,1 X\xt mohgic,^ ^ PRINCETON, N. J. BR 50 .N69 1873 Noyes, George R. 1798-1868 .--/ ^ collection of theological - ^^^^y^ f^om various author^ - COLLIE crrof ■ •(T/RlAf! \ Til EOLOGfcfMr%S SAYS VARIOUS AUTHORS. WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BT W^ GEORGE R. NOTES, D.D., PKOFKSStm OF SACRED MTERATURE 11^ HARVARD UNIVERSTTT. SIXTH EDITION. BOSTON: AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 1873. Bntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by Tmk Amkrican Unitarian Association, In th« Clerk's OfBce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts Uniyersity Press, Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigclow, and Company. CONTENTS, PAGE Antroduction. By George R. Noyes v Faith and Science. By M. Guizot 1 The Law and the Gospel. By Rev. Baden Powell. ... 27 The Doctrine of Inspiration. By Dr. F. A. D. Tholuck. . 65 Holy Scripture. By Rev. Rowland Williams 113 Servants of God speaking as moved hy the Holy Ghost. By Rer. Rowland Williams. 127 The Spirit and the Letter, or the Truth and the Book. By Rev. Rowland Williams 147 On the Causes which probably conspired to produce our Saviour's Agony. By Rev. Edward Harwood 167 Of our Lord's Fortitude. By Rev. William Newcome. . . 197 The Doctrine of the Atonement. By Benjamin Jowett. . . 221 On Righteousness by Faith. By Benjamin Jowett. . . . 239 On the Imputation of the Sin of Adam. By Benjamin Jowett. . 265 On Conversion and Changes of Character, By Benjamin Jowett. 273 Casuistry. By Benjamin Jowett. 299 On the Connection of Immorality and Idolatry. By Benjamin Jowett 321 The Old Testament. By Benjamin Jowett 325 On the Quotations from the Old Testament in the New. By Benja- min Jowett. 329 Fragment on the Character of St. Paul. By Benjamin Jowett. . 341 IV CONTENTS. St. Paul and tlic Twcive. By Benjamin Jowctt. . . . 357 Evils in tlic Church of the Apostolical Age. By Benjamin Jowctt. 383 On tlic Belief in tlic Coming of Cluist in the Apostolical Age, By Benjamin Jowctt 393 The Death of Christ, considered as a Sacrifice. By Rev. James Foster 403 The Kpistles to the Corinthians, in Relation to the Gospel History. By Rev. Arthur V. Stanley 415 Apostolical Worship. By Rev. Arthm- P. Stanley. ... 437 The Eucharist. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley 443 Unity and Variety of Spiritual Gifts. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. 447 The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Prophesying. By Rev. Ar- tliur P. Stanley '. . . 453 Love, the greatest of Gifts. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . . 472 The Resurrection of Christ. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . . 477 The Resurrection of the Dead. By Rev. Arthur P. Stanley. . 482 On the Credibility of Miracles. By Dr. Thomas Brown. . . 485 Note A. 505 NotoB 513 INTHODUCTION. The following collection of Theological Essays is designed for students in divinity, Sunday-school teachers, and all intelligent readers who desire to gain correct views of religion, and especially of the char- acter, use, and meaning of the Scriptures. It was suggested by the recent excellent Commentary on the Epistles of Paul by Rev. Mr. Jowett, now Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford. Understanding that this work was not likely to be reprinted in this country, and that the high price of the English edition rendered it inaccessible to most readers, it appeared to me that a collection of Theological Essays, which should include the most important dissertations con- nected with that Commentary, would be a valuable publication. Mr. Jowett seems to me to have pene- trated more deeply into the views and spirit of Paul, and the circumstances under which he wrote, than any previous Enghsh commentator. Some of the best results of his labors are presented in the Essays which are now republished in this collection. Mr. Jowett's notes might have been more satisfactory in some respects if, in addition to other German commen- taries which he has mentioned, he had made use of those of De Wette and Meyer. But no illustrative dissertations in any German commentary with which a* Vi INTRODUCTION. we are acquainted are equal in value to those of Jowctt. His freedom aiid independence are espe- cially to be admired in a member of the Church of England, and Professor in the University of Oxford. In the selection of the dissertations by other writers, regard was had partly to their rarity, and partly to their intrinsic value, and the light which they throw on important subjects which occupy the minds of re- ligious inquirers at the present day. Three Essays are taken from Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, an English periodical conducted by clergymen of the Established Church, of which few copies are circu- lated in this country. The first, by M. Guizot, the eminent writer and statesman of France, presents the subject of Faith in an interesting point of view, and closes with an admirable lesson on the importance of the free discussion of religious subjects. The second Essay, by Rev. Baden Powell, an emi- nent Professor in the University of Oxford, and author of several well-known publications, contains an able discussion of a very important subject, which appears to be now attracting some notice in this country ; distinguished divines of the Baptist denomination taking the view of Dr. Powell, and some of the Or- thodox Congregationalists opposing it. The prevalent opinion, which regards the Old Testament as an au- thority in rehgion and morals equally binding upon Christians with the New, appears to me to have had a disastrous influence on the interests of the Church and the interests of humanity. The history of the civil wars of England and Scotland, the early history of New England, and the state of opinion at the pres- ent day on the subjects of war, slavery, punishment for religious opinion, and indeed punishment in gen- INTRODUCTION. Vll eral, illustrate the noxious influence of the prevalent sentiment. A writer in one of the most distinguished theological journals in this country has been for some time engaged in the vain attempt to prove, in opposi- tion to the plainest language, that the laws of the Pentateuch do not sanction chattel slavery. It was not thus that the great champion of the Protestant Reformation proceeded, when the authority of the Old Testament was invoked to justify immorality. When some of his contemporaries were committing unjusti- fiable acts against the peace and order of the commu- nity, and vindicated themselves by appealing to the Old Testament, Luther wrote a treatise entitled " Instruc- tion on the Manner in which Moses is to be read,'* containing the following passage, which, in tlie clear- ness and force of its style, might have been imitated with advantage by some of his countrymen : " Moses was a mediator and lawgiver to the Jews alone, to whom he gave the Law. If I take Moses in one com- mandment, I must take the whole of Moses. Moses is dead. His dispensation is at an end. He has no longer any relation to us. I will accept Moses as an insti-uctor, but not as a lawgiver, except where he agrees with the New Testament, or with the law of nature. When any one brings forward Moses and his precepts, and would oblige you to observe them, answer him thus : * Go to the Jews with your Moses I I am no Jew. If I take Moses as a master in one point, I am bound to keep the whole law, says St. Paul.' If now the disorganizers say, * Moses has commanded it,' do you let Moses go, and say, ' I ask not what Moses has commanded.' ' But,' say they, * Moses has commanded that we should believe in God, that we should not take liis name in vain, that •TU INTRODUCTION. we should honor our father and mother, &c. Must we not keep these commandments?' Answer them thus : ' Nature has given these commandments. Na- ture teaches man to call upon God, and hence it is natural to honor God, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to bear false witness, &c. Thus I keep the commandments which Moses has given, not be- cause he enjoined them, but because nature implanted them in me.' But if any one say, ' It is all God's word,' answer him thus : ' God's word here, God's word there. I must know and observe to whom this word is spoken. I must know not only that it is God's word, but whether it is spoken to me or to an- other. I listen to the word which concerns me, &c. We have the Gospel.' " * I would not be understood to maintain every sentiment which Dr. Powell has advanced ; but his views in general appear to me not only sound, but highly important. The Essay on the subject of Inspiration, by Tho- luck, is to be found in English only in the same for- eign journal. The views of a biblical student who enjoys so great a reputation among Christians ot various denominations in all parts of the world need no recommendation. The translation I have carefully compared with the original, and found to be made with great fidelity and accuracy. The three Essays which follow on the use and character of the Scriptures are taken from a recent volume of sermons, entitled " Rational Godliness," by Rev. Rowland Williams, a clergyman and distin- guished scholar of the Established Church of Eng- land, having been delivered before the Chancellor and ♦ Sec the passage in Lutlicr's works, or as quoted by Bretschneider, Dogmaiik, Vol. I. p. 181. INTRODUCTION. IX University of Cambridge. They appear to me suffi- ciently valuable to be reprinted. The writer may be thought by some to undervalue external authority, while maintaining the rights of intuition and expe- rience as means of attaining Christian truth. But have not many Christians since the time of Paley paid too exclusive regard to the former ? It seems to me that those who accept the New Testament records of miracles as genuine and authentic, will not fail to receive from them their due influence, and will be in no danger of attaching too great importance to intui- tive faith and Christian experience. The older the world grows, the less must religious faith depend on history and tradition, and the more on the power of the human soul, assisted by the promised Paraclete, to recognize revealed truth by its own light. The four Essays which follow relate to the great subject of the Atonement by Christ, and are designed to establish the true view of it, in opposition to cer- tain false theories which human speculation has con- nected with it, dishonorable to the character of God, pernicious in their influence on man, and having no foundation in the Scriptures or in reason. The Essay on the Causes which probably conspired to produce our Saviour's Agony, is by a distinguished English scholar of the last century, the author of an Introduc- tion to the New Testament, and of a translation of the same, which, though it departs too much from the simplicity of the Common Version, is highly creditable to the author as a critic and a man of learning. The Essay which is here republished is commended by Archbishop Newcome in his very valuable observa- tions, which follow, on substantially the same subject, — the Fortitude of our Saviour. The two Essays X INTRODUCTION. appear to me to give a triumphant vindication of the character of our Saviour from the charges which have been brought against it by unbelievers, and, hypothet- ically, by some Christian divines, founded on certain expressions of feeling manifested a short time before his death, which his faithful historians have recorded for our instruction and consolation. It so happens that that part of one of the specula- tive theories connected with the Christian doctrine of atonement which is most repulsive to the feelings of many Christians, is absolutely without foundation in the Scriptures, or in the faith of the Church for many centuries after the death of Christ. I refer to that opinion which represents him as receiving supernatu- ral pain or torture immediately from the hand of God, over and above that which was inflicted by human instrumentality, or which arose naturally from the circumstances in which he, as God's minister for es- tablishing the Christian religion, was placed, and from the peculiar sensibility of his natural constitution. The very statement of this theory by some distin- guished theologians shocks the feelings of many Chris- tians like the language of impiety. Thus Dr. Dwight says: "Omniscience and Omnipotence are certainly abh; to communicate, during even a short time, to a finite mind, such views of the hatred and contempt of God towards sin and sinners, and of course towards a substitute for sinners, as would not only fill its capa- city for suffering, but probably put an end to its existence. In this manner, I apprehend, the chief distresses of Christ were produced." * What ideas I The omnipotence and omniscience of God are fir»t * Dwight's Theology, Vol. II. p. 214. INTRODUCTION. XI called in to communicate a sense of his hatred and contempt to a sinless man, and, secondly, the suffer- ings and even the death of Christ are represented as the immediate consequence of his sense of God's hatred and contempt ! Dr. Macknight, a theologian of considerable celeb- rity, gives a somewhat different view, but equally appalling. He says : " Our Lord's perturbation and agony, therefore, arose from the pains which were inflicted upon him by the hand of God, when he made his soul an offering for sin Though Jesus knew no sin, God might, by the immediate operation of his power, make him feet those pains which shall be the punishment of sin hereafter, in order that, by the visi- ble effects which they produced upon him, mankind might have a just notion of the greatness of these pains His bearing those pains, with a view tb show how great they are, was by no means punish- ment. It was merely suffering." * Such is the repre- sentation of Dr. Macknight, in a treatise entitled " The Conversion of the World to Christianity " I In his Institutes,! Calvin undoubtedly represents Christ as suffering the pains of hell in the present, not the future life. He expressly explains the seem- ing paradox that Christ should descend into hell before his death. A recent work by Krummacher, which has been industriously circulated in New England, contains a representation similar to that of D wight and Mac- knight, in language still more horrible. Other recent writers in New Eno;land have sanctioned the same view. * See Macknight, in Watson's Tracts, Vol. V. p. 183. t Book 11. ch. 16, §.10, 11. ^i INTUODUCTION. Now to this theory a decisive objection is, that it has not the least foundation in the Scriptures, and that it is in fact inconsistent with the general tenor of the New Testament, which speaks of Christ's suffer- ings in connection with the obvious second causes of them, recorded in the history; namely, the reviling and persecuting of his enemies, the coldness and desertion of his disciples, the dark prospects of his mission,* his blood, his death, and the terrible persecution of his followers, which were to precede the establishment of his religion. Of the immediate infliction of pain by the Deity, over and above what Jewish malice in- flicted upon him, we find not a word. There is not a ])article of evidence to show that any of the sufferings of Christ were inflicted upon him by any more direct or immediate agency on the part of God, than those of other righteous men who have been persecuted to death in the cause of truth and righteousness. The text in Isa. liii. 10, — " Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief ; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin," &c., — is often referred to. But such an application of this text can be shown to be wrong in two ways : — 1. It can be de- monstrated, on })rinciples of interpretation universally acknowl(>dged, that the " servant of God," in this and the preceding chapters, denotes, at least in its primary sense, the Jewish church, the Israel of God, who suffered on account of the sins of others in the time of the captivity at Babylon. 1 cannot, for want of space, go into a defence of this view. But I fully believe it to be correct, and it is maintained by the most unbiassed and scientific interpreters of the Old * Luke xviii. 8 ; Matt. xxiv. 24. INTRODUCTION. XIU Testament.* 2. The language in question denotes no more direct and immediate agency of the Deity, than that which is everywhere, both in the Old Tes- tament and the New, ascribed to the Deity in refer- ence to the sufferings of the prophets and apostles. Comp. Ps. xxxix. 9, 10 ; Jer. xv. 17, 18 ; xx. 7, &c. ; xi. 18, 19 ; Lam. iii. So in the New Testament, if St. Paul tells us that Christ was " set forth as a pro- pitiatory sacrifice," he also says, " For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death." Indeed, there is no idiom in the Scriptures more obvious than that which represents all the blessings and afflictions of life, by whatever instrumentality produced, as coming from God. Modern speculative theologians, not finding in the sacred history, or in any Scripture statement, any au- thority for their supposition of a miraculous suffering or torment, inconceivable in degi*ee, inflicted by the immediate agency of God upon the soul of Christ, resort to mere theory to support their position. If, say they, Christ was not enduring " vicarious suffer- ing," inconceivable in degree, inflicted on his soul by the immediate exertion of Almighty power, then it follows that he did not bear his suflerings so well as many martyrs, — so well as " the thieves on the cross," so well as " thousands and millions of common men without God and without hope in the world." t Without repeating the explanations of Dr. Harwoocl * That the phrase " servant of God " is a collective tenn, denoting the people of God, comprehending the Jewish nation, or the better par* of the Jewish nation, that is, the Jewish church, has been maintained by such critics as Doderlein, RosenraQller, Jahn, Gesenius, Maurer, Knobel, Ewald, Hitzig ; also by the old Jewish critics, such as Aben Ezra, Jar- chi, Abarbanel, and Kirachi. t See Stuart on Hebrews, Exc. XI. p. 575. b Xiv INTRODUCTION. and Archbishop Newcomc, it may be remarked,— 1. That at best this is only an argument ad Chnstior num. The sceptic and the scoffer are ready to accept the statement of the orthodox divine, and to tell him that, while the manner in which Christ endured his sufferings is matter of history, his way of accounting for them is pure theory. 2. It is very remarkable that the speculative theolo- gians have not seen that a quality exhibited in such perfection by "thousands and millions without God and without hope in the world," " by the thieves on the cross," and, it might have been added, by any number of bloodthirsty pirates and savage Indians, was one the absence of which implied no want of moral excellence ; that it was a matter of natural temperament, of phys- ical habits, and of the firm condition of the nervous system, rather than of moral or religious character. Moral excellence is seen, not in insensibility to pain or danger, but in unwavering obedience to duty in defiance of pain and danger. The greater sense Jesus had and expressed of the sufferings \vhich lay in his patli, the greater is the moral excellence exhibited in overcoming them. In order to satisfy myself of the perfection of the character of Jesus, all I wish to know is that his obedience was complete; that his grief, fears, and doubts were momentary ; that his most earnest expostulations and complaints, if so they may be called, were wTung from him by causes which arc plainly set forth in the sacred history, while he was engaged without hesitation, without voluntary reluctance, nay, with the most supreme devotion of his will, in the greatest work ever wrought for man. For my part, I am not ashamed to say, that I have a distinct feeling of gratitude, not only for the work INTRODUCTION. XV which Christ performed, but for every expression of human feeling, whether of grief, or momentary doubt, or fear, or interrupted sense of communion with God, which he manifested. I should feel that I was robbed of an invaluable treasure of encouragement and con- solation, if any one expression of feeling, whether in his words or otherwise, caused by such sufferings as all men, in a greater or less degree, are called to en- dure, should be blotted from the sacred record. In the midst of deep affliction, and the fear of deeper, noth- ing has given me greater support than the repetition of the prayer in Gethsemane, once uttered in agony of soul, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from me I Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt ! " Now I know that " we have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 3. Those who maintain that the character of Christ was imperfect or sinful, unless he received immediate- ly from the hand of God inconceivably greater suffer- ings than were occasioned by human instrumentalities, and the second causes which are matters of history, do not make it^clear how by their theory they relieve his character from the charges which they have hypo- thetically brought against it. If the manner in which Christ endured his sufferings was unworthy of him, — if it was -faulty or sinful, — if his expressions in the garden of Gethsemane, or upon the cross, were wrong, — then no degree of suffering which the hu- man imagination can conceive to have been endm'ed by him can make them right. Strength of temptation can palliate what is wrong, but cannot make it right Whatever was the nature of Christ's /iufferings, how- ever great in degree, and however immediately they XVI INTRODUCTION. were inflicted by God, still, unless his memory of the past, as recorded in the Gospels, was wholly effaced, he had greater advantages than other men. He knew what testimonials and powers he had received from God. He knew that he was the object of Divine love. He knew that he had consented to his sufferings, and that they were a part of his work ; he had no sense of sin to aggravate them ; he knew that they were for a short time, and that they were certainly to be fol- lowed by a glorious resurrection, and by endless bless- edness for himself and his followers. How then are what Dr. Dwight calls " the bitter complaints " of Jesus absolutely justifiable on his theory of the nature and causes of Christ's sufferings, if not on that view which has its basis, not in mere reasoning, but in the Scripture history, and which is set forth by Dr. Har- wood and Archbishop Newcome in this volume ? If all the mental and bodily sufferings naturally caused to Jesus by the malice of the Jews, the desertion of his disciples, and all the circumstances in which he was placed, cannot justify our Saviour's expressions, whether in language or otherwise, then no sufferings or torments the human imagination can conceive to have been immediately inflicted by God can justify them. In fact, the knowledge that they were inflicted immediately by the hand of God would have a ten- dency to make them more tolerable. Who would not drink the cup certainly known to be presented to his lips by the hand of his Almighty Father ? I have no difficulty in the case, because I believe all the expres- sions of Jesus in relation to his sufferings, which have been supposed to indicate a want of fortitude, to have been momentary, extorted from him by overpowering pain of body and mind. INTRODUCTION. XVI| It is also to be observed, in connection with the preceding remarks, that what may be called the rich imagination of Jesus, as disjDlayed in the beauty of his illustrations and his parables, as well as various expressions of strong feeling on several occasions in the course of his ministry, indicate an exquisite sensibility, which no debasement of sin had ever blunted. Without anticipating what is said in the excellent Essays of Dr. Harwood and Archbishop Newcome, I may make one more remark. Injustice seems to me to have been done to Jesus by comparing his short distress of mind on two or three occasions with what may have been as short a composure of some distin- guished martyrs, — Socrates for instance, — without taking into view the habitual fortitude of Christ. Now if any one believes that the feelings which Socrates exhibited when he drank the hemlock in prison, as described by Plato, were all which entered his mind from the time when he incurred the deadly hatred and persecution of the Athenians, and that no doubts or fears or misgivings occurred to him at any moment, in the solitude of his prison or elsewhere, I have only to say that his view of what is incident to human nature is very different from mine. Would Jesus have prayed, an hour before his suffering in Geth- semane, that his disciples might have the peace, and even the joy, which he possessed, had not the habitual state of his feelings been tranquil and composed ? Panegyrists have described the bravery with which some martyrs have endured their sufferings before the eyes of their admirers. Jesus, who suffered not with a view to human applause, but to human consolation and salvation, was not ashamed or afraid to express ' 6# Xviii INTRODUCTION. all which he felt, and his faithful biographers were not ashamed or afraid to record it. I have intimated that the view of the cause of our Saviour's principal sullerings, which I have endeavored to oppose, is not found in the Scriptures, nor in the mMieral faith of the Church. It is the fruit of com- paratively modern speculation. For proof of the last assertion, I refer to the standard works on the history of Cliristian doctrines. In regard to the principal ut- terance of our Saviour, to which reference has been made in relation to this subject, in the words of the first verse of the twenty-second Psalm, I cannot agree with those who find in them no expression of anguish or tone of expostulation, and who suppose them to be cited by our Saviour merely in order to suggest the confidence and triumph with which the Psalm ends ; but which do not begin before the twenty-second verse. Under the circumstances of the case, the words appear to have had substantially the same meaning when uttered by Christ as when uttered by the Psalmist. They should not be interpreted as the deliberate result of calm reflection, but as an outburst of strong involuntary emotion, forced from our Saviour by anguish of body and mind, in the words which naturally occurred to him, implying momentary/ expos- tulation, or even complaint. But that the interruption of the consciousness of God's presence and love was only momentary, both in the case of the Psalmist and of the Saviour, is evident, first, from the expression. My God! inij God! repeated with earnestness; secondly, from the expressions of confidence in the course of the Psalm, wliich might follow in the mind of Christ as well as in that of the Psalmist; and thirdly, from the usage of language, according to which the expression INTRODUCTION. XIX " to be forsaken by God " merely means " not to be delivered from actual or impending distress." The very parallel line in the verse under consideration, " Why art thou so far from helping me ? " is, accord- ing to the laws of Hebrew parallelism, a complete exposition of the language, " Why hast thou forsaken me ? " So Ps. xxxviii. 21, 22, " Forsake me not, O Lord ! O my God, be not far from me ! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation ! " Other passages are Ps. x. 1, xiii. 1, Ixxiv. 1, Ixxxviii. 14. As the historical passages in which Christ expressed his feelings under the sufferings which he endured or feared, are of great interest, it may be satisfactory to many readers if I translate, and place in a note at the end of the volume,* the expositions of them given by men who are regarded by competent judges of all denominations of Christians as standing in the very first rank as unbiassed, learned, scientific expositors of the Scriptures. De Wette, Liicke, Meyer, Bleek, and Liinemann will be admitted by all who are acquainted with their writings to stand in that rank. After the Essays on the nature and causes of the sufferings of Christ, and the manner in which he bore them, I have selected two on the design and influence of these sufferings in the atonement which he effected : one by that admirable writer, James Foster,! the most celebrated preacher of his day, of whom Pope wrote, long ago, " Let modest Foster, if he will, excel Ten metropolitans in preaching well " ; and the other by Professor Jowett, of whom I have al- ready spoken. The two dissertations, taken together, * See Note A. t By accident this Essay does not appear in its proper place in this volume, but will be. found on page 403. XX INTRODUCTION. appear to me to give a very fair and Scriptural view of the Christian doctrine of atonement. The great variety of theories which the specula- tions of Protestants have connected with the Christian doctrine of atonement is alone sufficient to show on what a sandy foundation some of them rest. As sacrifices of blood, in which certain false views of Christian redemption had their origin, passed away from the world's regard gradually, so one error after another has been from time to time expunged from the theory of redemption which prevailed at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Luther laid it down plain- ly, that the sins of all mankind were imputed to Christ, so that he was regarded as guilty of them and pun- ished for them. Thus he says : " And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulter- er, thief, rebel, and blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world. For he, being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent person and without sin ; is not now the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary ; but a sinner, which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor ; of Peter, which denied Christ ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murder- er, &c Whatsoever sins I, thou, and we all have done, or shall do hereafter, they are Christ's own sins as verily as if he himself had done them But wherefore is Christ punished ? Is it not because he hath sin, and beareth sin ? " * Luther's theory was once the prevalent one in the Protestant Church. It is also to be observed, as it contributes to the better understanding of the New England theories * Luther on Gal. iii. 13. INTKODUCTION. XXl which prevail at the present day, that the view of Luther was at one time almost universal in New England. In the year 1650, William Pynchon, a gen- tleman of learning and talent, and chief magistrate of Springfield, wrote a book in which, in the language of Cotton Mather, " he pretends to prove that Christ suffered not for us those unutterable torments of God's wrath which are commonly called hell torments, to redeem our souls from them, and that Christ bore not our sins by God's imputation, and therefore also did not bear the curse of the law for them." The General Court of Massachusetts, as soon as the book was received from England, where it was printed, immediately called Mr. Pynchon to account for his heresy, dismissed him from his magistracy, caused his book to be publicly burned in Boston mar- ket, and appointed three elders to confer with him, and bring him to an acknowledgment of his error.* They also chose Rev. John Norton, of Ipswich, to answer his book, after they had condemned all the copies of it to be burned, f Mr. Norton's answer is now before us, in which he repeats over and over again the prevalent doctrine of the time : — " Christ suffered a penal hell, but not a local ; he descended into hell virtually, not locally ; that is, he suffered the pains of hell due unto the elect, who for their sin de- served to be damned." " Christ suffered the essential penal wrath of God, which answers the suffering of the second death, due to the elect for their sin, before he suffered his natural death." " Christ was tor- mented without any forgiveness ; God spared him nothing of the due debt." * See Records of Massjiclmsetts Bay, Vol. IV. Part I. pp. 29, 30; ai?o Holland's History of Western Massachusetts, Vol. I. p. 37, &c. t See Note B. XXll INTRODUCTION. Flavcl, a Nonconformist clergyman in England, whose writings continue to be published by the Amer- ican Tract Society, and who was contemporaneous with John Norton, thus writes : " To wrath, to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture, to the very torments of hell, was Christ delivered, and that by the hands of his own Father." * "As it was all the wrath of God that lay upon Christ, so it was his wrath aggravated in diverse respects beyond that which the damned themselves do suffer." f In the Confession of Faith J owned and consented to by the churches assembled in Boston, New Eng- land, May 12, 1680, and recommended to all the churches by the General Court held October 5, 1679, is contained the following (Ch. VIII. 4) : " The Lord Jesus Christ underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have borne and suffered, being made sin and a curse for us, enduring most excruciat- ing torments immediately from God in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body." This was copied verbatim into the celebrated Saybrook Plat- form, adopted by the churches of Connecticut, Sep- tember 9, 1708. Some of the preceding views, for questioning which one of the wisest and best men in Massachusetts was so much harassed as to feel obliged to leave the Commonwealth, are now as universally rejected as * Fountain of Life Opened, p. 10, Ser. IV. fol. edit. t I»)i(l., p. 106. I This Confession was taken, with a few slight variations in confonnity with the Westminster Confession, from the " Savoy Declaration," that is, "A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England ; agreed upon and consented unto l)y their elders and messengers at the Savoy [a part of London] Octol>cr 12th, 1658," which may be seen in " Hanbury's Historical Me- morials," p. 532, &c. INTRODUCTION. XXIU iliey were once received. But the most objectionable part of them, in a religious point of view, that which supposes supernatural sufferings or tortures to have been immediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, is still retained by many. The late Pro- fessor Stuart, as we have seen, supported this view on the ground that the character of Christ for fortitude would otherwise suffer. Many of the books indus- triously circulated by the Orthodox sects among the laity contain the doctrine in a very offensive form. The Assembly's Catechism, which declares that Christ " endured the wrath of God," evidently in the sense of Norton and Flavel, is scattered by thousands among the people, and made the standard of faith in the principal theological school of this Common- wealth. Vincent, whose explanation of the Assem- bly's Catechism has just been republished by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, says : '< He, to- gether with the pain of his body on the cross, endured the wrath of God, due for man's sin, in his soul." With the progress of intellectual and moral philos- ophy, however, the doctrine of the imputation of sin to one who had not committed it, came to be held as a mere fiction by many, who yet retained that part of the old doctrine which maintains that Christ bore the punishment of the sins of all mankind. This view avoids the now evident fiction involved in charging the sins of the guilty upon the innocent; but it has no advantage over Luther's doctrine in reference to the character of the Deity. Luther's theory paid so much homage to the natural sentiments of justice in the human soul, as to make the attempt, though a vain one, to reconcile the conduct which his theology ascribed to God with those sentiments. I^uther, with Xxiv INTRODUCTION. John Norton and others of his school, felt as strongly as any Unitarian of the present day, that, where there is punishment, there must be guilt, and an accusing conscience * They held, therefore, that Christ was punished because he was guilty, and " sensible of an accusing conscience." But the more modern theory, which holds that Christ bore the. punishment of all men's sins without bearing their guilt, involves the idea of punishment without guilt in him who suffers it. It takes away the hypothesis which alone gave it even the show of consistency with the justice of God. The perception of the incongruity involved in the supposition that one should receive punishment who is without guilt, has therefore led many theologians to give up this part of the old theory. It was aban- doned by many in England as long ago as the time of Baxter. In New England, since the time of Dr. Edwards the younger, several theological writers have maintained that, as there can be no punishment with- out a sense of guilt and condemnation of conscience, but only pain, suffering, torment, it is erroneous to say that Christ endured vicarious punishment for the sins of mankind. Vicarious pain or torment might be en- dured by the innocent, but not vicarious punishment. Some, also, on the ground that the sufferings of Christ bear no proportion, in amount and duration, to the punishment which was threatened against sinners, have even rejected the term vicarious as inapplicable. Dr. Dwight says : " It will not be supposed, as plainly it cannot, that Christ suffered in his divine nature. Nor will it be believed that any created nature could in that short space of time suffer what would be equivalent to even a slight distress extended through * Sec Norton's Answer, &c. p. 119. INTRODUCTION. XXV eternity." * " When, therefore, we are told that it pleased Jehovah to bruise him^ it was not as a punish- ment." t " It is not true," says Edwards the younger, " that Christ endured an equal quantity of misery to that which would have been endured by all his people, had they suffered the curse of the law As the eternal Logos was capable of neither enduring misery nor losing happiness, all the happiness lost by the substitution of Christ was barely that of the man Christ Jesus, during only thirty-three years ; or rather during the last three years of his life." J Dr. Em- mons says : " His sufferings were no punishment, much less our punishment. His sufferings were by no means equal in degree or duration to the eternal sufferings we deserve, and which God has threatened to inflict upon us. So that he did in no sense bear the penalty of the law which we have broken, and justly deserve." § But this concession of the more modern New Eng- land theologians to the imperative claims of reason is not of so much importance as it may at first view appear. To say that Christ did not endure the punish- ment of the sins of mankind, nor indeed any punish- ment whatever, but only an amount of suffering or torment which, in its effect as an expression of the Di- vine mind, and in upholding the honor of the Divine government, was an equivalent to the infliction of the punishment threatened against sin, is of little avail, so long as it is maintained that the chief sufferings of our Saviour were of a miraculous character, incon- ceivable in degree, immediately inflicted upon him by * Ser. LVI. Vol. n. p. 217. t Ibid., p. 211. X Sermons on the Atonement, Works, Vol. 11. p. 43. S Works, Vol. V. p. ^2. P Xxvl INTRODUCTION. the hand of God over and above those which he in- curred from hunrian opposition and persecution in the accomplishment of his work. The concession is made to ])hilosophy, not to religion. So far as the Divine character is concerned, it is of little consequence whether you call the sufferings of Chnst punishment ^ or only torture immediately inflicted by God for the mere purpose of being contemplated by intelligent beings. Suppose that Christ had ordered the beloved Apos- tle John to be crucified, in order to show his dis- pleasure at sin, when he forgave Peter, of what conse- quence would it be to say that John was not punished, but only tortured, for the sin of Peter? Would Christ deserve the more to be regarded as a righteous being, an upholder of law, a wise moral governor, for inflicting inconceivable anguish of body and mind upon John as the sole ground and condition of forgiv- ing the sin of Peter ? How many of the theologians of New England at the present day retain this theory of miraculous suf- fering immediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, I have no means of ascertaining. It is not easy to see why the advocates of the govern- mental theory, after admitting that the sufferings of Christ were finite and of brief duration, that they were not the punishment, nor, as a penalty, equivalent to the punishment, of the sinner, should seek by mere ratiocination to magnify the sufferings of Christ be- yond what the sacred history has recorded them to be, and to bring in the omnipotence and the omniscience of the Deity to inflict a pain which human malice and second causes could not inflict. The mere amount of suffering does not seem to be essential to this theory. The Scriptures contain, as we have seen, INTllODUCTION. XXVU nothing for it. On the contrary, they seem to be positively against it, in insisting, as they do, on the blood of Christ, the death of Christ as a sacrifice, rather than on what he suffered before he died. It is just to state that I do not find, in the sermons on the atonement by Dr. Edwards the younger, Dr. Em- mons, and Dr. Woods, reference to any sufferings of Christ, except those which were naturally incident to the discharge of his duty. True, they say nothing against the view held by Dr. Dwight, Dr. Macknight, and some recent writers. But it is to be hoped that they omitted the theory of miraculous suffering, im- mediately inflicted by the Deity upon the soul of Christ, because they had abandoned it. May the time soon come when all the advocates of the govern- mental theory shall cease to insist on a fragment of the old theory of penal satisfaction, which has no his- torical foundation, which is shocking to the feelings of many Christians, and strengthens the objections of the enemies of Christianity. On the other hand, it appears to me that some writers, looking at the subject chiefly in the light of the principles of moral and religious philosophy, have given a somewhat imperfect view of the sentiments of St. Paul respecting the significance of the death of Christ, by maintaining that he limited the influence of it to its immediate effect in producing the refor- mation and sanctification of the sinner. This latter view is indeed prominent throughout the Apostle^s writings. Christians are represented as being bap- tized to the death of Christ ; that is, to die to sin as he died for it ; to be buried in baptism to sin, and to rise to a new spiritual life, as he was buried and rose to a new life. But the Apostle regards the death of Christ, XXViii INTRODUCTIOA. not only as exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, but as having a meaning and significance, con- sidered as an event taking place under the moral government of God, according to his will. Its mean- o- serves, according to him, at the same time to manifest the righteousness of God, and his mercy in accepting the true believer. " Whom in his blood, through faith, God has set forth as a propitiatory sacri- fice, in order to manifest his righteousness on account of his passing by, in his forbearance, the sins of former times."* It is true that the design of this providential event was still manifestation^ and that the contemplation of the sacrifice, and the appropriation of it by faith, were regarded by the Apostle as leading to repentance and sanctification, as well as to peace of mind. But he contemplates it in this passage under another aspect. He has what may be called a transcendental, as well as a practical, view of this, as of all events. He contemplates the death of Christ, taking place according to God's will, as illustrating the mind of God ; as manifesting his righteousness, though he forbore adequately to punish the sins of former times, and in mercy accepted as righteous the true Christian believer. His view seems to be that God, by suffering such a person as Jesus, standing in such a relation to him, having a sinless character, and sustaining such an ofl^ice in relation to the world as Christ did, to suffer and die a painful and ignomin- ious death, has declared how great an evil he regards sin to be, and how great a good he regards holiness to be ; in other words, his hatred of sin, and love of holiness. The greatness of the evil of sin, and of the * Rom. iii. 25. INTRODUCTION. XXIX good of righteousness, are to be seen in the greatness of the sacrifice which God, in his high providential government of the world, appointed, and which in the fulness of time Christ made. Why is not this view of St. Paul correct ? God is surely to be seen, not only in the works of nature, in the intuitions of the ?oul, in immediate revelation, but also in the events of Providence. Especially the fact, that under the moral government of God the most righteous men, those in ivhom the spirit of God dwells most fully and most constantly^ are willing to incur reproach and suf- fering in the cause of truth, righteousness, and human happiness, shows that the Giver of the Holy Spirit, the Source of all righteousness, regards sin as a great evil, and righteousness as a great good ; that is, hates sin, and loves holiness. Much more, then, if Christ, in whom was the spirit of God without measure, who knew no sin, and who was in various ways exalted above the sons of men, becomes, according to the will of God, and by his own consent, a sacrifice for sin, does he illustrate his Father's hatred of sin, and love of holiness. It appears to me that Edwards the younger, and other advocates of what is called the governmental theory, have connected with the view of the Apostle Paul two great errors. One consists in regarding that as the direct and immediate design of the death of Christ which was only incidental to it, as a providen- tial event. This appears from the fact that the death of Christ is everywhere in the New Testament de- nounced as an evil and a crime. Of course, then, it was opposed to the direct revealed will of God. Everywhere in the New Testament we may learn that the direct design of God in sending his Son was ixx INTRODUCTION. that the Jews, as well as others, should reverence him. " This is my beloved Son, hear ye him." " He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father." " Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed." It is admitted by all, that the direct will of God is declared in his commands rather than in his providence. Unless the Jews had acted against the will of God, it could not be said that by " wicked hands" they had crucified and slain the Saviour. But when, instead of hearing and reverencing Christ, they persecuted and crucified him, this event was overruled by Divine Providence, so as to convey a re- ligious lesson concerning the attributes of God, and his government of the world. There is no more evi- dence that the Jews were instigated by God to crucify Christ, than to kill any prophet who had preceded him. There is no more evidence that this was ac- cording to the will of God, than any murder which ever took place. The Apostle Paul undoubtedly de- clares that Christ gave himself for us according to the will of God (Gal. i. 4) ; and that God had set him forth as a propitiatory sacrifice to manifest his right- eousness (Rom. iii. 25). But he uses similar language in regard to many other events. Thus he declares that Pharaoh, the tyrant, was raised up to make known the power of God. (Rom. ix. 17.) But will it be pretended that God gave existence and power to Pharaoh for the direct and exclusive purpose of mak- ing laiown his power, and that his power could not be made known in any other way? Was it not the will of God that Pharaoh should be a just and benefi- cent sovereign ? It is evident from the nature of the case, as well as from the current phraseology of the Scriptures, that the treachery of Judas, and the cruel- INTRODUCTION. XXXI fixion of Christ, were not more immediately ordained by God, than any other case of treachery and murder which ever took place in the world. It is plain, then, that the manifestation of the righteousness of God by the sacrifice of Christ, referred to by St. Paul, was the incidental or indirect design of it, as an event taking place under the government of God, against his re- vealed will. The crucifixion of Christ declares the righteousness of God, just as the wrath of man in all cases is caused to praise him. That the manifestation of the righteousness of God was only the incidental design of the sacrifice of Christ, appears also from this circumstance, that it is only when so regarded that it conveys to a rational mind an impression either of his righteousness or his wisdom. That God should so love the world as to send Christ to enlighten, reform, and bless it, though he foresaw that he would not accomplish his purpose without falling a sacrifice to human passions, gives an impression of his benevolence, and of his hatred of sin and love of holiness. But if he had imme- diately and directly commanded the Jewish priests to sacrifice him, or the Jewish rulers to insult, torture, and crucify him, simply that as an object of human contemplation he might manifest the righteousness of God, and his hatred of sin by his infliction of tor- ture on an innocent being, then no such effect would be produced by it. The Jewish priests themselves would have said that such a sacrifice was heathenish, an offering such as the Gentiles used to make to Moloch. All the world would say, that such a God- commanded sacrifice, such a direct and immediate infliction of suffering by the Almighty upon an inno- cent being, for the main purpose of making known his XXxii INTRODUCTION. dispositions, and maintaining the honor of his govern- ment, was a manifestation of any attribute rather than righteousness. We might believe an express verbal declaration, that such a direct infliction was designed to show God's righteousness ; but in the fact itself of such torture, one could perceive neither righteousness nor wisdom. This may be clearly illus- trated by an example. If a human sovereign, the emperor of Russia for in- stance, being engaged in war with a rebellious prov- ince, and having a son distinguished by military skill, courage, and humanity above all his subjects, should send him at the head of an army, and expose him to all the casualties of war, in order to bring the province into submission, and this son should actually suffer death through the opposition of the rebels, who would not admire the self-denial and benevolence ex- hibited by the monarch ? Suppose now, on the other hand, that the rebels should, by the labors and sacrifices of that son, have been brought to repentance and submission, and should humbly sue for pardon, and that the monarch should say, " I will forgive you, but in order to express my feelings concerning the crime of rebellion, and to uphold the honor of my government, and maintain the cause of order, I must, as the condition of the for- giveness of your crime, inflict inconceivable anguish of mind and body upon my well-beloved son in the sight of all my subjects," and should actually do it with his own hands, would not the whole civilized world condemn such a monarch as guilty of injustice, cruelty, and folly? The consert of the son, could it be obtained, would only serve to deepen the cruelty and folly of the father. INTRODUCTION. XXXlil The incidental effect of the sufferings of the Apostles is spoken of as designed, as expressly as that of the sufferings of Christ. Thus St. Paul says, '* Wheth- er we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation." * Again, " Yea, and if I be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," f &c. Again, he speaks of himself * as " filling up what is wanting of the sufferings of Christ," J thus implying that his own sufferings had the same general purpose as those of his Master. Again, the casting away of the Jews is reoresented by Paul in one verse as the reconciling or atonement of the world ; in another, as the punishment of the Jews for their unbelief § It is readily conceded that a greater prominence, importance, and influence are assigned by Paul and other New Testament writers to the sacrifice of Christ, than to that of other righteous men. This is owing in part to his pre-eminent character, his supernatural powers and qualifications, the dignity of his office as head of the Church, and to the peculiar circumstances of his life and death. He had a greater agency than others in the work of the Christian atonement, of which, however, the Apostles were yet ministers. || He was the head of the Church. The minds and feelings of the Apostles must have been in the highest degree affected by the ignominious death of their Master. It was the subject of the deepest gratitude that the blessings which they en- joyed were purchased by his blood. They had lost all hopes when he expired. His death was opposed to all their views of the Messiah. They had supposed that he would live for ever. ^ This expectation was * 2 Cor. i. 6. t Phil,, ii. 17. t Col. i. 24. § Rom. xi. 15, 20. II 2 Cor. V. 18. TF See John xii. 34 ; Matt. xvi. 22. XXXIV INTRODUCTION. probably not wholly effaced from their minds till they saw him expire. When they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles, they preached the religion of one who had su tiered like the vilest malefactor. The circum- stance that the death of Christ was so ignominious was a strong reason for their insisting upon it the more, as the means through which they enjoyed the blessings of Christianity. The cross was a stum- bling-block to the Jew, and folly to the Gentile. The oftener objections were made to it, the more would the Apostles be led to dwell upon it, and to present it in every light in which it could be presented. In re- flecting upon the meaning of it as a providential cxcni, the analogy between it and the sin-offerings of the Jews struck their imaginations forcibly. Certain passages in the prophetic writings, especially Isa. liii., which was originally spoken of the Jewish Church, were adapted to impart additional emphasis to this analogy. It is also very possible that I may have too closely defined the meaning of Paul and other Apostles, in representing the death of. Christ as a sacrifice. This idea having once taken full possession of their imagi- nations, they may not always have kept in mind the boundary which divides figurative from plain lan- guage. They may have connected certain sacrificial ideas or feelings with the death of Christ, which a modern cannot fully appreciate, or strictly define. Being born Jews, familiar with sacrifices from their infancy, and writing to those who, whether Jews or (ientiles, had been accustomed to attach the same importance and efficacy to them, it was natural that they should represent the death of Christ in language borrowed from the Jewish ritual, and that they should INTRODUCTION. XX £▼ attach an importance to it which savors more of the religion which they had renounced, than of that which they had adopted. But so far as the question whether the atonement by Christ was effected by vica- rious punishment, or vicarious suffering, is concerned, it is of no consequence how much importance the Apostles attached to the sacrificial view. For there is no reason to believe that in literal sacrifices vicarious punishment, or suffering, was denoted, or that the pain endured by the animals offered had anything to do with their efficacy or significance.* The other error in the theory of Edwards the younger, and other advocates of the governmental theory, consists in representing the sufferings of Christ as absolutely necessary, as the ground of forgiveness, in the nature of things, or in the nature of the Divine government, or on account of the Divine veracity in reference to the declaration, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now in regard to this last consideration, that of the Divine veracity, it is certain that the threat- ened penalty of transgression is no more executed when the sinner is forgiven in consequence of severe suffering inflicted upon Christ, than if he were for- given, without such an infliction, in consequence of the eternal mercy of God. For the penalty was never threatened except against the sinner. Of course it can never be executed except upon the sinner. It has also been maintained by the advocates of the governmental theory, that to forgive sin on any other ground than that of the infliction of suffering upon Christ, equivalent, in the impression produced by it, to the eternal punishment of all the wicked, would * See Christian Examiner for September, 1855. XXXyi INTRODUCTION. operate as encouragement of wickedness. But it is not easy to see why those who would be encouraged in sin by the hope of being forgiven through the eter- nal mercy of God, would not also be encouraged in sin by the hope of being forgiven tlirough the suffer- ing inflicted upon Christ, or through any consideration founded on past historical fact. The forgiveness is certain to him who repents and becomes a righteous man on either theory, and may encourage an evil- minded person in one case as well as the other. He who can harden himself in sin in consequence of the infinite mercy of God in forgiving the penitent, can do the same thing in consequence of the exceed- ing love of Christ as manifested in his death. That the advocates of some of the old theories should maintain the absolute necessity of vicarious sullering, does not appear strange. But that the ad- vocates of the governmental theory should maintain its absolute necessity as the condition of the forgive- ness of sin, so that the Divine mercy could not be exercised, and the honor of the Divine government maintained without it, is surprising. Having denied that the sufferings of Christ are in any sense the punishment of the sins of men, or that they are in any sense penal in their nature, it is singular that they should believe them to be absolutely necessary in order to vindicate the righteousness of God, and cause his government to be respected, so that, witliout these sufferings as a condition, the mercy of God could not and would not have been exercised in the forgiveness of sin. What! Have men no reason to believe in the righteousness of God, and to respect his moral government, unless they can be convinced of the historical fact that he immediately and directly INTRODUCTION. XXXVU caused inconceivable sufferings to Christ, as the indis- pensable ground of his forgiving a single sin ? Have the unnumbered millions of the human race, who never heard of Christ, and yet believe in the forgive- ness of sins, no reason to have faith in the righteous- ness of God, and to respect his moral government ? Have the instinctive faith of the human soul in all the perfections of God, the condemnation of sin in the conscience, the retributions of Divine Providence, the intimations of a judgment to come in the human heart and in Divine revelation, no force to convince men that God hates sin and loves holiness, though he be long-suffering and ready to forgive ? Would all these considerations lose their force with one who should believe that God could forgive a penitent, thoroughly regenerated transgressor for his own eter- nal mercy's sake alone ? Cannot a father forgive a penitent son, without conveying the impression that he is pleased with sin ? It has been alleged by Edwards the younger, and others, that the very fact of the sufferings and death of Christ as means of manifesting the righteousness of God, and maintaining the honor of his government, implies their absolute necessity; because otherwise they would not have been allowed by the Deity to lake place. I am wholly unable to perceive on what principle the mere occurrence of the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews shows its absolute necessity, more than the occurrence of the murder of any prophet or apostle shows its absolute necessity. But it will not be pretended that the purposes of God in the renova- tion of the world could not have been accomplished unless Stephen had been stoned to death, and James beheaded, and Peter crucified, however great may d XXXVlli INTRODUCTION. have been the actual influence of these cases of mar- tyrdom in the regeneration of the world. Indeed, to argue the absolute necessity of the sacrifice of Christ from the fact of its actual occurrence, is to argue the absolute necessity of every murder that ever occurred in the world. Of course no one has ever denied the necessity of the sufferings of Christ in the same gen- eral sense in which the suflerings of all righteous men are necessary, or in which all the evil in the world is necessary. Bishop Butler, in the fifth chapter of Part Second of his Analogy, has shown that by the stripes of righteous men in general, under the government of God, the people are often healed ; and of course that Christ might suffer in a similar way, and for similar ends. But he did not attempt to find anything on earth analogous to the theories on which I have been remarking. If he had made the attempt, he would have found such analogy only in the practice of the most barbarous Oriental despots. It appears to me that he is guilty of a gross violation of the common use of language when he says, that " vicarious pun- ishment is a providential appointment of every day's experience." No one has ever doubted or denied the vicarious punishment of Christ in the sense in which vicarious punishment is matter of every day's expe- rience. Every Unitarian, every Deist, would accept such a creed. But this paradoxical use of language has been generally rejected and condemned by mod- ern theological writers of every name.