Inspiration and Interpretation Part 16

[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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.sumed 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 att.i.tude 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 pa.s.sage 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 ill.u.s.trate them; and of all the ordinary rules of Grammar and Criticism, and the peculiar information respecting times and circ.u.mstances, 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 G.o.d_:" 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 G.o.d."--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 Cla.s.sical 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 cla.s.sical writers; had he simply warned us that we must not press our Attic Greek scholars.h.i.+p 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 Beat.i.tudes.' (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. clx.x.x., note.

[240] pp. cxciv.-v.

[241] See pp. 57 and 170.

[242] _Some Remarks, &c._, pp. xxiii.-xxv.

$Seven Sermons.$

SUBJECTS OF THE SERMONS.

(_For a detailed account of the Contents of these Sermons, the Reader is referred to the beginning of the Volume._)

I.--THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE RECOMMENDED; AND A METHOD OF STUDYING IT DESCRIBED p. 1

II.--NATURAL SCIENCE AND THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE p. 23

III.--INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE.--GOSPEL DIFFICULTIES.--THE WORD OF G.o.d INFALLIBLE.--OTHER SCIENCES SUBORDINATE TO THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE p. 53

IV.--THE PLENARY INSPIRATION OF EVERY PART OF THE BIBLE, VINDICATED AND EXPLAINED.--NATURE OF INSPIRATION.--THE TEXT OF SCRIPTURE p. 91

V.--INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.--INSPIRED INTERPRETATION.--THE BIBLE IS NOT TO BE INTERPRETED LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK.--G.o.d, (NOT MAN,) THE REAL AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE p. 139

VI.--THE DOCTRINE OF ARBITRARY SCRIPTURAL ACCOMMODATION CONSIDERED p. 183

VII.--THE MARVELS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, MORAL AND PHYSICAL.--JAEL'S DEED DEFENDED.--MIRACLES VINDICATED p. 221

PRaeVENERUNT OCULI MEI AD TE DILUCULO, UT MEDITARER ELOQUIA TUA.

QUAM DULCIA FAUCIBUS MEIS ELOQUIA TUA: SUPER MEL ORI MEO.

LUCERNA PEDIBUS MEIS VERb.u.m TUUM, ET LUMEN SEMITIS MEIS.