LIBRARY j'i;iyoiJTVJ\\ N. J. iSo. Ca8(\ ^ _ , No. Book,. 3^ 18(;0 The John >!. Krcbs l>onatioii. BRIEF TREATISE CANON AND INTERPRETATION HOLY SCRIPTURES: FOR THE SPECIAL BENEFIT OF JUNIOR THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS: BUT INTENDED ALSO FOR PRIVATE CHRISTIANS LN GENERAL. By ALEX. McCLELLAND, PROFESaOB OF BIBLICAL LITEEATUEE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMTNART AT NEW BRUNSWICK. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, No. 530 BROADWAY. 18G0. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1S60, by ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of tlie United States, for the Southern District of New York. EDWARD O. JENKINS, ^printer Sc Stcrfotnprr, No. 26 Frankfort Street. CONTENTS. Preface ^. ...-.-- 7 Introduction __^-----11 PART I. GENUINENfiSS AND CANONICAL AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIP- TURES. CHAPTER I, G-enuineness and Canonical Authority of the New Testa- ment, ----------39 CHAPTER II. Genuineness and Canonical Authority of the Old Testament, 75 PART II. HEEMENEUTICS, OR THE INTERPRETATION OP SCRIPTURE" Definitions --»-->--- 119 AJAXIM I. The object of intefpretation is to give the precise thoughts which the sacred writer intended to express - » - 121 4 CONTENTS. MAXIM n. The method of interpreting Scripture must be the same which we employ in explaining any other book - - 127 . MAXIM III. The sense of Scrij^ture is (in general) one ; in other words, we are not to assign many meanings to a passage - - 130 MAXIM IV. The interpretation of Scripture requires suitable preparation, 134 SPECIAL RULES. RTTLE I, Carefully investigate what is called the " Usus Loquendi ;" or the meaning which custom and common usage attach to expressions ----__-_ 143 RULE II. Examine the parallel passages ------ 151 RULE III. The consideration of the Author's scope greatly facilitates interpretation - - - - - - - -162 RULE IV. Examine the context - - - - - - -168 RULE V. We must know the character, age, sect, and other peculiari- ties of the writer - - - - -.- - - 182 CONTENTS. RULE VI. Let there be a constant appeal to the tribunal of common sense --------- RULE vir. 195 Study attentively the tropes and figures of the Sacred Scrip- tures 210 RULE VIII. Attend to Hebrew and Hebraistic idioms - - - - 251 RULE IX. Much of Scripture being Prophetical, we should acquaint ourselves with the nature and laws of that kind of com- position ---__-___ 263 AUow no interpretation that will cast a shade of doubt over the perfect purity of our Lord's teachings, or those of his Apostles 298 We must endeavor to obtain reasonable certainty, that the printed text gives the true reading of our book ; and for this purpose must study and apply the art of Criticism - 320 PREFACE The following work was drawn up with exclusive reference to the wants of the Junion Class in the The- ological Seminary with which the author is connected, and was intended as a general introduction to the sub- ject of which it treats. His design in publishing it is, to spare the young gentlemen some weary hours in writ- ing imperfect and erroneous transcripts, while he thinks that it may be useful to others in their situation. He has attempted to exhibit the subject he has un- dertaken to discuss, in a form so popular and devoid of technicality, that the student fresh from a literary institution can comprehend the whole in a few sittings, and make an immediate use of it in reading the Scrip- tures. Part I. treats of their genuineness and canonical au- thority. That some preparation of this kind is proper and necessary, before entering on the study of them, will not be questioned. Every man, when he takes up 8 PREFACE. a volume, should know with some degree of certainty what it is, by whom written, and with what measure of authority it addresses him. If this be true generally, how especially important in reference to a volume making such lofty claims as the Old and New Testa- ments ! Our discussion of the subject is necessarily brief, but it will furnish the student with useful general ideas, on which he may at a future time build a more complete and extensive edifice. On one point we may be thouglit needlessly diffuse, viz., the allegation of testimonies. But it was desirable to make a full and fair impression on the mind ; and this could only be done, by spreading before it a considerable mass of authorities, in the very words of tlie writers. This has unavoidably given a dry and unpopular cast to the discussion : but we did not undertake to write a novel. Part II. contains principles and rules of interpreta- tion. We have here also aimed at brevity and con- densation ; but have not forgotten the necessity of guarding against obscurity, by appropriate illustrations. Young minds are not successfully addressed by dry apothegms and abstractions. Gases must be adduced, to give the lessons imparted, hue and coloring, and the form of composition should be that of continued PREFACE. 9 argument, both to satisfy the understanding and im- press the memory. AVhether a happy selection of ex- amples has been made, others must pronounce — not the author : they are, for the most part, such as occurred at the time of writing. Witli regard to the original- ity of the work, lofty pretensions to new discovery on so beaten a topic as the meaning of Scripture, would be extremely silly, and prove tliat the work is, in re- ality, worthless. Yet the intelligent reader will per- ceive, that I endeavor to do my own thinking on the different points — asking for the old paths, without sur- rendering private judgment, or anxiously keeping my wheel in another man's rut. I have only to add, that there are scarcely three pages in the whole volume so exclusively addressed to theological students, that the unlearned reader can de- rive no advantage from them. It is hoped, therefore, that private Christians will not find their money thrown away in purchasing it. To them as well as to the ministry, our blessed Lord addresses the command, " Search the Scriptures ;" and the manner of their per- forming the duty, will be a solemn item in the account which they must render. The first edition of this work was exhausted long 2 10 PREFACE. before the author determined on publishing the second. But he found so much relief by the use of it, from the intolerable drudgery connected with imparting orally to young men elementary information, that its contin- ued use became almost necessary. The present edition is greatly enlarged. But our worthy publisher assures us that he will not greatly enlarge the price. INTRODUCTION. We are about to exhibit, in brief compass, evidence of the canonical authority of Holy Scripture, and rules by which the Christian stu- dent should be guided in the study of its con- tents. Before entering on the discussion, we are desirous of saying a few words on the deep responsibility which those whom we specially address are under, in relation to this matter. Mere rules, however clearly laid down and faith- fully written on the tablets of memory, will be of little avail, unless accompanied with earnest, vigorous, and untiring labor in reducing them to practice. Allow us, then, young brethren, to speak on this point with frankness and Chris- tian affection. As candidates for the sacred office, you have a duty to perform to the word of God, which requires the devotion of your best faculties, the consecration of all your time, 12 INTRODUCTION. and a fixedness of purpose which nothing can relax. If yon doubt it, look at the nature of that ojjice ! Perhaps Christianity is in nothing more strik- ingly distinguished from other religions, tlian in the function and duties assigned to its ministers. Tlie priests of heathenism never dared to come out among the people as simple promulgers of truth. Indeed, they could not well give what was not in their possession, and this they knew. Not a philosopher of the porch or academy laughed more heartily than themselves, at tlie ridiculous impostures they were daily practising on their votaries ! What their system wanted in solidity, however, they made up in form, and if it could not speak to the understanding, it should at least dazzle the senses, and captivate tlie imagination. Hence those magnificent struc- tures, whose broken fragments are still the world's admiration, in whose sacred shrines were encased the wonderful achievements of statuary . — the all but breathing gods of stone, which modern virtuosos still worship with little short of heathen idolatry. Hence the expensive sac- INTRODUCTION. 13 rificial rites by which these marble gods were propitiated, the pompous festivals and proces- sions, the magnificent exhibitions of poetry, dance, and song, which in their origin were purely religious, and never entirely lost the character of worship rendered to the Deity. Hence the famous mysteries, in the celebration of which everything was combined to awe, to fascinate, to bind in the chains of an abject su- perstition, the man who yielded himself to their bewitchments. But far different is the spell which our holy religion of light and love casts on the human faculties ! Prejudice itself cannot deny, that whether its principles be true or false, they be- long to a system magnificently intellectual. Far, indeed, are we from supposing that its exclusive aim is to rectify speculative error : its astonish- ing power over the heart, is a fact conceded by alL But we mean to say, that this control it exercises through the previous mastery it has obtained over the understanding, the conscience, the unsophisticated sense of right and wrong. It calls to deep thoughts, grave discourse, soul- 14 INTRODUCTION. stirring contemplations. Tlie themes which it brings before the mind are so magnificent, and enchained with infinity itself, that the sublimest intellect is lost before it has entered on their investigation ; and yet so congenial to reason, that what we do comprehend apj^ear almost self-e^ddent propositions. It tells concerning a pure Almighty Spirit, who, by a simple act of will, called into being the heavens and the earth. It imparts the most interesting details concerning his providential government, informs ns of our j)rimitive condi- tion, and gives the most simple and beautiful solution of the great problem which has con- founded the acutest minds, '^ Whence come evils upon men ?" It tells us when and where the first notice was given of that plan of mercy, in- to which angels are looking v/ith growing won- der and delight. It relates with accuracy the preparatory measures for its execution, unfold- ing his mysterious dealings for more than a thou- sand years with that singular people whom he had selected to be the depository of prophecy and promise, till the advent of him in whom INTRODUCTION. 15 all families of the earth should be blessed. Thus far we are only in the holy place of the temple : and now the veil is rent in twain, which concealed the glories of the inner house, allow- ing us to behold the true ark and the living personal Shechinah^ " God manifested in the flesh ;" who, after he had purged our sins, as- cended on high, and sat down at the right hand of the heavenly majesty ! In exact correspondence with so thoughtful and suggestive a religion, is the work of its offi- cial minister. He is not a master of ceremonies, presiding over a splendid ritual which fills the eye, but leaves an aching void in the heart. He is, by divine institution, a teacher ; and in the simple, naked grandeur of this character, he stands before the people. A volume has been put into his hands, of rich and various contents, nay, absolutely teeming with matter; and at the peril of his soul he must spread it out in its whole length and breadth before his hearers. The princij^le on which he must act is this sim- ple and obvious one, and there is nothing in his commission which he may deliberately overlook. 16 INTRODUCTION. He is not at liberty here. Some parts of duty may perhaps he omitted without subjecting him to the brand of gross unfaithfulness. But if he neglect to expound the sacred volume, if he show no anxiety to foi'm among his people hab- its of carefully reading and in^vardly digesting it, he may well tremble at the thought of ren- derino; an account. Labor, then — labor is heaven's first law of j)reparation for the gospel ministry. We have seen that the Bible, though a popular, and in many respects an easy book, presents serious difiiculties to him who would become master of its treasures. Both its great divisions are writ- ten in languages which have long ceased to be vernacular. The people who spoke them were distinguished by remarkable peculiarities of o]3inion, habits, laws, which influenced greatly their modes of expression. Besides, therefore, possessing a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, one must be well acquainted with Jewish and classical antiquities, including chronology, geog- raphy, civil, and religious history. Yet even this is but preliminary. Now comes the actual INTRODUCTION. l7 tuof : the readins: of verse after verse, with the accurate settling of every philological question that arises, by aid of the dictionary and gram- mar ; the examining of scope, context, parallelism, idiom, and tropical diction ; the comparing our own results with those of some judicious com- mentator ; and the careful gathering up of the great truths, whether doctrinal or practical, con- tained in every paragraph. These are the gymnastics by which the young Christian ath- lete learns to endure hardness, and becomes a skilful and gallant soldier in the service of his master ! Do you complain of the arrangement ? Then ask the Lord Jesus Christ why he or- dained it ; why it was not enough to tread the " dolorous way" in his own person, without im- posing vigils and self-denials on his followers. Tell him plainly, that while you like his wages, you dislike the labor ; and wish to share his kingdom without companionship in his patience and tribulation. Does your cheek mantle with shame at the suggestion ? Then be silent, young man — and to your work ! ! It is quite honor 2* 18 INTRODUCTION. enough for the disciple to be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. But some one asks, in a tone half apologetical, whether, after all, much of the trouble we have spoken of may not be spared. Are we not blessed with '' king James' admirable translation of the Bible," and with most judicious commen- tators, in whom are reposited as much criticism and literary information as are necessary to a right understanding it ? Why, as the fountain is so difficult of access, not content ourselves with these delectable pipes at our very door? We confess, that language like this, when heard, (as it sometimes is,) ruffles our good-humor. God, in his infinite kindness to men, has pre- served for them an ample revelation of his will, by a series of dispensations falling little short of miracle. He has set apart an order of men to be its official exj)ounders, and the church is generously sustaining the institution by its mu- nificent provision for the gratuitous education of candidates in all stages of their progress, and, when they have entered on their work, by re- lieving them from every worldly care and avo- INTRODUCTION. 19 cation, that tliey may give themselves wholly to it, and their profiting may appear to all men. Yet the question is seriously asked, whether a practical acquaintance with these lively oracles in their proper dialects, should be anxiously cultivated by the Christian minister ! ! We blush to think in how many respects the children of the world are "wiser than the children of light. The merchant's clerk, if his interest point that way, will sit down and master French, Spanish, and German, without heaving a sigh. The gentleman who intends to travel a few years in the East, grudges no pains to make himself acquainted with Turkish, Arabic, or Lingua Franca. Even the girl scarcely in her teens, wearied of thrumming on her guitar to the harsh strains of her native English, determines, and carries the purpose through in a way that might astonish many a grave student of the other sex, to achieve a conquest over the sweetly-flowing Italian. But the professed interpreter of God's holy word, the legate of the skies, is so as- tounded at the thought of learning effectively a pair of languages— than either of which a finer 20 INTRODUCTION. never vibrated on the human ear — that he prefers to live and die just able to spell the letters of his commission ! With regard to our English translation, much as we admire that noble monument of " English pure and undefiled," which will last probably as long as the world, we say to those who quote it in the present argument, that it is an exceed- ingly imperfect representation of the original. The venerable men who formed it were not profoundly versed in either Greek or Hebrew, though their attainments were eminent for the day in which they lived ; and accordingly, there are not a few instances in every page, where the sense is not injured merely, but entirely lost. Even where the signification of words is given properly, the transitive and connecting particles which show the relation of the different members of a thought, have secondary meanings, so en- tirely different from those of the corresponding particles in English, that a literal version is often nothing better than a mere travesty of the origi- nal. Take St. Paul for an example. It is quite impossible for a mere English reader to peruse INTRODUCTION. 21 his argumentative epistles, without feeling tempted to suspect that there may be a grain of truth in the profane remark of Dr. Priestly, that his premises are not always sound, nor his conclusions logical. His reverence for inspira- tion will not allow him to say so in express words. But if asked the question, he will ac- knowledge his great surprise at the little profit which he receives from the decidedly most in- tellectual writer of the Christian school. Now where, in this doubt and darkness, shall the interpreter go? To expositors? But ex- positors often differ ; and who shall decide when doctors disagree? The value of this class of authors to the unlearned reader, and to the learned also, if properly used, we are far from denying. But not one is to be absolutely trusted. "To none does the remark of Mr. Locke, that "every man has a secret flaw in his cranium, producing some extravagancy in opinion or ac- tion, which in that particular renders him fitter for Bedlam than ordinary conversation," apply with more force than to commentators. The best has not only faults, but frequently, under 22 INTRODUCTION. the influence of sectarian bias or mental idiosyn- cracy, falls into perfect absurdity. He only there- fore uses them with safety, who can compare them together, and exercise an eclectic judgment of his own. Pitiable, most pitiable, is the con- dition of that professed teacher of Christianity, the only source of illumination to whose dark- ened mind is the contradictory opinions of men — who has not the shadow of a reason for his preference of one above another, except that it is more agreeable to the Shibboleth of his sect ! Can a creature thus lame, blind, and shackled, the passive recipient of whatever the adopted lord of his understanding and conscience may choose to impose upon him, be called an author- itative (we grant the "authorized") expounder of divine truth ? Impossible ! and no one is more fully convinced of it than the man himself. He may not run to the house-top and proclaim it ; for this would greatly lower his estimation with the people, and probably something else. He may even join in the senseless clamor against a learned ministry. But he feels, nevertheless, that he labors under a dreadful incompetency : INTRODUCTION. 23 tliat he is a blind leader of the blind, right only by chance^ and without even enjoying the hap- piness of knowing it ; that the noblest part of him, his understanding, is prostrate before a miserable creature as blind perhaps as himself whom he often suspects, but always follows, with the servility of a dog, not daring to move a hand-breadth from his track. In a word, he cannot help despising himself, and takes refuge probably from the shame of his own thoughts, in the entire neglect of scriptural inquiries — • limiting his ambition to ringing peals from Sab- bath to Sabbath on a few topics of general ex- hortation ! These remarks may be thought more applica- ble to those already in the sacred office, than persons who are in a course of preparation. But it is not so. Though the evil is developed in the ministry, its birth-place and cradle are our seminaries of learning. Here those habits are formed, both for good and evil, which ]uould the character beyond the reach of change, except by the sovereign grace of God. We fear that they are often formed badlij ; and that many of 24 INTRODUCTION. our young candidates for the ministry need the application of a little stimulus to their reason and conscience. The general sincerity of their purjDose to serve God faithfully in the gospel of his Son, we do not intend here to question. But that they are far from being awake to the necessity of vigorous and untiring effort in making biblical prepara- tion for their work, is too evident. They entered the Theological seminary, perhaps, full of life and ardor. But, alas ! in one short month a chilling frost came over them, nipping the ten- der buds of promise, and infusing a deadly tor- por through all their faculties. They became fatigued — alarmed — and are evidently disap- pointed men. They seem to have expected, that after passing through the strait gate of conver- sion, they should be put on a road strewed with flowers, bordered with groves of citron — and couches of ease at every turn, inviting the trav- eller to sweet repose. 'Tis hard, they think — passing hard, that gentlemen of talent and piety, so devoted to the great work of converting sin- ners, that if the church permitted it they would INTRODUCTION. 25 gladly mount tlie pulpit at once, should be treated almost as harshly as a galley-slave at the oar ; condemned to disinter a thousand He- brew roots, analyze a legion of Hellenistic idi- oms, pore over Latin, Greek, Oriental Antiqui- ties ; and be told that when all this is accom- plished, preparation for their ^vork may be con- sidered fairly begun ! The eifect of such reflections is apparent. They have become listless, inert, melancholy. Study does not agree wath their constitution, produc- ing dyspepsia, palpitations of the heart, " incip- ient bronchitis," and a determination of blood to the head. A hundred times in the day they exclaim, What a weariness is it ! and gladly seek relief in dull vacuity of thought, idle miscella- neous reading, or talking j)retty nothings in a lady's parlor. Perhaps, to make time pass less heavily, they offer their preaching services to a neighboring prayer-meeting, where the plaudits received give precious omen of more extensive triumphs, and prove that genius like theirs may safely despise the uncouth adornments of Greek and Hebrew. Many of them deem the irksome 26 INTRODUCTION. season of probation an admirable time for secur- ing that best of earthly blessings — a good wife; and thus, a business in which the wisest man is apt to play the fool, they contrive to despatch, at the period when every fiiculty, every affection of their being, should be engrossed by the one great object which has received their consecra- tion ! This impatience of labor, this morbid de- sire to engage in an enterprise without submit- ting to wholesome j)reparatory discipline, this voluptuous effeminacy of character, is a blight and a curse on all our seminaries of learnins:.* All are not thus. We attest it with pleasure, and even fully believe, tliat could a census be taken, the class described above would be found * Yet the evil is attributable far more to our literary institu- tions than to the young men themselves. The truth is, they have had no opportunity of obtaining suitable preparation, or forming proper habits : Ave speak at present of the study of lan- guages. They are sent to schools w^hose reputation has been estabUshed by the magical rapidity with which they turn out finished scholars to the various colleges in their neighborhood ; and when in college, they admirably succeed in losing the scanty modicum which they acquired in school. The writer has heard scores of ingenuous youth confess with bitter regret, that their whole course in Alma Mater was a regular business of forgetting the little Greek they had previously acquired. INTRODUCTION. 27 in a decided minority. There are many, how- ever, who cherish an honest wish and purpose to do their duty, yet are not a little daunted by the prospect before them. It seems to stretch out into immensity! Is adequate preparation, they ask, feasible ? Are they capable of attaining by conscientious exertion, such a real acquaint- ance with the languages and literature of Scrip- ture, that on their entering the ministry and ;ip- plying to the work of exposition, the painful thought will not obtrude, that they have been laboring to no valuable purpose? Assuming that those who put the question commence their theological course possessing that amount of learninor which ouo^ht to be obtained in a liter- ary college, we answer, Yes ! With the ordi- nary blessing of Him whose you are, and whom you serve, it depends entirely on yourselves. TVe do not affect to conceal the difficulties which are in the way. The elementary exercises of learn- ing the grammar and vocabulary of a strange language, of impressing on the memory the gen- ders, cases, and other accidents of nouns, of hunting verbs through all the mazes of conjuga- 28 INTRODUCTION. tion, we admit, were not exactly the form in whicli Satan presented tlie temptation to aspire after knowledge in Paradise. But what tlien ? Would, you expect you':!g men to be placed above the universal law of heaven, that every- thing truly valuable is purchased by strenuous exertion ? Far however be the thought, that Preparation is in all its stages a painful drudgery. Only let the student sit down, and make a fair trial ; he will be astonished to find how soon light arises out of darkness, and the impediments which seemed insurmountable disappear, until his path becomes agreeable, and even delightful. The forms of words, with their signification, gradu- ally rivet themselves in his memory, so that he can recall them with ease and pleasure. His dictionary enjoys longer intervals of rest ; the beauties of thought and expression begin to show themselves, like modest daisies in spring ; — and what a blessed rapture pours its tide through his soul, when he discovers that he can draw the water of salvation directly from the limpid fountain, and with his own hand pluck INTRODUCTION. 29 tlie healing leaves from the tree of life ! Then his work goes on pleasantly indeed ! A field of delightful employment stretches before him— a garden of the Lord, lovelier than Eden ever was, — which he cultivates without pain, whose fruit he gathers without fatigue, while the God who placed him there walks amid the foliage, and converses with him face to face. This is no fancy sketch. Those who have gone through the process will certify to the truth of every word, and say, that after a certain stage of progress, the critical reading of Holy Scripture became one of the most pleasant oc- cupations of their life. Witness the beautiful recital of the learned and pious Bishop Home of his state of mind, while preparing his Com- mentary on the Psalms. — " Could the author flatter himself," he says, " that any one would take half the pleasure in reading the following exposition, which he has taken in writing it, he would uot fear the loss of his labor. The em- ploymejit detached him from the bustle and hur- ry of life, the din of politics, and noise of folly. Vanity and vexation flew away for a season, care 30 INTRODUCTION. and disquietude came not near his dwelling. He arose fresli as the morning to his task, the silence of night invited him to pursue it, and he can truly say that food and rest were not preferred before it. Happier hours than those which have been spent on these meditations on the songs of Zion, he never expects to see in this world. Very pleasantly did they pass, and moved smoothly and swiftly along ; for when thus engaged he counted no time. They are gone, but have left a relish and fragrance on the mind, and the re- membrance of them is sweet." Will you not feel encouraged, young friends and brethren, by this experience of the venerable bishop, to enter on your work like men ? Away with despond- ency and forebodings of defeat. Away with that ingenuity which, bribed by indolence, sees monsters and lions in the way. Listen not to those evil spies, those lazy, worthless cowards, who would tell you that the good land which flows with milk and honey, is beset with giants, sons of Anak; that the Amalekites dwell in the south, Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites, in the mountains, the Canaanites by the sea ; INTRODUCTION. 31 and that you cannot go against this people ! Hear them not, but say, in the strength of the Lord and your own firm purpose, " Let us go up to possess it, for we are fully able to over- come them." You will not be uttering a vain boast. Victory is certain, and when it comes you will be more than recompensed for all your toils. Pardon us if we dwell a moment longer on this subject, and remind you what the recom- pense will be. Are you anxious that one day you may cover with confusion the bold infidel, who defies the armies of the living God, and by calm, convincing demonstrations, which shall come home to the honest understandings of men, show the groundlessness of his objections ? This you will be able to do, by displaying the truth, beauty, and moral dignity of that blessed vol- ume against which his violence is directed — in order to which, you miist have studied it. With- out study you mil scarcely be able to avert the baneful influence of scepticism from your own soul, much less build your hearers on their most holy faith. Do you wish to become vivid, in- 32 INTRODUCTION. teresting, various preachers, wlio make their hearers feel the commanding energy of truth, and whom they never tire of hearing, as every sermon brings forth new evidences of apostle- ship ? Study your Bible ! There you will find inexhaustible resources of pleasing, im- pressing, profiting. Prepare yourselves for ex- pounding the word of God from Sabbath to Sabbath. Prepare yourselves for bringing be- fore the people Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, to unfold its instructive histo- ries, analyze its charming parables, disentangle and develop its sublime reasonings. If such be the character of your exhibitions, we venture to promise you immunity against one sore evil under the sun — that of being waited on by a church session or consistory, in the second year of yoQr labors, and affectionately informed that there is no further call for your services. Do you wish to be eminently successful in winning souls to Christ ? Study the Book. This is the two-edged sword, that pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and INTRODUCTION. ^ 33 intents of the heart. Machinery has been in- vented which, worked by skilful hands, can furnish to order a greater number of nominal con- verts, manufactured in a given period ; but " the truth" alone makes children of God and heirs of immortality ! Have you regard to personal comfort and en- joyment? What an inexhaustible source of amusement — yes, amusement, high and holy as that of angels — will you possess, when you have acquired the taste, skill, and habit, of reading in its originals, the Holy Word. To this mount you will be able to retire at any moment, like the pious Home, from the cares and turmoils of life, and see more than the three disciples saw on the hallowed summit of Tabor. When afflicted and almost repining at the ways of heaven, let your old Hebrew Bible introduce you to the bedside of venerable Job, w^ith whom, and his friends, you may speculate on the mys- teries of Providence, until, convicted of your folly, you join with him in his humble acknowl- edgment, "I have uttered what I understood not — things too wonderful, which I knew not !" 3 34 INTRODUCTION. Are you suffering under hypochondriac depres- sion ? you may order the sweet singer of Israel to strike his lyre: If its music does not expel the evil spirit, as it did from Saul, your case is indeed melancholy. But the study we recommend will be far more than an occasional solace. The prepara- tion of a series of expository remarks on an im- portant portion of Scrij^ture, which he knows his people look for on the ensuing Sabbath, fur- nishes to a pastor a delightful regular employ- ment, that rouses the faculties, gives elasticity to every muscle, fillips the blood, and is more conducive to health than all the medicine of the dispensatory. We are not ignorant, that mental application is considered by many un- favorable to a good condition of the physical system, and that by this supposed fact they explain the meagre and hectic looks of clergy- men. Nothing is more al^surd. Look through the world, and you will find no class of men more vis^orous and lono--lived than active think- ers. The truth is, clergymen do not study enough. That they sit much, and are more sequestered INTRODUCTION. 35 from tlie hum and tumult of society than mem- bers of other professions, is fully granted. But sitting is not studying, nor are we willing to bestow this respectable name on the mechanical o]3eration of transposing a few stale thoughts, repeated a thousand times, on certain common- places of Didactic Theology. What the minis- try need, is an employment bringing them in contact with a succession of new as well as in- teresting objects, which will produce an agreea- ble tension of the faculties, never weaiying, or followed by reaction, because sustained by a constant and pleasing variety. Such you will find to be the regular study and exposition of sacred Scripture. It will do thee good like a medicine, and be " marrow to thy bones." In view of all these motives, we pray you, as a friend and brother, as one who every day looks back with regret to his own misimprove- ment of youthful privileges, to exert untiring diligence in biblical preparation for your work. Systems of human concoction have their use ; but they are of secondary importance. As such must you view them. You must ge^ close up to 36 INTRODUCTION. the pure crystal fountain, tliat issues from the heavenly throne. There you must dwell; thence must you di'aw for your own souls, and the souls of those committed to your charge. "Blessed is the servant who, when the Master comes, shall be found so doing." PART I. GENUINENESS AND CANONICAL AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. CHAPTEK I. CANOlSr OF THE ISTEW TESTAMENT. The divine Author of our religion, intending that it should be a perpetual blessing to the human race, among other provisions for accom- plishing his pm'pose, took care that it should be committed to writing. Had this not been done, the most fatal consequences would have ensued. It is absurd to suppose that oral tradition could preserve so great a number of doctrines and facts as Christianity is made up of, in their origi- nal integrity. They would have been lost, or dis2:uised and altered ; and nothino- but an inter- position like that which raised Lazarus from the grave, would have saved our holy and beautiful temple from being utterly desecrated, and per- haps (as the Catholic experiment has proved) made the cage of every hateful and unclean bird. It was therefore essential, that the great objects of faith should be recorded on enduring 40 CANON OF THE tablets, accessible to all mankind. The scat- tered rays of truth thus became collected into a focus, and religion received that fixed and un- changeable character which became a ]-evelation from God. To this, and this alone, it owes its continued existence. It survived the furious assaults of pagan Rome, which crushed the persons of its disciples, but was utterly foiled in the attempt to exterminate its writings. The Volume of vol- umes continued to circulate. It entered the hovel and the palace, it stole into the camp, it might be found stowed away under the senato- rial robe ; and history tells us, that long before the time of Constantine, while paganism sat enthroned without even thinking of a rival, it had forced its way into the imperial palace. It is this, too, which gives our religion that won- derful j^ower of reproduction^ by which it can emerge to light and liberty after ages of declen- sion. When the mighty man of Wirtemberg, with his friends and coadjutors, undertook to purify the cliurch from those corruptions which she had suffered so long, that the knowledge of NEW TESTAMENT. 