Theological Essays and Other Papers, vol 1 | Page 3

in the same άποÏια, when they wish to speak of
religiosity in a spirit of serious praise. Some circuitous form,
commending the correctness of a man, πεÏι τα θεια, in respect
of divine things, becomes requisite; for all the direct terms, expressing
the religious temper, are preoccupied by a taint of scorn. The word
όσιος, means pious,--not as regards the gods, but as regards the
dead; and even είσεβης, though not used sneeringly, is a world
short of our word 'religious.' This condition of language we need not
wonder at: the language of life must naturally receive, as in a mirror,
the realities of life. Difficult it is to maintain a just equipoise in any
moral habits, but in none so much as in habits of religious demeanor
under a Pagan [that is, a degrading] religion. To be a coward, is base: to
be a sycophant, is base: but to be a sycophant in the service of
cowardice, is the perfection of baseness: and yet this was the brief
analysis of a devotee amongst the ancient Romans. Now, considering
that the word religion is originally Roman, [probably from the
Etruscan,] it seems probable that it presented the idea of religion under
some one of its bad aspects. Coleridge must quite have forgotten this
Paganism of the word, when he suggested as a plausible idea, that
originally it had presented religion under the aspect of a coercion or
restraint. Morality having been viewed as the prime restraint or
obligation resting upon man, then Coleridge thought that religion might
have been viewed as a religatio, a reiterated restraint, or secondary
obligation. This is ingenious, but it will not do. It is cracked in the ring.
Perhaps as many as three objections might be mustered to such a
derivation: but the last of the three is conclusive. The ancients never
did view morality as a mode of obligation: I affirm this peremptorily;
and with the more emphasis, because there are great consequences
suspended upon that question.]
What, then, is religion? Decomposed into its elements, as they are
found in Christianity, how many powers for acting on the heart of man,
does, by possibility, this great agency include? According to my own
view, four.[Footnote: there are six, in one sense, of religion: viz. 5thly,
corresponding moral affections; 6thly, a suitable life. But this applies to
religion as subjectively possessed by a man, not to religion as
objectively contemplated. ] I will state them, and number them.
1st. A form of worship, a cultus.

2dly. An idea of God; and (pointing the analysis to Christianity in
particular) an idea not purified merely from ancient pollutions, but
recast and absolutely born again.
3dly. An idea of the relation which man occupies to God: and of this
idea also, when Christianity is the religion concerned, it must be said,
that it is so entirely remodelled, as in no respect to resemble any
element in any other religion. Thus far we are reminded of the poet's
expression, 'Pure religion breathing household laws;' that is, not
teaching such laws, not formally prescribing a new economy of life, so
much as inspiring it indirectly through a new atmosphere surrounding
all objects with new attributes. But there is also in Christianity,
4thly. A doctrinal part, a part directly and explicitly occupied with
_teaching_; and this divides into two great sections, α, A system of
ethics so absolutely new as to be untranslatable[Footnote: This is not
generally perceived. On the contrary, people are ready to say, 'Why, so
far from it, the very earliest language in which the Gospels appeared,
excepting only St. Matthew's, was the Greek.' Yes, reader; but what
Greek? Had not the Greeks been, for a long time, colonizing Syria
under princes of Grecian blood,--had not the Greek language (as a
_lingua Hellenistica_) become steeped in Hebrew ideas,--no door of
communication could have been opened between the new world of
Christian feeling, and the old world so deaf to its music. Here, therefore,
we may observe two preparations made secretly by Providence for
receiving Christianity and clearing the road before it; first, the diffusion
of the Greek language through the whole civilized world (ή
οίχονμεγη) some time before Christ, by which means the
Evangelists found wings, as it were, for flying abroad through the
kingdoms of the earth; secondly, the Hebraizing of this language, by
which means the Evangelists found a new material made plastic and
obedient to these new ideas, which they had to build with, and which
they had to build upon.] into either of the classical languages; and, β, A
system of mysteries; as, for instance, the mystery of the Trinity, of the
Divine Incarnation, of the Atonement, of the Resurrection, and others.
Here are great elements; and now let me ask, how many of these are