introductory chapters of Matthew and Luke, if the statements they
contain were not supported by the rest of the Gospels, but that so full
were the Gospels of the peculiarities of these chapters, to remove them
would be like removing the Portico from a Temple. The only evidence
brought to support this large declaration was the last verse of the
Gospel of St. Matthew, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world.” Now I am not concerned in the correctness or the
incorrectness of the Improved Version’s translation of this passage, Lo,
I am with you alway, to the end of the age, or dispensation, that is,
till the new dispensation was fully established: for in the first place
I have no difficulty in believing that the spirit and power of Jesus was
with his followers when in the strength of love and trust they lived and
died for him and for his truth, and that thus spiritually he still is
with all who give him a place in their hearts, even unto the end of the
world; and, in the second place, translate this passage in any way you
will, and it contains no assertion of the Deity of Jesus, and no
confirmation of the miraculous conception. But when I hear it
confidently asserted in the presence of a crowd ready to take the
Preacher’s word for anything he chooses to assert about Greek, that
_any_ scholarship is utterly contemptible that interprets the “end of
the world” to mean “the end of the era or age,” or that puts any other
interpretation on these words than that of the received version, I
confess I am amazed at the boldness with which men not habitually under
correction will make rash statements, even at times when they must know
that watchful eyes are upon them. I turn to Schleusner’s Lexicon of the
New Testament, I look for the word in question, and I find from that
authority that the word signifies primarily, an undefined period of
considerable extent, and, secondarily, the state of things existing
within that period; I find him quoting the very passage in question
which we are told _every scholar_ would translate “to the end of the
_world_,” and explaining it to mean “to the end of the lives” of the
Apostles; I find that in other cases where this word is used, a limit is
put upon its meaning, restricting it to the signification of “age or
dispensation,” and rendering it impossible it should mean the “end of
the world,” in our sense, by such a clause as this, “Verily I say unto
you, _this generation_ shall not pass until all these things be
fulfilled;”[139] I find in our common version the plural[140] of this
word translated exactly as the singular, where if “dispensations” was
substituted for “world,”[141] all difficulty would disappear; I find the
interpretation of the Improved Version given by such scholars as Hammond
and Le Clerc, and adopted consistently and throughout by Bishop Pearce,
who argues for it against the common rendering, and whether it is true
or not, which is really a matter of no importance, I do calmly but
solemnly protest against any man so abusing his actual place and his
reputation for learning, as to proclaim to a multitude that no scholar
would countenance such a translation, and that no interpreter would
adopt it, except for the sake of an _à priori_ meaning. No man who
understood the dignity and the privileges of scholars would in this way
forfeit them.[142]
5. It was stated that _no scholar_ would translate the first verse of
the Gospel of St. John thus: “In the beginning was the word, and the
word was with God, and the word was a God.”[143] Now for myself I do not
agree with this translation. I think that the Logos, or Word, is a very
usual personification of the Power and Wisdom of God. (See Prov. viii.)
I think that this verse has no reference to Jesus whatsoever; that in
the first place God alone is spoken of; his Power and Wisdom are
described as belonging to and dwelling with him; that He is described as
purposing to communicate or reveal these to men, for of course it is not
God himself, but only a portion of his Knowledge and Will that can be
revealed to us; and then for the first time in the fourteenth verse is
Jesus introduced, as the person through whose character these attributes
are to be communicated, “the Word was made _flesh_ and dwelt amongst
us.” I dissent therefore from the translation which Mr. Byrth condemned;
but when I am told that NO SCHOLAR would tolerate such a translation, I
turn to my books, and I find Origen and Eusebius not only tolerating but
actually adopting and insisting upon this very translation. I recollect
that Greek was _the vernacular tongue_ of these eminent men; and when I
am told by an Englishman, in this nineteenth century, that no Greek
Scholar would do what Origen and Eusebius _have done_, I think it is not
disrespectful to decline his authority in all matters that require
calmness and accuracy.
6. It was stated that _no scholar_ could translate the fifth verse of
the ninth chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans thus: “Whose are
the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came: God who is
over all be blessed for ever.” Perhaps the more correct rendering would
be, “whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ
came (_i.e._ from among whom the Messiah was to be born); he who was
over all, was God blessed for ever:” or with more fidelity, because with
more rapidity, our language not admitting, like the Greek, the ellipsis
of the substantive verb—“He who was over all, being God blessed for
ever.” With regard to the ellipsis of the substantive verb, nothing can
be more common. It occurs again and again in the verses that lie on each
side of the text in question. And in ascriptions of praise it is almost
uniform. And nothing can be more natural than that the Apostle should
state as the closing distinction of the Jews, that over all their
dispensations it was God who presided, the God of their signal
Theocracy. Now when I am told that no scholar would so translate, let me
simply name to you some of the Scholars who _do_ adopt this translation:
Erasmus, Bucer, Le Clerc, Grotius, and Wetstein; the first three most
learned Trinitarians, and the last two, if not of unquestioned
orthodoxy, only of suspected Heresy. Let me now give you some quotations
from other Scholars of an earlier date, from the Christian Fathers, even
when adopting the received translation of this passage. Tertullian,
whose temper rather than his learning has been preserved in controversy,
says, “We never speak of two Gods or two Lords; but following the
Apostle, if the Father and the Son are to be named together, we call the
Father, God, and Jesus Christ, Lord.” “But when speaking of Christ
alone, I may call him God, as does the same Apostle; _of whom is Christ,
who is God over all blessed for ever_. For speaking of a ray of the sun
by itself,” continues Tertullian, “I may call it the sun; but when I
mention at the same time the sun, from which this ray proceeds, I do not
then give that name to the latter.” “Some of the earlier GREEK FATHERS,”
who I suppose it will be admitted knew Greek, “expressly denied that
Christ is ‘the God over all.’” “Supposing,” says Origen, “that some
among the multitude of believers, _likely as they are to have
differences of opinion_, rashly suppose that the Saviour is God over
all; _yet we do not_, for we believe him when he said, ‘The Father who
sent me is greater than I.’” Even after the Nicene Council, Eusebius, in
writing against Marcellus, says: “As Marcellus thinks, He who was born
of the holy virgin, and clothed in flesh, who dwelt among men, and
suffered what had been foretold, and died for our sins, was the very God
over all; for daring to say which, the Church of God numbered Sabellius
among Atheists and Blasphemers.”[144]
I have one other observation to make upon this verse. The translation of
the passage depends very much on a question of punctuation, and, so far,
is a question for Critics and Scholars. Now we have seen already the
high authorities that give the punctuation in favour of the Unitarian
rendering.[145] I say nothing of the conjectural readings of these two
passages, because, though brought by the Preacher as instances of
unlicensed Conjecture, he treated them chiefly as mistranslations, with
the view, I suppose, of introducing the same passages over and over
again, to multiply the instances of Unitarian alterations. The
conjecture is not adopted by the improved version; and yet, for allowing
some little weight to the authority of Dr. Whitby in the latter case,
for it allows none whatever to the conjecture of Crellius in the former,
it is charged with two sins: first, the sin of adopting the conjecture;
and secondly, the sin of mistranslation after _rejecting_ the
conjecture. This is a method of multiplying sins, or rather charges.
Indeed, if I understood the Preacher, he admitted that Crellius and
Slichtingius, in the then state of Biblical knowledge, might very
justifiably have made the conjectures, _for they were Scholars_: but
that now, with all our new lights, such a conjecture is inadmissible;
that is to say, Biblical Literature was not far enough advanced in their
day to enable them to discover in these texts, what yet if they did not
discover there, or somewhere else, they must perish everlastingly. And
yet we were told that Christianity was not the property of critics and
scholars, but the gift of God to all men.[146]
Now when I examine into these things, my duty to scholarship, my
reverence for its high functions, my duty to Truth, my duty to the
public, who ought not, in matters not of opinion but of knowledge, to be
misled by their Teachers, and my duty to the Pulpit, which suffers in
power and credit by every unwarrantable statement that proceeds from it,
all oblige me to declare that the impression which I carried away from
Christ Church, that the supposed ignorance of a vast assembly was
sported with, and their confidence abused, has been more than confirmed.
So much for scholarship and candour together. I have now to speak of
“candour” alone.
1. A sentiment was quoted from Coleridge, expressing his belief, that if
Jesus was not God, _he was a deceiver_: and then the Preacher asked his
audience, “Can the advocates of a system that makes Jesus a deceiver be
Christians?” thus identifying Unitarians with the sentiment of
Coleridge. How long will controversalists condescend to such practices?
From any controversy so conducted no good can come: but great scandal to
Religionists, and deep pain to all who love Religion and Truth better
than their own party.