41 a better state had passed away from the memory of man, all necessary to be done was the eman- cipation of the written word. The moment an appeal was made to its decisions, and men learned to compare them with the sad realities that sur- rounded them. Popery received a wound which, though not immediately fatal, doomed it to a lingering decay and certain death, when the purposes of God shall be completed. It is called by various names, — which we pass over, to consider that which more immediately concerns the present discussion. DEFINITION OF THE WOKDS "CANON AND a CANONICAL.' The word " Canon" is derived from the Greek xojj/wv, — which properly denotes the beam of a balance, and also a rule by which anything is tried and determined. At an early period it was employed to signify a catalogue of articles belonging to the church,— all questions of prop- erty being decided by an appeal to such cata- logues. Soon it became yet more restricted in its meaning, being applied almost exclusively 3* 42 CANON OF THE to a publicly approved catalogue of the books which were received by Christians as the pro- ductions of inspired men. " They fall into great absurdities," says Chrysostom, "who will not follow the Canon of Scripture, but trust to their own reasoning." " Only in the Canonical writ- ings," says Athanasius, ' ' is the instruction which blesses imparted ; they only are the fountains of saving knowledge." It will be proper to define, with a little more precision, the ideas attached by the Christian Fathers to this word, and the kind of writing to which it was aj)plied. In the first place, they required that a book be the production of an AjDostle, or Apostolic man. To Apostles only did our Lord promise the Spirit of revelation. As to Mark and Luke, who were not of the number, — the former was the kinsman and pupil of Peter, who communi- cated all the facts recorded in his Gospel. Luke was the friend and associate of Paul, who exer- cised over him an inspection like that which Peter exercised over Mark. They were therefore from the earliest period recognized as men " apos- NEW TESTAMENT. 43 tolical," and their works universally received as part of the Canon. The second distinction of a canonical book, was its being publicly read in the assemblies of the faithful. This was done in imitation of the Jews, whose synagogue worship mainly con- sisted in reciting portions of their Scriptures, to which they gave the name of " Paraschoth" and " Haphtaroth." The meanest Christian thus became acquainted with the great truths of his relio-ion. The names and number of the books became as familiar to all, as the names and num])er of the members of their families, and the strongest safeguard that can be imagined was provided against unauthentic productions. Indeed it seemed hardly possible under such circumstances, to impose a spurious composition. The third peculiarity of these writings was, their bifiding authority as a rule of faith and practice. This followed from the first, by neces- sary consequence: For if they were truly the productions of men to whom Christ had prom- ised the inspiring Spirit, they could not but ex- press the will of the divine Being, without any 44 CANON OF THE mixture of error. Accordingly, they were uni- versally appealed to as the fountains of all sav- ing truth. " Our assertions and discourses," says Origen, "are unworthy of credit. We must re- ceive the Scripture as witnesses." "In all doubtful cases," says Cyprian, "we must go to the fountain. If the truth has in any way been shaken, recur to the Gospels, and apostolic writ- ings." Even the Arians appealed to this touch- stone ; arguing against the phrases used by the Orthodox concerning the Trinity, that they were not in the Scriptures: and one of them thus addresses St. Augustine: "If you say what is reasonable, I must submit. If you allege anything from the divine Scripture, I must hear — but unscriptural expressions deserve no regard." These are the ideas comprehended in the word Canon, or Canonical writing ; the first of which is doubtless the ]3rimary and fundamen- tal one. Let the fact be established, that the books of the New Testament proceeded from inspired and apostolic men, and it is explained at once why they were publicly read in the NEW TESTAMENT. 45 churches, and regarded as the infallible rule of faith and practice. STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. These preliminaries being settled — the ques- tion fairly presents itself: Rave we solid grounds for believing that our hooks, as found in the com- mon English Testament, were written and pub- lished to the world eighteen himdred years ago by the venerated founders of Christianity to ivhom they are ascribed 1 or, were they fabricated at a later period, by some artful impostor ? We as- sert the first position, and deny the second. We say that there is an unbroken chain of evi- dence, commencing with contemporary writers, and extending to the present time — writers who enjoyed every opportunity of knowing the truth, and whose character for veracity is unimpeach- able, that our volume is the work of nine prim- itive disciples of Christ, and has been always received as the complete exponent of his system, whose decisions are final on every point. It is scarcely necessary to add to the state- ment, and yet it may prevent some confusion of 46 CANON OF THE • ideas, tliat our inquiry does not regard immedi- ately the credibility of the* document, or its divine inspiration. The persons whom we address are assumed to be. not infidels, but young Christian disciples ; who, entering on the study of a volume which professes to contain the principles of their faith, are desirous of knowing the grounds on which it rests its claim — of knowing, for instance, where it came from, by whom it was received, and at how early a period. Whether Christianity in its essential principles — viewed as a power, or germ of a new moral life-:;^came from God, we suppose to be settled ; and now the question comes up, which we desire to aid them in answering, whether there is anything in the 2:)arentage of this little volume, and the manner in which it has been received and treated in all ages, which entitles it to address believers in the system with com- manding authority as its interpreter. In a word, our argument goes to show, that if they acknowl- edge the divine mission of Jesus, tliis is their book. The evidence divides itself into the testimo- NEW TESTAMENT, 47 ny of Christians themselves, or, as some choose to express theoiselves, the " Chm*ch ;" which must be supposed to know with perfect accuracy what she received, from whom, and at what period: that of heretics and pagan infidels; and the internal marks of genuineness, so wonder- fully striking, that were the books drawn from the bottom of a river and exposed to view for the first time, a cultivated scholar would pro- nounce them, confidently, to be the work of their alleged authors. It would be quite impossible to discuss the whole of so rich a subject, in the few pages which we can devote to it. All proposed, there- fore, is, to furnish the reader with some useful information on the first, and principal topic, viz., The early and continued attestation of the Chris- tian church. The omission, however, can be jus- tified only by the necessity referred to ; for the testimony of heretics and infidels is exceedingly valuable. Beside the concessions of Ebionites and Gnostics of every hue, none of whom, with all their fantastic mutilations, denied the genu- ineness of the wi'itings, we have the concessions 48 CANON OF THE of heathen enemies, as bitter as any that ap- peared before the tribunal of Pilate — who, while they denied the truth of the New Testament, fully acknowledged its Apostolic origin. This precious confession runs through all their dis- courses, and it is a confession that more than atones for the mischief they wrought. It has changed their spiteful calumnies and curses into positive blessings, so that our divine religion, which commands us "in everything to give thanks," is enabled to illustrate, in the most re- markable way, its own precept, by thanking God for a Porphyry, a Julian, and a Celsus. The internal evidence, as we have already stated, is equally overwhelming. No volume in the world, of the same age, has half so much. No volume can advance such proof of its being writ- ten at the time and place alleged, and by the men whose names it bears — from its peculiar language, style, and mode of thinking on every subject; the minute circumstantiality of its nar- ratives ; the accuracy of its political, geographi- cal, and historical references; the air of truth and reality that pervades it ; and the number- NEW TESTAMENT. 49 less fine coincidences between its different and most widely separated parts — all found, on care- ful examination, to be in perfect harmony with each other, and yet, such as would never be thought of by a forger, though Satan himself were at his ell)ow. In short, it is inimitahle — resembling that fine, delicately -tinted paper, used for certain purposes, which is of such ex- quisite texture, that no skill, even of the man- ufacturer himself, can produce the like ; and the genuineness of which the practised eye can per- ceive at once, by simply holding it up to the sun. These, with their kindred topics, we waive for the reason mentioned, and proceed to our main object ; premising, that nothing moi'e must be looked for than a meagre specimen of the evi- dence. The quotations are extracted from the immense collection of the learned and accurate Lardner, with a few additions from his German continuators. 50 CANON OF THE TESTIMONIES,* &c. It is unnecessary to follow the subject below the fourth cen- tury, as the existence of our Canon at that time is perfectly established and indisputable. In stating the evidence, we take our position in the fourth century, and ascend to the first, herein differing from Dr. L. ; because it is more natural to proceed from what is certain to what is obscure, than in a contrary direction. The notices of the very early (Apostolical) fathers are so imper- fect, that they would make little impression by themselves ; but when the light of the following ages is reflected on them, they become a highly satisfactory part of the evidence. lY. CENTURY. COUNCIL OF NICE, A. D. 325. This famous Assembly is introduced here, not to give its testi- mony, but to acknowledge that it has none to give. The notion that the Nicene Synod fixed the Canon of Scripture, or in any way contributed to it by its deliberations and acts, is a pure fiction * There is a fact relative to the Canon, which readers should be acquainted with, before they enter on the examination of witnesses, that they may not experience a disagreeable shock. From very early times, a marked distinction was made in the Christian church, between those books which vfere universally received as genuine, and others on which opinion was divided, in consequence of their want- ing the clear, commanding evidence possessed by the former. They were not proscribed, nor positively branded with the name of Apocrypha, but their claim was doubted, on the ground that they were rarely quoted by the more ancient Fathers. The following books belong to this class : The epistles of James, and Jude, the 2d of Peter, the 2d and 3d of John, the epistle to the Hebrews, and Rev- elation. They were called the "Controverted" books {avTLKeyoiiEva,)\\\Q others beirg styled the " universally acknowledged" {ufioTioyovfieva) . That the hesita- tion felt concerning them was without solid reasons, seems probable from the fact that it gave way to a thorough investigation ; as no trace of tlie distinction is found after the fourth century. That it should exist before the scrutiny, was per- fectly natural, and proves the anxious care with which Christians guarded their sacred catalogues against impure mixtures. There is no reason, therefore, why we should feel uncomfortable at discovering in some of the testimonies quoted, what otherwise might be thought and called a "hiatus valde dcflendus." This very hiatus silences one of the worst calumnies of infidelity. NEW TESTAMENT. 51 which has found favor with some, because it seemed to counte- nance their theory, that we have received the Canon of Scripture from the Church ; and wliich infidels in their turn have seized upon to bolster up their favorite maxim, that our present cata- logue is not the work of candid investigation, but ecclesiastical enactment. There is not the least reason to believe that the subject ever came before the Council ; most certainly, it was never acted on. The universal reception of certain books and exclusion of others, was the result of honest conviction, founded on a careful examina- tion o'f what had been handed down from the wise of former times. Their genuineness was regarded as a historical fact, to be proved exactly as the genuineness of other documents; and so they did prove it, without fear of Synods and Synodical fulminations. The fact, that a majority of the witnesses were of the clerical order, is a mere circumstance, in no way affecting the nature of their testimony. They certify the universal reception, simply as individuals who have faithfully examined the subject ; and their certificate would be quite as valuable, if every one of them had belonged to the laity. Doubtless it would have been more so, as the charge could not be made in this case, of interested motives and combination. Those persons who talk of our receiving the Canon of Scrip- ture from the " church," in some mysterious way, as if the gen- uineness could not or ought not to be proved in the same manner with any other fact in history, seem to forget very strangely, that a most important part of the evidence is furnished by here- tics and heathen enemies, — by men, in short, whom the church disowns and abhors. It may seem paradoxical to some, but it is perfectly true, that if the Lord Jesus Christ had never instituted a visible community, called a " church," on the earth, but had left his religion to operate by the mere force of its principles on individual minds, the evidence for the genuineness and apostolic- ity of the New Testament would scarcely be in the least affected hy it. No less than ten Catalogues of the books of the New Testa- 52 CANON OF THE ment, by writers of this age, have come down to us ; all perfectly agreeing with our own, except that a few omit the Hebrews and Revelation. AUGUSTINE FLOURISHED A. D. 395. After enumerating the books of the Old Testament, he pro- ceeds thus : " Of the New, there are the four books of the gospel, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John ; fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul, — to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, to the Colossians, two to Timothy, to Titus, Philemon, the Hebrews ; two epistles of Peter, three of John, one of Jude, and one of James ; the Acts of the Apostles in one book ; and the Revela- tion of John in one book. In these books, they who fear God seek his will." "None can forbear observing," says Dr. Lardner, "how clean a catalogue here is of the books of the New Testament." ATHANASIUS, A. D. 326. " The books of the New Testament are these : the four Gos- pels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Then after them the Acts of the Apostles, and the seven epistles of the Apostles, called Catholic ; of James, one, Peter, two, John, three, Jude, one. Besides these, there are the fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul, the order of which is thus : the first, to the Romans, then, two to the Corinthians, that to the Galatians, the next, to the Ephesians, then, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, the epistle to the Hebrews, two to Timothy, to Titus one, the last to Philemon ; and again, the Revelation of John. These are the fountains of salvation, that he who thirsts may be satisfied with tlie oracles contained in them : in these alone the doctrine of religion is taught : let no man add to them or take anything from them." In his writings he quotes all our books. JEROME, A. D. 322. He names and describes all the writers of the New Testament. " The first are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the chariot of the NEW TESTAMENT. 53 Lord, and the true cherubim, who go wherever the Spirit leads them. The Apostle Paul writes to seven churches ; for the eighth, that of the Hebrews, by many is not reckoned among them. He likeAvise instructs Timothy and Titus, and intercedes with Philemon for a runaway servant. The Acts of the Apostles, another work of Luke the Physician, whose praise is in the Gos- pel, contain the history of the infancy of the church. The apos- tles James, Peter, John, Jude, write seven epistles, of few words, but full of sense : the Revelation of John has as many mysteries as words." Jerome published a Latin translation of the New Testament containing precisely our books. EUSEBIUS, A. D. 315. " It will be proper to enumerate here, in a summary way, the books of the New Testament which have been already men- tioned. And in the first place, are to be ranked the sacred four Gospels ; then, the Acts of the Apostles ; after that, the epistles of Paul. In the next place, that called the first epistle of John, and the [first] epistle of Peter are to be esteemed authentic. After these, is to be placed, if it be thought fit, the Eevelation of John, about which we shall observe the different opinions at a proper season. Of the controverted^ but yet Avell known or approved by the most, are that called the epistle of James, and that of Jude, and the second of Peter, and the second and third of John ; whether they are written by the evangelist, or another of the same name. Among the spurioKs, are to be placed the Acts of Paul, and the book entitled the Shepherd, and the Revela- tion of Peter : and besides these that called the epistle of Bar- nabas, and the book named the Doctrines of the Apostles. And moreover, as I said, the Revelation of John, if it seem meet, which some reject, others reckon among the books universally received." There is some obscurity in this statement which has given trouble to critics, but the essential facts are clearly stated. 54 CANON OF THE III. CENTURY. Two formal catalogues have come down to us. But Dr. Lard- ner quotes forty writers who give ample testimony to our present Canon. , CYPRIAN, A. D. 248. He mentions the four Gospels by the names of their authors, comparing them " to the four rivers of Paradise." By them the " Church is watered, and her plants are enabled to bear fruit." Dr. Lardner extracts from him at length quotations from Acts, Rom. I. and II. Cor. Gal Eph. Phil. Col Thess. Tim. Tit.— in short, — all Paul's epistles except the Hebrews. He also quotes 1st Peter arid 1st John, and the Revelation often. There is not in Cyprian one quotation from any apocryphal writer. VICTORINUS, A. D. 290. In his commentary on the Revelation, he speaks of the four Gospels thus — " The four living creatures (Rev. iv. 6,) are the four Gospels. These living creatures have different faces, Avhich have a meaning ; for the living creature like a lion, denotes Mark, in whom the voice of a lion roaring in the wilderness is heard : " A voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord."' Matthew, who has the resemblance of a man, shows the family of Mary, from whom Christ took flesh. Luke, who relates the priesthood of Zacharias offering sacrifice for the people, be- cause of the priesthood and the mention of the sacrifice, has the resemblance of a calf. The evangelist John, like an eagle with stretched-out wings mounting on high, speaks the Word of God.' Dr. Lardner shows that he must have read all Paul's epistles except the Hebrews, of which he makes no mention. On the Revelation, he wrote a Commentary. ORIGEN, A. D. 230. " As I have learned by tradition concerning the four Gospels, which alone are received without dispute hy the whole church of God under heaven. The first was written by Matthew, once a publi- lican, afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ. The second is that NEW TESTAMENT. 55 according to Mark, who wrote it as Peter dictated it to him. The third is that according to Luke, pubUslied for the sake of the Gentile converts. Lastly, that according to John. Paul did not write to all the churches he had taught ; and to those to which he did write, he sent only a few lines. Peter has left one epistle [universally] acknowledged. But let it be granted like- Avise that he wrote a second ; for it is doubted of. But what need I speak of John, who leaned upon the breast of Jesus, who has left us one Gospel. He wrote also the Revelation. He has also left an epistle of a very few lines. Grant also a second and a third ; for all do not allow these to be genuine." In another place he speaks thus : " Matthew sounds first with his priestly trumpet in his gospel; Mark also, and Luke, and John, sounded with their priestly trumpets. Peter likewise sounds aloud with the two trumpets of his epistles ; James also, and Jude. And John sounds again with his trumpet in his epis- tles, and the Revelation ; and Luke also once more, relating the actions of the apostles. Last of all comes Paul, and sounding with the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he threw down to the foundations the walls of Jericho, and all the engines of idolatry, and the schemes of the philosophers." Origen's quotations from the New Testament are so numerous that they form a volume. AN UNKNOWN WRITER QUOTED BY 5IURAT0RI IN HIS ITALIC ANTI- QUITIES." — 205. Who he Avas, is unknown. Many suppose him to be Caius, a distinguished writer who flourished at the close of the 2d cen- tury. Muratori has inserted in his work a Catalogue by this author of the New Testament books. Of its extreme antiquity there can be no doubt. It is certainly not later, (according to Hug,) than the-close of the second century. Being written by a member of the Roman Church, (evidently, however, from a Greek original,) the language is Latin, and somewhat barbarous. 56 CANON OF THE The text also is corrupt : but the main facts are clearly stated. It contains the four Gospels, thirteen epistles of Paul, (omitting the HebreAvs), Jude, two epistles of John, probably one of Peter, (though the text is here corrupt,) and the Eevelation. II. CENTURY. TERTULLIAN, A. D. 200. Of the Gospels, he says : " Vf e lay this down for a certain truth, that the evangelic Scriptures have for their authors the Apostles, to whom the work of publishing the Gospel was com- mitted by the Lord himself Among the apostles, John and Matthew teach us the faith : among apostolical men, Luke and Mark refresh it." This passage shows at once the number of the Gospels universally received, and the names of their authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Of the Epistles, he says : — " Let us then see what milk the Corinthians received from Paul ; to what rule the Galatians were reduced ; what the Philippians read ; what the Thessalonians, the Ephesians, and likewise what the Romans recite, who are near to us ; with whom both Peter and Paul left the Gospel, sealed with their blood. We have also churches which are the disciples of John ; for though Marcion rejects his Revelation, the succession of bishops traced np to the beginning will show it to have John for its author." Accordingly, in his writings he quotes largely from Rom. Cor. Eph. Gal. Col. Thess. Tim. Titus, 1 Peter, 1 John, Jude, and Revelation. There is a remarkble passage in his writings, that reads thus : — " Well, if you be willing to exercise your curiosity profitably in the business of your salvation, visit the apostolical churches, in which the very chairs of the apostles still preside ; in which their very authentic letters are recited, sounding forth the voice, and representing the countenance, of each one of them. Is Achaia near you ? You have Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have Thessalonica. If you can go to Asia, you have Ephesus. But if you are near to Italy you have Rome, from whence we may also be easily satisfied." NEW TESTAMENT. 57 What he means by the " authentic letters " of the Apostles, which he says have been deposited with the churches, is disputed. But it certainly establishes the fact, that correct copies, if not the originals, were laid up in the sacred libraries of the churches re- ferred to, and were open to examination. CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, A. D. 194. Dr. Lardner, after an elaljorate array of quotations by this Avriter from the New Testament, thus sums up his testimony. " He has expressly owned the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles, which he also ascribes to Luke. He owns likewise aU the foiirteen epistles of Paul except the epistle to Philemon. He has also quoted the first epistle of Peter, the 1st and 2d of John, Jude, and the Revelation." After an examination of his citations from various Apocryphal works, he adds — " On the whole, it appears there is no good reason to suppose, that Clement received as Scripture in the highest sense of the word, any writings besides the books of the New Testament now commonly received by us." The remark is important ; as Clemens is the only Father against whom the charge is made with any plausibility, of appealing to the authority of Apocryphal writers. IREN^US, A. D. 170. His testimony to the four Grospels is most explicit. " We have not received the knowledge of the way of our salvation by any others than those by whom the Gospel has been brought to us ; which Gospel they first preached, and afterwards by the will of God committed to writing ; that it might be for time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith. For after that our Lord rose from the dead, the apostles . . . received a perfect knowl- edge of all things. They then went forth to all the ends of the earth, declaring to men the blessing of heavenly peace, having all of them and every one alike, the Gospel of God. Matthew then, among the Jews, wrote a Gospel in their own language. 4 58 CANON OF THE Mark, also, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in writing, things that had been preached by Peter ; and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Grospel preached by him [Paul]. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, published a Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus in Asia. And he who does not assent to them de- spiseth, indeed, those who knew the mind of the Lord ; but he despiseth also Christ himself the Lord; and he despiseth like- wise the Father, and is self-condemned, resisting and opposing his own salvation." That he received all the epistles of Paul, is evinced by his nu- merous quotations from all of them except Pliilemon and the Hebrews, of which Dr. Lardner gives eighteen examples. " The same thing Paul has explained in the Romans ;" " This Paul manifestly shows in the epistle to the Corinthians :" " As the blessed Paul says in the epistle to the Ephesians," and other hke expressions continually occur in his writings. The Revelation he expressly ascribes to " John, the disciple of Christ." Dr. Lardner says his testimony is so strong and full, that he seems to put it beyond all question that it is the work of John the Apostle. JUSTIN MARTYR, A. D. 130. The writings of this eminent man, born not long after the death of the Apostles, and acquainted with their immediate disciples, — though few and small, are rich in references to the New Testa- ment. He seldom names the particular books. But in these early times, there were no controversies rendering it necessary. He often speaks of the Gospels as " Memoirs of Christ," and says, that " the Apostles composed them." In his writings there are references more or less clear (Dr. L. gives fifteen) to Acts, Rom. Cor. Gal. Eph. Phil. Col. Thess. Heb. Peter, and the Revela- tion, which last he expressly ascribes to the Apostle John. He also declares it to be a general practice, that " the Gospels are read at public worship in Christian assemblies every Lord's day as the time allows, and when the reader has ended, the President makes a discourse exhorting to the imitation of so NEW TESTAMENT. 59 excellent things." This is a striking fact, proving that so early as the beginning of the second century, they were acknowledged to be genuine, regarded with the highest esteem, and open to all the world. A similar testimony might have been quoted from TertuUian. " We come together," he says, " to recollect the Divine Scriptures. We nourish our faith, raise our hope, confirm our trust by the sacred word." OLD TRANSLATIONS BETWEEN 100 AND 200. It does not admit a doubt that the old Syriac version, which has come down to us in a sound condition, was composed at this early period. The more ancient copies want 2d Peter, 2d and 3d John, and probably James : and this circumstance probably fostered the doubts of the early fathers concerning these books. But with regard to all the others, it is complete. The old Italic versions, for they were many, have also come down more or less perfect. They were composed at the same period ; and the fact that Jerome, who in the fourth century digested them into one (the present Latin Vulgate) which contains precisely our books, says nothing of having added to the collection, proves satisfac- torily that it was the same with his own. I. CENTURY. APOSTOLIC FATHERS. We have now reached the age of the immediate disciples and contemporaries of the Apostles. If the evidence be not so full and overpowering as that of the following times, let it be con- sidered — 1st. That exceedingly little remains of the genuine writings of the Apostolical Fathers. The whole can be contained in a pamphlet of thirty pages. 2d. What we have is pious exhortation, that does not require appeals to authority. 3. The various books had not yet been so extensively circu- lated, as to make it certain that every Christian church was CANON OF THE acquainted with them. It required some time, therefore, to establish the custom of quoting them. POLTCARP, A. D. 100. All that remains of this holy martyr, is a short letter to the Philippians, in which he distinctly refers to the epistle of Paul to that church — " For neither I nor any one like me, can come up to the wisdom of blessed and renowned Paul, who, when absent, wrote to you (the Philippians) an epistle." Occasionally he quotes passages with some formality, as — NEW TESTAilENT. POLYCARP. 1 Cor. vi. 2. Do ye not know that the " Do we not know that the saints shall saints shall judge the world ? judge the world f " as Paul teaches. Eph. iv. 26. Be ye angry and sin not : " For I trust that ye are well exercised let not the sun go down upon your in the holy scriptures : 'As in these scrip- wrath, tures it is said : Be yo angry and sin not. And let not the sun go down upon your wrath.' " Matt, V, 3, Blessed are the poor in " But remembering what the Lord spirit : for theirs la tt(o kingdom of said : ' Be ye merciful, that ye may ob- Jieaven. Y. Blegsed are the merciful, for tain mercy. Blessed are the poor, and they sljall obtain njorcy. Blessed ^re they tljat are persecuted for righteous- they which are persecuted for rigljteous- nesg' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of jiess' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.' " ^eayen. Luke yi. 37. Judge not, and yo shall "The Lord said, 'Judge not, that ye not be judged. be not judged.'" Mark xiv. 38. The spirit indeed is "The Lord hath said, f The spirit in? ^wiljing^ but the flesh is weak, tloed is \yilling; l^ut tt|e flesh is -syeak.' " More frequently, he only refers to passages; borrowing the sentiments and language of the sacred writers, without expressly naming them, as — ^. T. fOLyCAEP, Acts Ti. 24. Whom God hath raised " Whom God hath raised, having 'up, having loosed the pains of death. , ■ loosed the pains of hell. Rom. xiv. 10. We shall all siar,d be- " And must all stand before the judg- ifore the judgment sofl-t of Christ> 12. ^So, ment seat of Christ, and every one give tftem, ^vory one of ps shall give an ac- an account for hiniself." count of himself to pod. 1 Corf vi. 9- ^Pither fornicators, nor i' And neitlier fornicators, nor effofBi' NEW TESTAMENT. 61 idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nate, nor abusers of themselves with nor abusers of themselves with man- mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of kind; 10. Shall inherit the kingdom of God." God. Eph. ii. 8. For by grace are ye saved " Knowing that by grace ye are saved through faith ; and that not of your- not of works, but by the will of God selves: it is the gift of God — not of through Jesus Christ.'' works. 1 Thess. v. 17. Pray without ceasing. " Praying without ceasing for all." 1 Tim. vi. 7. For we brought nothing " The love of money is the beginning with us into this world, and it is certain of all troubles. Knowing, therefore, that we can carry nothing out. 10. For the as we brought nothing into the world, so love of money is the root of all evil. neither can we carry anything out." 1 Pet. i. 8. Whom having not seen ye " In whom though ye see him not ye love ; in whom though now ye see him believe, and believing ye rejoice with not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy un- joy unspeakable and full of glory." speakable and full of glory. 1 Pet. ii. 22. Who did no sin, neither " Wlio bare our sins in his own body was guile found in his mouth. 