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MISCELLANIES, VOL. ir.
RIVINGTONS
ICotrtJOn .... • • • Waterloo Place
..-••• Magdalen Street
...... • • Trinity Street
MISCELLANIES
LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS
BY
CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D.
BISHOP OF LINCOLN
IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II.
RIVINGTONS Hotrtfon, (StyfortJ, atrtf
MDCCCLXXIX.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
ON THE INSPIRATION OP THE BIBLE.
PAGE
Ancient Fresco-painting, from the Eoman Catacombs, a symbolical representation of the doctrine concerning the Inspiration of the Bible; and of the divine method for diffusing and interpret ing it 1, 2
In considering this question we must begin with proving the God head of Jesus Christ ........ 2
To do this it is to be shown, first, that the Gospels are true
histories . . . . . . . . . . .2,3
Next — since the Gospels are true histories — it follows that Christ
is God 3
Next let us learn to behold Christ holding in His hands the Old
Testament 3
And as avouching its Truth and Inspiration ..... 3
Evidence of this testimony of Christ to the Old Testament— Christ's
guarantee to us 3, 4
Of the Truth and Inspiration of the New Testament . . . 4, 5
What are the grounds of our reverence for the testimony of the
Church Universal to the Truth and Inspiration of the Bible . 6, 6
What that testimony amounts to 5
Summary of the argument . . . . . . . .5
Corroborative evidence —
1. From God's providential care for theBible ; Antiochus Epiphanes ;
Diocletian . . . . . . . . 6 — 8
His care for the Bible in England 8, 9
2. From the fulfilment of the Prophecies in the Bible ... 9
3. From the Continuity and Symmetry of the Bible . . .10
4. From the class of persons employed in writing it . • 10> H
5. From the moral effects produced by the Bible . . . 12 — 14
Moral uses of difficulties in the Bible 15
Conclusion . . .16
vi Contents.
PAGE
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE 17
Need of this inquiry . . . . . . . . 17, 18
Historical reference to the methods applied (especially in Germany)
to the Interpretation of the Bible . . . . 18 — 33
The Dogmatists and Confessionists 18
Succeeded by the Pietists (Spener and others) . . . .19
The Pietists, followed by the Eationalists . . . 20, 21
Theory of Accommodation 21, 22
The relation of Kant's Philosophy to the Bible . . . .22 Practical Reason, Moral sense, inner Consciousness, proposed as In terpreters of the Bible (Semler) 22, 24
Rationalism superseded by Spiritualism (Strauss) leading to Pan theism 25,26
Review of the history of Biblical Interpretation in Germany . . 27 Its theories derived from England (Tindal, Woolston, Morgan,
Toland) 28—30
Practical inferences from this review (Bemet, Neander) . . 31, 32 Resemblance of errors, old and new ....... 33
Almost every Heresy involves some truth 33
What is the office of the Church as the Guardian and Keeper of
Scripture 33, 34
What are the proper means for the Interpretation of the Bible . . 35
Conscience, what its office is (Sanderson) 35
Human Reason — when used reasonably 35 — 37
Limits of its use . . „ .- 36
Reason leads on to Faith . 37,38
Faith and Science their respective provinces and functions
(Hooker) 38, 39
Nature and the Bible, two Books of God (Lord Bacon) . . .39
Use of Biblical Criticism 40
The Bible bears testimony to the use of Human Learning . 41, 42 Solution of the question, why Human Learning and Science are sometimes found allied with Unbelief; and why Belief is found among the unlearned ....... 43 — 46
Need of certain moral dispositions for understanding, and believing
the Bible 46
Causes of Infidelity 47, 48
Why the existence of Unbelief confirms our Belief in the Bible . 47
Punitive power of Holy Scripture 48
Heresies of men distinguished by ability, intelligence, and learning,
and semblances of virtue ....... 49, 50
Wisdom of humble simplicity 51
S. Augustine's description of a good Biblical Interpreter . . .52 Duty and happiness of Christianizing Secular Learning and Science . 53
Christ the true Interpreter of Scripture 54
The walk to Emmaus 55
How He performs this work of Biblical interpretation . . 56 —59
Contents. vii
PAGE
Some prophecies, not understood by the Prophets who uttered them, are made clear to us by Christ speaking by Himself, and by the Holy Spirit in His Apostles and Evangelists . . 59 — 62 Our consequent high privileges and solemn responsibilities . 63, 64 Christ explains to us the Old Testament in the New . . .65 The Spiritual Interpretation of the History of the Old Testament 66, 67 Eeference to the Author's Introductions in his Commentary on the
Old Testament 67
Holy Scripture to be interpreted as a whole, "according to the
proportion of faith." George Herbert .... 68,69 Illustrations of this statement as to the Nature and Person of Christ ; as to the efficacy of Repentance ; as to Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freewill ; as to Justification and Sanctification ; as
to the Sacraments 69 — 76
Harmonization of facts . . . . . . . . 76, 77
" Undesigned Coincidences " (so called) . , . . . . .78
Christ interpreting Holy Scripture, in matters of Faith, by means of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Church Universal, uttering its voice in Creeds and Confessions of Faith . . .79, 80 Christ is ever present, and always teaching, in the Universal
Church 81—83
How this has been shown in her history . , . . . . .84 Eichard Baxter on the Creed . . . . ' . . . 83, 84 How Heresies were overruled for the manifestation and maintenance
of the Faith 84, 85
Why do we believe the articles of the Creed to be true ? . . .85 What are the touchstones of dogmatic Truth P . . . 86, 87
Why do we receive the Nicene Creed ? 89
Do we claim Infallibility for a Council ? 90
Differences between a priori Infallibility and a posteriori Iner rancy 90, 91
Why we reject the peculiar dogmas of Rome . . . . .91
The Roman Church is not the Catholic Church ; and the Romish
Faith is not the Catholic Faith . . . . . 92, 93
Our Catholic safeguards against Rome ..... 91 — 93
Our safeguards also against the errors of private interpretation . 93, 94 What is true Liberty and Progress ...... 93, 94
An Essential difference between Theology and Physical Science
(Pascal) 96
Regard for the authority of the Church Universal is no disparagement
to Christ ; but the contrary. Let us not separate them . . 97 Analogy between the divine plan for assuring us of the Inspiration
of Scripture, and for guiding us in its Interpretation . 98, 99 Recapitulation 100—102
ON THE REVISION OF THE Authorized Version OF THE BIBLE 103 — 105 Cautions and Suggestions with respect to it . • . 104 — 106
viii Contents.
PAGE
Probable allegations of Sceptics and Romanists .... 105 ON THE EEVISION OF the New Lectionary (of 1871) . . 106 — 110
Table of Proper Psalms and Lessons put forth at the Lincoln
Synod 110—113
What is the true Method of teaching the Bible . . .114 — 119
A Syllabus for teaching 119—121
Uses of Set Forms of Prayer 121
As compared with extemporaneous prayer in public . . . 122 — 121 A sound Liturgy is not only a Manual of Devotion but a Kule of
Doctrine 124
Its restorative efficacy . . 125
Arguments for, from the terminology of Scripture .... 125 From the example of Christ and His Apostles, and the Ancient
Church 126,127
Uses of the ENGLISH Book of Common Prayer . . . 127, 128
Is it derived from the Roman Breviary 128
Courage and wisdom of the English Reformers .... 130 Uses of a vernacular Liturgy. Our duty to the Prayer Book . 131, 132 Testimonies to the English Liturgy of the English Legislature . 132 George Herbert 133
On the HOLY SACEAMENTS 134
The Church a Bethel ... ... . . 134
Holy Baptism 135
Christ crucified the source of all Sacramental Grace .... 135 Baptism by immersion . 135, 136
INFANT BAPTISM, Letter on 136
Allegations against it considered and answered . . 136 — 143 Only two kinds of profitable teaching 143
HOLY COMMUNION 143
Its relation to Holy Baptism 143, 144
Reception necessary 144
Enforcement of fasting before the reception of Holy Communion . 144
Pleas for the enforcement considered 144
Distinction between doctrines and ceremonies .... 146, 147
Practice of our Lord and the Apostles 148, 149
And of the primitive Church 148, 149
Evil results of private imposition of rules of ritual . . . 150, 151 "What is the true wisdom as to Ceremonies . . . .150 — 152 Law and Practice of the Church of England .... 152, 153 The Authority of particular Churches as to Rites and Cere monies 154—156
Contents. ix
PAGE
Practical conclusion 155
On non-communicating attendance 156
Reception of the Holy Sacrament necessary . . . . 156, 157 Cardinal Bona and John Wesley . . . . . . . 157
Bisdop Cosin 157, 158
Language and Law of the Church of England on the need of actual
reception 158 — 160
On the proper time for withdrawal of non-communicants (Bishop
Cosin) 160, 161
On " Spiritual Communion " . . . . . . . .' . 161
On " adoration " 161
Evils in the other direction 162
On the use of the unfermented juice of the grape in the Holy Communion : with some prefatory remarks on Temperance
Societies 163 — 170
On the enforcement of a total Abstinence pledge .... 164 What was the kind of wine used at the institution of the Holy
Communion. Testimony of Scripture and the Mishna . 167, 168 And by Apostolic and sub-Apostolic Churches . % . . . . . 168 Preventives of Intemperance . . .... . . 169
ON CONFIRMATION ; the duty and benefit of coming to it . 170—179
Age for Confirmation 178
On the Statistics of Confirmation in England, as showing the
need of an increase of the Episcopate . . . .181 — 186 On the manner of administering Confirmation . . . . . 186 Appeal to the Legislature — This not a question for the Clergy only,
but for all 188
ON CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION ...... 189
The Words in the Ordinal, " Eeceive the Holy Ghost, Whosoever sins
ye remit, they are remitted " 189
Reality of Absolution . . . . . . . . 189, 190
In what ways is it given, and by Whom ? 193 — 197 Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Anglican Divines . 193 — 196 On " forms of Absolution ;" public and private, declaratory and pre catory 198—202
Doctrine of the Church of England. Peter Lombard . . 200—202 Doctrine of the Church of Rome . . . 200, 202, 204, 207, 208 Of Holy Scripture and the Ancient Church .... 205—207
Practical application . . . . . ... . 207 — 211
Duties of Clergy and Laity .209,210
PASTORAL LETTEB FOE THE BETTER OBSERVANCE OF ASCENSION DAT . . 212—215
x Contents.
PAGE
ON THE OBSERVANCE OF EOOATION DAYS .... 216, 217 DAY OF INTERCESSION FOR MISSIONS 217
ON SPECIAL FORMS OF PRAYER FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS . 218 — 220
Question as to their authority 218 — 229
Special forms of Prayer for Missions ; for H.E.H. the Prince of Wales; in time of Cattle plague ; for the increase of the Episcopate .......... 221
For Peace . . . .;"..'.. . .221
Thanksgiving for . . . • /• • • • • 222
Prayer for Mohammedans and Eastern Churches .... 222
Prayer for Unity, Latin Translation of . . . . . . 223
Prayer for St. Paul's Mission House, Burgh, Lincolnshire . . 223 For the Theological School, Lincoln . . . . . . 224
For a supply of Clergy •. . . 224
Prayers at the presentation of an offering to the Bishop-designate of
Truro . ... . . ... . . . 225, 226
ON CHURCH Music.
On the true uses of Hymns . . . ...'.. 229—232
Church Choirs . ' . .233
On HYMNS for the Church of England . .' . * . . .236 The true end and aim of Hymnology . . ' ' . . . . 233, 236 A Hymn Book for the Church of England ought to be adjusted to
the Prayer Book . . ' v . ' 236
Hymns for Advent . . . 237
Modes of Christ's Advent or Coming . . . . . 237—239 Hymns for Saints' Days . . ... . . . 240—245
Hymns for Epiphany . . ' . ' . • 241
Various aspects of the Epiphany ...... 241,242
Beauty of Anglican Service Book ....... 243
Septuagesima — Lent 243, 2i4
Seasons of Forty Days 245
Hymns for Saints' Days 247
Ancient and Modern Hymns ........ 249
Parisian Breviary . . . . . . . . . 249
Metres of Hymns 251, 252
The HOLY YEAR, or Hymns for Sundays, Holy Days, and daily
use 252—383
On RELIGIOUS FAITH and WORSHIP in ART 384
What are the true character, and functions of Art . . . 384, 385
What is the aim and end of Work 385
The first Sabbath not said to have an Evening .... 385 The Great Works of Art in the Word of God— their purpose and meaning 385, 386
Contents. xi
PAGE
The Ark— The Tabernacle 385, 386
Imitation is not the essence of Art 386
A genuine Artist 386
" Schools of Art" — uses and dangers of 386
How to be improved 386
What is Beauty ? 387
Plato — Michael Angelo — Winkelmann — Sir Joshua Reynolds — their
Testimonies 387—390
Architecture — its true ideal — the Parthenon, Lincoln Cathedral,
Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's 390, 391
Sculpture— its true ideal . 391, 392
The Panathenaic Frieze, Triumphal Arches at Rome, Triumphal
Columns ;...*'. . 391, 392
Laocoon group — its age . . . . ... . . . 392
The Cross and the Crucifix— Campanella . . . . , 392, 393
Stained Glass . . . ... . . . r • . .393
Landscape Painting — Ideal of i. • , . . . . . 394
Portrait Painting 394, 395
Comparison of Ancient Nations and England as to public works of
Art 395
The Duke of Wellington's Statue 395
Character of the true Artist 327
Midland Counties MUSEUM of ART, at NOTTINGHAM — Prayer at and
Hymn for 398, 391
CHRISTIAN Art in CEMETERIES and CEMETERY Chapels . . . 401 Suggestions for improvements in the adornment of . . . 401 — 403
Campo Santo at Pisa 403
Christian Symbols (connected with Death and Resurrection) in the
Catacombs 404
Adam and Eve — The Ark and Dove with olive branch — Abraham offering up Isaac — Joseph — Jonah — the Three Children — Daniel
—Enoch and Elias 404, 405
Symbols from the New Testament — The Sower, the Good Shepherd,
the Wise Virgins, Lazarus, the Fish . . . . . 405
The Chi Rho— the Alpha and Omega — the Palm branch . . . 405
St. Jerome in the Catacombs 406
On CREMATION and BURIAL 49
History of Burial since the Christian era .... 407, 408 Doctrines involved in it . . . . . • • • • ^° Primeval and Patriarchal doctrine and practice . . . • 409, 410
Roman practice . 410, 411
Change produced by Christianity . . . • • .411
Arguments for Cremation 412—415
Considered • 413—415
Arguments for burial 415 4wO
List of Works on Cremation 4^0
xii Contents.
PAGE
On the Intermediate State of the Soul, between Death and the
Besurrection of the Body . 422
Whither does the Soul go at Death ? ... '. ' . .423
What is Paradise 1 423
St. Paul's two Visions 425, 426
What is Abrahams bosom ? 428
Our Burial Office ..429
Practical inferences from the inquiry 429
Power and Love of Christ ........ 429
On Prayers to the Saints 430
On Purgatory 430
The Soul does not sleep 431
Prospect of our own death, and of the death of friends . . . 432 Conclusion . 433
ON THE INSPIEATION OF THE BIBLE.
IN an ancient fresco painting/ from the Catacombs of Rome, our Blessed Lord is represented having a nimbus of glory on His head, and seated on a throne, and having in His left hand an Open Book (representing the Holy Bible) and raising His right hand in the act of Blessing. The Bible is also represented in its composite character, that is, as consisting of various "writings, by two cylinders or capsce, containing written rolls, symbolizing the books of the Two Testaments. And the method in which the Bible is given by Christ to the World is shown by the figures of the two Apostles, St. Peter, the Apostle of the Circumcision, and St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, the one on one side of Christ, the other on the other side.
Thus is displayed the great truth, that the Written Word is avouched by Jesus Christ, the Incarnate WORD ; that it is His will that it should be opened in the eyes of all, to be seen, heard, and read by all ; and that the Holy Scriptures are delivered by Him to the Apostolic Ministry of His Church, in order to be guarded, interpreted, and preached by her to all the world.
This ancient fresco is a pictorial Essay on the Inspiration of the Bible.
It reminds us that we are not to regard the Bible as a
1 An engraving of it may be seen in Didron's Iconographie Chre*tienne, p. 29, Paris, 1843, and in the Rev. Wharton Marriott's Vestiarium Chris- tianum, Plate XII., with a description, p. 235. London, 1868.
VOL II. B
2 Miscellanies.
common book, that we must lift up our eyes from earth to heaven and see the Bible in the hands o'f Christ; as guaranteed by His divine authority; as subscribed by His Sign-manual, and sealed by His Seal ; and delivered by His authority to the Apostolic Church Universal, the divinely appointed Keeper and Interpreter of the Word of God.
We are thus taught how to encounter the unbeliever in his assaults upon the Bible.
We must begin with proving the Godhead of Christ. This was the method adopted by the ancient Church ; and it ought to be ours also.
For this purpose we must show from external evidence that the history of Christ, as written in the Gospels, is a true history.
We can prove, from external testimony, that the Gospels which we hold in our hands are the same as those that existed in the hands of the Primitive Church ; and that they were read in her public assemblies as true histories. We can show that the primitive Christians had no earthly interest to serve in asserting the truth of the Gospels ; but, on the contrary, the assertion of that truth exposed them to the loss of all worldly advantages, and that they endured suffering and torture for it ; that they were stoned, beheaded, crucified, burnt alive, and cast to the wild beasts, in defence of the truth of the Gospels. And we can show that the self-same power, namely, that of Imperial Rome, which, as its own historians testify,2 had crucified Jesus Christ and persecuted the Christians, and beheaded and crucified them, and cast them to wild beasts and into the fire, for asserting the truth of the Gospels, was herself at length convinced of the truth of the Gospels, and publicly owned her conviction. Imperial Kome, the mistress of the world, which had made the nations of the earth to pass under her military yoke, bowed her own neck meekly beneath the yoke of Christ. She changed her magnificent heathen temples into Christian churches, and placed the Gospels on thrones in her Council Chambers ; and the Cross of Jesus of Nazareth, — of obscure Nazareth, in despised Galilee, — Who had been
- Tacitus, Annales, xv. 41. Suetonius, Claud., c. 25 ; Nero, c. 16.
T/te Gospels are true : Christ is God. 3
crucified at Jerusalem by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, dislodged the Roman eagle from the standards of her legions, and was set on the diadems of her kings.
In the face of these facts — who can venture to say that the Gospels are not true histories ?
The historical truth of the Gospels being established, it follows as a logical inference that Jesus Christ wrought those wonderful works which the Gospels amrm Him to have done; that in the presence of multitudes of men — many of them His bitter enemies — He healed the sick, cast out devils, raised the dead, read the hearts of men, and revealed their thoughts, and foretold future events ; in a word that He showed Divine power, knowledge, and wisdom^ and that He was truly what He claimed to be 3 — GOD.
This being proved, we next proceed to observe, that Jesus Christ, Who has been shown to be God, is presented to us in the Gospels, which have been shown to be true, as holding in His hand the OLD TESTAMENT, and as declaring it to be true and Divinely inspired ; and as commanding all men to receive and reverence it as such. The Incarnate Word has set His own Divine seal on the Written Word, and has delivered it to us as true, and as given by inspiration of God.
That the Old Testament which is in our hands at the present day is the same as the Old Testament which was in the hands of Christ can be shown, not only by the testimony of the Church, but by the independent witness of the Jewish nation, which read it publicly in its synagogues in Christ's age in all parts of the world, and which continues so to read it at this day. The Jewish nation which rejected Christ has been made to serve Christ by guarding the Scriptures from which He proved His Messiahship. That Christ received the Old Testament as true and Divine can be shown by His constant appeals to it as such; as, for instance, at the Temptation,4 and in the synagogue at Nazareth,5 in His intercourse with the Jews,6 and with His
3 John v. 23, 26 ; viii. 58 ; x. 30 ; xvii. 22.
4 Luke iv. 4, 8, 12. •* Luke iv. 14—18. 0 Luke xvi. 17, 29, 31. John v. 47 ; x. 35.
B 2
4 Miscellanies.
disciples, especially on the evening of His resurrection ; ; and that He acknowledged the entire Old Testament to be true and Divinely inspired is evident, from His habitually communicating with the Jews in their religious worship in the synagogues,8 in which the Old Testament was publicly read as true and Divinely inspired. Every Jew in that age regarded the Old Testament as such"; and our Blessed Lord, both by word and deed, sanctioned and confirmed their judgment concerning it. If the Old Testament had not been true and Divine, Christ would never have com municated with the Jews in publicly reading it as God's Word. He, Who in His zeal for His Father's honour twice drave the buyers and sellers from the outer courts of His Father's House,1 would have severely rebuked the Jews for receiving the Old Testament as His Father's Word, if it had not been what they affirmed it to be. He would have condemned them for ascribing what was human to God ; He would have denounced such an ascription as an outrage against the Most High. He would not have abetted them in it ; He would not have made Himself an accomplice with those who were guilty of a forgery, and who put forth counterfeit coin in the name of the King of kings. But He did not censure them. He communicated with them publicly in the recognition of the Old Testament as true and Divine ; and therefore the Old Testament is shown to be the true and inspired Word of God, by the unerring testimony of the Son of God.
