t• • FOXTON'S porunan CHRISTIANITY. * " THE time has, I
believe, arrived, when the popular religion througholit the Christian world is about to undergo a purification similar to that effected for natural science by the genius of Bacon " : this, the startling first sentence of Mr. Foxton's volume, is a key to the whole. In a curious class of books which has been issuing from the press within the last few years, it is in some characteristics the most remarkable, as the writer is also remarkable in his class. Among men in the Church of England, students destined to its offices or in some way connected with it, is to be observed a manifest process of unsettlement, differing in many respects from previous movements. Mr. Newman, who leaves the Angli- can Church for the Roman, has a younger brother who puts forth a boldly analytical work on " the Soul " ; one of the elder Newman's pupils, Mr. Froude, narrates in fiction the doubts of a spiritual Wetter; Mr. Baptist Noel leaves the Church and receives adult baptism Mr. Travers a young clergyman, leaves the Church to preach at Finsbury Chapel alternately with Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P. These men are but prominent types each of his section in the unsettled class; and there are other evidences that a Platonizing idealism has made some spread even where heterodoxy is not imputed. The striking characteristics of the present movement are, greater distinctness of language, and the absence of the destructive propensity.
It is in those two traits that the writer of the book before us is distin- guished beyond all who have preceded him. His pretensions are modest he cites authorities, of one kind or another, for almost every, opinion that he expresses ; accepts ideas from all—from orthodox divines not less than from Carlyle or Emerson : indeed, he expressly says, at one place, that he is not striking out new arguments, but arranging "commonplace arguments" "which have been furnished at different times by the common sense of mankind." In that spirit, he repudiates the wish "to establish Chria- tianity on a basis merely rationalistic "—" by no means asserting the rightful authority of simple reason over the higher instincts of the soul:' He equally repudiates the "cold and faithless utilitarianism" of the last few centuries, which has tainted religion as with a "moral leprosy." Few writers are bolder ; but his manner is singularly considerate towards the very opinions that he combats—his language singularly cahn and, measured. He is evidently a man who has his purpose sincerely at heart, and he indulges in no writing for effect. But what most distinguishes him from many with whom he may be compared is the positiveness ofi his doctrine. A prototype for his volume may be found in that of the American Theodore Parker, the Discourse if Religion: there is a great coincidence in the train of ideas ; Parker is more copious and more elo- quent; but Foxton is far more explicit, definite, and comprehensible in, his meaning. Our present object, however, is not to criticize Popular Christianity, because to handle it satisfactorily would require, instead of a newspaper notice, a book at least equal to the compact volume before us, which is indeed a very rapid and concise review of its subject: we limit ourselves therefore to the task of giving our readers a simple account of this new contribution to the current literature of the clay. Mr.lextorr's first section is devoted to a review of the actual state of the Church of England and of religious opinion in this country. He starts from the premise that religion has become perverted and has ce,asett to fulfil its function.
"The image of religion presented to the popular mind, through the distorted, media of articled churches, is not loved and reverenced by the body of the people. Professing a common creed, men hate, revile, and persecute each other, and the spirit of Christianity is entirely forgotten by those who have its doctrines, as they are called, for ever on their lips. The admitted characteristic of the religion of Christ is its universal applicability to human life ; but in the present age it has become ',From man's life a thing apart.'
"We now hear it commonly confessed, without compunction, by men actively engaged in the traffic of the world, that' they are not religious men'; a confession that would have deeply scandalized an age of greater religious sincerity, though- it becomes almost venial when the popular creed is found at variance with the ex- ercise of the understanding. Religion thus appears to want the reality it pos- sessed even in the darkest ages of the Church. The only cure, I repeat, for these anomalies in the religious life, is to bring the principles of our creed into unison_ at once with the revelations of the conscience and the light of natural reason, by showing that the freest exercise of the latter is consistent with a perfect obedience to the dictates of the former."
Elsewhere he says—" The section of the Church distinguished as 'Evangelical' have been gradually undermining for centuries its originat foundation. They are at once rationalistic and fanatical, and a vague latitudinarianism is thinly concealed by a religious phraseology." "The evidences of religious anarchy are not to be sought for within the pale of the Establishment alone "—" the doctrines respecting revealed religion are more and more modified by every religious teacher, as the age ad- vances, by philosophical refinements. The appointment of Strauss by the Evangelical people of Geneva, the Hereford evasion of a "prssmunire" for refusing to elect a Bishop, the history of the Oriel school, the rela- tions of Blanco White to orthodox friends in the Church, the resort to transparent mysticisms and niee technicalities in popular preaching, Puseyism, Exeter-Hallism, the scientific compromises of a Buckland, and many other incidents, furnish the writer's proofs of the general spirit of dubiety and compromise, affecting both doctrine and polity ; "Volun- taryism ' giving to ecclesiastical authority its coup de grace. In order to discover the sources of this degeaeracy, Mr. Foztou enters into a critical retrospect of the human share in institutions pertaining to re- ligion and the received evidence of revelation : and this portion of his book , will probably excite more hostility than any., though it is the least new and peculiar. It is in fact a very temperate and clear summing-up of argu- ments and citations familiar to the reader of works on sue.h anbjcicts,— the variations of text in the different versions of the Scriptures, the irre- 9ounilesibie. discord with the progress of scientific knowledge, the primitive
• Popular Christianity : tea Transition State and Probable Development. By Frede- rick J. Foxton, A.I3 , formerly of Pembrolte-Cellege, Oxford, and Perpetual Curate. or Stoke Prior and Ducki0w, Herefordshire. Published by John Chapman.
barbarisms which appear to receive a Divine sanction, the Platonical ori- gin ascribed to essential Christian doctrines ; all arguments which have occurred to his predecessors in controversy. A somewhat newer position which the writer takes up is, that even the moral code has received fur- ther development since the period when Christianity was founded ; whence be infers a progressive movement, incompatible with the perfect finality of that dispensation as commonly interpreted.
But the newest portion of the book is that which sets forth positive doctrine; and it is likely to be considered the most heretical part of the whole. Mr. Foxton does not repudiate the name of Christian, though it will be seen that his view wholly deprives that term of its distinctive character ; insomuch that he may be fairly repudiated by those who adhere to Christian doctrines in the ordinary sense of the term. The positive portion of the volume labours under the further disadvantage of being mingled with the controversial part, to which it bears a small ratio in point of bulk; so that it stands forth less tangibly, and is in fact less developed. This is natural ; for although the germ of the doctrine may be found in past writers, from Parker to the author of the "Universal Prayer," and from Pope probably through a long line to Plato and Socrates, its relation to modern theology is new : it is unquestionably a doctrine prevalent among many whom we have indicated above, and may be considered to replace the meagre Deism which repudiated the alliance of the Atheism of the two preceding generations. In some respects Mr. Foxton imparts to this doctrine a more tangible and distinct shape than it has yet received ; and it is for that reason that his book challenges notice—as being the tangible presentation of a doctrine far too widely spreading to be ignored. At the risk of ex- citing the complaint that we do some injustice to his view by an insuf- ficient account of it, we shall endeavour to state its leading principles in as few words as possible.
From the experience of all history since we have records of man, Mr. Foxton infers that a knowledge of the Divine Being is inherent and in- stinctive in human nature; from the development which religions ideas have received within the period of history, he infers that the direct rela- tion of the Divine Being to man is constant,—that a knowledge of God is "a faith not derived from 'tradition' but from 'insight'—a faith not in dead history, but in living realities—a revelation to our innermost nature, that God is the same yesterday, today, and for ever." Some human beings, however, of exceedingly earnest and pure natures, are gifted with a fuller inspiration, that they may be the instruments of God in rescuing man from the corruptions of the world : and among the great names that be enumerates, our author includes one which most Christians, strictly and accurately so called, will he shocked to see in any enumeration of human names. But many would say that Mr. Foxton differs from Unitarians chiefly in ascribing a direct inspiration of Divinity to a multiplicity of prophets, and in as- cribing to it also a wider influence on human works. Believing the Divine power to be eternally and universally manifesting itself, Poston says, in the name of all intellectual greatness and art, "non nobis, Do- mine"; holding the great in art and intellect to be "seers" inspired with some special perception of the universal goodness, and instigated to their work for the good of mankind. It is not to be supposed, however, that Foxtou's doctrine is Pantheism : it essentially differs from Pantheism in asserting as intuitive truth, that what we call "Nature" is distinct from the Divine spirit—separate and subject; from ordinary Deism, in claim-
ing for human nature a revealed and direct knowledge of its spiritual re- lations.
The author repudiates destructive or revolutionary aims : which would be, indeed, quite foreign to the mild and contemplative turn of mind exhibited in his book. He would not seek to destroy even "the cprrupt religious system under which we are living, but, by removing extraneous support, allow it to die a natural death ; thus making way for the free expression of those spiritual instincts which produce the real and significant cultus of every nation." But, as dogmatic corruptions and ecclesiastical fabrics, the author contends, have perverted the sense of the religion which is directly and perennially revealed to man by his instinc- tive faculty of relation with God, a courageous but a pious exploration should emancipate a true knowledge and a true faith, and restore to reli- gion its office as supreme in the government of the world. We should then no more contend against Divine decrees, or disguise repining in a mournful "resignation," but with a more intelligent faith make our laws and actions conform to those, as a more orthodox theologian recently said in the pulpit, "of Nature and of the God of Nature." For what, says this writer-
" What is after all the true faith of a Christian ? Both the doctrines and ethics of Christ are founded on the eternal basis of natural laws, when interpreted by the higher instincts of the conscience. Unless, for instance, a man is able to look upon death as the discharge of a natural function, he has not the faith in- sisted on by Christ.; for that faith assures us of the victory over death and the grave. Unless a man believes that the providence of God is truly over all his works, that all things work together for Divine ends and purposes, that human life is a divine thing despite its apparent perplexities and complications, and capable of a realization in beauty and holiness, he has no faith in the doctrine of Christ."
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