 98: Lathbury, 94.] + +[Footnote 99: A letter from Burnet to Compton, quoted from the Rawl. +MSS. in _Life of Ken_, 527.] + +[Footnote 100: Birch's _Tillotson_, lxxv.] + +[Footnote 101: _Life of Kettlewell_, 87.] + +[Footnote 102: Whaley N., Sermon before the University of Oxford, +January 30, 1710, 16.] + +[Footnote 103: Lee's _Life of Kettlewell_, 167.] + +[Footnote 104: Warburton's 'Alliance,' iv. 173.] + +[Footnote 105: 'The supremacy of the Queen is, in the sense used by the +noble lord, no better than a fiction. There might have been such a +supremacy down to the times of James II., but now there is no supremacy +but that of the three estates of the realm and the supremacy of the +law.'--J. Bright's _Speeches_, ii. 475.] + +[Footnote 106: Lathbury, 129. _Life of Kettlewell_, 139.] + +[Footnote 107: Lathbury, 91.] + +[Footnote 108: Dodwell's _Further Prospect of the Case in View_, 1707, +19, 111, quoted in Lathbury, 201, 203.] + +[Footnote 109: Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, clxxxiii.] + +[Footnote 110: _Life of Kettlewell_, App. 17.] + +[Footnote 111: Hearne's _Reliquiae_, ii. 257.] + +[Footnote 112: Lathbury, 388.] + +[Footnote 113: Secretan, 37, 65.] + +[Footnote 114: Hunt, 3, 257, and Cassan's _Lives of the Bishops of +Winchester_, 379. Cassan, quoting from Noble, says Trimnell was a very +good man,'whom even the Tories valued, though he preached terrible Whig +sermons.'] + +[Footnote 115: Id.] + +[Footnote 116: _Life of Kettlewell_, 56.] + +[Footnote 117: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 178.] + +[Footnote 118: Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, 363.] + +[Footnote 119: Secretan, 178-9. Teale, 297.] + +[Footnote 120: _Sharp's Life_, by his Son, i. 355, and Secretan, 178.] + +[Footnote 121: Beveridge's _Necessity and Advantage of Frequent +Communion_, 1708.] + +[Footnote 122: Lathbury, 302.] + +[Footnote 123: In answer to Lavington, who charged him with prayers to +that effect in his _Devotions for every day in the Week_ (_Enthusiasm of +Methodists and Papists_, 157), Wesley answered, 'In this kind of general +prayer for the faithful departed, I conceive myself to be clearly +justified both by the earliest antiquity and by the Church of +England.'--'Answer to Lavington,' _Works_, ix. 55, also 'Letter to Dr. +Middleton,' _Works_, x. 9.] + +[Footnote 124: _Boswell's Life_, i. 187, 101, ii. 166.] + +[Footnote 125: Hearne's _Reliquiae_, ii. 188.] + +[Footnote 126: Lathbury, 302.] + +[Footnote 127: Wake's _Three Tracts against Popery_, Sec. 3. Quoted +with much censure by Blackburne, _Historical View_, &c., 115.] + +[Footnote 128: Lathbury, 300.] + +[Footnote 129: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 405.] + +[Footnote 130: Bowles' _Life of Ken_, 38.] + +[Footnote 131: Lathbury, 297, 302. The custom is spoken of as frequent +among the High Churchmen of 1710-20.--_Life of Kennet_, 125.] + +[Footnote 132: _Life of Kettlewell_, 130.] + +[Footnote 133: A.P. Stanley's _Eastern Church_, 410.] + +[Footnote 134: A.P. Stanley's _Eastern Church_, 453, 462.] + +[Footnote 135: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 808.] + +[Footnote 136: Burnet, writing in 1694, remarking on 'the present +depressed and ignorant state of the Greek Churches,' speaks also with +warm sympathy of their poverty and persecution--'a peculiar character of +bearing the Cross.'--_Four Sermons, &c._, 198.] + +[Footnote 137: _Biographical Dictionary_, 'Ludolph.] + +[Footnote 138: Christopher Wordsworth, _University Life in the +Eighteenth Century_, 331.] + +[Footnote 139: Secretan, 103.] + +[Footnote 140: Wordsworth, _University Life_, &c. 324-5.] + +[Footnote 141: Teale, 302.--This was in 1707. Archbishop Sharp gave his +help in furthering this work.--_Life_, i. 402.] + +[Footnote 142: Evans' _Life of Frampton_, 44.] + +[Footnote 143: Secretan, ii. 220-2. Hearne's _Reliquiae_, ii. 230.] + +[Footnote 144: Pp. 309-59.] + +[Footnote 145: Secretan, 195.] + +[Footnote 146: Bowles' _Life of Ken_, 247.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DEISTS. + + +Of the many controversies which were rife during the first half of the +eighteenth century, none raised a question of greater importance than +that which lay at the root of the Deistical controversy. That question +was, in a word, this--How has God revealed Himself--how is He still +revealing Himself to man? Is the so-called written Word the only +means--is it the chief means--is it even a means at all, by which the +Creator makes His will known to His creatures? Admitting the existence +of a God--and with a few insignificant exceptions this admission would +have been made by all--What are the evidences of His existence and of +His dealings with us? + +During the whole period of pre-reformation Christianity in England, and +during the century which succeeded the rupture between the Church of +England and that of Rome, all answers to this question, widely though +they might have differed in subordinate points, would at least have +agreed in this--that _some_ external authority, whether it were the +Scripture as interpreted by the Church, or the Scripture and Church +traditions combined, or the Scripture interpreted by the light which +itself affords or by the inner light which lighteth every man that +cometh into the world, was necessary to manifest God to man. The Deists +first ventured to hint that such authority was unnecessary; some even +went so far as to hint that it was impossible. This at least was the +tendency of their speculations; though it was not the avowed object of +them. There was hardly a writer among the Deists who did not affirm that +he had no wish to depreciate revealed truth. They all protested +vigorously against the assumption that Deism was in any way opposed to +Christianity rightly understood. 'Deism,' they said, 'is opposed to +Atheism on the one side and to superstition on the other; but to +Christianity--true, original Christianity--as it came forth from the +hands of its founder, the Deists are so far from being opposed, that +they are its truest defenders.' Whether their position was logically +tenable is quite another question, but that they assumed it in all +sincerity there is no reason to doubt. + +It is, however, extremely difficult to assert or deny anything +respecting the Deists as a body, for as a matter of fact they had no +corporate existence. The writers who are generally grouped under the +name wrote apparently upon no preconcerted plan. They formed no sect, +properly so-called, and were bound by no creed. In this sense at least +they were genuine 'freethinkers,' in that they freely expressed their +thoughts without the slightest regard to what had been said or might be +said by their friends or foes. It was the fashion among their +contemporaries to speak of the Deists as if they were as distinct a sect +as the Quakers, the Socinians, the Presbyterians, or any other religious +denomination. But we look in vain for any common doctrine--any common +form of worship which belonged to the Deists as Deists. As a rule, they +showed no desire to separate themselves from communion with the National +Church, although they were quite out of harmony both with the articles +of its belief and the spirit of its prayers. A few negative tenets were +perhaps more or less common to all. That no traditional revelation can +have the same force of conviction as the direct revelation which God has +given to all mankind--in other words, that what is called revealed +religion must be inferior and subordinate to natural--that the +Scriptures must be criticised like any other book, and no part of them +be accepted as a revelation from God which does not harmonise with the +eternal and immutable reason of things; that, in point of fact, the Old +Testament is a tissue of fables and folly, and the New Testament has +much alloy mingled with the gold which it contains; that Jesus Christ is +not co-equal with the one God, and that his death can in no sense be +regarded as an atonement for sin, are tenets which may be found in most +of the Deistical writings; but beyond these negative points there is +little or nothing in common between the heterogeneous body of writers +who passed under the vague name of Deists. To complicate matters still +further, the name 'Deist' was loosely applied as a name of reproach to +men who, in the widest sense of the term, do not come within its +meaning. Thus Cudworth, Tillotson, Locke, and Samuel Clarke were +stigmatised as Deists by their enemies. On the other hand, men were +grouped under the category whose faith did not rise to the level of +Deism. Thus Hume is classified among the Deists. Yet if the term 'Deism' +is allowed to have any definite meaning at all, it implies the certainty +and obligation of natural religion. It is of its very essence that God +has revealed himself so plainly to mankind that there is no necessity, +as there is no sufficient evidence, for a better revelation. But Hume's +scepticism embraced natural as well as revealed religion. Hobbes, again, +occupies a prominent place among the Deists of the seventeenth century, +although the whole nature of his argument in 'The Leviathan' is alien to +the central thought of Deism. Add to all this, that the Deists proper +were constantly accused of holding views which they never held, and that +conclusions were drawn from their premisses which those premisses did +not warrant, and the difficulty of treating the subject as a whole will +be readily perceived. And yet treated it must be; the most superficial +sketch of English Church History during the eighteenth century would be +almost imperfect if it did not give a prominent place to this topic, for +it was the all-absorbing topic of a considerable portion of the period. + +The Deistical writers attracted attention out of all proportion to their +literary merit. The pulpit rang with denunciations of their doctrines. +The press teemed with answers to their arguments. It may seem strange +that a mere handful of not very voluminous writers, not one of whom can +be said to have attained to the eminence of an English classic,[147] +should have created such a vast amount of excitement. But the excitement +was really caused by the subject itself, not by the method in which it +was handled. The Deists only gave expression--often a very coarse and +inadequate expression--to thoughts which the circumstances of the times +could scarcely fail to suggest. + +The Scriptures had for many years been used to sanction the most +diametrically opposite views. They had been the watchword of each party +in turn whose extravagances had been the cause of all the disasters and +errors of several generations. Romanists had quoted them when they +condemned Protestants to the stake, Protestants when they condemned +Jesuits to the block. The Roundhead had founded his wild reign of +fanaticism on their authority. The Cavalier had texts ready at hand to +sanction the most unconstitutional measures. 'The right divine of kings +to govern wrong' had been grounded on Scriptural authority. All the +strange vagaries in which the seventeenth century had been so fruitful +claimed the voice of Scripture in their favour. + +Such reckless use of Scripture tended to throw discredit upon it as a +revelation from God; while, on the other hand, the grand discoveries in +natural science which were a distinguishing feature of the seventeenth +century equally tended to exalt men's notions of that other revelation +of Himself which God has made in the Book of Nature. The calm attitude +of the men of science who had been steadily advancing in the knowledge +of the natural world, and by each fresh discovery had given fresh proofs +of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God, stood forth in painful +contrast with the profitless wranglings and bitter animosities of +Divines. Men might well begin to ask themselves whether they could not +find rest from theological strife in natural religion? and the real +object of the Deists was to demonstrate that they could. + +Thus the period of Deism was the period of a great religious crisis in +England. It is our present purpose briefly to trace the progress and +termination of this crisis. + +It is hardly necessary to remark that Deism was not a product of the +eighteenth century. The spirit in which Deism appeared in its most +pronounced form had been growing for many generations previous to that +date. But we must pass over the earlier Deists, of whom the most +notable was Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and come at once to a writer who, +although his most notorious work was published before the seventeenth +century closed, lived and wrote during the eighteenth, and may fairly be +regarded as belonging to that era. + +No work which can be properly called Deistical had raised anything like +the excitement which was caused by the anonymous publication in 1696 of +a short and incomplete treatise entitled 'Christianity not Mysterious, +or a Discourse showing that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to +Reason nor above it, and that no Christian Doctrine can properly be +called a Mystery.' In the second edition, published the same year, the +author discovered himself to be a young Irishman of the name of John +Toland, who had been brought up a Roman Catholic. Leland passes over +this work with a slight notice; but it marked a distinct epoch in +Deistical literature. For the first time, the secular arm was brought to +bear upon a writer of this school. The book was presented by the Grand +Jury of Middlesex, and was burnt by the hands of the hangman in Dublin +by order of the Irish House of Commons. It was subsequently condemned as +heretical and impious by the Lower House of Convocation, which body felt +itself bitterly aggrieved when the Upper House refused to confirm the +sentence. These official censures were a reflex of the opinions +expressed out of doors. Pulpits rang with denunciations and confutations +of the new heretic, especially in his own country. A sermon against him +was 'as much expected as if it had been prescribed in the rubric;' an +Irish peer gave it as a reason why he had ceased to attend church that +once he heard something there about his Saviour Jesus Christ, but now +all the discourse was about one John Toland.[148] + +Toland being a vain man rather enjoyed this notoriety than otherwise; +but if his own account of the object of his publication be correct (and +there is no reason to doubt his sincerity), he was singularly +unsuccessful in impressing his real meaning upon his contemporaries. He +affirmed that 'he wrote his book to defend Christianity, and prayed that +God would give him grace to vindicate religion,' and at a later period +he published his creed in terms that would satisfy the most orthodox +Christian. + +For an explanation of the extraordinary discrepancy between the avowed +object of the writer and the alleged tendency of his book we naturally +turn to the work itself. After stating the conflicting views of divines +about the Gospel mysteries, the author maintains that there is nothing +in the Gospel contrary to reason nor above it, and that no Christian +doctrine can be properly called a mystery. He then defines the functions +of reason, and proceeds to controvert the two following positions, (1) +that though reason and the Gospel are not in themselves contradictory, +yet according to our conception of them they may seem directly to clash; +and (2) that we are to adore what we cannot comprehend. He declares that +what Infinite Goodness has not been pleased to reveal to us, we are +either sufficiently capable of discovering ourselves or need not +understand at all. He affirms that 'mystery' in the New Testament is +never put for anything inconceivable in itself or not to be judged by +our ordinary faculties; and concludes by showing that mysteries in the +present sense of the term were imported into Christianity partly by +Judaisers, but mainly by the heathen introducing their old mysteries +into Christianity when they were converted. + +The stir which this small work created, marks a new phase in the history +of Deism. Compared with Lord Herbert's elaborate treatises, it is an +utterly insignificant work; but the excitement caused by Lord Herbert's +books was as nothing when compared with that which Toland's fragment +raised. The explanation may perhaps be found in the fact that at the +later date men's minds were more at leisure to consider the questions +raised than they were at the earlier, and also that they perceived, or +fancied they perceived, more clearly the drift of such speculations. A +little tract, published towards the end of the seventeenth century, +entitled 'The Growth of Deism,' brings out these points; and as a matter +of fact we find that for the next half century the minds of all classes +were on the alert--some in sympathy with, many more in bitter antagonism +against Deistical speculations. In his later writings, Toland went much +further in the direction of infidelity, if not of absolute Atheism, than +he did in his first work. + +The next writer who comes under our notice was a greater man in every +sense of the term than Toland. Lord Shaftesbury's 'Miscellaneous +Essays,' which were ultimately grouped in one work, under the title of +'Characteristics of Men and Manners, &c.,' only bear incidentally upon +the points at issue between the Deists and the orthodox. But scattered +here and there are passages which show how strongly the writer felt upon +the subject. Leland was called to account, and half apologises for +ranking Shaftesbury among the Deists at all.[149] And there certainly is +one point of view from which Shaftesbury's speculations may be regarded +not only as Christian, but as greatly in advance of the Christianity of +many of the orthodox writers of his day. As a protest against the +selfish, utilitarian view of Christianity which was utterly at variance +with the spirit displayed and inculcated by Him 'who pleased not +Himself,' Lord Shaftesbury's work deserves the high tribute paid to it +by its latest editor, 'as a monument to immutable morality and Christian +philosophy which has survived many changes of opinion and revolutions of +thought.'[150] But from another point of view we shall come to a very +different conclusion. + +Shaftesbury was regarded by his contemporaries as a decided and +formidable adversary of Christianity. Pope told Warburton,[151] that 'to +his knowledge "The Characteristics" had done more harm to Revealed +Religion in England than all the works of Infidelity put together.' +Voltaire called him 'even a too vehement opponent of Christianity.' +Warburton, while admitting his many excellent qualities both as a man +and as a writer, speaks of 'the inveterate rancour which he indulged +against Christianity.'[152] + +A careful examination of Shaftesbury's writings can hardly fail to lead +us to the same conclusion. He writes, indeed, as an easy, well-bred man +of the world, and was no doubt perfectly sincere in his constantly +repeated disavowal of any wish to disturb the existing state of things. +But his reason obviously is that 'the game would not be worth the +candle.' No one can fail to perceive a contemptuous irony in many +passages in which Shaftesbury affirms his orthodoxy, or when he touches +upon the persecution of the early Christians, or upon the mysteries of +Christianity, or upon the sacred duty of complying with the established +religion with unreasoning faith, or upon his presumed scepticism, or +upon the nature of the Christian miracles, or upon the character of our +Blessed Saviour, or upon the representation of God in the Old Testament, +or upon the supposed omission of the virtue of friendship in the +Christian system of ethics. + +It is needless to quote the passages in which Shaftesbury, like the +other Deists, abuses the Jews; neither is it necessary to dwell upon his +strange argument that ridicule is the best test of truth. In this, as in +other parts of his writings, it is often difficult to see when he is +writing seriously, when ironically. Perhaps he has himself furnished us +with the means of solving the difficulty. 'If,' he writes, 'men are +forbidden to speak their minds seriously on certain subjects, they will +do it ironically. If they are forbidden to speak at all upon such +subjects, or if they find it really dangerous to do so, they will then +redouble their disguise, involve themselves in mysteriousness, and talk +so as hardly to be understood or at least not plainly interpreted by +those who are disposed to do them a mischief.'[153] The general +tendency, however, of his writings is pretty clear, and is in harmony +with the Deistical theory that God's revelation of Himself in Nature is +certain, clear, and sufficient for all practical purposes, while any +other revelation is uncertain, obscure, and unnecessary. But he holds +that it would be unmannerly and disadvantageous to the interests of the +community to act upon this doctrine in practical life. 'Better take +things as they are. Laugh in your sleeve, if you will, at the follies +which priestcraft has imposed upon mankind; but do not show your bad +taste and bad humour by striving to battle against the stream of popular +opinion. When you are at Rome, do as Rome does. The question "What is +truth?" is a highly inconvenient one. If you must ask it, ask it to +yourself.' + +It must be confessed that such low views of religion and morality are +strangely at variance with the exalted notions of the disinterestedness +of virtue which form the staple of one of Shaftesbury's most important +treatises. To reconcile the discrepancy seems impossible. Only let us +take care that while we emphatically repudiate the immoral compromise +between truth and expediency which Shaftesbury recommends, we do not +lose sight of the real service which he has rendered to religion as well +as philosophy by showing the excellency of virtue in itself without +regard to the rewards and punishments which are attached to its pursuit +or neglect. + +The year before 'The Characteristics' appeared as a single work (1713), +a small treatise was published anonymously which was at first assigned +to the author of 'Christianity not Mysterious,' and which almost +rivalled that notorious work in the attention which it excited, out of +all proportion to its intrinsic merits. It was entitled 'A Discourse of +Freethinking, occasioned by the Rise and Growth of a Sect called +Freethinkers,' and was presently owned as the work of Anthony Collins, +an author who had previously entered into the lists of controversy in +connection with the disputes of Sacheverell, Dodwell, and Clarke. 'The +Discourse of Freethinking' was in itself a slight performance. Its +general scope was to show that every man has a right to think freely on +all religious as well as other subjects, and that the exercise of this +right is the sole remedy for the evil of superstition. The necessity of +freethinking is shown by the endless variety of opinions which priests +hold about all religious questions. Then the various objections to +Freethinking are considered, and the treatise ends with a list and +description of wise and virtuous Freethinkers--nineteen in number--from +Socrates to Tillotson. + +In estimating the merits of this little book, and in accounting for the +excitement which it produced, we must not forget that what may now +appear to us truisms were 170 years ago new truths, even if they were +recognised as truths at all. At the beginning of the eighteenth century +it was not an unnecessary task to vindicate the right of every man to +think freely; and if Collins had performed the work which he had taken +in hand fully and fairly he might have done good service. But while +professedly advocating the duty of thinking freely, he showed so obvious +a bias in favour of thinking in a particular direction, and wrested +facts and quoted authorities in so one-sided a manner, that he laid +himself open to the just strictures of many who valued and practised +equally with himself the right of freethinking. Some of the most famous +men of the day at once entered into the lists against him, amongst whom +were Hoadly,[154] Swift, Whiston, Berkeley, and above all Bentley. The +latter, under the title of 'Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,' wrote in the +character of a German Lutheran to his English friend, Dr. Francis Hare, +'Remarks on a Discourse on Freethinking.' Regarded as a piece of +intellectual gladiatorship the Remarks are justly entitled to the fame +they have achieved. The great critic exposed unmercifully and +unanswerably Collins's slips in scholarship, ridiculed his style, made +merry over the rising and growing sect which professed its competency to +think _de quolibet ente_, protested indignantly against putting the +Talapoins of Siam on a level with the whole clergy of England, 'the +light and glory of Christianity,' and denied the right of the title of +Freethinkers to men who brought scandal on so good a word. + +Bentley hit several blots, not only in Collins, but in others of the +'rising and growing sect.' The argument, _e.g._, drawn from the variety +of readings in the New Testament, is not only demolished but adroitly +used to place his adversary on the horns of a dilemma. Nothing again, +can be neater than his answer to various objections by showing that +those objections had been brought to light by Christians themselves. And +yet the general impression, when one has read Collins and Bentley +carefully, is that there is a real element of truth in the former to +which the latter has not done justice; that Bentley presses Collins's +arguments beyond their logical conclusion; that Collins is not what +Bentley would have him to be--a mere Materialist--an Atheist in +disguise; that Bentley's insinuation, that looseness of living is the +cause of his looseness of belief, is ungenerous, and requires proof +which Bentley has not given: that the bitter abuse which he heaps upon +his adversary as 'a wretched gleaner of weeds,' 'a pert teacher of his +betters,' 'an unsociable animal,' 'an obstinate and intractable wretch,' +and much more to the same effect, is unworthy of a Christian clergyman, +and calculated to damage rather than do service to the cause which he +has at heart. + +Collins himself was not put to silence. Besides other writings of minor +importance, he published in 1724 the most weighty of all his works, a +'Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion.' The +object of this book is to show that Christianity is entirely founded on +the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies, and then to prove that +these prophecies were fulfilled not in a literal, but only in a typical +or secondary sense. Novelty, he argues, is a weighty reproach against +any religious institution; the truth of Christianity must depend upon +the old dispensation; it is founded on Judaism. Jesus makes claim to +obedience only so far as He is the Messias of the Old Testament; the +fundamental article of Christianity is that Jesus of Nazareth is the +Jewish Messiah, and this can only be known out of the Old Testament. In +fact, the Old Testament is the _only_ canon of Christians; for the New +Testament is not a law book for the ruling of the Church. The Apostles +rest their proof of Christianity only on the Old Testament. If this +proof is valid, Christianity is strong and built upon its true grounds; +if weak, Christianity is false. For no miracles, no authority of the New +Testament can prove its truth; miracles can only be a proof so far as +they are comprehended in and exactly consonant with the prophecies +concerning the Messias. It is only in this sense that Jesus appeals to +His miracles. Christianity, in a word, is simply the allegorical sense +of the Old Testament, and therefore may be rightly called 'Mystical +Judaism.' + +As all this bore the appearance of explaining away Christianity +altogether, or at least of making it rest upon the most shadowy and +unsubstantial grounds, there is no wonder that it called forth a +vehement opposition: no less than thirty-five answerers appeared within +two years of its publication, among whom are found the great names of T. +Sherlock, Zachary Pearce, S. Clarke, and Dr. Chandler. The latter wrote +the most solid and profound, if not the most brilliant work which the +Deistical controversy had yet called forth. + +But the strangest outcome of Collins's famous book was the work of +Woolston, an eccentric writer who is generally classed among the Deists, +but who was in fact _sui generis_. In the Collins Controversy, Woolston +appears as a moderator between an infidel and an apostate, the infidel +being Collins, and the apostate the Church of England, which had left +the good old paths of allegory to become slaves of the letter. In this, +as in previous works, he rides his hobby, which was a strange perversion +of patristic notions, to the death; and a few years later he returned to +the charge in one of the wildest, craziest books that ever was written +by human pen. It was entitled 'Six Discourses on the Miracles,' and in +it the literal interpretation of the New Testament miracles is ridiculed +with the coarsest blasphemy, while the mystical interpretations which he +substitutes in its place read like the disordered fancies of a sick +man's dream. He professes simply to follow the fathers, ignoring the +fact that the fathers, as a rule, had grafted their allegorical +interpretation upon the literal history, not substituted the one for the +other. Woolston was the only Deist--if Deist he is to be called,--who as +yet had suffered anything like persecution; indeed, with one exception, +and that a doubtful one, he was the only one who ever did. He was +brought before the King's Bench, condemned to pay 25_l._ for each of his +Six Discourses, and to suffer a year's imprisonment; after which he was +only to regain his liberty upon finding either two securities for +1,000_l._ or four for 500_l._; as no one would go bail for him, he +remained in prison until his death in 1731. The punishment was a cruel +one, considering the state of the poor man's mind, of the disordered +condition of which he was himself conscious. If he deserved to lose his +liberty at all, an asylum would have been a more fitting place of +confinement for him than a prison. But if we regard his writings as the +writings of a sane man, which, strange to say, his contemporaries appear +to have done, we can hardly be surprised at the fate he met with. +Supposing that _any_ blasphemous publication deserved punishment--a +supposition which in Woolston's days would have been granted as a matter +of course--it is impossible to conceive anything more outrageously +blasphemous than what is found in Woolston's wild book. The only strange +part of the matter was that it should have been treated seriously at +all. 30,000 copies of his discourses on the miracles were sold quickly +and at a very dear rate; whole bales of them were sent over to America. +Sixty adversaries wrote against him; and the Bishop of London thought it +necessary to send five pastoral letters to the people of his diocese on +the subject. + +The works of Woolston were, however, in one way important, inasmuch as +they called the public attention to the miracles of our Lord, and +especially to the greatest miracle of all--His own Resurrection. The +most notable of the answers to Woolston was Thomas Sherlock's 'Tryal of +the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus.' This again called forth an +anonymous pamphlet entitled 'The Resurrection of Jesus considered,' by a +'moral philosopher,' who afterwards proved to be one Peter Annet. In no +strict sense of the term can Annet be called a Deist, though he is often +ranked in that class. His name is, however, worth noticing, from his +connection with the important and somewhat curiously conducted +controversy respecting the Resurrection, to which Sherlock's 'Tryal of +the Witnesses' gave both the impulse and the form. Annet, like Woolston, +was prosecuted for blasphemy and profanity; and if the secular arm +should ever be appealed to in such matters, which is doubtful, he +deserved it by the coarse ribaldry of his attacks upon sacred things. + +It has been thought better to present at one view the works which were +written on the miracles. This, however, is anticipating. The year after +the publication of Woolston's discourses, and some years before Annet +wrote, by far the most important work which ever appeared on the part of +the Deists was published. Hitherto Deism had mainly been treated on its +negative or destructive side. The mysteries of Christianity, the +limitations to thought which it imposes, its system of rewards and +punishments, its fulfilment of prophecy, its miracles, had been in turn +attacked. The question then naturally arises, 'What will you substitute +in its place?' or rather, to put the question as a Deist would have put +it, 'What will you substitute in the place of the popular conception of +Christianity?' for this alone, not Christianity itself, Deism professed +to attack. In other words, 'What is the positive or constructive side of +Deism?' + +This question Tindal attempts to answer in his 'Christianity as old as +the Creation.' The answer is a plain one, and the arguments by which he +supports it are repeated with an almost wearisome iteration. 'The +religion of nature,' he writes, 'is absolutely perfect; Revelation can +neither add to nor take from its perfection.' 'The law of nature has the +highest internal excellence, the greatest plainness, simplicity, +unanimity, universality, antiquity, and eternity. It does not depend +upon the uncertain meaning of words and phrases in dead languages, much +less upon types, metaphors, allegories, parables, or on the skill or +honesty of weak or designing transcribers (not to mention translators) +for many ages together, but on the immutable relation of things always +visible to the whole world.' Tindal is fond of stating the question in +the form of a dilemma. 'The law of nature,' he writes, 'either is or is +not a perfect law; if the first, it is not capable of additions; if the +last, does it not argue want of wisdom in the Legislator in first +enacting such an imperfect law, and then in letting it continue thus +imperfect from age to age, and at last thinking to make it absolutely +perfect by adding some merely positive and arbitrary precepts?' And +again, 'Revelation either bids or forbids men to use their reason in +judging of all religious matters; if the former, then it only declares +that to be our duty which was so, independent of and antecedent to +revelation; if the latter, then it does not deal with men as rational +creatures. Everyone is of this opinion who says we are not to read +Scripture with freedom of assenting or dissenting, just as we judge it +agrees or disagrees with the light of nature and reason of things.' +Coming more definitely to the way in which we are to treat the written +word, he writes: 'Admit all for Scripture that tends to the honour of +God, and nothing which does not.' Finally, he sums up by declaring in +yet plainer words the absolute identity of Christianity with natural +religion. 'God never intended mankind should be without a religion, or +could ordain an imperfect religion; there must have been from the +beginning a religion most perfect, which mankind at all times were +capable of knowing; Christianity is this perfect, original religion.' + +In this book Deism reaches its climax. The sensation which it created +was greater than even Toland or Collins had raised. No less than one +hundred and fifteen answers appeared, one of the most remarkable of +which was Conybeare's 'Defence of Revealed Religion against +"Christianity as old as the Creation."' Avoiding the scurrility and +personality which characterised and marred most of the works written on +both sides of the question, Conybeare discusses in calm and dignified, +but at the same time luminous and impressive language, the important +question which Tindal had raised. Doing full justice to the element of +truth which Tindal's work contained, he unravels the complications in +which it is involved, shows that the author had confused two distinct +meanings of the phrase 'natural reason' or 'natural religion,' viz. (1) +that which is _founded_ on the nature and reason of things, and (2) that +which is _discoverable_ by man's natural power of mind, and +distinguishes between that which is perfect in its kind and that which +is absolutely perfect. This powerful work is but little known in the +present day. But it was highly appreciated by Conybeare's +contemporaries, and the German historian of English Deism hardly knows +how to find language strong enough to express his admiration of its +excellence.[155] + +But Tindal had the honour of calling forth a still stronger adversary +than Conybeare. Butler's 'Analogy' deals with the arguments of +'Christianity as old as the Creation' more than with those of any other +book; but as this was not avowedly its object, and as it covered a far +wider ground than Tindal did, embracing in fact the whole range of the +Deistical controversy, it will be better to postpone the consideration +of this masterpiece until the sequel. + +By friend and foe alike Tindal seems to have been regarded as the chief +exponent of Deism. Skelton in his 'Deism revealed' (published in 1748) +says that 'Tindal is the great apostle of Deism who has gathered +together the whole strength of the party, and his book is become the +bible of all Deistical readers.' Warburton places him at the head of his +party, classifying the Deists, 'from the mighty author of "Christianity +as old as the Creation," to the drunken, blaspheming cobbler who wrote +against Jesus and the Resurrection.'[156] The subsequent writers on the +Deistical side took their cue from Tindal, thus showing the estimation +in which his book was held by his own party. + +Tindal was in many respects fitted for the position which he occupied. +He was an old man when he wrote his great work, and had observed and +taken an interest in the whole course of the Deistical controversy for +more than forty years. He had himself passed through many phases of +religion, having been a pupil of Hickes the Nonjuror, at Lincoln +College, Oxford, then a Roman Catholic, then a Low Churchman, and +finally, to use his own designation of himself, 'a Christian Deist.' He +had, no doubt, carefully studied the various writings of the Deists and +their opponents, and had detected the weak points of all. His book is +written in a comparatively temperate spirit, and the subject is treated +with great thoroughness and ability. Still it has many drawbacks, even +from a literary point of view. It is written in the wearisome form of +dialogue, and the writer falls into that error to which all +controversial writers in dialogue are peculiarly liable. When a man has +to slay giants of his own creation, he is sorely tempted to make his +giants no stronger than dwarfs. To this temptation Tindal yielded. His +defender of orthodoxy is so very weak, that a victory over him is no +great achievement. Again, there is a want of order and lucidity in his +book, and not sufficient precision in his definitions. But the worst +fault of all is the unfairness of his quotations, both from the Bible +and other books. + +Perhaps one reason why, in spite of these defects, the book exercised so +vast an influence is, that the minds of many who sympathised with the +destructive process employed by preceding Deists may have begun to yearn +for something more constructive. They might ask themselves, 'What then +_is_ our religion to be? And Tindal answers the question after a +fashion. 'It is to be the religion of nature, and an expurgated +Christianity in so far as it agrees with the religion of nature.' The +answer is a somewhat vague one, but better than none, and as such may +have been welcomed. This, however, is mere conjecture. + +Deism, as we have seen, had now reached its zenith; henceforth its +history is the history of a rapid decline. Tindal did not live to +complete his work; but after his death it was taken up by far feebler +hands. + +Dr. Morgan in a work entitled 'The Moral Philosopher, or a Dialogue +between Philalethes a Christian Deist, and Theophanes a Christian Jew,' +follows closely in Tindal's footsteps. Like him, he insists upon the +absolute perfection of the law or religion of nature, of which +Christianity is only a republication. Like him, he professes himself a +Christian Deist and vigorously protests against being supposed to be an +enemy to Christianity. But his work is inferior to Tindal's in every +respect. It is an ill-written book. It is mainly directed against the +Jewish economy. But Morgan takes a far wider range than this, embracing +the whole of the Old Testament, which he appears to read backward, +finding objects of admiration in what are there set before us as objects +of reprobation and _vice versa_. + +But though Morgan deals mainly with the Old Testament, he throws +considerable doubt in his third volume upon the New. The account given +of the life of Christ, still more, that of His Resurrection, and above +all, the miracles wrought by His apostles, are all thrown into +discredit.[157] + +On the whole, this book marks a distinct epoch in the history of English +Deism. There is little indeed said by Morgan which had not been +insinuated by one or other of his predecessors, but the point to be +marked is that it _was_ now said, not merely insinuated. The whole tone +of the book indicates 'the beginning of the end' not far distant, that +end being what Lechler calls 'the dissolution of Deism into Scepticism.' + +But there is yet one more author to be noticed whose works were still +written in the earlier vein of Deism. So far Deism had not found a +representative writer among the lower classes. The aristocracy and the +middle class had both found exponents of their views; but Deism had +penetrated into lower strata of society than these, and at length a very +fitting representative of this part of the community appeared in the +person of Thomas Chubb. Himself a working man, and to a great extent +self-educated, Chubb had had peculiar opportunities of observing the +mind of the class to which he belonged. His earlier writings were not +intended for publication, but were written for the benefit of a sort of +debating club of working men of which he was a member. He was with +difficulty persuaded to publish them, mainly through the influence of +the famous William Whiston, and henceforth became a somewhat voluminous +writer, leaving behind him at his death a number of tracts and essays, +which were published together under the title of 'Chubb's Posthumous +Works.' In his main arguments Chubb, like Morgan, follows closely in the +wake of Tindal. But his view of Deism was distinctly from the standpoint +of the working man. As Morgan had directed his attention mainly to the +Old Testament, Chubb directed his mainly to the New. Like others of his +school, he protests against being thought an enemy to Christianity. His +two works 'The True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted,' and 'The True +Gospel of Jesus Christ vindicated,' give the best exposition of Chubb's +views. 'Our Lord Jesus Christ' he writes, 'undertook to be a reformer, +and in consequence thereof a Saviour. The true Gospel is this: (1) +Christ requires a conformity of mind and life to that eternal and +unalterable rule of action which is founded in the reason of things, and +makes that the only ground of divine acceptance, and the only and sure +way to life eternal. (2) If by violation of the law they have displeased +God, he requires repentance and reformation as the only and sure ground +of forgiveness. (3) There will be a judgment according to works. This +Gospel wrought a change which by a figure of speech is called "a new +birth"' (Sec. 13). Like Tindal, he contrasts the certainty of natural +with the uncertainty of any traditional religion. He owns 'the Christian +revelation was expedient because of the general corruption; but it was +no more than a publication of the original law of nature, and tortured +and made to speak different things.'[158] He repeats Tindal's objection +to the want of universality of revealed religion on the same grounds. +His chief attacks were, as has been said, made upon the New Testament. +He demurs to the acceptance of the Gospels as infallibly true. + +Chubb expresses just those difficulties and objections which would +naturally have most weight with the more intelligent portion of the +working classes. Speculative questions are put comparatively in the +background. His view of the gospel is just that plain practical view +which an artisan could grasp without troubling himself about +transcendental questions, on the nice adjustment of which divines +disputed. 'Put all such abstruse matters aside,' Chubb says in effect to +his fellow-workmen, 'they have nothing to do with the main point at +issue, they are no parts of the true Gospel.' His rocks of offence, too, +are just those against which the working man would stumble. The +shortcomings of the clergy had long been part of the stock-in-trade of +almost all the Deistical writers. Their supposed wealth and idleness +gave, as was natural, special offence to the representative of the +working classes. He attacks individual clergymen, inveighs against the +'unnatural coalition of Church and State,'[159] and speaks of men living +in palaces like kings, clothing themselves in fine linen and costly +apparel, and faring sumptuously. + +The lower and lower-middle classes have always been peculiarly sensitive +to the dangers of priestcraft and a relapse into Popery. Accordingly +Chubb constantly appealed to this anti-Popish feeling.[160] + +Chubb, being an illiterate man, made here and there slips of +scholarship, but he wrote in a clear, vigorous, sensible style, and his +works had considerable influence over those to whom they were primarily +addressed. + +The cause of Deism in its earlier sense was now almost extinct. Those +who were afterwards called Deists really belong to a different school of +thought. A remarkable book, which was partly the outcome, partly, +perhaps, the cause of this altered state of feeling, was published by +Dodwell the younger, in 1742. It was entitled 'Christianity not founded +on argument,' and there was at first a doubt whether the author wrote as +a friend or an enemy of Christianity. He was nominally opposed to both, +for both the Deists and their adversaries agreed that reason and +revelation were in perfect harmony. The Deist accused the Orthodox of +sacrificing reason at the shrine of revelation, the Orthodox accused the +Deist of sacrificing revelation at the shrine of reason; but both sides +vehemently repudiated the charge. The Orthodox was quite as anxious to +prove that his Christianity was not unreasonable, as the Deist was to +prove that his rationalism was not anti-Christian. + +Now the author of 'Christianity not founded on argument' came forward to +prove that both parties were attempting an impossibility. In opposition +to everything that had been written on both sides of the controversy for +the last half century, Dodwell protested against all endeavours to +reconcile the irreconcilable. + +His work is in the form of a letter to a young Oxford friend, who was +assumed to be yearning for a rational faith, 'as it was his duty to +prove all things.' 'Rational faith!' says Dodwell in effect, 'the thing +is impossible; it is a contradiction in terms. If you must prove all +things, you will hold nothing. Faith is commanded men as a duty. This +necessarily cuts it off from all connection with reason. There is no +clause providing that we should believe if we have time and ability to +examine, but the command is peremptory. It is a duty for every moment of +life, for every age. Children are to be led early to believe, but this, +from the nature of the case, cannot be on rational grounds. Proof +necessarily presupposes a suspension of conviction. The rational +Christian must have begun as a Sceptic; he must long have doubted +whether the Gospel was true or false. Can this be the faith that +"overcometh the world"? Can this be the faith that makes a martyr? No! +the true believer must open Heaven and see the Son of Man standing +plainly before his eyes, not see through the thick dark glass of history +and tradition. The Redeemer Himself gave no proofs; He taught as one +having authority, as a Master who has a right to dictate, who brought +the teaching which He imparted straight from Heaven. In this view of the +ground of faith, unbelief is a rebellious opposition against the working +of grace. The union of knowledge and faith is no longer nonsense. All +difficulties are chased away by the simple consideration "that with men +it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Philosophy and +religion are utterly at variance. The groundwork of philosophy is all +doubt and suspicion; the groundwork of religion is all submission and +faith. The enlightened scholar of the Cross, if he regards the one +thing needful, rightly despises all lower studies. When he turns to +these he leaves his own proper sphere. Julian was all in the wrong when +he closed the philosophical schools to the Christians. He should have +given them all possible privileges that they might undermine the +principles of Christ. "Not many wise men after the flesh are called." +All attempts to establish a rational faith, from the time of Origen to +that of Tillotson, Dr. Clarke, and the Boyle lectures, are utterly +useless. Tertullian was right when he said _Credo quia absurdum et quia +impossibile est_, for there is an irreconcilable repugnancy in their +natures between reason and belief; therefore, "My son, give thyself to +the Lord with thy whole heart and lean not to thy own understanding."' + +Such is the substance of this remarkable work. He hit, and hit very +forcibly, a blot which belonged to almost all writers in common who took +part in this controversy. The great deficiency of the age--a want of +spiritual earnestness, an exclusive regard to the intellectual, to the +ignoring of the emotional element of our nature--nowhere appears more +glaringly than in the Deistical and anti-Deistical literature. What +Dodwell urges in bitter irony, John Wesley urged in sober seriousness, +when he intimated that Deists and evidence writers alike were strangers +to those truths which are 'spiritually discerned.' + +There is yet one more writer who is popularly regarded not only as a +Deist, but as the chief of the Deists--Lord Bolingbroke, to whom Leland +gives more space than to all the other Deists put together. So far as +the eminence of the man is concerned, the prominence given to him is not +disproportionate to his merits, but it is only in a very qualified sense +that Lord Bolingbroke can be called a Deist. He lived and was before the +public during the whole course of the Deistical controversy, so far as +it belongs to the eighteenth century; but he was known, not as a +theologian, but first as a brilliant, fashionable man of pleasure, then +as a politician. So far as he took any part in religious matters at all, +it was as a violent partisan of the established faith and as a +persecutor of Dissenters. It was mainly through his instrumentality that +the iniquitous Schism Act of 1713 was passed. In the House of Commons he +called it 'a bill of the last importance, since it concerned the +security of the Church of England, the best and firmest support of the +monarchy.' In his famous letter to Sir W. Wyndham, he justified his +action in regard to this measure, and the kindred bill against +occasional conformity, on purely political grounds. He publicly +expressed his abhorrence of the so-called Freethinkers, whom he +stigmatised as 'Pests of Society.' But in a letter to Mr. Pope, he gave +some intimation of his real sentiments, and at the same time justified +his reticence about them. 'Let us,' he writes, 'seek truth, but quietly, +as well as freely. Let us not imagine, like some who are called +Freethinkers, that every man who can think and judge for himself, as he +has a right to do, has therefore a right of speaking any more than +acting according to freedom of thought.' Then, after expressing +sentiments which are written in the very spirit of Deism, he adds, 'I +neither expect nor desire to see any public revision made of the present +system of Christianity. I should fear such an attempt, &c.' It was +accordingly not until after his death that his theological views were +fully expressed and published. These are principally contained in his +'Philosophical Works,' which he bequeathed to David Mallet with +instructions for their publication; and Mallet accordingly gave them to +the world in 1754. Honest Dr. Johnson's opinion of this method of +proceeding is well known. 'Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward; a +scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality, a +coward because he had no resolution to fire it off himself, but left +half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger after his +death.' This is strong language, but it is not wholly undeserved. There +is something inexpressibly mean in a man countenancing the persecution +of his fellow creatures for heterodoxy, while he himself secretly held +opinions more heterodox than any of those whom he helped to persecute. +No doubt Bolingbroke regarded religion simply from a political point of +view; it was a useful, nay, a necessary engine of Government. He, +therefore, who wilfully unsettled men's minds on the subject was a bad +citizen, and consequently deserving of punishment. But then, this line +of argument would equally tell against the publication of unsettling +opinions after his death, as against publishing them during his +life-time. _Apres moi le deluge_, is not an elevated maxim; yet the only +other principle upon which his mode of proceeding admits of explanation +is, that he wrote his last works in the spirit of a soured and +disappointed man, who had been in turn the betrayer and betrayed of +every party with which he had been connected. + +What his motives, however, were, can only be a matter of conjecture; let +us proceed to examine the opinions themselves. They are contained +mainly[161] in a series of essays or letters addressed by him to his +friend Pope, who did not live to read them; and they give us in a +somewhat rambling, discursive fashion, his views on almost all subjects +connected with religion. Many passages have the genuine Deistical ring +about them. Like his precursors, he declares that he means particularly +to defend the Christian religion; that genuine Christianity contained in +the Gospels is the Word of God. Like them, he can scarcely find language +strong enough to express his abhorrence of the Jews and the Old +Testament generally. Like them, he abuses divines of all ages and their +theological systems in the most unmeasured terms. It is almost needless +to add that, in common with his predecessors, he contemptuously rejects +all such doctrines as the Divinity of the Word, Expiation for Sin in any +sense, the Holy Trinity, and the Efficacy of the Sacraments. + +In many points, however, Lord Bolingbroke goes far beyond his +predecessors. His 'First Philosophy' marks a distinct advance or +decadence, according to the point of view from which we regard it, in +the history of Freethinking. Everything in the Bible is ruthlessly swept +aside, except what is contained in the Gospels. S. Paul, who had been an +object of admiration to the earlier Deists, is the object of +Bolingbroke's special abhorrence. And not only is the credibility of the +Gospel writers impugned, Christ's own teaching and character are also +carped at. Christ's conduct was 'reserved and cautious; His language +mystical and parabolical. He gives no complete system of morality. His +Sermon on the Mount gives some precepts which are impracticable, +inconsistent with natural instinct and quite destructive of society. His +miracles may be explained away.' + +It may be said, indeed, that most of these tenets are contained in the +germ in the writings of earlier Deists. But there are yet others of +which this cannot be said. + +Bolingbroke did not confine his attacks to revealed religion. Philosophy +fares as badly as religion in his estimate. 'It is the frantic mother of +a frantic offspring.' Plato is almost as detestable in his eyes as S. +Paul. He has the most contemptuous opinion of his fellow-creatures, and +declares that they are incapable of understanding the attributes of the +Deity. He throws doubt upon the very existence of a world to come. He +holds that 'we have not sufficient grounds to establish the doctrine of +a particular providence, and to reconcile it to that of a general +providence;' that 'prayer, or the abuse of prayer, carries with it +ridicule;' that 'we have much better determined ideas of the divine +wisdom than of the divine goodness,' and that 'to attempt to imitate God +is in highest degree absurd.' + +There is no need to discuss here the system of optimism which Lord +Bolingbroke held in common with Lord Shaftesbury and Pope; for that +system is consistent both with a belief and with a disbelief of +Christianity, and we are at present concerned with Lord Bolingbroke's +views only in so far as they are connected with religion. From the +extracts given above, it will be seen how far in this system Deism had +drifted away from its old moorings. + +After Bolingbroke no Deistical writing, properly so called, was +published in England. The great controversy had died a natural death; +but there are a few apologetic works which have survived the dispute +that called them forth, and may be fairly regarded as [Greek: ktemata +es aei] of English theology. To attempt even to enumerate the works of +all the anti-Deistical writers would fill many pages. Those who are +curious in such matters must be referred to the popular work of Leland, +where they will find an account of the principal writers on both sides. +All that can be attempted here is to notice one or two of those which +are of permanent interest. + +First among such is the immortal work of Bishop Butler. Wherever the +English language is spoken, Butler's 'Analogy' holds a distinguished +place among English classics. Published in the year 1736, when the +excitement raised by 'Christianity as old as the Creation' was at its +height, it was, as has been well remarked, 'the result of twenty years' +study, the very twenty years during which the Deistical notions formed +the atmosphere which educated people breathed.'[162] For those twenty +years and longer still, the absolute certainty of God's revelation of +Himself in nature, and the absolute perfection of the religion founded +on that revelation, in contradistinction to the uncertainty and +imperfection of all traditional religions, had been the incessant cry of +the new school of thought, a cry which had lately found its strongest +and ablest expression in Tindal's famous work. It was to those who +raised this cry, and to those who were likely to be influenced by it, +that Butler's famous argument was primarily addressed. 'You assert,' he +says in effect, 'that the law of nature is absolutely perfect and +absolutely certain; I will show you that precisely the same kind of +difficulties are found in nature as you find in revelation.' Butler +uttered no abuse, descended to no personalities such as spoiled too many +of the anti-Deistical writings; but his book shows that his mind was +positively steeped in Deistical literature. Hardly an argument which the +Deists had used is unnoticed; hardly an objection which they could raise +is not anticipated. But the very circumstance which constitutes one of +the chief excellences of the 'Analogy,' its freedom from polemical +bitterness, has been the principal cause of its being misunderstood. To +do any kind of justice to the book, it must be read in the light of +Deism. Had this obvious caution been always observed, such objections as +those of Pitt, that 'it was a dangerous book, raising more doubts than +it solves,' would never have been heard; for at the time when it was +written, the doubts were everywhere current. Similar objections have +been raised against the 'Analogy' in modern days, but the popular +verdict will not be easily reversed. + +Next in importance to Butler's 'Analogy' is a far more voluminous and +pretentious work, that of Bishop Warburton on 'The Divine Legation of +Moses.' It is said to have been called forth by Morgan's 'Moral +Philosopher.' If so, it is somewhat curious that Warburton himself in +noticing this work deprecates any answer being given to it.[163] + +But, at any rate, we have Warburton's own authority for saying that his +book had special reference to the Deists or Freethinkers (for the terms +were then used synonymously). + +He begins the dedication of the first edition of the first three books +to the Freethinkers with the words, 'Gentlemen, as the following +discourse was written for your use, you have the best right to this +address.' + +The argument of the 'Divine Legation' is stated thus by Warburton +himself in syllogistic form:-- + +'I. Whatsoever Religion and Society have no future state for their +support, must be supported by an extraordinary Providence. + +'The Jewish Religion and Society had no future state for their support. + +'Therefore, the Jewish Religion and Society was supported by an +extraordinary Providence. + +'II. It was universally believed by the ancients on their common +principles of legislation and wisdom, that whatsoever Religion and +Society have no future state for their support, must be supported by an +extraordinary Providence. + +'Moses, skilled in all that legislation and wisdom, instituted the +Jewish Religion and Society without a future state for its support. + +'Therefore,--Moses, who taught, believed likewise that _this_ Religion +and Society was supported by an extraordinary Providence.' + +The work is a colossal monument of the author's learning and industry: +the range of subjects which it embraces is enormous; and those who +cannot agree with his conclusions either on the main argument, or on the +many collateral points raised, must still admire the vast research and +varied knowledge which the writer displays. It is, however, a book more +talked about than read at the present day. Indeed, human life is too +short to enable the general reader to do more than skim cursorily over a +work of such proportions. Warburton's theory was novel and startling; +and perhaps few even of the Deistical writers themselves evoked more +criticism and opposition from the orthodox than this doughty champion of +orthodoxy. But Warburton was in his element when engaged in controversy. +He was quite ready to meet combatants from whatever side they might +come; and, wielding his bludgeon with a vigorous hand, he dealt his +blows now on the orthodox, now on the heterodox, with unsparing and +impartial force. Judged, however, from a literary point of view, 'The +Divine Legation' is too elaborate and too discursive a work to be +effective for the purpose for which it was written;[164] and most +readers will be inclined to agree with Bentley's verdict, that the +writer was 'a man of monstrous appetite but bad digestion.' + +Of a very different character is the next work to be noticed, as one of +enduring interest on the Deistical controversy. Bishop Berkeley's +'Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher,' is one of the few exceptions to +the general dreariness and unreadableness of controversial writings in +the dialogistic form. The elegance and easiness of his style, and the +freshness and beauty of his descriptions of natural scenery by which the +tedium of the controversy is relieved, render this not only a readable, +but a fascinating book, even to the modern reader who has no present +interest in the controversial question. It is, however, by no means free +from the graver errors incident to this form of writing. Like Tindal, he +makes his adversaries state their case far too weakly. But, worse than +this, he puts into their mouths arguments which they would never have +used, and sentiments which they never held and which could not be fairly +deduced from their writings. Not that Bishop Berkeley ever wrote with +conscious unfairness. The truly Christian, if somewhat eccentric +character of the man forbids such a supposition for one moment. His +error, no doubt, arose from the vagueness with which the terms Deist, +Freethinker, Naturalist, Atheist, were used indiscriminately to +stigmatise men of very different views. There was, for example, little +or nothing in common between such men as Lord Shaftesbury and +Mandeville. The atrocious sentiment of the 'Fable of the Bees,' that +private vices are public benefits, was not the sentiment of any true +Deist. Yet Shaftesbury and Mandeville are the two writers who are most +constantly alluded to as representatives of one and the same system, in +this dialogue. Indeed the confusion here spoken of is apparent in +Berkeley's own advertisement. 'The author's design being to consider the +Freethinker in the various lights of Atheist, libertine, enthusiast, +scorner, critic, metaphysician, fatalist, and sceptic, it must not +therefore be imagined that every one of these characters agrees with +every individual Freethinker; no more being implied than that each part +agrees with some or other of the sect.' The fallacy here arises from the +assumption of a sect with a coherent system, which, as has been stated +above, never had any existence. + +The principle upon which Berkeley tells us that he constructed his +dialogue is a dangerous one. 'It must not,' he writes, 'be thought that +authors are misrepresented if every notion of Alciphron or Lysicles is +not found precisely in them. A gentleman in private conference may be +supposed to speak plainer than others write, to improve on their hints, +and draw conclusions from their principles.' Yes; but this method of +development, when carried out by a vehement partisan, is apt to find +hints where there are no hints, and draw conclusions which are quite +unwarranted by the premisses. + +It is somewhat discouraging to an aspirant after literary immortality, +to reflect that in spite of the enormous amount of learned writing +which the Deistical controversy elicited, many educated people who have +not made the subject a special study, probably derive their knowledge of +the Deists mainly from two unpretentious volumes--Leland's 'View of the +Deistical Writers.' + +Leland avowedly wrote as an advocate, and therefore it would be +unreasonable to expect from him the measured judgment of a philosophical +historian. But _as_ an advocate he wrote with great fairness,--indeed, +considering the excitement which the Deists raised among their +contemporaries, with wonderful fairness. It is not without reason that +he boasts in his preface, 'Great care has been taken to make a fair +representation of them, according to the best judgment I could form of +their designs.' But, besides the fact that the representations of a man +who holds a brief for one side must necessarily be taken _cum grano_, +Leland lived too near the time to be able to view his subject in the +'dry light' of history. 'The best book,' said Burke in 1773, 'that has +ever been written against these people is that in which the author has +collected in a body the whole of the Infidel code, and has brought their +writings into one body to cut them all off together.' If the subject was +to be dealt with in this trenchant fashion, no one could have done it +more honestly than Leland has done. But the great questions which the +Deists raised cannot be dealt with thus summarily. Perhaps no book +professedly written 'against these people' could possibly do justice to +the whole case. Hence those who virtually adopt Leland as their chief +authority will at best have but a one-sided view of the matter. Leland +was a Dissenter; and it may be remarked in passing, that while the +National Church bore the chief part in the struggle, as it was right she +should, yet many Dissenters honourably distinguished themselves in the +cause of our common Christianity. The honoured names of Chandler,[165] +Lardner, Doddridge, Foster, Hallet, and Leland himself, to which many +others might be added, may be mentioned in proof of this assertion. + +The attitude towards Deism of the authors hitherto named is +unmistakable. But there are yet two great names which cannot well be +passed over, and which both the friends and foes of Deism have claimed +for their side. These are the names of Alexander Pope and John Locke. +The former was, as is well known, by profession a Roman Catholic;[166] +but in his most elaborate, if not his most successful poem, he has been +supposed to express the sentiments of one, if not two, of the most +sceptical of the Deistical writers. How far did the author of the 'Essay +on Man' agree with the religious sentiments of his 'guide, philosopher +and friend,' Viscount Bolingbroke? Pope's biographer answers this +question very decisively. 'Pope,' says Ruffhead, 'permitted Bolingbroke +to be considered by the public as his philosopher and guide. They agreed +on the principle that "whatever is, is right," as opposed to impious +complaints against Providence; but Pope meant, because we only see a +part of the moral system, not the whole, therefore these irregularities +serving great purposes, such as the fuller manifestation of God's +goodness and justice, are right. Lord Bolingbroke's Essays are +vindications of providence against the confederacy between Divines and +Atheists who use a common principle, viz. that of the irregularities of +God's moral government here, for different ends: the one to establish a +future state, the others to discredit the being of a God.' +'Bolingbroke,' he adds, 'always tried to conceal his principles from +Pope, and Pope would not credit anything against him.' Warburton's +testimony is to the same effect. 'So little,' he writes, 'did Pope know +of the principles of the "First Philosophy," that when a common +acquaintance told him in his last illness that Lord Bolingbroke denied +God's moral attributes as commonly understood, he asked Lord Bolingbroke +whether he was mistaken, and was told he was.' + +On the other hand, there are the letters from Bolingbroke to Pope quoted +above; there is the undoubted fact that Pope, Shaftesbury,[167] and +Bolingbroke so far agreed with one another that they were all ardent +disciples of the optimistic school; and, it must be added, there is the +utter absence of anything distinctively Christian in that poem in which +one would naturally have expected to find it. For, to say the least of +it, the 'Essay on Man' might have been written by an unbeliever, as also +might the Universal Prayer. The fact seems to have been that Pope was +distracted by the counter influences of two very powerful but two very +opposite minds. Between Warburton and Bolingbroke, the poet might well +become somewhat confused in his views. How far he would have agreed with +the more pronounced anti-Christian sentiments of Bolingbroke which were +addressed to him, but which never met his eye, can of course be only a +matter of conjecture. It is evident that Bolingbroke himself dreaded the +influence of Warburton, for he alludes constantly and almost nervously +to 'the foul-mouthed critic whom I know you have at your elbow,' and +anticipates objections which he suspected 'the dogmatical pedant' would +raise. + +However, except in so far as it is always interesting to know the +attitude of any great man towards contemporary subjects of stirring +interest, it is not a very important question as to what were the poet's +sentiments in reference to Christianity and Deism. Pope's real greatness +lay in quite another direction; and even those who most admire the +marvellous execution of his grand philosophical poem will regret that +his brilliant talents were comparatively wasted on so uncongenial a +subject. + +Far otherwise is it with the other great name which both Deists and +orthodox claim as their own. What was the relationship of John Locke, +who influenced the whole tone of thought of the eighteenth century more +than any other single man, to the great controversy which is the subject +of these pages? On the one hand, it is unquestionable that Locke had the +closest personal connection with two of the principal Deistical writers, +and that most of the rest show unmistakable signs of having studied his +works and followed more or less his line of thought. Nothing can exceed +the warmth of esteem and love which Locke expresses for his young friend +Collins, and the touching confidence which he reposes in him.[168] Nor +was it only Collins' moral worth which won Locke's admiration; he looked +upon him as belonging to the same school of intellectual thought as +himself, and was of opinion that Collins would appreciate his 'Essay on +the Human Understanding' better than anybody. Shaftesbury was grandson +of Locke's patron and friend. Locke was tutor to his father, for whom +he had been commissioned to choose a wife; and the author of 'The +Characteristics' was brought up according to Locke's principles.[169] +Both Toland's and Tindal's views about reason show them to have been +followers of Locke's system; while traces of Locke's influence are +constantly found in Lord Bolingbroke's philosophical works. Add to all +this that the progress and zenith of Deism followed in direct +chronological order after the publication of Locke's two great works, +and that in consequence of these works he was distinctly identified by +several obscure and at least one very distinguished writer with 'the +gentlemen of the new way of thinking.' + +But there is another side of the picture to which we must now turn. +Though Locke died before the works of his two personal friends, Collins +and Shaftesbury, saw the light, Deism had already caused a great +sensation before his death, and Locke has not left us in the dark as to +his sentiments on the subject, so far as it had been developed in his +day. Toland used several arguments from Locke's essay in support of his +position that there was nothing in Christianity contrary to reason or +above it. Bishop Stillingfleet, in his 'Defence of the Mysteries of the +Trinity,' maintained that these arguments of Toland's were legitimate +deductions from Locke's premisses. This Locke explicitly denied, and +moreover disavowed any agreement with the main position of Toland in a +noble passage, in which he regretted that he could not find, and feared +he never should find, that perfect plainness and want of mystery in +Christianity which the author maintained.[170] He also declared his +implicit belief in the doctrines of revelation in the most express +terms.[171] + +It was not, however, his essay, but his treatise on the 'Reasonableness +of Christianity,' published in 1695 (the year before the publication of +Toland's famous work), which brought Locke into the most direct +collision with some of the orthodox of his day. The vehement opposition +which this little work aroused seems to have caused the author unfeigned +surprise.--'When it came out,' he writes, 'the buzz and flutter and +noise which it made, and the reports which were raised that it subverted +all morality and was designed against the Christian religion ... amazed +me; knowing the sincerity of those thoughts which persuaded me to +publish it, not without some hope of doing some service to decaying +piety and mistaken and slandered Christianity.[172] In another passage +he tells us expressly that it was written against Deism. 'I was +flattered to think my book might be of some use to the world; especially +to those who thought either that there was no need of revelation at all, +or that the revelation of Our Saviour required belief of such articles +for salvation which the settled notions and their way of reasoning in +some, and want of understanding in others, made impossible to them. Upon +these two topics the objections seemed to turn, which were with most +assurance made by Deists not against Christianity, but against +Christianity misunderstood. It seemed to me, there needed no more to +show the weakness of their exceptions, but to lay plainly before them +the doctrines of our Saviour as delivered in the Scriptures.'[173] The +truth of this is amply borne out by the contents of the book itself. + +It is not, however, so much in direct statements of doctrine as in the +whole tenour and frame of his spirit, that Locke differs 'in toto' from +the Deists: for Locke's was essentially a pious, reverent soul. But it +may be urged that all this does not really touch the point at issue. The +question is, not what were Locke's personal opinions on religious +matters, but what were the logical deductions from his philosophical +system. It is in his philosophy, not in his theology, that Locke's +reputation consists. Was then the Deistical line of argument derived +from his philosophical system? and if so, was it fairly derived? The +first question must be answered decidedly in the affirmative, the second +not so decidedly in the negative. + +That Locke would have recoiled with horror from the conclusions which +the Deists drew from his premisses, and still more from the tone in +which those conclusions were expressed, can scarcely be doubted. +Nevertheless, the fact remains that they _were_ so drawn. That Toland +built upon his foundation, Locke himself acknowledges.[174] Traces of +his influence are plainly discernible in Collins, Tindal--of whom +Shaftesbury calls Locke the forerunner,--Morgan, Chubb, Bolingbroke, and +Hume. + +On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the opponents of Deism +built upon Locke's foundation quite as distinctly as any of the Deists +did. After his death, it was soon discovered that he was a Christian. +The orthodox Conybeare was not only an obvious follower of Locke, but +has left on record a noble testimony to his greatness and his influence: +'In the last century there arose a very extraordinary genius for +philosophical speculations; I mean Mr. Locke, the glory of that age and +the instructor of the present.' Warburton was an equally enthusiastic +admirer of our philosopher, and expressed his admiration in words very +similar to the above.[175] Benson the Presbyterian told Lardner that he +had made a pilgrimage to Locke's grave, and could hardly help crying, +'Sancte Johannes, ora pro nobis;' and innumerable other instances of the +love and admiration which Christians of all kinds felt for the great +philosopher might be quoted. + +The question then arises, Which of the two parties, the Deists or their +adversaries, were the legitimate followers of Locke? And the answer to +this question is, 'Both.' The school of philosophy of which Locke was +the great apostle, was the dominant school of the period. And even in +the special application of his principles to religion, it would be wrong +to say that either of the two parties wholly diverged from Locke's +position. For the fact is, there were two sides to Locke's mind--a +critical and rationalising side, and a reverent and devotional side. He +must above all things demonstrate the reasonableness of the Christian +religion, thereby giving the key-note to the tone of theology of the +eighteenth century; but in proving this point, he is filled with a most +devout and God-fearing spirit. His dislike of all obscurity, and, in +consequence, his almost morbid shrinking from all systematizing and from +the use of all technical terms, form his point of contact with the +Deists. His strong personal faith, and his reverence for the Holy +Scripture as containing a true revelation from God, bring him into +harmony with the Christian advocates. No abuse on the part of the +clergy, no unfair treatment, could alienate him from Christianity. One +cannot help speculating how he would have borne himself had he lived to +see the later development of Deism. Perhaps his influence would have had +a beneficial effect upon both sides; but, in whatever period his lot had +been cast it is difficult to conceive Locke in any other light than that +of a sincere and devout Christian.[176] + +It remains for us to consider what were the effects of the Deistical +movement. + +The early period of the eighteenth century was a period of controversy +of all kinds, and of controversy carried on in a bitter and unchristian +spirit; and of all the controversies which arose, none was conducted +with greater bitterness than the Deistical.[177] The Deists must bear +the blame of setting the example. Their violent abuse of the Church, +their unfounded assertions that the clergy did not really believe what +they preached, that the Christian religion as taught by them was a mere +invention of priestcraft to serve its own ends, their overweening +pretensions contrasted with the scanty contributions which they actually +made either to theology or to philosophy or to philology,--all this was +sufficiently provoking.[178] + +But the Christian advocates fell into a sad mistake when they fought +against them with their own weapons. Without attempting nicely to adjust +the degree of blame attributable to either party in this unseemly +dispute, we may easily see that this was one evil effect of the +Deistical controversy, that it generated on both sides a spirit of +rancour and scurrility. + +Again, the Deists contributed in some degree, though not intentionally, +towards encouraging the low tone of morals which is admitted on all +sides to have been prevalent during the first half of the eighteenth +century. It was constantly insinuated that the Deists themselves were +men of immoral lives. This may have been true of individual Deists, but +it requires more proof than has been given, before so grave an +accusation can be admitted against them as a body. + +But if the restrictions which Christianity imposes were not the real +objections to it in the minds of the Deistical writers, at any rate +their writings, or rather perhaps hazy notions of those writings picked +up at second-hand, were seized upon by others who were glad of any +excuse for throwing off the checks of religion.[179] The immorality of +the age may be more fairly said to have been connected with the +Deistical controversy than with the Deists themselves. It is not to be +supposed that the fine gentlemen of the coffee-houses troubled +themselves to read Collins or Bentley, Tindal or Conybeare. They only +heard vague rumours that the truths, and consequently the obligations of +Christianity were impugned, and that, by the admission of Christian +advocates themselves, unbelief was making great progress. The _roues_ +were only Freethinkers in the sense that Squire Thornhill in the 'Vicar +of Wakefield' was. + +Another ill effect was, that it took away the clergy from a very +important part of their practical work. There was something much more +attractive to a clergyman in immortalising his name by annihilating an +enemy of the Faith, than in the ordinary routine of parochial work. + +Not, however, that the clergy as a rule made Deism a stepping-stone to +preferment. It would be difficult to point to a single clergyman who was +advanced to any high post in the Church in virtue of his services +against Deism, who would not have equally deserved and in all +probability obtained preferment, had his talents been exerted in another +direction. The talents of such men as Butler, Warburton, Waterland, +Gibson, Sherlock, Bentley, and Berkeley would have shed a lustre upon +any profession. But none the less is it true that the Deistical +controversy diverted attention from other and no less important matters; +and hence, indirectly, Deism was to a great extent the cause of that low +standard of spiritual life which might have been elevated, had the +clergy paid more attention to their flocks, and less to their literary +adversaries. + +The effects, however, of the great controversy were not all evil. If +such sentiments as those to which the Deists gave utterance were +floating in men's minds, it was well that they should find expression. A +state of smouldering scepticism is always a dangerous state. Whatever +the doubts and difficulties might be, it was well that they should be +brought into the full light of day. + +Moreover, if the Deists did no other good, they at least brought out the +full strength of the Christian cause, which otherwise might have lain +dormant. Although much of the anti-Deistical literature perished with +the occasion which called it forth, there is yet a residuum which will +be immortal. + +Again, the free discussion of such questions as the Deists raised, led +to an ampler and nobler conception of Christianity than might otherwise +have been gained. For there was a certain element of truth in most of +the Deistical writings. If Toland failed to prove that there were no +mysteries in Christianity, yet perhaps he set men a-thinking that there +was a real danger of darkening counsel by words without knowledge, +through the indiscriminate use of scholastic jargon. If Collins +confounded freethinking with thinking in his own particular way, he yet +drew out from his opponents a more distinct admission of the right of +freethinking in the proper sense of the term than might otherwise have +been made. If Shaftesbury made too light of the rewards which the +righteous may look for, and the punishments which the wicked have to +fear, he at least helped, though unintentionally, to vindicate +Christianity from the charge of self-seeking, and to place morality upon +its proper basis. If Tindal attributed an unorthodox sense to the +assertion that 'Christianity was as old as the Creation,' he brought out +more distinctly an admission that there was an aspect in which it is +undoubtedly true. + +One of the most striking features of this strange controversy was its +sudden collapse about the middle of the century. The whole interest in +the subject seems to have died away as suddenly as it arose fifty years +before. This change of feeling is strikingly illustrated by the flatness +of the reception given by the public to Bolingbroke's posthumous works +in 1754. For though few persons will be inclined to agree with Horace +Walpole's opinion that Bolingbroke's 'metaphysical divinity was the best +of his writings,' yet the eminence of the writer, the purity and +piquancy of his style, the real and extensive learning which he +displayed, would, one might have imagined, have awakened a far greater +interest in his writings than was actually shown. Very few replies were +written to this, the last, and in some respects, the most +important--certainly the most elaborate attack that ever was made upon +popular Christianity from the Deistical standpoint. The 'five pompous +quartos' of the great statesman attracted infinitely less attention than +the slight, fragmentary treatise of an obscure Irishman had done +fifty-eight years before. And after Bolingbroke not a single writer who +can properly be called a Deist appeared in England. + +How are we to account for this strange revulsion of feeling, or rather +this marvellous change from excitement to apathy? One modern writer +imputes it to the inherent dulness of the Deists themselves;[180] +another to their utter defeat by the Christian apologists.[181] No doubt +there is force in both these reasons, but there were other causes at +work which contributed to the result. + +One seems to have been the vagueness and unsatisfactoriness of the +constructive part of the Deists' work. They set themselves with vigour +to the work of destruction, but when this was completed--what next? The +religion which was to take the place of popular Christianity was at best +a singularly vague and intangible sort of thing. 'You are to follow +nature, and that will teach you what true Christianity is. If the facts +of the Bible don't agree, so much the worse for the facts.' There was an +inherent untenableness in this position.[182] Having gone thus far, +thoughtful men could not stand still. They must go on further or else +turn back. Some went forward in the direction of Hume, and found +themselves stranded in the dreary waste of pure scepticism, which was +something very different from genuine Deism. Others went backwards and +determined to stand upon the old ways, since no firm footing was given +them on the new. There was a want of any definite scheme or unanimity of +opinion on the part of the Deists. Collins boasted of the rise and +growth of a new sect. But, as Dr. Monk justly observes, 'the assumption +of a growing sect implies an uniformity of opinions which did not really +exist among the impugners of Christianity.'[183] + +The independence of the Deists in relation to one another might render +it difficult to confute any particular tenet of the sect, for the simple +reason that there _was_ no sect: but this same independence prevented +them from making the impression upon the public mind which a compact +phalanx might have done. The Deists were a company of Free Lances rather +than a regular army, and effected no more than such irregular forces +usually do. + +And here arises the question, What real hold had Deism upon the public +mind at all? There is abundance of contemporary evidence which would +lead us to believe that the majority of the nation were fast becoming +unchristianised. Bishop Butler was not the man to make a statement, and +especially a statement of such grave import, lightly, and his account of +the state of religion is melancholy indeed. 'It is come,' he writes, 'I +know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that +Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is now +at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly, they treat it as +if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of +discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal +subject of mirth and ridicule, for its having so long interrupted the +pleasures of the world.'[184] Archbishop Wake's testimony is equally +explicit,[185] so is Bishop Warburton's, so is Dean Swift's. Voltaire +declared that there was only just enough religion left in England to +distinguish Tories who had little from Whigs who had less. + +In the face of such testimony it seems a bold thing to assert that there +was a vast amount of noise and bluster which caused a temporary panic, +but little else, and that after all Hurd's view of the matter was nearer +the truth. 'The truth of the case,' he writes, 'is no more than this. A +few fashionable men make a noise in the world; and this clamour being +echoed on all sides from the shallow circles of their admirers, misleads +the unwary into an opinion that the irreligious spirit is universal and +uncontrollable.' A strong proof of the absence of any real sympathy with +the Deists is afforded by the violent outcry which was raised against +them on all sides. This outcry was not confined to any one class or +party either in the political or religious world. We may not be +surprised to find Warburton mildly suggesting that 'he would hunt down +that pestilent herd of libertine scribblers with which the island is +overrun, as good King Edgar did his wolves,'[186] or Berkeley, that 'if +ever man deserved to be denied the common benefits of bread and water, +it was the author of a Discourse of Freethinking,'[187] and that 'he +should omit no endeavour to render the persons (of Freethinkers) as +despicable and their practice as odious in the eye of the world as they +deserve.'[188] But we find almost as truculent notions in writings where +we might least expect them. It was, for example, a favourite accusation +of the Tories against the Whigs that they favoured the Deists. 'We' +(Tories), writes Swift, 'accuse them [the Whigs] of the public +encouragement and patronage to Tindal, Toland, and other atheistical +writers.'[189] And yet we find the gentle Addison, Whig as he was, +suggesting in the most popular of periodicals, corporal punishment as a +suitable one for the Freethinker;[190] Steele, a Whig and the most +merciful of men, advocating in yet stronger terms a similar mode of +treatment;[191] Fielding, a Whig and not a particularly straitlaced man, +equally violent.[192] + +This strong feeling against the Deists is all the more remarkable when +we remember that it existed at a time of great religious apathy, and at +a time when illiberality was far from being a besetting fault. The +dominant party in the Church was that which would now be called the +Broad Church party, and among the Dissenters at least equal +latitudinarianism was tolerated. This, however, which might seem at +first sight a reason why Deism should have been winked at, was probably +in reality one of the causes why it was so unpopular. The nation had +begun to be weary of controversy; in the religious as in the political +world, there was arising a disposition not to disturb the prevailing +quiet. The Deist was the _enfant terrible_ of the period, who would +persist in raising questions which men were not inclined to meddle with. +It was therefore necessary to snub him; and accordingly snubbed he was +most effectually. + +The Deists themselves appear to have been fully aware of the +unpopularity of their speculations. They have been accused, and not +without reason, of insinuating doubts which they dared not express +openly. But then, why dared they not express them? The days of +persecution for the expression of opinion were virtually ended. There +were indeed laws still unrepealed against blasphemy and contempt of +religion, but except in extreme cases (such as those of Woolston and +Annet), they were no longer put into force. Warburton wrote no more than +the truth when he addressed the Freethinkers thus: 'This liberty may you +long possess and gratefully acknowledge. I say this because one cannot +but observe that amidst full possession of it, you continue with the +meanest affectation to fill your prefaces with repeated clamours against +difficulties and discouragements attending the exercise of freethinking. +There was a time, and that within our own memories, when such complaints +were seasonable and useful; but happy for you, gentlemen, you have +outlived it.'[193] They had outlived it, that is to say, so far as legal +restrictions were concerned. If they did meet with 'difficulties and +discouragements,' they were simply those which arose from the force of +public opinion being against them. But be the cause what it may, the +result is unquestionable. 'The English Deists wrote and taught their +creed in vain; they were despised while living, and consigned to +oblivion when dead; and they left the Church of England unhurt by the +struggle.'[194] It was in France and Germany, not in England that the +movement set on foot by the English Deists made a real and permanent +impression. + +J.H.O. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 147: That is, not in virtue of anything he wrote which can be +properly called Deism. Shaftesbury in his ethical and Bolingbroke in his +political writings may perhaps be termed classical writers, but neither +of them qua Deists.] + +[Footnote 148: See Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, vol. ii. p. +214.] + +[Footnote 149: _View of the Deistical Writers_, Letter V. p. 32, &c., +and Letter VI. p. 43, &c.] + +[Footnote 150: The Rev. W.M. Hatch. See his dedication.] + +[Footnote 151: See Warburton's Letters to Hurd, Letter XVIII. January +30, 1749-50.] + +[Footnote 152: See Warburton's _Dedication of the Divine Legation of +Moses to the Freethinkers_. Jeffery, another contemporary, writes to the +same effect.] + +[Footnote 153: _Sensus Communis_ (on the Freedom of Wit and Humour), +Sec. 4.] + +[Footnote 154: Hoadly in one sense may be regarded as a 'Freethinker' +himself; but it was the very fact that he was so which made him resent +Collins's perversion of the term. The first of his 'Queries to the +Author of a Discourse of Freethinking' is 'Whether that can be justly +called Freethinking which is manifestly thinking with the utmost +slavery; and with the strongest prejudices against every branch, and the +very foundation of all religion?'--Hoadly's _Works_, vol. i.] + +[Footnote 155: 'Conybeare, dessen Vertheidigung der geoffenbarten +Religion die gediegenste Gegenschrift ist, die gegen Tindal erschien. Es +ist eine logische Klarheit, eine Einfachheit der Darstellung, eine +ueberzeugende Kraft der Beweisfuehrung, ein einleuchtender Zusammenhang +des Ganzen verbunden mit wuerdiger Haltung der Polemik, philosophischer +Bildung und freier Liberalitaet des Standpunkts in diesem Buch, vermoege +welcher es als meisterhaft anerkannt werden muss.'--Lechler's +_Geschichte des Englischen Deismus_, p. 362. Warburton calls Conybeare's +one of the best reasoned books in the world.] + +[Footnote 156: See Watson's _Life of Warburton_, p. 293.] + +[Footnote 157: _Ibid._ iii. 133, 190, 201, 261.] + +[Footnote 158: _Enquiry into the Ground and Foundation of the Christian +Religion_, p. 59.] + +[Footnote 159: See _Enquiry concerning Redemption_.] + +[Footnote 160: See his _Discourse concerning Reason_, p. 23, and his +_Reflections upon the comparative excellence and usefulness of Moral and +Positive Duties_, p. 27, &c.] + +[Footnote 161: His letters on the 'Study of History' contain the same +principles.] + +[Footnote 162: Pattison's 'Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, +1688-1750,' in _Essays and Reviews_.] + +[Footnote 163: 'There is a book called _The Moral Philosopher_ lately +published. Is it looked into? I should hope not, merely for the sake of +the taste, the sense, and learning of the present age.... I hope nobody +will be so indiscreet as to take notice publicly of the book, though it +be only in the fag end of an objection.--It is that indiscreet conduct +in our defenders of religion that conveys so many worthless books from +hand to hand.'--Letter to Mr. Birch in 1737. In Nichols' _Literary +Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, ii. 70.] + +[Footnote 164: See Charles Churchill's lines on Warburton in _The +Duellist_. After much foul abuse, he thus describes _The Divine +Legation_:-- + + To make himself a man of note, + He in defence of Scripture wrote. + So long he wrote, and long about it, + That e'en believers 'gan to doubt it! + A gentleman well-bred, if breeding + Rests in the article of reading; + A man of this world, for the next + Was ne'er included in his text,' &c. &c. + +Gibbon calls _The Divine Legation_ 'a monument, already crumbling in the +dust, of the vigour and weakness of the human mind.'--See _Life of +Gibbon_, ch. vii. 223, note. Bishop Lowth says of it ironically, '_The +Divine Legation_, it seems, contains in it all knowledge, divine and +human, ancient and modern; it treats as of its proper subject, de omni +scibili et de quolibet ente; it is a perfect encyclopaedia; it includes +in itself all history, chronology, criticism, divinity, law, politics,' +&c. &c.--_A Letter to the Right Rev. Author of 'The Divine Legation,'_ +p. 13 (1765).] + +[Footnote 165: There were two anti-Deistical writers of the name of +Chandler, (1) the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and (2) Dr. Samuel +Chandler, an eminent Dissenter. Both wrote against Collins, but the +latter also against Morgan and the anonymous author of the _Resurrection +of Jesus considered_. + +Sherlock's _Tryal of the Witnesses_ ought perhaps to have been noticed +as one of the works of permanent value written against the Deists. +Wharton says that 'Sherlock's _Discourses on Prophecy and Trial of the +Witnesses_ are, perhaps, the best defences of Christianity in our +language.' Sherlock's lawyer-like mind enabled him to manage the +controversy with rare skill, but the tone of theological thought has so +changed, that his once famous book is a little out of date at the +present day. Judged by its intrinsic merits, William Law's answer to +Tindal would also deserve to be ranked among the very best of the books +which were written against the Deists; but like almost all the works of +this most able and excellent man, it has fallen into undeserved +oblivion. Leslie's _Short and Easy Method with a Deist_ is also +admirable in its way.] + +[Footnote 166: But it is no want of charity to say that his Roman +Catholicism sat very lightly upon him. He himself confesses it in a +letter to Atterbury.] + +[Footnote 167: Pope was also clearly influenced by Shaftesbury's +arguments that virtue was to be practised and sin avoided, not for fear +of punishment or hope of reward, but for their own sakes. Witness the +verse in the Universal Prayer:-- + + 'What conscience dictates to be done, + Or warns me not to do, + This teach me _more than_ hell to shun, + That _more than_ heaven pursue.'] + +[Footnote 168: See Hunt's _History of Religious Thought in England_, +vol. ii. p. 369, and Lechler's _Geschichte des Englischen Deismus_, p. +219.] + +[Footnote 169: But Shaftesbury was bitterly opposed to one part of +Locke's philosophy. 'He was one of the first,' writes Mr. Morell +(_History of Modern Philosophy_, i. 203), 'to point out the dangerous +influence which Locke's total rejection of all innate practical +principles was likely to exert upon the interests of morality.' 'It was +Mr. Locke,' wrote Shaftesbury, 'that struck at all fundamentals, threw +all order and virtue out of the world, and made the very ideas of these +(which are the same as those of God) unnatural and without foundation in +our minds.' See also Bishop Fitzgerald in _Aids to Faith_.] + +[Footnote 170: Locke's _Works_, vol. iv. p. 96.] + +[Footnote 171: 'My lord, I read the revelation of Holy Scriptures with a +full assurance that all it delivers is true.'--Locke's _Works_, vol. iv. +341.] + +[Footnote 172: Locke's _Works_, vol. vii. p. 166.] + +[Footnote 173: Locke's _Works_, vol. vii. p. 188, Preface to the Reader +of 2nd Vindication.] + +[Footnote 174: Locke's _Works_, vol. iv. 259, 260.] + +[Footnote 175: 'Mr. Locke, the honour of this age and the instructor of +the future'.... 'That great philosopher'.... 'It was Mr. Locke's love of +it [Christianity] that seems principally to have exposed him to his +pupil's [Lord Shaftesbury's] bitterest insults.'--Dedication of _The +Divine Legation_ (first three books) to the Freethinkers.] + +[Footnote 176: It is, however, not improbable that Locke contributed to +some extent to foster that dry, hard, unpoetical spirit which +characterised both the Deistical and anti-Deistical literature, and, +indeed, the whole tone of religion in the eighteenth century. 'His +philosophy,' it has been said, 'smells of the earth, earthy.' 'It is +curious,' writes Mr. Rogers (_Essays_, vol. iii. p. 104, 'John Locke,' +&c.) 'that there is hardly a passing remark in all Locke's great work on +any of the aesthetical or emotional characteristics of humanity; so that, +for anything that appears there, men might have nothing of the kind in +their composition. To all the forms of the Beautiful he seems to have +been almost insensible.' The same want in the followers of Locke's +system, both orthodox and unorthodox, is painfully conspicuous. And +again, as Dr. Whewell remarks (_History of Moral Philosophy_, Lecture v. +p. 74) 'the promulgation of Locke's philosophy was felt as a vast +accession of strength by the lower, and a great addition to the +difficulty of their task by the higher school of morality.' The lower or +utilitarian school of morality, which held that morals are to be judged +solely by their consequences, was largely followed in the eighteenth +century, and contributed not a little to the low moral and spiritual +tone of the period.] + +[Footnote 177: The Calvinistic controversy was more bitter, but it +belonged to the second, not the first half of the century.] + +[Footnote 178: 'They attacked a scientific problem without science, and +an historical problem without history.'--Mr. J.C. Morison's Review of +Leslie Stephen's 'History of English Thought' in _Macmillan's Magazine_ +for February 1877.] + +[Footnote 179: See Bishop Butler's charge to the clergy of Durham, +1751.--'A great source of infidelity plainly is, the endeavour to get +rid of religious restraints.'] + +[Footnote 180: Mr. Leslie Stephen, _Essays on Freethinking and Plain +Speaking_. On Shaftesbury's 'Characteristics.'--'The Deists were not +only pilloried for their heterodoxy, but branded with the fatal +inscription of "dulness."' This view is amplified in his larger work, +published since the above was written.] + +[Footnote 181: _Aids to Faith_, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 182: In a brilliant review of Mr. Leslie Stephen's work in +_Macmillan's Magazine_, February 1877, Mr. James Cotter Morison remarks +on the Deists' view that natural religion must be always alike plain and +perspicuous, 'against this convenient opinion the only objection was +that it contradicted the total experience of the human race.'] + +[Footnote 183: Monk's _Life of Bentley_, vol. i. See also Berkeley's +_Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher_, 107.] + +[Footnote 184: Advertisement to the first edition of _The Analogy_, p. +xiv. See also Swift's description of the Duchess of Marlborough, in +_Last four Years of Queen Anne_, bk. i. The first and most prominent +subject of Bishop Butler's 'Durham Charge,' is 'the general decay of +religion,' 'which,' he says, 'is now observed by everyone, and has been +for some time the complaint of all serious persons' (written in 1751). +The Bishop then instructs his clergy at length how this sad fact is to +be dealt with; in fact this, directly or indirectly, is the topic of the +whole Charge.] + +[Footnote 185: He wrote to Courayer in 1726,--'No care is wanting in our +clergy to defend the Christian Faith against all assaults, and I believe +no age or nation has produced more or better writings, &c.... This is +all we can do. Iniquity in practice, God knows, abounds,' &c.] + +[Footnote 186: Watson's _Life of Warburton_, p. 293.] + +[Footnote 187: _Guardian_, No. 3.] + +[Footnote 188: _Guardian_, No. 88.] + +[Footnote 189: _Examiner_, xxxix. See also Charles Leslie's _Theological +Works_, vol. ii. 533.] + +[Footnote 190: _Tatler_, No. 108.] + +[Footnote 191: _Tatler_, No. 137.] + +[Footnote 192: See _Amelia_, bk. i. ch. iii. &c.] + +[Footnote 193: Dedication of first three books of the _Divine Legation_. +See also Pattison's Essay in _Essays and Reviews_.] + +[Footnote 194: Farrar's _Bampton Lectures_, 'History of Free Thought.'] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LATITUDINARIAN CHURCHMANSHIP. + +(1) CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S THEOLOGY. + + +'Latitudinarian' is not so neutral a term as could be desired. It +conveys an implication of reproach and suspicion, by no means ungrounded +in some instances, but very inappropriate when used of men who must +count among the most distinguished ornaments of the English Church. But +no better title suggests itself. The eminent prelates who were raised to +the bench in King William III.'s time can no longer, without ambiguity, +be called 'Low Churchmen,' because the Evangelicals who succeeded to +the name belong to a wholly different school of thought from the Low +Churchmen of an earlier age; nor 'Whigs,' because that sobriquet has +long been confined to politics; nor 'Broad Churchmen,' because the term +would be apt to convey a set of ideas belonging to the nineteenth more +than to the eighteenth century. It only remains to divest the word as +far as possible of its polemical associations, and to use it as denoting +what some would call breadth, others Latitudinarianism of religious and +ecclesiastical opinion. + +There were many faulty elements in the Latitudinarianism of the +eighteenth century. Those who dreaded and lamented its advances found it +no difficult task to show that sometimes it was connected with Deistical +or with Socinian or Arian views, sometimes with a visionary enthusiasm, +sometimes with a weak and nerveless religion of sentiment. They could +point also to the obvious fact that thorough scepticism, or even mere +irreligion, often found a decent veil under plausible professions of a +liberal Christianity. There were some, indeed, who, in the excitement of +hostility or alarm, seemed to lose all power of ordinary discrimination. +Much in the same way as every 'freethinker' was set down as a libertine +or an atheist, so also many men of undoubted piety and earnestness who +had done distinguished services in the Christian cause, and who had +greatly contributed to raise the repute of the English Church, were +constantly ranked as Latitudinarians in one promiscuous class with men +to whose principles they were utterly opposed. But, after making all +allowance for the unfortunate confusion thus attached to the term, the +fact remains that the alarm was not unfounded. Undoubtedly a lower form +of Latitudinarianism gained ground, very deficient in some important +respects. Just in the same way as, before the middle of the century, a +sort of spiritual inertness had enfeebled the vigour of High Churchmen +on the one hand and of Nonconformists on the other, so also it was with +the Latitude men. After the first ten or fifteen years of the century +the Broad Church party in the Church of England was in no very +satisfactory state. It had lost not only in spirit and energy, but also +in earnestness and piety. Hoadly, Herring, Watson, Blackburne, all +showed the characteristic defect of their age--a want of spiritual depth +and fervour. They needed a higher elevation of motive and of purpose to +be such leaders as could be desired of what was in reality a great +religious movement. + +For, whatever may have been its deficiencies, there was no religious +movement of such lasting importance as that which from the latter part +of the seventeenth until near the end of the eighteenth century was +being carried on under the opprobrium of Latitudinarianism. The +Methodist and Evangelical revival had, doubtless, greater visible and +immediate consequences. Much in the same way, some of the widespread +monastic revivals of the Middle Ages were more visible witnesses to the +power of religion, and more immediately conducive to its interests, than +the silent current of theological thought which was gradually preparing +the way for the Reformation. But it was these latter influences which, +in the end, have taken the larger place in the general history of +Christianity. The Latitudinarianism which had already set in before the +Revolution of 1688, unsatisfactory as it was in many respects, probably +did more than any other agency in directing and gradually developing the +general course of religious thought. Its importance may be intimated in +this, that of all the questions in which it was chiefly interested there +is scarcely one which has not started into fresh life in our own days, +and which is not likely to gain increasing significance as time +advances. Church history in the seventeenth century had been most nearly +connected with that of the preceding age; it was still directly occupied +with the struggles and contentions which had been aroused by the +Reformation. That of the eighteenth century is more nearly related to +the period which succeeded it. In the sluggish calm that followed the +abatement of old controversies men's minds reverted anew to the wide +general principles on which the Reformation had been based, and, with +the loss of power which attends uncertainty, were making tentative +efforts to improve and strengthen the superstructure. 'Intensity,' as +has been remarked, 'had for a time done its work, and was now giving +place to breadth; when breadth should be natural, intensity might come +again.'[195] The Latitude men of the last age can only be fairly judged +in the light of this. Their immediate plans ended for the most part in +disappointing failure. It was perhaps well that they did, as some indeed +of the most active promoters of them were fain to acknowledge. Their +proposed measures of comprehension, of revision, of reform, were often +defective in principle, and in some respects as one-sided as the evils +they were intended to cure. But if their ideas were not properly +matured, or if the time was not properly matured for them, they at all +events contained the germs of much which may be realised in the future. +Meanwhile the comprehensive spirit which is absolutely essential in a +national Church was kept alive. The Church of England would have fallen, +or would have deserved to fall, if a narrow exclusiveness had gained +ground in it without check or protest. + +It is proposed to invite, in this chapter, a more particular attention +to the writings of Archbishop Tillotson. He lived and died in the +seventeenth century, but is an essential part of the Church history of +the eighteenth. The most general sketch of its characteristics would be +imperfect without some reference to the influence which his life and +teaching exercised upon it. Hallam contrasts the great popularity of his +sermons for half a century with the utter neglect into which they have +now fallen, as a remarkable instance of the fickleness of religious +taste.[196] Something must certainly be attributed to change of taste. +If Tillotson were thoroughly in accord with our own age in thought and +feeling, the mere difference of his style from that which pleases the +modern ear would prevent his having many readers. He is reckoned diffuse +and languid, greatly deficient in vigour and vivacity. How different was +the tone of criticism in the last age! Dryden considered that he was +indebted for his good style to the study of Tillotson's sermons.[197] +Robert Nelson spoke of them as the best standard of the English +language.[198] Addison expressed the same opinion, and thought his +writing would form a proper groundwork for the dictionary which he once +thought of compiling.[199] + +But it was not the beauty and eloquence of language with which Tillotson +was at one time credited that gave him the immense repute with which his +name was surrounded; neither is it a mere change of literary taste that +makes a modern reader disinclined to admire, or even fairly to +appreciate, his sermons. He struck the key-note which in his own day, +and for two generations or more afterwards, governed the predominant +tone of religious reasoning and sentiment. In the substance no less than +in the form of his writings men found exactly what suited them--their +own thoughts raised to a somewhat higher level, and expressed just in +the manner which they would most aspire to imitate. His sermons, when +delivered, had been exceedingly popular. We are told of the crowds of +auditors and the fixed attention with which they listened, also of the +number of clergymen who frequented his St. Laurence lectures, not only +for the pleasure of hearing, but to form their minds and improve their +style. He was, in fact, the great preacher of his time. Horace Walpole, +writing in 1742, compared the throngs who flocked to hear Whitefield to +the concourse which used to gather when Tillotson preached.[200] The +literature of the eighteenth century abounds in expressions of respect +for his character and admiration of his sermons. Samuel Wesley said that +he had brought the art of preaching 'near perfection, had there been as +much of life as there is of politeness and generally of cool, clear, +close reasoning and convincing arguments.'[201] Even John Wesley puts +him in the very foremost rank of great preachers.[202] Robert Nelson +specially recommended his sermons to his nephew 'for true notions of +religion.[203] 'I like,' remarked Sir Robert Howard, 'such sermons as +Dr. Tillotson's, where all are taught a plain and certain way of +salvation, and with all the charms of a calm and blessed temper and of +pure reason are excited to the uncontroverted, indubitable duties of +religion; where all are plainly shown that the means to obtain the +eternal place of happy rest are those, and no other, which also give +peace in the present life; and where everyone is encouraged and exhorted +to learn, but withal to use his own care and reason in working out his +own salvation.'[204] Bishop Fleetwood exclaims of him that 'his name +will live for ever, increasing in honour with all good and wise +men.'[205] Locke called him 'that ornament of our Church, that every way +eminent prelate.' In the 'Spectator' his sermons are among Sir Roger de +Coverley's favourites.[206] In the 'Guardian'[207] Addison tells how +'the excellent lady, the Lady Lizard, in the space of one summer +furnished a gallery with chairs and couches of her own and her +daughter's working, and at the same time heard Dr. Tillotson's sermons +twice over.' In the 'Tatler' he is spoken of as 'the most eminent and +useful author of his age.'[208] His sermons were translated into Dutch, +twice into French, and many of them into German. Even in the last few +years of the eighteenth century we find references to his 'splendid +talents.'[209] + +But, as a rule, the writers of the eighteenth century seem unable to +form anything like a calm estimate of the eminent bishop. Many were +lavish in their encomiums; a minority were extravagant in censures and +expressions of dislike. His gentle and temperate disposition had not +saved him from bitter invectives in his lifetime, which did not cease +after his death. He was set down by his opponents as 'a freethinker.' In +the violent polemics of Queen Anne's reign this was a charge very easily +incurred, and, once incurred, carried with it very grave implications. +By what was apt to seem a very natural sequence Dean Hickes called the +good primate in downright terms an atheist.[210] Charles Leslie speaks +of him as 'that unhappy man,'[211] and said he was 'owned by the +atheistical wits of all England as their primate and apostle.'[212] Of +course opinions thus promulgated by the leaders of a party descended +with still further distortion to more ignorant partisans. Tom Tempest in +the 'Idler' believes that King William burned Whitehall that he might +steal the furniture, and that Tillotson died an atheist.[213] John +Wesley, as has been already observed, held the Archbishop in much +respect. He was too well read a man to listen to misrepresentations on +such a matter, too broad and liberal in his views to be scared at the +name of Latitudinarian, too deeply impressed with the supreme importance +of Christian morality to judge anyone harshly for preaching 'virtue' to +excess. But Whitefield and Seward were surpassed by none in the +unsparing nature of their attack on Tillotson, 'that traitor who sold +his Lord.'[214] It is fair to add that later in life Whitefield +regretted the use of such terms, and owned that 'his treatment of him +had been far too severe.'[215] With many of the Evangelicals Tillotson +was in great disfavour. It is not a little remarkable that a divine who +had been constantly extolled as a very pattern of Christian piety and +Christian wisdom should by them be systematically decried as little +better than a heathen moralist. + +The foregoing instances may serve to illustrate the important place +which Tillotson held in the religious history of the eighteenth century. +They may suffice to show that while there was an extraordinary diversity +of opinion as to the character of the influence he had exercised--while +some loved and admired him and others could scarcely tolerate the +mention of him--all agreed that his life and writings had been a very +important element in directing the religious thought of his own and the +succeeding age. His opponents were very willing to acknowledge that he +was greatly respected by Nonconformists. Why not? said they, when he and +his party are half Presbyterians, and would 'bring the Church into the +Conventicle or the Conventicle into the Church.'[216] They allowed +still more readily that he was constantly praised by Rationalists and +Deists. Collins put a formidable weapon into their hands when he called +Tillotson 'the head of all freethinkers.'[217] But they also had to own +that in authority as well as in station he had been eminently a leader +in the English Church. A majority of the bishops, and many of the most +distinguished among them, had followed his lead. The great bulk of the +laity had honoured him in his lifetime, and continued to revere his +memory. Men like Locke, and Somers, and Addison were loud in his praise. +Even those who were accustomed to regard the Low Churchmen of their age +as 'amphibious trimmers' or 'Latitudinarian traditors' were by no means +unanimous in dispraise of Tillotson. Dodwell had spoken of him with +esteem; and Robert Nelson, who was keenly alive to 'the infection of +Latitudinarian teaching,' not only maintained a lifelong friendship with +him, and watched by him at his death, but also, as was before mentioned, +referred to his sermons for sound notions of religion. + +A study of Tillotson's writings ought to throw light upon the general +tendency of religious thought which prevailed in England during the +half-century or more through which their popularity lasted; for there +can be no doubt that his influence was not of a kind which depends on +great personal qualities. He was a man who well deserved to be highly +esteemed by all with whom he came in contact. But in his gentle and +moderate disposition there was none of the force and fire which compels +thought into new channels, and sways the minds of men even, against +their will. With sound practical sense, with pure, unaffected piety, and +in unadorned but persuasive language, he simply gave utterance to +religious ideas in a form which to a wide extent satisfied the reason +and came home to the conscience of his age. Those, on the other hand, +who most distrusted the direction which such ideas were taking, held in +proportionate aversion the primate who had been so eminent a +representative of them. + +Tillotson was universally regarded both by friends and foes as 'a +Latitude man.' His writings, therefore, may well serve to exemplify the +moderate Latitudinarianism of a thoughtful and religious English +Churchman at the beginning of the eighteenth century. + +Perhaps the first thing that will strike a reader of his works is the +constant appeal on all matters of religion to reason. That Christianity +is 'the best and the holiest, the wisest and the most reasonable +religion in the world;'[218] that 'all the precepts of it are +reasonable and wise, requiring such duties of us as are suitable to the +light of nature, and do approve themselves to the best reason of +mankind'[219]--such is the general purport of the arguments by which he +most trusts to persuade the heart and the understanding. And how, on the +other hand, could he better meet the infidelity of the age than by +setting himself 'to show the unreasonableness of atheism and of scoffing +at religion?' If the appeal to reason will not persuade, what will? + +The primary and sovereign place assigned to reason in Tillotson's +conception of man as a being able to know and serve God involved some +consequences which must be mentioned separately, though they are closely +connected with one another. + +It led him, if not to reject, at all events to regard with profound +distrust all assumptions of any gift of spiritual discernment +distinguishable from ordinary powers of understanding. Tillotson's view +was that the Spirit of God enlightens the human mind only through the +reason, so that the faith of Abraham, for example, 'was the result of +the wisest reasoning.'[220] He allows that the spiritual presence may +act upon the reason by raising and strengthening the faculty, by making +clear the object of inquiry, by suggesting arguments, by holding minds +intent upon the evidence, by removing the impediments which hinder +assent, and especially by making the persuasion of a truth effectual on +the life.[221] This, however, is the very utmost that Tillotson could +concede to those who dwell upon the presence within the soul of an +inward spiritual light. + +Tillotson gave great offence to some of his contemporaries by some +expressions he has used in relation to the degree of assurance which is +possible to man in regard of religious truths. He based all assent upon +rational evidence. But he unhesitatingly admitted that mathematics only +admit of clear demonstration; in other matters proof consists in the +best arguments that the quality and nature of the thing will bear. We +may be well content, he said, with a well-grounded confidence on matters +of religious truth corresponding to that which is abundantly sufficient +for our purposes in the conduct of our most important worldly interests. +A charge was thereupon brought against him of authorising doubt and +opening a door to the most radical disbelief. The attack scarcely +deserved Tillotson's somewhat lengthy defence. He had but re-stated what +many before him had observed as to the exceptional character of +demonstrative evidence, and the folly of expecting it where it is +plainly inapplicable. A religious mind, itself thoroughly convinced, +may chafe against possibility of doubt, but may as well complain against +the conditions of human nature. Yet the controversy on this point +between Tillotson and his opponents is instructive in forming a judgment +upon the general character of religious thought in that age. Tillotson +appears, on the one hand, to have been somewhat over-cautious in +disclaiming the alleged consequences of his denial of absolute religious +certainty. He allows the theoretical possibility of doubt, but speaks as +if it were essentially unreasonable. He shows no sign of recognising the +sincere faith that often underlies it; that prayerful doubt may be in +itself a kind of prayer; that its possibility is involved in all +inquiry; that there is such a thing as an irreligious stifling of doubt, +resulting in a spiritual and moral degradation; that doubt may sometimes +be the clear work of the Spirit of God to break down pride and +self-sufficiency, to force us to realise what we believe, to quicken our +sense of truth, and to bid us chiefly rest our faith on personal and +spiritual grounds which no doubts can touch. In this Tillotson shared in +what must be considered a grave error of his age. Few things so +encouraged the growth of Deism and unbelief as the stiff refusal on the +part of the defenders of Christianity to admit of a frequently religious +element in doubt. There was a general disposition, in which even such +men as Bishop Berkeley shared, to relegate all doubters to the class of +Deists and 'Atheists.' Tillotson strove practically against this fatal +tendency, but his reasonings on the subject were confused. He earned, +more perhaps than any other divine of his age, the love and confidence +of many who were perplexed with religious questionings; but his +arguments had not the weight which they would have gained if he had +acknowledged more ungrudgingly that doubt must not always be regarded as +either a folly or a sin. + +Tillotson had learnt much from the Puritan and Calvinistic teaching +which, instilled into him throughout his earlier years, had laid deep +the foundations of the serious and fervent vein of piety conspicuous in +all his life and writings. He had learnt much from the sublime Christian +philosophy of his eminent instructors at Cambridge, Cudworth and Henry +More, John Smith and Whichcote, under whom his heart and intellect had +attained a far wider reach than they could ever have gained in the +school of Calvin. But his influence in the eighteenth century would have +been more entirely beneficial, if he had treasured up from his Puritan +remembrances clearer perceptions of the searching power of divine grace; +or if he had not only learnt from the Platonists to extol 'that special +prerogative of Christianity that it dares appeal to reason,'[222] and +to be imbued with a sense of the divine immutability of moral +principles, but had also retained their convictions of unity with the +Divine nature, implied alike in that eternity of morality and in that +supremacy of the rational faculties,--together with a corresponding +belief that there may be intimate communion between the spirit of man +and his Maker, and that 'they who make reason the light of heaven and +the very oracle of God, must consider that the oracle of God is not to +be heard but in His holy temple,' that is to say, in the heart of a good +man purged by that indwelling Spirit.[223] Considering the immense +influence which Tillotson's Cambridge teachers had upon the development +of his mind, it is curious how widely he differs from them in inward +tone. It is quite impossible to conceive of their dwelling, as he and +his followers did, upon the pre-eminent importance of the external +evidences. + +Tillotson could not adopt as unreservedly as he did his pervading tenet +of the reasonableness of Christianity without yielding to reason all the +rights due to an unquestioned leader. Like Henry More, he would have +wished to take for a motto 'that generous resolution of Marcus +Cicero,--rationem, quo ea me cunque ducet, sequar.'[224] 'Doctrines,' he +said, 'are vehemently to be suspected which decline trial. To deny +liberty of inquiry and judgment in matters of religion, is the greatest +injury and disparagement to truth that can be, and a tacit +acknowledgment that she lies under some disadvantage, and that there is +less to be said for her than for error.'[225] 'Tis only things false and +adulterate which shun the light and fear the touchstone.' He has left a +beautiful prayer which his editor believed he was in the habit of using +before he composed a sermon. In it he asks to be made impartial in his +inquiry after truth, ready always to receive it in love, to practise it +in his life, and to continue steadfast in it to the end. He adds, 'I +perfectly resign myself, O Lord, to Thy counsel and direction, in +confidence that Thy goodness is such, that Thou wilt not suffer those +who sincerely desire to know the truth and rely upon Thy guidance, +finally to miscarry.'[226] + +These last words are a key to Tillotson's opinion upon a question about +which, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, there was much +animated controversy--in what light sincere error should be regarded. If +free inquiry on religious subjects is allowable and right, is a man to +be held blameless if he arrives at false conclusions in respect of the +fundamental articles of faith? That the answer to be given might involve +grave issues continually appeared in discussion alike with Roman +Catholics and with Deists. The former had no stronger argument against +liberty of private judgment than to ask how those who freely granted it +could pass any moral censure upon the heresies which might constantly +result from it. The latter insisted that, whether they were right or +wrong, no Protestant had any title to hold them in the slightest degree +blameable before God or man for any opinions which were the result of +conscientious research. Much was written on the subject by theologians +of the generation which succeeded next after Tillotson, as for instance +by Hoadly, Sykes, Whitby, Law, Hare, and Balguy. But in truth, if the +premisses be granted--if free inquiry is allowable and the inquiry be +conducted with all honesty of heart and mind--no candid person, whatever +be his opinions, can give other than one answer. Kettlewell, High +Churchman and Nonjuror, readily acknowledged that 'where our ignorance +of any of Christ's laws is joined with an honest heart, and remains +after our sincere industry to know the truth, we may take comfort to +ourselves that it is involuntary and innocent.'[227] In this he agreed +with his Low Church contemporary, Chillingworth, who said that 'To ask +pardon of simple and involuntary errors is tacitly to imply that God is +angry with us for them, and that were to impute to Him this strange +tyranny of requiring brick where He gives no straw; of expecting to +gather where He strewed not; of being offended with us for not doing +what He knows we cannot do.'[228] Tillotson always speaks guardedly on +the subject. He was keenly alive to the evil practical consequences +which may result from intellectual error,--very confident that in all +important particulars orthodox doctrine was the true and safe path, very +anxious therefore not to say anything which might weaken the sense of +responsibility in those who deviated from it. But he never attempted to +evade the logical conclusion which follows from an acknowledged right of +private judgment. In his practice as well as in his theory, he wholly +admitted the blamelessness of error where there was ardent sincerity of +purpose. He wrote several times against the Unitarians, but gladly +allowed that many of them were thoroughly good men, honest and candid in +argument,[229] nor did he even scruple to admit to a cordial friendship +one of their most distinguished leaders, Thomas Firmin, a man of great +beneficence and philanthropy. + +There was no reservation in Tillotson's mind as to the general right of +private judgment. 'Any man that hath the spirit of a man must abhor to +submit to this slavery not to be allowed to examine his religion, and to +inquire freely into the grounds and reasons of it; and would break with +any Church in the world upon this single point; and would tell them +plainly, "If your religion be too good to be examined, I doubt it is too +bad to be believed."'[230] He grounded the right on three +principles.[231] The first was, that essentials are so plain that every +man of ordinary capacities, after receiving competent instruction, is +able to judge of them. This, he added, was no new doctrine of the +Reformation, but had been expressly owned by such ancient fathers as St. +Chrysostom and St. Augustine. The second was, that it was a Scriptural +injunction. St. Luke, in the Acts, St. Paul and St. John in their +Epistles, had specially commended search, examination, inquiry, proof. +The third was, that even those who most disputed the right were forced +nevertheless to grant it in effect. Whenever they make a proselyte they +argue with him, they appeal to his reason, they bid him to use his +judgment. If it were urged that it could not be accordant to the Divine +purpose to give full scope to a liberty which distracted unity and gave +rise to so much controversy and confusion,--we must judge, he replied, +by what is, not by what we fancy ought to be. We could be relieved from +the responsibilities of judging for ourselves only by the existence of +an infallible authority to which we could appeal. This is not granted +either in temporal or in spiritual matters. Nor is it needed. A degree +of certainty sufficient for all our needs is attainable without it. Even +in Apostolic times, when it might be said to have existed, error and +schism were not thereby prevented. 'With charity and mutual forbearance, +the Church may be peaceful and happy without absolute unity of +opinion.'[232] Let it be enough that we have guides to instruct us in +what is plain, and to guide us in more doubtful matters. After all, +'there is as much to secure men from mistakes in matters of belief, as +God hath afforded to keep men from sin in matters of practice. He hath +made no effectual and infallible provision that men shall not sin; and +yet it would puzzle any man to give a good reason why God should take +more care to secure men against errors in belief than against sin and +wickedness in their lives.'[233] + +Tillotson, however, did not omit to add four cautions as to the proper +limits within which the right of private judgment should be exercised. +(1) A private person must only judge for himself, not impose his +judgment on others. His only claim to that liberty is that it belongs to +all. (2) The liberty thus possessed does not dispense with the necessity +of guides and teachers in religion; nor (3) with due submission to +authority. 'What by public consent and authority is determined and +established ought not to be gainsaid by private persons but upon very +clear evidence of the falsehood or unlawfulness of it; nor is the peace +and unity of the Church to be violated upon every scruple and frivolous +pretence.' (4) There are a great many who, from ignorance or +insufficient capacity, are incompetent to judge of any controverted +question. 'Such persons ought not to engage in disputes of religion; but +to beg God's direction and to rely upon their teachers; and above all to +live up to the plain dictates of natural light, and the clear commands +of God's word, and this will be their best security.'[234] + +There has probably been no period in which liberty of thought on +religious subjects has been debated in this country so anxiously, so +vehemently, so generally, as in the earlier part of the eighteenth +century. The Reformation had hinged upon it; but general principles were +then greatly obscured in the excitement of change, and amid the +multiplicity of secondary questions of more immediate practical +interest. For a hundred and fifty years after the first breach with +Rome, it may be said that private judgment was most frequently +considered in connection with a power of option between different Church +communions. A man had to choose whether he would adhere to the old, or +adopt the new form of faith--whether he would remain staunch to the +reformed Anglican Church, or cast in his lot with the Puritans, or with +one or other of the rising sects,--whether Episcopacy or Presbyterianism +most conformed to his ideas of Church government. When at last these +controversies had abated, the full importance of the principles involved +in this new liberty of thought began to be fully felt. Their real scope +and nature, apart from any transient applications, engaged great +attention, first among the studious and thoughtful, among philosophers +and theologians, but before long throughout the country generally. Locke +among philosophers, Tillotson and Chillingworth among divines, addressed +their reasonings not to the few, but to the many. Their arguments +however would not have been so widely and actively discussed, had it not +been for the Deists. Free-thought in reference to certain ecclesiastical +topics had been for several generations familiar to every Englishman; +but just at a time when reflecting persons of every class were beginning +to inquire what was implied in this liberty of thought and choice, the +term was unhappily appropriated by the opponents of revelation, and, as +if by common consent, conceded to them. Notwithstanding all that could +be urged by a number of eminent and influential preachers and writers, +freethinking became a term everywhere associated with Deism and +disbelief. It was a suicidal error, which rapidly gained ground, and +lingers still. The Deists gained great advantage from it. They started +as it were with an unchallenged verbal assumption that the most +fundamental principle of correct reasoning was on their side. All +inquiries as to truth, all sound research, all great reforms, demand +free thought; and they were the acknowledged Freethinkers. A name could +not have been chosen more admirably adapted to create, especially in +young and candid minds, a prejudice in their favour. For the same +reason, all who asserted the duty of fearless investigation in the +interests of Christianity could only do so under penalty of incurring +from many quarters loudly expressed suspicions of being Deists in +disguise. Tillotson was by strong conviction an advocate of freethought. +'He is a Freethinker,' said all who were afraid of liberty. 'Therefore +no doubt he is undermining Revelation, he is fighting the battle of the +Deists.' 'Yes,' echoed the Deists, glad to persuade themselves that they +had the sanction of his authority. 'He is a Freethinker; if not one of +us, at all events he is closely allied with us.' Yet, on the whole, his +fame and influence probably gained by it. Many who were inclined to +Deistical opinions were induced to read Tillotson, and to feel the force +of his arguments, who would never have opened a page of such a writer as +Leslie. Many, again, who dreaded the Deists, but were disturbed by their +arguments, were wisely anxious to see what was advanced against them by +the distinguished prelate who had been said to agree with them in some +of their leading principles. Meanwhile liberty of thought, independently +of 'Freethinking,' in the obnoxious sense of the word, attracted a +growing amount of attention. The wide interest felt in the ponderous +Bangorian controversy, as it dragged on its tedious course, is in itself +ample evidence of the desire to see some satisfactory adjustment of the +respective bounds of authority and reason. No doubt Tillotson did more +than any one else, Locke only excepted, to create this interest. It was +an immense contribution to the general progress of intelligent thought +on religious subjects, to do as much as was effected by these two +writers in removing abstract ideas from the domain of theological and +philosophical speculation, and transferring them, not perhaps without +some loss of preciseness and definition, to the popular language of +ordinary life. The eighteenth century erred much in trusting too +implicitly to the powers of 'common sense.' Yet this direct appeal to +the average understanding was in many ways productive of benefit. It +induced people to realise to themselves, more than they had done, what +it was they believed, and to form intelligible conceptions of +theological tenets, instead of vaguely accepting upon trust what they +had learnt from their religious teachers. Even while it depressed for +the time the ideal of spiritual attainment, the defect was temporary, +but the work real. 'By clearing away,' says Dorner, 'much dead matter, +it prepared the way for a reconstruction of theology from the very +depths of the heart's belief.'[235] + +In calling upon all men to test their faith by their reason, Tillotson +had to explain the relations of human reason to those articles of belief +which lie beyond its grasp. There was the more reason to do this, +because of the difficulties which were felt, and the disputes which had +arisen about 'mysteries' in religion. Undoubtedly it is a word very +capable of misuse. 'Times,' says the author last quoted, 'unfruitful in +theological knowledge are ever wont to fall back upon mystery and upon +the much abused demand of "taking the reason prisoner to the obedience +of faith."' With some, religion has thus been made barren and +ineffectual by being regarded as a thing to be passively accepted +without being understood. Among others, it has been degraded into +superstition by the same cause. When an appetite for the mysterious has +been cherished, it becomes easy to attribute spiritual results to +material causes, to the confusion of the first principles alike of +morality and of knowledge. Some, through an ambition of understanding +the unintelligible, have wasted their energies in a labyrinth of +scholastic subtleties; others have surrendered themselves to a vague +unpractical mysticism. + +But, whatever may have been the errors common in other ages, it was +certainly no characteristic of the eighteenth century to linger +unhealthily upon the contemplation of mysteries. The predominant fault +was one of a directly opposite nature. There was apt to be an impatience +of all mystery, a contemptuous neglect of all that was not self-evident +or easy to understand. 'The Gospel,' it was said, 'professes plainness +and uses no hard words.'[236] Whatever was obscure was only the +imperfection of the old dispensation, or the corruption of the new, and +might be excluded from the consideration of rational beings. Even in the +natural world there was most mystery in the things which least concern +us; Divine providence had ordered that what was most necessary should +be least obscure. Much too was added about the priestcraft and +superstition which had commonly attended the inculcation of mysterious +doctrines. In all such arguments there was a considerable admixture of +truth. But in its general effect it tended greatly to depress the tone +of theological thought, to take away from it sublimity and depth, and to +degrade religion into a thing of earth.