(p. 67.): 'Jeremy the Prophet,' (p. 70.): the type of Melchizedek,
(pp. 152-6.): a passage in Deut. xxx. (pp. 191-5.): the conduct of Jael,
(pp. 223-230.): &c., &c.
[649] The nominative has, in like manner, to be supplied in the
following places:--Gen. xlviii. 10. Exod. iv. 26: xxxiv. 28. Deut. xxxi.
23. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. 1 Kings xxii. 19. 2 Kings xix. 24, 25. Job xxxv. 15.
Jer. xxxvi. 23.--St. Matth. xix. 5. St. Mark xv. 46. St. John viii. 44:
xix. 5: xxi. 15-17. Acts xiii. 29. Eph. iv. 8. Col. ii. 14, &c., &c.
[650] Gen. xlix. 29-32; l. 5-13.
[651] Ibid l. 25. Exod. xiii. 19. Josh. xxiv. 32.
[652] Gen. xxiii. 15.
[653] Ibid. xxiii. 10 to 12, 18.
[654] Ibid. xiii. 7.
[655] Ibid. xiii. 7.
APPENDIX E.
(p. 74.)
[_The simplest view of Inspiration the truest and the best._]
"I suppose all thoughtful persons will allow that intellectual
licentiousness is the danger of this our intellectual age. For
speculation indulges our pride. Faith is an inglorious thing; any one
can believe, a cottager just as well as a philosopher: but not all can
speculate. The privilege of an intellectually advanced person is that.
And the more novel the view he offers, the more evident the proof it
gives of an independent mind. Therefore the danger of a highly advanced
state of society like our own, is Theory, as distinguished from Catholic
Truth. And the most inviting field of theory, is that high subject, the
intercourse which hath gone on between the Intellect above us, and our
own; the communications which have been made from the Creator to His
creatures. In a word, man is under a temptation to frame a theory of
Inspiration; whether his attempts to frame one have been successful, is
a matter of much interest to consider.
"I am going to offer a few plain remarks on what the Bible professes to
be. I say, professes to be, because those whom I speak to will believe
that what it professes to be, it is. I mean they will not suspect the
writers of any dishonesty or ambitious pretence. But there may be some
readers of the Bible, among persons whose profession is the exercise of
the intellect, who are impatient at being left behind in the
intellectual race; who, when continental critics are going on into
theories of inspiration, do not like the imputation (so freely cast upon
us by foreign writers) of being unequal to such things, of having no
turn for philosophy. So they must have a theory, or go along with one;
they must receive the Bible,--for they do receive it,--in some
intellectual way; through some lens which they hold up; with a
consciousness of some intellectual action in receiving it, something
which not every one could practise, something beyond the mere simple
apprehension of terms, and simple faith in embracing propositions.
"But in striking contrast with all such views and all such desires,
stands the singular character of the sacred volume itself. It manifestly
addresses itself to a mind in an attitude of much simplicity; to a mind
coming to receive a theory, not to hold up one; coming to be shaped, not
holding out a mould to shape a communication made. For it presents
itself as a document containing a message from on high; as conveying the
Word of GOD; nor can all that is ever said on the subject get beyond
this plain account of its contents, 'the Word of GOD.' Nor need any one
who desires to impress on his own mind and that of others the true
character of the sacred page, try to do more than to remind himself that
it professes to convey to him the Word of GOD."--_Sermons_ by the Rev.
C. P. Eden, pp. 148-150.
"What I desire to impress upon myself and those who hear me is this,
that the words of GOD are always perfect, always complete; and that the
feeling with which a poor cottager sits down to his Bible is the right
one, and that the student hath the best hope of successful study who in
attitude of mind is most likened to him."--_Ibid._, p. 192.
"The conclusion, then, is this; that Faith hath not been wrong through
these many years, in her simple acceptance of GOD'S Word. To come round
to simplicity, is what we have always had to do in the great questions
of Divinity. There have been great questions; they have agitated the
Church; but, as I said, to come round to simplicity hath ever been her
work first or last. When in the fourth century men refined upon the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and Arians and semi-Arians would be
telling us _how_ these things could be, the unity of GOD in three
Persons; to come round to the simplicity of the Athanasian doctrine, and
to disown the several explanatory statements which, offering to explain,
explained away, was the Church's work. I am not sure that since the
clays of the Arian dispute, a more important question has arisen than
that which seems likely to be ere long forcing itself upon us, of the
Inspiration of Holy Writ. I freely permit myself to anticipate that the
simplest possible view of the subject, that on which rich and poor may
meet together, is the one to which we shall come round."--_Ibid._,
pp. 172-3.
