Page images
PDF
EPUB

work, “Irenicum," in which he made use of the word Syncretism, may be regarded as the forerunner of the writings of Calixt on the same subject. Comp. Gass. in the work quoted § 218, Note 2, p. 8.] Among the Lutherans, Calixt endeavoured, in the course of the seventeenth century, to reconcile the separate parties, and thus gave rise to what is called the Syncretistic controversy; among Calvinists, John Duraus, a Scotchman, labored from the year 1630 for the same object. [Dury died in 1680, in Cassel; from 1626 he was preacher to the Puritan Colony at Elbing, in Prussia; he journeyed widely for his project, and wrote Consultatio Theologica super Negotio Pacis Eccles., Lond., 1641; commented on by Hunnius, 1641. For the other works of Dury, see Gieseler, iv., § 51, Note 28. See Berzelius, Comm. Hist. Theol. de J. Duræo, cum Præf. J. L. Moshemii, Helmst. 1744. Bishop Hall was influenced by Dury to write his Pax Terris, in Duræi Irenicorum Tractat. Prodromus: and Bishop Davenant, De Pace inter Evangelicos, Lond. 1638.] The Conference of Leipsic, A. D. 1631. The Conference of Thorn, 1648. (Colloquium charitativum.) [The Consensus Sandomiriensis; see the "Historical Account of the Consensus Sandomiriensis, or Agreement of Sandomir, formed among the three orthodox bodies of Protestants in Poland, in the year 1570," in the Continental Echo, for 1846, p. 84 ss. 110 ss. 139 ss. Hugo Grotius, Votum pro Pace Ecclesiastica, 1642. Nicolas Hunnius, project of a Collegium Irenicum of ten or twelve thelogians, 1632; see Niedner, 779.]

2

* Bossuet (see § 227, Note 14). Rouas (Roxas) de Spinola (bishop of Tina in Croatia from the year 1668, and bishop of Wienerisch-Neustadt from the year 1685; he died 1695) entered into negotiations with Molanus, abbot of Loccum in Hanover. Leibnitz took part in the negotiations. [Molanus was overseer of church affairs in Brunswick and Hanover; his project, Regulæ circa Christianorum omnium ecclesiasticum Reunionem, was published in 1691; his Cogitationes Privatæ, on the basis of Cassander, Grotius and Spinola, 1691. Bossuet wrote De Scripto cui titulus "Cogit. Privat." Episcopi Meldensis, 1692; Molanus, Explicatio Ulterior, 1692. Leibnitz, Correspondence with Paul Pelisson, Mdme. de Brinon and Bossuet, 1691-4, 16991701, (Opera ed. Duten, i., 507-537; see also Euvres de Leibnitz, publiées pour la première fois d'apres les manuscrits originaux, par A. Foucher de Careil, Paris, Tomes i. ii., 1859-60; and comp. Ch. de Remusat, Leibnitz et Bossuet, in Rev. des deux Mondes, Jan. 1861.) Systema theologicum Leibnitii (making large concessions to the Catholics), after the Paris manuscript first ed. in French by Eymery (Exposition de la Doctrine de Leibnitz), Paris, 1815; German version By Räss and Weiss, Mainz, 1820; Latin and German by C. Haas, Tübing. 1860. Comp. Schulze, Ueber die Entdeckung dass L. Katholik gewesen, Götting. 1827. Guhrauer, Leibnitz Deutsche Schriften, 1837, ii. Appendix, 65-80.]

[ocr errors]

Especially in the doctrines concerning internal revelation, justification, etc., (thus they contributed, at least to modify, the direct opposition to the Romish Church).

[blocks in formation]

$238.

INFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHY. DEISM. APOLOGETICS.

John Leland, a View of the principal deistical writers that have appeared in England in the last and present century, 1754, ii. voll., [5th ed. 1766; new ed., Appendix by W. L. Brown, and Introduction by C. R. Edmonds, Lond. 1837.] Thorschmid, Freidenkerbiblothek. Halle, 1765-67. Herder, Adrastea (Werke Zur Philosophie und Geschicte, ix.) *Gotth. Vict. Lechler, Geschichte des englischen Deismus, Stuttg. 1841. Carrière, Die philos. Weltanshauung der Reformationszeit. Stuttg. 1847. C. Hagen, Der Geist der Reformation und seine Gegensätze, ii. Erlang, 1843-4. [Mark Pattison, Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, in Essays and Reviews, 1860, pp. 279-362.]