[237] Even where it did not +controvert any of the special doctrines of revealed religion, it +inclined men to pass lightly over them, or at all events to regard them +only in their directly practical aspects, and so to withdraw from the +soul, as if they were but idle speculations, some of the most elevating +subjects of contemplation which the Christian faith affords. Such +reasoners were strangely blind to the thought that few could be so +inertly commonplace in mind and feeling, as to rest satisfied with being +fired to virtuous deeds by the purely practical side of transcendental +truths, without delighting in further reflection on the very nature of +those mysteries themselves. Nor did they at all realise, that +independently of any direct results in morality and well-being, it is no +small gain to a man to be led by the thought of Divine mysteries to feel +that he stands on the verge of a higher world, a higher nature, of which +he may have scarcely a dim perception, but to which creatures lower than +himself in the scale of being are wholly insensible. There was little +feeling that truths which baffle reason may be, and must be, +nevertheless accordant with true reason. It was left to William Law, a +writer who stood much apart from the general spirit of his age, to +remark: 'This is the true ground and nature of the mysteries of +Christian redemption. They are, in themselves, nothing else but what the +nature of things requires them to be ... but they are mysteries to man, +because brought into the scheme of redemption by the interposition of +God to work in a manner above and superior to all that is seen and done +in the things of this world.'[238] + +Nothing very instructive or suggestive must be looked for from Tillotson +on the subject of Divine mysteries. He was too much of an +eighteenth-century man, if it may be so expressed, to be able to give +much appreciative thought to anything that lay beyond the direct +province of reason. Yet, on the other hand, he was too deeply religious, +and too watchful an observer, not to perceive that the unspiritual and +sceptical tendencies of his age were fostered by the disparagement of +all suprasensual ideas. The consequence is, that he deals with the +subject without ease, and with the air of an apologist. This remark +does not so much relate to the miracles. Upon them he constantly insists +as a very material part of distinctly rational evidence. But mysteries, +apart from any evidential character which they may possess, he clearly +regards almost entirely in the sense of difficulties, necessary to be +believed, but mere impediments to faith rather than any assistance to +it. 'Great reverence,' he says, 'is due to them where they are certain +and necessary in the nature and reason of the thing, but they are not +easily to be admitted without necessity and very good evidence.'[239] He +is not sure whether much that seems mysterious may not be in some degree +explained as compliances, for the sake of our edification, with human +modes of thought.[240] On the whole, he is inclined to reduce within as +narrow a compass as possible the number of tenets which transcend our +faculties of reason, to receive them, when acknowledged, with +reverential submission, but to pass quickly from them, as matters in +which we have little concern, and which do not greatly affect the +practical conduct of life. His extreme distaste for anything that +appeared to him like idle speculation or unprofitable controversy, often +blinded him in a very remarkable degree to the evident fact, that the +very same mysterious truths which have given occasion to many futile +speculations, many profitless disputes, are also, in every Christian +communion, rich in their supply of Christian motives and practical +bearings upon conduct. + +Tillotson's opinions on points of doctrine were sometimes attacked with +a bitterness of rancour only to be equalled by the degree of +misrepresentation upon which the charges were founded. Leslie concludes +his indictment against him and Burnet by saying that 'though the sword +of justice be (at present) otherwise employed than to animadvert upon +these blasphemers, and though the chief and father of them all is +advanced to the throne of Canterbury, and thence infuses his deadly +poison through the nation,' yet at least all 'ought to separate from the +Church communion of these heretical bishops.'[241] Yet, if we examine +the arguments upon which this invective is supported, and compare with +their context the detached sentences which his hot-blooded antagonist +adduces, we shall find that Tillotson maintained no opinion which would +not be considered in a modern English Churchman to be at all events +perfectly legitimate. Had his opponents been content to point out +serious deficiencies in the general tendency of his teaching, they would +have held a thoroughly tenable position. When they attempted to attach +to his name the stigma of specific heresies, they failed. He thought +for himself, and sometimes very differently from them, but never +wandered far from the paths of orthodoxy. Accusations of Socinianism +were freely circulated both against him and Burnet, on grounds which +chiefly serve to show within what narrow grooves religious thought would +have been confined by the objectors. Burnet, whose theological +discourses received Tillotson's hearty commendation, has fully stated +what appears to have been the less clearly conceived opinion of the +archbishop. There was no tincture of Arianism in it; he showed on the +contrary, with much power, the utter untenability of that hypothesis. +The worship of Christ, he said, is so plainly set forth in the New +Testament, that not even the opposers of His divinity deny it; yet +nothing is so much condemned in Scripture as worshipping a +creature.[242] 'We may well and safely determine that Christ was truly +both God and Man.'[243] But he held that this true Divinity of Christ +consisted in 'the indwelling of the Eternal Word in Christ,' which +'became united to His human nature, as our souls dwell in our bodies and +are united to them.'[244] As Leslie said, he did in effect explain the +doctrine of the Trinity as three manifestations of the Divine nature. +'By the first, God may be supposed to have made and to govern all +things; by the second, to have been most perfectly united to the +humanity of Christ; and by the third, to have inspired the penmen of the +Scriptures and the workers of miracles, and still to renew and fortify +all good minds. But though we cannot explain how they are Three and have +a true diversity from one another, so that they are not barely different +names and modes; yet we firmly believe that there is but one God.'[245] +A jealous and disputatious orthodoxy might be correct in affirming that +this exposition of the Trinity was a form of Sabellianism, and one which +might perhaps be accepted by some of the Unitarians. It is stated here +rather to show on what scanty grounds the opponents of the +'Latitudinarian bishops' founded one of their chief accusations of +Socinian heresy. + +But this was only part of the general charge. It was also said that +Tillotson was a 'rank Socinian' in regard of his views upon the doctrine +of the satisfaction made by Christ for the sins of men. The ground of +offence lay in his great dislike for anything which seemed to savour +less of Scripture than of scholastic refinements in theology. He thought +it great rashness to prescribe limits, as it were, to infinite wisdom, +and to affirm that man's salvation could not possibly have been wrought +in any other way than by the incarnation and satisfaction of the Son of +God.[246] A Christian reasoner may well concede that he can form no +conjecture in what variety of modes redeeming love might have been +manifested. He has no need to build theories upon what alone is +possible, when the far nobler argument is set before him, to trace the +wisdom and the fitness of the mode which God's providence actually has +chosen. Tillotson raised no question whatever as to the manner in which +redemption was effected, but stated it in exactly such terms as might +have been used by any preacher of the day. For example: 'From these and +many other texts it seems to be very plain and evident, that Christ died +for our sins, and suffered in our stead, and by the sacrifice of Himself +hath made an atonement for us and reconciled us to God, and hath paid a +price and ransom for us, and by the merits of his death hath purchased +for us forgiveness of sins.'[247] + +Nevertheless the charge was brought against him, as it was in a less +degree against Burnet and other Low Churchmen of this time, of +'disputing openly against the satisfaction of Christ.' This deserves +some explanation. For though in the mere personal question there can be +little historical interest, it is instructive, as illustrating an +important phase of religious thought. The charge rested on three or four +different grounds. There was the broad general objection, as it seemed +to some, that Tillotson was always searching out ways of bringing reason +to bear even on Divine mysteries, where they held its application to be +impertinent and almost sacrilegious. His refusal, already mentioned, to +allow that the sacrifice of Christ's death was the only conceivable way +in which, consistently with the Divine attributes, sin could be +forgiven, was a further cause for displeasure. It did not at all fall in +with a habit which, both in pulpit and in argumentative divinity, had +become far too customary, of speaking of the Atonement with a kind of +legal, or even mathematical exactness, as of a debt which nothing but +full payment can cancel, or of a problem in proportion which admits only +of one solution. Then, although Tillotson defended the propriety of the +term 'satisfaction,' he had observed that the word was nowhere found in +Scripture, and would apparently have not regretted its disuse. It was a +graver proof of doctrinal laxity, if not of heresy, in the estimation of +many, that although for his own part he always spoke of Christ suffering +'in our stead,' he had thought it perfectly immaterial whether it were +expressed thus or 'for our benefit.' It was all 'a perverse contention +which signified just nothing.... For he that dies with an intention to +do that benefit to another as to save him from death, doth certainly, to +all intents and purposes, die in his place and stead.'[248] Certainly, +in these words Tillotson singularly underrated a very important +difference. Our whole conception of the meaning of Redemption, that most +fundamental doctrine of all Christian theology, is modified by an +acceptance of the one rather than of the other expression. In our own +days one interpretation is considered as legitimate in the English +Church as the other. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a +cramped and mistaken orthodoxy, which did much harm, was apt to +represent the translation 'for our sakes' as connected exclusively with +Deistical or Unitarian opinions. From that point of view, we can +understand how Leslie declared with bitterness, that although the +Archbishop wrote against the Socinians, 'it was really to do them +service, and reconcile men more to their principles by lessening the +differences which are conceived betwixt them and us.'[249] + +Another cause which stirred great animosity against Tillotson as a +theological writer consisted in his partial acceptance of that principle +of 'accommodation' which was afterwards made so much use of by Semler +and many other German writers. Thus, the natural love of mystery which, +in man's unenlightened state, had been fruitful in fantastical and +unworthy superstitions, was gently guided to the contemplation of a +mystery of godliness--God manifested in the flesh--so great, so +wonderful, so infinite in mercy, as to 'obscure and swallow up all other +mysteries.'[250] The inclination of mankind to the worship of a visible +and sensible Deity was diverted into its true channel by the revelation +of one to whom, as the 'brightness of His Father's glory, and the +express image of His person,' divine worship might be paid 'without +danger of idolatry, and without injury to the divine nature.'[251] The +apotheosis of heroes, the tendency to raise to semi-divine honours great +benefactors of the race, was sublimely superseded[252] by the exaltation +to the right hand of the Majesty on high of one who is not half but +wholly infinite, and yet true man and the truest benefactor of our race; +One that 'was dead and is alive again, and lives for evermore.' The +religious instinct which craved for mediation and intercession was +gratified, and the worship of saints made for the future inexcusable, by +the gift of one Mediator between God and men, a perpetual advocate and +intercessor.[253] It was the same, Tillotson added, with sacrifice. On +this point he dilated more at length. The sacrificial character, he +said, of the atonement was not to be explained in any one manner. To +open a way of forgiveness which would at the same time inspire a deep +feeling of the guilt and consequences of sin, and create a horror of it, +which would kindle fervent love to the Saviour, and pity for all in +misery as He had pity on us; these are some of the effects which the +sacrifice of Christ is adapted to fulfil, and there may be other divine +counsels hidden in it of which we know little or nothing. But he thought +that further explanation might be found in a tender condescension to +certain religious ideas which almost everywhere prevailed among mankind. +Unreasonable as it was to suppose that the blood of slain animals could +take away sin, sacrifice had always been resorted to. Perhaps it implied +a confession of belief that sin cannot be pardoned without suffering. +Whatever the ground and foundation may have been, at all events, both +among Jews and heathens, it was an established principle that 'without +shedding of blood there is no remission.' God's providence may be deemed +to have adapted itself to this general apprehension, not in order to +countenance these practices, but for the future to abolish them, +deepening at the same time and spiritualising the meaning involved in +them. 'Very probably in compliance with this apprehension of mankind, +and in condescension to it, as well as for other weighty reasons best +known to the divine wisdom, God was pleased to find out such a sacrifice +as should really and effectually procure for them that great blessing of +the forgiveness of sins which they had so long hoped for from the +multitude of their own sacrifices.'[254] + +It is curious to see in what sort of light these not very formidable +speculations were construed by some of Tillotson's contemporaries. 'He +makes,' says Leslie, 'the foundation of the Christian religion to be +some foolish and wicked fancies, which got into people's heads, he knows +not and says no matter how; and instead of reforming them, and +commanding us to renounce and abhor them, which one would have expected, +and which Christ did to all other wickedness, the doctor's scheme is, +that God, in compliance with them, and to indulge men in these same wild +and wicked fancies, did send Christ, took His life, and instituted the +whole economy of the Christian religion.'[255] The construction put upon +the Archbishop's words is curious but deplorable. It is not merely that +it exemplifies, though not in nearly so great a degree as other passages +which might be quoted, the polemical virulence which was then +exceedingly common, and which warped the reasoning powers of such men of +talent and repute as Leslie. The encouragement which attacks made in +this spirit gave to the Deism and infidelity against which they were +directed, was a far more permanent evil. Much may be conceded to the +alarm not unnaturally felt at a time when independent thought was +beginning to busy itself in the investigation of doctrines which had +been generally exempt from it, and when all kinds of new difficulties +were being started on all sides. But the many who felt difficulties, and +honestly sought to find a solution of them, were constantly driven into +open hostility by the unconciliatory treatment they met with. Their most +moderate departures from the strictest path of presumed orthodox +exposition were clamorously resented; their interpretations of Christian +doctrine, however religiously conceived, and however worthy of being at +least fairly weighed, were placed summarily under a ban; and those +Church dignitaries in whom they recognised some sort of sympathy were +branded as 'Sons of Belial.' There can be no doubt that at the end of +the seventeenth, and in the earlier part of the eighteenth centuries, +many men, who under kindlier conditions would have been earnest and +active Churchmen, were unconsciously forced, by the intolerance which +surrounded them, into the ranks of the Deists or the Unitarians. + +In the general charge preferred against Tillotson of dangerous and +heretical opinion there was yet another item which attracted far more +general attention than the rest. 'This new doctrine,' says Leslie, 'of +making hell precarious doth totally overthrow the doctrine of the +satisfaction of Christ.'[256] Of this particular inference, which would +legitimately follow only upon a very restricted view of the meaning of +atonement, there is no need of speaking. But the opinion itself, as +stated in Tillotson's sermon on what was often described as 'the +dispensing power,' is so important that any estimate of his influence +upon religious thought would be very imperfect without some mention of +it. There are many theological questions of great religious consequence +which are discussed nevertheless only in limited circles, and are +familiar to others chiefly in their practical applications. The future +state is a subject in which everyone has such immediate personal +concern, that arguments which seem likely to throw fresh light upon it, +especially if put forward by an eminent and popular divine, are certain +to obtain very wide and general attention. Tillotson's sermon not only +gave rise to much warm controversy among learned writers, but was +eagerly debated in almost all classes of English society. + +Perhaps there has never been a period in Christian history when the +prospects of the bulk of mankind in the world beyond the grave have been +enwrapped in such unmitigated gloom in popular religious conception, as +throughout the Protestant countries of Europe during a considerable part +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is no place to compare +Scripture texts, or to show in what various senses the words of Christ +and His Apostles have been interpreted. It may be enough to remark in +passing that perhaps no Christian writer of any note has ever doubted +the severe reality of retribution on unrepented sin. Without further +reference then to the Apostolic age, it is certain that among the early +fathers of the Church there was much difference of opinion as to the +nature, degree, and duration of future punishment. Hermas, in one of +those allegories which for three centuries enjoyed an immense +popularity, imagined an infinite variety of degrees of retribution.[257] +Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, in closely corresponding words, speak of its +period of duration as simply dependent upon the will of God.[258] The +Christian Sibylline books cherished hopes in the influence of +intercession. Ambrose and Lactantius,[259] Jerome,[260] and in a far +more notable degree, Clement of Alexandria[261] and Origen write of +corrective fires of discipline in the next world, if not in this, to +purify all souls, unless there are any which, being altogether bad, sink +wholly in the mighty waters.[262] 'Augustine's writings show how widely +those questions were discussed. He rejects the Origenian doctrine, but +does not consider it heretical.... None of the first four general +councils laid down any doctrine whatever concerning the everlasting +misery of the wicked. Yet the question had been most vehemently +disputed.'[263] Throughout the Middle Ages, religious terrorism in its +barest and most material form was an universal, and sometimes no doubt a +very efficient instrument of moral control; but small consideration is +needed to perceive how these fears must have been at once tempered and +partly neutralised by the belief in purgatory--tempered by the hope that +pains preceding judgment might take the place of ultimate penalties, and +almost neutralised by the superstitious idea that such purgatorial +sufferings might be lightened and shortened by extraneous human agencies +independent of the purification and renewal of the sinful soul. +Throughout the earlier period of the Reformation, and especially in +England, the protest of Protestantism was mainly against specific abuses +in the Church, and against the Papal supremacy. Two or three generations +had to pass away before habits of thought engrained for ages in the +popular mind were gradually effaced. In spite of the rapid growth of +Puritanism, and of the strong hold gained by an extreme form of +Calvinism on some of the leading Churchmen of Queen Elizabeth's time, +the faith of the mass of the people was still a combination, in varied +proportions, of the old and the new. The public mind had utterly +revolted against the system of indulgences; but it would be very rash to +assume that men's ideas of the eternal state were not largely and widely +modified by an undefined tradition of purifying fires. Although this may +not have been the case with the clergy and others who were familiar with +controversy, there was certainly among them also a strong disinclination +to pronounce any decided or dogmatical opinion about that unknown +future. This is traceable in the various writings elicited by the +omission of the latter part of the third article in the Revision under +Archbishop Parker; and is more palpably evident in the entire excision +of the forty-second article, which for ten years had committed the +Church of England to an express opinion as to the irreparable state of +the condemned. But long before the seventeenth century had closed, +orthodox opinion seems to have set almost entirely in the direction of +the sternest and most hopeless interpretation possible. Bishop Rust of +Dromore, who died in 1670, ardently embraced Origen's view.[264] So also +did Sir Henry Vane, the eminent Parliamentary leader, who was beheaded +for high treason in 1662.[265] A few Nonconformist congregations adopted +similar opinions. The Cambridge Platonists--insisting prominently, as +most writers of a mystical turn have done, upon that belief in the +universal fatherhood of God, which had infused a gentler tone, scarcely +compatible with much that he wrote, even into Luther's spirit--inclined +to a milder theology. Henry More ventured to hope that 'the benign +principle will get the upper hand at last, and Hades, as Plutarch says, +[Greek: apoleipesthai], be left in the lurch.'[266] But these were +exceptions. For the most part, among religious writers of every school +of thought there was perfect acquiescence in a doctrine of intolerable +never-ending torments, and no attempt whatever to find some mode of +explanation by which to escape from the horrors of the conception. +Pearson and Bull, Lake and Kettlewell, Bentley, Fleetwood, +Worthington,[267] Sherlock, Steele and Addison, Bunyan and +Doddridge--theologians and scholars, Broad Churchmen and Nonjurors, +preachers and essayists, Churchmen and Nonconformists--expressed +themselves far more unreservedly than is at all usual in our age, even +among those who, in theory, interpret Scripture in the same sense. The +hideous imagery depicted by the graphic pencil of Orcagna on the walls +of the Campo Santo was reproduced no less vividly in the prose works of +Bunyan, and with equal vigour, if not with equal force of imagination, +by almost all who sought to kindle by impassioned pulpit appeals the +conscience of their hearers. Young's poem of 'The Last Day,' in which +panegyrics of Queen Anne are strangely blended with a powerful and +awe-inspiring picture of the most extreme and hopeless misery, was +highly approved, we are told, not only by general readers but by the +Tory Ministry and their friends.[268] No doubt the practical and +regulative faith which exercised a real influence upon life was of quite +a different nature. A tenet which cannot be in the slightest degree +realised, except perhaps in special moments of excitement or depression, +is rendered almost neutral and inefficacious by the conscience refusing +to dwell upon it. Belief in certain retribution compatible with human +ideas of justice and goodness cannot fail in practical force. A doctrine +which does not comply with this condition, if not questioned, is simply +evaded. 'And dost thou not,' cried Adams, 'believe what thou hearest in +Church?' 'Most part of it, Master,' returned the host. 'And dost not +thou then tremble at the thought of eternal punishment?' 'As for that, +Master,' said he, 'I never once thought about it; but what signifies +talking about matters so far off?'[269] But if by the majority the +doctrine in point was practically shelved, it was everywhere passively +accepted as the only orthodox faith, and all who ventured to question +it were at once set down as far advanced in ways of Deism or worse. + +Nothing can be more confirmatory of what has been said than the writings +of Tillotson himself. His much-famed sermon 'On the Eternity of Hell +Torments' was preached in 1690 before Queen Mary, a circumstance which +gave occasion to some of the bitterest of his ecclesiastical and +political opponents to pretend that it was meant to assuage the horrors +of remorse felt by the Queen for having unnaturally deserted her +father.[270] His departure, however, from what was considered the +orthodox belief was cautious in the extreme. He acknowledged indeed that +the words translated by eternal and 'everlasting' do not always, in +Scripture language, mean unending. But on this he laid no stress. He did +not doubt, he said, that this at all events was their meaning wherever +they occurred in the passages in question. He mentioned, only to set +aside the objection raised by Locke and others, that death could not +mean eternal life in misery.[271] He thought the solemn assertion +applied typically to the Israelites, and confirmed (to show its +immutability) by an oath that they should not 'enter into his rest,' +entirely precluded Origen's idea of a final restitution.[272] He even +supposed, although somewhat dubiously, that 'whenever we break the laws +of God we fall into his hands and lie at his mercy, and he may, without +injustice, inflict what punishment on us he pleases,'[273] and that in +any case obstinately impenitent sinners must expect his threatenings to +be fully executed upon them. But in this lay the turning-point of his +argument. 'After all, he that threatens hath still the power of +execution in his hand. For there is this remarkable difference between +promises and threatenings--that he who promiseth passeth over a right to +another, and thereby stands obliged to him in justice and faithfulness +to make good his promise; and if he do not, the party to whom the +promise is made is not only disappointed, but injuriously dealt withal; +but in threatenings it is quite otherwise. He that threatens keeps the +right of punishing in his own hands, and is not obliged to execute what +he hath threatened any further than the reasons and ends of government +do require.'[274] Thus Nineveh was absolutely threatened; 'but God +understood his own right, and did what he pleased, notwithstanding the +threatening he had denounced.' Such was Tillotson's theory of the +'dispensing power,' an argument in great measure adopted from the +distinguished Arminian leader, Episcopius,[275] and which was +maintained by Burnet, and vigorously defended by Le Clerc.[276] It was +not, however, at all a satisfactory position to hold. Intellectually and +spiritually, its level is a low one; and even those who have thought +little upon the subject will feel, for the most part, as by a kind of +instinct, that this at all events is not the true explanation, though it +may contain some germs of truth. To do reasonable justice to it, we must +take into account the conflicting considerations by which Tillotson's +mind was swayed. No one could appeal more confidently and fervently than +he does to the perfect goodness of God, a goodness which wholly +satisfies the human reason, and supplies inexhaustible motives for love +and worship. We can reverence, he said, nothing but true goodness. A God +wanting in it would be only 'an omnipotent evil, an irresistible +mischief.'[277] + +But side by side with this principal current of thought was another. +Dismayed at the profligacy and carelessness he saw everywhere around +him, he was evidently convinced that not fear only, but some +overwhelming terror was absolutely necessary for even the tolerable +restraint of human sin and passion. 'Whosoever,' he said, 'considers how +ineffectual the threatening even of eternal torments is to the greatest +part of sinners, will soon be satisfied that a less penalty than that of +eternal sufferings would to the far greater part of mankind have been in +all probability of little or no force.' + +The result, therefore, of this twofold train of thought was this--that +when Tillotson had once disburdened himself of a conviction which must +have been wholly essential to his religious belief, and upon which he +could not have held silence without a degrading feeling of insincerity, +he then felt at liberty to suppress all further mention of it, and to +lay before his hearers, without any qualification, in the usual language +of his time, that tremendous alternative which he believed God himself +had thought it necessary to proclaim. Probably Tillotson's own mind was +a good deal divided on the subject between two opinions. In many +respects his mind showed a very remarkable combination of old and new +ideas, and perceptibly fluctuated between a timid adherence to tradition +and a sympathy with other notions which had become unhappily and +needlessly mixed up with imputations of Deism. In any case, what he has +said upon this most important subject is a singular and exaggerated +illustration of that prudential teaching which was a marked feature both +in Tillotson's theology and in the prevailing religious thought of his +age. + +In spite of what Tillotson might perhaps have wished, the suggestions +hazarded in his thirty-fifth sermon made an infinitely greater +impression than the unqualified warnings contained in the hundreds which +he preached at other times. It seems to have had a great circulation, +and probably many and mixed results. So far as it encouraged that +abominable system, which was already falling like a blight upon +religious faith, of living according to motives of expedience and the +wiser chance, its effects must have been utterly bad. It may also have +exercised an unsettling influence upon some minds. Although Tillotson +was probably entirely mistaken in the conviction, by no means peculiar +to him, that the idea of endless punishment adds any great, or even any +appreciable, force to the thought of divine retribution awaiting +unrepented sin, yet there would be much cause for alarm if (as might +well be the case) the ignorant or misinformed leaped to the conclusion +that the Archbishop had maintained that future, as distinguished from +endless punishments, were doubtful. We are told that 'when this sermon +of hell was first published, it was handed about among the great +debauchees and small atheistical wits more than any new play that ever +came out. He was not a man of fashion who wanted one of them in his +pocket, or could draw it out at the coffee-house.'[278] In certain +drawing-rooms, too, where prudery was not the fault, there were many +fashionable ladies who would pass from the scandal and gossip of the day +to applaud Tillotson's sermon in a sense which would have made him +shudder.[279] Nothing follows from this, unless it be assumed that the +profligates and worldlings of the period would have spent a single hour, +not to say a life, differently, had he never preached the sermon which +they discredited with their praise. It is possible, however, that +through misapprehension, or through the disturbing effects upon some +minds, quite apart from rational grounds, of any seeming innovation upon +accustomed teaching, there may have been here and there real ground for +the alarm which some very good people felt at these views having been +broached. It must be acknowledged that Tillotson's theory of a +dispensing power is not only unsatisfactory on other grounds, but +possesses a dangerous quality of expansibility. However much he himself +might protest against such a view, there was no particular reason why +the easy and careless should not urge that God might perchance dispense +with all future punishment of sin, and not only with its threatened +endlessness. + +Tillotson's theological faults were of a negative, far rather than of a +positive character. The constant charges of heresy which were brought +against him were ungrounded, and often serve to call attention to +passages where he has shown himself specially anxious to meet Deistical +objections. But there were deficiencies and omissions in his teaching +which might very properly be regarded with distrust and alarm. In the +generality of his sermons he dwells very insufficiently upon distinctive +Christian doctrine. His early parishioners of Keddington, in +Suffolk,[280] were more alive to this serious fault than the vast London +congregations before whom he afterwards preached. He has himself, in one +of his later sermons, alluded to the objection. 'I foresee,' he +observed, 'what will be said, because I have heard it so often said in +the like case, that there is not one word of Jesus Christ in all this. +No more is there in the text, and yet I hope that Jesus Christ is truly +preached, whenever His will, and the laws, and the duties enjoined by +the Christian religion are inculcated upon us.'[281] Tillotson never +adequately realised that the noblest treatise on Christian ethics will +be found wanting in the spiritual force possessed by sermons far +inferior to it in thought and eloquence, in which faith in the Saviour +and love of Him are directly appealed to for motives to all virtuous +effort. This very grave deficiency in the preaching of Tillotson and +others of his type was in great measure the effect of reaction. Brought +up in the midst of Calvinistic and Puritan associations, he had gained +abundant experience of the great evil arising from mistaken ideas on +free grace and justification by faith only. He had seen doctrines +'greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity, as if in +this new covenant of the Gospel, God took all upon Himself and required +nothing, or as good as nothing, of us; that it would be a disparagement +to the freedom of God's grace to think that He expects anything from us; +that the Gospel is all promises, and our part is only to believe and +embrace them, that is, to believe confidently that God will perform them +if we can but think so;'[282] 'that, in fact, religion [as he elsewhere +puts it] consists only in believing what Christ hath done for us, and +relying confidently upon it.'[283] He knew well--his father had been a +bright example of it--that such doctrines are constantly found in close +union with great integrity and holiness of life. But he knew also the +deplorable effects which have often attended even an apparent +dissociation of faith and morality; he had seen, and still saw, how deep +and permanent, both by its inherent evil and by the recoil that follows, +is the wound inflicted upon true religion by overstrained professions, +unreal phraseology, and the form without the substance of godliness. He +saw clearly, what many have failed to see, that righteousness is the +principal end of all religion; that faith, that revelation, that all +spiritual aids, that the incarnation of the Son of God and the +redemption He has brought, have no other purpose or meaning than to +raise men from sin and from a lower nature, to build them up in +goodness, and to renew them in the image of God. He unswervingly +maintained that immorality is the worst infidelity,[284] as being not +only inconsistent with real faith, but the contradiction of that highest +end which faith has in view. Tillotson was a true preacher of +righteousness. The fault of his preaching was that by too exclusive a +regard to the object of all religion, he dwelt insufficiently on the way +by which it is accomplished. If some had almost forgotten the end in +thinking of the means, he was apt to overlook the means in thinking of +the end. His eyes were so steadfastly fixed on the surpassing beauty of +Christian morality, that it might often seem as if he thought the very +contemplation of so much excellence were a sufficient incentive to it. +His constantly implied argument is, that if men, gifted with common +reason, can be persuaded to think what goodness is, its blessedness +alike in this world and the next, and on the other hand the present and +future consequences of sin, surely reason itself will teach them to be +wise. He is never the mere moralist. His Christian faith is ever present +to his mind, raising and purifying his standard of what is good, and +placing in an infinitely clearer light than could otherwise be possible +the sanctions of a life to come. Nor does he speak with an uncertain +tone when he touches on any of its most distinctive doctrines. Never +either in word or thought does he consciously disparage or undervalue +them. Notwithstanding all that Leslie and others could urge against him, +he was a sincere, and, in all essential points, an orthodox believer in +the tenets of revealed religion. But he dwelt upon them insufficiently. +He regarded them too much as mysteries of faith, established on good +evidence, to be firmly held and reverently honoured; above all, not to +be lightly argued about in tones of controversy. He never fully realised +what a treasury they supply of motives to Christian conduct, and of +material for sublime and ennobling thought; above all, that religion +never has a missionary and converting power when they are not +prominently brought forward. + +Throughout the eighteenth century the prudential considerations against +which Shaftesbury and a few others protested weighed like an incubus +both upon religion and on morals. 'Oh Happiness! our being's end and +aim,'[285] was the seldom failing refrain, echoed in sermons and essays, +in theological treatises and ethical studies. And though the idea of +happiness varies in endless degrees from the highest to the meanest, yet +even the highest conception of it cannot be substituted for that of +goodness without great detriment to the religion or philosophy which has +thus unduly exalted it. When Tillotson, or Berkeley,[286] or Bishop +Butler, or William Law, as well as Chubb[287] and Tindal,[288] spoke of +happiness as the highest end, they meant something very different from +'the sleek and sordid epicurism, in which religion and a good conscience +have their place among the means by which life is to be made more +comfortable.'[289] William Law's definition of happiness as 'the +satisfaction of all means, capacities, and necessities, the order and +harmony of his being; in other words, the right state of a man,'[290] +has not much in common with the motives of expedience urged by Bentham +and Paley, utilitarian systems, truly spoken of as 'of the earth, +earthy.'[291] But, in any case, even the highest conception of the +expedient rests on a lower plane of principle than the humblest +aspiration after the right. The expedient and the right are not +opposites; they are different in kind.[292] They may be, and ought to +be, blended as springs of action. No scheme of morals, and no practical +divinity can be wholly satisfactory in which virtue and holiness are not +equally mated with prudence and heavenly wisdom, each serving but not +subservient to the other. 'Art thou,' says Coleridge, 'under the tyranny +of sin--a slave to vicious habits, at enmity with God, and a skulking +fugitive from thine own conscience? Oh, how idle the dispute whether the +listening to the dictates of prudence from prudential and +self-interested motives be virtue or merit, when the not listening is +guilt, misery, madness, and despair.'[293] The self-love which Butler +has analysed with so masterly a hand is wholly compatible with the pure +love of goodness. Plato did not think it needful to deny the claims of +utilitarianism, however much he gave the precedence to the ideal +principle.[294] + +But when the idea of goodness is subordinated to the pursuit of +happiness, the evil effects are soon manifest. It is not merely that +'Epicureanism popularised inevitably turns to vice.'[295] Whenever in +any form self-interest usurps that first place which the Gospel assigns +to 'the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,' the calculating element +draws action down to its own lower level. 'If you mean,' says Romola, +'to act nobly and seek the best things God has put within reach of men, +you must learn to fix your mind on that end and not on what will happen +to you because of it.'[296] It has been observed, too, with a truth none +the less striking for being almost a commonplace, that there is +something very self-destructive in the quest for happiness.[297] +Happiness and true pleasure ultimately reward the right, but if they are +made the chief object, they lose in quality and elude the grasp. 'So far +as you try to be good, in order to be personally happy, you miss +happiness--a great and beautiful law of our being.'[298] + +Utilitarianism or eudaemonism has no sort of intrinsic connection with a +latitudinarian theology, especially when the word 'latitudinarian' is +used, as in this chapter, in a general and inoffensive sense. In this +century, and to some extent in the last, many of its warmest opponents +have been Broad Churchmen. But prudential religion, throughout the +period which set in with the Revolution of 1688, is closely associated +with the name of Tillotson. It is certainly very prominent in his +writings. His keen perception of the exceeding beauty of goodness might +have been supposed sufficient to guard him from dwelling too much upon +inferior motives. Tillotson, however, was very susceptible to the +predominant influences of his time. If he was a leader of thought, he +was also much led by the thought of others. There were three or four +considerations which had great weight with him, as they had with almost +every other theologian and moralist of his own and the following age. +One, which has been already sufficiently discussed, was that feeling of +the need of proving the reasonableness of every argument, which was the +first result of the wider field, the increased leisure, the greater +freedom of which the reasoning powers had become conscious. It is +evident that no system of morality and practical religion gives so much +scope to the exercise of this faculty as that which pre-eminently +insists upon the prudence of right action and upon the wisdom of +believing. Then again, the profligate habits and general laxity which +undoubtedly prevailed to a more than ordinary extent among all classes +of society, seem to have created even among reformers of the highest +order a sort of dismayed feeling, that it was useless to set up too high +a law, and that self-interest and fear were the two main arguments which +could be plied with the best hopes of success. Thirdly, a very mistaken +notion appears to have grown up that infidelity and 'free-thinking' +might be checked by prudent reflections on the safeness of orthodoxy and +the dangers of unbelief. Thought is not deterred by arguments of +safety;[299] and a sceptic is likely to push on into pronounced +disbelief, if he commonly hears religion recommended as a matter of +policy. + +In all these respects Tillotson did but take the line which was +characteristic of his age--of the age, that is, which was beginning, not +of that which was passing away. Something, too, must be attributed to +personal temperament. He carried into the province of religion that same +benign but dispassionate calmness of feeling, that subdued sobriety of +judgment, wanting in impulse and in warmth, which, in public and in +private life, made him more respected as an opponent than beloved as a +friend. To weigh evidence, to balance probabilities, and to act with +tranquil confidence in what reason judged to be the wiser course, seemed +to him as natural and fit in spiritual as in temporal matters. This was +all sound in its degree, but there was a deficiency in it, and in the +general mode of religious thought represented by it, which cannot fail +to be strongly felt. There is something very chilling in such an appeal +as the following: 'Secondly, it is infinitely most prudent. In matters +of great concernment a prudent man will incline to the safest side of +the question. We have considered which side of these questions is most +reasonable: let us now think which is safest. For it is certainly most +prudent to incline to the safest side of the question. Supposing the +reasons for and against the principles of religion were equal, yet the +danger and hazard is so unequal, as would sway a prudent man to the +affirmative.'[300] It must not be inferred that nobler and more generous +reasonings in relation to life and goodness do not continually occur. +But the passage given illustrates a form of argument which is far too +common, both in Tillotson's writings and throughout the graver +literature of the eighteenth century. Without doubt it did much harm. So +long as moralists dwelt so fondly upon self-interest and expedience, +and divines descanted upon, the advantages of the safe side; so long as +the ideal of goodness was half supplanted by that of happiness; so long +as sin was contemplated mainly in its results of punishment, and +redemption was regarded rather as deliverance from the penalties of sin +than from the sin itself, Christianity and Christian ethics were +inevitably degraded. + +Many of the subjects touched upon in this chapter have little or no +connection with Latitudinarianism, so far as it is synonymous with what +are now more commonly called Broad Church principles. But in the +eighteenth century 'reasonableness' in religious matters, although a +characteristic watchword of the period in general, was especially the +favourite term, the most congenial topic, upon which Latitudinarian +Churchmen loved to dwell. The consistency of the Christian faith with +man's best reason was indeed a great theme, well worthy to engage the +thoughts of the most talented and pious men of the age. And no doubt +Tillotson and many of his contemporaries and successors amply earned the +gratitude, not only of the English Church, but of all Christian people +in England. Their good service in the controversy with Deism was the +first and direct, but still a temporary result of their labours. They +did more than this. They broadened and deepened the foundations of the +English Church and of English Christianity not only for their own day, +but for all future time. They laboured not ineffectually in securing to +reason that established position without which no religious system can +maintain a lasting hold upon the intellect as well as upon the heart. On +the other hand, their deficiencies were great, and appear the greater, +because they were faults not so much of the person as of the age, and +were displayed therefore in a wide field, and often in an exaggerated +form. They loved reason not too well, but too exclusively; they +acknowledged its limits, but did not sufficiently insist upon them. They +accepted the Christian faith without hesitation or reserve; they +believed its doctrines, they reverenced its mysteries, fully convinced +that its truth, if not capable of demonstration, is firmly founded upon +evidence with which every unprejudiced inquirer has ample reason to be +satisfied. But where reason could not boldly tread, they were content to +believe and to be silent. Hence, as they put very little trust in +religious feelings, and utterly disbelieved in any power of spiritual +discernment higher than, or different from reason, the greater part of +their religious teaching was practically confined to those parts of the +Christian creed which are palpable to every understanding. In their wish +to avoid unprofitable disputations, they dwelt but cursorily upon +debated subjects of the last importance; and in their dread of a +correct theology doing duty for a correct life, they were apt grievously +to underestimate the influences of theology upon life. Their moral +teaching was deeply religious, pervaded by a sense of the overruling +Providence of a God infinite in love and holiness, and was enforced +perseveringly and with great earnestness by motives derived from the +rewards and punishments of a future state. If a reader of Tillotson +feels a sense of wonder that the writings of so good a man--of such deep +and unaffected piety, so sympathetic and kindly, so thoroughly +Christian-hearted--should yet be benumbed by the presence of a cold +prudential morality which might seem incompatible with the +self-forgetful impulses of warm religious feeling, he may see, in what +he wonders at, the ill effects of a faith too jealously debarred by +reason from contemplations in which the human mind quickly finds out its +limits. When religion, in fear lest it should become unpractical, +relaxes its hold upon what may properly be called the mysteries of +faith, it not only loses in elevation and grandeur, but it defeats the +very end it aimed at. It takes a lower ethical tone, and loses in moral +power. To form even what may be in some respects an erroneous conception +of an imperfectly comprehended doctrine, and so to make it bear upon the +life, is far better than timidly, for fear of difficulties or error, to +lay the thought of it aside, and so leave it altogether unfruitful. +Tillotson and many of his successors in the last century had a great +tendency to do this, and no excellences of personal character could +redeem the injurious influence it had upon their writings. His services +in the cause of religious truth were very great: they would have been +far greater, and his influence a far more unmixed good, if as a +representative leader of religious thought, he had been more superior to +what was to be its most characteristic defect. + +The Latitudinarian section of the Church of England won its chief fame, +during the years that immediately followed the Revolution of 1688, by +its activity in behalf of ecclesiastical comprehension and religious +liberty. These exertions, so far as they extend to the history of the +eighteenth century, and were continued through that period, will be +considered in the following chapter. + +C.J.A. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 195: H.S. Skeats, _History of the Free Churches_, 315.] + +[Footnote 196: H. Hallam, _Literature of Europe_, iv, 177.] + +[Footnote 197: _Life of Tillotson_, T. Birch, ccxxxv.] + +[Footnote 198: Letter to G. Hanger, in Nichols' _Lit. An._, iv. 215.] + +[Footnote 199: Birch, ccxxxv.] + +[Footnote 200: _Letters_, ed. Berry, ii. 181.] + +[Footnote 201: Birch, cccxxxviii.] + +[Footnote 202: J. Wesley, _Works_, x. 299.] + +[Footnote 203: Nichols, iv. 215.] + +[Footnote 204: Sir R. Howard, _History of Religion_, 1694, preface.] + +[Footnote 205: Fleetwood's _Works_, 516.] + +[Footnote 206: No. 106.] + +[Footnote 207: No. 155.] + +[Footnote 208: No. 101. In the _Whig Examiner_ (No. 2) it is observed, +as an instance of the singular variety of tastes, that 'Bunyan and +Quarles have passed through several editions, and please as many readers +as Dryden and Tillotson.'] + +[Footnote 209: _Reflections on the Clergy_, &c., 1798, iv.; J. +Napleton's _Advice to a Student_. 1795, 26.] + +[Footnote 210: Swift's _Works_, viii. 190.] + +[Footnote 211: C. Leslie's _Works_, ii. 543.] + +[Footnote 212: Id. ii. 596.] + +[Footnote 213: No. 10.] + +[Footnote 214: Lavington's _Enthusiasm of Meth. and Pap._, &c., 11, and +Polwhele's Introduction to id. ccxxxii.] + +[Footnote 215: _Qu. Rev._, 31, 121.] + +[Footnote 216: Sacheverell, Nov. 5, Sermon 'On False Brethren.'] + +[Footnote 217: Birch, ccxxxiii.] + +[Footnote 218: Serm. v., _Works_, i. 465.] + +[Footnote 219: Id. i. 448.] + +[Footnote 220: S. lvi., _Works_, iv. 35.] + +[Footnote 221: S. ccxxii., _Works_, ix. 219.] + +[Footnote 222: H. More, Gen. Pref. Sec. 3.] + +[Footnote 223: Id. Sec. 6.] + +[Footnote 224: Id. Sec. 3.] + +[Footnote 225: S. xx., _Works_, ii. 277.] + +[Footnote 226: _Works_, x. 199.] + +[Footnote 227: Qu. in J. Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, iii. +45.] + +[Footnote 228: Id.] + +[Footnote 229: S. xliv., _Works_, iii. 310.] + +[Footnote 230: S. lviii., _Works_, v. 84.] + +[Footnote 231: S. xxi., _Works_, ii. 207.] + +[Footnote 232: Id. 273.] + +[Footnote 233: Id. 277.] + +[Footnote 234: S. xxi., _Works_, ii. 265-7.] + +[Footnote 235: J.A. Dorner, _History of Protestant Theology_, ii. 77.] + +[Footnote 236: Sir R. Howard's _History of Religion_, 1694.] + +[Footnote 237: Cf. M. Pattison in _Essays and Reviews_, 293-4.] + +[Footnote 238: W. Law, 'Spirit of Love,' _Works_, viii. 141.] + +[Footnote 239: S. xlvi., _Works_, iii. 359.] + +[Footnote 240: Id.] + +[Footnote 241: C. Leslie, _Works_, ii. 669.] + +[Footnote 242: Burnet's _Four Discourses_, 122.] + +[Footnote 243: Id. 127.] + +[Footnote 244: Id.] + +[Footnote 245: Id. 134.] + +[Footnote 246: S. xlvi., _Works_, iii. 359, and 383, 389.] + +[Footnote 247: S. ccxxvii., _Works_, ix. 337.] + +[Footnote 248: S. xlvii., _Works_, iii. 403.] + +[Footnote 249: C. Leslie, _Works_, ii. 281.] + +[Footnote 250: S. xlvi., _Works_, iii. 362.] + +[Footnote 251: Id. 363.] + +[Footnote 252: Id. 364.] + +[Footnote 253: S. xlvi., _Works_ iii. 365] + +[Footnote 254: S. xlvii. _Works_, iii. 398.] + +[Footnote 255: Leslie, ii. 562.] + +[Footnote 256: Leslie, ii. 596.] + +[Footnote 257: Quotations from the _Shepherd_ of Hermas, in a review of +vol. i. of the _Ante-Nicene Library_ in the _Spectator_, July 27, 1867, +p. 836.] + +[Footnote 258: Just. Mart. _Dial. cum Tryph._ i. b. i. Sec. v. 20 (ed. W. +Trollope, 1846); also Iren. _Haer._ ii. 34, 3, quoted in note to above.] + +[Footnote 259: _Sibyll._ ver. 331. _De Psalm._ 36, v. 15; _Serm._ xx. Sec. +12; Lactant. _Div. Inst._ vii. 21, all quoted in H.B. Wilson's speech, +1863, 102-10.] + +[Footnote 260: Jerome, _Com. in Is._ tom. 3, ed. Ben. 514, quoted by Le +Clerc, _Bib. Choisie_, vii. 326.] + +[Footnote 261: Clem. Alex. _Strom._ vii. Sec. 6, p. 851, quoted in Blunt, +J.J., _Early Fathers_, p. 80.] + +[Footnote 262: Origen, _Hom._ 6, in _Ex. N._ 4, quoted by Wilson, and +_De Princip._ iii. c. v-vi. quoted by Blunt, _Early Fathers_, 99, and Le +Clerc, _Bibliotheque Choisie_, vii. 327.] + +[Footnote 263: Wilson, 119 and 99.] + +[Footnote 264: J.T. Rutt, note to Calamy's _Own Life_, i. 140.] + +[Footnote 265: Biog. D., _Vane_.] + +[Footnote 266: H. More, _Works_, ed. 1712. _On the Immortality of the +Soul_, b. iv. ch. xix. Sec. 9.] + +[Footnote 267: Worthington's unhesitating acceptance of the tenet in +question (_Essay on Man's Redemption_, 1748, 308) is particularly +noticeable, because he was an ardent believer in the gradual restoration +of mankind in general to a state of perfection.] + +[Footnote 268: _Life of Young_. Anderson's _British Poets_, x. 10.] + +[Footnote 269: Fielding's _Joseph Andrews_, b. ii. ch. 3.] + +[Footnote 270: Birch, T., _Life of Tillotson_, cliv.] + +[Footnote 271: Locke, J., _Reasonableness of Christianity_, Preface.] + +[Footnote 272: S. xxxv., _Works_, iii. 85.] + +[Footnote 273: Id. 84.] + +[Footnote 274: Id. and i. 511; S. cxl.] + +[Footnote 275: Birch, clvi.] + +[Footnote 276: _Bibliotheque Choisie_, tom. vii. art. 7.] + +[Footnote 277: S. ccxii., _Works_, ix. 84.] + +[Footnote 278: C. Leslie, _Works_, ii. 596-7.] + +[Footnote 279: Young's _Poems_, Sat. vi.] + +[Footnote 280: They complained that Jesus Christ had not been preached +among them since Mr. Tillotson had been settled in the parish.--(Birch, +xviii.) This was in 1663. The contrast between Tillotson's style and +that of the Commonwealth preachers would in any case have been very +marked, the more so as Puritanism gained a strong footing in the eastern +counties.] + +[Footnote 281: S. xlii., _Works_, iii. 275.] + +[Footnote 282: S. vii., _Works_, i. 495.] + +[Footnote 283: S. xxxiv., _Works_, iii. 65.] + +[Footnote 284: S. vii., _Works_, i. 499.] + +[Footnote 285: Pope's _Essay on Man_, Ep. 4.] + +[Footnote 286: In _Guardian_, No. 55.] + +[Footnote 287: 'Ground, &c., of Morality,' Chubb's _Works_, iii. 6.] + +[Footnote 288: Dorner, iii. 81.] + +[Footnote 289: M. Pattison in _Essays and Reviews_, 275.] + +[Footnote 290: Quoted in F.D. Maurice's Preface to _Law's Answer to +Mandeville_, lxx.] + +[Footnote 291: Channing and Aikin's _Correspondence_, 46.] + +[Footnote 292: Mackintosh's _Progress of Ethical Philosophy_, sect. i.] + +[Footnote 293: S.T. Coleridge, _Aids to Reflection_, i. 37.] + +[Footnote 294: Mackay, R.W., Introduction to _The Sophists_, 36.] + +[Footnote 295: _Ecce Homo_, 114.] + +[Footnote 296: G. Eliot, _Romola_, near the end.] + +[Footnote 297: _Ecce Homo_, 115; cf. Coleridge, _The Friend_ Ess. xvi. +i. 162.] + +[Footnote 298: F.W. Robertson, _Life and Letters_, i. 352.] + +[Footnote 299: Cf. F.D. Maurice's Introduction to _Law on Mandeville_, +xxiii.] + +[Footnote 300: S. ccxxiii., _Works_, ix. 275.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LATITUDINARIAN CHURCHMANSHIP. + +(2) CHURCH COMPREHENSION AND CHURCH REFORMERS. + + +The Latitudinarianism which occupies so conspicuous and important a +place in English ecclesiastical history during the half century which +followed upon the Revolution of 1688 has been discussed in some of its +aspects in the preceding chapter. It denoted not so much a particular +Church policy as a tone or mode of thought, which affected the whole +attitude of the mind in relation to all that wide compass of subjects in +which religious considerations are influenced by difference of view as +to the province and authority of the individual reason. + +But that which gave Latitudinarianism its chief notoriety, as well as +its name, was a direct practical question. The term took its origin in +the efforts made in William and Mary's reign to give such increased +latitude to the formularies of the English Church as might bring into +its communion a large proportion of the Nonconformists. From the first +there was a disposition to define a Latitudinarian, much as Dr. Johnson +did afterwards, in the sense of 'one who departs from orthodoxy.' But +this was not the leading idea, and sometimes not even a part of the +idea, of those who spoke with praise or blame of the eminent +'Latitudinarian' bishops of King William's time. Not many were competent +to form a tolerably intelligent opinion as to the orthodoxy of this or +that learned prelate, but all could know whether he spoke or voted in +favour of the Comprehension Bill. Although therefore in the earlier +stages of that projected measure some of the strictest and most +representative High Churchmen were in favour of it, it was from first to +last the cherished scheme of the Latitudinarian Churchmen, and in +popular estimation was the visible badge, the tangible embodiment of +their opinions. + +The inclusiveness of the Reformed Church of England has never been +altogether one-sided. It has always contained within its limits many who +were bent on separating themselves by as wide an interval as possible +from the Church of Rome, and many on the other hand who were no less +anxious that the breach of unity should not be greater than was in any +way consistent with spiritual independence and necessary reforms. The +Reformation undoubtedly derived the greater part of its force and energy +from the former of these two parties; to the temperate counsels of the +latter it was indebted for being a movement of reform rather than of +revolution. Without the one, religious thought would scarcely have +released itself from the strong bonds of a traditional authority. +Without the other, it would have been in danger of losing hold on +Catholic belief, and of breaking its continuity with the past. Without +either one or the other, the English Church would not only have lost the +services of many excellent men, but would have been narrowed in range, +lowered in tone, lessened in numbers, character, and influence. To use +the terms of modern politics, it could neither have spared its +Conservatives, though some of them may have been unprogressive or +obstructionist, nor its Liberals, although the more advanced among them +were apt to be rash and revolutionary. + +At the opening of the eighteenth century, all notions of a wider +comprehension in favour of persons who dissented in the direction of +Rome, rather than of Geneva or Glasgow, were utterly out of question. +One of the most strongly-marked features in the Churchmanship of the +time, was the uncompromising hostility which everywhere displayed itself +against Rome. This animosity was relieved by a mitigating influence in +one direction only. Churchmen in this country could not fail to feel +interest in the struggle for national independence in religious matters +which was being carried on among their neighbours and ancestral enemies +across the Channel. The Gallican Church was in the height of its fame, +adorned by names which added lustre to it wherever the Christian faith +was known. No Protestant, however uncompromising, could altogether +withhold his admiration from a Fenelon,[301] a Pascal,[302] or a +Bossuet. And all these three great men seemed more or less separated, +though in different ways, from the regular Romish system. The spiritual +and semi-mystical piety of Fenelon detached him from the trenchant +dogmatism which, since the Council of Trent, had been stamped so much +more decisively than heretofore upon Roman tenets. Pascal, +notwithstanding his mediaevalism, and the humble submissiveness which he +acknowledged to be due to the Papal see, not only fascinated cultivated +readers by the brilliancy of his style, not only won their hearts by the +simple truthfulness and integrity of his character, but delighted +Englishmen generally by the vigour of the attack with which, as leader +of the Jansenists, he led the assault upon the Jesuits. Bossuet's noble +defence of the Gallican liberties appealed still more directly to the +sympathies of this nation. It reminded men of the conflict that had +been fought and won on English soil, and encouraged too sanguine hopes +that it might issue in a reformation within the sister country, not +perhaps so complete as that which had taken place among ourselves, but +not less full of promise. In the midst of the war that was raging +between the rival forms of belief, English theologians of all opinions +were pleased with his graceful recognition, in the name of the French +clergy, of the services rendered to religion by Bishop Bull's learned +'Judgment of the Catholic Church.'[303] + +Some time after the death of Bossuet, the renewed resistance which was +being made in France against Papal usurpations gave rise to action on +the part of the primate of our Church, which in the sixteenth century +might have been cordially followed up in England, but in the eighteenth +was very generally misunderstood and misrepresented. Archbishop Wake had +taken a very distinguished part in the Roman controversy, directing his +special attention to the polemical works of Bossuet, but had always +handled these topics in a broader and more generous tone than many of +his contemporaries. In 1717, at a time when many of the French bishops +and clergy, headed by the Sorbonne, and by the Cardinal de Noailles, +were indignantly protesting against the bondage imposed upon them by the +Bull Unigenitus, and were proposing to appeal from the Pope to a general +council, a communication was received by Archbishop Wake,[304] that Du +Pin, head of the theological faculty of the Sorbonne, had expressed +himself in favour of a possible union with the English Church.[305] The +idea was warmly favoured by De Gerardin, another eminent doctor of that +university. A correspondence of some length ensued, carried on with much +friendly and earnest feeling on either side. Separation from Rome was +what the English archbishop chiefly pressed;[306] 'a reformation in +other matters would follow of course.' Writing as he did without any +official authority, he was wise enough not to commit himself to any +details. First of all they ought 'to agree,' he said, 'to own each other +as true brethren and members of the Catholic Christian Church;' and then +the great point would be to acknowledge 'the independence (as to all +matters of authority) of every national Church on all others,' agree +with one another, as far as possible, on all matters of moment, and +leave free liberty of disagreement on other questions. He did not see +anything in our offices so essentially contrary to their principles, +that they need scruple to join in them; and if some alterations were +made, we also might join in theirs, on a clear understanding that on all +such points of disagreement as the doctrine of transubstantiation, +either body of Christians should hold the opinions which it approved. +Upon such terms,[307] two great national Churches might be on close +terms of friendly intercommunion notwithstanding great differences on +matters not of the first importance, which might well afford to wait +'till God should bring us to a union in those also.' Du Pin and De +Gerardin replied in much the same spirit. The former of the two soon +after died; and the incipient negotiation, which was never very likely +to be followed by any practical results, fell through. In fact, the +resuscitated spirit of independence which had begun to stir in France +was itself shortlived. + +The correspondence between the English primate and the doctors of the +Sorbonne is an episode which stands by itself, quite apart from any +other incidents in the Church history of the time. It bears a +superficial resemblance to the overtures made by some of the English and +Scotch Nonjurors to the Eastern Church. There was, however, an essential +difference between them. Without any dishonour to Nonjuring principles, +and without passing any judgment upon the grounds of their separation, +it must be acknowledged that those of them who renounced the communion +of the English Church accepted a sectarian position. They had gained a +comparative uniformity of opinion, at the entire expense of that breadth +and expansiveness which only national Churches are found capable of. +Connection with the Eastern Church, if it could have been carried out +(though the difficulties in the way of this were far greater than they +were at all aware of), would simply have indicated a movement of their +whole body in one direction only, and, in proportion as it was +successful, would have alienated them more than ever from those whose +religious and ecclesiastical sympathies were of a very different kind. +Such communion, on the other hand, of independent national Churches as +was contemplated by Du Pin and Wake might have been quite free from +one-sidedness of this description. It need not have interfered with or +discouraged, it should rather have tended to promote, the near +intercourse, which many English Churchmen were greatly desirous of, with +the National Church of Scotland and with the reformed Churches of the +Continent. A relation of this kind with her sister Churches on either +hand would have been in perfect harmony both with the original +standpoint of the Church of England, and with an important office it may +perhaps be called to in the future. It was in reference to the +sympathetic reception given in this country to many of the proscribed +bishops and clergy of France at the time of the great revolution, that +the Count de Maistre made a remark which has often struck readers as +well worthy of notice. 'If ever,'--he said, 'and everything invites to +it--there should be a movement towards reunion among the Christian +bodies, it seems likely that the Church of England should be the one to +give it impulse. Presbyterianism, as its French nature rendered +probable, went to extremes. Between us and those who practise a worship +which we think wanting in form and substance, there is too wide an +interval; we cannot understand one another. But the English Church, +which touches us with the one hand, touches with the other those with +whom we have no point of contact.'[308] + +Archbishop Wake, had he lived in more favourable times, would have been +well fitted, both by position and character, for this work of mutual +conciliation. His disposition toward the foreign Protestant Churches was +of the most friendly kind. In a letter to Le Clerc on the subject,[309] +he deprecated dissension on matters of no essential moment. He desired +to be on terms of cordial friendship with the Reformed Churches, +notwithstanding their points of difference from that of England. He +could wish they had a moderate Episcopal government, according to the +primitive model; nor did he yet despair of it, if not in his own time, +perhaps in days to come. He would welcome a closer union among all the +Reformed bodies, at almost any price. The advantages he anticipated from +such a result would be immense. Any approximations in Church government +or Church offices which might conduce to it he should indeed rejoice in. +Much to the same effect he wrote[310] to his 'very dear brothers,' the +pastors and professors of Geneva. The letter related, in the first +instance, to the efforts he had been making in behalf of the Piedmontese +and Hungarian Churches. But he took occasion to express the longing +desire he felt for union among the Reformed Churches--a work, he +allowed, of difficulty, but which undoubtedly could be achieved, if all +were bent on concord. He hoped he might not be thought trenching upon a +province in which he had no concern, if he implored most earnestly both +Lutherans and Reformed to be very tolerant and forbearing in the mutual +controversies they were engaged in upon abstruse questions of grace and +predestination; above all, to be moderate in imposing terms of +subscription, and to imitate in this respect the greater liberty of +judgment and latitude of interpretation which the Church of England had +wisely conceded to all who sign her articles. Archbishop Wake addressed +other letters on these subjects to Professor Schurer of Berne, and to +Professor Turretin of Geneva. He also carried on a correspondence with +the Protestants of Nismes, Lithuania, and other countries. 'It may be +affirmed,' remarks one of the editors of Mosheim's History, 'that no +prelate since the Reformation had so extensive a correspondence with the +Protestants abroad, and none could have a more friendly one.'[311] His +behaviour towards Nonconformists at home was in his later years less +conciliatory, and the inconsistency is a blemish in his character. The +case would probably have been different if any schemes for union or +comprehension had still been under consideration. In the absence of some +such incentive, his mind, liberal as it was by nature and general habit, +was overborne by the persistent clamour that the Dissenters were bent +upon overthrowing the National Church, and that concession had become +for the time impossible. + +After the suppression of the Gallican liberties, the hostility between +the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches was for a long time wholly +unbroken. The theological controversy had abated. Pamphlet no longer +followed upon pamphlet, and folio upon folio, as when, a few years +before, every writer in divinity had felt bound to contribute his quota +of argument to the voluminous stock, and when Tillotson hardly preached +a sermon without some homethrust at Popery. But the general fear and +hatred of it long continued unmitigated. So long, particularly, as there +was any apprehension of Jacobite disturbances, it always seemed possible +that Romanism might yet return with a power of which none could guess +the force. Additions were still made to the long list of penalties and +disabilities attached to Popish recusancy; and when, in 1778, a +proposition was brought forward to abate them, it is well known what a +storm of riot arose in Scotland and burst through England. + +It might be thought that in the dull ebb-tide of spiritual energies +which set in soon after the beginning of the eighteenth century, and +prevailed wherever the Methodist movement did not reach, Rome, with her +strong organisation and her experienced Propaganda, had as great a field +before her as Wesley had,--that she would have made rapid advance in +spite of all disabilities,--and that, in consequence, the Protestant +fears, which had been subsiding into indifference, would have arisen +again in full force. But Rome shared in the strange religious apathy +which was dominant not in England only, but the Continent. Her writers +generally acknowledge the greater part of the eighteenth century to have +been a period of comparative inactivity,[312] broken at last only by the +violent stimulus of the Revolution. Many thought that Romanism continued +to gain ground in England, and some cried out that still stricter laws +were needed to suppress the Papists. It is doubtful, however, whether +advances in some quarters were not more than balanced by losses +elsewhere. As the century advanced, Rome gradually ceased to be dreaded +as a subtle pervading power, full of mysterious activity, whose force +might be felt most severely at the very moment when least preparation +had been made to meet it. Later still, fear was sometimes replaced by a +confidence no less excessive. 'It is impossible,' said Mr. Windham in +the House of Commons, 1791, 'to deem them (the Roman Catholics) +formidable at the present period, when the power of the Pope is +considered as a mere spectre, capable of frightening only in the dark, +and vanishing before the light of reason and knowledge.'[313] + +Until the last decade of the century, Roman Catholics were rarely spoken +of in any other spirit than as the dreaded enemies of Protestantism. +There was very little recognition of their being far more nearly united +to us by the tie of a common Christianity, than separated by the +differences in it. A man who was not a professed sceptic needed to be +both more unprejudiced and more courageous than his neighbours, to speak +of Roman Catholics with tolerable charity. In this, as in many other +points, Bishop Berkeley was superior to his age. He ventured to propose +that Roman Catholics should be admitted to the Dublin College without +being obliged to attend chapel or divinity lectures.[314] He could speak +of such an institution as Monasticism in a discriminative tone which was +then exceedingly uncommon. In Ireland he wisely accepted the fact that +the Roman Catholic priests had the heart of the people, and shaped his +conduct accordingly. His 'Word to the Wise' was an appeal addressed in +1749 to the priests, exhorting them to use their influence to promote +industry and self-reliance among their congregations. This sort of +Episcopal charge to the clergy of another Communion was received, it is +said, with a no less cordial feeling than that in which it was +written.[315] + +Dr. Johnson, a man of a very different order of mind, may be mentioned +as another who joined a devoted attachment to the Church of England with +a candid and kindly spirit towards Roman Catholics. Perhaps his respect +for authority, and the tinge of superstition in his temperament, +predisposed him to sympathy. In any case, his masculine intellect +brushed away with scorn the prejudices, exaggerations, and +misconstructions which beset popular ideas upon the subject. He took +pleasure in dilating upon the substantial unity that subsisted between +them and denominations which, in externals, were separated from them by +a very wide interval. 'There is a prodigious difference,' he would say, +'between the external form of one of your Presbyterian Churches in +Scotland, and a Church in Italy; yet the doctrine taught is essentially +the same.'[316] + +Many of the speeches made in favour of relief, at the time of the Irish +and English Emancipation Acts, were couched in terms which betoken a +marked departure from the bitterness of tone which had long been +customary. When the French Revolution broke out, the reaction became, +for an interval, in many quarters far stronger still. In the presence of +anti-Christian principles exultingly avowed, and triumphantly defiant, +it seemed to many Christians that minor differences, which had seemed +great before, dwindled almost into insignificance before the light of +their common faith. Moreover, there was a widespread feeling of deep +sympathy with the wrongs and sufferings of the proscribed clergy. +'Scruples about external forms,' said Bishop Horsley before the House of +Lords, 'and differences of opinion upon controvertible points, cannot +but take place among the best Christians, and dissolve not the fraternal +tie; none, indeed, at this season are more entitled to our offices of +love than those with whom the difference is wide in points of doctrine, +discipline, and external rites,--those venerable exiles, the prelates +and clergy of the fallen Church of France, endeared to us by the +edifying example they exhibit of patient suffering for conscience +sake.'[317] Horsley's words were far from meeting with universal +approval. There were some fanatics, Hannah More tells us, who said it +was a sin to oppose God's vengeance against Popery, and succour the +priests who it was His will should starve. And real sympathy, even while +the occasion of it lasted, was very often, as may well be imagined, +mixed with feelings of apprehension. These refugees might be only too +grateful. Thinking that salvation was obtainable only in their own +Church, was it not likely they would use their utmost art to extend this +first of blessings to those who had so hospitably protected them? Thus +interest was blended with anxiety in the nation which gave welcome to +the emigrants. But interest there certainly was, and considerable +abatement in the bitterness of earlier feeling. + +The relations of the Church of England with other Reformed bodies abroad +and at home had been, since James II.'s time, a question of high +importance. Burnet justly remarks of the year 1685, that it was one of +the most critical periods in the whole history of Protestantism. 'In +February, a king of England declared himself a Papist. In June, Charles +the Elector Palatine dying without issue, the Electoral dignity went to +the house of Newburgh, a most bigoted Popish family. In October, the +King of France recalled and vacated the Edict of Nantes. And in +December, the Duke of Savoy, being brought to it not only by the +persuasion, but even by the threatenings of the court of France, +recalled the edict that his father had granted to the Vaudois.'[318] It +cannot be said that the crisis was an unexpected one. The excited +controversy which was being waged among theologians was but one sign of +the general uneasiness that had been prevailing. 'The world,' writes one +anonymous author in 1682, 'is filled with discourses about the +Protestant religion and the professors of it; and not without +cause.'[319] 'Who,' says another, 'can hold his peace when the Church, +our mother, hath the Popish knife just at her throat!'[320] But the +reverses of the Reformed faith abroad greatly increased the ferment, and +began to kindle Protestant feeling into a state of enthusiastic fervour. +When at last, in the next reign, war was proclaimed with Louis XIV., it +was everywhere recognised as a great religious struggle, in which +England had assumed her place as the champion of the Protestant +interest. + +From the very beginning of the Reformation it had been a vexed question +how far the cause of the Reformed Church of England could be identified +with that of other communions which had cast off the yoke of Rome. In +dealing with this problem, a broad distinction had generally been made +between Nonconformists at home and Protestant communities abroad. The +relation of the English Church to Nonconformity may accordingly be +considered separately. So long as it was a question of communion, more +or less intimate, with foreign Churches, the intercourse was at all +events not embarrassed with any difficulties about schism. The preface +to the Book of Common Prayer had expressly declared that 'In these our +doings we condemn no other nations, nor prescribe anything but to our +own people only. For we think it convenient that every country should +use such ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of +God's honour and glory.' It was therefore acknowledged with very +tolerable unanimity that friendly relationship with Protestant Churches +on the Continent was by no means inconsistent with very considerable +differences of custom and opinion. Men of all parties in the Church of +England were ever inclined to allow great weight to the voice of +constituted authority in matters which did not seem to them to touch the +very life and substance of religion. Without taking this into +consideration, it is impossible to form a right view of the comparative +tenderness with which Churchmen passed over what they considered to be +defects in reformed systems abroad which they condemned with much +severity among Nonconformists at home. + +The relations, however, of England with foreign Protestant bodies, +though not exactly unfriendly, have been characterised by a good deal of +reserve. The kinship has been acknowledged, and the right of difference +allowed; but belief in the great superiority of English uses, +Nonconformist difficulties, and a certain amount of jealousy and +intolerance, had always checked the advances which were sometimes made +to a more cordial intimacy. In Henry VIII.'s time, in 1533, and again in +1535, overtures were made for a Foedus Evangelicum, a league of the +great reforming nations.[321] The differences between the German and the +English Protestants were at that time very great, not only in details of +discipline and government, but in the general spirit in which the +Reformation in the two countries was being conducted. But an alliance of +the kind contemplated would perhaps have been carried out had it not +been for the bigotry which insisted upon signature of the Augsburg +Confession. Queen Elizabeth was at one time inclined to join on behalf +of England the Smalcaldic League of German Protestants, but the same +obstacle intervened.[322] Cromwell is said to have cherished a great +project of establishing a permanent Protestant Council, in which all the +principal Reformed communities in Europe, and in the East and West +Indies, would be represented under the name of provinces, and designs +for the promotion of religion advanced and furthered in all parts of the +world.[323] Such projects never had any important results. Statesmen, as +well as theologians, often felt the need of strengthening the whole +Protestant body by an organised harmony among its several members, +something akin to that which gives the Roman Catholic Church so imposing +an aspect of general unity. The idea was perhaps essentially +impracticable, as requiring for its accomplishment a closer uniformity +of thought and feeling than was either possible or desirable among +Churches whose greatest conquest had been a liberty of thinking. As +between England and Germany, one great impediment to a cordial +understanding arose out of the differences between Lutheran and +Reformed. So long as the English Church was under the guidance of +Cranmer and Ridley, it was not clear to which of these two parties it +most nearly approximated. In the reign of Edward VI. the Calvinistic +element gained ground--a tendency as much resented by the one party +abroad as it was welcomed by the other. The English clergymen who found +a refuge in the Swiss and German cities were treated with marked neglect +by the Lutherans, but received with great hospitality by the +Calvinists.[324] At a later period, when Presbyterianism had for the +time gained strong ground in England, the attitude had become somewhat +reversed. The Reformed or Calvinistic section of German Protestants +sided chiefly with the Presbyterians; the Lutherans with the English +Churchmen.[325] In a word, notwithstanding all professions of more +liberal sentiment, the hankering after an impossible uniformity was, on +either side of the Channel, too strong to permit of cordial union or +substantial unity. It was often admitted in theory, but not often in +practice, that the principles of the Reformation must be left to operate +with differences and modifications according to the varying +circumstances of the countries in which they were adopted. Bucer and +Peter Martyr, Calvin and Bullinger, made it almost a personal grievance +that the English retained much which they themselves had cast +aside.[326] Laud exhibited the same spirit in a more oppressive form +when he insisted that, in spite of the guarantees given by Elizabeth and +James I., no foreign Protestants should remain in England who would not +conform to the established liturgy.[327] + +No doubt the differences between the Reformed Churches of England and +the Continent were very considerable. Yet, with the one discreditable +exception just referred to, there had been much comity and friendliness +in all personal relations between their respective members; and the +absence of sympathy on many points of doctrine and discipline was not +so great as to preclude the possibility of closer union and common +action in any crisis of danger. Before the end of the seventeenth +century such a crisis seemed, in the opinion of many, to have arrived. +The Protestant interest throughout Europe was in real peril. In England +there was as much anxiety on the subject as was compatible with a period +which was certainly not characterised by much moral purpose or deep +feeling. The people as a mass were not just then very much in earnest +about anything, but still they cared very really about their +Protestantism. They were not assured of its security even within their +own coasts; they knew that it was in jeopardy on the Continent. National +prejudices against France added warmth to the indignation excited by the +oppressions to which the Protestant subjects of the great monarch had +been subjected. National pride readily combined with nobler impulses to +create an enthusiasm for the idea that England was the champion of the +whole Protestant cause. + +There is nothing which tends to promote so kindly a feeling towards its +objects as self-denying benevolence. This had been elicited in a very +remarkable degree towards the refugees who found a shelter here after +the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Londoners beheld with a sort of +humorous dismay the crowd of immigrants who came to settle among them. + + Hither for God's sake and their own they fled; + Some for religion came, and some for bread. + Four hundred thousand wooden pair of shoes, + Who, God be thanked, had nothing left to lose, + To heaven's great praise, did for religion fly, + To make us starve our poor in charity.[328] + +But these poverty-stricken exiles were received with warm-hearted +sympathy. No previous brief had ever brought in such large sums as those +which throughout the kingdom were subscribed for their relief; nor, if +the increase of wealth be taken into account, has there been any greater +display of munificence in our own times.[329] Churchmen of all views +came generously forward. If here and there a doubt was raised whether +these demonstrations of friendliness might not imply a greater approval +of their opinions than really existed, compassion for sufferers who were +not fellow-Christians only, but fellow-Protestants, quickly overpowered +all such hesitation. Bishop Ken behaved in 1686 with all his accustomed +generosity and boldness. In contravention of the King's orders, who had +desired that the brief should be simply read in churches without any +sermon on the subject, he ventured in the Royal Chapel to set forth in +affecting language the sufferings they had gone through, and to exhort +his hearers to hold, with a like unswerving constancy, to the Protestant +faith. He issued a pastoral entreating his clergy to do the utmost in +their power for 'Christian strangers, whose distress is in all respects +worthy of our tenderest commiseration.' For his own part, he set a noble +example of liberality in the gift of a great part of 4000_l._ which had +lately come into his possession.[330] We are told of Rainbow, Bishop of +Carlisle, that in a similar spirit he gave to French Protestants large +sums, and bore 'his share with other bishops in yearly pensions' to some +of them.[331] + +The burst of general sympathy evoked in favour of the French refugees +happened just at a time when Churchmen of all views were showing a more +or less hearty desire that the Church of England might be strengthened +by the adhesion of many who had hitherto dissented from it. Sancroft was +as yet at one with Tillotson in desiring to carry out a Comprehension +Bill, and was asking Dissenters to join with him 'in prayer for an +universal blessed union of all Reformed Churches at home and +abroad.'[332] Undoubtedly there was a short interval, just before the +Nonjuring secession, in which the minds not only of the so-called +Latitudinarians, but of many eminent High Churchmen, were strongly +disposed to make large concessions for the sake of unity, and from a +desire of seeing England definitely at the head of the Protestant cause +alike in England and on the Continent. They could not but agree with the +words of Samuel Johnson--as good and brave a man as the great successor +to his name--that 'there could not be a more blessed work than to +reconcile Protestants with Protestants.'[333] But the opportunity of +successfully carrying into practice these aspirations soon passed away, +and when it became evident that there could be no change in the +relations of the English Church towards Nonconformity, interest in +foreign Protestantism began to be much less universal than it had been. +The clergy especially were afraid--and there was justification for their +alarm--that some of the oldest and most characteristic features of their +Church were in danger of being swept away. They had no wish to see in +England a form of Protestantism nearly akin to that which existed in +Holland. But there was a strong party in favour of changes which might +have some such effect. The King, even under the new constitution, was +still a power in the Church, and it was well known that the forms of the +Church of England had no particular favour in his eyes. And therefore +the Lower House of Convocation, representing, no doubt, the views of a +majority of the clergy, while they professed, in 1689, that 'the +interest of all the Protestant Churches was dear to them,' were anxious +to make it very clear that they owned no close union with them.[334] +There was a perplexity in the mode of expression which thoroughly +reflected a genuine difficulty. As even the Highest Churchmen, at the +opening of the eighteenth century, were vehemently Protestant, afraid of +Rome, and exceedingly anxious to resist her with all their power, they +could not help sharing to some extent in the general wish to make common +cause with the Protestants abroad. On the other hand, there was much to +repel anything like close intercourse. The points of difference were +very marked. The English Church had retained Episcopacy. There was no +party in the Church which did not highly value it; a section of High +Churchmen reckoned it one of the essential notes of a true Church, and +unchurched all communions that rejected it. The foreign Reformers, on +the other hand, not, in some cases, without reluctance, and from force +of circumstances, had discarded bishops. English Churchmen, again, +almost universally paid great deference to the authority of the +primitive fathers and early councils. The Reformed Churches abroad, +under the leading of Daille and others, no less generally depreciated +them.[335] Nor could it be forgotten that the sympathies of those +Churches had been with the Puritans during the Civil Wars, and that in +tone of thought and mode of worship they bore, for the most part, a +closer resemblance to English Nonconformity than to the English Church. +Lastly, the Protestants of France and Switzerland were chiefly +Calvinists, while in the Church of England Calvinism had for some length +of time been rapidly declining. The bond of union had need to be strong, +and the necessity of it keenly felt, if it was to prevail over the +influences which tended to keep the English and foreign Reformed +Churches apart. + +Thus, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, while there was a very +general wish that the English Church should take its place at the head +of a movement which would aim at strengthening and consolidating the +Protestant cause throughout Europe, there was much doubt how far such a +project could be carried out consistently with the spirit and principles +of the Church. The hopes of High Churchmen in this direction were based +chiefly on the anticipation that the reformed churches abroad might +perhaps be induced to restore Episcopacy. It was with this view that +Dodwell wrote his 'Paraenesis to Foreigners' in 1704. A year or two +afterwards, events occurred in Prussia which made it seem likely that in +that country the desired change would very speedily be made. Frederick +I., at his coronation in 1700, had given the title of bishop to two of +his clergy--one a Lutheran, the other Reformed. The former died soon +after; but the latter, Dr. Ursinus, willingly co-operated with the King +in a scheme for uniting the two communions on a basis of mutual +assimilation to the Church of England. Ernestus Jablonski, his chaplain, +a superintendent of the Protestant Church, in Poland, zealously promoted +the project. He had once been strongly prejudiced against the English +Church; but his views on this point had altered during a visit to +England, and he was now an admirer of it. By the advice of Ursinus and +Jablonski, the King caused the English Liturgy to be translated into +German. This was done at Frankfort on the Oder, where the English Church +had many friends among the professors. Frederick then directed Ursinus +to consult further with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and suggested +that, if the plan was encouraged in England, the Liturgy should be +introduced into the King's Chapel and the Cathedral Church on the 1st +Sunday in Advent, 1706. It was to be left optional to other Churches to +follow the example. After debate in the King's consistory, letters and +copies of the version were sent to the Queen of England and to +Archbishop Tenison. The former returned her thanks, but the primate +appeared not to have received the communication; and the King, offended +at the apparent slackness, allowed the matter to drop. Early, however, +in 1709, communications were reopened. On January 14 of that year, the +following entry occurs in Thoresby's 'Diary:' 'At the excellent Bishop +of Ely's [Moore]. Met the obliging R. Hales, Esq., to whose pious +endeavour the good providence of God has given admirable success in +reconciling the Reformed Churches abroad [Calvinists and Lutherans] one +to another (so that they not only frequently meet together, but some of +them join in the Sacrament), and both of them to the Church of England; +so that in many places they are willing to admit of Episcopacy, as I am +creditably informed.'[336] The negotiations continued. Jablonski's +recommendations were translated into English, and attracted considerable +attention both in England and Prussia. They were promoted by many +persons of eminence, especially by Archbishop Sharp, Bishop Smalridge +(who thought 'the honour of our own Church and the edification of +others much interested in the scheme'), Bishop Robinson and Lord Raby, +ambassador at Berlin. Secretary St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, +wrote to Raby in behalf of this 'laudable design,' informing him that +the Queen was 'ready to give all possible encouragement to that +excellent work,' and that if previous overtures had received a cold +reception, yet that the clergy generally were zealous in the cause. +Bonel, the Prussian king's minister in London, wrote in 1711 to +Frederick that he thought the service of the Church of England was 'the +most perfect, perhaps, that is among Protestants,' that conformity +between the Prussian and English Churches would be received with great +joy in England, but that the conformity desired related more to Church +government than to any ritual or liturgy, and that Episcopacy was +generally looked upon as the only apostolical and true ecclesiastical +form of government. Later in the year, Jablonski placed in the hands of +Baron Prinz his more matured 'Project for introducing Episcopacy into +the King of Prussia's dominions.' Leibnitz engaged to interest the +Electress of Hanover in the proposal. He was afraid, however, that the +thirty-nine articles would be considered 'a little too much Geneva +stamp' at Berlin. The negotiations continued, but the interest of the +King had slackened; the proceedings of the Collegium Charitativum at +Berlin, which sat under the presidency of Bishop Ursinus, were somewhat +discredited by the wilder schemes started by Winkler, one of its chief +members; the grave political questions debated at Utrecht diverted +attention from ecclesiastical matters; Archbishop Sharp, who had taken +an active part in the correspondence, became infirm; and the conferences +were finally brought to a termination by the death, early in 1713, of +Frederick I.[337] Frederick William's rough and contracted mind was far +too much absorbed in the care of his giant regiment, and in the amassing +of treasure, to feel the slightest concern in matters so entirely +uncongenial to his temper as plans for the advancement of Church unity. + +With the earlier years of the century all ideas of a closer relationship +between English and foreign Protestantism than had existed heretofore +passed away. The name of Protestant was still as cherished in popular +feeling as ever it had been; but soon after the beginning of the +Georgian period little was heard, as compared with what lately had been +the case, of the Protestant cause or the Protestant interest. In truth, +when minds were no longer intent upon immediate dangers, the bond was +severed which had begun to keep together, notwithstanding all +differences, the Reformed Churches in England and on the Continent. A +few leading spirits on either side had been animated by larger +aspirations after Christian unity. But self-defence against aggressive +Romanism had been the main support of all projects of combination. In +the eighteenth century there was plenty of the monotonous indifferentism +which bears a dreary superficial resemblance to unity, but there was +very little in the prevalent tone of thought which was adapted to +encourage its genuine growth. And even if it had been otherwise--if the +National Church had ever so much widened and deepened its hold in +England, and a sound, substantial unity had gained ground, such as gains +strength out of the very differences which it contains--insular feeling +would still, in all probability, have been too exclusive or uninformed +to care much, when outward pressure was removed, for ties of sympathy +which should extend beyond the Channel and include Frenchmen or Germans +within their hold. Quite early in the century we find Fleetwood[338] and +Calamy[339] complaining of a growing indifference towards Protestants +abroad. A generation later this indifference had become more general. +Parliamentary grants to 'poor French Protestant refugee clergy' and +'poor French Protestant laity' were made in the annual votes of supply +almost up to the present reign,[340] but these were only items in the +public charity; they no longer bore any significance. + +In 1751 an Act was brought forward for the general naturalisation of +foreign Protestants resident in England. Much interest had been felt in +a similar Bill which had come before the House in 1709. But the +promoters of the earlier measure had been chiefly animated by the sense +of close religious affinity in those to whom the privilege was offered; +and those who resisted it did so from a fear that it might tend to +changes in the English Church of which they disapproved. At the later +period these sympathies and these fears, so far as they existed at all, +were wholly subordinate to other influences. The Bill was supported on +the ground of the drain upon the population which had resulted from the +late war; it was vehemently resisted from a fear that it would unduly +encourage emigration, and have an unfavourable effect upon English +labour.[341] Considerations less secular than these had little weight. +Religious life was circulating but feebly in the Church and country +generally; it had no surplus energy to spare for sisterly interest in +other communions outside the national borders. + +The remarks that have been made in this chapter upon the relations of +the English Church in the eighteenth century, especially in its earlier +years, towards Rome on the one hand and the foreign Reformed Churches on +the other, began with a reference to those principles of Church +comprehensiveness which, however imperfectly understood, lay very near +the heart of many distinguished Churchmen. But all who longed to see the +Church of England acting in the free and generous spirit of a great +national Church were well aware that there was a wider and more +important field at home for the exercise of those principles. It was +one, however, in which their course seemed far less plain. Many who were +very willing to acknowledge that wide differences of opinion or practice +constituted no insuperable bar to a close friendly intercourse between +Churches of different countries, regarded those same variations in quite +another light when considered as occasions of schism among separatists +at home. Archbishop Sharp, for example, willingly communicated with +congregations of foreign Protestants, wherever he might be travelling on +the Continent, but could discuss no terms of conciliation with English +Dissenters which were not based upon a relinquishment of Nonconformity. +Liberty of opinion was not to be confused with needless infractions of +Church unity. + +The Latitudinarian party in the English Church had, almost without +exception, a slight bias toward Puritan opinions. To them, the +differences by which they were separated from moderate Nonconformists +appeared utterly immaterial, and not worthy to be balanced for an +instant against the blessings of unity. Hence while, on the one hand, +they did their utmost to persuade the Dissenters to give up what seemed +to them needless, and almost frivolous scruples, they were also very +anxious that all ground for these scruples should be as far as possible +removed. 'Sure,' they argued, ''tis not ill-becoming an elder (and so a +wiser) brother in such a case as this to stoop a little to the weakness +of the younger, in keeping company still; and when hereby he shall not +go one step the further out of the ready road unto their Father's +house.'[342] On points of Church order and discipline, mitigate the +terms of uniformity, do not rigidly preclude all alternatives, admit +some considered system which will allow room for option. Frankly +acknowledge, that in regard of the doctrine of the sacraments, divers +opinions may still, as has ever been the case, be legitimately held +within the Church and modify here and there an expression in the +Liturgy, which may be thought inconsistent with their liberty, and gives +needless offence. Let it not be in anywise our fault if our brethren in +the same faith will not join us in our common worship. They appealed to +the apostolic rule of Charity, that they who use this right despise not +them who use it not; and those who use it not, condemn not them that use +it. They appealed to the example of the primitive Church, and bade both +Churchmen and Dissenters remember how both Polycarp and Irenaeus had +urged, that they who agree in doctrine must not fall out for rites. The +early Church, said Stillingfleet,[343] showed great toleration towards +different parties within its communion, and allowed among its members +and ministers diverse rites and various opinions. They appealed again to +the practice and constitution of the English Church since the +Reformation. They did not so much ask to widen its limits, as that the +limits which had previously been recognised should not now be +restricted. There had always been parties in it which differed widely +from one another, Anglican and Puritan, Calvinist and Arminian. There +never had been a time when it had not included among its clergy men who +differed in no perceptible degree from those who were now excluded. They +appealed to the friendly feeling that prevailed between moderate men on +either side; and most frequently and most urgently they appealed to the +need of combination among Protestants. It was a time for mutual +conciliation among Protestants in England and abroad, not for increasing +divisions, and for imposing new tests and passwords which their fathers +had not known. The National Church ought to make a great effort to win +over a class of men who, as citizens, were prominent, for the most part, +for sobriety, frugality, and industry, and, as Christians, for a piety +which might perhaps be restricted in its ideas, and cramped by needless +scruples, but which at all events was genuine and zealous. A very large +number of them were as yet not disaffected towards the English Church, +and would meet with cordiality all advances made in a brotherly spirit. +It would be a sin to let the opportunity slip by unimproved. + +The force of such arguments was vividly felt by the whole of that +Latitudinarian party in the Church, which numbered at the end of the +seventeenth century so many distinguished names. There was a time when +some of the High Church leaders were so far alarmed by Roman +aggressiveness, as to think that union among Protestants should be +purchased even at what they deemed a sacrifice, and when Sancroft, Ken, +and Lake moved for a bill of comprehension,[344] and Beveridge spoke +warmly in favour of it.[345] The moderate Dissenters were quite as +anxious on the subject as any of their conformist friends. 'Baxter +protested in his latest works, that the body to which he belonged was in +favour of a National State Church. He disavowed the term Presbyterian, +and stated that most whom he knew did the same. They would be glad, he +said, to live under godly bishops, and to unite on healing terms. He +deplored that the Church doors had not been opened to him and his +brethren, and pleaded urgently for a "healing Act of Uniformity." Calamy +explicitly states that he was disposed to enter the establishment, if +Tillotson's scheme had succeeded. Howe also lamented the failure of the +scheme.'[346] The trusts of their meeting-houses were in many instances +so framed, and their licences so taken out, that the buildings could +easily be transferred to Church uses.[347] The Independents, who came +next to the Presbyterians, both in influence and numerical strength, +were more divided in opinion. Many remained staunch to the principles of +their early founders, and were wholly irreconcilable.[348] Others, +perhaps a majority, of the 'Congregational Brethren,' as they preferred +to call themselves, were very willing to 'own the king for head over +their churches,' to give a general approval to the Prayer Book, and to +be comprehended, on terms which would allow them what they considered a +reasonable liberty, within the National Church.[349] They formed part of +the deputation of ministers to King William, by whom an ardent hope was +expressed that differences might be composed, and such a firm union +established on broad Christian principles 'as would make the Church a +type of heaven.'[350] How far they would have accepted any practical +scheme of comprehension is more doubtful. But, as Mr. Skeats remarks of +the measure proposed in 1689, 'Calamy's assertion, that if it had been +adopted, it would in all probability have brought into the Church +two-thirds of the Dissenters, indicates the almost entire agreement of +the Independents with the Presbyterians, concerning the expedience of +adopting it.'[351] + +The Baptists showed little or no disposition to come to an agreement +with the Church. They were at this time a declining sect, who held +little intercourse with other Dissenters, and were much engaged in petty +but very acrimonious controversies among themselves. They had been +divided ever since 1633 into two sections, the Particular and General +Baptists. The former of the two were Calvinists of the most rigorous and +exclusive type, often conspicuous by a fervent but excessively narrow +form of piety, and illiterate almost on principle on account of their +disparagement of what was called 'human learning.'[352] The General +Baptists, many of whom merged, early in the eighteenth century, into +Unitarians, were less exclusive in their views. But the Baptists +generally viewed the English Church with suspicion and dislike. In many +cases their members were forbidden to enter, an any pretext whatever, +the national churches, or to form intermarriages or hold social +intercourse with Churchmen.[353] Yet some may not have forgotten the +example and teaching of the ablest defender, in the seventeenth century, +of Baptist opinions. 'Mr. Tombs,' says Wall, quoting from Baxter, +'continued an Antipaedobaptist to his dying day, yet wrote against +separation for it, and for communion with the parish churches.'[354] +When Marshall, in the course of controversy, reproached the Baptists +with separation, Tombs answered that he must blame the persons, not the +general body. For his own part he thought such separation a 'practice +justly to be abhorred. The making of sects upon difference of opinions, +reviling, separating from their teachers and brethren otherwise +faithful, because there is not the same opinion in disputable points, or +in clear truths not fundamental, is a thing too frequent in all sorts of +dogmatists, &c., and I look upon it as one of the greatest plagues of +Christianity. You shall have me join with you in detestation of +it.'[355] He himself continued in communion with the National Church +until his death. + +Unitarians have always differed from one another so very widely, that +they can hardly be classed or spoken of under one name. Their opinions +have always varied in every possible degree, from such minute departure +from generally received modes of expression in speaking of the mystery +of the Godhead, as needs a very microscopic orthodoxy to detect, down to +the barest and most explicit Socinianism. There were some who charged +with Unitarianism Bishop Bull,[356] whose learned defence of the Nicene +faith was famous throughout all Europe. There were many who made it an +accusation against Tillotson,[357] and the whole[358] of the Low or +Latitudinarian party in the Church of England. The Roman +Controversialists of the seventeenth century used to go further still, +and boldly assert[359] that to leave Rome was to go to Socinianism; and +the Calvinists, on their side, would sometimes argue that 'Arminianism +was a shoeing horn to draw on Socinianism.'[360] A great number of the +Unitarians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were themselves +scarcely distinguishable from the orthodox. 'For peace sake they submit +to the phrase of the Church, and expressly own Three Persons, though +they think the word person not so proper as another might be. If the +Three Persons should be defined by three distinct minds and spirits, or +substances, the Unitarian will be lost; but if person be defined by +mode, manifestation, or outward relation, he will be acquitted.... They +believe all the articles of the Apostles' Creed.... They believe the law +of Christ contained in the four gospels to be the only and everlasting +rule, by which they shall be judged hereafter.... They thankfully lay +hold of the message of Redemption through Christ.'[361] Some of the +Unitarians, we are told, even excommunicated and deposed from the +ministry such of their party as denied that divine worship was due to +Christ.[362] Of Unitarians such as these, if they can be called by that +name, and not rather Arians or Semi-Arians, the words of Dr. Arnold may +properly be quoted: 'The addressing Christ in the language of prayer and +praise is an essential part of Christian worship. Every Christian would +feel his devotions incomplete, if this formed no part of them. This +therefore cannot be sacrificed; but we are by no means bound to inquire +whether all who pray to Christ entertain exactly the same ideas of His +nature. I believe that Arianism involves in it some very erroneous +notions as to the object of religious worship; but if an Arian will join +in our worship of Christ, and will call Him Lord and God, there is +neither wisdom nor charity in insisting that he shall explain what he +means by these terms; nor in questioning the strength and sincerity of +his faith in his Saviour, because he makes too great a distinction +between the Divinity of the Father and that which he allows to be the +attribute of the Son.'[363] This was certainly the feeling of +Tillotson[364] and many other eminent men of the same school. If an +Unitarian chose to conform, as very many are accustomed to do, they +gladly received him as a fellow worshipper. Thomas Firmin the +philanthropist, leader of the Unitarians of his day was a constant +attendant at Tillotson's church of St. Lawrence Jewry, and at Dr. +Outram's in Lombard Street. Yet both these divines were Catholic in +regard of the doctrine of the Trinity, and wrote in defence of it. In +fact, the moderate Unitarians conformed without asking or expecting any +concessions. Latitudinarian Churchmen, as a party, entertained no idea +of including Unitarians in the proposed act of comprehension. For his +own part, said Burnet, he could never understand pacificatory doctrines +on matters which seemed to him the fundamentals of Christianity.[365] So +far from comprehension, Socinians were excluded even from the benefits +of the act of toleration; and more than thirty years later, in 1697, a +severe Act of outlawry was passed against all who wrote or spoke against +the divinity of Christ.[366] Until about 1720, Unitarians scarcely took +the form of a separate sect. Either they were scarcely distinguishable +from those who professed one or another form of Deism, and who assumed +the title of a Christian philosophy rather than of a denomination; or +they were proscribed heretics; or they conformed to the Church of +England and did not consider their opinions inconsistent with loyalty to +it. + +Little need be said, in this connexion, of the Quakers. Towards the end +of the seventeenth century they increased in wealth and numbers, and had +begun to hold far more mitigated tenets than those of a previous age. +For this they were much indebted to Robert Barclay, who wrote his +'Apology' in Latin in 1676, and translated it with a dedication to +Charles II. in 1678. A few Churchmen of pronounced mystical opinions +were to some extent in sympathy with them; but, as a rule, both among +Conformists and Nonconformists they were everywhere misunderstood, +ridiculed, and denounced. If it had not been so, their vehement +repudiation of all intervention of the State in religious matters would +have compelled them to hold aloof from all overtures of comprehension, +even if any had been proffered to them. + +The Nonconformists, therefore, who in the latter part of the seventeenth +century might have been attached by a successful measure of +comprehension to the National Church, were the Presbyterians--at that +time a large and influential body--a considerable proportion, probably, +of the Independents, and individual members of other denominations. The +most promising, though not the best known scheme, appears to have been +that put forward by the Presbyterians, and earnestly promoted by Sir +Matthew Hale, Bishop Wilkins, and others, in 1667. Assent only was to +be required to the Prayer Book; certain ceremonies were to be left +optional; clergymen who had received only Presbyterian ordination were +to receive, with imposition of the bishop's hands, legal authority to +exercise the offices of their ministry, the word 'legal' being +considered a sufficient salvo for the intrinsic validity of their +previous orders; 'sacramentally' might be added after 'regenerated' in +the Baptismal service, and a few other things were to be made +discretional. Here was a very tolerable basis for an agreement which +might not improbably have been carried out, if the House of Commons had +not resolved to pass no bill of comprehension in that year. + +Even this scheme, however, had one essential fault common to it with the +projects which were brought forward at a somewhat later period. No +measure for Church comprehension on anything like a large scale is ever +like to fulfil its objects, unless the whole of the question with all +its difficulties is boldly grasped and dealt with in a statesmanlike +manner. Nonconformist bodies, which have grown up by long and perhaps +hereditary usage into fixed habits and settled frames of thought, or +whose strength is chiefly based upon principles and motives of action +which are not quite in accordance with the spirit of the larger society, +can never be satisfactorily incorporated into a National Church, unless +the scheme provides to a great extent for the affiliation and +maintenance in their integrity of the existing organisations. The Roman +Church has never hesitated to utilise in this sort of manner new +spiritual forces, and, without many alterations of the old, to make new +additions to her ecclesiastical machinery at the risk of increasing its +complexity. The Church of England might in this respect have followed +the example of her old opponent to very great advantage. But neither in +the plan of 1689, nor in any of those which preceded or followed it +during the period which elapsed between the Act of Uniformity and the +close of the century, was anything of the kind attempted. + +Much, no doubt, could be done and was proposed to be done, in the way of +removing from public services, where other words, not less to the +purpose and equally devotional, could be substituted for them, some +expressions which gave offence and raised scruples. Where this can be +done without loss, it must needs be a gain. A concession to scruples +which in no way impairs our perception of Christian truth, is a worthy +sacrifice to Christian charity. Such a work, however, of revision +demands much caution and an exceptional amount of sound discretion. +Least of all it can be done in any spirit of party. In proposing a +change of expression which would be in itself wholly unobjectionable, +the revisers have not only to consider the scruples of those whom they +wish to conciliate; they must respect even more heedfully, feelings and +sentiments which they may not themselves share in, but which are valued +by one or another party already existing in the Church. A revision +conducted by the moderates of a Church would plainly have no right to +meet scruples and objections on the part of Puritans, outside their +Communion, only by creating new scruples and objections among High +Churchmen within it; just as, reversely, it would be equally +unjustifiable to conciliate High Sacramentalists, or the lovers of a +grander or more touching ceremonial, who hovered on the borders of a +Church, by changes which would be painful to its Puritan members already +domiciled within it. When men of all the leading parties in a Church are +sincerely desirous (as they ought, and, under such contingencies, are +specially bound to be,) of removing unnecessary obstacles to Church +Communion, the work of revision will be comparatively easy; and changes, +which to unwilling minds would be magnified into alarming sacrifices, +will become peace offerings uncostly in themselves, and willingly and +freely yielded. Much then can be done in this way, but only where the +changes, however excellent and opportune in themselves, are promoted not +merely by a party, but by the Church in general. + +Alterations, however, of this kind, although they may constitute a very +important part of a measure of Church comprehension, will rarely, if +ever, prove sufficient to fulfil in any satisfactory manner the desired +purpose. It would be simply ruinous to the vitality of any Church to be +neutral and colourless in its formularies. Irritating and polemical +terms may most properly be excluded from devotional use; but no Church +or party in a Church which has life and promise in it will consent, in +order to please others, to give up old words and accustomed usages which +give distinctiveness to worship and add a charm to the expression of +familiar doctrines. + +One, therefore, of two things must be done as a duty both to the old and +to the incoming members. Either much must be left optional to the +clergy, or to the clergy acting in concert with their congregations, or +else, as was before said, the National Church must find scope and room +for its new members, not as a mere throng of individuals, but as +corporate bodies, whose organisations may have to be modified to suit +the new circumstances, but not broken up. When it is considered how +highly strict uniformity was valued by the ruling powers at the end of +the seventeenth century, the ample discretionary powers that were +proposed to be left are a strong proof how genuine in many quarters must +have been the wish to effect a comprehension. The difficulties, +however, which beset such liberty of option were obvious, and the +opponents of the bill did not fail to make the most of them. It was a +subject which specially suited the satirical pen and declamatory powers +of Dr. South. He was a great stickler for uniformity; unity, he urged, +was strength; and therefore he insisted upon 'a resolution to keep all +the constitutions of the Church, the parts of the service, and the +conditions of its communion entire, without lopping off any part of +them.' 'If any be indulged in the omission of the least thing there +enjoined, they cannot be said to "speak all the same thing."' And then, +in more forcible language, he descanted upon what he called 'the +deformity and undecency' of difference of practice. He drew a vivid +picture how some in the same diocese would use the surplice, and some +not, and how there would be parties accordingly. 'Some will kneel at the +Sacrament, some stand, some perhaps sit; some will read this part of the +Common Prayer, some that--some, perhaps, none at all.' Some in the +pulpits of our churches and cathedrals 'shall conceive a long crude +extemporary prayer, in reproach of all the prayers which the Church with +such admirable prudence and devotion hath been making before. Nay, in +the same cathedral you shall see one prebendary in a surplice, another +in a long coat, another in a short coat or jacket; and in the +performance of the public services some standing up at the Creed, the +Gloria Patri, and the reading of the Gospel; and others sitting, and +perhaps laughing and winking upon their fellow schismatics, in scoff of +those who practise the decent order of the Church.' Irreconcilable +parties, he adds, and factions will be created. 'I will not hear this +formalist, says one; and I will not hear that schismatic (with better +reason), says another.... So that I dare avouch, that to bring in a +comprehension is nothing else but, in plain terms, to establish a schism +in the Church by law, and so bring a plague into the very bowels of it, +which is more than sufficiently endangered already by having one in its +neighbourhood; a plague which shall eat out the very heart and soul, and +consume the vitals and spirit of it, and this to such a degree, that in +the compass of a few years it shall scarce have any being or +subsistence, or so much as the face of a National Church to be known +by.'[367] South's sermon was on the appropriate text, 'not give place, +no, not for an hour.' His picture was doubtless a highly exaggerated +one. The discretionary powers which some of the schemes of comprehension +proposed to give would not have left the Church of England a mere scene +of confusion, an unseemly Babel of anarchy and licence. A sketch might +be artfully drawn, in which nothing should be introduced but what was +truthfully selected from the practices of different London Churches of +the present day, which might easily make a foreigner imagine that in the +National Church uniformity and order were things unknown. Yet +practically, its unity remains unbroken; and the inconveniences arising +from such divergences are very slight as compared with the advantages +which result from them, and with the general life and elasticity of +which they are at once both causes and symptoms. Good feeling, sound +sense, and the natural instinct of order would have done much to abate +the disorders of even a large relaxation of the Act of Uniformity. In +1689, before yet the course taken by the Revolution had kindled the +strong spirit of party, there was nothing like the heat of feeling in +regard of such usages as the wearing of the surplice, kneeling at the +Communion, and the sign of the cross at Baptism, as there had been in +the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign. When prejudices began to pass +away, prevailing practice would probably have been guided, after an +interval, by the rule of the 'survival of the fittest,'--of those +customs, that is, which best suited the temper of the people and the +spirit of the Church. The surplice, for instance, would very likely have +become gradually universal, much in the same manner as in our own day it +has gradually superseded the gown in the pulpit. A concession to +Nonconformist scruples of some discretionary power in regard of a few +ceremonies and observances would certainly not have brought upon the +National Church the ruin foreboded by Dr. South. Possibly a licensed +variety of usage might have had indirectly a somewhat wholesome +influence. The mild excitement of controversies about matters in +themselves almost indifferent might have tended, like a gentle blister, +to ward off the lethargy which, in the eighteenth century, paralysed to +so great an extent the spiritual energies of the Church. No one can +doubt that Dr. South's remarks expressed in vigorous language genuine +difficulties. But it was equally obvious that if the National Church +were to be laced on a wider basis, as the opportunities of the time +seemed to demand, a relaxation of uniformity of some kind or another was +indispensable. It did not seem to occur to the reformers and +revisionists of the time that a concession of optional powers was a +somewhat crude, nor by any means the only solution of the difficulty; +and that it might be quite possible to meet all reasonable scruples of +Nonconformists without in any way infringing upon customs which all old +members of the Church of England were well satisfied to retain. + +But even if the schemes for comprehension had been thoroughly sound in +principle, and less open to objection, the favourable opportunity soon +passed by. While there yet lingered in men's minds a feeling of +uneasiness and regret that the Restoration of 1660 should have been +followed by the ejection of so many deserving clergy; while the more +eminent and cultured of the sufferers by it were leavening the whole +Nonconformist body with principles and sentiments which belong rather to +a National Church than to a detached sect; while Nonconformity among +large bodies of Dissenters was not yet an established fact; while men of +all parties were still rejoicing in the termination of civil war, in the +conspicuous abatement of religious and political animosities, and in the +sense of national unity; while Protestants of all shades of opinion were +knit together by the strong band of a common danger, by the urgent need +of combination against a foe whose advances threatened the liberties of +all; while High Churchmen like Ken and Sancroft were advocating not +toleration only, but comprehension; while the voices of Nonconformists +joined heartily in the acclamations which greeted the liberation of the +seven bishops; while the Upper House of Convocation was not yet +separated from the Lower, nor the great majority of the bishops from the +bulk of the clergy, by a seemingly hopeless antagonism of Church +principles; while High Churchmen were still headed by bishops +distinguished by their services to religion and liberty; and while Broad +Churchmen were represented not only by eminent men of the type of +Stillingfleet and Tillotson, Burnet, Tenison and Compton, but by the +thoughtful and philosophic band of scholars who went by the name of the +Cambridge Platonists--under circumstances such as these, there was very +much that was highly favourable to the efforts which were being made in +favour of Church comprehension. These efforts met at all times with +strong opposition, especially in the House of Commons and among the +country clergy. But a well-considered scheme, once carried, would have +been welcomed with very general approval, and might have been attended +with most beneficial results. + +The turn taken by the Revolution of 1688 destroyed the prospect of +bringing these labours to a really successful issue. They were pushed +on, as is well known, with greater energy than ever. They could not, +however, fail of being infected henceforth with a partisan and political +spirit which made it very doubtful whether the ill consequences of an +Act of Comprehension would not have more than counterbalanced its +advantages. The High Church party, deprived of many of their best men by +the secession of the Nonjurors, and suspected by a triumphant majority +of Jacobitism and general disaffection, were weakened, narrowed, and +embittered. Broad Churchmen, on the other hand, were looked upon by +those who differed from them as altogether Latitudinarians in religion, +and Whigs in politics--terms constantly used as practically convertible. +Danger from Rome, although by no means insignificant, was no longer so +visible, or so pressing, as it had been in James II.'s reign. Meanwhile, +it had become apparent that the Church of England was menaced by a peril +of an opposite kind. Not High Churchmen only, but all who desired to see +the existing character of the Church of England maintained, had cause to +fear lest under a monarch to whom all forms of Protestantism were alike, +and who regarded all from a political and somewhat sceptical point of +view, ideas very alien to those which had given the National Church its +shape and colour might now become predominant. If the Royal Supremacy +was no longer the engine of power it had been under some previous +rulers, and up to the very era of the Revolution, the personal opinions +of the sovereign still had considerable weight, especially when backed, +as they now were, by a strong mass of opinion, both within the English +Church, and among Nonconformists. There were many persons who drew back +with apprehension from measures which a year or two before they had +looked forward to with hope. They knew not what they might lead to. +Salutary changes might be the prelude to others which they would witness +with dismay. Moreover, changes which might have been salutary under +other circumstances, would entirely lose their character when they were +regarded as the triumph of a party and caused distrust and alienation. +They might create a wider schism than any they could heal. The Nonjuring +separation was at present a comparatively inconsiderable body in numbers +and general influence; and there was a hope, proved in the issue to be +well founded, that many of the most respected members of it would +eventually return to the communion which they had unwillingly quitted. +The case would be quite reversed, if multitudes of steady, old-fashioned +Churchmen, disgusted by concessions and innovations which they abhorred +and regarded as mere badges of a party triumph, came to look upon the +communion of Ken and Kettlewell and Nelson as alone representing that +Church of their forefathers to which they had given their attachment. It +would be a disastrous consequence of efforts pressed inopportunely in +the interests of peace if the ancient Church of England were rent in +twain. + +Thus, before the eighteenth century had yet begun, the hopes which had +been cherished by so many excellent men on either side of the line which +marked off the Nonconformists from their conforming friends, had at +length almost entirely vanished. The scheme of 1689, well-meaning as it +was, lacked in a marked degree many of the qualities which most deserve +and command success. But when once William and Mary had been crowned, +and the spirit of party had become strong, the best of schemes would +have failed. + +Church comprehension never afterwards became, in any direct form, a +question for much practical discussion. The interest which the late +efforts had excited lingered for some time in the minds, both of those +who had promoted the measure and of those who had resisted it. There was +much warm debate upon the subject in the Convocation of 1702. +Sacheverell and the bigots of his party in 1709 lashed themselves into +fury at the very thought that comprehension could be advocated. It was +treachery, rank and inexcusable; it was bringing the Trojan horse into +the Holy City; it was converting the House of God into a den of +thieves.[368] Such forms of speech were too common just about that +period to mean much, or to attract any particular notice. As Swift said, +if the zealots of either party were to be believed, their adversaries +were always wretches worthy to be exterminated.[369] Party spirit, at +this period, ran so high, both in political and ecclesiastical matters, +and minds were so excited and suspicious, that most men ranged +themselves very definitely on one or another side of a clearly-marked +line, and genuinely temperate counsels were much out of favour. To the +one party 'moderation,' that 'harmless, gilded name,'[370] had become +wholly odious, as ever 'importing somewhat that was unkind to the +Church, and that favoured the Dissenters.'[371] There was a story that +'a clergyman preaching upon the text, "Let your moderation be known unto +all men," took notice that the Latin word "moderor" signified rule and +government, and by virtue of the criticism he made his text to signify, +let the severity of your government be known unto all men.'[372] Yet it +was not to be wondered at that they had got to hate the word. The +opposite party, adopting moderation jointly with union as their +password, and glorifying it as 'the cement of the world,' 'the ornament +of human kind,' 'the chiefest Christian grace,' 'the peculiar +characteristic of this Church,'[373] would pass on almost in the same +breath to pile upon their opponents indiscriminate charges of +persecution, priestcraft, superstition, and to inveigh against them as +'a narrow Laudean faction,' 'a jealous-headed, unneighbourly, selfish +sect of Ishmaelites.'[374] Evidently, so long as the spirit of party was +thus rampant, any measure of Church comprehension was entirely out of +question. Many Low Churchmen were as anxious for it as ever. But they +were no longer in power; and had they been a majority, they could only +have effected it by sheer weight of numbers, and under imminent peril of +disrupture in the Church. Therefore, they did not even attempt it, and +were content to labour toward the same ends by more indirect means. + +In the middle of the century--at a time when, except among the +Methodists, religious zeal seemed almost extinct, and when (to use +Walpole's words) 'religious animosities were out of date, and the public +had no turn for controversy'--thoughts of comprehension revived both in +the English Church and among the Nonconformists. + +'Those,' wrote Mosheim in 1740, 'who are best acquainted with the state +of the English nation, tell us that the Dissenting interest declines +from day to day, and that the cause of Nonconformity owes this gradual +decay in a great measure to the lenity and moderation that are practised +by the rulers of the Established Church.'[375] No doubt the friendly +understanding which widely existed about this time between Churchmen and +Dissenters contributed to such a result. Herring, for instance, of +Canterbury, Sherlock of London, Secker of Oxford, Maddox of Worcester, +as well as Warburton, who was then preacher at Lincoln's Inn, Hildersley +afterwards Bishop of Sodor and Man, and many other eminent +Churchmen,[376] were all friends or correspondents with Doddridge, the +genial and liberal-minded leader of the Congregationalists, the devout +author of 'The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul.' Much the same +might be said of Samuel Chandler, the eminent Presbyterian minister. An +old school fellow of Secker and Butler, when they were pupils together +at a dissenting academy in Yorkshire, he kept up his friendship with +them, when the one was Primate of the English Church, and the other its +ablest theologian. Personal relations of this kind insured the +recognition of approaches based on more substantial grounds. There was +real friendly feeling on the part of many principal Nonconformists not +only towards this or that bishop, this or that Churchman, but towards +the English Church in general. They coveted its wider culture, its freer +air. With the decline of prejudices and animosities, they could not but +feel the insignificance of the differences by which they were separated +from it. Many of them were by no means unfavourable to the principle of +a National Church. This was especially the case with Doddridge. While +he spoke with the utmost abhorrence of all forms of persecution, he +argued that regard alike to the honour of God and to the good of +society, should engage rulers to desire and labour that the people +should be instructed in matters of religion, and that they could not be +thus instructed without some public provision. He held, however, that +such an establishment should be as large as possible, so that no worthy +or good man, whose services could be of use, should be excluded. If the +majority agreed in such an establishment, the minority, he thought, +might well be thankful to be left in possession of their liberties. He +did not see that it was more unfair that they should be called upon to +assist in supporting such a Church, than that they should have to +contribute to the expenses of a war or any other national object of +which they might disapprove.[377] It must be added that the +Nonconformists of that time were drawn towards the National Church not +only by its real merits. They were in very many instances attracted +rather than repelled, by what was then its greatest defect, for it was a +defect which prevailed no less generally among themselves than in it. A +stiff and cold insistence upon morals and reasonable considerations, to +the comparative exclusion of appeals to higher Christian motive, was the +common vice of Nonconformist as well as of national pulpits. At a time, +therefore, when the great cardinal doctrines of Christianity were +insufficiently preached, it followed as a matter of course that +differences of opinion upon religious questions of less moment dwindled +in seeming importance. + +Such was the frequent relation between the English Church and Dissent +when a charge happened to be delivered by Gooch, Bishop of Norwich, +which gave rise to some remonstrance on the part of Dr. Chandler, who +had been one of his auditors. Correspondence resulted in an interview, +in which Gooch, though generally considered a High Churchman, showed +himself not unfavourable to comprehension. Another time Bishop Sherlock +joined in the discussion. There were three points, he said, to be +considered--Doctrine, Discipline, and Ceremonies. Discipline was already +in too neglected and enfeebled a state, too much in need of being +recast, to be suggestive of much difficulty. Ceremonies could be left +indifferent. As for doctrine, both bishops were quite willing to agree +with Dr. Chandler that the Articles might properly be expressed in +Scripture words, and that the Athanasian Creed should be discarded. +Chandler, for his part, thought that dissenting clergy would consent to +a form of Episcopal ordination if it did not suggest any invalidity in +previous orders. Archbishop Herring was then consulted. The Primate had +already had a long conversation with Doddridge on the subject, and had +fallen in with Doddridge's suggestion, that, as a previous step, an +occasional interchange of pulpits between Churchmen and Dissenters might +be desirable. He thought comprehension 'a very good thing;' he wished it +with all his heart, and considered that there was some hope of its +success. He believed most of the bishops agreed with him in these +opinions. + +No practical results ensued upon these conversations. They are +interesting, and to some extent they were characteristic of the time. It +is not known whether Herring and his brethren on the Episcopal bench +suggested any practical measure of the kind to the Ministry then in +power. If they had done so, the suggestion would have met with no +response. 'I can tell you,' said Warburton, 'of certain science, that +not the least alteration will be made in the Ecclesiastical system. The +present ministers were bred up under, and act entirely on, the maxims of +the last. And one of the principal of theirs was, Not to stir what is at +rest.'[378] Pelham was a true disciple of Sir Robert Walpole, without +his talent and without his courage--a man whose main political object +was to glide quietly with the stream, and who trembled at the smallest +eddies.[379] He was the last man to give a moment's countenance to any +such scheme, if it were not loudly called for by a large or powerful +section of the community. This was far from being the case. Indifference +was too much the prevailing spirit of the age to allow more than a very +negative kind of public feeling in such a matter. A carefully planned +measure, not too suggestive of any considerable change, would have been +acquiesced in by many, but enthusiastically welcomed by very few, while +beyond doubt there would have been much vehement opposition to it. + +Or, if circumstances had been somewhat different, and Herring and +Sherlock, Doddridge and Chandler, had seen their plans extensively +advocated, and carried triumphantly through Parliament, the result would +in all probability have been a disappointing one. It would infallibly +have been a slipshod comprehension. Carelessness and indifference would +have had a large share in promoting it; relaxation, greater than even +then existed, of the order of the Church, would have been a likely +consequence. The National Church was not in a sufficiently healthy and +vigorous condition to conduct with much prospect of success an enlarged +organisation, or to undertake, in any hopeful spirit, new and wider +responsibilities. Nor would accessions from the Dissenting communities +have infused much fresh life into it. They were suffering themselves +under the same defect; all the more visibly because a certain vigour of +self-assertion seemed necessary to justify their very existence as +separatist bodies. The Presbyterians were rapidly losing their old +standing, and were lapsing into the ranks of Unitarianism. A large +majority of the general Baptists were adopting similar views. The ablest +men among the Congregationalists were devoting themselves to teaching +rather than to pastoral work. Unitarianism was the only form of dissent +that was gaining in numbers and influence. The more orthodox +denominations were daily losing in numbers and influence, and were +secluding themselves more and more from the general thought and culture +of the age. + +After all, the greatest question which arose in the eighteenth century +in connection with Church Comprehension was that which related to the +Methodist movement. Not that the word 'Comprehension' was ever used in +the discussion of it. In its beginnings, it was essentially an agitation +which originated within the National Church, and one in which the very +thought of secession was vehemently deprecated. As it advanced, though +one episcopal charge after another was levelled against it; though +pulpit after pulpit was indignantly refused to its leaders; though it +was on all sides preached against, satirised, denounced; though the +voices of its preachers were not unfrequently drowned in the clanging of +church bells; though its best features were persistently misunderstood +and misrepresented, and all its defects and weaknesses exposed with a +merciless hand, Wesley, with the majority of his principal supporters, +never ceased to declare his love for the Church of England, and his +hearty loyalty to its principles. 'We do not,' he said, 'we dare not, +separate from the service of the Church. We are not seceders, nor do we +bear any resemblance to them.' And when one of his bitterest opponents +charged him with 'stabbing the Church to her very vitals,' 'Do I, or +you,' he retorted, 'do this! Let anyone who has read her Liturgy, +Articles, and Homilies, judge.... You desire that I should disown the +Church. But I choose to stay in the Church, were it only to reprove +those who betray her with a kiss.'[380] He stayed within it to the last, +and on his deathbed, in 1791, he implored his followers even yet to +refrain from secession. + +Comprehension had always related to Dissenters. The term, therefore, +could hardly be used in reference to men who claimed to be thorough +Churchmen, who attended the services of the Church, loved its Liturgy, +and willingly subscribed to all its formularies. The Methodist Societies +bore a striking resemblance to the Collegia Pietatis established in +Germany by Spener about 1670, which, at all events in their earlier +years, simply aimed at the promotion of Christian holiness, while they +preserved allegiance to the ecclesiastical order of the day;[381] or we +may be reminded of that Moravian community, by which the mind of Wesley +was at one time so deeply fascinated, whose ideal, as Matter has +observed, was to be 'Calviniste ici, Lutherienne la; Catholique partout +par ses institutions episcopales et ses doctrines ascetiques, et +pourtant avant tout Chretienne, et vraiment apostolique par ses +missions.'[382] 'At a very early period of the renewed Moravian Church,' +writes the translator of Schleiermacher's Letters, 'invitations were +sent from various quarters of Europe for godly men to labour in the +National Churches. These men did not dispense the Sacraments, but +visited, prayed, read the Bible, and kept meetings for those who, +without leaving the National Churches, sought to be "built up in +communion" with right-minded pious persons.'[383] These words are +exactly parallel to what Wesley wrote in one of his earlier works, and +requoted in 1766. 'We look upon ourselves not as the authors or +ringleaders of a particular sect or party, but as messengers of God to +those who are Christians in name, but heathens in heart and life, to +lead them back to that from which they are fallen, to real genuine +Christianity.'[384] His followers, he added, in South Britain, belong to +the Church of England, in North Britain to the Church of Scotland. They +were to be careful not to make divisions, not to baptize, nor administer +the Lord's Supper.[385] + +The difficulties in the way of comprehending within the National Church +men such as these, and societies formed upon such principles, ought not +to have been insurmountable. Yet it must be allowed that in practice the +difficulties would in no case have been found trivial. As with +Zinzendorf and his united brethren, so with Wesley and his co-workers +and disciples. Their aims were exalted, their labours noble, the results +which they achieved were immense. But intermingled with it all there was +so much weakness and credulity, so much weight given to the workings of +a heated and over-wrought imagination, so many openings to a blind +fanaticism, such morbid extravagances, so much from which sober reason +and cultivated intellect shrank with instinctive repulsion, that even an +exaggerated distrust of the good effected was natural and pardonable. +Wesley's mind, though not by any means of the highest order of capacity, +was refined, well trained, and practical; Whitefield was gifted with +extraordinary powers of stirring the emotions by his fervid eloquence. +But they often worked with very rude instruments; and defects, which +were prominent enough even in the leaders, were sometimes in the +followers magnified into glaring faults. Wesley himself was a true +preacher of righteousness, and had the utmost horror of all +Antinomianism, all teaching that insisted slightly on moral duties, or +which disparaged any outward means of grace. But there was a section of +the Methodists, especially in the earlier years of the movement, who +seemed much disposed to raise the cry so well known among some of the +fanatics of the Commonwealth of 'No works, no law, no Commandments.' +There were many more who, in direct opposition to Wesley's sounder +judgment, but not uncountenanced by what he said or wrote in his more +excited moments, trusted in impressions, impulse, and feelings as +principal guides of conduct. Wesley himself was never wont to speak of +the Church of England or of its clergy in violent or abusive terms.[386] +Whitefield, however, and, still more so, many of the lesser preachers, +not unfrequently indulged in an undiscriminating bitterness of invective +which could not fail to alienate Churchmen, and to place the utmost +obstacles in the way of united action. Seward was a special offender in +this respect. How was it possible for them to hold out a right hand of +fellowship to one who would say, for example, that 'the scarlet whore of +Babylon is not more corrupt either in principle or practice than the +Church of England;'[387] and that Archbishop Tillotson, of whom, though +they might differ from him, they were all justly proud, was 'a traitor +who had sold his Lord for a better price than Judas had done.'[388] Such +language inevitably widened the ever-increasing gap. It might have been +provoked, although not justified, by tirades no less furious and +unreasoning on the part of some of the assailants of the Methodist +cause. In any case, it could not fail to estrange many who might +otherwise have gladly taken a friendly interest in the movement; it +could not fail to dull their perception of its merits and of its +spiritual exploits, and to incline them to point out with the quick +discernment of hostile critics the evident blots and errors which +frequently defaced it. + +At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when projects of Church +Comprehension had come to an end, a great deal of angry controversy in +Parliament, in Convocation, and throughout the country at large was +excited by the practice of occasional conformity. Never was a question +more debased by considerations with which it ought not to have had +anything to do. In itself it seemed a very simple one. The failure of +the schemes for Comprehension had left in the ranks of Nonconformity a +great number of moderate Dissenters--Presbyterians and others--who were +separated from the Low Churchmen of the day by an exceedingly narrow +interval. Many of them were thoroughly well affected to the National +Church, and were only restrained by a few scruples from being regular +members of it. But since the barrier remained--a slight one, perhaps, +but one which they felt they could not pass--might they not at all +events render a partial allegiance to the national worship, by +occasional attendance at its services, and by communicating with it now +and then? The question, especially under the circumstances of the time, +was none the less important for its simplicity. Unhappily, it was one +which could not be answered on its merits. The operation of the Test Act +interfered--a statute framed for the defence of the civil and +ecclesiastical constitution of the country, but which long survived to +be a stain and disgrace to it. A measure so miserably false in principle +as to render civil and military qualifications dependent upon a +sacramental test must in any case be worse than indefensible. As all +feel now, and as many felt even then, to make + + The symbols of atoning grace + An office key, a pick-lock to a place, + +must remain + + A blot that will be still a blot, in spite + Of all that grave apologists may write; + And though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain, + He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain. + +This Act, thus originated, which lingered in the Statute Book till the +reign of George IV., which even thoroughly religious men could be so +blinded by their prejudices as to defend, and which even such friends of +toleration as Lord Mansfield could declare to be a 'bulwark of the +Constitution,'[389] put occasional conformity into a very different +position from that which it would naturally take. Henceforth no +Dissenter could communicate in the parish churches of his country +without incurring some risk of an imputation which is especially +revolting to all feelings alike of honour and religion. He might have it +cast in his teeth that he was either committing or countenancing the +sacrilegious hypocrisy, the base and shuffling trick, of communicating +only to qualify for office. + +It is needless here to enter into the details of the excited and +discreditable agitation by which the custom of occasional conformity was +at length, for a time, defeated. The contest may be said to have begun +in 1697, when Sir Humphrey Edwin, upon his election as Lord Mayor, after +duly receiving the Sacrament according to the use of the Church of +England, proceeded in state to the Congregational Chapel at Pinner's +Hall.[390] Exactly the same thing recurred in 1701, in the case of Sir +T. Abney.[391] The practice thus publicly illustrated was passionately +opposed both by strict Dissenters and by strict Churchmen. De Foe, as a +representative of the former, inveighed against it with great +bitterness, as perfectly scandalous, and altogether unjustifiable.[392] +The High Church party, on their side, reprobated it with no less +severity. A bill to prevent the practice was at once prepared. In spite +of the strength of the Tory and High Church reaction, the Whig party in +the House of Lords, vigorously supported by the Liberal Bishops, just +succeeded in throwing it out. A conference was held between the two +houses, 'the most crowded that ever had been known--so much weight was +laid on this matter on both sides,'[393] with a similar result. The +Commons made other endeavours to carry the Act in a modified form, and +with milder penalties; a somewhat unscrupulous minority made an attempt +to tack it to a money bill, and so effect their purpose by a manoeuvre. +The Sacheverell episode fanned the strange excitement that prevailed. A +large body of the country gentry and country clergy imagined that the +destinies of the Church hung in the balance. The populace caught the +infection, without any clear understanding what they were clamouring +for. The Court, until it began to be alarmed, used all its influence in +support of the proposed bill. Everywhere, but especially in +coffee-houses and taverns,[394] a loud cry was raised against the Whigs, +and most of all against the Whig Bishops, for their steady opposition to +it. At last, when all chance of carrying the measure seemed to be lost, +it was suddenly made law through what appears to have been a most +discreditable compromise between a section of the Whigs and the Earl of +Nottingham. Great was the dismay of some, great the triumph of others. +It was 'a disgraceful bargain,' said Calamy.[395] To many, Nottingham +was eminently a 'patriot and a lover of the Church.'[396] Addison makes +Sir Roger 'launch out into the praise of the late Act of Parliament for +securing the Church of England. He told me with great satisfaction, that +he believed it already began to take effect, for that a rigid Dissenter, +who chanced to dine at his house on Christmas-day, had been observed to +eat very plentifully of his plum-porridge.'[397] The Act which received +the worthy knight's characteristic panegyric was repealed seven years +afterwards. + +Nothing could well be more alien--it may be rather said, more +repugnant--to the general tenor of present thought and feeling than this +controversy of a past generation. Its importance, as a question of the +day, mainly hinged upon the Test Act; and there is no fear of history so +repeating itself as to witness ever again the operation of a law +consigned, however tardily, to such well-merited opprobrium. +Unquestionably, when Dissenters received the Sacrament in the parish +churches, the motive was in most cases a secular one. 'It is manifest,' +says Hoadly, 'that there is hardly any occasional communicant who ever +comes near the Church but precisely at that time when the whole parish +knows he must come to qualify himself for some office.'[398] This was a +great scandal to religion; but it was one the guilt of which, in many, +if not in most cases, entirely devolved upon the authors and promoters +of the test. As the writer just quoted has elsewhere remarked, a man +might with perfect integrity do for the sake of an office what he had +always held to be lawful, and what some men whom he much respected +considered to be even a duty. It was a very scandalous thing for a +person who lived in constant neglect of his religious duties to come +merely to qualify. But plainly this was a sin which a Conformist was +quite as likely to commit as a Nonconformist.[399] + +The imposition of a test on all accounts so ill-advised and odious in +principle was the more unfortunate, because, apart from it, occasional +conformity, though it would never have attracted any considerable +attention, might have been really important in its consequences. +Considered in itself, without any reference to external and artificial +motives, it had begun to take a strong hold upon the minds of many of +the most exemplary and eminent Nonconformists. When the projects of +comprehension failed, on which the moderates in Church and Dissent had +set their heart, the Presbyterian leaders, and some of the +Congregationalists, turned their thoughts to occasional conformity as to +a kind of substitute for that closer union with the National Church +which they had reluctantly given up. It was 'a healing custom,' as +Baxter had once called it. There were many quiet, religious people, +members of Nonconformist bodies, who, as an expression of charity and +Christian fellowship, and because they did not like to feel themselves +entirely severed from the unity of the National Church, made a point of +sometimes receiving the Communion from their parish clergyman, and who +'utterly disliked the design of the Conformity Bill, that it put a brand +upon those who least interest themselves in our unhappy disputes.'[400] +This was particularly the custom with many of the Presbyterian clergy, +headed by Calamy, and, before him, by three men of the highest +distinction for their piety, learning, and social influence, of whose +services the National Church had been unhappily deprived by the ejection +of 1662--Baxter, Bates, and Howe. Some distinguished Churchmen entirely +agreed with this. 'I think,' said Archbishop Tenison, 'the practice of +occasional Conformity, as used by the Dissenters, is so far from +deserving the title of a vile hypocrisy, that it is the duty of all +moderate Dissenters, upon their own principles, to do it.'[401] However +wrong they might be in their separation, he thought that everything that +tended to promote unity ought to be not discountenanced, but encouraged. +And Burnet, among others, argued in the same spirit, that just as it had +commonly been considered right to communicate with the Protestant +churches abroad, as he himself had been accustomed to do in Geneva and +Holland, so the Dissenters here were wholly right in communicating with +the National Church, even, though they wrongly considered it less +perfect than their own.[402] He has elsewhere remarked upon the unseemly +inconsistency of Prince George of Denmark, who voted in the House of +Lords against occasional Conformity, but was himself in every sense of +the word an occasional Conformist, keeping up a Lutheran service, but +sometimes receiving the Sacrament according to the English rites.[403] + +There were of course many men of extreme views on either side to whom, +if there had been no such thing as a Test Act, the practice of +occasional conformity was a sign of laxity, wholly to be condemned. It +was indifference, they said, lukewarmness, neutrality; it was involving +the orthodox in the guilt of heresy; it was a self-proclaimed +confession of the sin of needless schism. Sacheverell, in his famous +sermon, raved against it as an admission of a Trojan horse, big with +arms and ruin, into the holy city. It was the persistent effort of false +brethren to carry the conventicle into the Church,[404] or the Church +into the conventicle. 'What could not be gained by comprehension and +toleration must be brought about by moderation and occasional +conformity; that is, what they could not do by open violence, they will +not fail by secret treachery to accomplish.'[405] Much in the same way, +there were Dissenters who would as soon hear the mass as the Liturgy, +who would as willingly bow themselves in the house of Rimmon as conform +for an hour to the usages of the English Church; and who, 'if you ask +them their exceptions at the Book, thank God they never looked at +it.'[406] By a decree of the Baptist conference in 1689,[407] repeated +in 1742,[408] persons who on any pretext received the Sacrament in a +parish church were to be at once excommunicated. + +But, had it not been for the provisions of the Test Act, extreme views +on the subject would have received little attention, and the counsels of +men like Baxter, Bates, and Calamy would have gained a far deeper, if +not a wider, hold on the minds of all moderate Nonconformists. The +practice in question did, in fact, point towards a comprehension of +which the Liberal Churchmen of the time had as yet no idea, but one +which might have been based on far sounder principles than any of the +schemes which had hitherto been conceived. Under kindlier auspices it +might have matured into a system of auxiliary societies affiliated into +the National Church, through which persons, who approved in a general +way of the doctrine and order of the Prayer Book and Articles, but to +whom a different form of worship was more edifying or attractive, might +be retained by a looser tie within the established communion. A +comprehension of this kind suggests difficulties, but certainly they are +not insurmountable. It is the only apparent mode by which High +Anglicans, and those who would otherwise be Dissenters, can work +together harmoniously, but without suggestion of compromise, as brother +Churchmen. And in a great Church there should be abundant room for +societies thus incorporated into it, and functions for them to fulfil, +not less important than those which they have accomplished at the heavy +cost of so much disunion, bitterness, and waste of power. If, at the +opening of the eighteenth century, the test had been abolished, and +occasional conformity, as practised by such men as Baxter and Bates, +instead of being opposed, had been cordially welcomed, and its +principles developed, the English Church might have turned to a noble +purpose the popularity it enjoyed. + +A chapter dealing in any way with Latitudinarianism in the last century +would be incomplete if some mention were not made of discussions which, +without reference to the removal of Nonconformist scruples, related +nevertheless to the general question of the revision of Church +formularies. Even if the Liturgy had been far less perfect than it is, +and if abuses in the English Church and causes for complaint had been +far more flagrant than they were, there would have been little +inclination, under the rule of Walpole and his successors, to meddle +with prescribed customs. Waterland, in one of his treatises against +Clarke, compared perpetual reforming to living on physic. The comparison +is apt. But it was rather the fault of his age to trust overmuch to the +healing power of nature, and not to apply medicine even where it was +really needed. There was very little ecclesiastical legislation in the +eighteenth century, except such as was directed at first to the +imposition, and afterwards to the tardy removal or abatement, of +disabilities upon Roman Catholics and Dissenters. Statesmen dreaded +nothing much more than 'a Church clamour.'[409] Their dread was in a +great measure justified by the passions which had been excited in the +times of the Sacheverell and Church in Danger cries, and by the +unreasoning intolerance which broke furiously out afresh when the Bill +for naturalising Jews was brought forward in 1753, and when relief to +Roman Catholics was proposed in 1778. At the end of the century the +panic excited by the French Revolution was an effectual bar against +anything that partook in any degree of the nature of innovation. +Throughout the whole of the period very little was done, except in +improvement of the marriage laws, even to check practices which brought +scandal upon the Church or did it evident injury; next to nothing was +done with a serious and anxious purpose of promoting its efficiency and +extending its popularity. The best considered plans of revision and +reform would have found but small favour. It was not without much regret +that the Low or Latitudinarian party gave up all hope of procuring any +of those alterations in the Prayer Book for which they had laboured so +earnestly in the reign of William III. Or rather, they did not entirely +give up the hope, but gradually ceased to consider the subject as any +longer a practical one. After them the advocacy of such schemes was +chiefly left to men who suffered more or less under the imputation of +heterodoxy. This, of course, still further discredited the idea of +revision, and gave a strong handle to those who were opposed to it. It +became easy to set down as Deists or Arians all who suggested +alterations in the established order. The 'Free and Candid +Disquisitions,'[410] published in 1749 by John Jones, Vicar of +Alconbury, did something towards reviving interest in the question. It +was mainly a compilation of opinions advanced by eminent divines, past +and living, in favour of revising the Liturgy, and making certain +omissions and emendations in it. Introductory essays were prefixed. The +book was addressed to 'the Governing Bodies of Church and State,' more +immediately to the two Houses of Convocation, and commended itself by +the modest and generally judicious spirit in which it was written. +Warburton wrote to Doddridge that he thought the 'Disquisitions' very +edifying and exemplary. 'I wish,' he added, 'success to them as much as +you can do.'[411] Some of the bishops would gladly have taken up some +such design, and have done their best to further its success. But there +was no prospect whatever of anything being done. It was evident that the +prevailing disposition was to allow that there were improvements which +might and ought to be made, but that all attempts to carry them out +should be deferred to some more opportune season, when minds were more +tranquil and the Church more united. The effect of the 'Disquisitions' +was also seriously injured by the warm advocacy they received from +Blackburne and others, who were anxious for far greater changes than any +which were then proposed. Blackburne, in the violence of his +Protestantism, insisted that in the Reformed Church of England there +ought not to be 'one circumstance in her constitution borrowed from the +Creeds, Ritual, and Ordinaries of the Popish system.'[412] A little of +the same tendency may be discovered in the proposals put forward in the +Disquisitions. In truth, in the eighteenth, as in the seventeenth +century, there was always some just cause for fear that a work of +revision, however desirable in itself, might be marred by some unworthy +concessions to a timid and ignorant Protestantism. + +Revision of the Liturgy, although occasionally discussed, cannot be +said to have been an eighteenth-century question. Subscription, on the +other hand, as required by law to the Thirty-nine Articles, received a +great deal of anxious attention. This was quite inevitable. Much had +been said and written on the subject in the two previous centuries; but +until law, or usage so well established and so well understood as to +take the place of law, had interpreted with sufficient plainness the +force and meaning of subscription, the subject was necessarily +encompassed with much uneasiness and perplexity. Through a material +alteration in the law of the English Church, the consciences of the +clergy have at last been relieved of what could scarcely fail to be a +stumbling-block. By an Act passed by Parliament in 1865, and confirmed +by both Houses of Convocation, an important change was made in the +wording of the declaration required. Before that time the subscriber had +to 'acknowledge all and every the Articles ... to be agreeable to the +word of God.'[413] He now has to assent to the Articles, the Book of +Common Prayer, and of the ordering of priests and deacons, and to +believe the doctrine therein set forth to be agreeable to the Word of +God. The omission of the 'all and every,' and the insertion of the word +'doctrine' in the singular, constituted a substantial improvement, as +distinctly recognising that general adhesion and that liberty of +criticism, which had long been practically admitted, and in fact +authorised, by competent legal decisions, but which scarcely seemed +warranted by the wording of the subscription. + +Dr. Jortin, in a treatise which he published about the middle of the +last century, summed up under four heads the different opinions which, +in his time, were entertained upon the subject. 'Subscription,' he said, +'to the Articles, Liturgy, &c., in a rigid sense, is a consent to them +all in general, and to every proposition contained in them; according to +the intention of the compiler, when that can be known, and according to +the obvious usual signification of the words. Subscription, in a second +sense, is a consent to them in a meaning which is not always consistent +with the intention of the compiler, nor with the more usual +signification of the words; but is consistent with those passages of +Scripture which the compiler had in view. Subscription, in a third +sense, is an assent to them as to articles of peace and conformity, by +which we so far submit to them as not to raise disturbances about them +and set the people against them. Subscription, in a fourth sense, is an +assent to them as far as they are consistent with the Scriptures and +themselves, but no further.[414] Jortin's classification might perhaps +be improved and simplified; but it serves to indicate in how lax a sense +subscription was accepted by some--the more so, as it was sometimes, in +the case, for instance, of younger undergraduates, evidently intended +for a mere declaration of churchmanship--and how oppressive it must have +been to the minds and consciences of others. From the very first this +ambiguity had existed. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the original +composers of the Articles cherished the vain hope of 'avoiding of +diversities of opinion,' and intended them all to be understood in one +plain literal sense. Yet, in the prefatory declaration, His Majesty +'takes comfort that even in those curious points in which the present +differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of +England to be for them,' even while he adds the strangely illogical +inference that 'therefore' no man is to put his own sense or meaning +upon any of them. + +Those who insisted upon a stringent and literal interpretation of the +Articles were able to use language which, whatever might be the error +involved in it, could not fail to impress a grave sense of +responsibility upon every truthful and honourable man who might be +called upon, to give his assent to them. 'The prevarication,' said +Waterland, 'of subscribing to forms which men believe not according to +the true and proper sense of words, and the known intent of imposers and +compilers, and the subtleties invented to defend or palliate such gross +insincerity, will be little else than disguised atheism.'[415] +Winston,[416] and other writers, such as Dr. Conybeare,[417] Dean +Tucker,[418] and others, spoke scarcely less strongly. It is evident, +too, that where subscription was necessary for admission to temporal +endowments and Church preferment, the candidate was more than ever bound +to examine closely into the sincerity of his act. + +But the answer of those who claimed a greater latitude of interpretation +was obvious. 'They,' said Paley, 'who contend that nothing less can +justify subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles than the actual belief +of each and every separate proposition contained in them must suppose +the Legislature expected the consent of ten thousand men, and that in +perpetual succession, not to one controverted position, but to many +hundreds. It is difficult to conceive how this could be expected by any +who observed the incurable diversity of human opinions upon all subjects +short of demonstration.'[419] Subscription on such terms would not only +produce total extinction of anything like independent thought,[420] it +would become difficult to understand how any rational being could +subscribe at all. Practically, those who took the more stringent view +acted for the most part on much the same principles as those whom they +accused of laxity. They each interpreted the Articles according to their +own construction of them. Only the one insisted that the compilers of +them were of their mind; the others simply argued that theirs was a +lawful and allowable interpretation. Bishop Tomline expressed himself in +much the same terms as Waterland had done; but was indignantly asked +how, in his well-known treatise, he could possibly impose an altogether +anti-Calvinistic sense upon the Articles without violation of their +grammatical meaning, and without encouraging what the Calvinists of the +day called 'the general present prevarication.'[421] A moderate +Latitudinarianism in regard of subscription was after all more candid, +as it certainly was more rational. Nor was there any lack of +distinguished authority to support it. 'For the Church of England,' said +Chillingworth, 'I am persuaded that the constant doctrine of it is so +pure and orthodox, that whosoever believes it, and lives according to +it, undoubtedly he shall be saved, and that there is no error in it +which may necessitate or warrant any man to disturb the peace or +renounce the communion of it. This, in my opinion, is all intended by +subscription.'[422] Bramhall,[423] Stillingfleet, Sanderson,[424] +Patrick,[425] Fowler, Laud,[426] Tillotson, Chief Justice King, Baxter, +and other eminent men of different schools of thought, were on this +point more or less agreed with Chillingworth. Moreover, the very freedom +of criticism which such great divines as Jeremy Taylor had exercised +without thought of censure, and the earnest vindication, frequent among +all Protestants, of the rights of the individual judgment, were standing +proofs that subscription had not been generally considered the +oppressive bondage which some were fain to make it. + +Nevertheless, the position maintained by Waterland, by Whiston, by +Blackburne, and by some of the more ardent Calvinists, was strong, and +felt to be so. In appearance, if not in reality, there was clearly +something equivocal, some appearance of casuistry and reserve, if not of +insincerity, in subscribing to formularies, part of which were no longer +accepted in the spirit in which they had been drawn up, and with the +meaning they had been originally intended to bear. The Deistical and +Arian controversies of the eighteenth century threw these considerations +into more than usual prominence. Since the time of Laud, Arminian had +been so generally substituted for Calvinistical tenets in the Church of +England, that few persons would have challenged the right of subscribing +the Articles with a very different construction from that which they +wore when the influence of Bucer and Peter Martyr was predominant, or +even when Hales and Ward, and their fellow Calvinists, attended in +behalf of England at the Synod of Dort. On this point, at all events, it +was quite unmistakable that the Articles (as Hoadly said)[427] were by +public authority allowed a latitude of interpretation. But it was not +quite easy to see where the bounds of this latitude were to be drawn, +unless they were to be left to the individual conscience. And it was a +latitude which had become open to abuse in a new and formidable way. +Open or suspected Deists and Arians were known to have signed the +Articles on the ground of general conformity to the English Church. No +one knew how far revealed religion might be undermined, or attacked +under a masked battery, by concealed and unsuspected enemies. The danger +that Deists, in any proper sense of the word, might take English orders +appears to have been quite overrated. No disbeliever in Revelation, +unless guilty of an insincerity which precautions were powerless to +guard against, could give his allegiance to the English liturgy. But +Arian subscription had become a familiar name; and a strong feeling +arose that a clearer understanding should be come to as to what +acceptance of Church formularies implied. In another chapter of this +work the subject has come under notice in its relation to those who +held, or were supposed to hold, heretical opinions upon the doctrine of +the Trinity. The remarks, therefore, here made need only be concerned +with the uneasiness that was awakened in reference to subscription +generally. The society which was instituted at the Feathers Tavern, to +agitate for the abolition of subscription, in favour of a simple +acknowledgment of belief in Scripture, and which petitioned Parliament +to this effect in 1772, was a very mixed company. Undoubtedly there were +many Deists, Socinians, and Arians in it. But it also numbered in its +list many thoroughly orthodox clergymen, and would have numbered many +more, had it not been for the natural objection which they felt at +being associated, in such a connection, with men whose views they +greatly disapproved of. Archdeacon Blackburne himself, the great +promoter of it, held no heretical opinions on the subject of the +Trinity. There was a great deal in the doctrine, discipline, and ritual +of the Church of England which he thought exceptionable, but his +objections seem to have been entirely those which were commonly brought +forward by ultra-Protestants. His vehement opposition to subscription +rested on wholly general grounds. He could not, he said, accept the view +that the Articles could be signed with a latitude of interpretation or +as articles of peace. They were evidently meant to be received in one +strictly literal sense. This, no Church had a right to impose upon any +of its members; it was wholly wrong to attempt to settle religion once +for all in an uncontrollable form.[428] The petition, however, had not +the smallest chance of success. The Evangelicals--a body fast rising in +numbers and activity--and the Methodists[429] were strongly opposed. So +were all the High Churchmen; so also were a great number of the +Latitudinarians. Dr. Balguy, for instance, after the example of Hoadly, +while he strongly insisted that the laws of the Church and realm most +fully warranted a broad construction of the meaning of the Articles, was +entirely opposed to the abolition of subscription. It would, he feared, +seriously affect the constitution of the National Church. The Bill was +thrown out in three successive years by immense majorities. After the +third defeat Dr. Jebb, Theophilus Lindsey, and some other clergymen +seceded to the Unitarians. The language of the earlier Articles admits +of no interpretation by which Unitarians, in any proper sense of the +word, could with any honesty hold their place in the English Communion. + +Thus the attempt to abolish subscription failed, and under circumstances +which showed that the Church had escaped a serious danger. But the +difficulty which had led many orthodox clergymen to join, not without +risk of obloquy, in the petition remained untouched. It was, in fact, +aggravated rather than not; for 'Arian subscription' had naturally +induced a disposition, strongly expressed in some Parliamentary +speeches, to reflect injuriously upon that reasonable and allowed +latitude of construction without which the Reformed Church of England +would in every generation have lost some of its best and ablest men. +Some, therefore, were anxious that the articles and Liturgy should be +revised; and a petition to this effect was presented in 1772 to the +Archbishop of Canterbury. Among the other names attached to it appears +that of Beilby Porteus, afterwards Bishop of London and a principal +supporter of the Evangelical party. Some proposed that the 'orthodox +Articles' only--by which they meant those that relate to the primary +doctrines of the Christian creed--should be subscribed to;[430] some +thought that it would be sufficient to require of the clergy only an +unequivocal assent to the Book of Common Prayer. It seems strange that +while abolition of subscription was proposed by some, revision of the +Articles by others, no one, so far as it appears, proposed the more +obvious alternative of modifying the wording of the terms in which +subscription was made. But nothing of any kind was done. The bishops, +upon consultation, thought it advisable to leave matters alone. They may +have been right. But, throughout the greater part of the century, +leaving alone was too much the wisdom of the leaders and rulers of the +English Church. + +In all the course of its long history, before and after the Reformation, +the National Church of England has never, perhaps, occupied so +peculiarly isolated a place in Christendom as at the extreme end of the +last century and through the earlier years of the present one. At one or +another period it may have been more jealous of foreign influence, more +violently antagonistic to Roman Catholics, more intolerant of Dissent, +more wedded to uniformity in doctrine and discipline. But at no one time +had it stood, as a Church, so distinctly apart from all other +Communions. If the events of the French Revolution had slightly +mitigated the antipathy to Roman Catholicism, there was still not the +very slightest approximation to it on the part of the highest Anglicans, +if any such continued to exist. The Eastern Church, after attracting a +faint curiosity through the overtures of the later Nonjurors, was as +wholly unknown and unthought of as though it had been an insignificant +sect in the furthest wilds of Muscovy. All communications with the +foreign Protestant Churches had ceased. It had beheld, after the death +of Wesley, almost the last links severed between itself and Methodism. +It had become separated from Dissenters generally by a wider interval. +Its attitude towards them was becoming less intolerant, but more chilled +and exclusive. The Evangelicals combined to some extent with +Nonconformists, and often met on the same platforms. But there was no +longer anything like the friendly intercourse which had existed in the +beginning and in the middle of last century between the bishops and +clergy of the 'moderate' party in the Church on the one hand, and the +principal Nonconformist ministers on the other. Comprehension--until +the time of Dr. Arnold--was no longer discussed. Occasional conformity +had in long past time received the blow which deprived it of importance. +Again, the Church of England was still almost confined, except by its +missions, within the limits of the four seas. Pananglicanism was a term +yet to be invented. The Colonial empire was still in its infancy, and +its Church in tutelage. There was a sister Church in the United States. +But the wounds inflicted in the late war were scarcely staunched; and +the time had not arrived to speak of cordiality, or of community of +Church interests. It was from Scottish, not from English hands, that +America received her first bishop. + +Perhaps, in the order of that far-reaching Providence which is traced in +the history of Churches as of States, it may, after all, have been well +that, in the century under our review, the somewhat sluggish stream of +life which circulated in the English Church had not sought out for +itself any new channels. A more diffusive activity might be reserved to +it for better times. In the eighteenth century there would always have +been cause for fear that, in seeking to embrace more, it might lose some +valuable part of what it already had, and which, once lost, it might not +be easy to recover. There were many to whom 'moderation' would have been +another word for compromise; and who, not so much in the interests of +true unity as for the sake of tranquil days, would have made concessions +which a later age would regret in vain. Moreover, the Churchmen of that +period had a great work before them of consolidation, and of examination +of fundamental principles. They did not do that part of their work +amiss. Possibly they might have done it not so well, had their energies +been less concentrated on the special task which employed their +intellects--if they had been called upon to turn their attention to +important changes in the ecclesiastical polity, or to new schemes of +Church extension. Faults, blunders, shortcomings, are not to be excused +by unforeseen good ultimately involved in them; yet it is, at all +events, an allowable and pleasant thing to consider whether good may not +have resulted in the end. Throughout the eighteenth century the +principles of the Church of England were retained, if sometimes +inactive, yet at least intact, ready for development and expansion, if +ever the time should come. Already, at the end of the century, our +National Church was teeming with the promise of a new or reinvigorated +life. The time for greater union, in which this Church may have a great +part to do, and for increased comprehensiveness, may, in our day, be +ripening towards maturity. Even now there is little fear that in any +changes and improvements which might be made, the English Church would +relax its hold either on primitive and Catholic uses, or on that +precious inheritance of liberty which was secured at the Reformation. +There may be difficulties, too great to be overcome, in the way either +of Church revision or Church comprehension; but if they should be +achieved, their true principles would be better understood than ever +they were in the days of Tillotson and Calamy, or of Secker and +Doddridge. + +C.J.A. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 301: Alison's _Life of Marlborough_, i. 199. Seward's +_Anecdotes_, ii. 271. Jortin's _Tracts_, ii. 43. E. Savage's _Poems_, +'The Character,' &c.] + +[Footnote 302: _Spectator_, No. 116.] + +[Footnote 303: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 329-30.] + +[Footnote 304: Mosheim's _Church History_, Maclaine's edition, vol. v. +'Letter of Beauvoir to Wake,' December 11, 1717, Ap. 2, No. 2, p. 147.] + +[Footnote 305: Id. Dupin to Wake, February 11. 1718. 'Unum addam, cum +bona venia tua, me vehementer optare, ut unionis inter ecclesias +Anglicanam et Gallicam via aliqua inveniri possit,' &c.] + +[Footnote 306: Wake to Dupin, October 1, 1718. Id. 134, 152, 156.] + +[Footnote 307: Wake to Dupin, October 1, 1718, Ap. 3, No. 8, p. 158.] + +[Footnote 308: De Maistre: _Considerations sur la France_, chap. ii. p. +30.] + +[Footnote 309: April, 1719. _Mosheim_, v. 169. Ap. 3, No. 19.] + +[Footnote 310: Ap. 8, 1719. Id. 171-3, Ap. 3, No. 20.] + +[Footnote 311: Maclaine's edition of _Mosheim_, v. 143.] + +[Footnote 312: _Quarterly Review_, 89, 475.] + +[Footnote 313: Id.] + +[Footnote 314: _Berkeley's Life and Works_, ed. A.C. Fraser, iv. 243.] + +[Footnote 315: _Life and Works_, iv. 321.] + +[Footnote 316: Boswell's _Johnson_, ii. 154, 104.] + +[Footnote 317: Sermon, January 30, 1793.] + +[Footnote 318: Burnet's _Life and Works_, 420.] + +[Footnote 319: _State and Fate of the Protestant Religion_, 1682, 3.] + +[Footnote 320: _Endeavour for Peace_, &c. 1680, 15.] + +[Footnote 321: Froude's _History of England_, ii. 405.] + +[Footnote 322: Hallam's _Constitutional History_, i. 172, note.] + +[Footnote 323: Burnet's _History of His Own Times_, 51.] + +[Footnote 324: Hallam's _Constitutional History_, i. 171.] + +[Footnote 325: _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, vol. ii. 186, App. 2.] + +[Footnote 326: Hallam's _Constitutional History_, i. 102.] + +[Footnote 327: Perry, G.G., _History of the Church of England_, i. 453.] + +[Footnote 328: De Foe's _True-born Englishman_ (Ed. Chalmers' series), +vol. xx. 19.] + +[Footnote 329: Hallam's _Constitutional History_, iii. 55.] + +[Footnote 330: _Life of Bishop Ken_, by a Layman, 319-27.] + +[Footnote 331: _Life of Rainbow_, 1688. Quoted in id. 326.] + +[Footnote 332: Fleetwood's _Works_, 483.] + +[Footnote 333: Birch's 'Life of Tillotson.'--_Works_, i. xciv.] + +[Footnote 334: Birch's 'Life of Tillotson.'--_Works_, i. cxxxv.] + +[Footnote 335: J.J. Blunt's _Early Fathers_, 20.] + +[Footnote 336: Ralph Thoresby, _Diary_, ii. 22.] + +[Footnote 337: The full history of this correspondence is given in the +_Life of Archbishop Sharp_, ed. Newcomb, i. 410-49.] + +[Footnote 338: _Works_, 368.] + +[Footnote 339: _Life and Times_, ii. 368, 482.] + +[Footnote 340: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 330.] + +[Footnote 341: Mahon's _History of England_, chap. xxxi.] + +[Footnote 342: _Endeavour for Peace, &c._ 1680, 20.] + +[Footnote 343: _Irenicum._ Hunt, ii. 136. _Endeavour &c._, 22-7.] + +[Footnote 344: Burnet's _Own Times_, 528. Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, +cix. _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, 501. Hunt, _Religious Thought_, ii. +70.] + +[Footnote 345: Macaulay's _History of England_, chap. xiv.] + +[Footnote 346: Skeats, 147.] + +[Footnote 347: Id. 166.] + +[Footnote 348: Hallam's _Constitutional History of England_, ii. 317. +Hunt, _Religious Thought in England_, i. 213.] + +[Footnote 349: Hunt, _Religions Thought in England_, ii. 22.] + +[Footnote 350: Skeats' _History of the Free Churches_, 147.] + +[Footnote 351: Calamy's _Baxter_, 655 (quoted by Skeats), 149. +Thoresby's _Diary_, 399.] + +[Footnote 352: Skeats, 158-65.] + +[Footnote 353: Id. 186.] + +[Footnote 354: Wall's _Dissuasive from Schism_, 477.] + +[Footnote 355: _Tombs against Marshall_, p. 31, quoted by Wall.] + +[Footnote 356: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 240, 260.] + +[Footnote 357: Birch's _Tillotson_, ccvii. Leslie's _Works_, ii. +533-600, &c.] + +[Footnote 358: Leslie, ii. 659.] + +[Footnote 359: Chillingworth's _Works_, vol. i. Preface, Sec. 9.] + +[Footnote 360: _The Principles of the Reformation concerning Church +Communion_, 1704.] + +[Footnote 361: _An Apology for the Parliament, &c._, 1697, part i.] + +[Footnote 362: Leslie's _Works_, ii. 656.] + +[Footnote 363: Dr. Arnold, _Principles of Church Reform_, 285.] + +[Footnote 364: Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, ccxxvii.] + +[Footnote 365: Burnet's _Four Discourses to the Clergy of Sarum_, 1694, +Pref. v.] + +[Footnote 366: Skeats, 185.] + +[Footnote 367: R. South's _Sermons_, vol. iv. 174-95.] + +[Footnote 368: Sermon of November 5, 1709. Hunt, 3, 12.] + +[Footnote 369: _Works_, vol. 8, 264.] + +[Footnote 370: South's _Sermons_, iv. 227.] + +[Footnote 371: Burnet's _Own Times_, 751. Hoadly's _Works_, i. 24] + +[Footnote 372: _A Brief Defence of the Church_, 1706.] + +[Footnote 373: Id.] + +[Footnote 374: Id.] + +[Footnote 375: Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_ (Maclaine's Trans.), +5, 95.] + +[Footnote 376: Hunt, 3, 247.] + +[Footnote 377: Doddridge's _Works_, iv. 503-4.] + +[Footnote 378: Doddridge's _Correspondence_, v. 167. Perry's _Church +History_, 3, 377.] + +[Footnote 379: Lord Mahon's _History_, chap. 31.] + +[Footnote 380: 'Answer to Bailey,' 1750,--_Works_, vol. ix. 83.] + +[Footnote 381: Corner's _History of Protestant Theology_, ii. 204-6. +Rose's _Protestantism in Germany_, 46-9. A.S. Farrer's _History of +Religious Thought_, note 17, p. 600. M.J. Matter's _Histoire de +Christianisme_, 4, 346.] + +[Footnote 382: Matter's _Histoire de Christianisme_, 4, 368.] + +[Footnote 383: T. Rowan's _Life and Letters of Schleiermacher_, i. 30.] + +[Footnote 384: 'Remarks on the Defence to Aspasio,' &c., 1766,--_Works_, +10, 351.] + +[Footnote 385: Idem.] + +[Footnote 386: Wesley's 'Answer to Lavington,'--_Works_, vol. ix. 3.] + +[Footnote 387: Seward's 'Journal,' 45, quoted by Lavington. _Enthusiasm +of Methodists and Papists Compared_, 11.] + +[Footnote 388: Seward's 'Journal,' 62. Lavington, _Id._] + +[Footnote 389: Seward's _Anecdotes_, vol. ii. (ed. 1798), 437.] + +[Footnote 390: Calamy's _Life and Times_, i. 404. Perry's _History of +the Church of England_, 3, 145.] + +[Footnote 391: Calamy, i. 465. Skeats' _History of the Free Churches_, +187.] + +[Footnote 392: Calamy, i. 465.] + +[Footnote 393: Burnet's _History of his Own Times_, 721.] + +[Footnote 394: Hoadly, 'Letter to a Clergyman,' &c.--_Works_, i. 19.] + +[Footnote 395: Calamy, ii. 243.] + +[Footnote 396: _Guardian_, No. 41.] + +[Footnote 397: _Spectator_, No. 269.] + +[Footnote 398: Hoadly, 'Reasonableness of Conformity.'--_Works_, i. +284.] + +[Footnote 399: 'Letter to a Clergyman,' &c.--_Works_, i. 30.] + +[Footnote 400: Matthew Henry, in Thoresby's _Correspondence_, i. 438.] + +[Footnote 401: Speech in the House of Lords, 1704.] + +[Footnote 402: Burnet's _Life and Times_, 741.] + +[Footnote 403: Ibid. 721.] + +[Footnote 404: At this date, as White Kennet's biographer remarks, 'the +name of Presbyterian was liberally bestowed on one of the archbishops, +on several of the most exemplary bishops, as well as on great numbers +among the interior clergy.'--_Life of Kennet_, 102.] + +[Footnote 405: _Sermon before the Lord Mayor_, &c. November 5, 1709.] + +[Footnote 406: _The Church of England free from the Imputation of +Popery_, 1683.] + +[Footnote 407: Skeats' _History of the Free Churches_, 160.] + +[Footnote 408: Id. 346.] + +[Footnote 409: Horace Walpole's _Memoirs_, &c. 366.] + +[Footnote 410: They are carefully summarised in a series of papers in +the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1750, vols. xix and xx. It is clear from +the correspondence on the subject how much interest they aroused.--See +also Nichols' _Lit. An._, vol. 3.] + +[Footnote 411: Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, iii. 300.] + +[Footnote 412: Blackburne's _Historical View_, &c., Introduction, xx.] + +[Footnote 413: Canon 36, Sec. 3.] + +[Footnote 414: 'Strictures on the Articles, Subscriptions, &c.,' +Jortin's _Tracts_, ii. 417.] + +[Footnote 415: Quoted in _The Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 1801, +p. 2.] + +[Footnote 416: Whiston's _Life of Clarke_, &c., 11, 40; _Memoirs_, 157, +&c.] + +[Footnote 417: Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, 3, 305.] + +[Footnote 418: Id. 312.] + +[Footnote 419: Paley's _Moral and Political Philosophy_, chap. xxii.] + +[Footnote 420: Mr. Buxton, Parl. Speech, June 21, 1865.] + +[Footnote 421: _Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 52, 161.] + +[Footnote 422: _Works_, vol. i. 35.] + +[Footnote 423: Quoted in Jortin's _Tracts_, ii. 423, and Hunt's +_Religious Thought in England_, ii. 25.] + +[Footnote 424: Quoted in Malone's note to Boswell's _Johnson_, ii. 104.] + +[Footnote 425: Review of Maizeaux' 'Life of Chillingworth,' _Guardian_, +November 30, 1864.] + +[Footnote 426: 'Sense of the Articles,' &c. _Works_, vol. xv., 528-33. +'Moral Prognostication,' &c. id. xv., 440.] + +[Footnote 427: Answer to Rep. of Con. chap. i. Sec. 20.--_Works_, +ii. 534.] + +[Footnote 428: Blackburne's _Historical View_, Introd. xxxix.] + +[Footnote 429: H. Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._ +(Doran), i. 7, 8.] + +[Footnote 430: _Consideration of the Present State of Religion_, &c. +1801, 11.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY. + + +In an age which above all things prided itself upon its reasonableness, +it would have been strange indeed if that doctrine of Christianity which +is objected to by unbelievers as most repugnant to reason, had not taken +a prominent place among the controversies which then abounded in every +sphere of theological thought. To the thoughtful Christian, the question +of questions must ever be that which forms the subject of this chapter. +It is, if possible, even a more vital question than that which was +involved in the Deistical controversy. The very name 'Christian' implies +as much. A Christian is a follower of Christ. Who, then, is this Christ? +What relation does He bear to the Great Being whom Christians, Jews, +Turks, Infidels, and Heretics alike adore? What do we mean when we say +that He is the Son of God Incarnate? That He is still present with his +Church through his Holy Spirit? These are only other forms of putting +the question, What is the Trinity? The various answers given to this +question in the eighteenth century form an important part of the +ecclesiastical history of the period. + +The subject carries us back in thought to the earliest days of +Christianity. During the first four centuries, the nature of the +Godhead, and the relation of the Three Persons of the Trinity to each +other, were directly or indirectly the causes of almost all the +divisions which rent the Church. They had been matters of discussion +before the death of the last surviving Apostle, and the three centuries +which followed his decease were fruitful in theories upon the subject. +These theories reappear with but little alteration in the period which +comes more immediately under our present consideration. If history ever +repeats itself, it might be expected to do so on the revival of this +discussion after an abeyance of many centuries. For it is one of those +questions on which modern research can throw but little light. The same +materials which enabled the inquirer of the eighteenth century to form +his conclusion, existed in the fourth century. Moreover, there was a +tendency in the discussions of the later period to run in an historical +direction; in treating of them, therefore, our attention will constantly +be drawn to the views of the earlier thinkers. With regard to these, it +will be sufficient to say that their speculations on the mysterious +subject of the Trinity group themselves under one or other of these four +heads. + +1. The view of those who contend for the mere humanity of Christ--a view +which, as will be seen presently, is often claimed by Unitarians as the +earliest belief of Christendom. + +2. The view of those who deny the distinct personality of the Second and +Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity. This was held with various +modifications by a great variety of thinkers, but it passes under the +general name of _Sabellianism_. + +3. The view of those who hold that Christ was something more than man, +but less than God; less than God, that is, in the highest, and indeed +the only proper, sense of the word God. This, like the preceding view, +was held by a great variety of thinkers, and with great divergences, but +it passes under the general name of _Arianism_. + +4. The view of those who hold that 'there is but one living and true +God,' but that 'in the Unity of this Godhead there are three Persons, of +one substance, power, and eternity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy +Ghost.' This view is called by its advocates _Catholicism_, for they +hold that it is, and ever has been, the doctrine of the Universal Church +of Christ; but, inasmuch as the admission of such a name would be +tantamount to giving up the whole point in question, it is refused by +its opponents, who give it the name of _Athanasianism_. + +In England, the Trinitarian question began to be agitated in the later +half of the seventeenth century. Possibly the interest in the subject +may have been stimulated by the migration into England of many +anti-Trinitarians from Poland, who had been banished from the country by +an Order of Council in 1660. At any rate, the date synchronises with the +re-opening of the question in this country. It is probable, however, +that under any circumstances the discussion would have arisen. + +Before the publication of Bishop Bull's first great work in 1685, no +controversial treatise on either side of the question--none, at least, +of any importance--was published in this country, though there had of +course been individual anti-Trinitarians in England long before that +time. + +A few words on the 'Defensio Fidei Nicaenae' will be a fitting +introduction to the account of the controversy which belongs properly +to the eighteenth century. Bishop Bull's defence was written in Latin, +and was therefore not intended for the unlearned. It was exclusively +confined to this one question: What were the views of the ante-Nicene +Fathers on the subject of the Trinity, and especially on the relation of +the Second to the First Person? But though the work was addressed only +to a very limited number of readers, and dealt only with one, and that a +very limited, view of the question, the importance of thoroughly +discussing this particular view can scarcely be exaggerated for the +following reason. When, the attention of any one familiar with the +precise definitions of the Catholic Church which were necessitated by +the speculations of Arians and other heretics is called for the first +time to the writings of the ante-Nicene Fathers, he may be staggered by +the absence of equal definiteness and precision in them. Bishop Bull +boldly met the difficulties which might thus occur. He minutely examined +the various expressions which could be wrested into an anti-Trinitarian +sense, showing how they were compatible with the Catholic Faith, and +citing and dwelling upon other expressions which were totally +incompatible with any other belief. He showed that the crucial test of +orthodoxy, the one single term at which Arians and semi-Arians +scrupled--that is, the Homoousion or Consubstantiality of the Son with +the Father--was actually in use before the Nicene Council, and that it +was thoroughly in accordance with the teaching of the ante-Nicene +Fathers. This is proved, among other ways, by the constant use of a +simile which illustrates, as happily as earthly things can illustrate +heavenly, the true relation of the Son to the Father. Over and over +again this is compared by the early fathers to the ray of light which +proceeding from the sun is a part of it, and yet without any division or +diminution from it, but actually consubstantial with it. He fully admits +that the early fathers acknowledged a certain pre-eminence in the First +Person, but only such a pre-eminence as the term Father suggests, a +pre-eminence implying no inequality of nature, but simply a priority of +order, inasmuch as the Father is, as it were, the fountain of the Deity, +God in Himself,[431] while the Son is God _of_ God, and, to recur to the +old simile incorporated in the Nicene Creed, Light _of_ Light.[432] + +Bishop Bull's two subsequent works on the subject of the Trinity +('Judicium Ecclesiae Catholicae' and 'Primitiva et Apostolica Traditio') +may be regarded as supplements to the 'Defence.' The object of the +'Judicium' was to show, in opposition to Episcopius, that the Nicene +fathers held a belief of Our Lord's true and proper divinity to be an +indispensable term of Catholic communion; his latest work was directed +against the opinion of Zuicker that Christ's divinity, pre-existence, +and incarnation were inventions of early heretics.[433] + +It is somewhat remarkable that although in the interval which elapsed +between the publication of these and of his first work the Trinitarian +controversy in England had been assuming larger proportions and +awakening a wider interest, Bull never entered into the arena with his +countrymen. But the fact is, his point of view was different from +theirs. He confined himself exclusively to the historical aspect of +the question, while other defenders of the Trinity were 'induced to +overstep the boundaries of Scripture proof and historical testimony, +and push their inquiries into the dark recesses of metaphysical +speculation.'[434] Chief among these was Dr. W. Sherlock, Dean of St. +Paul's, who in 1690 published his 'Vindication of the Trinity,' which he +describes as 'a new mode of explaining that great mystery by a +hypothesis which gives an easy and intelligible notion of a Trinity in +Unity, and removes the charge of contradiction.' In this work Sherlock +hazarded assertions which were unquestionably 'new,' but not so +unquestionably sound. He affirmed, among other things, that the Persons +of the Godhead were distinct in the same way as the persons of Peter, +James, and John, or any other men. Such assertions were not unnaturally +suspected of verging perilously near upon Tritheism, and his book was +publicly censured by the Convocation of the University of Oxford. On the +other hand, Dr. Wallis, Professor of Geometry, and the famous Dr. South, +published treatises against Dr. Sherlock, which, while avoiding the +Scylla of Tritheism, ran dangerously near to the Charybdis of +Sabellianism. Like all his writings, South's treatise was racy, but +violently abusive, and such irritation and acrimony were engendered, +that the Royal authority was at last exercised in restraining each party +from introducing novel opinions, and requiring them to adhere to such +explications only as had already received the sanction of the Church. + +Chillingworth, in his Intellectual System, propounded a theory on the +Trinity which savoured of Arianism; Burnet and Tillotson called down the +fiercest invectives from that able controversialist Charles Leslie, for +'making the Three Persons of God only three manifestations, or the same +Person of God considered under three different qualifications and +respects as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,' while Burnet argued +that the inhabitation of God in Christ made Christ to be God. + +Thus at the close of the seventeenth century the subject of the Trinity +was agitating the minds of some of the chief divines of the age. It must +be observed, however, that so far the controversy between theologians of +the first rank had been conducted within the limits of the Catholic +Faith. They disputed, not about the doctrine of the Trinity itself, but +simply about the mode of explaining it. + +Still these disputes between English Churchmen strengthened the hands of +the anti-Trinitarians. These latter represented the orthodox as divided +into Tritheists and Nominalists, and the press teemed with pamphlets +setting forth with more or less ability the usual arguments against the +Trinity. These were for the most part published anonymously; for their +publication would have brought their writers within the range of the +law, the Act of 1689 having expressly excluded those who were unsound on +the subject of the Trinity from the tolerated sects. One of the most +famous tracts, however, 'The Naked Gospel,' was discovered to have been +written by Dr. Bury, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, and was burnt by +order of the Convocation of that University. 'A Historical Vindication +of the Naked Gospel,' was also a work of considerable power, and was +attributed to the famous Le Clerc. But with these exceptions, the +anti-Trinitarians, though they were energetic and prolific in a certain +kind of literature, had not yet produced any writer who had succeeded in +making his mark permanently upon the age. + +Thus the question stood at the commencement of the eighteenth century. +In one sense the controversy was at its height; that is to say, some of +the ablest writers in the Church had written or were writing upon the +subject; but the real struggle between the Unitarians (so called) and +the Trinitarians had hardly yet begun, for under the latter term almost +all the disputants of high mark would fairly have come. + +The new century found the pen of that doughty champion of the Faith, +Charles Leslie, busy at work on the Socinian controversy. His letters on +this subject had been begun some years before this date; but they were +not finally completed until the eighteenth century was some years old. +Leslie was ever ready to defend what he held to be the Christian faith +against all attacks from whatever quarter they might come. Deists, Jews, +Quakers, Romanists, Erastians, and Socinians, all fell under his lash; +his treatise on the last of these, being the first in order of date, and +by no means the last in order of merit among the eighteenth-century +literature on the subject of the Trinity, now comes under our notice. + +Although his dialogue is nominally directed only against the Socinians, +it is full of valuable remarks on the anti-Trinitarians generally; and +he brings out some points more clearly and forcibly than subsequent and +more voluminous writers on the subject have done. For example, he meets +the old objection that the doctrine of the Trinity is incredible as +involving a contradiction, by pointing out that it rests upon the +fallacy of arguing from a nature which we know to quite a different +nature of which we know little or nothing.[435] The objection that the +Christian Trinity was borrowed from the Platonists he turns against the +objectors by asking, 'What is become of the master argument of the +Socinians that the Trinity is contradictory to common sense and +reason?--Yet now they would make it the invention of the principal and +most celebrated philosophers, men of the most refined reason.'[436] + +On the whole this is a very valuable contribution to the apologetic +literature on the subject of the Trinity, for though Leslie, like his +predecessors, sometimes has recourse to abstruse arguments to explain +the 'modes' of the divine presence, yet he is far too acute a +controversialist to lay himself open, as Sherlock and South had done, to +imputations of heresy on any side; and his general method of treating +the question is lucid enough, and full of just such arguments as would +be most telling to men of common sense, for whom rather than for +profound theologians the treatise was written. + +About the same time that this treatise was published, there arose what +was intended to be a new sect, or, according to the claims of its +founders, the revival of a very old one--a return, in fact, to original +Christianity. The founder or reviver of this party was William Whiston, +a man of great learning, and of a thoroughly straightforward and candid +disposition, but withal so eccentric, that it is difficult sometimes to +treat his speculations seriously. His character was a strange compound +of credulity and scepticism. He was 'inclined to believe true' the +legend of Abgarus' epistle to Christ, and Christ's reply. He published a +vindication of the Sibylline oracles 'with the genuine oracles +themselves.' He had a strong faith in the physical efficacy of anointing +the sick with oil. But his great discovery was the genuineness and +inestimable value of the Apostolical Constitutions and Canons. He was +'satisfied that they were of equal value with the four Gospels;' nay, +'that they were the most sacred of the canonical books of the New +Testament; that polemical controversies would never cease until they +were admitted as the standing rule of Christianity.' The learned world +generally had pronounced them to be a forgery, but that was easily +accounted for. The Constitutions favoured the Eusebian doctrines, and +were therefore repudiated of course by those who were interested in +maintaining the Athanasian heresy. + +Whiston had many missions to fulfil. He had to warn a degenerate age +against the wickedness of second marriages; he had to impress upon +professing Christians the duty of trine immersion and of anointing the +sick; he had to prepare them for the Millennium, which, according to his +calculations when he wrote his Memoirs, was to take place in twenty +years from that time. But his great mission of all was to propagate +Eusebianism and to explode the erroneous notions about the Trinity which +were then unhappily current in the Church. His favourite theory on this +subject may be found in almost all his works; but he propounded it _in +extenso_ in a work which he entitled 'Primitive Christianity revived.' +Whiston vehemently repudiated the imputation of Arianism. He called +himself an Eusebian, 'not,' he is careful to tell us, 'that he approved +of all the conduct of Eusebius of Nicomedia, from whom that appellation +was derived; but because that most uncorrupt body of the Christian +Church which he so much approved of had this name originally bestowed +upon them, and because 'tis a name much more proper to them than +Arians.' Whiston formed a sort of society which at first numbered among +those who attended its meetings men who afterwards attained to great +eminence in the Church; among others, B. Hoadly, successively Bishop of +Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury and Winchester, Rundle, afterwards Bishop of +Derry, and then of Gloucester, and Dr. Samuel Clarke. But Whiston was a +somewhat inconvenient friend for men who desired to stand well with the +powers that be. They all fell off lamentably from the principles of +primitive Christianity,--Hoadly sealing his defection by the crowning +enormity of marrying a second wife. + +Poor Whiston grievously lamented the triumph of interest over truth, +which these defections implied. Neither the censures of Convocation nor +the falling off of his friends had any power to move _him_. He still +continued for some time a member of the Church of England. But his +character was far too honest and clear-sighted to enable him to shut his +eyes to the fact that the Liturgy of the Church was in many points sadly +unsound on the principles of primitive Christianity. To remedy this +defect he put forth a Liturgy which he termed 'The Liturgy of the Church +of England reduced nearer to the Primitive Standard.' It was in most +respects precisely identical with that in use, only it was purged from +all vestiges of the Athanasian heresy. The principal changes were in the +Doxology, which was altered into what he declares was its original form, +in the prayer of St. Chrysostom, in the first four petitions of the +Litany, and one or two others, and in the collect for Trinity Sunday. +The Established Church was, however, so blind to the truth that she +declined to adopt the proposed alterations, and Whiston was obliged to +leave her communion. He found a home, in which, however, he was not +altogether comfortable, among the General Baptists. + +The real reviver of modern Arianism in England was Whiston's friend, Dr. +Samuel Clarke. It has been seen that hitherto all theologians of the +highest calibre who had taken part in the Trinitarian controversy would +come under the denomination of Trinitarians, if we give that term a +fairly wide latitude. In 1712 Dr. Clarke, who had already won a high +reputation in the field of theological literature,[437] startled the +world by the publication of his 'Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity.' +This book was long regarded as a sort of text-book of modern Arianism. +The plan of the work was to make an exhaustive collection of all the +texts in the New Testament which bear upon the nature of the Godhead--in +itself a most useful work, and one which was calculated to supply a +distinct want in theology. No less than 1,251 texts, all more or less +pertinent to the matter in hand, were collected by this industrious +writer, and to many of them were appended explanations and criticisms +which bear evident marks of being the product of a scholar and a divine. +But the advocates of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity had no need to +go further than the mere headings of the chapters of this famous work to +have their suspicions justly awakened respecting its tendency. Chapter +i. treated 'of God the Father;' chapter ii. 'of the Son of God;' chapter +iii. 'of the Holy Spirit of God.' The natural correlatives to 'God the +Father' would be 'God the Son' and 'God the Holy Ghost;' there was +something suspicious in the change of these expressions into 'the Son of +God' and the 'Holy Spirit of God.' A closer examination of the work will +soon show us that the change was not without its significance. 'The +Scripture Doctrine' leads substantially to a very similar conclusion to +that at which Whiston had arrived. The Father alone is the one supreme +God; the Son is a Divine being as far as divinity is communicable by +this supreme God; the Holy Ghost is inferior both to the Father and the +Son, not in order only, but in dominion and authority. Only Dr. Clarke +expresses himself more guardedly than his friend. He had already made a +great name among theologians, and he had no desire to lose it. + +We may take the appearance of Dr. Clarke's book as the commencement of a +new era in this controversy, which after this time began to reach its +zenith. Various opponents at once arose, attacking various parts of Dr. +Clarke's scheme. Dr. Wells complained that he had taken no notice of the +Old Testament, that he had failed to show how the true sense of +Scripture was to be ascertained, and that he had disparaged creeds, +confessions of faith, and the testimony of the fathers; Mr. Nelson +complained, not without reason, of his unfair treatment of Bishop Bull; +Dr. Gastrell pointed out that there was only one out of Dr. Clarke's +fifty-five propositions to which an Arian would refuse to +subscribe.[438] + +These and others did good service on particular points; but it remained +for Dr. Waterland to take a comprehensive view of the whole question, +and to leave to posterity not only an effective answer to Dr. Clarke, +but a masterly and luminous exposition, the equal to which it would be +difficult to find in any other author, ancient or modern. It would be +wearisome even to enumerate the titles of the various 'Queries,' +'Vindications,' 'Replies,' 'Defences,' 'Answers to Replies,' which +poured forth from the press in luxurious abundance on either side of the +great controversy. It will be sufficient to indicate generally the main +points at issue between the combatants. + +Dr. Clarke then, and his friends[439] (who all wrote more or less under +his inspiration), maintained that the worship of God is in Scripture +appointed to one Being, that is, to the Father _personally_. That such +worship as is due to Christ is the worship of a mediator and cannot +possibly be that paid to the one supreme God. That all the titles given +to the Son in the New Testament, and all powers ascribed to Him, are +perfectly well consistent with reserving the supremacy of absolute and +independent dominion to the Father alone. That the highest titles of God +are never applied to the Son or Spirit. That the subordination of the +Son to the Father is not merely nominal, consisting in the mere position +or order of words, which in truth of things is a _co_-ordination; but +that it is a _real_ subordination in point of authority and dominion +over the universe. That three persons, that is, three intelligent +agents in the same individual, identical substance, is a self-evident +contradiction, and that the Nicene fathers, by the term Homoousion, did +not mean one individual, identical substance. That the real difficulty +in the conception of the Trinity is _not_ how three persons can be one +God, for Scripture nowhere expresses the doctrine in those words; and +the difficulty of understanding a Scripture doctrine ought not to lie +wholly upon words not found in Scripture, but _how_ and in what sense, +consistently with everything that is affirmed in Scripture about Father, +Son, and Holy Ghost, it is still certainly and infallibly true that to +us there is but 'one God the Father' (I Cor. viii. 6). That as to the +claims of the Holy Ghost to be worshipped on an equality with the +Father, there is really no one instance in Scripture of any direct act +of adoration or invocation being paid to Him at all. + +Such is the outline of the system of which Dr. Clarke was the chief +exponent. The various arguments by which it was supported will be best +considered in connection with that great writer who now comes under our +notice--Dr. Waterland. Among the many merits of Waterland's treatment of +the subject, this is by no means the least--that he pins down his +adversary and all who hold the same views in any age to the real +question at issue. Dr. Clarke, for example, admitted that Christ was, in +a certain sense, Creator. 'Either, then,' argues Waterland, 'there are +two authors and governors of the universe, _i.e._ two Gods, or not. If +there are, why do you deny it of either; if not, why do you affirm it of +both?' Dr. Clarke thought that the divinity of Christ was analogous to +the royalty of some petty prince, who held his power under a supreme +monarch. 'I do not,' retorts Waterland, 'dispute against the notion of +one king under another; what I insist upon is that a great king and a +little king make two kings; (consequently a supreme God and an inferior +God make two Gods).' Dr. Clarke did not altogether deny omniscience to +be an attribute of Christ, but he affirmed it to be a relative +omniscience, communicated to him from the Father. 'That is, in plain +language,' retorted Waterland, 'the Son knows all things, except that He +is ignorant of many things.' Dr. Clarke did not altogether deny the +eternity of the Son. The Son is eternal, because we cannot conceive a +time when He was not. 'A negative eternity,' replies Waterland, 'is no +eternity; angels might equally be termed eternal.' + +One point on which Waterland insists constantly and strongly is that the +scheme of those who would pay divine honours to Christ, and yet deny +that He is very God, cannot escape from the charge of polytheism. 'You +are tritheists,' he urges, 'in the same sense as Pagans are called +polytheists. One supreme and two inferior Gods is your avowed doctrine; +that is, three Gods. If those texts which exclude all but one God, +exclude only supreme deities, and do not exclude any that are not +supreme, by such an interpretation you have voided and frustrated every +law of the Old Testament against idolatry.' Dr. Clarke and his friends +distinguished between that supreme sovereign worship which was due to +the Father only, and the mediate, relative, inferior worship which was +due to others. 'What authority,' asks Waterland, 'is there in Scripture +for this distinction? What rules are there to regulate the intention of +the worshipper, so as to make worship high, higher, or highest as +occasion requires? All religious worship is determined by Scripture and +antiquity to be what you call absolute and sovereign.' 'Scripture and +antiquity generally say nothing of a supreme God, because they +acknowledge no inferior God. Such language was borrowed from the Pagans, +and then used by Christian writers. So, too, was the notion of +"mediatorial worship" borrowed from the Pagans, handed on by Arians, and +brought down to our own times by Papists.' + +But Dr. Clarke and his friends maintained that they were not Arians, for +they did not make Christ a creature. 'Impossible,' replies Dr. +Waterland; 'you assert, though not directly, yet consequentially, that +the Maker and Redeemer of the whole world is no more than a creature, +that He is mutable and corruptible; that He depends entirely upon the +favour and good pleasure of God; that He has a precarious existence and +dependent powers, and is neither so perfect in His nature nor exalted in +privileges but that it is in the Father's power to create another equal +or superior. There is no middle between being essentially God and being +a creature.' Dr. Clarke cannot find a medium between orthodoxy and +Arianism. He has declared against the consubstantiality and proper +divinity of Christ as well as His co-eternity. He cannot be neutral. In +condemning Arians he has condemned himself. Nay, he has gone further +than the Arians. 'Sober Arians will rise up in judgment and condemn you +for founding Christ's worship so meanly upon I know not what powers +given after His resurrection. They founded it upon reasons antecedent to +His incarnation, upon His being God before the world, and Creator of the +world of His own power.' + +Waterland showed his strength in defence as well as in attack. He boldly +grappled with the difficulties which the Catholic doctrine of the +Trinity unquestionably involves, and his method of dealing with these +difficulties forms not the least valuable part of his writings on the +subject. + +Into the labyrinths, indeed, of metaphysical speculation he distinctly +declined to follow his opponents. They, as well as he, acknowledged, or +professed to acknowledge, the force of the testimony from Scripture and +the fathers. He is ready to join issue on this point, 'Is the Catholic +doctrine true?' but for resolving this question he holds that we must +have recourse to Scripture and antiquity. 'Whoever debates this question +should forbear every topic derived from the _nature_ of things, because +such arguments belong only to the other question, whether the doctrine +be _possible_, and in all reason possibility should be presupposed in +all our disputes from Scripture and the fathers.' He consistently +maintains that our knowledge of the nature of God is far too limited to +allow us to dogmatise from our own reason on such a subject. 'You can +never fix any certain principles of individuation, therefore you can +never assure me that three real persons are not one numerical or +individual essence. You know not precisely what it is that makes one +being, one essence, one substance.' There are other difficulties in the +nature of the Godhead quite as great as any which the doctrine of the +Trinity involves. 'The Omnipresence, the Incarnation, Self-existence, +are all mysteries, and eternity itself is the greatest mystery of all. +There is nothing peculiar to the Trinity that is near so perplexing as +eternity.' And then he finely adds: 'I know no remedy for these things +but a humble mind. If we demur to a doctrine because we cannot fully and +adequately comprehend it, is not this too familiar from a creature +towards his Creator, and articling more strictly with Almighty God than +becomes us?' + +Is the Trinity a mysterious doctrine? 'The tremendous Deity is all over +mysterious, in His nature and in His attributes, in His works and in His +ways. If not, He would not be divine. If we reject the most certain +truths about the Deity, only because they are incomprehensible, when +everything about Him must be so of course, the result will be Atheism; +for there are mysteries in the works of nature as well as in the Word of +God.' + +If it be retorted, Why then introduce terms and ideas which by your own +admission can only be imperfectly understood? Why not leave such +mysteries in the obscurity in which they are shrouded, and not condemn +those who are unable to accept without understanding them? The reply is, +'It is you and not we who are responsible for the discussion and +definition of these mysteries. The faith of the Church was at first, and +might be still, a plain, simple, easy thing, did not its adversaries +endeavour to perplex and puzzle it with philosophical niceties. Early +Christians did not trouble their heads with nice speculations about the +_modus_ of the Three in One.' 'All this discourse about _being_ and +_person_ is foreign and not pertinent, because if both these terms were +thrown out, our doctrine would stand just as before, independent of +them, and very intelligible without them. So it stood for about 150 +years before _person_ was heard of in it, and it was later before +_being_ was mentioned. Therefore, if all the objection be against these, +however innocent, expressions, let the objectors drop the name and +accept the thing.' It was no wish of Waterland to argue upon such +mysteries at all. 'Perhaps,' he says, 'after all, it would be best for +both of us to be silent when we have really nothing to say, but as you +have begun, I must go on with the argument.... It is really not +reasoning but running riot with fancy and imagination about matters +infinitely surpassing human comprehension. You may go on till you +reason, in a manner, God out of His attributes, and yourself out of your +faith, and not know at last when to stop.' These are weighty and wise +words, and it would be well if they were borne in mind by disputants on +this profound mystery in every age. But while deprecating all +presumptuous prying into the secret nature of God, Waterland is +perfectly ready to meet his adversaries on that ground on which alone he +thinks the question can be discussed. + +Summing up and setting in one compendious view all that the modern +Arians taught in depreciation of Christ, Waterland showed that in spite +of their indignation at being represented as teaching that Christ was a +mere creature, they yet clearly taught that He was 'brought into +existence as well as any other creature, that He was precarious in +existence, ignorant of much more than He knows, capable of change from +strength to weakness, and from weakness to strength; capable of being +made wiser, happier, and better in every respect; having nothing of his +own, nothing but what He owes to the favour of His lord and governor.' +By the arguments which they used to prove all this, they put a most +dangerous weapon into the hands of Atheists, or at least into the hands +of those who denied the existence of such a God as is revealed to us in +Holy Scripture. 'Through your zeal against the divinity of the Son, you +have betrayed the cause to the first bold Marcionite that shall deny the +eternal Godhead of the Father and the Son, and assert some unknown God +above both. The question was, whether a particular Person called the +Father be the Eternal God. His being called God would amount to nothing, +that being no more than a word of office. His being Creator, nothing; +that you could elude. His being Jehovah, of no weight, meaning no more +than a person true and faithful to his promises. Almighty is capable of +a subordinate sense. The texts which speak of eternity are capable of a +subordinate sense. The term "first cause" is not a Scriptural +expression.' + +Waterland boldly faces the objection against the Catholic doctrine of +the Trinity which was derived from certain texts of Scripture which +taken by themselves might seem to favour the Arian view. How, for +example, it was asked, could it be said that all power was _given_ unto +Christ (Matt, xxviii. 18), and that all things were put under His feet +after His Resurrection (Eph. i. 22), if He was Lord long before? 'The +Logos,' replies Waterland, 'was from the beginning Lord over all, but +the God man ([Greek: Theanthropos]) was not so till after the +Resurrection. Then He received in that capacity what He had ever enjoyed +in another; He received full power in both natures which He had +heretofore only in _one_.'[440] The passage on which the Arians insisted +most of all, and which they constantly asserted to be by itself decisive +of the whole question, is 1 Corinthians viii. 6. There, they asserted, +the Son is excluded in most express words from being one with the +Supreme God. Dr. Clarke told Waterland in downright terms that 'he +should be ashamed when he considered that he falsified St. Paul, who +said, "To us there is but one God, the Father."' 'But,' replies Dr. +Waterland, 'do we who make the Son essentially the same God with that +one, and suppose but one God in all, or you who make two Gods, and in +the same _relative_ sense, God _to us_, falsify St. Paul? _We_ can give +a reason why the Son is tacitly included, being so intimately united to +the Father as partaker of the same divine nature, but that any creature +should not be excluded from being God is strange.' + +To turn now from Scripture to antiquity. The question as to what was the +opinion of the ante-Nicene fathers had been so thoroughly handled by +Bishop Bull, that Waterland (his legitimate successor) had no need to +enter upon it at large over again. But Bishop Bull had done his work too +well to suit the theory of Dr. Clarke and his friends. Although the +latter professed to find in the early fathers a confirmation of their +views, yet from a consciousness, perhaps, of the unsatisfactoriness of +this confirmation they constantly depreciate the value of patristic +evidence. In connection, therefore, with the subject of the Trinity, +Waterland clearly points out what is and what is not the true character +of the appeal to antiquity. The fathers are certain proofs in many cases +of the Church's doctrine in that age, and probable proofs of what that +doctrine was from the beginning. In respect of the latter they are +inferior additional proofs when compared with plain Scripture proof; of +no moment if Scripture is plainly contrary, but of great moment when +Scripture looks the same way, because they help to fix the true +interpretation in disputed texts. Waterland, however, would build no +article of faith on the fathers, but on Scripture alone. If the sense of +Scripture be disputed, the concurring sentiments of the fathers in any +doctrine will be generally the best and safest comments on Scripture, +just as the practice of courts and the decisions of eminent lawyers are +the best comments on an Act of Parliament made in or near their own +times, though the obedience of subjects rests solely on the laws of the +land as its rule and measure. To the objection that interpreting +Scripture by the ancients is debasing its majesty and throwing Christ +out of His throne, Waterland replies in somewhat stately terms, 'We +think that Christ never sits more secure or easy on His throne than when +He has His most faithful guards about Him, and that none are so likely +to strike at His authority or aim at dethroning Him as they that would +displace His old servants only to make way for new ones.' But this +respect for the opinion of antiquity in no way involved any compromise +of the leading idea of all eighteenth-century theology, that it should +follow the guidance of reason. Reason was by no means to be sacrificed +to the authority of the fathers. Indeed, 'as to authority,' he says, 'in +a strict and proper sense I do not know that the fathers have any over +us; they are all dead men; therefore we urge not their _authority_ but +their testimony, their suffrage, their judgment, as carrying great force +of reason. Taking them in here as lights or helps _is_ doing what is +_reasonable_ and using our own understandings in the best way.' 'I +follow the fathers,' he adds, 'as far as reason requires and no further; +therefore, this _is_ following our own reason.' In an age when patristic +literature was little read and lightly esteemed this forcible, and at +the same time highly reasonable, vindication of its importance had a +value beyond its bearing upon the doctrine of the Trinity, in connection +with which the subject was introduced by our author.[441] + +Here our notice of the points at issue between Dr. Waterland and the +modern Arians, so far as they concerned the truth of the Catholic +doctrine of the Trinity, may fitly close. But there was yet another +question closely connected with the above which it concerned the +interests of morality, no less than of religion, thoroughly to sift. It +was no easy task which Dr. Clarke and his friends undertook when they +essayed to prove from Scripture and antiquity that the Son and Holy +Ghost were not one with the supreme God. But they attempted a yet +harder task than this. They contended that their views were not +irreconcilable with the formularies and Liturgy of the Church of +England. The more candid and ingenuous mind of Whiston saw the utter +hopelessness of this endeavour. It was, he says, an endeavour 'to wash +the blackmore white,' and so, like an honest man as he was, he retired +from her communion. Dr. Clarke could not, of course, deny that there was +at least an apparent inconsistency between his views and those of the +Church to which he belonged. One of the chapters in his 'Scripture +Doctrine of the Trinity' is devoted to a collection of 'passages in the +Liturgy which may seem in some respects to differ from the foregoing +doctrine.' But he and his friends were 'ready to subscribe any test +containing nothing more than is contained in the Thirty-nine Articles;' +their avowed principle being that 'they may do it in their own sense +agreeably to what they call Scripture.' In his 'Case of Arian +Subscription' Dr. Waterland had no difficulty in showing the utter +untenableness of this position. He maintained that 'as the Church +required subscription to _her own_ interpretation of Scripture, so the +subscriber is bound to that and that only.' 'The rules,' he says, 'for +understanding what her sense is are the same as for understanding oaths, +laws, &c.--that is, the usual acceptation of words, the custom of speech +at the time being, the scope of the writer from the controversies then +on foot,' &c. It is but a shallow artifice for fraudulent subscribers to +call their interpretation of Scripture, Scripture. The Church has as +good a right to call her interpretation Scripture. Let the Arian sense +be Scripture to Arians; but then let them subscribe only to Arian +subscriptions. + +The case of Arian subscriptions was really part of a larger question. +There were some who, without actually denying the _truth_ of the +doctrine of the Trinity, doubted whether it was of sufficient +_importance_ or clearly enough revealed to make it a necessary article +of the Christian faith. These were sometimes called Episcopians, a name +derived from one Episcopius, an amiable and not unorthodox writer of the +seventeenth century, who was actuated by a charitable desire to include +as many as possible within the pale of the Christian Church, and to +minimize the differences between all who would, in any sense, own the +name of Christians. The prevalence of such views in Dr. Waterland's days +led him to write one of his most valuable treatises in connection with +the Trinitarian controversy. It was entitled, 'The Importance of the +Doctrine of the Trinity Asserted,' and was addressed to those only who +believed the _truth_ of the doctrine but demurred to its importance. +Waterland concludes this work, which is rather a practical than a +controversial treatise, with some wise words of caution to those +persons of 'more warmth than wisdom,' who from a mistaken liberality +would make light of heresy. + +It is now time to close this sketch of the method in which this great +writer--one of the few really great divines who belong to the eighteenth +century--handled the mysterious subject of the Trinity. Not only from +his profound learning and acuteness, but from the general cast of his +mind, Waterland was singularly adapted for the work which he undertook. +To treat this subject of all subjects, the faculties both of thinking +clearly and of expressing thoughts clearly are absolutely essential. +These two qualifications Dr. Waterland possessed in a remarkable degree. +He always knew exactly what he meant, and he also knew how to convey his +meaning to his readers. His style is nervous and lucid, and he never +sacrifices clearness to the graces of diction. His very deficiencies +were all in his favour. Had he been a man of a more poetical temperament +he might have been tempted, like Platonists and neo-Platonists, to soar +into the heights of metaphysical speculations and either lose himself or +at least render it difficult for ordinary readers to follow him. But no +one can ever complain that Dr. Waterland is obscure. We may agree or +disagree with his views, but we can never be in doubt what those views +are. Had Waterland been of a warmer and more excitable temperament he +might have been tempted to indulge in vague declamation or in that +personal abusiveness which was only too common in the theological +controversies of the day. Waterland fell into neither of these snares; +he always argues, never declaims; he is a hard hitter in controversy, +but never condescends to scurrilous personalities. The very completeness +of his defence of the doctrine of the Trinity against Arian assailants +furnishes, perhaps, the reason why this part of his writings has not +been so widely and practically useful as it deserves to be. He so +effectually assailed the position of Dr. Clarke and his friends that it +has rarely been occupied by opponents of the Catholic doctrine in modern +days. + +It has been thought desirable to present the great controversy in which +Drs. Clarke and Waterland were respectively the leaders in one +uninterrupted view. In doing so the order of events has been +anticipated, and it is now necessary to revert to circumstances bearing +upon the subject of this chapter which occurred long before that +controversy closed. + +Dr. Clarke's 'Scripture Doctrine' was published in 1712; Dr. Waterland +did not enter into the arena until 1719; but five years before this +latter date, Dr. Clarke was threatened with other weapons besides those +of argument. In 1714, the Lower House of Convocation made an +application to the Upper House to notice the heretical opinions of Dr. +Clarke on the subject of the Trinity. They submitted to the bishops +several extracts, and also condemned the general drift of the book. The +danger of ecclesiastical censures drew from Dr. Clarke a declaration in +which he promised not to preach any more on such subjects, and also an +explanation which almost amounted to a retractation; this he immediately +followed by a paper delivered to the Bishop of London, half recanting +and half explaining his explanations. These documents appear to have +satisfied nobody except perhaps the bishops. The Lower House resolved +'that the paper subscribed by Dr. Clarke and communicated by the bishops +to the Lower House doth not contain in it any recantation of the +heretical assertions, &c., nor doth give such satisfaction for the great +scandal occasioned by the said books as ought to put a stop to further +examination thereof;' while his outspoken friend, Whiston, wrote to him, +'Your paper has occasioned real grief to myself and others, not because +it is a real retractation, but because it is so very like one, yet is +not, and seems to be penned with a plain intention only to ward off +persecution,' and told him face to face that '_he_ would not have given +the like occasion of offence for all the world.' However, the bishops +were satisfied and the matter proceeded no further. + +Subsequently Dr. Clarke was taken to task by his diocesan, the Bishop of +London, for altering the doxology into an accordance with Arianism. He +was neither convinced nor silenced by Waterland; and though his +influence may (as Van Mildert tells us) have perceptibly declined after +the great controversy was closed, he was not left without followers, and +maintained a high reputation which survived him. He was for many years +known among a certain class of admirers as 'the great Dr. Clarke.' Among +those who were at least interested in, if not influenced by the doctor +was Queen Caroline, the clever wife of George II. + +Nor was the excitement caused by the speculations of Dr. Clarke on the +doctrine of the Trinity confined to the Church of England alone. It was +the occasion of one of the fiercest disputes that ever arose among +Nonconformists. Exeter was the first scene of the spread of Arianism +among the Dissenters. Two ministers gave great offence to their +congregations by preaching Arianism. The alarm of heresy spread rapidly, +and there was so great an apprehension of its tainting the whole country +that--strange as it may sound to modern ears--the judge at the county +assize made the prevalence of Arianism the chief subject of his charge +to the grand jury. Among Churchmen, some were alarmed lest the heresy +should spread among their own body, while others rather gloried in it +as a natural result of schism. A statement of the case was sent to the +dissenting ministers in the metropolis. The Presbyterian ministers at +Exeter, in order to allay the panic, agreed to make a confession of +faith, every one in his own words _viva voce_. This caused a revival of +the old discussion as to whether confessions of faith should be made in +any but Scripture language. The matter was referred to the ministers in +London, and a meeting was held at Salters' Hall, at which the majority +agreed to the general truth that 'there is but one living and true God, +and that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are that one God.' Numbers, +however, of the Presbyterians, and some of the Baptists, adhered to +Arianism, and thence drifted into Socinianism or rather simple +Unitarianism. + +This, indeed, was the general course inside as well as outside the +Church. The very name of Arian almost died out, and the name of Socinian +took its place. The term Socinian is, however, misleading. It by no +means implies that those to whom it was given agreed with the doctrine +of Faustus Socinus. It was often loosely and improperly applied on the +one hand to many who really believed more than he did, and on the other +to many who believed less. In fact, the stigma of Socinianism was tossed +about as a vague, general term of reproach in the eighteenth century, +much in the same way as 'Puseyite,' 'Ritualist,' and 'Rationalist' have +been in our own day. This very inaccurate use of the word Socinian may +in part be accounted for by remembering that one important feature in +the system of Socinus was his utter denial of the doctrine of the +atonement or satisfaction made by Christ in any sense. 'Christ,' he +said, 'is called a mediator not because He made peace between God and +man, but because He was sent from God to man to explain the will of God +and to make a covenant with them in the name of God. A mediator (_a +medio_) is a middle person between God and man.'[442] Now there is +abundance of evidence that before and at the time of the Evangelical +revival in the Church of England, this doctrine of the atonement had +been, if not denied, at least practically ignored. Bishop Horsley, in +his Charge in 1790, complains of this; and in the writings of the early +Evangelical party we find, of course, constant complaints of the general +ignoring of these doctrines. Now it is probable that the term Socinian +was often applied to those who kept these doctrines in the background, +and not, indeed, applied altogether improperly; only, if we assume that +all those who were termed Socinians disbelieved in the true divinity or +personality of the Son and the Holy Ghost, we shall be assuming more +than was really the case. + +On the other hand, many were called Socinians who really believed far +less than Socinus and the foreign Socinians did. It is true that Socinus +'regarded it as a mere human invention, not agreeable to Scripture and +repugnant to reason, that Christ is the only begotten Son of God, +because He and no one besides Him was begotten of the divine +substance;'[443] but he also held that 'Scripture so plainly attributes +a divine and sovereign power to Christ as to leave no room for a +figurative sense.'[444] And the early Socinians thought that Christ must +not only be obeyed but His assistance implored, and that He ought to be +worshipped, that 'invocation of Christ or addressing prayers to Him was +a duty necessarily arising from the character He sustained as head of +the Church;' and that 'those who denied the invocation of Christ did not +deserve to be called Christians.'[445] + +Let us now return to the history of our own Socinians, or, as they +preferred to be called, Unitarians; we shall soon see how far short they +fell in point of belief of their foreign predecessors. The heresy +naturally spread more widely among Nonconformists than it could in the +Church of England. As the biographer of Socinus remarks, 'The +Trinitarian forms of worship which are preserved in the Church of +England, and which are so closely incorporated with its services, must +furnish an insuperable objection against conformity with all sincere and +conscientious Unitarians.'[446] If the common sense and common honesty +of Englishmen revolted against the specious attempts of Dr. Clarke and +his friends to justify _Arian_ subscription, a much more hopeless task +would it have been to reconcile the further development of +anti-Trinitarian doctrines with the formularies of the Church. + +At the same time it must be admitted that the cessation or abatement of +anti-Trinitarian efforts in the Church after the death of Dr. Clarke is +not to be attributed solely to the firmness and earnestness of +Churchmen's convictions on this subject. It arose, in part at least, +from the general indisposition to stir up mooted questions. Men were +disposed to rest satisfied with 'our happy establishment in Church and +State;' and it was quite as much owing to the spiritual torpor which +overtook the Church and nation after the third decade of the eighteenth +century, as to strength of conviction, that the Trinitarian question was +not further agitated. + +Among the Nonconformists, and especially among the Presbyterians, the +case was different. The Arianism which led to the Salters' Hall +conference drifted by degrees into Unitarianism pure and simple. Dr. +Lardner was one of the earliest and most distinguished of those who +belonged to this latter school. He passed through the stage of Arianism, +but the mind of the author of 'The Credibility of Gospel History' was +far too clear and logical to allow him to rest there, and he finally +came to the conclusion that 'Jesus Christ was a mere man, but a man with +whom God was, in a peculiar and extraordinary manner.' This is not the +place to refer to the various Nonconformists, such as Caleb Fleming, +Hugh Farmer, James Foster, Robert Robinson, John Taylor, and many others +who diverged more or less from the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity. But +the views of one Nonconformist whose name is a household word in the +mouth of Churchmen and Dissenters alike, and some of whose hymns will +live as long as the English language lives, claim at least a passing +notice. + +Isaac Watts belonged to the Independents, a sect which in the first half +of the eighteenth century was less tainted with Socinianism than any of +'the three denominations.' His 'Treatise on the Christian Doctrine of +the Trinity,' and that entitled 'The Arian invited to the Orthodox +Faith,' were professedly written in defence of the Catholic doctrine. +The former, like most of Dr. Watts's compositions, was essentially a +popular work. 'I do not,' he writes, 'pretend to instruct the learned +world. My design here was to write for private and unlearned Christians, +and to lead them by the fairest and most obvious sense of Scripture into +some acquaintance with the great doctrine of the Trinity.'[447] In some +respects his work is very effective. One point especially he brings out +more forcibly than almost any other writer of his day. It is what he +calls 'the moral argument' for the Trinity. There is real eloquence in +his appeal to the 'great number of Christians who, since the Apostles, +under the influence of a belief in the Divinity of the Son and the +Spirit, have paid divine honours to both, after they have sought the +knowledge of the truth with the utmost diligence and prayer; when they +have been in the holiest and most heavenly frames of spirit, and in +their devoutest hours; when they have been under the most sensible +impressions of the love of the Father and the Son, and under the most +quickening influences of the Blessed Spirit himself; in the devotions of +a death-bed, and in the songs and doxologies of martyrdom.' 'Now can +we,' he asks, 'suppose that in such devout and glorious seasons as +these, God the Father should ever thus manifest His own love to souls +that are degrading Him by worshipping another God? That Christ Jesus +should reveal Himself in His dying love to souls that are practising +idolatry and worshipping Himself instead of the true God?' + +But there are other passages of a very different tendency, in which Dr. +Watts virtually gives up the whole point at issue, and apparently +without being conscious that he is doing so. On the worship of the Holy +Ghost, for example, he writes. 'There is great silence in Scripture of +precepts or patterns of prayer and praise to the Holy Spirit.' +'Therefore,' he thinks, 'we should not bind it on our own consciences or +on others as a piece of necessary worship, but rather practise it +occasionally as prudence and expediency may require.'[448] On the famous +question of the Homoousion, he thinks 'it is hard to suppose that the +eternal generation of the Son of God as a distinct person, yet co-equal +and consubstantial or of the same essence with the Father, should be +made a fundamental article of faith in the dawn of the Gospel.' He is +persuaded therefore 'that faith in Him as a divine Messiah or +all-sufficient and appointed Saviour is the thing required in those very +texts where He is called the Son of God and proposed as such for the +object of our belief; and that a belief of the natural and eternal and +consubstantial sonship of Christ to God as Father was not made the +necessary term or requisite of salvation;' neither can he 'find it +asserted or revealed with so much evidence in any part of the Word of +God as is necessary to make it a fundamental article of faith.'[449] And +once more, on the Personality of the Holy Ghost, he writes: 'The general +and constant language of Scripture speaks of the Holy Ghost as a power +or medium of divine operation.' Some places may speak of him as +personal, but 'it was the frequent custom of Jews and Oriental nations +to speak of powers and qualities under personal characters.' He can find +'no plain and express instance in Holy Scripture of a doxology directly +and distinctly addressed to the Holy Spirit,' and he thinks the reason +of this may be 'perhaps because he is only personalised by idioms of +speech.'[450] + +Now anyone who has studied the course of the Trinitarian controversy +will see at once that an anti-Trinitarian would require no further +concessions than these to prove his point quite unanswerably. The +amiable design of Dr. Watts's second treatise was 'to lead an Arian by +soft and easy steps into a belief of the divinity of Christ,'[451] but +if he granted what he did, the Arian would have led him, if the +controversy had been pushed to its logical results. + +To return to the Church of England. About the middle of the eighteenth +century there was a revival of one phase of the Trinitarian controversy. +A movement arose to procure the abolition of subscription to the +Articles and Liturgy. The spread of Unitarian opinions among the clergy +is said to have originated this movement, though probably this was not +the sole cause. One of the most active promoters of this attempt was +Archdeacon Blackburne; he was supported by Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, +who boldly avowed that his object was to open the door for different +views upon the Trinity in the Church. His own views on this subject +expressed in a treatise entitled 'An Essay on Spirit' were certainly +original and startling. He held that the Logos was the Archangel +Michael, and the Holy Spirit the angel Gabriel! + +This treatise and that of Blackburne, entitled 'The Confessional,' +called forth the talents of an eminent Churchman in defence of the +received doctrine of the Trinity--Jones of Nayland. His chief work on +the subject was entitled 'The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity,' and was +drawn up after the model of Dr. Clarke's famous book, to which, indeed, +it was partly intended to be an antidote. It was written on the +principle that Scripture is its own best interpreter, and consisted of a +series of well-chosen texts marshalled in order with a brief explanation +of each, showing its application to the doctrine of the Trinity. On one +point Jones insists with great force, viz., that every article of the +Christian faith depends upon the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity; and +he illustrates this by applying it to 'our creation, redemption, +sanctification, resurrection, and glorification by the power of Christ +and the Holy Spirit.'[452] Jones did, perhaps, still more useful if less +pretentious work in publishing two little pamphlets, the one entitled 'A +Letter to the Common People in Answer to some Popular Arguments against +the Trinity,' the other 'A Preservative against the Publications +dispersed by Modern Socinians.' Both of these set forth the truth, as he +held it, in a very clear and sensible manner, and at a time when the +Unitarian doctrines were spreading widely among the multitudes who could +not be supposed to have either the time or the talents requisite to +grapple with long, profound, and elaborate arguments, they were very +seasonable publications. + +But the most curious contribution which Jones made to the Trinitarian +controversy was a pamphlet entitled 'A Short Way to Truth, or the +Christian Doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, Illustrated and Confirmed from +an Analogy in the Natural Creation.' He shows that the powers of nature +by which all natural life and motion are preserved are three--air, fire, +and light. That these three thus subsisting together in unity are +applied in Scripture to the Three Persons of the Divine Nature, and that +the manifestations of God are always made under one or other of these +signs. These three agents support the life of man. There is a Trinity in +the body (1) the heart and blood-vessels; (2) the organs of respiration; +(3) the nerves, the instruments of sensation; these three departments +are the three moving principles of nature continually acting for the +support of life. 'Therefore,' he concludes, 'as the life of man is a +Trinity in Unity, and the powers which act upon it are a Trinity in +Unity, the Socinians being, in their natural capacity, formed and +animated as Christians, carry about with them daily a confutation of +their own unbelief.'[453] + +In the year 1782, the Trinitarian controversy received a fresh impulse +from the appearance in it of a writer whose eminence in other branches +of knowledge lent an adventitious importance to what he wrote upon this +subject. In that year, Dr. Priestley published his 'History of the +Corruptions of Christianity,' which, as Horsley says, was 'nothing less +than an attack upon the creeds and established discipline of every +church in Christendom.' Foremost among these corruptions were both the +Catholic doctrine of our Lord's divinity and the Arian notion of His +pre-existence in a state far above the human. + +The great antagonist of Dr. Priestley was Dr. Horsley, who, first in a +Charge to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of St. Albans, and then in a +series of letters addressed to Priestley himself, maintained with +conspicuous ability the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity. + +An able modern writer[454] says that the Unitarian met at the hands of +the bishop much the same treatment as Collins had received from Bentley. +But the comparison scarcely does justice either to Horsley or Priestley. +From a purely intellectual point of view it would be a compliment to any +man to compare him with 'Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,' but the brilliant +wit and profound scholarship displayed in Bentley's remarks on Collins +were tarnished by a scurrility and personality which, even artistically +speaking, injured the merits of the work, and were quite unworthy of +being addressed by one gentleman (not to say clergyman) to another. +Horsley's strictures are as keen and caustic as Bentley's; but there is +a dignity and composure about him which, while adding to rather than +detracting from the pungency of his writings, prevent him from +forgetting his position and condescending to offensive invectives. +Priestley, too, was a more formidable opponent than Collins. He was not +only a man who by his scientific researches had made his mark upon his +age, but he had set forth Unitarianism far more fully and powerfully +than Collins had set forth Deism. Still he unquestionably laid himself +open to attack, and his opponent did not fail to take advantage of this +opening. + +Horsley distinctly declines to enter into the general controversy as to +the truth or possibility of the Christian Trinity. Everything, he +thinks, that can be said on either side has been said long ago. But he +is ready to join issue with Priestley on the historical question. This +he feels it practically necessary to do, for 'the whole energy and +learning of the Unitarian party is exerted to wrest from us the argument +from tradition.'[455] + +He shows, then, that so far from all the Church being originally +Unitarian, there was no Unitarian before the end of the second century, +when Theodotus, 'the learned tanner of Byzantium,' who had been a +renegade from the faith, taught for the first time that His humanity was +the whole of Christ's condition, and that He was only exalted to Heaven +like other good men. He owns that the Cerinthians and Ebionites long +before that had affirmed that Jesus had no existence previous to Mary's +conception, and was literally and physically the carpenter's son, and so +asserted the mere humanity of the Redeemer, 'but,' he adds, 'they +admitted I know not what unintelligible exaltation of His nature upon +His Ascension by which He became no less the object of worship than if +His nature had been originally divine.'[456] He acknowledges that the +Cerinthian Gnostics denied the proper divinity of Christ, but, he adds +very pertinently, 'if you agree with me in these opinions, it is little +to your purpose to insist that Justin Martyr's reflections are levelled +only at the Gnostics.'[457] + +Like Waterland, and indeed all defenders of the Catholic doctrine, +Horsley fully admits the difficulties and mysteriousness of his subject, +'but,' he asks, 'is Christianity clear of difficulties in any of the +Unitarian schemes? Hath the Arian hypothesis no difficulty when it +ascribes both the first formation and perpetual government of the +Universe not to the Deity, but an inferior being? In the Socinian scheme +is it no difficulty that the capacity of a mere man should contain that +wisdom by which God made the universe?'[458] + +Horsley rebukes his opponent in severe and dignified language for +presuming to write on a subject on which, by his own confession, he was +ignorant of what had been written. In reply to a passage in Horsley's +'Charge,' in which it was asserted that Priestley's opinions in general +were the same as those propagated by Daniel Zuicker, and that his +arguments were in essential points the same as Episcopius had used, +Priestley had said that he had never heard of Zuicker, and knew little +of Episcopius; he also let slip that he had only 'looked through' the +ancient fathers and the writings of Bishop Bull, an unfortunate phrase, +which Horsley is constantly casting in his teeth.[459] On the positive +proofs of his own position, Horsley cites numerous passages from the +ante-Nicene fathers. He contends that in the famous passage of +Tertullian on which Priestley had laid so much stress, Tertullian meant +by 'idiotae,' not the general body of unlearned Christians, but some +stupid people who could not accept the great mystery which was generally +accepted by the Church. He shows that the Jews in Christ's time _did_ +believe in a Trinity, and expected the Second Person to come as their +Messiah. He maintains that when Athanasius spoke of Jews who held the +simple humanity of Christ, he meant what he said, viz., Jews simply, not +Christian Jews, as Priestley asserted. + +There is a fine irony in some of his remarks on Priestley's +interpretations of Scripture. 'To others,' he says in his 'Charge,' 'who +have not the sagacity to discern that the true meaning of an inspired +writer must be the reverse of the natural and obvious sense of the +expressions which he employs, the force of the conclusion that the +Primitive Christians could not believe our Lord to be a mere man because +the Apostles had told them He was Creator of the Universe (Colossians i. +15, 17) will be little understood.'[460] In the famous text which speaks +of Christ as 'come in the flesh,' for 'come _in_ the flesh' Priestley +substitutes 'come _of_ the flesh.' 'The one,' says Horsley, 'affirms an +Incarnation, the other a mortal extraction. The first is St. John's +assertion, the second Dr. Priestley's. Perhaps Dr. Priestley hath +discovered of St. John, as of St. Paul, that his reasoning is sometimes +inconclusive and his language inaccurate, and he might think it no +unwarrantable liberty to correct an expression, which, as not perfectly +corresponding with his own system, he could not entirely approve. It +would have been fair to advertise his reader of so capital an +emendation, an emendation for which no support is to be found in the +Greek Testament or any variety of manuscripts.'[461] In a similar tone, +he trusts 'that the conviction of the theological student that his +philosophy is Plato's, and his creed St. John's, will alleviate the +mortification he might otherwise feel in differing from Dr. +Priestley.'[462] + +One of the most important and interesting parts of Horsley's letters was +that in which he discussed the old objection raised by Priestley that +the Christian doctrine of the Trinity was borrowed from Plato. There is, +and Horsley does not deny it, a certain resemblance between the Platonic +and the Christian theories. The Platonist asserted three Divine +hypostases, the Good Being ([Greek: tagathon]), the word or reason +([Greek: logos] or [Greek: noys]), and the Spirit ([Greek: psyche]) that +actuates or influences the whole system of the Universe (_anima mundi_), +which had all one common Deity ([Greek: to theion]), and were eternal +and necessarily existent.[463] Horsley can see no derogation to +Christianity in the resemblance of this theory to that of the Christian +Trinity. He thinks that the advocates of the Catholic Faith in modern +times have been too apt to take alarm at the charge of Platonism. 'I +rejoice,' he says, 'and glory in the opprobrium. I not only confess, but +I maintain, not a perfect agreement, but such a similitude as speaks a +common origin, and affords an argument in confirmation of the Catholic +doctrine for its conformity to the most ancient and universal +traditions.'[464] For was this idea of a Triad peculiar to Plato? or did +it originate with him? 'The Platonists,' says Horsley, 'pretended to be +no more than expositors of a more ancient doctrine which is traced from +Plato to Parmenides; from Parmenides to his master of the Pythagorean +sect; from the Pythagoreans to Orpheus, the earliest of Grecian +mystagogues; from Orpheus to the secret lore of Egyptian priests in +which the foundations of the Orphic theology were laid. Similar notions +are found in the Persian and Chaldean theology; even in Roman +superstition from their Trojan ancestors. In Phrygia it was introduced +by Dardanus, who carried it from Samothrace.' In short, 'the Trinity was +a leading principle in all ancient schools of philosophy and +religion.'[465] + +Not, of course, that Horsley approved of the attempts made at the close +of the second century to meet the Platonists half-way by professing that +the leading doctrines of the Gospel were contained in Plato's writings. +He strongly condemned, _e.g._, the conceit of the Platonic Christians +that the external display of the powers of the Son in the business of +Creation is the thing intended in Scripture language under the figure of +his generation. 'There is no foundation,' he thinks, 'in Holy Writ, and +no authority in the opinions and doctrines of preceding ages. It +betrayed some who were most wedded to it into the use of very improper +language, as if a new relation between the First and Second Persons took +place when the creative powers were first exerted.' He condemns 'the +indiscretion of presuming to affix a determinate meaning upon a +figurative expression of which no particular exposition can be drawn +safely from Holy Writ.' 'But,' he adds, 'the conversion of an attribute +into a person, whatever Dr. Priestley may imagine, is a notion to which +they were entire strangers.' On the main question of the Trinity he +asserts, in opposition to Dr. Priestley, that they were quite sound. + +Adopting the same line of argument which Leslie had used before him, +Horsley dexterously turns the supposed resemblance between Platonism and +Christianity, which, as has been seen, he admits, into a plain proof +that the doctrine of the Trinity cannot be such a contradiction as the +Unitarians represented it to be. + +The controversy between Priestley and Horsley brings us nearly to the +close of the eighteenth century. There had been a considerable secession +of English clergymen to the Unitarians,[466] and Horsley's masterly +tracts were a very opportune defence of the Catholic doctrine. On one +point he and his adversary thoroughly concurred--viz., that there could +be no medium between making Christ a mere man and owning Him to be in +the highest sense God. Arianism in its various forms had become by this +time well-nigh obsolete in England. It was a happy thing for the Church +that this point had been virtually settled. The alternative was now +clearly set before English Churchmen--'Choose ye whom ye will serve; if +Christ be God, follow him; if not, be prepared to give up all notions of +a creature worship.' The Unitarians at the close of the eighteenth +century all took their stand on this issue. Such rhapsodies as those +which were indulged in by early Socinians as well as Arians were now +unheard. The line of demarcation was strictly drawn between those who +did and those who did not believe in the true Godhead and distinct +personality of the Second and Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity, so +that from henceforth men might know on what ground they were standing. + +Here the sketch of this famous controversy, which was certainly a +marked feature of the eighteenth century, may fitly close. But a few +general remarks in conclusion seem requisite. + +And first as to the nomenclature. The name claimed by the +anti-Trinitarians has, for want of a better, been perforce adopted in +the foregoing pages. But in calling them Unitarians, we must do so under +protest. The advocates of the Catholic doctrine might with equal +correctness be termed, from one point of view, Unitarians, as they are +from another point of view termed Trinitarians. For they believe in the +Unity of God as firmly as they believe in the Trinity. And they hold +that there is no real contradiction in combining those two subjects of +belief; because the difficulty of reconciling the Trinity with the Unity +of the Godhead in reality proceeds simply from our human and necessary +incapacity to comprehend the nature of the union. Therefore they cannot +for a moment allow to disbelievers in the Trinity the title of +Unitarians, so as to imply that the latter monopolise the grand truth +that 'the Lord our God is one Lord.' They consent reluctantly to adopt +the term Unitarian because no other name has been invented to describe +the stage at which anti-Trinitarians had arrived before the close of the +eighteenth century. These latter, of course, differed essentially from +the Arians of the earlier part of the century. Neither can they be +properly termed Socinians, for Socinus, as Horsley justly remarks, +'though he denied the original divinity of Our Lord, was nevertheless a +worshipper of Christ, and a strenuous asserter of his right to worship. +It was left to others,' he adds, 'to build upon the foundation which +Socinus laid, and to bring the Unitarian doctrine to the goodly form in +which the present age beholds it.'[467] Indeed, the early Socinians +would have denied to Dr. Priestley and his friends the title of +Christians, and would have excommunicated them from their Society. +'Humanitarians' would be a more correct designation; but as that term is +already appropriated to a very different signification, it is not +available. For convenience' sake, therefore, the name of Unitarians must +be allowed to pass, but with the proviso that so far from its holders +being the sole possessors of the grand truth of the unity of the +Godhead, they really, from the fact of their denying the divinity of two +out of the three Persons in the Godhead, form only a very maimed and +inadequate conception of the one God. + +The outcry against all mystery, or, to use a modern phrase, the spirit +of rationalism, which in a good or bad sense pervaded the whole domain +of religious thought, orthodox and unorthodox alike during the +eighteenth century, found its expression in one class of minds in Deism, +in another in anti-Trinitarianism. But though both disavowed any +opposition to real Christianity, yet both in reality allow no scope for +what have been from the very earliest times to the present day +considered essential doctrines of the Gospel. If the Deist strikes at +the very root of Christianity by questioning the evidence on which it +rests, no less does the Unitarian divest it of everything +distinctive--of the divine condescension shown in God taking our nature +upon Him, of the divine love shown in God's unseen presence even now in +His Church by His Holy Spirit. Take away these doctrines, and there will +be left indeed a residuum of ethical teaching, which some may please to +call Christianity if they will; but it differs as widely from what +countless thousands have understood and still understand by the term, as +a corpse differs from a living man. + +J.H.O. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 431: [Greek: autotheos].] + +[Footnote 432: [Greek: phos ek photos].] + +[Footnote 433: See Van Mildert's _Life of Waterland_, Sec. 3, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 434: Id.] + +[Footnote 435: 'We cannot charge anything to be a contradiction in one +nature because it is so in another, unless we understand both natures. +Because a nature we understand not, cannot be explained to us but by +allusion to some nature we do understand.'--Leslie's _Theological +Works_, vol. ii. p. 402, 'The Socinian Controversy.'] + +[Footnote 436: Leslie's _Theological Works_, ii. 405.] + +[Footnote 437: By his famous 'a priori' arguments for the Being and +Attributes of God, and by his answers to the Deists generally.] + +[Footnote 438: Potter also, subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury, +entered into the lists against Clarke.] + +[Footnote 439: Dr. Whitby (already favourably known in the theological +world by his commentary on the Bible), Mr. Sykes, and Mr. Jackson, Vicar +of Rossington and afterwards of Doncaster, &c.] + +[Footnote 440: He proceeds to explain S. Matthew, xxiv. 36, S. Luke, ii. +52, and S. John, v. 19, in a sense consistent with the Catholic +doctrine.] + +[Footnote 441: See vols. i. ii. and iii. _passim_ of Waterland's +_Works_, edited by Van Mildert.] + +[Footnote 442: Toulmin's _Memoirs of Faustus Socinus_, p. 191.] + +[Footnote 443: Toulmin's _Memoirs of Faustus Socinus_, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 444: Id. 211.] + +[Footnote 445: Id. p. 467.] + +[Footnote 446: Toulmin, p. 281. See also on this point Thomas Scott's +interesting account of his own religious opinions in the _Force of +Truth_, and in his biography by his son.] + +[Footnote 447: 'The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity,' by Isaac Watts, +vol. vi. of _Works_, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 448: 'The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity,' by Isaac Watts, +vol. vii. of _Works_, p. 196.] + +[Footnote 449: Watts, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 450: 'The Arian Invited to an Orthodox Faith.'--_Works_, vol. +vi. p. 348.] + +[Footnote 451: Id. 225.] + +[Footnote 452: Address to the Reader, p. viii. prefixed to _The Catholic +Doctrine of the Trinity._] + +[Footnote 453: Jones of Nayland's _Theological Works_, vol. i. p. 214, +&c.] + +[Footnote 454: Hunt's _History of Religious Thought_, iii. 349.] + +[Footnote 455: _Charge_, p. 67.] + +[Footnote 456: Id. 43, &c.] + +[Footnote 457: _Letter X. to Dr. Priestley_, p. 183.] + +[Footnote 458: _Letters to Dr. Priestley_, p. 249.] + +[Footnote 459: _Letters_, &c. p. 91, &c.] + +[Footnote 460: _Charge_, p. 14.] + +[Footnote 461: _Charge_, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 462: Id. p. 73.] + +[Footnote 463: See Maimbourg's _History of Arianism_, i. 6, note 3.] + +[Footnote 464: _Letters_, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 465: _Charge_, p. 43. Horsley rather lays himself open in this +passage to the charge of confounding history with mythology; but +probably all he meant was to show the extreme antiquity of Trinitarian +notions.] + +[Footnote 466: Evanson, Disney, Jebb, Gilbert Wakefield, &c.] + +[Footnote 467: _Letters_, &c. 243.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ENTHUSIASM. + + +Few things are more prominent in the religious history of England in the +eighteenth century, than the general suspicion entertained against +anything that passed under the name of enthusiasm. It is not merely that +the age was, upon the whole, formal and prosaic, and that in general +society serenity and moderation stood disproportionately high in the +list of virtues. No doubt zeal was unpopular; but, whatever was the case +in the more careless language of conversation, zeal is not what the +graver writers of the day usually meant when they inveighed against +enthusiasts. They are often very careful to guard themselves against +being thought to disparage religious fervour. Good and earnest men, no +less than others, often spoke of enthusiasm as a thing to be greatly +avoided. Nor was it only fanaticism, though this was especially odious +to them. Some to whom they imputed the charge in question were utterly +removed from anything like fanatical extravagance. The term was +expressive of certain modes of thought and feeling rather than of +practice. Under this theological aspect it forms a very important +element in the Church history of the period, and is well worthy of +attentive consideration. + +Enthusiasm no longer bears quite the same meaning that it used to do. A +change, strongly marked by the impress of reaction from the prevailing +tone of eighteenth-century feeling, has gradually taken place in the +usual signification of the word. In modern language we commonly speak of +enthusiasm in contrast, if not with lukewarmness and indifference, at +all events with a dull prosaic level of commonplace thought or action. A +slight notion of extravagance may sometimes remain attached to it, but +on the whole we use the words in a decidedly favourable sense, and imply +in it that generous warmth of impetuous, earnest feeling without which +few great things are done. This meaning of the word was not absolutely +unknown in the eighteenth century, and here and there a writer may be +found to vindicate its use as a term of praise rather than of reproach. +It might be applied to poetic[468] rapture with as little offence as +though a bard were extolled as fired by the muses or inspired by +Phoebus. But applied to graver topics, it was almost universally a term +of censure. The original derivation of the word was generally kept in +view. It is only within the last one or two generations that it has +altogether ceased to convey any distinct notion of a supernatural +presence--an afflatus from the Deity. But whereas the early Alexandrian +fathers who first borrowed the word from Plato and the ancient mysteries +had Christianised it and cordially adopted it in a favourable +signification, it was now employed in a hostile sense as 'a misconceit +of inspiration.'[469] It thus became a sort of byeword, applied in +opprobrium and derision to all who laid claim to a spiritual power or +divine guidance, such as appeared to the person by whom the term of +reproach was used, fanatical extravagance, or, at the least, an +unauthorised outstepping of all rightful bounds of reason. Its preciser +meaning differed exceedingly with the mind of the speaker and with the +opinions to which it was applied. It sometimes denoted the wildest and +most credulous fanaticism or the most visionary mysticism; on the other +hand, the irreligious, the lukewarm, and the formalist often levelled +the reproach of enthusiasm, equally with that of bigotry, at what ought +to have been regarded as sound spirituality, or true Christian zeal, or +the anxious efforts of thoughtful and religious men to find a surer +standing ground against the reasonings of infidels and Deists. + +A word which has not only been strained by constant and reckless use in +religious contests, but is also vague in application and changeable in +meaning, might seem marked out for special avoidance. Yet it might be +difficult to find a more convenient expression under which to group +various forms of subjective, mystic, and emotional religion, which were +in some cases strongly antagonistic to one another, but were closely +allied in principle and agreed also in this, that they inevitably +brought upon their supporters the unpopular charge of enthusiasm. All +were more or less at variance with the general spirit of the century. +But, in one shape or another, they entered into almost every religious +question that was agitated; and, in many cases, it is to the men who in +their own generation were called mystics and enthusiasts that we must +chiefly turn, if we would find in the eighteenth century a suggestive +treatment of some of the theological problems which are most deeply +interesting to men of our own time. + +When Church writers no longer felt bound to exert all their powers of +argument against Rome or rival modes of Protestantism, and when disputes +about forms of government, rites, and ceremonies, and other externals of +religion ceased to excite any strong interest, attention began to be +turned in good earnest to the deeper and more fundamental issues +involved in the Reformation. There arose a great variety of inquiries as +to the principles and grounds of faith. Into all of these entered more +or less directly the important question, How far man has been endowed +with a faculty of spiritual discernment independent of what is properly +called reason. It was a subject which could not be deferred, although at +this time encompassed by special difficulties and beset by prejudices. +The doctrine of 'the inner light' has been in all ages the favourite +stronghold of enthusiasts and mystics of every kind, and this was more +than enough to discredit it. All the tendencies of the age were against +allowing more than could be helped in favour of a tenet which had been +employed in support of the wildest extravagances, and had held the place +of highest honour among the opinions of the early Quakers, the +Anabaptists, the Muggletonians, the Fifth Monarchy men, and other +fanatics of recent memory. Did not the very meaning of the word +'enthusiasm,' as well as its history, point plainly out that it is +grounded on the belief in such inward illumination? And who, with the +examples of the preceding age before him, could foretell to what +dangerous extremes enthusiasm might lead its excited followers? +Whenever, therefore, any writers of the eighteenth century had occasion +to speak of man's spiritual faculties, one anxiety was constantly +present to their minds. Enthusiasm seemed to be regarded with continual +uneasiness, as a sort of unseen enemy, whom an incautious expression +might let in unawares, unless they watchfully guarded and circumscribed +the province which it had claimed as so especially its own. + +It is certainly remarkable that a subject which excited so much +apprehension should have entered, nevertheless, into almost every +theological discussion. Yet it could not be otherwise. Controversy upon +the grounds of faith and all secondary arguments and inferences +connected with it gather necessarily round four leading +principles--Reason, Scripture, Church Authority, Spiritual Illumination. +Throughout the century, the relation more particularly of the last of +these principles to the other three, became the real, though often +unconfessed centre alike of speculation and of practical theology. What +is this mystic power which had been so extravagantly asserted--in +comparison with which Scripture, Reason, and Authority had been almost +set aside as only lesser lights? Is there indeed such a thing as a +Divine illumination, an inner light, a heavenly inspiration, a directing +principle within the soul? If so--and that there is in man a spiritual +presence of some kind no Christian doubts--what are its powers? how far +is it a rule of faith? What is its rightful province? What are its +relations to faith and conscience? to Reason, Scripture, Church +Authority? Can it be implicitly trusted? By what criterion may its +utterances be distinguished and tested? Such, variously stated, were the +questions asked, sometimes jealously and with suspicion, often from a +sincere, unprejudiced desire to ascertain the truth, and often from an +apprehension of their direct practical and devotional value. The +inquiry, therefore, was one which formed an important element both in +the divinity and philosophy of the period, and also in its popular +religious movements. It was discussed by Locke and by every succeeding +writer who, throughout the century, endeavoured to mark the powers and +limits of the human understanding. It entered into most disputes between +Deists and evidence writers as to the properties of evidence and the +nature of Reasonable Religion. It had to do with debates upon +inspiration, upon apostolic gifts, upon the Canon of Scripture, with +controversies as to the basis of the English Church and of the +Reformation generally, the essentials and nonessentials of Christianity, +the rights of the individual conscience, toleration, comprehension, the +authority of the Church, the authority of the early fathers. It had +immediate relation to the speculations of the Cambridge Platonists, and +their influence on eighteenth-century thought, upon such subjects as +those of immutable morality and the higher faculties of the soul. It was +conspicuous in the attention excited in England, both among admirers and +opponents, by the reveries of Fenelon, Guyon, Bourignon, and other +foreign Quietists. It was a central feature of the animated controversy +maintained by Leslie and others with the Quakers, a community who, at +the beginning of the century, had attained the zenith of their numerical +power. It was further illustrated in writings upon the character of +enthusiasm elicited by the extravagances of the so-called French +Prophets. In its aspect of a discussion upon the supra-sensual faculties +of the soul, it received some additional light from the transcendental +conceptions of Bishop Berkeley's philosophy. In its relation with +mediaeval mysticism on the one hand and with some distinctive aspects of +modern thought on the other, it found an eminent exponent in the +suggestive pages of William Law; with whom must be mentioned his admirer +and imitator, the poet John Byrom. The influence of the Moravians upon +the early Methodists, the controversy of Wesley with Law, the progress +of Methodism and Evangelicalism, the opposition which they met, the +ever-repeated charge of 'enthusiasm,' and the anxiety felt on the other +side to rebut the charge, exhibit the subject under some of its leading +practical aspects. From yet another point of view, a similar reawakening +to the keen perception of other faculties than those of reason and +outward sense is borne witness to in the rise of a new school of +imaginative art and poetry, in livelier sympathy with the more spiritual +side of nature, in eager and often exaggerated ideals of what might be +possible to humanity. Lastly, there remains to notice the very important +influence exercised upon English thought by Coleridge, not only by the +force of his own somewhat mystic temperament, but by his familiarity +with such writers as Kant, Lessing, Schleiermacher, and Schelling, who +had studied far more profoundly than any English philosophers or +theologians, the relation of man's higher understanding to matters not +cognisable by the ordinary powers of human reason. + +But it is time to enter somewhat further into detail on some of the +points briefly suggested. Reference was made to the Cambridge +Platonists, for although they belong to the history of the seventeenth +century, some of their opinions bear too directly on the subject to be +entirely passed over. Moreover, Cudworth's 'Immutable Morality' was not +published till 1731, at which time it had direct reference to the +controversies excited by Mandeville's 'Fable of the Bees.' The +popularity also of Henry More's writings continued into the century +after his death, and a new edition of his 'Discourse of Enthusiasm' +appeared almost simultaneously with writings of Lord Shaftesbury, Dr. +Hickes, and others upon the same subject. It might have been well if the +works of such men as H. More and Cudworth, J. Smith and Norris, had made +a deeper impression on eighteenth-century thought. Their exalted but +restrained mysticism and their lofty system of morality was the very +corrective which the tone of the age most needed. And it might have been +remembered to great advantage, that the doctrine of an inner light, far +from being only the characteristic tenet of the fanatical disciples of +Fox and Muenzer, had been held in a modified sense by men who, in the +preceding generation, had been the glory of the English Church--a band +of men conspicuous for the highest culture, the most profound learning, +the most earnest piety, the most kindly tolerance. Cudworth, at all +events, held this view. Engaged as he was, during a lengthened period of +intellectual activity, in combating a philosophical system which, alike +in theology, morals, and politics, appeared to him to sap the +foundations of every higher principle in human nature, he was led by the +whole tenour of his mind to dwell upon the existence in the soul of +perceptions not derivable from the senses, and to expatiate on the +immutable distinctions of right and wrong. Goodness, freed from all +debasing associations of interest and expedience, such as Hobbes sought +to attach to it, was the same, he was well assured, as it had existed +from all eternity in the mind of God. To a mind much occupied in such +reflections, and nurtured in the sublime thoughts of Plato, the doctrine +of an inner light naturally commended itself. All goodness of which man +is capable is a participation of the Divine essence--an effluence, as it +were, from God; and if knowledge is communicable through other channels +than those of the outward senses, what is there which should forbid +belief in the most immediate intercourse between, the soul and its +Creator, and in a direct intuition of spiritual truth? We may attain a +certain comprehension of the Deity, 'proportionate to our measure; as we +may approach near to a mountain, and touch it with our hands, though we +cannot encompass it all round and enclasp it within our arms.' In fact, +Cudworth's general train of reasoning and of feeling brought him into +great sympathy with the mystics, though he was under little temptation +of falling into the extravagances which had lately thrown their special +tenets into disrepute. He did not fail, indeed, to meet with some of the +customary imputations of enthusiasm, pantheism, and the like. But an +ordinary reader will find in him few of the characteristic faults of +mystic writers and many of their merits. In him, as in his fellow +Platonists, there is little that is visionary, there is no disparagement +of reason, no exaggerated strain of self-forgetfulness. On the other +hand, he resembles the best mystics in the combination of high +imaginative with intellectual power, in warmth of piety, in fearlessness +and purity of motive. He resembles them too in the vehemence with which +he denies the liberty of interpreting Scripture in any sense which may +appear to attribute to God purposes inconsistent with our moral +perceptions of goodness and justice--in his horror of the more +pronounced doctrines of election--in his deep conviction that love to +God and man is the core of Christianity--in his disregard for +controversy on minor points of orthodoxy, and in the comprehensive +tolerance and love of truth and liberty which should be the natural +outgrowth of such opinions. + +The other Cambridge Platonist whose writings may be said to have a +distinct bearing on the subject and period before us, is Henry More. +Even if there were no trace of the interest with which his works +continued to be read in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, it +would still seem like an omission if his treatise upon the question +under notice were passed over. For perhaps there never was an author +more qualified than he was to speak of 'enthusiasm' in a sympathetic but +impartial spirit. He felt himself that the subject was well suited to +him. 