First then, that we may come to this heavenly feast holy, and adorned
with the wedding garment, Matt. xxii. 11, we must search our hearts,
and examine our consciences, not only till we see our sins, but until
we hate them.
But what if a man, seeing his sin, earnestly desire to hate it? Shall he
not at the altar offer up at once his desire, and the yet lingering sin,
and seek for strength? Is not this sacrament medicine as well as food?
Is it an end only, and not likewise the means? Is it merely the
triumphal feast; or is it not even more truly a blessed refreshment for
and during the conflict?
This confession of sins must not be in general terms only, that we are
sinners with the rest of mankind, but it must be a special declaration
to God of all our most heinous sins in thought, word, and deed.
Luther was of a different judgment. He would have us feel and groan
under our sinfulness and utter incapability of redeeming ourselves from
the bondage, rather than hazard the pollution of our imaginations by a
recapitulation and renewing of sins and their images in detail. Do not,
he says, stand picking the flaws out one by one, but plunge into the
river, and drown them! — I venture to be of Luther's doctrine.
Index
In the first Exhortation, before the words
'meritorious Cross and
Passion,'
I should propose to insert
'his assumption of humanity, his
incarnation, and.'
Likewise a little lower down, after the word
'sustenance,'
I would insert
'as.'
For not in that sacrament
exclusively, but in all the acts of assimilative faith, of which the
Eucharist is a solemn, eminent, and representative instance, an instance
and the symbol, Christ is our spiritual food and sustenance.
Index
Marriage, simply as marriage, is not the means
'for the procreation of
children,'
but for the humanization of the offspring procreated.
Therefore in the Declaration at the beginning, after the words,
'procreation of children,'
I would insert,
'and as the means for
securing to the children procreated enduring care, and that they may be'
&c.
Index
Third rubric at the end.
But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, &c.
I think this rubric, in what I conceive to be its true meaning, a
precious document, as fully acquitting our Church of all Romish
superstition, respecting the nature of the Eucharist, in relation to the
whole scheme of man's redemption. But the latter part of it
'he doth
eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his
soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his
mouth'
seems to me very incautiously expressed, and scarcely to be
reconciled with the Church's own definition of a sacrament in general.
For in such a case, where is
'the outward and visible sign of the inward
and spiritual grace given?'1
'Should it occur to any one that the doctrine blamed in the
text, is but in accordance with that of the Church of England, in her
rubric concerning spiritual communion, annexed to the Office for
Communion of the Sick: he may consider, whether that rubric, explained
(as if possible it must be) in consistency with the definition of a
sacrament in the Catechism, can be meant for any but rare and
extraordinary cases: cases as strong in regard of the Eucharist, as that
of martyrdom, or the premature death of a well-disposed catechumen, in
regard of Baptism.'
Keble's Pref. to Hooker, p. 85, n. 70. Ed.
Index
Epistle. — 1 Cor. xv. 1.
Brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you.
Why should the obsolete, though faithful, Saxon translation of
Greek: euaggélion
be retained? Why not
'good tidings?'
Why thus change a most
appropriate and intelligible designation of the matter into a mere
conventional name of a particular book?
Ib.
how that Christ died for our sins.
But the meaning of
Greek: upèr ton hamarti_on haem_on
is, that Christ
died through the sins, and for the sinners. He died through our sins,
and we live through his righteousness.
Gospel, Luke xviii. 14.
This man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
Not simply justified, observe; but justified rather than the other,
Greek: ae ekeinos
, — that is, less remote from salvation.
Index
Collect.
— that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may
of thee be plenteously rewarded. ...
Rather — "that with that enlarged capacity, which without thee we cannot
acquire, there may likewise be an increase of the gift, which from thee
alone we can wholly receive."
Index
v. 2.
Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still the enemy
and the avenger.
To the dispensations of the twilight dawn, to the first messengers of
the redeeming word, the yet lisping utterers of light and life, a
strength and a power were given
because of the enemies
, greater
and of more immediate influence, than to the seers and proclaimers of a
clearer day: — even as the first re-appearing crescent of the eclipsed
moon shines for men with a keener brilliance, than the following larger
segments, previously to its total emersion.
Ib.
v. 5.
Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and
worship.
Power + idea = angel.
Idea - power = man, or Prometheus.
Index
v. 34.
Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel: his worship and strength
is in the clouds.
The 'clouds' in the symbolical language of the Scriptures mean the
events and course of things, seemingly effects of human will or chance,
but overruled by Providence.
Index
This Psalm admits no other interpretation but of Christ, as the Jehovah
incarnate. In any other sense, it would be a specimen of more than
Persian or Moghul hyperbole and bombast, of which there is no other
instance in Scripture, and which no Christian would dare to attribute to
an inspired writer. We know, too, that the elder Jewish Church ranked it
among the Messianic Psalms. N.B. The Word in St. John, and the Name of
the Most High in the Psalms, are equivalent terms.
v. 1.
Give the king thy judgments, O God; and thy righteousness unto the
king's son.
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the only begotten, the
Son of God and God, King of Kings, and the Son of the King of Kings!
Index
v. 2.
O think upon thy congregation, whom thou hast purchased and
redeemed of old.
The Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, the God-Man, the
Judge, the self-promised Redeemer to Adam in the garden!
v. 15.
Thou smotest the heads of Leviathan in pieces; and gavest him to be
meat for the people in the wilderness.
Does this allude to any real tradition?
The Psalm appears to have
been composed shortly before the captivity of Judah.
According to Bishop Horne, the allusion is to the
destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. — Ed.
Index
The reference which our Lord made to these mysterious verses, gives them
an especial interest. The first apostasy, the fall of the angels, is,
perhaps, intimated.
Index
I would fain understand this Psalm; but first I must collate it word by
word with the original Hebrew. It seems clearly Messianic.
Index
vv. 10 — 12.
Dost than shew wonders among the dead, or shall the dead rise up
again and praise thee? &c.
Compare Ezekiel xxxvii.
Index
I think the Bible version might with advantage be substituted for this,
which in some parts is scarcely intelligible.
v. 6.
the waters stand in the hills.
No;
stood above the mountains
. The reference is to the Deluge.
Index
v. 3.
Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
If even to seek the Lord be joy, what will it be to find him? Seek me, O
Lord, that I may be found by thee!
Index
v. 2.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion; (saying)
Rule, &c.
v. 3. Understand:
'Thy people shall offer themselves willingly in the day of conflict in
holy clothing, in their best array, in their best arms and
accoutrements. As the dew from the womb of the morning, in number and
brightness like dew-drops; so shall be thy youth, or the youth of
thee, the young volunteer warriors.'
v. 5.
'He shall shake,'
concuss,
concutiet reges die iræ suæ,
v. 6. For
'smite in sunder, or wound, the heads;'
some word answering to the Latin
conquassare
.
v. 7. For 'therefore,' translate 'then shall he lift up his head again;'
that is, as a man languid and sinking from thirst and fatigue after
refreshment.
N.B. I see no poetic discrepancy between vv. 1 and 5.
Index
To be interpreted of Christ's church.
Index
v. 5.
As the rivers in the south.
Does this allude to the periodical rains?
As a transparency on some night of public rejoicing, seen by common day,
with the lamps from within removed — even such would the Psalms be to me
uninterpreted by the Gospel. O honored Mr. Hurwitz! Could I but make you
feel what grandeur, what magnificence, what an everlasting significance
and import Christianity gives to every fact of your national history — to
every page of your sacred records!
See Horne in loc. note. — Ed.
Index
It is mournful to think how many recent writers have criminated our
Church in consequence of their own ignorance and inadvertence in not
knowing, or not noticing, the contra-distinction here meant between
power and authority. Rites and ceremonies the Church may ordain
jure
proprio:
on matters of faith her judgment is to be received with
reverence, and not gainsaid but after repeated inquiries, and on weighty
grounds.
Index
It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate,
to wear weapons, and to serve in the wars.
This is a very good instance of an unseemly matter neatly wrapped up.
The good men recoiled from the plain words:
'It is lawful for Christian men at the command of a king to slaughter
as many Christians as they can!'
Well! I could most sincerely subscribe to all these articles.
September, 1831.
Notes on Hooker1
p. 67.
Mr. Travers excepted against Mr. Hooker, for that in one of his
sermons he declared, 'That the assurance of what we believe by the
word of God, is not to us so certain as that which we perceive by
sense.' And Mr. Hooker confesseth he said so, and endeavours to
justify it by the reasons following.
There is, I confess, a shade of doubt on my mind as to this position of
Hooker's. Yet I do not deny that it expresses a truth. The question in
my mind is, only, whether it adequately expresses the whole truth. The
ground of my doubt lies in my inability to compare two things that
differ in kind. It is impossible that any conviction of the reason, even
where no act of the will advenes as a co-efficient, should possess the
vividness of an immediate object of the senses; for the vividness is
given by sensation. Equally impossible is it that any truth of the
super-sensuous reason should possess the evidence of the pure sense.
Even the mathematician does not find the same evidence in the results of
transcendental algebra as in the demonstrations of simple geometry. But
has he less assurance? In answer to Hooker's argument I say, — that God
refers to our sensible experience to aid our will by the vividness of
sensible impressions, and also to aid our understanding of the truths
revealed, — not to increase the conviction of their certainty where they
have been understood.
Index p. 2
Ib.
p. 116.