23. Who on the tree ; who did no sin, neither was his own self bare our sins in his own. guile found in his mouth." body on the tree. 1 John iv. 3. And every spirit that " For whoever confesscth not that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is come in the flesh, is not of God : and Antichrist, this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof you have heard, &c. Nearly thirty examples of this kind are found in this brief let- ter ; proving the author's perfect famiUarity with all the books of the New Testament, except a few of the minor epistles. IGNATIUS, A. D. 100. According to Chrysostom, he personally conversed w^ith many of the Apostles. The only genuine remains of him are seven short epistles. One is a letter to the Ephesians, in which he ex- pressly mentions the epistle written to them a few years before by Paul. " Ye are the companions (he says) in the mysteries of the Gospel of the blessed Paul, who throughout all his epistle makes mention of (i. e. commends) you in Christ Jesus." Tliis is the only book expressly named, but there are more than forty examples in the few pages which contain his writings, of his employing the language of the New Testament: with which he must therefore have been acquainted, as— 62 CANON OF THE N. T. Matt. iii. 15. For thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteo;i,sness. Matt. s. 16. Be yc therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. John iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof : but canst not tell whence it Cometh and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the spirit. Acts X. 41. Who did cat and drink with him after he arose from the dead. 1 Cor. i. 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness : but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written — I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20. Where is the wise 1 Where is the scribe ? Where is the dis- puter of this world ? Eph. V. 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it. IGNATIUS. " Bapti.=ed of John, that all righteous- ness might be fulfilled by him." " Be wise as a serpent in all things, and harmless as a dove." "The spirit is not deceived, being from God ; for it knows whence it comes, and whither it goes, and reproves secret things." " But after his resurrection he did eat and drink with them. " Let my life be sacrificed for the doc- trine of the cross, which is a stumbhng- block unto unbelievers, but to us salva- tion and hfe eternal. Where is the wise? Where is the disputer? Where is the boasting of them that are called pru- dent? " Exhort my brethren, in the name of Jesus Christ, to love their wives as the Lord the Church." The reference to other books, particularly Philippians, Colos- sians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, 1st and 2d John, are equally striking and unequivocal. CLEMENS ROMANUS, A. D. 96. The friend and fellow-laborer of Paul, whom he specially names in Phil. iv. 3. So the ancients positively attest, without a dissenting voice. He has only left a short epistle to the Corinthi- ans. In it, Paul's epistle to the same church is expressly men- tioned. N. T. 1 Cor. i. 11, 12. For it hath been de- clared unto me of you, my brethren, . . . that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith that I am of Paul ; and I of ApoUos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ. CLEMENS. "Take into your hands the epistle of the blessed Paul the apostle. What did he at the first write to you in the begin- ning of the Gospel ? Verily he did by the spirit admonish you concerning himself and Cephas and ApoUos, because that even then, you did form parties." NEW TESTAMENT. 68 This is the only instance of a book of the New Testament being named. But there are more than forty manifest references like the following : N. T. Matt. xxvi. 24. Woo to that man by whom the Son of Maa is betrayed : it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Matt, xviii. 6. Whoso shall offend one of these Uttle ones which be- lieve in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his necli and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Luke vi. 36. Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. Bom. i. 29. Being filled with all un- righteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of en- vy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperings, (30) backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters. 32. Who knowing the judgment of God (that they which do such things are wor- thy of death) not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 1 Cor. 15-20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first- fruits of them that slept. 1 Tim. ii. 8. I will therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Eph. iv. 4. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6. One God and Father of all. Heb. iii. 5. And Moses verily was faithful in all hig house. 1 Peter iv. 8. For charity shall cover a multitude of sins. CLEMEXS. " Remember the words of the Lord Jesus. For he said, ' Woe to that man [by whom offences come.] It were bet- ter for him that he had not been born than that he should offend one of my elect. It were better for him that a mill- stone should be tied about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the sea, than that he should offend one of my little ones.' " " Especially remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, ' Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy.' " " Casting of from us all ' unrighteous- ness and iniquity, covetousness, debates, malignity, deceits, whisperings, backbit- ings, hatred of God, pride, boasting,' and vain-glory and ambition. ' For they that do these things are hateful to God : and not only thej' that do them, but they also who have pleasure in them.' " " Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord does continually show us, that there shall be a resurrection. Of which ho has made the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits, having raised him from the dead." " Let us therefore come to him in ho- liness of soul, lifting up to him chaste and undeQled hands." " Have we not one God, and one Christ? And is there not one spirit poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ." "When also Moses, that blessed and ' faithful ' servant in all his house." " Charity covers the multitude of sins." 64 CANON OF THE '■ 2 Peter ii. 5. And saved Noah, a " Noah preached repentance, and they preacher of righteousness. who hearkened [to him] were saved." Such coincidences of thought and expression, it is impossible to consider as accidental. On the whole, it seems certain, that Clement had in his hands at least the first three Grospels, the Acts, and the five principal epistles of Paul. SUMMARY. As the mind is apt to be confused and lost in a multitude of quotations, we shall endeavor to aid the reader, by a brief commentary and summing up. Commencing with the fourth century for a reason already given, we find that no less than ten principal writers have furnished catalogues, six of which agree perfectly with our collection. The others only differ in this ; that they omit the Revelation, and one of them the epistle to the Hebrews. How perfectly decisive this fact ! Moving our post of observation to the third century, we do not find such a number of regu- lar catalogues : indeed, there are but two that may be called complete. Yet the evidence is equally satisfying. The number of writers NEW TESTAMENT. 65 from whom Lardner quotes in proof of the ex- istence and recognition of our books, is about forty ^ of whom it would be hardly too bold to say, that they are "of every nation, and kin- dred, and tongue, and people." Even the dark forests of Germany send forth a trumpet voice in attestation of the Christian verity. We refer to the venerable martyr Victorinus, bishop of Pettaw, a town on the river Drave. He ex- pressly quotes the four Gospels by name. He quotes also the Acts, and speaks of the seven churches to which Paul wrote Epistles. "After- wards (he adds) he wrote to particular per- sons ;" undoubtedly he means Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. On the Revelation, he wrote an elaborate commentary. The works of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, overflow with citations, except from James, Jude, 2d Peter, and the epistle to the Hebrews, to which no reference is made. The four Gospels he mentions frequently. Every epistle of Paul is referred to, with the exception specified. So are most of the Catholic epistles. Mark also the fact, that in that distinguished Bishop there 4* 66 CANON OF THE is not one quotation from any spurious or apoc ryphal writer. Of the profound and critical Origen, Dr. Mill makes this striking remark : " Quotations of Scripture are so thickly sown, that if we had all his works remaining, we should have before us almost the whole text of the Bible y His cata- logue has been given in our Synoj^sis. All necessary to be remembered in examining it is, the distinction made by Eiisebius between the " controverted" (av'vi'k&yofjiEva) books, and those " universally acknowledged" (miio'koyov^f.va) to which Origen subscribes. Pursuing our course upward, we come to the second century ; and the first whom we meet is the eloquent Tertullian, of whom Dr. Lardner observes : " There are in him more and larger quo- tations from the small volume of the New Tes- tament, than there are of all the works of Cicero^ in writers of all characters for several ages.''- Of the Gospels, he says : " We lay this down for a certain truth, that the evangelic scriptures have for their authors men to whom the work of pubHshing the Gospel was committed by the NEW TESTAMENT. 67 Lord himself. Concerning the epistles of Paul, he says : " Let us then see what milk the Corin- thians received from Paul, to what rule the Galatians were subjected, what the Philippians read," &c. The only books not used by him are James, 2d Peter, 2d and 3d John. Equally ample is the testimony of Clement of Alexandria. He asserts in various places that there are four Gospels. He receives the Acts of the Apostles, and quotes frequently the various epistles of Paul. The evidence of Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons in France, is so exceedingly valuable, that we have quoted largely from him. We find that he re- ceived the four Gospels, and thirteen epistles of Paul, which he expressly cites. No apocryphal book is mentioned by him, as having any au- thority. We close the reviews of this century with Justin Martyr ; one of the many in these days, who died for their religion. The synopsis shows that he frequently refers to our Gospels, though he does not liame their authors, but calls thern the " Memoirs of the Apostles." There ar« also 68 CANON OF THE distinct references to the Acts, the epistles to the Corinthians, Colossians, &c. Justin was born, ac- cording to some, in the year 89 ; some place him a few years later. How decisive is this for the genuineness of our books ! When we quoted the last two or three writers, w^e came within a generation of the very men who are alleged vrith- out a dissenting voice to have written their records ; and the light of tradition still beams forth radiant and clear. How could these peo- ple be deceived in a matter so interesting to the Christian as the writing of his sacred books, when their authors had not been dead forty years ? The testimony that follows of the old Sijriac and Italic versions, speaks for itself, and needs no comment. We come now to the venerable men who lived in the times of the Apostles, and were honored with their immediate instructions ; for which reason they are usually called the " Apostolical Fathers." Though we are able to present few strongly marked and formal quotations, yet that they were acquainted with many, if not all, our NEW TESTAMENT. 69 sacred books, is beyond a doubt. Let tlie reader examine our synopsis, marking the identity of thought and phrase between the extracts from them, and the passages of the New Testament in the opposite column, and he will find it im- possible to adopt any other conclusion. Be- sides, there are express quotations by Barnabas, Clemens, Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp, which we ^vill not injure by an attempt at com- pression. After all, we have confessed that the evidence of these holy men is not so overpowering as that of their successors. But we have also explained it. Their works that remain are very few and short : all that is authentic could be printed on twenty octavo pages. The sub- jects on which they wi'ote were simple and prac- tical, not requiring an appeal to authorities. It must be remembered, also, that the books of the New Testament had been freshly written, and not yet distributed through the churches, or col- lected into a canon. In quoting therefore large- ly from any of them, they ran some risk of not being understood. Strength is given to this 70 CANON OF THE supposition by the fact that, when they knew from the circumstances of the case that those whom they addressed were acquainted with a particular writing, they actually used it. Thus Clemens, writing to the Corinthians, quotes Paul's epistle to that church ; and Barnabas, writing to the Philippians, mentions his epistle to them. We here close the argument. Brief and im- perfect as the statement has been, Ave fear that some will find it disagreeably long. But we cannot (and would not, if we could,) turn an inquiry of this kind into an Arabian tale. What is said of gold, that the richest mines are of- ten found in the most arid and inhospitable regions, may be applied to truth. Its most val- uable treasures fi*equently lie concealed in the most dry and uninteresting discussions; and doubtless this is the reason why they are so rarely discovered. NEW TESTAMENT. 71 NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. Before leaving the subject we sliall make a reflection on tlie nature of the evidence adduced. It claims no mysterious sanctity, but is simply historical — being the very same that is applied to the genuineness of any other production. Why do we receive the Commentaries of Csesar, and the Annals of Tacitus, as the works of these eminent men ? Because their authorship is asserted by the general voice of antiquity. They are quoted as the authors by writers who, from their honesty, research, and proximity to the time in which they lived, were fully quali- fied to pronounce judgment. They are cited by enemies, and proofs of genuineness are found in every page of the writings themselves. We all understand such appeals. There is a natural logic in the breast of almost every man, which sel- dom fails of leading to the right conckision. It is true that the evidence is not in the strict sense of the word (in the mathematician's sense) de- monstrative : but it is the same that guides us in all matters of fact and common life. How 72 CANON OF THE do we know the trutli of any thing that is nar- rated to us, which we did not observe person- ally ? Why do we believe that there was an ancient city called Nineveh, or that the English John signed the Magna Charta ? Can they be proved by diagrams, or evolved from an equa- tion ? Can it be shown that their denial con- tradicts some necessary or immutable truth ? Yet who refuses to admit them ? and what name would we give a man who, because their evi- dence belongs to the kind which logicians call probabilitij^ plays the sceptic, but that of a fool, better qualified for Bedlam, than to converse with his fellow-men ? ..." To all this we assent without difficul- ty," some may reply, " We are quite ready to believe without Euclid that Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian war, and Cicero the orations against Verres. But when works offer themselves to our attention and claim our regard as- productions of men divinely inspired^ a much heavier draft is made on the bank of faith. Far weightier proof is necessary to establish the origination of miraculous narratives from NEW TESTAMENT. 73 the men who professed to have seen the facts, than to prove that a relation of probable, every- day occurrences, is truly his whose name it bears." We concede the perfect fkirness of this demand, provided the evidence required is only great- er in decree, not different in kind. Grod might have made the proofs of our religion more over- powering than the evidence of mathematics itself: he might have uttered them in thunder, and written them with a pen of fire in the skies. But he has not adopted this course, as he de- signed our present state to be imperfect and probationary, in which our faculties should be called forth by the powerful stimulus of neces- sity, our principles tried, and the moral charac- ter formed for eternity. Now, these results could not be attained by placing us in the noon- tide light which many thoughtlessly desire. Faith would cease to be a virtue in a world so constituted : holiness would become a service of compulsion, and man a slave. Meanwhile, if we see here " through a glass" darkly, it is our comfort to know that we have lio-ht enouo;h to direct us, if we faithfully improve it. " Men 74 CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. have reason," says tlie sagacious Locke, " to be well satisfied with what God has done for them, since he has given whatever is necessary for con- venience of life and information of virtue, and has put within their reach if they are willing to make search, to which, however, he will not compel them, a comfortable provision for this life, and the way that leads to a better. We shall not have much need to complain of the narrowness of our minds, if we will employ them about what may be of use to us ; and it will be an unpardonable as well as childish peevishness, if we undervalue the advantages of our knowledge, and neglect to improve it, be- cause there are some things that are set out of its reach." With regard to the subject discussed, our brief examination shows with what little reason, want of evidence can be alleged. It is indeed of the same kind with that of productions merely hu- man. But in degree it is far more ample and satisfying than all that has ever been advanced for any book of equal antiquity. CHAPTER 11. CAiSrOI^ OF THE OLD TEST'AMP:]S'T. § l.—The Proof. We propose to arrive at our conclusion on this important subject, by a shorter route tlian that which is frequently adopted. The Old Testament, in regard both to its genuineness and canonical authority, shall be built upon the New ; and as believers in the Son of God, we feel certain that it is a foundation strong enough to sustain the whole edifice. It is not said that this volume possesses no independent evidence — that no appeal can be made to national tradition ; to the scrupulous care with which the Jews guarded their sacred writings ; to the support these writings receive from the traditions of other nations ; and to their internal marks of genuineness. It does not hang thus in the air. But this is asserted, 76 CANON OF THE tliat a man of fair mind, whose faculties have been sharpened by habits of critical analysis, cannot retire from such an investigation with- out a feeling of doubt and disa2:)pointment. The main argument, that from national tradi- tion, is much more plausible than solid. Dur- ing the last two thousand years, indeed, the Jews have exhibited the most intense devotion to their sacred books : it has been and still is their ruling passion, sometimes even rising to maniacal excitement, as could easily l^e shown from their history. This, combined with the feet that during almost the whole of the period mentioned, they have possessed a regular body of learned men who watch over the purity of their volume, is a good argument for its exist- ence and preservation since the fourth or fifth century preceding the birth of Christ. But the ]3hilo3ophical inquirer will remind us that this has not always been the case. The ruling passion, in nations as in men, is subject to chano^e, and the chano:e is so astonishiusc often- times, that the subjects of it hardly retain a single feature of character by which they can Old TESTAMENf. 77 be identified with what they were. What a contrast between the old Romail, and hi^ mod- ern descendants ; between the Mexican, and the Castilians of the fifteenth ceutnry ! That a rev- olution equally great has been experienced by the Jews, is beyond dispute. Let the single example suffice of their return during their captivity in Babylon to the doctrine of the Divine Unity, which they have maintained ever since with a fidelity truly admirable, when be- fore that time, their love of idolatry was a per- fect madness. Nor is it possible to disguise another fact bearing yet more directly on the subject, that from the reign of Solomon to the dethronement of their last king by Nebuchad- nezzar, they evinced the most stupid indiffer- ence to their religious writings as well as institu- tions. Forgeries, therefore, might easily have f^aken place. If the small literary coterie to ^vVhom tjie people blindly submitted in every tiling pei-tgrt^ing to learning and religion, chose to impose upon them certain myths, fragments of song, and annals of plden time, as the " sacred ^Ubrary " which had come dpwn from their re- 78 CANON OF THE mote ancestors, there was positively nothing in the character of the nation to prevent it. Nor is the matter helped by labored efforts to dis- inter from their sepulchres ancient testimonies of profane w^riters to the truth of scripture facts ; such as the Deluge, the existence of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the invasion of Shishak, the Babylonian captivity, &c. An accumulation of proof that they contain a re- sjjectable amount of historic truth, has its value ; but very little that is positive in a controversy vv^ith the infidel, who is quite ready to concede all we ask on this point, and a good deal more. Supposing, for instance, (to give a strong case,) that an investigation of Egyptian hieroglyphics led to the astounding discovery of a com]3lete identity between Egyptian and Jewish annals from the Deluge to the Babylonian captivity, his equanimity would not be in the least dis- turbed. " I never dreamt (he would say) that your Bible was a pure lie. The thought is absurd. Allow me to sift out its miracles and other incredibilities with which in common with other ancient history it is stuffed, and I will OLD TESTAMENT. 79 cheerfully award it the palm of superiority to all documents of the kind that have come down to us." These are only specimens of the numerous doubts that will disturb the most honest mind in view of the difficulties connected with an independent demonstration of the canonical au- thority of the Old Testament. Let us be thank- ful that we are not compelled to the arduous task of encountering them ; and that we have a ground of certainty from which no array of learning or ingenuity can dislodge us. Let us accept with gratitude the authoritative dicta of the divine Founder of Christianity, and not blush to acknowledge that our Bible, our whole Bible, comes from his sacred hand ! With this infallible guidance, the enlightened Christian feels joerfectly safe. In the many questions raised by unbelievers, concerning the possibility of introducing spurious writings be- fore the advent of the great teacher, he may take a strong literary and historical, Ijut not a great religious interest. Their " Pseudo Isaiahs," and " Pseudo Daniels," will not disconcert him 80 CANON OF THE in the least. Their positions he believes to be false, and incapable of being substantiated by fair argument ; but even though he could not prove their fallacy by positive demonstration, he has all that is needed in the ''imprimaturs^ of one who never deceived him, and on whose perfect truth he has staked his immortality. The man who has given his soul to Christ, can have no scruple to trust him with settling his rule of faith. OCJR COLLECTION APPROVED BY CHRIST. TWO METHODS OF PROOF. What, then, is the testimony of our Redeemer and his inspired apostles regarding our volume ? Though they have nowhere given a formal cata- logue, ample information can be obtained from them in two different ways : 1st. By ascertaining what books they quote or directly refer to : 2d. By inquiring what was the established Canon of the Jews at the time they lived ; and whether there is evidence that they adopted it. OLD TESTAMENT. 81 FIRST METHOD : DIRECT QUOTATIONS. 1st. This point shall detain us but a moment. The highly satisfactory statement can be made at once, that there are in the New Testament distinct references to all the hooks of the Old — (to Genesis, Exodus, y his spirit, in the inner man." What a comment on the Master's declaration that " he came not to destroy the law and the prophets — that he came not to destroy, but to fulfil !" With what exquisite emotions must the pious Jew have discovered that he "in whose lips grace was poured," but whom he had susj^ected of a design to overturn the faith of patriarchs and proj^hets, proffered to his acceptance the same old religion so dear to his heart, only purged from its defects, and expanded into the perfection of beauty ! Such, we may suj^pose, was the state of mind expressed by Andrew, when he shouted that memorable declaration to his brother, Simon Peter, " We have found the Messias." The discovery merited a shout : it was a £VQ7jyia, compared with which, that of the illustrious Sicilian sage was but an infant's 108 CANON OF THE babble: tvq7jy.a^tv toj/ X^tiotov •, "we have EOUND — THE CHEIST !" OLD TESTAMENT PIETY. But a question here suggests itself, A^^llicll even to well disposed and candid minds seems not a little perplexing. If the Old Testament be so rich in the vital and fundamental truths of our religion, how can the fact be explained that the writers of the New Testament always represent the Mosaic institute to be a hard and hurden- some service, which the people were scarcely able to bear ? It consisted in bloody sacrifices, oblations, and complicated external observances, which " could not make him that did the ser- vice perfect, as pertaining to tlie conscience ;" and the writer to the Hebrews distinctly in- forms us that it was abrogated on account of its " weakness and unprofitableness." As much of the prejudice concerning our volume to which allusion has been made, is based on this view of the subject, we shall bestow on it a few re- marks. The whole diflSculty originates in a gross OLD TESTAMENT. 109 misconception of the nature of the ancient oeconomy. That the system which Moses by divine dii'ection imposed upon the people, for special and temporary ends, had the character just described, is true — and that the piety which this system, left to its native workings, would generate, is very different from that produced by the operation of a pure Christianity, is equally so : but they who think that the members of the old Mosaic theocracy were restricted to the former, look only on the surface of things. They forget, or do not understand, that long before the civil and ecclesiastical organization by Moses, they had been placed under another dispensation of a very different nature — that of faith, of humble trust in the forgiving mercy of God, evincing itself by love, self-consecration, and holy obedience. The promise given to their father, Abraham, had a double aspect. It pledged the divine veracity, that a numerous posterity should issue from him, who should possess the land of Canaan: but beside this, was the promise of higher blessings, and a more glorious seed; through whom they should be 110 CANON OF THE secured, not only to him personally, but to all of every nation who would be partakers of his faith. This constitution, the Apostle, in Gala- tians iii. 17, tells us, " the law which was four hundred years after, could not annul nor con- travene, so as to render the promise of no effect." Here was the relio-ion under whose purifying influences that holy man " walked, as seeing him who is invisible, kept himself un- spotted from the world, confessed himself a pilgrim and a stranger, and looked for a city that has foundations." This was the religion, too, of all those noble spirits of whom we have so glowing a description in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, — of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, of Moses, of Gideon, of Samuel and the proph- ets ; who " through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, of whom the world w^as not worthy." If we want to know the name and nature of this religion more definitely, the Apostle, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, furnishes an answer. It was the religion of the Gospel — it was a Christianity before Christ — differing in OLD TESTAMENT. Ill none of its essential principles from that whicli we enjoy, being characterized, as already said, by the same reliance on the grace of a pardoning God — the same 2:»eace of conscience — the same fruits of holiness — and hope of immortality. The law of commandments contained in ordi- nances, with its ritual observances and temporal retributions, was a constitution superinduced for certain sj)ecial purposes, but did not supersede nor abrogate it: like two parallel lines, they ran together through the Avhole oeconomy ; never interfering with or jostling each other ; and yet so near that the pious servant of God could en- joy the advantages of both, while the earthly mind saw only the earthly. As an Israelite of the natural stock of Abraham — in other words, as a member of the visible theocracy — he had his duties to perform, and did perform them. He walked in all the commandments and ordi- nances of the Lord Ijlameless, performed his ablutions at the proper time and place, was ready on every proper occasion, with his sin, trespass, and burnt-offering, paid his tithes to the last farthing, gazed reverently at the nation's 112 CANON OF THE pontiff, while presiding over the nation's forms of worship, — yet as a man^ a partaker of Abra- ham's faith and exalted hopes of a spiritual redemption, he knew that he had " a more ex- cellent way ;" and gladly retired from the garish scene to some lonely spot, where, undisturbed by the lowing of cattle, or the clash of sacrificial knives, he could pour out his soul to Abraham's God ; the God who, not on this mountain nor on that, but everywhere through the great ca- thedral of his universe, is worshipped by the pure spirit ! Hence the observation of our pious Puritan divines, that believers of the old cove- nant " lived under the law, but did not live upon the law," We mistake the matter entirely, when in trying to form a distinct conception of the religion of God's ancient church, we call up the temple, with its marble courts, its stately porticos, and thousand priests standing in robes of white round the brazen altar and molten sea. The search must be made in quite another direc- tion. We must visit the private dwelling— steal, if possible, into the sacred vtieqwiov, or chamber of retu'ement on the house-top, where David OLD TESTAMENT. 113 panted as the "hart after the water-brooks," where Daniel " sought the Lord by prayer and supplication with sackcloth and ashes," where Isaiah mingled with the seraphim before the great "high throne" — or we must get to the top of Horeb, where Elijah talked mournfully with God over the abounding wickedness of his people ! In perfect agreement with this, is a fact which cannot escape the careful reader of the Old Tes- tament, and is an extremely interesting one ; viz., that in all those portions which exhibit the inte- I'ior religious life of the people, there is scarcely an allusion to Levitical peculiarities: it would seem, that the moment a pious soul felt itself alone with God, it shook off everything low and terrestrial which belonged to that dispensation of forms, forgot even the Jehova between the Cherubim, and soared away to the presence- chamber of the upper sanctuary. Look through the Psalms — those wonderful compositions, which the infidel himself, if possessing one grain of taste or moral discernment, can never cease admiring for the rational and enlightened views, 6* 114 CANON OF THE as well as pure serapliic devotion that breathes in every line : is it speaking too strongly to say, that did we not know from other sources the existence of a complicated ritual system among the people by whom they were sung, we would not believe it ; nay, would almost doubt its pos- sibility ? Nowhere do we find a hint^ that the least importance was attached to priest, altar, or sacrifice, except so far as they were institutions to be honored for the sake of their author. It is not surprising, then, that these old Psalms continue to be the principal hymn-book of the church. Though mutilated and most imperfectly represented in the poetical versions she employs, they possess a chai'm which is felt and acknowl- edged by every Christian heart : Cowper, Watts, and Montgomery may be dear to her ; but still more dear are the harpings and hallelujahs of the sweet sin2:er of Israel ! To some, this elevated character of Old Testa- ment piety, blended as it necessarily was in practice with so many ceremonial services, may seem difficult to explain. But we do not think so. In every age God has made a revelation OLD TESTAMENT. 115 of himself to the human spirit : and when he does so, the first discoveiy it makes is, that he himself is spirit, and that they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The divinely illuminated mind needs no instruc- tion save that which comes from the depths of its own consciousness, that the way of acceptably ajDproaching Him is not by thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil. Something very different is required to satisfy its felt needs, than a corporeal and local piety — the placing on an altar the fruits of the earth and the beasts of the field ; as if he who fills heaven and earth with his presence, fed on lambs, or inhaled with gratification the aroma of a slaughtered calf. Let us prize then the heavenly treasure which has been committed to us, and, with a deep feeling of privilege and responsibility, make ourselves acquainted with its contents. Love to the Old Testament Scriptui-es is even a test of Christian character : no man has ever drunk deep into the spirit of Jesus and his Apostles, who does not with joy draw water from these wells of salvation. PART II. THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Heemetteutics is tlie Science of Interpretation. Sacred hermeneutics has for its object tlae holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Exegesis is the practical application of the Sci- ence. This gives us the laws — the former, exe- cutes them : thus, we speak of the Exegesis of a passage, according to Hermeneutical principles. Before, however, engaging in these studies, the conscientious reader of Scripture has another work to perform — that of ascertaining the sound- 7iess of his volume. Has he a text so uncorrupted that he may confidently rely on it as a founda- tion of religious belief? Has no poison been poured into the fountain ? After flowing through so many countries, and being in constant contact with so much intellectual and moral impurity during the long period of three thousand years, does it send forth the same healino; waters as 120 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. when it first broke fortli ? In answering these questions, the learned assert what is called the Integrity of Scripture ; and a thorough examina- tion of it in all its details and connections, is called its Criticism. The importance of this science can hardly be overrated. Whether the Horace and Plutarch that lie on our tables faithfully represent those distinguished ancients, is a question of small practical . interest ; and an argument proving beyond all doul)t that every second page was an interpolation, would hardly distress us so much as a badly-prepared breakfast. But the soundness of that awful document which con- tains the title-deed of our immortality, must be viewed in a very different light. No reasonable doubt should exist on such a subject, nor any pains be spared to know the truth. The discus- sion does not however belong to our present undertaking, though it may receive slight notice before the close. That the text is in a sound state shall be assumed ; and we offer our aid to the reader at the point of commencing his duties as an interpreter. OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION. 121 All that we purpose to say in this brief trea- tise shall be arraus^ed under two heads : I. We shall lay down some general Maxims, useful to be fixed in the mind as a preparation for the study ; II. Give rules in detail ])y which the young hermeneutist should be guided. MAXIM I. The object of Interpretation is to give the pre- cise thoughts which the sacred writer iyitended to express. No other meaning is to be sought but that which lies in the words themselves, as he employed them : in all cases we should take a sense from Scripture, rather than bring one to it. This rule is fundamental : and yet how often is it violated ! Some will allow no other sense but what has been baptized in their philosophy, or abstract notions of moral fitness : these, in read- ing the Bible, malce one as they go. Thus they nowhere find the doctrines of the Trinity, or Original Sin, of Atonement, Justification by 122 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Faitli, or Divine Influence : some even are un- able to discover Miracles. Hence the bloody violence wliich tliey practise on everything that comes in their way. A Socinian can read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, "without perceiving any trace of Vicarious Suffering ; can turn tlie i) ctQX'^] in the beginning of John into the " com- mencement of the Christian dispensation," and refuses to the Only Begotten of the Father, any higher diploma than that of an accom- plished teacher of morals. Nothing is too arbitrary for one who brings the word of God to the touchstone of his own speculative opin- ions. To such a man it is no revelation at all ; for it teaches only what he knows already. Others make it speak invariably according to their theological systems. When they sit down to interj^ret, they think of nothing but what they call the " Analogy of Faith :" if the passage be explained in perfect accordance with this, all is well, and cannot be better, though Philology sweat at every pore. The Analogy of Faith is within certain limits exceedingly useful — but it has been carried entirely too far, OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION. 123 and made to include all that a man thinks or guesses at on the subject of religion. Undoubt- edly, there are certain truths in the Bible which we are at liberty to assume, and by which we may reason analogically concerning the meaning of dubious passages. Such are the doctrines of the Unity and Perfections of Gocl, Man's Moral Accountability, the Fall, Redemption by Grace, and Divine Influence. Any exposition of a text contradicting these, we may put down at once as disagreeing with the Analogy of Faith: the rule is a good one, and applied in the inter- pretation of all writers. But surely we have no right to set up our whole system of religious belief, including the minutest of our sectarian peculiarities, as a criterion of truth ! This is to make our creed expound the word of God, instead of lettins; the word of God frame our creed, and establishes a principle as arbitrary and odious as that of the Socinian. Our ordi- nary commentaries are greatly disfigured with the fault just mentioned — being rather dogmati- cal paraphrases, than expositions of Scriptiu'e itself. In few do we discover an unfettered 124 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. and liberal spirit: the Romanist, Lutheran, or Calvinist, peeping out at the end of every line. The injury which sacred interpretation has re- ceived from this source (artificial systems and creeds) cannot be calculated. Compared with the toils of philological investigation, they are so easy to learn, the occupation of sitting be- neath the instructions of an able and eloquent polemic is so agreeable, and the preparation thus obtained for the exercises of the pulpit is so immediate and palpable, that flesh and blood can hardly resist the temptation to elevate them above their proper level. The student giving himself to them exclusively with all the ardor of his age, is not conscious that in consequence of his abuse of them, they are leading him 7'ight away from his Bible ! But it is often really so : its direct rays seldom reach him ; the few scattered beams which strike his vision, being refracted and distorted in a greater or less degree, by the very imperfect medium through which he regards them. This is not the fault of his teacher, whose exhibition of texts may be copious and appropriate ; but the OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION. 125 effect of Ms own indolence, whicli dispenses with the labor of critical examination. The dream is certain and the interpretation sure, without betaking to his dictionary and gram mar : the whole process of explaining the most obscure and diifficult passage in the word of God, is to observe the place which it occupies in his Turretine^ and lo ! — the desert smiles. How weak such persons must 1)e in every thing relating to the exposition of Scripture, we need not say. What is still worse, how- ever, they contract a positive dislike to the business. It is foreign to all their acquired hal)its and modes of thinkius;: it demands qualifications to which they are strangers, and would compel them to sacrifice many darling conceits, which enjoy in their minds the undis- puted dignity of axioms. There is no humanly constructed creed of any length, which does not exhibit partial and contracted views. The truths of Scripture are not capal^le of exact scientific definition : they are the ideas of the Divine Mind ; and like that Mind possess a certain boundlessness which disdains to be cramped 126 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. by artificial moulds — resembling the sublime and beautiful in nature, whicli awaken senti- ment and interest tlie affections, but are of too delicate a texture to be compressed into scholastic arrangements. Accordingly, we find the sacred writers never attempting to give a precise dia- lectic form to their statements. The noble and affecting thoughts with which they are pene- trated undergo no pruning process, nor are they subjected to metaphysical analysis: they are not drawn out into regular proj^ositions, but are poured forth with the same divine negli- gence with which they presented themselves to their spiritually enlightened minds. Nothing indeed is more remarkable than the artlessness — the charming and yet suljlime simplicity which characterize these holy men. When they have a truth to announce, there is no indication of holding back in order to give it with philosophi- cal exactness — no betrayal of a fear that unless infinite care be taken, it will not dovetail with some other truth that has been announced ^ve- viously ; giving a writer tlie apj^earance of a man treading among pit-falls and spring-guns EXPLAINED LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK. 127 Tliey walk with a bold freedom, of wliicli every movement proves their consciousness ; shoving aside in their onward march the whole troop of collaterals, trampling on contradictions, and anxious only to express themselves on the sub- ject immediately before them with appropriate energy. The man who undertakes to interj)ret them, must catch their spirit in this respect, or they will receive small justice at his hands. MAXIM II The same method must be followed in expound- ing Scrijyture, which we employ in searching out the mea?iing of other hooks. It was indited to men ; it speaks to men in the language of men ; and was understood by those to whom in an- cient times it was addressed, as they under- stood any other communication. The design of God in giving it, was to communicate cer- tain ideas — in order to which he must speak to us just as do others. Words call up ideas, not by any native significance, but by compact, and 128 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. every one in speaking is supposed to conform to tlie bargain. If lie does not, hut employs language in a sense different from that estab- lished by common use, he is to all intents and purposes, a covenant breaker. In reading Scrip- ture, therefore, we are to use the same appli- ances and aids employed in other cases. In- spiration gives it no special privileges : rather may we suppose, that a revelation of God's will to the great world of mankind, must be pecu- liarly susceptible of popular interpretation, and positively require it. This rule sweeps away at once a host of errors : we shall specify two. 1st. That of the Papists, who contend that the Exposition of Scripture is entirely sui gen- eris, and supernatural — Toeing committed to Holy Mother Church, consisting of the Pope, Decrees of Councils, and the ancient Fathers. The pretension is rejected by all sound Protes- tants with disgust. While we say that the Bible is the Book of God, we affirm with equal emphasis, that it is the Book of Man, and can be understood by man in the use of the ordi- nary means. We also affirm that Holy Mother, EXPLAINED LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK. 129 witli lier Councils and Fatliers, has given too many proofs of sometliing worse than mere fal- libility, to be entrusted with the authoritative exposition of it. The Patristic interpretations of Scrij^ture are, with a few exceptions, con- temptible. Jerome, Theodoret, and Chrysos- tom, are all that a modern can quote, and ab- surdities of every kind are found even in them: they w^ere all ignorant of Hebrew, except Je- rome, and the later Fathers knew little of Greek. When they used citations in controversy, they took anything (as Jerome himself acknowl- edges) which seemed likely to confound their opponents ; and there was scarcely one who did not prefer an allegorical explanation, or some frigid and far-fetched conceit, to the j^lain sense of a passage. 2dly. The errors of Fanatics and Enthusiasts : such as Quakers, and Swedenborgians, who boast of certain immediate revelations, which they call the " Word of God within.'"' This in- terior light is the supreme rule which entirely dispenses with every thing else, with the knowl- edge of languages, philosophy, logic, and com- 7 130 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. mou sense. With it every shoe-black is abun- dantly qualified to expound all mysteries; with- out it, "all the learning in the world," says the famous Barclay, " will only make light darkness, and turn the truth into a lie." How the Bible fares in such hands their writings show. Yet it would be folly to reason with such people. They are above reason : theirs is the little Go- shen where all true light is found ; darkness blacker than that of Egypt covers the whole world without. MAXIM III. The se?ise of Scriptwe is (in general) one : in other words, we are not to assign many meanings to a passage. Words, indeed, have a variety of significations, but they cannot have this variety at the same time. A single sense must be cho- sen, in doing which one expositor may differ from another, and it may be dubious which is right. They cannot, however, be hath right : if we approve the one, we must, if they really differ, disapprove the other. THE SENSE IS " ONE." 131 The transgressors of this rule are the Mystics and Allefforists. Their fundamental maxim is not unlike that of the Papists ; for they consid- er the Bible to be a book so different from oth- ers, that its dej^th of meaning can never be reached by the ordinary laws of interpretation. Being from God, they insist that it must in all respects be worthy of him, and contain a rich- ness of thou2:ht suited to his infinite understand- ing. Hence their favorite maxim: Verba Scrip- turcE tantum uhique significare, quantum signifi- care jjossunt : i. e,, whatever a word matj mean, it does mean. A single noun could thus have twenty different senses in the same place, and refer to twenty difterent things. This odd the- ory was a great favorite with the Jews in the time of our Lord and his apostles, who occasion- ally allegorized to please them, though by no means frequently. See an instance in Gal. iv. 22, where the Apostle makes Sarah and Hagar types of the two covenants. So far did the Jews carry their love of it, that their rabbis all maintained, " There is not a letter in Scripture, or apex of a letter, which does not contain 132 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. whole mountains of meaning." They even had a science or art, called the Caballa, which by changing, disjoining, or transposing letters, or by calculating their value as arithmetical signs, elicited worlds of profound mystery. The Jews communicated their mania to the old Christian fathers, whose writings abound in mystical expositions of all kinds. Everything in sacred history was metamorphosed into type and symbol. Origen denied even the literal truth of history, contending that its whole and only meaning was allegorical. Thus ho pro- nounced it absolutely absurd to suppose that the world was created in six days : the creation signified the renovation of the soul by the Gos- pel, and the six days intimate that it is carried on by degrees. Israel in Egypt he makes to be the soul living in error, and the seven plagues are its purgations from various evil habits — the frogs denoting loquacity, the flies carnal appe- tites, the boils pride and arrogance, etc. This mode of expounding continued through the dif- ferent ages of the church, and has been formal- ly adopted by the Papists, who recognize three THE SENSE IS " ONE." 133 different senses besides the literal, viz., tlie alle- gorical, tropological, and anagogical. Nor was it put down by tbe reformation. Cocceius, a celebrated Dutch divine, carried it almost as far as Origen did. He held that the whole of the Old Testament was an anticipative history of the Christian church, containing a full recital of every thing which should happen to the end of time. Even the Lord's Prayer is a prophecy, and its six parts denote six great epochs in his- tory. Every good man in the Old Testament is a type of Christ, or his apostles ; every bad man, of the devil, or the unbelieving Jews. Such schemes are to be utterly rejected. They destroy all certainty of interpretation ; taking the ground from beneath our feet, and making Scripture a nose of wax which every one may twist into the shape that pleases him best. Thom- as Woolston, a celebrated English infidel, at- tacked Christianity itself with these arms, in- sisting that the narratives of Christ's miracles were not designed to be histories, but are pure allegories. Volney, a French writer, has tui'ned the evangelic history into a system of astrono- 134 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. my — Christ being the sun and moon, and the twelve apostles the twelve signs of the zodiac. Without affirming that there are no secondary senses in Scripture, we believe that (the phrase being properly understood) there are very few. Generally the meaning is, as in other books, one, and that lies near the surface. Who ever heard of a man in common conversation attachins: dif- ferent significations to the words he used, unless indeed he was playing a game at riddles, or double entendres? MAXIM IV. The interpretation of Scripture requires suit- able preparation. The languages in which it is written are strange, — difficult ; and both are dead. In every page there are references to times, places, transactions, with which we must be well acquainted. The history of the world is given, with a few breaks and interruptions, from the beginning to the four thousandth year. Not only are there accounts of the Hebrew na- tion, but of many othei's with whom war or SUITABLE PREPARATION. 135 peaceful intercourse brought tliem in connec- tion—Syrians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans ; cities, lakes, rivers, hills, val- leys, are continually mentioned. So are natural productions, as plants, trees, precious stones, animals. Hence arises the necessity of being well acquainted, with — 1st. Hebrew and Greek, and also the cognate languages, Chaldee and Latin. 2d. History, civil and political, especially of the Israelites, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Assyiians, and Greeks. If the student has no time for ex- tensive investisfation, he should at least make himself master of Josephus and Prideaux, who are accessible to all, and full of entertainment as well as instruction. od. Chronology, which ascertains the dates and order of events. There is great uncertainty and difficulty in this science, but it must not be neglected. A general knowledge of its princi- ples, and a clear view of the great epochs into which sacred and profane history is divided, with an ability to refer every important trans- action to its proper time, is indispensable. Chro- 136 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. nology is one of the eyes of history. The other is — 4th. Geography. That of Palestine is of es- pecial moment, for obvious reasons ; but that of Egypt, Iclumea, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, must not be passed by. 5th. Customs and manners, or archaiology. These exercise a mighty influence on the ideas of a peoj^le, and their mode of expressing them. There is in Scripture a constant allusion to He- brew usages, and nearly all its tropes are bor- rowed ft'om them, in connection with the natural features of the country. The imjiortance of a sound acquaintance with this branch of knowledge, and also the last, (geography,) cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the student. No man is fit to ex- pound a ];)aragraph in any book whatever, unless he can bring distinctly before his mind all the usages and historical facts, all the circumstances of time and place, which relate to the subject treated. This is necessary even to understand it, but much more to receive those strong im- pressions which excite the sensibility. Every SUITABLE PREPARATION. 137 one who has attended to the laws of thought, knows how wonderfully our conceptions are enlivened by association with local scenes and circumstances. A man of general reading may, at his fire-side, call up pleasant reminiscences of Greece, and the various glorious events recorded in her history: but how tame his thoughts, compared with those which j^ossess the accom- plished scholar who has trod her soil, and seen all that remains to her, or by the constant peru- sal of her writers, has made himself as familiar with every hill and valley as if he had seen them with his bodily eyes. It is a common re- mark of historians concerning the Christians of the middle ages, that their devotion was aston- ishingly increased by a pilgrimage to Holy Land. The most lukewarm usually returned full of faith and fervor. This might be expected. They had gone over the hallowed ground, and were able to form a distinct picture of it. They had walked the streets of the city which their Divine Saviour had honored with his ministrations, and trod the very mount on which he had been lifted up between heaven and earth. The vivid idea 138 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. of tlie localities, passed by an easy transition to all the facts and doctrines connected with them, and the felt reality of Calvary, diffused itself over the sufferings which a thousand years before had been endured there. In a word, the sensi- ble ideas of time and place became so incorpo- rated with their religious belief, as to form one complex whole — and they thought as little of questioning the truth of their creed as the reality of their perceptions. It is true that few of us may be able to test the principle just stated by visiting the sacred land in person. Much, however, can be effected by a thorough course of reading. Let the stu- dent take into his hand " Jahn's Archaeology," with an Ancient Geography and Atlas, studying at the same time Kobinson's " Biblical Re- searches," he will be surprised to find what a vivifying and warming influence they will exert, not only over his imagination, but his heart. The simplest narrative of Scripture will be read with an enthusiastic interest, of which he had previously no conceptions ; and even its doctrines be clothed with a new attractiveness. SUITABLE PREPARATION. 139 6tli. Logic and general literature ; wliich in- vigorate the mind, and inure to habits of accu- rate discrimination. Every study that improves the thinking faculties — especially the judgment, and enlarges our mental horizon, will make its value felt in explaining the word of God. What blunders have been committed by commenta- tors, simply because they did not know that they were reading poetry ; and who would not have been benefited by the discovery, as they knew nothing of the laws of that kind of com- position — theii' whole reading having been con- fined to the mellifluous jingle of Dr. Watts! The remark of Cicero concerning the orator is quite as true of the sacred interpreter : " Quod debet omnibus disciplinis instructus esse." Let no student of theology allow himself to think that when he occasionally, or even frequently, opens the page of a Milton or a Locke, he is wasting time or stealing it away from his proper work. Tth. Above all, sincere and ardent piety. Without this, no leai'ning and acuteness will secure the interpreter from shamefully blunder- 140 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. ing ou the very threshold of his undertaking, nor from a constant succession of bhmders to the end. His heart must be attuned to his sacred employment by a profound conviction of ignorance and guilt, by sincere love to God, and a devout longing toward everything that is holy and divine : by willingness to put himself abso- lutely and without reserve at the feet of his great teacher; in short, by such a sympathy between his spirit and the spirit of Christ, that he can enter into the very thoughts of Christ, and exj)ound them by a sort of divine intuition. There is a deep philosophy, (ignorance of which is the rock on which many interpreters have made shipwreck,) in the promise : " I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, saying, know the Lord ; for all shall know me from the least to the greatest." The meaning is not that under the new and spiritual dispensation of the Gospel to which the promise refers, external methods of instruction will be done away ; but that it will be no more a hard^ up-hill work,— as it always is when the hearts of SUITABLE PREPARATION. 141 men are not in harmony with their employment. In consequence of the holy congeniality of the inner man with the objective revelation, the latter will be received with such ardent, whole- souled affection at the very moment of being presented, that the outward teaching will be scarcely remembered. Illustrations of this are found all around : let one example serve. How slow to learn is the boy whose tastes and inclinations have no sym- pathy with the object of his study ! Like the ass, he needs a constant whip to maintain a faint appearance of locomotion : even the tender, all- hoping mother has ceased to plead for him, and concurs in the universal judgment that he is an incorrigil)le dunce. But take him fi'om his un- grateful toil, and task his energies with a woi'k ^vhich interests his affections, the almost idiot expands into a young intellectual giant, and his proficiency astonishes all observers. So it is with the true Christian. Before he experienced the power of religion, nothing was more difficult than his indoctrination in those great truths that form the life and soul of evangelical piety. He 142 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. complained tliat they were entirely wanting in evidence, as well as devoid of attraction. He could not apprehend their meaning : his memory failed in the endeavor to retain them, and a ser- mon in which any of them was discussed inva- riably put him to sleep : no distillation of hen- bane or pop23y equalled it in narcotic virtue. But how prodigious the change ! All is now light, clearness and beauty. The doctrines which occasioned him so much perplexity are now as easy and simple to his understanding, as they are refreshing to his heart. He scarcely needs a hermeneutical apparatus, but at once drinks them in with all the zest and facility, with which the infant — heaven-taught — draws its natural aliment from the mother's breast. This is what the pious Psalmist alludes to when he says, " I have more understanding than all my teachers : he had just before given the ex]3lanation, — " Oh how / love thy lawr We proceed to certain Special Kules which should guide us in the interpretation of Scrip- ture. USUS LOQUENDI. 143 RULE I. Carefully investigate the Usus loquendi. By this is meant wliat the words literally express, the custom of speech. The meauing of words is for the most part perfectly arbitrary. They call up certain ideas, because men have agreed that they shall do so, and for no other reason : general usage, therefore, is the great standard, "quern penes arbitrium est et jus et norma dicendi." In living languages we ascertain the usage from conversation and personal inter- course. In those long since dead, as the Hebrew and Greek, we draw on various sources: 1st. Contemporary writers. With respect to the Old Testament, we have none such — all the Hebrew extant being contained in our volume. In place of them we have a tolerably clear and ample Jewish tradition : for it cannot be doubted that the rabbis have preserved with good fidelity much of their old national language. As to the New Testament, we have all the Greek writers from Homer to Longinus ; though they must be used with caution, as the New Testament is 144 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. written in a Hebraistic idiom, and not in the classical language of Demosthenes. 2d. Scholiasts and glossographers. These were men who lived after the death of the writers, but while the language was still living, and who must have understood the meaning of words better than we. Scholia, were short notes inserted in the margin of the work explained, illustrating some j)hrase or turn of expression. Scholia on the New Testament are very numer- ous, and some of them have come down from remote antiquity. A noble edition of the New Testament, containing a large collection of them, has been published by Matthai, a distinguished German professor. Glossaries (from yl^aoa a form of speech) are dictionaries, giving explana- tions of certain words arranged in alphabetical order, and differins; from common dictionaries in this, that they contain remarks on such words only as are difficult and obscure. The principal works of this kind are those of Hesychius, Sui- das, Phavorinus, and Photius. 3d. Ancient translations, made when the lan- guages were still living. Such is the Sej)tua- USUS LOQUENDI. 145 gint version of tlie Hebrew Bible, made nearly tliree hundred years before Christ ; when the language was well understood, though not spoken with perfect purity. The value of this work to the student of the New Testament, as well as the Old, is incalculable : for without the steady light which is cast by it on the meaning and force of expressions, the interpreter could scarcely ad- vance a step. The Chaldee paraphrase, is an- other venerable translation of the Old Testament. It presents the views concerning the meaning of that part of Scripture, entertained by the learned Jews contemporary with our Lord: being com- posed a little before his birth, and in the dialect spoken at that time by the nation. The old Syriac version is also extremely valuable. 4th. Kindred dialects. This source of aid is peculiarly useful with respect to that part of Scripture which most needs it — the Old Testa- ment. The Hebrew has three sisters so like her, that there can be no mistake as to their common parentage : they are the Arabic, Chal- daic or East Armaean, Syriac or West Arma- ean. In two of these — the Syriac and Arabic 146 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. — tliere are numerous writings still extant, and the Arabic is a livino; Ian2:ua2:e. The use of dialects in determinin": the sense of words, re- quires skill and judgment ; as it by no means follows that the precise signification is the same in both, because they are sisters. Yet its great value as a subsidiary, is generally confessed : proofs of it you have in every page of Gesen- ius's dictionary. 5th. Etymology ; or the examination of roots. When other expedients fail, we may sometimes derive considerable assistance from tracing an expression to its original element. But after all, etymology is slijij^ery ground. Words in the process of derivation or composition, often deviate from their original import, so that the child loses nearly all resemblance to its j^arent. Thus the English word villain in our old writers means a slave ; rascal, in Saxon, a lean heast ; hostis^ in Latin, originally signified (according to. Cicero) a stranger ; pagan, which with us is equivalent to heathen^ denoted nothing worse in the language last mentioned, from which we obtained it, than a farmer^ or inhabitant of the USUS LOQUENDI. 147 country, ii^nfs is a Hebrew verb signifying to he holy ; tlie noun ''^'}^, one of its derivatives, is the common term for prostitute. Two in- stances may be given from the ISTew Testament, to illustrate the danger of reasoning from ety- mological significations. The verb TiQoyLvcooxoj is compounded of the preposition ttqo, before, and yivwoyio), to know. It should therefore always denote simple foreknowledge, and many Arminians contend that it does so ; yet who- ever impartially examines the usus loquendi of the New Testament, will see at once that it is sometimes fully equal in strength of meaning to our English svord foreordain : see Rom. ii. 2, Acts ii. 23, 1 Pet. i. 20. The adjective aiwviog, is commonly used by the Greeks for " eternal " or " everlasting," and is the strongest term they can employ : in this sense it is constantly used in the New Testament, with perhaps one or two exceptions. But the Universalist reminds us that it comes from auov^ an age^ and must there- fore be translated '"'having age^'^ or '^ endwing for an ageJ^ So too, aicoveg aiwvcjv can mean nothing more than a " number of ages," though 148 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. in every case, without a solitary exception, it expresses j)roper eternity. We cannot forbear citing another example of deserting the established meaning of words or phrases for supposed etymologies, from a Scot- tish divine of some note, who has written on the Baptist controversy. The Rev. Mr. Ewing, author of a Greek dictionary and grammar, dis- satisfied with the usual method of meetina: the Immersionists, undertakes to show that the word baptize^ so far from signifying to " dip " or " merge," j^rojierly denotes the operation of " dropping " or " s^^rinkling ;" and accomplishes it in the following way. All Greek verbs, being derived from biliteral roots, the word ftanto) of which ^aTTTt^o) is a form, must be traced to the syllable bap or pap, which is of course equiva- lent to the English pop. But pop is a word evidently taken from nature, and expresses the sound of a drop of water falling upon a table. ^ajiTto therefore means the same thing, and represents very happily the sprinkling process ; so that when the Apostles were commanded to " go and disciple all nations, baptizing them in USUS LOQUENDI. 149 the name," etc., they were required in so many words to admit converts into the visible church by hopping or popping on them — quod erat de- monstrandum ! We woukl not take notice of a hypothesis so ludicrous, were it not calculated by its very oddity to fix in the mind an impor- tant principle of interpretation. We are far from sympathizing with our Baptist friends in their strong dislike to aspersion. On the con- trary, we think that in their zeal for carrying out the physical idea of mersion^ they forget that by a not uncommon extension of meaning, the physical act when employed as a mere sijm- hol^ may lose much of its water, and express religious ablution in general ; of which fair examples may be quoted from the New Testa- ment. At the same time, we grant that some of the arguments employed by our writers are extremely puerile, and would try the temper of persons much more disjDosed to play the amiable than our worthy brethren seem to be, where their distinctive practice is concerned. Nothing can be more unsafe than the modes of procedure referred to in the three preceding 150 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. examples. Independently of tlie fact tliat what we assign as the original signification may be false, (which the last instance strikingly illus- trates,) the use of words is continually fluctuat- ing, and w^e cannot be too careful in guarding against errors from this source. Yet they are common : whole systems of theology, and even natural science, have been constructed on fanci- ful etymologies, by men whose imaginations outran their judgment, of which we may cite Parkhurst's Hebrew and Greek lexicons as an example. Great aid, however, may be derived from a sober and skillful tracing of words back to their source : if it does not always direct to their present meaning, it seldom fails to throw a happy light on the history of language. These are the principal means of the " Usus Loquendi." It wT)uld be cruel, however, to impose upon all the task of digging into these deep mines. The labor is in a measure saved by good dictionaries, which, if really good, con- tain the results of such investigations. Hap- pily we are well supplied with Gesenius in Hebrew, and Wahl and Bretschneider in Greek : PARALLEL PASSAGES. 151 Professor Robinson's Lexicon is equaEy excel- lent, combining the good c|ualities of both. One or other of these is indispensable. The student who takes with him to the seminary his college lexicon as a competent interpreter of the language of the New Testament, probably does not know what he is doing ; but whether known or not, he is really making a foolery of the whole business. All the classical diction- aries in the world piled upon his table, would never help him through the first verse of the first chapter of Matthew. EULE II. Examine carefully the parallel passages. By these are meant, texts which relate to the same subject, teach the same doctrine, or relate the same historical fact. They should be accurately collated, that one may supply light to the other, and fill up what is wanting to the perspicuity of tlie whole. We j^erform this operation con- stantly in reading the most familiar letter, or the simplest story. Its value in the study and 152 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. explanation of Scripture, can liardly be expressed. It not only enables us to enter into tlie meaning and force of particular expressions, but places us on a commanding eminence, where we may survey the whole field of divine truth, and admire the harmony of its several parts. All systematic theology should be built on this alone. " I will not scruple to assert," says the learned Bishop Horsley, " that the most illiter- ate Christian, if he can but read his English Bible, and will take the pains to read it in this manner, (studying the parallel passages,) with- out any other commentary than what the dif- ferent parts mutually furnish for each other, will not only attain all that practical knowledge which is necessary to salvation, but will become learned in everything relating to his religion. He may safely be ignorant of all philosophy, and all history, which he does not find in the sacred books." Parallels are of two kinds, Verbal and Real; Verbal, ai'e those in which the very same word or phrase is used, though the meaning in one may be much clearer than in the other, and con- PARALLEL PASSAGES. 153 sequently give light to it. Thus in Joel ii. 28, God promises that he " will pour out his Spirit on all flesh." Doubtful how to understand ' flesh " in this passage, I compare it with Gen., vi. 12, which says that " all flesh corruj^ted their way." As the whole mass of mankind is here meant, I feel authorized to give the same extent of meaning to the word in Joel. In Matt. i. 20, the angel of the Lord declares that Mary shall " conceive of the Holy Ghost." Struck with the peculiarity of the expression, I go to the corresponding passage in Luke, and find him usino- it also, but addins; another which is evidently intended to be exegetical, viz., " Power of the Highest," Luke i. 35 : The Holy Ghost therefore is here equivalent to the Divine energy. In 1 Cor. vii. 1, Paul says, " It is not good for a man to marry." A little star- tled at this squinting of the great apostle to- wards monkery, I look further down the chapter for an explanation, and find it in the 26th verse : " it is good for the present distress." Marriage is an excellent thing, but may be very inexpe- dient in times of severe persecution. 8 154 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Real parallelism is a correspondence in the tlionglit, or subject, although the words are dif- ferent ; and is still more important than the oth- er. It is two-fold, historical and doctrinal. His- torical parallelisms are those which occur in the relation of matters of fact. The four Gospels are full of these, and a careful collation of them is of unspeakable use in interpretation. One evangelist fills up the outlines briefly sketched by another, supplying some circumstance of time, place, or occasion, ■which throws a flood of light on the whole transaction. From a diligent and minute comparison of their accounts, Har- monies are constructed which deserve to be well studied. There are similar coincidences in the Old Testament, ex. gr. between the books of Chronicles and Kings. Many of these passages off*er serious difficulty to the interpreter, in consequence of a strong appearance of inconsistency and contradiction. The greater number, however, yield readily to diligent and careful scrutiny, — originating in some misconception of the readei*, or in false read- ings of the text, which in the Old Testament are PARALLEL PASSAGES. 155 numerous. By taking a correct view of tlie subject, scope, and connection of eacli passage, and observing the style, with other peculiarities of the writers, discrepancies, which at lu'st ap- peared with a most fierce and threatening as- pect, have turned into lambs and doves. Some, however, (especially those found in the Gospel narratives,) are really perplexing, and have been the "crux theologorum" in all ages, — of which we cite the following as illustrations. There seems a very decided repugnance between Matthew's account of our Saviour's baptism, and that of John ; the former representing the Baptist as knowing Jesus from the first, while the latter says that he did not know him till the descent of the Spirit. Compare John i. 23, and Mat- thew iii. 13. There is also a singular clashing between the narratives of Matthew and Luke concerning the miracle wrought upon the blind near Jericho, — Matthew making the number two^ and expressly saying that our Lord was depart- ing '■''from the city," — Luke declaring that he was going to it, and that but 07ie individual was re- stored. Compare Matthew xx. 30, and Luke 156 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. xviii. 35. In liis account of the crucifixion John differs from the other evangelists as to time, stating that it took place after the sixth hour ; Mark, with whom Matthew and Luke agree, names the third. In the accounts of his unction by Mary, the discordancy is equally marked, John saying that it occurred six days before the passover, Matthew and Mark specifying two. The narratives of Christ's resurrection and the circumstances which followed it seem also at va- riance, and in no small degree. These examples will sufiice, though we might adduce a score of others. Now, it is not allowed for a moment that they are incapable of being harmonized ; still, it cannot be denied that they bear a strong appearance of discrepancy. The student therefore should examine them carefully, with such helps as the learned have furnished, — remembering that he must occasionally fall in with the infidel, and that the infidel is apt to be an insect of the blue-bottle genus, who always settles on such spots. If after his best exertions he does not receive perfect satisfaction, let him not be frightened as if these gentlemen had PARALLEL PASSAGES. 157 gained a fearful advantage : tlie trutli is, they have gained a loss, the fact of disagreement in matters of trifling moment proving triumph- antly the substantial veracity of our writers, and the consequent truth of Christianity. What- ever trouble it may give us in defending the doctrine of verbal inspiration^ it is a thunderbolt against the Deist ; for is it not certain, that if the sacred historians had combined to palm a falsehood on us, they would, like fraudulent gamesters, have taken care to play into each oth- ers' hands, and studiously avoided every appear- ance of collusion? But nothing of this kind aj^pears. There is no leaning* on each other, * This must be taken with a grain of allo-wance. The general reader may think that a " leaning" is very perceptible — such a leaning as an ill-natured critic would call gross plagiarism. There are whole paragraphs, and even chapters, identical in thought, order of thought, and expression — not so much as a preposition being changed. This is a curious fact ; but we have noted another which pleasantly relieves us from the suspicion that they were in collusion. They differ as materially as they agree — are often so discrepant from each other in language, choice of events, and de- termination of time and circumstances, that one is tempted to give up the whole business of harmonizing them in utter discour- agement. Their "leaning," now, is that of wrestlers who press their adversaries to the ground. In the want of all historical in- formation, the learned have attempted to explain this by a theory. 158 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. no mutual adjustment of what they have to say, nor endeavor so to trim their statements that they shall nicely fit those of their colleagues, and the whole together present, like fine cabinet work, a smooth, unbroken surface to the eye. What a delightful proof of the unbending and uncompromising honesty of these pure-hearted men! Remember these things. Christian stu- dent ; and when any of the difficulties alluded Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they say, (the evangelist John is not concerned here,) never saw each others' writings, but had access to a common source, or rather sources of information, from which they drew with such variations as we find. It is more than probable that various accounts had been written of our Lord's life and death before they commenced their work. Some of them had gained cur- rency and credit, being taken from the lips of the Apostles, and per- haps there was one of special mark. Translations had been made of them from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek into Hebrew, so that a rich apparatus of material lay on the table of our biogra- phers, which they used with the prudence, sagacity, and discrim- ination given to them from above. Hence both their agreement and discrepancy : agreement, when they used the same document ; disagreement, when their choice differed. The result is, that we have three independent recensions, substantially at one, yet so different as to remove aU suspicion of their being leagued togeth- er in a scheme to mislead. None but very nervous persons will be startled at the idea of inspired books being concocted out of preexisting documents. Divine truth is always divine truth, however communicated, if it has the divine endorsement, whether it comes originally from a PARALLEL PASSAGES. 159 to rise up to harass and perplex you, take com- fort from reflecting that the occasion of your distress is one of the strongest guarantees for the truth of your religion. Bless God that there are things in the Gospel wJiich you are called to reconcile ! Parallelism of doctrine is found, where the same principles are taught in two or more pas- sages. The great business of the didactic theo- clap of thunder in the sky, an oral tradition, a slirewd remark of a wise woman of Tels:oah, or an excerpt from the book of Jasher. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, had to delve for much of it in scat- tered memoranda, written by good men, doubtless from the lips of the Apostles of whom Matthew was one, but which received the divine imprimatur only after being transferred to their endur- ing pages. In a word, Grod saw fit to take what he intended for the permanent use of his church from depositories where it was almost sure to die, and place it where it would be immortal. No . one can dream, for instance, that the two evangelists, who have given us the genealogies, received them by direct revelation, when they had access to human and documentary sources of in- formation; or that Moses received the historic matter of the book of Genesis immediately from the mouth of God. There are proofs in every page that he used written documents. For an example, the student need only go to the first and second chap- ters, — the evidence that he had two distinct versions of the story of the creation before him being irresistible. There were facts in both, which were deemed of essential moment; they were therefore sewed together, rather inartificially it might be thought, for at the 4th verse of the 2d chapter we can observe the seam. 160 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. logian is, to investigate this class of correspond- encies. All sound knowledge of Christian doctrines depends on the faithful and judicious comparison of scrij^ture with scripture. Does the student w^ant clear views concernino; man's relations to his Creator, original corruption, the person and work of the Redeemer, justification, the connection between it and the 'renewal of the soul in holiness, the happiness and misery of a futm*e state, — his course is plain and easy. He must find the great classical passages on each point, and bring them in juxtaposition ; he must compare (asking no other assistance but God's grace and a good dictionary) Isaiah with Matthew, Paul to the Romans with Paul to the Galatians, and Ijoth these with James, the au- thor of the Apocalypse with Daniel and Ezekiel, the Epistle to the Hebrews with Genesis and Leviticus. Let him do this in the fear of the Lord, with a single desire to know the truth ; he will not probably come from his labor a hair- splitting metaphysician or cunning rhetorician, but he will prove something more and better, " a good steward of the manifold grace of God," PARALLEL PASSAGES. 161 Besides the coincidences above mentioned, there is in Scripture what is called the j^oetic parallelism^ with which every reader of Hebrew is acquainted. It consists in a mutual corre- spondence of the two members of a stanza ; the one being a sort of echo to the other, as in Isaiah i. 3 : The ox knowetli his owner, The ass his master's crib : Israel does not know, My people do not consider. Sometimes the answering clause is synony- mous with the first, as in the example just cited. Sometimes antithetical, or opposed to it, as in Prov. xii. 1 : A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother. At others, it contains only a further develop- ment of the thought, as in Psalm cxlviii. T: Praise the Lord upon the earth, Ye dragons, and all deeps : Fire, and hail : snow, and vapor : Stormy wind fulfilling his will : Mountains, and aU hiUs ; Fruit-trees, and all cedars. 8* 162 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. These parallelisms are of excellent use to the interpreter. Tliey often enable him to decide important questions concerning the meaning of words and propositions, when deserted by all other hermeneutical aids. Nor is their use con- fined to the Old Testament. The same ryth- mical construction everywhere prevails in the New, which in this, as in many other respects, has received a decided tinge from the Hebrew writings. On this whole subject we earnestly recommend to the student Bishop Lowth's Lec- tures on Hebrew Poetry, a book almost worthy of its theme. RULE HI. The consideration of the author's scope or de- sign greatly facilitates interpretation. Every man (not a fool) has some definite purj)ose in speaking, and it is fairly presumed that he ^vill use such terms and arguments as are suited to it. The scoj)e is the soul — the vis vitse of a work, which lives and breathes through the SCOPE OR DESIGN. 163 whole, giving order, force, and beauty to every part. It may be ascertained in various ways. 1. By marking the occasion on which the pas- sage or hook was written. Thus, the occasion of Paul's epistle to the Galatians was the dissemi- nation among them of Jewish errors concerning the way of justification : he " marvels that they were so soon removed from him that called them into the grace of the Gospel." The epistle to the Romans had a like origin. The inscriptions on many of the Psalms, describing the condition of the poet when they were composed, give them wonderful vivacity and impressiveness. Take for example the third Psalm, and in reading it set before you the pious monarch di'iven from his throne by the machinations of an unnatural son, and wandering among the hills of Gilead, wanting the very necessaries of life, and in con- stant danger from enemies who were thirsting for his blood ; yet expressing his perfect confi- dence that all would be well at last, whatever temporary triumph might be allowed them. How thrilling every expression of his victorious faith in the power and promise of God under 164 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. siicli cii'cumstances ! It appears that the serene old man did not lose a night's rest in the darkest period of his trial : I lay me down and sleep ; I awake, for Jehovah sustains me. I fear not ten thousands of people, Who set themselves round about me. The discourses of Christ receive like illustrci- tions from adverting to the occasion of them. Many were answers to the cavils and imperti- nences of the Pharisees: some were connected with occurrences which took place in his pres- ence : others were suggested by questions of his disciples. How much we should lose of the meaning and beauty of his conversation with the Samaritan woman, if we separated it from the little introductory circumstances which are recorded, viz., that the place was " Sychar," the chief city of the most bitter enemies of his na- tion ; that "Jacob's well" was there ; that, weary with journeying, he sat uj)on its mouth waiting the return of his disciples, " who had gone into the city to buy meat ;" that he excited her as- tonishment by asking drink of her, " for the SCOPE OR DESIGN. 1G5 Jews have no dealings with the Samaritaus." Every one of these apparently trifling incidents has its use in illustratino; what follows : not one could be spared, without detracting from a com- position which, measured by a standard merely literary, has nothing to compare with it in all the ancient and modern classics. 2. Bij examhmig whether the tvriter has not himself mentioned his design. Thus the Evan- gelist John informs us what his purpose was in writing his gospel, John xx. 31. " These things are written that ye might believe upon Jesus, and that believing ye might have life through his name." Luke avows his design very clearly. He seems to have been dissatisfied with some of the current accounts which had been published of the life of Christ, and determines to give an accurate and orderly detail, the result of his own personal investigations. As he intimates his purpose to write xcc^£^7^g, i. e., "in order" — hav- ing carefully followed up every event, naqiyAo- lov^riY.oTi avM&EV axQi^ojg^ many judicious com- mentators infer that where the evangelists differ as to the order of facts, his account is to be pre- 166 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. ferred, and have accordingly made it the basis of their schemes of harmony. The author of Ecclesiastes is another instance of a sacred writer who states his object. The whole work is a commentary on the first verse, " Vanity of van- ities, saith the preacher ; all is vanity." It must be confessed that he sticks to his melancholy text most closely, and expounds it with a fear- ful energy. Occasionally a sacred writer gives his pur- pose not at the outset, but the close of his re- marks. A striking instance is found in Paul's epistle to the Romans. In the first three chap- ters he elaborately reviews the moral condition of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, in all ages, and shows that the whole world was guilty before God. In the 20th verse of the third chapter, we see him distinctly approaching his object : " Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." This was one point gained, and one of momentous inter- est to a mind anxiously inquiring, " How shall man be just with God ?" But he had a much SCOPE OR DESIGN. 167 higher aim than merely to prostrate the simier : he kills that he may make alive ; and after an eloquent discussion through the seven verses that follow, brings out in the 28th the great central truth of the Gospel with dialectic for- mality. " Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." 3dly. If both the expedients mentioned fail, we should read the whole book, marking the coher- ence of its various parts. Mr. Locke recom- mends the perusal of it at one sitting, quoting his own experience in favor of the plan. " I concluded it necessary," he says, (speaking of Paul's epistles,) " for the understanding of any one of them, often to read it all through at one sitting, and to observe, as well as I could, the design of his writing it. If the first reading gave me some light, the second gave me more ; and so I persisted on, reading constantly the whole epistle over at once, till I came to have a good general view of the apostle's main purpose in writing." The advice is excellent, suggest- ing the very method we employ in ascertaining the scope of other writings. If the title-page 168 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. leaves any doubt or darkness on the subject, we instinctively turn to tlie table of contents, or skim over the different chapters, before we engage in a critical perusal. We thus catch the author's drift — we see what he would be at — without some knowledge of which, reading is the most intolerable of all drudgery. RULE IV, Examijie well what precedes and follows the part to be expounded. This is called the context ; and is divided into the remote and immediate. The immediate is that part which stands in immediate proximity to the passage ; the remote may extend some distance backward and for- ward. The mind generally thinks in train, and connects its ideas together by well-known laws of association. This connection of thought, and the logical relation of one part of the series to another, is an invaluable key to the mind of a writer, except when he professedly deals in aphorisms, — as the author of the book of Prov- erbs, and Christ in part of his sermon on the CONTEXT. 1G9 mount. It is in some respects more important than the scope : the latter only gives me the author's general purpose, which does not forbid the admission of episodes, and topics merely collateral : We shall be cei'tain to err with re- gard to these, if we neglect the connection. We must be on our guard, however, against manufacturing a connection ; in other words, against putting a false construction on what precedes or follows, and then moulding the exposition in conformity with our own gloss, — a fault often committed. Falsehood can only beget falsehood. Nor, supposing that our con- struction is true, may we adjust our jjassage to it by any violation of the Usus Loquendi, or rules of grammar. In these cases, we must take what mio-ht seem the worst of two mean- ings — sacrificing contextual symmetry to the general la^vs of language. Thus limited, the rule that no explanation is to be admitted which does not suit the context, is of constant use. SupjDose me reading the 42d Psalm, and con- sidering the pathetic exclamation in the second verse : 170 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. My soul thirsteth for God, the living God : "When shall I come and appear before God ? My tears are my meat day and night, While it is said continually. Where is thy God ? My first impulse is to view it as the expression of a wish to die and enjoy the felicity of heav- en ; especially as the phrase, " seeing God," often refers to future blessedness. But a glance at the 4th verse shows that the pious monarch longed for restoration to the services of the earthly sanctuary, of which he had been de- prived by the persecutions of his son Absalom : When I think of this, I pour out my heart in tears. How I went with the multitude — went to the house of God, With jubilee and praise in a sacred, happy throng. The 110th Psalm describes the victorious progress of an illustrious prince greatly honored by God, and exalted to his right hand. The first three verses leave me in doul^t whether the poet speaks of David, or another and far greater j)ersonage, as the sitting at God's right hand may be figurative : Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Thy powerful sceptre Jehovah sends out of Zion : Rule in the midst of thv foes. CONTEXT. 171 But the 4tli verse settles the question : Jehovali hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art an everlasting priest Of the order of Melchisedec. David was uo priest, nor could any Hebrew monarch, assume the office without heaven-dar- ing profanity. The strange and (to the Jew) astounding phenomenon of a "priest upon a throne," directs us at once to David's Son and Lord. The application of this simple test will enable the plainest Christian to detect the Psalms called Messianic at a glance. They all embody in their representations such remark- able incidents and traits of personal character, as make it impossible to apply them without the grossest impropriety to any but the anointed of the Father. Let the 2d, 16th, 22d, 45th, and 72d, be brought to this touchstone ; noth- ing but arrant infidelity can resist the force of the argument. It may admit a doubt whether the celebrated description in Rom. vii. of the struggle between the " flesh and the spirit," refers to the true Christian or the unregenerate. .There are some 172 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. expressions in it which certainly agree best with the latter supj^osition. On the other hand, there are whole sentences which cannot be re- conciled with this hypothesis, and compel us to understand the apostle as describing the exer- cises of the Christian. In the 18th verse, it is clearly implied that the person described pos- sesses impulses and principles superior to those of unrenewed nature. " In me, that is, in rrnj fleshy dwelleth no good thing." In the 2 2d verse, he is said to " delight in the Law of God after the inner man ;" and in the 25th, he thanks God for ' ' his deliverance through Christ Jesus." Further, to entirely preclude the supposition that this deliverance is a new state^ following, and not contemporary with the struggle, he adds, " So then with the mind I serve the Law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin." Surely it is not in accordance with the tenor of scripture, as an excellent commentator observes, to describe in this way the exercises and char- acter of unholy men. Let us brino; to the contextual touchstone another passage — the well-known paragraph in CONTEXT. 173 Romans v., wliicli seems to assert a direct casual connection between Adam and Ms pos- terity. " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned : " By one man's offence death^-eigned by one :" " By the offence of one, judgment came upon all to con- demnation:" "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Pelagians affirm that all intended by these remarkable statements is, that Adam gave the first example of sinning, and that somehow his posterity walked in his steps. They compare the phraseology with ex- pressions like these : " By Sir Robert Walpole, bribery and corruption entered the British par- liament :" " By Lysander, luxury entered Spar- ta ;" which, according to them, only mean that the evils mentioned began with these persons. Without dwelling on the violence done to the words by this gloss, or the fact that their own phrases clearly denote not only a chronological but a causal connection, let the student look at the whole series of discourse that follows; in which the apostle, with an emphasis and ac- 174 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. cumulation of synonymous expressions whicli show Ilow intently liis mind was working witli the thought, draws a parallel between Adam and the Redeemer. If he does not mean to say that there was a similitude between them, in official character and relations, almost perfect, there is no meaning in language. The inference is irresistible. Christ was not the first who re- ceived salvation, but is the immediate author of it. In the same sense our guilty j)rogenitor is the immediate authorof sin and misery to our world. This attem^^t to explain away the plain mean- ing of scripture is sufficiently marked. That of the Socinians to evacuate the Epistle to the Hebrews of our Redeemer's priesthood and atonement, is yet more so. The priesthood of Jesus, they say, is a bold figure, merely denoting that he was a consecrated minister of God. His sacrifice consisted in the virtuous obedience which he yielded, and which might be so called, —not properly, but in a pretttj^ fanciful way, — because it was crowmed with a death of martyr- dom ! The apostle, then, through six mortal CONTEXT. 175 chapters, lias been hammering at a rough, un- couth fio-ure, and the result of all his learned labor is — absolutely nothing ! Hardly in all the annals of writing can be found an instance to compare with it, of the "montes parturiunt, nascetui' ridiculus mus." It would be idle to allege the context against such expounders. They grant every thing we say concerning its entire and perfect harmony with the doctrine of vicarious satisfaction ; all they ask us to allow is, that the whole book may be a metaphor run mad. We would rather doubt the perfect sani- ty of some of its expositors. These examples may suffice of the advantage derived from studying the context. It is un- happily much discouraged and impeded by the way in which our modern Bibles are printed. The fracture of great coherent masses into verses, is an unhappy arrangement. The read- er's attention is almost necessarily carried away from the flow and current of thous-ht, and fixed on an isolated proposition, whose true meaning depends on something not distinctly before his mind ; in consequence, he is very apt to treat 17 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. revelation as an immense collection of proverbs, and tlie majority of common readers actually so consider it. The custom of readino- the New Testament in this manner originated with Robert Stephens, the famous printer, who, having published edi- tions of it which met with great acceptance, determined to add a Concordance ; and for con- venience of reference chopped the text into its present form, — making it resemble more an auc- tion catalogue, than a civilized, Christian book. The mischief which it has caused in relation to the study of scripture is far greater than those sujipose, who have never reflected on this sub- ject. How ridiculous would a modern letter appear, ex. gr. Washington's Farewell Address, if mutilated in this savage mannei* ! Yet such is the effect of custom, that it scarcely excites notice, when performed on a writer who least of all can bear such an infliction, — the rapid, discursive, and exuberant Paul. Nor can we approve the j^ractice adopted by many preachers, of running into their pul|)its with a single sentence, or part of one, which CONTEXT. 177 tliey make their exclusive subject, not bestowing on the connection a word of notice, — unless they have been hurried in their 2:)reparations, and find it convenient to talk a little round it^ in an ex- tempore introduction. What would we think if we heard any other book pr^ected on in this way — a treatise on medicine, for instance, or on morals ? or, what would we think of a judge expounding in this way a legal statute ? The civil law has laid down an express canon on the subject with some tartness, as if indignant at the idea of such a practice: ^' Tiirpe est de lege judicare, tota lege non inspecta." Ministers are often heard to chide their people sharply, for the careless and unprofitable way in which they read the word of God ; but they would do well to ask, whether they are not themselves to blame in forming them to such wretched habits of pe- rusing it. When his Reverence appears before the people month after month, without in a single instance, perhaps, explaining the design, coherence, and argument of a paragraph con- taining only six verses, it is really too much to expect that honest John will spend his Sabbath 9 178 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. evenings in supplying the pastor's lack of ser- vice. The same evil prevails in the domain of con- troversial theology. Many allow themselves to be captivated by the mere sound of a phrase. It seems to suit their purpose in an argument ; incontinently they detach it from the paragraph to which it belongs, dress it up in high-sounding paraphrase, and send it forth " to root out, pull down and destroy" every thing that opposes. Examples without number could be given from the writings of all religious parties, even our own; for that many passages which Calvinists quote are utterly irrelevant, the slightest exam- ination shows. An instance of this is the cele- brated declaration in Jeremiah xxxi. 3 : " I have loved thee with everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee," which may be more properly translated thus, In days of old have I loved thee, Therefore will I prolong my goodness to thee, God is here assuring the ten tribes of deliver- ance and protection, on account of the love he bore them in former times, when with out- CONTEXT, 79 stretclied arm lie brouo;Lt them from the land of Egypt. Nothing is said of the eternity of his pm-poses, or their accomplishment in the con- version of the elect ; if applied to this subject, it must be in the way of pious accommodation. The same is true of another favorite passage, Matthew xxii. 14 : " Many are called, but few are chosen." The whole context and scope shows that the Redeemer is not speaking of sov- ereign election, but rather stating the fact, that while all are invited to the Gospel feast, there are com23aratively few admitted, in consequence of neglecting to secure the necessary qualifica- tions. On the other hand, our Arminian brethren quote, with as little shadow of reason, 1 Cor- inthians xii. T, to prove universal grace. The proposition that " a dispensation of the spirit is given to every man to profit ^vithal," sounds in- deed bravely. But the sound is all ; the whole argument shows that the Apostle is speaking of supernatural gifts of the spirit, and is address- ing church-members exclusively. When we apply our Rule to interpretation, 180 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. some caution is necessary in consequence of the context being occasionally broken by a paren- thesis. In the New Testament these are very frequent, especially with Paul, whose impetuous genius often starts aside to embody a vivid concep- tion or glowing sentiment that suddenly kindled in his mind, and which he did not allow himself leisure to weave into the general texture of his discourse. We have a beautiful example in 2 Timothy i. 16, 18, where the short prayer in the beginning of the 18th verse is evidently an extempore burst of grateful emotion, and the words must be enclosed in brackets : " But when Onesiphorus was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me, {the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day^ and in how many things he minis- tered to me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well." A more striking instance is in Ephesians iii., where the first and fourteenth verses must be imrnediately united, the parenthesis consist- ing of not less than thirteen. Attention to this wonderfully enlightens some of his dark sayings ; among others, that CONTEXT. 