xvi. 30) and almighty (raises the dead, works miracles), who is before

all things, both in time and rank, who has life in himself (though an imparted life) like as the Father has life in himself,--what, if we follow out the consequences, can such a being be, but God? "Christ is one with the Father in will;"--but unity of will presupposes unity of nature. "Christ is the ambassador, the representative of God;"--but God can only be represented by a divine being. I can only choose as my representative one in whom I find the same or similar qualities as in myself; otherwise I belie myself.

[119] "How much better is it that I should lose the whole world than that I should lose God, who created the world, and can create innumerable worlds, who is better than a hundred thousand, than innumerable worlds? For what sort of a comparison is that of the temporal with the eternal?... One soul is better than the whole world."--Luther (Th. xix. p. 21).

[120] It is true that the heathen philosophers also, as Plato, Socrates, the Stoics (see e.g. J. Lipsius, Physiol. Stoic. l. i. diss. xi.), believed that the divine providence extended not merely to the general, but also to the particular, the individual; but they identified providence with Nature, law, necessity. The Stoics, who were the orthodox speculatists of heathenism, did indeed believe in miracles wrought by providence (Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. ii. and De Divinat. l. i.); but their miracles had no such supranaturalistic significance as those of Christianity, though they also appealed to the supranaturalistic axiom: "Nihil est quod Deus efficere non possit."

[121] "Dicimur amare et Deus; dicimur nosse et Deus. Et multa in hunc modum. Sed Deus amat ut charitas, novit ut veritas, etc."--Bernard, (de Consider. l. v.).

[122] It is true that in one sense the individual is the absolute--in the phraseology of Leibnitz, the mirror of the universe, of the infinite. But in so far as there are many individuals, each is only a single, and, as such, a finite mirror of the infinite. It is true also, in opposition to the abstraction of a sinless man, that each individual regarded in himself is perfect, and only by comparison imperfect, for each is what alone he can be.

[123] With the Hindoos (Inst. of Menu) he alone is "a perfect man who consists of three united persons, his wife, himself, and his son. For man and wife, and father and son, are one." The Adam of the Old Testament also is incomplete without woman; he feels his need of her. But the Adam of the New Testament, the Christian, heavenly Adam, the Adam who is constituted with a view to the destruction of this world, has no longer any sexual impulses or functions.

[124] "Hæ sane vires amicitiæ mortis contemptum ingenerare ... potuerunt: quibus pene tantum venerationis, quantum Deorum immortalium ceremoniis debetur. Illis enim publica salus, his privata continetur."--Valerius Max. l. iv. c. 7.

[125] "The life for God is not this natural life, which is subject to decay.... Ought we not then to sigh after future things, and be averse to all these temporal things?... Wherefore we should find consolation in heartily despising this life and this world, and from our hearts sigh for and desire the future honour and glory of eternal life."--Luther (Th. i. s. 466, 467).

[126] "Eo dirigendus est spiritus, quo aliquando est iturus."--Meditat. Sacræ Joh. Gerhardi. Med. 46.

[127] "Affectanti coelestia, terrena non sapiunt. Æternis inhianti, fastidio sunt transitoria."--Bernard. (Epist. Ex Persona Heliæ Monachi ad Parentes). "Nihil nostra refert in hoc ævo, nisi de eo quam celeriter excedere."--Tertullian (Apol. adv. Gentes, c. 41). "Wherefore a Christian man should rather be advised to bear sickness with patience, yea, even to desire that death should come,--the sooner the better. For, as St. Cyprian says, nothing is more for the advantage of a Christian than soon to die. But we rather listen to the pagan Juvenal when he says: 'Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.'"--Luther (Th. iv. s. 15).

[128] "Ille perfectus est qui mente et corpore a seculo est elongatus."--De Modo Bene Vivendi ad Sororem, s. vii. (Among the spurious writings of St. Bernard.)

[129] On this subject see "Hieronymus, de Vita Pauli Primi Eremitæ."