* It serves only to confound things which differ. Dr. Edwards and others have also argued the ne- cessity of the sacrifice of Christ from the ancient sacrifices of the Jews. But as there was no absolute * See pp. XXIV, xxv. INTRODUCTION. XXXIX necessity foi these sacrifices of animals, — as they were of human origin, and only tolerated, or at most sanctioned, by the Deity, — of course there could be no absolute necessity for the sacrifice of Christ ; though when it was made, its good effects might be pointed out by the Apostle glancing his eye of faith over the events which took place under the government of God. As to the verse, " Without shedding of blood, there was no remission," the meaning is, that under the actual dispensation of the Jewish law, as per- mitted or appointed by God, there was no remission without a sacrifice.* The remark has no relation to the nature of things, or to the absolute necessity of the Divine government, but only to a usage which had passed away. Some passages from the New Testament have also been adduced for the purpose of proving that the sacrifice of Christ was absolutely necessary, as the ground of Divine forgiveness, in the nature of things, or of the Divine government ; such as Luke xxiv. 26, " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ? " Also verse 46, " It behoved Christ to sufl'er," &c. But it is evident that the neces- sity here referred to by Christ arises simply from that of the fulfilment of prophecy. That he did not con- sider them absolutely necessary, is evident from his prayer to have the cup pass from him. See New- come's remarks, pages 207, 210 of this volume. Allowing, as we have done, that the sacrifice of Christ incidentally illustrates the righteousness as well as the love of God, its absolute necessity as a ground of Divine forgiveness is not more evident from * On the subject of the Jewish sacrifices, in their bearing on the work of Christ, see Christian Examiner for September, 1855. INTRODUCTION. any language of Scripture, than the absolute necessity of such a tyrant and oppressor as Pharaoh. For the Apostle adopts similar language respecting Pharaoh : *' Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." Will it be pretended that the power and the name of Jeliovah could not have been made known except by raising up just such a tyrant as Pharaoh ? The Apos- tle is quite as explicit in declaring the design of the exaltation of Pharaoh to be that of manifesting the power of God, as in declaring the design of the sacri- fice of Christ to be that of manifesting the righteous- ness of God. My general conclusion is, that the Apostle Paul considers the death of Christ under two aspects : — 1. He regards it as an event taking place under the prov- idence of God, and according to the Divine will, and in some sense a sacrifice incidentally manifesting the righteousness of God in connection with the exercise of his mercy. See Rom. iii. 21 - 26. 2. He regards it in its immediate moral and religious influence upon the heart and life of the believer. See Rom. vi., vii., &c. He does not appear to regard it as an indispen- sable evidence of the Divine righteousness, without which it could not be seen, but only as a new and signal illustration of it in connection with his mercy. The latter view is the most prevalent. The first view relates to the enlightening influence of ChriL.fs death ; the second to its sanctifying influence. In both cases the influence of it is upon God's sub- jects, not upon God himself. Perhaps both views are united in the text, " He made him who knew no sill to suffer as a sinner in our behalf, that we through INTRODUCTION. xK him might attain the righteousness which God will accept." * I have preferred, for obvious considerations, to dis- cuss the subject in the light of Scripture rather than of mere reason. But in regard to the sufficiency of the governmental theory to satisfy the reason, I cannot forbear quoting a few hues from a recent Orthodox writer, the author of the Sermon on the Atonement in the Monthly Religious Magazine, which has re- ceived some attention among us. " How could the suffering of one human being, either in amount, or as an expression of God's feelings towards his law, sin, and holiness, be equivalent to the eternal punishment of the wicked, to the smoke of their torment ascend- ing for ever ? The suffering of one created being for a few days or years would be, in comparison, as a drop to an ocean We are quite familiar with the answer which is made to reasoning of this kind, — with the argument, that the union of the Divine na- ture with the human gave a boundless dignity and worth to the sufferings of that human nature, though having no part in them. But we are constrained to say, that it never commended itself to our judg- ment, or gave us the least satisfaction. We cannot see how the Divine nature had, we think we see that it had not, any share in the atonement, if it had no share in the sacrifice which constituted it ; nor how it could give dignity and worth to sufferings by which it was entirely unaffected. We have heard illustration after illustration upon this point ; but to our mind it is like sailing in the face of the wind." f These re- marks are the plain dictates of common sense. I have * 2 Cor. V. 21. t See the Ne^y Englander for Julj, 1847, p. 432. Xlii INTRODUCTION. no doubt that the time will come when the doctrine that a clear perception of the righteousness of God absolutely depended on the sufferings " of the man Christ Jesus during only thirty years, or rather during the last three years of his life," * will be regarded with greater wonder than the doctrine of Luther and Fla- vel and John Norton now is. There are some other differences of opinion among Nev/ England theologians, which it will be sufficient only to mention. Thus, while some limit the suffer- ings necessary for the atonement to the death of Christ, others take in those of his whole life. Again, while some suppose his sufferings to have been only such as were inflicted by the instrumentality of man, and arose naturally out of his peculiar circumstances and character, others regard his chief sufferings as miraculous, inflicted by the immediate hand of God, independent of those inflicted by human instrumen- tality. There is also a great difference of opinion among the New England theologians as to what constituted iTie atonement. Even among those who have rejected the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ, some make the perfect obedience of Christ a constitu- ent part of it ; others not. Dr. Dwight and some recent writers have maintained, with much earnest- ness, that the obedience of Christ is an essential oart of it. But Dr. Jonathan Edwards the younger, who seems to be followed by the majority, writes : " I venture to say further, that not only did not the atone- ment of Christ consist essentially in his active obe- dience, but that his active obedience was no part of his atonement, properly so called, nor essential to it." f ♦ Edwards the younger. See Works, Vol. II. p. 43. t Works, Vol. il. p. 41. INTRODUCTION. xlill On the other hand, the most distinguished New England writer in the Baptist denomination, Dr. Way- land, has expressed the opinion, that the perfect obe- dience of Christ was all that was essential to the atonement. " In what manner did Christ's appearing on earth have any effect upon our moral relations ? To this various replies have been presented. It has been said that his unparalleled humiliation, or his lowly and painful life, his bitter death, were of the nature of a suffering of the penalty of the law. I, however, apprehend that this explanation has not al- ways been satisfactory to those who have borne in mind the character of the law which we have violated, and the awful holiness of the Being against whom we have sinned. Besides, the sufferings of Christ, considered by themselves, were not severer, nor was his death itself more excruciating, than that of many martyrs, confessors, and missionaries His obe- dience had been so transcendent in virtue, he had so triumphantly vanquished all our spiritual enemies, and put to shame all the powers of darkness, that I know not whether anything more was demanded. ' The Lord was well pleased for his righteousness' sake ' [his obedience], for he had magnified the law and made it honorable. That this was the case would seem prob- able, because there is no reference in the Scriptures to his suffering after death." * There is also a difference of opinion among New England theologians as to the question whether the Divine, or only the human, nature of Jesus suffered and died. Thus a recent writer, the Rev. Mr. Dutton, whose Sermon on the Atonement has been thought worthy of being republished in the Boston Monthly * Way land's University Sermons, pp. 147, 160. xliv INTRODUCTION. Religious Magazine, maintains the former opinion, — an opinion wliich strikes me as not only unchristian, but atheistic in its tendency. In the language of Paul, it changes " the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man." It is but just to say, however, that this view has found very few advocates. All the distinguished New England theologians, such as Hopkins, Edwards the younger, Dwight, Emmons, Woods, and others, limit the sufferings of Christ to his human nature.* Nor has a different opinion ever found its way, so far as I know, into the confession of faith of any church in Christendom. John Norton undoubtedly gave the orthodox or generally received opinion on this point when he wrote, " The second person of the Trinity, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, did inflict the torments of hell upon the human na- ture:' t The dissertations selected from the Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles by Mr. Jowett are those which were thought to be most suitable for publication in this volume. I should have been glad to insert tw^o other dissertations from the same work ; namely, that on Natural Religion, and that on the Compar- ison of St. Paul with Philo. But the former, in set- ting aside some of the usual proofs of the existence of the Deity, did not appear to me to contain such explanations and qualifications as might make it useful to readers unacquainted with the writer's philosophy. The latter was omitted because, though learned and valuable, it was not likely to be useful to persons un- acquainted with the Greek language. ♦ See page xxv. f Norton's Answer to Pynchon, p. 122. INTRODUCTION. xlv Several valuable Essays have been selected from the recent Commentary on the Epistles to the Corin- thians, in two octavo volumes, by the Rev. Arthur P. Stanley, Canon of Canterbury, who is somewhat known in this country by his Life of Dr. Arnold. His work on the Epistles to the Corinthians manifests the same scholarship and independence, united with rev- erence, which distinguish the Commentary by Pro- fessor Jowett. The closing Essay on the Credibility of Miracles, by Dr. Thomas Brown, the distinguished author of the well-known Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, has been for some time out of print. It appears to me to meet the objections of Mr. Hume in a far more satisfactory manner than they have been met by most writers on the subject. It cannot escape the notice of the reader, that very few of the Essays in this volume were written by pro- fessed Unitarians. Most of them are by eminent divines and scholars of the Church of England. But in the circulation of books the great question should be whether they contain true and just views, and not by whom they were written. That we have been able to select so large a volume of Essays on very important subjects from writers of the Established Church of England in harmony with the views of Unitarians, is a fact highly encouraging in regard to the progress of truth, and at the same time highly creditable, not only to the independence of the writers, but to the practical freedom which at present prevails in that church. No one of them, I believe, has yet incurred any higher penalty on account of his publica- tions than that of rewriting his rame. It is to be FAITH AND SCIENCE* By M. GUIZOT. One of the questions which theology has oftenest debated, — the foremost, perhaps, at least in the sense that it serves for a prologue to all others, — is the eternal antithesis of rea- son and faith. From the powerlessness of reason and the necessity of faith, certain writers make the point of departure and the termination of their works. The same idea at this time inspires and fills almost entirely a multitude of religious writings, whose object is to invoke faith, not to regulate, but to oppress, the reason. I shall not pretend to treat this ques- tion in all its extent, as it involves the entire problem of hu- man nature and knowledge. I wish, in fact, rather to investi- gate the real and natural acceptation of the word faith, so powerful and so mysterious, and exercising such a different empire over the soul of man, sometimes illuminating, and sometimes misleading it ; — here, the source of the most won- derful actions ; there, the veil thrown over the basest designs. I wish to ascertain if, according to plain language and the common thought of mankind, there is, in reality, that oppo- sition and incompatibility which certain writers endeavor to institute between faith and reason, between science and faith. Such an examination is, perhaps, the best means of solving * Translated in Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, Vol. V., New Series, from Meditation^ et Etudes Morales, par M. Guizot. 2de edition. Paris. 1 Xlvi INTRODUCTION. hoped that the results to which several of the learned writers have arrived, notwithstanding the natural bias arising from their ecclesiastical connections, will se- cure for them, from different classes of readers, that candid and attentive consideration which their impor- tance demands. The voice which comes from this volume is the united utterance of Episcopalians, Lu- therans, and Unitarians. Cambbidge, May 7, 1856. ES SAYS. FAITH AND SCIENCE* By M. GUIZOT. One of the questions which theology has oftenest debated, — the foremost, perhaps, at least in the sense that it serves for a prologue to all others, — is the eternal antithesis of rea- son and faith. From the powerlessness of reason and the necessity of faith, certain writers make the point of departure and the termination of their works. The same idea at this time inspires and fills almost entirely a multitude of religious writings, whose object is to invoke faith, not to regulate, but to oppress, the reason. I shall not pretend to treat this ques- tion in all its extent, as it involves the entire problem of hu- man nature and knowledge. I wish, in fact, rather to investi- gate the real and natural acceptation of the word faith, so powerful and so mysterious, and exercising such a different empire over the soul of man, sometimes illuminating, and sometimes misleading it ; — here, the source of the most won- derful actions ; there, the veil thrown over the basest designs. I wish to ascertain if, according to plain language and the common thought of mankind, there is, in reality, that oppo- sition and incompatibility which certain writers endeavor to institute between faith and reason, between science and faith. Such an examination is, perhaps, the best means of solving * Translated in Kitto's Journal of S.acred Literature, Vol. V., New Series, from Meditations et Etudes. Morales, par M. Guizot. 2de Edition. Paris. 1 2 FAITH AND SCIENCE. the question which Hcs concealed under these terms, — of ob- taining from them, at least, glimpses of the solution. No one can doubt that the woi'd faith (foi) has an especial meaning, which is not i)roperlj represented by belief {croy- ance), coiiriction (conviction), or certitude (certitude). Cus- tom and universal opinion confirm this view. There are many sim})le and customary phrases in wdiich the word faith (foi) could not be replaced by any other. Ahuct all lan- guages have a specially appropriated word * to express that which in French is expressed by foi, and which is essentially different from all analogous w^ords. This word, then, corresponds to a certain state of the hu- man soul ; — it expresses a moral fact which has rendered such a word necessary. AVe commonly understand by faith (foi) a certain belief of facts and dogmas, — religious facts and dogmas. In fact, the word has no other sense when, employing it absolutely and by itself, w^e speak of the faith. That is not, however, its unique, nor even its fundamental sense ; it has one more extensive, and from which the relig- ious sense is derived. We say : " I have full faith in your words; this man has faith in himself, in his power," &c. This employment of the word in civil matters, so to speak, has become more frequent in our days : it is not, however, of modern invention ; nor have religious ideas ever been an exclusive sphere, out of which the notion, and the word, faith, were without application. It is, then, proved by the testimony of language and com- mon opinion, first, that the word faith designates a certain interior state of him who believes, and not merely a certain kind of belief; that it proceeds from the very nature of con- viction, and not from its object. Secondly, that it is, however^ to a certain species of belief — religious belief — that it lias been at first, and most generally, applied. ♦ In Greek vofil^eiv, iria-Ttvtiv ; in Latin, sententia, fides ; in Italian, credenza, fede ; in EngHsh, failh, belief; in German (if I mistake not). glauhen. FAITH AND SCIENCE. 3 Thus, the sense of the word has been special, in fact and in its origin, although it is not fundamentally so ; or rather, the occasion of the employment of the word has been special, although its sense is not so. It would but be a fact without importance, and sufficiently common in the history of the formation of languages and ideas, if the true and general sense of the word faith was reproduced entire in its special employment ; but it has been otherwise. The specialty of the usual acceptation of the word has profoundly obscured the general sense; the true notion o^ faith has undergone an alteration under the notion of religious faith. And from this disagreement between the historical senses, so to speak, and the philosophical sense of the term, have resulted the obscurity of the moral fact which it expresses, and the greater part of the errors to which it has given place. In truth, the words wliich express an interior disposition, a certain state of the human soul, have almost always a fixed and identical sense, which is independent of the interior object to which the disposition refers, and of the external cause which produced it. Thus, men love diifferent objects ; — they have contrary certitudes ; — but the words love, certitude, in ordinary language and common life, do not less preserve, always and for all, the same sense ; their general acceptation remains and prevails, whatever be the specialty of their em- ployment ; and the passions, interests, and errors of those who make use of them do not want, nor have they the power, to alter it. The destiny of the word faith has been different. Almost exclusively applied to religious subjects, what changes its sense has undergone, and still undergoes every day ! Men who teach and preach a religion, a doctrine, or a re- Tl'ous reformation, in making their appeal with all the energy of the freed human spirit, produce in their followers an en- tire, pro bund, and powerful conviction of the truth of their doctrine. This conviction is called faith ; neither masters nor disciples, nor even enemies, refuse it this appellation. 4 FAITH AND SCIENCE. Faith, then, is but a profound and imperious conviction of a rehgious dogma ; it matters but little whether it has come in the way of reasoning, or controversy, or of free and liberal investigation : that which characterizes it, and gives it a claim to be called faith, is its energy, and the dominion it exercises, by this title, over the entire man. Such has been at all times — in the sixteenth century for example — the faitli of great reformers and their most illustrious disciples, Calvin after Luther, and Knox after Calvin, &c. The same men have presented the same doctrine to persons whom they were not able to convince by methods of reason^ ing, examination, or science, — to women and to multitudes in- capable of long reflection : they have made their appeals to the imagination, to the moral affections, and to the suscepti- bility of being moved and of believing through emotion. And they have given the name of faith to the result of this work, as to that of a work essentially intellectual, of which I spake just now. Faith has become a rehgious conviction which was not acquired by reasoning, and which took its rise in the sensuous faculties of man. Tliis is the idea which mystic sects attach to faith. The appeal to man's sensuous nature, and the resulting emotion, have not always sufficed to bring forth this faith. Other sources have then been appealed to. They have en- joined practices, and imposed habits. It is absolutely neces- sary that a man should, sooner or later, attach ideas to his actions, and that he should attribute a certain meaning to that which produces in him a certain effect. The practices and habits have conducted the mind to the beliefs from which they themselves were derived. A new faith has appeared, which has had for its principal and dominant characteristic submission of the mind to an authority invested with a right to regulate the thoughts whilst governing the lips. In short, neither the free exercise of the intelligence, nor the sentiment, nor practices, have elsewhere succeeded in producing faith. We have said that it is not communicated, and that it is not in the power of man to give it, nor to ac- FAITH AND SCIENCE. S$ quire it by his o^ti peculiar endeavors ; that it demands the interposition of God, — the action of grace ; — grace has become the prehminarj condition, and the definitive charac- teristic of faiih. Thus by turns the word faith expresses : — Istly. A conviction acquired by the free labor of the hu- man mind. 2dly. A conviction obtained by means of the sensitivity (sensibilitc), and without the concurrence, often even against the authority, of the reason. 3dly. A conviction acquired by the very submission of the man to a power which has received from on high the right to command. 4thly. A conviction wrought by superhuman means, — by divine grace. And according as the one or the other of these different faiths, if we may so speak, has prevailed, religion, philosophy, government, and the whole of society have been observed to Tary, simultaneously and by a necessary correspondence. How has the same word been able to subserve so many different, and even contradictory acceptations ? What is that mysterious fact which presents itself to minds under such different aspects ? Has the necessity of legitimating the fun- damental principle, and the system of the government of dif- ferent religious beUefs, alone caused the variation of the notion of faith f or rather, do all these definitions correspond, on some one side, with that state of the human soul ; and have they no other irregularity than that of being partial and exclusive ? These are questions which cannot be solved, so long as men persist, as they have done to this day, in characterizmg faith by its causes, or its external effects. It is in itself that the fact must be considered ; we must search out what is the state of mind where faith reigns, independently of its origin and its object. Two kinds of beliefs co-exist in man : — the one, which I will not call innate, — an inexact and justly-debated cxpres- 1* 6 FAITH AND SCIENCE. sion, — but natural and spontaneous, which germinate and estabhsh themselves in his mind, if not without his knowl- edge, at least without the co-operation of his reflection and will, by the development solely of his nature^ and the in- fluence of that external world in the midst of which his life is spent The others, laborious and learned, the fruit of voluntary study, and of the power which a man has, whetlier to direct all his faculties towards an especial object with the design of knowing it, or of reflecting upon himself, and of perceiving that which passes within him, and of giving himself an account of it, and thus of acquiring, by an act of the will and reflection, a science which he possessed not before, although the facts which it has for its object subsist equally under his eyes, or within him. That there is moral good and evil, and that man is bound to avoid the evil, and to fulfil the good, — this is a natural, prim- itive, and universal belief Man is so constituted that it de- velops itself in him spontaneously, by the course merely of his life, from the first appearance of the facts to which it must apply itself, very long before he could know himself, and could be able to know that he believed. Once originated, this belief acts on the soul of man almost as the blood circulates in his veins, without his willing it, and without his thinking of it. The greater part of mankind have never given it a name, nor formed for themselves a general and distinct idea of it : it does not, however, the less subsist in them, revealing itself every time that the occasion presents itself, by an action, a judgment, or a simple emotion. Human morality is a fact which does not stand in need of human science to throw light upon it. Like every other fact, this also can become a matter of science. The moral being beholds itself, and studies itself: it renders account to itself of the principle of its actions, judg- ments, and moral sentiments : it assists at the spectacle of its own nature, and pretends not only to know, but to govern it, according to its acquired knowledge. Naturally and sponta- neously, belief in the distmction of moral good and evil thus FAITH AND SCIENCE. 7 becomes reflective and scientific. Man remains the same; but he was self-ignorant, and acted simply according to his nature ; nevertheless he knows himself, and his science pre- sides over his action. This is but an example ; I could cite a thousand others of the same kind. Man carries within himself a multitude of beliefs of which he has the consciousness, but not the science ; which external facts awaken in him, though they have never been the chosen objects and the special aim of his thoughts. It is by beliefs of this kind that the human race is enlightened and guided ; they abound in the spirit of the most meditative philosophy, and direct it oftener than the reflective convictions to which it has arrived. Divine wisdom has not delivered over the soul and life of man to the hazards of human science ; it has not condemned it to expect all its intellectual riches from its own proper work. It is, — it lives ; that is enough : by this sole title, and by the progressive development of this fact alone, it will possess lights indispensable for guiding its life, and for the accomplishment of its destiny. It can aspii'e higher ; it can- elevate itself to the science of the world, and of itself; and, by the aid of science, can exercise over the world and itself a power analogous to creative power. But then it will be required that it should only build on the prim- itive foundation which it has received from Providence ; for just as all natural and spontaneous belief can become scien- tific, so all scientific conviction received its source and it« point of support in natural belief. Of these two kinds of belief, which merits the name of faiih^ It appears, at first sight, that this name agrees perfectly with natural and spontaneous beliefs ; they are exempt from doubts and disquietude ; they direct man in his judgments and actions with an imperial authority which he does not dream of eluding or contesting ; they are natural, sure, practical, and sovereign. Who does not recognize in all this the character- istics of faith ? Faith has in effect these characteristics; but it has also 8 FAITH AND SCIENCE. Others which are wanting to natural beliefs. Almost unknown by the very man whom they direct, they are for him, in a certain way, as external laws, which he has received, but not appropriated, and which he obeys by instinct, but without having given to them an intimate and personal assent. They Bullice for the wants of his life ; they guide, warn, urge on, or restrain him, but without, so to speak, his own concurrence with them, and without awakening within him the sentiment of an interior, energetic, and powerful activity ; and without procuring for him the profound joy of contemplating, loving, and adoring the truth which reigns over him. Faith has this power. It is not science, still less is it ignorance. The mind which is penetrated by it has never, perhaps, rendered, and perhaps never will render, an account of the idea which has obtained its faith ; but it knows that it believes it ; it is before it, present and living ; it is no longer a general behef, a law of human nature, which governs the moral man, as the laws of gravity govern bodies ; it is a personal conviction, a truth "which the moral individual has appropriated to himself by contemi)lation, by free obedience and love. From that time this truth does much more than suffice for his life ; it satisfies Lis soul ; and still more than directing, it enlightens it. It is surprising how men live under the dominion of this natural belief that there is moral good or evil, without our being able to say that it has their faith ! It is in them as a master to whom they belong and whom they obey, but without seeing him, and without loving or rendering him homage. That any cause whatever, revealing, so to speak, the consciousness to itself, should draw and fix their regards upon this law of their nature ; that they acknowledge and accept it, as their legiti- mate sovereign ; that their understanding should honor itself in contemplating it, and their liberty in obeying it ; that they should conceive of their soul, if I may so speak, as a hearth where truth concentrates itself to spread from thence its light, or as the sanctuary where God deigns to dwell ; all this is more than sim])le and natural belief, — it is faith. The difference between these two states of the sdul is so FAJTH AMD SCIEyCK, 9 rtisH and v> \tTfXfmxiA^ that k hsm be^o at ail timaiy and ustitl k, ofi/i; of liift \fnu':i]Hi\ mar€ft% of die diirenR^ of re]%kns and Ui« dtvhti'jfi ^i^x>nie exdugive ; Uiere have been £siets, \ftt\i*',h profoundly individual in rfXipfm^ wbidi least of all provoke their develojiment ; there are, also, men goremed hj general and legal beliefis, external, in some gense, to their fcoul, in raVifpons the mast ^rorable to the interior life of the individiiaL It bi not die less true, that, at all times, one or the other fjf thejse tendencies has ruled in various religions ; and not only in various religions, but, by turns, in the same reli^pon at various epochs of its existence ; so that the differ- ence of the two corrcfiponding states of the souL and the cJiaracter of that to which truly the name (^ faxtti \jelon^ are ch^arly imprinted in the history of humanity. ^tf\fif!iW(i and geientific beliefs, elongs more to the individual than his science ; he knowfi where it commenced, and how it has become enlarged, and wliat means and efforts have been used to acquire it ; and what it lias added, so to speak, to his intelleetual worth, and to the extent of .his existence. But i^ by that means, scientific l>eliefs are nearer to faith tloan natural and irrefle©- tive beliefs, yet, on other sides, they remain much Luther 10 FAITH AND SCIENCE. remoTed from them, and from the first they are confined to doubt and uncertainty. They measure, and almost admit, various degrees of probability ; and even when they are con- fident of their legitimacy, they do not deny that they can be modified, and even overturned, by a wider and more exact science ; — whilst the most entire and immovable certitude is the fundamental characteristic of faith. All science is felt to be bounded and incomplete ; every man who studies, what- ever be the object of his study, however advanced and as- sured he himself may be of his own knowledge^ knows that he has not reached the boundary of his career, and that for him, as for every other, fresh efforts will lead to fresh progress. Faith, on the contrary, is in its own eyes a complete and finished belief; and if it should appear that something yet remains for it to acquire, it would not be faith. It has noth- ing progressive, — it excludes all idea that anything is want- ing, iand judges itself to be in full possession of the truth which is its object. From thence proceeds a vast inequality of power between the different kinds of conviction ; faith, freed from all intellectual labor and from all study, (since, so far as knowledge is concerned, it is complete,) turns all the force of its possessor towards action. As soon as he becomes penetrated by it, only one task remains for his accomplish- ment, — that of causing the idea which has taken possession of his faith to reign and to be realized without. The history of religions — of all religions — proves, at each step, this ex- pansive and practical energy of belief, with which the char- acters of faith have been converted. It displays itself even on occasions when in no way it appears provoked or sustained by the moral importance or the visible grandeur of results. I could cite a singular example of it. In the course of our Revolution, the theoretical and actual superiority of the new system of weights and measures quickly became for some men, who were the subordinate servants of an administration charged with establishing it, a complete and imperious truth, to which nothing could be objected, added, or refused. They pursued from that time its triumphs with an ardor, an obsti- FAITH AND SCIENCE. 11 nacj, Jind sometimes a prodigious devotion. I have known a public officer, who, more than twenty years after the birth of the system, and -when no one scarcely dreamed of disturb- ing himself any more about it, gave himself up, day and night, to extraordinary labors, letters, instructions, and verifi- cations, which his superiors did not demand, and which he had often great trouble in causing to be adopted, in order to accelerate its extension and strength. The new system of weights and measures was for this man the object of a true faith ; he would reproach himself for his repose, wdiilst any- thing remained to be done for its success. Scientific beliefs, even when they would admit of immediate application, rarely carry a man so to struggle against the outer world as to re- duce it under his dominion. When the human mind is, above all, preoccupied with the design or the pleasure of knowledge, it there concentrates, and, so to speak, exhausts itself; and there remain for it neither desires nor powers to be otherwise, employed. Scientific beliefs, accustomed to doubts, to groping in darkness, and to contempts, hesitate to command : without efforts and without anger, they make their appeals to igno- rance, uncertainty, and even error, and scarcely know how to propagate themselves, or to act, but by methods which con- duct to science ; that is to say, by inciting to meditation and study, they proceed too slowly to be able to exercise outward- ly an extensive and actual power. Perhaps, also, the very origin of scientific beliefs might be counted amongst the causes which deprive them of that em- pire, and that confidence in action and command, w^hich is the general characteristic of faith. It is to himself that man owes his science ; it is his own work, the fruit of his ovra labor, and the reward of his own merit. Perhaps, even in the midst of the pride which such a conquest often inspires, a secret warning feeling comes over him, that, in claiming and exercising authority in the name of his science, it is to the reason and the understanding of one man that he pretends to subjugate men, — a feeble and doubtful title to great power ; and which, at the moment of action, can certainly, without 12 FAITH AND SCIENCE. their ovm consciousness, cast into the soul of the proudest some timidity. Nothing like this is met with in faith. How- ever ]>rofoundly individual it is, from the time it has entered into the heart of man, it signifies not by what means, it ban- i.vlii('li excludes faith ; tliat both one and the other can invest their characters with it ; and, further still, that either one or the other is always the foundation on which faith supports itself, or the path which leads to it. See a man in whom the idea of God has been nothing but a vague and spontaneous belief, the simple result of a course of life and of external circumstances, — an idea which holds a place in his mind and conduct, but on which he has never fallen back and fixed his intellectual regards, and which he has never appropriated to himself bj an act of voluntary and briefly-sustained reflection. Let any cause whatsoever — as a great danger or sorrow — strike him with a powerful emo- tion, and present to him the misery of his condition and the weakness of his nature, and awaken within him this need of superior succor, — this instinct of prayer, often lulled to sleep, but never extinguished in the heart of man. All at once the idea of God, till then abstract, cold, and proud, will appear to this man, living, urgent, and particular ; it has attached itself to him with ardor, — it will penetrate into all his thoughts, — his belief will become feith ; and Pascal will be borne out when he said, " Faith is God sensibly realized by the heart." Another has lived in submission to religious practices, with- out having associated with them any truly personal convic- tion ; as an infant, others might make a law for him ; as master of himself, he has retained the habit of obedience, docile to a fact rather than attached to a duty, and not dream- ing of penetrating farther into the sense of the rule than to verify its authority. A time has arrived when occasions and temptations to offend against this law have presented them- selves ; a contest has arisen betAveen the habits and tastes, between the desires, and, perhaps, the passions. What this person could practise without thought has now become a sub- ject of reflection, anxiety, and inward sorrow. To preserve its empire, it becomes necessary that the rule, until then mis- tress only of the exterior life of the man, should penetrate and establish itself within his soul. It has succeeded in that; FAITH AND SCIENCE. 15 and to remain true to liis practices, he has been required to make sacrifices for them ; and he has made them. The state of his soul is changed : habit is converted into conviction ; practice into duty ; and observance into moral want. In the day of trial, the long submission to a general rule, and to a power clothed with the right to prescribe, has brought forth a patticular and individual adhesion of thought and ivill, — that is to say, what was wanting to faith. For scientific beliefs this transition to the state of faith is more difficult .and more rare. Even when, by meditation, rea- soning, and study, any one has attained to conviction, he re- mains nearly always occupied Avitli the labor which has con- ducted to it, his long uncertainties, the deviations by which he has been misled, and the false steps he has made. He has arrived at his object, but the remembrance of the route is jDresent to him, with all its embarrassments, accidents, and chances. He has come into the presence of light, but the impression of the darkness, and the dubious lights he has crossed, are yet present to his thoughts. In vain his convic- tion is entire ; there are yet to be discovered traces of the labor which has presided over its^ formation. It wants sim- plicity and confidence. There is a certain fatigue connected with it, which enervates its practical virtue and fruitfulness. He finds trouble in forgetting and overthrowing the scaifold- ing of the science, in order that the truth, of which it is the object, may wholly belong to his nature. We might say, the butterfly is restrained by the shell in which it was born, and from which it is not fully disengaged. Nevertheless, although the difficulty is great, it is not in- surmountable. More than once, for the glory of humanity, man, by the force of his intelligence and scientific meditations, has reached to beliefs, to which there has been wanting none of the characteristics of faith, — neither fulness nor certainty of conviction, nor the forgetfulness of personality, nor expan- siveness and practical power, nor the pure and profound enjoyments of contemplation. Who would refuse to recognize in the belief of the most illustrious Stoics in the sovereignty 16 FAITH AND SCIENCE. of moral good, — in Clcaiitlies, Epictetus, and Marcus Aure- liiis, — a true faith ? And was not the reHgious faith of the principal Reformers, or Reformed, of the sixteenth centurj, Zwingle, Melancthon, Duplessis Mornaj, the fruit of study and science, as well as the philosophical doctrines of Descartes and Leibnitz ? And lately, under the idea that falsehood is the source of all the vices of man, and that at no price, in no moment, and for no cause, can it be necessary to swerve from the truth, did not Kant arrive, by a long series of medi- tations, to a conviction perfectly analogous to faith? The analogy was such, that the day when his certainty of the prin- ple became com])lcte and definite constituted an epoch in his memory and life, as others call to mind the event or the emo- tion which has changed the condition of the soul ; so that, dating from that day, according to his own testimony, he lived constantly in the presence, and under the empire, of this idea ; just as a Christian lives in the presence, and under the em- pire, of the faith from which he expects salvation. Reflective and scientific beliefs can be converted into faith : the difficulties of the transformation are much greater, and the success much more rare, than when natural and sponta- neous beliefs are concerned. Nevertheless, the transforma- tion of science into faith can be, and sometimes is, accom- plished ; and if more frequently science stops far short of faith, it is not because there exists something opposed and irreconcilable in their nature, but because faith is placed at the boundary of that course which science is not in a con- dition wholly, and of itself, to accomplish. Nevertheless, it is easy, if I mistake not, to observe the fault of these theories which I enumerated at the commence- ment, and which men and the world so ardently dispute. It is their fundamental error, that they have not regarded faith in itself, and its a special state of the human mind, but in the juode of its formation. They have been thus induced to assign for its essential and exclusive characteristic such and such origins, from which it is possible that faith may be de- rived, not admitting it as legitimate, however, or even real, FAITH AND SCIENCE. 17 but when it had a certain especial power ; and rejecting and denying all faith when derived from a different source, al- though it should place the soul of man in the same disposition, and produce the same effects. It is true that faith often re- ceives its origin from an emotion, as the mystics contend ; but it is also produced by submission to authority, as the Roman Catholic doctors with reason say ; and also from reflection, science, and a full and free exercise of the human under- standing, although both the one and the other refuse their assent to this. In his liberal wisdom, God has offered more than one way for arriving at that happy state when, tranquil at length in the possession of his belief, man dreams of noth- ing but of enjoying and obeying what he -regards as the truth. There is faith in knowledge, since it has truth for its object ; and man can reach it by the faculties which he has received for knowing. There is also love in faith ; for man cannot see the fulness of truth without loving it. The sensuous faculties and the emotions of the soul are sufficient to engender faitJi. In short, in faith there are respect and submission ; for truth commands, at the same time that it charms and enlightens. Faith can be the sincere and pure submission to- a power which is regarded as the depository of truth. Thus the va- riety of the origins of faith, of which human pride would make a principle of exclusion and privilege, is a benefit be- stowed by the Divine will, which, so to speak, has placed faith within reach of all, in permitting it to take its origin from each of the moral elements which constitute faith, — namely, knowledge, submission, and love. As for those who, rejecting every kind of explanation and origin of faith merely human, will see notliing in it but the direct and actual interposition of God and especial grace, their notion, if apparently more strange, is at bottom more natural ; for it touches the problems which do not belong to man to solve. In the external and material world, when a powerful, sudden, and unexpected phenomenon appears, which, at a stroke, changes* the face of things, and seems not to at- tach itself to their ordinary course, nor to explain itself by 2* 18 FAITH AND SCIENCE. their anterior state, man instantly refers it to a real and par- ticular act of the will of the Master of the World. The presence of God can alone explain for man that which strikes his imagination and escapes his reason ; and where science and experience cannot reach, there he assigns an especial and immediate act of God. Thus the thunderbolt, the tempest, earthquakes, vast floods, concussions, and extraordinary revo- lutions of the globe, have been taken for signs and effects of the direct action of God, up to the time when man has dis- covered for them a place and an explanation in the general course of facts and their laws. The same want and the same inclination rule man in the ideas he has formed about the in- terior world, and the phenomena of which he himself is the theatre and the witness. When a great change and moral revolution have been accomplished in his soul, when he per- ceives himself to be illuminated by a light, and warmed by a fire, hitherto unknown, — he has taken no notice of the myste- rious progress, the slow and concealed action, of ideas, senti- ments, and influences which were probably for a long time preparing him for this state. He cannot attribute it to an act of his own will ; and he knoAvs not how, so to speak, to trace back the course of his interior life for the purpose of discov- ering its origin. He refers it, therefore, to a divine will, special and actual. Grace alone could have produced this revolution in his soul, for he himself did not make it, nor does he know how it was produced. The birth of faith, above all when it proceeds from natural and irreflective beliefs which pass, without the intervention of science, to this new state, often bears this character of a sudden revolution, unforeseen and obscure for him who undergoes it. It is, then, very plain that the idea of the direct interposition of God has been in- voked on this occasion. In the sense which people have com- monly attributed to this idea, it withdraws itself and retires, here as elsewhere, before a more attentive study and a more complete knowledge of facts, their connection, and their laws. We are led to acknowledge that this state of the soul, which is called faith, is the development — differently conducted, FAITH AND SCIENCE. 19 sometimes sudden and sometimes progressive, but always natural — of certain anterior facts, with which, ahhough essen- tially distinct, it is connected by an intimate and necessary tie. But supposing this recognized, and faith thus conducted to the place which belongs to it in the general and regular course of moral phenomena, a grand question always remains, the question lying hid at the bottom of the doctrine of grace, and which indirectly this doctrine attempts to solve. In ceasing to see God in the tempest and thunder, narrow and weak minds figure to themselves that they shall no more meet with him, and that they shall nowhere any more have need of him. But the First Cause hovers over all second causes, and over all facts and their laws. When all the secrets of the universe shall have unveiled themselves to human science, the universe will yet be a secret to it ; and God appears to withdraw himself from before it, only to invite and constrain it to elevate itself more and more towards himself. In the science of the moral world the same thing happens. When people shall have ceased every moment to invoke grace, and grace alone, to explain faith, it will always remain to be learnt what power presides over the life of the soul ; how truth reveals itself to man, who is un- able either to seize or reject it, according to his own will ; from whence comes that fire whose hearth is evidently ex- ternal to himself; what relations and communications exist between God and man ; what, in short, in the interior life of the human soul, is the share of its own activity and freedom, and what it must attribute to that action which proceeds from without, and to that influence from on high which the pride or the levity of the human mind endeavors not to know. This is the grand problem, the problem that presents itself the moment we touch that point where the things of earth and man are joined to that higher order on which man and the earth so clearly depend. The doctrine of grace is one of the attempts of the human mind to solve it. The solution, at least in my opinion, is beyond the limits assigned to human knowledge. I have endeavored to determine with precisif n what faith 20 FAITH AND SCIENCE. is in it,?elfj independently of its object ; I have laid down tho characteristics of this state of the soul, and the different paths by which man can be conducted to it, whatever may be, so to speak, its materials. By this means we may be able to suc- ceed in ascertaining the true nature of faith, and in bringing it into clearer light, disengaging from every foreign element the moral fact concealed under this name. I hasten to add, nevertheless, that this moral fact is not produced indifferently in all cases ; that all human behefs, whether natural or scien- tific, are not equally susceptible of passing from the condition of faith ; and that, in the vast field where human thought is exercised, there are objects especially calculated to awaken a conviction of this kind, to become materials for faith. This is a fact which is attested even by the history of the word, and which I noticed at the beginning ; its common ac- ceptation is also special. At first sight, it seems to be exclu- sively consecrated to religious belief; and although it lends itself to other uses, and although, even in our own days, its si:)here seems to be enlarged, it is evident that, in a multitude of cases where it is concerned (for example, with geography, botany, technology, &c.), the word faith is out of place ; that is to say, the moral state to which this word corresponds is not produced by such subjects. As faith has its peculiar interior characteristics, so it has also its exterior necessary conditions ; and it is distinguished from other modes of belief of man, not only by its nature, but by its ol)ject. But wliat are the conditions, and what is the external sphere, of faith ? Up to a certain point we can determine and catch glimpses of them, from the very nature of this state of the soul, and its effec^ts. A belief so complete, so accomplished, that all intel- lectual hibor seems to have reached its termination, and that man, wholly united with the truth of which he thinks himself to be in possession, loses all thought of the path which hag conducted him to it, — so powerful, that it takes possession of the exterior activity, as well as of the human mind, and makes FAITH AND SCIENCE. 21 submission to its empire in all things a passionate necessity, as well as a duty, — an intellectual state, which can be the fruit, not only of the exercise of the reason, but also of a powerful emotion, and of a long submission to certain prac- tices, and in the midst of which, when it has been once de- veloped, the three grand human faculties are actively em- ployed, and at the same time satisfied, — the sensihility, the intelligence, and the will ; — such a condition of soul, and such a belief, demand in some sort occasions worthy of it, and must be produced by subjects which embrace the entire man, and put into play all his faculties, and answer to all the demands of liis moral nature, and have a right, in turn, to his devoted- ness. Intellectual beauty, and practical importance, appear then, a priori, to be the characteristics of the ideas proper for becoming the materials of faith. An idea which should pre- sent itself as true, but at the same time without arresting by the extent and the gravity of its consequences, would produce certitude ; hxxi faith would not spring from it. And so prac- tical merit — the usefulness of an idea — would not suffice for begetting faith ; it must also di*aw attention by the pure beauty of truth. In other words, in order that a simple belief, natural or scientific, should become faith, it is necessary that its ob- ject should be able to procure the pleasures of activity, as well as of contemplation, that it may awaken within the double sentiment of its high origin and power ; in short, that it should present itself before man's eyes as the mediator between the moral and the ideal world, — as the missionary charged with modelling the one on the other, and of uniting them. Facts fully confirm these inductions, drawn from the mere nature of the moral phenomenon I am studying. Whether we regard the history of the human race, or whether we penetrate into the soul of the individual, we see faith through- out applying itself to objects in which the two aforesaid con- ditions are united. And if sometimes the one or the other of these conditions is wanting, — if, on some occasions, the 22 FAITH AND SCIENCE. object of faith should appear in itself denuded of ideal beauty or practical importance, — we may hold it for certain, that it is not so in the thought of the believer. He will have Boon discovered, from the truth which is the object of his faith, consequences and applications which for others are obscure and distant, but for him clear and infallible. Before long his ideas, which appear to have but one aim and one useful merit, will be elevated in his mind to the rank of a disinterested theory, and will possess in his eyes all the dignity and all the charm of truth. It is possible that the believer is deceived, and that he exaggerates the practical worth or intellectual beauty of his idea ; but even his error, agreeing in this with the reason and experience of the whole human race, is but a new proof of the necessity of these two conditions for the production of faith. We can understand, however, why the name o^ faith is almost the exclusive privilege of religious beliefs : these are, in fact, those whose object possesses in the highest degree the two characters which excite the development of faith. Many scientific notions are beautiful and fruitful in their apphca- tion ; political theories may forcibly strike the mind by the purity of their principles and the grandeur of their results ; moral doctrines are yet more surely and generally invested with this twofold power ; and either has often awoke faith in the soul of man. Nevertheless, in order to receive a clear and lively impression, sometimes of their intellectual beauty and sometimes of their practical importance, there is almost always required a certain amount of science, or sagacity, or, at all events, a certain turn of public manners and the social state, which are not the portion of all men, nor of all times. Religious beliefs have no need of any such aids ; they carry with themselves, and in their simple nature, their inftillible means for effect. As soon as they penetrate into the heart of man, however bounded in other respects may be the develop- ment of his intelligence, however rude and inferior may be his condition, they will appear to him as truths at once sub- lime and common, wliich are applicable to all the details of FAITH AND SCIENCE. 23 his earthly existence, and open for him those high regions, and those treasures of intellectual life, which, without theii light, he would never have known. They exercise over him the charm of truth the most pure, and the empire of interest the most powerful. Can we be astonished that, as soon as they exist, their passage to the state of faith should be so rapid, and so general ? There is yet another reason more hidden, but not less decisive, and which I regret I can only refer to ; — the object of religious beliefs is, in a certain and large measure, inacces- sible to human science. It can verify their reality ; it can reach even to the limits of tliis mysterious world, and assure itself that there are facts to which the destiny of man mfallibly attaches itself; but it is not permitted to reach these facts themselves, so as to submit them to its examination. Struck by this impossibility, more than one philosopher has concluded that there was nothing in them, since reason could perceive nothing, and that religious beliefs address themselves but to the fancy. Others, blinded by their impotence, have tardily sprung forward towards the sphere of superhuman things, and, as though they had succeeded in penetrating into it, have described facts, solved problems, and assigned laws. It is difficult to say which mind is the most foolishly proud, that which maintains that what it cannot know is not, or that which pretends to be capable of knowing all that is. What- ever may be the case, neither the one nor the other assertion has ever obtained for a single day the avowal of the human race ; its instinct and practices have constantly disavowed the nothing of the incredulous, and the confidence of theologians. In spite of the first, it has persisted in beheving in the exist- ence of an unknown world, and in the reality of those rela- tions which hold mankind united to it ; and notwithstanding the power of the second, it has refused to admit that they have attained the object, and lifted the veil ; and it has con- tinued to agitate the same problems, and to pursue the same truths, as ardently and laboriously as at the first day, and as if nothing had yet been done. 24 FAITH AND SCIENCE. See, then, wh.at, in this respect, is the situation of man. Natural and spontaneous rehgious beliefs are produced in him, -which, by reason of their object, tend at once towards the state of faith. They can arrive at it by means foreign to reasoning and science, — by the emotions and by practices ; and the transition is often thus actually brought about. One other way appears open before man. Religious beliefs natu- rally awaken within him the want of science, which not only desires to render an account of them, but aspires to go much farther than they can conduct it, to know truly this world of mysteries, of which they afford it glimpses. Oftentimes, though, if I mistake not, wrongly, it flatters itself it has suc- ceeded ; and thus theology, or the science of divine things, is formed, which is the origin of that rational and learned faith, of which so many illustrious examples do not permit us to contest the reality. Often, also, man, by his own confession, fails in his enterprise ; the science which he has pursued after resists his most skilful endeavors, and then he falls into doubt and confusion, — he sees those natural and irreflective beliefs darkened, which served him for his starting-point ; or, in fact, despairing of the variety of his attempts, and always tor- mented by the want of that faith which he has promised him- self to establish by science, he returns to his early beliefs, and requires of them to conduct him to faith, without the help of science ; that is to say, by the exaltation of liis sensuous faculties, or by submission to a legal power, the depository of the truth which his reason cannot seize. Theology itself, from the moment when it announces itself as a science of the relations of God with man and the world, and presents to the human mind its solutions of the religious problems which besiege it, proclaims nothing less than that these problems are impenetrable mysteries, and that this science is interdicted to human reason ; and that faith, born of love, submission, or grace, is alone able to open the under- standing to truths, which, however, theologians undertake to reduce to systematic doctrine, in order to be able to teach or demonstrate them to the reason. To such an extent does a FAITH AND SCIENCE. 25 feeling of the powerlessness of human science, in this matter, remain imprinted upon liim in fact ; aUhough everywhere man appears to boast himself of having escaped it. Thus, also, is explained that obscure physiognomy, if I may so express myself, which appears to be inherent in the word faith, and which has so often made it an object of a kind of distrust and dislike to strict and free minds. Frequent above all within the religious domain, and there oftentimes invoked by the powerful and learned, sometimes for the purpose of making up for the silence of the reason, and sometimes for the purpose of constraining the reason to be silent, faith has been considered only under this point of view, and judged only after the employment to which it lends itself on this occa- sion. People have concluded that this belief was essentially irrational, blind, and the fruit of ungoverned imaginations ; or else imposed by force, or fraud, on the weakness or ser- vility of the mind. If I have truly observed and described the nature of that which bears the name of faith, the error is evident. On the contrary, faith is the aim and boundary of human knowledge, the definite state to which man aspires in his progress towards truth. He begins his intellectual career with spontaneous and irreflective beliefs ; at its termi- nation is faith. There is more than one way — but none certain — for leaping over this interval ; but it is only when it has been leaped over, and when belief has become faith, that man feels his nature to be fully satisfied, and gives him- self up wholly to his mission. Legitimate faith, that is to say, that which is not mistaken in its object, and addresses itself really to the truth, is then the most elevated and most perfect state to which, in its actual condition, the human mind can arrive. But faith may be illegitimate ; it may be the state of mind which error has produced. The chance of error (experience at every step proves it) is here even much greater, as the paths which lead to it are more multiphed, and its effects more powerful. Man may be misled in his faith by feelings, habits, and the empire of the moral affections, or of external circumstances, as well as by the insufficiency or 26 FAITH AND SCIENCE. the bad employment of his intellectual faculties ; for faith can take its origin from these different sources. And, neverthe- less, from the time of its existence, faith is hardy and am- bitious ; it aspires passionately to expand itself, to invade, to rule, and to become the law both of minds and facts. And not only is it ambitious, but bold ; it possesses and displays, for the support of its pretensions and designs, an energy, address, and perseverance, which are wanting to almost all scientific opinions. So that there is in this mode of belief, far more than in any other, chance of error for the individual, and chance of oppression for society. For these perils there is but one remedy, — liberty. Whether man believes, or acts, his nature is the same ; and to avoid becoming absurd or guilty, his thought stands in need of constant opposition and constraint, as well as his will. Where faith is wanting, there power and moral dignity are equally wanting ; where liberty is wanting, faith usurps, then misleads, and at length is lost. Let human beliefs pass into the state of faith ; it is their natural progress and their glory ; and in their effort towards this object, and when they have reached it, let them constant- ly continue under the control of the free intellect ; it is the guaranty of society against tyranny, and the condition of their own legitimacy. In the coexistence and mutual respect of these two forces reside the beauty and the security of social order. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. By the Key. BADEN POWELL, M. A., F. K. S., F. G. S., SAVILIAN PROFESSOR OF GEOMETRY Hf THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. O yap XpiaTiavL(riJ.6s ovk eis 'louSatV/ioi' ini(TTev(rev aXka 'lou- bai(rp.6s els XpicmaviaiJLov, cos naaa yXcocrcra ma-Tevcracra els Qfov {tvvtjxOt}. — Ignatius ad Magnes, § x. "For Christianity hath not believed in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity ; — that every tongue having believed in God might sound forth together." * Introduction. Among persons professing to receive the Bible as the au- thentic record of what in general they believe is Divine Reve lation, it is remarkable how little attention is commonly given to the obvious diversity of nature and purport in those very distinct portions of which the sacred volume consists. To any one who does but for a moment reflect on the widely remote dates, the extremely diversified character of the contents, the totally dissimilar circumstances and occasions of the composition, of the several writings, it must be ob- vious how essentially they require to be viewed with care- ful discrimination as to the variety of conditions and objects which they evince, if they are to be in any degree rightly understood, or applied as they were intended to be. But manifest as these considerations are, and readily admitted * I should translate the last clause of this quotation, " that every tongue having believed might be gathered together unto God." — G. K. N. 28 THE LA AY AND THE GOSrEL. when simply put before any reader of tlie most ordinai*y attainments and discernment, it is singular to observe how commonly they are practically lost sight of in the too preva- lent modes of reading and applying Scripture. In this point of view it must be allowed a matter of the most primary importance, as bearing on the whole purport and design of the Bible, to apprehend rightly the general relation, but at the same time the characteristic differences, of the Old and New Testament, the Law and the Gospel, the distinctive character to be traced and the sort of connection actually subsisting between them. Nor does this turn on con- siderations of any nice or critical kind, demanding extensive learning to appreciate, or deep study to judge of; it implies a mere reference to matters of fact, which require but to be indicated to be understood, so that it is the more remarkable how commonly they are overlooked. Yet on no subject, perhaps, are more confused and unsatis- factory ideas more commonly prevalent ; not only among or- dinary, careless, or formal readers of Scripture, but even among many of better information and more serious religious views, a habit is too general of confounding together the con- tents of all parts of the sacred volume, whether of the old or new dispensations, of the Hebrew or of the Christian Scrip- tures, into one promiscuous mass, regarding them, as it were, all as one book, or code of religion, and of citing detached texts from both, and promiscuously taking precepts and insti- tutions, promises and threatenings, belonging to peculiar dis- pensations, and applying them universally, without regard to times, persons, or circumstances. And such a mode of appeal- ing to Scripture is sometimes even defended, as evincing a meritorious reverence for its divine character, and upheld as a consequence from the belief in its inspiration. Yet in whatever sense that behef be entertained, adopting even the strictest meaning of the term, it surely by no means follows but that inspired authority may have a reference to one ob- ject and not to another, — a precept or declaration may have been addressed to one party or in one age, and not designed THE LAW AUD THE GOSPEL. 29 for another, — without any disparagement to its divine char- acter. From a thoughtless, desuhory, or merely formal habit of reading the divine Word, it is not surprising that there should result an adoption of those low and unworthy notions whic? prevail so commonly as to the character and genius of the Christian religion ; and which especially arise from the con- fused combination of its principles with those of older and less perfect dispensations. That such ideas should obtain ready acceptance \vith the many will not surprise those who con- sider the various causes in different ways operating to lower and degrade the exalted purity and simplicity of the Gospel to the level of the corrupt apprehensions of human nature, especially among the mass of the ignorant and unthinking nominal professors of a belief in its doctrine. But it must be a matter of more astonishment that such notions should find encouragement with some who professedly look at Christianity in a more enlightened sense, and avowed- ly seek to receive it in no blind, foraial manner, but in the spirit of its evangelical purity. Yet such unhappily is the case. And whether from mere want of thought on the one hand, or from preconceived theories on the other, or even in some cases (we must fear) from more mixed motives, so un- prepared are men to entertain more distinct views, that the very announcement of them is commonly altogether starthng and even painful to their prepossessions, and especially when these questions are found to be mixed up with certain points of supposed practical obligation and religious observance ; it follows, that when a more explanatory view of the subject is presented, the hearers too generally turn away with impa- tience, or even with disgust and offence. Without indulging the hope of being able to remove or conciliate such opposing feelings in all instances, it will be at least the endeavor, in the following exposition, to avoid giving offence by the assumption of a polemical tone ; yet to state the case of Christianity as independent of previous dispensa- tions, simply in reference to the matter of fact, with that plain- 8* 30 THE LAAV AND THE GOSPEL. ness which the cause of truth demands, according to the tenor of the evidence furnished by Scripture, and in the desire to maintain and elucidate the pure and enlightening principles of the New Testament, according to what appears, at least to the author, theu' unadulterated and evangelical simplicity. I. The Primeval Dispensations. The general nature, character, and connection of the suc- cessive divine dispensations recorded in the Bible, as briefly described by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (i. 1), — the announcements in various measures and " portions," and under various " forms " or " aspects," * made in times past to the fathers by the prophets, — fully accords with what we collect in detail from the writings of the Old Testament, and affords the only simple and satisfactory clew to the inter- pretation of them. The view presented to us is that of successive revelations, systems, covenants, laws, given to different individuals, fami- lies, or nations, containing gradual, progressive, and partial developments of the truth, and intimations of the Divine will for their guidance, accompanied with peculiar positive insti- tutions, adapted to the ideas of the age and the condition of the parties to whom they were vouchsafed. Thus peculiar revelations are represented as having been made — each distinct from the other, though in some instances including repetitions — to Adam, to Noah, to Job, to Abra- ham, to Isaac and Jacob, to the Israelites, first by Moses, afterwards by a succession of prophets, as well as in some instances to other people; as, for example, to the Nine- vites (if the book of Jonah be regarded as historical) ; — while, in contradistinction to all these, we are told, " in these last days God hath spoken unto us by his Son" (^6.), in a universal, permanent, and perfect dispensation ; — the earlier and more partial were not made " to us,'' or designed "/or ms." Yet it is important to trace the history and character of * This is clearly the force of the original, rroKv^epcos koL TroXvrpoTrws. Heb. i. 1. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 31 these former dispensations, in order more fuUj to elucidate the distinct nature and independence of the last ; and espe- cially to remove prevalent misconceptions from a subject which, however plain when historically and rationally con- sidered, has been involved in much difficulty from gratuitous and often visionary theories. When we consider the very imperfect intimations, often mere hints and allusions, given in the Hebrew records, as to these early religious institutions and the design of them, as well as the obvious and wide differences in the circumstances of those people and times from our own, the discerning reader at once sees how little they can have been intended to be understood as containing any permanent elements of a uni- versal religion, as seems to have been sometimes imagined. In the plain terms of the narrative we discover nothing of the kind, and in the comment on it which the New Testament supplies, we have direct assurance to the contrary. In general, we find only that the servants of God in those ages were accepted in walking each according to the lights vouchsafed to him ; wliile in other respects we see peculiar institutions and announcements specially adapted to the pecu- liar ends and purposes of the dispensations. Thus we trace from the first the approach to God through sacrifices, offer- ings, and formal services. Some infer from the account of the Divine rest after the creation, that there was a primeval institution of the Sabbath, though certainly no precept is recorded as having been given to man to keep it up. But since, from the irreconcilable con- tradictions disclosed by geological discovery, the whole narra- tive of the six days' creation cannot now be regarded by any competently informed person as historical* the historical character of the distinction conferred on the seventh day falls to the ground along with it. Yet even without reference to * I do not here pretend to enter on the evidence in support of this con- clusion. It will be found fully discussed in my work, On the Connection of Natural and Divine Truth, 1838, and in my article " Creation," in Kitto's Cyclopcedia of Bib. Lit. 02 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. this consideration, some of the best commentators have re- garded the passage as proleptical, or anticipatory. Afterwards we find the distinction of clean and unclean animals introduced, and the prohibition of eating blood, in the covenant with Noah (Gen. ix. 1), of which the Sabbath formed no part ; nor can we find any indication of it in the history of the other patriarchs : a point particularly dwelt upon by the early Christian divines, who adopted the belief of the Jews of their age in interpreting their Scriptures.* Some have dwelt on the mention of the division of time by \Yeeks t in several parts of the early Mosaic history : yet * Justin Martyr {Dial. c. Tri/pJw, 236, 261) says, "The patriarchs •were justified before God not keeping Sabbatlis," and " from Abraham originated circumcision and from Moses the Sabbath," &c. Ircnieus (IV. 30) and Tertullian {Ad Jucl, II. 4) both declare that " Abraham witliout circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths believed in God," &c. t The early and general adoption of tlie division of time into ^veeks may be obviously and rationally derived from tlie simple consideration, that among all rude nations the first periodical division of time which obtains is that of lunar months, while those conspicuous phenomena, the phases or quarters of the moon, correspond to a week nearly enough for the common purposes of such nations. The universal prevalence of this division by weeks among -Eastern nations from a very remote period is attested by various ancient wi-itcrs. Die Cassius ascribes the invention of it to the Egyptians, and assigns the origin of the planetary names of the days. ( Hist. Rom., XXXVII. 1 8, 19.) Oldendorf found it in the interior of Africa. (Jahn, Arc/ueol. Bib., urt. " Week.") The Brahmins also have the week distinguished by the planetary names. {Life of Galileo, 12 ; Laplace, Precis de I' Hist. d'Astron. 16.) The Peruvians divide lunar months into halves and quarters, i. c. ■weeks, by the phases of the moon, and besides have a period of nine Jays, the approximate third part of a lunation : thus showing the com- mon origin of both. (Garcilasso, Hist, of the Incas, in Taylor's Nat. Hist. ofSocicIji, I. 291, 292.) So also the Romans had their "Nundinoe." On the other hand, the Mexicans have periods of five and of thirteen days, with names to each day. (Norman on Yucatan, i. 85, and 2\ans. of American Elhnofj. Soc, I. 58.) And the week is not known to the Chinese, nor to tlie North Ameri- can Indians (Catlin, II. 234) ; facts opposed to tlic idea of any universal primitive tradition. Allusions to a sanctity ascribed to the seventh day by the early Greek THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 33 it by no means follows that, because the liistorian adopts a particular mode of reckoning, it was therefore used by the people of whom he is writing : but were it so, this would not imply the institution of the Sabbath. In all the early dispensations religious truths are conveyed under figures, and obligations enforced by motives, specially adapted to the capacities and wants of the parties addressed. Thus temporal prospects are always held out as the immediate sanctions ; and the mode of announcement adopted is always that in which God is represented as vouchsafing to enter into a covenant with his creatures ; — the form is always that of a poets, such as the e/3SojMarr; S' eTreira KarrjXvdev Upbv rjfxap of Homer, and hke expressions of Callimachus, Hesiod, &c., arc quoted by Clemens Alexandrin. {Sti'ojn., V.), and expressly described by him to have been derived from the Jews, with whose Scriptures so many parallelisms are found in the classic authors. Generally, however, the universal superstition of the sacredness of the number 7, combined with the equally common propensity to attach sanc- tity to particular periods and days, are sufficient elements out of which such ideas would naturally take their rise. Among the ancient Romans festivals were held in honor of Saturn, with a reference to commemorating the Saturnian or Golden age, and with this idea it was unlawful on the day sacred to Saturn to go out to war (Macrobius, Lib. I.; Saturn., c. 16), and it Avas held unlucky to commence a journey or undertake any business : a superstition alluded to by TibuUus {Eleg. I. 3, v. 18), " Satumi aut sacram me tenuisse diem." What particular feast is here referred to there is nothing to show. The supposition of some of his commentators, that it meant the seventh day of the week, is wholly gratuitous. But if it were so, the idea would be naturally and obviously borrowed from the Jews, Avhose customs, espe- cially tlie Sabbath, are so frequently alluded to by the Roman writers ; and, from their wide dispersion, must have been generally familiar, as iu fact we learn from the boast of Josephus (Adv. Ap., II.) and of Philo, that " there is no place where the Sabbath is not known," and the testi- mony of Theophilus Antiochus (Lib. II., Ad Aiist.) to the same effect, as well as others often cited : which show the strict preservation of the ob- servance among the scattered Jews ; and it may possibly have been con- formed to by others, or the ^occasion laid hold of as convenient for other purposes : as, e. g., we are told by Suetonius (Lib. XXXII.), "Diogenes grammaticus disputare sabbatis Rhodi solitus." 34 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. stipulation of certain conditions to be fulfilled, and certain blessings or punishments to be awarded as they are fulfilled or not ; — and these conditions, always of a precise, formal, positive kind, not implying merely moral obligations. The spirit of all these covenants was that of " touch not, taste not, handle not" (Col. ii. 21), involving a ground and motive of obedience precisely adapted to the very infancy of the human race. Such was the very covenant with Adam in Paradise : " Eat not of the tree, — or thou shalt die." Nor can it be denied that, if the Sabbath had formed a part of that covenant, it was an institution exactly in keeping with it : Eat not of the tree, — keep holy the seventh day. The same idea of a covenanted stipulation of positive observances, in which sacri- fice was the most prominent, characterizes all the succeeding announcements, — from the covenant of circumcision with Abraham down to the more detailed and complete scheme of the Mosaic Law. In these early and imperfect dispensations it is idle to look for any great principles of universal moral application, as has been sometimes fancied : — for instance, finding authority for capital punishment in the precept given to Noah (Gen. ix. 6), or for tithes in the example of Melchisedec (Gen xiv. 20). So far from perceiving any support for the idea, that because a precept or institution was from the beginning, it was there- fore designed to be of universal and perpetual obligation, on the contrary, we rather see in its very antiquity a strong pre- sumption that it was of a nature suited and intended only for the earliest stage of the religious development of man. But apart from these peculiarities, we trace all along the announcement oi ^^ the promise ^^ (Gal. iii. 19), which was before the covenant, and to which the fathers looked as 7wt transitory. Christianity, by fulfilling the promise, supersedes all previous imperfect dispensations: itself emphatically a New covenant, the very reverse of a recurrence to a primitive religion (as fancied by some). The patriarchs, and especially Abraham, are set forth as examples of faith in the promise ; and in this respect Clu'istian believers are called children of THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 35 Abraham (Gal. iii. 7) : but manifestly not in the sense of their retrograding to an older and less perfect state of things : the whole tenor of the Divine revelation is clearly stamped with the character of advance. n. The Judaical Law, The manifest design of the book of Genesis was not to teach us a primitive religion, but to form an introduction to the Law for the Jews. It has been well observed, that " to understand Genesis we must begin with Exodus " ; from the actual liistory and circumstances of the people we can best appreciate what their books spoke to them. Tiiose events in the previous history are always selected and enlarged upon which have a direct reference to points in the subsequent institutions, or were anticipations of the Laio, or the rudiments out of which its ordinances were framed. Thus, the narrative of the six days' creation, first announced in the Decalogue, and afterwards amplified in Genesis, as has been already observed, can now only be regarded as an adaptation of a poetical cosmogony (doubtless already familiar to the Israelites) to the purpose of enforcing on them the in- stitution of the Sabbath. And in like manner the other insti- tutions of primeval worship (already adverted to) — the sacrifices, the distinctions of clean and unclean animals, the prohibition of blood, and afterwards the appointment of circumcision, the choice of a peculiar people, the promise of Canaan — form the prominent topics, as being the begin- nings of the Mosaic covenant, and approximations towards the system of the Law. The object of the Law was declared to be, in the first in- stance, to separate the people of Israel by peculiar marks and badges from all other nations, as a people chosen for the high ends and purposes of the Divine counsels (see especially Exod. xix. 5 ; xxxi. 13-17 ; Deut. xiv. 1 ; xxvi. 16 ; Ezek. XX. 9-12). This was to be effected especially by such dis- tinctions as those of circumcision, the prohibition of inter- marriages, or any participation with idolaters ; by all their 86 THE LAAV AND THE GOSrEL. exclusive usages and ceremonies, but chiefly by the marked singularity of the Sabbath, which, along with the Passover, was appointed earlier than the rest of the Law, and was em- phatically declared (Exod. xxxi. 16 ; Ezek. xx. 12 ; Neh. ix. 14, &c.) to be a distinctive sign between God and the people of Israel, Avhich they were always to remember to keep up ; a peculiarity further evinced by its being always prominently coupled with the sanctity of the temple, the new moons and other feasts (Lev. xix. 30 ; Isa. i. 13 ; Ixvi. 23 ; Hos. ii. 11 ; Ezek. xlv. 17), and one of the pledges by which the proselyte was to take hold of the covenant (Isa. Ivi. G). The directions for the mode of observing it were minute and strict ; and the precepts always precisely regard the observance, not of one day in seven, but of the seventh day of the week as such, in commemoration of the rest after the Creation,* though in one respect also it is afterwards urged as reminding them of their deliverance out of Egypt (Deut. v. 14). These distinctions constituted at once their security and their motives of obe- dience. The Law throughout is a series of adaptations to them and their national peculiarities. Yet it is often sj)oken of as something general, as " a pre- liminary education of the human race " ; f but the plain history discloses nothing but the training of one single people for a specific purpose. We see continued exemplifications of wise adaptation to the Jewish national mind in the entire mode of the delivery of the Law amid terrors, signs, and wonders ; and especially in the oral announcement of the Decalogue from Sinai ; while its consignment to tables of stone is expressly stated to be for ^ The Jewish Rabbis have always understood the institution to belong to the particular day of the cessation of the Creation, enjoined on the peo- ple of Israel, as they say, " that they might fasten in their minds the be- lief that the world had a beginning, Avhich is a thread that draws after it all the foundations of the Law or principles of religion." (Rabbi Levi of Barcelona, quoted by Patrick, on Exod. xix.) Tlie same idea occurs, in a Jewish form of prayer quoted also by Patrick. t See Puscy on Rationalism, I. 156. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 37 a memorial or "testimony" (Exod. xxxi. 18; xxxiv. 29) lo the covenant, of whicli these precepts constituted some of the more primary stipulations. And throughout the whole Law we trace equal adaptations in the form and manner of the precepts and injunctions : all minute and literal, not rising to any broad principles, which the Israehtes at that time would have been incapable of comprehending. The distinction adopted by many modern divines between the " ceremonial " and the " moral " law appears nowliere in the books of Moses. No one portion or code is held out as comprising the rules of moral obligation distinct and apart from those of a positive nature : such a distinction would have been unintelligible to them ; and " the Law " is always spoken of in Scripture as a whole, without reference to any such classification ; and the obligations of all parts of it, as of the same kind. In particular, what is termed the moral law is certainly in no way peculiarly to be identified with the Decalogue. Though moral duties, are specially enjoined in many places of the Law, yet the Decalogue certainly does not contain all moral duties, even by remote implication, and on the widest construction. It totally omits many such, as, e. g., beneficence, truth, justice, temperance, control of temper, and others ; and some moral precepts omitted here are introduced in other places. Equally in the Decalogue and the rest of the Law, we find precepts referring to what are properly moral duties scattered and intermixed with those of a positive and formal kind, and in no way distinguished from them in authority or impor- tance ; but both connected with the pecuharities of the dis- pensation, expressed in a form accompanied with sanctions and enforced by motives precisely adapted to the character :md capacity of the people, and such as formed part of the exact stipulations of the covenant. Their duties were urged more generally in some passages (as, e. g., in Deut.' xi. 21, 22 ; iv. 27, &c.) on the consid- eration of national blessings ; in others on more particular 4 38 THE LAW AND THE GOSVT^L grounds, such as the motives assigned for filial obedience (Exod. XX. 12) in a long life*; the recompense for benefi- cence and equity (Prov. xix. 17 ; Ps. xh. 1 ; xxxvii. 25, &c.) ; the appeal to the dread of Divine vengeance (Exod. xxiv. 17; Deut. iv. 24; Isa. Ixvi. 16; Deut. iv. 31); and the remembrance of benefits conferred. In general their reward was to be found in obedience : to keep the statutes and ordinances was to be " their wisdom and their righteous- ness " ; and the great maxim and promise was, " He that doeth these things shall live in them " (Deut. iv. 6 ; vi. 25 ; Lev. xviii. 5). The Law conformed to many points of human infirmity : it offered splendid rites and ceremonies to attract popular rever- ence, and wean the people from their proneness to the gross ceremonies of idolatry. It indulged the disposition to observe " days, and times, and seasons " by the Sabbaths and feasts, and by occasional fasts, originally only a symbol of ordinary mourning, but afterwards invested with a religious character (Isa. Iviii. 5 ; Joel ii. 12). It commended avenging and san- guinary zeal, especially in the punishment of blasphemers (Lev. xxiv. 14; Deut. xiii. 9). It sanctioned the "/ex talio- nis" (Exod. xxi. 23), — "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth," — that most perfect idea of retributive justice to the uncivilized mind ; and in general it connected the idea of punishment with that of vengearice, the most congenial to a barbarous apprehension. If it restricted marriages within certain degrees of kindred, it at least connived at polygamy ; and allowed a law of divorce suited " to the hardness of their hearts " (Matt. xix. 8). The Law altogether was established with a regard to the infirmity and blindness of the people, " in consideration to transgressions " * (Gal. iii. 10). While it prohibited idolatry, it represented the Deity under human similitudes, with human passions and bodily members, * This appears to me to be the proper force of the adverb x^P"' ^^ro used by the Apostle. From its etymology it must be supposed to imply "because of," in o. favorable or induhjing sense. It seems to correspond to TTpos in Matt. xix. 8. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. HQ as, e. g., weaiy and resting from his work, angry, repenting, and jealous of other gods ; and designated more particula.^ly as " Jehovah," the national God of Israel, &c. It is not one of the least remarkable of these anthropomorphisms that (as in former instances) the disclosure of the Divine purposes is made under the figure of Jehovah entering into a covenant with his people, an idea specially adapted to a nation of the lowest moral capacity. All points of duty were proposed under the form of precise stipulations, (just as in other times religious vows, temperance pledges, subscriptions to creeds, &c. have been adopted,) to keep a stronger hold on those in- capable of higher motives. The immediate appeal to divine sanctions sensibly present, and the enforcement of moral duties under the form of a positive engagement, were pre- cisely calculated to influence those who had no apprehension of pure principles of moral obligation, or of a higher spiritual service. Again, obedience was to be rewarded and sin to be visited by blessings or judgments on the posterity of the offender (Exod. XX. 5), not merely in the sense of the ordinary conse- quences of good or bad conduct in the parents naturally in- fluencing the fortunes of the children, but by a peculiar providential interposition. And in connection with this was another striking peculiarity of the covenant, that obedience and disobedience were both regarded as national, for which national rewards and judgments were to be awarded ; the whole people in the aggregate being represented as possessing a collective and common responsibility. These peculiarities were obviously connected with the absence of those higher motives and sanctions which would be derived from the doc- trine of a future state ; which clearly ybrwfc? no part of the covenant, even if believed by some pious and enlightened in- dividuals, and in later times hinted at by the prophets. The obligations of the Law were strongly declared to be perpetual (as, e. g., Exod. xxxi. 17 ; Lev. xvi. 34 ; xxiv. 8 ; 2 Kings xvii. 37, &c. ; Isa. Iv. 3), and the covenant everlast- ing, — expressions which cannot now be taken Hterally. 40 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. Its privileges miglit at all times be extended to strangers by their undergoing the initiatory rite. This was in later ages extensively realized (see Exod. xii. 48 ; comp. with Isa. Ivi. 6; and Dent. xxix. 11). The prophecies of the future extension of the Mosaic re- ligion might in a first sense apply literally to this extension of proselytism, — the coming in of remote nations to the Jewish church and worship, resorting to its temple, adopting its rites and offerings, and keeping its festivals and Sabbaths : as we know was in fact largely fulfilled before the introduction of the Gospel (Isa. Ivi. 3 ; Ixvi. 11, 12, 19 -23 ; Micah iv. 1 ; Zech. viii. 21 ; Amos ix. 11 ; comp. Acts ii. 5, &c.). These predictions are, however, also figuratively interpreted of the spread of the Gospel and the glories of the spiritual Zion. If so, all the particulars in the description must be interpreted by the some analogy ; if Israel and the temple be metaphorical, then the sacrifices, new moons, and Sabbaths must be so Ukewise ; if these latter are taken literally, we can only understand the whole literally, or we violate all rules of interpretation and analogy. The precision and formality of the Law were in some de- gree extended and s})iritualized by the Prophets. The words of Ezekiel (xviii. 3) have been understood as positively ab- rogating the punishment of the posterity for the sins of the father ; and Isaiah (i. 13, &c.) strongly decries the sacrifices and Sabbaths. They also gave intimations that the Law was to come to an end, or rather to be superseded by a better and more spiritual covenant (Isa. ii. 2 ; Jer. xxxi. 31 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25; Mai. iv. 2-6). Malachi, the last, connects the two dispensations, — looking backwards to Moses and for- wards to Christ and his forerunner. John the Baptist was the minister of an intermediate or preparatory dispensation. lie accordingly recognized all ex- isting obligations, but reproved hypocrisy and formality, and urged repentance and its practical fruits (Luke iii. 10-14; Matt. iii. 7). He more especially announced the kingdom of heaven as at hand, and pointed to Jesus as " the Cluist," " the THE LAW AND THE GOSrEL. 41 Lamb of God " who should bring it in (John i. 27, 29), and " take away the sin of the world." m. The Teaching of Christ. In the teaching of Jesus we find no repeal of an old dis- pensation to introduce a new ; but a gradual method of prep- aration by spiritual instruction for a better system. During his ministry on earth, the kingdom of heaven was still only " at hand " and " to come " (Mark i. 15 ; Matt. vi. 10). Serious misconceptions often arise from applying his instructions without remembering that he was himself em- phatically " made under the Law " (Gal. iv. 4), and address- ing those under it as still in force. To the Jews in general he inculcated moral and spiritual duties ; not any change in existing grounds and principles, but reform in practice. He censured severely the hypocrisy and ostentation of the Pharisees and their followers ; their exces- sive minuteness even in matters ordained, and their " makinj; of none effect " the divine law by human additions (Mark vii. 13). Yet he offered no disparagement to the Law as such. While he insisted on its weightier matters, he would not have its lesser points neglected (Matt, xxiii. 23). He enlarged its spirit, yet acknowledged its letter as the rule still in force on the Jews. His own example was emphatic. His plain declaration implies none of those refined distinctions which have been sometimes drawn as to the meaning of the terms " destroy" and "fulfil" (Matt. v. 17) ; to quiet the apprehen- sions of the Jews as to liis having a design hostile to the Law and the Prophets, he assures them that the very aim of his life was to obey it in every particular, "to fulfil," in their phrase, " fjl righteousness " (Matt. iii. 15). And so his Jew- ish followers were exhorted to " keep the commandments '" if they " would enter into life " (Matt. xix. 17) ; and doing so, they were " 7iot far from the kingdom of God " (Mark xii. 34), though not yet in it. Not the least of the commandments was to be broken ; no part of its force to fail during that age or dispensation (Matt. v. 18). 4# 42 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. Thus far in general : in more special instances we find hira upholding the authority of the existing church and its teach- ers, and the appeal to its tribunals (Matt, xxiii. 1 ; xviii. 17). He recognized the Mosaic law of marriage and divorce, and though he hmited the latter more strictly (Matt. xix. 8), it was to repress the gross abuse of it which then prevailed ; and this only under an express reference to what was the original design of the institution from the authority of the books of Moses. He referred to fasting as an existing rite under the Law, though sternly reproving the hypocritical and ostentatious performance of it (Matt. vi. 18; comp. Isa. Iviii. 5). In the same terms he censured formality and ostentation in almsgiv- ing and prayer (Matt. vi. 1 - 5) ; and taught that offerings at the altar were not to be omitted, though reconciliation was of more importance (Matt. v. 23). He particularly and repeatedly reproved the Pharisaical moroseness in the observance of the Sabbath : himself wrought cures on it, and vindicated works of charity and necessity (Matt. xii. 1) ; yet only by such arguments and examples as ihe Jewish teachers themselves allowed, and their own Scrip- tures afforded authority for. But he did not in any way modify or abolish it, or substitute any other for it, though he fully asserted his power to do so ; and expressly urged upon them the consideration that it was made for " the man " * (i. e. those to whom it was appointed), and not " the man " for it ; as an institution of a permanent kind connected with the moral ends of man's being ; adapted to the parties for whom it was designed, but having nothing in its nature of unchange- able or general obligation to which mankind were to confoj-m. He defeated insidious questions by an appeal to the Law itself: « What is written? " (Luke x. 26 ; Mark x? 3, &c.) ; and taking occasion from a point disputed among them, he enforced the two great commandments (Matt. xxii. 37 ; * This is clearly the force of the original (Mark ii. 21), hia tov av BpcHTTOV. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 43 comp. with Deut. vi. 5 ; Lev. xix. 18 ; Matt. vii. 12 ; Tobit iv. 15) as the sum of the Law and the Prophets, and in general urged obedience on the very principle and promise of the Law itself: " Do this, and thou shalt live " (Luke x. 28 ; Rom. X. 3 ; Gal. iii. 12 ; comp. with Lev. xviii. 5 ; Ezek. xx. 11 ; Neh. ix. 29). He took the Decalogue as the text of his instructions to the Jews (Mark x. 19 ; Matt. v. 21, &c. ; xix. 16, &c.) ; and made many enlargements upon it : giving them new precepts expressly in addition to it, and not as unfoldiny anything already contained or implied in it, and expressly contrasting his own teaching with what " was said of old." But we find no modification or softening of the Law, no repeal of one part and retaining another, as is often imagined. Christ's teaching during his ministry was plainly but pre- liminary and preparatory to the establishment of the new dis- pensation. His general discourses were simply practical, yet with an obvious pecuharity of adaptation to the ideas of the Jewish people. " The mysteries of the kingdom " were veiled in parables to the multitude, explained to the disciples in private, and understood only by those who " had ears to hear " (Matt. xiii. 9-17). During his ministry "the kingdom of heaven suffered violence" (Matt. xi. 12), the more enlight- ened partially understood it, and the strong in spirit forced an entrance. He pointed to the necessity of a new beginning from first principles (Matt. ix. 17 ; xviii. 1), for becoming as little chil- dren ; holding out the prospect of a progressive enlighten- ment (John viii. 31), urging the Jews especially to search their own Scriptures (John v. 39), (those in which ye think ye have eternal life,) in support of his claims, and insisting especially on a new and higher " regeneration " than that ac- knowledged by the Rabbis (John iii. 3). ^He repeatedly declared his mission to be only to the House of Israel. In some few instances, indeed. Gentiles came to him ; but no distinct instruction was given, except in the one remarkable case of the woman of Samaria, which is peculiar- 44 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. ly ini]-»ortant as being the only distinct reference in Clirist's teaching to the new dispensation as extending to the Gentiles, and the termination of the old with respect to the Jews (John iv. 21). According to the whole system disclosed in the New Testa- ment, it is clear that Christ's kingdom could not properly begin till after his death and resurrection (Luke xxiv. 46). Its ex- tension to all nations, though more than once hinted at in his discourses (Matt. viii. 11 ; John x. 16, &c.), and indirectly figured out in several of the parables, was not positively an- nounced till the final charge was given to the Apostles (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Mark xvi. 16 ; Luke xxiv. 47 ; Acts i. 8). IV. The Teaching of the Apostles. The preaching of the Apostles in the first instance was confined to Jews and proselytes, who continued under the Law and in the worship of the synagogue, simply adding the belief m Jesus as the Messiah, and joining in Christian communion. The Apostles themselves conformed to the Law in all par- ticulars, even St. Paul, while he claimed the liberty of doing otherwise ; and St. Peter was reproached with inconsistency in deviating from it even in one point (Acts xxi. 24 ; Gal. ii. 11). The first great step was the announcement of the abolition of the separation between Jew and Gentile, commenced in the commission to Peter to convert Cornelius (Acts x. 34). Yet in fact Christianity was long confined chiefly to Jews or proselytes, or Gentile converts from among those who had previously in some degree conformed to the Law. In address- ing such parties the appeal would be naturally made to the Old Testament as furnishing proofs of Christianity. Of the preaching to the Samaritans nothing is recorded, but it was doubtless accordant with the words of Christ to the Samaritan woman, and could involve little reference to Jewish obligations. When purely Gentiles, or heathens, were addressed, there is no evidence or instance of any reference being made to THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 45 Old Testament authority, to the Law as 'preliminary to the Gospel, or to any supposed p7'imitive religion, as to a sort of prior, but forgotten, obligation. The appeal was (in all the few cases recorded) to the natural evidences of one God, to the moral law of conscience, and then directly to the fact of Christ's resurrection and its consequences. Such was the tenor of St. Paul's discourse at Lystra and at Athens (Acts xvii. 22 ; xiv. 17), and such the purport of his whole elabo- rate argument in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. i. 18 ; ii. 14, &c.), where he positively and pointedly makes his appeal to the Gentiles, not on the ground of the revealed laiv, but solely on that of natural reason and con- science. And just as he referred the Jews to their Scrip- tures, so, to enforce his argument with authorities to the hea- then, he quotes their own poets (Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Tit. i. 12). The omission of any reference to previous obligations (which, if they had existed, were certainly unknown) is em- phatic. Any supposed universal law given to the Patriarchs would clearly have required to be revived, but no intimation or even allusion of the kind is to be found in the records of the Apostohc teaching. Such a reference, for example, was manifestly requisite for any revival of a primeval Sabbath, had it been contemplated ; but it is needless to say, no such intimation can be found. The only allusion to the subject at all is addressed to the Hebrews (Heb. iv. 4), and the turn of the allusion is figurative and obviously quite different. The very natural belief of the Jews, that the Gentiles were incapable of justification, except through conformity to the covenant of circumcision, at a very early period led to attempts to impose the Law on Gentile converts (Acts xv. 1 - 28), until the Apostolic decree finally settled the question, in which cer- tain observances only are retained and prescribed, described as practically "necessary" from the circumstances of the times : the omission of all others, as meats, Sabbaths, &c., is emphatic, as well as the absence of any recognition, whether generally of the Law as such, or of any previous dispensation, 46 THE LAW AND TUE GOSPEL. or of any part of it, or an enlarged or modified view of its precepts to be made the rule of Christian obedience. But so inveterate were the prepossessions of the Jews, that later attempts of this kind were continually made, which called forth the special censures of St. Paul, and the strongest argu- ments against these notions so destructive to the real spirit of the Gospel, such as form the main purport of his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians, of material portions of those to the Romans, and the Second to the Corinthians (as, e. g., 2 Cor. iii., &c.), and of scattered declarations in nearly all. Hence the expression Christian " liberty " obviously applies only by way of contrast to the particular instance of Judaiz- ing, while the assurance " ye are not under the Law, but under grace," (the necessity for which arose solely from the same cause,) is most carefully guarded against any such misapplica- tion as would sanction sin, any tendency to the preposterous doctrine of Antinomianism (Rom. vi. 1, 14). No such lan- guage need have been used with respect to Gentile converts but for such attempts at enslaving them. The Apostle ad- dressed distinctly both those " under the Law," — the Jews, — and those " not under the Law," — the Gentiles ; the former generally were still under it, though they might have been released from it. But the latter could not he released from that to which they had never been subject. To say that they were free from the law of the Hebrews was indeed true, but siq^erfiuous ; they needed not to be told so ; what was to bring them under it ? certainly not the Gospel. The strong feeling of the Jews with respect to the distinc- tion of circumcision appears, however, very reasonable; it was not a mere national prejudice, but arose purely out of the belief in the Divine authority of the covenant, and to them seemed to involve all the other obligations of the Law, not to be abrogated without the loss of that distinction. Hence the difficulty of the argument with them. It is, however, con- ducted with consummate skill by the Apostle, directing his reasoning with admirable effect, so ps at once to bear on the case of the Gentiles, and with equal force on that of the Jews, THE LAW AKD THE GOSPEL. 47 m a way which they must acknowledge as conclusive on their own principles (as in Rom. xi. 13, &c.). He maintained himself a compliance with the ordinances yet subsisting : " to the Jews he became a Jew," as " under the Law " ; to the Gentiles as " without the Law " (1 Cor. ix. 20) : but this was no deceptive assumption, since he actually was in one sense both. The distinction of meats, clean or unclean, of days to be kept holy or not, remained actually in force to the Jewish Christians until their convictions became sufficiently enhght- ened to see the abolition of those distinctions. To the Gen- tile it was equally clear that they were not obligatory on him, while his service was a spiritual one in faith. Li Sabbaths and meats each might judge for himself (Rom. xiv. 5, G) ; there was no moral immutable obligation, but neither was to judge the other. Both acting in faith were exhorted to mu- tual charity, a line of conduct pre-eminently recommended by the Apostle's own example (1 Cor. x. 23 ; viii. 13, &c.). But there was no compromise of essential truths ; we cannot but be struck with the contrast of the Apostle's liberality of sen- timent with his strenuous assertion of Christian freedom. " Christ crucified " (1 Cor. i. 25) was preached alike to Jew and Greek, the Author of Salvation equally to those under the Law and those without it (Rom. xv. 8, 9). To both parties it was argued that they stood equally con- demned in the sight of God. The Gentiles were expressly shown to be in this state of condenmation from their own moral depravity, not from any sentence of a covenant which their remote forefathers had broken, as some have fancied. Setting aside the total unreasonableness of such an imagina- tion, nothing can be more clear or positive than the argument of St. Paul, that they stood condemned expressly without any such revealed law, and solely hy their violation of the law of conscience, written by natural light in their hearts (Rom. ii. 15). Still less were they to be awakened by any terrors of tlie law of Sinai given to the Jews. On the other hand^ the Jew stood condemned because he 48 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. had transgressed the kiw of revehition, which he acknowl- edged to be holy, and just, and good, and in which he believed himself justified. St. Paul tlierefore expressly argues, that he was not onhj notjnstijied, but positively condemned, by that very Law in which he trusted and made liis boast, which " he approved " and " served with his mind " ; yet in truth, " with his flesh he served sin " (Rom. vii. 25, &c.).* Tlie difficulty was to convince the Jew, that he stood condemned bij his own Imv ; that " by it he had the knowledge of sin," that " the strength of sin was the Law," but the victory in Christ. Both being thus alike under condemnation, though hy differ- ent laws, it followed that both were to be accepted and justi- fied on another, a new and common ground, that of faith in Jesus Christ ; and the grand point thus was, that the line of separation was removed; all distinctions were merged and lost in the greater privilege now conferred by the Gospel, " of the twain was made one new man" (Eph. ii. 11 -22 ; 1 Cor. vii. 19; Gak vi. 15; Col. iii. 11), Christ was to be all and in all. Christ redeemed the Jews " from the curse of the Law " (Gak iii. 15 ; iv. 3) ; the Gentile "from all iniquity" (Tit. ii. 14). Both were called to repentance and faith, but on differ- ent grounds ; both led, though by different ways, to moral duties ; to the Jew obedience was " the fulfilment of the Law " (Gal. V. 14; Rom. xiik 8), "the end of the commandment" (1 Tim. k 5), "the pure service" (James k 27 [_6priaKcia\), " the royal law according to the Scripture " (James ii. 8) ; to the Gentile without any such reference it was simply "the things just, and pure, and true" (Phil. iv. 3), in accordance with the natural moral sense ; to " live soberly, righteously, and godly" (Tit. ii. 12) ; to walk "honestly " (Rom. xiii. 13) ; but all this based on the high and peculiar motives of Chris- tian faith. To the Jews the grounds of Christian obligation were often * Such at least appears to me to be the real and plain tenor of this chapter, so often imagined difficult to rescue from the eager grasp of the Antinoraian. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 49 represented and enforced by analogies drawn from the Old Testament. Thus the Gospel itself is bj analogy, and with especial reference to the words of the Prophets, called a covenant (Heb. viii. 6; comp. Jer. xxxi. 31): not implying that there was really any covenant, but only that it stood in the same relation to Christians as tJie covenant did to the Jews ; sin ;e it is expressly distinguished (indeed the whole argument of the Apostle turns on the distinction, Gal. iii. 18)* as not really a covenant, but a free promise and gift ; not the act or deed of two parties as a compact, but of one as a gift or a testament. The Jew was to be brought gradually to see his dehverance from the "bondage" (Gal. iv. 25; 2 Cor. iii. 6-14; Heb. xii. 18) of Sinai, effected by his increasing faith and knowl- edge, supported by the arguments from Abraham (Gal. iii. 6 ; Rom. iv. 1), and the Prophets (Hab. ii. 9 ; Heb. vii. 18) ; " the Law being his schoolmaster to bring him to Christ " (Gal. iii. 24). The Law ceased at no one time, but to each indi- vidual as his belief and enlightenment progressively emanci- pated him (Rom. xiv. 1 - 6).t It was never formally re- scinded : it died a natural death. Wherever the cessation ot the Law is spoken of, it is as a whole, without reference to moral or ceremonial, letter or spirit. We find no such distinction as that " the Law, as being of Moses, was abrogated, yet, as the Law of the Spirit, still binding " ; % the language of St. Paul is utterly opposed to any such idea. But if all this had been otherwise, it would little concern us ; the Law should be contemplated as a national and local, * The obscurity of the passage is admitted ; but what I have here stated appears to me to be the real tenor of it, though fully aware of the existence of difference of opinion among commentators. t The Rabbis held that distinctions of meats and even the Law itself were to cease when the Messiah came, as also the Sabbath, arguing ex- pressly from Isa. Ixvi. 23. (R. Samuel, in Talmud, in titulo Nidr, Cited by Grotius de Ver., V. 9, 10.) X See Life of Dr. Arnold, I. 355.. 5 50 Tin: LAW and the gospel. rather than as a temporary dispensation ; for, had it not been temporary, it would still have been restricted to one people : the Gentiles would have had no part or concern in its con- tinuance (unless as becoming proselytes to it), nor had they in its cessation. Christianity as addressed to the Gentiles ivas not founded on Judaism : * nor does it imply any substitution of one obligation for another : it stands simply on its own ground : the essential character of its institutions is indepen- dent. Its few observances were in fact at first adopted along until those of Mosaism, by the churches " of the circum- cision," who formed so large a part of the early Christian community. From this circumstance the teaching of the Apostles would necessarily exhibit a large infusion of Judaical ideas ; and we accordingly find them introducing a multitude of adapta- tions of passages from the Old Testament; besides maxims and proverbial sayings (e. g. Rom. xii. 20 ; James v. 20 ; 1 Pet. iv. 8) and forms of expression, habitual among the Jews, which sometimes, mistaken for original sentiments, lead to serious misconceptions. Their reasonings would naturally be built upon opinions currently received, and on appeals to the Jewish Scriptures, of undeniable force to those who recognized its authority; and the introduction of analogies and applications of the incidents and language of the Old Testament (e. g. Rom. vii. 1 ; Eph. vi. 1 ; 1 Pet. iii. 10 ; 1 Tim. V. 18) for the instruction of converts who could only be convinced through such associations of the new truths with the old. * See the whole paragraph in Ignatius (partially quoted at the begin- ning of this essay) for an eloquent exposition of this idea. It includes a passage which, as I think most unnecessarily, has been the subject of much discussion, as supposed to allude to the Lord's day ; but it appears to me that the simple sense of KvpiaKX] (oif] is " the Lord's life," which was to become the pattern of the spiritual life of those Jewish converts who saw their emancipation from the Law, and therefore lived firjKeri aa^^ari^ovTfs, — aWa Kara KvpiaKrjv (ahv ^wvres. See my article " Lord's Day," in Kitto's Cyclopcedia of Biblical Literature. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 51 It is in this waj onlj that the Apostle Paul sanctions any use of the Old Testament Scriptures ; as in the practical and typical accommodation of passages to points of Christian in- struction (Rom. XV. 4; 1 Cor. x. 1, &c.). It was thus that even to Timothy the Old Testament was still to be " profit- able," but only when applied " through faith in Jesus Christ " (2 Tim. iii. 15). And thus St. Peter (the very Apostle of the circumcision) commends the use of the prophetical writ- ings, only as preparatory and auxiliary to the Gospel (2 Pet. i. 19). The more we consider the nature of the precise points of analogy dwelt upon, the more we perceive the independent spiritual characteristics of the Gospel to which they point ; as in the typical application of the temple to the body of Christ, and thence to the community of Christians (1 Cor. iii. 16); of Jerusalem to that which is above (Gal. iv. 26 ; Heb. xii. 22) ; the laver to regeneration (Tit. iii. 5, \ovTp6v ; Exod. XXX. 18, &c.) ; the altar and sacrifices primarily to the death of Christ (Heb. xiii. 10 ; x. 1, &c.) ; and thence in a lower sense to almsgiving (Heb. xiii. 16 ; Phil. iv. 18) ; to praise ; to the reasonable service of Christians (Rom. xii. 1 ; Heb. xi. 20) ; the priesthood primarily to the person and office of Christ, though, in a secondary sense, to all Christians (1 Pet. ii. 9) ; circumcision to purity of heart (Deut. x. 1 6 ; xxx. 6 ; Jer. iv. 4 ; Rom. ii. 29 ; Col. ii. 11) ; the anointing to grace (1 John ii. 20) ; the Sabbath to the rest reserved for the faithful (Heb. iv. 9). In after times the same desire of adap- tation without apostolic warrant, and carried often to extrav- agant lengths, led to a larger use of the Old Testament among Christian writers, and the spirit of allegorizing and evangelizing all parts of it. The Apostles' arguments and representations, misunderstood from want of consideration of the circumstances, and appeals ad hominem taken positively, in modern times have become subjects of endless mistake and confusion. But in the Apostles' teaching we find no dependence recog- nized of the one system on the other ; no such idea as that of 62 TIIK LAW AND THE GOSPEL. a transference of Old Testament ordinances to Christianity ; or the f ulfihnent of one in the other : for example, we find no appeal to the Old Testament for the basis of marriarfe, the reference of St. Paul (Eph. v. 31 ; 1 Cor. vii. 2) to the pri- meval precepts being made only incidentally, and the Chris- tian institution essentially grounded on a different principle ; we perceive no carrying on of the priesthood in the Christian ministry (which was derived from the officers of the syna- gogue^ not of the temple) * ; no continuation of sacrifices in the Lord's supper, or of the Sabbath in the Lord's day (charitable collections were made on the first day of the week,t 1 Cor. xvi. 2), precisely because it was not the Sabbath, on which they were unlawful. Yet, from a misconception of points of analogy in such cases, often directly at variance with the express words of the Apostles, opinions have prevailed on these and the like points tending not a little to perplex and impair the simplicity of the Gospel. All the essentially Christian institutions were independent and simple. We must carefully distinguish from the more essential and permanent, some minor ordinances of a purely temporary and occasional character, which certainly bear a more formal appearance ; but were evidently adopted for the sake of peace and union, and especially for the great objects of mutually conciliating the Jewish and Gentile converts, or from a wish not abruptly to violate existing customs ; as, e. g., the injunctions in the apostolic decree (Acts xv.), already referred to ; and some of those given by St. Paul to the church at Corinth (as throughout 1 Cor. v., vi., and vii.), and to Timoty (1 Tim. v., &c.). The same may be said of the practice of fasting (see Acts * Sec Vitringa, De Sjjnarjogd, of which vahial)le work an excellent abridged translation has been published by the Rev. J. L. Bernard. London. 1842. t Cocceius, quoted by Vitringa, says : " This was ordained on tho first day of the week, as being regarded non ut festum sed ut ipyda-iyiov" See Bernard's Vitringa, pp. 75 and 167. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 53 xiii. 2) ; there does not exist a single precept or hint for its general adoption by Christians, much less is there any sanc- tion for other ascetic observances, which soon claimed an availing merit utterly at variance with the spirit of the Gospel. So far as they had begun to prevail, they met with unequiv- ocal censure (Col. ii. 18-23 ; 1 Tim. iv. 3, 8) from St. Paul. Of other institutions of Christian worship, very little can be collected from the New Testament. At first the disciples met daily for prayer and communion (Acts ii. 26). In one in- stance afterwards it may he implied that they assembled pecuharly on the first day of the week (Acts xx. 7) ; and in the latest period of the New Testament age " the Lord's day " is spoken of once, but wholly without explanation (Rev. i. 10). The ministry and form of church government were bor- rowed directly from the synagogues, which were actually the churches of the Jewish converts. Certain peculiar regula- tions also were connected with the extraordinary gifts (Mark xvi. 17), as temporal visitations (1 Cor. xi. 30, &c.), and the power of inflicting them (1 Cor. v. 5), and the anointing of the sick (James v. 14, comp. with Mark xvi. 18, and vi. 13). Christianity, as indeed it is hardly conceivable should have been otherwise, was at first communicated and established in the way of adaptation in its outward form to existing ideas and conditions. Thus it won its way at first according to the economic dispensations of divine grace ; while its spiritual essence asserted its internal influence over the disciple who had the capacity to receive it ; and under whatever outward aspect, the words of Christ were verified, " The kingdom of heaven is within you." V. Subsequent Views of the Law and the Gospel. The tendency to engraft Judaism in a greater or less degree on Clii'istianity in the early Church, the steps by which such a system advanced and gained ground, and the extent to which it was carried, are not difficult to trace or to explain. But the peculiar turn which has been given to somewhat similar 5* 54 THE LA.W AND THE GOSPEL. ideas in modern times is, apparently, much less easy to justify or account for on any rational principles. The constant appeals of the Apostles to the Old Testament in their arguments with the Jews were doubtless of the most primary importance and convincing cogency with those they addressed ; to the Gentiles they would not have been so ; yet the peculiar character and result of the appeal was, no doubt, felt to be precisely that of valuable testimony extorted from an adverse party, and brought to support our cause, and there- fore in constantly exhibiting which a sort of triumph is felt Hence the more general mtroduction in the early Church, even among the Gentiles, of the Old Testament Scriptures, and the prominence given to them, which continued by custom long after the original occasion had ceased. But, for the Gentile converts, with the broad distinction between themselves and the Jewish churches before their eyes, this reference to the Jewish Scriptures could not by possibility degenerate into such inconsistent notions of their application as would suppose Gentile Christians brought under the obligations of the old precepts. Without direct Judaizing, however, the gradual adoption of some Judaical forms in Christian worship naturally arose out of the synagogal model on which all the first churches were framed. And it would not be a matter of surprise if, occasionally, Judaical ideas should have been thus mixed up with Christian doctrines, institutions, and practices, even to a greater degree than we find was the case. The Jewish converts continued, along with their other pe- cuUarities, to observe the Sabbath, which, it is hardly neces- sary to say, the Gentiles did not. From an early period it seems probable that both Jewish and Gentile churches had begun to hold religious assemblies on the first day of the week. But it is from Justin Martyr* (a. d. 140) that we * Justin,, Apol. i, § 67. For other authorities on this point the reader is referred to my article, " Lord's Day," in Kitto's CycLpoedia of Bib- licaL Literature. thp: law and the gospel. 55 first learn the regular establislimcnt of this practice, as well as its professed ground and object ; as being the day on which the work of creation was begun, and on whicli also the new spiritual creation was commenced by the resurrection of Christ. Other writers * adopt more fanciful analogies, refer- ring to the Mosaic creation ; yet always distinctly such as to exclude all idea of any reference to a primitive Sabbath (had they believed in it), which would have been an entire con- fusion of ideas between the day of the commencement of the creation and that of its cessation. In the course of the first few centuries many corruptions had crept in ; and we then for the first time trace some in- creasing precision in the observance of the Lord's day, upheld in certain expressions of Tertullian f (a. d. 200), Dionysius of Corinth (somewhat later), Clement of Alexandria,! Hilary,§ and others. These writers speak of the Lord's day in conjunction with the Sabbath, but always in the way of contrast, and as ob- viously distinct institutions. And doubtless, with the view of conciliating the Judaizing churches it was that the celebration of both days was afterwards enjoined, both in the so-called Apos- tolic Constitutions || (a forgery of the fourth century), and by Constantine,^ who first prohibited business on the Lord's day, * In the spurious Epistle of Barnabas (which, as generally allowed a forgery of the second or third century, may be taken as evidence of views then held) the writer makes out a comparison of the six days of the Creation with six ages of the world, followed by a seventh of rest under the Gospel, to which is to succeed an eighth of final triumph, and " therefore," he adds, " we keep the eighth day with joy, on which also Jesus rose from the dead." {Ep. I. 15.) t De Omt. § 23. t Strom. VII 744. § Comm. in Psabn. Pro!. \\ Apost. Const. VII. 24. H Euseb. IV. De Vit. Const 18. See also Jortin's Remarks, III 326, A singular exemplification of the continuance of this twofold observ- ance, carried out even to a great degree of rigor, and preserved to mod- ern times, has been presented in the discovery by Major Harris of an ancient Judaized Christian church in the interior of Ethiopia. Some- thing similar has also been noticed by Mr. Grant among the Nestorians in Ai'menia. 56 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. with a special exception in favor of the labors of agriculture. The Council of Laodicea,* however, took an opposite tone, and censured the Sabbath, while it enjoined the Lord's day. But tliough a certain kind of assimilation between the two institutions was carried farther by some later \vriters, yet neither Avas the observance itself pushed to the extent which has since been sometimes contended for ; nor w^as it possible for that confusion of ideas between the two institutions to arise w^liich in modern times has occasionally prevailed ; and still less was such a notion as that of any transfer of the obli- gations of the one to the other, or any change in the day, ever conceived-t Down to later times we trace some remains of the observ- ance of the Sabbath in the solemnization of Saturday as the eve or vigil of the Lord's day. The constant reference to the Old Testament law on the part of the Jewish converts not unnaturally led to the disposi- tion to find for it at least some sort of allegorical application to the Gentiles. Thus, guided possibly by the figurative language of the Apostle (Heb. iv. 4), and the fondness for what they termed evangelizing the Old Testament, some of the Fathers adopted the idea of a metaphorical interpretation of the fourth commandment (where, of course, the literal sense could not apply) in the case of Gentile converts, as meaning the perpetual service of a Christian life. | More generally, the practice of introducing even thus in- directly the sanctions of the Old Testament in later times * Counc. of Laodicea, Can. XXIX. t Yet so inveterate has this absurd idea become in the minds of mod- cm divines, that even so acute and independent a writer as Bishop War- burton, arguing too expressly against tlie Sabbatists, speaks inciden- tally of "a diange in the day having been made by the primitive Church," which it most assuredly never was. {Div. Leg. IV. 34, note.) { Thus Justin Martyr [Dial, cum Tri/plio, 229) says, "Sa^^ari^eiv ^/xa? 6 KaLvos vufios biaTravTOi ideXei. And later, to the same effect, Augustine (Ep. 119) observes, "Inter omnia decern prrecepta solum ibi quod de sabbato positum est figurate observandum prfecipitur." THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 57 began to assume the character of a more direct habitual ac- knowledgment of its authority. And in the earlier stage of the Reformation, some more precise theories of this kind found ready support in the extravagant notions of the literal apph- cations of Scripture into which the violent reaction of opinions carried a portion of the Reformers, involving very peculiar notions of what was termed " the moral law " of the Old Tes- tament, and the obligation of the Sabbath as a chief point and instance of it : a phrase, the very use of which betrays some confusion of thought, and has been at the root of all the popular errors on the subject. The main outline of the theory seems to have been this : it was held that the Old Testament, and more especially the Decalogue, was designed to convey a revelation of the moral law to all mankind ; that this law, without reference to any anterior distinctions of natural morality or the like, derives its whole force and obhgation from the sole will of God positively declared, and is to be found specially summed up in these precise commandments ; that all men are really subject to it even though in ignorance of it, whether Jews or Gentiles ; but all, even when endeavoring to live by it, are in a state of bondage and stand condemned by it : from this bondage and condemnation the Gospel by grace and faith releases them, and they are then free from the law of works, and enjoy " Christian liberty." And there are not wanting some who pushed this idea still further, and would in fact make this freedom involve a release from the obligations of morahty ; which is indeed no more than a direct consequence, if moral obligations are derived from no other source than those positive commandments. Such was the consistent theory of Antinomianism, a theory which might appear startling to those not versed in theological systems, but which re- ceived obvious proof from the Hteral application of Scripture texts. But against such tenets of legal and sabbatical formalism, Luther, with his accustomed masterly grasp of the breadth and depth of evange'Hcal principles, most strenuously con- 58 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. tended,* as did also Calvin,t especially denouncing the notion of the moral obligation of the Sabbath as one of the " follies of false prophets " (nugae pseudo-prophetarum), more forcibly still in his French version, as " mensonges des faux docteurs." Calvin also appears once to have had an intention of fixing the day of Christian worship on Thursday, as h<^ said, " to evince Christian liberty " ; and in a similar spirit Tindal says, " We are lords of the Sabbath, and may change it to Monday or any other day, or appoint every tenth day, or two days in a week, as we find it expedient." % The idea of changing a Divine institution, if obligatory at all, still shows some of the common confusion prevailing in the Reformer's mind. The complete doctrine of an identification of the Lord's day with the Sabbath seems to have been first formally pro- pounded by Dr. Bound (1595), — a divine of great authority among the Puritans, — from whom it was adopted by the Westminster Assembly in their Confession, and thence has become a recognized tenet of the Scottish and other Presby- terian communions in Great Britain and America, though as wholly unknown to the Continental Protestants as to the old unreformed Church. In later times this idea has been variously modified. Some, acting up to the commandment in strictness, consistently keep holy the seventh day of the week. Many adopt the distinc- tion of the Jewish Sabbath, though we can find but one Sab- bath mentioned in the Bible, or speak of the Christian Sab- bath,— an institution wholly without warrant in the Christian Scriptures. Some turn away from all such distinctions, as mere questions of words and names. It is indeed wholly un- important by what name we choose to designate anything; but it is important that we are not misled by the name to mis- take the thing. It is, however, a tenet nowhere inculcated in the authorized formularies of the Church of Endand. Thf» Decalogue in- * Comm. on Gal. iv. 8 - 11. t hstit., II. c. 8, § 28-34. X Reply to Sir T. More. See Moi-er on Lord's day, 216. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 59 troduced into the Communion Service is of course to be fairly interpreted by the Catechism ; where the explanation of the fourth commandment is simply, " to serve God truly all the days of my life," and that such a continual service is the only Christian Sabbath accords with the ideas of the Fathers before referred to. It is true, among the divines of most approved reputation in the English Church there has been all along a division of opinion on the subject, not unmixed probably with the contin- ued struggle between the Puritanizing and the Catholicizing extremes of the Reformation. They nearly all, however, even those most opposed to the Puritanical views, more or less seem intent rather on endeavoring to moderate between opposing opinions and attempting a middle path of compro- mise, than on grasping firmly the broad principle and main- taining a clear consistency in their own views. With many the plea of utility prevails : they allege that the restraints of the Law are still requisite for the many : that " a preparatory discipline is as needful now as former- ly "; * that the terrors of the Law are necessary to prepare men for the mercies of the Gospel. Yet in the case of a divine appointment, what right have we to model its applica- tion according to our ideas of the necessity of the case, or our conceptions of utility ? Again, it is often elaborately argued, on the other hand, that such or such institutions are in their nature ceremonial, or would be burdensome or impracticable for general adoption, and on that account are to be believed not generally obligatory. But the real question is. Supposing they were not so, were they intended to apply to us ? In a question of divine obli- gation it is not the supposed excellence of an institution which would make it obligatory, any more than its inconvenience or inutility would annul it were it really enjoined. Many who argue in support of the abrogation of tlie Law in fact take unnecessary trouble to prove the abolition of * See 'Pusey on Rationalism, I. 134 60 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. obligations of which they have not shoAvn the existence. Others, contending for the repeal of some parts of the Law, labor to defend the exceptions before they have established the rule. The onus prohandi lies on those who would im- pose the obligation, not on those who contend that it never existed. It might be thought that the great natural principles of right and wrong evinced by reason would be too plain to admit of misapprehension or question. Yet when the refer- ence is made to such principles of moral sense implanted in our nature, there are many who object to such a view of moral obligation as carnal and unevangelical. It is, however, on all hands admitted, that when we turn to the pages of the New Testament, in point of fact all duties which can come under the denomination of moral, on any theory, are distinctly included and laid down even in literai precepts, (though certainly nowhere exhibited in any one code or summary,) but, much more, implied and involved in the ^^■hole spirit and tenor of the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles. This then to all parties may suffice to furnish a simple unassailable basis of Christian moral obligation. It is no doubt true also that some of the same moral duties (though by no means all of them) were enjoined in particular jDrecepts of the Mosaic Law and the prophetical books. But those who receive the Gospel simply as the universal revelation of God's will will surely acknowledge the obliga- tion of those duties, not because they may be found prescriljcd in the Old Testament, but because they form part of the spirit and principles of the New. On any intelligible view of the principles of moral obliga- tion, it is perfectly clear that a precept to consecrate any por- tion of time is in its nature a positive, not a moral injunction : tiuit on no moral gi'ounds can we regard one day as more sacred than another ; and practical reasons for devoting set portions of time to religious purposes cannot apply to one seventh more than to any other portion of time. If so, just in the same way it might be argued, for example, cleanliness is a THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 61 virtue ; hence the ablutions and purifications of the Law are moral precepts perpetually binding. But though there is no foundation for Sabbatism in natural morality, yet there is a deep-seated one in natural formalism. No moral or religious benefits, however, can justify a corrup- tion of Christianity or the encouragement of superstition. The plea of civil and social benefits derivable from such observances has been the favorite argument Avith many who take up the question rather on the ground of external policy than of religious truth, — and especially as maintaining a con- venient hold on the minds of the multitude, which they are desirous to secure even by legislative coercion. In a word, their Sabbatism is precisely that of the legislators and philos- ophers of the heathen world, who by the very same arguments upheld their religious festivals.* Nor can we fail to trace precisely the same spirit in the Jewish Rabbis, who, well knowing human nature, avowed the maxim, doubtless most acceptable to the many, — " The Sabbath weigheth against all the commandments." t Such, however, are the views which, in one form or an- other, have become very general among our countrymen, who, under the narrow prepossessions of an exclusive education, (in which the Decalogue, in its letter, wholly unexplained, too often forms the main religious instruction,) are commonly surprised and scandalized when they find in other Christian countries those tenets wholly unknown in which they have been kept studiously blindfolded by religious teachers, many of whom, too, know better. Increased intercourse and information, however, it may be hoped, is now opening the eyes of many to the peculiarly * Thus Seneca speaks of the practice of all legislators to enjoin pub- lic festivals and periods of relaxation as essential to the good of the state {De Tranq. Anim.) ; and Plato, carrying the matter higher, says, " The gods, pitying mankind born to painful labor, appointed for an ease and cessation of their toils the recurrence of festival seasons ob- served to the gods." [De Leg., II. 787.) t Midrash, in Exod. xxvi. 62 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. national prejudices on these subjects ; an object to which nothing seems more hkely to contribute than attention to the simple matter-of-fact view of the whole question here at- tempted to be followed up. Conclusion. To recapitulate and conclude : — " God spake in times past in sundry portions and under divers forms to the fathers " ; but " in these last days unto us by his Son." All the Divine declarations are to be understood according to their manifest purpose, and with reference to the parties addressed. It may be true, that " God spake these words," but not therefore to us. Our concern is not with what was atjirst, but with what has been revealed " in these last days." The Old Testament is to us nothing, except as applied in the New. Temporary/ dispensations have passed away, and with national dispensa- tions we have no concern. We Gentiles are " not under the Law," not because it has been abolished, but because to us it never existed. The New Testament does not bring us under the Old. If we were not " under grace," we should only be under nature, not the Law. Meats and days, ordinances and Sabbaths, if primeval, have ceased ; if Judaical, are national. To introduce such observances under the plea of utility and policy, is to disparage Divine authority. Expediency is not to be set up against truth. Our sole rule must be that of Gospel truth : to adopt any other is to pretend to know more of the will of God than is revealed in the Gospel. Christianity recognizes the uni- versal and eternal moral law ; but exalts and enlarges it, and sets it on a firmer basis. Distinctions of days have no con- nection with morality ; under the Gospel no one day is more holy than another ; its service is a perpetual one, " in spirit and in truth." Christianity is not the religion of Moses, nor of Abraham, nor of Adam, but something far better. To mix it with ex- traneous additions, even from those dispensations, is to pervert its very nature and object, which is to supersede and crown THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 63 them all ; — to impair its efficacy by ingrafting on it an un- evangelic formalism most alien from its spirit ; — to lay it open to the attacks of the objector, and give the strongest handle to scepticism. And to instil such principles in educa- tion in these times is but to lay the train for a fearful reac- tion ; when, on the contrary, it ought to be the more peculiar endeavor of every sincere and enlightened advocate of the Gospel to vindicate its spiritual and rational character, and the practical simplicity of its principles, — at once the source of its power, the test of its truth, and the ground of its sta- bility and perpetuity. THE DOCTEINE OF INSPIEATIOJST. By Dk. F. a. D. THOLUCK, PBOFESSOK OP THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITT OP HAIXE.* Part I. — HISTORICAL. Sect. 1. — Introductory. — The Reformers and their Imme- diate Successors. — Origin, in Modern Times, of the rigid ,View of Inspiration. The older form of doctrine concerning the Inspiration of the Scriptures furnished Rationalism with one of its chief points of attack upon the teaching of the Church. This older doctrine, however, does not reach so far back as the age of the Reformation. As regards the great witnesses of the Refor- mation, so mightily had the word of God in the Scriptures made good to their hearts the " demonstration of the spirit and of power" (1 Cor. ii. 4) belonging to it, that, without feeling any necessity to account in detail for those constituent parts of Scripture, in which that word of God was not con- tained, they bore this testimony as with one voice, — " Here is the word of God, the standard of all Truth." But, in proportion as matters drew near to the close of that first Protestant period, in which, tlu-ough the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the soul and the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures reciprocally, the direct evidence of Evangelical truth was sus- * Translated from the German for Eatto's Jom-nal of Sacred Literature. 6* 66 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. tained in life ; and in proportion as controversy, sharpened by Jesuitism, made the Protestant party sensible of the necessity of an externally fortified ground of combat; in that same proportion did Protestantism seek, by the exaltation of the outwardly authoritative character of the sacred writings, to recover that infallible authority w^hich it had lost through its rejection of inspired councils and the infallible authority of the Pope. In this manner arose, amongst both Lutheran and Reformed divines, not earlier, strictly speaking, than the seventeenth century, those sentiments concerning the inspiration of Holy Scripture which regarded it as the infallible production of the Divine Spirit, not merely in its religious, but in its entire con- tents ; and not merely in its contents, but also in its xery form. In both Protestant churches (the Lutheran and the Reformed) it was t'aught that the writers of the Bible were to be regard- ed as writing-pens wielded by the hand of God,* and amanu- enses of the Holy Spirit who dictated,! w^hom God uses as the flute-player does his instrument ; | not only the sense, but also the words, and not these merely, but even the letters, and the vowel-points, which in Hebrew are written under the consonants, — according to some, the very punctuation, — pro- ceeded from the Spirit of God.§ It is true, that there are modes of conception and expression, and individual diversities, apparent in the sacred authors ; but these were to be regarded only as the effect of the Holy Spirit's adaptation. || It might be further submitted as a question, whether the Holy Spirit descended to grammatical errors, barbarisms, and solecisms. By Afusaeus and some others, indeed, this was asserted to be the case : but by the greater number such an assumption was considered blasphemous ; and by Quenstedt and others the difficulty was so far disposed of, that what to the Greeks Avaa * "Dei calami." t " Spiritus sancti dictantis notarii." t Quenstedt, Theol. Didact. Polcm., P. I. 55. Heideyger, Corp. Theol II. 34. § Caloviii!?, I. 484. Maresius, Syntag. Theol., p. 8. 11 Quenstedt, Theol. Didact. Polem., P. I. 76. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 67 a barbarism, was not necessarily such in the eyes of the Church.* By some, again, the thorough purity and classical character of the New Testament language were asserted.f With greater or less consistency and strictness, this opinion is still adhered to by the Kirk of Scotland [and the Free Church]. It has also found in Professor Gaussen,J of the Evangelical Academy at Geneva, a devout and rhetorical defender, causing even a violent breach in the bosom of that institution. In Germany it has been advocated by Rudelbach, whose treatise, however, in the Lutherischen Zeitschrift von Rudelbach und Gueriche, from 1840 till the present time (1850), has been occupied solely with the historical part of the question. But among the great majority of German theologians, the defenders, too, of an orthodox theology, in consequence of the historico-critical biblical investigations in- troduced since the middle of the last century, the rigidity of the system which prevailed during the seventeenth century has been more and more relaxed ; and the Protestant theology of foreign countries also, such as that of the Church of Eng- land and of the Dissenters, as also that of the French, Dan- ish, and Swedish churches, has given to the dogma of inspira- tion a more liberal construction. In the succeeding historical part of this Essay, which, by the way, makes no pretension to scientific fulness and com- pleteness, it shall be shown, first of all, that the more liberal aspect referred to has no unfriendly bearing upon Evangehcal doctrine. So far from its being open to the suspicion of being the fruit of modern Rationalism, it has, on the contrary, ybwwc? advocates in all ages of the Church, and, at least, was involun- tarily developed as soon as a person reflected upon the pecu- liarities of the text. By the Lutheran historian of the doc- trine, mentioned above,§ witnesses of this kind are for the most part passed over in silence, especially those in the early ■* Ibid., p. 84. 1 H. Stephens. Seb. Pfochen, HoUaz, Georgi, and others. \ In his work, " La Theopneustie, ou I'lnspiration Pleniere/* &c. \ Rudelbach. 68 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. Church. The present Essay will supply this defect. But although this be so, not only is it impossible on this account to consider it un- Christian, it cannot even for once be shown to be un-LutJieran. Of course, we say this on the assumption that we do not regard the rigorous propositions of Lutheran divines, any more than the more liberal individual expressions of Luther, as constituting the measure of what is Lutheran, but confine our attention solely to the Lutheran confessions of faith. For, while the more rigid definitions of inspiration above alluded to are omitted in some Reformed symbols,* for instance, in the Formula Consensus, the Lutheran symbols contain no express declaration whatever upon the inspiration of the Scriptures. The expressions which have a bearing upon the question in the symbolical books are found collected by KoUner in his Symbolic der Lutherischen Kirche, p. 612, vSect. 2. — The Inspired Word distinguished. The word inspiration,^ borrowed from 2 Tim. iii. 16, char- acterizes the contents of the sacred writings as having pro- ceeded from the breath, the spirit of God. In what man- ner arises in the minds of the readers of a theopneustic + writing this conviction of its origin ? AVe answer : It arises from the certainty that the effects produced by the contents of the writing upon the intellect, the will, and the feeling, are capable of leading to a religiously moral self-satisfaction, — as that passage expresses it, they are able " to make the man of God perfect^ Now the truth is, that, properly speaking, the Scripture is for those contents — for the divinely efhca- cious facts, expressions, and truths — only the vessel which contains them ; but the immediate consciousness, by metony- my, transfers what may be predicated of the contents, to the containing vessel itself A clear illustration of this is supplied by Gal. iii. 8 : " And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen by faith, preached before the Gospel unto * Stimdards, or doctrinal creeds. — Tr. t " Eingcistung " = inspiriting. \ Divinely inspired. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. G9 Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Here the gift of prophecy is ascribed to the writing itself, because it contains predictions. Those parts of the contents of Scrip- ture, however, from which the effects above referred to do not directly flow, such as a genealogical table, a list of encamp- ments, and the like, stand more or less in indirect connection, at least, with the rest. As long, then, as the immediate religious consciousness has not developed itself into reflection, it extends the idea of in- spiration to these portions of Scripture also, although not without the slumbering acknowledgment that the Divine breath, or spirit, does not exercise an equtd control through- out the whole : in proportion as it is external and incidental is it less in degree. That this acknowledgment does slumber in the background is evident as soon as reflection is directed to such incidental externahties. Let us suppose it to be proved to the simple-minded Christian that Paul, in 1 Cor. x. 8, where he writes, " There fell in one day twenty-three thou- sand," must have committed an error of memory, inasmuch as in the Old Testament narrative recording the fact,* the num- ber twenty-four thousand is given ; or, that Matthew commits an error of memory when he ascribes the passage concerning the thirty pieces of silver to Jeremiah,t while it really occurs in Zechariah xi. 12, 13. Wliat condition would he be in? At first, doubtless, he would confidently declare that no error of memory could exist, — that there might be some other solution of the difficulty ; although to all learned men such solution were unknown. But suppose that upon this it should be explained to him that Paul, in 1 Cor. i. 16, while writing an inspired Epistle, does really not lay claim to infallibility of memory in such details. J What would be his reply to this ? From his own religious necessity, he would have no objection whatever to offer to such (supposed) failure of memory ; only he would still be unable to suppress the fear, that, by conced- * Numb. XXV. 9. t Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. X "And I baptized also the household of Stephanas : besides, I knew not that I baptized anij other J" 70 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. ing failure of memory in one place, other and more material truths of Scripture might lose their certainty and infallibility. If one could only set him at rest on this matter, — by making it manifest to his mind that the evidence of no material truth would be thereby impaired, — he would doubtless willingly abandon the accuracy of those statements, as a thing not essential to his religious wants. Sect. 3. — TJie Fathers. With this kind of unreflecting reverence for the Sacred Scriptures as records proceeding from the Spirit of God, and pervaded by him, we find the ancient Church Fathers also filled. We discover amongst them no searching exposition, no elaborated theory. Nay, what is altogether remarkable, we do not find these things even during the lapse of succeeding centuries, until, after the Reformation, we reach the doctrinal theology of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Men were satisfied with general and occasional expressions. Wliere the Church Fathers, without reflecting more precisely upon details, give us the sum total of their impression concerning the Holy Scripture, they acknowledge their belief in its in- spiration, and designate it by the names, " Divine writing," " divinely inspired writing," " Instrumentum divinum," " Coe- lestes Literae," &c. Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second century, says : " Such exalted things could not be known by human reflection, but only by means of a heavenly gift which de- scended upon holy men. These men needed no artificial eloquence, — no skilful art of disputation : but they merely yielded up their pure souls to the inward operation of the Divine Spirit. As a bow upon a lyre evokes tones of music, so the Deity used these pious men as instruments to make known to us heavenly things." * " The Holy Scriptures," says Origen, in the third century. * Cohort, ad Gentes, c. 8. [For his views on the inspiration of th« Prophets, see his Apol. I., 56, 57, ed. Paris, 1815. — Tr.] THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 71 " are penetrated throughout as by the wind by the fulness of the Spirit ; and there is nothing therein, either in the Prophets, or the Law, or the Gospels, or in the Apostolical writings, which does not proceed from the Divine Majesty." * Eusebius, in the fourth century, commenting on Psalm xxxiii. 34, declares : " I hold it to be presumptuous for any man to say that the Holy Scripture has erred." t Augustine, also, in the fourth century, declares it as his "most settled belief, that none of the writers of the books called canonical committed any error whatever in writing." J At the same time, however, they may have had in view the sense of Scripture more than the words ; for so carelessly were verbal citations then made, that the writers who flour- ished up to the end of the second century quote the language of Scripture sometimes from oral traditions, but for the most part merely from memory, and, at times, with the greatest deviations from our text. Besides, the Old Testament was known to them only in the Alexandrian Greek translation (Septuagint), and they must, therefore, if they claimed for the Book a literal inspiration, extend it, without any warrant for so doing, to that translation also. This Justin Martyr does ; but none else. At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that many of their expressions give far more explicit proof that their general statements concerning the divinity of the sacred writings are not to be understood absolutely. At all events, * In Jerem. Horn. II. t Also his Eccles. Hist., Lib. III. cap. 24. X " Ego solis eis scripturanim libris, qui jam canonic! appellantur, didici hunc timorem honoremqiie deferre, ut nullum eorum auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissime credam." [At the same time, it cannot be denied that passages are also to be met with, especially in Augustine and Jerome, from which it is evident that there were occasions on which they were compelled to modify their views. Thus Augustine accounts for the variations found in many parts of the Gospels on the principle that each writer exercised freely his mental faculties, and presented his o-\vn peculiar aspect of facts and circum- stances, &c. Henderson, 'Div. Insp., 2d ed., p. 50. — Tr.] 72 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. tliey did not refer to it in tlie sense in which it has been taught by the post-Reformation divines. We begin witli a man who was an immediate disciple of our Lord, — the Presbyter John. Far from entertaining the idea that the contents of their writings were supernaturally dehvered to the Apostles, — and, by the way, the passage in Luke i. 1 — 3 would not agree with such a supposition, — he relates concerning the composition of the Gospel of Mark as follows : " He (Mark) was the interpreter of Peter, and carefully recorded all that he retained from him in his memory, without binding himself to the chronological order of the words and deeds of Christ," * In like manner, Irenasus, about the end of the second cen- tury, cannot have held the opinion that the contents of Paul's writings had been imparted to him while in a purely passive state. A treatise was composed by this Father " On the Pe- culiarities of the Pauline Style," in which he acknowledges the unsyntactic construction of the Apostle, and accounts for it on the ground of " the rapidity of his utterances, and the impulsiveness of spirit which distinguished him." f Such an influence of his personal peculiarity upon his expres- sions w^ould be incompatible with the assumption that the Apostle at the time of inspiration was in a purely passive state. Origen, although in other respects an advocate of the most rigid theory of inspiration, boldly makes a distinction between the words of the Lord and those of the Apostles. He says : " Those who are truly wdse in Christ are of opinion that the Apostolical writings have indeed been disposed wisely, credi- bly, and with reverence for God ; but, nevertheless, not to be compared with such declarations as 'Thus saith the Lord Almighty.' And on this account we must consider whether, when Paul says, ' All Scripture is inspired by God and use- * Eusebius, Eccles. Hist , III. 39. t " Vclocitas sermonuin suorum, et propter impetum, qui in ipso est, spiritfis." THE doctri:ne of inspiration. 73 fid,' * he includes liis own Epistles, and whether he would exclude some parts of them, such as those where it is said, ' That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord' ;^ and this, *■ As I teach everywhere in every church ' ; % and again, ' At Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured' ; § and other like things which here and there he has written of his own knowledge, and by authority {kut i^ovalav), but yet which have not flowed forth purely and entirely from divine inspiration." || He declares, also, that, according to the his- torical sense, an insoluble contradiction exists between John and Matthew in relation to our Lord's last Passover journey. " I believe it to be impossible," he says, " for those who upon this subject direct attention merely to the external history, to prove that this apparent contradiction is capable of being harmonized." ^ Augustine, who, on the one hand, is unwilling that it should be said that Christ wrote nothing, since the Apostles were only his hands in writing,** declares, nevertheless, on the other hand,tt that each of the Evangelists has written, some- times more and sometimes less fully, as each remembered, and as each had it in his heart : | j and asserts §§ that the words * Dr. Tholuck's rendering : " Alle Schrift ist von Gott eingegeben und nutzlich." Gr. EEatra ypa^a. >-ive ])unctorum saltem poti;statem, et tuni quoad res, turn (^ucjau vtina, 84 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. treatise entitled " Quonsque se extendat Auctoribus Scriptural Inspiratio." * " Not a word," it is here said, " is contained in the Holy Scriptures which was not in the strictest sense in- spired, — the very interpunctuation not excepted : even what the writers previously knew was given them afresh by inspi- ration ; and this was the case, not indeed as it regards impres- sions of things mtelligible by the exercise of their natural faculties, but as it regards formal conception and actual record." In direct contradiction to Luke i. 1-3, to the ques- tion, " Whether ordinary study, inquiry, and premeditation were necessary for writing (the Scriptures)," it is replied (p. 47) : " No ; for the Spirit immediately, extraordinarily, and infallibly moved them to write, and both inspired and dictated the things to be written." Besides the two great Protestant Churches, the adherents of Luther and Calvin, we must also take into consideration the followers of Socinus. Agreeing with the Reformers re- ■ specting the inspiration of the Scriptures, it was nevertheless maintained by Socinus, in his treatise " De Auctoritate Scrip- turse," t that into things " which are of small moment," the Evangelists and Apostles have allowed slight errors to enter ; and agreeably with such a notion, the commentators of this party, here and there, acknowledge errors of memory in the Biblical writers. But, even amongst the great Protestant Churches, there went forth in the seventeenth century, side by side with that extreme theory already mentioned, another of a more mod- erate character. This, however, met with great opposition. Li the Reformed Church (followers of Calvin), we find learned theologians, of the French Academy at Saumur espe- cially, unhesitatingly admitting here and there an incorrect apprehension of the Old Testament by the writers of the New, or errors of memory. We also find German Reformed theologians, such as Junius, Piscator, and others, equally free in their sentiments. The liberal tendency of opinion thus * " Disputationes Selectae/' p. 1. t Chap. I. p. 15. THE DOCTUINE OF INSPIRATION. 85 manifested was reduced to more general exegetico-dogmatical principles by the Arminian party, who were thrust out of the Dutch Reformed Church. Grotius, in his " Plea for Peace," * avows his belief that the historical books of Scripture, in dis- tinction from the prophetical, can lay claim to nothing beyond credit for the ability of the writers, and their sincere desire to communicate the truth.f In the treatise " Riveti Apologia Discuss.," p. 723, it is asked, by way of affirmation to tlie contrary, " Has Luke said. The word of the Lord came to Luke, and the Lord said to him, Write ? " A thorough re- modelhng of the earher theory of inspiration, and its reduc- tion to some such form as has been defended by the supra- naturalists of more recent tunes, is found in the Eleventh Letter in the works of the Arminian Le Clerc. J Episcopius § ascribes to the Apostles only an assistance of the Divine Spirit in the composition of works which proceeded from their own determination ; and allows that in such passages as the genealogy in Matthew ch. i. errors may possibly have crept in. In the Lutheran Church it was Calixt, || in the middle of the sixteenth century, who gave forth a more liberal theory of inspiration. The distinction between revelatio and assisten- tia or directio divina, which had widely prevailed in the Catholic theology, he adopted, and maintained " that God did not reveal in a peculiar manner to the sacred writers those things which naturally struck their senses, or were otherwise known to them ; but still that he so directed and aided them as that they should write nothing contrary to the truth." Nay, more, he even limits the revelatio to those truths only * " Votum pro Pace Ecclesiastica." t Opera Theol., ed. Amsterd. 1679, III. 672. — Tr. X " Sentimens de quelques Theologiens de HoUande sur I'Histoire Critique du V. Test." Composee par Rich. Simon. 1685. § " Instit. Theologize," III. 5. 1. II For an account of this remarkable divine and controversialist, see Mollcr, " Cimbra Literata," and Mosheim by Murdoch, Cent. 17, S- 2, p. 2, ch. 1. Schlegel's note to sect. 21. — Tr. 8G THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. wliicb Thomas Aquinas had fixed upon as the peculiar .'uid direct objects of faith. These sentiments were still more widely diffused by the school of the Helmstadt theologians. In the Swiss and French Reformed Churches, the sentiments of Le Clerc met with a welcome reception. In the " Theologie Chretienne " of the celebrated Pictet, Professor in Geneva (1702), the inspiration of Scripture is limited to the truth which was knowable by Revelation alone. From this were distinguished — while based upon it — those conceptions which were pecu- liar to the Apostles themselves. Revelation was restricted to those things which by natural means were not known to them. As to all other things a divine guidance in preventing error was adopted. Sect. 6. — State of Opinion in England. A freer treatment of the question — namely, the limitation of inspiration to the subject-matter — has from the first, along with individual advocates of a more rigid view, found place in the English Church.* Several Dissenters, also, eminently distinguished for their exemplary piety, occupy the same liberal ground.f The Presbyterian Church of Scotland alone has continued up to the present day to adhere to the straitcst acceptation of the idea of inspiration. The free spiritual insight of Baxter in that celebrated work, " The Reformed Pastor," is especially surprising. He says : " As the glory of the Divine Maker shines more brilliantly in the whole frame of nature than in an individual grain, stone, or insect ; and in the whole man, more than in any particular part of least comeliness ; so also the authority of God shines forth more visibly in the whole system of Holy Scripture and holy doc- trine than in any minor part. Nevertheless, for the advan- * Vide Lowth's Vindication of the Old and New Test., 1692; "VVil- Hams's Boylo Lecture, 1695; Clarke's Div. Authority of Holy Script., 1699, &c. t Baxter's Method Thcol. Christ. 1G81 ; Doddridjjc's Dissertation on Inspiration of N. Test., &c. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 87 fage of the whole system, these parts arc not "wanting in beauty any more than the others, such as the hair and nails. But their authority is to be seen more from their agreement with the whole of Scripture, and from their more distinguish- ing portions, than from themselves separately." Here alone in an orthodox divine of the seventeenth century does the question meet with a complete treatment, in which, on the one hand, the conception of Scripture as an organism, and, on the other hand, the argument from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, stand forth as fundamental ideas. Sect. 7. — Progress of Opinion in Germany, 8^c. in the Eighteenth Century. With the beginning of the eighteenth century, in Germany, the firmly built fabric of the traditional ecclesiastical system began, upon this question as upon others, to totter. The following circumstances were instrumental in bringing about this result. The peculiarity of the Cahxtine efforts has been pointed out in a recent Monograph upon George Calixt, as follows : " There lies therein the opposition of religious to dogmatic salvation,* together with an appeal to the nature and foundation of the early Apostolic Church. To such an extent had exclusive zeal in attaching importance to dogmas been carried, that the body of dogmatic declarations, sepa- rately and conjointly, had nearly been exalted to the position of an arbiter respecting the reception or non-reception of eternal life. Against this domination over, and entire absorp- tion of, faith by mere dogma, Calixt raised his voice." t In a * That is, we suppose, Salvation through the possession of reUglous principle was opposed to salvation (so called) through the mere reception of certain dogmas. — Tr. t Gasz : George Calixt, und der Sjjnlretismus, p. 11. "Syncretism." — This term, in the seventeenth century, marks the great controversy between Calixt and the more bigoted sections of the Protestant Church. This divine had travelled much abroad, and intercourse with different churches had given him a liberalized tone of feeling which led him to propose a cessation of Jiostilities between Protestants and Romanists, 88 THE DOCTRINE OF IXSPIRATION. manner purely practical, the same necessity made itseli' felt in the pietism which arose at the end of the seventeenth century. Led on by the exclusively practical power of inward religion, this pietism was indifferent to the dogmatical system of the day, and attended solely to the fundamental truths, by means of which the religious life in man is awakened. The estab- lished doctrine of inspiration w^as not even touched upon by Spener, except that he impugns the notion of the pure pas- siveness of its recipients, and maintains the influence of human peculiarities upon the form of the discourse or writing.* As, however, traditional reverence for the earlier dogmatical sys- tem gave way, and as the spiritual tone of pietism was again corrupted into mere externalism, — in that proportion was preparation made, as soon as scientific appliances could be so directed, to combat as erroneous and dangerous those decisions which had hitherto been considered as indifferent. In addition to this, there came an impulse from without. Earlier even than in Germany, a relaxed notion of inspira- tion, nay, indeed, a notion reducing it to its very minimum, had spread itself in England. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the writings of the laxer English clergy, of the Dissenters as well as of the Deists, had found an ever- increasing reception amongst the theologians of Germany. Besides, about the middle of the century, orthodox culture, and the inward spiritualism promoted by the pietists, had been superseded amongst many of the German divines by a purely literary interest. From the scrutiny of this new and — " not to unite together and become one body, as his opponents interpreted him to mean, but — to abstain from mutual hatred, and cul- tivate mutual love and good-will." He was an Aristotelian in Philos- ophy, as a theologian had strong sympathy with tlie Fathers, and ■wished to find in the " Apostles' Creed " and the usages and doctrines of the first five centuries a common ground of union for the three great sections of German Christians, the Roman Cadiolic, the Lutheran, and the Reformed or Calvinist Churches. This doctrine -was branded as "Syncretism." Mosh. Eccl. Hist, Cent. 17, Sect. 21. Notes by Schlegel. — Tr. t Consilia Theologica, I. p. 46 et scq. THE DOOTHIXE OF IXSriRATION". 89 power, those contradictions which had been discovered — indubitable fruits of historico-critical inquiry during the domi- nance of the more rigid theory of inspiration — could not remain concealed. The history of the middle of the eigh- teenth century gives us the impression that that was a period of general mental indolence, not only in theology, but also in philosophy, in the arts, and in pohtics. Even that which had been retained from the earlier theory of inspiration, moved on now with difficulty only as a dead tradition, in respect to which living faith was quite as much wanting as courage for a total negation of it. Upon this age of indolence, about the middle of the century, there follows, in the second half of it, in the province of Theology as in others, an energetic striv- ing to beat out new paths. The spirit of the age had been already alienated from the kernel of the earlier doctrines of faith ; it now began to break in pieces and cast away what yet remained of the shell, and to seek a new kernel. Thus the diminution of the dogma of inspiration, which had hitherto been ever advancing, at last degenerates into its complete negation. As one of the earliest representatives of the in- cipient insecurity, w^ho were still, through reverence for eccle- siastical tradition, shy in taking bolder steps, the theologian Matthew Pfaff of Tijbingen may be mentioned, whose lean- ing towards the position occupied by Calixt and the Armin- ians but ill concealed itself behind a cautious phraseology.* The aim of this first part of our treatise has now been attained. It has been proved that the assumption of an in- spiration extending to the entire contents, to the suhject-matter and form of the sacred writings, has so little claim to the honor of being the only orthodox doctrine, that it has only been the opinion of, comparatively speaking, an exceedingly small fraction. Since now the symboUcal writings of the Lutheran Church have not so much as once erected a barrier in the way of a freer construction of the doctrine, the Lu- * Introduction to his "Notre Exeget. in Evangel. Matt." 1721. Also his " Institutiones Theol. Dogm. ct Moral." 1719. He died 1760. 8** 90 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. theran, who is true to liis symbols, can take no umbra{n;e at the estabhshment of such a free construction.* Part H. -— EXEGETICO-DOGIMATIC. Preliminary. We have submitted, that belief in an absolute (schlccht- hinnige) inspiration of the Scripture was by no means first abandoned by Rationalism. So far from this being the case, we may say that at no period whatever was such an opinion generally entertained. During the period of ecclesiastical faith, first from the age of the Fathers up the Middle Ages, and then again from the Reformers to the beginning of the eighteenth century, we have observed an increasing restriction put upon those liberal definitions which had been received from the very beginning. If, then, a growing limitation might take place in the interest of Faith, there may be also a growing freedom from limitation in the same interest. This will occur as soon as Faith has become more conscious of its peculiar nature, and has been distinguished from that which forms the peculiar business of science. After such earnest conflicts of science with the earlier forms of theology, in the midst of which Christendom became still more conscious of the foundations of faith, we in modern times have arrived at a point where a deeper apprehension of the doctrine of in- spiration, derived from the nature of faith, should result as one of the fruits of those conflicts. Let us more accurately define the subject of inquiry. The question is not whether the Holy Scripture includes inviolable =* The reader will remember that Professor Thohick is a member of the Lutheran Church. Hence his justification. In England, also, we are in the main free from authoritative declarations on this point. While the Bible is firmly held to be of paramount authority as embodying the will of God to man, the rule of faith and practice, none but the ill- infoi-med or bigoted will trench upon the inquirer's peace. — Tr. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 91 divine contents, a revelation from God. "We profess faith in the contents of the Law, as revealed ; so of the Prophets ; and so of the teachings of Christ, and of the Apostles. Thus much any one may profess, and yet feel himself urged to abandon the inspiration of the Bible in the current sense of the term. By inspiration, as distinguished from revelation, is custom- arily understood, since the time of Calovius, and especially since the time of Baumgarten,* the communication by God f of the entire written contents of Scripture, whether the matter written down was previously knowTi to the writers or not. The most recent advocate of the more rigid theory. Professor Gaussen, says expressly that the Holy Spirit by inspiration did not at all aim at the illumination of the writers, — they were nothing more than transient instruments, — a view was had rather to their books. % Now we can Avell imagine the believer's heart, when pre- disposed to take a side in favor of the more narrow theory, turning away with displeasure from any lax notions on the subject. Certainty in matters of faith depends upon a be- lieving disposition ; properly, indeed, only certainty concern- ing the true doctrine of salvation ; but still it may be asked, Can this certainty be sufficiently stable, if everything which stands, not only in direct, but also in indirect connection with this doctrine of salvation be not also true ? That absolute inspiration of the Holy Scriptures advocated by Professor Gaussen thus appears clearly to the Christian mind as a re- ligious necessity. We must, however, first of all, draw atten- ^ "Do Disoi-iminc Rovelationis et Inspiralionis." 