that if the case of the Church of England be, that were a computation taken of all the parochian churches, allowing the union of such as were too small and adjacent, and again a computation to be taken of the persons who were worthy to be pastors; and upon the said account if it fall out that there are many more churches than pastors, then of necessity recourse must be had to one of these remedies; either that pluralities must be allowed, especially if you can by permutation make the benefices more compatible; or that there be allowed preachers to have a more general charge, to supply and serve by turn parishes unfurnished: for that some churches should be provided of pastors able to teach, and others wholly destitute, seemeth to me to be against the communion of saints and Christians, and against the practice of the primitive Church.

There is an unfinished Dialogue of Bacon's, entitled "An Advertisement touching an Holy War, written in the year 1622,” which is partly of a theological_character; but it may be said to relate more directly to foreign politics, and we shall therefore reserve it till we come to his political writings, among which it has been commonly reckoned.

His remaining theological compositions are only a few short pieces. The first is his "Confession of Faith," first published in a quarto pamphlet of twelve pages, in 1641; then in the Remains, 1648; then by Rawley, in the Resuscitatio, 1657. Of its authenticity, therefore, there can be no doubt. It exists also in various manuscripts in the British Museum: one copy (Birch MS. 4263) Mr. Montagu conceives to be in Bacon's own hand-writing. In the Remains the Confession is stated to have been written by him about the time when he was Solicitor-General (A.D. 1607-1612). It is admitted to be a perfectly orthodox exposition of the leading doctrines of the Christian faith, as held by the Church of England; and it has all Bacon's usual luminousness and force of expression. The following are perhaps its most noticeable particulars :-He declares his belief, that, after his creation in the divine image, "Man made a total defection from God, presuming to imagine that the commandments and prohibitions of God were not the rules of good and evil, but that good and evil had their own principles and beginnings, and lusted after the knowledge of

those imagined beginnings; to the end to depend no more upon God's will revealed, but upon himself and his own light as a God; than the which there could not be a sin more opposite to the whole law of God." Upon the subject of the Incarnation his statement is, "that the Word did not only take flesh, or was joined to flesh, but was made flesh, though without confusion of substance or nature; so as the Eternal Son of God and the ever-blessed Son of Mary was one person; so one, as the blessed Virgin may be truly and catholicly called Deipara, the Mother of God; so one, as there is no unity in universal nature, not that of the soul and body of man, so perfect." Another article is, "That the Church hath no power over the Scriptures to teach or command any thing contrary to the written word, but is the ark wherein the tables of the first Testament were kept and preserved; that is to say, the Church hath only the custody and delivery over of the Scriptures committed unto the same; together with the interpretation of them, but such only as is conceived from themselves." This is a very distinct and fair statement of the right of interpretation as claimed by the Church of England, and of the difference upon that point between the English Church and the Church of Rome, which latter asserts the right of interpreting absolutely and without any restriction, from tradition or by mere authority as well as from lights furnished by the Scriptures themselves. The following are the concluding articles :

That there is also an holy succession in the prophets of the New Testament and Fathers of the Church, from the time of the apostles and disciples which saw our Saviour in the flesh, unto the consummation of the work of the ministry; which persons are called from God by gift, or inward anointing; and the vocation of God followed by an outward calling and ordination of the Church.

I believe that the souls of such as die in the Lord are blessed, and rest from their labours, and enjoy the sight of God, yet so, as they are in expectation of a farther revelation of their glory in the last day. At which time all flesh of man shall arise and be changed, and shall appear and receive from Jesus Christ eternal judgment; and the glory of the saints shall then be full; and the kingdom shall be given up to God the father: from

which time all things shall continue for ever in that being and state, which then they shall receive. So as there are three times, if times they may be called, or part of eternity. The first, the time before beginnings, when the Godhead was only, without the being of any creature: the second, the time of the mystery, which continueth from the creation to the dissolution of the world and the third, the time of the revelation of the sons of God; which time is the last, and is everlasting without change.

:

The next of these pieces that falls to be noticed is entitled "The Characters of a Believing Christian, in Paradoxes and seeming Contradictions.' It is said to have been first published by itself in 1645; it is included in the collection of Remains published in 1648; a collated copy is stated to have been found among the papers of Archbishop Sancroft; but it does not appear in the Resuscitatio; it is nowhere noticed either by Rawley or Tenison; and no manuscript of it is known to exist. In these circumstances its authenticity has been doubted. We do not see any thing either in the style or in the spirit and intention of the paper which should make it unlikely to have been written by Bacon.* He has

