THE

GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1876.

ROMANISM JUDGED AND CONDEMNED BY CHRIST

JESUS.

MATTHEW xv. 1-20.

66

THE statement that the men who put the question to Christ, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders ?" were Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem," supplies the key to the interpretation of this significant section of Matthew's gospel, and renders it as necessary to understand the spirit of the mission of these men to the north, as it is to give a frank and fair outline of their case.

Apparently the "Scribes and Pharisees" formed part of an important deputation sent from the head-quarters of religion and worship into Galilee, to watch the movements of the, now, notorious innovator of Nazareth, criticise and depreciate His work, and injure Him as far as possible in the stronghold of His power. They were members of a compact, energetic, and wide-spread fraternity—a fraternity which perfectly understood the value of coherent organization, knew where and how to strike a decisive blow, and could easily marshal its forces so as to cripple a real or suspected enemy. As to their spirit, the author of Ecce Homo says, "they united the conservatism of lawyers to the bigotry of priests;" and the Evangelists picture them as obtrusively self-seeking, greedy as misers, avaricious of power as despots, cunning as foxes, cruel as hungry tigers, and yet withal ostentatiously religious, and elaborately ritualistic. Fighting with passionate fury about sprigs of mint and packets of aniseed, yet they devoured widows' houses without remorse, and drew glittering shekels from the pockets of unwary children, even though the parents of those children starved for want of bread. Similar interests and hopes made them one, so that they were as united as they were ubiquitous, and as free from discord as they were full of craft; and therefore accessions of power were readily drafted off to any weak or threatened position. Hence such a person as Christ Jesus was sure to find them plenty of work. It was natural they should dog His steps, defame His character, underrate His work, and seek, in every way their embittered malignity could suggest, to discredit Him. Success for Him was ruin to them. One or other must perish. Bent on saving themselves, they must destroy Him.

So far, then, it does not really matter much what is their case. Any pretext is good enough for a determined murderer. Wickedness is not over-done with scruples. The Devil is not painfully conscientious. Still a frank statement of the case of the Pharisees will throw some VOL. LXXVIII.-NEW SERIES, No. 73.

light on their spirit, and help us to enter with more intelligent appreciation into the meaning of the reply of Christ.

It is in a nutshell. The matter of fact is this. The immediate followers of this self-appointed Reformer, the men perambulating the country with Him, and enjoying His confidence, did not always wash. their hands before they ate bread! They had been seen in the guilty act! Such behaviour was obviously base, and merited the severest rebuke. It was a gross disrespect to that body of religious ritual and external discipline accumulated during centuries by their wisest men. They were breaking with their hoary and sacred traditions, pouring contempt on the concentrated wisdom of ages, and profanely daring to think and act for themselves. No direct attack is made on Christ; but He is held responsible, and indirectly blamed, for the serious misdemeanor of His disciples.

Now our Lord, as His habit was, directed His reply much more to the spirit in which the case was "got up" than to the merits or demerits of the case itself. As a courteous and considerate Jew He could not be guilty of the slightest offence to the healthy and national sentiment of His countrymen, in common with Persians, Greeks, and Romans, in favour of washing the hands before meals: but the mean and wicked feeling with which the accusation was urged, the tone of self-satisfied and supercilious conceit, the assumption of essential virtue by men who were hollow formalists and treble-dyed hypocrites, compelled Him to return the attack in the most determined and vehement manner, tearing the mask off their deformities, laying bare their radical errors and their awful consequences, rebuking them in the language of their prophets, and showing that even if the allegation deserved serious treatment, still they were the last men in the world to prefer it, for by this selfsame irrational regard for "the tradition of the elders" they had become guilty of offering an insult to the law of God, of inciting men to immoral deeds, and inflicting irreparable injury on themselves and the nation.

Thus this interview reveals, in the first instance, the spirit, tactics, and effects, of the TRADITIONALISM of the days of Christ; and in the next, it makes known the real core and fearful results of the TRADITIONAL SPIRIT in all ages of the world. It shows the living Christ in conflict with the crass priestism and thickening superstition of His time; the Eternal Word doing battle with a false, selfish, and blind reverence for the words of erring men, and for the authority of bodies of erring men: but also gives a vivid foregleam of the very battle of CHRIST AND ROMANISM, of the spirit of the Bible and that of Traditionalism, in the very thick of which all the peoples of Christendom are, at this moment, hotly engaged. It is an ancient panorama, but the Painter is the Lord of all the ages, and the pictures are for all times. It is an old-world controversy; but the Supreme Teacher is with us all the days, even to the end, and the principles He utters are as final and authoritative now as ever, and yield to-day, as of old, the best guidance as to the attitude Christ's men should take, and the work they should do for His church and His world.

As men possessed of unshaken faith in the infinite sufficiency of our Lord, and alive to the pressing questions of our own day, let us listen

WHAT TRADITIONALISM IS.

3

to the judgment He passes on the essential spirit of Traditionalism (which, as we shall see, is nothing other than Romanism) of His and every other day.

I.

OF GOD.

TRADITIONALISM MAKES VOID THE PLAIN AND OBVIOUS LAWS

This is the grave charge brought by Christ against His accusers; and a charge He sustains by citing, in evidence, a flagrant instance in which they had encouraged children to dishonour their parents, and inflict cruelty upon them for the sake of maintaining the magnificence and splendour of the temple rites. Thus had they made the clear commandment of God of none effect by their tradition. But mark—

(1.) Their wrong was no mere change of expression, no fresh setting of an old statute. That may be inevitable, and often is. The speech of the days of Edward the Confessor is a barbarous jargon to the subjects of Victoria. New modes of stating old truths are as necessary as a new currency to a people of thriving commerce and world-embracing trade, or as stronger food for growing lads: but Traditionalism is not a new coining of the old precious metals, it is a specious robbery; a gift of worthless though gilded dross for pure gold. Instead of passing from "milk" to "strong meat," it goes from milk to opium.

(2.) Nor is the vice into which the Pharisees have fallen to be confounded with novel applications of old doctrines, or the extension of time-worn laws to new subjects and climes. Magna Charta is not made void when its principles are extended to the Habeas Corpus Act, and the manumission of Jamaica slaves. Sunday schools are of recent growth, but they find "ample room and verge enough" in His words who said, 66 Feed my Lambs."

(3.) Still further. Traditionalism is not to be mistaken for the fuller development of doctrines contained in the laws of God. Few will assert that the Jews of the wilderness comprehended the whole meaning of the "ten words" which came by Moses at the moment of their delivery; and fewer still that the vast breadths of doctrine contained in the sayings of Christ were seen in all their scope and connection by His disciples. His words concerning our Father and His Father are better understood now than ever they could be whilst the type of sovereign power was a Nero, and the father of the home was a despot. The doctrinal fulness of Paul's Epistles was unknown to the bickering Corinthians and the unstable Gauls. Experience illuminates and enforces fundamental laws, but never makes them void. It takes us back to God, never away from Him; it discloses Christ, never puts Him behind a screen; it urges with august sanctions every common duty of life, never strikes a fatal blow at the heart of the home. The Sun of Truth shone in His meridian glory when Christ was here; but the mirror that reflected His rays required centuries of burnishing before it could give them back with perfectness. Traditionalism smears the mirror with a coating of phosphoric falsehood, so that we get a blinding glare in the place of the pure ray of truth.

(4.) Once more. The allegation of Christ does not refer to any question of different readings, of absent commas, notes of interrogation, of infinitesimal strokes inside or outside of letters, but to a positive and

contradictory addition to the word of God, such as makes it void of all helpful, healing, and directing power. The carcase is kept and clothed in gayest robes, but it is a carcase and nothing more. The house is beautified, elaborately buttressed, but not till the tenant has been robbed and destroyed. The two tables of stone are not broken; nay, they are set in frames of gold; but the writing is so overlaid with Corban," and other like words, that God's revelation is utterly suppressed and falsified. "Temple offerings," say these Pharisees, "take precedence of all gifts in behalf of parents." "The word is water, but the interpretation is wine." "The study of the text is only a waste of time." If the Scribes say "the left is right, and the right is left, hear them."

It is not far from this to Romanism, is it? The spirit and work of Traditionalism, wherever it appears, and throughout all its disguises, always displaces the word of God; and Romanism, which was and is the perfectest incarnation of this Spirit, says in so many words, "the Bible is a dangerous book," and forthwith prohibits it, and will not have it circulated wherever it can prevent it. As we have just seen in the controversy between Cardinal Manning and Lord Redesdale, the Papal Church sets the Word of God aside as it pleases. Admitted that the Lord's Supper was instituted in both kinds for the disciples, the Church has full rights to alter it, and over-ride Christ, and give only "half a sacrament." Christ offers pardon freely and fully to all; Rome sells it. The Scriptures declare that forgiveness is God's free gift direct to the believing soul: Rome clothes her priests with power to absolve. Revelation says, "Neither is there salvation in any other than Christ:" Rome proclaims salvation by Mary. In countries such as Bohemia and Spain, where the Papacy has full sway, Roman Catholicism is a great effort to get rid of Christ, and to substitute Mary for Him, in heaven, and an infallible Pope, on earth. Salvation is easy through the Virgin; it is only obtained with difficulty through Christ. Ever since the Council of Trent, Rome has set itself in the most direct and violent antagonism to essential points of Biblical Christianity. Popery is the effacement of the Bible. The Pope crucifies Christ, and puts Him to an open shame.

But the crucified Nazarene is still the infallible Judge of men, and as such He condemns and rebukes the spirit that dethrones God and makes void His commands.

II. TRADITIONALISM ALWAYS LEADS TO FLAGRANT AND INCREASING IMMORALITY.

Christ Jesus cites only one of many cases in exemplification of this charge; but it is a critical and typical one in a high degree. Indeed if we had not the evidence before us we could scarcely believe that so barefaced an act of immorality could have been perpetrated by men outwardly religious, and confessedly the public guides on religious questions: but to think of the practise of such an immoral act being enjoined in the name of religion, and urged by the most solemn consideration, is painfully appalling. God said, "Honour your father and mother," and backed the mandate with a large promise of good. These contumacious Pharisees directly incited to disobedience, and to disobedience in cases where feeble and tottering age needed the warm and loving support of strong and self-sufficing youth. The disobedience