[130] Naturally Christianity had only such power when, as Jerome writes to Demetrius, Domini nostri adhuc calebat cruor et fervebat recens in credentibus fides. See also on this subject G. Arnold.--Von der ersten Christen Genügsamkeit u. Verschmähung alles Eigennutzes, l. c. B. iv. c. 12, § 7-16.

[131] How far otherwise the ancient Christians! "Difficile, imo impossibile est, ut et præsentibus quis et futuris fruatur bonis."--Hieronymus (Epist. Juliano). "Delicatus es, frater, si et hic vis gaudere cum seculo et postea regnare cum Christo."--Ib. (Epist. ad Heliodorum). "Ye wish to have both God and the creature together, and that is impossible. Joy in God and joy in the creature cannot subsist together."--Tauler (ed. c. p. 334). But they were abstract Christians. And we live now in the age of conciliation. Yes, truly!

[132] "Perfectum autem esse nolle delinquere est."--Hieronymus (Epist. ad Heliodorum de laude Vitæ solit.). Let me observe once for all that I interpret the biblical passages concerning marriage in the sense in which they have been interpreted by the history of Christianity.

[133] "The marriage state is nothing new or unwonted, and is lauded and held good even by heathens according to the judgment of reason."--Luther (Th. ii. p. 377a).

[134] "Præsumendum est hos qui intra paradisum recipi volunt debere cessare ab ea re, a qua paradisus intactus est."--Tertullian (de Exhort. cast. c. 13). "Coelibatus angelorum est imitatio."--Jo. Damasceni (Orthod. Fidei, l. iv. c. 25).

[135] "Quæ non nubit, soli Deo dat operam et ejus cura non dividitur; pudica autem, quæ nupsit, vitam cum Deo et cum marito dividit."--Clemens Alex. (Pædag. l. ii.).

[136] Thomas à Kempis de Imit. (l. ii. c. 7, c. 8, l. iii. c. 5, c. 34, c. 53, c. 59). "Felix illa conscientia et beata virginitas, in cujus corde præter amorem Christi ... nullus alius versatur amor."--Hieronymus (Demetriadi, Virgini Deo consecratæ).

[137] "Divisa est ... mulier et virgo. Vide quantæ felicitatis sit, quæ et nomen sexus amiserit. Virgo jam mulier non vocatur."--Hieronymus (adv. Helvidium de perpet. Virg. p. 14. Th. ii. Erasmus).

[138] This may be expressed as follows: Marriage has in Christianity only a moral, no religious significance, no religious principle and exemplar. It is otherwise with the Greeks, where, for example, "Zeus and Here are the great archetype of every marriage" (Creuzer, Symbol.); with the ancient Parsees, where procreation, as "the multiplication of the human race, is the diminution of the empire of Ahriman," and thus a religious art and duty (Zend-Avesta); with the Hindoos, where the son is the regenerated father. Among the Hindoos no regenerate man could assume the rank of a Sanyassi, that is, of an anchorite absorbed in God, if he had not previously paid three debts, one of which was that he had had a legitimate son. Amongst the Christians, on the contrary, at least the Catholics, it was a true festival of religious rejoicing when betrothed or even married persons--supposing that it happened with mutual consent--renounced the married state and sacrificed conjugal to religious love.

[139] Inasmuch as the religious consciousness restores everything which it begins by abolishing, and the future life is ultimately nothing else than the present life re-established, it follows that sex must be re-established. "Erunt ... similes angelorum. Ergo homines non desinent ... ut apostolus apostolus sit et Maria Maria."--Hieronymus (ad Theodorum Viduam). But as the body in the other world is an incorporeal body, so necessarily the sex there is one without difference, i.e., a sexless sex.