2. Advantage was taken of some words of my Colleague, the Minister of
this Chapel, to produce the impression that Unitarianism, as a religious
faith, was merely negative. Now the words themselves not only bear no
such meaning, but guard against it; and the whole speech from which they
were extracted is rich in the overflowings of the true, working, onward
spirit of our faith, as you who have the privilege of worshipping here,
well know everything from the same mind must necessarily be. The words
quoted were these: “I conceive that, _controversially_, our system is
correctly described as purely negative;” and the whole object of the
speech was to enforce the peaceful and fruitful view that the power of
our religion proceeds not from what we disbelieve, but from what we
believe. No man who read the speech could be ignorant of this; and it is
remarkable, that the very next words, containing a passage quoted by Mr.
Byrth, are these: “Let us place the utmost reliance upon positive
religious principles; and especially let us act on our own internal
convictions.” My valued friend is abundantly equal to the task of
defending himself, and not often should I do him the disservice of
appearing for him, but as this statement was made in a lecture which it
was my duty to answer, and as I am always confirmed in any view of my
own that I can identify with him, I shall, to show that the present is
no forced advocacy,[147] extract a few sentences from an Article, which
nearly at the time he was speaking, it happened to be my duty to be
writing. “We are not devotional, we are not practical, in our
_combative_ aspects. We are on preliminary, not on Christian ground. We
are not improving, we have not a Religion, until we have ceased
contending and commenced cultivating. Moral progress proceeds from
cultivation of the faith we rest in, producing its fruits in the warmth
of love. We must pursue what is our own, and forget our controversial
attitudes. They never will nourish the inner life of a Congregation, nor
keep its interest alive. They give us no character of our own. They feed
no intense yearnings. They make no devoted disciples. We must _proceed_
upon our own views, not defending them, but loving them and studying
them. We must pursue a more independent course of DEVELOPEMENT. We must
understand our own mission, which is not to battle but to advance; not
to be dogmatists of any kind, but cherishers of Spirit and of Truth. Our
Union must be a moral one, a sympathy of Spirit. We can have no
intellectual or doctrinal union. We must give up therefore the idea of
aggregate life, as a Body devoted to a uniform Belief, and held together
by the forms of an uniform Ecclesiastical Government. The whole body can
flourish only by the members having each life in himself. Our union must
be one of sentiment and first principles; our life one of
individualities.” And again, speaking of Unitarian Ministers: “They
should present a Christianity qualified by its energy to meet both the
strength and the weakness of the spiritual being, to inspire a devoted
love, and to lead souls captive. They should take their stand upon no
combative ground. They should eschew a religion of negations. FAITH
should be their great power; a faith that appeals to the faith of their
hearers, nourishing it where it is, creating it where it is not. With no
other bond of union than this power to satisfy the deep spiritual wants
of those to whom they minister, they above all others should cultivate a
Christianity that has positive attractions for the spirit of man, a
Christianity that is fitted to draw upon itself the warmest and purest
affections; a Christianity that engages to do for us what it did for
Christ, to elevate the diviner tendencies, whilst it supports the
weakness of our frail yet noble nature. From the absence of creeds, and
its want of a mystical or fanatical interest, no sect, so much as
Unitarianism, requires a sympathetic, generous, deep-hearted faith, an
affirmative and nutritive Christianity, to lay hold upon the religious
affections, and feed the religious life of its Churches. There is no
other sect to which coldness in Religion could be so fatal.”[148]
I have now gone through all the evidence adduced on Wednesday evening,
in support of the allegation, “The Unitarian interpretation of the New
Testament based upon defective Scholarship, or on dishonest or uncandid
Criticism.” Such a declaration, again I say, should never have been
made, or should have been adequately sustained. To fail in the proof is
to pass upon the statement not intellectual only, but moral
condemnation. We were told by the preacher that when the time came to
support the allegation, he would not use irritating language, but sound
argument. I grieve to say that pledge was not redeemed. And the moral
condemnation of advancing such a charge, and leaving it unproved, falls
upon him. I understand that the lecture was continued yesterday evening;
when the press puts it into my hands I shall have an opportunity of
seeing what additional comments it may require. But when I was told by
the preacher himself, on Wednesday evening, that on the evidence then
adduced, and which I have now presented to you, he regarded his charge
made out not only in one but in both its clauses, that in short he had
been too forbearing, for that instead of the disjunctive he might have
used the copulative conjunction, and made his accusation to be this,
“The Unitarian Interpretation of the New Testament based upon defective
scholarship, _and_ on dishonest _and_ uncandid Criticism,”—I held myself
discharged from all further duty of attention.
