prophetic parts, has this depth of meaning for which I have been
contending. We must perforce believe it, for it is a matter of express
Revelation. We cannot pretend to deny the probability,--much less the
possibility of it; for we really _can_ know nothing of the matter except
from an attentive study of Scripture itself. And the witness of
Scripture, as we have seen, is ample, emphatic, and express.--Our LORD,
being indignantly asked by the Jews if He heard what the children,
crying in the Temple, said of Him,--made answer by quoting the 2nd verse
of the viiith Psalm: "Yea, have ye never read, 'Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise'[577]?"--Pray was this
"accommodation," or what was it? It was deemed a sufficient answer, at
all events, by the Anointed JEHOVAH; whatever men may think!... When the
Sadducees, disbelieving in the Resurrection of the Body, assailed our
LORD with a speculative difficulty, He told them that they erred because
they did not understand the Scriptures. "Now that the dead _are_ raised,
even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the LORD, the GOD of
Abraham, and the GOD of Isaac, and the GOD of Jacob. For He is not a
GOD of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him[578]." How, by
the popular method,--how, by any of the new lights which have lately
been let in on Holy Scripture,--was the Resurrection of the dead to have
been proved by the words which the SECOND PERSON in the Trinity spake to
Moses "in the Bush?" And yet we behold _that_ same Divine Personage in
the days of His humiliation, proposing from those words, uttered by
Himself 1500 years before, to _establish_ the doctrine in dispute!...
Only once more. "In the last day, that great day of the Feast [of
Tabernacles,] JESUS stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him
come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me,--_as the Scripture hath
said, 'Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water_[579]!'"--But
_where_ does the Scripture say _that_? You will look a long while to
find it. You will never find it at all if you adhere to the method which
of late has been declared to be the method most in fashion. You will
never even understand what our Blessed LORD _means_, unless you attend
to the hint which immediately follows,--and which the Divine Author of
the Gospel would not surfer us to be without,--namely, that, "This spake
He of the SPIRIT, which they that believe on Him should receive:"--by
which is meant, that as many of the Prophets as discoursed in dark
phrase of that free outpouring of the SPIRIT which was to mark MESSIAH'S
Reign, did, _in effect_, say the thing which He here attributes to them.
Inspired Reasoning, wherever found, may fitly obtain a few words of
distinct notice here; but I shall perhaps speak more becomingly, as well
as prove more intelligible, if,--(without further allusion to the
sayings of that Almighty One "in whom are hid all the treasures of
Wisdom and Knowledge[580];" sayings which it seems a species of impiety
to approach except in adoration;)--I confine my remarks to the logical
processes observable in the inspired writings of some of His servants,
the Evangelists and Apostles of THE LAMB.
The difficulty which has been occasionally felt in respect of the
argumentative parts of St. Paul's Epistles, is considerable, and may not
be overlooked. His definitions, his inferences, his entire method of
handling Scripture, gives offence to a certain class of minds. His
reasoning seems inconsequential. There appears to be a want of logical
order and consistency in much that he delivers. But,--can it require to
be stated?--the fault is entirely our own. "The radical fallacy of any
attempt to analyze the reasoning of Scripture by the ordinary Laws of
Logic" requires to be pointed out. And the root of it all is our
assumption that an inspired Apostle must perforce argue like any other
uninspired man.
But, in the first place, it is to be recollected that he did not collect
the meaning and bearing of the Old Testament Scriptures from induction,
and study _only_. He was,--by the hypothesis,--an _inspired Writer_. The
same HOLY SPIRIT who taught the authors of the Old Testament what to
deliver, taught _him_, in turn, how to explain their words. By direct
Revelation, he perceived the intention of a text, and at once bore
witness to it. Thus St. Paul says of our LORD,--"He is not ashamed to
call them brethren, saying,--'I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren,
in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee.' And
again,--'I will put my trust in Him.' And again,--'Behold I and the
children which GOD hath given Me[581].'" Now, "the Apostles quoted such
places as these from the Psalms and Isaiah, not as they were gathered by
any certain reason, but as revealed to them by the HOLY SPIRIT, to be
principally spoken of CHRIST. This understanding the mysteries of GOD in
the Old Testament, being a special gift of the HOLY GHOST[582],--of the
truth of which interpretations, the same SPIRIT, without any necessary
demonstration thereof, bore witness also to their auditors and converts;
and by miracles manifested the persons thus expounding them herein to be
infallible[583]."
