CHURCH PRINCIPLES

CONSIDERED

IN THEIR RESULTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

1-4. True form of History. 5-8. Variation and reaction in religion. 9, 10. Movement not necessarily progressive. 11-28. Characteristics of this period as one of religious reaction; the evils and their remedies. 29-35. Enumeration of the subjects to be discussed; and the mode of handling them.

1. IF it be expedient to note the forms of thought and action by which successive ages are distinguished as they pass by us, and thus to supply the materials of a larger retrospect and of more comprehensive and permanent records, it can scarcely be a task requiring much apology, to consider the bearings of particular truths of religion with respect to the shifting circumstances of the world from time to time, and to the different degrees and modes in which those truths are apprehended. That which we familiarly call the history of men, is not their history. It is a part indeed of their history, but not the most important and essential part. We should think it strange, and might be tempted to complain of it as either a gross error

B

or a fraud, if an account of some of the less important classes of material objects should monopolise or even assume the title of natural history. It is not less at variance with the true nature of things, though more in conformity with our habitual but erroneous conceptions, that relations, which are only secondary with respect to the most momentous interests of man, and the highest parts of his nature, should, by a semblance of common consent, be considered the history of man. There is fraud in this case, but the fraud is in ourselves, in each of us, in the depravation of the inward eye, which misrepresents the comparative magnitude of objects, and gives to the things which are seen, a greater importance than to those which are not seen.

2. Secular history explains to us much of what concerns the bodily and temporal interests of man: his social position and the results upon character arising out of it, much of his experimental life in the senses, in the imagination, in the understanding, and even in the affections. It ought to go, and in right hands it does go, much farther. The true historian interprets and combines its separate phenomena, by constant reference to the central influence which controls all the movements of human nature; the principle of religion. Yet, for a long time, and until very recently, the mind of our country has been fed with its knowledge of the past, from works which are altogether defective on this vital subject; and it will probably be long before our habits are so reformed as

that we shall read history only in the light of revelation. But what aspect of the character of the creature is entitled to compete for a moment with that in which he is viewed by the Creator? To the rescued child of Adam what so vital as the great subject of his redemption? To the human being, who, if he is to live permanently, must live by a new life, what matter the concerns and the history of the former state, except in an instrumental and subordinate capacity? We ought indeed to be on our guard against that morbid teaching, which inculcates an universal recoil from earthly objects as the true law of general morality; which treats this life on earth as if it were a mere accident of our being and perceives nothing but empty vision in all its impressive and pregnant experience. On the contrary, it is an ordained and necessary part of the development of man: and when its regulation is committed to right laws, it is in harmony much more than in opposition to the future and untroubled existence, which awaits the faithful members of Christ. But still it remains true, that, great as is the importance of our civil and social life, it is not an essential but an instrumental importance: it is important for that which it yields and generates, not for that which it is; and all its influences are real and of weight, only when we take into calculation something that lies without it and beyond it.

3. It is in the history of the Church that we have the final consummation of all human destinies. Whatever we are, or have, or do, is important, at least is

beneficially important, only in connexion with the religious bearing of our lives. Every gift and ornament of the human character is either pernicious, or useless, or at best fragile and unenduring, unless it be sanctified and stamped with permanence by a vital union with the spirit of religioni Every form of loveliness, which belongs to this world alone, must pass away with it; and the beautiful and graceful things we idolize are but like the fillets that önce bound the temples of the sacrificial victim, unless we obtain for them a passport to the better world, by applying to them that perpetuating power of religion, which, blending these lighter with the higher and holier qualities, rescues them from abuse; and, removing them from their dedication to the purposes of pride and selfishness, appoints them to serve God each according to its capacity.

Thus, from being mischievous, do temporal gifts and talents become valuable. They are estimated indeed only at their proper worth, but in that measure they are blessed by God, and acceptable to Him. The common tenor of daily life affords not to the philosophical and sagacious mind alone, but to any man who will look for them, continual occasions for the exercise of duty, though often upon a subject matter apparently unconnected with it: purity, integrity, courage, patience, diligence, self-command, may be fed and strengthened amid the humblest labours of each succeeding hour, though of course it is in the acts of direct duty or worship that the mental powers

and affections have their highest honour and reward; and so the whole circle of human experience is chiefly to be viewed with reference to its religious results. Our relations to Godward are those which should occupy the largest share in our attention, as they will exercise the most determining influence on our destiny, and these are they which compose the history of the Church; for it is in the Church that we have our religious life, derived to us not as individuals, but by virtue of incorporation into her body. In her alone the world is loved, and in her, for the sake of her head, the Redeemer.

4. Further, as secular history will in the natural course of things be gathered from contemporary observations, first recorded with the advantages of proximity, and then reduced into order with those of comprehensive and impartial contemplation: so, in the history of religion, we ought merely to consider not only the records of the past, with which our concern is comparatively remote, but also those peculiarities and variations which are actually beneath our eye, which belong to the circumstances and persons of our own time, and by which perhaps in more than trifling particulars the forms of our own belief, and thus of our own character, are determined. And the habit of observation which should arrest and embody some of the religious characteristics of the period as they rise or ripen or decline, and the pen which should record them with fidelity, might be found to render, useful service to truth.

5. It may possibly be objected that these remarks