And now, after the “expostulations” to which you have been subjected
elsewhere, your convictions treated as sins, and the exercise of your
conscientious judgment represented as exposing you to the wrath of a
holy God, (strange combination of ideas, wrath and holiness!) I may,
perhaps, not unbecomingly address a few words to you my
fellow-believers. Trinitarians have the power to deny you the _name_ of
Christians; but they have not the power to deny you the Reality. They
cannot prevent you _being_ Christians; and it is a light thing for you
to be judged by man’s judgment, provided only you can disprove the
judgment by preserving your Christianity unprovoked, by retaining your
Christian love towards those who deny you the Christian name. The worst
operation of persecution and fanaticism is its tendency to produce a
reaction. The worst working of an Evil Spirit is that it calls up other
evil spirits to oppose it. The temper we complain of has a tendency to
provoke the same temper in ourselves. And yet an evil spirit cannot be
conquered by an evil spirit. This is one of the divine prerogatives of
the spirit of goodness. You must overcome evil with good. You must be
prepared to expect that men who deem themselves your religious
superiors, will comport themselves accordingly. You must regard it as
only natural that men who hold themselves to be the favourites of God,
and never expect to meet you in heaven, should treat you with little
respect on earth. Nay, you must even have some tenderness for the
feelings of irritation which this very faith cannot fail to generate in
the kindlier nature of those who hold it. Holding you to be lost, and
having human hearts, how can they avoid assailing you with eager,
anxious, and even persecuting aggression? I blame them not for this: I
only wonder there is so little of it: that they leave us to our fate,
with so little effort, to use their own favourite figure, to pluck the
brands from the burning. Nay, my friends, more than this, their
confidence in their own salvation depending on the dogmatical assurance
with which they hold certain doctrinal ideas, they are naturally alarmed
lest this _essential faith_ should in any way be disturbed in their
bosoms, and they come to look upon every freer mind as a tempter and an
enemy. And as their Faith is by their own boast not a _rational_ Faith,
as it has no roots in their intellectual nature, they feel that their
danger is all the greater, and that their caution must be all the more.
They are not happy in their exclusive faith. How can they if they have
Christian hearts? It rests upon an evidence out of themselves, so that
they cannot, at all times, be confident in it. It presents to them many
unhappy images, a vindictive God,[149] an exclusive Heaven, a condemned
world, fellow-beings against whom their religious feelings are
embittered, but towards whom their hearts still yearn. All these are
reasons why you should exercise forbearance. You have an easier part.
You have a faith that supports you in meek Hope and Trust for all. Your
hearts are at peace both with Man and God. You can wait in patience
until Heaven does justice unto all. Having this more blessed and
peaceful faith, you must also make it more fruitful, and thus be enabled
to meet the question, “What do ye more than others?”
For ourselves, let us pursue our own way, and love our own Christ in
meek faith and trust. Doctrines are uncertain: but the spirit of Jesus
is not uncertain. You know what that is; and that its fruits are, “love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance.” Love, venerate, obey in all things, the Heaven-sent and
Heaven-marked Christ; cherish the growth of his spirit in your souls;
place him before you in moments of trying duty; and in all times of
nature’s languishing see him at the open gate of Heaven, inviting you to
be faithful to the end, that you may join him at the resurrection of the
just. Do this and your souls shall live. To be this is to be Christians.
Others may hold a different language; but you owe no allegiance save to
God in Christ. One is your master, and all ye are brethren.
------------------------------------
APPENDIX.
---------------------
See pp. 30, 31.
συντελειαν του αιωνος—the end of the _age_.
“Hanc ob causam Judæi universum tempus in duas magnas periodos
dispescere consueverunt, alteram Messiæ adventum antecedentem (αιων
οὑτος vel ὁ νυν αιων), alteram consequentem (αιων μελλων vel ερχομενος
vel εκεινος). Postremam illius (αιωνος τουτου) partem, ævo Messiano
annexam, nominarunt ὑστερους καιρους, καιρον εσχατον, εσχατα των χρονων,
εσχατας ἡμερας, _exitumque ejus_ τα τελη των αιωνων vel συντελειαν του
αιωνος.”—_Bertholdt._ _Christologia Judæorum Jesu Apostolorumque ætate._
pp. 38, 39.
