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religious life to communicate so seldom. To take a different case; the whole legislation of the Church, as regards the intercourse of Catholics with those without, was pretty well revolutionized by the Council of Constance, acting under a just appreciation of the altered conditions of European society. These are but a few instances, selected almost at random, of the various or seemingly contrary applications of a common principle, according to the exigences of time and place, of which Church history is full. The mystical Bride was not only to be all' glorious from within,' but also 'clothed in raiment of many colours,' and it is no paradox to say that she is ever changing while still the same. To her we may apply the poet's words

"Mother of form and fear,

Dread arbitress of mutable respect."

A still closer analogy, in some respects, may be traced between the development of doctrine and the growth of what are called 'special devotions' in the Church, which are themselves the corollaries of doctrine.*

To revert to doctrinal developments; this may seem the place for saying something of the antecedent tests by which their value is ascertained, but the subject is too wide to be more than glanced at here. It is obvious, at first blush, that every true development must be in harmony with the original revelation, and the mind of God; and thus any theory, for

+ This has been done in the case of one such devotion in Dalgairns' book on the Heart of Jesus. Richardson, 1854.

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instance, which should trench on the Incarnation, or Divinity, or mediatorial office of the Eternal Son, or, again, on the moral principles of Christianity, would be at once self-condemned. It is clear, on the other hand, that no development could be admitted, which should conflict with truths already known from other sources, as from natural reason, science, or history. God cannot contradict Himself. His word in revelation must be in perfect accord with His word written in the heart of man, or on the crust of the earth, or on the firmament of heaven. Hence no development which should exalt what are usually called the 'Evangelical virtues '—those first introduced by Christianity-to the exclusion or disparagement of the so-called natural virtues-those which Christianity did not introduce, but most certainly adopted and sanctioned-could be a true one. There may have been periods in the history of the Church when purity, humility, and other virtues of the Gospel had almost come to be regarded, in some quarters, as a substitute for truth, virtue, manliness, and other virtues of the natural order; or, again, when Manichean notions as to the impurity of matter were implicitly, though not consciously, entertained. But these could be no more than passing phases of opinion, and have never been absorbed into the texture of her inner life. Hence again, as we observed just now, the theory of literal inspiration, so dear to one large school of Protestants, is untenable, being disproved by facts. I will mention but one other test, which is implied in the very term development, and is expressly noticed by St. Vincent of Lerins, in the passage quoted

above, viz., that it means progress from less to more; it must be an accession to our knowledge, and must enlarge, not narrow, the boundaries of religious thought. The collective mind of the Church, gazing from age to age at the orb of divine truth, using all available appliances from without, and enlightened by the Spirit from within, grows continually in wisdom as in strength, and her path is as the shining light which increaseth continually unto perfect day.

This part of the subject may be fitly closed with the account of the limits, within which the developing authority of the Church is exercised, given by one eminently qualified to speak on the subject; "The great truths of the moral law, of natural religion, and of Apostolical faith, are both its boundary and its foundation. It must not go beyond them, and it must ever appeal to them. Both its subject-matter, and its articles in that subject-matter, are fixed. . . . . It must ever profess to be guided by Scripture and by tradition. It must refer to the particular Apostolic truth which it is enforcing, or (what is called) defining. . . . . The new truth which is promulgated, if it is to be called new, must be at least homogeneous, cognate, implicit, viewed relatively to the old truth. It must be what I may even have guessed, or wished, to be included in the Apostolic revelation; and at least it will be of such a character that my thoughts readily concur in it, or coalesce with it, as soon as I hear it."* It is of course implied here, as the author expressly states elsewhere in reference to the Immaculate Conception, that a 'new truth' may not always be recognized

Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua, pp. 392, 393.

till after ages of controversy, and may even for a time be strenuously opposed. The divine illumination vouchsafed to the Church does not supersede or anticipate the historical development of her thought.

And now, before proceeding to consider objections, let me notice, in passing, one or two practical corollaries which follow from what has been said. First, it is clear that we have no right to be hasty in rejecting new developments in theology simply because they are new. Very often, indeed, the novelty is of appearance only, and we are but welcoming 'old friends with new faces.' But, if not, let us remember that every fresh definition, from the oμoovoios of Nicæa downwards, has been branded in turn with the charge of novelty. It was superfluous because it contained nothing new, or it was dangerous because it did. But wisdom is justified of all her children. If we choose to be startled or scandalized at what we do not immediately comprehend, the course of theological science will not therefore stand still for us, like the sun and moon in the valley of Ajalon.

Neither, on the other hand, must we carp at scientific discoveries, which seem to trench on received opinions. In such cases it has been very common, first to say that the new theory is untrue; and then that it is dangerous to religion; and when at last it is proved to be both true and innocuous, that it is unimportant, for every one knew it before. But this is neither wise nor altogether honest. If there is a danger in offending the prejudices of the ignorant, there is also a danger of shaking the faith of the learned, when we insist on de

nouncing as irreligious what they perhaps know to be a demonstrated fact. Noli aemulari. Either our opinion was merely an opinion, and no part of revealed dogma at all, or the alleged discovery will turn out to be only a conjectural hypothesis, serviceable for the moment but destined to pass away, or the two do not really clash. In any case, the cause of truth is safe. A Catholic, firm in his belief, will have as little desire to check the free course of science, as doubt that its results will ultimately tend to the confirmation of faith. He may indeed complain of random assertions, hasty generalizations, of treating hypotheses as conclusions, and identifying difficulties with disproof; and no honest student of science will quarrel with him for doing so.* When we remember how it was once imagined, by friend and foe alike, that revelation itself was at stake in the discussion of the solar system, we can afford to smile at the ignorance, or the impatience, or the unbelief, which welcomes or dreads, as the case may be, in the results of geology or physiology, a probable deathblow to our Christian faith.†

But I must hasten on to notice, in conclusion, two leading

• The office of the apologist is to trace from time to time the "Connection of Science and Revealed Religion," as Cardinal Wiseman has so ably done, not to contrast them as antagonistic systems.

† Supposing, for instance, the Darwinian theory of the origin of species,' were ever to be recognized as a scientific truth (which I am very far from saying that it will be), the Catholic doctrine of the Fall would remain untouched. For after all we must draw the line somewhere; there must be a point in the series of animal developments, where man, in the language of Scripture, 'became a living soul,' unless the existence of the soul be denied altogether, and then would begin those relations of the human soul with God comprehended under the terms 'original justice,' and 'original sin.'

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