[140] "Bene dicitur, quod tunc plene videbimus eum sicuti est, cum similes ei erimus, h. e. erimus quod ipse est. Quibus enim potestas data est filios Dei fieri, data est potestas, non quidem ut sint Deus, sed sint tamen quod Deus est: sint sancti, futuri plene beati, quod Deus est. Nec aliunde hic sancti. nec ibi futuri beati, quam ex Deo qui eorum et sanctitas et beatitudo est."--De Vita solitar a (among the spurious writings of St. Bernard). "Finis autem bonæ voluntatis beatitudo est: vita æterna ipse Deus."--Augustin. (ap. Petrus Lomb. l. ii. dist. 38, c. 1). "The other man will be renovated in the spiritual life, i.e., will become a spiritual man, when he shall be restored into the image of God. For he will be like God, in life, in righteousness, glory, and wisdom."--Luther (Th. i. p. 324).

[141] "Si bonum est habere corpus incorruptible, quare hoc facturum Deum volumus dasperere?"--Augustinus (Opp. Antwerp, 1700, Th. v. p. 698).

[142] "Quare dicitur spiritale corpus, nisi quia ad nutum spiritus serviet? Nihil tibi contradicet ex te, nihil in te rebellabit adversus te.... Ubi volueris, eris.... Credere enim debemus talia corpora nos habituros, ut ubi velimus, quando voluerimus, ibi simus."--Augustinus (l. c. pp. 703, 705). "Nihil indecorum ibi erit, summma pax erit, nihil discordans, nihil montruosum, nihil quod offendat adspectum" (l. c. 707). "Nisi beatus, non vivit ut vult." (De Civ. Dei, l. 14, c. 25.)

[143] And their conceptions of God are just as heterogeneous. The pious Germans have a German God, the pious Spaniards a Spanish God, the French a French God. The French actually have the proverb: "Le bon Dieu est Français." In fact, polytheism must exist so long as there are various nations. The real God of a people is the point d'honneur of its nationality.

[144] "Ibi nostra spes erit res."--Augustin. "Therefore we have the first fruits of immortal life in hope, until perfection comes at the last day, wherein we shall see and feel the life we have believed in and hoped for."--Luther (Th. i. s. 459).

[145] According to old books of travel, however, there are many tribes which do not believe that the future is identical with the present, or that it is better, but that it is even worse. Parny (OEuv. Chois. t. i. Melang.) tells of a dying negro-slave who refused the inauguration to immortality by baptism in these words: "Je ne veux point d'une autre vie, car peut-être y serais-je encore votre esclave."

[146] Ahlwardt (Ossian Anm. zu Carthonn.).

[147] There everything will be restored. "Qui modo vivit, erit, nec me vel dente, vel ungue fraudatum revomet patefacti fossa sepulchri."--Aurelius Prud. (Apotheos. de Resurr. Carnis Hum.). And this faith, which you consider rude and carnal, and which you therefore disavow, is the only consistent, honest, and true faith. To the identity of the person belongs the identity of the body.

[148] "Neque enim post resurrectionem tempus diebus ac noctibus numerabitur. Erit magis una dies sine vespere."--Joh. Damascen. (Orth. Fidei l. ii. c. 1).

[149] "Ipsum (corpus) erit et non ipsum erit."--Augustinus (v. J. Ch. Doederlein, Inst. Theol. Christ. Altorf, 1781, § 280).

[150] "Præter salutem tuam nihil cogites; solum quæ Dei sunt cures."--Thomas à K. (de Imit. l. i. c. 23). "Contra salutem proprium cogites nihil. Minus dixi: contra, præter dixisse debueram."--Bernhardus (de Consid. ad Eugenium Pontif. Max. l. ii.). "Qui Deum quærit, de propria salute sollicitus est."--Clemens Alex. (Cohort. ad Gent.).

[151] Here and in other parts of this work, theory is taken in the sense in which it is the source of true objective activity,--the science which gives birth to art,--for man can do only so much as he knows: "tantum potest quantum scit."

