LIBRARY OF THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. Case, SJielf Book, ..No,, t£75 ESSAYS, BIBLICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. m ESSAYS, BIBLICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. EELATING CHIEFLY TO THE AUTHORITY AND THE INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. BY THE REV. HENRY ^BURGESS, LL.D., vicar of st. Andrew's, whittlesey translator from the striac of metrical hymns and homilies of s. ephraem strus and of the festal letters of s. athanasius ; editor, for fourteen years, of the " clerical journal," and of "the journal of sacred literature ;" author of "the reformed church of england in its principles and their legitimate development," ETC., ETC LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1873. LONDON : MITCHELL AND HUGHES, PRINTERS, WARDOUR STREET, W. PREFACE. Personal motives have had something to do with the collection and re-publication of the following Essays, but they would not have prevailed had not considerations of a public kind been combined with them. The Author felt that the Papers were the result of convictions which form the basis of his own happiness, which have effectually steadied his spirit amidst the religious scepticism which charac- terizes the age, and which have formed literary tastes affording throughout life the most solid and abiding pleasures. If it is right that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth should speak, he has, at least, some justification for putting forth the present volume, and he is moved by a sense of duty to exhibit to others that course of thought and study which, for more than forty years, has made him an unwavering believer in Divine Reve- lation; and as the Essays had but a limited and yi PREFACE. ephemeral circulation in the various forms and times of their original appearance, a desire for more extended usefulness has caused them to be presented in their present combination. There is more than a mental thread uniting together in some logical connection all the Essays contained in this volume; there is a sameness of feeling with regard to the substance of Divine Truth, and of method in discussing and treating its great and numerous themes. That method is the Historical- Inductive one, as opposed to the misty and mystical subjectivity by which so many in all ages have formed their conceptions of the teachings of Holy Scripture, and which, at the present day, is, in the opinion of the writer, marring the fair beauty of the Church and overclouding its prospects. If the Scriptures were really believed to be histori- cal in the sense of conveying from the beginning what is to be believed among Christians, and if their statements were to be ingenuously subjected to the examination of devout reason, nothing being believed which could not be fairly proved, then it appears plain that the exciting and injurious con- troversies now prevalent would either cease to exist, or be confined within a range of very limited dimensions. Could, for instance, the hot zeal dis- played around the subjects of The Presence in the Eucharist or the use of the Athanasian Creed have possibly burned so furiously, if an Historical-Induc- PREFACE. Vll tive process had been followed in the consideration of such essentially important topics ? Although trained in early life in a somewhat advanced Puritan school, the writer was ever led to recognize a distinction between Divine Revelation and the casket which contains it, and therefore never was fettered by that idea of an organic oneness in the whole collection of the Old and New Testaments which, he is thoroughly convinced, lies at the root of many luxurious growths of exegetical error and polemical fanaticism. For instance, the writer in no period of his mental history would have been disturbed had the Apocalypse been placed before St. Matthew, or the Canticles and Esther been relegated to the region of the Apocrypha. These convictions, formed by early training more by an unconscious r)6os or influence than by any didactic system, were ever afterwards deepened by the study of the originals of Holy Scripture, aided by the critical and hermeneutical apparatus so fully and freely exhibited in the following Essays. His belief in the great doctrines of the Eaith has never depended on individual texts of Scripture, and therefore it has not been disturbed by any school of criticism ; it has ever been anchored on the firm rock of the Bible, as a whole, and as the depository of God's will to man, and it has, consequently, never been disturbed by the varying and increasing demands of human tradition. That this freedom Vlll PREFACE. from prejudices is perfectly compatible with a respect for the testimony of the Church, commonly called Tradition, will clearly appear in several parts of this volume. But Tradition, like Revelation itself, must he subjected to the scrutiny of reason, both as to the grounds of its claims and the nature of its teaching. "While it is hoped that these Essays will not be without interest to the laity, the writer confesses to be especially anxious to gain the attention of the clergy to the principles of interpretation which most of them exhibit, in a greater or less degree. Ministers of religion exercise an immense influence on the mind of what is known as the religious world, and their pulpit utterances may either vitiate the tone of thought of their hearers, or give it a salutary, because a true direction. A species of literature is now being multiplied and extensively circulated which exalts what is purely subjective in the exegesis of Holy Scripture over what is historical and logical, and the younger clergy, especially of what is known as the advanced High or Catholic School, select their sermons from it. Prom Onsen to Swedenborg there has prevailed, more or less, the habit of using the Old Testament in a mystical or spiritual sense, and this is now being made a mode of teaching in the Church of England which cannot fail, as far as it exists, to do immense injury to the cause of Biblical learning. It is very grating to PEEFACE. IX well-taught ears, to listen to a discourse in which Jonah is treated as an ordained type of our Lord, instead of merely furnishing an illustration of an important event in His history ; but this is far more excusable than making Joseph also typical in all the portions of his eventful life ; the writer having recently- heard the words "I am Joseph your brother" (Gen. xlv. 4) dwelt upon without any qualification as expressly intended to convey the same comfort to the believer as if spoken by Jesus Christ Himself. This habit of perverting terms which ought to be treated scientifically, as type and typical, may amuse a credulous audience, but it operates most perniciously in preparing the mind to receive almost any misrepresentation as to the meaning and purpose of the language and figures of speech of the New Testament. The author foresees strong objections from some of his readers on the subject of unfulfilled prophecy, and the interpretation of the Apocalypse. He can only reply, by anticipation, that in no part of his mental consciousness has he a more thorough sense of being right than in the opinions he has uttered on this weighty point. This must be his excuse if he has sometimes allowed his language to be satirical and almost contemptuous, when he would much rather have treated the writers alluded to as honestly erring. But surely, if ridicule ever can be made an instrument of instruction, it may X PREFACE. be justified when the extraordinary lucubrations put forth as expositions of the Book of Revelation are under notice. The writer has prepared this volume for the press in the midst of considerable difficulties, arising from his having lost his eyesight so far as not to be able to read the contents nor to correct a proof. The eyes of a faithful amanuensis and the care of the printers have, he hopes, prevented any serious errors from arising from this defect. This calamity has tested the value of old studies and opinions, and he is happy in bearing his testimony to the power of the Word of God to make up for privations, and he has an undoubting confidence that the principles of this volume will supply mental light and heart-felt happiness to the end. St. Andrew's Vicarage, Whittlesey, Isle of Ely, Monday in Whits un- Week, June 2, 1873. CONTENTS. I. THE PULPIT OP THE CHUECH OP ENGLAND. A Perfect Church Service — Preaching inferior to Liturgical Service — Eoutine in a Country Parish Church — Ordi- nary Preaching inefficient — Preachers of the Reforma- tion Period — Popular Preachers of the Church of England — Church of England encourages Preaching — Terms applied to Christian Ministers — Faithfulness of Ordination Service — The Clergy to be Earnest Preachers — Significance of the Position of the Pulpit in Churches — Causes of Inefficient Preaching — Ex- temporaneous Preaching — Clerical Education ignores Oratory — Extremes of Fanaticism and Coldness — The End of Preaching to be kept in View — The Snares of Official Life — State of Hearers to be Studied — Einal Objects of Preaching — Desirableness of Earnest Pulpit Address — Bright Hopes for the Future 1 — 44 II. ON CLEEICAL EDUCATION, IN EELATION TO SACEED LITEEATUEE. Neglect of Study of the Greek Testament — Clergy from the Lower Eanks — The Curriculum at St. Eees — Construing of Greek is not Scholarship — The Study of Hebrew necessary — Bishop Maltby on Clerical Studies — The Clergy must find time for Study — The Bible the Book of the Clergy — Michaelis on Biblical Studies — Popular Biblical Errors — Legal and Medical Education — Necessity of Decision of Character — The Eeformers xii CONTENTS. great Biblical Students— Effect of Light Eeading — Pleasures of Biblical Studies — Importance of Careful Criticism — Ignorant Opposition to Science — Bigoted Opposition to Science — Biblical Science tbe first Ac- quisition — Knowledge needed by the Laity — Popular Mistakes in the Bible — Ordained Clergy should be Students— Error to be refuted by Argument 45—92 III. APOCALYPTIC LITEEATUEE. Various Aims of Inspired "Writers — Indirect Teaching of Holy Scripture — Primary Intention of the Apocalypse — Secondary Uses of Holy Scripture — Canonicity of the Apocalypse once doubted — Moses Stuart on the Canon — Difficulty of Historical Application — Bidicu- lous Expositions — Luther on the Apocalypse — Histo- rical Beference doubtful — Number of the Beast — Presumptuous Beferences to the Euture — Causes of Prophetic Speculations — Influence of Imagination and Eancy — Baseless Nature of Prophetic Theories — Divine Concealment of the Euture — Becent Apocalyptic Specu- lation — Glasgow on the Revelation 93 — 129 IV. LITEEATUEE OE THE SONG OE SONGS. The Canticles in the Hands of Interpreters — Canonical Authority of the Canticles — Ginsburg on the Canticles — Puritan Writers on the Canticles — Dr. Neale on the Canticles — Jewish Comments on the Canticles — Alle- gorical Exposition of Origen — Exposition of Athanasius — Exposition of Augustine — Writers of the Middle Ages — Commentary of Brightman — Patrick, Henry, and other Expositors— New Era formed by Lowth — German Expositors of the Canticles — Hahn and Heng- stenberg — Literal Interpretation of Jacobi — Theory of Mr. Ginsburg— Analysis of Mr. Gin sburg's Theory . 130—166 CONTENTS. Xlll THE EAELIEST CHRISTIAN WRITINGS. Modes of Apostolic Teaching — Letters of Apostles not re- garded as Scripture — Danger from Personal Subjec- tivity — Entire Loss of Apostolic Autographs — Divine Oversight of Holy Scripture — Probable Early Polemical "Writings — Lost Apostolic "Writings — Lost Books of the Hebrews — Letters and "Words actually Lost — Apostles probably wrote frequently — The Bible not an Organic Whole — Probable Antediluvian Literary Remains. . .167 — 191 VI. BIBLICAL INQUIRY : THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT SHOULD BE PURSUED. Duty of Studying the Bible — Dangers of Conventionalism — Errors of Perfectionists — Catholicity is not Conven- tionalism — Essentials of Catholic Truth — Various Sources of Bigotry — Errors concerning the Canon- Increased Light on Biblical Subjects — Errors of In- terpretation — Charity to the Erring — Reverence for Biblical Subjects 192—214 VII. REVISION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE : ITS DIFFICULTIES. Early History of the Latin Vulgate — Difficulties met with by Jerome — Neglect of the Scriptures by the Papacy — Translations of the Bible in English — Early Efforts at Revision — Expediency against Revision — Exagge- rated Theories of Inspiration — Lord Shaftesbury on Inspiration — Literary Reasons for Revision — Revision required, not Re-translation 215 — 235 VIII. REVISION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE : ITS CRITICAL NICETIES. The English Bible needs Revision — Difficulties in the way of Revision — Exegetical Difficulties of Revision — In- xiv CONTENTS. terpretation of Romans xi. 15 — Interpretation of Job xix. 25 — Learned Criticism not a final Authority — Improper Eesistance to Kevision 236 — 252 IX. THE BIBLE IN RELATION TO THE CHUBCH. Use of the Bible by the Early Church— Early Methods of Christian Instruction — Opposition to Bible Circulation — Bible Societies — Comments of the Authorized Ver- sion — The Bible an aid to Christian Instruction — The Bible the Standard of Appeal — Means of gaining Biblical Knowledge — Results of the Discovery of Printing 253—271 X. THE REPRODUCTION OF BIBLICAL LIEE BY EXPOSITOBS. Danger of Subjective Impressions — Experiences of St. Paul — Subjectivity of the Sacred Writers — Influences of External Nature — Danger of a Narrow Exegesis — Familiar Idea of the Supernatural — Expiation Familiar to the Old Testament — Biblical Ideas suited for all Time 272—287 XI. THE PERMANENCE OF NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE : — PEOFESSOB MAURICE. The Creed of Professor Maurice — Theology a Science — The Real Causes of Popular Unbelief — Dislike of Truth the Source of Heresy — Truth not to be sacrificed to Peace — Self-conceit of the Present Age — Knowledge not identical with Wisdom — Insatiable demands of Scepticism — The Word " Eternal " — Is Mr. Maurice a Universalist?— The Word "Eternal" in St. John xvii. 3— The Word "Eternal" in St. Matthew xxv. 46— Relations of Time to Eternity — Respect for Old In- terpretations — The Bible to be read with Church History — Mental Reservation in Subscription — Treat- ment of deceased Writers 288 — 324 CONTENTS. XV XII. BIBLICAL THEOLOGY AND MODEBN THOUGHT : PBOFESSOB JOWETT. The Logical Faculty in Eeligion — Limitation of Figurative Language — Professor Jowett on the Atonement — Doctrines of the Gospel not Jewish only— National Eeview on the Atonement — Difficulties of Heterodoxy — Place and Duty of Reason — Bishop Butler on the Atonement 325 — 343 XIII. EECKLESS BIBLICAL CEITICISM : — BAEON BUNSEN. Extent of Bunsen's Eesearches — Ancient Christian Docu- ments — Language and Eeligion — Ancient Liturgies — Earliest Christian Society — Bunsen's Confident Dog- matism—The Miracle of Pentecost— Acts ii. 47— Genuineness of the Epistles of St. Peter — Bunsen's Literary Qualities — Bunsen and Brougham compared — Piety combined with Mental Weakness— Combined Wisdom and Piety 344 — 369 XIV. SUGGESTIONS FOB A CBITICAL EDITION OF THE HEBEEW BIBLE. Comparative Neglect of Hebrew— Causes of the Neglect of Hebrew — The Essential Eequisites of a Critical Edition — Use of ancient Versions— Exegetical Adjuncts of such an Edition— Co-operation of learned Men necessary 370 — 381 XV. SOME PHASES OF LATIN CHEISTIANITT. Necessary Division of Labour — Distinct Character of the Western Church— The True Position of the Papacy- Spiritual History of the Church— Slow Growth of Papal Despotism — Dean Milman's Freedom from Party Spirit— Dean Milman's Suggestive Style— Character of Becket — Prophecy and the Papacy— Indiscreet Inter- pretations of Prophecy— Morbid Speculation on the Future — Fate of Papacy uncertain — The Papacy not unchangeable — Circulation of Bibles by Eomanists 381—410 "And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is eight?" — Our Lord Jesus Christ (St. Luke xii. 57). " PEOVE ALL THINGS : HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD." — St. Paul (1 Thess. v. 21). " In oue season we disceen God ; in oue season we woek out oue Redemption; in oue eeason we find eteenal happiness. By the use of oue eeason we aee on a level with moee peefect ideal existences, and separate man feom beutish beasts." — sir R. Maltr avers. ESSAYS, BIBLICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. i. THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. On the afternoon of a fine Sunday in the autumn, the writer paid a visit to a church in a large city, celebrated both for the antiquity of its structure, and the masterly manner in which the cathedral service is there performed. The building is a noble monument of the zeal of by-gone days, and of the refined taste and skill which then pervaded our architects. The marble columns throw their branch- ing traceries to the roof, light as the forest foliage from which it has been supposed this feature of gothic architecture was derived. Majesty and solemn beauty characterize the place; and to all intrinsic excellences was added, at the time of our visit, the most scrupulous cleanliness, not always observable in our cathedrals. Wealth, intellect, and piety have combined with no sparing hand to adorn this sanc- tuary, and, if it is allowable for man to prepare a dwelling-place for the Most High, this appears to be a fit receptacle for his altar, and a scene appropriate to his hallowed worship. B 2 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Beneath the fretted roof of this church, at the time mentioned, there was a congregation of no or- dinary character, for both in numbers and apparent respectability it was a remarkable one. We observed especially a large proportion of young men, and we felt we were surrounded by a part of the intellect which is to throw its light on the advancing age, and affect the future destiny of the world. It was pleasing, at all events, to indulge this idea, and to hope that under Christian influences that intellect would be exerted only for good, and those energies be put forth to bless mankind. Mailed warriors had, in this very place, been fired with fresh enthusiasm as they listened to priestly exhortations, before they departed for conflict with England's enemies, or with the distant Paynim, the foes of the cross ; it was not therefore an unreasonable expectation that, in the nineteenth century, religious instruction should offer a powerful stimulus to the pursuits of a peace- ful civilization. Happy people ! we mentally ex- claimed ; you live at a period of the world's history highly favourable to improvement in everything which can promote your own and the general good; and you are brought under the care of a religious system, by whose wisdom and purity your energies will receive the most healthy development, and be guided in the best possible direction. The devotional part of the service commenced, and its performance was fully equal to the place, which it worthily filled, at one time with the lan- guage of penitence and sorrow, at another with the loud burst of thanksgiving and praise. An organ of great compass now led the service, and now joined in A PERFECT CHURCH SERVICE. 3 full chorus with a choir of rich voices, from a clear and feminine, and almost infantine treble, to a deep sonorous bass. Not a note was discordant. Art, science, long practice, and the most rivetted attention combined to make the evening service of the Church of England, on this occasion, all that the most fastidious could wish it to be. Every pew and seat was furnished with books, so that all might join .in the devotional exercises as something not to be listened to, but performed by themselves. The great objection to the cathedral service is, that it is popu- larly considered as a spectacle, to be contemplated objectively, and having no claim on the devotional emotions of the congregation. But let the people be trained to join in alL its parts, and its character will be completely altered. The congregation should be the choir, and it would then be found that the aid of music would assist and not discourage the exercise of true devotion. As the painted windows threw the last light of evening upon the interior of the church, candles were lighted in the pulpit, and we prepared to listen to the didactic part of a service hitherto so ad- mirably conducted. Was it unnatural that ex- pectation was heightened by what had preceded, and that we should hope for a discourse harmonizing with the genius and skill everywhere manifested in the prayers ? There could be no a priori reason why art should diffuse its influences over all that was connected with the desk, and desert the pulpit ; but, on the contrary, a climax of elaborate thought and energetic eloquence might reasonably be looked for. Suppose a stranger to the Christian religion had b 2 4 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. been present with us on this occasion; after the lavish skill displayed in the devotions of the temple, if informed that the people were to be addressed from that elevated position on some divine subject affecting their eternal interests, how inevitably would he have expected an earnest and zealous elo- quence. But he would have been disappointed, as we were ; for no popular effect was intended or at- tempted. For about fifteen minutes the minister read an unattractive homily on a Scripture text, in a tone so low that but few could hear him, and a man- ner so cold that the imperfection excited no regret. The contrast between the prayers and the sermon, the priest and the preacher, was as complete as if it had been studiously brought about by artistic ar- rangements. Attention and life characterized the former, listlessness distinguished the latter. Genius waited upon the one, and with its almost magic wand entranced the spirits of the hearers ; upon the other dullness exercised her leaden rule; and after the exhibition of various signs of weariness the congre- gation dispersed. As the writer wended his way with the multi- tude now moving in all directions to their homes, he made some reflections on what he had witnessed; and he proposes to present them in this paper as they then occurred, or have since been enlarged. Here were two parts of the public service prescribed by the Church of England treated and executed in ways so different, as to force upon the worshipper an unpleasant contrast. All that was associated with the devotional part of the engagements of the after- noon was distinguished by consummate art ; all that PREACHING INFERIOR TO LITURGICAL SERVICE. 5 appertained to the pulpit was dull and jejune, re- quiring no intellectual exertion, and exhibiting and eliciting no emotion. After the mind had been ab- stracted from all that is sordid and low, from the dangerous joys or corroding sorrows of life, by prayers and confessions and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, the duty of the preacher began, and that duty was, plainly, as a sacred orator, to excite to holy action. An opportunity so favourable should have been embraced ; the glow of eloquence should have come in where devotion ceased, and a serious attempt been made to turn that interesting crowd of human beings into the paths of holiness and peace. Is the question out of place — is it not one which imperatively demands to be considered — Why was that favourable occasion lost sight of, that obligation forgotten ? If this were an isolated case, an exception to the general practice of the Church, it would form a subject for personal expostulation with an indi- vidual, and not for an address to a class. But it will be at once admitted that, in the description of this particular instance of inefficient preaching, we have drawn with tolerable correctness a representa- tion of what occurs every week in numerous parishes throughout the land. On that Sabbath afternoon we went, in fancy, to a very different sphere, and placed side by side with the attractive service then carrying on, a similar one as attended to in a large church in a rural district. We invite our readers to accompany us in a sketch formed from nature and reality, facsimiles of which they will be able without difficulty to identify. 6 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. In one of those old market-towns designated in the Domesday Book as having that character so early as the Conquest, stands a church of large dimensions, very antique, robbed of its once finely chiselled stonework by the hand of time, and much disfigured by want of timely repairs and general neglect. But there is a feature in the character of this church which, to the benevolent mind, and especially to a lover of Christianity, will more than compensate for some architectural deformities which have been allowed to mar its beauty : it holds every Sunday within its ample walls a large and attentive congregation. The substantial farmer with his men, the tradesman and shopkeeper, with a very small mixture of the higher or aristocratic classes, form together a very influential community, who prefer to receive their religious training in the parish church to frequenting the dissenting chapels with which the neighbourhood abounds. It would be difficult, perhaps, to find a more hopeful sphere for the labours of a clergyman than this is. The in- cumbent is universally respected ; able and willing to do good in the numerous ways presented to his profession ; of unblemished moral character, and, we believe, the subject of warm religious feelings. Let us view this people and this minister engaged in the sacred duties of the Sabbath, for the purpose of carrying out our present object. If there is not, in our country church, the finished art displayed in the conduct of the cathedral service, there is what is equally valuable and attractive to a thoughtful mind — a ritual of devotion so plain that the least educated labourer can understand it, and ROUTINE IN A COUNTRY PARISH CHURCH. 7 an amount of scriptural knowledge conveyed which can leave in a state of ignorance only the wantonly inattentive. The prayers are read impressively; a good organ assists the singing, which is here more congregational than in many large towns ; and the impression conveyed hy the whole service, as pre- scribed by the rubric, is that of serious devotion. As we look upon a thousand persons of all grades in society, from the peer to the agricultural labourer, in the attitude of prayer, and listen to their con- fessions and thanksgivings, how obvious is the thought that here are materials which the sacred skill of preaching may well hope to work upon. Among that mass of human beings there must be many whose wounded hearts require healing ; still more who need to be guarded against the various temptations which beset their pathway; while all should be stimulated to give a proper degree of attention to the momentous subjects of religion. How great is the office to which the production of such results is committed, how honoured the man entrusted with its duties ! The preacher ascends the pulpit, reads his text twice in an audible voice, and for half an hour discourses in plain pertinent language on some scriptural subject. Considered in itself, apart from all reflections' on its relation to the place and the audience, the sermon may be listened to by any one with pleasure and profit, nor have we any fault to find with what is actually done in the pulpit minis- trations to which we refer. It is a fault of omission which strikes us as being committed ; matter of the right kind is not furnished, nor is it presented in a 8 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. form at all likely to arrest the attention and affect the heart. We feel quite sure the hearers are unmoved ; that no tear of penitence is made to flow in that multitude, and that no resolutions of amend- ment are being formed by the vicious, as the result of the labours of the preacher. The sordid and selfish are undisturbed in their slumber, so akin to death, and the self-righteous are allowed to go away as much in love with their flimsy finery as ever. The service is concluded ; the congregation disperse. All seem pleased with the performance of their minister, but none are aroused and changed. It is a mere negation, and not an actual living instrument, producing vital results, which the preacher has employed. And do not lively, and oratorical, and evangelical preachers have to complain of their want of success ? of the same sterility which you predicate of the efforts of the minister you are describing ? We acknowledge the fact, and lament it; but there is this difference in the two cases : in the one there is an adaptation to produce good results, in the other there is not. While, therefore, in the one there will be an entire absence of that fruit which should be looked for under gospel ministrations, in the other some portion may be reasonably expected, though it is but a gleaning. Under the most faithful and earnest preaching, as in the case of apostles, evil will be found largely mixed with the good, and to some the preacher will be a savour of death unto death. These divers operations are found in every case where moral agencies are brought to bear on large bodies of men. We expect no preaching, ORDINARY PREACHING INEFFICIENT. 