It is a strange blind story this of the last three books, and of
Hooker's live relict, the Beast without Beauty. But Saravia? — If honest
Isaac's account of the tender, confidential, even confessional,
friendship of Hooker and Saravia be accurate, how chanced it that Hooker
did not entrust the manuscripts to his friend who stood beside him in
his last moments? At all events, Saravia must have known whether they
had or had not received the author's last hand. Why were not Mr. Charke
and the other Canterbury parson called to account, or questioned at
least as to the truth of Mrs. Joan's story? Verily, I cannot help
suspecting that the doubt cast on the authenticity of the latter books
by the high church party originated in their dislike of portions of the
contents. —
short, it is a blind story, a true Canterbury tale, dear
Isaac!
Index p. 2
Pref. c. iii. 7. p. 182.
The next thing hereunto is, to impute all faults and corruptions,
wherewith the world aboundeth, unto the kind of ecclesiastical
government established.
readily would this, and indeed all the disputes respecting the
powers and constitution of Church government have been settled, or
perhaps prevented, had there been an insight into the distinct nature
and origin of the National Church and the Church under Christ!
To
the ignorance of this, all the fierce contentions between the Puritans
and the Episcopalians under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, all the errors
and exorbitant pretensions of the Church of Scotland, and the heats and
antipathies of our present Dissenters, may be demonstrably traced.
Ib.
9. p. 183.
Pythagoras, by bringing up his scholars in the speculative knowledge
of numbers, made their conceits therein so strong, that when they came
to the contemplation of things natural, they imagined that in every
particular thing they even beheld as it were with their eyes, how the
elements of number gave essence and being to the works of nature: a
thing in reason impossible; which notwithstanding, through their
mis-fashioned pre-conceit, appeared unto them no less certain, than if
nature had written it in the very foreheads of all the creatures of
God.
I am not so conversant with the volumes of Duns Scotus as to be able to
pronounce positively whether he is an exception, but I can think of no
other instance of high metaphysical genius in an Englishman. Judgment,
solid sense, invention in specialties, fortunate anticipations and
instructive foretact of truth, — in these we can shew giants. It is
evident from this example from the Pythagorean school that not even our
incomparable Hooker could raise himself to the idea, so rich in truth,
which is contained in the words
numero, pondere, et mensura
generantur cœli et terra.
, that Hooker had ever asked himself concerning will, absolute will,
Greek: ho arithmòs hyperaríthmiòs,
numerus omues numeros ponens, nunquam positus!4
Ib.
p. 183.
When they of the 'Family of Love' have it once in their heads, that
Christ doth not signify any one person, but a quality whereof many are
partakers, &c.
If the Familists thought of Christ as a quality, it was a grievous error
indeed. But I have my doubts whether this was not rather an inference
drawn by their persecutors.
Ib.
15. p. 191.
When instruction doth them no good, let them feel but the least degree
of most mercifully-tempered severity, they fasten on the head of the
Lord's vicegerents here on earth, whatsoever they any where find
uttered against the cruelty of blood-thirsty men, and to themselves
they draw all the sentences which Scripture hath in favor of innocency
persecuted for the truth.
How great the influence of the age on the strongest minds, when so
eminently wise a man as Richard Hooker could overlook the obvious
impolicy of inflicting punishments which the sufferer himself will
regard as merits, and all who have any need to be deterred will extol as
martyrdom! Even where the necessity could be plausibly pretended, it is
war, not punitive law; — and then Augustine's argument for Sarah!
Ib.
c. iv. 1. p. 194.
We require you to find out but one church upon the face of the whole
earth, that hath been ordered by your discipline, or hath not been
ordered by ours, that is to say, by episcopal regiment, sithence the
time that the blessed apostles were here conversant.
Hooker was so good a man that it would be wicked to suspect him of
knowingly playing the sophist. And yet strange it is, that he should not
have been aware that it was prelacy, not primitive episcopacy, the
thing, not the name, that the reformers contended against, and, if the
Catholic Church and the national Clerisy were (as both parties unhappily
took for granted) one and the same, contended against with good reason.
Knox's ecclesiastical polity (worthy of Lycurgus), adopted bishops under
a different name, or rather under a translation instead of corruption of
the name
Greek: epáskapoi.
He would have had superintendents.
Ib.
c. v. 2. p. 204.
A law is the deed of the whole body politic, whereof if ye judge
yourselves to be any part, then is the law even your deed also.
This is a fiction of law for the purpose of giving to that, which is
necessarily empirical, the form and consequence of a science, to the
reality of which a code of laws can only approximate by compressing all
liberty and individuality into a despotism. As Justinian to Alfred, and
Constantinople, the Consuls and Senate of Rome to the Lord Mayor,
Aldermen, and Common Council of London; so is the imperial Roman code to
the common and statute law of England. The advocates of the discipline
would, according to our present notions of civil rights, have been
justified in putting fact against fiction, and might have challenged
Hooker to shew, first, that the constitution of the Church in Christ was
a congruous subject of parliamentary legislation; that the legislators
were