A THEOLOGICAL SPY.

such an important but impalpable difference of belief; but everybody can be shocked at the connection of sin with the person of the Saviour. This was the unfair and deeply disingenuous method of representing it, which Cole first hit upon, and which all who followed him on that side of the question, in spite of countless protests and denials from the other, obstinately maintained. The novel means which Mr. Cole took to satisfy himself about the new doctrine we are fortunately able to give in his own words, which, in the form of a letter to Irving, he published shortly after the event he narrates.

"I had purposed," says this candid divine, "ever since the delivery of your Society Oration, to hear you myself, that I might be satisfied personally whether you really did hold the awful doctrine of the sinfulness of Christ's human nature or not; but six months elapsed before my continued purpose was realised. I did not like to leave my usual place of worship to hear you; and yet there appeared no possibility of accomplishing my desire without it. On Sunday evening, the 28th of October last, however, I was returning home rather early, about eight o'clock; and it occurred to me that, if I went to your chapel, I might find your oration not quite concluded; and that I might, perhaps, hear something that would enable me to arrive at the desired satisfaction. I accordingly proceeded to the Caledonian chapel. When I entered, I found your oration not concluded; I therefore sat down, and heard you for about twenty minutes. I had not been seated above a minute or two, when I found that you were dwelling much upon the person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and I had hardly arrived at a perception of the train of that part of your discourse, when you made me tremble from head to foot by thundering out the expression, THAT SINFUL SUBSTANCE!' meaning the human body of the adorable Son of God! You were declaringThat the main part of His victory consisted

FOLLOWS THE PREACHER TO THE VESTRY.

7

in His overcoming the sin and corruption of His human nature.' You stated, "He did not sin.' 'But,' you said, 'there was that sinful substance against which He had to strive, and with which He had to conflict during the whole of His life upon earth.' What I felt at hearing such awful blasphemy against the person of the Son of God, declaimed with accompanying vehement gesticulations, before upwards, I should suppose, of two thousand persons, I cannot describe. And the whole superstructure of the remaining part of your oration was more or less of a piece with and built upon this terrifically awful foundation. . . . . . . Nevertheless, to put myself beyond the reach of error, in so momentous a matter, and at the same time to give you the most fair and full opportunity of unsaying any unguarded expressions, and also to ascertain whether what you uttered was your considerate and real belief, I resolved, if practicable, to speak to you in person. Having understood from one of your attendants that you would favour me with a conference, I waited till you were disengaged, and was at length admitted into your presence. My address and questions, and your answers, were as follows:- I believe, sir, a considerable part of the conclusion of your discourse this evening has been upon the person and works of Jesus Christ?' You answered in the affirmative. I added, "If I mistake not, you asserted that the human body of Christ was sinful substance?' You replied, 'Yes, I did.' I continued, But is that your real and considerate belief?' You answered, 'Yes, it is, as far as I have considered the subject.' And here you produced a book, which, I believe, was some national confession of faith, to confirm your faith and assertions, in which you pointed out to me these words (if I mistake not), "The flesh of Jesus Christ, which was by nature mortal and corruptible.' "This, sir,' I observed, is to me a most awful doctrine.' And after making other remarks upon the awfulness of the doctrine, and asking you once or twice if such was your deliberate and considerate belief, which you answered in the affirmative, I put this final question to you, 'Do you then, sir, really believe that the body of the Son of God was a mortal, corrupt, and corruptible body, like that of all man

8

FIRST ACCUSATION OF HERESY.

kind?-the same body as yours and mine?' You answered, 'Yes, just so; certainly; that is what I believe. which I departed."

Upon

The inquirer departed, after so unwarrantable an invasion of another man's privacy, to bring against the sincere and patient preacher who had borne this catechising, and had not resented it, the charge of serious heresy. Such a method of getting at the facts on which the indictment was to be framed has fortunately been seldom resorted to; and it is not an example which many men would like to follow. Irving himself gives a much shorter account of the same interview in the preface to a volume entitled Christ's Holiness in the Flesh, published in 1831. He says:

"Of the man I know nothing, save that a stranger once solicited conversation with me on a Lord's-day night, after public worship, of which conversation I found what purported to be the substance standing at the head of this publication (Cole's pamphlet). Whether it be so or not I cannot tell, for it was at a moment of exhaustion that it was held; and I gave the stranger an invitation to come to me at leisure on the Thursday following, for the further satisfying of his conscience. He did not think it worth his while to do this; and could reconcile his conscience to the betrayal of pastoral and ministerial confidence, and to the publication of a conversation, without even asking me whether it was correctly reported or not. . . . I shall never forget," he proceeds, "the feeling which I had upon first hearing my name coupled with heresy. So much did it trouble me, that I once seriously meditated sending a paper to the Christian Observer, in order to contradict the man's false insinuations. But I thought it better to sit quiet and bear the reproach. When, however, I perceived that this error was taking form, and that the Church was coming into peril of believing that Christ had no temptations in the flesh to contend with and overcome, I felt it my duty to intercalate, in the volume on the Incarnation, a

THE ORTHODOX DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH.

9

sermon (No. III.), showing out the truth in a more exact and argumentative form, directed specially against the error that our Lord took human nature in its creation, and not in its fallen estate. And another (No. VI.), showing the most grave and weighty conclusions flowing from the true doctrine, that He came under the conditions of our fallen state in order to redeem us from the same. This is the true and faithful account of the first work which I published upon the subject."

In the preface of that work itself, he refers us simply, but with less detail, to the same occurrence :

"When I had completed this office of my ministry," he explains, when giving forth the contested sermons for the first time to the world, "and, by the request of my flock, had consented to the publication of these, and the other discourses contained in this book; and when the printing of them had all but or altogether concluded; there arose, I say not by what influence of Satan, a great outcry against the doctrine which, with all orthodox churches, I hold and maintain concerning the person of Christ; the doctrine, I mean, of His human nature, that it was manhood fallen which He took up into His divine person, in order to prove the grace and the might of Godhead in redeeming it; or, to use the words of our Scottish confession, that His flesh was, in its proper nature, mortal and corruptible, but received immortality and incorruption from the Holy Ghost. The stir which was made in divers quarters, both of this and of my native land, about this matter, as if it were neither the orthodox doctrine of the Church, nor a doctrine according to holiness, showed me, who am convinced of both, that it was necessary to take controversial weapons in my hand, and contend earnestly for the faith as it was once delivered to the saints. I perceived, now, that the dogmatical method which I had adopted for the behoof of my own believing flock would not be sufficient when publishing to a wavering, gainsaying, or unbelieving people: and, therefore, it seemed to me most profitable to delay the publication until I should have composed something fitted to re-establish men's minds upon the great fundamental doctrine of the

10

IRVING'S MANNER OF MEETING THE ATTACK.

Church; which, having done, I resolved to insert the same as two other sermons; the one upon the method of the Incarnation, and the other upon the relations of the Creator and the creature, as these are shown out in the light of the Incarnation. And for this timeous interruption by evil tongues, I desire to give thanks to God, inasmuch as I have been enabled thereby, not only to expound, but to defend, the faith that the Son of God came in the flesh."

The

Such was the simple and straightforward course adopted by Irving at the first whisper of the accusation brought against him. Instead of rushing into sudden encounter with his darkling assailant, he waited until nearly the end of the year, in order to add to the plain statement of his belief its fuller defence and supportand after adding these careful productions to the already printed volume, issued it, with the explanation given above, without even referring to the obscure originator of the sudden outcry. The dedication to the third volume of this work is dated January 10th, 1828, while the similar preface to the first is not written till November 10th of the same year, ten months later. difference of these dates bears notable and simple testimony to the way in which this matter affected him. The work, prepared with all care and deliberation, and just on the eve of being given to the world, was postponed, not that he might soften down or clear away the doubtful expressions, but that, with more distinct force and clearer utterance, he might disclose the belief that was in him. Having no doubt in himself, he was only anxious to be understood clearly, that his doctrine might be proved. In this patient and candid manner, not hastily, but with the postponement of all an author's expectations, and all the natural indignation of a man