[152] Concerning the biblical conceptions of Satan, his power and works, see Lützelberger's "Grundzüge der Paulinischen Glaubenslehre," and G. Ch. Knapp's "Vorles. über d. Christl. Glaubensl.," § 62-65. To this subject belongs demoniacal possession, which also has its attestation in the Bible. See Knapp (§ 65, iii. 2, 3).

[153] Doubtless, this unveiling of the mystery of predestination will be pronounced atrocious, impious, diabolical. I have nothing to allege against this; I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.

[154] A kindred doctrine is that of the Concursus Dei, according to which, God not only gives the first impulse, but also co-operates in the agency of the second cause. For the rest, this doctrine is only a particular form of the contradictory dualism between God and Nature, which runs through the history of Christianity. On the subject of this remark, as of the whole paragraph, see Strauss: Die Christliche Glaubenslehre, B. ii. § 75, 76.

[155] "Dum sumus in hoc corpore, peregrinamur ab eo qui summe est."--Bernard. Epist. 18 (ed. Basle, 1552). "As long as we live, we are in the midst of death."--Luther (Th. i. p. 331). The idea of the future life is therefore nothing else than the idea of true, perfected religion, freed from the limits and obstructions of this life,--the future life, as has been already said, nothing but the true opinion and disposition, the open heart, of religion. Here we believe--there we behold; i.e., there there is nothing besides God, and thus nothing between God and the soul; but only for this reason, that there ought to be nothing between them, because the immediate union of God and the soul is the true opinion and desire of religion. "We have as yet so to do with God as with one hidden from us, and it is not possible that in this life we should hold communion with him face to face. All creatures are now nothing else than vain masks, under which God conceals himself, and by which he deals with us."--Luther (Th. xi. p. 70). "If thou wert only free from the images of created things, thou mightest have God without intermission."--Tauler (l. c. p. 313).

[156] "Voluntate igitur Dei immobilis manet et stat in seculum terra ... et voluntate Dei movetur et nutat. Non ergo fundamentis suis nixa subsistit, nec fulcris suis stabilis perseverat, sed Dominus statuit eam et firmamento voluntatis suæ continet, quia in manu ejus omnes fines terræ."--Ambrosius (Hexæmeron. l. i. c. 61).

[157] It is only unbelief in the efficacy of prayer which has subtly limited prayer to spiritual matters.

[158] According to the notion of barbarians, therefore, prayer is a coercive power, a charm. But this conception is an unchristian one (although even among many Christians the idea is accepted that prayer constrains God); for in Christianity God is essentially feeling satisfied in itself, Almighty goodness, which denies nothing to (religious) feeling. The idea of coercion presupposes an unfeeling God.

[159] "Natura enim remota providentia et potestate divina prorsus nihil est."--Lactantius (Div. Inst. lib. 3, c. 28). "Omnia quæ creata sunt, quamvis ea Deus fecerit valde bona, Creatori tamen comparata, nec bona sunt, cui comparata nec sunt; altissime quippe et proprio modo quodam de se ipso dixit: Ego sum, qui sum."--Augustinus (de Perfectione Just. Hom. c. 14).

[160] "Pulchras formas et varias, nitidos et amoenos colores amant oculi. Non teneant hæc animam meam; teneat eam Deus qui hæc fecit, bona quidem valde, sed ipse est bonum meum, non hæc."--Augustinus (Confess. l. x. c. 34). "Vetiti autem sumus (2 Cor. iv. 18.) converti ad ea quæ videntur.... Amandus igitur solus Deus est: omnis vero iste mundus, i.e. omnia sensibilia contemnenda, utendum autem his ad hujus vitæ necessitatem."--Ib. de Moribus Eccl. Cathol. l. i. c. 20.

[161] At the same time, however, their result is to prove the nature of man. The various proofs of the existence of God are nothing else than various highly interesting forms in which the human nature affirms itself. Thus, for example, the physico-theological proof (or proof from design) is the self-affirmation of the calculated activity of the understanding. Every philosophic system is, in this sense, a proof of the existence of God.

