THE ,'. 
 
 PERSONALITY AND OFFICE 
 
 OF THB 
 
 CHRISTIAN COMFORTER 
 
 ASSERTED AND EXPLAINED, 
 
 IN A 
 
 COURSE OF SERMONS ON JOHN xvi. 7. 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 IN THE YEAR MDCCCXV, 
 
 At the Lecture founded by 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 REGINALD HEBER, M.A. 
 
 n * 
 
 RECTOR OF HODNET, SALOP, AND LATE FELLOW OF 
 ALL SOULS' COLLEGE. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY? 
 LONDON} AND J. PARKER, OXFORD. 
 
 1816. 
 

TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM WYNDHAM, 
 
 LORD GRENVILLE, 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF OXFORD, 
 
 IN WHOSE LIFE IS EXHIBITED 
 THE SUBSERVIENCY 
 
 OF LEARNING TO RELIGION, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSES 
 
 ARE DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE subject of the following Lectures 
 has for some years past engaged a consi- 
 derable share of the Author's attention ; 
 for their composition, however, he has to 
 regret, (and it may be some apology for 
 their numerous defects,) that less time was 
 allowed him than usually falls to persons 
 in his situation, since he was placed by 
 unavoidable circumstances in the Univer- 
 sity Pulpit, a whole year sooner than he 
 expected it, or than was originally intend- 
 ed by those who honoured him with his 
 late appointment. The importance of the 
 Tenets, which it is his leading object to 
 maintain, has been uniformly upheld by 
 the Church of which he is a member, and 
 
 by 
 
Extract from the last Will and Testament of the 
 late Rev. John Bamptvn, Canon of Salisbury. 
 
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and 
 
 " Eftates to the Chancellor, Matters, and Scholars 
 " of the Univerfity of Oxford for ever, to have and 
 " to hold all and fingular the faid Lands or Eftates 
 " upon truft, and to the intents and purpofes herein- 
 " after mentioned ; that is to fay, I will and appoint 
 " that the Vice-Chancellor of the Univeriity of Ox- 
 " ford for the time being fhall take and receive all 
 " the rents, iffues, and profits thereof, and (after all 
 " taxes, reparations, and neceffary deductions made) 
 " that he pay all the remainder to the endowment 
 " of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be efta- 
 tc blifhed for ever in the faid Univerfity, and to be 
 " performed in the manner following : 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the firft Tuef- 
 " day in Eafter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chofen 
 " by the Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, 
 " in the room adjoining to the Printing-Houfe, 
 " between the hours of ten in the morning and 
 cf two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. 
 " Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement 
 < ; of the laft month in Lent Term, and the end of 
 " the third week in Act Term. 
 
 " Alfo I direct and appoint, that the eight Di- 
 " vinity Lecture Sermons fhall be preached upon 
 " either of the following Subjects to confirm and 
 
 b eftablifh 
 
x EXTRACT, &c. 
 
 " eftablifh the Chriftian Faith, and to confute all 
 " heretics and fchifmatics upon the divine au- 
 " thority of the holy Scriptures upon the autho- 
 " rity of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as 
 " to the faith and practice of the primitive Church 
 " upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour 
 " Jefus Chrift upon the Divinity of the Holy 
 " Ghoft upon the Articles of the Chriftian Faith, 
 66 as comprehended in the Apoftles' and Nicene 
 " Creeds. 
 
 " Alfo I direct, that thirty copies of the eight 
 " Divinity Lecture Sermons fhall be always printed, 
 " within two months after they are preached, and 
 " one copy fhall be given to the Chancellor of the 
 " Univerfity, and one copy to the Head of every 
 " College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city 
 " of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bod- 
 " leian Library ; and the expence of printing them 
 " fhall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or 
 " Eftates given for eftablifhing the Divinity Lec- 
 " ture Sermons ; and the Preacher fhall not be paid, 
 " nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are 
 " printed. 
 
 " Alfo I direct and appoint, that no perfon fhall 
 " be qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Ser- 
 " mons, unlefs he hath taken the degree of Matter 
 " of Arts at leaft, in one of the two Univerfities 
 " of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the fame per- 
 l( fon fhall never preach the Divinity Lecture Ser- 
 " mons twice." 
 
 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7. 
 
 Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient 
 for you that I go away : for if I go not away> 
 the Comforter will not come ; but if 1 depart, 
 I will send him unto you. 
 
 \_ HIS was the prominent topic of con- 
 solation and encouragement among those 
 which our Saviour suggested for the sup- 
 port of his earthly friends under the im- 
 pending affliction of his own departure 
 from the world ; and it is evident, that to 
 expressions thus awful in themselves, and 
 pronounced on so awful an occasion, we 
 must needs attach a more than common 
 interest. 
 
 Had Jesus of Nazareth been no more 
 than a human teacher of Virtue and Phi- 
 losophy, adorned as he was with every good 
 and perfect gift to which our nature had 
 previously aspired in vain, we should have 
 
 B at- 
 
2 LECTURE I. 
 
 attended, dovtbUess, with affectionate and 
 reverential curio&ity, to the latest instruc- 
 tions* of iriatchle'Ss wisdom, the concluding 
 result of a life, in every stage of its career, 
 distinguished by more than human purity. 
 The words of dying men have, mostly, 
 willing auditors. The universal prejudice 
 of mankind (and what is an universal pre- 
 judice but the voice of human nature ?) 
 ascribes to the instructions of Death a 
 something like divinity; and he who was 
 wise and just amid the struggle of con- 
 tending passions and the confusion of 
 worldly cares, may seem to address us 
 with far greater effect and authority when 
 those passions and those cares are gone 
 by for ever. He who is himself to reap no 
 benefit from fraud can hardly be suspected 
 of intentional deception ; he, from W 7 horn 
 the world is even now receding, may dis- 
 cern, in that remoter prospect, the perfect 
 proportions of its general form and value, 
 which (while the mass was nearer to his 
 eye) were lost in the minuter detail of its 
 parts, or obscured by the intervening breath 
 of admiration or calumny. 
 
 Nor 
 
LECTURE I. 3 
 
 Nor can it be denied, that we naturally 
 affix a greater value on that wisdom and 
 friendship of which we are no longer to 
 enjoy the protection ; that we cling with 
 peculiar fondness to whatever is the last of 
 its kind, and that the recollection of the 
 past and the fear of what is to follow, con- 
 spire, under circumstances like these, to 
 stamp the present with a tenfold interest 
 and importance. 
 
 But there is yet another and a peculiar 
 reason why the latest revelations of Jesus 
 have, of all other truths, the strongest claim 
 to our attention. 
 
 A prophet of the most High, (for as 
 such he is acknowledged even by those of 
 his followers who think most meanly of his 
 person and nature,) and the greatest of all 
 to whom the name of prophet has been at 
 any time applied ; we cannot inquire, with- 
 out the strongest and most reverential cu- 
 riosity, what truth was that which he re- 
 served to be the last of his discoveries to 
 mankind ; which, as the most important 
 feature of his commission, he deferred to 
 communicate till the communication would 
 
 B 2 be 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 be most awful and impressive, till it would 
 be remembered with the greatest accuracy, 
 and its consolation would be most re- 
 quired. 
 
 This discovery was the promise of the 
 Comforter, and this promise he introduces 
 with a solemnity of asseveration which 
 might seem almost unnecessary, if it were 
 not obviously and admirably calculated to 
 excite in his followers attention the most 
 profound, the most explicit and submissive 
 faith. 
 
 " I tell you the truth," are his words to 
 whom falsehood was unknown, " I tell 
 " you the truth ; it is expedient for you 
 " that I go away : for if I go not away, 
 " the Comforter will not come ; but if I 
 " depart, I will send him unto you." 
 
 The value of this boon we may in some 
 measure estimate by the intensity of the 
 loss which it was designed to repair, the 
 departure of our Saviour from the world. 
 " Vidisse Christum in carne" was, in the 
 opinion of Augustin, the height of mortal 
 happiness ; and that must have been no 
 common blessing which could dry the tears 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE 1. 5 
 
 of the children of the bride-chamber when 
 the Bridegroom had been so recently taken 
 from them. Those darker types, whereby 
 the Heathen world prefigured the decease 
 of the Messiah, were celebrated, all of 
 them, with tokens of the deepest distress, 
 as if the event which they denoted were to 
 be the moral eclipse of nature 3 . Nor could 
 his departure, of whom Thammuz and Osiris 
 were but imperfect shadows, excite a lighter 
 grief than theirs in the friends who had en- 
 joyed his converse and protection ; nor is 
 the epoch of our Saviour's decease de- 
 scribed in any other character by the Pro- 
 phets or by Christ himself, than as a season 
 of desolation and mourning to all. 
 
 " I will smite the Shepherd," said God, 
 " and the sheep shall be scattered." 
 " When the Bridegroom is taken from 
 " them," were the words of Christ while 
 on earth, " then shall they fast in those 
 " days." " Ye shall weep and lament, but 
 " the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be 
 " sorrowful*." 
 
 * Jeremiah li. 23. Matthew xxvi. 31. Mark ii. 20. 
 John xvi. 20. 
 
 B 3 And 
 
6 LECTURE I. 
 
 And for such a sorrow they had, doubt- 
 less, ample cause : the time was coming, 
 wherein whosoever killed them should think 
 he rendered an acceptable service to God ; 
 a period of trouble was to follow the Mes- 
 siah's removal, " such as never was, since 
 " there was a nation, until that time." 
 " When the father was to be against the 
 " son and the son against the father," and 
 " when a man's foes were to be they of his 
 " own household*." 
 
 And into this bad world, these times of 
 cruelty and moral convulsion, they were 
 sent out as sheep among wolves, without 
 his guardianship who was their only Shep- 
 herd, under whose guidance they had 
 hitherto lacked nothing. Well might it 
 be, that, when he had announced to them 
 his approaching departure, their hearts 
 were filled with sorrow, when Jesus himself 
 had wept in agony for the evils which were 
 coming on the world ! 
 
 Nor was this painful sense of their loss 
 and of their orphan and destitute condition 
 
 * John xvi. 2. Daniel xii. 1. Matthew x. 35. 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 to be removed, though it might be ren- 
 dered less intolerable, by the knowledge of 
 their Master's triumph over the gates of 
 death. 
 
 For, though assured, by this means, of 
 his happiness and glory ; assured that they 
 were the objects still of his invisible affec- 
 tion and favour, the friends whom he had 
 loved on earth, and for whom he now, in 
 heaven, interceded ; yet were the with- 
 drawing of his visible presence, the cessa- 
 tion of his converse, the cheerless void 
 which occupied the place of all which had 
 constituted the former grace and glory of 
 their sect, yet were these sufficient cir- 
 cumstances to justify in minds of firmer tex- 
 ture than those which the Apostles appear 
 to have possessed, the greatest imaginable 
 degree of grief, of anxiety, of apprehen- 
 sion, of despair. Accustomed to such a 
 Teacher, how could his place be supplied 
 among men? Deserted by such a Guar- 
 dian, how could they hope for safety from 
 the world, from the devil, from themselves ? 
 When that smile was withdrawn, in which 
 innocence and childhood loved to repose ; 
 
 B 4 that 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 that majestic countenance, before which 
 guilt sank down abashed, and hypocrisy 
 dropped her saintly mantle ; that voice 
 which neither the spirits of hell, nor the 
 deaf and boisterous elements could disobey 
 or sustain ; what occupation, what ambi- 
 tion could have a zest for those who had 
 been accustomed to the service of such a 
 Master ? On what could their thoughts re- 
 pose when the centre of their affections was 
 gone ? and how weak and unavailing would 
 the consolation have been to trace his 
 footsteps in those cities where his power 
 had been displayed ; to visit, in mournful 
 pilgrimage, the scenes where they had 
 eaten and drank in his presence ; the paths 
 by which they had walked to the house of 
 God in company? " Let us also go that 
 " we may die with our Lord" had been, 
 on a former occasion, the sentiment of one 
 among their number*; and bitter, indeed, 
 must now have been their agony of prayer, 
 that, if he departed, they might not remain 
 behind. 
 
 * John xi. 16. 
 
 But 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 But from this state of depression the 
 coming of the Paraclete was to set them 
 free ; from this depth of bitterness he was 
 to arouse their spirits to the lofty destinies 
 of their appointed mission and ministry ; 
 their sorrow was to be turned into joy, and 
 their joy neither persecution, nor affliction, 
 nor poverty, was thenceforth to take away. 
 Nay, more than this, the loss of Christ was 
 to be their eventual gain : not only does 
 the Messiah comfort them by the hope 
 that they were to be no losers by his de- 
 parture ; the compensation which he pro- 
 mised was to be such as should overflow in 
 their favour ; and, on this account alone, 
 and abstracted from that other considera- 
 tion of the remission of sin by his blood, 
 (of which our Lord himself, for reasons 
 which may be hereafter shewn, but seldom 
 spake, and spake in the obscurity of para- 
 bles,) it was expedient for them that Christ 
 should go away. 
 
 Nor, though this would be amply sufficient 
 to excite our ardent curiosity, does the im- 
 portance of the inquiry terminate with the 
 consolation which the Paraclete afforded to 
 
 those 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 those with whom Christ had sojourned in 
 the world, and who regretted him as a 
 visible Benefactor. An accurate compre- 
 hension of the expressions employed by our 
 Lord is necessary to the comprehension of 
 that entire system of salvation which it was 
 his errand to accomplish and secure ; ne- 
 cessary to our faith, inasmuch as from 
 hence, in no small degree, the grounds of 
 our faith are derived ; necessary to our 
 love and gratitude, inasmuch as from hence 
 we learn the full weight of that mercy 
 which we have obtained from our Maker 
 and Redeemer. By ascertaining the ful- 
 filment of the promise we may be en- 
 couraged to a holy confidence in our 
 Christian warfare, and schooled to a sub- 
 missive dependance on that power and 
 those merits, through which alone such 
 assistance is accorded. By fixing the ex- 
 tent and character of God's help we may 
 be prevented, on the other hand, from an 
 unauthorised reliance on his influence in 
 points to which that influence was never 
 intended to apply ; we may obtain a suf- 
 ficient canon to measure the opposite state- 
 ments 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 ments of Irreligion and Enthusiasm ; to 
 detect the extravagant claims of the last, 
 and the unreasonable cavils of the former ; 
 and to decide, with somewhat more exact- 
 ness than has hitherto been attempted, in 
 what respects the promise applies to the 
 universal Christian world, and in what, 
 more especially, to the earliest teachers of 
 Christianity. 
 
 It is my intention, therefore, in the fol- 
 lowing Lectures, to discuss, to the best of 
 my power, the nature and office of the 
 Comforter promised by our Lord, and the 
 benefits which the Apostles in particular, 
 or, in general, the great body of believers 
 in Christ, were authorized by that promise 
 to expect through his means. And I am 
 the rather induced to undertake this ar- 
 duous inquiry, because, though the im- 
 portance of the questions which it in- 
 volves has been at all times acknowledged 
 and by all ; yet has the attention of theo- 
 logians been, perhaps, less occupied by 
 this, than by any other specific discussion. 
 
 Those mighty champions of English and 
 Christian orthodoxy, who, in the demon- 
 stration 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 stration of our Lord's Divinity and of the 
 atonement of sin by his blood, have left 
 behind them labours which no sophistry 
 can shake, no following talents rival, have 
 been contented, for the most part, to refer 
 incidentally and slightly to the being and 
 function of the third Person in the Trinity, 
 as if He, by whom we are sanctified to life 
 eternal, were of less moment to Christians 
 than He, by whom we are created and re- 
 deemed ; or, as if the existence of the Holy 
 Ghost were not exposed to the same, or 
 even ruder assailants than have denied the 
 Godhead of the Son. 
 
 Nor, of the few whose inquiries are pro- 
 fessedly directed to the assertion of the 
 being and elucidation of the office of the 
 Holy Ghost, is there any who has embraced 
 so copious a view of the subject as to 
 deny to succeeding labourers the hope of 
 advantage in discussing its subordinate 
 branches. With much of natural acute- 
 ness, and a style which, though unpolished, 
 is seldom wearisome, Clagitt had too little 
 learning to be ever profound, and too 
 much rashness to be always orthodox. 
 
 Where 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 Where he exposes the inconsistency of the 
 Puritan arguments, his work is not without 
 a certain share of usefulness; but for the 
 purposes of general edification we may 
 search his pages in vain ; nor would he 
 ; have preserved so long the share of re- 
 putation which he holds, if it had not been 
 for the circumstance that he was Owen's 
 principal antagonist. Ridley, whose talents 
 and acquirements have not been rewarded 
 with the fame to which, far more than Cla- 
 gitt, he is entitled, has erred, nevertheless, 
 in the injudicious application of heathen 
 traditions ; and both Clagitt and Ridley 
 have altogether neglected the considera- 
 tion of the office of God's Spirit as the 
 peculiar Comforter of Christians. 
 
 Among those who are not members of our 
 English Church Doctor Owen's voluminous 
 work on the Spirit is held in high estimation ; 
 and, in default of others, has been often re- 
 commended to the perusal not of Dissenters 
 only, but of the younger Clergy themselves. 
 But in Owen, though his learning and 
 piety were, doubtless, great, and though 
 few have excelled him in the enviable 
 
 talent 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 talent of expressing and exciting devo- 
 tional feelings, yet have his peculiar senti- 
 ments and political situation communi- 
 cated a tinge to the general character of his 
 volume, unfavourable alike to rational belief 
 and to religious charity. His arrangement 
 is lucid ; his language not inelegant ; and 
 his manner of treating the subject is at 
 least sufficiently copious. But, as he has 
 most of the merits, so has he all the im- 
 perfections characteristic of his age and 
 party ; a deep and various but ill-digested 
 reading; a tediousness of argument, un- 
 happily not incompatible with a frequent 
 precipitancy of conclusion ; a querulous 
 and censorious tone in speaking of all who 
 differ from him in opinion ; while his attempt 
 to reconcile the Calvinistic doctrine of ir- 
 resistible Grace with the conditional pro- 
 mises of the Gospel may be placed, per- 
 haps, among the most unfortunate speci- 
 mens of reasoning which have ever found 
 readers or admirers. 
 
 Of recent authors, where blame would be 
 invidious, and where it might seem pre- 
 sumptuous to bestow commendation, I may 
 
 be 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 be excused from saying more than that the 
 plan of the present Lectures will be found 
 to differ materially from any with which I 
 am yet acquainted. There is another, how- 
 ever, and a greater name than all whom I 
 have noticed, whose Doctrine of Grace 
 (those parts at least which belong not to 
 temporary fanaticism and factions best for- 
 gotten,) must ever be accounted, so far as 
 its subject extends, in the number of those 
 works which are the property of every age 
 and country, and of which, though suc- 
 ceeding critics may detect the human 
 blemishes, the vigour and originality will 
 remain, perhaps, unrivalled. 
 
 But, on the Personality and Deity of 
 the Holy Ghost, the genius of Warburton 
 is silent ; and that occasional rashness, 
 which is the attendant curse on conscious 
 power, has destroyed, in his writings, that 
 uniform and wary accuracy which alone 
 can so far occupy the ground as to deny 
 to succeeding inquirers the hope of advan- 
 tage or discovery. On ground like this, 
 indeed, (the most fertile, perhaps, in tares,, 
 and the most liable to invasion of any in 
 
 the 
 
16 LECTURE I. 
 
 the Evangelical heritage,) our labours can 
 never be superfluous ; nor are they to be 
 despised, who bear, with whatever strength 
 or fortune, their efforts and offerings to the 
 common stock of knowledge and virtue \ 
 who, following the path of more illustrious 
 adventurers, beat down, as they revive, 
 the hydra heads of sophistry ; whose occu- 
 pation it is to eradicate those weeds of 
 error which aspire to wreathe their poi- 
 sonous tendrils round the fairest pillars of 
 the sanctuary, and to chase those obscene 
 birds of darkness and rapine, which from 
 time to time return to scream and nestle 
 in the shadow of the altar of God. 
 
 It has been urged, however, (and it is 
 an objection which, doubtless, would ap- 
 ply, if to any theological subject whatever, 
 to one which, like the present, confessedly 
 involves the most mysterious topics of 
 Christianity,) it has been urged on grave 
 authority, that the painful examination of 
 religious mysteries is at once unnecessary 
 and unwise ; that, while open infidelity 
 and open irreligion assail, with more than 
 menaces, that faith and those morals in 
 
 which 
 
LECTURE I. 1? 
 
 which we are all agreed who assume the 
 name of Christians, it is safer and better 
 that all who thus style themselves should 
 forget their internal feuds in the common 
 danger of the great confederacy. It is urged 
 that the Churchman, neglecting the out- 
 works of his peculiar system, should concen- 
 trate all his efforts to the maintenance of 
 those points which are really essential to sal- 
 vation ; that he will find sufficient employ- 
 ment in conciliating infidels to adopt these 
 necessary features without the additional 
 disgust of mystery ; that to vanquish the 
 vices of Christians is a nobler and easier 
 task than that of confuting their heresies ; 
 and that, if the heart be insensible to the 
 morality of the Gospel, it is to little pur- 
 pose to inform the head with the refine- 
 ments of polemical Divinity. 
 
 It is to this effect that Ogden reasons in 
 his Sermon on the Holy Ghost ; and the 
 doctrine is so favourable to the indifference 
 of some and the indolence of others, that 
 we need not wonder that a very numerous 
 proportion of the world should regard with 
 contempt, or dislike, or pity, whatever efforts 
 
 c are 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 are made to understand or assert the more 
 intricate passages of Scripture. . 
 
 Those who are ingrossed in other cares, 
 and those to whom all care is hateful, are 
 alike unwilling to embark in discussions 
 which involve in their very preliminaries an 
 obligation to patience and to toil ; and the 
 caution of the grave and the ridicule of 
 the gay will often join their strength to 
 bring us back from those thorny labyrinths 
 into the safe and beaten common places of 
 that general morality, of which the inhe- 
 rent beauty attests its divine original, and 
 which commands the assent and admira- 
 tion of every reasonable being. 
 
 Beauty and strength, however, are not 
 synonymous ; and it may, perhaps, be 
 doubted, whether (to enforce those rules 
 of action which we are called on in our 
 practical discourses to recommend) it be 
 not necessary to deduce their obligation 
 from those very mysterious truths whose 
 discussion is thus interdicted. The Al- 
 mighty himself is a better judge than 
 any of his creatures, what propositions re- 
 specting his own essence and his inter- 
 course 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 course with men, are adviseable or neces- 
 sary for men to know. If we have really 
 any means of ascertaining his intentions in 
 these respects, it must be by the observa- 
 tion of what truths are revealed in Scrip- 
 ture ; nor has our Maker ever shewn 
 himself so prodigal of the tree of know- 
 ledge, as to induce us to believe that any 
 thing is thus revealed which it does not 
 greatly concern us to examine. 
 
 The assumption, then, on which the 
 whole of those arguments proceed, which 
 seek to deter us from all discussion of the 
 Christian mysteries, in itself is, apparently, 
 such as no system can safely repose on. 
 For, if it be shewn that the knowledge of 
 such truths is important to man, (and their 
 importance may be fairly inferred from the 
 circumstance that God has thought fit to 
 make them known to his creatures,) if this 
 importance be demonstrated, it must follow 
 that, on this ground alone, it is our duty 
 to state them fully and fairly to mankind, 
 without perplexing ourselves farther as to 
 their absolute necessity, or attempting to 
 decide how far or in what manner the ig- 
 
 c 2 norant 
 
20 LECTURE 1. 
 
 norant or incredulous may be saved or 
 punished. To us these truths are revealed, 
 for we acknowledge them ; and, if they are 
 parts of that revelation of which we are, 
 professedly, God's messengers to the world, 
 *. remains to be shewn on what pretence we 
 conceive ourselves at liberty to intercept or 
 suppress any part of our commission ; what 
 right we can plead to establish a distinction 
 which God has, certainly, not appointed be- 
 tween esoteric and exoteric Christianity. 
 
 We are told, indeed, that it is incum- 
 bent on Christians of all classes and de- 
 nominations to sink their minor differences 
 in the common and glorious defence of 
 those leading features of revelation in which 
 all acknowledge themselves concerned, and 
 which infidelity has attacked with a vio- 
 lence which calls on the united efforts of 
 all to repel. 
 
 If there be any meaning whatever in this 
 assertion, it must be that, until the op- 
 posers of Revealed Religion in general are 
 answered, it is unwise and unchristian to 
 enter into the discussion of any topic on 
 which all Christians are not agreed. And 
 
 for 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 for this restriction, (which, if it be allowed 
 at the present moment, must, to all human 
 appearance, by a parity of reason continue 
 in force till the final victory of Christ in 
 the valley of Armageddon,) for this restric- 
 tion two reasons are alleged : the first, that 
 the defence of universal Christianity is 
 more necessary than the detail of its sub- 
 ordinate features; the second, that the 
 heathen and infidel are scandalized by our 
 divisions, and that we cannot make con- 
 verts to a Religion of which the leading 
 tenets are, even with ourselves, the subject 
 of doubt and disputation. 
 
 But unless it can be proved, that the 
 service of no single labourer can be spared, 
 even a moment, from defending the boun- 
 dary of the common vineyard, though it 
 be to root out the tares which threaten to 
 make that vineyard little worth defending ; 
 unless a necessity can be shewn that every 
 sermon which we preach, and every essay 
 which we publish, should be devoted to 
 the confutation of Deism, this argument 
 can hardly be considered as worth a se- 
 rious answer. 
 
 c 3 We 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 We do not consider ourselves as called 
 upon to settle the precedence of duties of 
 which, as we contend, neither the one nor 
 the other should be neglected. We do not 
 pretend to derogate from the merited ho- 
 nours of those illustrious vindicators of our 
 Common Faith, within whose scope and 
 compass it did not fall to notice the shades 
 of difference which unfortunately prevail 
 among the professed disciples of our Mes- 
 siah. 
 
 But this we do maintain, and we main- 
 tain it, as we apprehend, on every prin- 
 ciple both of reason and Revelation, that 
 he who honestly and earnestly, and in the 
 spirit of Christian meekness, contends for 
 any single circumstance of Revealed Re- 
 ligion, is as laudably though not so con- 
 spicuously diligent in his Master's service, 
 as those superior spirits whose wisdom and 
 experience have battled with the rage of 
 the Pagan Dragon, or unravelled the ser- 
 pentine wiles of Atheistic seduction. 
 
 But further : the argument which is thus 
 deduced, a majore et instantiore periculo, 
 requires the supposition of a case, which, 
 
 if 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 if it be not impossible in itself, has neve? 
 been for a moment possible since the first 
 promulgation of Christianity ; that the in- 
 dividual to whom it is applied is the so- 
 litary defender of our common Faith, and 
 of his own peculiar confession. It supposes 
 that the Deist and Atheist have never yet 
 received a sufficient answer to their objec- 
 tions ; that if we, unfit as we may conceive 
 ourselves for such a struggle, do not buckle 
 on our armour for this particular quarrel, 
 and to the neglect of every other Scriptural 
 inquiry, we shall find, like the warriors of 
 Ai, that our successes in other quarters 
 have only served to draw us farther from 
 the defence of our citadel ; that, while we 
 chase the Socinian on one side, the more 
 formidable Deist advances on the other ; 
 and that w r e shall be called, ere long, from 
 the exultation of fancied victory, by the 
 crash of falling towers, and the smoke of 
 our expiring temple*. 
 
 Yet, surely, that vanity is little short of lu- 
 dicrous, which supposes itself, like Elijah, 
 
 * Joshua viii. 20. 
 
 c 4 alone 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 alone in an apostate world, or which appre- 
 hends that, because Quintus or Titius is en- 
 gaged in a subordinate skirmish, no watch- 
 men are left upon the walls of Sion. There 
 are, God be praised, many thousands besides 
 ourselves in Israel who have never bowed the 
 knee to Baal ; and while we are occupied 
 in the assertion of any portion of Divine 
 truth, we may trust without difficulty to 
 the Lord of all, that defenders will not be 
 wanting to the general interests of his 
 cause. 
 
 H xa< s/xoi rafts tffotvTX jxeXsi 
 
 was the answer of Hector to the proposal 
 of Andromache, that he should concentrate 
 his forces to the defence of what was most 
 valuable in Ilium ; and their apprehensions, 
 who suppose that in the din of controversy 
 the Scsean gate will be taken by surprise, 
 have more of feminine weakness than of 
 that soldierly watchfulness, which is con- 
 tent to maintain with unshaken courage 
 the post allotted to his particular care, and 
 commits the rest to that great Captain of 
 his salvation whose eye embraces every 
 part and region of the battle, 
 
 The 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 The second assertion, that it is best to 
 be silent on the subordinate features of dif- 
 ference among Christians, lest the heathen 
 or the infidel should hesitate to listen even 
 to those positions in which we are all 
 agreed, may be sufficiently answered by 
 the admission, that, in controversy with the 
 heathen, we by no means recommend an 
 undue or unseasonable protrusion of con- 
 troverted points ; and that it may be, 
 doubtless, wise to establish firmly the ele- 
 ments of Christianity, before we call on 
 our convert to agree with us in the con- 
 sequences which, according to our opinion, 
 those elements involve. But though the 
 being of a God, the truth of the Mosaic 
 history, the miracles of Christ, his death 
 and resurrection, are positions which are 
 primarily necessary to the profession of 
 Christianity, yet are they first in succes- 
 sion, not first in consequence ; first as the 
 foundation of the rest, not first as of more 
 practical importance than that superstruc- 
 ture for whose sake the foundation itself, 
 in fact, is laid. 
 
 And, though it may be inexpedient 
 to introduce such topics out of their 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 place, it would be a lamentable want both 
 of candour and courage to deny them 
 when imputed to us ; or, when called 
 on to give an account of our Faith, to 
 soften away its peculiarities for the sake of 
 cheating mankind into a nominal Chris- 
 tianity. All which is implied in St. Paul's 
 expression of milk for babes in Christ, is 
 no more than the necessity of advancing 
 first the simplest propositions in a chain of 
 argument ; and the same St. Paul, who, of 
 all men, had a spirit most truly catholic, 
 and whose converts were of all Christian 
 teachers the most numerous, was not more 
 active in extending the limits of the faith, 
 than in repressing the domestic errors of 
 those who had already embraced it. 
 
 What is, indeed, (we may reasonably 
 inquire,) what is the practice which these 
 zealots for universal Christianity recom- 
 mend to the several sects who call them- 
 selves by the name of Jesus ? The sup- 
 pression, on one part and on the other, of 
 truths which we severally believe to be 
 divine ; the admission of practices or opi- 
 nions which our hearts regard as contrary 
 to the Gospel which we profess to teach ! 
 
 And 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 And of such a sacrifice what is to be the ob- 
 ject or the end ? To impose on a few ignorant 
 Deists, (if any Deists are indeed so ignorant 
 as to be thus imposed on,) by the appearance 
 of a false unanimity among ourselves, and 
 to recommend to their acceptance, as the 
 common faith of Christians, a mutilated and 
 disfigured Religion, deprived, (as it must 
 be if we reject or pass over whatever is 
 contested by any single sect of believers,) 
 deprived of every peculiar feature which 
 can distinguish it from natural Deism, 
 every discovery of God's will or nature 
 which could furnish an adequate motkn*Xt> 
 for the preaching or sufferings of his 
 Son! 
 
 It may seem, then, if it be truly assert- 
 ed, (which, however, has never yet been 
 proved,) that unbelievers are chiefly de- 
 terred from Christianity by the mysterious 
 features of our system it may seem the 
 best and wisest (as it is surely the most 
 candid) method of addressing them, in- 
 stead of softening down those obnoxious 
 truths, which are not less true because 
 they are obnoxious, to state with calmness 
 
 and 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 and sincerity the grounds on which we 
 ourselves have been induced to believe 
 them. 
 
 The result of such a statement must be 
 committed to that God who will not suffer 
 his altars to be approached with unhallowed 
 fire ; in whose eyes deceit is no more a 
 justifiable method of conversion than vio- 
 lence ; who rejects alike the forgery of 
 pretended miracle and the dissimulation 
 of pretended candour ; and who has pro- 
 nounced an equal curse against those who 
 add to and those who take away from the 
 words of his Book, the system of his Re- 
 velation ! 
 
 Not even, therefore, for the sake of con- 
 verting an unbeliever, not for the sake of 
 saving a soul, (if it were possible that a 
 soul should by this means be saved,) is it 
 lawful to dissemble our Faith. Still less, 
 however, can their cowardice or indolence 
 expect a pardon, who, for the sake of 
 repose, or in the hope of popularity, are 
 content to purchase the forbearance of 
 their adversaries by the abandonment of 
 doctrines which they still believe to be 
 
 true, 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 true, and desert what they are apt to term 
 the outworks of Christianity, for the sake, 
 as they tell us, of defending its citadel 
 more effectually. Such men it may, per- 
 haps, be useful to remind, that concession, 
 as a sign of weakness, is in worldly affairs 
 regarded as an incentive to fresh assault ; 
 and that to press hard on the heels of a 
 retiring adversary is a maxim as well in 
 polemics as in war. But in fact we can 
 pretend no right to compromise or sup- 
 press any single feature of that which is in 
 Scripture impressively denominated " the 
 " entire counsel of God," and it is our 
 duty to contend earnestly for the whole of 
 that truth which was originally delivered 
 to the saints. 
 
 Let me not, however, be mistaken. There 
 is an unanimity to which every Christian is 
 bound, (and of which that holy and ho- 
 nourable name is the pledge and only 
 boundary,) the unanimity of good offices 
 and affection. Where our best endeavours 
 fail to prevent religious disunion, where 
 difference is unavoidable, it is in our power, 
 at least, to differ charitably. If we cannot 
 
 pray 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 pray together, we may, at least, do good 
 in company ; and our reverence for those 
 common principles whose truth we acknow- 
 ledge, though, in our opinion, they do not 
 constitute the whole of that truth which is 
 in Christ, will lead us to rejoice in their 
 diffusion, however and by whomsoever ac- 
 complished. Where disunion is needless, 
 we cannot be too catholic ; but to sacri- 
 fice on the altar of pretended liberality 
 those distinctive circumstances from which 
 our individual hope is drawn ; to weaken 
 the hands of those who think with us, and 
 to confirm by our example the rest in their 
 deadly error ; this is a conduct more crimi- 
 nal than the worship of Naaman in the 
 house of Rimmon, inasmuch as our know- 
 ledge is more perfect than that of the Sy- 
 rian Chief, and the mercy which we have 
 received is greater. 
 
 It has been objected, lastly, that the 
 time which we bestow on these abstruser 
 subjects is far more than commensurate to 
 their practical importance and utility ; that 
 morality suffers while we concentrate all 
 our force for the expulsion of error ; and 
 
 that 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 that the heads of our disciples are en- 
 grossed with barren mysteries, while their 
 hearts are hardened or unimproved. 
 
 This argument, it is plain, proceeds on 
 an assumption no less preposterous than 
 that which 1 have already noticed. It is 
 assumed, that there are no preachers of the 
 Gospel besides him who now enlarges on its 
 mysteries, or that it is his unvarying prac- 
 tice to confine himself to doctrinal discus- 
 sions, without ever insisting on those moral 
 inferences to which every doctrine of ge- 
 nuine Christianity will, if properly discussed, 
 conduct him. 
 
 For, so far is the assertion incorrect, that 
 a contemplation of the mysteries of Chris- 
 tianity is unfavourable to the Christian cha- 
 racter, that, if it be more philosophical 
 and more efficacious to furnish motives 
 than rules for conduct ; if it be possible to 
 purify the passions by employing them on 
 the worthiest objects, and by contempla- 
 tion of the Divine perfections to raise the 
 soul, in some sort, to the Deity ; no surer 
 way can be found to improve and strengthen 
 the spiritual part of our nature, than the 
 
 gratifi- 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 gratification of that natural and laudable 
 curiosity after things unseen, by which the 
 soul of man, as if conscious of her future 
 destiny, delights to expatiate, so far as ad- 
 vance is possible, in those boundless fields 
 of inquiry which are connected with the 
 ways and attributes of the Almighty, the 
 secrets of his government, and his inter- 
 course with our intellectual being. 
 
 Such inquiries, conducted with becom- 
 ing modesty, may be expected at once 
 to elevate and to humble the soul ; to 
 elevate her powers by exercising them on 
 the noblest objects ; to humble her self- 
 estimation by the sense of those narrow 
 limits which must confine her hardiest 
 flight, by the comparison eternally pre- 
 sented to her notice, between finite and 
 infinite wisdom. 
 
 Spiritual pride, indeed, and metaphysical 
 pedantry can only arise from, and are cer- 
 tain symptoms of, speculations not carried 
 sufficiently far, inquiry too soon contented. 
 They who skim the surface may think that 
 all is known to them ; but he who strives 
 to sound the depths of Ocean may re- 
 
 ceive > 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 ceive, it is true, a rich repayment of his time 
 and labour ; but must desist at last with a 
 feeling very different from pride. Our fi- 
 nite successes shrink into nothing when 
 brought in contact with immensity, and 
 we cannot rejoice that we have penetrated 
 so far without recognizing the weakness 
 which has prevented our proceeding 
 farther. 
 
 Yet is not the sense of weakness which 
 we experience in such an inquiry in itself 
 either painful or degrading. The excel- 
 lencies of a beloved object may be con- 
 templated not only with wonder, but de- 
 light : the lustre of a benefactor is re- 
 flected on those who are the objects of his 
 beneficence, and we become ourselves iden- 
 tified with that greatness and glory which 
 is exerted in our protection and happiness. 
 The more we are sensible of the intercourse 
 between God and his creatures, the stronger 
 may our faith be expected to become, 
 our gratitude the more lively. We shall 
 feel ourselves elevated the more above 
 earthly wants or wishes; and that which 
 Philosophy vainly boasted to perform, will 
 
 i> be 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 be the daily and hourly effect of religious 
 meditation. 
 
 But, though the advantages of a con- 
 tinued contemplation of the Deity be thus 
 conspicuous, it must not be dissembled 
 that those polemical discussions, by which 
 we guard and vindicate the distincter fea- 
 tures of that faith on which the Christian 
 delights to dwell, are rough with the thorns 
 of human passion, and beset with the rocks 
 and precipices of earthly pride. The chicane 
 of argument ; the boast of victory ; the 
 pertinacious rejoinder of unacknowledged 
 discomfiture; the personal dislike which 
 transfers to our adversary that detestation 
 which should be confined to his doctrine ; 
 ambition lurking under the cloak of zeal, 
 and vanity not labouring for the cause of 
 truth, but declaiming in the hope of tri- 
 umph ; these are some few of the fiends 
 which have continued to haunt the man- 
 sion of religious controversy from the days 
 of Tertullian down to those of Calvin, from 
 Marcion to Servetus, and from Jerome to 
 Bellarmine. 
 
 Nor need we wonder that portals oc- 
 cupied 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 Cupied by such a garrison b should be sel- 
 dom and reluctantly trodden by the chaster 
 feet of those who have been permitted to 
 wander amid the bowers of Philosophy, to 
 trace in the works of nature the evidence 
 of almighty Goodness ; or whose warfare 
 has been carried on with the common ene- 
 mies of the Christian name, not those who 
 differ only in their interpretation of the 
 same Divine authorities to which both we 
 and they look up with equal reverence. 
 
 What is necessary, however, must some- 
 times be undergone ; and the safety of our 
 brethren, no less than the authority and 
 example of the Apostles, calls on us to ob- 
 serve the errors of our misguided friends 
 with as keen attention as the open malice 
 of our enemies ; to repress the domestic 
 seditions of the Christian Church, as well 
 as to labour in the extension and progress 
 of her empire. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten, that to unrea- 
 sonable violence or uncharitable imputa- 
 tions, religious discussion is not more ne- 
 cessarily liable than any other question in 
 which the happiness or interests of man- 
 
 D 2 kind 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 kind are deeply involved. The systems of 
 Philosophy, the inventions of Medicine, are 
 in our own times debated with as much of 
 acrimony as the abstrusest doctrines of 
 Religion. The Senate and the Bar have 
 had their bigots and fanatics as fiery as ever 
 disgraced the Altar ; and examples have 
 not been wanting in the more illustrious 
 advocates of our own and foreign Churches, 
 which have demonstrated that zeal and 
 wrath are not always inseparable, and that 
 it is possible to defend the truths of Chris- 
 tianity 'or the sacred institutions of our 
 ancestors, without forfeiting that charity 
 which is to Religion what the Ark of the 
 Covenant was of old to the Temple of God. 
 
 And to this effect the following canons 
 will, perhaps, be found to contribute. 
 
 First, That a perspicuous distinction be 
 made, both in the statement of our subject 
 and the degree of earnestness with which 
 we pursue its investigation, between truths 
 which are really Divine and eternal, and 
 those institutions which are only of human 
 authority, or, at most, of temporary ex- 
 pediency. 
 
 Secondly, 
 
LECTURE I. 37 
 
 Secondly, That no opinion be imputed 
 to our adversary which he himself dis- 
 claims, not even if such opinion should 
 appear to be fairly deducible from premises 
 which he acknowledges. 
 
 For, though the argument ab absurdo 
 be a very powerful and legitimate instru- 
 ment in the war of words, and though it is 
 not only useful but charitable to point out 
 to our brethren and to the world the na- 
 tural consequences of an erroneous doc- 
 trine : yet if such consequences be dis- 
 claimed by our antagonist, we have a right 
 indeed to argue from his inconsistency 
 against his ability to guide the faith of 
 other men ; but we have no right to ac- 
 cuse him of insincerity, or to maintain 
 that, because our inference is logical, he 
 must necessarily see it in the same light with 
 ourselves. We may caution his followers 
 against the blindness of their guide, but it 
 is more reasonable, as well as more Chris- 
 tian, to believe that his blindness is real 
 than affected. 
 
 Thirdly, It is fitting that we never ad- 
 vance an argument to convince or confute 
 
 D 3 our 
 
38 LECTURE I. 
 
 our antagonist, of the force of which we are 
 not ourselves well satisfied. Even as worldly 
 advocates such a practice is unwise, since 
 a single unsound pillar may endanger the 
 fall of the noblest temple ; and since one 
 detected sophism will do more injury to 
 our cause than many good arguments can 
 repair. But the practice is distinguished 
 from absolute falsehood by shades so nearly 
 imperceptible, that we may be very sure 
 the cause of Divine truth can neither re- 
 quire nor tolerate so weak and disgraceful 
 an auxiliary. This rule will naturally ex- 
 tend to the exclusion of all those vulgar 
 arts of controversy, those arguments ex- 
 pressly and solely intended to captivate the 
 multitude, those inapplicable citations of f 
 Scripture, and those appeals to human 
 prejudice or passion which, unhappily, 
 occupy too large a space in almost every 
 controversy which has arisen since the time 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 But the offence is yet more flagrant 
 when we descend to the retailing of un- 
 certain and offensive rumours ; when we 
 refer to documents of which the falsehood 
 
 has 
 
LECTURE I. 39 
 
 has been already proved, or which we can- 
 not but ourselves confess to be unsupported 
 by adequate evidence. 
 
 Of such misconduct a lamentable in- 
 stance is afforded by a man no less re- 
 nowned and admirable than the great Au- 
 gustine himself, who is not ashamed, in his 
 dispute with Faustus, to take advantage of 
 the popular slanders against the followers 
 of Manes, though his own experience c 
 (for he had himself been of the sect) was 
 sufficient to detect their falsehood. And 
 in later times, that we may omit those 
 darker charges to which particular sects 
 have been rashly exposed, (charges which 
 the most positive testimony alone can jus- 
 tify, and which it was, a priori, in the 
 highest degree improbable that any Chris- 
 tian sect could deserve d ;) in later times the 
 Romanists have, in spite of repeated and 
 satisfactory answers, continued to urge 
 against our Church the romance of Par- 
 ker's consecration*, while we ourselves are 
 
 * Strype, Life of Parker, b. ii. c. i. pp. 59, 60, 61. 
 Wordsworth, Eccles. Biography, vol. iv. pp. 87, 88. 
 
 D 4 not 
 
40 LECTURE I. 
 
 not altogether guiltless of falsely imput- 
 ing to their public formularies the sys- 
 tematic omission of that Commandment 
 which we make the second in the De- 
 calogue 6 . 
 
 Nor is the impropriety of these doubtful 
 charges diminished, if they are advanced 
 on the authority of others, while we cau- 
 tiously abstain from expressing any opinion 
 of our own as to their truth or falsehood. 
 If we believe them, why hesitate, with be- 
 coming firmness, to avow our conviction 
 to the world ? If we do not believe them, 
 why are they advanced at all ? Why, if it 
 be not in the hope that our hearers may 
 be convinced by those arguments which 
 have failed to convince ourselves ; that 
 they may be induced to lean their confi- 
 dence on that broken reed of which our 
 keener eyes cannot but detect the inse- 
 curity ? 
 
 Lastly, If we desire to avoid that bitter- 
 ness of spirit which the obstinacy of a de- 
 feated, or the triumph of a more artful 
 opponent is likely to kindle in our breasts, 
 it is necessary to impress the mind with a 
 
 thorough 
 
LECTURE I. 41 
 
 thorough conviction of the very trifling 
 importance of any single controversy in 
 determining the faith of Christendom ; the 
 very small effect which our labours, even 
 if most successful, might reasonably hope 
 to produce on the opinions of the world ; 
 and the firm reliance which our faith 
 should teach us in the ultimate triumph 
 of true Religion, though ourselves may not 
 be among the appointed instruments by 
 whose toils that triumph is to be purchased. 
 If with these impressions and resolutions 
 we enter on the defence of Truth, nothing 
 else remains but a constant and studious 
 comparison of our several positions with 
 the final authority of Scripture, and an 
 earnest and continual prayer to God that 
 he would preserve in our hearts and our 
 recollections those sacred principles and 
 that heavenly temper, without which it 
 may be possible to cast out Devils in the 
 name of the Lord, and yet to find our- 
 selves hereafter among those of whom that 
 gracious Lord will be * ashamed in the 
 presence of his Father and of the Holy 
 Angels. 
 
 With 
 
42 LECTURE I. 
 
 With these preliminary observations I 
 now proceed to investigate the promise 
 which, in the words prefixed to this Dis- 
 course, our Saviour communicated to his 
 Disciples ; in which discussion, it should 
 seem, the following questions are naturally 
 and necessarily involved. 
 
 It may, first, be demanded, Who was 
 that Comforter whom Jesus thus engages 
 to send ? 
 
 Secondly, Whether the promise of his 
 aid were confined J:o the Apostles only, or 
 whether all believers in Christ in that and 
 every succeeding age of the Church have 
 reason to believe themselves included ? 
 
 Thirdly, Wherein that aid should consist 
 which was thus graciously promised by our 
 Lord? 
 
 Of these inquiries, the first, or that 
 which respects the person of the Paraclete, 
 would, at certain periods of ecclesiastical 
 history, have been attended with difficulties 
 which have long since ceased to operate, 
 in proportion as the errors from which 
 they arose have disappeared from the face 
 of Christianity, or have so far purified 
 
 them- 
 
LECTURE I. 43 
 
 themselves from their original grossness as 
 to assume a less offensive form, and a 
 malignancy less perilous. 
 
 Of those false Christs whose coming our 
 Saviour foretold, there were some, it is 
 said, who availed themselves of the cha- 
 racter of the expected Paraclete to destroy 
 or supersede that religion which the Apo- 
 stles had diffused through the world ; who 
 advanced against Christianity under the 
 name of its appointed defenders, and as- 
 sumed to themselves the impious power of 
 explaining and amending that system of 
 mercy and of power which, as the final 
 dispensation of his will, had been con- 
 firmed by God through innumerable signs 
 and miracles. 
 
 Even in the life-time of the Apostles, 
 and in the neighbourhood which during 
 our Saviour's abode on earth had been 
 distinguished by his personal presence, the 
 Magician Simon (whether he were the 
 same Samaritan whose name is mentioned 
 in the Acts of the Apostles is nothing to 
 my present purpose f ) aspired to perform 
 that part during the golden age of Chris- 
 tianity, 
 
44 LECTURE I. 
 
 tianity, which in the days of its corruption 
 the arch-impostor Mohammed too success- 
 fully attempted ; and while he preached, 
 as a more perfect gospel than that of Jesus, 
 a wild and fanciful compound of evangelical 
 truth with the superstitions of Greece and 
 Syria, he proclaimed himself boldly the 
 successor and substitute of the Messiah ; 
 and applied to his own person, according to 
 some authorities^ (but, if we follow others, 
 to that of his confederate and mistress He- 
 lena,) the character of the Incarnate Para- 
 clete". 
 
 The Heresiarch Manes was, in like man- 
 ner, accused 1 , and Montanus, doubtless, 
 accused with justice, of assuming the same 
 lofty title k ; nor did the followers of Mo- 
 hammed omit to apply to their Master so 
 convenient an assertion of that Jesus whom 
 he acknowledged to have been the greatest 
 among the prophets and saints of the Most 
 High'. 
 
 Against all such claims, however, our 
 Saviour has himself provided, by inserting 
 a clause in explanation of his promise which 
 effectually precludes all possibility of per- 
 verting 
 
LECTURE I 45 
 
 verting his expressions to a mortal prophet 
 or a second incarnation of the Deity. That 
 clause I mean, where he defines the novel 
 term of Paraclete by one which was fa- 
 miliar already to his Disciples and their 
 countrymen : the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of 
 God. " The Comforter, which is the Holy 
 " Ghost, whom the Father will send in my 
 " name*." 
 
 A title this, which we evidently cannot, 
 with any degree of propriety, apply to a 
 human or corporeal teacher ; but it is also 
 as evident, on the face of the assertion, 
 and according to its literal tenour, that not 
 only a spiritual effect or influence, but an 
 intelligent and personal Agent is intended, 
 by whom those graces were to be dispensed 
 which should entitle him to the name of 
 Comforter. 
 
 It is, therefore, in the first place con- 
 cluded, that the Holy Ghost is an Exist- 
 ence or an Intelligent Person. 
 
 But, secondly, there are many passages 
 of Scripture in which the Person thus de- 
 
 *" John xiv. 26. 
 
 signated 
 
46 LECTURE I. 
 
 signaled is adorned with the most striking 
 and tremendous attributes of Deity. He 
 is spoken of as omnipresent, as all-know- 
 ing ; to lie to him is to lie to God ; to 
 blaspheme him is a crime the most awful 
 in its guilt and consequences of which hu- 
 man nature is capable ; and the inspiration 
 of the Prophets, which is in some passages 
 of Scripture imputed to the Holy Ghost, 
 is, in others, ascribed to the Almighty" 1 . 
 Hence, therefore, it is argued that the 
 Comforter is also God. 
 
 Thirdly, we read in the same clause of 
 our Saviour's promise which identifies the 
 Comforter with the Holy Ghost, that this 
 Divine and Almighty Person was to be 
 sent by the Father in the name of his Son. 
 And, as the Person sent is, according to 
 the necessary ten our of the expression, dis- 
 tinct from the sender, we deduce from 
 hence the third particular of our belief 
 respecting his nature, that he is a Person 
 distinct from God the Father. 
 
 But, fourthly, as the unity of the Di- 
 vine Essence is a truth so strongly and 
 repeatedly disclosed in Scripture that we 
 
 cannot 
 
LECTURE I. 47 
 
 cannot deny it without at once renounc- 
 ing the entire volume of God's Revela- 
 tion, we conclude that the Holy Ghost, 
 no less than the Word or Son of God, is, 
 in some mysterious manner, at once dis- 
 tinct from, and united with, the Father j 
 and that in these Hypostases or Persons, 
 the one Almighty Spirit inseparably and 
 eternally resides. 
 
 What further grounds we have to con- 
 firm us in these opinions, or how far our 
 religious antagonists have succeeded in 
 establishing a different interpretation, must 
 be the subject of the following Discourses ; 
 in which each of those deductions from 
 Scripture which compose, on this article of 
 our Faith, the ordinary confession of Chris- 
 tians, shall, in their turns, be discussed and 
 asserted. 
 
 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE 1. 
 
 Page 5, note a . 
 
 viii. 14. " There sat women weeping 
 for Tammuz." Hosea vii. 14. ap. LXX. " Ki x 
 
 loo'>j<rav -ar^oV ps oil xafiicti oturwv, aAA' ij a$Ao'Auov ev ra< 
 XOITCU; otvTwV en} <r/rw x, oTva; xargre/xvovTO." Plutarch US de 
 Iside et Osiride : 'TfVo&ijAStnv a*' TS du<r/ai TO -BTSV^IJXOV ep^aa-ai 
 sp.^cnvoy.syov ui rs TMV vawv Sia^sVaj tn^ &s 
 x, (TXOTKX. xara y^ l^oWcov roA*r>ip' 0>j^a/o/j ioixera 
 Idem. Aivw Be ro^v ^uA x, ayjaiv A/v 5 x^ %oJ 
 5<a TO -croAAa TWV jxyf <x;v otvctpe lujfiau TSTOIJ. 
 
 Page 35, note *>. 
 
 Cernis custodia qualis 
 Vestibulo sedeat, fades quee limina servet. 
 
 Virgil. Eneidos vi. 574. 
 
 Page 39, note c . 
 
 Those who wish to see the accusations advanced 
 by Augustine against the Manichees on popular report, 
 may examine his Treatise de Hseres. c. xlvi. et de Mor. 
 Man. c. xvi. A sufficient answer to all such imputations is 
 given in the challenge of Fortunatus during their public 
 disputation that Augustine would, from his own ex- 
 perience, testify (f si ea quse jactantur, viderit in nobis, 
 aut consecutus est." On the whole, Beausobre had too 
 good reason to urge against this amiable but impetuoui 
 
 partizan ; 
 
ON LECTURE I. 49 
 
 partizan; (Hist, du Manich. t. i. p. 228.) " Qu'il a 
 souvent mal repre'sente leur cre*ance, qu'il a employ^ 
 centre eux des sophismes, et qu'il a donne* du credit a 
 des fables qui leur etoient desavantageuses ; qu'il a 
 donne* un mauvais sens a des paroles eVidemment inno- 
 centes, et qu'il a profite de certains passages qui avoient 
 &e" falsifies." 
 
 Page 39, note d . 
 
 The calumnies of Rimius and Stinstra against the 
 Moravian brethren are cases in point. No one now 
 believes them ; yet they once could deceive even War- 
 burton. Doctrine of Grace, 1. ii. chap. 7- 
 
 Page 40, note e . 
 
 During the recent disputes occasioned by the agita- 
 tion of the Catholic question, this accusation has been 
 brought forward by some who ought to have known 
 better. However the Romanists may transgress the 
 commandment in question, they certainly have not ex- 
 punged it from the Table. 
 
 Page 43, note *. 
 
 That Simon the Samaritan was Simon the first 
 Heresiarch is probable; first, from the similarity of 
 name, and country, and profession. The Simon of the 
 Acts was a magician, a Samaritan, and professed to ff be 
 some great one," Acts viii. 9. All these circumstances 
 tally with the Simon who was the father of all heresies. 
 Secondly, from the positive testimony of Epiphanius, 
 torn. ii. Hser. 21. 'Twexop/o-Sij Se TO $ rug 'Axos-fatts, ^ awroj 
 8g 6/jto/wj Trot roTf aAXoij WTTO 4><A<Wa l^aTrr/cr^j. So also 
 Irenaeus, 1. i. c. 20. Simon Samarites magus ille de quo 
 discipulus et sectator Apostolorum Lucas ait, &c. On 
 the other hand the Scripture represents him not as an 
 
 E opposer 
 
50 NOTES 
 
 opposer of Christianity nor of Apostolic authority, but 
 as receiving baptism from Philip; and when he had fallen 
 into the snare of supposing that the Holy Ghost might 
 be purchased with money, he is also described as peni- 
 tent and imploring the prayers of Peter. Beausobre, 
 accordingly, in his Dissert, sur les Adamites, p. ii. au 
 commencement, supposes that the Evangelist and the 
 Fathers are speaking of different Simons. It may be 
 answered, however, that it is very unlikely, that there 
 should be two eminent religious impostors of the same 
 name in the same age and country ; that the same man 
 may have at first repented and afterwards relapsed, 
 which will sufficiently reconcile Irenaeus with St. Luke ; 
 and that neither Irenaeus nor the other early ecclesi- 
 astical authors are likely, in such a point, to have been 
 mistaken. 
 
 Page 44, note s. 
 
 Hieron. in Matt. xxiv. " Multi enim venient in no- 
 mine meo, &c." Quorum unus est Simon Samaritanus 
 haec quoque in suis voluminibus scripta dimittens. 
 " Ego sum Sermo Dei, Ego speciosus, Ego Paracletus, 
 &c. &c." Irenaeus, 1. i. c. 20. In reliquis gentibus quasi 
 Spiritus sanctus adventaverit. 
 
 Ibid, note h . 
 
 Epiphanius ubi sup. Tvvoilxot TWO. eoivrw eupoifjLevo$ psp&txfiot 
 Tvojaa aTro T>J Tvpiwv op^cti^sVYjV aysToti TJJV 8s cry- 
 x llvsvpot 'Ay/ov elvoti TSTO^^XS As'yav. Beauso- 
 bre has attempted, but very unsuccessfully, to allegorize 
 the whole story of Helen. Hist, du Man. t. i. p. 36. He 
 is wrong even in the principles of his allegory. Mi- 
 nerva, with whom the Helen of Simon was identified, 
 does not, in mystic language, mean the rational soul of 
 man, but the anima mundi, the ^^ of Philo and the 
 
 Platonists, 
 
ON LECTURE I. 51 
 
 Platonists, which has been often confounded with the 
 third Person in the Trinity, but never meant the human 
 understanding. But it is utterly idle, and worse than 
 idle, to turn into a riddle a plain history related by an 
 author so nearly contemporary as Irenaeus. See Iren. ut 
 supra. Of the miraculous part of Simon's history I say 
 nothing. 
 
 Page 44, note ' l . 
 
 Cyrill. Hierosol. Catech. vi. p. 58. Ed. Par. Mv>j 
 Asyav eotuTov shut TQV 
 
 Ibid. note k . 
 
 Montanus is so called by his illustrious disciple 
 Tertullian, in his work adversus Praxeam, and that 
 de Monogamia, passim. 
 
 Ibid, note l . 
 
 Koran, c. Ixi. " And Jesus Son of Mary said, O 
 ye children of Israel, verily I am the Apostle of God 
 sent unto you, confirming the law which was delivered 
 before me, and bringing good tidings of an Apostle who 
 shall come after me, and whose name shall be called 
 Ahmed." 
 
 Page 46, note m . 
 
 Psalm cxxxix. 7- Whither shall I go from thy 
 Spirit? 1 Corinth, ii. 10. The Spirit searcheth all 
 things, even the deep things of God. Acts v. 3. Thou 
 hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Matt. xii. 31. 
 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be for- 
 given unto men. Heb. iii. 7 The Holy Ghost saith, To 
 day if ye will hear his voice. 2 Tim. iii. 16. All Scrip- 
 ture is given by the inspiration of God. 
 
 E 2 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7- 
 
 If 1 go not away, the Comforter will not come ; 
 but if 1 depart, I will send him unto you. 
 
 was asserted in my former Sermon on 
 these words of Christ, that in the name 
 and character of a Comforter, Teacher, or 
 Advocate, (in whichever sense we choose 
 to understand the original word n^swcA^ror,) 
 not only an effect but an agent is implied, 
 by whom the comfort, protection, or in- 
 struction, was to be conferred on those 
 who were its objects. It was not consola- 
 tion which Christ undertook to send to his 
 disciples, but a person who should console 
 them ; it was not security, but a guardian ; 
 and one who should advocate their cause 
 and his own amid the storms and calum- 
 nies of the world. 
 
 This was the sense, no doubt*, in which 
 those impostors understood the promise, 
 who themselves, as we have already seen, 
 
 E s assumed 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 assumed the name and character of him 
 whom Jesus foretold ; and this, as our 
 antagonists are compelled to acknowledge, 
 is the obvious, at least, and literal meaning 
 of the expression. 
 
 If the letter, then, of God's word, were 
 to decide our present question, that ques- 
 tion would be thus far decided already. It 
 might still, indeed, admit of doubt, (for it 
 is a doubt which belongs to a different pe- 
 riod of the inquiry,) to what rank in the 
 scale of spiritual existence the Paraclete is to 
 be referred. The Sabellian who identifies his 
 Person with that of the Almighty Father, 
 the Arian and Mohammedan who regard 
 him as a created Intelligence, might still 
 advance their separate claims on our at- 
 tention, and each support his own hypo- 
 thesis as to the nature of the Person in- 
 tended. But that the Holy Spirit was, in 
 the language of the schools, an ens, not 
 an accident ; an agent, not an action ; an 
 actual being, not a quality or mode of 
 existence ; would remain in the number 
 of those truths of which the application 
 indeed may vary, but of which the reality 
 
 is 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 is placed by common consent beyond the 
 reach of argument or cavil. 
 
 Accordingly, those Christian sects who 
 deny the Spirit's Personality are compelled 
 to understand the Scripture in a manner 
 which I have too good an opinion of their 
 critical powers to apprehend that they 
 would employ in the interpretation of any 
 other work whatever, and to resolve those 
 expressions, however simple in themselves, 
 which speak of him as a real existence, 
 into the airy vehicles of eastern ornament 
 and allegory*. And this resource is ren- 
 dered necessary, not by the present text 
 alone, but by many other passages in Scrip- 
 ture, in which actions and properties are 
 ascribed to the Spirit of God, altogether 
 inapplicable to a Virtue or Quality. 
 
 For as the only two classes of existence, 
 of which we have any conception, are those 
 of matter and mind, so whatever is capable 
 of action or passion must belong to one or 
 other of these grand divisions of Being. 
 Qualities, in fact, and influences, and 
 
 * Lardner, in his first Postscript to Letter on the Logos. 
 Belsham, Letters to Wilberforce, p. 58. Catechesis. 
 Eccles. Polon. c. vi. sect. 6. 
 
 E 4 powers, 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 powers, as they are, properly, only modes 
 in which one being makes an impression 
 on another, or itself receives one ; so they 
 have, in themselves, no real existence at 
 all, nor can they be asserted either to do 
 or suffer any thing, except by that com- 
 mon but improper form of expression 
 which speaks of an accident as if it were 
 itself an essence, and describes the manner 
 in which an effect is produced by terms 
 which can only, in fact, apply either to 
 the agent or the recipient. 
 
 Thus, when I say that darkness is com- 
 ing on, I must not be understood as in- 
 tending that the accident of darkness is 
 capable of motion in itself, but I mean to 
 ascribe motion to some real existence, whose 
 absence or presence deprives mine eyes of 
 the power of discerning objects. If I speak 
 again of power being given or taken away, 
 I do not mean that power in itself can be 
 touched or divided ; but I mean that some 
 alteration has taken place in my body or 
 my mind, whereby I am enabled to perform 
 what surpassed my previous faculties. And 
 thus, whatever name the scholars of So- 
 cinus think fit to bestow on the Comforter 
 
 promised 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 promised by our Lord, yet if purity, mo- 
 tion, power, resistance, if doing or suf- 
 fering be predicated (and predicated they 
 doubtless are) of the Spirit of God in 
 Scripture, they must, I repeat, ascribe 
 these accidents to some real existence ma- 
 terial or spiritual, or else they must main- 
 tain that our Saviour and his Apostles 
 have clothed an abstract idea under the 
 form of an allegorical Personage. 
 
 That the Holy Ghost is no material sub- 
 stance it may seem, perhaps, a waste of 
 time to prove, inasmuch as I am not aware 
 that it has been seriously maintained by 
 any one. The wildest Anthropomorphist, 
 the most determined organic Philosopher, 
 will allow, I apprehend, that the expres- 
 sions used in Scripture can apply, if literally 
 taken, to no other than a being sentient 
 and intelligent, which sense and intelli- 
 gence, define them in what manner we 
 please, afford a sufficient distinction from 
 insensible or merely animal existence for 
 the purposes of our present argument. 
 