To quote the language of a thoughtful writer of more recent
date,--"Inspired teaching,--explain it how we may,--seems comparatively
indifferent to (what seems to us so peculiarly important) close logical
connexion, and the intellectual symmetry of doctrines.... The necessity
of confuting gainsayers, at times forced one of the greatest of CHRIST'S
inspired servants, St. Paul, to prosecute continuous argument; yet even
with him, how abrupt are the transitions, how intricate the connexion,
how much is conveyed _by assumptions such as Inspiration alone can
make_, without any violation of the canons of reasoning,--FOR WITH IT
ALONE ASSERTION IS ARGUMENT.... The same may be said of some passages of
St. John, supposed to have been similarly occasioned. Inspiration has
ever left to human Reason the filling up of its outlines, the careful
connexion of its more isolated truths. The two are, as the lightning of
Heaven, brilliant, penetrating, far-flashing, abrupt,--compared with the
feebler but _continuous_ illumination of some earthly beacon[584]."
"In a train of inspired Seasoning," (as the same writer elsewhere
remarks,) "each new premiss may have been supernaturally communicated;
and thus, in point of fact, the inspired reasoner but connects the
different threads of the Divine Counsels; exemplifies how 'deep
answereth to deep' in the mysteries of Revelation; and presents, in one
connected train of argument, those words of GOD which had been uttered
'at sundry times and in divers manners[585]'"
To conclude.--There is no such thing as inconsequential Reasoning to be
met with in the writings of St. Paul[586]--no such thing as arbitrary
Accommodation of the Old Testament Scriptures, in the New:--though not a
few have thought it; and the language of many more writers, Papist as
well as Protestant, is calculated to convey the same mischievous
impression[587]. The hypothesis is as unworthy of ourselves,--with our
boasted critical resources and many appliances of varied learning,--as
it is derogatory to the Sacred Oracles to which it is applied. It is a
deadly blow, aimed at the very Inspiration of Scripture itself; for it
pretends to discover a human element only, where we have a right to
expect a Divine one: an irresponsible _dictum_, when we listened for the
voice of the SPIRIT; the hand of man, where we depended on finding the
very Finger of GOD! We come to the blessed pages, for Divinity, and we
are put off with Rhetoric. We come for bread, and the critics we speak
of offer us a stone.
I will not detain you any longer. No apology can be needed for the
subject which has been engaging our attention[588]. Those who watch "the
signs of the times" attentively, will bear me witness that _unbelief_ is
one fearful note of the coming age. The self-same principle, working in
different classes of minds, produces results diametrically different:
but it is still the same principle which is at work. Unbelief is no less
the cause why so many have forsaken the Church of their Fathers, to run
after the blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits of the Church of
Rome,--than it is the parent of that shallow Rationalism which unhappily
is now so popular among us.... Intimations of what is to be hereafter,
may be every now and then detected. At intervals, hoarse sounds, from a
distance, are known to smite upon the listening ear; signals of the
coming danger,--sure harbingers of the approaching storm.--Holy
Scripture is the stronghold against which the Enemy will make his
assault, assuredly: nor can we employ ourselves better than by building
one another up in reverence for its Inspired Oracles: opposing to the
crafts of the Evil One the simplicity of a child-like faith; and
resolutely refusing to see less than GOD, in GOD'S Word!
This must be the preacher's apology for disputing where he would rather
adore; for discussing the Revelations of Scripture, instead of _feeding_
upon them; especially at this holy Season when the Apostle's exhortation
finds an echo in all our services:--the mouth, engaged in the constant
confession that JESUS is the LORD,--the heart, filled with the thought
of Him, who as at this time died for our sins, and rose again for our
Justification.
GOD grant us grace,--at this and every other time,--so to put away the
leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Him in
pureness of living and truth: through the merits of the same His SON,
JESUS CHRIST our LORD!
