Benedictus de Spinoza

“ The terrible Jehovah of the Pentateuch, who exacted as a burnt-offering for himself every male that opened the womb, whether of man or beast, and whose altar reeked duly morning and evening with the blood of victims, gave place to the milder conception of subsequent ages, who "delighted not in the blood of bullocks or of rams," who "required not from his people their first-born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for their sin," but only asked of his worshippers that "they should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God." ”

“ Our science is not that of the Jews of the days of Moses and Joshua, it is not the science of our fathers, nor even of yesterday, but ever progressive, ever extending, ever becoming more precise, each and all of its parts are seen arranging themselves in their several places, as elements of one vast and harmonious whole, overruled by eternal and unchanging laws, the ordinances of the Almighty and all-comprehending God who is their Author. ”

“ For our own part, we have no more affection for Pantheism than M. Saisset; neither do we care to ship in the brain-built bark that carries Spinoza's metaphysical freight; but looking simply to truth, and careless of consequence, we are bound to aver that in all we can make out of the man Spinoza in his works, in his letters, in the character he bore when alive, and the social position of those who were his friends, we discover nothing that is not great intellectually, good, gentle, and loveable morally. ”

“ But as surely as there has been an Old Covenant and a New so surely will there be another and another newer still, each more than the last in harmony with the knowledge and the aspirations of ever-advancing humanity. ”

“ Another of those great religious waves that roll over the world from time to time would seem to have been long gathering in Europe, and is certainly compact on this occasion of no new superstition, but rises under the influence of science, of general enlightenment, and of that refinement in manners wherein true civilization so essentially consists. Religious philosophers of what are called heterodox opinions — and of such men the educated world is full — are no enemies to Religion in itself, and to establishments for the instruction of mankind in their religious and moral duties. ”

“ Time has already, however, in a great measure righted the memory of Benedict de Spinoza. To many of the great in intellect, of Germany especially, Spinoza has now for some time been better known, and is at length regarded with feelings of entire respect, even where his peculiar views do not command assent. God, as conceived by Spinoza, has indeed been the Divinity of many of the most distinguished in letters and science of the middle and north of Europe since his day. ”

“ Copernicus, Luther, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Leibnitz, and, though last not least, Spinoza, — these are the mighty names to whom we owe the intellectual freedom we now enjoy; Spinoza not least in the illustrious roll, we say, for — though in arrear as regards political principles of our own great writers and actors of the time of the first Charles, — as true original of the school of biblical criticism, he continues to influence the religious opinions of Europe in a greater degree, perhaps, than any other man of modern times. ”

“ Shall not the religious elements in our nature dovetail with the rest of our wonderful economy; our sensational be worthy of our scientific conceptions of God and the universe? The day has long gone by for assuming that man can only be religious according to the Hebrew Scriptures. Religion is a thing apart from parchment, ink, and paper, and the Hebrew Scriptures, themselves but evidences of the existence of a certain order of primitive faculties in the mind of man, are neither the only nor yet the oldest records of a religious system extant. ”

“ Purely philosophical and speculative writings scarcely attract the notice of the many, and only afford matter of discussion to philosophers and learned persons, whose interests never differ from those of the body politic at large; but critical inquiries, in whatever spirit conceived, almost necessarily jar with the opinions and prejudices of individuals, and perchance are found in opposition to the interests of large and influential classes of society, who forthwith band themselves together and declare war to the death against the inquirer. So has it fared with Spinoza. ”

“ But in the course of two centuries the world has advanced in its notions of what constitutes real vulgarity and true learning, and has decided that neither one nor other necessarily inheres in the possession or in the want of Greek and Latin. The despot and the bigot, the advocate of popular ignorance and superstition, alone begrudge their freedom whether of thought or action to mankind. ”

“ Credulity and mystery have lost their hold upon the educated mind of the 19th century, and he who has made any progress in reasonable, as distinguished from dogmatic, religion finds no satisfaction for the aspirations of his spirit towards the Infinite in ritual observance, in parrot-like iteration of set formulae, and in a mendacious prostration of his moral sense and understanding in terms that make God a tyrant and man a slave. ”

“ In our Father's house are many mansions; in the constitution of the human mind there is endless variety; but all, with the most diverse speculative views, may meet on .the common ground of reason, justice, and charity. God the creator, ordering, ruling, from eternity, by laws harmonious and unchanging; Christ coming into the world in time, the example and the teacher of mankind ”

“ It is time that superstitious notions and Pagan contaminations were discarded from the grand ideal of religion, as it was undoubtedly conceived by the Author of Christianity, and that mankind escaped from the labyrinth of unreason in which they are still seen wandering led by the untutored religious sentiments. ”

“ Religion is indeed an eternal entity in human nature, and outcries against the freest discussion of its elements, and against inquiry into the worth and authenticity of the ancient records of the systems that have obtained among the earliest of the policied races of men, have no meaning in fact but this, — that present professors incline to be left alone in their faith, whatever it may chance to be. ”

“ In these our own days of freer individual thought and of greater general enlightenment, when authority and prescription in matters of faith no less than in subjects of science are ignored by the truly educated in all classes of society, an English version of the Tractatus of Spinoza appears to be a want that ought to be supplied. ”

“ In this favoured land we have long attained to a salutary conviction of the unmixed advantages that accrue from the open discussion of political and social questions; but in regard to subjects of Faith and Religion, it must be confessed that public opinion is less advanced; the many still fear to meddle here, and from the pulpit we are anxiously cautioned against too curious inquiry and bidden to believe. Nevertheless, and in spite of all dissuasion to the contrary, mankind will inquire ”

“ Intelligence and its offspring, Science, must intervene at length, and appealing to the ever-extant Revelation which God makes of himself in the mind lie has furnished us withal, and in the universe around us which we are privileged to scan, reassert the Absolute Religion that was taught by Christ, and that does not differ from the Religion which reason and nature at one, declare alone to be true. ”

“ It is not difficult for us to excuse in the Lutheran minister a spice of splenetic feeling against so bold a thinker as Spinoza — the theologian could not away with the uncompromising critic of the Hebrew Scriptures — but he has evidently no dislike of the man. ”

“ For his own part, the writer is ready to avow that his task has been both interesting and edifying; and as all the better spirits of the world are now of opinion that a moral bed of Procrustes is even as sorry an idea as the original contrivance was cruel, he trusts that generally they will bear him out in his estimate of the worth of Spinoza's short but masterly work. ”

“ On the contrary, they regard these as means to an end designed by God, and as essential elements in the social fabric; they are only hostile to what to them seems unreasonable and objectionable in the matters taught; they would amend, improve, not pull down or destroy. In the system of the Church of England rightly used, in especial, they see perhaps the most admirable instrument ever imagined for the general improvement of mankind. ”

“ And, again, it is notorious that the zealous and perfectly sincere professor — to say nothing of crimes of far deeper dye perpetrated by the fanatic — the perfectly sincere professor, we say, has occasionally been proved the spoiler of the widow and the orphan confided to his care, the forger of deeds that made innocent children beggars, the selfish sybarite who consumed in sensual indulgence the hard-won earnings of the labouring poor. ”

“ Some of the best and most gifted men the world has ever seen have had a very small measure of believingness in their nature, yet have they lived beloved by their friends, and have often made mankind their debtors to the end of time by the noble works they have left behind them. ”

“ Copernicus and Galileo, however, had already come into open collision with the literal text of Scripture and the dicta of dogmatic theology in the field of physical science, and Bacon and Descartes had successfully asserted man's right to freedom of opinion in the domain of philosophy. Spinoza's work, consequently, however ill received by professed theologians, appears to have met with countenance enough in the world of science and letters. ”

“ The old heathen gods had often appeared on earth in human shape — Bacchus, Hercules, &c., — as instructors and benefactors of mankind; why should not Christ have been an incarnation of Deity also? He must have been more than man ”

“ It is time that another test of human worth were appealed to, besides religious profession; and especially that men of letters and good breeding should cease bespattering those who differ from them in their speculative theology with such epithets as infidel and atheist. ”

“ Love of God, which means obedience to his eternal decrees on the one hand, and Neighbourly Love, which means doing as we would be done by on the other; to which let us add a Sense of Accountability for deeds done here, and the Hope of Immortality hereafter — and we have the essential elements of a truly Catholic faith. [4] Speculative opinions have little influence on action, beliefs have still less. ”

“ Many of these ideas and rites indeed belonged to the Jews, in common with the whole of the policied nations of antiquity, and were therefore familiar to the earlier Christians as children of Hebrew parents. One of the most widely spread of all the religious ideas of antiquity was that of propitiation by sacrifice. An animal — well if it were not a human being! — was slaughtered upon the altar of the divinity addressed, and in its death was held to propitiate the Deity and to expiate the sins of the people. ”

“ The religious sentiments, it should never be forgotten, are in themselves blind; they require enlightenment by the intellectual faculties, direction by the moral powers, before their promptings can conduce to good. They were doubtless intended by a beneficent Creator for the happiness and ennoblement of mankind ”

“ England had need beware how in suffering a narrow theology to be forced upon her she indisposes her best intellects and highest moral natures from seeking admission into her ministry; men who cannot get the better of doubts and difficulties by "taking a curacy;" ”

“ Infallibility and dogmatism are no more; scientific truth associated with reason, justice, and charity must henceforth point the way, and it were wilful mistrust of the Almighty to question the wholesomeness of the conclusions to which they will lead, however these may clash with preconceived opinion and particular interest. ”

“ In the parish all have a voice in the administration of their local affairs, as in the estates of the realm in Parliament assembled the best men among them have a voice through their representatives in the settlement of the articles of their creed and the ritual of their worship. ”

“ In short, as the life and doctrines of the Last and Greatest of the Prophets in the course of successive generations became more and more misunderstood, and more and more mixed up with Pagan and superstitious ideas, he came at length to differ little in the popular apprehension from the Nature-god of the heathen world. Well and truly has it been said by the great writer whose loss we had reason so lately to deplore, that " Christianity conquered Paganism, but Paganism infected Christianity ”

“ Long afterwards — when several generations had passed away, and this sad, though natural, conclusion of the religious Reformer's career was growing dim in the distance, the old Hebrew and Pagan elements began to bear fruit. The pure heart which Christ had proclaimed, the holy life he had inculcated, were not held sufficient to make man acceptable to God. The Deity must be propitiated in some more sensible and striking way ”

“ With the happy constitution of her people she ought rather to lead here, as she has already led in all that ministers to the material well-being of man, and that characterizes true civilization — respect for law, regard for the rights of others, and the assertion of civil and religious liberty. ”