Notes{334} Note 1P. 1. 'Purity and Love,' etc., was written out in full, and published under the same title in Discourses to Mixed Congregations. The contrast between St. Peter and St. John on the Lake of Galilee is thus expanded:—'When they were in the boat and the Lord spoke to them from the shore, and they knew not that it was Jesus, first that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter: "It is the Lord," for "the pure of heart shall see God": then at once Simon Peter in the impetuosity of his love, girt his tunic about him, and cast himself into the sea, to reach Him the quicker. St. John beholds, and St. Peter acts.'—Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 73. Note 2P. 5. 'Human Respect.'—The description of Magdalene at the feast is drawn out in full in the sermon 'Purity and Love.' 'She who had come into the room, as if for a festive purpose, to go about an act of penance. It was a formal banquet ... she came, as if to honour that feast, as women were wont to honour such festive doings, with her sweet odours and cool unguents, for the forehead and hair of the guests. And he, the proud Pharisee, suffered her to come ... he thought only of the necessities of his banquet, and he let her come to do her part, such as it was, careless what her life was, so that she did that part well, and confined herself to it.' —Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 81. Note 3P. 13. 'On the Fitness of Our Lady's Assumption.'—Most of the ideas found here are developed in the Discourse 'On the Fitness {335} of the Glories of Mary' (Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 360) and 'The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son' (ib. p. 342)—e.g. 'He said, "Ought not Christ to suffer these things ... ?" He appealed to the fitness and congruity which existed between this surprising event and other truths which had been revealed concerning the Divine purpose of saving the world. And so, too, St. Paul, in speaking of the same wonderful appointment of God: "It became Him," he says, "for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, who had brought many sons unto glory, to consummate the Author of their salvation by suffering." Elsewhere, speaking of prophesying, or the exposition of what is latent in Divine Truth, he bids his brethren exercise the gift, "according to the analogy or rule of faith"; that is, so that the doctrine preached may correspond and fit into what is already received. Thus you see that it is a great evidence of truth, in the case of revealed teaching, that it is so consistent, that it so hangs together that one thing springs out of another, that each part requires and is required by the rest.'—Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 360. Note 4P. 15. 'On Want of Faith.'—Most of the ideas in these sermon notes were expanded into the sermon 'Faith and Private Judgment.'—Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 193. Note 5P. 19. 'Faith and Doubt.'—This sermon was published under the same title in Discourses to Mixed Congregations. This is how some of the points in the Notes are expanded in the sermon. Section 3. 'Persons converted to Protestantism,' etc.—'You sometimes hear of Catholics falling away, who will tell you it arose from reading the Scriptures ... No; Scripture did not make them disbelieve (impossible!): they disbelieved when they opened the Bible; they opened it in an unbelieving spirit.'—Ib. p. 127. Section 5. 'It imagines Confession,' etc.—'I really do think it is the world's judgment, that one principal part of a confessor's work is the putting down such misgivings in his penitents.'—Ib. p. 222. {336} Section 6. 'Doubt does not destroy intellectual conviction.'—'Men may be convinced and yet, after all, avow that they cannot believe, they do not know why, but they cannot … their reason is convinced, and their doubts are moral ones, arising in their root from a fault of the will [Note 1]. … It requires no act of faith to assent to the truth that two and two make four: we cannot help assenting to it; and hence there is no merit in assenting to it; but there is merit in believing that the Church is from God; for though there are abundant reasons to prove it to us, yet we can, without an absurdity, quarrel with the conclusion; we may complain,' etc.—Ib. pp. 224-5 [Note 2]. Note 6P. 21. 'The Maternity of Mary.'—These notes were developed into the sermon 'The Glories of Mary for the Sake of her Son.'—Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 342. Section 3. 'To erect her as a Turris Davidica,' etc.—'A mother without a home in the Church, without dignity, without gifts, would have been, as far as the defence of the Incarnation goes, no mother at all. She would not have remained in the memory, or imagination of men.'—Ib. p. 350. Section 5. 'The third ground.'—The Church and Satan agreed together in this, that Son and Mother went together, and the experience of three centuries has confirmed their testimony,' etc.