FOOTNOTES:
[526] Preached at St. Mary-the-Virgin, April 27, 1851.
[527] See above, pp. 55-7.
[528] 2 St. Pet. i. 21.
[529] See above, pp. 53-4.
[530] See above, pp. 157-160.
[531] _Harm. Apost._ Diss. Post., cap. xi. § 3.
[532] See above, pp. 152-7.
[533] Consider again the Divine exposition, (in 1 St. John v. 6,) of St.
John xix. 34.
[534] See Dr. Mill's _Christian Advocate's_ publication for 1844, _The
Historical Character of the circumstances of our LORD's Nativity
vindicated against some recent mythical interpreters_,--especially p.
402 to p. 434.
[535] Cf. Phil. iii. 7-9.
[536] Consider St. John vi. 46, and all similar places.
[537] On the words, =Hê de ek pisteôs dikaiosynê houtô legei=,--Theodoret
remarks:--=Anti tou, peri de tês ek pisteôs dikaiosynês, houtôs legei· ou
gar hê dikaiosynê tauta legei, alla dia Môseôs, ho tôn holôn Theos, peri
tou nomou tauta eirêke· didaskôn Ioudaious hôs dicha ponôn tên tôn
prakteôn didaskalian edexanto.=--Theodoret, _Cat._, p. 374.
[538] Our E. V., following the translations since Cranmer's, here
inserts the word "again,"--which is certainly not implied by the Greek.
[539] The expression is, of course, wholly dissimilar from that in Ps.
cvii. 23,--=hoi katabainontes eis thalassan en ploiois, k. t. l.=
[540] I cannot forbear transcribing the following passage in an
elaborate apology which has recently appeared for _Essays and
Reviews_:--"Among the many proposals which are floating about for Essays
and Counter-essays to vindicate the Doctrines supposed to be combated in
this volume, let us be allowed to suggest this one:--'The Nature of
Biblical Inspiration, as tested by a careful examination of the
Septuagint Version with special reference to the sanction given to it by
the Apostles, and to its variations, by way of addition or omission,
from the revised Text of the Canonical Scriptures.' The conclusions of
such an investigation would be worth a hundred eager declarations on one
side or the other, and would be absolutely decisive of the chief
questions at issue." (_Edinburgh Review_, April, 1861, p. 483.).... Now
I scruple not to affirm that a well-informed, and faithful student of
the Scriptures would covet no better portion for himself than liberty to
accept, in the most public manner possible, such a challenge as the
foregoing.
[541] See the valuable exposition of the text, by Bp. Bull, in the
Appendix (K),--to which I am very largely indebted.
[542] Opposed to Bp. Bull in his opinion, on this matter, seem
Ainsworth, Patrick, Parker (_Biblioth. Bibl._), Cornelius à Lapide, the
_Critici Sacri_, &c. I cannot but think that the truth is with the
first-named Commentator.
[543] See 2 Cor. vi. 16, (quoting Lev. xxvi. 12), where see Wordsworth's
note. Heb. viii. 6-13, especially ver. 10, (quoting Jer. xxxi. 33. Comp.
Jer. xxiv. 7: xxx. 22: xxxi. 1: xxxii. 38.) Compare Rom. ix. 25, 26,
(also 1 St. Pet. ii. 10,) with Hos. ii. 23: i. 10. See also Ezek. xi.
20: xiv. 11: xxxvi. 28: xxxvii. 27; and Zech. viii. 8: xiii. 9. Lastly,
consider Rev. xxi. 3; where "the types of the itinerant Tabernacle in
the Wilderness, the figurative ritual and festal joys of the Feast of
Tabernacles, celebrated in the literal Jerusalem, are consummated in the
Heavenly Jerusalem." (Wordsworth.) See also Rev. vii. 15, with the
annotation of the same Commentator.
[544] =prokekyrômenên ... eis Christon.= Gal. iii. 17.
[545] Deut. xxix. 14, 15.
[546] Acts ii. 39: Compare iii. 25.
[547] Jer. xxxi. 32. Consider verses 33-4 quoted in Heb. x. 16, 17. See
above, note (t, [our 544]).
[548] St. John xi. 49-52.
