whole field of theology; there is hardly a doctrinal point on which he has not expressed an opinion, generally one which inarks him as beyond his age in vigour and independence of thought. He is not always judicious, but he is rarely prejudiced; if he comes to a wrong conclusion it is not for want of admitting what might be urged on the other side.

Dublin. From this we find that, in his | may produce almost at will; they almost opinion, the works of Episcopius, the all involved careful research and reflection. great leader of the Arminians in the Low His studies and writings ranged over the Countries, "contained the whole body of orthodox religion;" and there are manifest traces of the influence of this remarkable man upon his theology, and, indeed, upon a considerable portion of the contemporary theology of England. Other continental writers whom he commends are Chemnitz, Gerhard, Du Moulin, Chamier, Vossius, and Casaubon. For school divinity he prefers Occam on the "Sentences," He is eminently a Church of England Aquinas's "Summa Theologiæ," with man; the breadth, simplicity, and nobleSuarez's "Comment; " Biel; and Estius ness of our National Church were dear to on the "Sentences; his emphatic prefer- one who loved moderation and largeness ence for the Jesuits Estius and Suarez of spirit, and hated violence and tyranny helps to explain some of the weak points of with all his heart. He loved the middle his moral theology. In English divinity he way between tyranny and license; he recommends Hooker, Andrews, Laud, thinks "to the churches of the Roman Lord Falkland "Of Infallibility," Bram- Communion we can say that ours is rehall, Overall, Field, Sanderson, and Far- formed; to the Reformed churches we can ingdon, besides several of " Dr. Taylor's "say that ours is orderly and decent. At works, and some treatises—tracts for the the Reformation we did not expose our times- the fame of which has long passed churches to that nakedness which the exaway. But this list, intended for a stu- cellent men of our sister churches comdent in theology whom he wished to imbue plained to be among themselves." It was with his own theologic opinions, very im- not yet characteristic of an Anglican diperfectly represents Taylor's reading, vine to refuse the title of "sister" to the though it sufficiently indicates his prefer- Protestant churches of the continent. He ences; it is, as he himself says, but the be- sincerely loved the Book of Common ginning of a theological library, fit for one Prayer, and mourned when it was "cut in who wished "to be wise and learned in pieces with a pen-knife and thrown into the Christian religion, as it is taught and the fire," though it was not consumed; professed in the Church of England." He he longed for it, as for a blessing once himself studied the writings of foes as well common, now removed to a distance; as friends; he did not contend, as some" when excellent things go away, and then have done, against Bellarmine and Calvin without reading their works; and he is often more successful in attacking his enemies than in supporting his friends.

And if his perseverance in study is remarkable, his industry in writing is no less

So.

In all the changes of his life, whether in his Welsh retirement or in the midst of the distractions of his Irish see, his pen seems to have been scarcely ever out of his hand. He wrote with extraordinary facility. In the twenty-five years between the publication of his "Defence of Episcopacy" and his death, he published matter which, in his own days, filled several folio volumes, and even in the more compressed form of modern times furnishes a respectable shelf of octavos. If we could recover the whole of his correspondence, another volume would probably have to be added to the series. And these works were not of the kind which an ingenious person with a sufficient command of words

"Life," p. lxxxvlii.

look back upon us, as our blessed Saviour did upon St. Peter, we are more moved than by the nearer embraces of a full and actual possession." Of Scripture he speaks in terms at once reverent and reasonable, maintaining always its supreme authority, yet rejecting the opinion of those who think that " errors or imperfections in grammar were (in respect of the words) precisely immediate inspirations and dictates of the Holy Ghost."*

With regard to the discipline of the Church he was a constant assertor of the superior claims of episcopal government. Not only in a set treatise, published in the very crash of the falling Church, but everywhere, if the subject suggests it, he defends episcopacy against the Presbyterian or Independent "novelists" of his time. He had an instinctive repugnance to democracy, whether in Church or State; his feelings, in spite of his breadth and tolerance, were essentially dainty and aris