* * * * *
“On this account the Jews were accustomed to divide TIME into two great
Periods, one preceding the advent of the Messiah, and called ‘this
world,’ ‘this age,’ or, ‘the world that now is,’ ‘the age that now is;’
the other subsequent to the advent, and called ‘the world to come,’ ‘the
age to come,’ ‘that world,’ ‘that age.’ The latter portion of the former
Period, that immediately adjoining the Messianic Age, they called ‘the
latter times,’ ‘the last time,’ ‘these last days,’—and its close (_that
is, the close of the Ante-Messianic Period_), ‘the ends of the world,’
or, ‘the end of the world,’ ‘the end of the age.’”
---------------------
_The Introduction of St. John’s Gospel._
See pp. 31, 32.
“In the beginning was the LOGOS, and the LOGOS was with God, and the
LOGOS was God.”
“There is no word in English answering to the Greek word Logos, as here
used. It was employed to denote a mode of conception concerning the
Deity, familiar at the time when St. John wrote, and intimately blended
with the philosophy of his age, but long since obsolete, and so foreign
from our habits of thinking, that it is not easy for us to conform our
minds to its apprehension. The Greek word _Logos_, in one of its primary
senses, answered nearly to our word _Reason_. It denoted that faculty by
which the mind disposes its ideas in their proper relations to each
other: the Disposing Power, if I may so speak, of the mind. In reference
to this primary sense, it was applied to the Deity, but in a wider
significance. The Logos of God was regarded, not in its strictest sense,
as merely the Reason of God, but under certain aspects, as the Wisdom,
the Mind, the Intellect of God. To this the Creation of all things was
_especially_ ascribed. The conception may seem obvious in itself; but
the Cause why the creation was primarily referred to the Logos, or
Intellect of God, rather than to his goodness or omnipotence, is to be
found in the Platonic Philosophy, as it existed about the time of
Christ, and particularly as taught by the eminent Jewish philosopher,
Philo of Alexandria.
“According to this philosophy, there existed an archetypal world of
IDEAS, formed by God, the perfect model of the Sensible Universe;
corresponding, so far as what is divine may be compared with what is
human, to the plan of a building or city, which an architect forms in
his own mind before commencing its erection. The faculty by which God
disposed and arranged the world of IDEAS was his Logos, Reason, or
Intellect. This world, according to one representation, was supposed to
have its seat in the Logos or Mind of God; according to another, it was
identified with the Logos. The Platonic philosophy further taught, that
the Ideas of God were not merely the archetypes, but, in scholastic
language, the essential forms of all created things. In this philosophy,
matter in _its primary state_, primitive matter, if I may so speak, was
regarded merely as the substratum of attributes, being in itself devoid
of all. Attributes, it is conceived, were impressed upon it by the Ideas
of God, which Philo often speaks of under the figure of _seals_. These
Ideas, indeed, constituted those attributes, becoming connected with
primitive matter in an incomprehensible manner, and thus giving form and
being to all things sensible. But the seat of these ideas, these
formative principles, being the Logos, or intellect of God; or,
according to the other representations mentioned, these Ideas
constituting the Logos, the Logos was, in consequence, represented as
the great agent in creation. This doctrine being settled, the meaning of
the Term gradually extended itself by a natural process, and came at
last to comprehend _all the attributes of God manifested in the creation
and government of the Universe_. These attributes, abstractly from God
himself, were made an object of thought under the name of the Logos. The
Logos thus conceived, was necessarily personified or spoken of
figuratively as a person. In our own language, in describing its
agency,—agency, in its nature personal, and to be ultimately referred to
God,—we might indeed avoid attaching a personal character to the Logos
considered abstractly from God, by the use of the neuter pronoun _it_.
Thus we might say, All things were made by _it_. But the Greek language
afforded no such resource, the relative pronoun, in concord with Logos,
being necessarily masculine. Thus the Logos or Intellect of God came to
be, figuratively or literally, conceived of as an intermediate being
between God and his creatures, the great agent in the creation and
government of the universe.” * * *
“The conception and the name of the Logos were familiar at the time when
St. John wrote. They occur in the Apocryphal book of the Wisdom of
Solomon. The writer, speaking of the destruction of the first-born of
the Egyptians, says (xviii. 15):
“‘Thine almighty Logos leapt down from heaven, from his royal throne, a
fierce warrior, into the midst of a land of destruction.’”
In another passage, likewise, in the prayer ascribed to Solomon, he is
represented as thus addressing God (ix. 1, 2):
“God of our fathers, and Lord of mercy,
Who hast made all things by thy Logos,
And fashioned man by thy Wisdom. * * *