832 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



purely anthropomorphic conception of him: the lower human 

 attributes being dropped and the higher ones transfigured. 

 Similarly, if we contrast the Hebrew God described in early 

 traditions, man-like in appearance, appetites, and emotions, 

 with the Hebrew God as characterized by the prophets, there 

 is shown a widening range of power along with a nature in 

 creasingly remote from that of man. And on passing to the 

 conceptions of him which are now entertained, we are made 

 aware of an extreme transfiguration. By a convenient obli- 

 viousness, a deity who in early times is represented as 

 hardening men s hearts so that they may commit punishable 

 acts, and as employing a lying spirit to deceive them, comes 

 to be mostly thought of as an embodiment of virtues trans 

 cending the highest we can imagine. 



Thus, recognizing the fact that in the primitive human mind 

 there exists neither religious idea nor religious sentiment, we 

 find that in the course of social evolution and the evolution 

 of intelligence accompanying it, there are generated both the 

 ideas and sentiments which we distinguish as religious ; and 

 that through a process of causation clearly traceable, they 

 traverse those stages which have brought them, among civilized 

 races, to their present forms. 



657. And now what may we infer will be the evolution 

 of religious ideas and sentiments throughout the future ? 

 On the one hand, it is irrational to suppose that the changes 

 which have brought the religious consciousness to its present 

 form will suddenly cease. On the other hand, it is irrational 

 to suppose that the religious consciousness, naturally gene* 

 rated as we have seen, will disappear and leave an unfilled 

 gap. Manifestly it must undergo further changes ; and how 

 ever much changed it must continue to exist. What, then, 

 are the transformations to be expected ? If we reduce the 

 process above delineated to its lowest terms, we shall see our 

 vvnv to an answer. 



A^ pointed out in First Principles, 96, Evolution ia 



