XII. thinking Abelard sufficient to counteract these de- CHAP. baters, they entreated him to undertake the task. Thus urged, he declares that it was in acquiescence HISTORY with their wishes, that he sat down to compose his "Introduction to Theology." "" 21 He begins this with stating, that he considers the sum of human salvation to consist in faith, love, and the sacrament. Faith, which comprehends hope, is the persuasion of things not apparent, that is, not subjected to the bodily sense; it is the belief of things good and evil-the past, the present, and the future. Love is an honorable affection, when directed to the end we ought to pursue, but otherwise, declines to the unbecoming and the disgraceful. Its noblest object is our great end; the supreme and superior cause. To Him our attention should be directed; in Him we should place our final aim. Nothing should be loved, nothing even be done, but on his account; that we may rest the end of all things in Him. A sacrament is the visible sign of His invisible grace.22 It is the merit of faith to believe what is not seen; we believe it in order to know; we do not know for the purpose of believing. What is faith, but to credit what we do not see? Truth will be to see what we have accredited. The truth exists, tho it be not visible to us now. It is not at present seen; it must therefore, as yet, be only believed: the sensible certainty will be attained hereafter. So, what is argued is not seen; reasoning is not sight. An argument cannot be visible. The inference is a subject of belief, not an object of sense.23 There are many things pertaining to God, which it 23 Ib. 981. Abel. Opera, p. 974. 22 Ib. 977-9. OF THE TIC PHI- BOOK does not concern us either to believe or to disbelieve, VI. and therefore, on all such we may do either; as, wheLITERARY ther he will allow it to rain to-morrow, or not; or, whether he will extend mercy to this bad man, or not. But faith, in some points, is necessary and essential. HISTORYOF The Christian faith maintains, that there is one Deity alone, and not more; one Lord of all; one Creator; one principle; one light; one good; one immense, one omnipotent, and one eternal Being; one substance or essence, entirely immutable and simple; not composed of parts; and which can be only what He is. In this Godhead, this single, this individual and pure subsistence, are three Personalities, in all things coequal and coeternal, and yet distinct; not, however, distinct in number of things, but in plurality of properties. Neither is the other; the same God is each; one in nature, one in number, and one in essence; yet so personally distinguished in properties, that each is what He is, and nothing else."4 This profound subject-necessarily most profound from its concerning the greatest Being that exists-the boundless Sovereign of an unbounded universe, after being thus introduced, occupies the three books of his Introduction to Theology, and the last disserts more particularly on the power, the wisdom, and goodness of the Divine Nature, which in the preceding part he has attempted to elucidate, on the points that were agitated by his more inquisitive contemporaries. 24 Abel. Opera, 982, 983. M. Mahé, in his essay on the antiquities of Morbihan, notices Abelard and the abbey of St. Gildas, of which he became abbot. His reforms so displeased his monks, that his life was often in danger. He was once obliged to escape their attack by the pipe of a sewer. One is still exhibited as the actual canal in which he took refuge. His public effigy, loaded with Gothic ornaments, had been preserved till the revolution, when some republican soldiers, in want of firewood, burnt it to warm themselves. OF THE SCHOLAS LOSOPHY. St. Bernard was at this period cultivating a mo- CHAP. nastic life in the retirement which he had founded at XII. Clairvaux. Of his sincere piety, his general ability, HISTORY and of his earnest devotion, there can be no question. That cities were to him like a prison, and a solitude TIC PHIhis paradise, he felt, and he declared.25 His virtues procured him a reputation, and his character gave him St. Barnard. an influence, which made him one of the intellectual sovereigns of his day. Hence, tho withdrawn from the world into his cell, he was still solicited to interfere in its concerns, and he became active in several negotiations and disputes, and was tremulously sensible to all its religious agitations. The fame of Abelard attracted his notice, and he examined his opinions with a critical minuteness which, perhaps, might have been better spared; and he addressed an accusing letter against him to the bishops and cardinals," and afterwards to pope Innocent," complaining of some parts of his book on Theology, and of his other, intitled Sententiarum. The pope issued his rescripts against him, and enjoined him to perpetual silence.28 One of his scholars, Berengarius, wrote in his justification." Abelard suffered much from the opposition raised against him; and some kind religious friends interfered to procure a general reconciliation of the contending parties. Peter, the abbot of Clugny, solicited the pope in his behalf. He states in his mediating letter, that Abelard had become reconciled with Bernard; that he had dismissed his schools, and retired from the contentious tumult of his studies, and had sought to fix his final residence at Clugny. "This," says the abbot, "we have granted, as it suited 25 S. Bernard, Ep. p. 323. VOL. IV. Нн 26 Abel. Op. p. 271. VI. HISTORYOF ENGLAND. Abelard's BOOK his age, his weakness, and his religious feelings; and Abelard wrote a work against the irreligious opi- 30 Abel. Op. 336. 31 Ib. 337-342.. 32 It will shew how highly he was esteemed in his day :- ABELARD was: but he then became the victor above all, XII. OF THE LOSOPHY. nomination of heresies;33 and being, tho not nomi- CHAP. nally the first, yet in popularity the first founder of the new scholastic philosophy, which had not then HISTORY lost the old name of dialectics, he defended it against SCHOLASthose who discountenanced it. These branded its TIC PHI dogmas as sophisms, and thought them rather deceptions than reasons. His resentment at the attack denied their knowlege of what they censured, and called them foxes, who said the cherries were of a bad taste, because, when they leapt up to reach them, they only fell down disappointed, from what hung too high. He admitted, however, that the appetite for quarrelling and the puerile ostentation of tricking an adversary were to be avoided. He allowed that there were many sophistical arguments, many false reasonings and false conclusions, very closely imitating what was true, that would delude, not only the dull, but even the ingenious, if they were not diligently attentive. But, drawing a distinction between the dialectical and the sophistical art, he contended, from his own admission, that in order to make this discrimination, men must qualify themselves to distinguish the false and the misleading from the true and the apt; and, therefore, must study the logical discipline.* 33 It is intitled Adversus Hereses.' Op. p. 452-488. Ab. Op. 238-242. As Abelard was arraigned by St. Bernard, for many erroneous opinions, it is just to him to hear his own answer to the accusation:-'I may have written some things by mistake, which I ought not, but I never did so with any evil intention, or from presumption. I have spoken many things in many schools, but always openly. I expressed what seemed to me to be salubrious to religion and morals, and whatever I wrote I exposed willingly to all, that they might be my judges, not my disciples; and I am at all times desirous to correct or expunge any mischievous expressions.' In contradiction to the charges against him, he denies solemnly his imputed disbelief of the Divine Trinity, My opinion is, that both the Son and the Holy Spirit are from the Father, and of the same subsistence, will and power. Their subsistence or |