"Life," clxix.

tocratic; he liked not to be "pushed at | With the sacrament of the Lord's Supby herds and flocks of people that follow per he deals in a more satisfactory mananybody that whistles to them or drives ner; at once devout and learned, he was them to pasture;" he was clearly of especially fitted to treat a matter so Charles II.'s opinion, that Presbyterianism sacred, and so perplexed by the subtleties was no religion for a gentleman; † his of a thousand years. Against the Roman tastes concurred with his principles in fa- doctrine of Transubstantiation he is clear vour of the ancient form of ecclesiastical and convincing; his familiarity with schogovernment; he could not but prefer the lastic logic served him well in his argudecent order, the traditive authority, and ments, and his great learning in his disthe long prestige of episcopacy to the cussion of historical facts; to use Coleoften tumultuous self-government of Pres- ridge's words, he transubstantiated his byterians or Independents; but he is not vast imagination and fancy into subtlety for permitting ecclesiastical powers to not to be evaded, acuteness to which nothemploy secular force. ing remains unpierceable, and indefatigable agility of argumentation."

That which has been most assailed in Taylor's theology is his doctrine on the The same skilful polemic which in the great mystery of original sin and free-will, treatise on the sacrament he directed which appears most prominently in the against Transubstantiation, he turned "Treatise on Repentance." When that against the tenets of the Roman Church treatise first appeared it was attacked by generally in his well-known "Dissuasive Puritans and mourned over by Church- from Popery," certainly one of his most sucmen; in our own times it has furnished a cessful works. It is, in truth, a model of theme for the severe remarks of his warm- Christian controversy; his tone towards est admirers, S. T. Coleridge and Regin- his adversaries is gentle and affectionate, ald Heber. It is not to be denied that he even while he lays, bare, with an unspardoes extenuate the effect of Adam's fall, ing hand, enormities which might well and exalt to the utmost the free-will and move his indignation; his exposure of the the natural powers of man; yet it is but novelties and inconsistencies of the Roman fair in estimating his offence to remember Church is complete and triumphant; he his circumstances. A kind of Manichæism knew both their theories and their prachad crept into theology; the teaching of tices, their theories which they dared not a large and powerful party tended to put in practice, and their practices supmake man a mere puppet between oppos-ported by no theory; yet, with all this, he ing forces of good and evil, and this teach-speaks to Romanists as one who endeaving assumed its harshest form in the ours to persuade friends, and to his mouths of some of the Puritan leaders of the seventeenth century; in the treatises of some of these divines man scarcely appears a moral being; he is simply swayed by forces which he cannot control, propelled onward to a destiny which he cannot mitigate. Against this doctrine Taylor revolted with all his soul; man was to him, before all things, a moral agent, a responsible being; his favourite study lay in the region of man's will and man's conscience; hence he was eager to assert that man's will was constrained by no irresistible force. We do not think that he goes further in the assertion of man's moral dignity than Basil or Chrysostom would have approved, but hedged round as he was by the technical theology of his time, he was compelled to seek his end through bye-paths, which sometimes led him into dangerous country.

Essay on Friendship," p. 72.

t In an undated letter to Lord Conway (in Mr. Murray's possession) Taylor says that the Privy Councillors knew that his lordship was "too much a gentleman to be undone with such principles" as those of the Presbyterians.

honour be it said he earnestly deprecates penal measures against them. It was said, during the troubles of the seventeenth century, that if there had been an Earl of Cork in each province of Ireland, there would have been no Irish Rebellion; who shall say how the history of unhappy Ireland might have been changed, if at the Restoration each province had been blessed with a Jeremy Taylor?