Let us now pass on to the NEW TESTAMENT. How may we show its truth and inspiration ?
Our answer is, We find in the Gospels, already shown to be true histories, that our Blessed Lord, Who has been proved to be God, promised to send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, " to guide them into all truth," 2 and " to teach them all things/' and to "bring all things to their re membrance, whatsoever He had said unto them,"3 and to
7 Luke xxiv. 27, 44. 8 Luke iv. 16.
9 See Josephus, c. Apion. 1, § 8. 1 Matt xxi. 12. John ii. 15.
8 John xvi. 13. 3 John xiv. 26.
The Bible avouched by Christ. 5
" abide with them for ever "—that is, with them and their successors ; 4 and that He declared that He would build His Church upon a rock — namely, on Himself — and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it ; " 5 and that He would be with them " always (literally, all days), even unto the end of the world." G
We find also that the Apostles, being thus taught and guided into all truth; composed certain writings — Gospels and Epistles — which they delivered to the Church, to be received and read in her public congregations as of equal authority and value with the Books of the Old Testament, and as bearing the same title and designation — namely, Holy Scripture7 — with the Books of the Old Testament, which Christ Himself had acknowledged to be Divine; and we find that the Universal Church, to which Christ promised His Divine Presence and Spirit, has received those Books and the rest of the New Testament as on a par with the Old Testament, and publicly read both Testaments as true and Divine.
This general reception and public reading of the New- Testament by the Church of God is no other than the testimony of Christ Himself dwelling in her, and of God the Holy Ghost abiding in her for ever, and avouching the truth and inspiration of the New Testament. Therefore well and wisely does the Church of England appeal to this testimony, and say, in her sixth Article, " All the Books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received) we do receive and account them canonical."
Oil the whole, then, this is our conclusion. We lift our eyes upward to heaven^ and we see there the Son of God enthroned in glory, and holding in His Divine hands both Testaments, and delivering them to the world as the Word of God.
What, then, shall we say to the sceptical caviller at Holy Scripture ? What shall we reply to those who pretend to know more of causes and effects in the natural world than
4 John xiv. 16. 5 Matt. xvi. 28.
6 Matt, xxviii. 20. ' Cf. 2 Pet. iii. 16.
6 Miscellanies.
the Great Creator Himself ? We would remind him that he is lifting himself up against Christ, Who is God, and by Whom all things were made,8 and Who declares that Scripture is the Word of God — ' ' Knowing the terror of the Lord, we would persuade men ;" 9 and we would warn the unbeliever that Christ is King of kings, and Lord of lords j1 that all men will be raised by His voice from their graves, and be sum moned to His judgment-seat; and that the Word which He has spoken will judge them at that Day.2
Let us now proceed to observe, that the strength of this general testimony of God the Son to the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, is corroborated by subsequent considerations, which accrue with cumulative force, and settle and stablish us more firmly in the belief, that the Scriptures are the Word of God.
1 . First, we are confirmed in our belief of the Inspiration of the Bible by observing the evidences of a providential design carried on during many ages in succession, for pro tecting the Bible, and for assuring us that Holy Scripture is God's Word.
If the Bible were not His Word, it would be nothing else than a forgery put forth in His name. For, it professes to deliver a message from God, and to give revelations of His nature and attributes, and to unfold the hidden mysteries of the spiritual world.
If, therefore, the Bible is not from God, it is a counterfeit coin, bearing His impress : it is an outrage against Him, and an imposture upon mankind. Consequently it would be viewed with indignation by Him Who is a God of justice and truth.
But look back upon the past. Ever since the Bible was written, Almighty God has continued to protect it. When the first books of the Bible — namely, the books of Moses — were written, He received them under His divine guardian ship in the Holy of Holies.3 In critical times, He has ever interfered to save it. When the Old Testament was in peril
8 John i. 1—3. 9 2 Cor. v. 11. » Rev. xvii. 14.
8 John v. 28. Rom. xiv. 10. 2 Cor. v. 10. 8 See Deut. xxxi. 9, 24—26. Josh. xxiv. 26.
God's care for the Bible. 7
of being lost, through the corruption and idolatry of Princes, Priests, and People, He brought forth the original volume of the Law from its sacred retreat in the days of good King Josiah, who in his own name, and in that of his people, proclaimed it to be the Word of God.4
The subsequent dispersion of the Jews for their sins was made ministerial to the preservation and dissemination of God's Holy Word in almost all countries, where Synagogues were erected by the Jews, in which the Old Testament was publicly read every Sabbath day.
In an evil time Antiochus Epiphanes the King of Syria arose, and set up " the abomination of desolation " in the Temple of God at Jerusalem ; and endeavoured to compel the Jews to worship the gods of the Heathen ; and sent forth his own soldiers to destroy the copies of the Old Testa ment, who rent in pieces the books of the Law which they found, and burnt them with fire; and whosoever was found with any such Book was put to death by the King's command.6
At that crisis Almighty God interposed to rescue His own Word, and the persecuting King was suddenly cut off by death.6
About a century and a half passed away, and the Son of God came down from heaven. At that time the Word of God was publicly read by the Jews in the Synagogues of Palestine, and in almost every city of the civilized world. But its sense was overlaid and obscured by human traditions. The Son of God acknowledged the Old Testament in the hands of the Jews. He owned it to be God's Word. He showed His zeal for it by sternly rebuking the Pharisees for making it of none effect by their tradition.^ But He never rebuked them for receiving it as God's Word, which He certainly would have done if it had not been what they pro fessed it to be. No : on the contrary, He joined with them in the service of their Synagogues, and in reading and ex pounding the Old Testament as God's Word. And His
4 2 Kings xxii. 8—10. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 15. * 1 Mac. i. 54, 55—57.
6 1 Mac. vi. 12, 13, 16. 2 Mac. ix. 11—18, 28.
7 Matt. xv. 3, 6.
8 Miscellanies.
Apostles, and His Church after them, being taught by the Holy Ghost, sent by the Son of God, received the Old Testa ment as inspired by God; and commanded all men to receive it as such.
At the beginning of the fourth century after Christ, a fierce persecution arose against His Church. The Emperor of the Eoman World, Diocletian, endeavoured to destroy the Bible. He ordered diligent search to be made in all parts of the Empire for copies of the New Testament,8 and com manded them to be burnt But God again interfered to save it. In a few years afterwards, He raised up another Sovereign of the Eoman World, Constantine, the first Emperor who embraced Christianity ; and by his royal com mand copies of the Holy Scriptures were multiplied, and Churches were built, in which those Scriptures were read, as the Inspired Word of God.
A thousand years passed away. Then was an evil time for Holy Scripflure. The Bible was not dead ; but it was buried. It was entombed in the sepulchre of a dead language. Not to speak of other lands, but only of our own, not a single copy of the Bible existed at that time in England in our tongue. But then arose John Wickliffe. Five hundred years ago, he translated the Bible into English.9 In that age copies of the Bible could only be had in manuscript ; and four and twenty years after his death it was decreed ' by some in high place among us, that " no one should hereafter translate any text into English, and that no book of this kind should be read that was composed by John Wickliffe."
There was then a " famine of hearing God's Word 2 " in England.
But in fifty years' time, the art of Printing was invented, and William Caxton set up his press at Westminster.3 And about the year 1526 William Tyndal made and published in London his Translation of the Bible — the first Translation
8 Euseb. H. E. viii. 2.
9 See Lewis, History of English Translations of the Bible, pp. 18—27. Lond. 1739.
1 By Archbishop Arundel, in a Constitution at Oxford, 1408. - Amos viii. 11. 3 A.D. 1474.
God's care for the Bible in England. 9
that ever was printed in this land. The Author of this Translation, and his coadjutor John Frith, died nobly as Martyrs for the Faith ; and the light which they kindled has never been put out. Two centuries and a half after the first Translation of the Bible into English by Wickliffe, and about two centuries and a half ago — that is, in the year of our Lord 1611, — our own "Authorized Version" was pub lished. That noble Translation was made by a goodly com pany of pious and learned men, at the head of whom stood a Dean of Westminster 4 ; and by God's blessing on their labours, and on those of others in this and other lands, especially our religious Societies, the Holy Scriptures are now diffused everywhere. Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world.5 This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.6
Surely these events, extending over a range of more than three thousand years, afford practical attestation from God Himself, that the Bible is His Word. Surely they may inspire us with the cheering assurance, that, however Satan may assail it, God will protect it unto the end.
3. Another evidence of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture is seen in the fulfilment of the Prophecies, which are con tained therein. God, and God alome, can foresee the future. He challenges false gods by saying, " Show us what shall happen, declare us things for to come."7
Let this test be applied to the Books of the Old Testa ment.
Can any other writings in the world be named, composed at such different times, in such different places, and by the instrumentality of such different persons, as the Books of the Old Testament; and delivering such a long series of Prophecies, as those, for instance, which concern the Messiah, and begin with the Book of Genesis, and end with that of Malachi ; can any other writings be named, contain ing Prophecies so minute, so various, and seemingly so con tradictory — as, for example, those which pre-announce a
4 Dean — afterwards Bishop — Andrewes. See Lewis's History of the Translations of the Bible, p. 308.
6 Ts. xix. 4. 6 Ps. cxviii. 23. ; Isa. xli. 22.
io Miscellanies.
Messiah, suffering the most shameful and agonizing death, and yet triumphing as a mighty Conqueror, and reigning as a glorious King — and all punctually fulfilled, fulfilled by the agency of that very people — the Jews — who heard those prophecies every Sabbath day in their Synagogues ; and yet, as St. Paul says, fulfilled them in condemning Him of whom those Prophecies speak ?
Here, then, is another proof that the Books of the Old Testament are animated by the breath of God.
4. Consider also the wonderful symmetry of the various parts of the Bible.
Its subject-matter reaches from the Creation to the End of time. Its Books were written by different persons in distant ages and countries. And yet how marvellously do they harmonize together ! They are like Christ's vesture, woven without seam.8 They are like the wings of the Cheru bim, as described by Ezekiel, intertwined and interlaced together.9 The Jewish Doctors said that the words of the Pentateuch make one word ; and there is a spiritual truth in the saying. The Books of the Bible are all fitted together. The Law prepares the way for the Prophets, and the Prophets proclaim the Sanctity of the Law. The New Testament lies hid in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is opened in the New. All the Books of the Bible are joined together, and form one Book.
No human design could have produced such a result as this. It is the work of Him who sees all things at a glance to the end from tlie beginning,1 and with Whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.2
Here is another evidence that the Bible is from God.
5. Let us also reflect what Jcind of persons they were, who were employed to write the Bible.
The Bible, particularly the New Testament, professes to unfold things hidden from the foundation of the world.3 The Gospels claim to be records of the sayings of the Son of God, revealing the secret Mysteries of His heavenly King-
8 John xix. 23. 9 Ezek. i. 9, 11, 12.
1 Isa. xlvi. 10. - 2 Pet. iii. 8.
3 Matt. xiii. 35.
Proofs of its Triith and Inspiration. 1 1
dom. And who were the persons chosen to write these marvels ? Their enemies justly said that they were un learned and ignorant men* True : such they were in themselves, Publicans and Fishermen of Galilee. Yet these unlearned and ignorant men have become the Teachers of the World. They are the Historians of the greatest deeds that ever were done ; they are the Chroniclers of the wisest sayings that were ever spoken, and they are the utterers of the most heavenly Sermons that were ever preached. And the World has received their words, — has received them as divine. The Gospels are read everywhere. God has evangelized the learned and wise by means of the simple and foolish ; and not the simple and foolish by means of the learned and wise. As S. Augustine says, " He caught the Orator by the Fisherman; and not the Fisherman by the Orator." 5
The greatest sages of this world — the Bacons and Newton s, the Keplers and Pascals — have deemed it their highest privilege to sit down as little children at the feet of the Evangelists.
How could this be done ?
Certainly not by the writers themselves. Of themselves they could do nothing. Their sufficiency was of God.6 But according to His promise, Christ sent the Holy Ghost, to lead them into all truth, and to bring all things to their re membrance, whatsoever He had said to them.
He chose weak instruments for this mighty work of evan gelizing the world, in order that by the weakness of the instruments chosen, and by the greatness of the work done through their instrumentality, it might be evident to all, that the work was not of them, but of God. The treasure of heavenly truth was committed to earthen vessels, in order that the excellency of the power of the Gospel might be seen to be of God, and not of men.7
4 Acts iv. 13.
6 Piscatorem de Oratore non lucratus est Christus, sed Oratorem de Piscatore. S. Augustine, de Utilitate Jejunii, ix., and Serm. xliii. and Ixxxvii., and in Ps. cxlix.
6 2 Cor. iii. 5. 7 2 Cor. iv. 7.
1 2 Miscellanies.
6. Let us reflect also on the beneficent effects produced by the Bible on the world.
Here is another proof that the Scriptures are from God. The Bible speaks in God's name, and professes to be God's Word. And if it is not in fact what in name it professes to be, then it has a lie in every page, and it is not from God, but from the Evil One. Every plant, which My Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up, says Christ.8 And, A Tree is known by its fruits.9
What, then, have been the fruits of the Bible ?
Do they not show that the tree is a good tree, that it is a tree of life, and that its leaves are for the healing of the Nations ?'
This is the fact on which St. Paul insists, when he says that All Scripture, or rather every Scripture? being divinely inspired, or inbreathed by God, is also 3 profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work. What is the condition of men, families, and nations without it ? and what is their condition, wherever they receive and obey it ?
The Bible, and the Bible alone, makes subjects loyal to their Sovereigns, because it teaches them that, in obeying their Sovereign, they are obeying God, and will be rewarded hereafter by Him.4 The Bible, and the Bible alone, makes Sovereigns rule rightly, because it reminds them that they must render a strict account of their rule to the King of kings. The Bible makes Judges and Magistrates judge just judgment, because it tells them, that they must one day stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ. The Bible makes Masters kind to their Servants, because it declares to all Masters, that they have a Master in heaven.* The Bible makes Servants faithful to their Masters, because it assures
8 Matt. xv. 13. 9 Matt. vii. 16 ; xii. 33. Luke vi. 43.
1 llev. xxii. 2.
2 Trava ypatfifi i. e. Every portion of the Holy Book is inspired, and forms a portion of a living organic whole.
3 KOI ; this is prohably the true reading of the text.
4 Horn. xiii. 1—3. 5 Eph. vi. 2. Col. iv. 1.
Mora effects of the Bible. 1 3
all Servants that they are Christ's freemen, and will receive a reward for dutiful service, at the Great Day.6 The Bible persuades busy men to forego their business, and makes tender women forget their tenderness, and visit Prisons and Hospitals, and minister at the bedsides of the sick, and watch over the dying ; because they know, that what they do to the least of Christ's brethren on earth, they do it unto Him, and that He will requite them for it at the Great Day.7 The Bible, and the Bible alone, unlocks the fetters of the slave, and makes all men brethren in Christ.8 The Bible sends forth the Missionary to heathen lands, to loose the chains of the soul. The Bible, and the Bible alone, operates on the mainspring of human actions — the heart. The Bible makes men honest and just, kind and charitable in their thoughts and speeches, as well as in their acts, because it teaches them, that all things are naked and open to the eyes of Sim with Whom they have to do,1 and that He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts? The Bible makes Husbands and Wives faithful and loving to each other, because it teaches, that Marriage was instituted by God in Paradise, and that it represents the spiritual union and wedlock between Christ and His Church, and that whoever dishonours Marriage desecrates a great Mystery.3 The Bible makes young men and young women live pure, chaste, and holy lives, because it teaches them that their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, and that whosoever defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy,* and that their bodies are members of Christ, and are to be held in honour as such;5 and that their bodies will be raised again from the grave, and that they must then give an account of the things done in the body,6 and that, if they have presented their bodies a living sacrifice to God upon earth,7 in holiness and pureness of living, their
6 Eph. vi. 5. Col. iii. 22. Titus ii. 9. 1 Pet. ii. 18, 22.
7 Matt. xxv. 40. 8 Philem. 16. 1 Heb. iv. 13. 2 1 Cor. iv. 5.
3 Eph. v. 22—32. 4 I Cor. iii. 16, 17 ; vi. 19.
6 1 Cor. vi. 15. 1 Thess. iv. 4.
6 Rom. ii. 6 ; xiv. 12. 2 Cor. v. 10. » Rom. xii. 1.
1 4 Miscellanies.
bodies will rise from the grave, and live hereafter in heaven, in everlasting health and angelic beauty, and be made like unto Christ's glorious body, according to the mighty work ing whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.8
What shall we say more ? The Bible is the fountain of all true Patriotism and Loyalty in States ; it is the source of all true wisdom, sound policy and equity in Senates, Council-chambers, and Courts of Justice ; it is the spring of all true discipline and obedience, and of all valour and chivalry in Armies and Fleets, on the battle-field, and on the broad sea. It is the origin of all probity and integrity in Commerce and in Trade, in Marts and in Shops, in Banking-houses and Exchanges; in the public resorts of men, and in the secret silence of the heart. It is the pure unsullied fountain of all love and peace, happiness, quiet ness, and joy, in families and households. Wherever it is duly obeyed, it makes the desert of the World to rejoice and blossom as the rose.9
These are the fruits of the Bible. Surely we may conclude from them, that the Tree which bears them has been planted by the hand of God, and is watered by the dews and showers of His Spirit, and is warmed by the sunshine of His grace, and will flourish for evermore.
7. Let us therefore acknowledge our own spiritual privi leges, and our cause for thankfulness to God. The Jews of old were greatly favoured by Him, but how much more favoured are we ! " What advantage hath the Jew ? " asks the Apostle. " Much every way," he replies, " chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God/' And may we not much more say, " What advantage hath the Christian ? Much every way ; " even more than the Jew. For we have a stronger assurance of the Divine Inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures than the Jews themselves had. They received the Old Testament as inspired, on the testimony of their forefathers ; but it is delivered to us, as inspired, by the Son of God. Here is an inexpressible comfort; here indeed is a joyful assurance, in days like these, of rebuke and blasphemy. Here we have hope and
* Phil. iii. 21. " Isa. xxxv. 1.
Moral use of Difficulties in the Bible. 1 5
peace in the sorrows of life, and in the hour of death. Our belief in the Truth and Inspiration of the Bible, rests on a foundation that can never be shaken. It rests on the testimony of Christ. Therefore we may -dwell safely, and defy the storms raging around us. Let the rain descend ; let the floods of Unbelief come, and the winds of false Doctrine blow, and beat upon our house ; it will not fall, for it is built upon a Rock.1 It is built upon the Rock of Ages ; 2 it is built upon Jesus Christ.
Let us not be staggered or perplexed by cavils against it. The Written Word of God is like the INCARNATE WORD Him self, — set for the fall, and also for the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against. 3
Holy Scripture is set for our moral probation, which supposes trial and difficulty. It shows what we are. It displays what manner of spirit we are of.4 It is a test and touchstone of our fitness for heaven. It proves, whether we have those 'moral habits and tempers of mind, — that distrust of ourselves, and that sense of our need of the light of the Holy Ghost, without which no man can hope to be able to see the truth. It shows whether we possess those dispositions of modesty, meekness, and docility, and readiness to weigh evidence with candour and fairness, without which no man is fit for the kingdom of God.5
The difficulties in Scripture vanish into nothing, when they are compared with the evidence in its favour; they are merely as dust in the balance, when set against the difficulty, or rather the moral impossibility, of resisting the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, to the truth and inspiration of the Bible. They are mere molehills to that mountain.
Holy Scripture is set for our fall, — if we proudly set up our own reason against divine revelation, and in opposition to the testimony of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, and if, with a partial eye to difficulties in single texts taken by themselves, and without due regard to the general scope of
1 Matt. vii. 24, 25. " I"*- xxvi- 4-
3 Luke ii. 34. 4 Luke ix. 55,
5 Luke ix. 62.
1 6 Miscellanies.
the whole, and to the divine evidence of its Truth and Inspiration, we take occasion to cavil at its contents, and deny its divine origin and authority. And then our cavils will be our punishment, They will be the recoil of our own sin against ourselves. They will provoke God to withdraw His grace from us, and to leave us to ourselves ; and then we shall be spiritually blind. For how can we hope to see light without Him Who is the Light ?
But, on the other hand, thanks be to God, Scripture is set for our rising,- — for our rising to heavenly glory, — if we use those difficulties aright, and are led thereby to acknow ledge the weakness of our own faculties in their present state, and our consequent need of divine grace; and to pray to God fervently for it ; and to exercise humility, and to thank God for what is perfectly clear in Holy Scripture ; and for the witness of Christ to Scripture. " Lord to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." All our difficulties are dissolved in the crucible of our Faith in Him. And thus we learn to tarry the Lord's leisure, and to look forward with patience, faith, and hope to that blessed time, when all those difficulties will be dispersed, and the film andmist, which now cloud our spiritual vision, will be purged away; and we shall no longer see, as now, through a glass darkly, but shall SCR face to face, and know even as we are known.6
c 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
ON THE IN TEEPEE TATION OF THE BIBLE.
