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ARGUMENT.

We must understand the position of those who are dissatisfied with the Formularies of Faith. The Articles must be viewed historically, and the spirit must be read beneath the letter.

The doctrine of the Trinity is expressed in terms which have lost their emphasis-hence the doctrine has lost its hold over the modern mind. But the doctrine is so far from being incredible in itself that it is the only intelligible doctrine about God, and one which grows of necessity out of the constitution of the human mind.

The Trinity is then re-stated and declared to be highly rational, intelligible, and practical.

Original Sin is next discussed-the Article is quoted, and the same necessity for re-statement becomes apparent. Original sin would not have been so much contested had original righteousness been also duly proclaimed; both are truths of equal value.

Original Sin is then shown to be a truth of science and experience. Its important moral bearings are pointed out, and the rational method of treating the Articles is vindicated by the new life that is thus poured into them.

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After a few preliminary remarks the ninth discourse deals with the Articles on Predestination' and 'The Church.' Predestination is an attempt to found an authoritative dogma upon a few obscure and to some extent contradictory phrases in St. Paul's Epistles. The whole question is seen to be properly outside the limits of the human mind, and therefore not well adapted for serious discussion.

The Article on the Church is dwelt upon as more likely to be a bond of union between Christians than any of the others. It reposes upon a few simple thoughts easily understood-appealing to the heart more than to the head—and might be assented to by all known sects of Christians in and out of the Church.

Its large statements are nowhere narrowed, its terms are loose even to vagueness, it seeks to bind men together, to include rather than exclude varieties of theological opinion. It is the herald note of the Church of the Future. The foundations of that Church are already laid in the common sense and common feelings of vast numbers of sincere, enlightened, and earnest people. Possible terms of union are not far to seek, they exist already in this and many other Churches. It should be the aim of a properly-constituted liberal Theology to explain these common terms, and prove that they are more practical and more Christian than the narrow forms of the East.

Eighth Discourse.

ON THE TRINITY,' AND 'ORIGINAL SIN.'

DELIVERED NOVEMBER 19, 1871.

SPEAK to those this morning whose eyes are turned towards the future, to the young and to the thoughtful.

There will always be a number of persons perfectly well satisfied with things, as they are in the religious world, and in the political world of every age and country; but in transition periods like the present, in times of religious or political excitement, these are not the people who are most helpful to their age, who throw light upon perplexed questions, who bring peace to unquiet hearts.

We must try, my brethren, if we wish to see clear ourselves, or to help others in their moral and spiritual difficulties we must try to put ourselves in the forefront of the battle. We must even go out of our way to realise what the new difficulties, and the new doubts, and the new perplexities are; even though we should.

not always have a solution to offer, should not always be able even to sympathise.

In my first address I tried to point out the landmarks of an enlightened theology. When we were looking about for some guiding star to throw light upon the darkness of the theological world, and irradiate the gloom of the human spirit in these days; what was the star which rose before us? It was the Love of Truth. I said if we were ever again to see clearly in theological matters; if we were ever again to recast our theology, and make it definite and practical, as it was definite and practical to the first ages of Christianity ; then we must no longer ignore the great principle of truth, which has been so long forgotten. It is a strange thing to say with reference to the Christian religion, but it is a true thing, that it presents in its development—perhaps more than any other religionthe most abnormal indifference to truth. Jesus Christ was the Life and the Truth, and yet His followers seem to be distinguished for the absence of life or the absence of truth. There have been many forms of Christianity, where there has been a great deal of life and energy, but very little regard to truth; and there have been other forms of Christianity, where there has been a great deal of dry, hard, dogmatic truth, and very little life. In the present day there is a great deal of religious enthusiasm abroad, there is much life. Never was a time when there were so many religious sects in England, in Europe, in America; and yet, there is, for all that, a great neglect of the first principles of fair

argument, the first principles of truth. That tendency dates far back from the very early days of the faith. In the first century there were numbers of lying biographies of Christ, and to these biographies St. Luke alludes. The first three centuries were full of myths about Christ and His disciples; as time went on, more and more fables were accumulated, and began to circle round the saints and bishops, till at last Rome found herself in the possession of a vast mythology, which, like every mythology, had some little substratum of truth in it; and then came one great reaction in favour of truth at the time of the Reformation, on which we have been living complacently ever since; and in our complacency we have once more grown as indifferent to truth as ever, and once more the voices of a new Reformation are sounding in our ears; and the sleepers will have to awake from the deep slumber of their decided opinions; but still they prefer their dream, they are closing their eyes to what they call the new and misguiding lights of the age; they refuse to hear the truth when it interferes with their preconceived notions of religion; they won't let it interfere with their comfort; they won't let it interfere with their interests; they won't let it interfere with their settled opinions.

Ah! There is nothing so stolid or immovable as opinions that have lived too long.

70. We are then, in our nineteenth-century pilgrimage, to take the love of truth as our guide, and we shall then find that out of the principles of historical criticism, the

principles of scientific discovery, and the principles generally of an enlightened intelligence, recognising alike the facts of the physical and of the spiritual world, there will spring up necessarily for the Church of the Future, for the new and living branch of the Christian Church, both a doctrine of belief and a doctrine of practice.

It is with a doctrine of belief in connection with the Articles, that I am concerned in this and the following address.

Now, when you read the Articles of Belief in the Prayer-book what strikes you? This. Here are doubtless a number of most important and saving truths, but when we read these definitions of them they do not seem to make much impression upon us-nothing sounds more concise and nothing more dry, nothing less likely to bring forth in us the fruits of righteousness. Perhaps, something else strikes you about the Articles, that, although so concise, you cannot understand them; and when you do understand them, you don't see what practical bearing they are to have upon your life. And yet, my brethren, these Creeds and these Articles were once full of practical bearing; they were fought over, they were suffered for, they were died for; and in order that you may understand this you must ask patiently, What is it that gave them life? Why did they mean so much once? and why do they mean so little now? You will find an answer to these questions if you will be guided by the principles of truth, as applied to historical criticism. History will point out to you that the circum

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