1745. t " Die gottlichc Eingobung." X " It is of consequence for us to say, and it is of consequence tliat it be understood, that tliis miraculous operation of tlie Holy Ghost had not the sacred writers themselves for its object, — for these were only liis in- struments, and were soon to pass away ; but that its objects were the holy books themselves, which were destined to reveal from age to age to the Church the counsels of God, and vrhich were never to pass away." Theopneustia, — Tk. 92 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. tion to the fact tliat this external certainty is not wholly given therewith. Consider the position of the unlearned reader. "What does it avail you, says the Roman Catholic, to have an infallible document, unless you have also an infallible trans- lation ? And what could an infallible translation avail you, without an infallible interpretation ? Nay, verily, your learned men themselves, who abide by the original text, — whence de- rive they certainty concerning its correctness ? Does not the number of various readings in the New Testament alone, ac- cording to modern calculation, exceed fifty thousand ? One can and must yield to our pious friend, Professor Gaussen, and confess that, essentially, the great majority of these readings are immaterial. But this is by no means the case Avith them all. That it is not indifferent, for examj^le, whether the passage concerning the Trinity in 1 John v. 7, 8 be genuine or not, Professor Gaussen so decidedly acknowledges, that he believes the defence of the received reading must at all risks be undertaken, notwithstanding the passage is found in no Greek Codex except the Codex Britannicus* of the six- teenth century ; in the Codex Ravianus, which is a copy partly from the Complutensian Polyglot and partly from the third edition of Stephens ; and in the Vulgate only since the tenth century. K one credible testimony in reference to this subject were not of equal weight with many, a host of others might easily be added ; but this instance must now suffice. The Christian who can feel his faith certain and out of danger only in a diplomatic attestation derived /ro?w ivithout,\ can find peace only by repairing to the (so-called) infallible * Codf'X Brit. — Otherwise called Codex Montfortianus or DuUinenais. This is one of the cursive manuscripts, and belongs to the library of Trin- ity College; Dublin. It closely resembles the Vulgate in the much dis- puted passage referred to in the text, and in many others. Dr. Tholuck uses the title given it by Erasmus. Dr. Davidson is of opinion that it could not have originated earlier than the fifteenth century. (Kitto's Cyclop, Art. Manuscript. Bibl.) — Tr. t An external written authority. — Tr. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 93 Roman pontiff. * But it is not well for us to prescribe to Divine wisdom the mode in which it may best and most safely conduct men to their object of pursuit (i. e. certainty of faith). Consider how former apologists for this strict theory of in- spiration acted ; and, indeed, how its most recent apologist, already mentioned, acts. Their manner throughout, for ex- ample, of giving prominence to the passage, " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 2 Tim. iii. 16, is as if their theory depended entirely upon the testimony of the Bible concerning itself. But, in truth, their argimient all through depends simply upon what, in their estimation, is the de- mand of the religious necessity in man. Are we so much as conscious whether it is not from this religious exigency that we sometimes even wish that the Scripture itself were quite differently arranged ? Who does not feel the need of possess- ing an indubitable record from Christ's own hand ? Who does not wish that the New Testament were equal in extent to the Old? Who, moreover, would not deem it a wiser arrangement, if, instead of giving us the first three Evange- lists with similar contents, one of them had been directed carefully to record those passages in the life of Christ which they have now, all of them, entirely omitted ? Rightly has it been objected by Thiersch to Moliler's f construction of the ^ Comp. Tholuck's " Gesprache iiber die voniehmsten Glaubensfra- gen," p. 176. t Mohler (died 1838) is one of the ablest writers of the Roman Cath- ohc Church. He was once an adherent of Schleiermacher's views, but afterwards opposed them, and took a prominent part in the controversy against Protestantism. He, in company with Hermes, sought to base the Romish dogmas upon a more profound and philosophical basis, not by reference to Scripture and the practice of the early Church, but to the nature of man, and the exigencies of liis position, considered a priori. In shoit, he removed the data of the controversy entirely from the exter- nal to tlie internal or subjective. In tliis manner, much against their in- tention, the writings of Hermes and Mohler, by promoting a virtually Protestant spirit, namely, that of private judgment, did much towards undermining the authority and infallibility of the Pontiff and the Church. Vide Mohler's Patrologie; also his Si/mbolik. Mains;, 1832. — Tr. 94 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. Church; that the whole argument rests upon an a priori accom- modation of historical facts, upon a presumed divine necessity ; but that history, and even the history of the Church and of its corruption, takes shape, not according to opinions antece- dentil) established in the mind of the student, hut must he re- ceived in the fashion in which it unfolds itself. What can we say when we hear Bellarmine representing a divine in- fallible translation of the Bible as a necessity on the ground of this fact, namely, that the great majority of those prelates who form the decrees of Councils are ignorant of Hebrew ! * Which were the more Christian wish, that the prelates, since the Old Testament has been written in Hebrew, should learn that language, or that, since the prelates have no inclination to do this, the sun should regulate itself according to the clock, and an infallible Latin Bible be added to the Hebrew ? It were wise for men not to prescribe the way for satisfying their religious wants, but rather submissively to seek to ap- prehend the wisdom of God in that which has been given us by it. Granted that a theory of inspiration of a less rigid kind would abate in some measure the stringent proofs of our faith : how, then, would Pascal be right when he perceives divine wisdom in the fact that faith is not established by external evidences ? And is it not true that modern conviction, arrived at through doubt and internal conflict, is the possession of the believer much more fully than would have been the case by any divine contrivance by virtue of which, whenever a ques- tion arose, an external oracle instantly supplied an answer ? We may therefore readily lend an ear, when so great a number of witnesses for the faith, after conscientious exami- nation, assure us that that religious necessity to which men appeal in support of an absolute (schlechthinniges) inspira- tion of the Scriptures cannot possibly be right, since in the very Scripture itself there are found decisive facts which stand opposed to it. We shall pursue our inquiry m the following order : — * Opera, I. De Verbo Deo, 2. 10. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 95 Sect. 1. — Arguments against the absolute* inspiration of Scripture derived from the condition of the Biblical writ- ings themselves. Sect. 2. — Arguments to the same effect derived from the declarations of the Biblical writers concerning themselves. Sect. 3. — Alleged proofs from Scripture itself of its absolute inspiration. Sect. 1. — Arguments against the Absolute Inspiration and the Infallibility of Scripture, derived from the Nature of the Document itself Were the Biblical writer, in the strict sense of the woi*d, nothing more than an instrument of utterance through which God speaks to men, must we not also expect that no human imperfection in any respect should be contained in Scripture ? Not only must eternal truths be free from all error, and from all former imperfection ; but also the ordinary historical, geo- graphical, and other facts must be correctly reported through- out. Nay, we might even demand the absence of all lingual imperfections. We have seen that a behef in inspiration to this very extent has been actually demanded by many. On the contrary, in relation to the language a Divine accom- modation has been conceded by others. That the language of the New Testament in no respect varies from the Helle- nistic Greek current at the time, is clear as daylight. It is true that it might be reasonably maintained that the Deity, in order to become intelligible to that generation, must spealc to them not in classic Greek, to which they were not accustomed, but in the more corrupt dialect with which they were familiar. * From the general tenor of our author's hmguage, it would appear that the original word, schlechthinnig , — a word not yet in very common use among German writers, — may be fairly represented by the word " absolute." By this term Professor Tholuck designates a theory which errs by excess of strictness and credulity, — such as that of Professor Gaussen. — Tr. 96 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. But then in the hmguage of the New Testament books, not only dialectic, but also individual* characteristics of language appear. The style of Paul, and that of John, correspond entirely with what we know from other sources of the indi- vidual characters of these Apostles respectively. If herein also one should wish to find a Divine accommodation to the manner of speech peculiar to these Apostles, such an assump- tion would be the less satisfactory, since no adequate ground for any accommodation of the kind can be discovered. But in addition to this, especially in Paul, there are cer- tain imperfections of style, f imperfections, too, founded in his own peouliarities. For example, his vivacity very frequent- ly occasions him to leave a sentence unfinished, through for- getting the conclusion. If the Divine accommodation is to be extended to these individual defects, then we must say that such a caricature of Divine accommodation is not only aim- less, but, in so far as such defects actually embarrass the un- derstanding, positively self-defeating. Assuredly, therefore, we have no choice but to abandon this position, and to admit the influence of human peculiarity upon the contents of Scrip- ture. But even this must be farther extended, namely, to the form of the thoughts recorded. That is to say, the peculiarity of a Paul, of a John, or of a James, is to be understood as seen in tlie mode of putting forth Christian truth. The life of our Lord in the fourth Gospel, for example, is recorded in a manner different from that exhibited in any of the other three Gospels, — a manner, indeed, which, from the person- ality of John, is quite conceivable. As unto persons who from different elevations view the general mass of a town, the houses group themselves in various forms, and present different centres ; so the above- * That is, wherein the idiosyncrasies of tlic individual writers are ap- parent. — Tr. t It is regretted that a passage on the defects of the Pauline style, to which Dr. Tholuck in a private communication refers us,.cannot here be cited, — the work containing it, Redepennig ilber Origenes, not being with- in reach. — Tr. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 97 mentioned Apostles present Christian truth under (liversified points of view, according to their personal peculiarity, and according to the progress of their inward development. To Paul, the interposition of a righteousness hy faith, acquired through Christ, — to John, the communication of a true eter- nal life, — to James, the illustration of the law as a law of freedom, — are the ground ideas respectively. And must this pecuharity, too, be nothing more than the product of a Divine imitation ? * "We cannot forbear inserting here the words of a profound writer, who has become an intellectual polar star to many inquiring minds in England and America, • — I mean Samuel Taylor Coleridge, f " Wliy should I not [believe the Scriptures throughout to be dictated, in word and thought, by an infallible intelligence] ? Because the doctrine in question petrifies at once the whole body of Holy Writ, with all its harmonies and symmetrical gradations, — the flexile and the rigid, the supporting hard and the clothing soft, — the blood which is the life, the m- telhgencing nerves, and the rudely woven, but soft and stringy, cellular substance, in which all are imbedded and lightly bound together. This breathing organism, this glorious pan-harmon- icon, which I had seen stand on its feet as a man, and with a man's voice given to it, the doctrine in question turns at once into a colossal Memnon's head, a hollow passage for a voice ; a voice that mocks the voices of many men, and speaks in their names, and yet is but one voice and the same ; and no man uttered it, and never in a human heart was it conceived. Wh^ should I not ? Because the doctrine evacuates of all sense and efficacy the sure and constant tradition, that all the several books bound up together in our precious family Bibles were composed in different and widely distinct ages, under the * " Divine imitation," — gnttUclien Mimik. By these terms our author means, God interposing to produce effects similar to those which would naturally follow the idiosyncrasies of the writers : which, being unneces- sary, and contrary to the analogy of the divine proceedings, is not to be admitted. — Tr. t Confessions of an Inquirinc; Spirit, Y)^. 31 -36. Lond. 1840 9 98 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. greatest diversity of circumstances and degrees of light and information, and yet that the composers, whether as uttering or as recording what was uttered and what was done, were all actuated by a pure and holy spirit, one and the same, — (for is there any Spirit pure and holy, and yet i\ot proceeding from God, — and yet not proceeding in and with the Holy Spirit ?) — one Spirit, working diversely, now awakening strength, and now glorifying itself in weakness ; now giving pov>'er and direction to knowledge, and now taking away the sting from error ! Ere the summer and the months of ripen- ing had arrived for the heart of the race, — while the whole sap of the tree was crude, and each and every fruit lived in the harsh and bitter principle, — even then this Spirit with- drew its chosen ministers from the false and guilt-making centre of self. It converted the wrath into the form and organ of love, and on the passing storm-cloud impressed the fair rainbow of promise to all generations. Put the lust of self in the forked lightning, and would it not be a spirit of Moloch ? But God maketh the lightning his ministers ; fire and hail, vapors and stormy winds, fulfilling his words. " ' Curse ye Meroz,' said the angel of the Lord ; ' Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof,' sang Deborah. Was it that she called to mind any personal wrongs, rapine or insult, that she or the house of Lapidoth had received from Jabin or Sisera? No: she had dwelt under the palm-tree in the depth of the mountain. But she was a mother in Israel ; and with a mother's heart, and with the vehemency of a mother's and a patriot's love, she had shot the light of love from her eyes, and poured the blessings of love from her lips, on the people that had jeoparded their lives to the death against the oppressors ; and the bitterness awakened and borne aloft by the same love she precipitated in curses on the selfish and coward recreants who came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. As long as I have the image of Deborah before my eyes, and while I throw myself back into the age, country, circumstances, of tliis Hebrew Boadicea, in the not yet tamed chaos of the THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 99 spiritual creation, — as long as I contemplate the impassioned, high-souled, heroic woman, in all the prominence and individ- uality of will and character, — I feel as if I were among the first ferments of the great affections, — the proplastic waves of the microcosmic chaos swelling up against, and yet towards, the outspread wings of the Dove that lies brooding on the troubled waters. So long all is well, all replete with instruc- tion and example. Li the fierce and inordinate I am made to know, and be grateful for, the clearer and purer radiance which shines on a Christian's paths, neither blunted by the preparatory veil, nor crimsoned in its struggle through the all-enwrapping mist of the world's ignorance ; whilst in the self-oblivion of these heroes of the Old Testament, their ele- vation above all low and individual interests, above all, in the entire and vehement devotion of their total being to the service of their Master, I find a lesson of humility, a ground of humiliation, and a shaming, yet rousing, example of faith and fealty. But let me once be persuaded that all these heart-awakening utterances of human hearts, — of men of like faculties and passions with myself, mourning, rejoicing, suffering, triumphing, — are but as a Divina Commedia of a superhuman — O, bear with me, if I say — Ventriloquist ; that the royal Harper to whom I have so often submitted myself as a many-stringed instrument for his fire-tipped fingers to traverse, while every several nerve of emotion, passion, thought, that thinks the flesh and blood of our common hu- manity, responded to the touch, — that the sweet Psalmist of Israel was himself as mere an instrument as his harp an automaton ; — poet, mourner, and suppliant, all is gone ; all sympathy at least, and all example. I listen in awe and fear, but likewise in perplexity and confusion of spirit." [Coleridge proceeds .s follows : — " Yet one other instance, and let this be the crucial test of the doctrine." Say that the book of Job throughout was dic- tated by an infallible intelligence. Then reperuse the book, and still, as you proceed, try to apply the tenet ; try if you can even attach any 'sense or semblance of meaning to the 100 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. speeches which }'ou are reading. What ! were the hollow truisms, the iinsuflicing half-truths, the false assumptions and mahgnant insinuations of the supercilious bigots, who cor- ruptly defended the truth, — were the impressive facts, the piercing outcries, the pathetic appeals, and the close and powerful reasoning with which the poor sufferer, smarting at once from his wounds, and from the oil of vitriol which the orthodox liars for God were dropping into them, impatiently but uprightly and holily controverted this truth, while in will and in spirit he clung to it, — were both dictated by an infallible intelligence ? Alas ! if I may judge from the manner in which both indiscriminately are recited, quoted, appealed to, preached upon, by the roiitiniers of desk and pulpit, I cannot doubt that they think so, or rather, without thinking, take for granted that so they are to think ; the more readily, perhaps, because the so thinking supersedes the necessity of all afterthought."] But, what is of still greater importance, we also find throughout the Old and New Testaments numerous proofs of inaccuracy in statements of fact. An anxious orthodoxy has of course endeavored to rebut these accusations, and every- where to maintain absolute accuracy. This has been accom- plished, however, only by so many artificial and forced sup- ports, that the Scripture set right after this fashion wears more the appearance of an old garment with innumerable seams and patches, than of a new one made out of one entire piece. It is quite true that the adversaries of Christianity have professedly fallen upon many discrepancies where none are really to be found ; but in many places, where we can compare Scripture with Scripture, we meet with difficulties where either the contradiction will not admit of removal at all, or but very imperfectly. In proportion as the reader is destitute of the skill which learning gives, in that proportion will he be unconscious of these facts, and be prepared con- fidently to boast in his defence of a verbal inspiration, for " What one does not know, gives him no annoyance." * This * " Was ich nicht weiss, macht mich niclit hciss." — Prov. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 101 k'emark is applicable, too, to our excellent friend Professor Gaussen, who, in his book already quoted, has given such an eloquent vindication of plenary inspiration. By way of proof, we must enter into some details. Out of numberless mstances, however, we shall select only a few : for if by one or two proofs the matter appears beyond dis- pute, there is no need to multiply arguments. Entire accu- racy throughout can no longer be maintained. We make a distinction between errors in translation and errors in fact, which occur in the Biblical writers. 1. The New Testament authors have made abundant use of the Greek translation executed in Alexandria, called the Septuagint.* This was natural, since this translation was not only generally known to the Jews who spoke the Greek lan- guage, but, at the time of the rise of Christianity, was also in high repute in Palestine. Noav there are found in several books of that Greek translation, especially in the Book of Psalms, not a few material misapprehensions of the proper sense ; or, at least, readings differing from our Hebrew text, f Notwithstanding this, however, the writers of the New Testa- ment, here and there, even when the argument depends upon particular words, go not to the original Hebrew text, but follow the Greek translation. This Professor Gaussen admits in page 236 of his work. | He assumes, however, through the whole of his defence, that he has made good the position that the Apostolical writers in all those places where stress is laid on the quotation, have actually made their quotations from the original Hebrew. This judgment is in this general sense incorrect. It is true in reference to Paul and Matthew ; but our author forgets the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the original (Hebrew) text is never attended to, not even in those places where the author argues from passages which, as * On this version see Dr. Davidson's article in Kitto's Cyclop, of Bibl. Liter., sub voce. t Comp. Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics, pp. 334, 338, et seq. Also Dr. Henderson's Lect. on Div. Insp., p. 375, 2d ed. X Engl. Transl., p. 84. . 9* 102 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. they are translated, exhibit material errors. * We admit that many of the older orthodox interpreters attempted, at least witli some of these passages, to explain the Old Testament text in the sense adopted by the author of this Epistle, f But the passage (chap. ii. 13) quoted from Isa. viii. 17, 18, Luther explains, and the rest Calvin explains, in the sense demanded by their Old Testament connection, without any regard to the manner in which they are quoted in our Epistle. From the author's way of arguing from Old Testament passages, it can scarcely be maintained that they were merely applied for hortatory purposes. This would not readily be conceded even by the advocates of strict orthodoxy. If this solution then is rejected, we are not aware that any others remain to help us to avoid the concession, that passages of Scripture quoted incorrectly, and in a way not altogether corresponding with their proper original meaning, have been used by way of argument. 2. We leave this part of our subject, and pass on to inac- curacies in matters of fact. When such inaccuracies must be proved by instances of collision between the Biblical and extra-Biblical witnesses, the Christian, having faith in the Bible, will hesitate to admit their existence. But he can hardly persist in his hesitation, if cases are adduced where the writers report either the very words of our Lord, or matters of pure fact, with irreconcilable variations the one from the other. It is true that here also many charges of contradiction have been proved to be groundless. Some, however, remain, where the Christian critic cannot with the most candid mind disown discrepancies, ~ discrepancies in which one only of the reports given can be faithful. The Sermon on the Mount, according to Luke vi. and Matt. V. -vii., presents, in this twofold narration, such manifold variations, that many of the older commentators assumed the * Comp. chap, ii 6, 12, 13 ; x. 5 ; xii. 26. t Dr. Tholuck controverts the Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and deems the weight of evidence to be rather in favor of Apollos. — Tb. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 103 delivery of two separate Sermons on the Mount, and to this solution of the difficulty Professor Gaussen still adheres. The opposite view, however, was adopted by Chemnitz and Calo- vius, and is also received by all the more recent writers of the present century. K we grant this, then the confession ap- pears unavoidable that the same ideas are reproduced by the two Evangelists in different forms. The ideas expressed by Matt. V. 40 and vii. 16, are in those places given forth in a different form from what they assume in Luke vi. 29, 44. Matt. vii. 12 differs from Luke vi. 31. Now when Chem- nitz, in order to establish the thorough correctness of the narrations, assumes that the same thought in the same dis- course may have been twice expressed by our Lord in a different form and position, he only introduces a makeshift, which, while it removes from the reporters the charge of dis- crepancy, reflects no little discredit upon the method of dis- coursing adopted by Christ himself. With Luke vi. 29 and Matt. V. 40 he has not been bold enough to use this expedient, although he was compelled to admit that by the two Evan- gelists the violence supposed to be committed is represented under different forms.* Stier also, who deems it altogether objectionable to admit that in Matthew, who was an Apostle, there is found any departure whatever from historical accuracy, has been com- pelled to allow in Luke what in Matthew he has protested agninst-t He has even given up generally the defence of vei'bal truth and correctness. " The Spirit of God," he says, * Luke vi. 29. " And him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also." Matt. V. 40. " And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." These and many other similar variations must be fatal to any theory of rerhal inspiration ; but since on either side the eihical principle enforced is the same, the value of the Bible as the depository of moral and re- ligious tnith is not necessarily affected. Cpmp. also Luke vi. 20-23, and Matt v. 3 - 12 ; Luke vi. 30, and Matt. v. 42 ; Luke vi. 27, 28, 35, and Matt. v. 44, 45. — Tr. t Stier's Redcn des Heirn nach Matt., pp 1 70, 308. 104 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. " SO put the Evangelists in mind of the discourses of our Lord, tliat they might write them, not word for word, or with entwe fulness according to the letter ; but the Spirit of Truth has withal permitted no essential untruth whatsoever to oc- cur." * Professor Gaussen alone persists in maintaining that such formal diversities, where found, must have as their origi- nator the Holy Spirit himself, to whom (he says) it is per- mitted to express the same thought in various forms "of lan- guage. Certainly. Only it must be remembered that along with this is also given up the strictly faithful recording of the discourses of our Lord, ivho actually delivered them only in one of two ways. If, now, by an examination of the Scripture in detail, we discover a human side, on account of which the Bible is not to be declared free from defects and errors, then the question is. How can a theory of inspiration, which shall be consistent with these phenomena, be established? The historical part of this treatise has proved how by a great number of theo- logians, both Protestant and Catholic, a positive Divine co- operation was asserted only in relation to that portion of the contents of Holy Writ which was revealed, or the truths which were the proper objects of faith ; f from which position it follows that revelation and inspiration are identical. As it regards the remaining contents, it was held that a negative Divine efficacy was present, serving as a defence against vital error, i. e. error damaging to the doctrine of faith. To this, as we have seen above, amounts the language of Stier even, if we take into account certain portions of his writings ; al- though, judging from others, he approximates more nearly than any other German theologian to the older idea of in- spiration ; so also the views of .the more recent English theo- logians, among the Dissenters as well as among the clergy of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Henderson designates it as the fruit of prejudice to say that the Holy Scripture in all its '* Stler's Rcdcn des Herrn nach Matt., p. 74. t " Den eigentlichen Glaubenswahrheiten." THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 105 parts alike has been inspired by the Spirit of God m such a manner as that thereby human co-operation was superseded.* The prevailing doctrine, even in the strictest form of it, both in the Catholic and in the Protestant Church, makes such a distinction between the separate contents of Scripture, as must necessarily lead, at least, to a charitable judgment of the difference of opinion which has obtained upon the subject. We have already seen how Thomas Aquinas made a distinc- tion between that truth which is given by God principaliter, as the proper object of faith, and those other portions of Scrip- ture which belong to faith only indirectly.'\ The most rigid writers upon dogmatic theology amongst the Lutherans, % make a similar distinction between that which belongs to faith generally, and that which belongs io faith specially considered: to the latter belong only the dogmas of faith ; to the former, all the remaining contents of Scripture. The opinion of the Jesuit Tanner, that all things whatsoever which the Bible contains, " even the account of the fox-tails of Samson, and the building of the tower of Babel," &c., belong to the articles of religious faith, is nothing less than ridiculous. It is therefore clear, that when these theologians feel con- strained to draw the fence of inspiration around the entire written word, it is only from the apprehension that, if this were not done, the portion which properly belongs to faith would thereby be made insecure. In one place this fence cannot be completed. Even by the most stringent defenders of inspiration no means have been discovered whereby they could evade the confession that it does not lie before us diplo- matically certain ; but that the decision concerning it must be left to the scientific investigations of the learned. The con- sequence which results from this is one of importance. The Bible, as it appears to us, can in no case pass as verbally inspired ; therefore also its contents cannot in all their details * Lect. on Div. Insp., p 296 et seq.,-2d ed. t Vide p. 76, ante. t Quenstedt, Theol. Didact. Polem., Tom. I. 4, 2, 5 ; and Konig, Theol. Posit. Prolcg., Sect.. 133. 106 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. throughout he considered as externally guaranteed. Professor Gaussen himself is forced to allow this ; and he rests satisfied with admiring that Divine guidance whereby things are so brought about, that, notwithstanding the great uncertainty which surrounds individual " readings," yet no Scripture truth which is an object of faith ( Glauhenswahrheit) is un- settled, since each rests upon more than one passage, and even the various readings only give shades, and not real diversity of meaning. Now if this consideration suffices here to give comfort to the mind, why should it not avail also if failure of memory, and errors in certain historical, chronological, geo- graphical, and astronomical details must be admitted ? and if here and there a passage appears to be spurious ? or if, amongst the canonical books, a few are found that are un- canonical ? It is an undeniable fact, that hundreds of the most distinguished Christians, who have brought forth fruit in joyful faith, and have stood forth in that respect prominently as Christian exemplars, have thus judged concerning the Scriptures, and have nevertheless been ready to lay down their life for the Gospel. We proceed upon the same ground as that upon which, with the Christian, the Divine evidence of an inspiration of the Scripture rests, and say : This belief entirely coincides withy and stands entirely in relation to, belief in the Divine contents.* Faith in a Divine inspiration of Scripture relates, first of all, to that truth witnessed by the " demonstration of the Spirit and of power," by which (according to 1 Cor. ii. 4) the Apostle established belief in his preaching in the hearts of the Corinthians ; that is, the Christian doctrine of salvation. This doctrine approves itself to us as truth, when the man becomes conscious that his intercourse with God is re-estab- * That is, we have Divine evidence of the inspiration of Scripture only from those parts wliich have been derived from God. The further question, what, parts have been thus derived, must be determined by a variety of considerations, but principally by that which our author pro- ceeds to consider ; i. e. the fitness to produce moral effects — towards making perfect the -.nan of God. — Tr. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 107 lished ; that for time and for eternity he enters into proper relation to his God ; that thus, and thus alone, he can become a true man of God* " If the Spirit of God," he may ask, " had not exerted a ruling power over the recording of this saving truth, and of the facts upon which the truth is founded, how could the recorded word have this effect upon me ? " If we Christians of the present day ascribe to the w^ritten word of the Lord what those servants of the High-Priest ascribed to the word then spoken to them, f must not the written be substantially the same as the spoken word ? If we also ex- claim, after reading the Scripture about the holy sufferings and death of the Lord, as that centurion did after he had witnessed them, " Truly this man was the Son of God ! " % must not these sufferings and this death, in all their essential features, have been faithfully recorded to us ? We are speak ing of fidelity of record with respect to words and facts essen- tially. It may be a matter of dispute, a hundred times over, where the line of demarcation between the essential and non- essential is to be drawn ; but that such a distinction, although subject to uncertainty, does really exist, is witnessed by the «peech and logic of every nation where the question has been entertained. There is much that is non-essential, which still in some respects touches the essential ; but there is also that which does not touch it at all. Tlie words, like the facts, of Scripture, have a kernel and a shell. To the former, the witness of the Holy Spirit is direct and absolute ; to the latter, only indirect and relative. The great idea that the disciple of the Lord, in so far as his own selfish interest alone is concerned, — suppressing the slightest tendency to vindic- tiveness, — should seek by kindness to subdue his enemy, remains entirely the same, whether Christ uses the example of him who, when sued at law, yields up his cloah in addition to his coat^ as Matthew puts it, § or that of him who on the highway is ro1)bed of his cloak, and yields up his coat also, as Luke puts it. || The fact of our Lord's re^;urrection remains * 2 Tim. ill. 17. t The alhision is probably to John vii. 46. — Tr. I Mark xv. 39. § Chap. v. 40. . 1| Chap. vi. 29. 108 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. equally certain, whether he first appeared to these persons or to those. The Evangelists have even passed over in entire silence the important appearmg to the five hundred, of whom Paul speaks in 1 Cor. xv. 6. This belief in saving truth and fact leads us on still farther. The word of the Lord makes us certain that the Apostolical A^Titers of New Testament books must have written by the Spirit of God, because as bearers of this his word, and as l^romoters of his work, they received from him the promise of the Holy Ghost.* If this Spirit inspired t them during their oral report, how could he fail them in their written re- port ? Always, indeed, holding fast that distinction already mentioned of essential and non-essential, we shall still feel convinced of this, that neither upon the communication of historical knowledge, gained by their own experience, nor upon the revelation which they had received from God, could their natural subjectivity exercise any obscuring influence. And faith in Christian truth and fact, thus confirmed, like faith in their inspiration, will now also determine our convic- tions concerning the Old Testament religion. That the Mo- saic economy according to its ritual part was in a symbolico- dogmatical respect, according to its ethical part in an ethical respect, a preparative to the Christian economy, even the imperfectly enlightened but ingenuous inquirer cannot deny. But the luminous eye of that dispensation, through which pre- eminently the preparing Spirit, which diffuses itself through- out all, gleams upon us, is the prophetic part. The more clearly we perceive this in the documents written a thousand years before, the more unquestionable does it appear that there is a Divine co-operation in the production of the record. If moral and religious perfection, if the kingdom of God in Christ upon earth be the highest aim of humanity, must not that document which is the most powerful agent in promoting this, and in which Christendom has bad. and still has, the fertilizing spring and the guiding rule of faitli, be an especial * Comp. John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26, 27 ; xvi. 12 - 14. + Beseden, to animate, to quicken. THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 109 object of that Providence which controls the * events of the world ? In other words, must not far other than ordinary means have been used for the purpose of its record and pres- ervation ? Suppose that of the written monuments of classical antiquity no authors had been preserved except those of the iron and brazen ages, or that the works of the silver and golden ages had come down to us only in copies which were thoroughly corrupt and unrestorable by any criticism, what then had become of our classic culture ? In like manner, what had become of our Christian culture if nothing had been handed down to us from Christian antiquity except perhaps the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, or the General Epistles of the New, or even the Gospels, in a state at once mutilated and no longer capable of being deciphered? It were presumption to declare upon mere d 'prioH grounds what Providence ought to have done^ or ought to have fre- vented, in order to have secured for us a record answering to all the conditions of a sufficing certainty. But that Provi- dence must be eminently active in this respect is an unavoid- able supposition to every one to whom the religio-moral slg- nificancy of this record in history has become manifest. And have we not in this collection of books, embracing a period of more than three thousand years, the clearest proofs of a con- trolling Providence? We have already mentioned that, in spite of the fifty thousand various readings found in the New Testament, the sense of it in the main remains steadfast.* Further, a criticism, which in part has been led on by a decidedly negative interest, has for a hundred and fifty years submitted the books of both Old and New Testaments, in a body, to the most fiery ordeal. And with what result ? In as far as it pertains to the principal books of the Neio Testa- ment at least, — if we omit a very small minority of German * " It has been tmly said, that such is the character of the New Tes- tament Scriptures, that the worst copy of the Greek text, and the worst transLation, represent the original with sufficient accuracy to secure all the highest ends of Christian instruction." Rev. S. H. Godwin, Introd. Lect. at opening of New Coll. — Tk. 10 110 THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. theologians wlio ai-e of a contrary opinion, — a groA^^ngly strong conviction among learned men of their authenticity. This Bible, written by kings, herdsmen, priests, fishermen, and tent-makers, and Entirely as if by accident bound to- gether into a whole, does it not nevertheless produce the impression of a collection of documents put together with the most careful deliberation ? From the creation of man and his fall, to the apocalyptic proclamation, " Behold, I make all things new," one book, stretching thus over the entire field of the history of mankind, leads them on m their journey from its very beginning to its close. In the Old Testament, as in the New, we have first of all the divine facts presented, then such books as exhibit the faith and spirit of the community which by those facts have been confirmed, and lastly, the pro- phetical writings which conduct from the Old Testament to the New, and from this again to the " new heaven and new earth " where the consummation of redemption shall be realized ! We have now come to the close. We have declared what, with respect to inspiration, is certain to faith, — what, even to every common Christian reader, admits of certainty, — upon the ground of the testimony of the Spirit and of power. What is not here embraced belongs more properly to scientific research. The faith which has become conscious of its own nature will readily yield to science its due province in this re- spect. A sound condition of the Church cannot be thought "of without science ; for though it be granted that science has, in the service of human over-curiousness and unbelief, a hundred times brought injury to the Church, still we are bold to aver that in the service of truth, morality, and faith it has quite as frequently brought life and blessing to the Cliun^h. We know well that timid minds will be frightened to find that upon so many points they are dependent on the investigations of learned men. If this does not satisfy tliat these points are by no means essential, there is no help for them. There are suspicious souls who, if celestial spirits made their api)earance to them, would not believe unless they brought authorized written certificates from another world. We Christians, how- THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. Ill ever, who occupy a higher platform than that of written cer- tificates as vouchers, must learn to believe in the witness of the Spirit. What would a Paul say to him whose faith in the Son of God would be doubtful, because he did not know whether, in Acts xx. 28, the correct reading was " the Church of God " or " the Church of the Lord " ; or because he could not feel certain whether "vinegar," as Matthew says,* or " wine mingled with myrrh," as Mark says, f was offered to the Saviour on the cross ; or whether Christ healed the blind man on his entrance into, or on his departure from Jericho ; % or whether the passage, John xxi. 24, 25, was subjoined by John himself, or by a friend of his ? To such a doubter, I say, what would a Paul answer ? He would tell hha, " Marty thy hour is not yet come ! " * Matt, xxvii. 34. t Mark xv. 23. X Corap. Matt. xx. 29 ; Mark x. 46 ; Luke xviii. 35. HOLY SCRIPTUEE. By ROWLAJJ^D WILLIAMS, B. D., reUOW AM) FORMERLY TUTOR OP KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PROFE880B OF HEBREW AT LAMPETER. " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learn- ing, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptm-es, might have hope." — Romans xv. 4. The study of history lias always been allowed to be one of the happiest means of awakening and improving the mind. It has even been called wisdom, teaching by instances. For, if it rise in any degree to its high vocation, it summons the men of past times to move before us as they lived ; it enables us to hear them, though dead, yet speak ; to appreciate, per- haps, the difficulties which surrounded them ; and, by the un- conscious effect of sympathy, to ingraft on our own minds the power of confronting with no less manliness any similar trials which may possibly beset our path. So eminently is this true, that the man who has traced with throbbing heart the career of great patriots, stricken down perhaps by overwhelm- ing odds, or of great thinkers, who have either embodied their wisdom in legislation, or bid the eloquent page glow with its record for ever, has in all probability assimilated himself in some measure to the mighty of whom he has read : for he has lived over in thought what was their life in act : he has thus drunk into their spirit, and by breathing a kindred atmosphere has become partaker of their very nature. 10'=* 114 HOLY SCRIPTURE. But if such assertions may be ventured of great men and deeds in general, they more emphatically apply to such records as we have inherited of the earnest aspirations of good men, in any time or country, to the eternal Source of their being, and the mysterious Controller of their destiny. That solemn ritual of Greek tragedy, which our own Milton did not disdain to recommend as a repository of " grave, sen- tentious wisdom " ; those orators who could tell an incensed multitude, that they rejoiced in having brought down on their country a disastrous defeat (if Heaven so ordered it), rather than see her forfeit her old character for honor, and her con- sciousness of self-respect ; those still loftier teachers, to whom their country's mythology was only the fanciful expression of a far higher and more remote, yet ever-present principle ; and he, who declared the world to bear as clear a testimony to its Author, as a finished poem does to the existence of a poet, while no really great man, he thought, could be without a certain divine inspiration, — all these, I say, and other records of kindred meaning, stir us with an emotion of sympathy far deeper than is inspired by the ordinary subjects of the his- torian. We watch with intense interest such men groping their way towards an eminence of light, on which not our own arm has placed us ; we sigh at the Aveakness of our race, as we occasionally see them wander in some hopeless maze of speculation; and we can scarcely refrain from an exulting cry, when some pure conscience and reaching intellect seems almost to lay hands " unknowingly " upon the very mercy-seat of the unsearchable I am that I aim. Yet after all, the result accruing from such teachers among the Gentiles is rather touching our hearts with wholesome emotion, than furnishing our minds with any groundwork on which doctrine may be reared. We read them as sympathiz- ing critics, but cannot sit at their feet as pupils. We have need therefore to look elsewhere for more definite teaching. And if we seek such aid in the Hebrew Scriptures, we soon find reason to believe, that He who nowhere kept himself without witness yet gave the Spirit in larger measure to those HOLT SCRIPTUEE. 115 who knew him by his name Jehovah, and worshipped him on Sion, the mountain of his holy place. Nor is it necessary here to dwell on that mere external evidence, which in itself is not unimportant. The space which custom allots me may be more profitably employed in directing your thoughts to some of the characteristic features of the books themselves. We are speaking now of the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps the first thing to notice is the manifest fidelity of the writers, both as respects the manners of their country, the character of the people described, and the infirmities, nay, the very crimes even, of men whom they delight to honor. "We read in their pages of life as it now exists in the East ; and as it may be believed with partial variation to have existed for many ages. We find no attempt to represent king, or prophet, or priest, as perfect : the tyranny of one, the passion of an- other, the weak connivance of the third, are set forth in their naked simplicity. And this ingenuous character is the more striking, because it is directly opposed to the usual genius of Oriental narrative, which delights rather in pompous and in- flated exaggeration. It is also opposed more especially to the writings of the later Scribes and Rabbins, which abound in la- borious trifling and transparent fable. Nor can any reason be given for this superiority of the older books more obviously true, than that the writers conceived themselves to be acting under a responsibility of a strictly religious kind. They took up the pen to celebrate events which were not merely the triumphs of their race, but the manifestations of the power and the truth of the Lord God of Israel. They had heard that he abhorreth the sacrifice of lying lips, and they would not blot the Scriptures animated by his Spirit with any lying legend, or cunningly devised fable. Hence arises (what, as far as the East is concerned, seems to have been then un- precedented) the strictly historical and trustworthy character of Hebrew literature. Growing up under the shadow of the temple, superintended by those who worshipped a God of truth in the beauty of holiness, yet read every seventh year in the ears of all the people, it has that double guaranty 116 HOLY SCRIPTURE. which is derived from intelhgent and sacerdotal authority, and from exposure to tlie contemporaneous criticism of ma?^ses of mankind. Even those books, such as Kings and Chroni- cles, which dwell chiefly on the outward history of the nation, have hence no common interest. They carry us as it were behind the scenes of an important part in the great drama of tlie history of the world. They show us events happening, and the subtle causes which produced them ; man proposing, but God disposing ; Israel rebelling, and Jehovah smiting ; Cyrus rearranging his conquests, and Jehovah (whom the conqueror knew not) wielding him as an instrument to restore liis people Israel. Yet a still higher interest attaches itself to this collection of records, when we consider them as a history emphatically of religion : that is, in the first place, of the aspiration of the human heart to its Creator.* For we then read of men of like passions with ourselves, treading a course which resem- bles in its great analogies our o^vn ; men now striving, and now at peace ; now sinning, and (as a consequence) suffering ; now crying unto the Lord, and the Lord hearing them, and delivering them out of all their trouble. It is from this point of view, that the Book of Psalms, in particular, may come home to every one of our hearts. Who cannot trace, in the vivid delineation of the Psalmist's personal experience, in his humiliation, his strong crying, and his tears, his trust in God, his firm assurance of the final triumph of the right, a type, as it were, and a portrait by forecast, alike of the struggles of whatever is noblest in the whole human race, and especially of Him, its great Captain and its Head, who was to cherish tlie almost expiring flame, until he made the struggle end in victory ? Do we fret, as it were, in uneasy anxiety at our * If any one supposes such a sentence as this cither to exchidc the prcpavations of tlie licart by God's providence and grace, or to imply indifference or despair as to truth (as if thouglits and inferences were less trustworthy than sensations), I can only wonder at his ingenuity in misunderstanding. What would such a person think of the first and Second books of Hooker 1 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 117 short life, and Its ever-threatening end, — the Psalmist teaches us to make such fear an instrument of spiritual growth. " Lord, let me know mine end, and the number of my days, that I may be certified how long I have to live." " Teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto w^isdom." Yet, notwithstanding such appeal, do our spirits sink within us, either for our own backsliding, or for the blasphemy of the multitude on every side ? How is such a feeling expressed better than in the words, " My heart panteth, my strengtli hath failed me ; and the sight of mine eyes hath gone from me. My lovers and my neighbors did stand looking upon my trouble ; . . . . and they that went about to do me evil talked of wickedness, and imagined deceit all the day long " ? Would we have some one, alike righteous and friendly, to whom we may appeal with confidence ? " Lord, thou knowest all my desire, and my groaning is not hid from thee. O Lord my God, be not thou far from me." Or does the consciousness of our own unworthiness bow us down, so that almost we say with St. Peter, " Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man " ? Again, we may adopt the piteous cry, " Lmumerable troubles are come about me ; my sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up ; yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me." "O Lord, let it be thy pleasure — that is, let it be the will of thy free grace — to deliver me ; make haste, 0 Lord, to help me." But, again, are such hopes and aspirations the jest of the ungodly, and do the drunkards make songs upon us, because we mourn in our prayer, and are vexed ? " Fret not thyself," says the same faithful monitor, " because of the ungodly ; neither be dismayed at the proud doer : yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone : hope thou in the Lord, and keep his way : when the ungodly shall perish, thou shalt see it." Yet does the kingdom of Heaven tarry, and the founda- tions of the earth seem out of course ? " Tarry thou the Lord's leisure," is still the precept ; " be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart " : Ipt the man of the earth leave much 118 irOLY SClill'TURE. substance for his babes ; but as for us, we will behold the presence of God in righteousness : the day cometh for us to be satisfied with his presence, when we wake up transformed according to his hkeness. What is it, then, brethren, which afflicts us ? Sickness, and pining, of the body or of the heart, slirinking from the sneer of the wicked, remorse for our own sin, fear of again offend- ing, fear of death, and of the dim unseen which is behind death ? In all these things the Psalmist persuades us we are more than conquerors ; for in the light which God shed upon him in the valley of shadows we too see light : we too have a share in the songs of faith, which God his maker gave him in the night of his affliction. Said not the Apostle well, there- fore, " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning ; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope " ? It may be interesting to remark here, that, although a very rigid criticism would find slender grounds for determining how many of the Psalms were absolutely written by David the son of Jesse, there is a sufficient consonance between the events of his life and the sentiments of a large portion of the number, to countenance decidedly that belief, which was the tradition alike of the Jewish Church and of our own. There is the same contrast in the life between David innocent and David guilty, as in the Psalms between his joyful exuberance of trust and his deep cry of remorse. Contrast in your memories the shepherd stripling, with his heart yet unstained, going forth to do battle with the giant warrior, and the guilty king ascending the hill with downcast brow, not daring to let his mighty men scourge the Benjaraite, who had cursed the liOrd's anointed. " Let him curse ; the Lord hath said unto him. Curse David." Now this is the difference between inno- cence and guilt. Even so, how jubilant the cry of commun- ion with his God : " The Lord is my strength : whom then shall I fear ? " And how sad the agony of penitence : " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts ; all thy waves have gone over me ; my soul is full of trouble, and my life draweth nigh unto hell." HOLY SCRIPTURE. 119 May we not learn there, brethren, the eternal and inefface- able difference between doing the thing which is right, and forsaking the law of Him whose name is Holy ? And was not such a lesson one of the principal reasons for which Scrip- ture was written? Yet even in such dark depths we find Scripture still written for our consolation : since a way of sighs and tears, but still a way of hope, is pointed to in the words : " Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." On turning forward to the Prophets, we find their general character is very much the same. One of their most striking features is their evidently intense perception of spiritual truths. This is the more remarkable, because mere religion (as taught by a priesthood) has been thought sometimes to blunt the moral sense, by making the Deity an arbitrary being, who acts apart from the eternal laws of right. Wliere- as it is apparent on the face, that neither the Psalmist nor the Prophets had any low or mean conception of the services of that sanctuary where the honor of Jehovah dwelt. The Psalms were in fact the main part of the Jewish liturgy ; for the strains which now sAveep through Westminster Abbey are the same as were chanted of old in the temple of Sion ; and the Prophets never burst out into such indignant strains, as Avhen their hearts burn within them at the sight of altars thrown down, the ark taken, or the temple defiled. Yet with all this, they ever lay most emphatic stress upon the weightier matters of the Law ; upon the moral dispositions, and mental being, which are both the graces of the Holy Spirit and the processes by which we grow up into the full stature of the children of God. If the hands are full of unjust gain, " bring no more in- cense, it is an abomination." If the feet are swift to evil, " who hath required it of you to tread my courts ? saith the Lord." Will your solemn assemblies at new moons, and your Sabbaths, atone for a double heart, and for adding sm to sin ? Can you by passionate prayers and ceremonial observances make a covenant with -death ? That is mdeed to make lies 120 HOLY SCRirXURE. your refuge. Judgment and righteousness are the line and the phmimet with which the Lord layeth his sure foundation- stone. " Come now, let us reason together, saith tlie Lord : if your sins be as scarlet, shall they * be as white as snow ? if they be red like crimson, shall they (at the same time) be as wool ? " Think it not, is the inexorable answer implied in the original : but " if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." " Wash you, make you clean : cease to do evil." " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, for he will (then) have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." We have in such texts, which might be multiplied indefi- nitely, distinct intimation of the irreconcilable aversion of the Almighty to any form of moral evil, yet of his -abundant readiness to pardon and save the sinner returning from his sin. Now it is this truly spiritual character of the Bible which fits it to be a book for all nations. Hence we do not fear to put it in the hands of the most ignorant, not indeed disparaging other means of grace, or forgetting that Scriptural language may be made the vehicle of the worst passions, and alleged to support the most dangerous errors : but we do so in the conviction, that to the pure all things are pure, and in the trust that He whose word came of old to prophets and teach- ers of righteousness, will not suffer even the record of the same word which then came to return altogether empty. Hence also our anxiety to place the same record of many a divine message to guilty man in the hands of the heathen : not from any bigoted dogma that the God and Father of all consolation will burn his children for not knowing what they were never taught ; but from a perception, that the record of the holy words of prophets and evangelists has a natural tendency to awaken whatever is good in man, and so (if prop- * This interrogative rendering is grammatically as probable as the common one, and, in sequence of thought, more so. [The common version of this text seems to mc more correct ; the condition of repent- ance being implied. — G. R. N.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 121 erly used) to help forward the moral restoration of a fallen nature. Thus then we believe with the Apostle, that what- ever things were written aforetime, Avere written for our in- struction. There is, yet further, however, a distinct (but kindred) teature in the Hebrew prophets, which stamps their writings with peculiar value. It is that dim yet undoubting anticipa- tion of a more perfect way than any commonly known in their age, which was to be revealed when the Hope of Israel should come. In other words, it is that foreboding of One anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, which may especially be termed the spirit of prophecy ; and in virtue of which we ascribe to its possessors a more than ordinarily large measure of (that sacred impulse, which may be de- scribed as) inspiration. We do not indeed assert, that the Hebrew prophets knew precisely w^hat manner of salvation they foretold ; for they often shadow it forth under such tem- poral deliverances, as to make the literal or Jewish interpre- tation of their predictions not altogether unreasonable. Nor, indeed, do they themselves make any claim to omniscience. The word of the Lord comes to their heart or conscience for a particular purpose, and they speak it ; but where their own faculties and usual means of information can come into play, they naturally exercise them. Thus their language is simple Hebrew, and only when they reach Babylon, Chaldaic ; the countries which they describe are those adjoinmg their own ; their general range of knowledge is that of their age ; in short, the cii"cumscribed limits of their horizon stand out at every turn. Still amidst this imperfect knowledge we find those accents which stir the heart like the sound of a trumpet, foretelling with the strongest confidence the ultimate triumph of pure religion, the sprmging of a righteous Branch out of the stem of Jesse, and the reign of a King who should execute justice and mercy. New virtues, they say, shall flourish with this new dispensation ; the nations shall not learn war any more ; the sacrifice of the (human) heart shall be counted above that of bulls and oxen, U 122 HOLY SCRIPTURE. Although then some circumstances in the description of God's First-born and Elect, by whom this change is to be accomplished, may primarily apply to collective Israel, [many others * will admit of" no such application. Israel surely was not the child whom a virgin was to bear ; Israel did not make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death ; Israel scarcely reconciled that strangely blended variety of sutFering and triumph which w^as predicted of the Messiah.] But however that may be, it is indisputable that a change has partly come about, and is still partly proceeding ; such as these ancient seers foretold. There is a growing society in the world, which, though ever lashed by stormy waves, seems still founded on a rock. Its members own as their Head one whom they hail as Prince of peace ; an anointed one, a first- born, and an elect, — a Person, in whose mysterious unity they are able to combine things which might have been deemed incompatible : majesty and weakness, grace and awe, suffering and conquering, death and immortality, frail man and perfect God. f In him the mystery is unveiled, the riddle is read aright. In his kingdom men are exalted by humility, triumphant by patience, immortal by death : and to this his city not built with hands we are now taught by the interpret- ing revolution of events to apply what Isaiah spake of his ideal Sion : " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the dark- ness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Thus, after the lapse of centuries, the world has seen the gi-and anticipations of those wdio w^orshipped Jehovah in a little corner of the world, fulfilled in a sense more magnificent * I no longer feel confident of the assertion in brackets ; but now be- lieve that all the propliccics have primarily an application nearly con- temporaneous.— Fthruary 11, 1855. t This appears to me to be true only in the sense that the jnoral char- acter of the Deity is discerned in " the face of Jesus Christ." — G R, N. HOLY SCRIPTURE. 123 than they themselves expected. Perhaps indeed this gifl of foresight is not really more excellent or desirable than such a keen perception of the truths which concern our peace as we have already found in the Old Testament. Nor dare I say that the one has not been sometimes confounded with the other. Yet this gift of prediction, as distinct from predica- tion, is so remarkable a quality as to invest the prophetical writings (according, at least, to the more received view of them) with a character almost unique, and to furnish a dis- tinct ground for the Apostle's holding, that " whatever things were written aforetime were written for our instruc- tion." But if for Ms instruction, brethren, who had seen the Lord Jesus, much more for that of those whose lot is cast in later days. We, too, like St. Paul, may have our hearts warmed by w^hatever is glowing and excellent in the older writers ; we, like him, may trace the great stream of Divine Provi- dence, and admire the unconscious prefigurements of the great Teacher of the world ; we, moreover, unlike him, may gather corresponding instruction from his own writings also, and from those of his companions in the ministry of the word. For though these later writings are scarcely comprised in the Scriptural canon to which our Saviour appealed, yet they come from men who had the best opportunities of informa- tion ; who had seen the Son of God incarnate, and had been animated by the Holy Spirit of God descending; who also, in the power of what they believed, either from eyesight or from credible testimony, converted kingdoms, and built up the Church of Christ on the ruins of the gigantic power which they overthrew. Either the Apostles therefore understood Christianity, or else no one did. And now, suppose St. John or St. Peter were at present to reappear on earth, with what eager and devout curiosity should not we appeal to either of them in our controversies, and entreat him to clear up our difficulties ! Who would deny his narrative of some miracle of our Lord's, or dispute his opinion as to what was pure and undefiled religion ? But then may we not say, that such a 124 HOLY SCRIPTURE. power of appeal is already in our hands ? St. John writing cannot be less trustworthy than St. Jolin preaching. In neither case could he be termed omniscient; in both cases men might carry away a wrong conception of his meaning ; yet surely in both we ought (as Christians) to award him and his fellows a respectful and candid hearing. On this ground then, that the Apostles generally saw our Lord, and had the best means of information as to his religion, their writings seem to be properly added to those of the Old Testament which they explain. They were men, indeed, compassed with infirmities like ourselves, and they professed only to know in part, and to prophesy in part. Yet God has not given us any higher written authority, and the highest which he has given must be sufficient for our salvation. But why reason from theory ? Search rather their writings in prac- tice, brethren, and you will find them sufficient for your peace. If indeed you disdain rational and proper helps, such as a com- petent knowledge of the original tongues, and of the customs, manners, and modes of thought of the persons using them, you may stumble grievously in this, as in any other inquiry. You may then, if both unlearned and also unstable, wrest the Scriptures to your own destruction. But if you are content to start with such a key as the Church puts into your hands in the form of the three primitive creeds, or of the English prayer-book generally, you cannot go greatly wrong, even in speculation. And if you use the Scriptures, as they were intended to be used, chiefly for warning, for encouragement, for consolation, you will find them the Book of books, — a shrine from whence light will stream on your path, and an oracle whose words will be comfort to your soul. For, after all difficulties which may be raised, and all dis- tinctions which must be made, these Hebrew and Christian Scriptures seem likely ever to constitute the book dearest to the downcast and the contrite, — to the bereaved, the outcast, and the Magdalene, — to all them that are stricken or afflicted in mind, body, or estate. So Collins, a man of the rarest genius and largest endowments, solaced the lucid intervals of HOLT SCRIPTURE. 125 an overwrought and shattered intellect with one book, — " it was the best" he said, — and it was the Bible. So many a soul stricken with remorse has been lured back to the way of life; and so (what after all, believe me, is far better) many a pure spirit has been strengthened to preserve its gar- ments of fine linen unspotted through life, and so entered without doubt into an inheritance undefiled. Lastly, from the same source, we ever may derive strength to resign those whom we love best into the hands of a merci- ful Creator and Redeemer ; not fearing also ourselves, when God shall call us, to answer, " Even so, Lord : for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now therefore into thy hands we commend our spirits ; for thou hast redeemed us, O thou God of Truth." 11* SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST.* By ROWLAND WILLIAMS, B. D., FTLLOW AM) FORMERLY TUTOR OP KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, Ahl) PR0FES8OB OF HEBREW AT LAMPETER. " Holy men of God spake as tbev were moTed bj the Holy Ghost." — 2 Peter i. 21. 80 long as the religion of Chi'ist is recommended onlj by tlie inherent weight of its ideas, it stands on nearly the same ground as the sentiments of justice or of right, if considered prior to their being exemplified in history, or embodied in law. Few minds, we may hope, are so brutishly depraved as not to acknowledge their neighbor's right to his own hfe, to the fruit of his labor, and to fair dealing in all social trans- actions, if only the conceptions of those things are brought calmly and deliberately within cognizance of their thought. But yet the naked idea of justice is not found powerful to restrain men's actions with anything hke the dominion which it is capable of acquiring when its principles have been em- bodied in law, transgression of them forbidden by penalty, and instances of their operation in all the transactions of life ^ Preached before the L^niversity of Cambridge [Eng.], on the Second Sunday in Advent, December, 1854. 128 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS recorded and set forth in the history of a nation. So far, indeed, as the subjects of a realm are concerned, the authority which practically binds them is not that of the abstract senti- ment of justice, but the positive law of the land. A man is not permitted to argue that his conception of justice gives him a social claim : it is law which must ratify that claim, define its measure, and lay down the method of enforcing it. There is nothing in our own land so lofty, and not many things so minute, as not to fall within the range of positive and written law. But yet this law, which gives majesty to the sceptre, and edge to the sword, extending its ample shield over the lives of subject millions, and enforcing even for its own errors a sacredness which the wisest are tlie slowest to dispute, has behind it and underneath it a power greater than its own. For it is itself the creature of human thought ; the ever-growing and often-varying embodiment of the conceptions of mankind ; and although legislators, judges, and reformers, or even martyrs in the cause of freedom, may have spoken it of old, as they were moved by the providence and the Spirit of God, teaching them either through experi- ence or through impulse, yet it is often marked by the imper- fections of its time. The vessels in which the great treasure of the desire of justice was embodied, may have been vessels of earth ; and if it is to retain its hold upon advancing gen- erations, it must purify itself ever by contact with the living fountains of justice ; must adapt its interpretation to new exigencies of social life ; and must bcAvare lest, by suj^ersti- tious tenacity of the letter, any violence be done to the spirit, — even to that sense of righteousness in man, which is ever being trained upward, to realize the unwritten word of God. Now we may very reasonably say, that to ourselves, as members of the Church of England, the great standard of theological doctrine must be that volume of Holy Scriptures which embodies the experience of the Church of old ; the record of her revelations, and the tradition of her spiritual life ; the transfusion, as it were, of her spirit into Avriting ; which also the Church of our own land has stamped with MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 129 authority, bj adopting it as her written law. There are many obvious advantages in having so easy a court of appeal : an authority which teaches by example as well as by precept ; a judge not biassed by our controversies of the day ; and a record extending over a sufficiently ample range of time for questions of all kinds to have found in it a practical solution, • — for the blessings of innocence, and for the judgments which wait on crime, to have been each very signally exemplified ; and for the often-contending (though they ought to be har- monious) claims of king and priest and people, of power and weakness, of wealth and poverty, to have each had a limit assigned to them ; — a sentence, as it were, having been passed upon them by that experience of generations which expresses the verdict of the great Ruler of the world. More- over, it must be noticed, that Scripture will have a greater sacredncss than law, because it deals with a subject-matter still more sacred ; and although the relations which the two bear to the thing written about may be the same, yet since the subjects are different, the writings will also differ. Yet it ought ever to be acknowledged, that this Holy Scrip- ture, which all members of our Church so justly regard with veneration, has also something behind it deeper* and far holier still ; and if that spirit by which holy men spake of old is for ever a living and a present power, its later lessons may well transcend its earlier ; and there may reside in the Church a power of bringing out of her treasury things new as well as things old. If it had been the will of Almighty God, we cannot doubt his power to have instructed mankind by pouring before their gaze from the beginning all the treasures of his providence, and all the wonders of his grace. But it has pleased Him, who doeth all things well, to train up his Israel as a child, and to make the experience of bygone generations a landmark for * To deny this, is to deny Christ far more utterly than the Galatians (lid ; and for any one to call such sayings an inversion of the groundAvork of Christianity, only shows the urgent need there is for servants of God to preach them. 130 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS those who were to come. There was a time when as yet the Bible was not, and we must not think that it was necessary to salvation. For the Spirit of God may have then striven with men ; possibly even his Eternal Offspring, the not yet Incarnate Word, may have preached through the movements of conscience, and through words of warning, in the days of Noah. Certainly Enoch may have walked with God ; Mel- chisedec may, in the sanctity of a Gentile priesthood, have blessed Abraham ; the faith of the patriarch in One who was his shield and his exceeding great reward, may have been counted to him as righteousness ; and all these, and others whom no man can number, may have been gathered to the spirits of just men made perfect, if not before any records existed, at least centuries before the earliest of our sacred books took their present form. But when the patriarchs have grown into twelve tribes, they are become a nation, and a nation must have a history ; when they come out from the house of bondage, and conquer a new land, the Author of their deliverance, and the Giver of their conquest, must have his wondrous works recorded ; when they have law, which is to be enforced by human rulers, though with reference to the Divine Ruler, it must be written in some express form ; or, just as man, because he has the gift of reason, will utter speech with meaning, so the nation, because thoughts are stirring in its breast, must have a voice to speak forth the national mind ; and if the life which ani- mates its thoughts be truly religious, the words which are their utterance niust be sacred words. Thus, where there is a church, there must be a Bible or a liturgy ; where there is a true temple, there will be solemn psalms ; where decay or formalism creeps over the servants of the sanctuary, if ihe spirit of God has compassion on his people to awaken them, there will arise prophets, whose protest will be couched in accents pregnant with eternal truth ; who will say to the dry bones, " Live," and to the prostrate Church, " Stand upon thy feet." Thus, although man is gathered to his fathers, yet, as MOVED BY THE HOLT GHOST. 131 nations and churches represent, throughout fleeting genera- tions, the everlasting providence and spirit of God, so it is probable they will strive to prevent their best thoughts from being swept into forgetfulness ; and they will, by writing, give a permanent shape to their record of things temporal, and to their perception of things divine. Then, again, if the destined course of the world be really one of providential progress, if there has been such a thing as a childhood of humanity, and if God has been educating either a nation or a church to understand their duty to him- self and to mankind ; it must follow, that, when the fulness of light is come, there will be childish things to put away. Not (indeed) that any part will have been useless in its day ; perhaps a certain unalterableness of spirit may run through every link of the chain. Yet, if the chain is one of living men, each link must have a freedom of expansion, and there will be a power of modifying mere circumstance very differ- ent from the bare continuity of inanimate things. Hence, if the religious records represent faithfully the inner life of each generation, whether a people or a priesthood, they will all be, in St. Paul's phrase, divinely animated^ or with a divine life running through them ; and every writing divinely animated will be useful ; yet they may, or rather they must^ be cast in the mould of the generation in which they were written ; their words, if they are true words, will express the customs of their country, the conceptions of their times, the feelings or aspirations of their writers ; and the measure of knowledge or of faith to which every one, in his degree, had attained. And the limitation, thus asserted, of their range of knowl- edge, will be equally true, whether we suppose the short-com- ing to be, on an idea of special Providence, from a pai-ticuhir dictation of sentiment in each case ; or whether, on the more reasonable view of a general Providence, we consider such things permitted rather than directed ; the natural result of a grand scheme, rather than a minute arranixement of tliou.^hts and words for each individual man. It may he that the Lord writes the Bible, on the same principle as the Lord 132 SERVAXTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS builds the city ; or that he teaches the Psalmist to siri<^, in the same sense as he teaches his fingers to fight ; thus that the composition of Scripture is attributed to the Ahnightj, just as sowing and threshing are said to be taught by him ; * for every part played by man comes from the Divine Dis- poser of the scene. By some such process, however, as has above been sketched, it has pleased the Giver of all wisdom to bring about for us through his providence the writing of these sacred books, which comprehend (1.) the literature of the Hebrew people, (2.) the oracles of Jehovah's priesthood, and (3.) the expe- rience of the apostles of Christ. For such seems to be a division under which we may naturally class those many voices of the Church of God, or those records of the spiritual convictions of the great society in which the fear of the Lord has been inherited from gen- eration to generation, the aggregate of which books we call the Bible. Shall we venture to glance at each of these divisions in turn? We chiim for the oldest of our sacred books an antiquity of perhaps fifteen hundred years before the Christian era. But the external evidence for their ex- istence can hardly be said to extend over more than half that period. For all the earlier half, we rely chiefly upon the contents of the books themselves. Nor can we even appreciate this kind of evidence without a cerfain freedom of investigation, which proceeds upon what HooKer assumes as the primary revelation of the human understanding. Yet from this kind of evidence we are able, for a large part of the earlier books, to prove an origin of very high antiquity. Partly, the language agrees with what the date requires ; as in the earlier books of the Pentateuch there are Egyptian words ; partly, the manners agree, whether we glance at the ancient castes of Egypt, as attested by lier monumental stones, or at the wandering tents of the patriarchal tribes ; partly, again, the general scenery is true in character ; and, * Isaiah xxviii. 23-29. MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 133 still more decisively, tlie general tone of feeling, and the men- tal horizon, as it were, of the writers, is exactly what Ave should expect, as in due proportion to the age in which their lot was cast. Only, it must be added, that all these proofs of genuineness are also equally proofs of a positive Hmitation to the range of knowledge. We cannot in one moment say, these books were written in such an age because they have the knowledge of that age, and in the next moment argue that they have a divine omniscience, and therefore were dictated, or, as it were, dropped from heaven ; for this would be, with the greatest inconsistency, to destroy our own argument and to introduce miracle, where we have been assuming the faith- fulness of God's providence ; as if we said, that the rain * and the sunshine are a contradiction to those laws of the Au- thor of Nature which seem intended expressly to guide them. Here, therefore, both for the above reasons, and for others to be mentioned hereafter, let me in all humility protest against that unwise exaggeration which makes the entire Bible a transcript of the Divine omniscience, or a word of God for all time, Avithout due reference to the circumstances and to the range of knoAvledge of those holy men Avho spake of old. The writers, after all, are men ; and the condition of mankind is imperfection. They were holy men and servants of God ; but yet all human holiness and all human service is only comparative, and a thing of degree. They spahe ; but speech is the organ of thought ; therefore there is noth- ing in the Scripture but Avhat was first in the mind of the scribe. Nihil est in Scripto, quod non prius in Scriptore, They spake of old ; but all old times represent, as it were, the childhood of the human race, and therefore had childish things, which we must put away. The Holy Ghost was their teacher ; but the province of this eternal Agent in our re- demption is not to give knowledge of earthly facts, which we know by the providence of the Father, nor yet to give a new revelation of things heavenly, Avhich we know by the positive * Dr. Powell of St. John's. '12 134 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS incarnation of the Son ; but the province of the Holy Ghost is rather to quicken our conceptions of things otherwdse known ; to liallow our impulses, restrain our wanderings, and guide our steps in those paths which the Father and the Son have ah-eady kid down for us to walk in. But let no one therefore suppose that this limitation of the knowledge of the sacred Avriters should lessen the sacredness, or destroy to us the usefulness, of that hterature which, ac- cording to the measure of its time, the Church of God spake of old. We may receive the message of the servants as true M'ithout for a moment dreaming that the great Master had communicated to them all the knowledge of his eternal plan. We may acknowledge the history a very wonderful one, be- cause the events which it records were first wonderful. On the same principle as the very structure of the Hebrew sen- tence is a written echo of the chant of the temple, so that acknowledgment of the living God, which they whom the nations despise, and Christians often misrepresent, have held fast amidst a thousand persecutions, runs throughout their history as a memorial of the mighty works of Jehovah in the land of Ham, and by the Red Sea. Without here venturing upon the very debatable ground of where miracle begins and where providence ends, or without determining (what perhaps is by no means so impor- tant as many may suppose) how much w^e ought strictly to assign to each, we may safely say, the entire history, or litera- ture, is one which seems destined to be the handmaid of true religion in the world. Just as the ancient Greek manifested the sensitiveness of his organization and the activity of his mind by a literature moulded in beauty and full of specula- tion ; and as the Roman, whose mission it was to civilize the world with law, spoke the firm language of history and ot manly virtue ; so the Hebrew, having been wonderfully trained, laid the wisdom of the Pigyptians at the feet of Je- hovah ; he looked upon the earth and its fulness, and he said aloud, " It is the Lord's": he saw kings reign, and he felt that One mijihtier than thev had set fast their thrones ; he MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 135 heard of his fathers migrating, and marrying, and burying their dead in a strange land ; and he feU that not one of these things was disregarded in the sight of Him wlio teacheth the wild-fowl their course through the heaven, and who uphold- eth also our steps in life : or he bowed in the sanctuary on Mount Zion ; and, as the question arose, " Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or stand in his holy place ? " the Spirit of God within him made answer, " He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ; that hath not spoken the name of Jehovah over falsehood, nor sworn to deceive his neighbor." Thus, in short, the spirit which runs through the literature of the Hebrews is eminently a religious spirit ; in their his- tory, and in their proverbs, and in the common stories of the people, though these may have been moulded somewhat in Oriental form, there is a true reference of all things to the will of a righteous Lord. But, still more emphatically, the same character applies to the direct utterances of the great teachers of righteousness ; to the oracular songs of the Temple, and to the kindling ac- cents in which the prophets woke the conscience of their compatriots, as they denounced the fierce anger of a Judge long provoked by incurable sin. There priest and prophet go harmoniously hand in hand ; so that the attempts of the assailants of church polity to sever their functions are but vain. It is the province of the priest, not only to teach the difference between the holy and the profane, but also that his lips should keep knowledge ; and again, however earnestly the prophet may cry aloud for reformation of heart, he yet never ceases to maintain the sacredness of whatever has had spoken over it the holy name of the Most High. Only we cannot judge either one or the other truly, unless we regard them in the closest connection with the history of the people among whom they are written. For they are not so much a word of God, externally dropping from heaven, as a true confession to God, responding from the heart of man. Both the deep sighing of passionate devotion, and the fervent trust in a deliverer out of national bondage, w ould lose half 136 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS their value, unless we believed that thej came from men who prayed earnestly for themselves ; who had -tasted the rod of the oppressor ; and who were concerned about the reahties of their own mind and their own time. But why should not their devout sayings, and all the heroic deeds of trust, or love, or magnanimity, serve to the same end in rehgion, as the liis- tory of kingdoms in politics, and the strains of poetry in edu- cation, without our presuming to assign to the writers an in- fallibihty which they never claim for themselves ? We may read Moses, not for his physical geography, but for his ten commandments and his history. We may read the book of Joshua, not for its astronomy, but for a tremendous example of the law by which God sweeps corrupt nations from the earth ; we may find in Kings and Chronicles, not imaginary and faultless men, but subjects of Divine providence, instances of Divine teaching, and all that blending of interest with in- struction, which the history of a devout people, told with reference to the Judge of the whole earth, is ever calculated to afford. We may also fully admit the unalterableness of Scripture, in the sense that deeds truly done cannot be un- done, and fixed principles cannot be changed ; nor would it be modest, to weigh the personal authority of even the most spiritual teacher now, against that of the Apostles who fol- lowed Christ ; but yet we need not suppose that the arm of the Eternal is shortened, or that his Holy Spirit ever ceases to animate the devout heart. Above all, let no man blunt the edge of his conscience, by praising such things as -the craft of Jacob, or the blood-stained treachery of Jael ; nor let the natural metaphor, by which men call a sacred record "the word of God," ever blind us to the fact, that no text has been found, from Genesis to Revelations, in which this holy name is made a synonyme for the entire volume of Scripture ; but rather, the spirit is often, especially in the New Testa- ment, put in opposition to the letter, and the living word, as for instance it was spoken by the Apostles, is constantly dis- tinguished from the written tradition of the days of old. Most commonly in the New Testament, the phrase word of MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 137 God means the gospel of Christ, or the gLad tidings of the Messiah being come. It should also be noticed, that, while the discoveries of modern travellers do so far confirm the books of the Old Testament, as to show their historical char- acter, they give no countenance to any exaggerated theory of omniscience, or dictation, but rather contravene any dream of the kind. When men quote discoveries as confirmations of the Bible, they should consider in what sense and how far it is confirmed by them. And now, if we pass on to the experience of the apostles of Christ, we shall find ample means for enabling us to fix its true value upon the record of Holy Scripture. However true it may be, that we know less of the individual writers, and of the precise dates of the three earlier Gospels, than our fathers took rather for granted, yet it is certain that they express the belief and the preaching of the Church in the first century of the Christian era. Thus, instead of three men, we may rather appeal to the united testimony of the hundred and twenty persons who constituted the infant Church before the day of Pentecost. And although some few books, such as the Epistle from which our text is taken, have their authorship reasonably called in question, yet modern criticism does, on grounds of internal evidence, agree very closely with that belief as to the genuineness of the Apostolic writings in general, which the primitive Church adopted, from traditions of her own. (This, by the way, is an instance in which our modern freedom of investigation has added a fresh argument to our evidence.) In these books, then, we find traces of a new spirit in the world. We have the thoughts of those who walked with Christ, and heard the gracious words which he spake. We have the simple fervor of one apostle ; the despondent diffi- dence of another ; the angelic loveliness and the love of a third ; and, above all, we have the Judaic learning, the awak- ened mind, the passionate zeal, the practical energy, and the combining Avisdom of St. Paul. The Epistles of this one writer will alone prove .that, whenever our Gospels may have 12* 138 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS been, perliaps, moulded out of the familiar converse of the Apostles into their present form, the belief in our Lord's resurrection from the grave was at least current long before the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, all these writers of the New Testament appear partly as antagonists of the Old, and partly as witnesses who confirm it. Partly they are antagonists, for even the doctrines of Christ find fault with much that had been spoken of old. He appeals from the law of Moses about marriage to the purer instinct of the heart, as that which had been from the begin- ning ; he refuses to confirm the law of retaliation ; and both he and his apostles, but especially St. Paul, turn men's thoughts from the tradition of the wisdom of old time, which was principaUy enshrined in the Bible, to that life of the soul which comes of the Holy Ghost, and to the ever-expanding law which is both written in the heart, and which accumulates enactment from experience. For St. Paul's " tradition " con- tains his Hebrew descent, and his circumcision on the eighth day, with many other things which had been purely scrip- tural. They had all been written in the volume of the Book, and yet he repudiates them all. Whereas, on the other hand, the Scribes and Pharisees call the followers of Jesus accursed for not knowing the law ; by which they mean the Scripture. They even pride themselves on searching the Scriptures, for they thought that therein they had eternal life. Yet our Lord does not hesitate to blame them, as searcliing the Scriptures in vain. So again, St. Paul calls the Galatians foolish for desiring to be under the law, under which term he includes the book of Genesis. He is quite in accord with Jeremiah, who had prophesied a time under Christianity when the word of God should be written, not in book or stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart, or in the conscience of reasonable beings. Yet, it is true, the same Apostle thinks that the Divine Teacher of mankind had never ceased to warn his Church of old ; and that by the great principle of trust in an unseen but all-righteous Guide, he had led its members from the MOVED Br THE HOLT GHOST. 189 beginning ; and hence all the utterances of that Church, or the traditions of the Old Testament, are divinely animated ; they are written for our instruction ; for who would not listen to the lessons of a great history of thought, or would spurn the inheritance of his ghostly fathers ? And thus their tendency is to make the servant of God wise, putting him, through the medium of an enlightened understanding, on the track as it were of Christian salvation. Again, while the writings of the apostles of Christ repre- sent chiefly the principle of the living spirit, they are them- selves the utterance of the Church, or of that society which is the habitation of the ever-present Spirit of God ; and, when duly preserved, they are capable of being themselves handed down as an inheritance or a tradition ; yet, as being a tradition of a spiritual age, they may become witnesses, either for sober history against vague mysticism, or for the lively inspiration of the heart against the more lifeless tradition of a grosser and more formalized age. "What blessed lessons, then, may we not derive, if we are wise, from those holy books ? "VYhat evidences do they not afford of our faith ! They do not merely record, so much as absolutely talk of the inspired lives of the men who indited them. What warning do they not utter, as with a trumpet's sound, when we, forgetful of the Rock from whence we are hewn, become negligent in the work of the Lord! What comfort do they not breathe, in all our sorest distress, — in our perplexity of mind, in our pain of body, and in our lowli- ness of estate ! By cherishing their words we assimilate our thoughts to the minds of apostles, and saints, and martyrs ; casting, as it were, our earth-bound affections over again in a holier mould, and so drinking of the deep fountains which have their source in the well of life beneath the throne of the majesty of God our Saviour. Let no man be ashamed, if the page on which such words are written is often wet with his tears ; or if their fashion, though in many things it be temporal, give shape and voice to his deepest thoughts of things eternal. Neither intellect. 140 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS nor Immanity, nor devotion, can anywliere be better purified and strengthened than in the homely page either of our fa- miliar Prayer-book or of our Bible. There our sorrow and our guilty alarm will almost inevitably flee for comfort ; and there, if we are wise, we shall learn in time to disapline our youth, and to purify our joy. But yet, brethren, let no inconsiderate exaggeration, and no polemical reaction from overstrained claims of the Church of Rome, induce us to mistake the spirit of the Gospel or of the Cross for the letter of the Bible. A man may know his Bible by heart, and yet turn a deaf ear to the word of God. lie may lay stress on temporary accidents, such as anointing with oil; and may be blind to eternal princijjles, such as faith, hope, charity. He may even express the most malig- nant passion in Scriptural phrase, as if truth were more true, or malice were less hateful, because the vehicle in which it is conveyed may be of Aramaic form. Thus some have de- fended slavery because they truly observe that St. Paul's epistles do defend it, and even condemn attempts to abolish it as the work of men " proud, knowing nothing." * Yet it is evident, that God had destined slavery to flee away in time before the principles with which the Gospel is pregnant. Thus our religion is one thing, and the books which record it are another. Some, again, have laid unreasonable stress upon the accidental opposition of Christianity to the governments and religions of the corrupt generation in which it was first founded ; and hence many irrational arguments against kings and priests ; yet it is evident that the sacredness of the office of governor, and of teacher, and of rightful minister in the sanctuary, must last as long as this world endures. How many, again, with most unfair sophistry, distort various texts of Scripture in order to force them unnaturally into a har- mony which they suppose needful ; whereas the very idea of a divine teaching, which lies at the bottom of the Bible, im- plies also the idea of progress, and makes it natural for the * 1 Tim. vi. 2-4. MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 141 newer sentences to differ from the old. So, again, every new science has to run the gauntlet of opposition, until, after forcing its way througli bitter searchings of heart, it is at last pre- tended to be in harmony with those texts which were once (more truly, but yet quite irrelevantly) alleged to oppose it. Time would fail me to tell of Puritan perverseness, of fanati- cism passing into tyranny, of science persecuted, reason in- sulted, morality depraved, and the Gospel of Christ congealed, mutilated, and clipped, as it were, of its wings, because men have assumed what the Bible does not assume, that inspira- tion means omniscience, or that the All-gracious Father, who taught men of old, has his unsleeping eye blinded or his arm shortened, so that he can teach us now no more. But per- haps no single study has suffered so much from this cause as the interpretation of the Bible itself. It may, however, be suggested, whether devotion also has not suffered some- what. For although the Psalms and other sacred writings are a treasury of expressions which harmonize admirably M'ith the deepest breathings of our hearts ; yet, when men compile prayers from these with servile imitation, as school- boys take verses from the poets, the spirit of devotion is apt to be exorcised. And this is one reason why modern prayers are so inferior to the ancient hturgies ; for so long as the Church of old believed in the real presence of the Holy Ghost, she waxed mighty in prayer as she grew rich in ex- perience ; then the storehouse of her hturgies became heaped with things old, and yet her heart ever indited good matters that were new ; and from those fountains the stream of prayer has flowed into all lands, until, at last, our bishops and pas- tors, as if they despaired of the promise of Christ, would take no weapon in hand that had not been hammered on the Jewish anvil. And so, many of our modern prayers have become a lifeless patchwork of texts ; * a disquisition to the * Compare Jeremy Taylor, Preface to Golden Grove. Would that those who in our own time have right manfully endeavored to heal the disease of unreality in our, devotional compilations, did not too often 142 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS people, instead of a crying to God; and, as there is little aflection in them which might even savor of the spirit, so there is often something which offends the understanding We have fallen, in this respect, far below the level which, the genius and the piety of Hooker had attained three cen- turies ago. That illustrious champion, both of the purity of the Gospel of Christ and of the freedom of the human mind, shows clearly, in the second book of his immortal work, how Scripture may become " a misery" and " a torment," and " a snare " ; and his counsel is most truly judicious, that we should beware, lest, by claiming for Holy Scripture more than we ought, we provoke men to deny it its due ; lest, in fact, we pervert the Bible itself, and either destroy the spirituality of our faith, or give occasion to many perverse delusions; or, again, provoke till we almost justify a most dangerous reaction into scoffing infideUty. But if such was Hooker's counsel in his own time, how much greater need is there that some one, either in his spirit, or in that of the incomparable Jeremy Taylor, should speak words of even bolder counsel now ! For it hath pleased the Giver of our thoughts, and the Disposer of our lot, to enlarge on all sides the boundaries of human knowledge. There is no science of the heavens above, or of the earth beneath, or of the waters under the earth, which has not revealed mys- teries of its own ; or which does not refuse to be limited by the brief range of the Hebrews, who in all such things were learners rather than teachers. Again, our more extended familiarity with other literatures daily shows us that aspira- tions congenial to those of the Hebrews had been taught elsewhere by the God of the spirits of all flesh. But, above all, the critical interpretation of the sacred volume itself is a bring their own remedies from the dregs of the Middle Ages : and often, by assembling merely the dolorous portions out of Scripture, make work in feminine and sensitive natures for physicians of the body, (I speak from sad observation,) rather than do the work of the Physician of souls. But the true kingdom of God brings peace and joy in believing, with cliildliko confidence. MOVED BY THE HOLT GHOST. 143 study for which our generation is, by various acquirements, eminently qualified. Hence we have learnt that neither the citations usually made in our theological systems, nor even those adduced from the Old Testament in the New, are any certain guide to the sense of the original text. The entire question of prophecy requires to be opened again from its very foundation. Hence, to the student who is compelled to dwell on such things, comes often the distress of glaring con- tradictions ; and with some the intellect is clouded, while the faith of others has waxed cold. If the secret religious his- tory of the last twenty years could be written, (even setting aside every instance of apostasy through waywardness of mind, or through sensuality of life,) there would remain a page over which angels might weep. So long, indeed, as such difficulties are thought absolutely to militate against Christianity, the strong necessity wliich the best men feel for Christian sentiment will induce them to keep the whole sub- ject in abeyance. Yet surely the time must come when God will mercifully bring our spirit into harmony with our under- standing. Perhaps a greatness and a place not far from the Apostles in the kingdom of heaven may be reserved for some one, who, in true holiness and humility of heart, shall be privileged to accomplish this work. We can almost sym- pathize with that romantic though erroneous faith, which has made some men attempt to roll back the stream of human knowledge, and to take refuge from doubts in a dream of living infallibility. But all such attempts must fail ; for the God of truth will make them fail. He who dwells in light eternal does not promote his kingdom by darkness ; and He whose name is Faithful and True is not served by falsehood. If knowledge has wounded us, the same spear must heal our wound. Nor can I close without humbly asking the grave, the reverend, and the learned, whether all this subject does not call for greater seriousness, tenderness, and frankness. Wlio would not be serious on observing how many men's hope of heaven is bound up with belief in the infallibility of a book, 1 ti SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING AS M'liich, every dn}' convinces us, expresses, as regards tilings oF earth, tlie thoughts of iallible men ? Or who would not pity rather than blame, when the V(^ry inquiries in which the lo-^e of God and zeal for his honor first engaged us seem to intro- duce (according to popular theories) the most distressing con- tradictions ? Or who is so blind as to think the cause of eternal truth should be defended by sophistries, of wdiicli a special pleader would be ashamed ? One would make large allowance for the conscientious anxiety of those eminent per- sons, whose position makes them responsible as bulwarks of the faith; and who are ever di-eading the consequences to which the first outlet of the waters of freedom may tend. But may God in his mercy teach them, that nothing can be so dangerous as to build on a false foundation. The ques- tion, hoiv far we would go, will best be answered by ex- perience. Only it never will be safe to stop short of the Truth. But, in fact, almost everything doubtful, or, at least, every- thing transparently erroneous, in our sacred books, might be surrendered to-morrow with little or rather no detriment to the essentials of the Christian faith. It is strangely unreason- able for men to argue that they cannot believe God ought to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, unless they are also con- vinced that Cyrenius w^as president of Syria, or that the Cretans were always liars. Nor ought any one to doubt whether God made sea and land, because it may fairly be questioned how far the poetry in Joshua about the sun stand- ing still (or the allegory in Jonah about the whale) ought to be interpreted literally. Almost all difficulties which are fairly raised belong to those things of earth, about which well-meaning Martha was unnecessarily cumbered ; while the life and the power and the salvation are the inalienable inheritance of Mary, while she sits in calmness at the feet of the Saviour. Let not then exaggerations, or polemical inferences, frighten us in vain. We may grant to the Romanist, as well as to many Anglicans, that the Church was before the Bible, as a MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 145 speaker is before his voice ; and that Holy Scripture is not the foundation of the Christian faith so much as its creature, its expression, and its embodiment. But it will not therefore follow that this Holy Scripture should be sealed in dead languages, or withheld from men thirsting for the w^ords of life. Nor ought any modern mystic to persuade us that the history of the Divine dealings of old is ever useless to the human mind ; and yet we may concede that the two things from which Scripture sprang are for ever in the world, — I mean the conscience of man, and the Holy Spirit of God. From these two, meeting in the Church, the Bible derives its origin, its authority, and its power to persuade. I exhort, therefore, every soul who hears me to value highly the Bible ; to read it, pray over it, understand it. But yet bew^are of lying for God ; or of ascribing infalHbility to men of like passions with ourselves ; or of sacrificing the spirit which enlivens to the letter which deadens. So may you deserve the praise of those ancient Beroeans, who are ever honored because they were more ingenuous ((vyevea-Tepoi), or because their minds were candid in receiv- ing the truth. So too will you be, not infidels, but believers in Holy Writ, when it tells you that its authors knew only in part, and prophesied only in part ; so will you avoid attrib- uting blasphemy to them, by calling the word of God that which they profess to speak as men ; and even to speak as fools ; so wdll you not make them, as writers, more than they were as speakers ; nor will you sever, as they did not sever, their inspiration from that of the congregation at large, when they exclaim, "I think that I too" (Sok5 Se Kay on), that is, "I, as well as others, have the Spirit of God." But above all, so will you be blessed, as servants of that living God who is never weary of creating, and whose promise is that he will dwell among us ; and so too disciples of Jesus, who prayed, not for his Apostles only, but for all who should believe through their w^ord ; whose most precious testament was, not, I give you the Bible, but, " I send you the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth " ; and whose binding promise is, not, I 13, 146 SERVANTS OF GOD SPEAKING, ETC. am with the first generation of Christians, and possibly with the second, but, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to * Abundant proofs of the non-Petrine origin of the Epistle called St. Peter's Second, are given in the second edition of Bunsen's Ilippolytus, from whence, however, I did not learn it. Even Eusebius had said, " Of the writings named as Peter's, I know only one Epistle genuine." Iliht. EccL III. 3. The internal character of the Epistle con-esponds with this external disavowal. But if any one asks me. Why then take your text from it ? such a questioner, I presume, thinks that a sentiment cannot be true, or worthy of commentary, unless it be a particular Apostle's ; that is to say, lie thinks things are true because they are written, instead of being written because they are true ; or again, he thinks that the Church has not authority sufficient to persuade even her own ministers what books they shall lecture upon. But to no one of these propositions am I able to assent ; nor again do I feel any difficulty in adopting the senti- ment of my text, whoever may have written it. Having said positively that nowhere in Holy Scripture is the term " word of God " made an equivalent or synonyme for the Bible, I may refer to the Sei-mon on the Kingdom of God for an explanation of some texts usually misapplied. I did not make up my own mind on this spe- cific point until after a consideration extending over many years. The two texts most favorable to the vulgar Pharisaism are perhaps St. Mark vii. 13 and vii. 7 ; but in the one, the thing intended is the fifth command- ment, as we see from St. MatthcAv xv. 4, 9, where also we find tilings both Levitical and Scriptural condemned by our Lord (see ver. 10, 11) : and in the other, the antithesis is not between written and un'nTitten, but between divine will and human precept. Perhaps irapdhoais means precept oftener than tradition. It should, however, be clear, that I know of no tradition, ecclesiastical or other, worthy to be named in the same day with St. Paul's Epistles ; and I admit Kara crvpfi(^r]K6s the approximate coextensiveness of our New Testament Scriptures and of Apostolic doctrine ; only I cannot vio- late the first principles of Christianity itself, as well as of human reason, by putting the letter before the spirit, or the books before the religion, as our popular tradition does. We are rightly taught that " all Holy Scrip- ture is written ybrowr instruction." Whenever, therefore, it is used to stunt our knowledge, or fetter our spirits, it must be misapplied ; as we read that it was by the great Tempter. THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK.* By EOWLAND WILLIAMS, B. D., FELLOW AND FORMERLT TUTOR OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PROFESSOR 0» HEBREW AT LAMPETER. " After the way which (they) call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." — Acts xxiv. 14. There certainly was a time when to be a member of the Society of Friends implied something greater than more or less harmless peculiarities ; for they bore witness before princes and people, in bonds and persecution, for the great principle of the spirit of the hving God, and were not ashamed. If then one of them had been asked, Do you not worship the God of battles ? he might possibly have answered. No ; and again, if he were told that the Almighty is called in the Old Testament the Lord of hosts, it is conceivable that he might have rejoined. But we have better oracles. Immediately upon this might have been raised a cry. This man is an infidel, for he denies the Scriptures ; or rather an atheist, for he disowns the Lord of hosts. Yet the Quaker again might plead, that he had learnt to know God, not so much by might, or by power, as by the spirit wherewith he lias taught us to call him, " Our Father which is in heaven." * Preached before the Vice-Chancellor and University j>f Cambridge [Eng.], in King's College Chapel, on March 25, 1855. 148 THE sriniT and the letter, He might go on to affirm, that, in thus recognizing the eternal I AM under his more blessed character as the Prince of Peace, he did not for a moment deny the same Lord to have been known as Almighty by the patriarchs, and as Eternal by the Jews ; but still, that the sundry times and divers man- ners of ancient revealing had somewhat melted in the bright- ness of the revelation of that Spirit, which cometli forth from the Father and the Son. Thus, that many things " said of old time," * in the rigor of the letter, must now be interpreted, or rather expanded, in the freedom of life ; and so, after a manner which, even if it were called heresy, was yet the manner of Christ and his apostles, he worshipped the God of his fathers. Nor would such an answer be unlike in spirit to those which the great Apostle of the Gentiles often urges in vain upon the attention of his irritated countrymen. For it is not only at Athens that he is called an introducer of new divini- ties ; but at Jerusalem he is denounced as one who taught apostasy from the sacred place, and the Book of the Law, and the worship of the God of the Hebrews-t Difficult as it may be, with our scanty information, to reconcile some parts of his conduct — such as the " being at charges " in partici- pation of sacrifice in the temple — with his argument in the Epistle to the Galatians, we are yet able to observe a wonderful blending of courage with delicacy in his manage- ment of the many intricate questions which are proposed to him. He does not think that the Father of the spirits of all flesh was a God of the Jew only, and not also of the Gentile, yet he concedes there may have been great advan- tage in those opportunities of enlightenment, and in that faithfulness of the Divine promises, which belonged to the * Compare the mnning antithesis, St. Matt. v. 21 -27, 31, 43, with Jcr. xxxi. 31, 32 ; Hcb. viii. 8- 10 ; 2 Cor. iii. 4 - 14 ; 1 Cor. ii. 7 ; iii. 1 ; 1 John ii. 20 - 27. t The common charge against the early Christians was, with Jews, infidelity ; with Gentiles, atheism. The word hercsij hud not yet ac- quired its technical sense. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 149 chosen people of old. So he admits even the Law of Moses to have been m its idea holy and pure, yet he contends that this sanctity was not from the fact of its being imposed with penalties at the Exodus, but from its participation in those older and holier principles of which Abraham had the promise, and even the Gentiles a scripture in their heart. The Law, then, so far as it is Mosaic, and penal, or even outwardly preceptive, can never be the highest guide of those who have the mind of Christ, — yet its ancient records may still be useful ; and not only would he quote them largely, in address- ing .Tews who " desired to be under them," as he quotes even Gentile prophets in addressing Athenians, but his own mind was evidently imbued with reverential affection towards those songs of Zion which (as the liturgy of his race) he must often have sung in solemn services, and to those deeply searching prophets whose fervent spirit, ever penetrating from the form of godliness to its power, was so often a type of his own. Again, the Apostle does not seem able to contend, that the entire scheme of Christianity is legible in the Old Testament with that perfect clearness which some modern interpreters would compel us to acknowledge ; and our favorite citations of prophecy find in him little place ; but yet he thinks there was always a unity in the Divine dealings ; the predestination of the Gospel may have been veiled, but yet it must have been predestined * as a scheme for calling men to repentance from all eternity ; and though this veiled design had lurked under the choice of temporal Israel, and under the offering of slain beasts, and the form of written precepts, yet its mean- ing (mystery) would be revealed in the uncovering to all men of the face of the Father, — in the lively sacrifices of men saying by the spirit of Christ, " Lo, I come to do thy will," t — and in the purified vision of consciences quickened by a faith which should draw life from love, and thereby be the fulfilment of the highest law. * First chapter of Ephesians. t Compare Psalm xl. 8 and Hebrews x. 7 13* 150 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, Thus is St. Paul a servant, faithful to Christ, and yet wise in the wisdom of Moses ; bringing out of his treasury things new, without dissociating them rudely from things old. Now we cannot say that any change so great as that heralded by the first preachers of Christ is to be expected in our own time. For certainly the words of Christ, in their liighest meaning, do not pass away. May there not, however, be something sufficiently analogous for the great Apostle's example in this, as in other respects, to have been written for our instruction, though upon us the last dispensation is come ? Even in the same generation, there are many persons who may claim alike the designation of Cliristians, yet whose con- ceptions of the Gospel differ so widely, that no one of them could adopt the views of any other one without a change of mind so sweeping as to be painful. Even in our own lives, if we have made it our business to study religion, either as a matter of thought or of practice, we cannot but be conscious of passing through certain changes of apprehension. When we are children, we think as children ; and when we are men, we put away childish things. But, much more, in a succes- sion of generations, very great differences may be expected to prevail in the mode of holding a trutli essentially the same.* The Christianity of the early Fathers of the Church is hardly that of St. Augustine ; still less is it that of St. Anselm, f or of Calvin. The great object of our faith remains the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; but those reflections from his thoughts, which are thrown figuratively I on the mirror of our understanding, may be darker or more distinct, from day to day. Perhaps even the very truth which saves the soul, * See some admirable remarks on this, needed now more than when they were written, in Professor lley's Norrisian Lectures, edited by Bisliops Kaye and Tux-ton. t A sufficient notion of St. Anselm may be got from some recent Bampton Lectures by Mr. Thompson ; but the accomplished author seems to be hardly aware how much more profound what the Fathers meant was than the supposed improvement of St. Anselm. t €v alviyfiari. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 151 whether it be called faith, or love, or Christ, or the Holy Ghost, may be held with more or less clearness. Or, if tliis be thought necessarily simple and uniform, still there is a j^oint, which may be difficult to define, — but there is a point, at which the truth of things eternal comes in contact with our experience of things temporal, and there the knowledge, the manners, the favorite studies, of every generation of Christians may indefinitely vary, and give a bias in proportion to their mode of conceiving of some of the associations of their faith. Thus, in our own time, our wider acquaintance with both nations and languages, our habit of scrutinizing ancient rec- ords and Comparing different faiths together, as well as the cultivation of those mental inquiries which approach, if they do not touch, upon religion, have all tended to awaken a spirit which some condemn, and others welcome, but which most observers will admit to exist. Even if discoveries which must affect the general shape of our conceptions as regards Divine Revelation are not now made for the first time, yet a knowledge of such discoveries, confined perhaps once to a few scholars, is now diffused amongst masses of men ; and the real significance, or the import, with which some character- istics of our sacred literature are pregnant, is far more clear- ly discerned, from the opportunities Avhich we enjoy for com- paring such things with similar phenomena elsewhere. There is a leaven which may have been in the world before, but which is now fermenting through the three measures of meal. Hence arises the question, how a growing spirit of scepticism in some quarters, and of perplexity in others, ought to be met by those who are responsible both to God and man for the stability or the progress of religion in the world. And if it be now, as ever, the abiding sentence of the Almighty, that whoso rejects knowledge shall be rejected from being priest before him, a few suggestions on this subject may well claim your attention, brethren, in these walls, which were conse- crated to be a nursery of the faith of Christ, and upon this our solemn Feast-day. There are some persons who look on all the tendencies 152 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, above alluded to with undisguised alarm ; and others who do 80 with hope, or at least with perfect tranquillitj of faith. Does not this diiference of view imply, that there are also two sets of persons, one laying exclusive stress upon the evidences of the body, the other regarding rather those of the mind ? It is obvious to remark, that these two aspects ought to be com- bined rather than separated ; but we find that a tendency in either one direction or the other is apt to preponderate so much as to give a practical impress to a man's character, and to the cast of his behef. The first set consider man as a mere animal, and divorce him by nature from God and from immortality. They may do this, either from a materializing philosophy of the senses, or from an ultra- Augustinian emphasis on the fall of Adam ; but in either case, they leave as wide a gulf between God and mankind, as that which Mahomet was unable to fill. As to any pure voice of conscience, or better aspiration of the heart leading us upward, they almost boast of considering all such things utterly untrustworthy; -they cast a disdainful glance over the great history of the Gentile world, and find in it no traces of the finger of the God of the spirits of all flesh ; and if they are asked, How then does God teach man ? they answer. By Moses on Mount Sinai, and by our blessed Lord in Jerusalem ; and these two revelations are so attested by miracles, that we cannot doubt their truth, while on account also of the same miracles we have our attention imperiously arrested by the Book which records them ; and are then led to regard that Book as not only true, but exhaustive of truth, and unquestionably the very word of God. Thus only, as they conceive, can we arrive at the satisfaction of certainty ; for as to any agreement of the contents of the Book with our moral and intellectual being, that is at best a secondary and an untrustworthy kind of evidence ; our great foundation is miracle, and our only result is the Bible. On the other hand, our second set of thinkers look upon mankind as something difierent from the beasts that perish. They regard him rather as the child of God ; fallen mdeed, OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 153 or falling ever, below that which his Maker calls good, and his own earnest expectation groans for ; yet still trained by Providence ; appealed to, however indiscernibly, even from childhood upwards, by something of spiritual experience; and, from the mould in which he was formed, not destined to find rest or happiness apart from that Being whose image he bears. Nor is this, as they contend, a fanciful conception, but one to which all history bears witness, — the greatest men, and the noblest nations, and the most enduring virtues, having been everywhere sustained by some vestige of such a behef ; nor ought it to be allowed, according to all human analogies, that the admixture of various errors is any argument against a truth, which may yet survive, as the redeeming principle, among them. So that just as Christianity had the Law as its schoolmaster among the Jews, it may also have had a prep- aration of men's minds by training for it, from the great teachers of righteousness in Hellas, and from the masters of polity at Rome. And just as these to the ancient Gentile, so our conscience with all our experience of history may be to us now, what Moses and the Prophets were to the Jews, in respect of the great Teacher and Saviour to come. Here then is a tone of thought very different from the one first described. If we attempt to illustrate the two from ancient heresies, nve might say the first has an Ebionite ten- dency ; the second is in danger of some form of Gnostic error. Or, if we consider them both as interpreting things connected with Scripture, the one would say, that the phy- lacteries of the Jews, with texts, were worn in obedience to express revelation; the other would see in them a strong figure * of exhortation corrupted into a formal usage. So by Urim and Thummim, one would understand, that a light, grossly physical, and yet supernatural, falling on the high- priest's breastplate, made its stones oracular ; while the other * Compure Exodus xiii. 9-16 with Numbers xv. 38, 39. Does the greater literalness of the later book (considering; also the signs of com- pilation in its twenty-first chapter) betray an interval of some genera- tions 1 154 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, would imagine rather a symbol of that light which God gives to his upright ones in the clearness of understanding. Per- haps, again, the Shcchinah of the temple (or even of the tabernacle) might admit of a similar variety of mterpreta- tion. Again, if we ask the followers of the two tendencies we are describing for their watchwords, one will reply, the in- fallibility of the Bible ; but the other will say, the truth of Clirist. So, the one would define Christianity as the religion contained in the Bible ; whereas the other would call it the Gospel, as being good news ; or the doctrine of the Cross, as being self-sacrifice ; or, in short, the religion of Christ. The one, then, pays its principal allegiance to the Scripture, which is true ; but the other to the Truth, which is also written. Again, the one finds a duty, and even takes a pleasure, in opposing the Bible, by means of the sharpest conceivable contrasts to all the whispers of natural equity, to the purest yearnings of our affections, and to the presentiments of our conscience ; whereas the other never hesitates to say, that the Bible itself is either a providential embodiment of those very things, which are the witness of God in man, and can- not be disparaged without blasphemy ; or else at least it is a result, for which, under the good guidance of God, they had been preparing the way. * It is now easy to understand why the advocates of our first manner of thinking are so disquieted by anything which tells, I do not say against the general truth, but against the infallibility of the Sacred Records, which they make not only the symbol, but the foundation, of their faith. For they have, as it were, desecrated life and all its experiences ; they have in effect, if not in intention, removed God from it as far as they can ; they think all its fair humanities, whether art, or music, or literature, have at best little to do with religion, and are pei*haps dangerous to it. Hence they survey their progress with indifference, diversified only by fits of panic ; while as for tlie deep sense of things eternal, wherewith our Maker encompasses us, — the crying out of the heart and the flesh OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 155 for the living God, the instantaneous response of t.verj iin- corriipt conscience to the sayings of our Saviour upon the mount, and the calm happiness which comes of well-doing, — they have either so materialized * their own souls that they are not conscious of such experiences, or else they think, that, apart from a particular fashion of speech, such things are utterly untrustworthy, and possibly may be of the Devil. In short, they have staked their cause upon one argument. It may be doubted if that is the one St. Paul would have recommended, or if it would have been chosen by those who had been longest at the foot of the Cross. " Except they see signs and wonders, they will not believe." When, then, their tendency of opinion reaches its full result, such men's religion becomes neither a leaven fermenting through human nature, nor a vine rooted and growing, nor a living and a moulding power ; but it is as an image fallen down once for all from heaven, with no analogy in nature, with no parallel in history, with no affinity among the Gentiles, and (except for some special reasons) with no echo to its fitness from the human heart. Hence, however, it is only natural for any encroachment on the solitary ground of such persons' faith to appear " dangerous " ; and since the great recommendation of all their cast of sentiment was its fancied safety, they are in proportion alarmed. Thus it is painful to them even to be told of little discrepancies in our sacred books ; they cannot understand that a true teacher of religion may be imperfectly informed in other things, though analogous instances might strike them every day ; even the idea of religious growth, which pervades the whole Bible, is not kindly accepted by them, or is confined to one or two great epochs of dispensa- tion ; and as for the many inquiries of great literary and his torical interest, which the criticism of the Sacred \'ohime involves, they have so prejudged such que>tion^-, that they either will not acquire the knowledge requisite to answer them, or they shut their eyes to any fresii form of the answer, * That is, in St. Paul's language, " made carnal." 156 TIIK SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, as it appears in the light of to-day ; or they even raise an outcry against the investigation of any more consistent stu- dent, as if it were a triumph of " infidehty," — and thereby they most unwisely make it so. Certainly, their heart does not stand fast ; for they are afraid when any fresh tidings come, either from general knowledge, or from fervent and self-sacri (icing devotion, or from a critical study even of the Bible. But turn we now^ to those who, reverencing the letter at least as deeply as St. Paul did, have yet grounded their faith mainly on the spirit, without neglecting the aids of the un- derstanding. They are persuaded that they may justify the ways of God by rendering to the intellect its own, and yet render to faith the things that are faith's. Nay, rather, they think that doing the one is a condition necessary to the other.* Clearly, then, it does not disturb them to learn that the pur- pose of God, though veiled from the Jews {fxvaTrjpiov), had made the Gentiles, even of old, heirs of a certain salvation of the soul. Hence they approach with calmness such ques- tions as how far Moses took anything from the wisdom of the Egyptians, or whether Hellenizing Hebrews t h^d used lan- guage adoi)ted by St. Paul and St. John ; they can even wel- come any fresh instances that God has left himself nowhere without witness ; and, since both providence and grace have ultimately One Giver, they can easily believe that the one has been a cradle for the other. Perhaps, indeed, the won- derful correspondence between the spiritual judgments of the Gospel and of the purest searchers after godliness elsewhere , * The saying, Believe, that thou mayest understand, belongs more tc principles than to facts, and may be as much misused as its opposite, Let me understand, that I mat/ believe. For it has been applied to dark- ness as often as to light. Hence it might be better to say. Love the trufh, thru thou mayest know it. For this Avould give nearly the same lesson, and be less liable to abuse. t Good Jacob Bryant wrote a book to prove that Pliilo resembled St. John ; and although his chronology requires to be inverted, his proof of the resemblance holds good. OR THE TRUTH AND THE 130 OK. 157 is not one of the least arguments for the true divinity of Christ. For it shows that the Wisdom which took flesh in him came from the Supreme and Universal Teacher of mankind. Nor, again, do Christians, such as I now speak of, require a great gulf between the experiences of devout men to-day and those of the servants of God in the days of old. One of their great reasons for believing things written in Scripture is, that they experience the same. They are persuaded of the comfort of prayer, the peace of trustfulness, the joy of thanksgiving, the rightful rule of holiness, the necessity of repentance, and the wholesomeness of a disciplme of conscience ; and they gladly welcome the forgiveness of sins. Because God teaches such things now, they more easily believe he taught them of old. Nor have they any desire to doubt, that He who thus fash- ioned the hearts of his people, may also have exhibited great wonders of old to their external sense. The great majority of them, indeed, implicitly believe the letter of every miracle in the Bible ; yet they would never be so illogical as to make these remote and often obscurely attested events the proof* of things being true which they know by experience, and which are so far more important in saving the soul alive. Hence many of them believe the miracles for the sake of the doctrines ; and this order is more truly Christian than the converse. Some of them, however, would remark, that the modern definition of a miracle is far too technical ; in the old Hebrew mind, everything was a great wonder which caused a present awe of the great Governor of the world. Thus the morning roll of the tide, and the stormy wind arising, wei-e great wonders ; and though other things, to which the same ntune is applied, may seem more extraordinary, yet we can believe the Divine agency in them to have marched along the silent path of forethought rather than with the Cyclopean * This is almost too forcibly put in the striking icish of Mr. Maurice, that persons, resting their faith as Christians on the ten phaguesof Egypt, might find all Egyptian experiences tend to shake it. See his Sennons on the Lessons from the Old Testament. ' 14 158 Tni-: spiiut and the letter, ci-asli of strength and force. As to our Saviour's miracles, indeed, they are even wrought generally with the concurrence of tlio receiver's faith ; and they are all signs of mercy, or parables iull of meaning ; and, again, so far as the element of power is brought out in them, it is rather as exemplifying the rule of a very present God over nature, than as " evi- dence " * for truths which are themselves far more evident. Hence, whether an event should be considered as more or less miraculous, is always a question to be decided by the proba- bilities of the particular passage, whether prose or poetry, contemporaneous or remote ; and is never to be prejudged as if it affected either way the foundations of our faith, t From such a tone of thought as regards miracles, we may expect those who entertain it to approach the more important * Has not the ambiguity of the term evidence somewhat misled our modern apologists ? It may have meant clearness, or visibility^ as of Truth and Justice ; but they take it in the sense of legal testimony, and so entangle themselves in special pleading. t Suppose any one brought up to understand as literal prose Cow per's hymn, He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm, — would it be an utter loss to him to discover that the terms were figura- tive ? or might they still express to him a truth 1 Apply the same idea to many of tlie Psalms, such as the eighteenth, which the Hebrew title makes a description of David's deliverance from Saul. May it not also apply to other poetical parts, such as part of Habakkuk, and to such fragments as are expressly quoted from the book of Jasher (I do not say all that have been conjecturally ascribed to it), especially if some of them closely resemble the ode in Habakkuk ? But it will be said, here was a poetical intention ; and it is a wide leap to interpret plain prose on such principles. This distinction should have its weight. Still the fondness of some nations for apologue or parable, the tendency of idms to clothe themselves in narrative, and the possibility of traditions, once oral or poetical, having subsequently taken form in prose, are all things which may suggest themselves to critical readers, and should weigh for what they are worth in each case, and for no more. But if scholars wantonly exagircrate difficulties, or state them with indecency or scoffing, the case is different. I have never intended doing so, and have no synipathy of feeling with any one who does. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK- 159 subject of prophecy, without suffering their reverential pre- possessions to take an undue form of prejudice, or any disap- pointment of them to be a cause of overwhelming alarm. Suppose that what Bishop Butler said hjpotheticallj on tliis subject should now be come actually upon us, — suppose that things often treated as direct literal predictions of Christ should have been spoken primarily of some king, or prophet, or nation. Such a result may cause great distress, and even desolation of mind, to those who make theology a mere balance of texts, and make the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, depend upon the critical accuracy of illus- trations borrowed in the New Testament from the Old. But no such grievous consequence follows to men who have been so born of the Spirit, that they believe Christ's words because they are spirit and truth. They are no more surprised that their Saviour should appear under earthly images in the Old Testament, than that he should be called " the carpenter's son " in the New. Their conception of him is not formed by bal- ancing the imperfect utterances of childhood against those of the full-grown stature of the servants of God ; but it rather takes in the height of that great idea at which the Church arrived when she stood as it were by the goal ; for then she looked back with understanding on the race of Him who,* though manifested in the flesh, had been justified in the spirit, and who, though seen only by Apostles, had been preached to nations; and whom she found so believed upon, as a king, throughout the world in which he once had not where to lay his head, that she felt, surely God must have received him up into glory. For they all along admit the idea of training ; and so, the principle of life and of growth. It was natural for the people of Nazareth to see in Jesus only Joseph's son ; * 1 Timothy iii. 16, where I have ventured to paraphrase that reading of tlie Greek which seems on the whole best attested. It should he compared, for the sense of angels, with ch. v. ver. 21 of the same Epistle; and for the i^eneral sentiment, with Romans, ch. i. vv. 3, 4. On this, as on other questions of text, I am ijlad to fortify myself with the authority of Dr. Trcffelles. 160 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, it was natural for the old Hebrews to think of the righteous king, and the afflicted prophet, and the chosen people, before they rose to the conception of a verily Divine wisdom and love, uncovering itself in substance, and pervading the con- ceptions of all nations. But where, then, some one will ask, are our " evidences " ? It may be answered in two words, the character of Christ and the doctrine of Christ. Or to say the same thing in the words of St. Paul, we preach Christ the power of God, and Christ the wisdom of God. If priests embody the idea of conse- cration, he is holy, — if prophets that of knowledge or vision, he is the great speaker of truths which touch the heart, — if kings imply rightful rule, he, or his spirit, is that which should sway our thoughts, — if the poor and afflicted are the special care of God, was ever affliction like his ? — if teachers do a sacred work, if martyrs throw a fire upon the earth which is not quenched, if the shepherd to his flock, and the husband to his wife, and the pastor to his people, have all some office of beneficence, and so something of sacredness from their having been designed in the love of God ; — all these things are, as St. Paul says, " brought to a head in Christ"; he concentrates and exhibits in his hfe, in his doc- trine, in his death, and in the holy spirit whereby he ever lives, and wherewith he animates the whole body of his Church, the Divine perfection of those excellences, of which fragments, and shadows, and images, are scattered through- out the world elsewhere. And however true it may be, that our religion is in its essence attachment to Christ as a person, this can never mean to his name, or to his power, as if he were jealous or arbitrary; but rather* to that goodness and that truth which he embodies, and which commend themselves by their excellence to the faith of the pure in heart. Those then come to Christ who believe in the spirit of Moses and of Isaiah, and who would liave listened to each proi)liet of trutli from time to time among the Jews, — who * The issue raised in this sentence is vitally critical, and pregnant. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 161 would stand bj Socrates as he drank his hemlock among the Greeks, — and who, in short, in all times and places, would acknowledge the authority of whatsoever things arc pure, whatsoever are lovely, Avhatsoever are of good report. Now this kind of free allegiance, from love, and for the excellence of the object's sake, is perhaps not exactly that of those who, starting with the Bible, — or even with the Divine authority of our Lord, — infer from thence dogmatically the excellence of his precepts ; but it is more like that of the Apostles, who saw the superhuman beauty of our Lord's truth and patience, and his majesty made perfect through sufferings ; and then reasoned * upward. Surely this was the Son of God. Such a mode of thought has also the advantage of starting more from the purer moral instincts of our nature. Yet it is so far from fearing reason, that it finds, in a way, confirma- tions everywhere. It is under no temptation to wrest texts into conformity with systems ; or to congeal the outpourings of passionate penitence into materials for syllogisms ; or to make traditional applications of prophecy, whether due to the devout rhetoric of the early Church, or to the very im- perfect criticism of St. Jerome t in his Vulgate, either parts of the faith, or perilous supports of it. It can readily wel- come with hearty gratitude whatever discovery in science, or language, or history, may so far dissociate from the Jews those who may yet, like the Jews, remain children of a Divine promise ; nor is it with dismay, but with thanksgiving, that it sees many of their temporal images, time after time, give way to that eternal pattern which Moses saw in the Mount, and which the servants of God may now see more * The Apostles felt goodness, and inferred God. We assume God, and demand acknowledgment of goodness. Which of these is the more wholesome argument 1 The answer may somcAvhat depend upon what conception of Deity we start with. t In Haggai ii. 7, the Hebrew says desires, or desirable thinfjs, and tho context shows silver and gold to be intended. But St. Jerome sai-J, Veniet desideratus omnibus gentibiis, and we have followed in his track. But are those who clamorously make such things proofs of Christianity its friends 1 162 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, clearly revealed to them in conscience, and experience, and understanding. For that which is written in the nature of things is shown us by God. But if persons thus thinking are less restrained from the free adoption of whatever consequences the mind may work out, so long as it works in righteousness, they are far more bound to purge their mind's eye, and to keep the whiteness of their soul unspotted from evil. For their faith has only ceased to be a congeries of human propositions, that it may better become a divine life. And although some of them may meditate with Butler, how far the mysterious grace of God is given us on a system, so that, if we saw the whole range of things, it would appear to us regular and natural, rather than contra-natural, yet the belief in that " Spirit which is holy, supreme, and life-giving," * is far more a gov- erning principle of their lives, than can ever be the case with men who substitute the bonds of system for those of truth, and the letter for the spirit. Hence it will be found, all great reformers, either of life or institutions, have had something in them of the spirit we now speak of Nor has it been quite unknown even to men in other respects of most opposite views : it has burst forth, now in that earnest preaching which rent the veil of the in- visible world, and made men tremble or exult at the present realities of judgment or salvation ; and it has wrought again in those who reared once more the standard of the Cross as a thing to live by, in a luxurious and garrulous age ; it allies itself most eminently to the Gospel, but it can also flow along the channels of the Church ; its more prominent ad- vocates in England have been men whose eccentricity some- what marred their usefulness, but it may well harmonize with the affectionate soberness of that Prayer-book, which it should forbid us to sever, so widely as we do, from the in- spiration of our Bible. It woke in Ileginald Pecock some presage of the Reformation, when as yet this College was * Nicene Creed. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 163 not ; it found no obscure utterance in Hooker, when he taught that " the rules of right conduct are the dictates of right reason " ; it is assumed, either tacitly or expressly, in the grand discourse of Jeremy Taylor; it is more formally put forward by Barclay, whose broad and unqualified propositions are jet on more than one account well worthy of being studied ; it moves, though in fetters, across the pages of the more learned Puritans, and especially of Milton ; it takes a form of wisdom, toleration, and faith, amidst the vast learning of Cudworth, and his kindred teachers of a godly humanity ; * it is not alien to the Evangelical Platonism of Leighton ; nor is if quite quenched by the arrogant temper of Warburton, whose learning and whose courage ahke led him to acknowl- edge some light in the Gentile world ; but with greater fond- ness it loved to linger amid the deep reasonings of Butler, prevented only by his Laodicean age from bearing in him its full fruit ; it took a form of subtle idealism, and allied itself to " every virtue " in Berkeley ; it had no mean representative in this place, in the thoughtful candor of Professor Hey, over whose moderation any brief triumph of zeal in our time may only pave the way for a dangerous reaction ; it sounds, not ineloquently, but too uncertainly, from the deep struggles of Coleridge ; and it found a happier expounder in him whose recent loss we may weU deplore, the Guesser at Truth, and the preacher of the Victory of Faith, ^st et hodie, nunc tacendus : olim nominahitur. In our own time, indeed, those who entertain it at all have felt themselves urged alike on the negative side by the necessities of historical criticism, and on the positive _by the deep hunger of men's spiritual affections, to cross over more and more from the scribe to the apostle, from the letter to the spirit, from the formula to the feeling which engendered it. How many questions now arise before me which time will not permit to handle at due length ! Will this freedom, which even the highest controller of our destiny is in some measure * E. g. Johu Smith, who has been praised in such opposite quarters. 164 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, awakening among us, always know wlicre to stop ? It will be led, perhaps, by the inexorable laws of historical criticism to alter our modes of conceiving of some portions of Hebrew literature, which are comprehended in our Bible ; and even questions apparently barren may sometimes, to the scholar, be fruitful in inferences.* It may also observe so much of local or sensible imagery,! in describing things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, that it may almost indefinitely lessen the field of intellectual definition, though sparing that of conscientious expectation. It may, for instance, somewhat merge the doctrine of a resurrection in the idea of immortal- ity ; I and it may lay not so much stress on a day of judg- ment, as on a Divine retribution. But will it also apply St. Paul's idea of our Lord's laying down his mediatorial king- dom, § not to any one moment hereafter, but to that period, whatever it may be, in each man's life, when he has been brought by the Son to the Father, — so that it shall be no longer necessary for the Son to pray for men || so enlightened, since the Father himself loves them, because they have con- ceived of him according to the picture revealed of him in his well-beloved Son ? How far will this be a dangerous intensi- fication of what is yet a true feeling of the economic nature *■ It is morally certain, that the books of Joshua and of Daniel are each foar hundred years later than the date ordinaiily ascribed to each ; and this fact leads to inferences which it would be wise to meet practically, by either modifying our cycle of Old Testament lessons, or by giving the clergyman at his discretion a liberty of doing so. t If any one considers the various opinions on the state of disembodied souls before the day of judgment, he will find them turn on a clash of conflicting metaphors, or on a balance of allusions, each boiTowed from some temporal usage. X As Bishop Butler evidently did, but Isaac Taylor's Physical Theory of a Future Life may be read on the other side. § Head carefully 1 Corinthians xv. 24-28; but compare Pearson on Sitting on the Right Hand, in the Creed. It was reckoned a peculiarity in the profound Origen that he prayed only to the Father through the Son ; but, at the altar, the whole African Church, and perhaps the Church Catholic, did so. II St. John's Gospel xvi. 25-27; Colossians i. 15. OR THE TRUTH AND THE BOOK. 1G5 of the office of the Mediator ? Or will the same spirit go so far with any, as to think it unimportant through what imagery God may frame in us thoughts of things ineffable ; so that whether memory or fancy lend the shadow, and whether faith * be nourished more from fact or from thought, still the real crisis of our souls shall hang upon our ever holding fast that eternal substance of the Divine Light, the radiance of which is wisdom, and truth, and love, and which enlighteneth every man, both at its coming into the world in the flesh, and also long before ? This last would sound like a dangerous revival of Gnostic imaginations. Yet would even the wildest flight of such aberrations be so dangerous to the spirit of religion, as that secular-minded Ebionitism into which the opposite tendency, the mere sifting of the letter, is ever apt to drift, the moment it escapes from the influence of tradition ? To answer all such questions would require a prophet rather than a preacher. One thing, however, is clear, and that I desire to say very seriously : the spmt of inquiry is most likely to go hand in hand with reverence, if no other checks be imposed upon it than such as come of conscience and of truth. This also, brethren, let us be unshakably persuaded of, whatever other things fail, the attempt to realize in our- selves the mind which was in Christ Jesus has never been found to fail any man. This, after all, seems to be what constitutes a Christian. The prospects of an attack must depend very much upon the conduct of the defenders. If those who have leisure, learning, and authority encourage persons less informed, not merely in entertaining as opinions, but in assertmg as foun- dations of the faith, things which scholars are ashamed to say, there must come a crash of things perishable, in which also things worth preserving may suffer shipwreck. Whereas, if the same persons were wise to distinguish eternal meaning from temporal shape, it would still prove that, though the Church is beaten by waves, yet she is founded on a rock. * Compare Hebrews, tenth and eleventh chapters. ON THE CAUSES WHICH PROBABLY CONSPIRED TO PRODUCE OUR SAVIOUR'S AGONY.* By EDWARD HARWOOD. D. D. ADVERTISEMENT. The following Dissertation was composed about fourteen years ago. Upon reviewing it, I saw no reason to depart from the theory and sentiments it advances. The manner in which it is compiled requests the reader^s candid and favor- able censure. The reason which originally induced me to write it was my dissatisfaction with the schemes which gloomy and systematic divines have devised to account for our Lord^s agony; some ascribing it to the unappeased wrath of Al- mighty God, now hurled in all its tremendous vehemence upon this illustrious sufferer; others, to the temptation and onset of the Devil, into whose tyranny, during this hour of darkness, he was freely delivered ; and others to the whole accumulated weight of the sins of the whole world, which the wisdom and justice of God appointed that he should now sus- tain, in order that he might experimentally feel their infinite demerit, and, by supporting in his own person the oppressive load, accomplish the proper atonement and expiation of them. I hope an attempt to vindicate the equity, rectitude, and good- ness of God, and to justify the conduct of our Lord on this * First published in London, 1772. 168 ON THE CAusi:s of our saviour's agony. occiision, by evincing that there is nothing in this transaction which echpses, or in the least diminishes the lustre of his divine character, will be deemed laudable, however I may have failed in the execution of my design. I had not seen, till within these few weeks, Mr. Moore's excellent pamphlet on this subject, which w^as pubhshed by Doctors Lardner and Fleming, and printed by Noon, 1757. It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction, as it is no small confirmation of this Essay, to find that the reflections and sentiments of this ingenious writer on this subject have so happily coincided and harmonized with my own. DISSERTATION. By the adversaries of our divine religion it has often been suggested that the concluding scenes of our Redeemer's life are attended with circumstances which reflect no great honor upon his character. From that expression. My God! my God I why hast thou forsaken me ? one of the most eminent of the Deists asserteth, that our Saviour, a little before his death, publicly renounced the cause in which he had been engaged, and even died in that renunciation. How injurious and false this aspersion is, need not be evinced, since the whole tenor of our Saviour's history contradicts it, and every- where displays a most exalted and consummate virtue. It is in the highest degree absurd to suppose that our Lord should publicly abjure his religion, and yet die to confirm it and give it its last sanction. He came to bear witness to the truth, and he gave the strongest proof of the justness of his preten- sions to the character he assumed, that he was the Messiah and Lawgiver of the world, and that the cause in which he liad embarked was the cause of God and Truth, for he sealed this cause with his blood. His agony in the garden of Gethsemane has been very undeservedly the subject of calumny and detraction. It has not infrequently been intimated, that during this scene of ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 169 sufferings our Lord's behavior was very far from being con- sistent with the rest of his Hfe, and that he meanly and ab- jectly shuddered at the prospect of calamities which, notwith- standing, it was his destiny to meet.* Persons, who have rejected Christianity, and alleged the causes of their rejecting it, have insinuated, among other things, that this agony of grief hath all the appearance of a dishonorable timidity, that our Saviour in a dispirited manner sunk under the afflictions which he had rashly brought upon himself, by assuming the character of a Reformer, — whereas, if he had been conscious that his doctrines were true, and that his mission was divinely authorized, he would have sustained them with an heroic fortitude and magnanimity worthy such a cause. Instead of this, in the prospect of his last sufferings, he is overwhelmed in despondency, and betrays a pusillanimity unworthy a com- mon philosopher. Instead of embracing with virtuous trans- port so noble an occasion, now offered him, of attesting the truth of his mission and ministry by sufferings, he shrinks back at the view of them, falls into dishonorable tremors, is plunged into the last terror and confusion, and with vehement importunity implores Almighty God to extricate and save him from them. Let this cup pass from me ! But if we impartially consider the history in which this agony of distress and sorrow is recorded, we shall be con- vinced that it was not want either of virtue or of fortitude to sustain his impending sufferings, which dictated these words. There is nothing in them inconsistent with the general tenor of his conduct, — nothing in them that can make us suspect the truth of his pretensions, or that in the least diminishes the divine worth and dignity of his character. Our Saviour was clothed with human nature, and is he to be censured for having the sensibilities of human nature ? Is his conduct to be loaded with reproach and contumely, because he was not a proud, uufeeling Stoic,t and did not manifest an entire * See Voltaire*s late treatise Sur la Tolerance. t '* Was there not something pusUlanimous and inconstant in this part 15 170 ON THE CAUSES OF OUK SAYIOUR'S AGONY. apathy and insensibility in liis suiferings? Is it any dis- paragement to our blessed Lord, any imputation on his wis- dom or his virtue, that he was affected with the sorrows and sufferings of humanity ? " Jesus," as a judicious writer has well observed, " was sensible of his own and others' suffer- ings, and conceived a dread and horror at them. He was so sore amazed and full of grief as earnestly to pray, that, if it were possible, the cup might pass away from him. A true picture this of genuine humanity in distress. It is natural to us to hate pain, and to have an abhorrence of misery. The constitution of our beings requires it should be so. It is the first and strongest principle the Creator hath cast into the human frame. The philosophy taught in the heathen world by Zeno and his followers, that pains and afflictions are no evils, and that a wise man should be hardened against all sense of them, was truly perversive, not perfective of the nature of man. To feel calamities when they come upon us, of our Saviour's conduct ? I answer, No. Those expressions are far too narsh, and cannot be applied to our Lord without manifest injustice. He had not, indeed, that intrepidity, for which the rude heroes of history are celebrated, who were fearless and undaunted in their greatest dan- gers. What then 1 Was a character expected in him that required a peculiar warmth of the blood and juices, and the impetus of some crimi- nal passion, to form and exhibit ? Natural courage is well known to be mechanical, and to rise and fall with a certain temperature of the body. The passions, says Mr. Grove, which have most filled the world with heroes, are vaimjlory, and a dread of the reproach of cowardice. Moral Philosophy, Vol. II. p. 259. What is to be looked for in the blessed Jesus is a perfectly moral character. Now a manly, virtuous courage is so far from being incompatible with, that it supposes, fear. For as that is inspired with a sense of what is just and honoi-able, the fear of infamy to one's self, or of injury to others, must needs take place, inasmuch as the objects are evils that ought, if possible, to be avoided, and when and in whomsoever those fears shall coincide with the natural fear of death, a passive fortitude is all that can be expected. " And as to inconstancy of mind, I ask. Who is there among the sons of men, or what are they, whom the circumstances of time and place, in respect to a cruel and ignominious death, will not sensibly affect ? A person, doomed to suffer as a state criminal, may indeed put on the stoic on such an occasion, and in point of prudence, as it is called, or for the ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONr. 171 or upon others, and to give vent to our tears,* is much more congruous and suitable to our frame and station, than the apathy and rant of the Stoics. We are connected with flesh and blood, made with selfish and social affections and passions, and placed here in a state of discipline ; and a tender, suscep- tible temper better becomes us, and will sooner perfect our virtue, than insensibility and foolhardiness. This considera- tion alone, if there were none other, should make us not ashamed of Jesus in his agony in the garden, or on the cross." t The following account of this awful scene is exhibited by the four Evangelists. " When Jesus had spoken these words [that consolatory discourse recorded in the fourteenth, fif- teenth, and sixteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel] he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden [Gethsemane], into which he entered and his disciples. And he saith to the disciples. Sit ye here, while I go and sake of his honor, stifle his passions from the view of others. And no doubt but that tliis has often been the case. But om- Lord acted upon no such mean motives. He felt things to impress him differently, and he told what he felt. The mind is not answerable for these different impres- sions. They are unavoidable to it, and the result of the human frame. Had not Jesus shown a reluctancy to the evils now before him, the reality of liis sufferings might justly have been called in question. And so far was he in this his behavior from acting an inconsistent or inconstant part, that, notwithstanding he felt a greater uneasiness to himself tlian at any other time, he stood firm tq the noble resolution he had foiTned, of an entire submissive obedience to the Divine Will. There is then no im- peachment of the courage and constancy of our Lord. His chai-acter remains unsullied, yea, shines through the darkest cloud that ever passed over him." — Moore on our Saviour's Agony, pp. 88 - 90. * They who of all writers undertake to imitate nature most, oft intro- duce even their heroes weeping. See how Homer represents Ulysses, Od. I. ver. 151 ; II. ver. 7, 8. The tears of men are in tnith very differ- ent from the cries and ejulations of children. They are silent streams, and flow from other causes ; commonly some tender, or perhaps pliilo- sophical, reflection. It is easy to see how hard hearts and dry eyes come to be fashionable. But, for all that, it is certain the glandulce lachrymales are not made for nothing. Religion of Nature Delineated, p. 139, note. t Moore on our Saviour's Agony, pp. 102, 103. 172 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUH's AGONY. pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two song of Zebedee, and began to be sorroAvful, to be sore amazed, and very heavy. And he saith to them, My soul is exceed- ing sorrowful, even unto death : tarry ye here and watch. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and fell on the ground and prayed, saying, 0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ! nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done ! And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them fast asleep, and saith unto Peter, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour ? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation ; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away the second time, and prayed, 0 my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done ! And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy, neither wist they what to answer him. And he left them and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow ; and he saith unto them. Sleep on now and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come : behold, the Son of Man is be- trayed into the hands of sinners." * Let the reader figure to himself our Lord's situation at this time, and consider what images must necessarily obtrude upon his mind. His ministry was now closed, — he was in a few moments to be appre- hended and treacherously delivered into the power of those who had long thirsted for his blood, — his beloved disciples were going to abandon him in his adversity, — and in two days' time, by wicked hands, he would be crucified and slain. Jesus now had a strong conscious perception of all these impending calamities. Let the reader's imagination represent to him * I have formed the several circumstances related by different Evange- lists into one continued narrative. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR'S AGONY. 173 the state of our Saviour's mind in this awful crisis ; and with the full idea of his situation before him, let him con- sider, whether the following painful reflections crowding into his soul, in this melancholy hour, might not naturally produce that scene of distress and horror the sacred writers have recorded. Section I. One cause which no doubt greatly contributed to distress our blessed Saviour, now his ministry was concluded, was the distressing reflection that his painful labors and benevolent at- tempts to convert and reform the Jews had proved generally unsuccessful. In the fulness of time God the Father had sent him from heaven among men, and empowered him to work many stupendous and beneficent miracles in confirmation of his divine mission and character. In the space of three years and a half, he had in person visited the cities, towns, and villages of Judaea, and in all of them had effected such aston- ishing operations and supernatural cures, as could evidently be ascribed to nothing but to the immediate power and agency of God. He had delivered to his country a perfect system of religion and morals, enforced by the strongest en- couragements, and recommended by his own virtuous and irreproachable conduct. And yet his conduct, his doctrines, his precepts, his miracles, had been able to make little im- pression on the hearts of this depraved people. They de- spised the meanness of his birth and the obscurity of his family. They were prejudiced against the place of his edu- cation, and declared it impossible that a prophet should ever arise out of Nazareth. So averse had they been from all conviction and instruction, and so deliberately determined to shut their eyes against the clearest light, that they attributed the most amazing displays of Divine power to a compact and intercourse with Beelzebub. This man doth not work miracles, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Instead of attending his pubhc ministry with minds sincerely disposed for the reception of truth, they contrived low clandestine 15=5^ 174 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. arts to ensnare him, and hoped, from some incautious ex- pressions into which they might betray him, to accuse him as a traitor to the Roman government, and effectuate his con- demnation and death as an enemy to Csesar. These were the illiberal and dishonorable expedients they employed to murder the Messiah. Are such principles and dispositions as these friendly to truth and virtue ? Is a nation, which manifests such a character as this, and frames such measures as these against the life of a holy and good man for remonstrating against their superstition, bigotry, and immoralities, to be convinced by the force of evidence, and moved by the charms of an amiable example ? So far were they from examining his doctrines and pretensions to the high character he assumed, with coolness and candor, that they practised every method to prevent them from being admitted, and ex- cluded those from their synagogues who openly professed them. How determined and inveterate their virulence was against our Lord's person and usefulness, we may judge from this single most egregious instance of it, their solemnly de- liberating in council to destroy Lazarus, merely for being the subject of one of his miracles.* Impossible, therefore, was it for our Saviour to propagate his religion in a nation so prejudiced and depraved. All his attempts to make them virtuous and everlastingly happy proved ineffectual. Now this wrung his benevolent heart with the acutest anguish. The consideration that his country should have rejected that system of divine truths he had been delegated from God his Father to deliver to them, overwhelmed him in the deepest sorrow and distress. When he now reviewed the past years of his ministry, it filled him with great and painful concern, that his miracles had been so numerous, but his success so veiy inconsiderable. He had made it the uniform study of his life to diffuse happiness around him, to do good to the souls and bodies of men, had performed *■ " But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazams also to death." John xii. 10. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUK's AGONY. 175 tlie most benevolent cures, taught the most excellent doc- trines, exhibited a perfect character, to engage bis country to embrace a religion which came recommended and enforced by so many evidences of its credibility and divine authority. But what converts had he made, what effects had the cause of God and truth, of liberty and immortality, produced ? This was the painful reflection which now wounded his soul. He had come to his own, but his own had not received him! That nation, whose guardian angel he had probably ever been, and whom he had anxiously superintended in every period of time and change of government, had noiv rejected his person and his doctrines, and were going to imbrue their hands in his blood as an impostor. This disingenuity and ingratitude transfixed his soul, and a painful review of the insuperable prejudices, enormous corruptions, and determined impenitency of his country must necessarily oppress him, in this hour of darkness, with very deep distress, and contribute its weight of woes to produce that agony which he now endured. Section II. Another cause wlych conduced to occasion this extreme dejection and sorrow of our blessed Saviour, was the percep- tion he had that he would immediately be abandoned by all his disciples and friends in these his last extremities. If my readers have ever known, by unhappy experience, the cruelty and infelicity of being deserted by a friend, at a time of im- pending adversity and distress, let them now recall to mind what they suffered on that occasion, and transfer their thoughts to our Saviour's sensibilities in the like circumstances. His disciples had been the companions of his labors. He had selected them from the world to be his attendants and friends. To them he had unbosomed his soul. Having loved his own, he loved them unto the end, says St. John. He maintained for them a most faithful and affectionate love, from the time he chose them to the last period of his life. They had relin- quished their families, then- occupations, and all their con- i?0 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOURS AGONY. nections, to adhere to liim and liis cause. They had during the Avhole course of his ministry accompanied him from pUice to place, and mutually shared with him the reproach and odium of the world. But O dire reverse ! 0 Adversity, how seldom art thou a witness to faithful friendship ! Tlie companions of his labors, from whose fidelity he might rea- sonably expect consolation, and whose firm adherence to his person and interests he might naturally hope would now give a sanction to the cause he and they had espoused, dishonor- ably desert him. When these last calamities invade him, lo, they fly,* and suffer persecution and death to overwhelm him, alone and unsupported. At a time when probably he should want the aids of true friendship most, to attest his innocence and assuage his sufferings, they have abandoned him, and appear ashamed of the cause in which they had all em- barked. But not only their unfaithfulness and disgraceful desertion of him, but the ingratitude and treachery of Judas, no doubt, in these moments he now spent in the garden of Gethsemane, must wound his generous mind with the most cruel anguish. We find that this baseness of Judas gave our Lord great distress. " When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said. Verily, verily, I say unto you, one of you shall betray me ! " John xiii. 21. The reflection, that, in that small number whom he had selected to be his particular friends and companions, one should prove so un grateful and pei-fidious as for a paltry sum to betray him to his enemies, and that in a very short time he should see this very person, whom he had admitted into his friendship, head- ing a mob to apprehend him, — the bitter reflection must rend a bosom so susceptible as our Saviour's appearcth to be. " Great minds have a delicacy in their perception. They feel ingratitude more than others, as they are less deserving ^ " At simul intonuit, fugiunt, nee noscitnr ulli, Agminibus comitum qui modo cinctus erat." Ovid, Tnd. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAYIOUR's AGONY. 177 of it. And indeed the best of men have met with this sort of ill usage. David, more than once, deplores the like, in language which shows how sensibly he was touched. ' Yea, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it ; but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine ac- quaintance.' " * Such was the situation of our Saviour. Rejected by the Jews ; abandoned by his disciples. The review of life pain- ful, the immediate prospect full of horror. Invaded with such complicated distress, can we wonder that he should so earnestly implore Almighty God to save him from this hour, and to let this cup pass from him that he might not drink it ? It is the natural language of piety and virtue in distress : the first prayer which a dependent creature in aflflictive circum- stances addresses to Heaven. Section III. Another cause which may justly be assigned to account for this agony and the petition he preferred to God, was the strong perception of that insult, ignominy, and torture he was shortly to endure. The perception of these dreadful evils, we may reasonably suppose, greatly impressed his mind, and strongly affected his exquisitely tender and delicate sensibili- ties. His mind anticipated all that cruel and inhuman treat- ment he should very shortly experience, — the immediate arrest and seizure of his person, his illegal trial, his impris- onment as an impostor, his outrage from the Roman soldiers, who would treat him with the last indignities, scourge him, clothe him in robes of mock royalty, and insult him as the rival and enemy of Caesar, — and, as the completion of all these evils, his condemnation to suffer the ignominious and excruciating death of crucifixion. Over these scenes his mind now brooded. He had the full idea of them impressed * See Moore's Inquiry, p. 46. 