have been content to argue the question as if the Bible were a
newly-discovered Book without a history; whereas the consentient
writings of all the Fathers and Doctors of every age, in every portion
of the Christian Church, is an overwhelming _fact_! Rather have I
reasoned as if the Bible were a book altogether silent concerning
itself. But the plain truth, as I have fully shewn, is the very reverse.
Scripture is _full_ of interpretations of Scripture;--and the constant
method of Scripture in such interpretations, is spiritual or
mystical;--and this witness of Scripture is the strongest proof possible
that the principle involved is correct. Meanwhile, the great underlying
truth which I now desire, more than any other to bring before you, is
this:--that it is the HOLY GHOST who, in the New Testament, interprets
what the same HOLY GHOST had delivered in the Old. This, believe me, is
the true key, the only intelligible solution, to all those difficulties
respecting places of the Old Testament, whether interpreted, or only
quoted, in the New, which have so exercised the ingenuity of learned
men. We are always to remember, in a word, that the _true_ Author of
either Testament,--the _real_ Author of every part of the Bible, is (not
Man, but) GOD!
IV. Such then, (to conclude,) is _the Divine method of Interpretation_.
We are not concerned now to classify, and sort it out under different
heads. _To apply_, even to a small extent, the principles we have been
labouring to establish, would not only lead us much too far, but would
constrain us to travel out of our proper subject and prescribed
province. Our purpose has only been, to vindicate the profundity, or
rather _the fulness_ of Holy Writ[514]; and to shew that under the
obvious and literal meaning of the words, there lies concealed a more
recondite, and a profounder sense: call that sense mystical, or
spiritual, or Christian, or what you will. Unerringly to elicit that
hidden sense is the sublime privilege of inspired Writers; and they do
it by allusion, by quotation, by the importation of a short phrase[515],
by the adoption of a single word[516],--to an extent which no one would
suspect who had not carefully studied the subject. How that method of
theirs is to be _applied by ourselves_, it is impossible, I repeat, for
me even to hint at in a single discourse. But _this_, I will say; and
with _this_ I dismiss the subject;--that Interpretation would be a
hopeless task, but for the solemn circumstance that the whole of the
Bible is inspired by one and the self-same Spirit; so that one part may
always be safely compared with any other part of it, you please. Nay,
by no other method can you hope to understand the Bible, than by such a
laborious comparison of its several parts. "Non nisi ex Scripturâ
Scripturam potes interpretari." The more you study the Book, the more
you will feel convinced that its many authors all resorted to one and
the same Fountain of Inspiration. They all use the same imagery; they
all speak the same language; they all mean the same thing. St. John the
Divine, in the Book of Revelation, shuts up the Canon by reproducing the
combined imagery of all the ancient prophets,--by declaring that the
Song of Moses and of the LAMB is sung by the redeemed in Heaven,--by
marvellous words about "the Tree of Life," which is "in the midst of the
Paradise of GOD." The Inspired writers of either Testament all draw from
the same Treasury, and therefore all say the same things. The Heavenly
Jerusalem, (with her gates of pearl and streets of gold,) is the home of
the spirit of each one of them[517]; JESUS CHRIST, and He Crucified, is
the abiding theme of them all. And O, how their words do sometimes teem,
and their phrases swell, almost to bursting, with their blessed
argument[518]! You shall be troubled with only one example of what I
mean.--Moses having described the interview between Melchizedek and
Abraham, the mighty secret of MESSIAH'S priesthood which therein lay
enshrined was curtained all so close, that neither Angels nor Men could
possibly discern it. Must it then remain a mystery for 2000 years? Not
so! Midway between the day of Abraham and the day of CHRIST,--just
midway,--David, speaking by the HOLY GHOST,--(of _that_, our LORD
Himself assures us[519],)--David, I say, when a thousand years had
rolled by, utters the cxth Psalm; and in the fulness of his prophetic
fervour, the great secret bursts unexpectedly into light! A thousand
years had passed since Abraham returned from 'the slaughter of the
Kings.' It wanted yet a thousand years to the date of our SAVIOUR'S
Birth. And lo, midway, a voice is heard, shouting to Him across the gulf
of Ages,--"_Thou_ art a Priest for ever _after the order of
Melchizedek_!"
