xvi Preface to the Second Edition. and contempt, at least with real although silent aversion. Church formularies appear to it simply in the light of an incubus upon true religious thought and feeling; for it is insensible to the preciousness of the truths which they guard. Hence as its aims and actions become more and more defined, it tends with increasing decision to become Humanitarian. Its dislike of the language of Nicæa hardens into an explicit denial of the truth which that language guards. Yet, if it exults in being unorthodox, and therefore is hostile to the Creed, it is ambitious to be pre-eminently moral, and therefore it lays especial emphasis upon the beauty and perfection of Christ's Human character. It aspires to analyse, to study, to imitate that character in a degree which was, it thinks, impossible during those ages of dogma which it professes to have closed. It thus relieves its desire to be still loyal in some sense to Jesus Christ, although under new conditions: if it discards ancient formularies, it maintains that this rejection takes place only and really in the interest of moral truth. Now it is to such a general habit of mind that this book as a whole, and the argument from Our Lord's self-assertion in particular, ventures to address itself. Believing that the cause of dogma is none other than the cause of morality,—that the perfect moral character of Jesus Christ is really compatible only with the Nicene assertion of His absolute Divinity,—the writer has endeavoured to say so. He has not been at pains to disguise his earnest conviction, that the hopes and sympathies, which have been raised in many sincerely religious minds by the so-called Liberal-religious movement of our day, are destined to a rude and bitter disappointment. However long the final decision between 'some faith' and 'no faith' may be deferred, it must be made at last. Already advanced rationalistic thought agrees with Catholic believers in maintaining that Christ is not altogether a good man, if He is not altogether Superhuman. And if this be so, surely it is prudent as well as honest to say Preface to the Second Edition. xvii and to cast out His very Name as evil, in the years to come, will be thankful to have recognised the real tendencies of an anti-dogmatic teaching which for the moment may have won their sympathies. It is of the last importance in religious thinking, not less than in religious practice, that the question, Whither am I going? should be asked and answered. Such a question is not the less important because for the present all is smooth and reassuring, combining the reality of religious change with the avoidance of any violent shock to old convictions. It has been said that there is a peculiar fascination in the movement of a boat which is gliding softly and swiftly down the rapids above Niagara. But a man must be strangely constituted to be able, under such circumstances, so to abandon himself to the sense of present satisfaction as to forget the fate which is immediately before him. The argument from Christ's character to His Divinity which is here put forward can make no pretence to originality. To the present writer, it was suggested in its entirety, some years ago, upon a perusal of Mr. F. W. Newman's 'Phases of Faith.' The seventh chapter of that remarkable but saddening work yielded the analysis which has been expanded in these lectures, and which the lecturer had found, on more than one occasion, to be serviceable in assisting Socinians to understand the real basis of the Church's faith respecting the dignity of her Head. It agrees, moreover, even in detail, with the work of the great preacher of the Church of France, to whose earnestness and genius the present writer has elsewhere professed himself to be, and always must feel, sincerely indebted. The real justification of such arguments lies in a fact which liberal thinkers will not be slow to recognise a. If the moral a Do we not however find a sanction for this class of arguments in appeals such as the following? St. John vii. 42: If God were your Father, ye would have loved Me.' St. John v. 38: And ye have not His Word abiding in you: for, whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not.' And is not this summarized in the apostolical teaching? I St. John ii. 23: 'Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.' Such passages xviii Preface to the Second Edition. sense of man be impaired by the Fall, it is not so entirely disabled as to be incapable of discerning moral beauty. If it may err when it attempts to determine, on purely à priori human grounds, what should be the conduct and dispensations of God in dealing with His creatures, it is not therefore likely to be in error when it stands face to face with human sincerity, and humility, and love. At the feet of the Christ of the Gospels, the moral sense may be trusted to protest against an intellectual aberration which condemns Him as vain and false and selfish, only that it may rob Him of His aureole of Divinity. In the seventh chapter of the "Phases of Faith," I quote the words of a thoughtful friend, 'there is the satisfaction of feeling that one has reached the very floor of Pandemonium, and that a rebound has become almost inevitable. Anything is better than to be sinking still, one knows not how deeply, into the abyss.' It may be said that other alternatives have been put forward, with a view of forcing orthodox members of the Church of England into a position analogous to that in which the argument of these lectures might place a certain section of Latitudinarian thinkers. For example, some Roman Catholic and some sceptical writers unite in urging that either all orthodox Christianity is false, or the exclusive claims of the Church of Rome must be admitted to be valid. Every such alternative must be considered honestly, and in view of the particular evidence which can be produced in its support. But to propound the present alternative between Rome and unbelief, is practically to forget that the acceptance of the dogmatic principle, or of any principle, does not commit those who accept it to its exaggerations or corruptions; and that the promises of Our Lord to His people in regard alike to Unity and to Holiness, are, in His mysterious providence, permitted to be appear to shew, that to press an inference, whether it be moral or doctrinal, from an admitted truth, by insisting that the truth itself is virtually rejected if the inference be declined, is not accurately described as a trick of Preface to the Second Edition. xix In a word, the traversed by the misuse of man's free-will. dilemma between Roman Catholicism and infidelity is, as a matter of fact, very far from being obviously exhaustive : but it is difficult to see that any intermediate position can be really made good between the denial of Christ's Human perfection and the admission that He is a Superhuman Person. And when this admission is once fairly made, it leads by easy and necessary steps to belief in His true Divinity. The great question of our day is, whether Christ our Lord is only the author and founder of a religion, of which another Being, altogether separate from Him, namely, God, is the object; or whether Jesus Christ Himself, true God and true Man, is, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the Object of Christian faith and love as truly as, in history, He was the Founder of Christendom. Come what may, the latter belief has been, is, and will be to the end, the Faith of His Church. May those who are tempted to exchange it for its modern rival reflect that the choice before them does not lie between a creed with one dogma more, and a creed with one dogma less, nor yet between a mediæval and a modern rendering of the Gospel history. It is really a choice between a phantom and a reality; between the implied falsehood and the eternal truth of Christianity; between the interest which may cling to a discredited and evanescent memory of the past, and the worship of a living, ever-present, and immaculate Redeemer. CHRIST CHURCH, Whitsuntide, 1868. PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION. MORE than thirteen years have elapsed since any alteration was made in the text or notes of this volume; but some criticisms, more or less direct, have appeared, of which the writer has long been anxious to take advantage, by correcting proved inaccuracies or by the addition of explanatory matter. In doing this he has found reason to regret that it is not possible to reconstruct the book, on a larger scale, without destroying its identity, and thus forfeiting its place in the series to which it belongs. If he has left some objections unnoticed, this is because he could not afford, on the score of space, to notice any but such as have enabled him to improve his work. Thus an objection that passages of the New Testament which assert our Lord's Humanity had been overlooked will be found to be answered incidentally by the more complete Index of texts, for which this edition is indebted to the Rev. J. O. Johnston, M.A., of Keble College. Criticisms which imply a difference of fundamental principle could not be adequately considered without entering upon discussions, any one of which might furnish matter for a separate treatise a. CHRIST CHURCH, Advent, 1881 a See Note H, p. 548. |