^ OF PRI^ 
 
 ^LOGICAL SE*^ 
 
 BR 45 .B35 1863 
 Bampton lectures 
 
THE 
 
 BAMPTON LECTUKES 
 
 FOR MDCCCLXIII. 
 
LOIfDON" 
 
 rltlNTED BY SPOTTISWOODB AND CO. 
 
 NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
THE RELATION 
 
 BETWEEN THE 
 
 DIVINE AND HUMAN ELEMENTS IN 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 EIGHT LECTUKES 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OE OXFORD 
 IN THE YEAR MDCCCLXIII. 
 
 ON THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A.)L- 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 J. HANNAH, D.C.L. 
 
 WARDEN OF TRINITT COLLEGE, GLENALMOND, AND PANTONIAN PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGT j 
 LATE FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN MTJEEAT, ALBEMAELE STEEET, 
 
 3863. 
 
 The rigkt of translation is reserved 
 
EXTRACT 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 EEV. JOHN BAMPTON, 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 ' I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the Chancellor, 
 
 Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for ever, to have 
 and to hold all and singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and 
 to the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, 
 I will and appoint that the Vice- Chancellor of the University of 
 Oxford for the time being shall take and receive all the rents, 
 issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and 
 necessary deductions made) that he pay all the remainder to the 
 endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be established 
 for ever in the said University, and to be performed in the 
 manner following : 
 
 ' I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter Term, 
 a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by 
 no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, between the 
 hours of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach 
 eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's 
 in Oxford, between the commencement of the last month in Lent 
 Term, and the end of the third week in Act Term. 
 
 ' Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture 
 Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following Subjects — 
 to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all 
 
vi EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON'S WILL. 
 
 ' heretics and schismatics — upon the divine authority of the Holy 
 1 Scriptures — upon the authority of the writings of the primitive 
 ' Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church — 
 1 upon the Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon 
 ' the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian 
 ' Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. 
 
 ' Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture 
 ' Sermons shall be always printed within two months after they are 
 ' preached, and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the 
 ' University, and one copy to the Head of every College, and one 
 ' copy to the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one copy to be put 
 ' into the Bodleian Library ; and the expense of printing them shall 
 ' be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates given for 
 ' establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall 
 ' not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are 
 ' printed. 
 
 ' Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to 
 ' preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken the 
 ' degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities of 
 ' Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same person shall never preach 
 ' the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice.' 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 INSPIRATION AND REVELATION ; THEIR RESPECTIVE DEFINITIONS 
 AND RANGE PAG3 1 
 
 [Delivered March 8.] 
 
 Romans viii. 16. 
 
 * The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that ice 
 are the children of God.' 
 
 Introduction. — The influence of the Holy Spirit, whether before or 
 since the Fall, not such as to supersede the free agency of man. 
 The unfettered action of our faculties within their own sphere 
 compatible with our dependence on the grace of God for all 
 good. The consequent combination of a divine and human 
 element in all our holy thoughts and works. 
 
 Probability that in that purest form of spiritual influence to 
 which we owe the Holy Scriptures the divine and human 
 elements will both be complete. 
 
 Erroneous tendencies of opposite theories, which on the one 
 hand cause the divine to exclude the human, and on the other 
 hand cause the human to blot out the divine. 
 
 In suggesting that these may be corrected by admitting the 
 completeness of both elements, we make no attempt to draw a 
 frontier line between those elements, or to define the mode of the 
 Divine influence ; but we know the avenue through which the 
 Holy Spirit reaches us — namely, through the spirit in ourselves. 
 
 The starting-point, then, must be sought for in the doctrine 
 of Inspiration; to which the doctrine of Revelation sup- 
 plies the counterpart: the distinction between these words 
 
VU1 CONTENTS. 
 
 corresponding, though not with perfect exactness, to that 
 which we draw between the writers of Scripture and the 
 subject-matter of their record. The two terms not coexten- 
 sive, either with each other or with Scripture. 
 
 I. Inspiration implies the existence of a spirit in man, which is 
 capable of holding communion with the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 1. Uniform accuracy with which, from creation to resurrec- 
 tion, Scripture treats the human irvtv/Aa as a separate principle, 
 which must be carefully distinguished from the sold. St. Paul's 
 trichotomy not to be confounded with the Aristotelian, which 
 rests upon a different method. The proper place and province 
 cf the spirit, especially in regard to the differentia of man. 
 
 2. The Presence of the Holy Spirit not to be limited to any 
 one particular form of Inspiration. Difference of degrees 
 under which the Presence of all the Persons in the Trinity is 
 revealed to us. 
 
 Presence of the Holy Spirit in the material universe ; in the 
 intellect, the will, the moral faculties of man ; but in old times 
 more especially as inspiring the series of the Old Testament 
 writers. Great change traceable in the New Testament, where 
 the Baptism of John and all other gifts previous to the day of 
 Pentecost are counted as nothing in comparison with the gifts, 
 themselves also widely diversified, which are bestowed under 
 the conditions of the Christian covenant. Inspiration of the 
 New Testament writers analogous to what was noted in the Old. 
 
 Illustrate by the distinction between comparative and abso- 
 lute condemnation and exclusion, as applied to other aspects of 
 the gifts of God. 
 
 The wide range of Inspiration no argument against our 
 belief in the special intensity of its peculiar influence in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Converging proofs of the canonical authority of Scripture. 
 
 II. Revelation supplies the main feature in the differentia, by which 
 that special inspiration is defined. But here again we can 
 trace fainter kinds outside of Scripture, in manifestations of 
 God through the works of nature and the conscience of man. 
 
 Revelations granted in Scripture, and there distinguishable 
 from human materials, differ from both the above kinds of 
 manifestation, as being direct communications to the human 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 spirit of objective knowledge which it could not or did not 
 otherwise command : — 
 
 1. Looking at Scripture externally, it contains two series of 
 facts, which answer to each other in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments, and which are combined into unity by a uniform and 
 supernatural interpretation revealed to its writers. 
 
 2. Taking the chain of facts as one, it is all along accom- 
 panied by the revelation of a higher series, belonging to a 
 supernatural order. Impossibility that this could have been 
 supplied from human resources. 
 
 The Presence of the Spirit, which gave that revelation, to 
 be again carefully distinguished from His Presence in the hearts 
 of all Christians, as the sole source of a holy life. Answer 
 remonstrances against the bondage of a historical religion, by 
 pointing out that 
 
 1. Scripture not only embodies the results of the highest 
 spiritual gifts; but 
 
 2. Records the only certified revelations from the unseen 
 world. 
 
 These explanations intended to form the basis of an enquiry into the 
 completeness of both the divine and human elements, to each 
 of which subjects three of the succeeding Lectures are devoted. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THE DIVINE ELEMENT — REALITY OF THE REVELATION, AS ESTA- 
 BLISHED BY A CONTRAST WITH HEATHEN RELIGIONS . PAGE 38 
 
 [Delivered March 15.] 
 
 Acts xvii. 30, 31. 
 'And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now 
 commandeth all men everywhere to repent : Because He 
 hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world 
 in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained ; 
 whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that 
 He hath raised Him from the dead' 
 
 The comparison between the divine element of Scripture and the 
 substance of other religions to be worked out first as to truth, 
 and secondly as to falsehood. 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The five classes under which the whole subject may be 
 arranged : — 
 
 1. The religious knowledge of the heathen, as ascertained 
 independently of Scripture. Different theories on its source, 
 and on its relation to the contents # of the sacred record. The 
 two main aspects in which it has presented itself to the obser- 
 vation of the Church. Common point of departure for both 
 streams of sacred knowledge to be sought for in the primeval 
 promise. 
 
 2. The same as traceable within the Scriptures themselves. 
 Relation of the Church from the beginning to the outer world 
 with which it came into immediate contact. 
 
 3. The divine element of Scripture properly so called. 
 Nature of its development; rather analytic than synthetic. 
 That development traceable both through theology, in the gra- 
 dual disclosures of the Name of God ; and through morality, as it 
 is deepened and organised in the writings of the prophets. 
 
 4. The positive ordinances by which it was guarded ; their 
 nature and true relation to spiritual religion. 
 
 5. The human element through which it was conveyed. 
 The characters and other qualifications of the inspired writers. 
 
 II. Falsehoods and shortcomings of heathen religions: — 
 
 1. The truths which can be traced in them never embraced 
 any entire system ; the religions were ever ready to go over to 
 the side of evil; they degenerated till they represented a lower 
 moral stage than that of their own worshippers; when the 
 forms of religion broke away from their substance, and my- 
 thologies became the least religious portion of the national life. 
 
 2. Their whole framework was manifestly human, not 
 divine ; as proved by an inspection of both theologies and 
 philosophies of religion. 
 
 3. The difference illustrated at length from St. Paul's Dis- 
 course at Athens. Nature of his appeal ; and the partial 
 support which each portion of it would secure from different 
 sections of his hearers. His ' new doctrine :' 
 
 o. As to God; the Creator, the Preserver, and the Governor 
 of men. 
 
 ft. As to mankind; all men brethren of each other and 
 equally sons of God. 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 y. As to the new relation between God and man through 
 the Redemption and Resurrection. 
 The contrast thus brought to its issue in the Incarnation of Christ, 
 and the grand results which depend upon it. Mode in which 
 the one fatal defect of all false religions was remedied, when 
 a way was thus opened, through which man could again find 
 access to God. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 THE DIVINE ELEMENT — REALITY OF THE INSPIRATION, AS ILLUS- 
 TRATED BY THE ANTINOMIES OF SCRIPTURE . . page 74 
 
 [Delivered April 19.] 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 ' Noio toe see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. 1 
 
 From the reality of Scripture Revelation, we pass to consider its 
 Inspiration; and first, for the Antinomies of Scripture; or the 
 mode in which great truths were brought within the range 
 of the human intellect. 
 
 General character of Scripture accommodation ; nature and limita- 
 tions of the doctrine ; the revelation as explicit and direct as 
 the qualifications of its hearers would permit them to receive. 
 
 Two modes in which alleged contradictions in Scripture can be dealt 
 with; indirect, or apologetic; and direct, or expository. The 
 latter course to be now pursued; moral difficulties, however, 
 being reserved for Lecture VI. 
 
 Distinction between contradiction in the text and contradiction in the 
 comment. The latter on no account to be mistaken for the 
 former. 
 
 The general characteristic of the highest principles, that they can only 
 be set forth fully in contrasted statements, of which neither is 
 exclusively true. Show this both in speculation and in reve- 
 lation. Causes of this peculiarity twofold : — 
 
 1 . Relative ; in cases where a counter-truth is revealed by 
 the same authority. 
 
 2. Absolute; in cases where the difficulty emerges of itself, 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 if we make the effort to fathom a principle which baffles the 
 
 operation of our thought. 
 General list of illustrations from Scripture ; and different degrees 
 
 in which the apparent difficulty can be removed. 
 These instances supply the basis for the following remarks on the 
 
 method of Scripture : — 
 
 1. That each alternative is usually stated unreservedly, 
 simply, and emphatically ; with no attempt to weaken its force 
 by any suggestions of a reconciliation. Such concentration a 
 foremost sign of earnestness and truth. 
 
 2. This fearlessness of enunciation seen most conspicuously, 
 when the antithesis is brought out in one passage, in one chap- 
 ter, in one book, or in one department of Scripture. 
 
 3. Illustrated by the elpwvtia. of the Jews; as shown, not 
 only by their acceptance of the Book of Job, but by the lan- 
 guage of Abraham and Moses, of David, of Asaph, of Solomon, 
 of Jeremiah. 
 
 Detailed examination of two more prominent instances : — 
 
 1. The apparent corrections supplied by later writings to 
 the earlier teaching; the Second Commandment compared with 
 Ezekiel xviii. ; and passages examined which seem to impose 
 limitations on the claims of the Law, and point to its approach- 
 ing cessation at Christ's Advent. 
 
 2. The apparent contrariety between St. Paul and St. James, 
 on the respective provinces of faith and works. 
 
 Marvellous unity of Scripture, as traceable beneath the external 
 diversity of its various writers, contrasted as they are with 
 each other in position, character, and previous training. 
 
CONTENTS. Xill 
 
 LECTUEE IV. 
 
 THE DIVINE ELEMENT — REALITY OF THE INSPIRATION, AS ILLUS- 
 TRATED BY THE DUPLEX SENSUS .... PAGE 107 
 
 [Delivered April 26.] 
 KOMANS XV. 4. 
 
 1 Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for 
 our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the 
 Scriptures might have hope.' 1 
 
 Two conditions of a revelation ; that it shall be adjusted to its 
 original hearers, yet capable of future expansion. The latter 
 the basis of the duplex sensus; a doctrine which has been 
 much misunderstood and suspected. 
 
 The necessity of admitting such a doctrine, under proper limita- 
 tions, established both from the very conception of a revela- 
 tion, and from the facts which are presented in Scripture ; 
 and that, whether we look at the language of the prophets, 
 or at the interpretations furnished by Christ and His apostles. 
 
 The explanation to be found in what may be called the double 
 authorship of Scripture ; and in the peculiarity that the res 
 beneath the voces are significant as well as they. 
 
 But we have here to note especially : 
 
 1. That the rights of the human writers are invariably 
 respected and reserved. Each always had one primary 
 and sufficient meaning, connected with his special mission. 
 The secondary application, which is often repeated more than 
 once before the end, is in addition to, and in no way subver- 
 sive of, the original or primary meaning. 
 
 2. That the first sense does not lose its use and interest 
 when the second is disclosed. Abiding value of the Mosaic 
 Law. 
 
 The New Testament usage suggests three classes of interpretation : — 
 
 1. Symbolical; when objects and events, which in them- 
 selves were real and historical, are found to embody a spiritual 
 lesson. 
 
 2. Typical ; when that spiritual lesson is distinctly prophetic. 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 3. Representative ; wheu rules are translated back into 
 
 their principles. 
 Illustrations at length of all these, and especially of the first, by a 
 
 detailed examination of St. Paul's mode of dealing with the 
 
 history of Sarah and Hagar. 
 Extension of the same principle to explain the New Testament 
 
 quotations from the Old Testament. 
 Enquiry whether we are to confine ourselves to the recognition of 
 
 such secondary meanings as are authorised in Scripture. 
 Summary of the objections which the above course of argument 
 
 proposes to remove. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE HUMAN ELEMENT — HISTORY AND SCIENCE . page 139 
 
 [Delivered May 3.] 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
 ' We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency 
 of the power may he of God, and not of us." 1 
 
 A well-instructed faith need not fear the complete recognition of the 
 human element. Evil of deductive definitions and exaggerated 
 language, with instances of both. 
 
 Real ground for uneasiness because of the attempt to argue across 
 from alleged historical inaccuracy to general untruthfulness, 
 and even moral and religious error. Restrictions under which 
 the enquiry must be conducted. 
 
 I. Historical Question. — Light thrown on the subject by 
 
 1. Various readings in Scripture; 
 
 2. Apparent method of its composition, and its relation to 
 earlier materials ; 
 
 3. Traces in the older Scriptures of slight editorial glosses 
 or corrections. 
 
 Examination under each of these heads of the precise significancy 
 of the facts established ; and contrast between the little which 
 liny really prove, and the exaggerated conclusions which have 
 been rested on them. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 II. Scientific Question. — Grand distinction between the form of 
 Scripture and its substance; and danger of thrusting human 
 interpretations into the exegesis of Scripture itself. Meaning 
 of the warning, that we are not to tie down Scripture to 
 theories of science, which may have coloured the contempo- 
 rary language of its human authors. That language optical or 
 phenomenal ; and in other respects also adjusted to its earliest 
 hearers. 
 
 Examination of the record of creation ; which should be regarded 
 rather as a theological revelation than as history or tradition, 
 or as visions, parable, or psalm. The geological attack con- 
 fined in general to the form, not the substance, of the record. 
 Reasons for which we may conceive that this particular form 
 was imposed ; and its connection with the Fourth Command- 
 ment. 
 
 Evil of misunderstandings, on either side, in relation to the scien- 
 tific question. True position of Scripture in its bearings on 
 science. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 TIIE HUMAN ELEMENT — MORAL DIFFICULTIES . . page 171 
 
 [Delivered May 10.] 
 
 Matt. xiii. 33. 
 
 ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman 
 took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole ivas 
 leavened,' 
 
 The obstacles which retarded man's recovery of truth after the Fall. 
 Light thrown on this subject by the figure of leaven, as suggest- 
 ing the gradual introduction of a counter-principle of good, 
 to thwart and exterminate the influence of evil. Illustrate by 
 the gradual unfolding of intellectual and moral truth, and the 
 establishment of purer national customs and laws. 
 
 Instances of moral difficulties raised on ancient Scriptural histories ; 
 as to the apparent neglect of truth, justice, and mercy. 
 
 Fragmentary character of the earliest morality ; its want of organisa- 
 tion and discrimination. 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Proof afforded by more detailed narratives in Scripture, that a 
 mixture of sin in the motives of actions was followed by a 
 mixture of evil with the reward. 
 
 Necessity of avoiding the error which would treat all parts of Scrip- 
 ture as standing on the same level, and would examine its 
 lessons without reference to the circumstances under which 
 they were conveyed. 
 
 Position of the older Jews ; the worth and work of the old Jewish 
 zeal ; and the extent to which Scripture everywhere recognises 
 the need of righteous anger as a guard against sin. 
 
 Detailed examination of the Song of Deborah ; its date, its circum- 
 stances, and the explanations under which its words must be 
 received. 
 
 Correction in form to which such a narrative must be subjected 
 before we can see the exact bearing of its lessons for ourselves. 
 The love for good incompatible with the tolerance of evil ; as 
 illustrated from the history of Moses, of St. John the Divine, 
 and of our Lord. 
 
 Exact relation of lessons drawn respectively from the Old and New 
 Testaments. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE HUMAN ELEMENT— SUPERIORITY OF SCRIPTURE TO ITS 
 WRITERS ........ FACE 198 
 
 [Delivered May 17.] 
 
 Acts xiv. 15. 
 ' We also are men of like passions with you? 
 
 The subject of the preceding Lecture to be completed by a more 
 minute examination of two leading instances taken from 
 the New Testament, where fuller materials for analysis are 
 given. 
 
 Human interest of Scripture largely dependent on the fact, that 
 its writers were ' men of like passions ' with ourselves. Yet 
 the divine message never tarnished by the errors of those 
 through whom it was conveyed. 
 
CONTENTS. XVli 
 
 I. Exemplify by the records of St. Peter's life. Three great illus- 
 trations of the uneven balance between faith and knowledge in 
 St. Peter's character : — 
 
 1. His declaration of the Divinity of Christ, followed by his 
 denial ; 
 
 2. His announcement of the approaching free admission of 
 the Gentiles, followed by the doubts which it needed a 
 heavenly vision to remove; 
 
 3. His speech at the council of Jerusalem in favour of 
 releasing the Gentiles from the Law of Moses, followed by his 
 vacillation at Antioch. 
 
 Evidence that both by the side of these events in his speeches, 
 and subsequently in his Epistles, his Divine message stood 
 completely free from any weakness which could thus be traced 
 in his personal character. 
 
 II. Difference of character between St. Peter' and St. Paul. The 
 double aspect in which the earlier life of St. Paul can be 
 regarded. Continuity of what was good, but sudden removal 
 of the earlier evil. Three questions arise after his conversion : — 
 
 1. Do we find any traces of his Christian development 
 after that period ? 
 
 2. Supposing it to exist, does it imply that there were im- 
 perfections in his earliest message ? 
 
 3. Can we trace the vibrations of uncertainty in his 
 writings ? 
 
 Admitting the first point, we do not find that the evidence is sufficient 
 to give an affirmative answer to the second and third of these 
 questions. Examination of the three subjects in detail. Proof 
 of the unity which marked his message, gained by comparing 
 his speeches with his Epistles. Characteristics of his method, 
 as shown by his statements on the Law, and on the position of 
 the Jews. 
 
 Great importance of the human element in Scripture. 
 
xvm CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 GENERAL CONCLUSION page 226 
 
 [Delivered June 7.] 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 15. 
 'Rightly dividing the word of truth.'' 
 
 I. Purport of this closing Lecture to sum up the results which it 
 has been endeavoured to establish. 
 
 Our question is the narrowest, though not the least important, of 
 three great controversies; relating to the respective differentiae 
 of Scripture, of Christianity, and of Man. 
 
 Duty of dealing with all three calmly; and of recognising without 
 fear the generic resemblances, so long as the specific distinc- 
 tions are properly guarded. 
 
 For our immediate question; dwell on the importance of according 
 a complete recognition to both the divine and human elements, 
 as the only apparent mode of reconciling the perplexities of 
 the great problem. 
 
 Analogy with the twofold nature of Christ; how far we may appeal 
 to it; what it accounts for; and wherein it stops short. 
 
 The dread of acknowledging the human element in Scripture rests 
 on a mistaken conception of the place and effect of sin. 
 Parallel with the ' divine decorum ' which is traceable through- 
 out Christ's life, though He ' was in all points tempted like as 
 we are.' 
 
 The principle maintained is to be regarded a the result of an enquiry, 
 not the dictate of a theory. Our examination of the facts lias 
 traversed the documentary history of Scripture, as to various 
 readings, editorial glosses, and enduring misconceptions; its 
 relation to older materials, as well as to tradition and heathen 
 history and literature ; and the form in which it resembles 
 other ancient histories, though arguments from chronology 
 and numbers are to be used with caution. Application of the 
 same to scientific language. The 'divine decorum' has been 
 found to exist in all respects unsullied; the mural difficulties 
 admitting ol'a similar explanation. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 On the other hand, the reality of the divine element is manifest, as 
 objective in its origin, perfect in its moral and religious teach- 
 ing, broad in its grasp of fundamental principles, and embody- 
 ing a deeper sense beneath the letter. 
 
 Verification of the induction by the application of some reasonable 
 conditions : — 
 
 1. The principles found to be such as man could not have 
 discovered : 
 
 2. The duplex sensus being real, and capable of a sufficient 
 explanation ; 
 
 3. The work being in all respects above the compass of 
 the human writers. 
 
 II. Lessons to be drawn on the subject of Scripture interpretation : — 
 
 1. That interpretation must be spiritual ; and must differ 
 from that of any other book, so far as Scripture itself is dis- 
 tinguished from any other book by its possession of a divine 
 as well as human authorshijj. 
 
 2. It must also be comprehensive ; not rested on isolated 
 texts. 
 
 3. It must be widened to embrace both sides of teaching, 
 on any subject where a narrower view would be the mistake 
 of half-truths for truths. Practical illustration, in the blind- 
 ness of the Jews on the Divinity of Christ. 
 
 4. It must cover all parts of Scripture, even those of which 
 the present application is obscure. Fatal tendency of the opposite 
 method. 
 
 Conclusion. — The deep practical importance of passing on from 
 enquiries into the inspiration of Scripture, to seek the living 
 inspiration of a holy life. 
 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 
 On Lecture I. . 
 On Lecture II. . 
 On Lecture III. . 
 On Lecture IV. . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 255 
 
 278 
 300 
 318 
 
 On Lecture V. . 
 On Lecture VI. . 
 On Lecture VII. 
 On Lecture VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 330 
 346 
 352 
 360 
 

 LECTURE I. 
 
 Romans viii. 16. 
 
 ' The Spirit itself bearetli witness with our spirit, that we 
 are the children of God.' 
 
 THROUGHOUT the argument completed in the 
 context of this passage, St. Paul unfolds the secret 
 operation of the Holy Spirit, which rescues our spirits 
 ' from the law of sin and death,' a to give them a living 
 interest in the incarnation of Christ. But our depen- 
 dence on that gracious presence is not to be confounded 
 with the dumb expectation of inferior creatures ; nor 
 need we limit our exposition to that contrast with the 
 legal system which gave shape to the immediate rea- 
 soning of the Apostle. In a broader sense we may 
 accept his teaching, that the Divine Spirit addresses 
 us as sons, not as servants ; that it uses the language of 
 adoption, not of bondage ; that it bears its witness with 
 a spirit in ourselves ; that it never supersedes our own 
 responsibility, nor subjugates our natural faculties. 
 The ground of our salvation is wrought out for us by 
 our Lord; the work of our renewal is wrought out 
 with us by His Spirit. That deathless principle, which 
 
 a Rom. viii. 2. 
 B 
 
2 LECTURE I. 
 
 was once so degraded, which now hears His voice and 
 follows His guidance, and yields to the gentle influence 
 of restoring grace — that principle was planted when 
 man was created ; and, however carnalised it may be 
 by transgression, has never been completely silenced 
 or destroyed (1). We still at our very worst estate 
 retain it, like the lingering element of health, which 
 the Good Physician uses as the groundwork for His 
 healing process : it listens when the Spirit whispers 
 of the love which moved the Father to send His Son, 
 and moved the Son to die for man ; it speaks in the 
 feeble tones of prayer, while ' the Spirit itself maketh 
 intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be 
 uttered.' a 
 
 In this doctrine we trace a twofold truth, which 
 admits of universal application through religious 
 history and thought. The character of God's moral 
 government would lead us to believe that when He 
 made man in His own image, b He gave him all the 
 faculties he needed for working out the end of his 
 creation. But a just conception of the source of holi- 
 ness would connect this belief with the corresponding 
 conviction, that the grace of God was always indis- 
 pensable, before any excellence in the creature could be 
 achieved — that it was requisite before, and with, and 
 after every movement, to prevent, cooperate with, mid 
 crown the work (2). It cannot be supposed that there 
 was any exception in Paradise to that supremacy 
 of the Divine sanctity, which claims every form and 
 
 a Rom. viii. 26. b Gen. i. 26, 27. 
 
LECTURE I. 3 
 
 phase of good as the direct operation of the Spirit of 
 the Lord. It cannot be doubted that the Holy Spirit 
 bore witness with man's spirit in its original state of 
 purity ; inspired it with filial love for its Heavenly 
 Father ; and taught it the lessons of obedience which it 
 required for the guidance of a holy life. When man's 
 moral trial had issued in his sin, and when sin had 
 grieved his Divine visitant, and had brought discord 
 and weakness into his forsaken nature, we have no 
 reason to think that his punishment involved the loss 
 of any organic endowment which he had previously 
 possessed. Through the gradual training of our 
 restoration, we still trace everywhere the continued 
 working of this double law, whether in Gentile ex- 
 perience, or in Jewish revelation, or in Christian light. 
 That law combines a divine and human element in 
 every holy deed or thought of man. Our recovery is 
 the work of the Spirit of God; yet man, though so 
 fallen, retains a moral right of will, which resists com- 
 pulsion even in the act of salvation, and can be 
 renewed and restored upon no other principle than by 
 the leading and guiding persuasion of grace. On the 
 one of these laws rests all morality, which assumes the 
 free responsibility of man ; on the other of these laws 
 rests all theology, which teaches us the necessary 
 dependence of the creature on the energy and help of 
 God. If we deny that man was created as in some 
 sort a law unto himself, a we break the very main- 
 spring of the moral system. If we admit that man 
 
 a Rom. ii. 14. 
 
 R 2 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 possesses any independent virtue, by which he can 
 perform good actions without assistance from the 
 grace of God, we sanction the disposition to rebel 
 against God's supremacy which tempted our first 
 parents to their fall. The two principles, we doubt 
 not, would have worked together in perfect harmony, 
 had not the balance been disturbed by the intrusion of 
 sin. The restoration of that balance does but readjust 
 the relation which it was not the will of God to cancel. 
 It is still through the witness of the Holy Spirit that 
 we learn to know ourselves to be His children ; but we 
 could not understand that witness if we did not retain 
 a spirit in ourselves, which can recognise and answer 
 to the voice of God. 
 
 It will be my object, through the course of 
 Lectures on which we are now entering, to call 
 your attention to the completeness of the divine and 
 human elements in the Holy Scriptures, which we 
 receive as the result of the highest operation of God's 
 Spirit on the spirit of man (3). In carrying out 
 this design, it is my wish to base the suggestions 
 which I shall venture to otFer on the wider principle 
 which I have endeavoured to explain. If God's 
 dealings with us seem to rest in all cases on the 
 assumption that the organisation of man is complete 
 within its own province, and is only elevated and 
 enlightened, but never superseded, by the help of 
 God, then we may expect to find that in that purest 
 form of spiritual influence to which we owe the 
 Holy Scriptures, we shall be able to trace the 
 
LECTURE I. O 
 
 presence of both elements; existing, indeed, in their 
 highest known perfection, but not departing from 
 the general relation which prevails throughout all 
 lower spheres. 
 
 The doctrine which we are now concerned to 
 establish must be guarded on both sides against two 
 opposite, but not equally imperfect, theories; in the 
 one of which the divine is made to exclude the 
 human, while in the other, by a far worse error, 
 the human is allowed to blot out the divine. 
 
 It is possible, on the one hand, to become so 
 absorbed in the thought of the Divine Giver, that 
 the writer ceases to be recognised as anything more 
 than the mere lifeless instrument through which 
 the Spirit makes itself heard, and is reduced to an 
 agency so purely mechanical, that the human factor 
 is really destroyed. 
 
 It is possible, on the other hand, to dwell so 
 strongly and unduly on the proofs of human agency, 
 that the work of the Inspiring Spirit is reduced to 
 the vague influence, which might be said to preside 
 over any great work of human genius. On this 
 view, which can be subdivided into several separate 
 opinions, the guarantee of a distinctly divine element 
 is equally cancelled and withdrawn. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that, in maintaining, 
 against these extremes, the completeness of both the 
 divine and human elements hi Scripture, we are 
 bound to attempt the determination of a frontier 
 line between them ; any more than we are bound, by 
 the Catholic faith, to draw a similar frontier through 
 
b LECTURE I. 
 
 that union of the divine and human natures in the 
 person of Christ, which there is a growing dis- 
 position to accept, as the model for our belief upon 
 His written Word (4). Nor, again, can any attempt 
 be made to explain the mode in which the mind 
 of man has, in this or any other case, been moved 
 and influenced by the Spirit of God. But, though 
 the mode of operation must remain undefined, the 
 avenue through which the Holy Spirit reaches us 
 is explained beyond all doubt in Scripture. The 
 witness of God's Spirit is addressed to the spirit in 
 ourselves. All practical religion must assume the 
 principle, that man is endowed with spiritual faculties, 
 which enable him to enter into communion with God. 
 The starting-point of our enquiry, then, must be 
 sought for in the doctrine of Inspiration; to which 
 we shall find that the doctrine of Revelation supplies 
 the proper counterpart and completion (5). These 
 two terms correspond, though not with exact pre- 
 cision, to the distinction which we should draw 
 between the sacred writers and the subject-matter 
 of their record. The doctrine of Inspiration belongs 
 mainly, though not exclusively, to the one head; 
 the doctrine of Revelation belongs mainly, if not 
 exclusively, to the other. The sacred writers were 
 inspired to record what was revealed; and their 
 works preserve the substance of the revelation, under 
 the guarantee which their inspiration furnished. 
 The revelation, then, implied a corresponding in- 
 spiration, to enable men to receive and transmit the 
 Divine message; and it was necessary that this 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 inspiration should first exist in the spirit of the 
 writer, though we can detect its presence in the 
 message also, because that message is often freighted 
 with a deeper store of spiritual meaning, and exerts 
 a living influence of greater spiritual power, than its 
 original recipient could foresee. 
 
 But some confusion has arisen from overlooking 
 that these two words are not co-extensive, either 
 with each other or with the sacred record. Both 
 may be applied, with more or less propriety, to 
 phenomena which lie outside of Scripture: and 
 while it is maintained that every part of Canonical 
 Scripture is inspired, it is needless to claim Revela- 
 tion for those portions of the narrative which could 
 be derived from ordinary human sources. On these 
 points, therefore, we may offer, in the outset, a more 
 detailed explanation. 
 
 I. The doctrine of Inspiration, on its human side (6), 
 implies that recognition of man's spiritual na- 
 ture, which distinguishes the mental analysis of 
 Scripture from divisions with which a hasty obser- 
 vation might confound it. On the other hand, the 
 doctrine of the province and operations of the Spirit 
 rests in turn upon certain positions on the source 
 and nature of that higher element, which philosophy 
 might reject as theological limitations, 3 but which 
 Scripture assumes as the basis of its teaching, on 
 the relation between man and his Maker. ' The 
 Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.' This 
 
 a Sir W. Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics, i. 134. 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 is the simplest statement of the point of contact 
 between our inspiration and its source in God. 
 When the usage of Scripture goes on to distinguish 
 between the spirit and the soul, it indicates the 
 exact difference between the lines that can be traced 
 by human science and the proper sphere of the 
 religious element. This distinction is maintained, 
 with an accuracy which bears witness to its im- 
 portance, through the long series of Scripture writers 
 — from the history of the Creation to the latest 
 forecast of the future exaltation of the resurrection 
 body. We learn, in the beginning, that from dust 
 came the materials of which our body was composed ; 
 that from God came the inspiration, which breathed 
 into our frame the spirit of a higher life; and that 
 these were united in the ' living soul,' a to which 
 mental analysis is more commonly confined. Pass 
 to the other end of Scripture, and we find that 
 the same distinction gives its deep significance to 
 St. Paul's account of the glories which shall elevate the 
 risen body, when the frame, which is now adjusted 
 to the needs of the soul, shall be fitted for the higher 
 functions of the emancipated spirit. 5 We trace it 
 through the Old Testament, in the many passages 
 which tell us of the glory of the spirit and its gifts. 
 We trace it in such language as that of Isaiah, 'With 
 my soul have I desired;' 'with my spirit within 
 me will I seek Thee early :' c in such passages as 
 that great prophecy in the 16th Psalm, ' Wherefore 
 
 a Gen. ii. 7. b 1 Cor. xv. 44. 
 
 c Isa. xxvi. '.*. Cf. Gen. xlix. 6; Ps. vii. 5; Prov. xx. 27. 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 my heart was glad, and my glory rejoiced ; my 
 flesh also shall rest in hope : ' a in such words as 
 those which meet us at the beginning of the 
 Magnificat, ' My soul doth magnify ; ' ' my spirit hath 
 rejoiced.' b And the special teaching of the Gospel 
 is everywhere coloured by the same discrimination, 
 which causes the distinction between flesh and spirit 
 to differ so widely in significance from the common 
 distinction between soul and body; and which finds 
 its highest expression in such contrasts as the words 
 of Christ, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
 and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit ; ' c or 
 in the words of His Apostle, ' to be carnally minded 
 is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and 
 peace.' d 
 
 The Scripture trichotomy, then, of spirit, soul, and 
 body e (7), is distinguished by its combination of the 
 physical and theological aspects, which science deals 
 with under different methods. We are familiar with 
 the process by which the heathen philosopher advances f 
 from one series of vital phenomena to another, ar- 
 ranging them as though it were in stages, like the 
 concentric steps of some great pyramid : first, the signs 
 of mere organised growth, like that of plants ; then 
 the signs of sensibility, like that of animals ; then the 
 moral feelings; then the intellectual faculties ; in each 
 of which progressions we trace the gradual perfecting 
 of attributes which are faintly shadowed forth in 
 
 a Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 26. b Luke i. 46, 47. 
 
 c John iii. 6. d Rom. viii. 6. 
 
 e 1 Thess.v. 23; Heb. iv. 12. f Ar., Eth. N.I. xiii., &c. 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 creatures of a lower order. He thus constructs, I say, 
 a pyramid of being, which reaches its culminating point 
 in man. All this is perfectly clear and intelligible. 
 But when all this has been set forth, in its neatest and 
 most finished form, we have seen no more than to, t% 
 \J/u;£% /*sfV the description of man still lacks its 
 noblest element — the spirit which descends upon him 
 from a higher sphere, to meet the ascending principle 
 of vitality and fill it with celestial light (8). The 
 labours of physiologists have suggested a scale by 
 which we can measure, more or less exactly, each 
 step in the series, and can span by an interval of fixed 
 degrees the gulf which intervenes between the highest 
 capacity of the most perfect brain in brutes, and the 
 meanest capacity of the least perfect brain in man (9). 
 But they can no more measure the difference which 
 the presence of the spirit introduces, than they could 
 complete the description of a material pyramid by 
 gauging the sunlight which crowns its apex with a 
 brightness streaming straight from heaven. 
 
 When ancient poets wished to point the contrast 
 between the shame and glory of our compound nature, 
 they borrowed from religion the ennobling thought, 
 that our spirit is a portion of the breath of God. a 
 Let us only be careful to exclude the Pantheistic 
 conception — that God's gift was a part of His own 
 essence; that man's spirit is itself divine — and we 
 trace in such words the vivid recognition of that 
 religious faculty, which flushes through the naked 
 
 a llor., Sat. II. ii. 79, &c. 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 framework of our earthly organisation, and transfigures 
 it with heavenly radiance. Our text alone would 
 guard us from the error of confounding the created 
 spirit of man with the uncreated and eternal Spirit 
 of the Lord. 
 
 In the universality of this endowment we find the 
 natural explanation for the prevalence of certain fixed 
 religious ideas among mankind (10). But this capacity 
 to receive an inspiring energy from higher sources 
 exerts an influence which reaches far beyond the 
 range of the religious emotions, and embraces within 
 its quickening impulse far more than those who call 
 themselves religious men. 
 
 The gifts of God are always found to overflow the 
 narrow limits which are recognised by the faint gra- 
 titude of man. And it is scarcely too much to say, 
 that the spiritual principle is the true crown of 
 dominion which secures our superiority over the 
 beasts that perish. At all events we cannot doubt that 
 it exerts the chief influence in producing that general 
 elevation of all rudimentary capacities which seems 
 to constitute the true differentia of our race. We 
 should touch with diffidence on scientific controversies 
 which have absorbed the deep attention of so many 
 highly qualified enquirers (n) ; but amidst views so 
 diversified as those which have been urged, we may 
 reasonably ask whether it is not possible that the true 
 solution may be found in a sphere which lies beyond 
 the range of science ; namely, in the endowment of 
 man with a spiritual element, which is identical with 
 no one faculty, but which enters into each of our 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 higher faculties, and raises them all to a loftier power. 
 What else but some special gift of a diviner character 
 could enable us to rise above the faint traces in ani- 
 mals of love for their offspring, and homage for their 
 master, up to the wide range of the moral emotions, and 
 the ennobling influences of the religious life? And 
 may it not be the collateral operation of the same high 
 principle which lifts our mental processes from obser- 
 vation to abstraction, which empowers us to express 
 our thoughts in articulate language, and to pass up- 
 wards from fixed instincts to governable habits, from 
 the stationary sensibility of brutes to the ' progressive 
 and improvable ' intelligence of man ? It can scarcely 
 be doubted, I repeat, that this capacity supplies the 
 source and strength of man's loftiest endowments: 
 the kindling eye, with its ' splendid purpose ; ' the 
 tameless resolution of the steadfast will ; the force of 
 character which binds even worldly aims into a sem- 
 blance of the unity which lies beyond this earthly 
 sphere. Surely nothing less than such an element 
 could exalt fancy into imagination, and understanding 
 into reason, and conscience into faith. Nothing less 
 could transform man from the noblest of animals into 
 the image and likeness of God. 
 
 Such may we conceive to be the nature of that 
 higher principle, which enables us to hold intercourse 
 with Beaven. It would necessarily be the spiritual 
 element, in which man would suffer the deepest injury 
 from the Fall, when sin closed its direct communion 
 with the Holy Spirit, and dropped a veil of ignorance 
 and blindness over the abandoned heart. But thoinrh 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 clouded and weakened, it was never obliterated. 
 That darkness never wholly quenched its light, is 
 proved by all the holier aspirations which heathen 
 records bring to our knowledge ; by every word and 
 act of virtue which the heathen ever uttered or per- 
 formed. Its loss would have reduced us to the level of 
 mere animals, with a somewhat nobler organisation. 
 Its complete perversion would have had the still more 
 fatal effect of transforming us into the likeness of 
 the fallen angels. 
 
 And now let us turn from man to God, and con- 
 template the various forms of influence which the 
 Holy Spirit exerts throughout the universe, and to 
 some of which the term ' inspiration ' is with varying 
 propriety applied. That these forms must, from the 
 nature of the case, be manifold, a very short consi- 
 deration will establish. 
 
 What is true of the Divine Presence must be true 
 in particular of that peculiar presence of the Holy 
 Spirit which we understand by the term ' inspiration.' 
 
 But the Divine Presence is at once universal and 
 special (12). It is universal; for God is omnipresent. 
 It is special ; for the omnipresent God must everywhere 
 be distinguished from His creatures ; the denial of 
 which is formal Pantheism. There have always been 
 places, again, where He has been specially pleased 
 to fix His name. There have always been persons 
 in whose hearts He has been preeminently present. 
 There have been repeated theophanies, wherein 
 His peculiar presence has been revealed to mankind. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 And though it follows, from the Trspi^w^a-ig of the 
 Blessed Trinity, that where one Person is present, 
 all in a sense are present — even as Christ said, ' He 
 that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ' a — yet it is 
 undoubted that the economy of revelation distinguishes 
 in each case between the modes of their presence and 
 the ways or degrees in which it is granted. 
 
 ( 1 . ) The Father is God, and therefore He is omni- 
 present ; yet He dwells especially ' in the light which 
 no man can approach unto ; whom no man hath seen 
 nor can see.' b By another figure He is called a God 
 that liideth Himself ; dwelling ' in the thick darkness ; ' 
 whose ' greatness is unsearchable ; ' whose ' footsteps 
 are not known.' c 
 
 (2.) The Son is God, and therefore He is omni- 
 present ; yet He told His disciples that unless He went 
 away, the Comforter would not come to them ; d and 
 since His departure from earth at His ascension, His 
 presence in His human nature has been confined to 
 His session at the right hand of the Father. But still 
 He continues to be present amongst us, in many spe- 
 cial ways, in, and through, and with His Holy Spirit. 
 He is present with His Church, according to His 
 promise, ' alway, even unto the end of the world.' e 
 He is present in prayer ; present in sacraments ; pre- 
 sent wherever l two or three are gathered together in ' 
 His 'name.' f 
 
 (3. ) Now the same principle must be applied in the 
 
 a John xiv. 9. b 1 Tim. vi. 16. 
 
 c Isa. xlv. 15 ; 1 Kings viii. 12 ; Ps.cxlv. 3 (Bible v.) ; Ps.lxxvii. 19. 
 
 d John xvi. 7. e Matt, xxviii. 20. f Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 case of the Holy Spirit ; and it would be as unreason- 
 able in this as in the former cases to insist upon con- 
 founding one form of the Divine Presence with another. 
 
 Thus the Holy Ghost is God, and therefore He is 
 omnipresent ; and yet there are countless different 
 manifestations under which His special presence is 
 made known. He is present in the works of nature, 
 as when He ' moved upon the face of the waters,' and 
 when He reneweth 'the face of the earth.' a He is 
 present in the higher forms of the human intellect 
 and will, giving skill to ' Bezaleel and Aholiab, and 
 every wise-hearted man,' b teaching the poet to sing, 
 and the ruler to govern, and the warrior in the cause 
 of truth to conquer ; putting the ' spirit of the holy 
 gods' in such as Daniel, 'light and understanding and 
 wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods.' c He is present 
 in man's moral nature, originating everywhere all 
 pure and holy thoughts that man can cherish ; — for 
 what can be pure and good and holy without Him ? 
 He fills, indeed, through all its functions, the entire 
 range of that created spirit, in which we have been 
 tracing the true honour of our race. And yet there 
 is a more peculiar sense in which He is present in the 
 spirits of all Christians, whose bodies are His temple, d 
 abiding there under the conditions of so distinct a 
 covenant, that we are taught to discriminate between 
 the feeblest Christian and the purest heathen by the 
 presence or absence of this grace alone. 
 
 Through all parts of the sacred history, we can 
 
 a Gen. i. 2 ; Ps. civ. 30. b Ex. xxxvi. 1. 
 
 c Dan. v. 11. d 1 Cor. iii. 16, &c. 
 
16 LECTURE I. 
 
 read the unquestioned signs of His presence in 
 degrees of intensity which plainly vary from the 
 highest to the lowest. He dwelt in the hearts of the 
 ancient patriarchs ; or how could they have walked 
 and talked with God ? a He nerved the strength of 
 that great army of confessors and martyrs, who died 
 in the faith which the promise of a ' better country' b 
 had inspired ; whose eyes had never seen ' the King 
 in His beauty,' yet who lived in the confident hope 
 that they should become citizens of ' the land that is 
 very far off.' c The Spirit of the Lord was ever near 
 the people of the Jews, to guide, to warn, to elevate, 
 to strengthen ; imparting courage to their heroes, and 
 wisdom to their rulers, and glory to their national 
 life. Such are the signs of living inspiration which 
 preceded the gifts of the Christian covenant. And by 
 their side, and as their record, we find the productions 
 of a lofty line of writers, who were qualified, by the 
 highest and most specific inspiration, to transmit the 
 Word of God to man. Lawgivers and psalmists, 
 prophets and historians, alike found voice in words of 
 most exalted import, springing from lips that had 
 been touched as if with coals from God's altar. d Pass 
 to the tunes of John the Baptist, and who can doubt 
 that some gifts of the Holy Spirit must have waited 
 on his summons to repentance — gifts higher than any 
 which the heathen shared, and higher than any 
 which had heretofore been granted to the Jew ? But 
 though greater than the greatest of all earlier sons of 
 
 » Gen. v. 24 ; vi. 9, &c. b Hob. xi. 14, 1G. 
 
 c Isa. xxxiii. 17. d Isa. vi. G. 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 men, the Baptist himself was less than the least who 
 has participated in the outpouring of Pentecost. His 
 baptism was only the baptism of water, in contrast 
 with the gifts of Him who baptised ' with the Holy 
 Ghost and with fire.' a And at this crisis comes a 
 change so mighty, that all earlier gifts are swept into 
 the shade by the surpassing brightness of the gifts 
 which Christ had won for man. So great in them- 
 selves, so priceless to their recipients, yet, when con- 
 trasted with that better gift which was reserved for 
 us, they are as nothing: they can be set aside in 
 absolutely negative and exclusive language ; as when 
 Ave are told that ' the Holy Ghost was not yet (given), 
 because that Jesus was not yet glorified ; ' b or that 
 even John's disciples knew as good as nothing of the 
 character and working of the Holy Spirit (13). 
 
 But further. The Holy Spirit is present with a 
 difference, even among Christians. Even yet ' there 
 are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.' d For all 
 alike there is the gift of Baptism, the gift of Confirma- 
 tion, the gift of Holy Communion — each with its 
 special presence of the Holy Spirit. And for some, 
 again, there are such distinct and partial gifts as those 
 conferred in holy orders, with their several degrees. 
 And in the early Church, too, there were other gifts 
 of a still loftier and rarer character ; e gifts which 
 enabled men to work miracles, and to speak with 
 tongues, and to exercise many other wonderful 
 
 a Matt.iii. 11. b John vii. 39. 
 
 c Acts xviii. 25 ; xix. 2. d 1 Cor. xii. 4. 
 
 e Rom. xii. 6-8 ; 1 Cor. xii. 8-10, &c. 
 
 C 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 powers, which it was needless for their Giver to 
 perpetuate, when His Church had been established in 
 the world. 
 
 Now through all the classes which have been men- 
 tioned the word ' inspiration ' might be used, and in 
 some instances often is used, of each separate and dis- 
 tinct form of communication between the Holy Spirit 
 and the spirit of man. Yet it is clear that no such 
 special usage could limit any of the other meanings ; 
 still less could any such general use of the word be 
 employed as an argument against the special character 
 of that greatest and rarest gift of the Spirit, which 
 we believe that He vouchsafed to all the writers of 
 the Holy Scriptures. It is surely futile, then, to tell 
 us, what no one could have doubted, that the early 
 Christian fathers often claimed the presence of this 
 Spirit in themselves. It is futile to remind us that 
 our own Church, in its late and scanty use of the 
 word, is chiefly set on teaching us to pray that God's 
 holy inspiration may guide our own thoughts, and 
 govern our own actions ; that He will 'inspire con- 
 tinually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, 
 unity, and concord ; ' that He will ' cleanse the 
 thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His 
 ' Holy Spirit ' (14). Nor is there any cause to fear 
 that the claim of special inspiration for the writers of 
 those Scriptures, which guarantee the permanence of 
 such a blessing for ourselves, can ' teach us to quench 
 the Spirit in true hearts for ever.' Wlun we are 
 dealing with the relations between man and God, it 
 is perpetually necessary to distinguish between com- 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 pajra.ti.ye and absolute condemnation and exclusion (if). 
 ' Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not ; yea, 
 the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less 
 man, that is a worm, and the son of man, which is a 
 worm ! ' a Thus words which seem to assert un- 
 qualified absence may be meant to describe only a 
 lower and less perfect form of presence. If the 
 language of Eliphaz or of Bildad seems to supply an 
 insufficient instance, we may recollect that Christ 
 taught us to call no man good, while Barnabas is 
 called ' a good man ' in the Acts of the Apostles ; the 
 reason, however, being immediately added, because he 
 was ' full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.' b In like 
 manner, the theological use of the word 'uncovenanted' 
 can be best defended on the ground that it describes 
 the position of those who live under a lower or less 
 specific covenant. St. Paul's expression, ' having not 
 the law,' c refers to those who were left to the 
 guidance of a fainter law within themselves. The 
 Evangelist's assertion that the Holy Ghost was not 
 yet given, can only mean, under any possible rendering 
 of the passage, that His most abundant gifts were 
 still unknown. In the same way, the word 'uninspired' 
 can be applied, with perfect propriety, not only to 
 those, if there be any such, who are excluded from 
 all share whatever in the Spirit's gifts, but also to 
 those whose participation in its various blessings bears 
 no resemblance to that supreme illuminating presence 
 to which the Scripture writers can alone lay claim. 
 
 a Job xxv. 5, 6 ; cf. iv. 18 ; xv. 15. b Matt. xix. 17; Acts xi. 24. 
 c Kom. ii. 14. 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 The wide extent, then, of the influences through 
 which the Holy Spirit operates, is no hindrance to 
 our conviction that there is an innermost centre of 
 inspiration, found only in the Word of God. There 
 may be circle within circle of Divine communion; just 
 as Christ Himself, the friend of all men, drew apart 
 the disciples from among the multitude, and the 
 twelve from among the disciples, and the three from 
 among the twelve, and out of the three chose one to 
 be preeminently distinguished as ' the disciple whom 
 Jesus loved.' a Even in ordinary characters, it is 
 depth which forms the only safeguard for expansive- 
 ness. Much more may we believe, that in a fallen 
 world, where sin had to be arrested, and the leaven 
 of a higher life diffused, the special and extraordinary 
 inspiration of the few would form the natural centre and 
 security for visitations extending to mankind at large. 
 
 Assuming, then, the possibility and probability of 
 high special inspiration, we proceed to affirm that no 
 other books can put in any kind of plea, which brings 
 them even nearly towards the level of the books of the 
 Canonical Scriptures. It is not well to ground the 
 canon on any separate branch of the proofs, by the 
 combination of which it is established (16). No nar- 
 row view of canonical authority can stand: not mere 
 authorship, for the authors of some books are still 
 uncertain, nor is it agreed that every work of every 
 inspired writer is comprised within the canon : not 
 internal evidence alone, for it would be a paradox to 
 
 8 John xxi. 20, &c 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 say that every list of names in Chronicles or Nehe- 
 miah ' shines by its own light,' and contains a higher 
 spiritual witness than the loftiest composition which 
 is rightly accounted in the strict sense uninspired: 
 not mere testimony, lest, in days of gainsaying, we 
 should be unable to give, as Hooker says we ought, 
 an account of ' what reason there is, whereby the 
 testimony of the Church concerning Scripture, and 
 our own persuasion which Scripture itself hath con- 
 firmed, may be proved a truth infallible.' a We are 
 not to rest on any of these singly, but on all in com- 
 bination, each in its due proportion. The light of God 
 in which we see God ; b the eye that seeks us out ; the 
 Spirit which finds our inmost spirit : this is one class 
 of evidence which no one who has felt its depth and 
 strength can undervalue. But before this, and by its 
 side, we need the evidence of testimony, to guard us 
 from accidental errors, and ascertain the Divine ori- 
 ginal of many things which might be wrongly cast 
 aside by a hasty superficial judgment : testimony to 
 prove prophetic or apostolic authority, in cases where 
 such authorship is known ; to prove the witness of the 
 Church herself, in cases where such authorship is un- 
 known : and all these lines of evidence conspire together 
 and corroborate each other, converging to form an 
 arch of proof, which bears the Scriptures on its steady 
 basis ; and defining the sphere of what we mean when 
 we maintain the special inspiration of the writers of 
 the Books of Scripture. 
 
 a E. P. III. viii. § 14. b Ps. xxxvi. 9. 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 It is of the canon of Scripture thus established that 
 we claim to uphold a peculiar inspiration, which differs 
 fundamentally from every other mode of the Divine 
 Presence to which the same name can be given. Nor 
 do we admit that we have placed any limitation on 
 the general influence of the Spirit, by maintaining 
 that the capacity of receiving and again imparting 
 special spiritual knowledge, which Scripture itself 
 enumerates amongst the highest spiritual gifts, 3, bore 
 immediate fruit, through both dispensations, in the 
 production of writings which were properly and pre- 
 eminently inspired, and which were to form the 
 foundation of all exact theology in every age. 
 
 II. But whither shall we turn for the differentia of 
 Scripture, and for the characteristics of this special 
 inspiration? 
 
 The chief element in that differentia will be found 
 in the subject-matter which it deals with; that is to 
 say, in the nature and character of Scripture Revela- 
 tion (17). But here again we are dealing with a term 
 which has received, though with less propriety, a 
 wider application. There have been other manifesta- 
 tions of God to man besides those which are recorded 
 in the volume of Scripture; and to these also the 
 term 'revelation' has been sometimes less properly 
 applied. 
 
 Jt has often been remarked, that the difference 
 between adequate and inadequate conceptions of 
 
 a John xvi. 13 ; Tiom. xii. P> ; 1 Cor. xii. 8-10. 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 Scripture might be thus expressed: that the former 
 accepts it, as containing revelations from God to man ; 
 while the latter regards it as the mere record of man's 
 higher speculations about God. The former view is 
 that which is maintained by every Christian. Yet, 
 that we may not uphold it in an exclusive spirit, 
 Scripture itself directs us to acknowledge that real, 
 though vague, manifestations of the Deity have been 
 granted beyond the pale of the guardianship to which 
 His written oracles have been confined. A fuller 
 examination of the passages will come before us at a 
 future time. It is sufficient for my present purpose 
 to remind you of such sources of what has been 
 called God's unwritten revelation, as the voice of the 
 heavens declaring His glory, and the seasons of the 
 earth proclaiming His goodness; the heart of man, 
 on which the rudiments of truth are traced, and the 
 history of man, which tells of God's dealings with our 
 fathers in the days of old. a To these may be added 
 Christ's own appeal to the teaching of Nature, as it sets 
 forth fundamental truths of religion : the sun rising 
 equally on the evil and on the good ; the lilies showing 
 forth their Maker's care ; the preservation of the feeblest 
 creatures, as a witness to His watchful goodness ; and 
 the love which we claim from earthly parents, as a 
 shadow of His deeper love. b 
 
 Scripture teaches us to recognise three different 
 
 a (1.) Ps. xix. 1 ; Isa. xl. 21 ; Rom. i. 19, 20. (2.) Ps. Ixv. 
 8-13 ; Acts xiv. 17. (3.) Rom. ii. 14, 15 ; Acts xvii. 27. (4.) 1 Cor. 
 x. 11, &c. ; cf. Ps. xliv. 1, and lxxviii. 
 
 »> Matt. v. 45 ; vi. 30 ; Luke xi. 13. 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 media for the Divine manifestations: the works of 
 Nature, the conscience of man (is), and that special 
 intercourse between the divine and human spirit, 
 which reaches its height in the sacred writings them- 
 selves. St. Paul appeals to each of these three 
 sources of Divine knowledge, according to the dif- 
 ferent characters of those whom he addressed. To 
 the unlettered Lycaonians he speaks of the rain from 
 heaven and fruitful seasons, which, even in the 
 darkest days, bore witness to the bounty of God. a 
 To the cultivated Athenians he speaks, not only of 
 the Creator, the Governor, the Guardian of mankind 
 — though such truths as these had the value of new 
 revelations, when contrasted with their intellectual 
 visions of impassive God — but still more closely of 
 the nearer conception of a Heavenly Father, whose 
 offspring were made by their birth in His image ; a 
 Father in whom we live and move and have our beino- • 
 who had once winked at times of ignorance, but 
 had now sent His Son to save men from their sins. b 
 Such were the two branches of the Apostle's argu- 
 ment with Gentiles : they are developed from the 
 two great sources of truth among the Gentiles — the 
 world, as the workmanship of God without ; and 
 man's conscience, as the representative of God within. 
 Towards Jews he holds a different language. His 
 appeal then lies to the law and to the testimony : the 
 lively oracles, which it had been their privilege to 
 guard ; those older Scriptures, which, through times 
 
 a Actsxiv. 17. b Acts xv ii. 24-31. 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 of unbelief and darkness, had kept alive the knowledge 
 of God's love. a To the Romans, again, he addresses 
 all three kinds of argument. They were Gentiles; 
 therefore he appeals to both the manifestations which 
 God had granted to the Gentiles: the law in their 
 heart, which is conscience ; the teaching of things 
 visible, which is the voice of Nature. b But again, 
 they were Gentiles who had already accepted the Old 
 Testament, and would therefore answer to the words 
 of Moses and the prophets. For this reason he 
 appeals to the numberless passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment by which his conclusions were foreshown. 
 
 It is to the third of these classes that we have now 
 to confine ourselves ; and we have to deal with it only 
 in the restricted sense to which it is limited by the 
 subject-matter of Scripture, which we shall presently 
 endeavour to describe. But this strictest kind of 
 revelation, again, is not co-extensive with the whole 
 sphere of Scripture, which embraces a wide range of 
 earthly knowledge, in addition to direct disclosures 
 from above. We must further distinguish, therefore, 
 between the divine and human sources of the mate- 
 rials out of which the sacred record was constructed. 
 When it is alleged that the holy writers were through- 
 out inspired, there is no necessity to add that the 
 materials of their record were the subjects of [in 
 equally pervading revelation. We see from St. 
 Luke's preface, to go no farther, that the fullest use 
 was everywhere made of historical materials and 
 
 a Actsxiii. 1G, &c. b Rom. i. 20; ii. 11. 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 human testimony. We shall therefore find it neces- 
 sary to discriminate in Scripture between what was 
 revealed to inspired men for the purpose of being 
 recorded, and what was simply recorded by them 
 from their own knowledge, or from accessible human 
 sources, under the safeguard and guidance of per- 
 petual inspiration. 
 
 Scripture, as viewed externally, presents us with 
 two series of facts, which answer to each other, and 
 which are combined into unity by the continued 
 presence of a uniform interpretation (19). The first 
 series begins with the creation, and stops short four 
 centuries before the incarnation of Christ. The key- 
 note of this earlier portion is the voice of preparation. 
 A church is set apart from the rest of the world; 
 special commissions and special promises are given to 
 individual members of it ; complex arrangements are 
 instituted, under Divine authority, to guard the rich 
 treasure of the national expectation, which looked 
 forward to the advent of One, who was to be at once 
 the King of Israel and the means of extending 
 Abraham's faith to all the world. Through captivity 
 and restoration, through foreign wars and civil dis- 
 sensions, amidst cowardice and heroism, amidst failure 
 and success, the stream of fact flows broadening 
 onward towards the fulfilment of that glorious hope. 
 The curtain does not fall till all has been made ready. 
 Every type is furnished; every symbol is assigned; 
 a deeper moral element has been wrought in by the 
 prophetic teaching; and certain conspicuous land- 
 marks have been fixed, by which the proximate date 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 of the great event might be foreknown. The second 
 series of facts takes up the answer, and supplies the 
 counterpart for which those distant centuries were 
 waiting. Point by point, and detail by detail, it 
 meets the expectation, fulfils the promise, and com- 
 pletes the work. ' The Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us.' a Old things were swept away; 
 but the form only perished, while the spirit was 
 preserved and quickened. The Christian Church was 
 established, and Christ was preached through all the 
 countries of the then known world. The historical 
 record closes before the holy city of Jerusalem, which 
 had been the stronghold of the earlier life, was over- 
 thrown. In that event the warnings of the prophets 
 were fulfilled ; and the most sacred ties were snapped 
 asunder, to complete the removal of local restrictions 
 which Christ had announced when He said, ' Believe 
 me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this 
 mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.' b 
 But now, so far as these are simple facts, bearing 
 a plain historical character, and holding definite 
 external relations to dates, to geography, to the 
 histories of surrounding nations, it is clear that no 
 special revelation was required for their record. We 
 can imagine that even uninspired historians might 
 have narrated the whole contemporary portion of the 
 facts of Scripture, in histories of the common type 
 and order. But such records would have differed 
 widely from the existing Scriptures, because they 
 
 a John i. 14. b John iv. 21. 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 could not have presented the facts under the aspect 
 which a knowledge of their purpose and significance 
 supplied. Revelation, properly so called, is the 
 supernatural counterpart to this double series of 
 facts, uniting them together under one religious ex- 
 planation. Scripture consists, then, not of facts only, 
 but of facts arranged with a view to one overruling 
 purpose, and lighted up by a peculiar interpretation, 
 which the unassisted mind of man could never have 
 projected or supplied. 
 
 The case might be stated in another manner. The 
 chain of events which forms the external history of 
 both dispensations, is all along accompanied by the 
 revelation of a higher series, belonging to a super- 
 natural order. The various utterances of the words of 
 God, His commands, His promises, His warnings, His 
 expostulations, these are all facts of a superhuman 
 character, and pass beyond the historical sphere. 
 Such facts as these are connected with doctrines, and 
 with the disclosures of mysterious truth, on the nature 
 of God and the spiritual history of man. Everything 
 of this kind is pure and simple revelation. Yet it is 
 the very key-stone which holds together the whole 
 fabric of Scripture; so that, if we allow ourselves to 
 doubt its truth, our belief in the special character of 
 Scripture falls. As all this is, in the ordinary sense 
 of the word, miraculous, we make no further demand 
 on faith, when we add that it was coupled with many 
 other manifestations of miracle ; prophecies which none 
 but God could pronounce ; direct interpositions of His 
 sovereign will to alter or suspend His ordinary laws. 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 The preparation of the Old Testament extended to 
 many points which passed beyond the knowledge of 
 the Jews. The fulfilment of the anticipations which 
 were expressed in its records, could not, in the nature 
 of things, be furnished till long after the canon was 
 closed. This whole mass of knowledge, then, was 
 due to simple revelation; to disclosures so directly 
 superhuman and divine, that even the inspired writers 
 must, in many cases, have had but a dim conception 
 of the ultimate bearing of the truths which they set 
 down. The Divinity of Christ, for instance, is a 
 doctrine rather than a fact of history. It is a Divine 
 revelation, which gives new force and meaning to the 
 history and destiny of the creatures whom He made 
 and ransomed. But the Jewish nation, with few 
 honoured exceptions, had gained so feeble a mastery 
 over the true teaching of their own Scriptures, that 
 they found an insuperable stumbling-block in the 
 cardinal truth of what is most strictly termed 
 theology — the truth that He whom they looked for 
 as the Son of David was really David's King and 
 God. 
 
 The presence of this series of Divine revelations is 
 the chief element in the differentia of Scripture — the 
 chief mark which distinguishes the inspiration of the 
 Bible from the inspiration of a holy life. When 
 David prayed, with a deep sense of sinfulness, ' give 
 me the comfort of Thy help again, and stablish me 
 with Thy free Spirit,' a he sought, as each of us should 
 
 a Ps. li. 12. 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 daily seek, for the cleansing inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit's purifying presence; that 'ministration of the 
 Spirit," 1 to which we are admitted more freely than 
 the ancient Psalmist, which first regenerates and 
 then renews us; which first implants a better will, 
 and then enlightens it with clearer knowledge ; which 
 assures us of forgiveness, and advances us in grace ; 
 and enables us to bring forth good works in this life, 
 and to look forward with confidence to the life ever- 
 lasting. It was a very different kind of influence to 
 which he reverted in his dying declaration: ' The 
 Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was 
 in my tongue.' b The word that God gave him was 
 the thing that he must speak ; the revelation which 
 he was commissioned to disclose; the word which 
 unfolded heavenly truths, and raised common facts to 
 a higher significance, by disclosing their eternal 
 import. 
 
 But as before of Inspiration, so now of Revelation : 
 wo iii id that it often reaches beyond its proper pro- 
 vince to enrich mankind with wider blessings than 
 those which belong strictly to the sphere of religion. 
 Being a disclosure of the highest and most universal 
 laws of God, its influence overflows into all parts of 
 moral knowledge, supplying motives and explanations 
 of the loftiest import. It cannot be doubted that 
 Revelation has combined with Inspiration to impart 
 that quickening power to Scripture which has made 
 it the prolific source of kindling life, in the spiritual 
 
 a 2 Ccr. iii. 8. b 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 histories of the nations of mankind. But we may- 
 account these gifts to be a portion of God's additional 
 and superabundant bounty, and we need not embrace 
 them within the rigour of the definition which secures 
 the higher aspect of Scripture Revelation. 
 
 And here, again, let us pause to repeat, that 
 when we thus claim for Scripture a peculiar and un- 
 approached inspiration, and point to the revelations 
 which it embodies, as explaining both the need and 
 nature of that higher influence, we do not trench upon 
 the fundamental principle, that no religion anywhere 
 is worthy of the name, unless it looks to the abiding 
 presence of God's Holy Spirit as its only source of 
 sanctity and life. The duration of the Church itself 
 rests on the promise that Christ should continue with 
 it, through the presence of the Comforter, even unto 
 the end of the world. The religious life of each 
 separate spirit depends on the operation of that holy- 
 inmate who can alone give efficacy to sacraments and 
 strength to faith : who can alone maintain within us 
 holiness of conduct, purity of thought, and elevation 
 of knowledge ; who can alone assist the fallen to 
 secure that glorious restoration which Christ's sacri- 
 fice has brought within our reach. A religion that 
 is not spiritual stands condemned by the confes- 
 sion. We might as well speak of a religion that is 
 earthly, but not heavenly ; that is human, not divine : 
 of a religion which finds its centre in ourselves, instead 
 of leading us to fix the centre of all our motives and 
 thoughts in God. 
 
 But surely this admission — I would rather say this 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 earnest declaration of our deepest convictions — surely 
 this can form no reason for such questions as the 
 following : — Why should you seek, then, to interpose 
 the barriers of a book religion ; to fetter man's spirit 
 with the forms and obligations of an ancient creed ; to 
 intercept the free communion between God's Spirit 
 and his own? Why should you erect, for instance, 
 on the teaching of Scripture, a complex system of 
 doctrine, and proclaim that 'this is the Catholic Faith; 
 which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be 
 saved'? Why load man's conscience with the burthen 
 of what is called an historical religion ; instead of 
 leaving him free to tell his griefs to the Great Spirit 
 of the universe, with no bar from Bible or church, 
 from priest or creed, from ritual or form? 
 
 We might answer, in the first place, that Holy 
 Scripture surely has a priceless value, if it were no 
 more than the record of God's spiritual disclosures to 
 those human spirits whom He has vouchsafed, in long- 
 past times, to visit with His personal grace. To doubt 
 this would be to set aside the principle on which all 
 human progress in all branches must depend — the 
 principle that later days are heirs of all the previous 
 ages, and may attain a higher eminence in every 
 province, by their command of the accumulated 
 treasures of the past. But what I have said would 
 indicate the grounds on which this reply, though true 
 as far as it goes, may be set aside as comparatively 
 unimportant, when we bear in mind the real reasons 
 for the unapproachable eminence which Scripture gains 
 from its subject-matter, and its positive disclosures 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 from a higher world. "We believe that it records the 
 acts and words of God incarnate; that its earlier pages 
 are the preparation for that august advent, when the 
 Son of God became the Son of Man ; that it interprets 
 the facts which lie beneath its doctrines, and which 
 give them a firm standing-ground in the midst of 
 human history. We believe that Scripture embodies 
 countless disclosures from a higher world, which 
 differ in kind, as well as in degree, of revelation, from 
 any communication, however lofty, which His Spirit 
 vouchsafes to ourselves. It records by inspiration ; 
 it explains by revelation. It contains the only distinct 
 and certified messages from God to man ; and it places 
 in our hands the only clue of infallible guidance, by 
 which man, in his exile, may feel the way home to his 
 Heavenly Father. 
 
 And now I trust that these explanations will 
 enable us to restate the doctrine of the inspiration 
 claimed for Holy Scripture, in such a manner as to 
 ward off some current misapprehensions, and to lay a 
 safe foundation for further enquiry into the relation 
 of the divine and human elements. The possibility 
 of inspiration rests upon the fact, that God has en- 
 dowed man with a capacity for Divine communion, 
 which serves, more than even the broadest marks of 
 physical or intellectual superiority, to stamp him as a 
 citizen belonging to a higher world than this. ' The 
 spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. ,a It is the 
 ground of all religion, the proof of our Divine 
 
 * Prov. xx. 27. Cf. Job xxxii. 8. 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 sonship, the faculty whereby we know the Father, the 
 germ of that eternal life which will assume its full 
 proportion in the spiritual body, and in the unveiled 
 presence of the Lord. The voice of God's Spirit 
 may be heard within that spirit, wherever the true 
 and listening worshipper is found. But our belief 
 that the Divine gift is shed forth so abundantly is not 
 at variance with our belief in the special intensity 
 of its peculiar presence, as manifested in the Books of 
 Scripture, and confined within the limits of the 
 Sacred Canon. 
 
 And next; when we study the characteristics of 
 that special inspiration, we find that it lays a firm 
 grasp on objective support, in the supernatural reve- 
 lations which were entrusted to its keeping, and which 
 anchor it on the eternal shore. Through these God 
 makes Himself known to man, under such conditions 
 as the spiritual capacities of finite creatures would 
 allow. It is by a series of objective facts and super- 
 natural disclosures that He reveals Himself to us as 
 the Father of an infinite majesty; His honourable, 
 true, and only Son; also the Holy Ghost, the Com- 
 forter. 
 
 When we have thus noted the manner in which the 
 Holy Ghost has filled to overflowing selected repre- 
 sentatives of the most religious human spirits, and 
 has supplied them with supernatural material for 
 their messages to men, we should go on to observe 
 that it has performed that work without obliterating 
 a single human peculiarity, or destroying the free 
 rights of the human will, which yielded glad obe- 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 dience to the heavenly impulse. We thankfully 
 accept the inspired announcement, that God spake 
 unto the fathers ' in divers manners,' as well as at 
 'sundry times.' We know that the same law is 
 traceable even in the last days, after He had ' spoken 
 by His Son.' a We are perfectly aware that the voice 
 of James is not the voice of Paul ; that we can dis- 
 tinguish in a moment between the utterance of Peter 
 and the utterance of John. And with this reserva- 
 tion we accept and explain the various images which 
 have been used to set forth the different phases of the 
 truth of inspiration. The inspired writers are not 
 pens only, but trusted penmen; not organs alone, 
 but living instruments ; not mere ' ministers ' and 
 ' stewards,' like slaves employed upon a servile duty, 
 but ' ambassadors for Christ,' beseeching men, ' in 
 Christ's stead,' to be 'reconciled to God.' b (20). The 
 most mechanical illustrations, when intelligently used, 
 need no more contradict the higher truth which they 
 fail to express, than St. Paul's figure of clay in the 
 hands of the potter is meant to negative the respon- 
 sibility of the free will of man. 
 
 When we enter more at large upon the details of 
 the subject, I shall propose to consider first the nature 
 and relations of the Divine element in Scripture; 
 together with some of those difficulties which appear 
 to rise from its presentation under the forms of the 
 human intellect. To the different branches of that 
 topic, our next three Lectures will, with God's 
 
 a Heb. i. 1,2. b 1 Cor. iv. 1; 2 Cor. v. 20. 
 
 c Rom. ix. 21. 
 
 d 2 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 permission, be directed. In the later part of our course 
 we shall consider in its turn the human element, and 
 devote our best attention to such questions as the 
 following : — What has been the effect of the Divine 
 message on the vehicle through which it has been 
 given ? How far has Divine truth suffered, if at all, 
 from the human form through which it was received? 
 Has that form imposed any drawback of imperfection 
 on the matter? Or is it possible that any grains of 
 error may lie embedded in the form, without injury 
 or disparagement to the spiritual revelations which it 
 enshrines ? 
 
 It would be idle to attempt to conceal the con- 
 sciousness that much of this subject brings us within 
 the range of painful controversy, and deals with 
 questions causing deep disquietude to many hearts. 
 Under such circumstances, it may not be thought 
 unbecoming to tender the assurance that I shall not 
 venture to approach these topics, before such an 
 audience, in any controversial spirit. It is precisely 
 the fact that so much controversial heat has been 
 evolved, which has caused, perhaps on both sides, so 
 much general alarm. It is clear, at least, that on 
 one side what men have dreaded has been the sus- 
 pected animosity of a ' remorseless criticism.' There 
 is no peril to be apprehended from the honest recog- 
 nition of the human element. The vast majority 
 would readily grant it. But they draw back in 
 alarm when they imagine that books which they hold 
 dear as life itself, and with which their holiest 
 thoughts are blended, are assailed with a hostility 
 
LECTURE I. 37 
 
 from which Herodotus would be protected; and are 
 rent in pieces with a ruthlessness which scholars now 
 refuse to tolerate towards Homer. We need not ask 
 whether these suspicions have ever been too vehe- 
 ment, or whether they have not been sometimes 
 exasperated by the spirit in which they have been 
 met. It is better to make the question practically 
 useful, by drawing for ourselves the lesson, that we 
 must be careful to shun, on either hand, the errors 
 and exaggerations of unyielding tempers. With 
 patience and courage, with candour and forbearance, 
 let us endeavour to place ourselves so far aloof from 
 the contest, that we may contemplate with perfect 
 calmness the materials which it has served to bring 
 into one focus ; and may wait with humility to catch 
 the lineaments of truth, as they rise above the mists 
 of strife. Above all things, let us recollect that 
 purity of thought is the only avenue to sacred know- 
 ledge ; and that if we wish to enter on the mind of 
 Christ, we must seek the constant help of that Divine 
 Spirit, who will lead us to the pastures of heavenly 
 wisdom through the portals of meekness and love. 
 
38 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Acts xvii. 30, 31. 
 
 ' And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now 
 commandeth all men everywhere to repent : Because 
 He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge 
 the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath 
 ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all 
 men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.' 
 
 MY former Lecture was mainly devoted to the task 
 of examining the two terms, ' Inspiration ' and 
 'Revelation,' with the view of showing that though not 
 co-extensive, either with each other or with the Bible, 
 they are both distinguished in Scripture by such ex- 
 alted characteristics, that the difference in degree is 
 superseded by a difference in kind (l). Thus of 
 Inspiration, we believe that the Holy Spirit speaks to 
 man's spirit in many forms of diversified blessing, yet 
 nowhere else in accents so distinct and certified as He 
 uses through the medium of the sacred writers ; and 
 of Revelation, we believe that God has unveiled Him- 
 self in other ways to man, through the voice of 
 conscience and through the works of Nature, yet 
 nowhere else with the same kind of certainty and 
 fulness as He did in the person of the Divine Saviour, 
 
LECTURE II. 39 
 
 and as He did to the prophets who foretold His 
 advent, or to the apostles and evangelists by whom it 
 was proclaimed. 
 
 I now propose to enter on an examination of the 
 Divine element in Scripture, as contrasted with those 
 external systems of religion with which it seems 
 natural to compare it. Believing as we do that 
 Scripture alone conveys a revelation of unmingled 
 truth, and that in all those other systems truth is 
 grievously weighed down by falsehood, we may let 
 this leading distinction suggest the division of our 
 immediate subject. Let us take up the comparison 
 of Christianity with Heathenism, first as to truth, and 
 next as to falsehood ; asking, in the first place, how the 
 truth of Scripture stands related to the partial truths 
 of independent systems; and dwelling afterwards on 
 the light which Scripture throws, by the mere force of 
 contrast, on the falsehoods by which all heathen 
 systems are debased. 
 
 I. For the first head, it will be convenient to begin 
 by classifying the whole subject of religious know- 
 ledge, so as to mark the exact sphere which the 
 Divine element in Scripture occupies. 
 
 Five such classes will suffice, I think, to span the 
 subject, and form, as we might speak, five zones of 
 knowledge. In the first, Ave may arrange those 
 glimpses of truth which were granted to the heathen, 
 as we can ascertain them independently of the sacred 
 records. In the second, we may place the Scripture 
 proofs that similar but somewhat clearer know- 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 ledge was possessed by the heathen who came under 
 the observation of the inspired historians. The 
 third class would contain the Divine element of special 
 revelation, as received and recorded by special inspi- 
 ration, and holding a position incomparably higher 
 and more distinct than either of the former classes. 
 Fourthly, we may rank those positive ordinances by 
 which the special revelation was accompanied ; ordi- 
 nances which sprang from a Divine origin, but 
 received their particular mould or frame from con- 
 formity with the actual needs of man. Lastly, we 
 place the purely human element which is contributed 
 by the writers of Scripture themselves. 
 
 1. To begin with the subject of the religious know- 
 ledge of the heathen. It needs but a short survey 
 of the higher classes of heathen writers to convince 
 us that from the first there has existed a large body of 
 moral and religious truth on the outside of the sphere 
 to which God's special revelation is confined. This 
 is a fact which cannot be overlooked, and which it is 
 only reasonable to expect us to account for ; but it is a 
 fact which we cannot account for on the narrow view 
 of making God's gift of sacred knowledge the exclu- 
 sive possession of His chosen race. Are we to say, 
 then, that these truths are relics of Paradise, which 
 lingered in the memories of men ; the dying embers 
 of a primeval illumination, which had not yet been lost 
 in the prevailing darkness (2) ; or shall we say that they 
 were all borrowed from the fire which was kept alive 
 upon the Jewish altar, though the means of such a 
 general transfer are as inconceivable as they are 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 unknown (3) ? Both of these views have received a 
 certain support from research and argument. The 
 facts disclosed by comparative mythology, and the 
 similarity of traditions which are traceable through 
 remote and scattered nations, have been believed to 
 give some countenance to the favourite thought, that 
 all men have retained, though unconsciously, a direct 
 inheritance from that primeval period, when 'the 
 whole earth was of one language and of one speech,' a 
 and the families of man still owned a common centre. 
 Men have loved to look upon these scattered treasures 
 as the ' wreck of Paradise,' which still, 
 
 1 Through many a dreary age, 
 
 Upbore whate'er of good and wise 
 
 Yet lived in bard or sage.' b 
 
 But the other opinion also has exercised considerable 
 influence, especially among the earlier apologists, who 
 pointed out the modes in which the light of revelation 
 might have glanced aside into the darkness which it 
 was not meant to dissipate, and actual glimpses of the 
 laws, the miracles, the prophecies of Scripture, might 
 have flashed upon the vision of the Gentile world. 
 
 These two hypotheses are of very different value ; 
 but it is needless to lay further stress on either for 
 our present purpose, since we shall find a surer basis 
 for our own enquiries in the authoritative declaration 
 of St. Paul. The Apostle teaches, as we have already 
 seen, that the heathen owed that knowledge partly 
 
 a Gen. xi. 1. b Christian Year, Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 to the law of God, which was written on their hearts, 
 and which speaks there through the voice of con- 
 science; partly to the dim manifestation of Him who 
 is invisible, as it reached them in their darkest days, 
 through the veil of His visible creation. 
 
 A firm belief, then, in the special character of the 
 Divine revelation in Scripture is quite compatible 
 with the conviction, that God has always granted to 
 mankind a universal, though vague, manifestation of 
 Himself, by leaving in man's nature the traces of His 
 own Divine image, and by enabling man to read the 
 witness of His presence through the signs of the 
 material universe. It has been a task of deep interest, 
 in all the more enlightened ages of the Church, to 
 gather and register these scattered truths ; to verify 
 them by comparison with God's special revelation ; to 
 group them round their earthly centre in man's con- 
 science ; to estimate precisely what their disclosures 
 amount to ; and to point out exactly where they fail. 
 It is with this design that men have compiled histories 
 of the Dispensation of Paganism, the Unconscious 
 Prophecies of Heathendom, the Religions before 
 Christ (4). And these enquiries have run the same 
 course in earlier as in later days. A frank recognition 
 of the Divine truths contained in heathen creeds lias 
 been pushed on to the untenable position, of claiming 
 for them equality with Scripture revelation ; and the 
 heathen creeds, in turn, have been depressed below 
 their proper level by the orthodox recoil (5). 
 
 The Church, indeed, has always held two different 
 relations to heathen religions : on the one hand, 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 sympathy with their partial truth ; on the other hand, 
 abhorrence for their pervading errors. The weight of 
 her judgment would preponderate on this side or on 
 that, according as the balance of truth or error varied 
 in the separate cases. We may suppose that so long 
 as it was their single mission to convert the heathen, 
 Christian teachers would seek to attract the sympathy 
 of their hearers by a recognition of the truth which 
 they already held ; as St. Paul did when he was 
 ' made all things to all men,' that he ' might by all 
 means save some.' a But when the influx of heathen 
 converts made it needful to repel the aggressions of 
 heresies, under cover of which the vanquished sought 
 to lead their victors captive (6), they were compelled 
 to denounce the evil of the pernicious leaven, by 
 which false religions were degraded below the level of 
 the purer characters among their worshippers. And 
 when the evil became universally more conspicuous 
 than the good, and the contagion of error began to 
 exert a more baneful influence, then the opposing 
 current of Christian condemnation set in with a steady 
 and resistless tide, which tended to deprive the heathen 
 of their just proportion in the common spiritual 
 heritage of man. The researches of later times may 
 perhaps have diminished the immediate pressure of 
 the danger, but they certainly have not lessened our 
 conviction of the evil which was infused into such 
 systems by the corruption of the heart of man. They 
 have widened our acquaintance with the details of the 
 
 * 1 Cor. ix. 22. 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 creeds, and deej)ened our insight into their fundamental 
 affinities ; but they have not removed the ancient 
 landmarks which were fixed by the Apostle. The lines 
 of demarcation still remain as he drew them, to dis- 
 tinguish between the true revelation and the vague 
 manifestation ; though we can confirm the distinction 
 by a cloud of witnesses, who lay beyond the range of 
 knowledge which the observation of that period could 
 command. 
 
 The position of these exiled truths, which wandered 
 homeless, yet not unwelcome, through the darkest 
 ages of the heathen world, might be described by an 
 application of the Platonic image ; a they were like 
 shadows thrown before the eyes of prisoners, who had 
 no power to turn and view the substance, as contrasted 
 with the realities presented to the Church of God, 
 which flow from the revelation of the Deity in Christ. 
 Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, we 
 see, in the revealed object of our common adoration, a 
 true and Divine Person, who gives coherency and 
 reality to the blessed truths by which we live. To 
 change the figure, we may say, that light reached the 
 heathen through so thick a cloud, that the face of the 
 sun was entirely hidden, and its very form remained 
 unknown. In the revelation of the Old Testament, 
 the clouds were broken, and the rays burst forth ; but 
 the sun himself remained concealed. The advent of 
 Christ gave idl the light that man could bear, when 
 'life and immortality' were brought 'to light through 
 
 a Plat. Rep. vii. init. 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 the Gospel' * — light which resembled that of noon, in 
 contrast with the clouded daybreak ; yet light which, 
 in its turn, will seem pale hereafter, when contrasted 
 with the brightness of heaven. 
 
 Now the point of departure between these two 
 collateral but unequal manifestations of Divine know- 
 ledge must be sought in the earliest incident recorded 
 of our fallen race — the promise which was given in 
 Paradise, before the forfeited blessings of our first 
 abode had been withdrawn. It follows, that to claim 
 a Divine source for the religious knowledge of the 
 heathen, is so far from being a denial that salvation 
 comes only through the name of Christ, that it simply 
 asserts our Lord's rightful position, as the sole Head 
 of renewed humanity — of the race which would 
 have perished in that hour of disobedience, but for 
 the hope of salvation through the promise of Christ's 
 advent. 
 
 2. But within the range of the authenticated Scrip- 
 tures, we find many traces of a revelation of religious 
 knowledge, which was granted through unusual chan- ' 
 nels to others besides those who were entrusted with 
 the oracles of God (7). So far as the worship of 
 primeval nations is referred to in Genesis, it seems 
 not unlike the worship which was offered by the 
 patriarchs; and the stranger was often favoured by 
 Divine visitations, resembling those which were 
 granted to the chosen nation. Thus ' God came to ' 
 the Philistine ' Abimelech in a dream by night,' and 
 
 a 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 admitted his appeal to the 'integrity of his 'heart 
 and innocencyof his 'hands,' while He withheld him 
 from an unintended sin. a Another Abimelech was 
 enlightened to see in Isaac ' the blessed of Jehovah,' 
 and on that ground made a covenant with him. b 
 Abraham and Ephron, or Joseph and Pharaoh, con- 
 verse in precisely the same tone, and apparently under 
 the influence of similar principles of belief and 
 conduct. God sent His messengers to visit Sodom, 
 and hearkened to the pleadings which Abraham 
 offered for that guilty city. d The same fact is trace- 
 able through the history of the idolatrous Laban, and 
 the Midianite Jethro, and the Egyptian women who 
 ' feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt com- 
 manded them.' 6 At a later date, God's blessings or 
 warnings are sent through Elijah to the Sidonian 
 widow, through Elisha to the Syrian Naainan, through 
 Jonah to the Ninevites, through Daniel to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, through other prophets to adjacent nations ; f 
 yet with no intimation, in any such cases, that the 
 " recipient of God's message incurred the obligation to 
 accept the forms of the Jewish ritual. But there are 
 many other instances more remarkable than these. 
 Of four women whom St. Matthew mentions in the 
 lineage of Christ, the purest was a daughter of the 
 
 a Gen. xx. 3-G. * Gen. xxvi. 28, 29. 
 
 e Gen. xxiii. 8-17; xli. 38, 39. d Gen. xviii. ; xix. 1. 
 
