only a condition of our life and not a consequence of
actual disobedience of God's law, or the effect of his displeasure. Deep
below it there is a righteousness capable of asserting its sovereignty.
Job had a righteousness within him, which led him to say, "I know that
my Redeemer liveth." Those persons who prate about our miserable
condition as sinners, "have a secret reserve of belief that there is
that in them which is not sin, which is the very opposite of sin....
Each man has got this sense of righteousness, whether he realizes it
distinctly or indistinctly; whether he expresses it courageously, or
keeps it to himself."[159]

The nature of the atonement, Maurice holds, is a subject of
misconception, and the notions of it, as they now obtain in Christendom,
darken and bewilder the mind. What Christ has really done for us through
suffering was his matchless sympathy; he became our brother, and was not
our mediatorial substitute but a natural representative. On this ground,
a regeneration is communicated to all, not by virtue of any
appropriating faith, but as a result of the sympathetic death of Christ.
The justification of humanity has been secured by his incarnation, and
the penalty resulting from sin is a mere scar of the healed wound.
Natural death is not the separation of soul and body, though both are
affected by it, for the body which seems to die is only the corruption
resulting from our sins, and the real body does not die. Hence, there
can never be any general resurrection or judgment.

It is astonishing that a man who unhesitatingly propagated these views,
could hold any office within the pale of the Established Church; but
Maurice enjoyed high favor a number of years before his displacement.
Though commencing life as a Unitarian and Universalist, he was rapidly
promoted by the ecclesiastical authorities. He took no pains to conceal
his theological opinions, and yet we find him advancing in King's
College, London, from the Professorship of English Literature to that of
Ecclesiastical History, and thence to the Chair of Divinity. Some time
elapsed after the publication of the _Essays_ before Dr. Jelf, Principal
of the College, even read them, but having made himself acquainted with
their contents, a correspondence took place between him and Maurice. The
result was that the Council pronounced "the opinions expressed, and the
doubts indicated in the _Essays_, and the correspondence respecting
future punishm