"And let not Reason be alarmed. Her vocation is not gone. Yea rather, I
know not if Human Intellect ever had a loftier problem presented to her
than to follow out that deep Analogy which has been noticed above; and
to learn, (if it may be called Reason's learning,) how to deal with Holy
Scripture as Apostles and Evangelists deal with it. Let not Reason be
alarmed. She is only asked to listen, and to discern the nature and laws
of Sacred Study. She is asked but to discern the evidence which there is
of her being in a world which she imperfectly understands.... The
student of the Bible is advised so to address himself to the study of
that Book, so to deal with its language, as one should deal with THE
WORD OF GOD,--the measure of whose import is in the infinite, not in
the finite World.--Surely, by these things the LORD tries the spirits of
us all; tries other men by other means, but tries the intellectual man
by the Word of GOD[520], and watches him as he reads it; hardens the
obdurate; blinds the self-blinded; but pours into the humble mind the
riches of His divine Wisdom like showers into a valley; making it soft
with the drops of rain and blessing the increase of it[521]."
V. Friends and brethren, it is not without reluctance that on a Sunday
in Lent, when penitential thoughts should rather occupy us,--and in this
place too, where the promotion of practical piety should rather be our
aim,--I have so addressed you. But indeed, I seem to have no choice. It
is idle crying "peace, peace," when there is _no_ peace. If the
Inspiration of Holy Scripture be a deceit, and the Divine meaning of
Holy Scripture a superstition,--then, farewell to all our hopes in Life
and in Death; farewell to peace in days of despondency and gloom. Our
faith is gone, and our teaching becomes a hollow heartless thing. Since,
under the name of freedom of discussion, unbounded licentiousness of
speculation is openly the fashion of the age, we are constrained to give
a reason for the hope which is in us; and to defend, without compromise
or hesitation, that Bible, which is the great bulwark of the Faith. It
shall not be said that we can condemn, but that we make no answer. It
must be seen that we put forth in reply the ancient Truths; and it will
be felt that before the majesty of those ancient Truths, the arts of the
enemy will prove weak and unavailing,--rather, will stand revealed in
all their native deformity. If English Clergymen, coming abroad in the
cast-off clothes of German unbelief[522], and decked out with the
exploded sophisms of the last century, are to declare openly that the
faith of our Fathers is already looked upon among ourselves as 'a kind
of fossil of the Past,'--then is it high time that voices should be
heard vindicating _that_ ancient method of our Fathers; and boldly
proclaiming that this imputation against the Clergy of England is a
disreputable untruth. The Church of England, (GOD be praised!) hath
_not_ left her first love; hath _not_ given up her ancient method;
Christianity is _not_ 'a difficulty to the highest minds.' The Christian
Religion embraces, as much as ever it did, "the thought of men upon the
Earth." "All the tendencies of Knowledge" are _not_ "opposed to it." The
Gospel is still immeasurably before the age. Intellect has not
gone,--the loftiest order of well-trained intellects will never go,--the
other way[523]. It is, on the contrary, none but a very shallow wit
which errs. Had it confined its speculations to the cloister, or come
abroad with sorrow and shame, we should have pitied in silence, and in
silence also have lamented. But when it comes insultingly abroad, and
sets up a claim to intellectual superiority even while it denies the
most sacred truths;--_then_ pity gives way before indignation and
disgust. Crown the whole with the iniquity of imputing these views
generally to the more thoughtful of the English Clergy[524],--and we are
constrained openly to resent the grievous wrong. We declare it to be an
unfounded calumny; a calumny which, in the name of the whole Church, I
solemnly repel before GOD,--and His Holy Angels,--and _you_!
Vain, utterly vain,--worthless, utterly worthless,--must any
superstructure of intellectual, moral, or religious training be, which
is built up on the doctrine that the Bible is to be interpreted like any
other Book; in other words, that the Bible _is_ a common Book; in other
words, that _Inspiration is a fable and a dream_. We have no fear
whatever that _your_ high instincts, (with all your faults!),--_your_
English manliness,--will, to any extent be led astray, by sophistry
worthless as that which we have been exposing. But we know you look to
your appointed Teachers from this place, (as well you may,) for advice,
and support, and encouragement, in your better aspirations;--and let
_me_, at least, in plain language, warn you that novelties in Religion
never _can_ be true. "Philosophia," says the great Bishop Pearson
speaking of Physical Science; "Philosophia quotidie progressu: Theologia
nisi _regressu_ non crescit[525]." "Ask for the old paths!" ... The
faith, remember, was =hapax=,--_once for all_,--delivered to the Saints.