181 in 1 Timothy v. 23 : " Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." The Apostle is in the midst of a solemn and weighty exhortation to Tim- othy, in relation to ordaining candidates for the ministry. In the 22d verse he says, " Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of oth- er men's sins: keep thyself pure." In the 24th he carries out the thought, stating that some men's disqualifications were open and manifest to all ; others' were more secret, and followed af- ter them. There is thus a comj^lete connection between the 22d and 24th verses ; and the ques- tion rises, how the Apostle comes to press the matter of wine-drinking directly between the two, when the thou2:ht was so foreio:n to his whole subject ? It is manifestly a parenthesis. In the midst of his directions concerning ordi- nation, he remembers that his young friend was of feeble constitution, and liable to severe at- tacks of dyspepsia. It is in his mind to pre- cribe a glass — not of syrup, but of good, gener- ous wine, which is known to possess great virtue in such complaints. No sooner thought than 182 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. done. Without losing a moment, lie tosses it into tlie middle of his argument, where it stands a fine specimen of the noble artlessness of the great Apostle. Dr. Paley builds on this cir- cumstance a strong argument for the authenticity of the epistle. It scarcely would have entered the mind of an impostor to exhibit Paul as commending wine in a grave, apostolical epistle ; much less would he have introduced the advice in so strange and improbable a manner. ETJLE V. We must knotu the character, age^ sect, nation, and other peculiarities of the ivriter. Every hu- man being has a character — a certain something which distinguishes him from others, giving a hue to all his thoughts and modes of expressing them. This must be known, in order to his be- ing understood. The inspired writers are no exception to the rule. They who imagine that the Holy Spirit so possessed their minds that they became mere automata in his hands, and CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 183 poured out words and thoughts as they were successively poured in — like so many water- pipes of a cistern, betray profound ignorance of the subject. Some such crude fancies were en- tertained in former times, and are probably not extinct. They doubtless originated in a vague notion, that the more entirely human agency was excluded from the doctrine of inspiration, the higher honor was bestowed on the Divine Spirit : and the etymology of the word " inspi- ration" had also its effect. It originally and properly signified, a breathing in^ and suggested the dark and mysterious conception of an effect produced on the thinking substance of a man, not unlike the inflation of a bladder- — "magnam cui mentem animumque, Delius inspirat vates." But inspiration has nothing in common with its etymology: it simply expresses the idea of su- pernatural assistance and guidance, in the com- munication to mankind of truths previously unknown. Those who were honored with it were enabled to speak, act, and write as divine messengers. Yet they were not puppets, acted 184 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. on hy a physical and compelling force from without, but living, personal agents, in full pos- session of all the faculties with which they had been endowed by their Creator — with percep- tion, memory, consciousness, will ; and the en- ergy of the Holy Ghost wrought no greater vio- lence on tlieir minds in the exercise of these powers, than is wrought by his ordinary opera- tion on the hearts of believers in every age of the church. It is not our business to give the philosophy of this " preestablished harmony" between agen- cies so different, nor to speculate on the mode in which they were combined for the production of a single result. As interpreters, we state the fact — not explain it : and the fact certainly is, that no men are more distino^uished from each other by strong mental idiosyncrasies, nor any who give more decided evidence that their own spirits performed an imjiortant office in compo- sition. In the author of the book of Proverbs, we see before us the grave, sententious, digni- fied monarch, whose profound knowledge of human nature, and sparkling gems of wisdom. CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 185 made his name celebrated througliout the East. Amos is always the strong, bold, but somewhat unpolished herdsman of Tekoah. The vehement Ezekiel, standing with dishevelled hair and roll- ing eye, in the midst of his expressive symbols, never suffers us to mistake him for Isaiah, the sublime, imaginative, tasteful courtier of Heze- kiah. The same with the plaintive, tender Jere- miah — the contemplative John — the argumen- tative, glowing Paul. It is an old, but, A^dth proper explanation, perfectly true remark, origi- nally made by Jerome, that " revelation consists in thought, not in words or external dress : nee putemus in verbis scripturam evangelii esse, sed in sensu." We insult the Holy Ghost, by suppos- ing him unable to accommodate himself to the mode of thinking and phraseology of those whom he honored with his influence — that when he made the prophet, he was forced to unmake the man. When we read the Epistle to the Romans, therefore, we must remember that we are con- versing with a finished gentleman of the old school; a scholar brought up at the feet of 9* 186 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Gamaliel, a powerful but a rapid reasoner, de- lighting in ellipses, digressions, repetitious, bold figures, and pregnant expressions suggesting more than meets the ear — fond of illustrating his subject by Old Testament ideas, even when he intends making no use of them in argument ; and above all, that we are conversing with him who, more than any other apostle, was deeply penetrated with the glorious catholicity and abounding grace of the Gospel ! In reading James, we must think of the stern, high-souled moralist, in whom the ethical element of Chris- tianity seems to have taken the deepest root ; who, while with adoring faith he beheld " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," never lost from his view the awful form of that "eternal law," which spoke in thunder from Sinai, and yet speaks in milder tones, though with the same commanding authority, to every child of Adam. John, in his writings, seems to be still clinging to his Master's bosom. Love to the person of his Redeemer is evidently his engrossing sentiment. No one can doubt, apart from every argument contained in other parts CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 187 of Scripture, that John believed him to be di- vine. His glory as the uncreated Logos — that glory which he had with the Father before the world was, a few scattered rays of which had been seen through the veil of his humiliation, is the great thought with which his soul holds constant communion, raised above every other object— like the eagle calmly reposing in mid heaven, and gazing at the sun ! He who gives no attention to these things, and does not take pains to catch the distinctive peculiarities of the sacred writers, commits the same kind of blun- der with that of the man who reads Milton's Paradise Lost, and Addison's Essays in the Spectator, yet sees no difference between them except in the length of the lines. There is danger of overlooking another im- portant difference between the sacred writers in the measure of light they possessed, not only on doctrinal but moral subjects. Many are afraid of looking at this fact and using it in a free, unfettered way, from their slavery to the crude notion referred to in our remarks on in- spiration. It is viewed by them as something 188 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. absolute^ not capable of degrees or measurement, nor having any relation or proportion to tlie time, social position, and other circumstances of the individual. Thus they will not scruple to justify the base treachery of Jael, the wife of Heber, because Deborah the "prophetess" ex- tols it in her eucharistic song as a noble exploit, — not adverting to the fact, that if inspired on the occasion, which we do not gainsay, she retained all the characteristics of her countrymen, their ideas and even passions, through which she spoke to the national heart much more powerfully than if she had taught ex-cathedra the purest and most exquisitely refined Christian ethics. There is something grotesque in the supposition, that the divine afflatus lifted her from her true place as the representative woman of that period, and imparted sentiments which had not been wrought into the texture of society ten centu- ries after. As well w^e may suppose her calling the family together when the news arrived of Barak's victory, and singing one of Watts' hymns to a modern psalm tune. We must over- look her comings short in the department of CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 189 the higher morals, and remember that she was a glorious adaptation to the epoch in which she lived, filling her niche immeasurably better than if she had reached a more elevated plane of thinking. The same principle must be applied to the imprecatory prayers in the book of Psalms, and elsewhere. Reverence for good men, whom we believe to have been moved by the Spirit of God, should not stand in the way of an honest avowal, that however in keeping with the bel- ligerent and proscriptive character of the old ceconoray, placed as it was by divine wisdom in irreconcilable feud with all the world, they indi- cate a people not yet emerged from a state of comparative rudeness and semi-barbarism, "I hate them with perfect hatred ; I count them as enemies." " Let the iniquities of his fathers be numbered, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out." '^ Happy shall he be who shall take thy little ones and dash them against the stones" — are sentiments that now would not be tolerated by any assembly within the bounds of Christendom. Whether with old Glassius 190 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. we determine them to be simply prophecies, the imperative being used for the future indicative ; or explain them as bold figures, in using which the Psalmist goes out of himself, and personates the Deity announcing his purpose to visit sin upon the transgressor ; or hold that the divine inspirer did not choose to raise the human author unnaturally and by a needless anach- ronism above the time in which he lived, which is the best solution ; one thing is clear, that we must not attempt to defend them as le- gitimate expressions of Christian feeling under any imaginable circumstances. Our glorious religion looks back with something like wonder at these old, " beggarly elements," from which she has been emancipated — breathing a spirit of fine, universal humanity, that the good men of former times little thought of A caution on this subject is not superfluous ; for we lately came across an excellent book, newly published, which maintains that the Old Testament impre- cations " are at this day now and then the most appropriate language of the church — a portion of her immutable liturgy, in which the ethical CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 191 want finds its true relief." For the sake of his reputation, we hope that the "nows and thens,'* when the able but somewhat too eloquent wri- ter is pressed by this "ethical want," are very- far apart. Stephen seems to have used a very different prayer-book, and so did the Son of God upon the cross. It is important, also, to note the different kinds of composition employed. Some of the writers were poets, and must be interpreted ac- cording to the laws of poetry. Their bold tropes must not be turned into sober, matter- of-fact realities, — as is done by the Millenarians, who read Isaiah nearly as they would Black- stone's Commentaries on the British Constitu- tion. Ezekiel is not Luke, — nor is Matthew the publican David, singing one of the sweet odes of Zion to the music of his harp. Historians are to be treated as historians, not as po- ets, or rhetoricians: the accounts of miracles given in our four Gospels, must therefore be taken to the letter. No books in the world bear more decided evidence that their authors intended to give simple and perspicuous narra- 192 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. tives of events as they actually occurred. The principle must not be tolerated for a moment, of explaining them away, by doing violence to the plain meaning of language, and to all the laws which are applied to other historical com- positions. Yet it has been sanctioned by great names, especially in Germany. Grave divines are found, who insist that there is not one mira- cle in the Gospels ; the events which seem mi- raculous being entirely natural, but exaggerated and embellished by the warm fancies of the people among whom they occurred. Only strip, they say, the Evangelists of this semi-poetic drapery, and the business of exposition will go on delightfully, Moses fares, if possible, still worse ; as they turn him into an allegorist, or re- citer of mythological fables. The first ten chap- ters of Genesis contain about as large a body of real truth as can pass without inconvenience through the eye of a needle* — being made up of * The number of honest. Christian behevers in the world, com- pared with that of heathen and those among us who despise all religious faith, is so small, that we are strongly tempted to keep many often ranked in tlie class alluded to within the pale, and shall therefore offer a modest apology for them. The notion that CHARACTER, ETC., OF THE WRITERS. 193 old stories and scraps of song, which mean noth- ing, or anything, that a lively fancy may snggest. The Christian student need not take great pains to refute this scarcely disguised infideli- there are representations in scripture having a mythical tinge, that is to say, representations not precisely according with the naked truth of things, does not in all cases determine its advocates to be non-believers, though we may apprehend that it places them in a false position. They may think thus : Events occurring in very ancient times among a people not far advanced in science and civiHzation, and with whom imagination and passion predominate over the reason,— disposing to hyperbole, and other vehement forms of expression, are never recorded with the dry precision of a modern statistician. Not being written down at the time, but committed to oral tradition, they necessarily assume a poetic or semi-poetic character, not only for the reason mentioned, but to assist the memory, that could not retain a large accumulation of facts without the aid of melody and rhythm. In this way, the early history of all nations that possess a history has been pre- served from oblivion ; and they see no reason for making that of the Abrahamic race an exception, while they cordially allow the immeasurable superiority of its annals to those of every other peo- ple, in consequence of the special care extended to them by the supreme Being, who had great purposes to execute in the world by this remarkable nation. Accordingly they discover something of the mythical, in other words, the natural and human element in these fascinating old narratives, combined with all the sub- stantial truth that could be desired ; nor do they find any difficul- ty in drawing from them the highest religious profit, though scru- pling whether a serpent spoke, a deluge covered the tops of the highest mountains, the causes of the dispersion of mankind were concentred in a single incident at Babel, and two rival nations had quite such an origin as the history of Lot ascribes to them, 194 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. ty, wliicli does not openly avow itself infidel, merely because its advocates earn their bread by a profession of Cliristianity ; the most of them being either teachers of Christian Theol- ogy, or pastors of Christian churches. Such &G. If called to give an opinion on this question, we would think more than twice or three times before subscribing to a sentiment apparently so full of danger, and which, if it does not attack the citadel, seems to take away one of its outworks. But it is not necessarily a denial of the faith, and its advocates should be rea- soned with calmly and fraternally, as men unfortunate in not standing on the higher ground, but who in other respects may be as good Christians as ourselves, and therefore not to be pushed down into the ranks of the enemy. It is easy to make a man an infidel by stoutly insisting that he is one, — as animals are occasion- ally made rabid by frightened people, who raise the cry on them, which it would seem that the unfortunates soon believe in, them- selves, and become what others think them. The design of these remarks is not to retract a syllable of what is said in the text, but simply qualify it by the concession, that some whom we may suspect of a tendency to the way of thinking condemned, but who abhor the length to which it is carried, are not to be sum- marily dealt with, or have their memories refreshed with cer- tain clauses of the Athanasian creed. It is a good rule, that the young interpreter must not allow himself to be easily panic-strick- en, or to brand as fatal heresy every deviation from traditional ideas, even though he fears that it may lead to consequences far from harmless. We all have our mental idiosyncrasies and standing- ground, which it would not be safe to take away from us. An opinion (we speak of non-fundamentals) may be very bad for me, and yet necessary to save the soul of my neighbor, — as the same drug sends one man to his grave, and almost raises another out of it. Both pulpit and writing-desk often forget this caution. COMMON SENSE. 195 interpretations do not deserve the name. They are feats of jugglery and legerdemain, and their authors, by their irreverence for things sacred, show that they are not over-burdened with that rationalism to which they make pretension. The true rationalist always trembles when he stands, or even suspects that he stands, in the presence of God ! He cannot trifle with such a book as the Bible ! He cannot sport with a volume, the falsehood of which, if proved, turns him over to the beasts, and deprives him of his last stake, as a candidate for the glories of immortality. BULE VI. In expounding Scripture, let there he a con- stant appeal to the tribunal of common sense. Language is not the invention of metaphysicians, or convocations of the wise and learned. It is the common blessing: of mankind, framed for their mutual advantaore in their intercourse with each other. Its laws, therefore, are popular, not philosophical — being founded on the general 196 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. laws of tliouglit whicli govern tlie whole mass of mind in the community. Now, however men may differ from each other, there are certain universal notions, plain and obvious principles of knowledge, according to which speech is reg- ulated : when we try a work by these, we bring it to the standard of " common sense." There is occasion for it every moment. Scarcely will we hear in a long and serious conversation between the best speakers, a sentence which does not need some modification or limitation, in order that we may not attribute to it more or less than was intended. Nor is the operation at all difficult. We make the correction in- stantly, with so little cost of thought, that we would be tempted to call it instinct, if we did not know that many of our perceptions, which seem intuitive, are the work of habit and educa- tion. It woukl be an exceedingly strange thing if the Bible, the most popular of all books, com- posed by men for the most part taken from the multitude, addressed to all, and on subjects equally interesting to all, were found written in language to be interpreted on different princi- COMMON SENSE. 197 pies. But, in poiut of fact, it is not. Its style is eminently, and to a remarkable degree, tliat which we would expect to find in a volume de- signed by its gracious Author to be the peopled book — abounding in all those kinds of inaccuracy which are sprinkled through ordinary discourse, h3q:)erboles, enallages, and loose catechrestical expressions, whose meaning no one mistakes, though their deviation from plurtib^ occasionally makes the small critic sad. In such cases we reject everything incompatible with evident truth ; assuming that the Bible could never in- tend to contradict our reason, or teach in any possible case that two and two are five. We shall give a few illustrations. 1st. It never teaches doctrines refuted by the testimony of the senses. Thus, when David says that " he is poured out like water, and all his bones are out of joint, that his heart is melted in the midst of his bowels," we perceive instantly that a literal pouring out and melting cannot be meant, as nothing of the kind has been ever witnessed. When the Redeemer, in the institu- tion of the Supper, declares of the bread, that 198 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. it is liis body ; and of the wine, that it is his blood, we necessarily understand him to be speaking figuratively and symbolically. My senses distinctly see, taste, smell, and feel, that the sacramental elements are nothing but real bread and wine. If the Scriptures really taught the popish doctrine of transubstantiation, they would declare a falsehood, which would be quite sufficient by itself to destroy their authority. The principle of believing a doctrine in direct opposition to the clear evidence of the senses, is destructive of all evidence. If my senses may deceive me, how shall I convince myself that I ever saw a book called the Bible, or read it, or ever heard of such a being as Jesus Christ? The delusion practised on me at the Lord's table, whei'e I am eating and drinking the real body and blood of a dead man, while tasting and smelling bread and wine, may be part of a most extensive scheme of imposture, to which no lim- its can be assigned. 2d. Its statements must he compared with the 'results of experience and observation. No one who reads the command, "Be perfect, even as COMMON SENSE. 199 your Father in heaven is perfect," with reference at the same time to the state of the world in all ages, can deny that it is to be taken with a grain of allowance. Let ns aim at perfection, but not dream of attaining it— experience amply proving that there is no man who sinneth not. In Mat- thew X. 34j Christ tells his disciples, that "he came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." History is the best commentary on this some- what harsh expression. The Gospel occasioned discords in families and nations, by inducing some to accept its guidance, while others rejected it : these frequently led to persecutions, which w^ere the sword alluded to in the text. 3d. Passages must be harmonized with estab- lished facts in scieiice. Truth is always in ac- cordance with herself Her two great books, Nature and Revelation, cannot be at variance, though the latter seldom trims her phraseology into conformity with the starched definitions of science ; for which every man of taste and dis- cernment likes her the better. The expressions therefore which represent the earth as at rest — as being huilt on the waters — as having hounds '^00 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. and limits — aucl tlie suii as movmg round it — are not to be l^rouglit in collision ^vitli astronomy. Tlie representations of God as coming to a place — deserting it — asking questio7is — grieving — re- penting — must be explained consistently with the first elements of natural religion, which teach that he is a pure Spirit, omnipresent, all-know- ing, and above all change or perturbation. Lactantius, a Latin Father, must have lost his compass entirely, when he undertook to prove from the Scriptures that God has passions — thus contradicting a plain and evident j^rinciple of reason. Whether the sacred interpreter will be re- quired to modify the old expositions of the first twenty verses of the first chapter of Genesis, in conformity with the decisions of Geology, is, in the advanced and advancing state of that sci- ence, not difiicult to answer. The proof of our earth having existed long before the creation of man, and of a succession of mighty changes hav- ing occurred which required ages to their com- pletion, rests on so many well established facts, that it would be sheer folly and absurdity to COMMON SENSE. v 201 deny the conclusion — especially when the pas- sage admits of no less than t^YO constructions in perfect harmony with it. God never inspired men to teach their fellow-men the arts and sci- ences, nor did he ever furnish those whom he inspired for other purposes with a single scien- tific fact above the level of their age. Their mission was to impart moral and religious truth : in all other respects they thought with the vul- gar, and with the vulgar they spake. Had it been otherwise, Keligion would have suffered a calamity, instead of gaining a vantage-ground. It would have lost its virgin sanctity and eleva- tion above the smoke and stir of earthly pur- suits ; it would have been mixed up with the endless revolutions and vicissitudes which sci- ence has experienced in different ages ; and the human mind, chained down to a blind, unreason- ing faith, would have lost every motive to the vigorous exertion of its excellent and almost divine faculties. Nor is this all. Had the ideas of the sacred writers l^een in advance of those entertained by their contemj)oraries, they would not have been understood — or if understood, 10 202 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. excited only wonder and ridicule ; in which case, scant favor would have been shown to their higher revelations. Happily, they are relieved from all responsi- bility by the wise arrangement, which has com- mitted the book of creation into the hands of other servants. Men of science (if it be true science) are the apostles of nature ; whose an- nouncements are entitled to the same confidence which we profess toward the apostles of grace. The expression is not too strong. We affirm, that the truths daily elicited by the crucible, the telescope, and the air-pump, the galvanic pile, and the geologist's hammer, are perfectly independent of anything laid down in the Bible ; and must not be sacrificed to any pretended necessity of giving it a meaning at variance with these truths. If Paul were on earth, and as- serted that water was a simple and homogeneous substance, we should not believe him, though he accompanied his assertion with a miracle — because no miracle would Ije so great as that which he requires us to believe, viz., that a substance is simple, which the chemist has proved COMMON SENSE. 203 to be a compound, by actually reducing it to its elements and forming it out of tliem hefore our eijes ! Nothing then can be more ill-judged than taking advantage of a few artless exj^res- sions of the sacred writers, so redolent of their simple age, and entirely beyond the circle of their inspired ideas, to raise the hue and cry of "infidelity" against those who, independently of Scripture, but with unfeigned respect for its religious authority, pursue their inquiries into nature. Nothing also is more mischievous ; for it generates the very infidelity which excites so much apparent alarm. Great allowance, however, should be made for religious teachers. The important and spir- itual duties of their calling allow little time for excursions into other men's fields of labor ; and consequently, in secular branches of knowledge, they are apt to be found lagging behind the age. Now it is extremely difficult for such, to feel the whole force of a scientific statement. We may yawningly admit it : but the belief is not a necessity^ and a fate to which we submit as to the great law of death. Hence, when the 204 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. announcement seems to oppose some of our time-liallowed j^rejudices, we refuse all compro- mise ; and proceed to denounce it with tlie thundering energy of a man who has detected a black consj)iracy to rob him of his Bible. 4. The Bible cannot he at issue with any of our intuitive moral judgments. If it recom- mends the " cutting off a right hand and pluck- ing out a right eye," it must not be taken to mean bodily mutilation. Our life and members are a sacred trust committed to us, which we dare not trifle with. When Christ says, " If any man hate not his father and mother and wife and children, he cannot be my disciple," he is using a strong hyperbole to denote the greater love which we should bear himself. Our moral sense revolts at the idea of hatred to parents, and no exposition can be tolerated that would sanction a feeling so detestable. In Luke x. 4, he commands his disciples " not to salute (dur- ing one of their missionary journeys) any by the way," — a precept which our Quaker breth- ren obey to the letter. But Christ could never have intended to inculcate rudeness ; COMMON SENSE. 205 it must therefore mean, " Do not lose time by holding unnecessary intercourse with your friends ; use all expedition in journeying to the scene of your labors." Equally absurd is their well known exposition of the precept, " When smitten on the one cheek, turn the other also ;" as if the Saviour disapproved of self-defence. On a similar princij^le, we explain those pas- sages which exhibit the prophets as doing by command of God, things inconsistent with natu- ral propriety. Hosea, for example, is com-* manded to marry two impure women ; Ezekiel to lie on his left side a year and a month, look- ing at an iron pan — then turn over to his right side, on which he must lie forty additional days — eating during the whole period a compost of lentiles, beans, barley, millet, and fitches, pre- pared in a manner most decidedly offensive. We affirm boldly, that the expositors who con- sider these and others which might be men- tioned, as real transactions, dishonor the word of God, while they betray a want of taste that is astounding. Beyond all doubt, they were 206 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. symbolical representations that passed before the Prophet's miud in his inspired ecstacy. The rule under our notice, requiring us to try expressions by the standard of common sense, is of great use in explaining a class of propositions very frequent in Scripture, which seem to have no limit in theii* application, but must be restricted by the mind of the reader. They are thrown out by the writer with the noble carelessness of one who takes a strong view of a subject, and determines to strike with it — not caring for the great swarm of little huts that invariably rise before the mind of a feeble thinker, and darken the principal idea. We shall add a few examples. Absolute expressions often denote only what usually takes place. Solomon tells us in Pro- verbs xxii. 6, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not de- part from it." This is not always true : Odd as it may seem, Solomon himself was an excep- tion. Yet it is true generally : a wise and pious education gives good reason to expect the divine blessing. Sometimes they only denote the ten- COMMON SENSE. 20T dency of a thing. Pro verbs xv. 1, "A soffc answer turnetli away wratli." It is calculated to produce this happy effect. Paul declares that the " goodness of God leadeth to repent- ance." With submission to the Apostle — not always. Too often it corrupts and hardens. At other times they only indicate duty — right — official obligation. Thus Solomon says, Proverbs xvi. 10, "A divine sentence is in the lips of the king, his mouth transgresseth not in judgment." Peter in like manner says of the civil magistrate, " He is the minister of God for good, a terror to evil workers, and a praise to them that do well." Such declarations show what he is de jure : the de facto is quite anoth- er question, as Peter himself experienced shortly after ; being put to death by one of these divine ministers in the most cruel manner. The same principle we aj^ply to those statements which exhibit the Redeemer as dying for " all " — for " every man " — for the " sins of the world." They contain a precious charter of privilege — right — and consequent obligation to accept him. He is by office the world'' s saviour: all may 208 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. enjoy the blessings which he hath purchased, and are excluded simply by unbelief. Occasionally, we find assertions broadly made that refer only to external character and profes- sion. Paul describes apostates as counting " the blood of the covenant 'wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing." They were so in appearance. Having avowed their attachment before the church and the world, they were recognized as true disciples and heirs of the promise. Yet of such, another Apostle declares, ' ' They went out from us because they were not of us : for if they had been of us, they never would have departed." So, all credible profes- sors are called "saints" and "holy." The sacred writers always treat them as being what they ought to be. This practice of naming things from their appearance is quite common. The imj^ostor Hananiah, for instance, is called in Jeremiah xxviii. 1, a " Prophet." False pre- tenders to piety are, in Matthew ix. 13, called righteous : "I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Paul, in 1 Corin- thians i. 21, names the preaching of the Gospel COMMON SENSE. 209 " foolisliness," because it was thought such by the haughty Greek. There are other ways in which propositions stated absolutely, must be limited. Indeed, so various are they, that no definite rule can be laid down which will apply to every case : each should receive the modification dictated by com- mon sense. The precept, for instance, requiring us " not to revenge ourselves," forbids the tak- ing private vengeance, not judicial punishment. Christ, in Matt. v. 33, commands us to " swear not." The connection shows us that he refers to unnecessary and extrajudicial oaths ; but, in- dependently of arguments from the context, we might safely assume that he never could have intended to nullify an institution almost coeval with the human race, and which he sanctioned by personal example. We are commanded in like manner to ' ' take no thought for the mor- row " — to "judge not, that we be not judged " — to " pray without ceasing " — expressions which it is scarcely possible to misunderstand — though it would not be safe to stake much on the asser- tion ; many betraying a perversity of thinking 10* 210 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. where Scripture is concerned, that on any other subject would be ludicrous. The Wrongheads in theology are still a numerous generation, though we hope decreasing. EULE t^II. Study attentively the tropes afid figures of the sacred writings. These are deviations from nat- ural simplicity of expression; one idea being substituted for another, and made to rej)resent it on the ground of some relation between them ; as when I call a warrior a lion ; compare the march of an undisciplined army to the flight of a noisy flock of cranes, or address a dead or absent person as if possessing life. They abound in all languages, and in many instances are the very language of nature. The least excitement of feeling impels a man of ordinary fancy to express his thought, not by the word directly appropriated to it, but hj some acces- sory idea, which he prefers on account of its greater vivacity and beauty. Thus, old age is TROPES AND FIGURES. 211 the evening of life ; youth the 7norning ; error is blindness ; a great statesman the pillar of the commonwealth. The fields smile — the stones cry mit — the heavens weep. No one fails to perceive the superior liveliness and brilliancy of such modes of expression. Nor will their frequent occurrence in the Bible surprise us, when we consider that much of it is poetry, and its birth-place the imagina- tive East. Its figures are not only numerous, but exceedingly bold — sometimes even startling to an occidental ear and a taste formed on clas- sic models. " The blood of Abel cries from the ground." " God makes drunk his arrows with blood." " The heavens celebrate the praises of Jehovah." " The floods clap their hands." " When Israel came out of Egypt, the sea saw it and fled, Jordan was driven back, the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." Such is the glowing language that meets us in every page, and justifies the remark that it is by far the richest volume of fancy in our litera- ture. The tropes which occur most frequently, are the following : — 212 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 1. Metonymy. This denotes the substitution of one word for another, where the thoughts are closehj conjoined and rise up together in the mind, though there be no proper resemblance between them. Such are the ideas of cause and effect — subject and attribute — container and contained — sign and thing signified. The cause is put for the effect. Thus, the Holy Spirit is j)ut for the gifts and influence of the Spirit. 1 Thess. v. 19, "Quench not the Spirit." Luke xi. 13, "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Rev. i. 10, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day," i. e., a state of mind caused by the Spirit. In the same sense Jesus was " led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil:" he went there, under a divine prompting and imjDulse. Parents are sometimes put for their posterity, as Judah for the Jews ; and in Ezek. xxxiv. 