English
" That which is hr off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out T" — Id. ▼. 14. " Prove all things ; hold fAst that which is good." — i Thssb. v. 21. '* For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child : but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then £ftce to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth £uth, hope, love, these three ; but the greatest of these is love." — i Corinth, ziii. 9 — 13. '^ The more you explain all the circumstances and accom- paniments of Christianity,'^ remarked the Saugata, '' the more wonderful it appears to be. But when you urge the excellence of the Doctrine itself, as a thing that should awaken an echo of faith from the heart of man, you seem not to be aware, that the entire Christian scheme appears to us to contain very great difficulties, if not to be quite incredible." " In what respect is this so?" asked Mountain. ^' If you have no objection, I will explain to you," replied the other. (1) " In the first place," he continued, " you have spoken of human nature as diseased, or as having the Divine likeness in it marred, and requiring a certain health to be wrought in it. In the mouths of many of your teachers, this statement takes even a harsher form than in your own. For they speak of man's nature as utterly abominable, so that for God even to com- passionate it seems almost at variance with His truth. They say it deserves infinite torments, which are accordingly to be suffered by the mass of mankind. Then if we ask whether human sin does not come much of weakness and ignorance, and even of 422 DIFFICULTY OF ORIGINAL SIN. circumstances in which our Maker has placed us, they answer, No ; for that it comes of our first mother's disobedience in eating the fruit of a forbidden tree; and this act of hers, several thousand years before our birth, is, they say, put down to our accoimt ; so that, even if we never sinned for ourselves, as dying perhaps in infancy, we should still be justly liable to punish- ment, for that act in which we had no share or consciousness, but which they say was prompted by a Spiritual Enemy, or Devil, who again preceded our birth by I know not how many more ages. We were present in some mysterious way, they tell US, in the loins of Adam or the womb of Eve ; and such a doc- trine, they say, is the best account of the origin of evil, and explains the world's history ; whereas to us it appears to involve all visible acts and all voices of our conscience in inextricable confusion. But if we remonstrate, and say that such a doctrine neither gives a pleasant image of a heavenly Father, nor answers to our notions of justice, still less of equity, they reply, that our whole nature is too corrupt for us to have any notion of what is just or right; and perhaps even, that the more a doctrine con- tradicts our conscience, the more likely it is to be true ; but that the infallibility of your sacred books, as proved by miracles, (which we never ourselves saw,) should compel us to abase our proud reason, and accept thankfully the Divine Bevelation. But at least we know not how such a doctrine is good news, or a Gt)spel; for it seems to us so injurious to our Maker, and so hateful to man, that we must at least pray it may not be true. Then, as to the evidence of it, we have not seen the. miracles alleged to prove it; and it is hardly pious to put the senses so far above the soul, as to make mere stories of what men have seen, overbear our holiest conceptions of Right. But, if we cannot conceive either Truth or Bight, then our souls contain nothing for any Divine Bevelation to obtain an answer from. Again, if God implants in some of us such a special organ of sacred perception, there is left no fitness in His doing so by men, rather than by tigers or dogs ; and all your arguments for the DIFFICULTY OF THE ATONEMENT. 423 immortality of man from his reason, and conscience, and holiei* aspirations, become utterly naught, and we are driven down to the sensualism of the Chdrv^cas. Nor then would any response in us to what seemed good in a doctrine be at all trustworthy. So imholy are the consequences which seem to us to flow from the doctrine of the fall of man, and especially of the entailment of * Original Sin,' through Eve's eating the apple. It can only be proved to be revealed by arguments which make a truly Divine Bevelation impossible. (2) ^^ Akin to our first objection is a second, which we feel, to what is said of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. It seems taught, either by Paul, or by those who profess his doctrine, that the highest Qod was too angry with men, ever to forgive them without exacting a certain suffering from some one in their stead. His justice, as they say, or as it seems to us. His vindictiveness, required a payment or satisfaction which was made by Christ. Upon receiving this payment, God changed His mind, and counted innocent those guilty persons who take advantage of this dying of the innocent Christ in their stead. Thus His righteousness is, by a transfer, imputed to them ; and their guiltiness, by a fiction, to Him. The Innocent suffers as guilty, and the guilty are pardoned, as innocent ; the places of both being changed by imputation, or their merit and demerit inverted. This doctrine seems made by some so essential, that all Christianity turns upon it, and faith in it stands instead of all virtues, or at least is the paramoimt requisite, and only plea availing, for acceptance. Whereas to us the whole doctrine seems imholy. For, in the first place, it makes the Eternal Grod change His mind, whereas we think, and Christians some- times acknowledge. Him to be unchangeable. Secondly it makes Him vindictive, in that He would not forgive mere penitence ; whereas we count it a hardness of heart even in men to be un- forgiving. It makes Him also mercenary, in that He does, on receiving a price, what He would not do out of pure goodness. In the same way it makes Him selfish, in that He is said to 424 DIFFICULTY OF ELECTION. 'consider only His own glory*;' whereas it would be more for His true glory to consider in love the good of others. Again, it contradicts the truth of God, that He should call innocent those who are really guilty, and by a fiction lay guilt on the innocent; especially if He does this out of an arbitrary choice f, and not out of inherent fitness. Nor can it be said, that Justice is thus satisfied, for such conduct is not truly just. Nothing which is untrue, can be just. Nor again, is it easy to see, how the life and death of Jesus, which took place in flesh and time, could satisfy a debt which you say was infinite, for it involved no less than eternal torments. But if you reply, that Jesus was also Christ the Son of Gtod, and that His Divinity made His sufierings of infinite value, then it would suffice for all, and it would be cruel of Grod not to extend it to all. (3) " This brings me to my third objection. Most Christians teach, that only the chosen few, or the elect, are really saved. Then this infinite salvation of yours becomes finite; and the Gospel is no longer good news to all men, but to a few. Thus Gt)d is no longer the Father of all, but of the elect. Some of your teachers even connect such an election exclusively with the profession of Christianity, and say, that many Christians will BuflFer everlasting torment, but that all who are not Christians must do so. To me that is not good news. Others, who are more moderate, allow that Divine election may be amongst persons, who without fault on their own part, are ignorant of Christianity. But even these leave an arbitrariness in the selection of a few to be saved. Others, they say, will have rejected in iree will an ofier made them; but they add, that whoever accepts, does so because he is irresistibly induced by Divine grace. Why then does not this grace induce more? You blame us for taking away, as you fancy, the Divine self- consciousness ; but what can be worse than taking away the * Galyin's JnttUuta, t Hooker argues that the Divine Will is not without reason, but chooses the good. PREDESTINATION. THE TBINITY.