Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 52

"'When to destruction G.o.d will plague a house He plants among the members guilt and sin.'"[958]

Whatever in the writings of Homer and the tragic poets give countenance to the notion that G.o.d is, in the remotest sense the author of sin, must be expunged. Here is clearly a great advance in ethical conceptions.

The great defect in the ethical system of Plato was the identification of evil with the inferior or corporeal nature of man--"the irascible and concupiscible elements," fas.h.i.+oned by the junior divinities. The rational and immortal part of man's nature, which is derived immediately from G.o.d--the Supreme Good, naturally chooses the good as its supreme end and destination. Hence he adopted the Socratic maxim "that no man is willingly evil," that is, no man deliberately chooses evil as evil, but only as a _seeming_ good--he does not choose evil as an end, though he may choose it voluntarily as a means. Plato manifests great solicitude to guard this maxim from misconception and abuse. Man has, in his judgment, the power to act in harmony with his higher reason, or contrary to reason; to obey the voice of conscience or the clamors of pa.s.sion, and consequently he is the object of praise or blame, reward or punishment. "When a man does not consider himself, but others, as the cause of his own sins,.... and even seeks to excuse himself from blame, he dishonors and injures his own soul; so, also, when contrary to reason.... he indulges in pleasure, he dishonors it by filling it with vice and remorse."[959] The work and effort of life, the end of this probationary economy, is to make reason triumphant over pa.s.sion, and discipline ourselves to a purer and n.o.bler life.

[Footnote 958: "Republic," bk. ii. ch, xviii., xix.]

[Footnote 959: "Laws," bk. v. ch. i.]

The obstacles to a virtuous life are, however, confessedly numberless, and, humanly speaking, insurmountable. To raise one's self above the clamor of pa.s.sion, the power of evil, the bondage of the flesh, is acknowledged, in mournful language, to be a hopeless task. A cloud of sadness shades the brow of Plato as he contemplates the fallen state of man. In the "Phaedrus" he describes, in gorgeous imagery, the purity, and beauty, and felicity of the soul in its anterior and primeval state, when, charioteering through the highest arch of heaven in company with the Deity, it contemplated the divine justice and beauty; but "this happy life," says he, "we forfeited by our transgression." Allured by strange affections, our souls forgot the sacred things that we were made to contemplate and love--we _fell_. And now, in our fallen state, the soul has lost its pristine beauty and excellence. It has become more disfigured than was Glaucus, the seaman "whose primitive form was not recognizable, so disfigured had he become by his long dwelling in the sea."[960] To restore this lost image of the good,--to regain "this primitive form," is not the work of man, but G.o.d. Man can not save himself. "Virtue is not natural to man, neither is it to be learned, but it comes by a divine influence. _Virtue, is the gift of G.o.d_."[961] He needs a discipline, "an education which is divine." If he is saved from the common wreck, it must be "by the special favor of Heaven."[962] He must be delivered from sin, if ever delivered, by the interposition of G.o.d.

[Footnote 960: "Republic," bk. x. ch. xi.]

[Footnote 961: "Meno."]

[Footnote 962: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. vi., vii.]

Plato was, in some way, able to discover the need of a Saviour, to desire a Saviour, but he could not predict his appearing. Hints are obscurely given of a Conqueror of sin, an a.s.suager of pain, an Averter of evil in this life, and of the impending retributions of the future life; but they are exceedingly indefinite and shadowy. In all instances they are rather the language of _desire_, than of hope. Platonism awakened in the heart of humanity a consciousness of sin and a profound feeling of want--the want of a Redeemer from sin, a spiritual, a divine Remedy for its moral malady--and it strove after some remedial power.

But it was equally conscious of failure and defeat. It could enlighten the reason, but it could only act imperfectly on the will. Platonic was a striking counterpart to Pauline experience prior to the apostle's deliverance by the power and grace of Christ. It discovered that "the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good." It recognized that "it is spiritual, but man is carnal, the slave of sin."

