MORE
597
MORE
testimony from reason and Scripture, demonstrated the truth and necessity of both Christ within and Christ without." It would appear that he did not altogether relish the phrase "imputative righteousness," yet his views on justification did not really differ from those of other divines of the period ; but he was perhaps fonder of laying stress upon this, that " the end of the Gospel was to renovate the spirits of men in true and real in- herent righteousness and holiness," and he spoke of the phrase in question as a '-great scandal and effectual coun- terplot against the power of the Gospel, the nullifying and despising of moral honesty by those that are great zealots and high pretenders of religion." " For what an easy thing it is," he exclaims, "for a man to fancy him- self an Israelite, and then to circumvent his honest neigh- bors under the notion of Egyptians." As for the Roman Catholic Church, he says that the economy of that Church "naturally tends to the betraying of souls to eternal destruction;" but adds, nevertheless, "not that it is possible for me (who cannot infallibly demonstrate to myself that all who lived under paganism are damned) to imagine that all who have gone under the name of papists have tumbled down into hell." The Mystery of Godliness enjoyed great popularity, and so did his In- quiry into the Mystery of Iniquity, a work directed chiefly against popery. But of all his writings, the only one which can be said to have retained any last- ing popularit}', or to be commendable to the modern reader, is his Divine Dialogues, which he brought out in 1668, containing " Disquisitions concerning the At- tributes and Providence of God." This is pronounced by TuUoch the period which " may be said to mark the apex of More's intellectual activity." Of the book it- self. Dr. Blair speaks in his lectures on rhetoric (lect. xxxvi) as "one of the most remarkable in the English language." " Though the style," he adds, " be now in some measure obsolete, and the speakers be marked with the academic stiffness of those times, yet the dialogue is animated by a variety of character and a sprightliness of conversation beyond what are commonly met with in writings of this kind." What is recounted in the Dia- logues under the name oi Bat hy nous is believed to be his own peculiar experience, and gives an admirable picture of his clear, confiding, and enthusiastic spirit. The third dialogue is regarded as the best, for it is strikingly il- lustrative of the dreamy ideal enthusiasm with which the young Platonist (More) pursued his studies and in- quiries. The Dicine Dialogues are certainly, upon the whole, the most interesting and readable of all of More's works. They possess, moreover, the advantage of con- densing his general views on philosoph}' and religion. More's authorship continued far beyond this time (to 1687, making a period of thirty-five years in all), and he composed after this his Manual of Metaphysics (1671, 4to), and attacked both Jacob Bohme (in Philo- sophia Teutonicce Censura [1670]), and Spinoza {Dua- rum prcecipuaruni Atheismi Spinoziani columnaruni suhversio [1G72]) in elaborate treatises. But the elas- ticity and temper of his philosophical genius are less buoyant in these efforts. " His Metaphysics,^' says Tulloch, "elaborate though they be, are in the main only a sj'stematic and somewhat desultory expansion of views regarding the nature and proof of incorporeal substances, which he had already more than once ex- pressed; while his cabalistical and prophetical studies have acquired a stronger hold of his mind." Within the next ten years he issued no fewer than five publica- tions taken up with mystical subjects— some of them of the most curious technical character — including a Cab- alistic Catechism. Two of these writings are addressed to his friend Knorr (q. v.), the learned German Orien- talist, whose speculations on the cabalistic art at this time considerably influenced :More. After this we find him deeply engaged in prophetical studies. The theo- Eophic elements, already so apparent in his philosophical poems, had been for some time held in check by his higher life of reason and healthy appreciation of natural
and moral facts. But gradually they acquired a more marked ascendency, as his mental habits became fixed, and the elasticity of natural feeling and thought began to decay. The balance, which had long been trembling, began at length to decline on the unhealthy side. IJze- kiel's Dream and the Synchronous Method of the Apoc- alyptic Visions received elaborate transcendental expla- nation. He was himself apparently conscious of an undue confidence in this sort of study. Yet he was un- able to resist its fascinations. In allusion it is supposed to himself, he makes one of the speakers in his fifth di- alogue say : " The greatest fanaticism I know in him is this, that he professeth he luiderstands clearly the trutli of several prophecies of the mainest concernment, which yet many others pretend to be very obscure." His latest work, which he left incomplete, is a practical treatise entitled Medela Mundi, or the Cure of the Wo?id. There is no trace of this work except allusions to it in his cor- respondence, and it is probably the work which he men- tions in one of his letters under the name of The Safe Guide. It was, to judge from what can be gleaned from his correspondence, intended to vigorously advocate the rights of reason, and one of its chief objects was to show how the " Christian and philosophic genius" should " mix together." " The Christian religion, rightly understood," appeared to him to be " the deep- est and choicest piece of philosophy that is." It was "the main, if not the only scope" of his long and anxious studies to demonstrate the rationality of the Christian religion throughout. " For to heap up a deal of reading and notions and experiments, without some such noble and important design, had but been to make his mind or memory a shop of small wares." He adopt- ed, therefore, without hesitation the generous resolu- tion of Marcus Cicero — " Eationem quo ea me cunque ducet, sequor." He was proud to adorn himself as a writer with " the sacerdotal breastplate of the Aoyiov, or Rationale.'' " Every priest," he adds," quoting Philo, " should endeavor, according to his opportunity and ca- pacity, to be as much as he can a rational man, or phi- losophei:" Again, "to take away reason, under what fanatic pretence soever, is to dissolve the priest, and despoil him of this breastplate, and, which is worst of all, to rob Christianity of that special prerogative it has above all other religions in the world — viz. that it dares appeal unto reason, which as many as understand the true interest of our religion will not fail to stick closely to; the contrary betraying it to the unjust suspicion of falsehood, and equalizing it to every vain imposture. For, take away reason, and all religions are alike true; as, the light being removed, all things are of one color" (fref to Antidote, p. vi).