And lastly, the religious parties, though divided on so many points, could make common cause in the contest for Christianity in general, against a tendency which either renounced the positive authority of revelation, or threatened it in essential relations. As early as the century of the Reformation, a theory of the universe was espoused, now in a deistic, and again in a pantheistic form, especially in Italy, which threatened to become dangerous to the Christian faith in a revelation, as held by Roman Catholics as well as Protestants. Theological science, however, was for the most part unaffected by these tendencies, and even the systems of the schools of the seventeenth century which attained a more definite shape, had, with the exception of the Cartesian philosophy, no particular influence upon the shaping of the Christian dogma, toward which they assumed as far as possible the attitude of neutrality. Towards the end of the period (making the transition to the next) a popular form of philosophy, the so-called philosophy of common sense, made open war against the Christian system. Its advocates are generally known under the name of Freethinkers, Deists or Naturalists. Aiming at practical results, with bold and hasty judgments, they declared war against the belief in revelation adopted by all the confessions,' and thus called the slumbering apologists of the Christian Church to re-enter the lists.*

"In the history of the world there are four successive periods, in which open unbelief, and unconcealed enmity to Christianity, went the rounds (so to speak) among the chief nations of Europe. These tendencies originated in the higher spheres of society, and pressed down into the middle class, and were cherished and extolled in both as the height of culture. Italy made the begining in the fifteenth and sixteenth century; England and France followed in the seventeenth and eighteenth; the series closes in Germany in the nineteenth.” Der deutsche Protestantismus, s. 53.—Among the philosophers of Italy, the most noted were, Girolamo Cerdano, born 1501, died 1576; Bernardino

Telesio, b. 1508, died 1588, "the forerunner of the French sensualism;" Giordano Bruno, burnt at Rome, Feb. 17, 1600. Julius Cæsar Vanini, born 1585, executed "as an atheist and blasphemer," at Toulouse, Feb. 9, 1619; Tomaso Campanella, b. 1508, d. 1639. The position assumed by these men towards Christianity was, however, different in different instances; some of them retained its positive, particularly its mystical, elements; others, Vanini in particular, were skeptical even to blasphemy. See Carrière, ubi supra. [Comp. H. Ritter, Die Christl. Philos. Bd. ii. s. 119146. Bruno, in Ecl. Mag., vol. 17.]

Cartesianism, almost alone, exerted a more direct influence upon the theology of the present period, and, in the first instance, only upon that of the Reformed Church (see § 225, note 1); Malebranche, however, introduced this philosophy also into the theology of the Romish Church. [Comp. Bouillier, La Philos. Cartésienne, 2 Tom., Paris, 1854. Kuno Fischer, Gesch. d. neueren Philos. i. 1855.] Spinoza (born A. D. 1632, died 1617), a man of elevated character, stood aloof from all ecclesiastical connections, on which account the theologians of his age took no notice of him. It was not till after his death that the speculative writers on Christian theology turned their attention to his system. [On Spinoza, see the histories of philosophy by Ritter, Hegel, K. Fischer, Erdmann, Feuerbach, and others. Saintes, Historie de la Vie et des Ouvrages de Spinoza, 2 vols., Paris, 1842. Orelli, Leben und Lehre des Spinoza, 1843, 2d ed., 1850. Euvres, traduits par E. Saisset, nouvelle éd., Paris, 1861.-The discussion between Schelling and Jacobi (1785), revived the interest in his system.Trendelenburg, Spinoza's Grundgedanken, 1850. Bouillier, in his Hist. de la Philos., Cartésienne, 1854, vol. i., 300-409.-Keller, Spinoza und Leibnitz, Erlang., 1847. Helfferich, Spinoza und Leibnitz, 1846. A tract attributed to Leibnitz, Refutation of Spinoza, was published by Foucher de Careil, 1854, from a MS. in the Hanover library, transl. into English, Lond., 1855. Articles in Westminster Review, vol. 39 (by Lewes); and July, 1855; in Southern Qu. Rev., vol. xii. See also letters between Ripley and Norton, on Latest Form of Infidelity, Bost., 1840; Letter Second, on Spinoza.]—Locke born A. D. 1632, died 1704) promoted the interests of the empirical system, which was first established by Francis Bacon of Verulam (who died a. D. 1626), and in its turn contributed to the development of Deism (though counter to the intentions of its author).-[E. Tagart, Locke's Life and Writings, historically considered, and vindicated from the charge of contributing to the skepticism of Hume Lond., 1855. Thos. E. Webb, Intellectualism of Locke, Lond., 1857. B. H. Smart, Thoughts and Language, a Revival of Locke's Philosophy, Lond., 1855. E. Schärer, John Locke, seine Verstandestheorie, etc., Leipz., 1860. V. Cousin, Psychology, transl. by C. S. Henry (Cousin's Criticism of Locke, in his Lecture on Hist. Philos.), 1848. 1859; Comp. President Day in Christ. Quart. Spect., vol. vii. Other articles in British Quart., v.; Christ. Exam. (Bowen), xxiii.; Edinb. Rev., 1854. Dugald Stuart's Philos. Essays, 1 and 3, in Works, vol. iv.]-Leibnitz (born 1646, died 1716) interested himself much in theology, as may be seen from his work on Theodicy (comp. § 261, note 7), and the part he took in the attempts at union (see § 237, note 2.) [Guhrauer, Leben Leibnitz, 2te.,

Ausg., 1846; abridged transl., Boston, 1840. Zimmermann, L.'s Monadologie, 1847. La Philosophie de Leibnitz, par Nourrisson, Paris, 1860. Kuno Fischer, Leibnitz u. seine Schule, 2d vol. of Gesch. d. neueren Philos., Mannheim, 1855. Articles on Leibnitz in North British, vol. 5; Edinburgh Rev., vol. 84; Gent. Mag. (Harwell), 1852.] But it was not till Wolf remodeled his philosophy (in the following period), that it attracted the attention of theologians, and was introduced into their writings.

3

' Concerning the vagueness of these appellations, see Herder, 1. c. pp. 174, 175. Lechler, p. 452, ss.* The so-called Deists differed widely among themselves in character, spirit, and sentiments, and an equal difference may be observed in the relation in which their systems stand, both to each other and to Christianity. The Deism of England can only be explained in connection with the history of the English Reformation, and the conflicts to which it gave rise. Among its promoters, in addition to the sect of the Seekers and Rationalists (Lechler, p. 61, note), were the following writers: Herbert of Cherbury (died 1648), Thomas Hobbes (born 1588, d. 1679, at the age of 91), Charles Blount (died 1693), John Toland (died 1722), Anthony Collins (died 1729), Anthony Ashley Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury, died 1713), Thomas Woolston (died 1733), Matthew Tindal (died 1733), Thomas Chubb (an illiterate person, a glover and chandler, died 1747), and several others who lived in the following period. [See § 238, a.]-In France, Jean Bodin (died 1596, author of the Heptaplomeres, published anew by Guhrauer, 1841). Michael de Montaigne [died 1592; his Essais, published by L'Angelier, Paris, 1595; best edition by Pierre Coste, 3, 4to., Lond., 1724; complete works, transl. by Hazlitt, Lond., 1840]; and Pierre Charron [his work of Wisdom, transl. by Geo. Stanhope, 2d ed., 2 vols., Lond., 1707] (died 1603), manifested a sceptical tendency; in later times, Pierre Bayle (died 1706) prepared the way for French Naturalism; concerning him see L. Feuerbach, Pierre Bayle, Anspach, 1838. [Bayle's Dict. transl. into English, 1710, 4 vols., fol., 1710; 5 fol., 1734-7; improved in the General Dictionary, 10 fol., 1741.] In Germany, Matthias Knutsen (who lived about the year 1674) founded the sect of the "Gewissener," Conscientiarii. [F. W. Storch, died 1704, De Concordia Rat. et Fidei. J. K. Dippel, died 1734, Christ. Democritus. J. L. Schmidt, died 1740, transl. Toland into German.]

4

Grotius composed his apologetical work (§ 235, note 4) without reference to Deism. Robert Boyle (1638) endowed a series of lectures for the special purpose of opposing the English Deists. Among the English apologists, the most distinguished were Richard Baxter (died 1691), William

*The term "Deism," in particular, is not to be confounded with the same term as used by philosophers in distinction from Theism; for even Pantheism could ally itself with this tendency in its denial of Revelation.

+ The author of the work Der Deutsche Protestantismus, justly calls attention to the preponderance of an idealistic and spiritualising philosophy, as a characteristic of the English Deism, and to its honorable moral earnestness, in contrast with the frivolity of the later French materialism.

Sherlock (died 1707), and others. On their polemical writings, in refutation of the Deists, see Lechler, l. c.; [see the next section]. Among the French apologists we may mention Pascal (see § 228, note 6), and Abbadie, a member of the Reformed Church (died 1727), who wrote: Traité de la Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne. Rotterd. 1684.

1

§ 238, a.

[THE ENGLISH DEISM.]

[Bp. W. Van Mildert, Rise and Progress of Infidelity; Boyle Lectures, 1802-4, 2 vols., Oxf., 1838.]

[Rationalism, in the form of Deism, was first systematically set forth in England. Its fundamental principle was, that reason is the source and measure of truth. Of Christianity, it adopted only those truths which could be considered as a product or republication of the light of nature; rejecting all that was miraculous, supernatural, or mysterious. Acknowledging a God, it denied a specific revelation. This tendency was evoked and stimulated in England not only by the conflicts of religious parties, and the prevalent freedom of thought and inquiry, but also by the force of reaction against the high church claims of the supremacy of a merely external authority, and by the progress of the empirical philosophy, as represented by some of the interpreters of Bacon' and Locke' and in the writings of Hobbes. The first of the avowed Deists was Edward Herbert, Lord Cherbury, who reduced religion to the most general truths of a system of natural ethics. Charles Blount,' was a follower of Hobbes. Locke's thesis of the Reasonableness of Christianity was perverted by John Toland' into the position that Christianity is not mysterious, admitting in the New Testament only what is comprehensible by reason. Anthony Collins,' continued the warfare in his Discourse on Free Thinking (1713), and his Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1725), to which thirty-five replies were published. Thomas Woolston attacked the Miracles of the Scripture (1727-30.) At the close of this period Matthew Tindal gave a summary of the principles of Deism, in his Christianity as old as the Creation; or, the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature. Somewhat later Thomas Chubb, and Thomas Morgan continued the succession of deistic writers," which ended with Lord Bolingbroke (see § 275). Deism passed over into skepticism, the moral principles of the school were represented in a more refined form by Anthony Ashley Cooper," Earl of Shaftsbury, and in a grosser manner by Mandeville," in his Fable of the Bees, presented as a nuisance by the grand jury in 1723.]

« PreviousContinue »