 " Gen. xxiv. 31 5 xxx. 27, 30; xxxi. 24, 49; Ex. xviii. 1, 9, 
 10, 11, &c. ; i. 17, 20, 21. 
 
 f 1 Kings xvii. ; 2 Kings v. (Luke iv. 25-27); Jonah iii. 5 
 Dan. ii., &c. 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 Moabite. a Another was the Canaanitish Rahab, who 
 is commemorated by two different apostles as an emi- 
 nent example both of faith and works. b God caused 
 Melchizedek, whose race and ancestry we know not, 
 to be a special and exalted type of Christ. He over- 
 ruled the spirit of Balaam the Aramaean, who ' loved 
 the wages of unrighteousness," 1 to be His instrument 
 for blessing those whom He had blessed ; for uttering 
 precepts of as lofty import as any embodied in the 
 older Scriptures ; e for announcing from afar the ' Star 
 out of Jacob,' and the ' Sceptre ' that should i rise out 
 of Israel.' f He vouchsafed to reason with Job, 'a 
 perfect and an upright man,' who, though no Israelite, 
 is called His ' servant,' g and who steadfastly persisted, 
 under all his temptations, in speaking the thing that 
 was right of God. All along the frontiers of God's 
 Church, we see the light of revelation resting on the 
 faces of those who were attracted to approach its 
 borders, even down to the time when a star brought 
 the Magians to the cradle of Christ, and the woman 
 of Samaria was looking for the decisions of the 
 expected Messiah, and the Roman Cornelius was 
 constantly offering up acceptable prayers unto 
 God. h But these, again, are only partially con- 
 nected with that special revelation, which mainly 
 constitutes the Divine element in Scripture, and 
 which can be distinguished from the transient 
 
 a Matt. i. 5. b Matt, i. 5; Heb. xi. 31; James ii. 25. 
 
 c Ps. ex. 4; Heb. vii. 3, &c. d 2 Pet. ii. 15. 
 
 e Num. xxiii. 10 ; Mic. vi. 8. f Num. xxiv. 17. 
 
 & Job ii. 3 ; xlii. 7. h Matt. ii. ; John iv. 20 ; Acts x. 2. 
 
48 lecture n. 
 
 gleams of light which occasionally flashed forth by 
 its side. 
 
 3. From these, as well as from the outside heathen 
 knowledge, the main stream of revelation is dis- 
 criminated, by its depth, by its purity, by its far- 
 reaching coherency, but, above all, by its close 
 connection with the Person of our Lord. As I have 
 before pointed out, Scripture presents us with a long 
 chain of facts, bound together by a uniform Divine 
 interpretation — facts which might have been narrated 
 by an uninspired historian; with an interpretation 
 which could never have existed amongst men, except 
 by an explicit disclosure from God (8). And it is 
 important to observe, that from the beginning its 
 course was rather analytic than synthetic. Revelation 
 advances, not so much by addition as by development. 
 There is but little in the later portions which is not 
 dimly foreshadowed in the earliest record. The 
 promise of a future Redeemer dates from the very 
 gates of Paradise; and from the first it gave the 
 forecast of His double character — the tribulation 
 through which He was to enter upon glory. ' I will 
 put enmity between thee and the woman, and between 
 thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and 
 thou shalt bruise his heel.' a The Unity unfolds into 
 the Trinity ; yet the thought of the Divine conference 
 and counsel is suggested in the earliest page of Scrip- 
 ture, as we read, 'Let Us make man in Our image, 
 after Our likeness : ,b and Christian theologians can 
 
 a Gen. iii. 15. b Gen. i. 2G. 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 find no fitter starting-point for the exposition of the 
 doctrine, than the Mosaic declaration of the Divine 
 Unity, expressed in the terms of a mysterious triune 
 formula, ' Hear, Israel ; the Lord our God is one 
 Lord.' 3 
 
 But though the boundaries of the current might 
 be fixed from the beginning, the constant onward 
 flow of revelation was ever deepening its channel, and 
 giving men profounder conceptions both of the nature 
 of God and the moral obligations of mankind. This 
 
 CD 
 
 principle supplies an explanation of the statement in 
 Exodus, on the introduction of the knowledge of the 
 name Jehovah, which has recently given rise to some 
 renewed discussion b (9). It is the usage of Scripture 
 to ascribe a high and special significance to the know- 
 ledge of the name of God; just as in the New Testa- 
 ment the power of faith and miracles is so often 
 connected with the name of Christ. The name of 
 God stands for God as revealed to us. The funda- 
 mental principle of the Third Commandment enjoins 
 proper reverence, not for God in the abstract, but for 
 that revelation of the Deity which is contained in 
 Scripture. And this doctrine pervades the whole 
 narrative in Exodus. ' By my name Jehovah was I 
 not known to them : ' that is to say, they were never 
 taught to fathom the full depth of significance which 
 lay hidden beneath a well-known term. The question 
 which Moses expected the Israelites to ask him was, 
 What is the name of the God of our fathers, who sent 
 
 a Dent. vi. 4 ; Hooker, E. P. v. li. 1. b Ex. vi. 3. 
 
 E 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 thee? The answer which he was told to give them 
 was, ' I am that I am.' ' Thus shalt thou say unto 
 the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.' a 
 And the proclamation of the meaning of this name 
 Jehovah is a later act of preeminent significance and 
 solemnity. ' The Lord descended in the cloud, and 
 stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the 
 Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and pro- 
 claimed, The Lord, the Lord God (Jehovah, Jehovah- 
 El) : merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant 
 in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.' b 
 
 It is perfectly consistent with these declarations, that 
 the mere letters of the name Jehovah, which can be 
 traced, as it is correctly urged, through so many parts 
 of Genesis, conveyed before this period none of the 
 deep meaning which was thus brought out by special 
 revelation, as the promises began to receive their first 
 fulfilment ; precisely as we cannot suppose that the 
 patriarchal name of God, ' the God of Abraham, and 
 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,' conveyed to 
 those who used it that profound teaching on the 
 Resurrection which Christ disclosed beneath its out- 
 ward form. 
 
 While the theological side of revelation, then, was 
 thus deepened in the providential course of sacred his- 
 tory, we can trace the same kind of progression through 
 its moral aspect also (10). The righteousness of God 
 Was always manifested in His jealousy for holiness, 
 
 n Ex. iii. 13, 14. b Ex. xxxiv. 5-7. 
 
 c Matt. xxii. 32. 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 in His anger against sin ; yet Christ Himself seeks 
 words no clearer or more forcible than those of Moses, 
 when He tells us how God claims the utmost strength 
 of human love : ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy might. ' a And so onward, through Deuteronomy, 
 and still more plainly through the long series of the 
 Prophets, the moral element, which had been thus 
 broadly sketched from the beginning, and with which 
 from the first had been blended the love of our neigh- 
 bour, as the second law of man, b was ever receiving 
 its more full development, as the counterpart to the 
 theological ; till the time when the last of the old pro- 
 phets handed on his message to the evangelist — 
 
 £ First filial duty, then divine, 
 That sons to parents, all to Thee may turn.' c 
 
 But before we pass on to a further exposition of this 
 revelation, in contrast with the religions of heathenism, 
 there remain two points for brief explanation; and 
 first, the position of those ceremonial ordinances, 
 which formed the casket for the preservation of that 
 precious trust, the prophetic announcement of the 
 Saviour of mankind. 
 
 4. It is probable that, from the outset, the service 
 of religion was fenced in by positive ordinances, such 
 as many have traced in the alleged primeval obligation 
 of the seventh day's rest. But without entering on 
 the obscure topic of the forms of worship in the 
 
 a Dent. vi. 5 ; Matt. xxii. 37. b Lev. xix. 18 ; Matt. xxii. 39. 
 
 c Mai. iv. G ; Luke i. 17 ; Christian Year, St. John Baptist's Day. 
 
 e 2 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 patriarchal Church, we naturally turn for the most 
 conspicuous instance of this kind of revelation to the 
 subsequent introduction of the Law of Sinai, with its 
 special adaptations to the transgressions of men. The 
 Mosaic precepts differed widely from the promise, 
 which is the more exact anticipation of the Gospel. 
 It is true that they embodied a lofty code of moral 
 obligation ; but their chief characteristic is, that they 
 were positive and protective (n). We shall have 
 occasion to return in the sequel to their typical cha- 
 racter. For our present purpose, we need regard 
 them only in that stern, external, and repressive 
 aspect in which they were so framed as to fence in 
 and isolate the Jewish nation, for the double purpose 
 of impressing them with deep convictions of the 
 character of sin, and compelling them to guard the 
 treasure, of which they were the stewards in the 
 universal interests of mankind. Now it is the ten- 
 dency of all who have to administer a code of positive 
 precepts to overrate their value on the ground of 
 their obligation — a defect which is condemned in 
 ordinary cases as legal pedantry, and which finds 
 a ready correction in the common sense of society. 
 In the case of the Jews, this error was more dangerous, 
 because the ordinances which they obeyed claimed a 
 superhuman authority; and it still misleads the histo- 
 rian who cannot reduce the Law to its proper level, 
 and who urges us to cut ourselves adrift from the 
 entire Old Testament system, for the sake of libe- 
 rating Christianity from its alleged Jewish clement. 
 We must draw, then, a clear line of demarcation 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 between the pure revelation of eternal truth, and the 
 ordinances which were merely framed to guard it 
 for an appointed season. We must bear in mind that 
 faith was always taught as the sole principle of accept- 
 able obedience ; and that God's true servants always 
 lived in a more spiritual atmosphere than that of the 
 narrow Pharisaic Jew. 
 
 5. The Mosaic ordinances, however, and all others 
 which resemble them in Scripture, were matters of 
 God's own appointment : they were ' the example and 
 shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished 
 of God when he was about to make the tabernacle ; 
 for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according 
 to the pattern shewed to thee hi the mount.' a They 
 are only the positive side of an entire dispensation, 
 which was in the strictest sense throughout divine. 
 They must be distinguished, therefore, in the fifth 
 place, from the personal style and characteristics of 
 the inspired writers, and from the whole class of pecu- 
 liarities which belong as distinctly to their separate 
 provinces in the economy of Scripture, as the language 
 or the imagery which they severally used belonged to 
 the nations in which they had been brought up. It 
 is this consideration which introduces us to the purely 
 human element of Scripture; in the outer fringe of 
 which, again, God has left room for varied contribu- 
 tions of ordinary knowledge : the ' wisdom ' of Egyp- 
 tians, the ' tongue ' of Chalda3ans, b the science of 
 Greece and the laws of Rome ; the stores of moral and 
 
 a Heb. viii. 5. b Acts vii. 22; Dan. i. 4 ; v. 11. 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 political experience, which had been gathered through 
 the histories of the tribes with which the chosen 
 people came in contact ; and even acknowledged 
 quotations from heathen writers, such as we meet 
 with in the teaching of St. Paul a (12). To this head, 
 again, we must refer erroneous arguments, which are 
 often reported in Scripture, sometimes at great length, 
 as in the speeches of Job's friends ; sometimes more 
 briefly, as in the message of Amaziah, the priest of 
 Bethel : b and much more that appears to be recorded 
 on the principle that knowledge must cover both 
 contraries, and that Scripture must not only tell us 
 what is right for our guidance, but must also record 
 what is not right for our warning. 
 
 II. Thus far we have sketched the five classes of 
 religious knowledge which I named in the beginning ; 
 and sufficiently, I trust, to guide us in our further 
 task of drawing, in the second place, a broad contrast 
 between false and true religions — between the systems 
 of Paganism and the revelation of the Scriptures. We 
 see that, before we enter on its relation to error, Scrip- 
 ture revelation must be distinguished on the one side 
 from the indistinct manifestations of truth, which God 
 vouchsafed in different measures to the Gentile world, 
 and which are traceable within the record of Scripture 
 itself; and that it must be distinguished as carefully, 
 on the other side, from the temporary ordinances which 
 were framed for its protection, and from the human 
 
 a Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Tit. i. 12. b Amos vii. 10-13. 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 characteristics which were never obliterated by the 
 inspiration of the sacred writers. Let us now confine 
 ourselves to the intrinsic nature of that special reve- 
 lation, as it is brought out by contrast with the 
 various organisations of heathen religion. 
 
 1. While we admit and teach that those religions 
 present occasional traces of undoubted truth, which 
 should be recognised and welcomed as the gift of God, 
 we must observe that these truths never embraced any 
 entire system with which they were connected. This 
 is the foremost difference between Paganism and 
 revealed religion ; that while the lessons of Scripture 
 form portions of one perfectly true and holy system, 
 the truths which we find in heathen religions are like 
 grains of gold embedded in a base material: the 
 religion, as a whole, is constantly liable to pass over 
 altogether to the side of evil; the sins of men are 
 rivalled and surpassed by sins ascribed to beings who 
 are accounted as divine (13). Such systems were the 
 final issue of that false worship, the downward course 
 of which is indicated by St. Paul : when both the two 
 lights of nature had been darkened ; when conscience 
 had lost the keenness of its insight, and the visible 
 world had become the medium for chano-ino- ' the 
 
 o o 
 
 truth of God into a lie.' a Then worship degenerated 
 into systematic idolatry, and idolatry was the prolific 
 parent of immorality, and gods were made the patrons 
 of human vices, and temples became the centres for 
 the foulest sins. ' They did not like to retain God in 
 
 a Rom. i. 25. 
 
56 LECTURE H. 
 
 their knowledge ; ' therefore ' God gave them over to a 
 reprobate mind.' a Their 'understanding' was 'dark- 
 ened, being alienated from the life of God, through the 
 ignorance that ' was ' in them, because of the blindness 
 of their heart. ' b Though it were true that man never 
 lost the conviction of the existence of God, yet dark 
 times came when he ceased to glorify Him as God, or 
 be thankful. Though it were true that he never lost 
 the fainter feeling of the real position of our own 
 nature, in the Divine sonship but estrangement of 
 man, yet corruption led him to judicial blindness, 
 when God gave him up to vile affections, because he 
 had ' worshipped and served the creature more than 
 the Creator.' c 
 
 As soon as systems of this kind had been fully 
 formed and established, the better thoughts of men 
 were left to work in the presence of a veil of darkness 
 which sin had drawn anew across the vision of their 
 spirits; and they were overpowered by the strong 
 rebellion of their sensual impulses, which made them 
 the bondslaves of a corrupted worship. And when- 
 ever purer aspirations intervened, to save some among 
 the worshippers from utmost degradation, the result 
 was, that the forms of religion broke away from their 
 substance, and mythologies became the least religious 
 portion of the national life (u). We are all familiar 
 with the lofty language in which the old Greek poets 
 proclaim the eternal laws of purity and truth, or show 
 how crime is ever tracked by the sure step of the 
 
 a Rom. i. 28. b Eph. iv. 18. c Rom. i. 21, 25. 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 avenger, and how the guilty father cannot shield off 
 retribution from his race. But by the side of these 
 very passages we trace the continued recognition of a 
 mythology, in which truth and purity are overborne 
 together, and the very throne among the gods is given 
 to triumphant sin. Now this fact, that the worship- 
 pers of heathenism were often better than their gods — - 
 that on the side of man there had grown up a reasonable 
 and orderly society, while the mythology in which 
 they still acquiesced presents a mere tissue of repulsive 
 vices — this fact seems to admit of no other expla- 
 nation than that which we have traced in the words 
 of Scripture ; namely, that such mythologies had ger- 
 minated at an earlier date in the corruption which 
 had followed on the wilful loss of Divine knowledge, 
 and had simply lived on unchallenged through the 
 force of habit, till a time when the plastic power, to 
 which they owed their birth, had passed away. 
 
 2. It is obvious that such systems contained no 
 lingering element of religious life to keep them on a 
 level with any national improvement, which God's 
 Spirit might vouchsafe to quicken. But even if con- 
 templated at a higher stage than that of ultimate 
 corruption, they were exposed to a second objection, 
 in addition to this mixture of gross error with their 
 truth — in the fact, that the whole framework by which 
 their particles of truth are rounded out into a system 
 betrays the handiwork of man rather than the inspi- 
 ration of God. We are here brought back to the 
 great distinction, which I have before referred to, 
 between God's words to man and man's thoughts of 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 God (15). Review in memory the various outlines 
 which we trace amongst the religions of mankind ; 
 take the coarse conceptions of old Nature-worship ; 
 include the higher moral elements which find occa- 
 sional admission to the complex mythologies of Egypt, 
 Greece, or Rome ; pass onward to a wider sphere, and 
 scrutinise the mystic systems which the East has 
 furnished ; extend the examination from religions 
 properly so called, to the speculative efforts of the 
 philosophic faculty ; and in all cases alike the con- 
 viction ever deepens more and more, that they present 
 the very opposite character to that by which the 
 whole course of revelation is distinguished; that in 
 every detail below the few grand principles which 
 God had really implanted in their hearts, these theo- 
 logies or philosophies are man's thoughts of God, 
 and not the words of God to man. We can trace the 
 very tide-marks as the waves of speculation rise and 
 fall ; while the revelation of even the earliest Scrip- 
 tures stands out clear before us like a rock. It was 
 the enslaved imagination which led men through the 
 mazes of mere Nature-worship ; it was the self-absorbed 
 intellect which entangled him in riddles on the infinite 
 and finite ; it was the debased fancy which enabled 
 him to project his own vices on the mists which sur- 
 rounded him, and to worship those vices as gods. 
 His own thoughts thus bore their unconscious witness 
 to the fatal loss of that Divine communion which had 
 formed the true life of the spirit. Men felt after the 
 lost clue in the midst of their darkness. They in- 
 vented formulas of varying value, by which they hoped 
 
LECTURE II. 59 
 
 that they might reconnect the broken links of union, 
 and join again the sundered human and divine. At 
 one time Deity is figured under a spurious incarna- 
 tion : the infinite masking in the visage of the finite, 
 At another time man himself is deified ; the finite is 
 invested with imaginary attributes, which are borrowed 
 from vague conceptions of the infinite God. At other 
 times, again, dim intermediate phantoms are imagined, 
 to fill, if they could but really fill, the vast and dreary 
 void which interposes between earth and heaven. 
 Such are three main classes of religious speculation. 
 But mark well their essential characters, and you will 
 find that the first destroys the human; the second 
 destroys the divine; the third obscures both by its 
 dim series of shadowy beings, who have no true sem- 
 blance of either human or divine. Compare the best 
 of them with the religion which the ancient Israelites 
 were taught; and they seem like trembling mosses, 
 which afford no footing, in contrast with a solid cause- 
 way, stretching strong and firm through the morass. 
 Or we might change the figure, and say that they are 
 but ghostlike apparitions of the heated brain ; while 
 Scripture revelation represents the living figure which 
 reaches out its powerful arm to save us from the dim 
 caverns of unaided thought. 
 
 3. But to brino- this contrast to a more definite 
 issue, let us turn to St. Paul's discourse at Athens, 
 where the ' chief speaker ' a among the apostles ad- 
 dressed himself to the most cultivated population in 
 
 a Acts xiv. 12. 
 
60 LECTURE li- 
 
 the Gentile world. The Apostle's argument is strictly 
 framed on his own principle, that it is well to become 
 all things to all men, in the sense of appealing to 
 each, if possible, upon the basis of some general and 
 conceded truths" (16). To the Athenians he offers 
 no reasonings from Moses or the Prophets. The 
 common law of conscience, the words of their ovvm 
 poets, the creed of their own philosophers, the inscrip- 
 tions on their own altars — these furnish the text of 
 the argument by which he introduces the revelation 
 of our Lord. Commencing with a recognition of their 
 zeal for religion, he avails himself of the inscription, 
 ' To an unknown God,' which seems to have been the 
 natural expression of a desire to propitiate a local 
 deity, whom man would not be always able to identify 
 and name. By this reference he would command 
 some attention from the more religious of the people, 
 who had filled their city with its groves of shrines. 
 Other parts of his discourse would secure agreement 
 from a different class. His philosophic hearers would 
 accept his repetition of St. Stephen's declaration, that 
 1 the most High dwelleth not in temples made with 
 hands.' b All schools and parties would agree to the 
 position, that the divine nature is nihil incliga nostri* 
 exalted far above the need of such unworthy homage 
 as the hearts and hands of man could furnish ; and 
 many would respond to the words of their own poets, 
 who proclaimed that man is the offspring of God. 
 For each of these principles St. Paul could claim a 
 
 a 1 Cor. ix. 20-22 ; 2 Cor. iv. 2. 
 b Acts vii. 48. c Lucret. ii. G49. 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 separate assent from some around him : that, in some 
 dim sense, man is the son of God ; that the obligation 
 of worship extends even beyond our knowledge as 
 a fundamental duty of the human spirit; that the 
 speculative mind, however, must regard the Deity as 
 residing far back in the recesses of unseen infinity, 
 beyond the reach of human perturbations, and, as 
 some of his hearers might have wished to add, beyond 
 the sound of human prayers. On these he constructs 
 an argument, which corrects each one of the three 
 partial errors, and raises the whole from contradictory 
 guesswork to consistent truth. The creed of philoso- 
 phers would fix the true value of that cluster of 
 temples which crowned the summit of the Athenian 
 rock. The poet's claim of man's Divine paternity 
 might suggest nobler thoughts of Deity than the poor 
 expedients of idolatry could furnish. And to these, 
 if only these could have borne the addition, the com- 
 mon creed would have added the obligation of worship, 
 and would have denied the necessary existence of the 
 barrier which philosophy had established between 
 man and God. 
 
 1 Hitherto,' as Bentley remarks, ' the Apostle had 
 never contradicted all his audience at once; .... 
 every point was agreeable to the notions of the greater 
 party,' a till he came to the doctrine of the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead. But in each case there would be 
 less agreement amongst his several hearers than they 
 found respectively with him. The vulgar was blind 
 
 a Bentley's Works, iii. 31 ; ed. Dyce. 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 to the spirituality of God. The philosopher either 
 doubted the possibility, or denied the use, of human 
 worship. The dreams of sages had not closed one 
 temple, nor banished one idol from the altars of the 
 city. The phrases of poets had taught no Athenian 
 to acknowledge that his slave or his captive had the 
 claim of brotherhood, because moulded like himself in 
 the image of God (17). All this did but conceal a 
 hollow unreality under disjointed fragments of super- 
 ficial truth; and Athenian poets and philosophers 
 themselves would teach us that high aspirations, and 
 acuteness in theory, and even the outward semblance 
 of zeal for religion, were not incompatible with the 
 toleration of even the most degrading sin. 
 
 And now, what was the Divine revelation by 
 which the Apostle breathed fresh life and reality into 
 these old and outworn semblances of truth? His 
 4 new doctrine,' though compressed into these few 
 verses, covers all three topics which fill the Divine 
 element in Scripture ; namely, God and man, and the 
 relation which exists between them. 
 
 (1.) Of God he declared that He is at once the 
 Creator of the universe, and the Preserver and the 
 constant Governor of men. As Creator, He ' made 
 the world and all tilings therein.' This is at once an 
 advance on the whole tenor of ancient belief, which 
 found in the alleged eternity of matter its futile 
 explanation of the origin of evil (is). As Preserver, 
 ' He giveth to all life and breath and all things.' 
 These words disclose with the full weight of revela- 
 tion the active presence of a personal and all-loving 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 God. As Governor, He fixes by His own decrees the 
 epochs of all history. He decides by His own supreme 
 authority the bounds, the dates, the destinies of 
 nations. ' He ruleth,' as He taught a heathen 
 monarch, ' in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to 
 whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest 
 of men.' a In these few clauses we have a firm, clear, 
 and consistent account of a creating, preserving, 
 governing Deity, such as the scattered lights of 
 heathen antiquity could never be combined to supply. 
 And the same remark holds good if we turn to trace 
 the truths which St. Paul interweaves with this teach- 
 ing, on the true position of our human nature. 
 
 (2.) Two main principles are laid down on this 
 subject ; the one, that God ' hath made of one blood 
 all nations of man ; ' the other, that He has endowed 
 them with so indelible a consciousness of His exist- 
 ence, that in some dim way or other they never cease 
 to ' feel after Him,' in hopes that they may ' find 
 Him.' The one of these principles supplies a basis 
 for the brotherhood of man, because all are children 
 of one common Father; the other supplies a basis 
 for practical religion, because all are thus endowed 
 with something of a religious sentiment, the testimony 
 to God which is written in their hearts, and which 
 marks them as His human offspring. This doctrine, 
 with its clear view of the proper dignity of human 
 nature, puts an end to all distinctions between Greek 
 and barbarian, between bond and free. And this 
 
 a Dan. iv. 17, 25, 32. 
 
64 LECTURE II. 
 
 new creed of universal brotherhood must have come 
 with the more impressive force when uttered by a 
 Jew, as the outgrowth of the most jealous religion 
 which the world had ever witnessed; the creed that 
 God is no respecter of persons, announced by one 
 whom Tacitus would have branded as the enemy of 
 all humanity,* and who would but recently have 
 despised the claims of any Gentile to share the bless- 
 ings of the sons of Abraham. Thus the old view of 
 human nature is as much enlarged as the old con- 
 ception of the Deity was corrected and exalted. The 
 Apostle had preached God, not as a vague abstrac- 
 tion, still less as the mythical ruler of a crowd of 
 deities, imagined in the forms of men; but as man's 
 Creator, Guardian, ever-bounteous Lord. He now sets 
 man before us, by a corresponding revelation, not as 
 the mere masterpiece of Nature, the mere summit of 
 the series of the animated world ; but as the sole 
 earthly representative, through all his scattered tribes 
 and families, of the image and likeness of God. 
 
 (3.) But it was the union between these two con- 
 ceptions which formed the most distinctive message 
 which St. Paul had been commissioned to convey. 
 What is the true relation between man and God ? 
 That was a question which heathen knowledge failed 
 to answer (19). How could man reach the true 
 thought of the mystery of redemption, when so thick 
 a darkness was resting over the history of his creation 
 and his fall? This is the point on which St. Paul 
 
 a Tac. Ann. xv. 44 ('odio humani generis'); Hist \. 5 ('ad- 
 versus omrtes alius hostile odium '). 
 
LECTURE II. 65 
 
 speaks with an emphatic force, befitting the central 
 revelation to which his other arguments converge. 
 There had been ' times of ignorance ' with which God 
 in His wisdom had borne for a season : such is his 
 brief allusion to that night of darkness which Christ's 
 advent had brought to its close. Now had arrived 
 the true Redeemer of mankind. Now came the call 
 to repentance, as the foremost duty of all who would 
 share in the redemption He had brought. Now 
 came the Gospel of the- risen Saviour, whose second 
 advent was appointed for the judgment of the world. 
 In this great truth the apostolic message finds its 
 height and termination. God as our Redeemer is 
 more than Creator, more than Guardian, more than 
 Kins;. All are authorised and ur°:ed to claim that 
 redemption, on the sole condition that they fulfil the 
 requisite of repentance, and render faithful obedience 
 to the commandments of Christ. How far is he 
 thus raised above the dark enquirer, who was feeling 
 doubtfully, and often erroneously, after God ! God 
 is now found to be indeed ' not far from every one of 
 us ; ' ready to make these bodies His temple. Where 
 is the power of heathen worship, where is the worth 
 of heathen speculation, beside the preaching of the 
 glad and certain tidings of the resurrection of Christ 
 Jesus, as the firstfruits and assurance of our own? 
 
 This is the Divine creed, then, which St. Paul 
 announced to the Athenians, instead of their popular 
 superstitions or their philosophic theology : — faith in 
 a God who was not satisfied to rest in grand seclusion 
 in the highest heavens ; but who issued forth, in the 
 
 r 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 depth of untold ages, to create a universe which it 
 was His pleasure thenceforward to protect and rule. 
 Not only so, but He peopled this world with intelli- 
 gent beings, on whom His own image was impressed. 
 Nor only so, again, but when that image had been 
 defaced by the sin of His creature, He came from 
 heaven to earth, and ' was delivered for our offences, 
 and was raised again for our justification,' a and re- 
 opened the avenue of intercourse through which man 
 might receive the grace of God. This is He in whom 
 we too live and move and have our being ; to whom we 
 owe not only the full perfection of our human exist- 
 ence, but the lower blessings of vital organisation, 
 and even the privilege of life itself, which rests as its 
 sole basis upon Him. This is He to whom we further 
 owe the certainty of future resurrection, which raises 
 our anticipations above the diversified guesswork of a 
 wider circle than was represented in the Athenian 
 audience of St. Paul — above the annihilation which 
 was expected by Samaritan and Sadducee, as well as 
 Epicurean — above the absorption which was looked 
 for by Oriental and Arabian Pantheists, in common 
 with at least some teachers of the Stoics — above the 
 purely intellectual individuality of the resurrection 
 which the Gnostic believed to be past already b — 
 above that highest faith in immortality, without a 
 resurrection, which limited the loftiest term of hope 
 to which man had ever reached independently of 
 Christ (-20). Truths like these we should not repeat, 
 
 a Rom. iv. 25. b 2 Tim. ii. 18. 
 
LECTURE II. 67 
 
 even in this hasty general outline, without offering, as 
 we pass, the earnest prayer that we may not make a 
 hollow formalism of Christian doctrines which the 
 Apostle preaches as an earnest life. 
 
 Trace back that line of light to the beginning, and 
 the farthest point you reach still leaves you in the 
 presence of the same truths; on the one hand, the 
 high capacities and aspirations, yet the mean achieve- 
 ments of mankind ; on the other hand, the unity, the 
 immutability, the power, the righteousness, yet with 
 all of these the love of God. Re-examine through- 
 out history the systems of Paganism, and they offer 
 precisely the same contrast to the truths of revela- 
 tion which we have traced in the Athenian sermon 
 of St. Paul. The highest heathen creeds of God 
 were partial ; representing Him now as a power, now 
 as a law, now as a distant abstraction, and now as the 
 capricious likeness of a human despot. But revela- 
 tion combines the partial truths which each of these 
 several creeds had covered, and excludes the false- 
 hoods by which those truths had been neutralised. 
 This it does by declaring that, though almighty, 
 though unchangeable, though veiled in the light 
 which no man can approach unto, God is described 
 most faithfully and most completely when we ad- 
 dress Him as the Father of mankind. God is our 
 Father; Christ is our Brother; the bond of bro- 
 therhood is the indwelling Spirit. All men every- 
 where are sons of God, and all men everywhere 
 are therefore brethren of each other. All are of one 
 blood. All spring from the same first parents. All 
 
68 LECTURE II. 
 
 are bound together by the universal ties of common 
 kindred. All may hope to find perfection in a 
 common heaven. That image of God, through which 
 we hold our Divine sonship, is stamped as certainly, 
 if not as brightly, upon the rudest savage of the 
 Eastern seas as upon the noblest representative of 
 European culture. And the practical expression of 
 this common sonship is the obligation of universal 
 charity ; ' for he that loveth not his brother whom he 
 hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
 seen ? And this commandment have we from Him, 
 that he who loveth God love his brother also.' a 
 
 Such is the general character of the Divine element 
 in Scripture, and such the contrast it presents to the 
 false religions of the heathen world, even when the 
 scanty grains of truth which they embody have been 
 most carefully numbered and recognised. I have not 
 wished to dwell at any length on the darker features 
 of ancient superstition — its sensuality, its cruelty, 
 the degradation of its more debasing rituals, the foul 
 enormities of Nature-worship. We need not follow out 
 our argument to those remoter consequences, when 
 it can be sufficiently established by the contrast of 
 revelation with the fairest forms of belief which the 
 purest of man's own thoughts can unfold. If we 
 confine our attention to our Saviour's incarnation, the 
 contrast will assume its loftiest and most striking 
 
 o 
 
 aspect. That incarnation re-established under new 
 
 11 1 John iv. 20, 21. 
 
LECTURE ir. 69 
 
 conditions the relations held by man to God. In 
 seeking for its parallel, let us exclude the mere 
 guesses of a so-called natural religion ; let us exclude 
 the few remnants of old tradition which were constantly 
 escaping from men's feeble grasp ; let us confine our- 
 selves to the purest theology which the speculative 
 thinker could maintain as credible and could attempt 
 to support by argument ; and we shall find that the 
 Deity which we are told to accept is no more than an 
 intellectual reflection of man's highest mind, the pos- 
 tulated perfection of all indications of goodness which 
 are confessedly imperfect in man ; and the chief proof 
 of His existence is only the apparent convergence of 
 our highest thoughts towards some centre of supreme 
 intelligence far from the sphere of human action (21). 
 To the general range of the more thoughtful minds 
 among the heathen, no ray of the Divine brightness 
 seemed to rest upon the business of our common life. 
 To be finally absorbed and lost in His glory might be 
 the ambitious vision of the sage ; but there was no hope 
 nor reward in such a Deity for the man condemned 
 to active labours; as the whole field of action, like 
 some dark and confused battlefield, where fallen good 
 was wrestling with evil, was excluded from, because 
 unworthy of, its light. If such a creed had any 
 common ground at all with ours, it lay simply in this, 
 that both alike believe that God ' only hath immor- 
 tality, dwelling in the light which no man can 
 approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see.' a 
 
 a 1 Tim. vi. 16. 
 
70 LECTURE IT. 
 
 But this, wliicli is the remotest point in our vision, 
 was the nearest point in theirs. They had no know- 
 ledge of the glorious range of truths which lie between 
 us and that distant heaven. They knew nothing of 
 Him who once spoke ' unto the fathers by the 
 prophets,' and who, ' in these last days,' hath ' spoken 
 unto us by His Son;' a nothing of God as a distinct 
 and personal Being, who is invested with certain 
 declared attributes, who watches with the tenderest 
 mercy over every creature of His hand, who hears 
 and answers every fervent prayer, and who will 
 receive His faithful servants when their work is done, 
 to restore them completely to His Divine image, and 
 to employ them in endless adoration round His throne. 
 The fatal defect, then, of false religions is the im- 
 passable chasm which, in spite of every effort to the 
 contrary, seems to separate their worshippers from 
 any God who is worthy of their adoration. The more 
 thoughtful heathen have acknowledged this, and 
 acquiesced in it, silent, if not satisfied. They have 
 translated the feeling into philosophic language. 
 They have hardened it down into the formal creed 
 which pronounced that the Deity was inconceivably 
 above all knowledge, and which scarcely needed to 
 pronounce the implied yet far more bitter sentence, 
 tli at He was therefore inconceivably above all love. 
 In this temper the)- have striven to describe the deep 
 serenity of that untroubled intelligence, that un- 
 fathomable sea of central light, on which no shadow 
 
 ■ Heb. i. 1. 2 
 
LECTURE II. 71 
 
 should be reflected from the tainted atmosphere of 
 worlds which are overclouded by misery and sin (22). 
 The recoil from this feeling doubtless had some in- 
 fluence in perpetuating the gods many and lords many 
 of Polytheism. Idolatry, however strange and de- 
 basing in its forms, is but the unconscious testimony 
 which is borne by ignorance and frailty to that 
 craving of the human spirit for some nearer and 
 more accessible representative of Deity than they 
 could find in the remote abstractions of an intel- 
 lectual God. It was an effort in each case to bridge 
 over the abyss which reduced man to a hopeless 
 exile from heaven. It has ever failed, and must ever 
 fail, to yield the slightest breath of consolation, 
 because the phantoms which it raises are no reflec- 
 tions of the Deity, but are mere shadows which men 
 project on the dark clouds that surround them — 
 shadows which exaggerate mere human attributes, 
 the worship of which is pure self-worship, veiled 
 beneath a thin disguise. 
 
 That gulf, which man had found impassable, was 
 destroyed for ever at our Saviour's incarnation, when 
 the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father vouchsafed to 
 clothe Himself with the garments of Time. That 
 doctrine lays hold at once of earth and heaven, and 
 brings them into union through the Person of our 
 Lord. Christ was Man ; and He has left us the noblest 
 example of all loving and tender sympathy for man : 
 but He was also God; and it is the duty of His 
 followers to lift their thoughts from earth to heaven, 
 and seek to fit themselves for entrance there. The 
 
72 LECTURE II. 
 
 heathen might fear God ; might marvel at each 
 witness of His majesty and power; might catch their 
 echoes in the spheres of heaven, and trace their re- 
 flections in the rushing river or the ancient mountain. 
 But it was the incarnation alone, in promise or in 
 fulfilment, which made it possible for man to enter- 
 tain the thought of loving God. Christ is God's 
 image, and He is love : therefore we know that God 
 is love. In seeing Christ we see the Father : there- 
 fore we know that in loving Christ we love the Father. 
 And thus the gulf is bridged over; the dark clouds 
 are rent asunder; the prayers of earth are heard 
 in heaven. We can pass on from that cheerless 
 image of the far-off unfathomable sea of light ; 
 we can pass on to the touching Gospel picture of 
 the father who fell on the neck of the returning 
 prodigal. And thus, through the portals of the 
 holiest manhood, we rise to the conception of the 
 absolute Divine. 
 
 Let no shadow steal across the vision of our spirits, 
 to separate our souls again from God. There have 
 been many such to shed a baleful deadness over the 
 darkening eye of man. There is the dreamy mistiness 
 of a remote abstraction ; there is the vulgar heathenism 
 of a debased idolatry; there is the miserable formalism 
 of a lifeless and uninfluential creed; there is the 
 chilling falsehood of an unloving intellectual faith. 
 What are these things when contrasted with the 
 warm devotion of a Christian heart, which searches 
 the Holy Scriptures daily for the living witness which 
 they bear to Christ ? We know whom we have 
 
LECTURE II. 73 
 
 believed. a We are redeemed; but it is by a personal 
 Redeemer, whose words of love are left to guide us. 
 A¥e are called to be sanctified ; but it is by the personal 
 Spirit, whom that glorified Redeemer sends to testify 
 of Him. b The voice of our prayer and praise can 
 reach the loftiest throne of Deity ; but it is because 
 Christ has enabled us to approach God as our Heavenly 
 Father. ' The word was made flesh and dwelt amon<>' 
 us;' c and we, who never saw His glory, may now 
 attain a still higher blessing, if we reach Him in faith 
 through the Holy Scriptures, and realise throughout 
 that sacred Presence which fills their earthly frame- 
 work with the Spirit of the Lord. 
 
 a 2 Tim. i. 12. b John xv. 26. c John i. 14. 
 
74 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 
 ' Now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to 
 face.' 
 
 THE reality of Scripture revelation has been thus 
 far dealt with as a question of simple fact, which 
 could be established by the ordinary branches of 
 evidence, and confirmed by the contrast with heathen 
 religions. But when we advance from revelation to 
 inspiration, and state the grounds for our belief, that 
 Scripture not only contains a true Divine message, 
 but is throughout the work of inspired writers, whose 
 inspiration still addresses our own spirits through the 
 language which they used, we must proceed from the 
 proof of that external fact to trace the general cha- 
 racter of the conditions under which the revelation 
 was recorded. There are two of these especially 
 which seem to call for consideration at the present 
 time ; namely, the Scriptural use of antinomies and of 
 double senses : — the one subject determining the mode 
 in which great truths were brought within the range 
 of the human intellect; the other subject supplying 
 a leading proof of the Divine authorship, in the 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 existence of a depth of significance which the human 
 authors could not have commanded. To these two 
 topics I propose to invite attention in the present and 
 the next succeeding Lecture. 
 
 We need not enter here upon the general question 
 of the limitations which the laws of thought impose 
 upon the forms in which we receive this revelation 
 from God (1). It cannot be doubted, as the Church 
 has always held, that Scripture employs a kind of 
 economy, accommodation, or condescension, to adapt 
 the eternal truths which it reveals for admission within 
 the range of finite thought. But for my present 
 purpose I may venture to assume, that though these 
 restrictions cause such disclosures to be constantly 
 expressed under the form of double and contrasted 
 statements, yet the revelation which results is as 
 absolutely true as the love of God could make it for 
 the children of His hand ; that the adaptation of 
 truth to inferior capacities involves no loss of any 
 fraction of its living power; and that the seen may 
 be accepted as an index to that mysterious unseen, 
 which it is confessed that its symbols cannot ade- 
 quately measure. If proof were needed, we should 
 find in it such declarations as these : — that man was 
 created in the image of the unseen God, and that 
 he retains a true though broken impress of that image 
 even since his fall a (-2) ; that God's perfection is the 
 standard at which our feeble efforts are encouraged to 
 aim ; that God's mercy is the pattern which man 
 
 a Gen. ix, G ; Ps. viii. 5, G ; Acts xvii. 29 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; James iii. 9. 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 ought to imitate, as He shows it by making His sun to 
 rise on the evil and on the good, and by sending rain 
 on the just and on the unjust/ It is plainly indispen- 
 sable that man should know clearly what God is, before 
 he can hope to restore to its original brightness the 
 likeness of God, which was tarnished by sin. Or again, 
 we find it in such truths as these : — that even through 
 the veil of nature, ' the invisible things' of God ' are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made ; ' b that even ' Gentiles which have not the law ' 
 ' shew the work of the law written in their hearts ; ' c 
 and above all, that ' God, who commanded the light 
 to shine out of darkness, hath sinned in our hearts, 
 to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
 in the face of Jesus Christ.' d 
 
 We have already seen that no doubt is left on 
 the medium of communication, through which these 
 eternal truths are granted to mankind. On our side, 
 ' there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the 
 Almighty giveth them understanding.' e On the side 
 of God there is the gracious influence which ' the 
 Father of spirits' f sends into our hearts, through 
 the personal agency of His quickening and enlighten- 
 ing Spirit. The Divine intercourse, which sin had 
 interrupted, was reopened on the advent of our 
 Saviour, in whom ' dwelleth all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily.' g The conditions under which we 
 
 a Matt, v. 45, 48. b Rom. i. 20. 
 
 c Rom. ii. 14, 15. d 2 Cor. iv. G. 
 
 c Job xxxii. 8. f Heb. xii. i). 
 
 8 Col. ii. ( J. 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 enjoy that communion are prescribed by a specific 
 revelation, which protects us from the uncertainty of 
 human fancies ; and they are maintained by the con- 
 tinuance of an organised society, which exists through 
 the promise and presence of the Spirit. Within these 
 bounds it is, that what we apprehend by faith becomes 
 the subject of our knowledge; and though that 
 knowledge is still partial and imperfect, its portions 
 are all absolutely true. We see, as St. Paul says^ 
 8;' ecroVrpou, sv alviy[xaTi • as though the rays were 
 received on an imperfectly reflecting mirror, which 
 gives an incomplete representation of the figure which 
 is thrown upon it (s). Yet though the form of the 
 revelation may be adjusted to the laws of human 
 thought, we cannot hesitate to believe that in its 
 substance and reality it is the most direct reflection of 
 the truth of Heaven which could be cast upon the 
 spirits of a fallen but regenerated race. The Giver of 
 revelation was the Maker of man's nature; and we 
 cannot doubt either His will or His power to adjust 
 the conditions of the one to the other. Whatever 
 impediments, then, may have existed, either through 
 the general imperfections of our fallen race, or through 
 special obstructions in particular cases, it may be 
 safely assumed that Scripture never fails to reveal as 
 much spiritual truth, in as explicit and direct a shape, 
 as the qualifications of its hearers would permit them 
 to receive. I proceed to apply this doctrine to the 
 antinomies of Scripture, or those apparent contradic- 
 tions which, from the earliest days of ancient heretics, 
 the gainsayer has gathered from the sacred page (-;)• 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 The subject has indeed an apologetic value ; though 
 that point is secondary to my present purpose. What- 
 ever freedom of interpretation may be claimed under 
 the formularies of the English Church, it is allowed 
 that one restriction at least is expressed in terms which 
 cannot be mistaken. She has explicitly disclaimed 
 the power of so expounding ' one place of Scripture 
 that it be repugnant to another;' and she has been 
 careful to guard against any revival of the Marcionite 
 heresy, by asserting that ' the Old Testament is not 
 contrary to the New.' a This rule is obviously of 
 vital importance. Whatever may be the relation 
 between Scripture and science, it is clear that on all 
 such subjects as fall within its proper province, the 
 voice of Scripture must be consistent and uniform ; 
 for a trumpet which gave ' an uncertain sound ' b 
 could never be the instrument of God. If Scripture, 
 then, could be convicted of contradictory teaching on 
 any moral or religious question, it would follow that 
 some erroneous tendencies in the human element had 
 been strong enough to modify the influence of inspi- 
 ration. If it can be shown, on the other hand, that 
 the alleged cases of contradiction are really conform- 
 able to the limitations of the human intellect, and 
 consistent with our reasonable expectations on the 
 character of a Divine revelation, we shall not only 
 remove a difficulty, but establish an evidence, which 
 will be all the stronger for the fact that it did not lie 
 upon the surface, and was not unfolded without 
 
 a Art. xx. vii. b 1 Cor. xiv. 8. 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 enquiry and thought. To this subject, therefore, let 
 us now address ourselves, reserving for a future time 
 one portion of it, namely, the moral difficulties con- 
 nected with some events in the older Scriptures 
 which might be treated as contradictions to the spirit 
 of the Gospel. It will be more convenient to treat of 
 these moral difficulties at a later stage of our arsm- 
 ment, and to approach them rather from the human 
 side. 3 
 
 We must, in the first place, be careful to distinguish 
 between contradiction in the text and contradiction 
 in the comment. The mere fact that opposite theorists 
 are equally ready to claim support from Scripture, is 
 not always sufficient to raise even the presumption of 
 contradiction in Scripture itself. There is no diffi- 
 culty in understanding how truth in the text is 
 consistent with error in the comment, even when the in- 
 ference has been honestly drawn. For it is the common 
 characteristic of mistaken views, that they rest more 
 frequently upon an exclusive or exaggerated statement 
 of a truth than upon the positive assertion of a false- 
 hood (5). Persons who have strongly realised the 
 importance of some principle which they believe to be 
 the only key for unlocking the mysteries of either 
 religious or philosophical difficulty, are unwilling to 
 concede the rights of any complementary statements 
 which may claim to take rank by its side. Limita- 
 tions, abatements, compromises, and qualifications, 
 seem to curtail the fair proportions of a cherished 
 
 a See Lecture VI. 
 
80 LECTURE ni. 
 
 doctrine. They reduce it to the lower dignity of only 
 half a truth ; and they are proportionally distasteful 
 to those eager tempers which resent the suggestion 
 that their cardinal dogmas may require a counterpoise, 
 as an insult to the authority, whether of theory or 
 revelation, on which those dogmas are believed to rest. 
 Yet it is the characteristic feature of the highest 
 principles, that they cannot be reduced to the sim- 
 plicity of one expression, but can only be set forth 
 fully in contrasted statements, of which neither is 
 exclusively true. It is one main duty of religious 
 philosophy to guard the equipoise on such subjects as 
 evil or freewill against theorists who would push 
 either into the fancied solution of a single extreme. 
 You cannot treat evil as a lower form of good, without 
 destroying the reality of man's hatred for sin. You 
 cannot merge in one conception the contrasted ideas 
 of personality and law, without obliterating either 
 the distinction between mind and matter, or the dis- 
 tinction between man and God. Absorb will in 
 law, and you contradict man's universal witness to 
 the nature of the will as the causal source of all free 
 action. Resolve all laws into the present operation of 
 the will of God, and you destroy the belief in man's 
 responsibility, while you cannot avoid the moral 
 anomaly of regarding sin itself as an issue of His 
 holy will. A large portion of the predestinarian 
 controversy has arisen out of a similar attempt to 
 exclude, on speculative grounds, either one or other 
 of the two fundamental conceptions — the freedom of 
 man and the supremacy of God. 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 If we turn from theory to Scripture (6), we trace 
 the same law in those revelations of the Deity which 
 constitute the central topic of the sacred record. It 
 is thus that we are taught to believe in three Persons, 
 yet one God : a unity of substance, which must not 
 be divided ; a trinity of Persons, who must not be 
 confounded. It is thus that we maintain the perfect 
 manhood, yet the perfect Godhead, of the one Saviour, 
 Christ our Lord; the union of two natures, which 
 cannot be intermingled, in one Person, who cannot 
 be divided. And when we pass from God's own 
 nature to mark the relations which He bears to His 
 creatures, we find that Scripture is equally explicit 
 in bidding us recognise at once the foreknowledge of 
 God and the freewill of man ; the omnipotence and 
 love of God, yet the misery in which rebellion has 
 plunged His creatures; the grace of God, and the 
 perfect freedom of our own responsibility ; and the 
 double position held by man himself, as at once 
 'a creature, yet a cause.' a But it is not pretended 
 that Scripture always pauses to adjust the balance 
 amongst the truths which it reveals or declares. 
 Hence it follows that errors resting on detached parts 
 of most of the statements which I have mentioned, 
 might be defended by isolated extracts from Scrip- 
 ture : and it is the same system of partial quotation 
 which has in every age been employed by one-sided 
 reasoners, who have tried to ' set the word itself 
 against the word;' Deuteronomy against Leviticus, 
 
 a Lyr. Ap. xlii. 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 and Ezekiel against Deuteronomy ; Prophets against 
 Moses ; the New Testament against the Old ; one 
 Evangelist against another; the Epistles against the 
 Gospels ; St. James against St. Paul. 
 
 But if inferences and interpretations need abate- 
 ment, it does not follow that we may extend that 
 process to the truths on which they rest. There is 
 very little promise in any attempt to effect a union 
 between two such principles by paring them down 
 till they can be adjusted together, and thus robbing 
 each of some portion of its strength and meaning. 
 Such compromises seldom fail to weaken both the 
 truths which are thus forced into unnatural combina- 
 tion. It is better to acknowledge at once that passages 
 of this kind bring us into the presence of one of those 
 antinomies which can be traced as clearly in Scrip- 
 ture as in reason, and in which the appearance of 
 contradiction is produced by the fact that two con- 
 trasted propositions contain an incommensurable 
 element, which creates in our mind the impression of 
 two opposite allegations (7). 
 
 The causes of this phenomenon are twofold. In 
 some cases we should readily accept the one truth 
 but for the presence of another which is equally 
 authoritative. At other times we realise the difficulty 
 for ourselves whenever we make the effort to fathom 
 a principle which baffles the operation of our thought. 
 Disclosures of pure revelation commonly belong to 
 the former class. We should rest satisfied with 
 the one half-truth, if the other were not given to 
 counterbalance it. But whenever we approach those 
 
lecture in. 83 
 
 ntysteries which are more closely analogous to the 
 antinomies of reason, we could work out the obscurity 
 on either side by simply unfolding the impossibility 
 of resting satisfied with either extreme. It is just as 
 with the familiar commonplaces ; that we can conceive 
 neither greatness which admits of nothing greater, 
 nor littleness which admits of nothing less ; that the 
 mind fails equally when we try to understand either 
 the beginning of time, or the eternal succession of 
 past ages without a beginning. A similar difficulty 
 emerges if we attempt to grasp such a thought as 
 that of infinity. The notion that we comprehend it 
 is a mere deception. We think of it as though it were 
 some vast mountain confronting us, which stretches 
 on all sides into limitless space ; or some ocean 
 reaching away before us, whose waves are bounded 
 by no farther shore. But let us note the fallacy : as 
 confronting ourselves, those conceptions are finite ; 
 the mountain has its limit toward us ; the sea has its 
 verge on which id e stand. In claiming for ourselves 
 an independent position, we do ourselves place a limit 
 or condition on the infinite ; and it seems as though 
 we could not escape the difficulty without merging 
 our own individual being in some self- destructive 
 creed of Pantheism. We cannot wonder that this 
 cause also should have given rise to many seeming 
 contradictions in Scripture. We could expect nothing 
 else on the assumption we began with, that Scripture 
 conveys a revelation on points to us so incompre- 
 hensible as the relation between the infinite and the 
 finite, or the relation between eternity and time (8). 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 We might easily draw up from Scripture a long 
 list of such contrasts, presenting in each case the 
 semblance but not the reality of contradiction. 
 Besides the instances which have been mentioned, we 
 might cite such illustrations as the following : — the 
 changelessness of God's purpose, yet its adjustment to 
 the ever-varying will of man ; the universality of His 
 laws, yet the minute watchfulness of His special 
 providence ; His perfect holiness, yet His longsuffering 
 patience with a sinful race ; the object of Christ's 
 coming as compared with its results ; and the con- 
 nection between God's superintending care and the 
 sedulity which is demanded from ourselves. The 
 texts referred to would be such as these : — ' God is 
 not a man, that He should lie, neither the son of man, 
 that He should repent ;' yet ' it repented the Lord 
 that He had made man on the earth.' a He dwelleth 
 ' in the light which no man can approach unto ;' yet 
 He is about our path, and about our bed, and spieth 
 out all our ways. b With Him 'is no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning ;' yet He is emphatically a 
 God that hears and answers prayer. He ' tempteth' 
 not 'any man;' yet 'God did tempt Abraham." 1 
 'The pure in heart' 'shall see God;' 'whom no 
 man hath seen nor can see.' e ' Thou art of purer 
 eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on 
 iniquity;' yet ' Thou hast set our misdeeds before 
 Thee, and our secret sins in the light of Thy counte- 
 
 a Num. xxiii. 19; Gen. vi. G. 
 b 1 Tim. vi. 1G ; Ps. exxxix. 2. c James i. 17 ; Pa. lxv. 2, &c. 
 
 d James i. 13 ; Gen. xxii. 1. e Matt, v. 8 ; 1 Tim. vi. 1G. 
 
lecture m. 85 
 
 nance.' a 'On earth peace,' was the angelic message; 
 'not' 'peace, but a sword,' was our Lord's interpreta- 
 tion. 13 ' Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly up- 
 ward ;' yet ' the Lord is loving unto every man, and 
 His mercy is over all His works.' c ' Turn ye unto me, 
 saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you ;' 
 yet 'Turn Thou us unto Thee, Lord.' d 'What I 
 say unto you I say unto all, Watch ;' yet ' except the 
 Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in 
 vain' e (9). 
 
 In some of these instances reconciliation is easy. 
 There are others in which the apparent contrariety 
 may be diminished by devout meditation, with the 
 assistance of the Holy Spirit. There are others, 
 again, which carry us up into the presence of the 
 highest mysteries — the relation between the finite and 
 the infinite ; and the possibility of evil in a world 
 which is governed by perfect power, wisdom, and 
 love. In dealing with doctrines so vast and obscure, 
 we can do no more than fix the limits of our igno- 
 rance, and take care that it shall not be mistaken 
 for knowledge. Yet it is clear that on considering 
 the analogies of reason, and the perplexities which 
 confront us hi all speculations on the same topics, a 
 true interpretation would not admit that in any one 
 of these examples either side has been overstated by 
 the inspired writer, or needs the modification which 
 a diluting exposition would supply. And from this 
 
 a Hab. i. 13 ; Ps. xc. 8. b Luke ii. 14 ; Matt. x. 34. 
 
 c Job v. 7; Ps. cxlv. 9. d Zech. i. 3 ; Lam. v. 21. 
 
 e Mark xiii. 37 ; Ps. cxxvii. 2. 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 negative conviction we may advance to the positive 
 assurance, that nothing short of inspiration could have 
 given so clear and full an utterance to both the great 
 truths embraced in each of these and similar questions, 
 without in any instance flinching from the needful 
 breadth of statement, and without in any instance 
 leaving either half of the truth unguarded, by the 
 provision of a counterpart in some other passage. 
 
 Many other texts of the same kind crowd upon the 
 memory, in connection with both the revelation of 
 God and the discipline of man. God condescends to 
 reveal Himself under the form of labour, yet His 
 eternal life must be existence of unstirred repose. 
 He ' fainteth not, neither is weary ; ' yet ' He rested 
 and was refreshed.' a Quamvis ea quietus feceris, 
 requievisti? ' He rested on the seventh day,' though 
 His rest was never broken. And while thus resting, 
 yet He rests not, as our Lord declares : ' My Father 
 worketh hitherto, and I work.' c With regard to 
 man, again, the regenerate are called holy, yet are 
 liable to fall, and still burdened by ' the body of this 
 death.' d The Church is to be spotless ; yet wheat and 
 tares must grow together in its borders till the harvest. 6 
 The conception of moral probation might be unfolded 
 in a series of contrasted assertions, combining the 
 spheres of man's accountability and God's control. 
 No evil temptation can originate in God; yet He 
 
 a Isa. xl. 28; Ex. xxxi. 17. 
 
 b S. August., Conf. xiii. 51. {Opp. i. 244.) 
 
 c Gen. ii. 2 ; John v. 17. 
 
 11 Rom. i. 7, &c. ; vii. 24. c Eph. v. 27 ; Matt, xiii. 30. 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 permits what He does not originate. The forbidden 
 tree of knowledge stood within man's reach. Satan 
 was not debarred from entering Paradise to tempt 
 him. The Holy Spirit led our Lord to His temp- 
 tation. 3 Balaam was allowed to go, yet condemned 
 for going. b The king whom Israel wished for was 
 granted as a token of God's anger. It is God's law 
 of discipline to grant men their desire, and, through 
 that very concession of an ill-judged prayer, to send 
 ' leanness withal into their soul.' d This is the solu- 
 tion of the paradox, that while it is His will that 
 all men should be saved, yet 'whom He will He 
 hardeneth.' 6 The key is found in the universal prin- 
 ciple, that self-induced blindness is penal blindness, 
 according to that message of God through Isaiah, 
 which is quoted at each crisis in the Gospel history : 
 applied by Christ in three evangelists to the teaching 
 by parables ; f applied by the fourth evangelist to 
 Christ's ministry, as it drew near its close ; g and 
 applied by St. Paul to the position of his fellow- 
 countrymen, both when he was writing to the Romans 
 and when he was arguing with the Jews at Koine : h 
 ' Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye 
 indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this 
 people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
 eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
 
 a Matt. iv. 1, &c. b Num. xxii. 20, 22. 
 
 c Hosea xiii. 11. d Ps. cvi. 15. 
 
 e 1 Tim. ii. 4 ; Rom. ix. 18. 
 
 f Matt. xiii. 14 ; Mark iv. 12 ; Luke viii. 10. 
 
 s John xii. 40. h Rom. xi. 8 ; Acts xxviii. 25. 
 
88 LECTURE III. 
 
 ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, 
 and be healed.' 3 He who framed the moral law, by 
 contravening which the heart is hardened, may be 
 said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, though 
 it was Pharaoh's selfwill that really hardened it. b He 
 who warns us against the bad influence of Satan, yet 
 will not win for us that victory which the conditions 
 of our moral nature bind us to achieve for ourselves, 
 may be described as having ' moved David ' to num- 
 ber the people, though Satan is elsewhere said to have 
 ' provoked ' the work. The sin, in fact, was David's 
 own; for all shi finds its real commencement in the 
 offender's own responsibility of will. But the phrases 
 of Scripture become clear when we remember that 
 Satan was the tempter, and was thus accountable for 
 the temptation ; while God had created the nature 
 and the laws which were perverted in that act of 
 distrust and rebellion (10). 
 
 1. It will be clear, from the proofs already cited, 
 that the method of Scripture rests upon the principle 
 that the most direct way of grappling with such diffi- 
 culties is to state each alternative, in its own proper 
 place and connection, unreservedly, simply, and em- 
 phatically; leaving the task of reconciliation, which 
 surpasses the powers of human intellect, to be either 
 attempted by the higher faculties of the enlightened 
 spirit, or postponed in all the confidence of faith, till 
 the time when we shall cease to know in part. Con- 
 
 a Isa. vi. 10, 11. " Ex. iv. 21, &c. ; viii. 15, &c. 
 
 c 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 1. 
 
LECTURE III. 89 
 
 centration is a foremost sign of earnestness; just as 
 we say of the concentrated love of God, 
 
 ' Thou art as much His care, as if beside 
 
 Nor man nor angel lived in heaven or earth.'* 
 
 It is the same with God's truths when proclaimed by 
 His servants. Each fills the eye, and exhausts the 
 attention, and strains the expressive power of hu- 
 man language. But why should we speak of God's 
 servants only ? Christ Himself did not pause to 
 ward off misconstruction when He told us of the 
 'joy ' that ' shall be in heaven over one sinner that re- 
 penteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, 
 which need no repentance.' b The elder brother in 
 the parable asked a not unnatural question, when he 
 remonstrated against the welcome granted to the 
 prodigal, which seemed to make it more acceptable to 
 sin and repent again, than simply to abstain from sin. 
 Yet even then Christ would not qualify the revelation 
 of the gladness of God's pardoning love. His answer 
 does not remove the difficulty, though it is framed to 
 calm down the jealous temper which the language of 
 the elder brother had displayed : ' Son, thou art ever 
 with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet 
 that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy 
 brother was dead, and is alive agaiu, and was lost, 
 and is found.' c 
 
 2. This fearless recognition of the seeming contra- 
 diction which hangs over the expression of the highest 
 
 a Christian Year, Monday before Easter. 
 b Luke xv. 7. c Luke xv. 31, 32. 
 
90 LECTURE UI. 
 
 truths, is still more forcibly illustrated when the two 
 sides of the antithesis are brought close together in 
 Scripture, without the slightest attempt to weaken 
 either, by explanation or abatement. To this cause 
 we might trace the common Scripture use of paradox ; 
 as in our Lord's own words, ' He that findeth his life 
 shall lose it ; ' ' Let the dead bury their dead ; ' 
 4 Whosoever hath, to him shall be given. ' a St. Paul 
 employs the same figure in such passages as these : — 
 ' What I would, that do I not ; but what I hate, that 
 do I ; ' ' The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and 
 the weakness of God is stronger than men ; ' ' She that 
 liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth ; ' and even in 
 such single phrases as Quo-lav £io<rav, "koyixrjv S\aTps/av. b 
 We trace it at an earlier date in such texts as that in 
 Proverbs, which bids us answer, yet not answer, ' a 
 fool according to his folly ; ' c and in the close reflec- 
 tion of the style of Scripture which we observe in 
 some parts of the Apocrypha; for instance, in that 
 striking passage : ' Weep for the dead, for he hath 
 lost the light; and weep for the fool, for he wanteth 
 understanding : make little weeping for the dead, for 
 he is at rest; but the life of the fool is worse than 
 death.' d From passages of this kind Ave may proceed 
 to texts which compress the deepest problems in a 
 single sentence. St. Paul condenses in one phrase 
 the whole controversy on the limitation of the mind 
 of man, when he prays that we may ' know the love 
 
 a Matt. x. 39 ; viii. 22 ; xiii. 12. 
 
 b Rom. vii. 15 ; 1 Cor. i. 25 ; 1 Tim. v. G ; Rom. xii. 1. 
 
 c Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. ll Ecclus. xxii. 11. 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 of Christ, which passeth knowledge.' a He brings 
 within two words, xplvavrsg e7rXrjpa)(rav, the entire 
 debate upon predestination and freewill ; which is 
 summed up again with almost equal brevity in that 
 earliest of the apostolic Church's hymns : ' for to do 
 — whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined 
 before to be done.' b St. John presents in one view 
 the double aspect of the Mosaic dispensation, when he 
 says that the law of love is at once a new, yet not a 
 new, commandment. And the broadest antinomies 
 are often found within the compass of a single para- 
 graph ; just as the same chapter in Samuel contains one 
 assertion that God cannot repent, and two assertions 
 that ' the Lord repented that He had made Saul king 
 over Israel. ' d Thus, again, in one chapter of Exodus 
 we read, ' The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as 
 a man speaketh unto his friend; ' and ' Thou canst 
 not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and 
 live.' 6 In two adjacent verses of St. John, Christ 
 teaches that ' God sent not His Son into the world to 
 condemn the world ; ' yet that ' he that believeth not 
 is condemned already.' f In the same chapter of 
 Romans, faith is described as both intellectual and 
 moral ; for ' faith cometh by hearing ; ' yet ' with the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness. ' s One chapter 
 of Galatians brings before us the contrasted spheres 
 
 a Eph. iii. 19. b Actsxiii. 27; iv. 28. 
 
 ° 1 John ii. 7, 8. d 1 Sam. xv. 11, 29, 35. 
 
 e Ex. xxxiii. 11, 20. 
 
 f John iii. 17, 18. Cf. ix. 39 ; eig Kplpa . . . i)\Qov and xvi. 11. 
 
 s Rom. x. 17, 10. 
 
92 LECTURE m. 
 
 of social sympathy and individual responsibility; 
 ' Bear ye one another's burthens ' (3apj) ; yet ' every 
 man shall bear his own burthen' (QofTiov)* Or to 
 pass on to books from single chapters. In the 5th of 
 St. John, Christ says, ' If I bear witness of myself, 
 my witness is not true ; ' in the 8th He tells us, 
 ' Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is 
 true.' b In the 12th of St. Luke, He describes how 
 the lord, on his return, makes his servants ' sit down 
 to meat,' and serves them; in the 17th He asks, Who 
 would say to his servant, when returning from the 
 field, ' Go and sit down to meat ' ? ° In the 9th of 
 St. Luke He says, ' He that is not against us is for 
 us; ' in the 11th, ' He that is not with me is against 
 me.' d In one place of the Gospels we are told to call 
 ourselves ' unprofitable servants ; ' in another the same 
 word forms part of the sentence of eternal death. 6 
 On this instance it has been remarked : ' Miser est 
 quern Dominus servum inutilem appellat ; beatus, qui 
 se ipse ' f — a solution which is capable of wider ap- 
 plication, in so far as it suggests the mighty differ- 
 ence between the claim of merit and the bounteousness 
 of grace (n). 
 
 3. The firmness of the faith which could record 
 these sayings without an attempt to weaken their 
 force by reconciliations, is further exemplified by the 
 perfect freedom with which the sacred writers treat 
 the apparent contradictions of our present life. A 
 
 a Gal. vi. 2, 5. b John v. 31 ; viii. 14. c Luke xii. 37 ; xvii. 7. 
 d Luke ix. 50; xi. 23. c Luke xvii. 10; Matt. xxv. 30. 
 
 f Benp;elius on Luke xvii. 10. 
 
LECTURE III. 93 
 
 weak faith would tempt us to avoid the subject, or 
 would try to gloze over its obvious difficulties. It 
 would frame vain speculations, in which it would 
 either shut its eyes on the reality of human misery, 
 or would fall into the pantheistic error of treating 
 evil as only a lower form of good. A strong faith 
 acknowledges the pressure of the difficulty, and pro- 
 claims it in the frank and fearless confidence, that the 
 obstacle will be hereafter found to lie hi us, not in our 
 Maker ; in the weakness and uncertainty of our present 
 vision, not in any limitation of either the power or 
 love of God. We may observe a sort of sacred elpcovzla 
 in the way in which the Jews used to deal with the 
 darker problems of our present existence (12). They 
 believed so firmly in God's immutability, that, as we 
 have seen, they were not afraid to speak of His repent- 
 ance, even in the very chapter in which it is recorded 
 that He cannot repent like a man. They reposed 
 such implicit trust in His righteousness, that they did 
 not hesitate to complain of their afflictions in the lan- 
 guage of strong expostulation. They relied with such 
 confidence on His unfailing goodness, that they did 
 not fear to deprecate actions which would rather have 
 sprung from a hard taskmaster, in the very tone which 
 a child might use towards a most loving parent at 
 the moment when most completely assured of his love. 
 Some have thought that, in this respect, the book 
 of Job was a protest against Judaism. But what 
 is there in the words of Job which is not urged 
 by Jews themselves in other parts of Scripture? 
 How can we distinguish the remonstrances of Job 
 
94 lecture in. 
 
 from those of Abraham and Moses, or the reproaches 
 of Job from those of David, of Asaph, of Solomon, 
 of Jeremiah ? a And could anything show more 
 clearly the real position of the double element in 
 Scripture than the perfect submission with which, in 
 the issue, these dark thoughts are put aside, yet the 
 perfectly natural character of the human emotions, 
 which are thus associated with the reception of the 
 knowledge of God? 
 
 But it may be well to test these positions by a more 
 detailed examination of two prominent instances, 
 which have formed the favourite fields of controversy ; 
 namely, the apparent corrections supplied by later 
 writings to the earlier teaching, and the seeming 
 diversity on faith and works between the writings of 
 St. James and St. Paul. 
 
 1. The commonest argument advanced by those 
 who regard Scripture antinomies as real contradic- 
 tions, is based on an attempt to prove that the later 
 parts of Scripture are rather corrections than develop- 
 ments. The success of this attempt would justify the 
 inference, that the Divine element must have been 
 penetrated by an admixture of purely human imper- 
 fection, which it was afterwards found needful to 
 withdraw. 
 
 The second commandment, it is urged, declares 
 that the Lord God is 'a jealous God, visiting the 
 
 a Gen. xviii. 23-33; Ex. xxxii. 32; Num. xvi. 22; 2 Sam. 
 xxiv. 17; Ps. Ixxiii. ; xciv. 3; Ecclcs. i. 3, 13, &c. ; Jer. xii. 1; 
 Lam. ii. 1, &c. ; Bab. i. 2-1; Mai. iii. 15. 
 
lecture in. 95 
 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third 
 and fourth generation of them that hate ' Him, ' and 
 showing mercy unto thousands of them that love' 
 Him, ' and keep ' His ' commandments.' a In explicit 
 contrast, it is said, with both the warning and the 
 promise, Ezekiel proclaims, with earnest reiteration, 
 the distinct responsibility of each separate soul, alike 
 for its good works and its sins : ' Behold, all souls 
 are mine : as the soul of the father, so also the soul 
 of the son is mine : the soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die.' The just man ' shall surely live, saith the Lord 
 God.' If the just man's son is evil, ' he shall surely 
 die : his blood shall be upon him.' And if he, in turn, 
 begets a son who abandons the evil courses of his 
 father, the father shall perish, but the son shall be 
 saved: ' he shall not die for the iniquity of his 
 father; he shall surely live.' b The same principle 
 is further applied to changes of character, so as to 
 establish in every detail the rigid justice of the 
 Lord (13). 
 
 Now in truth there is no real opposition between 
 these contrasted statements. To call them contra- 
 dictions is mere ignoratio elenchi; they cannot con- 
 travene each other, because their movement lies in 
 different planes. The commandment is part of the 
 law of the theocracy which fixed the external dispa- 
 ragement of sin among God's people; while the pro- 
 phets were commissioned rather to enforce those deep 
 truths of personal religion which a formal system, 
 
 a Ex. xx. 5 , G ; Deut. v. 9, 10. Cf. 2 Kings v. 27, &c. 
 b Ezek. xviii. 4, 9, 13, 17. 
 
96 LECTUEE III. 
 
 even of Divine appointment, has always some tendency 
 to obscure. 3 But the answer can be rested on a still 
 wider basis. It is the universal law of God's provi- 
 dential government, that, in many external respects, 
 the innocent must suffer for the guilty ; and especially 
 the innocent descendants for the crimes of a father. 
 All experience abounds in proofs that those who 
 indulge in vicious courses possess the fatal power of 
 involving their descendants also in the outward 
 penalties which vice entails : such penalties, I mean, 
 as weakened constitutions and enfeebled bodies, in 
 addition to the heavy heritage of a dishonoured name. 
 This is the necessary consequence of our common 
 membership one of another, and especially of that 
 social unity which the theocracy exhibited in its 
 most striking form. But social unity is not more 
 certainly a law of God than that individual responsi- 
 bility for which each will have to answer in the 
 presence of his Judge. Not in any detail are these 
 two at variance. They may act and react, like many 
 other conditions in our state as men. Parental in- 
 fluence has a mighty force for good or evil, and the 
 honour of the old is in their sons. b But in the crisis 
 of our doom, all these things pass away like other 
 adjuncts of our spiritual life. Each stands alone in 
 the last appeal. Each heart knows its own bitter- 
 ness. Each conscience has to bear its own burthen. 
 The words of the prophet might have stood side by 
 side on the tables of the lawgiver with the words 
 
 a See above, p. 52. b Trov. x. 1, &c. c Prov. xiv. 10. 
 
LECTURE III. 97 
 
 which were written by the finger of God. a It is 
 equally true that God visits the iniquity of the 
 wicked on their children, and that the soul that 
 sinneth, it alone shall die. 
 
 But it is urged that there are many other passages 
 in the Prophets which impose limitations on the claims 
 of the Law, or point with increasing clearness to a 
 time when those claims shall cease to be binding. 
 That the Law itself asserted a paramount and durable 
 obligation, seems to stand clear upon the surface of 
 the record : ' Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the 
 words of this law to do them.' b Thus Moses taught 
 the people to regard it as permanent. He hedged it 
 round with the most solemn exhortations. He pro- 
 nounced a wide range of earthly blessings on obedience ; 
 and he strove to deter the disobedient by a fearful 
 picture of national disaster, which far surpasses, in its 
 anxious vehemence, the thought of any merely tem- 
 porary warning, and which could not have been ful- 
 filled by any calamity of lighter import than that which 
 was inflicted at the fall of Jerusalem (14). Yet the 
 inspired guardians of the Law have themselves deep- 
 ened its teaching within the limits of the older Scrip- 
 tures ; and, as they gradually learnt to look forward to 
 a brighter era in the future, have implied that the Law 
 would cease to be obligatory when its types were 
 fulfilled at the coming of the Christ. d But how is it, 
 
 a Cf. Ex. xxxii. 32 ; Deut. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6. 
 b Deut. xxvii. 26; Gal. iii. 10. ° Deut, xxviii. 15-68. 
 
 d Ps. ex. 4; Isa. lxvi. 21 ; Jer. xxxi, 81 ; Dan. ix. 26 ; Zecli. vi. 
 
 H 
 
98 lecture ni. 
 
 we are asked, that they could thus be taught to lessen 
 the pressure of a public obligation, which had been 
 imposed under such solemn sanctions ? Or what other 
 sense can be put on such compositions as the 51st 
 Psalm, or the 1st of Isaiah, or the 7th of Jeremiah, 
 than that they really abate the force of the older state- 
 ments on the value of atonements under the Law ? 
 
 To the first point we should answer, that even human 
 lawgivers are accustomed to speak with similar, if not 
 equal, emphasis of laws which may nevertheless be re- 
 pealed, should it be needful, by the power which im- 
 posed them; and it is right and natural that a still 
 stronger impression should be given, in the case of laws 
 which had a deeper significance than any human legisla- 
 tion could command, and when the power which had 
 imposed them was Divine. It was enough that the 
 same God who had spoken by Moses was known to 
 speak as surely and as clearly by the prophets, whom 
 He commissioned to explain His earlier ordinances. It 
 was enough, too, that Moses had himself prepared the 
 way for the change, by warning the people to expect 
 a Prophet, who was to teach them with authority at 
 least equal to his own. a Rights which are inherent in 
 all earthly governments must be conceded to the Divine 
 source of every government, by whose wisdom alone 
 ' kings reign, and princes decree justice.' b But again, 
 it is erroneous to suppose that the interpretations which 
 were thus afforded brought any premature abrogation 
 
 13; Mai. i. ii., &c. Cf. Luke wiv. 27; John i. 15; v. 16; Ma 
 xxvi. 22. 
 
 a Dcut. xviii. 15-22. b Prov. viii. 15. 
 
LECTURE III. 99 
 
 of the Law. They only recalled men from the vain 
 practice of a formal obedience to the spirit which 
 gives its sole value to obedience; in the temper of 
 the lesson which Saul had long ago received from 
 Samuel : ' Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt 
 offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the 
 Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to 
 hearken than the fat of rams.' a Again, the precise 
 position of the Mosaic dispensation is taught in the 
 New Testament with a clearness which leaves nothing 
 to be desired, and which is in perfect harmony with the 
 deeper interpretation of the original record. When 
 the life and death of Christ brought out in strong 
 relief the fact that the Mosaic ordinances had been 
 deeply marked by a typical character, it followed that, 
 in the same extent and proportion, the temporary 
 nature of their obligation would be recognised. At the 
 same time it became clearer that the oldest Scriptures 
 had established limitations of their force, and expla- 
 nations of their meaning, which the later Jews had 
 simply overlooked or forgotten. Thus Christ Him- 
 self reminded them that God had vouchsafed an earlier 
 stream of revelation, which overruled the stipulations 
 of the Law of Moses ; and that a degree of knowledge 
 had been granted to the patriarchal Church which 
 the special objects of the Law had caused it in some 
 measure to obscure. Of the Jewish marriage-law, for 
 instance, He said that ' from the beginning it was not 
 
 a 1 Sam. xv. 22. Cf. Ps. xl. 6 ; 1. 8, 14 ; li. 17 ; Prov. xxi. 3 ; 
 Isa. i. 13 ; Jer. vii. 22 ; Hos. vi. 6 ; Mic. vi. 5, &c, and see Matt. ix. 
 13 ; :i'n. 7, &c. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LECTURE III. 
 
 so ; ' but that its Mosaic form must be attributed to 
 the hardness of their hearts. a Circumcision, He also 
 said, was not ' of Moses, but of the fathers ;' b therefore 
 it took precedence of the Mosaic Sabbath ; and much 
 more did mercy, as the obligation of a still earlier 
 law (15). We have here the very outline of the argu- 
 ment, which St. Paul afterwards enlarged when he 
 showed, by appealing to the revelation made to Abra- 
 ham, that the Law possessed only a secondary and 
 temporary character ; c and that its narrow scope bore 
 no proportion to the worldwide promise of a Saviour, 
 who was to spring from among the sons of Abraham, 
 and in whom all nations of the earth were to be blessed. 
 Comparing the Law with the earlier and later revela- 
 tions between which it stands, we see that, like both, 
 it balances the gift of grace by the duty of obedience ; 
 the election of the Israelites to special privileges by 
 their obligation to love the Lord their God with all 
 their heart and soul and might.* 1 But in all revelations 
 alike, the greater stress is laid on that side of these 
 twofold principles which most needed enforcing in 
 each succeeding age. It is not true, however, that any 
 age was ever left so completely to the undivided opera- 
 tion of the one principle, as to be pardonable for for- 
 getting the other. The Jews had no defence for the 
 spiritual blindness which had learnt to look for 
 salvation to the thing that they saw, rather than to 
 1 1 in i who is ' the Saviour of all.' c They had no excuse 
 
 a Matt. xix. ,s. Cf. Matt. xii. 8; Mark ii. 27,28, &c. 
 h John vii. 22. c Gal. iii. 17. 
 
 '' IK in. \ i. ... e "\Vis<l. xvi. 7. 
 
LECTURE III. 101 
 
 for the confusion which had substituted the works 
 of the Law for faith in the Promise ; and which relied 
 on that scrupulous legal obedience, which is at best 
 the mere fruit and evidence of faith, as the meritorious 
 ground for the acceptance which they owed solely to 
 the favour of God. And the fact that Scripture, 
 from time to time, counteracts similar errors by re- 
 iterating similar language, is a witness to its unity, 
 the absence of which would cause a greater difficulty. 
 2. Let us pass now from the consideration of 
 historical development to the leading example of 
 alleged contradiction between contemporary writers ; 
 namely, the doctrine of faith and works, as respec- 
 tively taught by St. Paul and St. James (16). But 
 this familiar controversy really carries us back to 
 the same antithesis which we have just been 
 examining. It is traced by both inspired writers 
 alike to the history of Abraham. It can be followed 
 up to the earliest period in which we possess the 
 terms of any covenant between man and God. Both 
 elements were found in Paradise itself, where grace 
 was given to make obedience possible; and then 
 obedience was exacted, as the sole condition of 
 continued grace. When that covenant was cancelled 
 by the sin of man, the foundation of a new covenant 
 was immediately laid, through which all mankind 
 became sharers in certain promised blessings. a In 
 the days of Abraham this covenant passed from 
 general terms into the form of a definite assurance, 
 
 a Gen. iii. 15. 
 
102 LECTURE III. 
 
 which constituted the election of a peculiar race. 
 The conditions of that promise were, first, faith; 
 and secondly, obedience. Abraham ' believed in the 
 Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.' a 
 Faith, then, which resigned all vain hopes of self- 
 recovery from the low estate of fallen man — faith, 
 which rested on a promised blessing, and which 
 restored the heart of man to the Divine communion 
 which sin had interrupted — faith came first, before 
 the rite of circumcision was ordained. But after 
 faith came obedience, of which circumcision was the 
 sign, and of which that wonderful act of faith, the 
 offered sacrifice of Isaac, was the most remarkable 
 proof. There is no real difference in this point be- 
 tween the fundamental conceptions of St. Stephen, 
 St. Paul, and St. James. All alike would place faith 
 first, as the groundwork which made obedience pos- 
 sible. All alike would have allowed, though they 
 might have expressed their meaning under different 
 forms, that ' faith ' afterwards ' wrought with ' 
 Abraham's ' works, and by works Avas faith made 
 perfect.' b All alike would have agreed, that these 
 works would have been worse than useless if they 
 had been done in opposition to the spirit of faith; 
 because that would have amounted to an assertion 
 of independent ability, and would therefore have been 
 equivalent to a declaration of rebellion. 
 
 If, then, it is certain that each branch of teaching 
 is unquestionably true, and that each can be traced 
 
 a Gen. xv. C ; Rom. iv. 3. b James ii. 22. 
 
LECTURE III. 103 
 
 with equal clearness in the inspired records to which 
 both make their appeal, it is surely unreasonable 
 to allege that the apostolic upholders of these two 
 positions could really contradict each other. What 
 St. Paul urges is true : that the best works of man 
 are worthless, if they are done without reliance on 
 the help of God. But what St. James urges is 
 equally true : that professed trust in God is spurious 
 if it does not lead to active effort on the part of 
 man. Works without faith would be the watchword 
 of a self-asserting reliance on man's strength, and a 
 denial of his need of grace. Faith without works 
 is the symbol of that antinomian self-deceit, which 
 substitutes a dreamy reliance on religious senti- 
 ments for a practical attention to religious duties. 
 The contrast is the same which always emerges, 
 when we compare the respective provinces of the 
 labour of man and the grace of God: and the 
 emphatic language used by each apostle is ex- 
 plained on the principle which I have endeavoured 
 to lay down. Each states, strongly and forcibly, the 
 truth which he was commissioned to deliver in oppo- 
 sition to prevailing error. St. Paul was confronting 
 a system of formalism, which pleaded privileged 
 position and ceremonial obedience as sufficient 
 grounds for acceptance in the sight of God. St. 
 James saw room to fear, that a belief in spiritual 
 acceptance, independently of obedience, might sap 
 the foundations of practical holiness. Each, there- 
 fore, supplies the half-truth which he saw to be 
 deficient, yet without any real contradiction of the 
 
104 lecture nr. 
 
 other; and the Holy Spirit has provided that, as 
 both alike stand together in the canon, so the whole 
 truth shall emerge from the union between them. 
 
 And now, without dwelling longer on diversities 
 which are thus found to rest on a most intelligible 
 principle, let me close this Lecture by calling attention 
 to the opposite phenomenon, which is surely worthy 
 of deep consideration. Much has been said of 
 contrariety: what shall be said of that marvellous 
 unity which reaches from end to end of Scripture, 
 though veiled under a not less wonderful diversity 
 in source, and character, and outward form? (17) 
 The grand truths of Christian theology are revealed 
 or confirmed by the voices of a long range of utterly 
 dissimilar writers, speaking without the slightest 
 possibility of concert; doing each his own duty, 
 seeking each his appointed end; busied consciously 
 with objects of comparatively small importance, 
 while unconsciously furthering the far mightier pur- 
 pose of delineating, stroke by stroke, and feature 
 by feature, the great image of the revelation of God. 
 No other book contains such unity of result; no 
 other book has ever sprung from such diversified 
 variety of source. It is the work of many men, in 
 many lands, through many ages : the work of law- 
 givers and heroes, side by side with shepherds and 
 herdsmen ; the work of accomplished intellects and 
 untrained peasants; embodying history and poetry, 
 records of the past and predictions of the future, 
 all degrees of legislation, all forms of enquiry, 
 
LECTURE III. 105 
 
 together with confessions of sin, and prayers for 
 mercy, and hymns of triumph; leading up to the 
 life of Christ set forth in the New Testament, and 
 the letters by which the early Church was governed, 
 guided, rebuked, and cheered. God, who called 
 Elijah from the desert and Elisha from the plough, 
 summoned others of His witnesses from nocks and 
 cattle, as well as from the race of priests or lineage 
 of kings. Moses spent the best forty years of his 
 life as a keeper of sheep amongst the mountains of 
 Arabia, nerving his spirit to high purpose in the 
 solitude of the lonely desert. David was taken from 
 the sheep-folds a to become an active warrior, a 
 prudent ruler, a governor beset by the lifelong 
 perplexities of complicated trials. Solomon was his 
 ' father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight 
 of his ' mother,' b and became the wise king of a 
 prosperous and settled kingdom, till he fell in old 
 age under the temptations of luxurious opportunity. 
 Isaiah and Daniel came from royal courts ; Jeremiah, 
 Ezekiel, Ezra, from the priesthood; while Amos was 
 ' no prophet ' nor ' a prophet's son,' but ' an herdman 
 and a gatherer of sycomore fruit,' whom God chose 
 to be a teacher as he was following his flock. But 
 why pursue a list which would simply repeat the 
 name and circumstances of every known writer of 
 Scripture, and complete the contrast between their 
 vocation and their work? If we pass to the 
 writings of Christ's first disciples, we find that they 
 
 a Ps. lxxviii. 70. b Pro v. iv. 3. 
 
 c Amos vii. 14, 15. 
 
106 LECTURE HE 
 
 too differed nearly as widely from each other and 
 from all. The teachers of Christ's Church were 
 chosen from the boat of the fisherman and from 
 the seat of custom, as well as, like Paul, from the 
 schools of learning, or, like Luke, as it seems, from 
 the practice of science. Problems of disputed 
 authorship only serve to increase the marvel. If 
 the writers had less authority than the Church has 
 ascribed to them, the unity which pervades their 
 common message is a still more unanswerable 
 testimony to the Divinity of its source. The 
 alleged contrariety is the strongest proof of the 
 unity. The argument from design receives in this 
 case its most direct and conclusive application; and 
 the sheer impossibility that such a result should 
 have sprung from any human agency supplies us 
 with the surest ground for our belief that it was 
 throughout inspired and overruled by God. 
 
 This position forms the proper basis for the next 
 enquiry on which I shall propose to enter; viz., 
 the precise conditions of the duplex sensus — the 
 real position of the literal meaning of Scripture in 
 relation to the secondary senses which it is believed 
 to have subserved. 
 
