received illustration from them. Its history is marked by epochs of criticism or of scepticism, in which it has had to submit to the investigations of co-ordinate bodies of Physical or Mental Philosophy, sometimes refuting them, sometimes borrowing from them, at other times surrendering to them. In each of these epochs the difficulties presented have been grounded in some form of Science or Philosophy which has been brought to bear upon Christian Theology; in each of them the restoration or the perpetuation of Christian belief has depended upon the re-adjustment of the new form of thought with the claims of preexistent religious dogmas. The battle has been metaphysical or scientific, not strictly theological. It has been fought in reference to the premises from which the sceptics or critics have started, not to the conclusions at which they have arrived.

In the early centuries, for example, Theology received a tinge from contact with the allegorising philosophy of Alexandria, which expressed itself in the writings of Origen. That learned man could not lay aside his favourite habits of thought, but strove to adjust Christian speculations to them. During the two centuries which followed his time, Theology came into conflict with the Neo-Platonic philosophy1,

1 See Sermon V. (pp. 150-155) of this volume.

and in the conflict came forth victorious from the first great historical epoch of scepticism. In the middle ages it encountered a new danger, a second crisis, from the criticism of Nominalists like Abelard, in the University of Paris1; and it received a new adjustment with the existing state of thought through means of the logical arrangements of the Schoolmen, such as Anselm and Aquinas. At the era of the Renaissance it encountered new difficulties in being brought into contact with the wider knowledge which Providence, from time to time, disclosed to mankind

2

-difficulties which have not, like the more ancient ones previously noticed, quickly expired, but have left their effects to the present day. The sacred books were then, for the first time, exposed to the criticism of great scholars and editors, and alarm was excited by the discovery of variety of readings in the text. Received dogmas also were submitted to the acute controversies generated by the Reformation, and while undergoing revision from that movement the terminology in which they were expressed became stereotyped in the mode that might be expected from an era of religious struggle. In the early part of

1 See Sir J. Stephen's "Lectures on the History of France" (vol. ii. first Lecture on the Power of the Pen).

2 See Sermon VI. pp. 187, 188.

3 It was an age when theologians had not time for careful thought, even if the state of scholarship had been sufficiently

the seventeenth century the discoveries in Physical Science also began to unveil new truths to the minds of the orthodox. Metaphysical Science likewise, in opening up investigations into the origin of knowledge, led through the spread of Sensationalism to a new, the third, epoch of religious scepticism, which is generally identified with the name of Voltaire and the cotemporary philosophers of France. It is unnecessary to point out the intellectual and moral means by which Theological Science outlived this new crisis. The battle was again fought on Scientific

advanced to supply them with the materials for it. This, however, was not the case. In the world of scholars there were indeed giants in those days-Erasmus, Budæus, the Stephenses, the Scaligers, &c., but their attention was devoted mainly to words. The scholars of the seventeenth century applied themselves rather to things. On the foundation thus prepared, the German scholars of the last and present century have been able to found accurate sciences of language and of criticism. While, therefore, we justly render all honour to the noble efforts of the theologians of the era of the Reformation, we ought not to suppose that they, with their imperfect attainments, were infallible interpreters of the sacred Scriptures, nor to allow their views to be an impediment to the theological progress which Providence is forcing on the world by the advance in knowledge, to a portion of which allusion has been made. The stand-point of the sixteenth century had its value; it was a noble protest against mediæval Christianity, an epoch in spiritual emancipation; but it was not the same as the stand-point of the first century, and for this reason, as well as for the others just named, it is not sufficiently broad and simple and learned to be the standpoint of the nineteenth.

ground, not on Theological. Lastly, the convergence of different lines of thought in the present day; of the Intellectualism of Germany1 and the Positivism of France; of religious dogmatism and scientific scepticism; and the existence of apparent discrepancies between Theology and the Sciences, are producing a fresh era of criticism, a fresh crisis of doubt. Theology must again listen to secular discoveries, must refute them or re-adjust its doctrines and its methods to them; and the humblest attempts made without sophistry, in an honest and loving temper, to aid in such a desirable result must surely be useful.

The history thus given of Science in Theology, i.e. of the relation which Science, Physical and Mental, has held to Theology, will explain clearly the meaning of the writer of these pages. The following sermons can only be regarded as detached contributions, aiming to show the mode in which the Theology of the present day may incorporate the irrefragable discoveries of modern science into its own system. They will have performed their office if (with the assistance of the hints offered in the foot-notes) they are the means, by God's blessing, of suggesting materials for reflection to thoughtful and religious

1 This term is intended to include the Spiritualist tendencies of the followers of Schelling, as well as the Rationalist followers of Kant and Hegel.

minds. They are published in deference to the wishes of very many persons who made the request at the times when they were respectively preached.1

The topic thus indicated offers abundant field for investigation to those theological students who desire to aid in removing the difficulties which many educated men in the present day feel in reference to our holy religion. It may possibly assist their studies to specify the six following branches of inquiry which still, perhaps, require farther treatment 2 :

First The relations of metaphysical science to religion demand an investigation of the limits which the structure of the human mind imposes in reference to theological speculation.

Secondly: A comparison is needed between the statements of the sacred inspired books of the Jews and the modern discoveries of comparative Philology

They are arranged according to the internal connexion of subject rather than the chronological order of delivery. In order to complete the series, one Sermon has been added which was preached at Whitehall, but some parts of it were contained in a Sermon (not published) preached before the University.

2 The above remarks, with some of those which immediately follow, express the substance of an unpublished Sermon, on "The Epochs of Religious Scepticism," preached by the Author before the University on St. Thomas's Day, 1855. It is for the use of those who requested the publication of it that they have been introduced in this preface.