*But if any reader would see all the evidence stated at full or more than full length, he may resort to Mr. Montagu's Preface to the Seventh Volume of his edition of Bacon's Works, from p. xxvi. to p. xl. inclusive. This is altogether one of the most remarkable of Mr. Montagu's Prefaces, perhaps the most remarkable of them all. To the usual inundation and tumult of digressive matter, all but swamping the material or pertinent facts, is in this instance added the peculiarity of a sudden termination of the disquisition, without explanation or apology, after only the first third part of the proposed ground has been gone over: we have the Theological Tracts, designated Section First, or at least four of the eight, described and discussed with the most diffuse minuteness of detail, the last four merely noticed all in half a page and then the Miscellaneous pieces, and the Judicial Charges and Tracts, forming the Second and Third Divisions, quietly omitted, as if some leaves were torn out of the volume. As a typographical curiosity, too, this Preface is probably without its match in modern literature. Nearly the whole of the seventeen volumes of this standard edition of the Works of Bacon appear to have been printed from unread proofs, but throughout this Preface the compositor has exerted

elsewhere distinctly avowed his opinion that reason and faith are not only different, but in a certain sense opposed the one to the other. A remarkable passage in the beginning of the Ninth Book of the De Augmentis Scientiarum, might almost seem to have been written for an introduction to these Paradoxes: :-" Prærogativa Dei totum hominem complectitur; &c.;" that is, "The prerogative of God comprehends the whole man, and stretches over our reason not less than over our will; so that man must renounce himself, and draw near to God, in his universal being. Wherefore, as we are bound to obey the divine law, although our will struggle against it, in like manner we must believe the word of God even when it shocks our reason. For if we believe only such things as are agreeable to our reason, we assent to the matter, not to the author; which is no more than what we are wont to do even to a suspected witness. By how much any divine mystery is the more revolting and incredible, so

himself with no common skill and success to turn nearly every third or fourth sentence into a puzzle. Let the reader for instance try what he can make of the following:-[This tract is thus noticed by Archbishop Tenison in the "Baconiana." "His Confession of Faith," written by him in English, and turned into Latin by Doctor Rawley; upon which there was some correspondence between Dr. Maynwaring and Dr. Rawley, as the archbishop, in describing the letters to Lord Bacon, says, "The Second is, a letter from Dr. Maynwaring to Dr. Rawley, concerning his lordship's Confession of Faith."]-Or of this beginning of one of the notes:— -[Blackburn, in the fourth volume of his edition of Bacon, A.D. 1730, p. 438, says, "Archbishop Sancroft has reflected some credit on them by a careful review, having in very many instances corrected and prepared them for the press: among the other unquestioned writings of his lordship, I annex some of the passages from Blackburn, where Archbishop Sancroft is mentioned.] The publication of this standard edition began, a little to the surprise of the subscribers, with the Second volume and when the First followed it appeared with cancels for no fewer than twenty-seven pages in different parts of its predecessor; but after this striking illustration it seems to have been thought that the reader might as well be left to make the necessary corrections in the succeeding volumes for himself.

much the more honour do we render to God in believing it, and so much the nobler is the victory of our faith. And indeed, if we will truly consider it, it is a higher use of the mind to believe than to know, as we can know in this state of existence. For in knowing we are acted upon by sense, which is reflected from material objects; but in believing, by spirit, which is the worthier agent. It is otherwise in the state of glory; for then faith shall cease, and we shall know even as we are known."* Read with this explanation, the Paradoxes are perfectly consistent with every thing else that Bacon has written; they contain no impiety or infidelity, but are in fact only a statement of the manner in which the subject must have presented itself to him when he brought his ingenious, refiuing, antithetical mind to bear upon it. There are thirty-four of them in all; but the following may suffice for a sample :

1. A Christian is one that believes things his reason cannot comprehend; he hopes for things which neither he nor any man alive ever saw: he labours for that which he knoweth he shall never obtain; yet in the issue, his belief appears not to be false; his hope makes him not ashamed; his labour is not in vain.

6. He praises God for his justice, and yet fears him for his mercy. He is so ashamed as that he dares not open his mouth before God; and yet he comes with boldness to God, and asks him any thing he needs. He is so humble as to acknowledge himself to deserve nothing but evil; and yet believes that God means him all good. He is one that fears always, yet is as bold as a lion. He is often sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; many times complaining, yet always giving of thanks. He is most lowly-minded, yet the greatest aspirer; most contented, yet ever craving.

24. He is often tossed and shaken, yet is as Mount Sion; he is a serpent and a dove; a lamb and a lion; a reed and a cedar. He is sometimes so troubled, that he thinks nothing to be true in religion; yet if he did think so, he could not at all be troubled. He thinks sometimes that God hath no mercy for him, yet resolves to die in the pursuit of it. He believes, like

*This is an extension of a passage near the end of the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning.