Resentment, generally used in an ill sense, im- plying a determination to return an injury. Dr. John- son observes that resentment is a union of sorrow with malignity; a combination of a passion which all en- deavor to avoid with a passion which all concur to de- test. The man who retires to meditate mischief and to exasperate his own rage; whose thoughts are em-
RESERVATION
1048
UKSIGNATION
ployed only od means of distress and contrivances of ruin ; whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings but to indulge some hope of en- joying the calamities of another, may justly be num- bered among the most miserable of human beings among those who are guilty, who have neither the gladness of prosperity nor the calm of innocence.— Buck, Theol Diet. s. v.
Reservation, or Restriction, in ethics, is the keeping back in the mind; equivocation, by a phrase which means one thing to the users and another to those who hear it. It may be distinguished as real and
HI' iilnl.
1. Real restriction takes place when the words used are not true if strictly interpreted, but there is no devi- ation from truth if the circumstances be considered. One man asks another. Have yon dined? and the an- swer given is. No. The party giving this answer has dined, times without number; but his answer is re- stricted by the circumstances, as to-day, and in that sense is true.
2. Mental restriction consists in Baying so far what is true and to be believed, but adding mentally some qualification which makes it not to be true. A debtor, asked by his creditor for payment of his debt, says. " I will certainly pay you to-morrow," adding to himself, " in part ;" whereas the words audibly uttered referred i" the whole amount. See Fleming and Kraut h. Vocabu- lary of I'liilosophiral Sriiiii-i-, s. v.
Reserve in Teaching. This is the suppression, in the instruction of the great mass of Christians, of a por- tion of those Gospel doctrines which are most earnestly set forth in Scripture, as if they were a sort of eso- teric mystery of which ordinary believers arc unwor- thy, and which should be reserved as a reward for a long course of pious submission. The maintainers of this system of teaching affect great mystery about the highest and most sacred doctrines of Christianity I such as the atonement, the divinity of our Lord, etc.); they regard them as ton solemn and divine to be ruh/arizedby being explicitly ami prominently put before the Chris- tian world at large. They would therefore "economize" the knowledge of such deep doctrines, reserving them for communication to those worthy of being initiated, mean- while asserting that the ordinary Christian is put in pos- session of these truths, and to a certain degree derives virtue out of them, by partaking of the sacraments, etc. It is on the authority of the fathers that the advocates of "reserve" chiefly dwell as most fully and expressly supporting the principle; but they adduce also, in jus- tification of the system, the reverence it has a tendency to begel lor sacred things (as if it were reverence, and not superstition, in those who know not what they are reverencing), and allege thai doing thus they are act- ing a merciful part in keeping those in ignorance who would not make a profitable use of knowledge, (just as if they had the power of discerning spirits). They con- tend that, they are imitating the most perfect Pattern of wisdom and mercy, who thus economizes light anil
knowledge (e. g. concealing the < lospel at first under the veil of the .Mosaic ritual), as if it, were a system of phi- losophy of their own they undertook to teach, or as it
they were imitating the Deity in i cealing what he
had revealed. The example of our Lord is appealed to. who, they Bay, taughl openly by parables, but privately
explained the mysteries of his kingdom to his disciples; a case quite inapplicable, as our Lord used nsirci, not to his disciples, hut towards wilful unbelievers. The system is also vindicated by studiously confounding it with the gradual initiation of Christians in the knowl- edge of their religion, and the necessity of gradual teach- ing; and the care requisite to avoid teaching anything which, though true in itself, would he falsely understood by the hearers is confounded with the system of with- holding a portion of Gospel truths from those able and willing to receive it. It is almost needless to add that
the entire system is opposed to the Word of God. which commands ministers not to shun to declare to the peo- ple "all the counsel of God." and that it is calculated to throw doubt and uncertainty upon the whole Christian religion; for. as in this system of •■ reserve" there may l.e an indefinite number of degrees, none can ever be sure that he has fathomed the system and ascertained what is the real inmost doctrine of its advocates. See
the Lev. l>r. West's Sermon on Reserv< in Teaching. — Eden, TheoLDict.s.v,
Reserved Cases, among Roman Catholic casu- ists, are certain sins which are to be dealt with by high- er ecclesiastics than the mere priest, who may. how- ever, bestow absolution if the penitent he at the point of death. To this class of sins belong heresy, simony, sacrilege, and certain offences against the priesthood.