23, David is used for Messiah, his promised son and successor to his throne : " I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant DavidJ^ Frequently the converse of our rule TROPES AND FIGURES. 213 takes place — tlie effect being put for the cause. Christ is called " our life," because he is its author. " He is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption:" e. i., God has constituted him the source of all those blessings. In Hebrews vi. 1, the Apostle calls sinful works " dead." In what sense are they dead ? Some reply, because they have no moral principle or vitality in them : but this is too weak. They are probably so called, meto- nymically, because they lead to death. In Kom. vii. 7, Paul asks, " Is the law sin ?" he means to inquire whether it produces sin. The container is put for the contained. A table denotes the food placed on it : " Let their table become a snare." A cup stands for the liquor it contains: 1 Cor. x. 16, "The cup of blessing which we bless." Heaven, for God himself. Hence the often recurring phrase, " kingdom of heaven," applied to the new dis- pensation of Messiah. There is no direct allu- sion in it to the heavenly state, but simply to its divine origin : in other places it is expressly called the kingdom of God, Matt. xix. 24, Luke 214 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. xiii. 29. House signifies the famihj residing in it. Gen. vii. 1, " Enter tliou and all thy house into the ark." This is its meaning in Ex. i. 21, which states that because the " midwives feared God, he made them houses." If the idea of giving two midwives a pair of houses be a lit- tle odd, there is nothing strange in Divine Providence rewarding their kindness to the families of his people, by giving them large and flourishing families of their own. On this use of the word, Paedobaptists found one of their strongest arguments for infant baptism. It is contended that the "houses" which the Apostles baptized, must have included all of the family, young as well as old — such being the way in which the term is uniformly em- ployed. The sign for the thing signified ; as a sceptre or shepherd's staff for power. To "lift up the hand" is to swear: "to bow the knee" is to do homage : to " put on sackcloth " is to mourn. Baptism is by a like metonymy identified with the moral renovation which it symbolizes. The neglect of this figure led the ancient Fathers^ TROPES AND FIGURES. 216 who are followed by many in the present day, to hold that baptism was itself regeneration — • founding their opinion on the words of Christ to Mcodemus, ' ' except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God ;" and the language of Paul, Tit. iii. 5, " he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." From these expressions they infer, that a positive renewing grace is actually communicated to the subject of the ordinance, and with it a complete for- giveness of sin previously committed. Were we believers in this doctrine, we should spend a considerable part of our time in marvelling at the singular taste of the Apostle Paul, who declined administering baptism, except in a few extraordinary cases ; and even thanks God that he had regenerated none but Crispus, Gains, and the household of Stephanus, 1 Cor. i. 16. The same Apostle, however, in another place, ex- pressly claims the honor of having begotten them, though he had no agency in their bap- tism; 1 Cor. iv. 15, "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." Equally 216 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. strange is it, tliat om* blessed Lord should have declined to perform a rite which, for the stu- pendous effects produced by it on the corrupt and darkened mind, infinitely surpassed all his miracles on the body ! The doctrine seems, on other accounts also, really incredible ; and we deem it far more reasonable to suppose that moral renovation is coupled with baptism in the passages quoted above, because of the sacra- mental and symbolical relation between them. As in Acts vii. 8, circumcision is called the " Covenant," because it was the sign of the Covenant: so baptism is the "washing of re- generation," because it is the visible token of it, on the application of which, a man becomes accredited as a citizen of the great spiritual commonwealth, which Christ has washed in his blood. Frequently, a sentiment or action is used for the object with which it is conversant. Faith sig- nifies not the helief, but the doctrine believed: " Contend earnestly for the faith." Hope stands for Christ, the great object of hope : Col. i. 27, "Christ, the hope of glory." Desire, for the TROPES AND FIGURES. 217 thing desired: Ezek. xxiv. 16, ** Behold I take away tlie desire of thine eyes [the prophet's wife] with a stroke." Thus Christ may be called "the desire of the nations," on account of the earnest longing for a Saviour, and an actual exjDectation of one about to appear, which preceded his advent. The passage in Haggai, however, where the expression is used, will hardly bear an immediate reference to the Mes- siah. The context, as well as certain grammatical considerations, proves that the treasures of the Gentiles are meant, which the prophet says shall be brought in great abundance to adorn the second temple. That the whole paragraph contains a prophecy of Christ is almost certain ; but nothino; of that kind is involved in this particular phrase. 2d. Synecdoche is the substitution of a whole for the part, or a part for the whole. Of the first kind, the following are examj^les. " The world" denotes sometimes the Roman Empire, which was a very small portion of it. " Augustus decreed that the whole world should be taxed." " All" is put for a single individual. Thus 218 INTERPEETATION OF SCRIPTURE. it is said of King Joasli, tliat his servants slew him for the blood of the sons of Jehoida, the priest, 2 Chron. xxiv. 25. But it appears from the 20th verse, that Joash had killed but one son, the Prophet Zechariah. In Judges xii. 7, it is said that Jephtha was "buried in the cities of Gilead." He could be buried of course only in one. The neglect of this synecdoche led some Jewish commentators to invent the strange fable, that to punish him for the sacrifice of his daughter, his body was chop]3ed into pieces, and a part interred in each of the principal cities. Sometimes all is equivalent to many. " All Jerusalem went out to John the Baj^tist." The devil showed to our Redeemer " all the kins:- doms of the earth and their glory." At^ others, it denotes all kinds : Acts x. 12. Peter saw a great sheet, " in which were [literally] all four- footed beasts of the field." Our translators have rendered the expression more intelligible, but in so doing forsaken the original, as they have done also in translating Matt. iv. 23, where the Greek says that Christ " healed all sickness and disease among the peoj)le." All manner of TROPES AND FIGURES. 219 sickness is undoubtedly tlie idea intended. On this synecdochical use of the word, those who contend that in no sense can Christ be said to die for the non-elect found their explications of the numerous passages objected to their view. Nothing more is meant, they say, than that he died for "all kinds of men." Happily, these gentlemen are themselves a synecdoche — and, we trust, a small one — of the party to which they belong. Calvinism can boast of a dif- ferent class of expositors, among whom is found Calvin himself — than whom few use stronger language, in describing the magnificent ful- ness and universality of the gracious provisions of the Gospel. The part is put for the whole ; as in Acts xxvii. 37, "There were in the ship two hundi'ed souls." The soul here comprehends the entire man. Many is substituted for all : Dan. xii. 2, ' ' Many that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever- lasting contempt ;" the prophet certainly does not mean to describe a partial resurrection in these remarkable words. Kom. v. 19, "By one 220 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. man's disobedience many were made sinners ;" who the many are, we find in the former verse : " By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." A striking example of the figure we have in Ex. xii. 40, which has given much trouble to critics : " Now the so- journing of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egyi^t, was four hundred and thirty years." But it can easily be proved that four hundred and thirty years include the entire period from the calling of Abraham out of Ur of the Chal- dees ; how then are the Israelites represented as dwelling during that whole j^eriod in Egypt ? We answer, that the part is put for the whole — Egypt, for the entire region in which Abraham sojourned with his descendants. Being an im- portant part, and that in which they resided last, the writer singles it out to represent all the other scenes of their pilgrimage. The whole thought is given by the Sej^tuagint translators, who insert after Egypt, '''mid in the land of Canaan^ On Synecdoches of this kind, is founded a general canon very useful to be remembered in TROPES AND FIGURES. 221 exposition, viz., that Scripture often exhibits a general truth in the form of a particular case — not that it is the only one, but that it explains the principle, and suggests the mode of apply- ing it to all others. The language and educa- tion of the writers indisposed them for dealing in abstractions ; everything is definite and par- ticular, and may be almost pictured to the eye. But we shall do them the grossest injustice, if we suppose they rested here. There was doubt- less a great general idea distinctly before their mind, of which the picture was the symbolical representation. When the wise man, in Prov. XX. 10, says, "Divers weights and divers meas- ures are an abomination unto the Lord," who can doubt that he thought of the other in- numerable frauds practised by shopkeepers on their customers ? The Psalmist tells us that " the good man is ever merciful and lendethr Accommodating a poor and industrious man with a loan of money is true kindness, but not the only expression of it. Christ, in Matt. vi. 1, forbids us to do our alms before men;" he means that we should conceal, if possible, all 222 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. our benevolent actions. In Jolin xiii. 14, lie says, " Ye ought to wash each others' feet ;" he might equally have said, for it is what he in- tended, "Be humble and mutually affectionate." In a like way, those who justify the practice of granting divorce for other causes than adul- tery, interpret the words of Christ in Matthew V. 32: "Whosoever shall put away his mfe, save for the crime of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery." The fornication here stated to be the only ground, they view as the principal one, standing for others equally serious, as desertion, violence, and continued ill-treatment. They contend that the sco23e of the Redeemer is to attack the doctrine of arbitrary divorce^ not to lay down in form the justificatory causes ; and appeal to the parallel passages, Mark x. 4, Luke xvi. 18, which give the prohibition "svithout even specifying fornica- tion as an exception. Why, they ask, should the statement of Matthew be considered a com- plete enumeration of the justifiable causes of divorce, when the other evangelists give none TROPES AND FIGURES. 223 whatever ? declaring, absolutely, " Whoso shall put away his wife and marrieth another, com- mitteth adultery" ? May it not rather be viewed as a synecdochical expression of the thought, that no divorce is valid which is not founded on the strongest reasons ? We have a doubt whether the example just given be not somewhat strained. Our next is much more clear and certain. The principle we are illustrating is of special use in explaining the Mosaic law, which some have degraded into a mere civil institute, enjoining nothing but overt acts and a routine of external observances. Nothino' seems more evident than that in the great majority of cases, the legislator is giving examples^ leaving the generalization to the un- derstanding of those whom he addressed. Paul was decidedly of this opinion, as appears from his comment on the precept, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." He contends that Moses designed it not so much for oxen as for men^ teaching by it that the laborer is worthy of his hire. Nor can it be reason- ably doubted, that the command not to " seethe 224 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. tlie kid in its mother's milk" — not to "plough with an ox and ass together" — not to " sow dif- ferent seeds in the same ground," with a hundred others, must be explained on the same principle. The good old custom, therefore, of spiritualizing, or giving moral extent to the ten command- ments, which some modern writers object to, is a sound one, and justified by all the laws of interpretation : the Redeemer has given a most beautiful example of it in his sermon on the mount. This subject is well worth the student's attention. A habit of generalizing, without straining or doing violence to Scripture — of rising from j^articulars to great catholic j)rinci- ples, which come home to every man's business and bosom, is one of the most valuable acquisi- tions he can make in his theological course. 3. Metaj^hor is founded on the resemblance between objects; being the substitution of one thing for another which is like it. When I say, ' ' God is my protector," I express the thought in its simplicity: When I say, "He is my shield," I clothe it in metaphor. In no figure are the sacred oracles so rich as iji this : but little need TROPES AND FIGURES. 225 be said, as there is seldom any difficulty in ex- j^laining it. The great point to be remembered is, not to press the resemblance beyond the boundary intended by the author. When Christ declares that he will come as a thief, suddenness of appearance^ not wickedness of purpose^ is the thought which he expresses. So when he de- clares that the wicked shall " depart into ever- lasting fire," — not physical torture, as the Catho- lics and many others teach, is meant ; but ex- treme infelicity of soul, combined doubtless with pains of body, the natural effects of sin, in the same way that the spiritual happiness of the righteous is enhanced by a certain amount of corporeal enjoyment. But in both cases there is a definite limitation. Intense bodily sensa- tions, whether pleasurable or the contrary, can- not coexist with the action of the mind's hi2:her faculties of reason and conscience. Nothing in the world so completely brutifies the most soar- ing intellect, as physical rapture or ecstacy on the one hand, and physical agony on the other. The use of them, therefore, in this connection is decidedly metaphorical, — as the immediate con- 11 226 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. text proves in every case without exception. Our preachers should insist on this point more earnestly than is done, as it would silence the Universalist's strongest battery, by stripping the orthodox doctrine of its imputed grossness. We are apt to forget an important truth, that would prevent much extravagance and coarse- ness, in treating this awful subject. It is, that God is ^^good'^ — everywhere^ and ahvays — good even in punishing. " He does not afflict willingly the sons of men." Retribution is not a caprice, nor the edict of a lawgiver — but the eternal truth and harmony of things, a law unmade, standing back of the divine volition, and which, with profound reverence be it said, the Supreme Being is custodian and exponent rather than .enactor. This idea excludes everything in pun- ishment that is gratuitous and not demanded by the exigencies of the case ; while it admits softenings and alleviations of which we have no definite notion at present, and indeed devoutly pray that we never shall. It is surely a mean conception of the Deity, that he lays aside all the father when once his offending children are immured in the prison-house of hell ! TROPES AND FIGURES. 227 Anthropopatlieia exhibits the Divine Being as clothed with the attributes and performing the actions of men. Thus he has " eyes" and " ears" — and an "arm that is full of power." "His bowels are moved;" at his coming "the earth shook and trembled ; he bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet, and he did ride upon a cherub and did fly ; the mountains saw him and quaked, the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." Occasionally we find an accumulation of these images in one description, on which the poet exj)ends the whole force of his genius. Some of these passages (called " theophanies ") are aw- fully sublime — of which the 18th Psalm and the 3d chapter of Habakkuk may be quoted as specimens ; the last of which, describing the ap- pearance of God for the deliverance of his peo- ple, leaves behind it at a measureless distance, the loftiest strains of the classic lyre. In explaining passages of an anthropopathic character, the rule is plain. They must be un- derstood in a way suitable to the infinite majesty of God, and purged from everything savoring of 228 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. impurity or imperfection. His "eye" is his infinite knowledge : his " arm " is his ahuighty power : the " sounding of his bowels" is his ten- der love and compassion : his " repentance" is his purpose to change the course of his provi- dence for good and sufficient reasons, springing out of moral conduct of his creatures: he is " angry" when he punishes the sinner; and his " fury" paints the severity of their doom. The prevalence of this figure in scripture has given occasion to much puerile declamation con- cerning the " rude and imperfect ideas enter- tained of God in early times" — as if the saints of the Old Testament really believed in the materiality of the Divine Being ! The fancy deserves no refutation, as it is purely absurd. The truth is, ive need the same expedient, how- ever unwilling to own it, for imparting warmth and fixedness to our dim conceptions of the great and incomprehensible First Cause. They who maintain the contrary, who think that they can carry on their devotions without re- sorting to such " unphilosophical" methods of exciting emotion, are mistaken, and would give TROPES AND FIGURES. 229 US a religion entirely unfit for human nature. Imao:ination must come to the aid of reason, and provide it with sensible ideas, to be a support to its feebleness. Perhaps the whole of the magnificent scheme of our redemption rests on the anthropopathic idea — the incarnation of the eternal Soil being a substantial, living theophany^ intended to furnish the worshipper with a visible object, to which his contemplations may be di- rected, while he attempts to leap the immense abyss between him and the Creator. When without this aid, and on mere rationalistic prin- ciples, he undertakes the work, how is he lost in the endeavor ! He finds in a moment that he has no wings for such a flight : his affections can- not go forth to clasp a cold and barren abstrac- tion, and he exclaims, with a dreary feeling of perplexity, " O that I knew where I might find him, that I might go even to his seat !" But the Gospel steps in with its cheering revelations. Heaven opens — and an amiable man appears, seat- ed on a throne, and yet looking down upon him with the tender regard of an elder brother, who died for his sake. "It is my Saviour!" he ex- 230 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. claims — "it is my God ! !" His imagimition is at once deliglitfully excited. His scattered tlioiiglits have something on which they can rally and concentre ; faith becomes actual vis- ion ; and with all the feelings of a child, he can draw near to the heavenly Majesty — for he hears tliat Saviour's own declaration, " He who hath seen me, hath seen the Father." Let us be thankful that it is so, and bless our wise and merciful Parent that when he contrived a relig- ion for us, he did not call in philosophers to his council ! Prosopopoeia, or personification, is another form of metaphor, in which human actions and life are ascribed to inanimate or irrational objects. Examples are very frequent, and some exceed- ingly beautiful ; but they are all easily under- stood. There are two, however, which deserve passing notice, because in a hermeneutical view they are highly instructive as well as beautiful — exhibiting, if we interpret them correctly, the development of Christian doctrine out of germs, planted in one age — slowly unfolding through others — and at last becoming terebinths and ce- TROPES AND FIGURES. 231 dars of Lebanon. The first is the pei'sonifi.ca- tion of " wisdom," contained in the eighth chap- ter of Proverbs ; at which, when the perusal is finished, every serious reader of the Bible pauses, to inquire whether it is indeed a personification, or the description of an actual person. The most of evangelical divines are of the latter opin- ion, and use the passage freely as an argument for the preexistence of Christ, and his hypostat- ical distinction from the Father. This seems to be carrying the matter too far. There is cer- tainly something remarkable in such expressions as these : " By me kings reign and princes decree justice :" " The Lord possessed me in the begin- ning of his ways, before his works of old :" " I was set up from everlasting: When he pre- pared the heavens^ I was there," etc. If nothing but the attribute of reason, or intelligence, was in the writer's mind when he penned these words, it cannot be denied that the language seems unusually bold ; yet we are compelled to think that this w^as his meaning. A very strong necessity must exist to justify the assumption, that Solomon towered so high above the men 232 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. of his epoch, as to anticipate I'cvelatiou clearly belonging to a future period. Yet we are per- mitted, for various reasons, to surmise that the divine Being, with his eye always fixed on the great building of mercy which he was erecting on the earth, intended to lay a basis for the Christian idea, by speaking words which should put the church to thinking^ and ferment in the minds of the pious, until a result was gained which would prove that they were not thrown out at random, but designed to commence a movement in the direction of a grand foundation truth of the Gos^^el. And so it turned out. Eight hundred years subsequently, we find pre- cisely the same language and expressions, only greatly strengthened, in the Apocrypha, that precious collection of Jewish writings not sufii- ciently read by Protestants, which represents the opinions of the church two centuries before Christ. See Book of Wisdom, vii. 22 : Eccles. xxiv. 5 : Baruch iii. 30. The descriptions of Wisdom given here, and in other places, so strangely accord with that in the Proverbs, and in fact go so far be- yond it, that we can hardly avoid supposing the TROPES AND FIGURES. 233 miuds of the authors to have been in a state of transition to the Christian thought, if they had not yet fully reached it. In the Chaldee Para- phrase, which dates somewhat later, are found clear traces of a hypostatical distinction between the invisible God, and one who is his first-born, the doer of all his works, his image and repre- sentative, the living and eternal " Word." The idea entered many ancient heathen philosophies, and had become so familiar to the thinking part of the people at the time of Christ, that he with his Apostles had little more to do than formally announce it. The same remarks apply to another striking personification not always rightly understood. The words "Spirit," "Holy Spirit," "Spirit of God," so often occurring in the Old Testament, can hardly mean any thing more (certainly not in the earlier books) than the ever-living power and energy of the Supreme Being, as exerted in his constant intercourse with his creatures. We cannot admit that the distinct personality of the third person of the Trinity was before the mind of the authors. But the constant use of the 11* 234 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. expression, whenever divine acts are spoken of, and the vividness of the representation, produced an eftect similar to that which has already been adverted to, viz., ripening for the discovery, that under it was a deeper significance than lay upon the surface. At what time the higher idea be- came fixed, we do not know. Probably it had to wait for the great Teacher. It is not unlikely that the disciples first learnt it from conversa- tions with Jesus, who always, but especially to- wards the close of life, spoke of the Spirit as his intimate personal friend, and promised him to them as their constant companion and guide. Thus we see that the old covenant is the sacred ovary and matrix of the new. The truths of the latter were not projected in their complete- ness, but planted long previously, perhaps in some sequestered spot where one would hardly ever think of lookim? for them. The belief in the immortality of the soul, and the resurrec- tion, in the new birth, and the sacred trinity, with many other Christian verities that might be mentioned, had their point of attachment and support, not always severely logical, in TROPES AND FIGURES. 235 liiuts seemingly thrown out at random, and scarcely arresting attention. They were at first rude— nebulous— embryonic— like the gropings of an infant when awaking to a dim perception of an external world. But they grew. Like the par- ticles of tenuous matter, the star dust of specu- lative astronomers out of which they suppose that worlds were framed, they gradually united, consolidated into organic unity, and became that perfect revelation, " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God." This subject will again be slightly touched when we speak of types. But our present examples could not be introduced in that connection, as they contain nothing of a typical nature, and ai'e in other respects pecu- liar. 4. Allegory is a figui'e in which one thing is expressed^ and another understood. It may be defined, — a continued metaphor, or an image founded on resemblance, carried out into a variety of details, for the purpose of inculcating some moral truth. Nathan's parable of the poor man and his ewe lamb ; the description of the vine in the 80th Psalm ; Jotham's apologue of 236 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. the election of a king by the trees, in the Gtli of Jndges; and Paul's representation of the members of the body in 1 Cor. xii., are fine ex- amples. All the parables belong to this class. Their only peculiarity is, that they narrate a series of fictitious events ; other allegories are descriptive. But this makes no difference in their nature, or the laws of interpreting them. Allegories consist of two parts ; the sensible image, or similitude, as drawn out into a series of imaginary facts, which we may call the shell; and the doctrine, or moral truth illustrated, which may be called the kernel. The latter is, of course, not expressed, being contained in the shell, which must be broken before we become its masters. Practice, however, and the exercise of a little common sense, make the operation a very easy one. There is always something in the connec- tion, or the occasion, or the accompanying re- marks of the speaker, or the nature of the thing itself, which informs us what great thought is to be elucidated. There are two important rules which the interpreter must observe in relation to this figure, TROPES AND FIGURES. 237 1. Never seek for it; nor turn into allegory what admits of being understood in a plain and obvious sense. The rage for discovering mysti- cal significations in Scripture is one of the worst diseases with which a young student can be in- fected. It has led to that infinite multitude of tyjJes which disfigure the writings of many other- wise excellent writers, and throw a darkness that may be felt over the sermons of many of our preachers. A type is a person or thing in the Old Testament, supposed to prefigure a per- son or thing in the New. It is, therefore, a divinely appointed practical Allegory, and was designed to prepare the minds of those living in the Theocracy, for the further developments of truth which should characterize the age of the Messiah, In this point of view, a wise and well- arranged system of types was an admirable ex- pedient. They illustrated, in a way peculiarly lively and picturesque, the great principles of moral government, which remained to be un- folded in the latter day ; so that no shock should be given to the pious mind by their unexpected novelty. " Saci'ifices" made the people familiar 238 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. with tlie idea of substitution. The " mercy-seat," on which the Divine throne was erected, yearly sprinkled with blood, was a speaking allegory, from which they could not but infer something that, prepared them for the Christian doctrine of reconciliation. Their water lustrations suggested the necessity of moral renovation. The like may be said of typical persons. The royal David assisted them to conceive of a great theocratic monarch, whose kingdom was to be " an ever- lasting kingdom, and of whose government there should be no end." The mysterious king of Salem, so abruptly introduced in patriarchal history, and so abruj)tly withdrawn, in whom the attributes of priesthood and royalty were so strangely combined, and to whom Abraham himself paid homage, was well calculated to arrest the reflecting spirit, and induce the sus- picion at least that a new order of things might arise, which would exhibit the august spectacle of a " priest upon a throne." We need not sup- pose that they perceived the full significance of these symbolical representations. It is enough that they suggested great and important hints — TROPES AND FIGURES. 239 seeds of truths rather than truth itself, which, after lying buried and torpid in the depths of the soul during the long winter of the ancient oecon- omy, quickened into glorious life, "when the time of the singing of birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in their land." If now the question is asked, how far the sys- tem may be carried out, — we answer, so far as it pleases God and no further. It is his prerog- ative to institute ordinances for his church, and when he does, lie lets us know it. If Samson be an appointed emblem of the Lord. Jesus Christ, I am sure that I shall find it in the Old or New Testament; if they be silent on the point, all his strength shall not compel my assent. I have no talisman given me, with which I can go into the simple perspicuous narratives of the book of God, and by a " presto passe," turn its men and Avomen into types ! To prove their existence, much more must be done than to show that one object on some points resembles another. Mere similitude may qualify for ofiice, but cannot possibly induct into it; else Capt. Fluellen's theory of a typical connection between Alexan- 240 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. der tlie Great, and king Harry of Monmoutli, would be strictly true, being based on indubita- ble facts : 1st, That the birth-place of both com- menced with an M ; 2d, That both were great fighters ; and 3d, That there was a river in Mon- mouth and also a river in Macedon, though the worthy gentleman had forgotten its name. The great point to be established is, that the likeness was designed in the original institution. It is the previous purpose and intention, which consti- tute the whole relation of type and antitype. Now this must be proved, and there is only one way of doing it : show me from Scrij^ture the existence of such a connection. Whatever per- sons or things in the Old Testament are asserted by Christ or his Apostles to have been designed prefigurations of persons or things in the New, I accept : but if you only presume the fact from a real or fancied analogy, you are drawing on your imagination, and assuming the dangerous liberty of speaking for God. Nor is it enough to quote passages from the New Testament which refer to incidents in the Old. Many facts of the old oeconomy are TROPES AND FIGURES. 241 adduced simply as happy illustrations — to adorn or enliven a sentiment, not to prove it, of wliich we have no less than two instances in the second chapter of Matthew, — " The voice in Kama, lam- entation and great mourning — Kachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted," spoken of by Jeremiah, was the mourning of the Jewish mothers when separated from their children on the way to Babylon. The Evan- gelist alludes to that catastrophe as resembling the murder of the infants by Herod, and says nothing more than that the one illustrated the other. This use of the phrase onwq nlrjQw^rj is known to every scholar. "Anything," as Dr. Bloomfield observes, ' ' may be said to be fulfil- led, if it admits of being appropriately applied." The quotation in the 15th verse, " out of Egypt have I called my son," is a like instance of ac- commodation. The departure of Israel from Egypt under Moses, of which Hosea speaks, Hos. xi. 1, was neither a prophecy nor type of the Redeemer's brief residence in that country. But there was a pleasing and interesting coinci- dence, which attracts the notice of the Evange- 242 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. list, and induces him to borrow the prophet's words. The consequence of neglecting these plain and rational principles, may be seen in the writings of divines without number. Large folios have been filled with tyj^es and antitypes, which exist only in the brains of their authors, the facility of the operation greatly recommending it to many. To become a good Grecian, and skilful collator of parallelisms, is labor indeed ! Noth- ing more easy than to lie all day on a sofa, tracing likenesses between Delilah and Judas Iscariot — Adam's fig-leaves and the works of the law. It is also very convenient ; for each sect may provide itself with its own typology, from which, as from a fortress built in air, and therefore beyond the reach of human weapons, they may hurl defiance to every enemy. In this way Pope Innocent the Third proved to the Emj^eror of Constantinople the immeasurable superiority of his Holiness to His Majesty. God, says he, made two great lights, i. e., he consti- tuted two great dignities — the Papal and the Royal. The greater is the Papal, ruling in spir- TROPES AND FIGURES. 