writer to whom, more than to any other person, I conceive that we are
indebted for "Essays and Reviews;" _that_ unhappy production being the
lawful development and inevitable result of the late Head-master of
Rugby's most unsound and mischievous religious teaching:)--"It is a very
misleading notion of Prophecy, if we regard it as an anticipation of
History." (_Sermons_, i. p. 375.) "I think that, with the exception of
those prophecies which relate to our LORD, the object of Prophecy is
rather to delineate principles and states of opinion which shall come,
than external events. I grant that Daniel _seems to furnish an
exception_." (_Life and Correspondence_, p. 59.) This was written in
1825. In 1840, we are informed:--"The latter chapters of Daniel, _if
genuine, would be a clear exception to my Canon of Interpretation_....
But I have long thought that the greater part of the Book of Daniel is
most certainly a very late work, of the time of the Maccabees; and the
_pretended prophecy_ about the Kings of Grecia and Persia, and of the
North and South, is _mere history, like the poetical prophecies in
Virgil and elsewhere_.... That there may be genuine fragments in it, is
very likely." (_Ibid._, p. 505.)--In other words, Dr. Arnold, rather
than suppose "_my_ Canon of Interpretation" (!) worthless, is prepared
to eject the Book of Daniel from the Inspired Canon. Any thing is "very
likely," in short, except that God could foretell future events, and Dr.
Arnold be in error!... =Ar' ouch hybris tad'?=
[614] Analogy, P. II. ch. vii.
[615] _Throughout_ the volume entitled "Essays and Reviews;" while the
third Essay is simply an affirmation of their _impossibility_.
[616] And yet, Bp. Butler says,--"The facts, both miraculous and
natural, in Scripture, appear in all respects to stand upon the same
foot of historical evidence:" ... "and though testimony is no proof of
enthusiastic opinions, or of any opinions at all; yet, it is allowed, in
all other cases, to be a proof of facts."--_Analogy_, P. II. ch. vii.
(ed. 1833, pp. 285 and 293.)
[617] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 140.
[618] _Ibid._, p. 104.
[619] There are some admirable observations on this subject in the
'Preliminary Essay' prefixed to Dean Trench's _Notes on the
Miracles._--See pp. 10, 12, 15, 60, &c.
[620] Dr. Temple.
[621] Mr. Babbage's _Bridgewater Treatise_, (2nd. Ed. 1838,) p. 92.
[622] "_Why we should pray for Fair Weather_: being Remarks on Professor
Kingsley's Sermon,"--by a Member of the University [of
Cambridge,]--12mo. Cambridge, 1860, p. 8.
[623] "The view taken of Miracles in chapter viii., is the same as that
contained in the work of Butler, on _the Analogy_" &c.--Babbage (as
above), p. 191.
[624] _Edinburgh Review_, for April 1861, p. 486.
[625] How exactly, in this instance, has Dr. Whewell's anticipation
received fulfilment!;--"We may, with the greatest propriety, deny to the
mechanical Philosophers and Mathematicians of recent times any authority
with regard to their views of the administration of the Universe; we
have no reason whatever to expect from their speculations any help, when
we ascend to the first Cause and supreme Ruler of the Universe. But we
might perhaps go further, and assert that _they are in some respects
less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to make any clear
advance towards such a subject of speculation_."--(Whewell's
_Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 334.)--Scarcely less acute is the remark
which the late excellent Hugh James Rose has somewhere left on record,
concerning the chapter wherein the preceding remark occurs,--That the
world would not easily forgive Dr. Whewell for those two chapters on
"Inductive" and "Deductive Habits."
[626] Babbage (as before), p. 92, (heading of ch. viii.)
[627] See the _Analogy_, P. II. ch. iv. sect. iii.
[628] St. Mark i. 24. St. Luke iv. 34: viii. 28, 30-32, &c. &c.
[629] Exod. xvi. 18-21: 22-24:--25-27: 31: 33-34. Add Wisdom xvi. 20-1.
[630] Exod. xvi. 35, and Josh. v. 12.