[162] "Christ is ascended on high, ... that is, he not only sits there above, but he is also here below. And he is gone thither to the very end that he might be here below, and fill all things, and be in all places, which he could not do while on earth, for here he could not be seen by all bodily eyes. Therefore he sits above, where every man can see him, and he has to do with every man."--Luther (Th. xiii. p. 643). That is to say: Christ or God is an object, an existence, of the imagination; in the imagination he is limited to no place,--he is present and objective to every one. God exists in heaven, but is for that reason omnipresent; for this heaven is the imagination.

[163] "Thou hast not to complain that thou art less experienced than was Abraham or Isaac. Thou also hast appearances.... Thou hast holy baptism, the supper of the Lord, the bread and wine, which are figures and forms, under and in which the present God speaks to thee, and acts upon thee, in thy ears, eyes, and heart.... He appears to thee in baptism, and it is he himself who baptizes thee, and speaks to thee.... Everything is full of divine appearances and utterances, if he is on thy side."--Luther (Th. ii. p. 466. See also on this subject, Th. xix. p. 407).

[164] The denial of a fact is not a matter of indifference; it is something morally evil,--a disowning of what is known to be true. Christianity made its articles of faith objective, i.e., undeniable, unassailable facts, thus overpowering the reason, and taking the mind prisoner by the force of external reality: herein we have the true explanation why and how Christianity, Protestant as well as Catholic, enunciated and enforced with all solemnity the principle, that heresy--the denial of an idea or a fact which forms an article of faith--is an object of punishment by the temporal power, i.e., a crime. What in theory is an external fact becomes in practice an external force. In this respect Christianity is far below Mohammedanism, to which the crime of heresy is unknown.

[165] "Præsentiam sæpe divi suam declarant."--Cicero (de Nat. D. 1. ii.). Cicero's works (de Nat. D. and de Divinatione) are especially interesting, because the arguments there used for the reality of the objects of pagan faith are virtually the same as those urged in the present day by theologians and the adherents of positive religion generally for the reality of the objects of Christian faith.

[166] "Quod crudeliter ab hominibus sine Dei jussu fieret aut factum est, id debuit ab Hebrais fieri, quia a deo vitæ et necis summo arbitrio, jussi bellum ita gerebant."--J. Clericus (Comm. in Mos. Num. c. 31, 7). "Multa gessit Samson, quæ vix possent defendi, nisi Dei, a quo homines pendent, instrumentum fuisse censeatur."--Ib. (Comm. in Judicum, c. 14, 19). See also Luther, e.g. (Th. i. p. 339, Th. xvi. p. 495).

[167] It was very justly remarked by the Jansenists against the Jesuits: "Vouloir reconnoitre dans l'Ecriture quelque chose de la foiblesse et de l'esprit naturel de l'homme, c'est donner la liberté à chacun d'en faire le discernment et de rejetter ce qui lui plaira de l'Ecriture, comme venant plûtot de la foiblesse de l'homme que de l'esprit de Dieu."--Bâyle (Dict. art. Adam (Jean) Rem. E.).

[168] "Nec in scriptura divina fas sit sentire aliquid contrarietatis."--Petrus L. (l. ii. dist. ii. c. i.). Similar thoughts are found in the Fathers.

[169] This is especially apparent in the superlative, and the preposition super, hyper, which distinguish the divine predicates, and which very early--as, for example, with the Neo-Platonists, the Christians among heathen philosophers--played a chief part in theology.

[170] "Scit itaque Deus, quanta sit multitudo pulicum, culicum, muscarum et piscium et quot nascantur, quotve moriantur, sed non scit hoc per momenta singula, imo simul et semel omnia."--Petrus L. (l. i. dist. 39, c. 3).

[171] "Qui scientem cuncta sciunt, quid nescire nequeunt?"--Liber Meditat. c. 26 (among the spurious writings of Augustine).

[172] Tauler, l. c. p. 312.