'I must,' he said, 'ingenuously confess that I have a natural touch +of enthusiasm in my complexion, but such, I thank God, as was ever +governable enough, and have found at length perfectly subduable.' He was +in truth, both by natural temperament and by the course which his +studies had taken, thoroughly competent to enter into the mind of the +mystics and enthusiasts against whom he wrote. It was perhaps only his +sound intellectual training, combined with the English attribute of +solid practical sense, that had saved him from running utterly wild in +fanciful and visionary speculations. As it is, he has been +occasionally[470] classed among the so-called Theosophists, such as +Paracelsus and Jacob Behmen. His exuberant imagination delighted in +subjects which, since his time, have been acknowledged to be closed to +all efforts of human reason, and have been generally abandoned to the +dreams of credulity and superstition. He revelled in ingenious +conjectures upon the condition of the soul in the intermediate state +after death, upon the different stages and orders of disembodied +spirits, and upon mysterious sympathies between mind and matter. We have +continually to remember that he wrote before the dawn of the Newtonian +philosophy, if we would appreciate his reasonings and guesses about +strange attractions and affinities, which pointed as he thought to an +incorporeal soul of the world, or spirit of nature, acting as 'a great +quartermaster-general of Providence' in directing relations between the +spiritual and material elements of the universe.[471] + +Such was Henry More in one side of his character. The counterbalancing +principle was his unwavering allegiance to reason, his zealous +acknowledgment of its excellence as a gift of God, to be freely used and +safely followed on every subject of human interest. He held it to be the +glory and adornment of all true religion, and the special prerogative of +Christianity. He nowhere rises to greater fervour of expression than +where he extols the free and devotional exercise of reason in a pure and +undefiled heart; and he is convinced of the high and special spiritual +powers which under such conditions are granted to it. 'I should commend +to them that will successfully philosophise the belief and endeavour +after a certain principle more noble and inward than reason itself, and +without which reason will falter, or at least reach but to mean and +frivolous things. I have a sense of something in me while I thus speak, +which I must confess is of so retruse a nature that I want a name for +it, unless I should adventure to term it Divine sagacity, which is the +first rise of successful reason.... All pretenders to philosophy will +indeed be ready to magnify reason to the skies, to make it the light of +heaven, and the very oracle of God: but they do not consider that the +oracle of God is not to be heard but in his Holy Temple, that is to say, +in a good and holy man, thoroughly sanctified in spirit, soul, and +body.'[472] + +Believing thus with all his heart both in the excellence of reason and +in a true inspiration of the spirit granted to the pure in heart, but +never dissociating the latter from the former; well convinced that +'Christian religion is rational throughout,' and that the suggestions of +the Holy Spirit are in all cases agreeable to reason--More wrote with +much force and beauty of argument his 'Exorcism of Enthusiasm.' He +showed that to abandon reason for fancy is to lay aside the solid +supports of religion, to trust faith to the mere ebb and flow of +'melancholy,' and so to confirm the sceptic in his doubts and the +atheist in his unbelief. He dwelt upon the unruly power of imagination, +its deceptive character, its intimate connection with varying states of +physical temperament--upon the variety of emotional causes which can +produce quakings and tremblings and other convulsive forms of +excitement--upon the delusiveness of visions, and revelations, and +ecstasies, and their near resemblance to waking dreams--upon the sore +temptations which are apt to lead into sin those who so closely link +spirituality with bodily feelings, making religion sensual. He warned +his readers against that sort of intoxication of the understanding, when +the imagination is suffered to run wild in allegorical interpretations +of Scripture, in fanciful allusions, in theories of mystic influences +and properties which carry away the mind into wild superstitions and +Pagan pantheism. He spoke of the self-conceit of many fanatics, their +turbulence, their heat and narrow scrupulosity, and asked how these +things could be the fruits of heavenly illumination. He suggested as the +proper remedies against enthusiasm, temperance (by which he meant +temperate diet, moderate exercise, fresh air, a due and discreet use of +devotion), humility, and the sound tests of reason--practical piety, and +service to the Church of God. Such is the general scope of his treatise; +but the most interesting and characteristic portion is towards the close +and in the Scholia appended to it, in which he speaks of 'that true and +warrantable enthusiasm of devout and holy souls,' that 'delicious sense +of the Divine life'[473] which the spirit of man is capable of +receiving. If space allowed, one or two fine passages might be quoted in +which he describes these genuine emotions. He has also some good remarks +upon the value, within guarded limits, of disturbed and excited +religious feelings in rousing the soul from lethargy, and acting as +external aids to dispose the mind for true spiritual influences. + +Henry More died the year before King William's accession. But his +opinions were, no doubt, shared by some of the best and most cultivated +men in the English Church during the opening years of the eighteenth +century. After a time his writings lost their earlier popularity. +Wesley, to his credit, recommended them in 1756 to the use of his +brother clergymen.[474] As a rule, they appear at that time to have been +but little read; their spiritual tone is pitched in too high a key for +the prevalent religious taste of the period which had then set in. Some +years had to pass before the rise of a generation more prepared to draw +refreshment from the imaginative and somewhat mystical beauties of his +style and sentiment.[475] + +When once the genius of Locke was in the ascendant, more spiritual forms +of philosophy fell into disrepute. Descartes, Malebranche, Leibnitz were +considered almost obsolete; More and Cudworth were out of favour: and +there was but scanty tolerance for any writer who could possibly incur +the charge of transcendentalism or mysticism. It is not that Cartesian +or Platonic, or even mystic opinions, are irreconcileable with Locke's +philosophy. When he spoke of sensation and reflection as the original +sources of all knowledge, there was ample room for innate ideas, and for +intuitive perceptions, under the shelter of terms so indefinite. +Moreover, the ambiguities of expression and apparent inconsistencies of +thought, which stand out in marked contrast to the force and lucidity of +his style, are by no means owing only to his use of popular language, +and his studied avoidance of all that might seem to savour of the +schools. His devout spirit rebelled against the carefully defined limits +which his logical intellect would have imposed upon it. He could not +altogether avoid applying his system to the absorbing subjects of +theology, but he did so with some unwillingness and with much reserve. +Revelation, once acknowledged as such, was always sacred ground to him; +and though he often appears to reduce all evidence to the external +witness of the senses, there is something essentially opposed to +materialistic notions, in his feeling that there is that which we do not +know simply by reason of our want of a new and different sense, by +which, if we had it, we might know our souls as we know a triangle.[476] +Locke would have heartily disowned the conclusions of many who professed +themselves his true disciples, and of many others whose whole minds had +been trained and formed under the influences of his teaching, and who +insisted that they were but following up his arguments to their +legitimate consequences.[477] The general system was the same; but there +was nothing in common between the theology of Locke and Toland's +repudiation of whatever in religion transcended human reason, or +Bolingbroke's doubts as to the immortality of the soul, or the +pronounced materialism of Hartley and Condillac, or the blank negative +results at which Hume arrived. + +But though Locke and multitudes of his admirers were profoundly +Christian in their belief, the whole drift of his thought tended to +bring prominently forward the purely practical side of religion and the +purely intellectual side of theology, and to throw into the background, +and reduce to its narrowest compass, the more entirely spiritual region +which marks the contact of the human with the Divine. Its uncertain +lights and shadows, its mysteries, obscurities, and difficulties, were +thoroughly distrusted by him. He did not--a religious mind like his +could not--deny the existence of those feelings and intuitions which, +from their excessive prominence in that school, may be classed under the +name of mystic. But he doubted their importance and dreaded their +exaggerations. Not only could they find no convenient place, scarcely +even a footing, in his philosophical system, but they were out of accord +with his own temperament and with the opinions, which he was so greatly +contributing to form, of the age in which he lived. They offended +against his love of clearness, his strong dislike of all obscurity, his +wish to see the chart of the human faculties mapped out and defined, his +desire to translate abstract ideas into the language of sound, +practical, ordinary sense, divested as far as could be of all that was +open to dispute, and of all that could in any way be accounted +visionary. His perpetual appeal lay to the common understanding, and he +regarded, therefore, with much suspicion, emotions which none could at +all times realise, and which to some minds were almost, or perhaps +entirely unknown. Lastly, his fervent love of liberty indisposed him to +admissions which might seem to countenance authority over the +consciences of men on the part of any who should assert special claims +to spiritual illumination. + +Locke struck a keynote which was harped upon by a host of theologians +and moralists after him, whenever, as was constantly the case, they had +occasion to raise their voice against that dreaded enemy, enthusiasm. +There were many who inveighed against 'the new modish system of reducing +all to sense,' when used to controvert the doctrines of revelation. But +while with vigour and success they defended the mysteries of faith +against those who would allow nothing but what reason could fairly +grasp, and while they dwelt upon the paramount authority of the Spirit +which inspired Holy Scripture, they would allow no sort of spiritual +influence to compete with reason as a judge of truth. Reason, it was +perpetually argued, is sufficient for all our present needs. Revelation +is adequately attested by evidence addressed to the reason. We need no +other proof or ground of assent; at all events, none other is granted to +us. It was not so indeed in the first age of the Church. Special gifts +of spiritual knowledge and illumination were then given to meet special +requirements. The Holy Spirit was then in very truth immediately present +in power, the greatest witness to the truth, and its direct revealer to +the hearts of men. Many of the principal preachers and theological +writers of the eighteenth century dwell at length upon the fulness of +that spiritual outpouring. But it is not a little remarkable to notice +with what singular care they often limit and circumscribe its duration. +A little earlier or a little later, but, at all events, at the end of a +generation or two after the first Christian Pentecost, a line of +demarcation was to be drawn and jealously guarded. + +In the second book of Warburton's 'Doctrine of Grace' there is a +singular instance of apparent incapacity on the part of a most able +reasoner to acknowledge the possible existence in his own day of other +spiritual influences than those which, in the most limited sense of the +word, may be called ordinary. He is speaking of the splendour of the +gifts which shed their glory upon the primitive Church and afterwards +passed away. He dwells with admiration upon the sudden and entire +changes which were made in the dispositions and manner of those whom the +Holy Spirit had enlightened. Sacred antiquity, he says, is unmistakeable +in its evidence on this point, and even the assailers of Christianity +confessed it. Conversions were effected among early Christians such as +could not be the result of mere rational conviction. It is utterly +impossible for the magisterial faculty of reason to enforce her +conclusions with such immediate power, and to win over the will with +such irresistible force, as to root out at once inveterate habits of +vice. 'To what must we ascribe so total a reform, but to the +all-powerful operation of grace?'[478] These remarks are true enough; +but it seems incredible that, writing in the very midst of an +extraordinary religious outburst, he should calmly assume the +impossibility in other than primitive times of such sudden changes from +irreligion to piety, and should even place the miraculous conversions of +apostolic times at the head of an argument against Methodist +enthusiasts. Well might Wesley remark with some surprise, 'Never were +reflections more just than these,'[479] and go on to show that the very +same changes were constantly occurring still. + +In truth, it may be said without any disparagement of a host of eminent +English divines of the eighteenth century, that their entire sympathies +were with the reasonable rather than with the spiritual side of +religion. Their ideal of Christian perfection was in many respects an +elevated one, but absolutely divested of that mystic element which in +every age of the Church has seemed to be inseparable from the higher +types of saintliness. If we may judge from the treatises of Lord +Lyttelton and Dean Graves, the character even of the apostles had to be +carefully vindicated from all suspicion of any taint of enthusiasm if +they were to maintain their full place of reverence as leaders and +princes of the Christian army. Only it must not be supposed that this +religious characteristic of the age was by any means confined to the +sceptical and indifferent on the one hand, or to persons of a sober and +reflective spirit on the other. It was almost universal. John Wesley, +for example, repeatedly and anxiously rebuts the charges of enthusiasm +which were levelled upon him from all sides. He would have it understood +that he had for ever done with enthusiasm when once he had separated +from the Moravians. The same shrinking from the name, as one of +opprobrium, is shown by Dr. Watts;[480] and one of the greatest troubles +in Hannah More's life seems to have been her annoyance, that she and +other faithful members of the English Church should be defamed as +encouragers of enthusiasm.[481] + +The eighteenth century was indeed an age when sober reason would hear of +no competitor, and whose greatest outburst of religious zeal +characteristically took its name from the well-ordered method with which +it was organised. It will not, however, be inferred that enthusiasm, as +the word was then commonly understood, scarcely existed. On the +contrary, the vigour and constancy of the attack points with sufficient +clearness to the evident presence of the enemy. In fact, although the +more exaggerated forms of mysticism and fanaticism have never +permanently thriven on English soil, there has never been an age when +what may be called mystical religion has not had many ardent votaries. +For even the most extravagant of its multiform phases embody an +important element of truth, which cannot be neglected without the +greatest detriment to sound religion. Whatever be its particular type, +it represents the protest of the human soul against all that obscures +the spirituality of belief. But of all the accidents and externals of +religion, there is not one, however important in itself, which may not +be made unduly prominent, and under such circumstances interfere between +the soul and the object of its worship. It will be readily understood, +therefore, upon how great a variety of grounds that protest may be +based, how right and reasonable it may sometimes be, but also how easily +it may itself run into excess, and how quickly the understanding may +lose its bearings, when once, for fear of the abuse, it begins to +dispense with what was not intended to check, but to guide and regulate +the aspirations of the Spirit. Mystical and enthusiastical religion, +whether in its sounder or in its exaggerated and unhealthy forms, may be +a reaction against an over-assertion of the powers of reason in +spiritual matters and questions of evidence, or against the undue +extension, in subjects too high for it, of the domain of 'common sense;' +or it may be a vindication of the spiritual rights of the uneducated +against the pretensions of learning; or an assertion of the judgment and +conscience of the individual against all tyranny of authority. It may be +a protest against excessive reverence for the letter of Holy Scripture +as against the Spirit which breathes in it, against all appearance of +limiting inspiration to a book, and denying it to the souls of living +men. It may express insurrection against all manner of formalism, usages +which have lost their significance, rites which have ceased to edify, +doctrines which have degenerated into formulas, orthodoxy which has +become comparatively barren and profitless. It may represent a +passionate longing to escape from party differences and sectarian strife +into a higher, purer atmosphere, where the free Spirit of God bloweth +where it listeth. It often owes its origin to strong revulsion against +popular philosophies which limit all consciousness to mere perceptions +of the senses, or against the materialistic tendencies which find an +explanation for all mysteries in physical phenomena. It may result from +endeavours to find larger scope for reverie and contemplation, or fuller +development for the imaginative elements of religious thought. It may be +a refuge for spirits disgusted at an unworthy and utilitarian system of +ethics, and at a religion too much degraded into a code of moral +precepts. All these tendencies, varying in every possible degree from +the healthiest efforts after greater spirituality of life to the wildest +excesses of fanatical extravagance, may be copiously illustrated from +the history of enthusiasm. The writers of the eighteenth century were +fully alive to its dangers. It was easy to show how mystical religion +had often led its too eager, or too untaught followers into the most +mischievous antinomianism of doctrine and life, into allegorising away +the most fundamental grounds of Christianity, and into the vaguest +Pantheism. They could produce examples in abundance of bewildered +intellects, of 'illuminations' obscurer than any darkness, of religious +rapture, in its ambitious distrust of reason, lapsing into physical +agencies and coarse materialism. They could hold up, in ridicule or +warning, profuse illustrations of exorbitant spiritual pride, blind +credulity, infatuated self-deceit, barefaced imposture. It was much more +congenial to the prevalent temper of the age to draw a moral from such +perversions of a tone of feeling with which there was little sympathy, +than to learn a useful lesson from the many truths contained in it. +Doubtless, it is not easy to deal with principles which have been +maintained in an almost identical form, but with consequences so widely +divergent, by some of the noblest, and by some of the most foolish of +mankind, by true saints and by gross fanatics. The contemporaries of +Locke, Addison, and Tillotson, trained in a wholly different school of +thought, were ill-fitted to enter with patience into such a subject, to +see its importance, to discriminate its differences, and to solve its +perplexities. + +At the opening of the eighteenth century, the elements of enthusiasm +were too feeble to show themselves in any acknowledged form either in +the Church of England or in the leading Nonconformist bodies. In +England, no doubt, as in every other European country, there were, as +Mr. Vaughan observes, 'Scattered little groups of friends, who nourished +a hidden devotion by the study of pietist and mystical writings.... +Whenever we can penetrate behind the public events which figure in +history at the close of the seventeenth, and the opening of the +eighteenth century, indications are discernible, which make it certain +that a religious vitality of this description was far more widely +diffused than is commonly supposed.[482] But these recluse societies +made no visible impression upon the general state of religion. If it +were not for the evident anxiety felt by many writers of the period to +expose and counteract the dangers of a mystical and enthusiastical bias, +it might have been supposed that there never was a time when the Church +was so entirely free from any possible peril in that direction. Their +fear, however, was not without some foundation. When an important phase +of spiritual truth is comparatively neglected by established authorities +and in orthodox opinion, it is sure to find full vent in another less +regular channel. We are told that in the first years of the century, the +Quakers had immensely increased. 'They swarm,' said Leslie, 'over these +three nations, and they stock our plantations abroad.'[483] Quakerism +had met with little tolerance in the previous century. Churchmen and +Dissenters had unanimously denounced it, and Baxter, large-minded as he +often proved himself, denied its adherents all hope of salvation. But +the sect throve under persecution; and; in proportion as its follies and +extravagances became somewhat mitigated, the spirituality of belief, +which even in its most exaggerated forms had always been its soul of +strength, became more and more attractive to those who felt its +deficiency elsewhere. Between the passing of the Toleration Act and the +end of William III.'s reign it made great progress. After that it began +gradually to decline. This was owing to various causes. Some share in it +may perhaps be attributed to the continued effects of the general +religious lethargy which had set in some years before, but may have now +begun to spread more visibly among the classes from which Quakerism was +chiefly recruited. Again, its intellectual weakness would naturally +become more apparent in proportion to the daily increasing attention +paid to the reasonable aspects of faith. The general satisfaction felt, +except by the pronounced High Church and Jacobite party, at the newly +established order in Church and State, was unfavourable to the further +progress of a communion which, from its rejection of ideas common to +every other ecclesiastical body, seemed to many to be rightly called +'the end and centre of all confusion.'[484] It may be added that, as the +century advanced, there gradually came to be within the confines of the +National Church a little more room than had lately existed for the +upholders of various mystical tenets. With the rise of Wesleyanism +enthusiasm found full scope in a new direction. But the power of +Quakerism was not only silently undermined by the various action of +influences such as these. In the first years of the century it received +a direct and serious blow in the able exposure of its extravagances +written by Leslie. The vagaries of the French 'Prophets' also +contributed to discredit the assumption of supernatural gifts in which +many Quakers still indulged. + +It is needless to dwell with Leslie on the wild heretical opinions into +which the over-strained spirituality of the disciples of Fox and Penn +had led them. Certainly, the interval between them and other Christian +communities had sometimes been so wide that there was some justification +for the assertions made on either side, that the name of Christian could +not be so widely extended as to be fitly applied to both. Archbishop +Dawes, for example, in the House of Lords, roundly refused them all +claim to the title; and there were thousands of Quakers who would +retaliate the charge in terms of the most unsparing vigour. To these +men, all the Gospel was summed up in the one verse that tells how Christ +is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Leslie +was able to produce quotations in plenty from acknowledged authorities +among them which allegorised away all belief in a personal Saviour, and +which bade each man seek within himself alone for the illuminating +presence of his Christ and God. + +It was well that the special dangers to which Quakerism and other forms +of mysticism are liable should be brought clearly and openly into view. +But after all it is not from the extravagances and perversions of a +dogma that the main lesson is to be learnt. With the Bible open before +them, and with hearts alive to the teachings of holiness, the generality +of religious-minded Quakers were not likely to be satisfied with what +Warburton rightly called not so much a religion as 'a divine +philosophy, not fit for such a creature as man,'[485] nor with a +religious vocabulary summed up, as a writer in the 'Tatler' humorously +said, in the three words, 'Light,' 'Friend,' and 'Babylon.'[486] There +was no reason why the worship of the individual should not be very free +from the prevalent errors of the sect, and be in a high sense pure and +Christian. For the truths which at one time made Quakerism so strong are +wholly separable, not only from the superficial eccentricities of the +system, but from its gravest deficiencies in form and doctrine. There is +nothing to forbid a close union of the most intensely human and personal +elements of Christian faith with that refined and pervading sense of a +present life-giving Spirit which was faithfully borne witness to by +Quakers when it was feeblest and most neglected elsewhere. If Quaker +principles, instead of being embodied in a strongly antagonistic form as +tenets of an exclusive and often persecuted sect,[487] had been +transfused into the general current of the national religious life, they +would at once have escaped the extravagances into which they were led, +and have contributed the very elements of which the spiritual condition +of the age stood most in need. Not only in the moderate and constantly +instructive pages of Barclay's 'Apology' for the Quakers, but also in +the hostile expositions of their views which we find in the works of +Leslie and their other opponents, there is frequent cause for regret +that so much suggestive thought should have become lost to the Church at +large. The Quakers were accustomed to look at many important truths in +somewhat different aspects from those in which they were commonly +regarded; and the Church would have gained in power as well as in +comprehension, if their views on some points had been fully accepted as +legitimate modes of orthodox belief. English Christianity would have +been better prepared for its formidable struggle with the Deists, if it +had freely allowed a wider margin for diversity of sentiment in several +questions on which Quaker opinion almost universally differed from that +of the Churchmen of the age. It was said of Quakers that they were mere +Deists, except that they hated reason.[488] The imputation might not +unfrequently be true; for a Quaker consistently with his principles +might reject some very essential features of Christianity. Often, on +the other hand, such a charge would be entirely erroneous, for, no less +consistently, a Quaker might be in the strictest sense of the word a +thorough and earnest Christian. But in any case he was well armed +against that numerous class of Deistical objections which rested upon an +exclusively literal interpretation of Scripture. This is eminently +observable in regard of theories of inspiration. To Quakers, as to +mystical writers in general, biblical infallibility has never seemed to +be a doctrine worth contending for. They have always felt that an +admixture of human error is perfectly innocuous where there is a living +spirit present to interpret the teaching of Scripture to the hearts of +men. But elsewhere, the doctrine of unerring literal inspiration was +almost everywhere held in its straitest form. Leslie, for example, +quotes with horror a statement of Ellwood, one of his Quaker opponents, +that St. Paul expected the day of judgment to come in his time. 'If,' +answers Leslie, 'he thought it might, then it follows that he was +mistaken, and consequently that what he wrote was not truth; and so not +only the authority of this Epistle, but of all the Epistles, and of all +the rest of the New Testament, will fall to the ground.'[489] Such +specious, but false and dangerous reasoning is by no means uncommon +still; but when it represented the general language of orthodox +theologians, we cannot wonder that the difficulties started by Deistical +writers caused widespread disbelief, and raised a panic as if the very +foundations of Christianity were in danger of being overthrown. + +There were other ways in which profound confidence in direct spiritual +guidance shielded Quakers from perplexities which shook the faith of +many. They had been among the first to turn with horror from those stern +views of predestination and reprobation which, until the middle of the +seventeenth century, had been accepted by the great majority of English +Protestants without misgiving. It was doctrine utterly repugnant to men +whose cardinal belief was in the light that lighteth every man. The same +principle kept even the most bigoted among them from falling into the +prevalent opinion which looked upon the heathen as altogether without +hope and without God in the world. They, almost alone of all Christian +missionaries of that age, pointed their hearers (not without scandal to +their orthodox brethren) to a light of God within them which should +guide them to the brighter radiance of a better revelation. Nor did they +scruple, to assert that 'there be members of this Catholic Church both +among heathens, Jews, and Turks, men and women of integrity and +simplicity of heart, who, though blinded in some things of their +understanding, and burdened with superstition, yet, being upright in +their hearts before the Lord, ... and loving to follow righteousness, +are by the secret touches of the holy light in their souls enlivened and +quickened, thereby secretly united to God, and thereby become true +members of this Catholic Church.'[490] Such expressions would be +generally assented to in our day, as embodying sound and valuable +truths, which cannot be rejected on account of errors which may +sometimes chance to attend them. At the beginning of the eighteenth +century there were few, except Quakers, who were willing to accept from +a wholly Christian point of view the element of truth contained in the +Deistical argument of 'Christianity as old as the Creation.' + +Somewhat similar in kind was the protest of the Quakers against +dogmatism as to the precise nature of the Atonement,[491] and against +unspiritual and, so to say, physical interpretations put upon passages +in Scripture which speak of the efficacy of the blood of Christ. On this +ground also they, and the mystic school in general, were constantly +inveighed against as mere Deists. Yet the rigid definitions insisted +upon by many of the Reformers were much at variance with the wider views +held in earlier and later times. It is at all events certain that, both +within and without the English Church, those who held these views were +protected from many of the most forcible objections with which the +Christianity of the age was assailed. + +The Quakerism, which at the end of the seventeenth and at the beginning +of the eighteenth century was strong in numbers and in religious +influence, has claimed our attention thus far in regard only of those +modes of thought which it holds in common with most other forms of +so-called mystic theology. On this ground it comes into close relation +with the history of the English Church. M. Matter, in his 'History of +Christianity,' speaks of Quakerism in conjunction with Methodism as the +two forms of English reaction against formalism alike in doctrine and in +government.[492] But it has been a merit of the English Church, and its +most distinguishing title to the name of 'National,' that it has been +able to learn from the sects which have grown up around it. Cautiously +and tardily--often far too much so for its own immediate advantage--it +has seldom neglected to find at last within its ample borders some room +for modes and expressions of Christian belief which, for a time +neglected, had been growing up outside its bounds. It was so with +Methodism; it was so also with Quakerism. When Quakers found that its +more reasonable tenets could be held, and find a certain amount of +sympathy within the Church, it quickly began to lose its strength. A +remark of Boswell's in 1776, that many a man was a Quaker without his +knowing it,[493] could scarcely have been made in the corresponding year +of the previous century. At the earlier date there was almost nothing in +common between the Church and a sect which, both on its strongest and +weakest side, was marked by a conspicuous antagonism to established +opinions. At the latter date Quakerism had to a great extent lost both +its mystic and emotional monopolies. After a few years' hesitation +Southey concluded that he need not join the Quakers simply because he +disliked 'attempting to define what has been left indefinite.'[494] The +semi-mystical turn of thought which is most keenly alive to the futility +of such endeavours was no longer a tenable ground for secession. Or if a +man believed in visible manifestations of spiritual influences, he would +more probably become a Methodist than a Quaker; and the time was not yet +come when to be a Methodist was to cease to be a Churchman. In one +respect, however, Quakerism possessed a safeguard to emotional +excitement which in Methodism was wanting.[495] It was that notion of +tranquil tarrying and spiritual quiet which was as alien to the spirit +of later Methodism as it is congenial to that of mysticism. The language +of the Methodist would entirely accord with that of the Quaker in +speaking of the pangs of the new birth, and of the visible tokens of the +Spirit's presence; but the absence of reserve and the mutual +'experiences' of the Methodist stand out in a strong, and to many minds +unfavourable, contrast with the silence and self-absorption of which +Quakerism had learnt the value. + + Then comes the Spirit to our hut, + When fast the senses' doors are shut; + For so Divine and pure a guest + The emptiest rooms are furnished best.[496] + +Or, in the words of one of the saintliest of the mediaeval mystics, 'In +the chamber of the heart God works. But what He works in the souls of +those with whom He holds direct converse none can say, nor can any man +give account of it to another; but he only who has felt it knows what it +is; and even he can tell thee nothing of it, save only that God in very +truth hath possessed the ground of his heart.'[497] + +It may here be observed that what has been said of Quakerism, so far as +it was at one time representative of that mystic element which the +eighteenth century called enthusiasm, will be a sufficient reason for +passing all the more briefly over other branches of the same subject. +The idea of self-surrender to the immediate action of spiritual +influence is a bond of union far more potent than any external or +ecclesiastical differences. Whatever be the period, or Church, or state +of society in which it is found, mysticism is always very nearly the +same both in its strength and in its weakness. It exhibits, indeed, the +most varied phases, according to the direction and degree in which it +falls into those excesses to which it is peculiarly liable, but such +extravagances are very independent of the particular community in which +they happen to appear. Different as are the associations connected with +such names as Plato and Pythagoras, Plotinus and Dionysius, St. Bernard +and T. a Kempis, Eckhart and Tauler, More and Norris, Fenelon and Guyon, +Arndt and Spener, Law and Byrom, Quakers and Moravians, Schleiermacher +and Schelling, yet passages might be collected from each, often striking +and sometimes sublime, which show very close and essential points of +affinity. And just in proportion as each form of mysticism has relaxed +its hold upon steadying grounds of reason, the diversified dangers to +which it is subject uniformly recur. Every successive type of mystic +enthusiasm, if once it has passed its legitimate bounds, has produced +exactly analogous instances of pantheism, antinomianism, or fanaticism. + +Early in the eighteenth century, when Quakerism was just beginning to +lose its influence, its wild assumptions of an earlier date were +paralleled by a new form of fanatical enthusiasm. In 1706 there arose, +says Calamy, 'a mighty noise as concerning new prophets.'[498] These +were certain Camisards,[499] as they were called, of the Cevennes, who, +after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had risen in the cause of +their religion, and had been suppressed with great severity by Marshals +Montrevel and Villars. Suffering and persecution have always been +favourable to highly-wrought forms of mysticism. In their sore distress +men and women have implored for and obtained consolations which +transcend all ordinary experience. They have cried, in agonies of faith +and doubt, for cheering visions of brighter things. + + Father, O Father, what do we here, + In this land of unbelief and fear? + The land of dreams is brighter far, + Above the light of the morning star.[500] + +Not only have they been comforted by what they feel to be direct +intuitions of a Divine Presence in them and about them, but their +imaginations have been kindled into fervent anticipations of triumphs +near at hand and of judgments soon to fall upon their oppressors. From +excited feelings such as these it is but a very little step for +illiterate and undisciplined minds to pass into the wildest phrensies of +fanaticism. So it was with these 'French prophets.' The cause of foreign +Protestantism was at this time very popular in England; and when a +number of them found their way hither as refugees they met at first with +much sympathy, and had many admirers. Some men even of learning and +reputation, as Sir Edward Bulkeley and John Lacy, threw themselves heart +and soul into the movement, on the not unreasonable ground that the +dulness of religion and the degeneracy of the time needed a new +dispensation of the Spirit, and that a great revival had begun. It is +unnecessary to follow up the history in any detail. The impulse had been +very genuine in the first instance, and had stood the test of much +fierce trial. Transplanted to alien soil, it rapidly degenerated, and +presently became degraded into mere imposture. For a time, however, it +not only created much excitement throughout England, and even as far +north as Aberdeen, but also attracted the anxious attention of several +men of note. There could not be many subjects on which Hoadly and +Shaftesbury, Spinckes the Nonjuror, Winston and Calamy could all be +writing contemporaneously on the same side. But it was so in this case. + +The commotion caused by these Camisard refugees quickly passed away, but +left its impression on the public mind, and made the educated classes +more than ever indisposed to bear with any outbursts of religious +feelings which should in any way outstep the bounds of sobriety and +order. When strange physical manifestations began to break out under the +preaching of Wesley and Whitefield, the quakings and tremblings, the +sighings and convulsions, which middle-aged people had seen or heard of +in their younger days were by many recalled to memory, and helped to +strengthen the unfortunate prejudices which the new movement had +created, Wesley himself was vexed and puzzled at the obvious +resemblance. He was quite ready to grant that such agitations betokened +'natural distemper'[501] in the case of the French prophets, yet the +remembrance of them embarrassed him, for he was convinced that what he +saw around him were veritable pangs of the new birth, the undoubted +effects of spiritual and supernatural agencies. + +About the same time that the Protestant enthusiasts of the Cevennes were +conspicuously attracting the admiration or derision of the English +public, another form of mysticism imported from Catholic France was +silently working its way among a few persons of cultivated thought and +deep religious sentiment. Fenelon was held in high and deserved esteem +in England. Even when vituperation was most unsparingly lavished upon +Roman Catholics in general, his name, conjointly with those of Pascal +and Bossuet, was honourably excepted. His mild and tolerant spirit, his +struggles with the Jesuits, the purity of his devotion, the simple, +practical way in which he had discussed the evidences of religion, and, +lastly, but perhaps not least, the great popularity of his 'Telemachus,' +combined to increase his reputation in this country. The Duke of +Marlborough, at the siege of Bouchain, assigned a detachment of troops +to protect his estates and conduct provisions to his dwelling.[502] +Steele copied into one of the Saturday papers of the 'Guardian,'[503] +with a preface expressive of his high admiration of the piety and +talents of its author, the devotional passage with which Fenelon +concluded his 'Demonstration.' Lyttelton made Plato welcome him to +heaven as 'the most pure, the most gentle, the most refined, disciple of +philosophy that the world in modern times has produced.'[504] Richard +Savage spoke of him as the pride of France.[505] Jortin, in reference to +him and other French Churchmen of his stamp, observed that no European +country had produced Romanists of so high a type.[506] But Fenelon is +thoroughly representative of a pure and refined mysticism. He is, +indeed, singularly free from the various errors which closely beset its +more exaggerated forms. Yet no admirer of his who had become at all +penetrated with the spirit that breathes in his writings could fail to +sympathise with the fundamental ideas common to every form of mystic +theology. An age which abhorred enthusiasm might have found, +nevertheless, in the author whom all extolled, opinions closely +analogous to those by which the wildest fanatics had justified their +extravagances. The doctrines of an inner light, of perfection, of reason +quiescent amid the tumult of the soul, of mystical union, of +disinterested love, are all strongly maintained by the Archbishop of +Cambray. He wrote his 'Maximes des Saints' with the express purpose of +showing how, in every age of the Church, opinions identical with those +held by himself and Madame Guyon had been sanctioned by great +authorities.[507] It was, in fact, a detailed defence of the Quietism +and moderated mystical views which had excited the violent and unguarded +attack of Bossuet. + +Fenelon, with instinctive ease, escaped the pitfalls with which his +subject was encompassed; but it was not so with Madame Guyon, whose +opinions he had so vigorously defended and all but identified with his +own. There could scarcely be a better example of the insensible degrees +in which, by the infirmity of human nature, sound spiritualism may +decline into visionary fancies and a morbid state of religious emotion, +than to notice how the writings of Guyon and Bourignon form transitory +links between Fenelon and the extreme mystics. Their principles were the +same, but the meditations of Madame Bourignon, although sometimes ranked +in devotional value with those of A Kempis and De Sales, fell, if Leslie +and others may be trusted,[508] into most of the dangerous and heretical +notions into which an unreined enthusiasm is apt to lead. A defence of +her opinions, published in London in 1699, and a collection, which +followed soon after, of her translated letters, had considerable +influence with many earnest spirits[509] who chafed at the coldness of +the times, and cared little for other faults so long as they could find +a religious literature in which they could, at all events, be safe from +formalism and scholastic or sectarian disputings. + +Lyttelton, in the same paper in which he pronounces his panegyric on +Fenelon, calls Madame Guyon a 'mad woman' and 'a distracted enthusiast.' +So much depends upon the greater or less sobriety with which views are +stated; and excellent as Madame Guyon was, her effuse and somewhat +morbid form of devotional sentiment can never be altogether congenial to +English feeling, still less to English feeling such as it was in the +first half of the eighteenth century. But her hymns, made familiar to +readers in this country by Cowper's translations, were received by many +with the same welcome as the works of Madame de Bourignon. If there were +few who could appreciate the high-strung mystic aspirations after +perfect self-renunciation, self-annihilation, and absorption in the +abyss of the Divine infinity, the ecstatic joy in self-denial and +suffering, whereby the soul might be so refined from selfishness as to +surrender itself wholly to the will of God, and to see the marks of His +love equally present everywhere--if to religious men and women outside +the cloister this seemed like vainly striving + + To wind ourselves too high + For sinful man beneath the sky, + +yet in the general spirit of her verses they could gain refreshment not +always to be found elsewhere. They could sympathise with the intense +longing for a closer walk with God, with the hunger and thirst after a +purer righteousness, a more unselfish love, a closer mystical union with +the Divine life. + +Yet, after all, it is not France, but Germany that has been for many +centuries the chosen abode of every variety of mystic sentiment. The +most exalted forms of spiritual Christianity have prospered there, and, +on the other hand, the vaguest reveries and the grossest epidemics of +fanaticism. We turn from the influence in the England of the eighteenth +century of French revivalists and French Pietists to that exercised by +one of the most remarkable of German mystics, Jacob Behmen. If it was an +influence no longer popular and widely spreading, as it once had been, +yet it directly and profoundly impressed one of the most eminent of our +theologians, and indirectly its effects were by no means inconsiderable. + +Behmen's writings (1612-24) travelled rapidly through Europe, found +readers in every class, and are said to have been widely instrumental in +recalling unbelievers to a Christian faith. They popularised and gave an +immense extension to mysticism of every kind, good and bad. In Germany +they largely contributed[510] to form the opinions of Arndt and +Andreas, Spener and Francke, men to whom their country was indebted for +a remarkable revival of spiritual religion. Their further influence may, +perhaps, be traced through Francke on Count Zinzendorf and the +Moravians,[511] and through Wolff on the mystic rationalism of later +Germany. The German Romanticists of the end of the last and the +beginning of this century were extravagant in his praises,[512] Schlegel +declaring that he was superior to Luther. Novalis was scarcely less +ardent in his admiration. Kahlman protested that he had learnt more from +him than he could have learnt from all the wise men of his age +together.[513] In England, both in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, he had many devoted followers and many violent opponents. +Henry More speaks of him as a good and holy man, but at the same time +'an egregious enthusiast,' and regrets that he 'has given occasion to +the enthusiasts of this nation in our late troublesome times to run into +many ridiculous errors and absurdities.'[514] J. Wesley admitted that he +was a good man, but says 'the whole of Behmenism, both phrase and sense, +is useless.'[515] With an absence of appreciation almost amounting to a +want of candour, not uncommon in this eminent man towards those from +whom he disagreed, he will not even allow that he had any 'patrons'[516] +who have adorned the doctrine of Christ. 'His language is barbarous, +unscriptural, and unintelligible.' 'It is most sublime nonsense, +inimitable bombast, fustian not to be paralleled.' Bishop Warburton also +refers to him in the most unqualified[517] terms of contempt. William +Blake, most mystical of poets and painters, delighted, as might well be +expected, in Behmen's writings.[518] A far weightier testimony to their +value is to be found in the high estimate which William Law--a +theologian of saintly life, and most thoughtful and suggestive in his +reasonings--formed of the spiritual treasury which he found there. He +can scarcely find words to express his thankfulness for 'the depth and +fulness of Divine light and truth opened in them by the grace and mercy +of God.'[519] + +This extreme contrast of opinions may be easily accounted for. To most +modern readers Jacob Behmen's works must be an intolerable trial of +patience. They will find page after page of what they may very +pardonably call, as Wesley did, 'sublime nonsense' or unintelligible +jargon. Repetitions, obscurities, and verbal barbarisms abound in them, +and the most ungrounded fancies are poured profusely forth as the most +indubitable verities. But it is like diving for pearls in a deep and +turbid sea. The pearls are there, if patiently sought for, and sometimes +of rare beauty. To Behmen's mind the whole universe of man and nature is +transfigured by the pervading presence of a spiritual life. Everywhere +there is a contest against evil, sin, and death; everywhere there is a +longing after better things, a yearning for the recovery of the heavenly +type. Everywhere there is a groaning and travailing in pain until now, +awaiting the adoption--to wit, the redemption of the body. None felt +more keenly than Behmen that heaven is truly at our doors, and God not +far away from every one of us. The Holy Spirit is to him in very deed +Lord and Giver of all life, and teaches all things, and leads into all +truth. He is well assured that to him who thirsts after righteousness, +and hath his conversation in heaven, and knoweth God within him, and +whose heart is prepared by purity and truth, such light of the eternal +life will be granted that, though he be simple and unlearned, heavenly +wisdom will be granted to him, and all things will become full of +meaning. He puts no limit to the grand possibilities and capabilities of +human nature. To him the soul of man is indeed 'larger than the sky, +deeper than ocean,'[520] but only through union and conformity with that +Divine Spirit which 'searcheth all things--yea, the deep things of God.' +He would have welcomed as a wholly congenial idea that grand mediaeval +notion of an encyclopaedic wisdom in which all forms of philosophy, art, +and science build up, as it were, one noble edifice, rising heavenwards, +domed in by Divine philosophy, the spiritual and intellectual knowledge +of God; he would have agreed with Bonaventura that all human science +'emanates, as from its source, from the Divine Light.'[521] He felt also +that in the unity of 'the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man +severally as He will,' would be found something deeper than all +diversities in religion, which would reconcile them, and would solve +Scripture difficulties and the mysteries which have tormented men. + +These and suchlike thoughts, intensely realised, and sometimes expressed +with singular vividness and power, possessed great attraction to minds +wearied with the religious controversies or spiritual dulness of the +time, and which were not repelled by the wilderness of verbiage, the +hazy cloudland, in which Behmen's conceptions were involved. William +Law, the Nonjuror, was thoroughly fascinated by them, and their +influence upon him forms an episode of considerable interest in the +religious history of the period. + +Yet if it had been only as the translator and exponent of 'the Teutonic +theosophy' that William Law had become prominent, and incurred on every +side the hackneyed charge of 'enthusiasm,' this excellent man might have +claimed but a passing notice. His theological position in the eighteenth +century is rendered chiefly remarkable by the power he showed (in his +time singularly exceptional) of harmonising the ideas of mediaeval +mysticism with some of the most characteristic features of modern +religious thought. A man of deep and somewhat ascetic piety, and gifted +with much originality and with a cultured and progressive mind, he had +many readers and a few earnest and admiring adherents, yet was never +greatly in sympathy with the age in which he lived. Three or four +generations earlier, or three or four generations later, he would have +found much more that was congenial to one or another side of his +intellectual temperament. At the accession of George I. in 1716 he +declined to take the oaths, and resigned his fellowship at Cambridge, +although, like others among the moderate Nonjurors, he remained to the +last constant to the communion of the National Church.[522] In 1726 he +wrote the 'Serious Call,' one of the most remarkable devotional books +that have ever been published. Dr. Johnson, upon whom it made a profound +and lasting impression, describes it as 'the finest piece of hortatory +theology in any language.'[523] Gibbon, in whose father's house Law +lived for some time as tutor and chaplain, says of it that 'if it found +a spark of piety in the reader's mind it would soon kindle it to a +flame.'[524] Southey remarks of it that 'few books have made so many +religious enthusiasts.' The reading of it formed one of the first epochs +in Wesley's religious life. It did much towards forming the character of +the elder Venn. It was mainly instrumental in effecting the conversion +from profligacy to piety of the once famous Psalmanazar.[525] Effects +scarcely less striking are recorded in 1771 to have resulted upon its +copious distribution among the inhabitants of a whole parish.[526] And +lastly it may be added that Bishop Horne made himself thoroughly +familiar with a kindred work by the same author--on 'Christian +Perfection'--and was wont to express the greatest admiration of it. + +From his retirement at Kingscliffe,[527] where he lived a life of +untiring benevolence, Law took an active part in the religious +controversies of the time; refusing, however, all payment for his +publications. He entered the lists against Tindal, Chubb, and +Mandeville, against Hoadly, against Warburton, against Wesley. His +answer to Mandeville is called by J. Sterling 'a most remarkable +philosophical essay,' full 'of pithy right reason,'[528] and has been +republished by Frederick Maurice, with a highly commendatory +introduction. The authority last mentioned also speaks of him as 'a +singularly able controversialist in his argument with Hoadly;' and adds: +'Of all the writers whom he must have irritated--Freethinkers, +Methodists, actors, Hanoverians,--of all the nonjuring friends whom he +alienated by his quietism, none doubted his singleness of purpose.' It +may be added that there were few of his opponents who might not have +learnt from him a lesson of Christian courtesy. Living in an age when +controversy of every kind was, almost as a rule, deformed by virulent +personalities, he yet, in the face of much provocation, kept always +faithful to his resolve that, 'by the grace of God, he would never have +any personal contention with anyone.'[529] + +Such was the man who, from about 1730 to his death in 1761, was a most +earnest student of mystical theology. 'Of these mystical divines,' he +says, 'I thank God I have been a diligent reader, through all ages of +the Church, from the Apostolical Dionysius the Areopagite down to the +great Fenelon, the illuminated Guyon, and M. Bertot.'[530] Tauler made a +great impression on his mind, but Jacob Behmen most of all. Of these +writers in general he speaks in grateful terms, as true spiritual +teachers, purified by trials and self-discipline, and deeply learned in +the mysteries of God, 'truly sons of thunder and sons of consolation, +who awaken the heart, and leave it not till the kingdom of heaven is +raised up in it.' + +William Law was a man of far too great intellectual ability to be a +mere borrower of ideas. What he read he thoroughly assimilated; and +Behmen's strange theosophy, after passing through the mind of his +English exponent, reappeared in a far more logical and comprehensible +form. It cannot be said that Law was altogether a gainer by his later +studies. To many of his contemporaries the result appeared quite the +contrary; and he was constantly reproached with having become a mere +mystic or a hopeless enthusiast. No doubt, he borrowed from his +favourite authors some of their faults as well as many of their virtues. +Jacob Behmen's most glaring faults in style and phraseology are +sometimes transferred with little mitigation to his pages. A person who +gathered his ideas of William Law from Wesley's critique would probably +turn with impatience, and something like aversion, from one who could +use upon the gravest subjects what might seem a strange jargon +compounded out of Gnostic cosmogonies and alchemistic fancies. We take +Jacob Behmen for what he was--a man in some respects of extraordinary +spiritual insight, but perfectly illiterate; living at a time when the +fame of Agrippa and Paracelsus was still recent, and accustomed to refer +all his conceptions to immediate revelation from heaven. But we do not +expect to find in a cultivated scholar of the eighteenth century such +outlandish sayings as 'Nature is in itself a hungry, wrathful fire of +life,' or pages of argument grounded upon the condition and fall of +angels before the creation of the world. Such phraseology and such +reasonings, even if culled from Law's writings less unrelentingly and +more fairly than by Wesley and Warburton, are quite sufficient to create +a reasonable prejudice against his opinions. Yet these are blemishes +which lie comparatively on the surface. They are always found in +reference to certain views which he had adopted about creation and the +fall of man. Although, therefore, they occur constantly--for the Fall is +always a very essential feature in the whole of Law's theology--they do +not interfere with the general lucidity of his argument, or the +devotional beauty of his thought. + +Independently of occasional obscurities of language and visionary +notions, Law does not altogether escape those more serious objections to +which mystic writers are almost always liable. When he speaks of +heavenly illumination, and of the birth of Christ within the soul, or of +the all of God and the nothingness of man, or when he refers over +slightingly to 'human reason' or 'human learning,' or to the outward +machinery of religion in contrast to the direct communion of the soul +with its Creator, it is impossible not to feel that he sometimes +approaches over nearly to the dangerous verge where sound spiritualism +loses self-control. + +The ascetic austerity of Law's life and teaching was at once a +recommendation and an impediment to the influence of his writings. From +the beginning to the end of his active life he would never swerve an +atom from the high and uncompromising type of holiness which he +constantly set before himself as the bounden goal of all human effort. +His mysticism only intensified this feeling. Assured as of a certain +truth that, corrupt, fallen, and earthly as human nature is, there is +nevertheless in the soul of every man 'the fire and light and love of +God, though lodged in a state of hiddenness, inactivity, and death, ... +overpowered by the workings of flesh and blood,'[531] it seemed to him +the one worthy object of life, by purification and by mortification of +the lower nature, to remove all hindrances to the enlightening efficacy +of the Holy Spirit. So only could the Divine Image, the life of the +triune God within the soul, be restored, and the heaven-born Spirit, +'that angel that died in Paradise,'[532] be born again to life within +us. His words sound like a Christian paraphrase of what Plato had said +in the 'Republic,' where he compares the present appearance of the soul +to an image of the sea-god Glaucus, so battered by waves, so disfigured +by the overgrowth of shells, and seaweed, and all kinds of earthy +substances, that it has almost lost the similitude of the immortal +likeness.[533] No one could have felt more keenly than William Law the +overpowering need of this restorative process, and the fervent longing +of the awakened soul to be delivered from that bondage of corruption +which presses like a burden too heavy to be borne, not upon man only, +but upon all creation, groaning and travailing in sympathetic pain, to +be delivered from the evil and misery and death with which it is +laden.[534] He will allow of no ideal short of the highest pattern of +angelic[535] goodness, nor concede that we are called upon to pray, +'God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' without its full +accomplishment being in human power. This height of aspiration gives +great stimulative power to Law's writing, but, as is unfortunately apt +to be the case, it is a source of weakness as well as of power. With +him, as with many mystic writers, all other elements of human nature are +slighted and neglected in the absorbing thirst for holiness. His ideal +is indeed lofty, but it fails in expansiveness. When he speaks of +absorption into the Divine will--of seeking 'deliverance from the misery +and captivity of self by a total continual self-denial'[536]--of +converting 'this poison of an earthly life into a state of +purification'[537]--of 'turning from all that is earthly, animal, and +temporal, and dying to the will of flesh and blood, because it is +darkness, corruption, and separation from God;'[538] when--sound and +thoughtful reasoner as he often is--he speaks with thorough distrust of +'the guidance of our own Babylonian reason,' and of learning as good +indeed within its own sphere, but 'as different from Divine light as +heaven from earth,'[539] and wholly useless to one who would 'be well +qualified to write notes upon the spirit and meaning of the words of +Christ;'[540] it is impossible not to feel that he is approaching very +closely to the morbid pietism of the recluse. His was indeed no mere +contemplative asceticism, but fruitful in practical virtues; and even +its weaker points stand out in noble contrast with the deficiencies of +an age which admired prudential religion, and took in good earnest the +words of the Preacher as to being righteous overmuch.[541] But his +writings would probably have had greater and wider influence if his +piety had been less austere, and his ideal of life more comprehensive. + +Yet, on the whole, William Law's mysticism had a most elevating effect +on his theology, and has done much toward raising him to the very +foremost rank of eighteenth-century divines. It broadened and deepened +his views, so that from being only a luminary of the estimable but +somewhat narrow section of the Nonjurors, he became a writer to whom +some of the most distinguished leaders of modern religious thought have +thankfully acknowledged their obligations. He learnt to combine with +earnest piety and strong convictions an unreserved sympathy, as far as +possible removed from the sectarianism of religious parties, with all +that is good and Christlike wherever it might be found, wherever the +Light that lighteth every man shines from its inward temple. He would +like no truth, he said, the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan +or George Fox were very zealous for it;[542] and while he chose to live +and die in outward communion with the Church of England,[543] he +desired to 'unite and join in heart and spirit with all that is +Christian, holy, good, and acceptable to God in all other +Churches.'[544] He deplored the 'partial selfish orthodoxy which cannot +bear to hear or own that the spirit and blessing of God are so visible +in a Church from which it is divided.'[545] He grieved that 'even the +most worthy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are +afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, because the +Quakers who have broken off from the Church have made this doctrine +their corner-stone.'[546] Of Romanism he remarked that 'the more we +believe or know of the corruptions and hindrances of true piety in the +Church of Rome, the more we should rejoice to hear that in every age so +many eminent spirits, great saints, have appeared in it, whom we should +thankfully behold as so many great lights hung out by God to show the +true way to heaven.'[547] + +Nor would he by any means limit the operations of true redeeming grace +to the bounds of Christendom. Ever impressed with the sense that 'there +is in all men, wherever dispersed over the earth, a divine, immortal, +never-ending Spirit,'[548] and that by this Spirit of God in man all are +equally His children, and that as Adam is spoken of as first father of +all, so the second Adam is the regenerator of all,[549] he insisted that +'the glorious extent of the Catholick Church of Christ takes in all the +world. It is God's unlimited, universal mercy to all mankind.'[550] +Understood rightly, Christianity might truly be spoken of as being old +as the Creation; for the Son of God was the eternal life and light of +men, quite independently of the infinitely blessed revelation of Himself +afforded in the Gospel. There is a Gospel Christianity, which is as the +possession compared with the expectation. There is an 'original, +universal Christianity, which began with Adam, was the religion of the +Patriarchs, of Moses and the Prophets, and of every penitent man in +every part of the world that had faith and hope towards God, to be +delivered from the evil of this world.'[551] The real infidel, whether +he be a professed disciple of the Gospel, of Zoroaster, or of Plato, is +he who lives for the world and not for God.[552] + +There was probably no one man in the eighteenth century, unless we +except Samuel Coleridge, so competent as William Law to appreciate, from +a thoroughly religious point of view, spiritual excellence in Christian +and heathen, in Anglican, and Roman Catholic, and Methodist, and +Quaker. Much in the same way, although a firm believer in revealed +religion and a vigorous opponent of the Deists, engaged 'for twenty +years in this dust of debate,'[553] he did not yield even to Bishop +Butler in his power of recognising what was most forcible in their +objections. The mystical tendencies of his religion, whatever may have +been the special dangers incidental to them, at all events enabled him +to meet the Deists with advantage on their own chosen ground. How he met +Tindal's 'Christianity as Old as Creation' has been already mentioned. +As Eusebius and St. Augustine and many others had done before him, he +accepted it as to a great extent true, while he declined to accept +Tindal's inferences from it.'[554] So of the Atonement which was always +considered the cardinal point in the controversy with Deists. Law +willingly acknowledged the justice of many of their arguments, but +maintained that the opinions they impugned were simply a mistaken view +of true Christianity. The author of 'Deism fairly stated,' &c.--a work +which excited much attention at its publication in 1746--had said, 'That +a perfectly innocent Being, of the highest order among intelligent +natures, should personate the offender and suffer in his place and +stead, in order to take down the wrath and resentment of the Deity +against the criminal, and dispose God to show mercy to him--the Deist +conceives to be both unnatural and improper, and therefore not to be +ascribed to God without blasphemy.' 'What an arrow,' answers Law, 'is +here: I will not say shot beside the mark, but shot at nothing!... The +innocent Christ did not suffer to quiet an angry Deity, but as +cooperating, assisting, and uniting with that love of God which desired +our salvation. He did not suffer in our place or stead, but only on our +account, which is a quite different matter.'[555] 'Our guilt is +transferred upon Him in no other sense than as He took upon Him the +state and condition of our fallen nature ... to heal, remove, and +overcome all the evils that were brought into our nature by the fall ... +His merit or righteousness is imputed or derived into us in no other +sense than as we receive from Him a birth, a nature, a power to become +the sons of God.'[556] There is nothing here said which would not now +be widely assented to among members of most sections of the Christian +Church. William Law's writings will not be rightly estimated unless it +be remembered that in his time orthodox theology in England scarcely +allowed of any other than those scholastic and forensic notions of the +Atonement which he deprecates. Other views were commonly thought to +savour of rank Deism or rank Quakerism. His theological opponents seemed +somewhat to doubt under which of these denominations he should be +placed, or whether he would not more properly be referred to both.[557] + +Law's unwavering trust in a Spirit which guides faith and goodness into +all necessary truth, led him to take a different course from the +evidence writers of his time. 'I would not,' he says, 'take the method +generally practised by the defenders of Christianity. I would not +attempt to show from reason and antiquity the necessity and +reasonableness of a Divine revelation in general, or of the Mosaic and +Christian in particular. Nor do I enlarge upon the arguments for the +credibility of the Gospel history, the reasonableness of its creeds, +institutions, and usages; or the duty of man to receive things above, +but not contrary to his reason. I would avoid all this, because it is +wandering from the true point in question, and only helping the Deist to +oppose the Gospel with a show of argument, which he must necessarily +want, was the Gospel left to stand upon its own bottom.'[558] To follow +up the line of thought suggested by these words would be in itself a +treatise. It is a first axiom among all mystics, that light is its own +witness. With what limitations and precautions this is to be transferred +to the spiritual region, and how far Christianity is independent of +other testimony than its own intrinsic excellence--is a question of +profound importance, and one which various minds will answer very +differently. Law's unhesitating answer is another example of the way in +which he was wont to combat Deists with their own weapons. + +The vigour and success with which Law controverted the reasonings of +those who grounded human society upon expedience, was also owing in +large part to what was styled his mysticism or his enthusiasm. A +religious philosophy which led him to dwell with special emphasis on the +Divine element inherent in man's nature, and his faculties in communion +with the Infinite, inspired him with the strongest force of conviction +in combating theories such as that expressed in its barest form by +Mandeville--that, in man's original state, right and wrong were but +other expressions for what was found to be expedient or otherwise, that +not rarely + + Vice is beneficial found, + When it's by justice lopt and bound;[559] + +and that 'moral virtues' (unless regarded as dictates of a special +revelation) 'are but the political offspring which flattery begot on +pride.'[560] The answers even of Berkeley and Hutchinson had been +comparatively feeble. They could not altogether escape from being +hampered by those favourite reasonings of the day about the wisdom of +morality and the advantages of religion, which after all were much like +the very same argument from expedience, clothed in fairer garb. Law +wrote in a different strain. Addressing himself to Deists who, whatever +else might be their doubts, rarely departed from belief in a God, he +bade them find their answer in that belief. 'Once turn your eyes to +heaven, and dare but own a just and good God, and then you have owned +the true origin of religion and moral virtue.' 'Suppose that God is of +infinite justice, goodness, and truth ... this is the strong and +unmoveable foundation of moral virtue, having the same certainty as the +attributes of God.'[561] Thence came that original excellence of man's +nature which is essentially his healthy state, his sound and perfect +condition, and of which all evil is the corruption and disease. Examine +goodness, analyse it with unsparing strictness; and see 'whether the +investigation does not prove that evil is _not_ the substantial part of +any act which is acted, or thought which is thought, in this world; but, +on the contrary, the destructive element of it, that which makes it +unreal and false.'[562] + +Closely connected with this unfaltering conviction of the immutable +character of right and wrong, that the light of our souls comes direct +from the source of light, and that the principles of justice, truth, and +mercy cannot be otherwise than identical in God and His reasoning +creatures--came William Law's speculations about the ultimate destinies +of man. It has been truly observed that 'the first step commonly taken +by Protestant mysticism is an endeavour to mitigate the gloom which +hangs over the future state.'[563] This is very strongly marked in all +the later productions of Law's mind. He was very far from taking +anything like an optimist view of the world around him. There is no +writer of his age who shows himself more impressed with an abhorrence of +sin, and with the sense of its widespread and deeply rooted influences. +He is austere even to excess in his views of what godliness requires. +His whole soul is oppressed with the wilful ruin of spiritual life which +he everywhere beholds. Yet he can conceive of no hope except by the +recovery of that spiritual life, no atonement except by the +extinguishing of sin,[564] no salvation nor redemption except by +regeneration of nature,[565] no forgiveness of sin but by being made +free from sin.[566] But paramount above all such thoughts is his +ever-ruling conviction of the perfect love of God. 'Ask what God is? His +name is Love; He is the good, the perfection, the peace, the joy, the +glory and blessing of every life. Ask what Christ is? He is the +universal remedy of all evil broken forth in nature and creature. He is +the destruction of misery, sin, darkness, death, and hell. He is the +resurrection and life of all fallen nature. He is the unwearied +compassion, the long-suffering pity, the never-ceasing mercifulness of +God to every want and infirmity of human nature. He is the breathing +forth of the heart, life, and Spirit of God into all the dead race of +Adam. He is the seeker, the finder, the restorer of all that was lost +and dead to the life of God.'[567] Law utterly rejected the possibility +of Divine love contradicting the highest conceptions which man can form +of it; and he turned with horror from the arbitrary sovereignty +suggested in the Calvinistic scheme. Nations or individuals, he said, +might be chosen instruments for special designs, but 'elect' ordinarily +meant 'beloved.' In any other sense the evil nature only in every man is +reprobated, and that which is divine in him elected.[568] 'The goodness +and love of God,' he asserted, 'have no limits or bounds, but such as +His omnipotence hath.'[569] It was indeed conceivable that there may be +spirits of men or fallen angels that have so totally lost every spark of +the heavenly nature, and have become so essentially evil, that +restoration is no more consistent with their innermost nature than for a +circle to have the properties of a straight line. If not, 'their +restoration is possible, and they will infallibly have all their evil +removed out of them by the goodness of God.'[570] Christianity, he said, +is the one true religion of nature, because man's corrupt state +'absolutely requires two things as its only salvation. First, the Divine +life must be revived in the soul of man. Secondly, there must be a +resurrection of the body in a better state after death.'[571] That +religion only can be sufficient to the want of his nature which can +provide this salvation. God's redeeming love, said Law, will not suffer +the sinner to have rest or peace until, in time or in eternity, +righteousness is restored and purification completed.[572] He expressed +in the strongest language his belief that 'every act of what is called +Divine vengeance, recorded in Scripture, may and ought, with the +greatest strictness of truth, to be called an act of the Divine love. If +Sodom flames and smokes with stinking brimstone, it is the love of God +that kindled it, only to extinguish a more horrible fire. It was one and +the same infinite love, when it preserved Noah in the ark, when it +turned Sodom into a burning lake, and overwhelmed Pharaoh in the Red +Sea.'[573] If God did not chastise sin, that lenience would argue that +He was not all love and goodness towards man. And so far from its being +a lessening of the just 'terrors of the Lord,' to say that His +punishments, however severe, are inflicted not in vengeance but in love, +such wholesome terrors are placed on more certain ground. Every work of +piety is turned into a work of love; but from the licentious all false +and idle hopes are taken away, and they must know that there is 'nothing +to trust to as a deliverance from misery but the one total abolition of +sin.'[574] + +A few words may be added upon what was said of enthusiasm by one who was +generally looked upon as the special enthusiast of his age. How much the +usual meaning of the word has altered since the middle of the last +century, is well illustrated by the length at which he argues that +'enthusiasm' ought not to be applied only to religion, and that it +should be used in a good as well as in a bad sense.[575] It is 'a +miserable mistake,' he says, 'to treat the real power and operation of +an inward life of God in the birth of our souls, as fanaticism and +enthusiasm.'[576] 'It is the running away from this enthusiasm that has +made so many great scholars as useless to the Church as tinkling +cymbals, and all Christendom a mere Babel of learned confusion.'[577] +Instead of being blameable, the enthusiasm which meant perfect +dependence on the immediate inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit +in the whole course of life was one, he said, in which every good +Christian should endeavour to live and die.[578] But he was too wise a +man not to warn his readers against expecting uncommon illuminations, +visions, and voices, and revelations of mysteries. Extraordinary +operations of the Holy Spirit granted to men raised up as burning and +shining lights are not matters of common instruction.[579] Many a fiery +zealot would be fitly rebuked by his words, 'Would you know the sublime, +the exalted, the angelic in the Christian life, see what the Son of God +saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy +neighbour as thyself." And without these two things no good light ever +can arise or enter into your soul.'[580] + +John Byrom, whose life and poetical writings will be found in Chalmers' +edition of the British poets, has already been slightly referred to. His +works would demand more attention at this point, were they not to a +great degree an echo in rhyme of William Law's prose works. One of his +longest poems was written in 1751, on the publication of Law's 'Appeal,' +&c., upon the subject of 'Enthusiasm.' It may be said of it, as of +several other pieces he has left, that although written in very +pedestrian verse, they are worth reading, as containing some thoughtful +remarks, expressed occasionally with a good deal of epigrammatic force. +A few of his hymns and short meditations rise to a higher poetical +level. They are referred to with much praise by Mr. G. Macdonald,[581] +who adds the just remark that 'The mystical thinker will ever be found +the reviver of religious poetry.' Like Law, John Byrom was a great +admirer of Behmen. He learnt High Dutch for the purpose of studying him +in the original, and, nowise daunted by the many dark parables he found +there, paraphrased in his halting rhymes what Socrates had said of +Heraclitus:-- + + All that I understand is good and true, + And what I don't, is I believe so too.[582] + +The same influences, springing from a German origin, which thus deeply +and directly impressed William Law, and a few other devout men of the +same type of thought, acted upon the national mind far more widely, but +also far more indirectly, through a different channel. The Moravian +brethren, though dating in the first instance from the time of Huss, +owed their resuscitation to that wave of mystic pietism which passed +through Germany in the seventeenth century,[583] showing its early power +in the writings of Behmen, and reaching its full tide in the new vigour +of spiritual life inspired into the Lutheran Church by the activity of +Arndt and Spener. Their work was carried on by Francke, 'the S. Vincent +de Paul of Germany.' Educated by him, and trained up in the teaching of +Spener's School at Halle, Count Zinzendorf imbibed those principles +which he carried out with such remarkable success in his Moravian +settlement at Herrnhut. There he organised a community to which their +severest critics have never refused a high amount of admiration; a +society which set itself with simple zeal to lead a Christian life after +the primitive model--frugal, quiet, industrious, shunning temptation and +avoiding controversy,--a band of brethren who held out the hand of +fellowship to all in every communion who, without giving up a single +distinctive tenet, would unite with them in a union of godly +living--which sent out labourers into Christian countries to convert but +not to proselytise--whose missionaries were to be found among the +remotest heathen savages. That they should fall short of their ideal was +but human weakness; and no doubt they had their special failings. They +might be apt, in the fervency of their zeal, to speak too disdainfully +of all gifts of learning;[584] they might risk alternations of +distressing doubt by too presumptuous expectations of visible +supernatural help;[585] they might think too lightly of all outward aids +to religion.[586] Such errors might, and sometimes did, prove very +dangerous. But one who knew them well, and to whom, as his mind +expanded, their too parental discipline, their timid fears of reasoning, +their painful straining for experiences, had become intolerable, could +yet say of them, 'There is not throughout Christendom, in our day, a +form of public worship which expresses more thoroughly the spirit of +true Christian piety, than does that of the Herrnhut brotherhood.... It +is the truest Christian community, I believe, which exists in the +outward world.'[587] + +The first Diaspora, or missionary colony, established by the Moravians +in England was in 1728, at the instance of a lady in that centre of +intellectual and religious activity, the Court of Queen Caroline. They +did not, however, attract much attention. Winston, ever inquisitive and +unsettled, wanted to know more about them, and began to read some of +their sermons, but 'found so much weakness and enthusiasm mixed with a +great degree of seriousness,' that he did not care to go to their +worship.[588] Their strictly organised discipline was in itself a great +impediment to success among a people so naturally attached to liberty +as the English. In the middle of the century, their missionary +enterprise secured them special privileges in the American colonies. +More than this. At the instance of Gambold, who was exceedingly anxious +that the Brotherhood should gain ground in England within the bosom of +the Anglican Church, a Moravian synod, held in 1749, formally elected +Wilson, the venerable Bishop of Sodor and Man, 'into the order and +number of the Antecessors of the General Synod of the brethren of the +Anatolic Unity.' With this high-sounding dignity was joined 'the +administration of the Reformed Tropus' (or Diaspora) 'in our hierarchy, +for life, with full liberty, in case of emergency, to employ as his +substitute the Rev. T. Wilson, Royal Almoner, Doctor of Theology, and +Prebendary of St. Peter's, Westminster.' It is further added that the +good old man accepted the office with thankfulness and pleasure.[589] +Here their success ended. Soon afterwards many of the English Moravians +fell for a time into a most unsatisfactory condition, becoming largely +tainted with Antinomianism, and with a sort of vulgar lusciousness of +religious sentiment, which was exceedingly revolting to ordinary English +feeling.[590] After the death of Zinzendorf in 1760, the Society +recovered for the most part a healthier condition,[591] but did not +regain any prospect of that wider influence in England which Gambold and +others had once begun to hope for, and perhaps to anticipate. + +Warburton said of Methodism, that 'William Law was its father, and Count +Zinzendorf rocked the cradle.'[592] The remark was no doubt a somewhat +galling one to Wesley, for he had afterwards conceived a great +abhorrence of the opinions both of the father and the nurse. But it was +perfectly just; and Wesley, though he might have been unwilling to own +it, was greatly and permanently indebted to each. The light which, when +he read Law's 'Christian Perfection and Serious Call,' had 'flowed so +mightily on his soul that everything appeared in a new view,' was +rekindled into a still more fervent flame by the glowing words of the +Moravian teacher on the morning of the day from which he dated his +special 'conversion.' Nor was his connection with men of this general +turn of thought by any means a passing one. His visit to William Law at +Mr. Gibbon's house at Putney in 1732--the correspondence he carried on +with him for several years afterwards--his readings of the mystic +divines of Germany--his loving respect for the company of Moravians who +were his fellow-travellers to Georgia in 1736--his meeting with Peter +Boehler in 1738--the close intercourse which followed with the London +Moravians--the fortnight spent by him at Herrnhut, 'exceedingly +strengthened and comforted by the conversation of this lovely +people,'[593]--his intimate friendship with Gambold, who afterwards +completely threw in his lot with the United Brethren and became one of +their bishops,[594]--all these incidents betoken a deep and cordial +sympathy. It is true that all this fellow-feeling came at last to a +somewhat abrupt termination. Passing, at first, almost to the bitter +extreme, he even said in his 'Second Journal' that 'he believed the +mystic writers to be one great Anti-Christ.'[595] Some years afterwards +he retracted this expression, as being far too strong. He had, he said, +'at one time held the mystic writers in great veneration as the best +explainers of the Gospel of Christ;'[596] but added, that though he +admired them, he was never of their way; he distrusted their tendency to +disparage outward means. 'Their divinity was never the Methodist +doctrine. We cannot swallow either John Tauler or Jacob Behmen.'[597] +His friendly correspondence with Law ceased after a few years. He +continued to 'admire and love' his personal character, but attacked his +opinions[598] with a vehemence contrasting somewhat unfavourably with +the patience and humility of Law's reply.[599] As for the Moravians, not +Warburton, nor Lavington, nor Stinstra, nor Duncombe, ever used stronger +words against 'these most dangerous of the Antinomians--these cunning +hunters.'[600] Count Zinzendorf, on the other hand, published a notice +that his people had no connection with the Wesleys. + +Like many other men who have been distinguished in divinity and +religion,[601] John Wesley, as he grew older, became far more +charitable and large-hearted in what he said or thought of opinions +different from his own. Methodism also had become, by that time, well +established upon a secure basis of its own. Wesley had no longer cause +to be disturbed by its features of relationship with a school of +theology which he had learnt greatly to distrust. The fanciful and +obscure philosophy of Dionysius, of Behmen, or of Law had been repugnant +to him from the first. He had beheld with the greatest alarm Law's +departures from commonly received doctrine on points connected with +justification, regeneration, the atonement, the future state. Above all, +he had become acquainted with that most degenerate form of mysticism, +when its phraseology becomes a pretext to fanatics and Antinomians. Much +in the same way as in the Germany of the fourteenth century the lawless +Brethren of the Free Spirit[602] had justified their excesses in +language which they borrowed from men of such noble and holy life as +Eckhart[603] and Tauler, and Nicolas of Basle, so the flagitious +conduct, at Bedford and elsewhere, of some who called themselves +Moravians threw scandal and odium on the tenets of the pure and +simple-minded community of Herrnhut. This was a danger to which Wesley +was, without doubt, all the more sensitive, because he lived among +hostile critics who were only too ready to discredit his teaching by +similar imputations on its tendencies. The truth is that Methodism, in +its different aspects, had so many points of contact with the essential +characteristics of mysticism, both in its highest and more +spiritualised, and in its grosser and more fanatical forms, that Wesley +was exceedingly anxious his system should not be confused with any such +'enthusiasm,' and dwelt with jealous care upon its more distinctive +features. + +It has been already observed that a French historian of Christianity +speaks of Quakerism and Methodism as the two chief forms of English +mysticism.[604] To an educated man of ordinary observation in the +eighteenth century, especially if he regarded the new movement with +distrust, the analogy between this and different or earlier varieties of +'enthusiasm' appeared still more complete. Lord Lyttelton, for example, +in discussing a favourite theological topic of that age--namely, the +absence of enthusiasm in St. Paul, and his constant appeals to the +evidence of reason and the senses--contrasts with the life and writings +of the Apostles the extravagant imaginations, and the pretensions to +Divine illumination, of 'mystics, ancient and modern,' mediaeval saints, +'Protestant sectaries of the last age, and some of the Methodists +now.'[605] Montanus and Dionysius, St. Francis and Ignatius Loyola, +Madame Bourignon, George Fox, and Whitefield are all ranked together in +the same general category. Methodists, Moravians, and Hutchinsonians are +classed as all nearly-related members of one family. Just in the same +way[606] Bishop Lavington, in his 'Enthusiasm of Methodists and +Papists,' has entered into an elaborate comparison between what he finds +in Wesley's journals and in the lives and writings of saints and mystics +of the Roman Church.[607] Nor does he fail to discover similar +resemblances to Methodist experiences among the old mystic philosophers, +Montanists, Quakers, French Quietists, French prophets, and Moravians. +The argumentative value of Lavington's book may be taken for what it was +worth. To his own contemporaries it appeared the achievement of a great +triumph if he could prove in frequent cases an almost identical tone of +thought in Wesley and in Francis of Assisi or Francis de Sales. To most +minds in our own days it will rather seem as if he were constantly +dealing blows which only rebounded upon himself, in comparing his +opponent to men whose deep piety and self-denying virtues, however much +tinged by the errors of their time and order, worked wonders in the +revival of earnest faith. On the whole Lavington proved his case +successfully, but he only proved by what easy transitions the purest and +most exalted faith may pass into extravagances, and, above all, the +folly of his own Church in not endeavouring to find scope for her +enthusiasts and mystics, as Rome had done for a Loyola and a St. +Theresa. He himself was a typical example of the tone of thought out of +which this infatuation grew. What other views could be looked for from a +bishop who, though himself an awakening preacher and a good man, whose +dying words[608] were an ascription of glory to God ([Greek: doxa to +theo]), was yet so wholly blind to the more intense manifestations of +religious fervour that he could see nothing to admire, nothing even to +approve, in the burning zeal of the founders of the Franciscans and of +the Jesuits? Of the first he had nothing more to say than that he was +'at first only a well-minded but weak enthusiast, afterwards a mere +hypocrite and impostor;' of the other he spoke with a certain compassion +as 'that errant, shatter-brained, visionary fanatic.'[609] And the +Methodist, he thought, had a somewhat 'similar texture of brain.' + +The Methodist leaders were wholly free from some dangerous tendencies +which mysticism has been apt to develop. They never disparaged any of +the external aids to religion; their meaning is never hidden under a +haze of dim conceptions; above all, they never showed the slightest +inclination to the vague and unpractical pantheistic opinions which are +often nurtured by a too exclusive insistance on the indwelling and +pervading operations of the Divine Spirit. In the two latter points they +resembled the Quietist and Port-Royal mystics of the French school, who +always aimed at lucidity of thought and language, rather than those of +German origin. From mystics generally they differed, most of all, in +adopting the Pauline rather than the Johannine phraseology. + +But, with some important differences, there can be no question that +Methodism rose and prospered under the same influences which in every +age of Christianity, or rather in every age of the world, have attended +all the most notable outbursts of mystic revivalism. Its causes were the +same; its higher manifestations were much the same; its degenerate and +exaggerated forms were the same; its primary and most essential +principle was the same. As the religious brotherhoods of the +Pythagoreans rose in spiritual revolt against the lax mythology and +careless living of the Sybarites in Sicily;[610] as in the third century +of the Christian era Neoplatonism concentrated within itself whatever +remains of faith and piety lingered in the creeds and philosophies of +paganism;[611] as in the Middle Ages devout men, wearied with forms and +controversies, and scholastic reasoners seeking refuge from the logical +and metaphysical problems with which they had perplexed theology, sought +more direct communion with God in the mystic devotion of Anselm and +Bernard, of Hugo and Bonaventura;[612] as Bertholdt and Nicolas, Eckhart +and Tauler,[613] organised their new societies throughout Germany to +meet great spiritual needs which established systems had wholly ceased +to satisfy; as Arndt and Spener and Francke in the seventeenth century +breathed new life into the Lutheran Church, and set on foot their +'collegia pietatis,' their systematised prayer-meetings, to supplement +the deficiencies of the time[614]--so in the England of the eighteenth +century, when the force of religion was chilled by drowsiness and +indifference in some quarters, by stiffness and formality and +over-cautious orthodoxy in others, when the aspirations of the soul were +being ever bidden rest satisfied with the calculations of sober reason, +when proofs and evidences and demonstrations were offered, and still +offered, to meet the cry of those who called for light, how else should +religion stem the swelling tide of profligacy but by some such inward +spiritual revival as those by which it had heretofore renewed its +strength? If Wesley and Whitefield and their fellow-workers had not come +to the rescue, no doubt other reformers of a somewhat kindred spirit +would have risen in their stead. How or whence it is useless to +speculate. Perhaps Quakerism, or something nearly akin to it, might have +assumed the dimensions to which a half-century before it had seemed not +unlikely to grow. The way was prepared for some strong reaction. Past +aberrations of enthusiasm were well-nigh forgotten, and large masses of +the population were unconsciously longing for its warmth and fire. It +was highly probable that an active religious movement was near at hand, +and its general nature might be fairly conjectured; its specific +character, its force, extent, and limits, would depend, under +Providence, upon the zeal and genius of its leaders. + +Nothing could be more natural than that to many outside observers early +Methodism should have seemed a mere repetition of what England, in the +century before, had been only too familiar with. The physical phenomena +which manifested themselves under the influence of Wesley's and +Whitefield's preaching were in all points exactly the same as those of +which the annals of imaginative and excited religious feeling have in +every age been full. Swoons and strange convulsive agitations, however +impressive and even awe-inspiring to an uninformed beholder, were +undistinguishable from those, for example, which had given their name to +English Quakers[615] and French Convulsionists,[616] which were to be +read of in the Lives of Guyon and St. Theresa,[617] and which were a +matter of continual occurrence when Tauler preached in Germany.[618] It +is no part of this inquiry to dwell upon their cause and nature, or upon +the perplexity Wesley himself felt on the subject. Occasionally he was +mortified by the discovery of imposture or of superstitious credulity, +and something he was willing to attribute to natural causes.[619] On +the whole his opinion was that they might be rejoiced in as a glorious +sight,[620] visible evidences of life-giving spiritual agencies, but +that the bodily pain was quite distinct and due to Satan's +hindrance.[621] He sometimes added a needful warning that all such +physical disturbances were of a doubtful nature, and that the only tests +of spiritual change which could be relied upon were those indisputable +fruits of the Spirit which the Apostle Paul enumerates.[622] His less +guarded words closely correspond with what may be read in the journals +of G. Fox and other early Quakers. When he writes more coolly and +reflectively we are reminded not of the first fanatical originators of +that sect, but of what their distinguished apologist, Barclay, has said +of those 'pangs of the new birth' which have often accompanied the +sudden awakening to spiritual life in persons of strong and +undisciplined feelings. 'From their inward travail, while the darkness +seeks to obscure the light and the light breaks through the darkness ... +there will be such a painful travail found in the soul that will even +work upon the outward man, so that oftentimes through the working +thereof the body will be greatly shaken, and many groans, and sighs, and +tears, will lay hold upon it.'[623] + +Wesley himself was protected both by disposition and training from +falling deeply into some of the dangers to which enthusiastic and +mystical religion is very liable. He was credulous, and even +superstitious, but he checked his followers in the credence which many +of them were inclined to give to stories of ecstasies, and visions, and +revelations. He spoke slightingly of orthodoxy, and held that 'right +opinions were a very slender part of religion;'[624] but, far from +countenancing anything like a vague undogmatic Pietism, his opinions +went almost to the opposite extreme of precise definition. Neither could +it be said of him that he spiritualised away the plain meaning of +Scripture--a charge to which the old Quakers were constantly liable, and +which was sometimes alleged against the later Methodists. He himself +never spoke contemptuously--as the mystics have been so apt to do--of +the value of learning; and of reason he said, in the true spirit of +Henry More, 'I believe and reason too, for I find no inconsistency +between them. And I would as soon put out my eyes to secure my faith, as +lay aside my reason.'[625] But the Methodists, as a body, were far less +inclined to act on this principle. Without disparagement to the +conspicuous ability of some individual members of their communion, both +in the present and in the past, it may be certainly said that they have +always utterly failed to attract the intellect of the country at large. +Great, therefore, as was its moral and spiritual power among large +classes of the people, Methodism was never able to take rank among great +national reformations. + +Neither Wesley nor the Wesleyans have ever yielded to a mischievous +tendency which has beset most forms of mysticism. They have never, in +comparison with the inward worship of the soul, spoken slightingly of +'temples made of stones,'[626] or of any of the chief outward ordinances +of religion. Their opponents often attempted to make it a charge against +them, and thought, no doubt, they would be sure to prove it. But they +never did so. Wesley was always able to answer, with perfect +correctness, that what was thus said might be true of Moravians, or of +Tauler, or of Behmen, or of St. Theresa, or of Madame de Bourignon, or +of the Quakers, or even of William Law, but that he himself had never +done otherwise than insist most strongly on the essential need of making +use of all the external helps which religion can offer.[627] + +By far the gravest imputation that has ever been brought against the +disciples of each various form of mystical or emotional religion is +that, in aspiring after some loftier ideal of spiritual communion with +the Divine, they have looked down with a kind of scorn upon 'mere +morality,' as if it were a lower path. And it must be acknowledged that +men of the most pure and saintly lives have, nevertheless, used +expressions which misguided or unprincipled men might pervert into +authority for lawlessness. Tauler, whom an admiring contemporary once +called 'the holiest of God's children now living on the earth,'[628] +could yet say of the higher elevation of the Christian life that, 'where +this comes to pass, outward works become of no moment.'[629] What wonder +that the fanatical Beghards, or Brethren of the Free Spirit, against +whom he contended with all his energies,[630] should seek to confuse his +principles with theirs, and assert that, having attained the higher +state, they were not under subjection to moral commandments? So, again, +of the early Quakers Henry More[631] observed that, although their +doctrine of special illumination had guided many into much sanctity of +life, the more licentious sort had perverted it into a cloke for all +kinds of enormity, on the ground that they were inspired by God, and +could be guilty of no sin, as only exercising their rights of liberty. +Madame de Bourignon was an excellent woman, but Leslie and +Lavington[632] showed that some of her writings seem dangerously to +underrate good works. Moravian principles, lightly understood, made +Herrnhut a model Christian community; misunderstood, they became +pretexts for the most dangerous Antinomianism.[633] An example may even +be quoted from the last century where the nobler elements of mystic +enthusiasm were found in one mind combined with the pernicious tendency +in question. In that very remarkable but eccentric genius, William +Blake, mysticism was rich in fruits of faith and love, and it is +needless, therefore, to add that he was a good man, of blameless morals; +yet, by a strange flaw or partial derangement in his profoundly +spiritual nature, 'he was for ever, in his writings, girding at the +"mere moral law" as the letter that killeth. His conversation, his +writings, his designs, were equally marked by theoretic licence and +virtual guilelessness.'[634] + +Bishop Berkeley's name could not be passed over even in such a sketch as +this without a sense of incompleteness. He was, it is true, strongly +possessed with the prevalent feeling of aversion to anything that was +called enthusiasm. When, for example, his opinion was asked about John +Hutchinson--a writer whose mystic fancies as to recondite meanings +contained in the words of the Hebrew Bible[635] possessed a strange +fascination for William Jones of Nayland, Bishop Horne, and other men of +some note[636]--he answered that he was not acquainted with his works, +but 'I have observed him to be mentioned as an enthusiast, which gave +me no prepossession in his favour.'[637] But the Christianity of +feeling, which lies at the root of all that is sound and true in what +the age called enthusiasm, was much encouraged by the theology and +philosophy of Berkeley. It may not have been so to any great extent +among his actual contemporaries. A thoroughly prosaic generation, such +as that was in which he lived, was too unable to appreciate his subtle +and poetic intellect to gain much instruction from it. He was much +admired, but little understood. 'He is indeed,' wrote Warburton to Hurd, +'a great man, and the only visionary I ever knew that was.'[638] It was +left for later reasoners, in England and on the Continent, to separate +what may be rightly called visionary in his writings from what may be +profoundly true, and to feel the due influence of his suggestive and +spiritual reflections. + +The purely mystic element in Berkeley's philosophy may be illustrated by +the charm it had for William Blake, a man of whom Mr. Swinburne says +that 'his hardest facts were the vaguest allegories of other men. To him +all symbolic things were literal, all literal things symbolic. About his +path and about his bed, around his ears and under his eyes, an infinite +play of spiritual life seethed and swarmed or shone and sang.'[639] To +this strange artist-poet, in whose powerful but fantastic mind fact and +imagination were inextricably blended, whose most intimate friends could +not tell where talent ended and hallucination began, whom Wordsworth +delighted in,[640] and whose conversation in any country walk is +described as having a marvellous power of kindling the imagination, and +of making nature itself seem strangely more spiritual, almost as if a +new sense had awakened in the mind of his hearer[641]--to William Blake +the theories of Berkeley supplied a philosophy which exactly suited +him.[642] Blake's ruling idea was that of an infinite spiritual life so +imprisoned under the bondage of material forces[643] that only by +spiritual perception--a power given to all to cultivate--can true +existence be discovered.[644] He longed for the full emancipation which +a better life would bring. + +At the very close of the century, in the year 1798, an elaborate +treatise on enthusiasm was published by Richard Graves, Dean of Ardagh, +a man of considerable learning and earnest piety. It is needless to +enter into the arguments of his 'Essay on the Character of the Apostles +and Evangelists.' Its object was to prove they were wholly free from the +errors of enthusiasts; that in their private conduct, and in the +government of the Church, they were 'rational and sober, prudent and +cautious, mild and decorous, zealous without violence, and steady +without obstinacy; that their writings are plain, calm, and +unexaggerated, ... natural and rational, ... without any trace of +spiritual pride, any arrogant claims to full perfection of virtue; ... +teaching heartfelt piety to God without any affectation of rapturous +ecstasy or extravagant fervour.'[645] On the other hand, he illustrates +the extravagances into which enthusiasts have been led, from the history +of Indian mystics and Greek Neoplatonists, from Manichaeans and +Montanists, from monastic saints, from the Beghards of Germany, the +Fratricelli of Italy, the Illuminati of Spain, the Quietists of France, +from Anabaptists, Quakers, and French prophets. He refers to what had +been written against enthusiasm within the preceding century by +Stillingfleet, Bayle, Locke, Hicks, Shaftesbury, Lord Lyttelton, +Barrington, Chandler, Archibald Campbell, Stinstra, Warburton, +Lavington, and Douglas--a list the length of which is in itself a +sufficient evidence of the sensitive interest which the subject had +excited. He remarks on the attempts made by Chubb and Morgan to attach +to Christianity the opprobrium of being an enthusiastic religion, and +reprobates the assertions of the younger Dodwell that _faith_ is not +founded on argument. The special occasion of his work[646] arose out of +more recent events--the publication at Geneva in 1791 of Boulanger's +'Christianity Unmasked,' and the many similar efforts made during the +period of the French Revolution to represent fanaticism and Christianity +as synonymous terms. + +But while Dean Graves was writing in careful and moderate language his +not unseasonable warnings, thoughts representative of a new and deeper +strain of theological feeling were passing through the mind of Samuel +Coleridge. His was a genius singularly receptive of the ideas which +emanated from the leading intellect of his age in England or abroad. He +was probably better acquainted than any other of his countrymen with the +highest literature of Germany, which found in him not only an +interpreter, but a most able and reflective exponent. Few could be +better fitted than he was--no one certainly in his own country and +generation--to deal with those subtle and intricate elements of human +nature upon which enthusiasts and mystics have based their speculations, +and hopelessly blended together much that is sublime and true with not a +little that is groundless and visionary, and often dangerous in its +practical or speculative results. In the first place, he could scarcely +fail in sympathy. He was endowed with a rich vein of that imaginative +power which is the very life of all enthusiasm. It is the most prominent +characteristic of his poetry; it is no less conspicuous in the intense +glow of excited expectation with which he, like so many other young men +of rising talent, cherished those millennial visions of peace and +brotherhood, and simple faith and love, which the French Revolution in +its progress so rudely crushed. Mysticism also must have had great +charms for one who could write verses so imbued with its spirit as are +the following:-- + + He first by fear uncharmed the drowsed soul, + Till of its nobler nature it 'gan feel + Dim recollections; and thence soared to hope, + Strong to believe whate'er of mystic good + The Eternal dooms for His immortal sons; + From hope and firmer faith to perfect love + Attracted and absorbed; and centred there, + God only to behold, and know, and feel, + Till by exclusive consciousness of God, + All self annihilated, it shall make + God its identity--God all in all! + We and our Father one! + And blest are they + Who in this fleshy world, the elect of heaven, + Their strong eye darting through the deeds of men, + Adore with steadfast, unpresuming gaze + Him, nature's essence, mind, and energy; + And gazing, trembling, patiently ascend, + Treading beneath their feet all visible things + As steps, that upward to their Father's throne + Lead gradual.[647] + + + +If we would further understand how far removed must have been +Coleridge's tone of thought from that which for so long a time had +regarded enthusiasm in all its forms as the greatest enemy of sober +reason and sound religion, we should only have to consider what a new +world of thought and sentiment was that in which Coleridge was living +from any of which the generation before him had experience. The band of +poets and essayists represented by Coleridge and Wordsworth, Southey, +Lamb, De Quincey, and we may add Blake, were in many respects separated +by a wider gulf, except only in time, from the authors of twenty years +before, than they were from the writers of the Elizabethan age. New +hopes and aspirations as to the capabilities of human life, new and more +spiritual aspects of nature, of art, of poetry, of history, made it +impossible for those who felt these influences in all the freshness of +their new life to look with the same eyes as their fathers on those +questions above all others which related to the intellectual and +spiritual faculties of the soul. It was a worthy aim for a +poet-philosopher such as Coleridge was--a mystic and enthusiast in one +aspect of his mind, a devoted 'friend of reason' in another--to analyse +reason and unite its sublimer powers with conscience as a divinely given +'inner light,' to combine in one the highest exercise of the +intellectual and the moral faculties. Emotional religion had exhibited +on a large scale alike its powers and deficiencies. Thoughtful and +religious men could scarcely do better than set themselves to restore +the balance where it was unequal. They had to teach that faith must be +based, not only upon feeling and undefined impulse, but on solid +intellectual apprehension. They had to urge with no less earnestness +that religious truth has to be not only outwardly apprehended, but +inwardly appropriated before it can become possessed of true spiritual +efficacy. It is most true that vague ideas of some inward illumination +are but a miserable substitute for a sound historical faith, but it is +no less true that a so-called historical faith has not become faith at +all until the soul has received it into itself, and made of it an inward +light. In the eighteenth century, as in every other, mystics and +enthusiasts have insisted only on inward illuminations and spiritual +experiences, while of men of a very different cast of mind some have +perpetually harped upon authority and some upon reason and +reasonableness. It may be hoped that our own century may be more +successful in the difficult but not discouraging task of investigating +and harmonising their respective claims. + +C.J.A. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 468: Or to a painter's imagination. The _Idler_, not however +without some fear of 'its wild extravagances' even in this sphere, +allows that 'one may very safely recommend a little more enthusiasm to +the modern painters; too much is certainly not the vice of the present +age.'--No. 79.] + +[Footnote 469: Henry More, _Enthus. Triumphatus_, Sec. 4.] + +[Footnote 470: _Quarterly Review_, xxviii 37.] + +[Footnote 471: H. More, _On the Immortality of the Soul_, b. iii. ch. +12; and the whole treatise, especially the third and fourth books.] + +[Footnote 472: H. More, _Phil. Works_, General Preface, Sec. 6; and +_Enthusiasmus Triumphatus_, Sec. 52.] + +[Footnote 473: Sec. 62.] + +[Footnote 474: 'Address to the Clergy.'--Wesley's _Works_, 492.] + +[Footnote 475: Coleridge seems to have read H. More with much +enjoyment.--_Aids to Reflection_, i. 106-10. 'Occasional draughts,' +Channing writes, of More and other Platonists, 'have been refreshing to +me.' ... Their mysticism was noble in its kind, 'and perhaps a necessary +reaction against the general earthliness of men's minds. I pardon the +man who loses himself in the clouds, if he will help me upwards.'--W.E. +Channing's _Correspondence_ 338.] + +[Footnote 476: Quoted by Bishop Berkeley, _Theory of Vision_, pt. i. Sec. +116.] + +[Footnote 477: Schlosser, _History of the Eighteenth Century_, chap. 1. +i. Horsley's _Charges_, 86. _Quarterly Review_, July 1864, 70-9.] + +[Footnote 478: Warburton's _Works_, iv. 568.] + +[Footnote 479: 'Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester.'--Wesley's _Works_, +ix. 151.] + +[Footnote 480: Dedication to his _Three Sermons_, quoted by H.S. Skeats, +_History of the free Churches_, 333.] + +[Footnote 481: W. Roberts, _Memoirs of Hannah More_, i. 500, ii. 61, 70, +110.] + +[Footnote 482: R.A. Vaughan's _Hours with the Mystics_, ii. 391.] + +[Footnote 483: C. Leslie, 'Snake in the Grass.'--_Works_, iv. 21.] + +[Footnote 484: Dr. Sherlock, _On Public Worship_, chap. iii. +Sec. 1, 4.] + +[Footnote 485: Warburton's 'Alliance.'--_Works_, 1788, iv. 53.] + +[Footnote 486: _Tatler_, No. 257.] + +[Footnote 487: Canon Curteis remarks of the early Quakers, 'What was +urgently wanted, and what Christ (I think) was really commissioning +George Fox and others to do, was not a destructive, but a constructive +work,--the work of breathing fresh life into old forms, recovering the +true meaning of old symbols, raising from the dead old words that needed +translating into modern equivalents.'--G.H. Curteis, _Dissent in +Relation to the Church of England_, 268.] + +[Footnote 488: C. Leslie, 'Defence, &c.'--_Works_, v. 164.] + +[Footnote 489: C. Leslie, _Works_, iv. 428.] + +[Footnote 490: R. Barclay's _Apology for the Quakers_, 259.] + +[Footnote 491: No doubt some forms of Quakerism (for in it, as in every +form of mystic theology, there were many varieties) lost sight almost +altogether of any idea of atonement. Cf. _British Quarterly_, October +1874, 337; C. Leslie, 'Satan Disrobed.'--_Works_, iv. 398-418; id. v. +100.] + +[Footnote 492: M.J. Matter, _Histoire du Christianisme_, iv. 343.] + +[Footnote 493: Boswell's _Life of Dr. Johnson_, ii. 456.] + +[Footnote 494: Southey's 'Letters,' quoted in _Quarterly Review_, 98, +494.] + +[Footnote 495: 'I fancy that most of the Churches need to learn and +receive of one another; and I have often wished that the zealous +Methodist, for instance, who lives so much in action and in the +atmosphere of religious excitement, could sometimes enter thoroughly +into the spirit of the more religious Friends.'--H.H. Dobney, _Free +Churches_, 106.] + +[Footnote 496: J. Byrom's _Poems_.] + +[Footnote 497: Tauler's _Sermon for Epiphany_; Winkworth's _History and +Life, with twenty-five Sermons translated_, 223.] + +[Footnote 498: Calamy's _Own Life_, ii. 71.] + +[Footnote 499: W.M. Hatch's edition of Shaftesbury's _Characteristics_, +Appen. 376-8.] + +[Footnote 500: W. Blake, _Miscellaneous Poems_, 'The Land of Dreams.'] + +[Footnote 501: Wesley's _Third Journal_, p. 24, quoted by Lavington, +_Enthus. of Meth. and Pa. Comp._, 252.] + +[Footnote 502: A. Alison's _Life of Marlborough_, chap. ix. Sec. 30.] + +[Footnote 503: _Guardian_, No. 69.] + +[Footnote 504: Lord Lyttelton's _Dialogues of the Dead_, No. 3.] + +[Footnote 505: R. Savage's _Miscellaneous Poems_,' Character of Rev. J. +Foster.'] + +[Footnote 506: Jortin's _Letters_, ii. 43.] + +[Footnote 507: R.H. Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, ii. 226.] + +[Footnote 508: C. Leslie's 'Snake in the Grass.'--_Works_, iv. 1-14. So +also Lavington's _Enthusiasm_, &c., 346.] + +[Footnote 509: 'In England her works have already deceived not a +few.'--Leslie, Id. 14. 'What think you too of the Methodists? You are +nearer to Oxford. We have strange accounts of their freaks. The books of +Madame Bourignon, the French _visionnaire_, are, I hear, much enquired +after by them.'--Warburton to Doddridge, May 27, 1738. Doddridge's +_Correspondence_, &c., iii. 327. + +Francis Lee, the Nonjuror, an excellent man, one of Robert Nelson's +friends, was 'once a great Bourignonist.'--Hearne to Rawlinson, App. in. +1718, quoted in H.B. Wilson's _History of Merchant Taylors' School_ ii. +957.] + +[Footnote 510: M.J. Matter, _Histoire du Christianisme_, iv. 344.] + +[Footnote 511: Francis Okely, one of the most distinguished of the +English Moravians of the last century, was a great student and admirer +of Behmen.--Nichol's _Literary Anecdotes_, iii. 93.] + +[Footnote 512: Schelling and others, says Dorner, 'sought out and +utilised many a noble germ in the fermenting chaos of Boehme's +notions.'--J.A. Dorner's _History of Protestant Theology_, 1871, ii. +184.] + +[Footnote 513: R.A. Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, ii. 349.] + +[Footnote 514: H. More's _Works_, 'Antidote against Atheism,' note to +chap. xliv.] + +[Footnote 515: J. Wesley, 'Thoughts upon Jacob Behmen.'--_Works_, ix. +509.] + +[Footnote 516: Id. 513.] + +[Footnote 517: Unqualified, even for Warburton. 'Doctrine of Grace,' b. +iii. ch. ii. _Works_, iv. 706.] + +[Footnote 518: A. Gilchrist's _Life of Blake_, i. 16.] + +[Footnote 519: W. Law's introduction to his translation of Behmen's +_Works_.] + +[Footnote 520: H. Coleridge, _Sonnet on Shakspeare_.] + +[Footnote 521: Quoted in _Christian Schools and Scholars_, ii. Sec. 5.] + +[Footnote 522: For fuller details, see _The Life and Opinions of W. +Lam_, by J.H. Overton, published since the first edition of this work.] + +[Footnote 523: Boswell's _Johnson_, ii. 125.] + +[Footnote 524: E. Gibbon, _Memoirs of My Life_, 13.] + +[Footnote 525: _Quarterly Review_, 103, 310.] + +[Footnote 526: Ewing's _Present-Day Papers_, 14.] + +[Footnote 527: In Leslie Stephen's _English Thought in the Eighteenth +Century_ we have a vivid picture of the retreat at Kingscliffe--the +devotional exercises, the unstinted almsgiving, and Law's little study, +four feet square, furnished with its chair, its writing-table, the +Bible, and the works of Jacob Behmen. 'Certainly a curious picture in +the middle of that prosaic eighteenth century, which is generally +interpreted to us by Fielding, Smollett, and Hogarth.'--Chap. xii. 6 +(70).] + +[Footnote 528: F.D. Maurice, Introduction to Law's _Answer to +Mandeville_, v.] + +[Footnote 529: _Works_, xi. 216.] + +[Footnote 530: _Answer to Dr. Trapp._--_Works_, vi. 319.] + +[Footnote 531: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 2nd ed. 1762, p. 7.--_Works_, +vol. vii.] + +[Footnote 532: Id.] + +[Footnote 533: Plato, _Republic_, b. x. Sec. 611.] + +[Footnote 534: _Appeal to all that Doubt_, 3rd ed. 1768, p. +131.--_Works_, vol. vi. _Spirit of Prayer_, 1st part, 73, vol. vii.] + +[Footnote 535: Id. 24.] + +[Footnote 536: _Answer to Dr. Trapp_, 38-39, vol. vi.] + +[Footnote 537: Id.] + +[Footnote 538: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 14.] + +[Footnote 539: _Answer to Dr. Trapp_, 244.] + +[Footnote 540: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 98.] + +[Footnote 541: The special reference to Dr. Joseph Trapp's 'Four Sermons +on the Folly, Sin, and Danger of being Righteous overmuch; with a +particular view to the Doctrines and Practices of Modern Enthusiasts,' +1739. The work had an extensive sale. S. Johnson's _Works_ (R. Lynam), +v. 497. It should be added that, from their own point of view, the +sermons contain much sound sense and are by no means deficient in +religious feeling.] + +[Footnote 542: _Appeal_, &c., 278.] + +[Footnote 543: _Appeal_, &c., 279.] + +[Footnote 544: Id. 280.] + +[Footnote 545: Id. 282.] + +[Footnote 546: Id. 275.] + +[Footnote 547: Id. 282.] + +[Footnote 548: Id. 4.] + +[Footnote 549: _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. i. 56-8.] + +[Footnote 550: _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. i. 67.] + +[Footnote 551: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 78, and 31. _Appeal_, &c., 5.] + +[Footnote 552: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 14.] + +[Footnote 553: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 15.] + +[Footnote 554: One of the passages on the title-page of Tindal's +_Christianity as Old as the Creation_, was the following sentence from +the _Retractations_ of St. Augustine: 'The thing which is now called the +Christian Religion was also among the ancients, nor was it wanting from +the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh, when +the true religion that then was began to be called Christian.'--Quoted +in Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, ii. 434.] + +[Footnote 555: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 124, vol. viii.] + +[Footnote 556: _Appeal_, &c., 199-200. _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. ii. 159.] + +[Footnote 557: Wesley's 'Letter to W. Law.'--_Works_, ix. 488--. Also +Warburton on Middleton; and 'Doctrine of Grace,' part iii.--_Works_, +vol. iv.] + +[Footnote 558: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 10. _Appeal_, &c., 325.] + +[Footnote 559: Mandeville's _Fable of the Bees_, 1714, l. 425.] + +[Footnote 560: Mandeville's _Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue_, +p. 12.] + +[Footnote 561: W. Law's _Answer to Mandeville_, 27.] + +[Footnote 562: F.D. Maurice's Preface to Id.] + +[Footnote 563: R.A. Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, ii. 246.] + +[Footnote 564: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 87.] + +[Footnote 565: _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. i. 58. Also, Id. 39, _Way to +Divine Knowledge_, 96.] + +[Footnote 566: W. Law's _Letters_, in R. Tighe's _Life of Law_, 72.] + +[Footnote 567: _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. ii. 127] + +[Footnote 568: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 161.] + +[Footnote 569: _Appeal to all that Doubt_, 88.] + +[Footnote 570: _Way to Divine Knowledge_, 65.] + +[Footnote 571: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 140.] + +[Footnote 572: _Letters_, in Tighe, 73; and _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. +107-8.] + +[Footnote 573: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 80.] + +[Footnote 574: Id. 112-9.] + +[Footnote 575: _Appeal_, &c., 301-13.] + +[Footnote 576: _Spirit of Love_, pt. ii. 46. _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. i. +55.] + +[Footnote 577: _Answer to Dr. Trapp_, 87.] + +[Footnote 578: _Appeal_, &c., 310-3.] + +[Footnote 579: _Spirit of Prayer_, pt. ii. 202.] + +[Footnote 580: Id.] + +[Footnote 581: G. Macdonald's _England's Antiphon_, 288.] + +[Footnote 582: Chalmers' _English Poets_, xv. 269. _Thoughts on Human +Reason_.] + +[Footnote 583: M.J. Matter, _Histoire de Christianisme_, vol. iv. 347. +H.J. Rose, _Protestantism in Germany_, 46-9. Dorner's _History of +Protestant Theology_, ii. 217-227.] + +[Footnote 584: Matter, _Histoire_, &c., 348.] + +[Footnote 585: Lavington's _Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists_, 1747, +Sec. 14.] + +[Footnote 586: Id. 20.] + +[Footnote 587: Schleiermacher, in a Letter to his Sister, 1805; F. +Rowan's _Life of Schleiermacher_, ii. 23.] + +[Footnote 588: Whiston's _Life_, by Himself, 576.] + +[Footnote 589: Hatton's _Memoirs_, p. 216, quoted in L. Tyerman's 'Life +of J. Gambold,' in his _Oxford Methodists_, 188. Archbishop Potter, in +1737, wrote a Latin letter to Zinzendorf, full of sympathy and interest. +It is given in Doddridge's _Correspondence_, v. 264.] + +[Footnote 590: Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_, 1758, vol. v. 86. +Doddridge's _Correspondence_, v. 271, note. Remarks on Stinstra's +'Letters,' in J. Hughes' _Correspondence_, 1772, ii. 204-5.] + +[Footnote 591: Tyerman, _Oxford Methodists_, 197.] + +[Footnote 592: Warburton's 'Doctrine of Grace,' chap. vi.--_Works_, +1788, 4, 626.] + +[Footnote 593: Wesley's _Journal_. Quoted in _Wesley's Life_, Religious +Tract Society, 34.] + +[Footnote 594: 'Life of Gambold,' in L. Tyerman's _Oxford Methodists_, +155-200.] + +[Footnote 595: _Second Journal_, p. 26-7. (Quoted by Lavington, +Sec. 21); and _Works_, ed. x. 438.] + +[Footnote 596: 'Remarks on Mr. Hill's Review,' &c.--_Works_, x. 438.] + +[Footnote 597: 'Answer to Lavington.'--_Works_, ix. 49.] + +[Footnote 598: 'Letter to Mr. Law.'--_Works_, ix. 466-509.] + +[Footnote 599: I. Taylor, _Wesley and Methodism_, 33.] + +[Footnote 600: 'Short View,' &c.--_Works_, x. 201. 'My soul,' he wrote +in one of his journals, 'is sick of their _sublime_ divinity.' Quoted in +H. Curteis, _Dissent in Relation to the Church of England_, 366.] + +[Footnote 601: Stanley instances, in addition to Wesley, Athanasius, +Augustine, Luther, and Baxter.--_Speech at Edinburgh_, January 2, 1872.] + +[Footnote 602: S. Winkworth's _Tauler's Life and Times_, 86.] + +[Footnote 603: Id.; also a review of F. Pfeiffer's 2nd vol. of _Deutsche +Mystiker_ (Meister Eckhart) in _Saturday Review_, January 9, 1858, and +_British Quarterly_, October 1874, 300-5.] + +[Footnote 604: M.J. Matter's _Histoire du Christianisme_, 4, 343.] + +[Footnote 605: _Works of George, Lord Lyttelton_, 239.] + +[Footnote 606: Id. 271.] + +[Footnote 607: _Enthusiasm of Romanists and Methodists Compared_, +passim.] + +[Footnote 608: Polwhele's _Introduction to Lavington_, clxxx.] + +[Footnote 609: Lavington's _Enthusiasm_, &c., Sec. 2.] + +[Footnote 610: G. Grote's _History of Greece_, chap. xxxvii. There is a +full and interesting account of the Pythagorean revival in Dr. F. +Schwartz's _Geschichte der Erziehung_, 1829, 301-21.] + +[Footnote 611: H.H. Milman. _Early History of Christianity_, 1840, ii. +237.] + +[Footnote 612: H.H. Milman, _Lat. Christianity_, 1857, iii. 270, vi. +263, 287; R.A. Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, i. 49, 152.] + +[Footnote 613: Milman's _Lat. Christianity_, vi. 371-80; Winkworth's +_Life and Times of Tauler_, 186.] + +[Footnote 614: M.J. Matter's _Histoire du Christianisme_, 4, 347; H.T. +Rose, _Protestantism in Germany_, 50.] + +[Footnote 615: C. Leslie's _Works_, 'The Snake in the Grass,' and +'Defence, &c.' Id. vols. iv. and v. passim; R.A. Vaughan's _Hours with +the Mystics_, ii. 255-60. Barclay's _Apology_, 339.] + +[Footnote 616: N. Spinckes, _New Pretenders to Prophecy_, 1709, 402, +&c.] + +[Footnote 617: Vaughan, ii. 165-208.] + +[Footnote 618: Winkworth's _Life of Tauler_, 172.] + +[Footnote 619: J. Wesley, 'Letter to the Bishop of +Gloucester.'--_Works_, ix. 137, 142.] + +[Footnote 620: Wesley's _Journal_, quoted by Lavington, _Enthusiasm_, +&c., 271.] + +[Footnote 621: _Works_, ix. 121; and _Journal_, 1738-43, quoted by +Warburton, 'Doctrine of Grace.'--_Works_, iv. 605-75.] + +[Footnote 622: _Works_, ix. 143.] + +[Footnote 623: Barclay's _Apology_, 339. Cf. Wesley's 'Letter to W. +Downes,' 1759. _Works_, ix. 104-5.] + +[Footnote 624: Wesley's _Plain Account of the People called the +Methodists_, 6th ed. 1764, 4.] + +[Footnote 625: 'Predestination calmly considered,' 1745.--_Works_, x. +267.] + +[Footnote 626: Behmen, _Three Principles_, chap. xxvi.] + +[Footnote 627: 'Answer to Lavington.'--_Works_, ix. 50; 'Letter to Mr. +Law,' id. 505.] + +[Footnote 628: Winkworth's _Life, &c., of Tauler_, 96] + +[Footnote 629: Tauler, 'Sermon for Third Sunday after Epiphany,' id. +223.] + +[Footnote 630: Id. 86, 137-8.] + +[Footnote 631: H. More's note to Sec. 44 of _Enthus. Triumphatus_.] + +[Footnote 632: C. Leslie, _Works_, iv. 5-8; Lavington, 346.] + +[Footnote 633: Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_, 1758, v. 86 (note); +Tyerman, _Oxford Methodists_, 194; Wesley, continually; &c.] + +[Footnote 634: A. Gilchrist's _Life of W. Blake_, 331.] + +[Footnote 635: Warburton called him and his followers 'our new +Cabalists.'--Letter to Doddridge, May 27, 1758.] + +[Footnote 636: A full statement of Hutchinson's views may be found in +the _Works of G. Horne_, by W. Jones (of Nayland), Pref. xix-xxiii, +20-23, &c. His own views were visionary and extreme. Natural religion, +for example, he called 'the religion of Satan and of Antichrist' (id. +xix). But he had many admirers, including many young men of promise at +Oxford (id. 81). They were attracted by the earnestness of his +opposition to some theological tendencies of the age. It was to this +reactionary feeling that his repute was chiefly owing. 'Of Mr. +Hutchinson we hear but little; his name was the match that gave fire to +the train' (id. 92).] + +[Footnote 637: Berkeley to Johnson, July 25, 1751.--_G. Berkeley's Life +and Works_, ed. A.C. Fraser, iv. 326.] + +[Footnote 638: Warburton and Hurd's _Correspondence_, Letter xx.] + +[Footnote 639: Alg. C. Swinburne, _W. Blake: a Critical Essay_, 41.] + +[Footnote 640: A. Gilchrist's _Life of W. Blake_, i. 303. + +It was not only that Wordsworth was at one with Blake in his intense +feeling of the mysterious loveliness of nature. There is also an +occasional vein of mysticism in his poetry. Thus it is observed in Ch. +Wordsworth's _Memoirs of his Life_ (p. 111), that his _Expostulation and +Reply_ (1798) was a favourite with the Quakers. It is the poem in which +these verses occur:-- + + 'Nor less I deem that there are powers + Which of themselves our minds impress; + That we can feed these minds of ours + In a wise passiveness. + Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum + Of things for ever speaking, + That nothing of itself will come, + But we must still be seeking?'--_Poems_, iv. 180.] + +[Footnote 641: Gilchrist, i. 311.] + +[Footnote 642: Id. 190-1.] + +[Footnote 643: Swinburne, 274.] + +[Footnote 644: Gilchrist, 321.] + +[Footnote 645: R. Graves's _Works_, 'The Apostles not Enthusiasts,' i. +199-200.] + +[Footnote 646: Id., _Memoirs_, i. lvi.] + +[Footnote 647: S.T. Coleridge's _Poetical Works_, 'Religious Musings,' +i. 83-4.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CHURCH ABUSES. + + +Never since her Reformation had the Church of England given so fair a +promise of a useful and prosperous career as she did at the beginning of +the eighteenth century. Everything seemed to be in her favour. In 1702 a +sovereign ascended the throne who was enthusiastically devoted to her +interests, and endeavoured to live according to the spirit of her +teaching. The two great political parties were both bidding for her +support. Each accused the other of being her enemy, as the worst +accusation that could be brought against them. The most effective cry +which the Whigs could raise against the Tories was, that they were +imperilling the Church by dallying with France and Rome; the most +effective cry which the Tories could raise against the Whigs was, that +the Church was in danger under an administration which favoured +sectaries and heretics. Both parties vehemently denied the charge, and +represented themselves as the truest friends of the Church. Had they +done otherwise they would have forfeited at once the national +confidence. For the nation at large, and the lower classes even more +than the higher, were vehement partisans of the National Church. The now +unusual spectacle of a High Church mob was then not at all unusual.[648] +The enemies of the Church seemed to be effectually silenced. Rome had +tried her strength against her and had failed--failed in argument and +failed in policy. Protestant Dissent was declining in numbers, in +influence, and in ability. Both Romanists and Nonconformists would have +been only too thankful to have been allowed to enjoy their own opinions +in peace, without attempting any aggressive work against the dominant +Church. + +Sad indeed is the contrast between the promise and the performance. Look +at the Church of the eighteenth century in prospect, and a bright scene +of uninterrupted triumph might be anticipated. Look at it in retrospect, +as it is pictured by many writers of every school of thought, and a dark +scene of melancholy failure presents itself. Not that this latter view +is altogether a correct one. Many as were the shortcomings of the +English Church of this period, her condition was not so bad as it has +been represented. + +In the early part of the century the Nonjurors not unnaturally regarded +with a somewhat jealous eye those who stepped into the places from which +they for conscience' sake had been excluded, and the accounts which they +have left us of the abuses existing in the Church which had turned them +adrift must not be accepted without some allowance for the circumstances +under which they were written. The Deists, again, taking their stand on +the absolute perfection and sufficiency of natural religion, and the +consequent needlessness of any further revelation, would obviously +strengthen their position if they could show that the ministers of +Christianity were, as a matter of fact, faithless and useless. Hence the +Church and her ministers were favourite topics for their invectives. The +reputation of the Church suffered, perhaps, still more from the attacks +of the free-livers than from those of the free-thinkers. The strictures +of the latter formed part of the great Deistical controversy, and were +therefore replied to by the champions of orthodoxy; but the reckless +aspersions of the former, not being bound up with any controversy, were +for the most part suffered to pass unchallenged. Then, again, the +leaders of the Evangelical revival, who were misunderstood, and in many +cases cruelly treated, by the clergy of their day, could scarcely help +taking the gloomiest possible view of the state of the Church at large, +and were hardly in a position to appreciate the really good points of +men who were violently prejudiced against themselves; while their +biographers in later times have been too apt to bring out in stronger +relief the brightness of their heroes' portraits by making the +background as dark as possible. + +Thus various causes have contributed to bring into prominence the abuses +of the Church of the eighteenth century, and to throw its merits into +the shade. + +Still, after making full allowance for the distorting influence of +prejudice on many sides, there remains a wide margin which no amount of +prejudice can account for. 'Church abuses' must still form a painfully +conspicuous feature in any sketch of the ecclesiastical history of the +period. + +Before entering into the details of these abuses it will be well to +specify some of the general causes which tended to paralyse the energies +and lower the tone of the Church. + +Foremost among these must be placed that very outward prosperity which +would seem at the first glance to augur for the Church a useful and +prosperous career. But that 'which should have been for her wealth' +proved to her 'an occasion of falling.' The peace which she enjoyed made +her careless and inactive. The absence of the wholesome stimulus of +competition was far from being an unmixed advantage to her. Very soon +after the accession of George I., when the voice of Convocation was +hushed, a dead calm set in, so far as the internal affairs of the +Church were concerned--a calm which was really more perilous to her than +the stormy weather in which she had long been sailing. The discussion of +great questions has always a tendency to call forth latent greatness of +mind where any exists. But after the second decade of the eighteenth +century there was hardly any question _within_ the Church to agitate +men's minds. There was abundance of controversy with those without, but +within all was still. There was nothing to encourage self-sacrifice, and +self-sacrifice is essential to promote a healthy spiritual life. The +Church partook of the general sordidness of the age; it was an age of +great material prosperity, but of moral and spiritual poverty, such as +hardly finds a parallel in our history. Mercenary motives were too +predominant everywhere, in the Church as well as in the State. + +The characteristic fault of the period was greatly intensified by the +influence of one man. The reigns of the first two Georges might not +inaptly be termed the Walpolian period. For though Walpole's fall took +place before the period closed, yet the principles he had inculcated and +acted upon had taken too deep a root in the heart of the nation to fall +with his fall. Walpole had learned the wisdom of applying his favourite +maxim, '_Quieta non movere_,' to the affairs of the Church before he +began to apply it to those of the State. 