[631] Exod. xiv. 22, 29.
[632] St. Matth. viii. 26. St. Mark iv. 39.
[633] St. Matth. viii. 15.
[634] _Edinburgh Review_, (art. on 'Essays and Reviews,') April 1861,
p. 487.
[635] _Edinburgh Review_, (art. on 'Essays and Reviews,') April 1861,
p. 487.
[636] I have softened the expression originally employed in this place,
out of deference to the opinions of some wise and good men. But I do not
think that St. John, (the Evangelist and Apostle _of Dogma_,) would have
thought my language too strong: nor St. Paul either. =Ei tis ou
philei=,--
[637] 1 Cor. xv. 14.
[638] From a Sermon by the pious and learned chaplain to the English
congregation at Rome, the Rev. F. B. Woodward,--_CHRIST risen the
Foundation of the Faith_,--preached on Easter Day, 1861. (Rivingtons.)
[639] Van Mildert's _Bampton Lectures_ for 1814, ("An Inquiry into the
general principles of Scripture-Interpretation,")--pp. 242-3.
[640] The reader is particularly requested to read what Dr. Moberly has
said on this subject in _Some Remarks on 'Essays and Reviews,'_ being
the _Revised Preface to the Second Edition of 'Sermons on the
Beatitudes_,'--p. xxii to p. xxv.--The _constructive_ value of the
'Remarks' of that excellent Divine will long outlive the occasion which
has called them forth. I allude particularly to the considerations which
occur from p. xxxii to p. lxiii.
[641] St. Luke xix. 14.
[642] 2 Tim. iv. 2.
[643] 1 Sam. xx. 3.
[644] Ps. xvii. 16.
[645] Jer. vi. 4.
[646] Song of S. ii. 17: iv. 6.
APPENDIX A.
(p. 16.)
[_Bishop Horsley on the double sense of Prophecy._]
"I shall not wonder, if, to those who have not sifted this question to
the bottom, (which few, I am persuaded, have done,) the evidence of a
Providence, arising from prophecies of this sort[647], should appear to
be very slender, or none at all. Nor shall I scruple to confess, that
time was when I was myself in this opinion, and was therefore much
inclined to join with those who think that every prophecy, were it
rightly understood, would be found to carry a precise and single
meaning; and that, wherever the double sense appears, it is because the
one true sense hath not yet been detected. I said,--'Either the images
of the prophetic style have constant and proper relations to the events
of the world, as the words of common speech have proper and constant
meanings, or they have not. If they have, then it seems no less
difficult to conceive that many events should be shadowed under the
images of one and the same prophecy, than that several likenesses should
be expressed in a single portrait. But, if the prophetic images have no
such appropriate relations to things, but that the same image may stand
for many things, and various events be included in a single prediction,
then it should seem that prophecy, thus indefinite in its meaning, con
afford no proof of Providence: for it should seem possible, that a
prophecy of this sort, by whatever principle the world were governed,
whether by Providence, Nature, or Necessity, might owe a seeming
completion to mere accident.' And since it were absurd to suppose that
the Holy Spirit of GOD should frame prophecies by which the end of
Prophecy might so ill be answered, it seemed a just and fair conclusion,
that no prophecy of holy writ might carry a double meaning.
"Thus I reasoned, till a patient investigation of the subject brought
me, by GOD'S blessing, to a better mind. I stand clearly and
unanswerably confuted, by the instance of Noah's prophecy concerning the
family of Japheth; which hath actually received various accomplishments,
in events of various kinds, in various ages of the world,--in the
settlements of European and Tartarian conquerors in the Lower Asia; in
the settlements of European traders on the coasts of India; and in the
early and plentiful conversion of the families of Japheth's stock to the
faith of CHRIST. The application of the prophecy to any one of these
events bears all the characteristics of a true
interpretation,--consistence with the terms of the prophecy, consistence
with the truth of history, consistence with the prophetic system. Every
one of these events must therefore pass, with every believer, for a true
completion."
BP. HORSLEY's _Sermons_, No. xvii. Vol. ii. pp. 73-4.
FOOTNOTES:
[647] Gen. ix. 25-7.
APPENDIX B.
(p. 50.)
[_Bishop Pearson on Theological Science._]
"Ad publicam Theologiæ professionem electus et constitutus sum; cujus
cum præstantiam dignitatemque considero, incredibili quadam dulcedine
perfundit mirificeque delectat; cum amplitudinem difficultatemque
contemplor, perstringit oculos, percellit animum, abigit longe atque
deterret.
"Cum Artes omnes Scientiæque Athenis diu floruissent, cum novam sedem
Alexandriæ occuparent, cum ingenia Romana toto terrarum orbe
personarent, etiam tum dixit CHRISTUS ad Apostolos, _Vos estis lux
mundi_. Omnes aliæ Scientiæ, etiam cum maxime clarescerent, tenebris
sunt involutæ, et quasi nocte quadam sepultæ. Tum sol oritur, tum primum
lumine perfundimur, cum DEI cognitione illustramur; radii lucis non nisi
de coelo feriunt oculos; cætera, quæ artes aut scientiæ nominantur, non
Athenæ sed noctuæ. Quid enim? nonne animis immortalibus præditi sumus,
et ad æternitatem natis? Quæ autem Philosophiæ pars perpetuitatem
spirat? Quid Astronomicis observationibus fiet, cum coeli ipsi
colliquescent? Ubi se ostendet corporis humani peritus, et medicaminum
scientia præclarus, cum _corruptio induet incorruptionem_? Quæ Musicæ,
quæ Rhetoricæ vires, cum Angelorum choro et Archangelorum coetibus
inseremur? Si nihil animus præsentiret in posterum, e coævis sibi
scientiis aliquid solatii carpere fas esset, secumque perituris
delectari: sed in hoc tam exiguo vitæ curriculo, et tam brevi, quid est,
tam cito periturum, quod impleret animum, in infinita sæculorum spatia
duraturum? Sola Theologiæ principia, æternæ felicitatis certissima
expectatione foeta, auræ divinæ particulam, coelestis suæ originis
consciam, et sempiternæ beatitudinis candidatum, satiare possunt.
"Cætera Scientiæ exiguum aliquid de mundi opifice delibant, norunt; hæc,
aquilæ invecta pennis, coeli penetralia perrumpit, in ipsum Patrem
luminum oculos intendit, et audaci veritate promittit, _DEUM nobis
aliquando videndum sicut et nos videbimur_.
"Quantum igitur moli corporis [anima materiæ expers,] quantum operosæ
conjecturæ divina visio, quantum brevi temporis spatio æternitas,
quantum Parnasso Paradisus, tantum reliquis disciplinis Theologia
præferenda est.
"Sed hanc severam rebus humanis necessitatem imposuit DEUS, ut quæ
pulcherrima sunt, sint et difficillima. Si Sacrarum Literarum copiam, si
studiorum theologicorum amplitudinem prospicias, crederes promissionem
divinam, sicut Ecclesiæ, ita doctrinæ terminos nullos posuisse.
"Scriptura ipsa, quam copiosa, quam intellectu difficilis! historiæ quam
intricatæ! prophetiæ quam obscuræ! præcepta quam multa! promissiones
quam variæ! mysteria quam involuta! interpretes quam infiniti! Linguæ,
quibus exarata est, et nobis, et toti orbi terrarum peregrinæ. Tres in
titulo crucis consecratæ sunt; satis illæ erant, cum CHRISTUS moreretur;
sed pluribus nobis opus est ut intelligatur. Latina parum subsidii
præbet, originibus exclusa. Græcæ magna est utilitas, nec tamen illa, si
pura, multum valet; nam aliam priorem semper aut reddit, aut imitatur.
Hebræa satis per se obscura, nec plene intelligenda, sine suis
conterraneis, Chaldaica, Arabica, Syriaca. Non est theologus, nisi qui
et Mithridates!
