: describing, was simply that doctrine which of unbelief which is now so rife in the nomwas set forth by St. Paul, in the same open-inally Christian church, seemed to find in ing of the epistle to the Romans to which him its "representative man." A vast we have already referred: namely, that— throng of sceptical ideas were let loose upon "God will render to every man according to the world all at once; and many men took his deeds to them, who, by patient continuance up, some one, some another; but Theodore in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and Parker presented, in himself, the epitome immortality, eternal life; but, to them who do and summary of them all. not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." And, as to those who have "never heard of" the gospel, the same record is equally explicit. "Those who have sinned without law, shall also perish without law,"-" their conscience bearing witness" to the justice of their punishment, they having had "the work of the law written in their hearts," and so standing "guilty before God." A man who had thus outgrown his teachers, and who derided as drivellers the very Unitarian doctors who had brought him up, was not likely to want opponents and angry accusers. In fact, it seems to have been as much his policy "to say strong things," and thus to become notorious and obnoxious; as it is the policy of his followers amongst ourselves, to be prudent, and to let their sentiments escape only gradually, and in cautiously framed language. The result was, that Theodore Parker soon became a noted man. He tells us, that."Unbeliever, Infidel, and Atheist,' were the titles bestowed upon me by my brothers in the Christian ministry." He had removed, from a little village charge at Roxbury, into Boston; but, he adds, "so low was our reputation, that of all the unoccupied halls in Boston, only one could be hired for our purpose, though payment was offered in advance." (P.43.) And, "there was but one considerable publishing-house in the land that would issue my works, and this only at my own cost and risk." (P. 60.) "I had been reported to the people as a disturber of the public peace, an infidel, an atheist, an enemy to mankind. When I was to lecture in a little town, the minister, even the Unitarian, commonly stayed at home. Many warned their followers against listening to that bad man.' Others stoutly preached against me." (P. 64.) We have been forcibly struck with this fact, while reading, during the last few weeks, the Essays and Reviews, of which we spoke last month, and then The Experience of Theodore Parker. In the first of these volumes, we found the modern rationalistic infidelity set forth by seven men of some note, each of whom had taken up one branch of the subject for separate discussion. But when, immediately afterwards, we read Theodore Parker's dying legacy, we there found all the scepticism of the former seven writers flowing from a single pen. The identity, however, was remarkable; and it was the. more so, inasmuch as from the time and place of publication, it was impossible that the seven essayists could have read Theodore Parker's little book, or that he could have read theirs. Hence, when we find the same views, and thoughts, and language in both, we know that it is a widely spread moral pestilence that is before us. A single instance, however, of this unconscious identity must be excepted, because the passage appeared in Mr. Parker's Discourse some years back, and may have been read by Dr. Rowland Williams. In that Discourse, published some nine or ten years since, Mr. Parker had said: "Inspiration, like God's omnipresence, is not limited to the few writers claimed by the Jews, Christians, or Mahometans, but is co-extensive with the race. Minos and Moses, David and Pindar, Leibnitz and Paul, receive into their various forms the one spirit from God most high. This inspiration is limited to no sect, age, or nation. It is wide as the world, and common as God."-P. 161, 171. In the same tone, in the Essays and Reviews, Dr. Rowland Williams tells us that,— "The sacred writers acknowledge themselves men of like passions with ourselves, and we are promiset illumination from the spirit which dwelt in them." "We should define inspiration consistently with the facts of Scripture, and of human nature. These would neither exclude Such was Theodore Parker in Boston, the idea of fallibility among Israelites of old, nor New England, from 1845 till 1859. In this teach us to quench the spirit in true hearts forever." "But if any one prefers thinking the he was laid aside by consumption, sacred writers passionless machines, and calling year, and in the spring of the present year he died. Luther and Milton uninspired,' let him co-operThe chief interest which attaches to his char-ate in researches," etc.-P. 78. acter is that which we have already indicated. He was not the founder or originator of a Here we have the very same doctrine flowsect of unbelievers; but that peculiar caste ing from two pens-the one, that of a man last from whom the very Socinians of New England shrank in dismay; the other, that of the "Vice-Principal of St. David's College"! But we must proceed to show the identity of which we have spoken, between the seven essayists and poor Theodore Parker, by some passages taken from their book and from his book, premising, as we have already done, that he never could have seen their Essays, nor they his Experience. Our selections shall be ranged in parallel columns, setting the English writers over against the similar extracts taken from the American volume. 