[173] "The closest union which Christ possessed with the Father, it is possible for me to win.... All that God gave to his only-begotten Son, he has given to me as perfectly as to him."--Predigten etzlicher Lehrer vor und zu Tauleri Zeiten. Hamburg, 1621, p. 14. "Between the only-begotten Son and the soul there is no distinction."--Ib. p. 68.

[174] "God can as little do without us as we without him."--Predigten etzlicher Lehrer, &c., p. 16. See also on this subject--Strauss, Christl. Glaubensl. B. i. § 47, and the author's work entitled, P. Bayle, pp. 104, 107.

[175] "This temporal, transitory life in this world (i.e., natural life) we have through God, who is the almighty Creator of heaven and earth. But the eternal untransitory life we have through the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.... Jesus Christ a Lord over that life."--Luther (Th. xvi. s. 459).

[176] It is curious to observe how the speculative religious philosophy undertakes the defence of the Trinity against the godless understanding, and yet, by doing away with the personal substances, and explaining the relation of Father and Son as merely an inadequate image borrowed from organic life, robs the Trinity of its very heart and soul. Truly, if the cabalistic artifices which the speculative religious philosophy applies in the service of the absolute religion were admissible in favour of finite religions, it would not be difficult to squeeze the Pandora's box of Christian dogmatics out of the horns of the Egyptian Apis. Nothing further would be needed for this purpose than the ominous distinction of the understanding from the speculative reason,--a distinction which is adapted to the justification of every absurdity.

[177] The unity has not the significance of genus, not of unum but of unus. (See Augustine and Petrus Lomb. l. i. dist. 19, c. 7, 8, 9.) "Hi ergo tres, qui unum sunt propter ineffabilem conjunctionem deitatis qua ineffabiliter copulantur, unus Deus est." (Petrus L. l. c. c. 6.) "How can reason bring itself into accord with this, or believe, that three is one and one is three?"--Luther (Th. x. iv. p. 13).

[178] "Quia ergo pater Deus et filius Deus et spiritus s. Deus cur non dicuntur tres Dii? Ecce proposuit hanc propositionem (Augustinus) attende quid respondeat ... Si autem dicerem: tres Deos, contradiceret scriptura dicens: Audi Israel: Deus tuus unus est. Ecce absolutio quæstionis: quare potius dicamus tres personas quam tres Deos, quia scil. illud non contradicit scriptura."--Petrus L. (l. i. dist. 23, c. 3). How much did even Catholicism repose upon Holy Writ!

[179] A truly masterly presentation of the overwhelming contradictions in which the mystery of the Trinity involves the genuine religious sentiment, is to be found in the work already cited--Theanthropos. Eine Reihe von Aphorismen--which expresses in the form of the religious sentiment what in the present work is expressed in the form of the reason; and which is therefore especially to be recommended to women.

[180] "Sacramentum ejus rei similitudinem gerit, cujus signum est."--Petrus Lomb. (l. iv. dist. 1, c. 1).

[181] In relation to the miracle-worker faith (confidence in God's aid) is certainly the causa efficiens of the miracle. (See Matt. xvii. 20; Acts vi. 8.) But in relation to the spectators of the miracle--and it is they who are in question here--miracle is the causa efficiens of faith.

[182] "Here we see a miracle surpassing all miracles, that Christ should have so mercifully converted his greatest enemy."--Luther (Th. xvi. p. 560).

[183] Hence it is greatly to the honour of Luther's understanding and sense of truth that, particularly when writing against Erasmus, he unconditionally denied the free will of man as opposed to divine grace. "The name Free Will," says Luther, quite correctly from the standpoint of religion, "is a divine title and name, which none ought to bear but the Divine Majesty alone." (Th. xix. p. 28).

[184] Experience indeed extorted even from the old theologians, whose faith was an uncompromising one, the admission that the effects of baptism are, at least in this life, very limited. "Baptismus non aufert omnes poenalitates hujus vitæ."--Mezger. Theol. Schol. Th. iv. p. 251. See also Petrus L. l. iv. dist. 4, c. 4; l. ii. dist. 32, c. 1.

