CHAPTER VIII.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE APPARENT AND GENUINE TRUTHS OF THE LITERAL SENSE OF THE HOLY WORD EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED.

IN

67

N many parts of the sacred Scriptures, however, particularly in the Gospels, we find true doctrine plainly revealed for the simple in heart," the babes in Christ" (1 Cor. iii. 1; 1 Pet. ii. 2); but would we behold the hidden splendors of heaven, which fill the inner courts of the sanctuary, "the everlasting gates must be unfolded,"we must enter through "the veil," and as we meditate on what we see, we cannot fail to adopt the exclamation of the patriarch, and say, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. xxvii. 17). Nor let it for one moment be supposed that the internal sense of Scripture invalidates or injures, in the slightest degree, its extrinsic meaning and authority. On the contrary, as the soul animates and confers dignity on the body in which it dwells, so the spiritual sense gives life to and exalts the literal sense, which is acknowledged to be eminently holy in consequence of the heavenly meaning of which it is the repository, and which, far from being disparaged, is preserved by it and for it with the most scrupulous exactness. Of the Word of God in both senses it may be truly said, in the language of the author of the Epistle to the He

67"There is a striking passage in Augus- ing not only to feed all with obvious truth, tine," says the author of Tracts for the Times, but also to exercise and prove all by that lxxxix., p. 45, "which collects, as it were, into truth which is remote from view: having in a point, the confessions on this head of every its easy parts whatever its hard parts contain. generation of believers; 'The style itself in But lest being open to view, they should inwhich Holy Scripture is framed, how open cur contempt, the same truths again are made is it to every one's approach, how impossi- desirable by concealment; to meet the deble to be searched out by any but a very few! sire, they are, as it were, produced anew; What things it contains that are obvious and and being so renewed, they insinuate themopen, these, like a familiar friend, it speaks selves with a kind of delight. Thus wholesimply to the heart, both of unlearned and some correction is provided for corrupt learned. As to those, on the other hand, minds, wholesome nourishment for feeble which it hides in mysteries, neither does it minds, and wholesome enjoyment for great elevate them by lofty speech, such as might minds. That mind alone is set against this deter from a nearer approach the dull and teaching, that, either through error knows untaught mind, as a poor man sometimes not its healing power, or through sickness fears to approach a rich one; but Scripture loathes it as medicine.'"-Ep. 137, § 18, t. ii., p. invites all by a lowly kind of speech, intend- | 310.

brews, that it "is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (iv. 12). The letter is composed so as to engage the attention of children and to arouse the indifference of the most supine. Here the rudimental elements of truth and goodness are offered for acceptance. It calls "sinners to repentance" by exciting their hopes and awakening their fears. External promises are annexed to obedience, threatenings to disobedience. To adapt its inward spirit to the lowest and weakest, appearances of truth, or truths as they present themselves to the natural understandings of men, are often substituted for genuine truths, things relative for things absolute. Without impairing the intrinsic verity, the value, the purity, or the efficacy of the Word, in the least, the most salutary lessons are presented therein, under every possible diversity of form, and so wonderfully and mercifully is the whole accommodated to every character, and brought down to the level of every apprehension, that all minds, both simple and intelligent, the illiterate and the learned, may be gradually led, by means of it, from the slavery of sinful propensities and habits, to the liberty of heaven,-from spiritual darkness to God's marvellous light,—without injury to their freedom. These adaptations of truth to the varieties of human perception may be compared to lenses of various powers-convex for one, concave for another. There are also numerous instances in which genuine doctrine concerning the Lord, and the essentials of salvation, shine clearly and unmistakably, even through the cortex of the letter. These agree in every respect with the deeper truths of the inward spirit, and may always be universally recognized. As the mind receives and obeys, it becomes expanded and elevated, prepared for higher degrees of spiritual light and usefulness. It is like the dawn which precedes the rising of the sun, or the spring which heralds the coming year.

68

Nor must we omit to notice the fact that all the great doctrines of

See Matt. xxii. 37; Isa. xlv. 22; Matt. xix. | which cannot be deciphered without a key, 17; John xiv. 9, 10; Rev. xxii. 12.

"We have compared the letter of the Word of God to the skin that covers the body, and its hidden contents to the interior organs and members; . but to illustrate the present subject, the Holy Word may be compared to a beautiful female clothed in becoming drapery, but whose face and hands remain uncovered: thus, while the greater part of the letter of the Scriptures consists of truths veiled over by natural images,

the things most indispensable to be known are openly displayed."—Noble's Plen. Insp., p. 115.

So Augustine, cited by Bishop Hall, asserts, "There is not so much difficulty in the Scriptures to come to those things which are necessary to salvation."-Ep. 3. And in another place, "In those things which are openly laid down in Scripture, are found all those things which contain our faith and rules of life.”— De Doct. Chris., lii., c. 9.

69

the Christian religion, those which involve the first steps of moral duty and are essential to salvation, must clearly and legibly be drawn from, and supported by, the literal sense of the Word, in which divine truth lies couched in all its fulness and power. It is the "hem" of the Lord's outer garments, whence healing virtue issues forth on every side (Matt. xiv. 36). Just as appearances in the works of God are to be explained by the ascertained deductions of scientific research, so the appearances of truth in the letter of the Word of God must be expounded by the facts of true doctrine in order to harmonize with genuine wisdom.70

The fallacies arising from primary impressions on the mind are "truths in the time of ignorance," and have to be removed or dissipated in the progress we make in all kinds of knowledge. Nor, constituted as we are, capable of an everlasting advancement in intelligence, is this any imperfection; on the contrary, it lies, in reality, at the root of all improvement. We are surrounded with fallacies and appearances of truth, natural and mental, which observation, experience, and reflection only can explain and correct. Thus all things appear to originate from mere nature. The sun appears to move daily round the earth, to rise in the east and to set in the west. It appears to us as though we beheld objects out of the

69 See Rom. i. 16; Ps. xxix. 4; Luke iv. 32; | [senses]; whereas the places where it is disIsa. viii. 20.

closed are unequivocal, and agree only with the spiritual sense."-Paschal's Thoughts.

"It is the manner of Scripture," says Gregory of Nyssa, "to describe what appears to be instead of what really is."-Ep. de Python, p. $70. "Or in other words," adds Dr. Davidson, "the diction of the Bible describes circumstances and physical truths optically, according to the popular opinions and customary

70"The truths of the literal sense of the Word are, in some cases, not naked truths, but only appearances of truths, and are like similitudes and comparisons taken from the objects of nature, and thus accommodated and brought down to the apprehension of simple minds and of children. But whereas they are at the same time correspondences, they are the receptacles and abodes of genu-phraseology of men, without strict scientific ine truth: and they are like containing vessels, like a crystalline cup containing excellent wine, or a silver dish containing rich meats; or they are like garments clothing the body,-like swaddling-clothes on an infant, or an elegant dress on a beautiful virgin; they are also like the scientifics of the natural man,-which comprehend in them the perceptions and affections of truth of the spiritual man."-S. S., n. 40.

"When the Word of God (which is true) is literally false, it is spiritually true. This spiritual sense is covered by another, in a vast number of places, and uncovered in some,-rarely, indeed, but nevertheless in such a manner that the places where it is concealed are equivocal, and agree with both

accuracy."-Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 118. "An object seen in two different mediums appears crooked or broken, however straight and entire it may be in itself."-Addison.

"Even the most advanced language is not yet, and never will be after all, more than the language of appearances. The visible world, much more than you suppose, is a passing shadow, a scene of illusions and of phantoms. What you call a reality is still in itself but a phenomenon considered in relation to a more exalted reality, and to an ulterior analysis. . . . The expression of appearances, accordingly, provided it be exact, is, among men, philosophically correct, and what it behoved the Scriptures to em ploy."-Gaussen's Theopneusty, pp. 250-1.