1.-The Education of the World, or the Developement of the Human Race. THEODORE PARKER. "I have tried to show a unity of life in the human race; pointing out the progressive development of mankind, from the state of ignorance, poverty, and utter nakedness of soul and sense, the primitive condition of the race, up to the present civilization of the leading nations. The primitive is a wild man, who gradually grows up to civilization. Of course, it must have required many a thousand years for Divine Providence to bring this child from his mute, naked, ignorant poverty, up to the many-voiced, manycolored civilization of these times. . . . In the history of art, science, war, industry, do I find proof of time immense, whercin man has been assuming his present condition, and accumulating that wealth of things and thoughts which is the mark of civilization. . . . But this progressive development does not end with us; we have seen only the beginning; the future triumphs of the race must be vastly greater than all accomplished yet."-Parker's Experience, pp. 47-49. MESSRS. TEMPLE, JOWETT, ETC. "Man cannot be considered as an individual. He is, in reality, only man by virtue of his be ing a member of the human race. . . . We may expect to find, in the history of man, cach successive age incorporating into itself the substance of the preceding. . . . Each generation receives the benefit of the cultivation of that which preceded it. Not in knowledge only, but in development of powers, the child of twelve now stands at the level where once stood the child of fourteen,-where ages ago stood the full-grown man. The discipline of manners, of temper, of thought, of feeling, is transmitted from generation to generation; and at each transmission there is an imperceptible but unfailing increase. The whole period from the closing of the Old Testament to the close of the New was the period of the world's youth,—the age of examples; and our Lord's presence was not the only influence of that kind which has acted upon the human race. Three companions were appointed by Providence to give their society to this creature whom God was educating: Greece, Rome, and the Early Church."-Essays and Reviews, Pp. 2, 4, 26. 2.-The Bible subordinate, not supreme. THEODORE PARKER. "As a Master, the Bible were a tyrant; as a Help, I have not time to tell its worth."-Parker, p. 99. "It has been the maxim of almost every sect in Christendom, that the mass of men, in religious matters, must be ruled with authority; that is, by outward force;-this principle belongs to the idea of a supernatural revelation; the people cannot determine for themselves what is true, moral, religious; their opinions must be made for them by supernatural authority; not by them through the normal use of their higher faculties."-Parker, p. 33. MESSRS. TEMPLE, JOWETT, ETC. "The Bible is hindered by its form from exercising a despotism over the human spirit; if it could do that, it would become an outer law at once; but its form is so admirably adapted to our need, that it wins from us all the reverence of a supreme authority, and yet imposes on us no yoke of subjection. . . . This it does by virtue of the principle of private judgment, which puts conscience between us and the Bible; making conscience the supreme interpreter," etc.—Essays and Reviews, p. 45. 3.-The Bible not infallible, but often erroneous. THEODORE PARKER. "I had no belief in the plenary, infallible, verbal inspiration of the whole Bible, and strong doubts as to the miraculous inspiration of any part of it."-Parker, p. 11. "I took no doctrine for true, simply because it was in the Bible; what therein seemed false or wrong, I rejected as freely as if I had found it in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists or the Mormons."-P. 30. MESSRS. TEMPLE, JOWETT, ETC. "If historical investigation shall show us that inspiration, however it may protect the doctrine, yet was not empowered to protect the narrative of the inspired writers from occasional inaccuracy,' "-"the result should still be welcome."Essays, p. 47. "Previous to the divided kingdom, the Jewish history presents little that is thoroughly reliable." (P. 170.) "The conceptions which the Hebrews formed of Jehovah, were obscured by figurative representations of him in accordance with the character of his worshippers." "Jews THEODORE PARKER AND THE OXFORD ESSAYISTS. "Men of earnest character thanked me for showing them, that the Bible is one thing and religion another; and that a man never need try to believe a statement in the Bible which was at variance with his reason and his conscience."P. 37. "I wrote two sermons on the contradictions in the Scripture :the Historic contradictions, where one part is at variance with another; the Scientific contradictions, passages at open variance with the facts of the material universe; and the moral and religious contradictions, passages hostile to the highest intuitions of human nature."-P. 35. 405 did not perceive, that the attribution of wrath "Under the terms of the sixth article one "Those who are able to do so ought to lead the less educated to distinguish between the different kinds of words which it contains; between the dark patches of human passion and error which form a partial crust upon it, and the bright centre of spiritual truth within."-P. 177. "Ill consequences follow from not acknowledging freely the extent of the human element in the sacred books; for if this were freely acknowledged on the one side, the divine element would be frankly recognized on the other."-P. 179. 6.-Christian Missions mistakenly conducted. "It is MESSRS. TEMPLE, JOWETT, ETC. "Christian missions suggest another sphere in which a more enlightened use of Scripture might offer a great advantage to the teacher." "We want to awaken in them the sense that God is their Father and they his children :-that is of more importance thran any theory about the inspiration of Scripture. But to teach in this spirit, the missionary should be able to separate the accidents from the essence of relig. ion he should be conscious that the power of the Gospel resides not in the particulars of theology, but in the Christian life."-Essays, pp. 427, 428. These specimens will be enough to show scribed as of a "neutral character." Thence how entirely agreed were the freethinking to New Zealand or the South Seas, where preacher of Boston and the seven essayists many a woman, previous to the introduction of Oxford and St. David's college. The of Christianity, used to sleep over the grave only difference is that which arises from their of eight or ten murdered infants, slain by position. Theodore Parker spoke his mind her own hands. Or to Persia, where the freely and without reserve; it was his plain- crimes which buried the cities of the plain ness of speech which made him famous. beneath the Dead Sea reign supreme; or to But English head masters, vice-principals, Turkey, withering and perishing amidst its and professors, are not quite free to say sins. Where is the land to which "the dewhat they will. We believe that there is no nunciations of revelation" do not apply? essential difference between the views of the seven essayists, and those of Theodore Parker. Yet we dare say that some of them, shrinking from using Parker's strong language, may delude themselves with the idea that there is still some distance between them. The grand identity of all, however, is not so much found in what is said, as in what is left unsaid. Neither Theodore Parker nor the seven essayists recognize the one leading fact in Christianity, the fall of man, the existence of sin. The Boston freethinker, with his, usual frankness, constantly denies it. The seven essayists show their concurrence with him, by publishing a volume on theology, of four hundred and thirty-three pages, without one allusion to the subject. Unless, indeed, we should reckon as such Mr. Wilson's supposition, at page 177, that "the story of a serpent-tempter" may be accepted as poetry or legend; and his strange assertion, at page 206, that "if we look abroad into the world and regard the neutral character of the multitude, we are at a loss to apply to them either the promises or the denunciations of revelation." But why need we refer to such extreme cases ?-it may be asked, and we put the same question to ourselves. Mr. Parker and Mr. Wilson shut their eyes, not only to the darkest features of heathenism, but even to what is immediately around them on all sides. In what part of Boston, or in what part of London, could a man fix his dwelling, in which he would not have, within a few hundred yards of him on every side, slaves of lust, whose whole lives are given to debauchery and uncleanness,-slaves of covetousness, whose thoughts never dwell on any subject but that of gain, dishonest men, cruel men, and men who live solely for their own selfish gratification? These glorifiers of human nature, selecting a spot which Christianity has civilized and purified, may sit down in a little circle of moral and intellectual men, and excluding all distasteful sounds and scenes, may dream of all the rest of mankind as of "a neutral character;" but their blindness would tend to excite feelings of wondering derision, were it not of so mournful a character. They write books in which no allusion is made to the real state of the case; just as What a strange delusion is this! "When we apprehend, when the poor inmates of a we look abroad into the world," and remem-lunatic asylum have a ball, the whole evenber the question which infidels and sceptics are fond of pressing upon us, "What do you say of the state and final destiny of the heathen?" we are always disposed to return the question into their own hands, and to ask, "What do you say?" But if we are met by such blindness as this of Mr. Wilson's, we know not how to proceed. The universal testimony of all travellers is utterly opposed to this notion of "the neutral character" of the great mass of mankind. Where, indeed, do we find it? Take a rapid flight round the world. Begin with Africa, whose whole western seaboard is desolated by the slave-trader; whose Dahomean king keeps an army of nine thousand women,-female tigers, always ravening for blood. Pass on to India, whose religious festivals, as described by William Ward and Claudius Buchanan, were scenes of unutterable abominations, and whose bloody massacres of women and children in the late Sepoy revolt, will hardly be de ing passes in mutual courtesies, music, and merriment, and the fearful word "insanity" is breathed by none. But we demand admission for the fact. Once, in Mr. Parker's pages, we catch a glimpse of the expression, "the tricksy harlot," once, of "the cunning lawyer," and "the client's gainful wickedness." Yes, there are harlots in Boston, and in New York, and in London, and not by twos or threes, but by thousands; and there are those who consort with harlots by tens of thousands; and there are cunning lawyers, and wicked clients, and these are not a few. And we beg to know, from the seven essayists and the admirers of Theodore Parker, what provision their system makes for this part of the case. Or are men to be accepted as public teachers, who drop such a fact as this out of their system, and forget to deal with it in any way? It is easy for reckless and profane writers to ridicule the idea "that God will slaughter men in hell by the million, though they have committed no fault; " but what we have a alone." These are the plain and positive right to demand of them is, How their sys- statements which Dr. Temple, Mr. Jowett, tem disposes of wicked men, who are not of Dr. Williams, and Mr. Wilson, have repeatrare occurrence, and who die in their wicked-edly subscribed; and we have a right to ask, ness in great numbers every year? Do they believe them? We feel certain that every impartial reader of these essays must receive a strong impression that this is much more than doubtful. Extinction they do not maintain; for Parker himself admits that there is an instinctive intuition in man which teaches him "that the essential element never dies." To say that God takes all, virtuous and wicked, to heaven, to dwell with him forever, is to make God unjust, and a rewarder of wickedness. The third course is, to believe that such are rejected of God; which is just what Scripture tells us; i.e., "that the wicked is driven away in his wickedness; " that "the unprofitable servant" is "cast into outer darkness." We have shown that the whole current of thought, the general complexion of belief, is one and the same in Theodore Parker, the philosophical infidel of New England, and in these Oxford professors and their coadjutors. But in making this collation, another instance of identity occurred to us. Simultaneously with Theodore Parker's self-education in unbelief, another, though a smaller man, was teaching himself the same It is true that such a state of rejection lesson in our university of Oxford. Francis must be a state of punishment; but this re- William Newman, fellow of Baliol College, sults from the very nature of things. The soul brother of John Henry Newman, had trod-which, as Theodore Parker 66 says never den, or was treading, in the very footsteps of "dies," has passed into the world of spirits Parker. He followed them at the distance unforgiven and unchanged. To be carried of perhaps two or three years; and in the to heaven, there to meet the eye of God, and year 1850 he had arrived at the same final to dwell with holy angels, would be the great-result,--the rejection of the Bible, the abanest torment to such a soul that could be con- donment of the whole Christian faith, and a ceived; but it would also be an unfit thing; conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was "not and therefore the wicked soul" goes to his a perfect character"! We had read, and own place." And to dwell with other thrown aside, his Phases of Faith, more wicked spirits, with unsatisfied lusts, and than seven years ago; but some thoughts in endless remorse, and never-dying despair, is these Essays and Reviews struck us as not the basis or reality of the most terrible pic-new; and after a little reflection, it occurred tures of the future state of the unsaved. to us, that it was in Francis Newman's conOf all this, and of what causes this-Sin, fession of infidelity that we had read them. the seven essayists say nothing; except, in- We turned to the book; and we there found deed, Mr. Wilson may be held to question that the system of the seven essayists was or deny it, in obscure terms, when he ex- identical, not only with that of Theodore Parpresses a hope, in the last sentence of his es-ker, but also, and equally, with the system of Bay, that, finally, "all, both small and great, shall find a refuge in the bosom of the Universal Parent, to repose, or be quickened to higher life, in the ages to come."-P. 206. But Mr. Wilson, while he has shown us how the Sixth Article may be explained away, and reconciled with a disbelief in onehalf of the Scriptures, has forgotten certain others of the thirty-nine. The Ninth Article, for instance, tell us that "man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil; so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore, in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation." The Tenth adds, that "Man cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God." And the Thirtyfirst states, that "The offering of Christ once made (upon the cross) is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world," "and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that our English Theodore Parker, -Francis William Newman. Let us give a few instances, without again resorting to the formality of parallel columns. 1. Mr. Wilson, in the fourth Essay, had told us of "the consequences of not acknowledging freely the extent of the human element in the sacred books; "-and he had remarked, that "previous to the time of the divided kingdom, the Jewish history presents little which is thoroughly reliable." And Mr. Jowett says, "There is no appearance in their writings that the evangelists or apostles had any inward gift, or were subject to any power external to them different from that of preaching or teaching which they daily exercised; nor do they anywhere lead us to suppose that they were free from error or infirmity."-P. 345. In like manner, Mr. F. W. Newman, in 1850, wrote :— the idea of inspiration that of infallibility. . . |