107 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Romans xv. 4. 
 
 c Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written 
 for our learning, that we through patience and comfort 
 of the Scriptures might have hope.' 
 
 F we believe that Holy Scripture contains a revela- 
 tion, which was made by God, ' at sundry times 
 and in divers manners,' a through a varied series of 
 human agents, we must expect to find that its lan- 
 guage would be adjusted, in the first instance, to the 
 level of the original hearers, and would yet be endowed 
 with a power of rising far above that level, in propor- 
 tion to the needs of more advanced humanity. The 
 first of these conditions is obvious in itself, though it 
 seems to be forgotten when men find stumblingblocks 
 in such necessary results of it as the adaptation 
 of Scripture language to the early state of scientific 
 knowledge. The second is the basis for the doctrine 
 of secondary senses — a doctrine which can be repre- 
 sented in so invidious an aspect as to make its defence 
 a task of considerable difficulty (1). Let a writer be 
 only suspected of maintaining that Scripture meant 
 
 a Heb. i. 1. 
 
108 LECTURE IV. 
 
 something different from what it seems to say ; that 
 its expositors are free from the laws by which all 
 other classes of interpreters are bound ; and that, in 
 defiance of the canons of criticism, they may claim 
 the right of relying solely on their private conceptions 
 of 'that which is good to the use of edifying;'* and 
 the reader is disposed to protest, without further hear- 
 ing, against so insecure a method, and to maintain 
 that it throws doubts upon the literal value of the 
 written word. 
 
 Yet this doctrine seems inseparable from the con- 
 ception of a revelation, which implies that the sugges- 
 tions of a Divine Author lie behind the expressions 
 of the human writer. If revelation be a condescension 
 from the higher to the lower, if it be the transfusion 
 of knowledge from a wider to a narrower sphere, the 
 truths thus entrusted to the expressive power of an 
 inferior language must embody a life and expansive- 
 ness which only need the fit occasion to burst forth. 
 The spirit is tenanting an earthly framework, and can 
 issue, when need is, from its narrow mansion, to shine 
 in broader and distincter light. And so, in point of 
 fact, through every portion of the inner mind of Scrip- 
 ture, we trace a clear capacity for future elevation, 
 above the level of the writer through whom it was 
 made known. This, I repeat, is precisely what we 
 ought to have expected. Granting that the in- 
 spired writers were employed, not as mere mechanical 
 instruments, but as God's chosen and enlightened 
 
 a Eph. iv. 29. 
 
LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 servants, speaking only under the guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit ; granting that the revelation would be 
 moulded by the human element, and would bear broad 
 traces of the individual characters of those through 
 whom it was conveyed ; we should still expect to find 
 that the Divine meaning would rise far above the level 
 of the human writer, and that his message would 
 show signs of deeper truth and more comprehensive 
 purpose than his words could compass or his mind 
 could understand. I am not now dealing with that 
 larger proof of inspiration, which is furnished by the 
 intrinsic dignity of its teaching and its essential supe- 
 riority to any truth which unaided reason seems to 
 grasp. I am speaking solely of this formal charac- 
 teristic, the capacity of spiritual development, as one 
 of the chief internal credentials which we might expect 
 to find, and which in fact we do find, in the book of 
 revelation. 
 
 It is scarcely possible, for instance, to read the 
 writings of the prophets, and compare them with their 
 contemporary history, without the perpetual conviction 
 that more was meant — not perhaps by the human 
 speaker, but by the inspiring Spirit — than met the 
 earliest listener's ear. Just as in complex harmonies 
 of music we may detect the undercurrent of some 
 simple and familiar strain, so we hear tones through 
 the prophetic volumes which sound like parts of a 
 wider and more commanding system — notes in a more 
 extended chorus, responding across broad intervals of 
 varied measures, and arresting attention by a depth 
 of unity which no superficial diversity can hide. 
 
110 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Thoughts rise, as we read, which haunt us like the 
 hidden signs of the Platonic «va/Jivr y o-^. We pass 
 beyond the sacred writer with his obvious meaning, 
 and see him to be the willing instrument of One 
 whose purposes and mysteries he has not fathomed. 
 He is a servant, not a master, of the truths which he 
 declares, though his service is a glad and ready ser- 
 vice. He is no more than a private in a mighty 
 army, and knows little of the great designs which his 
 obedient movements are directed to subserve. His 
 tongue is controlled to utter words of larger import 
 than is exhausted by the object on which the earnest 
 attention of his present purpose is expended. Free 
 from the sin of Balaam, he yet reminds us of the over- 
 ruling influence which forced Balaam to pour forth 
 blessings beyond his wish and prophecies beyond his 
 thought. Free also from the blinded worldliness of 
 Caiaphas, yet, like him, he speaks words which plainly 
 come 'not of himself,' a but from the immediate sug- 
 gestion of the Spirit (2). The peculiarity extends to 
 the symbolical as well as the typical. The strain 
 may begin with personal anger against an individual 
 offender ; but pursue it a moment, and you will find 
 it purged from all the bitterness of earthly passion, 
 and rising into righteous condemnation of sin. Or it 
 commences with the glory of God's earthly temple, 
 and then swells, as if the seer could not control his 
 language, to describe the far-off vision of the eternal 
 temple in its everlasting grandeur in the heavens. 
 
 ft John xi. 51. 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 It is this capacity which St. Paul recognises in the 
 words of our text : ' Whatsoever things were written 
 aforetime were written for our learning ;' or, as he 
 elsewhere expresses it, '/or our admonition ; ' or again, 
 in other passages, '■for our sokes J * as well as for the 
 sake of the original hearers. Taken in connection 
 with the context, and illustrated by the method of his 
 own quotations, the Apostle's meaning must amount 
 to this, that the earlier Scriptures were intended to 
 serve a wider purpose than the immediate occasion of 
 their utterance furnished, or than the immediate 
 agents of their disclosure comprehended. This is 
 precisely what was meant by the double condition 
 which I named at the outset. If the necessity that a 
 revelation should first of all things be intelligible 
 caused God's earlier disclosures to be modified in form 
 by temporary considerations, the loftier use to which 
 they were destined in the future prevented their full 
 meaning from being exhausted by the applications to 
 which they were confined for a season. A spiritual 
 sense, then, must always have lain hid beneath the 
 letter, and must have been gradually unfolded, in 
 proportion to the elevation of the human faculties, in 
 their deepest relation to God. We must admit the 
 existence of that spiritual sense before we can trace 
 the successive disclosures of the ever-brightening light 
 which penetrates the letter of God's earlier word. 
 Throughout the entire range of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, there exists a deeper signification than 
 
 a 1 Cor. x. 11 ; ix. 10 : Rom. iv. 24. 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the literal — a signification which is veiled alike 
 under command and precept, type and symbol, history 
 and prophecy, stern denunciation and triumphal psalm. 
 On this basis rests the process of development which 
 Christ and His apostles have unfolded. Throughout 
 the New Testament, facts, prophecies, and simple 
 precepts — disclosures of God's own nature, and re- 
 cords of the wanderings of men — the prayer of the 
 penitent, the thanksgiving of the humble — the lamen- 
 tations of the captive, and the triumphs of the con- 
 queror — are all treated alike, as richly fraught with 
 that double sense which Christ's advent brought to 
 open light. Sometimes the proof of this is direct and 
 simple. Such is the interpretation of the broader 
 types and prophecies, which bore their distant witness 
 to the person or the work of Christ. Such is that 
 remarkable instance in which Christ Himself gave the 
 explanation of God's patriarchal title — the God of 
 Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob ; the God of the 
 living, not the dead. a Such is St. Paul's mode of 
 dealing with both primitive and Jewish history, in the 
 facts of which he descries deep allegories, containing 
 the germs of Christian doctrine. A complete account 
 of this characteristic of Scripture would trace the 
 gradual growth of prophecy, from its first faint lines 
 to its most detailed disclosures ; from the victory 
 promised to the woman's seed up to the minute indi- 
 cation of so many particulars in Christ's personal 
 history. It would teach us to recognise His image in 
 
 ■ Matt. xxii. 32. 
 
LECTURE IV. 113 
 
 the heroes, who were raised as successive saviours for 
 His people ; in the Prophet, who was to be like unto 
 Moses; the Priest, who was to hold an imperishable 
 priesthood; the King, who was to claim the title of 
 the royal David's Lord. a It would teach us to read 
 Him alone in such types as the Star of Jacob, the 
 Sceptre of Israel, the Root of Jesse, the Sun of 
 Righteousness who was to ' arise with healing in His 
 wings ; ' b to find Him alone in such historical shadows 
 as the bread from heaven, and the uplifted serpent, 
 an£ the water springing from the smitten rock ; c to see 
 in the sacrificial lamb the figure of ' the Lamb slain 
 from the foundation of the world ;' and to trace the 
 minutest details of His passion in the victim who was 
 led ' as a lamb to the slaughter ; ' in Him whose hands 
 and feet were pierced ; whose garments they j^arted ; 
 who was buried ' with the rich in His death' d (3). 
 
 The doctrine of the spiritual sense, then, rests 
 on the belief that, in the composition of Scripture, 
 it was God Himself who furnished or suggested 
 the materials which His chosen servants, under His 
 continued guidance, clothed in such language as 
 their own intelligence and position prompted. The 
 reality of the Divine element in Scripture is the 
 truth on which the possibility of such senses must 
 depend ; for it implies that the res beneath the voces 
 
 a Deut. xviii. 15 ; Ps. ex. 1, 4. Cf. Acts iii. 22 ; Matt. xxii. 45; 
 Heb. v. 6. 
 
 b Num. xxiv. 17 ; Isa. xi. 1, 10 ; Mai. iv. 2 ; Rev. v. 5, &c. 
 
 c Ex. xvi. 15 ; Num. xxi. 9 ; John vi. 31 ; iii. 14 ; 1 Cor. x. 4. 
 
 d Rev. xiii. 8; Isa. liii. 7; Acts viii, 32; Ps. xxii. 16, 18; 
 Tsa. liii. 9. 
 
 I 
 
114 LECTURE IV. 
 
 shall be significant as well as they a (4). But before 
 we proceed to further proofs and instances of that 
 significance, we must premise one important principle, 
 which has been too often overlooked in these discus- 
 sions, namely, that such rights as might fairly be 
 claimed for the human authors of the Scriptures, are 
 in every case respected and reserved. 
 
 It cannot reasonably be doubted, that every inspired 
 writer, even when unable to fathom the full import of 
 his message, would still affix to every word he uttered 
 some one primary and sufficient meaning, which 
 would be directly connected with his special mission. 
 In cases of prophecy, this is often plain and unques- 
 tioned. Amos must have thoroughly understood that 
 God would transport His people beyond Damascus, 
 even though he did not know, what the light of the 
 fulfilment told St. Stephen, that they would be carried 
 beyond Babylon also. b Isaiah must have perfectly 
 comprehended the sense in which he described the ruin 
 of the King of Babylon as the fall of ' Lucifer, son of the 
 morning,' though he might not be able to regard it as 
 the type of that overthrow of the power of iniquity to 
 which Christ referred when He said, ' I beheld Satan 
 as lightning fall from heaven.' c God's wrath against 
 old guilty nations is expressed with as much clearness 
 and precision, as if it had no further bearing on more 
 spiritual forms of evil. The chastisements of Israel, 
 and God's forgiveness on their repentance, are all as 
 closely adjusted to the original circumstances as if 
 
 a S. Thorn. Aquin., S. Th., I ma Qu. i. Art. x. 3. 
 b Amos v. 27 ; Acts vii. 43. c Isa. xiv. 12 ; Luke x. 18. 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 they had never been meant to be extended to the 
 whole Church of God. Precisely in the same way, to 
 take an earlier instance, Abraham must have attached 
 a definite significance to the Divine title when he 
 called a place Jehovah-jireh, though we are told that 
 God was not revealed to him by the full signification 
 of His name Jehovah. a And to take a later instance, 
 the words of Christ Himself, which were uttered by 
 direct omniscience, bear as sharply and precisely on 
 the fall of Jerusalem as if they were not coupled with 
 other expressions of a broader range and deeper 
 meaning, which can receive no earlier fulfilment than 
 in the solemn events of His second advent. Or to 
 turn to cases where prophets look back to the facts of 
 history ; we may rest assured that Hosea was thinking 
 of the Exodus as he wrote, ' When Israel was a child, 
 then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt ;' 
 and it is a mere misapprehension of the question to 
 suppose that the believers in his inspiration are bound 
 to maintain that he used these words with any 
 primary reference to Christ b (5). The same remark 
 applies to Jeremiah's allusion to the mourning of 
 Rachel, which St. Matthew quotes in the same con- 
 nection. The prophets referred to well-known facts, 
 and God had caused those facts to be typical. But 
 the record of a typical fact becomes a prophecy, though 
 it might not in all cases be known to be such at the 
 time when it was written down. Dum narrat gestum, 
 
 a Gen. xxii. 14 ; Ex. vi. 3 (above, p. 50). 
 b Hos. xi. 1 ; Matt. ii. 15. c Jer. xxxi. 15 ; Matt. ii. 18. 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 prodit mysterium.* Events in the Old Testament 
 reappear as truths in the New Testament; but the 
 prophets who cite them in their earlier character 
 must on no account be put on the same level with the 
 evangelist who was inspired to see their prophetic 
 import, and to record the circumstances in which they 
 were fulfilled. To recur to my former illustrations. 
 The private understands the step that he is taking, 
 though he knows but little of its ulterior objects; 
 and the subordinate member of a numerous chorus 
 sees clearly the note which he himself is striking, 
 though he might be unable to tell you its exact 
 position in the complex harmony of the great master. 
 And this firm belief, that each writer thoroughly 
 understood the primary meaning of his own language, 
 is quite compatible with the conviction, that the true 
 fulfilment, when it came, drew out a meaning far 
 closer, deeper, and worthier, than the contemporary 
 or intermediate application could supply. 
 
 There might, indeed, be repetitions of such provi- 
 sional applications, as once and again the law took 
 effect, the principle found expression in an historical 
 event, and the prediction was strengthened by the 
 addition of a type, which each such fact of history 
 yielded (6). It was as though the reflection of the 
 coming future rested brightly and yet more brightly on 
 the crest of each advancing wave. But while each of 
 these applications might be real in its own place, and 
 might form a solid element in the onward movement 
 
 a S. Greg. Magn. ap. S. Thorn. Aquin., S. Th., I. i. Art. x. (Opp., 
 i. 635 : ' Dinn narrat textum? &c). 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 of events, still the sign of imperfection would be found 
 to linger over all such partial shadows of the end. We 
 could not mistake them for that exhaustive fulfilment 
 which came at last to light up every line and feature 
 in the mysterious forecast, when the advent of the 
 grand reality brought the series of types and antici- 
 pations to its close. 
 
 Here, then, is the first caution which we must 
 observe when applying the doctrine of secondary and 
 spiritual interpretations of Scripture. We are by no 
 means to suppose that any inspired writer was so mere 
 a mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, that he used words 
 to which he did not himself attach a definite meaning ; 
 and that, too, a higher meaning than his own thoughts 
 could have furnished. We are on no account to ima- 
 gine that any sower of the seed of the Spirit could 
 have been ignorant of the spiritual nature of his work. 
 What we allege is, that over and above that one clear 
 meaning in which the original writer used the words 
 of Scripture, they are often found to cover a secon- 
 dary and deeper sense, sometimes more than one 
 such sense, which it was a function of the later 
 revelation to disclose. 
 
 On the other hand, it is just as little to be thought 
 that, after this second sense had been extracted, the 
 first wholly lost its use and interest. The Mosaic 
 laws, for instance, still retain their distinct value as 
 the forms impressed by God Himself, for a most 
 important purpose, on universal principles of right 
 and wrong — a value which is entirely independent 
 of such well-meant but questionable explanations as 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 have been offered by Kabbalistic, Hutchinsonian, or 
 Sweclenborgian schools. Increased study only enables 
 its to extend the remark with greater confidence to 
 every portion of the older Scriptures; and to suspect 
 that the Church was meant by her Master to apply, 
 with careful sobriety of judgment, a similar interpre- 
 tation for large portions of the New Testament. The 
 earlier moral lessons, for instance, will no longer be 
 thought to be the mere vehicles of an unrelenting 
 sternness, fitted for the world's childhood, but un- 
 worthy of its maturity. We shall no longer look on 
 that old Jewish zeal, which bore fruit in hatred for 
 evil as well as love for good, as though it could yield 
 no precedent for Christian conduct, no pattern meet 
 for Christian men. The same is true of every portion 
 of that ancient record. To the devout and enlightened 
 Christian intelligence, the words of those elder Scrip- 
 tures can never become like the narrow cottage which 
 is abandoned to decay and desolation when its inmates 
 have left it for an ampler home. Still less are they 
 like the dead husk which may be cast away when the 
 fruit has been secured, or like the dead body which 
 may be buried when the spirit has departed. Rather 
 they are still and for ever alive with the abiding pre- 
 sence of the indwelling Spirit ; they rise in themselves 
 to a nobler elevation, in proportion as their loftier 
 meaning is unfolded : just as the image of the Saviour 
 jdorifies that long line of ancient worthies in which 
 it was foreshown; just as what man might have mis- 
 taken for the petty laws and narrow policies of one 
 small tribe in a secluded district swell out into the 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 reflection of the everlasting country, when the Gospel 
 discloses their eternal model, abiding in its glory in 
 the heavens. 
 
 But our safest guidance on this subject must be 
 sought from the recorded examples of the mode in 
 which Christ and His apostles were accustomed to 
 deal with the Old Testament Scriptures. Two main 
 principles appear to be suggested by that enquiry : 
 the one, which is again divisible into two parts, that 
 facts in the history of God's ancient Church are 
 regarded as sometimes symbolical, and sometimes 
 typical — in other words, as indicative at one time of 
 truths and at other times of events, which meet us 
 in the history of the Christian dispensation ; the 
 other, that the enactments of the Mosaic system were 
 frequently invested with so representative a character, 
 that we can still derive the greatest advantage from 
 translating them back into the more universal laws 
 on which they rest. 
 
 We have here three different modes of explanation, 
 under one or other of which most secondary meanings 
 can be arranged (7). In the first place, objects and 
 events which were in themselves perfectly real and 
 historical, are found to possess a symbolical force 
 when they are seen to embody a deep spiritual or 
 moral principle, which clothes itself in different ages 
 under varying outward forms. The case of types is 
 rather more complex, as they add to the symbol the 
 element of prophecy. And under this division may 
 be included two heads of interpretation which were 
 anciently marked by different names, the allegorical 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and anagogic ; the one containing those types in the 
 Law which anticipate the Gospel ; the other comprising 
 those characteristics of the Church militant which pre- 
 figure the eternal glory of the Church triumphant. 
 To the symbolical and typical I have proposed to add 
 a third class, containing cases where the secondary 
 sense merely resolves a rule into the deeper law, which 
 gives it an abiding interest. 
 
 1 . Of the symbolical kind of secondary senses, the 
 leading instance is furnished by St. Paul's interpreta- 
 tion of the history of Sarah and Hagar a (8). The word 
 aXXrjyopou/xsva which he employs plainly means, as 
 St. Chrysostom interprets it, that the history referred 
 to ou [xovov 7raoa6r^oi oVsp Qaivsrai ' (mark the care 
 with which the literal meaning is secured ; ) aAXa xa) 
 aAXa TivoL dvayopzdsr h it gives a symbolical representa- 
 tion of principles, while it retains the character of a 
 plain historical record. The Apostle tells us, then, 
 that what is written about the members of Abraham's 
 household may be viewed in the more general light 
 of an allegory ; for that ' these are the two covenants ; 
 the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to 
 bondage,' the other from that heavenly Jerusalem, 
 which ' is free,' and ' is the mother of us all.' This is 
 plainly a very remarkable claim to find a double 
 sense in a simple narrative, and to read the spiritual 
 relations of Jew and Christian in the representa- 
 tive records of the house of Abraham. As such it 
 calls for a closer examination when we are enquiring 
 
 a Gal. iv. 21-31. b Cramer, Caten. G. P., vi. C9. 
 
LECTURE IV. 121 
 
 into the Scriptural usage as to secondary senses. 
 My reason for assuming that in this case the 
 purely symbolical element is more conspicuous than 
 the typical will be made clear in the course of 
 exposition. 
 
 The analogy, let us observe, is drawn from the 
 entire history, as well as from the persons. Viewed 
 in themselves, Hagar and Sarah are both mixed 
 characters. There was plainly much that was excel- 
 lent in Hagar, who twice received angelic visits, in 
 each case with the promise of a special blessing, and 
 who had realised a deeper truth than others of her 
 age and condition, when she said, ' Thou, God, seest 
 me.' a There had been passing traces of unbelief in 
 Sarah, though her doubts had been conquered by the 
 noble influence of Abraham's faith. b But even in 
 their merely personal aspect, the parallel would thus 
 far hold good, though it forms no part of the Apostle's 
 argument. For on the one hand, the law is ' good, if a 
 man use it lawfully,' and the ' commandment holy 
 and just and good;' and on the other hand there 
 have always been multitudes of unworthy Christians 
 who have been gathered within the outer fold of the 
 Gospel. When both these women were alike members 
 of Abraham's household, each had her own position 
 and duty. Sarah was the mistress, and Hagar was 
 the handmaid. It was the place of Sarah to rule, and 
 it was the place of Hagar to obey. Precisely analo- 
 gous, within God's household of the Jewish Church, 
 
 a Gen. xvi. 7 ; xxi. 17 ; xvi. 13. 
 b Gen. xviii. 12-15. c 1 Tim. i. 8 ; Rom. vii. 12. 
 
122 LECTURE IV. 
 
 was the relation between the Promise which was tin 
 basis of the Gospel, and the Law, which was the ruling 
 instance of ceremonial precepts and forms. The 
 Promise represented the free gift of God's Spirit. The 
 Law represented the more fleshly and servile element 
 of ritual obligation, which was ' added because of 
 transgressions." 1 When Hagar despised Sarah, and 
 when the son of Ha2;ar turned against the son of 
 Sarah and mocked him, b the true domestic order was 
 subverted. The mistress was taunted by her hand- 
 maid; the heir of the freewoman became the sport 
 of the son of the slave. The same thing happened 
 when the Law received the faith and reverence which 
 properly belonged to the Promise only; when men 
 looked for salvation to the works of the Law, rather 
 than the faith which had led to the justification of 
 their fathers; when the hard details of their legal 
 duties, which were the mere bond-slaves of their 
 nobler privileges, Avere allowed to absorb their entire 
 devotion, and the flame of spiritual worship died out 
 within their hearts. 
 
 And now observe the manner in which this inter- 
 pretation is applied by the Apostle. The Galatians 
 had fallen back from the spirit to the letter. To 
 counteract this evil tendency, he appeals to that very 
 reverence for the letter which they had selected as 
 their field of vantage. The history of Abraham stood 
 in the very forefront of those Scriptures which would 
 be especially described as the Law. What are the 
 
 a Gal. iii. 19. b Gen. xvi. 4; xxi. ( J. 
 
LECTURE IV. 123 
 
 lessons of the life of Abraham? Do they exalt Law 
 against Promise, flesh against Spirit, forms against 
 grace, works against faith? The very contrary is 
 true. You may see it, he elsewhere argues, from 
 the history of the justification and circumcision of 
 Abraham. 8 You may learn it here, he says, from the 
 records of his household history. You may learn it 
 if you will duly study what you are told about Sarah 
 and Hagar, and will draw forth the lessons which 
 that history should convey. 
 
 The son of Sarah was by special covenant to be the 
 ancestor of Christ; for 'in Isaac shall thy seed be 
 called.' b But though no such glory rested on the 
 son of Hagar, God had listened with favour when 
 Abraham had prayed that his son Ishmael also should 
 be blessed. His very name was a pledge that God 
 should hear. d He was ordained to be a great nation. 
 He did not die till this blessing had been abundantly 
 fulfilled ; till the twelve promised princes of his race 
 could be gathered together from their towns and 
 castles, that he might die ' in the presence of all his 
 brethren.' 6 But the promise which proved God's 
 goodness towards Ishmael was darkened from the out- 
 set by the prophetic shadow of his wild and lawless 
 career. 1 " His proper province was to yield to Isaac 
 loyal service. This was the highest household dignity 
 that belonged to him. So far as his domestic rights 
 went, he was not even so much as Esau was to Jacob, 
 
 a Roru. iv. 10. b Gen. xxi. 12. 
 
 c Gen. xvii. 20. d Gen. xvi. 11. 
 
 e Gen. xxv. 16, 18. f Gen. xvi. 12. 
 
124 LECTURE IV. 
 
 or as Eliab was to David (9). When lie mocked the 
 son of Sarah, he fell into domestic rebellion, and was 
 cast out into the desert, as the complaint of Sarah 
 was ratified by the sentence of God. a After this he 
 held his greatness as an alien and a stranger. He 
 had for ever forfeited his highest blessing. Hence- 
 forward he was, as God presignined, ' a wild man ; 
 his hand against every man, and every man's hand 
 against him.' b Henceforth he represented the resist- 
 ance of the flesh against the Spirit; the developed 
 rebellion of our fallen nature when it rises up against 
 the grace of God. Now it is this secondary, cor- 
 rupted, and unnatural relation which furnishes the 
 Apostle with his parallel for the not less forced, cor- 
 rupted, and unnatural position which the Galatians 
 were claiming for the Law of Moses. Ishmael might 
 have kept God's blessing if he had rendered due 
 respect to Isaac. And in the same manner, the Law 
 of Moses never gendered to bondage, except when 
 approached in a spirit at once servile and rebellious. 
 AVe may be sure that it was no bondage to Moses 
 and Joshua, to Gideon and Barak, to Samson and 
 Jephthah, to David, and to Samuel, and to the pro- 
 phets. But to the Scribes and Pharisees it had 
 become the sternest, though unconscious, bondage; 
 that of the fleshly, formal, and self-righteous heart. 
 Against these, and such as these, the Apostle, like his 
 Master, urges, that other heirs had now been born to 
 Abraham.' 1 Again the barren had been blessed with 
 
 ; ' (Jul), xxi. 12. b Ccu. xvi. 12. c lid), xi. 23, 3U, 32. 
 
 11 John viii. 39. Cf. St. John Baptist in Matt. iii. 9. 
 
LECTURE IV. 125 
 
 offspring, and a new seed had been gathered from the 
 deadness of the Gentile world. Again had the an- 
 cient prophecies received a further and more noble 
 fulfilment: for many were now the children of the 
 desolate, in comparison with her who had the hus- 
 band; hi comparison, that is, with the debased and 
 downcast earthly Jerusalem, which was ' in bondage 
 with her children ' of the older covenant. 3 
 
 Now the whole of this exposition plainly rests upon 
 the principle that events of this kind happened under 
 God's special control, and may be regarded as sym- 
 bolical expressions of fundamental truths, which appear 
 and reappear, though less conspicuously, in the leading 
 incidents of every age. But we cannot admit that 
 there is the slightest disposition to interfere with the 
 literal sense of the original record. That sense stands 
 out as firm and unshaken as in the record of any 
 other history. Nor does the Apostle mean to teach 
 us that the facts to which he appeals had happened or 
 been narrated for no other purpose than to furnish 
 the lessons which he shows that they subserve. Those 
 chapters in Genesis are the literal account of real 
 occurrences which happened under the guidance of 
 the providence of God. They are recorded with per- 
 fect simplicity and singlemmdedness, the writer being 
 guided, but not trammelled, by the supervision of the 
 Holy Spirit. But they occurred in a household, by 
 which God's Church was then represented, at a time 
 when there was a peculiar energy in the operation of 
 
 a Isa. liv. 1 ; Gal. iv. 27. 
 
126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 God's spiritual laws. The events, then, are conspi- 
 cuously symbolical of fundamental truths, which per- 
 petually rise to the surface in the course of history, 
 though it is seldom that they can receive so vivid an 
 illustration as we find in that antagonism between 
 Judaism and Christianity, which lay open to the 
 observation of St. Paul. 
 
 2. It will not be necessary, in the second place, 
 to dwell at any length on the types of Scripture, many 
 of which I have already enumerated, while their main 
 characteristics must be familiar to our thoughts. The 
 whole history of the Jewish nation may be described 
 as one long type of Christianity ; of its privileges, its 
 obligations, the rewards which it offers to obedient 
 faith, the calamities which disobedience and distrust 
 involve. The chastisements which God inflicted on 
 the Jews for their lust, idolatry, and other sins, are 
 expressly called 'types,' which happened for our 
 guidance, and were recorded for our admonition. a 
 The whole Mosaic ritual, as we may learn from the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, was thickly sown with typical 
 references, which were fulfilled in the office and the 
 sacrifice of Christ. Of other Scriptural expositions 
 which belong to this head, the leading examples are 
 the following: — Christ Himself teaches us that the 
 serpent which was lifted up by Moses in the wilder- 
 ness was a sign of the Son of Man, who must be 
 lifted up ; b that the history of the prophet Jonas was 
 
 a 1 Cor. x. G (tv-ui {//.ivy c.yEvi')67i<Tar), 11 (tvttoi, al. tvttikui^, 
 ovvifiaivov LkeLvoic}. 
 b John iii. 14. 
 
LECTURE IV. 127 
 
 a type of His resurrection ; a and that the bread from 
 heaven which was given through Moses prefigured 
 Himself as the true bread from heaven. b St. Paul, 
 in like manner, unfolds the hidden meaning of the 
 cloud and sea, the spiritual meat and the spiritual 
 drink, the spiritual rock which was Christ. He 
 draws out the position of the first Adam in his typical 
 contrast to the second. d He treats the primeval law 
 of marriage as a mystery which foreshadowed the 
 relation between Christ and His Church. 6 He dwells 
 on the veil which covered the face of Moses, and finds 
 in that history a series of typical images, to illustrate 
 the greater fulness, freedom, and perpetuity of Chris- 
 tian light/ All teaching of this kind must be care- 
 fully distinguished from such modes of instruction as 
 the use of parables, or the employment, throughout 
 the Apocalypse, of earthly representations to shadow 
 forth the kingdom of heaven. It is the fundamental 
 character of what may be strictly called a typical 
 system, that it rests on the basis of real objects, or 
 events of history. And confining ourselves to this 
 signification, we shall trace the unvarying presence of 
 the same principle which I have pointed out in the 
 former cases. Histories may, indeed, be typical, but 
 that circumstance never causes them to be any the 
 less real ; and that reality was quite sufficient to fill 
 the thoughts of the original actors, and occupy the 
 attention of the original narrators, even if they enter- 
 
 a Matt. xii. 40. b John vi. 32. c 1 Cor. x. 1-4. 
 
 d Rom. v. 14 (jvttoq tov /ieXXojToc) ; 1 Cor. xv. 45. 
 e Eph. v. 32. f 2 Cor. iii. 13-18. 
 
128 LECTURE IV. 
 
 tabled in any case the dim suspicion that their works 
 or words bore divine traces of the reflection of some 
 distant future. Taking the fullest and most complex 
 portion of that system, the types embodied in the Law 
 of Moses, Christians are now enabled to perceive their 
 manifold significance, because they read them by the 
 lio-ht of their fulfilment in Christ. But the Jew 
 could only see them by the eye of faith, which would 
 tell him that God's temporal ordinances must embody 
 a spiritual import beyond the depth to which his 
 present insight reached. And if he was ever roused 
 to profounder meditation, by the flash of an unearthly 
 splendour which was seen for a moment to gild with 
 strange glory some details of his ritual forms, his dim 
 forecast could but resemble the vision of that stranger 
 seer, whose tongue was overruled to proclaim the 
 God of Israel among the fires of Balak : seen, but not 
 now ; beheld, but not nigh ; the distant promise of the 
 star of Jacob, as descried from the mountains of 
 Moab, a 
 
 3. Of the third class of secondary meanings which 
 I mentioned, namely, the cases where specific enact- 
 ments are translated back into the universal principles 
 on which they rest, we have a marked instance in 
 St. Paul's repeated application of the Mosaic rule, ' Thou 
 shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treacle th 
 out the corn.' b ' Doth God take care for oxen?' he 
 asks us ; ' or saith He it altogether for our sakes ? For 
 
 a Num. xxiv. 17. Cf. Gen. xlix. 18; 2 Sam. xxiii. 5; Luke x. 
 23-4 ; John viii. 56 ; Ileb. xi. 
 
 b Dent. xxv. 4; 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10; 1 Tim. v. 18. 
 
LECTURE IV. 129 
 
 our sakes, no doubt, this is written.' The expression 
 is here so strong and conclusive, that some have 
 represented the Apostle as entirely depreciating the 
 literal meaning, however worthy the precept, in its 
 original connection, of the mercy of God. The words 
 of the Apostle show, they urge, that ' the mystical 
 meaning was intended by the Holy Ghost, and 
 the literal meaning was not.' a Without pushing the 
 argument to that extreme, we must admit that in 
 this instance St. Paul resolved a rule of labour, which 
 was laid down for oxen, into the broader principle 
 which covers the case of the Christian ministry; 
 namely, that all earthly service has the right to receive 
 its adequate reward. But perhaps a still more im- 
 portant illustration can be drawn from the manner in 
 which our Lord Himself subjects the Jewish Sabbath 
 to a loftier explanation, and thus unfolds a deeper 
 sense beneath its literal precept. b I need not now 
 revert to the discussion on the exact relation existing 
 between the Sabbath of the Jew and the Lord's Day 
 of the Christian (10). But members of our Church 
 must bear in mind the fact, that each Sunday and 
 holiday she teaches us to pray that God in His mercy 
 will incline our hearts to keep that Law. And further 
 reflection may dispose us to believe, that the Fourth 
 Commandment gives the foremost instance of a posi- 
 tive ordinance, which had been meant at the outset 
 for all humanity, which was reduced to stricter rules 
 under the Jewish system, and which has resumed its 
 
 a Dr. Neale, Commentary on the Psalms, i. 383. 
 b Matt. xii. 8 ; Mark ii. 27. 
 K 
 
130 LECTURE IV. 
 
 ancient and more noble authority now that the Jewish 
 ceremonial has been fulfilled and superseded. In its 
 fundamental import, it embodies the broadest law of 
 religious dedication. In its commemorative aspect, 
 it has ever been associated with such acts of God's 
 mercy as the completion of creation, the deliverance 
 from Egypt, the dealings of God with His chosen 
 people, and, finally, that great and crowning act of 
 blessing, the resurrection of our Lord. In its pro- 
 phetic character, it reminds men of the rest that 
 remaineth : a partial rest within God's Church on 
 earth ; a rest of untroubled happiness hereafter, in the 
 Sabbath of eternal life. This great representative 
 ordinance, then, may be explained on the same prin- 
 ciple with other laws of wider obligation which were 
 embodied in the Jewish code ; and if it is not so usual 
 to quote it under our present subject of secondary 
 meanings, it may now be seen that the language in 
 which our Lord describes it really furnishes a pre- 
 rogative instance of the principle on which many 
 obviously secondary meanings rest — that of resolving 
 special rules into universal laws, and thus falling back 
 from the temporal to the eternal. 
 
 And now let us ask, whether this doctrine of the 
 relation between the divine and human element, 
 wliich is found to explain all classes of secondary 
 meanings, will not go far to solve the apparent 
 difficulty of the seeming discrepancy between the 
 quotations found in the New Testament and their 
 original context? (11) We are frequently reminded 
 
LECTURE IV, 131 
 
 that such quotations do not always correspond to the 
 exact words or connection of the original writer ; and 
 that you cannot carry back into the Old Testament 
 the meaning which they receive in the later Scrip- 
 tures. Sometimes, it is urged, there is only a verbal 
 resemblance. Sometimes the new meaning sounds 
 only like a play on words. Sometimes passages are 
 combined from the most distant quarters, sentences 
 that were uttered at intervals of centuries being com- 
 pounded in a single text. In one instance, at least, 
 an argument is rested on the use of a singular instead 
 of a plural word. a But in answer we may fairly 
 plead the operation of that Divine intention (12) which 
 overruled a seemingly independent writer to provide 
 for the possibility of the future interpretation, by 
 employing one word rather than another. And in- 
 spired authors may reasonably claim the privilege of 
 interpreting the books to which they appeal, under 
 the guidance of the same Holy Spirit who presided 
 over their earlier utterance ; the right of developing the 
 more spiritual relations which lay beneath the ancient 
 forms. When facts are referred to, we may of course 
 expect that they shall be repeated correctly; though 
 the adoj)tion of traditions not elsewhere recorded in 
 Scripture may sometimes cause a passing difficulty. 
 But as to words, there was no reason for such rigorous 
 exactness as we are bound to use in our own quo- 
 tations. The inspired writers of the New Testament 
 were not jurists, dealing with the exact shade of 
 
 a Gal. iii. 10. 
 k 2 
 
132 LECTURE IV. 
 
 meaning embodied in a written code; nor were they 
 philologists, whose observations would have rested on 
 the precise and literal reproduction of the language. 
 They were God's interpreters, commissioned to reveal 
 the predetermined counsels of His will. As such 
 they were charged with the duty, not so much of 
 simply repeating, as of unfolding and applying His 
 earlier commands. It follows that, in all cases, and 
 at all times, they were likely to fix on the relative 
 rather than on the absolute meaning of a passage, 
 and to read it by the light of their own immediate 
 purpose, rather than by that of the purpose of the 
 original writer. Being themselves also inspired, their 
 function was not so much to quote as to interpret ; to 
 snatch from their dark places the scattered lights of 
 earlier teaching, and rearrange them to disclose the 
 convergent witness which they bear to the central 
 revelation of our Lord. 
 
 In all that has now been said, I have confined my- 
 self to such exhibitions of secondary senses as rest on 
 the explicit authority of Scripture. But we shall 
 here be met by the obvious question, whether the 
 principle is to be rigidly limited to those instances 
 which the later portions of Scripture furnish. So 
 some have thought ; believing that in such a limita- 
 tion they found their only possible protection against 
 the baseless dreams of mystic unreality. Yet I 
 cannot but think that this limitation is unreasonable, 
 and not borne out by the indications of Scripture. 
 If it were put in this form, that we must never go 
 
LECTURE IV. 133 
 
 beyond the authority or analogy of the sacred writings, 
 the rule would probably include all that is requisite. 
 But it includes much less than is requisite when the 
 appeal to that analogy is excluded (13). Consider 
 that in such a case we should be debarred from any 
 extension of that symbolical interpretation which 
 enabled St. John to describe the powers of evil under 
 the names of Sodom, of Egypt, or of Babylon. 9 
 For typical instances, we have no direct Scriptural 
 authority for regarding Isaac, or Joseph, or Samson, 
 or David, or Elijah, as each in his turn contributing 
 such special and conspicuous types of Christ as the 
 offered sacrifice ; the release from the Egyptian 
 dungeon ; the victory won, by the very act of dying, 
 over those Philistine enemies, whom we must no 
 longer regard as symbolical of evil ; the overthrow of 
 Goliath, to whom the same restriction will apply ; and 
 the forty days' fast and translation of the prophet: 
 to which we might add many similar instances, 
 in which the Church has ever loved to read con- 
 spicuous illustrations of the office and work of her 
 Lord (14). And under our third class we should be 
 forbidden to extend to any other portion of the Mosaic 
 system the same interpretation which St. Paul affixed 
 to the rule about oxen; or which enables us to 
 recognise the fundamental law of the Jewish Sabbath 
 in the loftier uses to which the Christian's Lord's Day 
 is devoted. To the example of Scripture, then, let us 
 add its analogy; according to St. Paul's own rule for 
 
 a Eev. xi. 8; xvi. 19, &c. 
 
134 LECTURE IY. 
 
 prophecy or preaching, that it shall be xara rrjv 
 avaXoy/av t% 7ri(rrscog' a ' that is to say, shall conform 
 to the ripened judgment of those who can look most 
 deeply into the mind of Christ, and can trace most 
 clearly the relations existing between one truth and 
 another, and the respective proportions of the dif- 
 ferent principles of faith. There is one important 
 rule, however, which may not have bound the inspired 
 writers, but which should always be obeyed implicitly 
 by uninspired interpreters — the rule that ex literali 
 solo potest tralii argumentumz the spiritual sense 
 supplies us with no secure ground for argument, 
 unless we find that what is spiritual in one place is 
 literal in another (15). We must not, then, be over- 
 hasty to draw a spiritual interpretation, for which we 
 cannot elsewhere find a literal basis. The secondary 
 senses furnish no new and independent teaching, but 
 only deepen, illustrate, and confirm the teaching 
 which the literal sense of other texts affords. To 
 this restriction we may add, if we please, such further 
 rules as formal expositors of the doctrine have en- 
 deavoured to establish (ig). But after all, I think 
 tli at we shall find that, as contrasted with times when 
 the search for spiritual senses drew men away from 
 a sober and critical study of the text of Scripture, 
 what we now need is, not so much more perfect rules, 
 as a sounder tact in using them. We could scarcely 
 expect or wish to recall men to the temper which 
 saw Jesus and the Cross in the number of Abraham's 
 
 a Tvom. xii. <>. 
 
LECTURE IV. 135 
 
 servants a (i7); but we never fail to find a wide and 
 sympathising answer to every sober endeavour to 
 deepen our spiritual insight into less prominent 
 portions of the Word of God. 
 
 That the Church was to retain the enjoyment of 
 such a privilege is indicated by the fulness with 
 which the method is pursued up to the very close 
 of the canon, in teaching which was to serve as our 
 abiding model, and on materials which were furnished 
 by the New Testament itself (18). Our Lord set 
 the example when He spoke in dark sayings of the 
 temple of His body ; b when He dwelt in one con- 
 tinuous passage on our spiritual awakening from the 
 death of sm, and the future resurrection of all men 
 for the final judgment; and when, in His repeated 
 warning, ' He that findeth his life shall lose it,' He 
 drew the analogy between temporal and eternal 
 death. d St. Paul employs the same method when 
 dealing with events so recent in occurrence, and so 
 eminently important in their literal signification, as 
 the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. 
 In the literal sense, it was a heresy to say that ' the 
 resurrection is past already ; ' e in the spiritual sense, 
 it is a fundamental truth to declare, that each 
 Christian rose again in baptism from the death of 
 sin. Throughout all Christ's life He traces out 
 these double meanings. We are ' buried with Him 
 by baptism into death,' yet we are ' risen with Him 
 through the faith of the operation of God, who hath 
 
 a Gen. xiv. 14. b John ii. 19. c John v. 24-9. 
 d Matt -x. 39, &c. e 2 Tim. ii. 18. 
 
136 LECTURE IV. 
 
 raised Him from the dead.' * Our old man is 
 crucified with Him.' We must therefore reckon 
 ourselves to be ' dead unto sin,' and must prove 
 that we belong to Christ by crucifying 'the flesh, 
 with the affections and lusts.' a Now we must bear 
 in mind that these applications impose a spiritual 
 sense on the letter of the most important truths in 
 Scripture. It cannot be said that they are an 
 attempt to discover depth of spiritual significance, 
 in cases where we do not find it in the literal 
 meaning. The simple facts of Christ's crucifixion, 
 death, burial, and resurrection, do themselves sup- 
 ply the vital power which gives all energy and 
 reality to our own recovery from the deadness of 
 a fallen nature. Yet, beneath that letter, the over- 
 whelming importance of which no thoughts of man 
 could overestimate, the Apostle habitually draws out 
 these secondary senses, as types of that great 
 spiritual conversion, to which their literal meaning 
 gives the power. What inference can we draw, 
 but that the Church has always been justified in 
 seeing parables of heavenly truth in every word 
 and act of Christ ? The history of the good Sa- 
 maritan affords us one out of a thousand instances. 
 Who can doubt that Christ Himself is the true 
 example, who lies concealed under that model of 
 neighbourly love? In that narrative He gave a 
 hidden picture of His own great work of mercy, 
 when the guilty wanderer, who had left the heavenly 
 
 * Rom. vi. 4; Col. ii. 12; Rom. vi. G, 11 ; Gal. v. 24. 
 
LECTURE IV. 137 
 
 for the accursed city, lay dying of the wounds which 
 Law and prophet could not cure. 
 
 And now let it be considered whether the current 
 objections to this doctrine of secondary meanings 
 do not rest, to a great extent, on misapprehensions, 
 which a little calm and patient explanation would 
 remove. Is it alleged that the supporters of that 
 doctrine shake the credit of the literal narrative? 
 On the contrary, we uphold it in the very strongest 
 language, and we accept every inference which that 
 acknowledgement involves. Is it asserted that we 
 claim for the inspired writers a direct participation 
 in the Divine omniscience? On the contrary, we 
 claim for them no more than this, that besides their 
 high endowments in the way of human faculties, 
 they were made the vehicles for communicating to 
 mankind divine messages, which often reached far 
 beyond their present thought. In a much stricter 
 sense than it was true of Christ, they only spoke 
 what they knew, and testified what they had seen, 
 of the truths which were disclosed from above. a 
 Is it averred that we propose to sanction a lax 
 system of interpretation, by which almost any doctrine 
 could be made to emerge from almost every text? 
 On the contrary, we recognise and uphold the 
 principle, that, to us at least, the literal meaning 
 only can supply a sufficient foundation for argument. 
 Is it asserted that the method employed claims a 
 licentious freedom from the critical laws of exegesis ? 
 
 a John iii. 11. 
 
138 LECTURE IV. 
 
 We answer, that a rule of sufficient stringency is 
 obeyed by those who decline to pass beyond the 
 precedent or the analogy of Scripture. Such are 
 the rejoinders by which these objections could be 
 met. But let us not forget that they form the 
 mere outworks for defending that great positive 
 principle, the belief in the real Divine authorship 
 of Scripture, on which the theory of secondary senses 
 rests. There is no other faith but this which can 
 enable us to grasp the full conception of that spiritual 
 presence which interpenetrates the whole of Scrip- 
 ture: arranging the facts, and suggesting the record, 
 and controlling at times the very form in which 
 the inspired writers shaped their language ; planting 
 the early seed-plots of primeval and patriarchal 
 history with the germs that should burst forth into 
 a glorious harvest at the coming of the Son of Man ; 
 and resting the entire mass of the sacred writings 
 on a firm substratum of Divine significance, which 
 proves them to be, through all their portions, not 
 more the genuine words of men than the real and 
 undoubted Word of God. 
 
139 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
 ' We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excel- 
 lency of the power may be of God, and not of us.' 
 
 IF we have formed a just conception of that special 
 revelation which supplies a supernatural counter- 
 part to every portion of the facts of Scripture, and if 
 we have realised the influence of that special inspira- 
 tion which distinguishes the sacred writers from every 
 other class of human agents, the strength of our own 
 faith should be enough to save us from sharing in the 
 fears which have been aroused, by the assertion that 
 the human element, through which those divine gifts 
 were communicated, was not only moulded by the 
 individual characteristics of the writers, but was ad- 
 justed to the scientific opinions and literary habits 
 of the times in which they severally lived. And this 
 is the subject to which our attention must be now 
 directed. We have dwelt on some few of the leading 
 features which prove the reality and influence of that 
 Divine presence which shines through every part of 
 Scripture; reconciling the seeming contrarieties of 
 human formulas, and spreading out a broad range of 
 
140 LECTURE V. 
 
 divine significance, as the basis on which the human 
 language rests. We know that the record begins in 
 mystery, and ends in miracle; the mystery of the 
 Divine nature, the crowning miracle of Christ's 
 resurrection from the dead. We discover that the 
 narrative is raised at every step above the level of 
 man's unaided intellect, by affording further glimpses 
 which deepen our sense of the mysterious, and by 
 recording continuous agencies, with which the mira- 
 culous is intimately blended. When we are now asked 
 to gaze, with reverence but with firmness, on the 
 nature of the earthly apparel in which these shapes 
 of heavenly truth are robed, we may surely enter on 
 the task in a spirit of frank confidence, and with 
 entire freedom from any unworthy alarm. We risk 
 but a small venture on the separate value of the 
 'earthen vessels,' when the possession of the heavenly 
 ' treasure ' is secured. It is not that we may treat 
 such questions with indifference. If Scripture be 
 only the hem of Christ's garment, it is well to imitate 
 the faith of her who said, ' If I may but touch His 
 garment, I shall be whole.' a But it has been well 
 observed, that ' it makes a wonderful difference in the 
 apparent magnitude and importance of a difficulty, 
 whether it be regarded as the possible entrance to 
 an entire unbelief, or an acknowledged perplexity on 
 the fringe or edge of a strong and impregnable faith.' b 
 Setting forth from the firm foundation of such faith, 
 
 a Matt. ix. 21. 
 
 b Dr. Moberly, Preface to Semnons on the Beatitudes, p. xxiii. 
 (=p. xxvii. 2nd. ed.). 
 
LECTURE V. 141 
 
 we shall find that disputes on details have a growing 
 tendency to settle themselves and disappear. It is a 
 dangerous and mistaken policy to raise these disputes 
 to adventitious importance, by treating them as 
 though they necessarily involved the issue of our 
 highest interests. We can understand a writer 
 saying that he holds ' the sixty-six books of the Old 
 and New Testaments to be verbally the Word of 
 God, as absolutely as were the ten commandments 
 written by the finger of God on the two tables of 
 stone ' (1). Whether we adopt the phrase or not, we 
 can certainly comprehend the creed which it ex- 
 presses, and we cannot deny that it is a legitimate 
 form of Christian conviction. But should a person 
 think to move us by telling us, If you deny that 
 every jot and tittle was thus given, you will make 
 me an infidel, we can only answer, that such is not 
 the language of a healthy faith. In a case of this 
 kind, the real strength of the faith is in an inverse 
 ratio to the violence of its language ; and the suspi- 
 cion cannot be repressed, that the bare mechanical 
 theory has been adopted, like the theory of an infal- 
 lible Church at other times, for its ease, its simplicity, 
 and the relief it gives from further trouble (2). 
 
 On the other hand, a real reason for uneasiness 
 may be found in the pertinacity with which the argu- 
 ment has been urged on, in opposite quarters, from 
 exaggerated scruples on subjects of science or history, 
 to moral and religious doubts, of deeper and more 
 certain danger. We might be willing to attend to 
 Paley, when he warns us against making ' Christianity 
 
142 LECTURE V. 
 
 answerable with its life ' a for difficult questions con- 
 nected with the Old Testament (3). We might see 
 the risk of arguments which urge that if one asser- 
 tion is doubted, all is in peril; if one link is allowed 
 to be unsound, the chain is broken ; if one stone is 
 removed, the whole structure ' collapses into a shape- 
 less and unmeaning ruin' (4). We might readily 
 admit that these illustrations rest on wrong pre- 
 sumptions as to the kind and degree of scientific 
 accuracy which Ave are authorised to expect in Scrip- 
 ture language ; and that no fair reasoner has a right 
 to stake the credibility of Christianity itself on the 
 obscure adjustment of an isolated text, or the doubt- 
 ful interpretation of a subordinate passage. But it is 
 a different matter when such points as these are 
 made the stepping-stones for inroads on the substance 
 of the Christian faith. We cannot listen to the ex- 
 hortation to refrain from bringing ' the Sacred Ark 
 itself into the battle-field,' if we have reason to fear 
 that the advice is meant to induce us to resign 
 a solid bulwark, by which the citadel of faith is 
 guarded. We have learnt from experience that it is 
 only a narrow frontier which divides the alleged 
 proof of scientific or historical mistakes from the 
 imputation of moral or religious unsoundness. We 
 know that the assault is soon extended from the 
 supposed discovery of unimportant discrepancies to 
 charges of fabrication and general untruthfulness ; 
 and that we may very soon be called upon to hear, 
 
 a Evidences of Christianity ', III. § 3. 
 
LECTURE V. 143 
 
 not of ' error ' alone, but of ' infirmity, passion, and 
 ignorance ;' of ' the dark patches of human passion 
 and error, which form a partial crust upon ' the 
 surface, in contrast with ' the bright centre of spi- 
 ritual truth within ' (5). It is surely not unreason- 
 able to ask that these two subjects may be kept 
 entirely distinct, and that no attempt may be made to 
 construct an illegitimate inference extending from 
 the one to the other. The topic of alleged moral 
 defects in the earlier teaching will come before us in 
 the succeeding Lecture. Let us now confine our- 
 selves to the allegations of inaccuracies in history 
 and science, and content ourselves for the present 
 by protesting against the confusion which hurries us 
 on from such subjects to those deeper questions 
 which cannot be stirred without exciting reasonable 
 alarm. 
 
 I. We must acknowledge, in the outset, that there 
 are some definitions of inspiration which make it a 
 very serious matter to detect the slightest variation 
 between collateral accounts of the same transaction, 
 and which subject their supporter to a constant rest- 
 lessness of doubt, so long as he finds it difficult to 
 adjust each link in every pedigree, or to harmonise 
 each detail in contemporary records (6). But it is 
 open to question whether these definitions are sup- 
 ported by the facts ; whether they leave sufficient 
 room for the free play of those laws of narrative by 
 which all human histories are governed; and whether 
 they make sufficient allowance for habits of compo- 
 
144 LECTURE V. 
 
 sition which were necessarily very different from our 
 own. 
 
 1. There was a time when men feared a similar 
 danger to the faith from the discovery of the countless 
 various readings in the MSS. of Scripture, and from 
 the attempt to use that discovery as the basis for 
 an attack on deeper interests (7). That danger has 
 passed away and is forgotten. But we may draw a 
 useful lesson from the well-worn topic, through the 
 proof which it affords that God has not been pleased 
 to exercise any miraculous superintendence over the 
 text of the Scriptures, to protect them from the inci- 
 dents of other ancient writings. This is a definite 
 and undoubted fact, which throws more light upon the 
 question than we could expect to derive from our 
 own precarious anticipations of the probable condi- 
 tions of a Divine revelation, a subject on which we 
 are not competent to judge. That God has alloAved the 
 usual dust of age to gather over these sacred re- 
 cords is a simple historical fact which lies beyond 
 the reach of controversy. The common text of the 
 Bible does demonstrably contain letters and words, 
 and even sentences, which were certainly never 
 written by the finger of God. And this simple fact, 
 that without obscuring a single truth, the critical 
 study of MSS. has considerably modified the older 
 text, is pregnant with significant instruction, when 
 we are enquiring into the real nature of that human 
 element which is traceable throughout the Word of 
 God. 
 
 2. And if this remark is suggested by the docu- 
 
LECTURE V. 145 
 
 mentary history of the text of Scripture, a similar 
 lesson may be drawn from the apparent method of 
 its composition, and its relation to the older materials 
 which its writers may have used. For that the 
 inspired writers did make free use of existing ma- 
 terials, is a fact which rests on the explicit witness 
 of the Scriptures themselves. Revelation, as I have 
 before pointed out, a is not conterminous with inspira- 
 tion. Granting that throughout every part of Scrip- 
 ture, as well as 'in old time,' 'holy men of God spake 
 as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,' b we have 
 every reason, from their own expressions, to believe 
 that they did not rely on any supernatural revelation 
 for that vast mass of general knowledge which was 
 collected into the canon of the Holy Scriptures, under 
 the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. 
 
 The very Gospels rest on testimony (8). St. Luke 
 puts his authorities in the forefront of his work. St. 
 John, alike in Gospel and in Epistle, pleads his special 
 nearness to Christ as his title for claiming: our atten- 
 tion to his teaching. ' This is the disciple which 
 testifieth of these things, and wrote these things ; and 
 we know that his testimony is true.' ' That which 
 was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
 we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked 
 upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, 
 that which we have seen and heard declare we unto 
 you.' c A new apostle was elected in the room of 
 Judas, from among the limited number of those who 
 
 a Above, p. 25. b 2 Pet. i. 21. c John xxi. 24 ; 1 John i. 1, 3. 
 
 L 
 
146 LECTURE V. 
 
 had companicd with the rest from the beginning, for 
 the express purpose that he might be a witness with 
 them of Christ's resurrection.* The name of witness 
 soon became the noblest title by which the martyrum 
 candidatus exercitus, the suffering saints of God, were 
 known. Human powers, then, both of observation 
 and testimony, were used, not superseded, by the 
 Holy Spirit. In the same way, we may rest satisfied 
 that the genealogies of Christ were copied from 
 authentic Jewish tables, and that this circumstance 
 explains some peculiarities in their form (9). Turn to 
 the Old Testament, and the language of quotation is 
 varied and frequent: — ' Is not this written in the 
 Book of Jasher?' ' Behold, it is written in the Book 
 of Jasher.' ' It is said in the Book of the Wars of the 
 Lord.' b In this and several similar instances, the refer- 
 ence may point to collections of hymns or songs by 
 which the histories were preceded (10). But the histo- 
 rical books, again, rely in all fit cases on such public 
 and authentic documents as the census of the people, 
 the registers of lands and tribes, the genealogies of 
 families, or the records of the gratitude and deeds of 
 kings. Pass to the oldest history of the Pentateuch, 
 and wc cannot doubt that its inspired author was 
 abundantly supplied with all available tradition, and 
 with every kind of existing record (n). Many institu- 
 tions are referred to, which must have been handed 
 down by use from earlier ages: and the dim mytho- 
 logies of other lands establish the existence of a 
 
 a Acts i. 22. b Josh. >:. 1.'!; 2 Sam. i. IS; Num. xxi. 14. 
 
LECTURE V. 147 
 
 primitive stock of historical and sacred information, 
 some streamlets of which had overflowed into the less 
 pure channels of Gentile recollection, from points 
 which lie farther up the current than the date when 
 they were brought together by the agency of the 
 Spirit, through a human writer, into the Word of God. 
 
 These facts supply definite answers to two import- 
 ant questions : — Is it true that the text of Scripture 
 has been so highly honoured, above that of every 
 other ancient history, that it has been preserved intact 
 in every detail, so that without raising any needless 
 scruples about translation, we may place implicit 
 reliance on the copy of the originals which we hold in 
 our hands, as a literal reproduction of the sacred 
 autograph? And is it true that the contents of 
 Scripture stand out in self-sustained independence, 
 so as to own no obligations to any anterior records of 
 literature? Both these questions must be answered 
 in the negative : and in these two positions we find a 
 basis of fact for further argument, which bears directly 
 on a large class of Scripture difficulties, and indirectly 
 on the whole subject with which we are concerned. 
 
 Both facts, I repeat, are pregnant with significant 
 instruction. But we must be careful not to over- 
 estimate the amount of that significance. With regard 
 to various readings, in the first place : though criti- 
 cism has frequently turned on texts of great doctrinal 
 importance/ it is allowed that the removal of some 
 of these texts has not exerted the smallest influence 
 
 a Acts xx. 28 ; 1 Tim. iii. 1G ; 1 John v. 7. 
 
 L 2 ♦ 
 
148 LECTURE V. 
 
 over the certainty of the doctrines which they teach (12). 
 The only effect has been, to throw back the proof 
 from the precarious support of salient passages, upon 
 the surer foundation of continuous arguments. In 
 the case of the text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses,* 
 we need not doubt the venerable antiquity of at 
 least its Latin form ; and it seems not impossible to 
 conjecture its origin (13). The several clauses of the 
 Creed were the most authoritative attempts to put 
 the coping-stone on converging lines of doctrine, 
 which were less systematically revealed in Scripture ; 
 and the text in question might be an early symptom 
 of that formulating tendency to which the creeds 
 themselves are due. If, however, it cannot be proved 
 to have been generally known in the fourth century, 
 ' then Arianism, in its height,' as Bentley said, ' was 
 beaten down without the help of that verse ; and let 
 the fact prove as it will, the doctrine is unshaken.' b 
 We may resign it, then, without the slightest fear 
 that its loss will weaken the fundamental proofs of 
 faith. The same remark mi^ht be extended to the 
 declaration of the eunuch, ' I believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God.' c Such texts as these have, 
 under any circumstances, a distinct value, because 
 they bring to the surface, like the creeds themselves, 
 great truths which form the basis of the circumjacent 
 arguments. But if it can be proved that they are no 
 portion of the Scripture record, they lie beyond that 
 special reverence which we owe to the inspired Word 
 of God. 
 
 n 1 John v. 7. b Works, ed. Dyce, iii. 185. c Acts viii. 37. 
 
LECTURE V. 149 
 
 While it is not pretended, however, that any Chris- 
 tian doctrine has been really modified by the results 
 of criticism, it must be thankfully acknowledged, on 
 the other hand, that there are many cases in which 
 the truth has been a gainer by them ; and it may be 
 expected that the amount of this good service may be 
 considerably enlarged hereafter. We might instance 
 the transposition of three words in St. Paul's speech 
 at the Pisidian Antioch, which destroys a supposed 
 contradiction to a date in the Old Testaments The 
 omission of a few words in the last chapter of St. 
 Matthew removes an obstacle to the arrangement of 
 our Lord's appearances after the resurrection. b The 
 excision of two words in St. Matthew's record of 
 our Lord's rebuke to Jerusalem would cancel another 
 historical difficulty; but seems still to rest on some- 
 what slighter authority. And though conjecture, as 
 a general rule, has been rightly excluded from any 
 interference with the sacred text, it is possible that 
 room may yet be found for the cautious use of this 
 highest instrument of criticism, in adjusting such 
 purely formal matters as numerals, or lists of obscure 
 names, which are scantily corroborated by collateral 
 narratives, and have therefore been especially exposed 
 to error (14). 
 
 And next, to turn to the lessons suggested by the 
 
 a 1 Kings vi. 1 ; Acts xiii. 20 (trcmsp. A, B, C, &c, Lachmann, 
 Wordsworth). 
 
 b Matt, xxviii. 9 (om. B, D, ft, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tre- 
 gelles). 
 
 c Matt, xxiii. 35 (yiou Bapct^/ov, om. }^, prima manu). 
 
150 LECTURE V. 
 
 use of earlier materials in Scripture. The chief of 
 these is the conviction, that so far as Scripture is 
 simply historical, it was meant to obey the laws of 
 other histories ; and even to accept occasional modifi- 
 cations of familiar facts, like the omission of genera- 
 tions for the sake of symmetry, which were found in 
 the records it employed. In like manner when it is 
 objected, that while St. Matthew and St. Luke draw 
 the lineage of Joseph through a different father, it is 
 impossible that both should be historically true, we 
 answer that it is sufficient if we can establish, that 
 while the one is historically true, the other is legally 
 correct and formal; and that legal correctness was 
 precisely the aspect in which the object of one of the 
 two Evangelists would have led him to regard it. It 
 is needless to detail the service which this principle 
 would render, in defining the real character of large 
 portions of the earlier Scriptures. But I may add, 
 that in the Gospels themselves, the frank recognition 
 of that common mass of materials which St. Luke's 
 opening language would suggest, relieves us from the 
 difficulties which have been raised on the similarity 
 of large portions of the three earlier Gospels ; and 
 supplies a fair answer to cavils based on small discre- 
 pancies, by reminding us of the universal law of hu- 
 man testimony, that two or more separate reporters 
 of any scene which they have witnessed can seldom 
 succeed, without collusion, in laying hold so exactly 
 on the same circumstances, or adopting so precisely 
 the same point of view, as to produce a narrative from 
 which such variations are absolutely excluded (15). 
 
LECTURE V. 151 
 
 This explicit recognition of earlier materials supplies 
 an answer to another class of historical difficulties, 
 which is due to the partial nature of our knowledge. 
 It is well known that the later writers of Scripture fre- 
 quently bear witness to the existence of a considerable 
 amount of external tradition, by filling up the outlines 
 of their references to facts with details not recorded 
 in the earlier narrative (16). The acknowledgement 
 of such traditions enables us to remove the chief 
 stumblingblock in the speech of St. Stephen, who has 
 been hastily accused of contradicting the history, 
 while it is found that he was simply adding to our 
 knowledge a (17). Again, the census of Cyrenius b sup- 
 plies a very striking instance, and by no means the 
 only one which we owe to recent enquiries, where an 
 accusation of ignorance seems likely to recoil on those 
 who made it, by a recovery of the genuine facts of the 
 history (is). 
 
 But it is important to point out, that the principle 
 which has been thus asserted stands in the strongest 
 possible contrast to the theories which would disin- 
 tegrate the books of Scripture, and distribute them 
 among the earlier documents of which they are alleged 
 to be compounded. That view is destructive of all 
 real authorship, as claimed for the several writings in 
 their existing form; an authorship which in many 
 instances is sufficiently ascertained ; though in others, 
 where it has not been decided by testimony, it forms 
 a legitimate subject for critical enquiry. That author- 
 
 a Acts vii. 16. b Luke ii. 2. 
 
152 LECTURE V. 
 
 ship, be it known or unknown, rests in each case with 
 the inspired writer, who produced the book acknow- 
 ledged in the canon ; and the belief that he availed 
 himself of earlier materials would no more entitle 
 us to rend his work in pieces, and reassign its frag- 
 ments to imaginary claimants, than the same argu- 
 ment would destroy the rights of an uninspired 
 historian to the work which he had moulded into 
 unity, and impressed with the full stamp of his own 
 intellectual character, from such materials as he was 
 able to command. No community of matter, for in- 
 stance, could ever obliterate the clear features by 
 which each of the four Evangelists is distinguished, 
 and which the Church has recognised by corre- 
 sponding symbols, through the sacred literature of 
 every age. 
 
 3. There is yet another question which recent con- 
 troversy has brought into more prominent notice — the 
 question whether the books of the Old Testament 
 have not passed through a process of ancient editorial 
 revision, which places a limit on the powers of criticism 
 to deal confidently with the evidence of its separate 
 portions (19). An affirmative answer to this question 
 may be counted to the credit of two opposite theories, 
 according to the degree of alteration recognised. If 
 the revision was so complete as to affect the genuine- 
 ness of the entire document, the argument would add 
 some weight to the opinion, that the inner unity which 
 can be traced in Scripture is due in a great measure 
 to the influence of changes and supplements, which 
 may have been introduced by the studious labours of 
 
LECTURE V. 153 
 
 successive generations in the Schools of the Prophets. 
 If, on the other hand, the revision amounted to 
 nothing more than the occasional insertion of ex- 
 planatory glosses, the rights of the original author are 
 secured ; and we are simply furnished with a solution 
 of the difficulties which have been caused by phrases 
 of a later age. Now it is surely most consistent with 
 the facts, to accept this latter answer rather than the 
 former. No revision has in any sense obliterated 
 those original diversities between one book and 
 another, which have formed, since the very dawn of 
 recent criticism, a leading topic in the arguments of the 
 opposing theorist (20). No revision has cancelled the 
 bare simplicity of those early representations, which 
 have supplied another class of objections, resting 
 on the hypothesis that later writers were compelled to 
 modify their form, and deepen their meaning, in 
 supplemental compositions of their own. Above all, 
 no revision could have supplied those secret signs, 
 those veiled or hidden symbols, by which the unity 
 of Scripture is wonderfully established, and the 
 meaning of which was not revealed till long after 
 the last of the great prophetic schools was closed (21). 
 But to admit that such notices as the later names 
 of Laish or Kirjath-arba, and the references to the 
 disappearance of the Canaanite, and the reign of kings 
 in Israel, a may have been introduced at a later date 
 by the inspired expounders of the sacred text, is only 
 a natural consequence of the belief, that the Holy 
 
 a Gen. xiv. 14 (cf. Josh. xix. 47; Judges xviii. 29) ; Gen. x.xiii. 
 2 ; xxxv. 27 ; xii. 6 ; xiii. 7 ; xxxvi. 31. 
 
154 LECTURE V. 
 
 Spirit continued present through the entire series of 
 the sacred writers, up to the completion of the older 
 canon (22). If Ezra was inspired as well as Moses, 
 there was no reason why Ezra should not change the 
 mere form of the words of Moses, so as to make 
 them more intelligible to those whose instruction was 
 his primary personal object. a With this view he 
 might insert glosses, comments, and various minor 
 memoranda, which have supplied the basis of argu- 
 ments for bringing down the whole composition to a 
 later age. It cannot be necessary to maintain that 
 Moses wrote out the entire Pentateuch, without 
 erasure or correction, by a single impulse, on a single 
 occasion ; and that the sacred autograph was thence- 
 forward protected from the slightest alteration, at the 
 hand of either the author himself, or those who suc- 
 ceeded to his position in Israel. It is surely more 
 reasonable to suppose, that Moses, whose youth was 
 rich in all Egyptian learning, b began at an early age 
 to collect, under God's guidance, all the knowledge 
 which still lingered in the memories of the sons of 
 Abraham ; that he added to his stores as time went 
 on, interweaving with these materials the direct 
 revelations which were vouchsafed to him by God ; 
 that the great events which he subsequently witnessed 
 and recorded, and the diversified occupations of his 
 advancing years, might reflect a varying colour on 
 the mere outward form of the expressions which he 
 used ; and that, just as the account of his own death 
 
 8 Ezra vii. 10, 25. b Acts vii. 22. 
 
LECTURE V. 155 
 
 must have been appended by a later hand, 8 so other 
 notices of a subsequent date might be inserted from 
 time to time by those inspired authorities on whose 
 charge the sacred writings afterward devolved. Such 
 a view throws no suspicion on the Mosaic authorship, 
 nor yet imputes imperfection to the earlier record, 
 which it was the work of the revisers to remove. 
 An archaic term is not an imperfection. The ex- 
 planation of such a term by a competent authority 
 conveys no slight on the original author. Just as in 
 the parallel case of the quotations, in which the New 
 Testament writers depart from the mere letter of the 
 texts which they interpret, 11 so in this case too we 
 must not confound the freedom with which the later 
 agents of the Spirit might modify the human aspects 
 of its earlier work, with any breach of the rigid accu- 
 racy and scrupulous respect which one human author 
 justly claims from another. 
 
 It is the general result of these various consi- 
 derations, that we have no right to begin by imposing 
 on revelation a deductive theory, independent of the 
 actual facts, and then to feel overwhelmed with 
 faithless fear when we discover that a rigorous exami- 
 nation of the facts does not confirm the theory. We 
 are also led to expect, that the text of Scripture, com- 
 posed as it was under such different circumstances, and 
 at so remote an antiquity, may possibly continue to 
 present some few historical difficulties, which the most 
 
 a Dent, xxxiv. 5. b Above, p. 130. 
 
156 LECTURE V. 
 
 careful enquiry must relinquish as insoluble. It is 
 the duty of a firm and steadfast faith to throw off all 
 such embarrassments to the distant outskirts of its 
 horizon, and to feel no hesitation in confessing that 
 there are still many topics in Scripture, on which 
 we must rest content to know in part. But we 
 have met with no consideration which could justify 
 men in exaofoferatins; either the difficulties them- 
 selves, or their bearing on the inspiration of the 
 Bible. It is not a worthy occupation to build up 
 scattered fragments of difficulty into a coherent edifice 
 of doubt. Such a work is unfortunately within the 
 reach of any one who will devote time and powers to 
 the undertaking, without the restraint of misgivings 
 on the use of a method, which is so full of uncertainty 
 and danger. By restricting to one sense a word which 
 may be taken equally well in another; by excluding 
 every suggestion, however reasonable, through which 
 the pressure of a difficulty might be lightened ; by 
 ignoring the possibility of those practical arrange- 
 ments which would naturally suggest themselves to an 
 orderly and administrative people ; by confounding 
 generations viewed at their longest, as a measure of 
 duration, with generations viewed at their shortest, as 
 an instrument of increase ; by insisting that a pedigree 
 which is arranged on one principle shall be tested on 
 another ; and above all, by reducing all the details 
 of a time of miraculous guidance to the standard of 
 God's ordinary providential rule ; it is possible to con- 
 struct a network of improbability, which shall prove 
 perplexing and distressing to readers of imperfect 
 
LECTURE V. 157 
 
 information and of timid faith (-23). The cure for this 
 evil must be twofold, like its cause. The information 
 must be completed, and the faith must be strengthened ; 
 and we may rest satisfied with the assurance, that 
 whatever obstacles may be allowed to linger, as a 
 further test of our reliance on God's goodness, yet 
 a resolute grasp on those central principles, which 
 were wrought out so marvellously through the Exodus 
 of Israel, will lead to a still further diminution of the 
 perplexities by which the record of that ' wondrous 
 march' has been surrounded. 
 
 II. And now, from the laws of literature and his- 
 tory, let us pass to those of scientific language, and 
 trace their bearing on the human element of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 Few of what are commonly called scientific questions, 
 which are connected with the literal words of Scrip- 
 ture, are inseparably combined with the essentials of 
 the faith. Eejecting all that would corrode the sub- 
 stance, we can avoid all over-anxiety as to anything 
 which merely touches the form. Yet it is precisely 
 the mere form of Scripture which has been constantly 
 pressed into the service of human theories, and has then 
 been unwarrantably risked in defending them. Hence 
 the wisest teachers in all ao;es have warned us not to 
 confound our own interpretations with God's word, 
 and then pay homage to our own self-complacency 
 by insisting that they must stand or fall together (24). 
 There cannot be a greater error than to thrust our 
 own expositions under the sacred shelter of the 
 
158 LECTURE V. 
 
 reverence which is clue to the message of God. And 
 this is what is meant when we are told that any old 
 interpretation must be abandoned if scientific investi- 
 gation shows it to be wrong (25). It is not that the 
 laws of Scripture criticism may vary with the varying 
 theories of science ; nor has anything of that kind 
 been meant by the warning. But whenever investi- 
 gation has led us to believe that a phrase of Scripture 
 was accommodated to a scientific creed which has 
 now been abandoned, we simply translate that phrase 
 into the deeper meaning, which no scientific theory 
 can reach or alter. We refuse to lend the weight of 
 Scripture authority to decisions on topics with which 
 it was not dealing, and which did not lie within its 
 proper sphere. We obey no laws, in interpreting the 
 Scripture, except those which sound criticism and 
 God's Spirit would prescribe ; but we may find it a 
 duty to divest ourselves of errors which have been 
 forced into the exegesis by imperfect knowledge. 
 
 The principle that scientific language used in 
 Scripture would necessarily be optical or pheno- 
 menal (26), has long been recognised, and is now sel- 
 dom challenged. Few would now raise a difficulty 
 on such expressions as the rising and setting of the 
 sun, the pillars, doors, and windows of heaven, the 
 foundations and four corners of the earth. a It is felt 
 at once that these terms were either simply figurative, 
 or adjusted to mere outward appearances ; that they 
 do no more than express the facts in current lan- 
 
 a Job xxvi. 11; Ps. Ixxviii. 24; Gen. vii. 11; Ps. civ. 5; Isa. 
 xi. 12 ; Rev. vii. 1, &c. 
 
LECTURE V. 159 
 
 guage, and commit the writer to no theory on natural 
 antecedents or sequences with which he was not 
 called upon to deal. On this point it cannot now be 
 necessary to dwell. But it is alleged, afresh, that 
 scientific error has eaten, in some cases, into the very 
 substance of the narrative ; and that we cannot accept 
 the conclusions of modern science without acknow- 
 ledging that the inspired writers have fallen into such 
 mistakes as must modify the older creed of inspira- 
 tion. Let us meet this difficulty on the ground 
 which is most frequently chosen by objectors — the 
 crucial instance of the Mosaic record of creation. 
 
 In examining that record, we must be careful to 
 distinguish between the facts and their framework : I 
 mean, between the material assertions, which convey 
 the theological doctrines of God's agency and purpose 
 in creation, and the mere form or arrangement into 
 which they have been cast. Setting aside, for the 
 present, the reference to the Fourth Commandment, 
 which will claim our further consideration in the 
 sequel, we can find no reason, either in the passage 
 itself, or in the numerous allusions to it which are 
 scattered over the rest of Scripture, for laying equal 
 stress in this case on the matter and on the form. But 
 I think it will be found that the substantial facts em- 
 bodied in this passage have been almost universally 
 accepted as unassailable. No reasonable geology has 
 ever claimed to contradict such positions as these: 
 that God was the Creator of all things in the beginning ; 
 that the ordering of primeval chaos was the work of 
 His Most Holy Spirit; that He framed earth and 
 
160 LECTURE V. 
 
 heaven and all their hosts with a distinct personal 
 energy and unceasing care, of which the terms of 
 human labour yield but a very imperfect symbol; 
 that the crown of His creation was man himself, 
 who was made in the image of God (27). Before 
 controversy assails these fundamental principles, it 
 must have reached a stage at which the disputants, 
 on one side, have lost all interest in the literal worth 
 of any Scripture statement. The geological attack, I 
 think, has mainly been directed, not against these 
 truths, with their details or consequences, but against 
 the mere order of succession, under which creation is 
 described, and against the terms ' evening,' ' morning,' 
 and ' day,' by which its successive epochs are distin- 
 guished. Now in a case which lies so far outside 
 of anything which can properly be called history, it is 
 not easy to see any reason for placing the mere frame- 
 work of the narrative on a level with the facts which it 
 conveys. We are accustomed to draw this distinction 
 in cases where there was less antecedent reason to ex- 
 pect it ; and even in the Gospels themselves, which are 
 surely the most vitally important narratives in Scrip- 
 ture. No diatessaron is possible, unless occasional tra- 
 jections are admitted; i.e., unless it is allowed that 
 the facts may have been arranged in accordance with 
 some other law than that of simple succession in time. 
 The order of our Lord's temptations, for instance, is 
 different hi the two statements which record them in 
 detail.* It is well known that all these matters can 
 
 a Mutt, iv. 1-11 ; Luke iv. 1-13. 
 
LECTURE V. 161 
 
 be adjusted and reduced to rule without throwing 
 doubts on such successions as are obviously historical, 
 like the reigns and order of a line of kings. But 
 there is a special reason why we should apply this 
 principle to set free the present chapter from the 
 restrictions of time like our own. So far as it unfolds 
 God's purpose in creation, it belongs to the eternal 
 rather than the temporal; and it is only by the help 
 of economy or condescension that the eternal can be 
 brought within our grasp. We are justified, there- 
 fore, in regarding the word ' days,' when applied to 
 creation, as an expression of the same class with those 
 which no one now would be likely to misinterpret, 
 the eye, or hand, or finger of God. It is the nearest 
 expression of the eternal truth which could be con- 
 veyed through human language for the purpose of its 
 original revelation ; but to take it in the strictest and 
 most literal sense, is simply to bind the eternal by 
 the forms of time. It may fairly be compared with 
 the numbers in the Apocalypse, the figures which fix 
 the square proportions of the city of the heavenly 
 Jerusalem a (28). 
 
 The distinction which I have now suggested rests 
 upon the twofold ground, that the revelation of causes 
 which we gain from Scripture was not meant to inter- 
 fere with the proper function of the human intellect 
 in the discovery of scientific laws ; and that the secrets 
 of God's counsels could only be revealed to man under 
 the veil of lano;uaa;e which fails to fathom their full 
 
 a Rev. xxi. 1G, 17. 
 M 
 
162 LECTURE V. 
 
 depth of meaning. It is completely borne out, how- 
 ever, by examining the internal structure of the 
 passage ; in which, as it has been repeatedly pointed 
 out, we trace as close a resemblance to the Hebrew 
 parallels as could be expected in a narrative which 
 presents no other signs of poetry. If we read the 
 passage carefully, we can scarcely fail to see that there 
 is a break at the end of the third day, and that the 
 work of the fourth lies parallel to that of the first (-29). 
 The order is, that God created light, and firmament, 
 and land: these three great acts are detailed as the 
 work of the first three days. Then again, as if by a 
 fresh beginning, we are told that He created orbs in 
 heaven to hold that light; birds and fishes, to people 
 the divisions which the firmament had sundered ; beasts 
 and man to occupy the land, which had been clothed 
 with vegetation for their use and support. Such are 
 the six days, each .answering in pairs to each, and 
 crowned on the seventh day by that rest of God, that 
 great Sabbath rest, which is the fittest type for divine 
 meditation, ' the haven and Sabbath ' a of man's loftiest 
 thought. 
 
 This explanation seems to meet the double require- 
 ments of reasonable expectation and the exegesis of 
 the passage. We may further observe that it stands 
 free from two objections which might be raised against 
 many attempts at a more direct reconciliation ; namely, 
 that in some cases, they throw doubts on the substan- 
 tial truth of the revelation, while trying to remove 
 
 a Bacon, Works, ed. Ellis .and Spedding, iii. 351, 477. 
 
LECTURE V. 163 
 
 objections which tell only against the form under 
 which it is presented; and that in other cases, 
 they are open to the retort, that if God had meant 
 them, He would certainly have expressed them : they 
 are as easy to understand as that which they are 
 proposed to supersede. If it had been meant that 
 these were visions, it would have been said that they 
 were visions (30). It was no harder to write down 
 ' the vision of Moses,' than to write down ' the vision 
 of Isaiah, the son of Amoz.' If it had been meant 
 that this was only an exposition of God's plan, it 
 could surely have been made plain to us that the 
 plan had been altered in the course of execution (31). 
 The only tenable doctrine of accommodation rests 
 upon this principle, that the words which are used 
 are the closest and clearest that man could understand. 
 Explanations which treat the narrative as parable or 
 poem are more exposed to the first objection (32). 
 They throw doubts, as I have said, on the reality and 
 substantial truth of the revelation, to avoid scruples 
 which rest solely on too literal an interpretation of 
 the form in which that revelation is conveyed. 
 
 It is by no means admitted, however, that the form 
 was indifferent, or without a meaning, though it is 
 urged that the attempt to impose an historical meaning 
 is in this case misapplied. On the contrary, it seems 
 possible to see very clear and sufficient reasons for 
 it. It pleased God to throw the record of His own 
 workings into such a form, as would most clearly 
 exhibit their archetypal character, in relation to the 
 work of man. Just as man bears God's image, though 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 LECTURE V. 
 
 unspeakably inferior, so man's work, with all its 
 poverty and imperfection, may be modelled after the 
 glorious image of the work of God. Are we com- 
 manded to labour for six days, and rest on the 
 seventh ? The creation of the world can be presented 
 under a precisely similar formula. Our Creator also 
 Avrought for six days, and rested on the seventh, 
 though His days are as much higher than our days 
 as His image than our imaore, or His thoughts than 
 our thoughts. The Fourth Commandment thus be- 
 comes the key to the record of creation. Accepting 
 that record as what it manifestly is — rather a revela- 
 tion than a tradition — it carries on our thoughts to the 
 contemporary marvel, when God's finger wrote the 
 Ten Commandments on the rock. And they answer 
 on this point, each to each; and the work of God's 
 creatures is ennobled and dignified when it is repre- 
 sented as a shadow of the great creating work of God. 
 If we are asked, then, whether we resign the histo- 
 rical reality of the beginning of Genesis, we answer, 
 that we resign nothing but a deeply seated misappre- 
 hension, which has confounded records of a different 
 order, and obliterated the distinction between theo- 
 logy and history, by transferring the conditions of 
 the one to the other. The first step in what may be 
 technically called the narrative of history, is taken 
 at the beginning of the fifth chapter of the book of 
 Genesis, in the words, ' This is the book of the gene- 
 rations of Adam;' words which are followed by the 
 briefest possible summary of the previous account of 
 creation, and then by the order of a lineage, and the 
 
LECTURE V. 165 
 
 regular chronicle of dates and ages. To this historical 
 commencement, part of the fourth chapter has been 
 guiding our thoughts : a but, with that and some other 
 minor exceptions, the first four chapters are rather 
 theological than historical ; they belong to the head of 
 pure revelation, rather than to that of ordinary narra- 
 tive. They embody matter which no conjecture could 
 have reached, which no tradition could have furnished. 
 They unfold, in such order as God judged to be the 
 fittest, the fundamental truths about God's purpose 
 and God's workings in creation; and about the inno- 
 cence, the sin, and fall of man. This, then, after all, 
 is the sole residuum of that ' confident rhetoric ' to 
 which the Mosaic record has been exposed : the assail- 
 ant has only succeeded in carrying a position, which 
 a deeper interpretation makes it needless to defend. 
 
 But it cannot be denied that an examination of the 
 literature which has gathered round this subject pro- 
 duces a discouraging impression of the effects of these 
 misapprehensions on the minds of both theological 
 and scientific disputants. Keep each enquirer to his 
 own province, and he advances with a firm step and 
 cheerful spirit in the track which God lays open to 
 his knowledge : the one to read the marvellous 
 lessons of the book of Nature ; the other to draw 
 water from the inexhaustible wells of salvation for 
 the refreshment of the souls of men. Give geology 
 free course, and it prepares to render signal service by 
 removing mistakes which used to obscure our earlier 
 
 c~ 
 
 a Gen. iv. 17-22, 25, 2G. 
 
166 LECTURE V. 
 
 conceptions of God's working. It has already cor- 
 roborated our belief in special acts of creative energy, 
 by disclosing the indisputable records of creation, in 
 countless remains which prove beyond a question 
 that God has again and again been pleased to in- 
 troduce the beginnings of new races on the earth. 
 It appears now to supply a safeguard against theories 
 which substitute creation by the law of development 
 for creation by the word of God. This end it answers 
 by its witness, that though species may die, they are 
 not found to be transmuted ; that each spans indepen- 
 dently its arc of life ; some longer and some shorter ; 
 some to run a course which has long ago been ended, 
 and which we know only from the uncovering of the 
 graveyards of the past ; others stretching forth into 
 the living world around us, and connecting the relics 
 of immemorial antiquity with forms which meet us in 
 our daily path. If I do not venture to enumerate 
 other services which have been sometimes claimed at 
 the hand of the geologist, it is simply because ' he that 
 believeth shall not make haste ; ' a and it does not 
 become us to grasp at seeming gams from those who 
 may yet alter their decisions and reclaim them (33). 
 But for the gifts which science has already bestowed 
 on us — gifts which we owe to God alone, though it 
 lias pleased Him to enhance their value by making 
 them the prizes of the human intellect — for these, I 
 say, let us be heartily grateful, and let us frankly 
 acknowledge their importance. Let us above all 
 
 a Isa. xxviii. 1G. 
 
LECTURE V. 167 
 
 things shun that faithless and suspicious temper 
 which watches askance the work of science, as if 
 convinced that it is merely looking out for an oppor- 
 tunity to rob us of some treasure in the heritage of 
 faith. But we may be allowed, in turn, to remind the 
 scientific enquirer, that it is quite as great a fault of 
 reasoning to overstrain a fact in science that it may 
 be made to contradict a text of Scripture, as to stand 
 stubbornly upon some old interpretation of a doubtful 
 text, and insist that it condemns some new discovery 
 in science. As a moral fault it is of course far worse, 
 because the interests involved are incomparably more 
 important on the one side than on the other. 
 