9 however perfect, to bless more than a part of the auditors, but surely there is a vast difference between this and doing good to none. Perhaps we have written enough to establish what probably no one will contradict, that the services per- formed in the pulpits, of the Church of England are often far inferior to what they might be, in earnest- ness, in a full exhibition of scriptural truth, and in their adaptation to the mental and spiritual state of the hearers. We have endeavoured to present the subject in a manner which will give no reasonable ground of offence, avoiding extreme statements, and leaving out of sight those instances of unprincipled neglect of the cure of souls which are common enough to excite pain and disgust, though fortu- nately the exceptions to the rule. We have pre- sumed, and shall proceed on the presumption, that clergymen are conscientious, that they believe they do their duty, and that, consequently, it is by an error of judgment rather than any bad state of heart that their preaching is so often cold, uninteresting, and without effect. We expect to do good in our present attempt, not by a one-sided and prejudiced view of the case, but rather by an affectionate and candid appeal to the judgment of our readers. The great contrast we have indicated between the services of the desk and the pulpit does exist in very numerous instances, so much so that the latter has little in- fluence. Ought this state of things to exist ? and if not, how can the evil be remedied ? When we endeavour to account for the low and ineffective state of pulpit exercises in the Church of England, the fact occurs at the very outset, that it 10 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. is not encouraged by anything in the Church itself, but that, on the contrary, in its history, both external and internal, the great importance of preaching is distinctly recognized. It might have hap- pened that, in its very institution, the Church, from some cause, recommended the neglect of energetic public addresses, and aimed at concentrating all its influence in the devotional part of its services. In that case, as no infallibilty attaches to the decisions of any portion of the visible Church, it might still be necessary to combat the opinion thus expressed, and remove the evils to which it led. But this would be attempting a radical change, an alteration of the received constitution of the Church, and would necessarily be a task of great difficulty. Happily this obstacle does not stand in our way, for the Church of England is a great patron of lively preaching. To freedom of popular address it owes its very existence. Its ministers have furnished the most eloquent orators, both in former centuries and modern times. Its ecclesiastical arrangements, both as regards the clergy and the laity, so far from depreciating the pulpit, provide for the efficient discharge of its important duties. These particulars we shall briefly illustrate, that we may found an exhortation to an earnest style of preaching on that weighty and, with some, impregnable basis, the authority of the Church. How much the reformed Church of England owes to the zealous addresses of its clergy in the early periods of its history, is known to all who have in the most slight manner studied its origin and progress. Had no other mode of preaching PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION PERIOD. 11 been employed in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies than that which we have shewn is now common, Popery never would have been defeated, nor the masses of the people prepared to hail the principles of Protestantism. " The glorious reforma- tion was the. offspring of preaching, by which mankind were informed there was a standard, and the religion of the times was put to trial by it. The avidity of the common people to read Scripture and to hear it expounded was wonderful, and the Papists were so fully convinced of the benefit of frequent public instruction that they, who were justly called unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been bells without clappers for many a long year, were obliged for shame to set up regular preaching again." Those who wish to know how to bring about changes in the minds of their fellow-men of the best and most permanent kind, should acquaint themselves with the history of Paul's Cross, where the citizens of London, if sometimes excited to sedition, yet learned the grand principles of religious truth. Further, what important examples are fur- nished by many prelates, some of whom became martyrs to the service, of the mighty influence of public preaching when conducted on the obviously natural design of making an impression on the hearers. Latimer should be studied, as, dressed in humble and coarse garments, with his Bible hanging from his girdle, he went on foot from town to village, and chose for his pulpit a green mound or a hollow tree. In contrast with him in outward appearance, as he preached to nobles in the metro- 12 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. polis, Ridley presents an example of faithfulness in the promulgation of the vital truths of Holy Scrip- ture. Nor, notwithstanding his faults, must Cranmer be forgotten, as he fearlessly informed the court of Henry the Eighth that " whoremongers and adul- terers God will judge." Such examples, mutatis mutandis, may now be advantageously studied; they will clearly exemplify the position that, by appeals, fearless and eloquent, to their auditors, great men of old pulled down an antichristian superstition, and set up Protestantism in its place ; and what is of far greater importance, they will illustrate the fact never to be forgotten by teachers of others, that it is not by dry arguments and well- set commonplaces, but by appeals to the sympathies and every-day wants of mankind, that the characters of men can be reformed. Eloquence may be pro- perly studied as to its principles in Cicero and Quintilian, but its practical applications are best learned in the lives and labours of men who have successfully wielded those arms which are " not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, destroying vain imaginations, •and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." It would be highly interesting and instructive to take a critical survey of all the great preachers of the Church of England, from mitred bishops down to humble village curates, for the purpose of shewing what an amount of sanctified intellect the last three centuries have produced. But the task would be too discursive for our object, and a rapid glance is all we can give to the subject at present. To begin POPULAR PREACHERS OP CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 13 with Latimer. He preached sermons which would now he considered too humorous for the pulpit, hut they were admirably adapted to the popular mind of his age, and produced powerful and lasting effect. Tyndale, the translator of the New Testament, made himself so active as a preacher in his parish that he was compelled to flee from his persecutors and find refuge in Germany. " Holy " George Herbert worked beyond his strength, and died at the early age of thirty-nine, having as a faithful preacher obtained great honour in his day. Hooker, who for a part of his life preached in the Temple, where he divided the popular favour with Travers, a man of great eloquence, conducted his pulpit duties in a manner becoming the author of Eccle- siastical Polity. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, has left behind Mm proofs enough of his power in winning the attention of an audience ; how, indeed, could a man possessing a style so pithy, yet so musically poetical, do otherwise than rivet the attention and affect the heart ? The name alone of Jeremy Taylor seems to bring before us interested and affected auditories, whom the English Chrys- ostom could charm, and conform to his bidding. Puller, the church historian, began life as a preacher at Cambridge, and in that fastidious sphere obtained great popularity. All these divines lived in times of commotion, and more or less were dis- tinguished as polemics. Some of them wrote most laboriously on the great questions of the age, yet they were earnest pastors and successful preachers. While we admire their genius, we are equally attracted by their pious and patient toil. O ! si sic omnes ! 14 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. Prom the middle of the seventeenth century until this time, the Church of England has produced preachers equally celebrated with those before men- tioned, with the advantage of their possessing greater polish, and having a language more formed and settled to work with. The mathematical mind of Barrow might render his style unfit for popular effect, hut his published sermons indicate a careful preparation and a spirit deeply impressed with the importance of his topics. No one would suspect him of a disposition to throw the pulpit into the shade, since his sermons are long, and conducted in a masterly manner. Stillingpleet has left behind him specimens of his pulpit exercises which place him among the great ones in this department of intellectual exertion. He shews a great acquaintance with human nature, which he employs with artistic effect upon the judgment and conscience of his auditors. Tillotson owed his elevation from humble life I o the see of Canterbury to his reputation as a preacher i> t the city of London ; and the estimation in which his abilities were held is proved by the fact, extraordinary for that day, that his widow received the sum of two thousand five hundred guineas for the copyright of his discourses. If Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, shone more as a polemic than as a popular preacher, yet his Discourse concerning Death indicates those qualities which, employed in the pulpit, must have led to great usefulness; in the case of his son, the Bishop of Salisbury, the character of pulpit orator is more distinctly marked. Respecting South there can be no difference of opinion, for his sermons indicate CHURCH OF ENGLAND ENCOURAGES PREACHING. 15 all those qualities which are adapted to move an audience, though somewhat hindered in their use- fulness by an excess of wit, perhaps felt to be an evil less in his day than it would be now. With the mention of this divine we must conclude our enumeration, for names crowd so thickly upon us as we draw near our own day, as to render a correct catalogue impossible, and selection invidious. Of living orators in the English Church we will say nothing. They are numerous enough to give a character to the whole community to which they belong, and if studied and imitated with discretion by the body of its ministers, an effect would be produced upon society of incalculable importance. We think we may affirm without fear of contradic- tion, that the Reformed Church of England possesses in the published works of its ministers an amount of sanctified talent unequalled in any age or country. If it owes its existence to the pulpit exertions of its founders, its continued hold on the affections of the country must be attributed to the preaching of their successors. How admonitory is this fact to all who occupy the posts of influence which those great men once so ably filled ! Have these popular preachers been heterodox in their practice of seeking to move and persuade their congregations ? or have they acted in conformity with the wish of those founders of the Church by whom the ecclesiastical arrangements were reformed and settled ? This is the next question we have to consider, and there are sufficient materials for a decisive reply. We turn to the articles, the ordina- tion service, the homilies, the rubrical directions of 16 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. the prayer-book, and the structure of the pulpit itself, and all utter the same testimony respecting the place which preaching is expected to occupy in the English Church. It must be confessed that on a first glance, and viewing the matter apart from the nature of the case and its historical and moral relations, the formularies of the Church do not say so much respecting preaching as might have been expected, when the practice of the Reformers is considered. This circumstance must be seriously contemplated and discussed, as it is to be feared clergymen often feel justified in giving little attention to the pulpit, from this comparative absence of directions respecting its duties. The phraseology employed in reference to the work of the ministry is very different from that which has become current in our day ; and as language is the exponent of opinion, we must express a conviction that a more healthy and scrij}- tural state of things is indicated by the ancient than by the modern mode of expression. A minister of the Gospel is now too often contemplated as a preacher only; then his office had more complete- ness in the public mind, and the ecclesiastical terms employed to express it conveyed the idea of all, and not a portion only of its duties. The expressions which we find employed are bishops, priests, deacons, ministers, God's servants, messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; all more generic than that of preachers, and far better adapted, in most cases, to define the office of the clergy. It is to be regretted that the terminology of the New Testa- ment, thus adopted in the service of the Church, TERMS APPLIED TO CHRISTIAN MINISTERS. 17 should have been so much set aside popularly, as that the species should be exalted to the genus, and a preacher be considered as synonymous with a minister. This alteration in the public mind, and its consequent change of expression, arises from the neglect of the pulpit in the Church of England. Having depressed preaching far below its proper and scriptural level, churchmen must not be sur- prised that dissenters have unduly exalted it. This is the natural and inevitable result of an abuse by one party of any doctrine or ordinance — the opposite extreme, and often one equally fatal, will be adopted and patronized. The adherence to the language of the New Testa- ment by the compilers of the articles and liturgy, must be interpreted as their wish to convey the idea that Christ's ministers now are to correspond as exactly as possible to those who laboured in primi- tive times; and that what preaching was in the early Church, it was expected to be in the reformed Church of England. The conclusion appears to be unavoidable, that the reformers had Christ's imme- diate ministers before them as the pattern or beau ideal of what they wished all clergymen to be ; and therefore, that as the former were to preach the Gospel, to convert men, and to bring lost sheep into the fold, so in all ages these great ends were to be contemplated by their successors. As real amend- ment of life, resulting from a change of heart, was aimed at by apostles and apostolic teachers, so until all are regenerated and vitally renewed, an office like theirs will be needed, of which the work of preaching formed a conspicuous part. They could c 18 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. not see why Paul, preaching at Athens, should not be a model to he followed by a bishop or priest among the godless and wicked in Canterbury or London. Besides the presumption thus arising from the use of Scripture language, the meaning of the com- pilers of the liturgy, in doubtful cases, may be legi- timately gathered from historical circumstances, such as their own practice and the custom of the time in which they lived. We have already seen, that to zealous preaching the Reformation owed its existence and success, and we must remember that while the articles and liturgy were being arranged, the country to its very centre was agitated by pul- pit addresses delivered in the regular places, or in the more exciting manner of Latimer and others, at Paul's Cross or from green mounds and hollow trees. The comparative silence of the prayer book respect- ing preachers and preaching has thus more force than the most laboured exhortations ; for the duty of a clergyman to be a zealous preacher was too well understood to need any laboured or formal description. The very absence of rule or prescrip- tion is often the strongest argument for the exist- ence of a duty, and so it appears to us that the easy and unconstrained manner in which the Reformers speak of the work of the ministry, conveys their opinion that it would be understood as they prac- tised it. As they were sensible of the power of eloquence and earnest public addresses, so they took it for granted that a priest must be, if he did his duty, a preacher of sermons aiming at the in- struction and spiritual improvement of his hearers. Having said so much to guard against a possible FAITHFULNESS OF ORDINATION SERVICE. 19 argument in opposition to our present object, de- ducible from the little that is said respecting preaching in the articles and liturgy, we proceed to consider what is said; and we find it amply suf- ficient to leave no excuse for the neglect of the pulpit. In the definition of the Church in the nineteenth article, it is said to be "a congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is preached;" and in the twenty- third, "public preaching" is also mentioned first ; the administra- tion of the sacraments in both cases occupying a second place in the enumeration of duties. In the ordination service for priests, there is everything arising from a rational construction and interpre- tation to bring before the candidate the most impressive and solemn views of his duty as a preacher of the Gospel, and in reviewing it for our present purpose, we have had an impression almost painful of the responsibility it confers. It is no light thing to answer in the aflirmative a question like the following : " Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministration, to serve God for the promoting of his glory and the edifying of his people ?" As the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles and primitive ministers to qualify them to preach the Gospel and convert the world, so the mention of his operations in this question seems to imply the same duties. The work to be considered his own is there plainly set before the candidate in the address of the bishop, both by its reference to the authority of Scripture on the subject, and its enumeration of particulars. c 2 20 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. "You have heard, brethren, as well in your private examination as in the exhortation which was now made to you, and in the holy lessons taken out of the Gospel, and the writings of the apostles, of what dignity and of how great importance this office is, whereunto ye are called. And now, again, we exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have in remembrance into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called; that is to say, to be mes- sengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family ; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever. Have always, there- fore, printed- in your remembrance, how great a treasure is committed to your charge." Herbert, Hall, and Seeker rise before us as we read these affecting words ; and we imagine the deep seriousness with which k their minds once received them. In what follows we find the secret of their success, and of their perseverance until death in their adopted and noble course. "And seeing that you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work per- taining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same ; consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves and of them that specially pertain to you, acc3rding to the rule of the same Scriptures; THE CLERGY TO BE EARNEST PREACHERS. 21 and for this self-same cause, how ye ought to forsake and set aside (as much as you may) all worldly cares and studies." Much more to the same effect might easily be extracted, but we have quoted enough for our purpose. An object highly intellectual is evidently pointed out to the minister as that which he is to be ambitious to attain, and what can that be but the successful discharge of the preacher's office? To read the liturgy and administer the sacraments would demand piety, but not the mental exercises so seriously inculcated ; and the evident scope of all is an ability to rebuke, exhort, and entreat men, in all the varieties of character presented to one who has the cure of souls. Yet this is the service to which every minister in the English Church is bound in the sight of God to conform his practice and model his life. It would be difficult for precept and authority to do more ; and if zealous preachers are not found in its pulpits, the Church is not to blame for any neglect of didactic and doctrinal influence. Imagination cannot conceive the sublime results which would immediately follow a conformity throughout the land to the theory and plain inten- tion of the ordination service of the Church of England. The prayer of the bishop would then present, not a consummation to be brought to pass in remote ages, but to be realized now, — " So that as well by these thy ministers, as by them over whom they shall be appointed thy ministers, thy holy name may be for ever glorified, and thy blessed kingdom enlarged." Two matters of minor importance add their 22 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. weight to the considerations already advanced ; we mean the Book of Homilies, and the position occupied by the pnlpit in our churches. The Homilies appear designed in part to afford aid to the minister when, from various causes, he may he unable to preach a discourse of his own. Although now little used, they have an historical value, as indicating the style of address winch was common and approved of by the Church authorities at the time they were written. That style is intrepid, faithful, and scriptural, shewing no favour to men's sins, but viewing them as the causes of divine wrath ; yet pointing out at the same time the way of pardon and sanctification. The book is a living attestation of what the ordina- tion service means by the faithful instruction of the people, and should be taken by clergymen as explanatory of their vows. The Article respecting the Homilies speaks of them as containing doctrine " necessary for these times," by which the important idea is conveyed that preaching should adapt itself to circumstances, aiming always at the destruction of prevalent sins and popular errors. If the liturgy has a fixedness, because devotion maintains the same aspects and relations from age to age, the work of preaching is to be variable, because human nature experiences many changes in its habits and tendencies. The same principle which rendered it proper three centuries back to prove from the pulpit " that common prayers and sacraments ought to be ministered in a known tongue," would now render it the duty of a minister to combat with other errors which may happen to be fashionable. We do not wish to lay undue stress on any such matters as are POSITION OF THE PULPIT IN CHURCHES. 23 now before us, but there does appear to have been in the appointment of the Homilies a recognition of the great fact, that preaching should be pointed in its application, and that unless it sharply reproves men's sins, it is an arrow without impetus enough to inflict a wound. The pulpit in our religious edifices is placed higher than the desk, and this has not been done without a motive. By this arrangement it is not intimated that its duties are more important than those associated with the desk, a doctrine remote from the whole spirit and practice of the Church ; but it is so placed for a reason which at once recommends itself to our approval, namely, that it may command the eye and the ear of the audience. The prayers are presumed to be known by the worshippers, and the officiating minister leads the devotions of the people in a prearranged and well understood order, and therefore it is not necessary that in this part of the service he should be elevated or prominent. But it is widely diff erent in reference to the sermon, which is expected to be something new and suggestive, and consequently demanding more attention on the part of the audience. The theory is thus plainly intimated, in the very con- struction and arrangement of the sacred building, that preaching is intended to be popular in its character, to attract the attention of the congrega- tion, and to aim at producing an effect upon the public mind. It thus appears that every minister of the Church of England takes upon him at his ordination the important office of a preacher of the Gospel of Christ, 24 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. and that he is bound by his vows to seek the con- version of men to God, and the extension of the visible and spiritual Church. All that can apply to men now, in the exhortations of Christ to his apostles, and all that is permanent in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, is fully binding on the incumbent of every parish, and he is armed with divine and human authority " to make full proof of his ministry." As the occupier of the desk, no abilities of a peculiar character are required for the respectable discharge of his office. He is expected to suggest nothing, 1 to introduce no new current of thought, but to dis- charge an office every portion of which is prepared to his hands, and from the prescribed rules of which he cannot deviate. Sincere piety seems all that is demanded to make him an efficient reader of the liturgy and administrator of the sacraments ; he has no peculiar personal responsibility, nor do his duties call for any mental exertion. But as a preacher, how is his position altered, and how large are the demands then made on the highest powers of his mind and heart ! It is left with him to discover what are the spiritual maladies of the people ; to seek for appro- priate remedies ; and to gain, by the arts of per- suasion, permission to make trial of his skill in the art of healing. Circumscribed by no boundaries as to topics, he may do all that benevolence can suggest, in a manner as cultivated and as powerful as all the rules of oratory can confer upon him. Learning, human and divine, is his helpmate ; art and science are his tributaries ; eloquence is the instrument he is required to employ. With all these advantages for its prosperous discharge, his office contemplates the CAUSES OF INEFFICIENT PREACHING. 25 highest possible ends, even the everlasting welfare of men and the glory of God. Tims commissioned, why should our preachers he inefficient, the pulpit he devoid of power ? In investigating the causes of the low state of pulpit influence in the Church of England, we must premise that it is not a deficiency of orators of which we complain, hut of men who do all they can to in- struct and interest their congregation. In the proper sense of the word, orator nascitur now Jit, and there- fore to he querulous because they are not plentiful is to find fault with the arrangements of divine Provi- dence. Men who can wield all the weapons of eloquence are scarce in all the professions which cultivate the use of speech, and we have no right to expect more of them in the Christian ministry than in the senate or at the bar. But as the legislature and the legal profession are indebted to men who, without being orators, are yet energetic, and per- tinent, and useful speakers, so we have a right to expect such men in the highest of all professions. And as every minister, who is not so disqualified for public speaking as to make it evident that he has mistaken his sphere, and ought to retire to make way for another, may by industrious effort become an acceptable and instructive preacher, we demand nothing unreasonable when we wish all our pulpits filled with such men. Further, we have already said, and we repeat it, that we do not attribute the ineffi- cient manner of conducting pulpit services to a want of piety, or a disposition to make light of important duties ; this is doubtless the cause in some cases, but not in the greater part of them. With these ex- 26 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. planations we proceed to a general inquiry, as to the probable and more obvious reasons of the inefficiency of the pulpit. If we begin with the habit of reading discourses, as having something to do with their want of effect, we do so because we wish that our observations should become more weighty as we proceed, since we attach but comparatively little importance to the influence of this custom on public services at large. Why a habit which is disliked by the majority of the hearers, and which is banished from the senate and the bar, should be so pertinaciously adhered to, it is difficult to explain, since it prevents freedom and liveliness of address, and has many other disadvan- tages which only very clever men can overcome. Still a sermon read from the pulpit may be warm, pertinent, and scriptural, as well as correct, and some of the most successful preachers have never deviated from this practice. Other things being equal, there can be no doubt that an extemporaneous address as to delivery will find its way more easily to the heart than one which is read, and on this account the art should be acquired, if possible, by all who wish to do all the good which is practicable in the sacred office. At the same time, we believe that too much has been made of this question in the controversies between churchmen and dissenters, on the part of the latter class of the community. It should be remembered that many eminent Nonconformist divines have practised reading sermons, and that very many others have only gained a fluent style of extempore speak- ing by the sacrifice of the far more essential qualities of correct taste and good sense. EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING. 27 It may assist us in adjusting the proper position of this subject, to imagine what would probably be the results of an ecclesiastical law forbidding the use of written sermons in the pulpit ; an interdiction actually made by statute in the reign of Charles the Second. That it would occasion much inconveni- ence and pain to many whose habits are formed is indisputable; it would probably prevent some men from taking holy orders, and cause others to retire from the field. But it is worth inquiry, whether the advantages would not more than counterbalance these temporary inconveniences. Extemporaneous public speaking would be studied as soon as it was known that a living could not be held without it. Being compelled to throw off the reserve encouraged by reading, on the part of many clergymen there would be more life and energy in their pulpit labours. The pleasure derived from a conscious capacity to use such a potent instrument as a flowing style of public address would lead, in many cases, to constant advancement in eloquence. There would be many things uttered which a refined taste could not ap- prove of; wildness and fanaticism on the part of some, and the want of sound sense in the statements of others, might discredit the new system ; but its great benefits would, we think, be speedily acknow- ledged. More men apt to teach would be candidates for the ministry, and their efforts would tell with increasing force on the public mincl. If these hypo- theses have anything of truth in them, it will follow that, to that extent, the habit of reading ser- mons is prejudicial to the effectiveness of the pulpit in the Church. After all, the subject comes within 28 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. the Horatian rule, applicable to all attempts to move the minds of others, whether made by professional men or private persons : — " Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adsunt Humani vultus. Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi." The want of any direct preparation for public speaking in the preliminary studies of clergymen must operate most injuriously on the general per- formance of their pulpit duties. Two young men trained by a university course, the one for the medical profession, and the other for the Church, might change their destination at the close of their college life, without the disciple of Esculapius finding any serious technical obstacle in his way to the desk and the pulpit. Certain pro forma studies he must pass through previous to examination by the bishop, but none of them have a reference to the art of pleasant and effective public address. A gentleman about to exert his powers in the House of Commons has always opportunities of rubbing off the rust of which he is conscious, by previous practice at public meetings — social, agricultural, or political. He thus feels his way, and brilliant talents which, quite un- tried before their debut on the more exalted arena, might have been repressed by timidity and reserve, are emboldened to display themselves by a conscious- ness of previous success. The same observation will apply to the candidate for legal honours at the bar, which are seldom sought until the aspirant has felt his way by private debating, and also by the little public business of courts which is generally attended to before a brief of any importance is entrusted to CLERICAL EDUCATION IGNORES ORATORY. 29 him. But the candidate for the office of a preacher is generally thrust all at once upon the public view, ignorant of the extent of his own powers, and na- turally timid in so important and conspicuous, although untried, a sphere. Failure in a first attempt will naturally discourage in future trials, and it is easily conceivable, or rather it may be considered as certain, that this want of previous exercise has often been fatal to future success. This impediment in the way of a prosperous discharge of the most im- portant duties of his office a clergyman is not responsible for, and the fact of its existence should lead to a kind and forbearing criticism of his public performance. His previous advantages have been great for the acquisition of all that makes a scholar, a correct thinker, and a man of letters ; but he has had no preparation for the office of a public speaker. His weighty and invaluable possessions lie buried in the secrecy of his own mind, and their existence can only be known to a select few, while his deficiencies are on the surface, and patent to all men. Not only is a clergyman of the Church of England placed in an unfavourable position by his education, in relation to other professions ; his advantages for gaining facility of public address are inferior to those afforded to men who are trained for the ministry among dissenters. The gift of speech, possessed in a higher degree than ordinary, is often the suggestive occasion of the ambition of becoming a preacher among Nonconformists ; and this idea once seriously embraced, there are numerous opportunities for giving it a practical bearing. Addresses to Sunday schools, sermons to villagers and various other simi- 30 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. lar exercises, cultivate any abilities which may be possessed, so that when advanced to a regular pas- toral charge, the accepted candidate often owes his success to his fluency of speech. There are doubtless evils in this, but churchmen should guard against opposing principles or modes of action, because they happen to be adopted by men who are in some minor matters their opponents. Fas est et ab hoste doceri; and when a practice is founded in nature, and obviously useful, it is folly to despise it because it is adopted by even an enemy. In this spirit we might as reasonably refuse to breathe the balmy air, or look upon nature's beauty. We think it is indisputable, that men contemplating holy orders in any Church should, in all reasonable and religious ways, qualify themselves to become public speakers. It is the forgetfulness of this principle which we mention as the second cause of the inefficiency of the pulpit of the English Church. A third cause is the dread of fanaticism, carried often to such an extent as to become as great an evil as that which it seeks to avoid. Ever since the wit of Butler made certain pulpit performances appear so inexpressibly ridiculous, persons of good sense and correct taste have been suspicious of warmth and energy in preachers, lest they should degenerate into the morbid enthusiasm which that poet so keenly satirizes. This traditionary feeling would probably have long since been worn out, had not there been constantly an abundance of living instances of a wild excess in the performances of the pulpit. Of the two evils, it is far better for a public teacher to be inert and dull than to enact in sacred places the part of a EXTREMES OP FANATICISM AND COLDNESS. 31 buffoon, and we had much rather the Church of England should maintain its present too cold and stately mode of instruction, than adopt the coarse and often ludicrous style sometimes witnessed. "Whatever specious arguments may he employed to justify the taste for wild and fanatical preaching, it never can he proved that it is adapted to reclaim the vicious or instruct the ignorant. The blind cannot lead the blind ; and the incidental benefits professed to be derived by individuals from illogical and bom- bastic discourses are conferred in spite of the system, and not as its legitimate results. That preaching, whether found among dissenters or in the established Church, which lays aside the calm dignity of truth, and is contented to feed the popular craving for ex- citement .by incoherent rhapsodies, marvellous anec- dotes, or an exclusive appeal to the passions, we most thoroughly dislike, and would do all in our power to discredit. Under the pretence of pleasing an audi- ence, and thus winning their assent to tfte truth, to treat holy Scripture with irreverence, and excite a disposition to laughter where all ought rather to weep, is a practice offensive to God and good men, and whatever evils may fall upon the Church of England we pray this may never be one. Sometimes from personal acquaintance with this vitiated taste in preachers and congregations, but more often from hearing of its existence, ministers of the Church think it their duty to discourage it by a course directly opposite ; and thus in seeking to avoid one dangerous path, they imperceptibly glide into another. A man of an educated and refined taste, capable of admiring the severe and chaste 32 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. beauty of divine truth, recoils with disgust from the tawdry and meretricious image which ill-regulated minds will substitute for it ; but in the indulgence of this feeling he is apt to deprive the object of his own worship of warmth and vitality, and reduce it to marble. This result is perhaps not to be wondered at, but it is to be lamented, counteracted, and sedu- lously guarded against ; for the abuse of anything which is really good can never be a reason with a wise man for its entire neglect and disuse. To allow a truly noble subject to kindle its own fires within us ; to feel an impassioned glow when discoursing to others on its excellencies ; and to strive with earnest- ness and ardour to make them admire what we con- sider to be necessary for their happiness ; must be consonant with religious truth, and with the duty of its advocate. The preacher should form his own ideas of pulpit duties and pulpit eloquence without any reference to the opinions or practices of other men, and should carefully avoid the temptation of discre- diting what is true to nature, because of its occasional combination with ignorance and fanaticism. That it is true to nature to preach the Gospel as if we felt its importance, and were anxious to make others love it, cannot be denied. To recur again to the bar for an illustration will not be thought unreasonable when it is remembered that to convince and persuade are the objects of both professions, the only difference being in the com- parative importance of the contemplated results. It must often happen that a barrister of great abilities and good sense is compelled to listen to gross violations of taste and propriety in the speeches of THE END OF PREACHING TO BE KEPT IN VIEW. 33 men in the same profession, and is made to blush at follies perpetrated by those who in the business of the courts are his companions. But does he, on that account, resolve to conceal his own powers, and repudiate an energetic eloquence because it has been degraded by others ? Ear from it. It rather appears to him that he is called to put forth more skill, and that the honour of his profession requires that he should exhibit the legitimate mental powers which it demands, because in some instances they have been abused. The false fire of others thus makes his own burn brighter, and the caricature which has been displayed of the legal orator makes him more deter- mined to illustrate by his own performance its genuine features. So ought it to be with the wise preacher, who is entrusted with a twofold task ; on the one hand to perform his own duties, and on the other to vindicate his profession from the incidental blemishes attached to it by its unwise members. How sad is the reflection, that in too many instances an opposite effect has been produced ; a redundance in one party, leading to a tenuity approaching to atrophy on the other ! A fourth cause of inefficient preaching is an in- adequate perception of the vast importance of its duties, as deriving their authority from God, and thus conferring an immense responsibility on the individual who undertakes to discharge them. As a matter of doctrine or theory, the office of the Christian ministry is sufficiently elevated, and its purposes are recognized as being most interesting and solemn ; but in practice it will be found that this high standard is not duly contemplated, if not sometimes 34 THE PULPIT OP THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. almost forgotten. Nor is this to be wondered at when we remember that the ministerial office has a mere worldly side as well as a spiritual one, and that while its object is professedly heavenly and immortal, it has to be sought among things which are seen and temporal. In an establishment of such wealth and influence as the English Church, many collateral aspects present themselves to candidates for holy orders, besides the one to which all should be subor- dinate : and however sincere a man may be in wishing to give to each of these its relative and pro- portional regard, the mind will naturally incline most earnestly to the worldly and splendid. The Church is a great patron of learning and literature, and holds out high rewards to those who excel in many departments of intellectual exertion. It is also, in some of its relations, semi-political, and may capti- vate by presenting to its ministers the appliances for an influence over mankind on the magistrate's bench or in the senate. It is, further, the passport to good society, which always forgets humble origin in those who attain an ecclesiastical status, and delights to honour them. Lastly, while there are many poor curacies and humble livings, there are presented before the ardent and ambitious situations of great wealth, from which no present poverty will in itself exclude them. Others have made their way up- wards, and why should not they he successful? The effort is made, and in the pursuit of the lower and incidental, the real and sublime purpose of the office is at least postponed and undervalued. Here are four ends which may be contemplated by those who have the cure of souls, each very attractive to human THE SNARES OF OFFICIAL LIFE. 35 nature, — a character for learning, political influence, the favour of the fashionable and the great, and wealth. While therefore the spiritual object is the only one which ought, in the first instance, to be pursued, the danger is necessarily great of its claims being thrown into the shade. These incidental advantages, which spread their charms before every one who undertakes the office of the ministry in the Church of England, are more seductive and powerful from the circumstance that they are all lawful, and in some degree and within a proper subordination must be allowed their weight in every pious mind. It is absurd to expect that the prevalent form of religion of any country can keep down its officers within certain levels, and shut out from them the various distinctions which superior intellect and high powers ought to command ; the thing is impossible, however some may think it desirable. These are the snares of office which it becomes the priests of the sanctuary to guard against with the utmost jealousy ; for to love learning and political influence, and the favour of men, and pecuniary advantages, more than the cure of souls and the honour of God, is to be guilty of simony of the worst kind, to break the most solemn vows, and to throw contempt on divine institutions. That such a dereliction of duty is possible we know too well, but we now presume that the crime is to be appre- hended, but has not been committed. Prom the high position occupied by the man who will never allow such worldly considerations to interfere with his sacred duties, to the lowest state of sordid prostra- tion which we have imagined, there are innumerable d 2 36 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. gradations of character, on some of wMch the in- fluence of extraneous aims may be imperceptible, although real. It is this unrecognized and yet powerful bearing of the attractions to which we have alluded, which we believe affects the minds of our clergy, and renders them less energetic as preachers. The concentration of spirit necessary to keep always before the minister that his office is from God, and that for its effective discharge an exact account must be rendered to Him, is liable to be weakened by ob- jects which are bound to the office by various ties. Let it be remembered that all high and responsible stations have their dangers and snares, and that true wisdom consists in knowing and avoiding the peril. One more observation will conclude what we have to say on this part of the subject. We suggest as a fifth cause of the frequent inefficiency of pulpit exercises, the want, on the part of the preacher, of a deep and pervading sense of the spiritual necessities of his hearers. This may be illustrated by the different effects which would be produced on a humane physician by a number of patients whose ills were imaginary or trivial, and another set whose maladies were deeply seated and threatened to be mortal. In the first instance, aid would be afforded without any emotion on the part of the dispenser, and with indifference as to the result ; in the other a sense of responsibility would dictate the prescription, and carefully watch over its consequences. That man, however learned and skilful he might be, who should administer to the bodily maladies of a human being without serious thoughtfulness, would lose all character as to fitness for an office eminently demand- STATE OF HEAKEHS TO BE STUDIED. 37 ing forethought and watchfulness. Yet what is a preacher hut a physician of souls ? and what are his hearers but spiritual patients demanding more or less healing ? It is evident, therefore, that a sermon will be earnest or otherwise, as, in the mind of the preacher, the condition of his hearers is healthy or bad. If they are considered to be whole they need not a physician; if they are thought to be sick, they demand attention in proportion to the degree of virulence of their maladies. We trust it will not be considered a charge peculiarly affecting one class of men, when we ex- press our conviction that a wrong estimate of what is demanded by the spiritual condition of a con- gregation is a fruitful source of cold and aimless preaching. This blindness to the real wants of men unfortunately afflicts the whole visible Church too much to cause its existence in an individual or a body to be a matter of special reproach. But the evil in itself becomes greater by its general diffusion, and ministers of the Gospel should be the first to entertain and encourage right views of this moment- ous subject. Let us suppose that on any given Sunday, at the close of its services, every one who has preached a discourse should be asked, What por- tion of feeling have you entertained to-day for the company of immortal beings you have been address- ing ? Had you reflected on their probable maladies before you ascended the pulpit ? While in that sacred place, did a desire to reform the wicked, to dispel the dangerous errors of the ignorant, or to comfort the broken-hearted, modulate your tones to an earnest tenderness ? Now that your labours are 38 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. ended, are you prepared to watch their results, and again and again to vary the treatment, until, as far as you are concerned, a cure is accomplished ? May we not, without being uncharitable, conclude that candid answers to these inquiries would develope much that is merely ex-official and formal in public ministrations. If a minister could, in any case, be assured that every one of his hearers was repentant and holy, even in that delightful position the themes of his addresses might be expected to kindle a sacred fire in his soul, and produce a warm and eloquent utterance. It is surely no mean thing to build up believers on their most holy faith, to confer upon them increased knowledge, to " allure to brighter worlds and lead the way ;" and this office of edifying would justify as ardent an oratory as ever took pleasure in dilating on the sublime or expanding the beautiful. But how different, we may say in every conceivable instance, is the condition of a promiscuous congregation, and how urgent and loud are the claims which it makes upon the earnest efforts of a Christian preacher? All the ills which Christ came into the world to search out and cure are now to be found in every parish, and the time, therefore, has not yet come when apostolic earnestness can be remitted either in warning the guilty or comforting the penitent. As long as self-righteousness, sordidness, sensuality, enmity towards others, impiety, neglect of personal religion, and other kindred sins, may be presumed to abide in the hearts of those whom a preacher ad- dresses, so long he has a work to do which may properly engage every faculty of the intellect and FINAL OBJECTS OF PREACHING. 39 the heart. Let these unclean spirits be expelled, and the voice of forcible reprehension may be hushed, and impassioned language be laid aside, but not before. If in such scenes, so like those in which Christ and his Apostles exerted their powers to do good, thoughts inappropriate and of little worth are uttered in tones displaying no emotion, the conclu- sion is irresistible, that the speaker is not aware, or has forgotten, that among his auditors are some ready to perish. But our object is more to hint at probabilities than to collect and amplify facts, and we forbear to enlarge where the space for doing so is certainly not wanting. One remark only will we make, and that is, that every Sunday which gladdens our country has a tale to tell at its close, which the Searcher of hearts at that time listens to and records, but which the future only will reveal to ourselves. The light which broke in the East in the morning of any one of these holy days, witnessed a land, with some few exceptions, recognizing a day of rest, and prepared to send its millions to the house of prayer. The stars twinkle in the evening sky, and those millions have been and returned. How many hearts have been impressed, how many homes are to be made orderly and happy, by the amount of scriptural truth which has been brought to bear upon them ? Happy is that teacher of others who is able to affirm that in his high and responsible office he has done what he could ! The grand object to be contemplated by a revival of pulpit influence in the Church of England is the present and future well-being of mankind, as it must 40 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. be the aim of faithful preaching everywhere else. There is a collateral result which will be thought next in importance by every conscientious church- man; it must tend to prevent dissensions, and to keep up the hold which his Church has on the affections of the people. No one acquainted with the habits of thought among the masses of our countrymen will have failed to notice that it is the want of life in the pulpit which makes dissenters from the establishment far more than any speculative principles respecting Church governments, or their political relations. That there are dissenters from principle we of course admit, but they are comparatively few; and many who have now embraced a theory adverse to an establishment, or to Episcopacy, were driven from the pale of the Church m the first instance by mere practical considerations, such as a want of adaptation in the ministrations to their spiritual wants. The way in which the breach was made of course suggests the best method of closing it, or preventing it from becoming wider : — let the pulpits be filled with lively and energetic preachers, and the result is sure. Of course we mean that the preaching should be of the right kind, evangelical, sensible, and earnest, for mere oratory may be employed to recommend error as well as truth. We are aware that the judgments of men will vary as to what the right kind of preach- ing is, but allowing for variations of taste and of doctrine, there is still a basis sufficiently catholic and sure. That preaching, and that alone, will per- manently benefit mankind, and extend the influence of the Church, which is founded on the plain words of Holy Scripture, which aims at the purification of DESIRABLENESS OF EARNEST PULPIT ADDRESS. 41 the heart in this life, and draws attention constantly to our immortal destiny. Let these great principles he illustrated hy a modest and unaffected eloquence, and the whole service of the Church will have a beautiful harmony ; the liturgy and the sermon, the desk and the pulpit, will hear a wise proportion to each other, and devotional exercises will prepare the mind to receive the instructions of truth. We think there can he but one opinion as to the desirableness of an improvement in the pulpit services of the Church, although the practicability of any great change may admit of various degrees of doubt. If those upon whom devolves the government of the Church would originate a course of study more especially regarding the duties of the pulpit, a step greatly in advance would be at once taken, and would be highly beneficial. There can be no doubt in the mind of any thinking person, that if the im- portance of popular preaching were once recognized by the heads of the Church of England, the object would soon be secured, as in the case with every branch of learning which the Church patronizes. It would be as easy to make Oxford and Cambridge as celebrated for pulpit oratory, as they now are for mathematical and classical learning; and a great responsibility thus rests on those who ought to be the first both to discover the inefficiency of present plans of study for clergymen, and to originate better ones. The future in its improved or deteriorated bearings rests in some measure with them, and it is to be hoped that a subject of vital importance to the Church will not much longer be kept in abeyance. But our special object in this paper is to influence 42 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. those who are now removed from preliminary and external discipline, and who must themselves be the originators of a course of improvement in relation to the great work with which they are entrusted as Christian ministers. Whether their future life shall exert much or little influence on those whose souls are committed to their care, will depend on their own sense of duty, and we hope that if our remarks are read by them, they will be received with candour, and be allowed to produce practical results. In our estimation, no character is so interesting as a " priest in the temple," and we would do much to confer on it the greatest possible excellence. If Demosthenes could practise great self-denial, and grapple with physical difficulties to qualify himself to be successful as a political orator, it cannot be too much to expect that some clergyman will be stimulated by a holier ambition to achieve far higher results. Believing as we do, that many in holy orders are anxious to employ their talents in the most effective manner, we entertain a persuasion that our hints will be suggestive of methods by which their best wishes may be realized. We earnestly wish them God speed in their sublime and holy purpose. That will be a happy day for England when its cathedrals and churches shall furnish no occasion for the thoughts which they have suggested to the writer, but when the performance of the pulpit shall fully carry out the spirit and intention of the prayers. With the melancholy reflections we were compelled to indulge, in the scenes depicted in our commencing observations, some hues of hope for the future mingled themselves, and there dawned upon our fancy a BRIGHT HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. 43 brighter series of sabbath days, each one conveying no doubtful benefits to countless multitudes. Then the sweet voices of the choir, and the pealing notes of the organ, shall be the prelude to the more abiding fascinations of gospel truth. Every marble column and sculptured capital, reminding of the zeal of other days, shall become an incentive to present devoted- ness. Confessions of sin, and thanksgivings for mercies received, shall prepare the hearts of the auditors to receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save their souls." The love of art, the attachment to antiquity, now too often the sole attractions of the temple, shall only be handmaids of devotion, and conduce to spiritual improvement. Whether in the crowded city or the rural parish, there shall be heard the solemn words of holy and faithful admonition, before which vice will quail and trembling hope be encouraged. Divine truth en- forced by a fervent eloquence shall win the hearts of " young men and maidens, old men and children," and stimulate them to the performance of every arduous duty. The assembly shall disjDerse, not as it now too often does, listless and unconcerned, or impressed only with the incidentals of divine service, but affected with* a sense of sin or animated with lofty aspirations after truth and holiness. Intellectual young men will return to their secular occupation, endowed with those principles which are the best guarantee of success : fathers and mothers of families will take with them from the house of God the truths which will make home happy ; while the reverend head, leaning over the staff of age, will ponder with humble confidence the rest and peace of "the in- 44 THE PULPIT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. heritance of the saints in light." More powerful than any government, however humane and enlightened ; than any literary or scientific societies, important as their mission is ; the pulpit in its legitimate results will he prevalent to make our country truly great, truly moral, and, as far as this mingled state of things will permit, truly happy ! A condition of mankind contemplated hy that service from which we have already quoted, will then he realized : — " Wherefore, consider with yourselves the end of your ministry towards the children of God, towards the spouse and hody of Christ; and see that you never cease your labour, your care and diligence, until you have done all that lieth in you, according to your hounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall he committed to your charge, unto that agree- ment in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be noplace left among you either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life." ( 45 ) II. ON CLERICAL EDUCATION, IN RELATION TO SACRED LITERATURE. Whatever difficulties may surround the subject indicated by the title of this paper, its importance will be universally acknowledged ; it cannot indeed be well overrated when it is remembered that the work of the Holy Ministry concerns the honour of God and the immortal interests of man. It might appear, at first jsiglit, that a clergy tho- roughly furnished with all that constitutes ripe Biblical scholars, would be recognized by all Chris- tians as a prime necessity of the Church. Our religion, dogmatically, resides in documents ; those records are antique, various, and in many particu- lars intricate in their character; and the clergy have to understand them, act upon them, and ex- plain them to others. One word should not be wanted to gain assent to the proposition that the Holy Scriptures ought, in every practicable way, to be fully understood by Christian Ministers. Nor perhaps is this doctrine, theoretically enunciated, questioned by many, while by most persons it is fully admitted. But, as in many departments of ethics, in this matter our doctrine and practice do not agree : our theories do not square and harmo- nize with our conduct. In all affection, and from a desire faithfully to discharge a duty we feel incumbent upon us, to 46 ON CLERICAL EDUCATION. employ our mental energies in the service of Christ's Church, we ask, How many of the clergy of this country are able to draw water from those wells of salvation, the Hebrew and Greek Scrip- tures of the Old and New Testaments — how many do daily drink at those living fountains — how many habitually quench their thirst at those ancient springs which revolving ages and a changing world have yet left undefiled ? That the number of those who can thus refer to the fountain-head of truth is actually large we gladly admit ; but when we affirm that they are relatively rare when the great extent of the body is considered, we neither act uncha- ritably nor censoriously, for, who claims for the great bulk of Christan Ministers this intimate knowledge of the original Scriptures ? It will be well to dwell on this statement a little, and to esta- blish what we believe can scarcely be doubted — that clerical acquaintance with the bible is more often formed from translations than from the origi- nals — before we proceed to point out the extreme undesirableness of this second-hand application to the sources of divine truth. The best proof that can be given of what we thus state as a fact is, that no provision is made in the education of the clergy for this great and desirable attainment. Indeed, with the exception of a few subsidiary arrangements, rendered necessary by the improved feeling of the present day on such mat- ters, the clerical office receives no special training at all. Its general education, it is at once ad- mitted, is mostly of a high character, coming, as the candidates for holy orders more frequently do, NEGLECT OE STUDY OF GREEK TESTAMENT. 47 from the training of our great public schools and universities. In classical and mathematical learn- ing, and especially in that requisite preliminary of high scholarship, a thorough grounding in the first principles and minute niceties of grammar, no class of men, probably, stands higher as a whole than the clergy of this country. Only wilful ignorance, or a feeling of envy, can deny to them, as a body, an essential soundness in these respects, which is most favourable if properly employed, for the erection of some degree of completeness of clerical training. But, as we have said, training there is none deserv- ing of the name, and to the fault of a system more than to their own, is the defect we are speaking of to be attributed. It may be thought that a general knowledge of the Greek language, such as is necessary for gra- duating at a university, together with the special requirement made by the Bishops of a certain degree of knowledge of the Greek Testament as a condition of ordination, is sufficient as regards the Greek Scriptures ; but such a conclusion can only be arrived at by those who entirely differ from us as to what constitutes sufficiency in the matter before us. It is true that a general knowledge of Greek is the very best, indeed the only foundation for a complete acquaintance with the Greek Testa- ment and for its scholar-like criticism ; but it is far from being the only requisite, since a special and peculiar application of such general knowledge is wanted, before that valuable art can be possessed. To illustrate our meaning, let us take the case of a youth who has been confined principally to Attic 4*8 ON CLERICAL EDUCATION. Greek prose writers, being called upon to study Homer. Here, at first, his scholarship would fail him. He would find himself in a new region with the peculiar products of which he is unacquainted, speaking Greek, it is true, but whose dialect, modes of thinking and customs, are widely different from those of Plato or Xenophon; so that, in many respects, a new grammar, and certainly a new criti- cal apparatus, would be indispensable. Much more is this the case with the language of the New Tes- tament, in relation to the classic Greek to which so much attention is properly given in schools. The dialect is different, and is very peculiar ; but this is not the only difficulty. The very acquaint- ance with the English version of the Scriptures, while a wonderful help to dullness or mediocrity in a partial viva voce examination, is really a stum- bling-block in the way of real improvement, by blinding the mind to difficulties, and making that appear easy which, without any deceitful assist- ance, would be found replete with hard questions. Then the whole subsidiary literature of the Greek New Testament is extensive and various, and re- mote from the early associations of the school and the university. Classic ideas and images, and the facts of profane history, effect an entrance to the shrines of heathen divinities ; but a different style of thinking, and a holier and better order of asso- ciations, can alone open the gates of the Temple of Jehovah, and admit to the Holy of Holies. Hence it is that many excellent general scholars find the New Testament examination a serious matter, when they present themselves to the Bishop CLERGY FROM THE LOWER RANKS. 49 as candidates for the sacred office. They could manage to translate Aristotle's Ethics, and would not quail before a play of iEschylus or Aristo- phanes. They would not, in some cases, shrink from a few hours' exercise in composing Greek Iambics, and yet might be disconcerted when asked to render literally into English a few isolated pas- sages from the Epistles of St. Paul. Such must be the result when the Greek Scriptures are tempo- rarily studied for a purpose, instead of forming an essential part of the prolonged education demanded by the Christian ministry ; or when, in fact, they do not receive an attention equally thorough with that given to profane authors. Let it be borne in mind that our observations are to be taken as ap- plicable to the case as a whole, and admit of very many exceptions. In some quarters more solid instruction is given in the Greek Testament than in others, as a branch of general education, and higher attainments are demanded by the Bishops. But, on the other hand, it must be remembered that a large and increasing number of the clergy have not that sound early education which we have attributed to the body. God, in his choice of in- struments to do his work in the world, knows no respect of classes and conventionalities, and often endows with gifts and graces those who perhaps up to manhood are destitute of a learned training, and whom their own desires and the wishes of discreet friends point to the ministry. And further, apart from any such indubitable call, various causes and motives bring into the service of the Church a number of men from the lower orders of society, E 50 CLERICAL EDUCATION. greater every year ; so much so, that in regard to learning, the character of the order threatens, if this state of things is perpetuated, to he different from what it has hitherto "been. Nothing has tended more to "bring about this scholastic deterio- ration than Sunday schools on the one hand, hy exciting a desire for the ministerial office, and, on the other, the often unnatural growth of manufac- turing towns and districts, which almost compels the Bishops, nolentes nolentes, to ordain candidates of a far lower status than was formerly usual. Ear he it from us to discourage the rising desire of any one for a station of such potentially pre-eminent usefulness as the ministry, or to do anything hut rejoice when difficulties are overcome, and a young man rises hy his talents to a sphere higher than his station in life usually gives. Our wish is that men should be well qualified, and -if so, we shall not regret that they come from the masses of our countrymen ; hut we do require in this argument that a full qualification should be demanded, come men whence they may. However excellent a thing it may he for a poor man, without any regular edu- cation, to become a candidate for the clerical office, that affords no sufficient reason for the admission of his claims until they are shewn to be well- founded. The desire being excited for the ministry hy the various public performances in which the Sunday school often allows young men to engage, the Chmch has, in modern times, provided for them an education in itself far below anything like com- pleteness, though it may give the requisite position THE CURRICULUM AT ST. BEES. 51 from which genius or industry may make almost any incursions into the field of learning. In various institutions, inferior to the universities, a very small portion of classical learning is required, and, as a necessary consequence of this, no adequate know- ledge of the Greek New Testament is possible in those they introduce to the clerical order. In the college of St. Bees, for example, at the time we write, no Latin is required hut Grotius De Veritate, and no Greek but some portions of the Gospels and Epistles. It is true that the Latin treatise of the Dutch theolo- gian contains some pieces rather difficult of diges- tion, even by a competent scholar; and that the Gospels and Epistles, take them where we will, re- quire some skill properly to construe them; but, after all, can such a meagre curriculum put a man in possession of anything worthy of being called scholastic fitness for the office of a Biblical expo- sitor? The bare idea is a burlesque and an ab- surdity, and cannot be soberly entertained for a moment. And yet we anticipate at this stage of our ob- servations an objection in some such form as the following. Because the students of St. Bees and similar colleges give most of their time to divinity and the Greek Testament, are they not, therefore, better qualified to be Christian ministers than men who have had only the general education of one of the universities, however high their standing there may have been ? We reply, first, that we are not now inquiring which system makes the best Bibli- cal scholars, but rather denying that either can make them, in any competent sense ; and secondly, e 2 52 CLERICAL EDUCATION. we affirm that a little delusion lurks under the rather specious inference drawn from the men only studying the Greek Testament, to the neglect of other Greek authors. "We know very well that a mere popular, and therefore hasty and imperfect view of the matter, will at once decide that a man who devotes two or three years to the Greek New Testament must be ipso facto a competent Biblical scholar. But we deny the truth of this conclusion, and, as the subject is deeply important, and forms an intimate portion of our present investigation, we beg leave to examine it more closely. If a man enters St. Bees because his imperfect education forbids his entering the Christian minis- try in the Church of England in any other way (which is the case with most, although certainly not all), he will probably know but little of the Greek grammar. He studies it, and at once begins to apply its rules to the Gospels, which henceforth become the only subject of his study in the Greek language. Any one who knows anything of what an attainment a moderate knowledge of Greek really is, will see that two or three years thus spent, with Latin to grapple with and divinity lectures of various kinds to attend and study into the bargain, must leave the student very super- ficially endowed with the means of interpreting the Greek Testament for himself. And yet a man in such circumstances, gifted with a good memory, and early trained to an acquaintance with the English Bible, can easily persuade himself and others that he is a Grecian of no mean abilities, because he can turn most parts of the original text CONSTRUING OF GREEK IS NOT SCHOLARSHIP. 53 of the New Testament into his mother tongue, and vice versa, tell you what Greek terms correspond to the peculiar phrases of Christian doctrine and prac- tice in common use. Let it be remembered that what we now attribute to the student is only real- ized in very extreme cases ; but we will admit that it does occur, and make it the ground of what we have to say in reference to the necessary super- ficiality of the attainment we allow to be taken for granted. Let it be inquired what is really gained when a man is able to turn the Greek Testament into Eng- lish, part for part, and word for word, the English equivalents for the Greek words and phrases being the corresponding ones of the English Bible. Is it not evident that the gain is just nothing at all, when the feat is stripped of the mystification which the labour of the task and the appearance of scho- larship throw around it? After all, the student translates the Greek by the English, and, for all purposes of interpretation, is in precisely the same position as the more humble man he has left be- hind at his worldly calling, who is satisfied with the rendering of our translators, without turning it back again into Greek characters and words. Yet how often is the ability thus to Grecise the Eng- lish translation confounded with a knowledge of Greek New Testament language ! And how readily do thoughtless persons decide at once that such mental transmutation constitutes deep learning ! As a popular preacher we remember hearing some time ago passed for a highly erudite divine when he told his wondering and delighted auditory 54 CLERICAL EDUCATION. that the Word of St. John's Gospel was Logos in Greek ! Let ns guard against its being thought that we are undervaluing the attainment we are speaking of, when its measure and capacity are properly un- derstood. As a mental exercise and a source of pleasurable satisfaction it is highly to be prized, and, as a foundation for higher acquisitions, it can scarcely be too much appreciated. To read the Greek Testament fluently, so as to take it with us into our closets and use it at our devotions, is, as we shall presently notice, the -n ov arcb, admitting the application of a force of almost any strength, pro- vided the position be rightly estimated and im- proved. But in itself considered as an isolated thing, and apart from all knowledge of the why and because of the Greek text being rendered into Eng- lish in any specified manner, the acquisition we are speaking of is useless to an expositor. "Well will it be if it is only useless, or only employed to assert a character for erudition not possessed. In too many instances such a knowledge of the Greek Testament has proved an occasion of the statement of crude and unsupported theories and doctrines. For our own part, we had much rather trust a preacher or interpreter who knew no language but his native English, than one who had the additional attain- ment of being able to tell every corresponding word of the New Testament in Greek — his philology ex- tending no further. If we now turn from the Greek New Testament to those Hebrew Scriptures respecting which St. Paul reminds Timothy that they are divinely inspired, THE STUDY OF HEBREW NECESSARY. 55 and profitable for doctrine, for reproof for correc- tion, and for instruction in righteousness, we find the want of acquaintance with them even more in- disputable and universal. Eor some knowledge of Greek a claim is always made on those who seek to ascend the pulpits of the Church of England and offi- ciate at her altars ; but, with some few slight excep- tions by certain Bishops, no requisition is made of even a knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet. There are, indeed, some professorships of Hebrew, and various premiums and scholarships excite to an acquaint- ance with the language at our universities ; and a testimony is thus borne to the fact that some have been found who have attended to the neglected and remembered the forgotten. But since ordination is in no way, ordinarily, dependent on a knowledge of the language, the consequence is plain — it is com- plimented as valuable, but scarcely any labour to attain it. We are not far from the truth when we state that most Hebrew scholars are self-taught, simply from the want of any efficient system of training in the language, owing to the greater im- portance attached to other studies. At Oxford, and Cambridge, and Dublin, some machinery exists, with deeply learned men ready to bring it into use ; but, unfortunately, there is little demand, and the study of Hebrew, though on the advance, is far from being in a state of prosperous efficiency.* * "We have had some reason to suspect that a few years ago, the Hebrew rewards were given, at Oxford at least, for a very slender knowledge of Hebrew ; but we would not draw such a conclusion from an isolated case. We refer to the fact that, in a provincial magazine intended to furnish intellectual food for Sunday-school 56 CLERICAL EDUCATION. We think, then, the real state of the case in re- ference to the competency of the clergy as Biblical scholars is this : — Some of them are highly gifted, both as regards the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Testament, but the number is small; very many are complete masters of the latter, but quite igno- rant of Hebrew; a considerable proportion can teachers and others, the editor of which styled himself 'Late Hocly Hebrew Exhibitioner, etc., etc., Wadham College ; and Pusey and Ellerton Hebrew Scholar, Oxford,' the following paragraph occurred: — " 1 Chron., i. 3. ' Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.' It is sometimes asked, of what service to mankind are (sic) the frequent occur- rence of long genealogies in our sacred books ? Perhaps it has never occurred to our readers that one of the most remarkable prophecies respecting our Saviour is latent under the names of the Antediluvian patriarchs. The translation of their names from the original, substituting the proper vowel points, runs as fol- lows. Man being rendered miserable, shall still be a gainer ; the mighty God shall descend, teaching that by his death he shall bring unto the weary rest. The occurrence of such a prophecy, so inca- pable of being forged, is to us a stronger evidence in favour of revelation than the most laboured arguments resting upon purely metaphysical grounds." As the editor under whose supervision this piece of utter ignorance is promulgated for the benefit of Sunday-shool teachers may have let it slip in unwittingly, and as we believe him to be a well-meaning man, we will no further reveal the matter. The gross violation of all Hebrew grammar which must take place before anything like the verbiage of such a prophecy could be gained is bad enough ; but it is worse, as a clerical friend ob- served on reading the paragraph, to make the Almighty utter solemn and affecting truths in the form of conundrums. Such nonsense, we dare say, never had occurred to the editor's readers, and it is a sad pity he should have taken pains to supply their lack of knowledge. BISHOP MALTBT ON CLERICAL STUDIES. 57 employ the Greek Testament judiciously when a controverted matter comes hefore them; but the largest proportion of all have never so far mastered the subject as to find it easy and productive of pleasure and profit, and it is consequently neg- lected. Expositions and comments take up the time which might be so much more profitably em- ployed, both for themselves and the Church. Re- mote streams, often so much mixed with baser matter as scarcely to maintain a perceptible rela- tion to the original waters, supply the place of an application to the living fountain as it gushes from the rock. This is to be lamented for the sake of those whose personal loss is so immense, and also for the sake of the influence of such a deprivation on their ministrations.* * We insert here some admirable remarks by the venerable prelate, the late Dr. Maltby, the Bishop of Durham. They occur in a Charge delivered in Durham at the close of his life. Most of them refer to topics kindred with those discussed in this paper, and all of them are nearly related to our object. " Here, again, I must enforce the advice I have felt it my duty to urge upon all candidates for holy orders as to the importance, indeed the absolute necessity, of devoting as much time as pos- sible to the improvement of their minds, and the acquisition of knowledge suited to their profession. I believe that some of the hours which are given up to visiting in the houses of the parish- ioners — except in case of illness, and where the presence and advice of a clergyman may be otherwise required — would be passed in a manner more profitable, and more conducive to the effective discharge of their professional duty, if they were devoted to a wide and systematic course of theological study. Such a course, varying, no doubt, according to taste, opportunity, and facility, should embrace the whole body of the Scripture in its two original languages — the subjects and occurrences of the Old Testament, as leading to a more intimate acquaintance with the 58 ON CLERICAL EDUCATION. Having thus, as we imagine, made good our posi- tion, we shall endeavour to indicate what we think may be done to remedy the defect thus established. We desire to avoid all Utopian and impracticable peculiar Greek of the New, Scripture History, Chronology, and Geography, with the best critical and practical commentaries upon the language and meaning of Holy Writ. I confine my remarks to Scripture itself, and to the most available method of arriving at a knowledge of its true meaning in contradistinction to the superficial and false habit of aiming at a knowledge of re- ligion from books of controversy — from pamphlets or periodical works on the disputed questions of the day, or from the popular but delusive representations of those who appeal to the imagina- tion rather than to the reason. I strongly urge upon the clergy the importance of cultivating these studies, for otherwise they cannot be acquainted with what it becomes a clergyman to under- stand, and because if they do not employ their time thus ration- ally, and thus profitably, there may be a danger in some few but melancholy instances of their degenerating in taste from low companions, or still lower habits. " There is, moreover, another reason, at the present time more especially, why the clergy of the Established Church should labour to acquire such an amount of knowledge as may enable them to maintain the character for learning, and for a wise and useful application of it, which was attained by our forefathers, and which has made the name of an English divine so highly honoured. Our dissenting brethren of the present day are, greatly to their credit, sensible of the value and the influence of knowledge, as applied to the service of religion, and have become, many of them, not only entitled to the praise of lofty attain- ments, but also of a most proper anxiety to extend similar advan- tages to the youth with whom they are connected. The seminaries which they have founded are not only conducted by learned and able teachers, but are so entirely conducted under such wise arrangements, that they promise healthy and promising scholars. If, therefore, our own clergy are as assiduous as they ought to be in maintaining the superiority which they formerly possessed, or even desire to rank upon any point with theologians among the THE CLERGY MUST FIND TIME FOR STUDY. 59 schemes, and shall merely point out what, in our opinion, may be reasonably expected of the clergy in reference to sacred literature. We deprecate Optimism, in this as well as in other matters, and dissenters, they will feel it incumbent on them not to reject any opportunity for strengthening their minds, and extending the sphere of their knowledge, and so becoming worthy of the profes- sion to which they belong. I am well aware, and heartily regret, that from the increase of population, and from other causes, the time of the clergy has become much more occupied — from one cause, indeed, highly creditable to them, from a keener perception of duty, and a more intense determination to discharge it ; so that there is not that equal amount of leisure, perhaps, which was formerly enjoyed. Nevertheless, in all cases there must be some hours to be employed in study. I have already endeavoured to guard against one cause which may tend to diminish the amount of available time ; yet much more would I deprecate all unneces- sary waste of time by unprofitable reading, or by an inconsiderate desire for recreation and amusement. I can assure my younger brethren, that as there is nothing more insipid than mere reading, so is there nothing more delightful than hours passed in meditation upon what the Almighty has been graciously pleased to reveal to us, and in the study of the precious volume in which his will is written. " It must be unnecessary for me to say, that in thus earnestly directing my younger brethren to the means of obtaining sound Scriptural learning, my object is to preserve them from what is superficial and unsound. I believe that the greater part of the controversies on religious subjects, which have even from the first distracted the peace of the Church and impaired its usefulness, owe their root to the imperfect and erroneous views of the mean- ing and intention of this most gracious boon to mankind. Alex- ander and others, in the days of St. Paul and Timothy, were but the prototypes of many others who, in every succeeding age of the Christian dispensation, have overthrown the faith of some. To the early perversion of the designs of the Gospel from the secular motive of aggrandizement may we ascribe the origin of the Papacy, with all its unscriptural tenets and its practical 60 CLERICAL EDUCATION. hope to mark out a path, not accessible merely to soaring geniuses, who can raise themselves above the rough places of the way, but which may be comfortably and successfully trodden by all men of ordinary minds. Excuses for idleness we will not admit, nor allow the circumstance that what we seek has seldom been attained to entail the conclusion that it is generally imprac- ticable. We remember an adage somewhere, Expect great mummeries. From a notion of a similar kind, but yielding as it would seem to an abstract love of error, we may impute that most unhappy and uncalled-for rupture in the peace and unity of our Church, against which I have felt it my duty, and still feel myself strongly impelled, to lift up my voice. I expressed my appre- hension of its consequences long before, and though it is a matter of comfort and congratulation to ourselves that the evil has been felt far less in this diocese than in many others, nevertheless, even here it has been experienced in more than one parish, in the with- drawal of confidence from the clergy, in heart burnings amongst the parishioners themselves, and in the diminished influence and comfort of our blessed religion. I must, therefore, impress upon your minds the seasonable admonition delivered by the Church herself at the time of ordination : — ' Consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures,' ' that by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures, ye may wax riper and stronger in your ministry.' If all who are employed in the work of God, not merely in this diocese, but throughout the king- dom, would lay to heart this weighty advice, and carefully follow it, the differences unhappily existing would speedily abate — our thoughts would no longer be perplexed by the reasonings of men who, however eminent, and however well-intentioned, are still fallible, but we should have recourse with increased diligence and increased faith to the unerring word of God — we should be enabled to give more undivided attention to the duties of our sacred call- ing, and labour with more effect in the glorious endeavour to prepare human souls for heaven.' THE BIBLE THE BOOK OF THE CLERGY. 61 things, and perform great things ; and nothing is more true than that a high standard is sure to ele- vate those who are around it, or, in other words, that our aspirations after excellence are the measure of our success. We will even go further than this (for it may be said with some correctness that if the aspiration is formed the work is virtually done), and say that the higher the requirements demanded of men, the more they will be proportionably sti- mulated to master them. If then we should pro- pose more than can be found to be attainable in practice, our labour will not be thrown away. If the mark is not quite reached, it will be something to have brought men to a nearer approach to it. Now, remembering that the Bible is The Book of the clergyman, and that though a somewhat extensive collection, it is but small compared with the written authorities which have to be mastered by a student of the law, is it unreasonable to ex- pect that he should be thoroughly master of its languages, its contents, and its literature, so far, at least, as to be able himself to criticise and explain it, or to judge of the interpretations of others? Surely, as the professional authority, so to speak, of a Christian minister, as much as this is demanded by it ; and the consideration is made stronger when we remember that the highest possible interests depend upon it, that the clergyman takes it as his own guide and that of his flock to immortal happi- ness. ^Further, there is claimed for this book, by itself, and generally by those who take it as their guide, an inspiration of a character which makes it of the utmost importance to know the ipsissima 62 CLERICAL EDUCATION. verba of the writers. If inspiration only meant, what some contend for, a general truthfulness of the statements of the Bible in regard to the religion it reveals, the value of the precise words of the writers would not be so great as when a verbal in- spiration is admitted. But as all clergymen take what may be called the orthodox view of this sub- ject, and are presumed to believe in the full guid- ance of the Holy Ghost both of the thoughts and pens of the sacred writers, by the argumentum ad hominem they are compelled to attach importance to the original documents. "We confess that there is an irreconcilable contradiction in our minds between this high and proper claim, so universally made by the clergy, of a full inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and their very general neglect of the original texts for translations, in which no such complete inspiration can reside. The celebrated J. D. Michaelis, in his Introduc- tion to the New Testament, gives™ us his idea of what should be expected of a clergyman in relation to Biblical knowledge, and we quote the passage to shew that we are not singular in our opinion. Having treated of the language of the New Testa- ment, he gives what he considers the requisites for a fundamental and critical acquaintance with it, so that a man may decide for himself, and not rely on the opinions of others. These are, 1. An intimate acquaintance with the Greek classics ; 2. A know- ledge of the inestimable treasures which lie hid in ancient inscriptions ; 3. The close study of the Sep- tuagint ; 4. A knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac, of which he says, " Divines who confine their studies MICHAELIS ON BIBLICAL STUDIES. 63 to the Greek Testament alone, and, without learn- ing the Oriental languages, aspire to the title of theologians, lead not only themselves astray, but those also to whom they undertake to communicate instruction ; and I may venture to affirm that no man is capable of understanding the (Greek) New Testament, unless to an acquaintance with the Greek he joins a knowledge of, at least, Hebrew, Syriac, and Rabbinic." He then proceeds to sum up what he has said on the subject in the follow- ing way : — • " It may be replied, that if requisites like these are indispensable, it is no easy matter to attain a knowledge of the Sacred writings. The fact is not to be denied, and few profane authors are so diffi- cult as the New Testament. But I shall be less exposed to the charge of derogating from the per- spicuity of the divine oracles, as a very learned theo- logian, the celebrated Ernesti, has maintained the same opinion in his Dissertatio cle difficultate in- terpretationis grammatics Novi Testamenti. It may likewise be objected that in delineating the character of a theologian I have laid down qualifi- cations as necessary which lie beyond the reach of common abilities. Now every artist in forming an image which is to serve as a pattern of beauty en- deavours to render it as perfect as possible, although its excellencies were never united in a single object. But the description I have given of a consummate theologian is by no means ideal ; the qualifications I have enumerated have been attained by many, and ought to be attained by all who undertake to expound the Word of God. If proper alterations 64 CLERICAL EDUCATION. were made in the public schools, the students in divinity might, on leaving the university, he pro- vided with a sufficient fund of Biblical literature. It is true the knowledge acquired in these seats of learning must be considered only as a beginning, which future study must bring to perfection ; but when a good foundation has been laid, the scholar will hardly suppose that idleness is to be the reward of former industry. Even the clergy who reside in the country might prosecute these studies with advantage, and make great advances in the know- ledge of the Bible, if a faulty education threw no obstacles in the way, which they have no inclina- tion to surmount." " Those who have neither opportunity nor abili- ties to acquire sufficient knowledge to investigate for themselves, must at least be in possession of so much as is requisite to enable them to profit by the learned industry of others, and to apply to the New Testament those treasures of Grecian and Oriental literature which their predecessors have presented to their hands. But a man unacquainted with the Septuagint and Classic authors can form no judg- ment of the critical remarks which have been made on the language of the New Testament, nor deter- mine whether the word be literal or figurative, the sense in which it is usually taken, or only such as extensive reading can ratify by the authority of but two or three examples. He can have no idea of in- terpretative probability, and is unavoidably exposed to the danger of giving the same credit to a false interpretation as to the true one. In short, he can see only with foreign eyes, and believe only on the POPULAR BIBLICAL EBBOBS. 65 authority of others, but can have no conviction hhnself ; a conviction without which no man should presume to preach the Gospel even to a country- congregation." — {Bishop Marsh' 's Translation^ vol. i. p. 180.) There is a fine spirit in this passage, although we may be disposed to make some deductions from its generalizations. Some persons will at once ex- claim against the whole tendency of it, and try to prove it erroneous by talking large on the trite topics of the sufficiency of Scripture in the hands of the most illiterate, and the non-necessity of what they call human learning for its success in the great objects it contemplates. But the fact is, all men are not called upon to understand the Bible in the sense we are now treating of, and to them it will be sufficient, doubtless, if they use it according to the measure of their ability. The mistakes committed by ordinary readers of the Holy Scriptures are in- numerable and constant on all matters which de- mand education and knowledge for their solution, and yet by a faithful use of what they can under- stand (which, by an admirable arrangement of Divine benevolence, is the saving and essential part of them), they become wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. But one who is called, or who stands in the place and office of one called, to be a teacher of others, and an interpreter of the Bible, is in a widely different position. He has not only to save his own soul, but the souls of his hearers. He is to defend the outworks of God's temple, as well as to officiate in its secret recesses ; and to him is intrusted the honourable task, as a 66 CLERICAL EDUCATION. scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, of bringing out of His treasury things new and old. He is to be the solver of doubts, the remover of stumbling-blocks, the builder-up of the people of God on their holy faith. There are treasures in the Bible which no vulgar eye can discover and no ordinary labourer can bring to the light of day. The minister of the sanctuary is to detect the golden vein, to bring it to the surface, and to use it to enrich men's minds, and make the holy place more splendid and illustrious. The sufficiency of Scripture for a man whom his position in life makes ignorant, is a tender provision of his heavenly Eather for his unavoidable deficiencies, but is far from being an excuse for the idleness and apathy of those whom circumstances oblige to be wiser and better than their poorer neighbours. It is high time that our Lord's own maxim should be understood and applied by those who take upon themselves to instruct others, and are enriched. by Providence with golden opportunities of intellectual advancement, -Unto whom much is given, of him shall be much required. Such a measure of knowledge as enables a man to escape the humiliation of taking everything Biblical at second hand and on the faith of others, has been acquired by clergymen of moderate intel- lectual capacities, and what has been often done may be done again. It is excessively mortifying to think how small a portion of mental treasure may be possessed by a man, who shall yet, through the reflected light of his honourable calling, pass for a decent scholar and a useful minister. This LEGAL AND MEDICAL EDUCATION. 67 cannot happen in other and kindred professions, which demand, for any measure of success in their disciples, a special and, at this day, a sound and thorough training. The candidates for the profes- sions of law and physic must have a general edu- cation equally good with that demanded for the clerical office. But there is this remarkable differ- ence in the two cases, that when the training of the future physician or advocate is but beginning, that of the clergyman is considered to be ended, or nearly so. The two former pass from the public school or the university to the actual labour of the office or the surgery, and, through long years of progressive labour, acquire a fitness for their re- sponsible destinations ; but the latter, the aspirant for a profession far higher than either of the other two, goes at once to the desk, the altar, and the pulpit, to acquire in his sacred office, as he best may, or to neglect to acquire altogether if he chooses, that fitness which we venture to affirm is indispensably necessary. This is a sad state of things, and there is nothing to remedy or counter- act it as there would be in case of the like want of knowledge in the lawyer and the physician. The patient and the client can detect, generally, the deficiencies of the latter ; but how incompetent are the masses of Christian congregations to see through the shallowness of their instructor ! Let him have a little tact in applying to his own use the stores of more industrious brethren, and keep at hand some respectable commentator to preserve him from gross errors, and he will pass through the world with as good a character as the man who strives to realize E 2 68 CLERICAL EDUCATION. in himself the independence pleaded for by Mi- chaelis. He may even be popular by acting on the principle — " Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves, Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes " — and thus, laden with the spoils of other minds, bear away the palm from his more industrious, but less plausible and showy neighbour. But what does conscience now say to this vicarious procedure — what will God finally say? There is no delusion more common, and at the same time more unfounded, than the alleged reason for resting contented with an imperfect intellectual training, viz., that the Clergy have no time to ac- quire it. "We admit the excuse in one case — that in which men are daily labouring like confessors and missionaries in the early ages of the Church, in self-denying acts of kindness to their parishioners, and endeavouring, alas ! in many cases hopelessly, to repair the ruins produced by the cupidity and recklessness of those who, while becoming rich by the sinews of their poor fellow creatures, have neg- lected their souls. Such men, if it were lawful, we could almost deify and worship, coming close as they do to the unapproachable Saviour of men, in their labours "of love. "We know some such who would gladly find time, if they could, for the ame- nities of literature, and the solid acquisition of Biblical learning, but who are constrained by the love of Christ to deny themselves, and take up the Cross and follow Him in his weary pilgrimage to the homes of poverty which none else care for. Like Howard, as described by an inimitable Essay- NECESSITY OE DECISION OF CHARACTER. 69 ist, they have a soul to appreciate what is refined and beautiful, but dare not stay to admire while more pressing interests demand their attention.* But we cannot admit the excuse on the part of those who can find leisure for anything which fancy or inclination may prompt, and waste some * " But not less decision has been displayed by men of virtue. In this distinction no man ever exceeded, for instance, or ever will exceed, the late illustrious Howard. " The energy of his determination was so great, that if, instead of being habitual, it had been shewn only for a short time on particular occasions, it would have appeared a vehement impe- tuosity; but, by being unintermitted, it had an equability of manner which scarcely appeared to exceed the tone of a calm constancy, it was so totally the reverse of anything like turbulence or agitation. It was the calmness of an intensity kept uniform by the nature of the human mind forbidding it to be more, and by the character of the individual forbidding it to be less. . . . The law which carries water down a declivity was not more uncon- querable and unvariable than the determination of his feelings towards the main object. The importance of this object held his faculties in a state of excitement which was too rigid to be affected by lighter interests, and on which, therefore, the beauties of nature and of art had no power. He had no leisure feeling which he could spare to be diverted among the innumerable varieties of the extensive scene which he traversed ; all his subor- dinate feelings lost their separate existence and operation by fall- ing into the grand one. There have not been wanting trivial minds to mark this as a fault in his character. But the mere men of taste ought to be silent respecting such a man as Howard ; he is above their sphere of judgment. The invisible spirits who fulfil their commission of philanthropy among mortals, do not care about pictures, statues, and sumptuous buildings ; and no more did he, when the time in which he must have inspected and admired them would have been taken from the work to which he had consecrated his life." — Foster's Essays — On Decision of Cha- racter. 70 CLERICAL EDUCATION. hours every day on frivolous pursuits. Let us con- sider a little closer the two contrasted impediments which thus lie in the way of the acquisition of sound Biblical knowledge. Now, with all the sincere respect we feel for the laborious pastor who gives the whole of his time to reclaiming and comforting his flock, we must doubt that it is proper for any minister of the Gospel to neglect one duty for another, however intrinsically important it may be. None could feel more deeply than the Apostles, how active a Life it behoved them to lead, since they had to convert the world ; and yet the reason they gave for the appointment of the seven Deacons implied that they felt the neces- sity of retirement and study — " But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." The fact is, that the study of the Scriptures is the first object the clergyman is called to attend to throughout his professional career, as the foundation of his usefulness. This is clearly stated in the Ordination service of the Church of England, by the Bishop in his exhortation to the candidates for the office of presbyters. After re- minding them of the great responsibilities and difficulties of the charge about to be received, the Bishop adds : — " And seeing you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of men, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable- to the same ; consider how studious you ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves, and of them that spe- THE REFORMERS GREAT BIBLICAL STUDENTS. 71 cially pertain unto yon according to the rule of the same Scriptures ; and for this self-same cause, how you ought to forsake and set aside, as much as you may, all worldly cares and studies." What the views of the compilers of the Liturgy were as to what constituted the study of the Bible on the part of the clergy, is plain from what we know of their history and personal habits, and from the extant monuments of their sanctified genius. They did not mean the reading of an occasional chapter, or the consultation of some commentary on the Bible, but the mastering of the difficulties inherent in the original texts by the aid of as extensive a critical apparatus as could be secured. Such men as Cran- mer, Goodrich, Ridley, and their coadjutors, knew how to find time to attain to depth and solidity of learning, although placed in the midst of arduous public duties and cares. We may safely affirm that they never contemplated such a thing as a clergy so oppressed with home missionary work in their parishes, as to have no time left for those peculiar studies by which the clerical office is both strength- ened and adorned. In former times a clergyman was placed over a flock of such proportions, that he could discharge his duty to them without neglecting his own mental cultivation and advancement ; and if his parish out- grew such a moderate size, further aid was ob- tained. But now we have the sad spectacle, in England, of great districts growing up almost on a sudden, filled with manufacturing populations, which by past neglect are as rude and ignorant as heathens. In such places, churches are built, and 72 CLERICAL EDUCATION. ministers located, who find that if they are to make any head at all against irreligion, it must he hy giving their whole time to out-door work, as men do in a heathen country. It is granted that if ministers are placed in such positions, they must work in that way ; hut, at the same time, we think the Church should strive to lessen the evil as much as possible, hy sub-dividing such districts, and hy appointing inferior officers to take from the clergy- man the mere drudgery of his parish. Nothing that can exist of the kind we have mentioned can assail the impregnable position we have taken, and which is defended by Scripture and reason, and the teaching of the Church, viz., that the Clergy should be men thoroughly learned in the Scriptures. Let but this idea gain hold of the public mind, and all other things will bend to it. A minister not capable of handling the original text will be considered unfit for his office ; and it will be seen that what- ever amount of pastoral labour has to be done, it must be so distributed that every clergyman shall have time for reading and meditation, and mental advancement. But the exhaustive labour of heavy pastoral duty can only be alleged by some of the clergy, as form- ing an interruption to Biblical studies ; by far the larger proportion of men, who allege want of time, will be found to sacrifice a substantial scholar-like character for matters far less important. Unprofit- able visiting, attendance on unnecessary committee meetings, and a voluntary taking on themselves matters better attended to by laymen, will be found more often the cause of the study being neglected. EFFECT OF LIGHT READING. 73 We must add to these, the growing practice of light and miscellaneous reading, as a sad canker-worm at the root of Biblical knowledge. The newspaper, especially when it mixes with politics the vexed questions of the Church; the new novel; the re- views and magazines, good in themselves, yet highly pernicious when read in excess ; make another serious deduction from the precious hours which should be given to higher objects. Let those hours be counted every week, and we think it will at once appear to the deeply interested calculator, that if he had only the will, the means are not wanting for making him that highest of all characters, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. "We purposely leave out of account less innocent pursuits which devour up golden hours as the ill-favoured and lean-fleshed kine consumed the well-favoured and fat ones by the river of Egypt ; partly because we believe such recklessness is comparatively rare, and partly be- cause we have generally found that on such mental spendthrifts advice is thrown away. We think, therefore, we indulge no wild fancies nor unreasonable desires, when we wish that the Clergy as a whole should be Biblical scholars, if not all to the extent demanded by Michaelis, yet in various degrees approximating to and aiming at the highest standard. We would have them able to read the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures devotionally, so as to employ the English version only in public, or in the family, and for the pur- pose of assisting in the study of the originals. This high attainment could be gained by young 74 CLERICAL EDUCATION. men, if adequately trained to it, and what is of more importance, if they were expected to possess it. When once acquired, this practice would soon render versions unsatisfactory, and would lead to a daily increase of skill, and draw along with it the study of the whole range of Sacred Literature, for the purpose of explaining difficulties, and illus- trating the text. We shall devote the remainder of this Essay to an exhibition of the immense advan- tages such a status would possess ; and to a few suggestions as to the best modes of securing its general attainment. We will first mention the great pleasure derived from Biblical science and literature — a pleasure un- alloyed by any drawbacks, because it arises from the performance of duty, independent to a great degree on external circumstances, and admitting of constant addition and increase. No honour that could be conferred on a clergyman could be so valuable as the formation of a taste for these studies ; and if there were no higher object contem- plated by them, he deserves to be called benevolent who endeavours to impart it. By a law which gives us a high conception of the consummate union of skill and kindness in the Divine arrange- ments, man's duties are almost always the sources of his pleasures. This is true of the woodman who wields the axe in the forest, who finds in the very labour of his calling, when not abused by becoming excessive, a present satisfaction, to say nothing of the consequent sweetening of his humble meals, and the undisturbed completeness of his repose. The same is true, in a higher sense, of intellectual PLEASURES OE BIBLICAL STUDIES. 75 labours when duty calls to them, for all mental exertion has not that pious and hallowing sanction. A reading man may be wrought up to high excite- ment by a tale skilfully contrived by the hand of genius, and yet, on after reflection, may feel that he has really gained nothing by the long expen- diture of time which he has incurred. But what unpleasant reflections can ever follow the hours dedicated to the study of the divine oracles ? In many departments of science, important and highly interesting investigations have to be carried on in vili cor pore, on subjects themselves useless, and even disgusting ; but in the case before us the very things to be studied have an attractiveness which cannot be easily overrated, being no less than the mental productions of holy men of old, loho spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Voices proceeding from ancient oracles; songs uttered by men who were rapt up to the third heaven in their extatic meditations ; the precious sayings of Him who spake as never man spake, and the exposition and development of His doc- trines and precepts by His inspired followers : these form the substance of the Bible, to which we invite a close and life-long devotedness on the part of its professed interpreters. Then, apart from the subject-matter, how fair are the regions of thought which surround this central point of attraction, and invite the student to go forth like the bee, and to return laden with exotic sweets and choice unguents to enrich and honour this depository of heaven's own treasures ! But this illustration fails in the most important point, for the bee is probably 76 CLERICAL EDUCATION. an unconscious instrument working by instinct, and seeing no beauty in the landscape through which she flies, or in the field and grove whence she col- lects her honey, while the student of God's Word is an intellectual excursionist, all whose powers are employed as he gathers materials to illustrate and explain it. History, chronology, the customs of the men of the East, the animals and natural pro- ductions the Bible speaks of, the discoveries of archaeology, are a few of the minor topics to which Biblical science leads, to say nothing now of the more sublime meditations on God's ways and man's nature to which it constantly gives rise. There is a pleasure of no ordinary kind in the learned philo- logy connected with the mere letter of the Bible, but this is enhanced by the vast variety of subsi- diary contributions which may be brought from every quarter to illustrate it. The certainty of result, and consequently the dogmatic authority conferred by Biblical science, may be mentioned as a second advantage possessed by those who cultivate it. An empirical practi- tioner of medicine, who knows nothing of the nature of his simples, but merely compounds them accord- ing to some recipes handed to him probably by an older quack, appears to us, mutatis mutandis, in the position of a clergyman whose whole theology, passive and active, is derived from the English ver- sion and its commentators. On the other hand, the careful physician, educated for many years in all the departments of science associated with his calling, and knowing both the properties of his drugs and their relation to the complicated human IMPORTANCE OP CAREPTTL CRITICISM. 77 structure they are to work upon, reminds us of the divine who strives to know all that is discoverable in the sacred science committed to his trust. The physician's predecessors and contemporaries may be as wise or even wiser than himself, and on that account it might be thought that he could not do better than take their prescriptions and blindly follow their practice. But what self-respect could such a man feel, or what moral certainty could he have in his experiments ? In the human frame it is often important to know whether a portion of it should be excised or allowed to remain ; and he is a mere charlatan who ventures either to use the knife or to withhold it without being able to give a reason for his procedure. But is not the clergyman often called upon to exercise a similar judgment on portions of the "Word of God ? Take, for instance, the once disputed passage concerning the heavenly witnesses (1 John v. 7). As a proof text tins must often come under his notice : he knows its genuineness is questioned, and how is he therefore to judge respecting it ? He may deter- mine to retain it, because Bishop Burgess thought it genuine ; or, if his mental character is less con- servative, he may strike it out of the record on the authority of Griesbach or Tischendorf. But we ask what right has he to do one or the other on the faith of other men's judgments and opinions? His only safe course is to do what Bishop Burgess and Griesbach did : to judge for himself, after studying and weighing all at- tainable evidence. Then he may indeed be wrong after all, but he has at least done what he 78 CLERICAL EDUCATION. could, and cannot be charged with ignorant pre- sumption. This is only one instance out of a thousand dis- puted readings, which, although they leave all vital truth intact, even if they require to he pruned away, are all of them important, and cannot he lightly treated without an inexcusable trifling with divine truth. If a man is really unable to examine the arguments on both sides, he should modestly and reverently abstain as much as possible from using such texts, and not allow himself to be swayed by the opinions of others, because they belong to his party, or take the same general views of theological matters as he does. Hence the doubt and uncertainty which a proper measure of Biblical training would tend to remove. Freedom from the gross errors and foolish theories, in relation to the Scriptures, which pre- vail more or less in every age, is a third advantage possessed by the Biblical scholar. We do not mean to say that every one who can read the Hebrew and Greek originals must on that account be a sober critic, and superior to weakness of judgment and prejudices. We could not entertain such an opinion without blinding our eyes to facts around us, which refute such a general position ; but it is quite clear that the direct tendency of sound Biblical science is to guard the mind against waywardness of thinking in theology, and to prevent it from being tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine , by the sleight of men and cunning crafti- ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Many Christian sects in all ages have owed their existence IGNORANT OPPOSITION TO SCIENCE. 79 entirely to false interpretation, and to the same source must be attributed many of the vagaries of public bodies and of individuals at the present day. Could half the nonsense now prevalent on the sub- ject of prophecy be entertained, if a correct exe- gesis were employed ? Or could Apocalyptic litera- ture contain so much wild and crude speculation, if its perpetrators were better schooled in the art of interpreting Scripture ? How long did ignorance, under the garb of a pious zeal for the integrity of the Scriptures, oppose itself to geological science, and enact again, in the nineteenth century, the scenes between the Pope and Galileo in the sixteenth ? "We even now meet occasionally a grave divine who looks solemn and shakes his head and shuts his eyes with a truly vade Satana air, when geology is mentioned ; and at once suspects you are steeped to the eyes in German neology, if you refuse to sacrifice the cer- tainties of inductive science to the a priori con- clusions of himself and his grandfathers. It is very grievous, and yet very true, that persons can now be found, who will tell you that the animal and vegetable productions imbedded in the strata of the earth were lodged there by the deluge in the days of Noah ; or, if driven from that position, will affirm that God created the fossils when He made the rocks (the ravenous creatures with the prey in their stomachs and all), to try the faith of His obedient children in these last ages of the world, tempted and tried as they are by the plausi- ble schemes of science, falsely so called ! Need we stay to point out the impossibility of such ideas 80 CLERICAL EDUCATION. as these being entertained for a moment by men who give themselves to an enlarged study of Bibli- cal theology ? How often is it the case that those who authoritatively warn their hearers against what they are pleased to call the errors of the times, are themselves inextricably entangled in the meshes of their own delusions, and incur, in a less immoral sense certainly, but not less surely, the condem- nation of St. Peter, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption ! A fourth advantage is the production of true liberality of spirit, which necessarily is fostered by a personal acquaintance with the real difficulties attending the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. If men think that all there revealed is as clear as daylight, it follows of course that they will treat as blind all who cannot see as they do. This is the true source of bigotry and intolerance. Men confound infallibility of Holy Scripture, when what it really means is discovered, with their own subjective belief of what is infallible ; or, in other words, they transfer what confessedly resides in the documents to their own interpretation of them. Then, acting on this mental hallucination, they put themselves in the place of the Almighty, and proceed to inflict upon those who differ from them some of the penal- ties justly threatened by God upon those who wil- fully misconstrue and disobey his commandments. This deplorable state of mind, which transfers natu- rally mild and gentle tempers into cruelty and sometimes savageness, is fostered by placing tradi- tional interpretation of the Bible in the place of that which is evolved by the study of it. What BIGOTED OPPOSITION TO SCIENCE. 81 has been the conceived meaning of certain texts mnst always be the meaning. To doubt this is heterodoxy; and this is a crime which one pos- sessed with zeal for the Lord of Hosts will punish in dark ages with fire and sword, and in more en- lightened ones with frowns and rejection from reli- gious communion. But how do these evil spirits, generated in the murky cells of ignorant dogmatism, flee away before the calm and conscientious and industrious study of the letter of the Holy Scriptures ! The student, in his early career, allows them to brood over him, and perhaps imagines them to be " angels of light ;" but one by one their true character is discovered, and finding no hospitable reception, they depart to find a more congenial home. While every fresh year given to the delightful task of finding out the meaning of God's law, developes more and more of its exceeding breadth and fullness, it also discovers the existence of difficulties where once all was thought to be easy. Perhaps geology had before been suspected as an enemy of the truth, and its disciples as dangerous companions ; but a careful study of Genesis discovers that there is nothing in its first chapter which militates against the deduc- tions of that science. The Biblical scholar then feels ashamed of his former arrogant arraignment of the motives of others, and resolves for the future to be more charitable. His hatred of error is not altered, but he is more cautious in defining what it is. Having once discovered that he has put good for evil and light for darkness, he uses more discrimi- nation in his estimate and comparison of the two. G 82 CLERICAL EDUCATION. Passing by many other benefits derived from Biblical studies by a clergyman, and through him communicated to others, we must conclude the list by dwelling a little on the bearing of them on the glory of God and on human happiness. By their relation to these high objects all human pursuits must be measured, to stand or fall as they contem- plate or neglect them. God has not made His revelations to reside in tradition which might be handed down to posterity without any special mental labour, but in written documents, exposed to the ordinary mischances of time and human ignorance and presumption. The original documents have long since crumbled into dust ; and their existing representatives, scattered over the world, while having a substantive identity, exhibit many important variations. Unless there- fore we imagine that God has become indifferent to the fate of His written word, and believe that the general traditionary idea of Christianity should be allowed to displace it, there arises a necessity for the application of Biblical criticism to restore the genuine text and to defend its purity. On whom can this task devolve with so much propriety as on the clergy, who, besides having the ordinary obli- gations of Christian men to defend God's cause as residing in His Word, are specially bound to do so by their professional character and their ministerial vows ? To be indifferent to this important matter is to let the citadel crumble into decay while sur- rounded by enemies anxious to invade it; while, on the other hand, a solicitude respecting the in- tegrity of the text repairs the rents and breaches BIBLICAL SCIENCE THE FIRST ACQUISITION. 83 as they occur, and thus repels and defeats the foe. The lessons of history uniformly teach us that the manifested vitality of religion has always been in direct proportion to the honour paid to its docu- mentary records. It was so among the Israelites, who prospered as a people while they reverenced the written law, but declined when they allowed it to fall into neglect and desuetude. So under the Chris- tian dispensation there is life and energy in those countries and ages which highly exalted the Scrip- tures, while their depression has always produced at best but a living death. Do not these facts prove what we have asserted, that the honour of God and the happiness of human beings are intimately con- nected with a high state of Biblical learning among the clergy ? But what solemn responsibilities does this fact lay upon all those who sustain or are about to enter on the office of the ministry, to furnish themselves with acquisitions to which in all ages such import- ance has attached ! What is there belonging to the clerical character which can have so clear a claim to time and labour and prayerful attention as the securing a competent knowledge of Biblical literature in the sense we have attributed to it ? It might seem at first sight as if the acquisition of some degree of oratorical power demanded a clergy- man's first thought, so as to make himself an ac- ceptable preacher; but this thought is dissipated by the fact that no preaching can be acceptable to God which has not the truth of His Holy Word for its basis, and that He has most honoured with suc- cess, not those who have preached themselves, but G 2 84 CLERICAL EDUCATION. Christ Jesus the Lord. Others may think that doctrinal orthodoxy is the prime requisite in a Christian minister ; and so in reality it is ; hut then this qualification can he only gained hy a correct acquaintance with the Scriptures. We might pur- sue the subject much further, hut there surely can he no necessity. If it is true that the glory of a Christian country is its clergy, it is equally evident that the glory of the clergy is their understanding and knowing God, as He is revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. It remains that we suggest some methods hy which the desideratum we have heen speaking of can he secured,* so that the coming ages of the * We have seen a pamphlet entitled " Theological Colleges and the Universities ; or, What special training shall be given to the future Clergy ? By the Rev. Charles Hebert, M.A., Rector of Burslem, and Rural Dean of Newcastle." It is a well- written tract, and aims at calling the attention of the bishops, clergy, and laity to the present inefficient state of clerical educa- tion, and proposes theological colleges as a remedy. The writer does not enter into particulars as to what should be the curricu- lum or the minimum of attainment demanded, and, therefore, there is little we can quote as applicable to the specific design of this Essay. He appears very anxious that certain theological sentiments should not be taught, and we respectfully suggest whether the best way to secure truly Scriptural, and not party doctrine, is not to enforce a high standing of Biblical knowledge. We extract the following as almost identical with some sentences in the foregoing pages : — " Many questions are at issue which connect the past and the present ; and among others, the question of special instruction for the candidates for holy orders, on the verge of which the nation stands, is both old and new : old on the one hand, as the schools of the prophets among the Israelites, and new to modern eyes, through long disuse during the dark period of the Reformed KNOWLEDGE NEEDED BY THE LAITY. 85 Church shall excel the present in a thorough and scholar-like acquaintance with the Bible. We con- fess that we are only prepared with hints which in the hands of others may expand into practical movements. There are high authorities on whom it devolves to carry into execution whatever may he thought to tend to the extent and increase of true religion and virtue ; and we shall he repaid for our labour of love if our suggestions should lead, in only a small degree, to secure the happy consum- mation we pray for. Now it appears to us that the object we are advocating will never be fully secured but by the production, in the mind of the Church generally, of a higher tone in relation to Biblical learning and science. There is a reflex influence of the laity upon the clergy which should never be forgotten, as forming a mental law, and also an evident part of God's government of His Church and the world. If the people are satisfied with low attainments, it cannot be expected that the clergy at large will aim at high ones. That the standard set up at the Church of England, of which the eighteenth century is the darkest part. So long, indeed, has the neglect continued that extensive doubts exist whether that which bears the noblest rank among human employments, and has the most arduous work of all to fulfil, requires any special training in the candidates for its offices. But no man so reasons regarding the various lines of earthly business, or the secular professions in particular. Each trade has its apprenticeship when the boy's schooling is over, and the future lawyer, and surgeon, and physician must go through their special instruction before they are allowed to practise in the arrangement of our estates, or the cure of our bodily disorders." — pp. 5, 6. 86 CLERICAL EDUCATION. present day for the clergy is in every respect the right one, or if the right, that it is sufficiently high, may be well doubted. Let us ask what is a clergy- man expected to be and to do in order to gain popularity, and be considered efficient in his holy calling ? Now we shall be borne out by all close ob- servers of the character of religious society, when we say that the last thing necessary to raise a clergyman in general estimation is sound Biblical learning. This arises partly from the fact that the existence of such a qualification is not capable of being readily tested by a congregation, and partly from the general taste being more inclined to what pleases and moves the fancy and the passions, than to what instructs and edifies the judgment. It is lamentable both for preachers and hearers that such should be the character of the public taste ; for preachers, because they thus have so little to check them and make them diligent and careful in their pulpit preparations in relation to Biblical knowledge ; for hearers, because while such is the tone of their minds, real improvement is impos- sible. Let a man have a good voice, a ready utterance, and a flowery oratory, and he will fill his church, perhaps by emptying his neighbour's, who has only the ability or inclination to present sound Scriptural exhortation in a plain and artless method. Further, let him attack popular errors, or what are conceived to be the errors of the day, whether they be papistical or political, and he will leave naked benches to his fellow-labourer, who prefers to fix the dart of conviction in the breasts POPULAR MISTAKES ON THE BIBLE. 87 of the immortal beings before Mm, to letting fly random shafts at mere imaginary personages. Others are found who care less about what a clergyman is in the pulpit, if he is what is called a good pastor, giving them a good deal of his com- pany at social meetings, and always ready to attend committees, etc. Thus while various qualities are mentioned by different persons as raising their ministers in their esteem, we seldom hear a sound Biblical scholarship spoken of as one of them. This is not as it should be, and is a clear indica- tion that a distinction exists between the possessors and professed admirers of the Bible and those who really study it. It is perfectly astonishing to find how little intellectual labour is given to the Holy Scriptures by many good people; the Holy Book being to them rather the confirmer of their pre- conceived opinions than the stimulator of fresh thoughts and new ideas. While this state of things lasts, and characterizes the greater part of religious society, a scripturally learned clergy will not be appreciated, and, as a necessary result, they will not be found in such numbers as they ought to be. In the holiest of all offices the law holds good, that, to a great extent, the demand leads to the supply ; and therefore nothing would tend more to produce a learned clergy than a laity more soundly instructed in Biblical knowledge. There will be many exceptions to this rule, for some men are endowed with a marvellous power of influencing their audiences, instead of being affected by them ; but such instances are comparatively rare ; a mutual reflex action on each other being the prevalent rule. 88 CLERICAL EDUCATION. But while a higher grade of Biblical knowledge among laymen will tend to raise the clergy in the same department, the process must necessarily he slow, and we had rather suggest some mode by which the official teachers of others may take the initiative, and exert more fully their legitimate in- fluence. There are two things which might he done, both practicable, and capable of a great amount of efficiency — the establishment of a system of direct training for the clerical office, and the demand of a higher Scriptural scholarship by the bishops. These two should go together, and mu- tually strengthen each other, and the happiest results would immediately follow, although time would be necessary to bring their proper fruits to perfection. "With regard to the first of these, the subject is now being agitated in the Church of England, and it will no doubt soon acquire some practical shape. Here, then, we may leave it, with this only observation, that such training will be a real blessing only in proportion as it creates or strengthens a taste and love for Biblical learning, and makes all other things but subsidiary to the acquisition of it. If this rule is neglected or re- versed in any scheme, it will be shorn of much of its glory, and only accomplish in part the contem- plated end. The influence of the bishops upon the learned status of the clergy is all but paramount, since they can be compelled to ordain no man unless his attainments satisfy them. As a consequence of this, any bishop could at once, if he pleased, demand a considerable facility in reading the Hebrew and ORDAINED CLERGY SHOULD BE STUDENTS. 89 Greek Scriptures, before lie admitted a candidate into his diocese. We respectfully express a con- viction that the reason sometimes given why this is not done, viz., that if the rule were insisted on, sufficient men would not he ordained, is not well- founded ; for we believe that any reasonable amount of learning would be speedily acquired, if the candi- dates knew that it constituted a conditio sine qua non to their admission. We are sure that the diffi- culties in the way of competent scholarship are ridiculously magnified, to the production of this pernicious result to the Church, that she is de- prived of a vast accession of sound knowledge which she might easily have in her ministers. Let the bishops resolve that the above attainment should be made necessary, and, although some might cry out against what they considered a hard- ship, the requisite diligence would be found not- withstanding. Hardship forsooth ! to be compelled to avoid the mortification of entering on a profes- sional career unprovided with what ought to con- stitute its indispensable elements. We cannot conclude this subject without saying a few words to the clergy themselves, to urge those who are now engaged in the work of the ministry, to resolve not to be left behind in a course so honourable as that we have endeavoured to mark out. All we have written has been indited by a sincere respect and regard for their office, and under a solemn conviction that their happiness and use- fulness will be best promoted by arduous efforts to gain all possible knowledge respecting the Bible, the book which is the collection of the Divine 90 CLERICAL EDUCATION. laws to the elucidation and enforcement of which they have professed to consecrate their lives. With such a foundation of general learning as most of them have, we assure them there are no real im- pediments in their way, and that a proper use of spare hours would soon enable them to throw second-hand theology aside, and go at once to its source. May we he excused for quoting an old saying, inspired in itself, and sanctified by the use of it through many generations : " Sis delight is in the law of the Lord, and in Sis law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper ." Christianity is old, but its conquests are not completed, and it has yet to put on strength and renew its youth like the eagles. Old enemies have retired from the field, but new ones take their place, armed with weapons of great strength and temper, which only the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God can cope with. At one time the foes of the truth stood without the fortress, as avowed strangers and aliens, and making no secret that they sought its overthrow. But now, become more subtle by experience, they profess friendship, and change the field of battle to the inside of the citadel. They study the Scriptures instead of treating them with contempt, and by a slow process of wily criticism, seek to do what sarcasm and open ridicule could not accomplish. In this then will consist the strength and wisdom of the clergy yet to come, that they will allow to the disguised enemies no weapon which ERROR TO BE REFUTED BY ARGUMENT. 91 tliey cannot themselves wield, and whether they employ philology, history, or archaeology, will deter- mine to he a match for them. The real importance of the German neological schools is greatly over- rated, from the simple fact that they take advantage of the lower attainments of their opponents. Let the latter watch them, and dispute with them step by step in their industrious and truly learned acqui- sitions, and they will at once lose their power. It is neither Christian nor manly to treat erudite men, who, we have reason to suppose, are sincere believers in their pernicious errors, with scorn and contempt, because we cannot really grapple with them in their profound acquaintance with the literature of the Scriptures. Before we can tell the world of the heterodoxy of a De Wette, we should be prepared in a workmanlike way to expose his errors ; and if we would really neutralize the heresy of a Strauss, we must study his mythical theory, and shew its base- lessness. So with the reckless criticism of Bishop Colenso. The time has gone by when a man could be ruined by being arbitrarily branded with hetero- doxy, as a poor decrepit woman could with witch- craft. We must meet learning with equal erudition, and urbanity and politeness in our opponents with the same qualities. Any other course than this may satisfy a bigoted and ill-furnished mind, but will convey no satisfactory refutation of error to those who stand by; and we verily believe that more error has been propagated by an arrogant and despotic treatment of its disseminators, than by all their own efforts. The Church of England has the warm attach- 92 CLERICAL EDUCATION. nient of her clergy on various grounds, each of which justifies it ; but there is nothing, next to her presumed possession of apostolic truth, which ought to make her more worthy of being loved than the fact, that she has always been the patroness of true learning in her children. If she were to cease to exist to-morrow, and all her colleges and noble foundations to be levelled with the ground, she never could cease to be influential in the world, from the extent and richness of her literature, em- bracing every topic which has the most remote connection with revealed truth. Her divines, her philologists, her masters in casuistry, her defenders of the outworks of Divine truth against the assail- ants of hundreds of years, have formed for her a monimientum cere perennius, destined to instruct the remotest generations, and only to fall when time shall be no more. Surely a commendable esprit de parti, a laudable ambition to keep up the character of the community to which they belong, will make her clergy adapt themselves to the ad- vanced literature of the times, and become cham- pions for the truth, as zealous and competent as their forefathers. ( .93 ) III. APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. "When viewed from without its own circle, and by those not prepossessed in its favour, Christianity certainly exhibits some inexplicable phenomena. Perhaps we ought rather to say Christendom than Christianity, since it is not the divine system established by Christ and denned in the New Testa- ment, but that system as seen in its combination with human elements which perplexes and scan- dalizes the beholder. When considered in itself and in its origin, it is true that the religion of our Lord has its mysteries, and that mere intellect is often at a loss to see the harmony of all its relations ; but this kind of obscurity is compatible with deep reverence, arising, as it is presumed to do, from man's feebleness when placed beside the grandeur of an Infinite Mind. But the phenomena of Chris- tendom — of the Church in conjunction with human frailties, prejudices, and errors, are often more adapted to cause contempt than admiration, and to repel by their folly than attract by their grandeur and sublimity. Human pride, and passion, and self-conceit, and ignorance, have so mixed them- selves up, in many cases, with the modest, calm, lowly, and intelligent institution founded by Christ and his Apostles, that it requires the hand of a 94 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. devoted friend to separate the precious from the vile, to see the jewel through its rough exterior, to sift the chaff from the wheat. It is a very serious matter indeed that Christianity has always had to contend more against the obstacles presented hy friends than hy avowed enemies, and that according to our Lord's statement on another, though similar, occasion, its foes have been of its own household. Christianity has always excited mental activity, and has produced more books, probably, than all the false religions of the whole world put together. Those who love the spiritual Zion, and who can discern the fair beauty of the Church in spite of all human accretions, while they are sensible of the mass of folly which many of these books contain, can forgive it for the sake of the noble and all but inspired treatises which are found in others. But as folly is noisy and on the surface, while wisdom is retiring and gentle, it follows that the attention of the world is more drawn to the weaknesses of the Church than to its greatness and strength, to its human than to its divine side. Hence the inept, fallacious, and the false, which is so plainly seen on the surface of the literature of Christianity, is continually strengthening the prejudices of its opponents, and rendering its predicted glory in the earth, humanly speaking, more and more difficult. What an obstacle would be rolled out of the way of the progress of the Gospel of our Saviour if a sponge could wipe out from human books and human memories all the nonsense which ignorant piety has dared to put forth since the invention of printing ! What blessed results would ensue if divines who VARIOUS AIMS OF INSPIRED WRITERS. 95 preach and print about human depravity, and its stopping the wheels of the chariot of the Church, would but remember that nonsense uttered or written in favour of sacred things is more injurious than the acute objections of infidelity — that a silly defender or expositor of Christian truth is far more dangerous than a sensible and learned scorner ! Among the mysterious permissions of Divine Providence this is not the least, that the art of printing should be, at the same time, a mighty instrument for establishing the Gospel, if rightly used, and yet, through its abuse by Christian men, one of the most formidable stumbling-blocks in its pathway. In surveying the productions of holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost for the edification of the Church, we find some of them written, evidently, for all time, while others, apparently, have a more local and temporary signi- ficance, and only yield lessons to futurity by deduc- tion or implication, mutatis mutandis. Some few, as the Canticles and the Apocalypse, occupy decidedly a more mediate position, it being doubtful whether their teaching was local and temporary, whether it extended to after ages, and whether its sphere of influence is not the present as well as the past. Had the Bible been formed at one time as a whole, intended professedly in all its parts as a book of laws and instructions for all ages of the Church, it would then be our duty to treat all as explicable, and to consider obscurities as arising from our own dullness, and to be removed by patient and industrious study. But this is not the fact of the case, the separate portions of the Scriptures 96 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. having a fragmentary character, with bnt little interdependence in many instances. The Psalms and Gospels have the character of complete com- pilations, selected and arranged with care for use in all time and by all believers in divine revelation; the book of Ruth would seem to be important principally as unfolding the links of the genealogy of David, and, through him, of the Messiah ; while the Apocalypse, like the prophecies, has the aspect of a composition relating to matters either fulfilled or yet to be brought to pass in the Church's history. In other words, while "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righte- ousness," it would seem that these ends are to be accomplished in different ways, and by the applica- tion of a spiritual common-sense and discernment recognizing things which differ, and able to dis- tinguish between what is directly didactic and what teaches only by inference and deduction. There surely is a marked distinction between the ethical character of our Lord's sermon on the mount, the decisions of the council at Jerusalem, and the mysterious imagery of the Apocalypse ; for the first is entirely moral and didactic, and cannot be affected by any lapse of time; the second only teach by implication, the circumstances which occasioned the apostolic decrees not now existing ; while the third is involved in an obscurity which no amount of research has yet been able to pierce. But even in the case of portions of Holy Scripture which have long since accomplished their direct purpose, the " instruction in righteousness " predicated of the INDIRECT TEACHING OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 97 whole collection holds good, since meditation on God's dealing's of old can never be unprofitable to good men. It seems to us that an obliviousness of this distinction between the direct and indirect teaching of Holy Writ is the source of a large part of the folly which we have ventured to attribute to Biblical scribes, whose lucubrations so often distress the plain Christian, amuse the indifferent, and afford an unholy triumph to the enemy. As long as men will treat the whole Bible as equally susceptible of interpretation in all its parts, and as equally important in every chapter and verse for every age, whether Jewish or Christian, or for the first or the nineteenth century of our era, what can be expected to result but the confounding of things that differ, a disregard and abnegation of that proportion and harmony by which the words as well as the works of God must be expected to be distinguished ? When we read the words of our Lord, " I say unto you, Love your enemies," etc., we have a practical duty which can never cease to be binding as long as malignant feelings are capable of dwelling in the human breast ; but when we find it stated in the book of the Revelation that the locusts " had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions," we surely are not called to a minute inspection of the figure as though toe in this age of the world could either find out the exact meaning, or could derive any " doctrine or reproof or correc- tion " from it even if understood. Yet one half the religious books which are written proceed in entire forgetfumess of what would seem, at first sight, to H 98 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. be so plain and indisputable. Scripture is appealed to, not in that discreet way which recognizes the distinctions of time, place, the intention of the writer, and the circumstances of those addressed, but as though every verse and every word, from Moses to St. John, were equally aj>plicable to us and binding upon us. In no department of Biblical literature have these plain principles of interpretation been so signally neglected as in that relating to the Apocalypse. That there was a time when that mysterious book was intelligible to the Church we cannot doubt, for it is a principle with us that no portion of Holy Scripture was without an immediate reference and application at the time of its utter- ance, whatever remote bearings and relations it might also possess. When therefore the Apocalypse was first delivered, in writing, to the Church, it spoke with an intelligible voice, and taught appro- priate lessons to those into whose hands it was given, so as to be profitable for " doctrine, or correc- tion or instruction in righteousness." We do not mean that all it contained was understood by its readers or hearers : far from it. A divine revelation may be studiously dark in its expressions and details, and yet may answer most important pur- poses in the spiritual economy. The early chapters of the Apocalypse are simple and easily understood by ourselves ; much more must they have been so to the churches of Asia, to whom allusions, now remote and enigmatical to us, were references to facts in their current history. Perhaps the pro- phetic visions, with their concrete symbolism, were PRIMAKY INTENTION OP THE APOCALYPSE. 99 less explicit to them ; yet the whole design of the disclosures was, doubtless, so far comprehended as to have a practical hearing, either for warning, or encouragement, or consolation. We may he mis- taken ; hut in proportion as we feel convinced that the Revelation was the work of St. John, given to him hy the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, so we are sure that it must have heen a docu- ment read and understood hy the churches entrusted with it : if not in all its minor arrangements, yet certainly in its main scope and design. Most judicious readers will coincide with the following remarks of Moses Stuart on this very topic : — l( When Paul inscribes his Epistles to the Romans, Corin- thians, Galatians, Philippians, etc., no sober critic thinks of calling in question whether the respective churches which he addresses had a real existence, nor whether Paul meant that what he said in these cases should be historically interpreted. It would be deemed quite a superfluous labour to undertake the formal task of indicating such an interpretation. Why should not the same principles be applied to the Apocalypse, which is introduced by epistles addressed to seven different churches, and which purports to treat of matters deeply in- teresting to those churches ? It is agreed on all hands that when the Apocalypse was written there were Christian churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. It is conceded that John (whether apostle or presbyter), who names himself as the author of the book, lived at or near Ephesus about this period. Whoever he was, he must have been a man of con- spicuous character and great influence. Such a book never came from any ordinary hand or commonplace writer. At the beginning and end of his work he earnestly commends it to the most solemn and diligent attention of the churches whom he addresses, and guards carefully against any inter- polations or abscissions of it. All this looks like reality, and H 2 100 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. has at least the appearance of much earnestness and of deep interest in the welfare of the churches. Would any simple- minded and unsophisticated reader ever think of putting all this to the account of mere symbol or of profound mysticism ? Never, as it seems to me, would such a thought enter his mind. It is only after the body of the work has been read, and many symbolic and dark and difficult passages have been found there, that any reader begins to desire some mystic exegesis for the prologue and epilogue of this book."* If then we presume that the Apocalypse ac- complished an important purpose in the Church, in its early ages, is it an unreasonable supposition that the primary and chief purpose of that portion of Scripture was answered long centuries ago, and that its present use to the Church is secondary and incidental, like some portions of St. Paul's epistles, and many parts of the Old Testament ? Dark, in human estimation, as were the scenes through which the saints of the Lord passed previous to the time of Constantine, and heavy as were the trials to which their faith was exposed by losses, imprison- ment, and death, is it too much to suppose that a revelation was given expressly for them, which supported their courage, and revived then hopes ? If so, then the Apocalypse will occupy this position in the canon of Holy Scripture : — its original and special intention is fulfilled, like the sublime message sent to Hezekiah, by the mouth of Isaiah, on the occasion of the invasion of Sennacherib ; but, like that shorter revelation of mercy, it remains on record to instruct the Church in all ages, in the degree in which its statements and allusions can be * A Commentary on the Apocalypse. London : Tegg. 1856, p. 176. SECONDARY USES OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 101 understood and applied.* If it be said in opposition to this view, that such secondary use is not im- portant enough to justify so large a portion of the New Testament being admitted into the canon, we altogether deny the legitimacy of such an argument. It is false on two grounds ; first, because it pre- sumes to lay down a rule for the divine operations towards the Church which no mortal has any right to do ; and, secondly, it underrates the benefit which this part of Holy "Writ is capable of con- ferring upon all ages, in this its presumed lower and secondary application. We need not stay to prove the latter position, for we are sure that the experience of thousands of pious persons will cor- roborate our opinion when we say, that apart from all prophetic reference of the Apocalypse, its chap- ters are admirably suited to elevate the hope of a Christian man, both as to his own interest in the blessings of salvation and as to the sure triumph of the Church at large over all opposition. While many grope in darkness to find the application of the parts of this book to the past, the present, and the future, there are multitudes who refrain from exercising themselves in matters too high for them, and simply use its texts, so far as they admit of such a use, for their own comfort and edification. The literary history of the Apocalypse exactly coincides with the view we have rather hinted at * Perhaps a case more closely parallel would be the visions of Ezekiel respecting the holy land and temple in the last chapters of his prophecy. If those minute descriptions all referred to the second temple as about to be built by the Hebrews, the illustration will be quite in point. 102 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. than adopted as our own. Let it be granted that the Revelation given to St. John had originally and principally a local application, and we can then account for these two remarkable facts : — that the early Church had occasional doubts respecting its canonicity, and that no study and investigation have ever yet been able to apply its mysterious contents to the illustration of history with any certainty. I. We need not enter upon the whole question of the canonicity of the Apocalypse, but will merely state what appears to us to be a fact, that the book was received more unhesitatingly by the very early Church than by that of their successors, — a fact accounted for by our supposition that it had an immediate and local reference. Thus there are allusions to the Revelation in the Shepherd of Hermas, probably in Ignatius ; Papias, as we learn at second hand, considered it an inspired com- position ; Mellto of Sardis wrote a commentary upon it ; Justin Martyr quotes it as the work of St. John the Apostle ; while Irenceus makes direct mention of it in two places : — " Sed et Joannes Domini disci- pulus in Apocalypsi sacerdotalem et gloriosum regni videns adventum;" and, " Significavit Joannes Do- mini discipulus in Apocalypsi, edisserens." Many more early testimonies might be adduced, but these are enough to prove that immediately after the Apocalypse was published, it was known generally in the Asiatic churches as a book of Divine autho- rity, and in actual use for the edification of be- lievers. This being the case, it is the more remarkable that after these testimonies had been borne to the s CANONICITY OF APOCALYPSE ONCE DOUBTED. 103 authenticity of the Apocalypse it should become questioned and doubted, if not denied, by other authorities. Caius of Home ascribed the book to Cerinthus ; and although his dislike of Montanism was the occasion of this statement, yet it is quite impossible he could have made it had not doubts then been current on the subject. Dionysius of Alexandria would not allow it to be the production of St. John. But Eusebius, who wrote expressly on the canon, leaves no doubt on our mind that in his day the Apocalypse had gathered around it many sus- picions, and was in great danger of being robbed of its authority. He speaks of divers views being taken of the matter, irapa rots iroWoh, by the many ; and almost places the Revelation of St. John among the controverted books, rot? avriXeyofievoc^ ; and al- though a doctrinal bias may have influenced Euse- bius, and made him hesitate in his opinions, he never could have uttered those we have quoted if the Apocalypse, like St. John's Gospel, had been uni- versally and undoubtingly received by the Church. Cyril denied its canonicity by omitting it from the list of those books which he admitted to have that character. And, not to mention more cases than are necessary for our argument, the apostolic canons omit the Apocalypse from the apostolic writings, and the apostolical constitutions ignore its existence. Equally clear, as to the Apocalypse having been received and used partially, is its being wanted in the Peschito Syriac version of the New Testament ; a fact on which much has been written, and which may admit of different explanations. But all the phenomena we have glanced at certainly establish 104 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. the position, that, from some cause or other, while most of the apostolic writings handed down to us were always admitted as of divine authority, the Revelation attached to itself much of doubt and perplexity, not so much in the first, as in the im- mediately following centuries of the Christian era. We think there is overwhelming evidence that St. John the Apostle wrote the Revelation as seen by him and delivered to him in Patmos, and this fact has to be reconciled with the other, that its canonicity was so soon and so extensively doubted. Our suggestion is (for we are anxious our readers should remember we are only suggesting), that all the facts of the case are harmonized by the hypo- thesis that the book was intended for the churches of Asia alone, in the first instance ; that it an- swered a glorious purpose in their history, and that of other churches similarly situated, by whom its illusions and imagery and general designs were well understood ; that afterwards it ceased to be read in proportion as that design was less manifest, until at length its authority was partly questioned and partly denied. But, as truth always prevails in the end, the sifting of the evidence gradually separated the incidental from what was essential, and placed the genuineness and divine authority of the book on an impregnable basis ; and although it has ac- complished its prime object long ago, it still re- mains to teach us many lessons of heavenly wisdom ; to instruct and confirm us in great doctrines, to shew us how God interfered to comfort His people in their tribulations, and to shadow forth to us the certain triumph of the Church in time to come. MOSES STUAUT ON THE CANON. 105 While we have serious objections to some of Moses Stuart's statements on the canon, there is a good deal of practical wisdom in the following observations, which, although originally made on the Song of Solomon, will apply equally well to the Apocalypse :* — " All things considered, we may settle down, as it seems to me, in the conclusion, that the Canticles is a hook rather to be regarded in the light of a local one, and adapted to partial usage, than as a book now, under the full light of the Gospel, specially adapted to our use. It had its day. That its use was religious I cannot doubt, from the company in which it is found, and the ordeal through which it has passed among the founders of Christianity. It may have still another day of usefulness among the Asiatics. Let us not disown it, nor set it aside. But persons of timid consciences, who have an idea that, since all parts of Scripture are in- spired, they all must of course be equally useful, may be set free from this bondage. Are we to hold that the sketches of tabernacle and temple buildings, of ritual ordinances and customs, and catalogues of names and places, are as edifying as the Epistle to the Romans, or the Gospels, or the Psalms ? If we answer in the negative, then 1 would ask, whether, in other compositions once adapted to the state of things then existing, there may not be a lack of former usefulness, since the light of the Gospel has become fully diffused ? As I have once said, I would say again, may not a star which once shone brightly in the dim twilight become no longer visible when the sun is shining in his strength ? But why should we deny that it has once shone, and that it is still a star ?" "We are aware of some objections made to this view, which some persons will think very strong, if not insuperable, and we will state them. It is * Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon. Loriiner's edition. London, 1849. p. 332. 106 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. thought by many, indeed such is the conventional opinion, that the Bible is an organic whole in such a sense that every part of it is equally applicable to the Church in all ages ; and they therefore object to any relative estimates of its different parts, even as they would object to its being used in separate portions, either in public or private instruction. This opinion is so in conflict with both facts and reasoning that we need only say we have not the slightest belief in it, and that we should think it a hopeless task to try to convince those who can seriously maintain positions so utterly untenable. It is further stated, that the place of the Apocalypse at the end of the Holy Scriptures, and the exhorta- tions to read and study it, and especially the threatening of the last chapter respecting adding to or taking away from the words of the prophecy, all go to prove that it is a book for all time, and as it concludes the Bible, so it winds up the whole his- tory of the Church until it shall be complete in heaven. But such arguments as these are specious and nothing more, and will not bear a calm exami- nation. There is nothing to shew that the present position of the books of the New Testament is of any authority, and the study of MSS. will convince any one that in earlier times there were many different arrangements of the separate documents. Thus, SyriacTMSS. often place the general Epistles after the Acts, and conclude with the Epistle to the Hebrews. The circumstance of the Apocalypse being so little understood in early ages, and also the fact that it is probably the last of the books chronologically, are sufficient to account for its DIFFICULTY OF HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 107 position without having recourse to any deep or mystical reason. Then, what is said about exhorta- tions to read it, and denunciations against any who should corrupt it, has the same force whether we consider the special application of the book to be to all time or to be limited to a particular crisis of the Church. Another objection is that long periods are spoken of in the Revelation, such as Christ reigning a thousand years ; but it is the belief of many expositors that all that seems chronological in the Apocalypse is symbolical, not real, and such a view can be supported on good critical grounds. Against this objection may be balanced others equally opposed to any long continuance of the platform of the visions, such as, " Behold, I come quickly," and "the time is at hand." Whatever opinion we may form on the question, it will be found beset with difficulties, but we do not think those which surround our hypothesis more formid- able than such as lie against any other theory. II. We now come to consider the fruitlessness of all attempts to apply the scenes of the Revelation historically, as corroborating the view that it may have had a past reference. This is a very large subject, but we must treat it within narrow limits. A complete history of Apocalyptic interpretation would be as curious a production as the mind could conceive of, exhibiting an almost incredible amount of labour, employed both with humble reverence and presumptuous levity and carelessness, and all the various shades of human piety and folly between those extremes. In early ages, indeed, divines were more modest than those who came after them, 108 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. and the sentiment of Dionysius of Alexandria as given by Eusebius may be said to express the pre- vailing view of the Church before the invention of printing. " He did not understand the Apocalypse, and what was written in it transcended his compre- hension." There were indeed numerous attempts made to explain special portions of the book, but there was never anything, before the Reformation, which recommended itself to the Church at large as a key to unlock its mysteries. What Arias Mon- tanus said of the commentators who went before him will well apply to all that was clone to explicate the Apocalypse before it began to be applied to the Church of Home; — he asserts that after studying the Scriptures for thirty years he was in the habit of saying " that the meaning of the Apocalypse was understood by himself better than by any of the commentators whom he had happened to read ; since they proceeded to explain it as if they under- stood it, and then, by their varying expositions, rendered it only the more obscure ; whereas he himself confessed that he did not understand it at all." But in more modern times, that is, since the Reformation, this part of Scripture has engaged the scrutiny of men to an extraordinary degree, and while there have been some sensible treatises written on the subject, the great part of the litera- ture of the Apocalypse exhibits a melancholy spectacle of human presumption, ignorant conceit, and folly. Much has been done to improve the Greek text of the book, and much has also been pertinently written to throw light upon its symbols RIDICULOUS EXPOSITIONS. 109 and emblems as they are illustrated by the language of the Old Testament. Had men stopped here it would have been well, and a reproach now heavily pressing on Biblical studies would have been avoided. But they ran wild in an exegesis whose implements were the freaks of their own fancy, and whose results are more calculated to excite laughter and contempt than to gain any worthy credence. While Pererius could affirm that the Apocalypse " must be altogether incomprehensible without an especial revelation from God," more modern theologians have read it off as if it were plain history, even without any of that general " inspiration of the Almighty which giveth under- standing" to humble and devout seekers after truth. Need we quote more to justify any lan- guage of reproof and sarcasm that we might em- ploy, than the following specimen of the Apocalyp- tic sketches of a popular pulpit orator who often appears in print. He is expounding (?) chap. ix. 10, "And they had tails like unto scorpions;" and he says, " The allusion to tails is thus explained. In one of the earlier battles of the Saracens the standard was lost ; their leader instantly cut off his horse's tail, placed it upon a pole, and told his troops that must be their standard when they marched to battle !" We cannot wonder that such wanton folly as this should provoke disgust in some minds, and a reaction to an opposite extreme in others. Some grave divines who perpetrate the nonsense we are alluding to would treat as a poor mad woman the authoress of the following rhapso- dies, sent to us repeatedly in print. Yet are not 110 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. such insane conceptions closely allied to their own ? Yet, further, are not such wild thoughts encouraged in the weak and ignorant by the pernicious com- ments of men who ought to know better ? "EAST. "Rev. xvi. 12—21. " And the sixth angel (Seljuk, Rev. ix. 13) poured out his Turkish and Mogul) vial (of wrath against all idolatry) upon the great liver Euphrates (at Bagdad) ; and the (baptismal) water (of the great Babylonial and Romish whore of the nations, Rev. xvii-. 15) thereof was dried up (destroyed, Rev. ix. 11, 15), that the way of the (Moslem) kings of the East (as far as China, in 1250) might be prepared (for Elizabeth's baptism of the Holy Ghost, from April 8, 1839. Matt. iii. 3, 7_i2 j ii. 2; xxiv. 27, 36, 43 ; Cant. vi. 10). "WEST. "Verse 13. " And I saiv three unclean spirits like (French) frogs came out of the mouth of the (Greek) dragon (Emperor), and out of the mouth of the beast (Roman Pontiff), and out of the mouth of the false (Koran) prophet. For they are the spirits (priests) of devils (tyrants), working (lying) miracles, which go forth (with their armies) unto the kings of the (old Roman) earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold I (Elizabeth, the person of the Holy Ghost) come as a thief (to steal away the British nation). Blessed is he that watcheth (for Elizabeth), and keepeth his (Royal Jewish) garments, lest he (like the Conti- nental despots) ivalk naked (uncircumcised), and they see his shame (his poverty and his paganism) ." Would that the reading of this melancholy trash might deter some of the more staid, yet not less mischievous, Apocalyptic fulfilment-mongers ! We cannot wonder that a writer in opj)osition LUTHER ON THE APOCALYPSE. Ill to these makers and solvers of spiritual conundrums should lose all patience, and exclaim, " I found, — what did I not find that did not savour of the apocryphal and the marvellous ? I found that no limit would be put to my credulity, and that at last I was required to believe that a certain hail- storm which injured parts of France, on Sunday, July 13th, 1788, was foretold in the Apocalypse ; and that a little frog, called the Tractarian heresy, had been heard by St. John to croak all the way from the London church of St. Barnabas to Pat- mos, at a distance of nearly 2,000 years !"* The great stimulus to the production of the immense mass of crude and unhallowed speculation on the book of the Revelation in modern times, has been the imagined discovery that its most pregnant passages are prophecies of the Church of Rome. It does not appear that the German Reformers, at the commencement of their labours, saw the use which was afterwards made of the Apocalypse against the Papacy, for some of them, as Luther, Zwingle, and Carlstadt, either denied or doubted its canonicity. Luther's opinion is worth placing here, both as an illustration of the general subject and of the rash- ness of the Reformer : — " There are many reasons why I regard this book as neither apostolical nor prophetical. First, and principally, the Apostles do not make use of visions, but prophesy in clear and plain language, as do Peter, Paul, and Christ also in the Gospel ; for it is suitable to the apostolic office to speak clearly and without figure or vision respecting Christ * The Apocalypse Fulfilled, etc. By the Eev. P. S. Desprez, B.D. Preface. 112 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. and his acts. There is also no prophet in the Old Testa- ment,, not to mention the New, who treats of visions throughout j so that the fourth book of Esdras is almost equal to it in my estimation ; and certainly I cannot perceive that it proceeded from the Holy Spirit. Besides, it seems to me too much for him to enjoin it rigorously on his readers to regard his own work as of more importance than any other sacred book, and to threaten that if any one shall take aught away from it, God will take away from him his part in the book of life. Again, if even they are to be blessed who hold to what is contained in it, no man knows what that is, much less what holding to it means. The case is all the same as though we had it not ; and many more valuable books exist for us to hold to. Many of the fathers, too, rejected it long ago ; and though St. Jerome employs big words, and says that it is above all praise, yet he cannot prove that ; and in several places his praise is moderate. Finally, let every man think of it as his spirit prompts him. My spirit cannot adapt itself to the book; and it is reason enough for me why I should not esteem it very highly that Christ is neither taught in it nor acknowledged, which above all things an Apostle is bound to do ; for he says (Act. i.), Ye shall be my witnesses, I abide therefore by the books which give Christ to me clearly and purely." But since their time it has heen almost conceded among Protestants that both St. Paul and St. John, writing of the man of sin, of the beast, and of Anti- christ, prophesied distinctly and solely of Pome. It was so desirable to gain some scriptural justifica- tion of the dissent from Pome, and a Biblical argu- ment against a doctrinal opponent is deemed so essentially important, that we cannot wonder, while we may lament, that the odium tlieologicum should betake itself to this mysterious book as a quiver full of appropriate arrows against the enemy. In ordi- HISTORICAL REFERENCE DOUBTFUL. 113 nary matters, men would rather hesitate to adopt a mode of reasoning which is so evidently dependent on subjective grounds, when an adversary had to be assailed, and prefer a weapon of less doubtful proof; but in theological warfare it seems to be thought better to imitate the example of Jael, and to take any instrument of slaughter which may come to hand, than that of St. Paul, who exhorts us to " prove all things." We do not say that the Apocalypse is not a prophecy of things yet future, nor yet that the corruptions of the Church of Home are not de- nounced in it — far from it. We trust that we are sufficiently reverent towards God, and conscious of our own intellectual feebleness, to feel that Holy Scripture almost necessarily contains heights we cannot scale and depths we cannot fathom ; and our conception of its marvellous fulness is too de- cided to allow us to think that its designs are yet all unfolded, or its adaptation to the state of man is yet all disclosed. But what we think we have a right to say, without presumption, is this: That the ap- plications of this book to past and passing and f uture events in the history of Christendom, so recklessly and plentifully made by modern schools of theology, are neither warranted by the premises nor confirmed by experience. If the Apocalypse is a mirror of the world's history, it has never yet presented its disk in the right focus so as to enable men to see its pictures clearly, and thus to make the predic- tions and the things predicted correspond; and until something less of the character of the kaleido- scope appears in the attempts of men to identify I 114 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. the prophecies, we must be allowed to suspend our judgment, and to suspect that the Revelation may have answered its direct object long ago. What egregious, what entire failure marks the thousands of pamphlets, sermons, and volumes, which have been written .on this subject ! "What student of Scripture, not blinded by a theory, or misled by a foregone conclusion, can believe that the Apoca- lypse can be historically interpreted with our pre- sent resources, after the Church, for long ages, has attempted the task in vain ! As has been said by a writer on this question, it is like the quadrature of the circle, morally possible, yet so highly impro- bable as to be only attempted by weak or over- sanguine men. The Revelation may have a key to unlock its dark recesses, but the long and unsuc- cessful search for it is a rational argument for de- sisting from the hopeless task. Reasoning from analogy we go farther than this and say, that past want of success is a reason for believing that the Revelation does not apply to successive eras of the Church's history, for had it done so, surely by this time that application would have been discovered ; discovered we mean with such a moral certainty as would have taken its fulfilled predictions out of the sphere of fancy and fanaticism. If we take the number of the beast so enigmati- cally alluded to in chapter xiii., we find the inter- pretations so numerous and yet so contrary the one to the other, that the very mention of most of them would provoke a smile, if a reflection on human credulity did not produce more serious emotions. Prom the Teitan of Ireneeus, to the Napoleon of NUMBER OF THE BEAST. 115 a modern soothsayer, the hundreds of guesses all indicate a very forlorn cause, and it appears extra- ordinary that these repeated and continued failures do not turn men upon some other scent, and make them suspect that a literal and arithmetical solution was not intended. There is something too cabalistic — too much like the nugae of Jewish scribes in the worst state of their literature, in this turning the Word of God into riddles, to allow of our admitting its legitimacy without full authority. Had we been plainly informed by a sacred writer that the number 600 or 666 adumbrated a man's name, to be picked out or guessed at by the numerical value of its letters, we must have submitted our own judg- ment to such a teacher ; but as that is not done, we cannot consent to lower Divine Revelation to a mere utterer of puzzles, the mystery of which any profane hand may try its skill in endeavouring to solve.* * That other methods of explaining the number of the beast are possible, might be shewn by quotations from learned and sensible writers ; but we will give one only, from Durham on the Apocalypse, the work of a Scotch divine of the seventeenth century. We may mention that we are indebted for the extract to Mr. Clissold's voluminous edition of Swedenborg's Spiritual Exposition of the Apocalypse, London : 1851 ; a work of great erudition, and which may be profitably consulted for facts by those who have little or no sympathy with its doctrines. " To count here is not then by arithmetic to number out of a name, aud to cast up a sum by so many figures, but doctrinally and judiciously to weigh the matter of that heresy or the nature of that beast : so the Lord is said to have numbered Belshazzar, Dan. v., and to have found him light. Because by this way of putting particulars together, the judicious searchers will find him exactly out, whether he be agreeable or disagreeable to the rule or I 2 116 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. What, then, is the sum of our previous argu- ments, the scope and design of our observations ? Do we intend to discourage the study of the Apo- calype? By no means, for then we should he as presumptuous as those whose morbid exegesis we are condemning. But we would have the study pursued in due proportion, and with some regard to the rules of interpretative evidence. Assailed on all sides by an intrusive, and often an insolent character given, as arithmeticians will do by their reckonings. Of this sort of reckoning there are diverse examples in Scripture, but of reckoning from the letters or figures of a name there is none. The first imply eth a particular exact search, as if every- thing in him were considered by itself particularly, and put together again in whole, as arithmeticians do in their countings. This is confirmed by considering the qualification of him who is invited to number, ' Let him that hath understanding,' that is, not understanding in reckoning and arithmetic, but in the dis- cerning of the spiritual truths of God, especially of the characters of Antichrist formerly given, and prudence to apply them where he shall discern them to be. This saith, not that none other should count : the duty is common ; but it saith few will take it to them and find it out, and that no other will come speed but they that take the same balance of the sanctuary and spiritual wisdom to discern with ; yet it is put to men's doors to essay this, but with much deniednesse and humility. . . . Or, by the number of a man may be understood a number not having God but a man for its author, and not being approven of God, but invented of man, whatever there be pretended ; thus, there are in Scripture such phrases, the wisdom of a man, the law of a man, the will of a man, in opposition to the wisdom, will, and law, of God. Thus, the reason runneth : let spiritual wise men consider her and reckon well ; for it will be found that this beast's number or doctrine is not of God but of man, whatever be pretended ; even as that statue, Dan. iii., might be called the image of a man or of the king ; not because it represented him, but because it was instituted by him. Neither of these will be disagreeable to the scope and truth." PRESUMPTUOUS REFERENCES TO THE FUTURE. 