 To prevent, however, any future refine- 
 ment of the patrons of mechanism and 
 
 irrita- 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 irritation, I may be allowed to remind my 
 hearers that will, moreover, and affection, 
 and choice, and authority are ascribed, in 
 Scripture, to the Spirit of God, no less 
 than the power of producing an impression 
 on the bodies or minds of men. The Apo- 
 stles appointed, by their own avowal, such 
 laws as " seemed good unto the Holy 
 " Ghost*;" while our Saviour in the sen- 
 tence which I have chosen for my text, 
 and in the general tenor of his other ex- 
 pressions when speaking of the promised 
 Paraclete, speaks, it will be found, of HIM, 
 not of IT, of a Person, not a Thing or in- 
 animate substance. " I will send," are his 
 words in the promise which has given oc- 
 casion to these Discourses, " I will send 
 " HIM unto you" mp^a ATTON irfa vjtZf. 
 Kai eh&av exelvo?, (does our Lord proceed 
 with an accuracy of expression of which 
 the slightest knowledge of Greek is suffi- 
 cient to make us sensible,) 'E&hii> exelvo? eAefyi 
 TOV xorpov." " When HE cometh, HE shall 
 " reprove the world/' But, more than all, 
 
 * Acts xv. 28. 
 
 in 
 
LECTURE II. 59 
 
 in a sentence almost immediately following, 
 (as if to exclude all such material or degrad- 
 ing notions as might be prompted by the 
 material nature of that wind or breath by 
 a comparison with which the operations of 
 the Holy Ghost are illustrated,) we find 
 again the masculine pronoun employed, 
 though coupled with a neuter substantive. 
 The words, which are rendered in our trans- 
 lation " when he the Spirit of Truth shall 
 " come," are, in the original, u orav & &&* 
 u sxeivo? TO Uvevpa rye 'AA^S-giW." EKEINOS TO 
 nNEYMA ! How can this be explained, un- 
 less we admit that, under the name of 
 Wind, an intelligent person, not a material 
 substance, was shadowed by the Son of 
 God? 
 
 After this it may seem, perhaps, super- 
 fluous to virge on your attention, that it 
 would be absurd and unnatural to assert of 
 a bodily and insensible agent, that "as he 
 u was to hear, so he should speak ;" that 
 such an agent could with no propriety 
 be supposed to appoint overseers in the 
 Churches of Asia or Achaia ; that Ananias 
 could not with reason be accused of at- 
 tempting 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 tempting to deceive an afflatus or stimulus; 
 nor could our sins be said to grieve a be- 
 ing alike incapable of pleasure or pain. 
 
 I believe, indeed, (and my opinion is 
 not shaken by any thing which has been 
 advanced to shew the uncertain meaning 
 of the word rrn in the Old Testament, and 
 of riNETMA in the New,) I believe that the 
 instances are very few indeed which can be 
 found of this supposed uncertainty. It is 
 possible, and barely possible, that the cele- 
 brated passage in the first chapter of Ge- 
 nesis may admit of application to a ma- 
 terial agent. But, with this exception, no 
 instance has been shewn, either in the Law 
 or the Prophets, where the context makes 
 it probable that by D'rfti* rni or #*]|3n 0-1*1 
 a physical motion of the air is signified. 
 Nor, in the writings of the later covenant 
 can we find, as Athanasius has well ob- 
 served, any single passage in which TO 
 JINETMA TOT EOT is not sufficiently dis- 
 tinguished from any material afflatus what- 
 ever a . 
 
 Accordingly, of two hypotheses, either 
 one or the other must necessarily be adopt- 
 ed; 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 ed ; and if we do not acknowledge God's 
 Spirit to be a sensible and intelligent Per- 
 son, we must resolve him into a metaphor. 
 
 But, in all expressions not professedly 
 parabolical, it is, a priori, likely that the 
 literal and obvious, not the metaphorical 
 meaning is that meaning which the words 
 are intended to convey. Were it other- 
 wise, the use of language would be, in no 
 small degree, overthrown, and the dictates 
 of departed Wisdom and the revelations of 
 a merciful God would sink into a jargon of 
 unmeaning sounds, or, at least, be de- 
 graded from a rule of morals and of faith 
 into a field for the perverse and unprofit- 
 able ingenuity of the lovers of enigma and 
 allegory. 
 
 Nor is it possible that our learned ad- 
 versaries can require, in such a case, to be 
 reminded, that they have, of all men, least 
 right to depart from the literal and obvious 
 sense of Scripture, who themselves profess 
 to strip religion of its mysteries, and to 
 restore or reduce the Gospel of Christ to 
 its primitive and intelligible simplicity. 
 
 But, if this projected reformation be 
 
 only 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 only a return to the forgotten error of an 
 internal sense in Scripture, if the plainness 
 anticipated be the plainness of a riddle, 
 and if we are called on to acquiesce in an 
 interpretation of the Sacred Volume as 
 forced, though not so edifying, as the de- 
 vout refinements of a Jerome, the splendid 
 dreams of an Origen, or the wild but not 
 uninteresting phrenzy of an Emanuel Swe- 
 denborg ; but small are the gains which 
 the multitude have reaped from the trans- 
 lation and dispersion of the Bible ; nor will 
 the tyranny long exercised by the know- 
 ledge of the few over the faith of the many 
 be less extensive or less absolute, whether 
 the words of life be in an unknown tongue, 
 or in a style which is, to the vulgar, in 
 every language, unintelligible. 
 
 If it be granted, however, which even a 
 Socinian will not deny, that the volume 
 from which our hopes of salvation are 
 drawn is something more than a mere 
 chain of allegories ; that there are some 
 facts, at least, in Scripture, simply nar- 
 rated, and, at least, some few assertions to 
 be taken literally ; it may be reasonably re- 
 quired 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 quired that, before we concede to our an- 
 tagonists the fact that any particular pas- 
 sage is to be understood in a figurative 
 meaning, they shall prove to us first, that 
 the circumstances under which the dis- 
 puted expression occurs are such as to 
 make a recourse to allegory probable ; and 
 secondly, that the expression itself has 
 those usual marks by which, in every ra- 
 tional composition, such figures of speech 
 are distinguishable. 
 
 The motives are four, and four only, 
 which can induce a reasonable man to 
 depart from that general propriety of lan- 
 guage, to violate which, without sufficient 
 reason, is a transgression at once against 
 good sense and natural feeling ; and these 
 motives are as follow : 
 
 First, if he desires to perplex the judg- 
 ment and to tax the ingenuity of his readers 
 or auditors : Secondly, when a future event 
 is to be dimly shadowed, which it would be 
 inconvenient to express beforehand with 
 too much precision : Thirdly, when a dis- 
 agreeable truth is to be cloked under a 
 less offensive form : and, Fourthly, when 
 
 an 
 
64 LECTURE II. 
 
 an apt illustration of the subject implied is 
 afforded by the outward circumstances of 
 the fable, or allegory, or metaphor. 
 
 The first of these motives is that harm- 
 less display of superiority, which, from the 
 time of Sampson downwards, has vented 
 itself in hard questions and enigmas, but 
 which, however harmless, the gravity of 
 our Saviour's character, no less than the 
 peculiar solemnity of his discourse and the 
 mournful occasion on which it was deli- 
 vered, must effectually prevent us from ex- 
 pecting to find in his gracious promise of a 
 Comforter. 
 
 Of the remaining three, the second had 
 been answered on former occasions by the 
 several figures under which our Lord de- 
 scribed, beforehand, his death and its 
 painful circumstances; the third by those 
 various comparisons of the Vineyard, the 
 Figtree, the entrusted Talents, which he 
 employed to reprove his countrymen for 
 their impenitence and spiritual pride : and, 
 of the last, an instance may be found in 
 his manner of instituting the Eucharist, 
 where, by bestowing on the bread and 
 
 wine 
 
LECTURE II. 65 
 
 wine the name of his body and blood, he 
 exemplified in them his own approaching 
 sufferings. 
 
 But, in the promise now under con- 
 sideration, if it be still regarded as alle- 
 gorical, not one of all those ends is an- 
 swered, for which only we can suppose 
 that allegory would be employed by the 
 wise and holy Jesus. There was no ne- 
 cessity for concealing, nor did, in fact, our 
 Lord conceal from his disciples the nature 
 of the comfort which they were to re- 
 ceive ; no reproof was softened, no apt- 
 ness of illustration obtained by attribut- 
 ing such celestial favours to the distri- 
 bution of an imaginary Agent, and we 
 must therefore continue slow to believe 
 that the Agent introduced is imagin- 
 ary. 
 
 With still more reason, however, we may 
 require our learned antagonists to point 
 out to our attention in the tenor of our 
 Saviour's discourse some one or more of 
 those characters and notices, the want of 
 which must render any figurative expres- 
 sion whatever, (I will not say enigmatical, 
 
 p for 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 for to enigmas themselves these principles 
 apply,) but altogether fallacious or un- 
 meaning. 
 
 They are notices like these, indeed, 
 which, however conveyed, afford, in fact, 
 the only difference between fiction and 
 falsehood ; between a parable and a lie ; 
 between the forged adventures of an im- 
 postor and the imaginary incidents of a 
 romance ; between an incorrect and un- 
 natural description of objects and events, 
 and the elegant illustration of those events 
 and objects by the use of metaphor or 
 allegory. 
 
 I do not mean that it is always necessary 
 that the author or orator should introduce 
 his illustrations with a definite preface that 
 he is about to speak in parables ; that he 
 should prefix to his flowers of language the 
 formal title of enigma or metaphor; or 
 guard us, with the fantastic caution of the 
 Enthusiast of Geneva*, against believing 
 that fishes can speak, or that the trees of 
 the wood can assemble to elect their 
 
 * J. J. Rousseau. 
 
 monarch. 
 
LECTURE II. 67 
 
 monarch. The same notice is more ele- 
 gantly and as effectually given, first, 
 when the circumstance related would be 
 trifling or out of place in our present Dis- 
 course, unless it had some deeper meaning 
 than our outward words imply, and, Se- 
 condly, when the assertion, if literally 
 understood, would be in itself absurd or 
 impossible. 
 
 By the first of these marks, when our 
 Lord had shadowed out to his country- 
 men their own impenitence and final ruin, 
 the Jews were able to perceive that the 
 tale of the Fig-Tree was spoken against 
 themselves. By the guidance of the se- 
 cond, we readily understand that, when 
 Christ gave the name of his own blood to 
 that fluid which the Apostles well knew to 
 be ordinary wine, he could only mean that 
 his blood should in like manner be poured 
 out or spilt. And it is on the same identi- 
 cal principle of the impossibility of a literal 
 meaning, that we understand and employ 
 the figure of personification, whereby ab- 
 stract qualities are represented under cir- 
 cumstances which can properly belong to 
 
 F 2 real 
 
68 LECTURE IL 
 
 real existence alone ; whereby Virtue is de- 
 scribed as a celestial nymph, and Justice 
 equipped with her balance, her fillet, and 
 her sword. But for these distinctive marks 
 of allegory, we may in the present instance 
 inquire in vain. There is nothing either 
 trifling or impossible in the literal sense of 
 our Saviour's expression, and it is difficult, 
 therefore, to show, on what principles of 
 criticism or common sense the Apostles 
 could have understood their Master any 
 otherwise than literally. 
 
 But, further, the personification of an 
 Abstract Quality, (since it is in this man- 
 ner that our learned antagonists desire to 
 understand the term of Holy Ghost or 
 Spirit of God,) is only then either proper 
 or intelligible, when the name assigned to 
 the imaginary person is the known and 
 constituted representative of the species 
 which we desire to comprise ; as Justice 
 is the abstract term for a succession of just 
 actions; Temperance and Mercy for re- 
 peated conquests over our animal inclina- 
 tions or continual gentle affections ; and 
 Virtue, in general, for that habit or dispo- 
 sition 
 
LECTURE II. 69 
 
 sition of mind which produces all the se- 
 veral actions of justice, temperance, and 
 mercy. 
 
 When, therefore, we speak of Virtue as 
 a celestial nymph, and when we dress out 
 Justice in that garb which she wore in the 
 ancient Pantheon, our hearers are well 
 aware that neither corporeal beauty nor 
 material weapons can, any otherwise than 
 figuratively, be possessed by either the one 
 or the other. 
 
 But, if an abstract idea be personified 
 under any other name than that which 
 conventionally and usually represents it; 
 if I speak of the awful beauty of Arete, or 
 menace mine auditors with the sword of 
 Themis, it is impossible that those, who are 
 not apprised that Arete and Themis imply 
 in Greek what Virtue and Justice do in our 
 own language, should understand by my 
 expressions any other than real individuals, 
 of whom the one was literally stately and 
 fair, and the other so armed as 1 describe 
 her. No one, therefore, in his right mind, 
 if he did not really desire to deceive, would 
 make use of similar expressions, or employ 
 
 F 3 a name 
 
70 LECTURE II. 
 
 a name to represent an abstract idea, of 
 which that name was not the proper re- 
 presentative. But no series of actions, no 
 moral or physical quality can be instanced 
 which the Holy Ghost can be said to re- 
 present. He may be the Giver of Virtue, 
 but he is not Virtue itself; he may dis- 
 pense either wisdom or power, but how- 
 ever he may, in himself, be strong, or good, 
 or wise, his name is not synonymous with 
 any one of these several accidents or habits. 
 If the term of Holy Spirit do not repre- 
 sent a Person, it will be difficult to say of 
 what idea it is the proper or natural sign, 
 and it is most natural therefore, and most 
 reasonable to suppose, that a Person was 
 thereby intended. 
 
 But this probability is still further in- 
 creased, if the effects described be attri- 
 buted to an agent, which, according to 
 the preconceived opinion of my hearers, 
 and in the conventional meaning of the 
 word, is a real existence or intelligence, 
 and competent, without any figure at all, 
 to produce the phenomena ascribed to it. 
 
 Had Socrates, when speaking of that in- 
 visible 
 
LECTURE II. 71 
 
 visible Monitor by whose dictates he pro- 
 fessed to be guided, described it under the 
 name of his prudence, his foresight, or his 
 conscience ; (though he still might have 
 imputed to it the actions of a preceptor or 
 a friend ;) it would have then been clearly 
 understood that his language was meta- 
 phorical, and that by the imaginary per- 
 sonage of Prudence, Conscience, or Fore- 
 sight, he meant only to express a natural 
 process of his intellectual faculties. 
 
 But, when Socrates declared himself to 
 have received advice arid intelligence from 
 a friendly Demon, his countrymen must 
 have understood, (and he, doubtless, in- 
 tended that they should so understand 
 him,) that he was attended by one of those 
 beings superior to man, whom, under the 
 name of Demon, they were accustomed 
 from their infancy to fear, to propitiate, to 
 ad ore b . 
 
 In like manner, if we had read in the 
 book of Kings that the disobedient Prophet 
 w y as overtaken, in his return from Bethel to 
 Jerusalem, by Destruction sent from God, 
 we might, certainly, have understood the 
 
 F 4 words 
 
72 LECTURE II. 
 
 words send and overtake to be poetical 
 ornaments only, and have interpreted the 
 story by the simple circumstance that the 
 Prophet had died on his journey*. But 
 when we are told by the Sacred Historian 
 that a lion was sent to destroy him, that 
 would be a strange hypothesis indeed 
 which should maintain, that the whole is 
 an allegorical description of an apoplexy 
 or a stroke of the sun, and that the animal 
 called a lion was entirely unconcerned in 
 the slaughter. 
 
 But, in the present instance, and with 
 those Jews and Jewish Greeks to whom 
 the Gospel was first delivered, the name of 
 Spirit, it is acknowledged by all, was no 
 less appropriate to a particular class of 
 animals than with us the names of lion, or 
 man, or eagle. It meant, we know, like 
 the Demon of the Greeks, a race of sen- 
 tient and intelligent beings, and, though it 
 included in its widest range the whole sweep 
 of immortal and immaterial existence from 
 the Almighty to the human soul, it was 
 
 * 1 Kings xiii. 24, 
 
 most 
 
LECTURE II. 73 
 
 most generally used to designate the in- 
 habitants of the invisible world . 
 
 It is little to our present purpose to in- 
 quire how far the above application of the 
 word pin (of which the Hellenistic wvevpa 
 is a translation) were an essential or pri- 
 mitive feature of the Jewish theology; 
 whether its meaning were originally con- 
 fined to breath, or air, or acuteness of in- 
 tellect ; or whether, as is surely more pro- 
 bable, the suspicion of invisible were coeval 
 with the knowledge of visible existence, 
 and the most subtile substance which was 
 obnoxious to sense, were naturally em- 
 ployed to designate that still purer mode 
 of being which was only perceptible by 
 their fears. But, whether the doctrine of 
 Spirits were primitive or no, or whatever 
 degree of antiquity we assign to its pre- 
 valence; whether it went up with Moses 
 from Egypt, or passed with Ezra from Ba- 
 bylon ; in the time of Christ we know the 
 name was used to express a real or fancied 
 personage, of power and knowledge excel- 
 ling those of man ; of wisdom more refined 
 for being unshackled by sensual imperfec- 
 tions ; 
 
74 LECTURE II. 
 
 tions ; of strength not less to be dreaded 
 because the arm which smote was unseen. 
 
 It was the denial of such a race which 
 divided the Sadducees from the great ma- 
 jority of their countrymen ; it was to their 
 agency that the Jews were accustomed to 
 ascribe every phenomenon of nature, and 
 every accident which befell the body or the 
 mind, and our Saviour himself, when he 
 returned from the dead, was apprehended 
 to belong to their number. 
 
 But, to such a Being all the actions 
 which Christ ascribed to his promised Com- 
 forter were strictly and peculiarly appro- 
 priate. The guardianship of a Spirit was 
 perfectly intelligible to those who believed 
 in tutelar Genii* : that a Person of this kind 
 might dwell with them and be in them was 
 the universal faith or superstition of the 
 east ; and to the actual illapses or inhabita- 
 tion of such good or evil intelligences, the 
 ravings of madness, and the lofty strains of 
 prophecy, were imputed by the common 
 voice of antiquity. The Sibyll was sup- 
 
 * Acts xiL 15. Then said they, It is his angel. 
 
 posed, 
 
LECTURE II. 75 
 
 posed, at the time of inspiration, to labour 
 with a present Deity 11 . It was not the 
 Damsel of Philippi, but the Pythonic De- 
 mon within her, who recognized in Paul 
 and his companions the servants of the 
 Most High God ; and when the Fiend was 
 cast out or the Divinity had retired, the 
 power of the Prophetess was gone *. 
 
 It was not, then, by any communicated 
 energy, but by their actual presence and 
 prompting, that the beings of the invisible 
 world were supposed to give to man either 
 supernatural knowledge or supernatural 
 power. Had our Saviour menaced his 
 disciples with a visitation of the evil Spirit, 
 we are sure that they would have under- 
 stood him literally ; the Spirits of Fear, of 
 Infirmity, of Dumbness, were all, in the 
 mythology of the Rabbins, supposed to be 
 real personages 6 ; nor has any adequate 
 reason as yet been assigned, why their 
 notion of the Spirit of Truth should vary 
 from this general analogy. 
 
 Is it said that the Messiah conformed 
 
 * Actsxvi. 18, 19. 
 
 his 
 
76 LECTURE II. 
 
 his expressions to the usual language of the 
 time, without heeding whether the notions 
 which that language implied were, in them- 
 selves, philosophical or accurate ? That, as 
 he was content to ascribe, in contradiction 
 to the truth, and in compliance with popu- 
 lar superstition, corporeal disease to an in- 
 corporeal agent* ; he was content, in like 
 manner, to express supernatural gifts under 
 the name of a visiting or protecting Spirit ? 
 The first of these suppositions, if it be not 
 altogether blasphemous, is, at best, of a 
 questionable character ; nor will those, who 
 believe the Lord Jesus to have been, him- 
 self, all wisdom and truth, be inclined to 
 allow, that, under any circumstances what- 
 ever, he would have lent his sanction to a 
 false opinion. But the conduct ascribed 
 to him in the second part of this hypothesis 
 is more, far more than a simple acquies- 
 cence in error. The wisest and best of 
 men may suffer, under particular circum- 
 stances, a mistaken opinion to pass unex- 
 plained ; but that man is neither wise nor 
 
 * Luke xiii. 16. 
 
 good 
 
LECTURE II. 77 
 
 good who, in making a promise, unneces- 
 sarily employs such terms as are likely to 
 deceive his hearers. Jesus might, surely, 
 have engaged to endue his disciples with 
 supernatural power or celestial knowledge, 
 without the introduction of any fabulous 
 machinery. " My Father," he might have 
 said, " when I am taken away, will bestow 
 " on you such internal comfort and such 
 u outward marks of his favour, that ye 
 " shall have little reason to regret my de- 
 parture from the world. Ye are heirs 
 to my miraculous powers, and shall, with 
 a commission derived from me and in a 
 field of utility far more extensive than 
 " that in which I have laboured, succeed 
 " me as teachers of righteousness." This 
 he might have told them on Socinian prin- 
 ciples, but how different are such expres- 
 sions from those of " the Father shall send 
 " you another Comforter," " the Spirit 
 " of Truth, who is with you and shall be 
 " in you." " If I go not away, the Com- 
 " forter will not come ; but if I depart, I 
 " will send him unto you." 
 
 It has been objected, however, that the 
 
 Holy 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
78 LECTURE II. 
 
 Holy Ghost or Spirit of God was under- 
 stood by the Jews themselves in a different 
 sense from that which they applied to the 
 term of Spirit in general; that it was a 
 customary and conventional figure to ex- 
 press a particular operation of God's grace, 
 and was strictly synonymous, in the usage 
 of the ancient synagogue, with the modern 
 term of inspiration. And, in aid of this 
 opinion, two passages have been frequently 
 cited : the one of St. Jerome, where, after 
 accusing Lactantius of denying the per- 
 sonality of the Holy Ghost, he calls such 
 denial a Jewish heresy ; the other of Mai- 
 monides, who defines that Spirit by which 
 the Prophets spake, to be " an intellectual 
 " power communicated to them by God f ." 
 
 But that either of these passages are suf- 
 ficient for the purpose, the following rea- 
 sons may induce us to do more than 
 doubt. 
 
 The meaning of Jerome was possibly no 
 other than, under the name of a Jewish 
 error, to stigmatize the peculiar doctrine 
 of a single sect, and to tax his antagonist 
 with Sadducism. And it may be also worthy 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE II. 79 
 
 of notice, that, if Jerome had no better 
 foundation for his charge against the Jews 
 than he had for that which he has brought 
 against Lactantius, the Synagogue of his 
 time was, in this instance, but a very little 
 way removed from the kingdom of God. 
 Lactantius, though that particular work 
 be lost to which his accuser chiefly refers, 
 has left enough behind him to evince the 
 grossness of the calumny ; and, though he 
 ascribe, in common, as may be hereafter 
 shewn, with many others of undoubted 
 orthodoxy*, the name of Spirit both to 
 God in general, and, more particularly, to 
 the Son of God in his preexistent majesty; 
 he distinguishes, nevertheless, in his de- 
 scription of the Saviour's baptism, the 
 Spirit, peculiarly so called, from the Father 
 alike and the Son. Nor have any of the 
 ancient Christians more happily illustrated 
 the difference between the accidents of 
 material existence and the eternal and in- 
 telligent emanations of an eternal Intelli- 
 gence 2 , than this pious and eloquent 
 
 * See Lecture IV. 
 
 cham- 
 
80 LECTURE II. 
 
 champion of the Faith, whom, on the 
 accusation of one whose warmth too often 
 rendered him unjust and uncharitable, the 
 orthodox have, without inquiry, been ready 
 to fling into the hands of a party at least 
 sufficiently anxious to obtain any illustrious 
 accession to their number 11 . 
 
 If we should concede, however, to the 
 assertion of Jerome and the similar testi- 
 mony of Epiphanius, that the majority of 
 the Jewish nation did really, in their time, 
 deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, 
 yet will not the prevalence of such an opi- 
 nion in the fourth century after Christ, be re- 
 garded as a sufficient evidence of the original 
 doctrines of the synagogue. Those doctrines 
 may be naturally supposed, in the course of 
 twelve generations of mutual bitterness, to 
 have receded considerably from the ancient 
 confession in every point which favoured 
 or resembled the tenets of their Christian 
 rivals. And the more recent, and there- 
 fore less forcible authority of Maimonides 
 is liable to the further objection, that this 
 ingenious writer has evinced himself in se- 
 veral instances disposed to depart from the 
 
 usual 
 
LECTURE II. 81 
 
 usual tenor of Rabbinical orthodoxy. Dis- 
 gusted with the legends of his countrymen, 
 and anxious to obviate the discredit which 
 their dreaming commentators had thrown 
 even on the Law of Moses itself, the system 
 which he has embodied in the More Nevo- 
 chim, is, throughout, a sort of freethinking 
 Judaism, as much at variance with the 
 general confession of those whose cause he 
 pleads, as the works of Crellius and So- 
 cinus with the prevailing tenets of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 And that, in fact, no small number at 
 least of the more learned Jews, even so 
 late as the fourth century after Christ, ac- 
 knowledged the Spirit of God as a distinct 
 and intelligent Being, is shewn by the po- 
 sitive assertion of Eusebius, (who quotes 
 the Hebrew doctors as assigning him a 
 local habitation in the region of the air j ;) 
 by the fact which will be hereafter more 
 minutely proved, that the Christians of the 
 circumcision, however in other respects 
 heretical, in the Personality of the Holy 
 Ghost agreed with the Gentile Churches * ; 
 
 * See Lecture III, 
 
 G and 
 
82 LECTURE II. 
 
 and above all, by very numerous passages 
 in the Rabbinical works themselves, which 
 speak of him in terms altogether inappli- 
 cable to a Virtue or Abstraction only. By 
 these writers the soul of man is derived 
 from the side or loins of the Holy Ghost ; 
 the Holy Ghost is expressly opposed to 
 him, whom we know the Jews regarded as 
 a Person, the Spirit or Power of Evil. He 
 is said to dwell in the hearts of men as 
 another and a better soul ; he is called a 
 Holy Guest who honours the Sabbath with 
 his presence ; we find him described in 
 their usual jargon, as the Spirit of the 
 Window whereby God's glory is revealed, 
 and the Spirit by whom the dead are 
 raised k . 
 
 And, as it cannot be said that our souls 
 are enlightened and our bodies raised by 
 the same or a similar operation ; as the 
 acts described are distinct, the Spirit by 
 which they are effected must, plainly, be 
 an Agent, not a process; a Dispenser of 
 various graces, not any single grace per- 
 sonified. 
 
 It is needless, therefore, to refer to the 
 
LECTURE II. 83 
 
 fl or vSf of Philo, and the Bmah of the 
 Cabbalists, to ascertain the ancient creed 1 . 
 It is true, indeed, that these Hebrew tes- 
 timonies fall very short of that standard of 
 knowledge which the Christian Church has 
 attained ; and that the rank of the Holy 
 Spirit, and his union with the Deity, were 
 imperfectly, if at all, comprehended, by the 
 Jews of any sect or oera. But, neither can 
 this admission be allowed to militate against 
 the truth or importance of this Article of 
 the Catholic faith, without abandoning at 
 the same time the resurrection of the dead, 
 and all those other features of our Religion, 
 which it was a part, at least, of the Mes- 
 siah's office, to reveal, or assert, or ex- 
 plain. 
 
 The illumination, in fact, of the moral 
 creation of God, during the course of his 
 dealings with mankind, has, like the ad- 
 vances of the physical day, been gradually 
 and slowly progressive. The darkness of 
 ignorance has been dispelled by a process 
 almost similar to that which chases every 
 morning the darkness of night from a part 
 of the creation ; and the leading truths 
 
 G 2 which 
 
84 LECTURE II. 
 
 which almighty Wisdom has thought fit to 
 reveal to mankind have been enveloped, at 
 first, amid the clouds of type and mystery ; 
 in promises which might sharpen the at- 
 tention of the soul, and in shadows which 
 might soften to her eyes the too sudden 
 glare of wonder and miracle. 
 
 At first, with the first men and early 
 Patriarchs, we are introduced to the thin 
 dawn and twilight of Revelation ; the co- 
 venant taught by the mystery of the ser- 
 pent's head, and by the institution of 
 bloody sacrifices. Then came the dawn 
 of day, but faint and cloudy still with cere- 
 monies and allegory, and Christ appeared 
 afar off, and reflected from the face of 
 Moses. Still it grew lighter and more light 
 as, to successive generations, successive 
 Prophets announced, with increased pre- 
 cision, the approach of the destined Mes- 
 siah ; till, bearing in himself the full bright- 
 ness of the Godhead bodily, with healing 
 on his wings, the Sun of Righteousness 
 arose ! 
 
 True it is, that of the glorious prospect 
 which the Christian day-spring opened to 
 
 mankind, 
 
LECTURE II. 85 
 
 mankind, the component features were not 
 new, though a new splendour encircled 
 them : the roses of Sharon and the trees 
 of Paradise were not then first planted, 
 though their beauties were then first dis- 
 cernible ; and the mountain of God's help 
 had stood for ages, though its form was 
 indistinct before. 
 
 When the secret of a knot is unravelled 
 in our presence, we wonder that what is 
 now so plain should have so long escaped 
 discovery ; and thus, we are told, did the 
 hearts of the disciples burn within them, 
 when they found that all the mysteries of 
 the New Covenant had been originally 
 contained in the Old, in those ceremonies 
 which had occupied their hourly attention, 
 those prophecies which had been read to 
 them every Sabbath day. 
 
 But, till the knot is untied, its artifice 
 is still an enigma ; till the problem is solved, 
 its component parts appear irreconcileable : 
 the mystery of the Triune Godhead, though 
 it be implied, is not expressly revealed in 
 the Scriptures of the former Covenant; 
 nor can we expect from those Jews who so 
 
 G 3 erro- 
 
86 LECTURE II. 
 
 erroneously estimated the character of their 
 Messiah, any accurate idea of the yet more 
 mysterious Comforter. It is enough for the 
 purpose of our present argument to have 
 shewn that, among the countrymen of 
 Christ, the Holy Ghost was not considered 
 as a merely abstract notion ; that the Spirit 
 which God caused to dwell with his saints 
 was believed, like other spirits, to be a real 
 and sentient Existence ; and that no reason, 
 therefore, remains, which could induce the 
 disciples to understand their Master's sim- 
 ple language in a figurative or parabolical 
 meaning. It is almost needless to add that 
 it is, therefore, highly improbable, that 
 such a meaning was intended by one whose 
 object was, not to perplex and deceive, 
 but to confirm, to enlighten, to console. 
 
 And this probability will be augmented 
 in a tenfold proportion, if it shall appear 
 on inquiry, (as it will, I apprehend, appear 
 to all who inquire with sufficient candour 
 and diligence,) that, of those believers for 
 whose use, in every age of the world, the 
 promise of our Lord was, apparently, in- 
 tended, the great majority have, in every 
 
 age, 
 
LECTURE II. 87 
 
 age, adhered to the literal interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 If of a numerous assembly, the major 
 part misconceive the purport of an oration, 
 the mistake will be, in common life, attri- 
 buted to a wilful or involuntary defect of 
 clearness in the orator ; he will be supposed 
 to have purposely concealed his meaning 
 from the passions and prejudices of the 
 vulgar, or to have failed from natural in- 
 firmity in producing that effect on their 
 understandings which was the ostensible 
 object of his endeavours. 
 
 But neither mysticism nor weakness can, 
 without the wildest impiety, be imputed by 
 any Christian sect to our common Master. 
 He came to give light to mankind, and he 
 would employ, we may be sure, in that 
 glorious mission, the means which were 
 best adapted to his end. The manner, 
 then, in which the majority of the Chris- 
 tian Church have, in every age, agreed to 
 understand any expression of their Lord, 
 (though this agreement will be no abso- 
 lute proof that their interpretation is true,) 
 yet will it certainly go a considerable 
 
 G 4 way 
 
88 LECTURE 1L 
 
 way to persuade a candid man that it is 
 so. 
 
 And the presumption of its truth will be 
 stronger still, if we find that, in this ma- 
 jority of believers, those ages are included 
 which come nearest to the time of the 
 Apostles, and that, in antiquity, no less 
 than universality, it has the advantage 
 over the opposite opinion. 
 
 For, though nothing, doubtless, of Di- 
 vine authority, (and no authority can be 
 absolutely conclusive which is not Divine,) 
 be ascribed to those remoter periods : yet, 
 as every stream, in proportion to its length, 
 is exposed to adulteration ; and as every 
 machine gathers rust by the very act of 
 continuance ; so is it reasonable to com- 
 pare, as far as possible, our own opinions 
 with the opinions of those ages, when the 
 very youth of Christianity exempted her 
 from some of those corruptions which are 
 the attendant curse on time. But, in the 
 weight of antiquity, no less than of num- 
 bers, the orthodox lay claim to victory. 
 
 To such a claim, however, two leading 
 objections have been made : the first, that 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE II. 89 
 
 the ancient Christian writers were incom- 
 petent judges of Scripture ; the second, 
 that those writers to whom we appeal were 
 the favourers of a small though learned 
 party, who were themselves the corruptors 
 of that faith which was primitive, and, till 
 their success, universal ; and who brought 
 from Alexandria, among other Platonic 
 absurdities, the doctrine for which I now 
 contend. 
 
 These objections are neither of them 
 new, and each has been already answered. 
 So old they are, indeed, and have been so 
 often refuted, that the time might seem 
 but wasted which is spent in their discus- 
 sion, were it not needful, that so long as 
 they are urged they should not be urged 
 unnoticed ; lest the pertinacity of our an- 
 tagonists should assume the garb of victory, 
 and they should pretend, at length, to the 
 triumphant possession of that field on which 
 a superior arm has long since laid them 
 breathless. 
 
 The accuracy or intelligence of the an- 
 cient Fathers as interpreters of Scripture, 
 J am little concerned to vindicate. As di- 
 vines 
 
90 LECTURE II. 
 
 vines they were little better, and as critics, 
 too often considerably worse, than many 
 among the moderns, who must never hope 
 to be referred to in the schisms of contend- 
 ing nations. But it is not as expounders 
 of the Gospel, but as historians of public 
 opinion, that the theological writers of 
 former ages are chiefly entitled to our re- 
 spectful notice. Were their original ob- 
 servations less valuable than they are, (and 
 it is vain to deny to many at least, among 
 their number, the praise of natural acute- 
 ness, of extensive learning, and indefatiga- 
 ble diligence,) yet, as contemporary wit- 
 nesses to the ancient Faith of the churches 
 of Christ, the dates at which they flourished 
 must always give importance to their de- 
 cision ; as in a question of prescription we 
 are accustomed to refer to the evidence of 
 the oldest neighbour, though that neigh- 
 bour have no other quality which can make 
 his conversation desirable. 
 
 It is proved, then, in answer to the first 
 objection, that, to our present purpose, 
 the early Christian writers are not incom- 
 petent authority ; since they are not ad- 
 duced 
 
LECTURE II. 91 
 
 ducecl to decide whether the doctrine under 
 examination be absolutely true or false, 
 but only whether it was really the prevalent 
 opinion in those ages with which they were 
 best acquainted. 
 
 To the second objection, which refers 
 the introduction of those opinions which 
 we call orthodox to the commencement of 
 the second century from Christ, and to the 
 labours of Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, 
 we may first reply, that this hypothesis is 
 directly contrary to the witness of such 
 primitive, or, as they are usually called, 
 Apostolic writers, as have transmitted any 
 portion of their works to posterity. The 
 passages are well known which have been 
 produced from these venerable relics in 
 affirmation of the Divinity of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. It is more to my present 
 purpose to observe, that, on the Person- 
 ality of the Holy Ghost, their testimony 
 is equally decisive. 
 
 Hermas, whom St. Paul salutes by name 
 in his Epistle to the Romans*, opposes in 
 
 *. Romans xvi. 14. 
 
 his 
 
92 LECTURE II. 
 
 his " Shepherd" the Spirit of God to the 
 evil Demon in terms which can only suit 
 the opposition of one real Person to an- 
 other. The work of Hernias is, indeed, 
 confessedly allegorical ; yet is it, apparently, 
 to an attentive reader, no difficult task to 
 distinguish in what parts he is speaking by 
 a figure, and in what expressing his own 
 serious conviction ; and when the good or 
 evil genius is spoken of, we have no reason 
 to believe that he is not in earnest, or that 
 any other individuals are intended than 
 Satan and the Spirit of God m . 
 
 But, whatever doubts may exist as to 
 the meaning of Hermas, none can be en- 
 tertained as to that of Clement, the fellow- 
 labourer of the same great Apostle * ; who, 
 as quoted by Basil, no less than in that 
 Epistle which only now exists in the Syriac 
 translation, but of which Wetstein, no in- 
 competent judge, so strongly urges the 
 authenticity, attributes life, and anxiety, 
 and active agency to the Holy Ghost, in 
 the same manner as to the Father and the 
 Son n . 
 
 . * Philipp. iv. 3. 
 
 Igna- 
 
LECTURE II. 93 
 
 Ignatius, in like manner, in his Epistle 
 to the Magnesians, (a work which has 
 stood the severest test of criticism,) de- 
 scribes the Apostles as rendering a like 
 obedience to all the several Persons of the 
 Trinity . And the blessed Polycarp, in his 
 expiring prayer, as preserved by those 
 brethren of the Church of Smyrna who 
 attended his captivity and wept around the 
 flames of his martyrdom, gives glory to the 
 Holy Ghost in almost the very words of 
 our present Doxology p . 
 
 This form of praise, indeed, which was 
 recognized by Dionysius of Alexandria, as 
 the ancient order of Christian invocation; 
 which concluded the hymn of the Martyr 
 Athenogenes ; and that yet more ancient 
 Canticle elf g5nAu%wa, which was in the fifth 
 century of universal and immemorial usage 
 among the meaner Christians ; is in itself 
 an illustrious evidence of the ancient opi- 
 nion of the Church, and may prove that 
 in the earliest times, as now, the unlearned 
 majority were orthodox q . It was, we learn 
 from Basil, a pious and popular custom to 
 return thanks in this form to the three 
 
 Persons 
 
94 LECTURE II. 
 
 Persons of the Godhead by name, when 
 first the lamp was lighted in the evening. 
 Now to customs of this sort, when they 
 are universal, and above all, perhaps, when 
 they are confined to the uninstructed and 
 the poor, we can hardly ever err in imput- 
 ing a very high degree of antiquity. For 
 an unwritten prayer to grow into general 
 usage may require, as it should seem, the 
 lapse of more than a single century ; and 
 those of our order, whose duty has thrown 
 them among the peasantry of the remoter 
 provinces, will have had ample occasion to 
 observe their tenacity of ancient customs. In 
 the hymns, the legends, and the artless de- 
 votions of our English poor, it is often not 
 impossible to trace the relics of supersti- 
 tions long since past away, of Pagan and 
 Roman Catholic prejudices; but seldom, 
 indeed, can we find a form of recent intro- 
 duction among those habitual ejaculations 
 of prayer or praise, which lull poverty to 
 rest on his rugged couch, or welcome in 
 the hard and wholesome repast of labour. 
 In a cottage family the religious instruc- 
 tion of the young invariably devolves on 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE II. 95 
 
 the aged ; the child is taught by his grand- 
 mother the same words which she herself 
 has in like manner learned during her in- 
 fancy; and thus, from year to year, the 
 same address goes on, acquiring an ad- 
 ditional sanctity in each successive genera- 
 tion. It will not be pretended by our 
 learned antagonists, that the use of the 
 Doxology can possibly have been of Pagan 
 origin ; and they will be perplexed, I ap- 
 prehend, to assign to a custom which, in 
 the days of Basil, was popular and imme- 
 morial, a less than Apostolic antiquity. 
 
 But, be that as it may, the sentiment 
 which it conveys is the same, as we have 
 seen, which, amid the smoke and ashes of 
 martyrdom, could raise the hopes and in- 
 spire the courage of the last surviving dis- 
 ciple of the last Apostle, the beloved hearer 
 of him who was himself the beloved of the 
 Lord. If Polycarp were mistaken, who 
 shall hope in these latter days to unriddle 
 an Evangelist's meaning ? If St. John him- 
 self had erroneously expounded the pro- 
 mise of his friend, we may well close the 
 volume of Scripture in despair, till the lion 
 
 of 
 
96 LECTURE II. 
 
 of the tribe of Judah shall return to open 
 its seals. 
 
 Nor are the testimonies of the Apostolic 
 Fathers, whether relating to the Divinity 
 of the Son or the Personality of the Holy 
 Ghost, of a nature which affords even the 
 slightest internal reason to suspect inter- 
 polation or imposture. They are either 
 pious ejaculations under circumstances 
 w r herein the soul of man would naturally 
 revert to prayer ; or they are arguments or 
 illustrations connected with the discourse 
 which contains them, and, therefore, not 
 to be excluded without injury to its general 
 texture. And, above all, the comparative 
 vagueness of their expression may prove 
 them to have proceeded from devout and 
 simple minds, while incidentally speaking of 
 truths which it was not their immediate 
 business to defend. The hand of inter- 
 polation would have been coarser and more 
 decisive ; and, if the object had been to 
 enforce the Trinitarian opinions, the ex- 
 pressions employed, we may be sure, would 
 have been far more technically orthodox. 
 The moderate tone and general nature of 
 
 those 
 
LECTURE II. 97 
 
 those passages where the triune Godhead 
 is implied, may convince us at once that 
 the text is not in these instances corrupted, 
 and may induce us also to believe that 
 those tenets had been hitherto very little 
 questioned, which are mentioned thus un- 
 guardedly. 
 
 If, then, we should admit the assertion 
 to be accurate, that a majority of Chris- 
 tians were, in the days of Justin and Ter- 
 tullian, averse from the orthodox doctrine, 
 we might rather conclude that a departure 
 from ancient principles had taken place 
 among the more ignorant believers, than 
 that those doctrines were, in the second 
 century, new to Christian ears, which had 
 been taught in the Church by Clement 
 and Ignatius and Polycarp. 
 
 In truth, however, those passages of 
 Justin and Tertullian, which have been ad- 
 vanced with much parade of learning and 
 no little scorn of those who have ventured 
 to explain them differently, may be proved, 
 on a candid inquiry, to apply to purposes 
 far different from that for which they are 
 ordinarily cited, and, instead of convicting 
 
 H the 
 
98 LECTURE II. 
 
 the orthodox doctrine of novelty, are, on 
 the other hand, very strongly in its favour. 
 
 Tertullian complains in his treatise against 
 Praxeas, that certain Christians, whom he 
 grants to be the majority of the Church, 
 though he at the same time objects to 
 them, that they were " simplices, impru- 
 " dentes et idiotse," having been converted 
 from the worship of many false Divinities 
 to that of the one true God, and not un- 
 derstanding how this Unity was to be be- 
 lieved together with the Trinitarian dis- 
 tinction of Persons, were alarmed at the 
 thoughts of such distinction'. And hence 
 it is inferred (to use the words of one, 
 who, if not the most distinguished, is at 
 least the most forward of the modern Apo- 
 stles of Unitarianism,) that, " the majority 
 " of Christians, being plain unlearned men, 
 " zealous for the Divine Unity, warmly re- 
 " sisted the Trinitarian doctrine which some 
 " Philosophic Christians were then endea- 
 " vouring to introduce*." 
 
 It is impossible not to regret that this 
 
 * Belsham, Review of Wilberforce, p. 183. 
 
 inge- 
 
LECTURE II. 99 
 
 ingenious person, no less than several 
 greater names on both sides of the con- 
 troversy, have referred to Tertullian for the 
 purposes of controversy only, and have, 
 therefore, regarded the present passage as 
 distinct and insulated, not only from the 
 general purpose of that work to which it 
 belongs, but from the immediate and ne- 
 cessary context. To this we owe those idle 
 verbal criticisms on the insignificant word 
 " idiotae," and the application of those rules 
 of language and propriety to the fiery Pres- 
 byter of Carthage, which would have been 
 applicable, perhaps, to a Roman of the 
 Augustan age. But if, instead of tearing 
 in pieces a detached expression, we refer 
 to the work itself, we shall find that Ter- 
 tullian was not complaining of the diffi- 
 culty which he experienced in introducing 
 a new doctrine into the Church, but that 
 he was deploring the progress which a 
 recent (a very recent) error was making in 
 the west of Christendom. 
 
 Far from complaining that those opi- 
 nions which were adverse to a faith in the 
 Trinity, were the result of deeply rooted 
 
 H 2 pre- 
 
100 LECTURE II. 
 
 prejudice, he speaks of them as a a novelty 
 " of yesterday/' and reminds his fellow- 
 Christians that this, " like every former 
 heresy, may be confuted on the simple 
 principle, that whatever has been from 
 the beginning is true 5 ". Now, without 
 discussing the truth or falsehood of his 
 principle, it is evident, that the simple fact 
 of his adducing such a rule of faith is al- 
 together inconsistent with the conduct of 
 one who was labouring either to corrupt 
 or reform an ancient opinion, or who had 
 offended the ears of the Church by the 
 introduction of philosophical novelties. His 
 language is that of the jealous assertor of 
 antiquity, the strenuous guardian of esta- 
 blished doctrines : it is (and in their con- 
 test with heretics, this is the almost uniform 
 characteristic of the Catholic party) the de- 
 fender, not the assailant, who addresses us. 
 But, if a Protestant in Rome, or a Soci- 
 nian in England, were endeavouring to dis- 
 seminate his tenets among the people, he 
 would not, we may be sure, exhort his 
 hearers to stand on their ancient paths, 
 and beware of new-fangled teachers ; his 
 
 argu- 
 
LECTURE II. 101 
 
 arguments would be directed against the 
 folly of inveterate prejudice, and he would 
 urge the necessity and reasonableness of 
 judging for ourselves, without regard to the 
 canons and precedents of our fallible pre- 
 decessors. Tertullian has been called by 
 Mr. Belsham a Philosophic Christian : but 
 he must have been an idiot in the strictest 
 modern meaning of the term, to have 
 spoken as we find him speaking, had not 
 the doctrine of the Trinity been already 
 in prescriptive possession of the minds of 
 men. 
 
 What, then, is the meaning of his com- 
 plaint? Exactly that which every jealous 
 supporter of established doctrines brings 
 forward, with whatever reason, on the ap- 
 pearance of a new religion, the progress 
 which it makes among the vulgar. And 
 this progress, exaggerated, as usual in such 
 cases, by his fears and jealousies, he as- 
 cribes, with sufficient candour, to the in- 
 herent and admitted difficulties of the esta- 
 blished creed, and the consequent eager- 
 ness with which the lower orders flocked 
 to a preacher who professed, like Praxeas, 
 
 H 3 to 
 
102 LECTURE II. 
 
 to vindicate the Unity of God, and to re- 
 concile, as he undertook to do, that at- 
 tributed With the Divinity of the Lord 
 .Jesus: ' / 
 
 For, let not the modern Unitarian ex- 
 pect to find in Praxeas or Noetus a pre- 
 cursor of Socinus or Priestley; or antici- 
 pate, from the transient success of the an- 
 cient heretics, an abundant harvest of con- 
 verts to the modern Reformation ! What- 
 ever were the opinions of Sabellius, (of 
 which our accounts are too contradictory 
 to enable us to form any adequate judg- 
 ment,) the doctrines of Praxeas are suffi- 
 ciently known, and have no parallel, per- 
 haps, in modern error, except the Visions 
 of Emanuel Swedenborg. He taught, in- 
 deed, one only Person in the Godhead ; 
 but he taught that this Person was no 
 other than that God who was, at once, 
 the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Com- 
 forter of Mankind ; who was born of a 
 Virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and 
 afterwards descended in a shower of fire 
 on the Apostles in the day of Pentecost. 
 In other words, he united the several of- 
 fices 
 
LECTURE II. 102 
 
 fices of the Trinity in the single person of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ 1 . 
 
 To that Unitarianism, which, as de- 
 scribed by Mr. JBelsham himself, would rob 
 us of every rational ground of confidence 
 in the mercy of Heaven ; which casts on 
 us again the burthen of those iniquities 
 under which the whole creation hath 
 groaned and travailed ; which reduces the 
 Messiah to an earthly prophet, of whom 
 we are ignorant whether he is in heaven 
 or no, to whom we owe no gratitude for 
 favours now received, from whom we have 
 nothing to hope or to fear, to that Uni- 
 tarianism the Christians of Rome and 
 Africa were, in the age of Tertullian, 
 strangers". The tenets of Noetus and 
 Praxeas I am far from being inclined ei- 
 ther to believe or defend ; their inconsis- 
 tency I shall have occasion, in the course 
 of these Lectures* to expose : but thus 
 much may, at least, be urged in favour 
 of their comparative innocence, that the 
 fountain of salvation is not, by their 
 means, rendered dry ; and that, while they 
 strangely confound the Person of the Re- 
 
 H 4 deemer 
 
104 LECTURE II. 
 
 deemer with those of the Father and the 
 Comforter, they leave us, nevertheless, the 
 consolation of an almighty Saviour, and 
 an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. 
 
 The complaint, then, of Tertullian, can- 
 not, if rightly understood, be regarded as 
 adverse to the antiquity or universality of 
 those opinions for whose orthodoxy I now 
 am pleading. And the words of Justin, 
 in which he admits that some revered the 
 virtues of Christ, who refused to believe 
 that the Supreme Being should be born 
 of a woman, and suffer by a shameful 
 death, will be found, on examination of 
 their context, and the occasion on which 
 they were spoken, altogether as little fa- 
 vourable to the system of our antagonists. 
 
 Justin, it will be recollected, having al- 
 ready nearly worsted his Jewish adversary 
 on the point that Jesus was the expected 
 Messiah, the Rabbin, as usually happens 
 with the weaker party, diverts the argu- 
 ment to that which had only incidentally 
 become a question, our Lord's preexist- 
 ence and Divinity. Justin, therefore, re- 
 minds him, as any disputant would in such 
 
 a case 
 
LECTURE II. 105 
 
 a case have done, that the Deity of Jesus 
 was not the point under immediate discus- 
 sion ; that, on whichever side the truth 
 might lie as to the peculiar tenets which 
 Justin himself maintained on this myste- 
 rious subject, Trypho was not therefore 
 justified in resisting the arguments drawn 
 from the ancient prophets to prove the 
 general fact of our Saviour's mission from 
 God x . " There are some," he continues, 
 " I do not think them right in such their 
 " opinion, but there are some who allow 
 " that Jesus is the Christ, though they 
 " deny his miraculous incarnation. We 
 " may, then, discuss the first of these 
 " questions distinctly from the other, since 
 " there is in fact no necessary connection 
 " between the proposition, that Jesus is a 
 u Prophet sent from God, and that he was 
 " an eternal and almighty Person incar- 
 " nate." 
 
 That this is the general tendency of Jus- 
 tin's argument, our antagonists themselves 
 will not, I apprehend, deny : nor, from 
 such a statement, can it by any means 
 appear, either that Justin thought (which 
 
 we 
 
106 LECTURE II. 
 
 we know from his strong expressions else- 
 where he certainly did not think) the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity unimportant to Chris- 
 tianity, or that the persons whom he men- 
 tions as holding opinions adverse to that 
 doctrine were, in his time, the majority of 
 Christians. Whatever, indeed, were their 
 number, it is apparent, that those indivi- 
 duals denied not only the Divinity of 
 Christ, but his birth from a Virgin, and 
 that they must therefore have differed not 
 from Justin only and the orthodox Chris- 
 tians of later times, but from Socinus and 
 Crellius themselves. And though the mo- 
 dern Unitarians have made so large ad- 
 vances on the scepticism of their more cau- 
 tious and more learned predecessors, yet 
 have few of them, as yet, attained so lofty 
 a pitch of freethinking as to reject the au- 
 thority of St. Matthew and St. Luke, and 
 to degrade our Saviour to the mortal son 
 of Joseph the carpenter. 
 
 But, further, it is apparent, that it was 
 the interest of Justin, so far as the success 
 of his argument was concerned, to assign 
 as much of weight as could with truth be 
 
 assigned 
 
LECTURE II. 107 
 
 assigned to the number and authority of 
 these dissidents, since we find him urging 
 their example on Trypho. He calls them 
 however riva? not 3roAA*?, far less E7AoW 
 or c7A?/<r#;r " certain," that is, not " many 
 a persons." And the force of the word 
 rive? is so far opposed to the notion of any 
 considerable number, that it is known to 
 be almost equivalent to oA/yo/, " a few." 
 
 Justin repeats, however, and repeats it 
 with considerable earnestness, that he him- 
 self was far from assenting to an opinion 
 so degrading to the Lord whom he wor- 
 shipped ; and he concludes by declaring, 
 as our antagonists themselves understand 
 the following sentence, that he should con- 
 tinue in his present sentiments, even though 
 the majority of Christians should maintain 
 the contrary. 
 
 According to their own interpretation, 
 then, the sentence is obviously hypotheti- 
 cal ; "In case it should so happen," he is 
 made to say, " that the majority of Chris- 
 " tians should embrace such an opinion, 
 " even in that case I would not assent to 
 " it." The Syrian Martyr, then, might 
 
 rather 
 
108 LECTURE II. 
 
 rather seem to contemplate the future posr 
 sibility of encroaching heresy, than to ac- 
 knowledge that tenets similar to those of 
 Socinus and Dr. Priestley were, at that 
 time, the prevailing sentiment of the 
 Church. 
 
 It may be doubted, however, with reason, 
 whether the words themselves of Justin be 
 capable of that rendering which Thirlby 
 and Waterland have given them, and which 
 only, though those learned men contem- 
 plated no such consequence as possible, 
 can be applied to support the Socinian 
 hypothesis. The sentence, oif x (rvvT&epai 
 #J" a,v GtheiToi TctLra pot ^o^d^cvrsf eiTroiev, which 
 Waterland translates, " whom I assent not 
 " to, no not though there were ever so 
 " many concurring to tell me so," is con- 
 victed by such a rendering of a solecism of 
 the -most obvious kind, inasmuch as <wn- 
 &epai, a verb in the indicative mood, can 
 with no propriety be placed in opposition 
 to eiTrotev in the optative. If Justin, then, 
 had desired to express the sentiment which 
 they impute to him, his words, if he had 
 spoken good Greek, would not have been 
 
LECTURE II. 109 
 
 r > 
 
 IC X FVVTl 
 
 /f\ ft> j\ 3 / Vi.-,4- ~ ' 
 
 lljeAC&t -- X0 CLV tlTTOlSV, DUt Ol? X (TVV~ 
 
 civ wfalfot ravTO, poi ^o^oi^ovTSf e'lTrotsv. 
 
 But though the language of the Syrian 
 Martyr is doubtless far from classical, yet 
 will not it be easy to find in his works 
 any similar instance of contempt for the 
 rules of grammar ; nor can that be consi- 
 dered as judicious criticism, which, whether 
 for the sake of avoiding a fancied tameness 
 of expression, or of serving the ends of a 
 sect, will adopt an ungrammatical sense, 
 when another may be obtained without 
 violating any principle of diction. The 
 particle &v is in the present passage, plain- 
 ly, not disjunctive, but expletive ; and the 
 only sense of which the words are capable, 
 is one directly adverse to that which the 
 Socinians would have them convey, an 
 assurance, namely, that there were not 
 many who, in the days of Justin, disbe- 
 lieved in the Deity of the Messiah. 
 , x AV whftw pot TSWTO, oci 
 Quibus neque ipse assentior, nee 
 
 multi sane hsec mihi opinione ducti dix> 
 
 erint." 
 
 And that this is the proper rendering 
 
110 LECTURE II. 
 
 is apparent, if we consider, that in the 
 days of Justin, and little more than a 
 century from the death of our Lord, it is 
 contrary to all evidence to suppose that 
 the authority of the Church was carried 
 to a height so Pontifical, as that even a 
 question could suggest itself of a man's 
 submitting his faith to the decision of the 
 majority, or of guiding his conscience in 
 a point of such importance by any but the 
 written or traditional words of inspiration. 
 The words which follow, therefore, and 
 which have been sometimes supposed to 
 be the reason given by the Syrian Martyr 
 for dissenting from the usual doctrine of 
 the Church, are, in truth, no more than 
 the reason why the universal Church were 
 so earnest to inculcate those opinions 
 which were a stumbling-block in the way 
 of Trypho's conversion, but which, as re- 
 ceived from the Deity himself, their prin- 
 ciples would neither allow them to suppress 
 nor to compromise. 'ETTJJ xx, ctj/ 
 
 'a,, VTT avrS rx Xpt<rx 
 
 tyif A' <tt/r A 
 
 That 
 
LECTURE II. Ill 
 
 That the Son, indeed, and the Holy 
 Ghost, were, as well as the Father, adored 
 in the days of Justin, by the great body of 
 Christians, we learn from Justin himself, 
 in a treatise, where, of all others, a mis- 
 statement of their opinions in this respect 
 would have been most wicked and most 
 useless, his Second Apology for the 
 Christians ; a work wherein he justifies the 
 great body of believers from the charges 
 of Atheism and superstition brought against 
 them by their Pagan enemies; and wherein 
 he professes to give an accurate exposition 
 of those doctrines which they really be- 
 lieved and maintained. 
 
 Now I am convinced, that in those nu- 
 merous Apologies and (to use a word 
 which has, during these few last years, 
 become popular and almost technical) 
 those " Portraitures," which the advocates 
 of different sects have, in our times, sent 
 forth in commendation or defence of their 
 respective tenets, no instance can be found 
 in which the Apologist has ventured to 
 ascribe, as an article of faith, to the uni- 
 versal sect, those opinions which were con- 
 fined 
 
112 LECTURE II. 
 
 fined to a small though learned part of it. 
 Not even where the tenet was of a popular 
 character, and likely to conciliate the good 
 will of those for whose perusal the Apo- 
 logy was intended, would such a conduct 
 be hazarded. There are Quakers who dress 
 themselves like other men ; but would any 
 of these, in controversy with an Episcopa- 
 lian, maintain that this harmless confor- 
 mity to the world was the general opinion 
 and practice of the society for whom he 
 was pleading? There are Protestants who 
 reverence the Episcopal Institution as of 
 primitive and apostolical appointment; but 
 should I, or any other Protestant who holds 
 this opinion, maintain, in a friendly con- 
 ference with a Romanist, that the universal 
 body of Reformed and Lutheran Churches 
 in this respect agreed with me? Still 
 stronger, however, does the case become, 
 when the tenet in question has been the 
 subject of derision or persecution ; when it 
 is esteemed the most offensive peculiarity 
 of tiie sect, and that from which their ene- 
 mies have taken most occasion to accuse 
 Jhem of blasphemy or madness. The doc- 
 trines 
 
LECTURE II. 113 
 
 trines of materialism and necessity have 
 been maintained, we know, by many of 
 the leading members of that sect which 
 chiefly, in the present age, opposes the 
 opinion of a Trinity ; yet how explicitly do 
 their ingenious supporters disclaim both 
 materialism and necessity as essential or 
 universal doctrines of the infant Church ; 
 how strongly are we assured, that, what- 
 ever be the notions of individuals on these 
 important subjects, such notions are nei- 
 ther taught nor received by the majority of 
 freethinking Christians*. 
 
 But the divinity of a crucified Man 
 was a doctrine more revolting to the 
 Greeks and Romans than the materialism 
 of Priestley to the majority of modern be- 
 lievers : the injurious manner in which the 
 influence of the Holy Ghost and the no- 
 tion of a Trinity in Unity \vere derided 
 by the Heathen, is apparent from the few 
 ancient libels against our faith which have 
 descended to the present generation y . It 
 was incumbent, therefore, on the Apolo- 
 
 * Belsham, ubi supra. Pref. p. xv, 
 
 i gist 
 
114 LECTURE II. 
 
 gist of Christianity to shew, that those opi- 
 nions (whether he himself adopted them 
 or no) were the opinions of a small party 
 only ; that they were points on which the 
 Church permitted every man to think as 
 he pleased ; and that ignorance only or 
 malignity could visit their supposed im- 
 piety on the universal body of Christians. 
 
 Such would, such necessarily must have 
 been the conduct of the eloquent and (our 
 adversaries themselves being judges) the 
 honest and candid Justin, were the Uni- 
 tarians correct in their hypothesis, that 
 their present opinions were, in his time, 
 those of a great majority in the Christian 
 world. But how different is the declara- 
 tion of faith which, not in his own name 
 only, but as defender of the Catholic reli- 
 gion, he advances in his Second Apology ! 
 
 " In gods like these," (he is speaking 
 of the Pagan deities,) "we own ourselves 
 " to be unbelievers; but not in the most 
 " true and faultless God, the Father of 
 " justice and purity, and all other virtues. 
 " Him, and the Son who came to teach 
 " this Gospel to us, and the Prophetic 
 
 " Spirit, 
 
LECTURE II. 115 
 
 " Spirit, we with a true and reasonable 
 <s service worship and adore 2 !" 
 
 Such, in the days of the elder Antoni- 
 nus, and barely half a century from the 
 death of St. John, was the confession of 
 the Greek and Syriac Churches. Forty 
 years later, we have seen, on the authority 
 of Tertullian, that a belief in the Trinity 
 was the predominant and prescriptive creed 
 of the Christians in Western Africa ; nor 
 can we better sum up the result of these 
 testimonies than in the words of Irenaeus, 
 who was contemporary both with Justin 
 and Tertullian and Polycarp himself, and 
 who, as a native of Syria and a Gallic bi- 
 shop, was enabled to speak with greater 
 certainty of the predominant opinions in 
 the Eastern alike and the Western world. 
 
 " This doctrine," he tells us, after a clear 
 and copious exposition of all those points 
 for which the orthodox are now contend- 
 ing, " this doctrine and this faith the 
 " Church, though scattered through the 
 " earth, has received, and guards as if her 
 " members were one single family. This 
 " she believes as with one single heart ; 
 
 12 " this 
 
116 LECTURE II. 
 
 ** this as with one single voice she pro- 
 " claims and teaches, and delivers to her 
 " progeny. There are many languages in 
 " the world, but the tenor of our tradition 
 " is the same. The Churches in Germany 
 " believe and teach no otherwise; nor in 
 " Spain, nor in Gaul, nor in the East, 
 66 nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor those 
 " which are in the midst of the world, and 
 " in the central provinces of Italy. But 
 " as all the world is enlightened by the 
 " self-same sun, so does the doctrine of 
 " truth shine every where, and enlighten 
 " all who desire to come to it. Nor will 
 " the most eloquent of our Christian teach - 
 " ers add to this tradition, nor the weakest 
 u in the Gospel diminish aught from it. 
 " For when the faith is one, neither can 
 " an eloquent exposition add to its doc- 
 " trines, nor the briefest statement detract 
 " from them 8 ." 
 
 It may seem, then, that little either of 
 modesty or learning is shewn in the asser- 
 tion of the same surviving chief of Unita- 
 rianism whom I have already quoted, that, 
 one hundred and twenty years after Christ, 
 
 " the 
 
LECTURE II. 117 
 
 " the majority of Christians, being plain 
 " and unlearned men, warmly resisted the 
 " Trinitarian doctrine." And not only will 
 this supposed majority dwindle down into 
 a comparatively small proportion, so small, 
 indeed, as to have been alike unworthy the 
 mention or knowledge of the defenders of 
 the Church and its persecutors, so small as 
 to have been unknown to Pliny and unno- 
 ticed by Justin, but of that proportion the 
 tenets may, perhaps, appear to have been 
 such as will by no means furnish a prece- 
 dent to the modern Unitarian confession. 
 
 This inquiry, however, must be deferred 
 to a future Sunday, when I propose to ex- 
 amine the probable source of those opi- 
 nions which are peculiar to orthodoxy, no 
 less than the recorded doctrines of those 
 who, in the first and second centuries after 
 Christ, dissented from the majority of their 
 brethren. 
 
 i 3 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Page 60, note a . 
 
 ad Serapionem. Op.t. i. p. 176. Ed. Par. 
 