 A dread of enquiry, then, must be calmed by the re- 
 flection, that the same God who made the earth and 
 all its marvels created and bestowed the intellect of 
 man, by whose well-guided activity those ancient 
 wonders have been gathered and revealed. On the 
 other hand, a jealousy of inspiration must be checked 
 by the assurance, that as certainly as God built the 
 rocks, and peopled sea and land through untold ages 
 with countless forms of life, so surely did He give to 
 man the higher blessing of those Holy Scriptures, 
 which disclose the birth, the fall, the restoration of 
 our race. Why this strife among the servants of a 
 common Master, the children of a common Father, 
 who owe their varied gifts to Him ? And why, again, 
 this contest among the different members of the 
 body which He made ? a Each one of these members 
 
 a 1 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
168 LECTURE V. 
 
 hath He planted as it pleased Him in the body of 
 mankind. Let not the ear of faith declare its inde- 
 pendence of the eye of science, which reads God's 
 writing on the hidden tablets of the everlasting hills. 
 And let not the eye of science declare its indepen- 
 dence of the ear of faith, which has caught and 
 understood the heavenly message of the reconciliation 
 of man through the Son to the Father. The contest 
 has not long to live when it is brought to the issue of 
 a strong but reasonable faith. God's works, we 
 know, cannot contradict God's Word. This is not 
 even an open question. To think it so betrays the 
 secret doubt that either the one or the other came 
 from God. We are as certain that we hold God's 
 Word, as you can be certain that you are dealing 
 with God's work. If they seem for a moment to 
 present a passing shade of contradiction, there is 
 abundant room for explanation in the mingled igno- 
 rance and impatience of man : his impatience, which 
 guesses before he knows ; his ignorance, which makes 
 his guesses wrong — an ignorance which assumes 
 too hastily that we have already mastered all the 
 mind of Scripture, and an impatience which snatches 
 weapons for the contest which God intended for a 
 very different purpose. 
 
 To sum up briefly, then, the view which has been 
 urged. The records of Scripture range through a 
 long series of ages, and were committed to writing by 
 i lien of very different characters, who possessed very 
 different attainments, and who spoke, in short, a 
 very different langiuige: under which head of Ian- 
 
LECTURE V. 169 
 
 guage I include the forms of speech by which the 
 phenomena of heaven and earth would be described. 
 When the voice of God was heard in thunder from 
 the rocks of Sinai, by that band of fugitives which 
 was now being moulded, through stern discipline, 
 amidst the sands of the desert into national life, what 
 could they have comprehended of a revelation which 
 anticipated the far-off conclusions of science, the 
 results of the observations of laborious ages ? It is 
 surely mere misapprehension to suppose, that the 
 revelation with which Moses was really entrusted 
 could traverse the path of the modern geologist, or 
 contain anything that would either confirm or con- 
 tradict his readings of those buried rocks. From 
 whichever side the error comes, we are bound to 
 shake ourselves free from it ; not by saying, with some, 
 that God cared not though His instruments should 
 make mistakes on scientific subjects, but by pointing 
 out that there can be no error where there is no asser- 
 tion ; and that a purely theological revelation contains 
 no assertion which falls within the proper sphere of 
 science. 
 
 It is thus that we may find room for researches of 
 the reason, without treachery to truths whose pro- 
 vince they do not really invade. It is thus that we 
 may give fair play to the enquiries of science, with- 
 out surrendering to desecration a single corner of the 
 heritage of faith. 
 
 Let us welcome all free enquiries so long as they are 
 pursued with reverence and candour. The believer 
 is not justified in trying to intimidate free thought by 
 
170 LECTURE V. 
 
 the accusation of atheism : still less is the free- 
 thinker justified in striking at faith under the shield 
 of science. Each commits the same fault; that of 
 coupling truth with his own private opinions, and 
 insisting that they must stand or fall together. Each 
 must be met by the same answer ; that what God 
 never joined, man is bound to put asunder — the 
 speculations of man and the revelations of God. 
 
171 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Matt. xiii. 33. 
 
 ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a 
 woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the 
 Avhole was leavened.' 
 
 N passing from the historical and scientific lan- 
 guage of Scripture, to consider the moral diffi- 
 culties presented by some parts of its earliest record, 
 we must begin by endeavouring to form a clear 
 conception of the obstacles which retarded man's 
 recovery of truth after the Fall. To whatever quarter 
 we turn for the early history of our race, we shall 
 find its moral character all but unintelligible, unless 
 we recognise the full influence of that mass of 
 energetic evil which obstructed all its aspirations 
 after good. The existence of this great hindrance, 
 which man had thrown in his own path by abusing 
 the gift of freewill, is a primary fact, which no human 
 theory can account for, but which every theory must 
 accept as its inevitable starting-point. It is one of 
 those elementary considerations which stand above 
 the sphere of discussion, and fix the conditions on 
 which all discussion must depend. When we study 
 
172 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the history of God's first revelation, Ave find that we 
 are not dealing with the unembarrassed development 
 of heavenly truth, unfolded for the guidance of a 
 pure, obedient, sympathising race. We are dealing 
 with the introduction of truth into the hearts of fallen 
 creatures, whose conduct and tendencies it thwarted 
 and condemned ; with its promulgation in the face of 
 unruly animosity, of resolute rebellion, of that ' carnal 
 mind' which 'is enmity against God,' of a 'whole 
 world' lying 'in wickedness. ' a To judge of the reve- 
 lation without taking account of the resistance which 
 it had to overcome, is as unreasonable as to apply the 
 principles of peace to a scene of warfare, and to 
 complain of the cruel sternness which the soldier has 
 to practise in the presence of a turbulent and active 
 foe. 
 
 We may gain much aid towards forming this con- 
 ception from the short parable contained in the words 
 of our text (1). The image of leaven sets before us 
 the secret history of God's kingdom as a counterpart 
 to the picture of its outward growth, which the 
 parable of the mustard-seed had furnished. Some 
 qualities of leaven are so antagonistic and corrupting, 
 that the usage of Scripture applies it more frequently 
 to evil than to good. b But it is not the less fitted to 
 illustrate that anti-leaven of righteousness by which 
 the influence of evil is to be counteracted and sub- 
 dued. Jt is a cause of change, which is external in 
 its origin, but internal in its operation; which produces 
 
 a Rom. viii. 7; 1 John v. 19. b Luke xii. 1 ; 1 Cor. v. 7, &c. 
 
LECTURE VI. 173 
 
 its effects by slow degrees, as it penetrates the sub- 
 stance in which it is hidden — attracting one part 
 after another to itself — communicating its own virtue 
 to every particle with which it comes in contact, and 
 fitting it to leaven what it touches in its turn ; a 
 hidden power, as though it were working from the 
 centre outwards ; mixing with all parts, while scarcely 
 traceable in any ; but gradually and surely accomplish- 
 ing its office, by transmuting the entire mass into 
 that state of assimilation, when we can say that the 
 whole is leavened. 
 
 Under this figure we trace the law of God's elec- 
 tion, by which religion was brought back into a fallen 
 and corrupted world. The sacred history establishes 
 that it is the law of God's government to brine: in arood 
 by slow degrees for the expulsion of evil. A few of 
 God's chosen servants are planted hi the midst of 
 multitudes who have forgotten God. Blessed them- 
 selves, they enjoy the high prerogative of dealing out 
 blessings to others in their turn. The befnnnino- is 
 small, and seems but feeble when compared with the 
 resisting mass which it has to penetrate and influence. 
 But the principle itself, like the existence of evil, is 
 one which must be received as primary. We cannot 
 tell why it is that God chooses to bless some only, for 
 the future benefit of all ; why He left the world to lie 
 so long in darkness ; on what grounds He gave such 
 advantage to the Jew ; for what reason He now bestows 
 so many undeserved privileges on ourselves. The 
 fact is all that we have to deal with ; and that fact is 
 clearly brought before us by this image of the leaven, 
 
174 LECTURE VI. 
 
 to which Christ gives a place in the series of His 
 earliest parables. It was not God's plan to convert 
 the world by a sudden manifestation of His supreme 
 power and glory. It ivas God's plan to bring back 
 into the world that good which it had forfeited, by a 
 providential arrangement which may be fitly com- 
 pared to the natural process of hiding leaven in the 
 midst of meal. 
 
 The principle applies with equal clearness to what 
 is intellectual in theology, as well as what is moral ; 
 and illustrates with the same distinctness the rein- 
 troduction of religious knowledge, to enlighten the 
 darkened spirit of mankind. It is the current objec- 
 tion to the earliest revelation, that it is less perfect 
 than the fuller light of later times ; so much less per- 
 fect that some have tried to prove it to be unworthy 
 of God, and therefore no more than a purely human 
 composition, embodying no true message from above. 
 All are ready to confess that God's disclosures of His 
 own name and nature were progressives The first 
 signs of the Holy Trinity are veiled and obscure. The 
 Pentateuch supplies us with but a faint shadow of 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as compared with the 
 broad light afforded on such occasions as the baptism 
 of Christ, or in such forms of Christian language as 
 the institution of baptism or the apostolic benediction. 
 The doctrine of a future life, again, was taught so 
 obscurely, that Christ is said to have ' brought life 
 and immortality to light through the gospel.' b Pass 
 
 a Above, p. 49. b 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
LECTURE VI. 175 
 
 from the doctrines of theology to the laws of civil 
 organisation, and Christ teaches that these were modi- 
 fied in the Mosaic code for temporary reasons. The 
 obligation of the original marriage law was lightened, 
 because of the hardness of the hearts of the people. a 
 The slave law, we may add, was permitted to be 
 harsher than it might have been under a different 
 social system, or in different relations toward sur- 
 rounding races. b Parental authority, though cautiously 
 qualified, was entrusted with larger power than it can 
 claim in days which pay more scrupulous regard to 
 all classes of social and individual rights c (2). 
 
 But supposing it granted that an explanation can 
 be given for the gradual development of divine know- 
 ledge and the temporary defects of positive enactments, 
 yet what answer can be made when we are pressed with 
 such moral difficulties as meet us in the first seven 
 books of Scripture ? Did the God of truth approve 
 and bless the falsehoods of the ' Hebrew midwives,' 
 or the falsehood of Rahab at Jericho ? Did the God of 
 righteousness tell His people to spoil the Egyptians? 
 Did the God of mercy inspire the blessing which is 
 uttered by the fiery-souled prophetess over the treach- 
 erous murder of a trusting foe? d These, as you know, 
 are only specimens of the questions by which this 
 difficulty is brought under our notice : questions which 
 are sometimes urged with a superfluity of rhetoric; 
 yet certainly not without the clearest right to a fair 
 consideration and a candid answer (3). 
 
 a Matt. xix. 8. b Ex. xxi. 4, 20, 21. c Deut. xxi. 18-21. 
 d Ex. i. 20 ; Josh. ii. 4 ; vi. 25 ; Ex. xi. 2 ; xii. 3G ; Judges v. 24. 
 
176 LECTURE VI. 
 
 I need scarcely remark, that whatever answer we do 
 give, it must be one which shall approve itself to the 
 enlightened Christian conscience, and not endanger 
 the first, principles of right and wrong, by suggesting 
 that the Divine command could be employed for the 
 purpose of turning evil into good. Whenever apolo- 
 gists attempt to force back the difficulty into the very 
 sanctuary of the Godhead, we can only rejoin that they 
 are seeking for soundings in very dangerous waters, 
 where it is wisest to decline to follow them (4). It is 
 a more hopeful course to ask, whether the conditions 
 under which the recovery of mankind was brought 
 round would not lead us to expect that the training 
 of God's people in those early days would exhibit a 
 mixture between good and evil, which our clearer 
 light will enable us to analyse, by a discrimination in 
 which we can apportion the good, as is most due, to 
 God, while we ascribe to man himself the evil inter- 
 mixture which debases it. Let us examine some of 
 the alleged difficulties by the light of this suggestion ; 
 and let us enquire whether the leaven of truth may 
 not have been sometimes intermingled for a time with 
 the mass of error which it was ultimately designed to 
 purify. 
 
 The answer is often expressed by saying, that 
 the earliest morality, even in Scripture, was imper- 
 fect (5). Perhaps it would convey a clearer meaning 
 if we affirmed that, to a certain extent, it is — not so 
 much imperfect as — fragmentary. In other words, its 
 several portions were for a time detached and unor- 
 ganised. God's earlier people grasped moral truths 
 
LECTURE VI. 177 
 
 strongly ; but the pressure of surrounding evil some- 
 times prevented them from giving sufficient weight to 
 those needful counter-truths, which claim an equal 
 recognition at their side. Sin was to be crushed ; 
 therefore they slew the sinner, without weighing in 
 all cases whether the blow could be struck justly by 
 unauthorised hands. God's work was to be done at 
 all costs; therefore they were not careful to observe 
 whether their hasty obedience might not sometimes 
 trample on other laws which were equally divine — the 
 laws of truth, of brotherhood, of scrupulous tenderness 
 for common rights and duties. Their conduct thus 
 presents a blended texture of good and evil. On the 
 side of good we rank the strong faith in God, the 
 strong resolve that righteousness should conquer, the 
 steady determination to root out wickedness. The 
 evil was, that righteousness was not always tempered 
 by mercy, nor faith by truth, nor retaliation by justice. 
 But so far as any of these acts received the expression 
 of God's approbation, we may rest satisfied that His 
 blessing lighted simply on the virtue, while His 
 patient forbearance with His creatures' ignorance 
 forgave them the accompanying sin. 
 
 Is this, then, a fair parallel to the other difficulties 
 which I mentioned, and which seemed to admit of 
 an easier solution; namely, that theology was un- 
 folded only by degrees, and that the Law obscured 
 the sanctity of marriage, and the manhood which is 
 the inalienable right of the slave? It might be 
 objected, that the analogy cannot be stretched to 
 defend an inferior morality ; that there can be neither 
 
 N 
 
178 LECTURE VI. 
 
 more nor less in right and wrong. The one of these 
 illustrations, it might be said, is mainly intellectual; 
 the other deals with arrangements, which national 
 customs regard as in some degree conventional. 
 How can they be used to palliate what will after 
 all be represented by many as the Divine toleration 
 of a lower moral standard, in those who were 
 honoured by God's special approbation? "We reply, 
 that even if the moral truths were severally perfect, 
 the separate excellence of detached precepts is no 
 guarantee for the presence of a complete and co- 
 herent morality; that there can be no difficulty in 
 comprehending how the gift of discrimination might 
 be wanting in those darker days; and that men 
 need not be supposed to have put faith in falsehood, 
 because they could only command disjointed truths. 
 A solitary truth may indeed become most injurious, 
 if it is used as the instrument of a selfish purpose; 
 but when coupled with the one great central virtue 
 of faithful obedience, it may be the germ of the 
 most hopeful promise, and may raise an entire nation, 
 as such truths raised the nation of the Jews, far 
 above the standard of less favoured peoples, who 
 possess no such talisman of spiritual power. Yet 
 all the while, such principles, though severally 
 cogent, might lack the completeness which can only 
 be attained by their combination in an ordered 
 system. 
 
 If we further consider the brevity with which 
 some of these complex actions are recorded, we 
 cannot allege that, in cases where ignorance did 
 
LECTURE VI. 179 
 
 amount to actual sin, the sinful element failed to 
 bring that certain train of punishment and grief 
 which is annexed to it by the just judgment of 
 God. If the narrative extends to further detail, 
 and enables us to see remoter consequences, the 
 application of the law, that sin works sorrow, is 
 emphatically proved. There are several of the more 
 mixed characters in Scripture, hi whose cases a 
 general uprightness of purpose and strength of faith 
 was occasionally crossed and discoloured by sin or 
 weakness, where the course of the history seems 
 to have been governed by the very intention of 
 introducing the discrimination which was needed, 
 and showing with how sure a step the sin found 
 out the sinner in the shape of fitting retribution. 
 It has thus been often pointed out, a that the early 
 deceit of Jacob was avenged through all his later 
 years by the withering influence of the fear of man ; 
 and that the one great crime of David caused the 
 evening of his glorious day to be darkened by the 
 clouds of lust and blood. Such was the discipline 
 by which God at once chastised the offender, and 
 warned others against being polluted by the example 
 of his sin. Now there may have been, in other 
 cases also, a similar adjustment, which the brevity 
 of the narrative has concealed from us; cases in 
 which a mixture of sin with the motives was followed 
 by a mixture of evil with the reward. 
 
 In proceeding to examine one or two of the more 
 
 a Especially in Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences, pp. 46, 145. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LECTURE VI. 
 
 perplexing instances in fuller detail, I must repeat the 
 warning which I have already ventured to suggest, 
 against the error of treating all parts of Scripture 
 as though they stood on one and the same level, 
 forgetting that its composition spans the whole range 
 of utmost antiquity, and stretches onward, from the 
 rudest ages, to days when the ancient culture which 
 succeeded was already beginning to decline. We 
 cannot understand it as a whole till we have learnt 
 the relations of the several portions, and can dis- 
 criminate between the lessons which they were 
 respectively commissioned to convey. The Gospels 
 are filled with the living brightness of our Saviour's 
 teaching; ; as when He tells us how the Samaritan 
 forgot his deep national animosity, and proved him- 
 self to be true neighbour to the suffering Jew. The 
 Mosaic history relates to days when the love which 
 comprehends our enemy would have been rather 
 despised as a weakness than fostered as a grace. 
 And yet, between these two strongly contrasted 
 periods, there lies, we may rest satisfied, the deep 
 harmony of Scripture, which enriches those old 
 times, that looked so unloving and relentless, with a 
 treasure of instruction to be blended with the lessons 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 We may learn from St. Paul's argument to both 
 the Romans and Galatians, that man's first step back 
 toward the Paradise which he has forfeited must 
 be taken in the conviction of sin. Now this is 
 precisely the feeling which the earliest books of 
 revelation arc most fitted to arouse. The Law itself, 
 
LECTURE VI. 181 
 
 with all its elaborate ceremonial and rich typical 
 significance, was 'added because of transgressions.'* 
 It was a bridle to curb that wayward race, to which 
 the guardianship of the promise had been given. It 
 moulded their religious knowledge by the element 
 of restraint and severity, which is a feature of law 
 within the moral sphere. And that training pro- 
 duced the Jewish zeal, which finds so glowing an 
 expression in many a fervid hymn and psalm: in 
 language which may render us the deepest service, 
 if it strikes through the hard crust of polished 
 unreality, which too often supervenes on the placid 
 decorum of our civilised life ; and if it warns us 
 how we ought to treat the deadly principles of wrong 
 which lurk in our own fallen hearts. The tone of 
 severity is not peculiar to the Pentateuch, While it is 
 gradually divested of its earlier harshness, it pervades 
 all Scripture in the character of zeal against evil. 
 We trace it onward from Moses to David, from 
 David to Ezra, from Ezra to the greater authority 
 of the Divine Teacher, on whose lips it was purged 
 from the last lingering resemblance to hmnan in- 
 firmity b (6). And it fails to effect its proper purpose 
 with ourselves, if it ever leaves us exposed to the 
 influence of that spurious charity toward offenders, 
 which is equivalent to an indifference for the mischief 
 which they cause. 
 
 The most striking instance of the difficulty which 
 I have been describing is to be found in the song 
 
 a Gal. ui. 19. b Ps. cxxxix. 21, &c. ; Ezra x. 17; Matt, xxiii., &c. 
 
182 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of Deborah, and in the blessing which she pronounced 
 upon an action which seems to us a piece of signal 
 treachery (7). Let us devote to this instance, then, a 
 more detailed examination ; as it will be acknowledged 
 that the views which it suggests may be ajiplied to 
 a number of less remarkable cases. 
 
 The common chronology places the date of 
 Deborah at a full century earlier than the subject 
 of the oldest uninspired heroic poem. We have no 
 secular poetry which can be proved to go back to 
 so remote a period (s). And this date is especially 
 important. It is above all things necessary, as I 
 have said, that when we wish to form a judgment 
 of its character, we do not forget with what part 
 of history we are dealing. While no literature of 
 any age has given birth to a grander effort of lyrical 
 poetry, we yet know that it belongs to a period 
 when the fair fabric of classical civilisation was 
 utterly unthought of and unknown — a period when 
 Greece had not yet spoken any word that time has 
 spared, and some centuries before the earliest ances- 
 tors of the Latin race had built their first huts 
 among the hills of Rome. Now this fact, which on 
 mere literary grounds would be remarkable, on moral 
 grounds becomes particularly noteable. When we 
 are looking at the points of difficulty which the 
 history involves, it is indispensable to recollect that 
 those servants of God were fighting His battles in 
 an age when the world was still lying in the 
 profoundest darkness — in an age still earlier than 
 those heroic days, in which the utter recklessness 
 
LECTURE VI. 183 
 
 for human life, which is shown even by their noblest 
 characters, supplies so serious a drawback to our 
 admiration for their various manly virtues. 
 
 I need scarcely say that the whole period of the 
 Judges contains much to perplex us (9). It is indeed 
 the chief arena for those moral difficulties with which 
 we are now dealing, and which emerge through all 
 parts of that record in their strongest and most 
 striking forms. Evils had risen to a height so ap- 
 palling, that God used instruments of rudest temper 
 for their overthrow, such as confound the calcula- 
 tions of the calmer judgment, which is trained in the 
 pure light of happier days. Such preeminently was 
 Samson, the fit type of times when mere strength had 
 its direct and special use in smiting down the powers 
 of darkness. But indeed throughout those ages there 
 was a closer connection than there now is between the 
 internal and the external ; while principles of ever- 
 lasting obligation were veiled under the ruder forms 
 of time. It was not so much that men could not see 
 more than half the truth, but that they saw truths, as 
 I have said, hi fragments, rather than as connected 
 portions of an ordered system. They saw them, too, 
 confusedly, and without discrimination — saw them, as 
 we might say, with their colours blended; just as in 
 pure theology the doctrine of the Trinity was taught 
 less clearly than the doctrine of the Unity of God. 
 We may note this in the very framework of the Jewish 
 polity. The nation and the Church were one. The 
 foes of Israel were the foes of God. There was no dis- 
 tinction, therefore, between public policy and religious 
 
184 LECTURE VI. 
 
 duty; and the soldiers of the state were at once 
 ministers of justice and public guardians of the sacred 
 laws. We may note it, again, in the connection which 
 existed between obedience and prosperity. It would 
 be too much, perhaps, to say with some, that the 
 rewards and penalties, by which alone the Jews were 
 actuated, were only such as this world could furnish. 
 Such a limitation would be inconsistent with the 
 paramount appeal to God's approbation, as the chief 
 motive which was perpetually put before them. And 
 yet it is certainly true that prosperity and adversity 
 were the great badges and representatives of the 
 favour of God (10). It is certainly true that the 
 spiritual eyesight was not yet quickened to appreciate 
 the rewards and penalties of an eternal life. In like 
 manner the law of duty was enforced with a sternness 
 and simplicity which left scarcely room to discriminate 
 between the sinner and his sin. It was as though the 
 ancient Jew had to hew down the rude primeval 
 forest, that he might lay the deep foundations for the 
 future temple of the Lord. Such a labour would call 
 for unwearied vigour, for unconquerable zeal, for 
 unhesitating obedience : but it would leave little room 
 for the nicer and more accurate discrimination, which 
 we are at once privileged and bound in duty to 
 employ. In this, as in so many other aspects of the 
 older history, we are reminded of our Saviour's 
 words : ' Blessed are the eyes which see the things 
 that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets 
 and kings have desired to see those things which 
 ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear 
 
LECTURE VI. 185 
 
 those things which ye hear, and have not heard 
 them.' a 
 
 We find the most conspicuous proof of this in the 
 invariable sequence which then connected the exercise 
 of courage with external freedom, and the indulgence 
 of cowardice with external bondage ; and that, not 
 only, as it might still happen, in the regular issue of 
 national policy, spun out through a course of com- 
 plicated action, but ready, instantaneous, and constant, 
 as though in the unquestionable relation of effort and 
 its reward. The Israelites had entered on the pro- 
 mised land (11). In some instances, they carried out 
 at once their mission ; and in such cases we read how 
 the Lord was with Juclah, and how the Lord was 
 with Joseph. 13 But in many other instances they 
 made peace with the enemies whom they had been 
 commissioned to destroy. Benjamin did not drive 
 out the Jebusites ; Manasseh did not drive out the in- 
 habitants of Bethshean or Taanach ; Ephraim did not 
 drive out the Canaanites of Gezer ; nor Zebulon the 
 people of Kitron and Nahalol; nor Asher the coast- 
 men of what was afterwards Phoenicia; nor Naph- 
 tali the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and Bethanath ; 
 but they ' dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants 
 of the land.' c Toleration soon changed into an un- 
 hallowed alliance, when they took the daughters of 
 the Canaanites to be their wives, and gave their own 
 daughters to their sons, and served their gods. d There- 
 fore came that stern message of the Lord at Bochim, 
 
 a Luke x. 23, 24. b Judges i. 19, 22. 
 
 c Judges i. 21, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33. d Judges iii. 6. 
 
18G LECTURE VI. 
 
 that these nations should be as thorns in their sides, and 
 their gods a snare. a Soon followed the actual proofs 
 of God's anger, when His hand was against them for 
 evil, and they were sorely distressed. In quick suc- 
 cession came the tyranny of various oppressors: first, 
 eight years of slavery to the King of Mesopotamia, 
 from which they were freed by the bravery of Othniel, 
 which gave the land rest for forty years. Next, 
 from the south-east, sprang the tyranny of Moab, 
 which was ended, after eighteen years, by the ven- 
 geance of Ehud; and the land had rest fourscore 
 years. Next, as it would seem, there was persecu- 
 tion from Philistia. b And then came that despotism 
 from the powers on the north-east, which is unfolded 
 in completer detail, and which it was the boast of 
 Deborah and Barak to destroy. A king of Canaan, 
 under the old name of Jabin, still reigned from the 
 site of that same Hazor Avhich ' beforetime was 
 the head of all those kingdoms,' when it was seized 
 and burnt by Joshua. Jabin had nine hundred 
 chariots of iron; and for twenty years, through his 
 captain, Sisera, he mightily oppressed the children 
 of Israel. His fastness lay above the waters near 
 the sources of the Jordan, whence Sisera poured 
 down his chariots into that great plain, which was 
 traversed by the torrent of the storied Kishon before 
 it issues into the sea beneath the heights of Carmel. 
 The hymn of Deborah supplies many minute details, 
 which prove the oppressive sternness of his rule. 
 
 a Judges ii. 3. b Judges iii. 8-11, 12-30, 31. c Josh. xi. 1, 10. 
 
LECTURE VI. 187 
 
 The highways were forsaken, and travellers pursued 
 their stolen journeys through the byways. The 
 inhabitants of the villages had ceased. War was in 
 the gates. No shield nor spear was seen among 
 forty thousand in Israel. The very draw-wells, as the 
 old interpretation seems to run (12), were disturbed 
 by the noise of the archers of Canaan. a Such was 
 the state of God's people under the ojipressors, until 
 Deborah arose as a mother in Israel. The prophetess 
 and Barak gathered against Sisera the tribes which 
 filled the centre of the promised land. There were 
 Ephraim and Benjamin, and chiefs sprung from the 
 son of Manasseh, Machir. b 'The princes of Issachar 
 were with Deborah.' ' Zebulun and Naphtali were a 
 people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in 
 the high places of the field.' What wonder is it 
 that she classifies the sons of Israel as good or evil, 
 according to the zeal which they showed hi coming 
 to the help of the Lord against the mighty? What 
 wonder that she records for their shame the councils 
 which detained the distant Reuben, the indolence 
 of Gilead who abode beyond Jordan, of Dan who 
 remained in ships, of Asher who clung to his rich 
 possessions by the sea? What wonder that she calls 
 down a special curse on Meroz, if the position of 
 that place caused its neutrality and indifference to 
 be a peculiar disgrace to the national cause? And 
 what wonder, we now ask — to come to the point 
 which has for us the deepest interest — what wonder 
 
 tt Judges v. 6, 7, 8, 11. b Gen. 1. 23; Num. xxxii. 39, 40. 
 
188 lecture vr. 
 
 that she gives high praise and benediction to that 
 daughter of the Kenite, whose act seems to us so 
 merciless and treacherous, for dealing death on the 
 flying oppressor of the race which she had taught 
 to conquer? All other questions were absorbed and 
 lost in this grand issue : — Who had been on the Lord's 
 side? Who had been against Him? For the former 
 she had blessings ; for the latter she had the sternest 
 condemnation. In the glowing exultation of her 
 triumph over the despot, she could no more see sin 
 in any action by which his ministers were extermi- 
 nated, than she could see cruelty in the stars which 
 fought in their courses against Sisera; or in that 
 ancient river, the river Kishon, which swept in its 
 swollen flood their dead bodies to the sea. a 
 
 Now can we doubt that this high spirit of heroic 
 zeal, of devotion to God's service, of relentless hatred 
 to His foe, was a divine element of true inspiration, 
 which God sent to strengthen the good and crush the 
 evil, at a time when there was great danger lest the 
 evil should triumph and obliterate the good ? Can 
 we doubt that God was leavening His people with 
 that nobler temper, which was indispensable to secure 
 the very existence of their national life, as the wit- 
 ness to God's truth in the midst of darkness ? We 
 must keep prominently before our thoughts the real 
 wickedness of the Canaanitish people, and the un- 
 doubted necessity that they should be crushed before 
 Israel, lest the truth itself should perish in the over- 
 
 a Judges v. 14-31. 
 
LECTURE VI. 189 
 
 whelming flood of sin (13). To represent the matter, 
 therefore, in such an aspect as our own position would 
 suggest, we must alter the terms of the compa- 
 rison, and state them in a different form. We live 
 under the law, ' I say unto you, Love your enemies.'* 
 In its direct sense, then, we are not concerned with the 
 benediction of Deborah, as she hailed the blow that 
 smote the tyrant. But let us state the matter in this 
 way : — Our oppressor is Satan. Those bad passions 
 which he seeks to rouse within us are the iron 
 chariots by which he would crush out the fair work 
 of God within our hearts. His evil emissaries are 
 like archers of the Canaanites, who keep watch and 
 ward to slay our souls, beside the very wells of living 
 water. The war which Israel had to wage against 
 
 o o 
 
 Canaan must not be regarded as a mere struggle 
 between nation and nation, but as the resistance, in 
 the cause of universal humanity, of God's law against 
 the rebellion of the wicked ; of God's work against the 
 work of Satan. It is in this sense that these things 
 were our ensamples, and have been written for our 
 admonition by the Holy Spirit. 15 We are not to 
 look merely at man as against man, but at the up- 
 holders of righteousness, who were bound subjects to 
 a loftier cause than they could comprehend, as 
 against the upholders of idolatry and rebellion from 
 God, whose destruction was rather an act of the 
 Divine vengeance than the operation of a human 
 policy. Or, again, we might express it in this 
 
 a Matt. v. 44. b 1 Cor. x. 11. 
 
190 LECTURE VI. 
 
 manner: that the struggle is not between man and 
 man, but between principle and principle. We shall 
 fail to understand its nature if our thoughts rest only 
 on the human agents. These were, as we might say, 
 mere accidents in that great battle, in which Israel 
 was fighting the wars of the Lord. It matters not, 
 then, that there were sins on the side of the earthly 
 armies of Jehovah, or that the infant children of their 
 enemies did not deserve, as man would speak, the 
 cruel doom to which they were consigned. It is the 
 sad characteristic of this fallen world, that so far as 
 mere external sufferings are concerned, the innocent 
 must often be involved in common sorrow with the 
 guilty; and the march of righteousness must often be 
 retarded by the frailties of the instruments through 
 which God vouchsafes to execute His work. 
 
 Apply these considerations to the present subject, 
 and they will at least lighten the perplexity which 
 we might feel in accepting such a composition as the 
 song of Deborah under the character of inspired 
 Scripture. Not for one moment may we dream that 
 its burning words may overcloud to us the law of 
 mercy ; that they would palliate in us the exercise of 
 cruelty; that they would justify us in being fierce 
 and ruthless, even in cases Avhere we might fancy 
 that we were doing the work of the Lord. Such 
 inferences would indeed set the letter against the 
 spirit, and find the savour of death in Scripture. 
 But there is no danger of any such misconception, 
 if we make the right allowance for the historical 
 position of the human element, through which that 
 
LECTURE VI. 19 L 
 
 sacred lesson was conveyed. We must adjust the pre- 
 cedent to our altered sphere, so as to teach us the zeal 
 with which we are bound to fight against our vices ; 
 to exemplify the earnest and unwearied battle which 
 we must wage against the Canaanites of sin within 
 our hearts. For most of us this is a sufficient lesson. 
 The duty of punishing the sins of others has been 
 delegated to comparatively few. Yet those few may 
 safely infer from the history, that not by man's de- 
 cision but by the eternal laws of God, there is a 
 point at which the wicked Avill be swept from the 
 earth : and if not by God's directer judgments, as 
 when He brought in ' the flood upon the world of the 
 ungodly,' a or when He poured forth rain of fire from 
 heaven, or when He charged His ancient people to 
 exterminate the Canaanites, then by the calm exer- 
 cise of judicial punishment, on the part of those who 
 are commissioned, as His representatives, to bear ' not 
 the sword in vain.' b 
 
 Those who take an opposite view of such passages 
 in ancient Scripture make it their ground for urging 
 that the old has been, not merely unfolded, but can- 
 celled ; that Judaism was not so much transfused hito 
 Christianity as utterly destroyed; that it resembled 
 not the seed of the tree, but the scaffold of the 
 building, and has therefore become all but useless 
 to ourselves. We should thus be recommended to 
 contrast the two dispensations in the same manner in 
 which we should contrast seen and unseen, temporal 
 
 a 2 Pet. ii. 5. b Rom. xiii. 4. 
 
192 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and eternal, letter and spirit, bondage and freedom, 
 fear and love. But this was never the meaning; of 
 these antitheses as they were employed in the rea- 
 soning of St. Paul. The fact really is, that both sides 
 of the truth are deepened when both are discrimi- 
 nated and explained. The tie of free and loyal ser- 
 vice is a more stringent obligation than the fetter of 
 the slave. The perfect love which casts out a blind 
 and cowardly fear, a fosters in our hearts that deeper 
 reverence, in which St. Peter tells us that the time of 
 our sojourning here must be passed. b The day of 
 judgment, as disclosed in the New Testament, is an 
 incomparably more awful revelation than any ter- 
 rors which were threatened to the Jew (u). And 
 precisely so it stands with reference to our present 
 subject. Evil is ever seen to be most hateful when 
 the aspect of goodness is most clearly unveiled ; and 
 the hatred for iniquity is only another phase of that 
 love for righteousness, with which both Psalmist and 
 Apostle unite it in their proclamation of the Prince 
 of Peace. 
 
 There is something especially dangerous, because 
 especially deceptive, in that cold propriety of conduct, 
 which feels in religion no strong consciousness of either 
 love or hate. But by the examples of its characters, 
 as well as by its precepts, Scripture always teaches 
 that the love for good must be combined with an 
 abhorrence for evil which forbids any tolerance of sin. 
 
 a 1 John iv. 18. b 1 Pet. i. 17. 
 
 c Ps. xlv. 8 ; Hcb. i. 9. 
 
LECTURE VI. 193 
 
 Such a character as that of Moses would illustrate at 
 once the existence of the feeling, and the limitations 
 by which it ought to be controlled (15). His history 
 shows us how enduringly the union lasted, even un- 
 der the veil of his proverbial meekness. To speak in 
 round numbers, we may say, that the special instances 
 of his warmth of temper are recorded at his fortieth, 
 his eightieth, and close upon his hundred and twentieth 
 year. The mention of his meekness is connected with 
 the central period, near the time when he cast down 
 and broke the tables on descending from the mountain. 
 It was about forty years before this that he slew 
 the Egyptian and hid him in the sand; but it was 
 nearly forty years after this that he was provoked in 
 his spirit, and spoke unadvisedly with his lips at the 
 waters of strife, and ' was wroth with the officers of the 
 host,' for saving alive the women of the Midianites. a 
 Or look at the instance of St. John the Divine (16). 
 Let us call to mind the zeal which caused that pair 
 of brothers to be surnamed sons of thunder by their 
 Master ; the hasty temper in which they wished to call 
 down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, when Christ 
 told them that they knew not what spirit they were 
 of; and the ambition which made them covet to sit on 
 His right hand and on His left in His glory. b Now 
 St. John's latest years present a picture of the calmest 
 evening with which a long and stormy day can close. 
 
 a (1.) Ex. ii. 12 (Acts vii. 23). (2.) Ex. xvii. 6; xxxii. 19; 
 Num. xii. 3 (Acts vii. 30). (3.) Num. xx. 10, 12; xxvii. 14; 
 Deut. i. 37 ; Ps. cvi. 32 ; Num. xxxi. 14 (Deut. xxxi. 2). 
 
 b Mark iii. 17 ; Luke ix. 54-5 ; Mark x. 37. 
 
 O 
 
194 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The whole of his teaching was at last condensed into 
 that single sermon, ' Little children, love one another.' 
 Yet if there be any truth in the story which describes 
 him as fleeing in horror from the bath which was pol- 
 luted by the presence of a heretic, we may infer that to 
 the very last his love was incompatible with even the 
 mildest concession towards acknowledged and resist- 
 ing evil. Or may we not turn for illustration to the 
 double tone, which marks the language of Christ Him- 
 self, the God of love ? He began and closed His public 
 ministry with an act of strange severity, when the 
 zeal of God's house led Him to cleanse with His own 
 sacred hands the House of Prayer, which men were 
 changing to a den of thieves. 3 And by the side of all 
 His acts of love and words of mercy, we read the 
 woes which He uttered on Scribes and Pharisees 
 and lawyers who were hypocrites ; on all who caused 
 offences, and cast stumbling-blocks in the way of their 
 brethren, and substituted outward forms for the spirit 
 of devotion, and passed over judgment and the love 
 of God. b Such as these found no mercy from the 
 Friend of sinners, who taught us how the contrite pub- 
 lican was justified when the self-righteous Pharisee 
 found no justification. 
 
 Even the sternest of the ancient lessons, then, finds 
 its proper place and work in teaching us that they 
 who ' love the Lord ' must see that they ' hate the 
 thing which is evil.' d Charity which is not guarded by 
 the feeling of resentment lacks its needful protection 
 
 a John ii. 15 ; Matt, xxi. 12. b Matt, xxiii. ; Luke xi. 
 
 c Luke xviii. 14. a Ps. xcvii. 10. 
 
LECTURE VI. 195 
 
 against sin ; while a seeming hatred of sin may itself 
 be sinful, if it lacks the indispensable counterpart of 
 love. The one error is like the false mercy of Saul, 
 when he spared the king whom God had sent him to 
 destroy — mercy which was condemned as rebellion 
 and stubbornness, and which forfeited the promises of 
 God. a The other error may resemble the false zeal 
 of Jehu, when he inflicted stern and bloody vengeance 
 on idolaters, and then became himself an idolater, 
 in defiance of the law which he had professed to 
 executed 
 
 The Old Testament examples, then, should teach us 
 zeal. But the New Testament does not teach us that 
 zeal may grow cold, though it shows us how to temper 
 it with discrimination. The line is there drawn clearly 
 between vengeance and compassion ; between hatred 
 of evil, and charity for man ; between the anger that 
 is righteous, and the personal animosity that is every- 
 where condemned. The blessing which Deborah pro- 
 nounced on Jael is supplanted by the blessing which 
 angelic lips pronounced on the highly favoured mother 
 of our Lord. The fierce shout of national animosity 
 gives way to the calm voice of the Divine Instructor, 
 who sent the haughty Jew to the despised Samaritan 
 for an example of neighbourly love. The new law 
 rises into greater distinctness, but the true purport 
 of the old remains uncancelled. New life springs forth 
 at the bidding of Christ, but nothing that was heaven- 
 sent in the old has departed. The lesson of old times 
 
 a 1 Sam. xv. 22-3. b 2 Kings x. 16, &c. c Luke i. 28. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LECTURE VI. 
 
 remains to teach us that evil must be rooted out 
 before there is room for good to nourish ; that the war 
 against sin in our own hearts must be relentless, 
 before they are chastened to receive the lesson of true 
 charity which led the Samaritan to see a neighbour 
 in the Jew. 
 
 Thus may we learn that God was bringing His new 
 leaven of truth into the world, under the cover of 
 those impetuous onslaughts upon evil of which we 
 have so conspicuous a record in the song of Deborah. 
 Let such narratives arouse us, not (which God forbid) 
 to be relentless toward our fellow-creatures, but to be 
 as ruthless in dealing with the corruption of our own 
 hearts as she was in destroying the enemies of the 
 Lord. Let it incite us to take, in every contest, the 
 Lord's side against the side of wickedness, and to 
 oppose ourselves to every kind of weakness, which 
 would tamper with and apologise for sin. No archer 
 of the Canaanites could harass with such fiery darts 
 as Satan. No chariots of Sisera could spread such 
 devastation as the inroads of sin upon the heart of 
 man. The battle has passed to a different sphere ; the 
 weapons of our warfare are no longer carnal. But we 
 need the same temper of energetic zeal, in assailing 
 the strongholds of the evil spirit ; we require the same 
 firm unwearied resolution, to wield the weapons of 
 our spiritual armour, against the resistance or the 
 onslaughts of our inveterate foe. Cowardice in that 
 great strife will lay us prostrate before the aggressor, 
 and will desolate the fields in which the word of God 
 is planted. But courage will raise us to a reward as 
 
LECTURE VI. 197 
 
 noble ; to a welcome more glorious than Deborah could 
 offer to Zebulun or Naphtali, to Jael or to Barak ; the 
 welcome with which our Heavenly Master will receive 
 His good and faithful servants, and bid them enter 
 into the joy of their Lord. 
 
1£T8 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Acts xiv. 15. 
 ' We also are men of like passions with yon.' 
 
 IN the last two Lectures I have endeavoured to 
 point out the effect of the human element in 
 fixing the outward shape of the Scripture record on 
 matters of history and science, and in accounting for 
 the fragmentary character under which morality was 
 brought back after the Fall. I now propose to approach 
 the subject more directly, through the medium of two 
 leading examples of the human writers, with the view 
 of showing, in detail, that the acknowledged presence 
 of individual characteristics was guarded against the 
 influence of individual imperfections. 
 
 The examination of two such instances from the 
 New Testament may serve to complete the argument 
 which was pursued last Sunday, in explanation of a 
 moral difficulty which meets us in the older parts of 
 Scripture. If it is found that, in cases which admit 
 of a more exact analysis, the human error is never 
 allowed to vitiate the inspired teaching, we gain a 
 strong confirmation of the view which I then ventured 
 to suggest; namely, that the mere record of sins must 
 
LECTURE VII. 199 
 
 on no account be regarded as their sanction ; and that 
 even words of commendation, when pronounced on 
 actions of a mixed moral character, must be inter- 
 preted as a simple recognition of the virtue, which 
 was confused, but not cancelled, by the intermixture 
 of the sin. 
 
 A large portion of the human interest of Scripture 
 depends upon the fact, that it brings us into close 
 contact with the personal history of the several 
 writers; that it faithfully records their gradual pro- 
 gression, their growth in grace, and, it may be, even 
 their frailties, which proved how completely they were 
 1 men of like passions ' with ourselves. a But, while 
 recognising this great advantage, we shall derive an 
 instructive lesson from the proof, that the written 
 documents were not tarnished by the evil influence 
 which might have been expected to arise from their 
 errors. The remark may be extended to instances 
 where temporary imperfection has passed on into 
 actual transgression of some law of God. Great 
 saints are recorded to have fallen for a season; but 
 the teaching which they deliver is not found to falter. 
 We may trace out the sin and its issue in their lives ; 
 we may see the very blow which descends in chastise- 
 ment ; the Scriptures, of which they count among the 
 human authors, may commemorate in fullest details 
 the agonies of their repentance, the loud cryings 
 of remorse for their sins. But those Scriptures 
 are never discoloured by the evil temper, or other 
 
 a Cf. James v. 17. 
 
200 LECTURE VII. 
 
 infirmity, which exposed the writers to temptation; 
 still less are they perverted to the utterance of erro- 
 neous doctrines which may have been connected with 
 their temporary fell. We can observe this in the Old 
 Testament in the cases of Moses and of David. We 
 can observe it in the case of Solomon, displayed under 
 still more striking circumstances. We can observe it 
 in the New Testament, in the writings of both St. Peter 
 and St. Paul. 
 
 It is, indeed, one lesson which we gather from the 
 traces of discord in the earliest Church history, that 
 the voice of divine instruction rises calmly and clearly 
 above the tumults of the disputants ; so that it is only 
 by careful analysis and collateral information that 
 we leam how far the most honoured names amongst 
 Christ's servants were entangled in the bitterness of 
 strife (1). Let us draw out in detail the two cases 
 which most naturally suggest themselves : the appa- 
 rent want of steady purpose in St. Peter ; the alleged 
 imperfection of the earliest teaching of St. Paul. 
 
 I. It is needless to dwell long, in the outset, on the 
 prominent features of St. Peter's character (2) : his 
 impetuous, venturesome, and earnest faith; and that 
 frequent intermixture of human weakness which 
 might seem so strange an imperfection in the leader 
 of the apostolic company, yet which comes home with 
 so strong a sense of dee}) reality to all who have ever 
 studied the frailty of their hearts. You will recollect 
 how frequently it happens, that even the smaller 
 details of the narrative bear traces of the uneven 
 
LECTURE VII. 201 
 
 balance between faith and knowledge, by which his 
 progress towards Christian maturity was retarded. 
 At one moment he cries, ' Thou shalt never wash my 
 feet;' at the next moment, ' Lord, not my feet only, 
 but also my hands and my head. ,a At one hour, he is 
 striking with the sword; at the next, he is denying 
 and abandoning his Master. And the rapid change 
 is often signalised in words which were addressed to 
 him by Christ, ' Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : 
 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 but my Father which is in heaven;' and then, within 
 a few verses, ' Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an 
 offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things 
 that be of God.' b 
 
 The Gospels and Acts supply us with three great 
 illustrations of this internal struggle, which divide 
 into as many portions the whole Christian life of the 
 Apostle. I refer to the three occasions on which 
 St. Peter was put forward, to give, as it were, a 
 formal and official expression to principles which 
 marked three distinct and special advances in Chris- 
 tian knowledge; on every one of which occasions the 
 Apostle's subsequent conduct proved that the truths 
 which his lips had been so eager to utter had failed, 
 when he pronounced them, to exert their proper 
 practical influence within his heart. 
 
 1. First comes that earnest declaration of faith in 
 his Master, which forms the foundation of the Chris- 
 tian creed, the first stone of that great edifice of 
 
 a John xiii. 8, 9. b Matt, xvi. 17, 23. 
 
202 LECTURE VII. 
 
 doctrine in which the treasures of all Christian know- 
 ledge are enshrined : ' Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 
 Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered 
 Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure 
 that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living 
 God.' a This is the first apostolic proclamation of the 
 foremost tenet of the Catholic faith; that primary 
 doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, which formed so 
 great a stumblingblock to the whole nation of the 
 Jews. 
 
 2. The second of the great principles with which 
 St. Peter was entrusted, was the extension to the 
 Gentiles of the benefits of Abraham's promise. The 
 new Church had sprung from the very heart of 
 Judaism, to which Christ and His apostles all be- 
 longed. The further change was foreshadowed, indeed, 
 but not effected, throughout the acts of the earthly 
 sojourn of our Lord (3). It was foreshadowed when 
 He healed the centurion's servant, and the daughter 
 of the Canaanitish woman, and the ten lepers of whom 
 one was a Samaritan. It was foreshadowed when 
 He Himself, on more than one occasion, approached 
 towns and villages of the Samaritans, into which He 
 had forbidden His apostles to enter. It was fore- 
 shadowed when He acknowledged Gentile faith as 
 higher than any which He had found in Israel ; when 
 He announced that many should come from East and 
 West, to take the places of the children; and that 
 
 a John vi. 67-1). 
 
LECTURE VII. 203 
 
 thus the first should become last and the last should 
 become first. a It was foreshadowed when He excited 
 the anger of the Jews, by reminding them that Elijah 
 was sent only to the widow who dwelt in the Sidonian 
 Sarepta, and that Elisha's healing power was exer- 
 cised only upon the leprous Syrian. 15 But it was not 
 yet effected. There is no positive proof, for instance, 
 beyond the witness of a doubtful reading, that though 
 He withdrew mto the borders of Tyre and Sidon, His 
 own feet ever passed beyond the limits of the sacred 
 soil which was the special heritage of Abraham's 
 sons; and through the whole history of His life we 
 find that He acted Himself on the law which He 
 laid down, that He was ' not sent but unto the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel." 1 
 
 His ascension leads us to a different sphere. And 
 it is St. Peter who proclaims the first stage of this 
 great revolution when he says, ' The promise is unto 
 you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, 
 even as many as the Lord our God shall call.' e But 
 we receive an instant illustration of the spiritual 
 difficulty of passing from the mere proclamation of a 
 principle to the acceptance and acknowledgement of 
 its whole practical significance. The intellect may be 
 enlightened long before the current of the feelings has 
 
 a Luke vii. 2-10 ; Matt. xv. 21-8 ; Luke xvii. 12-19 ; ix. 52 ; 
 John iv. 5 ; x. 16 ; Matt. viii. 10, &c. 
 
 b Luke iv. 25-7. 
 
 c Mark vii. 31 (7i\dtv did SiSiivoc £«c ' tt, B, D, &c, Lacbinanu, 
 Teschendorf, Tregelles). 
 
 d Matt. x. 5, 6 ; xv. 24. e Acts ii. 39. 
 
204 LECTURE VII. 
 
 been changed. The Jewish prerogative, l unto you 
 first,' a represented a truth which was more vividly 
 apprehended in St. Peter's thoughts (4). He needed 
 the instruction of the heavenly vision before he had 
 completely mastered the wide range of the principle, 
 that ' God is no respecter of persons ; ' that God's min- 
 isters must call no man ' common or unclean.' b The 
 proclamation of the principle might be the first step ; 
 but it required for its completion the second step 
 which was taken at the baptism of Cornelius, when 
 the admission of the Gentiles was placed on the same 
 level of privilege which was enjoyed by Jewish 
 Christians. And the farther declaration of the 
 ground of this admission, through their equal parti- 
 cipation in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, was 
 again entrusted to St. Peter, who brought the work to 
 a completion, as the readiest leader in the apostolic 
 band. 
 
 3. But again we find the traces of a new and un- 
 expected difficulty. The truth had been announced 
 and acted on ; but its full bearings and relations had 
 not yet been made clear. It had been settled, indeed, 
 that the Gentiles should be admitted freely to the 
 Christian Church ; and St. Peter never really forgot 
 the lesson which was taught him by the heavenly 
 vision, and on which he had acted in baptising the 
 household of Cornelius. But on this there arose the 
 further question, whether they should be admitted 
 without passing through the gate of circumcision — 
 
 * Acts iii. 2G. b Acts x. 34, 28. c Acts x. 47; xi. 15. 
 
LECTURE VII. 205 
 
 whether, in short, the new converts should be circum- 
 cised or no. On this great question, also, a formal 
 decision was announced ; and again it was St. Peter 
 who was commissioned to declare it at the council of 
 Jerusalem, when his words were forthwith ratified, in 
 the name of the Church, by the most venerated leader 
 of the Jewish Christians. It was the declaration of 
 St. Peter which was translated into the formal sen- 
 tence pronounced by the lips of St. James. a And 
 thus far we can clearly see the slow steps by which 
 these new truths were gradually sinking into men's 
 thoughts and conduct, and above all into their hearts. 
 And then came the time when the agency of St. Peter 
 was mainly superseded, and the narrative passes on to 
 the acts of St. Paul. Let us pause, before we follow 
 it, to note the connection between these observations 
 on St. Peter's history and his teaching as an inspired 
 apostle. 
 
 Look back again to mark anew the wonderful signi- 
 ficancy of those three sayings of St. Peter, round which 
 our rapid summary has centered: the Divinity of 
 Christ ; the free admission of the Gentiles to the Chris- 
 tian Church, and their deliverance from the conditions 
 of the Law of Moses. These positions cannot fail to be 
 regarded as steps of almost unparalleled importance 
 in the gradual unfolding of the Christian faith and 
 system. And in every one of them it is the voice of 
 St. Peter by which they were uttered ; in every one 
 of them it is the faith of St. Peter which reminds us 
 
 a Acts xv. 14, &c. 
 
206 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of the Rock, on which the Church was to be builded 
 by the promise of her L,ord. a Such is the one side ol 
 the picture. Let us turn to the other and more 
 remarkable aspect. In every one of these cases we 
 discover, that in the mind of the highly favoured 
 Apostle himself, the advance movement was succeeded 
 by a speedy, though temporary, ebbing of the tide. 
 The first of these declarations was followed, after an 
 interval, by that denial of our Saviour which stands 
 out in Scripture as one of the most striking examples 
 of the fearful possibility of faithlessness in Christians ; 
 the most emphatic warning, that he ' that think eth 
 he standeth ' should 'take heed lest he fall.' b The 
 second was followed by that relapse into the old 
 Jewish feeling, which required the correction afforded 
 through the heavenly vision ; the very fact that the 
 lesson was thus called for, being a proof that St. Peter's 
 knowledge of the approaching admission of the Gentiles 
 had not yet completely modified his personal belief 
 in the prior claims and higher privileges of the Jew. 
 A new question seems to have arisen, after the council 
 of Jerusalem had passed its decree for the remission 
 of Gentile circumcision. It may have been the case, 
 that the question had already arrived at that new 
 phase on which it must have shortly entered. The 
 Gentiles, it was ruled, were no longer to be circum- 
 cised : but what was to be the usage for the Jewish 
 Christians? Were they bound to keep up the old rite 
 of circumcision, now that its ancient significance had 
 
 a Matt. xvi. 18. b l Cur. x. 12. 
 
LECTURE VII. 207 
 
 passed away (s) ? It would appear that this question 
 was postponed by St. Paul, at the time when he 
 circumcised Timothy, in whose case the doubt might 
 have arisen ; while he refused to circumcise Titus, 
 who fell under the exemption, which had been 
 explicitly established at the council. a But it would 
 doubtless be in connection with this point, or some 
 other question of a similar character, on which the 
 controversy had assumed a new phase at Antioch, 
 that St. Peter fell again under an injurious influence, 
 which made it needful for St. Paul to withstand him 
 ' to the face, because he was to be blamed.' b It is not 
 to be supposed, that after the deep solemnity of the 
 events which accompanied the baptism of Cornelius, 
 and again after the careful deliberations and weighty 
 conclusions of the council, St. Peter could have fallen 
 back, as some have thought, from either the decision on 
 the free admission of the Gentiles, or the resolution to 
 admit them without compelling them to pass through 
 the gate of circumcision. It is more probable that the 
 dispute had arisen on some further complication in 
 this deeply important controversy, when St. Peter had 
 again failed to master some additional modification, 
 the need of which was clear to the keen insight of 
 St. Paul. 
 
 Such is the chequered history of the inner life of 
 the Apostle, up to and even beyond the time when he 
 disappears from the regular apostolic narrative. But 
 we must now remark, that all along its course 
 
 a Acts xvi. 3; Gal. ii. 3. b Gal. ii. 11. 
 
208 lecture vn. 
 
 throughout the Acts, we have a series of addresses 
 which were delivered by St. Peter, and which cover 
 a much wider field of teaching than the points to 
 which we have referred. It is material to our pre- 
 sent argument to note, that those formal discourses 
 are free throughout from every trace of uncertainty 
 or error, by which his conduct was occasionally 
 biassed for a season (g). Historians have not failed to 
 mark the signal change which was wrought by the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost ; the sudden 
 conversion of the apostles from doubt, timidity, and 
 lingering ignorance, to a confidence, a boldness, and 
 a spiritual authority, which perplexed and overawed 
 the rulers of the Jews. Of these great characteristics 
 the sermons of St. Peter are the leading proofs ; and 
 from point to point they uphold and develope the 
 foremost doctrines of revelation with a clearness of 
 tone, and firmness of purpose, from which human 
 imperfections are totally excluded. And recurring 
 to the history, we observe that the notices which we 
 have collected do not really close the page, nor leave 
 us with the impression that the struggles of the 
 Apostle brought him to no earthly haven of rest. 
 The Holy Spirit has graciously afforded us that later 
 record of a more comprehensive nature, the contents 
 of which establish that all his failures had been 
 finally surmounted, and that all his misunderstand- 
 ings had been reconciled at last. It is here that the 
 evidence of his Epistles may be brought in : and we 
 may use them both without disturbance from any 
 critical questions bearing on the genuineness of the 
 
LECTURE VII. 209 
 
 second, because the character of both is in this respect 
 one and the same. And if it were suggested that 
 the argument which we have been pursuing might 
 warn us against reasoning from the words of the in- 
 spired writer to the spiritual position of the man, the 
 thought is overborne at once by the witness of their 
 solemn tone, of conscious, unwavering, steadfast faith. 
 In this light we may read the special notices, which 
 prove how completely every earlier sore was finally 
 healed: the touching allusions in the one epistle to 
 the ' wisdom given unto ' his ' beloved brother Paul ;' 
 in the other to the services of that ' faithful brother,' 
 the well-known companion of St. Paul, Silvanus. a 
 The personal nature of the details shows that a holy 
 calm had settled down at last, after the casual storms 
 of that eager, earnest, active life. Resting on the 
 past, with full assurance for the present, and with 
 high anticipations for the future — speaking as him- 
 self ' an elder and a witness ' at once of Christ's trans- 
 figuration and His sufferings, and already ' a par- 
 taker of the glory that shall be revealed ' — he writes 
 that he may ' stir up ' their ' pure minds by way of 
 remembrance;' in the spirit of a man who knows 
 how sorely he has himself been tempted, and can 
 therefore encourage others to bear up against the 
 fiery trial of temptation, and to resist the utmost 
 malice of the devil. b It is his own experience which 
 teaches him to place such absolute reliance on the 
 
 a 2 Pet. iii. 15 ; 1 Pet. v. 12. 
 
 b 1 Pet. v. 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 18 ; iii. 1 ; i. 12, 13 ; 1 Pet. i. 7 ; iv. 12 ; 
 2 Pet. ii. 9 ; 1 Pet. v. 9. 
 
 P 
 
•210 LECTURE VII. 
 
 word of God, in opposition to false prophets, and in 
 contrast to the perishable objects of this transitory 
 world. a It is the recollection of his own failure which 
 urges him to bid them not to be ashamed if they are 
 called upon to suffer as Christians; and which leads 
 him to connect the Christian life with the courageous 
 discharge of all earthly obligations, as the counter- 
 part to those graces of the Spirit which are summed 
 up in the injunction, to sanctify the Lord God in their 
 hearts. b Well may we say, in Hooker's language, 
 that his strength had been his rum, and his fall had 
 proved his stay. c Well may our thoughts pass 
 quickly on, from the memory of his early vacillation 
 to the solemn stillness of his closing doxology ; when, 
 as his thoughts revert to Him who had been ' thrice 
 denied, yet thrice beloved,' he exclaims, ' to Him be 
 glory, xa\ vuv xou elg y[Aspav aiaivog •' even throughout 
 that eternity which is dies sine node, merus ae per- 
 petuus* Does not the record hold out to ourselves the 
 promise, that a ready faith will never lose its reward ; 
 that a zealous struggle will never fail, through God's 
 help, to lead to victory; that as, in some cases, His 
 ' strength is made perfect in weakness,' e so in other 
 cases His firmness is created beneath the unsteady 
 efforts of uncertain strength; and that the doubts 
 and disappointments of this world are not seldom 
 closed even before the grave, and will unfailingly 
 vanish, when we pass to the deep rest of heaven? 
 
 a 1 Pet. i. 25; 2 Pet. i. 21 ; ii. 1. b 1 Pet. iv. 1G ; iii. 15. 
 
 c Sermon III., Works, ed. Keble, iii. G10. 
 d Bengel. in loc. e 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
LECTURE VII. 21 L 
 
 All this it teaches; but it surely teaches no less 
 clearly this lesson on the character of Holy Scripture : 
 that its voice was always raised above the sphere 
 within which earthly controversies are heard to 
 wrangle ; that the Holy Spirit uses the human cha- 
 racter, but excludes the intermixture of human 
 infirmity; uses the instrument, but forbids the dis- 
 cords which sometimes spoil its natural tones ; speaks 
 in the voice of sinful men, whose sins are set forth in 
 its own records for our warning, but never permits 
 those voices in its service to be swayed for one 
 moment by the influence of the sin. 
 
 II. We pass to a very different character, when 
 we turn our attention from St. Peter to St. Paul. 
 In St. Peter we have noted the gradual advancement 
 from the dominion of hasty impulses to the calm 
 self-control of settled unity and strength. We can 
 observe and mark the very crisis of the changes, 
 when the whole man seemed to be bowed under the 
 influence of the mighty agencies which lifted him on 
 from one point to another, to take the lead in every 
 movement of unfolding Christianity, with an im- 
 petuosity of purpose which left his tardier thoughts 
 behind. In the case of St. Paul, we trace the opera- 
 tion of a firm consistent zeal, informed and governed 
 by a resolute conscience ; but by its side we find that 
 the religious knowledge breaks asunder, at the great 
 change of the conversion, into two distinct portions, 
 which might be regarded as respectively typical of 
 Jewish and of Christian faith. The language in 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LECTURE VI r. 
 
 which the Apostle speaks of his own former life is 
 constantly coloured by two contrasted lines of re- 
 flection. On the one side he is undaunted in assert- 
 ing the unbroken continuity of what was good; on 
 the other side, he sorrows over the recollection of its 
 earlier counterpart of evil. Whenever the question 
 turns on zeal, he claims it for his younger years, in 
 its highest fervour and its worthiest forms. ' Taught 
 according to the perfect manner of the law of the 
 fathers,' he ' was zealous toward God,' up to the 
 very highest standard of those whom he addressed. 
 ' After the most straitest sect ' of their relioion, he 
 had ' lived a Pharisee.' In that religion he had 
 profited above many his equals in his own nation, 
 ' being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of ' 
 his ' fathers.' ' Touching the righteousness which is 
 in the law,' in short, he was ' blameless.' a Yet, on 
 the other hand, he is as explicit and energetic in 
 deploring the sin of that spiritual blindness, which 
 had darkened his own vision, as it darkened the 
 vision of the whole nation of the Jews. He says that 
 he ' was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and 
 injurious,' though he had ' obtained mercy, because ' 
 he ' did it ignorantly in unbelief;' and he had learnt 
 to regard himself as in that aspect ' the least of the 
 apostles,' not worthy, indeed, ' to be called an apostle,' 
 because he had ' persecuted the church of God.' b 
 Now this is a very clear account of the spiritual 
 
 a Acts xxii. 3 ; xxvi. 5 ; Gal. i. 11 ; Phil. iii. G. Cf. Acts xxiii. 1 ; 
 xxiv. 14, 1G; 2 Tim. i. 3. 
 
 *> 1 Tim. i. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 9. 
 
LECTURE VII. 213 
 
 history of a most intelligible character. We see that the 
 current of his religious zeal had always run strongly, 
 and had filled to overflowing the channels through 
 which it was directed. But its earlier course had 
 been misguided into evil; and he never tried to 
 palliate that evil, even while insisting on the honesty 
 of purpose with which the mistaken course had been 
 pursued. His conversion brought about the instan- 
 taneous change of guiding the whole strength of his 
 will into a better channel, and removing the Jewish 
 barriers which had enslaved its energies within the 
 limits of a worn-out system. 
 
 Here, then, arise the questions on development, 
 which become important for our present argument. 
 First, what was the nature of that religious pro- 
 gress after his conversion, which is acknowledged in 
 some expressions of St. Paul (7) ? In the next place, 
 does it appear to have exerted such a control over 
 his inspiration, that we can detect its influence in 
 his writings, in their gradual deliverance from earlier 
 imperfections? In the third place, is it possible to 
 trace in any passages the very process of development, 
 the vibrations of a mind which is still balancing in 
 doubt between two opposite judgments, unable to 
 decide, yet unwilling to continue undecided? If we 
 are compelled to answer these later questions in the 
 affirmative, we shall have found an instance in which 
 the human element has intruded its imperfections 
 into the sacred record. If we can establish a reason- 
 able right to answer them in the negative, we shall 
 have gained a further example of the manner in 
 
214 LECTURE VII. 
 
 which all human weaknesses are overruled and 
 strengthened by the mighty presence of the enlight- 
 ening Spirit. 
 
 1. It is beyond all question, in the first place, 
 that St. Paul acknowledges a progress in religious 
 light after his conversion. His companion, St. Luke, 
 tells us at the outset, that ' Saul increased the more 
 in strength ; ' and Ave cannot doubt that his spiritual 
 insight was quickened, and his knowledge deepened, 
 by the ' visions and revelations of the Lord.' a Nor 
 does it seem difficult to illustrate from the history 
 that former knowledge of ' Christ after the flesh ' (8), 
 which he tells the Corinthians he has finally aban- 
 doned. 13 We must not forget, as I have already 
 remarked, that the early Church was reared under 
 the shade of Judaism ; that its earliest teachers, as 
 well as hearers, were all ' children of the stock of 
 Abraham ; ' c that its public ministrations were long 
 connected with the central bond of the temple 
 services at Jerusalem ; d that Christ's own commission 
 had originally limited the province of the twelve: 
 ' Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any 
 city of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go rather 
 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' e ' Unto 
 you first,' as we have seen, was the message of 
 St. Peter : ' to you is the word of this salvation 
 sent;' and 'it was necessary that the word of God 
 should first have been spoken to you,' is the echo 
 
 a Acts ix. 22 ; 2 Cor. .\ii. 1. 
 b 2 Cor. v. 16. c Acts xiii. 26. 
 
 d Acts ii. 1(1; iii. 1, etc. c Matt. x. 5, 0. 
 
LECTURE VII. 215 
 
 of that language from St. Paul. a Three times 
 throughout the Acts, as if by three different impulses 
 of sorrowing indignation, at the obduracy by which 
 his fellow-countrymen were hardened, the Apostle 
 announces his intention of turning to the Gentiles, 
 at Antioch, at Corinth, and at Rome. b There is no 
 reason to doubt that St. Paul, like the others, had 
 once sympathised completely with the Jewish anti- 
 cipations of a national Messiah, whose earthly lineage 
 should fix the main features of His character and 
 purpose. There was a time when the apostles 
 themselves imagined that Christ died chiefly for the 
 Jewish nation ; now they all knew that He had 
 ' died for all,' and that ' He should gather together 
 in one the children of God that were scattered 
 abroad.' c At one time they had dwelt on the prior 
 claims of Judaism ; now they knew that in Christ 
 Jesus ' there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision 
 nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor 
 free; but Christ is all and in all.' d At one time 
 those original witnesses had doubtless prided them- 
 selves on their acquaintance with the human person 
 of the Saviour, and on being His brethren after the 
 flesh, through their common descent from Abraham. 
 Now they had learnt that faith had the promise of 
 a higher privilege than sight, and that the very 
 ' mother and brethren ' of their Master ' are these 
 which hear the word of God and do it.' e That the 
 
 a Acts iii. 26 ; xiii. 26, 46. b Acts xiii. 46 ; xviii. 6 ; xxviii. 28. 
 c 2 Cor. v. 15 ; John xi. 50-2. Cf. 1 John ii. 2 ; Luke xxiv. 21. 
 d Col. iii. 11. e John xx. 29; Luke viii. 21. 
 
216 LECTUKE VII. 
 
 1 Apostle of the Gentiles ' a would in like manner at 
 one time feel a deeper conviction of the claims of 
 those, ' of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
 came,' b is thus found to be both likely in itself, and 
 borne out by the analogy of the gradual development 
 of the other apostles, and entirely consistent with the 
 course of the history. 
 
 2. But that we can detect any corresponding 
 progression in his inspired teaching, seems to be a 
 groundless suspicion, which a careful examination of 
 the order of his speeches and epistles will remove. 
 
 The steadiness with which, in his epistle to the 
 Galatians, the Apostle asserts the identity between his 
 earliest and his latest message, has been justly urged 
 as a strong argument against the supposed enlarge- 
 ment or correction of the Gospel which he had origi- 
 nally taught. But it is a still stronger argument 
 if we can find an antecedent witness of St. Paul's 
 own teaching, by which that identity is explicitly 
 established. Now it will not be denied that the 
 discourse at the Pisidian Antioch dates earlier than 
 the two Thessalonian Epistles, and that Ave can place 
 implicit reliance on the accuracy with which St. Luke 
 has reported it in the Acts of the Apostles. But as 
 if to meet by anticipation the suspicion of a change, 
 that Antiochene discourse contains the germs of all the 
 later doctrine, even in points on which it has been 
 most definitely challenged ; and amongst them it 
 embodies St. Paul's most emphatic assertion of the 
 
 » Rom. xi. 13 ; Gal. ii. 7. b Rom. be. 5. c Gal. i. 8, 9. 
 
LECTUHE VII. 217 
 
 impossibility of obtaining justification through the 
 Law (9). It stands between the speech of St. Stephen 
 and the elaborate arguments of the Epistles to the 
 Galatians and the Romans. It resembles the former (10) 
 in its rapid sketch of Jewish history, tracing the steps 
 of the election from Abraham to David, and leading 
 it up to the great Heir of David, whose advent was 
 heralded by John the Baptist. 3 It resembles the latter 
 in its doctrine of the fulfilment of the promise which 
 had been made unto the fathers ; of the revelation 
 through Jesus Christ of the Divine righteousness, in 
 relation to the sin of man ; and the utter failure of 
 the Law of Moses to yield the justification which the 
 sinner sought. b But this question can be reduced to 
 a single issue. The Thessalonian Epistles, it is alleged, 
 ' say nothing of justification by faith, and not by the 
 works of the Law.' The inference is, that this great 
 doctrine had not at that time been unfolded in the 
 mind of the Apostle. It is enough, by way of answer, 
 to quote the explicit declaration which he made at an 
 earlier date to the Jews of Antioch : ' Be it known 
 unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through 
 this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; 
 and sv rovru) 7r6ig b iria-rsuoiv fiixaiouTai ' by Him all 
 that believe are justified from all things, from which 
 ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.' c As 
 to the contrast, too, between the Jew and Gentile, 
 I have had a previous occasion to point out that 
 the speech at Lystra sets forth the very same 
 
 a Acts xiii. 17-25. b Acts xiii. 32, 38, 39. c Acts xiii. 38, 39. 
 
218 LECTURE VII. 
 
 conception of Gentile knowledge, which the Epistle to 
 the Romans afterwards unfolds. God had left them 
 in times past 'to walk in their own ways,' yet had 
 sent them His witness in the rains and seasons. 3 
 Precisely so at Athens, on the very same journey 
 to which the Thessalonian Epistles must belong, 
 the Apostle repeats this doctrine, with the variation 
 needed for more cultivated hearers, when he shows 
 how God had winked at times of ignorance, yet had 
 made men to bear such traces of His image, that they 
 never ceased to feel after their Heavenly Father out 
 of the midst of their thick darkness. b 
 
 3. But again it is alleged, that we can discover the 
 human workings of the mind of the Apostle, as it 
 wavers between the opposite sides of a question, and 
 as he loses the logical control over his argument, and 
 is tossed from side to side, in the tentative progress 
 from hesitation to faith (1 1). The proof of this position 
 is commonly made out by limiting the Apostle's words, 
 on each aspect of the question, to a narrower meaning 
 than we can conceive them to possess ; and by applying 
 the stigma of wavering or contradiction to a method 
 which is simply meant to bring out great truths in all 
 their breadth and fulness, by an emphatic assertion 
 of the contrasted alternatives, which are respectively 
 necessary to give expression to the whole revelation. 
 On this subject 1 must refer to some remarks which 
 1 have previously offered. A fair solution of the 
 difficulty may be found, I think, in every instance, 
 
 a Acts xiv. 1G, 17. b Acts xvii. 27,30. c Lecture III. 
 
LECTURE VII. 219 
 
 by prefixing to the argument the broad conception 
 which is meant to be divided; and then marking the 
 steps through which the Apostle unfolds it, as he 
 presents us with first one view of truth, and then the 
 other, urging with strenuous zeal the claims of each 
 on our acceptance, and leaving to obedient faith, or 
 the enlightened spirit, the duty of grasping the 
 connection between them. 
 
 For a brief illustration of the Apostle's method, we 
 might turn to his statements in the Epistle to the 
 Romans on the presence, the nature, and the operation 
 of a law (12). We may speak of the laws of God in three 
 main senses, according as we wish to describe, now a 
 fact of mere uniformity in nature ; now the supreme 
 authority, which imposed that uniformity by the 
 action of His will ; and now those principles of moral 
 obligation, which fix the eternal landmarks between 
 right and wrong. In this third sense, with which alone 
 we are now concerned, law denotes revealed know- 
 ledge, connected with the conception of authority, 
 obligation, or constraint. The term includes the 
 teaching both of conscience and of special revelation ; 
 and the law of revelation is subdivided again, accord- 
 ing to the two leading dispensations, into the Law of 
 Moses and the Law of Christ. 
 
 Beginning from this outline, we may classify the 
 usage of St. Paul. The constituent elements, I say, 
 of moral law are knowledge and constraint. At one 
 time, then, he applies the word in its vaguest sense 
 to the law which was written on the hearts of the 
 Gentiles, where both light and obligation existed 
 
220 LECTURE VII. 
 
 only with their feeblest power. In a second and 
 far more copious class of instances, he uses the word 
 for the Mosaic dispensation, where the Law was as 
 clear as God's hand could write it, and as inflexible as 
 the granite (13) on which it was inscribed. Against 
 both of these laws mankind had offended, with a 
 uniformity which established a tyranny of wicked- 
 ness, and so constituted, under a third usage, the 
 law of sin and death, a law of evil, which mocks 
 God's uniformities, while it displaces His obligation 
 by the bondage of a more bitter service. Fourthly, 
 the Gospel brought in a clearer light and easier 
 yoke : yet both the elements continued present ; and 
 the Apostle therefore represents it as the Law of 
 the Gospel, ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus,' or what St. James calls ' the perfect law of 
 liberty.' a Through these four meanings, we find, 
 on examination, that the Apostle's argument moves 
 clearly and distinctly; the context in every case 
 fixing the application, and giving no ground for the 
 charge of obscurity, unless we choose to bind him 
 by a narrower usage, and refuse to give scope for 
 the broader utterance of his thought. 
 
 We may add, that some of the stronger and more 
 perplexing expressions in his argument are mere 
 applications of the words of Christ. In explaining 
 them we must remember a Scripture peculiarity 
 which has been previously indicated, b namely, that 
 lower degrees of either grace or knowledge are 
 
 a Rom. viii. 2 ; James i. 25. b Above, p. 19. 
 
LECTURE VII. 221 
 
 often described as negations rather than deficiencies. 
 To be without law means, then, in the case of the 
 Gentiles, to be left to the guidance of that fainter 
 law, which was only written on the fleshly tables 
 of the heart. a When St. Paul says, 'I had not 
 known sin, but by the law,' he no more means to 
 deny that the Gentiles could sin without the Law of 
 Moses, than our Lord meant us to draw a similar 
 inference when He said, ' If I had not come and 
 spoken unto them, they had not had sin.' b The 
 reference of Christ is to the Law of the Gospel ; the 
 reference of the Apostle is to the Law of Moses. 
 But behind both these there lay the Law of the 
 Gentiles, which in their case also was the strength 
 of sin, and which gave them such a knowledge of 
 God's will, as invested their disobedience with the 
 same character of guilt, which marks the deeper trans- 
 gressions of the Jew and Christian. In all cases 
 alike, God's law is ' holy, and the commandment 
 holy and just and good.' c But when it rouses the 
 opposition of our fallen nature, it evokes the latent 
 mischief which it does not cause, displays it in its 
 own evil tendency, and increases the condemnation of 
 those who sin against the light of God. So far as 
 St. Paul's argument is specially limited to the Law of 
 Moses, the key to the entire difficulty must be found 
 in the relation of that Law to the Promise, and in the 
 uselessness of knowledge unaccompanied by grace. 
 From his conception of law the step is easy, to 
 
 a Rom. ii. 14. b Rom. vii. 7 ; John xv. 22. 
 
 c Rom. vii. 12. 
 
222 LECTURE VII. 
 
 draw out a similar peculiarity which marks his 
 explanation of the position and prospects of the 
 Jews. a The germ of the argument by which this 
 problem is answered can be detected before the 
 date of St. Paul's conversion, in that speech of 
 St. Stephen, to which he was a listener, and which 
 draws so clear a distinction between such outward 
 privileges as the Law and Temple, and the spiritual 
 blessing of the approbation of God. It is a mere 
 extension of that argument to show, that the election 
 of the Jews was conditioned by its object, which 
 was the ultimate salvation of the Gentiles also. The 
 Jews were the people whom God had chosen to keep 
 alive His truth among mankind, and to prevent the 
 torch of inspired knowledge from utter extinction 
 in the darkness. They were subjects of God's law, 
 guardians of His oracles, kinsmen of His prophets, 
 the fleshly brethren of the incarnate Son of God. To 
 them pertained 'the adoption, and the glory, and 
 the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the 
 service of God, and the promises ; whose ' were ' the 
 fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ 
 came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.' b But 
 as individuals, they failed to attain ' to the law of 
 righteousness,' by 'going about to establish their 
 own righteousness,' and not submitting ' themselves 
 unto the righteousness of God ; ' c and as a nation, 
 they forfeited the privilege of their election when 
 they abused their stewardship, and asserted an 
 
 a Rom. iii.. iv., ix , x., xi. 
 b Rom. ix. 4, 5. - Rom. ix. 31; x. 3. 
 
LECTURE VII. 223 
 
 exclusive right to blessings which they held only 
 in the common interests of man. A tenure of this 
 kind could of course be described in varying lan- 
 guage, as the thought dwelt more on the greatness 
 of the blessing, or the danger of its loss. It could 
 not be otherwise than that the argument should move 
 through a series of contrasted phrases, as the Apostle 
 passes on from the much advantage of the Jew 
 to the rightful claims of the Gentile ; as he weighs 
 the ancient glories of the sons of Abraham against 
 the sins which had caused their election to be 
 annulled; as he balances God's promises against 
 man's frustrations of His merciful designs ; and as 
 he qualifies the darkness of their present rejection 
 by the dawning brightness of their future hope. 
 But we have only to let the interpretation follow 
 out the full breadth of the Apostle's meaning, and 
 the apparent wavering is found to be the mere 
 method of exposition, and not in any case the sign 
 of any doubt about the truth. 
 
 The nature of 'our present jmrpose forbids us to 
 go into any further details of criticism for establish- 
 ing the position which has now been upheld. It is 
 enough to have pointed out the grounds on which 
 we are justified in rejecting the view of his spiritual 
 development, which casts his earlier message into 
 an imperfect form, and charges his later teaching 
 with vacillation between the sides of incompatible 
 alternatives. Let us turn, in the last place, to re- 
 mind you again of the importance of the principle, 
 
224 LECTURE VII. 
 
 which is the counterpart to what we have been 
 studying; the inestimable advantage of that real 
 human presence, which moulds all the details of 
 Scripture instruction, yet without subjecting the 
 record to any tarnish from man's sin. 
 
 If Scripture speaks to all hearts alike — if it meets 
 every perplexity, strengthens every fainting spirit, 
 comforts every mourner, and spans the whole 
 compass of every intellect, from the highest to the 
 lowest — one main reason of this many-sided influence 
 may be found in the fact with which we have been 
 dealing: the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks to 
 us through men who were in all respects exposed 
 to all the same emotions with ourselves; through 
 men who represented every mode of thought, every 
 shade of feeling, every social class, as well as every 
 phase of the religious character. Throughout all 
 its countless details we may see that Scripture is 
 as certainly the book of man as we believe it to 
 be the book of God. Its voice is the voice of those 
 who were our fellows, however highly exalted they 
 might be above ourselves. They were the chosen 
 lights of human nature, which shone around the 
 Sun of Righteousness. They formed the royal court 
 of attendant ministers, who interpreted the will of 
 Him that sits upon the throne as Son of Man; of 
 Him who can still be 'touched with the feeling of 
 our infirmities,' because He 'was in all points 
 tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' a There 
 
 a Heb. iv. 15. 
 
LECTURE VI T. 225 
 
 is no real difficulty in combining these two principles, 
 that the human nature of the sacred writers might 
 act in its completest development and freedom, yet 
 might be guarded from communicating its own 
 imperfections to the revelation which was sent from 
 God to man through man. 
 
 The human characters of Scripture are all gathered 
 round a common centre, to which they bear a widely 
 different relation in proportion to their distance 
 from its light. On their outskirts are crowds of 
 undistinguished agents, who play the subordinate 
 parts in the great drama it unfolds. The innermost 
 circle of the sacred writers retains the perfect impress 
 of man's threefold nature, while it rises towards a 
 higher form of being, as it shares in a nearer spiritual 
 intercourse with God. But God's light loses nothing 
 of its heavenly purity because it is reflected back 
 from human faces ; while man gains all the advan- 
 tage of the pervading presence of a sympathy which 
 answers to the most varied emotions of his heart. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 LECTURE VITI. 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 15. 
 
 ' Rightly dividing the word of truth.' 
 
 WE are now drawing near to the conclusion of the 
 argument, through which I have endeavoured 
 to unfold the completeness of both the divine and 
 human elements in Holy Scripture. It remains that 
 I should occupy this closing Lecture with a brief 
 summary of the results which I have sought to 
 establish, and the lessons which they are intended to 
 convey. 
 
 The question with which our enquiries have been 
 connected forms the narrowest, though not altogether 
 the least important, of three leading controversies, 
 which have recently aroused unusual interest : those 
 which relate to the respective differentia? of Scripture, 
 of Christianity, and of mankind. The series widens 
 outward, from doubts on the specific characteristics 
 of Scripture, to doubts on the specific claims of Chris- 
 tianity, and to doubts on the specific distinctness of 
 man. What is the peculiarity which justifies us in 
 marking off Scripture from all other books, as being, 
 not only the word of man, but the Word of God ? 
 
LECTURE VIII. 227 
 
 In what respects does Christianity rise so wondrously 
 above all other religions as to justify the position 
 which is assumed by its supporters? And what is 
 the difference between man and the highest of those 
 lower races which exhibit so strange a mockery of 
 our reason? While dealing more particularly with 
 the first of these questions, we have found it necessary 
 to touch on both the others at different points in our 
 argument. 
 
 But it would be an unwise course to trust our 
 cause to any formal definition, which should be 
 framed so dogmatically as to proclaim itself the end 
 of controversy on any of these important topics. No 
 reasonable person can hope to do more than offer 
 such suggestions as may serve to establish the pro- 
 found reality of the boundary line by which the 
 specific difference is in each case guarded, and to 
 relieve the alarm with which any recognition of the 
 generic resemblance is commonly received. We 
 believe that man is distinguished from all other 
 tenants of this world which we inhabit, not only bv 
 a finer organisation and a keener intelligence, and 
 the preeminence which is represented and secured 
 through the gift of language ; but above all, and 
 perhaps as the cause of all, by that spiritual element 
 which bears its living witness to our creation in God's 
 image, and which enables us to enter into communion 
 with God. We believe that Christianity differs from 
 all other religions because it centres in the Divine 
 Person of our Saviour, conveys the special earnest 
 of the witness of God's Spirit, operates through 
 
 Q2 
 
228 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 sacraments and ordinances of covenanted efficacy, and 
 is perpetuated by the establishment of a sacred society 
 which preserves the deposit of religious knowledge, 
 and enjoys the promised presence of the Spirit of 
 the Lord. That deposit, we believe, was originally 
 embodied in the Holy Scriptures, which differ from 
 every other book, because they alone contain a guaran- 
 teed revelation, which lifts the veil, so far as needed, 
 from both the earliest past and the remotest future, 
 to disclose the motive, the sanction, and the law of 
 man's labours; and because the Holy Spirit, which 
 watched over the delivery of that revelation, filled 
 the spirits of the writers with a more complete and 
 pervading presence than ever presided over the execu- 
 tion of a merely human work. And so long as we 
 hold these points with confidence, we may be ready 
 to trace out with perfect calmness the signs of larger 
 unity, which extend the analogy to other spheres ; and 
 we may admire, with reverent adoration, the widening 
 witness which they bear to the uniformities of the 
 Divine counsels. But ' it becometh well the just to 
 be thankful;" 1 and it is not for the rich to be jealous 
 of the poor, for those fragments of God's blessing 
 which they share. Such jealousy would, indeed, 
 betray dissatisfaction with our riches, or a doubt 
 whether the)' are really our own. We cannot grudge 
 God's lower gifts, when we know that He has en- 
 dowed ourselves in more abundant measure. Rather 
 should our own experience of His bounty lead us 
 
 a Fs. xxxiii. 1. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 229 
 
 to expect, that it would often be poured forth in 
 wider and less usual channels than those through 
 which its ordinary blessings reach us. We may 
 welcome the labours of scientific enquirers, who 
 draw out man's affinities with lower races, if we have 
 realised the independent character of those higher 
 gifts, which make men alone the sons of God. We 
 may be thankful to acknowledge the fatherly good- 
 ness with which God lent some jewels of His truth to 
 the darkened heathen, if we feel sure of our own 
 position within reach of that storehouse of His Church, 
 from which ' every scribe which is instructed unto 
 the kino'dom of heaven ' can bring; ' forth out of his 
 treasure things new and old.' a And we may rejoice 
 to recognise the Spirit's presence in every lofty work 
 of man, if we have learnt to appreciate the fiery force 
 of that more certain inspiration, which fills God's 
 Word with power and light. 
 