—Ib. p. 348. Note 7P. 25. Resignation of the souls in purgatory.—'How different is the feeling with which the loving soul, on its separation from the body, approaches the judgment-seat of its Redeemer! It knows how great a debt of punishment remains upon it, though it has for many years been reconciled to Him; it knows that purgatory {337} lies before it, and that the best it can reasonably hope for is to be sent there. But to see His face, though for a moment! to hear His voice, to hear Him speak, though it be to punish! O Saviour of men, it says, I come to Thee, though it be in order to be at once remanded from Thee; I come to Thee who art my Life and my All; I come to Thee on the thought of whom I have lived all my life long. To Thee I gave myself when first I had to take a part in the world; I sought Thee for my chief good early, for early didst Thou teach me, that good elsewhere there was none. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? whom have I desired on earth, whom have I had on earth, but Thee? whom shall I have amid the sharp flame but Thee? Yea, though I be now descending thither, into "a land desert, pathless and without water," I will fear no ill, for Thou art with me. I have seen Thee this day face to face, and it sufficeth: I have seen Thee, and that glance of Thine is sufficient for a century of sorrow, in the nether prison. I will live on that look of Thine, though I see Thee not, till I see Thee again, never to part from Thee. That eye of Thine shall be sunshine and comfort to my weary, longing soul; that voice of Thine shall be everlasting music to my ears. Nothing can harm me, nothing shall discompose me; I will bear the appointed years, till the end comes, bravely and sweetly,' etc.—Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 81. Note 8P. 44, Section 5. 'Even in caves (which are most alien to Christianity).'—'Only a heavenly light can give purity to nocturnal and subterraneous worship. Caves were at that time appropriated to the worship of infernal gods. It was but natural that these wild religions should be connected with magic and its kindred arts; magic had at all times led to cruelty and licentiousness.'—Development, p. 215. Note 9P. 109. 'O commutationem.'—'O commutationem! Joannes tibi pro Jesu traditur, servus pro Domino, discipulus pro Magistro, filius Zebedaei pro Filio Dei, homo purus pro Deo vero.'—St. Bernard, quoted in 5th lection for Feast of Seven Dolours. {338} Note 10P. 139, Section 8. 'Joshua.'—' There is this peculiarity in Joshua's history, as recorded in the book bearing his name, that at least there is no record of children who might be his heirs. Joshua a type of Christ,' etc.—Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 155. Note 11P. 140, Section 2. 'Our own sin and penance,' etc.—'At Christmas we joy with the natural unmixed joy of children, but at Easter our joy is highly wrought and artificial in its character … the feeling at Easter is not unlike the revulsion of mind on a recovery from sickness ... In sickness the mind wanders from things that are seen into the unknown world; it turns back into itself, and is in company with mysteries; it is brought into contact with objects which it cannot describe, which it cannot ascertain. It sees the skirts of powers and providences beyond this world, and is at least more alive, if not more exposed, to the invisible influences, bad and good, which are its portion in this state of trial. And afterwards it has recollections which are painful, recollections of distress, of which it cannot recall the reasons, of pursuits without an object, and gleams of relief without continuance. And what is all this but a parallel feeling to that, with which the Christian has gone through the contemplations put before his faith in the week just passed, which are to him as a fearful harrowing dream, of which the spell is now broken? The subjects, indeed, which have been brought before him are no dream, but a reality,—his Saviour's sufferings, his own misery and sin. But, alas! to him at best they are but a dream, because, from lack of faith and of spiritual discernment, he understands them so imperfectly. They have been to him a dream, because only at moments his heart has caught a vivid glimpse of what was continually before his reason,—because the impression it made upon him was irregular, shifting, and transitory,—because even when he contemplated steadily his Saviour's sufferings, he did not, could not, understand the deep reasons of them, or the meaning of his Saviour's words,—because what most forcibly affected him came through his irrational nature, was not of the mind but of the {339} flesh ... of his own discomfort of body, which he has been bound, so far as health allows, to make sympathise with the history of those sufferings which are his salvation. And thus I say his disquiet during the week has been like that of a bad dream, restless and dreary; he has felt he ought to be very sorry, and could not say why—could not master his grief, could not realise his fears, but was as children are, who wonder, weep, and are silent, when they see their parents in sorrow, from a feeling that there is something wrong, though they cannot say what.'