PAET I.
WE pass from the Inspiration of Scripture to its Interpreta tion. The Evil One tempts men to assail the Bible; First, by denying its Inspiration; secondly, by interpreting it amiss. If he fails in the first device, he resorts to the second; and his end is answered by either of the two.
The true sense of Scripture is Scripture. But by giving to it a wrong sense, men make God's Word to become their own word, or even the Tempter's word ; l and thus Scripture is used for our destruction,2 instead of making us wise unto salvation.3 We equally lose Scripture, whether we are deprived of its text, or of its meaning.4
The rule which some persons have laid down for inter preting Holy Scripture is one which at first seems to commend itself by its simplicity. They affirm, that, for ascertaining the sense of Holy Scripture, men may be content to rely on those aids which are afforded by their own intellectual powers and by scientific researches. Others rely no less confidently on their own illumination alone.
These rules have been applied in various ways to the interpretation of Holy Scripture by persons richly endowed with mental gifts and intellectual resources.
1 Matt. iv. 6. 2 2 Pet. iii. 6. 3 2 Tim. iii. 15.
4 As Tertullian says, Apol. c. 17, " Tantum veritati obstrepit adulter sensus, quantum et corruptor stylus ; " and he shows that the ancient heretics practised both these devices, c. 37.
VOL. II. C
1 8 Miscellanies.
It will be very instructive to examine, what fruits have been produced thereby ?
Let us, therefore, now pass them in review ; especially as they have displayed themselves during the last three centuries among certain classes of distinguished persons in a Country celebrated for profound learning, patient study, and critical sagacity.8
The pious and learned Theologians of GERMANY — for of that Country we speak— who flourished in the sixteenth century, rendered great service to Christianity by defending the Truth against the errors and usurpations of the Roman Church, which claimed to be the supreme Arbitress of Faith, and the infallible Interpreter of Holy Scripture; and yet warped its sense by strange perversions,6 and made that sense to vary with her own practice/
For a time the Divines of Germany were content to regulate their interpretations of Holy Scripture by what they called their "symbolical books;8 that is to say, by
* The materials of the history here traced maybe seen in Baumgarten- Crusius, Dogmengeschichte, i. pp. 637 — 727, Jena, 1832. Hagenbach's Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 4th edition, 1857, English translation , Edinburgh, 1850, §§ 211—300. Staudlin's History of Theological Literature. Tholuck, Glaubenwiirdigkeit der evangelischen Geschichte, pp. 1 — 51, Hamburg, 1838. Dewar's Historj* of German Protestantism, Oxford, 1844. Tennemann's Manual of the History of Philosophy, English translation, Oxford, 1832. Menzel, Die deutsche Literatur, Stuttgard, 1836, i. pp. 187 — 214. A Series of Papers on German Theology in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal for 1848, pp. 176, 209, 226, 244, 261, 280. Dr. Hase's Hutterus Redivivus, Leipzig, 1855, §§ 14 — 27, and especially Dr. Kahnis, Internal History of German Protestantism, Leipzig, 2nd edit. 1860, translated by Meyer, Edinburgh, 1856 ; and Schwartz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, 2nd edit. Leipzig. 1856.
In speaking of Germany and German Theology in the present Discourse, the Author has carefully abstained from introducing any statement, •which may not be substantiated from the writings of learned Theologians of that country.
« As Pope Innocent III., interpreting " the greater light to rule the day," in Gen. i. 16, to be a symbol of the Papacy (Decret. Gregor. IX. lib. i. tit. xxxiii.) ; and Pope Boniface interpreting the two swords in Luke xxii. 38, to mean the temporal and spiritual power of the Papacy (Extrav. lib. i. tit. viii.).
7 As Cardinal Cusanus allows, Opera, p. 833, ed. Basil, 1566.
a E.g. The Augsburg Confession ("Confessio Augustana"), A.D. 1530.
German Confessions — the Pietists. 1 9
those Formularies of Faith which had been framed by their most celebrated Reformers, Martin Luther, Melanchthon, and others.
But these Formularies were too numerous and too cumbrous for the purpose ; and not being grounded on the solid basis of Holy Scripture as interpreted by the universal consent, and as embodied in the common practice, of ancient Christendom,9 and being the Confessions of newly-formed communities, were regarded by many as possessing little higher authority than the works of private individuals.
A class of persons arose, distinguished by fervent piety, practical religion, and strictness of life, who were impatient of the rigid restraints imposed by forms and confessions of Faith.
These were the Pietists,1 as they were called, who exer cised great influence for a time.2
In their ardour and enthusiasm, they disparaged Reason, Theological Learning, Literature, and Science, as of little service to Religion ; and formed lesser churches 3 within the Church ; and characterized themselves as the spiritual, the regenerate, the converted, the elect ; and asserted that by their own inner illumination they were able to discern and expound the true sense of Holy Scripture.
But they could not long hold their ground.4 The philo-
The Apology of the Confession, by Melanchthon. The Smalkaldic Articles, A.D. 1536. The Catechisms of Martin Luther, 1529. The For mula Concordise, 1577. And among the Calvinists or " Reformed," the Institutes of Calvin, 1536, and some of the local confessions, such as the Tetrapolitana, Helvetica, Basileensis. Cp. Hagenbach, § 222.
9 E. g. The Lutheran and Calvinistic formularies could not be said to stand on this foundation, in regard to the doctrine of the Eucharist, and with respect to Ecclesiastical Order and Regimen. The Calvinistic scheme of Reprobation, which is at variance with all the teaching of the ancient Eastern Church, is alone sufficient to disqualify that scheme for general acceptance.
1 Such as Spener, born 1635, died 1705 ; Francke, Lange, and others, from whom sprang the Moravians. See Hagenbach, § 218. Kahnis, pp. 98—110.
2 Especially by their " Collegia Pietatis ; " and by the Theological School at Halle.
3 " Ecclesiolas in Ecclesia."
4 Cp. Baumgarten-Crusius, Dogmengeschichte, i. pp. 646 — 657.
c 2
2O Miscellanies.
sophy of Descartes and Leibnitz, which was then prevalent in Europe, produced a powerful effect on the Religion of Germany,5 especially in the Interpretation of Scripture.
That Philosophy was at first employed on the side of Religion. It set itself to show the reasonableness of Christianity. It then applied Human Reason to demonstrate the doctrines of the Gospe]. It affirmed, that the super natural truths of Christianity, — such as even the Mystery of the Incarnation, and of the ever-blessed Trinity, and the Atonement, — might be proved by mathematical reasoning.6
But thus, while it professed to be the Apologist of Christianity, it was in fact its Assailant. By claiming for the light of Nature more than was its due, it derogated from the dignity of Scripture. By asserting the supremacy of Reason it undermined the foundations of Faith.
As might have been anticipated, Rationalism, as it was named, destroyed Pietism, as Pietism had superseded Dogmatism.7 Creeds and Confessions of Faith had been thrown aside, in the fond hope that the Bible alone would reign supreme; but the result was, that Philosophical Systems set themselves up, and were established in its place. Thus an anti-dogmatic Spiritualism prepared the way for a creed! ess Rationalism.
But Rationalism was not content with that victory.
Applying itself to the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, and aided by Classical Learning,8 Philology, Criticism, and History, but of a cold and phlegmatic temperament, it pro-
* Particularly under the influence of Christian Wolf (born 1679, died J.754), though he hijnself did not carry out his own principles to their results ; and he and some of his followers professed a devoted attach ment to the Lutheran formularies and Kitual. Cp. Kahnis, pp, 112 — 115.
6 Cp. the authorities quoted in the Notes to the late H. J. Rose's Dis courses at Cambridge, 1825, p. 121 ; and Kahnis, pp. 115. 324
7 " The zeal for Confessions of Faith had been extinguished in the second half of the 17th century." Kahnis, p. 113.
8 In classical learning by Ernesti, in sacred criticism by Michaelis and Wetstein, in Church-history by Mosheim. They assisted in giving the first impulses to the movement which afterwards gained a power and extent little foreseen by them, who had many points of contact with the Pietists, and also with the Dogmatists.
Rationalistic Interpretation of Scripture. 2 1
claimed itself sent into the world to shed new light on the Bible. It scrutinized the sacred records of the Miracles related in Holy Writ. It would tolerate nothing super natural.9 It wearied itself, with subtle ingenuity, to explain away all that is marvellous in those records, and to reduce the Miracles of Scripture to the low level of physical phenomena.1
Indeed, it did not hesitate to assert, that Miracles are impossible j and that the divine Omnipotence is never seen in the interruption of the course of Nature, but is exerted only in the steady conservation of its Laws.2
It treated the Prophecies of Holy Scripture in a like sceptical spirit. It would not allow them to have more than one meaning. They must be taken only in a literal sense. And, if it was urged, that Jesus Christ Himself and His Apostles in the New Testament had applied those Prophecies to the Messiah, it was said by these new philo sophic Interpreters of Scripture, that the Words of our Lord and His Apostles must be interpreted on a principle of Accommodation.3 That is to say, it must henceforth be
d In this aspect, ' nationalism ' is often termed ' Naturalism ' by German theological writers.
1 As may be seen in the expository writings of Dr. Paulus (1762 — 1851), Gabler, Wegscheider, Eck, Henke, Hartmann, Eiems, Bretschnei- der, Eckermann, Hezel, Kuinoel, Rohr, and many others, whose names have been already forgotten. Cp. Tholuck, Glaubenwiirdigkeit, p. 11. Kahnis, pp. 171—186. Hagenbach, § 289.
The results of Rationalism displayed themselves fully in the Wolfen- buttel Fragments, as they were called, which were written by Eeimar, Professor at Hamburg (who died 1768), and published by Lessing 1774-8, and which " defended the right of Theism, attacked the Church's doctrine of Inspiration, and subjected the Biblical History to a bold criticism." Kahnis, p. 145. They were portions of a larger work entitled "Apology for the Rational Worshippers of God," which has now been printed in extenso, in 1850. The original MS. is in the Hamburg City Library. Its tendency is to " resolve Scripture and the doctrine of the Church into theistic Rationalism.'' Kahnis, p. 146.
- Cp. Dr. W. H. Mill's remarks in his Essay on Pantheistic Principles, Cambridge, 1840, pp. 131—140.
3 The theory of Accommodation was adopted by Semler (A.D. 1767 ; cp. Kahnis, pp. 123. 182), Vogel, Eckermann, Van Hemert, Kirsten, and many others. Cp. Rosenniiiller, Histor. Interpretation^, i. p. 26. Hagen bach, § 289. .
2 2 Miscellanies.
assumed, that, in their intercourse with the Jews, they had adapted their own language to their prejudices and opinions as if Christ, on the contrary, had not sternly denounced the sins of the Jewish People, Priests, and Eulers ; and as if He had not, therefore, suffered death at their hands. The plain language of our Lord and His Apostles was not to be supposed to convey their true meaning, nor to have a perpetual and universal sense, but only a temporary and local significance, adjusted with dexterous pliancy to the temper and circumstances of the age, in which that language was uttered. In fact, these Expositors of Scripture did not hesitate to insinuate, that Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth,4 and His Apostles, the heavenly commissioned Preachers and Martyrs of the Truth, were guilty of duplicity and cowardice.
This principle of Accommodation was applied not only to explain away the Evangelical interpretations of the Prophecies8 quoted in the New Testament, but also to dissolve into allegorical Fables all that was said in the Gospels concerning the operation of the Holy Spirit, and the personality of the Evil Spirit, and the History of the Temptation, and the narratives of demoniacal possessions,6 and the appearances of Angels, and even the awful realities of a Judgment to come.
If, again, it was urged, that such notions as these were opposed to the teaching of ancient Christian Writers, and to the plain sense of Scripture as commonly understood ; it was alleged by these Expositors that the testimony7 of Ancient Authors could not be relied on ; that many of the
4 John xiv. 6.
6 As was done by Eckermann, Ammon, Wegscheider, Eichhorn, and others.
6 This was reproduced in " Essays and Reviews," p. 37 : " There are parts of Scripture more usefully interpreted ideologically than in any other, as for instance the history of the Temptation of Jesus by Satan, and accounts of demoniacal possessions."
7 Especially by Semler (born 1725, died 1791). who went so far as to hazard the assertion that the writings ascribed to Justin Martyr, S. Ire- naeus, and Tertullian are forgeries. Cp. Kahnis, p. 123 : •' Semler did all that he could to take off the halo which rested on the first centuries." See also Bp. Kaye on Tertullian, p. 66.
Kanfs Influence on Biblical Interpretation. 23
works ascribed to them were forgeries \ and that the sense which is assigned to the Scriptures by the majority of Christians, is due to the influence of Creeds and Contessions of Faith, by which their minds have been warped and biassed, and from which they ought to be set free.8
A modification was introduced into Rationalism by the Philosophy of one of the most celebrated Metaphysicians at the close of the last century. It was the fundamental • principle of that Philosophy^ — the Philosophy of Kant,9 — that Human Eeason is not sufficient to discover what was divine. It even professed a desire to make common cause with Christianity. But the founder of that system claimed for what he called "pure Reason," the power of producing in the mind a moral conviction of the existence of God, of Human Liberty, and of Immortality. Unhappily, however, he did not proceed to infer the need of Revelation from the weakness of Reason ; but he subordinated Revelation to Reason by representing Revelation merely as the medium by which the truths cognizable by Reason are communicated to the mind. He would not build moral duty and virtue on the basis of Christian Faith, but he set up an Ethical System independent of the Gospel, and paramount to it. Religion was to be moved from the foundation of external and internal evidence, and to be placed on the substruction of the internal consciousness of Mankind. The essential truths of the Gospel were to be dissolved into ideas. The Mysteries of the Christian Faith were to pass off by a sort of philosophical metempsychosis into ethical propositions. Man Was to be able to purify and perfect himself, by his
8 As Was also alleged by Semler in his " Ihstitutio ad doctrinam Chris- tianam liberaliter discendain," Halis, 1774: and his allegation has been recently revived in " Essays and Reviews," pp. 343. 353. 355. Semler lived to see the consequences of his own principles, and exposed himself to the charge of inconsistency by his protests against those who, like the unhappy sceptic and profligate, Bahrdt, carried his principles to their logical results. Semler protested against him ; and yet " it was Semler's critical writings that had brought him to the knowledge that Scripture was purely a human book." See Kahnis, pp. 135 — 145.
9 Born 1724. died 1804. Cp. Bauingarten-Crusius, i. p. 704. Hageii- bach, §§ 278. 288. 298. Kahnis, pp. 165-7.
24 Miscellanies.
own will, without the graces of the Holy Ghost ; and to save himself by his own works, without the Death of Christ. The historical facts and supernatural doctrines of Chris tianity were to be only figurative shadows, mere hiero- glyphical symbols of universal religious truth residing in the reason of man.1
Thus, though the Author of this system modified the form of Rationalism, he gave a new impulse to it. He set up practical Reason, or Moral Sense, or Consciousness, as the standard, to which everything was to be referred, and by which everything was to be judged. Scriptures, Sacra ments, Prophecies, Miracles, Creeds, and Confessions of Faith must all be tried by this Rule.*
Man, in the exercise of his Reason, whose postulates were to be Law, was to be supreme Arbiter over all. A pure Religion of Reason, — or rather a moral Deism,3— was to absorb all into itself.
But Rationalism in both its phases was tried, and found wanting. Rationalism was pronounced by Infidels them selves to be more irrational than any of the supernatural phenomena of Christianity which it attempted to solve.4 They declared, with truth, that the wonders of Revelation were far less wonderful than the portentous processes and monstrous assumptions, by which they were explained away by Rationalism. How credulous is Incredulity ! And
1 Compare the remarks on the Philosophy of Kant in the late Rev. Archer Butler's Letters on the Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 87.
2 The famous Ninety-five Theses, published at the Tercentenary of the Reformation, 1817, by Glaus Harms, Archdeacon in Kiel, were a mani festo from Lutheranism, of the effects produced by Rationalism on what had been the doctrine of Luther. See Kahnis, pp. 220, 221, where some of these Theses are cited.
3 And from this " species of deism " (says Dr. Staudlin, History of Theology, p, 13) " various others arose, which agreed in nothing but in rejecting Miracles as any essential part of Religion."
4 " Under the pretext," (said even the sceptical Lessing,) " of making us rational Christians, it makes us irrational philosophers." " In this Christianity of Reason he saw neither Reason nor Christianity." Kahnis, p. 151. Lessing himself, it seems probable, verged at length to Pantheism. Ibid. pp. 156. 162.
Pantheism a reaction from Rationalism. 25
reasonable and religious men proved that nationalism is contradicted by the World's History, and by the nature and needs of mankind, unable to subsist long on its husks;5 and is at war with the testimony of Scripture interpreted in its plain grammatical sense,6 and is refuted by the universal consent of the Ancient Church. Others, indeed, endeavoured to give it a new phase, while they, in fact, preserved its principle. They attempted7 to bridge over the gulf which separated the Rational and Supernatural; but in vain. Rationalism, in its turn, was to be supplanted by another form of philosophical speculation, which claimed also a right to give a new direction to the interpretation of Holy Scripture.
This new Philosophy8 was a reaction from Rationalism. Rationalism had admitted the historic element of the Gos pel, but it had rejected the supernatural. This new Sys tem admitted the marvellous, but rejected the historical.
8 Cp. Schwartz on the causes of what he calls the uprooting of Rational ism — " die Ausrottung des Rationalismus," pp. 66 — 95.
6 Cp. Tholuck, Glaubenwiirdigkeit, pp. 12, 13.
7 Especially Schleiermacher and De Wette, in their eclectic systems. The former, while he maintained the historical reality of Christ's person, and the truth of much that is recorded of His actions in the Gospels, seemed to be satisfied with resolving the doctrines of Christianity into reflections of the consciousness, and expressions of the feelings, of the Chris tian community. The latter accepted these doctrines as exercising a benefi cial influence on human practice. But both of them indulged in arbitrary speculations as to the genuineness and authenticity of the documents on which those doctrines rest, and treated the books of the Old and New Testament in a sceptical spirit of reckless criticism. Cp. Schwartz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, pp. 56 — 63.
8 That of Schelling and of Hegel ; the former asserting the identity of God and Nature ; the latter regarding God as the Absolute Idea ever de veloping itself in the world, and manifesting itself to the human mind ; so that the History of the World and of its successive Religious Systems is only a series of visible exhibitions and revelations of the Absolute Idea unfolding itself to the view. " The absolute Religion, to which all others are preparatory, is Christianity. In the God-man, that was manifested which is the substance of all Religion, viz. the Unity of Man with God. .... Man's knowledge of God is God's knowledge of Himself ; God evolves Himself in the Mind of Man." See Kahnis, p. 200. Hegel used the word liberty in the sense that " the actions of God appear as ours." Hagenbach, § 298.
26 Miscellanies.
Kationalisnr had spared the Person of Christ, but had taken away the attributes ; this new Philosophy left the attributes, but denied the existence of the Person. This Philosophy was a revival of that which identified the Creature with the Creator. It was, in fact, Pantheism, in a more spiritual form. According to this theory, God is Nature, and Nature is God. God is the Universe, and the Universe is God. According to it, God is not a Person, distinct from other Persons, but He is the Personality of all tilings. It is not man that thinks ; but God thinks in man. In a word, God is humanized, that man may be divinized ; God is in man, in order that man may be God.9
By this false Philosophy, which absorbs the Godhead into the Universe, the events recorded in the Gospel were despoiled of their historical truth, and the Person of Christ Himself was dissolved into a visionary Phantom.
The facts of the Evangelical History were reduced into ideal fictions, engendered by the cravings of Humanity, and by the inspirations of its Imagination ; and according to this theory they had clustered around that visionary Phantom, like legendary Fables grouped about the fabulous form of some heroic personage — such as Hercules or Theseus — in ancient heathen Mythology.1
Mankind, as such, was the Messiah of this so-called Christian Pantheism. Humanity was the God made Man. Humanity was the sinless One. Humanity it was which worked Miracles : Humanity it was which died and rose again in Christ, and ascended into heaven; and through faith in this impersonal Christ, and in this deified Humanity, man attains justification, and enjoys everlasting glory.
Under the influence of this theory the wonderful works performed on Earth by the Incarnate Son of God were dissolved into dream-like pictures of inner spiritual works done in the soul of man.
9 Cp. Schwartz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, Leipzig, 18a6, p. 26.
1 This Philosophy developed itself in the domain of Biblical Exegesis, in "Das Leben Jesu (the Life of Jesus) kritisch bearbeitet," by D. F. Strauss, Tubingen, 1835, 6, 7.
Review of Biblical Interpretation. 2 7
Such was the process of Interpretation applied by this philosophy to the New Testament.2 It followed as a neces sary consequence from this Philosophy, that God Himself was to be banished from His own world, and Man to be set up in His place.3
"We have now reviewed some of the various forms, in which the principle of private Interpretation has manifested itself during the last three conturies.4
What have been their effects on Christian Doctrine ?