"Jam hæc ipsa oracula Ecclesiæ DEI sunt commendata, ad illam a CHRISTO
ipso amandamur; illa testis, illa columna veritatis. Nec est unius aut
ævi, aut regionis, Ecclesia DEI: per totum terrarum orbem, quo
disseminata, sequenda est; per Orientis vastissima spatia, per
Occidentis regna diversissima: antiquissimorum Patrum sententiæ
percipiendæ, quorum libri pene innumeri prodierunt, et nova tamen
monumenta indies e tenebris eruuntur.
"Quid dicam Synodos, diversarum provinciarum foetus? quid Concilia, e
toto orbe coacta, et suprema auctoritate prædita? quid canonum
decretorumque infinitam multitudinem? quorum sola notitia insignem
scientiam professionemque constituit; et tamen Theologiæ nostræ quantula
particula est?
"Quot hæreses in Ecclesia pullularunt, quarum nomina, natura, origines
detegendæ: quæ schismata inconsutilem CHRISTI tunicam lacerarunt; quo
furore excitata, quibus modis suppressa, quibus machinis sublata!
"Jam vero, scholasticorum quæstiones, quam innumera! Ad hæc omnia
subtiliter disserenda, acute disputanda, graviter determinanda, quanta
Philosophiæ, quanta Dialecticæ necessitas! quæ leges disputandi, quæ
sophismatum strophæ detegendæ!
"Hæc sunt quæ me a professione deterrent, hæc quæ exclamare cogunt, =tis
pros tauta hikanos?;"
BP. PEARSON's _Oratio Inauguralis_, 'Minor Works,' (ed. Churton,) vol.
i. pp. 402-5.
APPENDIX C.
(p. 71.)
[_The Bible an instrument of Man's probation._]
"Multa enim _propter exercendas rationales mentes_ figurata et obscure
posita."--Aug. _De Unit. Eccl._ c. v.--"Obscuritates Divinarum
Scripturarum quas _exercitationis nostræ causâ_ DEUS esse voluit."--_Id.
Ep. lix. ad Paulinum_, tom. ii. p. 117.
"The evidence of Religion not appearing obvious, may constitute one
particular part of some men's trial, in the religious sense: as it gives
scope, for a virtuous exercise, or vicious neglect of their
understanding, in examining or not examining into that evidence. There
seems no possible reason to be given, why we may not be in a state of
moral probation, with regard to the exercise of our understanding upon
the subject of Religion, as we are with regard to our behaviour in
common affairs. The former is as much a thing within our power and
choice as the latter."
* * * * *
"Nor does there appear any absurdity in supposing, that the speculative
difficulties, in which the evidence of Religion is involved, may make
even the principal part of some persons' trial. For as the chief
temptations of the generality of the world are the ordinary motives to
injustice or unrestrained pleasure; or to live in the neglect of
Religion from that frame of mind, which renders many persons almost
without feeling as to any thing distant, or which is not the object of
their senses: so there are other persons without this shallowness of
temper, persons of a deeper sense as to what is invisible and future;
who not only see, but have a general practical feeling, that what is to
come will be present, and that things are not less real for their not
being the objects of sense; and who, from their natural constitution of
body and of temper, and from their external condition, may have small
temptations to behave ill, small difficulty in behaving well, in the
common course of life. Now when these latter persons have a distinct
full conviction of the truth of Religion, without any possible doubts or
difficulties, the practice of it is to them unavoidable, unless they
will do a constant violence to their own minds; and religion is scarce
any more a discipline to them, than it is to creatures in a state of
perfection. Yet these persons may possibly stand in need of moral
discipline and exercise in a higher degree, than they would have by such
an easy practice of religion. Or it may be requisite for reasons unknown
to us, that they should give some further manifestation what is their
moral character, to the creation of GOD, than such a practice of it
would be. Thus in the great variety of religious situations in which men
are placed, what constitutes, what chiefly and peculiarly constitutes,
the probation, in all senses, of some persons, may be the difficulties
in which the evidence of religion is involved: and their principal and
distinguished trial may be, how they will behave under and with respect
to these difficulties."--BISHOP BUTLER's _Analogy_, P. II. ch. vi. (ed.