 In dealing with the question which has formed 
 our own immediate subject, I have been guided 
 throughout by the strong conviction, that very scanty 
 success has rewarded any attempt to treat the Scrip- 
 tures either as purely human, or as purely divine, or 
 as compounded of those two elements in such a 
 manner that man's reason or conscience can discri- 
 minate unfailingly between them. It has appeared 
 to me that an escape from these perplexities might 
 be found in the complete and fearless recognition 
 of both elements, with all their natural results of 
 
 a Matt, xiii. 52. 
 
230 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 characteristic influence, through every portion of the 
 sacred record ; a union which is strictly conformable 
 to the analogy of God's ordinary dealings with the 
 human spirit, which He guides, and moulds, and 
 strengthens, and perfects, but which He never de- 
 prives of its original endowment, of free and respon- 
 sible action. It is not to be denied, indeed, that 
 the subject-matter may cause now the one element 
 and now the other to be specially prominent in par- 
 ticular passages; but it is maintained that this never 
 happens so exclusively, that the one which is less 
 prominent is utterly withdrawn. 
 
 The theologian can be at no loss for parallel cases, 
 where two distinct agencies are found to cooperate 
 throughout one sphere with so complete a presence 
 that they cannot be distinguished, though they must 
 not be confounded. Without seeking illustrations 
 from the more mysterious regions of the interaction 
 of the Persons in the ever-blessed Trinity, or from 
 the less definite topic of the Sacramental Presence, 
 we may venture to recur to the current illustration 
 which is afforded to the Scriptures by the twofold 
 nature of our Lord. We must not, indeed, use it 
 without beins; careful to mark that there are limits 
 to the resemblance, which can be traced between a 
 Book and a Person : a Book in which two elements 
 are combined together in one result ; a Person in 
 whom two natures are united together in one indivi- 
 duality. The analogy extends no farther than this; 
 that in Christ, the Godhead and the Manhood are 
 both perfect, yet are inseparably united without loss 
 
LECTURE VIII. 231 
 
 or limitation : in Scripture, the divine and human 
 elements are both complete, yet, as contributed re- 
 spectively by God and man, they meet in one common 
 production, each without limitation, and each without 
 loss. The necessary restriction of this analogy is no 
 objection to our using it so far as it holds true. 
 When the Athanasian creed compares the union of 
 God and man in Christ to the union of soul and body 
 in man, we know that we are dealing with an imper- 
 fect parallel, which cannot be treated as complete 
 without falling into the Apollinarian heresy. Under 
 the same reserve for an imperfect figure, we may 
 illustrate the cooperation of the divine and human 
 agencies in producing God's Word Written by the 
 coexistence of the divine and human natures in 
 God's Word Incarnate. 
 
 Now the doubts which make men fear to admit 
 the full influence of the human element rest on a 
 mistaken conception of the place and effect of sin ; 
 as though it were an essential portion of that human 
 nature, which it does but derange and confound. 
 Such a suspicion might be averted by the recollec- 
 tion that Christ took our nature with all its infir- 
 mities, yet without the slightest shadow of taint from 
 our sin. Nothing could be stronger than the asser- 
 tion of the inspired writer, that though absolutely 
 sinless, yet He ' was in all points tempted like as we 
 are.' a Nothing could be clearer than the testimony 
 of the Gospels, that He ' increased in wisdom and 
 
 a Heb. iv. 15. 
 
232 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 stature,' and hungered and thirsted, and was tempted 
 by Satan and buffeted by man, and was ' sorrowful 
 and very heavy,' and suffered even to the utmost 
 agony by which our feeble nature can be torn and 
 distressed. a But while He thus felt all, that He might 
 pit}- all, b and through all His words and acts of mercy 
 exhibited the most perfect sympathy for our infir- 
 mities, yet the dark cloud of personal guilt never 
 cast the faintest reflection on His stainless spirit. 
 Nay, more than this, there was a divine decorum (1) 
 watching round His path, to ward off those sinless 
 indignities from material agencies which it was not 
 seemly that the Son of God should suffer. Though 
 He ate and drank, and slept and rose, and fasted and 
 was wearied, and had not ' where to lay His head ;' 
 though He was the mark for the blind assaults of 
 evil men, and of spirits still more evil ; though ' being 
 in an agony He prayed more earnestly,' and His 
 ' soul' was 'exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; 
 though ' His pale weak form' was ' worn with many a 
 watch of sorrow and unrest ;' b yet we never read that 
 actual sickness was allowed to fasten on His sacred 
 Person. Though He laid down that life, which none 
 could take from Him, d and conquered Death by the 
 mere act of dying, yet He never permitted disease or 
 mortality to tarry in His presence ; but drove them 
 
 a Luke ii. 52 ; Matt. iv. 2; John iv. 7; xix. 28; Matt. xxvi. G7, 
 37 ; Luke xxii. 44. 
 
 b Christian Year, Tuesday before Easter. 
 
 c Matt. xi. 19 ; viii. 24 ; John iv. G ; Matt, viii. 20 ; Luke xxii. 
 44 ; Matt. xxvi. 38. d John x. 18. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 233 
 
 from their victims by an instant assertion of His divine 
 supremacy, as baffled and impotent foes. a 
 
 And here we may gam a clue of guidance to tell 
 us what we may expect to find in that element of 
 Holy Scripture which was to come from the agency 
 of man. It would be human to the very utmost, in 
 the broadest acceptation, short of sin, in which the 
 word can be properly employed ; human in its 
 sympathy with suffering, resignation, and rejoicing; 
 human hi its recognition of the obligations of the 
 present; human in its keen longings for a brighter 
 future. All this it might be ; all this, and more than 
 this, we actually find it; yet all the while it may be 
 guarded from the slightest lapse into such errors as 
 would be unseemly companions for a message from 
 above (-2). 
 
 But now it must be borne in mind, that I state 
 this principle as the result of an enquiry, not the 
 dictate of a theory. The proper way to learn the 
 true character of revelation is not to conjecture what 
 it ought to be, but to examine what it is. We can- 
 not pay too much regard to Butler's warning, that 
 ' we are not in any sort competent judges, what 
 supernatural instruction were to have been expected,' 
 and therefore, that we must not ' pretend to judge of 
 the Scripture by preconceived expectations.' b When 
 such an examination has carried us on, from a general 
 acknowledgement of the deep human sympathies of 
 Scripture, to compare the nature and history of its 
 
 a Matt. viii. IG ; John xi. 21, &c. 
 b Analogy, II. 3 (pp. 211, 212, ed. 1836). 
 
234 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 records with those of any other ancient writings, we 
 find that it obeys implicitly the main conditions under 
 which all other early literature was formed and handed 
 down. Its text may be modified by various readings ; 
 its inspired guardians appear to have introduced the 
 same kind of minor changes and explanations which 
 persons of similar authority might introduce in 
 parallel cases; its sense has often been obscured for 
 centuries by mistranslations and misinterpretations; 
 it stands in close contact with large masses of external 
 material; it touches at a thousand points on heathen 
 literature and history ; its later writers do not hesitate 
 at times to avail themselves of facts derived from 
 outer sources, which tradition, and not Scripture, 
 must have furnished. And while the strenuous 
 labours of unfriendly critics have not succeeded in 
 convicting it of any such departure from the present 
 historical standard as we cannot account for without 
 imputing error to the original writer, it is yet clear 
 that the form in which the narrative is shaped and 
 propounded is analogous to that in which other 
 authentic histories of similar antiquity are moulded. 
 The argument has indeed been confused by an over- 
 estimate of the importance of various chronological 
 details, many of which rest on mere hypothesis, and 
 which are so far not an integral part of the record GO ; 
 as well as by laying undue stress on names or nume- 
 rals, which may have been corrupted through the 
 lapse of ages (4). Nor must we forget to claim a 
 reasonable allowance on account of the brevity of the 
 narrative, and our ignorance of details which would 
 
LECTURE VIII. 235 
 
 at once explain a seeming difficulty. But all these 
 corrections and qualifications are in precise conform- 
 ity with our general position, that the form of the 
 narrative, and the mode of its transmission, belong, as 
 a general rule, to the human framework; and yet 
 that the human framework has been preserved by 
 God's providence' from any such imperfections as 
 would offend against the decorum of His revelation to 
 mankind. The facts which I have mentioned must 
 be frankly acknowledged, but they must not be 
 exaggerated. We believe that they have failed to 
 exercise an evil influence over the sacred record. 
 They do not prove that it is in any sense untruthful, 
 unreliable, or unhistorical. " They only establish this 
 fundamental principle, that it shared in the external 
 characteristics of analogous literature, as clearly as it 
 shared in the human thoughts and emotions of those 
 by whom its several portions were composed. 
 
 A further extension of this position, that Scripture 
 was written in the language of mankind, and was 
 meant from the first to be ' understanded of the 
 people,' enables us to account for the use of terms 
 adjusted to the scientific knowledge, or common 
 modes of speaking, which prevailed in the ages when 
 the books were written (5). We are ourselves in 
 the daily habit of using words in their superficial 
 significance, without appealing to the theories in 
 which they originated, and from which they have 
 descended into common use, through pedigrees which 
 have frequently been lost. Great interest has been 
 often thrown over philological studies, by the disclosure 
 
236 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of such facts in the history of words, and by the 
 ingenious analysis which has forced words them- 
 selves to reveal the original causes of their employ- 
 ment. But we should be ready to resist the tyranny 
 which should try to rule our present usage by an 
 antiquarian etymology, or make us answerable for 
 views on which we have no particular call to form a 
 judgment, and which scientific men have perhaps long 
 since resigned as erroneous. Xow, it is as unreason- 
 able to argue that Scripture writers are responsible 
 for the opinions under which their customary expres- 
 sions were imposed, as to accuse men of ignorance 
 when they continue to use the imperfect terms of an 
 unfinished science ; or to accuse them of superstition 
 when they call months and days by their old heathen 
 names ; or to accuse them of pertinacious adherence 
 to antiquated error, when they describe the changes 
 and aspects of earth and heaven, of day and night, in 
 phrases that have survived abandoned systems. 
 
 These remarks may serve to recall the tram of 
 thought by which we have endeavoured to establish 
 the completeness of that human element which proves 
 its presence so conclusively, even to the most careless 
 reader, through the characteristics of the several 
 sacred writers. And I have sought to show that 
 this completeness may be maintained and taught, 
 without the slightest disparagement towards that 
 great truth which is its counterpart and consumma- 
 tion — the truth that the whole of Scripture is not less 
 certainly penetrated by an influence which is abso- 
 lutely divine. Objective in its origin, and thus 
 
LECTURE VIII. 237 
 
 broadly contrasted with the speculations of mankind ; 
 perfect in its moral and religious teaching, and thus 
 strongly opposed to those false creeds, which have 
 filled the earth with cruelty and sin; profound in its 
 grasp of those eternal principles, which can only be 
 brought within the reach of the human intellect by 
 presentation in a series of balanced and contrasted 
 statements; all-pervading in its presence, so that it 
 lies everywhere beneath the human words of Scrip- 
 ture, and constantly suggests a deeper sense than the 
 knowledge or designs of the original writer could 
 command : the inspiration of the Bible combines with 
 its revelations to form an element so conclusively 
 divine, that we cannot mistake it for the dream of 
 man; we cannot hesitate to recognise its heavenly 
 source and spiritual power. Nor can we under- 
 estimate the fulness of its influence, without closing 
 our eyes on the entire higher range of the phenomena 
 of Scripture, and thus falling into the grave mis- 
 take of constructing a theory from which the more 
 important series of the facts is excluded. Considera- 
 tions of this kind enable us to complete our state- 
 ment, by showing that Scripture is as divine as it is 
 human; the voice of Him who dwells in eternity, 
 though reaching us through the organs and minds of 
 His earthly servants ; the work of the Holy Spirit 
 Himself, filling all that He communicates with light 
 to enlighten and with grace to save. 
 
 If these conclusions have been correctly drawn, we 
 may expect to find that they will verify themselves 
 
238 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 by their fitness to meet some fair conditions, which 
 we should not have been justified in demanding at 
 the outset, but which will serve as a valid test of the 
 results of our enquiry. From this point of view, for 
 instance, we might reasonably ask whether the truths 
 alleged to be revealed are really such as man's unaided 
 mind was incompetent to furnish ; whether the reve- 
 lation possesses a depth of meaning which admits of 
 progressive development in the spiritual sense, and is 
 caused by the presence of a divine significance, lying 
 hidden beneath the words of man ; and whether the 
 inspired record stands clear from any taint of human 
 infirmity, while the characteristics of the separate 
 writers are never obliterated. The importance of 
 these positions has always been seen so clearly, that 
 the attempt to disprove the affirmative answers has 
 furnished three favourite topics to those who have 
 wished to modify or weaken the common faith on 
 inspiration. At one time such reasoners have tried 
 to destroy the distinctive claims of revelation, by 
 arguments which involve the further destruction of 
 the distinctive claims of Christianity itself; alleging 
 — what in a different sense indeed is true — that Chris- 
 tianity is as old as the Creation; and gleaning scat- 
 tered passages from heathen authorities, to prove the 
 wide diffusion of some fragmentary light, which they 
 propose as a rival for the full illumination of the 
 sacred record. At other times they have raised 
 formidable difficulties against the doctrine of a double 
 sense, in which work they have been too often assisted 
 by the exaggerations of its upholders ; affirming that 
 
LECTURE VIII. 239 
 
 the theory, as commonly explained, is inconsistent 
 with the facts, or destroys the true position of the 
 human writer, or is an unfair attempt to get rid of 
 supposed contradictions, by representing them as 
 mere developments. At other times, again, they have 
 striven to prove that the human element exerts an 
 influence of absolute error — an argument which they 
 work out by overestimating the significance of alleged 
 inaccuracies ; by treating as mistakes what were mere 
 accommodations ; by thrusting scientific doctrines into 
 the sphere of Scripture — an error, again, in which 
 their opponents have been only too ready to keep 
 them in countenance ; and above all, by urging that 
 the Old Testament is marred by the harsh dictates of 
 an imperfect morality, and that defects less striking, 
 but not less certain, can be discovered in the blessed 
 teaching of the New. The answer to these cavils 
 will be found, as we believe, in the careful discrimi- 
 nation which separates in all cases between the matter 
 and the form; which distinguishes, in moral prin- 
 ciples, between the record of a sin and its express 
 approbation ; which analyses mixed actions into their 
 component elements, and confines the praise which is 
 accorded to the element of good; which recognises 
 the Jewish nation as an authorised instrument of 
 God's vegeance against evil, and therefore invests its 
 public acts with something like the judicial character, 
 though careful to stop short of the extension of the 
 principle, which would make God's command turn 
 evil into good; and which points out that errors 
 recorded in the lives of Scripture writers were not 
 
240 lecture vin. 
 
 permitted to throw a shade of imperfection over the 
 message which they delivered as ambassadors from 
 God. To these subjects I have endeavoured to direct 
 attention in such detail as the nature of my task 
 permitted : with a deep sense of the responsibility 
 which rests on any one who ventures, however dif- 
 fidently, to suggest terms of peace, while men's 
 thoughts are still agitated by the recollection of the 
 strife, and while the atmosphere is still charged with 
 tendencies to further controversy ; yet in the earnest 
 hope, and with the fervent prayer, that there may be 
 some minds, at all events, which will be thankful to 
 escape from the contest, and find refuge in a solution 
 Avhich aims at preserving alike the absolute divinity 
 of the message, and the unimpaired humanity of those 
 through whose lips and pens it was conveyed. 
 
 Let us pass on now to consider, briefly, the bearing 
 of this argument on the great question of Scripture 
 interpretation, to which all such enquiries lead our 
 thoughts. It is the foremost duty of the Christian 
 teacher rightly to divide the word of truth (6). The 
 metaphor of this passage may be micertain, but the 
 precept is distinct and clear. The figure may either 
 mean that, like a good steward, he is to apportion to 
 each member of God's household his meat in due 
 season; or perhaps, that he. is 'to distribute the word 
 rightly," 1 by arranging it under different heads of 
 belief, according to the just 'proportion of faith;' b or 
 
 a Hooker, E. P., V. lxxxi. 2. b Rom. xii. G. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 241 
 
 that he is to lay straightly out the road or the furrow, 
 by drawing a direct line through the intricacies of error, 
 without yielding to any bias from his onward course. 
 Whichever sense we adopt, the duty of the inter- 
 preter is taught clearly and distinctly. It is far less 
 pardonable in the case of Scripture than in the case 
 of any other writing, to have recourse to the devices 
 of a forced, unnatural, or, worst of all, an uncandid 
 interpretation. 
 
 1. ' The principle,' says Warburton, 'which Grotius 
 went upon, in commenting the Bible, was, that it 
 should be interpreted on the same rules of criti- 
 cism that men use in the study of all other ancient 
 writings.' a Now what is the reason why the restate- 
 ment of a precept, which has so much to recommend 
 it, should have given rise in our own day to special 
 opposition and remonstrance (7) ? Perhaps "Warburton's 
 remarks may suggest the explanation : ' Nothing,' 
 he says, ' could be more reasonable than his prin- 
 ciple ; but unluckily he deceived himself in the appli- 
 cation of it. . . . He went on this reasonable ground, 
 that the j^rophecies should be interpreted like all other 
 ancient writings; and on examining their authority 
 he found them to be truly divine. When he had 
 gone thus far, he then preposterously went back 
 again, and commented as if they were confessed to be 
 merely human.' It is obvious that those who apply 
 the principle in the same manner can only escape from 
 the same inconsistency, by denying that the Books 
 
 a Divine Legation of Moses, VI. vi. 2 ; vol. iii. p. 230. 
 R 
 
242 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 contain that special divine element which distin- 
 guishes them from every other composition of man. 
 
 The canon, then, which the last generation learnt 
 under the form that the expounder of Scripture 
 must follow ' the same mode of interpretation which 
 is applied to classic authors,' a binds us precisely so 
 far as Scripture resembles classic authors : but beyond 
 that point it is necessary that Scripture interpretation 
 should follow a course of its own. No fair inter- 
 preter could complain of the injunction to obey the 
 conditions of truth and candour, to be biassed by 
 nothing, to pervert nothing; to let no considerations 
 of possible consequences deter him from accepting the 
 primary meaning which the literal and grammatical 
 interpretation would convey. But at that precise 
 point where Scripture ceases to resemble any other 
 book, the common rules of criticism fail. No one 
 attempts to treat all other books as equal. Rhetoric 
 and logic ; history and speculation ; poetry and prose ; 
 the suggestion of probable inference, and the rigorous 
 deductions of scientific conclusions ; all are dealt with 
 alike, up to a certain point, and not beyond it. And 
 when we allege that there is a line, at which Scripture 
 passes beyond the analogy of other compositions, we 
 thereby claim that beyond that line it shall receive an 
 appropriate criticism. 
 
 It is important that this position should be dis- 
 tinctly comprehended; and that it should be known 
 precisely what we mean when we allege, that Scrip- 
 
 a Bp. Marsh, Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the 
 Bible, p. 510, ed. 1828. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 243 
 
 ture throughout contains a divine element, which is 
 in itself as complete as the human element, and which 
 is incomparably more important. We acknowledge 
 that there is one sense in which Scripture must be 
 treated like any other book, in so far as it is the 
 work of those who had 7ra$r) like unto other men. a 
 We are thankful to every one who will give us sound 
 advice on the grammatical, historical, contextual, 
 and minute interpretation. 5 We ask for no difference 
 in criticism as criticism. We merely stipulate that 
 criticism shall be adjusted to the subject-matter, as it 
 would be in every other instance. If Scripture were 
 no more than any other book, the canon referred to 
 would be irrefragable. So far as Scripture corresponds 
 to other books, we use it, and claim it as our own, and 
 welcome all suggestions by which it seems likely that 
 the exposition will be served. But if Scripture is all 
 this and more ; if there is a point at which it outstrips 
 the analogy of other writings ; at that point it enters 
 on a separate province, which must be marked by 
 a variation in the laws of criticism. Within proper 
 restrictions, and under proper explanations, the rule 
 may be useful in reminding men that God's Scripture 
 revelation is expressed in human language, and sub- 
 mits to the conditions of human thought. But if 
 ever it is proposed as a sufficient canon of Scripture 
 interpretation, we are compelled to rejoin that in that 
 view it is either a truism or a petitio principh. If 
 it merely means that the interpreter of Scripture 
 
 a Acts xiv. 15 ; James v. 17. b Aids to Faith, p. 439. 
 r 2 
 
244 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 should be fair, should be truthful, should be accurate, 
 should be just, should be candid — then it is a truism ; 
 for who can doubt it ? If it is meant to involve the 
 denial that God has imparted to the books which form 
 the Bible any special quality of spiritual eminence, 
 which distinguishes it from every other human work — 
 then it is a petitio principii ; for the existence of that 
 higher element is the very ground on which the spe- 
 cial principles of Scripture exposition rest. The 
 distinction may be compared with that which must 
 be drawn to limit the domain of positive science in 
 its relation to religion. We accept the laws which 
 science teaches, without permitting it to trench on that 
 faith in God's providence which a blind regard to its 
 submissive sequences has often tended to obscure. 
 And we accept with gratitude the labours of the 
 scholar, without resigning our faith in that diviner 
 and more spiritual light, to which the deeper meaning 
 of the Scripture text bears witness. 
 
 2. But Scripture interpretation should be com- 
 prehensive as well as spiritual. Its expounder should 
 be ready to weigh one part with another, to give to 
 each phrase its broader rather than its narrower mean- 
 ing, to shun private opinion, to dread partial exposi- 
 tion, and to take the whole tenor of the faith for his 
 guidance, when he seeks to enter on the mind of 
 Christ. It is an error against this fundamental prin- 
 ciple when men fall into the habit of relying too 
 exclusively on isolated texts, without much regard to 
 the context, and with still less respect for the analogy 
 of Scripture (8). Controversialists are naturally dis- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 245 
 
 posed to place an undue value on passages which 
 seem to command the foremost place in argument, by 
 the conciseness which condenses whole trains of rea- 
 soning into single phrases, and by the ease with which 
 they are transferred to the memory of the hearer. But it 
 often happens that the main principles of an argument 
 lie rather beneath than on the surface, and are more 
 characterised by the wideness of their influence than 
 by the point and conciseness of their occasional ex- 
 pression; just as a mountain spring may prove its 
 presence rather by the verdure that surrounds it than 
 .by the flashing of its unveiled waters in the sunlight; 
 or as a tract of rock may rarely break the surface, yet 
 may uphold wide districts on its basis, as a portion of 
 the solid fabric of the earth. In that case single texts 
 only serve to guide us to the neighbourhood in which 
 the traces of that deeper influence may be found. If, 
 on the other hand, we assume that a text is the sole 
 vehicle of a doctrine, we suggest the suspicion that it 
 could be detached without injury from the great 
 framework of principles on which the revelation 
 rests; just as a boulder could be removed from the 
 surface of the ground, while no power of man could 
 have upheaved it had it been a peak emerging from 
 the living rock. And this suspicion has been fostered 
 by the unwise alarm with which the orthodox have 
 looked on the labours of criticism whenever it seemed 
 likely to rob them of some favourite texts. We are 
 bound, indeed, to defend the text in possession till 
 reason has been shown for the change. But if criti- 
 cism has proved in any case that the marginal notes 
 
246 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of early Christians have found admission to the record, 
 we may rest assured that such glosses can be removed 
 without injury to the revelation, which, even were 
 they genuine, they would not so much embody as 
 epitomise. 
 
 3. Closely allied with this error, is the habit fostered 
 by the controversial spirit, of taking a stand on one 
 line of texts to the neglect of such modifications or 
 corrections as other passages would furnish. This is 
 the mistake, on which we have previously dealt in 
 detail, of taking half-truths for truths, and yielding 
 them an undivided instead of qualified obedience. 
 A practical illustration may prove the most weighty ; 
 and I know not where we could find one of such sur- 
 passing magnitude, as the course of reasoning which 
 seems to have led the Jews to the rejection of our 
 Lord (9). At first thought, indeed, we never look 
 after their reasoning. We only ask, in perplexed 
 surprise, was ever guilt or penalty like theirs! To 
 reject that Saviour, whose promise had been the sole 
 day-star of humanity, ever brightening from the dark- 
 ness of the Fall; to repudiate the long-sought de- 
 scendant of Abraham, who had been foreshadowed 
 for nearly two thousand years, as the culminating 
 glory of their ancient line; to refuse allegiance to 
 that Son of David, who was to found a nobler 
 power than David's kingdom, and was to bear the 
 rank of David's Lord: can we conceive of a more 
 fatal national infatuation than that which thus cast 
 away the single object of their own election, the one 
 flower and perfection of their race and name? Our 
 
LECTURE vm. 247 
 
 very reason seems silenced by the greatness of their 
 crime. We shrink from its analysis. We hesitate to 
 account for it by ordinary motives. We take refuge 
 in some theory of inexplicable frenzy, or demoniacal 
 influence, which removes it beyond the rank of the 
 common laws of human nature. And yet that solu- 
 tion is inconsistent with the clearness of the inspired 
 narrative, and incompatible with any keen perception 
 of the warning it embodies for ourselves. If we 
 examine carefully the Gospel records, we shall dis- 
 cover, I think, that the Jews were simply acting upon 
 their own narrowed interpretation of one portion of 
 the Divine inj unctions, in defiance of the obligations 
 which countless other passages conveyed. Dis- 
 appointed by the low estate to which our gracious 
 Lord had condescended ; vexed by the downfal of the 
 carnal expectations which had looked forward to 
 Messiah's promised kingdom, as a more splendid 
 dominion than had hitherto been gathered under a 
 Jewish sceptre; they simply sought for weapons to 
 avenge their disappointment from misapplications of 
 the word of God. And then they fell into the too 
 common error of letting one text blot out a thousand ; 
 of dwelling on favourite dogmas, and misinterpreted 
 passages, till the wide fields of Scripture truth were 
 narrowed to the limits of their prejudiced and partial 
 zeal. There can be little doubt that the Jewish 
 leaders believed themselves to be acting under the 
 authority of that command in Deuteronomy, which 
 enjoins that they should slay the prophet who came to 
 them with signs and wonders, in case he tempted 
 
248 LECTURE VHI. 
 
 them to 'go .after other gods.' a They wilfully over- 
 looked the promise of that other prophet, whom the 
 Lord their God was to raise up from amongst them : b 
 a promise which lies near to the other passage in the 
 Mosaic record, and which is supported, explained, and 
 unfolded in the great stream of prophecy which runs 
 from one end to the other of the ancient Scriptures. 
 It was a biassed zeal for a literal, isolated, and faith- 
 less interpretation, which made them set the special 
 )ist the general revelation; and persuade them- 
 selves that Christ was teaching a new Divinity, ' because 
 He made Himself the Son of God.' c 
 
 4. And from this lesson we may draw another 
 inference; namely, the importance of paying due 
 regard to every part of Scripture, alike for its place 
 in the past, and its possible use in the future. This 
 principle should lead us to retain a firm hold on those 
 portions of the sacred record in which we can see no 
 present utility, or which may seem to create some 
 passing difficulty. Christianity does not come before 
 us merely as a present life, which would continue to 
 exist if dissevered from the past. It would be felt 
 that an open attempt to set aside the Bible which 
 records its history would be a definite attack on 
 Christianity itself. Attempts of that kind, therefore, 
 possess at all events that measure of security which 
 accompanies an ojdcii and acknowledged danger. 
 Much greater is the need of watchfulness against the 
 more covert and perilous proposals, which would 
 
 n Dcut. xiii. 1, &c. b Dcut. xviii. 15. 9 John xix. 7. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 249 
 
 break at least some of the many links of connection 
 between our living Christianity and the Book of God. 
 "We have to resist the temptation which presents itself 
 under the specious suggestion, that we might resign 
 the letter with all its difficulties, yet retain the full 
 blessings of its spiritual teaching. Thus some have 
 tried to assail a book here and a chapter there; in 
 one place a few sentences, in others a mere phrase ; 
 and they would persuade us that these may be allowed 
 to fall away and perish, as withered leaves might 
 drop from a tree which continues to flourish. It is a 
 more true figure to say that the result would rather 
 resemble the slow degrees by which life passes from 
 the dying body: first, the extremities are chilled 
 under the grasp of death; then the fatal numbness 
 steals gradually onward, till it fastens on life's strong- 
 hold in the heart. Or we might liken it to the dying 
 out of an illumination in a royal mansion : first, there 
 is darkness in some distant chamber ; then it steals 
 along the corridors and halls ; one room after another 
 vanishes from sight ; one light after another is extin- 
 guished; till the whole building rests in unbroken ob- 
 scurity, when the last lamp of all has been withdrawn. 
 
 But the waning time reminds me that this is not 
 the opportunity for entering more minutely into the 
 details of Scripture interpretation, and that it is 
 necessary to bring these observations to a close. How 
 can I find a better conclusion than by reminding you 
 of the lesson which the Church suggests, when the 
 prayers for inspiration which she puts into our mouths 
 
250 LECTURE VHI. 
 
 recall us from theories on the inspiration of Scripture 
 to seek the inspiration of a holy life ? If the end is 
 greater than the means, that living gift of the Spirit 
 is greater than even those lofty endowments which 
 raised men to become its authorised witnesses, and 
 to guide us to the ordinances through which it is 
 bestowed. Greater, indeed, yet very different ; greater 
 in its universality, its duration, its practical connec- 
 tion with our own personal experience; yet inferior 
 in those high attributes of supernatural illumination, 
 in which the writers of Scripture stand alone. AYhen 
 St. Paul has enumerated the most precious gifts that 
 man can long for, he assigns the highest rank to 
 charity, which sums up all the purest graces of the 
 Christian life. a Prophecies and tongues and know- 
 ledge — the gifts of the teacher, the preacher, the 
 expounder of God's will — these are but parts of the 
 earthly organisation which God has established for the 
 recovery of man. They fail, they cease, they vanish 
 away. Our highest knowledge here is partial. Our 
 spiritual vision does but resemble the wavering 
 outline reflected from a clouded mirror. But the 
 life of true love grows ever upward, with an un-. 
 interrupted progression, toward 'the measure of 
 the stature of the fulness of Christ.' b And while the 
 river of life is flowing past us, and each of us may 
 drink and live for ever, no folly could be greater than 
 to neglect the privilege, and waste time and pains in 
 endless contests on the nature of its earthly source. 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 13. * Eph. iv. 13. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 251 
 
 And let ine close with an earnest exhortation to 
 our younger brethren, that they will not perplex 
 themselves with curious questions on the inspiration 
 of Scripture till they forget to claim that present 
 inspiration, ' the spirit of truth, unity, and concord,' 
 which they are bound to pray for and to make their 
 own. There may perhaps be others here, who need 
 as earnest a word of warning against falling into such 
 bondage to the pleasures of their age, that the voice 
 of God's Spirit is scarcely heard within their hearts. 
 It is well that they should rejoice in the gifts of their 
 youth, if they do but remember to rejoice with trem- 
 bling, and to pray that the Holy Spirit will continue 
 to dwell with them, filling their bodies with purity 
 and their spirits with devotion. The evil days will 
 come before they are expected; and then where will 
 be the pleasures which deceived them for a season? 
 The sun and the light and the stars will be darkened, 
 and 'the clouds' will 'return after the rain.' 'The 
 daughters of music shall be brought low,' ' and the 
 grasshopper shall be a burthen, and desire shall fail; 
 because man goeth to Ins long home, and the mourners 
 go about the streets.' a We have often had to look 
 on faces that were younger than yours, and not less 
 bright and hopeful, over which the cloud of death had 
 gathered, when the child of God was summoned early 
 to the blessed shelter of its Father's house. And now 
 they draw nearer to God's hidden mysteries than the 
 wisest student of God's Word can reach before the 
 grave. 
 
 a Eccles. xii. 1-5. 
 
252 LECTURE vin. 
 
 The knowledge of God which we gather from the 
 Scriptures is the earthly foretaste of that beatific 
 vision, which is the crown and consummation of 
 created bliss. The condition which admits us to all 
 gradations of that knowledge is the childlike purity 
 of heart to which its highest gifts are promised — the 
 'holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.' a 
 
 It is no light blessing, be assured, that your secular 
 studies are in this place hallowed by the daily circle 
 of religious duties; that your youth is trained to 
 emulate the temper of great saints, because it is 
 passed amidst the forms and memorials of ancient 
 devotion. But the greater is the sorrow if the rich- 
 ness of God's gifts is wasted; the sorer will be the 
 burthen of the grievous punishment, if you pass from 
 the light of God's altar to the outer darkness of sin. 
 Be it rather your lasting study and your earnest 
 prayer that you may see God's Spirit present in His 
 Word, and that you may feel God's Spirit present in 
 your spirits; that the letter of Scripture, which is 
 deadly to the sinner, may be found full of divine life 
 by the humble faith which receives it gladly; and 
 that the endowments which would turn to corruption 
 in the service of sin, may be purified and elevated 
 till you reach that heavenly kingdom, where there is 
 no more sorrow, no more doubt, no more perplexity ; 
 but where we shall see Christ as He is, and know as 
 we are known. b 
 
 * Matt. v. 8 ; Heb. xii. 14. b 1 John iii. 2 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 
NOTES. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 LECTURE I, 
 
 Note 1, page 2. Expressions are often found in theological 
 writers, which imply that the heathen entirely lost the human 
 ttvevhcl, as well as the presence of the Holy Spirit. Compare 
 Mr. J. B. Morris's Essay towards the Conversion of the Hindus, 
 p. 320, &c. : 'The spirit here spoken of (1 Thess. v. 23) is that 
 supernatural gift whereby Adam was what he was in Paradise.' 
 ' Body is almost essential to the idea, man : it may be logically 
 divided into body and soul ; but man and this gift (i. e. spirit) 
 together make up the idea, Christian.' ' The Christian man is this 
 natural man with that supernatural gift which Adam had, restored 
 to him.' Cf. p. 32-4. So Grotius on 1 Thess. v. 23 : ' Grseci omnes 
 spiritum hoc loco exponunt ^api<rfia = donum? On the opinion of 
 Irenams, see Mosheim's Note on Cudworth, Intellectual System of 
 the Universe, iii. 329, ed. Harrison. 
 
 But the donum supernaturale, which man had thus possessed and 
 lost, was not the human Tryevfxa, which must be regarded as an 
 integral portion of his nature. It was rather the presence and 
 operation of the Holy Spirit, which purified the created spirit and 
 conformed man to the image of our Lord. See Mr. Scudamore's 
 Essay on the Office of the Intellect in Religion, pp. 133, 139, &c. ; 
 and, for the general tenor of English teaching, compare Hooker, 
 E. P., I. xi. 5, and Appendix to Book V., Works, ii. 539 ; Bull, 
 Life, p. 440; Works, ii. 52, 82; iv. 211, 213 ; Waterland, Works, 
 iv. 176 ; Mill, On our Lord's Temptation, pp. 38-42, 156 ; Wilber- 
 force, On the Incarnation, pp. 62-3 ; Mozley, On Predestination, 
 pp. 10, 111. Man exspoliatur gratuitis; but only vulneratur in 
 naturalibus (Bede in S. Thorn. Aquin., I ma II dae lxxxv. 1), and the 
 
256 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 human irvevpa is naturale. On another aspect of the subject, com] »ar< ! 
 Olshausen's Dissertation, in which Antiquiss. Eccles. Grcecce Pat rum 
 de Immortalitate Animce Sentential recensentur ; Opuscula, No. vii. 
 ' Patres Grseci — de spiritu libentissime concedunt, quod nostri animal 
 tribuunt, imo plus etiam spiritui dant, dicentes spiritum esse 
 ajtemuin, atyQaprov, imo faoTroiovv: at longe aliam volunt esse 
 •^i/X»7e conditionem. £Lec post hominis lapsum a spiritu sejuncta 
 Qvr)Ti] est, atque turn demuni immortalitatis particeps erit, si cum 
 spiritu denuo fuerit conjuncta.' P. 171 ; cf. p. 174. On the position 
 of the heathen, see also Lecture II., p. 40, sqq. 
 
 Note 2, page 2. See the positions laid down in 529 at Concil. 
 Araus. II., Labbe, viii.711. Compare S. Thorn. Aquin., I ma II dac 
 cix. 2 ; Hooker, Works, ii. 549 ; Bull, Works, ii. 134 ; Mohler, 
 Symbolism, i. 36, &c. ; Mozley, Predestination, pp. 163, 345, &c. ; 
 Bright, Notes on XVIII. Sermons of St. Leo, p. 144. The two lines 
 of opinion are drawn out at length in an article on the relation of 
 Calvinism to Modern Doubt, in the Christian Remembrancer for 
 Jan. 1863. 
 
 Note 3, page 4. Following the more general expressions of 
 Scripture, rov Kvpiov avvepyovvroQ, Mark xvi. 20; Qeov yap icr/AEY 
 avvepyoi, 1 Cor. iii. 9 ; crvvtpyovvTEQ l£, 2 Cor. vi. 1 ;• the early 
 Christian writers applied such terms to the composition of the 
 Bible as GvvzpyovvroQ Kai rov dyiov Hvev/jiaroQ' Origen, On Matt. 
 iii. 732, B. ; cf. rij tov Qeiov Tlrtvparoq rov avvepyouvTOQ avro'ic 
 cnro^ei^ei' Euseb., H. E., iii. 24, p. 84, ed. Burton. Even so early 
 an authority as Irenams accounts for hyperbata in the style of 
 St. Paul: ' propter velocitatem sermonum suorum,et pi"opter impetum 
 qui in ipso est spiritus.' — Contr. Hair., iii. 7, p. 182. With this we 
 may compare St. Augustine's ' inspiratus a Deo, sed tamen homo.' 
 {In Joh. Evang. I. i., Opp. III. ii. 289.) But the complete recog- 
 nition of the human element, in correction of the stricter definitions 
 of the seventeenth century, was reserved for writers nearer to our 
 own time, who are now accustomed, on all hands, to accept the 
 distinction, which was once regarded with deep suspicion, as the very 
 basis of their reasoning. See, for instance, among works expressly 
 on the subject of inspiration, Gaussen's Theopneustic, p. 54: ' Tant 
 s'en faut que nous meconnaissions cette individuality humainc, 
 partout empreinte dans nos livres sacr6s, qu'au contraire c'est avec 
 ime gratitude profonde, avec unc admiration toujours croissante, que 
 nous considerons ce caractere vivant,* &c. Dr. Lee, Inspiration of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 257 
 
 Holy Scripture, 2nd ed., p. 18, &c: ' The Bible presents to us, in 
 whatever light we regard it, two distinct elements, the divine and 
 the human. This is a matter of fact. On the one hand, God has 
 granted a revelation ; on the other, human language has been made 
 the channel to convey, and men have been chosen as the agents to 
 record it. From this point all theories on the subject of Inspiration 
 take their rise.' Cf. pp. 369, 505, 507, 510, &c. Mr. Westcott's 
 Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Pref., init. : ' A message of 
 God through men and to men.' P. 5 : the wrong view, when ' men 
 considered the Divine agency of Inspiration as acting externally, 
 and not internally, as acting on man, and not through man.' P. 7 : 
 ' it is authoritative, for it is the voice of God ; it is intelligible, for 
 it is in the language of men.' P. 10 : ' the divine element is already 
 in combination with the human when we are first able to observe 
 its presence.' P. 12 : ' the combination of the Divine influence with 
 the human utterance.' P. 14 : ' the human element becomes part of 
 the message from heaven,' &c. &c. Mr. T. E. Birks, The Bible and 
 Modern Thought, p. 339 : ' The two elements (doctrine and science) 
 are blended throughout no less intimately than body and soul are 
 united in man himself.' Pp. 475-85, an Appendix on { the im- 
 portance of recognising fully the human element in Scripture, as 
 one integral part of the true doctrine of Inspiration.' (Cf. pp. 212, 
 216, 259, 261, 263, 283, 284, and Christian Observer, January 
 1863, pp. 65-7.) Dr. Davidson, Introduction to Old Testament, 
 ii. 438 : ' the Old Testament prophecies . . . bear the irresistible 
 impress of their people and time, as well as the personality of the 
 speaker ; in other words, the cooperation of his own spirit.' 
 
 The list of these names indicates that the position may be made 
 the starting-point for the most opposite opinions. But it will be 
 worth while to collect a few more scattered quotations from writers 
 equally distinct in view, to show the hold which the formula has 
 gained upon contemporary language. Monod, Les Adieux cVAdolphe 
 Monod a ses Amis et a VEglise, p. 170: 'II a ete clairement 
 dans les vues de Dieu qu'a chaque page de ce livre que nous 
 appelons la Parole de Dieu, on reconnut en meme temps une parole 
 d'homme.' Dr. Arnold, Appendix to Sermons, i. 427 : ' Every 
 prophecy has, according to the very definition of the word, a 
 double source ; it has, if I may venture so to speak, two authors, the 
 one human, the other Divine.' SchatF, Germany, its Univei'sities, &c, 
 p. 298 : ' The Holy Scriptures are strictly Divine and strictly human 
 
 S 
 
258 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 from beginning to end. The two natures are here united in one 
 organic whole. The Holy Spirit lived, thought, moved in, and 
 spoke through, the prophets and apostles, but as conscious, intel- 
 ligent, free agents, not as blind and passive machines.' Professor H. 
 Browne, in Aids to Faith, p. 287 : ' When we come to consider it, 
 there can be no doubt but that we must admit a human and a 
 divine element.' P. 290 : ' Such observations (of Chrysostom and 
 Jerome) led to a greater appreciation of the human element in the 
 composition of Scripture.' Cf. pp. 289, 293, 302, 308, 309, 313, 318. 
 Dr. Vaughan, The Booh and the Life, p. 108 : ' Impossible as it is 
 accurately to define in such compositions the limits of the Divine 
 and the human, yet unquestionably both elements enter largely, and 
 must do so, into the result.' Mr. J. Grote, Examination of Dr. 
 ImshingtorCs Judgment, p. 23 : ' I do not see why, so far as penalty 
 is concerned, Dr. Williams may not as well say unqualifiedly that 
 the Bible is an expression of human reason, as Dr. Lushington may 
 say unqualifiedly that it is the result of Divine interposition. Each 
 proposition is incomplete : the Bible is from God as well as from 
 man ; from man as well as from God.' Mr. Chretien, Letter and 
 Spirit, p. 59 : ' We look at the instrument ; we see that one mind 
 has adapted its parts to a single purpose : but we also see, that to 
 form each of these parts, subordinate agents wrote with hand and 
 mind. God in His providence has joined the several books together 
 in a volume ; the several books were written by individual men.' 
 Bishop of St. David's, Letter to Rev. Rowland Williams, D.D., p. 62 : 
 ■ In common, I believe, with all on whose opinion I set any value, 
 I not only recognise, but claim for Scripture a human as well as a 
 divine element. That woidd be the fundamental condition of any 
 "theory of inspiration" that I should lay down.' Bishop of 
 Gloucester, in Aids to Faith, p. 411 : 'If asked to define what we 
 mean by the inspiration of Scripture, let us be bold and make 
 answer, that fully convinced as we are that the Scripture is the 
 revelation, through human media, of the infinite mind of God to the 
 finite mind of man, and recognising as we do both a human and a 
 divine element in the written Word, we verily believe that the 
 Holy Ghost was so breathed into the mind of the writer, so illu- 
 mined his spirit and pervaded his thoughts, that while nothing that 
 individualised him as man was taken away, everything that was 
 necessary to enable him to declare Divine truth in all its fulness 
 was bestowed and superadded.' Bishop of Brechin, Sermons on the 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 259 
 
 Grace of God, p. 108 : ' Looking at the human element in this 
 Divine song.' Bishop of Oxford, Fellowship in Joy and Sorrow, 
 init. : ' By no other token does Holy Scripture more manifest itself to 
 the conscience to be the Book of God, than by that profound know- 
 ledge of humanity which makes it the book of man.' Bishop of 
 London, The Word of God and the Ground of Faith, p. 31 : ' I do 
 not wish to enter here on any intricate or subtle questions as to all 
 that inspiration implies, or how far it is either possible or expedient 
 to discern those fine limits which mark the convergence and separa- 
 tion of the divine and human elements in the aggregate written word.' 
 
 For recent remarks on the varying measure of the human element, 
 compare Christian Remembrancer, ubi supra, pp. 56, 57, with 
 Dr. Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, pp. 284, 427. 
 Throughout the series quoted in this and the next note, both of 
 which, as I need scarcely add, could be almost indefinitely lengthened, 
 we may accept the recognition of both elements, without yielding to 
 the disposition, in any quarter, to let the one element predominate 
 to the exclusion or extinction of the other. 
 
 Note 4, page 6. The following extracts, which form a con- 
 tinuation to those cited in the preceding note, will justify the 
 assertion that there is a ' growing disposition ' to accept this parallel, 
 which is examined more closely in Lecture VIII. , p. 230. 
 
 The 20th number of Les Adieux cVAdolphe Monod, p. 175, &c, 
 draws out the thought in detail : ' L'une de ces paroles, Jesus- 
 Christ, est la Parole vivante de Dieu, la manifestation personnelle 
 de ses perfections invisibles au sein de l'humanite ; l'autre, l'Ecri- 
 ture, est la Parole ecrite de Dieu, manifestation verbale donnee 
 par le langage de ces memes perfections invisibles,' &c. This is 
 copied at length by Mr. Swainson, Authority of N. T., p. 145, who 
 adds : ' The analogy may be carried onward. The early heresies 
 relating to our Lord's Person, and the efforts made by the Church 
 to meet those heresies, have almost their parallels in the later 
 controversies as to the inspiration of Scripture.' Also cited by 
 the Bishop of St. David's, I. L, p. G3, who remarks, that the ' idea 
 has since been more fully carried out in very beautiful analogies 
 by others.' Gaussen, Theopneustie, p. 71: 'Oui, nous l'avons dit, 
 c'est Dieu qui nous y parle, mais aussi c'est l'homme ; c'est 
 l'homme, mais aussi c'est Dieu. Admirable parole de Dieu ! elle 
 a ete faite homme a sa maniere, comme le Verbe eternel ! ' "Words- 
 worth, Introd. to N. T., p. xix. : ' May we not even say, that the 
 
 s 2 
 
260 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 mystery of Inspiration bears some likeness to the highest of all 
 mysteries, in -which the human is joined with the Divine, the 
 mystery of the Incarnation itself?' (So also in The Inspiration 
 of the Bible, p. G.) Williams, Beginning of the Book of Genesis, 
 p. 35 : ' And thus the written Word of God in the world in some 
 respects serves the same purpose as His Presence beheld in the 
 flesh.' P. 89 : ' And here again, although the analogy must not 
 be pressed too far, Ave may say that in some respects it is like the 
 Incarnate Word, in that it is Divine and yet human,' Szc. Bishop 
 of Gloucester, in Aids to Faith, p. 413: 'Theories of inspiration 
 are what scepticism is ever craving for : it is the voice of hapless 
 unbelief, that is ever loudest in its call for explanation of the manner 
 of the assumed union of the Divine with the human, or of the 
 proportions in which each element is to be admitted and recognised. 
 Such explanations have not been vouchsafed, and it is as vain and 
 unbecoming to demand them as it is to require a theory of the 
 union of the Divinity and humanity in the Person of Christ, or an 
 estimate of the proportions in which the two perfect natures are 
 to be conceived to co-exist.' Burgon, Inspiration and Interpretation, 
 p. 2 : 'Of the written Gospel, many of the self-same things are 
 said in Scripture which are said of Him by whom that Gospel was 
 preached.' P. 3 : ' But even more remarkable are the analogies 
 which subsist between the written record of our Lord's life and 
 teaching and the actual Person of our Lord.' P. 4: 'Most sur- 
 prising of all is the analogy observable between the union of the 
 divine and the human element in the Gospels, and the strictly parallel 
 union, as it seems, of the two natures, the Divine and the human, 
 in the Person of our Lord.' (Cf. p. 107, and quotation from Eden, 
 p. 2G7.) Birks, The Bible and Modern Thought, p. 476: 'A 
 simple reference to the analogy between the personal and the 
 written Word ought to remove this hasty impression.' (Cf. p. 2G4, 
 and Christian Observer, Jan. 18G3, p. G6.) Westcott, Introduction 
 to the Study of the Gospels, p. 15: 'it may well seem that the 
 image of the Incarnation is reflected in the Christian Scriptures, 
 which, as I believe, exhibit the human and Divine in the highest 
 form and in the most perfect union.' Cazenove, On certain Charac- 
 teristics of Holy Scripture, p. 59: 'The written Word embodies, 
 we maintain, a divine and a human element ; herein preserving, 
 in some faint, measure, that resemblance to the Eternal Son made 
 man, of which we have just been speaking.' Mngee, Oxford Lenten 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 261 
 
 Sermon, Groioth in Grace, p. 4 : 'as with the idea of the Incarnate 
 Word, so with the idea of the written Word : here, too, we have 
 a union of the Divine and of the human, a Word that is God's 
 word, and yet that is also the word of man.' Woodford, ib., The 
 Spirit interceding, p. 9 : ' And is it not precisely the same difficulty 
 Avhich besets us in regard to the question of inspiration ? The 
 work of the Spirit and the work of man in the compilation of 
 Scripture ; where the influence of the Divine agent ends and that 
 of the human begins ; the way in which the one operated upon the 
 other : all these are but the transfer to the subject of inspiration 
 of the self- same inexplicable questions which exercised the mind 
 of the Church in earlier times with reference to the Incarnation 
 of Christ and Sacramental Grace.' Thorold, in Radley Sermons, 
 1861, p. 89 : ' Surely there is a real and close analogy between the 
 human and Divine natures in the Person of Christ and the human 
 and divine elements in the inspired Word.' See also Schaff, 
 Germany, <J-c, p. 298; Tait, Inspiration and Justification, 1861; 
 Heard, Neiv Wine in Old Bottles, p. 137 ; Quarterly Review, Jan. 
 18G1, p. 304; Journal of Sacred Literature, July 1862, p. 470, &c. 
 
 Note 5, page 6. The history of this distinction is traced by 
 Dr. Lee with his usual admirable fulness : Inspiration of Holy 
 Scripture, 2nd ed., pp. 27, 462, &c. On the theological side of 
 his theory, compare Coleridge, Confessions of an Enquiring Spirit, 
 p. 20 : ' the revealing Word and the inspiring Spirit.' P. 77 : ' the 
 inspiration, the imbreathment, of the predisposing and assisting 
 Spirit — the revelation of the informing Word.' P. 88 : 'revelation 
 by the Eternal Word, and actuation of the Holy Spirit.' For Avhat 
 may be said against this theological determination, that ' Revelation 
 is the peculiar function of the Eternal Word, Inspiration the 
 result of the agency of the Holy Spirit' (Lee, p. 29) — a point 
 which does not come under consideration in these Lectures — see 
 Christian Remembrancer, Jan. 1856, p. 23 ; and Donaldson's Christian 
 Orthodoxy, p. 309, with Dr. Lee's rejoinder in the Preface to his 
 second edition, to which all references in these notes are adjusted. 
 
 More generally, compare Morell, Philosophy of Religion, p. 150 : 
 ' all revelation, as we showed, implies two conditions : it implies, 
 namely, an intelligible object presented^ and a given power of 
 recipiency in the subject ; and in popular language, when speaking 
 of the manifestation of Christianity to the world, -\ve confine the 
 term revelation to the former of these conditions, and appropriate 
 
2G2 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 the word inspiration to designate the latter.' See on this, Aids to 
 Faith, p. 299 ; and on the other side, Davidson's Introduction to 
 the Old Testament, i. 445. 
 
 "Whatever may he said of the alleged connection between this 
 distinction and the objective truths of theology, and whatever 
 difficulties may be raised against the subjective analysis, there can 
 be no question that it is absolutely necessary, for the sake of clear- 
 ness, to draw a broad difference between the materials, which may 
 or may not have been supernaturally communicated, and the 
 faculties which were in all cases enabled to receive them. The 
 distinction, for instance, would tend to clear up the controversy 
 on Tillotson's meaning, as discussed by Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, 
 Defence of Dr. Williams, p. 135, and Dr. M'Caul, Testimonies to 
 the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, p. 133. The assertion that 'all 
 the penmen of the Old Testament were inspired,' 1 is entirely con- 
 sistent with the belief, that ' Moses might write ' what things he 
 had done or seen ' without an immediate revelation of them.' Cf. 
 other similar cases in Stephen, pp. 14G, 156, &c, and E. and R., 
 p. 345. Similarly in an argument of Mr. Burgon's, I. I., pp. 94, 
 102, the difficulty arises from a confusion between these two 
 conceptions. There is plainly truth on both sides ; inspiration was 
 not likely to come and go, as the subjects of successive chapters 
 varied ; yet we need not suppose that the list of the Dukes of 
 Edom was dictated to Moses by a voice from heaven. The inspira- 
 tion may be held to be all-pervading by those who acknowledge 
 that the revelation was but partial. Compare Bull's Sermon, 
 Works, i. 240, on Human Means useful to Inspired Persons : ' even 
 persons Divinely inspired, and ministers of God, did not so wholly 
 depend upon Divine inspiration, but that they made use also of 
 the ordinary help and means, such as reading of books, with study 
 and meditation on them, for their assistance in the discharge of 
 their office.' And see below, Lecture II., Note 12. 
 
 Note 6, page 7. For definitions of insjriration, and criticisms 
 upon them, besides the great magazine of materials in Dr. Lee, 
 and other writers on the special subject, see Mr. MorelTs Philosophy 
 of Religion, pp. 149-92, and the remarks of Professor II. Browne, 
 Aids to Faith, p. 3iC>, and jtfr. Farrar, B. L., p. 40. Add Stanley, 
 Epistles to the Corinthians, i. 253, 2G8, 1st ed. ; Ellicott, Aids 
 to Faith, p. 411; Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, p. 8; 
 Williams, Christianity and Hinduism, p. 471, sqq. ; an article by 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 263 
 
 Tholuck, translated in Journal of Sacred Literature, July 1863, 
 p. 353 ; J. M. Campbell, Thoughts on Revelation, p. 73, sqq. ; 
 Mr. Jenkins's pamphlets, Scriptural Interpretation, and A Word on 
 Inspiration* &c. See also below, Lecture V., Note 6. But the 
 main question of recent times has related to the conditions under 
 which we must accept that wider view of inspiration which the 
 formularies of our own Church embody. To give references on 
 this subject would be to present a list of a large portion of recent 
 controversial writings. 
 
 Note 7, page 9. The sense of the cardinal text, 1 Thess. v. 23, 
 has been obscured by three imperfect interpretations, which respec- 
 tively fail to exhaust it. 
 
 1. That it is only the same trichotomy Avith which we are 
 familiar in the classical writers. See Whitby, in loc. ; Donaldson, 
 Vindication of Protestant Principles, p. 162 (cf. Christian Orthodoxy, 
 p. 382) ; Mill, Analysis of Pearson, p. 87. Against this, see Bull, 
 Works, ii. 95 : ' many learned interpreters tell us here, that St. Paul 
 alludes to the threefold distinction of the soul, into the vegetative, 
 the sensitive, and the rational, and so that the Spirit in St. Paul 
 signifies no more than the to iiyzpovucbv, or mind. But it seems 
 plain to me, that the Apostle meddles not with the threefold faculty 
 of man's soul (for what hath the body to do in that distinction ?), 
 but rather describes the threefold principle of the composition, if I 
 may so speak, of a Christian (which St. Paul calls the oXoKX-npov), 
 who, besides his body and soul, which make him a perfect natural 
 man, hath also the Uyevpa, the Spirit (that Philo speaks on), to 
 render him a perfect man in order to a supernatural life.' Compare 
 Mr. Jowett, Comment, on Rom. vii. 14 : ' the language of the New 
 Testament does not conform to any received views of psychology.' 
 
 2. That the irvtvpa in this passage is the Holy Spirit. This is 
 the meaning of Bishop Bull, in the argument just cited. But his 
 statements on the subject vary. See Works, i. 32 : ' The same 
 our blessed Saviour assures our belief of this truth by His own 
 example, when, being at the point of death, He said, Father, into 
 Thy hands I commend my spirit, Luke xxiii. 46. He believed that 
 He had a spirit, a superior soul, that after the death of His body, 
 and the extinction of His animal soul, should still remain ; and 
 this He recommends to the gracious and safe custody of His Father. 
 And lest we should think that this was a peculiar privilege of the 
 soul of the Messias, St. Stephen, when dying, after the same manner 
 
 1 
 
264 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 commits his spirit to Christ Himself, then exalted at the right hand 
 of the Father, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, Acts vii. 59.' 
 See also Grotius, in loc, and Scudamore, Office of the Intellect, 
 p. 141. But compare the extract from Tatian, ib., p. 135 ; and Kayo, 
 Justin Martyr, p. 183. Also Olshausen, in loc: 'That weii/jct 
 cannot here be understood of the Holy Spirit, but denotes the 
 human spirit, is acknowledged by the latest interpreters,' &c. Bp. 
 Ellicott remarks, that ' Bull's theory is, in fact, really a tetractomy — 
 body, soul, spirit, and Holy Spirit.' Destiny of the Creature, p. 172. 
 3. That it is a gift peculiar to Christians. See above, Note 1. 
 A series of patristic quotations on the subject is collected by 
 Mr. J. B. Morris, in a note already referred to, Essay towards the 
 Conversion of the Hindus, pp. 319-29 ; and the doctrine, which 
 has been elaborately worked out by Delitzsch, Olshausen, and 
 others, is unfolded with great care in the Bishop of Gloucester's 
 Destiny of the Creature, &c. Compare his Commentaries on 1 Thess., 
 in loc. ; Gal. v. 1G; Pastoral Epistles, pp. v. vi., and 1 Tim. iii. 16, &c ; 
 and Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord, p. 112. The subject 
 has also received much attention in recent periodical writings. 
 
 Note 8, page 10. A mere arrangement of the passages will show 
 the different point of view from which Aristotle teaches the existence 
 of a Divine principle in man : — 
 
 All things have something Divine in them {wavra yap <£u<ra 'iyt 1 
 n delov Eth. N., VII. xiii. § G ; and Ktvel yap ttioq "kclvtu to ir fifiiv 
 Btiov Eth. Eud., vii. 14, p. 1248, a. 2G). The Final Cause, especially, 
 in all things is Divine (riji' apyijv 1~e kci\ to a'lTiov twv ayaQibi'Tipiov 
 ti com delov Tidt/JLEV Eth. N., I. xii.fn.). In man, therefore, happiness 
 is Divine (rwi' detoTUTuir — il juj) Qiotveptttvq Iutlv, lb., I. ix. § 3, xii. 
 § 4). The character of Divinity becomes more marked, in propor- 
 tion as each thing advances nearer to that central light of God. 
 Thus, as the iroXig is nobler than any individual man, so the end of 
 the ttoXiq is more Divine than that of the individual (lb., I. ii. § 8). 
 And the same rule exalts the universe itself, in jn-oportion as it 
 is thought loftier than man (lb., VI. vii. § 4). As the Deity is pure 
 intelligence ('ioTiv >/ voncrig ror^ewg voi](jiq- Metaph. A. 9, 1074, b. 34), 
 it follows that rove is the most pure and heavenly dement in man 
 (vovq — tiTt deiop ov mt uvtc, sits rwc kv \\\ilv re deiorarov Eth. A., X. 
 vii. § 1, § 8 ; cf. Metaph., p. 1074, b. 16). But this is especially 
 the active intellect (De An., HI. 5). Noue alone is entirely separable 
 from the rest of man's nature (>/ U tou rod Kt^wpKruivq' Eth. N., X. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 265 
 
 viii. § 3; cf. De An., III. 5). It came to him from without, as 
 something nobler than the rest of his organisation ; a visitant from a 
 higher sphere (6 U vovg ioikev eyyirecrdai- De An., I. 4, 408, b. 18 : 
 AttVercu tov vovv fiorov Bvpadev ETrtitriirat, K<xi Qelov tlvai fiovov De 
 Gen. An., II. 3, p. 736, b. 27). It survives alone when this mortal 
 body perishes (De An., I. 4, p. 408, b. 29 ; Metaph., A. 3, p. 1070, 
 a. 2G). Therefore a life in which vovq receives the most undivided 
 culture is the hajjpiest life (Eth. N., X. vii. Jin.). By living it, man 
 passes beyond his compound nature, into a state of being superior 
 to his own ; and through such a life we may conceive that the best 
 man draws nearest to the state and happiness of God (Eth. N., I. xii. 
 § 4 ; VII. i. § 2 ; X. viii. § 13). 
 
 On looking back over these passages, we may say, with Sir W. 
 Hamilton, that in the view of Aristotle, ( intellect, which he elsewhere 
 (than in Eth. Eud., vii. 14) allows to be pre-existent and immortal, 
 is a spark of the Divinity' (On Eeid, p. 773); but we must add, 
 with Bishop Hampden, that ' he mistakes the nature of the Divine 
 jirinciple in man, not including in it a capacity of moral improvement, 
 since he limits it to vovq, or intellect ' (On the Philosophical Evidence 
 of Christianity, p. 53, note) ; and with De Pressense, that 'his God, 
 as he himself says, is above virtue; it is pure thought, rather than 
 moral perfection ; indifferent and alone, He takes no cognisance of 
 man ; morality has no Divine basis, no eternal type, no aid to look 
 for from above' (Religions before Christ, p. 134). 
 
 We may suppose him to maintain that there are gradations 
 of Deity in all things that fall short of God ; as though it were 
 flashes of His light, particles of His essence, dispersed throughout 
 the universe ; springing from Him as their source, tending 
 to Him as their centre ; the final cause of all things being, 
 in a less proper sense, and, as though it were unconsciously, the 
 efficient cause of all things also, by virtue of an attractive or 
 magnetic power. But it is rather in his commentators than in 
 himself that we find the more explicit view, that all mind every- 
 where is but a portion of the Divine essence, and will be reabsorbed 
 after death in the fountain of light from which it has been 
 parted. Compare Mr. Farrar, B. L., p. 140. Also Sir A. Grant, 
 Essays on the Ethics, p. 238 : ' As long as the soul is described as 
 bearing the relation to the body of sight to the eye, of a flower to 
 the seed, of the impression to the wax, we may be content to consider 
 this a pieco of ancient physical philosophy. Our interest is different 
 
266 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 •when the soul is said to be related to the body " as a sailor to his 
 boat" \_De An., II. i. p. 413, a. 9]. But here is the point also where 
 Aristotle becomes less explicit. Having once mooted thi3 comparison, 
 he does not follow it up.' A creed which is thus implicitly, if not 
 explicitly, pantheistic, supplies no parallel for the Scripture doctrine, 
 that God bestowed on man a created and separate spirit, which, from 
 the moment of creation, ■would remain distinct from its Creator ; the 
 organ of Divine communion, the vehicle through which the Holy 
 Spirit visits us with power and light. 
 
 Note 9, page 10. I refer to the discussions raised by Mr. Darwin, 
 On the Origin of Species, Sir C. Lyell, On the Antiquity of Man, and 
 Professor Huxley's Evidence as to Maris Place in Nature ; to which 
 I may add Professor Rolleston's Lecture On the Affinities and 
 Differences between the Brain of Man and the Brains of certain 
 Animals, in the Medical Times and Gazette, Feb. and March, 18G2. 
 
 The following scale is given in Sir C. Lyell's work : — The largest 
 gorilla brain, 34-g- cubic inches ; smallest human, 62 ; largest human, 
 114 (p. 491 ; cf. Huxley, I. L, p. 77, who there supplies the reason 
 why, in an earlier part of Sir C. Lyell's book, p. 84, the smallest hu- 
 man brain is brought down to 46). Dr. Rolleston says : ' the maximum 
 ape's weight is 14 ounces, the minimum human is, speaking roughly, 
 21b., i.e. 32 ounces avoirdupois;' I. L, p. 262. Dr. Eorison had 
 stated the difference in the following terms : ' On a centigrade scale 
 of cerebral development, all values of the human organ shade into 
 each other from one hundred downwards to seventy-five ; while 
 all values of the brute brain, from the fish to the ape, range upwards 
 in close sequence from zero to about thirty.' (Replies to E. and R., 
 p. 325 ; cf. The Three Barriers, pp. 92, 97, 161, 164, 175.) 'But,' 
 he adds, ' there is no bridging brain between.' So also Huxley, 
 p. 104. Compare Anthropological Revieiv, i. 57. 
 
 Note 10, page 11. ' Alteram argumentum, quo probamus Numen 
 esse aliquod, sumitur a manifestissimo consensu omnium gentium, 
 apud quos ratio et boni mores non plane extincta sunt inducta 
 feritate ' (Grotius, De Ver. Rel. C, i. 2). I take this statement from 
 an elementary work, to show that the limitation under which all 
 reasonable men would propound it, excludes the appeal to the fuw 
 doubtful and degraded instances which have been urged against the 
 universality of the main proposition. Cf. the E. T. of Saisset, Modern 
 Pantheism, i. 34, note; and Max Muller, Ancient Sanskrit Litera- 
 ture, p. 538. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 267 
 
 Note 11, page 11. The following are among the chief recent 
 opinions on the differentia of man : — Language : Professor Max 
 Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, 1861, p. 13: 'However 
 much the frontiers of the animal kingdom have been pushed forward, 
 so that at one time the line of demarcation between animal and man 
 seemed to depend on a mere fold in the brain, there is one barrier 
 which no one has yet ventured to touch — the barrier of language.' 
 Cf. Locke, on p. 14 : ' the power of abstracting is not at all in brutes,' 
 &c. ; and p. 340 : ' Where, then, is the difference between brute and 
 man ? . . . I answer, without hesitation, the one great barrier between 
 the brute and man is Language.' 1 Huxley, Man's Place in Nature, 
 p. 103, note : ' believing, as I do, with Cuvier, that the possession 
 of articulate speech is the grand distinctive character of man,' &c. 
 P. 112: ' he alone possesses the marvellous endowment of intelligible 
 and rational speech, whereby, in the secular period of his existence, 
 he has slowly accumulated and organised the experience which is almost 
 wholly lost with the cessation of eveiy individual life in other animals; 
 so that now he stands raised upon it as on a mountain top, far above 
 the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his grosser 
 nature by reflecting, here and there, a ray from the infinite source of 
 truth.' Self-consciousness : — Bischoff, in Anthropological Review, 
 No. I. p. 56. Mind, Tongue, Hand : — Dr. Rorison, The Three 
 Barriers, p. 128; cf. pp. 92, 96, 97, 127. Improvable Reason: — 
 Archbishop Sumner, Records of Creation, p. 179, ed. 1850; cf. 
 Lyell, On the Antiquity of Man, p. 496. Morality and Religion : — 
 M. de Quatrefages; see Lyell, I. L, 496; translator of M. Saisset, 
 Modern Pantheism, i. 34, note ; also ii. 237. Compare Mr. Maurice, 
 Claims of the Bible and of Science, p. 49 : ' Let the physical 
 enquirer make out the affinity of each of us to the ape — such 
 humiliation is seasonable and profitable ; but he shall not hinder us 
 from bearing witness to him, that he has a glorious parentage ; that 
 he has the nature which was redeemed by the Son of God.' I need 
 not point out in detail the completeness with which this view 
 exhausts the imagery, in which the superiority of man over brute 
 has been so repeatedly described; Huxley, I. 1., p. Ill; Hallam, 
 Literature of Europe, iii. 286 ; &c. "We must only bear in mind 
 the warning of Pascal : ' It is a dangerous thing to demonstrate to 
 man how he resembles the brutes, without at the same time showing 
 him his superiority over them.' Thoughts, iv. 15 ; p. 85, ed. Pearce. 
 See further, Lecture VIII., p. 227. 
 
268 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 Note 12, page 13. 'Among other things "which revelation makes 
 known to its concerning the Divine Nature, is this, that it is capable 
 of divers kinds or manners of Presence, according to its own Will. 
 .... First of all, while existing everywhere, He yet dwells by a 
 purer and subtler influence, and, as we may say, by a more intimate 
 Presence, in some creatures than in others, in angels than in men, 
 in men than in the lower animals, and in these last, it should seem 
 probable, than in inanimate matter. . . . Again, it has pleased Him 
 on occasion to dwell, by intenser localisation, so to speak, in particular 
 places : as in the cherubic forms (probably) at the gates of Eden 
 after the Fall ; in the burning bush ; in the cloud at the Exodus, 
 and on Mount Sinai; in the Tabernacle ere the ark of the covenant 
 was made ; on the outstretched wings of the cherubim above the 
 ark, both in the Tabernacle and first Temple ; and behind the veil, 
 though there was no ark, in the second Temple.' — Freeman, Prin- 
 ciples of Divine Service, ii. 157-8. I am not concerned with the 
 inferences which Mr. Freeman draws. Cf. ib., iii. 15. ' Undoubtedly 
 there are many different degrees of the Divine Presence. God is in 
 some real sense more present in heaven than upon earth, and 
 in heaven itself most present on His heavenly throne ; and so upon 
 earth also, though He pervade the whole of it, yet is He chiefly in 
 His sanctuaries, and in them (it may be) most present at the holy 
 altar.' — Rawlinson, Christianity and Heathenism, p. 1G. Comjiare 
 Moberly, Sayings of the Great Forty Days, pp. 47, 84, &c. ; Hessey, 
 B. L., p. 183. 
 
 Note 13, page 17. The loQlv supplied in the E. V. of John vii. 39 
 is the old interpretation. See Suicer, Thcs. Eccles., ii. 777-8. 
 Lachmann admits cecSo^eVov into his text. ' Quod elicit Evangelista, 
 Spiritus nondwn erat datas, quia Jesus nondum crat glorijicattts, 
 quomodo intelligitur, nisi quia certa ilia Spiritus Sancti datio vel 
 missio post clarificationem Christi futura erat, qualis nunquam antea 
 fuerat ? Neque enim antea nulla erat, sed talis non fuerat. Si 
 enim antea Spiritus Sanctus non dabatur, quo impleti Prophets 
 locuti sunt ? cum aperte Scriptura clicat, et umltis locis ostendat, 
 Spiritu Sancto eos locutos fuisse ; cum et de ] Joanne Baptist*! 
 dictum sit, Spiritu Sancto rephbitur jam inde ab utero matria 
 sua) ; et Spiritu Sancto repletus Zacharias invenitur pater ejus, 
 ut de illo talia diceret; et Spiritu Sancto Maria ut talia de 
 Domino quern gestabat utero praxlicaret ; Spiritu Sancto Simeon et 
 Anna, ut magnitudinem Christi parvuli agnoscerent: quomodo ergo 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE L 269 
 
 Spiritus nondum erat datus, quia Jesus nondum erat clarificatus, 
 nisi quia ilia datio, vel donatio, vel missio Spiritus Sancti habitura 
 erat quandam proprietatem suam in ipso adventu, qualis antea 
 nunquam fuit ? ' — S. August., De Trinit., iv. 20 ; Opp., viii. 829. 
 But see the ample collection of passages and criticisms in Archdeacon 
 Hare's Mission of the Comforter, note H., pp. 231-97. The highest 
 form of the Presence of the Spirit in the spirit of man must be dis- 
 tinguished from His Presence ' not by measure ' in our Lord ; John 
 iii. 34. ' Habere Spiritum non per se, sed per participationem, ut 
 Theologi loquuntur, id est ad mensuram habere ; et eo modo dare, 
 est ad mensuram dare.' — Maldonat. in loc. ' Dixit R. Acha : 
 Etiam Spiritus S. non habitavit super Prophetas, nisi mensura 
 quadam. Quidam enim librum unarm, quidam duos vaticiniorum 
 ediderunt.' — Schoettgen., Hor. Heir, in loc. Cf. Origen, Horn, in 
 Luc, xxix. ; Opp., iii. 966. 
 
 Note 14, page 18. See Mr. Fitzjames Stephen's Defence of Dr. 
 Williams, p. 207, &c. ; E. and E., p. 78 ; Dr. Stanley's Lectures on 
 the Jewish Church, p. 442, &c. Mr. Chretien says : 'It has often been 
 remarked, that the word " inspiration " is employed in the Prayer 
 Book only to express the action of the Holy Spirit on the mind and 
 heart of the believer. It has not been so often observed that even 
 in these instances the word is of comparatively recent introduction.' 
 — Letter and Spirit, p. 179. The passages are as follows : — 
 (1.) Collect for Fifth Sunday after Easter, Gelasian, te inspirante; 
 Muratori, i. 585. (2.) Prayer for the Church militant. (3.) Collect 
 for purity before Communion, per infusionem, Muratori, ii. 383 ; 
 Sarum Missal, p. 579, ed. Forbes. (4.) The Veni Creator Sj)iritus ; 
 'Thy heavenly grace inspire," 1 1552; 'Our souls inspire,' 1 1662. 
 (5.) Article XIII. : ' Works done before the grace of Christ, and the 
 inspiration of His Spirit; ' spiritus ejus afflatum, 1552—62. Cf. Concil. 
 Trid., Sess. vi. Can. 3: ' si quis dixerit, sine prarveniente Spiritus 
 Sancti inspiratione] &c. 
 
 Note 15, page 19. Compare a similar distinction drawn by 
 Hooker on another subject, E. P., III. viii. § 5 : ' The cause why 
 such declamations prevail so greatly, is, for that men suffer them- 
 selves in two respects to be deluded : one is, that the wisdom of man 
 being debased either in comparison with that of God, or in regard of 
 some special thing exceeding the reach and compass thereof, it 
 seemeth to them (not marking so much) as if simply it were con- 
 demned.' ' As there is a sense in which the grant of glory was made 
 
270 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 even under the Law, as in its miracles, ... so in another point of 
 view it belongs exclusively to the promised blessedness hereafter. 
 Still there is a real and sufficient sense in which it is ascribed to the 
 Christian Church.' — Newman, Parochial Sermons, iii. 281. 'Now 
 what were all these but pledges and earnests of a bliss which is to 
 come hereafter ? Eeal and high as was this fellowship with God, it 
 was but the first manifestation of that glory which shall be revealed. It 
 was the foretaste of this Beatitude ; the inheritance of the pure in 
 heart ; a faint anticipation of that vision in bliss, which makes 
 blessed all who behold it. Let us then go on to consider, so far as 
 we may, what is the nature of the beatific vision. It is plainly 
 something that is yet to come. " The pure in heart shall see God." 
 This was not finally fulfilled in the visions of seers, nor in the 
 presence of Christ in the flesh, nor in any manifestation that has yet 
 been made of God to His servants. Such beginnings and first intui- 
 tions as they may have had here in this life did but lead on to the 
 perfect sight of the Divine Presence. They were of old both fu (film ents 
 and prophecies, earnests and actual gifts, in part realities, and in 
 part adumbrations, of that vision of God which shall be hereafter.' — 
 Manning, University Sermons, p. 123. 'The gift, then, of written 
 revelation in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, is distinctly and 
 expressly referred to the Spirit of God. But the Gospel is eminently 
 the dispensation of the Spirit. His Presence after our Lord's 
 ascension was to be so much more fully manifested, that by com- 
 parison it is said to be vouchsafed for the first time.' — Birks, The 
 Bible and Modern Thought, p. 238. Cf. Maldonat. on Matt. ix. 13. 
 Note 1G, page 20. ' When the Church is asked for her proofs of 
 the Divine authority of the Scriptures, her first word is — Testimony ; 
 and her second is — Testimony; and her third is — Testimony. It 
 is ti-ue there are countless subsidiary confirmations of their claim to 
 be what she says they are ; just as there were many subsidiary 
 things which went, in Demosthenes' view, to make an orator. But 
 in the last resort, when pressed with the enquiry as to what her 
 mind rests on as ultimate and beyond appeal and gainsaying, the 
 proof which the Church alleges is one and one only. The whole 
 thing has been a matter of testimony from the beginning.' — Christian 
 Remembrancer, Jan. 1856, p. 6. ' We receive the books of Holy 
 Scripture on the testimony of Christ, speaking in His Church.' — 
 Wordsworth, Inspiration, p. 82. We must distinguish, however, 
 between the testimony of the Church and the personal authority of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 271 
 
 the individual writer. Thus, when Mr. Swainson says : 'By an 
 amount of evidence which seems to be overwhelming, it is proved 
 that when a book claimed to be admitted on the Canon of the 
 Church, only one enqiury was made, and that was, Wlio was the 
 Author ? and if the document or letter could be proved satisfactorily 
 to have proceeded from an Apostle of our Lord, the enquiry was 
 closed' {Authority of N. T., p. 9), we feel that the account leaves 
 some difficult questions altogether without an answer. E.g., on 
 p. 18 he says : ' The question which so long agitated the Church as 
 to the authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews, was really a question 
 as to its author, and not until it was believed that the Epistle was 
 written by St. Paul, does it seem that men's minds were satisfied, 
 and the work allowed to take its place among the acknowledged 
 documents of the Christian covenant.' It seems to follow, that 
 whenever they doubt whether it was written by St. Paul, they are 
 justified in being dissatisfied again. We must be cautious not to 
 lay down unguardedly a principle of only partial application, which 
 would needlessly increase the responsibility of all critical enquiries. 
 Mr. Chretien, Letter and Spirit, p. 49, dwells on the difficulties in 
 point of fact ; and Dr. Wordsworth says : ' We cannot say, with some 
 persons, that we receive the Scriptures as Divine because we know 
 who their writers were, and that they were good men, full of the 
 Holy Ghost, and that therefore whatever they wrote must be inspired 
 of God. The truth is, we do not know by whom some of the books 
 of Scripture were written.' — Inspiration, p. 81. 
 
 On the other hand, ' a true revelation of God must be its own 
 witness.' — Campbell, Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 13, 26, 71, &c. 
 ' The question of the Canon of Scripture, and the question of the 
 Inspiration of Scripture, are in no way to be confounded. The 
 O. T. Canon we receive now, as it was recognised by the O. T. 
 Church. The N. T. Canon, the N. T. Church, after a time, felt 
 
 called to fix, and proceeded to ascertain and fix accordingly 
 
 But the question of Inspiration is altogether prior to, and indepen- 
 dent of, this matter. The existence of inspired writings having 
 Divine authority was a fact known and familiar to the Church from 
 the beginning. The N. T. Scriptures, successively as they were 
 written, added themselves to the Old in' the Canon of men's faith, 
 as new stars appearing in the firmament would take their place 
 among the stars of heaven.' — lb., p. 103. This conception of 
 'proving itself by its own light' has been the subject of much recent 
 
272 NOTES TO LECTURE T. 
 
 criticism. Sec cf Calvin, E. and R., 828 ; Stephen, Defence of Wil- 
 liams, p. 88; M'Caul, Testimonies, p. 83: of Jackson, Stephen, p. 97 ; 
 M'Caul, pp. 84, 115 : of Chillingworth, M'Caul, p. 84, &c. Compare 
 Mr. Goldwin Smith, Rational Religion, p. 16 : ' The histories which 
 contradict the Article as to the matter of fact require elaborate con- 
 futation. If we can know God, and know His voice, these difficulties 
 are as nothing ; if we cannot know God, they are death.' ' In short, 
 whatever finds me bears witness for itself that it has proceeded from 
 a Holy Spirit.' — Coleridge, Confessions, &c, pp. 10, 13, 72. Cf. 
 Browne, Aids to Faith, pp. 297, 314 ; Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 454 ; 
 Ellicott, Aids to Faith, p. 409 ; ' The Book has found him,' &c. 
 1 Eye of God's Word! ' — Christian Year, St. Bartholomew; with the 
 quotation from Miller's B.L., p. 135 : ' this eye, like that of a por- 
 trait, uniformly fixed upon us, turn where we will.' 
 
 ' But how do we know the Bible to be the Word of God ? Both 
 by testimony and by the answer of its Spirit to our spirit — by 
 external authority, and by its own.' — Chretien, Letter and Spirit, 
 p. 17. ' A healthy eye is required for perfect vision. But it is 
 not needful, happily, to know whether our sight depends on the 
 cornea or the crystalline lens, on the aqueous or the vitreous 
 humour, or " on a combination of the four, or of some of them, and 
 in what order and proportion," before we can discern and rejoice in 
 the presence of a beloved friend. A humble heart and a healthy 
 conscience will lead the most unlettered Christian to a firm belief in 
 the Gospel, and in the truth of the sacred Scriptures, though he 
 may never have cared to settle what share each kind of evidence 
 may have had in this result.' — Birks, Bible and Modern Thought, 
 p. 201. 
 
 The Scripture testimonies have been collected by Gaussen, Dr. 
 Wordsworth, the Bishop of Gloucester, and others ; the patristic 
 proofs are arranged in Bouth, Rell. Sacr., v. 335-53 ; Lee, Appendix 
 G., pp. 484-527 ; Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, Appendix B., 
 pp. 383—423 : and the witness of the English Church is discussed 
 in the speeches of Mr. Fitzjames Stephen and Sir R. Phillimore, and 
 the work of Dr. M'Caul. On the consilience of reasonings, com- 
 pare Lyall, Propcedia Proph., pp. 138, 351 ; Birks, Bible and Modern 
 Thought, p. 202 ; Westcott, I. I., p. 18. 
 
 Note 17, page 2 , . Mr. Morell has collected several definitions of 
 Revelation; Philosophy of Religion, p. IIS. Many others will be 
 found in treatises to which reference has been already made in 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 273 
 
 Note 6, and elsewhere. A definition proposed by Dr. Rowland 
 Williams gave rise to a controversy, which ran through several 
 pamphlets : — ' Revelation is an unveiling of the true God, espe- 
 cially as Love and as a Spirit, to the eyes of our mind;' — Lam- 
 peter- Theology, p. 35, criticised by the Bishop of St. David's, 
 Charge, 1857, p. 73. The reply of Dr. Williams is in his Earnestly 
 respectful Letter, p. 23 ; the Bishop's rejoinder, on p. 24 of his 
 Letter to the Rev. Dr. Williams ; and Dr. Williams's further answer 
 on p. 2 of his Appendix, and p. 18 of his Persecution for the Word. 
 Compare Christianity and Hinduism, p. 26. I annex one definition 
 from the interest attached to the name of its author : ' Revelation is 
 a voluntary approximation of the Infinite Being to the ways and 
 thoughts of finite humanity.' — Remains of A. H. Hallam, p. 176. 
 In the first edition of Mr. Jowett's Commentary on Galatians, i. 12, 
 he had said that ' it seems to come from without, and is not to be 
 confounded with any inward emotion, any more than a dream or 
 the sight of a painting.' But the passage is altered in the second 
 edition. 
 
 An important question has been raised on the propriety of extend- 
 ing the term beyond the bounds of Scripture, as in the analogous 
 case of Insjfiration. The practice has been not uncommon : ' In- 
 nititur fides nostra revelationi Apostolis et Prophetis facta?, qui 
 canonicos libros scripserunt, non autem revelationi, si qua fuit aliis 
 doctor -ibus facta. .' — S. Thom. Aquin., I. i. Art. viii.ym. ' So full, so 
 unambiguous, is St. Paul's testimony to this revelation of God, 
 written in " the volume of the creatures ;" and such a revelation, 
 too, as he declares man had the intellectual eye to read, if he had 
 but had the will to obey. But there is also a second natural reve- 
 lation of God, which the Apostle will not suffer us to forget ; that 
 which is contained in the innate sense of our nature ; that moral 
 constitution of our souls,' &c. — Davison's Remains, p. 90. ' That 
 supernatural notices and revealed light were communicated, more 
 or less, to the bulk of mankind in every age is most certain and 
 uncontestable ; but whether directly by Scripture, or by other more 
 oblique or more remote means, may often admit of a dispute.' — 
 Waterland, Works, v. 15. ' I apprehend that it would be more 
 correct to speak of the Revelation of God as consisting of four parts, 
 or rather as made in four modes,' by creation, by miracles, by the 
 Spirit of God, and in a written book. — Maitland, Eruvin, p, 2. 
 ' Revelation, properly speaking, is an universal, not a partial gift.'— 
 
 T 
 
274 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 Newman, Arians, p. 89 ; see below, Lecture II., Note 2. ' What 
 can we really know of Him but from His own revelations of Him- 
 self; His revelations in the book of nature, in the book of the 
 world's history, in the book of our own consciences, but, above all, 
 in that book which contains His own utterances by His prophets, 
 and in these last days by His Son V — Professor H. Browne, Messiah 
 as foretold, $-c, p. 54. 'A Divine Revelation is knowledge bestowed 
 on us by God in the form of human thought and speech, the Holy 
 Spirit employing men for this end. This is what we mean when we 
 speak of the Scriptures as a Divine Revelation ; while in a larger 
 sense, all by which God litters Himself to us in creation and provi- 
 dence, and the Divine constitution of things, is Revelation.' — 
 J. M. Campbell, Thoughts on Revelation, p. 74. On the other hand, 
 the Provost of Oriel has recently protested against the application of 
 the term to ' a voice within us, prior to Revelation, or itself, as we 
 may choose to call, or rather to miscall it, a prior Revelation.' — 
 Province of Private Judgment, 1861, pp. 17, 28. So also Dr. Lee, 
 p. 4, proposing to restrict the word revelation to the one sense, and 
 to use the word manifestation for the other. 
 
 Note 18, page 24. Compare the two passages translated by Sir W. 
 Hamilton from Kant and Jacobi ; Lectures on Metaphysics, i. 39-41. 
 The latter, 'Nature conceals God ; man revealsGod,' isalso quoted by 
 Mr. Mansel, B.L., p. 343, and Aids to Faith, p. 28. The former has been 
 far more widely used. 'Two things there are, which,. the oftener and 
 the more steadfastly we consider, fill the mind with an ever new, an 
 ever rising admiration and reverence ; the starry heaven above, the 
 moral law within.' Quoted also, Discussions, p. 301 ; Young, Pro- 
 vince of Reason, p. 141 ; Jowett, Commentary on St. Paul, ii. 387, 
 413, first ed. ; Saisset, Modern Pantheism, ii. 146 ; Stanley, Sermons 
 in the East, p. 75. 
 
 Note 19, page 26. ' In the Old Testament, as in the New, the 
 question as regards religion is not the reality of the facts which are 
 there recorded — that is a matter to be determined by historical 
 proof — but the proper explanation of them. Whether the facts 
 related in the books of Moses really happened is one thing ; whether 
 they were wrought by God, and if so, for what end, belongs to a 
 different enquiry. So, also, when we are speaking of the facts re- 
 corded in the New Testament.' — Lyall, Propccdia Prophetica, p. 3. 
 ' Our revelations, we may say, were not the literary work of some 
 sage or legislator, or put forth as a mere writing or collection of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 275 
 
 writings ; but they are a series of historical revelations, given at 
 different times and in different manners, and by different messengers, 
 each for its special purpose in connection with what was then passing 
 in the world ; and yet all having reference to one great evan- 
 gelical purpose.' — Hampden, B. L., Preface to 2nd ed., p. xli. 'The 
 conveyance of God's will by means of facts is the foundation of what 
 we term Eevealed Religion.' — Lee, p. 6. ' Much of what we learn 
 from the sacred record is not of a spiritual nature at all ; but even 
 when that which is written is in its highest aspect purely spiritual, 
 and what is only truly known when spiritually discerned, the spiri- 
 tual is presented to us in Divine facts, which, as facts, could only 
 become known by revelation. The Divine facts are commended to 
 our faith by the glory of God which shines in them, and by the 
 light which they shed on our condition as subjects of the kingdom 
 of God ; but as facts they could never have become the subjects of 
 human knowledge, excepting by such inspiration as we ascribe to 
 holy apostles and prophets. The great facts which our faith em- 
 braces are as the links of a Divine chain, of which some links have 
 had a visibility here on earth, while the rest belong entirely to the 
 invisible. But even of those links which have been visible — the life 
 and death of the Son of God — the whole spiritual aspect has been 
 invisible, and could only be known to man by revelation.' — Campbell, 
 Thoughts on Revelation, p. 90. Cf. Birks, Bible and Modern Thought, 
 pp. 86, 237, 340, 374, sqq. 
 
 Note 20, page 35. Dr. Lee has collected instances from the 
 Fathers of the similitudes employed ' to illustrate the effect of the 
 Divine influence upon the souls of those "holy men of old, who 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," ' under the two 
 classes of musical instruments and material similitudes of any kind. 
 Appendix G , pp. 503-7 ; cf. pp. 81—3. I annex a few from 
 more recent writers. A Harp or Lute (S. Justin. Mart., Cohort, 
 ad Gent., 8 ; Opp., ii. 38, ed. Otto ; S. August., Be Civit. Dei, xvi. 2 ; 
 Opp., vii. 416, &c); Hooker, Works, iii. 662-3: 'They neither 
 spake nor wrote any word of their own, but uttered syllable by 
 syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths, no otherwise than the 
 harp or the lute doth give a sound according to the discretion of his 
 hands that holdeth and striketh it with skill. The difference is 
 only this : an instrument, whether it be a pipe or harp, maketh a 
 distinction in the times and sounds, which distinction is well per- 
 ceived of the hearer, the instrument itself understanding not what 
 
276 NOTES TO LECTURE I. 
 
 is piped or harped. The prophets and holy men of God not so . . . 
 For herein they were not like harps or lutes, but they felt, they felt 
 the power and strength of their own words. "When they spake of 
 our peace, every corner of their hearts was filled with joy. When 
 they prophesied of mourning, lamentations, and woes, to fall upon 
 us, they wept in the bitterness and indignation of spirit, the arm 
 of the Lord being mighty and strong upon them.' — (Also in Lee, 
 pp. 22, 82.) Coleridge, Confessions, p. 14 : ' This is the very essence 
 of the doctrine, that one and the same Intelligence is speaking in 
 the unity of a Person ; which unity is no more broken by the diver- 
 sity of the pipes through Avhich it makes itself audible, than is a 
 tune by the different instruments on which it is played by a con- 
 summate musician, equally perfect in all ;' after which he proceeds 
 to ' enquire on what authority this doctrine rests.' An Organ ; 
 Gaussen, Theopneustie, p. G7 : ' Avez-vous visite Fetonnant organiste 
 qui fait couler avec tant de charme les larmes du voyageur, dans la 
 cathedral e de Fribourg, pendant qu'il touche Fun apres l'autre ses 
 admirables claviers, et qu'il vous fait entendre tour a tour, ou la 
 marche des guerriers sur le rivage, ou les chants de la priere sur 
 le lac, pendant la tempete, ou les voix de Faction de graces apres 
 qu'elle est calmee ? Tous vos sens sont ebranles, car vous avez 
 tout vu et tout entendu. Eh bien, c'est ainsi que FEternel Dieu, 
 puissant en harmonie, a, tour a tour, appuye le doigt de son Esprit 
 sur les touches qu'il avait choisies pour l'heure de son dessein, et 
 pour Funite de son hymne celeste.' Again, p. 75 : ' Ce sont les 
 orgues du Tres-Haut, mais qui vont charmer le coeur de Fhomme, 
 et remuer sa conscience, dans les cabanes du berger, comme dans 
 les palais ; dans les chambres hautes du pauvre, comme dans les 
 tentes du desert.' The figure is worked out with great skill and 
 refinement by Mr. Chretien, Letter and Spirit, p. 25. A Pen and 
 Penmen, from Ps. xlv. 2 : ' My tongue is the pen of a ready 
 writer.' (Cf. S. August., Conf. vii. 27, Opp., I. 143, E : ' venerabilem 
 stilum Spiritus tui; ' Enarr. in Ps. cxliv. 17, Opp., IV. 1G20, F: 
 ' chirograph um Dei.') On the mechanical theory, the writer becomes 
 ' the pen and not the penman of the Holy Spirit.' — Westcott, Introd. 
 to Gospels, p. 6 ; Lee, p. 22 ; Stanley, Jewish Ch., p. 433; Farrar, 
 B. L., p. 159. 'According to this theory, as expounded by such 
 divines as Quenstedt and Ilollaz, the prophets and apostles were mere 
 amanuenses of the Holy Ghost. It was only per catachresin that 
 they could be properly said to be the authors of the writings which 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE I. 277 
 
 bore their names ; utpote qui potius Dei auctoris calami fuerunt.' — 
 Bishop of St. David's, Letter to Dr. R. Williams, p. 38. On the other 
 hand, ' if the sacred writers were not clerks, but, so to speak, secretaries 
 of state, men entrusted with God's secrets, imbued with the mind 
 and counsels of God, acquainted with His secret will and designs, 
 receiving from Him, when necessary, precise verbal instructions, 
 when this was unnecessary, speaking from the fulness of their own 
 knowledge, but in every case (to keep up our metaphor) having to 
 submit their despatches to the eye of the Great King, to receive His 
 sanction and authentication, before sending them forth as documents 
 containing their Master's pleasure; then diversities of style, and 
 individual idiosyncrasy breaking out, is exactly what we should 
 expect.' — Lord A. Hervey, Inspiration of Holy Scripture, p. 83. 
 ' Not copying machines, but living men.' — Birks, Bible and Modem 
 Thought, p. 283. ' No figure can more correctly represent the idea 
 to be conveyed, as there is none more common with writers both of 
 the Old and New Testaments, than that which teaches us to consider 
 the prophets and apostles as ambassadors from God to mankind.' — 
 Lyall, Propcedia Proph., p. 175. 
 
278 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Note 1, page 38. This phrase is sometimes challenged ; but I 
 think without just cause. In his Charge of 1857, p. 82, the Bishop 
 of St. David's speaks of the ' original rule ' of Holy Scripture ' as 
 one superior to every other in kind as well as in degree.' Dr. 
 Williams objects, Earnestly Respectful Letter, p. 30 : ' Difference 
 of degree is as of bght from twilight, or full-grown manhood from 
 childhood. Difference of kind is as of good from evil.' The Bishop 
 rejoins by enlarging his original image. He had said : ' The fulness 
 of the stream is the glory of the fountain ; and it is because the 
 Ganges is not lost among its native hills, but deepens and widens 
 until it reaches the ocean, that so many pilgrimages are made to its 
 springs.' ' I meant,' he now writes (p. 34), ' that the authority 
 of Scripture was unique, because it is not merely a record of 
 revelations, but the one original record of all the revelation that 
 mankind has ever received, or has any reason to expect, concerning 
 the objects of Christian faith and hope. I meant that it stands 
 alone,' &c. ' If I had aimed at a more exact correspondence, I 
 should have compared Holy Scripture to the source of a mighty 
 stream, with the addition, that it possesses a quality distinguishing 
 it from all other waters, and likewise a marvellous virtue, by which 
 it assimilates all the tributaries which swell its volume to its own 
 nature.' In Dr. Lushington's Judgment on Dr. Williams, June 25, 
 18G2, p. 16, it is held that the acknowledgement of a difference in 
 degree is not enough to satisfy the English formularies. 
 
 Dr. Lee, in like manner, had said that the inspiration of the 
 sacred writers ' differs, not merely in degree, but absolutely in kind, 
 from that ordinary operation of the Spirit usually called by the same 
 name ' (p. 31) ; and again, p. 232, note. For this he is taken to 
 task by Mr. Swainson, Authority ofN. T., p. GO, note : ' How things 
 which differ in kind can be compared in degree, I am unable to 
 judge.' We may borrow an answer from a different branch of 
 science, where the same denial has been often given (e. g. in Anthrop. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 279 
 
 Rev., i. 117). ' Even if it were to be clearly proved, which, however, 
 I do not say it yet is, that the differences between man's brain and 
 that of the apes are differences entirely of quantity, there is no reason 
 in the nature of things why so many and such weighty differences of 
 degree should not amount to a difference of kind. Differences of 
 degree and differences of kind are, it is true, mutually exclusive 
 terms in the anthropomorphic language of the schools; whether 
 they are so also in the laboratory of nature, we may very well 
 doubt.' — Rolleston, in Medical Times and Gazette, March 1862, 
 p. 262. 
 
 But in truth the matter seems sufficiently simple. The objection 
 overlooks the fact, that inspiration can be regarded under different 
 categories. Under one, we can mark out and compare together the 
 different gradations of the Holy Spirit's Presence (Lecture L, Notes 
 12, 13). Under another we can deal with the highest modes of 
 His Presence, as specifically distinct from all other forms, by the 
 use of a differentia, in which the fulness of His influence becomes a 
 leading feature. For purposes of comparison, we recognise the 
 difference of degree. For purposes of contrast, we maintain that the 
 highest form of presence combines with the gift of an objective 
 revelation, to constitute a difference in kind. 
 
 Note 2, page 40. Compare Horsley's Dissertation On the Pro- 
 phecies of the Messiah dispersed among the Heathen, p. 28, &c. ; 
 Lyall, Propwd. Proph., p. 390, on the Preparation of Prophecy 
 among the Heathen ; Mr. Gladstone's Homer and the Homeric Age, 
 vol. ii. ; Newman's Arians, p. 88, on the ' doctrine of the Alexan- 
 drian School,' which he calls ' the Divinity of Traditionary Religion,' 
 and more generally, such passages as the foUowing : c I mean those 
 historical matters concerning the ancient state of the first world, the 
 deluge, the sons of Noah, the Children of Israel's deliverance out of 
 Egypt, the life and doings of Moses their captain, with such like : 
 the certain truth whereof delivered in Holy Scripture is of the 
 heathen which had them only by report so intermingled with 
 fabulous vanities, that the most which remaineth in them to be seen 
 is the show of dark and obscure steps, where some part of the truth 
 hath gone.' — Hooker, E. P., I. xiii. 2, note. ' Whatsoever good 
 effects do grow out of their religion, who embrace instead of the true 
 a false, the roots thereof are certain sparks of the light of truth 
 intermingled with the darkness of error, because no religion can 
 wholly and only consist of untruths.' — lb., V. i. 5. ' The pagans 
 
280 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 might be instructed in Divine things, either by reading the Scriptures, 
 or by conversing with Jews, or by conversing with other nations 
 that had been acquainted with Jews, or by means of public edicts of 
 several great princes that had favoured the Jews, or lastly, by tradi- 
 tion handed down to them from Abraham, or from Noah, or from the 
 first parents of mankind.' — Waterland, Works, v. 16. ' There is yet 
 another more general way by which revealed religion, in some of the 
 principal heads or articles of it, has been diffused through the world ; 
 I mean tradition delivered down from Noah, or from the first parents 
 of the whole race, who received it immediately from God. The 
 doctrine of one true God supreme might probably come this way, 
 and be so diffused to all mankind. The like may be said of the 
 doctrine of an overruling Providence, and of the immortality of 
 the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments. These 
 general principles, so universally believed and taught in all ages and 
 countries, are much better referred to patriarchal tradition than to 
 any later and narrower source. I know not whether the same 
 observation might not be as justly made of some other doctrines; as 
 of the creation of the world, and corruption of human nature, and 
 perhaps of several more of slighter consideration ; ' and possibly 
 such rites as sacrifices, Sabbaths, and tithes, and also morality. — 
 lb., pp. 19-22. 'The whole of the Timams, in fact, is a legend, 
 rather than a philosophical enquiry. It appeals, for the reception of 
 its truths, to the shadows with which it veils them, and the mystic 
 echoes of sounds heard by the listening ear from afar. In that 
 legend, indeed, we have very considerable evidence of the pure 
 source, from which the heathen world drew much of the sacred 
 truth that was wrapped up and disfigured in their fables. We 
 perceive in such a document of ancient philosophy, at once the sure 
 and wide-spread knowledge resulting from a Scriptural Revelation, 
 and the obscurity and fallibility of the information of Tradition.' 
 — Hampden, Fathers of Greek Philosophy, p. 287. ' The most 
 reverent regard to the inviolable sacredness of that truth with which 
 the father of the promised seed and his descendants were peculiarly 
 entrusted, consists well with the belief of the preservation of much 
 original truth elsewhere.' — Mill, Pantheistic Principles, ii. 62. ' It 
 would seem, then, that there is something true and divinely revealed 
 in every religion all over the earth, overloaded as it may be, and at 
 times even stifled by the impieties which the corrupt will and under- 
 standing of man have incorporated with it. Such are the doctrines 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 281 
 
 of the power and presence of an invisible God, of His moral law 
 and governance, of the obligation of duty and the certainty of a 
 just judgment, and of reward and punishment being dispensed in 
 the end to individuals ; so that revelation, properly speaking, is an 
 universal, not a partial gift ; and the distinction between the state 
 of Israelites formerly and Christians now, and that of the heathen, 
 is, not that we can, and they cannot, attain to future blessed- 
 ness, but that the Church of God ever has had, and the rest of 
 mankind never have had, authoritative documents of truth, and 
 appointed channels of communication with Him.' — Newman, I. I., 
 pp. 88-9. The limitations under which this view must be applied 
 are now generally recognised. 'Few, if any, will now maintain the 
 hypothesis of our old divines of the last century, that the stories of 
 Iphigenia and Idomeneus are stolen from the story of Jephthah's 
 daughter, or the labours of Hercules from the labours of Samson.' 
 — Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 306. ' It seems blasphemy to consider 
 (some) fables of the heathen world as corrupted and misinterpreted 
 fragments of a Divine revelation once granted to the whole race of 
 mankind.' — M. Muller, Comparative Mythology,^. 8 (Oxford Essays, 
 1856). 
 
 Note 3, page 41. In Waterland's Charge, The Wisdom of the 
 Ancients borroived from Divine Revelation (Works, v. 1-29), he 
 gives a catena of passages in illustration of the method ; tracing it 
 through Aristobulus, Josephus, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus 
 of Antioch, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, 
 Origen, Lactantius, Eusebius, and Theodoret. Dr. Cassar Morgan 
 gives a similar set of references from Justin Martyr and Clemens 
 Alexandrinus; Trinity of Plato, 91-9, ed. Holden. 'Yet this 
 advantage, great as it really is, has not always been sufficient to 
 satisfy the pretensions of those who have been blessed with a Divine 
 revelation. Not contented with the bright sunshine which blazes 
 around them, they will scarcely allow the benighted heathen the 
 dim taper of human reason to guide their steps in their laborious 
 travels over the dark mountains. Whatever the Apostle Paul may 
 have said in his various expostulations with the Gentiles, and 
 particularly in his Epistle to the Romans, there are some far wiser, 
 in their own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason, who 
 boldly maintain, that whatever glimmerings of light the pagans of 
 old have been able to strike out by mere dint of labour and study, 
 have been all either directly or circuitously derived from the sacred 
 
282 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 writings.' — lb., p. 90. On the views of Clement, see also Bishop 
 Kaye, Clem. Alex., p. 186; Mozley, Proudest., 115; and on those of 
 Eusebius, Donaldson, Greek Lit., iii. 331-3. 
 
 Note 4, page 42. The titles of three well-known works by 
 Mr. Blakesley (Five Sermons on the Dispensation of Paganism, in 
 Condones Academical), Dean Trench {Christ the Desire of all 
 Nations ; or the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom, being the 
 Hidsean Lectures for 1846), and M. De Pressense {The Religions 
 before Christ, E. T., 1862). Add Mr. Maurice's Religions of the 
 World and their Relations to Christianity ; and a work which was 
 unfortunate only in its title, and in the melancholy event which 
 left it incomplete, the Christ and other Masteis of the late Arch- 
 deacon Hardwick. A great storehouse of materials is supplied 
 by Dr. Dollinger's Heidenthum und Judenthum, Regensburg, 1857 
 (E. T., The Gentile and the Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ, 
 1862). In other forms, and unhappily too often with different 
 issues, the subject has had a strong attraction for some of the most 
 active minds of the age; see, e.g., M. Renan's review of the great 
 work of Creuzer and Guigniaut, in Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse, 
 pp. 1-71, &c. Add M. Denis, Histoire des Theories et des Ide'es 
 Morales dans V Antiquite ; ouvrage couronne, 1856. 
 
 Note 5, page 42. 1. ' In what sense can it be said that there 
 is any connection between Paganism and Christianity so real as 
 to warrant the preacher of the latter to conciliate idolaters by 
 allusion to it ? St. Paul evidently connects the true religion with 
 the existing systems which he laboured to supplant in Acts xvii., 
 and his example is a sufficient guide to missionaries now, and a full 
 justification of the line of conduct pursued by the Alexandrians in 
 the instances similar to it.' — Newman, Arians, p. 87. ' Justin's 
 wish was to render the doctrines of Christianity as acceptable as 
 possible to the Gentiles, by pointing out features of resemblance 
 between them and the tenets of the philosophers.' — Bishop Kaye, 
 Justin Martyr, p. 47. ' Earlier Christianity regarded the Gentile 
 world more as a field of promise ; and saw in it the future harvest 
 rather than the present foe. . . . The early Church thus adopted 
 a friendly tone toward Gentile philosophy, and acknowledged sym- 
 pathies with it.' — Mozley, Pradcst., pp. 112—3. 
 
 2. The Prceparatio Evangelica of Eusebius ' is the epochal ivork 
 in regard to the new attitude assumed by Christian literature; it 
 is the declaration of a Christian, himself learned in profane lore, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 283 
 
 that from thenceforth the Church is as independent of heathen 
 philosophy as it is fearless of the secular opposition of the heathen 
 world.' — Donaldson, Greek Lit., iii. 332. Compare Mr. Farrar's 
 B. L., pp. 539, 639, sqq. 
 
 The following may suffice as representative passages for the two 
 chief stages : — 
 
 1. Ore Be ^d)Kpa.TT]g Xoyip d\?j0£t Krai eZetcmttikHiq tcivtu elg 
 <f>avepov nreipdro flpEiv, Kal cnrayEiv tu>v daipovwv tovq avQpioTrovg, 
 k. r. X. — S. Just. Mart., Apol., I. 5; Opp., i. p. 14, ed. Otto. 
 Kai oi ptrh Xoyov fiiwoavTEg Xpioriarot tlcri, Kav adsoi Evopiadrjirav, 
 oiov ev 'EXXrjai fxtv Sw.vpar^e koX 'Hpa/cAetroe Kal oi opoiot avrolg, 
 k.t.X. — lb., 46; i. p. 110. XpiffTtZ <5c, rw feat vtto Swcparouc otto 
 pipovg yvtaaQivTi, k. t. X. — lb., II. 10; i. p. 194, T Hv ueV ovv itpb 
 rfJQ tov Kvpiov xapovaiag Eig BiKatoavvrjv "EWtjo-iv avaymta (piXoaotyla' 
 vvvl Be ■^prjtTipr) irpog 6eo(rij3eiay ylverai, TrpoTraivEia Tig ovcra toIq 
 ti)v ttkttiv ci cnrocel^ewQ Kapnovpivoig' oti b ttovq gov, <pi)<rlv, ov pi) 
 Trpoatco-ipr], eirl rijv irpovotav ra KaXa avaipipovTog, lay te 'EMiji'iKa 
 ?/, eclv te i]jiETEpa. iravrioy jiEv yap a'inog twv koXwv 6 Qeog' aXXd 
 Twv fiEi>, Kara. TzporjyovpEvov, <hg Trjg re BiaOifKrig t^q TraXaiag /cat 
 rijg viag' tCjv Be, car' eVa/coXouQ/jua, <bg rrjg (piXoaofiag' rct^a Be Kal 
 Trporjyovpivwg rolg "JLXXrjaiv iBodr) tote, irplv tj tov Kvpiov KaXiaai 
 Kal Tovg ' JLXXrjvag' kirciBayioyEi yap Kal aun) to 'EXXtjiikov, wg b 
 vopog Tovg TLfipaiovg, elg XpiaTov. irpoirapatTKEva^Ei to'ivvv rj <piXo(TO(j)ia, 
 7rpoodoTroiov(ra Toy bird XptOTov teXeiovpevov. — S. Clem. Alex., Strom., 
 I. 5 ; Opp., i. 331, ed. Potter. Kairoi Kal KaO' tavTrjv IBiKalov ttote 
 Kal i] <piXo(TO(pia rovg ' KXXrjvag' ovk Elg tt]V KadoXov Be BiKaioirvvr]v, 
 Etg r\v Evp'idKETai avvEpybg, KadciirEp /cat b npHiTog Kal b BEVTEpog fiadpbg 
 tu> Etg ro VTTEpuioy civiovti, Kal b ypappaTiuTijg rw (piXoaoipi'icroiTi. — 
 lb., I. 20 ; i. p. 377. Tijy Be <piXotro(j)iav Kal paXXov "EXXtjitiv oiov 
 SiadriKTjv oiKEiav avrolg BeBoadat, vTroftadpav oiiaav Tijr Kara. Xaiafbv 
 <piXo(To<f>iag — lb., VI. 8 ; ii. p. 773. 
 
 2. ' Adeo quid simile philosophus et Christianus ? Grascias di- 
 scipulus et coeli ? fama? negotiator et vitas ? verborum et factorum 
 operator, et rerum asdificator et destructor ? amicus et inimicus 
 erroris? veritatis interpolator et integrator et expressor, et furator 
 ejus et custos?' — Tertull., Apolog., 46; Opp., i. p. 285, ed. Oehler. 
 ' Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis ? quid acaclemiaa et ecclesiae ? 
 quid haereticis et Christianis ? ' — Id., De Pressor. Ilceret., 7; ii. 
 p. 10. 
 
 Note 6, page 43. ' The study of the history of the ancient 
 
284 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 world is likewise important from another point of view. Chris- 
 tianity found in it, not only vigorous foes or latent sympathy, but, 
 according to a strange law, by which the vanquished almost always 
 end in exercising over the victors an influence, the greater because 
 least suspected, we shall see the ancient world, at the moment that 
 all things announced its defeat, morally regain the ground it had 
 externally lost. Heresy was nothing but a hypocritical reaction of 
 Paganism against Christianity.' — De Pressense, Religions before 
 Christ, p. 6. Compare Stanley, Jewish Church, 270, 290. 
 
 Note 7, page 45. 'When Joseph was brought to Pharaoh to 
 interpret his dream, the holy patriarch and the Egyptian king 
 speak of God in much the same language, and with the same 
 acknowledgement of His overruling providence.' — Horsley, Disser- 
 tation, &c, p. 46 ; so before, of the Abimelechs, of the family of 
 Nahor, &c. 'Abimelech, Ephron, Mamre, Melchizedek, all either 
 worship the same God, or, if they worship Him under another name, 
 are all bound together by ties of hospitality and friendship.' — Stanley, 
 Jewish Church, p. 40 ; cf. p. 08, of Job ; p. 142, of Jethro ; p. 187, 
 of Balaam ; and p. 416. ' The Book of Genesis contains a record 
 of the dispensation of natural religion, or Paganism, as well as of 
 the patriarchal. The dreams of Pharaoh and Abimelech, as of 
 Nebuchadnezzar afterwards, are instances of the dealings of God 
 with those to whom He did not vouchsafe a written revelation. 
 Or should it be said that the particular cases merely come within 
 the range of the Divine supernatural governance which was in their 
 neighbourhood — an assertion which requires proof — let the Book 
 of Job be taken as a less suspicious instance of the dealings of God 
 with the heathen. Job was a Pagan in the same sense in which 
 the Eastern nations are Pagans in the present day. ... K it be 
 objected that Job lived in a less corrupted age than the times of 
 ignorance which followed, Scripture, as if for our full satisfaction, 
 draws back the curtain further still in the history of Balaam. There 
 a bad man and a heathen is made the oracle of true Divine messages 
 about doing justly and loving mercy, and walking humbly; nay, 
 even among the altars of superstition, the Spirit of God vouchsafes 
 to utter prophecy.' — Newman, Avians, pp. 90, 91. 
 
 ' Other nations or persons, ordinarily, were not obliged to become 
 Jews ; and therefore Moses did not insist upon it with his father-in- 
 law Jethro ; neither did Elisha expect it of Naaman the Syrian, 
 nor Jonas of the Ninevites, nor Daniel of Nebuchadnezzar ; neither 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 285 
 
 did the prophets insist upon it with the Chaldeans, Egyptians, 
 Sidonians, Tyrians, Edomites, or Moabites, as Grotius has well 
 observed : but though they were not obliged to become Jews, they 
 were obliged to admit the true God, and the most substantial parts 
 of true religion ; the knowledge of which had been handed down by 
 tradition, and was often renewed and revived by means of the Jews, 
 who were the standing witnesses and memorials of it.' — "Waterland, 
 Works, v. 25. ' There is no absurdity in supposing that God might 
 have some prophets (abroad in the heathen world) who were not 
 of Israel. Job was undoubtedly such an one ; and why might not 
 Balaam be another?' — lb., 749. 'Whenever God brought His 
 people into any relation with other people, He made Himself known 
 to them. The mode of His manifestation varied ; the fact remained 
 uniform. So He made Himself known to Egypt through Joseph 
 and Moses ; to the Philistines at the capture of the ark ; to the 
 Syrians by Elisha ; to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar by Daniel ; 
 as again to Darius and Cyrus.' — Pusey, Introduction to Jonah; 
 Minor Prophets, p. 247. Compare Mr. Gladstone, Homer, &c, 
 ii. 6, 7. 
 
 That the ' Hebrew midwives ' of Ex. i. 15 were Egyptian women, 
 appointed by the king to act as midwives to the Hebrews, see 
 Josephus, Antiq., II. ix. § 2; Kalisch, Exodus, p. 15; Horsley, 
 I. J.,' p. 47. 
 
 Bishop Hampden remarks, that the verse Micah vi. 8 ' may be 
 inscribed as its motto on any authentic record of the Divine will.' — 
 Philos. Evidence of Christianity, p. 26. Now we have a long series 
 of English theologians who take that view of the dialogue in Micah 
 which places the words in the mouth of Balaam ; Butler, Sermon 
 VII. p. 89 ; Lowth, de S. P. Ilebr., Prael. xviii. p. 201, ed. Lips., 
 1815; Horsley, 1. 1., p. 102; Faber, Eight Dissertations, i. 337; 
 Newman, 1. 1, p. 91, and Parochial Sermons, iv. 28 ; Burgon, 
 Inspiration and Interpretation, p. iii. note ; Stanley, Jewish Church, 
 p. 189, adding a confirmation of the exposition from 2 Kings iii. 27 ; 
 and several others. 
 
 Note 8, page 48. The precise relations of Heathenism, Judaism, 
 and Christianity are drawn out in different aspects in most of the 
 books enumerated above, Note 4 ; and whatever is said of Judaism 
 and Christianity can be adjusted to the Holy Scriptures, when the 
 position of the sacred record has been accurately defined. Dr. 
 Stanley traces out such distinctions as these ; that from the days of 
 
286 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 Abraham himself, ' the interval between the human and Divine is 
 never confounded ' {Jewish Church, p. 14) ; that the passage of the 
 Eed Sea ' was a fit opening of a history and of a character which was 
 to be specially distinguished from that of other races by its constant 
 and direct dependence on the Supreme Judge and Ruler of the 
 world ' (ib. } p. 129) ; that Moses received a positive revelation at 
 Sinai, ' the very reverse of a negation or an abstraction ' (p. 151) ; 
 that ' the union of the qualities so often disjoined in man, so little 
 thought of in the gods of old, "justice and mercy," " truth and 
 love," became henceforward the formula, many times repeated, the 
 substance of the creed of the Jewish Church' (p. 152) ; that ' not 
 from want of religion, but (if one might use the expression) from 
 excess of religion, was this void left in the Jewish mind,' — ' the 
 dimness of its conception of a future life ' (p. 154) ; that the prophets 
 were distinguished, in the first place, by ' their proclamation of the 
 Unity and of the Spirituality of the Divine nature ' (p. 440), &c. 
 
 All other distinctions, however, must be brought to their centre in 
 the recognition of ' the one image of God in humanity, as the source 
 of their Divine life, which is the vital principle of Christianity.'— ^ 
 Mill, Pantheistic Principles, i. 116. 'What is the reason which all 
 sects and Churches are most likely to agree in, were they asked their 
 reason for this veneration of the Bible ? Surely, because it contains 
 the records of a Life, of the conditions which preceded it, and of the 
 consequences which followed it ; because we read there the history 
 of Him, without whose Divine life the world was not, and without 
 whose human life the Church was not.' — Chretien, Letter and Spirit, 
 p. 41 ; cf. pp. Ill, 114. ' The Word and the Sacraments are the 
 characteristic of the elect people of God.' — Newman, Arians, p. 89. 
 ' With the two ideas of Redemption and Salvation the entire frame- 
 work of Revelation is inseparably connected. To the first man was 
 given a hope of the redemption of his race ; and beyond this the last 
 of the prophets cannot go. The appearance of the Redeemer Himself 
 did no more than give reality to such anticipations.' — Lee, p. 13. 
 
 Note 9, page 49. The doctrine of the Divine name is worked out 
 by Dr. Moberly, Sayings of the Great Forty Days, p. 200, and Law 
 of the Love of God, p. 98 : ' The third commandment no longer 
 speaks of God as He is in Himself, but of the Name of God ; of God, 
 that is, as He can be named or spoken of in human words ; of God, 
 not as the intellect of man contemplates Him, or the faith of man 
 holds fast the belief in Him, or the piety of man worships Him ; 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 287 
 
 but as He is pleased to allow Himself and His being to be projected, 
 if I may so express myself, upon the imperfect media of human and 
 earthly things : His Name named in words, His Nature confessed in 
 creeds, His Truth made known by inspiration to the hearts of men, 
 and by them spoken in speech, and written down in books, His 
 Presence attached in some manner to persons, things, and places.' 
 Cf. p. 101. ' The name of a person is that which brings him before 
 the mind as all that he is ; and is often used in Scripture as a sum- 
 mary of the character or qualities.' — Vaughan, on Horn. i. 5. 
 
 The controversy, which has been recently reopened, can be traced 
 through all the larger commentaries on the Pentateuch. Waterland's 
 solution of the difficulty is not very satisfactory. {Works, i. 312.) 
 Lightfoot closes his exposition thus : ' The name Jehovah, and the 
 significancy of it to the utmost, did the holy Fathers know before 
 Moses. But they saw not experience of the last signification named, 
 namely, the faithfulness of God in His promise made to Abraham 
 concerning His delivery of his seed from bondage, and bringing 
 them into a land flowing with milk and honey. God gave them the 
 promise by the name of El Shaddai, God Omnipotent ; and they 
 relied upon His omnipotency, because He that promised was able to 
 perform : but they beheld it afar off, and tasted not of My perform- 
 ance of it. But now will I show Myself Jehovah, faithful to bring 
 to pass and accomplish what I promised.' — Works, i. 704, ed. 1G84. 
 The word ' significancy,' at the beginning of this extract, must be 
 qualified by what is said at the end of it. If the name was not 
 known by personal and practical experience ; if, indeed, there was a 
 sense in which God could say, ' By My Name Jehovah was I not 
 known to them ; ' its ' significancy ' could not have been disclosed 
 ' to the utmost ' to the Fathers. And nearly so Pearson : ' It cannot 
 be denied but God was known to Abraham by the true importance 
 of the title Adonai, as much as by the name of Shaddai; as much 
 by His dominion and sovereignty, as by His power and all-suffi- 
 ciency ; but by any experimental and personal sense of the fulfilling of 
 His promises, His name Jehovah was not known unto him.' — On 
 the Creed, Art. ii., p. 184, ed. Oxon. 1843. Compare Stanley, 
 Jewish Church, p. 110. ' The assertion is not that the word 
 Jehovah was not used in the patriarchal language ; but that the 
 name Jehovah, as a title of honour, whereby a new idea was affixed 
 to an old word, was unknown to them.' — Warburton, D. L., iv. § 6 ; 
 ii. p. 300, ed. 1846. 
 
288 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 Of what lie calls ' the ordinary mode of " reconciling " these dis- 
 crepancies,' as exhibited by Kurtz and Kalisch, Bishop Colenso says, 
 that it is ' evidently an assumption made only to get over a diffi- 
 culty. If Abraham made use of the name Jehovah at all, then God 
 was known to him in some measure — in some sense or other — by 
 that name, if not known so perfectly as by the Israelites in later days' 
 (§ 299) ; which no one, I think, need wish to deny. The name 
 Jehovah might have been known, and unquestionably was known, 
 as a denotative, long before its complete connotation was revealed. 
 That is to say, Jehovah was known ' in some measure — in some sense 
 or other — by that name,' though the usage did not amount to what I 
 have called the ' high and special significance,' ascribed in Scripture 
 1 to the knowledge of the name of Jehovah, and connected with the 
 fulfilment of His promise. 
 
 Note 10, page 50. ' In the second place, I observe that this moral 
 revelation, made by the succession of Prophets, holds an interme- 
 diate j^lace between the Law of Moses and the Gospel itself. It is 
 a step in progress beyond the Law, and preparatory to the Gospel.' 
 — Davison, On Prophecy, p. 43. ' In the Prophets there is a more 
 luminous, and more perfectly reasoned, rule of life and faith than 
 in the primary Law ; and therefore God's moral revelation was pro- 
 gressive. It is more perfect in the Prophets than in the Law ; more 
 perfect in the Gospel than in either.' — lb., p. 44; cf. p. 61. Also 
 Dr. Stanley, Jewish Church, 436, 447-9. But, again, we must not 
 draw the line so sharply, as to forget what has been before suggested 
 on the difference between comparative and absolute exclusion ; above, 
 pp. 19, 220. So Mr. Morris urges : ' The ceremonial law was not the 
 real object of the legislator, even from the very first : the moral law 
 was given first in the decalogue ; the ceremonial was added after, 
 because of transgressions.' — Essay towards the Conversion of Hindus, 
 p. 72. ' Revelation has all along been progressive, but not on that 
 account self-contradictory.' — Browne, in Aids to Faith, p. 315, 
 note. 
 
 Note 11, page 52. ' The true intent and scope of these Positive 
 laws (and it may be of such an external promulgation of the Moral), 
 seems to be nothing else but this, to secure the Eternal Law of 
 Righteousness from transgression.' — John Smith's Select Discourses, 
 p. 154, ed. 1673. 
 
 We may compare the account of Justice in Eth. JS T ., V. 6, which 
 shows how the universal principles of right and wrong, to which the 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 289 
 
 hearts of all mankind bear witness, receive a peculiar shape and 
 impress, in each separate state, from the enactments which are 
 requisite to give them efficiency. "We are thus taught to distinguish 
 between the eternal law and its temporary form ; between truths 
 which admit of no exception, and can nowhere be transgressed 
 without sin, and statutes which are shaped by local needs and 
 local conveniences, and possess no more than a territorial obligation. 
 The province of equity, in conformity with this distinction, is 
 defined to be that of recalling us, in doubtful cases, from the rule to 
 the principle, so as to guard against the danger, which is immi- 
 nent in all human arrangements, lest special wrong should be 
 inflicted under the name and authority of Justice. For an application 
 of this principle to the Mosaic code, and for the value of its precepts, 
 as ' moral rules ordained by God,' I may refer to Discourses on the 
 Fall and its Results, pp. 239-41. See also below, Lecture IV., 
 Note 10. 
 
 Note 12, page 54. The diversity of human characters is recog- 
 nised in most of the writers quoted above, Lecture L, Notes 3 and 4. 
 With regard to human learning : — ' There is in the world no kind 
 of knowledge, whereby any part of truth is seen, but Ave 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 ; or that natural, moral, 
 and civil wisdom, wherein Solomon excelled all men ; or that 
 rational and oratorial wisdom of the Grecians, which the Apostle 
 St. Paul brought from Tarsus ; or that Judaical, which he learned 
 in Jerusalem, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel : to detract from the 
 dignity thereof were to injure even God Himself, 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.' — Hooker, E. P., III. viii. § 9. 
 ' To descend to Moses the lawgiver, and God's first pen : he is 
 adorned by the Scriptures with this addition and commendation, 
 that he was seen in all the learning of the Egyptians. ... So 
 likewise in that excellent book of Job, if it be revolved with 
 diligence, it will be found pregnant and swelling with natural 
 philosophy. ... So likewise in the person of Salomon the 
 king, we see the gift or endowment of wisdom and learning, both in 
 Salomon's petition and in God's assent thereunto, preferred before 
 
 U 
 
290 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 all other terrene and temporal felicity,' &c. — Bacon, Advancement of 
 Learning ; Works, iii. 297-8, ed. Ellis and Spedding. For Bishop 
 Bull, see above, Lecture L, Note 5. On the quotations in St. Paul, 
 cf.Bull, I. L, p. 244-5; Milton, Preface to Samson Agonistes; Donald- 
 son, Greek Lit., iii. 316. It has been thought that the list is not 
 exhausted by the instances ordinarily given. See Humphry on 
 Acts xiv. 17 : ' both the language and the rhythm of this passage 
 lead to the conjecture (which does not appear to have been pro- 
 posed before), that it is a fragment from some lyric poem.' ' Very 
 improbable,' says Dean Alford. Another suggestion, which is, how- 
 ever, still more improbable, will be found in Donaldson's Christian 
 Orthodoxy, p. 292. See also John Gregory's Note on Jannes and 
 Jambres, Works, 1G84, i. Gl. For a collateral enquiry of singular 
 interest in a different field, see Dr. Neale's Essay On Liturgical 
 Quotations ; Essays on Liturgiology, &c, No. XV. 
 
 Note 13, page 55. See the details in the works of Dbllinger and 
 De Pressense ; or in Tholuck's Essay On the Nature and Monti 
 Influence of Heathenism. Compare Mr. Jowett's Essays On the Con- 
 nexion of Immorality and Idolatry, and On the State of the Heathen 
 World; Epistles of St. Paul, ii. 64, 68, 1st ed. Dr. Vaughan 
 marks the following steps in St. Paul's argument, Rom. i. 18-32 : 
 ' 1. Knowledge abused ; 2. Ignorance and unbelief; 3. Gross cor- 
 ruption ; 4. Judicial hardness.' — Comm. in loc. Yet, ' in behalf of 
 revelation, I should press for the superiority of the civilised Gentile 
 world in art and science, poetry and eloquence, and every depart- 
 ment of intellectual culture, together with all the wisdom of civil 
 and political institutions derived from that source, and bright 
 examples of patriotism, courage, and many other virtues ; in a 
 word, in all respects but one — the true religion, the possession of 
 the oracles of God. This contrast between the inferiority of the 
 chosen people in all secular advantages, and their pre-eminence in 
 religious privileges, seems to me an argument which cannot be too 
 strongly insisted on by a Christian advocate.' — Bishop of St. David's, 
 Letter to Dr. R. Williams, p. 65. So from M. Renan's point of view : 
 ' C'est la race semitique qui a la gloire d'avoir fait la religion de 
 l'hunianite' {Vie de Jesus, p. 5); yet, ' c'est beaucoup moins dans 
 l'ordre politique que dans l'ordre religieux que s'est exercee leur 
 influence. . . . C'est, par excellence, le peuple de Dieu et le 
 peiiple des religions, destine" a les creer et a les propager ;' but ' La 
 race sdmitique, comparee a la race indo-eurupeenue, represente 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 291 
 
 reellement une combinaison inferieure de la nature humaine.' — 
 Hist, des Langues Se'mitiqnes, i. 8, 4. 
 
 Note 14, page 56. The remark constantly suggests itself to 
 students of ancient mythology, that the worshippers were often 
 better than their gods. Compare Jowett, I. L, ii. 70 (2nd ed.) : 
 ' The deities of the Homeric poems are not better than men, but 
 rather worse; compared with heroes, they have a fainter sense of 
 truth and justice, less certainly of moral greatness.' ' Not front 
 religion, but from philosophy, come the higher aspirations of the 
 human soul in Greece and Rome.' — lb., 72. ' Nothing can more 
 clearly demonstrate that man was better than the gods he had 
 created.'— De Pressense, 1.1, p. 27 ; cf. pp. 78, 80, 168-9, 170. 
 See also Mr. Cox's Introduction to his Tales of the Gods and Heroes : 
 ' The contrast is very marked between the character of the people 
 and that of their theology.' — P. 4. ' It would be difficult to dis- 
 cover a more" marvellous combination of seemingly inexplicable 
 contradictions ; of belief in the history of gods utterly distinct from 
 the faith which guided the practice of men ; of an immoral and 
 impure theology with a condition of society which it would be 
 monstrous to regard as utterly and brutally depraved.' — P. 7. ' It 
 is the character of the religions which men invent, that they begin 
 purely and end in corruption. . . . On the contrary, in the 
 O. T. Scrij>tures, it is always a growing light.' — Mr. R. P. Smith, 
 Messianic Interpretation of Isaiah, p. vi. 
 
 Note 15, page 58. ' All superstition, all idolatry, has its root 
 in the belief that God is made in our image, and not we in His ; 
 the most prevalent assumption of the modern as of the ancient 
 sophist is, that man is the measure of all things ; that there is 
 nothing great or holy which is not his creation.' — Maurice, On the 
 Lord's Prayer, p. 22. ' In order to show that there really is this 
 essential distinction between that which we call revealed religion, 
 and all the systems of belief and worship which ive can trace to a 
 It union origin, it is necessary that we should, however briefly, 
 examine the different modes in which the intellect has grappled 
 with religion, and contrast them with those views respecting the 
 personality of God and the nature of sin, which are to be found 
 only in the religion of Jesus Christ, and in that part of the religion 
 of Moses which the Gospel has accepted and ratified. It may be 
 said with truth, that all false religions fall into three main classes,' 
 namely, Polytheism, Dualism, and Pantheism. — Donaldson, Christian 
 
292 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 Orthodox)/, p. 101. ' It is no matter from what point of view we 
 commence our examination ; whether, with the Theist, we admit 
 the coexistence of the Infinite and the Finite, as distinct realities, or, 
 with the Pantheist, deny the real existence of the Finite, or, 
 with the Atheist, deny the real existence of the Infinite,' &c. — ■ 
 Mansel, B. L., p. 68. Compare M art's Conception of Eternity, p. 10 : 
 ' Pantheism and Anthropomorphism (using the latter term in its 
 widest sense) are the two alternatives of religious thought; the one 
 representing the negative, the other the positive side.' Also, Second 
 Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith, p. 2 : ' From the earliest days in 
 which Philosophy and Christianity came in contact, the aim of the 
 Church has been to keep a just middle course between two extremes, 
 both in themselves errors, yet both only exaggerations of truths : — 
 the tendency to Pantheism, which perverts the true doctrine of the 
 unity and simplicity of God, and the tendency to Anthropomor- 
 phism, which perverts the true doctrine of His personality.' So 
 again p. 17. Compare De Pressense, I. L, p. 248; E. T. of Saisset, 
 Modern Pantheism, ii. 203 ; M. Muller, Comparative Mythology, 
 p. 48 : ' It was a mistake of the early Fathers to treat the heathen 
 gods as demons or evil spirits, and we must take care not to com- 
 mit the same error with regard to the Hindu god. Their gods 
 have no more right to any substantive existence than Eos or Hemera 
 — than Nyx or Apate. They are masks without an actor, the 
 creations of man, not his creators ; they are nomina, not numina ; 
 names without being, not beings without names.' 
 
 Note 1G, page 60. Of Bentley's eight Boyle Lectures (in Works, 
 vol. iii., ed. Dyce), four are based on Acts xvii. 27, and three on 
 Acts xiv. 15, &c. He points out the clear-sighted prudence with 
 which, under Divine guidance, St. Paul adjusted his speech on the 
 one occasion to the ' philosophers and that inquisitive people of 
 Athens;' on the other, ' to the rude and simple semi-barbarians of 
 Lycaonia,' pp. 120-1. The one passage suggests to him arguments 
 against Atheism, ' from the faculties of the soul,' and ' from the 
 structure and origin of human bodies ;' the other passage suggests a 
 confutation ' from the origin and frame of the world.' In the 
 former series he analyses the elements of partial agreement which 
 would extend to portions of the Apostle's hearers : the populace 
 would admit the appeal to poets, and possibly also the Divine 
 creation ; but would not agree with his attack on images and tem- 
 ples, or on the belief that the leasts of men were pleasing to the 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 293 
 
 gods : the philosophers would accept his spiritual view of Deity, 
 but would differ on almost every detail of his argument. ' The 
 presiding idea of this portion of my work, is that which animated 
 St. Paul in his discourse at Athens, when he found, even in that 
 focus of Paganism, religious aspirations tending to Jesus Christ.' — De 
 Pressense, l.l., Preface to E. V. ' We cannot fail to notice how the 
 sentences of this interrupted speech are constructed to meet the 
 cases in succession of every class of which the audience was com- 
 posed. Each word in the address is adapted at once to win and to 
 rebuke.' — Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 
 i. 408. Compare the recent Essays towards the Conversion of Hindus; 
 Morris, p. 16 ; Williams, pp. 1, 380, &c. 
 
 Note 17, page 62. "Oripiv to'iwv elarl fyvati tiveq ol per eXevdspoi o't 
 $£ SovXoi, tyavipov, olg Kcti av^ipei to SovXevew kcu SIkcubv kari, — Ar., 
 Pol., I. 5, fin. ' Where the Greek saw barbarians, we see brethren.' 
 — Miiller, Comp. Myth., p. 4. ' Very early in their history the Greeks 
 explained the institution (of slavery) as grounded on the intellectual 
 inferiority of certain races, and their consequent natural aptitude for 
 the servile condition.' — Maine, Ancient Law, p. 163. On the 
 superiority of the Hebrew law in this respect to both Greek and 
 Roman theory and practice, see Mr. Goldwin Smith on American 
 Slavery, p. 49. 
 
 Note 18, page 62. To yap pnQh' ek /jt? ovtoq yiyvtaQai nav 
 <T <!£ ovtoq, (t-^e}6v diravTbtv lori koij'ov doypa tu>v irepl tyvaEiuQ. — Ar., 
 Metaph., K. 6 ; p. 1062, b. 24. With regard to Plato, on whose opinions 
 a doubt has been raised, compare Mr. W. Mills's Essays and Lectures, 
 p. 72 ; Professor Thompson's Note on Archer Butler's Lectures on 
 Ancient Philosophy, ii. 190; Rawlinson, Christianity and Heathenism, 
 Sermon I., note 1 ; Mansel, B. L., Lecture III., note 12, p. 335. 
 ' The later Platonists, and even the Christian Fathers, speak of Plato 
 contradicting himself, by sometimes saying that matter was eternal, 
 and sometimes that it was created. The Platonists went so far as to 
 assert that Plato did not hold that matter was eternal. But the 
 assertion was undoubtedly false.' ' Plato certainly did not believe 
 the world to be eternal, though such a notion is ascribed to Aristotle. 
 Plato held the eternity of matter ; but he believed the arrangement 
 
 and harmony of the universe to be the work of the Deity.' Burton, 
 
 B. L., pp. 59, 61. More generally : 'As it was impossible for them 
 to conceive the creation of matter, the workman, in the Stoic 
 philosophy, was not sufficiently distinguished from the work.' 
 
294 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 —Gibbon, It. E., i. 107, ed. Smith. ' All (Gnostics) were agreed in 
 maintaining that matter itself was not created; that it was eternal.' 
 — Burton, B. L., p. 30. ' The Egyptians held matter to be eternal, 
 though they believed that the world was created.' — lb., p. 07. ' In 
 the first place, as all the ancient philosophers decided that nothing 
 can come out of nothing, I consider it certain that they all supposed 
 matter to be eternal.' — Mosheim's Note on Cudworth, i. 301, ed. 
 Harrison. And for details, see his Dissertation ' showing whether 
 any heathen philosopher ever taught that the world was created by 
 God out of nothing,' ib., iii. 140. 
 
 Note 19, page 04. "En cie e'Lre vovg rj ovata avrov tire vor\a'ig 
 iffTi, ri voei', tj yap avrog avrov, y trepov ri' kcu el enpov ti, t\ to 
 avro ae\ ?/ ixXXo. iroTtpov oiiv hiatyipti ri ?) ovdiv to voeiv to kuXov 
 ?) to Tvy/>r; v (ccti utottov to Siavoelffdai itzpl kv'nav ; ci}\oi' toIvvv 
 oti to duoTaTOv (cui Ti/jiwrarov roe'i, ical ov psTafiaXXei, k. r. X. — Ar., 
 Metapl}., A. 9 ; p. 1074, b. 21. wot d tytvKrov tovto {kul yap ^>) 
 opcjr 'ivia KpeiTTOv ?/ opcfr) ovu av e'it] to upur-ov >/ roi)<nc. uvtov apa roel, 
 iiTTtp 1<tt\ to KparuTTov'. — lb., 32. ' Ou bien, si vous voulez qu'ellc 
 s'exerce, donnez a Dieu la cqnnaissance du monde ; mais alors 
 supprimez, avec le reste, le chapitre entier ou Aristote demontre 
 que son Dieu ne connait que lui. Et cependant ce n'est pas une 
 affirmation, c'est une demonstration que vous supprimerez ; l'affir- 
 mation aurait suffi ; car si Dieu n'agit pas volontaii*ement sur le 
 monde, il est impossible qu'il le, connaisse. Mais Aristote insiste ; 
 il demontre que la pensee de Dieu ne s'applique qu'a Dieu lui-meme. 
 Ou Dieu se pense lui-meme, dit Aristote, ou il pense quelque autre 
 objet ; si quelque autre objet, c'est toujours le meme, ou tantot Fun 
 et tantot l'autre. Supposons qu'il change ainsi, et que sa pensee, 
 comme la notre, parcoure des objets divers, Dieu tombe dans le 
 mouvement. Voila deja l'univers exclu ; le monde est un, sans 
 doute, mais de cette unite qui resulte de l'harmonie entre les parties 
 diverses; il vit d'ailleurs, il dure, et en durant, il change. Le 
 monde a une histoire ; iln'y a que Dieu, Facte eternel et toujours le 
 meme, qui n'en ait point.' — Simon, Etudes sur la Theodicee de 
 Platon et d Aristote, p. 50. 
 
 The fatal defect of an impassable barrier between God and man 
 recurs in every analysis of philosophic creeds. The Elean school ' had 
 gone into the other extreme, by condemning the absolute Being to 
 eternal immobility, by representing Him as an impassible intelligence 
 holding no relations with humanity. ' — De Pressens6, Religions before 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 295 
 
 Christ, p. 112. Even in Plato's system, ' a vast interval separates 
 man from God.' — lb., p. 122. ' Plato, like the Gospel, says to man 
 that his duty is to resemble God; but while Plato's god is only 
 a sublime idea, a being of the reason, which does not enter into 
 communication with man, the God of Christians is the living God, 
 the most holy and the most good, the God revealed by Jesus Christ, 
 whose name is Love.' — lb., p. 127. For Aristotle, see ib., p. 1 34. For 
 his immediate disciples : they had < deliberately set aside the god of 
 philosophy, affirming that a divinity was unnecessary to the explana- 
 tion of the formation of the world.' — lb., p. 140. For the Epicureans, 
 see ib., p. 141. At a later time, Plutarch ' gave a more rigid formula 
 to dualism, and deepened the abyss between the supreme God and 
 creation.' — lb., p. 183. For ' the Platonic doctrine, so far as it is 
 represented in an impure form in the early centuries : ' ' its 
 invincible dualism, separating by an impassable chasm God from 
 the world, and mind from matter, identifying goodness with the one, 
 evil with the other, prevented belief in a religion like Christianity, 
 which was penetrated by the Hebrew conceptions of the universe, so 
 alien both to dualism and pantheism.' — Farrar, B. L., p. 63. For 
 Maimonides : ' Whence did this view come ? Not from Christianity. 
 The philosophy which makes an impassable barrier between God and 
 man was not cradled in the Gospel of reconciliation, which bridges 
 over the chasm between God and man in the mystery of the Incar- 
 nation.' — Christian Remembrancer, Jan. 1863, p. 104. 
 
 Nor should Ave be deceived by phrases which seem to suggest 
 a nearer view of Deity, and many of which are scattered over 
 Aristotle's practical treatises. In a case of this kind, the exact 
 philosophy must be held to give its interpretation to more popular 
 language. Again, Mr. M. Midler says : ' We can hardly expect 
 among pagans a more profound conception of the relation between God 
 and man than the saying of Heracleitos, ' Men are mortal gods, and 
 gods are immortal men.' — Compar. Mythol., p. 8. Can we accept so 
 good an interpretation of the phrase ? Cf. Brucker,ift's<. Phil., i. 1222 : 
 'Nee aliud vult obscura sententia Heracliti, Heraclito juniori 
 memorata: Qeoi ai'dpwiroi aBavaroi, ardpioiroi deoi dvtjTOi, ^uipteq top 
 (.Ktiviov davarov, Qvi)<7kovteq ti)v skeivwv £wj/i'. Dii enim in anima 
 mundi comprehensi daenionesque, quorum mundus plenus est, in eo 
 tantum ab hominis anima distant, quod ha?c corpus subit, sicque 
 ignea, et divina vi sua quasi privatur et moritur, atque ex Deo homo 
 fit, ubi vero homo moritur, ad Deos iterurn et divinam naturam 
 
296 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 redit.' Compare Mr. Campbell, Introd. to Thecetctus, p. xliii. : 
 ' Indeed, as in all tilings else, so in man, life and deatli are ever 
 working together. His body is ever absorbed into bis soul, bis soul 
 is ever dying into bis body ; bis birth into the world is the entomb- 
 ment of a higher life, the death of what is earthly in him is the 
 awaking of the god.' 
 
 For the grosser form, in which the feeling of the distance of the 
 Deity exhibited itself through the worship of men, we may turn to 
 the hymn with which the Athenians welcomed Demetrius Pohorcetes, 
 and which is preserved by Athenanis (Muller, Fragmenta Histor. 
 G?-cec, ii. 477 ; cf. DePressense, p. 137; Thirlwall, History of Greece, 
 vii. 362, 382, 8vo. ed.) : 
 
 AX\o« jj.iv j) /xaicpai' yap inriyjwaiv Qeoi 
 
 ?) ovk tyjwaiv wra, 
 t) ovk eicrlr, ?i oil izpoaiyovniv lifiiv oiict tv ' 
 
 at C£ ■nupoi 0' opu)[iEV, 
 ov l,u\uov, obde XiBirov, a\A* a\i]dii'6i\ 
 
 JLvyontaQa h) aoi. 
 
 Note 20, page GG. The five opinions summed up in this para- 
 graph give a progressive series of the main views which man can 
 form as to the condition of the soul after death. 1. Annihilation : 
 the grosser heathen view, represented occasionally by the despairing 
 language of their poets. So the Samaritans, and apparently from 
 them the Sadducees. — Davison, On Prophecy, pp. 505-G ; cf. Bull's 
 Works, i. 35-42. The difference of tone, on this point, between 
 Epicurus and Lucretius is admirably worked out by Professor 
 Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 296. On the notion that 
 the book of Ecclesiasticus was written by a Sadducee, see Dean 
 Milman, History of the Jeivs, 1863, ii. 32, note. 2. Absorption: the 
 ultimate view of pantheists in every age. The mind is not now held 
 to perish with the body, but its individuality is lost. On the view 
 of Aristotle, see above, Lecture I., Note 8. In general, compare 
 Uawlinson, Christianity and Heathenism, p. 32; Farrar, B. L., 125, 
 140, 143, and their references. 3. An immortality of pure intellect: 
 the soul immortal, and retaining its individual consciousness, but 
 only as mind, purified by knowledge, the proper moral element b 
 lost : the Gnostic \ i"W. See Burton, B, L., p. 40, &c. 4. Immor- 
 tality without resurrection : eirtStapovr) without araaraaic. Com- 
 pare Bishop Thirlwall's vivid description of the Homeric view of a 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 297 
 
 future state (H. G. i. 222) : ' Homer views death as the separation 
 of two distinct, though not wholly dissimilar, substances, the soul 
 and the body. The latter has no life without the former; the former 
 no strength without the latter . . . When the soul has made its 
 escape through the lips or the wound, it is not dispersed in the 
 air, but preserves the form of the living person. But the face of the 
 earth, lighted by the sun, is no fit place for the feeble, joyless 
 phantom. It protracts its unprofitable being in the cheerless twilight 
 of the nether world, a shadow of its former self, and pursuing the 
 empty image of its past occupations and enjoyments.' The hopes of 
 the heathen might reach a higher level than this, yet without 
 departing from the definition of the class, and without approaching 
 to the doctrine of a future resurrection. A modification of this view 
 would give rise to the doctrine of metempsychosis, which rests, in 
 its exoteric form, on the fundamental distinctness of the self from the 
 body. In a deeper sense, it might be brought under the second 
 head. 5. Above all these rises the full Christian doctrine of the 
 resurrection from the dead : above annihilation, for the life once 
 given is never withdrawn ; above absorption, for the separate 
 individuality is never lost ; above Gnosticism, for every moral 
 facidty will find a loftier occupation in another world — an immor- 
 tality of the soul, completed by the restoration of the body, of which 
 we have both an instance and a pledge in the resurrection of our 
 Lord. 
 
 It is clear that St. Paul was confronted at different times with 
 upholders of all the four erroneous views: with Sadducees, Actsxxiii. 
 6, &c. ; with Epicureans and Stoics, Acts xvii. 18 ; with Gnostics, 
 2 Tim. ii. 18, and elsewhere ; and apparently with some Gentile 
 Christians at Corinth, who had blended the errors of their old creed 
 with the Christian faith, and were endeavouring to accept the immor- 
 tality of the soul without admitting the resurrection of the body — 
 1 Cor. xv. On this last point, however, different opinions have 
 been held. Burton maintains that St. Paul was there combating 
 the first view ; that his opponents ' denied a resurrection in any sense 
 of the term,' and ' did not believe in any fixture state of the soul at 
 all.' — B. L., p. 428. Archbishop Whately thinks that they held 
 
 ' some such doctrine ' as the second view Scripture Revelations of a 
 
 Future State, pp. 19, 20, 110. On the other hand, see Riickert's 
 commentary on the passage, which has been translated as a separate 
 tract ; and compare Arnold, Sermons chiefly on the Interpretation of 
 
298 NOTES TO LECTURE II. 
 
 Scripture, p. 281 : ' To be immortal was a glorious prospect ; but 
 to rise again with a body, — not to be allowed to consider their 
 outward body as the prison which kept in the pure spirit, and so to 
 cast off upon it, away from their proper selves, the blame of all their 
 evil, — this was what they could not endure.' 
 
 The fact that the apostle, in that chapter (1 Cor. xv.), is able 
 to assume and argue on marked Christian principles with regard to 
 our Lord's history and nature, shows that he is dealing with 
 professing, though mistaken, Christians ; and the fact that he can 
 appeal so confidently to their own faith and hopes, as based on their 
 personal position, shows that the errors into which they had fallen 
 on the resurrection of the body fell short of a denial of the immor- 
 tality of the soul. The argument is indeed an appeal to consistency. 
 It rests partly on their longing for immortality, partly on their 
 faith in Christ. The whole scope of it is to show that there is no 
 other immortality promised to man but that which is connected 
 with the resurrection of the body, and no certainty of the resurrec- 
 tion of the body but that which is rested on the resurrection of 
 Christ. 
 
 Many detailed references on the subject will be found in the notes 
 to Mr. Eawlinson's Second Sermon on Christianity and Heathenism ; 
 and for a condensed view of some recent opinions, see Mr. Mansel's 
 First Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith, p. 30. Cf. Rational Religion, 
 p. 66, and Second Letter, p. 37. 
 
 Note 21, page 69. There is, however, great force and beauty in 
 the argument from imperfection to perfection, if we view it as the 
 corroboration, not the basis, of our faith. On the Cartesian form 
 of it, see Mosheim's note on Cudworth, iii. 41, ed. Harrison ; Hallam, 
 Literature of Europe, ii. 438 ; Saisset, Modern Pantheism, E. T., 
 i. 36-38, 52 ; ii. 43, 65 ; and a review of the English Translation of 
 that work in the Christian Remembrancer, Jan. 1863, p. 98, &c. 
 1 Quia perfectiones procedentes a Deo in creaturas altiori modo sunt 
 in Deo, oportet quod quandocunque nomen sumptum a quacunque 
 perfectione creaturae Deo attribuitur, secludatur ab ejus signiiieationc 
 omne illud quod pertinet ad imperfectum modum, qui compel it 
 creatmie.' — S. Thorn. Aq., I. Qu. xiv. Art. i. ' Whatsoever speaketh 
 any kind of excellency or perfection in the artificer, may be attri- 
 buted unto God ; Whatsoever Bignifieth any infirmity, or involveth 
 any imperfection, must be excluded from the notion of Him.' — 
 Pearson, On the Creed, Art. i. p. OS. Compare Bramhall, quoted by 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE II. 299 
 
 Mr. Mansel, Second Letter, &c, p. 10; cf. 11, 45. ' If all true 
 philosophy begins with the personality of man, and ends with the 
 Personality of God, it will be seen what grand and genuine elements 
 of Christian Theism are contained in a system which makes our 
 personality the type of force, and applies this conception to the Per- 
 sonality of God, eliminating from it only that which is weak and 
 imperfect.' — Christian Hem., I. L, p. 112 (of Leibnitz). 
 
 Note 22, page 71. ' You must not suppose me to believe that 
 the Highest of all intelligences is degraded by contact with such 
 grovelling things as are employed in the fashioning of the world, or 
 that His blessed calm is disturbed by anxiety about things con- 
 stantly changing and being destroyed.' — Buddhist in Williams, 
 Christianity and Hinduism, p. 12. For the image of the sun, see 
 the well-known passage in Plato, De Rep., vi. p. 508, with which 
 Mr. Morris compares the Vedas, Essay, pp. 6, 56. The image of 
 the sea is in S. Joann. Damasc, De Fide Orthod., i. 9 : Zuke1 fxev olv 
 KvpiwTtpov TzavTo)V tCjv etti Qeov Xeyofiivui' oi'Ofiuruv thai 6 a>v, 
 KciOibg avroc \pt]j-iciTil,<j>v rw Mwuctt tiri tov upovQ <prfcriv' t'nrov rolg 
 v'unc, 'Icpcij/X, 6 wv aviaraXKt jxt. b\ov yap kv iavru) ovWafiwv 
 iyti T v £ *'' cu > oiov ri irtXuyoQ ovaiag I'nreipoi' ml avpiGTOV. Cf. 
 S. Thorn. Aq., I. Qu. xiii. Art. xi. 
 
300 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Note 1, page 75. In the argument On the Limits of Religions 
 Thought, which Mr. Mansel has treated with consummate ability, 
 we must distinguish between three different terms — God as existing, 
 God as revealed, and God as apprehended by created minds. It is 
 allowed on all hands that the second and third of these must pre- 
 cisely correspond ; that the revelation must be regarded as adjusted 
 to the capacity of its recipient. But how far are we justified in 
 assuming that the second is a sufficient index to the first ? that the 
 revelation is a direct unveiling of the Divine nature, as well as 
 adapted to the intelligence of man ? Can we possibly suppose that 
 it is capricious and arbitrary, or must we take it for granted that 
 it is as absolutely true and effectual as the nature of the case 
 allows ? 
 
 When Mr. Mansel spoke as follows — ' ideas and images which do 
 not represent God as He is may nevertheless represent Him as it is 
 our duty to regard Him : they are not in themselves true, but we 
 must, nevertheless, believe and act as if they were true ' {Man's 
 Conception of Eternity, p. 9) ; 'a conception which is speculatively 
 untrue may be regulatively true ' (ib., p. 10) ; ' a regulative truth 
 is thus designed — not to tell us what God is, but how He mills that 
 we should think of Him ' (ib., and B. L., 127, 143) — the rigour of the 
 definitions which had dictated his language did not save him from 
 the suspicion of casting doubts on the reality of the disclosures 
 which God had made to man. Btit the following expressions, which 
 occur in his two Letters to Professor Goldwin Smith, may serve to 
 supply the explanation which was wanting : ' The terms Father, 
 Ruler, Judge, Good, Wise, Just, all represent notions derived in the 
 first instance from human relations, and applied to God, not as 
 exactly expressing the perfection of His absolute nature, but as 
 expressing the nearest approach to it which we are capable of 
 receiving' (First Letter, p. 30) ; ' the word Person . . . is a mode of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 301 
 
 expressing the infinite nature of God by that which is most nearly 
 analogous to it among finite things' (Second Letter, p. 29); 'when 
 we speak of God as feeling anger or pity, Ave do not mean literally 
 to ascribe to Him the human passions called by those names, yet 
 we have no means of expressing more exactly the Divine perfection 
 of which these passions are the representation' (ib., p. 63). Cf. ib., 
 pp. 16, 18, 28. To doubt the reality, then, of the revelation under 
 which God has made Himself known to His creatures, would be to 
 place a limit on the poiver of God. But it does not follow that 
 what forms a sure basis for our faith and love conveys to our 
 intellects the possession of such rounded and completed knowledge 
 as would justify a tone of argumentative confidence on any point 
 not explicitly revealed to us. 
 
 The Second Letter contains a catena of passages to illustrate the 
 mode in which the question ' has been dealt with, directly or indi- 
 rectly, by the great Catholic writers of successive generations.' See 
 also Suicer, Thesaurus Eccles., under the words oltcovofiia, oIkovou.ikwq, 
 ovyKarafiaaiQ] Glassii Philol. Sacr., i. 921, ed. Dathe ; Lee, Inspira- 
 tion of Holy Scripture, pp. 63-69, 343, 411, &c. ; Bishop Marsh, 
 Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible, p. 488, ed. 
 1828 ; Bishop Kaye, Early Church, p. 59 ; Justin Martyr, pp. 173-4 ; 
 Trench, On the Parables, p. 21; Waterland, Works, iv. 180, &c. 
 Dean Milman observes that ' accommodation ' is an ' unpopular ' and 
 ' bad word, as it appears to imply art or design, while it was merely 
 the natural, it should seem inevitable, course of things.' — Pref. to 
 History of the Jews, 1863, p. x. ' Truth is content, when it comes 
 into the world, to wear our mantles : " Lumen supermini nunquam 
 descendit sine indumento."' — J. Smith, Select Discourses, p. 165. 
 The use of the economy is discussed at length by Dr. Newman, 
 Avians, pp. 72-87. 
 
 ' No doubt God's revelation of Himself through man, as also His 
 revelation to man, is limited by what He Himself has made humanity 
 to be ; though when we think of humanity in the light of Christ, 
 the Son of God and the Son of Man, we may question how far we are 
 justified in speaking of limits here at all. But it is one thing to 
 say, that, because of human limits, what God can reveal of Himself 
 to man is to be held to be less than what God is; and it is quite 
 another thing to say, that what God sees it good to reveal of Him- 
 self to man He cannot truly and effectually reveal through man ; that 
 
302 NOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 the medium must more or less colour and distort the light passing 
 through it. This consistently held makes a revelation to man and a 
 revelation through man equally impossible. If man cannot transmit 
 light without distorting it, then neither can he receive light without 
 misconceiving it.' ' As we believe that God, who teaches us know- 
 ledge of Himself by the works of His hands, teaches us also by holy 
 apostles and prophets a higher knowledge than these His material 
 works can convey, so we also believe that in communicating that 
 higher knowledge, He presents it to us pure and unmixed, as in the 
 case of the lower knowledge He confessedly does.' — J. M. Campbell, 
 Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 75-7. 
 
 I am not now concerned with the misuse of the principle of 
 accommodation which can be traced downwards from Spinoza, 
 Tractatus Theologico-Polit., ii. 41, sqq., pp. 43-7, ed. 1846. Cf. 
 Bauer's Glassius, iii. 29. For an account of Semler's method, more 
 especially, see Conybeare's B. L., 1824, pp. 27, 277 ; Pusey, Theology 
 of Germany, i. 140-4 ; Rose, Protestantism in Germany, p. 74 ; 
 Kahnis, History of German Protestantism, p. 122 ; Wordsworth, 
 On Interpretation, pp. 11, 12 (cf. 22, 28), and in Replies to E. 
 and R., pp. 477-8, 480, 489; Farrar, B. L., pp. 311-6. 
 
 Note 2, page 75. Mr. Mansel, in speaking of ' the image of 
 God,' says: 'Whatever may be the exact import of that declaration, 
 as applied to Adam in Pai-adise, it should not be forgotten that the 
 same Book which tells us of man's creation in God's image, tells us 
 also of his fall from that image.' — First Letter, p. 15, note. But man 
 did not fall so utterly that the image was altogether destroyed. See 
 the texts referred to at the foot of page 75. I have drawn out this 
 distinction in a former work, Discourses on the Fall and its Results, 
 Disc. iii. and iv. See especially note there on p. 45. Again, in 
 the Second Letter, p. 61, note, Mr. Mansel says, of the Divine 
 vision promised to the pure in heart (Matt. v. 8), that ' others, 
 with more reason, maintain that this is reserved for the beatific 
 vision hereafter.' Doubtless, — in its highest sense; but here 
 again we need the distinction of degrees, — between comparative 
 and absolute admission and exclusion. 'If this be the end and 
 reward of the saints hereafter, it would seem to follow that tin \ 
 truly made partakers of it, in hind and in earnest, now.' — Manning, 
 Univ. Sermons, p. 130. Though man, in his fallen state, is both 
 degraded and darkened, the Divine image is not wholly obliterated; 
 the Divine vision is not absolutely withdrawn : and the relics of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 303 
 
 that image, and the glimpses of that vision, are two forms of the 
 Divine manifestation, through which Ave reach forward to the know- 
 ledge of God. 
 
 Note 3, page 77. The metaphor in the text is not quite free 
 from ambiguity ; but it seems most probable that St. Paul is 
 using the analogy, not of a window, made of half opaque material, 
 but of a mirror with imperfectly reflecting power, which gives an 
 incomplete picture of the objects cast upon it. (Cf. Wordsworth, in loc.) 
 The figure would thus remind us of the image of God within the 
 soul of man ; a reflection which is at once imperfect, yet direct. 
 The outline may be dim, but the image is not lost ; just as a true 
 reflection of the skies may rest by night upon the waters, though 
 confused and shattered when the stillness is disturbed by winds 
 which typify the wayward influence of human emotions and 
 thoughts. 
 
 The Apostle probably referred to the passage in Numbers (xii. 8), 
 where God contrasts the vision and dream of other prophets with the 
 more open revelation given to Moses. They saw Si' cuyty/.tarwi' • he 
 saw GTOfxa tear a arofia, Iv e'iSet. Compare the earlier passage, Ex. 
 xxxiv. 29—35, which describes how the face of Moses shone when 
 he descended from the mountain, and how he veiled his face to hide 
 that glory ; or it may be to conceal its transitory character. To this 
 St. Paul refers, 2 Cor. iii. 18, where ko.tottt()i?6hu>oi appears to mean, 
 that ' we all with open face ' reflecting 'as in a glass the glory of the 
 Lord,' receive and shadow back that glory ; that admitting it into 
 our spirits with the open freedom of the Gospel, we are ' changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of 
 the Lord.' (Cf. Stanley, in loc, and Sermons and Essays on the 
 Apostolic Age, p. 25 ; Moberly, Sermon on the Transfiguration of 
 Christians, p. 8.) ' Dominus est exemplar, nos imagines.' — Bengel. 
 in loc. The Christian thus receives the rays, and they transform 
 him. He is transfigured as he gazes into the likeness of the glorious 
 reality which he is contemplating, just as when we hold a mirror to 
 the sun, it is filled with the reflection of that heavenly light. 
 
 The same figure explains St, James's contrast between ' beholding' 
 for a moment the 'natural face in a glass,' iv eowrpw, and looking 
 'into the perfect law of liberty' (i. 22-5). The word ■KapaKirdjaQ 
 seems to denote the attitude of one who stoops clown to look into ; 
 as though bending to scrutinise the image of the perfect law, which 
 is mirrored in the regenerate heart. 
 
304 NOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 The parallel with Moses suggests the gradations of spiritual know- 
 ledge, to which I have made previous reference. As he was to 
 other prophets, so shall we be to our present selves, when we rise al >ove 
 the conditions of humanity, and c shall be like' Christ, ' for we shall 
 see Him as He is' (1 John iii. 2). The vision of Moses was still 
 imperfect ; the loftiest intuition of the older covenant did not reach 
 the level of Christian knowledge ; and the knowledge of the Christian, 
 even at its highest, falls short of the glory of the beatific vision. 
 But the light that reaches us, however broken and fragmentary it may 
 be, at every step flows straight from heaven. 
 
 On the degrees of access to the sight of God, see Manning, 
 Sermon on The Beatific Vision ; University Sermons, No. VI. ; and 
 above, Note 2, and Lecture L, Notes 12, 15. 
 
 Note 4, page 77. It is convenient to borrow from philosophy 
 the Kantian term, to express what has been more vaguely called a 
 ' mystery' in religion (Thomson, B. L., p. 125 ; Tulloch, Theism, 
 p. 370; E. T. of Saisset, Modern Pantheism, ii. 172, note ; &c); 
 the case of ' problems insoluble theoretically, but capable of harmony 
 when viewed on the moral side' (Farrar, B.L., p. 117). Compare 
 the word eravTicKpavua adopted by Bishop Bull; and the Sm^opwr, 
 but not ii'avriwQ, of Chrysostom ; mt yap irepov kari 5iru/>o'pwe enrilv, 
 teal payopirovc. eiirelv Horn. I. in Matth. ; Opp., vii. p. 8, C. The 
 subject might be illustrated at length by the history of contradiction, 
 which is traceable in philosophy from Heraclitus to Hegel ; and 
 which is equally traceable in the history of religious thought, from 
 the antitheses of Marcion, through the Sic et Non of Abelard, to the 
 chapter in which Spinoza fixed attention on the ' discrepantes opi- 
 niones' of the prophets; Tract. Theol.-P., ii. 49; p. 45. 
 
 The principle itself may be regarded as a double-edged weapon ; 
 used by error when it dwells on the apparent contradiction ; used 1 ly 
 truth when it points to the deeper harmony, in which faith sees the 
 difficulty disappear. In this latter sense it has been a favourite in- 
 strument of recent theology; employed by Mr. Mozley to account for 
 tli.' Predestinarian Controversy; by Dr. Pusey and others, to remove 
 scruples on the nature of the Eucharistic presence; by Mr. Mansel, 
 in his exposition of the limitations of religious thought. Abun- 
 dant illustrations will be found in the following Notes; but on the 
 o-eneral subject I may refer to Archbishop King, On Predestination, 
 pp. 51-G2, ed. Whately ; Trench, Hulsean Lectures, 1845, p. 118, 
 and On St. Augustine, pp.35, Gl ; Arnold, Sermons, i. 1G1 ; David- 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 305 
 
 son, ed. of Home's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 477-8 ; Isaac Taylor, 
 Restoration of Belief) p. 279; Pusey, The Presence of Christ in the 
 Holy Eucharist, p. 17 ; Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, ii. 15 ; 
 Thomson, B. L., pp. 124-6 ; Mozley, Augustinian Doctrine of Pre- 
 destination, ch. ii., &c. ; Mansel, Man's Conception of Eternity, pp. 
 14, 15; B. L., pp.8, 16, 17, 22, &c. ; Wordsworth, On Inter- 
 pretation, pp. 32, 34, 98, 100. 
 
 Note 5, page 79. The principle, that error generally consists in 
 the mistake of half-truths for truths, is correlative to Leibnitz's 
 observation, that sects are generally right in what they affirm, and 
 wrong in what they deny. The following illustrations show the 
 extent to which this analysis of error has been accepted : — 
 
 A'iriov Se rijg kvavrioXoyiag, on htou oXov n dewp^uai, pipog ti 
 Tvyycuovat. Xiyoi'reg iKartpoi" Ar.,DeGen. et Corr., I. 7; p. 323, b. 17. 
 Mtdc Toivvv ovang Tijg aXndeiag ' to yap xpevdog pvplag exTpotrag 
 tX £l ' xadcnrep al Bci/c^cu ret tov Uevdiwg dtafopiiaarrai ueXn, at rijg 
 <piXo<TO<piag rf)g re fiapfiapov rijg re 'EMijrtci/G a'ipiatig, tKaaTY] oirep 
 tXayzr wg irdaar ai^tl rijy aXiideiaV S. Clem. Alex., Strom. I. 13; 
 i. p. 348-9. ' — si quid de scripturis ad sententiam suam excerpent, 
 cetera nolentes intueri .... proprium hoc est omnium haereticorum.' 
 — Tertull., Adv. Praxean, 20; Opp., ii. 679. ' J'ai trouve que la 
 plupart des sectes ont raison dans une bonne partie de ce qu'elles 
 avancent, mais non pas tant en ce qu'elles nient.' — Leibnitz, Opp., 
 ed. Erdmann, p. 702 ; cf. Michelet, Metaphysique d'Aristote, p. 244. 
 ' Each is false only as it is incomplete. They are all true in what 
 they affirm ; all erroneous in what they deny.' — Sir W. Hamilton, 
 Discourses, p. 11. ' The Catholic creed is for the most part the com- 
 bination of separate truths, which heretics have divided among 
 themselves, and err in dividing.' — Newman, Tract 85, p. 73 ; On 
 Development, p. 88. ' It being almost a definition of heresy, that it 
 fastens on some one statement as if the Avhole truth, to the denial of 
 all others, and as the basis of a new faith ; erring rather in what it 
 rejects, than in what it maintains.' — Id., University Sermons, p. 338-9 ; 
 cf. Parochial Sermons, i. 357-8. ' Every heresy almost has been 
 built upon some insulated statement in God's Word.' — Pusey, Pre- 
 sence of Christ, &c, p. 19. ' To mistake a part for the whole is 
 the most common form which human error takes.' — Blakesley, Cone. 
 Acad., p. 27. ' All the ancient heresies contained a certain element 
 of truth ; but they all excluded some other truth, which was 
 
 X 
 
306 NOTES TO LECTURE HI. 
 
 necessary to complete that element of truth which they contained.' 
 — "Wordsworth, I. I., p. 32. 
 
 ' Truth ever one, 
 Not here or there, but in the whole hath shone.' 
 
 Lyr. Ap., xcix. 2. 
 
 j And so ye halve the truth.' — lb., cix. ' Locke erred only in taking 
 half the truth for a whole truth.' — Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, i. 48. 
 ' A ivhole truth instead of a half truth: — Bishop Thirlwall, Reply to 
 Williams, p. 27. ' The half truth rounding itself out with false- 
 hoods.' — Froude, On Job, p. 8 ; cf. p. 14. ' We see in all these 
 half truths of the different dividers a witness for the ivhole truth: — 
 Maurice, Tracts for Priests and People, ii. 40 ; cf. xiv. 74. ' One 
 of those half truths, which have often the mischievous effect of 
 entire falsehood.' — Birks, Bible and Modem Thought, p. 261. ' Such 
 have been many of the capital doctrines of later theological systems ; 
 true or half true in themselves, but deprived of their own vitality,' Arc. 
 — Stanley, The Bible ; its Form and its Substance, p. 96. 'Half- 
 truths, perhaps, but also half-falsehoods ; for what, in science, is a 
 half-truth but an error ? ' — I. O. St. Hilaire, in Lyell, Antiquity of 
 Man, p. 475. 
 
 Note 6, page 81. The following are instances of the forms of 
 expression under which the combination of half-truths in Scripture 
 has been recognised : — 
 
 ' We ought not to be surprised, when we find the Scriptures 
 giving different and seemingly contradictory schemes of Divine 
 things. It is manifest that several such are to be found in Holy 
 Writ.' — King, 1. 1., p. 51. ' It is ever the manner of that Word . . . 
 now boldly to declare its truth upon this side, and then presently to 
 declare it as boldly and fearlessly on the other ; not painfully and 
 nicely balancing, limiting, qualifying, till the whole strength of its 
 statements had evaporated, not caring though its truths should 
 seem to jostle one another. Enough that they do not do so indeed. 
 It is content to leave them to the Spirit to adjust and reconcile,' 
 Arc. — Trench, /. I., p. 118. 'While each (of two seeming contradic- 
 tions in Scripture) delivers a truth, each also was meant to hinder 
 us from dwelling only upon what the other teaches us,' &c. — Arnold, 
 /. /. ' Such is the well-known course of Scriptural teaching, to 
 oppose, as it were, one evil at a time, and that with the utmost 
 force, and often without qualification ; leaving the qualification 
 required to be sought for in other parts of Scripture directed against 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 307 
 
 the opposite error.' — Id., Sermons chiefly on the Interpretation of 
 Scripture, p. 360. ' It is no unusual way of teaching in Holy 
 Scripture, to speak of that only, which is at the time meant to be 
 declared or impressed upon us.' ' God inculcates, at one time, 
 one side of Divine truth ; at another, another : in order that our 
 finite human minds may grasp, in their degree, truth after truth, 
 and each may sink more deeply in our souls.' — Pusey, I. L, pp. 17, 
 19. Add Sermon on Justification, p. 11, where he goes on to 
 remai'k : ' I do not mean that uninspired man ought to use the 
 same fearlessness of speech as the unerring wisdom of God.' We 
 have ' to hold in conjunction, simply and without reserve, some 
 two divinely affirmed matters or positions, either of which we 
 should probably make no difficulty of accepting by itself, but 
 whose compatibility or jiossible coexistence we are unable to per- 
 ceive.' — Freeman, I. I. ' A contradiction requires a confession of 
 positive error ; whereas an antinomy only suggests a sense of the 
 imperfection of our understanding, which can comprehend two oppo- 
 site results, and not the mode of reconciling them.' — Archbishop of 
 York, I. I. ' Such is ever the method of Scripture ; to state each of 
 two apparently conflicting principles (e. g., God's grace and man's 
 responsibility) singly and separately, and leave conscience rather 
 than intellect to reconcile and adjust them.' — Vaughan, On Rom. 
 ix. 18 ; cf. on xii. 6. ' All revealed religion rests upon certain great 
 principles ; which the human mind can hold together in what it 
 knows to be a true concord, whilst yet it cannot always by its 
 intellectual processes limit, define, and reconcile what its higher gift 
 of intuition can harmonise.' — Bishop of Oxford, Charge, 1860, p. 62. 
 ' It is a characteristic of the Divine mind in Holy Scripture, 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 portions of Holy Writ, which are 
 necessary to complete the statement of the doctrine as a whole.' 
 —Wordsworth, /. /., p. 98. 
 
 Note 7, page 82. Such contrasted propositions must not be called 
 contradictories, as though they held a distinct logical opposition to 
 each other. This caution is implied in the quotation from the 
 Archbishop of York's B. L. in the last Note ; and compare Professor 
 Fraser's criticism of Mr. Mozley's work in his Essays in Philosophy, 
 p. 274 : ' To assert that man must believe both of two " contradic- 
 tory " propositions, is either to encourage absolute scepticism, or to 
 
 x 2 
 
308 XOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 discourage our spontaneous faith in one or other of the counter pro- 
 positions. If both are intelligible propositions, every logical thiuker 
 is compelled to make his election between them, and to follow out 
 that election into its consequences. But to offer an independent 
 proof that, while aj^parently contradictor)'-, they are really incom- 
 prehensible, opens a way for the mysterious retention of both, 
 without offence to logic. It converts into a fact above reason what 
 had seemed to subvert its fundamental law.' Also Mr. Mansel's 
 B. L., VII. note 42 ; p. 408. 
 
 Incommensurable propositions, here called ' incomprehensible,' 
 can neither of them be finally reduced to the language of unqualified 
 logical distinctness, so as to confront each other with a sharp and 
 clear antagonism. They conform, indeed, to the laws of a loftier 
 logic, which belongs to the highest reason, rather than the common 
 understanding. The cry that illogical compromises are often 
 stronger than trim logical theories, is simply a mistake, in which 
 this truth is forgotten. The real distinction lies in the breadth 
 and depth of those laws of the spirit, which rise above the rules 
 of the sensational world. The former, from their very magnitude, 
 can find no full expression in the Avords of man. The latter may 
 easily be clear and orderly, because there is no reserve beneath the 
 surface to cloud the distinctness of their lucid language. 
 
 Another evil would result from regarding such propositions as 
 contradictories; namely, the assumption that the denial of one 
 doctrine must needs involve the assertion of its opposite; whereas 
 the instances in any given case may be expressed in a form so 
 extreme as to ignore a vast range of intermediate considerations ; 
 and Avhen so stated, neither the one nor the other would be true. 
 Thus, in the Eucharistic controversy, those who declined to accept 
 a particular view of Christ's presence, were alleged to teach His 
 real absence, or to preach a dead Christ. In disputes on inspiration, 
 the support of the special claims of Scripture is said to be an 
 attempt to silence the Spirit in true hearts for ever. To reject one 
 view of eternity is to identify eternity with time. To maintain 
 the limitation of the human faculties is to deny that man possesses 
 any real revelation from God. ' I believe,' says Dr. Williams, ' it is 
 not sarcasm, but reason, to conclude that in a purely dual antithesis 
 you hold the opposite of what you blame.' — Letter to Bishop of 
 Llandaff, 1857, p. 70. On this principle much of the contrast between 
 ' Modern Judaisers ' and ' Rational Godliness ' has been constructed. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE HI. 309 
 
 {Lampeter Theology, 1856, p. 56, &c. ; cf. Letter, as above, p. 92, 
 note.) It is sufficient to answer, that in most such forms of expression 
 the ' antithesis ' is not a ' dual ' one ; and it is a groundless assump- 
 tion that the rejection of one view is equivalent to the adoption of 
 the other. 
 
 Note 8, page 83. ' Though the maxim, that every event must 
 have a cause, is undoubtedly true, what kind of a truth is it 1 Is 
 it a truth absolute and complete, &c, or is it a truth indistinct, 
 incipient, and in tendency only ? ... It is a truth of the latter 
 kind, for this simple reason, that there is a contrary truth to it.' — 
 Mozley, I. I., p. 24. Again, p. 29, as to the idea of Divine power : 
 ' does it belong to the class of full and distinct, or of incomplete 
 truths ? Certainly to the latter, for there appears at once a counter 
 truth to it, in the existence of moral evil,' &c. In cases of this 
 kind, it appears to me that the difficulty is rather absolute than 
 relative. It is not the fact of the opposition that discloses the 
 existence of the mystery. Rather we might reason out the existence 
 of the mystery on either side, and its recognition woidd then 
 explain the fact of the opposition. Cf. Fraser, /. /., p. 273. 
 
 For the rest of the paragraph, see Pascal's chapter, ' Disproportions 
 or Inequalities in Man ; ' Thoughts, ch. iii. : ' What is man in the 
 midst of nature ? He is a nothing in comparison with infinitude ; 
 he is everything in comparison with nullity ; he is a central point 
 between nothing and everything. Their extremes being infinitely 
 beyond his comprehension, the finality and the first principle of things 
 are concealed from his view under an impenetrable mystery ; and 
 he is equally incapable of searching into the nonentity from which 
 he was derived, and the infinitude into which he is absorbed.' — 
 P. 67, ed. Pearce. Of time, viewed ' as a form or condition of our 
 internal consciousness,' ' neither an absolute limit, whether beginning 
 or end, nor yet an absolutely unlimited duration is conceivable.' — 
 Mansel, Eternity, p. 6. ' Our mind is so constituted, that it cannot 
 apprehend the absolute beginning or the absolute end of anything.' 
 — Muller, Lectures on Language, 1861, p. 331. ' Leibnitz was never 
 tired of proving and illustrating the principle that all in nature 
 tends to infinity. The two abysses of which Pascal speaks — the 
 abyss of greatness over our heads, and the abyss of littleness beneath 
 and around us — opened out before his eyes.' — Christian Rem., Jan. 
 1863, p. 112. So in Kant's Antinomy of Pure Reason, First 
 Contradiction of Transcendental Ideas: '■Thesis. The world has a 
 
310 XOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 beginning in time, and is also enclosed in limits as to space. Anti- 
 thesis. The world has no beginning, and no limits in space, but is, 
 as well in respect of time as of space, infinite.' Cf. Sir A. Grant, 
 On the Ethics of Aristotle, i. 95. 
 
 Note 9, page 85. Many points mentioned in this and the fol- 
 lowing paragraphs are commonly discussed under the head of the 
 anthropomorphic language of Scripture ; e.g. the repentance ascribed 
 to God, in Spinoza, Tract. Theol. Pol., xiii. 26, p. 189. Compare 
 Glassius, /. I., i. 944; iii. 213-5; Davidson, ed. of Home's Intro- 
 duction, ii. 403 ; Introd. to 0. T., i. 29, 57, 159, &c. ; Hengstenberg, 
 Genuineness of Pentateuch, ii. 372 ; Kenrick, Essay on Primaeval 
 History, p. 43. ' There is one respect in which Strauss is himself 
 constrained in a remarkable manner to confess, that the Hebrew 
 religion has no my thus, viz., in its constant maintenance of the 
 immutability of the Divine Being in Himself His aspects only 
 changing to the varying world — unlike in this to every heathen 
 representation of the Divinity.' — Mill, Pantheistic Principles, 
 ii. 10, note. In another place, ii. 50, p. 45, Spinoza treats 1 Sam. 
 xv. 29 as a contradiction to Jer. xiii. 8, 10, and Joel ii. 13; 
 whereas the counter-view of God's repentance is traceable in the 
 same chapter of Samuel, verses 11 and 35, as has been frequently 
 remarked; above, pp. 91, 93; Hengstenberg, 1. 1., and On Daniel and 
 Balaam, p. 425 ; Mansel, B. L., p. 22 ; De Teissier, Village Sermons, 
 p. 280. 
 
 On the fatal weakness of the theory which ascribes to prayer 
 a merely subjective value, see Mansel, B. L., p. 17 (and notes), 
 and Man's Conception of Eternity, pp. 14, 15. Compare Bishop of 
 Oxford, Seventeen Sermons, p. 152. I have dealt with this subject 
 previously, in Discourses on the Fall and its Results, p. 259. 
 
 On the difference between the object of Christ's coming and its 
 results, which may be connected with the larger qixestion of the 
 fulfilment of prophecy, see Copleston, On Predestination, p. 101 ; and 
 Mr. R. P. Smith's Messianic Interpretation of the Prophecies of 
 Isaiah, p. 295 ; whence it appears that the contrast which can be 
 traced in the very words of Christ Himself and in the Gospel 
 narrative, has been offered by Jewish objectors as a proof of 
 contradiction between prophecies and their fulfilment; e.g. Zech. 
 ix. 10, Mai. iv. G. Compare Arnold's Sermons, i. 385: 'How 
 shall the truth of God's Word be reconciled with the laws of His 
 moral government ? Must He stint for our sin's sake the abundance 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 311 
 
 of His mercy, or impair for His promise's sake the perfection of His 
 justice ? Surely here, too, as in other respects . . . hope and 
 disappointment were struggling together; the promise was still of 
 blessing, but the experience was of sin, and, therefore, not of 
 blessing, but of judgment.' See also ib., p. 102, and Stanley, 
 Jewish Church, p. 465. ' Amid former promises to Israel, there 
 had been constant warnings that the fulfilment of the promises was 
 in great measure conditional. God's word should not fail, but it 
 would not be found to have spoken peace to the wicked.' — H. 
 Browne, Messiah as Foretold and Expected, p. 43. ' Their Lord, 
 while His shadow brought peace upon earth, foretold that in the 
 event, He came to send " not peace, but a sword." ' — Newman, Office 
 and Work of Universities, p. 158. 
 
 The Scripture antitheses on the relation between grace and 
 man's exertions are drawn out by Hooker, App. to E. P., v.; Works, 
 ii. 549 : ' David, to shew that grace is needful, maketh his prayer 
 unto God, saying, " Set Thou, O Lord, a watch before the door of 
 my lips ; " and to teach how needful our travail is to that end, he 
 elsewhere useth exhortation, " Refrain thou thy tongue from evil, 
 and thy lips that they speak no guile." Solomon respecting the 
 use of our labour giveth counsel, " Keep thy heart with all the 
 custody and care that may be." The Apostle, having an eye unto 
 necessity of grace, prayeth, " The Lord keep your hearts and under- 
 standings in Christ Jesus." ' 
 
 From the ' two cross-clauses,' Luke ix. 50, xi. 23 (above, p. 92), 
 Bacon draws out the distinction between ' fundamental points' and 
 'points not fundamental;' Adv. of L., ii. ; Works, iii. 482; and 
 Essay of Unity in Religion, ib., vi. 382. On the practical perplexity, 
 compare Rich. II., Act v. Sc. 5 : 
 
 ' For no thought is contented. The better sort, — 
 As thoughts of things divine, — are intermixed 
 With scruples, and do set the word itself 
 Against the word : 
 
 As thus, " Come, little ones ;" and then again, 
 " It is as hard to come as for a camel 
 To thread the postern of a needle's eye." ' 
 
 Note 10, page 88. There is a doubt on the interpretation of 
 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, as is noted in the English margin (on which see 
 Mr. F. Stephen's remark, Defence of Dr. Williams, p. 272). Com- 
 pare Waterland, Works, iv. 271 : ' If (the objector) had been dis- 
 
312 NOTES TO LECTURE IIL 
 
 posed to look into the original, and had known anything of the 
 Hebrew idiom, he might have perceived that the text does not say 
 that God moved David (for the word God is not in the text at all), 
 but one moved, which comes to the same thing with, David was 
 moved to say, &c, as Castalio renders.' ' Secundum Hebrreos Deus 
 non incitavit David contra populum, sed cor David incitavit ipsum,' 
 &c. — Minister, et Clar. ' Quidam Hebrseorum non male subaudit 
 cor Davidis, Davidem, q. d. David a propria concupiscentiii fuit ten- 
 tatus.' — Vatabl. ' Mallem personale resolvi in impersonale, coin- 
 motus seu incitatus est David, vel si id non placet, interseri nomen 
 Satano?." 1 — Amam. ' Activum pro passivo, ut sajpe, id est, com- 
 motus est, nempe a diabolo.' — Grot. (All in Crit. Sacr., ad loc.) 
 1 Cum tarn en phrasis heec ex se sumpta impium quid et blasphemum 
 inferat, tribuens Deo malum, quod ab ipso alienum est, uti neque 
 furor est ullus in Deo, vertendum videtur : Et non cessavit irasci 
 Dominus in populum suum, quia David malo illorum incitatus fuit ut 
 imperaret] &c. — Calmet, in loc. See also Glassius, Philol. Sacr., 
 i. 24-4, GOO, ed. Dathe. Mr. Barrett gives a later series of comments 
 in his Synojjsis of Criticisms. In some of these cases, the interpre- 
 tation has been obviously governed rather by the wish to avoid a 
 supposed difficulty, than by purely philological considerations. 
 Dr. Stanley retains the contrast as it stands in the English version : 
 ' The same temptation which in one book is ascribed to God, is in 
 another ascribed to Satan.' — Jewish Church, p. 48, note ; and so 
 Lightfoot, Works, i. G8. 
 
 ' Et tamen peccabam, Domine Deus, ordinator et creator omnium 
 rerum naturalium, peccatorum autem tantum ordinator.' — S.August., 
 Conf.,1. 16; Opp., i. 75. ' Ne putemus illam tranquillitatem et 
 ineffabile lumen Dei de se proferre unde peccata puniantnr ; sed 
 ipsa peccata sic ordinare, ut qua; fuerunt delectamenta homini pec- 
 canti, sint instrumenta Domino punienti.' — Id., Enarr. in Ps. vii. ; 
 Opp., iv. 37. ' Ista distinctio, aliud fecit et ordinavit : aliud autem 
 non fecit, sed tamen etiam hoc ordinavit.' — lb., p. 30. 
 
 ' "Oy diXei (ncXrjpvvei thus becomes equivalent to, He has framed 
 at His pleasure the moral constitution of man, according to which 
 the rebellious sinner is at last obdurate.' — Dr. Vaughan, on Horn. 
 ix. 18. ' Many other of the apparent accidents of Scripture, on 
 what deep grounds do they rest ! Thus, for example, in the history 
 of Pharaoh's trial, that God should ten times be said to have 
 hardened his heart, and he ten times to have hardened his own, or 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 313 
 
 to have had it hardened, without any reference to other than him- 
 self this exactly equal distribution of either language 
 
 is surely most remarkable.' — Trench, Hulsean Lectures, 1845, 
 pp. 124—5. 
 
 "With the history of Balaam we may compare the answer of the 
 oracle at Branchida? to Aristodicus, Hdt., i. 159 : ' ApiaTolucov ce, 
 ovk ctTTopijaraPTa, 7rpog ravra elireiv ' '£2 "vaE, avrog uev ovtu> Toiai 
 hiri]<ri j3or]d£eiQ • Kv/ialovg Be keXeveiq tov lkETi)v EK^i^ovai ; Tov Be 
 nuns ufietipaadai ro'iatle ' Nat keXevuj, tVa ye ao-e/3//(7avr£c Odcraov 
 airo\r}od£ ' wg /x>) to Xoittov 7repi iketeuv ekcooioq e\Qt)te ettI to 
 
 ■^pt](TT>'iptOl'. 
 
 Note 11, page 92. Compare the commentators on Eph. iii. 19 ; 
 where the antithesis is called by Dean Alford ' a paradox ;' by 
 Bishop Ellicott, ' an oxymoron ;' by Dr. Wordsworth, ' hyperbole.' 
 
 The principle maintained is, that Scripture anticipates all objec- 
 tions based on this ground, by speaking as though with an entire 
 unconsciousness that there is any contradiction, even when the con- 
 trasted terms are brought into the closest union. 'How firmly the' 
 immutability of God 'was impressed on the Israelitish mind, is 
 testified by the unembarrassed manner in which repentance of a 
 certain kind is ascribed to God.' — Hengstenberg, Balaam, &c, as 
 quoted above in Note 9. ' Earnest men, striving for great truths, are 
 sure to be paradoxical, and to seem to contradict themselves. Their 
 inspiration only makes them the more fearless in such seeming con- 
 tradictions.' — Davies, in Tracts for Priests and People, xi. 29. See 
 also above, Note 6. 
 
 Note 12, page 93. Mr. Froude has spoken of the Book of Job 
 as an extraordinary contrast to the rest of the O. T. Canon, ' smiting 
 through and through the most deeply-seated Jewish prejudices.' — 
 Book of Job, p. 3. In correction of which view, we may refer to the 
 argument of an article in Christian Remembrancer, Jan. 1849, p. 196, 
 sqq. : ' The language of Job toward the Deity is another remarkable 
 feature of the book. This language is a startling carrying out even 
 of that bold ground which he takes about himself; for he positively, 
 as far as Avords go, accuses the Deity of injustice.' ' It is obvious at 
 first sight that this language cannot really mean what it literally 
 means.' ' The holy men speak as if God were hard and unjust 
 upon them, all the while feeling the fullest and most penetrating 
 conviction of His goodness. Indeed, just as in the case of ordinary 
 irony, feeling expresses itself by contraries,' &c. ' All prayer may 
 
314 NOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 be said to partake in some measure of this irony.' ' Thus the 
 piercing tone of pra} r ers in the Psalms,' &c. Compare Mr. Farrar, 
 B. L., p. 7, note. 
 
 In like manner, on the controverted subject of the Jewish know- 
 ledge of a future state, ' we cannot but observe, upon reflection, 
 with what religious humility the minds of holy men, under the 
 elder dispensation, seem to have fitted themselves to that exact 
 amount of revelation, on this subject, which they had.' ' Amid all 
 the superior brightness of a more perfect hope, Ave can still allow its 
 own peculiar beauty to the faith of the Jewish saint, believing with 
 an obedient and resigned vagueness, and prepared in God to go he 
 knew not and asked not whither.' — Christian Rem., I. I., p. 164. 
 Compare Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 154, as quoted above, Lecture II. 
 Note 8; and p. 471. ' The elder Hebrew Prophets were content, 
 for the most part, with the consciousness of the Divine support in 
 this life and through the terrors of death, but did not venture 
 to look further.' Compare also Milman's remarks on Ecclesi- 
 asticus, History of the Jews, ii. 32, note (and above, Lecture II., 
 Note 20). 
 
 Note 13, page 95. In this, as in so many other cases, the fact 
 that a principle is brought out more vividly at one time than another, 
 is constantly made the ground for the assertion, that it is absolutely 
 excluded from the sphere where it is less conspicuously traced. 
 See above, p. 19. The doctrine of Ezek. xviii. is distinctly re- 
 cognised in the Pentateuch. ' Yet now if Thou wilt forgive their 
 sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which 
 Thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath 
 sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.' — Ex. xxxii. 
 32, 33. ' The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, 
 neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers : every 
 man shall be put to death for his own sm.' — Deut. xxiv. 16 ; cf. 
 2 Kings xiv. 6 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 4. The subject is fully discussed in 
 most Introductions to the Pentateuch. See also Spinoza, Tract. Theol. 
 Pol., ii. 49, p. 45 ; Waterland, Works, iv. 222; Warburton, Divine 
 Legation of Moses, V. 5 ; vol. iii. p. 5, &c, ed. 1846, and the 
 notes ; Mozley, Predestination, p. 36 ; Trench, Sennon on the 
 Mount, &c, pp. 41-3; 45-7; 187-8; K. P. Smith, On Isaiah, 
 Introd., p. xvii. 
 
 Note 14, page 97. See Lyall, Propcrdia Projihetica, P. III., ch. ii., 
 especially pp. 323-4. Cf. Milmun, llistoiy of the Jeivs, ii. 364. It 
 appears that even the most advanced schools are disposed to leave 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 315 
 
 us ' a chapter possibly in Deuteronomy foreshadowing the final fall 
 of Jerusalem.' — E. and R., p. 70. 
 
 Note 15, page 100. Am ri ovv, <pr)<r\i>, ovh\c eveko.\e(T£ MwwcteT ?/ 
 i]rttiQy](TE keXevovti Zia H]v 7reptroyu>)v to aafiftaTov \vEadai ; ^TjXoron 
 WQ tov crafifiarov TTEpirofirig ovarjg Kvpiwripaq, ku'itoi ovk kari tov 
 
 TO/dOV >/ TrEptTO^}), rtW EK TWV TTaTEpWV, 'e^IvOeV ETTElCTErE-^dE'iaa TO) VOjJU). 
 
 — Chrys. ap. Caten. G. P., ed. Cramer, ii. 264. ' Sententia est 
 Hebrsorum, Circumcisio pellit Sabbatum .... (Opus Christ!) 
 continetur in natura? praeceptis, qua? antiquiora sunt ipsa circum- 
 cisione, sicut circumcisio est antiquior rigido otio Sabbati per Mosem 
 imperato ... Si lex ritualis cedit rituali antiquiori, quanto magis legi 
 per naturam cordibus inscripta?, ut quavis occasione miseros juvemus?' 
 — Grotius in Joann. vii. 22-3. Cf. Lightfoot, Works, ii. 557 ; Morris, 
 Prize Essay, &c, p. 98. 
 
 St. Augustine's explanations of the position of the Law are care- 
 fully summed up by Dean Trench in the work already referred to ; 
 pp. 67, 185, &c. The typical, and therefore temporary, character of 
 the Law is often the sole solution offered to account for the strong 
 language used by St. Paul ; 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; Gal. iii. 13, 19, &c. It 
 was indeed a serious evil to mistake the shadow for the substance ; 
 but it is not less important to establish the results of the principle, 
 that, viewed in itself, the Law conveyed knowledge without grace. 
 It is this which gives point to the apostolic contrast. The Law was 
 holy; but it became an unendurable burthen (Acts xv. 10), if a 
 rigid obedience to its dictates was regarded as the sole ground 
 for justification. In this sense it could kill ; yet it had been 
 obeyed, upheld, and reverenced by those who had shone forth 
 amidst dark ages as bright examples of the power of faith. "We 
 cannot explain this sharp antagonism by proving merely that it 
 was temporary in its obligation, unless we can show also, that 
 throughout its course, it was equally restricted in its power. The 
 coming of Christ might fulfil, and therefore supersede, a type : 
 but how could it change blessings into curses ? How could it turn 
 earlier good into present evil ? This it could not do. But what it 
 could and did do was, to drag to the light existing evil, as the 
 preliminary for furnishing its cure : on the one hand, by revealing 
 and satisfying the true but forgotten scope of the promise ; on the 
 other hand, by convicting the Jews of destroying the Law, which 
 they professed to honour, by turning its letter against its spirit. And 
 it is throughout this argument, as I have endeavoured to point out, 
 that the Apostle and his Master are at one. 
 
316 NOTES TO LECTURE III. 
 
 Note 16, page 101. 'To condemn works without faith is surely 
 quite consistent with condemning faith without works. St. James 
 says, we are justified by works, not by faith only ; St. Paul implies, 
 by faith, not by works only. St. Paul says that Avorks are not 
 available before faith ; St. James that they are available after faith.' — 
 Newman, On Justification, p. 330. Compare Neander, Planting, &c, 
 p. 358, sqq., ed. Bohn ; Arnold, Sermons chiefly on the Interpretation 
 of Scripture, No. xxxiv. p. 358. 
 
 But in truth this contrast is only one instance of a wider charac- 
 teristic, by which Scripture often speaks of each cause in salvation 
 as the sole cause, leaving it to the enlightened conscience to ascribe 
 to each its proper weight and province. ' Whereas faith on our part 
 fitly answers, or is the correlative, as it is called, to grace on God's 
 part, sacraments are but God's acts of grace, and good works are 
 but our acts of faith ; so that whether we say we are justified by 
 faith, or by works, or by sacraments, all these but mean this one 
 doctrine, that we are justified by grace, given through sacraments, 
 impetrated by faith, manifested in works.' — Newman, I. I., p. 348. 
 Compare his Parochial Sermons, iii. 84, on ' Faith and Obedience;' 
 and iv. 350, on ' Faith and Love.' ' Various qualities are stated as 
 essential to salvation, one in one passage, another in another. Thus 
 faith is said to save ; " by grace ye are saved ; " a man is justified by 
 faith ; he is justified by grace ; he is justified by the blood of Christ ; 
 he is justified by ivorks. In other places love is represented as the 
 great justifying principle in the sight of God. One quality of the 
 mind is connected with and implies another. Faith and love 
 necessarily go together. Works are connected with both.' — Davidson, 
 in Home, ii. 478. 
 
 A similar principle is needed to explain many portions of the 
 practical teaching of Scripture; e.g.: — 1. 'He shall give His 
 angels charge over thee,' Ps. xci. 11 ; a lesson of trust, which is 
 not to be turned into a justification of presumption, as Christ Himself 
 has most distinctly taught us, Matt. iv. 7. 
 
 2. ' Woe unto you that are rich ! ' Luke vi. 24 ; a lesson on God's 
 absolute ownership, and a warning against claiming His gifts as our 
 own, and using them for selfish ends; which is not to be turned into 
 refusal of the duties of a ' faithful and wise steward ' (Luke xii. 42), 
 if God sees fit in any sense to set us over His household, and confide 
 to us the management of wealth. 
 
 3. ' Turn to him the other (cheek) also,' Matt. v. 39 ; a lesson 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE III. 317 
 
 of patience and humility, which is not to be turned into the sanction 
 of injustice, in any sense that would offend against the common 
 good, and against the laws that are needed to protect the weak against 
 the strong. 
 
 Note 17, page 104. On the marvellous unity of Scripture, 
 compare Trench's Ilulsean Lectures for 1845, No. II.; Bishop 
 Ellicott, in Aids to Faith, p. 442 ; Burgon, Inspiration and Inter- 
 pretation, pp. cliii. 123, 234-5 ; Birks, The Bible and Modern 
 Thought, pp. 226, 265, 377, 398, 405. ' The series of the Inspired 
 stands out from all the generations to which they individually 
 belonged, one series, by reason of the one light which shines from 
 them all, and which by its unity vindicates for itself one source.' 1 — 
 Campbell, Thoughts on Revelation, p. 98. Not less noteworthy 
 is the nature of that unity, veiled beneath such wondrous diversity. 
 The Jews were to ' be accustomed to regard their Scriptures, not as 
 men regard other books, but as a sort of mine, in which their learned 
 men were to dig for the treasures of hidden wisdom which they 
 contained.' — Lyall, Prop. Proph., p. 301. ' Its contents are like a 
 vast quarry rather than a finished building : we find the rough 
 materials,' &c. — Stanley, The Bible; its Form and its Substance, p. 34. 
 A striking passage from Burke has been repeatedly quoted lately on 
 this subject; National Review, Jan. 1861, p. 159 ; Stephen, Defence 
 of Dr. Williams, p. 60; Phillimore, Speech on the other side, p. 22, 
 &c. Compare Hooker, E. P., I. xiii. 3; and Trench, On St. 
 Augustine, pp.3, 5, 9, &c. ' Nimirum idem coelestis Spiritus Isaiam 
 et Danielem in aula sua movit afflatu, Davidem et Amosum in 
 pastorum stabulis ; semper idoneos voluntatis suaj interpretes 
 deligens, et interdum ex ore infantium jierficiens laudem : aliorum 
 utitur eloquentia ; alios eloquentes facit.' — Lowth, De Sacr. P.Hebr., 
 p. 246, ed. Lips., 1815. Compare below, Lecture V., Note 20. 
 
318 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Note 1, page 107. See, for instance, Bauer's continuation of 
 Glassii Phil. Sacr., iii. 15 : ' Sensus litteralis est unice verus. Sensus 
 mysticus, i. e., allegoricus et typicus, non est admittendus.' His 
 reasons follow on p. 23. Compare Marsh's Lectures on the Interpreta- 
 tion of the Bible, Nos. x.-xii. ' If we endeavour to find an allegorical 
 sense, either in history or in prophecy, we endeavour to find a sense 
 with which the literal sense is wholly unconnected. The sense, 
 therefore, will be supplied by mere imagination ; and not only will 
 different interpreters invent different senses, but even the same 
 interpreter may invent as many as he pleases. Indeed there have 
 been Jewish commentators, who have boasted that they could 
 discover seventy midrashim, or mystical meanings, in one sentence. 
 Some limit, therefore, is absolutely necessary ' (on which see below, 
 Note 13). — lb., p. 459. (From the time of Erasmus and Luther) 
 ' the Greek of the New Testament was interpreted like the Greek 
 of a classic author ; the tropological and anagogical senses which had 
 been ascribed to the Latin Vulgate disappeared ; and the names 
 themselves ceased to occupy a place in the nomenclature of a biblical 
 interpreter. It became a maxim among Protestants, that the words 
 of Scripture had only one sense, and that they who ascribed to 
 them various senses made the meaning of Scripture altogether 
 uncertain.' — lb , p. 508. Compare Maitland, Eruvin, p. 27. 
 
 A correction to the extreme view of the single sense is supplied 
 by the two considerations to which I call attention in the text ; 
 namely, the very definition of a Revelation, and the teaching of 
 Christ and His apostles in the New Testament. 
 
 On the first of these points, compare Bacon, Advancement of 
 Learning, Works, iii. 484, ed. Ellis and Spedding : ' The Scriptures, 
 being given by inspiration and not by human reason, do differ from all 
 other books in the author,' &c. And p. 487 : (the Scriptures) ' being 
 written to the thoughts of men, and to the succession of all ages, with a 
 foresight of all heresies, contradictions, differing estates of the Church, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 319 
 
 yea, and particularly of the elect, are not to be interpreted only 
 according to the latitude of the proper sense of the place, and re- 
 spectively towards that present occasion whereupon the words were 
 uttered,' &c, 'but have in themselves . . . infinite springs and 
 streams of doctrine to water the Church in every part ; and therefore, 
 as the literal sense is as it were the main stream or river, so the 
 moral sense chiefly, and sometimes the allegorical or typical, are 
 they whereof the Church hath most use : not that I wish men to be 
 bold in allegories, or indulgent or light in allusions ; but that I do 
 much condemn that interpretation of the Scripture which is only 
 after the manner as men use to interpret a profane book.' Add 
 Selden, Table Talk, p. 11, ed. Singer: 'The Scripture may have 
 more senses beside the literal ; because God understands all things at 
 once ; but a man's writing has but one true sense, which is that which 
 the author meant when he writ it.' (Cf. Warburton, D. L., iii. 214.) 
 And Butler, Anal., ii. 7, p. 304 : ' To say, then, that the Scriptures, 
 and the things contained in them, can have no other or farther 
 meaning than those persons thought or had who first recited or 
 wrote them, is evidently saying that those persons were the original, 
 proper, and sole authors of those books, i. e., that they are not 
 inspired.' The argument is that of Augustine and Aquinas: 'Quia 
 vero sensus litteralis est quern auctor intendit, auctor autem Sacra? 
 Scriptural Deus est, qui omnia simul suo intellectu comprehendit, 
 " non est inconveniens," ut dicit Augustinus, " si etiam secundum 
 litteralem sensum in una littera Scripture plures sint sensus." ' 
 — I ma Qu. i. Art. x. 
 
 For the second ground, see Middleton, Doctrine of the Greek 
 Article, p. 403, ed. Rose : ' else we must assert, that the multitude 
 of applications made by Christ and His apostles are fanciful and 
 unauthorised,' &c. And Marsh, I. 1., p. 455 : ' In whatever case a 
 passage of the Old Testament, which, according to its strict and 
 literal sense, relates to some earlier event in the Jewish history, 
 is yet applied, either by Christ or by an apostle of Christ, to what 
 happened in their days ; and moreover is so applied, as to indicate 
 that the passage is prophetic ; of such passage we must conclude, on 
 their authority, that beside its plain and primary sense, it has also a 
 remote and secondary sense. The difficulties, which no human 
 system can remove, are in such cases removed by Divine power.' 
 It was also a question of fact by which Bishop Horsley was led to 
 change his opinion, from believing ' that every prophecy, were it 
 
320 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 rightly understood, Avould be found to carry a precise and single 
 meaning ; ' the fact, namely, that Noah's prophecy on Japhet 
 contained ' variety of intent and meaning,' as was proved by its 
 repeated fulfilments. — Sermons, i. 344. 
 
 On the general subject of this Lecture, I may refer to Bishop 
 Van Mildert's Bamjpton Lectures, 1814, No. VII. ; Mr. Conybeare's 
 Bampton Lectures, 1824, 'being an attempt to trace the history and 
 to ascertain the limits of the secondary and spiritual interpretation 
 of Scripture ; ' Dr. Neale's Commentary on the Psalms ; Disserta- 
 tion III., ' The Mystical and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms ; ' 
 Tract for the Times, No. 89, ' On the Mysticism attributed to the 
 Early Fathers of the Church' (see below, Note 17); Mr. Isaac 
 Williams's Commentary on The Beginning of the Book of Genesis, 
 pp. 22, 37, 55, 23G, &c. ; Waterland, Works, iv. 154; Lyall, 
 Propced. Proph., pp. 193, 245, 296, 299, 300 ; Fairbairn's Typology, 
 Book I. ; Arnold's Two Sermons on the Interpretation of Prophecy, &c. 
 The topic also fills a large space in the controversy which followed 
 the publication of Essays and Reviews. I am happy to find that 
 the argument of this discourse is supported by an excellent sermon 
 of Mr. Mansel's, which I had not seen when my own was preached : 
 ' The Spirit a Divine Person, to be worshipped and glorified ; ' one of 
 the Oxford Lenten Sermons for 1863. 
 
 Note 2, page 1 10. The cases of Balaam, of Jonah, and of Caiaphas, 
 have been frequently used to prove that prophets were influenced by 
 'a power that would not be repressed;' e.g., by Professor H. 
 Browne, in Aids to Faith, pp. 312, 316. Compare the Bishop of 
 Oxford's University Sermons, p, 159 (on the other hand, see David- 
 son, Introd. to 0. T., ii. 435). On the whole subject, I may refer to 
 John Smith's Discourse ' Of Prophecy,' Select Disc, 1673, p. 161. 
 ' Sometimes that light was more strong and vivid, sometimes more 
 wan and obscure ; which seems to be insinuated in that passage, Heb. 
 i. 1 : " God who in time past spake unto the fathers by the prophets, 
 ■xoXvfiepuic kclI 7roXvrpo7rwc." ' — P. 109. (Few readers will need 
 reminding of Dr. Stanley's three sermons on The Bible ; its Eorm 
 and its Substance, and Lectures, on the Eastern Church, p. 322.) 
 ' He watch'd till knowledge came,' &c. ; Christian Year, Second 
 Sunday after Easter. 
 
 Of the ' nearer foreground of Prophecy,' many illustrations are 
 given in Dr. Pusey's Commentary on the Minor Prophets, and else- 
 where. Compare Dr. Stanley's account of Balaam's • utterances,' — 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 321 
 
 ' founded, like all such utterances, on the objects immediately in the 
 range of the vision of the seer, but including within their sweep a 
 vast prospect beyond.' — Jewish Church, p. 193. See, too, p. 453. 
 Also, Mr. R. P. Smith's excellent Introduction to his Messianic Inter- 
 pretation of the Prophecies of Isaiah ; especially pp. vi.-viii. : ' with 
 all this they had no conscious purpose or knowledge of the final 
 tendencies of their works : each had his own present business, and 
 addressed himself to the immediate wants and needs of his days.' 
 (So of Moses, of David and Solomon, of Isaiah, of the later prophets;) 
 ' yet, notwithstanding so great a change, no note is struck which jars 
 with the declarations of previous prophets, nor is there a word which 
 does not fitly belong to Him who is our Prophet, Priest, and King.' 
 Note 2>,page 113. The doctrine of Typology, which has gathered 
 to itself so large a literature, turns mainly on the question of fact ; 
 the proof from Scripture that this secondary intention did exist ; 
 that it extended to things as well as words ; that it has received the 
 highest sanction from the teaching of our Lord ; that it reaches so 
 closely to the frontier of the actual lessons of Scripture, as to suggest 
 the possibility and propriety of a still wider range of analogous inter- 
 pretation. The opposite tendencies may be thought to have reached 
 their limits in the schools of Grotius and Cocceius, of which the 
 judgment has become proverbial : ' Grotium nusquam in sacris Uteris 
 invenire Christum, Cocceium ubique.' 1 (Cf. Waterland, Works, iv. 
 163.) See Conybeare's 7th Lecture, pp. 259-67. ' No commen- 
 tator ever surpassed S. Augustine in seeing Christ everywhere : 
 
 " Him first, Him last, Him midst and without end." 
 
 It has been well said that where we, after considerable study, are able 
 to discover some distant reference to our blessed Lord, S. Augustine 
 begins boldly : " This Psalm breathes altogether of Christ." ' — Neale, 
 On the Psalms, i. 77. Cf. Trench, On St. Augustine, pp. 54, 55. 
 
 Note 4, page 114. Compare Waterland, Works, iv. 155 : ' the 
 words of Scripture in such cases express such a thing, and that thing 
 represents or signifies another thing. The words, properly, bear 
 but one sense, and that one sense is the literal one ; but the thing 
 expressed by the letter is further expressive of something sublime 
 or spiritual.' Also Van Mildert, B. L., notes, p. 388. It does 
 not follow, however, that we may attempt to discriminate by 
 ascribing the res solely to God and the voces solely to man ; an 
 opinion condemned by Dr. Lee, p. 32. This is only one of the 
 
 Y 
 
322 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 many attempts to solve the mystery of inspiration by drawing a 
 mechanical distinction between the respective provinces of the 
 divine and human elements. 
 
 Note 5, page 115, The instance in Hosea is discussed by Dr. 
 Wordsworth, Onlnterpretation, pp. 79, 87, and in Replies to E. and R., 
 p. 482 ; Dr. M'Caul, in Aids to Faith, p. 118 ; Bishop Ellicott, ib., 
 p. 402 ; Dr. Neale, On the Psalms, i. 384. Cf. Dr. Mill, Pantheistic 
 Principles, ii. 408-14. ' When Israel was brought out of Egypt, 
 the figure took place ; when Christ was called, the reality was ful- 
 filled. The act itself, on the part of God, was prophetic. . . . The 
 words are prophetic, because the event which they speak of was 
 prophetic' — Dr. Pusey, in loc. Dr. Stanley speaks of cases where 
 1 a fact of the Mosaic history is resolved into a truth of the new 
 dispensation.' — On 2 Cor. iii. 17. 'Is it not true that Almighty 
 God has made even acts and histories to prophesy, independently 
 of any utterance of men's mouths?' — Browne, in Aids to Faith, 
 p. 312. 
 
 The allusion in Jeremiah xxxi. 15, to the lamentation which was 
 thought to issue from the tomb of Rachel when her children were 
 destroyed, — a reference doubtless in the first instance to some occur- 
 rences connected with the captivity, — is worked out by Dr. Mill. 
 /. /., pp. 402-8 : ' The mass of Christian as well as Jewish inter- 
 preters expound this prophecy as primarily respecting the Chaldean 
 captivity, though involving higher and more remote events in its 
 after development.' Dr. Stanley drops all mention of the words of 
 Jeremiah : ' As late as the Christian era, when the infants of Beth- 
 lehem were slaughtered by Herod, it seemed to the Evangelist as 
 though the voice of Rachel were heard weeping for her children 
 from her neighbouring grave.' — Jewish Church, p. 72. 
 
 Note 6, page 11G. Prophecies are ' of the nature of their Author, 
 with whom a thousand years are but as one day ; and therefore are 
 not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and germinant 
 accomplishment throughout many ages, though the height or fulness 
 of them may refer to some one age.' — Bacon, Works, iii. 341. 
 Compare Horsley, Sermons, i. 344 ; Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., notes, 
 p. 396 (' so thai the prophecies, as I believe, will go on continually 
 meeting a\ ith a t\ pical and imperfect fulfilment, till the time of the 
 end '); 449 (' it may be that this groat truth may be again partially 
 and typically fulfilled ; nay, that it may be so fulfilled many tunes 
 over, the fulfilment becoming continually more' and more adequate 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 323 
 
 to the prophecy, till the last and perfect fulfilment ') ; Wordsworth, 
 On Matt., xvi. 28, and On Interpretation, p. 74. 
 
 Note 7, page 119. The older divisions are summed up by S. Thorn. 
 Aq., I ma Qu. i. Art. x. The foundation of all is the literal (see below, 
 Note 15); and under this we may arrange what St. Augustine calls 
 history, aetiology, and analogy, as well as parable. But the res being 
 significant as well as the voces (see Note 4), there is a spiritual 
 meaning lying beneath the literal, which may be thus divided : 
 
 1. The old law is a figure of the new law; and this is allegory. 
 
 2. The life of Christ recorded in the new law is the example for all 
 Christians; and hence we derive tropologia, the moral sense. 8. The 
 new law is itself a figure of eternal glory, and this is anagoge. The 
 illustration of Durandus (Neale, I. I., p. 380) precisely corresponds 
 with this arrangement. The historical Jerusalem is ' that earthly 
 city Avhither pilgrims journey,' but it is understood ' allegorically, of 
 the Church militant ; tropologically, of every faithful soul ; analo- 
 gically, of the celestial Jerusalem, Avhich is our country.' 
 
 The question how far this scheme, in its explanation, as Avell as its 
 terms, can be ascribed to Origen, is examined by Bishop Marsh, I. I., 
 p. 483. That neither of the two great divisions should be sacri- 
 ficed to the other is well expressed in the quotation from St. Augus- 
 tine, De Genesi ad Lit,, viii. 1 ; Opp., iii. 225 : ' Non ignoro de 
 paradiso multos multa dixisse, tres tamen de hue re quasi generales 
 sunt sentential. Una eorum, qui tantummodo corporaliter paradisum 
 intelligi volunt. Alia eorum, qui spiritaliter tantum. Tertia eorum, 
 qui utroque modo paradisum accipiunt, alias corporaliter alias autem 
 sjnritaliter. Breviter ergo ut dicam, tertiam mihi fateor placere 
 sententiam.' Cf. S. Thorn. Aq., I ma Qu. cii. Art. i. These early 
 distinctions afterwards branched out into a complex system, which 
 may be seen 'in all its grandeur' (says Dr. Maitland, Eruvin, 
 p. 28) in the early editions of Glassius ; or more succinctly in 
 Waterland, Works, iv. 165. It is counted by Dr. Maitland among 
 the ' impediments to the right understanding of Scripture.' 
 
 To compare the old division with that which I have suggested : 
 the tropological sense may be so expanded as, in a Avider view, to 
 answer to the symbolical ; and the allegorical and anagogic are but 
 two different stages of the typical. The older scheme leaves no 
 place for the class which I have arranged third, unless we regard it 
 as a subdivision of the allegorical. But if the definitions are not 
 clearly stated, and carefully maintained, there will always be some 
 
 y 2 
 
324 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 discussion whether particular cases are to be arranged under one 
 head or another. 
 
 The distinction drawn between type and symbol, namely, that type 
 is a prophetic symbol, is now generally adopted; see, e. g., Litton's 
 B. L., p. 82 ; Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, i. 104 ; Mac- 
 donald, On the Pentateuch, ii. 452. There is more difficulty about 
 the word allegory, in the ordinary usage of which (' aliud verbis, 
 aliud sensu ostendit ; ' Quinctil., Inst. Or., viii. 6, § 44) all hold upon 
 a primary historical sense is lost. But Bishop Marsh points out that 
 aWnyopovptva is not rendered with precision in our authorised 
 version : ' It is one thing to say that a history is allegorised ; it is 
 another thing to say that it is allegory itself. If we only allegorise 
 an historical narrative, Ave do not of necessity convert it into 
 allegory' (7. /., p. 356). So also Bishop Van Mildert, I. I, 239-40 : 
 ' some historical facts of the Old Testament appear to be allegorised 
 in the new (that is, a spiritual application is given to them over and 
 above their literal meaning), although they cannot strictly be deno- 
 minated types. St. Paid, in applying the history of Sarah and 
 Hagar to the Jewish and Christian covenants, does not call it a type ; 
 but only says that in giving it such an application, he had alle- 
 gorised the history.' Again, Dr. Fairbairn (p. 18) recognises two kinds 
 of allegory: — 1. ' A narrative expressly feigned for the purpose;' 
 2. 'if describing facts which really took place, describing them only 
 for the purpose of representing certain higher truths or principles 
 than the narrative, in its literal aspect, whether real or fictitious, 
 could possibly have taught.' This second sense, though less usual, 
 corresponds more nearly to the application of St. Paul. 
 
 Note 8, page 120. Dr. R. Williams refers us for ' the origin of 
 St. Paid's parable of Hagar' to Philo {Rational Godliness, p. 1G7, 
 note) ; and Mr. Jowett calls it ' neither an argument nor an illus- 
 tration, but an interpretation of the O. T. Scripture after 
 the manner of the age in which St. Paul lived ; that is, after the 
 manner of the Jewish and Christian Alexandrian writers, {in loc). 
 A writer ' On Kabbalism' in the Christian Remembrancer for April, 
 18G2, p. 358, note, says that it is 'probably an argumentum ad 
 hominem of irresistible force against the Judaism of his day.' Of 
 recent commentaries, which appear to me to give a much deeper and 
 truer meaning, I would especially refer to that of Bishop Ellicott. 
 On the representative character of Abraham and his household, see 
 ( Hsltausen, in loc, and the passage of Calvin opioted by Dean Alford. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 325 
 
 Noted, page 124. The general law, however, that 'the elder 
 shall serve the younger' (Gen. xxv. 23 ; Eom. ix. 12), has an extra- 
 ordinary application through the history of the older Church. Seth 
 was younger than Cain ; Shem than Japhet (cf. Gen. x. 21 ; Lee, 
 p. 532); Abraham than his brethren {see Comm. on Acts vii. 4); 
 Isaac than Ishmael ; Jacob than Esau ; Judah than Reuben ; 
 Ephraim than Manasseh ; Moses than Aaron ; Samuel than the sons 
 of Peninnah ; David than Eliab, &c. Compare also, Abel younger than 
 Cain ; Joseph younger than his brethren ; Solomon younger than 
 Adonijah (1 Kings ii. 22). Gideon's family was poor in Manasseh, 
 and he the least in his father's house (Judges vi. 15). Saul was 
 ' a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel ;' and his family 
 ' the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin' (1 Sam. ix. 21). 
 See Macaulay's remark on this, H. E., i. 72. The Jewish history 
 ' would rather seem to indicate that younger brothers are under the 
 especial protection of heaven. Isaac was not the eldest son of 
 Abraham, nor Jacob of Isaac, nor Judah of Jacob, nor David of 
 Jesse, nor Solomon of David.' Compare Jowett on Eom. ix. 10 ; 
 and the Plain Commentary on Matt. xi. 12 and Luke xv. 32. 
 
 Against what is said on the same page, 124, that the Law was ' no 
 bondage ' to the ancient worthies, it might be objected that St. Peter 
 calls it so ; Acts xv. 10. For an answer, see Neander, Planting, &c, 
 i. 117 : ' By " a yoke" St. Peter certainly did not mean the outward 
 observance of ceremonies simply as such, . . . but he meant the 
 outward observance of the Law as far as it proceeded from its internal 
 dominion over the conscience, so as to make justification and salva- 
 tion dependent upon it.' See above, Lecture III., Note 15. 
 
 Note 10, page 129. ' The occurrence of a commandment to keep 
 the Sabbath, in a table generally moral, implies that there is a moral 
 element in that commandment.' . . . ' The Sabbath, as it appears 
 in the Fourth Commandment, was a development of such moral 
 element in a manner suited to a particular people, and being thus 
 rendered political and ceremonial, does not, in that form, come 
 under the precepts that are called moral.' — Hessey, B. L., pp. 23-4 ; 
 cf. p. 209 : ' The apostles . . . carried out the moral part of 
 the Fourth Commandment, which demands a periodic devotion of 
 time to God's service, and incidcates, by the mysterious example of 
 the Almighty Himself, the alternation of rest with labour.' Compare 
 above, Lecture II., Note 11 ; and Lecture V., p. 164. Also, Dr. 
 Moberly, Law of the Love of God, p. 191 : 'if God surrounded a 
 
326 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 law with temporary characteristics, such as those which invested the 
 law of the Sabbath under the Mosaic dispensation, these same 
 characteristics, when ceasing to form part of the law, must continue 
 to form a commentary upon the law, and an illustration of its meaning 
 and intent." 1 
 
 In like manner, the law of circumcision, as it stood, con \ eyed no 
 obligation to the Gentile ; but it retained its value, as at once a 
 record and a moral rule. It was a record of the forms through 
 which God's older covenant had been sealed. It was a rule which 
 embodied in the strictest shape the law of the circumcision of the 
 heart. It ceased to be obligatory, because the time was come to 
 which St. Paul taught that the O. T. itself had pointed, when the 
 free admission of the Gentile would cancel the old ritual of the Jew. 
 But what it lost in obligation it more than recovered in vitality. 
 It rose into fresh dignity in the nobler system, when its earlier 
 bearing was more distinctly realised ; and we might almost say that 
 it had never seemed so full of vitality, as at the very moment when 
 it ceased to be obeyed. 
 
 Note 11, page 130. The difficulty is well put by Dr. Arnold, 
 Two Sermons on the Interpretation of Prophecy, in Sermons, vol. i. 
 pp. 3G7, 388. But indeed it has long claimed and received great 
 attention ; in such older works as the BifiXog Ka-aXXayrjg of Suren- 
 husius (1713); in such recent publications as Gough's Neiv Testa- 
 ment Quotations collated with the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 (1855); in the lists of Dr. Davidson, ed. of Home's Introduction, 
 ii. pp. 113-74, and Mr. Ayre, the editor of a different represen- 
 tative of the same volume, pp. 113-78; and in such treatises as 
 Chapter V. in Michaelis's Introd. to N.T., i. 200-4G, ed. Marsh; 
 Appendix A. to Mr. Westcott's Introd., &c. ; and Mr. Jowett's 
 Essay ' On the Quotations from the Old Testament in the New,' 
 St. PauVs Epistles, i. 353-62, 1st ed. Cf. Lee, /. I., p. 334, sqq. 
 The separate passages are also discussed, and in most cases with 
 sufficient fulness, in the Commentaries of Ellicott, Alford, Words- 
 worth, and others. On the extent to which these quotations were 
 anticipated by the Jews, and wherein the usages differ, see Lyall, 
 Propa'd. Proph., pp. 184, 191, 193, &c, 301. 
 
 The position of the LXX has been thought to add considerably 
 to the difficulty. But if it bo granted that the N. T. writers were 
 allowed to use the language which mosl naturally occurred to them, 
 there is no reason for surprise when we find that, in ordinary cue-. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 327 
 
 they were permitted to quote the Holy Scriptures also in the terms 
 with which both they and their hearers were most familiar ; nor is 
 this concession in any way inconsistent with the belief, that whenever 
 they were dealing with the inner mind of Scripture, they were guided 
 by the Holy Spirit to unfold the deeper meaning of the words to 
 which they appealed. Their method, I need scarcely add, is de- 
 fended by the example of our Lord. 
 
 Note 12, page 131. The same watchful superintendence will 
 account for many peculiarities of verbal expression. So Bengel of 
 the Apostles : ' Apostoli interdum tetigere mysteria, quorum decla- 
 ratio plenior postmodum per ipsos erat exitura : et iis tantisper 
 tetigere verbis, qua? et sermoni V. T. et prassenti ipsorum, vero, sed 
 nondum pleno sensui, et intentioni divince per eos ulterius se decla- 
 raturse mirabiliter congruerent. Hoc loco [Act. ii. 39] Spiritus S. 
 per Petrum ea locutus est, de gentibus cito, magno numero, citra cir- 
 ciuncisionem adsciscendis, qute Petras ipse posted non illico percepit ; 
 et tamen cum Esahi congruebant ; et verba etiam hsec apta sunt 
 sensui illi, quern postea cepit. Omnia Scripture verba scientissime 
 sunt electa.' Similarly Dean Trench, Star of the Wise Men, p. 88, 
 says that such analogies as Matt. ii. 15, ' ground themselves in the 
 intentions ©f God, and are not merely traced by the ingenuity of 
 man : we must believe that it belonged to His eternal purpose that 
 the earlier should in manifold ways prefigure the later ; and that 
 among the other witnesses for a Divine intention running through 
 the whole history of Israel, He was graciously willing that this 
 should not be wanting.' On Gal. iii. 8, 9, Mr. Jowett comments : 
 ' as in 1 Cor. ix. 8, 9, 10, a providential intention is attributed to 
 the words of the O. T.' On the remarkable instance of Gal. iii. 16, 
 see the notes of Grotius, Bengelius, and Ellicott. On Hebr. v. 6, &c, 
 see Birks, The Bible and Modern Thought, p. 272. 
 
 Note 13, page 133. The limitation to Scripture authority is put 
 in its most stringent form by Bishop Marsh, who rests his recogni- 
 tion of a secondary sense on no other ground ; above, Note 1 . 
 ' Since in every instance, where a passage of the Old Testament has 
 a secondary sense, the existence of that secondary sense depends 
 entirely on the Divine authority, which has ascribed it to the 
 passage, we must wholly confine the application of a secondary sense 
 to those particular passages to which a secondary sense has been 
 ascribed by Divine authority.' — L. 1., p. 457 ; cf. p. 374. Against 
 this, see Fairbairn, Typology, i. 37-43, 2nd ed. Compare Mid- 
 
328 NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 dleton, Doctrine of the Greek Article, p. 407 : ' It is not for un- 
 authorised applications that I contend ; it is only for those which 
 have been made by Christ or His apostles.'' And Olshausen, on 
 Gal. iv. 26 : ' Our time, therefore, as not being favoured with so 
 intense an operation of the Spirit, cannot proceed independently in 
 the adoption of types, but must adhere to those expressed and sanc- 
 tioned in the Scriptures.' Dean Alford condemns Macknight's mode 
 of stating the limitation as a ' shallow and indolent dictum.' — On 
 Gal. iv. 24. 
 
 The defence of secondary applications really rests, as we have 
 seen (above, Note 1), on both a principle and a fact ; the principle 
 of the Divine authorship, the fact of the interpretations given in the 
 New Testament. Now it is not reasonable to allege, that the prin- 
 ciple is entirely exhausted in the instances by which the fact of its 
 use is established. 
 
 Note 14, page 133. See the lists of instances in Neale, On the 
 Psalms, i. 379, and Ellicott, Aids to Faith, p. 450. Compare 
 Mr. Medd's University Sermon, On the Christian Meaning of the 
 Psalms, p. 12 ; Conybeare, I. I., p. 314 (of Joseph and Joshua) ; 
 Lyall, Propa?d. Proph., p. 194 (of Isaiah ix. 6), &c. But in some 
 of these cases, the entire absence of Scriptural authority may be 
 doubtful : e. g. on Egypt (which is urged by Bishop Ellicott), see 
 Matt. ii. 15; Luke ix. 31; and cf. Arnold, 1. 1., and Stanley, 
 Jewish Ch., p. 127 : on Isaac, see Heb. xi. 19, and cf. Bauer's Glass., 
 I. /., iii. 20, and Pearson, On the Creed, pp. 251, 297 : on Joseph, see 
 Gen. xlix. 24, and Fairbairn, I. I., 40, note : on Samson, see Judges, 
 xiii. 5 ; Matt. ii. 23, and Glassius and Fairbairn as above. Dr. Fair- 
 bairn adds, of the instances of Joseph and Samson, ' Scriptural 
 warrants of such a kind are out of date now — they can no longer be 
 regarded as current coin.' For his ' specific principles and direc- 
 tions,' see ib., p. 137, sqq. 
 
 Note 15, page 134. 'Et ita etiam nulla confusio sequitur in 
 Sacra Scripturfi, cum omncs sensus fundentur super unum, scilicet 
 litteralem, ex quo solo potest train argumentum, non autem ex iis 
 quae secundum allegoriam dicuntur, ut elicit Augustinus. Non 
 tarn en ex hoc aliquid deperit Sacra? Scriptural, quia nihil sub 
 spirituali sensu continetur fidei necessarium, quod Scriptura per 
 litteralem sensum nlicubi manifeste non tradat.' — S. Thorn. Aq., 
 I ma Qu. i. Art. x. Compare Trench, Parables, p. 38 ; Van Mildert, 
 /. I, pp. 233, 251, 395. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE IV. 329 
 
 On the duty of preserving intact the prior rights of the literal 
 meaning, cf. S. Thorn. Aq., I ma Qu. cii. Art. i. : ' In omnibus 
 autem quae sic Scrip tura tradit, est pro fundamento ten en da Veritas 
 historiae, et desuper spirituales expositiones fabricanda?.' So con- 
 stantly St. Augustine : see the reff. in Trench, pp. 52, 56, 63. 
 ' The Scriptures have infinite mysteries, not violating at all the 
 truth of the story or letter.' — Bacon, Works, hi. 297. So also 
 p. 487 (as quoted above, Note 1) : ' the literal sense is, as it were, 
 the main stream or river.' Cf. Arnold, I. L, p. 397 ; Williams, 
 Beginning of the Book of Genesis, pp. 74, 138, &c. 
 
 Note 16, page 134. On the rules of Tychonius and St. Augustine, 
 see Eosenmuller, Hist. Inter pr., iii. 407 ; and for other summaries 
 of maxims, see Van Mildert, I. 1., pp. 251, 395 ; Fairbairn, I. I, 
 Book I. ch. v. ; Ellicott, Aids to Faith, p. 445 ; Jenkins, Scriptural 
 Interpretation, p. 20, &c. 
 
 Note 17, page 135. See Pearson, On the Creed, notes, p. 162, 
 ed. Oxon., 1843 ; Tract 89, p. 17, sqq. ; and Dr. Maitland's 
 criticism, reprinted and enlarged in his Eight Essays, 1852, No. 1. 
 
 Note 18, page 135. See, for instance, Alford's Note on John 
 ii. 19, and St. Augustine on John v. 25-9, in Trench, On St. Aug., 
 p. 81. See also S. Aug., Enchiridion de Fide, Spe, et Caritate, 
 ch. Hi. liii. ; Opp., vi. 215-6, where, commenting on Rom. vi. 2-11, 
 he says : ' Quidquid igitur gestum est in cruce Christi, in sepultura, 
 in resurrectione tertio die, in adscensione in coelum, in sede ad 
 dexteram Patris ; ita gestum est, ut his rebus non mystice tantum 
 dictis, sed etiam gestis, configuraretur vita Christiana qua? hie geritur.' 
 Bishop Ellicott (p. 452) puts the N. T. passages as ' probably under 
 ten,' and even of these he thinks some ' debateable.' ' Historico- 
 prophetical (parables) are only a few.' — Trench, Parables, p. 46 ; 
 cf. p. 143. On the Good Samaritan, ib., p. 318. In a more 
 general sense, however, ' there is scarcely a fact announced but 
 some great moral truth beams out from beneath it, and lights it 
 up with a deeper significance.' — Birks, /. /., p. 59 ; cf. p. 161 : ' the 
 miracles of our Lord, with scarcely an exception, are parables also.' 
 ' The narratives of the Gospel are parables as well as histories.' — 
 Dr. Vaughan, Sermon at St. Peter's School, York, p. 6. 
 
330 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Note 1, page 141. The words are those of Dr. Tregelles. They 
 have not unnaturally attracted considerable attention. See Donald- 
 son's Christian Orthodoxy, p. 123; Tischendorf, Pre/, to N. T., 
 1849, p. lv. ; Davidson, Facts, Statements, and Explanations, 1857, 
 p. 14 ; Bishop Ellicott, in Aids to Faith, p. 435 ; Mr. F. Stephen, 
 Defence of Dr. Williams, p. 52, &c. For the next sentence, see a 
 quotation in Dr. Lee's Preface to the second ed. of Inspiration, &c, 
 p. vii. See also below, Note 4. 
 
 Note 2, page 141. The remark is constantly suggested by the 
 history of the doctrine of inspiration since the time of the Reformers ; 
 see, e.g., Mr. Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, p. 5; and it 
 receives some illustration from the differences pointed out by Mr. 
 F. Stephen, in his Defence of Dr. Williams, between the Fomularies 
 of the English Church and those of other reformed Communions. 
 For a systematic attempt to trace the pedigree of the Dictation 
 theory, see Christian Remembrancer for Jan. 1863, p. 54, &c. 
 
 Note 3, page 142. This expression of Paley is adopted by 
 Lyall, Propcedia Prophetica, p. 114; Williams, Lampeter Theology, 
 pp. 43, 85 ; Stephen, Defence of Williams, p. 143 ; Dean Milman, 
 History of the Jeivs, new ed., Pref, p. vi. ; Maurice, Claims of the 
 Bible and of Science, p. 163 ; and it evidently colours the language 
 of Professor Jowett, E. and R., pp. 349, 350, 403. For what 
 may be said to limit or explain it, see Mr. Birks's ed. of Paley's 
 Evidences, Supplement F, p. 402. 
 
 Note 4, page 142. Paley goes on to urge (p. 414) that it is 'an 
 unwarrantable as well as unsafe rule to lay down concerning the 
 Jewish history, what was never laid down concerning any other, 
 that either every particular of it musl be true, or the whole false.' 
 Formerly, 'any doubt about the inspiration of facts woidd have 
 been a startling innovation; the whole fabric, as then constructed, 
 would have tottered had a single stone, however small, been removed.' 
 — Pusey, Theology of Germany, ii. 59. ' The supposition that a single 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 331 
 
 word occurred in Scripture which was not divinely suggested and 
 inspired was thought to overthrow the Apostle's assertion of the 
 inspiration of all Scripture.' — lb., p. 72. ' "Where am I to stop? 
 If I pull out one brick," as a young man once said to me, " from 
 the edifice of my faith, all falls." Well, as long as you are in 
 this frame of mind, you are not fit to judge calmly or wisely.' — 
 Magee, Scepticism, p. 22. ' All the books of the Bible must stand 
 or fall together. . . . But remove in thought a single stone, and in 
 thought that goodly work of lawgivers and judges, kings and 
 prophets, evangelists and Apostles, collapses into a shapeless and 
 unmeaning ruin.' — Burgon, Inspiration and Interpretation, p. 112. 
 'Each page of (the O. T.) is committed to the credit of the rest, 
 and the whole book, or collection of books, is committed to the 
 credit of each page. . . . The volume stands or falls, then, together. 
 . . . If a verse stands, the O. T. stands.' — Eden, ib., p. 208. ' It 
 will not allow us to insist on any theory as supplying the principle 
 of cohesion to Holy Scripture, as if the whole would break into 
 fragments, like a Rupert's drop, were the minutest portion dis- 
 placed.' — Chretien, Letter and Spirit, p. 75. (It is alleged that) 
 'if one assertion in those books be doubted, the whole cause of 
 God and of Christ is in danger ; ' 'if one link is unsound, the 
 chain breaks.' — Davies in Tracts for Priests and People, xi. 
 pp. 30-2. Compare the controversy between the Bishop of Man- 
 chester and the Bishop of Natal ; Guardian newspaper, April 1, 
 1863, p. 302 ; Colenso, On the Pentateuch, Preface to Part III., 
 p. xxviii. ; Maurice, Claims of the Bible and of Science, p. 138. 
 
 My attention has been called to a striking passage in an address 
 on the Atonement, by one of the writers cited above, Dr. Magee, 
 Radley Sermons, &c, 18G1, p. 49: 'Rash speculations and un- 
 warrantable dogmatism grow round every truth in process of time, 
 just as suburbs grow round a fortress in long years of peace. But 
 all such outlying buildings only endanger the citadel by giving 
 shelter to the foe ; and he is the wisest defender of the citadel of 
 truth who, with most unsparing hand, pulls down the long suburbs 
 of opinion which alike conceal its proportions and imperil its safety.' 
 
 Note 5, page 143. ' To make use of such an argument is, indeed, 
 to bring the Sacred Ark itself into the battle-field, and to make 
 belief in Christianity itself depend entirely upon the qiiestion, 
 whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch or not.' — Colenso, Part. I., 
 p. xxx. ' Whatever intermixture (the Bible) may show of human 
 
332 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 elements, of error, infirmity, passion, and ignorance,' &c. — lb., 
 p. 13. ' The dark patches of human passion and error,' &c, 
 E. and R., p. 177. ' The great truth of the unity of God was 
 there from the first ; slowly as the morning broke in the heavens, 
 like some central light, it filled and afterwards dispersed the mists 
 of human passion in which it was itself enveloped.' — lb., p. 385. 
 ' It may have pleased God that the vehicle of His revelation to man 
 should not be absolutely pure, and free from the stains and in- 
 accuracies which appear to be necessary to everything else which 
 is in any way mixed up with human nature.' — Stephen, Defence of 
 Williams, p. 21. 
 
 Note 6, page 143. Amongst recent definitions of inspiration in 
 the strictest sense, besides that of Dr. Tregelles (above, Note 1), 
 Mr. Burgon's, Inspiration, &c, p. 89, seems to have been the most 
 commonly quoted ; as by Colenso, Part I. p. G ; Part II. p. ix. ; 
 Dr. Stanley, The Bible, &c, p. 35, note ; Dr. Northcote, On the 
 Colenso Controversy, p. 39 ; and othei-s. It is this, apparently, 
 which a writer in the Christian Remembrancer for Jan. 18G3, 
 p. 243, calls ' a most extreme and entirely indefensible theory of 
 inspiration.' Of older definitions, one of the best known is that of 
 the Formula Consensus Helvetica, 1G75 ; Niemeyer, Collectio 
 Confessionum, p. 731 (by Heidegger, ib., p. lxxxi.). See, e.g., Lee, 
 J aspiration, p. 447, note ; Thirlwall, Answer to Williams, p. 39 ; 
 Stephen, /. I., pp. 124, 182; Heard, New Wine, &c, p. 74; 
 Ellicott, Pref to Galatians, p. viii. ; Stanley, Bible, &c, p. v., &e. 
 On the history of the controversy about the Hebrew vowel-points 
 which gave rise to it, see Pusey, Theology of Germany, i. 141; 
 ii. 71 ; Farrar, B. L., p. 158, note; Morell, Philosophy of Religion, 
 p. 188; Tholuck, On Inspiration, Journal of S. L., July 18G3, 
 p. 3G1. 
 
 On the word Dynamical, which has been much used lately, see 
 Morell, Philosoj)hy of Religion, p. 151 ; Westcott, Introduction to the 
 iihidy of the Gospels, p. 13; and especially Lee, On Inspiration, 
 p. 25. 
 
 Note 7, puge 144. See Bentley's Remarks upon a late Discourse 
 of Free-Thin Ling, in Works, iii. 347— 361, ed. Dyce; a passage which 
 • in I hat topic has since formed the storehouse of argument. Sec. 
 e.g., Kennicott, First Dissertation, 1753, p. 563; Tregelles, On the 
 Printed Text of the Greek Testament, pp. 49-57; Scrivener's Intro- 
 duction to the Criticism <;/' the New Testament, \>. 7. Compare Dr. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 333 
 
 Stanley, The Bible, &c. p. 31 : ' The various readings which in the 
 Koran were suppressed once for all by the Caliph Othman have 
 broken out freely by thousands and thousands over the whole face 
 of the Christian Scriptures — the stumbling-blocks here and there of 
 faithless disciples, but the delight of Christian scholarship, the safe- 
 guards of Christian doctrine, the relics of Christian antiquity.' 
 
 Note 8, page 145. Compare the ova ifivniiovevatv of John the 
 Presbyter in Papias, Ap. Euseb., H. E., iii. 39, on which see West- 
 cott, Canon of N. T., p. 80 ; Introd., &c, p. 168; and cf. Lee, pp. 
 27, 324, &c. Fcr a general view of recent Literature on the Origin 
 of the Gospels, see Lee, Appendix 0, pp. 562-5 ; Westcott, Introd., 
 ch. iii., especially pp. 182-7 ; and compare Mr. Smith of Jordanhill, 
 Dissertation on the Origin and Connection of the Gospels, 1853, and 
 a paper by the same author in the Journal of Sacred Literature for 
 April 1855, pp. 135-56. 
 
 Note 9, page 146. ' From one of these (Public Registers) doth 
 Matthew fetch the latter end of his genealogy, and Luke from another 
 the beginning of his, having then the Civil Records to avouch for 
 them,' &c. — Lightfoot, Works, i. 416. 'It is therefore easy to 
 guess whence Matthew and Luke,' &c, ' namely, from the genealo- 
 gical scrolls at that time well enough known, and laid up in the 
 public Kei/dyXia, repositories, and in the private also.' — lb., ii. 96. 
 See Surenhusius's elaborate Dissertation, in xxxv. Theses, De Modis 
 explicandi Genealogias, with the Conciliationes de Geneal. J. C. 
 which follow ; B«/3Aoc kotoKK. pp. 89, 113. Cf. Schoettgen., Hone 
 Hebr., i. 2; Mill, Pantheistic Principles, ii. 110-23. Lord A. 
 Hervey, On the Genealogies of our Lord, p. 69. See especially Dr. 
 Mill's Remarks on p. 119: St. Matthew 'must be considered as 
 using a liberty of abridgment well known to' his original readers, 
 ' and only inviting, as quite sufficient for his own purpose, attention 
 to the names he retains. Should it be said that abridgments of this 
 nature, however justifiable in ordinary writers from the lax mode of 
 criticism characterising their nation or age, are not to be endured in one 
 laying claim to inspiration, we answer — 1. That such a censure . . . 
 assumes a kind of a priori acquaintance with what should be ex- 
 pected in a revelation, which we cannot either claim for ourselves 
 or allow to be claimed by others. 2. That supposing the ajmarent 
 fact to be no more than this, that the inspiration which enabled a 
 few men of Galilee to regenerate the world, left them under the 
 influence of their national habits in matters of this nature, we ought 
 
334 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 to be satisfied with that fact, without questioning the reasonableness 
 of the dispensation. 3. That Ave do not, however, pronounce a thing 
 indifferent, or done without reason, merely because we may be 
 unable to point out the causes of it : being fully persuaded that there 
 is nothing in revelation, as in nature, without its proper and 
 adequate reason.' 
 
 Note 10, page 146. This is another instance in which Spinoza 
 called attention to the facts on which a one-sided line of argument 
 has more recently been based. — Tract, Theol. Pol., ch. viii. p. 125, 
 sqq. The facts, so far as they are con-ectly stated, must be ad- 
 mitted and accounted for, though we judge the inferences to be 
 altogether erroneous. The Scripture writers ' refer to other documents, 
 and in all points express themselves as sober minded and veracious 
 writers under ordinary circumstances are known to do.' — Coleridge, 
 Confessions, &c. p. 16. 'They are authors, or compilers, or ar- 
 rangers ; quoters of other books, stringers together of sweet songs by 
 many hands.' — Chretien, Letter and Spirit, p. 64 : cf. p. 1 1 1. How 
 much this admission really amounts to, is the point which I have 
 endeavoured to state in the text. — For a list of the references in 
 the Old Testament, see Dr. Lee's Appendix D, pp. 464-72, on 
 The 'Lost" 1 Books of the Old Testament. The instances, so far 
 as they fall within his range, are discussed by Dr. Stanley in 'his 
 Lectures on the Jewish Church; e.g., pp. xxxiv. 43, 185, 211, 
 241, 421, 431, 434, 444-5; also in 'The Songs of Israel,' an 
 article contributed by him to Good Words for Febr. 1863, p. 121. 
 (On ' The Song of the Bow,' and the Book of Jasher, see Ch. I. in 
 the Works of Mr. John Gregory, 4th ed. 1684.) 
 
 Note 11, page 146. 'Two very considerable writers, Sir John 
 Marsham and Dr. Spencer, . . . have not only called in question 
 the prevailing opinion of the ancient apologists [see above, Lecture 
 II. Note 3], but they have run directly counter to it, pretending 
 that the Pagans did not borrow from the Jews, but that the Jews 
 rather copied after the Egyptians or other Pagans in such instances 
 as both agree in ; a strange way of turning the tables, confounding 
 history, and inverting the real order of things.' — Waterland, Works, 
 v. 14. He goes on to urge that the real solution in cases of 
 parallels between Hebrews and Pagans may rather be, that 'both 
 had borrowed from the same common fountain of patriarchal tra- 
 dition.' — lb., p. 20; see above, Lecture II. Note 2. See Michaelis, 
 Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, Art. iii. : ' The Laws of Moses 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 335 
 
 confirm, amend, or annul, a more ancient Jus consuetudinarium.' 1 
 The point is worked out in Mr. Morris's Essay towards the Con- 
 version of Hindus, pp. 23, 27, 98 : ' Even supposing the whole 
 amount of Moses' writings to have existed in tradition antecedently 
 to their existence in writing (a supposition which I by no means 
 contend for), still there would be room enough for inspiration to 
 guide him in selection, juxtaposition, order, language, and many 
 other points. But I merely assert thus' much, that there existed 
 a patriarchal tradition, from which Moses in part drew.' ' Circum- 
 cision, for instance, was of the Fathers ; abstaining from the sinew 
 which shrank, was of the Fathers ; the distinction between clean 
 and unclean animals, was of the Fathers ; as were the sacrifices of 
 certain animals, the washing of clothes before sacrifice, the anointing 
 of things in order to consecration, the marriage of brothers' widows, 
 the rite relating to it, and other things.' See also above, Lecture III. 
 Note 15. 
 
 Note 12, page 148. Bentley put this point with his usual vigour 
 ( Works, iii. 360) ; and the Provost of Oriel has lately called attention 
 to the concurrent testimony of Kennicott and G-riesbach. — Sermon on 
 Liberty of Private Judgment, 1863, p. 41. Dr. Tregelles remarks 
 that if criticism ' takes away, on the one hand, readings which Avere 
 thought to have some dogmatic value, it will give on the other quite 
 as much.' — Printed Text of N. T., p. 234. Bishop Ellicott thinks 
 it necessary, indeed, to guard us against the opposite error, that of 
 supposing that ' as readings affect no great points of doctrine, the 
 subject may be left in abeyance.' 'It is indisputably a fact that but 
 few pages of the New Testament can be turned over without our 
 finding points of the greatest interest affected by very trivial 
 variations of reading.' — Aids to Faith, p. 421. The assertion is not 
 that the controversy has never turned on texts of profound doctrinal 
 significance or historical interest, but that no debates on isolated 
 texts have shaken doctrines which rest rather on continuous trains 
 of argument. 
 
 Note 13, page 148. Pearson's remarks on Acts viii. 37, though 
 not bearing on the critical question, illustrate what is here said on the 
 possibility that such passages were the germs of creeds. It is in the 
 baptismal profession that he finds ' the first occasion, rise, and original 
 of the creed itself.' — On the Creed, p. 43. Cf. Bingham, Antiq., X. 
 iii. § 6. Mr. Scrivener says, ' we cannot question the spuriousness 
 of this verse, which seems to have been received from the margin, 
 
336 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 where the formula Rlittevu), k.t.X., had been placed, extracted from 
 some Church Ordinal.'' — Tntrod., p. 443. With respect to 1 John v. 7, 
 Mr. Scrivener concludes : ' nor is there much reason to doubt 
 the testimony of Victor Vitensis, who records that the passage was 
 insisted on in a confession of faith drawn up by Eugenius, bishop 
 of Carthage, at the end of the fifth century, and presented to the 
 Arian Hunneric, king of the Vandals. From that time the clause 
 became well known in other regions of the "West, and was in time 
 generally accepted throughout the Latin Church.' — lb., p. 460. He 
 thinks that it was known to Cypi-ian (p. 461), to Avhom, indeed, or 
 to Tertullian, its authorship has been sometimes ascribed. Compare 
 Bentley, as quoted by Wordsworth, in loc. ; and Porson, Letters to 
 Travis, p. 400 ; Davidson, Bibl. Crit., ii. 414. 
 
 Note 14, page 149. Nil mutetur e conjecturd. Cf. Marsh, Lectures, 
 p. 27; Scrivener, Introd., p. 369 ; Davidson, /. /., p. 371. A tempting 
 instance to the contrary is pointed out by Lord A. Hervey in 1 Chron. 
 iii. 22, where the obliteration of a few words, which have every ap- 
 pearance of a gloss intruded from the margin, is like striking off a 
 fetter which has drawn aside and distorted the whole framework of the 
 pedigree, and permitting it to spring back to an intelligible order. — 
 On the Genealogies of Our Lord, p. 107. It is part of his argument 
 to exclude Ehesa, in Luke iii. 27, as ' the title of Zerubbabel 
 mistaken for ' a 'proper name.' — lb., p. 112. Kennicott quotes with 
 approbation Walton's remark, ' that the corruptions which are found 
 in the historical books of the Old Testament appear chiefly (and, 
 indeed, it is natural to expect they should appear chiefly) in the 
 several numbers and proper names.'' — First Dissertation , p. 12. The 
 subject of numbers has been brought into fresh prominence by 
 Bishop Colenso's arguments. The remark would suggest itself to 
 many readers of his Part I. that the discrepancies rest ' for the 
 most part on the basis of a single fundamental number, and (are) 
 capable, to that extent at least, of reconciliation, on the supposition 
 of a single clerical error in a department peculiarly liable to mistake. ' 
 — Dr. Vaughan, The Book and the Life, p. 106 ; contra, Colenso, 
 Part II. p. 167. The question has since then received a very 
 general discussion (e.g. National Review, Jan. 1863, p. 9; North 
 British Review, Jan. 1863, p. 65) ; the most vigorous arguments to 
 prove inaccuracy on the side of exaggeration being those of Dean 
 Milman, Ilisim-jj of the Jews, 1863, Pref. p. xxx. ; and i. 189, note. 
 For Laborde and Kennicott, cf. Stanley, Jewish Church, pp. 122, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 337 
 
 380, 521. But Ewald and Bunsen 'accept these numbers without 
 hesitation.' And ' A Layman ' confronts the proposed reduction 
 with the unqualified principle, ' All mere suppositious emendations 
 should be rejected unhesitatingly by every one who desires to treat 
 the Scriptures with fairness and impartiality.' — The Historic Cha- 
 racter of the Pentateuch Vindicated, p. 15, note. Compare, however, 
 the note on p. 172 : ' Some of these large numbers may very 
 probably have arisen from errors of transcription. There are several 
 instances of discrepancies between the books of Chronicles, and 
 Samuel and Kings, which have doubtless originated in this way . . . 
 But this cannot well account for all.' What is proposed by ' supposi- 
 tious emendations' but to remove apparent 'errors of transcription?' 
 Their admissibility seems to be reduced in this later note to a question 
 of degrees of probability ; and no one can doubt that this element 
 must always be taken into most careful consideration. 
 
 Note 15, page 150. ' The usual character of human testimony is 
 substantial truth under circtmistantial variety.' — Paley, Evidences, 
 Part III. ch. i. On the alleged discrepancies in the Gospels, see 
 Dr. Lee's Eighth Lecture, pp. 384-398 ; Westcott's Introduction to 
 the Study of the Gospels, p. 367 ; and the mass of materials collected 
 in the controversy on Essays and Reviews, e. g., in Mr. Birks's 
 Bible and Modem Thought, pp. 289-306, and by Dr. Wordsworth, 
 Mr. Burgon, and many others. 
 
 Note 16, page 151. Dr. Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church 
 are full of illustrations, many of which, however, still require further 
 discussion : see pp. xxxviii-xl. GG, 144, 185, 345, 353, 372, 434, 
 and the references in the next note. 
 
 Note 17, page 151. Lightfoot (Works, ii. 669) had suggested 
 that St. Stephen was possibly referring to a transaction which could 
 be connected with Gen. xii. 6 : ' If the word fxvnpan did not lay 
 some obstacle in the way, I should easily conceive that Stephen had 
 his eye as intent (if not more) upon this place as upon the Cave of 
 Macpelah,' &c. Dr. Wordsworth has worked out the same expla- 
 nation in detail (Comm. in loc): ' It has never been shown, nor 
 ever can be, that Abraham did not purchase a plot of ground at 
 Sichem, Avhere Joseph and the Patriarchs were buried. Indeed 
 (independently of St. Stephen's assertion), it is highly probable that 
 he did.' So also Burgon, Inspiration and Interpretation, p. 264. 
 Dr. Stanley seems to accept the solution, but with some misgivings. 
 At one time he says : ' In and around Shechem arose the first 
 
 Z 
 
338 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 national burial place, a counterpoise to the patriarchal sepulchres at 
 Hebron. Joseph's tomb "was already fixed; its reputed site is 
 visible to this day. A tradition (ref. Acts vii. 15, 16) current at the 
 time of the Christian era ascribed the purchase of this tomb to 
 Abraham, and included within it,' &c. — Jewish Church, p. 278. So 
 on p. 70 he gives some countenance to one of Dr. Wordsworth's argu- 
 ments, by saying that the expressions used in Gen. xlviii. 22, 'rather 
 point to incidents of the original settlement not preserved in the regular 
 narrative.' On pp. 105-7 he gives a general recognition to the fact 
 that St. Stephen had the command of such traditions; but, on the 
 other hand, on p. 485, he calls it ' a singular variation,' and on 
 p. 498, a ' perplexing addition' (so in Sermons in the East, pp. 143, 
 157) ; and he makes no attempt, I think, to work it into the history 
 of Abraham at Shechem, either in Jewish Church p. 29, or Sinai, 
 &c, p. 235. See also his note in The Bible, &c, p. 35. 
 
 Note 18, page 151. If we put together the two passages in which 
 St. Luke records any reference to a census (Luke ii. 2 ; Acts v. 37), 
 it will appear that the simplest translation of the first passage is also 
 that which gives the most appropriate meaning : ' this enrolment 
 was the first which was madewhen Cyrenius was Governor of Syria.' 
 The other census is plainly that which was conducted by Quirinius 
 some years later, viz. in a.d. 6, after the banishment of Archelaus. — 
 Josephus, Antiq., xviii. 1. Of the first there is no other record ; but 
 Ave are protected from the suggestion that St. Luke has erroneously 
 transferred the later census to the earlier date, by the fact that he 
 shows his knowledge of the later census in the Acts, while the irpu)-r) 
 seems to have been inserted for the express purpose of distinguish- 
 ing the one from the other. (Cf. Winer, IIWB., s. v. Quirinius; 
 Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, p. 370, note ; Browne, Ordo 
 Sceclo?'iim, p. 47 : ' This Census was Quirinius's first, not to be con- 
 founded with that which, as every one is aware, took place at a later 
 period under the same person.' See also Euseb., II. E. i. 5, p. 15 : 
 ett\ Tfjq tote TTpu)Ti)Q awoypa<pi}C, ijyEfiorEvovTOQ HLvpr}i'iov tTjq 2vpiag.) 
 
 The only question therefore is, whether Ave can find corroboratiA-c 
 evidence that Quirinius held command in Syria near to the time of 
 our Saviour's birth ; i. e., in B.C. 4, as well as a.d. 6. If so, the 
 passago ceases to be the difficulty which Strauss and many others 
 have urged so strongly, and, like the parallel case of the title given 
 to Sergius Paulus (Conybeare and IIoAVSon, i. 150), becomes a proof 
 of the exactness of the sacred writer's knoAvledge. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 339 
 
 Such evidence is furnished in A. TV. Zumpt's enquiry into the 
 Roman governors of Syria from Augustus to Vespasian, in his 
 Commentationes Epigraphicce, ii. 87-104, Berol. 1854. In connec- 
 tion with the well-known passage in Tacitus (Ann. iii. 48), he shows 
 that Cilicia, when detached from Cyprus by Augustus, B.C. 22, must 
 have been connected with some other government; that none was so 
 likely for this purpose as Syria ; and that a break occurs precisely 
 at the necessary crisis in the Syrian list. After giving a number 
 of converging details, he concludes : ' Qua? cum ita sint, P. 
 Sulpiciurn Quirinium eo tempore, quo Homonadensium castella 
 per Ciliciam expugnavit, certum est fuisse legatuni Augusti pro 
 prcetore Syria?.' — P. 98. The series, so far as we require it, stands 
 as follows (p. 149) : — 
 
 P. Quinctilius Varus . . . from B.C. 6 
 
 P. Sulpicius Quirinius . . ,, 4 
 
 M. Lollius „ 1 
 
 C. Marcius Censorinus . . in a.d. 3 
 
 L. Volusius Saturninus . . from a.d. 4 
 
 P. Sulpicius Quirinius . . ,, 6 
 
 Q. Cajcilius Creticus Silanus ,, 11 
 
 It is true that the succession of Quirinius to Varus must fall a little 
 later than the Nativity, because it was after the death of Herod 
 (pp. 87, 104); but if it is brought within so near a limit, there is 
 no difficulty in supposing that his name might be given to an 
 ' enumeration begun or appointed under his predecessor Varus, and 
 before the death of Herod,' but ' completed after that event under 
 Quirinius ; ' which is the form in which Zumpt's conclusion is 
 accepted by Mr. Merivale. — H. B. E., iv. 457, note. 
 
 For the older discussions, see Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel 
 History, Part I., B. II. i. ; Works, i. 248-329 ; Greswell, Disserta- 
 tions on the Harmony, Diss. XIV. i. 466-549 ; Davidson, in Home's 
 Introd., ii. 554. 
 
 A different series is represented by Mr. Browne, Ordo Sceclorum, 
 pp. 40-9, and Patritius, De Evangeliis, Lib. in. Diss, xviii. But 
 the two inscriptions cited by those writers are set aside by Zumpt, 
 the one as ' fraus turpis,' p. 107 ; the other as relating to Saturninus, 
 p. 125. Zumpt's own arguments are summed up by Davidson, I. I., 
 p. 1059 ; Dr. "Wordsworth, in loc. ; Dean Afford, in Smith's Dic- 
 tionary of the Bible, s. v. ; and Lee, Inspiration, &c, pp. 578-81. 
 
 z2 
 
340 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 There is also a pamphlet by Johannes von Gumpach on the subject, 
 published early in the present year, but making no reference to 
 Zumpt's enquiries. 
 
 Note 19, page 152. ' The third thing which Ezra did about the 
 Holy Scriptures in his edition of them was, he added in several 
 places throughout the books of this edition what appeared necessary 
 for the illustrating, connecting, or completing of them ; wherein he 
 was assisted by the same Spirit by which they were at first wrote : 
 of this sort we may reckon the last chapter of Deuteronomy,' &c. 
 ' And such also may we reckon the several interpolations which 
 occur in many places of the Holy Scriptures; for that there are 
 such interpolations is undeniable,' &c. — Prideaux, Old and New 
 Testament Connected, i. 382, ed. 1851. Again, 'he changed the 
 old names of several places that were grown obsolete, putting instead 
 of them the new names,' <fcc. — lb., p. 384. Compare Shuckford, 
 Sacred and Profane History Connected, ii. 317, ed. 1848 ; and 
 especially Dean Milman, History of the Jews, 1863, i. 134, note. 
 For illustrations of the ' two opposite theories ' which I have 
 mentioned, Ave may turn, on the one hand, to the National Review, 
 No. XXXIL, p. 362, &c, which bases a far more advanced com- 
 mentary on the vivid picture drawn by Dr. Stanley, Jewish Church, 
 p. 445 ; and on the other hand, to the Christian Remembrancer, No. 
 CXX., 490-7: ' It is worth while . . . to expose the fallacy contained 
 in the view, that later writers, who added to the text of inspired 
 documents, could never have ventured so to tamper with them if 
 they had believed them inspired. "We ask, why not ? Supposing 
 a later writer had believed himself to be inspired for this special 
 work,' &c. ' Everybody knows that the number of such passages as 
 these is very great, both in the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. 
 Such passages were undoubtedly inserted by a later hand. 1 
 
 Note 20, page 153. See, for instance, Spinoza, Tract. Theol. 
 Pol., ii. 19, p. 36 : ' Stylus deinde prophetia? pro eloquentia 
 cujusque propheta; variabat. Prophetise enim Ezechielis et Amosis 
 non sunt, ut illae Esaiaj et Nachumi cleganti, sed rudiore stylo 
 scripts;,' &c. In this case, too, we might accept the fact without the 
 inference ; but in this particular instance the statement itself, 
 though it dates from a much earlier period, has been recently 
 modified. With regard to Amos, for example, Dr. Pusey (Introd. 
 to Amos, p. 151) and Dr. Davidson (Jntrod to 0. T., iii. 257) agree 
 to qualify the judgment of St. Jerome by quoting the criticism of 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 341 
 
 Bishop Lowth, De Sacr. P. Hebr., p. 245, ed. Lips. 1815 : ' evolvat 
 moclo scripta ejus ajquus judex, de re non de homine quaesiturus ; 
 censebit, credo, potius pastorem nostrum yu^SeV vareprjKtvai twv 
 vwepXlav Trpo(pi]T(I)y, ut sensuum elatione et rnagnificentia, spiritus 
 prope sumrnis parem, ita etiam dictionis splendore et compositionis 
 elegantia vix quoquam inferiorem.' 
 
 Note 21, page 153. See Dean Lyall's application to Holy Scripture 
 of Paley's argument from ' Prospective Contrivances ' {Nat. Theol., 
 ch. xiv.), in his Propcedia Prophetical especially Part II. Ch. v. 
 p. 199 : ' Prophecies not understood before Christ.' Compare Mr. 
 P. P. Smith's Messianic Interpretation of Isaiah, p. 21 : 'When 
 God, therefore, gave (Ahaz) a sign, it was a veiled sign, which not 
 till centuries afterwards woidd be clearly understood.' See also 
 above, Lecture TV. Note 12. 
 
 Note 22, jmge 154. See Spinoza, Tract. Theol. Pol, viii. p. 125, 
 sqq. : ' in quo ostenditur Pentateuchon, et libros Josuse, Judicum, 
 Put, Samuelis, et Pegum non esse autographa. Deinde inquiritur, 
 an eorum omnium scriptores plures fuerint, an unus tantum, et 
 quinam.' From this point it is a mere question of degree till Ave 
 reach the large collections of difficulties in the works of Dr. 
 Davidson and Bishop Colenso. For an intermediate stage, see 
 Graves's replies to Le Clerc's series. — Lectures on the Pentateuch, 
 pp. 439-52. See also above, Note 19. 
 
 Note 23, page 157. We have seen above (Lecture III.) that no 
 exegetical error is more common than to build a whole theory on 
 one expression, or to urge the literal sense of an isolated text against 
 the general drift of other passages. Bishop Colenso has been unfor- 
 tunately successfid in transferring this method to the sphere of 
 history. Arguing from the words ' this night,' in Ex. xii. 12, he 
 persists, in the face of both context and philology, in denying that the 
 Israelites had received a longer and more sufficient warning : Penta- 
 teuch, &c, § 65 : compare the Answers of a Layman, p. 70 ; Dr. 
 M'Caul, p. 62 ; Mr. Greswell, p. 89 ; Mr. Birks, p. 82 ; and, in 
 reply, the Bishop's rejoinder to Dr. M'Caul, § 19. Arguing from 
 the words ' which came into Egypt,' Gen. xlvi. 8, &c, he maintains 
 an interpretation of the list of families which is equally at variance 
 with probability and fact. It is at variance with probability, because 
 his account is far less likely than either the opinion that the narrative 
 was regulated by 'the sacred number seventy' (Birks, p. 22), or 
 the opinion that it gives the eponymous heads of families, arranged, 
 
342 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 as among so many ancient peoples, on a peculiar national theory of 
 number ; it being comparatively indifferent whether they were sons 
 or grandsons of Jacob, and whether they actually travelled with 
 him on his journey to Egypt, or were born in Egypt before the 
 final adjustment of the gentes was completed (Rogers, p. 13). And 
 it is at variance with fact, because the same expression is con- 
 fessedly used, in the general summary of verse 27, to include the 
 two Egypt-born sons of Joseph, — ' inaccurately,' the Bishop in this 
 instance tells us, pp. 22, 27 ; because the plainest interpretation of 
 the narrative would lead us to believe that two of the four sons of 
 Reuben, verse 9, were also born in Egypt (Rogers, p. 7); and 
 because the list often sons assigned to Benjamin, verse 21, is found 
 to include two grandsons, who certainly could not have been born 
 in Canaan (Numb. xxvi. 38-40 ; Rogers, p. 10). Though opinions 
 will continue to differ on some of these details, they embody a 
 sufficient amount of certainty to corroborate the hypothesis that 
 Hezron and Hamul were bom in Egypt, and were substituted as 
 heads of families for their uncles, Er and Onan, who died in Canaan 
 (Birks, pp. 12, 22); nor have the Bishop's arguments done more 
 than expose the weakness of some careless and indefensible expla- 
 nations, for which the truth cannot be made to suffer. Another 
 instance of the same kind is the Bishop's interpretation of ' the fourth 
 generation,' in correction of which see the careful analysis of Mr. 
 Birks, p. G2. Other cases, where he refuses to admit the most 
 reasonable suggestions, are his positions that all who were summoned 
 to hear the voice of Moses or of Joshua attended ; that all the laws 
 came into immediate operation in the desert ; and that even the most 
 servile duties fell to the lot of the highest dignitaries. In the Preface 
 to his Third Part, p. ix., note, an elaborate historical argument in a 
 Layman's Vindication of the Historic Character of the Pentateuch, 
 p. 16, sqq., to prove that the patriarchs must have been attended 
 by a large following (as in Gen. xiv. 14 ; xxx. 43, &c), is c disposed 
 of as merely ' assuming that Jacob went down to Egypt with a 
 thousand or more followers.' In some of the above instances, 
 Bishop Colenso substitutes assumption for argument ; in this case 
 he disparages argument by calling it assumption. 
 
 Note 24, page 157. ' Tamdiu non est contra fidem, donee veri- 
 tate certissima refeUatar. Quod si factum fuerit, non hoc habebat 
 divina Seriptura, sed hoc senscrat huniana Lgnorantia.' — St. August., 
 De Gen. ad Lit., i. 38 ; Opp., iii. 12'.). ' Aliud est quid potissimum 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 343 
 
 scriptor senserit non dignoscere, aliud autem a regula pietatis 
 errare.' — lb., 41 ; p. 132. ' Brevitur dicendum est de figura coeli 
 hoc scisse auctores nostros, quod Veritas habet ; sed Spiritum Dei, 
 qui per ipsos loquebatur, noluisse ista docere Homines nulli saluti 
 profdtura.' — lb., ii. 20 ; p. 138. Compare Whewell, History of Scientific 
 Ideas, ii. p. 308 ; Pratt, Scripture and Science not at Variance, 
 pp. 14, 17, notes. 
 
 Note 25, page 158. ' "After all," says Buckland, " it should be 
 recollected that the question is not respecting the correctness of the 
 Mosaic narrative, but of our interpretation of it," a proposition which 
 can hardly be sufficiently reprobated. Such a doctrine, carried out 
 unreservedly, strikes at the root of critical morality? — Goodwin, in 
 E. <§f R., p. 231. We are here on the track of an older controversy. 
 ' A rule on this subject, propounded by some of the most enlightened 
 dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church, on the occasion of the 
 great Copernican controversy begun by Galileo, seems well worthy 
 of our attention. The following was the opinion given by Cardinal 
 Bellarmine at the time : " When a demonstration shall be found to 
 establish the earth's motion, it will be proper to interpret the Sacred 
 Scriptures otherwise than they have hitherto been interpreted in 
 those passages where mention is made of the stability of the earth 
 and movement of the heavens." This appears to be a judicious and 
 reasonable maxim for such cases in general.' — Whewell, I. I., p. 306. 
 The position as thus stated was assailed by Mr. Kenrick on much 
 the same grounds as by Mr. Goodwin (Essay on Primaeval History, 
 1840, p. xvii.). The objectors in both cases appear to miss the sense 
 in which the word ' interpretation ' is used. The question is not 
 what the actual words of Scripture signify, but whether their 
 literal meaning conforms to a temporary or permanent conception of 
 science. So long as science proves nothing to the contrary, we take 
 the words literally. If the literal sense is found to rest on a scientific 
 belief which has now passed away, we simply transfer the passage to 
 another class, and explain it as language appropriate to the writer, 
 whose words it was no part of the Divine plan to modify, so as to 
 meet the future disclosures of scientific doctrines which were then 
 undiscovered and unknown. 
 
 Note 2G, page 158. For the word 'phenomenal,' see Trench, 
 Star of the Wise Men, p. 57, note. For the word ' optical,' see 
 Hitchcock, Religion of Geology, p. 32, &c. (quoting Rosenm tiller N / ; 
 Hugh Miller, Testimony of the Rocks, pp. 134, 1G6-7, 169, &c. ; 
 
344 NOTES TO LECTURE V. 
 
 Davidson, in Home, ii. 372, and Introd. to 0. T., i. 158 ; Birks, 
 The Bible and Modem Thought, &c, p. 317, sqq. 'According to 
 the appearance,' Keil, On Joshua, pp. 257-8; Pratt, Scripture and 
 Science not at Variance, p. 8 ; Challis, Creation in Plan and in 
 Progress, p. 6 ; Huxtable, Sacred Record of Creation Vindicated 
 and Explained, p. 25, note. But ' it is a great mistake to conceive 
 that the language of common life, adopted also in Scripture, is the 
 expression of simple falsehood, and not of a most important variety 
 of scientific truth.'' — Birks, I. I., p. 312. The above writers differ in 
 some cases on the degree in which this solution of the difficulty is 
 applicable . 
 
 Note 27, page 160. The proof of this assertion must be sought 
 for by an analysis of any hostile, but reasonably fair, summary of 
 the geological difficulty. See, for instance, Kalisch, Genesis, pp. 
 43-52 ; Colenso, Pentateuch, &c, p. 172 ; Davidson, Introd. to 
 0. T., i. 151-164, &c. 
 
 Note 28, page 1G1. 'In the delineation of the future state, given 
 in the closing part of the Apocalypse, and given, too, at considerable 
 length, we are all aware that it does not, strictly speaking, furnish 
 any historical statement of the outward conditions of our state as 
 it will then be, but that it simply images forth certain spiritual 
 characteristics of that future state ; giving, in short, merely religious 
 truth, and not information about physical facts.' — Huxtable, /. /., 
 p. 73. ' The account in the first chapter of Genesis having reference 
 to facts out of the pale of human experience, clearly comes under 
 the same category as prophecy. It ecpially claims to be Divine 
 revelation ; to be a communication from the Spirit of the Creator 
 Himself.'— Challis, I. I, p. 3. 
 
 Note 29, page 162. See the table in Kalisch, Genesis, p. 63 ; and 
 compare Dr. Rorison, in Replies to E. fy R., p. 284. 
 
 Note 30, page 163. Moreover, 'A prophetic vision which reveals 
 past events is without example or analogy in the whole range of the 
 Biblical records.' — Kalisch, 1. 1., p. 47, where this theory is examined 
 more at length. 
 
 Note 31, page 163. See Professor Challis's Creation in Plan an J 
 in Progress, 1861. 
 
 Note 32, page 163. For the one opinion, see Mr. liuxtable's 
 Sacred Record of Great inn; for the other, Dr. Rorison's Essay, 
 The Creative Week, in Replies In Essays <nt<I Reviews. 
 
 Note 33, page 166. See Hugh Miller's Old Red Sandstone, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE V. 345 
 
 p. 136, &c. ; and Testimony of the Rocks, Lectures V. and VI. ; 
 ' Geology in its bearings on the two Theologies.' Also Hux table, 
 I. L, p. 57, sqq. But the recent controversy on the antiquity of 
 man is an additional lesson, had one been needed, to teach us the 
 danger of grasping precipitately at gains which have scarcely yet 
 become our own. Compare Hardwick's Christ and other Masters, 
 i. 47 ; a page which could hardly have been written now. 
 
34G 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Note 1, page 172. For the double sense of leaven, as used in 
 Scripture, see Trench, On the Parables, p. 113 ; Stier, Words of the 
 Lord Jesus, ii. 254, E. T. : ' With this expansion of the small seed 
 in the field of the world the tares of corruption will mingle all the 
 more powerfully (like a leaven), but the good seed will notwith- 
 standing choke the thorns ; the mustard-seed will gain the victory ; 
 what is heavenly will also mingle itself with every mixture ; in a 
 word, will show itself as a subduing anti-leaven." 1 
 
 1 Humanity before Jesus Christ may be divided into two categories; 
 one, a privileged minority, placed under the immediate direction 
 of God. This was the Jewish theocracy. Later on, we shall show 
 how this privilege was in reality in the interest of the whole race.' — 
 De Pressense, Religions before Christ, p. 15 ; cf. pp. 189, 202, 204, 
 258 ; and Mr. Goldwin Smith, Rational Religion, &c, p. 57. 
 
 ' "We must consider what was the object of God's dealings with 
 man recorded in the Bible. If it was to put human society at once 
 in a state of perfection, without further effort, political, social, or 
 intellectual, on the part of man, the inference is irresistible that every 
 institution enjoined in the Bible is part of a perfect scheme, and that 
 every institution mentioned in the Bible without condemnation will 
 be lawful to the end of time. But if the object was to implant in 
 man's heart a principle, viz. the love of God and man, which should 
 move him to work (God also working in him) for the imj^rovement 
 of his own state and that of his fellows, and for the transforming of 
 his and their life into the image of their Maker ; in this case it will 
 by no means follow that any social institution recognised in Scrip- 
 ture for the time being, or mentioned by it without condemnation, 
 is for ever good or lawful in the sight of God.' — Mr. Goldwin Smith, 
 Does the Bible sanction American Slavery? pp. 2, 3. ' The religious 
 system of the Jews was primitive, and therefore gross, compared 
 with Christian worship. It was spiritual compared with the reli- 
 gious system of the most refined and cultivated heathen nations.' — 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VI. 347 
 
 lb., p. 23. ' If we look at the Mosaic dispensation in itself, we may- 
 regard it as peculiarly ceremonial ; but if we compare it with any 
 other dispensation except the Chiistian, we shall probably find that, 
 instead of being peculiarly ceremonial, it is peculiarly moral.' — 
 lb., p. 57. 
 
 Note 2, page 175. See also above, pp. 99, 100. On the laws of 
 slaves and children, and some other points of the same kind, compare 
 Mr. Goldwin Smith, I. I., pp. 12, 37, 50, 54 ; and Rational Religion, 
 &c, p. 51 ; a Layman's Pentateuch Vindicated, pp. 202, 205, note ; 
 Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 170 (usages ' assumed and tolerated,' 
 but 'restrained'); Milman, History of the Jeivs, i. 1G8 ('of all the 
 ancient lawgivers, Moses alone endeavoured to mitigate ' the evils of 
 slavery); 171 (' Moses, while he maintained the dignity and salu- 
 tary control, limited the abuse of the parental authority'). 
 
 Note 3, page 175. Most of the difficulties which are usually urged 
 are detailed and discussed in the Introductions to the Pentateuch of 
 Hengstenberg, Macdonald, and others, and will be found under 
 their respective places in the recent works of Dr. Davidson, Dr. 
 Stanley, and Dean Milman. Some points which are generally con- 
 nected with them are discussed above in Lecture III. : e.g. the repent- 
 ance ascribed to God, pp. 84, 91 ; the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, 
 p. 88 ; and the visiting of the sins of the fathers on the children, 
 p. 96. On the special difficulty of the apparent commendation of 
 falsehood in such cases as the midwives of the Hebrews and Rahab, 
 see the notes to Grotius, De Jure B. et P., iii. c. i. 10 ; S. Thorn. 
 Acpun., II da II dae Qu. ex. Art. iii. ; and Whewell, lectures on 
 Moral Philosophy, ii. 78, 1862 ; ' Christian morality ; St. Augustine 
 on Lying.' On the Destruction of the Canaanites, see a sermon by 
 Dr. Mill, University Sermons, 1845, No. vii. p. 117. On the general 
 question, compare Mr. Mansel's B. L., pp. 42, 243-4, and the con- 
 troversy to which those passages gave rise. 
 
 To a great extent, in truth, the argument falls under the erroneous 
 belief, against which Art. vii. is directed, that the Old Testament is 
 contrary to the New. Hence such works as the Christianity without 
 Judaism, of the late Professor Powell. On the other side, I may 
 refer to Mr. Macleane's Unity of God's Moral Law as Revealed in 
 the O. and N. Testaments, 1847 ; and Mr. Perowne's Essential 
 Coherence of the O. and N. Testaments, 1858. 
 
 Note 4, page 176. ' There are some particular precepts in Scrip- 
 ture, given to particular persons, requiring actions which would be 
 
348 NOTES TO LECTURE VI. 
 
 immoral and vicious were it not for such precepts. But it is easy 
 to see that all these are of such a kind as that the precept changes 
 the whole nature of the case and of the action, and both constitutes 
 and shows that not to be unjust or immoral which, prior to the 
 precept, must have appeared and really have been so ; which may 
 well be, since none, of these precepts are contrary to immutable mo- 
 rality. ,' — Butler, Anal., ii. 3, p. 220. This last qualification supplies 
 the precise protection which I plead for against supposing that God 
 could utter a command for the purpose of turning wrong into right. 
 Butler expressly excludes actions that are wrong in themselves, and 
 expressly confines his argument to acts of a judicial character, by 
 means of which the command of God deprives the unworthy posses- 
 sor of either property or life. 
 
 Compare S. August., Contra Mendacium, 34, Opp., vi. 469 : ' Et 
 ubi ponimus voluntatem ac potestatcm Dei ? ' or, as Dr. Whewell 
 states it, 1. 1., p. 86 : l God's Providence can bring about its purposes 
 without being aided by the false utterances of men.' Almost the 
 very phrase of a recent writer of fiction : ' God's omnipotence did 
 not need our sin.' 
 
 Note 5, page 176. On ' the imperfect standard allowed and 
 even approved under the old dispensation, as contrasted with the 
 perfect law of love in the new,' Dr. Stanley cites the judgment of 
 St. Chrysostom ; — Sermons and Essays on the Apostolical Age, p. 41 ; 
 also in Jewish Church, p. 250. Similarly Dr. Whewell quotes from 
 St. Augustine, I. I., p. 83 : ' That these women were " according to 
 their degree approved and rewarded of God." Their act was better 
 than a lie of malice, but it was not absolutely good.' The hypothesis 
 is put more antagonistically by Dr. Davidson, Introd to 0. T., i. 474 : 
 ' The morality of the Old Testament was progressive, incomplete, 
 imperfect : it was simply the reflection of the purest existing morality. 
 To say that it was a standard morality for all time, or even for the 
 time of its manifestation, is to mistake its character,' &c. 
 
 Note 6, page 181. The principle is traced on from Joshua and 
 Judges to the Psalms and Ezra, and thence to the New Testament, 
 in Dr. Newman's sermon, 'Jewish zeal a pattern to Christians, 1 
 Parochial Sermons, iii. 197, sqq. On its counterpoise ' Sobriety,' 
 see Lyra Ap., lxv.-ix. 
 
 Note 7, page 182. For the use which has been made of the death 
 of Sisera, see Coleridge, Confession*, &c, pp. 34, 44, 54 ; Mr. F. W. 
 Newman's Phases of Faith, p. 69, 3rd ed. ; Davidson, /. /., p. 475. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VI. 349 
 
 The subject is discussed, with various results, in almost every treatise 
 bearing on these questions. Compare Waterland, Works, iv. 254 ; 
 Arnold, Sermons chiefly on the Interpretation of Scripture, No. viii., 
 p. 76 ; R. Williams, Rational Godliness, Sermon vii., p. 89 ; Burgon, 
 Inspiration and Interpretation, p. 223, sqq. ; Stanley, Jewish Church, 
 n. 329, sqq. 
 
 Note 8, page 182. ' The solemn religious commencement, the 
 picturesque description of the state of the country, the mustering of 
 the troops from all quarters, the sudden transition to the most con- 
 temptuous sarcasm against the tribes that stood aloof; the life, fire, 
 and energy of the battle ; the bitter pathos of the close — lyric 
 poetry has nothing in any language Avhich can surpass the boldness 
 and animation of this striking production.' — Milman, I. I., i. 246. 
 ' The song of Deborah is a very old specimen of Hebrew poetry, 
 which may challenge comparison in sublimity and beauty with the 
 lyrics of any other langiiage.' — Davidson, 1. 1., i. 471. ' The song 
 of Deborah bears in itself the marks of antiquity, and may have 
 been written soon after the time of the prophetess herself — lb. , 
 p. 465. We may fairly set this opinion against Bishop Colenso's 
 attempt to bring down the poem to a later date. Pentateuch, 
 §§ 447-452 ; Answer to Dr. M'Caul, p. 14. See also Dr. Donaldson, 
 Jashar, pp. 269, 289. For the antiquity of the oldest uninspired 
 compositions, see Max Muller on the Veda, Ancient Sanskrit Liter- 
 ature, p. 65 ; ' the most ancient literary work of the Aryan race, a 
 work more ancient than the Zendavesta and Homer;' the published 
 form of the Vedic hymns the same ' in which they existed at least 
 800 years before the Christian era.' 
 
 Note 9, page 183. On the days of the Judges, compare Stanley, 
 Jewish Church, pp. 305, 308, 328, 337 ; on Jephthah, p. 358 ; on 
 Samson, pp. 364, &c. In these and in many similar cases throughout 
 these Notes mere reference must not be taken to imply any further 
 agreement than may be inferred from the argument of the Lectures. 
 
 Note 10, page 184. Compare Dr. Newman's sermon above 
 referred to, and Milman, 1. 1., i. 187 : ' How wonderfully the event 
 verified the prediction of the inspired legislator, how invariably 
 apostasy led to adversity, repentance and reformation to prosperity, 
 will abundantly appear during the course of the following history.' 
 
 Note 11, page 185. For the geographical and other details, it is 
 sufficient to refer to Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 339 ; 
 Jetvish Church, pp. 316, sqq. 
 
350 NOTES TO LECTURE VI. 
 
 Note 12, page 187. Dr. Milman still follows the older version : 
 Tor the noise of plundering archers by the wells of water, now 
 they meet and sing aloud Jehovah's righteous acts.' — i. 248. So also 
 Dr. Williams, 1. I., p. 95 : ' The places of drawing water were beset 
 by the bow of the oppressor;' and p. 105 : 'Like the archers of 
 Canaan by the watering-places of Israel.' But Dr. Stanley : ' From 
 amidst the shouting of the dividers of spoils, between the water- 
 troughs, there let them rehearse,' &c, p. 334 ; and Dr. Davidson : 
 ' For the rejoicing of those who divide the spoil between the draw- 
 wells, there they celebrate,' &c, p. 473. Dr. Donaldson, again, on 
 a different hypothesis : ' meditaminor, ob jubila lignatorum inter 
 aquarum diluvia.' — Jashar, p. 238; cf. pp. 276-80. 
 
 Note 13, page 189. The point is put with earnest force by Dr. 
 Arnold, I. /., p. 33, Semion on the Wars of the Israelites : 'It is 
 better that the wicked should be destroyed a hundred times over, 
 yea, destroyed with everlasting destruction, than that they should 
 tempt those who are as yet innocent to join their company. And 
 if we are inclined to think that God dealt hardly with the people of 
 Canaan in commanding them to be so utterly destroyed, let us but 
 think what might have been our fate, and the fate of every other 
 nation under heaven at this hour, had the sword of the Israelites 
 done its work more sparingly. . . . The Israelites' sword, in its 
 bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries 
 of the earth to the very end of the world.' So also Stanley, /. /., 
 p. 253. See too Lord A. Hervey, Inspiration of Holy Scrtpttu-e, 
 p. 68, who discusses, in the following pages, the killing of Eglon and 
 Sisera, and the question of Deborah's inspiration. 
 
 Note 14, page 192. Compare Dr. Pusey's Sermon on the Day 
 of Judgment, 1839 : ' As He unfolds the fuller measures of His 
 goodness in our redemption, He accompanies them with more awful 
 notices of His wrath ; He disclosed not to us everlasting joys, 
 without warning us of everlasting fire.' 
 
 Note 15, page 193. ' It is a remarkable circumstance which has 
 been often observed, that if we look to some of the most eminent 
 saints of Scripture, we shall find their recorded errors to have 
 occurred in those parts of their duty in which each had had most 
 trial, and generally showed obedience most perfect. Faithful 
 Abraham through want of faith denied his wife. Moses, the meekest 
 of men, was excluded from the land of promise for a passionate 
 word. The ivisdom of Solomon was seduced to bow down to idols. 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VI. 351 
 
 Barnabas, again, the son of consolation, had a sharp contention with 
 St. Paul.' — Newman, Parochial Sermons, i. 53-4. Compare Lyra 
 Ap., xx. But I have pointed out that the history appears to prove 
 the existence of the double strain of temper through all portions of 
 the legislator's life. Dr. Stanley says, however, that ' no modern 
 word seems exactly to correspond to that which our translators 
 have rendered " the meekest of men," but which rather expresses 
 "enduring," "afflicted," "heedless of self."' — Jewish Church, 
 p. 199. 
 
 Note 16, page 193. Compare Arnold, Sermons chiefly on the Inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, pp. 396-9 ; Stanley, Apostolic Age, pp. 246, 
 258, 278-80 ;Westcott, Introd. to Study ofN. T., pp. 234, 281. So of 
 Christ Himself, Newman, I. L, iii. 200 : ' There was an occasion when 
 our Lord is expressly said to have taken upon Him the zeal which 
 consumed David,' &c. ' Such is the pattern afforded us by our 
 Lord ; to which add the example of the angels which surround 
 Him. Surely in Him is mingled " goodness and severity ; " such, 
 therefore, are all holy creatures, loving and severe.' 
 
352 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Note I, page 200. See this remarked in Dr. Stanley's Apostolic 
 Age, pp. 381-2 (partly repeated in Comment, on Corinth., i. p. 4G) : 
 1 It is by catching a glimpse, however partial, of those wild dissen- 
 sions which raged around and beneath the Apostolic writings, that 
 we can best appreciate the sublime unity and repose of those writings 
 themselves.' Compare p. 298, of St. James : ' It was not, we may 
 believe, without an object that the Divine Providence, which so 
 carefully excluded froni the sacred volume those harsher or more 
 temporary peculiarities on which the Palestine Jews dwelt with 
 exclusive pleasure, has admitted into it the great Epistle, where 
 the same general character, indeed, appears before us, but refined 
 and purified from the earthly admixture by which the merely 
 human record of him is marred.' And of St. Peter, Neander, 
 Planting, &c, i. 372, note ; defending ' the old distinction for 
 securing the idea of inspiration between vitium conversationis and 
 error doctrinm? 
 
 Note 2, page 200. ' Every one has a distinct conception of 
 St. Peter. . . . Quick in action even to rashness, and bold in word 
 even to presumption, he is yet the founder of the outward Church.' 
 ' — Eager to realise to the full a blessing of which he only half per- 
 ceived the import, and unable to wait in calm assurance on the will 
 of his Master. This impatient energy, which seems to be ever 
 striving after the issues of things, made him give expression in many 
 cases to the thoughts which others cherished, perhaps vaguely.' 
 ' He cannot rest in uncertainty where knowledge might prove the 
 guide to deeds.' ' We feel at once that the Avalking on the waters 
 and the failing faith are a true figure of his following Christ to the 
 place of judgment and then denying Him. Then follows the swift 
 and complete reaction.' — Wcstcott, Introd., &c, pp. 277-280. 
 ' Peter, over-hasty, as was so often the case.' — Trench, Miracles, 
 p. 377. 'By the natural constitution of his mind, he was disposed 
 to surrender himself at the moment entirely to the impression which 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 353 
 
 seized hini . . . but he was easily misled by a rash self-confidence 
 to say more, and to venture more, than he could accomplish.' — 
 Neander, Planting, &c, i. 368, ed. Bohn : cf. pp. 66, note; 72, &c. 
 ' Boldness and timidity, first boldness, then timidity, were the 
 characteristics of his nature.' — Jowett, Comment, on Gal. ii. 11. 
 Compare p. 343 (first ed.) : ' He who is the first, and even the 
 ablest to speak, may be often deficient in firmness of will or grasp of 
 mind.' Also Stanley, Apostolic Age, pp. 82, 95 ( ' whose character- 
 istic it was, that, with his thoughts ever bounded by time, his spirit 
 was ever open to the first dawn of things eternal '), 104 (' who took 
 the first critical step in advance ? ' ' the characters of simple unhesi- 
 tating zeal, which act instead of reflecting, which venture instead of 
 calculating, which cannot or will not see the difficulties with which 
 the first struggle of an untried reformation is of necessity accom- 
 panied'), &c. 
 
 The reverent analysis of the human characteristics of the Scrip- 
 ture saints is a work of deep interest and constant profit ; but only 
 so long as we recollect that their mission contributed a very diffe- 
 rent element, in the message of pure revelation which was entriisted 
 to their keeping, and which was received and handed on through 
 the presence and light of a special inspiration. 
 
 Note 3, page 202. Compare Neander, Life of Christ, p. 281, 
 ed. Bohn; Moberly, Sayings of the Great Forty Days, pp. 14, 39-42; 
 Stanley, /. I., p. 92; Ellicott, Historical Lectures, &c, pp. 202, 218, 
 220. On the steps by which the early Church disengaged itself from 
 Judaism, cf. Trench, St. Augustine, pp. 61, 71 ; Neander, Planting, 
 &c, p. 29 ; Baumgarten, Apostolic History, i. 176, Clark. On the 
 effect of the Fall of Jerusalem in completing the transition, see 
 Lyall, Prop>ced. Proph., pp. 316, sqq. 
 
 With the reference on p. 203 to Mark vii. 31, we must compare 
 Matt. xvi. 13, Mark viii. 27 ; our Lord's retirement to Cassarea 
 Philippi, on which see Dr. Stanley's remarks, Apostolic Age, p. 112, 
 and Sinai, &c, pp. 399, 419. ' Cesaree de Philippe, sa pointe la plus 
 avancee dans le monde des Gentils.' — Renan, Vie de Jesus, p. 28. 
 
 Note 4, page 204. ' It is most probable that, in Peter's mind, 
 when he used this expression (Acts ii. 39), there floated an indistinct 
 allusion to believers from other nations, though it did not appear of 
 sufficient importance for him to give it a greater prominence in his 
 address, as it was his conviction that the converts to Christianity 
 from heathenism must first become Jews.' — Neander, Planting, &c, 
 
 A A 
 
354 NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 
 
 p. 20. Compare Bengelius, in loc, as quoted above, Lecture IV., 
 note 12. 
 
 Note 5, page 207. Each step of this history has been the subject 
 of discussion. Without entering into further details of reference, I 
 must leave the historical views adopted in this and other parts of the 
 Lecture to suggest their own evidence, by the degree in which they 
 seem to harmonise the probabilities of the case with the statements 
 of Scripture. It might, indeed, be objected that, though the leaving 
 Titus uncircumcised may be properly described as ' one immediate 
 result' of the Council (Conybeare and Howson, i. 234), yet St. Paul's 
 consent to circumcise Timothy appears to fall later than the rebuke 
 to Peter (ib., 239, 28G), which could not, therefore, have rested on 
 the ground which I have suggested. But that consent would be 
 merely (as in Acts xxi. 26, and 1 Cor. ix. 20) the temporary con- 
 cession of a question which had been raised, but not decided ; Avhile 
 St. Peter might have taken alarm at the very fact of its being 
 mooted, and have withdrawn on that ground from an intercourse 
 which he had previously and rightly sanctioned. 
 
 That it is not easy to adjust the narrative without such an 
 explanation, the tone of the following comments will suffice to 
 prove : — 
 
 1. On Acts x. ' That such fresh revelations should have been 
 necessary may appear strange,' &c. ; ' but the effect of Pentecost 
 was not suddenly to dispel all ignorance and wavering.' — Humphry, 
 in loc. l It appears surprising that the Apostle Peter,' &c. ; but ' it 
 must not be overlooked that St. Peter was by no means uncertain 
 about the entrance of the Gentiles into the Church considered in 
 itself, but only about the point Avhether they could be admitted 
 without being circumcised, and taking upon themselves the obliga- 
 tion of the law.' — Olshausen, in loc. 
 
 2. On St. Peter at Antioch, Gal. ii. 11. ' The conduct of Peter 
 is not easy to understand,' &c. — Jowett, in loc. And again, the 
 passage is important ' as pourtraying the state of indecision in which 
 all, except St. Paul, even including Barnabas, were in reference to 
 the observance of the Jewish law.' ' Peter in their society began to 
 vacillate. In weak compliance with their prejudices,' &c, ' we find 
 him contradicting his own principles, and, " through fear of those who 
 were of the circumcision," giving all the sanction of his example to 
 the introduction of caste into the Church of Christ.' — Conybeare and 
 Howson, i. 239. (It appears to me that the language of verse 16, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 355 
 
 &c, proves the social question named in verse 12 to Have been 
 merely the symbol of a deeper difference.) Compare Neander, 
 Planting ■, &c, i. pp. 67 (and note), 211 ; and Additions and Correc- 
 tions, ii. 81, sqq. ; and more generally, on the modes of reconciling 
 Acts xv. with Gal. ii., cf. Conybeare and Howson, i. 244, sqq., and 
 Ebrard, Gospel History, p. 502, Clark. 
 
 Mr. "Westcott gives the following as the ' steps by which the 
 distinction of Jew and Gentile was removed in the Christian 
 Church:' '1. The admission of Gentiles, Acts x., xi. ; 2. The 
 freedom of Gentile converts from the ceremonial law, Acts xv. ; 3. 
 The indifference of the ceremonial law for Jewish converts, Gal. ii. 
 14-16, Acts xxi. 20-26 ; 4. The incompatibility of Judaism with 
 Christianity. The first three — that is, the essential — principles 
 are recognised in Scripture ; the last, which introduces no new 
 element, is evolved in the history of the Church.' — Canon of N. T., 
 p. 73, note. Mr. Greg calls the council at Jerusalem and the 
 dispute at Antioch ' the same transaction ;' and very naturally 
 infers that, in that case, there must be ' some mistake on the histo- 
 rian's part.' — Creed of Christendom, 1863, p. 164. But he annexes 
 two footnotes which utterly destroy his text : first, ' The same or 
 a similar one ;' next, 'unless, as has been suggested, Peter after- 
 wards, overpowered by the unanimity of the Judaisers, flinched from 
 his principles, and so incurred Pavd's indignation.' 
 
 Note 6, page 208. Compare Stanley, Apostolic Age, p. 90 ; and 
 for the Epistles, pp. 100-1. His first Epistle ' may well be taken as 
 the pledge of the last work of St. Peter, in crushing absolutely and 
 for ever this fatal schism, which wovdd have divided the two great 
 Fathers of our faith — him who gave it its first outward form, and him 
 who proclaimed its deep inward spirit.' For a similar remark on 
 the second Epistle, see Conybeare and Howson, i. 242. A brief 
 summary of the relation between the speeches and epistles, and of 
 the respective characteristics of St. Peter, St. Stephen, St. Luke, and 
 St. Paid, is given in Ebrard's Gospel History, pp. 499-500. On 
 the extent to which ' St. Peter's First Epistle derives special 
 interest from his personal history,' see Dr. Wordsworth's Introduc- 
 tion to it. 
 
 Note 7, page 213. For the interpretation of 2 Cor. v. 16, which 
 is here examined, see Professor Jowett's Introduction to the First 
 Epistle to the Thessalonians, pp. 7, sqq. 
 
 No rejoinder to what I have urged could be based on any proposal 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 
 
 to correct the chronology. Mr. Jowett says that ' the series (of 
 letters) begins with the Epistles to the Thessalonians, identified with 
 the second apostolical journey by the mention of Timothy and the 
 sojourn of the Apostle at Athens, after a previous stay at Thessa- 
 lonica.' — i. 281, 2nd ed. In the same volume he tells us, that ' more 
 than half the Apostle's ministry had already elapsed ere he set 
 his hand to this the first of his extant writings.' ' It is a fragment, 
 the earliest we possess, of the Apostle's life and the history of the 
 Church.' — i. 6. Now it is surely a most important addition to these 
 statements, and a correction of the inferences founded upon them, 
 to note that by the side of the Thessalonian Epistles we have the 
 discourse at Athens, which gives the most mature view of the 
 position of the Gentiles ; and that some time before the date oftho.se 
 Epistles, we have the discourses at the Pisidian Antioch and at 
 Lystra ; the former embodying the most complete conception of the 
 doctrine of justification, and the relation which existed between the 
 law and the gospel. 
 
 Note 8, page 2l4t. 'The words lead us to infer that something 
 of this kind had once been his own state of mind, not only in the 
 time before his conversion (which he would have condemned more 
 strongly), but since. If so, it is (like Phil. iii. 13-15) a remarkable 
 confession of former weakness or error, and of conscious progress in 
 religious knowledge.' — Stanley, on 2 Cor. v. 16; cf. p. 295, first ed. 
 See another interpretation in Mr. Bright's Notes on XVIII. Sermons 
 of St. Leo, p. 131. Compare Neander, Planting, &c, i. 82, note, 
 and pp. 93, 52G-9 ; and from a different quarter, Mackay, Tubingen 
 School, &c, 1863, p. 239, note. 
 
 Note 9, page 217 . ' Here in this first sermon which St. Paul 
 is recorded to have preached in a Jewish synagogue, we have the 
 germ of his two Epistles to the Galatians and Romans — an internal 
 evidence of genuineness and veracity.' — Wordsworth, on Acts, xiii. 
 36. ' His concluding words, as St. Luke relates them, might stand 
 as a summary, representing in outline the early chapters of the 
 Epistle to the Romans.' — Conybeare and Howson, i. 188. It is to 
 the passage, Acts xiii. 39, that Mr. Davison makes his appeal, for 
 1 the general doctrine of St. Paul, when he explains to the Israelite 
 the difference between the Legal and the Evangelical systems,' adding 
 in a note : ; This single sentence, therefore, is decisive of the nature 
 of the Mosaic dispensation.' — On Sacrifice : Remains, pp. 74-5. 
 
 Note 10, page 217, Dr. Wordsworth proceeds, in the passage 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 357 
 
 cited in the last Note : ' It is observable also that St. Paul's address 
 appears to be formed on the same model as St. Stephen's — another 
 proof of its influence on him and of the truth of the history.' So 
 also Conybeare and Howson, i. 190, note. ' In short, Stephen was 
 the forerunner of the great Paul.' — Neander, Planting, &c, i. 50, 
 52, 97. ' In many particulars St. Stephen was the forerunner of 
 St. Paul.' — Conybeare and Howson, i. 73, sqq. ; Stanley, Apostolic 
 Age, p. 61 ; Jewish Church, p. 29 ; Trench, St. Augustine, p. 114; 
 Humphry, Boyle Lectures for 1858, p. 12. 
 
 Note 11, page 218. 'We have seen elsewhere (chap. iii. 1-8; 
 v. 12-21 ; vii. 7-11) that in many passages the Apostle wavers 
 between the opposite sides of a question, before he arrives at a final 
 and permanent conclusion. The argument in such passages may be 
 described as a sort of struggle in his own thoughts, an alternation of 
 natural feelings, a momentary conflict of emotions. The stream of 
 discourse flows onward in two channels, occasionally mingling or 
 contending with each other, which meet at the last.' ' Nowhere 
 does the logical control over language, that is, the power of aptly 
 disposing sentences so as to exhibit them in their precise relation to 
 each other, so fail the Apostle as at the conclusion of the tenth 
 chapter. "We see his meaning, but his emotions prevent him from 
 expressing it.' — Jowett, on Rom. ix.-xi. ; I. L, ii. 269, 271. Compare 
 Mr. Mozley's Letter to Dr. Stanley on Subscription to the Articles, 
 p. 15. The principle of interpretation which I have suggested is 
 illustrated by Bishop Ellicott's remark on Rom. viii. 20,21, Destiny 
 of the Creature, p. 3 : ' No text has suffered more from the arbitrary 
 limitation of the terms in which it is expressed ; and in no case will 
 it be found more advisable to give boldly to every term the most 
 comprehensive meaning the context will warrant, and to every clause 
 its fullest and most extended significance.' 
 
 The language of Professor Jowett is not in this case framed on 
 Dr. Arnold's model : ' In u St. Paul " there is not only all Christian 
 truth, but it is free from the mixture of human foolishness and error. 
 In his Epistles all is equal ; all is grave and sober, and wise and 
 true ; all is fitted to be an authority and a rule.' ' He who amidst 
 the goodness and the sense of the Fathers is grieved from time to 
 time at those marks of human infirmity which make it clear that 
 they are no staff to lean upon, may turn with greater thankfulness 
 to the Epistles of St. Paid and of the other apostles, and may there 
 find that which the human heart so eagerly craves for — an authority 
 
358 NOTES TO LECTURE VII. 
 
 which it may trust without reserve.' — Sermons chiefly on the Inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, pp. 269-70. 
 
 Note 12, page 219. The highest sense of law, within the moral 
 and spiritual sphere, is that in which God ' is a law both to Himself 
 and to all other things besides.' — Hooker, E. P., I. ii. § 3. The 
 purest reflection of that law may be conceived to guide the move- 
 ments of unfallen spirits ; but the introduction of evil introduces 
 that element of severity Avhich causes law, in its ordinary sense, to 
 be adjusted to the vicious rather than the virtuous (vopog <T, tv olg 
 aSiKia. — Ar. Eth. N., V. vi. § 4 ; 1 Tim. i. 9). It is according 
 to this, which in the text I call the ' third sense,' that ' by the 
 word Law ' St. Paul ' means " any rule of life which restrains 
 our natural inclinations, and which we obey through fear and 
 with an effort.' 1 " — Arnold, Sermons, i. 139. 'Laws do not only 
 teach what is good, but they enjoin it, they have in them a certain con- 
 straining force.'' — Hooker, LI., I. x. § 7. And at this point Ave meet 
 with two contrasted statements : on the one hand, that there is no need 
 of law where there is no risk of transgression (1 Tim., as above); 
 on the other, that there is no possibility of transgression Avhere 
 there is no law (Rom. iv. 15 ; v. 13 ; vii. 13 ; 1 Cor. xv. 56). To 
 reconcile them we observe that, in this sense, kw as Avell as sin 
 implies a state of evil ; a race which is not only imperfect by crea- 
 tion, but deteriorated by actual transgression. And on this basis 
 Ave may arrange the order of conceptions thus : 1. There is potential 
 sin — evil Avhich is not yet developed or made active. Where this 
 is not present as the groundAvork, there is no room for laAv, as above 
 defined, anymore than there is room for sin. 2. For the prevention 
 or removal of this evil, it is necessary to bring in the restraints of 
 law, which in itself, however, conveys only knoAvledge, but not grace 
 (cf. above, Lecture III., Note 15, and Discourses on the Fall and 
 its Resxdts, pp. 227-8). Here we reach the first of the above con- 
 trasted statements — that there is no need of laAv Avhere there is no risk 
 of transgression. 3. This laAv may be either obeyed or disobeyed. 
 If obeyed, it leads to a recovery, in Avhich law conveys the know- 
 ledge Avhile grace effects the cure ; if disobeyed, the grace is rejected, 
 and the laAv becomes ' the savour of death unto death.' In this 
 calamity, Ave trace the operation of the second of the two contrasted 
 statements, Avhen law becomes ' the strength of sin.' What avus 
 given as a guide iioav remains only as a witness (cf. Blakesley, Cone. 
 Ac, p. 175); in which character law points the condemnation, which 
 
NOTES TO LECTUPE VII. 359 
 
 leads through disobedience to death. We may divide it according 
 to the three stages of the law of conscience, the Old Testament, and 
 the Gospel ; and in each of these we may confront it with the uniform- 
 ity of evil, which constitutes ' the law of sin and death.' By this 
 method, therefore, we reach the same four ultimate meanings, which 
 I have pointed out in the usage of St. Paul. 
 
 Note 13, £>«#<? 220. ' The granite mountains, on whose hard blocks 
 were written the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law.' — Stanley, 
 Sinai and Palestine, p. 11. 
 
360 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Note 1, page 232. ' Speciatim in sermonibus et actionibus Cliristi 
 elucet ejusmodi Decorum, quod ab evangelistis tarn bene expressum 
 argumento est, illos a Spiritu S. actos scripsisse ; neque enim id 
 humani ingenii quamlibet excellentissimi fuisset ... In rebus 
 summe buniilibus tamen Filius Dei cavet juri majestatis suae.' — 
 Bengel., in Matt. iii. 15. ' In omni humiliatione Christi, per decoram 
 quandam protestationem cautum est gloria? ejus divinse. Hoc loco, 
 per prasconium angeli ; in circumcisione, per nomen Jesu ; in purifi- 
 catione, per testimonium Simeonis ; in baptismo, per exceptionem 
 Baptistae ; in passione, modis longe plurimis.' — Id., in Luc. ii. 9. 
 ' Cum decoro divino pulcre congruit, quod praesente vita? duce nemo 
 unquam legitur mortuus.' — Id., in Joann. xi. 15. 
 
 Recent publications on the Life and Opinions of Mr. E. Irving 
 have recalled to prominent notice the errors on our Saviour's human 
 nature into which he was betrayed, and another phase of which was 
 represented in some unhappy speculations of the late Dr. Donaldson. 
 Compare the strong remonstrances of Dr. Mill, Five Sermons on our 
 Lord's Temptation, pp. 37, 53, 152; and Bishop Ellicott, Historical 
 Lectures, &c, p. 111. Also see Mr. Mozley, Avgustinian Doctrine 
 of Predestination, p. 97. A firm grasp on the doctrine of Christ's 
 Divine Personality will save us from embarrassment in connexion 
 with the collateral error of His alleged human ignorance, as it has 
 been still more recently maintained. I am thankful to be exempted 
 by the date of the controversy (which falls later than the delivery of 
 these Lectures) from entering here upon the painful subject ol'M. 
 Eenan's Vie de Jesus. 
 
 Note 2, page 233. Compare the answer given by Bishop Ellicott 
 to the question whether any inaccuracies are really to be found in 
 Scripture : ' As, in the case of the Incarnate "Word, we fully recog- 
 nise in the Lord's humanity ;ill essentially human limitations and 
 weaknesses, the hunger, the thirst, and the weariness on the side of the 
 body, and the gradual development on the side of the human mind 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE Vin. 361 
 
 (Luke ii. 40) — in a word, all that belongs to the essential and original 
 characteristics of the pure form of the nature He vouchsafed to assume, 
 but plainly deny the existence therein of the faintest trace of sin, or of 
 moral or mental imperfection, — even so in the case of the written 
 "Word, viewed on its purely human side, and in its reference to matters 
 previously admitted to have no bearing on Divine Truth, we may admit 
 therein the existence of such incompleteness, such limitations, and 
 such imperfections as belong even to the highest forms of purely truth- 
 ful human testimony, but consistently deny the existence of mistaken 
 views, perversion, misrepresentation, and any form whatever of con- 
 sciously committed error or inaccuracy.' — Aids to Faith, pp. 417-8. 
 The same course of reasoning is suggested by others of the writers 
 cited above, Lecture I., Note 4. 
 
 When it is wished to prove by such catena? as those of Dr. 
 Davidson and Mr. Stephen, that high ai;thorities in the English 
 Church have gone beyond this position, by teaching, either that the 
 inspiration of Holy Scripture was only partial, or that it is accom- 
 panied by an acknowledged fringe of definite error, we must submit 
 the passages cited to a critical examination, and exclude all those 
 Avhich fail, for any of the following reasons, to support either of the 
 above propositions. We must exclude, then : — 
 
 1 . Those passages which merely teach that the revelation is par- 
 tial ; or which allege, that no revelation was required for matters 
 which fell under the personal knowledge of the inspired writers ; 
 above, pp. 25, 146, and Notes. If the word inspiration is occasionally 
 used in this connexion, it is simply because the exact difference 
 between inspiration and revelation (above, Lecture I., Note 5) has not 
 been always present to the minds of the writers. The context will 
 generally show that what they really mean to limit is not the inspira- 
 tion, but the revelation of Scripture. See, e. g., Tillotson, as referred 
 to in Lecture I., Note 5 ; Warburton, in Stephen, p. 142 (' it would 
 be putting the Holy Spirit on an unnecessary employment' 1 ); Watson, 
 lb., p. 146 ; Tomline, lb., p. 149 (they 'did not upon every occasion 
 stand in need of supernatural communication''); Whately, lb., p. 156, 
 &c. Some of the passages here cited might be alleged also under 
 the following head, viz : — 
 
 2. Those which distinctly recognise the presence of collateral 
 information, the use of common sense in ordinary matters, the 
 employment of current scientific terms, and other indications that 
 the lrunian element was complete ; admissions which, as I have urged 
 
362 XOTES TO LECTURE VIII. 
 
 (Lecture V., and above, pp. 231, 234), amount to neither an exclusion 
 of the inspiration nor an acknowledgment of error. To this head 
 belongs the use of optical or phenomenal language; above, p. 158 
 and Note. Passages of this kind, I repeat, simply carry out the full 
 recognition of the human element. They do not involve any neces- 
 sary limitation of what is strictly called inspiration — the special 
 presence of the Holy Spirit, which raised those human agents to a 
 loftier power. 
 
 3. Those which merely coincide with Butler's warning, above, 
 pp. 155, 233 (cf. Stephen, p. 138 ; and Dr. Mill, cited in Lecture V., 
 Note 9), against all attempts to impose a deductive theory of inspi- 
 ration, and against the disposition to complain if others think that 
 the facts will not support the position which such reasoners had no 
 right to assume. 
 
 4. Those which merely warn us against staking too muck on 
 difficult or questionable positions ; as Paley, above, pp. 141—2. 
 
 5. Those which insist on the argument which has been worked out 
 by several recent writers, on the large share which must be ascribed 
 to our own ignorance of details, as an explanation of countless 
 Scripture difficulties. Compare Heber, in Stephen, p. 154. This 
 position must of course be used with judgment : for it is obviously 
 inadmissible to argue, as some have done, that we may expect discre- 
 pancies, because a more minute acquaintance with the facts would 
 cause discrepancies to disappear. What is meant can only be that 
 this consideration might lead us to expect the appearance, but not 
 the reality, of discrepancies. 
 
 6. Those which cannot be used without an alteration of the 
 language of the writer quoted, by arguing across from assertions to 
 negations, or from admissions to exclusions. Compare Lecture III., 
 Note 7. We find a remarkable instance in the use which Mr. 
 Stephen repeatedly makes of Hooker's words (E. P., I. xiv. § 3,&c), 
 that ' the several books of Scripture having had each some several 
 occasion and particular purpose which caused them to be written, 
 the contents thereof are according to the exigence of that special end 
 wlnreunto they are intended.' 'The substance of his view is this : 
 Scripture is perfect for the end for which it is designed;' and there- 
 fore, it is argued, for that end only. — Stephen, pp. 9G-7, 128, 
 131-4-7, 14G-9, 151, 161, 173. For the real rigour of Hooker's 
 opinion, see the extract above in Lecture I., Note 20 ; and cf. 
 Burgon, Inspiration and Interpretation, pp. 77, 115 ; Phillimore, 
 
NOTES TO LECTURE VIII. 363 
 
 Speech, &c, pp. 92-96 ; M'Caul, Testimonies, &c, pp. 100-8, 
 ' The word of God in itself is absolute, exact, and perfect' — E. P. 
 III. viii. § 4, &c. 
 
 Note 3, page 234. Particular attention lias been lately called to 
 this point by Dean Milman, History of the Jews, Pref, p. xxix. ; 
 and i. 65, 98, 120, 122. 
 
 Note 4, page 234. See above, Lecture V., Note 14. 
 
 Note 5,])age 235. See above, Lecture V., Notes 24, 25, and 26. 
 
 Note 6, page 240. Compare Van Mildert, B. L., p. 139 ; and 
 the summary of opinions in the Commentaries of Ellicott and 
 Alford, in loc. 
 
 Note 7, page 241. E. and E., p. 377. See Bishop Marsh also, 
 l.l., pp. 321, 466, 508 ; and above, Lecture IV., Note 1 ; Coleridge, 
 Confessions, &c, p. 24 (those ' who take up the Bible as they do 
 other books, and apply to it the same rules of interpretation'); 
 Davidson, ed. of Home's Introduction, ii. 207 (' the Bible is to be 
 explained on the same principles as other books ; ' ' yet we cannot go 
 all the length of those who insist on the fact absolutely and unquali- 
 fiedly '). See also above, quotation from Bacon in Lecture IV., 
 Note 1, &c. And for Dr. Arnold's feeling on this subject, compare 
 Mr. B. Price's letter in Stanley's Life of Arnold, p. 167, ed. 
 1846. 
 
 Note 8, page 244. ' A doctrine which is based on one text of 
 Scripture will generally be found to rest on no text at all.' — 
 Wordsworth, Lectures on the Apocalypse, p. 33. In one of Mr. P. 
 Freeman's papers on the Eucharistic Controversy, he asks : ' Is it not 
 the case that most of such errors in doctrine as the Irvingite, Mr. 
 Maurice's as to eternal punishment, the Arian, all rest on single texts 
 (Eph. iv. 11 ; John xvii. 3; xiv. 28)?' See above, Lecture III., 
 Note 5 ; Lecture V., Note 23. On the other hand, compare Mr. 
 Jowett's Essay ' On the Imputation of the Sin of Adam;' St. Paul's 
 Epistles, ii. 162, first ed., 'How slender is the foundation,' &c. ; 
 ' two passages in St. Paul at most, and these of uncertain interpre- 
 tation. The little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, has covered 
 the heavens.' Also E. and P., p. 358. It is felt in such cases that 
 an important step has been gained against doctrines which really lie 
 beneath vast portions of Scripture, if they can be forced back within 
 the confines of a single text. The fact that the method admits of 
 a right application as well as a wrong one, makes it all the more 
 necessary that any alleged instances should be carefully tested. 
 
364 NOTES TO LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Note 9, page 246. On this point I would refer especially to the 
 valuable work of Wilson, An Illustration of the Method of Explain- 
 ing the N. T., &c, chapters ii., iii., &c. Compare Lyall, Propced. 
 Proph., p. 247 ; H. Browne, Messiah as foretold and expected,^. 77 ; 
 Trench, On the Parables, p. II, note. But the details of the argument 
 are most elaborately examined in Mr. Wilson's treatise. 
 
 LONDON 
 IliD BY SPOTTIBWOODE AND CO. 
 NUW-STHEET SQUARE 
 
Albemarle Street, 
 
 October, 1863. 
 
 MR. MURRAY'S 
 
 FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 THE COMPLETION 
 
 The Dictionary of the Bible; 
 
 ITS ANTIQUITIES, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY, AND NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 BY THE FOLLOWING 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Bishop of Calcutta. 
 
 Bishop of Killaloe. 
 
 Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 
 
 Bev. Lord Arthur Hervey. 
 
 Dean of Canterbury. 
 
 Bailey, Rev. Henry, B.D. 
 
 Barry, Rev. Alfred, M.A. 
 
 Bev an, Rev. William L., M.A. 
 
 Blakesley, Canon, B.D. 
 
 Brown, Rev. T. E., M.A. 
 
 Browne, Archdeacon. 
 
 Browne, Professor Harold, B.D. 
 
 Bullock, Rev. W. T., M.A. 
 
 Clarke, Rev. Samuel, M.A. 
 
 Cook, Rev. F. C, M.A. 
 
 Davies, Rev. Llewelyn, M.A. 
 
 Deutsch, Emanuel. 
 
 Drake, Rev. William, M.A. 
 
 Eddrup, Rev. E. P., M.A. 
 
 Farrar, Rev. F. W., M.A. 
 
 Fergusson, James, F.R.S. 
 
 Ffoulkes, Edmund S., M.A. 
 
 Garden, Rev. Francis. 
 
 Gotch, Rev. F. W., LL.D. 
 
 Grove, George. 
 
 Hawkins, Rev. Earnest, B.D. 
 
 Hayman, Rev. Henry, M.A. 
 
 Hessey, Rev. Dr. 
 
 Hooker, Joseph D., F.R.S. 
 
 Hornby, Rev. J. J. 
 
 WRITERS : — 
 
 Houghton, Rev. W., M.A. 
 Howson, Rev. Dr. 
 Huxtable, Rev. Edgar, M.A. 
 Jones, Rev. W. Basil, M.A. 
 Layard, A. H., M.P. 
 Leathes, Rev. Stanley, M.A. 
 Lightfoot, Professor, M.A. 
 Marks, Professor D. W. 
 Meyrick, Rev. Frederick, M.A.. 
 Orger, Rev. E. R., M.A. 
 Ormerod, Archdeacon. 
 Perowne, Rev. J. J. S., B.D. 
 Perowne, Rev. Thos. T., B.D. 
 Phillott, Rev. H. W., M.A. 
 Plumptre, Professor B. H., M.A. 
 Poole, E. Stanley, M.R.A.S. 
 Poole, R. Stuart, M.R.S.L. 
 Porter, Rev. J. L., M.A. 
 Pritchard, Rev. Chas., M.A. 
 Rawlinson, Professor, M.A. 
 Rose, Rev. H. J., B.D. 
 Selwyn, Professor, D.D. 
 Stanley, Canon, D.D. 
 Thrupp, Rev. J. F., M.A. 
 Tregelles, S. P., LL.D. 
 Tristram, Rev. H. B., M.A. 
 Twisleton, Hon. Edw., M.A. 
 Venables, Rev. Edmund, M.A. 
 Westcott, Rev. B. F., M.A. 
 Wordsworth, Rev. Dr. 
 Wright, William A., M.A. 
 
 Edited by WM. SMITH, LL.D. 
 
 Editor of the Dictionaries of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Geography, Biography, &c. 
 Vols. II. and III. (completing the Work.) With Woodcuts. Medium 8vo. 
 
 In consequence of the great importance of many of the subjects contained in the later 
 letters of the alphabet, it has been found necessary to extend the work to three volumes 
 instead of comprising it in two, as originally iutended. It is believed that this extension 
 ■will add greatly to the value and usefulness of the work. It has also enabled the Editor 
 to give, at the end of the Third Volume, an Appendix to Volume I., containing many 
 important articles on Natural History, as well as some subjects omitted in the First 
 Volume, such as "Antichrist," "Baptism," and "Church." 
 
MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 Selections from the Poetical Works 
 
 RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES (LORD HOUGHTON). 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 
 
 The Financial Statements of 1853-60-63, 
 
 WITH SPEECHES ON TAX -BILLS, 1861, AND CHARITIES, 1863. 
 By the Right Hon. W. E GLADSTONE, 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and M.P. for the University of Oxford. 
 8vo. 
 
 History of Charles the Bold, Duke of 
 Burgundy. 
 
 By JOHN FOSTER KIRK. 
 
 Portrait. 2 Vols. 8vo. 
 
 The career of Charles the Bold has 
 usually been regarded as merely a romantic 
 episode in European history. As such it 
 forms the framework of two of Scott's 
 most brilliant fictions, — Quentin Durward 
 and Anne of Geierstein. That great writer 
 lias exhibited its salient features, if not 
 with strict fidelity, yet with a vigorous 
 touch and in vivid colours that seemed to 
 forbid any attempt of a weaker hand to 
 produce the same effects by a more literal 
 treatment of the subject. Even on the 
 Continent it has never been presented with 
 fulness and in detail, except in M. de 
 Barante's elegant rifacimento of the French 
 Chroniclers of the 15th century. That it 
 was, however, a subject deserving closer 
 research and an ampler delineation has been 
 apparent to those scholars in Belgium, 
 France, Germany, and Switzerland, who, 
 during the last twenty years have found in 
 its separate portions a fresh and fruitful 
 field for their investigations. Some corre- 
 spondence in reference to the matter passed 
 lictween the Lite Mr. Prescott and the dis- 
 tinguished Belgian archivist, M. Gachard, 
 who expressed a wish that the American 
 historian might be induced to employ his 
 
 pen on so attractive a theme. Availing 
 himself of his well-known facilities for 
 procuring the necessary materials, Mr. 
 Prescott formed a collection, but only that 
 he might, with his accustomed generosity, 
 place it at the disposition of the friend who 
 had first conceived the idea, and who had 
 long shared with him in those studies from 
 which the world has derived no ordinary 
 advantage. The result is a work of which 
 two volumes are now offered to the public, 
 and which a third volume in course of pre- 
 paration will complete. It is an attempt 
 to bring together and to embody in a sym- 
 metrical narrative all that the contemporary 
 chroniclers and memoir-writers, the extant 
 letters and other documentary evidence, and 
 the critical discussions of the present day, 
 could contribute for the just appreciation of 
 a remarkable epoch, grand historical figures 
 and an eventful story. An entirely new 
 light is thrown on some of the most im- 
 portant events in Charles's career, his. 
 position as the "Napoleon of the Middle 
 Ages '' is fully indicated, and the influence 
 is traced both of his ambition and of his 
 fall upon the destinies of the principal 
 European states. 
 
 The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel. 
 
 By JOHN PERCY, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 ■With numerous Illustrations, drawn to Scale. 8vo. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 The New Testament, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ANNOTATED; 
 
 wiin 
 
 A PLAIN EXPLANATORY COMMENT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY READING. 
 
 FORMING THE FIRST PORTION OF 
 
 THE HAND BIBLE. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. F. C. COOK, M.A., 
 
 Preacher at Lincoln's Inu ; and 
 
 Rev. W. BASIL JONES, M.A., 
 
 Examining Chaplain to the Archbishop of York. 
 ACCOMPANIED BY FAITHFUL VIEWS OF BIBLE SCENES FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS. 
 
 Two clearly printed and portable volumes, crown 8vo. 
 
 The Notes to the Hand Bible are not didactic or hortative, like those of Henry and many more : 
 but are designed to explain the text — to correct wrong readings, to illustrate prophecy, and u> 
 remove difficulties — so briefly as not to withdraw the attention unnecessarily from the text. 
 
 Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds; 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF HOGARTH, WILSON, GAINSBOROUGH, AND OTHERS. 
 By the late C. R. LESLIE, R.A., 
 
 Author of " The Memoirs of Constable," and " Handbook for Young Painters." 
 
 Edited, with Additions, by TOM TAYLOR. 
 
 With Portraits. 2 Vols. 8vo. 
 
 The Rock-Cut Temples of India, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 75 PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE SPOT. 
 By MAJOR GILL. 
 
 DESCRIBED BY JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S., 
 
 Author of "Handbook of Architecture." 
 Medium 8vo. 
 
 The Diary of Mary, Countess Cowper, 
 
 WIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR COWPER, 
 
 And Lady of the Bedchamber to Caroline, Pkincess of Wales, afterwards 
 Queen of George I. 
 
 From the Original MS. in the possession of the family. 
 
 Portrait. 8vo. 
 
 Life of General Sir William Napier, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE PENINSULA U WAR," ka., &Q. 
 
 Edited by H. A. BRUCE, M.P. 
 
 With Portraits. 2 Vols. Crown 8vo. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 A New History of Painting in Italy, 
 
 FROM THE 2nd TO THE 16th CENTURY. 
 
 Derived from Original Researches and inspection of the Works of Art in Italy. 
 
 By J. A. CROWE, and SIGN OR CAVALCASELLE, 
 
 Authors of " A History of Early Flemish Art." 
 With Illustrations. Vols. I. & II. 8vo. 
 
 The Bampton Lectures for 1863. 
 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE DIVINE AND HUMAN ELEMENTS IN 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 By REV. J. HANNAH, D.C.L., 
 
 Warden of Trinity College, Glenalcnond ; late Fellow of Line. Coll., Oxford. 
 8vo. 
 
 Sermons Preached at Lincoln's Inn, 
 
 AND ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS. 
 By Rev. F. C. COOK, M.A., 
 
 Chaplain In Ordinary to the Queen, one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, Examining Chaplain to 
 the Bishop of Lincoln, and Preacher to the Hon. Society of Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Svo. 
 
 Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in the 
 Kingdoms of Siam, Cambojia, and Lao. 
 
 By HENRI MOUHOT, F.R.G.S. 
 
 With Map and Illustrations. Svo. 
 
 A New Life of Cicero. 
 
 By WILLIAM FORSYTH, M.A., Q.C., 
 
 Author of " Hortonsius," " History of Trial by Jury," &c. ; late Fellow of Trinity Coll., Cambridge. 
 
 With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 
 
 The object of this work is to exhibit Cicero not merely as a Statesman and an Orator, 
 but as he was at home in the relations of private life, as a Husband, a Father, a Brother, 
 and a Friend. His letters are full of interesting details, which enable us to form a vivid 
 idea of how the old Romans lived two thousand years ago, and the biography embraces 
 not only a history of events, as momentous as any in the annals of the world, but a large 
 amount of anecdote and gossip which amused the generation that witnessed the downfall 
 of the Republic. 
 
 The Works of Alexander Pope, 
 
 WITH A NEW LIFE, INTRODUCTIONS, AND NOTES. 
 
 By Rev. WHITWELL ELWIN. 
 
 Vols. I. to III. With Fortraits. 8vo. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 History of Christianity, 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO THE ABOLITION OF PAGANISM IN THE 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 By HENRY HART MILMAN, D.D., 
 
 Dean of St. Paul's. 
 A New and Revised Edition. 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Industrial Biography: 
 
 IRON WORKERS— AND TOOL MAKERS. 
 By SAMUEL SMILES. 
 
 Post Svo. 
 
 History of Babylon, Media, and Persia ; 
 
 BEING THE CONTINUATION OF THE FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE 
 ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD. 
 
 By Rev. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A., 
 
 Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. 
 With numerous Illustrations from Ancient Monuments. 2 Vols. 8vo. 
 
 Hymns in Prose, for Children. 
 
 By MRS. BARBAULD. 
 
 Illustrated with 112 Original Designs by Barnes, Wimpekis, Coleman, and Kennedy. 
 
 Small 4to. 
 
 Laws of Nature, the Foundation of Morals. 
 
 By DAVID ROWLAND, 
 
 Author of " A Manual of the English Constitution." 
 Post Svo. 
 
 The Music of the Most Ancient Nations ; 
 
 PARTICULARLY OF THE ASSYRIANS, EGYPTIANS, AND HEBREWS ; 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DISCOVERIES IN WESTERN ASIA AND EGYPT. 
 
 By CARL ENGEL. 
 
 With numerous Illustrations. Svo. 
 
 Principles of Surgery. 
 
 By JAMES SYME, F.R.S.E., 
 
 Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University o Edinourgu 
 5th Edition, revised. Svo. 
 
6 MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 A History of Latin Christianity, 
 
 INCLUDING THAT OF THE POPES TO THE PONTIFICATE OF NICHOLAS V. 
 By HENRY HART MILMAX, D.D., 
 
 Dean of St. Paul's. 
 Third and Revised Edition. Svo. 
 
 Elements of Geology; 
 
 OR, THE ANCIENT CHANGES OF THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS, 
 By SIR CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S. 
 
 A new and revised Edition. With considerable Additions. 
 With numerous Woodcuts. 8vo. 
 
 Handbook to the Y/estem Cathedrals; 
 
 BRISTOL, GLOUCESTER, HEREFORD, WORCESTER, AND LICHFIELD. 
 By RICHARD J. KING, B.A. 
 
 With Illustrations. Post Svo. 
 
 A New English-Latin Dictionary, 
 
 COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES. 
 By WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D., 
 
 Editor of the " Latin-English Dictionary," "Classical Dictionaries," etc. 
 Svo and 12mo. 
 
 Student's Manual of English Literature, 
 
 By the late T. B. SHAW. 
 
 A New Edition, carefully revised, and partly re-written by the Author. 
 
 EDITED WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY Wm. SMITH, LL.D. 
 
 Post Svo. 7s. 6c?. 
 
 Murray's Handbook for Paris. 
 
 A GUIDE FOR VISITORS TO THAT METROPOLIS AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 With Clue Map and Plans. Small Svo. 
 
 Murray's Handbook for Ireland, 
 
 FROM ORIGINAL SURVEY AND JOURNEYS IN THAT COUNTRY. 
 With a first-rate Travelling Map. Post Svo. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S FORTHCOMING WORKS. 
 
 The Book of Common Praj^er, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH ORNAMENTAL BORDERS, INITIAL LETTERS, AND 
 
 WOODCUTS. 
 
 The Embellishments of the present edition consist of Ornamental Borders, Scrolls, 
 Foliage, Head-pieces and Vignettes, and many hundred Initial Letters, together with 
 the following Historical Engravings, to illustrate the Gospels, from the works of Raphael 
 and the early Masters of the Italian School, with some few derived from modern German 
 Masters. 
 
 CHRIST'S ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 
 ST. JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS . 
 CHRISTMAS DAY— THE NATIVITY 
 STONING OF ST. STEPHEN 
 ST. JOHN EVANGELIST . 
 FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 
 ADORATION OF THE MAGI . 
 INFANT JESUS IN THE TEMPLE . 
 CHRIST HEALING THE BLIND . 
 MARY MAGDALEN .... 
 JUDAS RECEIVING THE MONEY 
 THE LAST SUPPER .... 
 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 
 GOOD FRIDAY— THE CRUCIFIXION 
 
 „ „ CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS 
 
 THE ENTOMBMENT 
 
 EASTER DAY— THE RESURRECTION 
 THE GOOD SHEPHERD .... 
 DAY OF PENTECOST .... 
 
 THE ASCENSION 
 
 MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES 
 THE WIDOW'S SON OF NAIN . 
 
 TRIBUTE MONEY 
 
 THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 
 
 ST. ANDREW 
 
 ST. THOMAS'S INCREDULITY . 
 
 ST. PAUL 
 
 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 
 PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE 
 ANNUNCIATION OF THE VIRGIN . 
 
 ST. MARK 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 ST. BARTHOLOMEW 
 
 ST. MATTHEW ...'.. 
 
 ST. MICHAEL ■ 
 
 ST. LUKE 
 
 ST. SIMON AND ST. JUDE . 
 
 Ang. da Fiesole. 
 
 oveebeck. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Ang. da Fiesole. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Poussin. 
 
 Raj hael. 
 
 Ang. da Fiesole. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Naeke. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Fra Bartolomeo. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Fra Bartoloheo. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 FURNISHED WITH NOTES EXPLAINING THE ORDER AND HISTORY. OF THE OFFICES. 
 
 By Rev. THOMAS JAMES, M.A., 
 
 Honorary Canon of Peterborough, Rural Dean and Vicar of Sibbertoft and Theddingworth. 
 A New Edition. One Volume. Medium 8vo. 
 
 Student's Manual of Ancient Geography. 
 
 By Rev. W. L. BEVAN, M.A., 
 
 Vicar of Hay, Brecknockshire. 
 
 Edited by Wm. SMITH, LL.D. 
 
 A New and Cheaper Edition. With 250 Woodcuts. Post Svo. Is. 6d. 
 
 A new and cheaper edition of this work, which has been introduced into Eton and 
 other public schools, will be published in November, uniform with the "Student's 
 Hume," " Liddell's Rome, 1 ' and other works of the same series. 
 
Albemarle Street, 
 October, 1863. 
 
 MR. MURRAY'S 
 LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 -fi«8- 
 
 THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS, 
 
 WITH ADVENTURES AND STUDIES OP NATURAL HISTORY DURING 
 ELEVEN YEARS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 BY H. W. BATES. 
 
 With Map and 40 Illustrations. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 2Ss. 
 
 "We have never seen a more graceful record of strange, out of the world experiences, 
 or a more luminous art in the exposition of scientific details. We assume that the book 
 will be most prized by the present school of naturalists for its generalisations on species, 
 sex, climatal influences, &c, and we have heard especial stress laid on its illustrations 
 of the general adaptation of so many animal and vegetable forms to the conditions of a 
 purely arboreal life ; but we rest content with the power of description of detached 
 phenomena to assign the book a high status in a purely literary sense as well. It imparts 
 the fascination which the great river and great forest exercised on the writer himself, 
 and makes the reader his absorbed companion to the end. 
 
 " The merit of the illustrations throughout the book is one of its greatest charms, due 
 principally to that gifted pencil which is confessedly such a great advantage enjoyed by 
 the naturalists of our own day, as compared with the illustrations provided for their 
 predecessors. But the skill with which the narrative itself is framed, if it does not render 
 it independent of such assistance, itself leaves the effect of a series of pictures on the 
 reader's memory." — Times, Sept. 24, 1863. 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED TO HIS CLERGY, 
 
 AT HIS VISITATION, 1863 ; TO WHICH IS ADDED, A SERMON PREACHED ON 
 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 BY HENRY LORD BISHOP OF EXETER. 
 8vo. Is. 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS, 
 
 BART., G.C.B., &c. 
 
 FROM HIS NOTES, CONVERSATIONS, AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 BY S. W. FULLOM. 
 
 With Portrait. Svo. 15». 
 
MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS, 
 
 FKOM THE EARLIEST PERIOD, CONTINUED TO MODERN TIMES. 
 
 BY HENRY HART MILMAN, D.D., 
 
 Dean of St. Paul's. 
 
 Third Edition, revised, and enlarged. With a New Preface. 
 3 Vols. Svo. 36s. 
 
 LISPINGS FROM LOW LATITUDES; 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN EGYPT. 
 By the Hon. IMPULSIA GUSHINGTON. 
 
 EDITED BY LORD DUFFERIN. 
 With 24 Large Plates. 4to. 21s. 
 
 THE WAKS OF THE 18™ & 19™ CENTDEIES, 
 
 1700-1815. 
 
 INCLUDING THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 
 
 BY LIEUT.-GEN. THE HON. SIR EDWARD OUST, D.C.L 
 
 Maps. Vols. Fcap. Svo. 5s. each. 
 
 "The great merit of General Gust's ' Annals ' are the accuracy and impartiality with 
 which they are written. The spirit of the partisan is entirely absent from his pages, 
 he renders to all the merit which he believes to be their due, neither forbearing to 
 praise his foe, nor shrinking if the need exist from visiting censure on his friend. 
 Unlike M. Thiers, who in his military histories has only one object in view, to exalt 
 his nation at the expense of all others, Sir Edward Oust never loses an opportunity of 
 commending a masterly movement, a gallant action, or a deed of personal daring, though 
 the subject of his commendation be the enemy ; while on the other hand he freely 
 expresses his opinion where he perceives an error committed by even the greatest of his 
 countrymen." — Examiner. 
 
 JAPAN AND CHINA. 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF JOURNEYS TO YEDO AND PEKIN; 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF THE NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, 
 TRADE, AND OTHER THINGS MET WITH BY THE WAY. 
 
 BY ROBERT FORTUNE 
 
 Author o I" Three Visits to China. 
 
 With Map and Illustrations. Svo. 16s. 
 
10 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 MISCELLANIES. 
 
 COLLECTED AND EDITED BY EARL STANHOPE. 
 
 Second Edition. With some Supplementary Letters. Post 8vo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 * # * The Supplementary Letters may be obtained separately. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EACES OF THE OLD WOELD. 
 
 DESIGNED AS A MANUAL OF ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 BY CHARLES L. BRACE. 
 
 Post 8vo. 9s. 
 
 REMAINS OF ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. 
 
 WITH PREFACE AND MEMOIR. 
 TJiird Edition. With Fortrait. Fcap. Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 AIDS TO FAITH. 
 
 A SERIES OF THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS BY THE FOLLOWING WRITERS: 
 
 Rev. Canon Hakold Browne. Ret. Dr. M c Caul. 
 
 Rev. F. C. Cook, M.A. Rev. Professor Mansel. 
 
 Bishop op Gloucester and Bristol. Rev. Professor Rawlinsor. 
 
 Bishop of Killaloe. The Archbishop of York. 
 
 EDITED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. 
 Svo. 9s. 
 
 THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1862. 
 
 A CRITICAL HISTORY OF FREE THOUGHT IN REFERENCE TO THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 BY REV. ADAM STOREY FARRAR, M.A., 
 Michel Fellow of Queen's Coll., Oxford. 
 
 Svo. 16s. 
 
 PALERMO AND NAPLES IN 1859-61. 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF VICTOR EMMANUEL, FRANCIS II., AND GARIBALDI. 
 
 BY ADMIRAL SIR RODNEY MUNDY, R.N., K.C.B. 
 
 With Frontispiece. Post Svo. 12s. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. II 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. SIB ROBERT WILSON. 
 
 FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS, JOURNALS, NARRATIVES, 
 CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 
 
 Containing an Account of his Birth, Parentage, Early Life, Entrance into Army, Various 
 Campaigns, Diplomatic Services, &c, down to the Peace of Tilsit. 
 
 Edited by his Nephew and Son-in-Law, 
 
 REV. HERBERT RANDOLPH, M.A. 
 
 Portrait. 2 Vols. 8vo. 26s. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 TAETAE STEPPES AND THEIE INHABITANTS. 
 
 CHIEFLY EXTRACTED FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO FRIENDS. 
 
 BY MRS. ATKINSON. 
 
 With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 12s. 
 
 THE GEEAT BIVEE OF CHINA: 
 
 A NARRATIVE OP AN EXPEDITION SENT TO EXPLORE THE UPPER 
 WATERS OF THE YANG-TSZE. 
 
 BY CAPTAIN T. W. BLAK1STON, R.A. 
 
 With Maps and Illustrations. 8vo. 18s. 
 
 THE MESSIAH. 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE, TRAVELS, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND 
 ASCENSION OF OUR LORD. 
 
 BY A LAYMAN, 
 Author of the "Life of Bishop Ken." 
 
 With Map. 8vo. 18s. 
 
 BBITISH COLUMBIA AND VANCOUVER'S 
 ISLAND. 
 
 THEIR FORESTS, RIVERS, COASTS, GOLD FIELDS, AND RESOURCES 
 FOR COLONISATION. 
 
 FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION DURING A FOUR YEARS' RESIDENCE. 
 
 BY COMMANDER MAYNE, R.N. 
 
 With M.ip and Illustrations. 8vo. 16s. 
 
12 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE, 1641; 
 
 WITH AN ESSAY ON ENGLISH FREEDOM UNDER PLANTAGENET AND 
 TUDOR SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 BY JOHN FORSTER, 
 
 Author of " Arrest of the Five Members by Charles I. " ; " Biographical Essays," &c. 
 
 Second Edition, revised. Post 8vo. 12s. 
 
 TEAVELS IN PERU AND INDIA. 
 
 FOR THE PURPOSE OF COLLECTING CINCHONA PLANTS AND INTRODUCING 
 THE CULTURE OF BARK INTO INDIA. 
 
 BY CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM. 
 
 With Map and Illustrations. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 LIVES OF THE STEPHENSONS. 
 
 FORMING A THIRD VOLUME OF "LIVES OF BRITISH ENGINEERS. 
 BY SAMUEL SMILES. 
 With Portraits and Illustrations. 8vo. 21s. 
 
 VISITS TO THE RUINED CITIES OF ANCIENT 
 NUMIDIA AND CARTHAGINIA. 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF ARAB LIFE. 
 
 BY NATHAN DAVIS, F.R.G.S. 
 
 With Map and Illustrations. 8vo. 14s. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS OF GONGORA. 
 
 TRANSLATED, WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 TIMES OF PHILIP III. AND IV. OF SPAIN. 
 
 BY ARCHDEACON CHURTON. 
 With Portrait. 2 Vols. Small Svo. 15s. 
 
 THE STORY OF LORD BACON'S LIFE. 
 
 BY W. HEPWORTH DIXON. 
 With Portrait and Vignette. Pos t8vo. 7s. 6c?. 
 
MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 13 
 
 IECTUEES ON THE JEWISH CHUECH. 
 
 FIRST PART— ABRAHAM TO SAMUEL. 
 
 BY REV. A. P. STANLEY, D.D., 
 
 Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, and Canon of Christchnrch, Oxford. 
 
 Second Edition. With Plans. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 THE TAEPING REBELLION; 
 
 ITS RISE AND PROGRESS, FROM DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION 
 COLLECTED IN CHINA. 
 
 BY COMMANDER LINDESAY BRINE, R.N. 
 
 With Plans. Post Svo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 SECULAEIA; 
 
 OR, SURVEYS ON THE MAIN STREAM OF HISTORY. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 1. Ancient and Modern Revolutions. 
 
 2. Revivalists. 
 
 3. The Medieval Castle. 
 
 4. The Medieval Borough. 
 
 5. The Coming of the Armada. 
 
 7. The New England Theocracy. 
 
 8. Preparatives of theAmericanRevolt. 
 
 9. The Revolution of 168S and its His- 
 
 torian. [Worship. 
 
 10. The Hohenzollern Stage of Hero- 
 
 6. Alternative of 1640-41 — Old or New i 11. Absolutism in Extremis. 
 
 England? [12. Revolutions in Progress and Prospect. 
 
 BY SAMUEL LUCAS, MA. 
 
 8vo. 12s. 
 
 MEMOIK OF BISHOP BLOMFIELD, D.D,, 
 
 WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 BY REV. ALFRED BLOMFIELD, M.A., 
 Incumbent of St. Philip's, Stepney. 
 
 With Portrait. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 18s. 
 
 WILD WALES. 
 
 ITS PEOPLE,— LANGUAGE,— AND SCENERY. 
 
 BY GEORGE BORROW, 
 
 Author of " The Bible in Spain," " The Gipsies in Spain," &c. 
 
 3 Vols. Post Svo. 30s. 
 
14 
 
 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, FROM GEOLOGICAL 
 EVIDENCES ; 
 
 WITH REMARKS ON THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY 
 VARIATION. 
 
 BY SIR CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S., 
 
 Author of "Principles of Geology," " Elements of Geology," &c, &c. 
 
 Second Edition. With Illustrations. 8vo. 14s. 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
 ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 New Series. Vol. II. 
 
 CONTENTS ! 
 
 Connexion between Ethnology and Physi- 
 cal. Geography. By John Crawfurd. 
 
 Wild Tribes of the North-West Coast of 
 Borneo. By the Bishop of Labuan. 
 
 Osteology and Dentition of the Aborigines 
 of the Andaman Islands. By Prof. Owen. 
 
 Ethno-Climatologv. By James Hunt. 
 
 Numerals as Evidence of the Progress of 
 Civilization. By John Crawfurd. 
 
 Idol Human Head of the JIvaro Indians of 
 Ecuador. By William Bollaert. 
 
 Shell-Mounds of Province Wellesley, in 
 the Malay Peninsula. By G. W. Earl. 
 
 Human Crania and Bones, preserved iu a 
 Crypt at Hythe. By Robert Knox, M.D. 
 
 Ancient Indian Tombs of ChiriquI in Vera- 
 guas. By William Bollaert. 
 
 Stone Celts from ChiriquI. By C. C. Blake. 
 
 Antiquity of Man from the Evidence of 
 Language. By John Crawfurd. 
 
 Commixture of the Races ok Man as affec- 
 ting the Progress of Civilization. By 
 John Crawfurd. 
 
 Differences in Weight and Stature of Euro- 
 peans and some Natives of India. By John 
 Shortt. 
 
 Buddhism. By G. M. Taoore. 
 
 Cranial Characters ok the Peruvian Races 
 
 of Men. By C. C Blake. 
 Wild Tribes of the North-West Coast ok 
 
 Borneo. By Spencer St. John. 
 The Tribes of Northern Kurdistan. By 
 
 William Spottiswoodk. 
 On Colour as a Test of the Races of Man. 
 
 By John Crawfurd. 
 Ethnology of Egvpt. By R. S. Poole. 
 Human Remains found in the Shell-Mounds. 
 
 By Professor Huxley. 
 Human Remains from Mubkham, in the 
 
 Valley of the Trent, &c. By S. J. Mackie. 
 Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon. By 
 
 John Bailey. 
 Sierra Leone and its Inhabitants. By Robert 
 
 Clarke. 
 Human Remains found at Wroxeter. By 
 
 Thomas Wright. 
 Formation and Institution of the Caste 
 
 System — the Aryan Polity. By G. M. 
 
 Tagore. 
 Relation of Domesticated Animals to Civili- 
 zation. By John Crawfurd. 
 
 8vo. 12s. 
 
 PERSONALITIES OF THE FOREST OF DEAN; 
 
 being a relation of its successive officials, gentry, and commonalty, 
 Drawn from numerous sources, but chiefly from unpublished data and local information. 
 
 BY REV. H. G. NICHOLLS, M.A., 
 
 Perpetual Curate of Holy Trinity, Dean Forest, &c. 
 
 Post 8yo. 3s. Gd. 
 Uniform with Nicholls's " Historical Account of the Forest of Dean." 
 
MB. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 15 
 
 LECTUKES ON JURISPKUDENCE. 
 
 A CONTINUATION OF THE « PROVINCE OF JURISPRUDENCE DETERMINED." 
 
 BY THE LATE JOHN AUSTIN. 
 
 Now first published. 2 Vols. 8vo. 24s. 
 
 JUEISPEUDENCE. 
 
 BY CHARLES SPENCER MARCH PHILLIPPS. 
 Svo. 12s. 
 
 THE KNAPSACK BYEON. 
 
 A Complete Edition of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron, printed for the convenience of 
 travellers in a small but clear type. 
 
 Portrait and Index. Post 8vo. 6s. 
 
 DE. WM. SMITES IHPKOVED GEAMMAES. 
 
 1. THE STUDENT'S GREEK GRAMMAR. 
 
 FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES AND THE UPPER FORMS IN SCHOOLS. 
 BY PROFESSOR CURTIUS. 
 
 Post Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 2. THE STUDENT'S LATIN GRAMMAR. 
 
 FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES AND THE UPPER FORMS IN SCHOOLS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D. 
 Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 3. CURTIUS'S SMALLER GREEK GRAMMAR. 
 
 ABRIDGED FROM THE LARGER WORK, 
 
 FOR THE USE OF THE MIDDLE AND LOWER FORMS. 
 
 12mo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 4. DR. WM. SMITH'S SMALLER LATIN GRAMMAR. 
 
 ABRIDGED FROM THE LARGER WORK, 
 
 FOR THE USE OF THE MIDDLE AND LOWER FORMS. 
 
 12mo. 3s. 6d. 
 
16 ME. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 EE.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT'S 
 PRINCIPAL SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION, GIVING SOME OUTLINES OF HIS CHARACTER. 
 With Portrait. 8vo. 10s. M. 
 
 SERMONS IN THE EAST, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES DURING HIS TOUR. 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF SOME OF THE LOCALITIES VISITED. 
 
 BY REV. A. P. STANLEY, D.D., 
 
 Deputy-Clerk of the Closet and Honorary Chaplain to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 Third Edition. 8vo. 9s. 
 
 DISCOURSES ON THE WORD OF GOD AND 
 THE GROUND OF FAITH. 
 
 BY ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL TAIT, D.D., 
 
 Lord Bishop of London. 
 
 8vo. 2s. Qd. 
 
 LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS MS. PAPERS. 
 
 BY EARL STANHOPE, 
 Author of the " History of England from the Peace of Utrecht." 
 
 Second Edition, revised. With Portraits. 4 Vols. Post 8vo. 42s. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE MODERN STYLES OF 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 BY JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S., F.R.A.S. 
 
 With 312 Illustrations. 8vo. 31s. 6d. 
 Uniform with Fergusson's "Handbook of Architecture." 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, W111TEFRIARS. 
 
finceton Theological ^e™>«-. f 
 
 I III I III I II din iiii iiiiTf PWr Llbrar y 
 
 1 1012 01131 1 
 
 463