243 ituals, or over the day : the lesser is the Royal, ruling in temporals, or over the night. From which it clearly follows, that as the sun is su- perior to the moon, so the Pope is exalted above Kings ! This was not bad. What his majesty replied we cannot say — though doubtless he contrived some method of turning the tables. The scheme, after all, in matters of argument at least, is not so convenient as we allowed it to be ; as we can seldom bring the adversary to our own way of thinking about it, and our best cases may be so easily retorted. The types of theologians much resemble their little namesakes of the printing- office, in one respect ; however ingeniously set, one stroke of a mischievous elbow can dash them all into pi. Those who desii'e to see the way in which the subject is treated by some of our evangelical divines, may look into " McEwen on the Types." He is greatly com- mended by some ; and we would not deny him the praise of lively fancy and sincere piety : but it is fancy run wild, and no degree of piety can give respectability to nonsense. We hold an 244 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. interpretation not based on principles, to be an unprincipled interpi-etation, tliougli endorsed by all tlie saints in tlie calendar. That there are pei'sons and things in the ancient dispensation in- tended to be prefigui'ative of persons and things in tlie new, we have already expressed our be- lief. We go on solid grounds when we make tlie assertion, and appeal boldly in support of it to the " Word." But we will not desert that light for ignes fatui, or add our own muddy inventions to divine ordinances. The extrava- gances of the advances of typology have done more to make the whole doctrine appear ridicu- lous than all the sneers and wit of infidelity. Yet we would not be morose to our type- loving brethren, nor refuse all compromise with them. That every question which arises must be decided by the word of God, is a point not to be surrendered, but whether direct and posi- tive assertion is necessary, may be doubted. Even when nothing is said on the subject, the resemblance between two objects, whether per- sons or things, may be so striking, — and so re- markable the coincidence of the attending cir- TROPES AND FIGURES. 245 cumstances, — that a devont mind, profoundly convinced of the initiatory and predictive char- acter of the ancient oeconomy, might be allowed to see in the correspondence something more than accident. Thus, without the express tes- timony of our Saviour, it might be conjectured {perhaps) that the exaltation of a brazen serpent on a pole, darkly pointed to his own elevation on the cross : the resemblance being so close, and the expedient adopted for healing the Israelites being of so singular a character, that we are almost compelled to find some reason for it. So, also, had Melchisedec not been declared by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews to be " made like unto the son of God," we might have guessed (^perhaps) at something of the kind, from the abrupt and startling manner in which the book of Genesis introduces him on the scene, the union in his person of the sacer- dotal and kingly offices, and the homage which he received from the father of the faithful. Great care, howevei*, as well as modesty must be exercised, when we expatiate in the agreea- ble but sterile field of conjecture. The naviga- 246 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. tor who forsakes his chart, in quest of new dis- coveries, should possess extraordinary skill and caution, for he is his own underwriter ; he should also have an excellent temper, as his * ' valuable discoveries " often prove to be vexa- tious disappointments, turning, on a near ap- proach, into — islands of ice — continents of fog — pei'chance an archipelago of breakers. Facts might be adduced without travelling abroad, to prove that Hierophancy is far from being a harmless member of the Fancy family, but is often attended with serious danger. Walking among the shadows which his imagination has turned into living realities, the mystic seer is equally ready in the hour of reaction (for spite of every effort to the contrary, reflection will occasionally step in) to turn realities into shad- ows, and thus make a total shipwreck of his religious faith and hope. We may rest assured of this, that the last man on earth to be relied on " for continuing in the faith grounded and settled," is the man so full of faith^ that he sees its object everywhere and in everything. We advise, therefore, every interpreter to form TROPES AND FIGURES. 247 habits of strict, nay severe, exposition of the sacred text ; let him always be content with what he can prove, and when the case is in the least dubious, prefer the too little to the too much. 2d, As we are not to seek for Allegory, so we must consider only the parts which are co7i- nected with the doctrine taught — paying no regard to external circumstances. Having mastered the scope of the writer, we must interpret so much of the figure as directly relates to it, and no more. The remark is of special use in explain- ing parables, though it applies also to types. The correspondence between them and the anti- type, must never be pressed beyond the mani- fest design of God in establishing the relation. Levitical sacrifices prefigured the great atone- ment of the Redeemer ; but we must not turn, as some have done, the tongs and fire-shovels of the altar into symbols. The High Priest typified the person of Christ ; but it would be mere trifling, to discover profound meanings in every part of the sacerdotal dress. With re- gard to parables, the rule must never be lost 248 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. sight of. Many circumstances in them are only added to give an air of probability, or render them more lively and interesting. They are (to use the beautiful expression of Solomon) " golden apples in silver baskets :" as inter- preters, we have concern only with the apples. Circumstances, in short, form what may be called the machinery of the parable, and therefore do not always have weight in the investigation of its meaning. The parable of the ten virgins, for instance, is designed to teach the folly of those who neglect preparation for their Redeemer's coming. Vir- gins are selected, not on account of their purity, but because virgins in those days played an important part at bridals ; and a bridal feast was made the basis of the fable. The vii-ginity therefore of the personages is a mere circum- stance, which teaches nothing. So is the dis- tinction into " five wise " and " five foolish :" nothing can be inferred as to the comparative number of nominal and sincere professors of religion in the world. The two classes are equalized, to guard against all speculations on TROPES AND FIGURES. 249 a subject foreign to the speaker's object. The " sleeping " of the wise virgins is another mere circumstance, introduced to bring about the catastrophe in a natural way — not to teacb the dangerous doctrine that the best Christians fail in spiritual vigilance, and are very liable to be taken by surprise when the Master calls them. The truth is, that their sleeping was designed to be rather complimentary than otherwise, as it brought out the fact that they were provided and ready. They had nothing to fear : a little refreshment, therefore, was not amiss, especially as they had no duties to perform until the arri- val of the procession. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, is another example. The angels who carry the soul of Lazarus to Abraham's bosom, probably belong, as well as Abraham's bosom itself, to the machinery, and nothing is deducible fi-om it. The representation of the rich man and Abraham being in the same region, and within sight of each other, is an image taken from the ancient idea of Hades, and must not be called upon to prove that the souls of the blessed 12 250 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. hold intercourse with those of the wicked in another world. Great prudence, therefore, and good taste are needful in explaining these interesting composi- tions. Without such qualifications, and fool- ishly ambitious of making every thing out of any thing, interpreters have often made them ridiculous. What can be more simple and in- telligible than the parable of the good Samari- tan, which so beautifully inculcates universal benevolence ! It is absolutely transparent ! Yet in the hands of some it turns out a perfect rid- dle, where the true significance is not obscured, but utterly lost. The man who fell among thieves, is the sinner ; the thieves, are the devil and his angels : the priest who passed by on the other side, is the law ; the Levite, is legal obedience. The good Samaritan, is Christ ; the oil, is grace ; the wine, comfort from the prom- ises ; the inn-keeper, is the Christian Ministnj ; the coming again, is death, judgment^ and eter- nity. All this may be very pious ; but we re- peat our maxim, that no piety can give respect- ability to want of plain common sense. HEBRAISMS. 251 RULE VIII. Attend carefully to Eebreiv and Hebraistic idioms. In reading the Bible, never forget that its language, in every thing which distinguishes one from another, is at variance with your own. That this holds true of the language of the Old Testament, no one doubts ; but the remark equally applies to that of the New. In its use of words, its grammar, and syntactical construc- tions, it has many of the peculiarities of its oriental sister ; so that its authors may be said, without much exaggeration, while they spoke in Greek to have thought in Hebrew. It could not be otherwise ; an impure Hebrew being their native tongue, and their Greek style being formed by the constant reading of the Septua- gint, which was an extremely literal translation of the Old Testament into that language. There is no reason to believe that any of them except Paul, had ever read a single Greek author. The student should be mindful of this, and keep his Old Testament and Septuagint always be- fore him. A few examples of Hebraising style shall be given : details would fill a volume. 252 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. One striking instajQce, is the use of the geni- tive, which has a much more extensive signifi- cation than is customary with us ; comprehend- ing a greater variety of relations; and often qualifying the noun which governs them as adjectives. This often occurs in the New Tes- tament. In 1 Cor. i. 5, Paul says, the " suffer- ings of Christ abound in us."' He means the sufferings not undergone by Christ, but which we undergo for him. Sufferings for the sake of Christ, would be the proper English expression. The same is meant by the Apostle, when he calls himself " a prisoner of Christ." He was a captive on account of him. In various chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, he speaks of the righteousness of God, by which he plainly sig- nifies, not the excellency of the divine nature, but the righteousness by which the sinner is justified, and which he names " God's righteous- ness," because he graciously provided and ac- cepts it. In the same way, " horn of salvation " signifies a horn (the emblem of power among the Hebrews, borrowed from their pastoral life,) which is the cause of salvation ; in other words. HEBRAISMS. 253 (when stripped of its orientalism,) a mighty author of deliverance. The Hebrew mode of employing genitives for adjectives is also com- mon. The Apostle, addressing the Thessalo- nians, speaks of their " patience of hope," — he means patient hope. " Glory of his power," is equal to glm'ious power. The Hebrews were fond of giving emphasis to w^hat they said, by repetition. Jer. xxii. 29, " O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." Isa. vi. 3, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty ;" from which many have drawn a prodigiously silly argument for the Trinity. Hendiadys is the joining of two words by the copulative, while a single thing is asserted ; the one being generally employed as a genitive, or adjective: Acts xxiii. 6, "of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in ques- tion." This is a striking instance. He means the hope of the resurrection of the dead. In Acts xiv. 13, it is said that the " priests of Jupi- ter brought oxen and garlands to the gates." The garlands were upon the oxen : crowned with garlands^ therefore, expresses the idea. 254 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Many judicious commentators explain by this peculiarity the phrase in Matt. iii. 11, "He shall baptize you-with the Holy Ghost and with fire :" i. e., with the burning Spirit — with him who is powerful, penetrating, and all-purifying, as the element of fire. There are singular examj^les of disregard to the regular construction of sentences in both the Old and New Testaments, which in a classical Greek writer would be offensive, but in our authors is positively agreeable, — being so redo- lent of primitive simplicity. In Gal. iii. 4th, 5th, 6th verses, we have a series of propositions, which seem to defy all the efforts of interpre- ters to disembroil them. Nothing is more com- mon than for the Apostle to commence a thought in a particular way, and conclude it in a man- ner entirely different, as if he had forgotten his beginning. Thus he commences the well-known comparison between Adam and Moses, in Rom. v., with the following sentence, or rather part of one, " Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." HEBRAISMS. 255 He thus gives us reason to expect a redditive or corresponding clause to be introduced by the usual formula, " 5C," or " thusy None occurs ; and after examining what follows, wt are obliged to conclude that in the onward impetuosity of his movement, he has lost sight of his starting- point,— without, however, forgetting the thought, to which he does ample justice. But it is in the use of verbs that the Hebraism of Scripture appears most clearly. They very frequently express not the action itself, but something approaching or allied to it — the de- sire or endeavor to perform it — its commence- ment, or the giving occasion to it — its permis- sion, or the obligation to its performance. We shall as usual give some examples. Things are said to be done, where there is only endeavor or desire. Thus, Reuben is said to " have delivered Joseph out of the hands of his brethren." He attempted his deliverance, but succeeded very partially. " Whoso findeth his life," says our Redeemer, " shall lose it :" i. e., seeks to find it, is unduly anxious for its preservation. 256 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Sometimes verbs only intimate that the sub- ject gave occasion to the action. In Jeremiah xxxviii. 23, God says to King Zedekiah, " thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Baby- lon, and thou shalt cause Jerusalem to be burnt with fire."' The conduct of the unhappy mon- arch should lead to this catastrophe. " The wrath of man," says the Psalmist, " shall praise God " — not praise him, but be an occasion of praise. This explains the apparent discrepancy between Matthew and Luke, in their account of the field of blood. The former states that it was bought by the priests and elders with the thirty pieces of silver, which Judas Iscariot had returned to them. The latter, in Acts i. 18, says, " this man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of iniquity." The fact was, that he gave occasion for the transaction, and the historian describes him as the agent. Frequently, words expressing the power of doing actions, only nienn facility ; and the de- nial of power signifies nothing more than di^- culty. In Ruth iv. 6, the near kinsman of Elim- elech says, " I cannot redeem his inheritance." HEBRAISMS. 257 He could have done it, for lie was evidently a man of property, but not w^ithout considerable sacrifices. The householder in our Lord's para- ble, of whom a friend solicits admission at mid- night, replies that " the door is shut, the chil- dren with him in bed, and that he cannot rise." He meant that rising was extremely inconven- ient. So it is said of our Lord, in Mark vi. 5, that he could do no mighty works in a particu- lar district, because of their unbelief : he could not with pleasure and satisfaction : it was pain- ful to him to throw his pearls before such swine. The Pelagians appeal to this idiom, when they attempt to explain the sinner's inability to do what is good. He cannot ; because, in conse- quence of the strength of animal impulses and of bad education, commencing at the mother's breast, it is extremely, and in the last degree, difficult. Their enlightened opponent meets them, not by ringing changes on the words " can," and " cannot," violently torn from their connection, but by a careful study of the pas- sages in which they are found, directed by the laws of sound interpretation. 12* 258 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Words expressing actions, are often only de- claratory — denoting the recognition of them as having been performed, or about to be. " Be- hold," says Isaac to Esau, " I have made Jacob thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants." The only agency of the venerable patriarch in this transaction consisted in announcing it. He intended to say " I have declared Jacob thy lord." In a like manner, Jeremiah was set up by God " over the nations, to root out, pull down, and destroy." The Prophet was not a military conqueror ; but as a divine messenger, he declared what should be accomplished by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. So also when the priest saw on a man signs of leprosy, he was ordered to " pollute or make him unclean," Levit. xiii. 3. The meaning is plain enough. He was to pronounce him un- clean, as it is expressed in our English version, which very properly rejects the grosser Hebra- isms. The 7th verse of the 2d Psalm receives great light from this declaratory use of verbs. " The Lord hath said unto nie, Thou art my Son, this HEBRAISMS. 259 day have I "begotten thee." Most of the old divmes supposed that David is here describing the actual generation of the Son from the Father, — having in thought carried himself back to a point in eternity when the generation was sup- posed to take place. The words "this day," refer to that imaginary point. The view can- not be sustained, and among other reasons for this, — that, though certain transcendental theo- logues of our times have invited themselves to be present at the generation — not only of the Son, but the Father from the great bosom of Nichts — nothing of the kind is found in sacred Scriptures. We do not believe that the most raging delirium could have made the pious, simple-hearted Psalmist imagine to himself a God beginning to be — or a God half formed. The word ' ' begotten," is to be taken declara- tively. The point of time assumed by the writer in this noble Messianic ode, is the resur- rection of its subject from the dead. God is represented as addressing him on the occasion — presenting him to the admiring gaze of the whole moral universe ; and acknowledging the 260 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. endearing eternal relation of which, on that day^ he had given such magnificent illustration. The clause may be thus ]:)riefly paraphrased : " Thou art my only begotten and eternal Son. I here avow thee to be such, and i-equire all my sub- jects to honor thee as a partner of my throne." With perfect propriety, therefore, the Apostle connects the passage with our Lord's resurrec- tion: Rom. i. 4, "declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead." The last example which we shall give, is of words signifying action, being used to denote the pei'mission of it ; as in the prayer of David, Psalm cxix. 31, "I have adhei'ed to thy testi- monies : put me not to shame." A more strik- ing example we have in Isaiah Ixii, 17, " O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear." Li this passage and some others, the English reader is startled at discovering indications of the horri- ble doctrine, that God exercises a positive agen- cy in the production of moral evil. Thus we are taught to pray that he ' ' may not lead us in- HEBRAISMS. 261 to temptation :" he " hardened Pharaoh's heart :" he "shuts the eyes of sinners, and makes their ears heavy, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears." They contain, however, nothing alarming ; the whole doctrine which they teach being approved by the light of rea- son itself; that God in righteous judgment gives the presumptuous sinner up to his own evil im- pulses, permitting him to " harden himself, even under those means which he useth for the soften- ing of others."* Misapprehension of this idiom led many excellent men in New England to pro- fess, without scruple or limitation, their belief that unholy volitions were the immediate effect of divine agency. The race is nearly extinct, having been succeeded (as might be expected from the usual course of things in the world) by a generation who seem afraid to trust the Supreme Being with any agency even in good. We have always reverenced those worthy men. We especially admire that iron intrepidity which enabled them to look in the face and take to their bosoms so ugly a monster, from simple re- * Westminster Confession of Faith. 262 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. gard to the divine will. Yet none who read their writings can ftxil to see that they were very far from home in scripture exegesis, as well as blinded on this and some other subjects by a false metaphysic, carried out with such remorse- less consistency that Christianity became in their teaching of it positively frightful. The student will be making small progress in the knowledge of his Bible, who does not soon find that we have been giving only a few specimens of its phraseology. Let him devote his best powers of attention to it ; for there is not a tree in the garden which yields more pre- cious fruit. What especially recommends it, is the fact that, in exploring the Hebraisms of the Bible, we go to the very fountainhead of knowl- edge concerning the meaning of those important and constantly recurring words, by which the New Testament writers describe the fundamen- tal truths of Christianity: such as faith^ propi- tiation^ redemption^ atonement^ churchy baptism, 7rgeneratio?i, justification, and righteousness. Let a young man tolerably versed in the languages sit down as ignorant as a babe of the Gospel, Snd PROPHECY. 263 study these words carefully, as he finds them in his Hebrew and Greek Old Testament, with no other human aid but a good dictionary and con- cordance, — we promise him, with unbounded con- fidence, that he will obtain an infinitely clearer notion of them in a single week than by read- ing five hundred folios of polemic divinity. RULE IX. Much of Scripture being Prophetical, we should acquaint ourselves with the nature and laws of that kind of composition. This is far from easy. No department of theology has occasioned so much perplexity to serious inquirers, and the subject is still beset with difficulties which we have little hope will soon be removed. God has suffered clouds and darkness to rest on it for the wisest reasons, some of which are ob- vious. He would not deprive his church of the privilege which she has enjoyed in every age and place, of walking by faith. He would not, by exhibiting a clear picture of the future, 264 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. disturb the freedom of his creatures, and the natural course of human events : in short, he would teach that our religion provides other business for us, than to indulge a childish curi- osity as to "times and seasons." We would not therefore encourage the student to speculate much on this subject. The predictions which have been fulfilled, especially those accomplished in the advent of our Redeemer, deserve all at- tention — being the strongest confirmation of the truth of our holy religion, and arguments of re- sistless force against the Infidel. As to futurity — let the " sapphire throne,"' borne by the flam- ing cherubim, take its own mighty course. There is a " living Spirit in the wheels," who keeps his own counsel, and seems, if we may judge from the past success of Apocalyptic commentators, to treat with very little respect the numerous attempts to advise him. Scan as curiously as you will the car of Providence in its magnificent progress through the earth : but choose wisely your post of observation, and by all means mount up behind ! This doctrine would through many strike a PROPHECY. 265 grievous chill, if they could be brought to sus- pect that it is true. They like to think that the Author of destiny has constituted them members of his privy council, and given a pro- gramme of all that is to turn up in our little planet till the final conflagration. Not a few spec- ulate on the subject with such absorbing inter- est, that they evidently consider it paramount to every other — neglecting much of their true life- work to sjoell out — not by the stars, but data equally fanciful — the how and when God will ac- complish his. We fear that the cuiiosity by which they are actuated is more prurient than pious, and feel quite sui"e that Holy Scripture, fairly interpreted, does not gratify it. The predictions of the Old Testament cover a space extending at most only six or seven hundred years, from the times of Isaiah till the advent of Messiah, after which we have nothing definite — only the general fact that his kingdom shall be estab- lished forever. In the judgment of many en- lightened scholars, the book of Kevelation, over which are constantly rolling such, floods of exe- getical darkness, does not look forward more 266 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. than tliree liuudrecl. commencintj: with the Lord's ascension, and stopping at the firm establishment of Christianity through the extent of the Ro- man emj^ire ; the immense interval between Constantine and the glorious issue of its contest with the powers of evil being unfilled, and the vision closing, as we have stated, with the for- mer event — except that there are in the two last chapters some gorgeous paintings of the re- deemed commonwealth as she will be when her victory is complete. They affirm, strongly, that the gentlemen who find the whole of modern history in Apocalyptic dragons, locusts, seals, falling stars, and earthquakes, entirely misjudge the book, and have no ground to stand upon. We will not arbitrate the question ; but we fear not to say, that the advocates of this opinion are among the most learned and in every way relia- ble theoloo^ians of the ao-e. So wearisome and unsatisfactory was the attempt to unriddle the book on principles generally recognized by Protestants in his day to the great Calvin, — that after completing his exposition of all the epis- tles he would go no further, saying, " I have not PROPHECY. 267 commented on the Revelation, because I do not understand it." Many who have comment- ed, practically say quite as much. They do not of course know it, but the Reformer's ' ' non intel- ligo" is inscribed on every page of their writings. The following hints on the general subject of Prophecy may be of use. 1st. Remember that the diction of this part of Scripture is intensely poetical. Not only were its authors poets in the common sense of the word, but in its richest and noblest acceptation. In splendor of imagination — in the gorgeous color- ing which they throw over every thing they de- scribe — in boldness of imagery and enthusiastic glow of feeling, they excel all other authors. How miserably such noble spirits will be explained by those who treat their productions as if they were discourses on History or Civil Govern- ment, we need not say. Quite as little may be expected from those who discover in their writ- ings a dark and tangled forest of hieroglyphics ; insist that every image is a definite symbol of invariable signification, and actually turn the noblest creations of genius into an Egyptian 268 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. alphabet, of which these great Champollions have been fortunate enough to discover the key that enables them to decipher the most crabbed page in the book of destiny ! 2d. They were while composing their predictions in a state ofecstacy or high super7iatural excitement^ produced immediately by the inspiring Spirit. The influence they were under, we have reason to think, was of a much more engrossing and controlling character than that which illuminated the minds of the Apostles. The latter, while they thought the thoughts and spoke the words of God, retained all their mental activity and self-command. Their ideas seem to have risen spontaneously, according to the laws of associa- tion, nor do we discover any traces of a com- pulsory necessity, in the election of some, and the rejection of others. No enlightened readers of Paul, for instance, can doubt that he thought out every thing he said, as fully as if he had not been under heavenly influence. His person- ality mingles itself in every sentiment he utters. He sends courteous salutations to private friends; describes his feelings on hearing favorable or PROPHECY. 269 painful accounts of them; reminds his young favorite Timothy of his ill health ; sj)eaks of a certain "cloak" which he had left at Troas, " as also the parchments ;" hopes to visit some of them, though he is not certain ; nay, there are strong indications, in one or two cases, of his concluding a letter, and then returning to it for the purpose of adding something new. With the prophets it was different. They "were carried away," as the Apostle Peter ex- presses it, by the inspiring God, and seem rather to be acted on, than voluntary agents. Hence those various expressions which represent " the hand of the Lord as coming upon them," and their yielding to his influence as something in- voluntary on their part, accompanied with a feeling of horror and great darkness, and some- times a falling to the ground : Gen. xv., 12 ; Num. xxiv., 4; 1 Sam. xix., 20. This is, of course, to be understood comparatively ; for we have already observed, that even prophecy did not entirely paralyze reason and self- conscious- ness. But they were certainly wrought upon in a much more powerful manner than the 270 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. other holy men who were honored with a divine afflatus. Though not mere machines, nor agi- tated with a blind ftiry like the ancient Pythia of Delphos, they were yet not entirely them- selves. The powers of perception and volition were for a time partially suspended, and their minds became so many placid mirrors, from which were reflected the pure I'ays of heavenly truth. 3d. In this state they saw objects as present to them. The various incidents and transactions which were revealed, imprinted themselves viv- idly on their imaginations and with all the force of living truth, so that they possess an ideal reality, similar to that which objects have in dreams. Hence the frequency with which they are called " seers," and their revelations " vis- ions." Thus Balaam, who was doubtless a true prophet, describes himself, as " the man whose eyes are opened, who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, having fallen upon tlie ground." Similar were the revelations of Isaiah: "In the year that king Uzziah died," he says, ^'- 1 saw — the Lord PROPHECY. 271 sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train tilled the temple.'' On another occa- . sioD, he sees — a hero inarching forward in splen- did apparel, stained with the blood of conquered enemies, and exclaims in admiration, as if per- sonally addressing him : " Who is this that com- eth from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? " Ezekiel, when the hand of the Lord was on him, " saw and passed through a valley of dry bones," which, after being addressed by the prophet at the divine commandment, " came together, bone to bone, and the breath came into them, and they stood up an exceeding great army." Habakkuk stands upon his watch-tower, to see — what God will say and exhibit to him. These were not rare and isolated cases. They were of a more strik- ing character than many, but they illustrate the general mode in which the prophetic mind was affected. In short, we may consider the future events predicted, as a large and magnificent panorama, encompassing the sacred visonary on every side, and becoming for a time his whole 272 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. world of being, in whicli he breathes, and moves, as if in his proper home. He did not, however, see them in their strict relations to each other^ 7ior in their chronological connection. Grod did not think fit to exhibit a clear and perfect map, for wise reasons. Each saw pieces, membra disjecta of the mighty whole : but in no one place do we find a prophet giving a symmetrical view of the entire compass of a sul)ject. Sometimes we find a rich delineation of the person of Christ ; at others, a description of his kingdom and the glories of his reign. Here, note is taken of him, as meek, gentle, compassionate, who " will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." There, he is seen striking through kings in the day of his wrath, filling the places with dead bodies, and wounding the head over many countries. Some prophets say not a word of his humiliation and cruel suiferings — Malachi for example. Only two advert to his remarkable forerunner. Some- times the vision is sad and melancholy, exhibit- ing the rejection of the Jews on account of their unbelief, and their utter dissolution as a PROPHECY. 273 people. At others, all is joy and sunsliine. The city is rebuilt, the sanctuary is restored, all kings of the earth bring their treasures to it, and the ransomed of the Lord return with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. This fragmentary character of prophecy is a very striking and important one. The want of duly considering it, is the principal cause of those complaints we often hear, especially from infi- dels, concerning the darkness of this part of revelation. Were such to sit down and care- fully unite the scattered pieces into a whole, they would be astonished to find how clearly, as well as fully and consistently, the Christian Sav- iour is delineated. Equally deserving notice is the fact, that they seldom perceive objects as related to each other in time. The reason has been already stated. They were in the midst of what they saw, like a man in a dream. The events of a far distant future were so many present realities on which they gazed with terror or delight ; unsuspicious, probably, that ages would elapse before the ful- filment. Thus Isaiah, chapter ix. 5, speaks of 13 274 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. Messiali as if already born, and entering into his kino^dom: " Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and his name is called Won- derful, Counsellor, the Mighty God." In chap- ter xlii. 1, he directly points to him: " Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth." Instances of this are numberless. It is not surprising, therefore, that events most widely separated from each other should be blended in prophetic description, and treated as continuous. They saw them in dus- ters — not in chronological succession. Thus in the 10th chapter of Isaiah, we have a thrilling account of the destruction of the As- syrians, which took place at least six centuries before the coming of Christ. Yet the prophet joins it immediately with that event, by the ordinary copulative : ^^And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." The con- junction of this great event with the return from Babylon, is so frequent as to strike the most careless reader. Our Kedeemer's prophe- cies display the same character. In the remark- PROPHECY. 275 able prediction contained in the 24tli of Mat- thew, two great objects hovered before his mind: the destruction of Jerusalem, to take place in less than forty years ; and his final coming in glory. Yet he passes from the former to the latter at once, and even intimates the succession by a word, (^ev^ecog,^ whicli seems to exclude all interval or delay: verse 29, '"'■ Immediatehj after the tribulation of those days (the destruc- tion of Jerusalem) shall the sign of the Son of man appear, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ; and he shall send his angels,"