There will be no new deposit. There can be no new doctrines. There has
been no fresh Revelation,--no new principle of guidance vouchsafed to
man. A new method of interpreting Scripture is _quite_ impossible. And
the true method,--the only _true_ method--_must_ be that which was
adopted by our SAVIOUR, by His Evangelists, and by His Apostles: a
method which _they_ taught to their first disciples, and which those
early Bishops and Doctors handed on in turn to the generation which came
after them. That method, by GOD'S great goodness, has descended in an
unbroken stream, even to ourselves; who have described it this morning,
feebly indeed and unworthily,--yet, in the main, as it would have been
described at _any_ time, by _any_ of the glorious company of the
Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of
Martyrs,--by any of the Doctors and Fathers of the Holy Church
throughout the world! O let it be our great concern,--yours and
mine,--to preserve with undiminished lustre the whole deposit of
Heaven-descended teaching which is the Church's treasure!... Like
runners in a certain ancient race of which we all have read, let it be
_our_ pride and joy,--yours and mine,--to grasp the torch of Truth with
a strong unwavering hand; to run joyously with it so long as the days of
this earthly race shall last; and dying, to hand it on to another, who,
with strength renewed like the eagle's, may again,--swiftly, steadily,
exultingly,--run with it, till he fails!... _So_, when the Judge of
quick and dead appeareth,--_so_ let Him find _you_ occupied,--O young
men, (many of you, my friends,) who are already the hope of half the
English Church! So faithfully may _we_, Brethren and Fathers, one and
all, be found employed, when He cometh,--whose answer to the Tempter is
emphatically _the_ text of the present solemn season, as well as a
mighty voucher for the Divine origin, and sustaining efficacy of that
Book concerning which I have been detaining you so long,--"It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of GOD!"
Ut verum fatear, semper existimavi, allusiones istas, (ad quas
confugiunt quidam tanquam ad sacrum suæ ignorantiæ asylum,)
plerumque nihil aliud esse, quam Sacræ Scripturæ abusiones
manifestas.
BISHOP BULL, _Harmonia Apostolica_, cap. xi. sect. 3.
There would be no need to scruple the term, if it were not meant to
imply that this Accommodation was arbitrary on the part of the
Evangelist; or that the mind of THE SPIRIT that spoke by the
Prophet does not most fully include this application.
DR. W. H. MILL.
FOOTNOTES:
[436] Preached at St. Mary-the-Virgin, on the Third Sunday in Lent,
March 3rd, 1861.
[437] "It cannot be said that this, [viz. that _the Bible is the Word of
God_,] is always remembered. It cannot be said that they who write
respecting the Bible, even Christian writers who are looked up to,
always appear to have been in that frame of mind while contemplating the
statements of the Sacred Volume, which they, the same men, would have
been in if they had been listening _for a voice out of a cloud_; a word
reaching them which was simply, and in that sense, the Word of GOD. Yet
the Sacred Volume comes to us with no less claims than as conveying such
a message; and on every feature of it, it carries that claim. It
professes to be this,--an account of what went on in the secret
council-chamber of the MOST HIGH."--Eden's _Sermons_, pp. 150-1.
[438] _Exposition of the Creed_, Art. II. ("Our LORD,")--vol. i. p. 183.
[439] 1 St. Peter i. 11.
[440] _Eccl. Pol._, B. v. c. lix. § 3.
[441] Bp. Bull, _Defensio Fid. Nic._ I. i. 9, (_Works_, vol. v. i. p.
22.)
[442] Disc. v. _The state of Man before the Fall._ Bull's Works, vol.
ii. p. 99.
[443] "DEUS novit cordis mei secreta: in dogmatis theologicis a
novaturiendi prurigine (quam etiam supremi Judicis tribunal insiliens
fidenter mihi tribuit theologiæ professor) adeo alienus sum, ut
quæcunque catholicorum Patrum et veterum episcoporum consensu comprobata
sunt, etiamsi meum ingeniolum ea non assequatur, tamen omni reverentia
amplexurus sim. Nimirum non paucis experimentis monitus didiceram, cum
adhuc juvenis Harmoniam scriberem, (quod mihi jam confirmata ætate
persuasissimum est,) _neminem catholico consensui repugnare posse,
quin is_ (utcunque ipsi aliquantisper adblandiri videantur sacræ
Scripturæ loca nonnulla perperam intellecta, et levicularum
ratiuncularum phantasmata) _tandem et Divinis Oraculis et sanæ rationi
repugnasse deprehendatur_."--Bp. Bull's _Works_, vol. iv. p. 313.