APPENDIX F.
(p. 107.)
[_The written and the Incarnate Word._]
"I suppose we all have learned from the language used by the Evangelist
St. John, always to look on each of these two employments of the
expression, (the WORD OF GOD,) with reference to the other; and to see
in each, the other also. I shall not attempt to express more definitely
this connexion; I only need to suppose that we all apprehend it as
existing. But I shall claim from it thus much to my present
purpose;--that as He whom the Evangelist saw riding in the heavenly pomp
on high, and who was revealed to him as bearing this title, 'The WORD of
GOD[656],' was the same who rode as at this time into Jerusalem; in
humiliation here, in glory there; here veiled, there in brightness
unveiled:--I would now associate the two, and would regard that sacred
volume which the poor cottager knows as the 'Word of GOD,' as placed
under the same dispensation; as veiled here, reserved for Revelation
hereafter. I say, as all the other circumstances of our condition are
certainly to be regarded in this aspect, viz., as things waiting for
development; so ordered by a Divine wisdom as that they shall sustain
faith and instruct piety now, but shall shew themselves for what they
are, (if ever to a created being, yet) only in a later stage than that
to which they were given as its present religious provision: as other
things, so the written page (I will assume) which speaks of GOD. I
assume that in this world we are using sounds which mean more than we
know. I assume that in our churches we are in the highest sense singing
the songs of Sion, of the future and heavenly Sion. If Saints in Heaven
shall sing (as we are told they shall) the song of Moses, then the song
of Moses is already a song for Heaven; only _there_ we shall know its
meaning, or more of it than now we do. And the use which I make of the
reflection is, to suggest (as I said) the frame of mind in which we
should approach the consideration of the sacred page; such a frame of
mind as that no future revelations of the import of that page shall have
power to reproach us as having dishonoured it by our interpretations
here, and having betrayed an inadequate feeling of what Inspiration
was."--_Sermons_, by the Rev. C. P. Eden, pp. 180-2.
FOOTNOTES:
[656] Rev. xix. 13.
APPENDIX G.
(p. 112.)
[_The volume of the Old Testament Scriptures, indivisible._]
"In regard of the Old Testament, it will be observed that the whole
volume stands or falls altogether. In whatever sense we understand the
falling or standing, the volume stands or falls together. Each page of
it is committed to the credit of the rest, and the whole book or
collection of books is committed to the credit of each page. For this
plain reason, that the book as we have it, is the book which, being
known in the Jewish Church as the volume of her authentic and sacred
Scriptures, our blessed SAVIOUR accepted and referred to as such. By
whatever marks the canonicity of the several books was in the first
instance attested,--marks which were sufficient for GOD'S purpose, and
which did His work,--_there_ is the volume. 'It is written,' said our
SAVIOUR; that is, in a book which all His nation knew of, and understood
to be inspired. The scrupulous care which the Jews shewed in preserving
their sacred writings intact, is one of the most remarkable facts in
history; it is a fact of which the Christian student can give perhaps
the right account, seeing it to have been so ordered in the good
providence of GOD, that we might have firm ground in calling the book,
as we have it, the Word of GOD. The volume stands or falls then
together; which we may with advantage bear in mind, because it makes an
argument which is available for any portion of the volume, available for
the whole; and no one can now say, 'You do not surely hold the
genealogies in the books of Chronicles, to be inspired: Isaiah and the
Psalms may be inspired; but do you mean the same of the long extracts
from mere annals?' No man, I say, can take this freedom, until he can
extract and remove those chapters from the book which our blessed
SAVIOUR unquestionably referred to as the canonical Scriptures of the
Church. If a verse stands, the Old Testament stands."--_Sermons_, by the
Rev. C. P. Eden, pp. 152-3.
APPENDIX H.
(p. 115.)
(Some remarks had been partially prepared for insertion in this place,
on Theories of Inspiration: but my volume has already been delayed too
long, and has extended to a greater length than was originally
contemplated. The paper in question is therefore reserved for the
present.)
APPENDIX I.
(p. 117.)
[_Remarks on Theories of Inspiration.--The 'Human Element_.']
"It will be allowed by all persons accustomed to a calm and charitable
view of Theological differences, that in those differences there is
generally on each side some great truth wrongly held, because taken out
of its due place, and wrongly set. Applying this topic to the subject
before us, we are led to consider whether a mistake has not been made in
bringing forward the Human Element of Inspiration, instead of permitting
the eye to rest upon that which GOD presents to us,--the Divine. The
Human Element no doubt is there; no doubt our Maker acts through our
faculties in every respect; no doubt He is acting through laws when He
seems to suspend laws; and even in Miracles, employs the powers of
Nature instead of thwarting them; but then this is His machinery, which
He has not explained to us. He presents Himself to us, acting sometimes
supernaturally; i.e. in a way above nature as we understand nature. He
made the Sun to stand still for Joshua; what refractive cloud came in
and held the daylight that it should not go down is not made known to
us; GOD said that it should stay, and it stayed; there was the miracle.
To have set the Creation going two thousand years before in such a way
and train that in that hour a cloud should rise to refract the sun's
rays for a time, because in that hour the LORD's armies would need the
interference, the prolonging of the daylight,--that was miracle enough.
We say not that GOD interrupts His own laws; nay, rather we believe that
He hath them always in smooth and orderly operation. Similarly of
Inspiration; we know not the way in which GOD acts on human minds, the
Spirit on the spirit; for He hath not told us. But, as I said in the
beginning, in an age like the present, where analysis of process is the
work of men's minds, the way in which man is feeling his strength in
every direction, it is not very unnatural that the operations of this
philosophy should have been carried beyond their due line; into the
subject, namely, of the secret communication between the Divine Spirit,
and the spirit and apprehensions of Men, i.e. the Work of Inspiration.
To accept the Bible as the word of GOD, just as a cottager or a child in
a village school accepts it, is an inglorious thing. He whose intellect
is his instrument, that which he is to work with, wishes to feel his
intellect operating on any subject which he has to meet. He feels a
desire, in apprehending a thing as done, to have as part of his
apprehension, a view of how it is done, more or less. It is natural to
him to take what he feels to be an intelligent view of a subject. In
accepting the Bible therefore as the Word of GOD, he must have a view as
to _how_ it is the Word of GOD; the nature of the illapse which the
Spirit from on high makes on the spirit and faculties of the man. In a
word, he would get between the Creator, and man to whom the Creator
speaks; and _there_ would make his observations. But how little
encouragement have we to do this in the Word of GOD! When GOD sent
prophets to speak to men, to convey a message to them from their Maker,
or when He tells Apostles to speak to us, doth He invite us to come
within the veil with our philosophy, and examine? I shall offend the
piety of those who hear me by pursuing the thought. But I cannot but
think that something of this kind has been done by those who have
presented us with theories of Inspiration, setting forth to us that
which it cannot be shewn that GOD hath set forth to them, or to any one.
Yes, they are right; our Creator makes use of our faculties; and when He
hath given to one man faculties different from those given to another,
faculties of whatever kind, of intellectual power or of moral
temperament, He employs them all. Hath He a message of Love? He employs
a St. John to utter it, and to prolong the delightful note. Hath He a
message of freedom, that liberty wherewith CHRIST hath made us free? He
hath a Paul ready to accept and to fulfil the congenial errand. But GOD
speaks, not man; and they who would have us be dwelling on the Human
Element, when GOD invites us to be lost in the Divine, are doing not
well. Yes, GOD employs all our faculties: He hath made us different, as
He made the flowers of the field different, and Christianity shews us
why He hath so made us; because He hath a work for each of us to do,--a
work which none else could do so well. Doubtless He employs all our
faculties, doing violence to none. This doubtless is His glory, that He
can bring about His results by the means which He Himself hath made. Who
has not felt, in reading some sacred narrative, the history, e.g. of
Joseph, that the wonderful part of it was this, how naturally all came
about,--all by natural operation of human motives and man's free will?
So in Inspiration. No doubt GOD's instruments which He hath made are
enough for His work; no doubt He employs men as they are; not their
tongues only, but their minds and spirits, acting on them and employing
them as they are. Only in that great process, the point which I call
attention to is this,--GOD speaks of it as divine, and fixes the thought
of those who hear Him on the divine element: we, dropping our view on
the human, are not wise. He shews us providence; He condescends to shew
us His work: we do not well when we shew an interest rather in lower
parts of the scheme, especially when in those we may so greatly err,
having so little information."--_Sermons_, by the Rev. C. P. Eden, pp.
164-170.
APPENDIX J.
(p. 145.)
[_How the Inspired authors of the New Testament handle the writings of
the Inspired authors of the Old._]
"Let me repeat:--The question is, how we should address ourselves to the
study of the sacred page? For example, how am I to regard, and how to
deal with, the great diversities there are between the several sacred
writers? For there is the greatest diversity of mind appearing between
them. St. Paul is no more the same with St. John, than any two good men
now are perfectly alike in their constitution of mind. Nay, the
diversity seems especially great in the case of the sacred writers: as
if to forbid us to adopt any theory which should ignore or neglect that
diversity. It is striking. How shall I deal with these and like
circumstances?... Can it be suggested to me what a good and wise man
would do in this matter?
"In answer; it can apparently be suggested; and through that which is
the best and safest of arguments, the argument from analogy. For there
has been a parallel case; the case of the _inspired writers of the New
Testament dealing with the Scriptures of the Old_. To this parallel I
now invite your attention. If we can observe how and upon what great
principles, piety and wisdom, guided by Inspiration, dealt with the
volume of the Holy Scriptures which were then its whole volume, namely
the Old Testament; we have so far forth a parallel case to the case of
Christians now. The first Christians looked back on the Old Testament as
their sacred Scriptures. If we can discern how they regarded their
sacred volume, and how they proceeded in interpreting it, we have a
pattern to guide us in regard of the question, how we shall regard the
sacred volume, and how proceed in the study and interpretation of it;
they with the Bible that they had,--we with the Bible that we have, the
completed volume.--In this point of view I cannot but regard it as most
distinctly providential that there are introduced in the pages of the
New Testament so many quotations from the pages of the Old. For they
furnish us with an answer applicable in every age of the Church to the
question, How shall piety and wisdom deal with a sacred volume; that
volume being from the pen of many writers; but with this aggravated
difficulty in the former case, that the writers there were widely
separated from one another in point of time, were in contact therefore
with most difficult forms of life and stages of society? How in
approaching a volume so originated, did the New Testament writers regard
and deal with its contents?"--_Sermons_, by the Rev. C. P. Eden, pp.
183-5.
"And it is impossible for us to imagine,--I say the thoughtful reader of
the Holy Scriptures will find it impossible to imagine,--an Evangelist
or Apostle, evoking out of its grave the Human Element of the ancient
prophetic communications; disinterring it once more as if to gaze upon
it. I am sure the impression left on the mind by the passages in the New
Testament where the Old is referred to, is in accordance with what I
say. In other words,--(for it is but in other words the same,)--these
divinely instructed students,--these inspired readers of the sacred
page,--are aware of that which they read, being inspired; GOD its
author, and not Man. And they shew this consciousness, putting off their
shoes from their feet, as if on holy ground. A divinely instructed mind,
interprets a divinely indited Scripture; the Spirit His own interpreter;
and we are taught,--not by man but by the Author of Inspiration,--how
Inspiration is to be dealt with.--Let him who would deal aright with the
sacred pages of the New Covenant, observe in due seriousness what
instruction he may gain from the consideration now suggested to his
thoughts. Let him learn from the sacred page, how to deal with the
sacred page. And if he has observed these things; if he has seen how the
writers of the New Testament, discern in lines and words of the Old
Testament, that which speaks to _them_,--(for it speaks to CHRIST, and
in Him to His Church, i.e. to them:) ... how these utterers of
inspired sounds are found, when their words receive at length an
authentic interpretation, to have been speaking of the Christian Church,
its terms of Salvation, its spiritual gifts;--a reader of the Holy
Scriptures practised in these observations will have learned in some
measure _how_ to approach the sacred volume; with a sense not only of
its unfathomed depth, but also of its unity of scope; and a conscious
interest rather in its universal truths,--its ever present truths,--than
in those transitory imports which some of its pages can be shewn to have
had, over and above their Evangelical meaning."--(_Ibid._, pp. 186-9.)
APPENDIX K.
(p. 199.)
[_Bishop Bull on Deut._ xxx.]
"Jam hic etiam quæstionem unam et alteram solvendam
exhibebimus.--Quæritur, _An nullum omnino extet in lege Mosis SPIRITUS
SANCTI promissum?_ Resp. Legem, si per eam intelligas pactum in monte
Sinai factum, et mediatore Mose populo Israelitico datum, (quæ, ut modo
diximus, est maxime propria ac genuina ipsius in Paulinis Epistolis
notio atque acceptio,) nullum Spiritus Sancti promissum continere,
manifestum est. Si, inquam, per eam intelligas pactum in Sinai factum;
quia in hagiographis et Scriptis Propheticis, (quæ nomine legis et
Veteris Test. laxius sumpto non raro veniunt,) de SPIRITU SANCTO, tum ex
gratiâ Divinâ promisso, tum precibus hominum impetrato, passim legimus.
Imo et in Mosaicis scriptis, licet non in ipso Mosaico foedere,
promissum (ni fallor) satis clarum de gratia SPIRITUS SANCTI Israelitis
a DEO danda reperire est.