 EiWre y sv e*i <&& r^ Se/aj ypsiffis fwp/taeerai TO Ilveu/xa ra 
 f/ Ayjov tlpypevov a7rXa:$ HvsDjaa p>p< -STpo<7drjxrj^ rs Xey=(T$ai 
 
 l} Ttf 0=8, Y) Ttf YloiTpOS, Y) OTl 'Ei^U (o 6f< T 0i5) >] /XST T 
 
 cipSpu, r iva py oL7rh.u>$ Xsy>]Ta< Ovsu^a, aXXa TO I7NETMA, 
 >j auTO TTO TO FfveD/xa TO "Ayiov, 15 ITa^a^ArjTOVj ^ 'AXrj^aaj 
 (o' Ifi Ttf ula AeyovTOf lyco eljtii >j 'AX^aa) Va axao~avre^ aTrXcioj 
 
 Page 71 5 note b . 
 Platonis Apol. Socrat. Op. Ed. Bipont. t. i. p. 73. 
 
 TtfTtf 8e airiov l^w o Ujxslj I^S cj-oXXaxi^ axrjxoWs -zs-oAXa^tf 
 AeyovToc, OTI joooi -^sTo'v T< ^ aj,o'vjoi/ yyvsTai ^cov>j. x. T. X. 
 Plutarchus de Oraculorum Defectu.Op. Ed.Reiske. t. vii. 
 p. 639. AsftsifcsToti ^BTOL [AGtpTupcav <ra<p&v Xj -sraXaJiov OT< ^y<raj 
 glcr/ T<VS^ ajcTTrep Iv p,eopico 
 x, 
 
 Page 73, note c. 
 
 Philo Judaeus. OS; aXXo <p<XoVoij5 
 Mcocrijj sTcoSev ovo^ta^av vj/u^a* 8* elo~i xaTa TOV ae 
 
 TroXa^ij jxvdov eTvai TO eZpjju,EVOV avayx>j yap oXov Si* 
 TOV 
 
NOTES ON LECTURE II. 
 
 TU olxsTa x, crp&ftya cua "G^p /ej^ovro?, yrjj JXHV T 
 a, SaAamj^ 8s X| -croTaftaJv ra svv$pat 9 t&vpog ts 
 yova (Ao'yoj $' s;^a raura xara Maxf&ov/av 
 
 x, 
 
 TS Xj delai, -cra^)' o x, xuxXaj xivVT< T>JV (ruyysvefar>]V 
 x/v>j(Tv. 
 
 xaTov x, TOV aepa ^cocov -creTrAijpwcrdaj . Taura ys y;ju,7v <Vv 
 aopara, or* CTep Xj auroj p^ ogaroj alo"d^(7i. Pharisaei in 
 Actis Apost. xxiii. 9. El OTvsujtxa lAaArjcrsv aura; rj ayysAo^. 
 Josephus Ant. Jud. I. vi. cxi. 2 Ed. Huds. "Ors o-w T 
 an/eUjitaTO jt, TOJV Sa/jU-ov/cov lyxa-^s^o^svwv^ ra jaev l^- 
 elpyvyv 8* aurwv TJJ ^y%j5 " waprp0r, Gittin, f. Ixvi. 1. 
 Ruth.R.iii.9. "Incepit Boas contractare crines ejus, dix- 
 itque, Spiritus non habent crinem. Quaesivit : Quis es ? 
 Spiritus an mulier ?" Synopsis Libr. Sohar. Tit. x. . 62. 
 u Homo tenetur studere in lege ut liberetur a spiritibus 
 malignis qui dominium habent noctu." Ibid. Tit. vi. 
 .18. "Certi quidam Spiritus constituti sunt super eum 
 qui praeputium filii sui circumcidere impedit/' Ibid. 
 Tit. x. " Sexaginta myriades malignorum spirituum do- 
 minium habent in ungues qui disperguntur in publicum, 
 atque hinc mors induci potest toti mundo." 
 
 Page 75, note d . 
 
 At Phoebi nondum patiens, immanis in antro 
 Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit 
 Excussisse Deum ; tanto magis ille fatigat 
 Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo. 
 
 Virgil. zEneid. vi. 77. 
 Struggling in vain, impatient of her load, 
 And labouring underneath the ponderous God, 
 The more she strove to shake him from her breast, 
 With more and far superior force he prest. 
 Commands his entrance, and without controul 
 Usurps her organs and inspires her soul ! Dry den. 
 i4 
 
120 NOTES 
 
 Page 75, note e . 
 
 Luke xi. 14. xiii. 11. Jalkut Rubeni. f. cvii, 3. " Cum 
 (Moses) descenderet, videretque quam terribiles essent 
 angeli, et conspiceret angelos timoris, angelos sudoris, 
 angelos trepidationis, tanto timore perculsus est, ut 
 omnium oblivisceretur." 
 
 Page 78, note f. 
 
 Hieron. Ep. Ixv. Pammachio et Oceano. Op. t. ii. 
 p. 130. Ed. Francof. "Lactantius in libris suis et max- 
 ime in Epistolis ad Demetrianum, Spiritus Sancti om- 
 nino negat substantiam, et errore Judaico dicit eum vel 
 ad Patrem referri vel ad Filium et sanctificationem 
 utri usque Personae sub ejus nomine demonstrari." Mai- 
 monides More Nevochim, p. i. c. 40. " Influentiam illam 
 divinam intellectualem a Deo prophetis instillatam, 
 cujus virtute prophetant." 
 
 Page 79, notes. 
 
 Lactantius de Vera Sapientia, lib. iv. . 15. " Tune 
 vox audita de ccelo est, Filius meus es tu : ego hpdie 
 genui te. Quae vox apud David prsedicta invenitur. Et 
 descendit super eum Spiritus Dei formatus in speciem 
 columbiE Candidas." And what was this author's defi- 
 nition of a spirit may appear from the same book, .8. 
 " Nostri spiritus dissolubiles sunt, quia mortales sumus. 
 Dei autem spiritus et vivunt et manent et sentiunt ; 
 quia ipse irnmortalis est, et sensus, et vitas dator." 
 
 Page 80, note h . 
 
 Mr. Belsham, in his recent publication addressed 
 to the Bishop of London, among many other eminent 
 characters whom he cites as secretly attached to the 
 opinions of modern Unitarianism, has thought fit to 
 name Bishops Law of Carlisle, and Shipley of St r 
 
 Asaph, 
 
ON LECTURE II. 121 
 
 Asaph, and the Rev. Archdeacon Blackburne. On 
 what evidence it is that he ascribes a dissembling of 
 their faith to men of unblemished character, whose 
 writings, doubtless, may be searched in vain for any 
 thing on which to found the charge of heresy, he has 
 not deigned to let us know. For Bishop Shipley, 
 whose memory I respect, at least, as much as Mr. Bel- 
 sham can, and whose private sentiments I have better 
 means of knowing than Mr. Belsham can possibly pos- 
 sess, I can answer, on the authority of his son, that the 
 charge is as false as it is injurious. Had Dr. Shipley's 
 faith been inconsistent with that of the Church to 
 which he belonged, those who knew his utter disregard 
 of worldly interest, and his characteristic frankness of 
 character, know that he would not have retained his 
 preferment a single hour. In truth, however, his daily 
 devotions and his confidential discourse were in perfect 
 consonance with his public professions. He was, like 
 his original patron Hoadly, a Low-Churchman, but he 
 was a Churchman from the purest feelings of convic- 
 tion. Mr. Belsham might have known all this, had he 
 thought it worth his while to be accurate, as he might 
 also have known from the published Life of Archdeacon 
 Blackburne, that this zealous partizan was not only a 
 Trinitarian but a Calvinist. From these specimens of 
 Socinian exactness, we may ascertain the degree of 
 credit due to Mr. Hopton Haynes, when he tells us 
 that Sir Isaac Newton did not believe in our Saviour's 
 preexistence. 
 
 Page 81, note '. 
 
 Euseb. Prseparat. Evangel, vii. . xv. p. 325. 
 
 Page 82, note k . 
 
 Synopsis Libr. Sohar. Tit. xiii. 21. "Spiritus hominis 
 originemhabet e latere Spiritus Sancti." Sanhedrin. f. Ixv. 
 
 2. ad 
 
122 NOTES 
 
 2. ad Deut, xviii. 1 1. "Hie est qui jejunium sibi indicit, 
 abitque et pernoctat in monumento ut descendat super 
 eum Spiritus immundus. Cum Rabbi Akiba venit ad 
 hunc locum flevit. Quid? qui jejunium sibi indicit ut 
 descendat super eum Spiritus immundus, quanto magis 
 qui jejunium sibi indicit ut descendat super eum Spiritus 
 Purus r" Sohar. Chadasch. f. xvi. 3. "Dixit Rabbi Nach- 
 man, Anima amplior data est Adamo die Sabbati. Dixit 
 Rabbi : Quaenam est ilia anima amplior ? Respondit ille, 
 Spiritus Sanctus est qui habitat in eo, et coronat ipsum 
 corona sancta, coronis angelicis. Idem Spiritus in tem- 
 poribus Messise habitaturus est super justos. Adeoque 
 homo debit honorare Sabbatum propter ilium hospitem 
 sanctum." Ibid. f. xv. 4. " Rabbi Jehuda filius Passi ob- 
 viam venit Rabbi Nachmano dicens ipsi, Ille Spiritus 
 per quern Deus S. B. resusciturus est mortuos qualis 
 nam est ? Respondit ille. Est Spiritus Specularis Su- 
 perni a quo homines veram scientiam accipiunt." These 
 and similar expressions appear to have so fully con- 
 vinced Grotius as to the ancient Hebrew faith in this 
 particular, that he assumes the distinct existence and 
 eternity of the Holy Ghost as a fact universally ad- 
 mitted by the Jews. Grotius de Veritate Rel. Christianas. 
 1. v. . 21. "Ut id sumam quod apud omnes Hebraeos 
 maxime confessum est, Spiritus ille quo agitati sunt 
 Prophetse non est aliquod ereatum, et tamen distingui- 
 tur a mittente, quomodo et illud quod Schekinah vulgo 
 vocant." 
 
 Page 83, note l. 
 
 Catechismus Cabbalisticus. Quaest. vi. Resp. "Tertia 
 Persona (Deitatis) vocatur Binah, Prudentia, tertiamque 
 Sephiram occupat, &c. &c. Tertia vero haec persona 
 occurrit in visione Ezekielis sub nomine fin sed prae- 
 sertim sub nomine rmn mi." 
 
 Page 
 
ON LECTURE II. 123 
 
 Page 92, note m . 
 
 Hermae Pastor. 1. ii. p. 182. Ed. Russel. "Cum enim 
 tec omnia sunt in uno vase, ubi et Spiritus Sanctus 
 moratur, non capit hos vas sed supereffluit ; quoniam 
 tener Spiritus non potest cum malo Spiritu immorari, 
 receditet habitat cum mansueto." Idem, 185. " Duo sunt 
 Genii cum homine : unus sequitatis et unus iniquitatis 
 Intellige nunc et crede Genio sequitatis ; quia doctrina 
 illius bona est. Si ergo ilium secutus fueris et credi- 
 deris operibus illius, vivis Deo : et qui crediderint operi- 
 bus illius, vivent Deo." That Hernias is here speaking 
 figuratively, few men will suppose, who recollect the 
 known opinions of his time ; and that he intends any 
 other spirits than the Holy Ghost and the Devil, though 
 it has been supposed, is contradicted by the circum- 
 stance that he does not say that they are, like the Pla- 
 tonic Genii, " duo cum homine singulo," but with 
 man in general, the whole human race, in the Greek 
 of Antiochus, peru T 
 
 Ibid, note n . 
 
 Clemens in Epistola I. Syr. Edita a Wetstenio. ad 
 fin. " Operarios qui sunt sicut Apostoli, operarios imi- 
 tantes Patrum et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum qui sol- 
 liciti sunt de salute hominum." Idem ap. Basilium -crspi 
 YIvevfjictTQ; ' Ay/8". C. XXIX. Zy 6 0-eof x, 6 Kvpio$ 'lyo 
 x, TO Ilvei/jota TO "Ay*ov. 
 
 Page 93, note . 
 
 Ignatius Epist. ad Magnes. p. 140. Ed. Russel. ' 
 Tcty>jTe TO) iTrio-xoTrw x, aAX>jAo wj 'l>jo-j Xg<roj TO> tlotrpl 
 xotTtx. (ratpxct, 3tj ol 'ATroVoAo' TO) X^foi x, TJ IlaTp x^ TCU Ilvsy- 
 'Ay tcp. 
 
 Ibid, note P. 
 
 Polycarpus in Martyrio. Patr. Apos. Ed. Russel. 
 
 t. ii. 
 
124 NOTES 
 
 t. ii. p. 353. Aia TTO Xj i&sp} -cravTcov u\vu> <rs y et>Aoya> (re, 
 8oa> <T5, <ruv ro3 otlcovlop Xj g7r8pav<a> 'Irjcra Xp^fw, ayaTryjraJ 
 
 ^ f ft > T x TY / A '!>'* \~\> > 
 
 'Ay/a> y) 8oa KJ vtiv x, 
 
 Page 93, note q. 
 
 Basil, ubi supra. EIp>jva7of lx=7voj x, Kx>j/x.rjj 6 ' 
 x, AIOVUO-^OJ & 'Pa;/xa7o^ x, 6 'AAe^avS^su^ A<ovucnoj, o x, 
 
 x, 
 
 TOV crpo yjjxiov i&gsG'VTspwv TVTTOV Xj xavo 
 
 x, 8^ x, vuv UjtxTv CTTI- 
 . Tw 2e 0=w x, ITaTp* x, T*aJ rw 
 xwp/a; y|j(X-a;v 'luff's Xps"aJ 3 <7iy TW 'Ay/a; FlvsyjaaT*, So^a x, xpa- 
 ro^ s<^ rj alciova^ TWV alwvwv. 'Afi^v. -- -^O Ss XAwj /xev 
 
 lyxa- 
 
 TWTO Sij x, 7rpo<rY)<ra), s$o% Tol; izoiTgauTW ypwv, 
 X&piV T sGTrspivu <WTQS Sep^scrda/, aAX* eu-^uf 
 5-e7v. Ka Ofij ju,ev 6 Trar^p TWV pyj/xaTcSv exs/vcov 
 
 s*Vs7v x i^ojtwv* 6 jxevroi Xaoj ao^a/v ot^l 
 
 Tlarepa 3^ Tlcv x, "Ay<ov IIveD/xa 05' el Se rtj x, TOV o/xvov 
 ov Si7rs^> n aAAo efcirypioy, TO!$ cruv<nv xara-' 
 j OTpo^ T^V Sia -crypo^ TgXs/wtnv^ olBe x^ TOV TWV 
 |xapryp;v yvw'jarjy oVcyj '%ov tsrepi r Ylvcupotroc. Is it not 
 possible that the Doxology, or something like, was that 
 "many-named chaunt/' which Triephon in the Philopa- 
 tris notices as said after the Lord's Prayer ? T)jv eu%^v 
 
 Page 98, note r . 
 
 Tertullianus Adv. Praxeam. Opera, p. 502. Ed. 
 Par. " Simplices enim, quippe (ne dixerim imprudentes 
 et idiotae) quaB major semper pars est credentium, quo- 
 niam et ipsa fidei regula a plurimis Diis seculi ad Uni- 
 
 cum 
 
ON LECTURE II. 125 
 
 cum et Verum Deum transfert, non intelligentes Uni~ 
 cum quidem sed cum oeconomia esse credendum expa- 
 viscunt ad oeconomiam." 
 
 Page 100, note s . 
 
 Tertullianus ubi supra. "Hanc regulam ab initioEvan- 
 gelii decucurrisse etiam ante priores quosque haereticos, 
 nedum ante Praxeam hesternum, probabit tarn ipsa 
 posteritas omnium haereticomm, qua ipsa novellitas 
 Praxeae hesterni. Quo peraeque adversus universas hae- 
 reses jam hinc praejudicatum sit, id esse verum quod- 
 cunque primum ; id esse adulterum quodcunque poste- 
 rius." 
 
 Page 103, note t. ,. . 
 
 Tertullianus ubi supra. "Itaque" (he is giving an ac- 
 count of the monstrous error of his antagonist) "post 
 tempus Pater natus et Pater passus; ipse Deus, Do- 
 minus Omnipotens Jesus Christus praedicatur." Idem. 
 (< Unicum Deum (Praxeas) non alias putat credendum, 
 quam si ipsum eundemque et Patrem Filium et Spi- 
 ritum Sanctum dicat." Epiphanius adv. Haeres. ii. p. 
 479. Ed. Par. Ouro^ ^' layrw ITT' JfyjfeflMTJ [/.etviat$ eireipei$ 9 
 sToXprps hey&v rov TIciTspa creTrov^gva/. Idem. p. 480. Of 
 NoijTiavoj CTr/pw/xsvoj crvvi^v TY,v xctT oLVT&$ Ij^/xav^ SjSacTxa- 
 elirev 6 0soj cr^oj McooV^V 'Eyco sfyju 6 0goj TU>V 
 'Eyco sjpcoroj, Xj lyco /xera raura' x 
 x, ra gfijj. v EAsyov v, ^,a? TO/VWV 
 . El TO/VUV eXdcov Xpj$*0 eysvv^)j, auroc l$i ITa^ 
 r>jp, auroj Tiof. Theodoretus Hsereticarum Fab. iii. . 3. 
 Op. t. iv. p. 228. Ed. Par. "Eva. <pa<nv elvoti 0sov, x, Ila- 
 repa, TWV oXcov fylutfrflh' a.ycm\ p,ev orav IdeA^, <pftwop,evov 
 $s yvtxct. v /38A>jTa* x, TOV aurov ao^arov slvai x, opwfjLsvov, % 
 yevvvjrov x, aysvv^rov, ayeyy^jrov ]U,sy 1^ otpxyf yevvyrov %s ore 
 Ix wa^evH yeyj/>j3>jvai ^eA>jo'=* a?rad^ x, a^avaroy, x, 
 ay, cfa^jjTOJ' ^ SJ/IJTO'V 7ra^jj^ yap wy ^>]<7< TO T 
 
*26 NOTES 
 
 V 
 
 T#TO 
 
 Page 103, note u . 
 
 Belsham ubi supra p. 65. " As we are totally igno- 
 rant of the place where he resides, and of the occupa- 
 tions in which he is engaged, there can be no proper 
 foundation for religious addresses to him, nor of gra- 
 titude for favours now received, nor yet of confidence 
 in his future interposition in our behalf." 
 
 Page 105, note x . 
 Justinus, Dialog, cum Tryphone. 234. Ed. Thirlby. 
 
 H /xevTO, w TtpvifivoVy ejTrov, wx aTro'AAura* TO TOIXTQV elva* 
 Xpjj'oy T0t5 0=ot), lav 
 vlos T rTojyjT TMV o\wv, =oj v, x, 
 
 tpSsvy. 'AAAa ex tzravro^ 7ro?s*xvu/xlv8 or/ TOJ e^iv 6 Xpi- 
 6 T 0s5, oV'j TOJ $<, lav Sa jW,)j aTroSaxvuco oVi CTpaV^p^s, 
 
 xara TV 
 
 S/xa<ov, aAAa ^ ocpvei&oii on UTQ$ l^iv o 
 
 j av$pco7TO 1^ xvSpwTrwv yevv>jdj, x, 
 OV Xp<rov elvai a7roaxyurjr. K yap eiVi 
 
 Bs ef avpa>7rctiv ysvopsvov <z7ro<potivo(j.evoi' olj ou crut/r/- 
 , ou' ftv OTAeTro* raura jxo* So^a^ovrej e7ro/6j/, STraS^ oux 
 S<5ay/xacr/ xexeAsuo-^s^a, UTT' aurou TOU X^<ro5 ^ra- 
 , aAAa roTj ta TCOV /xaxap/wv 
 
 Page 113, note y. 
 
 Trypho ap. Just, ubi supra. T<> Asyav 0-5 
 Oeov ovra -crpo alcyvcov TOUTOV TOV Xpi^oi/j elra S 
 ^v^pcoTrov ysvo'/xsvov - ou fjiovov -crapaSo^ov SoxeT 
 aAAa jt, /xcopo'v. Celsus ap. Orig. 1. i. p. 54. Ed. Spencer. 
 6 KeA<ro <p>)0-y or/ ou* v snj 0oD rJ/x,a TO OUTW 
 
ON LECTURE II. 127 
 
 <TVj 'Irjcrou, IcrTra^f. Ibid. p. 79. Ofero/ xparuyav TP 
 11 ITTS*, Ao'yov e7rayyeAAoj.Jvoj uloy eiva/ TOU 0sou, aTro- 
 oti Ao'yov xaSagoy x, ayjoy, aAAa avSpcoTrov arijxoVa- 
 roy, 7r^3evTa x, aTrory/xTravj&e'i'Ta. Libanius Paneg. Ju* 
 lian. Op. t. ii. p. 234. Ed. Par. 3>Aoo-o/a ^jaevov x, ITT 
 Toy lxsiy>j t*ragaxuvj/ayra As^cuva, 8oav -srsp TOU 0s/ -sra^a- 
 CDJ^OV ot5x Iv^v cregjiplpsiv. Idem p. 253, (Constantini, sci- 
 licet, in Decs injurias recensens) NexpoS rvoj tpij^v sij 
 TOV bfMTipov !yxarspj<r xA>5pov. Julianas ad Alexandr. Op. 
 p. 434. Ed. Spanheim. 'Irjcrouv oTs^s %p^v<o/ 0fov Ao'yov. 
 Lucianus ? in Philopatrid. T^ie^wv. Aeye, wapa rou TTVSU* 
 /xaroj Syva^jy TOU Xoy Aa^wv. Ibid. Tpi. 'T^/J^sSovra 0soy, 
 psyotv, apGpOTOV, oiigotvicovot, ulov -CTarpOf, -srvsu^a Ix 
 
 ^yov 0eov. KffrfOf. 'Apid^eav fts 8*Sacrxaj, ^ ojsxoj ^ 
 ux o*8a yap T) Aeyac, *Ev rp/a, rp/a gy. 
 
 The manner in which the Divinity of our Lord and 
 the doctrine of the Triune Godhead was actually received 
 by the ancient Jews and Heathens may appear from the 
 above specimens ; and this is quite sufficient for my pre- 
 sent purpose, which is only to prove that Justin would 
 never have imputed to the general body of the Faithful 
 an opinion so liable to misrepresentation, and which was > 
 in fact, so strongly objected to, if that opinion had been 
 confined to a small though learned party in the Church. 
 
 Witli the author or date of the Philopatris I have no 
 Immediate concern. As the Dialogue, however, is not 
 devoid of curiosity and interest, I may be allowed to 
 observe, that the learned Gesner has not perfectly suc- 
 ceeded in establishing it as a libel of the age of Julian 
 the Apostate. 1. It is impossible that any person writ- 
 ing with a view to conciliate that prince would have 
 spoken so contemptuously of the Heathen deities as this 
 author has done. 2. The Emperor, whoever he were, 
 whom this blasphemer flatters, must not only have been 
 engaged in war with Persia and Arabia, but with Egypt, 
 
 and 
 
128 
 
 and have previously repressed or regulated the Scy- 
 thians. But, excepting his Persian campaign, none of 
 these circumstances agree with Julian. Though Gesner 
 lays a most unreasonable stress on his angry letter to 
 the Alexandrians, it is plain, from Ammianus, that 
 Egypt no less than Arabia and the Danubian provinces 
 were never seriously disturbed during his reign. 3. The 
 Christian Triephon is represented as joining in the 
 praises of the Emperor, and praying for his safety, 
 which certainly does not tally with their known sen- 
 timents respecting the Apostate. 4. The jet of the 
 satire is misunderstood by those who suppose it to be 
 directed chiefly against the Christians. However ir- 
 reverently the Catholic faith is there treated, Triephon 
 himself is introduced in a respectable light, and the 
 small sect of prophets or sorcerers, in detestation of 
 whom both Triephon and Critias are united, have no 
 characteristics of Christianity. Their shorn heads and 
 use of the Egyptian calendar would rather imply 
 that they were magi or priests of Serapis ; and the 
 fasting and visions, on which Gesner lays some stress 
 to prove their Christianity, may apply to any of the 
 Eastern sects of philosophy. At any rate they were 
 not Christians, since Triephon was not of their number, 
 nor, except the Christians, had Julian any domestic 
 enemies. It will be allowed, however, first, that the 
 Philopatris (if not written by Lucian himself in his 
 youth, and before the Statuary of Samosata had im- 
 proved himself by study and a residence in Greece) 
 must have been the production of one of his imitators. 
 2. That its scene is laid to the north of the Propontis. 
 And I am inclined to believe that we must suppose it 
 to refer either to the imposture of the false prophet 
 Alexander at Chalcedon, in the time of Marcus Aure- 
 lius, or to the intrigues carried on in Bithynia, by the 
 agents of Zenobia, under Aurelian. To either of these 
 
 periods 
 
ON LECTURE II. 129 
 
 periods the political allusions of the Dialogue perfectly 
 apply. To the gloomy predictions of Alexander Lu- 
 cian bears witness, no less than to the factious abuse 
 which some of the philosophic sects thought fit to heap 
 on the Roman government. Alexandn Tlavroa-s 7% 'Pco- 
 s STTS^^/S ^^(TjO-o^^s^, TCU$ GroAso'i OTpoAeycov Aoi- 
 
 x, tsupKatiag <puXacr<re&oit . De Morte Peregr. 
 
 -ara<n Xf ^taA/fa TCU /SacnAsT. Ibid. Tou "EAAvjva^ 
 aVT<xpoi<r$ou oTrAa 'Po^a/oif. For the political circumstances 
 of Bithynia in the time of Aurelian, see Zosimus, 1. L 
 p. 44. The barbarous words in the Philopatris will be 
 in either case accounted for, since the dialect of those 
 countries would in no age be faultless. And, in either 
 case, the passage which has been quoted will remain, 
 as it was first regarded by Socinus himself, an Ante- 
 Nicene testimony to the Trinity. But, whatever may 
 be thought of the Philopatris, there is one passage in 
 the undoubted works of Lucian, wherein he describes 
 the Christians as adoring their crucified Master, in op- 
 position to the Heathen deities. De Morte Peregr. 
 s 6 
 
 ssv 
 
 7rv>j(raj/T#/, TOV Ss avacrxoAoTricr^svov sxilvov oro- 
 aurcwv -srpoo-xyvwcr*. Compare the above with the 
 well-known words of Pliny. 
 
 Page 115, note 2 . 
 
 Justini Martyr. Apol. ii. p. 56. K) 6^o\oy5pt,sv TWV 
 Toioutcov vojot^OjW-gvwv 0s7ov ccdsoi elvcu* aAA* oyp^t TOW 
 <TaT8 x, Ilarpoj 5<xiocruv>j^ HJ cra><p>oa'uvj 7t| rwv aAAcov 
 avejWriXTtf TS xaxaj 0eoy* aAA* IxeTvov T=, Xj rov Trap' aurov 
 Tiov sAdovra, x, S<5a^avra i)j&f raura, 7t| TOV T;V aAAcov ITTO- 
 x^ eJojM,o8jWrevcoj/ ayadcov ayyeAccv g-parov, Ilveu^a TS TO 
 <xov (Ts^dpeSot X, trpO(rx*jy5jtxsv Ao'ya; x, aA>jde(a TipwVTe;. 
 With the disputed meaning of that part of the passage 
 
 K which 
 
130 NOTES ON LECTURE II. 
 
 which relates to the angels, I have, in my present argu- 
 ment, no immediate concern. It is sufficient to have 
 shewn, that the Christians in the time of Justin tuor- 
 shipped the Son and the Spirit of Prophecy, in opposi- 
 tion to the gods of the heathen, without discussing 
 what degree of honour they paid to angels. This diffi- 
 culty however is solved by Bishop Bull's rendering of 
 the passage; (see Defens. Fidei Nicaen. . 2. c. 4.) and 
 still better perhaps by changing, which will materially 
 assist the flow of the sentence, the order in which its 
 clauses succeed. Tov crap* auTou Tfov sASovra, x, S/SafavTa 
 , OveUjaa re TO Ylpoffirwov irsGopsSat x, Trpoo'xuvou- 
 Ao'ya; x, aArjSe/a, TIJJUXVTSS x, TCV rcav aAAwv ITTO/AS'VCUV x, l o- 
 aya&tiy ayysAcov 
 
 Page 116, note a . 
 
 Irenaeus, 1. i. c. 3. TOUTO TO x^puyjaa crap<X*3<po7a, xai 
 rauT)jv T^V cr/fv, 00$ -crpoe^ajxev, YJ *ExxA)]0"a, xaiTrsp Iv oAw 
 
 a co eW olxov oixSt 
 
 x, 
 
 TO.UTOL x>j^ucr<ra, x], 8< 
 
 cnv, ooj ev fo'^a xexTjjU,ev>j. Ka* yap a< XT TOV 
 AexTO* avo'/xoia*, aAA* >; Suvja*j T% crapa^oVgcoj ja/a x, 
 KJ OUTS a Iv FepjU-av/a*? iSpu^eva/ 'ExxArjcr/a/ 
 
 aAAccj -Erapa^BoWjv, TS Iv Ta7c 'I^>jp/aj, TE Iv KeA- 
 ours XT TJ avaToAaj, OUTS Iv AJyuTrnw, OUTS Iv Ai^Jjj, 
 OUTS a< xaTa jxeo~a TOU xoVjU.8 $pujtx.ev#/* aAA* wa'Treg o ^A<oj TO 
 
 XT/0"jt*a TOU 0eOU fiV OAw TOJ XOO"jXW SJJ 3^ UTOJ* OUTO) ^ TO 
 
 cravTa^ji ^a/va, x, ^WT/^S -sravTa^ av- 
 eic eTr/yvworjv aA*jde/aj lAde7v. Ka* Te 
 6 'cravu 8uvTO Iv Aoyw TCOV -Iv Ta*j 'xxArjo"/a<j -carpOefcwTwv, 
 Tgpa TOUTWV IgsT* (oO^sij yap u/rsp TOV SiSacrxaAov) OUTS 6 
 acrdsv^ Iv TO; Aoycw lAaTTooo~a T^V OTapa5oo~*v. M*aV yap xa* 
 Tj$ auT>)j -CT/fscoj ouo~>jj OUTS 6 -sroAu -dsp* aur^ 5uvaju,svoj elirelv 
 oWcrsv, OUTS 6 TO o'A/yov, ^AaTTOV)jo-f. 
 
 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 JOHN xvi. %. 
 
 If 1 go not away, the Comforter will not come *, 
 but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 
 
 1 HAVE shewn in a former Lecture, and 
 shewn, in part, from those very authorities 
 to which our adversaries chiefly appeal, 
 that, in the second century of the vulgar 
 sera, and less than one hundred years from 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the doc- 
 trine of a Trinity of Persons in the God- 
 head (in which doctrine the Personality of 
 the Spirit of God is completely and neces- 
 sarily included) was too widely diffused 
 and too firmly seated in the Churches both 
 of the East and West, to have been, as 
 our antagonists pretend, a heresy of recent 
 introduction. 
 
 But neither can it be urged with any 
 shew of likelihood, that this opinion, or 
 the other features of that faith which we 
 
 K 2 call 
 
132 LECTURE III. 
 
 call Catholic and Orthodox, were derived 
 from that little band of philosophical con- 
 verts whom Christianity received, in those 
 early ages, from the Platonic school of 
 Alexandria. The mixture of that leaven 
 with the Church, if it ever took place at all, 
 must, doubtless, then have been of a date 
 too recent to produce the effects which we 
 have contemplated; and the scanty infu- 
 sion of learning, which was at no time suf- 
 ficient to rescue her from the imputation 
 of barbarism, can hardly have been an ally 
 so dangerous as it is sometimes repre- 
 sented, to the primitive simplicity of reli- 
 gion. In ecclesiastical history the Platonists 
 are conspicuous, because the share of know- 
 ledge which they possessed is advantageous- 
 ly contrasted with the general ignorance of 
 contemporary believers ; but that very ig- 
 norance would present an effectual barrier 
 against the extension of their influence in 
 the Church. A jealousy of carnal learning 
 and metaphysical refinement has been, in 
 every age, the usual characteristic of men 
 in that situation of life, and with those 
 means of information, which we may rea- 
 sonably 
 
LECTURE III. 133 
 
 sonably ascribe to the primitive ministers 
 of the Gospel; nor is it likely that the 
 poor and simple bishops of Gaul, of Pon- 
 tus, or of Spain, should purchase the costly 
 manuscripts, or attend to the airy reveries, 
 of an Eastern or Egyptian philosopher. 
 
 The power of making proselytes on a 
 rapid or extensive system is seldom, in- 
 deed, possessed by the recluse, the stu- 
 dious, or the refined. The habits of science 
 are unfavourable to that activity which is 
 the leading characteristic of the religious 
 no less than the political reformer; and 
 while. Clemens or Pantaenus or Origen were 
 wearing out their days and nights in the 
 composition of elaborate volumes, which 
 few would read at all, and still fewer would 
 read with unqualified assent, the banners 
 of Christ were triumphantly carried through 
 the world by those honest and unlearned 
 missionaries, whose qualifications were con- 
 fined to the courage of an ardent faith, and 
 the untaught eloquence of feeling. 
 
 It is a problem, indeed, which the pre- 
 sent is not the place to solve, to what ex- 
 tent the learning of a rising sect may con- 
 ic 3 tribute 
 
134 LECTURE III. 
 
 tribute to its progress in the world. That 
 some of its professors should be raised, by 
 their acquirements, above the ordinary level 
 of mankind, is a circumstance which may, 
 doubtless, raise the general party in their 
 own estimation, and in the estimation of 
 other men ; it may fling a grace and dig- 
 nity over the adoption of their creed, and 
 redeem their converts from those formi^ 
 dable imputations of enthusiasm or vul- 
 garity by which every rising sect has, to a 
 certain extent, been assailed. But learning 
 to a rising sect is less a weapon than an 
 ornament. The plume of the soldier, 
 and the other pageantry of war, may il- 
 lustrate, indeed, his triumph ; but it is by 
 the sword, not by the crest, that his triumph 
 must first have been purchased : and it is 
 by unlearned zeal and unpolished energy 
 that a new opinion, like an infant state, can 
 only hope to conquer. 
 
 It may be doubted, perhaps, whether 
 the students of Alexandria would have 
 even desired to extend their peculiar tenets 
 beyond the narrow bounds of Platonism. 
 It is certain that they were neither quali- 
 fied 
 
LECTURE III. 435 
 
 fied by their numbers nor their personal 
 resources to extend a new opinion, in so 
 short a space of time, through the nume- 
 rous and scattered comipiunities of the 
 faithful. 
 
 And though some learned converts from 
 the Platonic sect have, doubtless, adorned 
 Christianity with some of the noblest mo- 
 numents of genius and piety which our re- 
 ligion has to shew ; yet is it by no means 
 true that a general approximation took 
 place between the tenets of the Academy 
 and the Gospel, or that any considerable 
 influx of learning or talent was derived to 
 the latter from the former. There was too 
 much of interested monopoly, too much of 
 priestcraft among the later Platonists, to 
 allow them to discover truth or merit be- 
 yond the limits of their sect ; and the ex- 
 amples of Apuleius, Jamblichus, apd Apol- 
 lonius of Tyana, may prove that their l^ad- 
 ers were more inclined to pretend to Divi- 
 nity themselves than to acknowledge the 
 Divinity of Jesus. And the following short 
 review of the leading tenets of the modern 
 Platonic, or, as it is called, the Pythago- 
 
 K 4 rean 
 
136 LECTURE III. 
 
 rean philosophy, may convince us, that 
 their system can by no means be regarded 
 as the parent of that which we now pro- 
 fess ; and that much of prayer and more 
 of grace was needful before a Pagan philo- 
 sopher could subdue his pride to the stand- 
 ard of the orthodox confession. 
 
 The leading question which, at the par- 
 ticular time of which I am speaking, di- 
 vided the opinions and occupied the atten- 
 tion of the educated part of mankind, was 
 the nature and origin of evil ; a problem 
 which the Eastern Magi and the Alexan- 
 drian Platonists alike undertook to solve 
 by the brilliant but unsubstantial theory of 
 two opposing principles, to whose struggles 
 they ascribed that chequered face of crea- 
 tion, of which the acknowledged beauties 
 and apparent faults forbade them to ascribe 
 the whole to either a good or evil fountain 2 . 
 
 Of these two warring powers, this per- 
 fect and living Light, this deadly and 
 impenetrable Darkness ; this unaltered 
 Bounty, and this Wickedness untameable ; 
 the first was God, the pure, the perfect 
 Unity, from whose creation only pure and 
 
 holy 
 
LECTURE III. 137 
 
 holy things and beings like himself could 
 issue. The light itself and the inhabitants 
 of light were all alike his offspring; all 
 which, on earth, was virtuous or fair or 
 wise, was only so far fair and wise and vir- 
 tuous as it emanated from his perfection ; 
 and the time was anticipated when the 
 final triumph of holiness and wisdom should 
 be no longer delayed ; and when the God 
 of goodness should destroy or conquer all 
 by which his gracious designs had been 
 hitherto opposed or impeded b . 
 
 But though their notions of the Deity 
 were thus pious and reasonable; and 
 though, in some obscure expressions of 
 their Master, we may trace a yet nearer 
 approach to the truth, in the adumbra- 
 tion of a Threefold existence in the God- 
 head * : yet did they not, in practice, ho- 
 nour him as God of whose essence they 
 had so clear a knowledge ; and, by a pru- 
 dent conformity with the superstition of 
 the times, they paid a willing reverence to 
 the gods and idols of their ancestors, as 
 
 * See Cudworth's account of the Platonic Trinity. 
 Intellectual System, 
 
 vice- 
 
138 LECTURE III. 
 
 vicegerents of the One Supreme, and as 
 those to whom he had committed all care 
 of that mortality which was beneath his 
 own attention c . 
 
 Their opinions as to the material prin- 
 ciple were of a nature still less conform- 
 able to religion or to reason. They did 
 not, indeed, at the time of which I am 
 speaking, (it is, perhaps, a vulgar error to 
 suppose they ever did,) ascribe to any 
 thing evil or material either the name or 
 characteristics of Deity. But to matter 
 they nevertheless imputed an eternal being, 
 a perception of pleasure and of pain, and 
 a blind and stubborn instinct of self-pre- 
 servation, which, inasmuch as its very ex- 
 istence was impure and opposed to the 
 spiritual life, was exerted always in af- 
 flicting or debasing those spiritual crea- 
 tures which were entangled in the vortex 
 of its influence^ 
 
 Of the evil demons, to whose agency 
 no small proportion of the natural and 
 moral phenomena of the present life were 
 ascribed, two different opinions were held. 
 Some there were who supposed them to 
 
 be 
 
LECTURE III. 139 
 
 be human souls or heavenly spirits, who 
 by intercourse with matter had depraved 
 their habits and affections : by others they 
 were regarded as exhalations from the 
 more fiery and vivacious particles of mat- 
 ter itself; a little elevated, indeed, above 
 the lion or serpent of the visible world, 
 but to be controlled, like their brother 
 monsters of the forest or the fen, with me- 
 naces, or flattery, or food ; to be bound 
 by exorcism, and allured or chased by 
 odours e . 
 
 But, whatever were their differences in 
 these and other circumstances of superstU 
 tious detail, in one leading principle the 
 several parties agreed ; that matter is, in 
 itself, incurably corrupt, the origin of all 
 moral evil; that "the drop of heavenly 
 " dew" (for so Synesius calls the soul) 
 was degraded and enslaved by its confine- 
 ment in this earthy cistern ; that the 
 thoughts and wishes of the sage were ca- 
 pable of only one direction ; and that his 
 spirit coveted incessantly to exhale once 
 more to that region whence she had de- 
 scended f . 
 
 Frori) 
 
140 LECTURE III. 
 
 From this opinion, when applied to 
 practice, two very opposite systems took 
 their rise. The professors of the one, re- 
 garding the body as an obstinate and ma- 
 licious slave, enjoined their followers to 
 macerate him with abstinence, and to 
 punish him with stripes and chains ; while 
 the defenders of the other, detached from 
 the world, and occupied without ceasing 
 in the contemplation of the Divine Essence, 
 professed to abandon the outward man to 
 the guidance of his own instinct or pas* 
 sion, as one in whose sensual pursuits the 
 soul had neither interest nor responsibility, 
 and whose brutish gambols were beneath 
 the notice of a pure and abstracted spirit g . 
 
 It is evident, however, that these pre- 
 vious notions would conduct the Platonists 
 to conclusions directly at variance with 
 those peculiar opinions of which the intro- 
 duction has been ignorantly ascribed to 
 their influence. 
 
 I. As the reduction of matter into form 
 was regarded as an office unworthy the 
 immediate hand of God ; and as the im- 
 perfections which they found or fancied in 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE III. 141 
 
 the visible world made them still more un- 
 willing to ascribe its fabric to the Allgood 
 and Allwise ; they were accustomed to re- 
 fer this work to a subaltern, perhaps an 
 evil, agent, whom their hatred of the Jews 
 induced them readily to identify with the 
 Jehovah of that unpopular nation 11 . 
 
 II. Having assumed as a principle the 
 utter impurity of matter and all its acci- 
 dents, the union of the soul with the body 
 of man was regarded as a crime in itself, or 
 as the punishment of former offences. They 
 absolutely, therefore, refused to believe that 
 a pure and perfect Being could subject it- 
 self to an union so unnatural; that the Di- 
 vine nature could become incarnate, and as 
 incarnate, so susceptible of hunger, of thirst, 
 of bodily infirmities, and death. 
 
 Lastly, they denied altogether that the 
 body once deceased could be raised to 
 happiness or glory; much more that a 
 person clothed with such an incumbrance 
 could be admitted into the presence or en- 
 throned at the right hand of God *. 
 
 They were principles like these which 
 
 * Beausobre, Hist, des Manich. 1. iv. c. 7* 
 
 pro- 
 
142 LECTURE III. 
 
 produced, in Porphyry, the most formi- 
 dable antagonist whom Christianity ever 
 encountered ; they were these which raised 
 the empiric Apollonius to his subsequent 
 fabulous eminence; which are sometimes 
 supposed to have withdrawn the great 
 Ammonius from the communion in which 
 he was educated ; which seduced the acute 
 but pedantic Julian to the forgotten super- 
 stition of his ancestors 5 and which kept 
 Synesius, beneath the mantle of episco- 
 pacy, more than half a Pagan still. 
 
 Among those few Platonists, indeed, who 
 embraced a nominal Christianity, the same 
 preconceptions led them for the most part 
 to join any sect of Christians, rather than 
 those whose tenets I am now defending; 
 to deny, with the Docetse, the bodily ex- 
 istence of Christ ; or to degrade him, with 
 the followers of Carpocrates, into a merely 
 human philosopher 4 . And, while almost 
 all the heresies which distracted the Church 
 during the three first centuries are dedu- 
 cible from Platonic principles, the small 
 number of philosophers who embraced the 
 Catholic faith were rather orthodox in 
 
 spite 
 
LECTURE III. 143 
 
 spite of their Platonism, than conducted 
 by Platonism to orthodoxy. The words of 
 Tertullian are well known , in which he 
 calls the works of the great master of the 
 Academy, " the seasoning of all heresies k ;" 
 and the contumely to which Origen him- 
 self was exposed in the ancient Church 
 may prove, that the allegiance of the Alex- 
 andrian school to Christianity was at no 
 time free from suspicion among the more 
 rigid and less learned believers. 
 
 But if the Platonists had really sufficient 
 influence with the Christian world to in- 
 fect, as our antagonists maintain, their 
 faith with the doctrine of the Trinity, why, 
 it may be asked, was the contagion limited 
 to this one peculiar opinion? 
 
 Were the ceremonies of magic or the 
 notion of the metempsychosis less likely to 
 seduce an ignorant multitude than a spe- 
 culation as to the manner of the Divine 
 existence; or were they more at variance 
 with the spirit of Christianity than, if we 
 believe our antagonists, the adoration of the 
 Holy Ghost and the Son ? Or how can we 
 believe that the Platonist, who, to gain 
 
 admis- 
 
144 LECTURE III. 
 
 admission into the Church, had renounced 
 his more obvious peculiarities, should have 
 raked out, from the darkness of the Ti- 
 maeus and the Parmenides, a doctrine 
 which, far from being a conspicuous tenet 
 of the Academy, was hardly known, it 
 may be thought, to its students, till it was 
 quoted against them by the Christians ? 
 
 That a doctrine, however, may be found 
 in the works of Plato which bears a re- 
 semblance, though an imperfect one, to 
 the Catholic faith of one Divine Being dis- 
 played in three Hypostases, is a truth ac- 
 knowledged by all. And though the above 
 considerations may prove, that the Chris- 
 tians cannot have borrowed it from the 
 Academy, the Socinians may do well to 
 reflect, whether that opinion, which was 
 espoused by the deepest thinkers of the an- 
 cient world, can be, in itself, so repugnant 
 to natural reason or natural religion as its 
 opponents would have us believe. 
 
 But, not only is it highly improbable 
 that the orthodox opinion should have 
 been introduced into Christianity by the 
 Platonists, it may be shewn, that we must, 
 
 on 
 
LECTURE III. 145 
 
 on every rule of likelihood, (and indepen- 
 dently of those proofs which it is in our 
 power to produce from the Apostolic writ- 
 ings,) assign its introduction to the Apo- 
 stles themselves. 
 
 For, first, we have already seen the con- 
 fidence with which Justin and Irenseus and 
 Tertullian appeal to Apostolic tradition and 
 authority. 
 
 To the general weakness of such appeals 
 in themselves I must not be supposed in- 
 sensible : I am far from denying that, in 
 the space of half a century, many actions 
 or assertions might be fathered on the 
 Apostles, of which the Apostles were alto- 
 gether guiltless. But though Apostolic tra- 
 dition be not alone sufficient to establish 
 the truth of any particular doctrine, yet, 
 from the frequency of these appeals, two 
 facts will necessarily follow: 1st, That the 
 orthodox regarded the Apostles as the ori- 
 ginal founders of their sect ; and, 2ndly, 
 That they acknowledged no interruption 
 in the tradition of the Church ; no subse- 
 quent loss and revival of the Apostolic 
 tenets. 
 
 L But 
 
146 LECTURE III. 
 
 But as every innovation must have had 
 its beginning, every religious sect its here- 
 siarch, so will it also be allowed, that the 
 opinion, whenever it appeared, must, if a 
 heresy, have been introduced, if the Apo- 
 stles were still alive, in opposition to their 
 authority ; if after their decease, in oppo- 
 sition to the general sense of that Church 
 which they had established. 
 
 Is it not plain, however, from the com- 
 mon custom and common sense of man- 
 kind, that a sect would hold in honour, as 
 their teacher and spiritual father, that per- 
 son from whom they had received their 
 peculiar opinions, not those by whose au- 
 thority such opinions had been originally 
 opposed and anathematized ? Do the Cal- 
 vinists call themselves after the name of 
 Luther, or will the Protestants appeal to 
 the traditional sentiments of Bellarmine? 
 Is it Ali or Omar whom the Sunnites re- 
 verence? and if Cerinthus or Carpocrates 
 had superseded in the Church the autho- 
 rity of Peter and John, would the latter or 
 the former names have stood conspicuous 
 in the Christian rubric, and assumed, in 
 
 our 
 
LECTURE III. 147 
 
 our temples and our manuals of devotion, 
 the attitude and halo of sanctity ? Would 
 not the Gospel of Leuce have in such a 
 case supplanted that of Luke * ? and would 
 not those who, sixty years afterwards, pro- 
 fessed the same opinions, (instead of ap- 
 pealing to the real or pretended sentiments 
 of those Apostles from whom they had re- 
 volted,) have told us of his triumphant zeal 
 who had extricated, from the mists of Jew- 
 ish error, that genuine religion which the 
 original followers of Jesus had obscured or 
 betrayed ? 
 
 For those whom we call Apostles or 
 Evangelists the heretical sects had no such 
 implicit reverence. St. Paul was styled 
 Apostate by the Ebionites 1 ; and in like 
 manner, beyond a doubt, would the Tri- 
 nitarians have proceeded, had they derived 
 their origin from any of those whom the 
 twelve had delivered to Satan. 
 
 " But the heresy/' it will be said, "is 
 " the error of a later period; and the last 
 
 * See Beausobre, ubi supra^ t. i. p. 350. et seq. and 
 Grabe. Spicil. t. i. p. 58. 
 
 JL 2 Of 
 
148 LECTURE III. 
 
 " of the Apostles had gone to his reward 
 " before Christ was worshipped as a God, 
 " or the Holy Ghost revered as a distinct 
 66 Intelligence/' 
 
 I will not now remind our learned an- 
 tagonists, that not only had these doctrines 
 been taught by Clemens, Ignatius, and Po- 
 lycarp, but that in the days of Justin and 
 Irenaeus they were the prevailing and pre- 
 scriptive opinions of Christendom. I will 
 not ask them to calculate what time is 
 needful to disperse an idolatrous creed (for 
 such they esteem it) through the many 
 thousand Unitarian churches which must 
 have arisen, during the lifetime of the 
 Apostles, in every region of the empire. 
 But whenever the innovation were ef- 
 fected, it must, doubtless, have had a be- 
 ginning ; and if that beginning had been 
 opposed by the scholars and immediate 
 successors of the twelve, supported by their 
 recent authority, the Apostles, it is plain, 
 would not have been held in such exalted 
 reverence by the Fathers of the succeeding 
 age. 
 
 We may perhaps be answered, that 
 
 " the 
 
LECTURE III. 149 
 
 " the crafty heretic who sowed such tares 
 " in the evangelical field, professed no no- 
 " velty, but the revival of ancient opinions; 
 " that he grounded his system on the al- 
 " leged authority of the Apostles them- 
 " selves, which the universal Church, as 
 " he pretended, had subsequently cor- 
 " rupted or mistaken." 
 
 That this should be attempted, and at- 
 tempted with success, at a time when the 
 last of the Apostles was hardly cold in his 
 grave, and while many thousands were yet 
 alive who had received from his living lips 
 instruction, and from his hands ordination 
 and authority, is a mystery, it may seem, 
 as hard to be believed as any one of those 
 for which the Socinians despise and revile 
 us. If we granted, however, what can only 
 be granted for the sake of argument, that 
 this reply might solve the difficulty which 
 arises from the frequent reference of the 
 early Fathers to apostolic tradition and au- 
 thority, yet will another remain, which Uni- 
 tarian ingenuity, I apprehend, can hardly 
 obviate. 
 
 For, 2ndly, the appeals of Tertullian, 
 L 3 Ire- 
 
150 LECTURE III 
 
 Irenaeus, and Justin, to apostolic autho- 
 rity, are perfectly silent as to any in- 
 terruption of that tradition to which they 
 lay claim, or to any loss and subsequent 
 revival in the Church of those tenets which 
 they profess to have been the tenets of our 
 Lord's immediate followers. 
 
 But if the orthodox opinions arose in 
 the Church from any other teaching but 
 that of the Apostles themselves, there 
 must, doubtless, have been a time at 
 which they were unknown. And on what- 
 ever pretence and by whatever artifice 
 their introduction was effected, its author, 
 whether reformer or innovator, could not, 
 we may be sure, have produced so great 
 a change, without a painful struggle against 
 previous opinion, and a display of talents 
 of some kind or other which must have en- 
 sured him the veneration of his followers. 
 
 The name of reformer or restorer, in the 
 general estimation of mankind, is little less 
 illustrious than that of first discoverer. 
 Luther, we know, as well as Melancthon 
 and Calvin, professed to teach no novel- 
 ties ; but to inculcate a return to the pri- 
 mitive 
 
LECTURE III. 151 
 
 rnitive models of doctrine and faith and 
 worship. Manes and Mohammed revived, 
 as they pretended, the original tenets of 
 the Messiah; yet when will these men or 
 the changes which they effected pass away 
 from the memory of the world ? Had such 
 a revolution as our antagonists suppose 
 taken place in the Christian Church during 
 the first century of its existence, would not 
 the volume of Eusebius have teemed with 
 its details, and would not the teacher by 
 whose agency it was accomplished have 
 assumed a scarcely less lofty rank in the 
 estimation of his followers than Peter or 
 James or John ? 
 
 Such a teacher as is here supposed 
 would have been honoured by Trinitarians 
 as the second founder of Christianity ; as 
 the reviver of a Church oppressed by Jew- 
 ish prejudice; as the comforter and puri- 
 fier of the afflicted household of Jesus. 
 His patient journeys from Syria to Spain, 
 and from Alexandria to Lyons, while dis- 
 seminating the revived opinion; his ar- 
 duous disputes with the patrons of esta- 
 blished prejudice ; his fearless indifference 
 
 L 4 under 
 
152 LECTURE III. 
 
 under the anathemas of the impious, and 
 the holy zeal which mocked the arts of 
 Ebionite blandishment ; all which the 
 Arians (if their sect had triumphed) 
 would have related of their supposed re- 
 former; all would have swelled, beyond a 
 doubt, the annals of religious controversy, 
 and have remained as a sacred legacy to 
 the gratitude and imitation of succeeding 
 Trinitarians. 
 
 But for this elder and greater Athana- 
 sius we search the page of history in vain. 
 Of such a convulsion no traces are found 
 in the writings of the earliest Fathers. 
 They, like ourselves, treat every opinion 
 but their own as an impious and daring 
 novelty ; and acknowledge no other founder 
 or renovator of the faith than that om- 
 niscient Spirit who separated Barnabas and 
 Paul to the work of converting the Gen- 
 tiles. 
 
 Nor will it be said by those who are even 
 moderately acquainted with the ordinary 
 progress of opinion, that a change so con- 
 siderable could have been effected in night 
 and silence; that "the corruption was so 
 
 u gradual 
 
LECTURE HI. 153 
 
 gradual that its original author is un- 
 known ; that the venom devoured the 
 vitals of religion, before those outward 
 symptoms were displayed which would 
 have produced, at first, a prompt and 
 efficacious remedy/' 
 The time is too short, the years too few, 
 the body too extensive, for an impercep- 
 tible cause to produce effects so porten- 
 tous. The corruption of a single Church 
 might have been effected in a few years 
 of neglect and ignorance ; but to pervert 
 the whole empire of Christ with one uni- 
 versal contagion, must have required the 
 lapse of more than a single century. The 
 transition which is rapid must be painful ; 
 and whatever is painful will neither pass 
 unobserved nor be speedily consigned to 
 oblivion. If such a change as this has not 
 been noticed by contemporary writers, we 
 may be sure that it never took place at all. 
 Nor can it be urged with any shew of 
 likelihood, that, in adducing the opinions 
 of that body of Christians who have agreed 
 in the worship of a triune Deity, we are 
 contenting ourselves with the party state- 
 ments 
 
154 LECTURE III. 
 
 merits of a single sect ; conspicuous in- 
 deed from the final subjugation of the 
 Christian world by their arts and their 
 influence ; but, at the period which is now 
 in question, not more entitled to our de- 
 ference, either from numbers or respecta- 
 bility, than many of those reputed heretical 
 bodies, who have perished in the lapse of 
 time, or under the sword of persecution. 
 For that they to whom the titles are ap- 
 plied of the Church and the Catholic Chris- 
 tians were, indeed, as those names imply, 
 the great majority of believers, the as- 
 sumption of such lofty titles, in opposition 
 to all who dissented from their worship or 
 jurisdiction, is itself no inconsiderable ar- 
 gument. 
 
 For when all alike were levelled by the 
 iron hand of persecution, to what preemi- 
 nence but the preeminence of numbers 
 only could any single sect lay claim ? What 
 endowment, what authority did the ortho- 
 dox enjoy under the yoke of Severus or 
 the Antonini, beyond the poorest Ebionite, 
 the wildest and most frantic Basilidian? 
 What were their privileges but a popularity 
 
 more 
 
LECTURE III. 155 
 
 more obnoxious to the jealous rigour of 
 the law; an honourable but fatal prepon- 
 derance in the noble army of martyrs ; a 
 more than common share in the distinc- 
 tions of the cross, the gibbet, or the wheel ? 
 Where the authority of the Church or As- 
 sembly is appealed to by the ancient Fa- 
 thers, it can be only that authority which 
 arises from general opinion ; and the ap- 
 peal would have been worse than ridicu- 
 lous, had those societies, against whom the 
 Church employed it, been able to muster 
 as strongly as herself. 
 
 But, further, in the discussion of the 
 Spirit's Personality, it is altogether unne- 
 cessary to confine our inquiries to the li- 
 mits of orthodoxy alone, since not only the 
 Catholic Church, but by far the greater 
 part of those who have dissented from her 
 tenets, have maintained with no less pre- 
 cision than ourselves this common opinion, 
 and have united with ourselves and our fa- 
 thers to receive the promise of our Lord in 
 its literal and obvious meaning. However 
 they were divided as to his rank in the 
 scale of nature, and the manner of his Pro- 
 cession 
 
156 LECTURE III. 
 
 cession from the Deity, they did not cease 
 to revere him as an actual Patron and Ad- 
 vocate; and Manes and Arius, and Mo- 
 hammed himself, may be no less urged 
 against the followers of Socinus than Atha- 
 nasius, or Basil, or Hilary. 
 
 The first of these, whose opinions have 
 been cleared from all their ancient obscu- 
 rity by the patience and learning of Beau- 
 sobre, assigned to the Spirit of God, an 
 existence and habitation distinct from the 
 Father, and offices and actions applicable 
 to a Person only : and the followers of 
 Manes were, by the avowal of Augustin 
 liimself, no less correct than that most or- 
 thodox Bishop in the confession of a per- 
 fect Trinity ". 
 
 The opinion of the Arians may be in- 
 ferred from the fact, that Macedonius, who 
 denied the Spirit's Personality, was dis- 
 owned by them as well as by the Homo- 
 ousian party ; and that Basil, in his treatise 
 on the Holy Ghost, composed during the 
 heat of the Arian controversy, is only con- 
 cerned to prove the Divinity of the third 
 Person in the Godhead, without regarding 
 
 it 
 
LECTURE III. 157 
 
 it as a necessary part of his task to vindi- 
 cate his Personal existence. Mohammed 
 too, though he sometimes assigns the name 
 of Holy Ghost to our Saviour, more usu- 
 ally identifies him with the angel Gabriel ; 
 and in either case can only be understood 
 as imputing to him a distinct and intelli- 
 gent Being *. 
 
 And to these, by far the greatest streams 
 which have ever emanated from the Chris- 
 tian source, may be added the more an- 
 cient suffrage of the first heresiarch Si- 
 mon f ; of the primitive Gnostics, whose 
 multitudinous ^Eons were all consummated 
 and instructed by the two last and great- 
 est, the Son and Spirit of God"; of the 
 Ebionites, who, if we believe Epiphanius, 
 acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be a real 
 and most powerful Personage ; of the 
 Nazarenes themselves, in whom the mo- 
 dern Unitarians would gladly find a pre- 
 cedent for their error, but who, in two se- 
 veral passages of their own Gospel ac- 
 
 * Golii Lexicon Arab, ad voc. ^j. 
 t See my first Lecture. 
 
 cording 
 
158 LECTURE HI. 
 
 cording to the Hebrews, must have learned 
 the same opinion p . 
 
 Nor must we omit, in this enumeration 
 of evidence, the expressive silence of the 
 orthodox Fathers, who, in relating the er- 
 rors of other ancient heretics, afford no 
 reason to suppose that they were in this 
 respect defective, though neither Epipha- 
 nius nor Jerome nor Theodoret were in- 
 clined to overlook or to soften the features 
 of religious disunion. Where the inno- 
 cence of Lactantius could not escape un- 
 censured, there is little probability that real 
 heresy would be allowed to pass without 
 detection ; ^nd we must therefore confine 
 the denial of the Holy Ghost to those sects 
 only to whose charge it is expressly laid, 
 to the Macedonians, the Sabellians, and 
 the modern followers of Socinus. 
 
 Nor is there need of any further argu- 
 ment to shew, that if we have erred in 
 embracing in its literal sense the promise 
 of our gracious Master, we have erred in 
 company with the Christian world of every 
 party and period; and that all, with the 
 above exceptions, (which, how slight they 
 
 are, 
 
LECTURE III. 159 
 
 are, is known to every one even mode- 
 rately versed in history,) all have antici- 
 pated a powerful and personal Agent in 
 the Comforter by whom our Saviour's pre- 
 sence was to be supplied. 
 
 But let God be true and every man a 
 liar ! Though we expect, and expect with 
 reason no little weight of evidence to with- 
 draw us from an interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture, which if it were not founded on truth 
 could hardly have been universal ; against 
 evidence, nevertheless, however offered to 
 our notice; against that evidence, above 
 all, which is professedly founded on Scrip- 
 ture, our reason and our religion alike for- 
 bid us to rebel. An explanation may be 
 true, (by bare possibility it may,) and if 
 demonstrated from the Word pf God it 
 may still demand our acquiescence, though 
 it have slumbered for ages in the fairy 
 shades of allegory ; though the wandering 
 genius of Origen have never disturbed its 
 repose ; though Manes and Augustin have 
 failed alike to trace it ; and though St. 
 John himself have concealed its mystic 
 
 clue 
 
160 LECTURE III. 
 
 clue from his disciples Polycarp and Ig- 
 natius. 
 
 We challenge, then, our antagonists to 
 make good their hypothesis by the only 
 proof which remains; and (since the li- 
 teral sense of our Saviour's promise is, 
 confessedly, in our favour) to demonstrate 
 that the Spirit of God is elsewhere spoken 
 of in Scripture, under circumstances and in 
 language which prove the present passage 
 to he allegorical. 
 
 And this has been attempted by the 
 production of several passages from the 
 Old and New Testament, where (by the 
 common avowal of both parties) the term 
 of Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God, is used 
 under circumstances which cannot pro- 
 perly belong to a Person. 
 
 Thus we read of the Spirit being given 
 and received, and given in a larger and 
 smaller proportion : the Holy Ghost is said 
 to be extinguished by human carelessness, 
 and to be improved by human piety. 
 
 " But a Person, and, above all, a Person 
 " of so exalted a nature is incapable/' they 
 
 tell 
 
LECTURE III. 161 
 
 tell us, " of accidents thus degrading; and 
 " if these accidents are predicated of the 
 " Spirit of God, that Spirit can be no in- 
 " telligent Person." 
 
 This is the purport of the objection, as 
 it is advanced by the most considerable 
 teachers of Unitarianism ; and it is an ob- 
 jection, I believe, which has had more 
 effect than any other on those whom they 
 have persuaded to adopt their opinions *. 
 
 That it is not, however, an objection 
 which a person moderately versed in the 
 forms of reasoning need greatly fear to en- 
 counter, may appear from the following 
 considerations. 
 
 In the first place, our antagonists must 
 allow, that, whatever be the character of 
 those passages from which the Personality 
 of the Spirit is inferred, those texts which 
 are advanced to prove the contrary are 
 clearly and necessarily figurative. The ex- 
 pressions which have been referred to, if 
 literally understood, are as completely in- 
 consistent with their hypothesis as with 
 
 * Lardner, First Postscript to Letter on the Logos. 
 M ours ; 
 
162 LECTURE III. 
 
 ours ; inconsistent, indeed, with every hy- 
 pothesis, but that absurd one which would 
 reduce the Holy Ghost to a material fume 
 or afflatus. An accident, or modus ope- 
 randi, which has no existence in itself; an 
 abstract quality, which is the empty phan- 
 tom of a rhetorician's brain ; these can be 
 no more conferred or divided than they 
 can be sent or grieved or blasphemed. 
 Nor are the latter expressions more appro- 
 priate to a person than the former to a 
 substance or thing. 
 
 But qualities, attributes, virtues, powers, 
 are nothing else, as has already been 
 shewn, than the manner in which certain 
 effects either are or may be brought to 
 pass ; and whether the Holy Ghost be an 
 accident or a person, it is plain that such 
 expressions as those referred to are only 
 intelligible as applying those characteristics 
 which are proper to the thing produced ; 
 either to the manner in which it is pro- 
 duced, or to the agent which produces it. 
 
 Nor has any ground been shewn why the 
 latter of these metaphorical applications 
 is not as proper and as possible as the 
 
 former ; 
 
LECTURE III. 163 
 
 former ; or why, in the words of Glassius, 
 as well the persona efficiens as the modus 
 efficiendi may not be put for the res ef- 
 fecta. Yet it is on this assumption that 
 the links of their argument depend ; which 
 may be reduced in effect to a syllogism 
 like the following. " The name of a per- 
 " sonal agent can never be employed to 
 " express the effects produced by his 
 " agency. But the name of the Holy 
 " Spirit is frequently employed to express 
 " effects which the same Holy Ghost pro- 
 " duces. Therefore the Holy Ghost is 
 " not the name of a personal agent." If 
 the major of the above propositions be not 
 conceded, it is apparent, that all their ex- 
 amples to prove the minor will not acce- 
 lerate their progress a single step towards 
 the conclusion. But if it be conceded, I 
 will not so far insult the solemnity of this 
 hallowed place, or the understanding of my 
 present audience, as to do more than in- 
 stance the least preposterous of the con- 
 clusions, which, by a process equally legi- 
 timate with that of our antagonists, might 
 be deduced from this single concession. 
 
 M2 If 
 
164 LECTURE 1IL 
 
 If we use on the authority of the Apo- 
 stles such expressions as those of receiving 
 and quenching the Spirit of God, do we 
 not also use on the same authority (for re- 
 peated instances may be found in the New 
 Testament no less than in the common 
 practice of mankind) the same or parallel 
 expressions, where the reality of the Person 
 has never been the subject of debate ? How 
 often do we speak of the Book of Moses 
 as if that Volume were Moses himself! 
 We talk of reading Moses; of dividing 
 Moses into chapters ; of comparing one 
 part of Moses with another. Yet to assert 
 or believe that the Moses of Scripture is 
 a personification only of the singular care 
 by which God conducted his people, an 
 allegorical representation of their passage 
 through the sea, (the etymology of his 
 name would signally favour such an hy- 
 pothesis,) or that he is no more than an 
 abstract term for those Divine truths which 
 are embodied in the Pentateuch, to assert 
 and believe all this would be as wild in- 
 sanity as theirs, who reduce the entire Old 
 Testament to an hieroglyphic ephemeris : 
 
 it 
 
LECTURE III. 165 
 
 it would be little less preposterous than the 
 assertion of those learned men who would 
 reduce the Spirit of God to an empty 
 name ! Have we forgotten, or do we know 
 so little of Scripture, that the fact has 
 escaped our knowledge ; have we so learned 
 Christ, that we know not how often the 
 name of Christ is employed to express the 
 religion which he founded? "A man in 
 " Christ ;" " a marriage in the Lord ;" 
 a saint " to whom to live was Christ;' 9 
 are these less forcible expressions than 
 those which have been pleaded as impugn- 
 ing the Spirit's Personality? Or what more 
 certain grounds are afforded in Scripture 
 to believe that God himself is an intelligent 
 
 o 
 
 and real agent, than the distribution, and 
 volition, and government, and testimony, 
 and speech, and grief, and desire, which in 
 the New Testament are attributed to the 
 Holy Ghost? Let these be resolved into 
 metaphor or allegory, and the name of 
 Jehovah may be shewn on the same iden- 
 tical principle to be no more than nature 
 personified; the Bible itself transformed 
 into a manual of Atheism ; and the deso- 
 
 M 3 late 
 
166 LECTURE III. 
 
 late and silent abomination of Spinoza 
 erected on the altar of the Most High. 
 
 But we are told again, and the objection 
 has been urged so triumphantly that our 
 antagonists, to all appearance, are serious 
 in producing it, that " if the Spirit of God 
 " be accounted a Person, we must extend, 
 by a parity of reasoning, the same cha- 
 racter of personality to the Shechinah, 
 the power, the wisdom, the influence or 
 finger of God, with many or all of which 
 the Spirit of God is used as synony- 
 " mous." Thus " the presence of God," 
 in the first member of the eleventh verse 
 of the fifty-first Psalm, is the same thing, 
 if we believe Aben Ezra and Kimchi among 
 the Jews, and Lardner among Christian 
 critics, with his " Holy Spirit" in the cor- 
 responding member. And our Lord's ex- 
 pression, as reported by St. Matthew, of 
 " casting out devils by the Spirit of God/' 
 is given by St. Luke as if he had not said 
 the Spirit of God, but his " Finger." 
 
 It would be, perhaps, no difficult matter 
 to prove that many, perhaps the greater 
 part, of those texts which Lardner has cited 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE III. 167 
 
 to this point of the controversy, have been, 
 in truth, misunderstood or misapplied!. 
 The task, however, is needless, since, 
 though we should admit to the fullest ex- 
 tent the premises urged by Lardner, the 
 objection which he deduces from them is, 
 in truth, no objection at all. 
 
 With those who believe that the Holy 
 Ghost is a Person, by whom and through 
 whom the unseen and unapproachable Fa- 
 ther has manifested alike his power, his 
 presence, his gracious influence to men, 
 no difficulty can arise from the acknow- 
 ledgment that such a Person may be as 
 properly styled the Finger or Glory as the 
 Breath of God. Nor, as we contend, can 
 any one of these titles, (for titles they 
 doubtless are,) nor all of them together, 
 detract from the existence or individuality 
 of Him whose nature and office and inter- 
 course with mankind they dimly serve to 
 shadow. With Personality none of them 
 are inconsistent, since the metaphorical il- 
 lustration which they convey is as natural 
 and as intelligible when applied to a person 
 as to an attribute or modus operandi ; and 
 
 M 4 since 
 
168 LECTURE III. 
 
 since in ancient alike and modern times 
 the former of these applications is, at least, 
 as common as the latter. Did the author 
 of that ancient Epistle, which bears the 
 name of Barnabas, design to resolve the 
 Son of God into a mere attribute of the 
 Deity, when he styled him the Sceptre of 
 the Most High? Was Simon Magus anni^ 
 hilated in the opinion of the Samaritans, 
 when they called him, in superstitious ve- 
 neration, the Great Power of God? The 
 Eyes and Ears of the ancient kings of Per- 
 sia are known to have been officers, by 
 whose agency the monarch communicated 
 with his provinces and armies; and, in 
 modern days, we apply the term of Police, 
 or Civil Power, not only to the abstract 
 idea of magistracy, but to the magistrates 
 themselves, and executive ministers of jus- 
 tice 41 . 
 
 With still less reason can it be denied, 
 that, as many offices may be filled by the 
 same individual, so may the names and 
 titles of that individual be multiplied in 
 proportion to the number of the relations 
 which he bears to others. The Unity of 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE III. 169 
 
 the Father is not endangered, though he 
 be called alternately and indifferently the 
 Supreme, the Eternal, the Ancient of 
 Days, Adonai, Schaddai, and Jehovah. 
 The Lamb of God, the Lion of the Tribe 
 of Judah, the Son of Man, the Bread 
 which came down from Heaven, are all 
 alike applied to the Person of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ : and, in like manner, how 
 great soever the diversity of operations and 
 of gifts, we may recognize in each of them 
 the same identical Spirit, the same God, 
 which worketh all in all. 
 
 But further, if the Unitarians will con- 
 cede, with Lardner, the identity of the 
 Holy Ghost with the Presence or Glory or 
 Shechinah of God, (these last terms are 
 undoubtedly synonymous,) which on cer- 
 tain occasions appeared in a bodily form 
 to the Israelites, and which was supposed 
 by them, as its name implies, to be the 
 constant and tutelary "Inhabitant*" of 
 the sanctuary, they will find themselves 
 not far, indeed, as will be hereafter shewn, 
 
 a pa Habitare. 
 
 from 
 
170 LECTURE III. 
 
 from the opinions of the Orthodox or the 
 Jews : but they will be involved, I appre- 
 hend, in a very considerable difficulty, to 
 disprove the Personality of a Being which 
 was seen, which spake, and reasoned, and 
 commanded ; or to prove the identity of a 
 Visible Glory with the unseen and inacces- 
 sible Father of all. 
 
 In this latter question, indeed, on the 
 distinctness or identity of the Father and 
 the Holy Ghost, the controversy between 
 ourselves and the modern Socinians must 
 finally resolve itself; since, if the Spirit of 
 God be, as they pretend^ an attribute or 
 operation only, he must be, as his name 
 implies, an attribute or operation of the 
 Almighty Father. 
 
 But attributes, operations, and every 
 other species of accident, as they are, in 
 truth, no more than modes in which one 
 substance produces an effect on another; 
 so whatever is, in poetry or oratory, pre- 
 dicated of them, is only predicated of the 
 agent or patient in whom the accident it- 
 self is inherent. 
 
 When I say that the courage of Julius 
 
 has 
 
LECTURE III. 171 
 
 has won the victory, or that the pride of 
 Marcus is easily offended, I do not mean 
 that either courage or pride have any posi- 
 tive existence of their own, or in themselves 
 are capable of impulse or feeling ; but I 
 desire to express the manner in which the 
 persons who are courageous or proud have 
 acted on others, or themselves been acted 
 on. 
 
 Accordingly, the Spirit of God who 
 strove with man in the Old Dispensation, 
 and which descended on Christ in the 
 New; against whose authority the Israel- 
 ites rebelled in the Wilderness, and whom 
 the sins of Christians daily resist and 
 grieve ; whose amber glory was seen by 
 Ezekiel in vision, and whose fiery unction 
 rested on the Apostles in the day of Pen- 
 tecost*; this Spirit must be either iden- 
 tified with God the Father, or must 
 be an intelligent Person distinct from 
 him. For all which is said of a power, 
 a manifestation, an influence, as if these 
 names had any essence or being of their 
 
 * Isaiah Ixiii. 10. Ezekiel iii. 12. Acts ii. 
 
 own, 
 
172 LECTURE III. 
 
 own, all this, I must again insist, is no- 
 thing else than a circuitous manner of 
 stating the former hypothesis. The Spirit, 
 who was to console the followers of Christ 
 after their Master's decease, must mean, 
 by this interpretation, the Eternal Father 
 manifesting himself, after a certain man- 
 ner, to his creatures ; and the Spirit who 
 is grieved, resisted, blasphemed, is the 
 same Father as he is acted on by those 
 who, under particular circumstances, re- 
 sist, blaspheme, or grieve him. 
 
 It is this question, then, of the distinct- 
 ness or identity of the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, to which the dispute as to the third 
 article of our Creed resolves itself between 
 the modern Church and the best informed 
 Socinians ; as it was, in ancient times, 
 the ground of difference between the pri- 
 mitive Church and the followers of Sabel- 
 lius. And as, with respect to the Spirit's 
 Personality, the Arians and Mohammedans 
 themselves accord with the orthodox against 
 the disciples of Crellius and Priestley, it 
 may seem, perhaps, his Personality once 
 demonstrated, no very difficult matter to 
 
 induce 
 
LECTURE III, 173 
 
 induce the Unitarians to take part with us 
 on the point of his Divinity against the 
 followers of Arius and Mohammed. 
 
 And there are, in truth, so many strong 
 and obvious texts in Scripture which as- 
 cribe the acts of the Holy Ghost to the 
 immediate agency of God ; he is so often 
 mentioned in terms and under characters 
 which are decidedly inapplicable to a cre- 
 ated Intelligence, of however exalted sta- 
 tion, that the Arian hypothesis, which thus 
 degrades his nature, is, of all the ancient 
 shapes of error, that which, at the present 
 hour, has fewest believers or advocates. 
 For though, to an Angel or any other ex- 
 alted Intelligence, the name either of Holy 
 or of Spirit be, doubtless, applicable ; yet 
 is The Holy Spirit, the Spirit who is essen- 
 tially and supereminently holy, a person 
 unquestionably Divine. A Holy One may 
 be one of many ; The Holy One must be 
 One who is above all ; and the Holy Spirit 
 of God cannot, surely, in himself be less 
 than God. 
 
 The immensity, in like manner, of the 
 Holy Ghost, who is present every where ; 
 
 his 
 
174 LECTURE III. 
 
 his omniscience, who searcheth all things ; 
 his dignity, against whom all blasphemy is 
 irremissible ; all these, with the many other 
 striking circumstances which Zanchius has 
 collected*, may well excuse me from en- 
 tering more at large into this separate and 
 less contested branch of the present in- 
 quiry. What time remains to us for con-t 
 sidering the nature of the Holy Ghost, 
 may be with more advantage devoted to 
 an examination of what may be called, 
 perhaps, the second position of our anta- 
 gonists ; that hypothesis which regards the 
 Holy Spirit of God as one of the names 
 whereby the Father Almighty has revealed 
 himself to mankind. 
 
 But this hypothesis, though it be pro- 
 fessedly an amended statement of the one 
 which I have been so long examining, is 
 liable, in truth, to the same and even 
 greater objections than the former, inas- 
 much as it is still more at variance with 
 the letter of our Saviour's promise, and 
 still less susceptible of the aid of metaphor 
 or allegory. 
 
 * Zanchius de Elohim, . iii. . 
 
 if 
 
LECTURE III. 175 
 
 If Christ had intended only to assure 
 the Apostles that, in his absence, they 
 should become the peculiar care of God 
 the Father, it must seem a very strange 
 and forced expression to convey this as- 
 surance in the promise of sending them 
 another Comforter. And that Christ had 
 the power of sending God the Father ; or 
 that a person can be regarded as sent who 
 does not really come; or that God the 
 Father was actually visible in the tongues 
 or flames of fire ; are assertions which, as 
 our antagonists certainly will not under- 
 stand them in the literal sense, so they are 
 such as no metaphorical interpretation can, 
 apparently, render intelligible. 
 
 In prescription, indeed, and in the opi- 
 nions of several ancient sects, the Soci- 
 nians may, doubtless, find authorities for 
 the identity of the Father and the Spirit 
 far earlier than any to which they could 
 pretend in support of their former posi- 
 tion. The error of Praxeas, however, 
 which, with all its confessed absurdity, was 
 at least a consistent and uniform system, 
 identified, as I have shewn, not the Father 
 
 only 
 
176 LECTURE III. 
 
 only and the Spirit of God, but the Father 
 and his only-begotten Son. It may be 
 thought, indeed, with reason, that the Per- 
 sons in whose names, without any express- 
 ed distinction, we receive the sign of bap- 
 tism, must, inevitably, be either one or 
 three : that if the Holy Ghost be merged 
 in the Father, the Son cannot, with any 
 colour of likelihood, be distinguished from 
 him ; and that the battered remains of 
 such hostile tenets as those of Noetus and 
 Socinus cannot possibly be expected, like 
 the mutilated warriors in Strada r , to coa- 
 lesce into a single combatant. 
 
 Nor is .the text of Scripture, on which 
 their hypothesis mainly depends, to be 
 really reckoned in their favour. That text 
 is the eleventh verse of the second chapter 
 of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, where a comparison is instituted 
 between the spirit of man and the Spirit 
 of the Most High ; and the knowledge 
 possessed by the second, as to certain fea- 
 tures of the Almighty's will, inferred from 
 the corresponding knowledge which the 
 former is known to possess as to the in- 
 tentions* 
 
LECTURE III. 177 
 
 tentions and affections of the man him- 
 self. 
 
 " Who of men," are the words of the 
 Apostle, " knoweth the things of a man, 
 " save only the spirit of a man which is in 
 " him ? Even so the things of God know- 
 " eth no man, save the Spirit of God." 
 
 Hence it has been urged, that as the 
 spirit of man which is in him is no distinct 
 person from the man himself; so the com- 
 parison would not be perfect, if the Spirit 
 of God were distinct from God the Father. 
 
 But it is evident that this passage of 
 Scripture will no less accurately tally with 
 the supposition of those Christians who be- 
 lieve in a perfect union, though of an in- 
 effable kind, between all the Persons of the 
 Trinity, and who, though they distinguish 
 the Father from the Spirit, regard both 
 Father and Holy Ghost as partakers in the 
 common Godhead. For it is not the things 
 of the Father, as such, and in his parental 
 capacity, which the Spirit is supposed to 
 know, but the things of that infinite God- 
 head in which the Father, the Spirit, and 
 the Word are eternally and indissolubly 
 
 N one. 
 
178 LECTURE III. 
 
 one. So that by the Homoousian, no less 
 than the Sabellian hypothesis, the diffi- 
 culty,, if it were one, is completely done 
 away; and the objection which might, in- 
 deed, apply against the Arian creed, must 
 be quenched, like the other fiery darts of 
 our oldest enemy, on the impenetrable 
 shield of orthodoxy. 
 
 But, secondly, it is worth our observa- 
 tion, that, in this objection, our antago- 
 nists have, evidently, misconceived or for- 
 gotten the peculiar opinions which those 
 whom St. Paul addressed, and, not impos- 
 sibly, St. Paul himself entertained as to the 
 compound nature of man. 
 
 Those opinions were taken from, or, at 
 least, accorded with, the doctrines of that 
 ancient philosophy, which distinguished the 
 rational soul not from the body only, but 
 from those animal affections to which the 
 body is heir; and which, under the names 
 of the heart or will, they described as a 
 secondary and mortal soul, which it was 
 the business of its intellectual companion 
 to examine, to understand, and, under- 
 standing, to govern and subdue 8 , 
 
 This 
 
LECTURE III. 179 
 
 This is the " natural man" whom St. 
 Paul so often exhorts our spiritual nature 
 to bind, to macerate, to crucify ; this the 
 organic intellect which beasts, no less than 
 man, enjoy : the " anima" of the Latins 
 as distinguished from their "animus," 
 whose hylozoic faculties were bounded 
 within the limits of self-preservation ; 
 whose use and existence was to terminate 
 with the body which it loved, but from 
 whose essence the intellectual soul was no 
 less effectually distinct than the traveller 
 from the animal which draws his carriage. 
 I do not mean (God forbid that I should 
 advance so wild a proposition !) that this 
 comparison, carried to its length, would 
 apply, or was intended by St. Paul to 
 apply, to the Divine Existence : but as, 
 in man, the spirit and the will were re- 
 garded as distinct persons, and as, never- 
 theless, the spirit of man is instanced as 
 understanding every other constituent part 
 of the being to which it belongs ; so the 
 Spirit of God, which guided and governed 
 his Church in the way of truth, and which 
 bare witness by signs and wonders to the 
 N 2 truth 
 
180 LECTURE III. 
 
 truth of the apostolic doctrine, was a com- 
 petent witness to the will and affection not 
 of himself alone, but of the whole eternal 
 Trinity. 
 
 For the question to be solved was not, 
 whether God knew his own mind, of which 
 no doubt could possibly be entertained; 
 but whether the Spirit which governed the 
 Church in the name of Christ was a suffi- 
 cient pledge of the Divine affections and 
 designs. And this doubt (a doubt, it may 
 be observed, which never could have arisen 
 if the Spirit had been conceived to be 
 identical with the Father) St. Paul resolves 
 in a manner which, far from contradicting, 
 completely establishes the doctrine of or- 
 thodox Christians, by assigning to the Spi- 
 rit a similar mysterious relation with the 
 Deity to that which the soul of man was 
 thought to hold in our compound human 
 nature, which was in certain respects the 
 man himself, and in certain respects dis- 
 tinguished from him ; at once another and 
 the same. 
 
 But while the arguments on which Sa- 
 bellianism depends may seem so little ade- 
 quate 
 
LECTURE III. 181 
 
 quate to establish the confusion of Persons 
 in the Deity, for which its advocates con- 
 tend ; the contradictions which result from 
 their hypothesis are so many, and of such 
 a nature, that, in truth, I almost fear to 
 urge them on your notice, lest they should 
 betray me into a levity unbecoming the 
 place in which I stand, and the import- 
 ance of any, even the weakest opinion, in 
 which the nature of God is implicated. 
 
 It is, in the first place, revealed to us, in 
 the words which I have taken as a text for 
 these discourses, that the Holy Ghost was 
 to be sent by Christ. He was to be sent, 
 as another Comforter, to supply, in the 
 absence of Jesus, that TT^^X^^^ comfort, 
 or protection, which our Lord had him- 
 self, while on earth, afforded to his chosen 
 followers. He was to come in Christ's 
 name, or as his Deputy. He was not to 
 speak of himself, but to receive from Christ 
 the illumination of which he was the dis- 
 penser. " He shall take of mine/' are the 
 words of our Saviour, " he shall take of 
 46 mine, and shew it unto you." 
 
 Is it possible that a description such as 
 N 3 this 
 
182 LECTURE III. 
 
 this can apply to him whom all sects and 
 parties agree to consider as the fountain 
 of Deity, the God and Father of all ? Or 
 will not the warmest defender of our Lord's 
 Divinity confess, that the opinion here ex- 
 pressed is inconsistent with that relation, 
 which in every page of Scripture is implied, 
 between the heavenly Father and his loving 
 and obedient Son ? 
 
 But our Unitarian antagonists ! how can 
 they be justified? They who account the 
 Saviour of the world a man of men, a 
 creature like themselves, a mortal and 
 earthy frame, without a soul, and instinct 
 with mechanism only ! How can they ha- 
 zard the assertion that such a being could 
 send the Almighty to supply his place 
 among men? How can they dream that 
 the only wise God, in his intercourse with 
 mankind, did not speak of himself, but be- 
 came, in his turn, the Prophet of the wis- 
 dom and doctrine of the Man Jesus of 
 Nazareth ? Let us return to transubstan- 
 tiation ! Let us embrace as Gospel the less 
 disgusting marvels of the Talmud, the 
 Shaster, the Edda, or the Koran ! But let 
 
 not 
 
LECTURE III. 183 
 
 not learned men expect us to embrace a 
 system which must eclipse the Koran's 
 eminence in folly, and put the wildest fan- 
 cies of the Talmud to shame ! 
 
 The Rabbins have taught, indeed, that, 
 on a certain occasion, Elias was sent from 
 God to ask from Rabbi Simeon the mean- 
 ing of a passage in the Canticles l : but this 
 was not in ignorance, but in reproof of the 
 heavenly spirits. And surely the boldest 
 Rabbin of them all would start and trem- 
 ble at the conclusion which follows from 
 Socinianism, that the Almighty Father, in 
 his intercourse with mankind, has received 
 inspiration from an earthly prophet. 
 
 It will be urged, perhaps, in reply, that 
 our Saviour himself explains, and, in some 
 sort, apologizes for the phrase on which 
 this objection is grounded, by reminding 
 his hearers, in the following sentence, that 
 those things only were his which he had 
 himself received of the Father. " All 
 " things which the Father hath are mine; 
 " therefore I said unto you, that he (the 
 " Comforter) will take of mine, and shew 
 " it unto you." 
 
 N 4 But 
 
184 LECTURE III. 
 
 But though this be perfectly consistent 
 with the mysterious but acknowledged eco- 
 nomy, whereby the Son himself, though 
 eternal and almighty, is, in the work of 
 our redemption, subject as a Son to his 
 Father ; yet will it by no means solve the 
 contradiction of the Father's receiving any 
 thing from the Son, inasmuch as he could 
 not be said to receive that which was his 
 own, and which had emanated from him 
 eternally. 
 
 But, further, we find, in the same pas- 
 sage of Scripture, that the Spirit of truth 
 was " not to speak of his own;" " as he 
 " was to hear, so was he to speak." 
 
 Will it, then, be maintained that the 
 Almighty Father had made over all know- 
 ledge to his Son, (to the Man Jesus, be it 
 remembered, if we believe our antagonists, 
 the man and no more than man,) so com- 
 pletely as to be obliged to borrow of him 
 for his subsequent occasions ? Or is there 
 any blindness which can prevent our re- 
 cognizing in these mysterious expressions, 
 that article of the Catholic faith which 
 speaks of God the Holy Ghost as proceed- 
 ing 
 
LECTURE III. 185 
 
 ing alike from the Father and the Son, 
 and as the sustaining and pervading Agent, 
 by whom both Father and Son commu- 
 nicate with their chosen servants ? 
 
 But the difficulties of the Sabellian in- 
 terpretation will yet increase on us, if the 
 term of Paraclete, whereby the Holy Ghost 
 is here distinguished, be understood, in its 
 usual and classical sense, of an Advocate, 
 a Patron, a Mediator. " A mediator is 
 " not the mediator of one;" he is a 
 middle term which supposes two contend- 
 ing parties ; he must plead the cause of 
 those for whom he is interested at the tri- 
 bunal of some other person. But with 
 whom and before whom is the Father Al- 
 mighty to plead the cause of his creatures ? 
 To whom is he to reconcile them but to 
 himself; or whose pardon is he to procure 
 for their faults but his own? Surely the 
 learned and ingenious men, who have in- 
 volved themselves in consequences like 
 these, can boast with little reason of ex- 
 plaining or simplifying Christianity ! 
 
 But this, alas, is not the only nor the 
 greatest mystery of Unitarian godliness, 
 
 since 
 
186 LECTURE III. 
 
 since we find, in another part of our 
 Lord's prediction, that the Father was to 
 give this Paraclete to abide with Christians 
 for ever ; Christ was to send him from the 
 Father : he was to come forth, (this same 
 Comforter or Advocate,) or issue from the 
 Father; arid the Father was to send him 
 in Christ's name. And yet the Holy 
 Ghost whom the Father sends is the same, 
 they tell us, with the Father who sends 
 him ! 
 
 The Orthodox, undoubtedly, cannot 
 hope to explain or understand that in- 
 comprehensible union which subsists be- 
 tween the Persons of the Trinity. We 
 cannot demonstrate in what manner that 
 is possible which is above the limits of 
 reason ; but the time would be, surely, yet 
 more completely thrown away, which should 
 be bestowed in proving that what is con- 
 trary to reason never can be credible. 
 
 To those, if such there be, who can di- 
 gest even Sabellian contradictions, it may 
 be doubted, indeed, what argument re- 
 mains to be offered. Shall we lead them 
 to the banks of Jordan during the bap- 
 tism 
 
LECTURE III. 187 
 
 tism of John, and point out to their at- 
 tention the whole Triune Godhead made 
 manifest in the several and consentaneous 
 characters of the Dove, the Voice, the 
 Beloved Son ? Is it to their own baptism 
 that we shall send them hack, when the 
 waters of regeneration were sprinkled on 
 their brows in the name and by the joint 
 authority of the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost? Or shall we carry them, on 
 the wings of the Evangelical Eagle, to that 
 tremendous throne and glassy ocean inter- 
 mingled with fire, where burns continually 
 the Sevenfold Spirit of God, where lives 
 the Lamb who was slain for us, and where 
 sits enthroned the Ancient of Days, the 
 Father Everlasting and Almighty ? 
 
 Our knowledge, indeed, is small, our 
 ideas are limited ; we behold, as yet, the 
 things of God through the dusky medium 
 of mortality, and, oh, how feebly do we 
 reason ! Yet, surely, if the Spirit of truth 
 have not deceived us in the literal account 
 which he has himself afforded of his person 
 and character ; if there be any certainty in 
 logical inference, any precision in the most 
 
 solemn 
 
188 LECTURE III. 
 
 solemn words of Scripture, the Spirit whom 
 the Father sends forth must needs be dis- 
 tinct from the Father; if Christ, the first 
 Comforter of fallen man, be a Person, that 
 other Comforter whom he promises must 
 be a Person also ; if, in the baptismal of- 
 fice, the Son be distinct, the Holy Ghost 
 cannot be identified with the Father, to 
 whose name his name is joined. As, then, 
 their inconsistency has been shewn, who 
 would reduce the Spirit of God to a qua- 
 lity or abstract name; let those explain, 
 who apply to the Father whatever of action 
 or passion is predicated of the Holy Ghost, 
 let them explain by what subtilty of dis- 
 tinction they can evade one half of the 
 Sabellian system, while they contend so 
 strongly for the other ; and deny the Di- 
 vinity of the Son, while they assail the 
 Personality of the Comforter. Or let not 
 them, at least, revile the Orthodox as teach- 
 ers of contradiction and absurdity, who 
 can themselves believe and maintain that 
 the Father sent himself, poured forth 
 himself, maketh intercession with himself, 
 that the allwise God could require or 
 
 receive 
 
LECTURE III. 189 
 
 receive inspiration from a mortal Prophet, 
 and that it is reasonable to believe a 
 contradiction in terms, rather than assent 
 to that which is beyond the limits of our 
 experience. 
 
 Oh miserable perversion of human in- 
 tellect, portentous blindness of pride, which 
 can forsake the pure ^vell of Salvation, to 
 hew out for itself those broken cisterns, of 
 which the rents and the chasms are ridi- 
 culous and offensive in the eyes of that 
 Reason which they loudly call on us to 
 adore ! For ourselves it is no new trial, 
 that the God whom we worship should be 
 accounted foolishness ; but it may well af- 
 ford some comfort to those who are ac- 
 cused of following after superstitious vani- 
 ties, to witness how soon these preachers 
 of a rational religion, professing to be wise, 
 are become blind. 
 
 Let me not however be mistaken. The 
 comfort which a Christian may feel in ex- 
 posing the inconsistencies of his erring bre- 
 thren, is not derived from pride, and is far, 
 very far removed from the exultation of ma- 
 lice or of scorn. Sensible as we are of our 
 
 own 
 
190 LECTURE III. 
 
 own transgressions against reason and Scrip- 
 ture ; sensible as we must be of our natural 
 ignorance and weakness ; creatures of edu- 
 cation and habit ; we cannot notice the mis- 
 takes of other men without recollecting, at 
 the same time, by what school, what ex- 
 ample, what providential chain of circum- 
 stances, our own eyes have been opened to 
 the things which belong to our peace ; to 
 those hopes and grounds of hope which we 
 feel and know are as necessary to our com- 
 fort here, as the truths on which they de- 
 pend are to our eternal salvation hereafter. 
 Call it ignorance, call it hardness of heart, 
 call it reprobate blindness, which prevents 
 our brother from agreeing with us in the 
 essentials of religion, we feel that what 
 he is we also might have been ; and that 
 there have, perhaps, been moments in 
 which those inconsistencies, which are now 
 apparent to us, were in like manner hid- 
 den from our eyes. If we rejoice, then, 
 in detecting the misapprehensions of our 
 religious antagonist, if we are anxious to 
 unravel his sophisms, if we are fervent in 
 repelling his calumnies, it is not, I repeat 
 
 it, 
 
LECTURE III. 191 
 
 it, in anger or in pride, but because we 
 thereby confirm in ourselves that faith 
 which is necessary to our happiness, and 
 prevent, perhaps, in those whose opinions 
 are yet undecided, the extension of the 
 mischief which we deplore. 
 
 If any such there are, (and such there 
 doubtless must be among the younger part 
 of this assembly) whose opinions are not 
 yet confirmed by time or inquiry in those 
 doctrines which our Church with reason 
 inculcates as essential to our holiness here 
 and our happiness hereafter ; if such there 
 be, let rne exhort them not to shun those 
 studies on which their faith must hereafter 
 repose, nor (if such studies are begun with 
 proper feeling, and continued with proper 
 perseverance) to entertain any doubt as to 
 their issue. 
 
 But let them recollect, during such their 
 inquiry, that what is above reason is not, 
 therefore, unreasonable ; that, where diffi- 
 culties are found on either side, the word 
 of God is the only sufficient arbiter ; and 
 that the best means of understanding any 
 single passage of Scripture, is to acquire 
 
 an 
 
192 LECTURE III. 
 
 an accurate and long acquaintance with 
 the whole of the sacred Volume. 
 
 Yet, though Scripture be the test by 
 which every doctrine is tried, it is by the 
 sense and not the terms of Scripture that 
 the conformity of an opinion to God's will 
 may be most fairly estimated. It is no 
 objection to a solemn truth that it should 
 be conveyed in barbarous language ; and, 
 if our adversaries have compelled us to de- 
 fine, with scholastic precision, our faith in 
 the Triune Deity, the fault, if fault there 
 be, must rest with them by whom we are 
 daily and falsely accused of idolatry. 
 
 But, brethren, I speak as to the wise ; 
 a name, ye know, is nothing ; nor have ye 
 so learned Christ (God forbid ye should 
 have so learned him !) as to believe his 
 religion to be a system of sounds and syl- 
 lables ; or to fancy that a Scriptural doc- 
 trine cannot be contained in unusual or 
 unscriptural language. Bear with us, then, 
 in this our infirmity ! Attend not so much 
 to the terms which we use, as to the mean- 
 ing which those terms convey ; and, as ye 
 honour the gift of reason, and as ye love 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE III 193 
 
 the privilege of Revelation, reject not an 
 inference legitimately drawn from premises 
 admitted by all ; despise not the wonders 
 of the Gospel, because their heavenly na- 
 ture transcends the grossness of our pre- 
 sent faculties ! 
 
 Nor fancy that we are leading you from 
 practical truths along the dreary track of 
 useless, perhaps of impious, speculation; 
 or that the time is wasted which is em- 
 ployed in discussing rather than improving 
 the spiritual graces vouchsafed to us by 
 the Almighty. 
 
 In our Religion is no speculative truth, 
 but it is connected with, and terminates in, 
 practice. We study God's nature, in order 
 that the more we know of him, he may 
 offer a shape more tangible and more ac- 
 cessible to our faith, our affection, and our 
 prayer. The more firmly the Personal Ex- 
 istence of his Spirit is imprinted on our 
 minds, the more conviction do we feel 
 of our own spiritual and immortal na- 
 ture ; the warmer gratitude to that eternal 
 and almighty Redeemer, by whose merits 
 and whose power this heavenly guest is 
 
 o brought 
 
194 LECTURE III. 
 
 brought down to dwell in the hearts of 
 men. 
 
 In that Redeemer, indeed, as in the 
 former Adam of Cabbalistic Mythology, 
 all the rays of the celestial Sephiroth meet 
 and terminate * ; all the splendours of Re- 
 velation are embodied in him ; and every 
 minor difference of creed or discipline is 
 extinguished in this central light, with those 
 who offer up at the basis of his cross, their 
 hopes, their doubts, their merits, their 
 infirmities ! 
 
 From that most holy and most happy 
 company ; from that innumerable multi- 
 tude who, with more or less of knowledge, 
 and amid less or greater errors, have sought 
 redemption through the sufferings of Christ, 
 and shall find it in his final triumph, the 
 Socinian is self-excluded ! Like the wincj. 
 of the desert, where his doctrines pass, the 
 fruits and flowers of Eden vanish or decay ; 
 and in that self-confidence which counts 
 the blood of the Eternal Covenant a worth- 
 less thing, and doth despite to the Spirit of 
 
 * See Beausobre ubi supra, t. ii. p. 316, and Elucid. 
 Cabbalist. a G. Wacht, cap. iii. . II. 
 
 Grace ; 
 
LECTURE III. 195 
 
 Grace ; in that strength of prejudice which 
 would rend from Scripture whatever page 
 or passage contravenes his previous opi- 
 nion ; in that gloomy materialism which 
 turns identity into illusion, and degrades 
 our nature to the level of a speaking au- 
 tomaton, he stands alike anathematized by 
 the primitive Faith and the soundest Phi- 
 losophy ; rejected alike from the Academy 
 and the Temple. 
 
 That these renowned and venerable seats 
 of learning and piety may, as they have 
 embraced, continue long to hold fast the 
 better part both in philosophy and religion, 
 may He accord to our prayers from whom 
 all wisdom and godliness flow ; the Author 
 of every good and perfect gift to man ; the 
 Ruler and Patron of that Church which 
 the Son hath purchased by his blood ; 
 who, w r ith the same most blessed Son, and 
 the Almighty and Eternal Father, liveth 
 and reigneth ever one God, world without 
 end. 
 
 o 2 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE III, 
 
 Page 136, note a . 
 
 TlM^EUS de Anima Mundi. Platon. Op. Ed. Bipont: 
 
 t. X. p. 3. T*/xa7o 6 Aoxpoj TaSg gipa* 8uo arnaf eljxgv TOUV 
 vo'ov JW,EV, TCOV xara Ao'yov yiyvO|U,ev<w avayxav 8g, 
 /3/a XTT yyaju,a TWV o"co^arcov. TtfTecov 8g, TOV 
 raya^cw ipucnoj slf^=v y 0sov rs ovy/xa/vst&ot/, %v T 
 
 T Se I7ro]w.eva re ^ (ryva/ria, e avayxav av 
 Ta 5 $u[j,TrotvTotj Ibeotv, uhotv, alcr^ijTOV TS, olov exyovov 
 >J TO ju,=i/, sl/xev ayevarov TS x, ax/i/arov x, jttsvovrs. x. r. A. 
 Idem. pp. 4, 5. Auo wv a75e a^a) Ivavr/ai. Plutarchus de 
 Plac. Philosoph. lib. i.t. ix. p. 475. Ed.Reiske. nvSotytgetf 
 Mv>j(rap^tf ^a/xioj -- iT7iiw& 8* aura; TWV app^wv f) jxsv !TT 
 TO -arot^Tixov amov 3^ gjixoy, (oVsp Ifi vou^, 6 soc) r; 8s ITT) 
 TO craSjjrjxo'v T x, uXxov, (CTTS^ lf<v 6 ogctTO$ xoV^oj.) Idem. 
 p. 480. SwxpT>jj ^w(ppovi<j-x8 'A^vaTo^ Xj HAaTcwv ' 
 
 TOV sov, Tijv uAr^y, T^V iSsav If* 85 6 eoj 6 vouj, uAij 
 TO uTroxe/jOtsvov OT^WTOV ysveVa x, f^opa, JSsa 8* ot5cr/a ao-w- 
 v ToT^ yoijjM-acri ^ T7j <pavTOi<rloti$ TOW soy. Idem., p. 
 481. Zrjvcov Mycrs KtTtsy^ f%? jw-ev TOV sov, x, T^V 
 Idem de Iside et Osir. t. vii. p. 456. Noju<^8 
 Suo, xa^aTre^ ayTiTe*^vj' TOV jasv ya^> aya^aiv, TOV Se 
 
 ypyo'v. O 8= ^t,=v TOV ajxe/jtxova, gov, TOV 8e erepov, A/- 
 xAouo-iv. The heretic Valentinus, in a fragment 
 preserved in the Dialogue against the Marcionites, im- 
 
 puted 
 
NOTES ON LECTURE III. 197 
 
 puted to Origen, very clearly states the principle 01* 
 which this opinion was founded. See Grab. Spicile- 
 gium. t. ii. p. 57. "AAoyov e8ssv slvai jtxoij raura 'arpoo-* 
 #UT>, >j ui; l auVou ysyovoVa^ ^, (si x, ra jxaA/fa 
 oux OVTOJV 8uvTov elva* T* ysve^ay) OTI Xj T 
 xaxa 67TO/>jcreV auYo'f. *O yap ex TOU owx elva< ei TO slva/ aura 
 Ix TOU slvai avvjpa -sraXiv. 'H el TOUTO avayxij 
 av, coj ^v OTOTS xai^o^ ore roTj xaxoTj r^a<pev 6 0soj, vuv 
 (oTrep aSuvarov elva* |xo< ^oxsT^ Aeyav TOUTO crept 0eou,) 
 Trjj (pucrecoj TOUTO crgoo'a^o^v. A<07Tp 
 
 xaxa elva< SoxeT. 
 
 Page 137, note b . 
 
 Plutarchus ubi supra. 0=o7rO|U,7roj 8s <p>jo-< xorra TSJ 
 ii/a /x-e^o^ Tpicr^/Xia er>j TOV jw,ev x^aTsTv^ TOV Se xpaTe7o-^a* 
 ^Siuv, aAAa Ss Tp*cr^/A<a {j,a%&cq x, -croAfjttsTv x, avaAuav 
 TOU rreps TOV grepov TeAoj Se aTroAe/Tre&a/ TOV A<TJV, 
 
 rxiav -croiouvTaj* TOV $e TauTa jx^av^ara^svoy 0eov 5 ^ 
 ev ou -croAuv T 
 
 Page 138, note c . 
 Socrates in Phsedone. Plat. Op. t. i. p. 138. 
 
 OTOi^aTa Treio[jt,VQV TOO IVUTTV/O;. OUTOJ S^ TT^WTOV j^ev eif TOV 0eov 
 (4>o/ov) Iiro/)3(ra, a ^v y; -srapouo-a ^u<r/a. Idem. p. 266. '& 
 Kp/T;v, e^>j, TO) 'Ao"xA>j7ria> o'<pe/Aojxev aAexTpuoW, aAAa a 
 jt, ^ otpeXfayTe. Plato de Leg. 1. x. t. 9. p. 117. 
 
 OTV STTi VOUV 3lJ TJvlj t/T^OJ T SJ^OO"/(X ITCO -SuVcOV, X, 
 
 re x, lspsioti$ ly^ap^eVco Ta dujitaTa, olj ayvs/a TOUTWV eTr^sA^ . 
 Id. Epinom. t. ix. p. 261. 5/ OvT;v aW, OTDJ T<ve^ IveVu^ov 
 * UTTVOV ly ovs<p07roA/ 7rpo<7Tup^o / VTSf , >j xTa ^^jaaj T* 
 Iv axoalj uyia*vtfo~iv j 3^ xa^xvo~<v, ij xat 
 ^, S/a TS x, 8>]jXO(r/a So?a<j ?ra- 
 O^EV iepa ?roAAa TroAAwv ygyove, Ta 8s ysvijo-sTar 
 
 O 3 TtfTCUV 
 
198 NOTES 
 
 TttTcov naVTtoV voposTyg, or< vav xexwflreu x, rov 
 
 OUKOTS J.Y) TOApjO~>3 KOtWOTOpOtV, 67TI deO(T'^c<aV, >JTIC 
 
 eye* T reon 7ro/v auT8. xaj t>v 8*8' o>y 6 Trc 
 
 Page 138, note d . 
 Plutarchus de Anim. Procreat. Op. t x. p. 210. 
 
 J T 
 8 8' 
 
 TO (ra;/xaT<xov 5 ejW,7rX>jxTOV 8s Xj aAoyov TO XIV>JT*XOI/ 
 . TTO 8' ^v avapjxosr/a' ^u%>ij ex l%V)jc Xoyov. Idem* 
 p. 213. Air/ay xaxS x. af^)jv ( r 'TX>jv) UTTOT/^so-^ai TOV FlXa- 
 x, xaXeTv aTrag/av, alor^paiv x, xaxo?roiov, au-^*j 8' avayx>)V 
 a TOJ ^saJ 8ycr/x^8crav x, a^>jva^80-v. Plato ubi supra. 
 -sv 8' elvai -578 TO vuv ovo^a^o)u,svov /xapT>]jU.a T^V -srAeove^/av 
 ev jxev <ragxivoi$ (rcupouri voo">jjtx,a xaA^/Aevov* Iv 8s wpatg ITOJV Xj 
 Iv*aura5v, Aojp>V Iv 8e -cro'Aecri x, -sroXiTa'a*^ TSTO au TO 
 
 
 Page 139, note 6 . 
 
 Origenes in Johannem, p. 16. 'AvayxaTov STTI^CH si 
 avTij Xj otarcofnotTOV ^MY^V ^COVTCUV o xaAs/^fVOj 8paxa>v 
 a^ioj y=yev)jTai, awoTrea'sov T^ xctSctgoi; 00% irpo TTIXVTWV Iv8sd^vai 
 oA>j x, ar'jopctTi. Porphyrius in Epist. ad Anebonem. Oi 8e 
 Tai TO UTT^XOOV yevo; (SajjU-o'y^y) 
 T 34, TroXuTpOTroy, U7roxpnd(j,eyov x, = 
 
 Toiy 8ox'vTa;y 
 
 a?r?p sly< xaT 
 
 /x>)8e slSsyaj Taura, aAXa xaxo(T^oXsu0'3a< x, 
 
 T? 
 
 Ty<p8, x, %/ay aT/xoTj Xj ^yo-/af. Jamblichus de Mysteriis, 
 . 6. C. 5. 'Eg-/ TJ ylyoj 8uva/jL=coy ly TW xoV^w ^spifw, axp/- 
 Toy, aAo'yifov, o Sep^srai j^gv TT' XX8 Ao'yov xa) 
 
 - TO 8s TO<8TOy a-^po'ctJJ 1TOlVGtTiVO[J,SVOQV TWV OCTTSihwV 
 
 KOLl SXTFkrjTTsTOll, (O$ aV oT/Xl -ttStyUXOS CtVTO Ts 
 
ON LECTURE III. J99 
 
 rail; !|x<pa<r<n, xa ra aXXa \I/u^aycoye7v 8<a TTJ l/XTrA>jXT8 xat 
 as-afy,^* (pavracr/aj. Jamblichus, indeed, in the following 
 chapter, gives another and a more respectful reason why 
 the earthy and airy daemons were terrified hy incanta- 
 tions, but the above opinion was apparently the more 
 popular. 
 
 Page 139, note f . 
 
 Synesii Hymn. iii. ad fin. 
 
 0oov aAjaa /SaAsTv STT) era? au 
 
 a 
 
 Tlpopssi sraya. AJ^J upotviot 
 xara ya^* -craya jots 
 
 Grant me, releas'd from Matter's chain, 
 To seek, oh God, thy home again, 
 Within thy bosom to repose, 
 From whence the stream of Spirit flows ' 
 A dew-drop of celestial birth, 
 Behold me spilt on nether earth ; 
 Then give me to that parent well, 
 From which thy flitting wand'rer fell ! 
 
 Page 140, notes. 
 Irenseus Adv. Haeres. 1. i. p. 30. *Q$ yap TO 
 
 itivvottov (rwnjp/aj jU-srao-^eTv* ( yap slva* Aeyo-/v ayro* 
 xov auT>jf) TCO^ -sraA/v TO -CTveyjaaT/xov ^eAtfcnv o* at5TO elva* 
 Mvotrov cp^opav xaTaSg^acrda*, xav oTroi/xig o-yyxaTayevcomu 
 5J-p^e<7/v. '^Ov yap TpoVov ^puo-o? ev fiopSogcp x.ctTotTee}$ wx 
 
 AAa T>JV S/ay 
 xav Iv -cro/aij u 
 
 Page 141, note h . 
 
 Irenaeus, ubi supra, p. 79 Tov Fonjri}v pava xa y^ 
 o 4 -- If 
 
200 NOTES 
 
 Page 142, note . 
 EpiphaniuSj Haer. 23. Op. t. i. p. 63. 4>#o-xfi Iv 
 
 avSp a;7T# lA>jAuSevaj, xou iSea f^ovr,' rot Travra S* Iv TO; &>- 
 -sTSTTO^xevai, T8T$"* TO ysysv^a^ai, TO TffspnrotTsiv, TO 
 Sai, TO -cTS7rov^vj. Ircnseus, ubi supra, c. xxiv. 
 " Carpocrates Jesum e Joseph natum, et qui similis re- 
 liquis hominibus fuerit, distasse a reliquis secundum id, 
 quod anima ejus, firma et munda cum esset, comme- 
 morata fuerit quae visa essent sibi in ea circumlatione 
 quse fuisset ingenito Deo, et propter hoc ab eo missam 
 esse ei virtutem, uti mundi fabricatores effugere posset." 
 
 Page 143, note k . 
 
 Tertullianus de Anima. . 23. p. 280. Ed. Par. "Doleo 
 bona fide, Platonem omnium haereticorum condimenta- 
 rium factum." 
 
 Page 147, note 1 . 
 
 Theodoretus, Hssret. Fab. II. Op. t. iv. p. 219. Ed. 
 Par. ('E&ove/rai) TOV 85 'AwoVoXov 'ATroraTyjv xaAao-j. " The 
 Apostle," by way of eminence, (it is well known,) is the 
 name usually given by the Fathers to St. Paul. 
 
 Page 156, note m . 
 
 Faustus ap. Augustin. 1. xx. 2. " Nos quidem Patris 
 omnipotentis et Christi Filii ipsius et Spiritus Sancti 
 unum idemque sub triplici appellatione colimus Nu- 
 men." August, contra Fortunatum. Disput. I. "Unam 
 fidem sectantes hujus Trinitatis Patris, Filii et Spiritus 
 Sancti." See also 1'Histoire des Manicheens par Beau- 
 sobre. t. i. p. 517. 
 
 Page 157, note n . 
 Irenaeus. 1. i. . i. p. 13. MsTa &s TO a<pogj<r$yjvai TWT>JV 
 
 T8 WA^gWfWtTOj TOJV AlwVCtiV, TJJV T= M^Teat dltT^S CCTTOXCt- 
 
ON LECTURE III. 20) 
 
 rjva; rrj $/ <ruuy/a, TOV Movoyevrj 7rA<v Irl^av Trpooa- 
 <7iyy/av, xara Trpo/^Ssav Tt? TlarpoV, Tva /xJj 6/xo/coc 
 
 3J T/J TWV AiCOJ/COV, 
 
 xa) 
 
 Page 157 5 note . 
 
 Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. Op. t. i. p. 141. Ed. Par. 
 
 sv TOV Xpfov slv< T< avfyoe/xeAov exTviroofAot aopaTOV 
 fj,i\ionv IvgvyjxovTas^ TO jarjxo^j 2>jdsv <r%oivwv elxo<n- 
 Te<T(r<xpa)v 9 TO Se crAaro^ <r^o/vwv 'i^ ^oiA/aJv g!xo<nTscr(rapa>V5 TO 
 cra^oj Sg xara jU^tp7J(rv aAAvjy Ttva. 'AvTix^u ^s <at5T 
 )^ TO 'Ayiov ITv5Ujtx,a Iv eTSsi ^>jAaaj opaTco^ ? ^ TO 
 UT jtxsT^tf, Ka* -ra-o'SeVj <p>j(riv, eyvwv Ta [terpet ; 
 ^vjo-jv, sISov TTO TOJV ogswv, on ai x=<paAi epSavov CIVTWV, x, TO 
 T Oj5^ xaT ( aa-&wv 3 eyvcov Xpi$-S TS sc, T 'Ay/a ITveu- 
 Ta jttsr^a. However wild these notions (and their 
 gigantic absurdity is, doubtless,, truly oriental,) it is 
 plain not only that those who held such language be- 
 lieved in the personal existence of the Holy Ghost, but 
 that they also believed in a celestial Trinity, however 
 they might err (as the Ebionites are said by Epiphanius 
 to have done) respecting the time and manner in which 
 the second Person of that mysterious union was united 
 to the man Jesus. Epiphan. ubi supra, p. 127. Mo- 
 sheim, however, having endeavoured (Ecclesiast. Hist. 
 t. i. p. ii. c. 5.) to discredit the whole account which 
 Epiphanius gives of these very ancient heretics, I may 
 be excused, perhaps, if I examine the charges which he 
 brings against him, and endeavour to ascertain the de- 
 gree of reliance which, in this instance, we may reason- 
 ably place in him. The words of Mosheim are as 
 follow. " He (Epiphanius) deserves but little credit, 
 since he confesses (. 3. p. 127. 4. p. 141.) that he 
 had confounded the Sampsaeans and Elcesaites with the 
 
 Ebionites, 
 
202 NOTES 
 
 Ebionites, and also acknowledges that the 
 were strangers to the errors with which he charges 
 them." To this I answer, 1st, that it is absolutely false 
 that Epiphanius, in any part of his work, confesses his 
 having confounded the Sampsaeans and Elcesaites with 
 the Ebionites. He conjectures, indeed, whether truly 
 or falsely is nothing to my present purpose, that the 
 notions respecting Christ and the Holy Ghost, in which 
 the Sampsseans and Ebionites agreed, had been derived 
 to the latter from the former at a date posterior to Ebion 
 himself, and from the teaching of the Jewish prophet 
 Elxai. But he nowhere says (what, if Mosheim had 
 any meaning in his charge, he must have supposed him 
 to say), that he had mistaken one of these sects for the 
 other, or had imputed to the Ebionites doctrines which 
 were held by the Sampsoeans only. On the contrary, 
 when he apologizes in the end of his chapter (p. 141.) 
 for repeating, in his account of the Ebionites, the same 
 description of the Son and Spirit of God, which he had 
 previously given while reviewing the doctrines of the 
 Elcessaeans, he assigns as a reason for this repetition, that 
 these were articles of faith in which both those sects agreed* ! 
 V HS>] 5 pot CTspi TTCOV eTpyjra* Iv TYJ KOLTOL 'O<r<racov otlpsvei. 
 'Ev craggo% Ss TctUTct tzrsTro^jxaj vuv, iW pj ra 
 eSvei TS X| ctlpecrsi OVTCI euprxo/jiev# Sg -crap' eTepoi$ y 
 xara A^tjv vfi ypcuv agrj<r$aj. If this be confusion, how 
 shall discrimination be defined ? But, 2dly, The re- 
 maining charge which Mosheim has brought forward is 
 of a nature little less extraordinary. Epiphanius is said 
 to acknowledge " that the first Ebionites were strangers 
 to the errors with which he charges them." This would 
 have been a strange acknowledgment indeed, to bring 
 forward a calumny, and in the same breath to own it to 
 be so. It is a conduct, however, of which we find no 
 traces in Epiphanius, who has neither retracted any of 
 
 his 
 
ON LECTURE III. 203 
 
 his accusations, nor has even accused the first Ebivnites 
 of the particular errors to which, I apprehend, Mosheim 
 alludes. The object of the work which Epiphanius has 
 left us is to give a picture not only of ancient but con- 
 temporary error ; and if the Ebionites of his day had 
 embraced the portentous mythology of Elxai, he was 
 not, I apprehend, to omit the circumstance in his de- 
 scription of that Creed which they in the fourth century 
 professed, because their founder in the second had, per- 
 haps, thought differently. The suspicion, then, for it is 
 no more, which Epiphanius expresses, that it was not 
 from Ebion, but from Elxai, that the later Ebionites had 
 derived the marvellous fictions with which their pri- 
 mitive errors had been disfigured or adorned, is not a 
 confession of any mistake on his part, but an historical 
 discrimination between their earlier and more recent 
 doctrines. And, whether this discrimination were well 
 founded or no, there is, certainly, nothing in it which 
 can shake our faith in the historian while speaking of 
 his own times and from his own immediate knowledge. 
 For, 3dly, However credulous or bigotted Epiphanius 
 may, in certain instances, have been, it cannot be de- 
 nied that when speaking of the affairs of Palestine and 
 Syria he possesses very eminent claims on our attention. 
 His diligence and learning were confessedly great ; he 
 was himself born in Phoenicia of Jewish parents; he 
 was educated in the law of Moses ; he was conversant 
 not only with the Syrian his native tongue, but the He- 
 brew; an advantage which very few of the Christian 
 Fathers possessed. The whole of his early life was 
 passed in the immediate neighbourhood of Galilee, 
 where the Ebionites were most numerous ; and his 
 account of their peculiarities has every internal mark 
 of being drawn from their own mouths, and from the 
 various statements of various individuals of their number. 
 
 Thu* 
 
204 NOTES 
 
 Thus (p. 127.) he tells us rivlg <yfy l avrcov x, f A5 TOV 
 Xpjg-ov slvai Aeyao"/. -- -"AAAo< 8* ev auroTj Aeyacnv 
 
 x, AAf aurov vTroTiSspsvoic. If these be not evident mark* 
 of attentive personal inquiry, 1 know not what can be 
 so considered. But, 4thly, When an author thus frankly 
 confesses the difficulty of obtaining consistent informa- 
 tion, (a difficulty which with an ignorant and jealous 
 sect is always more or less to be expected,) and when 
 he acknowledges, as Epiphanius does, both in this place 
 and when speaking of the Nazarenes, (p. 123.) his in- 
 ability in certain respects to satisfy himself, the most 
 favourable conclusions will doubtless follow as to his 
 accuracy and fidelity in instances where he speaks with- 
 out hesitation. There is nothing then in the admissions 
 of Epiphaniits which can justify the severe reprobation 
 which Mosheitn and others have passed on him. 
 Lastly, The peculiar opinions which he imputes to the 
 Ebionites, are in themselves extremely likely to have 
 been entertained by a Jewish sect, inasmuch as they 
 correspond in a very striking manner with many of the 
 traditions preserved in the Rabbins, and more especially 
 in the Cabbalistic writers*, Thus, not to mention the 
 remarkable coincidence between the Ebionite Adam, 
 who was also the celestial Christ, and the Cabbalistic 
 Adam Cadmon, who was begotten before all worlds, 
 higher than the angels, and whose neschanah or "mens 
 " mentis" is hereafter to animate the body of the Mes- 
 siah, their gigantic Christ, ninety-six miles high, and 
 their female Holy Ghost of answerable dimensions, are 
 evidently identified with the two Cherubim of the Jew- 
 ish Mystics, Metatron and Sandalphon, of stature yet 
 more portentous, the one male, the other feminine. 
 Pneumatica Cabbalistica, c. iii. .2. " Duo isti duces 
 exercituum Metatron et Sandalphon sunt duo Cheru~ 
 
ON LECTURE III. 205 
 
 bim, qui super area foederis Domini locati erant ; alter 
 mas et alter foemina." Gemara Tractatu Chagigah, 
 c. 2. ee Dixit Rabbi Eleasar : Angelas quidam est in 
 terra, et caput ejus pertingit inter animalia usque ; et 
 Sandalphon est nomen ejus, estque major suis sociis 
 quingentis annis, et sedet post currum, nectitque coro- 
 nas Domino suo." The " animals" here alluded to are 
 said, in the same chapter, to be cf in Mundo Jezirah, 
 proxime ad Thronum Gloriae." So also R. Simeon 
 Ben Jochai in Libr. Sohar. in Exp. Cantici Mosis. , 
 Beschallah, col. 102. (i Ibat Moses donee venirent 
 ad ignem ingentem Angeli cujusdam cui nomen San- 
 dalphon, de quo traditum est quod superior sit reliquis 
 sociis suis itinere quingentorum annorum, stetque post 
 velum Domini sui et nectat coronas de precibus Israel- 
 itarum. Et cum talis corona pervenit ad caput Regis 
 Sancti, ille suscipit preces Israelitarum. Et omnes turma 
 et catervse commoventur et fremunt, dicuntque, Be- 
 nedicta sit Gloria Domini de loco domus Schekinse. 
 So also of Metatron the masculine Cherub. Sohar. Sect. 
 Breschitt. col. 99. ad Gen. i. 16. " Quis est iste ? est 
 Metatron, qui major est et excellentior reliquis exer- 
 citibus quingentis milliaribus." Of the tedious and 
 inconsistent allegories into which the later Cabbalists 
 have resolved their old traditions the present is not the 
 place to speak. I may observe, however, that in identi- 
 fying, as the Ebionites seem to have done, the two 
 Cherubim Metatron and Sandalphon with the Word and 
 Spirit of God, they had many precedents or imitators. 
 1st. There are many Jewish traditions which ascribe to 
 these persons actions and a degree of dignity which are 
 in Scripture predicated only of the second and third 
 Persons of the Trinity. Pneumatica Cabbalist. c. v. 
 . &. R. Moscheh Horduero. " In rnedio hujus palatii 
 aulaeum quasi aliquod expansum, ut fiat distinctio inter 
 
 Sanctum 
 
206 NOTES 
 
 Sanctum et Sanctum Sanctorum : in medio vero hujus 
 aulaei locat duos Cherubim, qui sunt Metatron et San- 
 dalphon." Ibid. .5. (( Unde patet quod Metatron sit 
 animal et caput omnium animalium et angelorum, immo 
 et seraphinorum. Haec autem omnia etiam tribuuntur 
 Sandalphoni. Sicut Sandalphon vitam et influxum prse- 
 bet virtute Malchuth, estque foemina in imagine atque 
 forma istius sicut Metatron masculus ad similitudinem 
 Tiphereth." R. Moschah Korduero Tract, de Anima. 
 " Exponit Rabbi Simeon Jochaides, super quern pax ! in 
 Tikunnim his verbis, Faciamus hominem.' Congress! 
 sunt Ophan (Rota Mundus Asian, ob Sandalphon qui 
 dicitur Ophan) et angelus (Metatron seu Mundus Jezi- 
 rah) et Thronus (seu Mundus Brian) et dixerunt, 
 
 ( Faciarnus hominem' e ut fiat ad imaginem nos- 
 
 tram.' Introductio ad Libr. Sohar. iv. . 34. " Meta- 
 tron est Chochmah (Sapientia) Jezirae." Ibid, xxxii. 
 .14. "Si anima est medii generis, angelus Tahariah 
 ipsam introducit coram Ixi. Sanhedrin ubi Metatron est 
 pater domus judicii, ubi judicialiter de ipsa inquirunt." 
 R. Moschah Korduero ubi supra. " Schekinah ex parte 
 throni vocatur aquila ; et ex parte pueri (Metatronis) 
 columba : et ex parte Rotae (Sandalphonis) avicula. 
 Sandalphon autem est Rota, cujus beneficio sanctus 
 ille, qui benedictus sit ! habitare facit Schekinam suam 
 
 in mundo. Iste est vestitus Schekinae." See my 
 
 notes on Lecture IV. for the identity of the Schekinah 
 and Holy Spirit, and some further observations on Me- 
 tatron. " With the later Cabbalists, Sandalphon exactly 
 answers to the Platonic Anima Mundi. But, 2dly, 
 Not only were actions and a dignity imputed by the 
 Jews to the Cherubim which were only applicable to 
 the Son and the Holy Ghost ; the Seraphim, who are 
 described by Isaiah in his sixth chapter, and whose 
 identity with the Cherubim is evident from a com- 
 parison 
 
ON LECTURE III. 207 
 
 parison with Rev. iv. 8. and Ezek. i. were supposed by 
 Origen and other Christian authorities of great learning 
 and antiquity, to be the same divine persons. Hieron. 
 Epist. ad Damasum. Op. t. iii. p. 78. " Quidam ante me 
 tarn Graeci quam Latirii, hunc locum exponentes (Isaiah 
 c. vi.) Dominum super thronum sedentem, Deum pa- 
 trem : et duo Seraphim, quse ex utraque parte stantia 
 praedicantur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum et 
 Spiritum Sanctum interpretati sunt. Quorum ego auc- 
 toritati, quamvis sint doctissimi, non assentior. Multa 
 siquidem melius est, vera rustice, quam falsa diserte 
 proferre; maxime cum Joannes Evangelista, in hac 
 eadem visione, non Deum Patrem sed Christum scribat 
 esse conspectum." Idem ad Pammachium et Oceanum. 
 Op. t. ii. p. 129. " Arguite potius, ubi haeresim de- 
 fenderim, ubi pravum Origenis dogma laudaverim. In 
 lectione Esaiae in qua duo Seraphim clamantia de- 
 scribuntur : illo interpretante Filium et Spiritum Sanc- 
 tum, nonne ego detestandam expositionem in duo tes- 
 tamenta mutavi ?" The interpretation of Origen is pro- 
 bably erroneous. Whether its error merited so severe 
 a censure, or whether Jerome's own explanation is much 
 more plausible, I shall not here examine. The expo- 
 ition of Origen has a strong resemblance to Parkhurst's 
 notion about the Cherubim, excepting that the latter is 
 decorated with many circumstances more fanciful by 
 far, and more liable to dangerous misconstruction, than 
 any which seem to have been contained in those vo- 
 lumes which Jerome calls " a ship-full of haeresy." It 
 is plain, however, that the Ebionites did not stand 
 single in identifying the Cherubim with Christ and the 
 Holy Ghost. 3. The Ebionites no less than the Naza- 
 renes used the Gospel according to the Hebrews. But 
 that Gospel, as will be presently shewn, expressly 
 taught a Personal and Female Holy Ghost. 5. An 
 
 Eastern 
 
208 NOTES 
 
 Eastern sect attended the Council of Nice, who held 
 the same dogma, and were consequently accused by the 
 ignorance of the European Fathers, of placing the Vir- 
 gin Mary in their Trinity." See Eutych. ap. Seld. de 
 Orig. Alexandr. p. 7*>- and Beausobre, Hist. Man. t. i. 
 p. 532. where the reasons which gave rise to this man- 
 ner of speaking are explained. See also the following 
 note. 4. Though Epiphanius supposes that many of 
 the Ebionite doctrines were additions to their original 
 system, there is no reason to suppose that their faith 
 in a celestial Trinity was one of these, though the gross 
 and material representation of two of its Persons might 
 be so. The Personality of the Holy Ghost they held in 
 common with the Nazarenes, and probably therefore it 
 must have been a dogma more ancient than the separa- 
 tion of their sects. Nor can it be supposed that a sect 
 so hostile to the Gentile converts as were the Ebionites 
 were likely in process of time to draw nearer to the opi- 
 nions of those whom they regarded as unclean and un- 
 holy. On the whole, we may reasonably conclude that 
 Epiphanius was correct in the account which he gives 
 us of the Ebionites, and that in these ancient heretics 
 the modern Unitarians may vainly look for a precedent 
 of then* opinions. 
 