[444] In days of unbelief, one is tempted to add a note even on a
Theological truism like that in the text,--"Esto igitur, inquies; fuerit
Deus, qui in Veteri Testamento, sive per Angelum, sive sub angelicâ
repræsentatione sanctis viris apparuit et locutus est; at quâ demum
ratione adducti crediderunt doctores, fuisse DEI FILIUM? Respondeo:
_Ratione, ni fallor, optimâ, quam ex traditione Apostolicâ
edidicerant_."--_Def. Fid. Nicæn._ I. i. 12. Bp. Bull's Works, vol. v.
i. p. 27.
[445] =All' hê ekklêsia, ô hagiôtate Eusebie, heterôs ta peri toutou
nomizei kai ouch hôs sy. ton men gar en tê batô phanenta tô Môysê
theologei· ton de en HIerichô tô met' auton ophthenta, ton tôn HEbraiôn
epistasian lachonta, machairan espasmenon, kai tô Iêsou lysai prostattonta
to hypodêma, touton de ge ton archangelon hypeilêphe Michaêl,
k. t. l.=--The entire passage may be seen in the best annotated editions of
Eusebius, (lib. I. c. ii. § 17.) since that of Valesius, who first
introduced it to notice. But to read it in a truly valuable context,
reference should be made to Dr. Mill's _Christian Advocate's_ publication
for 1841, p. 92. The note alluded to has been reprinted in Dr. Lee's
Discourses _On Inspiration_, p. 535.
[446] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 31.
[447] See Appendix (J).
[448] St. John i. 1-3.
[449] So Bp. Butler, in a passage which will be found below, at
p. 165-6.--Very different is the judgment of Professor Jowett, who is of
opinion that "it will be a further assistance in the consideration of
this subject, to observe that _the Interpretation of Scripture has
nothing to do with any opinion respecting its origin_."--_Essays and
Reviews_, p. 350.
[450] See above, pp. 55-57.
[451] Professor Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 393-402. He
adds,--"Discussions respecting the use of the Greek article, have gone
far beyond the line of utility. There seem to be reasons for doubting
whether any considerable light can be thrown on the New Testament from
inquiry into the language.... Minute corrections of tenses or particles
are no good." (p. 393.) And this, from a Regius Professor of Greek!
[452] See below, pp. 164-5.
[453] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 372.
[454] St. Matth. ii. 15:17, 18:23.
[455] Hos. xi. 1.
[456] Jer. xxxi. 15.
[457] e.g. Is. xi. 1. Also Zech. iii. 8: vi. 12. Jer. xxiii. 5 and
xxxiii. 15.
[458] St. Matth. viii. 17.
[459] Is. liii. 4.
[460] For consider Exod. ix. 19, Jonah iv. 11, &c.
[461] 1 Cor. ix. 8-10, quoting Dent. xxv. 4. See also 1 Tim. v. 18.--"It
seems providentially appointed that texts of the Old Testament should be
called out into Christian meaning which are the very texts we might have
dismissed into a transitory interest. 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn.' 'Humane provision!', modern observation might
say. 'Is it for oxen God careth? is an Apostle's interpretation of the
same text; 'or saith He it altogether _for our sakes?_'.... It is a law,
we find, prospectively set down for the Christian Church."--Eden's
_Sermons_, p. 189.
[462] Ps. viii. 7.
[463] Heb. ii. 6-8. 1 Cor. xv. 25, and Eph. i. 22.--See Shuttleworth's
_Paraphrase_ of the first place cited, p. 394.
[464] Exod. xiv. 22, 29.
[465] 1 Cor. x. 1-4.
[466] St. John vi. 32-58.
[467] Hebr. ix. 6-9.
[468] Ibid. v. 11, 12.
[469] =Dia tou katapetasmatos, toutesti tês sarkos hautou.= Hebr. x. 20.
[470] Hebr. ix. 2-5.
