to disparage the truth of Christianity, by charging upon it the inculcation of defective morality, even in the person of its Founder;' sometimes of immoral developments, sometimes of ethical rules untrue without requisite limitations, and impossible in practice. Such accusations may on the whole be left to balance one another, as when it Self-conis said by one school that the religion of Christ has never sufficiently encouraged the culture of the intellect, and by another that it gives a factitious and disproportionate influence to what are called "the higher parts of human nature. If the Altruism of the Positivist be deemed an the same end."-Ch. Hist., I. 240, ed. Clark. Comp. Merivale, Lect., p. 70. "The law is the teaching of the human conscience generally, whether enlightened by a revelation, or any other less special illumination from above; by the habits and ideas of human society," &c. 1 See Strauss, New Life of Jesus Christ, I. 438; and Mr. F. Newman on the Defective Morality of the New Test. "The character of Christ,” said Paley, finely and truly, " is a part of the morality of the Gospel." 2 Thus M. Comte regards the Lutheran preference of Faith to Works, and the Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination, as strictly immoral in their tendency. Phil. Pos., V. 685. Shaftesbury (Works, I. 98) charges on Christianity the omission of the heroic virtues: of patriotism and public spirit, and of private friendship. Yet Christ Himself wept over His country. Cf. also Rom. ix. 3, 4. Mr. Lecky, H. Rat., II. 113 (see also H. E. M., II. 149), observes, "that Christianity triumphed only by transforming itself under the influence of the spirit of sect." This means that it transferred men's allegiance from their country to the Church. I do not think this is properly chargeable on the principles of the religion. Yet, if true, it would only be substituting a much larger area of patriotism, and one which coincides with a large advance in civilization. The practice of the early Church (" Nec ulla res aliena magis quam publica," Tert. Apol. c. xxxviii., and see Origen, c. Cels., VIII. ii.), in this matter furnishes no proper estimate of the intentions of the religion. tradictory. cal. Unpracti- improvement on the morality of the Gospel in living for others without the limitation of loving our neighbour only as ourselves, it seems not unreasonable to require that this level should first be reached. Total annihilation of self, at best an impracticable dream, was far from the thought of Him who "knew what is in man." But Christianity has been charged with other more practical failures. Indifferent and injurious to secular profrom the gress, to material welfare and industrial developChris- ment ("infructuosi in negotiis dicimur"), it has Further objections results of tianity. repro been taxed with the custom of religious wars, of 1 There are, indeed, some good remarks on this point in Comte, Phil. Pos., IV. 553, V. 434. Compare Prof. Goldwin Smith, Study of Hist., p. 3, and Mr. Herbert Spencer, Study of Sociology, Cont. Rev., XXI. 318-321. 2 Compare Condorcet, as quoted by Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 423. Such are the medieval view of the sinfulness of usury, the treatment of witchcraft, the wager of battle, the institution of Monasticism, &c. See Mr. Farrar's remarks (Witness of Ilist, to Christ), Lecture V. portance. sults are able on the of the religion. laws, with an inability, for example, to suppress warfare, to prevent or redress social injustice and economic errors. The importance of such charges Their imlies not only in their imputation on the moral estimate of Christianity, but still more on its value as an instrument in civilization, and as consequently a permanent agent in human progress. Nor can it be denied that the evils in question are in some Such resort the results of the teaching of Christian ideas. not chargeUnless, however, it can be shown that they are principles the logical consequents of such ideas, their natural fruit and reasonable issue, so that each can be referred to the doctrine on which it rests, forming part of the actual message of Christianity, no vital blow has so far been struck on the armour of Case of religious Christian defence. Religious wars were certainly not unknown to other times and other systems. All may, perhaps, be more correctly attributed to a political or defensive origin,' or to a survival of Paganism, wherein "the kingdom of Heaven suffered violence," and "the violent took it by force." The political effect of a common faith is to react hostilely upon foreign creeds. Persecu- Persecu tion for belief, whatever immediate motive is belief. assigned to it, was practised by Pagan rulers in The wars of Charlemagne may be cited in this respect: the Crusades were actually defensive. See Comte, Phil. Pos., V. 404. Compare Paley's remarks on some supposed effects of Christianity (Evid., II. vii.). The religions of Greece and of Rome, so far forth as State institutions, involved penal consequences and even death. See Döllinger, Gentile and Jew, I. 243-5. wars. tion for pre-Christian times. Yet it may be admitted that both the evils complained of, the custom of warfare on the score of religion, and of persecution for erroneous belief, flow to some extent from the nature of the case, and are due to the action of historical Christianity. Partly, indeed, they were based on a false analogy of Christian duty with the Levitical code. But there is probably a necessary tendency in all dogmatic teaching to condemn error in opinion as a duty, and that too more strongly than immorality itself. Toleration even now is not uncommonly held to involve or imply scepticism. Prior to experience, it is expected that compulsion can procure uniformity;2 and the golden rule is forgotten, "Religionis non est religionem cogere." The outward confession of faith is not readily distinguished from a saving implicit belief; and in the confusion compulsion is enlisted on the side of a mistaken humanity, whether for the victim or the survivor; 3 but, The judicial murder of Priscillian dates A.D. 396. It was condemned by Ambrose and Martin of Tours, though not by Leo. The early Christian apologists naturally express themselves on the side of toleration. Lactantius, but fifty years before the death of Priscillian, and himself a resident at Trèves, thus writes: "Religio cogi non potest; verbis potius quàm verberibus res agenda est ut sit voluntas. Nibil est tam voluntarium quam religio."-Div. Inst., V. xx. 2 And so indeed, in fact, it has succeeded in doing: but only after the manner of those who, in the words of Tacitus, "solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." 3 See Mr. Lecky's remarks, Hist. Rat., II. 11, Hist. Eur. Mor., I. 420, on the inevitable tendency, if not the moral compulsion, to proselytism which underlies an assumed possession of truth. See Dean Hook, Lives of Archb., N. S., I. 7-9. by Christ. however present to the eye of the Founder of Predicted our religion as a result of the leaven wherewith He leavened the Church and the world, can this fact be properly urged against His teaching as a fault or a crime? Rather it is the consequence of its historical development, of the tardy course of human affairs,' and, philosophically considered, of the imperfection and limitation of the creature. By the union and identification of the Church and Course of Empire, orthodoxy became an Imperial interest, and persecution for opinion was rendered not only possible, but politically incumbent. It is not, then, the words of Christ," which are answerable for the teaching of a duty of persecution. God forbid. But rather the supremacy, in the State, of the Church. Heresy and schism, as ecclesiastical offences, were put on the same footing with rebellion as a civil crime.3 events. are The hishis- sults of And, tianity, no torical re § 9. But, it may still be said, these evils chargeable on Christianity as a system, as an torical fact; they have followed in its train. no doubt, it is not intended to clear the Religion of mixed 1 "For fifteen hundred years after the establishment of the Christian religion it was intellectually and morally impossible that any religion that was not material and superstitious could have reigned over Europe." -Lecky, H. R., II. 227. 2 "Compel them to come in." See Bayle's famous treatise (Contrainsles d'entrer), and Ffoulkes' Div. Christ., pp. 91-2. 3 There is a remarkable defence in Dr. Draper's Ilist. of the Intellectual Devel. in Europe (I. 134) of the medieval policy of repression, grounded on a supposed foresight of the fearful consequences of the intellect of a people outgrowing their religious formulæ. Chris doubt, of a character. |