'In 1710,' writes his +biographer, 'Walpole was appointed one of the managers for the +impeachment of Sacheverell, and principally conducted that business in +the House of Commons. The mischievous consequences of that trial had a +permanent effect on the future conduct of Walpole when head of the +Administration. It infused into him an aversion and horror at any +interposition in the affairs of the Church, and led him to assume +occasionally a line of conduct which appeared to militate against those +principles of toleration to which he was naturally inclined.'[649] And +so his one idea of managing ecclesiastical affairs was to keep things +quiet; he calmed down all opposition to the Church from without, but he +conferred a very questionable benefit upon her by this policy.[650] + +We have seen in the chapter on the Deists how the Church suffered in +her practical work from the controversies of her own generation; and no +less did she suffer from the effects left by the controversies of a +preceding age. The events which had occurred during the seventeenth +century had tended to excite an almost morbid dread of extravagance both +in the direction of High Church and Low Church principles--according to +the nineteenth, not the eighteenth, century's acceptation of those +terms. The majority of the clergy shrank, not unnaturally, from anything +which might seem in any degree to assimilate them either to Romanism or +to Puritanism. Recent experience had shown the danger of both. The +violent reaction against the reign of the Saints continued with more or +less force almost to the end of the eighteenth century. The fear of +Romanism, which had been brought so near home to the nation in the days +of James II., was even yet a present danger, at least during the first +half of the century. In casting away everything that seemed to savour of +either of these two extremes there was a danger of casting away also +much that might have been edifying and elevating. On the one hand, +ornate and frequent services and symbolism of all kinds were regarded +with suspicion, and consequently infrequent services, and especially +infrequent communions, carelessness about the Church fabrics, and bad +taste in the work that was done, are conspicuous among the Church abuses +of the period. On the other side, fervency and vigour in preaching were +regarded with suspicion as bordering too nearly upon the habits of the +hated Puritans of the Commonwealth, and a dry, dull, moralising style of +sermon was the result. And, generally, this fear on both sides +engendered a certain timidity and obstructiveness and want of elasticity +which prevented the Church from incorporating into her system anything +which seemed to diverge one hair's breadth from the groove in which she +ran. + +Again, the Church was an immense engine of political power. The most +able and popular statesmen could not afford to dispense with her aid. +The bench of bishops formed so compact a phalanx in the Upper House of +the Legislature, and the clergy could and did influence so many +elections into the Lower House, that the Church had necessarily to be +courted and favoured, often to the great detriment of her spiritual +character. + +Nor, in touching upon the general causes which impaired the efficiency +of the Church during the eighteenth century, must we omit to notice the +want of all synodal action. There may be different opinions as to the +wisdom or otherwise of the indefinite prorogation of Convocation, as it +existed in the early years of the eighteenth century. That it was the +scene of unseemly disputes, and altogether a turbulent element in the +Constitution, when the Ministry of George I. thought good to prorogue it +_sine die_ in 1717, is not denied; but that the Church should be +deprived of the privilege, which every other religious body enjoyed, of +discussing in her own assembly her own affairs, was surely in itself an +evil. And we must not too hastily assume that she was not then in a +condition to discuss them profitably. The proceedings of the later +meetings of Convocation in the eighteenth century which are best known +are those which concerned subjects of violent altercation. But these +were by no means the only subjects suggested for discussion.[651] The +re-establishing and rendering useful the office of rural deans, the +regulating of marriage licences, the encouragement of charity schools, +the establishment of parochial libraries, the licentiousness of the +stage, protests against duelling, the want of sufficient church +accommodation, the work of Christian missions both to the heathen and +our own plantations--these and other thoroughly practical questions are +found among the agenda of Convocation during the eighteenth century; and +the mention of them suggests some of the very shortcomings with which +the Church of the Hanoverian period is charged. + +The causes which led to the unhappy disputes between the Upper and Lower +Houses were obviously only temporary; it is surely not chimerical to +assume that time and a change of circumstances would have brought about +a better understanding between the bishops and the inferior clergy, and +that Convocation would have seen better days, and have been instrumental +in rolling away some at least of the reproaches with which the Church of +the day is now loaded.[652] To the action of Convocation in the early +part of the eighteenth century the Church was indebted for at least one +good work. The building and endowment of the fifty new churches in +London would probably never have been projected had not Convocation +stirred itself in the matter, and would probably have never been +abandoned if Convocation had continued to meet.[653] There was ample +room for similar work, of which every good Christian of every school of +thought might have approved. And there were many occasions on which it +would appear, _prima facie_, that synodal deliberation might have +proved of immense benefit to the Church. For instance, on that very +important, but at the time most perplexing, question, 'How should the +Church deal with the irregular but most valuable efforts of the Wesleys +and Whitefield and their fellow-labourers?' it would have been most +desirable for the clergy to have taken counsel together in their own +proper assembly. As it was, the bishops had to deal with this new phase +of spiritual life entirely on their own responsibility. They had no +opportunity of consulting with their brethren on the bench, or even with +the clergy in their dioceses; for not only was the voice of Convocation +hushed, but diocesan synods and ruridecanal chapters had also fallen +into abeyance. The want of such consultation is conspicuous in the doubt +and perplexity which evidently distracted the minds both of the bishops +and many of the clergy when they had to face the earlier phenomena of +the Methodist movement. + +It will thus be seen that there were many general causes at work which +tended to debase the Church during the period which comes under our +consideration. No doubt some that have been mentioned were symptoms as +well as causes of the disease; but, in so far as they were causes, they +must be fully taken into account before we condemn indiscriminately the +clergy whose lot it was to live in an age when circumstances were so +little conducive to the development of the higher spiritual life, or to +the carrying out of the Church's proper mission to the nation. It is +extremely difficult for any man to rise above the spirit of his age. He +who can do so is a spiritual hero. But it is not given to everyone to +reach the heroic standard; and it surely does not follow that because a +man cannot be a hero he must therefore be a bad man. + +Bearing these cautions in mind, we may now proceed to consider some of +the more flagrant abuses, the existence of which has affixed a stigma, +not altogether undeserved, upon the English Church of the eighteenth +century. + +One of the worst of these abuses--worst both in itself and also as the +fruitful source of many others--was the glaring evil of pluralities and +non-residence, an evil which was inherited from an earlier generation. +It is perfectly astonishing to observe the lax views which even really +good men seem to have held on this subject in the middle part of the +century. Bishop Newton, the amiable and learned author of the +'Dissertation on the Prophecies,' mentions it as an act of almost +Quixotic disinterestedness that 'when he obtained the deanery of St. +Paul's (that is, in addition to his bishopric) he resigned his living in +the City, having held it for twenty-five years.' In another passage he +plaintively enumerates the various preferments he had to resign on +taking the bishopric of Bristol. 'He was obliged to give up the prebend +of Westminster, the precentorship of York, the lectureship of St. +George's, Hanover Square, and the genteel office of sub-almoner.' On +another occasion we find him conjuring his friend Bishop Pearce, of +Rochester, not to resign the deanery of Westminster. 'He offered and +urged all the arguments he could to dissuade the Bishop from his purpose +of separating the two preferments, which had been united for near a +century, and lay so convenient to each other that neither of them would +be of the same value without the other; and if once separated they might +perhaps never be united again, and his successors would have reason to +reproach and condemn his memory.' In another passage he complains of the +diocese of Lincoln being 'so very large and laborious, so very extensive +and expensive;' but the moral he draws is not that it should be +subdivided, so that its bishop might be able to perform his duties, but +'that it really requires and deserves a good commendam to support it +with any dignity.' + +Herring held the deanery of Rochester in commendam with the bishopric of +Bangor. Wilcocks was Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, and +was succeeded both in the deanery and the bishopric by Zachary Pearce. +Hoadly held the see of Bangor for six years, apparently without ever +seeing the diocese in his life. Even the excellent Dr. Porteus (one of +the most pious, liberal, and unselfish of men) thought it no sin to hold +a country living in conjunction with the bishopric of Chester. He +actually had permission to retain the important living of Lambeth as +well; but 'he thought,' says his biographer with conscious pride, 'with +so many additional cares he should not be able to attend to so large a +benefice, at least to the satisfaction of his own mind, and therefore +hesitated not a moment in giving it up into other hands.'[654] Bishop +Watson, of Llandaff, gives a most artless account of his non-residence. +'Having,' he tells us, 'no place of residence in my diocese, I turned my +attention to the improvement of land. I thought the improvement of a +man's fortune by cultivating the earth was the most useful and +honourable way of providing for a family. I have now been several years +occupied as an improver of land and planter of trees.'[655] The same +bishop gives us a most extraordinary description of the sources from +whence his clerical income was derived. 'The provision of 2,000_l._, a +year,' he says, 'which I possess from the Church arises from the tithes +of two churches in Shropshire, two in Leicestershire, two in my diocese, +three in Huntingdonshire, on all of which I have resident curates; of +five more appropriations to the bishopric, and two more in the Isle of +Ely as appropriations to the archdeaconry of Ely.[656] + +Pluralities and non-residence being thus so common among the very men +whose special duty it was to prevent them, one can hardly wonder that +the evil prevailed to a sad extent among the lower clergy. + +Archbishop Secker, in his charge to the diocese of Canterbury in 1758, +complains of 'the non-resident clergyman, who reckons it enough that, +for aught he knows to the contrary, his parishioners go on like their +neighbours,' and attributes to this, among other causes, 'the rise of a +new sect, pretending to the strictest piety.' It seems, however, to have +been taken for granted that the evil practice must be recognised to a +certain extent. Thus Paley, in his charge in 1785, recommends 'the +clergy who cannot talk to their parishioners, and non-resident +incumbents, to distribute the tracts of the Society for Promoting +Christian Knowledge;'[657] and even so late as 1796 Bishop Horsley +admits that 'many non-residents are promoting the general cause of +Christianity, and perhaps doing better service than if they confined +themselves to the ordinary labours of the ministry.' He thinks it would +be 'no less impolitic than harsh to call such to residence,' and adds +that 'other considerations make non-residence a thing to be connived +at.'[658] + +The collateral evils which would necessarily result from the scandals we +are noticing are obvious. When the incumbent of a parish was +non-resident, and more especially when, as was not unfrequently the +case, there was not even a resident curate, it was impossible that the +duties of the parish could be properly attended to. Evidences of this +are only too plentiful. But, instead of quoting dreary details to prove +a point which has been generally admitted, it will be sufficient in this +place to refer to some passages in the charges of a worthy prelate which +throw a curious light upon what such a one could reasonably look for in +his clergy in the middle of the eighteenth century. In his charge to the +diocese of Oxford, in 1741, Bishop Secker recommends the duty of +catechising; but he feels that his recommendation cannot in many cases +be carried out. 'I am sensible,' he adds, 'that some clergymen are +unhappily obliged to serve two churches the same afternoon.' We gather +from the same charge a sad idea of the infrequency of the celebration of +the Holy Communion. 'One thing,' the Bishop modestly suggests, 'might be +done in all your parishes: a Sacrament might easily be interposed in +that long interval between Whitsuntide and Christmas. If afterwards you +can advance from a quarterly Communion to a monthly, I have no doubt you +will.' In the same charge he reminds the clergy that 'our liturgy +consists of evening as well as morning prayer, and no inconvenience can +arise from attending it, provided persons are within tolerable distance +of church. Few have business at that time of day, and amusement ought +never to be preferred on the Lord's day before religion; not to say that +there is room for both.'[659] When it is remembered that the state of +things described in the above remarks existed in the great University +diocese, which was presumably in advance rather than behind the age, and +that, moreover, the clergy were presided over by a man who was +thoroughly earnest and conscientious, and yet that he can only hint in +the most delicate way at improvements which, as the tone of his +exhortation evidently shows, he hardly hoped would be carried out, it +may be imagined what was the condition of parishes in less favoured and +more remote dioceses. + +Another evil, which was greatly aggravated by the multiplication of +benefices in a single hand, was clerical poverty. There was in the last +century a far wider gap between the different classes of the clergy than +there is at the present day. While the most eminent or most fortunate +among them could take their places on a stand of perfect equality with +the highest nobles in the land, the bulk of the country curates and +poorer incumbents hardly rose above the rank of the small farmer. A much +larger proportion than now lived and died without the slightest prospect +of rising above the position of a stipendiary curate; and the regular +stipend of a curate was 30_l._ a year. When Collins complained of the +expense of maintaining so large a body of clergy, Bentley replied that +'the Parliamentary accounts showed that six thousand of the clergy had, +at a middle rate, not 50_l._ a year;' and he then added that argument +which was subsequently used with so much effect by Sydney Smith--viz. +that 'talent is attracted into the Church by a few great prizes.'[660] +Some years later, when Lord Shelburne asked Bishop Watson 'if nothing +could be gotten from the Church towards alleviating the burdens of the +State,' the Bishop replied that the whole revenue of the Church would +not yield 150_l._ a year to each clergyman, and therefore a diminution +would be inexpedient unless Government would be contented to have a +beggarly and illiterate clergy, which no wise minister would wish.'[661] +He might have added that, even as it was, a great number of the clergy, +if not 'beggarly and illiterate,' were either weighed down with the +pressure of poverty, or, to escape it, were obliged to have recourse to +occupations which were more fit for illiterate men. Dr. Primrose, in his +adversity, and Parson Adams are specimens of the better type of this +class of clergy, and it is to be feared that Parson Trulliber is not a +very unfair specimen of the worst. There is an odd illustration of the +immeasurable distance which was supposed to separate the bishop from the +curate in Cradock's 'Reminiscences.' Bishop Warburton was to preach in +St. Lawrence's Church in behalf of the London Hospital. 'I was,' writes +Cradock, 'introduced into the vestry by a friend, where the Lord Mayor +and others were waiting for the Duke of York, who was their president; +and in the meantime the bishop did everything in his power to entertain +and alleviate their patience. He was beyond measure condescending and +courteous, and even graciously handed some biscuits and wine in a salver +to the curate who was to read prayers!'[662] + +So far as one can judge, this wide gulf which divided the higher from +the lower clergy was by no means always a fair measure of their +respective merits. The readers of 'Joseph Andrews' will remember that +Parson Adams is represented not only as a pious and estimable clergyman, +but also as a scholar and a divine. And there were not wanting in real +life unbeneficed clergymen who, in point of abilities and erudition, +might have held their own with the learned prelates of the period. +Thomas Stackhouse, the curate of Finchley, is a remarkable case in +point. His 'Compleat Body of Divinity,' and, still more, his 'History of +the Bible,' published in 1733, are worthy to stand on the same shelf +with the best writings of the bishops in an age when the Bench was +extraordinarily fertile in learning and intellectual activity. John +Newton wrote most of his works in a country curacy. Romaine, whose +learning and abilities none can doubt, was fifty years old before he was +beneficed. Seed, a preacher and writer of note, was a curate for the +greater part of his life. It must be added, however, that as the +eighteenth century advanced, a very decided improvement took place in +the circumstances of the bulk of the clergy--an improvement which would +have been still more extensive but for the prevalence of pluralities. + +Unhappily, among the evils resulting from the multiplication of a needy +clergy, which may be in part attributed to the undue accumulation of +Church property in a few hands, mere penury was not the worst. Some +clergy struggled manfully and honestly against its pressure, but others +fell into disreputable courses. These latter are not, of course, to be +regarded as representative men of any class in the Church. They were +simply the Pariahs of ecclesiastical society; the black sheep which will +be found, in one form or another, in every age of the Church. But owing +to the causes noted above, they formed an exceptionally large class at +the close of the seventeenth and during the first half at least of the +eighteenth century. + +Some belonging to this class of clergy supported themselves as +hangers-on to the families of the great. Domestic chaplains in great +houses became less common as the century advanced. The admirable hits of +Addison and Steele against the indignities to which domestic chaplains +were subjected are more applicable to the early than to the latter part +of the century. Boswell adduced it as an instance that 'there was less +religion in the nation than formerly,' that 'there used to be a chaplain +in every great family, which we do not find now;' and was well answered +by Dr. Johnson, 'Neither do you find any of the state servants in great +families. There is a change in customs.' The change, however, was not +wholly to the advantage of the Church. Bad as was the relation between +the chaplain and his patron, where the former was degraded to an +inferior position in the household, there was still some sort of +spiritual tie between them.[663] The parson who was simply the boon +companion of the ignorant and sensual squire of the Hanoverian period +was in a still worse position. This class of clergyman is a constant +subject of satire in the lighter literature and caricatures of the day. +Not that they were so numerous or so bad as they are often represented +to have been. There was a strong and growing tendency in the Georgian +era to make the very worst of clerical delinquencies. For it is a +curious fact that while the Church as an establishment was most popular, +her ministers were most unpopular. Secker complained, not without +reason, in 1738, that 'Christianity is now railed at and ridiculed with +very little reserve, and the teachers of it without any at all. Against +us our adversaries appear to have set themselves to be as bitter as they +can--not only beyond all truth, but beyond probability--exaggerating +without mercy,' &c.[664] And nearly thirty years later he still makes +the same complaint. 'You cannot but see,' he warns candidates for Holy +Orders, 'in what a profane and corrupt age this stewardship is committed +to you; how grievously religion and its ministers are hated and +despised.'[665] 'Since the Lollards,' writes Mr. Pattison, 'there had +never been a time when the ministers of religion were held in so much +contempt as in the Hanoverian period, or when satire upon Churchmen was +so congenial to the general feeling. There was no feeling against the +Establishment, nor was Nonconformity ever less in favour. The contempt +was for the persons, manners, and characters of ecclesiastics.'[666] +This unpopularity arose from a complication of causes which need not be +investigated in this place; it is sufficient to notice the fact, which +should be thoroughly borne in mind in estimating the value to be +attached to contemporary complaints of clerical misdoings. The evils +resulting from pluralities and non-residence would have been mischievous +under any circumstances; but their mischief was still further enhanced +by the false principles upon which ecclesiastical patronage was too +often distributed. Statesmen who valued religion chiefly as a State +engine had an eye merely to political ends in the distribution of Church +preferment. This is of course a danger to which an Established Church is +peculiarly liable at all times; but the critical circumstances of the +eighteenth century rendered the temptation of using the Church simply +for State purposes especially strong. The memorable results of the +Sacheverell impeachment, which contributed so largely to bring about the +downfall of the Whig Ministry in 1710, showed how dangerous it was for +statesmen to set themselves against the strong feeling of the majority +of the clergy. The lifelong effects which this famous trial produced +upon Sir R. Walpole have already been noticed. Both he and his timid +successor prided themselves upon being friends of the Church, and +expected the Church to be friends to them in return. Neither of them +made any secret of the fact that they regarded Church preferment as a +useful means of strengthening their own power. Nor were these isolated +cases. 'Lord Hardwicke' (his biographer tells us) 'thought it his duty +to dispose of the ecclesiastical preferments in his gift [as Chancellor] +with a view to increase his own political influence, without any +scrupulous regard for the interests of religion, and without the +slightest respect for scientific or literary merit.'[667] Lord Shelburne +gave the bishopric of Llandaff to Dr. Watson, 'hoping,' the Bishop tells +us, 'I was a warm, and might become a useful partisan; and he told the +Duke of Grafton he hoped I might occasionally write a pamphlet for their +administration.'[668] Warburton complains with characteristic roughness +of 'the Church being bestrid by some lumpish minister.'[669] Even Dr. +Johnson, that stout defender of the Established Church, and of +everything connected with the administration of its affairs, was obliged +to own that 'no man can now be made a bishop for his learning and piety; +his only chance of promotion is his being connected with some one who +has parliamentary interest.'[670] He seems, however, to think the system +inevitable and justifiable, owing to the weakness of the Government, for +he prefaces his admission by remarking that 'all that Government, which +has now too little power, has to bestow, must be given to support +itself; it cannot reward merit.' Mr. Grenville's well-known remark to +Bishop Newton,[671] that he considered bishoprics of two sorts, either +as bishoprics of business or bishoprics of ease, is another instance of +the low views which statesmen took, and were not ashamed to avow, of +their responsibilities as dispensers of Church preferment. + +Such a system naturally tended to foster a false estimate of their +duties on the part of those who were promoted. If the dispenser of +Church preferment was too apt to regard merely political ends, the +recipient or expectant was on his part too often ready to play the +courtier or to become the mere political partisan. Whiston complains +that 'the bishops of his day were too well known to be tools of the +Court to merit better bishoprics by voting as directed.'[672] Warburton +owns that 'the general body of the clergy have been and (he is afraid) +always will be very intent upon pushing their temporal fortunes.'[673] +Watson considered 'the acquisition of a bishopric as no proof of +personal merit, inasmuch as they are often given to the flattering +dependants and unlearned younger branches of noble families.' Nay, +further, he considered 'the possession of a bishopric as a frequent +occasion of personal demerit.' 'For,' he writes, 'I saw the generality +of bishops bartering their independence and dignity of their order for +the chance of a translation, and polluting Gospel humility by the pride +of prelacy.'[674] Lord Campbell informs us that 'in spite of Lord +Thurlow's living openly with a mistress, his house was not only +frequented by his brother the bishop, but by ecclesiastics of all +degrees, who celebrated the orthodoxy of the head of the law and his +love of the Established Church.'[675] If one might trust two memoir +writers who had better opportunities of acquiring correct information +than almost any of their contemporaries, inasmuch as one was the son of +the all-powerful minister, and the other was the intimate friend and +confidential adviser of the chief dispenser of ecclesiastical patronage, +the sycophancy and worldliness of the clergy about the Court in the +middle of the eighteenth century must have been flagrant indeed. The +writers referred to are, of course, Horace Walpole and John, Lord +Hervey. Both of them, however, are so evidently actuated by a bitter +animus against the Church that their statements can by no means be +relied upon as authentic history. + +Let us take another kind of evidence. Several of the Church dignitaries +of the eighteenth century have been obliging enough to leave +autobiographies to posterity, so that we can judge of their characters +as drawn, not by the prejudiced or imperfect information of others, but +by those who ought to know them best--themselves. One of the most +popular of these autobiographies is that of Bishop Newton. A great part +of his amusing memoirs is taken up with descriptions of the methods +which he and his friends adopted to secure preferment. There is very +little, if anything, in them of the duties and responsibilities of the +episcopal office. Where will they be most comfortable? What are their +chances of further preferment? How shall they best please the Court and +the ministers in office? These are the questions which Bishop Newton and +his brother prelates, to whom he makes frequent but never ill-natured +allusions, are represented as constantly asking in effect. Curious +indeed are the glimpses which the Bishop gives us into the system of +Church patronage and the race for preferment which were prevalent in his +day. But more curious still is the impression which the memoirs convey +that the writer himself had not the faintest conception that there was +anything in the least degree unseemly in what he relates. There appears +to be a sort of moral obtuseness in him in reference to these subjects, +but to these subjects only.[676] The memoir closes with a beautiful +expression of resignation to the Divine will, and of hopeful confidence +about the future, in which he was no doubt perfectly sincere. And yet he +openly avows a laxity of principle in the matter of preferment-seeking +and Court-subservience which taken by itself would argue a very worldly +mind. How are we to reconcile the apparent discrepancy? The most +charitable as well as the most reasonable explanation is that the good +Bishop's faults were simply the faults of his age and of his class. And +for this very reason the autobiography is all the more valuable as an +illustration of the subject before us. Bishop Newton is eminently a +representative man. His memoir contains evidently not the exceptional +sentiments of one who was either in advance of or behind his age, but +reflects a faithful picture of a general attitude of mind very prevalent +among Church dignitaries of that date. + +Bishop Watson's 'Anecdotes of his own Life' furnish another curious +illustration of the sentiments of the age on the matter of Church +preferment. But the Bishop of Llandaff treats the matter from an +entirely different point of view from that of the Bishop of Bristol. The +latter was perfectly content with his own position, and with the +preferment before him of his brother clergy. 'He was rather pleased with +his little bishopric.' 'His income was amply sufficient, and scarce any +bishop had two more comfortable or convenient houses. Greater he might +have been, but he could not have been happier; and by the good blessing +of God was enabled to make a competent provision for those who were to +come after him, as well as to bestow something on charity.'[677] Bishop +Watson writes in a very different strain. His 'Anecdotes' are full of +the bitterest complaints of the neglect he had met with. He is +'abandoned by his friends, and proscribed the emoluments of his +profession.' He is 'exhibited to the world as a marked man fallen under +royal displeasure.' He appeals to posterity in the most pathetic terms. +'Reader!' he exclaims, 'when this meets your eye, the author of it will +be rotting in his grave, insensible alike to censure and to praise; but +he begs to be forgiven this apparently self-commendation. It has not +sprung from vanity, but from anxiety for his reputation, lest the +disfavour of a Court should by some be considered as an indication of +general disesteem or a proof of professional demerit.' And yet, by his +own confession, Bishop Watson had a clerical income from his bishopric +and professorship of divinity at Cambridge of 2,000_l._ a year; in +return for which, the work he did in either of these capacities was, +from his own showing, really next to nothing. In fact, in many respects +he seems to have been an exceptionally lucky man. He was appointed to +two professorships at Cambridge when by his own admission he was totally +unqualified for performing the duties of either. In 1764, when he was +only twenty-seven years of age, he 'was unanimously elected, by the +Senate assembled in full congregation, Professor of Chemistry.' 'At the +time this honour was conferred upon me,' he tells us with charming +frankness, 'I knew nothing at all of chemistry, had never read a +syllable on the subject, nor seen a single experiment in it; but I was +tired with mathematics and natural philosophy, and the _vehementissima +gloriae cupido_ stimulated me to try my strength in a new pursuit, and +the kindness of the University (it was always kind to me) animated me to +very extraordinary exertions.' A few years later the University was +kinder still. At the early age of thirty-four he was appointed 'to the +first office for honour in the University, the Regius Professorship of +Divinity.' Then with the same delightful naivete he tells us, 'On being +raised to this distinguished office I immediately applied myself with +great eagerness to the study of divinity.' One would have thought that +his theological studies should have commenced before he undertook the +duties of a divinity professorship. But, happily for him, his ideas of +what would qualify him to be a theologian were on the most limited +scale. 'I determined to study nothing but my Bible, being much +unconcerned about the opinions of councils, fathers, churches, bishops, +and other men as little inspired as myself.' If troublesome people +wanted to argue on theological questions with the Regius Professor of +Divinity, 'I never,' he tells us, 'troubled myself with answering their +arguments, but used on such occasions to say to them, holding the New +Testament in my hand, "_En sacrum codicem_."' This was a simple plan, +and it must be confessed, under the circumstances, a very convenient and +prudent one, but it scarcely justified the strong claims for preferment +which the Bishop constantly founded upon it, as if he had rendered an +almost priceless service to religion. The compendious method of +silencing a gainsayer or satisfying an anxious inquirer by flourishing a +New Testament in his face, and crying '_En sacrum codicem_,' seems +hardly likely to have been very effective. For the first few years of +his professorship he attended to its duties personally, after the +fashion that has been described; but for the greater part of the long +time during which he held that office he employed a deputy. When he was +appointed to the bishopric of Llandaff he found there was no residence +for him in his diocese, and he does not seem to have particularly cared +about having one. He was content with paying it an occasional visit at +very rare intervals, and settled himself in comfortable quarters 'in the +beautiful district on the banks of Winandermere.' Here he employed his +time 'not,' he proudly tells us, 'in field diversions and visiting. No! +it has been spent partly in supporting the religion and constitutions of +my country, by seasonable publications, and principally in building +farmhouses, blasting rocks, enclosing wastes, making bad land good, +planting larches, &c. By such occupations I have recovered my health, +preserved my independence, set an example of a spirited husbandry, and +honourably provided for my family.' + +If we formed our estimate of Bishop Watson's character simply from such +samples as these, we might conclude that he was a covetous, unreasonably +discontented, and worldly-minded man. But this would be a very unfair +conclusion to arrive at. The Bishop gives us only one, and that the +weakest side of his character. He was most highly esteemed by some of +his contemporaries, whose good opinion was well worth having. Gibbon +pays him a very high compliment, calling him 'his most candid as well as +able antagonist.' Wilberforce wrote to him in 1800 saying that 'he hoped +ere now to be able to congratulate him on a change of situation which in +public justice ought to have taken place.' In 1797, Hayley wrote to him +(saying it was Lord Thurlow's expression), 'Your writings have done more +for Christianity than all the bench of bishops put together.'[678] Lord +Campden told Pitt that 'it was a shame for him and the Church that he +had not the most exalted station upon the Bench.' As in the case of +Bishop Newton, one can only reconcile these anomalies by bearing fully +in mind the low views which were commonly taken of clerical +responsibilities, and the general scramble for the emoluments of the +Church which was not thought unseemly in the eighteenth century. + +One of the most characteristic specimens of the courtier prelate of the +eighteenth century on whom so much abuse has been somewhat unfairly +lavished both by contemporaries and by writers of our own time, who have +dwelt exclusively upon the weak side of their character, was Bishop +Hurd. Hurd is now chiefly known as the devoted friend--or rather the +'_fidus Achates_'--of Warburton. He was a man, however, who had a very +distinct individuality of his own, and may be regarded as a fair +representative of a type of bishop now extinct. He was distinguished as +a scholar, a divine, and a courtier. When, however, it is said that Hurd +was a courtier, it is not meant to imply that he was servile or in any +way unduly complaisant to the King or the Court. There is no evidence of +anything of the sort. Neither does he appear to have been, like some of +his contemporaries, unduly intent upon advancing his own selfish +interests. His preferments came apparently unsought, and he refused the +Primacy, although it was pressed upon him by the King on the death of +Archbishop Cornwallis in 1783. Although he rose from a comparatively +humble origin, 'his parents,' he tells us, 'were plain, honest, and good +people' (his father was, in fact, a farmer); he seems to have been +gifted by nature with great courtliness of manner, and with aristocratic +tastes. On his first introduction at Court he won by these graces the +heart of the King, who remarked that he thought him more naturally +polite than any man he had ever met with. Hurd subsequently became the +most trusted friend and constant adviser of George III. There is a very +touching letter extant, which the King wrote to Hurd in one of his great +sorrows, expressing most feelingly the value in which George held the +religious ministrations of his favourite bishop, and the high opinion he +had of his piety and worth. The mere fact that Hurd won the affectionate +respect--one might almost say veneration--of so good a Christian as King +George, furnishes a presumption that he must have been a man of some +merit; and there is nothing whatever in any of his writings, or in +anything we hear of his life, that should lead us to think otherwise. +Nevertheless, it was just such men as Hurd who tended to keep the Church +of the eighteenth century in its apathetic state. Hurd was a +religious-minded man; but his religion was characterised by a cold, +prim propriety which was not calculated to commend it to men at large. +Like his friend Warburton, he could see nothing but folly and fanatical +madness in the great evangelical revival which was going on around him, +and which he seems to have thought would soon be stamped out. He only +emerged from his stately seclusion on great occasions; but when he did +go forth, he was surrounded with all 'the pomp and circumstance' which +might impress beholders with a sense of his dignity. 'Hartlebury Church +is not above a quarter of a mile from Hartlebury Castle, and yet that +quarter of a mile Hurd always travelled in his episcopal coach, with his +servants in full-dress liveries; and when he used to go from Worcester +to Bristol Hot Wells, he never moved without a train of twelve +servants.' Hurd has left us a very short memoir of his own life; but +short as the memoir is, it gives us a curious insight into one side of +his character. The whole account is compressed into twenty-six pages, +and consists for the most part merely of a bare recital of the chief +events of his life. But one day--one memorable day to be marked with the +whitest of white chalk--is described at full length. Out of the +twenty-six pages, no less than six are devoted to the description of a +visit with which the King honoured him at Hartlebury, when 'no +accident,' we are glad to learn, 'of any kind interrupted the mutual +satisfaction which was given and received on the occasion.' + +It has been already observed that the Church interest formed a most +important element in the reckoning of statesmen of this century; and the +extent to which the clergy were mixed up with the politics of the day +must, under the circumstances, be reckoned among the Church abuses of +the period. Not, of course, that this is in itself an evil. On the +contrary, it would be distinctly a misfortune, both to the State and to +the Church, if the clergy of a Church constituted like our own were to +abstain altogether from taking any part in politics. It could hardly +fail to be a loss to the State if a large and presumably intelligent +class stood entirely aloof from its affairs. And the clergy themselves +by so doing would be both forfeiting a right and neglecting a duty. As +citizens who have an equal stake with the laity in the interests of the +country, they clearly enjoy the right to have a voice in the conduct of +its affairs. And as Christians they have a positive duty incumbent upon +them to use the influence they possess in this, as in every other +relation of life, for the cause of Christianity. But with this right and +this duty there is also a danger lest those, whose chief concern ought +to be with higher objects, should become overmuch entangled with the +affairs of this life; and a danger also lest men whose training is, as a +rule, not adapted to make them good men of business, should throw their +influence into the wrong scale. In so far, but only in so far as the +clergy fell into one or the other of these snares, can the political +Churchmanship of the eighteenth century be classed among the Church +abuses of the period. The circumstances of the times increased these +dangers. During the reigns of the first two Georges political morality +was at so low an ebb that it was difficult for the clergy to take a +leading part in politics without injury to their spiritual character. +They could hardly touch the pitch without being defiled. It is to be +feared that politics at this period did more to debase the clergy than +the clergy did to elevate politics. Not but that they often incurred an +unpopularity for the part they took in political questions which was +wholly undeserved. Nothing, for example, brought more odium upon the +bishops than the share they had in throwing out the Quakers' Tithes Bill +in 1736. Yet apparently without just cause; for a high legal authority +of our own day, who certainly shows no prejudice in favour of the Church +and her ministers, characterises this measure as a well-meant but +impracticable Bill. Again, in 1753, many of the bishops were exposed to +unmerited abuse for supporting, as they were clearly right in doing, the +Jews' Naturalisation Bill. Again, in 1780, the bishops had the good +sense not to be led astray by the senseless 'No Popery' cry which led to +the Gordon riots; and by their moral courage on this occasion they drew +down upon themselves much undeserved censure. The good sense, however, +which characterised the political conduct of the clergy on these and +other occasions was, unfortunately, exceptional. As a rule, the +political influence of the clergy was not very wisely exercised. + +In his summary of the period which closed with the death of George II., +Horace Walpole writes:--'The Church was moderate and, when the Ministry +required it, yielding.' From the point of view of this writer, whose +sentiments on religious matters exactly corresponded with those of his +father, nothing could have been more satisfactory than this state of +things. To those who look upon the Church merely as a State +Establishment, 'moderate, and, when the Ministry require it, yielding,' +would represent its ideal condition. But to those who believe in it as a +Divine institution, the picture will convey a different impression. They +will see in it a worldly man's description of the spiritual lethargy +which had overtaken English Christendom. The expression will not be +deemed too strong when it is remembered what was, as a matter of fact, +the real state of affairs so far as the practical work of the Church was +concerned. Under the very different conditions amidst which we live, it +is difficult to realise what existed, or rather what did not exist, in +the last century. What would now be considered the most ordinary part of +parochial machinery was then wanting. The Sunday school, which was first +set on foot about the middle of this century,[679] was regarded with +suspicion by many of the clergy, and vehemently opposed by some. The +interest in foreign missions which had been awakened at the beginning of +the century was not sustained. The population of the country had far +outgrown the resources of the National Church, even if her ministers had +been as energetic as they were generally the reverse; and there were no +voluntary societies for home missions to supply the defects of the +parochial machinery. The good old plan of catechising not only children +but domestic servants and apprentices on Sunday afternoons had fallen +into disuse.[680] In the early part of the century plans had been set on +foot for the establishment of parochial libraries, but these had fallen +through. In short, beyond the personal influence which a clergyman might +exercise over his friends and dependants in his parish (which was often +very wholesome and also very extensive), his clerical work consisted +solely in reading the services and preaching on Sundays. When Boswell +talked of the assiduity of the Scottish clergy in visiting and privately +instructing their parishioners, and observed how much in this they +excelled the English clergy, Johnson, who would never hear one word +against that Church of which he was a worthy member and a distinguished +ornament, could only reply, 'There are different ways of instructing. +Our clergy pray and preach. The clergy of England have produced the +most valuable books in support of religion, both in theory and +practice.' The praise contained in this last sentence was thoroughly +deserved. The clergy, if inactive in other respects, were not inactive +with their pens; only of course the work done in this direction was done +by a very small minority. + +But they all preached. What was the character of their sermons? + +On this point, as on many others, the censure that has been passed upon +the Church of the eighteenth century has been far too sweeping and far +too severe. When one hears the sermons of the period stigmatised without +any qualification as 'miserable moral essays,' and 'as unspeakably and +indescribably bad,' one calls to mind almost indignantly the great +preachers of the time, whose sermons have been handed down to us and may +be referred to by anyone who chooses to do so. Surely this is not a +proper description of the sermons of such men as Sherlock, Smalridge, +Waterland, Seed, Ogden, Atterbury, Mudge, Hare, Bentley, and last but +not least, Butler himself, whose practical sermons might be preached +with advantage before a village congregation at this day. Too much +stress has been laid upon a somewhat random observation of Sir William +Blackstone, who 'had the curiosity, early in the reign of George III., +to go from church to church and hear every clergyman of note in London. +He says that he did not hear a single discourse which had more +Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero, and that it would have +been impossible for him to discover, from what he heard, whether the +preacher were a follower of Confucius, of Mahomet, or of Christ.' The +famous lawyer does not specify the churches which he visited. He may +have been unfortunate in his choice, or he may have been in a frame of +mind which was not conducive to an unbiassed judgment;[681] but we have +the best of all means of testing how far his sweeping censure may be +fairly taken as applicable to the general character of the sermons of +the day. The most celebrated of them are still in existence, and will +give their own contradiction to the charge. It is not true that the +preachers of this period entirely ignored the distinctive doctrines of +Christianity; it would be more correct to say that they took the +knowledge of them too much for granted--that they were as a rule too +controversial, and that they too often appealed to merely prudential +motives. Even Dr. Johnson, who set a very high value upon the sermons of +his Church, and declared on one occasion that 'sermons make a +considerable branch of English literature, so that a library must be +very imperfect if it has not a numerous collection of sermons,' yet +confessed that they did not effect the good they ought to do. A +sensitive dread of anything like enthusiasm was a marked characteristic +of the eighteenth century: this dread did not originate with the clergy, +but it was taken up by them and reflected in their sermons. This, of +course, was at first greatly intensified by the excitement raised by the +Methodist movement, although it was afterwards dispelled by the same +cause. The orthodox preacher of the Hanoverian period felt bound to +protest against the superstitions of Rome on the one hand and the +fanaticism of sectaries on the other; in contrast with both of whom the +moderation of 'our happy Establishment' was extolled to the skies. To +such a morbid extent was his dread of extremes carried, so carefully had +he to guard himself against being supposed to diverge one hair's breadth +from the middle course taken up by the Church of England, that in his +fear of being over-zealous he became over-tame and colourless. Tillotson +was his model, and, like most imitators, he exaggerated the defects of +his master. So far as it is possible to group under one head so vast and +varied an amount of composition, produced by men of the most diverse +casts of mind, and extending over so long a period as a hundred years, +one may perhaps fairly characterise the typical eighteenth century +sermon as too stiff and formal, too cold and artificial, appealing more +to the reason than to the feelings, and so more calculated to convince +the understanding than to affect the heart. 'We have no sermons,' said +Dr. Johnson, 'addressed to the passions that are good for anything.' + +These defects were brought out into stronger relief by their contrast to +the very different style of preaching adopted by the revived Evangelical +school. And the success of this latter school called the attention of +some of the most thoughtful divines to the deficiencies of the ordinary +style of preaching, which they fully admitted and unsparingly but +judiciously exposed. Thus Archbishop Secker, in his Charge to the +Diocese of Canterbury in 1758, in speaking of the 'new sect pretending +to the strictest piety,' wisely urges his clergy 'to emulate what is +good in them, avoiding what is bad, to edify their parishioners with +awakening but rational and Scriptural discourses, to teach the +principles not only of virtue and natural religion, but of the Gospel, +not as almost refined away by the modern refiner, but the truth as it is +in Jesus and as it is taught by the Church.' Still stronger are the +censures passed in later years upon the lack in the sermons of the day +of evangelical doctrines, by men who were very far from identifying +themselves with the Evangelical school. Thus Paley, in his seventh +charge,[682] comments upon this point. And Bishop Horsley, in his first +Charge to the Diocese of St. David's in 1709, stigmatises the +unchristian method of preaching in that dignified but incisive language +of which he was a consummate master. + +If, on the one hand, a somewhat heartless and vague method of dealing +with the great distinctive doctrines of Christianity, and especially the +practical application of them, may fairly be reckoned among Church +abuses, there was, on the other hand, an abuse of sermons which arose +from an excess of zeal. There were occasions on which the preacher could +make strong enough appeals to the passions; but, unfortunately, the +subjects were not those which fall primarily within the province of the +pulpit. But here again, as on so many other points, the abuse arose +rather from the circumstances of the time than from the faults of the +men. The proper province of the preacher was not clearly defined. The +eighteenth century was a transition period in regard to the relation +between politics and the pulpit. The lately emancipated press was +beginning to make itself felt as a great power in the country; +periodical literature was by degrees taking the place which in earlier +times had been less fitly occupied by the pulpit for the ventilation of +political questions. The bad old custom of 'tuning the pulpits' had died +out; but political preaching could not be quickly or easily put a stop +to. + +In ranking political sermons among the Church abuses of the eighteenth +century, it is by no means intended to imply that the preacher ought +under all circumstances to abstain from touching upon politics. There +are occasions when it is his bounden duty as a Christian champion to +advocate Christian measures and to protest against unchristian ones; the +danger is lest he should forget the Christian advocate in the political +partisan; and it is only in so far as the political preachers of the +eighteenth century fell into this snare (as at times they unquestionably +did) that their sermons can be classed among the Church abuses of the +period. + +In treating of Church abuses, a question naturally arises which deserves +and requires serious consideration. How far were these abuses +responsible for the low state of morals and religion into which the +nation sank during the reigns of the first two Georges? That lax +morality and religious indifference prevailed more or less among all +classes of society during this period, we learn from the concurrent +testimony of writers of every kind and creed. Turn where one will, the +same melancholy picture is presented to us. If we ask what was the state +of the Universities, which ought to be the centres of light diffusing +itself throughout the whole nation, the training-grounds of those who +are to be the trainers of their fellow men, we have the evidence of such +different kinds of men as Swift, Defoe, Gray, Gibbon, Johnson, John +Wesley, Lord Eldon, and Lord Chesterfield all agreeing on this point, +that both the great Universities were neglectful and inefficient in the +performance of their proper work. If we ask what was the state of the +highest classes, we find that there were sovereigns on the throne whose +immorality rivalled that of the worst of the Stuarts without any of +their redeeming qualities, without any of the grace and elegance and +taste for literature and the fine arts which to a certain extent +palliated the vices of that unfortunate race; we find political morality +at its lowest ebb; we find courtiers and statesmen living in open +defiance of the laws of morality; we find luxury without taste, and +profligacy without refinement predominant among the highest circles. If +we ask what was the state of the lower classes, we find such notices as +these in a contemporary historian: '1729-30. Luxury created necessities, +and these drove the lower ranks into the most abandoned wickedness. It +was unsafe to travel or walk in the streets.' '1731. Profligacy among +the people continued to an amazing degree.'[683] These extracts, taken +almost at haphazard from the pages of a contemporary, are confirmed by +abundance of testimony from all quarters. The middle classes were +confessedly better than those either above or below them.[684] +Nevertheless, there are not wanting indications that the standard of +morality was not high among them. For example, it is the middle class +rather than those above or below them who set the fashion of popular +amusements. What, then, was the character of the amusements of the +period? The stage, if it was a little improved since the wild days of +the Restoration, was yet so bad that even a lax moralist like Lord +Hervey was obliged to own in 1737, 'The present great licentiousness of +the stage did call for some restraint and regulation.'[685] Such brutal +pastimes as cock-fighting and bull-baiting were everywhere popular. +Drunkenness was then, as now, a national vice, but it was less +disreputable among the middle classes than it happily is at +present.[686] What was the state of literature? Notwithstanding the +improvement which such writers as Addison and Steele had effected, it +was still very impure. Let us take the evidence of the kindly and +well-informed Sir Walter Scott. 'We should do great injustice to the +present day by comparing our manners with those of the reign of George +I. The writings even of the most esteemed poets of that period contain +passages which now would be accounted to deserve the pillory. Nor was +the tone of conversation more pure than that of composition; for the +taint of Charles II.'s reign continued to infect society until the +present reign [George III.], when, if not more moral, we are at least +more decent.'[687] What was the state of the law? The criminal law was +simply barbarous. Any theft of more than 40_s._ was punishable by death. +Objects of horror, such as the heads of the rebel chiefs fixed on Temple +Bar in 1746, were exposed in the vain hope that they might act as a +'terriculum.'[688] Prisons teemed with cruel abuses. The Roman Catholics +were still suffering most unjustly, and if the laws had been rigorously +enforced they would have suffered more cruelly still. A more tolerant +spirit was happily gaining ground in the hearts of the nation, but so +far as the laws were concerned there were few if any traces of it. The +Act of 1779, for the relief of Dissenters, is affirmed to be 'the first +statute in the direction of enlarged toleration which had been passed +for ninety years.'[689] It was about the middle of the century when +irreligion and immorality reached their climax. In 1753, Sir J. Barnard +said publicly, 'At present it really seems to be the fashion for a man +to declare himself of no religion.'[690] In the same year Secker +declared that immorality and irreligion were grown almost beyond +ecclesiastical power. + +The question, then, arises, 'How far were the clergy responsible for +this sad state of affairs?' As a body they were distinctly superior to +their contemporaries. It is a remarkable fact that when the clergy were, +as a rule, very unpopular, during the reign of the Georges I. and +II.,[691] and when, therefore, any evil reports against them would be +eagerly caught up and circulated, we find singularly few charges of +gross immorality brought against them. Excessive love of preferment, and +culpable inactivity in performing the duties of their office, are the +worst accusations that are brought against them as a body. Even men like +Lord Hervey, and Horace Walpole and Lord Chesterfield rarely bring, and +still more rarely substantiate, any charges against them on this head. +Speaking of the shortcomings of the clergy in the early part of the +century, Bishop Burnet, who does not spare his order, carefully guards +against the supposition that he accuses them of leading immoral lives. +'When,' he writes, 'I say live better, I mean not only to live without +scandal, which I have found the greatest part of them to do, but to lead +exemplary lives.'[692] Some years later, Bentley could boldly assert of +'the whole clergy of England' that they were 'the light and glory of +Christianity,'[693] an assertion which he would scarcely have dared to +make had they been sunk into such a slough of iniquity as they are +sometimes represented to have been. Writing to Courayer in 1726, +Archbishop Wake laments the infidelity and iniquity which abounded, but +is of opinion that 'no care is wanting in our clergy to defend the +Christian faith.'[694] John Wesley, while decrying the notion that the +unworthiness of the minister vitiates the worth of his ministry, admits +that 'in the present century the behaviour of the clergy in general is +greatly altered for the better,' although he thinks them deficient both +in piety and knowledge. Or if clerical testimony be suspected of +partiality, we have abundance of lay evidence all tending to the same +conclusion. Smollett, a contemporary, declares that in the reign of +George II. 'the clergy were generally pious and exemplary.'[695] When a +Presbyterian clergyman talked before Dr. Johnson of fat bishops and +drowsy deans, he replied, 'Sir, you know no more of our Church than a +Hottentot.'[696] One of the most impartial historians of our own day and +country, in dwelling upon the immoralities of the age and upon the +clerical shortcomings, adds that 'the lives of the clergy were, as a +rule, pure.'[697] + +It is necessary to bring into prominence such testimony as this because +there has been a tendency to insinuate what has never been proved--that +the clergy were, as a body, living immoral lives. At the same time it is +not desired to palliate their real defects. It is admitted that a more +active and earnest performance of their proper duties might have done +much more than was done by the clergy to stem the torrent of iniquity. + +Yet after all it is doubtful whether the clergy, even if they had been +far more energetic and spiritually-minded than they were, could have +effected such a reformation as was needed.[698] For there was a long +train of causes at work dating back for more than a century, which +tended not only to demoralise the nation, but also to cut it off from +many influences for good which under happier circumstances the Church +might have exercised. The turbulent and unsettled condition of both +Church and State in the seventeenth century was bearing its fruit in the +eighteenth. As in the life of an individual, so also in the life of a +nation, there are certain crises which are terribly perilous to the +character. In the eighteenth century England as a nation was going +through such a crisis. She was passing from the old order to the new. +The early part of the century was a period of many controversies--the +Deistic controversy, the Nonjuring controversy, the Bangorian +controversy, the Trinitarian controversy, the various ethical +controversies, and all these following close upon the Puritan +controversy and the Papal controversy, both of which had shaken the +Constitution to its very foundation. How was it possible that a country +could pass through such stormy scenes without having its faith +unsettled, and the basis of its morals weakened? How could some help +asking, What is truth? where is it to be found among all these +conflicting elements? The Revolution itself was in its immediate effects +attended with evil. England submitted to be governed by foreigners, but +she had to sacrifice much and stoop low before she could submit to the +necessity. All the romantic halo which had hung about royalty was rudely +swept away. Queen Anne was the last sovereign of these realms round whom +still lingered something of the 'divinity that doth hedge a king.' +Under the Georges loyalty assumed a different form from that which it +had taken before. The sentiment which had attached their subjects to the +Tudors and the Stuarts was exchanged for a colder and less enthusiastic +feeling; mere policy took the place of chivalry. + +Nor was it only in her outward affairs that the nation was passing +through a great and fundamental change. In her inner and spiritual life +she was also in a period of transition. The problem which was started in +the early part of the sixteenth century had never yet been fairly worked +out. The nation had been for more than a century and a half so busy in +dealing with the pressing questions of the hour that it had never yet +had time to face the far deeper questions which lay behind +these--questions which concerned not the different modes of +Christianity, but the very essence of Christianity itself. The matters +which had so violently agitated the country in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries were now virtually settled. The Church was now at +last 'established.' But other questions arose. It was not now asked, 'Is +this or that mode of Church government most Scriptural?' 'Is this or +that form of worship most in accordance with the mind of Christ?' but, +'What _is_ this Scripture to which all appeal?' 'Who _is_ this Christ +whom all own as Master?' This is really what is meant, so far as +religion is concerned, when it is said that the eighteenth century was +the age of reason--alike in the good and in the bad sense of that term. +The defenders of Christianity, no less than its assailants, had to +prove, above all things, the reasonableness of their position. The +discussion was inevitable, and in the end productive of good, but while +it was going on it could not fail to be to many minds harmful. Reason +and faith, though not really antagonistic, are often in seeming +antagonism. Many might well ask, Can we no longer rest upon a simple, +childlike faith, founded on authority? What is there, human or Divine, +that is left to reverence? The heart of England was still sound at the +core, and she passed through the crisis triumphantly; but the transition +period was a dangerous and a demoralising one, and there is no wonder +that she sank for a time under the wave that was passing over her. + +It has been already said that the morbid dread of anything which +savoured either of Romanism or Puritanism tended to reduce the Church to +a dead level of uniform dulness. The same dread affected the nation at +large as well as the Church. It practically cut off the laity from +influences which might have elevated them. Anything like the worship of +God in the beauty of holiness, all that is conveyed in the term +symbolism, the due observance of fast and festival--in fact, all those +things which to a certain class of minds are almost essential to raise +devotion--were too much associated in men's minds with that dreaded +enemy from whom the nation had but narrowly escaped in the preceding age +to be able to be turned to any good effect in the eighteenth century. + +On the other hand, stirring appeals to the feelings, analyses of +spiritual frames--everything, in short, which was termed in the jargon +of the seventeenth century 'savoury preaching' and 'a painful ministry,' +was too much associated in men's minds with the hated reign of the +Saints to be employed with any good effect. + +And thus, both on the objective and on the subjective side, the people +were practically debarred from influences which might have made their +religion a more lovely or a more hearty thing. + +Again, if the clergy showed, as they confessedly did, an inertness, an +obstructiveness, a want of expansiveness, and a dogged resistance to any +adaptation of old forms to new ideas, they were in these respects +thoroughly in accord with the feelings of the mass of the nation. The +clergy were not popular, but it was not their want of zeal and +enterprise which made them unpopular; if in exceptional cases they did +show any tendency in these directions, this only made them more +unpopular than ever. Had it been otherwise we might naturally have +expected to find the zeal which was lacking in the National Church +showing itself in other Christian bodies. But we find nothing of the +sort. The torpor which had overtaken our Church extended itself to all +forms of Christianity. Edmund Calamy, a Nonconformist, lamented in 1730 +that 'a real decay of serious religion, both in the Church _and out of +it_, was very visible.' Dr. Watts declares that in his day 'there was a +_general_ decay of vital religion in the hearts and lives of men.'[699] +A modern writer who makes no secret of his partiality for Nonconformists +owns that 'religion, whether in the Established Church or out of it, +never made less progress than after the cessation of the Bangorian and +Salter's Hall disputes. Breadth of thought and charity of sentiment +increased, but religious activity did not.'[700] In 1712 Defoe +considered 'Dissenters' interests to be in a declining state, not so +much as regarded their wealth and numbers as the qualifications of their +ministers, the decay of piety, and the abandonment of their political +friends.' Such is the testimony of Nonconformists themselves, who will +not be suspected of taking too dark a view of the condition of +Nonconformity. There is no need to add to this the evidence of +Churchmen. It is a fact patent to all students of the period that the +moral and religious stagnation of the times extended to all religious +bodies outside as well as inside the National Church. The most +intellectually active part of Dissent was drifting gradually into +Socinianism and Unitarianism. + +There is yet one more circumstance to be taken into account in +estimating the extent to which the clergy were responsible for the +irreligion and immorality which prevailed. A change of manners was fast +rendering ineffectual a weapon which they had formerly used for waging +war against sin. Ecclesiastical censures were becoming little better +than a mere _brutum fulmen_. Complaints of the difficulty, not to say +impossibility, of enforcing Church discipline are of constant +occurrence. In 1704 Archbishop Sharp, while urging his clergy to present +'any that are resolved to continue heathens and absolutely refuse to +come to church,' and, while admitting that the abuses of the commutation +for penance were 'a cause of complaints against the spiritual courts and +of the invidious reflections cast upon them,' adds that 'he was very +sensible both of the decay of discipline in general and of the curbs put +upon any effectual prosecution of it by the temporal courts, and of the +difficulty of keeping up what little was left entire to the +ecclesiastics without creating offence and administering matter for +aspersion and evil surmises.'[701] The same excellent prelate, when, a +writ _de excommunicato capiendo_ was evaded by writs of _supersedeas_ +from Chancery, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him 'to +represent the case to the Lord Chancellor, that he might give such +directions that his courts might go on to enforce ecclesiastical +censures with civil penalties, without fear of being baffled in their +proceedings.'[702] In the later meetings of Convocation this subject of +the enforcement of Church discipline was constantly suggested for +discussion; but, as questions which were, or were supposed to be, of +more immediate interest claimed precedence, no practical result +ensued.[703] The matter, however, was not suffered to fall altogether +into abeyance. In 1741 Bishop Secker gives the same advice to the clergy +of the diocese of Oxford as Archbishop Sharp had given nearly forty +years before to those of the diocese of York, but he seems still more +doubtful as to whether it could be effectually carried out. 'Persons,' +he writes, 'who profess not to be of our Church, if persuasions will +not avail, must be let alone. But other absentees must, after due +patience, be told that, unwilling as you are, it will be your duty to +present them, unless they reform; and if, when this warning hath been +repeated and full time allowed for it to work, they still persist in +their obstinacy, I beg you to do it. For this will tend much to prevent +the contagion from spreading, of which there is else great danger.' In +1753 he repeats his injunctions, but in a still more desponding tone. +'Offences,' he says, 'against religion and morals churchwardens are +bound by oath to present; and incumbents or curates are empowered and +charged by the 113th and following canons to join with them in +presenting, if need be, or to present alone if they refuse. This implies +what the 26th canon expresses, that the minister is to urge +churchwardens to perform that part of their office. Try first by public +and private rebukes to amend them; but if these are ineffectual, get +them corrected by authority. I am perfectly sensible that immorality and +irreligion are grown almost beyond the reach of ecclesiastical power, +which, having in former times been very unwarrantably extended, hath +since been very unjustly and imprudently cramped and weakened many +ways.' After having given directions about excommunications and penance, +he urges them, as a last resort, 'to remind the people that, however the +censures of the Church may be relaxed or evaded, yet God's judgment +cannot.' Yet even so late as 1766 he explains to candidates for orders +the text addressed to them at their ordination, 'Whose sins thou dost +retain, they are retained,' as conferring 'a right of inflicting +ecclesiastical censures for a shorter or longer time, and of taking them +off, which is, in regard to external communion, retaining or forgiving +offences.' 'Our acts,' he adds, 'as those of temporal judges, are to be +respected as done by competent authority. Nor will other proofs of +repentance be sufficient if submission to the discipline of the Church +of Christ, when it hath been offended and requires due satisfaction, be +obstinately refused.'[704] This is not the place to discuss the +possibility or the advisability under altered circumstances of enforcing +ecclesiastical discipline, but in common fairness to the clergy, who +were accused of doing little or nothing to oppose the general depravity, +it should be borne in mind that they were practically debarred from +using a formidable weapon which in earlier times had been wielded with +great effect.[705] + +Nor should we forget that if the clergy were inactive and unsuccessful +in one direction, many of them at least were singularly active and +successful in another. There was within the pale of the Church at the +period of which we are speaking a degree of intellect and learning which +has rarely been surpassed in its palmiest days. When among the higher +clergy were found such men as Butler, and Hare, and Sherlock, and +Warburton, and South, and Conybeare, and Waterland, and Bentley, men who +were more than a match for the assailants of Christianity, formidable as +these antagonists undoubtedly were--when within her fold were found men +of such distinguished piety as Law and Wilson, Berkeley and Benson, the +state of the Church could not be wholly corrupt. + +And, finally, it should be remembered that if England was morally and +spiritually in low estate at this period, she was, at any rate, in a +better plight than her neighbours. If there were Church abuses in +England, there were still worse in France. If there was too wide an +interval here between the higher and the lower clergy, the inequality +was not so great as there, where, 'while the prelates of the Church +lived with a pomp and state falling little short of the magnificence of +royalty, not a few of the poorer clergy had scarcely the wherewithal to +live at all,' where 'the superior clergy regarded the cures as hired +servitors, whom in order to dominate it was prudent to keep in poverty +and ignorance.' If the distribution of patronage on false principles and +the inordinate love of preferment were abuses in England, matters were +worse in France, where 'there was an open traffic in benefices; the +Episcopate was nothing but a secular dignity; it was necessary to be +count or marquis in order to become a successor of the apostles, unless +some extraordinary event snatched some little bishopric for a parvenu +from the hands of the minister;' and where 'the bishops squandered the +revenues of their provinces at the court.'[706] If the lower classes +were neglected here, they were not, as in France, dying from misery and +hunger at the rate of a million a year. Neither, sordid as the age was +in England, was it so sordid as in Germany, where a coarse eudaemonism +and a miscalled illuminism were sapping the foundations of Christianity. + +Moreover, England, unlike her next-door neighbour, improved as the years +rolled on. A gradual but distinct alteration for the better may be +traced in the later part of the century. Many causes contributed to +effect this. After the accession of George III. a growing sense of +security began to pervade the country. An unsettled state is always +prejudicial to national morals, and there were henceforward no serious +thoughts of deranging the established order of things. Influences, too, +were at work which tended to raise the tone of morality and religion in +all orders of society. The upper classes had a good example set them by +the blameless lives of the King and the Queen. In the present day, when +it is the fashion to ridicule the foibles and to condemn the troublesome +interference in State affairs of the well-meaning but often ill judging +King, it is the more necessary to bear in mind the debt of gratitude +which the nation owed him for the good effects which his personal +character unquestionably produced--effects which, though they told more +directly and immediately upon the upper classes, yet permeated more or +less through all the strata of society. Among the middle classes, too, +there arose a set of men whose influence for good it would be difficult +to exaggerate. Foremost among them stands the great and good Dr. +Johnson. 'Dr. Johnson,' writes Lord Mahon, 'stemmed the tide of +infidelity.' And the greatest of modern satirists does not state the +case too strongly when he declares that 'Johnson had the ear of the +nation. His immense authority reconciled it to loyalty and shamed it out +of irreligion. He was revered as a sort of oracle, and the oracle +declared for Church and King. He was a fierce foe to all sin, but a +gentle enemy to all sinners.'[707] Sir J. Reynolds, and E. Burke, and +Hogarth, and Pitt, each in his way, helped on the good work. The rising +Evangelical school--the Newtons, the Venns, the Cecils, the Romaines, +among the clergy, and the Wilberforces, the Thorntons, the Mores, the +Cowpers, among the laity--all affected beneficially to an immense extent +the upper and middle classes, while among the lower classes the +Methodist movement was effecting incalculable good. These latter +influences, however, were far too important an element in the national +amelioration to be dealt with at the end of a chapter. Suffice it here +to add that, glaring as were the abuses of the Church of the eighteenth +century, they could not and did not destroy her undying vitality. Even +when she reached her nadir there was sufficient salt left to preserve +the mass from becoming utterly corrupt. The fire had burnt low, but +there was yet enough light and heat left to be fanned into a flame which +was in due time to illumine the nation and the nation's Church. + +J.H.O. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 648: In 1705, 1706, 1710, 1711, 1714, 1715, &c. &c., there +were High Church mobs.] + +[Footnote 649: Coxe's _Memoirs of Sir S. Walpole_, vol. i. pp. 24, 25.] + +[Footnote 650: A glaring instance of the blighting effects of the +Walpole Ministry upon the Church is to be found in the treatment of +Berkeley's attempt to found a university at Bermuda. See a full account +of the whole transaction in Wilberforce's _History of the American +Church_, ch. iv. pp. 151-160. Mr. Anderson calls it a 'national crime.' +See _History of the Colonial Church_, vol. iii. ch. xxix. p. 437, &c. +The Duke of Newcastle pursued the same policy. In spite of the efforts +of the most influential Churchmen, such as Gibson, Sherlock, and Secker, +who all concurred in recognising the need of clergymen, of churches, of +schools, in our plantations, 'the mass of inert resistance presented in +the office of the Secretary of State, responsible for the colonies, was +too great to be overcome.'--Ibid. p. 443.] + +[Footnote 651: Bishop Fitzgerald (_Aids to Faith_, Essay ii. Sec. 7) +stigmatises the impotency and turbulence of Convocation, but entirely +ignores the practical agenda referred to above. See Cardwell's +_Synodalia_, on the period.] + +[Footnote 652: See the introduction to Palin's _History of the Church of +England from the Revolution to the Last Acts of Convocation_.] + +[Footnote 653: See Cardwell's _Synodalia_, xlii.] + +[Footnote 654: Hodgson's 'Life of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London,' in +vol. i. of Porteus's _Works_, p. 45. Another thoroughly good man, Bishop +Gibson, was, before he was mitred, Precentor and Residentiary of +Chichester, Rector of Lambeth, and Archdeacon of Surrey. See Coxe's +_Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole_, i. 478.] + +[Footnote 655: _Anecdotes of the Life of R. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff_, +published by his Son, vol. i. p. 307.] + +[Footnote 656: Id. ii. 349.] + +[Footnote 657: Paley's 'Charges,' vol. vii of his _Works_, in 7 vols.] + +[Footnote 658: 'Charge of the Bishop of Rochester,' 1796, Bishop +Horsley's _Charges_.] + +[Footnote 659: Bishop of Oxford's Second Charge, 1741, Secker's +_Charges_.] + +[Footnote 660: Remarks on a _Discourse of Freethinking, by +Phileleutherus Lipsiensis_, xl. (edition of 1743).] + +[Footnote 661: _Anecdotes of the Life of R. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff_, +i. 159.] + +[Footnote 662: Quoted in Kilvert's _Life of Bishop Hurd_, p. 97. Dean +Swift, in his _Project for the Advancement of Religion_, speaks of +curates in the most contemptuous terms. 'In London, a clergyman, _with +one or two sorry curates_, has sometimes the care of above 20,000 souls +incumbent on him.'] + +[Footnote 663: How nobly and successfully a domestic chaplain in a great +family might do his duty in the eighteenth century; the conduct of +Thomas Wilson, when he was domestic chaplain to the Earl of Derby, and +tutor to his son, is an instance.] + +[Footnote 664: Bishop of Oxford's _Charge_, 1738.] + +[Footnote 665: Secker's _Instructions given to Candidates for Orders_.] + +[Footnote 666: Mr. Pattison's Essay in _Essays and Reviews_.] + +[Footnote 667: _Lives of the Chancellors_, by Lord Campbell, vol. v. +chap. xxxviii. p. 186.] + +[Footnote 668: _Anecdotes of the Life of R. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff_, +published by his Son, vol. i. p. 157.] + +[Footnote 669: _Letters from Warburton to Hurd_, second ed. 1809, Letter +xlvi. July 1752.] + +[Footnote 670: Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, in ten vols., 1835, Murray, +vol. v. p. 298. See also vol. iv. p. 92. 'Few bishops are now made for +their learning. To be a bishop a man must be learned in a learned age, +factious in a factious age, but always of eminence,' &c.] + +[Footnote 671: See Bishop Newton's _Autobiography_, and Lord Mahon's +_History_.] + +[Footnote 672: _Memoirs of William Whiston_, by himself, p. 275. See +also pp. 119 and 155, 156.] + +[Footnote 673: 'A fact,' he adds, 'so apparent to Government, both civil +and ecclesiastical, that, they have found it necessary to provide +rewards and honours for such advances in learning and piety as may best +enable the clergy to serve the interests of the Church of Christ,' a +remark which we might have thought ironical did we not know the temper +of the times.--See Watson's _Life of Warburton_, 488.] + +[Footnote 674: _Anecdotes of the Life of Bishop Watson_, i. 116. He +quotes also a remark of D'Alembert: 'The highest offices in Church and +State resemble a pyramid, whose top is accessible to only two sorts of +animals, eagles and reptiles.'] + +[Footnote 675: _Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. v. chap. clxi. p. 656. +Lord Chesterfield makes some bitter remarks on the higher clergy 'with +the most indefatigable industry and insatiable greediness, darkening in +clouds the levees of kings and ministers,' &c., quoted in Phillimore's +_History of England_, during the reign of George III. Phillimore himself +makes some very severe strictures on the sycophancy and greed of the +higher clergy.--See his _History, passim_.] + +[Footnote 676: The Life gives us the impression that he was a firm +believer, that he strove to live a Christian life, that he was very +amiable, and that he was quite free from the paltry vice of jealousy at +another's good fortune.] + +[Footnote 677: _Memoirs of Bishop Newton_, by himself.] + +[Footnote 678: Bishop Watson was a decidedly able writer, and he never +allowed himself to be the tool of any party. He says of himself with +perfect, truth, 'I have hitherto followed and shall continue to follow +my own judgment in all public transactions.'] + +[Footnote 679: Raikes established the first of his Sunday schools in +1781, but it is certain that one was established before this by Hannah +Ball at High Wycombe in 1769, and it is probable that there were also +others. Mr. Buckle says they were established by Lindsay in or +immediately after 1765. (_History of Civilisation_, i. 302, note.) +However, to Raikes belongs the credit of bringing the institution +prominently before the public. It may be noticed that Raikes was a +decided Churchman. His son contradicts almost indignantly the notion +which became prevalent that he was a Dissenter. One of the rules of +Raikes's Gloucester Sunday school was that the scholars should attend +the cathedral service. There was a strong prejudice against Sunday +schools among some of the clergy, but it was combated by others. Paley, +in one of his charges, tried to disabuse his clergy of this prejudice, +and so did several other dignitaries. But Bishop Horsley, in his charge +at Rochester, made some severe remarks against Sunday schools. See _Life +of R. Hill_, p. 428. The evangelical clergy, of course, warmly took up +the Sunday school scheme. In this, as in many other cases, the Church +was responsible for the remedy as well as the abuse.] + +[Footnote 680: Bishop Wilson made vigorous and successful efforts in the +Isle of Man to revive the system of catechising in church; and strongly +urged every 'rector, vicar, and curate to spend, if but one hour in +every week, in visiting his petty school, and see how the children are +taught to read, to say their catechism and their prayers,' &c.] + +[Footnote 681: Blackstone, though endowed with many excellent qualities, +is said to have had a somewhat irritable temper, which, as he advanced +in years, was rendered worse by a nervous affection. Bentham says 'that +he seems to have had something about him which rendered breaches with +him not difficult.' Lawyers are so accustomed to criticise arguments +that they are apt to be somewhat severe judges of sermons. How many +clergymen of the present day would like to have their sermons judged by +the standard of a great lawyer of a somewhat irritable temperament?] + +[Footnote 682: See vol. vii. 'Charge VII.' in Paley's _Works_ in seven +vols.] + +[Footnote 683: Similar complaints are uttered regarding 1737-8-9. H. +Walpole writes of 1751: 'The vices of the lower people were increased to +a degree of robbery and murder beyond example.'--_Memoirs of the Reign +of King George II._, vol. i. chap. ii. p. 44.] + +[Footnote 684: _E.g._ Archbishop Wake, in his letter to Courayer in +1726, writes: 'Iniquity in practice, God knows, abounds, chiefly in the +two extremes, the highest and the lowest. The middle sort are serious +and religious.' See also _Robinson Crusoe_, chap. i.] + +[Footnote 685: Lord Hervey's _Memoirs_, ii. 341, in reference to the +Bill to put all players under the direction of the Lord Chamberlain.] + +[Footnote 686: See, _inter alia_, the description of a small squire of +the reign of George II. in Grose's _Olio_, 1792.] + +[Footnote 687: Quoted in Andrews, 18th century.] + +[Footnote 688: See chap. lxx. of Lord Mahon's _History_.] + +[Footnote 689: Skeats's _History of the Free Churches of England_ p. +465.] + +[Footnote 690: _Parliamentary History_, vol. xiv. p. 1389.] + +[Footnote 691: In Bishop Fleetwood's _Charge at Ely_, August 7, 1710, no +less than three folio pages are filled with accounts of the abuse of the +clergy, and the way in which the clergy should meet it. Secker's, +Butler's, and Horsley's Charges all touch on the same subject.] + +[Footnote 692: See the conclusion of Burnet's _History of his Own +Times_.] + +[Footnote 693: Remarks on Collins's _Discourse on Freethinking_, by +Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, xxiii.] + +[Footnote 694: Quoted in Mrs. Thomson's _Memoirs of Lady Sundon and the +Court and Times of George II._] + +[Footnote 695: Smollett's _Continuation of Hume_, v. 375.] + +[Footnote 696: Boswell's _Life_.] + +[Footnote 697: Lord Mahon, chap. lxx.] + +[Footnote 698: Bishop Butler, in his _Charge to the Clergy of Durham_ in +1751, complains very justly, 'It is cruel usage we often meet with, in +being censured for not doing what we cannot do, without, what we cannot +have, the concurrence of our censurers. Doubtless very much reproach +which now lights upon the clergy would be bound to fall elsewhere if due +allowance were made for things of this kind.'] + +[Footnote 699: Calamy's _Life and Times_, vol. ii. p. 531.] + +[Footnote 700: Skeats's _History of the Free Churches_, pp. 248, 313. +'The strictness of Puritanism, without its strength or piety, was +beginning to reign among Dissenters.'] + +[Footnote 701: _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, by his Son, edited by T. +Newcome, p. 214.] + +[Footnote 702: Id. p. 217.] + +[Footnote 703: See _The History of the Present Parliament and +Convocation_, 1711; and Cardwell's _Synodalia_, vol. ii. for the years +1710, 1712, 1713, 1715.] + +[Footnote 704: See Secker's _Charges, passim_.] + +[Footnote 705: The circumstances in the Isle of Man were of course +exceptional. For specimens of the rigour with which good Bishop Wilson +maintained ecclesiastical discipline there see Stowell's _Life of +Wilson_, pp. 198, 199, &c.] + +[Footnote 706: _Le Clerge de Quatre-vingt-neuf_, par J. Wallon, quoted +in the _Church Quarterly Review_ for October 1877, art. v., 'France in +the Eighteenth Century.'] + +[Footnote 707: W.M. Thackeray, _English Humorists of the Eighteenth +Century_.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL. + +(1) THE METHODIST MOVEMENT. + + +The middle part of the eighteenth century presents a somewhat curious +spectacle to the student of Church history. From one point of view the +Church of England seemed to be signally successful; from another, +signally unsuccessful. Intellectually her work was a great triumph, +morally and spiritually it was a great failure. She passed not only +unscathed, but with greatly increased strength, through a serious +crisis. She crushed most effectually an attack which, if not really very +formidable or very systematic, was at any rate very noisy and very +violent; and her success was at least as much due to the strength of her +friends as to the weakness of her foes. So completely did she beat her +assailants out of the field that for some time they were obliged to make +their assaults under a masked battery in order to obtain a popular +hearing at all. It should never be forgotten that the period in which +the Church sank to her nadir in one sense was also the period in which +she almost reached her zenith in another sense. The intellectual giants +who flourished in the reigns of the first two Georges cleared the way +for that revival which is the subject of these pages. It was in +consequence of the successful results of their efforts that the ground +was opened to the heart-stirring preachers and disinterested workers who +gave practical effect to the truths which had been so ably vindicated. +It was unfortunate that there should ever have been any antagonism +between men who were really workers in the same great cause. Neither +could have done the other's part of the work. Warburton could have no +more moved the hearts of living masses to their inmost depths, as +Whitefield did, than Whitefield could have written the 'Divine +Legation.' Butler could no more have carried on the great crusade +against sin and Satan which Wesley did, than Wesley could have written +the 'Analogy.' But without such work as Wesley and Whitefield did, +Butler's and Warburton's would have been comparatively inefficacious; +and without such work as Butler and Warburton did, Wesley's and +Whitefield's work would have been, humanly speaking, impossible. + +The truths of Christianity required not only to be defended, but to be +applied to the heart and life; and this was the special work of what has +been called, for want of a better term, 'the Evangelical school.' The +term is not altogether a satisfactory one, because it seems to imply +that this school alone held the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. +But this was by no means the case. All the great features of that system +which is summed up in the term 'the Gospel' may be plainly recognised in +the writings of those theologians who belonged to a different and in +some respects a violently antagonistic school of thought. The fall of +man, his redemption by Christ, his sanctification by the Holy Spirit, +his absolute need of God's grace both preventing and following +him--these are doctrines which an unprejudiced reader will find as +clearly enunciated in the writings of Waterland, and Butler, and +Warburton as by those who are called _par excellence_ Evangelical +writers. And yet it is perfectly true that there is a sense in which the +latter may fairly claim the epithet 'Evangelical' as peculiarly their +own; for they made what had sunk too generally into a mere barren theory +a living and fruitful reality. The truths which they brought into +prominence were not new truths, nor truths which were actually denied, +but they were truths which acquired under the vigorous preaching of the +revivalists a freshness and a vitality, and an influence over men's +practice, which they had to a great extent ceased to exercise. In this +sense the revival of which we are to treat may with perfect propriety be +termed the _Evangelical_ Revival. The epithet is more suitable than +either 'Methodist' or 'Puritan,' both of which are misleading. The term +'Methodist' does not, of course, in itself imply anything discreditable +or contemptuous; but it was given as a name of contempt, and was +accepted as such by those to whom it was first applied. Moreover, not +only the term, but also the system with which it has become identified +was repudiated by many--perhaps by the majority--of those who would be +included under the title of 'Evangelical.' It was not because they +feared the ridicule and contempt attaching to the term 'Methodist' that +so many disowned its application to themselves, but because they really +disapproved of many things which were supposed to be connoted by the +term. Their adversaries would persist in confounding them with those who +gloried in the title of 'Methodists,' but the line of demarcation is +really very distinct. + +Still more misleading is the term 'Puritan.' The 'Evangelicalism' of the +eighteenth century was by no means simply a revival of the system +properly called Puritanism as it existed in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. There were, of course, certain leading features +which were common to the two schemes. We can recognise a sort of family +likeness in the strictness of life prescribed by both systems, in their +abhorrence of certain kinds of amusement, in their fondness for +Scriptural phraseology, and, above all, in the importance which they +both attached to the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. But the +points of difference between them were at least as marked as the points +of resemblance. In Puritanism, politics were inextricably intermixed +with theology; Evangelicalism stood quite aloof from politics. The +typical Puritan was gloomy and austere; the typical Evangelical was +bright and genial. The Puritan would not be kept _within_ the pale of +the National Church; the Evangelical would not be kept _out_ of it. The +Puritan was dissatisfied with our liturgy, our ceremonies, our +vestments, and our hierarchy; the Evangelical was not only perfectly +contented with every one of these things, but was ready to contend for +them all as heartily as the highest of High Churchmen. The Puritans +produced a very powerful body of theological literature; the +Evangelicals were more conspicuous as good men and stirring preachers +than as profound theologians. On the other hand, if Puritanism was the +more fruitful in theological literature, both devotional and +controversial, Evangelicalism was infinitely more fruitful in works of +piety and benevolence; there was hardly a single missionary or +philanthropic scheme of the day which was not either originated or +warmly taken up by the Evangelical party. The Puritans were frequently +in antagonism with 'the powers that be,' the Evangelicals never; no +amount of ill-treatment could put them out of love with our constitution +both in Church and State. + +These points will be further illustrated in the course of this chapter; +they are touched upon here merely to show that neither 'Methodist' nor +'Puritan' would be an adequate description of the great revival whose +course we are now to follow; only it should be noted that in terming it +the 'Evangelical' revival we are applying to it an epithet which was not +applied until many years after its rise. When and by whom the term was +first used to describe the movement it is difficult to say. Towards the +close of the century it is not unusual to find among writers of +different views censures of those 'who have arrogated to themselves the +exclusive title of Evangelical,' as if there were something presumptuous +in the claim, and something uncharitable in the tacit assumption that +none but those so called were worthy of the designation; but it is very +unusual indeed to find the writers of the Evangelical school applying +the title to their own party; and when they do it is generally followed +by some apology, intimating that they only use it because it has become +usual in common parlance. There is not the slightest evidence to show +that the early Evangelicals claimed the title as their own in any spirit +of self-glorification. + +Thus much of the name. Let us now turn to the thing itself. How did this +great movement, so fruitful in good to the whole community, first arise? + +It is somewhat remarkable that, so far as the revival can be traced to +any one individual, the man to whom the credit belongs was never himself +an Evangelical. '_William Law_' (1686-1761) 'begot Methodism,' wrote +Bishop Warburton; and in one sense the statement was undoubtedly +true,[708] but what a curious paradox it suggests! A distinctly High +Churchman was the originator of what afterwards became the Low Church +party--a Nonjuror, of the most decidedly 'Orange' element in the Church; +a Quietist who scarcely ever quitted his retirement in an obscure +Northamptonshire village, of that party which, above all others, was +distinguished for its activity, bodily no less than spiritual, a +clergyman who rarely preached a sermon, of the party whose great forte +was preaching! + +As Law had no further share in the Evangelical movement beyond writing +the 'Serious Call,' there is no need to dwell upon his singular career. +We may pass on at once from the master to one of his most appreciative +and distinguished disciples. + +If Law was the most effective writer, _John Wesley_ (1703-91) was +unquestionably the most effective worker connected with the early phase +of the Evangelical revival. If Law gave the first impulse to the +movement, Wesley was the first and the ablest who turned it to practical +account. How he formed at Oxford a little band of High Church ascetics; +how he went forth to Georgia on an unsuccessful mission, and returned to +England a sadder and a wiser man; how he fell under the influence of the +Moravians; how his whole course and habits of mind were changed on one +eventful day in 1738; how for more than half a century he went about +doing good through evil report and good report; how he encountered with +undaunted courage opposition from all quarters from the Church which he +loved, and from the people whom he only wished to benefit; how he formed +societies, and organised them with marvellous skill; how he travelled +thousands of miles, and preached thousands of sermons throughout the +length and breadth of England, in Scotland, in Ireland, and in America; +how he became involved in controversies with his friends and +fellow-workers--is not all this and much more written in books which may +be in everybody's hands--in the books of Southey, of Tyerman, of Watson, +of Beecham, of Stevens, of Coke and Moore, of Isaac Taylor, of Julia +Wedgwood, of Urlin, and of many others? It need not, therefore, be +repeated here. Neither is it necessary to vindicate the character of +this great and good man from the imputations which were freely cast upon +him both by his contemporaries (and that not only by the adversaries, +but by many of the friends and promoters of the Evangelical movement), +and also by some of his later biographers. The saying of Mark Antony-- + + The evil that men do lives after them; + The good is oft interred with their bones-- + +has been reversed in the case of John Wesley. Posterity has fully +acquitted him of the charge of being actuated by a mere vulgar ambition, +of desiring to head a party, of an undue love of power. It has at last +owned that if ever a poor frail human being was actuated by pure and +disinterested motives, that man was John Wesley. Eight years before his +death he said, 'I have been reflecting on my past life; I have been +wandering up and down between fifty and sixty years, endeavouring in my +poor way to do a little good to my fellow-creatures.' And the more +closely his career has been analysed, the more plainly has the truth of +his own words been proved. His quarrel was solely with sin and Satan. +His master passion was, in his own often-repeated expression, the love +of God and the love of man for God's sake. The world has at length done +tardy justice to its benefactor. Indeed, the danger seems now to lie in +a different direction--not indeed, in over-estimating the character of +this remarkable man, but in making him a mere name to conjure with, a +mere peg to hang pet theories upon. The Churchman casts in the teeth of +the Dissenter John Wesley's unabated attachment to the Church; the +Dissenter casts in the teeth of the Churchman the bad treatment Wesley +received from the Church; and each can make out a very fair case for his +own side. But meanwhile the real John Wesley is apt to be presented to +us in a very one-sided fashion. Moreover, his character has suffered +from the partiality of injudicious friends quite as much as from the +unjust accusations of enemies. It is peculiarly cruel to represent him +as a faultless being, a sort of vapid angel. We can never take much +interest in such a character, because we feel quite sure that, if the +whole truth were before us, he would appear in a different light. John +Wesley's character is a singularly interesting one, interesting for this +very reason, that he was such a thorough man--full of human infirmities, +constantly falling into errors of judgment and inconsistencies, but +withal a noble specimen of humanity, a monument of the power of Divine +grace to mould the rough materials of which man is made into a polished +stone, meet to take its place in the fabric of the temple of the living +God. + +The best interpreter of John Wesley is John Wesley himself. He has left +us in his own writings a picture of himself, drawn by his own hand, +which is far more faithful than that which has been drawn by any other. + +The whole family of the Wesleys, including the father, the mother, and +all the brothers and sisters without exception, was a very interesting +one. There are certain traits of character which seem to have been +common to them all. Strong, vigorous good sense, an earnest, +straightforward desire to do their duty, a decidedness in forming +opinions, and a plainness, not to say bluntness, in expressing them, +belong to all alike. The picture given us of the family at Epworth +Rectory is an illustration of the remark made in another chapter that +the wholesale censure of the whole body of the parochial clergy in the +early part of the eighteenth century has been far too sweeping and +severe. Here is an instance--and it is not spoken of as a unique, or +even an exceptional, instance--of a worthy clergyman who was, with his +whole family, living an exemplary life, and adorning the profession to +which he belonged. The influence of his early training, and especially +that of his mother, is traceable throughout the whole of Wesley's +career; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Wesley's unflinching +attachment to the Church, his reluctance to speak ill of her +ministers,[709] and the displeasure which he constantly showed when he +observed any tendency on the part of his followers to separate from her +communion, may have been intensified by his recollections of that good +and useful parson's family in Lincolnshire in which he passed his youth. + +The year 1729 is the date which Wesley himself gives of the rise of that +revival of religion in which he himself took so prominent a part. It is +somewhat curious that he places the commencement of the revival at a +date nine years earlier than that of his own conversion; but it must be +remembered that in his later years he took a somewhat different view of +the latter event from that which he held in his hot youth. He believed +that before 1738 he had faith in God as a servant; after that, as a son. +At any rate, we shall not be far wrong in regarding that little meeting +at Oxford of a few young men, called in derision the Holy Club, the +Sacramentarian Club, and finally the _Methodists_, as the germ of that +great movement now to be described. No doubt the views of its members +materially changed in the course of years; but the object of the later +movement was precisely the same as that of the little band from the very +first--viz. to promote the love of God and the love of man for God's +sake, to stem the torrent of vice and irreligion, and to fill the land +with a godly and useful population. + +This, it is verily believed, was from first to last the master key to a +right understanding of John Wesley's life. Everything must give way to +this one great object. In subservience to this he was ready to sacrifice +many predilections, and thereby to lay himself open to the charge of +changeableness and inconsistency. + +As an illustration let us take the somewhat complicated question of John +Wesley's Churchmanship. That he was most sincerely and heartily attached +to the Church of England is undeniable. In the language of one of his +most ardent but not undiscriminating admirers, 'he was a Church of +England man even in circumstantials; there was not a service or a +ceremony, a gesture or a habit, for which he had not an unfeigned +predilection.'[710] He was, in fact, a distinctly High Churchman, but a +High Churchman in a far nobler sense than that in which the term was +generally used in the eighteenth century. Indeed, in this latter sense +John Wesley hardly falls under the denomination at all. As a staunch +supporter of the British Constitution, both in Church and State, he was +no doubt in favour of the establishment of the National Church as an +essential part of that Constitution. But it was not this view of the +Church which was uppermost in his mind. On several occasions he spoke +and wrote of the Church as a national establishment in terms which would +have shocked the political High Churchmen of his day. He 'can find no +trace of a national Church in the New Testament;'--it is 'a mere +political institution;'[711] the establishment by Constantine was a +gigantic evil:' 'the King and the Parliament have no right to prescribe +to him what pastor he shall use;'[712] he does not care to discuss the +question as to whether all outward establishments are a Babel. But does +it follow from this and similar language that he taught, as the +historians of the Dissenters contend, the principles and language of +Dissent?[713] Very far from it. The fact is, John Wesley in his +conception of the Church was both before and behind his age. He would +have found abundance of sympathisers with his views in the seventeenth, +and abundance after the first thirty years of the nineteenth, century. +But in the eighteenth century they were quite out of date. Here and +there a man like Jones of Nayland or Bishop Horsley[714] might express +High Church views of the same kind as those of John Wesley, but they +were quite out of harmony with the general spirit of the times. Wesley's +idea of the Church was not like that of high and dry Churchmen of his +day; that Church which was always 'in danger' was not what he meant; +neither was it, like that of the later Evangelical school, the Church of +the Reformation period. He went back to far earlier times, and took for +his model in doctrine and worship the Primitive Church before its +divisions into East and West. Thus we find him recording with evident +satisfaction at Christmastide, 1774, 'During the twelve festival days we +had the Lord's Supper daily--_a little emblem of the Primitive +Church_.'[715] When he first appointed district visitors he looked with +great satisfaction upon the arrangement, because it reminded him of the +deaconesses of the Primitive Church. In the very act which tended most +of all to the separation of Wesley's followers from the Church he was +still led--or, as some will think, misled--by his desire to follow in +what he conceived to be the steps of the Primitive Church. His ideas of +worship are strictly in accordance with what would now be called High +Church usages. He would have no pews, but open benches alike for all; he +would have the men and the women separated, _as they were in the +Primitive Church_;[716] he would have a hearty congregational service. +When it was seasonable to sing praise to God, they were to do it with +the spirit and the understanding also; 'not in the miserable, scandalous +doggerel of Sternhold and Hopkins, but in psalms and hymns which are +both sense and poetry, such as would sooner provoke a critic to turn +Christian than a Christian to turn critic;' they were to sing 'not +lolling at their ease, or in the indecent posture of sitting, but all +standing before God, praising Him lustily and with a good courage;' +there was to be 'no repetition of words, no dwelling on disjointed +syllables.'[717] Wesley was much struck with the remarkable decorum with +which public worship was conducted by the Scotch Episcopal Church, which +has always been more inclined to High Church usages than her English +sister.[718] The Fasts and Festivals of the Church Wesley desired to +observe most scrupulously: every Friday was to be kept as a day of +abstinence; the very children at Kingswood school were, if healthy, to +fast every Friday till 3 P.M. All Saints' Day was his favourite +festival, and he made it his constant practice on that day to preach on +the Communion of Saints. He distinctly implies that he considers the +celebration of the Holy Communion an essential part of the public +service at least on every Lord's Day, and adduces this as a proof that +the service at his own meetings must necessarily be imperfect. From his +private memoranda, quoted by Mr. Urlin,[719] we find that he believed it +to be a duty to observe so far as he could the following rules:--(1) to +baptize by immersion; (2) to use the mixed chalice; (3) to pray for the +faithful departed; (4) to pray standing on the Sunday in Pentecost. He +thought it prudent (1) to observe the stations [Wednesday and Friday], +(2) to keep Lent and especially Holy Week, (3) to turn to the east at +the Creed. It is useless to speculate upon what might have been; but can +it be doubted that if John Wesley's lot had been cast in the nineteenth +instead of the eighteenth century, he would have found much to fascinate +him in another revival, which, like his own, began at Oxford? + +But how was it that if John Wesley showed this strong appreciation of +the aesthetic and the symbolical in public worship, this desire to bring +everything to the model of the Primitive Church, he never impressed +these views upon his followers? How is it that so few traces of these +predilections are to be found in his printed sermons? John Wesley had so +immense an influence over his disciples that he could have led them to +almost anything. How was it that he infused into them nothing whatever +of that spirit which was in him? + +The answer to these questions is to be found in the fact which, it may +be remembered, led to these remarks. There is but one clue to the right +understanding of Wesley's career. It is this: that his one great object +was to promote the love of God and the love of man for God's sake. +Everything must give way to this object of paramount importance. His +tastes led him in one direction, but it was a direction in which very +few could follow him. Not only was there absolutely nothing congenial to +this taste either inside or outside the Church in the eighteenth +century, but it would have been simply unintelligible. If he had +followed out this taste, he would have been isolated. + +Moreover, it is fully admitted that Wesley was essentially a many-sided +man. Look at him from another point of view, and he stands in precisely +the same attitude in which his contemporaries and successors of the +Evangelical school stood--as the _homo unius libri_, referring +everything to Scripture, and to Scripture alone. There would be in his +mind no inconsistency whatever between the one position and the other; +but he felt he could do more practical good by simply standing upon +Scriptural ground, and therefore he was quite content to rest there. + +It was precisely the same motive which led Wesley to the various +separations which, to his sorrow, he was obliged to make from those who +had been his fellow-workers. He has been accused of being a quarrelsome +man, a man with whom it was not easy to be on good terms. The accusation +is unjust. Never was a man more ready to forgive injuries, more ready to +own his failings, more firm to his friends, and more patient with his +foes. + +Nevertheless it is an undoubted fact that he was frequently brought into +collision with men whom he would have been the first to own as God's +faithful servants--with William Law, with the Moravians, with Whitefield +and the Calvinists, and with several of the Evangelical parish +clergymen. It also cannot be denied that he showed some abruptness--nay, +rudeness--in his communications with some of these. + +But in each and all of these cases the clue to his conduct is still the +same; his one desire was to do all the good he could to the souls of +men, and to that great object friends, united action, and even common +politeness must give way. To come to details. In 1738 he wrote an angry +letter, and in 1756 an angry pamphlet, to William Law. Both these +effusions were hasty and indiscreet; but, in spite of his indiscretion +and discourtesy, it is easy to trace both in the letter and the pamphlet +the one motive which actuated him. Law was far more than a match for +Wesley in any purely intellectual dispute. But Wesley's fault, whatever +it may have been, was a fault of the head, not of the heart. It is +thoroughly characteristic of the generous and forgiving nature of the +man that, in spite of their differences, Wesley constantly alluded to +Law in his sermons, and always in terms of the warmest commendation. + +The same motive which led Wesley to dispute with Law actuated him in +his separation from the Moravians. In justice to that exemplary body it +must be remembered that they were not well represented in London when +Wesley split from them. The mischievous notion that it was contrary to +the Gospel for a man to search the Scriptures, to pray, to +communicate--in fact, to use any ordinances--before he had faith, that +it was his duty simply to sit still and wait till this was given him, +would, if it had gained ground, have been absolutely fatal to Wesley's +efforts. He could not even tacitly countenance those who held such +tenets without grievous hindrance to his work.[720] One is thankful to +learn that he resisted his besetting temptation, and did not send to the +Herrnhut brethren a rude letter which he had written,[721] and thankful +also to find that he did full justice to the good qualities of Count +Zinzendorf.[722] But as to his separation from the London Moravians, +Wesley could not have acted otherwise without seriously damaging the +cause which he had at heart. His dispute with Whitefield will come under +our notice in connexion with the Calvinistic controversy, which forms a +painfully conspicuous feature in the Evangelical movement. It is +sufficient in this place to remark that the Antinomianism which, as a +plain matter of fact, admitted even by the Calvinists themselves, did +result from the perversion of Calvinism, was, if possible, a more fatal +hindrance to Wesley's work than the Moravian stillness itself. This was +obviously the ground of Wesley's dislike of Calvinism,[723] but it did +not separate him from Calvinists; so far as a separation did ensue the +fault did not lie with Wesley.[724] + +His misunderstanding with some of the Evangelical clergy of his day +arose from the same cause as that which led him into other disputes. An +overpowering sense of the paramount importance of the great work which +he had to do made him set aside everything which he considered to be an +obstacle to that work without the slightest hesitation. Now, much as +Wesley loved the Church of England, he never appreciated one of her most +marked features, the parochial system. Perhaps under any circumstances +such a system would have found little favour in the eyes of one of +Wesley's temperament. To a man impatient of immediate results the slowly +but surely working influence of a pastor resident in the midst of his +flock, preaching to them a silent sermon every day and almost every hour +by his example among them, would naturally seem flat, tame and +impalpable when compared with the more showy effects resulting from the +rousing preaching of the itinerant. Such a life as that of the parish +priest would have been to Wesley himself simply unbearable. He was of +opinion--surely a most erroneous opinion--that if he were confined to +one spot he should preach himself and his whole congregation to sleep in +a twelvemonth. He never estimated at its proper value the real, solid +work which others were doing in their respective parishes. He bitterly +regretted that Fletcher would persist in wasting his sweetness on the +desert air of Madeley. He had little faith in the permanency of the good +which the apostolic Walker was doing at Truro. Much as he esteemed Venn +of Huddersfield, he could not be content to leave the parish in his +hands. He expressed himself very strongly to Adam of Winteringham on the +futility of his work in his parish. He utterly rejected Walker's advice +that he should induce some of his itinerant preachers to be ordained and +to settle in country parishes. He thought that this would not only +narrow their sphere of usefulness, but also cripple their energies even +in that contracted sphere. Mistaken as we may believe him to have been +in these opinions, we cannot doubt his thorough sincerity. In the slight +collision into which he was necessarily brought with the Evangelical +clergy by acting upon these views he was actuated by no vulgar desire to +make himself a name by encroaching upon other men's labours, but solely +by the conviction that he must do the work of God in the best way he +could, no matter whom he might offend or alienate by so doing. Order and +regularity were good things in their way, but better do the work of God +irregularly than let it be half-done or undone in the regular way.[725] +He predicted that even the earnest parochial clergy of his day would +prove a mere rope of sand--a prophecy which subsequent events will +scarcely endorse. + +Not that John Wesley ever desired to upset the parochial system. From +first to last he consistently maintained his position that his work was +not to supplant but to supplement the ordinary work of the Church. This +supplementary agency formed so important a factor in the Evangelical +revival, and its arrangement was so characteristic of John Wesley, that +a few words on the subject seem necessary. It would fill too much space +to describe in detail the constitution of the first Methodist societies. +It is now purposed to consider them simply in their relation to their +founder. The most superficial sketch of the life and character of John +Wesley would be imperfect if it did not touch upon this subject; for, +after all, it is as the founder, and organiser, and ruler of these +societies that John Wesley is best known. There were connected with the +Evangelical revival other writers as able, other preachers as effective, +other workers as indefatigable, as he was; but there were none who +displayed anything like the administrative talent that he did. From +first to last Wesley held over this large and ever-increasing agency an +absolute supremacy. His word was literally law, and that law extended +not only to strictly religious matters, but to the minutest details of +daily life. It is most amusing to read his letters to his itinerant +preachers, whom he addresses in the most familiar terms. 'Dear Tommy' is +told that he is never to sit up later than ten. In general he (Mr. +Wesley) desires him to go to bed about a quarter after nine.[726] 'Dear +Sammy' is reminded, 'You are called to obey _me_ as a son in the Gospel. +But who can prove that you are so called to obey any other person?' +Another helper is admonished, 'Scream no more, at the peril of your +soul. Speak with all your heart, but with a moderate voice. It is said +of our Lord, "He shall not cry"--literally, scream.' The helpers +generally are commanded 'not to affect the gentleman. You have no more +to do with this character than with that of a dancing-master.' And +again, 'Do not mend our rules, but keep them,' with much more to the +same effect. His preachers in Ireland are instructed how they are to +avoid falling into the dirty habits of the country and the most minute +and delicate rules about personal cleanliness are laid down for them. + +The congregations are ruled in almost the same lordly fashion as the +preachers. Of a certain congregation at Norwich Wesley writes, 'I told +them in plain terms that they were the most ignorant, self-conceited, +self-willed, fickle, untractable, disorderly, disjointed society that I +knew in the three kingdoms. And God applied to their hearts, so that +many were profited, but I do not find that one was offended.'[727] At +one time he had an idea that tea was expensive and unwholesome, and his +people are commanded to abstain from the deleterious beverage, and so to +'keep from sickness and pay their debts.' 'Many,' he writes, 'tell me to +my face I can persuade this people to anything;' so he tried to persuade +them to this. In the same year (1746) he determines to physic them all. +'I thought,' he says, 'of a kind of desperate experiment. I will prepare +and give them physic myself.' This indefatigable man provided for their +minds as well as for their souls and bodies. He furnished them with a +'Christian library,' writing, abridging, and condensing many books +himself, and recommending and editing others; and few, probably, of the +early Methodists read anything else. + +As to the Conference, Wesley clearly gave its members to understand that +his autocracy was to be in no way limited by their action. '_They_ did +not,' he writes, 'desire the meeting, but _I_ did, knowing that in the +multitude of counsellors there is safety. But,' he adds significantly, +'I sent for them to advise, not to govern me. Neither did I at any of +those times divest myself of any part of that power which the providence +of God cast upon me without any desire or design of mine. What is that +power? It is a power of admitting into and excluding from the societies +under my care; of choosing and removing stewards, of receiving or not +receiving helpers: of appointing them where, when, and how to help me, +and of desiring any of them to meet me when I see good.'[728] They never +dreamt of disobeying him. So great was the awe which he inspired that +when the Deed of Declaration was drawn up in 1784, and Wesley selected, +somewhat arbitrarily, one hundred out of one hundred and ninety-two +preachers to be members of the Conference, though several murmured and +thought it hard that preachers of old standing should be rejected, yet +when the time came none durst oppose him. 'Many,' writes one of the +malcontents, 'were averse to the deed, but had not the courage to avow +their sentiments in Conference. Mr. Wesley made a speech and invited all +who were of his mind to stand up. They all rose to a man.'[729] + +It certainly was an extraordinary power for one man to possess; but in +its exercise there was not the slightest taint of selfishness, nor yet +the slightest trace that he loved power for power's sake. His own +account of its rise is perfectly sincere, and artless, and, it is +honestly believed, perfectly true. 'The power I have,' he writes, 'I +never sought; it was the unadvised, unexpected result of the work which +God was pleased to work by me. I therefore suffer it till I can find +some one to ease me of my burthen.' He used his power simply to promote +his one great object--to make his followers better men and better +citizens, happier in this life and thrice happier in the life to come. +If it was a despotism it was a singularly useful and benevolent +despotism, a despotism which was founded wholly and solely upon the +respect which his personal character commanded. Surely if this man had +been, as his ablest biographer represents him,[730] an ambitious man, he +would have used his power for some personal end. He would at least have +yielded to the evident desire of some of his followers and have founded +a separate sect, in which he might have held a place not much inferior +to that which Mahomet held among the faithful. But he spoke the truth +when he said, 'So far as I know myself, I have no more concern for the +reputation of Methodism than for the reputation of Prester John.'[731] +When he heard of accusations being brought against him of 'shackling +free-born Englishmen' and of 'doing no less than making himself a Pope,' +he defended his power with an artless simplicity which was very +characteristic of the man. 'If,' he said, 'you mean by arbitrary power a +power which I exercise singly, without any colleague therein, this is +certainly true; but I see no harm in it. Arbitrary in this sense is a +very harmless word. I bear this burden merely for your sakes.' It is a +defence which one could fancy an Eastern tyrant making for the most +rigorous of 'paternal governments.' But Wesley was no tyrant; he had no +selfish end in view; it was literally 'for their sakes' that he ruled as +he did; and since he was infinitely superior to the mass of his subjects +(one can use no weaker term) in point of education, learning, and good +judgment, it was to their advantage that he did so. + +At any rate a Churchman may be pardoned for thinking this, for one +effect of his unbounded influence was to prevent his followers from +separating from the Church. His sentiments on this point were so +constantly and so emphatically expressed that the only difficulty +consists in selecting the most suitable specimens. Perhaps the best plan +will be to quote a few passages in chronological order, written at +different periods of his life, to show how unalterable his opinions were +on this point, however much he might alter them in others. At the very +first Conference--in 1744, only six years after his conversion--we find +him declaring (for of course the dicta of Conference were simply his own +dicta), 'We believe the body of our hearers will even after our death +remain in the Church, unless they are thrust out. They will either be +thrust out or leaven the Church.' A few years later, 'In visiting +classes ask everyone, "Do you go to church as often as you did?" Set the +example and immediately alter any plan that interfereth therewith. Are +we not unawares, by little and little, tending to a separation from the +Church? Oh, remove every tendency thereto with all diligence. Receive +the Sacrament at every opportunity. Warn all against niceness in +hearing, a great and prevailing evil; against calling our society a +Church or the Church; against calling our preachers ministers and our +houses meeting-houses: call them plain preaching-houses. Do not license +yourself till you are constrained, and then not as a Dissenter, but as a +Methodist preacher.' In 1766, 'We will not, we dare not, separate from +the Church, for the reasons given several years ago. We are not +seceders.... Some may say, "Our own service is public worship." Yes, in +a sense, but not such as to supersede the Church service. We never +designed it should! If it were designed to be instead of the Church +service it would be essentially defective, for it seldom has the four +grand parts of public prayer--deprecation, petition, intercession, and +thanksgiving. Neither is it, even on the Lord's Day, concluded with the +Lord's Supper. If the people put ours in the place of the Church +service, we _hurt_ them that stay with us and _ruin_ them that leave +us.' In 1768, 'We are, in truth, so far from being enemies to the Church +that we are rather bigots to it. I dare not, like Mr. Venn, leave the +parish church where I am, and go to an Independent meeting. I advise all +over whom I have any influence to keep to the Church.' In 1777, in the +remarkable sermon which he preached on laying the foundation of the City +Road Chapel, after having given a succinct but graphic account of the +rise and progress of Methodism, 'we,' he concludes, 'do not, will not, +form any separate sect, but from principle remain, what we have always +been, true members of the Church of England.'[732] In 1778, 'To speak +freely, I myself find more life in the Church prayers than in any formal +extempore prayers of Dissenters.' In 1780, 'Having had opportunity of +seeing several Churches abroad, and having deeply considered the several +sorts of Dissenters at home, I am fully convinced our own Church, with +all her blemishes, is nearer the Scriptural plan than any other Church +in Europe.' In 1783, 'In every possible way I have advised the +Methodists to keep to the Church. They that do this most prosper best in +their souls. I have observed it long. If ever the Methodists in general +leave the Church, I must leave them.' In 1786, 'Wherever there is any +Church service I do not approve of any appointment the same hour, +because I love the Church of England, and would assist, not oppose it, +all I can.' In 1788, 'Still, the more I reflect the more I am convinced +that the Methodists ought not to leave the Church. I judge that to lose +a thousand--yea, ten thousand--of our people would be a less evil than +this. "But many had much comfort in this." So they would in any _new +thing_. I believe Satan himself would give them comfort therein, for he +knows what the end must be. Our glory has hitherto been not to be a +separate body. "_Hoc Ithacus velit_."' And finally, within two years of +his death, in his striking sermon on the ministerial office, 'In God's +name stop!... Ye are a new phenomenon on the earth--a body of people +who, being of no sect or party, are friends to all parties, and +endeavour to forward all in heart-religion, in the knowledge and love of +God and man. Ye yourselves were at first called in the Church of +England; and though ye have and will have a thousand temptations to +leave it, and set up for yourselves, regard them not; be Church of +England men still; do not cast away the peculiar glory which God hath +put upon you and frustrate the design of Providence, the very end for +which God raised you up.' + +But some years before John Wesley uttered these memorable words had he +not himself done the very thing which he deprecated? Consciously and +intentionally, No! a thousand times no; but virtually and as a matter of +fact we must reluctantly answer, Yes. Lord Mansfield's famous dictum, +'Ordination is separation,' is unanswerable. When, in 1784, John Wesley +ordained Coke and Ashbury to be 'superintendents,' and Whatcoat and +Vasey to be 'elders,' in America, he to all intents and purposes crossed +the Rubicon. His brother Charles regarded the act in that light and +bitterly regretted it. How a logical mind like John Wesley's could +regard it in any other it is difficult to conceive. But that he had in +all sincerity persuaded himself that there was no inconsistency in it +with his strong Churchmanship there can be no manner of doubt. + +The true explanation of John Wesley's conduct in this matter may perhaps +be found in the intensely practical character of his mind. His work in +America seemed likely to come to a deadlock for want of ordained +ministers. Thus we come back to the old motive. Everything must be +sacrificed for the sake of his work. Some may think this was doing evil +that good might come; but no such notion ever entered into John Wesley's +head; his rectitude of purpose, if not the clearness of his judgment, is +as conspicuous in this as in the other acts of his life. + +It should also be remembered (for it serves to explain this, as well as +many other apparent inconsistencies in his career) that Wesley attached +very little value to the mere holding of right opinions. Orthodoxy, he +thought, constituted but a very small part, if a part at all, of true +religion. 'What,' he asks, 'is faith? Not an opinion nor any number of +opinions, be they ever so true. A string of opinions is no more +Christian faith than a string of beads is Christian holiness.' Opinions +were 'feathers light as air, trifles not worth naming.' Controversy was +his abhorrence; he thought 'God made practical divinity necessary, but +the Devil controversial.' When he entered into controversy with Tucker +in 1742, 'I now, he wrote, 'tread an untried path with fear and +trembling--fear not of my adversary, but of myself.' Just twenty years +later he records with evident satisfaction that he has entirely lost his +taste for controversy and his readiness in disputing, and this he takes +to be a providential discharge from it. 'I am sick,' he writes on +another occasion, 'of opinions; I am weary to bear them: my soul loathes +this frothy food. Give me solid, substantial religion. Give me an +humble, gentle lover of God and man. Whosoever thus doeth the will of my +Father which is in Heaven, the same is brother, and sister, and mother.' +He was anxious to promote a union between all the Evangelical clergy, +but it must be on the condition that the points of difference between +them should not be discussed. He was quite ready to hand over his +opponents to Fletcher, or Sellon, or Olivers, or anyone whom he judged +strong enough to take them in hand. He prided himself on the fact that +Methodism required no agreement on disputed points of doctrine among its +members. 'Are you in earnest about your soul?' That was the one question +that must be answered in the affirmative. 'Is thine heart right as my +heart is with thy heart? If so, then give me thine hand.' Or, as he +elsewhere expresses it, 'The sum is, One thing I know: whereas I was +blind, now I see--an argument of which a peasant, a woman, a child, may +feel all the force.'[733] + +This almost supercilious disregard of mere orthodoxy was all very well +in Wesley's days, but it would never have done in the earlier part of +the century; for it tacitly assumed that the main truths of Christianity +had been firmly established; and the assumption was justifiable. The +work of the apologists had prepared the way for the work of the +practical reformer. If the former had not done their work, the latter +could not have afforded to think so lightly as he did of sound doctrine. + +Feeling thus that opinions were a matter of quite secondary +consideration, Wesley had no hesitation about modifying, or even totally +abandoning, opinions which he found to be practically injurious.[734] He +confessed, as we have seen, that he was quite wrong in his theory of the +Divine origin of Episcopacy, and in his estimate of his own state of +mind previous to his conversion in 1738. He very materially modified his +doctrine of Christian perfection when he found it was liable to +practical abuse, and appended notes to an edition of hymns in which that +doctrine was too unguardedly stated.[735] He confessed his error on the +subject of Christian assurance in a characteristically outspoken +fashion. 'When,' he wrote in old age, 'fifty years ago, my brother +Charles and I, in the simplicity of our hearts, taught the people that +unless they _knew_ their sins were forgiven they were under the wrath +and curse of God, I marvel they did not stone us. The Methodists, I +hope, know better now. We preach assurance, as we always did, as a +common privilege of the children of God, but we do not enforce it under +pain of damnation denounced on all who enjoy it not.' He thought it idle +to discuss the question of regeneration in baptism when it was obvious +that baptized persons had practically as much need as heathens to be +born again.[736] It was quite as much their fondness for controversy as +their rigid Calvinism which put him out of love with the Scotch and made +him feel that he could do no good among them.[737] + +In accounting for Wesley's repugnance to religious controversy it should +not be forgotten that in the latter half of his life controversial +divinity had sunk to a low ebb, at least among those with whom he would +most naturally come into contact. A man of his logical mind, clear +common sense, and extensive reading could hardly fail to be disgusted +with much that passed for religious literature. He shrunk with a horror +which is almost amusing from the task of reviewing religious +publications in the 'Arminian Magazine.' 'I would not,' he said, 'read +all the religious books that are now published for the whole world.' He +protested against 'what were vulgarly called Gospel sermons.' 'The +term,' he says, 'has now become a mere cant word. I wish none of our +Society would use it. It has no determinate meaning. Let but a pert, +self-sufficient animal that has neither sense nor grace bawl out +something about Christ and His blood, or justification by faith, and his +hearers cry out, "What a fine Gospel sermon!"'[738] + +In fact, Wesley in his later years was very much alienated from what was +called 'the religious world.' He had received some of his severest +wounds in the house of his friends. Not Warburton, nor Lavington, nor +Gibson had spoken and written such hard things against him as many of +the most decidedly Evangelical clergy. He clung to the poor and +unlettered, not, as it has been asserted, because he desired to be a +sort of Pope among them, but because he really felt that his work was +there less hampered by the disturbing influence of conflicting opinions, +which were barren of practical effects upon the life. As usual, he made +no secret whatever of his preference. A nobleman accustomed to flattery +on all sides must have been rather taken aback on the receipt of this +very outspoken rebuff from plain John Wesley: 'To speak the rough +truth, I do not desire any intercourse with any persons of quality in +England. They can do me no good, and I fear I can do none to them.'[739] +One can fancy the amazement of Lady Huntingdon, who exacted and received +no small amount of homage from her proteges, when she received a letter +from John Wesley so different from those which were usually addressed to +her. 'My Lady, for a considerable time I have had it in my mind to write +a few lines to your ladyship, though I cannot learn that your ladyship +has ever enquired whether I was living or dead. By the mercy of God I am +still alive and following the work to which He has called me, although +without any help, even in the most trying times, from those I might have +expected it from. Their voice seemed to be rather, _Down with him! down, +even to the ground!_ I mean (for I use no ceremony or circumlocution) +Mr. Madan, Haweis, Berridge, and (I am sorry to say) Whitefield.' Had it +been to an earl instead of a countess the letter would probably have +been rougher still; but John Wesley was a thorough gentleman in every +sense of the word, and could not insult a female--only if the female had +been plain Sarah Ryan instead of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, she +would have had more chance of being treated with deference; for Wesley +positively disliked the rich and noble. 'In most genteel religious +people,' he said, 'there is so strange a mixture that I have seldom much +confidence in them. But I love the poor; in many of them I find pure, +genuine grace, unmixed with paint, folly, and affectation.' And again, +'Tis well a few of the rich and noble are called. May God increase the +number. But I should rejoice, were it the will of God, if it were done +by the ministry of others. If I might choose, I would still, as +hitherto, preach the Gospel to the poor.' He had the lowest opinion both +of the intellectual and moral character of the higher classes. 'Oh! how +hard it is,' he once exclaimed, 'to be shallow enough for a polite +audience!' And on another occasion he records with some bitterness of a +rich congregation to which he had preached at Whitehaven, 'They all +behaved with as much decency as if they had been colliers.' 'I have +found,' he says again, 'some of the uneducated poor who have exquisite +taste and sentiment, and many, very many, of the rich who have scarcely +any at all.' He wrote to Fletcher, in what one must call an unprovoked +strain of rudeness, on the danger of his conversing with the 'genteel +Methodists.' Indeed, the leading members of the Evangelical school--Lady +Huntingdon, Sir Richard and Rowland Hill, Venn, Romaine, and +others--were, quite apart from their Calvinism, never cordially in +harmony with John Wesley. As years went on Wesley must have felt himself +more and more a lonely man so far as his equals were concerned, for in +point of breeding and culture he was fully the equal of the very best. +It must not be supposed that Wesley did not feel this isolation. There +is a sadness about the strain in which he wrote to Benson in 1770. +'Whatever I say, it will be all one. They will find fault because I say +it. There is implicit envy at my power (so called) and jealousy +therefrom.' Wesley was not demonstrative, but he was a man of strong +affections and acute feelings, and he felt his loneliness, and more so +than ever after the death of his brother Charles. There is a touching +story that a fortnight after the death of the latter Wesley was giving +out in chapel his dead brother's magnificent hymn, + + Come, O thou traveller unknown, + +and when he came to the lines, + + My company before is gone, + And I am left alone with thee, + +the old man (then in his eighty-fourth year) burst into tears and hid +his face in his hands. + +One feature in Wesley's character must be carefully noted by all who +would form a fair estimate of him. If it was a weakness, and one which +frequently led him into serious practical mistakes, it was at any rate +an amiable weakness--a fault which was very near akin to a virtue. A +guileless trustfulness of his fellow-men, who often proved very unworthy +of his confidence, and, akin to this, a credulity, a readiness to +believe the marvellous, tinged his whole career. 'My brother,' said +Charles Wesley, 'was, I think, born for the benefit of knaves.'[740] It +is in the light of this quality that we must interpret many important +events of his life. His relations with the other sex were notoriously +unfortunate; not a breath of scandal was ever uttered against him; and +the mere fact that it was not is a convincing proof, if any were needed, +of the spotless purity of his life; for it is difficult to conceive +conduct more injudicious than his was. The story of his relationship +with Sophia Causton, Grace Murray, Sarah Ryan, and last, but not least, +the widow Vazeille, his termagant wife, need not here be repeated. In +the case of any other man scandal would often have been busy; but +Wesley was above suspicion. His conduct was put down to the right +cause--viz. a perfect guilelessness and simplicity of nature. The same +tone of mind led him to take men as well as women too much at their own +estimates. He was quite ready to believe those who said that they had +attained the summit of Christian perfection,[741] though, with +characteristic humility, he never professed to have attained it himself. +He was far more ready than either his brother Charles or Whitefield to +see in the physical symptoms which attended the early movement of +Methodism the hand of God; but, in justice to him, it should be added +that he was no less ready than they were to check them when in any case +he was convinced of their imposture. The same spirit led him to +attribute to the immediate interposition of Providence events which +might have been more reasonably attributed to ordinary causes; this laid +him open to the merciless attacks of Bishops Lavington and Warburton. +The same spirit led him to the superstitious and objectionable practice +of having recourse to the 'Sortes Biblicae,' by which folly he was more +than once misled against his own better judgment; the same spirit +tempted him to lend far too eager an ear to tales of witchcraft and +magic.[742] + +But, after all, these weaknesses detract but little from the greatness +and nothing from the goodness of John Wesley. He stands pre-eminent +among the worthies who originated and conducted the revival of practical +religion which took place in the last century. In particular points he +was surpassed by one or other of his fellow-workers. In preaching power +he was not equal to Whitefield; in saintliness of character he was +surpassed by Fletcher; in poetical talent he was inferior to his +brother; in solid learning he was, perhaps, not equal to his friend and +disciple Adam Clarke. But no one man combined _all_ these +characteristics in so remarkable a degree as John Wesley; and he +possessed others besides these which were all his own. He was a born +ruler of men; the powers which under different conditions would have +made him 'a heaven-born statesman' he dedicated to still nobler and +more useful purposes. Among the poor at least he was always appreciated +at his full worth. And one is thankful to find that towards the end of +his life his character began to be better understood and respected by +worthy men who could not entirely identify themselves with the +Evangelical movement. There is a pleasing story that Wesley met Bishop +Lowth at dinner in 1777, when the learned Bishop refused to sit above +Wesley at table, saying, 'Mr. Wesley, may I be found sitting at your +feet in another world.' When Wesley declined to take precedence the +Bishop asked him as a favour to sit above him, as he was deaf and +desired not to lose a sentence of Mr. Wesley's conversation. Wesley, +though, as we have seen, he had no partiality for the great, fully +appreciated this courtesy, and recorded in his journal, 'Dined with +Lowth, Bishop of London. His whole behaviour was worthy of a Christian +bishop--easy, affable, and courteous--and yet all his conversation spoke +the dignity which was suitable to his character.'[743] In 1782, at +Exeter, Wesley dined with the Bishop in his palace, five other clergy +being present.[744] In 1784, at Whitehaven, Wesley 'had all the Church +ministers to hear him, and most of the gentry of the town.'[745] + +Still to the last Wesley had the mortification of seeing his work +occasionally thwarted by that Church which he loved so dearly. One of +the last letters which he wrote was a manly appeal to the Bishop of +Lincoln on the subject. + +A few months later the noble old man was at rest from his labours. When +the clergyman who officiated at his funeral came to the words, +'Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto Himself the soul +of our dear _brother_ here departed,' he substituted the word 'father' +for 'brother,' and the vast multitude burst into tears. It remained for +the present generation to do justice to his memory by giving a place in +our Christian Walhalla among the great dead to one who was certainly +among the greatest of his day.[746] + +The next great leader of the early Evangelical movement who claims our +attention is _George Whitefield_ (1714-1770). Whitefield, like Wesley, +appears from first to last to have been actuated by one pure and +disinterested motive--the desire to do as much good as he could in the +world, and to bring as many souls as possible into the Redeemer's +kingdom. But, except in this one grand point of resemblance, before +which all points of difference sink into insignificance, it would be +difficult to conceive two men whose characters and training were more +different than those of Wesley and Whitefield.[747] Instead of the calm +and cultured retirement of Epworth Rectory, Whitefield was brought up +amidst the vulgar bustle of a country town inn. His position was not +very much improved when he exchanged the drawer's apron at the 'Bell +Inn,' Gloucester, for the degrading badge of a servitor at Pembroke +College, Oxford. After two or three years' experience in this scarcely +less menial capacity than that which he had filled at home, he was at +once launched into the sea of life, and found himself, at the age of +twenty-two, with hardly any intellectual or moral discipline, without +having acquired any taste for study, without having ever had the benefit +of associating on anything like terms of equality with men of intellect +or refinement, suddenly elevated to a degree of notoriety which few have +attained. Scarcely one man in a thousand could have passed through such +a transformation without being spoiled. But Whitefield's was too noble a +spirit to be easily spoiled. Nature had given him a loving, generous, +unselfish disposition, and Divine grace had sanctified and elevated his +naturally amiable qualities and given him others which nature can never +bestow. He went forth into the world filled with one burning desire--the +desire of doing good to his fellow-men and of extending the kingdom of +his Divine Master. + +It is needless here to repeat the story of the marvellous effects +produced by his preaching. Nothing like it had ever been seen in England +before. Ten thousand--twenty thousand--hearers hung breathless upon the +preacher's words. Rough colliers, who had been a terror to their +neighbourhood, wept until the tears made white gutters down their +cheeks--black as they came from the colliery--and, what is still more to +the purpose, changed their whole manner of life and became sober, +God-fearing citizens in consequence of what they heard; sceptical +philosophers listened respectfully, if not to much purpose, to one who +hardly knew what philosophy meant; fine gentlemen came to hear one who, +in the conventional sense of the term, had very little of the gentleman +about him; shrewd statesmen, who had a very keen appreciation of the +value of money, were induced by the orator to give first copper, then +silver, then gold, and then to borrow from their friends when they had +emptied their own pockets. + +What was the secret of his fascination? His printed sermons which have +come down to us are certainly disappointing.[748] They are meagre +compositions enough, feeble in thought and badly expressed; and what is +known of Whitefield's mental powers would hardly lead us to expect them +to be anything else. But it is scarcely necessary to remark that to +judge of the effects of any address delivered by the way in which it +reads is misleading; and it should also be remembered that what would +sound to us mere truisms were new truths to the majority of those to +whom Whitefield preached. A man of simple, earnest, loving spirit, +utterly devoid of self-consciousness and filled with only one +thought--how best to recommend the religion which he loves--may produce +a great effect without much theological learning. Such a spirit +Whitefield had, if any man ever had. Moreover, if the first +qualification of an orator be action, the second action, and the third +action, Whitefield was undoubtedly an orator. A fine presence, +attractive features, and a magnificent voice which could make itself +heard at an almost incredible distance, and which he seems to have known +perfectly well how to modulate, all tended to heighten the effect of his +sermons. As to the matter of them, there was at least one point in which +Whitefield was not deficient. He had the descriptive power in a very +remarkable degree. + +If it were not that the expression conveyed an idea of unreality--the +very last idea that should be associated with Whitefield's +preaching--one might say that he had a good eye for dramatic effect. On +a grassy knoll at Kingswood; in the midst of 'Vanity Fair' at +Basingstoke or Moorfields, where the very contrast of all the +surroundings would add impressiveness to the preacher's words; in Hyde +Park at midnight, in darkness which might be felt, when men's hearts +were panic-stricken at the prospect of the approaching earthquake, which +was to be the precursor of the end of the world; on Hampton Common, +surrounded by twelve thousand people, collected to see a man hung in +chains--the scenery would all lend effect to the great preacher's +utterances. Outdoor preaching was what he loved best. He felt 'cribbed, +cabined, and confined' within any walls. 'Mounts,' he said, 'are the +best pulpits, and the heavens the best sounding-boards.' 'I always find +I have most power when I speak in the open air--a proof to me that God +is pleased with this way of preaching.'[749] 'Every one hath his proper +gift. Field-preaching is my plan. In this I am carried as on eagle's +wings. God makes way for me everywhere.'[750] + +In dwelling upon these secondary causes of Whitefield's success as a +preacher it is by no means intended to lose sight of the great First +Cause. God, who can make the weak things of this world to confound the +mighty, could and did work for the revival of religion by this weak +instrument. But God works through human agencies; and it is no +derogation to the power of His grace, but simply tracing out the laws by +which that grace works, when we note the human and natural agencies +which all contributed to lend a charm to Whitefield's preaching. The +difficulty of accounting for that charm is not so great as would at +first sight appear. Indeed, immeasurably superior as Wesley's printed +sermons are to Whitefield's in depth of thought, closeness of reasoning, +and purity of diction, it is more difficult to explain the _excitement_ +which the older and far abler man produced than to explain that which +attended the younger man's oratory. For Wesley--if we may judge from his +printed sermons--carefully eschewed everything that would be called in +the present day 'sensational.' Plain, downright common sense, expressed +in admirably chosen but studiously simple language, formed the staple of +his preaching. One can quite well understand anyone being convinced and +edified by such discourses, but there is nothing in them which is +apparently calculated to produce the extraordinary excitement which, in +a second degree only to Whitefield, Wesley did in fact arouse. + +Preaching was Whitefield's great work in life,--and his work was also +his pleasure. 'O that I could fly from pole to pole,' he exclaimed, +'preaching the everlasting Gospel.' When he is ill, he trusts that +preaching will soon cure him again. 'This,' he says, 'is my grand +Catholicon. O that I may drop and die in my blessed Master's work.' His +wish was almost literally fulfilled. When his strength was failing him, +when he was worn out before his time in his Master's work, he lamented +that he was 'reduced to the short allowance of one sermon a day, and +three on Sundays.'[751] He preached when he was literally a dying man. +His other work scarcely claims a passing notice in a short sketch like +the present, especially as his peculiar opinions and his relationship +with the Wesleys and others will again come under our notice in +connection with the Calvinistic controversy. With the exception of +letters to his friends and followers, and the inevitable journal (almost +every member of the Evangelical school in the last century kept a +journal), he wrote comparatively little; and what he did write, +certainly need not cause us to regret that he wrote no more. On one of +his voyages from America, Whitefield employed his leisure in abridging +and gospelising Law's 'Serious Call.' Happily the work does not appear +to have been finished; at any rate, it was not given to the world. Law's +great work would certainly bear 'gospelising,' but Whitefield was not +the man to do it. William Law improved by George Whitefield would be +something like William Shakspeare improved by Colley Gibber. But the +incident suggests the very different qualities which are required for +the preacher and the writer. What was the character of Law's preaching +we do not know, except from one sermon preached in his youth; but we may +safely assume that he could never have produced the effects which +Whitefield did.[752] On the other hand, one trembles at the very thought +of Whitefield meddling with Law's masterpiece, for he certainly could +not have touched it without spoiling it. + +Whitefield's Orphan House in Georgia was his hobby; it was only one out +of a thousand instances of his benevolence; but his enthusiastic efforts +in behalf of it hardly form a part of the Evangelical revival, and +therefore need not be dwelt upon. + +The individuality of _Charles Wesley_ (1708-1788), the sweet psalmist of +Methodism, is perhaps in some danger of being merged in that of his more +distinguished brother. And yet he had a very decided character of his +own; he would have been singularly unlike the Wesley family if he had +not. Charles Wesley was by no means the mere _fidus Achates_, or man +Friday, of his brother John. Quite apart from his poetry, the effects of +which upon the early Methodist movement it would be difficult to +exaggerate, he played a most important part in the revival. As a +preacher, he was almost as energetic as John; and before his marriage he +was almost as effective an itinerant. His elder brother always spoke of +the work which was being done as their joint work; 'my brother and I' is +the expression he constantly used in describing it.[753] + +As a general rule, the two brothers acted in complete harmony; but +differences occurred sometimes, and, when they did, Charles Wesley +showed that he had a very decided will of his own; and he could +generally make it felt. For instance, in 1744, when the Wesleys were +most unreasonably suspected of inclining to Popery, and of favouring the +Pretender, John Wesley wrote an address to the king, 'in the name of the +Methodists;' but it was laid aside because Charles Wesley objected to +any act which would seem to constitute them a sect, or at least would +seem to allow that they were a body distinct from the National Church. +Again, from the first, Charles Wesley looked with great suspicion on the +bodily excitement which attended his brother's preaching, and it is more +than probable that he helped to modify John Wesley's opinions on this +subject. On the ordination question, Charles Wesley felt very strongly; +he never fell in with his brother's views, but vehemently disapproved of +his whole conduct in the matter. He would probably have interfered still +more actively, but for some years before the ordination question arose +he had almost ceased to itinerate, partly, Mr. Tyerman thinks, because +he was married, and partly because of the feeling in many societies, and +especially among many preachers, against the Church. In 1753, when John +Wesley was dangerously ill, Charles Wesley distinctly told the societies +that he neither could nor would stand in his brother's place, if it +pleased God to take him, for he had neither a body, nor a mind, nor +talents, nor grace for it. In 1779, he wrote to his brother in terms as +peremptory as John himself was wont to use, and such as few others would +have dared to employ in addressing the founder of Methodism. 'The +preachers,' he writes,[754] 'do not love the Church of England. When we +are gone, a separation is inevitable. Do you not wish to keep as many +good people in the Church as you can? Something might be done now to +save the remainder, if only you had resolution, and would stand by me as +firmly as I will stand by you. Consider what you are bound to do as a +clergyman, and what you do, do quickly.' It has been already stated that +Charles was, if possible, even more attached to the Church than John. +John, on his part, fully felt the need of his brother's help. In 1768, +he wrote to him, 'I am at my wits' end with regard to two things: the +Church and Christian perfection. Unless both you and I stand in the gap +in good earnest, the Methodists will drop them both. Talking will not +avail, we must _do_, or be borne away. "Age, vir esto! nervos intende +tuos."' On another occasion, John rescued his brother from a dangerous +tendency which he showed towards the stillness of the Moravians. He +wrote to him, 'The poison is in you, fair words have stolen away your +heart;' and made this characteristic entry in his journal:--'The +Philistines are upon thee, Samson; but the Lord is not departed from +thee; He shall strengthen thee yet again, and thou shalt be avenged for +the loss of thine eyes.' + +There is an interesting letter from Whitefield to Charles Wesley, dated +December 22, 1752, from which it appears that there was a threatened +rupture between the two brothers, the cause of which we do not +know.[755] 'I have read and pondered your kind letter with a degree of +solemnity of spirit. What shall I say? Really I can scarce tell. The +connection between you and your brother hath been so close and +continued, and your attachment so necessary to him to keep up his +interest, that I could not willingly for the world do or say anything +that may separate such friends. I cannot help thinking that he is still +jealous of me and my proceedings; but I thank God I am quite easy about +it.'[756] The last sentence is characteristically injudicious, if +Whitefield desired, as undoubtedly he did, to heal the breach; but the +letter is valuable as showing that, in the opinion of Whitefield, who +must have known as much about the matter as anyone, the co-operation of +the two brothers was essential to their joint work. + +Indeed, if for no other reason, Charles Wesley occupies a most important +place in the history of early Methodism, as forming the connecting link +between John Wesley and Whitefield. In October, 1749, he wrote, 'George +Whitefield and my brother and I are one; a threefold cord which shall no +more be broken;' but he does not add, as he might have done, that he +himself was the means by which the union was effected. The contrast +between Whitefield and John Wesley, in character, tastes, culture, &c., +was so very great that, quite apart from their doctrinal differences, +there could probably never have been any real intimacy between them, had +there not been some common friend who had in his character some points +of contact with both. That common friend was Charles Wesley. Full of +sterling common sense, highly cultured and refined, possessed of strong +reasoning powers, and well read like his brother, he was impulsive, +demonstrative in his feelings, and very tenderhearted like Whitefield. +Whitefield never quite appreciated John Wesley, but Charles he loved +dearly, and so did John. As we have seen, the one solitary instance of +the strong man's breaking down was on the death of his brother. And +Charles Wesley was thoroughly worthy of every good man's love. His fame +(except as a poet) has been somewhat overshadowed by the still greater +renown of his brother, but he contributed his full share towards the +success of the Evangelical Revival. + +If John Wesley was the great leader and organiser, Charles Wesley the +great poet, and George Whitefield the great preacher of Methodism, the +highest type of saintliness which it produced was unquestionably _John +Fletcher_ (1729-1785). Never, perhaps, since the rise of Christianity +has the mind which was in Christ Jesus been more faithfully copied than +it was in the Vicar of Madeley. To say that he was a good Christian is +saying too little. He was more than Christian, he was Christlike. It is +said that Voltaire, when challenged to produce a character as perfect as +that of Jesus Christ, at once mentioned Fletcher of Madeley; and if the +comparison between the God-man and any child of Adam were in any case +admissible, it would be difficult to find one with whom it could be +instituted with less appearance of blasphemy than this excellent man. +Fletcher was a Swiss by birth and education; and to the last he showed +traces of his foreign origin. But England can claim the credit of having +formed his spiritual character. Soon after his settlement in England as +tutor to the sons of Mr. Hill of Terne Hall, he became attracted by the +Methodist movement, which had then (1752) become a force in the country, +and in 1753 he was admitted into Holy Orders. The account of his +appointment to the living of Madeley presents a very unusual phenomenon +in the eighteenth century. His patron, Mr. Hill, offered him the living +of Dunham, 'where the population was small, the income good, and the +village situated in the midst of a fine sporting country.' These were no +recommendations in the eyes of Fletcher, and he declined the living on +the ground that the income was too large and the population too small. +Madeley had the advantage of having only half the income and double the +population of Dunham. On being asked whether he would accept Madeley if +the vicar of that parish would consent to exchange it for Dunham, +Fletcher gladly embraced the offer. As the Vicar of Madeley had +naturally no objection to so advantageous an exchange, Fletcher was +instituted to the cure of the large Shropshire village, in which he +spent a quarter of a century. There is no need to record his apostolical +labours in this humble sphere of duty. Madeley was a rough parish, full +of colliers; but there was also a sprinkling of resident gentry. Like +his friend John Wesley, Fletcher found more fruits of his work among the +poor than among the gentry. But none, whether rich or poor, could resist +the attractions of this saintly man. In 1772 he addressed to the +principal inhabitants of the Parish of Madeley 'An appeal to matter of +fact and common sense,' the dedication of which is so characteristic +that it is worth quoting in full. 'Gentlemen,' writes the vicar, 'you +are no less entitled to my private labours than the inferior class of my +parishioners. As you do not choose to partake with them of my evening +instructions, I take the liberty to present you with some of my morning +meditations. May these well-meant efforts of my pen be more acceptable +to you than those of my tongue! And may you carefully read in your +closets what you have perhaps inattentively heard in the church! I +appeal to the Searcher of hearts, that I had rather impart truth than +receive tithes. You kindly bestow the latter upon me; grant me the +satisfaction of seeing you receive favourably the former from, +gentlemen, your affectionate minister and obedient servant, J. +Fletcher.' + +When Lady Huntingdon founded her college for the training of ministers +at Trevecca, she invited Fletcher to undertake a sort of general +superintendence over it. This Fletcher undertook without fee or +reward--not, of course, with the intention of residing there, for he had +no sympathy with the bad custom of non-residence which was only too +common in his day. He was simply to visit the college as frequently as +he could; 'and,' writes Dr. Benson, the first head-master, 'he was +received as an angel of God.' 'It is not possible,' he adds, 'for me to +describe the veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah in the +schools of the Prophets, he was revered, he was loved, he was almost +adored. My heart kindles while I write. Here it was that I saw, shall I +say an angel in human flesh?--I should not far exceed the truth if I +said so'--and much more to the same effect. It was the same wherever +Fletcher went; the impression he made was extraordinary; language seems +to fail those who tried to describe it. 'I went,' said one who visited +him in an illness (he was always delicate), 'to see a man that had one +foot in the grave, but I found a man that had one foot in heaven.'[757] +'Sir,' said Mr. Venn to one who asked him his opinion of Fletcher, 'he +was a _luminary_--a luminary did I say?--he was a _sun_! I have known +all the great men for these fifty years, but none like him.' John Wesley +was of the same opinion; in Fletcher he saw realised in the highest +degree all that he meant by 'Christian Perfection.' For some time he +hesitated to write a description of this 'great man,' 'judging that only +an Apelles was proper to paint an Alexander;' but at length he published +his well-known sermon on the significant text, 'Mark the perfect man,' +&c. (Ps. xxxvii. 37), which he concluded with this striking testimony to +the unequalled character of his friend: 'I was intimately acquainted +with him for above thirty years; I conversed with him morning, noon, and +night without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles; +and in all that time I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw +him do an improper action. To conclude; many exemplary men have I known, +holy in heart and life, within fourscore years, but one equal to him I +have not known--one so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. So +unblamable a character in every respect I have not found either in +Europe or America; and I scarce expect to find another such on this side +of eternity.' Fletcher, on his part, was one of the few parish clergymen +who to the end thoroughly appreciated John Wesley. He thought it +'shameful that no clergyman should join Wesley to keep in the Church the +work God had enabled him to carry on therein;' and he was half-inclined +to join him as his deacon, 'not,' he adds with genuine modesty, 'with +any view of presiding over the Methodists after you, but to ease you a +little in your old age, and to be in the way of receiving, perhaps +doing, more good.' Wesley was very anxious that Fletcher should be his +successor, and proposed it to him in a characteristic letter; but +Fletcher declined the office, and had he accepted, the plan could never +have been carried out, for the hale old man survived his younger friend +several years. The last few years of Fletcher's life were cheered by the +companionship of one to whom no higher praise can be awarded than to say +that she was worthy of being Fletcher's wife. Next to Susanna Wesley +herself, Mrs. Fletcher stands pre-eminent among the heroines of +Methodism. In 1785 the saint entered into his everlasting rest, dying in +harness at his beloved Madeley. His death-bed scene is too sacred to be +transferred to these pages. + +Indeed, there is something almost unearthly about the whole of this +man's career. He is an object in some respects rather for admiration +than for imitation. He could do and say things which other men could not +without some sort of unreality. John Wesley, with his usual good sense, +warns his readers of this in reference to one particular habit, viz. +'the facility of raising useful observations from the most trifling +incidents.' 'In him,' he says, 'it partly resulted from nature, and was +partly a supernatural gift. But what was becoming and graceful in Mr. +Fletcher would be disgustful almost in any other.' An ordinary +Christian, for example, who, when he was having his likeness taken, +should exhort 'the limner, and all that were in the room, not only to +get the outlines drawn, but the colourings also of the image of Jesus on +their hearts;' who, 'when ordered to be let blood,' should, 'while his +blood was running into the cup, take occasion to expatiate on the +precious blood-shedding of the Lamb of God;' who should tell his cook +'to stir up the fire of divine love in her soul,' and intreat his +housemaid 'to sweep every corner in her heart;' who, when he received a +present of a new coat, should, in thanking the donor, draw a minute and +elaborate contrast between the broadcloth and the robe of Christ's +righteousness--would run the risk of making not only himself, but the +sacred subjects which he desired to recommend, ridiculous. Unfortunately +there were not a few, both in Fletcher's day and subsequently, who did +fall into this error, and, with the very best intentions, dragged the +most solemn truths through the dirt. Fletcher, besides being so +heavenly-minded that what would seem forced and strained in others +seemed perfectly natural in him, was also a man of cultivated +understanding and (with occasional exceptions) of refined and delicate +taste; but in this matter he was a dangerous model to follow. Who but +Fletcher, for instance, could, without savouring of irreverence or even +blasphemy, when offering some ordinary refreshment to his friends, have +accompanied it with the words, 'The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c., +and 'The Blood of our Lord,' &c.? But extraordinary as was the +spiritual-mindedness of this man of God, he could, without an effort, +descend to earthly matters on occasion. One of the most beautiful traits +of his character was illustrated on one of these occasions. He had done +the Government good service by writing on the American Rebellion, and +Lord Dartmouth was commissioned to ask him whether any preferment would +be acceptable to him. 'I want nothing,' answered the simple-hearted +Christian, 'but more grace.' His love of children was another touching +characteristic of Fletcher. 'The birds of my fine wood,' he wrote to a +friend, 'have almost done singing; but I have met with a parcel of +children whose hearts seem turned towards singing the praises of God, +and we sing every day from four to five. Help us by your prayers.' + +Having described the leader, the orator, the poet, and the saint of +Methodism, it still remains to say something about the patroness of the +movement. Methodism won its chief triumphs among the poor and lower +middle classes. The upper classes, though a revival of religion was +sorely needed among them, were not perceptibly affected. To promote this +desirable object, _Selina, Countess of Huntingdon_ (1707-1791), +sacrificed her time, her energies, her money, and her social reputation. + +It is impossible to help respecting a lady whose whole life was devoted +to so noble an aim. In one sense she gave up more than any of the +promoters of Methodism had the opportunity of doing. For, in the first +place, she had more to give up; and, in the second, it required more +moral courage than the rest were called upon to exercise to run counter +to all the prejudices of the class to which she naturally belonged. Both +by birth and by marriage she was connected with some of the noblest +families in the kingdom, and, by general confession, religion was at a +very low ebb among the nobility in Lady Huntingdon's day. The prominent +part which she took in the Evangelical Revival exposed her to that +contempt and ridicule from her own order which are to many harder to +bear than actual persecution. To the credit, however, of the nobility, +it must be added that most of them learnt to respect Lady Huntingdon's +character and motives, though they could not be persuaded to embrace her +opinions. With a few exceptions, chiefly among her own sex, Lady +Huntingdon was not very successful in her attempts to affect, to any +practical purpose, the class to which she belonged; but she was +marvellously successful in persuading the most distinguished persons in +the intellectual as well as the social world to come and hear her +favourite preachers. No ball or masquerade brought together more +brilliant assemblies than those which met in her drawing-room at +Chelsea, or her chapel at Bath, or in the Tabernacle itself, to hear +Whitefield and others preach. To enumerate the company would be to +enumerate the most illustrious men and women of the day. The Earl of +Chatham, Lord North, the Earl of Sandwich, Bubb Doddington, George +Selwyn, Charles Townshend, Horace Walpole, Lord Camden, Lord +Northington, the Earl of Chesterfield, Viscount Bolingbroke, the Earl of +Bath, Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland, John, Lord +Hervey, the Duke of Bolton, the Duke of Grafton, Sarah, Duchess of +Marlborough, the Duchess of Buckingham, Lady Townshend, were at +different times among the hearers.[758] Horace Walpole tells us that in +1766 it was quite the rage at Bath among persons in high life to form +parties to hear the different preachers who 'supplied' the chapel. The +bishops themselves did not disdain to attend 'incognito;' curtained +seats were placed immediately inside the door, where the prelates were +smuggled in; and this was wittily called 'Nicodemus's corner.' The +Duchess of Buckingham accepted an invitation from Lady Huntingdon to +attend her chapel at Bath in the following words: 'I thank your ladyship +for the information concerning the Methodist preachers; their doctrines +are most repulsive and strongly tinctured with impertinence and +disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level +all ranks and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told +you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the +earth. This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder +that your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with +high rank and good breeding. I shall be most happy to come and hear your +favourite preacher.'[759] Horace Walpole (who, however, is not always to +be trusted when he is writing on religious matters) wrote to Sir Horace +Mann, March 23, 1749: 'Methodism is more fashionable than anything but +brag; the women play very deep at both--as deep, it is much suspected, +as the Roman matrons did at the mysteries of Bona Dea. If gracious Anne +were alive she would make an admirable defendress of the new faith, and +would build fifty more churches for female proselytes.'[760] It is fair +to add, however, that some of the ablest among the hearers were the most +impressed. David Hume's opinion of Whitefield's preaching has already +been noticed. David Garrick[761] was certainly not disposed to ridicule +it. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Lord Bolingbroke's +sentiments expressed in a private letter to the Earl of Marchmont: 'I +hope you heard from me by myself, as well as of me by Mr. Whitefield. +This apostolical person preached some time ago at Lady Huntingdon's, and +I should have been curious to hear him. Nothing kept me from going but +an imagination that there was to be a select auditory. That saint, our +friend Chesterfield, was there, and I heard from him an extreme good +account of the sermon.'[762] Lord Bolingbroke afterwards did hear +Whitefield, and said to Lady Huntingdon: 'You may command my pen when +you will; it shall be drawn in your service. For, admitting the Bible +to be true, I shall have little apprehension of maintaining the +doctrines of predestination and grace against all your revilers.' We do +not hear that this new defender of the faith _did_ employ his pen in +Lady Huntingdon's service, and few perhaps will regret that he did not. +The extreme dislike of Lords Bolingbroke and Chesterfield for the +regular clergy, whom they would be glad to annoy in any way they could, +might have had something to do with their patronage of the 'new lights,' +as the Methodists were called. But this cannot be said of others. The +Earl of Bath, for instance, accompanied a donation of 50_l._ to Lady +Huntingdon for the Tabernacle at Bristol with the following remark: +'Mocked and reviled as Mr. Whitefield is (1749) by all ranks of society, +still I contend that the day will come when England will be just, and +own his greatness as a reformer, and his goodness as a minister of the +Most High God.'[763] Lord Chesterfield gave 20_l._ to the same object. + +Lady Huntingdon was not content with enlisting the nobility in favour of +her cause. She made her way to the Court itself. She was scandalised by +the gaiety of Archbishop Cornwallis's household, and, after having +fruitlessly remonstrated with the primate, she laid her case before the +King and the Queen. She was not only successful in the immediate object +of her visit--the King, in consequence, writing a sharp letter to the +archbishop, desiring him to desist from his unseemly routs--but was told +by George III. that he was happy in having an opportunity of assuring +her ladyship of the very good opinion he had of her, and how very highly +he estimated her character, her zeal, and her abilities, which could not +be consecrated to a more noble purpose. He then referred to her +ministers, who, he understood, were very eloquent preachers. The bishops +were jealous of them; and the King related a conversation he had lately +had with a learned prelate. He had complained of the conduct of some of +her ladyship's students and ministers, who had created a sensation in +his diocese; and his Majesty replied, 'Make bishops of them--make +bishops of them.' 'That might be done,' replied the prelate; 'but, +please your Majesty, we cannot make a bishop of Lady Huntingdon.' The +Queen replied, 'It would be a lucky circumstance if you could, for she +puts you all to shame.' 'Well,' said the King, 'see if you cannot +imitate the zeal of these men.' His lordship made some reply which +displeased the King, who exclaimed with great animation, 'I wish there +was a Lady Huntingdon in every diocese in the kingdom!'[764] + +We have as yet seen only one side of Lady Huntingdon's energy; she was +no less industrious in providing hearers for her preachers, than +preachers for her hearers.[765] She almost rivalled John Wesley himself +in the influence which she exercised over her preachers; and she was as +far removed as he was from any love of power for power's sake, although, +like him, she constantly had this accusation brought against her. The +extent of her power cannot be better stated than in the words of her +biographer: 'Her ladyship erected or possessed herself of chapels in +various parts of the kingdom, in which she appointed such persons to +officiate as ministers as she thought fit, revoking such appointments at +her pleasure. Congregations who worshipped here were called "Lady +Huntingdon's Connexion," and the ministers who officiated "ministers in +Lady Huntingdon's Connexion." Over the affairs of this Connexion Lady +Huntingdon exercised a _moral_ power to the time of her death; not only +appointing and removing the ministers who officiated, but appointing +laymen in each congregation to superintend its secular concerns, called +the "committee of management."'[766] + +The first thing that obviously occurs to one in reference to this +position is, that it should more properly belong to a man than a woman. +Even in women of the strongest understanding and the deepest and widest +culture, there is generally a want of ballast which unfits them for such +a responsibility; and Lady Huntingdon was not a lady of a strong +understanding, and still less of a deep and wide culture. But she +possessed what was better still--a single eye to her Master's glory, a +truly humble mind, and genuine piety. The possession of these graces +prevented her from falling into more errors than she did. Still, it is +certainly somewhat beyond a woman's sphere to order Christian ministers +about thus: 'Now, Wren, I charge you to be faithful, and to deliver a +faithful message in all the congregations.' 'My lady,' said Wren, 'they +will not bear it.' She rejoined, 'I will stand by you.'[767] On another +occasion she happened to have two young ministers in her house, 'when it +occurred to her that one of them should preach. Notice was accordingly +sent round that on such an evening there would be preaching before the +door. At the appointed time a great many people had collected together, +which the young men, seeing, inquired what it meant. Her ladyship said, +"As I have two preachers in my house, one of you must preach to the +people." In reply, they said that they had never preached publicly, and +wished to be excused. Shipman was ready, Matthews diffident. Lady +Huntingdon, therefore, judged it best for Mr. Shipman to make the first +attempt. While he hesitated she put a Bible into his hand, insisting +upon his appearing before the people, and either telling them that he +was afraid to trust in God, or to do the best he could. On the servant's +opening the door, her ladyship thrust him out with her blessing, "The +Lord be with you--do the best you can."'[768] At Trevecca--a college +which she founded and supported solely at her own expense--her will was +law. 'Trevecca,' wrote John Wesley,[769] 'is much more to Lady +Huntingdon than Kingswood is to me. _I_ mixes with everything. It is +_my_ college, _my_ masters, _my_ students!' When the unhappy Calvinistic +controversy broke out in 1770, Lady Huntingdon proclaimed that whoever +did not wholly disavow the Minutes should quit her college; and she +fully acted up to her proclamation.[770] Fletcher's resignation was +accepted, and Benson, the able head-master, was removed. John Wesley +himself was no longer suffered to preach in any of her pulpits. + +Her commands, however, were not always obeyed. Thus, for instance, we +find Berridge good-naturedly rallying her on a peremptory summons he had +received to 'supply' her chapel at Brighton. 'You threaten me, madam, +like a pope, not like a mother in Israel, when you declare roundly that +God will scourge me if I do not come; but I know your ladyship's good +meaning, and this menace was not despised. It made me slow in resolving. +Whilst I was looking towards the sea, partly drawn thither with the hope +of doing good, and partly driven by your _Vatican Bull_, I found nothing +but thorns in my way,' &c.[771] On a similar occasion the same good man +writes to her with that execrably bad taste for which he was even more +conspicuous than Whitefield: 'Jesus has been whispering to me of late +that I cannot keep myself nor the flock committed to me; but has not +hinted a word as yet that I do wrong in keeping to my fold. And my +instructions, you know, must come from the Lamb, not from the Lamb's +wife, though she is a tight woman.' John Wesley plainly told her that, +though he loved her well, it could not continue if it depended upon his +seeing with her eyes. Rowland Hill rebelled against her authority. + +These, however, were exceptional cases. As a rule, Lady Huntingdon was +in far more danger of being spoiled by flattery than of being +discouraged by rebuffs. Poor Whitefield's painful adulation of his +patroness has been already alluded to; and it was but natural that the +students at her college, who owed their all to her, should, in +after-life, have been inclined to treat her with too great subservience. + +One is thankful to find no traces of undue deference on the part of +those parochial clergymen who were made her chaplains, and who at +irregular intervals, when they could be spared from their own parishes, +supplied her chapels. But though these good men did not flatter her, +they felt and expressed the greatest respect for her character and +exertions, as did also the Methodists generally. Fletcher described an +interview with her in terms which sound rather overstrained, not to say +irreverent, to English ears; but allowance should be made for the +'effusion' in which foreigners are wont to indulge. 'Our conversation,' +he writes to Charles Wesley, 'was deep and full of the energy of faith. +As to me, I sat like Paul at the feet of Gamaliel; I passed three hours +with a modern prodigy--_a pious and humble countess_. I went with +trembling and in obedience to your orders; but I soon perceived a little +of what the disciples felt when Christ said to them, _It is I--be not +afraid._' John Wesley, in spite of his differences with her, owned that +'she was much devoted to God and had a thousand valuable and amiable +qualities.' Rowland Hill, when a young man, wrote in still stronger +terms: 'I am glad to hear the _Head_ is better. What zeal for God +perpetually attends her! Had I twenty bodies, I could like nineteen of +them to run about for her.'[772] + +The good countess was not unworthy of all this esteem. In spite of her +little foibles, she was a thoroughly earnest Christian woman. Her +munificence was unbounded. 'She would give,' said Grimshaw, 'to the last +gown on her back.' She is said to have spent during her life more than +100,000_l._ in the service of religion. + +Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, like John Wesley's societies, drifted away +rather than separated from the National Church. In consequence of some +litigation in the Consistorial Court of London about the Spa Fields +Chapel, it became necessary to define more precisely the 'status' of +Lady Huntingdon's places of worship. If they were still to be considered +as belonging to the Church of England, they were, of course, bound to +submit to the laws of the Church. In order to find shelter under the +Toleration Act, it was necessary to register them as Dissenting places +of worship. Thus Lady Huntingdon, much against her will, found herself a +Dissenter. She expressed her regret in that extraordinary English which +she was wont to write. 'All the other connexions seem to be at peace, +and I have ever found to belong to me while we were at ease in Zion. I +am to be cast out of the Church now, only for what I have been doing +these forty years--speaking and living for Jesus Christ; and if the days +of my captivity are now to be accomplished, those that turn me out and +so set me at liberty, may soon feel what it is, by sore distress +themselves for those hard services they have caused me.'[773] Still she +could not make up her mind to call herself and those in connexion with +her, Dissenters. She tried to find some middle term; it was not a +separation from the Church, but a 'secession;' which looks very like a +distinction without a difference. 'Our ministers must come,' writes her +ladyship in 1781, 'recommended by that neutrality between Church and +Dissent--secession;' and to the same effect in 1782: 'Mr. Wills's +secession from the Church (for which he is the most highly favoured of +all from the noble and disinterested motives that engaged his honest and +faithful conscience for the Lord's unlimited service) brings about an +ordination of such students as are alike disposed to labour in the place +and appointed for those congregations. The method of these appears the +best calculated for the comfort of the students and to serve the +congregations most usefully, and is contrived to prevent any bondage to +the people or minister. The objections to the Dissenters' plan are many, +and to the Church more; that secession means the neutrality between +both, and so materially offensive to neither.'[774] + +One result of this 'secession' was the withdrawal from the Connexion of +those parochial clergymen who had given their gratuitous services to +Lady Huntingdon--Romaine, Venn, Townsend, and others; but they still +maintained the most cordial intimacy with the countess, and continued +occasionally to supply her chapels. + +It must be admitted, in justice to the Church rulers of the day, that +the difficulties in the way of co-operation with Lady Huntingdon were by +no means slight. Her Churchmanship, like that of her friend Whitefield, +was not of the same marked type as that of John Wesley. It will be +remembered that John Wesley, in his sermon at the foundation of the City +Road Chapel in 1777--four years, be it observed, before Lady +Huntingdon's secession--described, in his own vigorous language, the +difference between the attitude of _his_ followers towards the Church, +and that of the followers of Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Whitefield. So far +as the two latter were concerned, he did not overstate the case. The +college at Trevecca could hardly be regarded in any other light than +that of a Dissenting Academy. Berridge saw this, and wrote to Lady +Huntingdon: 'However rusty or rickety the Dissenters may appear to you, +God hath His remnant among them; therefore lift not up your hand against +them for the Lord's sake nor yet for consistency's sake, because your +students are as real Dissenting preachers as any in the land, unless a +gown and band can make a clergyman. The bishops look on your students as +the worst kind of Dissenters; and manifest this by refusing that +ordination to your preachers which would be readily granted to other +teachers among the Dissenters.'[775] Berridge also thought that the +Wesleyans would not retain their position as Churchmen. In the very same +year (1777) in which Wesley gloried in the adhesion of his societies to +the Church, Berridge wrote to Lady Huntingdon: 'What will become of your +students at your decease? They are virtual Dissenters now, and will be +settled Dissenters then. And the same will happen to many, perhaps most, +of Mr. Wesley's preachers at his death. He rules like a real Alexander, +and is now stepping forth with a flaming torch; but we do not read in +history of two Alexanders succeeding each other.'[776] + +But to return to Trevecca. The rules of the college specified that the +students after three years' residence might, if they desired, enter the +ministry either of the Church or any other Protestant denomination. Now, +as Trevecca was essentially a theological college, it is hardly possible +to conceive that the theology taught there could have been so colourless +as not to bias the students in favour either of the Church or of +Dissent; and as the Church, in spite of her laxity, still retained her +liturgy, creeds, and other forms, which were more dogmatic and precise +than those of any Dissenting body, such a training as that of Trevecca +would naturally result, as the Vicar of Everton predicted, in making the +students, to all intents and purposes, Dissenters. The only wonder is +that Lady Huntingdon's Connexion should have retained so strong an +attachment to the Church as they undoubtedly did, and that, not only +during her own lifetime, but after her death. 'You ask,' wrote Dr. +Haweis to one who desired information on this point,[777] 'of what +Church we profess ourselves? We desire to be esteemed as members of +Christ's Catholic and Apostolic Church, and essentially one with the +Church of England, of which we regard ourselves as living members.... +The doctrines we subscribe (for we require subscription, and, what is +better, they are always truly preached by us) are those of the Church of +England in the literal and grammatical sense. Nor is the liturgy of the +Church of England performed more devoutly in any Church,' &c. + +The five worthy Christians whose characters and careers have been +briefly sketched were the chief promoters of what may be termed the +Methodist, as distinguished from the Evangelical, movement, in the +technical sense of that epithet. There were many others who would be +worthy of a place in a larger history. Thomas Walsh, Wesley's most +honoured friend; Dr. Coke ('a second Walsh,' Wesley called him), who +sacrificed a good position and a considerable fortune entirely to the +Methodist cause; Mr. Perronet, the excellent Vicar of Shoreham, to whom +both the brothers Wesley had recourse in every important crisis, and who +was called by Charles Wesley 'the Archbishop of Methodism;' Sir John +Thorold, a pious Lincolnshire baronet; John Nelson, the worthy +stonemason of Birstal, who was pressed as a soldier simply because he +was a Methodist, and whose death John Wesley thus records in his +Journal: 'This day died John Nelson, and left a wig and half-a-crown--as +much as any unmarried minister ought to leave;' Sampson Stainforth, Mark +Bond, and John Haine, the Methodist soldiers who infused a spirit of +Methodism in the British Army; Howell Harris, the life and soul of Welsh +Methodism; Thomas Olivers, the converted reprobate, who rode one hundred +thousand miles on one horse in the cause of Methodism, and who was +considered by John Wesley as a strong enough man to be pitted against +the ablest champions of Calvinism; John Pawson, Alexander Mather and +other worthy men--of humble birth, it may be, and scanty acquirements, +but earnest, devoted Christians--would all deserve to be noticed in a +professed history of Methodism. In a brief sketch, like the present, all +that can be said of them is, 'Cum tales essent, utinam nostri fuissent.' + + +(2) THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY. + +The Methodists met with a vast amount of opposition; but, after all, +there was a more formidable enemy to the progress of the Evangelical +revival than any from without. The good men who made so bold and +effectual a stand against vice and irreligion in the last century might +have been still more successful had they presented a united front to the +common foe; but, unfortunately, a spirit of discord within their ranks +wasted their strength and diverted them from work for which they were +admirably adapted to work for which they were by no means fitted. +Hitherto our attention has been mainly directed to the strength of the +movement. The pure lives and disinterested motives of the founders of +Methodism, their ceaseless energy, their fervent piety--in a word, their +love of God and their love of their neighbour for God's sake--these are +the points on which one loves to dwell; these are traits in their +characters which posterity has gratefully recognised, though scant +justice was done them by the men of their own generation. In their +quarrel with sin and Satan all good men will sympathise with them. It is +painful to turn from this to their quarrels among themselves; but these +latter occupy too large a space in their history to be lightly passed +over. + +It has frequently been remarked in these pages that the eighteenth +century, or at least the first half of it, was essentially an age of +controversy; but of all the controversies which distracted the Church +and nation that one which now comes under our consideration was the most +unprofitable and unsatisfactory in every way. The subject of it was that +old, old difficulty which has agitated men's minds from the beginning, +and will probably remain unsettled until the end of time--a difficulty +which is not confined to Christianity, nor even to Deism, but which +meets us quite apart from theology altogether. It is that which, in +theological language, is involved in the contest between Calvinism and +Arminianism; in philosophical, between free-will and necessity. 'The +reconciling,' wrote Lord Lyttelton, 'the prescience of God with the +free-will of man, Mr. Locke, after much thought on the subject, freely +confessed that he could not do, though he acknowledged both. And what +Mr. Locke could not do, in reasoning upon subjects of a metaphysical +nature, I am apt to think few men, if any, can hope to perform.'[778] It +would have been well if the Methodists had acted according to the spirit +of these wise words; but, unfortunately, they considered it necessary +not only to discuss the question, but to insist upon their own solution +of it in the most positive and dogmatic terms. + +One would have thought that John Wesley, at any rate, considering his +expertness in logic, would have been aware of the utter hopelessness of +disputing upon such a point; but the key to that great man's conduct in +this, as in other matters, is to be found in the intensely practical +character of his mind, especially in matters of religion. He felt the +practical danger of Antinomianism, and, feeling this, he did not, +perhaps, quite do justice to all that might be said on the other side. +In point of fact, however, he shrank, especially in his later years, +from the controversy more than others did, who were far less competent +to manage it. + +In other controversies which agitated the eighteenth century there is +some compensation for the unkindly feelings and unchristian and +extravagant language generated by the heat of dispute in the thought +that if they did not solve, they at any rate contributed something to +the solution of, pressing questions which clamoured for an answer. The +circumstances of the times required that the subjects should be +ventilated. Thus, for example, the relations between Church and State +were ill understood, and _some_ light, at any rate, was thrown upon them +by the tedious Bangorian controversy. The method in which God reveals +His will to man was a subject which circumstances rendered it necessary +to discuss. This subject was fairly sifted in the Deistical controversy. +The pains which were bestowed upon the Trinitarian controversy were not +thrown away. But it is difficult to see what fresh light was thrown upon +_any_ subject by the Calvinistic controversy. It left the question +exactly in the same position as it was in before. In studying the other +controversies, if the reader derives but little instruction or +edification on the main topic, he can hardly fail to gain some valuable +information on collateral subjects. But he may wade through the whole of +the Calvinistic controversy without gaining any valuable information on +any subject whatever. This is partly owing to the nature of the topic +discussed, but partly also to the difference between the mental calibre +of the disputants in this and the other controversies. We have at least +to thank the Deists and the Anti-Trinitarians for giving occasion for +the publication of some literary masterpieces. Through their means +English theology was enriched by the writings of Butler, Conybeare, +Warburton, Waterland, Sherlock, and Horsley. But the Calvinistic +controversy, from the beginning to the end, contributed not one single +work of permanent value to theology. + +This is a sweeping statement, and requires to be justified. Let us, +then, pass on at once from general statements to details. + +The controversy seems to have broken out during Whitefield's absence in +America (1739-1740). A correspondence arose between Wesley and +Whitefield on the subject of Calvinism and collateral questions, in +which the two good men seem to be constantly making laudable +determinations not to dispute--and as constantly breaking them. The gist +of this correspondence has been wittily summed up thus: 'Dear George, I +have read what you have written on the subject of predestination, and +God has taught me to see that you are wrong and that I am right. Yours +affectionately, J. Wesley.' And the reply: 'Dear John, I have read what +you have written on the subject of predestination, and God has taught me +that I am right and you are wrong. Yours affectionately, G. Whitefield.' + +If the dispute between these good men was warm while the Atlantic +separated them, it was still warmer when they met. In 1741 Whitefield +returned to England, and a temporary alienation between him and Wesley +arose. Whitefield is said to have told his friend that they preached two +different Gospels, and to have avowed his intention to preach against +him whenever he preached at all. Then they turned the one to the right +hand and the other to the left. As in most disputes, there were, no +doubt, faults on both sides. Both were tempted to speak unadvisedly with +their lips, and, what was still worse, to write unadvisedly with their +pens. It has already been seen that John Wesley had the knack of both +saying and writing very cutting things. If Whitefield was rash and lost +his temper, Wesley was certainly irritating. But the details of the +unfortunate quarrel may be found in any history of Wesley or Whitefield. +It is a far pleasanter task to record that in course of time the breach +was entirely healed, though neither disputant receded one jot from his +opinions. No man was ever more ready to confess his faults, no man ever +had a larger heart or was actuated by a truer spirit of Christian +charity than George Whitefield. Never was there a man of a more +forgiving temper than John Wesley. 'Ten thousand times would I rather +have died than part with my old friends,' said Whitefield of the +Wesleys. 'Bigotry flies before him and cannot stand,' said John Wesley +of Whitefield. It was impossible that an alienation between two such +men, both of whom were only anxious to do one great work, should be +permanent. + +From 1749 the Calvinistic controversy lay comparatively at rest for some +years. The publication of Hervey's 'Dialogues between Theron and +Aspasio,' in 1755, with John Wesley's remarks upon them, and Hervey's +reply to the remarks, reawakened a temporary interest in the question, +but it was not till the year 1771 that the tempest broke out again with +more than its former force. + +The occasion of the outburst was the publication of Wesley's 'Minutes of +the Conference of 1770.' Possibly John Wesley may have abstained for +some years, out of regard for Whitefield, from discussing in Conference +a subject which was calculated to disturb the re-established harmony +between him and his friend.[779] At any rate, the offending Minutes, +oddly enough, begin by referring to what had passed at the first +Conference, twenty-six years before. 'We said in 1744, We have leaned +too much towards Calvinism.' After a long abeyance the subject is taken +up at the point at which it stood more than a quarter of a century +before. + +The Minutes have often been quoted; but, for clearness' sake, it may be +well to quote them once more. + +'We said in 1744, We have leaned too much towards Calvinism. Wherein-- + +'1. With regard to man's faithfulness, our Lord Himself taught us to use +the expression; and we ought never to be ashamed of it. We ought +steadily to assert, on His authority, that if a man is not "faithful in +the unrighteous mammon" God will not "give him the true riches." + +'2. With regard to working for life, this also our Lord has expressly +commanded us. "Labour" ([Greek: Ergazesthe]--literally, "work") "for the +meat that endureth to everlasting life." And, in fact, every believer, +till he comes to glory, works for, as well as from, life. + +'3. We have received it as a maxim that "a man can do nothing in order +to justification." Nothing can be more false. Whoever desires to find +favour with God should "cease to do evil and learn to do well." Whoever +repents should do "works meet for repentance." And if this is not in +order to find favour, what does he do them for? + +'Review the whole affair. + +'1. Who of us is now accepted of God? + +'He that now believes in Christ, with a loving, obedient heart. + +'2. But who among those that never heard of Christ? + +'He that feareth God and worketh righteousness, according to the light +he has. + +'3. Is this the same with "he that is sincere"? + +'Nearly if not quite. + +'4. Is not this salvation by works? + +'Not by the merit of works, but by works as a condition. + +'5. What have we, then, been disputing about for these thirty years? + +'I am afraid about words. + +'6. As to merit itself, of which we have been so dreadfully afraid, we +are rewarded according to our works--yea, because of our works. + +'How does this differ from "for the sake of our works"? And how differs +this from _secundum merita operum_, "as our works deserve"? Can you +split this hair? I doubt I cannot. + +'7. The grand objection to one of the preceding propositions is drawn +from matter of fact. God does in fact justify those who, by their own +confession, "neither feared God nor wrought righteousness." Is this an +exception to the general rule? + +'It is a doubt if God makes any exception at all. But how are we sure +that the person in question never did fear God and work righteousness? +His own saying so is not proof; for we know how all that are convinced +of sin undervalue themselves in every respect. + +'8. Does not talking of a justified or a sanctified state tend to +mislead men, almost naturally leading them to trust in what was done in +one moment? Whereas we are every hour and every moment pleasing or +displeasing to God, according to our works, according to the whole of +our inward tempers and our outward behaviour.'[780] + +So great was the alarm and indignation caused by these Minutes that a +'circular printed letter' was, at the instigation of Lady Huntingdon, +sent round among the friends of the Evangelical movement, the purport of +which was as follows:--'Sir, whereas Mr. Wesley's Conference is to be +held at Bristol on Tuesday, August 6, next, it is proposed by Lady +Huntingdon and many other Christian friends (real Protestants) to have a +meeting at Bristol at the same time, of such principal persons, both +clergy and laity, who disapprove of the under-written Minutes; and, as +the same are thought injurious to the very fundamental principles of +Christianity, it is further proposed that they go in a body to the said +Conference, and insist upon a formal recantation of the said Minutes, +and, in case of a refusal, that they sign and publish their protest +against them. Your presence, sir, on this occasion is particularly +requested; but, if it should not suit your convenience to be there, it +is desired that you will transmit your sentiments on the subject to such +persons as you think proper to produce them. It is submitted to you +whether it would not be right, in the opposition to be made to such a +dreadful heresy, to recommend it to as many of your Christian friends, +as well of the Dissenters as of the Established Church, as you can +prevail on to be there, the cause being of so public a nature. I am, +&c., Walter Shirley.' + +The first thing that naturally strikes one is, What business had Lady +Huntingdon and her friends to interfere with Mr. Wesley and his +Conference at all? But this obvious objection does not appear to have +been raised. It would seem that there was a sort of vague understanding +that the friends of the Evangelical movement, whether Calvinist or +Arminian, were in some sense answerable to one another for their +proceedings. The Calvinists evidently thought it not only permissible +but their bounden duty not merely to disavow but to condemn, and, if +possible, bring about the suppression of the obnoxious Minutes. Mr. +Shirley said publicly 'he termed peace in such a case a shameful +indolence, and silence no less than treachery.'[781] John Wesley did not +refuse to justify to the Calvinists what he had asserted. He wrote to +Lady Huntingdon in June 1771 (the Conference did not meet till August), +referring her to his 'Sermons on Salvation by Faith,' published in 1738, +and requesting that the 'Minutes of Conference might be interpreted by +the sermons referred to.' Lady Huntingdon felt her duty to be clear. She +wrote to Charles Wesley, declaring that the proper explanation of the +Minutes was 'Popery unmasked.' 'Thinking,' she added, 'that those ought +to be deemed Papists who did not disavow them, I readily complied with a +proposal of an open disavowal of them.'[782] + +All this augured ill for the harmony of the impending Conference; but it +passed off far better than could possibly have been expected. Very few +of the Calvinists who were invited to attend responded to the appeal. +Christian feeling got the better of controversial bitterness on both +sides. John Wesley, with a noble candour, drew up a declaration, which +was signed by himself and fifty-three of his preachers, stating that, +'as the Minutes have been understood to favour justification by works, +we, the Rev. John Wesley and others, declare we had no such meaning, and +that we abhor the doctrine of justification by works as a most perilous +and abominable doctrine. As the Minutes are not sufficiently guarded in +the way they are expressed, we declare we have no trust but in the +merits of Christ for justification or salvation. And though no one is a +real Christian believer (and therefore cannot be saved) who doth not +good works when there is time and opportunity, yet our works have no +part in meriting or purchasing our justification from first to last, in +whole or in part.'[783] Lady Huntingdon and her relative Mr. Shirley +were not wanting, on their part, in Christian courtesy. 'As Christians,' +wrote Lady Huntingdon, 'we wish to retract what a more deliberate +consideration might have prevented, as we would as little wish to +defend even truth itself presumptuously as we would submit servilely to +deny it.' Mr. Shirley wrote to the same effect. + +But, alas! the troubles were by no means at an end. Fletcher had written +a vindication of the Minutes, which Wesley published. Wesley has been +severely blamed for his inconsistency in acting thus, 'after having +publicly drawn up and signed a recantation [explanation?] of the +obnoxious principles contained in the Minutes.'[784] This censure might +seem to be justified by a letter which Fletcher wrote to Lady +Huntingdon. 'When,' he says, 'I took up my pen in vindication of Mr. +Wesley's sentiments, it never entered my heart that my doing so would +have separated me from those I love and esteem. Would to God I had never +done it! To your ladyship it has caused incalculable pain and +unhappiness, and my conscience hath often stung me with bitter and +heartcutting reproaches.'[785] But, on the other hand, Fletcher himself, +in a preface to his 'Second Check to Antinomianism,' entirely exonerated +Wesley from all blame in the matter, and practically proved his +approbation of his friend's conduct by continuing the controversy in his +behalf. + +The dogs of war were now let slip. In 1772 Sir Richard Hill and his +brother Rowland measured swords with Fletcher, and drew forth from him +his Third and Fourth Checks. In 1773 Sir R. Hill gave what he termed his +'Finishing Stroke;' Berridge, the eccentric Vicar of Everton, rushed +into the fray with his 'Christian World Unmasked;' and Toplady, the +ablest of all who wrote on the Calvinist side, published a pamphlet +under the suggestive title of 'More Work for John Wesley.' The next year +(1774) there was a sort of armistice between the combatants, their +attention being diverted from theological to political subjects, owing +to the troubles in America. But in 1775 Toplady again took the field, +publishing his 'Historic Proof of the Calvinism of the Church of +England.' Mr. Sellon, a clergyman, and Mr. Olivers, the manager of +Wesley's printing, appeared on the Arminian side. The very titles of +some of the works published sufficiently indicate their character. +'Farrago Double Distilled,' 'An Old Fox Tarred and Feathered,' 'Pope +John,' tell their own tale. + +In fact, the kindest thing that could be done to the authors of this +bitter writing (who were really good men) would be to let it all be +buried in oblivion. Some of them lived to be ashamed of what they had +written. Rowland Hill, though he still retained his views as to the +doctrines he opposed, lamented in his maturer age that the controversy +had not been carried on in a different spirit.[786] Toplady, after he +had seen Olivers, wrote: 'To say the truth, I am glad I saw Mr. Olivers, +for he appears to be a person of stronger sense and better behaviour +than I had imagined.'[787] Fletcher (who had really the least cause of +any to regret what he had written), before leaving England for a visit +to his native country, invited all with whom he had been engaged in +controversy to see him, that, 'all doctrinal differences apart, he might +testify his sincere regret for having given them the least displeasure,' +&c.[788] + +It will be remembered that the Deistical controversy was conducted with +considerable acrimony on both sides; but the Deistical and +anti-Deistical literature is amenity itself when compared with the +bitterness and scurrility with which the Calvinistic controversy was +carried on. At the same time it would be a grievous error to conclude +that because the good men who took part in it forgot the rules of +Christian charity they were not under the power of Christian influences. +The very reverse was the case. It was the very earnestness of their +Christian convictions, and the intensity of their belief in the +directing agency of the Holy Spirit over Christian minds, which made +them write with a warmth which human infirmity turned into acrimony. +They all felt _de vita et sanguine agitur_; they all believed that they +were directed by the Spirit of God: consequently their opponents were +opponents not of them, the human instruments, but of that God who was +working by their means; in plain words, they were doing the work of the +Devil. Add to this a somewhat strait and one-sided course of reading, +and a very imperfect appreciation of the real difficulties of the +subject they were handling (for all, without exception, write with the +utmost confidence, as if they understood the whole matter thoroughly, +and nothing could possibly be written to any purpose on the other side), +and the paradox of truly Christian men using such truly unchristian +weapons will cease to puzzle us. + +Two only of the writers in this badly managed controversy deserve any +special notice--viz., Fletcher on the Arminian and Toplady on the +Calvinist side. + +Fletcher's 'Checks to Antinomianism' are still remembered by name (which +is more than can be said of most of the literature connected with this +controversy), and may, perhaps, still be read, and even regarded as an +authority by a few; but they are little known to the general reader, and +occupy no place whatever in theological literature. Perhaps they hardly +deserve to do so. Nevertheless, anything which such a man as Fletcher +wrote is worthy at least of respectful consideration, if for nothing +else, at any rate for the saintly character of the writer. He wrote like +a scholar and a gentleman, and, what is better than either, like a +Christian. Those who accuse him of having written bitterly against the +Calvinists cannot, one would imagine, have read his writings, but must +have taken at second hand the cruelly unjust representation of them +given by his opponents.[789] 'If ever,' wrote Southey, with perfect +truth, 'true Christian charity was manifested in polemical writing, it +was by Fletcher of Madeley.' There is but one passage[790] in which +Fletcher condescends to anything like personal scurrility, in spite of +the many grossly personal insults which were heaped upon him and his +friends. + +This self-restraint is all the more laudable because Fletcher possessed +a rich vein of satirical humour, which he might have employed with +telling effect against his opponents. + +He also showed an excellent knowledge of Scripture and great ingenuity +in explaining it on his own side. He was an adroit and skilful +disputant, and, considering that he was a foreigner, had a great mastery +over the English language. + +What, in spite of these merits, makes the 'Checks' an unsatisfactory +book, is the want of a comprehensive grasp of general principles. In +common with all the writers on both sides of the question. Fletcher +shows a strange lack of philosophical modesty--a lack which is all the +stranger in him because personally he was conspicuous for extreme +modesty and thoroughly genuine humility. But there is no appearance, +either in Fletcher's writings or in those of any others who engaged in +the controversy, that they adequately realised the extreme difficulty of +the subject. Everything is stated with the utmost confidence, as if the +whole difficulty--which an archangel might have felt--was entirely +cleared away. If one compares Fletcher's writings on Calvinism with the +scattered notices of the subject in Waterland's works, the difference +between the two writers is apparent at once; there is a massiveness and +a breadth of culture about the older writer which contrasts painfully +with the thinness and narrowness of the younger. Or, if it be unfair to +compare Fletcher with an intellectual giant like Waterland, we may +compare his 'Checks' with Bishop Tomline's 'Refutation of Calvinism.' +Bishop Tomline is even more unfair to the Calvinists than Fletcher, but +he shows far greater maturity both of style and thought. All the three +writers took the same general view of the subject, though from widely +different standpoints. But Tomline is as much superior to Fletcher as he +is inferior to Waterland. + +If Fletcher was pre-eminently the best writer in this controversy on the +Arminian side, it is no less obvious that the palm must be awarded to +Toplady on the Calvinist side. Before we say anything about Toplady's +writings, let it be remembered that his pen does not do justice to his +character. Toplady was personally a pious, worthy man, a diligent +pastor, beloved by and successful among his parishioners, and by no +means quarrelsome--except upon paper. He lived a blameless life, +principally in a small country village, and died at the early age of +thirty-eight. It is only fair to notice these facts, because his +controversial writings might convey a very different impression of the +character of the man. + +Toplady is described by his biographer as 'the legitimate successor of +Hervey.'[791] There are certain points of resemblance between the two +men. Both were worthy parish priests, and the spheres of duty of both +lay in remote country villages; both died at a comparatively early age; +both were Calvinists; and both in the course of controversy came into +collision with John Wesley. But here the resemblance ends. To describe +Toplady as the legitimate successor of Hervey is to do injustice to +both. For, on the one hand, Toplady (though his writings were never so +popular) was a far abler and far more deeply read man than Hervey. There +was also a vein of true poetry in him, which his predecessor did not +possess. Hervey could never have written 'Rock of Ages.' On the other +hand, the gentle Hervey was quite incapable of writing the violent +abuse, the bitter personal scurrilities, which disgraced Toplady's pen. +A sad lack of Christian charity is conspicuous in all writers (except +Fletcher) in this ill-conducted controversy, but Toplady outherods +Herod. + +One word must be added. Although, considered as permanent contributions +to theological literature, the writings on either side are worthless, +yet the dispute was not without value in its immediate effects. It +taught the later Evangelical school to guard more carefully their +Calvinistic views against the perversions of Antinomianism. This we +shall see when we pass on, as we may now do, to review that system which +may be termed 'Evangelicalism' in distinction to the earlier Methodism. + + +(3) THE EVANGELICALS. + + Largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit + Purpureo.... + +It is with a real sense of relief that we pass out of the close air and +distracting hubbub of an unprofitable controversy into a fresher and +calmer atmosphere. + +The Evangelical section of the English Church cannot, without +considerable qualification, be regarded as the outcome of the earlier +movement we have been hitherto considering. It is true that what we must +perforce call by the awkward names of 'Evangelicalism' and 'Methodism' +had many points in common--that they were constantly identified by the +common enemies of both--that they were both parts of what we have termed +in the widest sense of the term 'the Evangelical revival'--that they, in +fact, crossed and interlaced one another in so many ways that it is not +always easy to disentangle the one from the other--that there are +several names which one is in doubt whether to place on one side of the +line or the other. But still it would be a great mistake to confound the +two parties. There was a different tone of mind in the typical +representatives of each. They worked for the most part in different +spheres, and, though their doctrines may have accorded in the main, +there were many points, especially as regards Church order and +regularity, in which there was no cordial sympathy between them. + +The difficulty, however, of disentangling Evangelicalism from Methodism +in the early phases of both confronts us at once when we begin to +consider the cases of individuals. + +Among the first in date of the Evangelicals proper we must place _James +Hervey_ (1714-1758), the once popular author of 'Meditations and +Contemplations' and 'Theron and Aspasio.' But then Hervey was one of the +original Methodists. He was an undergraduate of Lincoln College at the +same time that John Wesley was Fellow, and soon came under the influence +of that powerful mind; and he kept up an intimacy with the founder of +Methodism long after he left college. Yet it is evidently more correct +to class Hervey among the Evangelicals than among the Methodists; for in +all the points of divergence between the two schools he sided with the +former. He was a distinct Calvinist;[792] he was always engaged in +parochial work, and he not only took no part in itinerant work, but +expressed his decided disapproval of those clergy who did so, venturing +even to remonstrate with his former Mentor on his irregularities. + +There are few incidents in Hervey's short and uneventful life which +require notice. It was simply that of a good country parson. The +disinterestedness and disregard for wealth, which honourably +distinguished almost all the Methodist and Evangelical clergy, were +conspicuous features in Hervey's character. His father held two livings +near Northampton--Western Favell and Collington; but, though the joint +incomes only amounted to 180_l._ a year, and though the villages were +both of small population and not far apart, Hervey for some time +scrupled to be a pluralist; and it was only in order to provide for the +wants of an aged mother and a sister that he at length consented to hold +both livings. He solemnly devoted the whole produce of his literary +labours to the service of humanity, and, though his works were +remunerative beyond his most sanguine expectations, he punctually kept +his vow. He is said to have given no less than 700_l._ in seven years in +charity--in most cases concealing his name. Nothing more need be said +about his quiet, blameless, useful life. + +It is as an author that James Hervey is best known to us. The popularity +which his writings long enjoyed presents to us a curious phenomenon. +Almost to this day old-fashioned libraries of divinity are not complete +without the 'Meditations' and 'Theron and Aspasio,' though probably they +are not often read in this age.[793] But by Hervey's contemporaries his +books were not only bought, but read and admired. They were translated +into almost every modern language. The fact that such works were +popular, not among the uneducated, but among those who called themselves +people of culture, almost justifies John Wesley's caustic exclamation, +'How hard it is to be superficial enough for a polite audience!' +Hervey's style can be described in no meaner terms than as the +extra-superfine style. It is prose run mad. Let the reader judge for +himself. Here is a specimen of his 'Meditations among the Tombs.' The +tomb of an infant suggests the following reflections: 'The peaceful +infant, staying only to wash away its native impurity in the layer of +regeneration, bid a speedy adieu to time and terrestrial things. What +did the little hasty sojourner find so forbidding and disgustful in our +upper world to occasion its precipitate exit?' The tomb of a young lady +calls forth the following morbid horrors:--'Instead of the sweet and +winning aspect, that wore perpetually an attractive smile, grins +horribly a naked, ghastly skull. The eye that outshone the diamond's +brilliancy, and glanced its lovely lightning into the most guarded +heart--alas! where is it? Where shall we find the rolling sparkler? How +are all its sprightly beams eclipsed!' The tongue, flesh, &c., are dwelt +upon in the same fashion. + +It is hard to believe that this was really considered fine writing by +our ancestors, but the fact is indisputable. The 'Meditations' brought +in a clear gain of 700_l._ Dr. Blair, himself a model of taste in his +day, spoke in high terms of approbation of Hervey's writings. Boswell +records with evident astonishment that Dr. Johnson 'thought slightingly +of this admired book' (the 'Meditations'); 'he treated it with ridicule, +and parodied it in a "Meditation on a Pudding."'[794] Most modern +readers will be surprised that any sensible people could think otherwise +than Dr. Johnson did of such a farrago of highflown sentiment clothed in +the most turgid language. + +It is a pity that Hervey could not learn to be less bombastic in his +style and less vapid in his sentiments, for, after all, he had an eye +for the sublime and beautiful both in the world around him and in the +heavens above his head--a faculty very rare in the age in which he +lived, and especially in the school to which he belonged. Occasionally +he condescends to be more simple and natural, and consequently more +readable. Here and there one meets with a passage which almost reminds +one of Addison, but such exceptions are rare.[795] + +Ten years after the publication of the first volume of the 'Meditations' +(1745) Hervey published (1755) three volumes of 'Dialogues between +Theron and Aspasio,' with a view to recommend to 'people of elegant +manners and polite accomplishments' the Calvinistic theology, and more +especially the doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness stated +Calvinistically. The style of these 'Dialogues' is not quite so absurd +as that of the 'Meditations,' but still it is inflated enough. The +disputants always converse in the highly genteel manner. But the book +was suited to the public taste, and was almost as successful as its +predecessor. 'I write for the poor,' wrote Whitefield to the author, +'you for the polite and noble.' The aim of the treatise is expressed in +the work itself. 'Let us endeavour to make religious conversation, which +is in all respects desirable, in some degree fashionable.' + +Hervey seems to have felt that he was treading upon debatable ground +when he wrote this work; and therefore, acting upon the principle that +'in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom,' he distributed +different parts of his manuscript among his friends before publication, +and adopted, on their advice, a variety of alterations. Among others he +consulted John Wesley--of all men in the world--Wesley, who never used +two words where one would suffice, and never chose a long word where he +could find a short one to express his meaning[796]--Wesley, too, who +disliked everything savouring of Calvinism, and who was not likely, +therefore, to regard with a favourable eye a Calvinistic treatise +written in a diffuse and turgid style. Hervey's biographer tells us that +Wesley gave his opinion without tenderness or reserve--condemned the +language, reprobated the doctrines, and tried to invalidate the +proofs.[797] The writer owns that there was 'good sense in some of the +remarks,' but thinks that 'their dogmatical language and dictatorial +style entirely prevented their effect.'[798] Toplady also censures the +'rancour with which Mr. Hervey and his works were treated by +Wesley.'[799] We may well believe that Wesley, one of whose infirmities +it was to write rough letters, would not be particularly complimentary. +But surely Hervey should have known his man better than to have placed +him in such an awkward predicament. It should be remembered, too, that +Wesley looked upon Hervey as his spiritual son, and therefore felt +himself to some extent responsible for his theological views and +literary performances. It should also be borne in mind that Hervey was +an undergraduate at Lincoln College when Wesley was a don. All who know +the relationship which exists or existed between dons and undergraduates +will be aware that the former often feel themselves privileged to +address their quondam pupils with a freedom which others would not +venture to use. + +Those who judge of Hervey by his works might be tempted to think that he +was affected and unreal. In fact, he was quite the reverse. When writing +for the polite world,[800] his style was odiously florid; but his +sermons for his simple parishioners were plain and natural both in style +and substance. Personally he was a man of simple habits and genuine +piety, a good son and brother, an excellent parish priest, and a patient +sufferer under many physical infirmities. He had no exaggerated opinion +of his own intellectual powers. 'My friend,' he said to Mr. Ryland, 'I +have not a strong mind; I have not powers fitted for arduous researches; +but I think I have a power of writing in somewhat of a striking manner, +so far as to please mankind and recommend my dear Redeemer.'[801] This +was really the great object of his life, 'to recommend his dear +Redeemer;' and if he effected this object by writing what may appear to +us poor stuff, we need not quarrel with him, but may rather be thankful +that he did not write in vain. + +_Grimshaw of Haworth_ (1708-1763) was another clergyman of the last +century who formed a connecting link between the Methodists proper and +the later Evangelical school. On the one hand, he was an intimate friend +of the Wesleys and other leaders of the Methodist movement, both lay and +clerical; he welcomed them at Haworth and lent them his pulpit; he took +part in the work of itinerancy, and, in fact, threw himself heart and +soul into the Methodist cause. On the other hand, he was, from the +beginning to the end of his ministerial career, a parochial clergyman; +he does not appear to have been indebted to Methodism for his first +serious impressions, and he maintained his position as a moderate +Calvinist, though he wisely kept quite clear of the controversy and +never came into collision with his friend Wesley on this fruitful +subject of dispute. The scenes of his energetic and successful labours +were the moors about Haworth, the bleak physical desolation of which was +only too true a picture of the moral and spiritual desolation of their +population before this good man awakened them to spiritual life. The +eccentricities of 'mad Grimshaw' have probably been exaggerated; for +one knows how, when a man acquires a reputation of this sort, every +ridiculous story which happens to be current is apt to be fathered upon +him. No doubt he _was_ eccentric; he possessed a quaint humour which was +not unusual in the early Evangelical school; but he never allowed +himself to be so far carried away by this spirit as to bring ridicule +upon the cause which he had at heart. + +If it were the object of these sketches to make people laugh, Grimshaw's +life would furnish us with a fruitful subject of amusement. How he +dressed himself up as an old woman in order to discover who were the +disturbers of his cottage lectures; how he sold his Alderney cow because +'she would follow him up into the pulpit;' how a visitor at Haworth +looked out of his bedroom window one morning and saw to his horror the +vicar cleaning his guest's boots; how he is said (though this anecdote +is rather apocryphal) once to have made his congregation sing all the +176 verses of the 119th Psalm, while he went out to beat up the +wanderers to attend public worship; how he once interrupted a preacher +who was congratulating the Haworth people on the advantages they enjoyed +under a Gospel ministry, by crying out in a loud voice, 'No, no, sir, +don't flatter them; they are most of them going to Hell with their eyes +open;' these and many other such stories might be told at full +length.[802] But it is more profitable to dwell upon the noble, +disinterested work which he did, quite unrecognised by the great men of +his day, in a district which had sore need of such apostolical labours. +His last words were, 'Here goes an unprofitable servant'--words which +are no doubt true in the mouths of the best of men; but if any man might +have boasted that he had done profitable service in his Master's cause, +that man would have been William Grimshaw. + +There is a strong family likeness between Grimshaw and _Berridge of +Everton_ (1716-1793), but the marked features of the character were more +conspicuous in the latter than in the former. Both were energetic +country parsons, and both itinerated; but Berridge went over a wider +field than Grimshaw. Both were oddities; but the oddities of Berridge +were more outrageous than those of Grimshaw. Both were stirring +preachers; but the effects of Berridge's preaching were more startling +if not more satisfactory than those which attended Grimshaw. Both were +Calvinists; but Berridge's Calvinism was of the more marked type of the +two. Moreover, Berridge rushed into the very thick of the Calvinistic +controversy, from which Grimshaw held aloof. Berridge was the better +read and the more highly trained man of the two. He was a Fellow of +Clare Hall, Cambridge, and before his conversion he was much sought +after, and that by men of great eminence, as a wit and an amusing boon +companion. The parish church of Everton was constantly the scene of +those violent physical symptoms which present a somewhat puzzling +phenomenon to the student of early Methodism. Berridge's eccentricities, +both in the pulpit and out of it, caused pain to the more sober-minded +of the Evangelical party. Thus we find John Thornton expostulating with +him in the following terms: 'The tabernacle people are in general wild +and enthusiastic, and delight in anything out of the common, which is a +temper of mind, though in some respect necessary, yet should never be +encouraged. If you and some few others, who have the greatest influence +over them, would use the curb instead of the spur, I am persuaded the +effects would be very blessed. You told me you was born with a fool's +cap on. Pray, my dear sir, is it not high time it was pulled off?' +Berridge, in his reply, admits the impeachment, but cannot resist giving +Thornton a Roland for his Oliver. 'A fool's cap,' he writes, 'is not put +off so readily as a night-cap. One cleaves to the head, and one to the +heart. It has been a matter of surprise to me how Dr. Conyers could +accept of Deptford living, and how Mr. Thornton could present him to it. +Has not lucre led him to Deptford, and has not a family connection ruled +your private judgment?'[803] + +Specimens of Berridge's odd style and occasionally bad taste have +already been given in connection with Lady Huntingdon, and need not here +be multiplied. It was no doubt questionable propriety to say that +'nature lost her legs in paradise, and has not found them since,' or +that 'an angel might preach such doctrine as was commonly preached till +his wings dropped off without doing any good,' or to tell us that 'he +once went to Jesus as a coxcomb and gave himself fine airs.' But it is +far more easy to laugh at and to criticise the foibles of the good man +than to imitate his devotedness to his Masters service, and the moral +courage which enabled him to exchange the dignified position and learned +leisure of a University don for the harassing life and despised position +of a Methodist preacher--for so the Vicar of Everton would have been +termed in his own day. + +The Evangelical revival drew within the sphere of its influence men of +the most opposite characters. It would be difficult to conceive a more +complete contrast than that which _William Romaine_ (1714-1795) +presented to the two worthies last mentioned. Grave, severe, +self-restrained, and, except to those who knew him intimately, somewhat +repellent in manners. Romaine would have been quite unfitted for the +work which Grimshaw and Berridge, in spite--or, shall we say, in +consequence?--of their boisterous bonhomie and occasionally ill-timed +jocularity were able to do. The farmers and working men of Haworth or +Everton would assuredly have gone to sleep under his preaching, or +stayed away from church altogether. One can scarcely fancy Romaine +itinerating at all; but if he had done so, the bleak moors of Yorkshire +or the cottage homes of Bedfordshire would not have been suitable +spheres for his labours. But where he was, he was the right man in the +right place. Among the grave and decorous citizens who attended the city +churches, and among the educated congregations who flocked to hear him +at St. George's, Hanover Square, Romaine was appreciated. Both in his +character and in his writings Romaine approached more nearly than any of +the so-called Puritans of his day to the typical Puritan of the +seventeenth century. He was like one born out of due time. One can fancy +him more at home with Flavel, Howe, and Baxter than with Whitefield, +Berridge, and Grimshaw. Did we not know its date, we might have imagined +that the 'Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith' was written a hundred years +before it actually was. Its very style and language were archaic in the +eighteenth century, Romaine, indeed, thoroughly won the sympathy of the +generation in which he lived, or at any rate of the school to which he +belonged. But it was a work of time. He was at Oxford at the time of the +rise of Methodism, but appears to have held no communication with its +promoters. In another respect he differed from almost all the +Evangelicals. There was apparently no transition, either abrupt or +gradual, in his views. The only change which we can trace in his career +is the change in his outer life from the learned leisure of a six years' +residence at Oxford and ten years in a country curacy to the more active +sphere of duty of a London clergyman. The mere fact that a man of his +high reputation for learning and his irreproachable life should have +been left unbeneficed until he had reached the ripe age of fifty-two, is +another proof of the suspicion with which Methodism was regarded; for no +doubt he was early suspected of being tainted with Methodism. He +belonged to Lady Huntingdon's Connexion until the 'secession' of 1781, +when, like Venn and other parochial clergymen, he was compelled to +withdraw from formal union, though he still retained the closest +intimacy with her. He was for some time her senior chaplain, and her +adviser and assistant on all occasions. Although he differed from John +Wesley on the disputed points of Arminianism and sinless perfection more +widely than any of his co-religionists, he appears to have retained the +affection of that great man after others had lost it; for we find +Wesley writing to Lady Huntingdon in 1763: 'Only Mr. Romaine has shown a +truly sympathising spirit, and acted the part of a brother.' Indeed, +although Romaine was quite ready to enter into the lists of controversy +with Warburton and others whom he considered to be outside the +Evangelical pale, he seems to have held aloof from the disputes which +distracted those within that pale. 'Things are not here' [in London], he +writes to Lady Huntingdon, 'as at Brighthelmstone; Foundry, Tabernacle, +Lock, Meeting, yea and St. Dunstan's itself [his own church], has each +its party, and brotherly love is almost lost in our disputes. Thank God, +I am out of them.' + +Romaine's Calvinism was of a more extreme type than that of most of the +Evangelicals. He was no Antinomian himself, but one can well believe +that his teaching might easily be perverted to Antinomian purposes. +Wilberforce has an entry in his journal for 1795:--'Dined with old +Newton, where met Henry Thornton and Macaulay. Newton very calm and +pleasing. Owned that Romaine had made many Antinomians.'[804] It seems +not improbable that Thomas Scott, when he spoke of 'great names +sanctioning Antinomianism,' had Romaine in view; at any rate, there is +no contemporary 'great name' to whom the remark would apply with equal +force.[805] It should be added that the 'Life, &c., of Faith' possesses +the strength as well as the defects of early Puritanism. It is, perhaps, +on the whole, the strongest book, as its author was the strongest man of +any who appeared among the Evangelicals. To find its equal we must go +back to the previous century. + +We have hitherto been tracing the work of the Evangelical clergy in +remote country villages and in London. We have now to turn to one whose +most important work was done in a different sphere from either. _Henry +Venn_ (1724-1797) is chiefly known as the Vicar of Huddersfield, though +he only held that post for twelve out of the seventy-three years of his +life. Like all the rest of the Evangelical clergy whom we have noticed, +Venn was a connecting link between the Methodists and the Evangelicals +proper. Like Romaine, he belonged to Lady Huntingdon's Connexion until +the secession of 1781. He was also in the habit of itinerating during +the early part of his Evangelical ministry. He was on the most intimate +terms with the Wesleys and Whitefield, and thoroughly identified himself +with their practical work. But his son tells us in his most interesting +biography that his views changed on this matter. 'Induced,' he writes, +'by the hope of doing good, my father in certain instances preached in +unconsecrated places. But having acknowledged this, it becomes my +pleasing duty to state that he was no advocate for irregularity in +others; that when he afterwards considered it in its different bearings +and connections, he lamented that he had given way to it, and restrained +several other persons from such acts by the most cogent arguments.'[806] +The dispute between Venn and John Wesley as to whether the Methodist +preachers should be withdrawn from parishes where an Evangelical +incumbent was appointed has been already noticed. + +The career of Henry Venn is particularly interesting and important, +because it shows us not only the points of contact between the +Methodists and Evangelicals, but also their points of divergence. In +spite of his itinerancy and his strong sympathy with the Methodist +leaders, Venn furnishes a more marked type of the rising Evangelical +school than any whom we have yet noticed. Apart from his literary work, +it was as a parish priest rather than as an evangelist that Venn made +his mark. His preaching at Huddersfield was unquestionably most +effective; but its effect was at least as much due to the great respect +which he inspired, the disinterestedness of his whole life and work, the +affectionate earnestness and sound practical sense of his counsel--in +short, to his pastoral efforts--as to his mere oratory. Again, the +Calvinism of Henry Venn was distinctly that of the later Evangelical +school rather than that of Whitefield and Romaine. He was a Calvinist of +precisely the same type as Newton, and Scott, and Cecil, and the two +Milners. + +His closing years were very calm and happy. Worn out before his time in +his Master's work, he was obliged to exchange at the early age of +forty-seven the harass of a large town parish for the quiet of a country +village. More than a quarter of a century he passed in the peaceful +retirement of Yelling; but he was not idle. He faithfully attended to +his little parish, he trained up his family with admirable judgment in +the principles of piety, and had the satisfaction of living to see his +sons walking in his steps. One of them, John, became the respected and +useful rector of Clapham, to which place Henry Venn retired to die. +There are few names which are more highly esteemed among the Evangelical +party than the honoured name of Venn. + +Henry Venn earned an honourable name as a writer no less than as a +pastor and preacher. It is not necessary here to dwell upon the few +sermons of his which are extant, and which probably give us a very +inadequate idea of his preaching power; nor yet upon his correspondence, +although it deserves a high place among those letters which form a +conspicuous feature in the literature of the eighteenth century. But he +wrote one work which requires further notice. The 'Complete Duty of Man' +would, if nothing else did, prevent his name from sinking into oblivion. +It deserves to live for its intrinsic merits. It is one of the few +instances of a devotional book which is not unreadable. It is not, like +some of the class, full of mawkish sentimentality; nor, like others, so +high-flown that it cannot be used for practical purposes by ordinary +mortals without a painful sense of unreality; nor, like others, so +intolerably dull as to disgust the reader with the subject which it +designs to recommend. It is written in a fine, manly, sensible strain of +practical piety. Venn's Huddersfield experience no doubt stood him in +good stead when he wrote this little treatise; the faithful pastor had +been wont to give advice orally to many an anxious inquirer, and he put +forth in print the counsel which he had found to be most effectual among +his appreciative parishioners. It is this fact, that it is evidently the +work of a man of practical experience, which constitutes the chief merit +of the book. Regarded as a literary composition, it by no means attains +a high rank, for its style is somewhat heavy and its arguments are not +very deep. If we would appreciate its excellence we must take it simply +as the counsel of a sincere and affectionate friend. Among the +devotional books of the century[807] it stands perhaps only +second--_longo sed proximus intervallo_--to the great work which, more +than any other, originated the Evangelical revival. This, after all, is +not necessarily very high praise; for the devotional books of the +eighteenth century do not reach a very high degree of excellence;[808] +with the single exception of the 'Serious Call,' not one of them can be +compared with the best of the preceding century--with Jeremy Taylor's +'Holy Living and Holy Dying,' for instance, or Baxter's 'Call to the +Unconverted,' or his 'Saint's Everlasting Rest,' or Howe's 'Living +Temple.' + +But there is an historical interest in the 'Complete Duty of Man' quite +apart from its intrinsic merits. It may be regarded generally as a sort +of manifesto of the Evangelical party; and specially as a counterblast +against the defective theology of what Whitefield called 'England's +greatest favourite, "The Whole Duty of Man."' The very title of Venn's +work indicates its relationship to that once famous book. The 'Whole +Duty of Man' was written anonymously in the days of the Commonwealth, +when Calvinism had in too many cases degenerated into Antinomianism. It +has been seen how Whitefield with characteristic rashness declared that +its author knew no more of Christianity than Mahomet; and afterwards, +with equally characteristic candour, owned that he had been far too +severe in his condemnation. Cowper called it 'that repository of +self-righteousness and pharisaical lumber.'[809] Berridge equally +condemned it. Much more testimony to the same effect might be given. +There was, then, ample room for a treatise which should aim at the same +purpose as the 'Whole Duty of Man,' but which should enforce its +teaching on different principles. This want the 'Complete Duty' +supplied, and in its day supplied well. It was written from a +Calvinistic point of view; but its Calvinism differed widely from that, +for instance, of Romaine. A comparison between it and the 'Life, Walk, +and Triumph of Faith' marks the decided difference between two types of +Calvinists. Both books, it is presumed, were intended to be practical +treatises; but, whereas the one treats but very little of directly +practical duties, the full half--and the best and most interesting +half--of the other is exclusively concerned with them. Having fully +stated in his opening chapters the distinctive doctrines upon which +alone he thinks sound morality can be based, Venn in the rest of his +treatise enters with the utmost minuteness into the practical duties of +the Christian to God and man. Truthfulness, honesty, meekness, courtesy, +candour, the relative duties in various capacities--of masters towards +their servants and servants towards their masters, of parents towards +their children and children towards their parents, and the like, are all +fully dwelt upon. + +For convenience' sake we have spoken of the _later_ Evangelicalism as +distinguished from the _earlier_ Methodism. But it would be inaccurate +to represent the one simply as the successor of the other. The two +movements were, to a certain extent, contemporaneous, and were for a +time so blended together that it is difficult to separate them. Besides +the clergy already noticed, there were several others scattered +throughout the country who clearly belonged to the Evangelicals rather +than to the Methodists. Such a one was Walker of Truro (1714-1761), who, +by his own personal work and by his influence over other clergy, +contributed largely to the spread of the Evangelical revival in the West +of England. Such a one was Adam of Winteringham, the author of a once +very popular devotional book, entitled 'Private Thoughts,' and his +friend and neighbour Archdeacon Bassett of Glentworth. Such a one was +Augustus Toplady, about whom enough has been said in connection with the +Calvinistic controversy. On the crucial test, which separated Methodism +proper from Evangelicalism proper, these and several others of less note +were decidedly on the, side of Evangelicalism. While agreeing thoroughly +with Methodist doctrines (we may waive the vexed question of Calvinism), +they thoroughly disapproved of the Methodist practice of itinerancy, +which they regarded as a mark of insubordination, a breach of Church +order, and an unwarrantable interference with the parochial system.[810] +We find Hervey, and Walker, and Adam all expostulating with Wesley on +his irregularities, and endeavouring to persuade him, though quite +ineffectually, to submit to Church discipline and listen to the commands +of Church rulers. Wesley, on his part, thought that such clergy were a +mere rope of sand. Berridge predicted that, after the death of the +individuals, their congregations would be absorbed in the Dissenting +sects. Neither seems to have contemplated the possibility of what +actually took place, viz. the formation of a strong party within the +Church, quite as much attached to parochial order and quite as obedient +to the Church rulers as the highest of High Churchmen. It has been +asserted, and apparently not without reason, that these early +Evangelicals found more sympathy among the pious Dissenters than they +did among the Methodists, though they were constantly confounded with +the latter.[811] + +It was not, however, until the later years of the century that the +scattered handful of clergy who held these views swelled into a large +and compact body, which, to this day, has continued to form a great and +influential section of the Church of England. + +The first name which claims our attention in this connection is that of +_John Newton_ (1725-1807). No character connected with the Evangelical +revival is presented to us with greater vividness and distinctness than +his, and no character is on the whole a more lovable one. It has +frequently been objected that Christians of the Puritan and Evangelical +schools, when describing their conversion, have been apt to exaggerate +their former depravity. There may be some force in the objection, +but it does not apply to John Newton. The moral and even physical +degradation from which he was rescued can hardly be exaggerated. An +infidel, a blasphemer, a sensualist, a corrupter of others, despised +by the very negroes among whom his lot was cast, such was Newton in +his earlier years. Those who desire to learn the details of this part +of his life may be referred to his own harrowing--sometimes even +repulsive--narrative, or to the biography written by his accomplished +friend, Mr. Cecil. None of the Evangelical leaders passed through such +an ordeal as he did; but the experience which he underwent as a +slave-trader, and as the menial servant of a slave-trader, stood him in +good stead after he had become an exemplary and respected clergyman. It +enabled him to enter into and sympathise with the rude temptations of +others; he had felt them all himself; he had yielded to them, and by the +grace of God he had overcome them. The grossest of profligates found in +him one who had sunk to a lower depth than themselves; and so they dared +to unburthen their very hearts to him; and few who did so went away +without relief. They would hardly have ventured to make so clean a +breast before men who, like the majority of the Evangelical leaders, had +always lived at least outwardly respectable lives; and if they had +ventured to do so, these good men could hardly have appreciated their +difficulties. But Newton had been one of them; scarcely a sin could they +mention but he had either committed it himself, or been brought into +close contact with those who _had_ committed it. It was not so much as a +preacher that Newton's forte lay; for though his sermons were full of +matter and read well, it is said that they were not well delivered; and, +perhaps, they are in themselves a little heavy, and deficient in the +lighter graces of oratory. But as an adviser and personal director of +those who had been heinous sinners, and had learnt to cry in the agony +of their souls, 'What must I do to be saved?' Newton was +unrivalled.[812] Nor was it only to the profligate that Newton's advice +was seasonable and effective. Many who were living outwardly decorous +lives derived inestimable benefit from it. Thomas Scott, Joseph Milner, +William Cowper, William Wilberforce, and Hannah More were all more or +less influenced by him. Newton was in every way adapted to be a +spiritual adviser. In spite of his rough exterior he was a man of a very +affectionate nature. This at his worst he never lost. In his darkest +hours there was still one bright spot. His love for Mary Catlett, first +conceived when she was a child of thirteen, continued unabated to the +day of her death and beyond her death. This plain, downright, homely man +not only professed, but felt, an ardour of attachment which no hero of +romance ever exceeded. His conscience reproached him for making an idol +of his 'dear Mary.' Oddly enough, he took the public into his +confidence. The publication of his 'Letters to a Wife,' breathing as +they do the very spirit of devoted love, in his own life-time, may have +been in questionable taste; but they indicate a simplicity very +characteristic of the man. His letters upon her death to Hannah More and +others are singularly plaintive and beautiful; and the verses which he +wrote year by year on each anniversary of that sad event are more +touching than better poetry.[813] + +His name is specially connected with that of the poet Cowper. At first +sight it would seem difficult to conceive a greater contrast than that +which existed between the two men. Cowper was a highly nervous, shy, +delicate man, who was most at home in the company of ladies in their +drawing-room, who had had no experience whatever of external hardships, +who had always lived a simple, retired life, and had shrunk with +instinctive horror from the grosser vices. He was from his youth a +refined and cultured scholar, and had associated with scarcely any but +the pure and gentle. Newton was a plain, downright sailor, with nerves +of iron, and a mind and spirit as robust as his frame. He had little +inclination for the minor elegancies of life. He was almost entirely +self-taught. What could there be in common between two such men? + +In point of fact, these differences were all merely superficial. +Penetrate a little deeper, and it will be found that in reality they +were thoroughly kindred spirits. On the one side, Cowper's apparent +effeminacy was all on the surface; his mind, when it was not unstrung, +was of an essentially masculine and vigorous type. All his writings, +including his delightful letters as well as his poetry, are remarkably +free from mawkishness and mere sentimentality. On the other side, +Newton's roughness was merely superficial. Within that hard exterior +there beat a heart as tender and delicate as that of any child. It is +the greatest mistake in the world to confound this genial, sociable man, +full of quiet, racy humour, smoking that memorable pipe of his, which +was the occasion of so much harmless fun between him and Cowper and the +worthy sisters More--with the hard surly Puritan of the Balfour of +Burley type. Newton had a point of contact with every side of Cowper's +character. He had at least as strong a sympathy with the author of 'John +Gilpin' as with the author of 'The Task.' For one of the most marked +features of John Newton's intellectual character was his strong sense of +humour. Many of his 'ana' rival those of Dr. Johnson himself; and now +and then, even in his sermons, glimpses of his humorous tendency peep +forth.[814] But his wit never degenerated into buffoonery, and was never +unseasonable like that of Berridge and Grimshaw. Again, he could fully +appreciate Cowper's taste for classical literature; considering how +utterly Newton's education had been neglected, it is perfectly +marvellous how he managed, under the most unfavourable circumstances, to +acquire no contemptible knowledge of the great classical authors. Add to +all this that Newton's native kindness of heart made him feel very +deeply for the misfortune of his friend, and it will be no longer a +matter of wonder that there should have been so close a friendship +between the two men. It is readily granted that there was a certain +amount of awe mingled with the love which Cowper bore to Newton, but +Newton was the very last man in the world to abuse the gentle poet's +confidence. + +The part which _William Cowper_ (1731-1800) took in the Evangelical +movement is too important to pass unnoticed. The shy recluse of Olney +and Weston Underwood contributed in his way more towards the spread of +the Evangelical revival than even Whitefield did with all his burning +eloquence, or Wesley with all his indomitable activity. For those who +despised Whitefield and Wesley as mere vulgar fanatics, those who would +never have read a word of what Newton or Romaine wrote, those who were +too much prejudiced to be affected by the preaching of any of the +Evangelical clergy, could not refrain from reading the works of one who +was without question the first poet of his day. This is not the place to +criticise Cowper's poetry; but it may be remarked that that poetry +exercised an influence greater than that which its intrinsic +merits--great though these were--could have commanded, owing to the fact +that Cowper was the first who gave expression to the reaction which had +set in against the artificial school of Pope. Men were becoming weary of +the smooth rhymes, the brilliant antitheses, the flash and the glitter, +the constant straining after effect, carrying with it a certain air of +unreality, which had long been in vogue. They welcomed with delight a +poet who wrote in a more easy and natural, if a rougher and less +correct, style. Cowper was, in fact, the father of a new school of +poetry--a school of which Southey, and Coleridge, and Wordsworth were in +the next generation distinguished representatives. But almost all that +Cowper wrote (at least of original composition) was subservient to one +great end. He was essentially a Christian poet, and in a different sense +from that in which Milton, and George Herbert, and Young were Christian +poets. As Socrates brought philosophy, so Cowper brought religious +poetry down from the clouds to dwell among men. Not only does a vein of +piety run through all his poetry, but the attentive reader cannot fail +to perceive that his main object in writing was to recommend practical, +experimental religion of the Evangelical type. He himself gives us the +keynote to all his writings in a beautiful passage,[815] in which he +describes the want which he strove to supply. + + Pity, religion has so seldom found + A skilful guide into poetic ground! + The flowers would spring where'er she deigned to stray, + And every muse attend her in her way. + Virtue, indeed, meets many a rhyming friend, + And many a compliment politely penned; + But unattired in that becoming vest + Religion weaves for her, and half undressed. + Stands in the desert, shivering and forlorn, + A wintry figure, like a withered thorn. + +But while he never loses sight of his grand object, Cowper's poems are +not mere sermons in verse. He not only passes without an effort 'from +grave to gay, from lively to severe,' but he blends them together with +most happy effect. Gifted with a rare sense of humour, with exquisite +taste, and with a true appreciation of the beautiful both in nature and +art, he enlists all these in the service of religion. While the reader +is amused with his wit and charmed with his descriptions, he is +instructed, proselytised, won over to Evangelicalism almost without +knowing it. 'My sole drift,' wrote Cowper in 1781, a little before the +publication of his first volume,[816] 'is to be useful; a point at +which, however, I know I should in vain aim, unless I could be likewise +entertaining. I have, therefore, fixed these two strings to my bow; and +by the help of both have done my best to send my arrow to the mark. My +readers will hardly have begun to laugh before they will be called upon +to correct that levity and peruse me with a more serious air. I cast a +sidelong glance at the good-liking of the world at large, more for the +sake of their advantage and instruction than their praise. They are +children; if we give them physic we must sweeten the rim of the cup with +honey,' &c. To this principle he faithfully adhered in all his original +poems. He felt the difficulty of the task which he had proposed to +himself. He knew that he would have to break through a thick, hard crust +of prejudice before he could reach his readers' hearts. He saw the +necessity of peculiar delicacy of treatment, lest he should repel those +whom he desired to attract. And nothing marks more strongly the high +estimate which Cowper formed of Newton's tact and good judgment than the +fact that the poet asked his friend to write the preface to his first +volume. When he made this request he was fully aware that any +injudiciousness, any want of tact, would be fatal to his object. But he +applied to Newton expressly because he thought him the only friend who +would not betray him by any such mistakes. + +It is from the nature of the case difficult to estimate the services +which Cowper's poetry rendered to the cause which lay nearest to the +poet's heart. Poems do not make converts in the sense that sermons do; +nevertheless, it is doing no injustice to the preaching power of the +Evangelical school to assert that Cowper's poetry left a deeper mark +upon the Church than any sermons did. Through this means Evangelical +theology in its most attractive form gained access into quarters into +which no Evangelical preachers could ever have penetrated. The bitterest +enemy of Evangelicalism who read Cowper's poems could not deny that here +was at least one man, a scholar and a gentleman, with a refined and +cultured mind and a brilliant wit, who was not only favourably disposed +to the obnoxious doctrines, but held them to be the very life and soul +of Christianity. Of course, to those who wished to find it, there was +the ready answer that the man was a madman. But the mind which produced +'The Task' was certainly not unsound, at least at the time when it +conceived and executed that fine poem. Every reader of discernment, +though he might not agree with the religious views expressed in it, was +obliged to confess that the author's powers were of the first order; and +if William Cowper did no other service to the Evangelical cause, this +alone was an inestimable one--that he convinced the world that the +Evangelical system was not incompatible with true genius, ripe +scholarship, sparkling wit, and a refined and cultivated taste. + + * * * * * + +If pilgrimages formed part of the Evangelical course, the little town or +large village of Olney should have attracted as many pilgrims as S. +Thomas's shrine at Canterbury did five centuries before. For with this +dull, uninteresting spot are connected the names not only of Newton, +and Cowper, and Mrs. Unwin, but also those of two successive vicars, Mr. +Moses Brown and Mr. Bean, both worthy specimens of Evangelicals, and +last, but by no means least, the name of Scott, the commentator. + +_Thomas Scott_ (1746/7-1821) was the spiritual son of Newton, and +succeeded him in the curacy of Olney. There was a curious family +likeness between the two men. Both were somewhat rough diamonds. The +metal in both cases was thoroughly genuine; but perhaps Newton took +polish a little more easily than Scott. Both were self-taught men, and +compensated for the lack of early education by extraordinary +application. Although Scott did not pass through so terrible an ordeal +as Newton, still he had a sufficiently large experience, both of the +moral evils and outward hardships of life, to give him a very wide +sympathy. Both were distinguished for a plain, downright, manly +independence, both of thought and life; both were thoroughly unselfish +and disinterested; both held a guarded Calvinism without the slightest +tincture of Antinomianism; both lived, after their conversion, +singularly pure and blameless lives; both struggled gallantly against +the pressure of poverty, though Scott was the more severely tried of the +two. As a writer, perhaps Scott was the more powerful; Newton wrote +nothing equal to the 'Commentary' or the 'Force of Truth;' on the other +hand, there was a tenderness, a geniality, and, above all, a very strong +sense of humour in Newton which were wanting in Scott. Scott had not the +popular qualities of Newton, a deficiency of which he was himself fully +conscious; but he was a noble specimen of a Christian, and deserved a +much wider recognition than he ever received in this world. The 'Force +of Truth' is one of the most striking treatises ever published by the +Evangelical school, though we cannot go quite so far as to say, with +Bishop Wilson, of Calcutta, that it is equal to the 'Confessions of +Augustine.' It is simply a frank and artless but very forcible account +of the various stages in the writer's mental and spiritual career, +through which he was led to the adoption of that moderate Calvinism in +which he found a permanent home. The treatise is specially interesting +because it contains the history of a spiritual progress through which, +in all probability, many (_mutatis mutandis_) passed in the eighteenth +century. During the earlier years of his ministerial career Scott +wavered between Socinianism and Arianism, and he showed the same +conscientious disinterestedness which distinguished him through life, by +sacrificing his chance of preferment, at a time when his circumstances +sorely needed it, because he could not with a clear conscience sign +those articles which plainly declared the doctrine of the Trinity. +Slowly and laboriously, and without help from any living man, except +perhaps Newton, whose share in the matter will be noticed presently, +Scott worked his way from point to point until he was finally +established in the Evangelical faith. Burnet's 'Pastoral Care,' Hooker's +'Discourse on Justification,' Beveridge's 'Sermons,' Law's 'Serious +Call' (of course), Venn's 'Essay on the Prophecy of Zacharias,' Hervey's +'Theron and Aspasio,' and De Witsius' 'Two Covenants,' contributed each +its share towards the formation of his opinions. He describes with the +utmost candour his obstinacy, his prejudices, and his self-sufficiency. +Even while he was adopting one by one the obnoxious doctrines, he made +amends by sneering at and publicly abusing the Methodists for holding +those remaining doctrines which he still denied, till at last he became +in all points a consistent Calvinistic Methodist (so called).[817] The +'Force of Truth' enables us to estimate at their proper value the +judiciousness, forbearance, and gentleness of Newton. Scott tells us +that he had heard of Newton as a benevolent, disinterested, inoffensive +person, and a laborious minister.' 'But,' he adds, 'I looked upon his +religious sentiments as rank fanaticism, and entertained a very +contemptible opinion of his abilities, natural and acquired.' He heard +him preach, and 'made a jest of his sermon;' he read one of his +publications, and thought the greater part of it whimsical, paradoxical, +and unintelligible. He entered into correspondence with him, hoping to +draw him into controversy. 'The event,' he says, 'by no means answered +my expectations. He returned a very friendly and long answer to my +letter, in which he carefully avoided the mention of those doctrines +which he knew would offend me. He declared that he believed me to be one +who feared God and was under the teaching of his Holy Spirit; that he +gladly accepted my offer of friendship, and was no way inclined to +dictate to me.' In this spirit the correspondence continued. 'I held my +purpose,' writes Scott, 'and he his. I made use of every endeavour to +draw him into controversy, and filled my letters with definitions, +enquiries, arguments, objections, and consequences, requiring explicit +answers. He, on the other hand, shunned everything controversial as much +as possible, and filled his letters with the most useful and least +offensive instructions.' The letters to 'the Rev. T.S.' in Newton's +correspondence fully bear out all that Scott here relates; and one +scarcely knows which to admire most, the truly Christian forbearance of +the older man, or the truly Christian avowal of his faults by the +younger. The whole of Newton's subsequent intercourse with his spiritual +son and successor at Olney indicates the same Christian and considerate +spirit. Newton had, on the whole, been very popular at Olney. Scott was +unpopular. There are few more delicate relationships than that of a +popular clergyman to his unpopular successor, especially when the former +still keeps up an intimate connection with his quondam parishioners. +Such was the relationship between Newton and Scott; and Newton showed +rare tact and true Christian courtesy under the delicate circumstances. +Cowper was, perhaps, not likely to welcome very warmly any successor to +his beloved Newton. At any rate, he appears never to have cordially +appreciated Scott. Scott complains, not without reason, of the poet +charging him with _scolding_ the people at Olney, when neither he nor +Mrs. Unwin, nor their more respectable friends, had ever heard him +preach.[818] Still the coldness between the poet and the new curate +could hardly have been so great as Southey represents it, for Scott +tells us that 'The Force of Truth' was revised by Mr. Cowper, and as to +style and externals considerably improved by his advice.[819] + +Though Scott was unpopular at Olney, it must not be supposed that the +fault was altogether his. Possibly he may not have had the elements in +his character which, under any circumstances, could have made him +popular. Indeed, he frankly owns that he had not. 'Some things,' he +writes, 'requisite for popularity I would not have if I could, and +others I could not have if I would.'[820] But at Olney his unpopularity +redounded to his credit. No man could have done his duty there without +being unpopular. The evils against which Scott had to contend were of a +more subtle and complicated kind than simple irreligion and immorality. +Spiritual pride, and the combination of a high profession with a low +practice, were the dominant sins of the place. + +Scott's warfare against the perversions of Calvinism forms a conspicuous +feature in his ministerial career. On his removal to the chaplaincy of +the Lock Hospital in London, he met with the same troubles as at Olney, +on a larger scale, and in an aggravated form. 'Everything,' he writes, +'conduced to render me more and more unpopular, not only at the Lock, +but in every part of London ... but my most distinguishing reprehensions +of those who perverted the doctrines of the Gospel to Antinomian +purposes, and my most awful warnings, were the language of compassionate +love, and were accompanied by many tears and prayers.'[821] His printed +sermons show us how strongly he felt the necessity of making a bold +stand against the pernicious principles of some of the 'professors' who +attended his ministry. It required far greater moral courage to wage +such a warfare as this than to fight against open sin and avowed +infidelity. And when it is also remembered that Scott was a needy man, +and that his bread depended upon his keeping on good terms with his +congregation, and, moreover, that he had to fight the battle alone, for +he was too much identified with the 'Methodists' to receive any help +from the 'Orthodox,' his difficult position will be understood. But the +brave man cared little for obloquy or desertion, or even the prospect of +absolute starvation, when the cause of practical religion was at stake. +There is very little doubt that it was. Many who called themselves +Calvinists were making the doctrines of grace a cloak for the vilest +hypocrisy; and the noble stand which Scott made against these deadly +errors gives him a better claim to the title of 'Confessor' than many to +whom the name has been given. + +In spite of opposition, the good man worked on, with very small +remuneration. His professional income (and he had little or nothing +else) hardly exceeded 100_l._ a year. For this miserable stipend he +officiated four times every Sunday in two churches, between which he had +to walk fourteen miles, and ministered daily to a most disheartening +class of patients in a hospital. To eke out his narrow income he +undertook to write annotations on the Scriptures, which were to come out +weekly, and to be completed in a hundred numbers. The payment stipulated +was the magnificent sum of a guinea a number! This was the origin of the +famous Commentary. There is no need to make many remarks on this +well-known work. As a practical and devotional commentary it did not +perhaps attain to the permanent popularity of Matthew Henry's +commentary, and in point of erudition and acuteness it is not equal to +that of Adam Clarke. But it holds an important place of its own in the +Evangelical literature of its class, and its usefulness extended beyond +the limits of the Evangelical school. Its immediate success was +enormous, perhaps almost unparalleled in literary history, or at least +in the history of works of similar magnitude; 12,000 copies of the +English edition and 25,250 of the American, were produced in the +lifetime of the author. The retail price of the English copies amounted +to 67,600_l._ and of the American 132,300_l._ One would have been glad +to learn that the author himself was placed in easy circumstances by the +sale of his work. But this was not the case; on the contrary, it +involved him for some time in very serious embarrassments. Scott died, +as he lived, a poor man. But one is thankful to know that his old age +was passed in comparative peace. His change from London to Aston +Sandford, if it was not a remunerative, was at least a refreshing +change. In the pure air of his country living he was liberated from the +unsatisfactory wranglings, the bitter jealousies, and vexatious +interference of his London patrons, whose self-sufficiency and spiritual +pride were, like those of many amateur theologians at the present day, +in inverse ratio to their knowledge and ability. He had the satisfaction +of seeing a son grow up to be worthy of his father. To that son we are +indebted for the very interesting biography of Thomas Scott, a biography +in which filial piety has not tempted the writer to lose sight of good +sense and honesty, and which is therefore not a mere panegyric, but a +true and vivid account of its subject. + +From Newton and Scott we naturally turn to one who was the friend of +both and the biographer of the former. + +_Richard Cecil_ (1748-1810) differed widely in point of natural +character from his two friends. He was perhaps the most cultured and +refined of all the Evangelical leaders. Nature had endowed him with an +elegant mind, and he improved his natural gifts by steady application. +He was not trained in the school of outward adversity as Newton and +Scott had been; but he had trials of his own, mostly of an intellectual +character, which were sharp enough. His delicate health prevented him +from taking so busy a part as his friends did in the Evangelical +movement. But in a different way he contributed in no slight degree to +its success. There was a stately dignity, both in his character and in +his style of writing, which was very impressive. His 'Remains' show +traces of a scholarly habit of mind, a sense of humour, a grasp of +leading principles, a liberality of thought, and capacity of +appreciating good wherever it might be found, which render it, short +though it is, a valuable contribution to Evangelical literature. + +There are yet two names among the clerical leaders of the. Evangelical +party in the last century which were at least as influential as any +which have been mentioned. The two brothers, Joseph and Isaac Milner, +were both in their different ways very notable men. + +_Joseph Milner_, the elder brother (1744-1797), lived a singularly +uneventful life. After having taken a good degree at Cambridge, he was +appointed, at a very early age, headmaster of the grammar school at +Hull, in which town he spent the remainder of his comparatively short +life. He was in course of time made Vicar of North Ferriby, a village +near Hull; and, first, lecturer, and then, only a few weeks before his +death, Vicar, of Holy Trinity, the parish church of Hull. Both his +scholastic and ministerial careers were successful and useful, but do +not call for any particular notice. His Calvinistic views rendered him +for a time unpopular, but he outlived his unpopularity, and died, at +the age of fifty-three, generally respected, as he deserved to be. + +But it is as a writer that Joseph Milner claims our chief regard. His +'Church History' may contend with Scott's 'Commentary,' for the first +place among the Evangelical literature of the last century. The plan of +this important work was a happy and an original one--original, that is, +so far as execution was concerned; for the first idea was not +original--it was suggested by a fragment written by Newton at Olney. +Having observed with regret that most Church histories dwelt mainly, if +not exclusively, upon the disputes of Christians, upon the various +heresies and schisms which in all ages have distracted the Christian +Church, Milner felt that they were calculated to impress their readers +with a very unfavourable view of the Christian religion, as if the chief +result of that religion had been to set men at variance with one +another.[822] Mosheim, the fullest historian of the Church in that day, +seemed to Milner a notable offender in this respect. Milner therefore +purposed to write a 'History of the Church of Christ,' the main object +of which should be to set forth the blessed effects which Christianity +had produced in all, even the darkest ages, and which should touch but +slightly and incidentally, and only so far as the subject absolutely +required it, upon the heresies and disputes which formed the staple of +most Church histories. His history, in fact, was to be a history of +_real_ not _nominal_ Christians. He thought that too much had been said +about ecclesiastical wickedness, and that Deists and Sceptics had taken +advantage of this against Christians. Such a work was a 'desideratum,' +and had the execution been equal to the conception, it would have been +simply invaluable. If genuine piety, thorough honesty, a real desire to +recognise good wherever it could be found, and a vast amount of +information, in the amassing of which he was aided by a wonderfully +tenacious memory and great industry, were sufficient to ensure success, +Milner certainly possessed all these qualifications in an eminent +degree. But in others, which are equally essential, he was deficient. In +the first place, his work laboured under the fatal defect of dulness. Of +all writers, perhaps the ecclesiastical historian has most need of a +lively, racy style, of the art of selecting really prominent facts and +representing them with vividness and picturesqueness. The nature of his +subject is drier than that of the civil historian. He _must_ write much +which to the majority of readers will be heavy reading, unless they are +carried along by the grace and attractiveness of the composition. Milner +has not the art of setting _off_ his characters in the most effective +manner. There is a want of spring and dash about his style which has +prevented many from doing justice to his real merits. + +Then again, he was rather too much of a partisan, to make a good +historian. With every wish to give honour where honour was due, his mind +was not evenly balanced enough for his task. Holding, as Milner did, the +very strongest and most uncompromising views of the utter depravity of +mankind, he can allow no good at all to what are termed 'mere moral +virtues.' Indeed, he will hardly allow such virtues to be 'splendid +sins.' He is far too honest to suppress facts, but his comments upon +facts are often tinged with a quite unconscious unfairness. Thus, he +admits the estimable qualities which Antoninus Pius possessed, but +'doubtless,' he adds, 'a more distinct and explicit detail of his life +would lessen our admiration: something of the supercilious pride of the +Grecian or of the ridiculous vain-glory of the Roman might appear.'[823] + +A kindred but graver defect is Milner's incessant depreciation of all +schools of philosophy. Instead of seeing in these great thinkers of +antiquity a yearning after that light which Christianity gives, he can +see in them nothing but the deadliest enmity to Christianity. 'The +Church of Christ is abhorrent in its plan and spirit from the systems of +proud philosophers.' 'Moral philosophy and metaphysics have ever been +dangerous to religion. They have been found to militate against the +vital truths of Christianity and corrupt the gospel in our times, as +much as the cultivation of the more ancient philosophy corrupted it in +early ages.' The minister of Christ is warned against 'deep researches +into philosophy of any kind,' and much more to the same effect. It was +this foolish manner of talking and writing which gave the impression +that the religion which the Evangelicals recommended was a religion only +fitted for persons of weak minds and imperfect education. Such sweeping +and indiscriminate censures of 'human learning' (at least of one +important branch of it) not only encouraged contemptuous opinions of +Evangelicalism among its enemies, but also tended to make many of its +friends think too lightly of those gifts which, after all, come as truly +from 'the Father of lights' as these which are more strictly termed +spiritual. It was a very convenient doctrine for those who could +certainly never have attained to any degree of intellectual eminence, to +think that they were quite on a level with those who could and did: +nay, that they had the advantage on their side because intellectual +eminence was a snare rather than a help to Christianity. It is all the +more provoking to find such passages as those which have been quoted +from Milner in Evangelical writings (and they are not uncommon) because +the Evangelical leaders themselves were very far indeed from being +deficient either in abilities or attainments. Perhaps none of them can +be classed among the first order of divines; but those who assert that +the Wesleys, Romaine, Newton, Scott, Cecil, and the Milners were fools +and ignoramuses, only show their own folly and ignorance. + +Another defect of Milner as a historian is, that he is rather too +anxious 'to improve the occasion.' Whatever century he is treating of, +he always seems to have one eye steadily fixed upon the latter part of +the eighteenth century. He takes every possible and impossible +opportunity of dealing a sideblow to the Arminians and Schismatics of +his own day:[824] for Milner, though he was called a Methodist, was a +most uncompromising stickler for every point of Church order. + +His Calvinism led him to give undue prominence to those Christians of +the past who held the same views. Thus, for instance, although the great +Bishop of Hippo richly deserves all the honour which a Church historian +can bestow upon him, yet surely he was not so immeasurably superior to +the other Fathers, that he should have 145 pages devoted to him, while +Chrysostom has only sixteen and Jerome only eleven. But 'the peculiar +work for which Augustine was evidently raised up by Providence, was to +restore the doctrines of divine grace to the Church.' + +Having frankly owned these defects, we may now turn to the more pleasing +task of recognising Milner's real merits. + +Strong Protestant as Milner was, he showed a generous appreciation of +the real good which existed in the Church of Rome: a most unusual +liberality in theologians of the eighteenth century--High Church as well +as Low. He warned his readers most seasonably, that they 'should not be +prejudiced against the real Church, because she then [in the time of +Gregory I.] wore a Roman garb,' for 'superstition to a certain degree +may co-exist with the spirit of the Gospel.' And he certainly acted up +to the spirit of his warning. Of course, his chief heroes are those who +were more or less adverse to the claims of the Roman See, such as +Grossteste, Bradwardine, Wickliff, and Jerome of Prague. But he can +fully appreciate the merits of an Anselm, for instance, whose 'humble +and penitent spirit consoles the soul with a glance of Christian faith +in Christ;'[825] of Bernard, of whom he writes, 'There is not an +essential doctrine of the Gospel which he did not embrace with zeal, +defend by argument, and adorn by his life;'[826] of Bede, who 'alone +knew more of true religion, both doctrinal and practical, than numbers +of ecclesiastics put together at this day.' And he owns that 'our +ancestors were undoubtedly much indebted, under God, to the Roman +See.'[827] + +The excellence of his plan, to which he faithfully adheres, might atone +for more faults than Milner is guilty of. We may well bear with a few +shortcomings in a Church history which, instead of perplexing the mind +with the interminable disputes of professing Christians, makes it its +main business to detect the spirit of Christ wherever it can be found. +It is a real refreshment, no less than a real strengthening of our +faith, to turn from Church histories which might be more correctly +termed histories of the abuses and perversions of Christianity, to one +which really is what it professes to be--a history of the good which +Christianity has done. + +Joseph Milner died when his history had only reached the middle of the +thirteenth century; but his pen was taken up by a hand which was, at +least, equally competent to wield it. The fourth volume of the history, +carrying the work down to about the middle of the sixteenth century, was +compiled by his younger brother Isaac, of whom we may now say a few +words. + +_Isaac Milner_ (1751-1820) was the one solitary instance of an avowed +and uncompromising adherent of the Evangelical school, in the last +century, attaining any high preferment in the Church. Indeed, his claims +could not have been ignored without glaring injustice. He was the Senior +Wrangler of his year, and First Smith's Prizeman, and the epithet +'incomparabilis' was attached to his name in the Mathematical Tripos. He +continued to reside at the University after he had taken his degree, and +was appointed Professor of Mathematics, President of his college +(Queen's), and finally, Dean of Carlisle. Isaac Milner's services to the +Evangelical cause were invaluable. Holding a prominent position at +Cambridge, he was able to establish a sort of School of the Prophets, +where Evangelical ministers in embryo were trained in the system of +their party. But, besides this, he helped the cause he had at heart by +becoming a sort of general adviser and referee in cases of difficulty. +For such an office he was admirably adapted. His reputation for +erudition, and his high standing at Cambridge, commanded respect; and +his sound, shrewd sense, his thorough straightforwardness and hatred of +all cant and unreality, his genial manner and his decidedness, made his +advice very effective. He acquired a reputation for conversational +powers not much inferior in his own circle to that of Dr. Johnson in +his; and this, no doubt, added to his influence. + +There was only one man at Cambridge whose services to Evangelicalism at +all equalled those of Isaac Milner. It need scarcely be said that that +man was Charles Simeon, the voluntary performer of that work for which, +of all others, our universities ought most carefully to provide, but +which, at least during the eighteenth century, they most neglected--the +training of our future clergymen. As Simeon's work, however, is more +connected with the nineteenth than with the eighteenth century, it need +not further be referred to. + +It is difficult to know where to draw the line, in noticing the clerical +leaders of the Evangelical party. If all the worthy men who helped on +the cause were here commemorated, this chapter would swell into +outrageous dimensions. Dr. Conyers of Helmsley, and subsequently of +Deptford, the friend and brother-in-law of J. Thornton; Mr. Richardson +of York, the intimate friend of Joseph Milner and the editor of his +sermons; Mr. Stillingfleet of Hotham, another friend of Milner's; Mr. +Jowett, a voluminous and once much admired writer, would claim at least +a passing notice. But there is one more Evangelical clergyman whose work +must not be ignored. + +_Thomas Robinson of Leicester_ (1749-1813) was the friend of all the +Evangelical leaders of his day. Having taken his degree with credit at +Cambridge--he was said to be the best _general_ scholar of his time--he +served for a short while the curacy of Witcham, a village near +Cambridge. Here he raised, by his reputed Methodism, a sensation which +extended to the whole neighbourhood, and even to the University itself. +'His tutor and friend, Mr. Postlethwaite, hearing that he was bent on +turning Methodist, from the kindest motives took him seriously to task, +exhorting him to beware, to consider what mischief the Methodists were +doing, and at what a vast rate they were increasing. "Sir," said +Robinson, "what do you mean by a Methodist? Explain, and I will +ingenuously tell you whether I am one or not." This caused a puzzle and +a pause. At last Mr. Postlethwaite said, "Come then, I'll tell you. I +hear that in the pulpit you impress on the minds of your hearers, that +they are to attend to your doctrines from the consideration that you +will have to give an account of them, and of your treatment of them, at +the Day of Judgment." "I am surprised," rejoined Robinson, "to hear this +objected. It is true." Robinson got no further explanation from the +tutor, but that the increase of Methodism was an alarming thing.'[828] +From Witcham, Robinson was removed to Leicester, where he spent the +remainder of his life, and where he passed through very much the same +sort of experience which attended most of the Evangelical clergy of the +period: that is, his 'Methodistical' views raised great opposition at +the outset; but he lived it down, became a very popular preacher, and +took a leading part in every scheme for the amelioration of the temporal +and spiritual condition of Leicester. Mr. Robinson was also well known +as an author. His 'Christian System' and 'Scripture Characters' were +once much read and much admired books, especially the former, which is +still found in most libraries of divinity collected in the early part of +the present century. + +It was said above that Dean Milner was the solitary instance of an +Evangelical clergyman of the last century, who gained any high +preferment. Some may think that Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, also +formed an exception to the rule. But, strictly speaking, Bishop Porteus +can scarcely be said to have identified himself with the Evangelical +school. It is true that he did not share the prejudices which many of +his brother prelates conceived against the Evangelical clergy, but, on +the contrary, was on terms of the closest intimacy with many of them, +and always used the commanding influence which his position gave him in +their favour. He threw himself heartily into all their philanthropical +schemes--the promotion of Sunday-schools, the agitation for the +abolition of negro slavery, and the newly reawakened zeal for foreign +missions. But he never so far committed himself as to incur the reproach +of Methodism; he did not bear the brunt of the battle as the +Evangelicals did, and therefore can hardly be reckoned among their +number. + +Hitherto, our attention has been turned mainly to the _clergy_ who took +part in the Evangelical movement. But this sketch would be very +imperfect if it failed to notice the eminent laymen who helped the +cause. The two Thorntons, father and son, William Wilberforce, Lord +Dartmouth, Lord Teignmouth and others, who regularly or occasionally +attended the ministry of John Venn, the worthy Rector of Clapham, were +called in derision, 'the Clapham sect.' The phrase implies a sort of +reproach which was not deserved. These good men had no desire to form a +sect. They were all, in their way, loyal sons of the Church of England, +content with her liturgy, attached to her doctrines, and ready to +conform to her order. Perhaps, like most laymen who take up strong +views on theological subjects, they were inclined to be a little narrow. +None of them had, or professed to have, the slightest pretensions to be +called theologians. Still, they learned and practised thoroughly the +true lessons of Christianity, and shed a lustre upon the Evangelical +cause by the purity, disinterestedness, and beneficence of their lives. + +Of the two Thorntons little need be said, except that they were wealthy +merchants who in very truth looked upon their riches not as their own, +but as talents entrusted to them for their Master's use. The princely +liberality of these two good men was literally unbounded. It has been +seen that the Evangelical clergy were almost to a man debarred from the +emoluments of their profession, and lived in very straitened +circumstances. The extent to which their lack was supplied by John and +Henry Thornton is almost incredible. John Thornton regularly allowed +Newton, during the sixteen years the latter was at Olney, 200_l._ a year +for charitable purposes, and urged him to draw upon him for more when +necessary. Henry Thornton, the son, is said to have divided his income +into two parts, retaining only one-seventh for his own use, and devoting +six-sevenths to charity; after he became the head of a family, he gave +two-thirds away and retained one-third for himself and his family. It +appeared after his death, from his accounts, that the amount he spent in +the relief of distress in one of his earlier years considerably exceeded +9,000_l._ + +The character and career of _William Wilberforce_ (1759-1831) are too +well known to need description; it will be sufficient here to touch upon +those points in which the great philanthropist was directly concerned in +the Evangelical revival. Only it should be distinctly borne in mind that +the main work of his life cannot be separated from his Evangelical +principles. His earnest efforts in behalf of the negro were as plainly +the result of Evangelicalism as was the munificence of the Thorntons or +the preaching of Venn. When Wilberforce was first impressed seriously, +and was in doubt what plan of life to adopt, he consulted, like many +others, John Newton. He could not have had recourse to a better adviser. +Newton counselled him not to give up his proper position in the world, +but to seek in it opportunities for employing his wealth, talents, and +influence for his Master's work. The wise old man saw that the young +enthusiast could help the cause far more effectually as a member of +Parliament and friend of the Minister, than ever he could have done as a +parochial clergyman or as an itinerant.[829] Hence, Wilberforce, instead +of becoming a second Rowland Hill, as he might easily have been +persuaded to do, became the staunch supporter of the Evangelical cause +in Parliament, and the successful recommender of its principles in +general society. + +Evangelicalism had been gradually making its way upwards among the +social strata. The earlier Methodism had been influential almost +exclusively among the lower and lower middle classes. Good Lady +Huntingdon's efforts are a proof, rather than an exception to the rule, +that Methodism in this form was out of harmony with the tastes of the +upper classes, and had little practical efficacy with them. But +Evangelicalism was beginning to excite, not a mere passing curiosity +such as had been created by Whitefield's preaching, but a really +practical interest among the aristocracy. No one contributed more +largely to this result than William Wilberforce. Here was a man of rare +social talents, a thorough gentleman, a brilliant orator, and an +intimate friend of some of the most eminent men of the day, not only +casting in his lot with the 'calumniated school' (as Hannah More calls +it), but straining every nerve to recommend its principles. It has been +said, indeed, that Wilberforce was not, properly speaking, an +Evangelical.[830] This is so far true, that Wilberforce did not identify +himself entirely with any religious party, and that he was, as Thomas +Scott observes, 'rather afraid of Calvinism.' But it would be robbing +Evangelicalism of its due, to deny that Wilberforce's deep religious +convictions were solely derived (so far as human agency was concerned) +from the Evangelical school. He was early impressed by the preaching, +and perhaps the private counsel, of his schoolmaster, Joseph Milner. +These impressions were afterwards revived and deepened by his +intercourse with Isaac Milner, whom he accompanied on a continental tour +just before the decisive change in his character. He was then led to +consult John Newton, and was advised by him to attend the ministry of +Thomas Scott at the Lock Hospital, from which he himself tells us that +he derived great benefit; and he afterwards attended regularly the +ministry of J. Venn. Surely these facts speak for themselves. The +religious character of Wilberforce was moulded by the Evangelical +clergy, and he was himself to all intents and purposes an Evangelical. + +If further proof were needed, it would only be necessary to refer to +Wilberforce's best known publication, entitled in full, 'A Practical +View of the prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the +Higher and Middle Classes in this country, contrasted with real +Christianity.' No book, since the publication of the 'Serious Call,' +had exerted so wide and deep an influence as the 'Practical View.' +Wilberforce took up very much the same position as Law had done; and it +would be difficult to award higher praise to the later work than to say, +as one justly may, that it will bear comparison with the earlier. Not +that as mere compositions the two works can for one moment be compared. +In depth of thought, strength of argument, and beauty of language, Law's +is immeasurably superior. But, on the other hand. Wilberforce had on +many points a distinct advantage. To begin with, the mere fact that the +'Practical View' was written by a layman--and such a layman!--gave it a +weight which no book of the kind written by a clergyman could +possess.[831] The force of the latter might always be broken by the +objection that the writer was swayed by professional bias, and that his +arguments, whatever might be their intrinsic merits, must be taken _cum +grano_ by the lay mind. But besides this 'coign of vantage' from which +Wilberforce wrote, there were also points in the books themselves in +which, for the purposes for which they were written, the preference must +be given to the later work. It was not unnaturally objected against Law, +that he did not sufficiently base his arguments upon distinctly Gospel +motives. No such objection can be raised against Wilberforce. Then +again, though Wilberforce was a thoroughly unworldly man, he was in the +good sense of the term a thorough man of the world, and knew by +experience what course of argument would tell most with such men. What +Law writes from mere theory, Wilberforce writes from practical +knowledge. It would be difficult to conceive men of powerful intellect +like Dr. Johnson and John Wesley, who had really thought, deeply and +seriously on such subjects, being so strongly affected by the 'Practical +View' as these were by the 'Serious Call.' But men of powerful intellect +who had thought deeply and seriously on religious subjects, were rare. +The 'Practical View' is strong enough food for the general reader, while +at the same time its unpretentious earnestness disarmed the criticism +and won the hearts of men of genius like Edmund Burke. Wilberforce was +no theologian; he was simply a good man who read his New Testament in a +guileless spirit, and expostulated affectionately with those who, +professing to take that book as their standard, were living lives +plainly repugnant to its principles. The success of Wilberforce's +attempt was as great as it was unexpected. The publisher had so poor an +opinion of the project, that he would consent to issue five hundred +copies only on condition that Wilberforce would give his name. But the +first edition was sold off in a few days; within half-a-year the book +had passed through five editions, and it has now passed through more +than fifty. The rest of Wilberforce's useful life, extending as it did +some way into the nineteenth century, does not fall within the scope of +the present inquiry. + +Among Evangelical laymen, Lord Dartmouth held an honoured place. He did +good service to the cause by advocating its interests both among the +nobility and at Court; he was one of the very few who had the +opportunity and will to advance the Evangelical clergy; and among +others, he had the honour of promoting John Newton to the rectory of S. +Mary Woolnoth.[832] He himself was a standing witness that 'Methodism' +was not a religion merely for the coarse and unrefined, for he was +himself so polished a gentleman that Richardson is reputed to have said +that 'he would have realised his own idea of Sir Charles Grandison, if +he had not been a Methodist.' It was Lord Dartmouth of whom Cowper +wrote, 'he wears a coronet and prays:' an implied reflection upon a +large order, which the poet was scarcely justified in making. + +Lord Teignmouth was another Evangelical nobleman; but, strictly +speaking, he does not come within the range of our subject; for it was +not until the nineteenth century had commenced that he settled at +Clapham, and became a distinguished member of the so-called Clapham +sect, and the first president of the newly-formed Bible Society. + +Among Evangelical laymen are we to place the revered name of Samuel +Johnson. His prejudices against Whitefield and the early Methodists have +already been noticed; and the supposed antagonism between 'Methodism' +and 'orthodoxy' would probably always have prevented one so intensely +orthodox from fully identifying himself with the movement. But, without +entering into the controversy which raged, so to speak, round the body +of the good old man, there can be little doubt that towards the close of +his life he was largely influenced by the Evangelical doctrines. His +well-known fear of death laid him open to the influence of those who had +clearly learned to count the last enemy as a friend; and there is no +reason to doubt the story of his last illness, which rests upon +unimpeachable testimony. 'My dear doctor,' he said to Dr. Brocklesby, +'believe a dying man: there is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the +Son of God.' 'I offer up my soul to the great and merciful God. I offer +it full of pollution, but in full assurance that it will be cleansed in +the blood of the Redeemer.'[833] + +It will have been noticed that, with the exception of Lady Huntingdon, +no female has been mentioned as having taken any prominent part in the +Evangelical Revival. The mother of the Wesleys, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. +Newton, Mrs. Cecil, and perhaps Mrs. C. Wesley, were all excellent +specimens of Evangelical Christians; but their influence was exercised +solely in private. Neither by writing nor in any other way did they come +prominently forward. This is all the more noteworthy, because, so far as +the principles of Evangelicalism were concerned, there was no reason why +there should not have been many Lady Huntingdons among the Evangelical +leaders. That there were not, is, perhaps, owing to the fact that there +was a certain robustness of character common to all the chiefs of the +party. One can scarcely conceive Venn, or Newton,[834] or Scott, or the +Milners being led by women. There is, however, one exception to the +rule. + +_Hannah More_ (1745-1833), by her writings and by her practical work in +a sphere where such work was sorely needed, won an honourable place +among the Evangelical worthies. Her accomplishments and attainments, her +ready wit and social talents, gave her a place in society higher than +that to which her birth entitled her, long before she came under the +influence of the Evangelical party. It was by slow degrees that she +embraced one by one the peculiar tenets of that school.[835] Perhaps to +the very end she never thoroughly identified herself with it, though +her religious character was unquestionably formed under Evangelical +influences. She formed a sort of link between Evangelicalism and the +outer world. The intimate friend of David and Mrs. Garrick, of Dr. +Johnson, of Horace Walpole, of Bishop Horne and Bishop Shute Harrington +on the one hand, of John Newton, Wilberforce, the two Thorntons and +Bishop Porteus on the other, she had points of contact with people of +very different ways of thinking. It was this wide sympathy which enabled +her to gain the ear of the public. 'You have a great advantage, madam,' +wrote Newton to her; 'there is a circle by which what you write will be +read; and which will hardly read anything of a religious kind that is +not written by you.'[836] The popularity of her writings, which were +very numerous, was extraordinary. Her 'Thoughts on the Manners of the +Great' (1788) showed much moral courage. It was published anonymously, +not because she was afraid of being known as the author, but simply +because 'she hoped it might be attributed to a better person, and so +might produce a greater effect.' The secret of the authorship was, +however, soon discovered, and the effect was not spoiled. To the credit +also of the fashionable world, it must be added that her popularity was +not diminished. The success of her effort exceeded her most sanguine +expectations. Seven large editions were sold in a few months, the second +in little more than a week, the third in four hours. Its influence was +traceable in the abandonment of many of the customs which it +attacked.[837] In 1790 a sort of sequel appeared, entitled 'An Estimate +of the Religion of the Fashionable World,' which was bought up and read +as eagerly as its predecessor. Nine years later another work on a +kindred subject, entitled 'Strictures on Female Education,' was equally +successful. Nor was it only on the subject of the higher classes that +Hannah More was an effective writer. The wild licence of the French +Revolution, while it filled sober, respectable people with perhaps an +extravagant alarm, seemed at one time not unlikely to spread its +contagion among the disaffected classes in England. One result was, the +dissemination among the multitude of cheap literature full of +speculative infidelity, as well as of abuse of the constituted +authorities in this country. To furnish an antidote, Hannah More +published, in 1792, a popular work entitled 'Village Politics, by Will +Chip,' the object of which was to check the spread of French +revolutionary principles among the lower classes. So great was the +effect of this work that it was said by some, with a little +exaggeration, no doubt, to have contributed essentially to prevent a +revolution in England. Her success in this department of literature +encouraged her to write a series of tracts which she published +periodically, until 1798, under the title of the 'Cheap Repository +Tracts.' Hannah More was well fitted for this latter work by her +practical experience among the poor. Like most of the Evangelicals, she +was a thorough worker. The spiritual destitution of Cheddar and the +neighbourhood so affected her, that she formed the benevolent design of +establishing schools for the children and religious instruction for the +grown-up. Such efforts are happily so common at the present day, that it +is difficult to realise the moral courage and self-denial which the +carrying out of such a plan involved, or the difficulties with which the +projector had to grapple. Some parents objected to their children +attending the schools, lest Miss More should acquire legal control over +them and sell them as slaves. Others would not allow the children to go +unless they were paid for it. Of course, the cuckoo-cry of Methodism was +raised. The farmers were bitterly opposed to the education of their +labourers, and the clergy, though generally favourable, were not always +so. But Miss More was not without friends. Her sister Patty was an +invaluable assistant. Wilberforce and Thornton helped her with their +purses. Newton, Bishop Porteus and other clergy strengthened her with +their counsel and rendered her personal assistance; and at the close of +the eighteenth century, the neighbourhood of Cowslip Green wore a very +different aspect from what it had worn twenty years earlier. + +If we were to judge of Hannah More's writings by their popularity, and +the undoubted effects which they produced, or by the testimony which men +of approved talents and discernment have borne to their value, we should +place her in the very first rank of eighteenth century writers. 'Her +style and manner are confessedly superior to those of any moral writer +of the age.' She is 'one of the most illustrious females that ever was +in the world. 'One of the most truly Evangelical divines of this whole +age, perhaps almost of any age not apostolic.' Bishop Porteus actually +recommended her writings both in a sermon and in a charge. A feeling of +disappointment will probably be raised in most readers who turn from +these extravagant eulogies to the works themselves. They are full of +somewhat vapid truisms, and their style is too ornate for the present +age. Like so many writers of her day, she wrote Johnsonese rather than +English. She loved long words, and amplified where she should have +compressed. However, it is an ungracious task to criticise one who did +good work in her time. After all, the truest test of the merits of a +writer who wrote with the single object that Hannah More did, is the +effect she produced. Her writings were once readable and very +influential. If the virtue now appears to have gone out of them, we may +be thankful that it lasted so long as it was needed. + +To conclude this long chapter. If any think that the picture here drawn +of the leaders of the Evangelical Revival is too highly coloured, and +that in this, as in all human efforts, frailties and mistakes might be +discovered in abundance, the writer can only reply that he has not +knowingly concealed any infirmities to which these good men were +subject, though he frankly admits that he has touched upon them lightly +and reluctantly. He feels that they were the salt of the earth in their +day; that their disinterestedness, their moral courage in braving +obloquy and unpopularity, their purity of life, the spirituality of +their teaching, and the world of practical good they did among a +neglected people, render them worthy of the deepest respect. It would +have been an ungracious task ruthlessly to lay bare and to descant upon +their weaknesses. That was done mercilessly by their contemporaries and +those of the next generation. There is more need now to redress the +balance by giving due weight to their many excellences. + +It seems all the more necessary to bring out into full prominence their +claims upon the admiration of posterity, because they have scarcely done +justice to themselves in the writings they have left behind them. They +were not, as they have been represented, a set of amiable and +well-meaning but weak and illiterate fanatics. But their forte no doubt +lay more in preaching and in practical work than in writing. + +Again, the stream of theological thought has to a great extent drifted +into a different current from that in which it ran in their day, and +this change may have prevented many good men from sympathising with them +as they deserved. The Evangelicals of the last century represented one +side, but only one side, of our Church's teaching. With the spirituality +and fervency of her liturgy and the 'Gospel' character of all her +formularies, they were far more in harmony than the so-called 'orthodox' +of their day. But they did not, to say the least of it, bring into +prominence what are now called, and what would have been called in the +seventeenth century, the 'Catholic' features of the English Church. They +simply regarded her as one of many 'Protestant' communions. Distinctive +Church principles, in the technical sense of the term, formed no part of +their teaching. Daily services, frequent communions, the due observance +of her Fasts and Festivals, all that is implied in the terms 'the +aestheticism and symbolism of worship,' found no place in their course. +The consequence was that while they formed a compact and influential +body which still remained _within_ the pale of the Church, they also +revived very largely, though unintentionally, the Dissenting interest, +which was at least in as drooping a condition as the Church of England +before the Evangelical school arose. But every English Churchman has +reason to be deeply grateful to them for what they did, however much he +may be of opinion that their work required supplementing by others no +less earnest, but of a different tone of thought. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 708: More true than the assertion which follows--'and Count +Zinzendorf rocked the cradle.'] + +[Footnote 709: He was, however, sometimes tempted to use unseemly +language of the clergy. See extracts from his journals quoted in +Warburton's _Doctrine of Grace_.] + +[Footnote 710: 'Remarks on the Life and Character of John Wesley,' by +Alexander Knox, printed at the close of Southey's _Life of Wesley_, vol. +iii. p. 319.] + +[Footnote 711: In the Minutes of Conference, 1747, 'What instance or +ground is there in the New Testament for a "_national_" Church? We know +none at all,' &c. 'The greatest blow,' he said, 'Christianity ever +received was when Constantine the Great called himself a Christian and +poured in a flood of riches, honour, and power upon the Christians, more +especially upon the clergy.' 'If, as my Lady says, all outward +establishments are Babel, so is this establishment. Let it stand for me. +I neither set it up nor pull it down.... Let us build the city of God.'] + +[Footnote 712: But he asserts the rights of the civil power in things +indifferent, and reminds a correspondent that allegiance to a national +Church in no way affects allegiance to Christ.--(Letter in answer to +Toogood's _Dissent Justified_, 1752. _Works_, x. 503-6.)] + +[Footnote 713: See Bogue and Bennett's _History of Dissenters_, vol. i. +p. 73.] + +[Footnote 714: Bishop Horsley, in his first Charge to the Diocese of St. +David's, 1790, expressly distinguishes between a High Churchman in the +sense of 'a bigot to the secular rights of the priesthood,' which he +declares he is not, and a High Churchman in the sense of an 'upholder of +the spiritual authority of the priesthood,' which he owns that he is; +and he adds, 'We are more than mere hired servants of the State or +laity.'] + +[Footnote 715: To the same effect in 1777.] + +[Footnote 716: So late as 1780 he wrote, 'If I come into any new house, +and see men and women together, I will immediately go out.' This was, +therefore, no youthful High Church prejudice, which wore off with +years.] + +[Footnote 717: See Southey's _Life of Wesley_, ii. 85.] + +[Footnote 718: Id. 101.] + +[Footnote 719: _John Wesley's Place in Church History_, by R. Denny +Urlin, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 720: 'You have often,' said Wesley to the Moravians in Fetter +Lane, 'affirmed that to search the Scripture, to pray, or to communicate +before we have faith, is to seek salvation by works, and that till these +works are laid aside no man can have faith. I believe these assertions +to be flatly contrary to the word of God. I have warned you hereof again +and again, and besought you to turn back to the law and to the +testimony.'] + +[Footnote 721: 'Do you not neglect joint fasting? Is not the Count all +in all? Are not the rest mere shadows?... Do you not magnify your Church +too much?' &c., &c.] + +[Footnote 722: 'I labour everywhere to speak consistently with that deep +sense which is settled in my heart that you are (though I cannot call +you, Rabbi, infallible, yet) far, far, better and wiser than me.'] + +[Footnote 723: And also his strong feeling that the doctrine of +reprobation was inconsistent with the love of God. 'I could sooner,' he +wrote, 'be a Turk, a Deist--yea, an atheist--than I could believe this. +It is less absurd to deny the very existence of a God than to make Him +an almighty tyrant.'] + +[Footnote 724: In March 1741 Mr. Whitefield, being returned to England, +entirely separated from Mr. Wesley and his friends, because he did not +hold the decrees. Here was the first breach which warm men persuaded Mr. +Whitefield to make merely for a difference of opinion. Those who +believed universal redemption had no desire to separate, &c.--Wesley's +_Works_, vol. viii. p. 335.] + +[Footnote 725: 'If there be a law,' he wrote in 1761, 'that a minister +of Christ who is not suffered to preach the Gospel in church should not +preach it elsewhere, or a law that forbids Christian people to hear the +Gospel of Christ out of their parish church when they cannot hear it +therein, I judge that law to be absolutely sinful, and that it is sinful +to obey it.'] + +[Footnote 726: See Tyerman's _Life of Wesley_, ii. 545.] + +[Footnote 727: See Tyerman's _Life of Wesley_, ii. 334.] + +[Footnote 728: Southey, ii. 71. In 1780 Wesley wrote, 'You seem not to +have well considered the rules of a helper or the rise of Methodism. It +pleased God by me to awaken first my brother, then a few others, who +severally desired of me as a favour to direct them in all things. I drew +up a few plain rules (observe there was no Conference in being) and +permitted them to join me on these conditions. Whoever, therefore, +violates these conditions does _ipso facto_ disjoin himself from me. +This Brother Macnab has done, but he cannot see that he has done amiss. +The Conference has no power at all but what I exercise through them' +(the preachers).] + +[Footnote 729: Letter of Mr. J. Hampson, jun., quoted by Rev. L. +Tyerman, _Life of Wesley_, vol. iii. p. 423.] + +[Footnote 730: Robert Southey, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 731: In a letter to Mr. Walker, of Truro, 1756.] + +[Footnote 732: To the same effect in his _Short History of Methodism_ +Wesley wrote, 'Those who remain with Mr. Wesley are mostly Church of +England men. They love her articles, her homilies, her liturgy, her +discipline, and unwillingly vary from it in any instance.'] + +[Footnote 733: See also Wesley's _Works_, vol. xii. p. 446, &c.] + +[Footnote 734: For this reason, among others, not much has been said in +this sketch about Wesley's opinions, because they were different at +different stages of his life. Moreover, though Wesley was an able man +and a well-read man, and could write in admirably lucid and racy +language, he can by no means be ranked among theologians of the first +order. He could never, for instance, have met Dr. Clarke, as Waterland +did; or, to compare him with one who was brought into contact with him, +he could never have written the _Serious Call_, nor have answered +Tindal, as Law did.] + +[Footnote 735: 'I retract several expressions in our hymns which imply +impossibility; of falling from perfection; I do not contend for the term +"sinless," though I do not object against it.' And in a sermon on the +text, 'In many things we offend all,' 'We are all liable to be mistaken, +both in speculation and practice,' &c. 'Christian perfection certainly +does admit of degrees,' &c.] + +[Footnote 736: But, as a staunch Churchman, he agreed with the Baptismal +Service. In his _Treatise on Baptism_ he writes, 'Regeneration, which +our Church in so many places ascribes to baptism, is more than barely +being admitted into the Church. By water we are regenerated or born +again; a principle of grace is infused which will not be wholly taken +away unless we quench the Spirit of God by long-continued wickedness.' +The same sentiments are expressed in his sermon on the 'New Birth.'] + +[Footnote 737: See _inter alia_, T. Somerville's _My Own Life and Times_ +(1741-1841). 'He [J. Wesley] had attended, he told me, some of the most +interesting debates at the General Assembly, which he liked "very ill +indeed," saying there was too much heat,' &c., pp. 253-4.] + +[Footnote 738: See Tyerman, iii. 278.] + +[Footnote 739: Southey, i. 301, &c.] + +[Footnote 740: So said Charles (see Jackson's _Life of C. Wesley_). +John, however, gave a different account. 'My brother,' he said to John +Pawson, 'suspects everybody, and he is continually imposed upon; but I +suspect nobody, and I am never imposed upon.'] + +[Footnote 741: 'I seldom,' he wrote to Fletcher in 1768, 'find it +profitable for _me_ to converse with any who are not athirst for +perfection and big with the earnest expectation of receiving it every +moment.'--Tyerman, iii. 4.] + +[Footnote 742: 'With my latest breath will I bear testimony against +giving up to infidels one great proof of the unseen world; I mean that +of witchcraft and apparitions, confirmed by the testimony of all +ages.'--Id. 11. See also T. Somerville's _My own Life and Times_, p. +254. 'On my asking him if he had seen Farmer's _Essays on Demoniacs_, +then recently published, I recollect his answer was, "Nay, sir, I shall +never open that book. Why should a man attend to arguments against +possessions of the Devil, who has seen so many of them as I have?"'] + +[Footnote 743: Tyerman, iii. 252. It should not be forgotten that at the +beginning as well as at the end of their career the Wesleys met with +great consideration from some of the bishops. Charles Wesley speaks in +the very highest terms of the 'affectionate' way in which Archbishop +Potter treated him and his brother, and John seems never to have +forgotten the advice which this 'great and good man' (as he calls him) +gave him--'not to spend his time and strength in disputing about things +of a disputable nature, but in testifying against open vice and +promoting real holiness.'] + +[Footnote 744: Id. 384.] + +[Footnote 745: Id. 411.] + +[Footnote 746: Mr. Curteis (_Bampton Lectures_ for 1871, p. 382) calls +Wesley 'the purest, noblest, most saintly clergyman of the eighteenth +century, whose whole life was passed in the sincere and loyal effort to +do good.'] + +[Footnote 747: This passage on the contrast between Wesley and +Whitefield was written before the author had read Tyerman's _Life of +Whitefield_; a similar contrast will be found in that work, vol. i. p. +12.] + +[Footnote 748: For some well-selected specimens of Whitefield's sermons +see Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_, vol. i. pp. 297-304, and ii. 567, +&c.] + +[Footnote 749: _Life and Times of the Rev. G. Whitefield_, by Robert +Philip, p. 130, &c.] + +[Footnote 750: Whitefield's _Letters_; a Select Collection written to +his Intimate Friends and Persons of Distinction in England, Scotland, +Ireland, and America, from 1734 to 1770, vol. i. p. 277, &c.] + +[Footnote 751: See Whitefield's _Letters (ut supra), passim_.] + +[Footnote 752: Even Warburton owned, 'of Whitefield's oratorical powers, +and their astonishing influence on the minds of thousands, there can be +no doubt. They are of a high order.'--_Life of Lady Huntingdon_, i. +450.] + +[Footnote 753: See _Memoirs of the Rev. C. Wesley_, by Thomas Jackson, +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 754: See Tyerman's _Life of John Wesley_, vol. iii. p. 310.] + +[Footnote 755: This was written before the author had read Mr. Tyerman's +_Life of Whitefield_; indeed, before that life was published. Mr. +Tyerman informs us that the dispute arose because some of the preachers +informed Wesley that his brother Charles did not enforce discipline so +strictly as himself, and that Charles agreed with Whitefield 'touching +perseverance, at least, if not predestination too.'--Tyerman's _Life of +Whitefield_, ii. 288.] + +[Footnote 756: Gledstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 439, but surely Mr. +Gledstone is scarcely justified in adding quite gratuitously, 'John +Wesley was not a man with whom it was easy to be on good terms; his +lofty claims must have fretted his brother and created uneasiness.' +Charles Wesley was quite equal to cope with John if he had preferred any +'lofty claims' beyond those which an elder brother might naturally have +upon a younger. But, in point of fact, there is no trace of any such +rivalry between the brothers.] + +[Footnote 757: See _Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon_, +by a member of the houses of Shirley and Hastings, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72.] + +[Footnote 758: For a fuller list of the 'brilliant assemblies' which +Lady Huntingdon gathered together, see Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_, +ii. 209, &c., and 407, &c. Mr. Tyerman takes a more hopeful view of the +good that was done among these classes than is taken in the text.] + +[Footnote 759: See Gledstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 304.] + +[Footnote 760: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, from 1744 to 1753.] + +[Footnote 761: Not so Garrick's brother actor, Foote. The 'Minor' was a +cruel attack upon Whitefield. Foote spoke an epilogue in the character +of Whitefield, 'whom he dressed and imitated to the life.'--(See +Forster's _Essays_, 'Samuel Foote.') Foote defended himself on the +ground that Whitefield was 'ever profaning the name of God with +blasphemous nonsense,' &c.] + +[Footnote 762: _Marchmont Papers_, ii. 377.] + +[Footnote 763: _Lady Huntingdon's Life_ (_ut supra_), ii. 379.] + +[Footnote 764: See the _Christian Observer_, Oct. 1857, p. 707.] + +[Footnote 765: Indeed, Lady Huntingdon appears to have been the +originator of lay preaching among the Methodists. Of Maxwell, the first +lay preacher, she wrote to John Wesley: 'The first time I _made him_ +expound, expecting little from him, I sat over against him,' &c.--See +_Life and Times of Lady Huntingdon_, i. 33.] + +[Footnote 766: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 490.] + +[Footnote 767: Id. i. 309.] + +[Footnote 768: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 126, note.] + +[Footnote 769: Id. ii. 325.] + +[Footnote 770: Id. ii. 236.] + +[Footnote 771: Id. i. 324.] + +[Footnote 772: _Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill_, by the Rev. E. Sidney, +p. 65.] + +[Footnote 773: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 315.] + +[Footnote 774: Id. ii. 467.] + +[Footnote 775: Gladstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 465.] + +[Footnote 776: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 423.] + +[Footnote 777: Id. ii. 521.] + +[Footnote 778: Lord Lyttelton's _Letter to Mr. West_, quoted in _A +Refutation of Calvinism_, by G. Tomline, Bishop of Winchester, p. 253.] + +[Footnote 779: Not, of course, that he waited until the death of +Whitefield before reopening the question; for Conference met in August, +and Whitefield did not die until September 1770.] + +[Footnote 780: Extracts from the Minutes of some late Conversations +between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others at a Public Conference held in +London, August 7, 1770, and printed by W. Pim, Bristol. 'Take heed to +your doctrine.'] + +[Footnote 781: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 236.] + +[Footnote 782: Id. 240.] + +[Footnote 783: Id. 240, 241.] + +[Footnote 784: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 243, &c.] + +[Footnote 785: Id. 245. Berridge said the contest at Bristol turned upon +this hinge, whether it should be Pope John or Pope Joan.] + +[Footnote 786: And of his own writings he said: 'A softer style and +spirit would have better become me.'--See _Life of Rev. R. Hill_, by +Rev. G. Sidney, pp. 121, 122.] + +[Footnote 787: Id. p. 122.] + +[Footnote 788: Southey's _Life of Wesley_, ii. 180.] + +[Footnote 789: See the abuse quoted in the _Fourth Check_, pp. 11, 42, +121.] + +[Footnote 790: See _Fourth Check_, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 791: _Works of A.M. Toplady, with Memoir of the Author_, in +six volumes, vol. i. p. 100.] + +[Footnote 792: But at the same time a very modest and moderate one. +'Predestination,' he wrote, 'and reprobation I think of with fear and +trembling; and, if I should attempt to study them, I would study them on +my knees.' (Letter, dated Miles's Lane, March 24, 1752, quoted by Mr. +Tyerman in his _Oxford Methodists_, p. 270.) And again: 'As for points +of doubtful disputation, those especially which relate to _particular_ +or _universal_ redemption, I profess myself attached neither to the one +nor the other. I neither think of them myself nor preach of them to +others. If they happen to be started in conversation, I always endeavour +to divert the discourse to some more edifying topic. I have often +observed them to breed animosity and division, but never knew them to be +productive of love and unanimity.... Therefore I rest satisfied in this +general and indisputable truth, that the Judge of all the earth will +assuredly do right,' &c. This, however, was written in 1747 (see +Tyerman, 254). Perhaps when he wrote _Theron and Aspasio_ some years +later his views were somewhat changed.] + +[Footnote 793: Mr. Tyerman, however, thinks otherwise. 'After the lapse +of a hundred years,' he writes (_Oxford Methodists_, p. 201), 'since the +author's death, few are greater favourites at the present day.'] + +[Footnote 794: Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, vol. v. p. 93.] + +[Footnote 795: See especially _Meditations among the Tombs_, p. 29, the +passage beginning, 'Since we are so liable to be dispossessed of this +earthly tabernacle,' &c.] + +[Footnote 796: 'I dare no more write in _a fine style_,' he said, 'than +wear a fine coat.... I should purposely decline what many admire--a +highly ornamental style.'] + +[Footnote 797: Hervey's _Letters_ in answer to Wesley were published +after his death, against his own wish expressed when he was dying.] + +[Footnote 798: Hervey's _Meditations_, &c., _ut supra_, _Life_.] + +[Footnote 799: Toplady's _Works_, i. 102.] + +[Footnote 800: 'My writings,' he wrote to Lady F. Shirley, 'are not fit +for ordinary people: I never give them to such persons, and dissuade +this class of men from procuring them. O that they may be of some +service to the more refined part of the world!'] + +[Footnote 801: _Life of Hervey_, prefixed to his _Meditations_, _ut +supra_.] + +[Footnote 802: See Kyle's _Christian Leaders of the Last Century_.] + +[Footnote 803: See _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, i. 374.] + +[Footnote 804: _Life of Wilberforce_, by his Sons, vol. ii. p. 137.] + +[Footnote 805: See _Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith_, by W. Romaine, +especially pp. 28, 40, 98, 99, 102, 149, 158, 182, 192, 227, 229, 232, +233, 274, 275, 286, 287, 321.] + +[Footnote 806: 'Memoir of the Author,' prefixed to Venn's _Complete Duty +of Man_ (new ed. London, Religious Tract Society), p. xiii. preface 3.] + +[Footnote 807: Or perhaps we should have said 'of the Evangelical +school;' only, Law can hardly be said to have belonged to that school. +Bishop Wilson's _Sacra Privata_, and other devotional works, and some of +Bishop Ken's devotional works, rank, intellectually at any rate, far +above Venn's _Complete Duty of Man_.] + +[Footnote 808: Here again we must except Bishop Wilson, who hardly seems +to belong to the eighteenth century. He was as one born out of due time. +We must except, too, some of the works of those High Churchmen of the +old type, who lived on into the eighteenth century, but who, in their +lives and writings, reflected the spirit of a past age--a spirit which +breathes in every prayer of our Liturgy, but which is very rarely seen +in the eighteenth century, or, for the matter of that, in the +nineteenth.] + +[Footnote 809: Southey's _Life of Cowper_, i. 117.] + +[Footnote 810: See 'Biographical Sketches' in the _Christian Observer_ +for 1877.] + +[Footnote 811: _Christian Observer_ for February, 1877.] + +[Footnote 812: See, _inter alia_, _William Wilberforce, his Friends, and +his Times_, by J.C. Colquhoun, pp. 90, 98.] + +[Footnote 813: See Newton's _Works_, in six volumes, edited by Cecil, +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 814: See especially his fourth sermon on 'The Messiah' in the +series suggested by Handel's Oratorio. There is not a taint of +irreverence, but no one but a man who had an exquisite sense of humour +could have written the first two pages of that sermon.] + +[Footnote 815: See Taylor's _Life of Cowper_, p. 426.] + +[Footnote 816: Id. p. 139.] + +[Footnote 817: Not, of course, a 'Methodist' as distinguished from an +'Evangelical,' but according to the indiscriminate use of the term +common in his day.] + +[Footnote 818: _Life of Scott_, 216.] + +[Footnote 819: Id. 127.] + +[Footnote 820: Id. 261.] + +[Footnote 821: Id. 238.] + +[Footnote 822: See Milner's _History of the Church of Christ_ (new ed. +four vols. Cadell, 1834), _passim_, and especially Introduction, and +vol. i. 110, 131, 136, 137, 156; ii. 415; iii. 73.] + +[Footnote 823: i. 156.--See also i. 131, &c.] + +[Footnote 824: See i. 136, 137, 325, 457.] + +[Footnote 825: ii. 597, &c.] + +[Footnote 826: iii. 73.] + +[Footnote 827: ii. 441.] + +[Footnote 828: See the _Life of the Rev. T. Robinson, Vicar of St. +Mary's, Leicester, and sometime Fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb._, by Rev. +E.T. Vaughan, p. 50, &c.] + +[Footnote 829: See _Wilberforce, His Friends, and His Times_, by J.C. +Colquhoun, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 830: Sir James Stephen, _Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography_.] + +[Footnote 831: 'Mr. Wilberforce's "Practical View,"' writes Thomas +Scott, 'is a most noble and manly stand for the Gospel; full of good +sense and most useful observations on subjects quite out of our line, +and in all respects fitted for usefulness; and coming from such a man, +it will probably be read by many thousands who can by no means be +brought to attend either to our preaching or writings, especially the +rich.'--_Life of T. Scott_, 311.] + +[Footnote 832: Newton's 'Letters to a Nobleman,' published in his works, +were addressed to Lord Dartmouth.] + +[Footnote 833: See _Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More_, by W. +Roberts, Esq., i. 395. The _Quarterly Review_ vehemently combated the +notion of Dr. Johnson's conversion. In reference to the passage in +Roberts' _Life of H. More_, it said, 'This attempt to persuade us that +Dr. Johnson's mind was not made up as to the great fundamental doctrine +of the Christian religion, until it was enforced on him _in extremis_ by +sectarian or Methodistical zeal, cannot redound to the credit of Mr. +Roberts' understanding,' &c. Those who care to enter into this bygone +controversy may be referred to the _Christian Observer_ for May 1843, +pp. 281-287.] + +[Footnote 834: One of Newton's bon-mots was, 'The place of honour in an +army is not with the baggage or among the women.'] + +[Footnote 835: See one of Newton's characteristically tender and +sympathetic letters in answer to Hannah More's description of her +spiritual state: 'What you are pleased to say, my dear madam, of the +state of your mind, I understand perfectly well; I praise God on your +behalf, and I hope I shall earnestly pray for you. I have stood upon +that ground myself. I see what you want, to set you quite at ease; and +though _I_ cannot give it you, I trust that He who has already taught +you what to desire will in His own best time do everything for you and +in you which is necessary to make you as happy as is compatible with our +present state of infirmity and warfare; but He must be waited _on_ and +waited _for_, to do this.' Hannah More had before this expressed her +liking for Newton's 'Cardiphonia, though not for every sentiment or +expression which it contains.' See Roberts' _Life_, i. 236.] + +[Footnote 836: Roberts, ii. 260.] + +[Footnote 837: See _Life of H. More_, by H. Thompson, p. 81.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +CHURCH FABRICS AND SERVICES. + + +Thirty years or more of the present century had passed before the Church +awoke to put its material house in order, to improve and beautify its +churches, and to improve the character of its services. Church buildings +and Church services, as they are remembered by men yet of middle age, +were very much the same at the close of the Georgian period as they were +at its beginning. Much, therefore, of the present chapter will exhibit a +state of things in many respects perfectly familiar to men who are still +in the prime of life. Our great-great-grandfathers would have felt quite +at home in many of the churches which we remember in our childhood. They +would find now a great deal that was strange to them. Though Prayer-book +and Rubrics remain the same, Church spirit in our day does not own very +much in common with that which most generally prevailed during the +reigns of the four Georges. + +In a Church like this of England, where so much liberty of thought and +diversity of opinion has ever been freely conceded to bishops and clergy +as well as to its lay members, there has never failed to be, to some +extent at least, a corresponding variety in the outward surroundings of +public worship. From the beginning of the Reformation to the present +day, the three principal varieties of Church opinion known in modern +phraseology as 'High,' 'Low,' and 'Broad' Church have never ceased to +co-exist within its borders. One or other of the three parties has at +times been very depressed, while another has been popular and +predominant. But there has never been any external cause to prevent the +revival of the one, or to make it impossible that the other should not, +with changing circumstances, lose its temporary supremacy. In the +eighteenth century there were, from beginning to end, men of each of +these three sections. The old Puritanism was almost obsolete; but there +were always Low Churchmen, not only in the earlier, but in the modern +sense of the word. High Churchmen, in the seventeenth-century and +Laudean meaning, were no doubt few and far between by the time the +century had run through half its course. But they were not wholly +confined to the Nonjuring 'remnant,' and High Churchmen of a less +pronounced type never ceased to abound. Broad Churchmen, of various +shades of opinion, were always numerous. Only each and every party in +the Church was weakened and diluted in force and purpose by a widespread +deficiency in warmth of feeling and earnestness of conviction. Hot party +feeling is no doubt a mischief; but exemption from it is dearly bought +by the levelling influences of indifference, or of the lukewarmness +which approaches to it. The Church of the eighteenth century, and of the +Georgian period in general, was by no means deficient in estimable +clergymen who lived and died amid the well-earned respect of +parishioners and neighbours. But the tendencies of the time were in +favour of a decent, unexacting orthodoxy, neither too High, nor too +Broad, nor too Low, nor too strict. It may be well imagined that this +feeling among the clergy should also find outward expression in the +general character of the churches where they ministered, and of the +services in which they officiated. A traveller interested in modes of +worship might have passed through county after county, from one parish +church to another, and would have found, as compared with the present +time, a singular lack of variety. No doubt he would see carelessness and +neglect contrasting in too many places with a more comely order in +others. He would very rarely notice any disposition to develop ritual, +to vary forms, and to make use of whatever elasticity the laws of the +Church would permit, in order to make the externals of worship a more +forcible expression of one or another school of thought. + +Our forefathers in the eighteenth century were almost always content to +maintain in tolerable, or scarcely tolerable repair, at the lowest +modicum of expense, the existing fabrics of their churches. It has been +truly remarked, that 'to this apathy we are much indebted; for, after +all, they took care that the buildings should not fall to the ground; if +they had done more, they would probably have done worse.'[838] For +ecclesiastical architecture was then, as is well known, at its lowest +ebb. 'Public taste,' wrote Warburton to Hurd in 1749, 'is the most +wretched imaginable.'[839] He was speaking, at the time, of poetry. But +poetry and art are closely connected; and it is next to impossible that +depth of feeling and grandeur of conception should be found in the one, +at a date when there is a marked deficiency of them in the other. There +were, however, special reasons for the decline of church architecture. +It had become, for very want of exercise, an almost forgotten art. In +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the work of building churches +had been prosecuted with lavish munificence; so much so, that the +Reformed Church succeeded to an inheritance more than doubly sufficient +for its immediate wants.[840] A period, therefore, of great activity in +this respect was followed by one of nearly total cessation. In England +no church was erected of the smallest pretensions to architectural +design between the Reformation and the great fire of London in 1666, +with the solitary exception of the small church in Covent Garden, +erected by Inigo Jones in 1631.[841] 'During the eighty years that +elapsed from the death of Henry VIII. to the accession of Charles I., +the transition style left its marks in every corner of England in the +mansions of the nobility and gentry, and in the colleges and schools +which were created out of the confiscated funds of the monasteries; but, +unfortunately for the dignity of this style, not one church, nor one +really important public building or regal palace, was erected during the +period which might have tended to redeem it from the utilitarianism into +which it was sinking. The great characteristic of this epoch was, that +during its continuance architecture ceased to be a natural mode of +expression, or the occupation of cultivated intellects, and passed into +the state of being merely the stock in trade of certain professional +experts. Whenever this is so, '_Addio Maraviglia!_'[842] The reign of +Puritanism was of course wholly unfavourable to the art; the period of +laxity that followed was no less so. Even Wren, of whose comprehensive +genius Englishmen have every reason to speak with pride, formed, in the +first instance, a most inadequate conception of what a Christian Church +should be. 'The very theory of the ground plan for a church had died +out, when he constructed his first miserable design for a huge +meeting-house.'[843] + +Before the eighteenth century, Gothic architecture had already fallen +into utter disrepute. Sir Henry Wotton, fresh from his embassies in +Venice, had declared that such was the 'natural imbecility' of pointed +arches, and such 'their very uncomeliness,' that they ought to be +'banished from judicious eyes, among the reliques of a barbarous +age.'[844] Evelyn, lamenting the demolition by Goths and Vandals of the +stately monuments of Greek and Roman architecture, spoke of the mediaeval +buildings which had risen in their stead, as if they had no merits to +redeem them from contempt--'congestions of heavy, dark, melancholy and +monkish piles, without any proportion, use, or beauty,'[845] deplorable +instances of pains and cost lavishly expended, and resulting only in +distraction and confusion. Sir Christopher Wren said of the great +cathedrals of the Middle Ages, that they were 'vast and gigantic +buildings indeed, but not worthy the name of architecture.'[846] Even at +such times there were some who were proof against the caprice of +fashionable taste, and who were not insensible to the solemn grandeur of +'high embowed roofs,' 'massy pillars,' and 'storied windows.'[847] Lord +Lyttelton censured the old architecture as 'loaded with a multiplicity +of idle and useless parts,' yet granted that 'upon the whole it has a +mighty awful air, and strikes you with reverence.'[848] Henry VII.'s +Chapel at Westminster was still regarded with admiration as 'that wonder +of the world;'[849] and although people did not quite know what to do +with their cathedrals, and regarded them rather as curiosities, alien to +the times, and heirlooms from a dead past, they did not cease to speak +of them with some pride. But popular taste--so far as architectural +taste can be spoken of as prevalent in any definite form throughout the +greater part of the last century--was all in favour of a 'Palladian' or +'Greek' style. It was a style scarcely adapted to our climate, and +unfavourable to the symbolism of Christian thought, yet capable, in the +hands of a master, of being very grand and imposing. Under weaker +treatment the effect was grievous. There was neither manliness nor +solemnity in the usual run of churches built after the similitude of +'Roman theatres and Grecian fanes.'[850] Maypoles instead of columns, +capitals of no order, and pie-crust decorations--such, exclaimed +Seward,[851] were the too frequent adjuncts of the newly built churches +he saw about him. At the time, however, that Seward wrote, a change had +already begun to show itself in many influential quarters. Even the +'correct classicality' of Sir William Chambers,[852] the leading +architect of the day, met, towards the close of the century, with by no +means the same unquestioning admiration which he had received at an +earlier date. There was division of opinion on fundamental questions of +architectural fitness; and persons could applaud the talents of mediaeval +builders without being considered eccentric. Gray, Mason, Warton, Bishop +Percy, and many others, had contributed in various ways to create in +England a reaction, still more widely felt in Germany, in favour of +ideas which for some time past had been contemptuously relegated to the +darkness of the Middle Ages. A frequent, though as yet not very +discriminating, approval of Gothic[853] architecture was part of the +movement. 'High veneration,' remarked Dr. Sayers, writing about the last +year of the century, 'has lately been revived for the pointed +style.'[854] It was one among many other outward signs of a change +gradually coming over the public mind on matters concerned with the +observances of religion. + +An enthusiastic antiquary and ecclesiologist, whose contributions to the +'Gentleman's Magazine' of 1799 were of great service in calling +attention to the reckless mischief which was often worked, under the +name of improvements, in our noblest churches and cathedrals, has +transmitted to us a sad list of mutilations and disfigurements which had +come under his observation. He has told how 'in every corner of the land +some unseemly disguise, in the Roman or Grecian taste, was thrown over +the most lovely forms of the ancient architecture.'[855] His indignation +was especially moved by the havoc perpetrated in Westminster Abbey, +sometimes by set design of tasteless innovators, often by 'some +low-hovelled cutter of monumental memorials,' or by workmen at +coronations, 'who, we are told, cannot attend to trifles.'[856] Carter's +lamentation is more than justified by Dean Stanley, who has enumerated +in detail many of the vandalisms committed during the last age in the +minster under his care. What else could be expected, when it was held by +those who were thought the best judges in such matters, that nothing +could be more barbarous and devoid of interest than the Confessor's +Chapel, and 'nothing more stupid than laying statues on their backs?' It +might have been supposed that Dean Atterbury, at all events, would have +had some sympathy with the workmanship of the past. But 'there is a +charming tradition that he stood by, complacently watching the workmen +as they hewed smooth the fine old sculptures over Solomon's porch, +which the nineteenth century vainly seeks to recall to their +places.'[857] For a list of some of the disastrous alterations and +demolitions inflicted upon other cathedrals, the reader may be referred +to the pages of Mr. Mackenzie Walcot.[858] Wreck and ruin seems +especially to have followed in the track of Wyatt, who was looked upon, +nevertheless, as a principal reviver of the ancient style of +architecture. If cathedrals, where it might be imagined that some +remains of ecclesiastical taste would chiefly linger, thus suffered, +even when under the supervision of the chief architects of the period, +what would have happened if, at such a time, a sudden zeal for Church +restoration had invaded the country clergy? + +We may be thankful, on the whole, that it was an age of whitewash. +Carter, writing of Westminster Abbey, records one thing with hearty +gratitude. It had not been whitewashed. It was the one religious +structure in the kingdom which showed its original finishing, and 'those +modest hues which the native appearance of the stone so pleasantly +bestows.'[859] Everywhere else the dauber's brush had been at work. He +spoke of it with indignation. 'I make little scruple in declaring that +this job work, which is carried on in every part of the kingdom, is a +mean makeshift to give a delusive appearance of repair and cleanliness +to the walls, when in general this wash is resorted to to hide neglected +or perpetrated fractures.'[860] The stone fretwork of the Lady Chapel at +Hereford,[861] the valuable wall-paintings at Salisbury,[862] the carved +work of Grinling Gibbons at St. James', Westminster,[863] shared, for +example, the general fate, and were smothered in lime. Horace Walpole, +laughing at the City of London for employing one whom he thought a very +indifferent craftsman to write their history, said he supposed that +presently, instead of having books published with the imprimatur of an +university, they would be 'printed as churches are whitewashed--John +Smith and Thomas Johnson, Churchwardens.'[864] How few churches are +there that were not earlier or later in the last century emblazoned with +some such like scroll! But if whitewash conceals, it also preserves; it +hides beauties to which one generation is blind, that it may disclose +them the more fresh and uninjured to another which has learnt to +appreciate them. + +When it is said that the churches were kept in such tolerable repair +that at all events they did not fall, it would appear that in many cases +little more than this could be truthfully added. Ely Minster remains +standing, but more by good chance, if Defoe is to be trusted, than from +any sufficient care on the part of its guardians. 'Some of it totters,' +he wrote, 'so much with every gale of wind, looks so like decay, and +seems so near it, that whenever it does fall, all that 'tis likely will +be thought strange in it will be that it did not fall a hundred years +sooner.'[865] Such an instance might well be exceptional, and no doubt +was so among cathedrals;[866] but a great number of parish churches had +fallen, by the middle of the century, into a deplorable state. Secker, +in a charge delivered in 1750, gives a grievous picture of what was to +be seen in many country churches. 'Some, I fear, have scarce been kept +in necessary present repair, and others by no means duly cleared from +annoyances, which must gradually bring them to decay: water undermining +and rotting the foundations, earth heaped up against the outside, weeds +and shrubs growing upon them ... too frequently the floors are meanly +paved, or the walls dirty or patched, or the windows ill glazed, and it +may be in part stopped up ... or they are damp, offensive, and +unwholesome. Why (he adds) should not the church of God, as well as +everything else, partake of the improvements of later times?'[867] +Bishop Fleetwood had observed forty years before,[868] that unless the +good public spirit of repairing churches should prevail a great deal +more, a hundred years would bring to the ground a huge number of our +churches. 'And no one, said Bishop Butler, will imagine that the good +spirit he has recommended prevails more at present than it did +then.'[869] As for cleanliness, Bishop Horne remarked that in England, +as in the sister kingdom, it was evidently a frequent maxim that +cleanliness was no essential to devotion. People seemed very commonly to +be of the same opinion with the Scotch minister, whose wife made answer +to a visitor's request--'The pew swept and lined! My husband would think +it downright popery!'[870] One can understand, without needing to +sympathise with it, the strong Protestantism of Hervey's admiration for +a church 'magnificently plain;'[871] but in the eighteenth century, the +excessive plainness, not to say the frequent dirtiness, of so many +churches was certainly owing to other causes than that of +ultra-Protestantism. + +After speaking of the disrepair and squalor which, although far indeed +from being universal, were too frequently noticeable in the churches of +the last age, it might seem a natural transition to pass on to the +singularly incongruous uses to which the naves of some of our principal +ecclesiastical buildings were in a few instances perverted. In the minds +of modern Churchmen there would be the closest connection between +culpable neglect of the sacred fabric, and the profanation of it by +admission within its walls of the sights and sounds of common daily +business or pleasure. There was something of this in the period under +review. The extraordinary desecrations once general in St. Paul's belong +indeed chiefly to the latter half of the 16th and the first half of the +17th centuries. Most readers are more or less familiar with the accounts +given of 'Paul's Walk' in the old days,--how it was not only 'the +recognised resort of wits and gallants, and men of fashion and of +lawyers,'[872] but also, as Evelyn called it, 'a stable of horses and a +den of thieves'[873]--a common market, where Shakspeare makes Falstaff +buy a horse as he would at Smithfield[874]--usurers in the south aisle, +horse-dealers in the north, and in the midst 'all kinds of bargains, +meetings, and brawlings.'[875] Before the eighteenth century began, +'Paul's Walk' was, in all its main features, a thing of the past. Yet a +good deal more than the mere tradition of it remained. In a pamphlet +published in 1703, 'Jest' asks 'Earnest' whether he has been at St. +Paul's, and seen the flux of people there. 'And what should I do there,' +says the latter, 'where men go out of curiosity and interest, and not +for the sake of religion? Your shopkeepers assemble there as at full +'Change, and the buyers and sellers are far from being cast out of the +Temple.'[876] At Durham there was a regular thoroughfare across the nave +until 1750, and at Norwich until 1748, when Bishop Gooch stopped it. The +naves of York and Durham Cathedral were fashionable promenades.[877] The +Confessor's Chapel made, on occasion, a convenient playground for +Westminster scholars, who were allowed, as late as 1829, to keep the +scenes for their annual play in the triforium of the north +transept.[878] Nevertheless 'Paul's Walk' and all customs in any way +akin to it, so far as they survived into the last century, had in +reality little or nothing to do with the irreligion and neglect of which +the century has been sorely, and not causelessly accused. Rather, they +were the relics of customs which had not very long fallen into +desuetude. The time had been, and was not so very long past, when the +stalls and bazaars of St. Paul's Cathedral did but illustrate on a large +scale what might be seen on certain days in almost all the churches of +the kingdom. Our forefathers in the Middle Ages drew a broad line of +distinction between the chancel and the nave. The former was looked upon +as sanctified exclusively to religious uses; the latter was regarded +rather as a consecrated house under the care and protection of the +Church. It sounds somewhat like a paradox to assert that the exclusion +from churches of all that is not distinctly connected with the service +of religion was mainly due to the Puritans, of whose wanton irreverence +in sacred buildings we hear so much. Yet this seems certainly to have +been the case. Traces of the older usage lingered on, as we have seen, +into the middle of the last century; but from the time of the +Commonwealth they had already become exceptional anachronisms. + +Before the century commenced pews had become everywhere general. In +mediaeval times there had been, properly speaking, none. A few +distinguished people were permitted, as a special privilege, to have +their private closets furnished, very much like the grand pews of later +days, with cushions, carpets, and curtains. But, as an almost universal +rule, the nave was unencumbered with any permanent seats, and only +provided with a few portable stools for the aged and infirm. Pews began +to be popular in Henry VIII.'s time, notwithstanding the protests of Sir +Thomas More and others. Under Elizabeth they became more frequent in +town churches. In Charles I.'s time, they had so far gained ground as to +be often a source of hot and even riotous contention between those who +opposed them and others who insisted on erecting them. Even in Charles +II.'s reign they were exceptional rather than otherwise, and the term +had not yet become limited to boxes in church. Pepys writes in his +'Diary' on February 18, 1668, 'At Church; there was my Lady Brouncker +and Mrs. Williams in our pew.' On the 25th of the same month, we find +the entry, 'At the play; my wife sat in my Lady Fox's pew with +her.'[879] Sir Christopher Wren was not at all pleased to see them +introduced into his London churches.[880] During the luxurious, +self-indulgent times that followed the Restoration, private pews of all +sorts and shapes gained a general footing. Before Queen Anne's reign was +over they had become so regular a part of the ordinary furniture of a +church, that in the regulations approved in 1712 by both Houses of +Convocation for the consecrating of churches and chapels, it is +specially enjoined that the churches be previously pewed.[881] Twelve +years, however, later than this they were evidently by no means +universal in country places. In 1725, Swift, enumerating 'the plagues of +a Country Life,' makes 'a church without pews' a special item in his +list.[882] But 'repewed,' had been for many years past a characteristic +part of formula which recorded the church restorations of the +period.[883] There are plenty of allusions in the writings of +contemporary poets and essayists to the cosy, sleep-provoking structures +in which people of fashion and well-to-do citizens could enjoy without +attracting too much notice-- + + the Sunday due + Of slumbering in an upper pew.[884] + +In Swift's humorous metamorphosis-- + + A bedstead of the antique mode, + Compact of timber many a load, + Such as our ancestors did use, + Was metamorphos'd into pews; + Which still their ancient nature keep, + By lodging folks dispos'd to sleep.[885] + +Those of the more exclusive sort were often built up with tall +partitions, like Lady Booby's, 'in her pew, which the congregation could +not see into.'[886] Sometimes they were curtained, 'sometimes filled +with sofas and tables, or even provided with fireplaces;'[887] and cases +might be quoted where the tedium of a long service, or the appetite +engendered by it, were relieved by the entry, between prayers and +sermon, of a livery servant with sherry and light refreshments.[888] +Even into cathedrals cumbrous ladies' pews were often introduced. +Horace Walpole tells an extraordinary story of Gloucester Cathedral in +1753. A certain Mrs. Cotton, who had largely contributed to whitewashing +and otherwise ornamenting the church, had taken it into her head that +the soul of a favourite daughter had passed into a robin. The Dean and +Chapter indulged her in the whim, and she was allowed to keep a kind of +aviary in her private seat. 'Just by the high altar is a small pew hung +with green damask, with curtains of the same, and a small corner +cupboard painted, carved, and gilt, for birds in one corner.'[889] In +Ripon Cathedral, some of the old tabernacle work of the stalls was +converted into pews.[890] Everywhere the pew system remained +uncontrolled, pampering self-indulgence, fostering jealousies, and too +often thrusting back the poor into mean, comfortless sittings, in +whatever part of the church was coldest, darkest, and most distant from +sight and hearing. Towards the end of the century its evils began to be +here and there acknowledged. The population was rapidly increasing in +the larger towns; and the new proprietary chapels erected to meet this +increase were often commercial speculations conducted on mere principles +of trade, most unworthy of a National Church. No reflecting Churchman +could fail to be disgusted with a traffic in pews which in many cases +absolutely excluded the poor.[891] Among the new churches there were in +fact only one or two honourable exceptions to the general rule. A free +church was opened at Bath, another at Birmingham;[892] it appears that +all the rest of these 'Chapels of Ease' unblushingly gave the lie, so +far as in them lay, to the declaration of our Lord that the poor have +the Gospel preached unto them. Some time had yet to elapse before +improved feeling could do much towards abating the unchristian nuisance. +But energetic protests were occasionally heard. 'I would reprobate,' +wrote Mrs. Barbauld (1790) 'those little gloomy solitary cells, planned +by the spirit of aristocracy, which deform the building no less to the +eye of taste than to the eye of benevolence, and insulating each family +within its separate enclosure, favour at once the pride of rank and the +laziness of indulgence.'[893] 'It is earnestly to be wished,' remarked +Dr. Sayers about the same time, 'that our churches were as free as those +of the continent from these vile incumbrances.' Their injury to +architectural effect was the least of their evils. They were fruitful, +he said, in jealousies, and utterly discordant to the worship of a God +who is no respecter of persons.[894] + +Of the galleries, so often enumerated in Paterson's account of London +Churches (1714) among recently erected 'ornaments,' little need be said, +except that they were often wholly unnecessary, or only made necessary +by the great loss of space squandered in the promiscuous medley of +square and ill-shaped pews. It was an object of some ambition to have a +front seat in the gallery. 'The people of fashion exalt themselves in +church over the heads of the people of no fashion.'[895] A crowded +London church in the old times, gallery above gallery thronged with +people, was no doubt an impressive spectacle, not soon to be forgotten. +To many the thought of galleried churches will revive a different set of +remembrances. Dusky corners, a close and heavy atmosphere, back seats +for children and the scantily favoured, to which sound reached as a +drowsy hum, and where sight was limited to the heads of people in their +pews, to their hats upon the pillars, and perhaps an occasional +half-view of the clergyman in the pulpit, seen at intervals through the +interstices of the gallery supports--such are the recollections which +will occur to some. Certainly they are calculated to animate even an +excessive zeal for opening out churches, and creating wider space and +freer air. + +And who does not remember some of the other special adjuncts of an +old-fashioned church, as it had been handed down little altered from the +time of our great-grandfathers? There were the half-obliterated +escutcheons, scarcely less dismal in aspect than the coffin plates with +which the columns of the Welsh churches were so profusely decorated. No +wonder Blair introduces into his poem on 'The Grave' a picture of-- + + the gloomy aisles + Black plastered, and hung round with shreds of 'scutcheons.[896] + +And then, in the place of the ancient rood loft, was that masterpiece of +rural art-- + + Moses and Aaron upon a church wall, + Holding up the Commandments, for fear they should fall.[897] + +There was the glorified record of the past deeds of parish officials, +well adapted to fire the emulation of a succeeding generation-- + + With pride of heart, the Churchwarden surveys + High o'er the belfry, girt with birds and flowers, + His story wrought in capitals: 'twas I + That bought the font; and I repaired the pews.[898] + +There were the tables of benefactors conspicuous under the western +gallery. The Lower House of Convocation in 1710 had issued special +directions in recommendation of this practice. The bishops +also--Fleetwood,[899] Secker,[900] and others--did not fail to enjoin it +in their charges. And not without reason; for a great number of parish +benefactions appear to have been lost by lapse or otherwise about the +beginning of the eighteenth century. Yet smaller letters, and a less +prominent position, might have served the same purpose, with less +disfigurement, and less offence to the decent humility which best befits +the deeds of Christian benevolence. + +The great three-decked pulpit of the Georgian age is still familiar to +our memories. To the next generation it will be at length a curiosity of +the past. Nor must the mighty sounding-board be forgotten, impending +with almost threatening bulk over the preacher's head, and adorned with +the emblematic symbol of grace:-- + + I cast my eyes upon him, and explored + The dove-like form upon the sounding hoard.[901] + +The pulpit had supplanted the old portable box-desk at the time of the +Reformation, and had maintained itself in undiminished honour through +all the subsequent changes. In rich London parishes much rare +workmanship was often expended upon it. If not by its costliness, at all +events by its dimensions, it was apt to throw all other church furniture +into the shade. And 'in a few abnormal instances, particularly in +watering-places, the rostra would even overhang the altar, or occupy a +sort of gallery behind it.'[902] During the earlier part of the century, +an hour-glass, in a wood or iron frame, was still the not unfrequent +appendage to a pulpit.[903] In the Elizabethan period it had been +general. But perhaps the Puritan preachers had not cared to be reminded +that preaching had its limits; or a later generation, on the other hand, +might dread the suggestion that the sermon might last the hour. At all +events, as they wore out, they were not often replaced; and Bishop +Kennet[904], writing in the third decade of the century, spoke of them +as already beginning to be uncommon. They were chiefly to be seen in +old-fashioned country churches, such as that where, in Gay's eclogue, +the village swains followed fair Blouzelind to her burial, and listened +while the good man warned them from his text, and descanted upon the +uncertainty of life-- + + And spoke the hour-glass in her praise quite out.[905] + +The bible 'of larger volume,' as directed in Lord Cromwell's +injunctions, and in the Canons of 1751[906], venerable with age, might +sometimes be seen still chained to its desk[907], as in the old days. In +Pope's time, church bibles were very commonly in black-letter type[908]. + +Litany desks were a great rarity. One in Exeter Cathedral appears to +have been disused about 1740[909]. + +Everyone knows what a neglected aspect the font usually bore during the +whole of the Georgian period; how it was often thrust into some corner +of the church, as if it were a kind of encumbrance that could not be +absolutely done away with, and very frequently supplanted by some basin +or pewter vessel placed inside it. In 1799 Carter recorded with +indignation that in Westminster Abbey the font had been altogether +removed, to make space for some new monument, and was lying topsy-turvy +in a side room[910]. In this, however, as in other respects, the neglect +that was too generally prevalent must of course not be spoken of as if +it were by any means universal. + +Towards the end of the seventeenth century, and in the reign of Queen +Anne, there was some little discussion, in which Bishop Beveridge and +others took part[911], as to the propriety of retaining or renovating +chancel screens. In mediaeval times, these 'cancelli,' from which the +chancel took its name, had been universal; and a few had been put up +under the Stuart sovereigns, notwithstanding the offence with which +they were regarded by those who looked upon them as one of 'the hundred +points of popery.' + +We find Archbishop Secker expressing his regret, not without cause, that +chancels were not, as a rule, kept in much better order than other parts +of the building. Incumbents were by no means so careful as they should +be, and lay impropriators, whether private or collegiate, were generally +strangely neglectful. 'It is indispensably requisite,' he added, 'to +preserve them not only standing and safe, but clean, neat, decent, +agreeable; and it is highly fit to go further, and superadd, not a light +and trivial finery, but such degrees of proper dignity and grandeur as +we are able, consistently with other real obligations[912].' + +The condition and decoration of the Lord's Table differed widely, +especially in the earlier years of the period, in accordance with +varieties of opinion and feeling in clergymen and in their +congregations. For the most part it was insignificantly and meanly +furnished, and hemmed closely in by the Communion rails. At the +beginning of the century, it would appear that in the London churches a +great deal of care and cost had been lately expended on 'altar-pieces.' +In one church after another, Paterson records the attraction of a +'fine'--a 'beautiful'--a 'stately'--a 'costly' altar-piece[913]. Many of +these, however, would by no means approve themselves to a more +cultivated taste than that which then prevailed. Instead of the Greek +marbles and rich baldachino which Wren had intended for the east end of +St. Paul's, the authorities substituted imitation marble, and fluted +pilasters painted with ultramarine and veined with gold[914]. The Vicar +of Leeds, writing to Ralph Thoresby in 1723, tells him that a pleasing +surprise awaits his return, 'Our altar-piece is further adorned, since +you went, with three flower-pots upon three pedestals upon the wainscot, +gilt, and a hovering dove upon the middle one; three cherubs over the +middle panel, the middle one gilt, a piece of open carved work beneath, +going down towards the middle of the velvet.' If, however, the reader +cannot altogether admire the picture thus summoned before his eyes, he +will at all events agree with the words that follow: 'But the greatest +ornament is a choir well filled with devout communicants[915].' The +painted 'crimson curtains' at the east end of Battersea Church, 'trimmed +with amber, and held up by gold cord with heavy gold tassels,'[916] may +serve as another representative example of the kind of 'altar-piece' +which commended itself to eighteenth-century Churchmen. + +Nothing, it might be imagined, could be more inoffensive than the use of +the sacred monogram. But there were some at the beginning of the period, +both Dissenters and Puritan Churchmen, who looked very suspiciously at +it. They ranked it, together with bowing at the name of Jesus and +turning eastward at the Creed, among Romish proclivities. 'What mean,' +Barnes had said towards the close of the previous century, 'these rich +altar-cloths, with the Jesuits' cypher embossed upon them?'[917] So also +that worthy man, Ralph Thoresby, had expressed himself 'troubled' to see +at Durham, among other 'superstitions' 'richly embroidered I.H.S. upon +the high altar.'[918] + +In Charles the First's time the Ritualistic party in the Church of +England used sometimes to place upon the altars of their churches +crucifixes and an array of candlesticks.[919] After the Restoration the +former were never replaced. The two candles, however, interpreted as +symbolical of the divine and human nature of the Lord, were by no means +unfrequent in the churches of the last century, especially during its +earlier years. Mr. Beresford Hope speaks of an old picture in his +possession, of Westminster Abbey, referred to the beginning of the +eighteenth century, in which candles are represented burning upon the +altar.[920] This, at all events, was most unusual. Bishop Hoadly, +writing against the Ritualistic practices of some congregations, speaks +of 'the over-altars and the never-lighted candles upon them.'[921] In +Durham Cathedral, which by traditional custom retained throughout the +century a higher Ritual in some respects than was to be found elsewhere, +the 'tapers' of which Thoresby speaks[922] were probably more than two +in number. + +The credence, or side table, upon which the sacramental elements are +placed previously to being offered, in accordance with the rubric, upon +the Lord's Table, had been objected to by many Puritan Churchmen. +Provision was rarely made for this in eighteenth-century churches. It is +mentioned as somewhat exceptional on the part of Bishop Bull, that 'he +always offered the elements upon the Holy Table himself before +beginning the Communion service.'[923] + +Puritan feeling had very unreasonably regarded the cross with almost as +much jealousy as the crucifix. This idea had, in the last century, so +far gained ground, that the Christian emblem was not often to be seen, +at all events in the interior of churches, and that those who did use it +in their churches or churchyards were likely to incur a suspicion of +Popery. An anonymous assailant of Bishop Butler in 1767, fifteen years +after the death of that prelate, made it a special charge against him +that he had 'put up the Popish insignia of the cross in his chapel at +Bristol.'[924] + +Steele, speaking, in one of his papers in the 'Guardian,' of Raphael's +picture of our Saviour appearing to His disciples after His +resurrection, makes some remarks upon religion and sacred art. 'Such +endeavours,' he says, 'as this of Raphael, and of all men not called to +the altar, are collateral helps not to be despised by the ministers of +the Gospel.... All the arts and sciences ought to be employed in one +confederacy against the prevailing torrent of vice and impiety; and it +will be no small step in the progress of religion, if it is as evident +as it ought to be, that he wants the best sense a man can have, who is +cold to the "Beauty of Holiness."'[925] Tillotson, and other favourite +writers of Steele's generation, had dwelt forcibly, and with much charm +of language, upon the moral beauty of a virtuous and holy life. But +there had never been a time when the English Church in general, as +distinguished from any party in it, had cared less to invest religious +worship with outward circumstances of attractiveness and beauty. As to +the particular point which gave occasion to Steele's remarks, whatever +might be said for or against the propriety of painting in churches, +there was in his time little disposition to open the question at +all.[926] One of the very few instances where a painting of the kind is +spoken of, was connected with a very discreditable scandal. At a time +when party feeling ran very high, White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, +the well-known author of 'Parochial Antiquities,' had made himself +exceedingly obnoxious to some of the more extreme members of the High +Church section, by his answer to Sacheverell's sermon upon 'false +brethren.'[927] Dr. Welton, Rector of Whitechapel, put up at this +juncture in his church a painted altar-piece in representation of the +Last Supper, with Bishop Kennet conspicuous in it as Judas Iscariot. 'To +make it the more sure, he had the doctor's great black patch put under +his wig upon the forehead.'[928] It need hardly be added that the Bishop +of London ordered the picture to be taken down.[929] + +Sir Christopher Wren had intended to adorn the dome of St. Paul's with +figures from sacred history, worked in mosaic by Italian artists. He was +overruled. It was thought unusual, and likely also to be tedious and +expensive.[930] But there were some who cherished a hope that some such +embellishment was postponed only, not abandoned. Walter Harte, for +example, the Nonjuror, in his poem upon painting, trusted that 'the cold +north' would not always remain insensible to the claims of religious +art. The time would yet come when we should see in our churches, + + Above, around, the pictured saints appear, + +and when especially the metropolitan cathedral would be radiant with the +pictorial glory which befitted it. + + Thy dome, O Paul, which heavenly views adorn, + Shall guide the hands of painters yet unborn; + Each melting stroke shall foreign eyes engage, + And shine unrivalled through a future age.[931] + +The question was brought forward in a practical shape in 1773. Two years +earlier the State apartments at old Somerset Palace had been granted by +the King to the Royal Academy. The chapel was included in the gift; and +it was soon after suggested, at a general meeting of the society, 'that +the place would afford a good opportunity of convincing the public of +the advantages that would arise from ornamenting churches and cathedrals +with works of art.'[932] This proposal was highly approved of by the +society, and many of its members at once volunteered their services. +Their president, however, Sir Joshua Reynolds, proposed a bolder scheme. +He thought they should 'undertake St. Paul's Cathedral.' The amendment +was carried unanimously. Application was accordingly made to the Dean +and Chapter, who were pleased with the offer. Dean Newton, Bishop of +Bristol, a great lover of pictures, was particularly favourable to the +scheme, and warmly advocated it.[933] Sir Joshua promised 'The +Nativity'; West offered his picture of 'Moses with the Laws'; Barry, +Dance, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffman engaged to present other +paintings; and four other artists were afterwards added to the number. +But the trustees of the building--Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, +and Terrick of London--disapproved. Terrick was especially hostile to +the idea, and when the Dean waited upon him and told him, with some +exultation, of the progress that had been made, put an absolute veto +upon the whole project. 'My good Lord Bishop of Bristol,' he said, 'I +have been already distantly and imperfectly informed of such an affair +having been in contemplation; but as the sole power at last remains with +myself, I therefore inform your lordship that, whilst I live and have +the power, I will never suffer the doors of the metropolitan church to +be opened for the introduction of Popery into it.'[934] + +Bishop Newton says, in his 'Memoirs,' that though there were some +objectors, opinion was generally in favour of the offer made by the +Academy, and that some churches and chapels adopted the idea. But St. +Paul's probably suffered no loss through the further postponement of the +decorations designed for it. In the first place, paintings--for these, +rather than frescoes, appear to have been intended--were not the most +appropriate kind of art for such an interior. Besides this, those +'earthly charms and graces,' which made Reynolds' style such an +abomination to the delicate spiritual perceptions of the artist-poet +Blake,[935] were by no means calculated to create any elevated ideal +among his countrymen of what Christian art should be. And if the +President of the Academy, the most renowned English painter of his age, +was scarcely competent to such a work, what must be said of his proposed +coadjutors? 'I confess,' said Dean Milman, 'I shudder at the idea of our +walls covered with the audacious designs and tawdry colouring of West, +Barry, Cipriani, Dance, and Angelica Kauffman.'[936] Such criticism +would be very exaggerated if it were understood as a general +condemnation of painters, whose merits in their own province of art were +great. But it will universally be allowed that not to them, and scarcely +to any other painters of the eighteenth century, could we look for the +grandeur of thought or the elevated sentiment which an undertaking of +the kind proposed so specially demanded. + +Puritanism had been very destructive of the glass paintings which had +added so much glory of colour to mediaeval churches. The art had begun to +decline, from a variety of causes, at the beginning of the Reformation. +In Elizabeth's reign, few coloured windows of any note were executed. +Under James I. and Charles I. the taste to some degree revived. A new +style of colouring was introduced by Van Linge,[937] a skilful Flemish +artist, who appears to have settled in England about 1610, and found +many liberal patrons. It was an interval when much activity was +displayed throughout the kingdom in the work of repairing and +beautifying churches. When he died, or left the country, the art became +all but dormant. The Restoration did little to resuscitate it. Religious +taste and feeling were at a low ebb. Not only in England, but throughout +the Continent also, the glass painters had no encouragement, and were +continually obliged to maintain themselves by practising the ordinary +profession of a glazier. And besides, long after the time when painted +windows had become secure from Puritanic violence, a feeling lingered on +that there was something un-Protestant in them--something inconsistent, +it might be, with the pure light of truth. For many years more, few were +put up; nor these, for the most part, without much difference of +opinion, and sometimes a great deal of angry controversy.[938] It may +have stirred the irony of men who had no sympathy with these suspicions, +that corporations and private persons who would by no means[939] admit +into their churches windows in which scenes from our Saviour's life were +pictured in hues that vied with those of the ruby and the sapphire had +often no scruples in emblazoning upon them, to their own glorification, +the arms of their family or their guild.[940] Winslow speaking of the +east window[941] in University College, Oxford, done by Giles of York in +1687, the earliest example of a stained-glass window after the +Restoration, remarks how much the art had deteriorated even in its most +mechanical departments.[942] In the first quarter, however, of the +eighteenth century, there was some improvement in it. Joshua Price, in +the east window of St. Andrew's, Holborn, has 'rivalled the rich +colouring of the Van Linges. The painting is deficient in brilliancy, +and some of the shadows are nearly opaque; yet these defects may almost +be overlooked in the excellence of its composition, and in its immense +superiority over all other works executed between the commencement of +the eighteenth century and the revival of the mosaic system.'[943] +Joshua Price also executed some of the side windows in Magdalene +College, and restored, in 1715, those in Queen's College, Oxford, the +work of Van Linge, which had been broken by the Puritans.[944] William +Price painted, in 1702, the scenes from the life of Christ, depicted on +the lower lights of Merton College Chapel. They are 'weak as regards +colour, enamel being used almost to the substitution of coloured +glass,'[945] and lose in beauty and effect by the glaring yellow in +which they are framed. He also painted the windows which were put up in +Westminster Abbey by order of Parliament in 1722,[946] and repaired with +considerable skill the Flemish windows of Rubens's time, which he +purchased and put up on the south side of New College Chapel.[947] It is +remarkable that the Prices appear to have been the last who possessed +the old secret of manufacturing the pure ruby glass.[948] After their +time, until its rediscovery some forty years ago in France, it was a +familiar instance of a 'lost art.' + +When nearly fifty years had passed, some little attention began to be +once more turned, chiefly in colleges and cathedrals, to the adornment +of churches with coloured windows. The most memorable examples are in +New College Chapel. Pickett, of York, painted between 1765 and 1777 the +lower lights of the northern windows in the choir, with much brilliancy +of colour, but in a style very inferior to the work of the Flemings and +William Price on the other side.[949] The great window in the +antechapel, erected a few year later, certainly avoided that uniformity +of gaudiness[950] which Warton so greatly complained of in Pickett's +work. Its design employed for several years[951] the genius of Sir +Joshua Reynolds. The central picture of the Nativity, after Correggio's +'Notte' at Modena, was exceedingly fine as a sketch in colours. +Unfortunately, it was wholly unsuited to glass, and remains a standing +proof that oil and glass paintings cannot be rivals, their principles +being essentially different. A competent critic pronounces that had it +been executed in coloured glass, it would still have been +unsatisfactory.[952] As it is, the dull stains and enamels employed by +Jarvis give it what Horace Walpole called 'a washed-out' effect. +Reynolds has introduced into it likenesses both of himself and Jarvis, +as shepherds worshipping. Of the allegorical figures beneath, Hartley +Coleridge justly remarks that personifications which are nowhere found +in Scripture are not well adapted for a church window.[953] + +Another glass painting of something the same character, and showing the +same futile attempt at impossible effects of light and shade,[954] was a +picture of the Resurrection, executed by Edgington, from a design by Sir +Joshua Reynolds, for the Lady Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral. Mention +should also be made of the great eastern window in St. George's Chapel, +Windsor, by Jarvis and Forrest, and designed by West. The three last +examples quoted by Dallaway are Pearson's windows in Brasenose Chapel, +his scenes from St. Paul's life, at St. Paul's, Birmingham, and his +'Christ bearing the Cross,' at Wanstead, Essex.[955] All these were +produced towards the close of the century. They have merit, but they +show also how much had to be learnt before the slowly reviving art of +glass painting could recover anything of its ancient splendour. + +Many ancient church bells disappeared in the general wreck of monastic +property at the commencement of the Reformation. Many more were broken +up and sold during the Civil Wars. In the eighteenth century another +danger awaited them. They were not converted into money for spendthrift +courtiers, nor disposed of for State necessities, nor cast into cannons +and other implements of war; but they came to be considered a useful +fund which the guardians of churches could fall back upon. 'Very +numerous were the instances in which four bells out of five have been +sold by the parish to defray churchwardens' accounts.'[956] On the other +hand, a great number of new bells were cast during the period, among +which may be mentioned the great bell of St. Paul's, 1716, and those of +the University Church, Cambridge, a peal particularly admired by +Handel. The single family of Rudall of Gloucester, cast during the +ninety years ending with 1774 no less than 3,594 church bells. +Bell-ringing is often spoken of as an exercise and recreation of +educated men. Hearne, the famous Oxford antiquary, was passionately fond +of it. In his diary there are constant allusions to the feats of +bell-ringing which took place in Oxford, and to the intricacies and +technicalities of the art.[957] The learned Samuel Parr is said to have +been excessively fond of church bells,[958] and so was Robert Southey +the poet. + +The old superstitions connected with the inauguration of bells, and the +services expected from them, had become exchanged in either case for a +great deal of coarse rusticity and vulgarity. Some pious aspiration was +still in many cases graved upon the border of the metal; but often, +instead of the old 'funera plango, fulgura frango,' &c., or the +dedication to Virgin or saint, the churchwarden who ordered the bell +would order also an inscription, composed by himself, commemorative of +his work and office. The doggerel was sometimes absurd enough:-- + + Samuel Knight made this ring + In Binstead Steeple for to ding; + +or, + + Thomas Eyer and John Winslade did contrive + To cast from four bells this peal of five; + +or, + + At proper times my voice I'll raise, + And sound to my subscribers' praise.[959] + +And when the new bell was placed in the steeple, instead of the priestly +unctions and quaint ceremonies of a past age, there was too often a +heathenish scene of drunkenness and revelry. A common custom, alluded to +by White of Selborne, was to fix it bottom upwards, and fill it with +strong liquor. At Checkendon, in Oxfordshire, this was attended with +fatal results. There is a tradition that one of the ringers helped +himself so freely from the extemporised ale cask that he died on the +spot, and was buried underneath the tower. Bells were still sometimes +rung to dissipate thunderstorms, and perhaps to drive away contagion, +under the notion that their vibrations purified the air. They were often +rung on other occasions when they would have been much better silent. +At Bath no stranger of the smallest pretension to fashion could arrive +without being welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells.[960] + +The curfew has not even yet fallen entirely into disuse. In the last +century it was oftener heard to 'toll the knell of parting day.' At +Ripon its place was supplied by a horn sounded every evening at +nine.[961] + +'If,' said Robert Nelson, 'his senses hold out so long, he can hear even +his passing bell without disturbance.' Towards the beginning of the +century, this old custom seems to have been tolerably general. Its +original object had been to invite prayers in behalf of a departing +soul, and to summon the priest, if he had had no other admonition, to +his last duty of extreme unction. It was retained by the sixty-seventh +canon as a solemn reminder of mortality. But towards the end of the +century it was fast becoming obsolete. Pennant, writing in 1796, says +that though the practice was still punctually kept up in some places, it +had fallen into general desuetude in the towns.[962] + +Churches neglected and in disrepair were not likely to be surrounded by +well-kept churchyards. During the Georgian period it was common enough +to see churchyards which might have served as pictures of dreariness and +gloom. Webb's collection of epitaphs, published in 1775, is prefaced by +some introductory verses which intimate, without any idea of censure, a +condition of things which was clearly not very exceptional in the +churchyards of towns and populous villages:-- + + Here nauseous weeds each pile surround, + And things obscene bestrew the ground; + Skulls, bones, in mouldering fragments lie, + All dreadful emblems of mortality.[963] + +Secker hopes the clergy of his diocese will keep their churchyards 'neat +and decent, taking the profits of the herbage in such manner as may +rather add beauty to the place.' But he implies that there were many +incumbents who turned their cattle into the sacred precincts, 'to defile +them, and trample down the gravestones; and make consecrated ground such +as you would not suffer courts before your own doors to be.'[964] And +there were some who were not satisfied with turning in their cow and +horse.[965] Practices lingered within the recollections of living men +which would nowadays cause a parochial rebellion. While, for example, +the transition from licence to order was in progress, a certain rector +had sown an unoccupied strip of the burial-ground with turnips. The +archdeacon at his visitation admonished this gentleman not to let him +see turnips when he came there next year. The rebuked incumbent could so +little comprehend these decorous scruples that he supposed Mr. +Archdeacon to be inspired by a zeal for agriculture, and the due +rotation of crops. 'Certainly not, sir,' said he, ''twill be _barley_ +next year.'[966] + +For the most part, however, there was nothing to give gross offence to +the eye. Gray, in his charming elegy, used words exactly expressive of +the ordinary truth, when he called it 'this neglected spot.' It was +tranquil enough, and suggestive of pensive meditation, shaded perhaps by +rugged elms or melancholy yews; but the grass was probably rank and +untended, and the ground a confused medley of shapeless heaps. Except in +epitaphs, there were no particular signs of tenderness and care; no +flowers, no shrubs, no crosses. The revival of care for our beauty and +comeliness of churches, and the example of well-kept cemeteries, have +combined, since the time of the last of the Georges, to effect an +improvement in the general aspect of our churchyards, which was +certainly very much needed. Culpable neglect, it may be added, was +sometimes shown in the admission of jesting or profane epitaphs. The +inscription on Gay's monument in Westminster Abbey is a well-known +example. One other instance, in illustration, will be abundantly +sufficient. Imagine the carelessness of supervision which could allow +the following buffoonery to be set up (1764) in the cathedral churchyard +of Winchester:-- + + Here rests in peace a Hampshire grenadier + Who kill'd himself by drinking poor small beer; + Soldier, be warned by his untimely fall, + And when you're hot, drink strong, or none at all.[967] + +In Wales, and in a few places in the south and west of England, the +custom still lingered of planting graves with flowers and sweet herbs:-- + + Two whitened flintstones mark the feet and head; + While there between full many a simple flower, + Pansy and pink, with languid beauty smile; + The primrose opening at the twilight hour, + And velvet tufts of fragrant camomile.[968] + +Pepys makes mention of a churchyard near Southampton where the graves +were accustomed to be all sown with sage.[969] + +Before leaving the subject of church fabrics and their immediate +surroundings, some little mention should be made of the effort made at +the beginning of the century to supply the deficiency of churches in +London. 'After some pause,' writes Addison, in one of his Roger de +Coverley papers, 'the old knight, turning about his head twice or thrice +to take a survey of the great metropolis, bid me observe how thick the +City was set with churches, and that there was scarce a single steeple +on this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight!" said Sir Roger. +"There is no religion at this end of the town. The fifty new churches +will very much mend the prospect, but church work is slow, very +slow."'[970] That growth of London, which was to bring within its vast +embrace village after village and hamlet after hamlet, was already fast +progressing, and in the early part of the century had greatly +outstripped all church provision. Dean Swift, it is said, has the credit +of having first aroused public attention to this want. In a paragraph of +his 'Project for the Advancement of Religion,' he had said 'that five +parts out of six of the people are absolutely hindered from hearing +divine service, particularly here in London, where a single minister +with one or two curates has the care sometimes of about 20,000 souls +incumbent on him.'[971] A resolution was carried in the House of Commons +(May 1711), that fifty new churches were necessary within the bills of +mortality, and 350,000_l._ were granted for the purpose, 'which was a +very popular thing.'[972] Of the proposed fifty, twelve were built; the +money for which was raised by a duty on coal--2_s._ per chaldron from +1716 to 1720, and 3_s._ from 1720 to 1724.[973] After this exertion the +work of church-building seems to have pretty nearly ended for the +century. Towards the middle of it, the bishops complained in their +Charges that there was no spirit for building churches, and that the +occasional briefs issued for the purpose brought in very little.[974] +Fifty years later the question had again become too serious to be +overlooked, and with the revival of deeper religion in the Church, there +was little likelihood of its being allowed to rest. In large towns, the +disproportion between the population and the number and size of churches +had become so great 'that not a tenth of the inhabitants could be +received into them were they so disposed.'[975] A return made in 1811 +showed that in a thousand large parishes in different parts of the +kingdom there was church accommodation for only a seventh part of their +aggregate population.[976] Parliament granted a million for the erection +of new churches, and large subscriptions were raised by the societies. +But Polwhele, writing in 1819, said there were two large London +parishes, with a joint population of above 120,000, which kept their +village churches with room for not more than 200; and that in 1812, Dr. +Middleton tried in vain to build a new church for St. Pancras, where the +population was 100,000, and the church would only accommodate 300.[977] +These facts seem almost incredible; probably the writer from whom they +are quoted overlooked subsidiary chapels attached to the parish church. +It is, however, very clear that in London and many of the large towns no +energetic efforts had for a long time been made to meet necessities of +very crying urgency. + +Bishop Beveridge, writing in the first years of the last century, +lamented that 'daily prayers are shamefully neglected all the kingdom +over; there being very few places where they have public prayers upon +the week days, except perhaps on Wednesdays and Fridays.'[978] But in +towns this order of the Church was far more carefully observed in Queen +Anne's reign, and for some little time afterwards, than it has been +since, at all events until a very recent date. Archbishop Sancroft, in +his circular letter of 1688 to the bishops of his province, had +specially urged the public performance of the daily office 'in all +market and other great towns,' and as far as possible in less populous +places also.[979] In London there was little to complain of. Although +Puritan opinion had been unfavourable to daily services--Baxter having +gone so far as to say, that 'it must needs be a sinful impediment +against other duties to say common prayer twice a day'[980]--the old +feeling as to the propriety of daily worship was by no means so +thoroughly impaired as it soon came to be. Conscientious Church people +in towns would generally have acknowledged that it was a duty, wherever +there was no real impediment. Paterson's account of the London churches +shows that, in 1714, a large proportion of them were open morning and +evening for common prayer. He notes, however, with an expression of +great regret, that the number of worshippers was visibly falling off, +and that in some cases evening service was being wholly discontinued in +consequence of the paucity of attendance.[981] In the popular writings +of Queen Anne's time constant allusion may be found to the early +six-o'clock matins. It must be acknowledged, however, that the daily +services were sometimes attended for other purposes than those of +devotion. Steele, in a paper in the 'Guardian,'[982] in which he highly +commends the practice of daily morning prayers, says that 'going to +six-o'clock service, upon admonition of the morning bell, he found when +he got there many poor souls who had really come to pray. But presently, +after the confession, in came pretty young ladies in mobs, popping in +here and there about the church, clattering the pew doors behind them, +and squatting into whispers behind their fans.' Before long 'there was a +great deal of good company come in.' A few did, indeed, seem to take +pleasure in the worship; but many seemed to make it a task rather than a +voluntary act, and some employed themselves only in gossip or +flirtation. He remarks, towards the close of the paper, that later hours +were becoming more in vogue than the early service. + +The duty of daily public worship was, as might be expected, chiefly +insisted upon by the High Churchmen of the period. Thus we find Robert +Nelson urging it. There were very few men of business, he said, who +might not 'certainly so contrive their affairs as frequently to dedicate +half an hour in four-and-twenty to the public service of God.'[983] +Dodwell's biographer speaks of the great attention he paid to the daily +prayers of the Church.[984] Bull introduced at Brecknock daily prayers, +instead of their only being on Wednesdays and Fridays; and at Carmarthen +morning and evening daily prayers, whereas there had been only morning +prayers before. In 1712 these were kept up and well frequented.[985] +Archbishop Sharp admonished his town clergy to maintain them +regularly.[986] Whiston, while he was yet incumbent of Lowestoft, used +at daily matins and vespers an abridgment of the prayers approved by +Bishop Lloyd.[987] The custom was, however, by no means confined to High +Churchmen. Thoresby, while he was yet more than half a Dissenter, +feeling, for instance, much scruple as to the use of the cross in +baptism, remarks in his 'Diary,' 'I shall never, I hope, so long as I am +able to walk, forbear a constant attendance upon the public common +prayer twice every day, in which course I have found much comfort and +advantage.'[988] Some time before the century had run through half its +course, daily services were fast becoming exceptional, even in the +towns. The later hours broke the whole tradition, and made it more +inconvenient for busy people to attend them. Year after year they were +more thinly frequented, and one church after another, in quick +succession, discontinued holding them. It was one sign among many others +of an increasing apathy in religious matters. At places like Bath or +Tunbridge Wells the churches were still open, and tolerably full morning +and evening.[989] Elsewhere, if here and there a daily service was kept +up, the congregation was sure to consist only of a few women; and the +Bridget or Cecilia who was regularly there, was sure of being accounted +by not a few of her neighbours, 'prude, devotee, or Methodist.'[990] At +the end of the century, and on till the end of the Georgian period, +daily public prayers became rarer still. In the country they were kept +up only 'in a few old-fashioned town churches.'[991] How much they had +dwindled away in London becomes evident from a comparison between the +list of services enumerated in the 'Pietas Londinensis,' published in +1714, and a book entitled 'London Parishes: an Account of the Churches, +Vicars, Vestries,' &c., published in 1824. + +Throughout the earliest part of the period, the Wednesday and Friday +services, particularly enjoined by the canon, were held in the London +parish churches almost without exception, and very generally in country +parishes.[992] But as the idea of daily public worship became in the +popular mind more and more obsolete, these also were gradually neglected +and laid aside. In the middle of the century we find many more allusions +to them than at its close. Secker, in his Charge of 1761, said there +should always be prayers on these days.[993] John Wesley wrote, in 1744, +to advocate the careful observance of the Wednesday and Friday 'Stations +or Half-fasts;'[994] the poet Young held them in his church at +Woolen;[995] they formed part of the duty at a church to which Gilbert +Wakefield, in 1778, was invited to be curate.[996] James Hervey, at a +time when his health was fast failing, said that he still managed to +preach on Wednesday evenings, except in haytime and harvest,[997] &c. In +1824 there were Wednesday and Friday services in only a small minority +of the London churches.[998] + +Very similar remarks may be made in regard of the observance of Saints' +days. In Queen Anne's time they were still generally kept as holy days, +and business was even in some measure suspended.[999] There were +services on these festivals in all the London churches.[1000] We find, +it is true, a High Church writer of this date, regretting that of late +years the observance of these days had not been so strict as heretofore. +He attributed this backwardness mainly to superstitious scruples derived +from Puritan times, and to the immoderate pursuit of business.[1001] The +wonder rather was, that having been, for a considerable portion of the +previous century, 'neglected almost everywhere throughout the +kingdom,'[1002] Church festivals should have recovered as much respect +as they did. The extensive circulation of Robert Nelson's 'Festivals,' +and the number of editions through which it passed, is in itself a +sufficient proof that a great number of English Churchmen cordially +approved a devout observance of the appointed holy days. But by the +middle of the century the neglect of them was becoming general. + +Burnet wished that Lent were not observed with 'so visible a +slightness.'[1003] It was observed, certainly, and very generally, but +also very superficially. In London there were a considerable number of +special sermons on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, the place and +preachers being notified beforehand in a printed list issued by the +Bishop.[1004] Colston's Bristol benefaction, of 1708, provided, amongst +his other charities, for an annual series of fourteen Lent sermons. The +Low Churchmen of William's and Queen Anne's time instilled a devout +observance of the season no less than the clergy of the High Church +party. Burnet has been mentioned. Fleetwood's words, in his sermon +before the King, on the 1st Sunday in Lent, 1717, are worth quoting. +'Our Church,' he said, 'hath erected this temporary house of mourning, +wherein she would oblige us annually to enter.... And that we might +attend more freely to these matters, she advises abstinence, and a +prudent retrenchment of all those superfluities that minister to luxury +more than necessity: by which the busy spirits are composed and quieted; +the loose and scattered thoughts are recollected and brought home, and +such a serious, sober frame of mind put on that we can think with less +distraction, remember more exactly, pray with more fervency, repent more +earnestly, and resolve with more deliberation on amendment. These are +the beneficial fruits and effects of a reasonable, well governed +abstinence, as every one may find by their experience.'[1005] John +Wesley, as might naturally be expected from one who in many of his +sympathies was so decidedly a High Churchman, was always in favour of a +religious observance of Lent, especially of Holy Week. Steele, in a +paper of the 'Guardian,' specially addressed, in Lent 1713, to careless +men of pleasure, begs them not to ridicule a season set apart for +humiliation. And passing mention may be made of indications, more or +less trivial in themselves, of a tolerably general feeling throughout +society that Lent was not quite what other seasons are, and ought not to +be wholly disregarded. There were few marriages in Lent,[1006] +comparatively few entertainments, public or private;[1007] in some +cathedral towns the music of the choir was silent.[1008] And just as +Sunday is sometimes honoured only by the putting on of a better dress, +so the fashionable world would often pay that easiest show of homage to +the sacredness of the Lenten season, not by curtailing in any way their +ordinary pleasures, but by going to the theatre in mourning.[1009] +Masquerades, too, were considered out of place, at all events unless +they were disguised under another name-- + + In Lent, if masquerades displease the town, + Call them ridottos, and they still go down.[1010] + +In the Isle of Man, and there only, under the system of Church +discipline set afoot and maintained in so remarkable a manner by the +influence of the venerable Bishop Wilson, Lent was celebrated with much +of the solemnity and austerity of primitive times. Immediately before +its commencement, courts of discipline were held, in which Church +censures were duly passed and notified. During the forty days penances +were performed, and Easter was the time for re-admission into the full +communion of the Church.[1011] + +Throughout the country Lent was very commonly selected as a time +specially appropriate for public catechizing.[1012] 'A Presbyter of the +Church of England,' writing in the first year of this century, said +that, except among the Evangelical clergy, it was almost confined to +that season.[1013] Secker also, in the middle of the century, expressed +a similar regret.[1014] + +'It was Passion Week,' writes Boswell, in 1772, 'that solemn season, +which the Christian Church has appropriated to the commemoration of the +mysteries of our Redemption, and during which, whatever embers of +religion are in our breasts, will be kindled into pious warmth.'[1015] +He could hardly have written thus if Holy Week, and especially Good +Friday, had not received at that time a fairly general observance. The +rough treatment with which Bishop Porteus was requited[1016] for his +attempt to bring about a better regard for Good Friday might seem to +show the contrary. But there was no period in the last century when +throughout the country at large shops were not generally closed on that +day, and the churches fairly attended. + +In the Olney Hymns, published 1779, Christmas Day only is referred to +among all the Christian seasons.[1017] This was somewhat characteristic +of the English Church in general during the greater part of the Georgian +period. Other Christian seasons were often all but unheeded; Christmas +was always kept much as it is now. It may be inferred, from a passage in +one of Horsley's Charges, that in some country churches, towards the end +of the century, there was no religious observance of the day.[1018] But +such neglect was altogether exceptional. The custom of carol-singing was +continued only in a few places, more generally in Yorkshire than +elsewhere.[1019] There is some mention of it in the 'Vicar of +Wakefield;' and one well-known carol, 'Christians, awake! salute the +happy morn!' was produced about the middle of the century by John Byrom. +In George Herbert's time it had been a frequent custom on all great +festivals to deck the church with boughs. This usage became almost, if +not quite, obsolete except at Christmastide. We most of us remember with +what sort of decorative skill the clerk was wont, at this season, to +'stick' the pews and pulpit with sprays of holly. In the time of the +'Spectator'[1020] and of Gay,[1021] and later still,[1022] rosemary was +also used, doubtless by old tradition, as referring in its name to the +Mother of the Lord. Nor was mistletoe excluded.[1023] In connection with +this plant, Stanley says a curious custom was kept up at York, which in +1754 had not long been discontinued. 'On the eve of Christmas Day they +carried mistletoe to the high altar of the cathedral and proclaimed a +public and universal liberty, pardon, and freedom to all sorts of +inferior and even wicked people, at the gates of the city, toward the +four quarters of heaven.'[1024] A number of other local customs, many of +great antiquity, now at last disused, lingered on at Yule into the time +of our grandfathers. On Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Whitsun Day there +were very commonly two celebrations of the Holy Communion in the London +churches.[1025] In a few cases, especially during the earlier years of +the century, there was a daily celebration during the octaves of these +great festivals.[1026] John Wesley, writing in 1777, makes mention that +in London he was accustomed to observe the octave in this manner 'after +the example of the Primitive Church.'[1027] Throughout the latter part +of the Georgian period little special notice seems to have been taken, +in most churches, of Easter and Whitsuntide, and Ascension Day was very +commonly not observed at all, except in towns. + +As one among many other indications that at the beginning of the last +century a shorter period than now had elapsed since the days that +preceded the Reformation, it may be mentioned that 'Candlemas' was not +only a well-known date, especially for changing the hours of service, +but retained some traces of being still a festival under that name. For +instance, it was specially observed at the Temple Church;[1028] and 'at +Ripon, so late as 1790, on the Sunday before Candlemas Day, the +Collegiate Church was one continued blaze of light all the afternoon, +by an immense number of candles.'[1029] Such traditions lingered in the +north of England long after they had expired elsewhere. + +It may be added that in Queen Anne's time we may still find the name of +the Lord's Mother mentioned in a tone of affectionate respect not at all +akin either to the timidity, in this respect, of later days, or to the +somewhat defiant and overstrained veneration professed by some modern +High Churchmen. Thus when Paterson begins to enumerate the London +churches called after her name, he speaks of her in a perfectly natural +tone as 'the Virgin Mary, the Mother of our ever-blessed Redeemer, +Heaven's greatest darling among women.'[1030] + +In some of the London churches, as at St. Alban's, St. Alphege's, &c., +special commemoration services were, in 1714, still kept in memory of +the patron saints from whom they had been named.[1031] In the country, +at different intervals since the Reformation, there had been frequent +and often angry discussions as to the propriety of continuing or +suppressing the wakes which had been held from time immemorial on the +dedication day of the parish church or on the eve of it.[1032] The +feeling of High Churchmen was now by no means so unanimous in their +favour as it had been in Charles the First's reign. Bishop Bull, for +instance, when he was yet rector of Avening, was quite alive to the +evils of these often unruly festivals, and succeeded in getting them +discontinued there.[1033] Sometimes, where they had been held on the +Sunday, a sort of compromise was effected, and, as at Claybrook, 'the +church was filled on Sunday, and the Monday kept as a feast.'[1034] + +The parish perambulations customary in Rogation Week were generally less +of a solemnity in the eighteenth than they had been in the seventeenth +and preceding centuries. + + That every man might keep his own possessions, + Our fathers used, in reverent processions, + With zealous prayer, and with praiseful cheere, + To walk their parish limits once a year.[1035] + +George Herbert, and Hooker, and many old worthies, had taken great +pleasure in maintaining this old custom, thinking it serviceable not +only for the preservation of parish rights and liberties, but for pious +thanksgiving, for keeping up cordial feeling between rich and poor, and +for mutual kindnesses and making up of differences.[1036] Sometimes, +however, the religious part of the ceremony was altogether omitted; and +sometimes these 'gang-days' provided an occasion for tumultuous contests +or for intemperance,[1037] or served mainly as a pretext for a +churchwardens' feast.[1038] We find Secker in 1750 recommending his +clergy to keep up the old practice, but to guard it from abuse, and to +use the thanksgivings, prayers, and sentences enjoined by Queen +Elizabeth.[1039] At Wolverhampton, until about 1765, 'the sacrist, +resident prebendaries, and members of the choir, assembled at morning +prayers on Monday and Tuesday in Rogation Week, with the charity +children bearing long poles clothed with all kinds of flowers then in +season, and which were afterwards carried through the streets of the +town with much solemnity, the clergy, singing men and boys, dressed in +their sacred vestments, closing the procession, and chanting in a grave +and appropriate melody the "Benedicite." The boundaries of the parish +were marked in many points by Gospel trees, where the Gospel was +read.'[1040] + +Days appointed by authority of the State for services of humiliation or +of thanksgiving were far more frequent in the earlier part of the last +century than they are now. In King William's time there were monthly +fasts throughout the war, every first Wednesday in the month being thus +set apart.[1041] Thus also, during the period when success after success +attended the arms of Marlborough, there were never many months passed by +without a day of thanksgiving. During the civil wars of the preceding +century fast days had been very frequent. To a certain extent no doubt +they had been used on either side as political weapons of party; but +they were also genuinely congenial to the excited religious feeling of +the nation, solemn appeals to the overruling power which guides the +destinies of men. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, although +religious energies were so far more languid than they had been in the +preceding age, the great war that was raging on the Continent was still +regarded somewhat in the light of a crusade. Not that it inspired +enthusiasm, or awoke any spirit of romance. There was no such +high-strung emotion in those who anxiously watched its progress. Still +it was generally felt to be a struggle in which great religious +principles were involved. The Protestant interest and the religious +future of the Church and State of England were felt to be deeply +concerned in its ultimate issues. And thus a good deal of +half-religious, half-political feeling was centred on these appointed +days of solemn fast or thanksgiving. The prayer for unity, calling upon +the people to take to heart the dangers they were in by their unhappy +divisions, seems to have been very generally read upon these +occasions.[1042] A political element in them was always clearly +recognised by the Nonjurors. The more moderate among them, who attended +other services of the National Church, would not, except in rare +instances, attend these. 'They held that to be present on such special +occasions, which were significant of a direct purpose, was to profess +allegiance to the new reigning family, and therefore an act of +dissimulation; but not so their attendance on the ordinary +services.'[1043] + +The prayers appointed for these set days of humiliation appear to have +often had the reputation of being neither impressive nor edifying. +Winston spoke, indeed, in the highest terms of a prayer drawn up by +Tenison on occasion of the great hurricane of 1703. He thought it a +model composition, unequalled in modern and unsurpassed in ancient +times.[1044] But its excellences, he added, were especially marked by +the strong contrast with the jejune and courtly formulas which usually +characterized such prayers, and most of all those which had been written +for the days of fasting during the war.[1045] They were, too commonly, +examples of the bad custom, scarcely to be extenuated by long +established precedent, of clothing in the outward form of adulation of +powers that be, what was ordinarily meant for nothing worse than +expressions of patriotic loyalty. Another frequent fault of these +special prayers was uncharitableness. Gilbert Wakefield speaks in +particular of an 'execrable prayer against the Americans,' and of the +storms which threatened him when he 'read it, but with the omission of +all those unchristian words and clauses which constituted the very life +and soul of the composition to the generality of hearers.'[1046] + +The two anniversaries of January 30 and November 5 gave rise--especially +the former--to a whole literature of special sermons, the great majority +of which should never have been preached, or at least never published. +Extreme men on either side delighted in the favourable opportunity +presented by the one or the other of these two days of airing their +respective opinions on subjects which could not yet be discussed without +excitement. Protestant ardour, scarcely satisfied with commemorating +Gunpowder Treason in Church services which matched in language the +bonfires of the evening, found scope also for Antipapal demonstrations +in other and more distant reminiscences. November 27, the anniversary of +Elizabeth's accession, had been celebrated in London in 1679 with the +most elaborate processions.[1047] In the earlier part of the eighteenth +century it was still a great day in some parishes for riotous +meetings,[1048] and was solemnised in some churches with special sermons +and religious services.[1049] On the 14th or 20th of August there were +also commemorative sermons in several London churches in remembrance of +the defeat of the Armada.[1050] At St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, this +custom still survives. + +Throughout the eighteenth century the old laws which required due +attendance on public worship were still in force. They were, in fact, +formally confirmed in the thirty-first year of George the Third;[1051] +and however much they had fallen into neglect, they were not removed +from the statute-book till the ninth and tenth years of the present +reign.[1052] We are told, however, that when the Toleration Act was +passed in 1689, by one of the chief provisions of which persons who +frequented a legal dissenting congregation were excused from all +penalties for not coming to church, there was a general and observable +falling off in the attendance at divine worship.[1053] Hitherto +congregations had been swelled by numbers who went for no better reason +than because it was the established rule of the realm that they must go. +Henceforward, mistaken or not, it was the popular impression that people +'had full liberty to go to church or stay away; and the services were +much deserted in favour of the ale-houses.'[1054] At the beginning, +however, of the eighteenth century, the churches were once again fuller +than they had been for some time previously. Dissent was at that time +thoroughly unpopular; and the practice of occasional conformity brought +a considerable number of moderate Dissenters into church. It was +observed that churches in London which once had been very thinly +attended now had overflowing congregations.[1055] Unfortunately, this +revival of church attendance was not long-lived. Year after year it +continued to fall off, until it had become in many parts of the country +deplorably small. In 1738 Secker deplored the 'greatly increased +disregard to public worship.'[1056] It was never neglected in England so +much as during the corresponding period in Germany. Even in the worst of +times, as a modern writer has truly observed, the average Englishman +never failed to acknowledge that attendance at church or chapel was his +duty.[1057] Only it was a duty which, as time went on, was continually +less regarded alike in the upper and lower grades of society. Bishop +Newton, speaking in 1768 of Mr. Grenville, evidently regarded his +'regularly attending the service of the church every Sunday morning, +even while he was in the highest offices,' as something altogether +exceptional in a Minister of State.[1058] His namesake, John Newton, the +well-known writer of 'Cardiphonia' and the 'Olney Hymns,' says that when +he was Rector of St. Mary, Woolnoth, in London, few of his wealthy +parishioners came to church.[1059] Religious reformers, towards the end +of the century, awoke with alarm to the perception of serious evil, +betokened by the general thinness of congregations. The migration of +population from the centre of London to its suburbs had already set in; +but the following assertion was sufficiently startling nevertheless. +'The amazing and afflictive desertion of all our churches is a fact +beyond doubt or dispute. In the heart of the city of London, in its +noblest edifices, on the Lord's day, repeated instances have been known +that a single individual hath not attended the divine service.'[1060] +Another writer observes, in similar language, that 'the greater part of +our churches, particularly in the metropolis, present a most unedifying +and afflicting spectacle to the eyes of the sincere, unenthusiastic +Christian.' 'Attendance was almost everywhere,' he adds, 'most +shamefully small.'[1061] Some of the remoter parts of England seemed to +be absolutely in danger of relapsing into literal heathenism. Hannah +More said, in a letter to John Newton (1796), that in one parish in her +neighbourhood, 'of nearly two hundred children, many of them grown up, +hardly any had ever seen the inside of a church since they were +christened. I cannot tell you the avidity with which the Scriptures were +received by many of these poor creatures.'[1062] But things had indeed +come to a pass in the country district where this indefatigable lady +pursued her Christian labour. 'We have in this neighbourhood thirteen +adjoining parishes without so much as even a resident curate.'[1063] Of +such villages she might well add, that they 'are in Pagan darkness, and +upon many of them scarcely a ray of Christianity has shone. I speak from +the most minute and diligent examination.'[1064] No doubt the locality +of which she spoke was suffering under very exceptional neglect; but +somewhat similar instances could have been produced in other parts of +England. A hundred years earlier, Ralph Thoresby, travelling in +Yorkshire, had expressed his amazement that 'on the Lord's Day we rode +from church to church and found four towns without sermon or +prayers.'[1065] This is scarcely the place to enter further into the +degree of spiritual destitution which prevailed in many parts of +England, and into the causes which brought it about. It may be enough +here to remark that the re-quickening of religious activity in the +Church of England, mainly through the labours of clergy and laymen of +the Evangelical school, came none too soon. + +It should be added that, owing mainly to the thoroughly bad system of +bundling three or four poor livings together, in order to provide +respectable maintenance for a clergyman, it was very common in country +places to have only one service on the Sunday. Nothing could be more +likely than this to promote laxity of attendance at divine worship. + +Dean Sherlock, in a treatise upon religious assemblies published by him +in 1681, remarked severely upon the unseemly behaviour which was +constantly to be seen in church--the looking about, the whispering, the +talking, the laughing, the deliberate reclining for sleep. Whether it +had arisen out of contempt for all the externals of worship, or whether +it were owing rather to a wild fear of any semblance of fanaticism or of +hypocrisy, this rude and slovenly conduct had come, he said, to a great +height, and brought great scandal upon our worship. The essayists of +Queen Anne's reign made a steady and laudable effort to shame people out +of these indecorous ways. The 'Spectator' constantly recurs to the +subject. At one time it is the Starer who comes in for his reprobation. +The Starer posts himself upon a hassock, and from this point of eminence +impertinently scrutinises the congregation, and puts the ladies to the +blush.[1066] In another paper he represents an Indian chief describing +his visit to a London church. There is a tradition, the illustrious +visitor says, that the building had been originally designed for +devotion, but there was very little trace of this remaining. Certainly +there was a man in black, mounted above the rest, and uttering +something with a good deal of vehemence. But people were not listening; +they were most of them bowing and curtseying to one another.[1067] Or a +distinguished Dissenter came to church. 'After the service was over, he +declared he was very well satisfied with the little ceremony which was +used towards God Almighty, but at the same time he feared he was not +well bred enough to be a convert.'[1068] + +Addison, however, and his fellow-writers, who might be abundantly quoted +to a similar effect, succeeded in making their readers more sensible +than they had been of the impropriety of all such conduct. During the +latter half of the century, the careless and undevout could no longer +have ventured, without fear of censure, on the irreverent familiarities +in church which they could have freely indulged in for the first twenty +years of it.[1069] + +Polwhele, remarks that in Truro Church, about the year 1800, he had seen +several people sitting with their hats on,[1070] as they might have done +at Geneva, or in the time of the older Puritans. This, however, was +something wholly exceptional at that date. One of the things which had +displeased English Churchmen in William the Third was this Dutch habit. +He so far yielded to their feeling as to uncover during the prayers, but +put on his hat again for the sermon.[1071] A minute in the +Representation of the Lower House of Convocation, during their session +of 1701,[1072] shows that this irreverent custom was then not very +unfrequent. After all, this was but a very little matter as compared +with gross desecrations such as happened here and there in remote +country places during the last ten years of the preceding century. +'Amongst the Lambeth archives is a very long letter by Edmund Bowerman, +vicar of Codrington, who gives a curious account of his parish. The +people played cards on the communion table; and when they met to choose +churchwardens, sat with their hats on, smoking and drinking, the clerk +gravely saying, with a pipe in his mouth, that such had been the +practice for the last sixty years.'[1073] This was in 1692. In 1693, +Queen Mary wrote to Dean Hooper that she had been to Canterbury +Cathedral for the Sunday morning service, and in the afternoon went to +a parish church. 'She heard there a very good sermon, but she thought +herself in a Dutch church, for the people stood on the communion table +to look at her.'[1074] + +Throughout the eighteenth century, a variety of secular matters used to +be published, sometimes by custom and sometimes by law, during the time +of divine service. In a general ignorance of letters, when a paper on +the church door would have been an almost useless form, such notices +were to a great extent almost necessary. But in themselves they were ill +becoming the place and time; and a statute passed in the first year of +our present sovereign has now made them illegal.[1075] The publication +just before the sermon of poor-rate assessment, and of days of appeal in +matters of house or window tax,[1076] must often have had a very +distracting effect upon ratepayers who otherwise might have listened +calmly to the arguments and admonitions of their pastor. John Johnson, +writing in 1709, remarked with much truth that it was quite scandalous +for hue-and-cries, and enquiries after lost goods, to be published in +church.[1077] Even in our own generation. Mr. Beresford Hope, telling +what he himself remembers, records how in the church he frequented as a +boy, the clerk would make such announcements after the repeating of the +Nicene Creed, or of meetings at the town hall of the executors of a late +duke.[1078] + +It was chiefly in the earlier part of the period that an observer +visiting one church after another would have noticed the great +differences in points of order. Such departures from uniformity were +slight as compared to what they had been in the reigns of Elizabeth or +Charles the First, yet were sufficient to arouse considerable uneasiness +in the minds of many friends of the Church, as well as to point many +sarcasms from some of its opponents. There were some special reasons for +disquietude in those who feared to diverge a hand-breadth from the +established rule. Although since the Restoration, the Church of England +was undoubtedly popular, and had acquired, out of the very troubles +through which she had passed, a venerable and well-tried aspect, there +was, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, a wide-spread +feeling of instability both in ecclesiastical and political matters, to +an extent no longer easy to be realised. No one felt sure what Romish +and Jacobite machinations might not yet effect. For if the Stuarts +remounted the throne, Rome might yet recover ascendancy. The +Protestantism of the country was not yet absolutely secure. And +therefore many Churchmen who, if they consulted their feelings only, +would have been thoroughly in accord with the Laudean divines in their +love of a more ornate ritual, were content to stand fast by such simple +ceremonies as were everywhere acknowledged to be the rule. However much +they might have a right to claim as their legitimate due usages which +their rubrics seemed to authorise, and which were scarcely unfrequent +even in the days of Heylyn and Cosin, they were not disposed to insist +upon what would in their day be considered as innovations in the +direction of Rome. Better to widen that breach rather than in any way to +lessen it. So, too, with men of a different tone of mind, who, so far as +their own tastes went, disliked all ceremonial and thought it rather an +impediment than a help to devotion, and who would have been glad if the +Church of England had approximated more closely to the habits of +Presbyterians and Independents. They, too, in the early part of the last +century felt, for the most part, they must be cautious, if they would be +loyal to the communion to which they had yielded allegiance. If they +indulged in Presbyterian fancies, they might perchance bring in the +Presbyterians, an exchange which they were not the least prepared to +make. The Dutch propensities of William, the ratification of Scotch +Presbyterianism in the reign of Anne, the frequent alarm cry of Church +in danger, made it seem quite possible that if civil dissensions should +arise, Presbyterianism might yet lift up its head and find a wealthier +home in the deaneries and rectories of England. And so they were more +inclined to control their sympathies in that direction than they might +have been under other circumstances. It may be added, the extreme +vehemence, not to say virulence of party feeling, in ecclesiastical as +in political matters, which prevailed in England so long as a decisive +and universally recognised settlement was yet in suspense, obliged both +High and Low Churchmen to keep tolerably close to the strict letter of +the Act of Uniformity. When so much jealousy and mutual animosity were +abroad, neither the one nor the other could venture, without raising a +storm of opprobrium, to test to what extreme limits its utmost +elasticity could be strained. + +Notwithstanding such considerations, differences in religious opinion +within the Church, especially as to those points which the Puritan +controversy had brought into prominence, did not fail to find expression +in the modes and usages of worship. Something has been already said on +this point, in speaking of the furniture of churches, the decoration of +the sanctuary, and the observance of fasts and festivals. What has now +to be added relates rather to varieties in the manner of conducting +services. + +The rubric which occupies so prominent a place in our Prayer-book, +stating 'that such ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof, +at all times of their ministration, shall be retained and be in use, as +were in the Church of England, by the authority of Parliament, in the +second year of the reign of King Edward VI.,' was of course not +forgotten--as indeed it could not be--in the eighteenth century. High +Churchmen not unfrequently called attention to it. John Johnson, writing +in 1709, said he was by no means single in his belief that this order +was still legally enjoined.[1079] Archbishop Sharp appears to have been +of the same opinion, and used to say that he preferred the Communion +office as it was in King Edward's Book.[1080] Nicholls, in his edition +(1710) of Bishop Cosin's annotated Prayer-book, insisted upon the +continuous legality of the vestments prescribed in the old rubric, which +was 'the existing law,' he said, 'still in force at this day.'[1081] +Bishop Gibson, the learned author of the 'Codex Juris Ecclesiastici' +(1711), although he marked the rubric as practically obsolete, steadily +maintained that legally the ornaments of ministers in performing Divine +Service were the same as they had been in the earlier Liturgy.[1082] In +Charles I.'s reign the rubric had been by no means obsolete. But after +the Restoration the use of the more ornate vestments was not revived. +Even the cope, though prescribed for use as an Eucharistic vestment in +cathedrals and collegiate churches, had become almost obsolete. Norwich, +Westminster, and Durham seem to have been the only exceptions. At +Norwich, however, the cope, presented by the High Sheriff of Norfolk in +the place of one that had been burnt during the Civil War,[1083] does +not appear to have been much worn. Those at Westminster were reserved +for great state occasions, such as Coronations and Royal funerals.[1084] +It was only at Durham that the cope was constantly used on all festival +days. Defoe wrote in 1727 that they were still worn by some of the +residents, and he then described them as 'rich with embroidery and +embossed work of silver, that indeed it was a kind of load to stand +under them.'[1085] A story is sometimes told of Warburton, when +Prebendary of Durham in 1759, throwing off his cope in a pet, and never +wearing it again, because it disturbed his wig.[1086] Their use does +not seem to have been totally discontinued until 1784.[1087] + +The surplice was of course, throughout the period, the universally +recognised vestment of the Church of England clergy. Not that it had +altogether outlived the unreasoning hatred with which it was regarded by +ultra-Protestants outside the National Church. It was still in the +earlier part of the century inveighed against by some of their writers +as 'a Babylonish garment,'[1088] 'a rag of the whore of Babylon,'[1089] +a 'habit of the priests of Isis.'[1090] In William III.'s time, its use +in the pulpit was evidently quite exceptional. The writer of a letter in +the Strype Correspondence--one of those in whose eyes a surplice was 'a +fool's coat'--making mention that on the previous day (in 1696) he had +seen a minister preach in one, added that to the best of his remembrance +he had never but once seen this before.[1091] During the next reign the +custom was more common, but was looked upon as a decided mark of High +Churchmanship. There is an expressive, and amusingly inconsequential +'though' in the following note from Thoresby's Diary for June 17, 1722: +'Mr. Rhodes preached well (though in his surplice).'[1092] In villages, +however, it was very frequently worn, not so much from any idea of its +propriety as what Pasquin in the 'Tatler' is made to call 'the most +conscientious dress,'[1093] but simply from its being the only vestment +provided by the parish. Too frequently it betrayed in its appearance, +'dirty and contemptible with age,'[1094] a careless indifference quite +in keeping with other externals of worship. At the end of the +seventeenth century many Low Church clergy were wont so far to violate +the Act of Uniformity as often not to wear the surplice at all in +church. They would sometimes wear it, said South, in a sermon preached +in King William's reign, and oftener lay it aside.[1095] Such +irregularities appear, however, to have been nearly discontinued in +Queen Anne's time.[1096] About this date, the growing habit among +clergymen of wearing a wig is said to have caused an alteration from the +older form of the surplice. It was no longer sewn up and drawn over the +head, but made open in front.[1097] + +Those who abominated the surplice had looked with aversion on the +academical hood. Even in the middle of the eighteenth century, some Low +Church clergymen--they would hardly be graduates of either +University--objected to its use. Christopher Pitt, recommending +preachers to sort their sermons to their hearers, bids them, for +example, not to be so indiscreet as to 'rail at hoods and organs at St. +Paul's.'[1098] + +Next, says Addison, after the clergy of the highest rank, such as +bishops, deans, and archdeacons, come 'doctors of divinity, prebendaries +and all that wear scarfs.'[1099] It was an object therefore of some +ambition in his day to wear a scarf. There was many a clerical fop, we +are told in a later paper of the 'Spectator,' who would wear it when he +came up to London, that he might be mistaken for a dignitary of the +Church, and be called 'doctor' by his landlady and by the waiter at +Child's Coffee House.[1100] Noblemen also claimed a right of conferring +a scarf upon their chaplains. In this case, those who knew the galling +yoke that a chaplaincy too often was, might well entitle it 'a badge of +servitude,' and 'a silken livery.'[1101] + +At this point, a short digression may be permitted on the subject of +clerical dress during the last century. + +In the time of Swift and the 'Spectator,' clergymen generally wore their +gowns when they travelled in the streets of London.[1102] But they wore +them, so Hearne says, with a difference, very characteristic of those +days of hot party strife. The Tory clergy only wore the M.A. gown; 'the +Whigs and enemies of the Universities go in pudding-sleeve gowns,'[1103] +or what was otherwise called the 'crape' or 'mourning gown.' In the +country the correct clerical dress was simply the cassock. Fielding's +genius has made good Parson Adams a familiar picture to most readers of +English literature. We picture him careless of appearances, tramping +along the muddy lanes with his cassock tucked up under his short +great-coat.[1104] A clergyman, writing in 1722, upon 'the hardships and +miseries of the inferior clergy in and about London,' compares with some +bitterness the threadbare garments of the curate with 'the flaming gown +and cassock' of the non-resident rector. He could wish, he said ('if +the wish were canonical')[1105] that he might appear in a common habit +rather than in a clerical garb which only excited derision by its +squalor. He thought it a desirable recommendation to the religious and +charitable societies of the day, that they should make gifts to the +poorer clergy of new gowns and cassocks.[1106] Soon, however, after +Fielding's time, the cassock gradually fell into disuse as an ordinary +part of a clergyman's dress. It was still worn by many throughout the +Sunday; but on week days was regarded as somewhat stiff and formal, even +by those who insisted most on the proprieties.[1107] Ever since the +Restoration, the old strictness about clerical dress had become more and +more relaxed. The square cap had been out of favour during the +Commonwealth, and was not generally resumed.[1108] The canonical +skull-cap was next supplanted--not without much scandal to persons of +grave and staid habit--by the fashionable peruke.[1109] There is a +letter from the Duke of Monmouth, then Chancellor of Cambridge, to the +Vice-Chancellor and University, October 8, 1674, in which this +innovation is severely condemned.[1110] A few years later, Archbishop +Tillotson himself set the example of wearing the obnoxious +article.[1111] Many country incumbents not only dropped all observance +of the old canonical regulations, but lowered the social character of +their profession by making themselves undistinguishable in outward +appearance from farmers or common graziers. South spoke of this in one +of his sermons, preached towards the end of William III.'s reign.[1112] +So also did Swift in 1731.[1113] The Dean, however, himself seems to +have been a glaring offender against that sobriety of garb which befits +a clergyman. In his journal to Stella, he speaks in one place of wearing +'a light camlet, faced with red velvet and silver buckles.'[1114] Of +course eccentricities which Dean Swift allowed himself must not be taken +as examples of what others ventured upon. But carelessness in all such +matters went on increasing till about the seventh decade of the century. +After that time a number of remonstrances and protests may be found +against the brown coats, the plaid or white waistcoats, the white +stockings, the leathern breeches, the scratch wigs, and so forth, in +which clerical fops on the one hand, and clerical slovens on the other, +were often wont to appear. A writer at the very end of the century +pointed his remarks on the subject by calling the attention of his +brother clergy to the distinctly anti-Christian purpose which had +animated the French Convention in their suppression of the clerical +habit.[1115] + +If a modern Churchman could be carried back to the days of Queen Anne, +and were at Church while service was going on, his eye would probably be +caught by people standing up where he had been accustomed to see them +sitting, and sitting down when, in our congregations, every one would be +standing up. Some people, following the common custom of the Puritans, +stood during the prayers.[1116] Some, on the other hand, sat during the +creed.[1117] In both these cases there was plain neglect of the rubric. +Where the Prayer-book was silent, uncertainty and variation of usage +were more reasonable. Thus some stood at the Epistle, as well as at the +Gospel,[1118] and some whenever the second lesson was from one of the +Evangelists.[1119] What Cowper calls the 'divorce of knees from +hassocks,' was perhaps not so frequent then as now.[1120] In pictures of +church interiors of that date, the congregation is generally represented +as really kneeling. Still, it was much too frequent, and quite fell in +with the careless, self-indulgent habits of the time. Before the middle +of the century it had become very general. In one of the papers of the +'Tatler,' we find there were some who neither stood nor knelt, but +remained lazily sitting throughout the service like 'an audience at a +playhouse.'[1121] Sitting while the Psalms were being sung was, +notwithstanding many remonstrances, the rule rather than the exception +during the earlier part of the century. The Puritan commission of 1641 +had spoken of standing at the hymns as an innovation.[1122] Even +Sherlock, in 1681, speaks of 'that universal practice of sitting while +we sing the Psalms.'[1123] In 1717, Fleetwood speaks of standing at such +times as if it were a singularity rather than otherwise.[1124] Hickes, +on the other hand, writes in 1701, as if those who refused to stand at +the singing of psalms and anthems were for the most part 'stiff, morose, +and saturnine votists.'[1125] In fact, High Churchmen insisted on the +one posture, while Low Churchmen generally preferred the other; and so +the custom remained very variable, until the High Church reaction of +Queen Anne's time succeeded in establishing, in this particular, a rule +which was henceforth generally recognised. In 1741, Secker speaks of +sitting during the singing as if, though common enough, it were still a +mere careless habit.[1126] + +At the beginning of the century many who had been brought up in Puritan +traditions thoroughly disliked the custom of congregational responses. +They called it 'a tossing of tennis balls,'[1127] and set it down as one +of the points of formalism.[1128] Partly, perhaps, from a little of this +sort of feeling, but far more often for no other reason than a lack of +devotional spirit, that cold and most unattractive custom, which +prevailed throughout the Georgian age, of making the clerk the +mouthpiece of the congregation, fast gained ground. This, however, was +much less general in the earlier part of the period than at its close. +In Queen Anne's time there were many zealous Churchmen who both by word +and example endeavoured to give a more hearty character to the public +worship, and who thought that such 'unconcerned silence[1129] was a much +greater evil than the risk of an occasional 'Stentor who bellowed +terribly loud in the responses.'[1130] Most people are familiar with the +paper in the 'Spectator,' which describes Sir Roger de Coverley at +church, and his patriarchal care that his tenants and dependents should +all have prayer-books, that they might duly take their part in the +service.[1131] + +The period which immediately followed the Revolution of 1689 was not one +when minor questions of ritual, upon which there was difference of +opinion between the two principal parties in the English Church, were +likely to rest in peace. Turning eastward at the creeds was a case in +point. There was quite a literature upon the subject. Many Low +Churchmen, among whom may be mentioned Asplin, Hoadly, and Lord +Chancellor King, contended that it was a papal or pagan superstition +which ought to be wholly discontinued. The High Church writers, such as +Cave, Meade, Bingham, Smallbroke, Whiston, Wesley, and Bisse, answered +that it was not only the universal custom in the primitive Church, but +edifying and impressive in itself as symbolising unity in the faith, +hope of resurrection, and expectation of our Saviour's coming. The usage +was very generally maintained. + +The injunction of the 17th Canon, to bow with reverence when the name of +the Lord Jesus is mentioned in time of divine service, was observed much +as now. In the recital of the Creed it was the general custom. At other +times, High Churchmen were for the most part careful to observe the +practice,[1132] and Low Churchmen did not. Later in the century the +canon was probably observed much more generally in country villages than +among town congregations. Bisse observed that it was a primitive usage +which ought least of all to be dropped at a time when Arian opinions +were abroad.[1133] + +At the close of the seventeenth century we find South and others +bitterly complaining of the liberties taken with the Prayer-book by some +of the 'Moderate' clergy. Some prayers, it appears, were omitted, and +some were shortened, and in one form or another 'the divine service so +curtailed,' says South in his exaggerated way, 'as if the people were to +have but the tenths from the priest, for the tenths he had received from +them.'[1134] No doubt the expectation of immediate changes in the +liturgy, and the knowledge that some of the bishops were leaders in that +movement, had an unsettling effect, adapted to encourage irregularities. +At all events we hear little more of it, when the agitation in favour of +comprehension had ceased. There was often a lax observance of the +rubrics;[1135] but there appear to be no complaints of any serious +omissions, until three or four of the Arian and semi-Arian clergy +ventured, not only to leave out the Athanasian Creed, but to alter the +doxologies,[1136] and to pass over the second and third petitions of the +Litany.[1137] + +The Athanasian Creed, however, might fairly be said to stand on a +somewhat different footing. If it had been a pain and a stumbling block +only to those who had adopted Whiston's opinions about the Trinity, men +to whom the ordinary prayers could not fail to give offence, it would +have been clear that such persons had no standing-ground in the ministry +of the Church of England. But the case was notoriously otherwise. +Persons who have not the least inclination to adopt heterodox opinions, +may most reasonably object to the use in public worship of elaborate +scholastic definitions on questions of acknowledged mystery. Those +clergymen, therefore, whether in the eighteenth or in the nineteenth +century, who have been accustomed to neglect the rubric which prescribes +the use of this Creed on certain days, might feel reasonably justified +in so doing, on the tacit understanding that, at the demand of the +bishop they should either read the formula, notwithstanding their +general dislike to it, or give up their office in the Church. No doubt +it was quite as often omitted in the last century as in our own;[1138] +and in George III.'s time, even if a desire had existed to enforce its +use, there would have been the more difficulty in doing so from its +having been forbidden in the King's Chapel.[1139] + +The habit of reading continuously, as parts of one service, Morning +Prayer, the Litany, and part of the office for the Communion, had hardly +become fixed at the commencement of the century. John Johnson,[1140] +writing in 1709, said it was an innovation. The old custom had been to +have, on Sundays and holy days, prayers at six, and the Litany at nine, +followed after a few minutes' interval by the Communion service. Even in +Charles I.'s time they had often become joined, as a concession to the +later hours that were gradually gaining ground, or, as Heylin expressed +it, 'because of the sloth of the people.' But 'long after the +Restoration' the distinction was maintained in some places, as in the +Cathedrals of Canterbury and Worcester. And throughout the last century, +'Second Service' was a name in common general use for the Communion +office.[1141] + +Bull, Sherlock, Beveridge, and other Anglican divines, who belong more +to the seventeenth than to the eighteenth century, had expressed much +concern at the unfrequency of celebrations of the Eucharist as compared +with a former age. Our Reformers, they said, had regarded it as an +ordinary part of Christian worship.[1142] In the first Prayer-book of +Edward VI. there had been express directions relating to a daily +administration, not only in cathedrals, but in parish churches. But now, +said Beveridge, people have so departed from primitive usage that they +think once a week is too often.[1143] It had come to be monthly or +perhaps quarterly. The Puritans, with the idea that the solemnity of the +rite was enhanced by its recurring after comparatively lengthened +intervals, discouraged frequent communions, and many Low Churchmen of +the next generation held the same opinion.[1144] In the country, +quarterly communions had become the general rule. The number of +communicants had also very much diminished. No doubt this was owing in +great measure to the general laxity which followed upon the Restoration. +But the cause already mentioned contributed to keep away even religious +people. It must be also remembered that, during the period of the +Reformation, and for some time after, stated attendance at the Holy +Communion was regarded not only as a religious duty, but as an ordinary +sign of membership in the National Church, and of attachment to its +principles. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, although the +odious sacramental test was yet to survive for many a long year, that +feeling had very generally passed away, and was being gradually +superseded in many minds by an opposite idea that this Sacrament was not +so much a help to Christian living, as a badge, from which many +excellent people shrunk, of decided religious profession. With the rise +of the religious societies there was a change for the better. The High +Church movement of Queen Anne's time, regarded in its worthiest form and +among its best representatives, was one in which the sacramental element +was prominently marked. If a comparison is made between the number of +churches in London where the Sacrament was weekly administered in Queen +Anne's reign, and on the other hand, in the period from about the middle +of George I.'s reign to the third or fourth decade of the present +century, the difference would be strikingly in favour of the earlier +date. In 1741, we find Secker admonishing the clergy of the diocese of +Oxford, that they were bound to administer thrice in the year, that +there ought to be an administration during the long interval between +Whitsuntide and Christmas. 'And if,' he adds somewhat dubiously, 'you +can afterwards advance from a quarterly communion to a monthly one, I +make no doubt but you will.'[1145] Of course there were many verbal and +many practical protests against the prevalent disregard of this central +Christian ordinance. Thus both Wesley from a High Church point of view, +and the Broad Church author of the 'Free and Candid Disquisitions,' +urged the propriety of weekly celebrations. And before the end of the +century there was doubtless some improvement. In many parish churches +the general custom of a quarterly administration was broken through in +favour of a monthly one, and in many cathedrals the Sacrament might once +more be received on every Lord's Day.[1146] But Bishop Tomline might +well feel it a matter for just complaint, that being at St. Paul's on +Easter Day, 1800, 'in that vast and noble cathedral no more than six +persons were found at the table of the Lord.'[1147] Before leaving this +part of the subject, it should be added that, previous to the time when +the Methodist organisation became unhappily separated from the National +Church, the sermons of Wesley and his preachers were sometimes followed +by a large accession of communicants at the parish church.[1148] + +Kneeling to receive the Sacrament had been one of the principal scruples +felt by the Presbyterians at the time when the great majority of them +were anxious for comprehension within the National Church. Archbishop +Tillotson, acting upon his well-known saying, 'Charity is above +rubrics,' and in accordance with the practice of some of the Elizabethan +divines, was wont to authorise by his example a considerable discretion +on this point.[1149] Bishop Patrick, on the other hand, though no less +earnest in his advocacy of comprehension, did not feel justified in +departing from prescribed order, and when Du Moulin desired to receive +the Sacrament from him, declined, 'not without many kind remarks,' to +administer to him without his kneeling.[1150] After all schemes of +comprehension had fallen through, the concession in question became +very unfrequent. A pamphleteer of 1709 speaks doubtfully as to whether +it still occurred or not.[1151] A greater licence in regard of posture +was one of the suggestions of the 'Free and Candid Disquisitions.' + +Through the Georgian period, a negligent habit was by no means unusual +of reading the early part of the Communion service from the reading +desk. Dr. Parr, in 1785, speaking of the changes he had introduced into +his church at Hatton, evidently thought himself very correct in +'Communion service at the altar.'[1152] + +Even in Bishop Bull's time the offertory was very much neglected in +country places.[1153] Later in the century its disuse became more +general. There were one or two parishes in his diocese, Secker said, +where the old custom was retained of oblations for the support of the +church and alms for the poor. But often there was no offertory at all: +he hoped it might be revived and duly administered.[1154] + +Some remarks have already been made upon the traces which were to be +found in a few exceptional instances, during the eighteenth century, of +the Eucharistic vestments as appointed in Edward VI.'s Prayer-book. + +The sacramental 'usages,' so called, belong to the history of the +Nonjurors rather than to that of the National Church. There was, +however, no time when the theological and ecclesiastical opinions +prevalent among the Nonjurors did not find favour among a few English +Conformists, lay and clerical. Thus, the mixture of water with the wine, +in conformity with Eastern practice, and in remembrance of the water and +the blood, seems to have been occasionally found in parish churches. +Hickes said he had found it to be the custom at Barking.[1155] Wesley +also, and the early Oxford Methodists, approved of it.[1156] + +In the early part of the seventeenth century George Herbert had said +that the country parson must see that on great festivals his Church was +'perfumed with incense,' and 'stuck with boughs.'[1157] Even as late as +George III.'s reign it appears that incense was not quite unknown in the +English Church. We are told that on the principal holy days it used to +be the 'constant practice at Ely to burn incense on the altar at the +Cathedral, till Thomas Green, one of the prebendaries, and now (1779) +Dean of Salisbury, a finical man, who is always taking snuff, objected +to it, under pretence that it made his head to ache.'[1158] + +The bad case into which Church music had fallen was much owing to those +worthy men, the Parish Clerks. These officials were a great institution +in the English Church of the last century. The Parish Clerks of London, +from whom all their brethren in the country borrowed some degree of +lustre, were an ancient and honourable company. They had been +incorporated by Henry III. as 'The Brotherhood of St. Nicolas.' Their +Charter had been renewed by Charles I., who conferred upon them +additional privileges and immunities, under the name of 'The Warden and +Fellowship of Parish Clerks of the City and Suburbs of London and the +Liberties thereof, the City of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, +and the fifteen Parishes adjacent.'[1159] They had a Hall of their own +in Bishopsgate Street; at St. Alban's Church they had their anniversary +sermon; at St. Bridget's they had maintained, until about the end of the +seventeenth century, a 'music-sermon' on St. Cecilia's day;[1160] and +Clerkenwell derives its name from the solemn Mystery Plays which their +guild in old days used to celebrate near the holy spring.[1161] There +were certain taverns about the Exchange where they met as a kind of +Club, 'men with grave countenances, short wigs, black clothes or dark +camlet trimmed with black.'[1162] In pre-Reformation days they had +ranked among the minor orders of the Church as assistants of the +Priests;[1163] and so, especially in country churches, they might +consider themselves as holding a position somewhat analogous, though on +a humbler scale, to that of Precentors. In 1722 a clergyman, writing to +the Bishop of London on the subject of the poverty and distressed +condition of some of the poorer curates, spoke of the desirability of +again admitting men in holy orders to be Parish Clerks. Early in the +present century Hartley Coleridge made a somewhat similar suggestion. +'How often in town and country do we hear our divine Liturgy rendered +wholly ludicrous by all imaginable tones, twangs, drawls, mouthings, +wheezings, gruntings, snuffles and quidrollings, by all diversities of +dialect, cacologies and cacophonies, by twistings, contortions and +consolidations of visage, squintings and blinkings and upcastings of +eyes.... Then, too, the discretion assumed by these Hogarthic studies of +selecting the tune and verses to be sung makes the psalmody, instead of +an integral and affecting portion of the service, as distracting and +irrational an episode as the jigs and country dances scraped between the +acts of a tragedy.'[1164] There would be no difficulty, he thought, in +getting educated persons to discharge the office for little remuneration +or none, if it were not for the troublesome and often disagreeable +parish business annexed to the office. As it was, the Clerk occupied a +very odd position, uniting the menial duties of a useful Church servant +to other functions, the decent performance of which was utterly beyond +the range of an illiterate man. Many of our readers may be acquainted +with the witty satire in which, with a perpetual side glance at the +fussy self-importance visible in Bishop Burnet's History, Pope writes +'the Memoirs of P.P., Clerk of this Parish.' With what delightful +complacency this diligent representative of his class speaks of taking +rank among 'men right worthy of their calling, of a clear and sweet +voice, and of becoming gravity'--of his place in the congregation at the +feet of the Priest,--of his raising the Psalm,--of his arraying the +ministers with the surplice,--of his responsible part in the service of +the Church! 'Remember, Paul, I said to myself, thou standest before men +of high worship, the wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the grave Mr. Justice +Tonson, the good Lady Jones, and the two virtuous gentlewomen her +daughters, nay the great Sir Thomas Truby, knight and baronet, and my +young master the Squire who shall one day be lord of this manor.' With +what magisterial gravity he descants of whipping out the dogs, 'except +the sober lap-dog of the good widow Howard,'--tearing away the +children's half-eaten apples, smoothing the dog's ears of the great +Bible! How he prides himself in sweeping and trimming weekly the pews +and benches, which were formerly swept but once in three years,--in +having the surplice darned, washed and laid up in fresh lavender, better +than any other parish,--in having discovered a thief with a Bible and +key--in his love of ringing,--in his tutoring young men and maidens to +tune their voice as it were with a psaltery,--in being invited to the +banquets of the Church officers,--in the hints he has given to young +clergymen,--in his loyal attachment to the interests of 'our High +Church.'[1165] Such was the Parish Clerk of the eighteenth century, the +personage upon whom the charge of the musical part of the service mainly +devolved,--whose duty it was to give out[1166] the Psalm, to lead +it,[1167] very commonly to read it out line by line,[1168] and +frequently to select what was to be sung. No wonder, Secker, speaking of +Church psalmody, requested his clergy to take great care how they chose +their clerks.[1169] And no wonder, it may be added, that Church +psalmody, under such conditions, fell into a state which was a reproach +to the Church that could tolerate it. + +In the first years of the eighteenth century there were still occasional +discussions whether organs were to be considered superstitious and +Popish.[1170] They had been destroyed or silenced in the time of the +Commonwealth; and it was not without much misgiving on the part of timid +Protestants that after the Restoration one London church after +another[1171] admitted the suspected instruments. An organ which was set +up at Tiverton in 1696 gave rise to much dispute, and was the occasion +of Dodwell writing on 'The lawfulness of instrumental music in holy +offices.'[1172] A pamphleteer in 1699, who signs himself N.N., quoted +Isidore, Wicliffe, and Erasmus against the use of musical instruments in +public worship.[1173] Scotch Presbyterians and English Dissenters +entirely abjured them, till Rowland Hill, near the end of the century, +erected one in the Surrey Chapel.[1174] It was noted on the other hand, +as one of the signs of High Church reaction in Queen Anne's time, that +churches without organs had thinner congregations.[1175] + +It is perhaps not too much to say, that through a great part of the +eighteenth century chanting was almost unknown in parish churches, and +was regarded as distinctively belonging to 'Cathedral worship.' Watts, +who, although a Nonconformist, was well acquainted with a great number +of Churchmen, and was likely to be well informed on any question of +psalmody, remarked, in somewhat quaint language, that 'the congregation +of choristers in cathedral churches are the only Levites that sing +praise unto the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer.'[1176] + +Even in Cathedrals musical services were looked upon with great +disfavour by many, and by many others with a bare tolerance nearly +allied to disapproval. Could the question of their continuance have been +put to popular vote they might probably have been maintained by a small +majority as being conformable to old custom, but without appreciation, +and with an implied understanding that they were wholly exceptional. The +Commissioners of King William's time had suggested that the chanting of +divine service in cathedrals should be laid aside;[1177] and even +Archbishop Sharp, although in many respects a High Churchman, told +Thoresby that he did not much approve of singing the prayers, 'but it +having been the custom of all cathedrals since the Reformation, it is +not to be altered without a law.'[1178] Exaggerated dread of Popery +suspected latent evils, it scarcely knew what, lurking in this kind of +worship. Perhaps, too, it was thought to border upon 'enthusiasm,' that +other religious bugbear of the age. A paper in the 'Tatler' speaks of it +not with disapproval, but with something of condescension to weaker +minds, as 'the rapturous way of devotion.'[1179] In fact, cathedrals in +general were almost unintelligible to the prevalent sentiment of the +eighteenth century. Towards the end of the period a spirit of +appreciation grew up, which Malcolm speaks of as being in marked +contrast with the contemptuous indifference of a former date.[1180] They +were regarded, no doubt, with a certain pride as splendid national +memorials of a kind of devotion that had long passed away. Some young +friends of David Hume, who had been to service at St. Paul's and found +scarcely anybody there, began to speak of the folly of lavishing money +on such useless structures. The famous sceptic gently rebuked them for +talking without judgment. 'St. Paul's,' he said, 'as a monument of the +religious feeling and taste of the country, does it honour and will +endure. We have wasted millions upon a single campaign in Flanders, and +without any good resulting from it.'[1181] There was no fanatic dislike +to cathedrals, as when Lord Brooke had hoped that he might see the day +when not one stone of St. Paul's should be left upon another.[1182] They +were simply neglected, as if both they and those who yet loved the mode +of worship perpetuated in them belonged to a bygone generation. In the +North this was not so much the case. Durham Cathedral especially seems +to have retained, in a greater degree than any other, not only the +grandeur and hospitality of an older period, but also the affections of +the townsmen around it. Defoe, in 1728, found a congregation of 500 +people at the six-o'clock morning service.[1183] In most cases, even on +Sundays, the attendance was miserably thin. Doubtless, many individual +members of cathedral chapters loved the noble edifice and its solemn +services with a very profound attachment; but, as a general rule, they +belonged to the past and to the future far more than to the present. The +only mode of utilising cathedrals which seems to have been thoroughly to +the taste of the last century was the converting them into music-halls +for oratorios. Early in the century we find Dean Swift at Dublin +consenting--not, however, without much demur--to 'lend his cathedral to +players and scrapers,' to act what he called their opera.[1184] Next, in +St. Paul's, at the annual anniversary of the Sons of the Clergy, sober +Churchmen saw with disgust a careless, pleasure-loving audience +listening to singers promiscuously gathered from the theatres, and +laughing, and eating, and drinking their wine in the intervals of the +performance.[1185] Then came the festivals of the Three Choirs at +Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford, very open to objection at a time +when the managers thought of little but how to achieve for their +undertaking popularity and pecuniary success. Sublime as is the music of +'The Messiah,' it was not often performed in the last century without +circumstances which jarred strongly against the devotional feeling of a +deeply religious man like John Newton, and led him to what might +otherwise seem a most unreasonable hatred of oratorios.[1186] + +In Queen Anne's time, there was often no part of the Church service in +which the High or Low Church tone of the congregation was more closely +betokened than when the preacher had just entered the pulpit. In the one +case, the Bidding Prayer was said; in the other, there was an extempore +prayer, often of considerable length, commonly called the pulpit prayer. +The Bidding Prayer had its origin in pre-Reformation times. 'The way was +first for the preacher to name and open his text, and then to call on +the people to go to their prayers, and to tell them what they were to +pray for; after which all the people said their beads in a general +silence, and the preacher also kneeled down and said his.'[1187] It was +thus not a prayer, but an exhortation to prayer, and instruction in the +points commended to private but united worship. In Henry VIII.'s time +the Pope's name was omitted, and prayer for the King under his proper +titles strictly enjoined. In Elizabeth's reign, praise for all who had +departed in God's faith was substituted for prayer in their +behalf.[1188] By the existing Canons, as agreed upon in 1603, preachers +were instructed to move the people to join with them in prayer before +the sermon either in the Bidding form, 'or to that effect as briefly as +conveniently they may.'[1189] It was, however, no longer clear whether +it were itself a prayer, or, as in former time, an admonition to pray. +On the one hand, it was called 'a form of prayer,' and was followed +without a pause by the Lord's Prayer, and then by the sermon. On the +other hand, it was prefaced not by the familiar 'Let us pray,' but by +the old bidding, 'Ye shall pray,' or 'Pray ye,' and the congregation +stood as listeners until the Lord's Prayer began.[1190] Hence a +difference in practice arose, curiously characteristic of the +controversies, ecclesiastical and political, which were being agitated +at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth +century. In Charles I.'s reign, many of the clergy had chosen to +consider it a prayer, and taking advantage of the permission to vary it, +had converted it into one of those extempore effusions which Puritan +feeling considered so peculiarly edifying.[1191] It need hardly be added +that the Anglican party were more than ever careful to adhere to the +older usage. After the Restoration, the Bidding Prayer was for a time +not very much used, and the pulpit prayer, as adopted by Low Churchmen +from Puritans and Presbyterians, began in many places to assume a most +prominent position. 'Some men,' Sherlock said, in 1681, 'think they +worship God sufficiently if they come time enough to church to join in +the pulpit prayer.'[1192] High Churchmen could not endure it. 'It is a +long, crude, extemporary prayer,' said South, 'in reproach of all the +prayers which the Church, with such an admirable prudence and devotion, +has been making before.'[1193] The use, however, of extempore prayer in +this part of the service was defended by some of the clergy and bishops, +as agreeable to the people, as conformable to the custom of the Reformed +Churches abroad,[1194] and attractive to those among the Presbyterians +and other denominations who only needed encouragement and a few slight +concessions to exchange occasional for constant conformity. Meanwhile, +at the end of the preceding century, 'the Bidding' had been more +generally revived. Archbishop Tenison, in a circular to the clergy in +1695, had called attention to the neglect of it,[1195] and the Bishop of +London revived its general use in his own diocese, to the astonishment, +says Fleetwood, of many congregations who stared and stood amazed at 'Ye +shall pray.'[1196] In Queen Anne's time it became very general,[1197] +being quite in accord with the High Church sentiment which had then +strongly set in. A political bias also was suspected. Not, perhaps, +without reason; for it was a time when political prepossessions which +could not openly be declared found vent in all kinds of byways. After +the Revolution, while the title of the new sovereign was not yet secure, +the Clergy were specially enjoined, that however else they might vary +their prayer or exhortation to prayer before the sermon, they were in +any case to mention the King by name. It was said--whether in sarcasm or +as a grave reality--that the semi-Jacobite parsons, of whom there were +many, found satisfaction in discovering a mode by which they could 'show +at once their duty and their disgust'[1198] in a manner unexceptionally +accordant with the law and with the Canon. 'Ye are bidden to pray,' or, +as a certain Dr. M---- always worded it, 'Ye must pray,[1199] did not +necessarily imply much heart in fulfilling the injunction by which the +people were called upon to pray for their new lords. But, curiously +enough, when George I. came to the throne, the political gloss attached +to 'the Bidding' became reversed. In the royal directions to the +archbishops, the canonical form, with the royal titles included, was +strictly enjoined;[1200] and consequently not those who used, but those +who neglected it, ran a risk of being set down as having Jacobite +proclivities. It had, however, never been really popular, and few +objected to its gradual disuse. Ever since the Revolution, it had +introduced into a portion of the public worship far too decided an +element of political feeling. The objection was the greater, because the +liberty of variation had given it a certain personal character. If the +preacher did not keep strictly to the words of the Canon, he could +scarcely avoid making it appear, by the names omitted or inserted, what +might be his political, his ecclesiastical, or his academical opinions. +Those, again, whose respect for dignities was in excess--a foible to +which the age was prone--would go through a list of titles, illustrious, +right reverend, and right honourable,[1201] which ill accorded with a +time of prayer. Before the middle of the century, except in university +churches or on formal occasions, the Canon became generally obsolete, +and the sermon was prefaced, as often in our own day, by a Collect and +the Lord's Prayer. + +At the opening of the eighteenth century the pulpit was no longer the +power it had been in past days. It had been the strongest support of the +Reformation; and monarchs and statesmen had known well how immense was +its influence in informing and guiding the popular mind on all questions +which bore upon religion or Church politics. In proportion, however, as +the agency of the press had been developed, the preachers had lost more +and more of their old monopoly. Numberless essays and pamphlets +appeared, reflecting all shades of educated opinion, with much to say on +questions of social morality and the duties of Churchmen and citizens. +They did not by any means interfere with the primary office of the +sermon. They were calculated rather to do preaching a good service. When +other means of instruction are wanting, the preacher may feel himself +bound to include a wide range of subjects. When the press comes to his +aid, and relieves him for the most part of the more secular of his +topics, he is the more at liberty to confine himself to matters which +have a primary and direct bearing upon the spiritual life. In any case, +however, whether the change be, on the whole, beneficial or not to the +general character of preaching, it must evidently deprive it of some +part of its former influence. + +Yet in the reigns of William and Queen Anne good preaching was still +highly appreciated and very popular. Jablouski said of his Protestant +fellow-countrymen in Prussia, that the sermon had come to be considered +so entirely the important part of the service that people commonly said, +'Will you go to sermon?' instead of 'to church.'[1202] It was not quite +so in England; yet undoubtedly there was very generally something of the +same feeling. 'Many,' said Sherlock, 'who have little other religion, +are forward enough to hear sermons, and many will miss the prayers and +come in only in time to hear the preaching.'[1203] If some of the +incentives to good preaching, and some of the attributes which had +distinguished it, were no longer conspicuous, other causes had come in +to maintain the honour of the pulpit. That stir and movement of the +intellectual faculty which was everywhere beginning to test the power of +reason on all questions of theology and faith had both brought into +existence a new style of preaching, and had secured for it a number of +attentive hearers. The anxious and earnest, but, notwithstanding its +occasional virulence, the somewhat unimpassioned controversy with Rome, +and the newly aroused hopes of reconciling the moderate Dissenters, had +tended to a similar result. A rich, imaginative eloquence, though it +could not fail to have admirers, was out of favour, not only with those +who considered Tillotson the model preacher, but also with High +Churchmen. Jeremy Taylor would hardly have ranked high in Bishop Bull's +estimation. His wit and metaphors, and 'tuneful pointed sentences,' +would almost certainly have been adjudged by the good Bishop of St. +David's unworthy of the grave and solemn dignity of the pulpit.[1204] +And brilliant as were the sallies of Dr. South's vigorous and highly +seasoned declamations, they were rarely of a kind to kindle imagination +and stir emotion. The edge of his arguments was keen and cold; and they +were addressed to the common reason of his hearers, no less than those +of the 'Latitudinarian' Churchmen with whom he most delighted to +contend. + +That degradation of religion, which, even in the earlier years of the +century, was beginning to lower the Gospel of redemption into a +philosophy of morality, has been already alluded to. Under its +depressing influence, preaching sank to a very low ebb. Hurd, in 1761, +said, with perfect truth, that 'the common way of sermonising had become +most wretched, and even the best models very defective.'[1205] By that +date, however, improvement had already begun. It was sometimes said, and +the assertion was not altogether unfounded, that these cold pulpit +moralities were in a great measure the recoil from Methodist +extravagances. But far more generally, as the century advanced, +Methodism promoted the beneficial change which had already been noted in +the case of Secker. The more zealous and observant of the Clergy could +not fail to learn a valuable lesson from the wonderful power over the +souls of men which their Methodist fellow-workmen--the irregulars of the +Church--had acquired. And independently of their example, the same +leaven was working among those sharers in the Evangelical revival who +remained steadfast to the established order, as among those who felt +themselves cramped by it. Whatever in other respects might be their +faults of style and matter, they were, at all events, in no point what +some sermons were called--'Stoical Essays,' 'imitations from a Christian +pulpit of Seneca and Epictetus.'[1206] There were many mannerisms, and +there was much want of breadth of thought, but in heart and purpose it +was a true preaching of the Gospel. + +Even towards the end of the century there were a few notable instances +of the power which a great preacher might yet command. We are told of +Dean Kirwan, who had left the Roman for the English Church, that even in +times of public calamity and distress, his irresistible powers of +persuasion repeatedly produced contributions exceeding a thousand or +twelve hundred pounds at a sermon; and his hearers, not content with +emptying their purses into the plate, sometimes threw in jewels or +watches in earnest of further benefactions.[1207] A sermon of Bishop +Horsley once produced an effect which would hardly be possible except +under circumstances of great public excitement. When he preached in +Westminster Abbey, before the House of Lords, on January 30, 1793, the +whole assembly, stirred by his peroration, rose with one impulse, and +remained standing till the sermon ended.[1208] + +Amid the excited and angry controversies which occupied the earlier +years of the century, the pulpit did not by any means retain a +befitting calm. Later in the century there was no great cause for +complaint on this ground. + +Whiston says that he sometimes read in church one of the Homilies. So, +no doubt, did others. But even in 1691 we find it mentioned that they +could not be much used without scandal, as if they were read from +laziness. 'The more the pity,' says the writer in question, 'for they +are good preaching.'[1209] It was one of Tillotson's ideas to get a new +set of Homilies written, as a supplement to the existing ones. There was +to be one for each Sunday and principal holy day in the year; and the +whole was to constitute a semi-authorised corpus of doctrinal and +practical divinity adapted for general instruction and family reading. +Burnet, Lloyd, and Patrick joined in the scheme, and some progress was +made in carrying it out. It met, however, with opposition, and was +ultimately laid aside.[1210] + +To nearly every one of the London churches in Queen Anne's time a +Lecturer was attached, independent in most cases of the incumbent.[1211] +A great many of these foundations were an inheritance from Puritan +times. The duty required being only that of preaching, men had been able +to take a Lectureship who disapproved of various particulars in the +order and government of the Established Church, and would not have +entered themselves in the list of her regular ministers.[1212] There had +been some advantage and some evil in this. It had enlarged to some +extent the action of the Church, and provided within its limits a field +of activity for men whose preaching was acceptable to a great number of +Churchmen, but who hovered upon the borders of Nonconformity. Only it +secured this advantage in a makeshift and scarcely authorised manner, +and at the risk of introducing into parishes a source of disunion which +was justly open to complaint. Lecturers were added to the Church system +in towns without being incorporated into it. Room should have been found +for them, without permanently attaching to a parish church a preacher +whose views might be continually discordant with those of the incumbent +and his curates. Under the circumstances, it was perhaps no more than a +prudent requirement of the Act of Uniformity, that Lecturers should duly +sign the Articles and before their first lecture read the Prayers, and +make the same declarations as were obligatory upon other clergymen. They +retained, however, something of the distinctive character which had +marked them hitherto. Generally, they were decided Low Churchmen; the +more so as lectureships were very commonly in the choice of the people, +and the bulk of the electors were just that class of tradesmen in whom +the Puritan, and afterwards the so-called Presbyterian, party in the +Church had found its strongest support. For a like reason they were +sometimes, no doubt, too much addicted to those arts by which the +popular ear is won and retained, and which were particularly offensive +to men whose most characteristic merits and faults were those of a +different system. Bishop Newton said that lectureships were often +disagreeable preferments, as subject to so many humours and +caprices.[1213] On the other hand, the principal Lecturers in London +held a position which able men might well be ambitious of holding. Nor +was the long list of eminent men who had held London lectureships +composed by any means exclusively of the leaders of one section of the +English Church. If it contained the names of Tillotson, and Burnet, and +Fleetwood, and Blackhall, and Willis, and Hoadly, and Herring, it +contained also those of Sharp and Atterbury, of Stanhope, Bennet, Moss, +and Marshall. The Lecture of St. Lawrence Jewry was conspicuously high +in repute. 'Though but moderately endowed in point of profit, it was +long considered as the post of honour. It had been possessed by a +remarkable succession of the most able and celebrated preachers, of whom +were the Archbishops Tillotson and Sharp; and it was usually attended by +a variety of persons of the first note and eminence, particularly by +numbers of the clergy, not only of the younger sort, but several also of +long standing and established character.'[1214] On Friday evenings it +was in fact described as being 'not so much a concourse of people, but a +convocation of divines.'[1215] The suburbs, too, of London had their +Lecturers, supported by voluntary contributions, 'the amount of which +put to shame the scanty stipends of the curates.'[1216] At the end of +the period the Lecturers kept their place, but in diminished +numbers;[1217] their relative importance being the more dimmed by the +increase in number of the parochial clergy, and by the migration from +the old city churches to new ones in the suburbs and chapels of ease +where no such foundations existed. + +It is almost sad to note in Paterson's 'Pietas Londinensis' the number +of commemorative sermons founded in London parishes under the vain hope +of perpetuating a name for ever. At that time, however, 'all these +lectures were constantly observed on their appointed days.'[1218] +Funeral sermons had for some time been flourishing far too vigorously. +Bossuet and Massillon have left magnificent examples of the noble pulpit +oratory to which such occasions may give rise. But in England, funeral +sermons were too often a reproach to the clergy who could preach them, +and to the public opinion which encouraged them. Just in the same way as +a book could scarcely be published without a dedication which, it might +be thought, would bring only ridicule upon the personage extravagantly +belauded in it, so it was with these funeral sermons. A good man like +Kettlewell might well be 'scandalised with such fulsome panegyrics; it +grieved him to the soul to see flattery taken sanctuary in the +pulpit.'[1219] They had become an odious system, an ordinary funeral +luxury, often handsomely paid for, which even the poor were ambitious to +purchase. + +At the beginning of the eighteenth century baptisms during time of +public service were decidedly unfrequent. There had been at one time +such great and widely-spread scruples at the sign of the cross and the +use of sponsors, that many people had preferred, where they found it +possible, to get their children baptized at home, that these adjuncts of +the rite might be dispensed with. During the Commonwealth, so long as +the public ceremonial of the Church of England was prohibited, private +baptism had become a custom even among those churchmen who were most +attached to the Anglican ritual. Such, thought Sherlock, were the +principal causes of a neglect which seems to have become in his time +almost universal.[1220] Often the form for public baptism was used on +such occasions. But this irregularity was not the worst. There can be no +doubt that these 'home christenings' had got to be very commonly looked +upon as little more than an idle ceremony, and an occasion for jollity +and tippling. This flagrant abuse could not fail to shock the minds of +earnest men. We find Sherlock,[1221] Bull,[1222] Atterbury,[1223] +Stanhope,[1224] Berriman,[1225] Secker,[1226] and a number of other +Churchmen, using their best endeavours to bring about a more seemly +reverence for the holy ordinance. + +The taking of fees for baptism was a scandal not to be excused on any +ground of prescription. This appears to have been not very unusual, and +to have been done without shame and without rebuke.[1227] Probably it +chiefly grew out of the above-mentioned habit of having this sacrament +celebrated privately in houses. + +Early in the century the sign of the cross in baptism was still looked +upon by many with great suspicion. Even in 1773 Dean Tucker speaks of +it[1228] as one of the two principal charges--the other being that of +kneeling at the Eucharist--made by Dissenters against the established +ritual. Objections to the use of sponsors were not so often heard. They +would have been fewer still if there had been many Robert Nelsons. His +letters to his godson, a young man just setting out to a merchant's +office in Smyrna,[1229] are models of sound advice given by a wise, +Christian-hearted man of the world. Wesley thought the office a good and +expedient one; but regretted, as many other Churchmen before and since +have done, the form in which some of the questions are put.[1230] + +In the latter part of the seventeenth and through the earlier years of +the eighteenth century, we find earnest Churchmen of all opinions sorely +lamenting the comparative disuse of the old custom of catechizing on +Sunday afternoons. Five successive archbishops of Canterbury--Sheldon, +Sancroft, Tillotson, Tenison, and Wake--however widely their opinions +might differ on some points relating to the edification of the Church, +were cordially agreed in this.[1231] Sherlock, Kettlewell, Bull, +Beveridge, Sharp, Fleetwood may be mentioned as others who, both by +precept and example, insisted upon its importance. After Bishop +Frampton's inability to take the oaths had caused his deprivation, the +one public ministerial act in which he delighted to take part was to +gather the children about him during the afternoon service, and +catechize them, and expound to them the sermon they had heard.[1232] It +seemed to them all that no preaching could take the place of catechizing +as a means of bringing home to the young and scantily educated the +doctrines of the Christian faith and the practical duties of religion, +and that it was also eminently adapted to create an intelligent +attachment to the Church in which they had been brought up. Such +arguments had, of course, all the greater weight at a time when +elementary schools were as yet so far from general, and the art of +reading was still, comparatively speaking, the accomplishment of a few. + +A vigorous but not very effectual attempt was made by many bishops and +clergymen to enforce the canon which required servants and apprentices, +as well as children, to attend the catechizing. Bull, for example, and +Fleetwood, not only urged it as a duty, but charged the churchwardens of +their dioceses to present for ecclesiastical rebuke or penalty all who +refused to comply.[1233] In the Isle of Man the commanding personal +influence of Bishop Wilson succeeded in carrying the system out. But +elsewhere pastoral monitions and ecclesiastical menaces were generally +unavailing to overcome the repugnance which people who were no longer +children felt to the idea of submitting themselves to public +questioning.[1234] Bishop Bull, at Brecknock, practically confessed the +futility of the effort by giving a dole of twelve-pence a week to old +people of that town on condition of their submitting to the ordeal. + +Richard Baxter, in the seventeenth century, had said of confirmation +that, so far from scrupling the true use of it, there was scarce any +outward thing in the Church he valued more highly. But he liked not, he +added, the English way. Dioceses were so vast that a bishop could not +perform this and other offices for a hundredth part of his flock. Not +one in a hundred was confirmed at all; and often the sacred rite wore +the appearance of 'a running ceremony' and 'a game for boys.'[1235] Half +a century later, in 1747, we find exactly the same reproach in Whiston's +'Memoirs.' 'Confirmation,' he said, 'is, I doubt, much oftener omitted +than performed. And it is usually done in the Church of England in such +a hurry and disorder, that it hardly deserves the name of a sacred +ordinance of Christianity.'[1236] Fifty years again after this a +clergyman, speaking of the great use of confirmation fitly prepared for +and duly solemnised, describes it as being very constantly nothing +better than 'a holiday ramble.'[1237] If, as Secker in one of his +Charges said, the esteem of it was generally preserved in England,[1238] +it certainly retained that respect in spite of circumstances which must +inevitably have tended to bring it into disregard and contempt. But +there was generally one preservative at least to keep the rite from +degenerating into a mere unedifying ceremony. There was no period in the +last century when the office and person of a bishop was not looked upon +with a good deal of reverence among the people generally; nor is there +any part of a bishop's office in which he speaks with so much weight of +fatherly authority as when he confirms the young. And, besides, it would +be very erroneous to suppose that there were not many bishops and many +clergymen who did their utmost to make the rite an impressive reality. + +That abominable system of clandestine marriages which reached its acme +in the neighbourhood of the Debtors' Prison in the Fleet, has been made +mention of by many writers.[1239] Apart from these glaring scandals +there had been up to that date much irregularity in marriages. Banns +were an established ordinance; but notwithstanding the remonstrances of +some of the clergy, who urged, like Parson Adams, that the Church had +prescribed a form with which all Christians ought to comply,[1240] they +were, as Walpole says, 'totally in disuse, except among the inferior +people.'[1241] Licences were obtained too easily,[1242] and not +sufficiently insisted upon, and evening marriages were by no means +unknown.[1243] After 1753 these abuses ceased. But most readers will +remember that until a very recent date Church feeling had not restored +to their proper honour the publication of banns. They were thought +somewhat plebeian; and the high-fashionable and aristocratic method was +to celebrate a marriage by special licence in a drawing-room, and with +curtailed service.[1244] + +The costly but ugly and unmeaning appurtenances which a simpler taste +will soon, it is to be hoped, banish from our funerals, were customary +long before the eighteenth century began. In George III.'s reign a +prodigal expenditure on such occasions began to be thought less +essential. Before that time the relatives of the deceased were generally +anxious that the obsequies should be as pompous as their means would +possibly allow. It was still much as it had been in the days of Charles +II., when 'it was ordinarily remarked that it cost a private gentleman +of small estate more to bury his wife than to endow his daughter for +marriage to a rich man.'[1245] The bodies of 'persons of condition,' +and of wealthy merchants or tradesmen, were often laid out in state in +rooms draped with black, illuminated with wax candles, and thrown open +to neighbours and other visitors.[1246] Sometimes, as at Pepys' funeral, +an immense number of gold memorial rings were lavished even among +comparatively slight acquaintances.[1247] + +Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century Church discipline was in +some respects a much greater reality than it is in our own day. No doubt +in its later years the difference lay more in possibilities than in +actual fact; so that the alterations in the law of excommunication made +by the Act of 1813, exceedingly important as they were to persons who +had come under censure of the ecclesiastical courts, had no very visible +or direct bearing upon the English Church in general. Excommunication +had been for some time becoming more than ever an unfamiliar word, +limited almost entirely to the use of law courts. When, therefore, +various obsolete practices relating to it were swept away and its +consequences rendered less formidable, it is probable that few but +lawyers were cognisant of any change. But in the first half of the last +century, amid a number of complaints that notorious vice so continually +escaped the formal censure of the Church, it is also evident that +presentments and excommunications were far from uncommon, and that even +open penance was not an excessive rarity. Episcopal instructions on the +subject are frequent. Thus Archbishop Sharp requests his clergy to be +very careful of anything like persecution; but where they cannot reform +habitual delinquents, such as drunkards, profane persons, neglecters of +God's worship, &c., by softer means, to take measures that they be +presented. He would then do all he could before proceeding to +excommunication. When that sentence had been actually denounced he +allowed the clergyman to absolve the offender in sickness, when +penitent, without the formal absolution under the Court Seal. +Commutation for penances he did not approve of, but would sometimes +allow them on the advice of the minister of the parish; the commutation +to be entirely applied to Church uses and as notoriously as the offence +had been. The public good was to be the rule.[1248] Secker's +instructions to the clergy of Oxford in 1753 are still more full, though +he prefaces them by the acknowledgment that he is 'perfectly sensible +that both immorality and religion are grown almost beyond the reach of +ecclesiastical power, which, having been in former times unwarrantably +extended, hath been very unjustly cramped and weakened many ways.'[1249] +Five years later, in his first Canterbury Charge, Secker speaks much +less confidently on this subject. Wickedness, he said, of almost every +kind, had made dreadful progress, but ecclesiastical authority was 'not +only too much hindered, but too much despised to do almost anything to +any purpose. In the small degree that it could be exerted usefully he +trusted it would be.'[1250] He expressed himself to the same effect and +still more regretfully in his last written production, his 'Concio coram +synodo' in 1761.'[1251] + +Fleetwood reminded the clergy and churchwardens that they were to +present not only for flagitious conduct, but also for non-attendance at +worship, for neglecting to send children or servants to be catechized, +for not paying Church rates, and for public teaching without +licence.[1252] + +While a system of Church discipline carried out by presentments and +excommunications was still, more or less effectually, in force, +commutation of penance was very properly a matter for grave and careful +consideration. It was obvious that laxity on such a point might fairly +lay the Church open to a reproach, which Dissenters did not fail to +make, of 'indulgences for sale.'[1253] One of William III.'s injunctions +of 1695 was that 'no commutation of penance be made but by the express +order of the bishop, and that the commutation be applied only to pious +and charitable uses.'[1254] Early in Queen Anne's reign, in consequence +of abuses which existed, the subject was debated in Convocation, and +some stringent resolutions passed, by which it was hoped that +commutations, where allowed, might be rendered perfectly +unexceptionable.[1255] Some lay chancellors, on the other hand, wished +to do away with penance altogether, and to substitute a regular system +of fines payable to the public purse.[1256] + +The poet Wordsworth has said that one of his earliest remembrances was +the going to church one week-day to see a woman doing penance in a white +sheet, and the disappointment of not getting a penny, which he had been +told was given to all lookers-on.[1257] This must have been a very rare +event at that date--about 1777.[1258] Early in the century this sort of +ecclesiastical pillory was somewhat more common. But it was evidently +quite unfrequent even then. Pope's parish clerk is made to speak of it +as distinctly an event. This, which was called 'solemn penance,' as +contrasted with that lesser form which might consist only of confession +and satisfaction, was an ordeal which sounds like a strange anachronism +in times so near our own. Bishop Hildesley thus describes it in the Isle +of Man, where it was enforced upon certain delinquents far more +generally than elsewhere. 'The manner of doing penance is primitive and +edifying. The penitent, clothed in a white sheet, &c., is brought into +the church immediately before the Litany, and there continues till the +sermon is ended; after which, and a proper exhortation, the congregation +are desired to pray for him in a form prescribed for the purpose.' This +having been done, so soon as it could be certified to the bishop that +his repentance was believed to be sincere, he might be received back +again, 'by a very solemn form,' into the peace of the Church.[1259] In +England generally the ceremony was in all respects the same,[1260] +except that no regular form existed for the readmission of penitents. +Jones of Alconbury, in the 'Free and Candid Disquisitions' (1749), spoke +of the need of a recognised office for this purpose. That which was +commonly used had no authority, and was very imperfect. A form also for +excommunication was also, he thought, a definite want of the English +Church. For want of some such solemnity, excommunication was very +deficient in impressiveness, not at all understood by the people in +general, and less dreaded than should be, as signifying for the most +part nothing more than the loss of a little money.[1261] + +The strongly marked division of opinion which had prevailed during the +reign of Elizabeth and Charles I. as to the mode of observing Sunday no +longer existed. Formerly, Anglicans and Puritans had taken for the most +part thoroughly opposite views, and the question had been controverted +with much vehemence, and often with much bitterness. Happily for +England, the Puritan view, in all its broader and more general features, +had won peaceful possession of the ground. The harsher and more rigid +observances with which many sectarians had overburdened the holy day, +were kept up by some of the denominations, but could not be maintained +in the National Church. In fact, their concession was the price of +conquest. Anglican divines, and the great and influential body of laymen +who were in accord with them, would never have acquiesced in +prescriptions and prohibitions which were tenable, if tenable at all, +only upon the assumption of a Sabbatarianism which they did not pretend +to hold. But the Puritan Sunday, in all its principal characteristics, +remained firmly established, and was as warmly supported by High +Churchmen as by any who belonged to an opposite party. It has been aptly +observed that several of Robert Nelson's remarks upon the proper +observance of Sunday would have been derided, eighty or a hundred years +previously, as Puritanical cant by men whose legitimate successors most +warmly applauded what he wrote.[1262] No one whose opinion had any +authority, desired, after Charles II.'s time, to revive the 'Book of +Sports,' or regretted the abolition of Sunday wakes. Amid all the laxity +of the Restoration period--amid the partial triumph of Laudean ideas +which marked the reign of Queen Anne--amid the indifference and +sluggishness in religious matters which soon afterwards set +in--reverence for the sanctity of the Lord's Day, and a fixed purpose +that its general character of sedate quietness should not be broken +into, grew, though it was but gradually, among almost all classes, into +a tradition which was respected even by those who had very little care +for other ordinances of religion. + +Such, undoubtedly, was the predominant feeling of the eighteenth +century; and it is difficult to overestimate its value in the support it +gave to religion in times when such aid was more than ordinarily needed. + +There are many aspects of Church life in relation to the social history +of the period which the authors of these chapters are well aware they +have either omitted entirely, or have very insufficiently touched upon. +It is not that they have undervalued their interest as compared with +matters which have been more fully discussed, but simply that the plan +of their work almost precluded the attempt at anything like complete +treatment of the whole of a subject which may be viewed from many sides. + +C.J.A. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 838: Review of Milner's _Church Arch_, in _Q. Rev._ vol. vi. +63.] + +[Footnote 839: Warburton and Hurd's _Correspondence_, 3.] + +[Footnote 840: James Fergusson's _History of the Modern Styles of +Architecture_, 246.] + +[Footnote 841: Id. 246.] + +[Footnote 842: Id. 255.] + +[Footnote 843: M.E.C. Walcot, _Traditions, &c., of Cathedrals_, 47.] + +[Footnote 844: Quoted in _Q. Rev._ vol. vi. 62.] + +[Footnote 845: Id. vol. lxix. iii.] + +[Footnote 846: _Parentalia_, p. 305. _Q. Rev._ vol. ii. 133.] + +[Footnote 847: _Il Penseroso._] + +[Footnote 848: _Persian Letters_, No. xxvi.] + +[Footnote 849: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, 1714, 236.] + +[Footnote 850: Cawthorne's Poems.--Anderson's _English Poets_, x. 425.] + +[Footnote 851: Seward's _Anecdotes_, 1798, ii. 312.] + +[Footnote 852: J. Fergusson's _Mod. Archit._ 282.] + +[Footnote 853: Its advocates were very desirous, about this time, of +substituting the term 'English' for 'Gothic.'--Sayers, ii. 440. _Q. +Rev._ ii. 133, iv. 476.] + +[Footnote 854: Sayers' 'Architect. Antiquities.'--_Life and Works_, ii. +476.] + +[Footnote 855: _Gentleman's Mag._ 1799, 858.] + +[Footnote 856: _Gentleman's Mag._ 1799, 667-70, 733-6, 858-61.] + +[Footnote 857: A.P. Stanley's _Hist. Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, +540-2.] + +[Footnote 858: M.E.C. Walcot, _Traditions & Customs of Cathedrals_, +47-55.] + +[Footnote 859: _Gentleman's Mag._ 1799, 669.] + +[Footnote 860: Id.] + +[Footnote 861: Walcot, 52.] + +[Footnote 862: Id. 51.] + +[Footnote 863: _London Parishes_, &c., 146.] + +[Footnote 864: H. Walpole's _Letters_, i. 360.] + +[Footnote 865: Defoe's _Tour through the whole Island_, i. 85.] + +[Footnote 866: Many of them, however, could not yet have recovered from +the treatment they had endured in the time of the Commonwealth. Though +the Parliamentary committee appointed to decide the question had happily +decided against the demolition of cathedrals, they were allowed to fall +into a miserable state of dilapidation and decay.] + +[Footnote 867: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 151-4.] + +[Footnote 868: In his _Charge to the Clergy of St. Asaph_, 1710.] + +[Footnote 869: Bishop Butler's _Primary Charge_, 1751.] + +[Footnote 870: Horne's 'Thoughts on Various Subjects'--_Works_, i. 286.] + +[Footnote 871: J. Hervey, 'Medit. among the Tombs'--_Works_, i. 1.] + +[Footnote 872: W. Longman's _History of St. Paul's_, chap. 4. See +especially the account quoted there from Earle's _Microcosmography_, +1628.] + +[Footnote 873: Quoted in Id.] + +[Footnote 874: _Hen. IV._ part ii. act i. sc. 2.] + +[Footnote 875: Pilkington, quoted in Walcot's _Cathedrals_, 82.] + +[Footnote 876: 'Heraclitus Ridens,' quoted in J. Malcolm's _Manners, &c. +of London_, i. 233.] + +[Footnote 877: Walcot, 81.] + +[Footnote 878: A.P. Stanley's _Hist. Memorials of Westminster_, 535.] + +[Footnote 879: Pepys' _Diary_, vol. v. 113, 114.] + +[Footnote 880: Lord Braybrook's note to _Pepys_, v. 114.] + +[Footnote 881: Burns' _Eccles. Law_, i. p. 328. High Churchmen, however, +sometimes had their jest at the special love of the opposite party for +'their own Protestant Pews.'--T. Lewis's _Scourge_, Apr. 8, 1717, No. +10.] + +[Footnote 882: Anderson's _British Poets_, ix. 82.] + +[Footnote 883: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 884: Prior's _Poems_, 'Epitaph on Jack and Joan'--_British +Poets_, vii. 448.] + +[Footnote 885: 'Baucis and Philemon'--_B. Poets_, ix. 13.] + +[Footnote 886: Fielding's _Jos. Andrews_, book iv. chap. i.] + +[Footnote 887: A.J.B. Beresford Hope, _Worship in the Church of +England_, 1874, 17.] + +[Footnote 888: Such an instance was once mentioned to the writer by +Bishop Eden, the late Primus of the Episcopal Church in Scotland.] + +[Footnote 889: Walpole's _Letters_, ii. 35, quoted by Walcot, 56.] + +[Footnote 890: Walcot, 53.] + +[Footnote 891: _Considerations on the present State of Religion_, 1801, +p. 47.--Polwhele's Introduction to _Lavington_, Sec. ccxx. &c.] + +[Footnote 892: _Considerations_, &c. 53. _Q. Rev._ vol. x. 54.] + +[Footnote 893: _A.L. Barbauld's Works_, by Lucy Aikin, ii. p. 459.] + +[Footnote 894: 'Hints on English Architecture'--Dr. F. Savers' _Life and +Works,_ ii. 203. So also Bishop Watson, in 1800, complained that not +only were there many too few churches in London, but 'the inconvenience +is much augmented by the pews which have been erected therein. He would +have new churches built with no appropriated seats, simply +benches'--_Anecdotes of Bishop Watson's Life_, ii. 111.] + +[Footnote 895: Fielding's _Joseph Andrews_, chap. 13.] + +[Footnote 896: Robert Blair's _The Grace_, lines 36-7.] + +[Footnote 897: Quoted, with some humour, by Bishop Newton, in defending +Sir Joshua Reynolds' proposals for paintings in St. Paul's.--_Works_, i. +142.] + +[Footnote 898: Christoph. Smart's _Poems_, 'The Hop Garden,' book ii.] + +[Footnote 899: Fleetwood's 'Charge of 1710'--_Works_, 479.] + +[Footnote 900: Secker's 'Charge of 1758'--_Eight Charges_, 191.] + +[Footnote 901: John Byrom's _Poems_--Chalmer's _B. Poets_, xv. 214.] + +[Footnote 902: Beresford Hope, _Worship in the Church of E._ 19.] + +[Footnote 903: _Tatler_, No. 264.] + +[Footnote 904: _Parochial Antiquities_--Jeaffreson, ii. 16 (note).] + +[Footnote 905: Gay's _Poems_, 'The Dirge'--Anderson's _B. Poets_, viii. +151.] + +[Footnote 906: Burns' _Eccles. Law_, i. 370.] + +[Footnote 907: A few still remain, as at Rycote, in Oxfordshire.] + +[Footnote 908: 'Smoothing the dog's ears of the great bible ... in the +black letter in which our bibles are printed.'--'Memoirs of a Parish +Clerk,' Pope's _Works_, vii. 225.] + +[Footnote 909: Walcot, 115.] + +[Footnote 910: _Gentleman's Mag._ vol. lxix. 667.] + +[Footnote 911: Beresford Hope, _Worship_, &c., 68, 129.] + +[Footnote 912: Secker's _Fourth Charge_ (1750), 154, and _Fifth Charge_ +(1753), 180.] + +[Footnote 913: _Pietas Londinensis_, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 914: W. Longman's _Hist. of St. Paul's_, p. 145.] + +[Footnote 915: Ralph Thoresby's _Correspondence_, ii. 384.] + +[Footnote 916: Alex. Gilchrist's _Life of Blake_, i. 41.] + +[Footnote 917: Quoted, with a similar passage from _Story's Journal_, by +Walcot, 104.] + +[Footnote 918: Ralph Thoresby's _Diary_, i. 60.] + +[Footnote 919: Report of Conference of 1641, upon 'Innovations in +Discipline,' quoted in Hunt's _Religious Thought in England_, i. 196.] + +[Footnote 920: Quoted in Beresford Hope, _Worship_, &c., p. 232.] + +[Footnote 921: Quoted by Hunt, iii. 48, note.] + +[Footnote 922: Thoresby's _Diary_, i. 60.] + +[Footnote 923: E. Nelson's _Life of Bishop Bull_, 52.] + +[Footnote 924: Quoted in a review of Surtees' 'Hist. Durham,' _Q. Rev._ +39, 404. The charge was so persistently repeated that Archbishop Secker +thought it just to his friend's memory to publish a formal defence. He +regretted, however, that the cross had been erected. It was a cross of +white marble let into a black slab, and surrounded by cedar work, in the +wall over the Communion Table.--T. Bartlett's _Memoirs of Bishop +Butler_, 91, 155.] + +[Footnote 925: _Guardian_, No. 21, April 4, 1713.] + +[Footnote 926: There were, however, some who put up pictures about the +altar, and defended their use as 'the books of the vulgar.'--_Life of +Bishop Kennet_, in an. 1716, 125.] + +[Footnote 927: Lathbury's _History of the Nonjurors_, 256.] + +[Footnote 928: _Diary of Mary Countess Cowper_ (1714-20), pub. 1864, 92; +and _Life of Bishop White Kennet_, 1730, 141-2.] + +[Footnote 929: A very different anecdote may be told of an altar-piece +in St. John's College, Cambridge. 'At Chapel,' wrote Henry Martyn, in +1800, 'my soul ascended to God: and the sight of the picture at the +altar, of St. John preaching in the wilderness, animated me exceedingly +to devotedness to the life of a missionary.'--_Journal_, &c., ed. by S. +Wilberforce, quoted in Bartlett's _Memoirs of Bishop Butler_, 92.] + +[Footnote 930: Longman's _Hist. of St. Paul's_, 141.] + +[Footnote 931: 'Essay upon Painting.'--Anderson's _B. Poets_, ix. 824.] + +[Footnote 932: _Memoirs of Sir J. Reynolds_, by H.W. Beechy, 224.] + +[Footnote 933: Bishop Newton's _Life and Works_, 1787, i. 142-4.] + +[Footnote 934: _Memoir_, &c., i. 225.] + +[Footnote 935: Alex. Gilchrist's _Life of W. Blake_, i. 96.] + +[Footnote 936: Milman's _Annals of St. Paul_, quoted by Longman, _Hist. +of St. P._ 153.] + +[Footnote 937: Jas. Dallaway on _Architecture_, &c., 443-5.] + +[Footnote 938: Beresford Hope, _Worship_, &c. 19.] + +[Footnote 939: 'When they startle at a dumb picture in a window.'--T. +Lewis, in _The Scourge_, Apr. 9, 1717, No. 9.] + +[Footnote 940: Various illustrations of this may be found in Paterson's +_Pietas Londinensis_.] + +[Footnote 941: A new one was substituted for it in 1864.] + +[Footnote 942: C. Winslow, _Hints on Glass Colouring_, i. 206.] + +[Footnote 943: Id. 207.] + +[Footnote 944: J. Dallaway, _Architecture_, &c., 446.] + +[Footnote 945: Winslow, _Hints_, &c., 207.] + +[Footnote 946: Dallaway, 446.] + +[Footnote 947: C. Winslow, _Memoirs Illustrative of the Art of Glass +Painting_, 153.] + +[Footnote 948: C. Winslow, _Hints_, i. 216.] + +[Footnote 949: C. Winslow, _Memoirs_, &c., 153.] + +[Footnote 950: + + 'Shapes that with one broad glare the gazer strike, + Kings, bishops, nuns, apostles, all alike.'--_T. Warton_.] + +[Footnote 951: Beechy's _Memoirs of Sir Josh. Reynolds_, 239.] + +[Footnote 952: C. Winslow, _Hints_, &c., i. 211.] + +[Footnote 953: Hartley Coleridge, _Marginalia_, 253.] + +[Footnote 954: C. Winslow, _Memoirs_, &c., 176.] + +[Footnote 955: Dallaway's _Architecture_, &c., 454.] + +[Footnote 956: _Q. Rev._ vol. xcv. 317, 'Review of Gatty and Ellacombe +on Bells.' The two next sentences are based on the same authority.] + +[Footnote 957: Hearne's _Reliquiae_, May 22, 1733, Jan. 2, 1731, May 2, +1734, &c.] + +[Footnote 958: _Q. Rev._ vol. xxxix. 308.] + +[Footnote 959: _Q. Rev._ vol. xcv. 328.] + +[Footnote 960: Oliver Goldsmith's 'Life of K. Nash, _Works_, iii. 374.] + +[Footnote 961: Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 221.] + +[Footnote 962: T. Pennant's _Holywell_, &c., 99.] + +[Footnote 963: T. Webb's _Collect. of Epitaphs_, 1775, i. pref.] + +[Footnote 964: Secker's _Eight Charges_ 182. Charge of 1753.] + +[Footnote 965: + + 'Lest her new grave the parson's cattle raze. + For both his cow and horse the churchyard graze.' + + Gay's _Shepherd's Week_.] + +[Footnote 966: _Q. Rev._ vol. xc. 294.] + +[Footnote 967: T. Webb's _Collection of Epitaphs_, 1775, ii. 28.] + +[Footnote 968: Elegy written in a churchyard in S. Wales, 1787, W. +Mason's _Works_, 1811, i. 113.] + +[Footnote 969: Quoted in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 299.] + +[Footnote 970: _Spectator_, No. 388, May 20, 1712.] + +[Footnote 971: 'Project, &c.' 1709--Swift's _Works_, viii. 105, with Sir +W. Scott's note.] + +[Footnote 972: Calamy's _Own Life_, ii. 289.] + +[Footnote 973: _Annals of England_, iii. 202.] + +[Footnote 974: Secker's _Fifth Charge_, 1753. Butler's _Durham Charge_, +1751.] + +[Footnote 975: _Considerations on the Present State of Religion_, 1801, +chap. v.] + +[Footnote 976: _Q. Rev._ vol. x. 57.] + +[Footnote 977: K. Polwhele's Introduction to _Harrington_, cclxxxi.] + +[Footnote 978: Beveridge's _Necessity and Advantages of Public Prayer_, +34.] + +[Footnote 979: Lathbury's _Hist. of the Nonjurors_, 77.] + +[Footnote 980: Baxter's _English Nonconformity_, chap. 41. Quoted in +Bingham's 'Origines Ecclesiasticae:'--_Works_ ix. 128.] + +[Footnote 981: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, 305.] + +[Footnote 982: _Guardian_, No. 65, May 26, 1713.] + +[Footnote 983: R. Nelson, _Practice of True Devotion_, chap. i. +Sec. 3.] + +[Footnote 984: Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, 1715, 542.] + +[Footnote 985: Nelson's _Life of Bishop Bull_, 375-6.] + +[Footnote 986: _Archbishop Sharp's Life_, by his Son, i. 201.] + +[Footnote 987: Whiston's _Memoirs_, 1749, 124.] + +[Footnote 988: Thoresby's _Diary_, Aug. 8, 1702, i. 375.] + +[Footnote 989: Goldsmith's 'Life of Nash'--_Works_, iii. 277-8. De Foe's +_Tour through Great Britain_, 1738, i. 193, ii. 242.] + +[Footnote 990: Lloyd's _Poems_, 'A Tale,' c. 1757, Cowper's _Poems_, +'Truth.'] + +[Footnote 991: B. Hope, _Worship, &c., in the Ch. of E._, 20.] + +[Footnote 992: _Pietas Londinensis_, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 993: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 77.] + +[Footnote 994: Whiston mentions this with approval in his _Memoirs_, +1769, x. 138. It is mentioned of Archbishop Sharp that he always kept +Wednesday and Friday as days of humiliation, and Friday as a +fast.--_Life_, ii. 81. Hearne and Grabe were very much scandalised at +Dr. Hough making Friday his day for entertaining strangers.--Hearne's +_Reliquiae_, ii. 30. The boys at Appleby School, about 1730, always, as +is incidentally mentioned, went to morning prayers in the Church on +Wednesdays and Fridays ('Memoir of R. Yates,' appended to G.W. Meadley's +_Memoirs of Paley_, 123).] + +[Footnote 995: R.A. Willmott, _Lives of Sacred Poets_, 1838, ii. x. +173.] + +[Footnote 996: Gilbert Wakefield's _Memoirs_, 1792, x. 137.] + +[Footnote 997: James Hervey's _Works_, 1805. _Letter_ cxiv. Oct. 28, +1753--_Works_, vol. vi.] + +[Footnote 998: _London Parishes_, &c.] + +[Footnote 999: A. Andrews' _The Eighteenth Century_, 63.] + +[Footnote 1000: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_.] + +[Footnote 1001: Johnson's _Clergyman's Vade-Mecum_, 1709, i. 179.] + +[Footnote 1002: _Life of Kettlewell_, 1719, 24.] + +[Footnote 1003: Burnet's _Four Discourses to the Clergy of Sarum_, 1694, +338.] + +[Footnote 1004: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, Introd.] + +[Footnote 1005: Fleetwood's _Works_, 716.] + +[Footnote 1006: Johnson's _Vade-Mecum_, i. 189] + +[Footnote 1007: E.g. Malcolm's _London_, &c., i. 18.] + +[Footnote 1008: Walcot's _Cathedrals_, &c. (of Rochester), 102.] + +[Footnote 1009: Doran's Note to _Horace Walpole's Journal_, i. 89.] + +[Footnote 1010: Bramston, quoted in id.] + +[Footnote 1011: C. Cruttwell's _Life of Bishop Wilson_, 370.] + +[Footnote 1012: _Life of Kettlewell_, 24. Paterson's _Pietas +Londinensis_, Introduction. H.B. Wilson's _Hist. of Merchant Taylors_, +1075. Chr. Wordsworth's _Memoirs of W. Wordsworth_, 8.] + +[Footnote 1013: _The Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 1801, 15.] + +[Footnote 1014: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 49.] + +[Footnote 1015: Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, ii. 191.] + +[Footnote 1016: Beresford Hope, _Worship_, &c., 22.] + +[Footnote 1017: J.B. Pearson, in _Oxford Essays_, 1858, 165.] + +[Footnote 1018: Horsley's _Charges_, 114.] + +[Footnote 1019: Brand's _Popular Antiq._ 1777, i. 491.] + +[Footnote 1020: _Spectator_, No. 282.] + +[Footnote 1021: Gay's _Trivia_, ii. 438.] + +[Footnote 1022: Walcot's _Cathedrals_, &c., 137.] + +[Footnote 1023: Gay's _Trivia_, ii. 442.] + +[Footnote 1024: Stukeley's _Hist. of Carausius_, ii. 164. Quoted by +Walcot, 137.] + +[Footnote 1025: Paterson's _Pietas Lond._] + +[Footnote 1026: As at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, &c., id. 80.] + +[Footnote 1027: See p. 68.] + +[Footnote 1028: _Piet. Lond._ 272.] + +[Footnote 1029: Walcot's _Cathedrals_, &c., 137.] + +[Footnote 1030: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, 157.] + +[Footnote 1031: Id.] + +[Footnote 1032: _Spectator_, No. 161, Sept. 4, 1711.] + +[Footnote 1033: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 312.] + +[Footnote 1034: Macaulay's _History of Claybrook_, 1791, 93, quoted by +Brand, ii. 12.] + +[Footnote 1035: Wither's _Emblems_, 1635, quoted by Brand.] + +[Footnote 1036: J. Walton's _Life of Hooker_.--Hooker's _Works_, 1850, +i. 63.] + +[Footnote 1037: Secker's _Charges_, 143.] + +[Footnote 1038: Wilson's _Hist. of St. Lawrence Pountney_, 114.] + +[Footnote 1039: Secker's _Charges_, 143.] + +[Footnote 1040: J. Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, i. 199.] + +[Footnote 1041: De Foe's _Works_, Chalmers, vol. xx. 8, note.] + +[Footnote 1042: _A Collection of Parl. Protests_, 1737, 164.] + +[Footnote 1043: _Life of Ken_, by a Layman, ii. 653.] + +[Footnote 1044: Whiston's _Memoirs_, 1749, 132.] + +[Footnote 1045: Id. and 406.] + +[Footnote 1046: G. Wakefield's _Memoirs_, 1792, 182.] + +[Footnote 1047: Malcolm's _Manners and Customs of London_, ii. 16-19.] + +[Footnote 1048: Id. 23.] + +[Footnote 1049: Brand's _Pop. Antiq._ i. 406-8.] + +[Footnote 1050: Paterson's _Pietas Lond._ 23, 154, 164.] + +[Footnote 1051: Burn's _Eccl. Law_, iii. 235.] + +[Footnote 1052: H.J. Stephen's _Commentaries on the Laws_, 1858, iii. +54.] + +[Footnote 1053: Dean Prideaux' _Life and Letters_, 1747, 95, and R. +South's _Sermons_, 1823, iv. 186.] + +[Footnote 1054: Prideaux, as above.] + +[Footnote 1055: Burnet, quoted in J. Hunt's _Hist. of Rel. Thought in +E._ iii. 223.] + +[Footnote 1056: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 6.] + +[Footnote 1057: B. Hope, _Worship in the Ch. of E._, 10. Secker makes +the same remark, _Eight Charges_, 295.] + +[Footnote 1058: Bishop Newton's _Life and Works_, i. 115.] + +[Footnote 1059: J. Newton's _Memoirs_, 54.] + +[Footnote 1060: _The Church of England Vindicated_, 1801, 40.] + +[Footnote 1061: _Considerations on the Present State of Religion_, 1801, +21, 29.] + +[Footnote 1062: H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 573.] + +[Footnote 1063: H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 656.] + +[Footnote 1064: Id. 458.] + +[Footnote 1065: R. Thoresby's _Diary_ (of 1684), i. 178.] + +[Footnote 1066: _Spectator_, No. 20.] + +[Footnote 1067: _Spectator_, No. 50.] + +[Footnote 1068: Id. No. 259.] + +[Footnote 1069: The scandalous interruptions during service which C. +Simeon met with (1792-5) were, of course, of a different +nature.--_Simeon's Memoirs_, 86-92.] + +[Footnote 1070: R. Polwhele's Introduction to _Lavington_, ccxliv.] + +[Footnote 1071: Tindal, vol. i. and _Somers Tracts_, x. 349, quoted in +W. Palin's _Hist. of the Ch. of E. from_ 1688 _to_ 1717, 218.] + +[Footnote 1072: Quoted in id. 228.] + +[Footnote 1073: _Gibson Papers_, v. 9. Quoted in J. Stoughton's _Church +of the Revolution_, 324.] + +[Footnote 1074: Hooper's MS., quoted by Palin, 220.] + +[Footnote 1075: Cripps's _Laws of the Church_, 675.] + +[Footnote 1076: R. Burn's _Eccles. Law_, iii. 273.] + +[Footnote 1077: Johnson's _Vade Mecum_, i. 281.] + +[Footnote 1078: _Worship in the Church of England_, 9.] + +[Footnote 1079: J. Johnson's _Vade Mecum_, i. 21.] + +[Footnote 1080: _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, by his Son, i. 355.] + +[Footnote 1081: B. Hope, _Worship_, &c., 109, 1211.] + +[Footnote 1082: Gibson's _Codex Jur. Eccl._ 303, 472. This opinion is +referred to with approval in _An Account of London Parishes_, &c.] + +[Footnote 1083: Blomefield's _Hist. of Norwich_, quoted in id. 140.] + +[Footnote 1084: A.P. Stanley's _Memoirs of Westminster Abbey_, 192.] + +[Footnote 1085: Defoe's _Tour_, 1727, iii. 189, also Thoresby's _Diary_, +i. 60.] + +[Footnote 1086: B. Hope, _Worship_, &c., 138.] + +[Footnote 1087: _Gent. Mag._ for 1804, quoted in id.] + +[Footnote 1088: _The Scourge_, by T. Lewis, Feb. 11, 1717.] + +[Footnote 1089: Sherlock, _On Public Worship_, 114.] + +[Footnote 1090: _The Scourge_, May 16, 1717.] + +[Footnote 1091: Quoted in Stoughton's _Church of the Revolution_, 323.] + +[Footnote 1092: E. Thoresby's _Diary_, ii. 341.] + +[Footnote 1093: _Tatler_, No. 129.] + +[Footnote 1094: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 182.] + +[Footnote 1095: R. South's _Sermons_, iv. 191, also _Strype Corresp._ +quoted by Stoughton, _Ch. of the Rev._, 323.] + +[Footnote 1096: Mr. Wordsworth, however, mentions a portrait of 1730, +showing the interior of an English church in which the celebrant at the +Eucharist is robed in a black gown.--_Univ. Soc. in the Eighteenth +Cent._, 533.] + +[Footnote 1097: Walcot's _Cathedrals_, &c., 121.] + +[Footnote 1098: Christopher Pitt's _Art of Preaching_, c. 1740. +Anderson's _Br. Poets_, viii. 821.] + +[Footnote 1099: _Spectator_, No. 21.] + +[Footnote 1100: Id. No. 609.] + +[Footnote 1101: Id., and Oldham, in the _Tatler_, No. 255.] + +[Footnote 1102: Swift's 'Project for the Adv. of Rel.'--_Works_, ix. 97. +_Spectator_, No. 608.] + +[Footnote 1103: Hearne's _Reliq._ Feb. 1719-20, quoted in Chr. +Wordsworth, _Univ. Soc. in Eighteenth Century_, 36, 516.] + +[Footnote 1104: Fielding's _Joseph Andrews_, b. i. chap. 16, b. ii. +chaps. 3, 7, &c.] + +[Footnote 1105: Cf. C. Churchill's _Independence_:-- + + 'O'er a brown cassock which had once been black, + Which hung in tatters o'er his brawny back.'] + +[Footnote 1106: _Hardships, &c., of the Inf. Clergy_, in a letter to the +Bishop of London, 1722, 20, 93, 246.] + +[Footnote 1107: _Admonition to the Younger Clergy_, 1764, and +_Philagoretes on the Pulpit_, &c., quoted by Chr. Wordsworth, +_Universities_, &c., 526, 529.] + +[Footnote 1108: J.C. Jeaffreson's _B. of the Clergy_, ii. 253.] + +[Footnote 1109: _Mrs. Abigail, &c., with some Free Thoughts on the +Pretended Dignity of the Clergy_, 1700.] + +[Footnote 1110: Quoted in _Justice and Necessity of Restraining the +Clergy_, &c., 1715, 41] + +[Footnote 1111: Jeaffreson, ii. 231.] + +[Footnote 1112: R. South's _Sermons_, vol. iv. 192.] + +[Footnote 1113: Dean Swift's _Works_, vol. viii. 313.] + +[Footnote 1114: Chap. iii. p. 26 quoted in A. Andrews' _Eighteenth +Century_.] + +[Footnote 1115: _Considerations Addressed to the Clergy_, 1798, 14.] + +[Footnote 1116: _Spectator_, No. 455. Burnet, as a matter of opinion, +thought this more consonant with primitive usage, and, except during +confession, more expressive of the feelings of faith and +confidence.--_Four Discourses_, &c., 1694, 323.] + +[Footnote 1117: _The Scourge_, 1720, No. 3.] + +[Footnote 1118: Cruttwell's _Life of Bishop Wilson_, 12; and Fleetwood's +'Letter to an Inhabitant of St. Andrew's, Holborn,' 1717--_Works_. 1737, +722-3.] + +[Footnote 1119: Id.] + +[Footnote 1120: Towards the end of the century, on the other hand, there +were many churches where kneeling was sufficiently uncommon as almost to +call special attention. Thus Admiral Austen was remarked upon as '_the_ +officer who kneeled at church' (Jane Austen's _Memoirs_, 23); and C. +Simeon writes in his _Diary_, '1780, March 8. Kneeled down before +service; nor do I see any impropriety in it. Why should I be afraid or +ashamed of all the world seeing me do my duty?' (_Memoirs_, 19).] + +[Footnote 1121: _Tatler_, No. 241.] + +[Footnote 1122: J. Hunt, _Relig. Thought in England_, i. 197.] + +[Footnote 1123: Sherlock _On Public Worship_, 1681, ii. ch. 2.] + +[Footnote 1124: Fleetwood's _Works_, 1737, 723.] + +[Footnote 1125: G. Hickes, _Devotions_, &c., second ed., 1701, Pref.] + +[Footnote 1126: Second Charge, 1741, Secker's _Eight Charges_, 1769.] + +[Footnote 1127: T. Bisse, _The Beauty of Holiness_, eighth ed. 1721, 50, +note.] + +[Footnote 1128: J. Watts, 'Miscellaneous Thoughts'--_Works_, ix. 380.] + +[Footnote 1129: _Tatler_, No. 211.] + +[Footnote 1130: _Spectator_, No. 112.] + +[Footnote 1131: Id. No. 54.] + +[Footnote 1132: Bingham's _Works_, ix. 259. Cruttwell, 12. Walcott, 204. +_Somers Tracts_, ix. 507. Watts's _Works_, ix. 380. Wakefield's +_Memoirs_, 156. _The Scourge_, No. 3.] + +[Footnote 1133: Bisse, _Beauty of Holiness_, 145.] + +[Footnote 1134: South's _Works_, iv. 191.] + +[Footnote 1135: Lathbury's _Hist. of the Nonjurors_, 156, 507-8. Parry's +_Hist. of the Ch. of E._, iii, 165.] + +[Footnote 1136: This gave occasion to a special pastoral letter of the +Bishop of London, Dec. 26, 1718.] + +[Footnote 1137: Whiston's _Memoirs_, at date 1720, 249.] + +[Footnote 1138: Thus we find Dr. Parr speaking of 'reviving' its use in +his parish. Johnstone's 'Life of Parr'--_Q. Rev._ 39, 268. Expressions +of dislike to parts of it among Churchmen are very numerous throughout +the century.] + +[Footnote 1139: Barbauld's _Works_, by Aikin, ii. 151. Bishop Watson's +_Life_, i. 395.] + +[Footnote 1140: J. Johnson, _Clergyman's Vade Mecum_, i. 12, and Heylin +(_Hist._ pl. ii. cap. 4) quoted by him.] + +[Footnote 1141: N. Bisse, _Beauty of Holiness_, 123. C. Crutwell's _Life +of Bishop Wilson_, 265 (in the Isle of Man, First and Second Services +are the regular terms used in official ecclesiastical notices). _London +Parishes_, 8.] + +[Footnote 1142: Sherlock _On Public Worship_, 1681, 205, 219.] + +[Footnote 1143: Beveridge _On Frequent Communion_, 155, 173.] + +[Footnote 1144: Fleetwood for example, 'Charge to the Ely Clergy,' +1716--_Works_, 1737, 699.] + +[Footnote 1145: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 63.] + +[Footnote 1146: E.C.M. Walcott's _Customs of Cathedrals_, 101.] + +[Footnote 1147: Quoted in _The Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 1801, +5.] + +[Footnote 1148: _Two Letters Concerning the Methodists_, by the Rev. +Moore Booker, 1751, Pref. iv.] + +[Footnote 1149: Burnet's Funeral Sermon on Tillotson, quoted in +Lathbury's _Nonjurors_, 156.] + +[Footnote 1150: Du Moulin's _Sober and Dispassionate Reply_, &c., 1680, +32.] + +[Footnote 1151: _The Church of England's Complaint against the +Irregularities of some of the Clergy_, 1709, 15.] + +[Footnote 1152: J. Johnstone's _Life of Dr. Parr_, qu. in _Q. Rev._ 39, +268.] + +[Footnote 1153: R. Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 52.] + +[Footnote 1154: Charge of 1741--Secker's _Eight Charges_, 63.] + +[Footnote 1155: C. Leslie's 'Letter about the New Separation'--_Works_, +i. 510. He adds that some clergymen of the Ch. of E. always used +unleavened bread at the Sacrament.] + +[Footnote 1156: L. Tyerman's _Oxford Methodists_, Pref. vi. Other +allusions to an occasional preference for this usage occur in Bishop +Horne's _Works_, App. 203, and _Gent. Mag._ 1750, xx. 75. In some +editions of Bishop Wilson's _Sacra Privata_, there is a prayer for a +blessing on the bread and wine-and-water.] + +[Footnote 1157: Herbert's _Country Parson_ quoted in Brand's _Pop. +Antiquities_, i. 521.] + +[Footnote 1158: Walcott's _Customs of Cathedrals_, 137.] + +[Footnote 1159: _London Parishes_, &c., 20.] + +[Footnote 1160: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_, 52.] + +[Footnote 1161: Id. 104.] + +[Footnote 1162: _Spectator_, No. 372.] + +[Footnote 1163: H.W. Cripps's _Law of the Ch._, &c., 218.] + +[Footnote 1164: Hartley Coleridge, _Essays and Marginalia_, ii. 338.] + +[Footnote 1165: Pope's _Works_, vii. 222-35. Naturally, Jacobite parsons +were robed by Jacobite clerks. 'Who hath not observed several parish +clerks that have ransacked Hopkins and Sternhold for staves in favour of +the race of Jacob.'--Addison, in _The Freeholder_, No. 53.] + +[Footnote 1166: John Wesley (_Works_, x. 445), records an amusing +reminiscence of his boyhood: 'One Sunday, immediately after sermon, my +father's clerk said with an audible voice: "Let us sing to the praise, +&c., an hymn of my own composing: + + King William is come home, come home! + King William home is come! + Therefore let us together sing + The hymn that's called Te D'um."'] + +[Footnote 1167: Singing the first line, in order to put the congregation +in tune.--_Spectator_, No. 284. 'The clerk ordered to sing a Psalm, and +so keep the congregation together, while Mr. Claxton was +away.'--Thoresby's _Diary_, April 4, 1713.] + +[Footnote 1168: Bishop Gibson specially directed the clergy to instruct +their clerks to do this. Charge of 1721, Gibson's _Charges_, 1744, 18.] + +[Footnote 1169: Secker's _Charges_, 65. At St. Lawrence Pountney, the +candidates for the office had to 'take the desk' on trial on successive +Sundays.--H.B. Wilson, _Hist. of St. Lawr. P._, 160.] + +[Footnote 1170: _Somers Tracts_, xii. 161. _The Scourge_, p. 123.] + +[Footnote 1171: Paterson's _Pietas Lond._, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 1172: Brokesby's _Life of Dodwell_, 359, 369.] + +[Footnote 1173: _A Discourse concerning the Rise, &c., of Cathedral +Worship_, 1699.] + +[Footnote 1174: V.R. Charlesworth's _Life of Rowland Hill_, 156.] + +[Footnote 1175: Bishop Kennet's _Life_, 1730, 126.] + +[Footnote 1176: J. Watts's 'Essay on Psalmody'--_Works_, ix. 8.] + +[Footnote 1177: Teale's _Lives of Eminent E. Laymen_, 260.] + +[Footnote 1178: R. Thoresby's _Diary_, March 16, 1697.] + +[Footnote 1179: _Tatler_, No. 198.] + +[Footnote 1180: J.P. Malcolm, _Manners, &c., of London_, i. 230.] + +[Footnote 1181: Caldwell Papers, quoted in _Q. Rev._ 97, 404.] + +[Footnote 1182: Laud's _Hist. of his Troubles_, 201, quoted in Southey's +_Book of the Church_, 472.] + +[Footnote 1183: Walcott's _Cathedrals_, 101.] + +[Footnote 1184: Dr. Swift, _To Himself on St. Cecilia's Day_. Anderson's +_B. Poets_, ix. 107.] + +[Footnote 1185: Malcolm's _London_, i. 267.] + +[Footnote 1186: J. Newton's _Sermons on the Messiah_, 1784-5.] + +[Footnote 1187: Burnet's _Hist. of Ref._, quoted in S. Hilliard's +_Obligation of the Clergy to keep strictly to the Bidding form_, 1715, +8.] + +[Footnote 1188: Wheatley's _B. of Common Prayer_, 1860, 171.] + +[Footnote 1189: Canon 55.] + +[Footnote 1190: Bisse's _Beauty of Holiness_, 1721, 154.] + +[Footnote 1191: Hilliard's _Obligations, &c._, 19.] + +[Footnote 1192: Sherlock _On Public Worship_, 1681, 188.] + +[Footnote 1193: South's _Works_, iv. 180. He elsewhere calls it 'a long, +crude, impertinent, upstart harangue.' So also _Complaint of the Ch. of +E._, 1709, 19, and Thoresby's _Diary_, June 14, 1714. _The Royal Guard_, +&c., 1684, 49.] + +[Footnote 1194: J. Bingham's _French Church's Apology for the Ch. of +E._--_Works_, ix. 106.] + +[Footnote 1195: Stoughton's _Church of the Revolution_, 205.] + +[Footnote 1196: Fleetwood's _Defence of Praying before Sermon_, +1720--_Works_, 738.] + +[Footnote 1197: G.G. Perry's _Hist. of the Ch._, 3, 228.] + +[Footnote 1198: _The Justice and Necessity of restraining the Clergy_, +&c., 1715, 64.] + +[Footnote 1199: _The Justice and Necessity of Restraining the Clergy_, +&c., 1715, 64.] + +[Footnote 1200: _Direction to our Archbishops_, &c., Dec. 11, 1714, +Sec. vi.] + +[Footnote 1201: _Spectator_, No. 312.] + +[Footnote 1202: Jablouski's Correspondence, in _Archbishop Sharp's +Life_, by his Son, ii. 157, App. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 1203: Sherlock, _On Rel. Worship_, 66.] + +[Footnote 1204: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 420.] + +[Footnote 1205: Warburton and Hurd's _Correspondence_, 31.] + +[Footnote 1206: Horsley's _Charges_, 6; _Reflection on the Clergy_, &c., +1798, 42.] + +[Footnote 1207: Pref. to W.B. Kirwan's _Sermons_, quoted in _Q. Rev._, +xi. 133.] + +[Footnote 1208: A.P. Stanley's _Hist. Mem. of Westminster Abbey_, 535.] + +[Footnote 1209: _Officium Cleri_, 1691, 31.] + +[Footnote 1210: Birch's _Life of Tillotson_, cclv.] + +[Footnote 1211: Paterson's _Pietas Londinensis_.] + +[Footnote 1212: _The Church of England's Complaint_, &c., 1709, 21-2. +_The Scourge_, No. 10, 1717. Polwhele's Preface to Lavington, 220.] + +[Footnote 1213: Bishop Newton's _Life and Works_, i. 85.] + +[Footnote 1214: J. Nichols' _Literary Anecd. of Eighteenth Cent._ iv. +152.] + +[Footnote 1215: _Archbishop Sharp's Life_, by his Son, i. 31.] + +[Footnote 1216: _Hardships of the Inferior Clergy in and about London_, +&c., 1722, 85.] + +[Footnote 1217: _London Parishes_, &c.] + +[Footnote 1218: Paterson's _Piet. Lond._ 49, 50.] + +[Footnote 1219: Teale's _Lives_, 253. So also _Complaint of the Ch. of +E._ 1709, 23.] + +[Footnote 1220: Sherlock _On Public Worship_, pt. ii. ch. 4.] + +[Footnote 1221: Id.] + +[Footnote 1222: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 39, 366.] + +[Footnote 1223: F. Williams' _Memoirs of Atterbury_, i. 266.] + +[Footnote 1224: Nichols' _Lit. An._ iv. 169.] + +[Footnote 1225: J. Wilson's _Hist. of Merch. Taylors_, 1075.] + +[Footnote 1226: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 254.] + +[Footnote 1227: Gilbert Wakefield's _Memoirs_, 282; _Miseries of the +Inferior Clergy_, &c., 1722, 18.] + +[Footnote 1228: Dean Tucker's _Works_, 1772; _Letter to Dr. Kippis_, 23; +_Works_, vol. i.] + +[Footnote 1229: Secretan's _Life of Nelson_.] + +[Footnote 1230: Wesley's _Works_, x. 507-9.] + +[Footnote 1231: J. Nichols' _Lit. Anecd._ i. 475; Tillotson's _Works_, +iii. 514-16.] + +[Footnote 1232: Lathbury's _Hist. of the Nonjurors_, 203.] + +[Footnote 1233: Nelson's _Life of Bull_, 359; Fleetwood's _Works_, 472.] + +[Footnote 1234: Sherlock _On Public Worship_, 204; _Life of Kettlewell_, +91; Secker's _Charges_, 53.] + +[Footnote 1235: Baxter's _English Nonconformity_, chap. 19, quoted in J. +Bingham's _Works_, 'Objection of Dissenters Considered,' b. iii. ch. +21.] + +[Footnote 1236: Whiston's _Memoirs_, 469.] + +[Footnote 1237: _The Church of England Vindicated_, &c., 1801, 15.] + +[Footnote 1238: Secker's Charge of 1741.] + +[Footnote 1239: Lord Mahon's _History_, chap. 31; C. Knight's _Old +England_; A. Andrews' _Eighteenth Century_, chaps. 3 and 4; Malcolm's +_Manners and Customs of London_, ii. 272.] + +[Footnote 1240: Fielding's _Thomas Andrews_, b. ii. ch. 13.] + +[Footnote 1241: H. Walpole's _Memoirs of George II._ 342.] + +[Footnote 1242: Fleetwood's _Works_, 469; _Archbishop Sharp's Life_, i. +353.] + +[Footnote 1243: _Church of England's Complaint_, 1709, Preface.] + +[Footnote 1244: Beresford Hope, _Worship in the Ch. of E._ 26.] + +[Footnote 1245: J.C. Jeaffreson's _Book about Clergy_, ii. 92.] + +[Footnote 1246: A. Andrews' _Eighteenth Century_, chap. v.] + +[Footnote 1247: S. Pepys' _Diary_, v. App. 452.] + +[Footnote 1248: _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, i. 209-13.] + +[Footnote 1249: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 166-72.] + +[Footnote 1250: Secker's _Eight Charges_, 239.] + +[Footnote 1251: Id. 370.] + +[Footnote 1252: Fleetwood's _Works_, 472, 474, 479.] + +[Footnote 1253: T. Lewis, _Danger of the Church Estab._ &c. 1720.] + +[Footnote 1254: G.G. Perry's _Hist. of the Ch. of E._ iii. 100.] + +[Footnote 1255: Gibson's _Codex_, 1046, quoted in Burns' _Eccl. Law_, +Art. 'Penance.'] + +[Footnote 1256: J. Johnson, _Vade Mecum_, ii. cvii.] + +[Footnote 1257: _Memoirs of W. Wordsworth_, by Christoph. Wordsworth, +1851, 8.] + +[Footnote 1258: So also in the South of England, between 1799 and 1803. +'The two women she took most notice of in the parish were the last +persons who ever did penance at Hurstmonceaux, having both to stand in a +white sheet in the Churchyard; so that people said, "There are Mrs. Hare +Naylor's friends doing penance."'--A.J.C. Hare's _Memorials of a Quiet +Life_, i. 143. In 1805, one Sarah Chamberlain did penance in like manner +at Littleham Church, near Exmouth.] + +[Footnote 1259: Hildesley's _History of the Isle of Man_, in Cruttwell's +_Life of Wilson_, 371.] + +[Footnote 1260: Burns' _Eccles. Law_, Art. 'Penance'; Andrews' +_Eighteenth Century_, 303.] + +[Footnote 1261: _Free and Candid Disquis._ 1749, Sec. xviii.] + +[Footnote 1262: J.C. Jeaffreson's _B. of the Clergy_, ii. 140.] + + + + +APPENDIX. + + * * * * * + +LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. + + * * * * * + +NO AUTHOR QUOTED AT SECOND HAND IS INCLUDED IN THIS LIST. + +_The dates indicating the editions used are inserted for the convenience +of those who desire to verify quotations._ + + * * * * * + + +A. + +Abigail, Mrs., 'A Female Skirmish, &c,' 1700. + +Addison, Jos., 'Works,' 4 vols. (Tickell), 1804. + +'Address to that Honest part of the Nation called the Lower Sort,' 1745. + +'Adventurer, The' (R. Hawkesworth), 1755. + +Aikin, J., 'Letters on English Poetry,' 1804. + +Aikin, Lucy, 'Life of Joseph Addison,' 1843. + 'Annals of the Reign of George III.,' 2 vols., 1816. + +Akenside, M., 'Poems,' (Anderson). + +Alison, Sir A., 'Life of Marlborough,' 2 vols., 1852. + +Anderson, 'Poets of Great Britain,' 13 vols., 1793-5. + +Anderson, J.S.M., 'History of the Colonial Church,' 3 vols., 1856. + +Andrews, A., 'The Eighteenth Century,' 1856. + +'Annals of England,' 3 vols., 1848. + +'Apology for the Parliament,' &c. (Penal Laws against certain + Protestants), 1697. + +Arnold, M., 'Culture and Anarchy,' 1869. + +Arnold, Dr. T., 'Fragments on the Church,' 1844. + 'Miscellaneous Works' (A.P. Stanley), 1845. + +Aspin, W., 'Alkibla,' 1721 and 1731. + +'Asylum for Fugitive Pieces in Prose and Verse,' 1785. + +Atterbury, Bp. F., 'Letters, Visitation Charges,' &c., 1783. + 'Memoirs, by Folkestone Williams,' 2 vols., 1869. + +Austen, Jane, 'Memoirs of,' by J.E. Austen-Leigh, 1870. + + +B. + +Balguy, Archdeacon, 'Charges,' 1785. + +Barbauld. A.L., 'Works with Memoir,' by Lucy Aikin, 2 vols., 1825. + +Barclay, R., 'Apology for the Quakers,' 1849. + +Baur, 'Kirchengeschichte der neueren Zeit,' 1863. + +Baxter, R., 'Works,' 23 vols. (Orme), 1830. + +Beattie, W., 'Life and Letters of T. Campbell,' 3 vols., 1849. + +Behmen, J., 'Works,' 4 vols. (W. Law), 1764. + +Benson, J., 'Life of Fletcher,' about 1805. + +Bentley, R., 'Boyle Lectures for 1692,' 1724. + 'Remarks on Discourse of Free-thinking' (Phileleutherus Lipsiensis), + 1743. + 'Works,' 3 vols. (Dyce), 1838. + +Berkeley, Bp. G., 'Works,' 3 vols., 1861. + 'Life and Works,' 3 vols. (A.C. Fraser), 1871. + +Beveridge, Bp., 'On Public Prayer,' 1840. + +Bingham, T., 'Works,' 9 vols. (Pitman), 1838-40. + +Birch, 'Life of Tillotson,' 1752. + +Bisse, T., 'Pride and Ignorance, the Ground of Error,' 1716. + 'Beauty of Holiness,' 1720. + 'Rationale of Choral Worship,' 1720. + 'Beauty of Devotion,' 1715. + +Blackburne, Archdeacon, 'Historical View,' &c., 1772. + +Blair, R., 'Poems' (Anderson). + +Blake, W., 'Life,' by Gilchrist, 2 vols., 1862. + Swinburne's 'Critical Essay on,' 1868. + 'Poetical Sketches,' ed. R.H., 1868. + +Blunt, J.J., 'Right Use of the Early Fathers,' 1858. + +Bogue and Bennett, 'History of Dissenters,' 1810. + +'Bold Advice, or Proposals for the entire rooting out of Jacobitism,' + 1715. + +Bolingbroke, Viscount, 'Letters to Sir W. Wyndham and to Mr. Pope,' + 1753. + 'The Idea of a Patriot King,' written 1738. + 'Letters to Mr. Drummond,' written 1710 and 1711. + 'Philosophical Works,' 5 vols., 1754. + +Booker, M., 'Two Letters concerning the Methodists,' 1752. + +Boswell's 'Life of Johnson, Dr.,' 4 vols., 1823, 10 vols. 1835. + +Bowles's 'Life of Ken,' 1830. + +Boyer, 'Quadriennium Annae postremum,' 1718. + +Brand, J., 'Observations on Popular Antiq. of Great Britain,' 3 vols., + 1849. + +Bright, J., 'Speeches' (J.E.T. Rogers), 2 vols., 1868. + +'British Quarterly Review,' 1874. + +Brown, J., 'Estimate of Manners,' 2 vols., 1757. + +Browne, Sir T., 'Religio Medici,' 1642. + +Buckle, H.T., 'History of Civilisation in England,' 1857. + +Bull, Bp., 'Life,' by R. Nelson (Burton), 1827. + 'Defensio Fidei Nicaenae.' + 'Judicium Ecclesiae Catholicae.' + 'Primitiva et Apostolica Ecclesia.' + +Burke, E., 'Reflections on the French Revolution' (Wordsworth's + 'Christian Institutes'). + 'Public and Domestic Life of,' by Peter Burke, 1853. + +Burnet, Bp. G., 'History of His Own Times,' 4 vols., 1815. + 'Four Discourses to the Clergy of Sarum,' 1694. + +Burns, R., 'Ecclesiastical Law,' 4 vols. (Tyrwhitt), 1828. + +Butler, Bp., 'Works' (Bp. Halifax), 2 vols, 1835. + 'Primary Charge' (in Wordsworth's 'Christian Institutes'). + 'Analogy' (Angus). + 'Memoirs of,' by T. Bartlett, 1839. + +Byrom, J., 'Poems' (Chalmers's English Poets). + + +C. + +Calamy, E., 'Life of,' by himself, about 1731. + 'Life and Times,' 2 vols. (J.T. Rutt), 1830. + +Campbell, Lord, 'Lives of the Chancellors,' 7 vols., 1846-8. + +Cardwell's 'Synodalia,' 2 vols., 1842. + +Carlyle, Thos., 'Essays,' 4 vols., 1857. + 'Life of Frederick the Great,' 1858. + +Carter, Mrs. E., 'Life and Works,' 2 vols. (Pennington), 1816. + +Cassan, S.H. 'Lives of the Bishops of Sherborne and Salisbury,' 1824. + 'Lives of the Bishops of Winchester,' 1827. + +Cecil, R., 'Remains,' arranged by Jos. Pratt. + +Chalmers, G., 'Life of Defoe,' 1841 (first published 1786). + +Chalmers, Al, 'English Poets,' 24 vols., 1810. + +Chandler, Bp., 'Defence of Prophecy.' 1728. + +Channing, W.E., 'Correspondence with L. Aikin,' 1874. + +'Character and Principles of the present set of Whigs,' 1711. + +Chasles, Philarete, Le 18me Siecle en Angleterre, 1846. + +Chateaubriand, E.F.A., 'Essai sur la Litt. Angl.' 1836. + +Chatterton, T., 'Poems' (Anderson). + +'Cherubim with a Flaming Sword, The,' 1709. + +Chillingworth, 'Works,' 3 vols. (Birch), 1838. + +'Christian Schools and Scholars,' 2 vols. (Drake), 1867. + +'Christian Observer,' 1850, 1857, and 1877. + +Chubb, T., 'Discourse concerning Reason,' 1746. + 'Reflections on Moral and Positive Duties,' 1746. + 'Enquiry into the Ground, &c. of Religion,' 1740. + 'True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted' (2nd Ed.), 1741. + 'True Gospel of Jesus Christ vindicated,' 1739. + 'Discourse on Miracles,' 1741. + 'Enquiry concerning Redemption,' 1741. + 'Ground and Foundations of Morality Considered,' 1745. + 'Collection of Tracts,' 1733-45. + +Church of England, 'Free from Imputation of Popery,' 1683. + 'Vindicated,' 1801. + 'Complaint of, against the Irregularity of its Clergy,' 1709. + +'Church and State of England, Brief Defence of, in a Letter to a Person + of Quality,' 1706. + +'Church Quarterly Review,' 1876. + +Church, R.W., 'Essays,' 1854. + 'Life of St. Anselm,' 1870. + +'Church Communion, Principles of the Ref. on,' 1704. + +Churchill, C., 'Poems' (Anderson). + +Clarke, Dr. S., 'Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity,' 1712. + 'On the Being and Attributes of God' (8th Ed.), 1732. + +Clergy, 'Hardships of the Inferior,' 1722. + 'Justice and Necessity of Restraining,' 1715. + 'Considerations addressed to,' 1798. + +Coleridge, Hartley, 'Marginalia,' 2 vols., 1851. + +Coleridge, S.T., 'Aids to Reflection,' 1825. + 'Table Talk,' 1836. + 'Friend,' 1844. + 'Poetical Works,' 3 vols., 1836. + 'Life,' by J. Gillman, 1838. + +Collins, Anthony, 'On the Christian Religion,' 1724. + 'Discourse of Freethinking,' 1713. + +Colquhoun, J.C., 'William Wilberforce, his Friends, and his Times,' + 1866. + +'Compleat History of Dr. Sacheverell,' 1713. + +'Considerations on the Present State of Popery,' 1723. + +'Considerations of the Present State of Religion,' 1801. + +'Convocation, History of,' 1711. + +Cooke, 'Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke,' 1836. + +Cooper, J.G., 'Poems' (Anderson). + +Cowper, W., 'Poetical Works' (H. Stebbing), 1854. + 'Life of,' by Taylor, 1836. + +Cowper, Countess Mary, 'Diary' (1714-20), 1864. + +Coxe, 'Memoirs of Duke of Marlborough,' 3 vols., 1847. + 'Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole,' 1798. + +'Craftsman, The,' 1731, 1737, 1753, &c. + +Cripps, H.W., 'Laws of the Church,' 1863. + +'Criterion or Touchstone by which to judge Principles of High and Low + Church,' 1710. + +Cudworth, Ralph, 'Works,' 2 vols. (T. Birch), 1829. + +Cumberland, Richard, 'Memoirs, by Himself,' 2 vols., 1807. + +Curteis, G.H., 'Dissent in relation to the Church of England,' 1872. + + +D. + +Dallaway, Jas., 'Discourses upon Architecture in England,' 1800. + +Defoe, D., 'Life,' by Chalmers, 1840-1. + 'Memoirs of,' by Wilson, 3 vols., 1830. + +'Deism, Growth of,' 1698. + +Disney, 'Life of Jortin,' 1792. + +Doddridge, P., 'Correspondence and Diary' (D. Humphreys), 5 vols., + 1829-31. + 'Works,' 10 vols., 1803. + +Dodwell, H. (Elder), 'Life,' by Brokesby, 1715. + +Dodwell, H. (Younger), 'Christianity not founded upon Argument,' 1746. + +Doran, Dr., 'Queens of England of the House of Hanover,' 2 vols., 1855. + 'A Lady of the Last Century' (Mrs. Montagu), 1873. + +Dorner, J.A., 'History of Prot. 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Southey, 6 vols., 1849. + 'Book of the Church,' 1841. + 'Life of Wesley,' 2 vols., 1838. + +Stanhope, Earl, 'Reign of Queen Anne,' 1870. + +Stanley, A.P., 'The Eastern Church,' 1861. + 'Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey,' 1868. + +'State Tracts,' published on occasion of late Revolution and during the + Reign of William III., 1705. + +Stephen, Sir J., 'Essays on Ecclesiastical Biography,' 2 vols., 1853. + +Stephen, Leslie, 'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century,' + 2 vols., 1876. + +Stoughton, J., 'Church of the Revolution,' 1874. + +'Stuart Papers, The,' 2 vols., 1847. + +Swift, Dean, 'Life and Works,' edited by Sir W. Scott, 19 vols., 1824. + + +T. + +Taine, H.A., 'Hist. de la Litt. 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M., 'Works, with Memoir of Author,' 6 vols., 1825. + +Toulmin, 'History of Faustus Socinus.' + +'Tracts on Repeal of Corporation and Test Acts,' 1790. + +'Tracts on Toleration' (1770-74). + +'Tryal of Dr. Henry Sacheverell,' 1710. + +Tucker, Dean, 'Works,' 3 vols., 1773. + +Tyerman, L., 'Life and Times of Reverend Samuel Wesley,' 1866. + 'The Oxford Methodists,' 1873. + 'Life and Times of John Wesley,' 3 vols., 1870. + 'Life of George Whitefield,' 1877. + + +U. + +Urlin, R. Denny, 'John Wesley's Place in Church History,' 1870. + + +V. + +Van Mildert, Bishop, 'Life of Waterland,' 1823. + +Vaughan, E.T., 'Life of Rev. T. Robinson, of Leicester,' 1816. + +Vaughan, R., Dr., 'Essays on Historic Philosophy,' &c., 2 vols., 1849. + +Vaughan, R.A., 'Hours with the Mystics,' 2 vols., 1856. + +Venn, H., 'Complete Duty of Man, with Memoir of Author' (Religious Tract + Society). + + +W. + +Waddington, G., 'History of the Christian Church,' 1833. + +Wakefield, Gilbert, 'Memoirs,' 1792. + +Walcot, M.E.C., 'Traditions, &c., of Cathedrals,' 1872. + +Wall, W., 'Dissuasion from Schism,' Wordsworth's 'Christian Institutes.' + +Walpole, Horace, see Orford; Walpole, Sir R., see Coxe. + +Warburton, Bishop, 'Works,' 7 vols., 1788. + 'Correspondence with Hurd,' 1809. + +Waterland, Daniel, Dr., 'Works,' 6 vols. (Van Mildert), 1823. + +Watson, R., Observations on Southey's 'Life of Wesley,' 1820. + +Watson's 'Life of Bishop Warburton,' 1863. + +Watson, R., Bishop, 'Anecdotes of Life of,' published by his Son, 2 + vols., 1818. + 'Collection of Theological Tracts,' 6 vols., 1791. + +Watts, Isaac, 'Works,' 9 vols, 1812. + +Webb, T., 'Collection of Epitaphs,' 1775. + +Wedgwood, Julia, 'J. Wesley and Evangelical Reaction of the Eighteenth + Century,' 1870. + +Wesley, John, 'Works,' 14 vols, 1829; 'Journal,' 1829; 'Sermons,' 1874. + 'Appeal, and Further Appeal,' &c., fourteenth edition, &c. + +Whaley, N., 'Sermon before the University of Oxford,' 1710. + +Whately, R., Archbishop, 'Kingdom of Christ,' 1841. + +Wheatly, C., 'On the Common Prayer,' 1860. + +'Whig Examiner, The,' 1710. + +'Whig Principles demonstrated sense,' &c., 1713. + +Whiston, William, 'Memoirs of his own Life,' &c., 2 vols., 1749. + 'Memoirs of Dr. S. Clarke,' 2 vols., 1748. + 'Primitive Christianity revived,' 1711. + +Whitefield, G., 'Letters from 1734 to 1770,' 1772. See Philip, + Gledstone, Tyerman. + +Wilberforce, William, 'Life,' by his Sons, 3 vols., 1839. See Colquhoun. + 'Practical View,' &c, 1834. + +Wilson, D., 'Pilgrim Fathers,' 1849. + +Wilson, H.B., 'History of Merchant Taylors,' 1814. + 'History of St. Lawrence Pountney,' 1832. + +Winchelsea, Countess of, 'Poems,' 1713. + +Winkworth, C., 'History and Life of Tauler,' 1857. + +Winston, C., 'Hints on Glass Colouring,' 1847. + 'Memoirs Illustrative of the Art of Glass Painting,' 1865. + +Woolston, T., 'Old Apology revived,' 1705. + 'Moderator between Infidel and Apostates,' 1725. + 'Six Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour,' 1729. + +Wordsworth, Chr., 'Christian Institutes,' 4 vols., 1812. + 'Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century,' + 1874. + +Wordsworth, W., 'Life,' by C. Wordsworth, 2 vols., 1851. + +Wright, T., 'Caricature History of the Georges,' 1867. + + + + +INDEX. + +Abney, Sir T., 184 + +Accommodation, principle of, 131 + +Adam of Winteringham, 324 + +Addison, Joseph, 111, 304 + +'Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher' (Berkeley), 99 + +Altar-pieces, 417 + +America, 196 + +'Analogy,' Butler's, 88, 96-7, 313 + +Anne, Queen, 17, 279, 306 + +Annet, Peter, 86 + +Antinomianism, 182, 268, 273-4, 323, 374, 386 + +'Apostolical Constitutions,' the, 203 + +Architecture, 404 + +Arian subscription, 193 + +Arianism, 161, 198, 203 + +Arsenius, 67 + +Articles (_see_ 'Subscription') + +Athanasian Creed, 452 + +Atonement, 130, 259 + +Atterbury, Bishop, 47, 407 + +Authority, Church, 229 + + +Balguy, J., 194 + +Ball, Hannah, 299 _n_ + +Bangorian Controversy, 205, 305 + +Baptism, 468 + +Baptists, 166 + +Barbauld, L., 45 + +Barclay, R., 169 + +Bassett, of Glentworth, 378 + +Bates, E., 186 + +Bath, Earl of, 349 + +Baxter, R., 166, 186, 240 + +Behmen, J., 250, 255 + +Bells, church, 424 + +Benefactions, 415 + +Benson, Bishop, 311 + +Bentley, Dr. R., 83-4, 221, 287, 305 + +Berkeley, Bishop G., 98-9, 111, 153, 274-6, 281 _n_ + +Berridge, John, 351, 354, 362, 371-2 + +Beveridge, Bishop, 42-4, 62, 166 + +Bidding prayer, 461 + +Bishops, 24 + +Blackburne, Archdeacon F., 113, 189, 193-4, 219 + +Blackmore, Sir R., 49 + +Blackstone, Sir W., 300 + +Blake, W., 375-6 + +Bolingbroke, Viscount, 93-6, 101, 108, 235, 348 + +Bond, Mark, 355 + +Bonet, 162 + +Bossuet, 28, 42, 49, 148 + +Bourignon, Madame de, 249, 274 + +Bray, Dr., 46, 48-9 + +Brokesby, F., 39 + +Brown, Moses, 384 + +Bulkeley, Sir E., 247 + +Bull, Bishop G., 40-2, 167, 198, 210, 222 + +Burke, Edmund, 16, 100, 312, 397 + +Butler, Bishop, 23, 88, 96-7, 110, 177, 317, 313 + +Byrom, J., 264 + +Calamy, Edmund, 166, 185, 308 + +Calvinism, 323, 366 _n_ + +Calvinistic controversy, 355-65 + +Cambridge Platonists, 120, 135, 230 + +Camisards, 246 + +Candlemas, 435 + +'Cardiphonia,' Newton's, 399 _n_ + +Caroline, Queen, 214, 265 + +'Case of Arian Subscription,' Waterland's, 212 + +Catechising, 286, 299, 469 + +'Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity,' Jones's, 219 + +Cave, Dr. W., 49 + +Cecil, Richard, 379, 388 + +Chancel screens, 416 + +Chandler, Bishop, 100 _n_ + +---- Dr. S., 85, 100 _n_, 177-8 + +'Characteristics,' Shaftesbury's, 80-2 + +Charity schools, 18 + +Charlett, Dr., 49 + +'Cheap Repository Tracts,' H. More's, 401 + +'Checks to Antinomianism,' Fletcher's, 362, 363-5 + +Cherry, F., 39 + +Chesterfield, Lord, 305 + +Chillingworth, W., 192 + +'Christian System,' Robinson's, 394 + +'Christianity as old as the Creation,' Tindal's, 86-7, 258-9 + +'Christianity not founded on Argument,' 92-3 + +'Christianity not Mysterious,' Toland's, 79-80 + +Christmas Day, 434 + +Chubb, Thomas, 90-91 + +Church architecture, 406 + +---- attendance, 439 + +---- and State, 15 + +---- building, 18, 428 + +---- fabrics, 409 + +'Church in Danger,' 2, 188 + +Churchill, Charles, 98 _n_ + +Churchwardens, 415 + +Churchyards, 426 + +Clapham Sect, 394 + +Clarke, Adam, 335 + +---- Samuel, 77, 85, 204-212 + +Clergy, 25 + +Clerical poverty, 287-8 + +Clerks, parish, 450, 456 + +Coke, Dr., 355 + +Coleridge, S., 16, 230, 271-2 + +Collier, Jeremy, 39 + +Collins, Anthony, 82, 85, 102, 108, 221, 287 + +Colonial Church, 48, 196 + +Commemorations, 436 + +'Commentary,' Scott's, 387 + +'Complete Duty of Man,' Venn's, 376-7 + +Comprehension, Church, 8, 147-9 + +Compton, Bishop H., 174 + +Conant, Dr. J., 41 + +Conference, Wesleyan, 326, 328, 358-361 + +'Confessional,' Blackburne's, 219 + +Confirmation, 470 + +Connexion, Lady Huntingdon's, 350, 352-4, 373 + +Convocation, 18-19, 214, 282-4, 309 + +Conybeare, Bishop, 87, 105, 191, 311 + +Conyers of Helmsley, 372, 393 + +Copes, 444 + +Cornwallis, Archbishop, 349 + +Cowper, W., 250, 379, 380-3 + +Cross, emblem of, 419 + +Cudworth, Ralph, 77, 230-1 + + +Daily service, 429 + +Daille, J., 160 + +Dartmouth, Lord, 398 + +Deacon, 60 + +'Defence of Revealed Religion,' Conybeare's, 87 + +'Defensio Fidei Nicaenae,' Bull's, 199 + +Defoe, D., 184, 305 + +'Deism Revealed,' Skelton's, 88 + +Deists, 3-6, 75-112, 193, 226, 260, 280 + +Derham, W., 23 + +Desecration of Churches, 411 + +Discipline, Church, 309-310, 471 + +'Discourse of Freethinking,' Collins', 82-5 + +'Discourse on the Grounds, &c. of the Christian Religion,' Collins', 84 + +Dispensing power, 137 + +'Divine Legation of Moses,' Warburton's, 97-98, 313 + +'Divine right' of kings, 10, 54 + +Doctrine and morals, 141 + +Doddridge, Dr. Ph., 9, 15, 45, 100, 177 + +Dodwell, H. (Nonjuror), 34-6, 62, 69, 161 + +---- (the younger), 7, 91 + +Doubt, 120 + +Dress, clerical, 447 + +Du Pin, 149 + + +East, turning to, 451 + +Eastern Church, 29, 65-7, 150, 195 + +Ecclesiastical censures, 310 + +Edward VI., Liturgy of, 20, 45, 445, 455 + +Eighteenth century, 1 + +Enthusiasm, 226-28 + +Episcopians, 212 + +Episcopius, 138 + +Epworth Rectory, 315 + +Error in matters of religion, 122 + +'Essay on the Human Understanding,' Locke's, 102 + +'Essay on Man,' Pope's, 101-2 + +Essayists, 20 + +'Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World,' H. More's, 400 + +Eucharist, the, 61, 453 + +Eusebianism, 203 + +Evangelical Revival, 5, 114, 194, 280, 313-403 + +Evelyn, J., 32, 49 + +Evidences, 3-6, 21-3, 119 + + +'Fable of the Bees,' Mandeville's, 99 + +Faustus Socinus, 215 + +Feathers Tavern petition, 194 + +Fenelon, 148, 248-9, 254 + +'Festivals and Fasts,' R. Nelson's, 30 + +Firmin, T., 169 + +Flamsteed, 22 + +Fletcher, of Madeley, 324, 343-6, 362 + +Fletcher, Mrs., 345, 399 + +Foedus Evangelicum, 156 + +'Force of Truth,' Scott's, 384-6 + +Foreign Protestants, 8, 29, 45, 64, 151-2, 155-63, 195 + +Fowler, Bishop E., 192 + +Frampton, Bishop, 32, 66 + +France in eighteenth century, 311 + +Francke, 38, 251, 265 + +Frederic I., 161 + +'Free and Candid Disquisitions,' Jones of Alconbury's, 9, 189 + +Freethinkers, 82-3, 94, 97, 111-13, 118, 124-6 + +French Prophets, 246-7 + +Funeral sermons, 468, 471 + +Future state, 133-9, 241-3 + + +Galleries, Church, 414 + +Gallican Church, 63, 148-51 + +Gambold, J., 266 + +Gastrell, Bishop F., 49 + +George III., 311-2, 349 + +George of Denmark, 186 + +Georgian age, 403 + +Gerardin, 149 + +Gibson, Bishop, 285 _n_ + +Gooch, Bishop, 178 + +Grabe, Dr., 47, 67 + +Graves, R., 276 + +Grimshaw of Haworth, 370-1 + +'Growth of Deism, The,' 80 + +Guyon, Madame, 249-50 + + +Haine, John, 355 + +Hales, R., 161 + +Halley, E., 22, 27, 49 + +Happiness, 142 + +Hardwick, Lord, 290 + +Harris, Howell, 355 + +Hartley, D., 235 + +Haworth, 370 + +Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 79 + +Herring, Archbishop, 113, 177, 179, 285 + +Hervey, James, 358, 365, 366-70 + +---- John, Lord, 292, 303, 335 + +Hickes, G., 36-7, 61, 64 + +High Church party, 26, 51, 69-75, 403, 444 + +High and Low Church, 26 + +Hildesley, Bishop M., 177 + +Hill, Sir Richard, 362 + +---- Rowland, 351, 362 + +'History of the Church of Christ,' Milner's, 389-92 + +'History of the Corruptions of Christianity,' Priestley's, 220 + +Hoadly, Bishop B., 20, 83, 113, 185, 193, 203 + +Hobbes, T., 77, 231 + +Homilies, 466 + +Hooper, Bishop G., 72 + +Horne, Bishop G., 274 + +Horsley, Bishop S., 154, 216, 220-5, 286, 302, 310 + +Hour-glasses in pulpits, 416 + +Howe, J., 186 + +Hume, D., 77, 235 + +Huntingdon, Selina, Countess of, 333, 347-54, 360, 396 + +Hurd, Bishop R., 110, 296-7 + +Hutchinson, J., 274 + + +Immortality, 25 + +'Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity asserted,' Waterland's, 213 + +Incense, 456 + +Independents, 166 + +Indifferentism, 12 + +Inspiration, 229, 243 + +Intolerance (_See_ 'Toleration') + +Involuntary error, 122 + +Irreverence in church, 441 + + +Jablouski, 161-2 + +Jacobitism, 2, 10-11 + +Jansenists, 148 + +January 30, sermons, 438 + +Jews, 188 + +Jebb, Bishop, 194 + +Johnson, J., 49, 61, 154 + +Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 94, 301, 305, 312, 368, 397 + +Jones of Alconbury, 189 + +---- of Nayland, 219-220, 320 + +Jortin, Dr. J., 190 + +'Judicium Ecclesiae Catholicae,' 200 + + +Ken, Bishop, 27, 28, 31, 54, 72, 165 + +Kettlewell, J., 32, 33-4, 54, 62 + +Kidder, Bishop, 72 + +King, Chief Justice, 192 + +Knox, Alexander, 319 _n_ + + +Lake, Bishop, 53, 165 + +Lardner, Dr., 217 + +Latitudinarian churchmen, 112-4 + +Lavington, Bishop, 335 + +Law, William, 100 _n_, 253-264, 311, 316, 322 + +Lecturers, 467 + +Lee, F., 27, 38 + +Leibnitz, 162 + +Leland, 100-1 + +Lent, 432 + +Leslie, Charles, 100 _n_, 128, 131, 201, 241-3 + +'Leviathan,' Hobbes's, 77 + +Liberty of thought, 123-4 + +Libraries, parochial, 18, 46 + +'Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith,' Romaine's, 373 + +Lindsey, Theophilus, 194 + +Liturgy, revision of, 9, 171, 189 + +Lloyd, Bishop, 28 + +Locke, John, 14, 77, 102-5, 234-6, 356 + +Low Church, 403 + +Lowth, Bishop, 98 _n_, 336 + +Loyalty, 1, 56 + +Ludolph, 60 + +Lutheranism, 9, 48, 161-2 + +Lyttelton, Lord, 237, 268, 356 + + +Madox, Bishop, 177 + +Maistre, Count de, 151 + +Mallet, David, 94 + +Mandeville, 99 + +Mapletoft, Dr. 49 + +Marriages, clandestine, 474 + +Mather, Alexander, 355 + +'Meditation among the Tombs,' Hervey's, 368 + +Methodism, 9, 114, 180-2, 194, 245, 268-72, 313, 355 + +Milner, Dean Isaac, 392-3, 396 + +---- Joseph, 379, 388-392, 393, 396 + +Missions, 48, 65 + +Moderation, 176 + +Moore, Bishop, 161 + +'Moral Philosopher,' Morgan's, 89, 97 + +Moral virtue, 26 + +Moravianism, 181, 264-6, 323, 341 + +More, Hannah, 154, 238, 379 + +More, Henry, 120, 121, 135, 230-3, 273 + +Mosheim, 177 + +Music, church, 459 + +Mysteries in religion, 126-8 + +Mysticism, 38, 226, 238, 240, 246, 255 + + +'Naked Gospel,' Bury's, 201 + +Nelson, John, 355 + +Nelson, Robert, 26 + +Neophytes, 66 + +Newton, Sir Isaac, 22 + +----, John, 16, 374-381, 385, 389, 395, 396, 398, 401 + +---- Mrs., 380, 399 + +---- Bishop T., 284, 291-3 + +Noailles, Cardinal de, 149 + +Nonconformists, 8, 13, 163-172, 196 + +Nonjurors, 3, 11-12, 19, 28, 30, 39, 51, 72, 279 + +Non-residence of clergy, 284-6 + +Non-resistance (_See_ 'Passive obedience') + +Nottingham, Earl of, 185 + + +Occasional conformity, 183-8 + +Offertory, 455 + +Oglethorpe, General, 49 + +Olivers, Thomas, 355, 362, 363 + +Optimism, 95 + +Oratorios, 460 + +Organs, 458 + +Origen, 134, 137 + +Oxford Methodists, 318, 366 + + +Paintings, 419 + +Paley, Archdeacon, 23, 192, 286, 302 + +Party feeling, 17 + +Passion Week, 434 + +Passive obedience, 10, 52-54 + +Pascal, 148 + +Patristic Theology, 65 + +Pawson, John, 355 + +Pearce, Bishop Zachary, 85, 285 + +Pelham, 179 + +Pepys, Samuel, 32, 39 + +Penance, 473 + +Perambulations, 436 + +Perronet of Shoreham, 355 + +Peter the Great, 65, 67 + +Pews, 411 + +Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, 83-4, 221 + +Physical phenomena of religious revivals, 271-2 + +Physical science, 22 + +Platonic triad, 223-4 + +Platonists, Cambridge, 120, 135 + +Pluralities, 284-6 + +Pope, Alexander, 101 + +Porteus, Bishop Beilby, 195, 285, 394, 401 + +Potter, Archbishop, 205 _n_ + +'Practical View,' Wilberforce's, 396-8 + +Prayers for the dead, 62 + +Preaching, 300-2, 463 + +Predestination, 243 + +Presbyterianism, 117, 166, 169 + +Priestley, Dr., 15, 220-5 + +'Primitiva et Apostolica Traditio,' Bull's, 200 + +'Private Thoughts,' Adam's, 378 + +Private judgment, 123 + +Protestantism, 63 + +Protestant interest, 8, 155-6 + +Prudential religion, 142 + +Pulpits, 415 + +Purgatory, 135 + +Puritanism, 3, 282, 314-5 + + +Quakers, 169, 230, 240-5, 271 + +Queen Anne's bounty, 18 + + +Raby, Lord, 162 + +Raikes, Robert, 299 _n_ + +'Reasonableness of Christianity, Locke's, 103 + +Reason, 5, 118, 121, 233, 236 + +Reform, Church, 189 + +Reformation, the, 3, 147 + +---- of manners, 29 + +'Refutation of Calvinism,' Tomline's, 364 + +Religious societies, 17 + +'Remains,' Cecil's, 388 + +Repairs of churches, 409 + +'Resurrection of Jesus considered,' Annet's, 86 + +Revision (_See_ 'Liturgy') + +Revivalism, 279-280 + +Revolution of 1688, 56 + +---- French, 9, 16, 24, 154, 188 + +Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 312 + +Richardson of York, 393 + +Ritual, 418, 444 + +Robinson, Bishop, 162 + +---- of Leicester, 393-4 + +Romaine, William, 372-4 + +Roman Catholics, 13, 152-3, 188, 258, 282 + +Royal Supremacy, 65 + +Rubrics, 451 + + +Sabellianism, 198 + +Sacheverell, Dr., 18, 176, 187, 290 + +Sacrifices, 132 + +Saints' Days, 432 + +Salter's Hall meeting, 215, 217, 308 + +Sancroft, Archbishop, 32, 39, 57, 165, 176 + +Schleiermacher, 181 + +Scotch Episcopalians, 12, 13, 64, 67, 196 + +Scott, Thomas, 374, 379, 384-8, 396 + +'Scripture Characters,' Robinson's, 394 + +---- Doctrine of the 'Trinity,' Clarke's, 204 + +Secker, Archbishop, 177, 286, 301, 304, 309 + +Seed, Jeremiah, 288 + +Semler, 131 + +'Serious Call,' Law's, 316, 340, 376, 385, 397 + +Services, order of, 452 + +'Seven Bishops, The,' 55 + +Seward, 182 + +Shaftesbury, Lord, 80-2, 99, 101, 102, 108 + +Sharp, Archbishop, 44-46, 161, 309 + +Shelburne, Lord, 287, 291 + +Sherlock, Bishop, 85, 86, 100 _n_, 177, 178 + +Shirley, Walter, 360 + +'Short Way to Truth,' Jones of Nayland's, 220 + +Simeon, Charles, 393 + +Sincerity in inquiry, 122 + +Slave trade, 24, 395-6 + +Smalridge, Bishop, 46, 161 + +Societies, religious, 18 + +Socinianism, 129, 215, 225 + +Somers, Lord, 14, 52 + +Sorbonne, 151 + +South, Dr., 172, 311 + +Southey, Robert, 16, 364 + +S.P.C.K., 17, 18, 29, 48, 286 + +S.P.G., 17, 48 + +Spener, 38, 47, 251 + +Spinckes, Nathaniel, 39 + +Spirit, work of the Holy, 119, 287 + +Spiritual Discernment, 228 + +Stackhouse, Thomas, 288 + +Stage, state of, in eighteenth century, 303 + +Stained glass, 422 + +Stainforth, Sampson, 355 + +State prayers, 67 + +---- services, 437 + +Steele, Sir R., 111, 304 + +Stillingfleet, Bishop, 103 + +---- of Hotham, 393 + +'Strictures on Female Education,' H. More's, 400 + +Subscription to articles, 191-5 + +Sunday observance, 475 + +---- schools, 299 _n_ + +Surplice, 446 + +Swift, Dean, 111, 288 _n_ + + +Tauler, 254, 268, 271, 273 + +Teignmouth, Lord, 398 + +Tenison, Archbishop, 161, 174 + +Test Act, 183 + +'Theron and Aspasio,' Hervey's, 358, 368-9, 385 + +Thoresby, Ralph, 49 + +Thornton, Henry, 395 + +---- John, 372, 393, 395 + +Thorold, Sir John, 355 + +'Thoughts on the Manners of the Great,' H. More's, 400 + +Tillotson, Archbishop, 27, 53, 58, 77, 115-146, 182, 192, 301 + +Tindal, Matthew, 86-9, 103, 108 + +Toland, John, 79-80, 103, 108 + +Toleration, 13, 14 + +Tomline, Bishop, 192, 364 + +Toplady, Augustus, 362, 363, 365, 378 + +'Treatise on Christian Doctrine of the Trinity,' Watts's, 217 + +Trevecca, 344, 351, 354 + +Trimnell, Bishop, 61 + +Trinitarian controversy, 4, 197-226 + +'True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted,' Chubb's, 90 + +'---- Gospel of Jesus Christ vindicated,' Chubb's, 90 + +'Tryal of the Witnesses,' Sherlock's, 86 + +Tucker, Dean, 191 + +Turretin, Professor, 152 + + +Uniformity, 3 + +Unitarians, 129, 167, 194, 198, 224-7 + +Universities in the eighteenth century, 303 + +Ursinus, 161 + +Usages, sacramental, 455 + +Utilitarianism, 142 + + +Venn, Henry, 253, 324, 344, 377-7 + +---- John, 375, 396 + +Vestments, 444, 455 + +'View of the Deistical Writers,' Leland's, 100-1 + +'Village Politics by Will Chip,' H. More's, 400 + +Voltaire, 110 + + +Wake, Archbishop, 110, 149-152, 303 _n_, 305 + +Walker of Truro, 324, 378 + +Wall, Dr. 167 + +Walpole, Horace, 108, 292, 305, 347 + +---- Sir R., 179, 281, 290 + +Walsh, Thomas, 355 + +Warburton, Bishop, 88, 97-8, 101, 105, 111, 112, 177, 179, 189, 237, + 288, 311, 313, 335 + +Waterland, Daniel, 188, 191, 193, 205-213, 311, 364-5 + +Watson, Bishop, 285, 291, 293-6 + +Watts, Isaac, 217-9, 238 + +Welton, Bishop, 60 + +Wesley, Charles, 334, 340-3 + +---- John, 7, 15, 93, 117, 181-2, 232, 267-8, 316-336, 397, and _passim_ + +---- Samuel, 31, 49 + +---- Susanna, 345, 399 + +Whiston, William, 14, 90, 191, 193, 202-4, 214, 291 + +Whitefield, George, 115, 117, 182, 337-340, 342 + +Whitewash, 408 + +'Whole Duty of Man,' 377 + +Wilberforce, William, 374, 379, 395-8 + +Wilcocks, Bishop, 285 + +Wilson, Bishop Thomas, 265, 289, 299 _n_ + +Woolston, William, 85-6 + +Wordsworth, William, 16, 275 + + +Young, Dr. E., 136 + + +Zinzendorf, Count, 265-6, 323 + + +Printed by Spottiswoode & Co., New-Street Square, London. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH +CENTURY*** + + +******* This file should be named 16791.txt or 16791.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/9/16791 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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