[471] Hebr. xiii. 11, 12.
[472] Eph. v. 30-32.
[473] =Hô kai hêmas antitypon nyn sôzei baptisma=. 1 St. Pet. iii. 21.
[474] Hebr. v. 10.
[475] Hebr. vii. 1-10. The student in Divinity will find it well worth
his while to inquire for a Latin Dissertation by the late learned Dr. W.
H. Mill on this subject.
[476] _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 338, 375, 377, 419-20, 426, 428, 429,
&c. The advice is Professor Jowett's.
[477] Hebr. v. 11.
[478] Gen. xiv. 18.
[479] =Nôthroi gegonate tais akoais=.--Hebr. v. 11.
[480] Hebr. v. 12-14.
[481] Dr. Temple in _Essays and Reviews_.
[482] 2 Cor. iii. 12-16.--Take notice that in allusion to the place,
Exod. xxxiv. 34, (=hênika d' an eiseporeueto Môysês enanti Kyriou lalein
autô, periêreito to kalymma=,) St. Paul says,--=hênika d' an epistrepsê
pros Kyrion, periaireitai to kalymma=. The expression is altered in
order to bring out more clearly the allegorical meaning.
[483] St. Luke xxiv. 25-27.
[484] Acts xxviii. 23.
[485] Acts xxvi. 22, 23.
[486] St. John v. 46, 47.
[487] Zech. ix. 11, 12.
[488] Bp. Pearson.
[489] Consider St. John ii. 17, 22: xii. 16. St. Luke xxiv. 8, 45. Acts
xi. 16.
[490] =En stigmê chronou=.--St. Luke iv. 5.
[491] St. Matth. xix. 5. St. Luke xvii. 27 and 32. St. Matth. xi. 23:
xii. 4 and 42. St. Luke iv. 25-27.
[492] Prov. vi. 26. Consider v. 9. Eccl. vii. 26. Gen. xxxix. 20. 2 Sam.
xi. 15. St. Mark vi. 25.
[493] The learned reader,--(and the unlearned reader too, who will bear
in mind that =apekdysamenos=, [in the E. V. 'having spoiled,'] certainly
means 'having stripped off from himself,')--is invited to consider with
attention those words of Col. ii. 15:--=apekdysamenos tas archas kai tas
exousias, edeigmatisen en parrêsia, thriambeusas autous= [not =autas=,
observe;] =en autô= [sc. =tô staurô=. See by all means Pearson _on the
Creed_, Art. v. note (_l_): (ed. Burton, vol. ii. p. 217-8.) Cf. Eph.
ii. 16. Consider St. Luke xi. 22.] To complete the teaching of the
passage, the reader is invited to study also, in connexion with what
goes before, 1 Cor. ii. 6-8; taking notice, that =hoi archontes tou aiônos
toutou= are not, (as the marginal references suggest,) the powers of the
visible, but of the _invisible_ World. See St. John xii. 31: xiv. 30:
xvi. 11, and Ephes. ii. 2: vi 12.--See Ignatius _Ep. ad Ephes._ c. xix.,
(with the notes in Jacobson's ed.) See also Dr. Mill _on the
Temptation_, p. 165.
[494] See Sermon VI.
[495] Professor Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 378.
[496] Professor Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 338.
[497] Consider St. John xii. 16: x. 6: xi. 13. St. Luke xviii. 34. St.
Matth. xvi. 11, 12. St. John viii. 27, &c., &c.
[498] See St. John xi. 49-52: vi:. 37-39.
[499] _Analogy_, Part ii. ch. vii.
[500] Augustine, speaking of the New Testament, says,--"Factum quidem
est, et ita ut narratur, impletum; sed tamen etiam ipsa, quæ a DOMINO
facta sunt, aliquid significantia erant,--quasi verba (si dici potest)
visibilia, et aliquid significantia."--_Opp._, tom. v. p. 421 F.
[501] _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 368, 372.
[502] Professor Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 374.
[503] Professor Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 418.
[504] Is. lxiii. 2, 3.
[505] Is. liii.
[506] Comp. Ps. xxxi. 5 with St. Luke xxiii. 46.
[507] By Professor Jowett for example. "The time will come when educated
men will no more be able to believe that the words of Hos. xi. 1 _were
intended by the prophet_ to refer to the return of Joseph and Mary from
Egypt, than," &c.--_E. and R._, p. 418. _When_ did "educated men" ever
believe anything of the kind?
[508] St. John xi. 50. Comp. xviii. 14.
[509] Davison on _Prophecy_, p. 192.
[510] Zech. xi. 12, 13.
[511] Is. l. 6.
[512] Ps. xxii. 16. Zech. xiii. 13.
[513] Ps. xxii. 18.
[514] "Adoro Scripturæ plenitudinem."--Tertullian _adv. Hermog._, c. 22.
[515] Comp. St. Matth. ii. 20, with the LXX Version of Exod. iv. 19: St.
Matth. iii. 4, with the same version of 2 Kings i. 8: St. Matth. xxvi.
38 with Ps. xlii. 5. St. Luke i. 37, with Gen. xviii. 14,--i. 48, with 1
Sam. i. 11, and with Gen. xxx. 13,--i. 50, with Ps. ciii. 17. St. John
i. 52, with Gen. xxviii. 12,--&c., &c.
[516] A few examples may prove suggestive to a thoughtful
reader:--=exodos=, in St. Luke ix. 31 and in 1 St. Pet. i.
15:--=apokatastêsei=, in St. Matth. xvii. 11, (cf. Mal. iv. 5):
=sitometrion=, in St. Luke xii. 42, (cf. Gen. xlvii. 12): =paradeisos=,
in St. Luke xxiii. 43. The reference is of course always to the
_Septuagint_ version.
[517] Ps. xlvi. 4: xlviii. 1, 8: lxxxvii. 3. Is. lii. 1: lx. 14. Ezek.
xlviii. Ephes. ii. 19, 20. Phil. iii. 20. Gal. iv. 26. Hebr. xi. 10:
xii. 22: xiii. 14. Rev. xxi. 2, 10: iii. 12, &c.
[518] "Scriptores =theopneustoi=, de typo disserentes, divinius quiddam
ex inopinato pati solent, et ad antitypum vehementiore Spiritus afflatu
rapi et elevari. Assertionis hujusce veritas inde constat, quod verba
quædam haud expectata sæpius inferant, quæ MESSIÆ vel solum vel aptius
quam Illius typo congruant."--Spencer _De Legg. Hebr._, vol. ii. p.
1035. Consider such places as Ps. ii. 6, 7: xli. 9, 10: xlv. 10, 11:
lxi. 6: lxxii. 5, 7, 11, 16, 17: lxxxix. 29. Gen. xlix. 18. Is. lxi. 1,
2, 3. Zech. vi. 11, 12.
[519] St. Mark xii. 36.
[520] "And their manner of treating this subject when laid before them,
shews what is in their heart, and is an exertion of it." Bp. Butler's
_Analogy_, P. II. ch. vi.--See Appendix (C).
[521] Eden's _Sermons_, pp. 192-5.
[522] "With the exception of the still-imperfect science of Geology,"
(says Dr. Pusey,) "the Essays and Reviews contain nothing with which
those acquainted with the writings of unbelievers in Germany have not
been familiar these thirty years." Even the Apologist for the volume in
question assures us that one who "had looked ever so cursorily through
the works of Herder, Schleiermacher, Lücke, Neander, De Wette, Ewald,
&c., would see that the greater part of the passages which have given so
much cause for exultation or for offence in this volume, have their
counterpart in those distinguished Theologians."--_Edinb. Rev._, Ap.
1861, p. 480.
[523] Rev. B. Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 374-5.
[524] Rev. B. Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 372, (_bottom_,) 340,
374, &c.
[525] _Minor Works_, vol. ii. pp. 9-10.--"In Christianity, there can be
no concerning truth which is not ancient; and _whatsoever is truly new
is certainly false_."--Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to Pearson _on the
Creed_, p. x.
SERMON VI.[526]
* * * * *
THE DOCTRINE OF ARBITRARY SCRIPTURAL ACCOMMODATION CONSIDERED.
* * * * *
ROMANS x. 6-9.
_"But the Righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise,--'Say
not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven?' (that is, to bring
CHRIST down from above:) or, 'Who shall descend into the deep?' (that
is, to bring up CHRIST again from the dead.) But what saith it? 'The
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thine heart:' that is, the
word of Faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the LORD JESUS, and shalt believe in thine heart that GOD hath
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."_