[549] "Diligenter observandum est, ex consensu Hebræorum, caput hoc ad
regnum CHRISTI pertinere. Unde etiam Bachai dicit, hoc loco promissionem
esse quod sub Rege MESSIAH omnibus qui de federe sunt, circumcisio
cordis contingat, citans Joelem, ii. 28."--Fagius, (in the _Critici
Sacri_,) on Deut. xxx. 11.
[550] "Apostolus dicit hoc esse verbum fidei, quod ad Novum Testamentum
pertinet. Quæ ergo scripta sunt in libro legis hujus in figurâ dicta
sunt, pertinentia ad Novum Testamentum."--Augustinus, in Nic. Lyra, _ad
loc._
[551] Deut. xxx. 11-14.
[552] Rom. x. 4.
[553] Art. vii.
[554] St. John iii. 13.
[555] 1 Tim. iii. 16.
[556] The reader is invited to consider Acts ii. 24 to 31,--attending
particularly to what St. Peter says in ver. 30-1. "Even without this
key," (says Dr. M'Caul,) "the Rabbis interpreted Psalm xvi. of the
Resurrection."
[557] See above, pp. 171-2.
[558] St. Pet. i. 11.
[559] "Though I think it clear that the Prophets did not understand the
full meaning of their predictions; it is another question how far they
thought they did, and in what sense they understood them."--Butler's
_Analogy_, P. II. ch. vii.
[560] See Acts xxvi. 22, 23: xxviii. 23. St. John i. 46: v. 46. St. Luke
xxiv. 27, &c.
[561] Prov. xxx. 4.
[562] e.g. "Si quis dixerit mulieri, Si adscenderis in firmamentum, aut
descenderis in abyssum, eris mihi desponsata,--hæc conditio frustranea
est."--_Nasir_ ix. 2, apud Wetstein, (in Rom. x. 6.)
[563] "The whole passage (Prov. xxx. 2-5,) may be thus
paraphrased:--With my limited understanding I cannot attain the
knowledge of GOD; _for to know GOD, is to know Him who is omnipresent,
filling Heaven and Earth_; it is to know Him who is omnipotent, ruling
over the winds and the waters, the most unstable of all elements; it is
to know Him who created all things; it is to know His Name, and the name
of His SON. But this knowledge can be attained only by Revelation: and
he that would attain to it even from Revelation, must not pass over any
one word as insignificant, for every word is purified like silver:
neither must he add to Revelation, or he will be sure to go
astray."--From the Appendix (pp. 46-7) to a Sermon by Dr. M'Caul, on
_The Eternal Sonship of the Messiah_, 1838. (Interesting and precious as
this paraphrase is, I humbly suspect that the words _in italics_ contain
a vast deal more than the learned writer indicates.)
[564] Baruch iii. 29.
[565] St. Matth. xii. 20.
[566] Zech. ix. 11.
[567] Consider Ps. cxxxix. 7. Amos ix. 2, 3.
[568] St. John iii. 13.
[569] Ibid. vi. 33, 38, 51, 62.
[570] Ibid. xvi. 28.
[571] Ephes. iv. 9, 10.
[572] See above, pp. 176-7.
[573] St. Matth. viii. 17.
[574] St. Matth. ii. 23. See above, p. 149.
[575] Ibid. ii. 15.
[576] St. Matth. ii. 18.
[577] Ibid. xxi. 16.
[578] St. Luke xx. 37.
[579] St. John vii. 37, 38.
[580] Col. ii. 3.
[581] Heb. ii. 12, 13; quoting Ps. xxi. 23 and Is. viii. 17.
[582] 1 Cor. xii., xiii., xiv.
[583] Pseudo-Fell's _Paraphrase and Annotations_ on the New Testament,
(Jacobson's ed.), _in loc._
[584] Professor Archer Butler, quoted in Professor Lee's _Discourses on
Inspiration_, pp. 415-6.
[585] _Ibid._, p. 586.
[586] See above, pp. 132-7
[587] See the Appendix, (L).
[588] In the earlier part of the present Sermon many passages have been
re-written. What follows stands exactly as it was preached in 1851.
