would, if successful, take from us the foundations of the Christian religion; thus strongly and strangely contrasting, by his tenacious clinging to its highest as well as humblest associations, with his strong but inconsistent love for the very letter of Scripture, and his profound conviction of the essential truth of Chris- tianity. With him religion is wholly subjective and in- nate, and thus incapable of deriving its ideas of divine truth from any revelation or external source whatever. Not only does he distinguish between religion and theology, as he shoidd do, but, like our own theist, Theodore Parker (q. v.), he separates the one from the other, and flings the former with contempt away alto- gether. His logical consistency we cannot call in ques- tion. Indeed, his power of reasoning has been com- mended alike by friend and foe, but there is the more fault to be found with his premises, which are chiefly some palpable and isolated sophisms. He denies the doctrine of the Trinity, rejects that of eternal punish- ment, and assails the canon of Scripture ; but he more wisely espouses the Arminian view on the doctrine of the will. Indeed, it is generally and reasonably asserted that his estrangement from orthcdox Christianitj^ was caused by the radical Calvinistic training which he re- ceived in his youth. While his early religious views are laid down in Phases of Faith, his work on the Soul is the most complete and the latest expose of the views in his maturer years. That work treats first of the " Sense of the Infinite without us." It shows how this sense is the joint fruit of awe and wonder and admiration, as these emotions are begotten by the soul's consciousness of the mysterious and sublime and lovely in the facts of its environment. These are the preparation of the heart for love ; for they are antagonistic to our selfish- ness. Even the domestic affections tend to multiply self, rather than to kill out selfishness. Enthusiasm is wanted. Enthusiasm is the life-blood of morality. The sense of order marks the next stage of human aspiration; and this, in turn, is followed by the sense that the eternal order is both good and wise. The sense of personality, which glimmers in the first senti- ment of awe, now floods the spirit with its beams, and culminates in the soul's sense of sin and longing for enfranchisement, evolving under natural and regular conditions a sense of personal relationship with God. Out of this sense of personal relation comes " the prayer of faith," addressed to God in perfect confidence that he will hear and answer it, and from this sense is born the sweet assurance of immortal life. Such is the scheme, and it is carried out with a great deal of force and earnestness. This work was superseded by Theism, which did not prove so satisfactory to his own school of thought as the former worlc (see Christian Examiner, May, 18GG, art. iv). Newman's proof of God is pre- sented as follows: His first axiom is that the omni- present law, which we discern as animating the universe, is not blind, but intelligent; the second, that God must have aU the human spirit's faculties, and more besides; the third, that God observes our moral actions, approves the right and disapproves the wrong; the fourth, that if he approves our rectitude, his must be perfect ; the fifth, that adoration of God is intrinsically suitable to man ; therefore such adoration is pleasing to God. These axioms are intuitive, but thej' are capable of being ver- ified ; and, before stating them as axioms, Mr. Newman seeks to verify them. His first test is that of congru- ity ; Are they self-consistent, and consistent with known facts? His second test is that of universal reason; the common consciousness of mankind. His third is that of practical experience. A postulate from these axioms is that God gives spiritual strength to them that ask for it in prayer. He does not claim this for an intuition. But we pray instinctively, and experience tells us that we never pray in vain.
"Who, then— having faith that God is the fountain of holiness, and approves of our virtue, and enjoins its ad- vancement—can doubt tliat when we pray and surrender
our worse, not only thereby do w-e welcome the bettet tliiit iras within, but the living Source of that better swells the flood of his presence ; so that the conscience itself be- comes sounder iiud purer and stroniier, broadening, deep- eiihig, euliveuiug the inward moral forces." — Theism, p. 195.
It will be seen from this sj-nopsis that there is much that authorizes our likening him to the American theist Parker. In many respects, however, Newman was the superior of Parker. The latter's method of reasoning was less formal and exact, and the life, too, not quite so Christ-like as that of the English theist. Newman died in lS7o. Aside from ]\Iill, no other English writer should claim so much of the attention of the theological student as F. W. Newman. He was possessed of that un- usual breadth of intellectual tastes and accomplishments which gave such eminence to Mill ; and, unlike the lat- ter, he did service to Christian theology by his valuable contributions to the evidences for a deistic faith. Like Mill, Newman shone conspicuously as a political writer. He also figured prominently by his philological attain- ments, and was especially noted for his mastery of the Oriental tongues, particularly the Arabic. For a list of his publications in these departments we must re- fer to secular cyclopreilias. See London Quarterly Re- view, 1854, July, p. 234 sq. ; Oct. art. i; Westminster Review, Oct. 18o8 ; Oct. 1870, p. 220 ; Eclectic Review, 4th sen, xxviii, 257 sq. ; Eraser's Magazine, xxxiii, 253 sq.