178 ox THE CAUSES OF OUR saviour's AGONr. on his soul. In the dire apprehension of these impending horrors, a mind possessed of such exquisite sensibiHties must suffer great depression. The view of these approaching evils forced from him that petition, Father, save me from this hour ! Bj which is manifestly meant the hour of death, as Grotius judiciously interprets it. It is to this the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers, when he says, that our Lord in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplica- tions, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save from death. Heb. v. 7. I leave it to my reader's imagination to represent the situation of his Saviour in these moments. Let any person, endowed with the feelings of humanity, declare, whether in such circumstances the petition, Let this cup pass from me, be not natural language, and an exit big with barbarity, contumely, and horror is not to be deprecated. If the human mind shudders at the fancied representation of pain so exquisite and durable, and a death so excruciating and reproacliful, who can with any consistency and honor censure our Saviour, in such a situation, for discov- ering a sense of it ? We might as reasonably blame him for being a man, and for having the common affections, feelings, and sensations of human nature. Was our Saviour a frantic and extravagant Stoic, whose divine tranquillity pain and human evils could not solicit ? Did he ever teach his follow- ers that pain was no evil, or in his own person ever discover a total apathy and unconsciousness of the calamities and sufferings with which he encountered ? Nothing less true. He assumed humanity, and had all the sensibilities of hu- manity. He had, says the Apostle, a feeling of our infirmi- ties, being tempted in all points just as we are. Our Lord discovered great sensibility of soul. Jesus wept, — shed tears at the grave of his amiable deceased friend, Lazarus. Tears were also observed to stream from his eyes, when he looked down upon the city and uttered those pathetic expressions over it. O that thou, even thou, hadst known the things that belong to thy everlasting peace ; but now they are hidden from thine eyes ! He had an exquisite sense of human ON THE CAUSES OF OLR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 179 misery. In these unhappy exigencies he would oifer up prayers and suju^lications with strong crying and tears. And could brutal insult, illegal condemnation, opprobrious mockery, disgraceful imprisonment, cruel buffeting and scourging, a mock investiture with royalty, public ignominy and crucifixion invade his heart, unaffected and unimpressed ? Would not the certain immediate prospect of this train of evils make strong impressions on a mind so susceptible of strong im- pressions? Had he met and sustained the shock with un- feeling unconcernedness, and supported these his sufferings with an absolute insensibility of them, it would then have been asserted that he was not really invested with human nature, and that the assertions of his historians, that he was a man, were entirely hypothetical and imaginary. If he had endured these evils with a torpid composure, it would have been said that he never felt them, and that the human form he exhibited to the world was merely ideal and visionary. So that in this case strong objections would have been formed against the truth and reality of his person. Had he met his sufferings with a fearless intrepidity, and appeared in the midst of them with an idiot serenity, the world, I am persuaded, would have been more dissatisfied with his conduct, would have formed it into an argument against the truth of the Christian religion, and reviled its author as a frantic Stoic or an unfeeling enthusiast. Do we admire some of the philosophers for their contempt of pain ? Do we applaud their boasted tranquillity of mind, which no tortures" could discompose, and secretly wish that our Lord had sustained his aflfliction with as great constancy and fortitude as some of them ? But let me freely declare, that if we admire these old sages for their doctrines of in- sensibility of pain, and for their serenity of mind in the midst of the most racking disorders, we really admire them for philosophical madness, and a wild, extravagant, infatuated quixotism. Our passions are part of our nature. They can never be eradicated. We can by no arts and arguments annihilate our sensibilities. It is frenzy to attempt or to 180 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUk's AGONY. affect it. Our Saviour never taught, or practised upon, such an unnatural system. He had the same perception of human misery with ourselves, and suffered in the conflict, just as we do. Dr. AYliitby delivers it as his opinion, that this extreme dejection and agony of our Saviour arose from the strongly impressed apprehension of those dreadful sufferings which would so speedily befall him, and further says, that it is ex- tremely difficult to assign any other cause of this excess of sorrow and dispiritedness which noiv seized him. Some con- siderable time before, the thought of. tliis violent exit seems greatly to liave impressed our Saviour's mind. " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished ! Now is my soul troubled : but what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ! " Consider the wretchedness of such a death ! The exquisite torture of hav- ing the hands and feet perforated with nails, being fastened to a cross, and for days and nights continuing, as many of these wretches did, in all this agonizing pain, till all the powers of life w^ere exhausted in a lingering and most miser- able manner. Think of this, and then censure our blessed Lord for being appalled at the prospect. Think of what he suffered, and you will see cause to justify the petition he preferred to Heaven amidst these pangs : " My God ! my God ! w^hy hast thou forsaken me ? " Impress your minds with an affecting sense of a person so illustrious, of innocence so distressed, of sufferings so intense and durable, of indig- nities and insults so dishonorable and injurious, of a death so excruciating and full of horror, and of such a spectacle displayed before angels and men, and then reflect whether his agony in the garden of Gethsemane may not be accounted for. Then consider, whether you cannot rationally account for such a supplication in such a situation : 0 my Father, let this cup pass from me ! It Avas the near prospect and antici- pation of such sufferings and such an exit as tins, which made him, in the days of his flesh, offer up the most importunate requests and supplications, with strong cries and tears, to that Being who was able to extricate liim from death, — and he was heard in that he feared. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 181 Section IV. It is liiglilj probable that at this time our Lord had a strong perception of the various troubles and persecutions to which his disciples and followers would be subjected, in con- sequence of their attachment to him and his religion. This thought would greatly depress him, and deeply wound his tender spirit. And I make no doubt but the prescience and distinct view he had of that multiplicity of sorrows and suf- ferings which would invade his adherents after his death, greatly contributed to his present agony and extreme dejec- tion. He knew they had to contend with innumerable diffi- culties in attempting to reform a superstitious and corrupt world. He evidently foresaw that the system of religion and morals he had delivered would everywhere be spoken against, would, on account of its genius and nature, prove a stumbling- block to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishness. He knew that, for propagating his religion in the world, and for their inviolable adherence to his cause, they would endure the most miserable torments and deaths which the genius of men could devise, or the cruelty and odium of persecutors inflict. All these scenes of future persecution noiv crowded into his mind, and the painful anticipation overwhelmed him. It was his exquisite benevolent feelings which occasioned this extreme distress. The reflection that so many innocent persons should be involved in these calamities for embracing and spreading his doctrine, was too painful for him to support.* They were for several centuries to struggle under the incum- bent weight of established error and superstition, — prince and magistrate, priest and people, would be confederated against them, — they were to wrestle, not only against flesh and blood, the common prejudices of mankind, but to contend with principalities and powers and spiritual riders in high * Twi/Se yap ivXlov (jispco To TTevdos, ^ KOL Tr]S epiis "^vx^jS Trept. Sophocles, (Ed. Tijran., v. 93. 16 182 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. places ; the secular sword would be everywhere unsheathed to extirpate the cause in which they had embarked; they would be driven from city to city, from country to country, Jews and Greeks diff'ering in other things, but agreeing in this, to exterminate them and their religion from the world ; they would be the objects of such implacable odium and detestation, that whoever should kill them would be esteemed as doing God eminent service ; they were to endure poverty and indigence for their unshaken constancy to their principles, to wander about in deserts and mountains, and to seek refuge in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tor- mented ; they were to be precipitated into prisons and dun- geons, to be exposed to the fury of wild beasts, to afford sport and diversion for a brutal rabble, and to be made a spectacle to the world, to angels and men ; for the sake of Christ they were to be killed all the day long, to be accounted as sheep for the slaughter. These subsequent calamities our Lord perfectly knew. He saw the gathering storm which w^ould soon break over their heads. He had met with every injury and indignity for his endeavors to reform a wicked nation, and from his own experience he knew that the same principles and conduct in them would produce the same con- sequences, and render them equally obnoxious to a depraved world. He knew they had every opposition to expect from those whose religious errors they condemned, and whose im- moralities they freely censured ; that superstitious and wicked persons, of all others, would most strenuously exert them- selves to destroy a kingdom of truth and righteousness, by murdering those who attempted to erect and establish it. Tliis reflection awakened all his tenderness, and his benevo- lence made him feel exquisite anguish for his faithful, suflfering followers. Here his affections were powerfully excited, and his painful solicitude for the future fortunes of his disciples overpowered his soul. He loved them with the greatest warmth and delicacy of affection. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end ; and this love caused him to enter intimately into their future distresses, ON THE CAUSES OP OUR SAVIOUR'S AGONY. 183 and nifectionately to snare them by a generous condolence. He antedated them, he represented them strongly to his mind, and by a painful anticipation, and exquisite sympathy, now felt all the severe force and weight of these evils. What mental anxiety and distress he felt on account of their future miseries and persecutions appears from that consolatory dis- course, recorded by St. John, which was addressed to these his mournful and melancholy friends, who were in the last dejection at the thought of his departure from them. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Remember the word that I said to you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have insidiously watched my words, they will insidiously watch yours also. Verily I say unto you, you shall weep and lament, but the world shall re- joice. With great reason, therefore, we may suppose that all these scenes of future woe 7iow crowded into our Lord's mind at once. Love, pity, sympathy, benevolence, were the great emotions and passions which labored in his breast. The opposition his cause would meet with in the world, and the dreadful sufferings in which . those would be involved -svho maintained it, wrung his heart with the acutest anguish, and overwhelmed it in the deepest sorrow. This painful reflec- tion, conspiring with the other causes I have alleged, produced the deplorable situation here recorded, rendered him unequal to the shock, made the assistance of an angel necessary to support and strengthen him, and caused him to SAveat, as it were,* great drops of blood falling to the ground. * Observe, this is only a simile or comparison of the Evangelist to illustrate the prqfiiseness of our Saviour's sweat. 'EyeVfro 8e 6 Idpcos avTov 'J22EI 6p6}x^oi aljxaro^. Luke xxii. 44. Just as all the four Evangelists, intending to give their reader a just idea of the rapid descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ, after his baptism, compare it to the velocity of a dove, 'I22EI irfpio-repdv, — not that the Holy Spirit assumed the shape of a dove, but descended and aliglited upon our Lord with the rapidity Avith which a dove dai'ts from the sky to the earth. Probabli/ there was noio the same appearance as at the day of Pentecost. The 184 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUH'S ACJONT. Section V. It appearetli to me, also, that the impending calamities and ruin of his country, in consequence of their enormities and of their ingratitude and wickedness in rejecting and crucify- ing him, may be reckoned as one of the principal causes which produced this agony. It is a very unjust and ground- less objection which Lord Shaftesbury hath advanced against the Christian religion, that the author of it never recom- mended private friendship and the love of our country. Every one who is in the least acquainted with the life of Christ, cannot but know that our Lord was an example of both these. From his most intimate friends, the Apostles, he selected one, whose amiable temper and disposition appear to have been most similar to his own, and whom he honored with a peculiar delicacy and tenderness of affection. And how well he loved his native country appears from the whole of his life. He confined his instructions and labors solely to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, declaring that to them only he was sent. Never was there a pliilosopher or hero who loved his country with a more generous ardor of the truest and noblest benevolence than our blessed Saviour, if a constant study and active disposition to promote the welfiire and happiness of the community in which one is born may be styled the love of one's country. Dear to us, says Tully, are our parents, our children, our relations, our friends ; but our country compriseth and embraceth everything that is word Bpon^oi is very beautiful and expressive. It does not occur in tlio New Testament but only in tliis passage. It signifies larrje globules, thick and clnmmy clots of gore or sweat, pitch, milk, &c. Hesychius explains 6p6fxl3os by alfxa Tvax^i TreTrrjyos oas ^ovvoi. — JIoTafxos ajxa tS vdari SiiojjL^ovs dacPaXrov dva^idol ttoXXov?, "Mixed with the water, the river sendeth up many large clots of bitumen." Herodotus, Clio, p. 386, Vol. I. Glasg. "Qa-T iv yctXaicTi 6p6iJi[3ov alixaros cnT(i(rai. ^schyli Chocph., vers. 531. QpofxjBco 5' efxi^ev atjuciros' (p'lXou yaXa. Ibid, vers. 544. AtpaTos dpoplSovs peXavas, " Large black globules of blood." Hippocrates, Lib. III. § 19, edit. Linden. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 135 dear and valuable to us. In conformity to this maxim our Saviour really acted. He broke every parental and fraternal connection, all the ties of consanguinity, and forsook all the endearments of private hfe to consult the welfare of his country. What can be more pathetic and expressive of the warmest benevolence, than that complaint and lamentation he uttered over his incorrigible and devoted country, — " O that thou, even thou, hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thine everlasting peace ! " The strong perception he had of their imminent calamities forced him in this plain- tive and aifectionate manner to deplore their wretched fate. One of the Evangelists informs us, that when he drew near the city he wept over it. Generous minds feel strongly for the unhappy. It was benevolence, pity, and love for his unfortunate country, which called forth his gi'ief, and caused him to shed these tributary tears, at once the affecting memo- rials of his love, and the awful tokens of its approaching doom. As he had a perfect knowledge, so he had a painful sympathetic sense, of those dreadful calamities which would shortly overwhelm his country, for their enormities in dis- obeying and murdering the Lord of life. " Daughters of Jerusalem," said he to the women who were beating their breasts and deploring his unhappy fate, when he Avas led to Calvary, " weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children : for behold the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us ; for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry ?" Accordingly, in ahoni forty years after his resurrection, the Romans invaded Judaea, spread desolation everywhere, at last invested the capital, enclosed an infinite number of people in it, who had then come from all parts to celebrate the Passover, drew lines of circum- vallation round them, and thus devoted them to all the miseries of famine, pestilence, and war. After incredible numbers had perished by mutual assassinations and famine, 16* 186 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOURS AGONY. the city was stormed and plundered, the temple burnt) the buildings demolished, the walls razed from the foundations, the greatest part of the Jews were put to the sword, the rest sold for slaves into foreign countries. These calamities, in severer than which never was any nation involved, had their completion in Adrian's time, who published an edict prohib- iting every Jew, on pain of death, from setting a foot in Judiea, All these scenes of national calamity and ruin our Lord perfectly knew ; and the painful apprehension and view made him commiserate his falUng country. "What affection, pity, sympathy, and sorrow are mingled in that pathetic exclama- tion : " 0 Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! thou that killest the proph- ets, and stonest those that are sent to thee ! How often would I have gathered thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not ! Therefore is your house left unto you desolate." Now if our Saviour's mind, in the course of his ministry, was so much affected and depressed by the thought of his country's disobedience, and of their deplorable ruin, the certain effect of it, how much more may we justly suppose must he be dejected and dis- tressed when he was now entering upon those sufferings which he knew would assuredly bring on his devoted country these dreadful inflictions. If he indulged and manifested such grief for only one single person, for the death of his dear friend Lazarus, how inexpressibly must he suffer for the destruction of a very lai-ge collective body of men, to whom he was connected by the common endearing bond of natural affection and country? In this manner, I apprehend, the agony of our Lord, and his prayer to God that this cup might pass from him, may be rationally accounted for, without recurring to any impious and absurd hypothesis which derogates from the wisdom, rec- titude, and goodness of the Deity, and disparages the inno- cence and merit of this illustrious sufferer, ascribing it, I mean, to the dereliction and wrath of God, the temptation and tyranny of Satan, into whose power he was 'luring this ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 187 scene totally delivered, or to the incumbent weight of all the sins of the whole world, whose ponderous and oppressive load, during these moments, he was permitted of God to feel and support. I humbly conceive that his unsuccessful- ness in reclaiming and reforming the Jews ; the desertion of his disciples ; the perception of the insult and ill usage he was shortly to sustain, — the arrest and seizure of his person, the illegal process through which he was to pass, the injurious and contumelious treatment he would experience in the con- duct of it, being buffeted, delivered up to the Romans, vested with mock royalty, scourged, imprisoned, crucified ; the fore- sight of the calamities and persecutions of his followers for maintaining and spreading his religion ; and the imminent destruction of his country ; — these are causes adequate to such an effect. Especially if we add, that the great and un- remitting labor in which he had been employed for the Jive days which preceded his agony must necessarily have con- tributed to render him low and weak at this time, and reduced hini to a state of great debility and lassitude. This combi- nation of painful ideas collecting, as in a focus, their whole accumulated energy and force, and pouring in a strong vehe- ment stream upon an exquisitely sensible and tender spirit, so entirely penetrated and overwhelmed it, as to render the interposition of a heavenly messenger necessary to strengthen and support him. So violent was the commotion excited by these sad images obtruding all at once upon his mind, that he complained that his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.* And in such a situation, amidst the tumult of * The expressions used by the sacred writers to represent the intense- ness of his agony are the most strong and emphatical which could have been employed. neptXvTros, exceedlnghj sorrowful, excessively dis- tressed. IleptXvTros icTTiv rj ■v//-vx'7 H-^^ ^^^ Qavdrov. Matt. xxvi. 38. ^EKdafi^elaBai, used by Mark, ch. xiv. 33, signifies to be stunned and overichelmed witli any passion, to be Jixed in astonishment to he lost in iconder and amazement. It is used to express the extreme terror and con- siernation of the women at the unexpected sight of an angel in our Lord's sepulchre. Mark xvi. 5, 6. And the great amazement of the multitude 188 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOURS AGONY. SO many painful reflections crowding in perpetual succession upon a delicate mind, and in the near prospect of such inju- rious treatment and such an excruciating death, is not the consternation and sensibility our Lord expressed natural, and the petition he preferred to heaven, in such a crisis, if it pleased God to let this cup pass from him, the very first dictate of the human heart, and the genuine, constant language of a dependent creature when involved in distress ? I shall conclude this Dissertation with the reflections of a very judicious author.* " In the first place," says this inge- nious writer, " this befell our Lord just as he had finished his public ministry. Intenseness of thought, in a long course of at beholding the miracle wrought on the lame man. Acts iii. 11. *Abr]ixov€lv is a strong expression, and signifies to be in great dejection, to suffer the last anguish and distress of mind. KkeonaTpap Treptifieve, koi ^pa8vvov(Tr]s dbr][xov(ov rjXve, " He [Antony] anxiously expected Cleo- patra ; and upon her delaying to come, he sunk into the last dejection and distress." Plutarch in Vita Antonii, p. 939, edit. Francof., 1620. 'Ed)' a dr] 6 €Tfpos avrav ddr]povf]aas, iavrbv e(T(f)a^€, " On which ac- count one of them was so dejected, that he laid violent hands on himself." Dio Cassius, Tom. II. p. 924, edit. Rcimari, Hamburg, 1752. Kav TOVTCO Ka\ TOiu 'Poopaicou Tives ddrjpovfjaavTes, ola ev xpovlw noXLopKia, fi€T€v to napako- yop Tr}s yvvaiKos npbs avTov plcros oiiK dnoKfKpvppeuov, " He suffered the last anguish and distress at seeing his wife's abhorrence of him, which he did not expect, or she study to dissemble." Josephus, Tom. I. p. 760, edit. Havercamp. *Hdr]povovu fie, prj (j)6daas KaraXvaat ro nciv epyov oiiK i^apKeaei npos reXos dyayelu rijv npoaipeaiv, " But they were in the utmost distress, lest the king, after demolishing the whole Avork, shouid not be able to execute his design," Josephus, p. 778, Haverc. ^Adrjpo- vovura he rov (BacTLkea eVi rrj aTrayopeucrei, " The emperor being great- ly distressed at this repulse." Sozomen, Hist. Eccles., Lib. I. p. 14, edit. Cantab. 1720. ^Abr^povovuTas be tovs Idiovs arpaTicoTas cos TjTTrjdew ras 6oa>v, " Seeing his soldiers greatly dejected on account of their being defeated." Socrates, Hist. Eccl., p. 137. See also p. 356, edit. Reading, Cantab. 1720. * Moore on our Saviour's Agony, pp. 83 - 86. ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 189 exercise, is, ordinarily, productive of, or succeeded by, per- ceptions that are irksome and tedious. Such sort of busi- ness naturally ends with fatigue ; and fatigue discovers itself through all the avenues of the senses, as well in the mind as in the body. And at such a season, it is notorious, the pas- sions of grief and sorrow lie most open and exposed to objects which excite pain. Evils that are at other times tolerable, come now with double force, and make deep impression. The observation on this circumstance was the result of the first branch of our inquiry. It is repeated here because it serves »o illustrate the reasons, or is itself one, why Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy. " Again. This happened to him when he was entering upon a new scene of sufferings. At such a crisis we find things future begin to have an actual existence, and are, as it were, quickened into life. The passions, big with expecta- tion, are ready to break forth to meet their objects. Tliere is always something vivid and strong in the perception of bare novelty itself. But when the novelty has a group of painful objects, the perceptions are more interesting, and alarm the whole human frame. Let us suppose one's self to be about being reduced from a state of affluence to penury ; or to be bereaved of one's friends ; or to undergo the ampu- tation of a leg or an arm ; what kind of perceptions should we have? Would they not create a horror to the mind, agitate the animal spirits, or strike on the fine fibres of the heart and brain so as to make us shudder? If this be agreeable to common experience on such occasions, common experience is a clew that will help to unravel the causes of the sore amazement of our Lord at this juncture. " Again. He was now on the spot where he was to pre- pare himself and meet his sufferings. There may be facts transacted, or a variety of events to which we are subject, which will make the bare sight of places raise a combination of ideas and disturb and perplex the mind. It is so natural to connect things with places, that very often we make the latter a sort of locus where the moment of the whole business 190 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAflOUR's AGONY. is collcctcfl. Have we a cause to litigate, or are we called to def'eiul our country ? The entrance into the court of judi- cature, or first view of the field of battle, shall give a more warm and sensible turn to the affections and passions, than per- hai)s we shall feel through the whole trial, or meet with in the actual engagement. And if this was not exactly the case of our Lord, yet as he came hither on purpose to prepare and meet his sufferings, those sufferings must necessarily be rep- resented and brought to the full view of his imagination. In order to suit ourselves to a condition, that condition must be surveyed and entered into by the mind. A\Tierefore we may suppose, that the first perception our Lord had, when he was at the place, was the kind and importance of the evils to which he was now to submit. This supposition is both pious and natural. Then we address the Supreme Being with propriety, when we have viewed the exigency of our affairs. We seldom need to court objects of pain. They are known to intrude themselves too often with a sort of eagerness. But in the present circumstance they are called for, and the attention of the mind to them is, as it were, demanded. Wherefore our Lord could not but be conscious of the perception he had of the evils before him. And that consciousness must increase in proportion to the number and weight they bore. It is agreeable to the natural order of things that it should be so. So that it is no wonder if a round of misery was the only perception he was for a time con- scious of. Now here was he to be betrayed by one of his own disciples, seized and bound hke a thief, abandoned by his friends, led away and treated with cruel and indignant usage. And the consequences hereof, rejplete with evils, found easy access, we may suppose, to a mind like his. The language of the best human heart on such an occasion would be, O what will become of my country, and of the men I love ! What an agitation would a man feel in his animal spirits, and how acute and powerful the operation between his passions and their objects in such a state and crisis as this ! It is evident the perception of misery, now, is right, ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 191 and as it should be ; and the commotion that ensues is natural, and what will be. With respect to the latter, reason is too sublime, or comes too slow to have anything presently to do in the case. The violence of the commotion must cease before the understanding can attend to the dictates of reason. After this manner, probably, was Jesus exercised at this juncture." * " When Christ is compared to men who are said to have slept sound before a painful death, and to have discovered no sensibility in any period of it, the nature and use of his example is not considered ; his natural weakness, if it may be so called, being better calculated to show the strength of his faith, and therefore affording more encouragement to us to follow his steps. " But certainly our encouragement to follow Christ in suf fering and dying is greatly lessened by the notion of hij having had a power over his own sensations, so that in anj- situation he could feel more or less at pleasure, and even pu< an end to all sensation by a premature death, which is stiicdy prohibited to all his followers, and justly esteemed unbec^om- ing the firmness that is expected of other men. Cnnstiang who entertain this idea of their Saviour cannot nave reflected on the nature of the case. " It may be said that, if Christ only felt as a -rnan during his agony, we should find something similar to it in the ac- counts of some of the martyrs. But the pro'oability is, thai no history of any martyr was ever written with such perfect fidelity as that of Christ by the Evangelists. It has been too much the object of the writers, and from the best views, namely, the encouragement of others, to exhibit the fortitude and heroism of the sufferers in the strongest light. " It must also be considered, that what a person suffers in his own mind, in the expectation of pain and death, is gen- * From the Theological Kepositoiy, Vol. VI. pp. 314-319, — G. K. N. 192 ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. erally known only to himself; and that the affections of the bodily frame are seldom so great, when he is m company, as to be visible to others. What our Saviour himself felt would not have been known, if he had not, for the best reasons, chosen that some of his disciples should be witnesses of it. For anything that appears, his agony might not last half an hour, and presently after it he was perfectly composed ; and his behavior the day following was such as could have given no person the least suspicion of what he had felt the pre- ceding night. " But though nothing is related of any particular martyr that approaches to the case of our Saviour, yet, besides what we may judge from our own experience in the expectation of less evils, of what must have sometimes been felt in the expectation of greater ones, some circumstances are occa- sionally mentioned by martyrologists, which sutRciently illus- trate the account of the Evangelists. There are numberless cases in which martyrs are represented as peculiarly intrepid during their trial, and also immediately before, and even during the time of extreme torture, compared with what they had felt on the more distant view of it, though the man- ner in which they were affected by that more distant view is not distinctly noted. " Many letters are preserved of martyrs, written in the interval between their apprehension and their deaths. But, besides that historians would seldom choose to publish any letters except such as, in their opinion, would do them credit, and serve the cause for which they suffered, that is, show their fortitude, a man who is capable of writing must be tolerably composed, and would not in general be himself in- clined to dwell upon circumstances which would give himself and his friends pain. " From the account of one of the English martyrs, how- ever, namely, Richard Woodman, it may easily be collected, that his sufferings during his conflict with himself, when, as he says (Fox's Book of Martyrs, Vol. III. p. 673), while he was ' loth to forego his wife and children and goods/ were ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 193 extreme. * This battle,' he says, ' lasted not a quarter of an hour ; but it was sharper than death itself for the time, I dare say.' After tliis he appears to have been perfectly calm, and he suffered with great fortitude. " Havmg now, I presume, some idea of the extreme dis- tress and agony of mind under which our Lord labored, greater perhaps than any other man had ever felt before him, and also of the causes which produced it, let us consider his strength of mind in supporting the prospect of them. That he should wish to avoid going through the dreadful scene, we cannot think extraordinary. He would not have been a man if he had not, and that this wish should be ex- pressed in the form of a prayer to that great Being at whose sovereign disposal he and all mankind always are, was quite natural. In a truly devout mind, which respects the hand of God in everything, an earnest wish and a prayer are the same thing. Our Saviour, in this agony, did pray that, if it was possible, the hitter cup might pass from him. But by possible must, no doubt, be meant consistently with the designs of divine government. He therefore only expressed his desire that his painful death and sufferings might be dispensed with, if the same great and good ends could have been attained without them. For there can be no doubt but that with God all tilings are naturally possible. Our Lord's wish or prayer ,was therefore only conditional, and not absolute. He did not wish to be excused from suffering, whatever might be the consequence. Even in this most painful state of apprehen- sion, he did not look to himself only, but to God, and the great ends of his government. " We may think it extraordinary that our Lord should for a moment suppose that what he wished or prayed for was, in any sense of the M:ord, possible, knowing, as he himself ob- serves, that for that end he came unto that hour ; his dying, with a view to a future resurrection, being a necessary part of that plan which he was to be the principal instrumeni in executing. But, besides that, in a highly agitated state of mind, the thing might for a moment appear in a different 17 194 ON THE CAUSES OF OUK SAVIOUR'S AGONY. light, our Lord avcU knew that the appointments of God, even when expressed in the most absolute terms, are not always so intended. We have more instances than one of similar orders and appointments, by which nothing was meant but the trial of a person's faith. " This was the case when Abraham was ordered to offer up his beloved son Isaac. Till the moment that his hand was actually raised to slay his son, that patriarch had no reason whatever to think that the death of his son, and that by his own hand, was not intended by the Divine Being. The order for the destruction of Nineveh in forty days was also delivered in absolute terms, though it was intended to be conditional, and in the event did not take place. Notwith- standing, therefore, all that had passed in the communica- tions which Jesus had with God, he could not tell but that possibly his death might not be necessary, and that the same end might be gained without it. In these circumstances, con- sidering the natural love of life, and the dread of pain and death, the merest possibility, or the supposition of a possi- bility, would certainly justify our Lord's prayer, especially when it is considered that, in the same breath with which he uttered it, he added. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Notwithstanding the dread and horror of mind with which he viewed his approaching sufferings, he had no objec- tion to them, if it was the determined will of God that he should bear them. This was a degree of resignation and fortitude which far exceeds anything that we read of in history. In all other instances in which persons have sweated through the fear of death, they would have given, or have done, anything to have avoided it. To them it appeared the greatest of all evils. " The courage which any man may show while his nerves are firm, is not to be compared with that of our Saviour's, when his were, in a manner, broken and subdued. It was not only while he was calm, and had a perfect command of himself, but when his perturbation and distress of mind was 60 great as to tlirow him into a profuse sweat, that he said, ON THE CAUSES OF OUR SAVIOUR's AGONY. 195 N^ot as I will, but as thou wilt. No man in any cool moment can form to himself an adequate idea of the heroism of this act. Because no man, in a cool moment, and under no terror of mind himself, can tell what his own wishes and prayers would be in a state of such dreadful agony as that of our Saviour. It will therefore be greater than he can conceive it to be. It is probable that nothing but the consciousness of his pecuharly near relation to God, and his full assurance of such a state of future glory as no other man would ever arrive at, could have supported him, and have preserved his resignation and fortitude, in a state of mind so peculiarly unfavorable to them." OF OUE LOED'S FOETITUDE. By WILLIAM NEWCOME, AECHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND FRDIATS OF IKELA.VT>.* Our Lord exhorted his apostles not to fear their perse- cutors, who killed the body and could not kill the soul ; but rather to fear Him who was able to destroy both body and soul in hell.f This was an exhortation to fortitude in professing and propagating the true religion. His example taught this duty in its whole extent. He showed a noble contempt of worldly greatness by ap- pearing in a low condition of life. During his public minis- try he had not where to lay his head, | some of his pious attendants ministered to him of their substance, § and he paid the tribute-money by miracle. || He suffered hunger, thirst, and weariness ; he was ever contending with the dul- ness of his disciples, the incredulity of his kinsfolk, and the reproaches and injuries of the Jews. And he " pleased not himself "If; but submitted to many and great evils, that he might please God and benefit mankind. Let us observe in particular instances what " contradiction of sinners " ** he endured, and what greatness of mind he displayed. * From his " Observations on our Lord's Conduct as a Divine In- structor," &c. t Matt. X. 26, 28. t Matt. \nii. 20. § Luke viii. 3. II Matt. xvii. 27. t Rom. xv. 3. ** Heb, xii. 3. 17* 198 OF OUR lord's fortitude. When he had pronounced forgiveness of sins to a paralytic, some of the Scribes and Pharisees charged him with blas- phemy for invading God's prerogative. But they made the accusation in the reasonings of their hearts ; and did not avow it openly. Not\vithstanding this, Jesus, unawed by their authority, firmly but calmly expostulated with them for their evil thought ; * and argued that the discernment of a man's moral state might justly be allowed to him whom God had vested with the power of working miracles. Having healed a man on the Sabbath, who had labored under an infirmity for thirty and eight years, the Jews per- secuted him and sought to kill him. Jesus answered, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work " : t My Father pre- serves, governs, and benefits the world without distinction of days ; and therefore I also extend good to men on the Sab- bath. This mode of expressing himself furnished the Jews with an additional reason for seeking his life. Observe now, throughout the whole of the discourse immediately following, with what magnanimity our Lord perseveres in the same language. " The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." % " The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which he himself doeth." § " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father'' \ Probably on the Sabbath after he had restored the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, our Lord intrepidly vindicated his disciples against the Pharisees, who had censured them for plucking and eating ears of corn on that day. ^ And, thinking it expedient to wean the Jews from their excessive veneration for the law which he was about to abolish, on the Sabbath which next succeeded, though the Scribes and Phari- sees watched him, he healed a man with a withered hand * Mark ii. 6 - 11. t John v. 17. J Ver. 19. ^ Ver. 20. II Ver. 22, 23. So ver. 21, 26, 30, 36, 37, 43, 45. % Luke vi. 1 - 4. OF OUR lord's fortitude. 199 pubKcIy in the synagogue.* This filled them with madness ; and they took counsel how they might destroy him. Afterwards, as he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, he restored a woman who had been bowed together eighteen years, confuted the ruler of the synagogue who with indignation restrained the people from coming to be healed on the Sabbath, reproved his hypocrisy, as he concealed many vices under this semblance of piety, and made all his adversaries ashamed, f Again : as he was eating bread with a ruler of the Phari- sees on the Sabbath, and those of that powerful sect insidi- ously observed his conduct, a man with a dropsy stood before them. Jesus said to the teachers of the Law and the Phari- sees, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day ? Knowing how invincibly he reasoned on this point, they kept silence. But Jesus " took him, and healed him, and sent him away." J Conscious of his rectitude, he was fearless of their power. Once more : at the Feast of Tabernacles, though it was the Sabbath, Jesus made clay and opened the eyes of one blind from his birth : § and he wrought this miracle imme- diately after the Jews had taken up stones to cast at him, and had sent officers to apprehend him. || I do not find in the history of the Apostles that they had the disengagement from prejudice, and the courage, to imi- tate this part of our Lord's conduct. There are other instances which show that Jesus paid no deference to the wrong notions of the leading Jews. The Scribes and Pharisees murmured because he ate with pub- licans and sinners in the house of Matthew the publican. ^ This censure did not deter him from saying to Zaccheus, a chief of the publicans, at a time when multitudes surrounded him, This day I must abide in thine house.** When the Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem asked * Luke vi. 6 - 11. t Luke xiii. 10-17. J Luke xiv. 1 -6. § John ix. 14. 1|. See ch. vii., viii., ix. H Luke v. 30. ** Luke xix. 2-7. iOO OF OUR lord's fortitude. liim why " his disciples walked not according to the tradition of the elders, but ate bread with unwashen hands " ; he expostulated with them for their hypocrisy, proved to them that they made void the commandment of God by their tra- dition, characterized them as blind leaders of the blind, and thus introduced his explanation of moral defilement : " He called unto him all the multitude, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, all of you, and understand." * Another proof of our Lord's fortitude was, that, although his first preaching at Nazareth had exposed his life to danger,t the unbehef, the ingratitude, the outrage and vio- lence of his countrymen, could not divert him from attempt- ing their conversion a second time. | We have seen how undauntingly he reproved his enemies on just occasions ; and these were often the Jewish rulers who had his life m their power. He met death for the wisest and best ends, the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. He astonished his timid disciples by the readiness with which he went before them in the way to Jerusalem, on the approach of the Passover at which he suffered;! when they all knew that his enemies were conspiring against his life, and he himself knew that he should suffer a most painful and ignominious death : he entered the city in a kind of public triumph : in the hearing of the multitude he reproved the vices of the Scribes and Pharisees to their face, |1 with unequalled energy, and with words " quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword " : % when Judas rose from the paschal supper to betray him, he said to his disciples, with wonderful com- posure, " Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glo- rified through him " : ** he witnessed before the high-priest, and before Pontius Pilate, a good confession ; and showed that he voluntarily submitted to death, because he had ^riirac- * Mark vii. 1-15. t Luke iv. 29. J Mark vi. 1 § Mark x. 32 ; Luke xix. 28. || Matt, xxiii. 1. TT Heb. iv. 12. ** John xiii. 31. OF ouK lord's fortitude. 201 ulously preserved his life at the preceding feasts of Taberna- cles and Dedication.* It is natural to object, that our Lord's agony was incon- sistent with the fortitude which some good men have actually displayed. I shall give this objection its full force ; t and shall consider it with the attention which it demands. We read that our Lord often foretold his sufferings, and many particulars of them; that he most sharply rebuked Peter for wishing them far from him ; I and that when Moses and Elias appeared to him at his transfiguration, they spake of his departure which he was about to accomplish at Jeru- salem. § He likewise knew that, according to the ancient prophecies, the Messiah ought to suffer what the Jews in- flicted, II and to enter into his glory : % and accordingly he predicted his resurrection on the third day,** his ascension into heaven,tt and his elevation to his glorious throne. || It must be added, that his pre-existing and divine state gave him a large and perfect view of this and every other plan of God's moral government. On the other hand, we must consider that our Lord was perfect man, and left men an example that they should follow his steps. §§ He partook of flesh and blood, |||| like the chil- dren given him by the common Father of all. " In all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren ; that he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest." He said to his apostles, " Ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations.''^ %^ " He was in all points tempted like as we * John viii. 59 ; x. 39. t Celsus thus states it, Orig. 1. 2, § 24. Ti ovv iroTviarai Koi 68vp€' rat, KOI Tov Tov oXidpov (po^ov evxeTai napabpafie^v, Xeycov a)8e nas ' Q, TTClTCp^ K. T. \. i Matt. xvi. 22, 23. § Luke ix. 31. II Mark ix. 12 ; John iii. 14 ; Luke xviii. 31 ; xxii. 37 ; John xiii. 1, 3 ; xix. 28. TI John xvii. 24 ; Matt. xix. 28 ; xxv. 31. ** Matt. XX. 19. tt John vi. 62. ff See the texts quoted at f. ^ 1 Pet. ii. 21. Ijjl Heb. ii. 13, 14, 17. 11[ Luke xxii. 28. 202 OF OUR lord's fortitude. are, yet without sin " ; * that he might be touched ^vith the feeling of our infirmities. He himself was " compassed with infirmity " ; f that he might pardon the ignorant and erro- neous, and be moderately and not rigorously affected towards them. We must also carefully remark of him, that he possessed the most exquisite feelings of human nature in the higliest degree. | He was susceptible of joy, which instantly burst forth in devout thanksgiving. § He was prone to compassion, and repeatedly melted into tears. The innocence of children engaged liis affection ; his heart was open to the impressions of friendship ; and when he saw any degree of virtue, he loved it. II He was grieved at unbelief, and had a generous indig- nation against vice : and we find him touched with the quick- est sense of his own wrongs : " Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and staves, to take me ? " % Sometimes he spake of his sufferings with the greatest sensibility. " I have a baptism to be baptized with : and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " ** " Now is my soul troubled : and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ! But for this cause came I unto this hour." ft It is true that he frequently foretold his death with much composure; and that he sternly reprehended Peter, when, from worldly views, that apostle began to rebuke him for uttering one of these predictions, jj The horror of the sharpest sufferings which can be under- gone will sometimes be greater, and sometimes less, in the firmest and best minds ; §§ as the evil is considered in its own nature, or under the idea of duty and resignation to God. The contest between reason and religion, and the natural dread of the greatest evils, must subsist when the most per- * Hcb. iv. 15. t Hcb. V. 2. $ See Barrow, Vol. I. Seitn. XXXII. p. 475, ed. fol. 1683. § Matt. xi. 25. Liikc x. 21. |I Mark x. 21. 1[ Matt. xxvi. 55. ** Luke xii. 50. It John xii. 27. tt Mark viii. 32. 4§ Ignominiic cruciatnnm ct mortis horrorcm in Christi carne mode majorcm modo minorem fuisse apparct. Grot, in Matt. xvi. 23. OF ouK lord's fortitude. 203 feet virtue is called on to suffer them . and where it ends in a becoming resolution, and a pious submission to the wise and great Disposer of all events, the character is a consummate one in a moral and religious view.* Let us now turn our eyes to our Lord's conduct on the night before his crucifixion. Nothing can exceed the sedate- ness, the wisdom, and benevolence, which appear throughout the whole of it at the celebration of the paschal supper. He first gently censured the contention for superiority which had arisen among the Apostles.f He then illustrated his doctrine of humility by an example of it, in washing their feet. He proceeded to declare with much emotion his knowledge of Judas's ungrateful and perfidious intention ; J he mentioned the aggravations and the dreadful consequences of his guilt ; but described the traitor covertly, and addressed him ob- scurely, till compelled by Judas's own question to point him out publicly. He exhorted his disciples to mutual love with a paternal affection. § In consequence of Peter's declared self-confidence, he foretold his fall; but when Peter vehe- mently repeated his asseveration, our Lord did not repeat his prediction. || He instituted a most simple, expressive, and useful rite in commemoration of his death; instructed, advised, and comforted his disciples with the most unbounded affection ; and closed with a solemn act of piety as striking a scene as imagination can conceive of lowliness and benignity, of prudence and wisdom, of decorum and majesty, of com- posure and resignation.^ He then resorted to his accustomed place of retirement, •* Aristotle thus describes the man of fortitude : Set (pajSeladai ^ev, vnofxeueLv de, " Evils must be feared by him, and yet undergone." Magna Mor., p. 160, ed. Du Val. So Eth. Nicom., III. vii. 1 : (^o/Si^o-frat fxev ovv Koi TO. Totavra ' cos Se Sei, Koi wy \6yos, VTro/iiei/f t, tov koXov eveKa, " The man of fortitude will fear human evils ; but "will undergo tliem as he ought, and as reason prescribes, for the sake of what is becoming and right." t Luke xxii. 25, &c. J John xiii. 21. § John xiii. 34. II Matt. xxvi. 35. 1 John x\'ii. 204 OF OUR lord's fortitude. and where he knew that Judas would execute his treason : for he knew all things which should befall him.* I shall now inquire what were the causes of that agony f and deadly sorrow, J of that sore amazement and heavy an- guish, § which seized him on the approach of his sufferings ; and which drew from him such intense and persevering sup- plications that God would avert them. I cannot suppose that he was penetrated with a sense of God's indignation at this time. That is the portion of those * John xviii. 4. t The word dycovia, Luke xxii. 44, has not so strong a sense as the con-esponding one in our language. It properly signifies the fear which men have when they are about to contend with an antagonist ; and in tliis sense is opposed to great fear. When Hector was on the point of engag- ing with Ajax, the Trojans feared greatly ; but Hector only rjycovLa. See Dionysius Hal. in Clarke's note on II. VII. 216. Aristotle describes it to be fear at the beginning of an undertaking : (jio^os tls irpoi apxqv epyov. Probl. II. 31, p. 691, ed. Du Val. The Stoics defined it to be the fear of an uncertain event : cjjo^os dbrjXov Trpdy/ioros. Diog. Laert. Zeno, VII. Sect. 113, p. 435, ed. Amst. 4to. It is twice used by Diodorus Siculus for the anxiety of the Egyptians while the Nile Avas rising, ed. Wcss., p. 44. And an apposite passage is quoted by Lardner on the Logos, p. 7, from Nic. Damascen. apud Vales, excerpt, p. 841, where all are said to be dycovLoovTes, and Julius Caesar to be jxcaros dycovLus, while Octavius's life was in danger from illness. " Per cataclu-esin ponitur pro quovis timore," says II. Stephens in voe. and accordingly in Syr. dycouia is rendered by fear, from Sm, timuit. See Wetstcin in loc. i II. Stephens translates the word iKBaii^ionai, " Stupore attonito per- cellor, Pavore attonito perteireor." He derives it from 6r]ivoi, stupeo. It denotes wonder; see Mark x. 32; Luke iv. 36 ; v. 9; Acts iii. 10, 11 ; ix. 6. It also denotes that fear which often accompanies wonder. Com- pare Mark xvi. 5, 6, with Luke xxiv. 5, Matt, xxviii. 5. The word 6dyi^j](Tev, II. I. 199, is explained by Didymus, i(po^i]6-q, e^enXdyrj. See Pearson on the Creed, Article Suffered. § 'AS/}/^icoi/, whence aS^/Moi^e'co , is derived from aSe'o) tredio nfficior, pro- prie prae defatigationc. "Khos signifies satictas ; dcfatigatio, quaj est laboris velut satictas. And Eustathius defines dbr]fx6)v, " one who fiiils,'* (animo coneidit,) as it were from a satiety of sorrow. 'O ck Xvtttjs, ats ola Kai Tivos Kopov, {bs cidos Xeyerai,) duaTrenTaKuis. See H. Stephens : Reimai-'s Dion Cassius, p. 924, note, § 215. Wetstein in loc. Phil. ii. 26. OP OUR lord's fortitude. 205 only who do evil. A voice from heaven repeatedly pro- nounced our Lord the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased. And he was now about to evidence his obedi- ence and love to his Father in a most illustrious manner.* He was also about to sanctify himself t for the sake of his disciples, and of all mankind. And what are his own words ? " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my hfe that I may take it again." % Nor was Christ at this time under the immediate power of Satan. In the concluding scenes of his hfe, the evil one might be said to " bruise his heel," § because he afflicted him by his instruments. After the temptation, the Devil is said to depart from him " for a season." || If the phrase implies that he returned during our Lord's agony and sufferings, what his emissaries and imitators did may be attributed to his agency. When our Lord said to his apostles, at the paschal supper, " the prince of this world cometh " ; ^ the meaning is, that he was coming by those unjust and violent men who resembled him. And again, when Jesus said to the Jewish rulers, " this is your hour, and the power of darkness " ; ** he meant the power of wickedness, of men who hated the light, and came not to it lest their deeds should be reproved. But that the mind of Christ was now disquieted and harassed by Satan himself is a horrid idea, the dictate of gloomy minds, and wholly inconsistent with God's goodness to the Son of his love.ft Nor was he oppressed and overcome by the sense that he was to bear the sins of mankind in his own body on the tree ; |j and to redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. §§ A foresight of conferring unspeak- able benefits on the human race would tend to alleviate, and not to embitter, the sufferings of the benevolent Jesus : unless ^ John xiv. 31. t John x\ii. 19 ; Matt. xx. 28 ; xxa'I. 28 ; 2 Cor. v. 14. X John X. 17. . § Gen. iii. 15. II Luke iv. 13. IF John xiv. 30. ** Luke xxii. 53. tt Col. i. 13. XX 1 Pet. ii. 24. §§ Gal. iii. 13. 18 206 OF OUR lord's fortitude. at this time he ^vas [jiuliciallyj stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted ; * an idea which the prophet excludes, and which his own sinless rectitude and God's perfect goodness exclude. Though God had wise reasons for not restraining those who afflicted our Lord, yet he was so far from heightening his afflictions above their natural course, that he sent an angel from heaven to strengthen him-t Jesus suffered by the wickedness of men ; but he was not punished by the hand of God. Nor should his death, and the bitter circumstances preceding it, be considered as a full compensation to strict justice ; but as God's merciful and gracious method of recon- ciling man to himself. Those divines entertain the most just and rational notions who do not think that our Lord's broken and dejected spirit was a trial supernaturally induced ; but assign natural causes for the feelings wliich shook his inmost frame. He felt for the wickedness and madness of those who persecuted him in so unrelenting a manner, notwithstanding his beneficent con- duct, his laborious and admirable instructions, and the con- vincing evidences of his divine mission ; for the irresolution, timidity, and despondency of his friends, and for the ingrati- tude, perfidy, and guilt of the wretched and devoted Judas. He foresaw the unjust offence which his death on the ci-oss would give both to Jews and Gentiles ; the exemplary de- struction of his country ; the spirit of hatred and persecution which would arise against his Church, and even among those who were called by his name ; and the unbelief and sins of mankind, wliich exposed them to such a weight of punishment here and hereafter. And these and such like painful sensa- tions and gloomy prospects made the deepest impression at a * Isa. liii. 4. t Luke xxii. 43. That some omitted this part of the history, see Lardner's Crcd., Part II. Vol. III. p. 132 ; Hist, of Heretics, 252 ; and Gro- tius's note in loc., wlio says : " lUaudabilis fuit et superstitio et tcmeritas illorum qui hanc particulam et sequentem de sudore delevere. — Christus destitutus divinitatis in se habitantis virtute, liumanreque naturie rclictus, — opus habuit angelorum solatio." OP OUR lord's fortitude. 207 time when lie had a lively view of the immediate indignities and insults, of the disgrace, and horrid pains of death, which awaited him during the long and sharp trial of his Avisdora and goodness.* When he came to the place where a follower and friend was to betray him, and where the Jews were ignominiously to seize and bind him as a malefactor, the scene excited a per- turbation of mind, and he was depressed by sorrow and an- guish proportioned to his exquisite sensibility, the conscious- ness of his wrongs, and his extensive foresight. And how did our Lord act under the extreme sorrow which overwhelmed him ? He offered up the following pray- er to his Father : f " My Father, all things which are fit and right are possible with thee : if it be possible, if the wise plan of thy moral government admit of it, let this bitter and deadly cup pass from me : nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. If this cup of pain and tortuie cannot pass from me, but that I drink it, thy will be done." J He thrice addressed himself to his Father in words of the same import. And being in an agony, having the prospect of an excruciating death immediately before him, he prayed the more intensely : and his body was so affected by the state of his mind, that drops exuded from him, the copiousness of which bore resem- blance to drops of blood. § The author of the Epistle to the * See most of these causes well enlarged on in Dr. Harwood's Disser- tation on our Saviour's Agony. t Jortin says, after Grotius on Matt. xxvi. 39 : " We must observe that our Lord was made like unto us in all things, sin excepted ; and that, upon this and other occasions, he experienced in himself what we also frequently find within us, two contrary wills, or, to speak more accurate- ly, a strife between inclination and reason ; in which cases, though rea- son gets the better of inclination, we may be said to do a thing willingly, yet with an unwilling mind." Vol. IV. Serm. III. p. 42. The whole discourse should be attended to by those who study this subject. I like- wise recommend a careful perusal of Lardncr's Sermons on our Lord's sufferings. J INIatt. xxvi. 39, &c., and parallel places. § Toi's irax^'is e/ceiVouy, kol TrapaTfKrjaiovs aluaros dpofx^ois, Ibprnras i$i8pa>