Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors Part 51

"The 'Country Parson,' in his late work, the 'Autumn Holidays,'

contends that the fear of future punishment in another world has little influence in deterring from crime. He ought to have added, that the reason may be, that there is so little belief in any spiritual world whatever, among men of grosser sensuality; and that future punishment, as it is preached in the old theology, is so arbitrary as to seem unreal, and is losing its power over all thinking minds. The following case is cited from the experience of a Scotch minister. No ministers, let it be remembered, preach the literal flames of a local h.e.l.l in tones more awful than they.

"His parishioners were sadly addicted to drinking to excess. Men and women were given alike to this degrading vice. He did all he could to repress it, but in vain. For many years he warned the drunkards, in the most solemn manner, of the doom they might expect in another world; but, so far as he knew, not a pot of ale or gla.s.s of spirits the less was drunk in the parish in consequence of his denunciations. Future woe melted into mist in the presence of a replenished jug or a market-day. A happy thought struck the clergyman. In the neighboring town, there was a clever medical man, a vehement teetotaler; him he summoned to his aid. The doctor came, and delivered a lecture on the _physical_ consequences of drunkenness, ill.u.s.trating his lecture with large diagrams, which gave shocking representations of the stomach, lungs, heart, and other vital organs as affected by alcohol. These things came home to the drunkards, who had not cared a rush for final perdition. The effect produced was tremendous. Almost all the men and women of the parish took the total abstinence pledge; and since that day drunkenness has nearly ceased in that parish. Nor was the improvement evanescent; it has lasted two or three years."

49 So Erigena (quoted by Strauss), _De Divis Nat._ "Vera ratio docet, nullum contrarium divinae bonitati vitaeque ac beat.i.tudini posse esse coeternum; divina siquidem bonitas consumet malitiam, aeterna vita absorbet mortem, beat.i.tudo miseriam."

50 The name given to them by Augustine ("Civ. Dei," lib. 21, c. 17): "Denique hujus sententiae Patronos S. Augustinus appellat t.i.tulo non incongruo, 'Doctores Misericordes' tractatque non inhumaniter."

Thomas Burnet, "De Statu Mortuum et Resurgentium." Chap. XI.

51 See Bretschneider, "Dogmatik," and Strauss, "Christliche Glaubenslehre."

52 "Nos et angelos futuros daemones si egerimus negligenter; et rursum daemones, si voluerint capere virtutes, pervenire ad angelicam dignitatem." Origen, quoted by Jerome.

53 "Nihil enim omnipotenti impossibile est, nec insanabile aliquid est factori suo."

54 "Quod tamen non ad subitum fieri, sed paulatim et per partes intelligen dum est, infinitis et immensis labentibus saeculis, c.u.m sensim per singulos emendatio fuerit et correctio prosecuta, praecurrentibus aliis, aliis insequentibus." See these quotations in Strauss, Hase, &c.

55 Matt. 25:46. The Greek word translated in the English as "everlasting" punishment in the beginning of the verse, and as life "eternal" at the end, is the same word (???????) in both places, and should be translated "eternal" in both.

_ 56 Remorse_-from _mordeo_, to gnaw. So St. Thomas (Summa, Pars III. 2, 97): "Vermis non debet esse intelligi corporalis sed spiritualis, qui est con scientiae remorsus."

57 "Pauci res ipsas, sed rerum imagines, tanquam in speculo, intuentur: at res ipsas, facie ad faciem, ut dicitur, et ablato velo, visuri sumus tandem si Deo placuerit, partim sub occasu hujusee mundi, plenius autem in futuro."-_Thomas Burnet_, De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium Tractatus. Londini. Typis et impensis J. Hooke, in vico vulg dicto _Fleet Street_, 1737.-No one has spoken more powerfully and eloquently than he against everlasting punishment, particularly in the pa.s.sage beginning "n.o.bis difficile est omnem exuere humanitatem." p. 309.

58 Is it not remarkable (as showing how little the New Testament has as yet been really studied) that there should be so many discussions as to the future doom of _the heathen_, when Jesus himself here distinctly tells us what it will be. The word ???? is the only word in the New Testament which is ever translated _heathen_: wherever the word _heathen_ occurs in our Bible, it is always this. Jesus teaches that the heathen (inside and outside of Christendom) will be judged _according to their humanity_, their obedience to the law written in their hearts; and he shows that this is coincident with the law of Christianity. So, when the Church of England says (in its 18th article) that "they also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature;" it denounces this curse on Christ himself, and thus proves conclusively that it is not speaking by the Spirit of G.o.d, since "no man, speaking by the Spirit of G.o.d, calleth Jesus accursed." (1 Cor. 12:3) This comes of the habit (happily less common now than formerly) of throwing about curses at random, against those who differ from our opinions. Some of them may thus, accidentally, hit the Master himself. It is, perhaps, of less consequence that this anathema also touches the apostle Paul, who declares that the heathen who have not the law are a law to themselves when they do right, and are absolved by their conscience.

(Rom. 2:14.)

59 Origen, Homil. in Levit. 7:2. "Salvator meus luget etiam nunc peccata mea; Salvator meus laetari non potest, donec ego in iniquitate permaneo. Non vult solus in regno Dei bibere vinum laet.i.tiae-nos expectat."

60 Guericke, Christ. Symbolik, -- 70.

61 "Ecclesia enim est ctus hominum ita visibilis et palpabilis ut est ctus populi Romani, vel regnum Galliae, aut respublica Venetorum."

Bellarmin. Eccles. Milit. c. 2.

62 Moehler, Symbolism, -- 36.

63 "Bonos et malos ad ecclesiam pertinere Catholica fides vere et constante affirmat." Cat. Rom.

64 The chief pa.s.sage in proof of this, as is well known, is Matt.

16:18, 19 "Thou art Peter," &c. But even Augustine, the great light of the Latin Church, says that "Peter was not the Rock, but Christ was the Rock." (Neander, vol. ii. p. 168.) The same power was given to the other apostles. Matt. 18:18. John 20:23. Rev. 21:14.

65 Le Protestantisme Liberal par le Pasteur Bost. Paris, Bailliere, 1865.

66 "Il est de fait que le Catholicisme, qui est essentiellement un principe d'authorite, ne sait pas dire ou reside cette authorite."

67 "Thirty-nine Articles, art. xix." So Augs. Conf. art. 7: "Congregatio sanctorum, in qua evangelium recte docetur, et recte administrantur sacramenta." But it may be asked, Who is to decide on the "_recte_"?

68 In the remarkable work "Ecce h.o.m.o".

69 Tholuck, in his charming work on the Sermon on the Mount, speaks thus ("_Bergpredigt Christ. von A. Tholuck._") "Two princ.i.p.al defects are found in the usual treatment of this doctrine: first, the different aspects and relations of the kingdom of G.o.d are by many considered as different _meanings_ of the word, and are left standing side by side, without any attempt to ground their unity in some fundamental idea. Or, secondly, and still worse, a single aspect of the term is taken up, and the rest are wholly neglected.

Examples of the first defect are to be found in Zwingle, in his note to John 3:3. (Here the kingdom of G.o.d is considered as divine doctrine and preaching of the gospel, as in Luke 18; sometimes it is taken for eternal life, Matt. 25; Luke 14; sometimes for the church and congregation of the faithful, as Matt. 13:24.) The later lexicographers, as Schleusner and Bretschneider, have not avoided these vague statements; and the last of them is particularly defective in his article on this phrase. Trahl more correctly sums up all these significations of the word thus: 'Happiness, present and future, obtained through Christ.' But in this definition the notion of 'a kingdom' is omitted. The opposite defect of taking only one of the meanings of the matter, to the neglect of the rest, is to be found, for example, in Koppe and Keil, according to whom the expression relates merely to the future reign of the Messiah one day to be established.

"Our own explanation of this expression starts from the phrase 'kingdom of G.o.d,' which explains the others, 'kingdom of heaven' and 'kingdom of Christ.' We think that the fundamental idea has been grasped by none more correctly than by Origen among the ancients, and by Calvin among the reformers. The phase of the idea princ.i.p.ally dwelt upon by the Church Fathers may be seen in their explanation of the third pet.i.tion of the Lord's Prayer, which Augustine especially examines profoundly. Most of them understand by it the realm of glory, the future revelation of Christ. Origen alone, in his book on Prayer, taken a more exact view of the subject. In like manner Calvin, in his Commentary on the Harmony. So Luther, in his fine Sermon on the Kingdom of G.o.d. Our own fundamental view we express thus: 'A community in which G.o.d reigns, not by force, but by being obeyed freely from love, and which is therefore necessarily united in itself by mutual love.' The Saviour came upon the earth to found such a community, and since it can only be completely established after he has conquered all his enemies, this kingdom of Christ belongs in its perfection to the other world."

70 An eminent and learned gentleman told me of this conversation which he had with a Roman priest: "When the wine of the Eucharist is consecrated, it becomes the real blood of Christ-does it not?"

Priest, "It does." "What, then, do you do with that which remains in the cup, after communion?" Priest, "We drink it." "Does not some adhere to the gla.s.s?" Priest, "Yes; but we wash the gla.s.s." "What do you do with the water?" Priest, "We drink it." "But must there not yet remain, on the napkin, with which you wipe the gla.s.s, some portion of the blood of Christ, even though it be an infinitesimal portion?" Priest, "Yes." "Then, might it not happen that when the napkin is washed, this portion of Christ's blood may go into the water, and be poured on the ground, and be taken up by the root of a plant-say a cabbage. Would, then, the flesh of that cabbage contain, or would it not a portion of the blood of Christ?"

71 See, in the New York "Independent," June 9, 1866, the account of the "Recognition of Congregational Churches in Philadelphia," where the existence of this principle is admitted and defended by some eminent Congregational ministers; admitted and deplored by others.

72 Twesten, "Vorlesungen," &c., vol ii., p. 216. He adds to this definition its Latin form, in which the words "certain characteristics" stand "certis characteribus hypostaticis."

73 Quoted by Schleiermacher, "Glaubenslehre," -- 170.

74 See the full discussions of these terms in Twesten (as above), Hase, "Christl. Glaubenslehre," -- 56. Strauss, "Christl. Glaubenslehre,"

vol. i. Hase, "Dogmatik," &c.

75 Dogmatik, -- 239.

76 Augustine (de Trinit.), says, "One life in man, but three faculties-memory, intelligence, will." But how if this is bad psychology?

77 Erigena, "The Father in the soul, the Son in the reason, the Spirit in the sense-this makes the most luminous ill.u.s.tration."

78 Abelard (quoted by Strauss).

79 Richard St. Victor (quoted by Hase), "There can be no possible communion of affection between a less number than three persons." So Augustine, "c.u.m aliquid amo, tria sunt-_ego_, et _quod_ amo, et ipse _amor_." Such ill.u.s.trations are hardly satisfactory at the present day. Poiret says the Father is "_Deus a se_," the Son is "_Deus ex se_," the Holy Spirit "_Deus ad se refluens_." Angelus Silecius makes the Trinity a divine kiss. "G.o.d kisses himself-the Father kisses, the Son is kissed, the Spirit is the kiss."

80 Translated from the Latin in Hagenbach (Compend of the History of Doctrines, vol. i. p. 289). We agree with Strauss, who says, "Furwahr, wer das _Symbolum Quidcunque_ beschworen hatte, der hatte die Gesetze des menschlichen Denkens abgeschworen." So the Pastor Bost (Le Protestantisme Liberal), after giving the Creed, in a somewhat different form, adds, "ubi insana faciunt, mysterium appellant."

81 "Incomprehensible," Church of England Liturgy.

82 Or "each person by himself." The word in the Latin is "sigillatim,"

a word not in most of the dictionaries, but in some of them made equivalent to "singulatim."

83 Tertullian said, we can call Christ "G.o.d" when we speak of him alone; but if we mention him with the Father, then we must call the Father "G.o.d," and call Christ only "Lord." "For a ray of light shining into a room, we may call the sun shining there; but if we speak of the sun at the same time, then we must distinguish the ray, and call it not sun, but sunbeam."

84 The decrees of the Council of Nice inclined to Sabellianism. The term ????s??? (_of the same essence_) was a Sabellian term.

Sabellianism could, in fact, stand most of the tests of modern Orthodoxy, since it maintains _three persons and one essence_, ?a?

?p?stas?? and t??a p??s?pa; and Schleiermacher, in one of his most elaborate treatises (Ueber den Gegensatz zwischen der Sabellianischen und der Athanasianischen Vorstellung von der Trinitat. Theolog. Zeitschrift. Berlin, 1822), has sought to rehabilitate Sabellianism. Moses Stuart translated this treatise, and plainly advocated a similar view. Hase (Kirchengeschichte, -- 91) defines the view of Sabellius as making "Father, Son, and Spirit the different forms of revelation of the Supreme Unity unfolding itself in the world history as the Triad." Perhaps (see Baur) the chief peculiarity of Sabellius is in making the Triad begin and end with the process of revelation. The Monad is G.o.d in himself: the Triad is G.o.d in the process of self-revelation (Baur, "Christliche Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit," and "Lehrbuch der Christlichen Dogmengeschichte").

85 "Dictum est tamen tres personae, non ut illud diceretur, sed ut ne taceretur." Aug. de. Trin., quoted by Hase, Dog. -- 238.

86 John of Damascus (quoted by Twesten) made his boast of Christianity, that it united what was true in Polytheism with what was true in Judaism. "From the Jews," he says, "we have the oneness of nature, from the Greeks the distinction in hypostases."

87 The substance of what follows in this section, appeared in the "Christian Examiner."

88 The _nature_ by which the heathen "do the things contained in the law," i.e., obey G.o.d, which is here (Rom. 2:15) called "the law written in the heart," is in Rom. 7:23 called the "law of the mind."

Olshausen (a sufficiently Orthodox commentator), says, "It is wholly false to understand ?ta? p??? of a mere ideal _possibility_; the apostle speaks evidently of a real and actual obedience. Paul infers that, because there are actually pious heathen, they must have a law which they obey." _Ad loc.u.m._

89 We have no room to enter into an examination of this question at this time, and can only give a general statement on this subject from one of the authorities which happens to be at hand:-