It could say, "What I do I approve not; for I do not what I would, but what I hate. But if my will [my better judgment] is against what I do, I consent unto the Law that it is good. And now it is no more I that do it, but sin, that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good abideth not, for to will is present with me, but the power to do the right is absent: the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do. I consent gladly to the law of G.o.d in my inner man ['the rational and immortal nature'[963]]; but I behold a law in my members ['the irascible and concupiscible nature'[964]] warring against the law of my mind (or reason), and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. _Oh wretched man that I am!

who shall deliver me from the body of this death_?"[965] Paul was able to say, "I thank G.o.d (that he hath now delivered me), through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Platonism could only desire, and hope, and wait for the coming of a Deliverer.

[Footnote 963: Plato.]

[Footnote 964: Ibid.]

[Footnote 965: Romans, vii.]

This consciousness of the need of supernatural light and help, and this aspiration after a light supernatural and divine, which Plato inherited from Socrates, constrained him to regard with toleration, and even reverence, every apparent approach, every pretension, even, to a divine inspiration and guidance in the age in which he lived. "'The greatest blessings which men receive come through the operation of _phrensy_ ([Greek: a??a]--inspired exaltation), when phrensy is the gift of G.o.d.

The prophetess of Delphi, and the priestess of Dodona, many are the benefits which in their phrensies (moments of inspiration) they have bestowed upon Greece; but in their hours of self-possession, few or none. And too long were it to speak of the Sibyl, and others, who, inspired and prophetic, have delivered utterances beneficial to the hearers. Indeed, this word phrenetic or maniac is no reproach; it is identical with mantic--prophetic.[966] And often when diseases and plagues have fallen upon men for the sins of their forefathers, some phrensy too has broken forth, and in prophetic strain has pointed out a remedy, _showing how the sin might be expiated, and the G.o.ds appeased_ (by prayers, and purifications, and atoning rites).... So many and yet more great effects could I tell you of the phrensy which comes from the G.o.ds."[967] Some have discerned in all this merely the food for a feeble ridicule. They regard these sentiments as simply an evidence of the power and prevalence of superst.i.tion clouding the loftiest intellects in ancient times. By the more thoughtful and philosophic mind, however, they will be accepted as an indication of the imperishable and universal faith of humanity in a supernatural and supersensuous world, and in the possibility of some communication between heaven and earth.[968] And above all, it is a conclusive proof that Plato believed that the knowledge of _salvation_--of a remedy for sin, a method of expiation for sin, a means of deliverance from the power and punishment of sin, must be revealed from Heaven.

[Footnote 966: [Greek: Ma??a], phrensy; _[Greek: ??t??]_, a prophet--one who utters oracles in a state of divine phrensy; _[Greek: a?t???]_, the prophetic art.]

[Footnote 967: "Phaedrus," -- 47-50 (Whewell's translation).]

[Footnote 968: "_Vetus opinio est_, jam usque ab heroicis ducta temporibus, eaque et populi Romani et _omnium gentium_ firmata consensu, versari quandem inter homines divinationem."--Cicero, "De Divin.," i.

I.]

Paul, then, found, even in that focus of Paganism, the city of Athens, religious aspirations tending towards Jesus Christ. A true philosophic method, notwithstanding its shortcomings and imperfections, concluded by desiring and seeking "the Unknown G.o.d," by demanding him from all forms of wors.h.i.+p, from all schools of philosophy. The great work of preparation in the heathen world consisted in the developing of the _desire_ for salvation. It proved that G.o.d is the great want of every human soul; that there is a profound affinity between conscience and the living G.o.d; and that Tertullian was right when he wrote the "Testimonium Animae naturaliter Christianae."[969] And when it was sufficiently demonstrated that "the world by philosophy knew not G.o.d (as a Redeeming G.o.d and Saviour), then it pleased G.o.d by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." This was all a dispensation of divine providence, which was determined by, or "in, the wisdom of G.o.d."[970]

The history of the religions and philosophies of human origin thus becomes to us a striking confirmation of the truth of Christianity. It shows there is a wondrous harmony between the instinctive wants and yearnings of the human heart, as well as the necessary ideas and laws of the reason, and the fundamental principles of revealed religion. There is "a law written on the heart"--written by the finger of G.o.d, which corresponds to the laws written by the same finger on "tables of stone."

There are certain necessary and immutable principles and ideas infolded in the reason of man, which harmonize with the revelations of the Eternal Logos in the written word.[971] There are instinctive longings, mysterious yearnings of the human heart, to which that unveiling of the heart of G.o.d which is made in the teaching and life of the incarnate G.o.d most satisfyingly answers. Within the depths of the human spirit there is an "oracle" which responds to the voice of "the living oracles of G.o.d."

[Footnote 969: Pressense, "Religions before Christ" (Introduction); Neander, "Church History," vol. i. (Introduction).]

[Footnote 970: I Corinthians, i. 21.]

[Footnote 971: "The surmise of Plato, that the world of appearance subsists in and by a higher world of Divine Thought, is confirmed by Christianity when it tells us of a Divine subsistence--that Eternal Word by whom and in whom all things consist."--Vaughan, "Hours with the Mystics," vol. i. p. 213.]

Here, then, are two distinct and independent revelations--the unwritten revelation which G.o.d has made to all men in the const.i.tution of the human mind, and the external written revelation which he has made in the person and teaching of his Son. And these two are perfectly harmonious.

We have here two great volumes--the volume of conscience, and the volume of the New Testament. We open them, and find they announce the _same_ truths--one in dim outline, the other in a full portraiture. There are the same fundamental principles underlying both revelations. They both bear the impress of _divinity_. The history of philosophy may have been marked by many errors of interpretation; so, also, has the history of dogmatic theology. Men may have often misunderstood and misinterpreted the dictates of conscience; so have theologians misunderstood and misinterpreted the dictates of revelation. The perversions of conscience and reason have been plead in defense of error and sin; and so, for ages, have the perversions of Scripture been urged in defense of slavery, oppression, falsehood, and wrong. Sometimes the misunderstood utterances of conscience, of philosophy, and of science have been arrayed against the incorrect interpretations of the Word of G.o.d. But when both are better understood, and more justly conceived, they are found in wondrous harmony. When the New Testament speaks to man of G.o.d, of duty, of immortality, and of retribution, man feels that its teachings "commend themselves to his conscience" and reason. When it speaks to him of redemption, of salvation, of eternal life and blessedness, he feels that it meets and answers all the wants and longings of his heart. Thus does Christianity throw light upon the original revelations of G.o.d in the human conscience, and answers all the yearnings of the human soul. So it is found in individual experiences, so it has been found in the history of humanity. As Leverrier and Adams were enabled to affirm, from purely mathematical reasoning, that another planet must exist beyond _Ura.n.u.s_ which had never yet been seen by human eyes, and then, afterwards, that affirmation was gloriously verified in the discovery of _Neptune_ by the telescope of Galle; so the reasonings of ancient philosophy, based on certain necessary laws of mind, enabled man to affirm the existence of a G.o.d, of the soul, of a future retribution, and an eternal life beyond the grave; and, then, subsequently, these were brought fully into light, and verified by the Gospel.

We conclude in the words of Pressense: "To isolate it from the past, would be to refuse to comprehend the nature of Christianity itself, and the extent of its triumphs. Although the Gospel is not, as has been affirmed, the product of anterior civilizations--a mere compound of Greek and Oriental elements--it is not the less certain that it brings to the human mind the satisfaction vainly sought by it in the East as in the West. _Omnia subito_ is not its device, but that of the Gnostic heresy. Better to say, with Clement of Alexandria and Origen, that the night of paganism had its stars to light it, but that they called to the Morning-star which stood over Bethlehem."

"If we regard philosophy as a preparation for Christianity, instead of seeking in it a subst.i.tute for the Gospel, we shall not need to overstate its grandeur in order to estimate its real value."

THE END.