But when we reflect that Sir Thomas More was ready to die for the doctrine of transubstantiation, we cannot but feel some doubt whether the doctrine of transubstantiation may not triumph over all opposition.More was a man of eminent talents.He had all the information on the subject that we have, or that, while the world lasts, any human being will have.The text, "This is my body,"was in his New Testament as it is in ours.The absurdity of the literal interpretation was as great and as obvious in the sixteenth century as it is now.No progress that science has made, or will make, can add to what seems to us the overwhelming force of the argument against the real presence.We are, therefore, unable to understand why what Sir Thomas More believed respecting transubstantiation may not be believed to the end of time by men equal in abilities and honesty to Sir Thomas More.
But Sir Thomas More is one of the choice specimens of human wisdom and virtue; and the doctrine of transubstantiation is a kind of proof charge.A faith which stands that test will stand any test.The prophecies of Brothers and the miracles of Prince Hohenlohe sink to trifles in the comparison.
One reservation, indeed, must be made.The books and traditions of a sect may contain, mingled with propositions strictly theological, other propositions, purporting to rest on the same authority, which relate to physics.If new discoveries should throw discredit on the physical propositions, the theological propositions, unless they can be separated from the physical propositions, will share in that discredit.In this way, undoubtedly, the progress of science may indirectly serve the cause of religious truth.The Hindoo mythology, for example, is bound up with a most absurd geography.Every young Brahmin, therefore, who learns geography in our colleges learns to smile at the Hindoo mythology.If Catholicism has not suffered to an equal degree from the Papal decision that the sun goes round the earth, this is because all intelligent Catholics now hold, with Pascal, that, in deciding the point at all, the Church exceeded her powers, and was, therefore, justly left destitute of that supernatural assistance which, in the exercise of her legitimate functions, the promise of her Founder authorised her to expect.
This reservation affects not at all the truth of our proposition, that divinity, properly so called, is not a progressive science.
A very common knowledge of history, a very little observation of life, will suffice to prove that no learning, no sagacity, affords a security against the greatest errors on subjects relating to the invisible world.Bayle and Chillingworth, two of the most sceptical of mankind, turned Catholics from sincere conviction.Johnson, incredulous on all other points, was a ready believer in miracles and apparitions.He would not believe in Ossian; but he was willing to believe in the second sight.He would not believe in the earthquake of Lisbon; but he was willing to believe in the Cock Lane ghost.
For these reasons we have ceased to wonder at any vagaries of superstition.We have seen men, not of mean intellect or neglected education, but qualified by their talents and acquirements to attain eminence either in active or speculative pursuits, well-read scholars, expert logicians, keen observers of life and manners, prophesying, interpreting, talking unknown tongues, working miraculous cures, coming down with messages from God to the House of Commons.We have seen an old woman, with no talents beyond the cunning of a fortune-teller, and with the education of a scullion, exalted into a prophetess, and surrounded by tens of thousands of devoted followers, many of whom were, in station and knowledge, immeasurably her superiors;and all this in the nineteenth century; and all this in London.
Yet why not? For of the dealings of God with man no more has been revealed to the nineteenth century than to the first, or to London than to the wildest parish in the Hebrides.It is true that, in those things which concern this life and this world, man constantly becomes wiser and wiser.But it is no less true that, as respects a higher power and a future state, man, in the language of Goethe's scoffing friend,"bleibt stets von gleichem Schlag, Und ist so wunderlich als wie am ersten Tag."The history of Catholicism strikingly illustrates these observations.During the last seven centuries the public mind of Europe has made constant progress in every department of secular knowledge.But in religion we can trace no constant progress.The ecclesiastical history of that long period is a history of movement to and fro.Four times, since the authority of the Church of Rome was established in Western Christendom, has the human intellect risen up against her yoke.Twice that Church remained completely victorious.Twice she came forth from the conflict bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the principle of life still strong within her.When we reflect on the tremendous assaults which she has survived, we find it difficult to conceive in what way she is to perish.