—Parochial and Plain Sermons, 'Keeping Fast and Festival,' vol. iv. pp. 334 ff. The illustration taken from mental experiences during sickness and convalescence seems derived from the preacher's own experience during his illness in Sicily. 'I ... fell ill of a fever … my servant thought I was dying, and begged for my last directions. I gave them ... but I said, "I shall not die." I repeated "I shall not die, for I have not sinned against the light, I have not sinned against the light." I have never been able quite to make out what I meant.'—Apol., pp. 34-35. Compare the long memorandum, 'My Illness in Sicily,' published in Miss Moseley's Life and Correspondence of Cardinal Newman, vol. i. pp. 363-78. Note 12P. 158. 'For each truth,' etc.—A favourite idea with Newman. It will be found most fully developed in the Grammar of Assent, chap. v. sec. 2. The sum of what he there says is given in Select Treatises of St. Athanasius, etc., vol. ii. pp. 316-17. 'Let it be observed that the mystery lies, not in any one of the statements which constitute the doctrine, but in their combination. The meaning of each proposition is on a level with our understanding ... God is a Father; God is a Son; God is a Holy Spirit: the Father is not the Son ... God is numerically one; there are not three gods. In which of these propositions do we not understand what is meant to be told us? For devotion, then ... the mystery is no difficulty ... The difficulty … is not in understanding each sentence of which the doctrine consists, but in its incompatibility (taken as a whole, and in the only words possible for conveying it to our minds) with certain of {340} our axioms of thought, indisputable in themselves, but foreign and inapplicable to a sphere of existences of which we have no experience whatever.' Again, 'Much as is idly and profanely said against the Creed of St. Athanasius as being unintelligible, yet the real objection which misbelievers feel, if they spoke correctly, is, that it is too plain. No sentences can be more simple, nor statements more precise, than those of which it consists. The difficulty is not in any one singly; but in their combination. And herein lies a remarkable difference between the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and some modern dogmatic statements on other points, some true, and some not true, which have at times been put forward as necessary to salvation. Much controversy, for instance, has taken place in late centuries about the doctrine of justification, and about faith; but here endless perplexities and hopeless disputes arise, as we all know, as to what is meant by "faith," and what by "justification"; whereas most of the words used in the Creed to which I have referred are only common words, used in their common sense,' etc.—Parochial and Plain Sermons, 'The Mystery of the Holy Trinity,' vol. vi. p. 347. Cp. ib. vol. iv. p. 289, 'The Mysteriousness of our Present Being.' Note 13P. 164. 'Nine orders in three hierarchies.'—A pencil note shows that the preacher consulted Petavius, and Bail, the author of La Théologie Affective, etc. Both these authors followed the pseudo-Dionysius De Coelesti Hierarchia. 1st
Hierarchy—Seraphim, cherubim, thrones. 'Each appellation of the Beings above us manifests their God-imitating characteristics of the Divine Likeness' [Dionysius]. Thus, to give one example, 'The appellation ... of the Thrones denotes their manifest exaltation above every grovelling inferiority, and their supermundane tendency towards higher things' [ib]. In the case of the lowest order or choir, the Angels, contentment is their characteristic virtue. Perhaps this suggested to Dante the reply made by a soul in the first or lowest {341} Heaven, that of the Moon, to the question, 'Do ye feel the want of a higher place?' Frate, la nostra volontà
quieta Note 14P. 177, Section 15. 'Progress.'—'In the province of physiology and moral philosophy, our race's progress and perfectibility is a dream, because Revelation contradicts it, whatever may be plausibly argued on its behalf by scientific inquirers.'—Idea of a University, p. 273. In other words, the history of man on this planet is to end in Antichrist and the triumph of wickedness. Note 15P. 184, Section 2. 'Keble's poem.'—Presumably the following stanza:— 'Reason and Faith at