The "Ductor Dubitantium," or "Doubters' Guide," was, no doubt, regarded by its author as his great work, the one which was to perpetuate his fame. And, in truth, few English works rival it in learning and ingenuity; yet, instead of being as Taylor doubtless hoped it would be, the treasure-house where generations of Englishmen might find resolution of painful doubts, it has become the amusement of a few retired students. And this by no fault of the author; even in his lifetime Hobbes appealed to the common intellect with greater force and directness; and be

"Notes on English Divines," 1. 280.

lor, as we have already said, was jostled from the course by a crowd of lighterfooted and less-burdened competitors; but if he cannot compete with Butler in calmness and justness of intellect, nor with Paley in clearness of style and arrangement, his work remains unrivalled among English ethical works for breadth of learning and stately harmony of diction.

The work of Taylor's which is, on the whole, most original and characteristic, is undoubtedly the "Liberty of Prophesying," his great plea for freedom in the formation and expression of opinion. In other works Taylor did but adorn forms of literature which were common before his time; but in his plea for toleration he is epoch-making; few had risen to that height of contemplation at which the fainter lines vanished from the surface of

fore the race of the "old cavaliers had faults; his casuistic reading tended to make quite passed away, Locke's famous Essay him sometimes over-subtle and unreal in gave a new direction to metaphysical and his distinctions, he does not always keep a ethical enquiry. Our limits forbid us to firm grasp of his principles, and his illusoffer even an outline of the discussions trations are sometimes to say the least contained in Taylor's Opus Magnum; we injudicious; yet we cannot help admircan but mention briefly its leading charac-ing the exhaustive learning, the ample ilteristics. He published the book, he tells lustration, and the eloquence maintained us in the preface, because his countrymen with unflagging vigour to the close. Taywere almost wholly unprovided with casuistical treatises, and so 66 were forced to go down to the forges of the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his coulter, his axe, and his mattock," and by answers from abroad their needs were very ill supplied. English literature, it is true, in Taylor's time was not absolutely destitute of casuistical works; but none of these older works are comparable in range with the "Ductor Dubitantium," nor do they discuss the grounds of morality with the same completeness. The "Ductor" is not, as is perhaps sometimes imagined, a mere collection of cases and resolutions for the use of those who "direct" souls, such as had been common for many generations in the Roman Church; though it does discuss special cases, it is in the main a treatise on moral philosophy, grounded on the belief that man has an intuitive | the ecclesiastical world, none had experception of right and wrong; Taylor teaches, as Abelard had done long before, that the ground of morality is the will of God revealed to us through Conscience, as well as through Holy Scripture; "God is in our hearts by His laws; he rules us by his substitute, our conscience." Con- Like many of the greatest works_of science therefore is, says Taylor character- genius, like Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Polistically, "the household guardian, the ity " and Milton's "Areopagitica," the spirit or angel of the place." On this" Liberty of Prophesying" was an оссаfoundation he builds his ethical edifice. sional" work; it was called forth by the He discusses the various kinds of con- necessities of the time. It first made its science, distinguishing, perhaps with more appearance in 1647, one of the most critsubtlety than profit, the right, the confi- ical periods of the great struggle. That dent, the probable, the doubtful, and the it had any political end in view we do not scrupulous conscience; thence he proceeds believe; but there can be no doubt that to treat of the obligations of conscience in Taylor's conviction of the evil of intolerrelation to the natural law, to the ceremo-erance was quickened by the sight of the nial law, and to the law of Christ; thence miseries inflicted on the country by a war to human positive law, whether of states, or of the Church, or of the several families of which states are composed; his last book he devotes to the consideration of the nature and causes of good and evil, and of the efficient and final causes of human actions. It is in that part which relates to the "probable or thinking conscience" that he introduces a magnificent sketch of the probabilities on which faith in Christianity is founded; a sketch which contains some of his most splendid .passages. The work is not free from grave

pressed with so much vigour and eloquence the thoughts of a large and charitable heart on the divisions of Christendom. In ages to come, Taylor's fame will, perhaps, rest even more on his "Liberty of Prophesying" than his incomparable sermons.

of religion. Only a man whose soul, "like a star, dwelt apart" from the passion and turmoil of the time could have conceived the thought of "persuading the rough and hard-handed soldiers to have disbanded themselvcs presently," at the voice of charity and reason; if he had been a politician, we should perhaps have smiled at his simplicity; in a Christian preacher we honour the faith in the power of love and truth, which led him to cast his little cruse of oil on the troubled waters, even in their wildest rage.