1833,) p. 266. and pp. 274-5.
Further on, (p. 277,) Butler has the following note:--
"Dan. xii. 10. See also Is. xxix. 13, 14: St. Matth. vi. 23, and xi. 25,
and xiii. 11, 12. St. John iii. 19, and v. 44: 1 Cor. ii. 14, and 2 Cor.
iv. 4: 2 Tim. iii. 13; and that affectionate as well as authoritative
admonition, so very many times inculcated, 'He that hath ears to hear
let him hear.' Grotius saw so strongly the thing intended in these and
other passages of Scripture of the like sense, as to say, that the proof
given us of Christianity was less than it might have been for this very
purpose: 'Ut ita sermo Evangelii tanquam lapis esset Lydius ad quem
ingenia sanabilia explorarentur.' (_De Verit. R. C._ lib. ii. towards
the end.)"
APPENDIX D. (p. 72.)
[_St. Stephen's Statement in Acts vii. 15, 16, explained._]
In a work like the present which purports to deal solely with the
grander features of INSPIRATION and INTERPRETATION, it is clearly
impossible to enter systematically into details of any kind. If, here
and there, something like minuteness has been attempted[648], it has
only been by way of sample of what one would fain have done,--of what
one would fain do,--time and place and occasion serving. In the same
spirit I will add a few remarks on the famous passage in Acts vii. 15,
16; for, confessedly, to a common eye it _seems_ to contain several
erroneous statements. The words, as they stand in our English Bible, are
these:--
"So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our Fathers; and were
carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought
for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor _the father_ of Sychem."
For obvious reasons, it will be convenient to have under our eyes, at
the same time, the original of the passage:--
=Katebê de Iakôb eis Aigypton, kai eteleutêsen autos kai hoi pateres
hêmôn· kai metetethêsan eis Sychem, kai etethêsan en tô mnêmati ho
ônêsato Abraam timês argyriou, para tôn huiôn Emmor tou Sychem.=
On this, Dr. Alford, Dean of Canterbury, delivers himself as follows:--
"There is certainly, and that not dependent upon any Rabbinical or
Jewish views of the subject, an inaccuracy in Stephen's statement: for
the burying-place was not at Sychem which Abraham bought, but at Hebron,
and it was bought of Ephron the Hittite, as you will find in the 23rd of
Genesis from the 7th to the 20th verses. It is not worth while for us
now to read the account, but so it is: Abraham bought a field at Hebron
of Ephron the Hittite. There is no mention at all made of its being for
a burying-place. But it was Jacob who bought a field near Shechem 'of
the children of Hamor, Shechem's father.' These two incidents, then, in
this case are confused together. And again I say, if it is necessary to
say it again, that there is no reason at all for us to be ashamed of
such a statement--no reason for us to be afraid of it, or in any way
staggered at it. It was not Stephen's purpose to give an accurate
history of the children of Israel, but to derive results from that
history, which remain irrefragable, whatever the details which he
alleged."--_Homilies on the former part of the Acts of the Apostles_, by
Henry Alford, B.D., Dean of Canterbury, London, 1858, p. 219.
A northern Professor, (Patrick Fairbairn, D.D., Principal and Professor
of Divinity in the Free Church College, Glasgow,) also writes as
follows:--
"Now, there can be no doubt, that viewing the matter critically and
historically, there _are_ inaccuracies in this statement; for we know
from the records of Old Testament history, that Jacob's body was not
laid in a sepulchre at Sychem, but in the cave of Machpelah at
Hebron;--we know also that the field, which was bought of the sons of
Emmor, or the children of Hamor (as they are called in Gen. xxxiii. 19),
the father of Sichem, was bought, not by Abraham, but by
Jacob."--_Hermeneutical Manual, or Introduction to the Exegetical Study
of the Scriptures of the New Testament_, &c. Edinburgh, 1858, p. 101.
Now when it is considered that the speaker here was St. Stephen,--a man
who is said to have been "full of the HOLY GHOST," so that "no one could
resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake," (Acts vi. 3, 5, 8,
10.)--there is evidently the greatest _primâ facie_ unreasonableness in
so handling his words. But let the adverse criticism be submitted to the
test of a searching analysis; and how transparently fallacious is it
found to be!
First, we have to ascertain the _meaning_ of the passage. And it is
evident to every one having an ordinary acquaintance with Greek, that
the words =Emmor tou Sychem= _cannot_ mean "Emmor _the father_ of
Sychem." This is a mere mistranslation, as the invariable usage of the
New Testament shews. The genitive denotes _dependent_ relation. The
Vulgate rightly supplies the word "filii;" and there can be no doubt
whatever that what St. Stephen says, is, that Abraham bought the
burial-place "of the sons of Emmor, _the son_ of Sychem."
Next, it is evident that "our Fathers," (=hoi pateres hêmôn=,) _exclusive
of Jacob_, form the nominative to the verb "were carried over"
(=metetethêsan=.) In English, the place ought to be exhibited as
follows:--"he and our Fathers; and _they_ were carried." But, in truth,
the idiom of the original is so easy, to one familiar with the manner of
the sacred writers[649]; and the historical fact so exceedingly obvious;
that it must have been felt by St. Luke, in recording St. Stephen's
words, that greater minuteness of statement was quite needless. Who
remembers not the affecting details of where Jacob was to be buried, as
well as the circumstantial narrative of whither his sons conveyed his
bones[650]? _Who_ remembers not also that the bones of Joseph, (and, as
we learn from this place, the rest with him,) were carried up out of
Egypt by the children of Israel, at the Exode[651]?
_Where_ then is the supposed difficulty? Moses relates (in Gen. xxiii.)
that Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, the son of Zohar, the field
and the cave of Machpelah: and says that Machpelah was before Mamre,
otherwise called Kirjath-Arba, and Hebron. St. Stephen further relates
that Abraham bought the sepulchre at Sychem in which the Twelve
Patriarchs were eventually buried, of the sons of Emmor, (or Hamor.)
May not the same man buy two estates?
True enough it is that Jacob, when he came from Padan Aram, "bought a
parcel of a field" at "Shalem a city of Shechem," "at the hand of the
children of Hamor, Shechem's father." But there is no pretence for
saying that these last two transactions are identical, and have been
here confused together: for the sellers, in the one case, were "the sons
of Emmor, _the son_ of Sychem;" and in the other, "the children of
Hamor,"--_father of that Shechem whose tragic end is related in Gen.
xxxiv._: while the buyer was in the one case, Abraham; in the other case,
Jacob. Not to be tedious however, let me in a few words, state what was
the evident truth of the present History.
It is found that Jacob, in order to build an altar at Shechem with
security, judged it expedient to purchase the field whereon it should
stand. Who can doubt that the purchase was a measure of necessity also?
If, at the present day, one desired to erect a church on some spot in
India, where the value of land was fully ascertained[652], and where
there were many inhabitants[653],--how would it be possible to set about
the work, with the remotest purpose of retaining possession, unless one
first _bought_ the ground on which the structure was to stand? I infer
that when Abraham first halted at Sichem[654], and built an altar
there[655], (the Canaanite being then in the land,) _it is very likely_
that _he_ bought the ground also. But when St. Stephen informs me that
the thing which _I_ think only _probable_, was _a matter of fact_; am I,
(with Dean Alford,) to hesitate about believing him? Abraham then, in
the first instance, bought Sichem, Shechem, or Sychar; and there built
an altar. To that same spot, long after, his grandson Jacob resorted.
What wonder, since the wells of Abraham were stopped during his
absence, and had to be recovered by his son, (as related in Gen. xxvi.
17-22,)--what wonder, I say, if Jacob, on coming to Shechem after an
interval of nearly 200 years, finds that he also must renew the purchase
of the cherished possession? The importance of that locality, and the
sacred interest attaching to it, has been explained in a _Plain
Commentary on the Gospels_, on St. John iv. 1-6, and 41. See also a
Sermon by the same author,--_One Soweth and another Reapeth_.
FOOTNOTES: