But this historical Bible is not to be regarded as the rule of a man's life, or indeed as an external Law at all. (pp. 36, 45.) "We walk now by Reason and Conscience alone." (p. 21.) The Bible is to be identified "with the voice of Conscience," (p. 45,)—which it has "to evoke, not to override." (p. 44.) "The principle of private judgment ... makes Conscience the supreme interpreter." (p. 45.) Ours is "a law which is not imposed upon us by another power, but by our own enlightened will:" (p. 35:) for the "Spirit, or Conscience" "legislates" henceforth "without appeal except to himself." (p. 31.)
Having thus disposed of "Traditional Christianity," (p. 156,) it is not obscurely hinted that something quite different is to be substituted in its place. And first, next to "a frank appeal to Reason, and a frank criticism of Scripture," (p. 174,) the nature and "office of the Church is to be properly understood." (p. 194.)
The Church then is a spontaneous development of the State, as "part of its own organization," (p. 195,)—a purely secular Institution. The State will "develop itself into a Church" by "throwing its elements, or the best of them, into another mould; and constituting out of them a Society, which is in it, though in some sense not of it (?),—which is another (?), yet the same." (p. 194.) The nation must provide, from time to time, that the teaching of one age does "not traditionally harden, so as to become an exclusive barrier in a subsequent one; and so the moral growth of those who are committed to the hands of the Church be checked." (Ibid.) The Church is founded, therefore, not upon "the possession of a supernaturally communicated speculation (!) concerning God," but "upon the manifestation of a Divine Life in Man." "Speculative doctrines should be left to philosophical schools. A national Church must be concerned with the ethical development of its members." (p. 195.) It should be "free from dogmatic tests, and similar intellectual bondage;" (p. 168;) hampered by no Doctrines, pledged to no Creeds. These may be retained indeed; but "we refuse to be bound by them." (p. 44.) The Subscription of the Clergy to the Articles should also be abolished: for "no promise can reach fluctuations of opinion, and personal conviction." (!!!) Open heretical teaching may, to be sure, be dealt with by the Law; but the Law "should not require any act which appears to signify 'I think.'" (p. 189.) Witness "the reluctance of the stronger minds to enter an Order in which their intellects may not have free play." (p. 190.) ... Such then is the Negative Religion! Such is the new faith which Doctors Temple and Williams, Professors Powell and Jowett, Messieurs Wilson, Goodwin, and Pattison, have deliberately combined to offer to the acceptance of the World!
It is high time to conclude. I cannot lay down my pen however until I have re-echoed the sentiments of one with whom I heartily agree. I allude to Dr. Moberly; who professes that he is "struck almost more with what seems to him the hardheartedness, and exceeding unkindness of this book, than with its unsoundness. Have the writers," (he asks,) "considered how far the suggesting of innumerable doubts,—doubts unargued and unproved,—will check honest devotion, and embolden timid sin? For whom do they intend this book? Is it written for the mass of general readers? Is it designed for students at the Universities? Do they suppose that this multitude of random suggestions will be carefully wrought out by these readers, and be rejected if unsound; so as to leave their faith and devotion untarnished?... Have they reflected how many souls for whom Christ died may be slain in their weakness by their self-styled strength?"
"Suppose, for a moment, that the Holy Scriptures are (p. 177,) the Word of the Spirit of God,—that the Miracles, (cf. p. 109,) including the Resurrection of Christ, are actual objective facts, which have really happened,—that the Doctrines of the Church are true, (p. 195,) and the Creeds (p. 355,) the authoritative expositions of them,—and that men are to reach Salvation through faith in Christ, Virgin-born, according to the Scriptures, and making atonement (cf. p. 87,) for their sins upon the Cross. On this supposition,—Is not the publication of this book an act of real hostility to God's Truth; and one which endangers the Faith and Salvation of Men? And is this hostility less real, or the danger diminished, because the writers are, all but one, Clergymen, some of them Tutors and Schoolmasters; because they wear the dress, and use the language of friends, and threaten us with bitter opposition if we do not regard them as such[242]?"
With this I lay down my pen. My last words shall be simple and affectionate, addressed solely to yourselves.
I trace these concluding lines,—(of a work which, but for you, would never have been undertaken,)—in a quite empty College; and in the room where we have so often and so happily met on Sunday evenings. Can you wonder if, at the conclusion of what has proved rather a heavy task, (so hateful to me is controversy,) my thoughts revert with affectionate solicitude to yourselves, already scattered in all directions; and to those evenings which more, I think, than any other thing, have gilded my College life?... In thus sending you a written farewell, and praying from my soul that God may bless and keep you all, I cannot suppress the earnest entreaty that you would remember the best words of counsel which may have at any time fallen from my lips: that you would persevere in the daily study of the pure Book of Life; and that you would read it, not as feeling yourselves called upon to sit in judgment on its adorable contents; but rather, as men who are permitted to draw near; and invited to listen, and to learn, and to live. And so farewell!... "Watch ye, stand fast in the Faith,"—nay, take it in the original, which is far better:—Γρηγορεῖτε, στήκετε ἐν τῇ πίστει ἀνδρίζεσθε, κραταιοῦσθε. πάντα ὑμῶν ἐν ἀγάπῃ γινέσθω. Ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μεθ' ὑμῶν. ἡ ἀγάπη μου μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν.
Your friend,
J. W. B.
Oriel,
June 22nd, 1861.
[19] I abstain from enumerating Dr. Temple's mistakes,—for such things do not belong to the essence of a composition. And yet I must remark that it is hardly creditable in a Doctor of Divinity to write as he does. "In all (!) the doctrinal disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries, the decisive voice came from Rome. Every controversy was finally settled by her opinion, because she alone possessed the art of framing formulas," &c. (p. 16.) Would the learned writer favour us with a single warrant for this assertion?... At p. 9, Dr. Temple mistakes for Micah's, words spoken 700 years before by Balaam. At p. 10, he says that "Prayer, as a regular and necessary part of worship, first appears in the later books of the Old Testament."—His account of the papacy is contained in the following words:—"Law was the lesson which Rome was intended to teach the world. Hence (?) the Bishop of Rome soon became the Head of the Church. Rome was in fact the centre of the traditions which had once governed the world; and their spirit still remained; and the Roman Church developed into the papacy simply because a head was wanted (!), and no better one could be found."—p. 16. At p. 10 we have a truly puerile misconception of the meaning of 1 Cor. xv. 56, &c., &c.
[20] Deut. vi. 4.
[21] 1 Sam. xv. 22, where see the places in the margin.
[22] Hos. vi. 6, quoted by our Lord, St. Matth. ix. 13: xii. 7.
[23] Consider Ps. xxvi. 6: l. 13, 14: li. 16, 17: cxvi. 15: cxix. 108: cxli. 2, &c.
[24] St. Matth. xvi. 4: xii. 39. Compare St. Mark viii. 38.
[25] St. James iv. 4.
[26] St. Matth. xxiii. 33.
[27] Ezek. xvi. 47-52.
[28] Is. i. 4, 6, 15.
[29] St. John viii. 9. "I cannot but speak my mind," (says Josephus, after taking a survey of the extreme wickedness of his countrymen, in connexion with the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem,) "and it is this: I suppose that if the Romans had delayed to come against these sinners, either the earth would have swallowed them up; or the city would have been swept away by another Flood; or it would have been consumed, like a second Sodom, by fire from Heaven."
[30] S. John xii. 38-40. "They have blinded their eyes," &c. (See the place in the LXX.:) sc. ὁ λαὸς οὗτος.
[31] "Had the revelation of Christ been delayed till now, assuredly it would have been hard for us to recognize His Divinity.... We, of course, have in our turn counterbalancing advantages. (!) If we have lost that freshness of faith which would be the first (sic) to say to a poor carpenter,—Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,—yet we possess in the greater cultivation of our religious understanding, that which perhaps we ought not to be willing to give in exchange (!) ... They had not the same clearness of understanding as we; the same recognition that it is God and not the Devil who rules the World; the same power of discrimination between different kinds of truth.... Had our Lord come later, He would have come to mankind already beginning to stiffen into the fixedness of maturity.... The truth of His Divine Nature would not have been recognized." (pp. 24-5.)—Is this meant for bitter satire on the age we live in; or for disparagement of the Incarnate Word?... But in the face of such anticipations, the keenest satire of all is contained in the author's claim to a "religious understanding, cultivated" to a degree unknown to the best ages of the Church; as well as to surpassing "clearness of understanding," and "powers of discrimination." Lamentable in any quarter, how deplorable is such conceit in one who shews himself unacquainted with the first principles of Theological Science; and who puts forth an Essay on the Education of the World, which would have been discreditable to an advanced school-boy!
[32] Quite ineffectual, at the very close of this unhappy composition, as a set off to the compacted and often repeated asseverations of his earlier pages, is the amiable author's plaintive plea for "even the perverted use of the Bible;" adding,—"And meanwhile, how utterly impossible it would be in the manhood of the world to imagine any other instructor of mankind!" (p. 47.) It is one of the favourite devices of these seven writers, side by side with their most objectionable statements, to insert isolated passages of admitted truth,—and occasionally even of considerable beauty: which however are utterly meaningless and out of place where they stand; and (like the sentence above written,) powerless to undo the circumstantial wickedness of what went before. I repeat, that the words above-written are meaningless where they stand: for if Dr. Temple really means that it is "utterly impossible in the manhood of the world to imagine any other instructor of mankind" than the Bible,—what becomes of his Essay?
[33]παρατηρεῖσθε: i.e. "ye misobserve," "keep in a wrong way."
[34] Gal. iv. 1-10.
[35] Gal. iii. 24, 25.
[36] Gal. v. 1.
[37] 2 St. John v. 10, 11.
[38] Rom. viii. 21.
[39] It is presumed that the article in the Dict. of Antiquities will be held unexceptionable authority as to the office of the παιδαγωγός.—"Rex filio pædagogum constituit, et singulis diebus ad eum invisit, interrogans eum: Num comedit filius meus? num in scholam abiit? num ex scholâ rediit?"—Wetstein, in loc.—So Plato Lysis, p. 118.
[40] 1 St. Peter ii. 21. Comp. St. James v. 10.
[41] 1 Cor. xi. 1: iv. 16. Phil. iii. 17. 2 Thess. iii. 9. Heb. xiii. 7, &c.
[42] 1 St. Pet. i. 11.
[43] 1 Tim. i. 10: iv. 6. Tit. i. 9: ii. 1. Comp. 2 St. John v. 10.
[44] 2 Tim. i. 13.
[45] 2 Tim. i. 13, 14: ii. 2. Also 1 Tim. vi. 20. On both places, Dr. Wordsworth's Notes may be consulted with advantage.
[46] 2 Tim. iv. 3.
[47] 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8, &c.
[48] Art. XX.
[49] Art. VIII.
[50] I allude especially to the terrible castigation he has individually received at the hands of the Bishop of Exeter. See the Times, of March 4th, 1861.
[51] "And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord ... said to the Angel that destroyed the people," &c. "And the Angel of the Lord was by the threshing-place of Araunah the Jebusite."—2 Sam. xxiv. 16.
"The Angel of the Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the Angel of the Lord stand between the Earth and the Heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem."—1 Chron. xxi. 15, 16.
[52] Acts i. 20.
[53] On the Creed, Art. iv. p. 244, notes (u) and (x).
[54] "It would take no great space," (says Dr. Pusey,) "to shew that the rendering 'as a lion,' is unmeaning, without authority, against authority; while the rendering 'they pierced' is borne out alike by authority and language."
[55] Ver. 1,—St. John xii. 38. Rom. x. 16. Ver. 4,—St. Matth. viii. 17. Ver. 4 to 11,—1 St. Pet. ii. 24, 25. Ver. 7 and 8,—Acts viii. 32. Ver. 12,—St. Mark xv. 28. St. Luke xxii. 37.
[56] Mal. iv. 5.
[57] St. Luke i. 17.
[58] As the Fathers generally teach. See Brown's Ordo Sæclorum, pp. 702-3, &c., &c.
[59] And yet,—"I go to prepare a place for you!"—St. John xiv. 2.
[60] See, for example, p. 60, (lower half,) p. 62, (middle,) &c.
[61] Comp. p. 45.
[62] Col. ii. 11, 12. Rom. ii. 29. Phil. iii. 3, &c.
[63] Edinburgh Review, (Ap. 1861,) p. 429.
[64] Analogy, P. ii. ch. ii., ad fin.
[65] Analogy, P. ii. ch. iii., ad init.
[66] Van Mildert's Historical View of the Rise and Progress of Infidelity, &c. Serm. xxi., (ed. 1806,) vol. ii. pp. 313-17.
[67] "Columbus' prediction of the eclipse to the native islanders, was as true an argument to them as if the event had really been supernatural." p. 115.
[68] St. Mark viii. 19, 20.
[69] St. John ix.
[70] St. John xi. 44.
[71] Consider St. John iii. 2, (referring to ii. 23 and iv. 45.) So ix. 16: x. 21 and 38: xiv. 10, 11. Also xv. 24; and consider St Luke vii. 16: also 21, 22: St. Matth. xii. 22, 23: St. John vii. 31: xii. 17-19.
[72] St. John v. 44. Comp. vii. 17: viii. 12. St. Matth. v. 8. Ps. xix. 8: cxix. 100. Also, Ecclus. i. 26: xxi. 11.—"There is," (says an excellent living writer,) "scarcely any doctrine or precept of our Saviour more distinctly and strongly stated, than that the capacity for judging of, and for believing the Truths of Christianity, depends upon Moral Goodness, and the practice of Virtue."—Let us hear our own Hooker on this subject:—"We find by experience that although Faith be an intellectual habit of the mind, and have her seat in the understanding, yet an evil moral disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness dampeth the very light of heavenly illumination, and permitted not the Mind to see what doth shine before it."—Eccl. Pol., B. v.c. lxiii. § 2.
[73] St. John xi. 44.
[74] P. 113. The italics are in the original.
[75] See the Quarterly Review, (on Prof. Baden Powell's "Order of Nature,")—for Oct. 1859, (No. 212,) pp. 420-3.
[76] p. 169.—"Priests have neither been, as some would represent, a set of deliberate conspirators against the free thoughts of mankind; nor, on the other hand," &c. Ibid.—How partial becomes the judgment, when we have to discuss the merits of our own order!
[77] Ans. Clearly in the relation of a blessing which has by all means to be communicated to them.
[78] Ans. Certainly there is. Those which most obviously present themselves are such as the following:—St. Matth. ix. 37, 38: xxviii. 19, 20. St. Luke xxiv. 47. Acts ii. 38, 39, &c.
[79] Analogy, P. ii. c. vi.
[80] Rom. v. 12.
[81] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[82] Eph. ii. 3.
[83] Analogy, P. ii. c. v. note (d).
[84] Col. i. 23.—p. 155.
[85] See Nelson's Life of Bp. Bull, p. 245.
[86] See Nelson's Life of Bp. Bull, p. 242.
[87] "The horizon which his view embraced was much narrower than St. Paul's,"—who had enlarged his mind by foreign travel, (p. 168.)
In a note, we are informed that "at any rate his Gospel cannot, by external evidence, be attached to the person (!) of St. John as its author." "Many persons," (it is added,) "shrink from a bonâ fide examination of the 'Gospel question,' because they imagine, that unless the four Gospels are received as ... entirely the composition of the persons whose names they bear, and without any admixture of legendary matter or embellishment in their narratives, the only alternative is to suppose a fraudulent design in those who did compose them." (p. 161.) ... May one who has not shrunk from 'the Gospel question' be permitted to regret that the Reverend writer has not specified the charges which he thus vaguely brings against the Gospels? What, pray, is the legendary matter; and which are the embellishments?
In the same page we read of "the first, or genuine, epistle of St. Peter." Is not his second epistle genuine, then?
[89] "Pleas for 'liberty of conscience' and 'freedom of opinion,'" (as on excellent writer has recently pointed out,) "can have neither place nor pretext, while there is liberty, for all who choose, to decline joining the Church of England; and freedom, for all who choose, to leave her."—Rev. C. Forster's 'Spinoza Redivivus,' (1861,) p. 6.
[90] In what part of the Bible, (one begs respectfully to inquire,) is one called upon to "accept the story of an arresting of the Earth's motion, or of a reversal of its motion?" ... Would it not be as well to be truthful in one's references to the Bible?
[92] See Butler's Analogy, P. ii. c. iii.
[93] Quarterly Review, Jan. 1861, p. 275.
[94] Take a few as a specimen:—"A great restraint is supposed to be imposed upon the Clergy by reason of their subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. Yet it is more difficult than might be expected, to define what is the extent of the legal obligation of those who sign them; and in this case, the strictly legal obligation is the measure of the moral one. Subscription may be thought even to be inoperative upon the conscience by reason of its vagueness. For the act of subscription is enjoined, but its effect or meaning nowhere plainly laid down; and it does not seem to amount to more than an acceptance of the Articles of the Church as the formal law to which the subscriber is in some sense subject. What that subjection amounts to, must be gathered elsewhere; for it does not appear on the face of the subscription itself."—(p. 181. See down to page 185.) Can equivocation such as this be read without a sense of humiliation and shame, as well as of disgust and abhorrence?
[95] p. 180 to p. 190.
[96] Heading of the XXXIX Articles.
[97] The reader is referred to some remarks on Ideology towards the close of Sermon VII., p. 243 to p. 251.
[98] "Unhappily, together with his inauguration of Multitudinism, Constantine also inaugurated a principle essentially at variance with it, the principle of doctrinal limitation." (p. 166.) ... "The opportunity of reverting to the freedom of the Apostolic, and immediately succeeding periods, was finally lost for many ages by the sanction given by Constantine to the decisions of Nicæa." (Ibid.) "At all events, a principle at variance with a true Multitudinism was then recognised." (Ibid.)
How does it happen, by the way, that one writing B.D. after his name, however bitter his animosity against the Nicene Creed may be, is not aware that Creeds are co-eval with Christianity? Thus we find the Creed of Carthage in the works of Cyprian, (a.d. 225,) and Tertullian, (a.d 210, 203): that of Lyons in the works of Irenæus, (a.d. 180.) [see Heurtley's Harmonia Symbolica, pp. 7-20.] We recognize fragments of the Creed in Ignatius, (a.d. 90.) We hear St. Paul himself saying—ὑποτύπωσιν ἔχε ὑγιαινόντων λόγων, ὧν (i.e. the words themselves!) παρ' ἐμοῦ ἤκουσας ... τὴν καλὴν παρακαταθήκην φύλαξον—2 Tim. i. 13, 14. A few more words on this subject will be found in the notice of Mr. Jowett's Essay.
[99] It is really impossible to argue with a man who informs us that "previous to the time of the divided Kingdom, the Jewish History presents little which is thoroughly reliable:" (p. 170:)—that "the greater probability seems on the side of the supposition, that the Priesthood, with its distinct offices and charge, was constituted by Royalty, and that the higher pretensions of the priests were not advanced till the reign of Josiah:" (Ibid.:)—that, "The negative Theologian" demands "some positive elements in Christianity, on grounds more sure to him than the assumption of an objective 'faith once delivered to the saints,' which he cannot identify with the Creed of any Church as yet known to him:" (pp. 174-5:)—a man who can remark concerning the Bible, that,—"Those who are able to do so, ought to lead the less educated to distinguish between the different kinds of words which it contains, between the dark patches of human passion and error which form a partial crust upon it, and the bright centre of spiritual truth within." (p. 177.)
[100] Quarterly Review, (Jan. 1851,) No. 217, p. 259.
[101] A writer in the Saturday Review, (April 6, 1861,) in an admirable Article on the importance of retaining the office of 'Dean' in its integrity, (instead of suicidally merging it in the office of 'Bishop,') speaks of there being "no English Commentary on the New Testament brought up to the level of modern Theological Science." [As if "the level" had been rising of late!] "Butler and Paley are still our text-books on the Evidences; and we are defending old beliefs behind wooden walls against the rifled cannon and iron broadsides of modern Philosophy."—p. 337. What a strange misapprehension of the entire question,—of the relation of Theological to Physical Science,—does such a sentence betray!
[103] As the excellent Townson observed long since,—"The brightness of countenance and raiment which dazzled and overcame the sight of His Apostles when He was Transfigured on the Mount, was to Him but a ray of that glory in which He dwelt before the Worlds were made."—Sermon on "The manner of our Saviour's Teaching,"—Works, vol. i. p. 282.
[104] St. Matth. xvii. 2.
[105] St. Mark ix. 3.
[106] 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16.—If it be more philosophical to suppose that the Light which shone upon the earth during the first three days proceeded from the Sun, (the orb of which remained invisible,) and not from any extraneous independent source,—I have no objection whatever to such a supposition,—or indeed to any other which suffers the inspired record to remain intact. I am by no means clear however that Philosophy (begging her pardon,) does not entirely mistake her office, when she pretends to explain the first chapter of Genesis. Hence, her constrained language, and unnatural manner, when she desires to be respectful,—her inconsequential remarks and perpetual blunders when she rather prefers to be irreligious. She is simply out of her element, and is discoursing of what she does not understand.—Theology, dealing with a physical problem by the method of Theological Science; and Philosophy, applying to a chapter in the Bible the physical method,—are alike at fault, and alike ridiculous. This truth, however obvious, does not seem to be generally understood.
But, (to return to the first three days of Creation,)—since the Author of Revelation seems to design that I should understand that Sun, Moon, and Stars not only did not come to view until the fourth day,—but also that they were not re-invested with their immemorial function and office until then,—I find no difficulty, remembering with whom I have to do, even with Him who sowed the vault of Heaven so thick with stars, each one of which may be not a sun but a system[107];—when, I say, I attend to the emphatic nature of the inspired record, on the one hand, and to God's Omnipotence on the other,—I have no difficulty in supposing that He embraced the Sun in a veil, for just so long a period as it seemed Him good, and when He willed that it should re-appear, that He withdrew the veil again. The name for the operation just now alluded to belongs to the province of Philosophy. Divinity is all the while thinking about something infinitely better and higher.
[107] Herschel.
[108] Gen. i. 6.
[109] Ibid. 20.
[110] Job xxxvii. 18.
[111] Ps. civ. 2.
[112] Is. xl. 22.
[113] Job xxvi. 8.
[114] Prov. xxx. 4.
[115] See also Job ix. 8. Even in Job xxxvii. 18, the sky is said to be "spread out." So Is. xlv. 12, &c.
[116] Job xxvi. 11.
[117] 2 Sam. xxii. 8.
[118] Ps. lxxviii. 23.
[119] Gen. vii. 11.
[120] Job ix. 6. Ps. lxxv. 3. See Blomfield's Glossary to Prom. Vinct. v. 357.
[121] Comp. Is. xxiv. 18.
[122] See Is. xxiv. 18 and Mal. iii. 10.
[123] ἐκλείπειν τὴν ἕδραν. (Herod.) See Copleston's Remains, p. 107.
[124] Eccl. Pol. 1. iii. § 2.
[125] Gen. i. 26.
[126] "The difficulty," he says, (alluding to Gen. i. 1,) "lies in this, that the heaven is distinctly said to have been formed ... on the second day." (p. 226.) But this is the language of a man determined that there shall be a difficulty. "The Heavens and the Earth" clearly denote, (in the simple phraseology of a primitive age,) the sum of all created things; the great transaction which Nehemiah has so strikingly expounded:—"Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens, with all their host,—the Earth and all things that are therein;" including "the sea, with all that is therein." (Neh. ix. 6.) Whereas "the firmament" of ver. 6, (which God called "Heaven" in ver. 8,) can only indicate the blue vault immediately overhead, wherein fowls fly. (ver. 20.) If this be not the meaning of Gen. i. 1, one half of the phrase is "proleptical,"—the other half not: for the creation of Earth is nowhere recorded, if not in ver. 1.... But surely it is a waste of words to discuss such "difficulties" as these.
[127] Consider especially Heb. iv. 9 and 10; and consider, (besides Exod. xx. 11,) Deut. v. 15. See also Col. ii. 17.
[128] "There have been found within the area of these islands upwards of 15,000 species of once living things, every one differing specifically from those of the present Creation. Agassiz states that, with the exception of one small fossil fish, (discovered in the clay-stones of Greenland,) he has not found any creature of this class, in all the Geological strata, identical with any fish now living." (Pattison's The Earth and the World, p. 27.)
[129] I allude to such passages as the following,—all of which are to be found in Mr. Goodwin's Essay:—
"We are asked to believe that a vision of creation was presented to him (Moses) by Divine power, for the purpose of enabling him to inform the world of what he had seen; which vision inevitably led him to give a description which has misled the world for centuries, and in which the truth can now only with difficulty be recognized." (p. 247.) "The theories [of Hugh Miller and of Dr. Buckland] assume that appearances only, not facts, are described; and that, in riddles which would never have been suspected to be such, had we not arrived at the truth from other sources." (p. 249.) "For ages, this simple view of Creation satisfied the wants of man, and formed a sufficient basis of theological teaching:" but "modern research now shews it to be physically untenable." (p. 253.)
"The writer asserts solemnly and unhesitatingly that for which he must have known that he had no authority." But this was only because "the early speculator was harassed by no such scruples" as "arise from our modern habits of thought, and from the modesty of assertion (!) which the spirit of true science has taught us." He therefore "asserted as facts what he knew in reality only as probabilities.... He had seized one great truth.... With regard to details, observation failed him."—(pp. 252-3.)
[130] p. 329.
[131] pp. 307-309.
[132] Notice prefixed to Essays and Reviews.
[133] p. 255.
[134] Nos. 74, 76, 78, 81.
[135] I allude particularly to the late Hugh James Rose, B.D.
[136] Neh. iv. 17, 18.
[137] St. Luke xviii. 8.
[138] See Nelson's Life of Bull, p. 329, &c.
[139] See his admirable Preface.
[140] Newman's dedication of his 'Lectures on Romanism and popular Protestantism.'
[141] See the 'Monitum' prefixed to Dr. Routh's Testimonia De Auctoritate S. Scripturæ Ante-Nicæna.—Reliqq. Sacræ, vol. v. p. 335.
[142] "In 1781, the first Sunday School was established in England by Robert Raikes, a publisher and bookseller in Gloucester."—National Society's Circular.
[143] Primary Charge, at the end of his Sermons.
[144] Rev. M. Pattison, in Essays and Reviews, p. 307.
[145] pp. 338, 375, 420 top line, 428, &c.
[146] See all this very ably and interestingly explained in an article reprinted from the 'Christian Remembrancer' (Jan. 1861,) On certain Characteristics of Holy Scripture, by the Rev. J. G. Cazenove, p. 11, &c.
[147] Nor is this a mere slip of Mr. Jowett's pen. At p. 372, he states that "a majority of the Clergy throughout the world,"—(with whom he associates the "instincts of many laymen, perhaps also individual interest,")—are in favour of "withholding the Truth." But, he adds, (with the indignant emphasis of Virtue when she is reproaching Vice,)—"a higher expediency pleads that 'honesty is the best policy,' and that truth alone 'makes free!'"—How would such insolence be treated in the common intercourse of daily life?—(I will not pause to remark on Mr. Jowett's wanton abuse of the Divine saying recorded in St. John viii. 32,—repeated at p. 351.)
[148] I suppose that there may have been many inspired Psalmists; and that perhaps the book of Judges was not all by one hand. With reference to the two books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, see 1 Chron. xxix. 29, 30. 2 Chron. ix. 29: xi. 2: xii. 15, 5, 7: xiii. 22.
[149] By the Jews themselves they were reckoned as 22.
[150] "It is remarkable that the word Γραφή, which means simply Writing, is reserved and appropriated in the New Testament (where it occurs fifty times) to the Sacred writings, i.e. to the Holy Scriptures; and marks the separation of the Scriptures from all "common books," indeed from all other writings in the world."—Wordsworth 'On Inspiration,'—p. 85.
[151] St. Luke xvi. 17.
[152] οὐ δύναται λυθῆναι ἡ γραφή,—St. John x. 35.
[153] e.g. (i) Long passages:—
Judges i. 11-15 quotes Joshua xv. 15-19.—2 Sam. xxii. quotes Ps. xviii.—1 Chron. xvi. quotes Ps. xcvi., and Ps. cv.—2 Kings xix. quotes Is. xxxvii.—2 Kings xx. quotes Is. xxxviii., xxxix.
(ii) One or two sentences:—
Numb. xiv. 18 quotes Exod. xxxvi. 6, 7.—Ps. lxviii. 1 quotes Numb. x. 35.—Ps. lxviii. 7, 8 quotes Judges v. 4, 5.—Ps. cxviii. 14 quotes Exod. xv. 2.—Prov. xxx. 5 quotes Ps. xviii. 30.—Joel ii. 13 quotes Jonah iv. 2.—Isaiah xii. 2 quotes Exod. xv. 2.—Isaiah xiii. 6 quotes Joel i. 15.—Isaiah li. 6 quotes Ps. cii. 25-7.—Isaiah lii. 10 quotes Ps. xcviii. 2, 3.—Micah iv. 1, 2, 3 quotes Isaiah ii. 2, 3, 4.—Nahum i. 15 quotes Isaiah lii. 7.—Zeph. iii. 19 quotes Micah iv. 6.—Habakkuk ii. 14 quotes Isaiah xi. 9.—Jeremiah x. 13: li. 16 quotes Ps. cxxxv. 7.—Jeremiah xlviii. quotes Isaiah xv. 16.—Jeremiah xxvi. 18 quotes Micah iii. 12.—1 Chron. xxix. 15 quotes Ps. xxxix. 12.
(iii) Allusive references.—(This would involve a prolonged reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, which would be even out of place here.)
[154] See pp. 234-5.
[155] Rev. Ralph Churton's Sermon "On the Quotations in the Old Testament," (1807,) published in Townson's Works, vol. i. p. cxxxiv.,—where see the interesting note.
[156] Rev. Ralph Churton's Sermon, quoted in note (t, [our 155]), pp. cxliv-v.
[157] E.g. Gen. xxviii. 11, 12: xxxii. 1-3. Exod. xxiv. 10.—St. Luke xxii. 43-45. St. Matth. xxvii. 52, 53. St. Jude ver. 9.
[158] E.g. Jacob, Joseph, David.—St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John.
[159] E.g. Gen. viii. 9: xxxvii. 15-17: xlviii. 17, 18. Exod. ii. 6.—St. Luke viii. 55. St. John xiii. 4, 5: xxi.
[160] E.g. in Heb. viii. 8-12, where Jer. xxxi. 31-36 is quoted. See Acts ii. 17-21, where Joel ii. 28-32 is quoted.
[161] It is supposed that the three well-known references to profane writers, (Acts xvii. 28. 1 Cor. xv. 33. Tit. i. 12, [concerning which see Jerome, Opp. i. 424: vii. 471,])—the place in St. Matthew, (xxvii. 9,)—and St. James iv. 5,—are scarcely exceptions to the statement in the text.
[163] Only given by St. Matthew and St. Luke.
[164] Only found in St. Luke iii. 36.
[165] Only found in St. Matth. i. 5.
[166] Only found in Acts vii. 16.
[167] Only found in Acts vii. 23.
[168] St. James v. 17,—mentioned also by our Lord, St. Luke iv. 25; who informs us that Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites. This is only revealed in St. Luke xi. 30.
[169] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[170] St. Jude ver. 9.
[171] 2 Tim. iii. 8.
[172] See Heb. xi. 19. Consider Rom. iv. 19.
[173] Acts vii. 16.
[174] Compare Exod. ii. 2, 3 with Acts vii. 20. Consider Rev. ii. 14: also Heb. xii. 21: also Heb. ix. 19, &c.
[175] Sermons, by the Rev. C. P. Eden, p. 185.
[176] Τί γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Νόμος; Εὐαγγέλιον προκατηγγελμένον· τί δὲ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον; Νόμος πεπληρώμενος. Justin: Quæst. ci. p. 456.
[177] Eadem sunt in Vetere et Novo: ibi obumbrata, hic revelata; ibi præfigurata, hic manifesta. (Augustine: Quæst. xxxiii., in Num. § 1. m. iii. p. 541.)—In Veteri Testamento est occultatio Novi: in Novo Testamento est manifestatio Veteris. (Id. De Catechiz. Rudibus, § 8.—See also Quæst. lxxiii. in Exod.)
[180] E.g. Gen. xi. 5-8: xviii. 17-21.
[181] E.g. Gen. vi. 6. 2 Sam. xi. 27.
[182] E.g. 2 Kings xix. 35. St. Matth. xxviii. 2, 3.
[183] Rev. i. 10, 11.
[184] Analogy, P. II. ch. vii.
[185] Butler's Analogy, P. ii. ch. vii.
[186] Heb. viii. 1.
[187] St. Luke iv. 21.
[188] St. John v. 46.
[189] St. Luke xxiv. 27.
[190] St. Luke xxiv. 44.
[191] Dr. Wordsworth (Occasional Sermon 54,) On the Inspiration of the Old Testament, (1859.)—p. 70.
[192] 2 Tim. ii. 2.
[194] Photius, p. 195, ed. Bekker.—"Eos simul jungendos censui,—Polycarpum, Irenæum, Hippolytum; cum Hippolytus discipulus Irenæi fuisset, Irenæusque Polycarpum, Joannis Apostoli discipulum, audivisset."—Routh, Preface to Opuscula, p. x.
[195] St. Luke xxiv. 27.
[196] St. John xiv. 26. The fulfilment of this promise repeatedly occurs: as in St. John ii. 17, 22: xii. 16: xiii. 7: St. Luke xxiv. 8. Consider St. John xx. 9.
[197] 1 Cor. xii., xiii., xiv., &c.
[198] St. Luke xxiv. 45.
[199] Acts ii. 4-21.
[200] See Mr. Jowett's Essay, p. 354.
[201] Ps. xcii. 5.
[202] Acts viii. 30, 31.—"'Revela,' inquit David, 'oculos meos, et considerabo mirabilia de Lege Tuâ.' Si tantus Propheta tenebras ignorantiæ confitetur, quâ nos putas parvulos, et pene lactantes, inscitiæ nocte circumdari? Hoc autem velamen non solum in facie Moysi, sed et in Evangelistis et in Apostolis positum est."—Hieronymus, Ep. lviii. vol. i. p. 323.
[203] Dr. Moberly, as before, pp. liii.-iv.
[204] Minor Works, vol. ii. p. 10.
[205] Ibid. p. 6.
[208] From a Sermon by the Rev. F. Woodward, quoted below, at p. 249.—In illustration of the learned writer's concluding remark, take this from the Creed of Lyons, contained in Irenæus (a.d. 180),—Καὶ εἰς Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον, τὸ διὰ τῶν Προφητῶν κεκηρυχὸς τὰς οἰκονομίας, καὶ τὰς ἐλεύσεις. In the Creed of Constantinople, we read, Τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον ... τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν Προφητῶν.
[209] The Creed of Lyons begins by describing itself as that which ἡ μὲν Ἐκκλησία, καίπερ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἕως περάτων τῆς γῆς διεσπαρμένη, παρὰ δὲ τῶν Ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν ἐκείνων μαθητῶν παραλαβοῦσα, κ.τ.λ. Most refreshing of all, however, are the concluding words of that Creed: so comfortable are they that I cannot deny myself the consolation of transcribing them here, where indeed they are very much ad rem:—
Τοῦτο τὸ κήρυγμα παρειληφυῖα, καὶ ταύτην τὴν πίστιν, ὡς προέφαμεν, ἡ ἐκκλησία, καίπερ ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ διεσπαρμένη, ἐπιμελῶς φυλάσσει, ὡς ἕνα οἶκον οἰκοῦσα· καὶ ὁμοίως πιστεύει τούτοις, ὡς μίαν ψυχὴν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχουσα καρδίαν· καὶ συμφώνως ταῦτα κηρύσσει, καὶ διδάσκει, καὶ παραδίδωσιν, ὡς ἓν στόμα κεκτημένη. Καὶ γὰρ αἱ κατὰ τὸν κόσμον διάλεκτοι ἀνόμοιαι, ἀλλ' ἡ δύναμις τῆς παραδόσεως μία καὶ ἡ αὐτή. Καὶ οὔτε αἱ ἐν Γερμανίαις ἱδρυμέναι ἐκκλησίαι ἄλλως πεπιστεύκασιν, ἢ ἄλλως παραδιδόασιν, οὔτε ἐν ταῖς Ἰβηρίαις, οὔτε ἐν Κελτοῖς, οὔτε κατὰ τὰς ἀνατολὰς, οὔτε ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, οὔτε ἐν Λιβύῃ, οὔτε αἱ κατὰ μέσα τοῦ κόσμου ἱδρυμέναι. Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ὁ ἥλιος, τὸ κτίσμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς, οὕτω καὶ τὸ κήρυγμα τῆς ἀληθείας πανταχῇ φαίνει, καὶ φωτίζει πάντας ἀνθρώπους τοὺς βουλομένους εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν. Καὶ οὔτε ὁ πάνυ δυνατὸς ἐν λόγῳ τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις προεστώτων ἕτερα τούτων ἐρεῖ, (οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὑπὲρ τὸν διδάσκαλον,) οὔτε ὁ ἀσθενὴς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ ἐλαττώσει τὴν παράδοσιν. Μιᾶς γὰρ καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς πίστεως οὔσης, οὔτε ὁ πολὺ περὶ αὐτῆς δυνάμενος εἰπεῖν ἐπλεόνασεν, οὔτε ὁ τὸ ὀλίγον ἠλαττόνησε.—See Heurtley's Harmonia Symbolica, p. 9.
[210] Abridged from Dr. Moberly, as before, pp. lii.-v.
[211] Καὶ ὅνπερ τρόπον ὁ τοῦ σινάπεως σπόρος, ἐν μικρῷ κόκκῳ, πολλοὺς περιέχει τοὺς κλάδους, οὕτω καὶ ἡ Πίστις αὕτη, ἐν ὀλίγοις ῥήμασι, πᾶσαν τὴν ἐν τῇ Παλαιᾷ καὶ Καινῇ τῆς εὐσεβείας γνῶσιν ἐγκεκόλπισται. —Cyril. Hieros. Cat. v. § 12,—quoted by Heurtley.
[212] Answer. He certainly does not employ the identical language of the Nicene Council, or of the (so called) Athanasian Creed. But what then?
[213] Ans. Passages of the Epistles "distributed in alternate clauses between our Lord's Humanity and Divinity," begging Mr. Jowett's pardon, is nonsense. But no passage in St. Paul's Epistles which relates to the Humanity, or to the Divinity of Christ, could be said to "lose its meaning" by being unlocked by its own proper clue: or, if the statement be complex, by being distributed under two heads.
[214] Ans. But not, I suppose, to reconcile them? Why use inaccurate language on so solemn a subject?
[215] Ans. Doubtless we have to suppose this!
[216] Ans. Not so. For "there is one Person of the Father, and another of the Son."
[217] Ans. Doubtless we have to suppose this!
[218] Ans. But He did not doubt!
[219] 1 St. John iv. 2, 3.—2 St. John ver. 7.
[220] Dr. Moberly, as before, p. xlvii.
[221] E.g. "We should observe how the popular explanations of Prophecy, as in heathen (Thucyd. ii. 54,) so also in Christian times, had adapted themselves to the circumstances of mankind." (The Reverend writer can never for a moment divest himself of his theory that Thucydides and the Bible stand on the same footing!) "We might remark that in our own country, and in the present generation especially, the interpretation of Scripture had assumed an apologetic character, as though making an effort to defend itself against some supposed inroad of Science and Criticism." (p. 340.) ... Just as if any other attitude was possible when one has to do with 'Essayists and Reviewers!'
[222] One would imagine that the Essayist and his critic were entirely agreed. See below, p. 74,—"I refuse to accept any theory whatsoever." And p. 115,—"Theory I have none."
[223] Had the following passage occurred sooner to my recollection, it should have been sooner inserted:—"Are we to conduct the Interpretation of Holy Scripture as we would that of any other writing? We are and we are not. So far as the words are concerned, the mere words of Scripture have the same office with those of all language written or spoken in sincerity." They must be studied "by the same means and the same rules which would guide us to the meaning of any other work; by a knowledge of the languages in which the books were written, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Greek, and of those other languages, as the Syriac and Arabic, which may illustrate them; and of all the ordinary rules of Grammar and Criticism, and the peculiar information respecting times and circumstances, history and customs,—all the resources, in a word, of the Interpretation of any work of any kind. The Grammatical and Historical interpretation of profane or sacred writings is the same.... "All Scripture," meanwhile, "is given by Inspiration of God:" and this at once introduces several important differences; which whoever neglects may yet, with whatsoever advantages of learning and talent, fail to discover the real meaning of the Word of God."—From Dr. Hawkins (Provost of Oriel)'s Inaugural Lecture as Dean Ireland's Professor, delivered in 1847,—pp. 29-30.
It is but fair to Mr. Jowett to add that, in terms, he has very nearly (not quite) said the self-same thing himself, at p. 337, (upper half the page.) But it is the peculiar method of this most slippery writer, or most illogical thinker, occasionally to grant almost all that heart can desire, as far as words go; but straightway to deny, or evacuate, or explain away, the thing which those words ought to signify.—Thus, at p. 337, he volunteers the remark that "No one who has a Christian feeling would place Classical on a level with Sacred Literature;" and at p. 377, he observes that, "There are many respects in which Scripture is unlike any other book." And yet, (as I have shown, p. cxliii. to p. cl.,) Mr. Jowett puts the Bible on a level with Sophocles and Plato; and argues throughout as if Scripture were in no essential respect unlike any other book!
[224] "Had this writer reminded us that the New Testament Greek is a Greek of different age from that of the classical writers; had he simply warned us that we must not press our Attic Greek scholarship too far, but study the Alexandrian Greek of the Septuagint, Philo, &c. in order to ascertain the exact meaning of the words and phrases of the writers of the New Testament;—still more, if, as the result of such study on his own part, he had offered us some well-digested observations on the use of tenses, articles, or particles in the sacred writings;—he would have done some service. But this talk about 'excessive attention to the article,' and 'particles being often mere excrescences of style,' is of no effect except to expose the writer to ridicule. It sounds as if he had been accustomed to lay down the law to an admiring audience of 'clever young men,' and had forgotten that there were still 'men in Denmark' who understood Greek."—Some Remarks on Essays and Reviews, prefixed to Dr. Moberly's 'Sermons on the Beatitudes.' (1861.) pp. lxii.-iii.
[225] Quarterly Review, No. 217, p. 298.
[226] Quarterly Review, No. 217, pp. 265-6.
[227] St. Matth. ii .1, 22.
[228] St. Luke ii. 41.
[229] See Sermon VII., pp. 222-232.
[230] Essays and Reviews, p. 109.
[231] See Dr. Moberly, (as before,) p. lv.-lx.
[232] Edinburgh Review, (April, 1861,) p. 476.
[233] The Rev. H. B. Wilson says,—"If those who distinguish themselves in Science and Literature cannot, in a scientific and literary age, be effectually and cordially attached to the Church of their nation, they must sooner or later be driven into a position of hostility to it." (p. 198.) This is one of the many notes, if not of "concert and comparison," at least of intense sympathy between the Essayists and Reviewers.
[234] Quarterly Review, No. 217, p. 266.
[235] See at pp. 351, 352, 357, 358, 361, 365, 367, 413, &c.
[236] Quarterly Review, as before, p. 282.
[237] Take a few instances:—Mr. Wilson and Mr. Jowett speak of the Gospels as more or less accurately embodying a common tradition, pp. 161 and 346.—Dr. Temple and Mr. Jowett propose the heart and conscience, as the overruling principle, pp. 42-5, and 410:—and insist that the Bible is "a Spirit, not a Letter," pp. 36 and 357, 375, 425.—Dr. Temple and Dr. Williams regard the Bible as the voice of conscience, pp. 45 and 78:—look for a verifying faculty in the individual, pp. 45 and 83:—dwell on the "interpolations" in Scripture, pp. 47 and 78.—Mr. Wilson and Mr. Jowett insist on the meaning which Scripture had to those who first heard it, as its true meaning, pp. 219, 223, 230, 232, and 338, 378:—on the necessity of reconciling Intellectual men to Scripture, pp. 198 and 374.—Professor Powell and Mr. Jowett are of one mind as to Miracles, pp. 109 and 349.—Dr. Temple and Mr. Jowett delight in the same image of the Colossal Man, pp. 1-49 and 331, 387, 422.—Dr. Williams and Mr. Jowett coincide in their estimate of the German Commentators, pp. 67 and 340.—Dr. Temple and Dr. Williams are of one mind as to the past training of our Race, pp. 1-49, and 51. They are generally agreed as to the untrustworthiness of Genesis, and of the Scripture generally, the hopeless contradictions between the Evangelists, &c., &c. They hold the same language about our having outlived the Faith, ('Traditional Christianity,' as it is called;) the impossibility of freedom of thought; the necessity of providing some new Religious system; the effete nature of Creeds and formularies of Belief; the advance in Natural Science as likely to prove fatal to Theology, &c., &c.
[238] See St. John iii. 2: v. 36: x. 25, 37-8: xiv. 11: xv. 24: St. Luke vii. 20-22, &c., &c.
[239] Creed of Lyons, a.d. 180; see above, p. clxxx., note.
[240] pp. cxciv.-v.
[242] Some Remarks, &c., pp. xxiii.-xxv.