117 school of expositors, we are either called upon to take all their dicta for granted, or are charged with heing indifferent to the claims of truth, and con- temners of the true sayings of God. We deny these charges, and think we can justify ourselves to others, as we certainly can to our own consciences, by adopting a method entirely different from that claimed by our opponents as the only true one. They affirm that the Revelation must be a prophecy of things to transpire in all ages of the Church, and that the finger can be placed upon events of past ages and the present time which are evidently intended to be pointed out by its descriptions and denunciations. We reply that this is a mere gratis dictum, and that all the requirements of the case may be met by supposing that this sublime book was designed to instruct and support the Church in an earlier age, and that its details may have to us, not a direct, but an inferential interest. This view, we maintain, allows the Apocalypse to be a source of devout contemplation and religious profit, without entailing the necessity of curious prying into mysteries, or a waste of energy in matters unrevealed and of doubtful import. Some stop should at all events be put to the crude and licen- tious speculation of which this book is the subject, and we think the course we have marked out will tend, in some degree, to such a result. It may be necessary to state that we are far from involving all expositors of the Revelation in the charges we have been preferring, although they may think that the historical interpretation may be legitimately pursued. There is a learned, and devout, and tasteful method of pursuing what may 118 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. prove a false exegesis, as well as one which is ignorant, irreverent, and rude, and it is the advocates and exhibitors of the latter alone that we wish to condemn. But it is worthy of serious enquiry whether the entire method of exposition we are speaking of is not in itself vicious, and whether it does not necessarily lead to the abuses we desire to condemn. If one man may feel justified in finding the name of the Beast in Lateinos, what reason can be alleged why another should not discover it in Luther, as has been attempted by a writer of the Romish Church ; or in any other name which he can torture to utter the requisite number, and which may seem to him to designate the error or the vice of the passing age ? In other departments of sacred criticism and interpretation there is a scientific method of procedure which lays a restraint on false doctrine, and compels all Christendom to something like unanimity, when a character for scholarship has to be maintained. How signally, for instance, has Socinian doctrine been repressed and confuted by the application of rules which are acknowledged to be true, and which to question would be a mere return to barbarism ? But can we predicate any of this moral certainty of the principles of those who swell the stock of Apocalyptic litera- ture ? So far from this being the case, every man is his own lawgiver, and adopts critical rules of his own, pro re natd, without the power of claiming the assent of any but his own disciples. This is a great evil, and its bitter fruits are being reaped in almost every section of the visible Church. We shall now endeavour briefly to state some of the causes which have led to the morbid activity in CAUSES OF PROPHETIC SPECULATIONS. 119 this department of Biblical interpretation : to the one-sided and disproportioned mental labour be- stowed upon the Apocalypse. We do so in the earnest hope that, as far as our opinions are correct, they may induce more carefulness in writers on matters relat- ing to Holy Scripture, and lead to a less fruitful production of scandals, both to believers and infidels. First, we are compelled to place a love of popu- larity as one cause of undue speculation on the Apocalypse. As no man would confess to this, we may be thought uncharitable in attributing such a motive ; but as there are means of attaining to some moral convictions respecting the principles which animate our fellow-creatures in their overt acts, we think we may justly arrive at such a conclusion. This courting the aura popularis is perhaps more evident in preachers than in writers of treatises, because reason and argument are less necessary in the pulpit than in the study, and also because it is so easy to move a mixed multitude by an affec- tation of depth, an assumption of skill in the elucidation of mysteries. When a popular preacher took some trouble to prove to his audience, during the Crimean war, that Sebastopol was Armageddon, contrary to all philology and all common sense we are obliged to attribute his doing so, either to mental imbecility or to a pandering to the populace ; and as we have evidence that it could not be the former, we are compelled to adopt the latter sup- position.* It is a sad features of our times that a * We have seen advertised a course of lectures in a Scotch place of worship in London, of which the following is the synopsis : — " The Rev. will deliver, in the National Scotch Church, 120 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. dignified regard to what God teaches, to be set before nien "'whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear," is too often postponed to the more pressing question, " What will the people like ?" Secondly, novelty has charms in the region of theology as well as in more worldly associations, and a desire to find something new in the Holy Scriptures has a great influence on exegesis. This is quite in accordance with the spirit of an age which probably approximates closer to that of Athens in apostolic times than any which has preceded it in this country : " Eor all the Athenians spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Most unfortunate is it that this tendency should shew itself in con- nection with revealed truth, which, of all other departments of human knowledge, must have fewer new aspects and combinations ; yet so it is, and he Halkin Street "West, Belgrave Square, a Course of Six Lectures on the Prophecy on the Mount of Olives, on Tuesday Afternoons at Three o'clock. The following is the Course of Lectures : — " I The Fall of Jerusalem. Matt. xxiv. 1. " II. Warning Signs. Matt. xxiv. 12. " III. The Witness to all Nations. Matt. xxiv. 14. " IY. False Prophets and Signs. Matt. xxiv. 24. " V. The Great Conflagration. " VI. The Last Separation. " To prevent any crowding or inconvenience, admission will only be by tickets, to be had of Mr. Inglis, 22, Motcomb Street, Belgrave Square." Notice here the expectation of a " rush " for seats — the convic- tion that the theologico-political exhibition would suit the popular state ! No doubt, from the neighbourhood chosen, it was cal- culated pretty surely that some aristocratic dabblers in unfulfilled predictions would grace the building and encourage the lecturer. INFLUENCE OF IMAGINATION AND FANCY. 121 is often thought the best and most useful preacher or writer who leaves the paths of catholic consent for untried ways of his own devising. An im- patience of what has been said by those who have gone before us, as not sufficiently deep and attrac- tive, has led to a thousand heresies, and to a perversion of a thousand texts of Holy Scripture. To acknowledge that the Apocalypse is partly incomprehensible, as the fathers did, is too great a stretch of humility for modern scholasticism ; to eat the " bread corn " of Divine truth is but poor enter- tainment for those whose palate longs for the taste of exotic delicacies. Indeed, it is customary now even to find a Divine warrant for this search after novelties in our Saviour's declaration that a scribe, well instructed in relation to the kingdom of God, " will bring out of his treasury things new and old." A preacher must declaim in a novel style, and treat his texts with new interpretations ; a commentator must eschew the old and coin fresh explications from his own brain ; a student of prophecy must be ashamed to confess, as the ancients did, that the event alone can make a prediction plain, and is rather to prefer to point with his finger to the age and circumstances which Apocalyptic imagery shadows forth. Thirdly, it is easy for shallow minds to dabble in what cannot be proved, and they therefore con- fine themselves to those branches of literature, sacred and profane, which admit of being presided over by imagination and fancy. Now no depart- ment of thought is so airy, so intangible, so discur- sive, as that of unfulfilled prophecies, for this 122 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. evident reason, that whatever nonsense men may- think or utter upon them cannot be contradicted or disproved, although we may feel as certain that it is nonsense as that two and three cannot make four. In the fair field of legitimate exegesis, where a comment can be decided by grammar or lexico- graphy, by the analogy of Divine truth or by an extensive consent of authorities, the dunce or the sciolist is easily defeated, and therefore is wise enough, within such lists, to decline the combat. But when the position taken up is in nubibus, and the structures of defence erected are castles in the air, what can be done with such unsubstantial and slippery combatants ? Without allowing such things as common principles, or any data or axioms, how are men to be refuted though their errors are too palpable to admit of any valid defence or justifi- cation ? The locusts of the Revelation are Saracens, who can deny it ? We venture to question the assertion, and for proof are told that the allusion to their tails settles the matter, for did not an early leader of that people cut off his horse's tail for a. standard ? Unavoidable inference ! logical conclu- sion ! what else can be said upon a matter so learnedly discussed and conducted ? But however stupid all this may be to persons of a modicum of sense, your shallow preacher and writer gets the better of you, in his own esteem, because you can- not confute him, and though he is evidently a fool, thinks himself wiser than seven men who can render a reason. Fourthly, inattention to the rules of evidence is another source of Apocalyptic speculation. Let BASELESS NATURE OE PROPHETIC THEORIES. 123 any one take the more respectable works of this class, such as Elliott's Horce Apocalyptica for example, and after he has seen the map of the Church and of Divine Providence marked out by the pencil of the writer, from the early persecutions and heresies to Constantine's patronage, and down to the end of all things, — let him ask himself what proof can he given for all this well-defined specula- tion, and he will find that it is subjective altogether, and that no evidence but the ipse dixit of the writer, or those who think with him, is either to be given or expected. We could pardon these dreamers of dreams and seers of vision if they were amiable as well as weak, and were contented to please themselves with the syllogisms of the fancy; but, unfortunately, in proportion as their premises are baseless, their dogmatism is intolerable. No men find so little favour or mercy at the hands of others, in literary warfare, as those who venture to require evidence when told that the Jews are to reign over Christians (which may God in his mercy forbid), that Jerusalem is again to be the glory of all lands, that the present state of the world is to come to an end before the year a.d. 2000, and that Christ is to reign upon earth for a thousand years. It is lawful to ask for proof before a thief is con- victed; for evidence that a comet is to be expected, and for all predicted phenomena besides ; but in the region of theology, such a temper is scepticism, such a demand is closely akin to infidelity. Once admit the rules of evidence into this region of dreams, and the laborious inferences sought to be palmed upon us vanish into nothingness. 124 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. Fifithly, a more respectable cause than those we have enumerated remains to be mentioned, the prevalence of a priori notions as to the use of the Holy Scriptures and the destiny of the Church. This, if fully treated, would well occupy more space than we have allotted to the present paper, but we must only hastily glance at it. If our readers will give a little attention to the modes of thought which are current in what is called the religious world, they will find that very many of the topics to which importance is attached in books and sermons have no solid foundation what- ever, but are derived from the presumption that God must act so and so, or that the Church and the world must take such and such a course in the future. For instance : it is said that the Bible could not answer its purpose unless verbally in- spired; that unless the Bible revealed everything which the Church ought to know it could be of little use to it ; that as seven is a full number, the Church is to exert its present mode of influence only for six thousand years, and that the seventh thousand is to be the millennium, corresponding to the Sabbath-day. "We take these instances in transitu, out of a very large number of equally un- grounded conclusions. So, in reference to Apoca- lyptic interpretation, it is taken for granted that the Bible must testify to the events of the Church's history till the end of all things, and that the Church must come to an end, as mingled with the present world-state, within a certain period. After so many intimations given by our Lord to His Apostles of the intention of God to conceal the DIVINE CONCEALMENT OE THE ETJTTJKE. 125 future even from the eyes of His favoured people, it is astonishing that any should still insist upon a chart of the course Divine Providence will pursue as being presented in the Bible. It appears to us as clear as the sun at noon-day, that " it is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power ;" and the moral purposes answered hy this Divine concealment are, to us, so manifest and weighty, that it seems mar- vellous that it is not at once and universally acquiesced in. But man will he " wise ahove what is written," and thus ohscures the clearness of Gospel truth and darkens Divine counsel. True it is that men "rush in where angels fear to tread," and with hands little less than impious, hasten to lift up the veil which God, in His mercy doubtless, has allowed to conceal the future. What is denied to us in our personal history, and what we cannot procure for our families, our country, and the world, in relation to matters of affection and interest, is supposed to he conceded to us in the region of Divine revelation with regard to spiritual matters. But the concession is imaginary, not real. Men think that God ought to act in the way their wisdom points out, and it then becomes easy for them to jump to the conclusion that He has so acted. . In conclusion, we beg to hope our readers will give us credit for having nothing more at heart than the reverent, calm, and reasonable exposition of the Holy Scriptures, than the adoption of a method of exegesis which can bear the light, and approve itself to men who are thoughtful as well as 126 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. pious. It is a deep grief to us that a branch of intellectual activity which deserves to be respected as the very highest which man can engage in, should be so much discredited by the rashness of some and the weakness of others who engage in it. Yet such is the fact. Moral science — that is, scientific treatment as far as the subject will admit of it — is so commonly disregarded in matters affect- ing theology, that it is too often thought they are beyond its range, and that Biblical religion is only what varying minds declare it to be. In this state of things nothing is more incumbent upon those who seek the welfare of the highest and best of causes, than to correct this tendency to wayward- ness by always advocating and encouraging a reasonable service in regard to the Scriptures. Most solemn is the thought, that for every idle word we must give an account to God ; solemn when considered in reference to common life and secular pursuits. But how much more solemn does such a declaration become when it is transferred to Christ's kingdom, to the words and opinions of divines and scholars, who are set for the defence of the Gospel ! May all such apply to their studies and public declarations the language of the preacher : — " Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything (word) before God ; for God is in heaven and thou upon earth ; therefore let thy words be few." We have just seen (January, 1873) what is, we believe, the last contribution to the literature of the Apocalypse in a large volume, entitled : — The RECENT APOCALYPTIC SPECULATION. 127 Apocalypse Translated and Expounded. By James Glasgow, D.D., Irish General Assembly's Professor of Oriental Languages, and late Fellow of the University of Bombay, etc. Edinburgh : T. and T. Clark. The book is a clearly-printed octavo volume of more than six hundred pages, and the first sight of it filled us with wonder at the zeal of the author and courage of the publishers in undertaking so laborious and expensive a task. But they might have been justified even in this speculation had the volume professed to contribute anything new to the already vast field of Apocalyptic literature, or thrown fresh and reliable light on its confessed obscurities. But Dr. Glasgow follows so closely in the steps of his adventurous predecessors that the reader must look for little novelty, and that not of a very profitable kind. He is fond of giving new names for old-established ones, such as monster for beast, pseudo-prophet for false prophet, etc. ; but we cannot see that this does anything in the way of criticism or exegesis. In the preface Dr. Glasgow intimates that old interpreters are to be followed on a principle which lies at the foundation of an immense mass of speculation, but which has never been shewn to be true. He says : — " In the exposition now offered, the author has followed a few leading principles deduced from the Holy Scriptures, and taught in substance by various patristic and modern writers. Thus the principle that in prophecies of f the times and the seasons/ c days denote years/ is recognized or implied in Scott's, Henry's, and Barnes's Commentaries; in Brown's Bible, with Dr. H. Cooke's Notes ; and in the prophetic interpretations of the Rev. Joseph Mede, Sir I. Newton, 128 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. Bishops Newton and Waldegrave, Revs. Dr. D. Brown, Dr. Fairbairn, Dr. Keith, Dr. Boothroyd, Dr. Cumming, Dr. A. M'Leod, E. B. Elliott, Jonathan Edwards, R. Culbertson, G. S. Faber, etc." We must say this passage strikes us as extra- ordinary from the very miscellaneous and varied characters of the writers referred to, some, indeed, being of weight, but others light as a feather in the way of learned authority. Besides, of what use is a multitude of names if the principle they advocate is a mere matter of opinion, and not capable of some scientific proof ? If an argument is in itself unsound, the addition of a hundred names to that of its propounder will not confer upon it one extra grain of strength, no more than extra timber put to the sound parts of a leaky ship will prevent the water from rushing in at the hole. We do not say, by any means, that the " year-day theory " is an erroneous one, but if it is true it must be shewn to be so by some more certain rule than the con- currence of opinion by a dozen commentators one after another. The grand theory sought to be maintained by all the above-named writers, followed by Dr. Glasgow, is, that the nations of Europe are expressly intended by the imagery of the Revelation — and it is very curious to observe what shifts and changes are necessary to give this idea any consistency. This may be seen by one short quotation from the work before us. At chapter xvi. 12, we read : — " Also ' the ways of the kings ' of Media and Persia, was that of free entrance into the city for its speedy capture. Now the exhaustion of the powers of the monster was, in like DR. GLASGOW ON THE REVELATION. 129 manner, preparatory to his fall. The question therefore arises, Has he fallen ? or is he yet respited ? The answer is definite : The first monster, the seven-headed and ten-horned, fell before the sword of Bonaparte in a.d. 1802, on the Peace of Amiens ; and when he forced the Emperor in 1806 to relinquish the title and authority of Emperor of Germany ; and when the electors became kings ; though we find the prelude of this fall in the French Revolution. Bonaparte himself, and his present astute nephew, have by some been regarded as only heads of the revived empire, But that is an unsupported idea. Their empire rested not on that of Pepin, but on the popular vote, or plebiscite, and was therefore ostensibly a republic ; and is administered not by the code of Justinian, but of Napoleon." A note to this refers to the capture of Louis Napoleon at Sedan, and makes the necessary changes to accommodate it to the theory. But let us turn to the Number of the Beast in chapter xiii., and see whether the author gives us any new information. We confess our surprise and regret that he merely adds some fresh explanations of his own, making confusion worse confounded; though certainly he goes far to convince the reader, by implication, that all the proposed solutions are wrong. He gives the speculations of former writers as to what the number 666 signifies, and then says : "I add a few original solutions." We must express our opinion that Dr. Glasgow has performed an unnecessary and unprofitable task, since all that is really important in his volume has been before given, in substance, by previous commentators. He has added nothing but a few more guesses, where guesses had already done much harm. K ( 130 ) IV. LITERATURE OF THE SONG OF SONGS. When Tacitus says of our ancestors that they esteemed every unknown thing as magnificent — omne ignotum pro magnifico est, — he described a quality of the human mind restricted to no age of the world and to no development of human cha- racter. All through the ages of Christianity this tendency to exalt the unknown, to clothe what is really beyond our ken with the mythic colours of fancy, has more or less prevailed, and at no period, probably, more than in our own day. We see in- dications of this temper in various parts of the New Testament ; and it is, probably, to counteract the inclination to dwell with fondness on the ignotum, whether of the present or the future, that the state- ment of our Lord is written in the canonical Scrip- tures : " It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power." In a previous Essay we have directed attention to this credulous inclination on the part of Christian people, with regard to the interpretation of the Apocalypse, and to unfulfilled prophecy at large. We have done so in the hope that we might be the means, in some degree, of counteracting a mode of THE CANTICLES IN HANDS OF INTERPRETERS. 131 thought and study, in relation to Divine things, which has generally turned out to be unprofitable, and often tended to fanaticism. But there is another sphere of Biblical study which has exhibited as large an amount of credulity, even when no attempts have been made to pierce the secrets of the future : — we mean the exegesis of the Canticles, or the Song of Solomon. " The literary history of that small book of the Old Testament Scriptures is, indeed, a curious one, from the amount of ingenuity it exhibits, employed to bring out hidden senses and spiritual mysteries from the highly-wrought language of that ancient pastoral. But it is also humiliating as well as curious ; for to plough the sands of the sea-shore, and there to cast in the seed, does not appear to us more profitless labour than much that has thus been expended. Well may a modern writer on this book, Mr. Ginsburg, con- clude a lengthened review of what has been written upon it, in the following language : — " How mournful is the thought which irresistibly forces itself upon the mind in reviewing this imperfect sketch of what has befallen this poem ! This book, we have seen, is made to describe the most contradictory things. It contains the wanderings of the Jews, how they will ultimately ' fill their stomachs with the flesh of the leviathan and the best of wines preserved in grapes/ and is the sanctum sanctorum of all Christian mysteries. It is denounced as a love song, and extolled as declaring the incarnation of Christ ; it speaks of the meridian church in Africa, and the betrayal of the Saviour; it contains a treatise upon the doctrine of free grace against Pelagianism, and an Aristotelian disquisition upon the functions of the active and passive mind ; it is an Apocalyptic vision, a duplicate of the Revelation of St. John, K 2 132 LITERATURE OE THE SONG OE SONGS. and records the scholastic mysticisms of the middle ages ; it denounces Arianism, and describes the glories of the Virgin Mary ; it { treats of man's reconciliation unto God and peace by Jesus Christ; with joy in the Holy Ghost,' and teaches lewdness, and corrupts the morals ; it records the conversa- tion of Solomon and Wisdom, and describes the tomb of Christ in Egyptian hieroglyphics ; it celebrates the nuptials of Solomon, and gives us a compendium of ecclesiastical history to the second advent of Christ ; it records the resto- ration of a Jewish constitution by Zerubbabel,Ezra, and Nehe- miah, and the mysteries of marriage ; it advocates monogamy and encourages polygamy; it assists devotion and excites carnal passions. What a solemn lesson we have here never to depart from the simple meaning of the Word of God \" — pp. 101, 102* Let us enquire what is the treatment which com- bined piety and common sense would he likely to dictate in reference to the Song of Songs, if Drought under our notice for the first time, as a part of the Holy Scriptures. "We will suppose a nin.n converted from heathenism, and placed in circumstances similar to x>ur own for the acquisition of religious truth. Let him he a member of the Church of England, and as such apply himself to the investi- gation of the Bible with the amount of freedom which that community allows and encourages, and, at the same time, with as much deference to anti- quity. We will admit that an argument might be sustained, quite as well, if we stood at the point of view occupied by enlightened Nonconformists — such as Mr. Ginsburg, for instance, — but we should * The Song of Songs .- translated from the original Hebrew, with a Commentary, historical and critical. By Christian D. Ginsburg. London: Longmans. 1857. 8vo, pp. 200. Canonical authority of the canticles. 133 then have to make exceptions, since many Dis- senters in England, and whole classes of them, pre- judge the case at once in regard to the Canticles, by preaching constantly upon it, and finding in all its parts every Gospel doctrine, if not every precept. Apart, then, from our own personal convictions and preferences, it will be more convenient to let our student occupy the ground of the Church of England. Viewed from this position the Song of Songs takes its place in the canon of the Old Testament as authoritatively and undoubtedly as any book in that collection. It is true that the Song of Songs is not quoted in the New Testament, but this is of little importance to canonicity, because the Scripture, or Scriptures, are recognized by our Lord and His Apostles as a whole, and as having in that com- pleteness a Divine character ; and as this book was certainly included in the Scriptures of the Jews, this settles the question. The Church, the witness and keeper of Holy Writ, both before and after the incarnation of our Lord, has borne a clear testimony on this subject, having never doubted respecting the Song of Solomon, or even placed it among the antilegomena. On this subject the weight of testi- mony is decisive with all but those who raise their own subjectivity above all moral evidence, and admit nothing to be divine which they cannot under- stand. "Certain it is," says Moses Stuart,* "that the Canticles were a part of the Canon sanctioned by * Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon, Lorimer's edition, London, 1849. p. 380. 134 LITERATURE OF THE SONG OE SONGS. Christ and the Apostles. Nothing, as matter of fact in ancient criticism, is more certain. It is of no use to deny this, or to make efforts to avoid it." Dr. Davidson is still more explicit on the same side.* " The Divine authority of the Song of Solomon is unaffected "by the fact of Solomon or another heing the writer. Whether the royal son of David com- posed it, or an unknown author, is of no conse- quence, provided it formed one of the canonical books of the Old Testament, and was always there from the completion of the Canon. Doubtless it was so. It was not added after the Canon was closed, either surreptitiously or openly; on the contrary, it was received with the rest of the Hagiographa, and always acknowledged as one of that collection. There is not the shadow of evidence in favour of its having been intruded into the collec- tion of the Old Testament writings at any time subsequent to that in which the Canon was com- pleted, either in the period antecedent to the coming of Christ, or at any time after." And the evidence is so succinctly given by Mr. Ginsburg, that we will quote the whole of what he advances. " This book possesses all the external marks whieh entitle other writings to a place in the list of sacred books. The evidence for its canonicity is as conclusive as that which is commonly adduced to prove the canonicity of any other portion of the Old Testament. In the Mishna Yadim (sect. iii. 5), we find the following testimony respecting it from R. Akiba, one of the most celebrated Rabbins, who lived at the end of the first century, and was president at the academy of Bani-Brae : No Israelite has ever disputed the canonicity of * Home's Introduction. London, 1856. Vol. ii., p. 808. GINSBTJRG ON THE CANTICLES. 135 the Song of Songs. No day in the whole history of the world is of so much worth as the one in which the Song of Songs was given to Israel ; for all the Scriptures are holy, but the So?ig of Songs is most holy. Another Rabbi (Simeon b. Azzai) in the same place, says, / received it from the mouth of the seventy-two elders, at the time when R. Eliezer b. Azzaria was appointed elder, that the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes are canonical. We have here positive evidence that this book existed in the Canon in the apostolic age ; and that it was comprised in the sacred books, which our Lord calls ras