When the History of the Miracles of Scripture was degraded to a record of ordinary physical phenomena, or to legendary fables of romance; when the Prophecies of Holy Scripture were severed from the Person of Christ; when that Blessed Person was divested of its historical reality ; and when, with self-idolizing pride and impious presumption, Man substituted himself in the place of his Saviour, and became his own Emmanuel; when the solemn words of Christ were treated as ephemeral effusions adapted to the fickle fashions of the times in which they were spoken, and not as the words of One Who spake as never man spake,5 and Who said that Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away,6 then there was no longer any place for the Articles of the Christian Faith ; then there was no foundation left for the Doctrine of Original Sin, and for the Atonement made on the Cross by Christ, Very God
a Compare the remarks upon it in Dr. W. H. Mill's Observations on Pantheistic Principles, p. 49, and Dr. Kahnis, pp. 249, 250. " 3 The Pantheism of Hegel and Strauss produced the Anthropologism of Feuerbach, which is in fact Atheism, Cp. Schwartz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, 1856, pp. 26, 27, and Hagenbach, § 298 (last German edn.) ; and it stands in intimate connexion with the theory of Correlation propounded by Eothe, viz. that there is no such a being as God without the world : and that the World is a development of the Creature out of itself. Cp. Schwartz, pp. 291, 292.
4 The destructive Criticism of the Tubingen School, of Bruno Bauer, Peuerbach, and others, who have followed and gone beyond Strauss him self (Kahnis, p. 250), belongs rather to the History of Christian Evidence than of Biblical Interpretation.
5 John vii. 46. 6 Mark xiii. 31. Luke xxi. 33.
28 Miscellanies.
and Very Man ; then there was no more room for the great Mystery of Godliness,7 the Mystery of the Incarnation, which is the root of Christian Faith, of Christian Hope, and of Christian Love.
We might indeed be perplexed by these strange theories, if they were new, or if they were consistent with each other.
First, they are not new.
Many of the theories, which have been Recently imported among us from abroad, are only reproductions of errors which grew on our own soil more than a century ago> and thence were spread on the Continent,8 whence they have been now brought back, to reappear among ourselves.
The Rationalism and Mysticism of Germany are not exotics, but flourished in rank luxuriance many years ago on British ground. In the theories of Rationalism we may recognize the speculations of a Tindal/ In the ideolo gical notions of those who would allegorize the Miracles of Holy Scripture, we may see the reveries of the Familists, and of Woolston1 and his votaries. They who deny the applicability of the Prophecies of the Old Testament to the actions and sufferings of Christ, are only repeating the exploded allegations of a Collins 2 and others. The profane pretence that our Blessed Lord and His Apostles in their intercourse with the Jews did not say what they really meant, but accommodated themselves to the prejudices of their hearers, is the wretched figment of a Morgan.3 In the presumptuous arrogance of Pantheism, which confounds
7 1 Tim. iii. 16.
8 As is observed by German writers ; see Hagenbacb, § 274, -who says that " the works of English Deists were translated into German, and welcomed with eagerness by many." And Dr. Kahnis (p. 41) says " English Deism met with a very favourable reception in Germany among the educated middle classes.''
9 Author of " Christianity as old as the Creation," Lond. 1730. See Dr. Leland's view of English Deistical writers, Lond. 1798, vol. i. pp. 126 —132
1 See Dr. Leland, p. 113, and Rosenmiiller, Hist. Interpr. i. p. 248. Cp. Bp. Marsh's Lectures on the Interpretation of the Bible, p. 363. 3 Dr. Leland, pp. 102. 109. 3 Dr. Leland, pp. 151, 152.
German Heresies imported from England. 29
the Creator with the Creature, and identifies man with God, we may see the spirit of a Toland/ who revived the dogmas of Spinoza.5
Here is reason for self-abasement and repentance; but here is also ground for hope.
A reason there is for selfrabasement and repentance ; for
4 In his Pantheisticon, Lond. 1720. Cp. Bauragarten-Crusius, p. 677.
5 Dr. W. H. Mill has observed (p. 54), that " as the old and now gene rally forgotten writers of England furnished weapons to the earlier Ger man Rationalists, so now at the close of his philosophic transcendenta lism of Infidelity, Strauss defends hinjself by translating a book from the English," 1840.
The following paragraphs are from a work entitled, " Rationalism and Deistic Infidelity," three letters from the Rev. Dr. M'Caul. London, 1861, p. 5 :—
" Having thus on German authority ascertained that Rationalism, Naturalism, and Deism are synonyms, let us now follow the German divines as they trace historically the connexion between its modern Ger man phases and the old English original. That this connexion does exist they entertain no manner of doubt. ' It has sometimes been asked,' says Staudlin (Hist, of Rationalism, p. 446,) ' who were the forerunners of the new, especially of the German, Rationalists. . . . ? The true forerunners of our Rationalists are such English Deists as Toland, Tindal, and Mor gan.' In like manner Hagenbach (Church Hist, of 18th and 19th Cent. Part i. p. 198), after speaking of the influence and effects of the Wolfian philosophy, goes on to say, ' But notwithstanding, the Wolfian philosophy was innocent when compared with that which, under the name of Deism or Naturalism, came over from England and France, and propagated itself in Germany.' This testimony is confirmed by Professor Tholuck, so well known and highly esteemed in this country. He devotes a whole section of his ' Historical Sketch of Religious Revolution in Germany since 1750,' to ' the Influence of the English Deists ' (Vermischte Schriften, Part ii. pp. 23. 89). He begins thus : ' Incomparably more important than could have been expected beforehand, and than is generally received, has been both directly and indirectly the influence of English Deism upon Germany. We find amongst the English what is not found in France, in Holland, or Italy. Already in the first half of the eighteenth century they were possessed of a tolerably complete system of Rationalism. It would be well worth the trouble to bring together the views of the English Deists, in the departments of criticism, exegesis, dogmatics, morality, and Church History. It would thus be seen how few of the Rationalist views belong to modern times : it would be clear how little foundation there is for Dr. Bretschneider's assertion that Rationalism has been brought forth by the prodigious progress of Science in the nineteenth century."
30 Miscellanies.
we ourselves sowed the seed, of which we are reaping the harvest. The errors now propagated among us in England are of English growth.6 Let us therefore acknowledge God's justice, and pray for His forgiveness. " Remember not, Lord, our iniquities, nor the iniquities of our forefathers, neither take Thou vengeance of our sins."
Here also is ground for hope. If the theories had taken root, which were propagated in this country more than a hundred years ago, and have now been revived among us. there would be reason for alarm. But this was not the case, Those speculations at their first appearance startled and shocked the religious mind of England. But soon they were examined and refuted. They passed away and were forgotten. To quote the words of Burke,7 " We, too, in England have had writers who made some noise in their day; but they now repose in oblivion. Who, born in the last forty years, has read one word of Collins, Toland, and Tindal, and Morgan, who called themselves Freethinkers ? >3
Indeed we might ascend higher. It might be shown that similar theories were put forth and refuted even in primitive times. The error of those who would apply mathematical demonstration to prove mysteries of Faith, and who will not accept anything which cannot be dis covered by Reason, is not of recent origin.8 The visionary dreams of the Idealists, who would dissolve the historic personality of Christ into a mere spectral illusion, are as old as the first century.9 The historic realities and doctrinal truths of Holy Scripture were allegorized into visionary ideas by the- Gnostics of subapostolic times.1 The theory of
6 Sceptical writers were even fostered and encouraged in England in the 16th and 18th centuries, by some in high place and power among us. See Bp. Warburton's interesting observations in his Dedication to Lord Mansfield of the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of his Divine Legation, Feb. 2, 1765. Works, vol. iv. pp. 2—6.
" Burke, ^Reflections on the French Eevolution. Works, vol. v. p. 171.
8 See the Ancient Author in Euseb. v. 28.
9 See S. Ignatius ad Smyrn. c. 2, 3, ad Trail, c. 10, 11. S. Polycarp ad Phil, c. 7, and S. Irenseus, i. c. 20.
1 Cp. S. Irenseus, i. 16—17, ed. Grabe, iii. 12, iV, 57, and Tertullian c. Valentin, c. 33.
Practical Inferences. 3 1
Accommodation was applied to the interpretation of the words of Christ and His Apostles by false Teachers in the third century : 2 and the notion of some, that the Evangelists are at variance with each other in their records of Christ's history, has been frequently examined and refuted by writers of early times.3
Here, then, is comfort to ourselves. The errors by which we are assailed are not new; they were refuted in former ages; and the Truth having been attacked, and having stood the test, was made more manifest thereby.
Here is the trial of our faith. If we are chaff, lying loosely on the threshing-floor of the Church,4 we shall be swept away by winds of controversy ; but if we are good grain, we shall stand the winnowing ; and the gusts of false doctrine, which blow away the chaff from the floor, will show more clearly the soundness of the wheat, which will remain unmoved; and be gathered into the garner of the Lord.5 There must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest.6
Again, if these doctrines were consistent with each other, or had borne any good fruit, in that country especially where they have been put forth with great learning and ability, then we might have reason to think that they were entitled to respect, and ought to be accepted by us.
But this is not the case. They have been put on their trial, with every advantage derivable from skilful advocacy. And what is the result ? They have been condemned. Indeed, as we have seen, these theories contradict each other, and have destroyed one another.7 The rigid
2 See S. Irenseus, iii. 5, and Dr. Lee on Inspiration, p. 337.
3 Especially by S. Augustine, De Consensu Evangelistarum Libri Quatuor, vol. iii. pp. 1243 — 1485.
4 Matt. iii. 12.
6 Cp. Tertullian, Prsescr. Hseret. c. 3.
6 1 Cor. xi. 19.
7 As is shown by Strauss himself, ii. pp. 742 — 6. 754 — 8.
The following is the lament of a devout mind on the nothingness ot the results of successive Philosophical Systems applied to Theology in Germany : —
" What benefit have we in reality derived from the Reformation or
32 Miscellanies.
dogmatism of Lutheranism, and Calvinism, gave way to the enthusiastic fervour of Pietism; Pietism fell beneath the attacks of Rationalism; Rationalism was driven from the field by Pantheism, and, to borrow the language of a celebrated Church Historian of Germany, Dr. Augustus Neander,8 Pantheism "is only another name for Atheism."
Luther ? Does anything remain to us of the results of his vigorous exer tions beyond an empty form and a poor caricature ? Where is the living faith which he set up in the place of an outward righteousness of works ? And where is the spirituality of worship which, according to the mind and will of Christ, he demanded ? One might almost imagine that our Church got rid of the form? in order at the same time to divest herself of the spirit. In place of the spirit were given at first creeds and confessions of faith which were originally exacted from necessity, but afterwards were converted into strong tables of law. With them and their artificial expo sition came over our Church a complete Pharisaism, which threatened to stifle the frep breath of life. Then came Pietism, partly in various sects, which was a burden to the Church, and neither yielded her any assistance nor obtained success for itself. After this commenced the period of Ra tionalism, and many raised their heads, as though their redemption had drawn nigh. For a time men dreamed of a happy simple religion, in which they were to behold God with unveiled countenance, and no longer in types and images. . . . But the new building not only failed to afford the expected advantage of a better spiritual dwelling for man, but soon began itself to totter, and fell to the ground. The great mass took only the negative side of nationalism, the right of declaring themselves free from every belief which rests upon authority, without being willing to undertake also the (certainly unnatural) duty of making a religion for themselves. The new idols stood again, like the old, as empty shadows on the wall : and the people as before went after their material gods. Re ligiousness perceptibly vanished ; the Churches became empty, the Prayers and Hymns became insipid, the Sermons trivial ; the vigorous doctrine of the Reformers gave place to a string of timid probabilities. . . . Verily religion was given us by God, and there came at one time believing want of reason, at another unbelieving reason, and they have touched and retouched the painting until its true form has altogether disappeared, and it must be created anew by the Spirit of God.'1 Bernet, J. J., Das neue Heil, St. Gallen, 1829, quoted by Dewar, p. 205.
8 Neander 's Antignostikus, Preface to the Second Edition, vol. ii. p. 196. " In place of that so-called vulgar Rationalism, in which there was still an honourable remnant of a recognition of the supermundane and divine — some sense of the religious and the moral — from a conse quential carrying out of the same principles, there has proceeded what would designate itself as more sublime, but which is, in fact, a far more vulgar thing — the Gospel of the Apotheosis of Humanity, which is only another name for Atheism ; and of which, after several decenniums have
Resemblance of Errors old and new. 33
Such have been the fruits of the long labours of three centuries. They who have wearied themselves in such profitless speculations may well say, We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Would that they would now ad'd, Lord, at Thy word we will let down the net.9
In looking back from our own age to the Apostolic times, we recognize a remarkable resemblance between the Ancient Heresies and these Philosophical and Theological systems, which have now been examined. All the ancient Heresies contained a certain element of truth : but they all excluded some other truth, which was necessary to complete that element of truth which they contained : and so they gave rise to the error opposite to that truth. Sabellianism rightly asserted the doctrine of the Divine Unity, but it excluded the doctrine of the Plurality of Persons; and so gave occasion to Arianism and Tritheism, which asserted the Plurality of Persons, but excluded the Unity of Substance.
The Nestorians argued, that because there are two Natures in Christ, there are also two Persons ; and so gave rise to the opposite error of the Eutychians, who asserted that there is but one Nature, because there is only one Person.
The Christian Church preserves and harmonizes the opposite — but not contrary — elements of Truth which are contained in these Heresies. She joins the Unity of Substance with a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead : She joins the Unity of Person with the tw'b Natures in Christ.
In like manner, these theological systems of Biblical Interpretation contained a certain element of truth, but every one of them excluded some other truth, and so the truth itself which they contained became an occasion of error. The Lutheran and Calvinistic Dogmatists rightly
been spent in constructing its theory, the mischievous effects might easily be foreseen ; and at last, entering more into actual life, it has, to the shame and injury of our Nation, been continually making fresh mani festations of its destructive and pernicious effects, which threaten to annihilate all the higher goods of humanity." Cp. Schwartz, pp. 27 — 29. 9 Luke v. 5.
VOL. II. D
34 Miscellanies.
asserted the need of Creeds and Confessions of Faith, but the basis on which they rested them was too narrow and exclusive, and they relied too much on outward forms, to the neglect of the inner life which should animate those forms, and thus gave occasion to the rise of the Pietists* who rightly asserted the need of spiritual vitality, but would have the inner life without the outward forms which should regulate it ; and by their ill-ordered zeal and private interpretations of Holy Scripture, they gave occasion to Rationalism, which was a natural reaction against Fanaticism, Rationalism rightly asserted the use of Reason, but it disparaged those spiritual graces which are requisite for its guidance, illumination, and control, in matters of Religion : and so by natural transition it gave rise to an opposite error.
The Pantheist rightly affirms that we are made partakers of the divine nature * by the Incarnation of Christ, and that in God we live, and move, and have our being,2 but he excludes the correlative truth, that the Lord He is God, it is He that hath made us and not we ourselves ; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.3 Thus he gives occasion to Atheism. If everything were God, there would be no God.
The Church of Christ combines the various elements of truth that are contained in these discordant systems. She confutes all error by teaching all truth.4
In this historical review, we have seen the disastrous results of erroneous principles of Interpretation applied to the Holy Scriptures. Let us next proceed to examine, what are the right means to be used for ascertaining the sense of the Bible. And let us pray for grace and illumination from God, from Whom alone are the preparations of the heart, and Who creates the fruit of the lips, and Who promised to be with the mouth of His servant Moses, and touched the lips of Isaiah with sacred fire, and sanctified Jeremiah and John the Baptist from their mothers' womb; and gave
1 2 Pet. i. 4. 2 Acts xvii. 28. 3 Ps. c. 2.
4 Compare Hooker, V. Hi. 4. and Pascal, Pensees, Second Partie, Art. xvii. sect. xiii.
Right Uses of Conscience and Reason. 35
visions by an Angel to Daniel the man greatly beloved, and to the beloved disciple, St. John ; and poured down tongues of fire on the heads of His holy Apostles, and enabled St. Stephen to see heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and has promised wisdom (by St. James) to those who ask it from Him. Let us pray humbly that He, would give us an eye to see and a heart to understand, and grace to perform His Word, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
PART II.
WHAT are the proper means for interpreting the Bible aright ?
First, let it not be imagined, that in anything that has been said, there has been any intention to disparage Human Conscience or Human Reason. Conscience is given us by God ; it is His Voice within us. But Conscience cannot afford any guidance as to those supernatural truths and heavenly doctrines which the Bible reveals. Conscience is, indeed, a Guide of Practice, but it is not a Rule of Faith. In our conduct we are bound to obey our Consciences.1 But, unless we take care, they may lead us astray.2 It is a right Conscience alone which is a safe Guide ; and in order that it may be a safe Guide, and lead us aright, it must itself be informed and regulated by God's Holy Will and Word.8 Let not therefore, Conscience presume to judge the Bible ; it will itself be judged by the Bible.4
Again, let it not be supposed that we would derogate from the claims of Human Reason. No ; Reason is God's gift.5 Like every good gift, it comes from the Father of
1 James iv. 17. Rom. xiv. 23.
2 Prov. xiv. 12 : xvi. 2. John xvi. 2. Acts xxvi. 9. Cp. 1 Tim. i. 13.
3 See Bp. Sanderson's Lectures on Conscience. Lect. 5. and Lect. iv.
4 It is therefore a strange statement in Essays and Reviews, p. 45, lliat " Conscience is the Supreme Interpreter of the Bible."
•' " Res Dei, Ratio." Tertullian de Pffinit. § 1.
D 2
36 Miscellanies.
Lights,6 and it comes to us through the Only -begotten Son of God, in Whom are stored up all the treasures of Wisdom and knowledge," and Who is the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.8 Christ is the Eternal Logos, the Everlasting REASON, the Very Wisdom of God,9 revealing Himself to Man in all intellectual gifts. And we should be depreciating the attributes, and limiting the operations of Christ, if we did not magnify Reason, rightly so called.
Our Blessed Lord Himself, in His earthly ministry, made use of Reason in matters of Religion, and commanded us to use it. In conversing with the Sadducees, He rebuked them for not knowing the Scriptures, because they did not use their reason in order to deduce the Doctrine of the Resurrection from the Name by which God had revealed Himself to Moses, " the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 1 Christ also condemned the Pharisees, because they did not use their reason in order to infer the unlawfulness of Divorce from the fact recorded in the Book of Genesis that at the beginning God made one woman for one man ; and from the declaration of Scripture, that they shall be one flesh.2 In like manner He said, Yea, and why even of your selves judge ye not what is right?3 And His Apostles also exhort us to use our Reason in matters of Religion. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.4 I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say.* Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.6 Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.7
If we do not use our reason in religion, we shall be con demned at the great Day of reckoning, as unprofitable servants, who went and digged in the earth, and hid their
6 James i. 17. 7 Col. ii. 3.
s John i. 9. 91 Cor. i. 21 1 Matt. xxii. 29. Mark xii. 24—26.
- Matt. xix. 4—6. Cp. Gen. ii. 21—2-1. 3 Luke xii. 57.
1 1 Thess. v, 21 * 1 Cor. x. 15.
6 1 John iv. 1. 7 i pet. jij. 15.
Reason is to be used reasonably. 37
Lord's money.8 Our Reason is, in truth, God's money ; it is His Coin, stamped with His image ; and to be improved in His service, especially in the study of His Word. And whatever can be shown by sound Reason to be contained in that Word, is an integral part of the Bible, and if we reject anything that can be proved to be the true sense of the Bible, we do in fact mutilate the Bible, and expose ourselves to the condemnation pronounced against those who take away from the Word of God.9
In opposition, therefore, to the visionary dreams of fanatical enthusiasts, who decry the use of Reason in Reli gion, let it be laid down as a primary principle, that Reason, as well as the Bible, is a precious gift of God ; and that Reason is to be employed in the Interpretation of Holy Writ.
But here we must proceed to observe, that Reason is to be used reasonably. It must not be applied to purposes for which it was not intended by the Divine Giver Himself. God has given us Reason. He also gives us Faith. Each of these gifts has its proper office in Religion, and must, be employed in its proper place, — and in that only.
We have already noticed the unhappy effects of the neglect of this principle. The Pietists of Germany magni fied Faith, but disparaged the use of Reason in Religion. The Rationalists, who followed and superseded them, em ployed Reason to the subversion of Faith.1
Here is a warning for ourselves. Let us be on our guard against both these errors; lest we fall into Superstition on the one side, or run into Scepticism on the other. Let not an enthusiastic Fanaticism, in the name of Faith, supersede Reason ; and let not a false Philosophy, in the name of Reason, supplant Faith.
Nothing can be accepted by reasonable men, which does not rest on the foundation of Reason. Let us, therefore, esteem Reason highly ; and because we prize it greatly, let us take care to use it rightly ; lest perchance, by the abuse
8 Matt. xxv. 18. 26.
9 Deut. iv. 2 ; vii. 32. Rev. xxii. 19. 1 See above, pp. 8 — 10.
38 Miscellanies.
of Reason, we forfeit the inestimable blessings which may be derived from its right use.
Let us apply these principles.
First, our Reason is to be used in proving that Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Reason also shows, that, in a Revelation from such a Being as God to such a creature as man, it is very reasonable to expect that there will be mysterious Doctrines and supernatural Truths (such, for example, as the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and the Mystery of the Incarnation), which cannot be fully compre hended by human Reason. Mysteries are above our Reason, but it is very reasonable to believe them, because we have all the proofs necessary to convince reasonable men that Almighty God has revealed them in Scripture as truths neces sary to be believed for our salvation, which, as reasonable men, we all greatly desire. .We find also that it is affirmed in Holy Scripture, that there is such a grace as Faith ; and that great rewards are assured in Scripture to Faith ; and that in this world we are in a state of trial ; and that our Faith, as well as our Obedience, is a subject of trial ; and that it is the special province, privilege, and prerogative of Faith, to embrace and hold fast those supernatural Doctrines, which are revealed in Scripture, or can be deduced by logi cal inference from it, but which could never have been discovered by Reason, nor can be comprehended by it.
Thus Reason leads us to the door of fche Sanctuary. But let it not cross the threshold ; let it not attempt to draw aside the veil of the Holy of Holies; let it not intrude within the sacred precincts ; let it stop there, and deliver us up to the guidance of Faith. Faith will take us by the hand, and enable us to see the Mysteries of the Most Holy Place, and will speak to us of that blessed time, when we who now walk by its light, shall pass into the true Holy of Holies in heavenly places, and shall see face to face, and know even as we are known.2
Reason will also be careful to enlist in its services all requisite aids for the Interpretation of Holy Scripture. It will indeed remember that God has no need of our know- - 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
How Reason should deal with Scripture. 39
ledge, but it will also remind us that God has no need of our ignorance or of our folly, especially in holy things ; and though He does not require any of our talents for His own benefit,8 yet He does require us to use all our talents for our own everlasting good, and will require of us a strict account hereafter, how we have used them, at the Great Day.
Reason will also persuade us, that all Truth is consistent with itself. It will convince us that the World is from God, and that the Bible is from God. The Bible itself, which is God's Word, acknowledges the World to be His Work.4 Eeason proves, that Nature and Scripture are like two Books written by the same Divine Hand, and illustrate one another, and are in perfect harmony with each other.
But Right Reason will also remind us that these two Books were written by God with two different designs ; the Book of Nature, to declare His power ; the Book of Scrip ture to teach us His Will, to show us His love, and to reveal hidden Mysteries, for our everlasting salvation,5 in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in reading the Bible, we shall not look for what it does not profess to teach. This would not be to honour Scripture, but to expose it to contempt.6 Let us not apply physical Science to supernatural Articles of Doc trine, which the Bible reveals to Faith. Nor let us set Articles of Faith in opposition to natural truths, which the Visible Universe unfolds to Science. " To seek for Theology in Philosophy is to seek for the living among the dead " (as Lord Bacon has said) ; ( ' and to seek for Philo sophy in Theology is to seek for the dead among the living." r Let us not imitate the Romish Inquisition, and cling to the Ptolemaic System of the Universe, and reject the Copernican, and persecute Galileo, because Joshua, speaking in a language to be understood of men, said,
3 Ps. xvi. 2.
4 Ps. xix. 1. Acts xiv. 17. Rom. i. 19, 20. 3 John xx. 31. Rom. xv. 4. 2 Tim. iii. 15. 6 Cp. Hooker, II. viii. 7.
r Lord Bacon, DC Augmeiitis Scientiarum.
40 Miscellanies,
" Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ;"8 but let us, as reason able men, believe with Galileo the testimony of God reveal ing to us that miracle in Scripture.9 And let us also believe God, showing us by His works in the Book of Nature how His Words in the Book of Scripture are to be under stood. And if these two Books, of Nature and of Scripture, should seem to us in any respect to be at variance as to natural things (for, in supernatural things, the Bible alone is to be our guide) , let us wait patiently, and not rashly pronounce. O tarry thou the Lord's leisure,1 and see there the trial of thy Faith ; and rest assured, that if thou walkest according to the light thou hast, God in His own time will reveal even this unto thee.2
Again ; Right Reason will also consider, that the Books of the Old and New Testament were written many centuries ago, in different countries of the world, and are composed in two ancient Languages, Hebrew and Greek, which have now ceased to be spoken ; and that a knowledge of those Languages, and an acquaintance with the History, Geo graphy, Manners, and Productions of the countries in which those Books were written, are necessary for their right Interpretation.
It will, therefore, gladly avail itself of all the aids which are afforded by ancient Versions and Expositions of the Bible. It will use all the resources of Literature and Science for its illustration.
Since also the Bible existed for centuries in Manuscript Copies only, it will be desirous to ascertain what is the testimony of the most ancient Manuscripts of the Bible, and of the greatest number of them. And if, through lack of leisure, or for other reasons, we are not able to make such researches as these for ourselves, we shall thankfully use the assistance of others whose duty it is to devote them selves to such investigations, and to communicate their results to the world.
8 Josh. x. 12. May I refer to the note in my Commentary there ? v See Galileo's Letter, A.D. 1633, quoted by Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, torn. viii. p. 175; ed. Firenze, 1812.
1 Ps. xxvii. 16. 2 Phil. iii. 15.
Uses of Human Learning and Science. 4 1
In following such a course as this, we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that we have been acting reasonably, and conformably to the will of God, the Giver of Reason, and to the mind of the Holy Ghost, revealed to us in Holy Scripture. We find it noted there, that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians;3 and that the Prophets were trained in schools;4 and that Daniel studied the Books of Jeremiah.5
True it is, that God made choice of unlearned men — for the most part — to be the first Preachers of the Gospel. This He did for a wise purpose, in order that the excellency of the power of the Gospel might be seen to be of God, and not of men.6 But He made up for their defect of Learning
3 Acts vii. 22.
4 See the Expositions on 1 Sam. x. 10 ; xix. 18. 2 Kings ii. 8. 5 ; iv. 38.
5 Dan. ix. 2. Cp. Hooker, Book III. viii. 9 : " There is in the world no kind of knowledge whereby any part of truth is seen, but we justly account it precious, yea, that principal truth, in comparison whereof all other knowledge is vile, may receive from it some kind of light; whether it be that Egyptian and Chaldean wisdom mathematical, wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished (Acts vii. 22. Dan. i. 17), or that natural, moral, and civil wisdom wherein Solomon excelled all men (1 Kings iv. 29, 30) ; or that rational and oratorical wisdom of the Gre cians, which the Apostle St. Paul brought from Tarsus ; or that Judaical which he learned in Jerusalem, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts xxii. 3) ; to detract from the dignity whereof were to injure even God Him self, Who, being that light which none can approach unto, hath sent out these lights whereof we are capable, even as so many sparkles resembling the bright fountain from which they rise."
6 2 Cor. iv. 7. Cp. Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, book i . : " In the election of those instruments which it pleased God to use for the plantation of the faith, notwithstanding that at the first He did employ persons altogether unlearned, otherwise than by inspiration, more evidently to declare His immediate working, and to abase all human wisdom or knowledge ; yet, nevertheless, that counsel of His was no sooner per formed, but in the next vicissitude and succession He did send His divine truth into the world, waited on with other learnings as with servants or handmaids ; for so we see St. Paul, who was the only learned amongst the Apostles, had his pen most used in the Scriptures of the New Testa ment.
" So again we find that many of the ancient Bishops and Fathers of the Church were excellently read, and studied in all the learning of the heathen ; insomuch that the edict of the Emperor Juljanus, whereby it was inter-
4 2 Miscellanies.
by extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost. And St. Paul, who had super-abundant measures of divine grace/ did not forego the use of human Learning : he quotes the Poets of Greece,8 he sent for his books and his parchments,9 and charged his son Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, who had many supernatural gifts,1 to regard those gifts as stimulants and incentives to study. Stir up the gift of God that is in thee;2 till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhor tation, to doctrine; neglect not the gift that is in thee; meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them.3
On the other hand, if we imagine that God will give us divine illumination, while we neglect the ordinary means of human knowledge, we tempt Him to take away His grace, and to give us up to the worst kind of spiritual blindness, that of spiritual pride, which boasts that it can guide others, while it is unable to see.
But here a caution is necessary. Human Labour and Learning are requisite for the right interpretation of Holy Scripture ; but they are not adequate for that purpose. To despise Learning is Fanaticism ; but to rely on it as sufficient, is Presumption.
We have warnings against this error in the circum stances of our own times, and in the History of Biblical Interpretation in Germany.
Richly endowed with intellectual gifts ; distinguished by profound erudition, critical sagacity, and unwearied research, Germany stands pre-eminent among the nations of the world.
dieted unto Christians to be admitted into schools, lectures, or exercises of learning, was esteemed and accounted a more pernicious engine and machination against the Christian faith than were all the sanguinary per secutions of his predecessors."
? 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 2 Cor. xii. 1, 7.
8 Acts xvii. 28. 1 Cor. xv. 33. Tit. i. 12.
9 2 Tim. iv. 13. > 1 Tim. iv. 14. - 2 Tim. i. 6.
3 1 Tim. iv. 13 — 15. On the uses of Human Learning to Religion, see S. Jerome's Epistle to Patilinus, Ep. 50, torn. iv. p. 269, and Bp. Bull's Sermon on 2 Tim. iv. 13 : Works, vol. i. Sermon x.
Cause of Scientific and Learned Unbelief. 43
But among the most learned men of that learned nation, some have not hesitated to assail the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
We have already lamented the ravages made by them in the Interpretation of Holy Scripture. We have deplored the fact, that many among them have exercised their learning and ability in explaining away the Miracles of Holy Scripture, by which God spoke from heaven, as with a voice of thunder, to arouse men from their slumber, in order that they might attend to new Revelations from Him. We have mourned over the madness of those who have endeavoured to reduce these wonderful interpositions of God to ordinary phenomena of nature; or have laboured with unwearied toil to demolish the evidence of Prophecy ; or have attempted to dissolve the historical facts of Holy Scripture into legendary fictions and allegorical fables. We have contemplated a league of Science with Scepticism, and of Reason rebelling against Revelation. We have seen our spiritual Enemy making a formidable levy of man's intel lectual powers, and leading them forth in a hostile campaign against the Word of God.
This unhappy spectacle may at first have staggered and alarmed us. Who among ourselves, — it may be asked, — will be disposed to think himself wiser than learned men, in a learned age, and in a very learned Nation ? Can such men as those be in error ? Can they be wrong, and we be right? Can they be mistaken, — grievously, grossly mis taken, — in matters of such grave importance, to which they have devoted great talents, great learning, and unremitting attention ? Are we prepared to affirm that English Peasants in Village Churches, and poor Children in Charity Schools, who hear or read the Holy Scriptures, and believe that Jesus Christ did many Miracles, and that the Twenty-second Psalm and the Fifty-third chapter of Isaiah contain Pro phecies of His sufferings, have a clearer view of the meaning of the Bible than many of these German Expositors whose names are famous for profound learning and critical sagacity, and who deny the reality of those Miracles, and reject such an interpretation of those Prophecies ?
44 Miscellanies.
Here, indeed, is a hard question. What is the answer to it?
First, let us not be charged with self-confidence or self- complacency, if we reject the guidance of such Interpreters as those. "Whom among them shall we follow ? To whom shall we turn ? to whom shall we listen ? If they were agreed among themselves, we might perhaps suppose them to be safe guides. But they are like the builders of Babel, distracted by a strife of tongues, and uttering a harsh jargon of discordant sounds.
On one side, Rationalism comes forth with a vast array of learning, and endeavours to explain away whatever is supernatural in Holy Scripture. But soon another phalanx of hostile forces appears; and disputes the possession of the field. Pantheism musters its legions, and marches on in bold defiance, with glorious names and words emblazoned on its banners; and, like the northern Conquerors of old who swept down in a storm upon Europe, it threatens to destroy all that is Rational, and to demolish all History, and to leave us in a waste, desolate Wilderness, in a land of darkness and despair.
We have also seen that the speculations of these Inter preters are not original and new, but have been examined and refuted in former days. Therefore on this ground also they have no claim to our acceptance.
Besides, these Biblical Critics have laboured for many centuries ; but have they produced any good fruit ? They have uprooted many goodly forests, they have made strange havoc with Cedars of Lebanon and Oaks of Basan, but they have planted no vines or fig-trees under which Posterity may dwell safely.4 Some most eminent among them openly declare that they despise the Church of the past, nor do they profess to have a Church in the present, but now in the nineteenth century after Christ they promise us a " Church of the Future ! " What a striking confession of emptiness and abortion ! Yerily they may take up the Prophet's words and say, We have been with child, we have been in
4 1 Kin«rs iv. "25.
Causes of Unbelief. 45
pain, we have, as it were, brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth.5
Yet further : Holy Scripture itself explains the Enigma, and supplies an answer to the question before us. It warns us not to be surprised and perplexed, if some who are celebrated for shrewdness and learning should err greatly from the truth. The Apostle testifies, that knowledge puffeth up.6 Knowledge is often a snare ; it engenders spiritual pride ; and spiritual pride is always punished with spiritual blindness. No man can understand the Bible, except God open his eyes. Open Thou mine eyes, 0 Lord, says the Psalmist, that I may see the wondrous things of Thy Law;7 and St. Paul teaches that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.3 We cannot understand the Bible, except by the light of the Holy Ghost who wrote the Bible : and if we do not read the Bible in a humble and teachable spirit, but in a carping, cavilling temper, we provoke the Holy Ghost to withdraw His light from us and to leave us in our own darkness.
Vain it is, and worse than vain, to apply Learning to the study of Scripture, unless we have those moral dispositions, and spiritual graces, without which our eyes are veiled, and Scripture is a sealed book. Yain, and worse than vain, it is for men to be profound Linguists, and careful Collators of Manuscripts, and to be well versed in History, Chronology, Geology, and Chemistry, aud in all the departments of Literature and Science, unless their minds are illumined by the light of the IJoly Ghost. Vain it is, and worse than vain, to pore over the pages of Scripture, and to analyze every jot and tittle of it in all the ancient Versions, and in all the Expositions of it that were ever made, unless God writes the words of His Law, with His divine finger, on the fleshy tables of our hearts.9 Vain, and worse than vain, is all that toil and trouble ; and all those means and instru-
5 Isa. xxvi. 18. 6 1 Cor. viii. 1.
" T.s. cxix. 18. 8 1 Cor. ii. 14.
9 2 Cor. iii. 3.
46 Miscellanies.
ments are but sounding brass ' and a tinkling cymbal, unless the soul and spirit are sanctified by the fear of God, and warmed with the love of God ; and the inner eye is enlightened with the rays of God's countenance.2 He who would understand the Bible must love the Bible.3 He must revere the Bible. He must not treat it "as a common book." He must regard it with holy awe. He must listen to it as God's oracle, speaking from the Holy of Holies. He must pray over it ; he must read it on his knees.
There is a Scala Santa at Rome,4 on which Christ is said to have passed to His Passion, and which Pilgrims ascend on their knees; a fabulous legend and superstitious practice: but it may remind us of something better. The Bible is indeed a Scala Santa, it is a holy ladder, and Christ passes thereby and leads us up to heaven : as our devout Poet George Herbert says 5 to the Bible, —
" Heaven lies flat in thee,
Subject to every mounter's bended knee."
We must prepare ourselves for the study of the Bible by holiness of life. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.6 He that willeth 7 to do God's will shall know of the doctrine.8 We must come to it with the meek and docile spirit of little children. God revealeth His secrets unto Babes — that is, to those who are like children in simplicity — but He hideth them from the wise and prudent.9 Mysteries are revealed unto the meek.1 Them that are meek
1 1 Cor. xiii. 1.
2 " Holy Scripture is not a science of the intellect, but of the heart. It can only be understood by those who have an honest and good heart. There is a veil upon the hearts of many Christians, no less than upon the hearts of Jews in reading the Bible" (2 Cor. iii. 14, 15). — Pascal, Pensees, ii. xvii. cvi.
3 Compare S. Augustin, de Utilitate Credendi, cap. 6.
4 Near the Basilica of St. John Lateran, and said to have been brought from Pilate's house to Rome. See Nibby, Itinerario 'di Koma, i. p. 189.
5 The Temple. " The Holy Scriptures." Part i.
c Ps. xxv. 13. " iav TIS d(\r,.
8 John vii. 17. 9 Matt xi. 25.
1 Exod. iii. 19.
Right inferences from Existence of Unbelief. 47
shall He guide in judgment, and such as are gentle, them shall He learn His way.2
What therefore shall we now say ? Can those Expositors of the Bible be said to possess these moral requisites, who treat Scripture with irreverence ? Can they be said to possess the fit dispositions and tempers, the proper habits and qualifications, for its right understanding and true in terpretation ? They who charge Christ with dissimulation ! They who accuse Him of deception in applying prophecies to Himself which had no reference to Him ! They who assert that the holy Evangelists and Apostles have com mitted many errors in writing, and so do dishonour to the Holy Ghost who was sent by Christ to teach them all things, and guide them into all truth ! 3 They who care little for the consent and practice of the universal Church, and set up their own private interpretations of Holy Writ against the authority . of all Apostolic Churches for a thousand years after Christ ! No : surely. The G-iants of old might as well have expected to scale heaven, while they piled up mountains on mountains to storm it, as such Expositors to gain admittance into the true meaning of the Bible. And, alas ! such are the characteristics that disfigure the expositions of Holy Scripture, to which we are now referring.
Therefore the result which we now see is not strange. No, far from it. The Bible would not be true, unless such causes had led to such consequences. For, the results are precisely such as the Bible itself has led us to expect. The Bible itself has forwarned us that unbelief would abound, especially in the latter days. Therefore the existence of unbelief proves the truth of the Bible and confirms our belief in it. Scripture is set for our comfort, and trial. It has clear places to cheer us, and dark places to prove us. The door of Scripture is sometimes closed, not that we may be shut out, but in order that we may knock ; and that we may rejoice the more, when we are let in. And if we knock with humility, God, Who sees the feelings with which we knock, will open the door to us. But if we kick against it with proud irreverence, it will 2 Ps. xxv. 8. 3 John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13.
4$ Miscellanies.
never be opened to us, however wise we may be in our own conceits.4 " When I was young/' says S. Augustine5 in one of his Sermons, " I came to the study of the Bible with shrewdness of disputing and not with meekness of inquiring ; and thus by my own perverseness I fastened the door of Scripture against myself. And why ? because I sought with pride for what can only be found by humility."
Nor is this all ; if we seek amiss, we shall not only not gain admittance, but we shall be punished for our pride. Holy Scripture, let us remember, is not a dumb, lifeless, helpless thing. It has a living energy : it breathes and it burns. It has exceeding tenderness, and infinite blessings for all who love and revere it. But it has also a punitive power, and it puts forth retributive wrath and indignation against all who dare to despise it, or venture to treat it with familiarity. The two testaments are like the two Witnesses in the Apocalypse, of whom we read that if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies.6 The Written Word is like the Incarnate Word, Who was a Corner Stone, elect, precious, to some, and a stumbling-stone and rock of offence to others." It is set for the fall of some, and for the rising of others.8 Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, and on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder.9 Whoever perverts the right ways of the Lord by wresting the sense of Scripture will be smitten with spiritual blind ness, and become like another Elymas groping in dark ness at noon-day.1
Let us, therefore, not be perplexed by what we see in our own age. Let us not falter in the faith, because it is im-
4 Cp. S. Augustine in Ps, xciii., and in Ps. ciii.
5 In Serm. li. 6 Rev. xi. 5.
• 1 Pet. ii. 6—8. 8 Luke ii. 34.
9 Matt. xxi. 44.
1 Acts xiii. 10, 11. Job v. 14. "Everything turns to good for God's elect," says Pascal (Pensees, ii. xiii. vi.), " even the dark places of Scrip ture ; for they revere them on account of the clear ones which they see there. But everything turns to evil for the reprobate, even the clear places of Scripture ; for they revile them on account of the dark ones, which they do not understand."
Heresies of Learned Men. 49
pugned by many who are famed for intellectual powers. No : rather let us here recognize another proof of the truth of Holy Writ.
The Bible exhibits to us many examples of that unhappy phenomenon which we ourselves now behold. Listen to the prophetic woe which it pronounces on the learning of Babylon. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.2 Behold the learned Eabbis of Jerusalem conspiring against Christ when received and adored by Fishermen of Galilee. See the Stoics and Epicureans of Athens turning a deaf ear to St. Paul. Hear St. Paul's own declaration, that the most civilized and enlightened Nations of antiquity professing themselves wise became fools.3 Listen to the divine verdict, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.4 Where therefore is the wise ? where is the Scribe ? where is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? s
The History, also, of the Christian Church from the days of the Apostles to our own, confirms these statements. The principal promoters and champions of false Doctrines and Heresies in every age have not been illiterate men, but, for the most part, have been persons celebrated for what many call shrewdness and learning ; they have been eminent in the annals of Literature and Science. Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth, and Who has divine power, was able to employ unlettered Galilceans in preaching and writing His Gospel. And why ? Because that Gospel is true, and it is strong by its truth ; and because He could compensate for their lack of learning by supernatural gifts of the Holy Ghost.
But the Devil, who is the Spirit of Error, the Father of Lies,6 the Author of Heresy, cannot afford to do this. In his subtlety and guile he has always made choice of men distinguished by intellectual gifts and endowments. He has endeavoured to enlist in his service those who may allure others by winning charms, seductive attractions, and fascinating blandishments of personal graces, and intellectual
2 Isa. xlvii. 10. 3 Rom. i. 22.
4 James iv. 6. 5 1 Cor. i. 20.
" John viii. 44. VOL. II. E
5cf Miscellanies.
accomplishments. And why? In order that by their means he may succeed better in handling the Word of God deceit fully/ and in perverting the sense of Scripture to the destruction of souls.
Consider some examples of this. The Arian Heresy, which denies that Christ is God co-equal and con-substantial with the Father, was set on foot by an Alexandrine Presby ter, famous for ready eloquence and logical acumen. The Nestorian Heresy, which separated the Son of God from the Son of Man, was first propagated by a Bishop of the Church, celebrated for erudition. The Eutychian Heresy, which confounded the Human Nature with the Divine in the Person of Jesus Christ, owed its origin to the venerated head of a Monastic body. The Pelagian Heresy, which asserted the sufficiency of the human will, independently of divine grace, derived its name from a man of great personal endowments, and strictness of life. The Socinian Heresy, which rejects the doctrine of the Atonement, and of Christ's Divinity, was promulgated and has since been maintained, by persons of great renown for intellectual powers and moral lives.8
All these appealed to Scripture, and differed from each
7 2 Cor. iv. 29.
8 The same remark may be applied to the most eminent Rationalists and Pantheists of later d;iys. See the character of Kant as drawn by Baron Bunseu, " Modern history scarcely presents us to a more blame less and earnest moral character than that of Kant ; and no one will deny that his deeply moral tone of thought was transmitted to his succes sors, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel." Signs of the Times, p. 287.
The Biblical Critic who was foremost among the Rationalists of Ger many in endeavouring to undermine the foundations of Christianity, as far as it rested on Miracles, went to his grave in his 90th year, having uttered these awful words on the day of his death (10th Aug., 1851), " I stand righteous before God, having willed what is right." See Kahuis, p. 175.
If it should be alleged, that the " deeply moral tone," and " the earnest moral character," of such Teachers are proofs that their doctrine is sound, beca-use our Lord says, " By their fruits ye shall know them " (Matt. vii. 15, 16), let it be remembered that the fruits of which our Lord is speak ing are those produced by teaching : and that the fruits produced by Rationalism and Pantheism are bitter and deadly ; and that the wolf is no the less a wolf because he comes in sheep's clothing (Matt. vii. 15), but is the more dangerous, and the more to be shunned, on that account.
Wisdom of Humble Simplicity. 5 1
other, and from the faith once delivered to the Saints,9 But they subserved the cause of Truth, by the solemn warning which they afford, that Reason and Learning are not suffi cient to enable men to understand Scripture ; and that persons eminent for logical shrewdness, metaphysical subtlety, critical sagacity, aud philological research, and celebrated in the history of Literature and Science, may be spiritually blind ; and may be blind more hopelessly because unconscious of their blindness ; and because they know not either their own need of spiritual light, or the mysterious energy of that despotic Power, which enthrals them in spiritual darkness.
Therefore, we may boldly affirm, that many poor Peasants, and little children in the humble Cottages of our English villages, are far wiser in holy things, than some of the most celebrated Philosophers and Professors in the Schools and Colleges of Europe. The Prophet Balaam could not see the Angel of God in the way. And why ? Because he was blinded by his own wilfulness and disobedience. But God enabled the ass, upon which Balaam rode, to see the Angel; and God opened her mouth to rebuke the madness of the Prophet.1 So it ever has been : and so it is now. God turneth wise men backward and maketh the diviners mad;2 and out of the mouth of babes and sucklings He perfecteth praise, that He may still the enemy and the avenger.3 *
Finally, let us turn our eyes from these melancholy results of science falsely so called,4 to a more cheering view. Let us turn our eyes from the miserable consequences of that self-idolizing illumination, which is in fact thick darkness, and let us look back to the brighter visions of former days. The ancient Christian Expositors of Holy Scripture may serve as our Teachers here. They may be our Guides. They asserted the needs and uses of Human Reason and Human Learning in the Interpretation of Holy Scripture. But they knew and taught, that if Human Reason and
9 Jude 3. i Num. xxii. 28. 2 Pet. iii. 6.
- Isa. xliv. 25. 3 Ps. viii. 2. Matt xxi. 16.
4 1 Tim. vi. 20. E 2
52 Miscellanies.
Learning are to do tlieir proper work in this holy function, they must be animated and regulated by the Fear and Love of God, and must be sanctified and enlightened by the Holy Ghost.
To adopt the language of one most eminent among them, S. Augustine ;5 " In order to understand and interpret Holy Scripture, the first requisite is the fear of God, which meditates on His Justice. This holy Fear will make us think of Death, and of a Judgment to come : and it will make us bewail our own sins, and nail our proud thoughts to the Cross of Christ. It will constrain us to bow down in lowly adoration before the majesty of Scripture. In order to understand Scripture, it is necessary to love God and Man, and to cherish that pure affection, to which the light of God's countenance is vouchsafed, by which the Truth is made visible in His Word. He that fears God, diligently seeks to learn His Will in His Holy Word. Such a man loves not strifes, but is gentle and devout. He has skill in languages, for the exposition of Holy Scripture ; he possesses other necessary knowledge ; and he has the true text of Scripture, derived from correct Manuscripts. Thus furnished and equipped he comes to the interpretation of Scripture. And wherever he is in doubt, he consults the Rule of Faith which is deduced from the plain places of Scripture, and from the authority of Christ's Church.6 And if it is his duty to expound Scripture to others, he will first pray, and then preach; he will pray for himself, and for those that hear him, and he will take good heed to his life and conversation, that, if he is not eloquent in tongue, his life may be a sermon."7
The ancient Fathers " loved to trace the resemblance be tween us Christians and the Israelites of old, coming forth out
8 De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 9 ; iii. 1, 2. The substance of those several passages is embodied in these paragraphs.
6 S. Augustine, ibid. iii. 1, 2.
7 Ibid. iv. 32. 61.
8 E. g. Origen, Epistola ad GregoriumThaumaturgum, torn. i. p. 31. S. Irenseus, iv. 49, ed. Grabe ; and, more fully, S. Augustine, de Doctrina Christiana, ii. 60, 61.
Christianization of Literature and Science. 53
of Egypt, and journeying through the wilderness to Canaan, the type of our heavenly inheritance. The ancient Christian Writers observed, that by the command of Almighty God, Who is the Proprietor and Lord of all, the Israelites of old spoiled the Egyptians.9 They borrowed of them jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. God brought. them forth with silver and gold : there was not one feeble person among their tribes.1 And they cheerfully offered their jewels of gold and silver, and their costly and beautiful raiment, and adorned therewith the Tabernacle of God ; and made the Ark, and the Golden Altar, and Candlestick, for His worship and service.2
Here, as the ancient Fathers observe, we may see a figure of ourselves and of our own duty. Almighty God has called us forth from the Egypt of this world. He has given us the treasures of secular learning. He has be stowed upon us the gold, and silver, and jewels of Literature and Science. All these are His treasures ; and He has made them ours. He puts them into our hands, and bids us take them with us in our earthly pilgrimage to our heavenly Canaan.
When we quit Egypt, laden with its spoils, let us eat the Passover, which is the Type of Christ. Let us have our door-posts sprinkled with the blood of Christ : let us feed on Him in Faith, and eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.3 Let us eat it with bitter herbs * of repentance ; and with our staff in our hand; and let us walk in the way of God's commandments, and follow the Pillar of the Cloud and the Fire, by which God leads us through the wilderness of this world. Let all who are enriched with the gold and silver of secular Learning, remember the hand from which those jewels come. The Gold and the Silver are Mine, saith the Lord. All the gold and silver of Literature, Science, and Art, are from the Mines of God's wisdom and love, and are to be dedicated in meekness and thankfulness to Him for the service of the Sanctuary, for the adornment of the
9 See Exod. iii. 21, 22 ; xi. 2. > Exod. xii. 35, 36. Ps. cv. 37.
2 Exod. xxxv. 22. » 1 Cor. v. 8.
4 Exod. xii. 8.
54 Miscellanies.
Altar, the Ark, and the Candlestick of His Temple, and fur the honour and glory of His most Holy Word.
The Israelites in the wilderness " drank of that spiritual Eock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ." ' In our studies of divine things let us follow Christ. The Incarnate Word is the Author and Giver of the Written Word. He also is its Interpreter. Let us proceed to consider this.
PART III.
ON the day of His Resurrection our blessed Lord joined Himself to two of His disciples, as they walked from Jeru salem to a village called Emmaus ; and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.1
As soon as He had disappeared from their sight, the remembrance of that Discourse drew from them these words, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ?
The Evangelist St. Luke, who records these things, does not give any particulars of our Lord's conversation at that time. He proceeds to relate that Christ appeared in the same evening to the Apostles at Jerusalem ; and that He then said to them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be ful filled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understandings that they might understand the the Scriptures.2 St. Luke relates this fact, but does not supply any details of our Lord's discourse on that occasion.
Further, St. Luke states, at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, that our Blessed Lord showed Himself alive after His Passion to His Apostles, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.3
5 1 Cor. x. 4. ' Luke xxiv. 27.
3 Luke xxiv. 4t, 4o. 3 Acts i. 3.
Christ is the Interpreter of the Bible. 55
He also describes the accomplishment of Christ's promise to His disciples, that after His Ascension into heaven He would send them the Holy Ghost 4 the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who would teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them, and who would abide with them for ever, and guide them into all truth.5
We may perhaps have sometimes felt a desire, that we had been with the two disciples in their walk with Christ to Emmaus, when He talked with them by the way, and opened to them the Scriptures. But the fact is, we ourselves may enjoy the same privileges as those two disciples did. Indeed, we may be more blessed than they were. And why ? Be cause, as appears from the Scriptures just rehearsed, our Lord opened the understanding of His Apostles, that they might understand the Scriptures ; and because He remained on earth for forty days after His Resurrection, and discoursed with tljem on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God ; and because on the day of Pentecost He endued them with power from on high/ and gave them the Holy Ghost, to teach them all things, and to guide them into all truth, and to bring to their remembrance all that He had spoken to them ; and because He has given to us the New Testament written by their hands ; and because in the Holy Gospels of the New Testament, and in the Epistles of His Apostles, He is ever speaking to us, and is interpreting to us the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
Accordingly, we find in the Acts of the Apostles, that as soon as our Blessed Lord had sent down the Holy Ghost from heaven, the Apostle St. Peter, being filled with the Spirit given by Christ, began to interpret the words of ancient Prophecy in the ears of the multitude at Jerusalem/ and declared that those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His Prophets, He hath so ful filled in Jesus- Christ. Yea, and all the Prophets, from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
4 Acts ii. 1—4, 33. Cp. Luke xxiv. 49. Acts i. 4.
4 John xiv. 16, 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 7, 13.
0 Luke xxiv. 49. 7 Acts ii. 16—20, 25, 34.
56 Miscellanies.
have likewise foretold of these days/ and the Apostolic tes timony may be summed up in those few words, " To Him give all the Prophets witness." 9
Therefore we may well say that Christ is ever walking at our side, in our course through the New Testament. He is ever, as it were, walking with us to Emmaus, and talking with us by the way, and opening to us the Scriptures.
Christ is the Divine Interpreter of the Bible. The Incarnate Word is the True Expositor of the Written Word. No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.1 Christ is our divine Joseph, our Zaphnath-Paaneah, our Re» vealer of secrets.2 No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.3 The Spirit of Christ, says St. Peter, spake in the Prophets,4 and the Spirit of Christ, speaking to us in the Apostles and Evangelists, expounds the meaning of those words which He Himself had uttered by Moses and all the Prophets, in the Old Testament.
This great Truth, which lies at the foundation of all right Interpretation of the Bible, was visibly represented at the Transfiguration of Christ. Moses, the Giver of the Law and Writer of the Pentateuch, and Elias, the Representative of the Prophets, were brought together to do homage to Christ, and to show the harmony of the Old Testament with the New ; and then the Voice from Heaven said, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye Him.5 " There," says an ancient Expositor,6 " was Moses and Elias, — that is, the Law and the Prophets, — with the everlasting WORD, Christ. — For, the Law and the Prophets cannot exist without the Word : we ourselves daily behold Moses and Elias with the Son of God. For we see the Law and the Prophets in the Gospel. The image of our spiritual bless-
8 Acts iii. 18, 24, 25.
9 Acts x. 43. Cp. iv. 25, 26 ; xxir. 14 ; xxvi. 23.
1 John i. 18. 2 Gen. xli. 46.
3 Luke x. 22. 4 1 Pet. i. 10, 11.
5 Matt, xxvii. 5. Mark ix. 7. Luke ix. 35. b S. Ambrose in Lucavn, lib. vii.
Christ the Interpreter of Scripture. 5 7
ings is in the heavens ; the shadow of them is in the Law : but the Substance of them is in the Gospel." 7 •
Let this, therefore, be our rule.
For the right „ interpretation of the Bible let us come to Christ. Our Reason itself is from Him ; 8 and all the gifts of Learning are from Him. He is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.9 And He took our nature, and dwelt in us, and became our Em manuel, God with us : God manifest in the flesh,1 in order to sanctify our Reason and illumine our Knowledge, with divine beams of spiritual light, from the fountain and well- spring of light, the Everlasting Godhead itself.
It is in Scripture, as it is in Nature. In the natural world, it is not the human eye which is the primary cause of sight. No : it is God's power, acting by the Sun in the heavens. The Sun, by its luminous beams, paints pictures on the retina of the Eye ; and these pictures are the means by which the Eye holds converse with the world. So it is in Holy Scripture. It is not the soul which sees by any power of its own. But it is Christ, the Sun of Righteous ness,2 who illumines the spiritual iris of the mind with His divine rays, which pass, as it were, through the lens of the intellectual eye, and penetrate the pupil, and paint beautiful pictures on the camera obscura of the soul. And unless He does this work, all is dark within. All is dark, unless He quickens the spiritual organ and optic nerve of the heart, and enables it by His grace to receive spiritual illumination. Therefore, the Evangelist St. Luke describes a twofold work done by Jesus Christ in explaining the Scriptures to the two disciples in the walk to Emmaus, and to the Apostles at Jerusalem. He opened the Scriptures, we read. Here was one work. And He opened their understanding, to understand the Scriptures.3 There was another work : He
' S. Ambrose in Ps. xxxviii. " See above, p. 37.
9 John i. 9. 1 Matt. i. 16. 23. 1 Tim. iii. 16.
2 Mai. iv. 2.
3 The words in the original are still more expressive : birivmytv in v. 32 and 8i{)voi£fv in v. 45. The former word in the imperfect tense (He was opening), signifies the gradual unfolding of the Scriptures, by the
58 Miscellanies.
opened, as it were, windows in God's Holy Word, and He let in a flood of light into what was before like a dark room. He also opened the eyes of their understanding, which before was clouded with a thick film, and shed the beams of spiritual light into the inmost recesses of their minds, and illumined them with glorious visions, and adorned the walls of that intellectual chamber with beautiful pictures of heavenly truth.
He did this blessed work in the walk to Emmaus, and amid the disciples at Jerusalem. And He is always doing it. He does it in the New Testament, by interpreting the Prophecies and Types of the Old. " If you knock at the door of Scripture with the hand of "Faith," says an ancient Father, " that door will be opened by Christ." 4 He does it by His own divine words in the Gospels ; and He does it by the ministry of His Apostles and Evangelists, who were taught and guided by His Spirit. He works and speaks by them : and therefore St. Paul says, We have the mind of Christ.5
Christ has also done this work by so adjusting the words of Scripture itself, that one part of Scripture may shed light on another.6 He does it by lighting up the clouds of the dark places of Scripture by the sunbeams of the clear ones.
He does it also by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, whom He sent from heaven, to abide for ever in His mystical Body, the Church Universal, protecting Holy Scripture against false interpretations, and declaring the true sense of Holy Scripture in her Creeds and Confessions of Faith.
These are the modes in which Christ works a^ our great Prophet and Teacher, in the Interpretation of Holy Writ.
opening of various passages in succession ; the latter word in the aorist tense (He opened), shows the opening of the mind by one divine act of illumination. The preposition fiia is also to be noticed, as intimating the process by which light is let through what was before shut.
4 St. Augustine, c. Donatistas, ii. 6.
5 1 Cor. ii. 16. Cp. S. Augustine, c. Pelagianos, de Gratia, c. 18 : " Let us listen to the Apostle, for Christ speaks by him."
8 See below, Part IV.
How Christ interprets the Bible. 59
Let us now contemplate Him explaining to us ancient Prophecy by His own words, and by the ministry of His Apostles and Evangelists.
Some Prophecies of the Old' Testament are so clear, that unassisted Reason could interpret them aright. The Scribes knew that the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem, the City of David, and they announced to Herod that prophecy.7 That Christ was to come of the seed of Abraham, and house of David, was written so plainly that he who ran might read it. Our own reflections would suffice to convince us, that the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth coincided in a marvellous manner with those preannounced in the twenty-second Psalm and in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah.
But yet we have a strong assurance for ourselves, and a powerful argument with others, when we find in the New Testament that this correspondence is distinctly affirmed by Christ Himself speaking by His holy Apostles and Evange lists.8 We require no further evidence that these portions of the Old Testament do contain prophecies, and that those prophecies were fulfilled in Him. We need no other answer to the sceptical allegations put forth by earlier writers and revived in our own days.9
Again ; we might indeed have anticipated as probable, that the Prophecies delivered by God in the Old Testament would not be fulfilled at once, but would have successive stages of partial accomplis ment, in preparatory and sub ordinate events, designed to keep alive the attention of the faithful, and raising and refreshing their minds in the toil some march and weary pilgrimage of many generations, climbing up in a gradual ascent till they reached the summit of God's counsels, in Christ. We might, therefore, have been prepared to admit, without other testimony, that the prophecy of Isaiah to Ahaz, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,1 had indeed a first increment of growth toward fulfilment in the
? Matt. ii. 5. Cp. John vii. 42.
8 Matt, xxvii. 35, 46. Luke xxii. 37. John xix. 24. Acts viii. 32— 35.
9 Essays and Reviews, pp. 69, 71. ' Isa. vii. 14.
60 Miscellanies.
birth of the son of the Prophet himself, but attained its full ripeness in Jesus Christ.
But we need more than human wisdom to explain to us the true meaning of many other Prophecies. For example, we need a divine revelation to assure us that the Prophecy of Jeremiah/ concerning the weeping of Eachel for her children, put forth, as it were, only some buds and blossoms of fulfilment in the destruction of the children of Judah by the armies of Babylon,3 but was unfolded in the full bloom of accomplishment in the martyrdom of the Innocents at Bethlehem, soon after the Birth of Christ.
We could never have been able, of ourselves, to give such an interpretation as that to the Prophecy of Jeremiah. And we may even suppose that Jeremiah himself, when he was inspired by the Holy Ghost to deliver that prophecy, did not perceive its full meaning. But Christ has inter preted the prophecy for us in this sense by His holy Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew, in the second chapter of his Gospel and seventeenth verse, where he is relating the massacre of those children by Herod. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by, or rather through,4 Jeremy the Prophet. Then, that is, the Prophecy, which had been delivered by God through the ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah, was fulfilled : that is, it had been gradually flowing onward toward fulfilment in former ages, but it
2 Jer. xxxi. 15. " This passage of Jeremiah," says Bishop Marsh, on Interpretation, p. 462, " is introduced by St. Matthew in the words, ' Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet.' And if in the opinion of an inspired Apostle any passage of the Old Testament was a prediction of that event to which he himself (the Apostle) applied it, we must conclude that such passage really was a prediction of that event, though we ourselves could not have discovered it.''
8 Jer. xl. 1.
4 6\a, through; this preposition is much more expressive than the English by. It declares the important truth, that the Hebrew Prophets were like channels, through which the prophecies were conveyed ; and not sources, from which the prophecies sprung. This preposition, Sta (through), is commonly used by St. Matthew in quoting prophecies from the Old Testament, and ought to be carefully noted. See Matt. ii. 5, 15, 17, 23 ; iii. 3 ; iv. 14 ; viii. 17 ; xii. 17 ; xiii. 35 ; xxi. 4 ; xxiv. 15 ; xxvii. 9.
Prophecies not understood by their Writers. 6 1
arrived at its springtide in Christ. It was then fulfilled, and no other fulfilment of it is now to be expected.5
Contemplate here the glorious vision unfolded to our view. Christ Himself has opened our eyes ; and He has opened also the prophecy of Jeremiah to us ; He has shed new light upon it, and upon us. Now, therefore, when we read that prophecy, we learn to regard the words of comfort spoken to 'the mothers of Judah, as words of com fort spoken to ourselves, and to the whole Christian Church. Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they, that is, thy children, shall come again from the land of the enemy, and there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.6
Henceforth we read the History of the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon with new interest. It becomes our own History. We see there a picture of ourselves. We see the pledge of our own Redemption and Return in Christ from the bondage of sin and death. We see there a type of our own first Resurrection, that is, of our own spiritual birth, to newness of life in Christ, We see a pledge also of our own second Resurrection, and that of our children, from the prison-house of the grave to a glorious Immortality in Him.
Now, therefore, we are enabled to recognize the divine wisdom and heavenly beauty of that Prophecy, which blends these gracious promises of olden time with the announce ment of the Incarnation and Birth of the Son of God, from which all these blessings flow. The Lord (says the same Prophet in the same chapter) hath created a new thing upon the earth, a woman shall compass a man.7 And from this
5 This is the true meaning of the important formulas Iva irfypcod!), rare eTrXrjpndr], " that it might be fulfilled ;" "then was fulfilled." They declare that the Prophecy, which is quoted with this introductory phrase, may have been tending towards fulfilment in previous events, but that it attained its full, final, and complete aecomplishraeat in (that event which is coupled with it, and that no other subsequent fulfilment is to he looked for.
6 Jer. xxxi. 16. " Jer. xxxl. 22.
62 Miscellanies.
Man, made of a woman* yea, verily from the Woman's seed* and from this wondrous childbearing,1 all good comes to Man in Time and in Eternity.
Let us consider another Prophecy of the Old Testament, quoted by St. Matthew in the same chapter, the second chapter and fifteenth verse. There the Evangelist is de scribing the Flight into Egypt. When Joseph arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken* of the Lord by the Prophet, Out of Egypt have I called my Son.3
Here therefore a new light is shed upon the prophecy of of Hosea, and on the history of Israel in Egypt. We are taught that Israel was in many respects a type of Christ. The very name Israel, a Prince of God4 suggests this. In Israel, when a child, beloved of God, and called out of Egypt, we now learn to see a figure of Christ Himself. The beloved Son of God, the Infant Jesus, was to be in Egypt till the Angel should bring Joseph word; for Herod would seek the young child to destroy Him. He was there till the death of Herod. The death of the Persecutor was the signal for His deliverance and return. All this had been prefigured by the literal Israel who had gone down from Canaan into Egypt. The Enemy of God worked by Pharaoh against Israel, as he did afterwards by Herod against Christ. God loved and protected Israel in his childhood. In the infancy of the Nation, He shielded the young children from the rage of the King. He saved Israel in Egypt, and He saved Israel from Egypt, and sent him forth to be a Witness and Preacher of His Truth to the World. All this was done for the sake of Christ, the Well-beloved Son of the Father, the Light of the World. God loved Christ in Israel, from whom Christ came according to the flesh. The first-born of Egypt were destroyed, and Pharaoh and his hosts were
8 Gal. iv. 4. 9 Gen. iii. 15.
1 1 Tim. ii. 15.
2 Rather, "by the Lord, through the Prophet" (Hcsea si. 1). See above, p. 60.
3 Matt, ii. 15. 4 Gen. xxxii. 28.
New light shed on Prophecies. 63
overthrown in the sea, and then Israel was delivered, and went forth toward Canaan. So, the destruction of Christ's Enemies was the signal of His Exodus from Egypt, and .of His return to Canaan. " When Herod was dead, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, take the young child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the Young Child's life. And he arose, and took the Young Child and His mother, and came into the Land of Israel."
Therefore, also, since the Enemies of the literal Israel are figures of the enemies of Christ, even of Death and the Grave, there is a peculiar propriety in the union of Hosea's prophecy concerning the call of Israel out of Egypt, with another prophecy uttered by the same Prophet concerning the deliverance of the Spiritual Israel, the Israel of God, united in the whole mystical Body of Christ, and redeemed and ransomed by Him from their ghostly enemies, and concerning their glorious Exodus from the Egypt of Death, and the Grave, and their leading-forth from a laud of bondage to the glorious inheritance of their heavenly Canaan in Christ. I will ransom them (says Christ Himself by Hosea) from the power of the Grave, I will redeem them from Death. 0 Death, I will be thy plagues. O Grave, I will be thy destruction.5 And we may now take up the comment of the Holy Apostle St. Paul, 0 Death, where is thy sting ? O Grave where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.6
Shall we, with some in our own age/ reject such inter pretations as these ? Shall we be thus unthankful to Christ whose Spirit as St. Peter says (1 Peter i. 11) spake in the Prophets, and Who sent the Holy Ghost to inspire the Apostles and Evangelists. Shall we murmur at our adorable Redeemer, because in His tender love and mercy to us, He has given to us a clearer insight into a prophecy uttered by Hosea, than even Hosea himself had, when he
5 Hos. xiii. 14. ° 1 Cor. xv. 55—57.
" Essays and Reviews, p. 416.
64 Miscellanies.
uttered it ? Shall we be angry with Christ because His own gracious words are thus fulfilled in us; Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear; for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them ? 8
Shall we not rather be very thankful to Him because He has revealed to us the meaning of Prophecies which we could never have explained for ourselves, and which therefore must ever have remained dark, without a revelation from Him ?
Shall we not greatly rejoice in the light shed from Christ's glorious countenance on the dark prophecies of the Old Testament? Shall we not exult in our own Christian privileges, because He has opened our eyes, and has opened the Scriptures to us ?
Consider, also, what glorious gain, in true knowledge, is ours, not only with regard to the meaning of the Prophecies of the Old Testament, but of the Types also.
How could we have known, except from Christ, speaking to us by His holy Apostle, St. Paul, that Adam was a figure of Christ ?9 How could we have learned the blessed truths, which flow from that relation, that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive?'1 Taught by the same divine voice, speaking in the New Testament, we learn to read the History of the Flood aright, and see in the Ark a figure of Christ's Church.2 We learn to behold, in the offering and deliverance of Isaac, a figure of the Death and llesurrection of Christ.3 And in the selling of Joseph by his brethren, his imprisonment, and elevation, we recognize a figure of Christ's sufferings, and glorious Ascension.4 In. the Paschal Lamb, the preservative of the Israelites, when their enemies were slain, we behold the power of Christ, our
8 Matt. xiii. 16, 17. Luke x. 24. Heb. xi. 13.
a Ron*, r. 14. « 1 Cor. xv. 22, 45, 47.
» 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. 3 Heb. xi. 19.
4 Cp. Acts \cii. 9. — 13. Bj). Pearson on the Creed, Art. vi.
Christ explains the Old Testament to us. 65
Passover/ dying on the Cross ; and in the Brazen Serpent, set up on a pole by God's command, and healing those who were bitten by serpents of fire, we see a figure of Christ's Death, and of its blessed consequences to all true Israelites." The Rock smitten in the wilderness and gushing out with water, preaches to us Christ, smitten for our sakes.7 The Manna is a foretaste of the Living Bread from heaven.8 All the events of the Pilgrimage of the Israelites in the wilder ness, in their way to Canaan, are not only historical facts, but are spiritual foreshado wings, and moral warnings, to us : ' and the ritual of the Tabernacle, and especially the entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies,1 are illumined with a glorious light shed upon them by Christ in the Scriptures of the New Testament.
The Jews of old enjoyed a great advantage, as St. Paul testifies, because they had the Old Testament : unto them were committed the oracles of God.2 But how much more privileged are we Christians, even with regard to the Old Testament itself. For the Old Testament is explained to us by Christ Himself speaking to us in the New. And we Christians see both Testaments, like the two Cheru bim stretching over the Ark of God in the Holy of Holies, and joining their Wings above the Mercy Seat,3 and we hear them ever crying to one another in one harmonious song, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.4
What therefore shall we say? May we not truly affirm that Christ Himself is ever walking by our side to a spiritual Emmaus in the Gospel, and is ever talking with us by the way, and opening to us the Scriptures ?
What therefore is to be said of some, who have arisen in our own day, vaunting their own superior spiritual illumina tion, and professing to have made great advances in Biblical Criticism, and Theological Science, and who reject this heavenly enlightenment, beaming forth from the glorious
5 John xix. 36. 1 Cor. v. 7. 6 John iii. 14.
7 1 Cor. x. 4. s John vi< 32, 43, 51. 9 1 Cor. x. 11. Heb. iv. 8, 9 ; xi. 16.
1 Heb. ix. 1, 7—12 ; x. 19, 20. 2 Rom. iii. 2.
3 Exod. xxv. 20. 1 Kings vi. 19, 23. « Isa. vi. 3. VOL. II. p
66 Miscellanies.
orb of the Sun of Righteousness, even from Christ Himself ; and who either do not scruple to say that there are no Pro phecies of Christ in the Old Testament, or that those Prophecies, which are applied to Him by the Holy Spirit speaking by His Apostles and Evangelists, are distorted from their true sense; and who would thus deprive us of that light which Christ Himself has shed upon the Holy Scriptures ? What is to be said of such Biblical Critics, and of such Interpreters of Holy Scripture ? May they not be compared to ruthless spoilers, who would mar and deface the beauty of some magnificent Cathedral, where the light of the sun streams through the windows, rich with various colours, and adorned with typical histories of the Old Testament, prefiguring the graces and blessings poured upon us in the bright sunshine of the Gospel ; and where it plays on the walls with brilliant hues, and paints beautiful pictures upon them, and fills the heart with thankfulness and joy ? May they not be compared to barbarous and sacrilegious marauders, who would block up those windows with coarse mortar and rubble, and change that fair Temple into a dark Tomb ; and then boast themselves consummate Architects, and claim honour and gratitude at our hands !
Let us not close up the windows of Holy Scripture ; and let us not close up the windows of our hearts. But let us bless Christ for the light of His countenance ; let us walk as children of Light ; while we have the Light, let us believe in the Light ; 5 and may it lead us, at length, to the inheri tance of the saints in light,6 and to the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, which the glory of God doth lighten, and the Lamb is the light thereof.7
A great deal of the prevalent Scepticism is attributable to erroneous notions on this subject.
" Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet ; Vetus Testamen- tum in Novo patet." The " New Testament is enfolded in the Old ; and the Old Testament is unfolded in the New," is a saying of St. Augustine which ought always to be present to the reader and interpreter of the Bible; and
6 John xii. 36. 6 Col. i. 12.
" Rev. xxii. 23.
Spiritual Interpretation of Old Testament. 67
many would have been preserved from cavilling at the Bible, if they had remembered it. Another saying of his deserves attention. " Whatever difficulty you may have in reading Scripture, consider it with reference to Christ, and if you find that light is reflected upon it from that reference, you may pre sume that you have understood it aright." The History of the Creation ; of the formation of Man from the dust ; and of Woman out of Man ; of the first Sabbath ; of the Fall of Man ; of the two spiritual families of Cain and Abel; oTthe Flood; of the destruction of Sodom ; of the Call of Abraham ; the birth of Isaac, the Offering up of Isaac ; the lives of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; of Joseph in Egypt ; the going down of Israel into Egypt ; the ministry of Moses and Aaron ; the Ten Plagues ; the Passover ; the Exodus; the drying up of the Eed Sea; the Smitten Bock; the giving of the Law from Sinai ; the Tabernacle ; the Law of Sacrifices ; the wanderings in the Wilderness ; the march across the dry bed of Jordan, under Joshua, and with the leading of the Ark ; the renewal of Circumcision ; the fall of Jericho ; the staying of the Sun-light — all these things are inexplicable mysteries, unless they are read in the light of the New Testament and of the Countenance of Christ.
But their historical truth is vindicated, and they, are recognized at once as resting on the solid foundation of Divine Wisdom, Truth, and Love, as soon as they are read by that light, and are interpreted from the revelations of the Gospel.
Similar remarks, mutatis mutandis, might be made with regard to the interpretation of the prophetical writings also. As St. Paul says, the Jews read them with a vail on their hearts ; but that vail is done away in Christ (2 Cor. iii. 13).
This method of interpreting the historical and pro phetical writings of the Old Testament is so large a subject, and so much has been said upon it in my Commentary on the Holy Bible, especially in the Introductions to Genesis, Leviticus, Joshua, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah and the Minor Prophets, that I venture to refer here to those Introductions for further illustration of it.
P 2
68 Miscellanies.
PART IV.
LET us now advance a step further.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Great Prophet and Teacher, the Incarnate Word of God, the Divine Interpreter of the Written Word, wills us to receive Scripture as one harmo nious whole. He has given us this Rule of Interpretation by His own teaching, and by that of His Apostles. If we wish to understand the Bible, we must not separate one portion of it from another; we must endeavour to ascertain its sense by comparing- spiritual things with spiritual.
" Comparing spiritual things with spiritual." St. Paul in these words instructs us, that we must not compare spiritual things with things carnal. Here is one important caution. We must not confound divine things with human ; we must not judge of heavenly things by the evidence of our senses ; we must not apply our Reason to criticize articles of Faith. And we mustw0£ take spiritual things singly, tint we must join them together, and regard theni as component parts of a systematic whole. As the ancient Expositors * observe, commenting on these words of St, Paul, whenever we see anything that perplexes us in any spiritual truth, we must look for a con firmation or explanation of it in some other spiritual truth. For example, in contemplating the history of Christ's birth from a Virgin Mother, let us think of the formation of the first Adam from the Virgin Earth, and the production of the Trees of Paradise without any previous seed-time ; and of the birth of Isaac from parents long barren. In reading of Christ's Resurrection after the three days' Burial, let us think of the Prophet Jonah coming forth from the depths of the sea. And when we meditate on the Mystery of Christ's sufferings, and our own Redemption by His Blood, let us recur to the history of the Paschal Lamb and the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and the Rock smitten in the wilderness. In such supernatural mysteries as these, let
1 Origen, Chrysostom, and Thcodoret on the text 1 Cor. ii. 13. This sense of arvyKpivovres (comparing), which has been questioned by some critics of later times, is confirmed by the general consent of the ancient Greek Fathers.
Scripture to be Interpreted as a whole. 69
us not resort to the purblind reasonings of carnal wisdom, which rather darken than enlighten the mind ; but, by the careful collation of like passages of Holy Scripture, let us seek to obtain a clearer revelation of the mind of the Holy Ghost. Like wise spiritual Astronomers, let us not fix our eyes merely on single stars, but let us observe the glorious constellations which God has set in the firmament of Holy Scripture. Like watchful spiritual Mariners, let us steer our course by their light to the harbour of heavenly rest.2
The value of this rule of Interpretation may be shown by the evil consequences which have ensued from the neglect of it. It is a characteristic of the Divine mind in Holy Scrip ture) to speak strongly on special points of Christian doctrine in particular places of Holy Writ, and to leave it to the reader of Scripture to supply the correlative truths from other por tions of Holy Writ, which are necessary to complete, the state ment of the doctrine as a whole. Sometimes HoJy Scripture startles us by seeming paradoxes,3 and staggers us by hard sayings/ and perplexes us by riddles and enigmas. And why does the Divine Author of Scripture deal thus with us ?
2 As George Herbert says, in his exquisitely beautiful lines •' On the Holy Scriptures :" —
" Oh, that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glorie ! Seeing not only how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the storie. " This verse marks that, and both do make a motion
Unto a third, that ten leaves off doth lie : Then as dispersed herbs do match a potion, These three make up some Christian's destinie.
" Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good, And comments on thee : for in ev'ry thing Thy words do finde me out, and parallels bring, And in another make me understood.
" Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse ; This Book of starres lights to etcrnall blisse."
3 E. g. Luke xiv. 26 : " If any one come to Me, and hate not his father and mother."
4 E. g. John vi. 53, GO, our Lord's discourse on the necessity of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, explained by His words in Matt. xxvi. 26—28 : " Take, eat, this is My Body." " Drink ye all of this : for this is My Blood of the New Testament;" words spoken just a year after-
70 Miscellanies.
In order to try us. He does it iu order to allow us, if we will, to carp and cavil, and to rely on our own reason, with overweening pride and presumption, by which we shall be self-condemned ; He does it in order to teach us thai all parts of Scripture are dependent on one another, like limbs of a well-organized body, or like parts of a beautiful building; He does it in order that we may not confine our attention to any one part of Scripture, to the neglect of others, but may carefully consider the whole; and in order to exercise our patience and diligence in searching the Scrip tures,5 and to test and prove us, whether we possess those moral dispositions of meekness, candour, and love of truth, which are requisite for admission into the kingdom of God.
But this divine plan in the structure of Holy Scripture is disregarded by many ; and great and manifold are the evils which have thence arisen.
The Jewish Rabbis would not receive Jesus of Nazareth. And why ? Because their minds were riveted on those Pro phecies of the Old Testament which declared the glory and triumph of Christ ; but they would know nothing of those other Prophecies which pre-announced His sufferings.
In like manner almost all the false Doctrines which have been propagated in Christendom may be traced to partial views of Holy Scripture. It was long ago observed by Fathers of the Church,8 that it is the characteristic of all Heretics to fix their eyes upon particular texts of Scripture, and to detach them from the context, and to bend, twist, and wrench the rest of Scripture with wilful violence, so as to make it suit their own mis-interpretations of those single
wards, at the institution of the Holy Eucharist ; so that they who heard the first discourse had a twelve months' probation before it was explained to them in the second.
The same may be said of Christ's words concerning the other Sacra ment : " Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God " (John iii. 5), which were afterwards cleared up by His commission to the Apostles, " Go and teach all nations, baptizing them." Matt, xxviii. 19.
5 John v. 39 ; vii. 38.
6 Tertullian, c. Praxeam, c. 20: "Proprium hoc est omnium haereti- corum." See also S. Hippolytus, c. Noetum, c. 3.
" The proportion of Faith" 71
texts, instead of endeavouring to ascertain the meaning of those single texts, by reference to oilier texts, which ought to be placed in juxtaposition with them, and to the general scope and tenour of Holy Writ. Thus they disturbed the balance, and marred the proportion of faith.7
For instance, the Sabellians of old, who denied the dis tinct personality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and affirmed that they were only three names of one and the same Divine Person, appealed to our Lord's words recorded by St. John,8 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ? and they shut their eyes to the mul titude of other testimonies in Scripture which declare that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three Persons in one Godhead.9 Bat the ancient Christian Writers, in contending with those false Teachers, protested against such a proceeding. "Do not take Scripture piecemeal," they said, " but consider the drift of the whole." *
Almost all the errors which have been disseminated concern ing the Person of Christ have proceeded from a like source.
" What think ye of Christ ? " said our Lord to the Pha risees, " whose Son is He ? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool ? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his Son ? And no man was able to answer Him a word.2 '' The Jews in this respect were the forerunners of the Arians, as the Ancient Fathers remarked,3 and of the Socinians of later days.4 They would have Christ a great Conqueror and King, a great Prophet and Teacher, but, in their ill-informed
7 Rom. xii. 6. See S. Hilary's Treatise de Synodis, addressed to the Bishops of France, Germany, Spain, and Britain, c. 85 ; and the remarks added to the treatise of Sixtus Senensis, Ars Interpretandi Scripturas, Regula xci. ed. Colon. 1588, p. 382.
8 xiv. 10.
9 E. g. Matt. iii. 16, 17 ; xxviii. 19. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Eph. ii. 18.
1 Cp. S. Hippol. c. Noet. cc. 3, 4, and his recently discovered " Refu tation of all Heresies," p. 289, ed. Miller.
2 Matt. xxii. 41 — 46. 3 S. Athanasius, adv. Arianos, Orat. ii. 4 Cp. Professor Blunt on the Early Church, p. 117.
72 Miscellanies.
zeal for the Divine Unity, they would not have a Messiah co-equal, co-eternal with Jehovah. Like the Arians and Socinians, they professed a belief in the Unity of the God head, but would not admit a plurality of Persons. And why was this ? Because they dwelt only on certain texts which declared the Messiah's Manhood ; but did not take into view those other texts, to one of which Christ here refers them; which speak of His glorious Godhead. In like manner, the Arian and Socinian will quote our Lord's words, The Father is greater than I,s but they will know nothing of His other sayings recorded in the same Gospel, I and the Father are one,6 and that all men must honour the Son, as they honour the Father,7 and, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.8 But the Church of Christ looks at both sets of texts, and harmonizes them all in one confession of Christ, "Very God and Very Man ; " and sees in Him " the Eoot and the Offspring of David ; " 9 the Offspring of David as Man, and the Root of David as God.1
In early days, certain persons arose, who denied the restorative efficacy of Repentance, and of the means of grace, after deadly sin, — the Montanists and Novatians. And how did they build up their heresy ? On the founda tion 2 of some isolated places of Scripture, especially of the words near the beginning of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews : " It is impossible to renew unto repentance those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the
heavenly gift if they shall fall away, seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."