With regard to the civil government, Taylor's view appears to be of this kind; that it is no more oppressive for a sovereign prince to require from his subjects the knowledge of that which is open to the " common sense of mankind in theology, than in morals or politics; a man may as well be presumed to know the leading facts of the Christian revelation, as to know that theft is contrary to law, and that the magistrate is to be obeyed. Hence, his whole discussion relates to those who receive the articles of the Apostles' Creed, the reception of which he had already maintained to be of universal obligation; all who receive these articles are to be tolerated, unless their tenets are such as to be dangerous to the civil government or to public morality. This leads him to discuss the special cases of the Roman Catholics and the Anabaptists. With regard to the former, he will not allow that the mere falsehood of their speculative doctrines is a sufficient reason for persecuting them; the body politic is no judge of dogma; Gallio was right - Taylor was almost alone in that age in thinking so when he said, "if it be a question of words and names, and of your laws, I will be no judge of such matters; but he condemns them for holding principles both leading to ill life and subversive of civil government; and as our duties in respect of morality and obedience to the law of the land are plain and obvious, he who preaches doctrines contrarient to them is to be condemned as a traitor, or a "destroyer of human society." And similarly with regard to the Anabaptists. He will not allow that their objection to infant-baptism is any good reason for persecuting them, or for excluding them from Christian communion; for there is, he holds (rather to the scandal of some of his contemporaries), no command of Scripture, nor even any canon of the Church within the first four centuries,

The argument of the "Liberty of Prophesying" has two ends in view; on the one hand it deals with the great question of terms of communion, and the social and ecclesiastical considerations involved in it; on the other, it discusses the duty of a civil government with respect to the forms of Christianity which exist within its jurisdiction. With regard to the first of these he holds that no dogmas ought to be made necessary conditions for admission to the membership of a church, but such as can be propounded infallibly. What then are these dogmas? The greater part of the theological propositions about which Christendom is divided he sets aside, as being either not revealed, or not perfectly clear, or not necessary; the various authorities to which men have attributed infallibility, he sweeps aside in succession; neither ecclesiastical tradition, nor Councils, nor Popes, nor Fathers of the Church, nor the Church itself "in its diffusive capacity," can in his judgment claim immunity from error in interpreting Scripture or propounding dogmatic sentences. How then are we to find guidance for our steps? He answers, following the line of thought which Hooker had indicated half-a-century earlier, "in the due exercise of Reason." The supreme authority of Scripture is assumed throughout the discussion; this being assumed, reason "proceeding upon the best grounds is the best judge." Not that he is unaware that human reason often judges wrongly; but he thinks that its errors, if not wilful, are venial, and he sees that, right or wrong, a man who judges at all must needs use his own judgment, just as a man who sees at all must needs use his own eyes, however imperfect. It may be wisest to choose a guide once for all, and follow him always; still, this choice is the act of the individual reason; and Taylor himself is not well assured "whether intrusting himself wholly with another, be not a laying up his talent in a napkin; "* he fears lest he sin in not using the talent" to oblige children to the susception of which "is death to hide." The conclusion arrived at is, that no proposition can be laid down as necessary to Christian communion beyond those contained in the Apostles' Creed, which "the Apostles, or the holy men their contemporaries and disciples, composed to be a rule of faith to all Christians.t"

it;" but with regard to their opinion on government, he lays it down in the strongest manner that the safety and well-being of the State is, and ought to be, the paramount consideration with the civil ruler, and that, therefore, he cannot tolerate the preaching of such doctrines as "that it is not lawful for princes to put malefactors to death, nor to take up defensive arms, nor to minister on oath, nor to contend

with such a supposition. Compare Coleridge,
"Notes on English Divines," 1. 209 ƒƒ.
*Sec. 20, 8. 5.

to be anathematized, and that "heresy is not an error of the understanding, but an error of the will."*

and in such circumstances the side taken by the more contemplative and widereaching spirits is often determined by considerations which have but slight connection with their deepest convictions. Questions of prelacy or no-prelacy sever men who are agreed on the great questions of faith and charity.

in judgment; such principles as these "destroy the bands of civil societies, and leave it arbitrary to every vain or vicious person whether man shall be safe, or laws We spoke just now of Milton and his be established, or a murderer hanged, or noble defence of toleration. There is on princes rule; nay, we must put any sense this point so much community of spirit whatever upon passages of Scripture, between him and Taylor, that we almost which seem to support such doctrines, wonder to find them on opposite sides in rather than have it supposed "that Chris- the great struggle. Yet we ought not to tianity should destroy that which is the wonder; for the objects which lay nearest only instrument of justice, the restraint of the heart of Taylor and Milton alike were vice and the support of bodies politic.' the dominant objects with no party; each In a word Taylor lays it down in the party was bent upon making its own views clearest manner, that the civil government prevail, rather than on bringing about is not concerned with opinions, however that state of government which should false or absurd, unless they prejudice best secure the rights of all; and the leadthe government as such; in that case, they ing spirits in a disturbed age had naturally must be suppressed as offences against more sympathy with the men of action government, not as speculative opinions. than the men of thought, whose dominant But in all this he contemplates à State interests were not those of the majority; composed of none but such as agree in accepting the article of the Apostles' Creed; and this, it may be said, is not complete toleration. True, it is not; but in Taylor's time the acceptance of this theory would in fact have prodnced almost complete toleration, for in spite of individual aberrations, there was then no sect which would not have accepted the simple But a heavy charge is made against statement of the objects of Christian Taylor, that having been an advocate for faith contained in the Apostles' Creed; toleration when the Church of England their disputes lay in another region alto- was oppressed, he abandoned his princigether; and if he advocated a scheme ples and advocated oppression when the which might have put an end to division Church of England triumphed. Let as and persecution then, he is not to be examine this; for, if it be well grounded, blamed if he did not provide for a state of it is a deep stain on a great reputation. things which did not exist until long after- One ground of this charge, that he so wards. His work marks the highest level changed the "Liberty of Prophesying to which toleration of different opinions after 1660 as to weaken its characteristic had then advanced, for even Milton's arguments may be at once dismissed. It treatises † on toleration did not cover all reappeared in successive editions of his Taylor's ground; and when, some genera-" Controversial Tracts," of which one (the tions later, the proposition to which second) was published when he was a Taylor's arguments in fact tended, that bishop and his party triumphant. Chauges the State should tolerate all opinions what-there are certainly; additions are made in ever not dangerous to government or to later editions, from books published since society, was frankly and unconditionally the date of the first; † but the argument maintained, it was maintained rather on in favor of toleration is as clear in the last the ground of the indifference of religions, edition as in the first. A more tenable than on the ground that Christianity incul- ground of reproach is that Taylor, in his cates the largest charity towards those sermon before the Parliament of Ireland who merely differ in opinion. Even now, in 1661, deprecated the rights of confew probably are prepared to receive Tay-science in a manner inconsistent with the lor's dictum, that involuntary error is not liberal principles which he formerly held. But this too is founded on a mistake;

The famous apologue of Abraham and the fireworshipper, for instance, taken from a book published in 1651, is found in the second and all subsequent editions. This is illustrative of the widest possible tolerance, and as such was adopted by Benjamin Franklin and by Lord Kaimes from him.