Inspiration and Interpretation Part 12

[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 s.p.a.ce," (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 Saeclorum_, 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] _a.n.a.logy_, P. II. ch. ii., _ad fin._

[65] _a.n.a.logy_, 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] _a.n.a.logy_, P. II. c. vi.

[80] Rom. v. 12.

[81] 1 Cor. xv. 22.

[82] Eph. ii. 3.

[83] _a.n.a.logy_, 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 _bona 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?

[88] See above, p. lviii.

[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.