SERMON VII.[589]
* * * * *
THE MARVELS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE,--MORAL AND PHYSICAL.--JAEL'S DEED
DEFENDED.--MIRACLES VINDICATED.
* * * * *
ST. MARK xii. 24.
_Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither
the power of God._
On a certain occasion, the Son of Man was asked what was thought a hard
question by those who, in His day, professed "the negative
Theology[590]." There was a moral and there was physical marvel to be
solved. Both difficulties were met by a single sentence. The Sadducean
judgment had gone astray from the Truth, (=planasthe= our SAVIOUR said,)
from a twofold cause: (1) The men did not understand those very
Scriptures to which they appealed so confidently: and, (2) They had an
unworthy notion of GOD'S power.--There are plenty of Sadducees at the
present day among ourselves. They are as fond as ever of finding
difficulties in the self-same Scriptures. They are to be met, I am
persuaded, exactly as of old; by shewing that their error is still the
fruit of their ignorance of Scripture; the consequence of their unworthy
conceptions of GOD. I propose to illustrate this on the present
occasion. My subject, (one certainly not unsuited to the day,) is _the
Marvels of Scripture_,--whether Moral or Physical. I would fain have
discussed them apart; but I shall not have another opportunity. I must
handle the whole subject therefore within the limits of a single Sermon:
and by consequence I must be extremely brief.
Now, I venture to assume that whatever, from its extraordinary
character, perplexes us in Scripture, is a difficulty only _to
ourselves_; that moral Marvels and physical Miracles, alike, would cease
to create any difficulty if we knew more about GOD. The Morality of the
Life to come, I do believe will prove none other than the Morality of
the life which now is; and so I presume that it may be their Divine
Author's will, that the physical Laws of the Universe shall be eternal
likewise. And yet, as no thoughtful man will probably be found to say
that he thinks he knows as much about the nature of these last now, as
he expects to know hereafter,--so it is to be presumed that a sublimer,
and therefore a juster view of the relation in which the Creature stands
to the CREATOR, will disclose to us much which, at present, we should be
little prepared to admit, if it were speculatively presented to us, ("as
in a glass, darkly,") respecting the Moral Government of GOD.
I. In the very fore-front, however, of what I have to say concerning
those phenomena which are generally cited as the _Moral Marvels_ of Holy
Scripture, I must freely declare my opinion that nothing is wanted but
that the whole of the _historical_ evidence should be before us, in
every case, in order that we might cease to look upon them as marvels at
all. But so it is, that Scripture is severely brief: takes no pains to
conciliate our good opinion: seems to care nothing either for our
applause or our censure. Scripture, in short, has been made _an
instrument of Man's probation_[591]. It is for _us_ to search curiously
into the record; to take an enlarged view of times and manners; and
finally, in the exercise of a generous Faith, to decide whether the
difficulty is such as ought to occasion us any real distress. I proceed,
in this spirit, to consider, as briefly as possible, the history of
Jael; simply because I have heard stronger things said against _her_,
than against any of the Worthies of old time who are mentioned with
distinct approbation in the Book of Life.
1. Now, if you choose to consider Jael as one who lured a weary and
unsuspecting soldier into her tent,--shewed him hospitality,--and when
he was asleep, murdered him in cold blood,--you certainly cannot help
recoiling from the inspired decision that, "Blessed above women shall
Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be." But I take the liberty of saying
that this is quite the wrong way to read her story. You must begin it
from the other end.
GOD pronounces this woman blessed, and distinctly commends her for her
deed. From this point you must start; remembering that _no action CAN be
immoral which GOD praises_. The Divine sentence, instead of creating a
difficulty, is, on the contrary, exactly the thing which removes
it[592]. To weigh the story apart from this, (which is the prime
consideration of all,) is like condemning the immorality of an
executioner without caring to hear that he is but carrying out the
sentence of the Lawgiver. Furnished with the clue of GOD'S approbation
of Jael's deed, we retrace our steps, and reconsider the narrative. If
all were still dark and hopeless, we might be sure that there are
circumstances withheld, which if known would have made GOD'S justice
clear as the light. But, as a matter of fact, it generally happens that,
when we "know the Scriptures," the difficulty in great measure
disappears; and I am going to shew that it is so on the present
occasion.