[185] Even in the absurd fiction of the Lutherans, that "infants believe in baptism," the action of subjectivity reduces itself to the faith of others, since the faith of infants is "wrought by God through the intercession of the god-parents and their bringing up of the children in the faith of the Christian Church."--Luther (Th. xiii. pp. 360, 361). "Thus the faith of another helps me to obtain a faith of my own."--Ib. (T. xiv. p. 347a).

[186] "This," says Luther, "is in summa our opinion, that in and with the bread, the body of Christ is truly eaten; thus, that all which the bread undergoes and effects, the body of Christ undergoes and effects; that it is divided, eaten and chewed with the teeth propter unionem, sacramentalem." (Plank's Gesch. der Entst. des protest. Lehrbeg. B. viii. s. 369). Elsewhere, it is true, Luther denies that the body of Christ, although it is partaken of corporeally, "is chewed and digested like a piece of beef." (Th. xix. p. 429.) No wonder; for that which is partaken of is an object without objectivity, a body without corporeality, flesh without the qualities of flesh; "spiritual flesh," as Luther says, i.e., imaginary flesh. Be it observed further, that the Protestants also take the Lord's Supper fasting, but this is merely a custom with them, not a law. (See Luther, Th. xviii. p. 200, 201.)

[187] 1 Cor. xi. 29.

[188] "Videtur enim species vini et panis, et substantia panis et vini non creditur. Creditur autem substantia corporis et sanguinis Christi et tamen species non cernitur."--Bernardus (ed. Bas. 1552, pp. 189-191).

[189] It is so in another relation not developed here, but which may be mentioned in a note: namely, the following. In religion, in faith, man is an object to himself as the object, i.e., the end or determining motive, of God. Man is occupied with himself in and through God. God is the means of human existence and happiness. This religious truth, embodied in a cultus, in a sensuous form, is the Lord's Supper. In this sacrament man feeds upon God--the Creator of heaven and earth--as on material food; by the act of eating and drinking he declares God to be a mere means of life to man. Here man is virtually supposed to be the God of God: hence the Lord's Supper is the highest self-enjoyment of human subjectivity. Even the Protestant--not indeed in words, but in truth--transforms God into an external thing, since he subjects Him to himself as an object of sensational enjoyment.

[190] "Nostrates, præsentiam realem consecrationis effectum esse, adfirmant; idque ita, ut tum se exserat, cum usus legitimus accedit. Nec est quod regeras, Christum hæc verba: hoc est corpus meum, protulisse, antequam discipuli ejus comederent, adeoque panem jam ante usum corpus Christi fuisse."--Buddeus (l. c. l. v. c. l, §§ 13, 17). See, on the other hand, Concil. Trident. Sessio 13, cc. 3, 8, Can. 4.

[191] Apologie Melancthon. Strobel. Nürnb. 1783, p. 127.

[192] "The fanatics, however, believe that it is mere bread and wine, and it is assuredly so as they believe; they have it so, and eat mere bread and wine."--Luther (Th. xix. p. 432). That is to say, if thou believest, representest to thyself, conceivest, that the bread is not bread, but the body of Christ, it is not bread; but if thou dost not believe so, it is not so. What it is in thy belief that it actually is.

[193] Even the Catholics also. "Hujus sacramenti effectus, quem in anima operatur digne sumentis, est adunatio hominis ad Christum."--Concil. Florent. de S. Euchar.

[194] "If the body of Christ is in the bread and is eaten with faith, it strengthens the soul, in that the soul believes that it is the body of Christ which the mouth eats."--Luther (Th. xix. p. 433; see also p. 205). "For what we believe that we receive, that we receive in truth."--Ib. (Th. xvii. p. 557).

[195] Hence the mere name of Christ has miraculous powers.

[196] "Gott glauben und an Gott glauben."

[197] "If I wish to be a Christian, I must believe and do what other people do not believe or do."--Luther (Th. xvi. p. 569).