once set out Note 16P. 197, Section 2. 'Yet familiar to children.'—See Grammar of Assent, pp. 112-16, from which the following passage may be quoted:—'Supposing he [i.e. a child] has offended his parents, he will all alone and without effort, as if it were the most natural of acts, place himself in the presence of God, and beg of Him to set him right with them. Let us consider how much is contained in this simple act. First, it involves the impression on his mind of an unseen Being with whom he is in immediate relation, and that relation so familiar that he can address Him whenever he himself chooses; next, of One whose good-will towards him he is assured of ... further, of One who can hear him ... and who can read his thoughts ... lastly, of One who can effect a critical change in the state of feeling of others towards him. That is ... this child has in his mind the image of an Invisible Being, who exercises a particular providence among us, who is present everywhere, who is heart-reading, heart-changing, ever accessible, open to impetration.' Note 17P. 205, Section 5. 'Could.'—Probably an unconscious reminiscence of Isaias v. 4 in the Authorised Version: 'What could have been done more to my vineyard.' The Vulgate reads 'Quid est quod debui ultra facere vineae meae.' Note 18P. 222, Section 2. 'What is Faith? Why,' etc.—The ejaculatory why and the word heart a little later on show that the preacher is using not scientific but popular or colloquial language. It is in colloquial language, therefore, that we shall find illustrations of his meaning. With his 'secret inward sense,' etc, compare such expressions as 'In his secret heart he knows well enough,' or,—supposing a man to be arguing for arguing's sake, making out a case—such appeals to his true self as 'Do you in your heart of hearts believe what you are saying?' or 'What is after all your conscientious belief?' The 'secret inward sense' in 'heart' and 'conscience' applied to a belief which comes in the {343} first place from an external source, i.e. the fact that there is a Revelation, need only mean an intense belief, though the choice of the words may well have been influenced by the thought of the yet more secret and inward workings of divine grace on the heart. For faith viewed as something learned from without see other sermons, especially those on pp. 313-19. Note 19P. 291, Section 2. 'This day.'—'They all discard (what they call) gloomy views of religion; they all trust themselves more than God's word … and are ready to embrace the pleasant consoling religion natural to a polished age. They lay much stress on works on Natural Theology, and think that all religion is contained in these; whereas, in truth, there is no greater fallacy than to suppose such works to be in themselves in any true sense religious at all. Religion, it has been well observed, is something relative to us; a system of commands and promises from God towards us. But how are we concerned with the sun, moon, and stars? or with the laws of the universe? how will they teach us our duty? how will they speak to sinners? They do not speak to sinners at all. They were created before Adam fell. They "declare the glory of God," but not His will. They are all perfect; all harmonious; but that brightness and excellence which they exhibit in their own creation, and the Divine benevolence therein seen, are of little moment to fallen man. We see nothing there of God's wrath, of which the conscience of a sinner loudly speaks. So that there cannot be a more dangerous (though a common) device of Satan than to carry us off from our own secret thoughts, to make us forget our own hearts, which tell of a God of justice and holiness, and to fix our attention merely on the God who made the heavens; who is our God indeed, but not God as manifested to us sinners, but as He shines forth to His angels, and to His elect hereafter. 'When a man has so far deceived himself ... at once he misinterprets and perverts the whole tenor of Scripture ... We are expressly told that "strait is the gate" ... that they who do not obtain eternal life "shall go into everlasting punishment." This the dark side of religion; and the men I have been describing {344} cannot bear to think of it. They easily get themselves to believe that those strong declarations of Scripture do not belong to the present day, or are figurative. They have no language in their heart responding to them. Conscience has been silenced. The only information that they have received concerning God has been from Natural Theology, and that speaks only of benevolence and harmony; so they will not credit the plain word of Scripture.'—Parochial and Plain Sermons, 'The Religion of the Day,' vol. i. pp. 317-19. Notes1. Often from weakness of the will, which in
matters of practical conduct makes a man scrupulous, unable to brush
aside futile difficulties, and the like—victims, as they would be
called, of idle fears. 2. In the evidences for
religion 'non excluditur omnis dubitandi possibilitas, sed solum
dubitandi prudenter, et ideo mens sub voluntatis motione relinquitur,
ut deliberata formidine deposita, firmiter adhaereat ei quod videt non
posse nisi irrationabiliter in dubium revocari.' 3. 'Brother, a virtue of
charity sets at rest our will, which makes us wish that only which we
have, and lets us not thirst for aught else. If we desired to be more
on high, our desires would be out of harmony with the will of Him who
distributes us here.'—Paradiso, iii. 70-76; Butler's
translation. Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman |