Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions Part 36

[124] "Let us maintain, before we have proved. This seeming paradox is the secret of happiness" (Dr. Newman: Tract 85, p. 85).

[125] Dr. Newman, _Essay on Development_, p. 357.

[126] It is by no means to be a.s.sumed that "spiritual" and "corporeal" are exact equivalents of "immaterial" and "material" in the minds of ancient speculators on these topics. The "spiritual body" of the risen dead (1 Cor.

xv.) is not the "natural" "flesh and blood" body. Paul does not teach the resurrection of the body in the ordinary sense of the word "body"; a fact, often overlooked, but pregnant with many consequences.

[127] Tertullian (_Apolog. adv. Gentes_, cap. xxiii.) thus challenges the Roman authorities: let them bring a possessed person into the presence of a Christian before their tribunal; and, if the demon does not confess himself to be such, on the order of the Christian, let the Christian be executed out of hand.

[128] See the expression of orthodox opinion upon the "accommodation"

subterfuge already cited above, p. 336.

[129] I quote the first edition (1843). A second edition appeared in 1870.

Tract 85 of the _Tracts for the Times_ should be read with this _Essay_. If I were called upon to compile a Primer of "Infidelity," I think I should save myself trouble by making a selection from these works, and from the _Essay on Development_ by the same author.

[130] Yet, when it suits his purpose, as in the Introduction to the _Essay on Development_, Dr. Newman can demand strict evidence in religious questions as sharply as any "infidel author"; and he can even profess to yield to its force (_Essay on Miracles_, 1870, note, p. 391).

[131] Compare Tract 85, p. 110: "I am persuaded that were men but consistent who oppose the Church doctrines as being unscriptural, they would vindicate the Jews for rejecting the Gospel."

[132] According to Dr. Newman, "This prayer [that of Bishop Alexander, who begged G.o.d to 'take Arius away'] is said to have been offered about 3 P.M.

on the Sat.u.r.day; that same evening Arius was in the great square of Constantine, when he was suddenly seized with indisposition" (p. clxx). The "infidel" Gibbon seems to have dared to suggest that "an option between poison and miracle" is presented by this case; and, it must be admitted, that, if the Bishop had been within the reach of a modern police magistrate, things might have gone hardly with him. Modern "Infidels,"

possessed of a slight knowledge of chemistry, are not unlikely, with no less audacity, to suggest an "option between fire-damp and miracle" in seeking for the cause of the fiery outburst at Jerusalem.

[133] A writer in a spiritualist journal takes me roundly to task for venturing to doubt the historical and literal truth of the Gadarene story.

The following pa.s.sage in his letter is worth quotation: "Now to the materialistic and scientific mind, to the uninitiated in spiritual verities, certainly this story of the Gadarene or Gergesene swine presents insurmountable difficulties; it seems grotesque and nonsensical. To the experienced, trained, and cultivated Spiritualist this miracle is, as I am prepared to show, one of the most instructive, the most profoundly useful, and the most beneficent which Jesus ever wrought in the whole course of His pilgrimage of redemption on earth." Just so. And the first page of this same journal presents the following advertis.e.m.e.nt, among others of the same kidney:--

"TO WEALTHY SPIRITUALISTS.--A Lady Medium of tried power wishes to meet with an elderly gentleman who would be willing to give her a comfortable home and maintenance in Exchange for her Spiritualistic services, as her guides consider her health is too delicate for public sittings: London preferred.--Address "Mary," Office of _Light_."

Are we going back to the days of the Judges, when wealthy Micah set up his private ephod, teraphim, and Levite?

[134] Consider Tertullian's "sister" ("hodie apud nos"), who conversed with angels, saw and heard mysteries, knew men's thoughts, and prescribed medicine for their bodies (_De Anima_, cap. 9). Tertullian tells us that this woman saw the soul as corporeal, and described its colour and shape.

The "infidel" will probably be unable to refrain from insulting the memory of the ecstatic saint by the remark, that Tertullian's known views about the corporeality of the soul may have had something to do with the remarkable perceptive powers of the Montanist medium, in whose revelations of the spiritual world he took such profound interest.

[135] See the New York _World_ for Sunday, 21st October 1888; and the _Report of the Seybert Commission_, Philadelphia, 1887.

[136] Dr. Newman's observation that the miraculous multiplication of the pieces of the true cross (with which "the whole world is filled," according to Cyril of Jerusalem; and of which some say there are enough extant to build a man-of-war) is no more wonderful than that of the loaves and fishes is one that I do not see my way to contradict. See _Essay on Miracles_, 2d ed. p. 163.

[137] _An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine_, by J. H. Newman, D.D., pp. 7 and 8. (1878.)

[138] Dr. Newman faces this question with his customary ability. "Now, I own, I am not at all solicitous to deny that this doctrine of an apostate Angel and his hosts was gained from Babylon: it might still be Divine nevertheless. G.o.d who made the prophet's a.s.s speak, and thereby instructed the prophet, might instruct His Church by means of heathen Babylon" (Tract 85, p. 83). There seems to be no end to the apologetic burden that Balaam's a.s.s can carry.

[139] _Nineteenth Century_, May 1889 (p. 701).

[140] I trust it may not be supposed that I undervalue M. Renan's labours, or intended to speak slightingly of them.

[141] To-day's _Times_ contains a report of a remarkable speech by Prince Bismarck, in which he tells the Reichstag that he has long given up investing in foreign stock, lest so doing should mislead his judgment in his transactions with foreign states. Does this declaration prove that the Chancellor accuses himself of being "sordid" and "selfish," or does it not rather show that, even in dealing with himself, he remains the man of realities?

[142] _Bampton Lectures_ (1859), on "The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records stated anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times," by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6.

[143] _The Worth of the Old Testament_, a Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on the Second Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec. 1889, by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Second edition, revised and with a new preface, 1890.

[144] St. Luke xvii. 32.

[145] _Ibid._ 27.

[146] St. Matt. xii. 40.

[147] _Bampton Lectures_, 1859, pp. 50-51.

[148] _Commentary on Genesis_, by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77.

[149] _Die Sintflut_, 1876.

[150] _Theologie und Naturwissenschaft_, ii. 784-791 (1877).

[151] It is very doubtful if this means the region of the Armenian Ararat.

More probably it designates some part either of the Kurdish range or of its south-eastern continuation.

[152] So Reclus (_Nouvelle Geographie Universelle_, ix. 386), but I find the statement doubted by an authority of the first rank.

[153] So far as I know, the narrative of the Creation is not now held to be true, in the sense in which I have defined historical truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for the attempts to stretch the Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or millions of years, the verdict of the eminent biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm (_Der biblische Schopfungsbericht_, 1881, pp.

15, 16), on such pranks of "Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the reconcilers take Goethe's advice seriously?--

"Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter!

Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."

[154] Thus Josephus (lib. ix.) says that his rival, Justus, persuaded the citizens of Tiberias to "set the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos on fire; which villages were situated on the borders of Tiberias and of the region of Scythopolis."

[155] It is said to have been destroyed by its captors.

[156] "But as to the Grecian cities Gaza and Gadara and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria."--Josephus, _Wars_, II. vi.

3. See also _Antiquities_, XVII. xi. 4.

[157] _Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Christi_, 1886-90.

[158] If William the Conqueror, after fighting the battle of Hastings had marched to capture Chichester and then returned to a.s.sault Rye, being all the while anxious to reach London, his proceedings would not have been more eccentric than Mr. Gladstone must imagine those of Vespasian were.

[159] See Reland, _Palestina_ (1714), t. ii. p. 771. Also Robinson, _Later Biblical Researches_ (1856), p. 87 _note_.

[160] _Nineteenth Century_, February 1891, pp. 339-40.

[161] Neither is it of any consequence whether the locality of the supposed miracle was Gadara, or Gerasa, or Gergesa. But I may say that I was well acquainted with Origen's opinion respecting Gergesa. It is fully discussed and rejected in Riehm's _Handworterbuch_. In Kitto's _Biblical Cyclopaedia_ (ii. p. 51) Professor Porter remarks that Origen merely "_conjectures_"

that Gergesa was indicated; and he adds, "Now, in a question of this kind, conjectures cannot be admitted. We must implicitly follow the most ancient and creditable testimony, which clearly p.r.o.nounces in favour of [Greek: Gadarenon]. This reading is adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles."

[162] I may call attention, in pa.s.sing, to the fact that this authority, at any rate, has no sort of doubt of the fact that Jewish Law did not rule in Gadara (indeed, under the head of "Gadara," in the same work, it is expressly stated that the population of the place consisted "predominantly of heathens"), and that he scouts the notion that the Gadarene swineherds were Jews.

[163] The evidence adduced, so far as post-exile times are concerned, appears to me insufficient to prove this a.s.sertion.

[164] Even Leviticus xi. 26, cited without reference to the context, will not serve the purpose; because the swine _is_ "cloven footed" (Lev. xi. 7).