The whole tenour of Holy Scripture, proclaiming pardon to the penitent sinner, was to be set aside ; the love and tenderness of the Father of mercies, the cleansing virtue
5 John xiv. 28. 6 John x. 30.
7 John v. 23. 8 John i. 1.
9 Rev. xxii. 16.
1 " The true sense of Scripture," says Pascal (Pensees, Seconde Par tie, Art. ix. sect, xiii.), " is that in which all passages of Scripture meet. All the seeming contradictions of Scripture are reconciled in Jesus Christ."
3 Cp. Tertullian de Pudicitia, c. 20; and Philastr. User. c. 89.
Divine foreknowledge and human freewill.
i ^
/ j
of Christ's Blood, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, were all to be disparaged and forgotten, in order that their arbitary interpretation of a few lines of Holy Scripture might prevail.3 Placed alone in the scale, that mis-interpretation was to have sufficient force to turn the balance in their favour and to outweigh all other consider ations.
In later days, those persons who have framed a peculiar scheme4 of Reprobation and Election, have fixed their atten tion on certain portions of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, especially in the ninth chapter.4 They have contended there from, that God has created some men as vessels for destruction. They have placed those portions of Scripture in their own theological microscope, and have pored intently upon them, as on shreds and fibres of plants; or on insects' wings, and have excluded other texts from their range, and have magnified the dimensions of those particular passages in the Epistle, till they seem almost to have forgotten that the main design of the whole of that Epistle5 to the Romans is to proclaim God's free grace to all men in Christ, and that the Apostle expressly declares in it, that God gave His own Son for us all ; and that the same Apostle says that God will have all men to be saved, and that Christ is the Saviour of all men, and tasted death for every man,6 and that he asserts that God vouchsafes to every man the free exercise of his will, and invites and enables him by His grace to accept His merciful offers of salvation in Jesus Christ. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour, and some to dishonour. And what does the Apostle add ? If a man therefore purge himself from these Jte shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and ftrepared unto every good work.7
3 Cp. Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. x.
4 The Calvinistic scheme ; the Lambeth Articles.
5 Rom. viii. 32. May I refer to my Introduction to it ?
6 1 Tim. ii. 4. Titus ii. 11. 1 Tim. iv. 10. Heb. ii. 9.
7 2 Tim. ii. 19—21.
74 Miscellanies.
Let us not take any single texts by themselves, but let us compare things spiritual with spiritual, and we shall see that the Doctrines of Divine Grace and Human Free Will are like the prismatic hues of the rainbow, differing indeed in colour, but softly shaded off and melting into one another, and blending amicably together in one beautiful picture.
Similar remarks maybe made, on the great doctrine of Justification.
In opposition to the vain-glorious presumption of those, especially among the Jews, who desired to justify them selves, and who thought that they could earn heavenly glory as wages due to their own works, St. Paul taught, in his Epistles to the Galatians and Romans, that it is God Who justifieth : 8 that He, by His free love and favour to us in Christ, is the Author of our Justification ; and that the spiritual organ, by which Christ's merits are to be appre hended by each of us individually, and to be applied to our own personal justification, is Faith.
But this necessary and comfortable doctrine has been abused by many into an apology for a barren profession of belief in Christ, to the disparagement of Christian Charity, and of Christian Holiness. And why ? Because they who thus deal with St. Paul's doctrine, have detached it from the context, and from other parts of Holy Scripture, with which it ought to be combined. They have rudely torn it as a branch from the parent tree, and have planted the slip in the small plot and narrow garden of their own exclusive theology, and have expected it to flourish there. But there it withers and dies.
The Apostolic statement of Justification by Faith, which is a salutai'y corrective of man's pride, seeking to establish his own righteousness,9 is not to be severed from its native stock of Holy Scripture; it is to be preserved entire in its relation to the whole tree ; it is to be considered in its original combination with those fruitful precepts of Christian Charity and Holiness, with which both those
8 Rom. viii. 33. Cp. my Introduction to the Epistle.
9 Rom. x. 3.
The Doctrine of Justification. 75
Epistles end,1 as the sum and substance of the whole ; it is to be combined with the Apostle's declaration, that the end of the Law is Charity,3 that the Faith which profits, is Faith working by Love ;3 that Faith, which could even move mountains, profiteth nothing without Charity;4 that they who believe in God must be careful to maintain good works ;5 and that we shall all be judged hereafter according to our woi'ks.6 It is to be taken in combination with the teaching of St. Paul in his latest Epistles, those to Timothy and Titus, which abound with strong protests against the error of such persons as say that they know God, but in works deny Him,7 and have a form of godliness but deny its power.8 It is to be taken in combination with the doctrine of St. Paul's brother Apostle, St. James, whose Epistle is directed against those who cherished a vain conceit that they could attain everlasting salvation by a formal profession of faith, barren of good works.9
The doctrine of Justification by Faith, thus combined with other parts of Holy Scripture, is indeed a most fruitful doctrine. On the one hand it declares God's free grace to all, and the plenary virtue of Christ's sufferings on the cross, and condemns all presumptuous notions of any merit on our part, and teaches us not to look inward on ourselves for Justification, but to raise our eyes upward to heaven, and to stretch forth our hands, and to lay hold on the merits of Jesus Christ the Lord our Righteousness,1 and to cling to them with the grasp of Faith.
On the other hand, it reminds us that the hand of Faith, by which we must lay hold on Christ's merits, is not to be a cold and palsied limb, but to be firmly strung with nerves and sinews of spiritual energy, and to be warmed with the healthful life-blood of Christian love ; and that the Faith
1 Rom. xli. 9—21 ; xiii. 1—10. Gal. v. 13—26 ; vi. 1—10.
2 Rom. xiii. 10. 3 Gal. v. 6.
4 1 Cor. xiii. 2. 5 Titus iii. 8.
6 Rom. ii. 6; xiv. 12. 1 Cor. iii. 8. 2 Cor. v. 10. Eph. vi. 8. Col. iii. 24, 25.
' Titus i. 16. 8 2 Tim. iii. 5.
9 James ii. 19, 20 — 26. Cp. i. 26, and my Introduction to it. 1 Jer. xxiii. 6 ; xxxiii. 16. Cp. 1 Cor. i. 30.
76 Miscellanies.
which justifies is that living principle which ever moves and works iri unison and harmony With God's will and word.
Again ; the Doctrine of Sauctifi cation cannot be under stood aright Without a similar process of Interpretation applied to Holy Writ.
We all need the regenerating and renovating influence of God the Holy Ghost. We confess that the living waters of His grace flow freely to all. We hear the Holy Spirit's voice, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat.2 I will give unto him that is athirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely." 3
But we should not rightly interpret the mind of the Holy Ghost, if we did not combine such gracious intimations as these with His own divine declarations in other parts of that Word, that the living waters of His Grace flow freely indeed to all, but also flow regularly in certain rivers and channels, especially in the Holy Scriptures, and in the Holy Sacraments, and in Prayer, and in Confirmation ; and we shall, therefore, not presume that His promises will be made good to us, unless we comply with the conditions which He has annexed to them ; but we shall thankfully refresh ourselves with the living waters of His grace by drinking them from those spiritual streams in which those waters flow.
Yet further : the Facts contained in Holy Scripture are to be treated in the same way as the Doctrines ; that is, not independently, but in connexion with each other. Here also we must compare spiritual tilings with spiritual.
For example, if we take away portions of the Gospels, and separate them from the rest, they may sometimes perplex us ; but if we regard them as connected together, they will illustrate and confirm each other.
Let us not rashly rend asunder this holy union. Let us not, for instance, imitate those of modern times 4 who allege,
a Isa. Iv. 1! 3 Rev. xxi. 6; xxii. 17.
4 E. g. Schleiermacher, De Wette, Strauss, Bruno, Bauer, and^others, followed by Essays and Reviews, p. 346, 351, and well refuted by Dr. Davidson, Introduction to the Gospels, i. pp. 116 — 118.
Harmonization of facts. 77
that because the Evangelist St. Matthew says nothing of the sojourn of the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth, but speaks of her first at Bethlehem, therefore St. Luke is in error, because he places her at Nazareth before she went to Beth lehem. But let us compare spiritual things with spiritual. Let us bear in mind what was the general scope of those two Gospels respectively \ the one, that of St. Matthew, designed especially for the Jews; the other, that of St. Luke, intended for the Gentile world. \Ye shall then see, why, in the one, that of Sit. Matthew, the Holy Spirit dwells particularly on the Birth at Bethlehem, the City of David, and why, in the other, that of St. Luke, He mentions the previous sojourn of Mary and the conception at Nazareth, in Galilee of the Gentiles. Similar remarks may be made on the two Genealogies of those two Gospels ; as I haye endeavoured to show in my Commentary on them.
Thus the Holy Ghost distributes spiritual food in due season to all, by the hands of the Holy Evangelists. Let us thankfully receive it from them.
Again. There are some professing to l?e wise, who venture5 to disbelieve the miracle of the Raising of Lazarus, and to question the authority of tjie Gospel History, because that miracle was not noticed by any one of the three earlier Evangelists, St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, but is first mentioned by St. John, who did not publish his Gospel till about seventy years, after the Ascension of Christ. If this stupendous miracle was really wrought, how is it, they ask, that it was passed over in silence by all the first three Historians of our Lord's Ministry ?
Let us compare things spiritual with spiritual, and we have a ready answer to this objection. The first three Evangelists mention the wonderful enthusiasm with which the People received our Lord when He came from Bethany to Jerusalem. They took up branches of trees and cried Hosanna to the Son of David.' How is this enthusiasm to
5 See a summary of their theories in Meyer's Kommentar, p. 298 ; and in De Wette's Erkliirung, p. 197.
6 Matt. xxi. 8, 9. Mark xi. 8—10. Luke xix. 36—40.
78 Miscellanies.
be explained ? What was the cause of that rapturous ecstasy and of those strains of adoration ? The miracle wrought by our Lord at Bethany, and related by St. John alone, supplies the clue to the actions of the people, described by the other Evangelists. For this cause, says St. John himself, the People also met Him, coming from Bethany, for that they heard that He had done this miracle.
Pass to another book, the Acts of the Apostles.
St. Luke, the Author of the Acts, and companion of St. Paul, never mentions that St. Paul wrote any Epistles. This is remarkable, since St. Paul is now known to all Christendom by his Epistles, and since these Epistles often supply the best commentary on the History of the Acts, and are in their turn clearly illustrated by it. But the reader is not referred by the Author of either to the writings of the other, but is left to search the Scriptures, and to construct the commentary for himself.
Doubtless there is divine wisdom in this and other similar arrangements. There is Inspiration in this Silence.
The various portions of Scripture are ever touching one another without any evidence of effort on their part ; and thus give strength and support to each other, and pre sent the Holy Scriptures to our view as one symmetrical whole.
These points of contact have sometimes been called " un designed coincidences." But surely this is hardly a correct description of them. Nothing in the Holy Scriptures is without design. The Author of them is God ; and whatever He does, He designs; and whatever He designs, He does. There is no such thing as chance in Scripture. There are no accidents in the Bible. The silent adjustment of one part of Scripture to another is not the less designed, because we do not at first perceive the design ; but rather the non- appearance of design was itself designed by God, in order that we might search for, and discover, the coincidences, and that they might serve for our moral probation, and show what manner of spirit and temper we are of. A key is not the less designed for a lock, because the key happens not to be in the lock, but may be hung up on a peg or a nail at a
Christ interpreting by the Spirit in the Church. 79
distance from the lock, or perhaps be in some other part of the house, and not in the same room as the door is to which the key belongs : and our diligence is tried by the search we make for the key. The keys of Holy Scripture are not always in. the locks to which they belong.7 They are very often hung up at a distance from the door : they are very often in other rooms of the house. All this is done with a wise design : namely, in order that our diligence may be used in searching for the keys ; and that our labour may be employe^ in stretching out our hands to take down the keys from the place in which they hang, and our patience may be exercised in trying whether the keys will fit the locks. And if we find on trial, that the keys fit the locks, and move in the wards, and open the doors, then we may be sure that the keys were designed for the doors, however little at first sight they seemed to us to be so.
PART V.
LET us now proceed to contemplate Jesus Christ inter preting the Bible in matters of faith, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the Universal Church.
Our Blessed Lord, when He was about to leave His Apostles and to ascend into heaven, said to them : Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. After His Ascension the Apostles and Evangelists were endued with power from on high ; l they were inspired by the Holy Ghost, Whom Christ sent down from heaven to teach them all things, and guide them into all truth, and to bring to their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them ; 2 and were enabled to write the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament ; and those Scriptures have been preserved to us in their original in-
7 Cp. Origen, Prolog, in Psalmos ; and S. Hilary, Prolog, in Psalm. § 24, where he compares the Book of Psalms to a beautiful City, with numerous houses ; the doors of which are locked with various keys, which are to be searched for with diligence, and then to be applied to the doors.
1 Luke xxiv. 49. a John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13.
So Miscellanies.
tegrity, and are now circulated everywhere. Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends qf the world 3.
But the History of t]ie Christian Church, since the days of the Apostles, shows that those Scriptures have been interpreted in different ways ; and many of these diversities of Interpretation concern the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith.
The Faith js one 4. Only the true sense of Scripture is Scripture : and without faith it is impossible fco please God5. The Holy Scriptures, as St. Paul assures us, are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ6; and the prophet Isaiah describes the way of holiness as a plain way, a way clear and open to simple men ; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.7
We are not now referring to questions of T$ at ijral Philosophy and Physical Science 8, or to controverted points of Sacred History or Chronology, which may remain unresolved without detriment to our souls. But we speak of the Articles of the Christian Faith, which are necessary for our salvation ; and the question for our consideration is —
In the Interpretation of the Bible, in matters of Christian Doctrine, is there not provided for all men some safeguard against error, and some sure guidance into truth ?
If so, where is it ?
Our answer is this. Christ is the Everlasting Word ; He is the Author of the Written Word ; He is also the Inter preter of the Bible. He has given us the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, and He expounds the Scriptures by the same Spirit, and that Spirit dwells in His Church Universal. He declares to us the true meaning of Holy Scripture, in all necessary points of Christian Doctrine, in the Creeds and Confessions of Faith, received by the Catholic Church.
The presence of Christ, it is true, is no longer visible, but it is not the less real on that account. He is always walking
3 Ps. xix. 4. * Eph. iv. 5.
5 Heb. xi. 6. 6 2 Tim. iii. 15.
7 Isa. xxxv. 8. 8 See above, p. 39.
Christ ever teaching in His Church. 8 1
among the Golden Candlesticks, which are the Churches.9 His own words assure us of this ; I will not leave you com fortless, I will come unto you.1 Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.2 I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever ; He shall be in you.3 When the Com forter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, Which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.4 He shall teach you all things, and will guide you into all truth. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.5
Surely these solemn words of Christ have some meaning. And the Apostles, to whom those words were spoken, and who received the Holy Ghost to guide them, were the best judges of their meaning. And how did they understand them ? Their practice and language show. When a question arose concerning the obligation of the Levitical Law, and concerning, therefore, the true meaning of the Scriptures, in which that Law was contained, they assembled together, and considered the matter, and framed a decree, which they sent to the Gentile Churches ; and so the question was settled.9
Here, however, it may be said, True; but the Apostles had special gifts from Christ. He spoke in them ; their sentence was from Him. But did not that power of inter preting Holy Scripture cease with them ? Was it continued to after-ages ?
What does Christ Himself say, Lo ! I am with you — I am with you, a partner with you, working with 7 you, and by
9 Kev. i. 11 ; ii. I. » John xiv. 17.
2 Matt, xxviii. 20. 3 John xiv. 16, 17.
4 John xv. 26. 5 John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13, 14.
6 Acts xv. 1—31 ; xvi. 4.
7 Observe that the preposition here rendered " with " is not avv, but >era, which indicates Christ' s participation and co-operation, as well as concomitancy and presence, with His Apostles.
The force of this preposition (/neru), in this respect, may be best illus trated bj- its use in the important text of the same Evangelist (Matt. 23), " they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us," Me0' TJH&V 6 6fo? (not avv fjfJiiv), God working with us,
VOL. II. G
8? Miscellanies.
you/ — and I am with you alway, or, as the original expresses it even more emphatically, all the days,8 even to the end of the world. And is there not great need of His Presence ? St. Paul, speaking to the Ephesian Presbyters at Miletus, says, I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.9 And St. Paul commends them to the protection of Christ.1 Is it probable that the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Who had proved His love by laying down His life for the sheep, should leave them defenceless in their dangers ? No. His promise is, Lo ! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
All saving truth is indeed contained in the Bible ; and nothing is to be added to it. But even in the days of the Apostles, some false Teachers, as St. Peter testifies, perverted the sense of the Bible by misinterpretations;2 and almost all those who have propagated heretical doctrines, from the first century to the present day, have appealed to Holy Scripture in behalf of their false doctrines. Many of those Teachers have been distinguished by learning and ability, and have displayed great shrewdness and sagacity in per verting the sense of Scripture, and in applying it in the sup port and propagation of their own pernicious opinions.3
How, then, is the unlettered Christian to be preserved from such snares ? How is he to be enabled to stand firm in the faith ?
By the presence and power of Christ. He is the Shep herd and Bishop of their souls.4 His promise never fails, Lo ! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
And how is that promise fulfilled ? How is that power exercised ? How is that protection vouchsafed ?
Look at the words of Scripture, in which that promise is contained. Christ first declares His Universal Supremacy.
in us, and by us : God partaking of our Nature, and making us to partake of His Nature.
8 irda-as ras i]fj.fpas. ' Acts XX. 29.
1 Acts. xx. 32, where the words " give you an inheritance " evidently refer to a Person.
* 2 Pet. iii. 16. s See above, pp. 70—75.
4 1 Pet. ii. 25.
Christ ever with His Apostles. 83
All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth.6 And what follows ? A commission, extending to all place and time. Go ye and teach all nations (or rather make all nations 6 to be disciples), baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe, or keep,7 all things whatsover I have commanded you ; and lo ! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
Here is the root of the Christian Faith. It is more ancient than the New Testament. Every Baptism, administered by Christ's command, required a profession of Faith in the three Persons of the Ever-Blessed Trinity ; and whatsoever contradicts that profession, contradicts Christ Who pre scribed it.8
5 Matt, xxviii. 18. ' MatftjTcuo-are iravra TO. Wvr\.
8 The administration of Baptism was always coupled with stipulations on the part of the baptized, " the answer of a good conscience " (see on 1 Pet. Hi. 16, and Tertullian de Corona, c. 3, and de Baptismo, c. 13, and S. August, de Fide et Op. c. 9), in a word, by the recital of a Creed. This is well stated by Richard Baxter, who will not be supposed to overrate the Authority of the Church in matters of Faith, and who clearly points out how Christ Himself speaks by the HOLT SPIEIT in the Church, in the Baptismal Creed, —
" 1. The Baptismal covenant (says he, in the Introduction to his Catholic Theology, 1675, foL), expounded in the ancient Creed, is the sum and symbol of Christianity, by which believers were to be distin guished from unbelievers ; and the outward profession of it was men's title to church communion, and their heart-consent was their title-condition of pardon and salvation ; and to these ends it was made by Christ Sim- self. (Matt, xxviii. 20. Mark xvi. 16.)
" 2. All that were baptized did profess to believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and devoted themselves to Him with profession of repentance for former sins, and renouncing the lusta of the flesh, the world, and the devil, professing to begin a new and holy life, in hope of everlasting glory.
"3. This form of baptismal covenanting and profession began with Christianity ; and called our Christening, or making us Christians, has been propagated, and delivered down to us to this day, by a full and certain tradition and testimony.
" 4. The Apostles were never such formalists and friends to ignorance and hypocrisy, as to encourage the baptized to take up with the saying, I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, without teaching them to understand what they said. Therefore, undoubtedly, they expounded
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Heretics arose and impugned this Faith. But Christ's promise failed not. He used these Heresies for the clearer manifestation, and stronger confirmation, of the Truth. The various Heresies, which were put forth in ancient times, called forth the vigilance of Bishops and Pastors of Christ's Church ; and stimulated them to sewrch the Scriptures, and to declare the true sense of the Bible, and to vindicate the primitive Faith, which they had received from their fore fathers, and to condemn the erroneous doctrines by which that Faith was assailed.
For example : The false tenets of Sabellianism aroused the zeal of the Church in behalf of the true faith in the Ever- Blessed Trinity. The errors of Photinians and Arians were made subservient to the clearer manifestation of the God head of Christ. The Heresy of the Macedonians became an occasion for the fuller declaration of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. The errors of Marcionites and Manichseans,
those three articles ; and that Exposition could be no other in sense than the Creed is. And when St. Paul recites the articles of Christianity (1 Cor. xv.), and mentions the form of sound words (2 Tim. i. 13), we may be sure that they all gave the people one unchanged exposition as to the sense. Christianity was one unchanged thing.
" 5. Though I am not of their mind, that think the Twelve Apostles each one made an article of the Creed, or that they formed and tied men to just