[198] Celsus makes it a reproach to the Christians that they boast: "Est Deus et post illum nos." (Origenes adv. Cels. ed. Hoeschelius. Aug. Vind. 1605, p. 182).

[199] "I am proud and exulting on account of my blessedness and the forgiveness of my sins, but through what? Through the glory and pride of another, namely, the Lord Christ."--Luther (Th. ii. p. 344). "He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord."--1 Cor. i. 31.

[200] A military officer who had been adjutant of the Russian general Münnich said: "When I was his adjutant I felt myself greater than now that I command."

[201] To faith, so long as it has any vital heat, any character, the heretic is always on a level with the unbeliever, with the atheist.

[202] Already in the New Testament the idea of disobedience is associated with unbelief. "The cardinal wickedness is unbelief."--Luther (xiii. p. 647).

[203] God himself by no means entirely reserves the punishment of blasphemers, of unbelievers, of heretics, for the future; he often punishes them in this life also, "for the benefit of Christendom and the strengthening of faith:" as, for example, the heretics Cerinthus and Arius. See Luther (Th. xiv. p. 13).

[204] "Si quis spiritum Dei habet, illius versiculi recordetur: Nonne qui oderunt te, Domine, oderam?" (Psal. cxxxix. 21); Bernhardus, Epist. (193) ad magist. Yvonem Cardin.

[205] "Qui Christum negat, negatur a Christo."--Cyprian (Epist. E. 73, § 18, edit. Gersdorf.).

[206] Thus the apostle Paul cursed "Elymas the sorcerer" with blindness, because he withstood the faith.--Acts xiii. 8-11.

[207] Historically considered, this saying, as well as the others cited pp. 384, 385, may be perfectly justified. But the Bible is not to be regarded as an historical or temporal, but as an eternal book.

[208] "Tenerrimam partem humani corporis nominavit, ut apertissime intelligeremus, eum (Deum) tam parva Sanctorum suorum contumelia lædi, quam parvi verberis tactu humani visus acies læditur."--Salvianus, l. 8, de Gubern. Dei.

[209] 1 Cor. x. 20.

[210] Phil. ii. 10, 11. "When the name of Jesus Christ is heard, all that is unbelieving and ungodly in heaven or on earth shall be terrified."--Luther (Th. xvi. p. 322). "In morte pagani Christianus gloriatur, quia Christus glorificatur."--Divus Bernardus. Sermo exhort. ad Milites Templi.

[211] Petrus L. 1. iv. dist. 50, c.4. But this passage is by no means a declaration of Peter Lombard himself. He is far too modest, timid, and dependent on the authorities of Christianity to have ventured to advance such a tenet on his own account. No! This position is a universal declaration, a characteristic expression of Christian, of believing love. The doctrine of some Fathers of the Church, e.g., of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, that the punishment of the damned would have an end, sprung not out of Christian or Church doctrine, but out of Platonism. Hence the doctrine that the punishment of hell is finite, was rejected not only by the Catholic but also by the Protestant church. (Augsb. Confess. art. 17). A precious example of the exclusive, misanthropical narrowness of Christian love, is the passage cited from Buddeus by Strauss (Christl. Glaubensl. B. ii. s. 547), according to which not infants in general, but those of Christians exclusively, would have a share in the divine grace and blessings if they died unbaptized.

[212] "Fugite, abhorrete hunc doctorem." But why should I flee from him? because the anger, i.e., the curse of God rests on his head.

[213] There necessarily results from this a sentiment which, e.g., Cyprian expresses: "Si vero ubique hæretici nihil aliud quam adversarii et antichristi nominantur, si vitandi et perversi et a semet ipsis damnati pronuntiantur; quale est ut videantur damnandi a nobis non esse, quos constat apostolica contestatione a semet ipsis damnatos esse." Epistol. 74. (Edit, cit.)

[214] The passage Luke ix. 56, as the parallel of which is cited John