eye or at a distance from us. The sky over our heads appears concave, the earth beneath our feet as a plain. These appearances with many others are so described in the letter of the Word; but the genuine truth obtained by scientific investigation and rational analysis, is, we know, the reverse of all this, when we substitute states of life for space and time. To speak according to apparent truths, however, best suits the universal forms of ordinary intercourse, and is sufficient for all the practical purposes of life, because best adapted to the apprehension of all; and when the realities and genuine facts are understood, this mode of speech is attended with no difficulty whatever. To speak according to appearances has been well described by Grindon as the great law of language, "because all language deals primarily with ultimates and externals," or what is first presented to the outward senses and to the apperceptions of the external mind. Nay, further, the language of appearances is equally well, and in some cases, perhaps, far better and more universally, adapted to the expression and apprehension of truth than the correct theory and nomenclature of science, which are always changing, or the strict language of philosophy, which would be understood by few unaccustomed to abstract inquiries.

Even in religious doctrines many fallacies exist, which experience alone can rectify. For instance, it appears to some, even honest, minds, that faith alone saves man from sin, and to others, that good works alone are the ground of acceptance with God. From the mere appearances of the literal sense of Scripture, many have inferred that God is angry and vindictive and delights in punishing the sinner for his transgressions; that the soul is a mere vapor, and the spiritual world a mysterious void; that the body will rise at some future day from the grave, and the earth will be sublimated into a heaven, and that heaven and its joys are the capricious gifts of God, and will even borrow confirmation of these opinions from the letter of the Word. But all such views are the offspring of appearances mistaken for realities, and of subsequent fallacious reasonings thereon, which can only be corrected and dissipated by a right discrimination between apparent and genuine truths, according to the rule of interpretation here advocated. It is even so with natural knowledge. While one mind will perceive a scientific law in its native lustre, another, without a question of insincerity, will have but an obscure idea of it; a third will regard it as a fallacy of the senses, and a fourth will entirely reject it as absolutely false and untenable. Hence we are supplied

with an incontrovertible argument in favor of the necessity of the Word of God, as we find it, being outwardly suited to the early states of all for whom it was designed.

All men are first external and carnal, and by nature inclined only to what is evil; yet they have to be impressed with the indispensable truth of God's existence and government and the hatefulness of sin, before they can trust his guidance, be reclaimèd from iniquity, attain newness of heart and life, become spiritually-minded, and have correct ideas of spiritual things. "Howbeit," saith the apostle Paul, "that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. xv. 46). "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). A child, for instance, sees any given truth relating to the life and conduct merely in its simple appearance, so that parental affection will assume the form of anger, and parental instruction the form of cruelty; but a young man will perceive the same truth in a less imperfect state of the intellect, and see it in another light; mature age, however, will again strip it of many adventitious coverings; while old age will look at it in a higher degree of light, and see it in a totally different point of view, and will from long experience and observation adopt and enforce only what is genuine." When the deluded sensualist, therefore, approaches the Divine Word, he sees, as he only can see, no further than the mere appearances of the letter. He is warned to escape "the wrath to come." He is threatened, that his natural fears and hopes may be awakened, and that he may be impressed with his awful state by nature and by choice. He looks at the Lord as an austere man and a "hard master." He is thus, may be, induced to seek deliv

and he prays for light and knowledge instead of the literal food of his childhood. And still on, when intelligence has awakened his understanding, he sees the need of spiritual wisdom, and begins to search for it in the Word of God, to regenerate his heart and life. He still uses the same words, but prays for interior light. And when this is vouchsafed, it teaches him that beyond all this he has another and a higher need-the love of God in his soul-and at the divine footstool of his Father he seeks and asks for this love in the words of his childhood's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread."

71 Take as an illustration the petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." The child utters it, and is taught from it that all that he enjoys is absolutely given by the Lord. But as childhood passes away, he discovers that his food and clothes are the results of the labor of his parents, and now he prays for life and strength for them. In youth he learns that though they labor, it is "God who gives the increase," and he now prays for the blessing of the Lord on his own works as well as on his parents. When youth passes and manhood dawns, he begins to feel the need of intelligence to guide him aright, and now he thinks of a -ED. spiritual bread on which his soul can live,