 Page 158, noteP. 
 
 Origenes in Jeremiam Homil. xv. Op. t. i. p. 148. 
 'Eav 8s t&poa-lsTou f\c, TO xa$' 'Ega/ EuayyeAiov, evSa, 
 coT>j <p>jo-v "AgTi eAae fts r; Mijr^p JU.H, TO "Ayio* 
 sv pici TWV rpi^wv p& 9 x, a/reyxefts <$ TO ogo$ TO jxeya 
 up. Hieron. Comm. in Esaiam.x. . 40. t. v. p. 129, 
 " In Evangelic quod juxta Hebrseos descriptum quod 
 Nazaraei lectitant, Dominus loquitur, Modo me tulit 
 Mater mea Spiritus Sanctus ex uno capillorum me- 
 orum." Idem. p. 42. " Porro, in Evangelic cujus supra 
 
 men- 
 
ON LECTURE III. 209 
 
 incntioncm fecimus (Hebraeorum scilicet) haec scripta 
 reperimus; Factum est autem cum ascendisset Dominus 
 de aqua, descendit fons omnis Spiritus Sancti et re- 
 quievit super eum, et dixit illi, Fili mi, in omnibus 
 Prophetis expectabam te, ut venires et r^quiescerem in 
 te. Tu es enim requies mea : tu es films meus primo- 
 genitus qui regnas in sempiternum." To these testi- 
 monies may be added the following from the Recog- 
 nitions, a work which bears sufficient marks of its being 
 the work of a Nazanean or Ebionite Jew. The doctrines 
 contained in the passages which follow are, doubtless, far 
 from orthodox; but they prove also incontestably, that the 
 Christian sect to which their author belonged regarded the 
 Holy Ghost as a Person. Clement. Recog. 1. i. . 42. Ed. 
 Coteler. I. p. 503. " Turn Petrus docere me hoc modo 
 coepit. Deus cum fecisset mundum -- singulis qui- 
 busque creaturis principes statuit -- Angelis angelum 
 Principem et Spiritibus Spiritum, Deemonibus dae- 
 monem, avibus avem, bestiis bestiam, serpentem ser- 
 pentibus, piscem piscibus, hominibus hominem, qui est 
 Jesus Chvistus." Idem. 1. iii. .10. p. 527. "Spiritus 
 Sanctus Filius dici non potest nee primogenitus, factus 
 est enim per factum, subconnumeratur autem Patri 
 et Filio." 
 
 Page 1G8, note q. 
 
 Barnabas Epist. Ed. Coteler. i. p. 156. ^xrJTrrpov -njf 
 T8 0c3. Act. vlil. 10. Aristoph, Acharn. 
 
 K) vvv yxovre; ayopsv 
 Tov 
 
 Page 176, note r . 
 
 Stradse Prolus. 1. ii. . G. p. 240. 
 Mutua res agitur, clypeo caret alter, et alter 
 Ense caret : sed Lusiadis sub tegmine Teuton 
 
 p Dum 
 
210 NOTES 
 
 Dum se defendit, dum magni Teutonis ense 
 Pugnat Lusiades, unus sese armat utroque, 
 Unaque mens animat non dissociabilis ambos. 
 Alike their need ! unable this to wield 
 With wonted skill the sword, and that the shield. 
 Yet each with each in generous friendship vies, 
 And that the sword, and this the shield supplies. 
 
 Page 178, note 8 . 
 
 So Jerome, in explaining after his manner the Che- 
 rubim in Ezekiel. Op. t. v. p. 316. " Suspicantur pie- 
 rique juxta Platonem rationale animae et irascitivuin et 
 concupitivum. Quod ille Aoytxoy et Svpixov et iTriSujxijTixoi/ 
 yocat, ad hominem et leonem ac vitulum referunt. 
 Quartumque ponunt quse super haec et extra haec tria 
 est, quam Grseci vocant cryvT^p>j(r<v quas scintilla con- 
 scientiae -- Quam proprie aquilae deputant, non se 
 miscentem tribus sed tria errantia corrigentem, quam 
 in S. S. interdum legimus Spiritum." -- " Nemo enim 
 scit ea quae hominis sunt, nisi spiritus qui in eo est.'* 
 Plato in Timaeo. Op. t. ix. pp. 386, 387. 
 (o S>jjxipyo<) apxyv 4>vxy$ adavarov, TO /xsra TTO, 
 auro) i&episTOgvsua'a.v o'^rjjtAa TS amctv TO 
 TS elSoj Iv 
 sv otvrw 
 
 Page 183, note'. 
 
 Jalkut Rubeni. fol. 113. 2. Rabbi Simeon profectus 
 est Tiberiadem, cui quum occurreret Elias, interrogavit 
 ipsum dicens, " de quanam materia Deus S. B. in 
 coelo studet ? " Respondit Elias : " De sacrificiis ; et 
 tui caussa res quasdam novas protulit. -- Quaestio vero 
 talis proposita erat : an in vita aeterna cibus et potus 
 locum habeant? Oppositus vero est locus Cantic. v. 1. 
 Veni ad hortum meum, soror mea^ sponsa comedi 
 
 favum 
 
ON LECTURE III. 211 
 
 favum meum. Si vero ibi neque cibo neque potui 
 locus esset, quomodo possent dicere, comedi " favum 
 
 meum ?" R. Simeon dixit : Quid vero Deus S. B. 
 
 ad hsec respondit ? Reposuit Elias : Dixit, R. Simeonem 
 f. Jochai interrogandum esse ; proinde ego veni ut te 
 interrogarem. 
 
 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE IV 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7. 
 
 / tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that 
 I go away : for if 1 go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come ; but if I depart, I will 
 send him unto you. 
 
 JLlAVING shewn that the Comforter 
 whom Christ was to send is an Intelligence 
 or Person distinct from God the Father; 
 and having incidentally also shewn the 
 Deity of that Person ; I may leave to our an- 
 tagonists the task of discovering by what ra- 
 tional hypothesis, excepting that contained 
 in the usual confession of the Church, their 
 ingenuity can reconcile Scripture to itself, 
 or make the strong assertions which are 
 found there as to the Divinity of more Per- 
 sons than one, consist with those equally 
 forcible passages which inculcate the Unity 
 of God. 
 
 For when we find, on the one side, the 
 P 3 Father, 
 
214 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, all three 
 alike invested with the loftiest titles and 
 attributes of Eternal, Almighty, Allwise, 
 it would be reasonable, no doubt, in the 
 first instance, to suppose that these three 
 Divine Persons were distinct arid inde- 
 pendant Divinities. 
 
 But when, on the other hand, Jehovah 
 our God is expressly asserted to be one 
 Jehovah ; when the Son instructs us that 
 the Father is one with himself; and when 
 the presence of the Holy Ghost with the 
 Church is identified with the presence not 
 only of the Father but of the Son ; no 
 conclusion can remain for us, but that we 
 must either reject entirely all belief in 
 Scripture, or that we must understand the 
 words of Scripture in a different manner 
 from that in which we should understand 
 the same expressions in any other treatise ; 
 or, lastly, that we must acknowledge the 
 Persons thus identified and distinguished 
 to be, in certain respects, at once united 
 and separate, in certain relations with each 
 other at once subordinate and equal. 
 
 Nor will this appear, on sufficient testi- 
 mony, 
 
LECTURE IV. 215 
 
 mony, incredible, to any who recollect how 
 often in the works of nature an apparent 
 contradiction is solved and rendered con- 
 sistent by a more perfect discovery of re- 
 lations and circumstances ; how many pe- 
 culiarities there are in those things which 
 are most obvious to our senses, which we 
 believe to exist in contradiction, utter con- 
 tradiction, to the testimony which those 
 senses offer. 
 
 That the sun is stationary, and that the 
 earth is in constant and rapid motion, a 
 motion more rapid than the swiftest bird, 
 the dolphin, or the cannon-ball ; some of 
 us believe, because it has been demon- 
 strated to us : but many more there are who 
 acknowledge it against the testimony of their 
 eyes and feelings, on no stronger ground 
 than that they have heard the fact from 
 others, of whose information and integrity 
 they entertain a better opinion than of the 
 extent of their own knowledge and the 
 accuracy of their own observation. Let 
 but so much of credence be given to the 
 Omniscient, as we usually in facts beyond 
 the limits of our own research accord to 
 
 p 4 our 
 
216 LECTURE IV. 
 
 our fallible fellow creatures, and we shall 
 hear no more of the impossibility of any 
 doctrine which is explicitly revealed in, or 
 correctly deducible from, those writings 
 which we confess to be the oracles of 
 God. 
 
 Of those, indeed, who assign as a suffi- 
 cient ground for unbelief in a Divine Re- 
 velation, that its circumstances surpass our 
 mental comprehension, it may be asked in 
 return, whether they themselves believe in 
 the existence of a Divine and Infinite Being, 
 who fills all space, who is Allwise, All- 
 powerful ; whose justice alike and mercy 
 are without end ? Such a Being they will, 
 doubtless, answer that they acknowledge : 
 yet how many circumstances apparently 
 impossible in themselves or inconsistent 
 with each other, are involved in this short 
 and usual definition ! 
 
 If the presence of God be infinite, then 
 must we acknowledge, with Spinoza, all 
 things to be God ; or more than one in- 
 dividual must, at the same moment, be in 
 the same portion of space If his power 
 and wisdom be infinite, where is the free- 
 dom 
 
LECTURE IV. 217 
 
 dom of the human will ? and if the will be 
 not free, how can the Almighty judge the 
 world ? When these questions are answered, 
 and the innumerable other mysteries are 
 explained which beset the first entrance 
 not of Revealed only, but of Natural Re- 
 ligion ; it may then be time to inquire, 
 whether it be impossible that an Omni- 
 present Being should be manifested in 
 more than one hypostasis ; or that three 
 distinct hypostases should be capable of 
 a connection so intimate as to be only one 
 Divinity. 
 
 But, to apply to spiritual existences, of 
 which we know nothing, illustrations or 
 objections taken from those bodily sub- 
 stances with which only we are acquainted, 
 is to apply our knowledge to an end which 
 it was never intended to answer; it is to mea- 
 sure space with the thermometer, or heat 
 with the compass and square. To what 
 extent, indeed, those glorious but finite 
 beings who behold the face of God, are 
 enabled by that blessed intercourse to un- 
 derstand the mode of their Maker's ex- 
 istence, we know not, nor does it greatly 
 
 import 
 
218 LECTURE IV. 
 
 import us to inquire. But one thing we 
 know, that we are, ourselves, as yet, in a 
 state of pupillage ; in which whatever we 
 believe as to our future destinies, or the 
 Being on whom we depend, is founded on 
 testimony only. The state of the Sceptic is 
 not dissimilar from that of a human being 
 born and educated in a dungeon, who 
 should deny the existence of light because 
 his organs had never perceived it, and be- 
 cause the properties ascribed to it appeared, 
 as to such an one they might naturally ap- 
 pear, inconsistent and contradictory. And if 
 the distinction of colours should seem im- 
 possible to one with whom every thing alike 
 was gloomy, if the fair variety of this upper 
 world should militate against all the pre- 
 judices of him who had grown old and ob- 
 stinate within the narrow compass of his 
 four stone walls, what ground of con- 
 viction could his instructor offer but the 
 pledge of his own integrity ? 
 
 " You cannot/' might be his words, 
 " I know you cannot as yet understand 
 " me ; but if these prison walls were away, 
 " you would be at once convinced of my 
 
 " truth. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 " truth. On that truth, however, on the 
 * 6 opinion which you entertain of my know- 
 " ledge and veracity, must the certainty of 
 " all these wonders at present repose; and 
 " the faith which you retain that I would 
 (f not deceive you must be your evidence 
 cc of things unseen." 
 
 Nor is the utility of a revelation dis- 
 proved, should its circumstances and detail 
 exceed our present capacity, should our 
 faith be tried by information which we as 
 yet imperfectly comprehend. Such infor- 
 mation, like the elements of a science, 
 has reference, we may conclude, to a fu- 
 ture state of progressive knowledge and 
 inquiry. By the glimpses of truth which 
 it affords, we are induced to expect far 
 brighter discoveries hereafter, and to con- 
 template with less of terror than of anxious 
 hope, that period at which all our doubts 
 shall be removed, and when those things 
 which we now see through a glass darkly, 
 we shall be permitted to look on face to 
 face/ Dissolve this tabernacle, rend but 
 this fleshly dungeon in twain, and all shall 
 at once be clear which now perplexes us; 
 
 all 
 
220 LECTURE IV. 
 
 all shall be light which now appears ob- 
 scure, and all which we doubt of now shall 
 be known even as God knoweth us. This 
 is the gate of knowledge ; from this point 
 our discoveries begin ; and, the darkness 
 of the grave once traversed, we shall enter 
 into a refulgence of day which no cloud 
 shall obscure, no evening terminate ! 
 
 Meantime, however, though it be worse, 
 perhaps, than merely idle to weary our 
 souls by a fruitless curiosity after undis- 
 coverable secrets, or to attempt to recon- 
 cile with our bodily apprehensions those 
 truths which are not the objects of sense ; 
 yet is it a delightful and a holy exercise 
 to ascertain, as far as possible, the limits 
 to which the words of Revelation extend, 
 to meditate often on the abstruser oracles 
 of God, and to collect with humble and 
 patient scrutiny those scattered truths which 
 he has incidentally communicated respect- 
 ing his own mysterious nature. 
 
 Nor is it any imputation on the truth 
 or importance of a doctrine, that we dis- 
 cover it like the Trinity in Unity, not 
 so much from the direct assertions as from 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE IV. 221 
 
 the implied meaning of Scripture ; that it is 
 a consequence deducible from Revelation, 
 rather than, Itself, in express terms re- 
 vealed. 
 
 For this is not the only instance in 
 which the oracles of God convey most im- 
 portant information through circumstances 
 seemingly indifferent, by an arrangement 
 which contents itself to disclose the grounds 
 on which our faith is to be founded, and 
 which permits us from these grounds to 
 infer the belief for ourselves. 
 
 When the Almighty announced himself 
 to Moses in Horeb as the God of Abra- 
 ham, of Isaac, and Jacob*, it is evident 
 that in these expressions no definite as- 
 surance was contained of a life beyond the 
 grave. Yet, inasmuch as this opinion might 
 be reasonably though incidentally collected 
 from the premises afforded, our Lord, we 
 know, referred to this single passage as 
 sufficient to confute the Sadducees, and 
 reproved them sharply for a culpable error 
 in not having themselves made the right 
 application a . 
 
 * Exod. iii. 6. Matthew xxii. 32. 
 
 Nor 
 
222 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Nor is there any thing in this manner of 
 instruction at variance with those methods 
 which we might previously have expected 
 the Almighty to adopt in the illumination 
 of his creatures, or different from the usual 
 tenor of that more immediate intercourse 
 which he has at times carried on with 
 mankind. 
 
 The soul of man is not only delighted 
 with knowledge, but if she be in a healthy 
 and natural condition, she is delighted also 
 with the act of learning. But that this act 
 should be either agreeable or efficacious, it 
 is necessary that we should do it for our- 
 selves. To be taught is always wearisome ; 
 and the most effectual advances are made 
 and our progress is then most pleasurable, 
 when, with no more assistance from others 
 than is absolutely necessary, we master 
 every difficulty by our own resources, and 
 associate in our recollection the beauty of 
 truth with the triumph of successful in- 
 quiry. 
 
 Accordingly, to confer on his creatures 
 rather the means of knowledge than know- 
 ledge itself; to encourage them to elicit 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE IV. 223 
 
 the truth by their natural faculties from 
 data supernaturally communicated, is that 
 conduct which we should, a priori, and 
 in a gracious conformity to the frame of 
 our nature, most reasonably expect from 
 an allwise and beneficent Instructor. 
 
 Such, indeed, we find is the course 
 which, in his arrangement of the physical 
 world, the Maker of that world has fol- 
 lowed. He does not feed us, but he fur- 
 nishes us with the means of procuring food ; 
 and how dull and inanimate would that 
 existence become, which was never diver- 
 sified by the ardour of pursuit, never sti- 
 mulated by the craving of anxiety, nor 
 rewarded with that luxury of repose which 
 is the offspring of successful labour ? What 
 wonder then, if there are certain truths 
 which he has reserved as the reward of an 
 attentive consideration of those which he 
 has expressed more clearly ; what wonder 
 if many remarkable features of his nature 
 and government are revealed to us by 
 implication only? 
 
 Accordingly, in the Types, the Prophe- 
 cies, the Parables of Scripture, the fre- 
 quency 
 
224 LECTURE IV. 
 
 quency of such a process is obvious even 
 to a careless reader of the Bible. The 
 religion of the Jew from his cradle to his 
 tomb, conveyed in all its ceremonies a per- 
 petual allusion to the future sacrifice for 
 sin in the Person of the Messiah, and the 
 prophecies of the Old and the parables of 
 the Later Covenant, are each of them an 
 exercise of that natural faculty, by which we 
 reason to things from their resemblances. 
 
 We find, nevertheless, that the meaning 
 of such expressions was not to be neglected 
 with impunity ; nor, when all who desired 
 to understand them might easily find the 
 key, could those plead ignorance as an ex- 
 cuse, whose indifference or prejudice was 
 the real cause which had kept them thus 
 excluded. 
 
 It was, therefore, at their own tremendous 
 peril that the Pharisees refused to under- 
 stand the ancient prophecies in their na- 
 tural application to our Saviour ; and the 
 Sadducees were reproved by him as guilty 
 of a grievous error, in neglecting to attend 
 to the deduction which followed from the 
 words of God in Horeb. 
 
 Not 
 
LECTURE IV. 225 
 
 Not only, then, is it possible that a doc- 
 trine may be true which is incidentally 
 only, and not in explicit terms revealed ; 
 it is, moreover, possible that such a doc- 
 trine may be of the highest and most vital 
 importance to our conduct here and our 
 eternal hopes hereafter ; it may be such an 
 one as, in itself or its consequences, may 
 affect our everlasting salvation. Nor, though 
 it be presumptuous to decide as to the 
 lowest degree of knowledge or of faith to 
 which the mercy of our Father may ex- 
 tend, can it be doubted that those doc- 
 trines in which the objects of our adora- 
 tion are concerned, are questions of the 
 highest practical moment. 
 
 It cannot be safe to neglect whatever 
 God reveals to us respecting his own mys- 
 terious essence ; nor can it be regarded as 
 grateful to refuse whatever of prayer or 
 praise is authorized and commanded in 
 Scripture to be rendered to the Son by 
 whom we are redeemed, and the Spirit 
 by whom we are sanctified. 
 
 And, so far is the indirect species of proof 
 from incurring, as our antagonists pretend 
 
 Q that 
 
226 LECTURE IV. 
 
 that it incurs, the charge of weakness or in- 
 sufficiency, that, in written documents, (and 
 documents above all which have descended 
 to us from distant ages, and have been ex- 
 posed, as all such must be more or less 
 exposed, to the injuries of time or the 
 misuse of men,) a legitimate inference from 
 unsuspected premises will often more avail 
 in the establishment of an ancient opinion, 
 than even the strongest positive testimony. 
 
 There is always a greater chance when 
 such positive assertions are produced, that 
 the text may have suffered by indiscreet or 
 fraudulent zeal ; and the more expressly 
 and closely any passage corresponds with 
 the faith or wishes of a particular sect, so 
 much the greater reason will there be to 
 apprehend, that those who anxiously desire 
 to convince others, have not been always 
 content with the proofs by which they have 
 been convinced themselves. 
 
 But, when a proposition is presented in- 
 cidentally to our notice ; when it is elicited 
 from recorded facts or from assertions so 
 circumstanced as to be a necessary part of 
 the treatise or history in which they occur ; 
 
 when 
 
LECTURE IV. 227 
 
 when it follows as a necessary corollary 
 from arguments of which the immediate 
 reference is to another subject : there is 
 no longer room to apprehend the collusion 
 of partizans or the wilful inaccuracy of 
 transcribers, and the proof has the same 
 advantage over the strongest positive as- 
 sertions, as that which is ascribed by law- 
 yers to circumstantial, over direct, but un- 
 supported evidence. 
 
 It may seem, then, that the Scriptural 
 proof of the Holy Ghost's Personality, and 
 of the existence of that Triune Godhead 
 to which he belongs, is of the kind least 
 obvious to rational suspicion, as being least 
 open to fraud or negligence ; and that the 
 faith which the Church confesses in her 
 public formularies is, in truth, no other 
 than that eternal rock on which, though 
 it be a stone of offence to worldly wisdom, 
 he that hopeth shall not be ashamed. 
 
 Having determined, then, the Person- 
 ality, and ascertained, though briefly and 
 incidentally, the Divine nature of that 
 Comforter whose advent our Saviour fore- 
 told ; it remains that we examine, secondly, 
 
 Q 2 who 
 
228 LECTURE IV. 
 
 who were the objects of that promised ap- 
 pearance ; and, thirdly, what were those 
 effects which were to be anticipated from 
 so awful a visitation. In other words, we 
 have yet to ascertain, whether the Holy 
 Ghost were promised as a peculiar Com- 
 forter to the Apostles only, or to the uni- 
 versal Church of Christ ; and in what re- 
 spects and by what perceptible benefits, he 
 was to evince, if I may use the expression, 
 his title to the name of Paraclete. 
 
 And, of these inquiries, the first, ap- 
 parently, need not detain us long ; since 
 the same Divine Teacher by whom the 
 promise of a Paraclete was given, has pro- 
 mised also that he should remain for ever 
 with those who were to be the objects of 
 his care. But that this expression, " for 
 " ever," is not personally applicable to the 
 immediate hearers of Christ, and that the 
 promise cannot therefore be confined to 
 them, is apparent from the very fact of 
 their mortality. For the words of our 
 Saviour do not, it may be observed, imply 
 that the continuance of the Comforter with 
 them was to be to the end of their lives. 
 
 If 
 
LECTURE IV. 229 
 
 If this had been the case, we might rea- 
 sonably have doubted whether succeeding 
 generations were included in the promised 
 benefit. But it was not " till death" nor 
 66 always" nor " continually" that the 
 Paraclete was to abide with those to whom 
 he was promised. It was "for ever" 
 " eternally " or * f to the end of the world" 
 el? TCV aiava, and it answered in purport tp 
 the remarkable expression whereby, after 
 his resurrection from the dead, and imme- 
 diately before his return to heaven, our 
 Lord assured them of the perpetual con- 
 tinuance of his own protecting care. But 
 an eternal guardianship and comfort can 
 only be exercised on an eternal subject. It 
 is therefore as a collective body, and as an 
 endless succession of individuals, that the 
 Church of Christ received the promise here 
 recorded ; and it will follow that it was 
 communicated to the Apostles, not as its 
 exclusive inheritors, but as the representa- 
 tives of all who in after ages, by their means, 
 should believe on the Son of God. 
 
 Nor can it be reasonably urged in an- 
 swer to this position, that the Apostles, 
 
 Q 3 though 
 
230 LECTURE IV. 
 
 though exposed to death, and destined, 
 each of them, in a few years to die, were, 
 each of them, nevertheless, in a certain 
 sense, immortal, and that it is improbable, 
 that when admitted, as they doubtless are, 
 to a yet closer intercourse with the Spirit 
 of Truth, it is improbable that such spi- 
 ritual advantages as they had in this life 
 enjoyed, should in the succeeding life be 
 taken from them. For it is not, we should 
 observe, a spiritual communion simply 
 speaking, it is not the presence and favour 
 of the Holy Ghost abstractedly considered, 
 which is the subject of our Saviour's pro- 
 phecy ; it is in his capacity of Paraclete 
 that the Spirit was then about to descend ; 
 he was promised as an intercessor for their 
 infirmities at the throne of grace, as a 
 Comforter under that distress which the 
 departure of their Lord occasioned, as an 
 Advocate and Orator in the cause of Chris- 
 tianity against the violence and prejudice 
 of men. 
 
 But in paradise they need no Interces- 
 sor, for by their entrance there the object 
 of intercession is obtained. In paradise 
 
 they 
 
LECTURE IV. 231 
 
 they require no Comforter, for Christ is 
 there, and has wiped away every tear from 
 every eye : in paradise what room can be 
 found for an Advocate or a Defender, for 
 the accuser of the brethren is shut out 
 from thence, and the storms of the world 
 roll far from that asylum. 
 
 It is plain, then, that the office of Para- 
 clete had respect to this world only, and 
 that if the continuance of that office be 
 commensurate with the world's duration, it 
 is one to which every race of believers have 
 a right to look up in all humble confidence 
 for the fulfilment of our Saviour's promise. 
 
 As the promise, then, of the Comforter 
 is to ourselves and our sons and our sons' 
 sons for evermore, it is natural and it is 
 necessary to inquire, with all becoming 
 eagerness, the purport of an assurance in 
 which we are so nearly and greatly con- 
 cerned, and to ascertain the nature of that 
 goodly heritage to which the word of God 
 is our title. 
 
 Before, however, we proceed to ascer- 
 tain, in the third place, by what display of 
 power, what gracious and benignant agency 
 
 Q 4 the 
 
232 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the Divine and Eternal Spirit was to evince 
 himself the Comforter of Christians, it is 
 an inquiry neither in itself unimportant, 
 nor irrelevant to the general subject, to 
 ascertain the part which that good Spirit 
 had sustained in the scheme of God's pro- 
 vidence as previously displayed in the Pa- 
 triarchal and Mosaic dispensations. 
 
 For, in all the works of God, and more 
 particularly in that process of salvation, of 
 which, from the beginning of the world, 
 the Old and New Testaments are the con- 
 tinued and connected history; so much 
 prevails of general harmony, that no single 
 feature or period can be otherwise than 
 most imperfectly comprehended, unless 
 such period be considered as a part of, 
 and in reference to the whole. And we 
 may expect, therefore, to find, on inquiry, 
 the distinct operation of the third Person 
 in the Trinity, in his character of the Chris- 
 tian Paraclete, in some respects at least 
 analogous to those by which he enlight- 
 ened or influenced or defended the pri- 
 mitive worshippers of the one true God, or 
 the subsequent theocracy of Israel. 
 
 Of 
 
LECTURE IV. 233 
 
 Of that definite and distinct interference, 
 however, in the earliest ages of the world, 
 it would, perhaps, be vain, and it certainly 
 would be unreasonable to expect any re- 
 corded acknowledgment. Too little is 
 known of the first two thousand years of 
 the world's duration, to enable us to ascer- 
 tain any more as to the opinions of its 
 long-lived inhabitants, than the fact that 
 they, like us, adored a God, and, like us, 
 relied on a Mediator. And, with all due 
 deference to the learning and piety of those 
 who have attempted to demonstrate the 
 mystery of the Trinity from the plural 
 number of the word " Elohim ;" and from 
 the apparition of those glorious Beings 
 who visited Abraham beneath the oak of 
 Mamre, it is wiser and better to place no 
 reliance in argument, on circumstances, at 
 best, of a doubtful character ; and which, 
 whether true or false, have been found by 
 experience less likely to conciliate those 
 who are in error, than to give occasion to 
 indecent raillery, and to the grossest im- 
 putations against that truth which we by 
 such means endeavour to defend b . 
 
 There 
 
234 LECTURE IV. 
 
 There is another passage, however, which 
 has been, with far more plausibility, ap- 
 plied by the great majority of commenta- 
 tors to the third Hypostasis of the God- 
 head, but which the modern Jews, and 
 those Christians who are concerned in the 
 support of Socinianism, have been anxious 
 to understand of a material and natural 
 agent. That passage, I mean, in the first 
 chapter of Genesis, wherein the Spirit of 
 God is described as in the act of creation, 
 and as brooding on the surface of the 
 chaotic waters. 
 
 That a rational, not a material Agent is 
 there intended can admit, perhaps, of little 
 doubt. 
 
 No other instance can be found in Scrip- 
 ture (though I am ready to admit that the 
 word " Elohim" is often adjectively used 
 as an epithet of greatness and power) in 
 which the phrase " Ruach Elohim" can be, 
 from the context, applicable to a natural 
 wind however rough or violent. The words 
 which are united here, wherever they occur 
 besides in union, are, by that connection, 
 sanctified to miracle and divinity, and to 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE IV. 235 
 
 the still and tranquil whispers of that Holy 
 Being, from whom, whether by the agency 
 of the Spirit or the Son, all grace and 
 goodness emanate. Nor does the quivering 
 motion implied in the Hebrew word which 
 we render simply " moved," though it ad- 
 mirably accords with the hovering of a bird 
 over her young, or with the shudder of 
 sudden apprehension, (the only two senses 
 in which it elsewhere occurs in Scripture ,) 
 agree by any means with an agent so fu- 
 rious and rapid as a storm ; should we 
 even grant that a physical storm were pos- 
 sible before the atmosphere had, as yet, 
 been formed. 
 
 It may, therefore, be assumed as the 
 most probable hypothesis, that the " Ru- 
 " ach Elohim" of Moses was not a na- 
 tural wind, but a Spirit Intelligent and 
 Divine. But that by the Intelligence here 
 described, as well as by the creating Spirit 
 of Job *, the third Person in the Deity is 
 intended, is an opinion which may well be 
 questioned. 
 
 * Job xxvi. 13. 
 
 For, 
 
236 LECTURE IV. 
 
 For, it is a fact to which sufficient atten- 
 tion has not yet been paid, (and it is one 
 which may lead, perhaps, to the explica- 
 tion of some of the obscurest passages in 
 Scripture,) that, by the ancient Jews, by 
 the Christians of the two first ages, and 
 by the sacred Writers themselves, the name 
 of Spirit is very often applied, not only 
 to the third, but to the second Person in 
 the Holy Trinity. 
 
 This circumstance was noticed, in the 
 first instance, by the learned Fell, in his 
 Notes on Theophilus; and it has since 
 been confirmed from the apostolic Fathers 
 by Albert Zum Felde, and from the early 
 Rabbins by Schdttgen ; to which we may 
 add, that the same term is applied to Jesus 
 Christ in a remarkable passage of the Ko- 
 ran d . Lactantius, we have already seen, 
 was, on the same account, assailed for he- 
 resy by the too ardent zeal of Jerome; 
 but how unjustly he was thus accused is 
 apparent, not from these examples only, 
 but from several passages of the New 
 Testament in which a similar language is 
 held. 
 
 St. Paul, 
 
LECTURE IV. 237 
 
 St. Paul, when quoting, in his first Epi- 
 stle to Timothy, a prophecy uttered by 
 Christ while on earth, introduces it as 
 spoken by "the Spirit." The "second 
 " Adam," according to the same Apostle, 
 was to be a " quickening Spirit ;" and the 
 same appellation is repeatedly given by 
 St. John in the Apocalypse, to the Person 
 of his glorified Master*. 
 
 When the name, therefore, of u Spirit" 
 occurs in Scripture, a doubt may always 
 arise, (unless some note of distinction ac- 
 company it,) whether the second or the 
 third Hypostasis of the Godhead is in- 
 tended. And, while this community of 
 name may account for that vagueness of 
 opinion respecting the essence and cha- 
 racter of the latter which is discoverable 
 in the Rabbinical writings, we cannot but 
 observe, in the examination of the present 
 passage, that the act of creation is one 
 which, on the authority of the Apostles, 
 we ascribe to that eternal Logos, without 
 whom " there was not any thing made 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. 1. 1 Cor. xv. 4& Rev. ii. 7. xiv. 13. 
 xxii. 17. 
 
 " which 
 
238 LECTURE IV. 
 
 " which was made*." Nor should we for- 
 get that David identifies, in the sixth verse 
 of the thirty-third Psalm, the creating Spi- 
 rit of God with his Word; nor that the 
 Rabbins, in some of their oldest commen- 
 taries, explain the text which we are now 
 discussing to signify " the Spirit of the 
 " Messiah f." 
 
 But, while the application of the name 
 of Spirit to the Person of our Lord is 
 in itself a strong presumption, against the 
 followers of Socinus, that he who is thus 
 distinguished from all mankind must ne- 
 cessarily have been something more than 
 man ; and while this community of name 
 should teach us greater caution in the in- 
 terpretation of many remarkable passages 
 in the Old and New Testaments 6 ; the ana- 
 logy of Scripture will, nevertheless, forbid 
 us to doubt that the functions of the Holy 
 Ghost, peculiarly so called, were as im- 
 portant and as prominent under the an- 
 cient as the Christian Covenant. 
 
 * John i. 3. 
 
 f Breschit Rabba. . ii. fol. 44. ad loc. " Intelligitur 
 Spiritus Messiie." 
 
 Nor 
 
LECTURE IV. 239 
 
 Nor is it any objection to this hypo- 
 thesis, if we should suppose, as many 
 striking passages of Scripture lead us to 
 suppose, and as the Fathers of the second 
 century with one accordant voice main- 
 tain, that, during the Patriarchal and Mo- 
 saic ages, some few, at least, among the 
 recorded revelations of the almighty Pre- 
 sence and Power were revelations of that 
 Everlasting Son, who was destined him- 
 self, in fulness of time, to assume mor- 
 tality *. 
 
 For, such occasional displays of glory 
 on the part of the Second Person in the 
 Deity, will by no means preclude the 
 Third in that mysterious union from a 
 frequent, perhaps a more frequent inter- 
 course with mankind, whether by visible 
 manifestations of his Person and Majesty, 
 or by the silent influence of Inspira- 
 tion, and those more usual but not less 
 blessed bounties which, under the name 
 of Grace, are peculiarly ascribed to his 
 influence. Under the Gospel Covenant, 
 when Christ had now ascended to heaven, 
 
 * Bull. Defens. Fid. Nic. . i. cap. 1. 
 
 and 
 
240 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and after he had himself declared his in- 
 tention of resigning to another Divine 
 Person the ordinary guardianship of his 
 orphan Church, we find, nevertheless, the 
 Son of God appearing not infrequently in 
 person for the instruction and consolation 
 of his Apostles. Nor will it follow from 
 the appearance of the Divine Word on 
 particular occasions to Adam, to Abra- 
 ham, and to Moses, that the Holy Spirit 
 was not their other and their more fre- 
 quent Monitor, any more than it would 
 follow that the interference of the Para- 
 clete is disproved in the diffusion of the 
 Gospel, because it was Christ himself who 
 appeared in vision to St. Stephen, St. 
 Paul, or St. John. 
 
 Nor will it be, perhaps, a very difficult 
 task to shew, on the diligent comparison 
 of Scripture with itself, that the distinction 
 of Persons in the Deity is little less evi- 
 dently implied in the Old Testament than 
 in the New, and that to the Third Hypo- 
 stasis in the Trinity, as distinguished both 
 from the Father and the Son, we are to 
 ascribe, on the authority of the Sacred 
 
 Writers, 
 
LECTURE IV. 241 
 
 Writers, not only the inspiration of the 
 Scriptures of the elder Covenant, but the 
 tutelary guidance of the Church of Israel, 
 arid the disposal, as a general and super- 
 intending Providence, of the political fate 
 of empires, in so much at least as those 
 empires were connected with the chosen 
 people of the Lord. 
 
 When Joel predicts the more abundant 
 fulness of glory and power which was to 
 adorn the Dispensation of Grace, he as- 
 cribes, as it should seem, this ampler in- 
 spiration to the same influence, (the influ- 
 ence, that is, of the same identical Per- 
 son,) as that whence his own prophetic 
 powers proceeded. And our Saviour an- 
 nounces the Spirit who was to comfort 
 the Apostles, as a Person whose name, at 
 least, was already known and familiar to 
 the; devout expectation of his hearers. 
 
 The Church is therefore fully justified, 
 when, in that common Confession of Faith 
 in which both East and West agree, she 
 ascribes to one and the same Divine Spirit, 
 under either Covenant, the dispensation 
 of prophetic knowledge. 
 
 R Nor 
 
242 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Nor is this all. For, unless we assign a 
 certain and a very important part to the 
 Holy Ghost in the original institution and 
 conduct of the Jewish Theocracy, it will 
 be impossible to reconcile Scripture to it- 
 self, or to understand the apparently dif- 
 ferent language of Moses and St. Stephen, 
 when speaking of the same occurrence. 
 The Law, says the Author of the Penta- 
 teuch, was received by Moses from God 
 himself, face to face, as a man speaketh 
 with his friend. The Law, says the Proto- 
 martyr, (and he is supported in his asser- 
 tion by the similar assurance of St. Paul,) 
 was given by the dispensation of angels *. 
 
 It is evident, then, that the Beings, to 
 whose conduct was entrusted the guidance 
 of Israel, were such as were at once Divine 
 and Messengers of Divinity. But where- 
 fore do we hear of more than one? Where- 
 fore, unless that both the one and the 
 other of those mysterious Persons, to whom 
 only the apparently discordant terms of 
 God and Angel are equally applicable, 
 
 * Exod.xxxiii.il. Acts vii. 53. Gal.iii. 19. 
 
 were 
 
LECTURE IV. 243 
 
 were engaged in the former, as they were, 
 doubtless, both engaged in the latter Co- 
 venant of Jehovah with mankind. 
 
 And that more than one Divine Per- 
 son was actually manifested in those awful 
 transactions, an attentive examination of 
 the book of Moses will of itself be suffi- 
 cient to make us sensible. The mysterious 
 Being who promulgated the Law from the 
 flaming height of Sinai, who is called alike 
 in Scripture Jehovah himself and Jehovah's 
 Messenger, the Creator of the world and 
 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; 
 this awful Person is, by all these circum- 
 stances, still more than by the accordant 
 opinion of the Christian Fathers and the 
 elder Jews, identified with the Logos or 
 eternal Word of God. But, of the further 
 progress of the tribes into Canaan, the 
 Legislator of Horeb was not himself the 
 Guide. " Behold," are his words, " I 
 send an Angel before thee, to keep thee 
 in the way, and to bring thee into the 
 place which I have prepared. Beware 
 of him and obey his voice, provoke him 
 R 2 " not, 
 
244 LECTURE IV. 
 
 " not, for he will not pardon your trans- 
 " gressions, for my name is in him*." 
 
 It will not, however, be denied that he, 
 whose peculiar presence thenceforward hal- 
 lowed the tabernacle; who spake with 
 Moses from between the cherubim of the 
 mercy-seat ; who announced himself to 
 Josuah as the Captain of Jehovah's army ; 
 and whom the Prophets invoked as the 
 tutelary Deity of the former temple ; this 
 Person in himself, it cannot be denied, 
 must needs have been both God and Lord. 
 Nor is it easy, on a due comparison of these 
 several premises with each other, to do other- 
 wise than acknowledge, in that almighty 
 Person who was sent by God the Word as 
 his vicar and delegate ; who was to reveal 
 to the chosen tribes the more perfect will 
 of Heaven ; and against whose authority all 
 rebellion was, apparently, irremissible ; a 
 conformity of office and character with 
 him by whose inspiration the Prophets and 
 Evangelists alike composed their volumes ; 
 
 * Exod. xxiii. 20, 21. 
 
 who 
 
LECTURE IV. 245 
 
 who is the Comforter and Patron of the 
 Christian Church, as he was of old the 
 Ruler and Defender of the Church of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 And this conclusion will receive addi- 
 tional force from the similarity of those 
 actions and ordinary influences which be- 
 lievers in Christ ascribe to the Holy Ghost, 
 with those which the Jews impute to the 
 Schekinah or tutelary and inhabiting Spirit 
 of their tabernacle and former temple f . 
 The name of Schekinah has been indeed 
 confined by some modern theologians to 
 the open appearances of God's glory, and 
 more especially to a certain luminous form, 
 which (contrary to all probability of reason 
 and all authority of Scripture) they sup- 
 pose to have occupied with its actual pre- 
 sence the golden mercy-seat of the ark, or 
 to have hovered, as a visible object of 
 adoration, between the wings of the em- 
 blematical cherubim. 
 
 The falsehood of this popular doctrine 
 the present is not the time to shew 5 ; but 
 it is sufficient for my purpose to observe, 
 that, though the Jews undoubtedly ascribe 
 
 R 3 to 
 
246 LECTURE IV. 
 
 to the agency of the Schekinah whatever 
 display of God's glory has been made to 
 man, whether in the sanctuary or else- 
 where ; yet is it certain that their doctors 
 speak of it, not as a phantom only, or bo- 
 dily vehicle, whereby the Eternal Father 
 thought fit to announce his presence to 
 mankind ; but as a rational and (for the 
 most part) an invisible Person, who bore 
 witness before the Father in behalf of those 
 who were unfeigned converts to the truth ; 
 who dwelt in the hearts of such as rejoiced 
 in the ways of piety, and received their 
 departing souls; who protected the faith- 
 ful during travel ; who presided over their 
 congregations in prayer, and over the pri- 
 vate studies of the Scriptural student; 
 whom, lastly, in the ceremony of ordina- 
 tion, they identified with the Holy Ghost 
 as descending with unseen influence on the 
 appointed ministers of Religion h . 
 
 It may be thought, then, that it was 
 indeed the Son of God who spake with 
 Moses from Sinai, but that it was the Spi- 
 rit of God, peculiarly so called, by whom 
 the work was completed of Israel's deliver- 
 ance. 
 
LECTURE IV. 247 
 
 ance. Nor can any better solution be de- 
 sired of that apparent difficulty which arises 
 from the comparison of the accounts af- 
 forded by Isaiah and St. Paul of the same 
 identical transaction, the disobedience of 
 Israel in the Desert. 
 
 When the first of these Evangelists (for 
 to both that name is applicable) describes 
 his ancestors as having grieved the Holy 
 Spirit, he means, we may suppose, that 
 Person in the Godhead who was their 
 guide into their promised territory. But 
 when the latter instances their sin in tempt- 
 ing Christ, it is plain from the context that 
 by Christ he intends that Jehovah who 
 brought them out of the land of Egypt, 
 and of whom the manna, which they 
 sinned in refusing, was a type and bodily 
 image '. 
 
 And so perfect is the parallel between 
 the corresponding features of that vast de- 
 sign whereby the salvation of mankind is 
 secured, that as, in either case, it was the 
 second Person of the Trinity by whom the 
 Church was brought out of bondage, so 
 was it in both the third in that mysterious 
 
 R 4 union 
 
248 LECTURE IV. 
 
 union who was to conduct them to their 
 appointed Canaan. 
 
 The most important, however, and cer- 
 tainly the clearest discovery of the exist- 
 ence and functions of God's Holy Spirit 
 under the Mosaic dispensation, is commu- 
 nicated by that Prophet who, of all the 
 servants of the Almighty, had the most 
 perspicuous notices of his nature and the 
 general scheme of his government. And 
 as the chapters of Daniel in which this ac- 
 count is found have been the subjects of 
 very general misapprehension, and as they 
 have been even perverted into a source of 
 error the most childish and idolatrous, I 
 may be excused if I enter somewhat at 
 length into the circumstances which they 
 detail. 
 
 On the banks of the Tigris, we read in 
 the tenth chapter of his prophecy, was 
 Daniel visited, after a long preparation of 
 fasting and prayer, by a Person clothed 
 with every attribute of celestial majesty 
 and terror, in a white and glittering garb, 
 and cinctured with a golden girdle; " his 
 
 body like the beryl, his face as the ap- 
 pearance 
 
 k/Wty invv^ i^uvy Mtl VI, H1O icl^^ 
 
 H 
 
LECTURE IV. 249 
 
 " pearance of lightning, his eyes as lamps 
 " of fire, his arms and his feet in colour 
 " like polished brass, and the voice of his 
 " words as the voice of a multitude." 
 
 This awful Being, whose words, no less 
 than his appearance, betoken the highest 
 pitch of majesty and power; who describes 
 himself as the sustaining Providence of the 
 Persian empire, and to whom the angels 
 of God apply as to an oracle for a know- 
 ledge of futurity * ; has been variously re- 
 garded by the greater number of com- 
 mentators, either as the Divine Logos or 
 second Person in the Trinity, or as a cre- 
 ated though very powerful angel. 
 
 The former of these opinions has, I ap- 
 prehend, been founded on the supposed 
 similarity of attire and dignity between the 
 Person here described and our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as he appeared in glory, after his 
 decease, to the beloved Writer of the Apo- 
 calypse f . 
 
 But on a correspondence like this no 
 such conclusion can be justly founded, in- 
 
 * Dan. x. 13. xii. 5, 6, 7- t Rev. i. 13, 14, 15. 
 
 asmuch 
 
250 LECTURE IV. 
 
 asmuch as the features are those general 
 ones only of royal and celestial authority, 
 adopted, as it may seem, from the usual 
 attire of eastern and Jewish monarchs, and 
 which belong not only to the Son of Man, 
 but to the minister of God's will, whoever 
 he was, who descended to unlock the se- 
 pulchre wherein that blessed Son lay bu- 
 ried ; and which, as may be seen in the se- 
 venth chapter of this same prophecy, are 
 ascribed not to these alone, but to the An- 
 cient of Days or Eternal Father himself. 
 
 And that, notwithstanding such general 
 similarity, he who stood on the waters of 
 Hiddekel was not the second Person of 
 the Trinity, is apparent from his speaking 
 of Michael, the Prince of Judah, as an- 
 other and distinct Intelligence k . 
 
 For that Michael is one of the names 
 ascribed to our Saviour in his preexistent 
 state, may be proved, not only by the 
 clearest evidence of Rabbinical tradition, 
 but also by the more forcible and unex- 
 ceptionable proof which is obtained by 
 comparing Scripture with itself. 
 
 Michael is represented in the books of 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE IV. 251 
 
 the ancient Jews, as the Chief Priest and 
 Expiator of heaven; as offering, on that 
 celestial altar which John in the sixth 
 and eighth chapters of his prophecy de- 
 scribes *, the souls and the prayers of all 
 faithful Israelites ; as defending his people, 
 before the tribunal of almighty Justice, 
 from the malicious accusations of Satan. 
 He is described as the pillar of cloud and 
 fire which guided the Tribes through the 
 wilderness, and guarded them in the sea 
 from the pursuit of the Egyptians. He 
 was, they tell us, the Spirit on whose pe- 
 culiar intercession David relied ; who alone 
 was able to obtain the admission of the 
 bloodstained but penitent monarch into 
 the assembly of the blest in paradise ; and 
 who knows the wants and who pleads for all 
 the necessities of the faithful in this nether 
 world. But the Jews do more than all 
 which I have hitherto mentioned. They ex- 
 pressly distinguish him from every created 
 angel or spirit, and assure us, that, wherever 
 Michael is said to have appeared, it must 
 be understood of the Divine Majesty l . 
 
 * Rev. vi. 9. viii. 3. 
 
 And 
 
252 LECTURE IV. 
 
 And that these opinions, however wildly 
 expressed, are not, in their essential fea- 
 tures, at variance with the Scriptures of 
 either Covenant, a comparison of the first 
 verse of Daniel's twelfth chapter with the 
 seventh verse of the twelfth chapter of the 
 Apocalypse, is in itself sufficient to prove. 
 In the former, Michael is described as 
 " the great Prince" who, after seventy 
 weeks, was to stand up for Israel ; in the 
 latter, the expulsion, by his means, of the 
 powers of evil from heaven is predicted in 
 terms and under circumstances which can 
 only suit the Messiah. 
 
 He is called by St. Jude the Chief or 
 Prince of Angels, and the voice of that 
 mighty Prince is identified by St. Paul with 
 HIS voice, whom, if we believe St. John, 
 all those who are in the grave shall one 
 day hear*. 
 
 He, then, who is distinguished from the 
 archangel Michael cannot possibly be iden- 
 tified with the second Person of the Triune 
 Godhead. At the same time, the language 
 
 * Jude 9. 1 Thess. iv. 16. John v. 25. 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE IV. 253 
 
 of the Person described by Daniel is no 
 less inconsistent with the character of a 
 finite or created Intelligence. 
 
 " In the first year," he tells us, " of 
 " Darius the Mede, I, even I stood to 
 " strengthen him." Is this the language 
 of a merely ministering spirit; or have 
 angels authority over the destiny of man- 
 kind, to overturn or establish empires at 
 their pleasure ? " There is none/' he sub- 
 joins, " that holdeth with me in these 
 " things save Michael your Prince." But 
 can a finite being compare with Michael 
 in any thing ; or will the very chiefest of 
 heaven's officers assume a tone so nearly 
 approaching to equality with him whom 
 all the angels worship ; who sits enthroned 
 above all dominations and principalities 
 and powers, whether they be in this world 
 or in the world to come*? 
 
 Those, indeed, who have considered Da- 
 niel's instructor as no more than a created 
 spirit, have been obliged, for the most part, 
 in consistency with themselves, to degrade 
 
 * Dan. xi. 1. x. 20. Heb. i. 6. Eph. i. 21. 
 
 the 
 
254 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the Archangel Michael also to a level little 
 superior ; and to adopt, with various mo- 
 difications, that wild and portentous sys- 
 tem, which would commit the government 
 of earth and heaven, like the empire of 
 Darius Hystaspes, to a number of celestial 
 but created deputies. 
 
 It is thus that learned and holy men 
 have unintentionally sanctioned the grossest 
 and wildest superstitions, and have built 
 up in their imaginations a hierarchy of 
 tutelar spirits; who watch, as they would 
 teach us, with an active, but often with an 
 erring zeal, over the insulated and jarring 
 interests of individuals and dynasties and 
 nations. 
 
 All this arose from their opinion who 
 regarded the celestial visitant of Daniel as 
 a created and angelic agent. For, if he 
 who spake to the Prophet were an angel, 
 is was concluded that the Prince of Persia, 
 whom he had at first supported and with 
 whom he was now to contend, must needs 
 have been an angel also; and that Mi* 
 chael, who aided him in his quarrel, was 
 another, and a yet more potent celestial 
 
 satrap, 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 satrap, (the Vizier, perhaps, of paradise,) 
 who either interfered with his good offices, 
 or arrived on the field of battle with such an 
 overpowering army of cherubim as might 
 reduce the contumacious provincials to or- 
 der and obedience. 
 
 If we desire to know the grounds of de- 
 bate, which thus, according to the ancient 
 Fathers, had kindled war in heaven, we 
 may find them laid down with historical 
 precision by Ephrem Syrus, in his com- 
 mentary on the present chapter" 1 . " After 
 " the confusion of languages/' are his 
 words, " and the division of tribes which 
 " took place at Babel, each nation received 
 " its Angel-Governor, and Michael was the 
 " Guardian of the Hebrews. This people 
 " being captive in Assyria, Daniel prayed 
 " for their return after the appointed se- 
 " venty years of bondage were accom- 
 " plished. The Angel of Persia, however, 
 " opposed the measure, and maintained, 
 " on this occasion, a vigorous war against 
 " Michael and Gabriel. He desired to 
 " detain the Jews at Babylon, because he 
 u was glad to have under his jurisdiction a 
 
 " people 
 
256 LECTURE IV. 
 
 44 people who worshipped the true God, 
 " and because he hoped that, in process 
 " of time, the Jews would convert to their 
 " faith the nations both of Assyria and 
 " Persia." 
 
 How naturally such opinions would lead 
 to the worshipping of angels, has been 
 shewn by one of the ablest and most learn- 
 ed advocates whom Providence has raised 
 up for the defence of the Catholic faith ; 
 and who, both before and since his death, 
 has been, of all others, most honourably 
 distinguished by the rancorous abuse which 
 the enemies of that faith have heaped upon 
 his fame and memory". 
 
 But of such a system the bare enunciation 
 is sufficient to prove the falsehood. What 
 could be, in such a hierarchy, the limits 
 of each angel's sovereignty ; or how were 
 those limits to be adjusted in the perpetual 
 changes of polity and language which have 
 passed over the face of the world? Are 
 we to suppose, with Ephrem and Theo- 
 doret and Origen, that an angelic guardian 
 was allotted to each particular language? 
 How were these guardians to act when the 
 
 parent 
 
LECTURE IV. 257 
 
 parent tongue branched into a multitude 
 of distinct and corrupted dialects ? Is the 
 tutelar genius of the Goths at once the 
 sovereign of the German, the Swedish, the 
 American and the English nations? If a 
 language becomes extinct, does the angel 
 abdicate his throne ? When one tribe sub- 
 dues another, is the guardian of the con- 
 quered race himself in captivity with his 
 clients? or are the wars which desolate 
 our lower world the echoes only and more 
 faint reflections of those quarrels which 
 shake the empyrean ? Is it possible that the 
 pure inhabitants of that peaceable world, 
 " wherein the wicked cease from troubling," 
 should have strife and faction among them- 
 selves ; that, like feudal chieftains, or the 
 old Homeric deities, the ministers of hea- 
 ven should oppose each other's plans, and 
 the mandates of their common Master ; or 
 can he to whom all things bow down be 
 swayed by the secret influence or senseless 
 mutiny of those glorious but fragile beings, 
 whom, as he has created them from no- 
 thing, the withholding of his breath can 
 annihilate? 
 
 s These 
 
258 LECTURE IV. 
 
 These are, however, conclusions, to 
 which, on Socinian principles, the book of 
 Daniel must inevitably conduct us. For, 
 if we refuse to acknowledge a distinction of 
 Persons in the Deity, we must needs regard 
 as created Spirits both the Person who spake 
 with Daniel and that Michael who assisted 
 him to subdue or conciliate the Prince of 
 Persia. And as the language of Daniel's 
 Monitor is not the language of one who was 
 the mere instrument of another's will, but of 
 one whose proceedings were guided by his 
 own discretion ; that conclusion must fol- 
 low, against which the modern Socinians 
 with so great indignation contend, that 
 created spirits are associated with the Al- 
 mighty in the moral and physical govern- 
 inent of the world. If, however, we sup- 
 pose that glorious Being who conversed 
 with Daniel, and who was the fellow-la- 
 bourer of the Word of God, to be himself 
 no other than the Holy Ghost, the whole 
 perplexed machinery of tutelar spirits fades 
 away like the shadow of a dream. The 
 princes of Pars and of Javan become, ac- 
 cording to the obvious purport of the ex- 
 pression, 
 
LECTURE IV. 259 
 
 pression, the mortal governors of Persia 
 and Macedon ; the resistance which, dur- 
 ing one and twenty days, the first opposed 
 to the will of Heaven, is the reluctance 
 exhibited by the government of that coun- 
 try to dismiss the Jews to their home ; 
 the victory which Daniel's Informant, as- 
 sisted by Michael, obtained over those evil 
 passions, is meant of that gracious influ- 
 ence, which, joined to the Redeemer's 
 intercession at his Father's throne, over- 
 powered the selfish policy and softened the 
 idolatrous hatred of those lords of Israel's 
 captivity. 
 
 And of the protection, even in temporal 
 matters, and unconnected, apparently, with 
 the return of the Jews to their mountains, 
 which the providence of God, during a 
 certain space, afforded to the Persian em- 
 pire, the same conversation affords a re- 
 markable instance. " In the first year of 
 " Darius the Mede, I, even I/' saith the 
 Spirit, " stood to strengthen him." " I 
 " now return," are his words in another 
 place, " to fight with the Prince of Persia, 
 s 2 " and 
 
260 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and when I am gone forth, the Prince 
 " of Grecia will come*/' 
 
 In this sentence, if we understand the 
 Hebrew particle oy to signify against or in 
 opposition to, his meaning will be, "I re- 
 " turn to renew my gracious influence on 
 66 the heart of the Persian Governor, cor- 
 " recting his evil habits and prejudices, 
 "' and restraining by my presence the na- 
 " tural excesses of an idolatrous and arbi- 
 " trary monarch." Bat if DV be rendered 
 with, as on the side of, and favouring his 
 quarrel, it will import that the Spirit of 
 God was about to assist for a certain time 
 the empire of Persia, in its triumphant 
 progress over Asia, Thrace, and Egypt; 
 and that, while his presence abode with the 
 counsels and armies of the King, those 
 counsels and armies should be alike irre- 
 sistible and prosperous. 
 
 But, whichever of these interpretations 
 is preferred, what follows can admit of no 
 interpretation but one. " When I am 
 
 * Dan, x, 20. 
 
LECTURE IV. 261 
 
 u gone forth, the Prince of Grecia shall 
 " come." As if he had said, " I now re- 
 " turn to that residence which the inter- 
 " cession of Michael hath for the present 
 "allotted me; I return, to shed light, 
 " prosperity and empire on the throne of 
 " the successors of Cyrus. Bvit, when the 
 " intentions of the Most High are an- 
 66 swered, for which that government hath 
 " been raised from obscurity ; when their 
 " hardness of heart hath a little longer re- 
 u sisted, and their tyrannies have a little 
 " longer grieved me; when I depart, (and 
 " depart I will,) the valour of their bowmen 
 " shall wither away, and the craft of their 
 " elders shall be ashamed. Let them look, 
 in that day, for far sorer reproofs than 
 mine ; let them expect far other visitants 
 than my peaceful and gracious disci- 
 " pline ! When I depart, the sentence of 
 " God is gone forth against their land, 
 " and the sword of Macedon is already 
 " brandished at the door/' 
 
 The sum of all will be contained in that 
 great doctrine which is, perhaps, the most 
 prominent of all the lessons conveyed in 
 
 s 3 Daniel's 
 
 
 
 cc 
 
262 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Daniel's Prophecies, " that the Most High 
 " ruleth in the kingdom of men;" and 
 that the chain of political events, and the 
 course of good or e\ 7 il fortune, are to be 
 numbered among the invisible operations 
 of that tremendous Spirit, from whom all 
 knowledge and power and understanding 
 do proceed ; who directed the artist powers 
 of Bezaleel and the political wisdom of 
 Solomon ; and in whose hand not only 
 Jephtha and Othniel, but Nebuchadnezzar 
 and Pul and Cyrus were alike the chosen 
 instruments of his providence. 
 
 Nor is it any sufficient objection to the 
 present hypothesis, that the appearance of 
 the Holy Ghost in the human form is at 
 variance with the acknowledged fact of his 
 manifestation of himself, during the Mes- 
 siah's residence on earth, under the cor- 
 poreal shape of a dove, and at the time of 
 Pentecost under the likeness of flames of 
 fire. 
 
 To those who regard all such displays as 
 symbols only of the favour of him whose 
 presence fills infinity, it is plain that all alike 
 are phantoms adapted to human weakness 
 
 and 
 
LECTURE IV. 263 
 
 and ignorance, and calculated to impress, 
 on the mind of the spectator, a stronger 
 feeling of confidence or respect or piety ; 
 nor can any of them be singled out, with- 
 out exceeding presumption, as more pecu- 
 liarly appropriate than the rest to set forth 
 that majesty, which it is in symbols only 
 that our mortal sense can contemplate. 
 
 And if the Son, according to the usual 
 opinion, have appeared successively to Mo- 
 ses and the Patriarchs under the various 
 forms of a cloud, an angel, a consuming 
 fire; we can, surely, feel no reason for 
 surprise that the same Spirit, who has ma- 
 nifested himself to the reverence of '.man- 
 kind, as a dove, a disparted flame, and a 
 rushing mighty wind, should have also, on 
 certain occasions, assumed a semblance 
 such as the Prophet Daniel here describes. 
 If a more definite precedent, however, be 
 required, I am greatly mistaken if the be- 
 ginning of the eighth chapter of Ezekiel 
 be not found, on diligent examination, to 
 present an instance of an apparition of the 
 Holy Ghost in a form almost precisely si- 
 milar . 
 
 S4 It 
 
264 LECTURE IV. 
 
 It may be yet farther observed, that, in the 
 passage already quoted from Ephrem Syrus, 
 that writer supposes, (and it is an idea in 
 which the great majority of commentators 
 agree with him,) that the person described 
 in the tenth chapter of Daniel is the same 
 with him who had, on former occasions, 
 declared the date of the Messiah's com- 
 ingp. And this opinion is doubtless coun- 
 tenanced by many circumstances of simi- 
 larity in the mariner of each Visitant's sa- 
 lutation, and in the deep astonishment and 
 terror (greater than what is, in any part 
 of Scripture, attributed to an apparition 
 merely angelical) by which, on his ap- 
 proach, the mortal beholder was over- 
 come. 
 
 On those former occasions, however, the 
 celestial Instructor is called by the name 
 of Gabriel. And, as this is a name which, 
 though it only twice occurs in the Old 
 Testament, is familiar to every reader of 
 the New; it will not be unimportant or 
 uninteresting to add some few remarks as 
 to the general opinion which the ancient 
 Jews entertained of this personage, and as 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE IV. 265 
 
 to the manner in which he is first intro- 
 duced to our notice in the book of Da- 
 niel. 
 
 Not only, then, to Michael, but to Ga- 
 briel, do the Jews ascribe the name of 
 " Chief Prince/' or Sovereign of Jerusa- 
 lem and Sion ; it was from their joint 
 agency that the wonders of the Messiah's 
 kingdom were expected to proceed ; these 
 two alone, of all the host of heaven, were 
 supposed to bear the likeness or image of 
 God and the " Saviours/' whom Obadiah 
 describes as " going out of the mountain 
 " Zion;" are explained, in the Schemoth 
 Rabba, to signify Michael and Gabriel. 
 It is this latter who is to destroy, in the 
 end of the world, the power of the levia- 
 than or evil spirit. He it was who is ex- 
 pressly called Jehovah, when in the act of 
 raining fire on Sodom ; and who is called 
 the Son of God, when he descended to 
 protect the faithful worshippers of God in 
 the Babylonian furnace q. 
 
 To Michael and Gabriel alone, of all 
 the angelic host, it is given, according to 
 some of the nior? ancient Rabbins, to stand 
 
 in 
 
266 LECTURE IV. 
 
 in the presence of the Most High, as his 
 counsellors and confidential ministers ; nay 
 of them alone is eternal duration predi- 
 cated ; while the remaining multitude of 
 heaven enjoy, as was believed, not only a 
 temporary being, but an existence literally 
 ephemeral. 
 
 Of these last it was fabled, that they 
 every morning rose from the exhalations 
 of a certain heavenly river, to sing their 
 hymns and perform their services before the 
 eternal throne. And, those brief hymns 
 and little services concluded, they were 
 absorbed, with the dawn of the following 
 day, in the insensible beatitude of their 
 parent stream ; which yielded, at the same 
 time, a fresh swarm of pure and happy 
 beings, to be occupied, in their turn, in 
 the harmony of heaven, and bask a few 
 short hours in the radiance of their Maker's 
 favour r . 
 
 With such absurdities, I need hardly 
 observe that a Christian has no concern. 
 But it may appear important even for a 
 Christian to recollect, that some vestige of 
 truth may be generally detected amid the 
 
 rankest 
 
LECTURE IV. 267 
 
 rankest weeds of popular superstition. And 
 such a vestige, perhaps, is that immeasur- 
 able distance which these ancient Doctors 
 conceived to exist between the ordinary 
 inhabitants of paradise, and those two aw- 
 ful Persons, who only, among the princes 
 of heaven, have received appropriate names 
 in Scripture 8 ; names which the Jews pro- 
 fess to have derived from the date of this 
 very prophecy 1 , and of which the former, 
 Michael, implies the Image or Likeness of 
 God; the latter, Gabriel, his Strength or 
 Active Power u . 
 
 Who the first of these Persons is we 
 have already seen, on a comparison of the 
 Prophet Daniel with the equally prophetic 
 Author of the Book of Revelations : who 
 the second may be supposed to be, may, 
 perhaps, still further appear from an ex- 
 amination of the circumstances which pre- 
 ceded his first appearance to Daniel. 
 
 In his eighth chapter, and after describ- 
 ing the visionary representation of the Ma- 
 cedonian symbol, and the future fortunes 
 of the Persian empire, the Prophet pro- 
 ceeds to inform us, that he heard two 
 
 invisible 
 
268 LECTURE IV. 
 
 invisible persons conversing, whom he calls 
 by the name of Saints or Holy Ones. " I 
 " heard/' are his words, " one Saint speak - 
 " ing; and another Saint said unto that 
 " certain Saint which spake. How long 
 " shall be the vision concerning the daily 
 " sacrifice*?" 
 
 Now here it may be reasonably inquired, 
 to what class of beings do these Saints be- 
 long, whose words are thus partially re- 
 corded ? Men they will not be supposed 
 to have been ; for they were invisible, and 
 competent to interpret the visions of fu- 
 turity. To angels the name of Saint is 
 no where given in the Book of Daniel ; 
 nor, that I can recollect, in the course 
 of the entire Old Testament. But the 
 same word, when joined with the term of 
 Watcher, is applied, as Bishop Horseley 
 has shewn, in the fourth chapter of this 
 same prophecy, to those who alone, of all 
 existing things, are properly and essentially 
 holy, the Persons of the Triune Godhead f. 
 Those Saints whose voices Daniel heard 
 
 * Dan. viii. 13. 
 
 t Horseley's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 303. 
 
 may 
 
LECTURE IV. 269 
 
 may be, perhaps, considered, therefore, as 
 Divine. 
 
 But one of these Saints is distinguished 
 from the other by the Hebrew epithet Pal- 
 mohi ; a word which our Translators, fol- 
 lowing the authority of Jerome and Theo- 
 doret, have rendered by " that certain 
 " Saint which spake." The force of the 
 two words Peloni Almoni, of which they 
 suppose it to be a contraction, is, " Some 
 " one I know not who," " Some unknown 
 " person," " That unknown Holy One." 
 It is also susceptible (if we derive it from 
 the word Palah) of the meaning of " se- 
 " cret" or " wonderful x ." I will not now 
 examine which of these renderings is best, 
 or most probable. Essentially they both 
 agree, since he whom Daniel describes as 
 " a certain Saint," was, at least, unknown 
 to and secret from the Prophet who thus 
 describes him. 
 
 But, wherefore is one of two invisible 
 Personages distinguished from the other 
 by the name of " the secret Holy One," 
 " the Holy One whom I know not ?" Was 
 the other better known to him previously ? 
 
 That 
 
270 LECTURE IV. 
 
 That will scarcely, I apprehend, be sup- 
 posed. Did he become better acquainted 
 with him afterwards ? This last is, surely, 
 the most natural inference. But the Per- 
 son who, immediately afterwards, becomes 
 visible to him " in the appearance of a 
 " Man,' Vis that Gabriel, whom a voice 
 from heaven enjoins to explain the vision 
 to Daniel ; on whose approach the Pro- 
 phet falls on his face in the posture of 
 adoration, and is not reproved for doing 
 so. But it has been already shewn to be 
 probable, that Gabriel is the same with 
 that majestic apparition on the waters of 
 Hiddekel, who spake of himself as the 
 coadjutor and equal of " him who is like 
 " God." Gabriel himself is here repre- 
 sented as a Holy One, and acquiesces in 
 an honour which we are not permitted to 
 render to any but the Most High and 
 Holy One who inhabiteth eternity. The 
 inference is as obvious as it is awful y . 
 
 Of Gabriel we, by name, learn some- 
 thing more in the Gospel according to St. 
 Luke; and there is, certainly, nothing in 
 either of the passages wherein his name 
 
 occurs. 
 
LECTURE IV. 271 
 
 occurs, which can derogate from his cha- 
 racter of Divinity. The name of Angel is 
 given, we know, to the Son ; and the same 
 everlasting Word or Son is said, like Ga- 
 briel, to stand in the presence and at the 
 side of God the Father. 
 
 We may rank it, then, at least, among 
 the probabilities of Scriptural conjecture, 
 that, in the visions of Daniel and Ezekiel, 
 in the prediction made to Zacharias as to 
 the birth of John the Baptist, and in the 
 annunciation of our Lord's miraculous con- 
 ception in the Virgin's womb, the Spirit 
 or Power of God was manifested, under 
 an angelic form, to the faith and reverence 
 of the mortals thus distinguished. 
 
 To the Angel Gabriel both Jews and 
 Mohammedans (by the latter sect he is 
 expressly called the Holy Ghost 2 ) are ap- 
 parently correct in assigning a rank supe- 
 rior to the ordinary inhabitants of heaven. 
 It may, possibly, be thought, that the rank 
 of this Angel is not yet estimated high 
 enough either by Jews, Mohammedans, or 
 Christians ; and that in him, whom we ho- 
 nour as an angel of God, we shall recog- 
 nize 
 
272 LECTURE IV. 
 
 nize a Person, in himself eternal and Di- 
 vine. 
 
 Let, then, the above observations suffice 
 as to what is known or conjectured con- 
 cerning the part sustained by the Spirit of 
 God in the general government of the 
 world, and the several manifestations of his 
 person and power during the times of the 
 elder Covenant. On his subsequent showers 
 of glory and of grace, on Christ in his 
 baptism, and on the Apostles at the time 
 of Pentecost, it is unnecessary, as I con- 
 ceive, to enlarge; and of those blessings 
 which either are or are supposed to be pe- 
 culiar to Christians, and the consequences 
 of his last-named advent, I shall speak in 
 a future Sermon. 
 
 There is yet, however, another occasion 
 on which the words of Scripture give us 
 reason to conjecture, that the Spirit of 
 God was made visible to man under cir- 
 cumstances of peculiar majesty and terror ; 
 during the night, I mean, of Christ's in- 
 terment. 
 
 I am well aware of the reasonable doubt 
 which may exist, whether the Spirit where- 
 
 by 
 
LECTURE IV. 273 
 
 by Christ, according to St. Peter*, was 
 raised from the dead, be the third Person 
 of the Trinity, or our Lord's own immortal 
 nature. But it may be thought, perhaps, 
 without impropriety, that the awful Being, 
 whom, on this occasion, St. Matthew calls, 
 not an angel simply, but " the Angel of 
 " the Lord;" who with might and glo- 
 rious majesty descended, amid the throes 
 of labouring nature, to bring back the Sa- 
 viour from his tomb; was, in truth, the 
 same everlasting Spirit, who had announc- 
 ed to the Virgin Mother the character and 
 name of her Son ; who had proclaimed 
 that Son's high office by a visible descent 
 during his baptism ; and who now returned 
 to attend the last triumph of the Redeem- 
 er's earthly pilgrimage, and to snatch from 
 its reluctant prison-house the first fruit of 
 human immortality ! 
 
 But, having ventured to call your at- 
 tention to topics so mysterious as those 
 which have engrossed the present Lecture, 
 (among the most mysterious they doubtless 
 
 * 1 Pet.iii. 18. 
 
 T are 
 
274 LECTURE IV. 
 
 are which can occupy the thoughts or in- 
 quiry of man or any created being,) let it 
 be remembered that it has rather been my 
 object to excite, than my expectation to 
 gratify, the devout curiosity of my hearers. 
 Be it remembered, that the more we search 
 into the wonders of revelation, the more 
 strongly we shall feel our own weakness 
 and blindness ; happy if the painful sense 
 of conscious ignorance induce us to look 
 forward, with increased intensity of hope, 
 to that moment when every doubt shall 
 terminate ! 
 
 Be it observed, above all, that these 
 wilder or more fanciful speculations of 
 theology, though, if correct, they may il- 
 lustrate; if false or exaggerated, cannot, 
 by their failure, affect the more solid co- 
 lumns of Christianity, those doctrines of 
 the Atonement and Triune Deity against 
 which the gates of hell are destined never 
 to prevail; which, of whatever materials 
 be the superstructure which we seek to 
 rear on their basis, are themselves impreg- 
 nably founded on the rock of eternal wis- 
 dom. 
 
 And 
 
LECTURE IV. 275 
 
 And though, in such conjectures as have 
 been this day offered to your notice, there 
 be little which can lay claim to the praise 
 of original research, and less, as I should 
 hope, which can incur the blame of an 
 unreasonable desire of novelty a : yet, if any 
 thing have been unintentionally spoken in 
 rashness or in folly, may the Church of 
 Christ forgive it ; and may He, above all, 
 by whom we are sanctified to salvation, for- 
 give, for His sake and through His merits 
 by whose blood our salvation is purchased ! 
 
 T 2 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Page 221, note a . 
 
 AT is foreign from my present subject to enter on the 
 discussion of the intermediate state of the soul between 
 death and resurrection : yet I cannot help recom- 
 mending the attentive consideration of this passage of 
 Scripture to the defenders of materialism. Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, if the words of Christ have any 
 meaning, must have been then alive in some state or 
 other, when Jehovah professed himself to be their God. 
 But a carcase is not alive now, because it is hereafter 
 to be reanimated; and the carcase of Abraham had 
 then for 200 years been decomposing in the cave of 
 Macpelah. It will follow that the Abraham, who was 
 in a state of life during the time of Moses, must have 
 been the soul, not the body, of the ancient- Patriarch. 
 
 Page 233, note b . 
 
 The plurality of crn^x does, probably, imply the 
 plurality of Persons in the Godhead : but it may also 
 be an eastern expression of reverence. So Gen. xlii. 30. 
 Joseph is called by his brethren pttn 3"W EPNn. " Ubi 
 *3"w/' inquit Fagius ad loc. (< pluralis numeri con- 
 structivi est, et juxta Grammaticam sonat Domini." 
 In the visitors of Abraham, instead of recognizing with 
 Hilary and Parkhurst the whole Triune Godhead, of 
 whom the first Person, at least, has never been thus 
 visible to man ; a little attention to the circumstances 
 of the history will induce us to distinguish the Divine 
 
NOTES ON LECTURE IV. 277 
 
 Logos from his two attendant angels, who are described 
 as departing from his presence to deliver Lot from 
 the impending overthrow of the five guilty cities. See 
 Gen. xviii. 22. xix. 1. 
 
 Page 235, note c . 
 
 Deut.xxxii.il. Jer. xxiii. 9. Rabbi Ephraim in I. 
 Gibborim ad Gen. 1. c. " mcmD, sicuti columba qu 
 volitat super nido, ilium attingens et non attingens." 
 Page 236, note d. 
 
 Fellus, Not. in Autolycum Theophil. lib. ii. .23. 
 " Nam secunda et tertia Persona, ob communem utri- 
 que, turn naturam turn Deitatis participationem ; porro 
 ob conjunctam operam in Novi Fcederis ceconomia, et 
 inibi charismatum largitione nomina etiam acceperunt 
 communia." See also Schleusner. Lexicon, voc. rivstipx. 
 Tosephoth ad Avoda Sara apud Schottgenium. " Mes- 
 sias dicitur Spiritus." Golius, Lex. Arab. p. 1060, 
 Jesus Christus." 
 
 Page 238, note e . 
 
 We may hesitate, perhaps, to decide, whether by that 
 Holy Ghost, by whom our Lord was conceived accord- 
 ing to the flesh, we are to understand, with the majority 
 of recent commentators, the third Person in the God- 
 head ; or whether, following the early Fathers, we are 
 to apply the expression to that Divine Logos who did 
 not disdain the Virgin's womb, and by entering therein 
 became united to the Man J ; esus. 
 
 Page 245, note f . 
 
 nrDtr. Literally, " Quse habitat in Tentorio," a pit*. 
 Theod. JDassovius, Diss. de Rabbinismo Philol. Sacr. 
 Ancillante. Thes. Theol. t.i. p. 828. " Observetur ver- 
 bum pitf significare proprie e habitare in tabernaculo/ 7 
 See also Buxtorf . Lex. voc. pit'. Whitby and Lardner are^ 
 therefore, in a great error when they suppose that the 
 Schekinah signified, with the Jews, the cloudy habitation 
 
 T 3 or 
 
278 NOTES 
 
 or vehicle only of God's presence, which veiled his glory 
 from human eyes. " Habitatio" would not have been 
 rw*3ttf, but pltfD. In the Rabbinical writings we may find 
 a very evident and remarkable distinction between the 
 Schekinah which is in the heavenly tabernacle, and 
 which can mean no other than the Almighty Father, 
 and the Schekinah which was supposed to dwell in the 
 earthly tabernacle; which was the active power of God 
 on earth, and which, though itself Divine, was, never- 
 theless, personally distinct from the former great Pa- 
 rent of all things in heaven and earth. It is of the 
 latter Schekinah that I am in this place speaking. 
 
 And that the tutelary Spirit of the Holy of Holies 
 was thus called, is familiarly known to most of my 
 readers. Sohar. Numer. f. 104. col. 415. Jalkut Rubeni, 
 fol. 170. 3. ad verba Deut. xxii. 6. ((( Quando occurret 
 tibi nidus avium.' Avis est Schekina. Nidus est tern- 
 plum. Israelite sunt pulli quibus mater insidet/' 
 Sevachim, fol. 108. 2. " Invenimus de domo seterna, 
 quod Schekinah sit in portione tribus Benjamin." 'Li- 
 ber Joma, c. i. circa fin. fol. 21. lin. 18. et seq. " Dixit 
 Rabbi Samuel filius Inja, Quid speciale indicat quod 
 in voce "ODNi (Haggai. i. 8.) deficiat in fine n ? Quinque 
 istas res quae differentiam constituunt inter Sanctua- 
 rium primum et secundum ; ac sunt sequentes ; Area, 
 Propitiatorium, ac Cherubim, item Ignis, et Schekinah, 
 et Spiritus Sanctus, atque Urim et Thummim." In 
 this enumeration the <c Holy Ghost" is put for the gift 
 of prophecy which he confers : that the Spirit which 
 dispensed the gift was the same with the Schekinah 
 will be shewn below. 
 
 Page 245, note . 
 
 The Schekinah is described by Schottgen (Hor. Hebr. 
 et Talmudic. p. 1217.) as " a pellucid cloud, which 
 rested on the ark and the cherubim." The pious but 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 279 
 
 injudicious Parkhurst has gone still further, and, in 
 express transgression of the sacred caution in Exodus, 
 has represented it, in his engraving of the ark and che- 
 rubic images, under the likeness of a naked man, sur- 
 rounded by a luminous halo. Hebrew Lexicon, p. 340. 
 In what respect this brilliant but inadequate symbol of 
 God's peculiar presence could answer the purpose, as- 
 cribed to it by Archbishop Tenison, of weaning the 
 Israelites from idolatry ; whether its obvious tendency 
 would not have been, to induce in the Israelites those 
 very notions of a corporeal and local Deity, to prevent 
 which idolatry was forbidden ; as it would be, perhaps, 
 not very easy to explain, so it is altogether unnecessary 
 to enquire ; since, even if the expressions of the Rab- 
 bins had been more explicit than they actually are, no 
 doctrine of theirs can be admitted against the far higher 
 authority of Scripture. And that the notion of a per- 
 manent and visible glory in the tabernacle and former 
 temple is utterly inconsistent with Scripture, the fol- 
 lowing observations may shew. 
 
 That the majesty of the Most High has been, on 
 various occasions, made manifest in a bodily shape to 
 mankind, I have already, in its fullest extent, not only 
 conceded, but maintained. And that some of these glo- 
 rious apparitions were vouchsafed in the tabernacle or 
 the temple may appear from Numbers xvi. 19. Isaiah 
 vi. 1. as it is also certain from Exodus xl. 34. and 
 1 Kings viii. 10. that the Almighty descended in the 
 shadow of thick darkness to take a visible possession of 
 the tabernacle first, and afterwards of the temple built 
 by Solomon. But it is also certain that, so long as this 
 awful presence filled the Adytum, neither Moses nor 
 the priests could approach to minister ; and therefore, 
 from the mere recorded fact of their daily and annual 
 service, we may infer that the visible glory was at such 
 
 T 4 times 
 
280 NOTES 
 
 times not there. And this is yet further evident i'wiu 
 the ritual of the day of expiation. The priest was then 
 so to place his censer, as that the perfumed smoke 
 might cover the mercy seat ; (Lev. xvu 13.) and he 
 was to sprinkle the mercy seat with blood. But if the 
 mercy seat were already covered by the luminous cloud 
 described by Schottgen, or by Parkhurst's naked and 
 bearded Schekiriah, these directions would have been 
 impracticable, unless we conceive, what no man will 
 suppose, that the smoke of the incense could pervade 
 the Divine glory, or that the Deity removed from his 
 place during the solemn lustration of his throne. 
 
 But the ark on which this glorious form is said to 
 have rested, was not invariably secluded within the cur- 
 tains of its shrine. It was carried in public procession 
 at the head of armies ; was consigned, on one unfortu- 
 nate occasion, to the custody of an idol temple; and 
 was opened afterwards by the irreverent curiosity of the 
 reapers of Bethshemesh. Was then the Schektnah vi- 
 sible on such occasions to the contending armies of the 
 Israelites and Philistines ? When the mercy seat passed 
 into the hands of the uncircumcised, was the glory also 
 in bondage ? Or, if it deserted, during these disastrous 
 occurrences, its ordinary residence, why have we no 
 account in Scripture of its secession or subsequent 
 return ? 
 
 Again, It was foretold of the second temple, that its 
 glory was to exceed the glory of the former sanctuary ; 
 a promise which is generally explained by the single 
 privilege in which it either equalled or excelled it, the 
 presence, namely, of an incarnate Deity in the person 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Haggai ii. 9.) But, if God 
 had in the former house been manifested continually 
 in a form as visible and far more glorious than that 
 wherewith the second Person of the Trinity was clothed 
 
 during 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 281 
 
 during his earthly humiliation, this preeminence must 
 fall to the ground. It follows, that the presence of a 
 permanent and visible glory in the former temple is 
 an extremely improbable supposition. 
 
 To these presumptions against the common opinion 
 must be added the yet stronger which arise from the total 
 silence of Josephus and Philo ; of the ancient Christian 
 Fathers, among whom many were both qualified and in- 
 clined to adopt into Christianity any Jewish opinion 
 which was at all confirmed by the written word of God, or 
 by apostolic tradition ; and by the silence, above all, of 
 the holy Scriptures themselves. These last, indeed, not 
 only do not inform us that the presence of God which 
 inhabited the temple was a visible and luminous sub- 
 stance ; they expressly give us to understand the con- 
 trary, inasmuch as those apparitions of the Deity which 
 are described as terrific, and which were expected to be 
 fatal to the beholders, must needs have been of infre- 
 quent occurrence 5 and since Moses himself, who had, 
 on other occasions, seen God face to face, is described 
 as, in the Holy of Holies, hearing a voice only. We 
 may conclude then that the Schekinah, which the Rab- 
 bins describe as abiding in the tabernacle, was not a 
 visible symbol of God's presence, but God himself, oc- 
 casionally made manifest by a voice or by inspiration ; 
 that the ark with its cherubim corresponded to that 
 empty throne, which in eastern courts denotes the au- 
 thority of the Sultan, even when the Sultan is not 
 seated there ; that it is the spiritual presence only 
 which we are to understand by the several expressions 
 of " before the Lord," " dwelling between the che- 
 rubim/* &c. ; and that the visible apparitions of the 
 Almighty which are, on different occasions, recorded in 
 Scripture, were of rare occurrence, and continued a very 
 short time. 
 
 If 
 
282 NOTES 
 
 If it be demanded, how the absence of an invisible 
 Guardian was discovered or regretted in the second 
 temple, (see the preceding note;) I answer that, 1st, This 
 absence of the Schekinah in the second temple is not 
 mentioned by Ezra among the other circumstances of 
 its inferiority ; nor is any hint given by the later Pro- 
 phets, that the tutelary Spirit was not in the latter as 
 well as the former house. And though the Rabbins are 
 often useful as commentators, it will not, I apprehend, 
 be maintained that they are competent in themselves to 
 establish a point of so much importance. But, 2dly, 
 The Jewish people might infer the absence of that pe- 
 culiar favour and protection which their ancestors en- 
 joyed, both because the new-built temple was not vi- 
 sibly consecrated by the descent of God in the cloud, 
 and from the opinion (whether false or true) which 
 certainly prevailed among them, that the Prophets did 
 not receive the same measure of inspiration as was 
 vouchsafed to them before the Babylonish captivity. 
 
 And I have been more anxious to prove that the 
 Schekinah was usually invisible, because the opposite 
 opinion appears to me to conduct to very false and de- 
 grading inferences as to the nature of God and the 
 character of the Jewish theology; and because some 
 modern Infidels have availed themselves of it, to revile 
 the sacred Volume for the faults of its injudicious com- 
 mentators and defenders. 
 
 Page 246, note h . 
 
 Sohar. Exod. fol. 66. col. 262. " Quacunque hora 
 homo jugum regni cselorum suscipit, tune Schekinah 
 venit, et in capite ejus consistit, et apud eum stat tan- 
 quam testis ut testimonium ferat coram Deo S. B." 
 Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 172. 4. " Vir quando cum uxore 
 vivit in puritate, sanctitate et castitate, ad ipsam 
 Schekinam pervenit, et pacem facit superius atque in- 
 
 ferius." 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 288 
 
 ferius." Sohar. Genes, fol. 116. col. 462. Rabbi Jo- 
 ses dixit : Schekinah non habitat nisi in loco perfecto, 
 non vero in loco defecto, aut in loco disrupto, aut in 
 loco tristi, sed in tali loco ubi omnia sunt praeparata, in 
 loco laetitiae. Propterea toto illo tempore quo Josephus 
 a patre remotus fuit, Jacobus vero moerori indulsit, 
 Schekinah in eo rion habitavit." Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 
 79. 2. " Eo tempore quo filia Pharaonis Mosen attigit, 
 Schekinah ab eo aufugit. Quum vero eadem in rubum 
 veniret, dixit ad ipsum : Ne hue appropinques, donee 
 exutus est illo corpore quod filia Pharaonis attigerat; 
 tune vidit quod corpus hominis in hoc mundo prorsum 
 est ex pelle serpentis. Sed Schekinah dixit ipsi, (Exod. 
 iii. 5.) <Exue calceos ex pedibus tiiis/ Hoc est cor- 
 pus, quod ipsi est instar calcei, quod tetigerat filia Pha- 
 raonis; et indutus est alio corpore, et illo tempore 
 rediit ad ipsum Schekinah." Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 86. 2. 
 " Justi perfecti non moriuntur ab Angelo Mortis sed 
 tantum per osculum, nam ipsa Schekinah animas eorum 
 suscipit." Mechilta, fol. 14. 1. " Quocunque Israelite 
 in captivitatem abducti sunt, Schekinah cum ipsis 
 fuit. Sic in Babyloniam Schekinah cum ipsis profecta 
 est, quod dictum est ab Esaia; xliii. 14. 6 Propter vos 
 Babelem missus sum/ In Elam Schekinah adfuit, 
 quod dictum est a Jeremia, xlix. 38. ( Sedem meam 
 ponam in Elam ?' In Idumtea Schekinah adfuit, quod 
 dictum est ab Isaia, Ixiii. 1. ( Quis est ille qui venit 
 ab Edom?' Et quando redibunt, tune quoque Sche- 
 kinah cum ipsis erit." Sohar. Genes, fol. 73. col. 289. 
 " Immo si vel maxime quis in itinere versetur, Sche- 
 kinah venit, eosque homines praecedit qui fidem in 
 Deum S. B. habent." Berachoth, fol. 6. 1. "Rabbin 
 films Raf Adse ex ore R. Isaaci docuit, Unde constat 
 quod Deus S. B. adsit in Synagoga ? Respondit, Ex 
 eo quod dicitur Psalm. Ixxxii. 1. c Deus stat in loco 
 
 Dei/ 
 
284 NOTES 
 
 Dei.' Et unde constat quod decem precantibus Di- 
 vina Majestas (Schekina) adsit ? Respondit, Ex eodem 
 textu." Pirke Aboth, c. iii. 2. " Rabbi Chanina Sagan 
 Sacerdotum dixit : Ubi duo sedent, inter quos non sunt 
 verba legis, ibi est cathedra irrisorum. Ubi vero inter 
 eos sunt verba Legis, ibi Schekinab inter illos habitat." 
 Midrasch Ruth in Sohar. Chadasch, fol. 61. 1. " In 
 quocunque loco verba Legis tractantur, ibi est Sche- 
 kinah." Mechilta, fol. 38. 4. " Ubicunque Lex est, ibi 
 etiam Schekinah adest." 
 
 The above authorities are sufficient to shew that the 
 Schekinah, according to the ancient Jews, was an in- 
 visible Agent, and of an influence extending far beyond 
 that shrine which was its peculiar habitation. That it 
 was also an intellectual Agent, and that it is the same 
 with the Holy Ghost, may appear from the following 
 testimonies. Sohar. Numer. fol. 72. col. 285. (f Sen- 
 tentia Rabbinorum in eo versatur quod Schekinah de- 
 scensura a mundo praedicatura est. 57 Selden. Comment, 
 in Eutychium, c. x. p. 438. " De LXX. Senioribus 
 Mosi ejusmodi ordinationi adscitis &c. aiunt. Et qui- 
 evit super illos Divina nraii', quam Spiritum Sanctum 
 vocitant." Bechai in Legem, fol. 24. 1. "Schekinah 
 in Abrahamo habitavit, ut de idolis exclamaret : ' Os 
 habent neque tamen loquuntur, &c. &c." 
 
 Page 247, note 1 . 
 
 Isaiah Ixiii. 10. 1 Cor. x. 9. I am aware of the ob- 
 jection taken against the usual reading of this latter 
 passage from Epiphanius, Hser. xlii. p. 348. and I am 
 also aware of the strong reasons which there are for 
 maintaining the present text. But whether we read 
 Kugiov or Xp*5-ov, it may be thought that our Lord Jesus 
 only is intended ; since, in the language of St. Paul, the 
 words are, generally, synonymous. 
 
 Page 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 285 
 
 Page 250, note k . 
 
 Daniel x. 13. 21. Grotius and Lowth, with some 
 other commentators of less name, suppose indeed a 
 vision of two Angels to be here described : the first 
 Michael, who appears on the waters of Hiddekel, and 
 whom Lowth supposes to be the Son of God ; the se- 
 cond Gabriel, who comes in the likeness of a man 
 (v. 10. 16.) to raise and comfort the Prophet, over- 
 powered by the splendour of the former apparition. 
 But, 1st, The person who stood on the waters of Hid- 
 dekel is himself called " a man ;" therefore no distinc- 
 tion from him is implied in the words, " likeness of a 
 man/' 2dly, The speaker, whoever he were, does not 
 speak of Michael as then present and visible. He does 
 ,not say, " This Michael whom thou hast seen " but 
 simply " Michael." 3dly, It is not likely that Michael 
 should have been sent as a splendid pageant, and merely 
 to terrify Daniel; or that, like the tragic heroes of 
 ^Eschylus, he should himself be silent, while his bu- 
 siness was explained by the chorus. 4thly, My hypo- 
 thesis by no means necessarily depends on the identity 
 of the person clothed with linen, who stood on the 
 waters, and he who spake with Daniel. He who spake 
 with Daniel, at least, was not Michael. But he speaks 
 of himself, as will be shewn, as on an equality with 
 Michael ; and if my subsequent arguments be correct, 
 this fact is enough to prove him no created angel. 
 
 Page 251, note 1 . 
 
 Jalkut Rubeni, tbl. 80. 1. Est Rex in cselo et sa- 
 cerdos ministrans sub eo qui est Michael sacerdos 
 summus." Sohar. Chadasch, fol. 22. 4. " Traditio est 
 R. Joseplu; Quemadmodum summus sacerdos est in 
 terra, sic Michael Princeps Magnus est Sacerdos in 
 
 cailo." 
 
286 NOTES 
 
 caelo." Compare Hebrews viii. 1 . " We have such an 
 High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne 
 of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanc- 
 tuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord 
 pitched, and not man/' Tosephoth Menachoth in Jal- 
 kut Rubeni. " Quidam dicunt sacrificia esse animas 
 justorum, alii esse boves igneas, alii esse decem et octo 
 precum formulas, vel viros Israelitas et preces ipso- 
 rum." Compare Rev. viii. 3. " Another Angel came 
 and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and 
 there was given unto him much incense, that he should 
 offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden 
 altar which was before the throne." Schemoth Rabba, 
 sect, xviii. fol. 117- "Michael et Sammael (Satanas) 
 stant ante thronum Schekinae, et Satanas accusat; Mi- 
 chael vero merita Israelitarum proponit." Jalkut Ru- 
 beni, fol. 72. 3. "Quum David mortuus esset, angeli su- 
 perni noluerunt ipsi transitum per portas Hierosolymae 
 caelestis concedere. Michaeli vero praecepit Deus ut Da- 
 videm unctum introduceret per portas Hierosolymae cae- 
 lestis." Schemoth Rabba, sect, xviii. f. 1 17. 3. " Michael 
 inquirit in necessitates Israelitarum et pro iis loquitur." 
 Ibid. sect. ii. fol. 104. 3. " R. Jehuda sanctus hanc obser- 
 vationem tradidit ; Ubicunque Michael apparuisse dici- 
 tur, illud semper de gloria Schekinas intelligendum est." 
 Synopsis Sohar, tit. xi. 32. " Cum anima ascendit ad 
 portas Hierosolymae caelestis, Michael Dux Magnus 
 cum ipsa ascendit eamque salute excipit." Pirke Eli- 
 ezer, c. 42. <f Respiciens Moses angustias Israelitarum, 
 constitit, ut precaretur pro iis. Dixit illi Deus : Die 
 fUiis Israelis ut proficiscantur. Reddidit Moses Deo: 
 Hostes a tergo ipsorum et mare ante eos est ; quo profi- 
 ciscerentur ? Quid autem fecit Deus ? Misit Michaelem 
 Magnum Principem, et factus est murus ignitus inter 
 Israelitas et Egyptios." Michael is also called "the 
 
 Ancrel 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 287 
 
 Angel of God" peculiarly, and by excellence; (Hen- 
 sel, Diss. de Certam. Michael. Crit. Sacr. t. ii. p. 789.) 
 and the Prince of the Face or Presence of God, 
 CD^DH "titf. Schottgen. Hor. Hebr. 151. Among Chris- 
 tian writers, the opinion which identifies Michael with 
 Christ is adopted by Luther (Predigt uber die Epist. am 
 Feste Michaelis, Op. t. xii. p. 529.) ; by Calvin (Prselect. 
 in Dan. Op. t. v. p. 160.) 5 by Clavius, as quoted among 
 the Critici Sacri in loc. cit. ; by Junius and others, as 
 quoted in Poolers Synopsis ; and, in later times, by Bi- 
 shop Horseley, in his admirable Sermon on Dan. iv. 17. 
 Between the offices of Michael and those of Meta- 
 tron, whom I have mentioned in note , Lecture III. 
 there are so many points of correspondence, that we can 
 hardly doubt that the same person is intended. Jal- 
 kut Rubeni, fol. 25. 1. " Metatron Scriba Magnus in 
 caelo." Synopsis Sohar, tit. xi. 35. " Metatron Prin- 
 ceps ad faciem Dei ministrans, futuro tempore suscipiet 
 computum justorum, de manu Dumah angeli." Trac- 
 tatus Cabbalist. de Revolut. Animarum, Cabbal. Denud. 
 t. ii. p. 319. " Notuin est quod Metatron mystice de- 
 notet Regem angelorum ut dicitur." In Sohar. sect. 
 Veetchannan. " Et Regem constituit eum super mun- 
 dum." Ibid. p. 382. " Metatron praefectus LXX. po- 
 pulorum, gnarusque tot linguarum." The Cabbalists 
 believe that Metatron was incarnate in Enoch (Ibid. 
 p. 382. 3.), and in Joseph (p. 382. 7-)- From this cir- 
 cumstance much confusion has arisen. Vardale de Idol, 
 p. 168. " Metatron cui data est potestas ut sedeat et 
 conscribat merita Israelitarum, rursusque ei est potestas 
 delere merita ipsorum. Hie aliis est Michael, aliis 
 Enoch, qui postquam in caelum abreptus fuit, ibi Scriba 
 Magnus vel Cancellarius cgelestis fuerit factus." Gro- 
 tius de Veritate, v. 22. " Judaei Cabbalistae inter Deum 
 et homines medium statuunt Enochi quendam filium." 
 
 But 
 
288 NOTES 
 
 But Metatron is often identified with Enoch, but never 
 with the son of Enoch; and the mistake of Grotius 
 has arisen from the circumstance, that eternal youth is 
 predicated both of Enoch and Metatron. Schottgen, 
 ubi supra, p. 1080. " De Henocho multa proferunt Ju- 
 daei apocrypha ipsum essc Metatron, et semper pue- 
 rum mansisse." The circumstance, however, which 
 Grotius mentions, of Metatron being placed as a Me- 
 diator between God and man, is sufficiently curious, 
 and, together with the correspondence of their offices, 
 actions, and characters, may seem to prove Metatron to 
 be only a corruption of the ancient traditions respecting 
 Michael ; though in one passage of the Jalkut Rubeni 
 (fol. 103. 1.) they are, apparently, distinguished from 
 each other. But we are obliged in all the Jewish 
 writings to work our way through the endless contra- 
 dictions and absurdities of all their several generations 
 of expositors, and can generally find no better guide 
 than the opinion of the majority. B. H. Gebhard, as 
 quoted by Schottgen, p. 739. derives the word " Meta- 
 tron" from <( Mediator/' By others it is supposed to 
 be taken from the word " Metator," because the Angel 
 thus called went in the pillar of the cloud, to direct the 
 marches and encampments of the Israelites in the De- 
 sert. Such derivations from the Latin, &c. are not 
 uncommon in Rabbinical Hebrew. 
 
 Page 255, note m . 
 
 J. Ephrem Syrus apud Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, 
 t. ii. p. 78. Recog. Clement. 1. ii. .41. Theodoret. in 
 loc. Op. t. ii. p. 6?2. Origen. contr. Celsum, 1. iv. p. 166. 
 Ed. Cant. This opinion, which has been in modern 
 times embraced, with more or less modifications of er- 
 ror, by Grotius, the elder Lowth, and all the Roman 
 Catholic commentators, was grounded by the ancient 
 
 Fathers 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 289 
 
 Fathers on the manner in which the Septuagint have 
 given Deut. xxxii. 8. ore titspepigev 6 "T\[/rro e'Svrj. ecmj- 
 <rev ogiot eSvwv xara ctgiSpov ayyeAwv sou. Our present 
 Hebrew text, however, is 
 
 " According to the number of the sons of Israel." 
 Page 256, note n . 
 
 Mr. Belsham, both during the lifetime of Bishop 
 Horsley and since his death, has thought proper to 
 tax him with insincerity in his religious professions. 
 Review of Wilberforce, p. 170. " I strongly suspect 
 that the Prelate of Rochester (Dr. Horsley, afterwards 
 Bishop of St. Asaph) would smile at the honest sim- 
 plicity of the Member for Yorkshire, in supposing that 
 a sincere faith in creeds and homilies is at all neces- 
 sary to the permanent prosperity of a national church." 
 In like manner, in his Tracts on the Claims of Dr. 
 Priestley in the controversy with Bp. Horsley, the same 
 Author plainly insinuates that the Bishop only wrote in 
 defence of the Trinity for the sake of obtaining pre- 
 ferment. 
 
 Of Mr. Belsham's own character I know nothing : 
 but I have generally observed that those are most ready 
 to suspect the sincerity of others, who are themselves 
 insincere in their religious professions. If it be sup- 
 posed that a Bishop of the Established Church is, 
 while he professes a faith in the Trinity and Atone- 
 ment, a secret apostate from his public confession, it 
 is also possible that the Minister of Essex Street 
 Chapel may have many good reasons for dissembling 
 his secret infidelity. And it is just as allowable in us 
 to suspect that Mr. Belsham is influenced by inter- 
 ested motives in the support which (while he has re- 
 nounced the opinions of his youth) he continues as 
 yet to give to an imperfect and modified Christianity, 
 
 u as 
 
290 NOTES 
 
 as it is for him to bring forward such imputations 
 against those who uphold that Faith which is pro- 
 fessed by the majority of Christians. I wish, indeed, 
 that he had not, in a note to p. 168. of his Review of 
 Mr. Wilberforce, given us too good reason to appre- 
 hend that his private notions of Christianity are of a 
 kind very faintly distinguished from Deism. " The 
 principles/' he there assures us, " of La Reveillere 
 Lepaux and his ( flourishing* sect of Theophilanthro- 
 pists, e comprehend the essence of the Christian reli- 
 gion/ " Now as the Theophilanthropists are known to 
 have denied, not only the resurrection of Jesus, but his 
 authority as a teacher divinely inspired, it follows that, 
 in Mr. Belsham's opinion, a faith in these articles is 
 no essential part of the confession received by the 
 saints ! The absurdity of this assertion is fortunately 
 equal to its open impiety. Yet is this the man who 
 expresses, in his letter to the Bishop of London, so 
 much indignation on being told that many Unitarians 
 are Deists in their hearts ! " Give me leave," are his 
 words, " to assure your Lordship, that if this ob- 
 noxious party had openly offered to associate them- 
 selves with the Unitarians, their alliance would have 
 been rejected with indignation and disdain." Letters 
 to Bishop of London, p. 40. What ? will Mr. Belsham 
 refuse the right hand of fellowship, and refuse it thus 
 indignantly, to those " whose professed principles com- 
 prehend the essence of the Christian religion ?" or 
 what is further necessary to the definition of infidelity, 
 if the denial of Christ be not sufficient to establish 
 the charge ? 
 
 Let me not, however, be mistaken. There are, / 
 know, many sincere and pious individuals in the sect 
 to which Mr. Belsham ostensibly belongs, who are as 
 warmly attached to those peculiar features of Chris- 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 291 
 
 tianity which they continue to hold, as we are to our 
 own creed. But the Bishop has, doubtless, done 
 wisely and charitably to caution all such against the 
 insidious artifices or heathenish ignorance of those 
 teachers who would bring down the level of the Gospel 
 to the bare religion of nature ; and persuade them that 
 the recognition of the Messiah is a matter of indif- 
 ference to the people who are called after his name ! 
 
 Page 263, note . 
 
 Ezekiel viii. 2.4. "I beheld, and lo a likeness as the 
 appearance of fire : from the appearance of his loins 
 even downwards, fire ; and from his loins even up- 
 wards, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour 
 of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and 
 took me by a lock of mine head ; and the Spirit lifted 
 me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought 
 me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, And, be- 
 hold, the glory of the God of [srael was there, accord- 
 ing to the vision which I saw in the plain." 
 
 Page 264, note P. 
 
 Even Grotius and Lowth, who contend that the 
 person in linen garments is Michael, identify the 
 spokesman in this vision with Gabriel. 
 
 Page 265, note q. 
 
 Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 8. 3. Michael et Gabriel sunt 
 Principes Magni." Sohar. Rab. iii. 8. " Reges Angelo- 
 rum Michael et Gabriel." Targum in Psalm, cxxxvii. 5. 
 " Dixit Michael Princeps Hierosolymorum. 6. Dixit 
 Gabriel Princeps Sionis." Schemoth Rabba, xviii. fol. 
 117.3. " Quemadmodum Deus S. B. in temporibus 
 Veteris Testamenti, multa fecit per manus Michaelis 
 et Gabrielis, sic talia quoque per eosdem facturus est in 
 temporibus Novi Testamenti, quod dictum est ab Oba- 
 dia v. 21. e Ascendent salvatores ex Monte Sion/ Hi 
 
 u 2 sunt 
 
292 NOTES 
 
 sunt Michael et Gabriel." Synopsis Sohar. tit. xiii. 7 
 " Cum dictum est Psalm, civ. 3. ( Qui ponit nubes 
 crassas currum suum,' intelliguntur Michael et Ga- 
 briel." [Compare what has been observed in a former 
 note on the two Seraphim Metatron and Sandalphon.] 
 Bereschith Rabba, xxi. 5. " ' Sicut unus nostrum/ Rab- 
 bini nostri dixerunt, si cut Gabriel." Ibid. xii. 17- 
 " Dixit Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish, Annon ' potentia et 
 timor cum eo ?' Job. xxv. 2. Potentia est Gabriel et 
 timor est Michael." Pirke Eliezer, c. xlii. " Dixe- 
 runt Israelite coram Deo, Non est similis tibi inter 
 angelos ordinum, etiam qui nomen habet a Deo, nisi 
 Michael et Gabriel." Bava Bathra, f. 74. 2. 75. 1. 
 " Gabriel venaturus est Leviathanem qui est Sam- 
 mael." [Compare Isaiah xxvii. 1. "Jehovah with his 
 great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan."] 
 Bereschith Rab. li. 8. " ' Et pluit Dominus super 
 Sodoma/ Hie est Gabriel." Midrasch Tehillim, cxvii. 
 " 11. Simon Silonita pro condone dixit ; Qua hora 
 Nebucadnezzar impius Hananiam, Misaelem et Aza- 
 riam in ignis fornacem conjecit, dixit Gabriel Ego 
 qui sum princeps ignis, descendant! et intus frigefa- 
 ciam, extra vero calefaciam et signum edam in signo. 
 Et dixit Dominus ad eum, Descende." Synopsis So- 
 har. Tit. i. 9. " Cum verba legis prodeunt ex ore 
 Israelitarum Michael et Gabriel tanquam legati Dei 
 ipsius S. B. ad eos advolant, quia hie habitat in illis." 
 [Compare John xiv. 23. " If any man love me, he will 
 keep my saying ; and my Father will love him, and we 
 will come, and make our abode with him."] Ibid. 
 Tit. xi. 36. " Futuro tempore corpora volutabuntur 
 usque in terram Israeliticam, et quidam dicunt Gabriel 
 Angelum eadem illuc perducturum." [Compare with 
 this passage, what has been already observed in the 
 notes on the second Lecture, from the Sohar Chadasch, 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 29S 
 
 fol. 15. 4. as to the dead being raised by the Holy 
 Ghost, or Spirit of the Window. 
 
 Page 266, note r . 
 
 Bereschith Rab. Ixxviii. 1. in Gen. xxxii. 26. " Mi- 
 chael et Gabriel, quia ipsi sunt principes supra, omnes 
 mutantur, at ipsi non mutantur." Chagiga, f. 13. 2. 
 " Dixit Samuel ad R. Chajam ben Rab. ben Arise ; 
 Veni, dicam tibi aliquam rem ex prsestantissimis illis, 
 quas dicere solebat Pater tuus. Singulis diebus crean- 
 tur angeli ministerii ex fluvio Dinur, et dicunt can- 
 ticum et cessant." Bereschith Rab. ubi supra. " Adria- 
 nus (cujus ossa conterantur) interrogavit aliquando R. 
 Josuam ben Cananija : Vos dicitis, nullam catervam 
 superiorem bis laudare, sed Deum S. quotidie cater- 
 vam angelorum novorum creare, qui canticum coram 
 eo dicant, et iterum abeant ? Dixit illi, Ita est. Dixit, 
 Quo ergo vadunt ? Respondit, Eo unde creati fuerant. 
 Unde ergo, inquit, creati fuerant ? Respondit, Ex flu- 
 vio Dinur." 
 
 Page 267, note s . 
 
 There are many other names of angels in the Rab- 
 binical and Cabbalistic books : but we may observe, 
 1st, That none but Michael and Gabriel occur in the 
 canonical Scriptures. 2dly, By the acknowledgement 
 of some among the Jews themselves, all the names but 
 these were official and temporary, not inherent or per- 
 sonal. Mischna, L. i. Tr. de Fund. Leg. ii. . 7- " Si 
 angelus ad medendum homini mittatur, vocat ipsum 
 Raphael ; si ad auxiliandum, nominat ipsum Ezriel." 
 Ibid, note f . 
 
 Ros Hasana, f. 56, 4. " R. Simeon ben Lakisch 
 dixit, Nomina angelorum ascenderunt in manum Is- 
 raelis ex Babylone. Nam ante dictum est, Advolavit 
 ad me unus seraphinorum seraphini steterunt ante 
 eum at post; Vir Gabriel; Michael Princeps vester." 
 
 u 3 Page 
 
294 , NOTES 
 
 Page 267, note u . 
 
 " ^3D, Qui est sicut Deus." ^nru, Vigor Dei." 
 Hensel, Dissert, de Certam. Michael. Thes. TheoL 
 T. ii. p. 7^7- " s ft non interrogandi solum vocula est, 
 sed etiam pro Ili'N saepius usurpatur." Does not the 
 above meaning of the word " Gabriel," when com- 
 pared with the fact, as stated by Irenseus, that Simon 
 Magus assumed the name and character of the Holy 
 Ghost, throw a new light on the manner in which the 
 Samaritans regarded that arch-impostor ? (Acts viii. 10.) 
 " The great Power of God/' which was the title which 
 his followers bestowed on him would, in their language, 
 be no other than " Gabriel." 
 
 Page 269, note x . 
 
 " 3iD^D idem quod Ji^D fictum alicujus nomen quod 
 volumus esse occultum." Buxtorf. Lexicon. Calvin. 
 Praelect. xii. in Dan. " Hebrsei ssepe ita loquuntur, 
 Peloni Almoni, quum volunt dicere, quisquis sit. 
 Quum de loco incognito vel abscondito loquuntur, etiam 
 usurpant hanc formulam Peloni Almoni. Putant ergo 
 nomen hoc esse compositum ex his duobus verbis, et 
 multi ita interpretantur, quendam incognitum. Sed 
 videtur magis emphaticum esse hoc nomen. Quando 
 igitur de aliquo certo nunc agit, etiam vocat Palmoni 
 et etymologia nos hue ducet, nempe ad aliquod myste- 
 rium incomprehensibile : quis non videat hie notari 
 Christum, qui est Angelorum Caput, et vocatur etiam 
 n^D Jesaiae nono capite. Nomen quidem hoc est com- 
 positum, ut diximus, sed quoniam Pela Hebraeis signi- 
 ficat esse absconditum et Christus vocatur Pela, et Ju- 
 dicum etiam capite 3. Deus hoc nomen sibi vendicat 
 quod sit Pela, haec omnia optime respondent." 
 
 Page 270, note 7. 
 It may be possibly objected to the hypothesis of Ga- 
 
ON LECTURE IV. 295 
 
 briel's Divine nature, that he is described (Daniel viii. 
 13.) as asking information, and therefore not omni- 
 scient. To this it will be sufficient to answer, that the 
 question is not asked for his own sake, but for the 
 sake of Daniel, (compare John xi. 42.) And this is 
 also the opinion of Calvin, though he apprehended the 
 querist to be no more than a created angel. " Ange- 
 lus discere cupit intelligentiam hujus mysterii, non tarn 
 sua causa, quam totius ecclesiae." The circumstance, 
 however, contains, perhaps, a yet more mysterious les- 
 son; and may be best explained by a comparison of 
 the present passage with the words of Christ in John 
 xvi. 13. " The Spirit of truth shall not speak of him- 
 self, Whatsoever things he shall hear, he will speak, 
 and he will shew you things to come." 
 
 Page 27l ? note z . 
 
 Golius, ubi supra. Selden de Syned. 1. ii. p. 1243. 
 " Spiritum Sanctum per Angelum Gabriel sanctitatis 
 Spiritum interpretantur Doctores Mahumedani." 
 
 Page 275, note a . 
 
 The hypothesis which I have maintained has been, 
 with some variations, given by Coccejus, in his com- 
 mentary on Daniel, a work, which, I only know by the 
 feeble attempts of Witsius to answer it, Misc. Sacr. 
 p. 37. There is also an anonymous work, attributed to 
 Bishop Clayton, on the same subject; wherein the au- 
 thor carries the system to a much greater length than 
 I have done, or than the truth can bear, and endea- 
 vours to engraft on it some very erroneous conse- 
 quences. This latter treatise, however, I did not meet 
 with till after I had preached the foregoing Lecture. 
 Nor has it been of any advantage to me, excepting that 
 its obvious heresy induced me to reconsider more care- 
 fully my own opinions. 
 
 u 4 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 * JOHN xvi. 7- 
 
 If 1 go not away, the Comforter will not come ; 
 but if I depart y I will send him unto you. 
 
 iHE several dispensations have been al- 
 ready explained, whereby the Spirit of God 
 is represented, during the continuance of 
 the former Covenant, and during our Sa- 
 viour's earthly pilgrimage, as concurring 
 in the great designs of almighty Wisdom 
 and Mercy, and cooperating in the re- 
 demption of the world. 
 
 It yet remains that we inquire into the 
 nature of those benefits, which the family 
 of the Lord on earth are, since his depar- 
 ture, authorized to anticipate from the 
 advent of the Spirit of God ; in what man- 
 ner that awful Person has performed the 
 promise of the eternal Word, and by what 
 dispensation of mercy and of power he has 
 
 evinced 
 
298 LECTURE V. 
 
 evinced and still continues to evince him- 
 self the peculiar Comforter of Christians. 
 
 I call the Spirit of God our peculiar 
 Comforter, because (though, in all the 
 works of God, and in all his mercies how- 
 ever bestowed, there be doubtless, as we 
 have already observed, a correspondence 
 and general harmony ; and though no sin- 
 gle dispensation of his will, nor the privi- 
 leges of any man or caste of men, can 
 be conceived to be at variance with those 
 broader lines of almighty goodness which 
 are over every race of his creatures, and 
 have been displayed in every period of the 
 world's duration,) yet, in the name of a 
 Comforter, and in the act of his mission 
 to any peculiar class of beings, is the idea 
 conveyed of appropriate and exclusive pri- 
 vilege ; of a something which distinguishes 
 the favoured individuals from the general 
 condition of mankind, and from that which 
 had been their own condition before the 
 occurrence of the event described. 
 
 By a promise made to one definite ob- 
 ject all others are necessarily excluded : if 
 a province be conferred on Marcus by 
 
 name, 
 
LECTURE V. 299 
 
 name, it is apparent that Lentulus or Mes- 
 sala can expect no share in its government : 
 if we are told that the Almighty on mount 
 Sinai made a covenant with the children 
 of Israel, we understand immediately that 
 Moab and Amalek had no concern in such 
 particular transaction. 
 
 Accordingly, it is apparent that the com- 
 fort which the Spirit of God was, after the 
 decease of Christ and on Christ's behalf, 
 to confer on his orphan followers, must 
 have been of a nature in which not only 
 all the faithful, but the faithful alone were 
 to be partakers; something which should 
 distinguish the Church from all other ter- 
 restrial communities, and should separate, 
 with a broad and perceptible line of de- 
 marcation, the enlightened children of God 
 most High from the darkness of an un- 
 converted world. The gift, then, of the 
 Holy Ghost in his capacity of Paraclete, is 
 appropriate and peculiar to the followers 
 of our blessed Lord. 
 
 But, further, the promised comfort must 
 have been something of which the Disciples 
 themselves, to whom the assurance was 
 
 originally 
 
300 LECTURE V. 
 
 originally given, were not in previous pos- 
 session. Our Saviour does not speak of 
 it as of something which they should not 
 lose, but as of something which they were 
 thereafter to receive. It may be said, in- 
 deed, that the very terms of " coming," 
 and " visitation," and " mission," (though, 
 as applied to a Person who is already om- 
 nipresent, they can only be considered as 
 figurative and adapted to our earthly ca- 
 pacities,) in themselves imply and are in- 
 variably used to signify some distinct and 
 new manifestation of the power or mercy 
 of God. When it was promised, therefore, 
 that the Holy Ghost should visit the Dis- 
 ciples as a Comforter, they could do no 
 less than anticipate some certain advantage 
 which that advent should confer, some ad- 
 vantage which they had not before re- 
 ceived, and had, otherwise, no reason to 
 expect, either as men, or as Jews, or as 
 the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 And this becomes yet more evident when 
 we consider, that this visitation of God the 
 Holy Ghost was announced to the Disci- 
 ples as a compensation for the heavy mis- 
 fortune 
 
LECTURE V. 301 
 
 fortune which then impended over them, 
 the departure of their beloved Lord. The 
 coming of the Paraclete was to counter- 
 balance this affliction, and to counterba- 
 lance it so effectually as that, on this ac- 
 count alone, our Lord himself declared it 
 to be " expedient for them that he should 
 " go away/' But, that they should not 
 lose, by the departure of Christ, the ad- 
 vantages which they enjoyed before his 
 coming, or those which they had since re- 
 ceived from him, though it might be a 
 topic against the violence of despair, could 
 by no means be called a compensation. 
 For, that is a compensation only which we 
 receive in consequence of our loss; but 
 that which I either did or might enjoy 
 without any loss whatever, can with no 
 propriety of language be said to come to 
 me in consequence of my misfortunes, nor 
 (though the balance of good may, on the 
 whole, preponderate in my favour) to re- 
 pay me for what I have suffered. That 
 many other old and valuable friends are 
 left me, may soften, indeed, my grief for the 
 loss of one whom I love; but it cannot be 
 
 said, 
 
302 LECTURE V. 
 
 said, that my not being altogether forsaken 
 can make it expedient for me to lose a 
 friend. 
 
 It follows, that the compensation pro- 
 mised to Christians for the loss of their 
 Master's visible presence, must be an advan- 
 tage peculiar to Christians alone, and one 
 which the followers of Christ did not pos- 
 sess before the descent of the rushing migh- 
 ty wind at Pentecost. And, if I should 
 seem to have bestowed too tedious an ar- 
 gument on a point, apparently, so plain, 
 let it be remembered, that on these first 
 principles many truths may be found to 
 depend, which have been the subjects of 
 more arduous contest, and which possess 
 in themselves a more obvious and practical 
 interest. 
 
 To return, however, from this seeming 
 digression. It was observed in the preced- 
 ing Lecture, that through all the scheme 
 of man's salvation, as revealed to us in 
 the sacred Writings, so strongly is the 
 character displayed of a general and har- 
 monious analogy, that it was, a priori, rea- 
 sonable to expect that in the operations of 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE V. 303 
 
 the Spirit, during the developement and 
 conduct of the new dispensation, we should 
 find a connection and similarity with his 
 more conspicuous interpositions for the fur- 
 therance and completion of the old. 
 
 And such a correspondence is, even on a 
 hasty view, discernible between the tokens 
 of the divine favour and presence origin- 
 ally afforded in the tabernacle, and by 
 those which qualified the earliest teachers 
 of Christianity for the arduous service to 
 which they were ordained ; which enabled 
 them to maintain their Master's quarrel 
 against all the deeply rooted habits and in- 
 veterate ignorance of mankind, and sup- 
 ported them with a supernatural wisdom, 
 and a vigour not their own, under the 
 many and bitter trials which assailed their 
 faith and patience. 
 
 Thus, if the Schekinah descended in 
 cloud and fire to take possession of the 
 shrine appropriated to his service in the 
 ancient tabernacle, the Holy Ghost came 
 down with similar circumstances of wonder 
 and majesty, to signify in a visible manner 
 his approbation and protection of those 
 
 early 
 
304 LECTURE V. 
 
 early teachers of arid converts to the faith 
 of Christ, whose bodies were thenceforth, 
 in the expressive language of St. Paul, to 
 be his nobler and living sanctuaries *. 
 
 Did the face of Moses shine with re- 
 flected glory, when he returned from con- 
 versing with the God of Israel ? The same 
 angelic splendour adorned the Protomar- 
 tyr's countenance; when Stephen, in the 
 presence of his murderers, bare witness 
 to the resurrection and exaltation of his 
 Lordf. As Moses was permitted to enter 
 into the Holy of Holies, to receive, in that 
 figurative heaven, the commands of God ; 
 so was St. Paul, on a certain occasion, 
 caught up into paradise itself, to that ce- 
 lestial temple and holy place not made 
 by hands, of which the earthly edifice was 
 but a shadow. The gift of prophecy, which 
 was communicated, in Horeb, to the se- 
 venty elders of the Israelitish nation, was 
 not only equalled but greatly surpassed by 
 that fiery stream of power, which in the 
 
 * Exod. xl. 34. 2 Chron. vii. 2. Acts ii. 3. 1 Cor. 
 vi. 19. 
 
 f Exod. xxxiv. 22. Acts vi. 15. 
 
 earliest 
 
LECTURE V. 305 
 
 earliest days of the Messiah's kingdom was 
 poured out on the sons and daughters of 
 Jerusalem*: and we may advantageously 
 contrast with the tremendous and destruc- 
 tive evidences of God's presence which 
 were given under the ancient Covenant, 
 those miracles of blessing and of peace, 
 whereby the Apostles of Christ could raise 
 the dead, and cast out devils, and take up 
 serpents in their hands, and open the eyes 
 of the blind, and proclaim, in the proper 
 tongues of every kindred and nation and 
 people, the things which belonged unto 
 their eternal peace. 
 
 So striking, indeed, are the instances 
 recorded in the apostolic writings, in which 
 the miraculous and visible patronage of 
 God's Spirit was afforded to the orphan 
 Church of Christ, that it cannot reason- 
 ably excite our wonder, that some eminent 
 commentators should seek no further than 
 these extraordinary and temporary aids for 
 the accomplishment of our Saviour's pro- 
 mise ; and should recognize, in the powers 
 
 * Numbers vii. 89. 2 Cor. xii. 4. Numbers xi. 24, 
 Acts ii. 17. 
 
 x accorded 
 
306 LECTURE V. 
 
 accorded to the primitive teachers of the 
 Gospel, the whole of that comfort which 
 it was the office of the Paraclete to be- 
 stow a . 
 
 But notwithstanding the acknowledged 
 value of the advantages thus conferred, it 
 may be doubted, whether, great as they 
 were, they could have in themselves com- 
 pensated to the immediate followers of 
 Christ for the recent loss of their Master. 
 And it is certain that many are; entitled, 
 by the words of Christ, to a share in the 
 peculiar comfort of the Holy Ghost, to 
 whom these definite advantages have been 
 at no time accorded. 
 
 The promise, as we have seen in the 
 preceding Lecture, was not to the apostolic- 
 age alone, but to every succeeding gene- 
 ration of Christians from the death of the 
 Messiah to the moment of his triumphant 
 return. But though there be more, per- 
 haps, than a single church in Christendom, 
 which has not as yet explicitly abandoned 
 her pretensions to supernatural endow- 
 ment, yet by even those who still advance 
 such claims, the gifts of healing and of 
 
 exorcism 
 
LECTURE V. 307 
 
 exorcism are acknowledged to be enjoyed 
 by a very small number of individuals only; 
 and the general avowal of the several Pro- 
 testant sects, and the tacit admission of 
 the best and wisest individuals in the Greek 
 and Roman communions, evince at least 
 that, whatever exceptions may be pre- 
 tended to the general rule, and however 
 we may fail to fix the period at w 7 hich the 
 miraculous aids of our religion were with- 
 drawn, such miraculous aids have not been 
 for many ages vouchsafed to the preachers 
 of any Christian community. 
 
 Nor is that a sufficient answer by which 
 this objection is usually encountered ; the 
 answer, namely, that " the difference of 
 " situation and circumstance between the 
 " Christians of the present day and the 
 " original planters of our faith, has justi- 
 " fied the Almighty in withdrawing from 
 " the maturer growth of the tree of life 
 " those props and standards which were 
 " needful in her sapling condition : that 
 we have, at present, no occasion for su- 
 pernatural powers, and that therefore we 
 enjoy them no longer." 
 
 x 2 For, 
 
308 LECTURE V. 
 
 For, 1st, The fact itself on which this 
 argument reposes, that miracles are no 
 longer required for the progress of the 
 Christian faith, is one which, though it be 
 a favourite topic with the great majority 
 of apologists for the truth, is, nevertheless, 
 not easily to be defended. 
 
 There are many Christians at the pre- 
 sent day, and there have been many more 
 at every period since the cessation of su- 
 pernatural gifts, who have spent with little 
 fruit, but with a sincerity which it would ill 
 become us to impeach, their labours and 
 their lives in the instruction of Mohamme- 
 dans and Pagans. 
 
 But have not men like these occasionally 
 experienced a perplexing and a painful 
 want of supernatural credentials, in situa- 
 tions in which such credentials are most 
 especially needful and appropriate ? Or to 
 what other cause than the lack of such 
 apostolic endowments can v/e ascribe the 
 feeble advances of our faith in later times, 
 compared with that most rapid and 
 abundant stream of converts which flowed 
 in from all the corners of the world 
 
 on 
 
LECTURE V. 309 
 
 on the labours of the primitive mission- 
 aries ? 
 
 That miracles would now be useless, is a 
 conclusion which we have no right to draw 
 from the fact that they are seen no longer. 
 The dispensations of our almighty Father 
 are too full of mystery for us to determine, 
 whether he design the conversion of the 
 remaining Gentiles by the credit of those 
 recorded miracles which brought their first- 
 fruits to his altar ; or whether he may de- 
 fer a while, till the time of their ingather- 
 ing be come, those fresh manifestations of 
 his glory and power which are to enlighten 
 their uttermost darkness. 
 
 For the rarity of miracles a better reason 
 may, perhaps, be found, in the consider- 
 ation that, if they were common, they 
 would be miracles no longer. Those visible 
 pledges of God's interference which are 
 calculated in an especial manner to arouse 
 the attention of mankind, would, if often 
 repeated, excite no more attention than 
 the dawn and sunset, or the receding and 
 returning tide. They are restricted, there- 
 fore, by almighty Wisdom to those solemn 
 
 x 3 occurrences 
 
310 LECTURE V. 
 
 occurrences which are to be ever memora- 
 ble among men ; and not only may it be 
 said that such displays of power are won- 
 derful because they are rare, but that they 
 are therefore rare in order that they may 
 be wonderful. And, instead of urging that 
 miracles have ceased because they are no 
 longer needed, it may be said, perhaps, 
 with more conformity to truth, and, cer- 
 tainly, with as much humility, that God 
 in these later days has left us to ourselves, 
 that we may feel more perfectly our own 
 weakness, and our want of his assistance. 
 
 But, 2dly, If we should concede that 
 supernatural aids are now no longer needed, 
 as being superseded by the diffusion of 
 knowledge and the protection of Christian 
 Sovereigns ; though this, beyond a doubt, 
 would admirably justify the \vays of Pro- 
 vidence in ceasing to concede such powers 
 to men, provided their continuance were 
 a matter of free grace and favour ; yet, if 
 the grant of such powers to the Church be 
 the whole or even any essential part of the 
 promise made by Christ, the reasoning will 
 apply no longer. 
 
 For 
 
LECTURE V. 311 
 
 For that which is once promised is no 
 longer in the power of any one to give or 
 to withhold at pleasure. However free the 
 bounty may at first have been, the promise 
 is a covenant not to be dissolved without 
 the full concurrence of the recipient party : 
 and though his circumstances may have, 
 since, so completely altered, as no longer 
 to require our bounty; yet, if such a change 
 were not foreseen and provided for, or ta- 
 citly, at least, implied in the original na- 
 ture of our agreement, the promise may 
 itself be chargeable with improvidence, but 
 we cannot, with honour, dispense ourselves 
 from its full and fair fulfilment. 
 
 Nor, further, can it be said with truth, 
 that, in the present instance, the circum- 
 stances which were contemplated in the 
 original promise of a Comforter have at any 
 time ceased to operate. It was the blessing 
 of an infallible Guide, the guardianship of 
 a visible and incarnate Deity, the presence 
 of the Son of God himself, for which the 
 coming of the Paraclete was to compensate. 
 And, till the return of Christ to earth, and 
 so long as we no less than the Apostles are 
 x 4 mourners 
 
312 LECTURE V. 
 
 mourners for his absence, and for that 
 unequal state of worldly things which his 
 last great advent is to remedy, we are en- 
 titled, equally with the Apostles, to look 
 up with pious confidence for the same 
 comfort which, for the same reason, was 
 promised to us as to them. 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that a temporary 
 and partial benefit is by no means, in it- 
 self, an adequate fulfilment of a promise 
 made to every generation of the faithful, 
 and to each individual believer ; and it is 
 necessary, if we desire to evince the ac- 
 complishment of our Saviour's gracious 
 assurance, to understand it of some more 
 general and pervading benefit, in which 
 not the apostolic age alone, but every suc- 
 ceeding Christian either has or might have 
 partaken. 
 
 Accordingly, it has been supposed by 
 the great majority of commentators, that, 
 though the promise of our Saviour was 
 immediately and literally fulfilled to the 
 Apostles in the gift of those miraculous 
 powers which were necessary to their pe- 
 culiar situation, yet did it, in its implied 
 
 and 
 
LECTURE V. 313 
 
 .and secondary sense, extend to all be- 
 lievers, in the ordinary means of improve- 
 ment which the same good Spirit has never 
 ceased to bestow. And, when they are 
 further asked, in what peculiar blessings 
 we experience, in modern times, that pre- 
 sent and abiding Paraclete whom our Sa- 
 viour has promised to his Church? it has 
 been usual to refer us to those sacred in- 
 stitutions which are the outward badges of 
 our profession, as well as to that inward 
 grace by which only the external sign is 
 made available to our holiness here and 
 our endless happiness hereafter. 
 
 The presence of the Comforter has thus 
 been sought in the Sacraments of the Eu- 
 charist and of Baptism ; in the succession 
 of a Ministry apostolically ordained and 
 governed ; and, above all, in those secret 
 aids and blessed influences, which, from 
 the greater frequency of their occurrence, 
 and not from any supposed or real infe- 
 riority in their value, are distinguished from 
 the gifts of supernatural power and know- 
 ledge as the ordinary graces of the Holy 
 Ghost b . 
 
 And, 
 
314 LECTURE V. 
 
 And, by thus supposing that our Sa- 
 viour's promise has been fulfilled in dif- 
 ferent ways to different generations of his 
 people, our Protestant divines have ap- 
 peared to elude, with sufficient dexterity, 
 the opposing and almost equal difficulties 
 of admitting, on the one hand, the arro- 
 gant and superstitious claims of the Ro- 
 mish Hierarchy, and of confining, on the 
 other, to certain persons and periods only, 
 a comfort which was announced without 
 limitation, as the future privilege of all 
 believers in the Messiah. 
 
 Nor, if the compensation which the 
 Church was to receive had been described 
 by our Lord under the general name of 
 Grace or Comfort only, can it be denied, 
 that this solution of the difficulty would 
 have been recommended to our adoption 
 by very strong apparent reasons. 
 
 Both grace and comfort, if they are not 
 necessarily inherent in the washing of re- 
 generation and the Eucharistic bread and 
 wine, may, at least, be attained by a pro- 
 per use of these external means. Both 
 grace and comfort are dispensed to the 
 
 Church 
 
LECTURE V. 315 
 
 Church in the preaching of God's word by 
 his appointed messengers, and by the par- 
 don which, on his behalf, they announce 
 to the truly penitent. Both are in like 
 manner perceived to flow from those se- 
 cret aids to which the name itself of grace 
 is peculiarly and emphatically given ; those 
 aids which, as we believe, both prevent 
 and follow our every endeavour after ho- 
 liness; which, as preliminaries tQ conver- 
 sion, and as helps to perseverance, are ab- 
 solutely necessary to unlock the gate of 
 heaven to our entrance, or to support us 
 in our upward journey. 
 
 Had, then, our Saviour's w r ords amount- 
 ed to no more than a general assurance of 
 help and comfort to be, on his behalf, af- 
 forded by the Spirit of God, any spiritual 
 grace whatever might be regarded as suf- 
 ficient to discharge the debt of mercy to 
 which that promise made him liable. Or, 
 if the terms of the promise were suffici- 
 ently answered by those less brilliant aids, 
 which only are continued to these latter 
 ages of Christianity, it might be urged 
 with reason, that we have no ground to 
 
 complain. 
 
316 LECTURE V. 
 
 complain, if, when we ourselves receive 
 even a bare fulfilment of our Lord's assur- 
 ance, we beheld a more abundant mercy 
 exercised by God in the case of former 
 generations. While we ourselves have all 
 which was agreed upon, our " eye" must 
 not " be evil/' if the goodness of our 
 Master should, in other instances, " do 
 " what he will with his own." 
 
 Had the promise, then, been general, 
 we might, with the learned Hammond, 
 have readily acknowledged, that the com- 
 fort of the Paraclete is perpetual in the 
 Church, inasmuch as our external and in- 
 ternal exercises of devotion and piety owe 
 their value to his unseen fellowship ; nor 
 should I hesitate to reckon in the list of 
 his benefits, that continued protection amid 
 the changes and chances of the world, 
 whereby all things are made to work to- 
 gether for the benefit of those who love 
 the Son of God, and who hope for his 
 second appearance c . Of this providential 
 guardianship of the Church, its duration 
 through the various dangers of nineteen 
 centuries is in itself a proof, if other and 
 
 more 
 
LECTURE V. 317 
 
 more definite instances were wanting, which 
 might suflice to the ample confirmation 
 of our faith and justification of our gra- 
 titude. It is a guardianship, too, which, 
 from the testimonies collected in my last 
 discourse, we may, without, I trust, a cri- 
 minal presumption, ascribe to the especial 
 and definite agency of him, to whose ho- 
 nour these labours are devoted ; who is 
 the ruling Principle, by whom the Al- 
 mighty Father disposes of the fates and 
 fortunes of mankind ; in whose protection 
 the devout and innocent of every age and 
 country are partakers ; whose larger bounty 
 clothes the lilies of the field, and extends 
 the broad shield of omnipotence above the 
 sparrow's wing. 
 
 But though, in all these instances of 
 mercy and of power, we have sufficient 
 reason afforded us in Scripture to adore 
 the presence and the bounty of God's Spi- 
 rit; it is impossible to conceal from our- 
 selves that, so far as this particular pro- 
 mise is concerned, these instances are all 
 inapplicable. While the promise of a Com- 
 forter is made to all, its terms are too de- 
 finite 
 
318 LECTURE V. 
 
 finite to allow of such inequality in its dis- 
 tribution; and they are terms which, nei- 
 ther the institution of sacramental obser- 
 vances, nor the succession of an apostoli- 
 cal Ministry, nor the providential disposal 
 of worldly affairs in favour of the Church 
 of Christ, can properly be said to fulfil. 
 
 The Paraclete, whose advent our Sa- 
 viour foretold, (under which definite cha- 
 racter only we are now considering the 
 Holy Ghost,) the Paraclete was " to teach 
 " the Disciples all things, and bring all 
 " things to their memory, whatever Christ 
 " had spoken." As the Vicar of our Lord, 
 and the Advocate of the Christian cause, 
 he was to refute the calumnies to which 
 the Messiah's name had been exposed, 
 and to convict the world of sin in the 
 great controversy between God and his 
 creatures. He was " to guide" the faith- 
 ful " into all truth," and he was to " shew 
 " them things to come*." 
 
 Now it is plain that, any otherwise than 
 as significant and pious ceremonies, nei- 
 
 * John xiv. 26. xv. 26. xvi. 8, 13. 
 
 ther 
 
LECTURE V. 319 
 
 ther baptism nor the eucharist can be said 
 to teach us any thing. And, though it 
 be the office of Bishops and Presbyters to 
 instruct their weaker brethren, and to 
 guide them, so far as their own lights ex- 
 tend, into the knowledge of religious truth, 
 yet have not, in these latter ages of the 
 world, either Presbyters or Bishops any 
 peculiar source of knowledge, which is not 
 accessible to whichever of their hearers 
 shall bestow a similar time and labour in 
 its acquirement. And scniie instance must 
 be found, in which the Spirit of God in- 
 structs the Clergy themselves, as he in- 
 structed their apostolic predecessors, be- 
 fore they can be allowed to identify, as 
 the Apostles did of old, their canons with 
 the canons of the Holy Ghost; or to main- 
 tain, that it is by their agency, that the 
 protection and guidance of the Comforter 
 continue to be afforded to the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 But there is another and a yet more 
 convincing reason, why neither the sacra- 
 mental ordinances, nor the appointment 
 and succession of the Christian Ministry, 
 
 can 
 
320 LECTURE V. 
 
 can have been intended in our Saviour's 
 promise. They neither of them answer to 
 the character of peculiar privileges ; and 
 neither of them can, in point of fact, be 
 considered as emanating from the Holy 
 Ghost in his peculiar character of Para- 
 clete. 1. They are not peculiar nor dis- 
 tinctive marks of Christianity. The rites 
 of baptism and the eucharist (I need hardly 
 recall the circumstance to the memory of 
 my present audience) were ceremonies al- 
 ready not unknown to the Jews, and (ex- 
 cepting in their application to the Tri- 
 nity and the Christian Covenant) are ra- 
 ther to be considered as points, in which 
 the followers of Jesus continue to resem- 
 ble the house of Israel, than as features, 
 whereby we are distinguished from them d . 
 In like manner, the form of ordination, 
 which our Lord employed, the powers 
 conceded, and the duties imposed on the 
 elders of the New Covenant, were precisely 
 the same as, from the time of Moses down- 
 wards, had belonged to the Scribes and 
 Rabbins of the old e ; and it has been 
 doubted, by men whose opinions are en- 
 titled 
 
LECTURE V. 321 
 
 titled to no common attention, whether, 
 where Rabbinical imposition of hands had 
 been previously conferred in the syna- 
 gogue, any second ordination was required 
 or practised, in order to admit a convert 
 to the ministry of the apostolic Church f . 
 
 But whatever degree of weight we may 
 assign to this last hypothesis, (and the 
 foundation on which it stands is, doubtless, 
 too weak to support any very solid super- 
 structure,) it is certain, 2dly, that both the 
 sacramental ordinances, and the consecra- 
 tion of the Apostles to their pastoral of- 
 fice, were institutions of the Messiah him- 
 self before his final departure from the 
 world, and his triumphant return to the 
 Father. But this final departure, as is 
 evident from the tenor of our Saviour's 
 promise, was to precede the Holy Ghost's 
 great advent in his peculiar character of 
 Paraclete. And it is universally acknow- 
 ledged, that the completion of this pro- 
 mise did not, in fact, take place till the 
 day of Pentecost, nor till after the Apo- 
 stles had repeatedly partaken in the spi- 
 ritual benefits, whatever they are, which 
 arise from the eucharistic banquet ? , and 
 
 v hncl. 
 
322 LECTURE V. 
 
 had, in the ordination of St. Matthias, as 
 one of their number, proceeded to the 
 most solemn exercise possible, of their 
 Rabbinical or Episcopal function h . It fol- 
 lows, therefore, that the benefit, which the 
 Spirit of God was to dispense to the Church 
 as its Paraclete, and as the Vicar of the 
 Messiah, was something distinct from the 
 powers communicated to the Apostles of 
 guiding and governing the flock of Christ, 
 or from our mystical fellowship with the 
 same good Spirit in ordination or the 
 sacraments. 
 
 To that circumstance of the hypothesis, 
 indeed, which recognizes the Holy Ghost 
 as Patron and Comforter of the Church, 
 in his providential guidance and protec- 
 tion of its temporal interests, the above 
 objections do not, with equal force, apply. 
 This protection, which, while Christ was 
 yet in the world, he himself afforded to 
 his followers, has since, apparently, been 
 afforded by that Spirit of God, which, in 
 elder times, made the mountains plain be- 
 fore the counsels of Zerubbabel* ; and such 
 
 * Zechariah iv. 6, J. 
 
 protection 
 
LECTURE V. 323 
 
 protection so perfectly answers to the ge- 
 neral character implied by the word n**- 
 xA>/ro<r, that I should not, perhaps, have 
 sought elsewhere for the accomplishment 
 of our Saviour's promise, if it were not for 
 the consideration, 1st, That the departure 
 of Christ was not compensated for by the 
 mere continuance of that protection from 
 the third Person in the Trinity, which the 
 Apostles had already, in yet more ample 
 measure, received from the second in that 
 awful union ; 2dly, That the terms of the 
 promise under consideration have no re- 
 ference, direct or implied, to the temporal 
 and providential guardianship of the Chris- 
 tian community. The providential govern- 
 ment and protection of the Church is not, 
 then, that particular dispensation of mercy 
 or power, whereby the assurance of our Lord 
 is, in these latter days, accomplished. 
 
 Let us proceed, then, to consider, how 
 far its characters correspond with those in- 
 ternal and ordinary influences of the Spi- 
 rit, by whose fertilizing dews our hearts 
 are softened, and by their mild and gen- 
 tle beams ameliorated and subdued ; which 
 
 Y 2 console 
 
324 LECTURE V. 
 
 console us under the evils, and correct us 
 amid the dangerous prosperity of the 
 world ; which direct our choice to happi- 
 ness and strengthen our resolution in the 
 pursuit of that which we have chosen; 
 which rouse us by their wholesome ter- 
 rors from the swinish lethargy of sin, and 
 rebuke in our awakened soul the no less 
 fatal whispers of despair. 
 
 And we shall do well, in this inquiry, to 
 employ no common share of attention and 
 accuracy, on account both of the extreme 
 importance of the practical results which 
 it involves, and of the opposite and fatal 
 errors to which an inaccurate conception 
 of the benefits conferred by the Spirit of 
 God, have conducted the enthusiast and 
 the unbeliever. 
 
 For with unbelievers the modern Soci- 
 cian will, in this respect, be, not unjustly, 
 reckoned; inasmuch as (disdaining the ti- 
 mid dissent of his more cautious and more 
 learned predecessors of the Rakovian and 
 Batavian schools) he has denied not only 
 the personal existence of Him to whose 
 peculiar agency we ascribe the gift of 
 
 grace, 
 
LECTURE V. 325 
 
 grace, but that gift itself, by whomsoever 
 dispensed, from which our strength pro- 
 ceeds, and on which our hopes of triumph 
 are founded. 
 
 Those illapses of blessedness, that hal- 
 lowed intercourse with God which unites 
 our Spirit to the Eternal Mind, and which 
 renews the brilliance of our borrowed flame 
 by approaching it to that source of living 
 light whence first its stream proceeded ; 
 that life of God in the human soul, which, 
 in every age of Christianity, has cheered 
 the labours of the saint, and revived the 
 hopes of the penitent, is discarded by the 
 modern reformers of our faith, as the 
 dream of enthusiastic self-conceit, the hy- 
 perbole of Monks and Plalonists. It may, 
 therefore, be advisable, before we consi- 
 der the connection of those aids with the 
 particular promise now under considera- 
 tion, to shew, that such aids are really 
 afforded ; and to extricate the definition, 
 which is given of them by the Church, 
 from the confused and contradictory cir- 
 cumstances with which they have been 
 described by indiscreet religionists, and 
 
 Y 3 which, 
 
326 LECTURE V. 
 
 which, more, perhaps, than any other 
 cause, have led the Deist and Unitarian 
 altogether to deny their existence. 
 
 The influence, therefore, of which we 
 now are speaking, is not supposed by ra- 
 tional believers to convey any fresh ideas 
 intuitively to the mind, nor to encroach, 
 even in the smallest degree, on the bounds 
 of miracle or prophecy. 
 
 Though distinct, in itself, from all ex- 
 ternal sources of knowledge and improve- 
 ment, it is from a reference to the know- 
 ledge acquired by such means that its 
 practical advantage is derived : it is a 
 blessing whereby our learning, our pains, 
 and our prayers, are sanctified to our in- 
 struction and salvation, not, in itself, a 
 substitute for prayer or pains or learn- 
 ing. 
 
 But though such aids and such exer- 
 tions are not hereby dispensed with, yet, 
 without this gracious influence, such out- 
 ward helps can, as we believe, avail us 
 nothing. Without that holy energy, which 
 it is in the bosom of God to grant or to 
 withhold, we may vainly study the evi- 
 dences 
 
LECTURE V. 327 
 
 deuces of religion, and vainly aspire to 
 shew forth in our practice the lessons of 
 holiness which our outward ears have im- 
 bibed. Where Grace is wanting we have 
 neither power nor effectual will to raise 
 our affections beyond the narrow circle of 
 mortality; nor, having once assented to 
 the hopes and precepts of religion, to re- 
 tain those hopes and precepts in our minds 
 as a pervading and triumphant principle 1 . 
 This power, then, of desiring, and (so far 
 as guilty but repentant creatures can de- 
 serve it) of deserving future glory, we 
 ascribe to the immediate agency of a ce- 
 lestial Spirit on the soul. 
 
 I say, his immediate agency ; because, as 
 the first and universal principle of nature, 
 and as, on a fixed and general system, 
 dispensing by his will all secondary causes, 
 not only the Unitarian but the philoso- 
 phic Theist will probably allow that our 
 ideas, our motives, and our affections, are 
 regulated by the will and permission of 
 the Almighty. 
 
 But, that effect which they ascribe to 
 God through the instrumentality of second 
 
 y 4 causes. 
 
328 LECTURE V. 
 
 causes and the objects of bodily percep- 
 tion, we are taught by Scripture to im- 
 pute to a primary and purely intellectual 
 intercourse, which differs only from those 
 aids which were afforded to the ancient 
 Prophets in the comparative frequency of 
 its illapses, and the subject-matter of its 
 communication. A grace it is, which, as 
 distinguished from the inspiration of su- 
 pernatural knowledge and power, may be 
 defined, perhaps, without impropriety, as 
 the inspiration of religious feeling and re- 
 collection. 
 
 That an intercourse of this kind may 
 exist to any conceivable extent between 
 the Maker of the w r orld and his creatures, 
 will be admitted, I apprehend, by all rea- 
 sonable Theists, to rank, at least, in the 
 number of those moral possibilities, which 
 may be received as facts, on the produc- 
 tion of sufficient evidence. 
 
 The Theist will allow, that it is as pos- 
 sible that the Supreme Being should di- 
 rect our minds by an immediate act of 
 his will to the perception of certain im- 
 portant inferences from those objects which 
 
 are 
 
LECTURE V. 329 
 
 are offered to our senses, as that the ob- 
 jects themselves should be so modified by 
 his disposal, as to produce the same con- 
 catenation of ideas as their natural and 
 inevitable result. And if the Theist be 
 not also a Materialist ; if he have suffici- 
 ently considered the circumstances of our 
 intellectual nature, and the probability 
 that those powers which have no ima- 
 ginable connection with the body, belong 
 to something distinct from it, he may ad- 
 mit, that we can form, at least, a notion 
 as clear of the manner in which one in- 
 tellectual being can make an impression 
 on another, as of the manner in which 
 body and mind can exert a mutual influ- 
 ence. He may acknowledge that it is at 
 least as possible that God should, occa- 
 sionally, communicate with the souls of 
 his creatures, as that he should, sometimes, 
 affect their material composition. 
 
 Nor will the materialism of our mo- 
 dern Unitarians prevent their perceiving 
 that, in the same manner as the Almighty 
 infused into the organic intellect of the 
 ancient Prophets a supernatural acquaint- 
 ance 
 
330 LECTURE V. 
 
 ance with truths unknown before; he may, 
 whenever he sees fitting, and by whatever 
 process, infuse into ourselves a clearer 
 perception or a seasonable recollection of 
 those truths which are revealed already. 
 Against the possibility, therefore, of our 
 hypothesis, there is nothing which can be 
 reasonably objected, while all which has 
 yet been urged against its probability or 
 certainty may be reduced to the follow- 
 ing assertions : that an interference of this 
 nature is one of which we have no dis- 
 tinct experience; that it is unnecessary, 
 inasmuch as the phenomena ascribed to 
 it may be resolved from other causes, and 
 that it is no where revealed in Scripture. 
 
 To the first of these objections an an- 
 swer is hardly necessary, inasmuch as we 
 are justified, on every principle of reason 
 and revelation, in inferring the reality of 
 an operation from its perceptible effect, 
 even where the act and its agent are, by 
 our present faculties, indistinguishable. But 
 the existence of those effects which we as- 
 cribe to grace, the conception, namely, of 
 holy thoughts, and the kindling of religious 
 
 affections, 
 
LECTURE V. 331 
 
 affections, is fortunately, in itself, no mat- 
 ter of controversy ; and, of the only con- 
 ceivable operations by which this effect 
 can be produced, the one being as possi- 
 ble, at least, as the other, it is a question 
 which remains to be decided by their re- 
 spective evidence, which of the two is most 
 probable. 
 
 We are told, however, in the second 
 place, that the habits of Christian faith 
 and virtue may be acquired like any other 
 habits whatever ; that it is by evidence and 
 not by feeling that we have been originally 
 converted to the faith ; and that the same 
 conviction of the importance and truth of 
 Christianity which a due consideration of 
 those evidences will engender, is sufficient 
 to enforce its doctrines on our practice 
 without any other or supernatural assist- 
 ance. It is urged, that in worldly interests, 
 we are enabled to postpone the less to the 
 greater advantage without calling down the 
 Holy Ghost from heaven to strengthen us 
 in our resolution ; and that there is no 
 more necessity for his assistance to make 
 the scale preponderate in favour of virtue 
 
 against 
 
332 LECTURE V. 
 
 against vice, than on the side of worldly 
 ambition or avarice against the temptations 
 of sloth and sensuality. 
 
 Whatever, it has been said, either from 
 prejudice or conviction, is regarded as the 
 chief earthly good of man, will be pur- 
 sued, for the most part, with sufficient 
 steadiness, notwithstanding all seduction 
 from other and interfering objects. And 
 if we are but as well convinced that the 
 promises and threatenings of Christianity 
 are true as we are that renown and 'wealth 
 will, in this world, yield us happiness, we 
 shall find our natural perceptions of good 
 and evil, and our natural recollection of 
 principles before received, no less sufficient 
 to perseverance in our pursuit of endless 
 life, than we find them now sufficient to 
 support and stimulate our labours after 
 transitory happiness. 
 
 But, where supernatural influences are 
 not required, we cannot reasonably expect 
 to receive them ; and it is therefore, we 
 are told, improbable and unphilosophical 
 to resort to a special interposition of the 
 Almighty, where the same effect may be 
 
 reasonably 
 
LECTURE V. 333 
 
 reasonably ascribed to natural and exter- 
 nal causes. 
 
 I have stated this objection with all the 
 force of which it is fairly susceptible, though 
 it will be observed that much of its appa- 
 rent plausibility in the writings of our re- 
 ligious opponents arises from the dextrous 
 use of two particular epithets, the epithets 
 of " supernatural" and " especial." 
 
 In a certain sense these terms are, doubt- 
 less, applicable to whatever is not effected 
 by our own bodily or mental powers, or 
 by that chain of external causes which be- 
 long to the visible and material world. It 
 is plain, however, that in their popular and 
 usual sense of rare and miraculous inter- 
 ference, they are no more applicable to 
 that influence which we suppose the Al- 
 mighty ordinarily and usually to exert on 
 the souls of men, than that which our ad- 
 versaries are willing to confess he in the 
 visible world, and through the medium of 
 material agents, exercises on our nerves 
 and senses. 
 
 In the definition itself which is usually 
 given of these spiritual interferences, we 
 
 call 
 
334 LECTURE V. 
 
 call them " the ordinary graces of the Holy 
 " Ghost;" and (if the Holy Ghost have 
 been correctly stated, in a former Lecture, 
 to be the directing and sustaining Pro- 
 vidence of the world) these ordinary graces 
 may, for all which yet appears, extend as 
 widely and act with no less conformity to 
 the general rules of the Almighty's govern- 
 ment, than the annual return of the sea- 
 sons or the rising and setting sun. 
 
 Nor, if mind can act on body as well as 
 body on mind, is it possible for us to say 
 to what extent, in the ordinary affairs of 
 life, and in matters which are only inci- 
 dentally connected with religion, the go- 
 vernment of the world itself may be carried 
 on by a similar influence, and the Spirit of 
 the Most High be, more or less, continu- 
 ally present, to direct our attention and 
 determine our choice between the various 
 motives which contend around us for the 
 preference, and the various lines of action 
 to which those motives point the way. The 
 grace, then, of which we speak, may be, 
 in truth, a constituent part of the most 
 extensive and important of all our Maker's 
 
 dispen- 
 
LECTURE V. 335 
 
 dispensations ; of that inspecting, namely, 
 and corrective care whence the moral world 
 derives its power of controlling and con- 
 quering the material creation, and by which 
 and through which all things work toge- 
 ther for the welfare of those who love 
 him. 
 
 And this may shew the childish weak- 
 ness of an objection advanced by the same 
 person to whose works I have already fre- 
 quently referred ; that " the agency which 
 " is ascribed to God by the sacred Writers 
 " extends to evil as well as to good;" 
 that " it hardens the heart of Pharaoh as 
 " well as opens that of Lydia, and therefore 
 " it is a general and not a particular influ- 
 ence;" and that, "consequently, the 
 popular language of the sacred Writers 
 by no means authorizes the conclu- 
 " sion, that God ever interposes superna- 
 " turally to produce moral effects on the 
 " world*." 
 
 If it be possible to distribute this elabo- 
 rate argument according to the usual rules 
 
 * Belsham, Review of Wilberforce, p. 60. 
 
 of 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
336 LECTURE V. 
 
 of logical precision, it would form, per- 
 haps, the following syllogism. 
 
 Both good and evil are ascribed in Scrip- 
 ture to the influence of God. 
 
 But we cannot impute evil to his par- 
 ticular influence. 
 
 Therefore, the influence which produces 
 good is not particular, but general. 
 
 Now in this argument there are the fol- 
 lowing radical errors. First, The Unita- 
 rian notions of Scripture must, surely, be 
 very different from those which, with the 
 Orthodox, render that sacred Volume the 
 guide of our lives and our comfort in the 
 hour of dissolution, if they suppose that 
 any action really and intrinsically evil is 
 therein ascribed to the influence of the Al- 
 mighty. Undoubtedly, the example which 
 Mr. Belsham produces is by no means suf- 
 ficient to give rise to an imputation so 
 horrible. The sentence of judicial blind- 
 ness and abandonment pronounced on the 
 Egyptian tyrant is not in itself more incon- 
 sistent with the goodness of our heavenly 
 Governor, than any other dispensation by 
 which an incorrigible offender is doomed 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE V. 337 
 
 to shame and suffering for the advantage 
 and instruction of the world ; or by which 
 the same offender, after sentence has fi- 
 nally gone forth, is prevented from escap- 
 ing his danger. By those who recollect 
 the opinion of the ancient Jews as to the 
 seat of the rational faculties, to " harden 
 " the heart" is readily understood to be 
 nothing else than to confuse the under- 
 standing. But surely, when a criminal 
 is reserved for exemplary punishment, it 
 matters little, so far as the individual is 
 concerned, whether the fetters be on his 
 body or his mind ; whether he be detained 
 in the captivity of an earthly dungeon, or 
 in the labyrinth of prejudice and foolish 
 hope ; whether repentance be rendered 
 vain and escape impossible by the pressure 
 of external circumstances ; or whether the 
 yet more awful spectacle be displayed, of 
 rendering the sinner his own executioner, 
 and of depriving (as God is said to do, not 
 only by Jewish, but by heathen moralists) 
 those miserable persons of their natural 
 prudence, whom for their crimes he pur- 
 poses to destroy. The hardening, then, of 
 
 z Pharaoh's 
 
338 LECTURE V. 
 
 Pharaoh's heart may be ascribed (as Mo- 
 ses, doubtless, does ascribe it) to an imme- 
 diate and particular interposition of Provi- 
 dence, without any even the smallest im- 
 putation on the goodness and wisdom of 
 the Most High. 
 
 Secondly, I will not insist, (as, never- 
 theless, it were easy for me to do,) that 
 the distinction supposed in the minor pro- 
 position between general and particular 
 providence, when applied to a Being by 
 whom not only the principles of his laws, 
 but the detail of their consequences is 
 known, is altogether futile and unphiloso- 
 phical. For, 
 
 Thirdly, Though we should admit, (which 
 has not as yet been proved,) that the mo- 
 ral evil which exists in the world takes its 
 rise from God's appointment ; and though 
 we should also admit that its particular in- 
 stances flowed from some general law of 
 his government, of which the consequences 
 to individuals were, by the Lawgiver, over- 
 looked or unknown ; yet still it would by 
 no means follow, that the same analogy 
 will hold with all the particular instances 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE V. 339 
 
 of good which occur in the world's admi- 
 nistration. 
 
 If a machine be employed to answer a 
 general purpose, are we forbidden, with 
 our own hands, to extricate any unfortu- 
 nate insect which may have become en- 
 tangled in its wheels ? If not, then surely, 
 though we were to seek the cause of Pha- 
 raoh's obstinacy in the general operation 
 of external circumstances, yet might the 
 humble faith of the Roman centurion in 
 the Gospel, and the candid attention of 
 Lydia as recorded in the Acts, be regard- 
 ed as especial interferences of their eternal 
 Guardian, to deliver them from the natural 
 but fatal effects of early prejudice, or na- 
 tional and official pride. 
 
 But, Fourthly, I am loth to impute to 
 our adversaries the practical Epicurism of 
 those who would teach that, the machine 
 of events once set in motion, the agency 
 of the Almighty is at an end. They will 
 not, I trust, maintain, that the sabbath of 
 Providence has lasted since man was fram- 
 ed, and that, without any sustaining or 
 superintending care of that goodly engine 
 
 z 2 which 
 
340 LECTURE V. 
 
 which he has contrived, our Father lias 
 left his creatures to float at random down 
 the current of circumstances, and to draw 
 out our blanks and prizes of vice or vir- 
 tue, happiness or misery, as the wheel* of 
 events turns round. With such an error 
 the Socinians are not, I trust, infected ; 
 since they admit, in w r ords at least, that an 
 influence or energy of the Almighty " is 
 " exerted in every event of life, according 
 " to certain rules which God has pre- 
 " scribed to himself*." 
 
 But would they reduce this energy to 
 a merely colourless fluid, which takes its 
 tint of good or evil from the subjects on 
 which it is successively or severally exerted? 
 Or can they conceal from themselves, that 
 such an influence as is here described is 
 equivalent to no influence at all ? Or what 
 definition can these philosophical inquirers 
 produce of that which they call a general 
 providence, if it be not a succession of 
 particular interferences; an influence by 
 certain means and in certain cases exerted, 
 
 * Belsham, ubi supra, p. 59. 
 
 whereby 
 
LECTURE V. 341 
 
 whereby the course of events is varied in 
 our favour, or in order to our punishment, 
 from that natural succession which, without 
 such interference, would have followed ? 
 
 Were it otherwise, all prayer were vain, 
 whether for temporal deliverance in this 
 world, or salvation in the world to come ; 
 and, if vain, superstitious, then, and abo- 
 minable. For prayer, in its very essence, 
 implies that the object sought for is as 
 yet uncertain ; that it is something which 
 we fear to lose, unless it were asked for 
 earnestly from God; something which God 
 may continue to withhold notwithstanding 
 all our warmest devotions, but which with- 
 out such devotions we cannot reasonably 
 hope to obtain. 
 
 It were an impious flattery of our Maker 
 to entreat at his hands those blessings which, 
 whether we prayed for them or no, would 
 be given or withheld indifferently ; and, if 
 it be true indeed that " time and chance 
 " come alike to all the sons of men *," 
 our Master has but laid on us a fruit- 
 
 * Eccl. ix. 11. 
 
 z 3 less 
 
342 LECTURE V. 
 
 less labour in enjoining us to ask for daily 
 bread, for peace, for deliverance from evil. 
 But if a special interference be in any 
 case admissible, is it not, at least, as pro- 
 bable that such divine interposition takes 
 place by mental as by external influence ? 
 Is it not as easy to believe that our thoughts 
 are turned to such among the surrounding 
 objects, as, properly employed, may con- 
 duce to our advantage, as to expect that 
 the course of external events shall be on 
 our account superseded, or that the pro- 
 perties of the material world are continually 
 altered by our prayers ? There have been 
 those, (we are taught by an authority 
 which no Unitarian has, as yet, expressly 
 ventured to deny,) there have been those 
 who " were saved from their distress when 
 " they cried unto the Lord in trouble ;" 
 and it is a question which may teach us, 
 at least, humility in our speculative inqui- 
 ries, whether they were thus delivered by 
 the gift of internal light to avoid their dan- 
 ger, or by the abatement of the dangerous 
 objects themselves. 
 
 * Psalm cvii. 1ft. 
 
 And 
 
LECTURE V. 343 
 
 And if those assertions be correct, which 
 in so many passages of Scripture impute 
 to celestial inspiration not our virtues only, 
 but our temporal endowments and pros- 
 perity k ; are we blamed for suspecting that 
 the grace which softens our hearts to the 
 impressions of goodness, and which pre- 
 serves those lessons once inscribed there 
 from the dangers of neglect or temptation, 
 that this grace (so far from being an ano- 
 maly in our Maker's government) is, per- 
 haps, the most conspicuous, and surely 
 the most important instance in which that 
 parental love is manifested, which, as it 
 first created, still continues to sustain the 
 universal frame of nature ? 
 
 Should we concede then to the objec- 
 tion of our adversaries, that the habits of 
 religion and virtue are acquired like all 
 other laudable and useful habits, (for every 
 habit of mental exertion, unless when ill 
 directed, is useful, doubtless, and lauda- 
 ble,) it will by no means follow, that the 
 agency of the Holy Ghost is not displayed 
 in the particular instances of repentance 
 and regeneration. The concession may 
 z 4 teach 
 
344 LECTURE V. 
 
 teach us rather to adore his presence in a 
 yet wider range of influence than that 
 which is generally ascribed to him, and to 
 beseech his blessing not only on our alms- 
 deeds and our prayers, but on every other 
 useful and innocent pursuit in which we 
 are occupied. Thrice happy then when all 
 our toils and objects are such as he may 
 favour ! 
 
 Unhappily, however, it will appear on 
 farther inquiry, that the improvement of the 
 heart is, indeed, attended with more and 
 greater difficulties than any other pursuit 
 or occupation ; difficulties so peculiar, as 
 to demand at every step a stronger arm 
 than human resolution can supply to sup- 
 port and rein our progress. 
 
 Those worshippers of nature who, with 
 so much eloquence, maintain that our in- 
 nate tendency is, on the whole, to truth 
 and goodness, forget that every act of real 
 virtue implies a degree of self-control, 
 and that every vice is, in itself, an act of 
 indulgence. But, is that condition natu- 
 ral which is accompanied by labour and 
 pain? or can that be considered as any 
 
 thing 
 
LECTURE V. 345 
 
 thing else than an innate propensity to evil, 
 to which our bodily constitution inclines 
 us? Do we paint our w r ay to hell as any 
 other than a smooth and downward pas- 
 sage ? or, are we so constituted by nature 
 as, like Milton's angels, to ascend with 
 greater facility than we fall ? 
 
 It is no solid objection to these fatal 
 truths to observe, as has been observed 
 by ancient as well as modern sophistry, 
 that " the childhood of man is playful and 
 " comparatively harmless;" that " no man 
 " has, at once, attained the summit of 
 " wickedness ;" that " there is, on the 
 " whole, less vice than virtue in the 
 " world;" that " we are what God creat- 
 " ed us." 
 
 The first of these is a privilege which we 
 possess in common with the wildest and 
 most ferocious animals ', and that the pro- 
 gress of vice is, in maturer manhood, gra- 
 dual, may be accounted for from very dif- 
 ferent causes than a natural preference of 
 virtue. 
 
 It will be recollected, that from our ear- 
 liest years, we have all been in a state of 
 
 severe 
 
346 LECTURE V. 
 
 severe and unceasing discipline ; that, even 
 with those who have been most indulged 
 in their youth and infancy, the habit of 
 obedience to form and the restraint of na- 
 tural inclination has been induced to a de- 
 gree, which in the case of no other animal 
 but man is practised or practicable ; that 
 the control of his passions, in a greater or 
 less degree, is taught, for their own ease and 
 safety, to every child by his parents, and is 
 enforced in every youth by the strong arm 
 of public opinion and public authority. 
 From these restraints emancipation cannot 
 be instantaneous; and so long as any vestige 
 of such chains continues, the recollection of 
 past or the fear of future punishment must 
 necessarily embitter the guilty draught, 
 and strew with thorns the bed of sensual 
 pleasure. The chained lion who has torn 
 a passenger may tremble lest his keeper 
 should return while he devours his surrep- 
 titious booty ; but will any doubt that the 
 taste of blood is sweet to him ? Let them 
 try the experiment, and restore him to his 
 savage freedom ! 
 
 Though it be true then, which I am not 
 
 inclined 
 
LECTURE V. 347 
 
 inclined to deny, that the first indulgence 
 in. forbidden things is accompanied with 
 doubt and alarm ; and though it were 
 proved, which I would to God it were pos- 
 sible to prove satisfactorily, that the ba- 
 lance of good in the present stage of our 
 existence predominates over evil ; yet 
 would neither the one nor the other of 
 these admissions affect the general truth of 
 our position, that we are by nature prone 
 to evil. Both the one and the other are 
 sufficiently accounted for by that state of 
 social restraint, which, though it be uni- 
 versal, cannot be regarded as natural ; and 
 still more, perhaps, may both be referred 
 to the ameliorating influence of that Spirit, 
 to whose blessing, if our faith be true, the 
 Christian should attribute every victory 
 which he gains over himself and his selfish 
 passions. 
 
 That we are as God created us, (though 
 so far from being an axiom in revealed or 
 natural religion it has been denied, both in 
 ancient and in modern times, by some of 
 the wisest assertors of both,) that we are 
 as God created us, I am qot myself dis- 
 posed 
 
348 LECTURE V. 
 
 posed to deny. Without attempting, on 
 the present occasion, to penetrate that 
 mysterious veil which hangs over the ori- 
 ginal state of man, or the nature and ne- 
 nessary consequences of that offence which 
 was so severely visited on his posterity, it is 
 plain, that how great soever were the pri- 
 vileges which Adam lost by his transgres- 
 sions, yet, whatever propensities to evil we 
 individually bring with us into the world, 
 we bring, at least, by his permission, by 
 whose hands we are made and fashioned. 
 
 But will it follow from hence, that God 
 has created man perfect, or that the na- 
 ture which he has given us is any other- 
 wise good than as it answers a definite 
 purpose ? Is it not possible, at least, that 
 the All wise may have made us weak in 
 order that we might learn humility ? That 
 he may have created us prone to sin, and 
 to all the wretched consequences which 
 are the natural effect of such a propensity, 
 in order that we might taste a purer hap- 
 piness in those sensations of joy and grati- 
 tude which are excited by deliverance and 
 mercy, than can ever be the lot of that 
 
 hopeless 
 
LECTURE V. 349 
 
 hopeless and fearless content which be- 
 longs to an impeccable being ? What if 
 the universal good be more effectually 
 consulted by the permission of partial evil ? 
 And may not the sin and wretchedness of 
 the present world be a necessary feature in 
 the vast scheme of that Providence, whose 
 paternal care extends through infinite space 
 and time ? Of physical mischief we can 
 discern the beneficial consequence; why 
 may not moral ill conduce to results yet 
 more glorious ? 
 
 But, fathomless as are the depths of 
 God's Providence in the permission of evil 
 at all, its existence is, unfortunately, no 
 matter of doubtful speculation. Whether 
 our natural corruption be deduced from 
 Adam's offence alone, or whether the pro- 
 pensity to sin existed in our first parents 
 .themselves, before it was called into action 
 by the tempter, our sinful nature is a mat- 
 ter of daily experience ; and though we 
 cannot cease to wonder why such things 
 are allowed to be, we cannot, if we are 
 accurate observers, permit ourselves to 
 doubt that such things really are. 
 
 And 
 
66 
 
 " 
 
 350 LECTURE V. 
 
 And though we should ascribe to igno- 
 rance or prejudice the bitter complaints 
 which the contemplation of human weak- 
 ness has elicited from the heathen moralists ; 
 though we should refuse to acknowledge 
 with the Grecian Poet, that " the majority 
 " are always wicked/' or to complain with 
 Ovid's Medea that " while we see and ap- 
 " prove the better course, we are urged by 
 a necessity of our nature to follow that 
 which we ourselves detest and depre- 
 cate;" we may admit, nevertheless, that 
 some degree of credit is due to Isaiah, to 
 Jeremiah, to the Psalmist, and to St. Paul, 
 when they severally lament the itnpiety 
 and ferocity of their contemperaries, when 
 they teach us that the feet of man are 
 swift to shed blood, and his heart deceit- 
 ful and desperately wicked ; that the in- 
 habitants of the world have turned aside 
 together from following after God ; that 
 the carnal mind is enmity with him, and 
 neither is nor can be subject to his 
 law*. 
 
 * Isaiah Ix. 2. Jeremiah xvii. 9. Psalm xiv. 3. Ro- 
 mans viii. 6. 
 
 And, 
 
LECTURE V. 351 
 
 And, that our human resolution is, with- 
 out celestial aid, sufficient to preserve us, 
 notwithstanding these natural propensities, 
 in the paths of virtue, can by no means be 
 inferred from the circumstance that these 
 propensities are daily conquered or sup- 
 pressed in the pursuit of worldly advan- 
 tages. 
 
 For, though the motives for self-control 
 which true religion offers are, doubtless, of 
 more momentous interest than any which 
 this world can supply, it may admit of 
 rational and serious doubt, whether the 
 proximity of the latter and the more dis- 
 tinct and vivid colouring which, in conse- 
 quence of that proximity, they offer to the 
 mental view, do not more, much more 
 than counterbalance the awful but remoter 
 prospects of death and judgment and an 
 eternal Being. 
 
 It is the faintness of that sensation which 
 hope presents, when compared with that 
 which actually affects our bodily organs, 
 which constitutes, in every pursuit of life, 
 the difficulty of postponing present to con- 
 tingent happiness ; and this faintness will 
 
 be 
 
352 LECTURE V. 
 
 be found to increase in exact proportion 
 as the object recedes into futurity. And 
 as every one who lives is disposed to think 
 that of all his prospects death and its con- 
 sequences are most distant, it is probable 
 that (however powerful in themselves to 
 move our hope or fear may be those ob- 
 jects which such a prospect offers) their 
 distance or fancied distance will often leave 
 them less efficacy to compel our attention 
 than those expectations of earthly praise 
 or prosperity, which, though of value far 
 inferior, appear at least to promise a more 
 speedy return. 
 
 Nor can it be concealed that the con- 
 viction which we actually feel of those 
 most awful truths which are the sanctions 
 of religious principle, is, from the nature 
 of things, of a fainter kind than that which 
 we possess of earthly comfort or applause 
 or misery. We have beard or read of hell 
 or heaven, but we have felt the pangs of 
 disease or hunger; we have seen the pu- 
 nishments inflicted by the law; we have 
 witnessed, perhaps with envy, the parade 
 of worldly wealth afid power; and our 
 
 cheek 
 
LECTURE V. 35g 
 
 cheek has burned, it may be, with that de- 
 lightful glow which is communicated by 
 the world's approbation. 
 
 The recollections, then, by which faith 
 would, in the hour of temptation, direct 
 our practice, being no more than fainter 
 reflections of images which were originally 
 embodied by fancy, (for on whatever evi- 
 dence we believe, we can only fancy that 
 which we have never seen,) must needs 
 be less forcible than the memory of that 
 which we have actually in our own per- 
 sons experienced ; and while we believe 
 that the punishments of another world are 
 something terrible, we know the keenness 
 of the tortures which disappointment or 
 disgrace can, in the present world, inflict 
 
 on us. 
 
 Were it otherwise, indeed, the sanction 
 
 of temporal penalties would have become, 
 since the promulgation of the Gospel, al- 
 together useless among men ; and the 
 knowledge of God's will and the appre- 
 hension of his justice would have suspend- 
 ed, long since, the axe, the fasces, and the 
 chain, as trophies beside the Christian altar. 
 A a Unfor- 
 
354 LECTURE V. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, we cannot avoid 
 observing daily that such restraints are ne- 
 cessary still with those who never doubted 
 the return of Christ to judgment ; and the 
 best and the wisest of us all may recollect, 
 perhaps, occasions when his knowledge and 
 his faith and his godly fear would have 
 failed with their united strength to pre- 
 serve his feet from sliding, if it had not 
 been for the fear of that disgrace or chas- 
 tisement which, wicked as she is herself, 
 the world by God's appointment continues 
 to inflict on wickedness. 
 
 " If, I say, I will speak thus," (said an 
 experienced and inspired observer of the 
 human heart, when describing the blas- 
 phemy which arose in his soul against the 
 ways of providence,) " If, J say, I will 
 " speak thus, behold I should offend 
 " against the generation of thy children*/' 
 The recollection of the scandal wbich he 
 should cause to the godly restrained those 
 murmurs which his faith in Providence was 
 unable entirely to quell; nor do those 
 
 * Psalm Ixxiii. 15. 
 
 good 
 
LECTURE V. 355 
 
 good men display any knowledge of our 
 common nature, who reject as carnal and 
 unholy those secondary and human prin- 
 ciples of action, whose aid in the time of 
 his temptation even David would not dis- 
 dain. 
 
 There is yet another reason why the ob- 
 jects of worldly prudence are more easily 
 and, therefore, more steadily pursued by 
 our natural powers than those which Chris- 
 tianity offers. They demand, in general, 
 far fewer sacrifices at our hands. The 
 self-controul which avarice enjoins regards 
 our luxury and profusion only. Ambition 
 has only to overcome the fear of death 
 and the feebler snares of idleness : hypo- 
 crisy, to avoid those particular gratifica- 
 tions which are scandalous in the eyes of 
 mankind. Nor are any of these any fur- 
 ther renounced than as they are incon- 
 sistent with the ruling passion ; and, what 
 is of still more importance, the self-denial 
 is always understood to be only for a time, 
 and he who now, from some overpowering 
 motive, resists these secondary inclina- 
 tions, looks forward to a moment when, 
 A a 2 that 
 
356 LECTURE V. 
 
 that previous object being attained, he 
 may enjoy himself without control. Even 
 now they have their refreshments of vice, 
 in which the master-fiend is not unwilling 
 to indulge them. The miser may riot at 
 another's cost; the conqueror, in the in- 
 tervals of more serious action, while his 
 shield hangs idle in the hall, and his bat- 
 tered galley is repairing on the shore, may 
 strike, like Alcaeus, his harp in the shades 
 of revelry, and relax his toil-worn sinews 
 in the lap of licentious indulgence m . The 
 hypocrite has a somewhat harder task to 
 perform ; but his self-control and his cloak 
 are cast aside together, and he enjoys 
 with a keener zest the moments of per- 
 mitted sensuality, from the contrast of the 
 cumbrous disguise which he has relin- 
 quished. 
 
 And by all alike the mighty empire of 
 the heart is left without coercion. Their 
 affections, their hopes, their wishes, their 
 fancies may riot in the boundless scope of 
 possible and impossible gratification, and 
 defy, from that dark and polluted asylum, 
 the menaces of their earthly deities. What 
 
 wonder, 
 
LECTURE V. 357 
 
 wonder, then, that those who have, in 
 other respects, so large a liberty, should, 
 without any great reluctance, offer up 
 at the shrine of their idols those few in- 
 dulgences which such idols, in truth, re- 
 quire ? 
 
 But the warfare which the Christian is 
 enjoined to wage with himself is as endless 
 and universal as the Platonic strife of Prin- 
 ciples. It is not sufficient that w r e pur- 
 chase by the surrender of a single vice a 
 liberty for every other. It is not enough 
 that we be occasionally abstinent, or that 
 we refrain from overt actions, while the in- 
 ward corruption remains unheeded and 
 unknown. The free-will offering of our- 
 selves, the subjugation of our entire affec- 
 tions and propensities ; the confinement of 
 those thoughts whose wanderings are open 
 to the eyes of him who reads the soul ; the 
 government of those winged words over 
 which the angel of vengeance watches n ; a 
 devotion consistent and uniform ; a faith 
 which faileth not; a love which thinketh 
 no evil ; a courage which can support the 
 contempt of man, and which can dare to 
 A a 3 forgive 
 
358 LECTURE V. 
 
 forgive those injuries which to endure is 
 agony; these are the daily struggles to 
 which the Christian soldier is liable, and 
 this the steep and thorny path which only 
 leads to glory ! 
 
 And, for these things who is, of himself, 
 sufficient? What knowledge, what faith, 
 what hope or fear shall stimulate our fee- 
 ble limbs to a task so far beyond their 
 forces, if His power dd not sustain us, 
 from whose mercy-seat all power and wis- 
 dom flow, who gives us " grace," if we be- 
 lieve his Scriptures, " to help in time of 
 need ;" and will not withhold, we learn 
 from the same Divine authority, " His 
 " Holy Ghost from those who ask him 
 " faithfully*." 
 
 It may seem, then, that the same sur- 
 viving chief of English Unitarianism (whom 
 the single circumstance of his being thus 
 conspicuous has already compelled me to 
 notice more frequently than his remark- 
 able want of learning and modesty de- 
 serve) is not more fortunate in his meta- 
 
 * Hebrews iv. 16. Luke xi. 13. 
 
 physics 
 
LECTURE V. 359 
 
 physics than he had previously shown him- 
 self in his reference to the ancient Fathers, 
 wh^n he styles the interference of the Al- 
 mighty with our thoughts and actions " an 
 " unphilosophical doctrine*." Whether 
 it be, as he supposes, " unscriptural," the 
 following observations may enable my au- 
 dience to form a judgment. 
 
 That the assistance of God is, in some 
 shape or other, accorded both to excite 
 and sustain the natural feebleness of our 
 exertions in the cause of holiness, is appa- 
 rent from several passages in Scripture. 
 Before Lydia could receive the Gospel, it 
 was needful that God should " open her 
 " heart :" it was " the Lord," who " add- 
 " ed daily to the Church of the Apostles 
 " such as should be saved." But, not only 
 the commencement of our Christian call- 
 ing, but its furtherance by our perseverance 
 in the duties of our profession, is ascribed 
 by St. Paul to Him, " who, having begun 
 u a good work in us, bringeth the same to 
 " an end :" and who, as the same Apostle 
 
 * Belsham, ubi supra, p. 150. 
 
 A a 4 else- 
 
360 LECTURE V. 
 
 elsewhere expresses himself, " both work- 
 " eth in us to will and to do of his good 
 " pleasure *." 
 
 On the abuse of this doctrine, for as 
 such I cannot but consider it, which Au- 
 gustin appears to have introduced into the 
 Church, and which, though it have ever 
 since his time continued to divide the Ro- 
 mish doctors, is among Protestants more 
 frequently knpwn by the name of Calvinism, 
 I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 
 At present I need only observe, that such 
 deductions, even if they necessarily flowed 
 from the doctrine of spiritual influences, 
 could not be safely urged against it by the 
 modern Unitarian, since they apply with, 
 at least, an equal force, against their own 
 hypothesis as to the predisposition of events 
 and causes, in whose inextricable chain we 
 are, necessarily, no less passive than the 
 component parts of a cotton-mill. 
 
 And with whatever indignation the Fa- 
 talists may disclaim the system of absolute 
 decrees f , it is evident that the effect is the 
 
 * Actsii. 47. xvi. 14. Phil. i. 6. ii. 3. 
 f Belsharrij ubi supra. Preface, p. iv. 
 
 same, 
 
LECTURE V. 361 
 
 same, whether the character of each indivi- 
 dual be, from all eternity, elected, or con- 
 demned to holiness or vice by the imme- 
 diate agency of God's Spirit ; or whether 
 the same character be destined to receive 
 its tincture from the circumstances through 
 which it must inevitably pass, and of which 
 the brighter or darker hues no less neces- 
 sarily communicate themselves to the mind, 
 than the ingredients of a dye determine 
 the colour of the web which is immersed 
 in it. The only difference should .seem to 
 be, that the Unitarian ascribes to the ac- 
 tion of a machine those dispensations in 
 which the Calvinist contemplates the im- 
 mediate hand of the Almighty ; but both 
 the former as well as the second (unless 
 he be really disposed to install the Aristo- 
 phanic " vortex" in the room of Jupiter *) 
 must, in consistency with his principles, 
 ascribe to the absolute power of God, 
 whatever God is supposed, whether medi- 
 ately or immediately, to perform. 
 
 But, further, not only are our birth and 
 
 * Aristoph. Nubes. 830. ATvo* /Sao-iAeufi TQV 
 
 growth 
 
362 LECTURE V. 
 
 growth in holiness imputed in Scripture to 
 the preventing and furthering grace of 
 God : this grace is, moreover, expressly 
 identified with the grace or assistance of 
 that same Holy Ghost, by whose agency 
 the Prophets were taught futurity, and 
 from whom and by whom the Apostles 
 gained their knowledge of the will and 
 Gospel of the Lord. " Thy Spirit is good," 
 are the words of David when praying for 
 power to amend his life ; " lead me to the 
 " land of uprightness !" " Uphold me/' 
 are the words of the same illustrious peni- 
 tent, " with thy free (or liberating) Spi- 
 " rit !" Not only are " counsel and know- 
 " ledge" ascribed by Isaiah to the Spirit's 
 operation, but " the fear/' moreover, " of 
 " the Lord." Christ in like manner as- 
 sures us, that his Father will not deny " the 
 " Holy Ghost to those who ask him" faith- 
 fully. The conscience of St. Paul " bare 
 " him witness in the Holy Ghost." " The 
 " Holy Ghost," as the Giver of virtue, is 
 reckoned up by the same Apostle, in the 
 same breath with " kindness and brotherly 
 " love " To the influence of the Spirit, 
 
 not 
 
LECTURE V. 363 
 
 not only " knowledge," but " faith" and 
 " patience" are ascribed. It is through 
 " the Spirit" that we are enabled to 
 66 mortify the works of the flesh ;" and the 
 same Spirit is said, by inspiring our souls 
 with fervour and holy desires, to intercede 
 for us with " unutterable groanings*." 
 
 But, that it is a sanctifying and improv- 
 ing grace, and not the grace of miracii- 
 lous knowledge or power, which is to be 
 understood in these expressions, is appa- 
 rent from their general tenour. Miracu- 
 lous power and knowledge can neither set 
 us free from sin, nor are able, of them- 
 selves, to make us holy. Those cannot be 
 miraculous gifts which our Saviour, in a 
 discourse not directed to his Apostles 
 alone, but to the mighty multitude who 
 attended his preaching on the mount, 
 engages to accord to all who ask them. 
 With the testimony of a good conscience 
 the power of tongues or prophecy has no 
 imaginable concern. The gifts of kind- 
 
 * Psalm li. 12. jjfani. 10. Isaiah xi. 2. Luke xi. 
 13. Rom. ix. 1. 2 Cor. vi. 6. Gal. v. 22. Rom. viii. 
 13, 26. 
 
 ness, 
 
364 LECTURE V. 
 
 ness, of patience, of brotherly love, were 
 so far from being implied in the possession 
 of those miraculous endowments which the 
 early Christians enjoyed, that it was possi- 
 ble to possess these last in their highest 
 perfection, and yet to perish for want of 
 the grace of charity ; while the tumultuous 
 inspiration and factious wonders of the 
 Corinthian Church may prove that (far 
 from being necessarily productive of peace 
 and holiness) such lofty distinctions were 
 often in themselves a snare. Had Balaam 
 been no prophet, he would not have been 
 tempted to disobey the Lord ; and St. 
 Paul himself required, we know, a keen 
 though a merciful chastisement, lest his hu- 
 man pride should receive a fatal stimulus, 
 through the dazzling abundance of his re- 
 velations *. 
 
 Since, then, the gifts of holiness and 
 peace are entirely different from the gift of 
 miraculous power, while yet both the one 
 and the other of these are imputed in 
 Scripture to the Holy Ghost ; the one of 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiii, 1, 2, 3. xiv. passim. Numb. xxii. 2 Cor. 
 xii. ? 
 
 two 
 
LECTURE V. 365 
 
 two conclusions must, I apprehend, inevi- 
 tably follow ; either that both the one and 
 the other are produced by a similar ope- 
 ration on the mind ; or else that they are 
 distinct operations of the same personal 
 agent, the everlasting Spirit of God. 
 
 And, of these admissions, either is suffi- 
 cient for the purpose of my present argu- 
 ment. Either is sufficient to prove that 
 the influence of the Holy Ghost, however 
 we define him, (on which point, however, 
 my previous Lectures have, I trust, left 
 little difficulty,) is productive of and ne- 
 cessary to produce, not only the extraordi- 
 nary powers but the ordinary graces of the 
 Christian Church and character. From 
 his bounty we derive alike those rare en- 
 dowments which fall to the lot of a very 
 few, in order that the remainder may, by 
 their means, be edified, and those not less 
 blessed though, perhaps, less brilliant aids, 
 which, though they do not qualify us to 
 perform, on earth, the distinguished parts 
 of Prophets or Evangelists, are a necessary 
 preparation for those far nobler privileges 
 in whose meridian splendour both prophe- 
 cies 
 
366 LECTURE V. 
 
 cies shall cease, and tongues shall fail, and 
 knowledge shall vanish away ! 
 
 Whether these sacred influences be they 
 of which the gift hath entitled the Holy 
 Ghost to the character of the Christian 
 Paraclete, must remain for future inquiry. 
 
 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Page 306, note . 
 
 (on the Holy Spirit, pp. 64, 65.) ex- 
 presses himself of this opinion ; and the Socinians, who 
 deny all spiritual influence in modern times, in this 
 respect agree with him. 
 
 Page 313, note b . 
 
 Hammond, Practical Catechism, 1. v. . 3. " This 
 the Holy Ghost doth by two ways of dispensation ; 
 1st, outward, 2dly, inward. The outward way was his 
 visible descending on the Apostles, and fitting them 
 with grace, and instating them with powers, to preach, 
 and baptize those that received their doctrine, to con- 
 firm those whom they had baptized, and to administer 
 the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, to exercise 
 the power of the keys in censures, and 4thly, to or- 
 dain others, and commit the same power to those which 
 the Holy Ghost had settled in themselves, and to pro- 
 vide a ministry of his holy celestial calling, to con- 
 tinue, by succession from one to the other, to the end 
 of the world. All which donations and instatings were 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost's descent, (beside the ex- 
 traordinary gifts of tongues and miracles, &c. needful 
 for those times, to preach to all nations intelligibly, 
 and to gain belief to their preaching, but not so ne- 
 cessary 
 
368 NOTES 
 
 cessary after,) and in respect of these he is called the 
 Paraclete, &c." " Besides this, there is an inward 
 means, the secret preventions, excitations, overshadow- 
 ings, and assistances of that Spirit, all absolutely ne- 
 cessary to beget and continue holiness in the heart; 
 and all these attending those outward administrations 
 just now mentioned, and constantly going along with 
 them, as breath goes along with words, and hallowing 
 them to the worthy receiver, the obedient disciple." 
 Mr. Nolan is apparently of the same opinion. See his 
 Sermons on the Operations of the Holy Ghost, p. 150. 
 <c The promise intimates, in the first place, a suc- 
 cession in the order of the priesthood; for thus only 
 could the promise be fulfilled, that the Spirit of Christ 
 would be with them always, even unto the end of the 
 world. It indicates, in the next place, that his special 
 presence was to be expected in the dispensation of 
 those ordinances, which they were authorized to ad- 
 minister." Ibid. pp. 208, 209. " Of that divine and 
 gracious influence, which diffuses itself over the soul ; 
 that patience and comfort of the Scriptures, and that 
 peace and joy in ,the Holy Ghost, he is consequently 
 the remote or immediate cause ; and thus eminently 
 verifies the words of the Apostle, and fulfils the pro- 
 mise of our Lord : ' I will pray the Father, and he 
 shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you for ever.' " Gerhardi Harmonia Evangelica 
 ad loc. " Promissio hsec proprie et praecipue spectat 
 ad Apostolos, ut infallibiles essent, &c. deinde ad eo- 
 rum successores in ministerio, ut Matth. cap. 28. vers. 
 20. denique ad pios omnes ratione gratiosas inhabita- 
 tionis. 
 
 Page 316, note c . 
 
 This appears to have been the opinion of the Au- 
 thor of our Homily concerning the Holy Ghost, part ii. 
 
 p. 393. 
 
ON LECTURE V. 3fi9 
 
 p. 393. Neither must we think that this Comforter 
 was either promised, or else given, only to the Apo- 
 stles, but also to the universal Church of Christ, dis- 
 persed through the whole world. For, unless the Holy 
 Ghost had been alway present, governing and pre- 
 serving the Church from the beginning, it could never 
 have sustained so many and great brunts of affliction 
 and persecution, with so little damage and harm as it 
 hath." 
 
 Page 320, note d. 
 
 Targum Jonathan, ad Exod. xii. 44. " Circumcides 
 eum (proselytum) et baptizabis eum." Pesachin Misch- 
 na, viii. 8. " Qui proselytus factus est vespera Pascha- 
 tis ; domus Samese dicit, Baptizetur et edat pascha 
 suum vesperi." Avoda Sara, f. 46. 2. " De Baptizato 
 qoii non circumcisus est, nemo in hoc mundo litem mo- 
 vet, quo minus sit legitimus, sed disputant de circum- 
 ciso qui non fuit baptizatus.- Rabbi Juda ait baptis- 
 mum esse principale." Gemara ad Tit. Cherithoth, c. 2. 
 " Patres vestri non ingrediebantur in foedus nisi per 
 circumcisionem et baptismum." Ibid. tit. Jabimoth, 
 c. 4. " DiK.it Rabbi Joshuah ; Invenimus de matribus 
 nostris quia baptizatse sunt et non circumcisae." See 
 also Lightfoot, Hone Hebr. Matth. 3. Hammond, 
 vol. i. p. 470. et seq. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 102. Wall, 
 Hist, of Inf. Bapt. Introd. . 2. 3. Augustin, contr. 
 Fulgent. " Paganus baptizat, Judaeus baptizat, Sadu- 
 cseus baptizat, et multi extra regulam legis latae bapti- 
 zare non cessant, sed illud est unum quod verum, illud 
 verum quod Christi." Munsterus in Matth. xxvi. 26, 
 (e Sciendum est quod is mos olim Celebris fuit inter Ju- 
 dseoSj multaque scripta habent de fractione panis et be- 
 nedictione calicis. Qui pluravult legere consulat librum 
 niD^-i < de benedictionibus.' " Pesach. f. 117. 2. " Po- 
 culum tertiurn ejst poculum benedictionis cum benedi- 
 
 B b citur 
 
370 NOTES 
 
 citur post cibum." (compare 1 Corinth, x. 16.) God- 
 wyn, Moses and Aaron, 1. iii. c. 2. " After these cere- 
 monies of preparation had been performed, they then 
 proceeded to give thanks. The master of the house, 
 sitting down together with his guests, took -a cup-full 
 of wine in his right hand, and therewith began his con- 
 secration, after this manner : f Blessed be thou, oh 
 Lord our God, the King of the world, which creat- 
 est the fruit of the vine/ Having said thus, he first 
 lightly tasted of the wine, and from him it passed 
 round the table. This grace of thanksgiving they call 
 Bircath haiaiin, the blessing of the cup, pn ro~ir. 
 With this Christ himself scemeth to have begun his 
 supper. ( He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, 
 Take this, and divide it among yourselves : for 1 say 
 unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till 
 the kingdom of God shall come.' Luke xxii. 1J, 18. 
 After the blessing of the cup, the master of the house 
 took the bread, and, holding this in his hands, he 
 consecrated it with these words : ( Blessed be thou, oh 
 Lord God, the King of the world, which bringest forth 
 bread out of the earth.' This consecration of bread 
 they termed Bircath Halechem, nn^n nira. After the 
 consecration he brake the bread, whence the master of 
 the house, or he who performed these blessings in his 
 stead, was termed Habotseang, i. e. the breaker, r^nr. 
 The bread being broken, he distributed to every one 
 who sate at the table a morsel ; which being done, they 
 began to feed upon the other dishes which were pro- 
 vided." [Compare this Jewish practice with the abuse 
 complained of by St. Paul, as prevalent among the* 
 Corinthians. 1 Corinth, xi. 21.] "At the end of the 
 feast, they again gave thanks, which was performed in 
 this manner, by the master of the house himself, or by 
 some guest, if there were any of better note at the ta- 
 ble : 
 
ON LECTURE V. 371 
 
 ble : he, taking a cup of wine in both his hands, be- 
 gan thus ; ' Let us bless him who hath fed us with his 
 own, of whose goodness we live/ This grace they 
 called Bircath Hamazon, p;Dn ro-o. And this is 
 thought to be tlie cup wherewith Christ after supper com- 
 mended the mystery of his blood to his Disciples. After 
 this he which began the thanksgiving proceedeth : 
 c Blessed be he, and blessed be his name,' &c, annex- 
 ing a longer prayer ; afterward he blessed the cup in 
 the same form of words as he used at the first sitting 
 down, and therewith he drank a little of the wine, and 
 so the cup passed round the table. Thus they began 
 and ended their feast with the blessing of a cup : this 
 cup they termed ^n D13, Cos Hillel, Poculum vu.vrjTsw$, 
 a cup of thanksgiving ;" [compare Psalm cxvi. 13. ' I 
 will receive the cup of salvation/] " And both these 
 cups are mentioned by St. Luke, and, which is worth 
 our observation, the words of consecration, whereby it 
 was instituted as part of the blessed sacrament in the 
 New Testament, were added only to the last cup. 
 After all this, they sang psalms and hymns, which also 
 was practised by our blessed Saviour." To this ac- 
 count of Godwyn's I may add, that " the longer prayer" 
 to which he alludes, as pronounced before the delivery 
 of the cup after supper, corresponds, as given at full 
 length by Fagius, (Comment, in Deut. viii.) pretty ac- 
 curately, mutatis mutandis, with the Christian prayer 
 "for Christ's Church militant here on earth/' It is 
 well observed, however, by Schottgen, when speaking 
 of the Jewish baptism and eucharist ; " Illi ritus Ju- 
 daici," &c. ee Those Jewish rites were rites, merely, 
 signifying something, indeed, but confirming no advan- 
 tage; but after that Christ had given them his sanction, 
 he added also his grace, which he offereth to all who 
 use them rightly." 
 
 B b 2 Page 
 
372 NOTES 
 
 Page 320, note e . 
 
 Maimonides Sanhed. c. iv. " Parile jus spectat ad 
 Synedrium quodlibet minus et forum triumvirale, in 
 hoc scilicet, ut oporteat quemlibet eorum qui in ilia 
 cooptantur creari per manuum impositionem ab alio qui 
 sic ante creatus fuerit. Moses magister noster ita crea- 
 vit Jehosuam juxta id quod scriptum est,," Num. 
 xxvii. 22. * Et manus suas imponit et praecepit ei.' } 
 On this passage Witsius observes, in his Treatise de 
 Synedriis, Misc. Sac. p. 52y. " Est ergo haec m~ v DD 
 cmpfPj impositio manuum qua quis creatur senior. 
 Eoque putant Paulum respexisse 1 Tim. iv. 14. quan- 
 do Timotheo adscribit, iTr/Sicnv TWV %eipa>v TOU > &ps<rvTs- 
 glov. Ibid. p. 541. " Initip.tio sive ordinatio electorum 
 facta est per impositionem manuum ; fiebatque haec 
 manuum impositio sive a triumviris a synedrio ipso in 
 earn rem constitutis ; sive a synedrio integro ; sive de- 
 nique a senatore unico, alios sibi duos collegas adscis- 
 eente." Selden. Comment, in Eutych. c. x. p. 438. 
 " De LXX senioribus Mosi ejusmodi ordinatione adsci- 
 tis, aiunt, Et quievit super eos Majestas Divina quam 
 Spiritum Sanctum vocitant." Camero ad Matth. xvi. 
 19. " Clavium traditione doctorum apud Judaeos inau- 
 guratio veteri institute peragebatur ; in quo mihi Do- 
 minus videtur allusisse ad Pharisssorum morem, qui 
 sibi ligandi et sokendi potestatem tribuebant. Itaque eo- 
 rum posteri, quod illi nefas voluerunt, id "I^DX ligatum, 
 contraque quod illi jus fasque esse jusserunt, id "inn 
 solutum, vocant/' Avoda Sara, f. vii. 1. " Quaesivit a 
 sapiente uno et ille ligavit, Ne quaerat ab alio ne solvat/' 
 Crotius ad Act. xi. 30. " Totum regimen ecclesiarum 
 Christi conformatum fuit ad synagogorum exemplar." 
 
 Page 321, note f . 
 
 Selden. de Syn. lib* i. c. 14. 1 certainly do not agree 
 
 with 
 
ON LECTURE V. 873 
 
 with this great man, that the power which St. Paul ex- 
 ercised in the ordination of Timothy was that which he 
 had himself received from Gamaliel. It is, in the first 
 place, improbable that (however Paul may have been a 
 ypa^arsuj, or Rabbi, in the synagogue) he can have 
 b-jen an Elder properly so called, or have possessed the 
 power of ordaining others to that rank. And 2ndly, as 
 we know that he and Barnabas had received imposition 
 of hands from the Apostles long before he ordained 
 Timothy, it seems unnecessary to look any further for 
 powers which the apostolic xeipodea-iu, alone was, un- 
 questionably, competent to confer. As a preacher, 
 however, of the Gospel, though not as a ruler of the 
 Church, it is certain that Paul distinguished himself for 
 many years before he received apostolic ordination. 
 But though he was chosen an Apostle by Christ him- 
 self, yet is there no appearance, that, even where this 
 choice was manifested by miracle or by the Holy Ghost, 
 the imposition of hands was, in other cases, dispensed 
 with; and it must therefore remain a question from 
 whom Paul received it. The modern Greeks, indeed, 
 believe him to have been ordained by Ananias, (Acts xi. 
 10.) whom they suppose to have been Bishop of Da- 
 mascus. But this notion is opposed by the general 
 voice of antiquity, (see Calmet, Dictionnaire, Art. Ana- 
 nias,) nor do I know how we can better escape the 'dif- 
 ficulty than by supposing, with Selden, that Paul was 
 already ordained in the Jewish synagogue, and carried 
 his rank of teacher with him into the schools and as- 
 semblies of the faithful. 
 
 Page 322, note s. 
 
 A comparison of Mark xvi. 14. with John xx. 19. 26. 
 
 will shew that when, on the two Sundays following that 
 
 on which he rose from the dead, our Lord appeared to 
 
 B b 3 the 
 
374 NOTES 
 
 the Apostles, they were avaxej/xs'i/oi, engaged in the cele- 
 bration of the Eucharist. 
 
 Ibid, note h . 
 
 Acts i. 23. 26. See also some judicious observations 
 in Mr. Nolan's Sermons on the Operations of the Holy 
 Ghost, pp. 113. 157. 
 
 Page 327, note '. 
 
 Deut. xxix. 2. " And Moses called unto all Israel, 
 and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did 
 before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and 
 unto all his servants, and unto all his land ; the great 
 temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and 
 those great miracles : yet the Lord hath not given you 
 an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, 
 unto this day." John vi. 44. " No man can come unto 
 me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." 
 
 Page 343, note k . 
 
 Exod. xxxi. 2. " See, I have called by name Bezaleel 
 the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah : 
 and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wis- 
 dom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and all 
 manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to 
 work in gold, and in silver, and in brass." Judges 
 xi. 29. " The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jeph- 
 thah." 1 Kings iii. 28. " And all Israel heard ,of the 
 judgment which the king had judged; and they feared 
 the king : for they saw that the wisdom of God was in 
 him to do judgment." Zechariah iv. 6. "Not by might, 
 nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 Who art thou, oh great mountain? before Zerubba- 
 bel thou shalt become a plain. 
 
ON LECTURE V. 375 
 
 Page 345, note ] . 
 
 Petr. Martyr. Loc. Comm. cl. ii. c. i. . 9. <e Neque 
 Augustinus per concupiscentiam intellexit actionem cu- 
 piendi : sed habilitatem, pronitatem et ingenium pro- 
 clive ad malefaciendum. Quae vitia in pueris non 
 semper agnoscuntur, nisi quatenus se per aetatem pro- 
 dunt. Sic enim in profundis tenebris, inter videntem 
 et caecum nihil est discriminis ; at cum primum aut 
 profertur lumen aut dies adest, facile deprehenditur vi- 
 tium caeci. Lupus antequam adolescat, ingenium suum 
 et rapacitatem non declarat. Scorpius non semper 
 pungit, semper tamen gerit stimulum quo pungat, ser- 
 pens dum per hyemem torpet frigore, tuto tractatur, 
 non quod venenum non habeat, sed quod illud effundere 
 non potest." 
 
 Page 356, note m. 
 
 Gravis bello, tamen, inter arma, 
 
 Sive jactatam religarat udo 
 
 Littore navem, 
 
 Liberum, et Musas, Veneremque, et illi 
 Semper haerentem puerum canebat, 
 Et Lycum nigris oculis, nigroque 
 Grine decorum. 
 
 Horat. lib. i. Ode 32. 
 
 Page 357, note n . 
 
 Plato de Leg. 1. iv. Op. T. viii. p. 188. Aror* 
 xat ^Tr t vu)V Xoywv /3^yrar>j ^>jj,/, -crao"* yap 
 OTC^I TCC roiaOra eTap^^yj A/xij^ NejW.s(rij ayyeAoj. This pas- 
 sage is remarkable, first, from its correspondence with 
 the expression of our Saviour, Matthew xii. 36. and, 
 secondly, from the word " angel" being used by Plato 
 in the Jewish or Christian sense. 
 
 B b 4 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7 
 
 1 tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I 
 go away : for if 1 go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come ; but if I depart, I will 
 send him unto you. 
 
 IT was my endeavour, when I last ad- 
 dressed you, to remove those doubts and 
 to refute those cavils which the disciples 
 of modern Unitarianism have suggested 
 against the usual faith which Christians 
 hold in the ordinary and sanctifying influ- 
 ence of the Spirit of God. 
 
 But, however certain and however valu- 
 able those blessed aids may be, which sup- 
 port us, as we believe, through the perils 
 and the snares of life, and, in the hour of 
 death, as we hope, will not forsake us, it 
 will by no means follow, that it is by these 
 definite influences that the Holy Ghost 
 
 still 
 
378 LECTURE VI. 
 
 still manifests himself to the Christian 
 /world, as the performer of our Saviour's 
 promise. To entitle them to this dis- 
 tinction it is necessary, first, that they 
 should correspond with the description of 
 the Comforter's office as afforded us by 
 Christ himself; and, secondly, that they 
 should answer to the necessary character- 
 istics of a compensation for the loss of 
 Christ, and a privilege peculiar to his fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 It is evident, however, that in the de- 
 scription of the Paraclete, as given by our 
 Lord himself, are many circumstances, 
 which (without a degree of enthusiasm, of 
 which all existing sects of Christians, I be- 
 lieve, are guiltless) we cannot refer to the 
 ordinary influence which, in modern times 
 at least, is exerted by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 By its agency on the natural faculties of 
 the soul, that influence, indeed, supplies 
 us with recollections ever seasonable to 
 support or to subdue our weak or rebel- 
 lious nature ; it hallows our thoughts by 
 attracting them to hallowed objects; it 
 strengthens our virtuous resolutions by re- 
 newing 
 
LECTURE VI. 379 
 
 newing on our mind those impressions 
 which gave them birth ; it elevates our 
 courage and humbles our pride by sug- 
 gesting to our recollection, at once, our il- 
 lustrious destiny and the weakness of our 
 unassisted nature. 
 
 By itself it teaches nothing, but without 
 its aid all human doctrine is but vain. It 
 is this which gives life and strength to 
 every religious truth which we hear; this 
 which imprints on our soul and recals to 
 our attention those sacred principles to 
 which our reason has already assented. 
 Distinct from conscience, but the vital 
 spark by which our natural conscience is 
 sanctified, it both enables us to choose the 
 paths of life, and to persist in those paths 
 when chosen : and, though, like the free 
 and viewless air, it is only by its effects 
 that we discern it, it is the principle of 
 our moral as the air of our natural health ; 
 the soul of our soul, and the Schekinah of 
 our bodily temple ! 
 
 But, by itself it teaches nothing. It pre- 
 pares our hearts, indeed, for the word of 
 life, and it engrafts the word in our hearts 
 
 thus 
 
380 LECTURE VI. 
 
 thus opened ; but that living word and 
 whatever else of knowledge we receive 
 must be drawn from external sources. 
 " Faith," we are told, " must come by 
 " hearing, and hearing by the word of 
 " God;" nor can we hear " without the 
 " voice of a preacher*." 
 
 The inspiration (as we have already de- 
 fined it) of religious perception and me- 
 mory, God's ordinary grace, induces the 
 soul to behold the truth of those doctrines 
 which external opportunities of knowledge 
 offer to her understanding; it preserves 
 and refreshes in her memory those princi- 
 ples of action, of which we have already 
 perceived the force; it is the blessing of 
 God and his pervading energy, which pros- 
 pers to our salvation what we learn and 
 what we have learned : but when we pass 
 beyond these limits, we invade the regions 
 of miracle and prophecy ; and it is no less 
 inaccurate to suppose, that in the ordinary 
 course of things we receive a new idea 
 from the grace of God, than it would be 
 
 * Romans x. 17. 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE VI. 381 
 
 to maintain that all our knowledge is de- 
 rived from the lamp which lights our 
 study. 
 
 Like that lamp, the grace of the Most 
 High enables us to 'trace, in the oracles of 
 salvation, the things which belong to our 
 peace : like that lamp, it helps us to renew 
 the decayed impression of knowledge long 
 since obtained ; and, without such hea- 
 venly aid, the unassisted soul would be as 
 unequal to the pvirsuit or perception of 
 her eternal interests, as the unassisted eye 
 to read in darkness. But, whether by ce- 
 lestial or earthly light, we can only learn 
 from that which is before us ; and the one 
 can no more be said to communicate a 
 new revelation to our soul, than the other 
 to place a fresh volume on our table. 
 
 I do not say, that grace does not possess 
 an active power, which not only enables us 
 to attend and recollect, but frequently 
 compels our attention and recollection. 
 Nor am I rash enough to deny, that God 
 'may, by any operation or any medium 
 whatever, communicate to our souls, 
 when he thinks proper, any imaginable, 
 
 or, 
 
382 LECTURE VI. 
 
 or, to us at present, unimaginable know- 
 ledge. But this may be without offence 
 maintained, (and I am the more anxious 
 to state it clearly, because it is this parti- 
 cular point ori which enthusiasm is most 
 frequently mistaken a ,) that it is by the il- 
 lustration, not the revelation of truth, that 
 God's Spirit ordinarily assists us ; and that 
 the latter is one of those cases of divine 
 interference, of which neither the present 
 age of Christianity, nor, perhaps, any pre- 
 ceding age since the time of the Apostles, 
 affords us an authentic example. 
 
 That measure, then, of internal aid, 
 which the modern Church receives, can 
 neither be said to " teach us all things," 
 nor to " shew us things to come." And 
 with as little reason can the Holy Ghost 
 be asserted to bear public " witness" of 
 Christ, and to plead against the world as 
 the patron and advocate of Christ's reli- 
 gion, by an influence which is, confessedly, 
 thus gentle and unseen. With the excep- 
 tion, indeed, of that which the circum- 
 stances of the whole discourse seem evi- 
 dently to appropriate to the Apostles ; the 
 
 recol- 
 
LECTURE VI. 383 
 
 recollection, namely, of " all the words" 
 which our Lord " had spoken unto them ;" 
 no single characteristic can be found in 
 the description of the ancient Paraclete, 
 which corresponds with those illapses of 
 ordinary grace which the modern believer 
 hopes and prays for. 
 
 We may reasonably, then, conclude, that 
 some other benefit than the internal aid of 
 the Holy Ghost was intended by our Lord 
 in his memorable conversation with the 
 Apostles. 
 
 And this conclusion will receive no small 
 additional strength from a reference to 
 those general principles which were, I 
 trust, sufficiently established, in the com- 
 mencement of my preceding Lecture. 
 
 It was there laid down, from the nature 
 of our Lord's declaration, and from the 
 circumstances under which that gracious 
 declaration was made, that the comfort 
 which the Holy Ghost should dispense, on 
 his behalf, to his followers, must have been 
 an advantage confined to his followers 
 alone ; a blessing enjoyed neither by the 
 Heathen nor the Jew ; a blessing unknown 
 
 to 
 
384 LECTURE VI. 
 
 to the Apostles themselves at the moment 
 when their Master thus addressed them. 
 
 And this necessity, though it has never, 
 that I know of, been clearly stated before, 
 has, nevertheless, been virtually admitted 
 by the greater part of those who content 
 themselves with the usual exposition of 
 Christ's assurance. They have esteemed 
 it the peculiar happiness of the Christian 
 Church above the condition either of Jews 
 or Heathens, that not only are we in- 
 structed in the perfect will of God, but 
 that we are spiritually assisted in its per- 
 formance ; and, identifying the gift of the 
 Spirit with the process of regeneration, 
 they have confined its influence, to those 
 alone who are purified with the waters of 
 baptism b . 
 
 It has been a subject, indeed, of long 
 and angry discussion, whether (admitting, 
 as both sides have admitted, the insepara- 
 ble union of the gift of the Spirit and re- 
 generation) the former were acceded to all 
 who received the outward sign of the lat- 
 ter ; or, whether both were the peculiar 
 treasure of a far less numerous body than 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE VI. 385 
 
 the outwardly baptized, the invisible Church 
 of Jesus. But, whether the promise was 
 given to the professors of our faith in ge- 
 neral, or solely to those who are turned in 
 their hearts and conversations from dark- 
 ness to light, in either acceptation it has 
 been supposed to belong to Christians 
 only: and the majority of mankind have 
 been allowed no other assistant in the per- 
 formance of their duty than the natural 
 light of reason. 
 
 If, however, the ordinary gifts of the 
 Spirit were peculiarly appropriate to Chris- 
 tians, the question would naturally arise, 
 and it is a question which either Arminian 
 or Calvinist would find it a task of no 
 small difficulty to elude or satisfy, " By 
 " what means are men enabled to become 
 " members of the body of Christ?" 
 
 If grace be conferred on the faithful 
 only, then must a previous belief be ne- 
 cessary to the reception of grace ; and the 
 faithful, before they can have obtained 
 such inward help from heaven, must first, 
 by their natural strength, have believed. 
 
 And this, we know, was the opinion of 
 c c the 
 
386 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the more moderate followers of Pelagius ; 
 of the early Socinians of the Rakovian 
 school ; and, as may be suspected from a 
 remarkable passage in his first book against 
 Pelagius, of him who in every other point 
 was orthodox, the learned and excellent 
 Jerome . It is an opinion, however, di- 
 rectly contrary, not only to the acknow- 
 ledged tenets of that Church to which we 
 have sworn allegiance ; but, which is of an 
 importance far more awful, to the most 
 pointed expressions of Scripture, which 
 teach us, that without the grace of God no 
 man can come to Christ ; nor, consequent- 
 ly, receive his Gospel d . But if these sa- 
 cred truths be conceded by the defenders 
 of the popular hypothesis, they will find 
 themselves involved in the hopeless absur- 
 dity of making faith the cause or occasion 
 of grace, and grace the cause of faith ; or, 
 in other words, of making the same thing 
 the cause and effect, the antecedent and 
 consequent. Nor will their statement be- 
 come less defective, if we admit the dis- 
 tinction usual with divines between pre- 
 venting and assisting grace, of which the 
 
 one 
 
LECTURE VI. 387 
 
 one precedes, the other follows the mental 
 action of belief in the Gospel. 
 
 For, if the first of these be limited, as 
 the natural meaning of the term should 
 seem to limit it, to the implanting in our 
 mind those good desires which cannot be 
 brought to effect without the subsequent 
 furtherance of the other, it is plain that 
 preventing grace by itself could do no 
 more than induce in our hearts a percep- 
 tion of the happiness enjoyed by the faith- 
 ful, a desire that God would help our un- 
 belief; but could not, without additional 
 help from the same good Spirit, conduct 
 us either to external confession or hearty 
 internal conviction of the truth which is in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 So that to the very act of faith itself, 
 even to the lowest degree of faith, both 
 species of grace are necessary ; and the 
 reasoning of those who maintain that the 
 assistance of the Holy Ghost is, at once, 
 the cause and the privilege of Christianity, 
 must remain as inconsistent as ever. 
 
 It will be urged, indeed, by some, and 
 
 their method of stating the question is free, 
 
 c c 2 apparently, 
 
388 LECTURE VI. 
 
 apparently, from the objections to which 
 the ordinary hypothesis is liable, that, 
 though faith be of grace and not grace of 
 faith, yet is faith in Christ, with all the 
 blessed fruits which spring from it, insepa- 
 rably connected with grace as its sure and 
 necessary consequence ; and that, there- 
 fore, Christians only receive the help of 
 the Holy Ghost, because such help is given 
 to none who are not, thereby, irresistibly 
 called to Christianity. 
 
 But, if we avoid, by this statement, the 
 inconsistency of the usual opinion, we avoid 
 it only by incurring the yet more porten- 
 tous contradictions which are involved in 
 the system of Augustin, Bradwardine, and 
 Calvin. 
 
 For, as none have, without the aid of the 
 Holy Ghost, received the religion of Jesus, 
 so if, as they maintain, none have received 
 the Holy Ghost, excepting those who are 
 thereby conducted to embrace the Gospel, 
 it will follow, not only that these last have 
 believed in Christ in consequence of an ir- 
 resistible act of the Almighty, but that all 
 who have rejected him have chosen thus 
 
 unhappily, 
 
LECTURE VI. 389 
 
 unhappily, not from perverseness, but be- 
 cause they could not possibly have chosen 
 otherwise; not from wilful obstinacy, but 
 from a blindness which it was no more in 
 their power to remedy, than, by their un- 
 assisted strength, to scale the heaven. 
 
 And, if it be further true, which is al- 
 lowed on all hands, that the rejection of 
 the Gospel by the unconverted Jews and 
 Heathens was imputed to them by God 
 as, in itself, a heinous sin, and will be pu- 
 nished with more grievous damnation; 
 that conclusion must follow which every 
 modern Calvinist at least, with amiable in- 
 consistency, disclaims, not only that the 
 Almighty punishes men for rejecting what 
 they had no power to accept, but that he 
 offers (I almost fear to speak it, but it is 
 necessary that the natural tendency of 
 every doctrine should be known) salvation 
 to the reprobate on terms which they can- 
 not accept, in order that, by this their 
 seeming refusal, he may obtain a pretext 
 for punishing them more severely. A state- 
 ment this, which involves in itself, as ap- 
 plied to the Father of truth and mercy, a 
 c c 3 degree 
 
390 LECTURE VI. 
 
 degree of blasphemous extravagance which 
 can hardly be conceived without impiety ; 
 which imputes to God a conduct from 
 which the warmest defenders of the hypo- 
 thesis would, in their own persons, have 
 shrunk with abhorrence, and which the 
 angels who excel in power and might, 
 would hardly have brought as a railing ac- 
 cusation against the enemy of God and 
 man himself! 
 
 But if, to avoid or to soften this horrible 
 corollary, we suppose with Owen, that 
 those miserable persons to whom the Gos- 
 pel is a savour of death are punished, not 
 because they were unable to believe and 
 repent, but because they did not desire to 
 do so% that they loved the darkness to 
 which they were condemned, more than 
 the light into which they had no possible 
 hope of entering ; it may be urged in re- 
 ply, that to be content with an inevitable 
 condition, is a part rather wise than wick- 
 ed ; and that if it was in their power to love 
 the light, it was in their power to choose 
 between the light and the darkness. 
 
 For it is allowed on all hands, that the 
 
 obstacle 
 
LECTURE VI. 391 
 
 obstacle which condemns the reprobate to 
 impenitence is seated in their will alone; 
 and that, if they heartily desire to devote 
 themselves to the service of Christ, that 
 merciful Redeemer will in no wise cast 
 them away *. 
 
 If Owen, therefore, teaches that the re- 
 probate may choose between light and dark- 
 ness, he must either mean that they have, 
 without grace, power to make their op- 
 tion, (an assertion which is Pelagianism no 
 less explicit than that which called forth 
 the bitterest censures of Augustin,) or 
 else, that grace is given them which they 
 may optionally resist or improve to salva- 
 tion : an admission altogether inconsistent 
 with a belief in absolute decrees, and suffi- 
 cient in itself to prove, that the assistance 
 of the Holy Ghost is not a peculiar privi- 
 lege of the Gospel. 
 
 For if none are punished for not per- 
 forming impossibilities, and if some are pu- 
 nished for refusing to receive the Gospel of 
 Christ, it is plain, that such sufferers must 
 
 v John vi. S7. 
 
 c c 4 at 
 
392 LECTURE VL 
 
 at one time have had it in their power to 
 avail themselves of that gracious offer. 
 But this is a power which is only conferred 
 by the influence of God's Spirit ; and it fol- 
 lows that his influence is bestowed on some 
 who neither are nor ever will be Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Nor must we suppose that this influence 
 is, as Clagitt seems to intimate, attendant 
 only on the immediate hearing of the Gos- 
 pel ; and given to be resisted or improved 
 by those individuals only, to whom the 
 glad tidings of salvation have extended *. 
 
 If we do not maintain, with Pelagius, 
 that our unassisted nature can quicken it- 
 self to faith and everlasting life, we cannot 
 allow, what St. Paul expressly teaches, that 
 the Patriarchs and ancient Israelites are 
 fallen asleep in hope, unless we at the 
 same time allow, that those worthies of the 
 elder world had obtained the same graces 
 of the Holy Ghost, as those by whose as- 
 sistance only we hope to imitate their righ- 
 teous and memorable examples. 
 
 * Clagitt on the Spirit, part i. p. 26J. 
 
 Nor 
 
LECTURE VI. 393 
 
 Nor can any reader of those sacred 
 poems which, though composed under the 
 Law, express, in every line, those feelings 
 and virtues which it is the end of the Gos- 
 pel to develope, entertain a doubt that the 
 operations of grace, whereby the Psalmist 
 was awakened, and purified, and guided, 
 and established in holiness, were the same 
 with those to which we daily look up for 
 help and hope and victory. Nor, though 
 we should omit or neglect the testimonies 
 of the later Rabbins, who ascribe, like our- 
 selves, all goodness to the Spirit's dispen- 
 sation 1 , can we venture to disregard the 
 authority of our Lord himself, who, under 
 the yoke of the Law, and long before the 
 Paraclete was foretold, assured the multi- 
 tude of his hearers, that his Father would 
 not deny the Holy Spirit to those who 
 asked him *, 
 
 It is true, indeed, as the admirable Bi- 
 shop Bull inculcates ff , that these spiritual 
 gifts, like the gifts of pardon and salvation, 
 though they extended to those under the 
 
 * Luke xi. 13. 
 
 Law 
 
394 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Law of Moses, were not derived from the 
 Law itself, but were purchased by that fore- 
 seen expiation of sins on the rock of Cal- 
 vary, whereof the blood gave efficacy to 
 the sacrifice of Abel, and the merits won a 
 pardon for the deep offence of David. But 
 the assertion, however true in itself, is ir- 
 relevant to the present inquiry, since I am 
 not maintaining, that the power of repent- 
 ance is given to man through any other 
 than the merits of Jesus Christ ; but I am 
 virging, that through those merits the an- 
 cient Jews received it as well as the Chris- 
 tians, and that the promise of a Comforter, 
 which had respect to a future and peculiar 
 benefit, could not be fulfilled by the con- 
 tinuance of an ancient and general bless- 
 ing. 
 
 Nor would this conclusion be materially 
 affected, though we should also grant, as 
 the same learned Prelate supposes, and as 
 in itself is not improbable, though it be 
 not revealed in Scripture with sufficient 
 clearness to enable us to assent to it with 
 unqualified conviction ; that, not only the 
 external motives to holiness, (which are ir- 
 relevant 
 
LECTURE VI. 395 
 
 relevant to the present inquiry,) but the 
 internal and sanctifying Spirit, whereby 
 such motives and knowledge are improved 
 to individual salvation, has been given in 
 more ample measure to the Christian than 
 to the Jew. For a difference simply mo- 
 dal was surely not described by our Lord 
 as an advent of the Spirit in a new and 
 unknown character ; and the gift of a new 
 privilege is no less distinct from the im- 
 provement of one possessed already, than 
 the plantation of a tree is different from its 
 silent growth when planted h . 
 
 But not only were the ordinary graces 
 of the Spirit within the reach of the an- 
 cient Jews. The Heathens themselves, as 
 may be proved, both from heathen and sa- 
 cred testimony, were by no means utterly 
 devoid of them. In support, however, of 
 this assertion, and, since the case of these 
 last is, doubtless, extremely different from 
 the cases of the Jews and ancient Patri- 
 archs, it will be necessary, and it is not 
 impossible to demonstrate, first, that the 
 circumstances in which they were placed 
 were not different from those under which 
 
 the 
 
396 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the Holy Ghost is actually promised ; and, 
 secondly, that they have evinced the re- 
 ality of such assistance by the only proof 
 of which the fact is ordinarily capable. 
 
 And here it will, in the first place, be 
 readily conceded, that though we presume 
 not to limit the undeclared and uncove- 
 nanted mercies of the Most High, yet, in 
 the ordinary course of his dealings with 
 mankind, and, so far as those dealings are 
 made known to us in the sacred writings, 
 there must be always premised a certain 
 portion of external information, without 
 which those internal suggestions of which 
 we are speaking can have no previous 
 principles to which to refer, no data on 
 which to operate. 
 
 It is true, and it should never be forgot- 
 ten, that as the Spirit of God is the go- 
 verning Providence of the world, the Dis- 
 poser of all earthly occurrences ; so the 
 outward means of knowledge and of grace, 
 no less than the spirit of internal improve- 
 ment are accorded to us by the same free 
 bounty. But, where the first of these is 
 denied, we cannot perceive by any light 
 
 either 
 
LECTURE VI. 397 
 
 either of nature or revelation how the se- 
 cond is to act on the soul. For as grace 
 (this ordinary grace at least) of itself teaches 
 nothing ; for, if it did, it would, as we have 
 already seen, be no less than miraculous 
 inspiration : it must ground, as is plain, its 
 awakening and supporting faculty on a re- 
 ference to previous knowledge. And, con- 
 sequently, before we can assign to the 
 heathen world the inspiration of attention 
 and of memory, it will be necessary to 
 shew that such a knowledge was accorded 
 them as to the source and measure of their 
 duty, as, when faithfully received and re- 
 collected seasonably, might enable them to 
 render an acceptable service to their al- 
 mighty Creator and Redeemer. 
 
 Now that degree of previous knowledge 
 on which a justifying faith may be found- 
 ed, is, in the case of Enoch, stated by St. 
 Paul to be the knowledge of God's being 
 and attributes. " He that cometh to God 
 " must first believe that He is, and that he 
 " is the re warder of them that diligently 
 * seek him *." Unless, then, it can be 
 
 * Hebrews xi. 6. 
 
 satis- 
 
398 LECTURE VI. 
 
 satisfactorily shewn, that the Heathen had 
 a knowledge of God, and that they believ- 
 ed in his justice and his power to reward 
 men according to their works, it is appa- 
 rent that, the foundation not being laid, 
 we may vainly look for a superstructure ; 
 and that, so far as the lights extend which 
 are supplied by God in the sacred Vo- 
 lume, we must not venture to ascribe even 
 their fairest outward actions to the ordi- 
 nary assistance of God's grace. And if, 
 on the other hand, it shall appear, that the 
 Heathen did really possess even this, the 
 lowest rank of religious information, it is 
 no less evident that we cannot, if we assent 
 to the authority of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, deny them the possibility at least 
 of receiving the further aids of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 For when the Apostle tells us, that with- 
 out this knowledge, or lowest degree of 
 faith, no man can come to God, he evi- 
 dently implies, at the same time, the re- 
 verse of this proposition, and teaches us, 
 that where this knowledge and faith are 
 possessed, a man may come to God, and, 
 
 like 
 
LECTURE VI. 399 
 
 like Enoch, please him. Whether Enoch 
 himself were better taught, is a question 
 which I need not now examine ; and, how- 
 ever probable in itself, is that which is nei- 
 ther told us by St. Paul, nor was, perhaps, 
 revealed to him. But St. Paul is reasoning 
 from the fact of Enoch's acceptance with 
 God, that he must have enjoyed a saving 
 knowledge of him ; and, consequently, the 
 limits, at which he fixes the extent of such 
 a knowledge, must needs have been, how 
 barely soever, sufficient, in his opinion, to 
 conduct its possessor to Paradise. 
 
 But we know that a man cannot come 
 to God except God draw him ; that he 
 cannot please God, nor persevere in holi- 
 ness, excepting he have the gift of God's 
 good Spirit, and it must therefore follow, 
 that the mere belief in a Deity, in his jus- 
 tice, his mercy, his power, is sufficient to 
 entitle him to the visitation and comfort of 
 grace, and to raise him, through grace, to 
 a share in the mercies of Christ, and to 
 the inheritance of the Christian heaven. 
 
 It remains then to be proved, that this 
 knowledge was really possessed by those 
 
 ancient 
 
400 LECTURE VL 
 
 ancient heathen nations, of which, as we 
 are best acquainted with their history and 
 writings, we are enabled to speak with 
 greatest certainty ; and which, as they ex- 
 tended over the most populous and civiliz- 
 ed countries of the world, may be regarded 
 as no insufficient specimen of the general 
 condition of mankind before the Messiah's 
 coming ; no less than of those to whom 
 from remoteness of situation or from other 
 causes not imputable to themselves, the 
 light of the Gospel has not hitherto arisen 
 in glory. And, if there be any tribes so sa- 
 vage as not to have attained the degree of 
 religious knowledge which the Greeks and 
 Romans enjoyed, we may leave, without 
 alarm, a proportion so trifling to the indul- 
 gence of Him from whose care neither idiots 
 nor madmen are rejected; and with whom, 
 we may be sure, external impediments are 
 as ample an excuse as natural incapacity, 
 for the ignorance of good and evil. 
 
 That the anci$ft heathens acknowledged 
 a Divinity, the Creator and Governor of 
 the world, it would be, before my present 
 audience, a presumptuous waste of time to 
 
 demon- 
 
LECTURE VI. 401 
 
 demonstrate at the length to which the 
 subject would naturally carry me. By 
 Plato the creation and directing care of 
 the world are repeatedly and expressly as- 
 cribed to him. By Aristotle his unity, his 
 excellence, his omnipotence, and eternal 
 activity, are, with yet more precision of 
 language, asserted and maintained. The 
 same exalted notions of the divine nature 
 are inculcated in the preface to the Lo- 
 crian Code, and the various Pythagorean 
 fragments preserved by Stobscus. Of Sene- 
 ca and of Thales, as quoted by Cicero, the 
 opinions are sufficiently known, as well as 
 the testimony of Menander, reprobating 
 the idolatry of his countrymen, and in- 
 structing them that God is " every where, 
 " and that he beholdeth all things." And, 
 though the Epicurean taint be sometimes, 
 unfortunately, visible in the philosophical 
 writings of Cicero; yet, in the midst of all his 
 contradictions and inconsistencies, though 
 the faith of the moralist himself may fre- 
 quently, perhaps, be questioned ; yet is 
 t apparent, that the public decency and 
 established opinion of his time, (and they 
 
 D d are 
 
402 LECTURE VI. 
 
 are the sentiments of the people at large, 
 not those of a single sceptical statesman, 
 which I am here concerned to vindicate,) 
 forbade him to deny, in express words at 
 least, the existence of a Being such as is 
 here represented 1 . 
 
 And that the God whom the heathen 
 thus acknowledged as supreme was, in 
 truth, the same with him whom all nature 
 ought to reverence, is apparent not only 
 from the propriety of their notions respect- 
 ing his nature and attributes, but from the 
 infallible testimony of St. Paul. 
 
 That great Apostle of the Gentiles came 
 riot, if we believe his own express declara- 
 tion, to reveal to them a new divinity, but 
 that God, whose existence their poets and 
 their sages had taught, and whom they 
 had themselves, in former ages, however 
 ignorantly, worshipped. He acknowledges, 
 that, among the darkest heathens, the Al- 
 mighty had not left himself without a wit- 
 ness ; and while, in the person of a jealous 
 Hebrew, he lays to the charge of the Gen- 
 tile world that they glorified not God as 
 became his nature, he admits, at the same 
 
 time, 
 
LECTURE VI. 403 
 
 time, and he grounds the criminality of 
 their conduct on this admission, that they 
 were not without a knowledge of God *. 
 
 And, grievously as we must deplore the 
 apparently universal prevalence of idolatry 
 and its consequent vices among them, yet 
 must we, at the same time, remember, that 
 a similar depravation of manners had, not 
 unfrequently, threatened the extinction of 
 religious truth among the ancient Israelites 
 themselves. 
 
 Amid the apostasy of these last, how- 
 ever, the Almighty failed not to preserve a 
 remnant ; and a similar remnant* as is ap- 
 parent by .the works of their leading philo*- 
 sophers, had been also preserved among 
 the heathen. 
 
 The heathen, therefore, imperfect as was 
 the glimpse which they continued to en- 
 joy of the true God, his nature, and his 
 attributes, were at no time so entirely 
 blind as to be deprived of that saving de- 
 gree of knowledge which is the necessary 
 groundwork for internal grace; and the 
 
 * Acts xvii. 23, 24. Romans i. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. 
 
 JD d u appare 
 
404 LECTURE VI. 
 
 apparent and shining virtues of many 
 among their number are an argument that 
 such grace was sometimes not denied them. 
 From its fruit the tree is recognized; and 
 not only by the authority of the Gospel, 
 but by the admission of the best and wisest 
 among the Pagans themselves, are we 
 taught that our mortal nature cannot, 
 without the inspiration of God, be quick- 
 ened to acts of noble self-denial or to sen- 
 timents of genuine morality. 
 
 It is unnecessary, and it would be pre- 
 sumptuous, to recal your attention to those 
 maxims and precedents of heroic excel- 
 lence with which our childhood and our 
 youth are chiefly conversant ; those lessons 
 from which, next to the sacred oracles 
 themselves, we form our tempers and en- 
 large our understandings. But I may be 
 allowed to observe, what is not so gene- 
 rally noticed, that, like ourselves, the sages 
 and heroes of antiquity were accustomed 
 to ascribe whatever of either good or great 
 or wise was found among men, to the in- 
 fluence of a present and pervading Deity. 
 
 The comedian Epicharmus, in a remark- 
 able 
 
LECTURE VI. 405 
 
 able fragment preserved by Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, describes that inspiration of wis- 
 dom which proceeds from God, as the 
 source of all truth and of all knowledge 
 necessary to man. JVlenander taught his 
 Countrymen, that " God himself is the un- 
 " derstanding of the virtuous. " The The- 
 ages and Epinomis of Plato inculcate the 
 necessity of the Divine assistance and bless- 
 ing on our endeavours, in terms little dif- 
 ferent from those which a Christian would 
 employ in speaking of grace k . Even Cicero 
 expressed his own opinion, or the opinion 
 of his countrymen, when he observed, that 
 no man could attain to excellence " with- 
 " out a certain divine inspiration ;" and 
 the expressions of Seneca on this subject 
 may be read with improvement and de- 
 light, by the most rational and pious among 
 Christians. " God is present with us/' 
 are his words to Lucilius; " he is with thee, 
 " he is within thee. This I say, Lucilius; 
 a holy Spirit dwelleth within us, of our 
 good and evil works the observer and 
 the guardian. As we treat him, so he 
 treateth us ; and no man is good except 
 D d 3 " God 
 
406 LECTURE VI. 
 
 " God be with him. Can any rise above 
 " external fortunes, unless by his aid ? He 
 " it is from whom every good man receiv- 
 " eth both honourable and upright pur- 
 " poses '." 
 
 And is it possible that sentiments thus 
 pious and rational should be founded in 
 superstition or delusion ? Can carnal pride 
 or earthly wisdom have prompted confes- 
 sions almost evangelical ? Or shall we es- 
 teem it a sinful feeling which induced these 
 noble heathens to refer to the giver of 
 goodness those sentiments and actions from 
 which Christians might take example ? Ovx, 
 SFTIV ovx. eo-Tiv 'MTU? r^^TYi^oLtri ! It cannot have 
 been flesh and blood which revealed to 
 them their dependance on the Deity : in 
 the wreck of our nature, this fragment of 
 God's image has not utterly fallen from its 
 shrine; and, as the beams of day enliven 
 those whose dimmer eyes cannot receive 
 their perfect glory, so must that Spirit, 
 whose name the Gentiles knew not, have 
 girded them with secret blessedness. 
 
 It is urged, however, on the other hand, 
 and the objection is as old as the time of 
 
 St. 
 
LECTURE VI. 407 
 
 St. Angustin*, that the seeming virtues of 
 the heathen were prompted by human mo- 
 tives only, and not from any desire of 
 pleasing God, or from any practical appli- 
 cation of that degree of knowledge, which 
 they cannot be denied to have possessed 
 respecting him. But it is one of the most 
 generally acknowledged positions in Chris- 
 tian ethics, that the searcher of our hearts 
 does not form his judgment of our con- 
 duct by the outward action only, but by 
 the fountain, yet more, from which those 
 actions flow. And it will follow, that a 
 seeming good deed, if it be secretly 
 prompted by self-interest, or passion, or 
 pride, so far from being lovely in the eyes 
 of an Omniscient Being, may, in propor- 
 tion to the sordid nature of its motives, 
 and not without a reference to the hypo- 
 crisy wherewith those motives are conceal- 
 ed, be an object of indignation and pu- 
 nishment. And this may explain the ap- 
 parently harsh assertion of Augustin, that 
 '* the virtues of the heathen were only 
 
 * August, de Civitate Dei, xix. 25. 
 
 P d 4 sins;" 
 
408 LECTURE VI. 
 
 " sins ;" and may fully justify the more 
 guarded censure conveyed in the thir- 
 teenth Article of our Church, on " works 
 " done before the grace of Christ and the 
 " inspiration of his Spirit." 
 
 If, therefore, the apparent virtues of the 
 heathen can be traced to impure or earthly 
 sources, it is obviously worse than idle to 
 adduce such counterfeits of heroism as 
 proofs that they had the help of God's 
 grace : and it behoves us to inquire by 
 every light in our power, whether the prin- 
 ciples of action by which these ancient 
 worthies were swayed, were really the same 
 with those which only can proceed from 
 celestial inspiration ; a desire, that is, to 
 serve and please the Almighty, and a prac- 
 tical faith that he is the " re warder of such 
 " as diligently seek him." 
 
 But, that we cannot, without a gross 
 defect in that charity which " hopeth all 
 " things," deny that such a principle was 
 to many, at least, of their actions, the main 
 and master spring, is apparent from the 
 assertions of their poets alike and philoso- 
 phers, who had no interest in ascribing to 
 
 their 
 
LECTURE VI. 409 
 
 their countrymen and contemporaries a 
 motive with which no heart could sympa- 
 thize, nor could have themselves conceived 
 or described a motive of which their own 
 hearts were altogether insensible. 
 
 The decrepid husbandman, who could 
 not hope to reap himself the harvest of his 
 toil, was content, as we are assured by the 
 Roman moralist, to " labour for the gods 
 " who never die." To Plato, to Pindar, 
 to the Grecian comic writers, the idea of 
 a future retribution seems to have been 
 ever awfully present. " There is a God/' 
 saith the captive in Plautus, " by whom 
 " our words and actions are both heard 
 66 and seen ; it shall go well with him who 
 a deserveth well, and he who doeth evil 
 " shall receive the like again :" and the fear 
 of those gods " by whom our good and 
 " evil deeds are remembered," was the ar- 
 gument which Virgil supposed best quali- 
 fied to soften the hearts and conciliate the 
 hospitality of a barbarous and suspicious 
 people. 
 
 Nor is that true, which has been some- 
 times asserted in the ardour of speculative 
 
 controversy, 
 
410 LECTURE VI. 
 
 controversy, that these motives of action, 
 or the future life on which, mainly, they 
 depend, were involved by the heathen in 
 the gloom of their sacred colleges; that 
 they were the suspicions of their priests 
 and sages only, or revealed, at times and 
 sparingly, to the perishing multitude, 
 through the " ivory gate" of symbolical 
 ceremonies, and under the sanction of 
 mysterious secrecy n . 
 
 The creed of poetry is always the creed 
 of the vulgar. The lofty strains of Pindar 
 resounded through the streets of Elis and 
 Corinth, and amid the promiscuous and 
 crowded solemnities of republican festival, 
 Menander was the darling of the Athenian 
 stage ; and the hymn which placed Har- 
 modius in the green and flowery island of 
 the blessed, was chanted by the potter to 
 his wheel, and enlivened the labours of the 
 Pirsean mariner . 
 
 And, as their professed incentives to vir- 
 tue were thus perfectly consistent with the 
 expectation of spiritual aid ; so were there 
 many of their habitual actions which would 
 have been utterly preposterous, if they had 
 
 not 
 
LECTURE VI. 411 
 
 not originated in a faith that God re ward - 
 eth those who diligently seek him. 
 
 If the continence of Scipio, if the ge- 
 nerosity of Aristides, if the noble self-de- 
 votion of Socrates to what he regarded 
 as the will of heaven p , he deduced (as 
 heaven forbid the} 7 should be deduced !) 
 from the whispers of ambition or of policy ; 
 yet to what exciting cause, if not to a de- 
 pendance on Providence, can we ascribe 
 the prayers and sacrifices of antiquity? In- 
 stitutions these, however obscured by su- 
 perstitious pollution or misdirected to false 
 and foul divinities, which intimate, never- 
 theless, in their very essence and necessary 
 elements, a sense of guilt, a desire of ex- 
 piation, a confidence in that mercy whose 
 everlasting gates are open to receive the 
 penitent. And, that some at least of the 
 sacrifices offered by the heathen, were not 
 offered to evil or imaginary beings ; that 
 there were not wanting those, in ancient 
 times, who regarded the several greater di- 
 vinities of Polytheism as only different titles 
 of the One Supreme; that, with by far the 
 greater portion of the multitude them- 
 selves, an awful distinction was made be- 
 
412 LECTURE VI. 
 
 tween the Father of gods and men and 
 the herd of subaltern immortals ; that, 
 lastly, the name itself of Jupiter or Jove 
 is, probably, nothing more than a corrupt 
 pronunciation of Jehovah ; as Cudworth 
 and others have long since elaborately 
 shewn, I need do no more than recal to 
 your recollection q . Nor can it be doubt- 
 ed, that the common faith in a God and 
 the universal institution of sacrifice are re- 
 lics alike of that primeval and patriarchal 
 religion, whose altars have smoked where- 
 ever man has passed to raise them ; and 
 which was appointed as a pledge of ex- 
 pected salvation, not to the Jews alone, 
 but to every descendant of Adam. 
 
 Nor, can we reasonably doubt that sym- 
 bols of expiation originally appointed or 
 approved by the Holy Ghost, were avail- 
 able and helpful even to those who obeyed 
 the form without understanding its inward 
 mystery; who sought atonement for sin 
 through the blood of unoffending animals, 
 though they were ignorant of the one great 
 Sacrifice of which their hecatombs were 
 types and shadows. 
 
 The Jews themselves, to whose holo- 
 
LECTURE VI. 413 
 
 causts we cannot deny a reflected efficacy, 
 were, notwithstanding, if we rely on the 
 accordant authority of the whole New Tes- 
 tament, little better acquainted than the 
 Gentile world with those destined suffer- 
 ings of the Messiah, to which their sym- 
 bols bore a prophetic reference. Nor, has 
 any reason as yet been offered, why the 
 ignorant Gentile might not, as well as the 
 ignorant Israelite, derive imparted blessed- 
 ness from a faithful though unskilful use of 
 those appointed means of grace which were 
 ordained because of offences, till that seed 
 should come on whom the offences of the 
 world were laid. 
 
 Between a type, indeed, and a sacra- 
 ment, as the one is a shadow of good 
 things to come, the other a representation 
 or memorial of good things already receiv- 
 ed, the distinction is of the same kind as 
 that which exists between a prophecy and 
 a history, of which the latter is nothing if 
 it be not intelligible and actually under- 
 stood; but the former may be faithfully 
 and profitably used by those by whom its 
 secret meaning is either utterly unknown, 
 
 or, 
 
414 LECTURE VI. 
 
 or, at best, very imperfectly comprehend- 
 ed. Thus, if the narrative of Moses were, 
 as some have fancied, allegorical, it would, 
 doubtless, be to those who knew not its 
 hidden meaning a vehicle of falsehood 
 only ; but the Apocalypse of St. John may 
 be studied with instruction, (and a blessing 
 is promised to those who meditate its pro- 
 phecies *,) though they should understand 
 erroneously, or not attempt to understand 
 at all the several events which are therein 
 mysteriously shadowed, contented with 
 that general certainty which it every where 
 inculcates, of the providential care extend- 
 ed over good men, and the final triumph 
 of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 In a sacrament, accordingly, we acknow- 
 ledge with gratitude that definite act of mer- 
 cy whereby the Almighty has already freed 
 the world from the dreadful consequences 
 of sin ; and it is therefore absolutely neces- 
 sary to our worthy participation, that we 
 should understand the evils from which we 
 are preserved, and the manner in which 
 
 * Revelation i. 3, 
 
 we 
 
LECTURE VI. 415 
 
 we have been delivered. But in a typical 
 sacrifice the penitent offender looked for- 
 ward with humble hope to an undefined 
 but implied atonement; and the means 
 whereby this atonement was to be effected, 
 as they were a mystery as yet in the bosom 
 of God, so a knowledge of their nature 
 was, clearly, not essential to those objects 
 for which God had instituted the prophe- 
 tic ceremony. 
 
 And, as the significant nature of the ce- 
 remony itself was, no less than the uni- 
 form tradition of their ancestors, sufficient 
 evidence to the pious Gentile, that the Al- 
 mighty had, for whatever reasons, appoint- 
 ed this mode of expiation for sin, so was it 
 no less incumbent on the Gentile than the 
 Jew to bring his oblations to the Most 
 High : no less than the Jew, the Gentile 
 might expect, through such atonement, 
 forgiveness from their common Father and 
 Judge ; and the piety and penitence of the 
 great family of mankind, no less than the 
 piety and penitence of the chosen and pe- 
 culiar nation, must have proceeded from 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 If. 
 
416 LECTURE VI. 
 
 If, then, these ordinary aids of grace, 
 this internal influence by which alone we 
 are enabled to profit from external means 
 of knowledge, have been accorded to many 
 both of the Jews and Heathens, it is plain 
 that, in this sense, at least, of the expres- 
 sion, the fellowship of the Holy Ghost is 
 no distinctive badge or peculiar privilege 
 of Christians, and it is still more evident 
 that such a benefit could not have been 
 consistently held forth by the Messiah as 
 a compensation to his Apostles for his own 
 departure from the world. For, as I have 
 shewn in a former Lecture, the continu- 
 ance of one blessing is no compensation 
 for the loss of another ; and, doubtless, if 
 to any of Jewish or Heathen race such sa- 
 lutary influence had been accorded, the 
 grace of God, which sanctifieth to salvation, 
 had not been denied to those who were 
 called by Christ; who had through faith 
 obeyed the call, and who, in the course of 
 the conversation here recorded, had been 
 called by God himself, his friends*. 
 
 * John xv. 14, 15. 
 
 I con- 
 
LECTURE VI. 417 
 
 I conclude, then, that the prophecy of 
 Christ, which has furnished a text for these 
 Discourses, is not fulfilled by the dispensa- 
 tion (however such bounty may be pur- 
 chased for us by his merits only) of the 
 ordinary and sanctifying graces of the Holy 
 Ghost. What other benefits we owe to 
 the same good Spirit, and which of these 
 lay the strongest and most rational claim 
 to this peculiar and contested honour, may 
 be discussed in a future Lecture. The re- 
 mainder of my present Discourse must be 
 chiefly employed in obviating two material 
 objections, which may, not impossibly, oc- 
 cur to several among my auditors against 
 the system which supposes God's sanctify- 
 ing grace to have extended to the Jews 
 and Heathens. 
 
 That system, I am aware, may be ac- 
 cused of detracting from the efficacy of 
 sacramental ordinances, and from the ne- 
 cessity itself of faith in the peculiar doc- 
 trines of Christianity. And as either the 
 one or the other of these imputations 
 would be sufficient, if well founded, to 
 overturn the most plausible hypothesis, I 
 
 EC am 
 
418 LECTURE VI. 
 
 am most anxious to shew, before we pro- 
 ceed any farther in our inquiry, that nei- 
 ther the one nor the other are conse- 
 quences with which my opinion is justly 
 chargeable; that this opinion is perfectly 
 consistent with the importance of Christi- 
 anity itself, and of the symbols whereby its 
 mysterious benefits are represented ; and 
 that the value of both will be yet more 
 firmly established, when disencumbered 
 from those extraneous circumstances with 
 which the indiscreet veneration of some 
 learned men has adorned them. 
 
 It will, in the first place, be readily ac- 
 knowledged by the advocate of universal 
 grace, that with us, to whom the know- 
 ledge of the Gospel is given, and who are 
 called, by that merciful communication, to 
 enrol ourselves ih the army of Christ's 
 faithful followers on earth, the sacraments 
 which Christ has ordained are not only 
 the solemn and indispensable forms of ex- 
 pressing our allegiance and fidelity, but 
 the necessary and appointed means where- 
 by we are to seek at God's hands for grace 
 and hope and happiness. In baptism, 
 
 which 
 
LECTURE VI. 419 
 
 which is the outward sign or image of that 
 death unto sin and new birth unto righ- 
 teousness, which we, through Christ, receive, 
 we declare our faith in him, and our desire 
 to be admitted, through his merits, to the 
 privileges which his death has purchased 
 for mankind. In the eucharist, of which 
 the outward form is a symbol or represen- 
 tation of Christ's death, we in like manner 
 express our perseverance in our profession 
 of faith once made ; we implore the par- 
 don of the Most High for our subsequent 
 transgressions, and his grace to assist us 
 for the time to come. But, though the 
 forms enjoined be expressive of those great 
 events on which we found our hopes of 
 heaven, yet is it to these events themselves, 
 and not to their images and material repre* 
 sentations, that we look for peace and par- 
 don : nor is our use of the appointed form 
 expressive of any thing else than our hearty 
 desire and humble hope of grace and for- 
 giveness. 
 
 The spirit and internal principle of sa- 
 crifice are the same with those of prayer ; 
 as the last of these is often styled a vocal 
 E e 2 
 
420 LECTURE VI. 
 
 offering, so may the former be without im- 
 propriety defined as a silent entreaty ; and 
 sacraments which are an oblation of our- 
 selves to God's service, and a token of our 
 desire that he would grant us his love and 
 favour, no otherwise differ from the ex- 
 pression of the same sentiments in prayer, 
 than as the language of ceremony and 
 symbol differs from the language of the 
 tongue. But, as it is by convention only 
 that either our actions or our words are 
 significant, it was, a priori, as natural that 
 our heavenly Benefactor should appoint 
 the one as the other to be expressive, in 
 his presence, of our wants and our affec- 
 tions. And as every benefactor has an 
 undoubted right to determine what ser- 
 vices he will require, and what acknow- 
 ledgment he will receive; it follows, that 
 we are to approach the mercy seat of God 
 in whatever manner is most pleasing to 
 him, and that we must thank him for past 
 favours, and intreat his future protection in 
 those words or by those ceremonies which 
 he hath himself thought fit to institute. 
 To this we are bound under the implied 
 
 and 
 
LECTURE VI. 421 
 
 and most righteous penalty of having our 
 requests rejected, if, despising the ordi- 
 nance of God, we offer them in any other 
 than the commanded form ; and to this we 
 are moved by the implied assurance of 
 Christ, that, asking in the manner which 
 he himself has chosen, our prayer shall not 
 return without its answer. 
 
 It is therefore that, the ceremony of 
 baptism performed, we proclaim with so 
 much holy confidence that our prayers are 
 already heard, and the neophyte even now 
 adopted. It is for this reason that, after 
 the celebration of the eucharist, we thank 
 the Almighty for assuring the devout par- 
 ticipant in those holy mysteries, that he is 
 a member incorporate into the mystical 
 body of his Lord : and on this account 
 alone we do style the Christian sacraments, 
 in our public formularies of instruction, the 
 pledges of our Master's love r . 
 
 Not that we conceive any necessary or 
 mysterious connection between the forms 
 themselves and the grace of which they 
 are the outward image ; far less that any 
 overt and voluntary action of our own can 
 E e 3 possibly 
 
422 LECTUUE VI. 
 
 possibly be a proof or token of the good- 
 will of another person towards us : but be- 
 cause the words of Christ enjoining us to 
 seek such blessings by such ceremonies are 
 in truth a most ample pledge that our 
 compliance is acceptable to God, and that 
 we are consequently entitled to look for- 
 ward in humble confidence to the blessing 
 which we seek at his hands. The sacra- 
 ments, accordingly, are styled the means 
 whereby we receive grace ; not as if they 
 were vehicles through which the Spirit of 
 grace thinks fit exclusively to convey his 
 gifts to the hearts of men, but because 
 they are the appointed medium of our de- 
 vout and acceptable aspirations to his 
 throne. They are not the means whereby 
 God gives us grace, but they are the means 
 whereby we ask and obtain grace from 
 God : and it is evident that we cannot, if 
 either the one or the other be wilfully neg- 
 lected, expect from our Maker either par- 
 don of our sins, or that spiritual assistance 
 whereby only we are enabled to serve and 
 please him. 
 
 Nor can any consideration more strongly 
 
 evince 
 
LECTURE VL 423 
 
 evince the dangerous error or still more 
 perilous obstinacy of those who, from mis- 
 taken principle refuse, or from fondness 
 for the world neglect, observances in them- 
 selves so rational, and commanded by such 
 awful authority. 
 
 From the correspondence thus explain- 
 ed between sacramental and devotional 
 ordinances, it is evident that the practice 
 of infant baptism may be defended on a 
 different and, perhaps, a more satisfactory 
 ground than the usual arguments derived 
 from precedent and human authority. For 
 whether the infant be a legitimate object 
 of covenant or no, it is certain that he is 
 a proper subject of prayer and interces- 
 sion; and the devoting of a child to the 
 service of his Maker, and the supplication 
 that his heavenly King would dispose him 
 in due time to ratify those engagements, 
 when, above all, our own endeavours may 
 by education mainly contribute to the end 
 proposed, is a proceeding, surely, no less 
 reasonable, than it is pious and affecting 
 and charitable. 
 
 But it will also follow from the above 
 E e 4 definition 
 
424 LECTURE VI. 
 
 definition of a sacrament, that the neces- 
 sity either of baptism or the eucharist can 
 only rest with those to whom their obliga- 
 tion is known, and their observance possi- 
 ble ; and that we cannot, on any principle 
 of reason or revelation, exclude any part 
 of mankind from those benefits which the 
 blood of Christ has bought for all, on the 
 plea of inevitable or ignorant noncompli- 
 ance with the positive institutions of Chris- 
 tianity. Were it otherwise, the parallel 
 would altogether fail between the rites of 
 circumcision and baptism, the passover 
 and the eucharist, inasmuch as the Jew 
 was pardoned, who, during his abode in 
 the wilderness or, afterwards, from bodily 
 infirmity, omitted the former rite 3 . Nor 
 was the Holy Ghost at any time bestowed 
 in more ample measure than on those pro- 
 phets of Israel's captivity, who were, by 
 their situation, effectually excluded from 
 all participation in the appointed offerings 
 for sin. 
 
 And, though our Saviour insist, in his 
 conference with Nicodemus on baptismal 
 no less than spiritual regeneration as 
 
 equally 
 
LECTURE VI. 425 
 
 equally necessary to the character of a 
 perfect Christian, yet does the whole tenor 
 of his argument imply, that these are not 
 the same but different things ; which, 
 though neither of them was, without the 
 other, sufficient to make us members of his 
 church, might exist, nevertheless, distinct- 
 ly and with different individuals. And, in 
 point of fact, and if we take as our example 
 the particular case of Nicodemus, so far 
 from internal grace being the effect of bap- 
 tism only, this order appears to have been 
 absolutely reversed, inasmuch as a consi- 
 derable spiritual change had already taken 
 place in the Jewish Rabbi, who acknow- 
 ledged Christ to be a teacher come from 
 God, although his remaining prejudices or 
 timidity as yet forbade the public profes- 
 sion of this faith by baptism. 
 
 On the whole, if we admit that, to those 
 whom God hath commanded thus to ap- 
 proach him, the sacramental ordinances 
 are indispensable means of grace ; it will 
 from thence by no means follow, that no 
 other inlet of scriptural hope remains for 
 those to whom such opportunities are de- 
 nied: 
 
426 LECTURE VL 
 
 nied : nor if, on the other hand, we main- 
 tain, that his mercy may dispense to other s> 
 where he will, and freely, those powerful 
 aids for which himself hath taught us to 
 pray, can we therefore hope that our dis- 
 obedience will meet with the same indul- 
 gence as their misfortune. The arm of 
 God is not so short or feeble as that his 
 Spirit should be confined to those who 
 after a particular form desire it ; but nei- 
 ther is the word of God so changeable as 
 that he can be expected to communicate 
 his sanctifying grace to the Church on any 
 other terms than those on which he first 
 engaged to grant it. 
 
 The importance, then, of the initiative 
 and commemorative ceremonies of our re- 
 ligion, (though they be deprived, perhaps, 
 of that unreasonable dignity which assigns 
 to them not only a relative value as ex- 
 pressions of our faith and hope, but a po- 
 sitive efficacy which no act of our own, 
 however instituted, can obtain,) their im- 
 portance as necessary means of asking and 
 obtaining the favour and help of God, will 
 remain more firmly fixed than ever. Nor 
 
 is 
 
LECTURE VI. 427 
 
 is the awful danger which belongs to a per- 
 verse rejection of Revealed Religion, im- 
 paired or slighted by the defender of that 
 hypothesis which admits the uninstructed 
 heathen to a share in God's sanctifying 
 grace : nor are the blessings undervalued 
 which follow from a faithful profession of 
 that doctrine which maketh wise to eternal 
 glory. 
 
 Between inevitable ignorance and a wil- 
 ful refusal of offered knowledge, the differ- 
 ence is great indeed. And, though the 
 help of the Most High have sometimes 
 girded those who have been constrained, 
 in the darkness of heathenism, to seek after 
 a God whom they knew not, what hope 
 is left for him who hath done despite to 
 the Spirit of grace, and hath openly reject- 
 ed that Prince and Saviour by whom and 
 for whose sake the power is given to re- 
 pent, and repentance rendered available ? 
 
 But error of all kinds, even conscienti- 
 ous or invincible error, can never be ac- 
 counted any other than a very great and 
 grievous misfortune. From such, though 
 grace be not withheld, yet (as the strength 
 
 and 
 
428 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and character of the motives and princi- 
 ples which that grace recals to our mind 
 must depend on our previous knowledge) 
 it will follow, that the support of the Holy 
 Ghost as promised to Christians must be 
 of greater and more blessed efficacy than 
 any which the heathen can look for. 
 
 Nor, though the state of these last be 
 freed, on this hypothesis, from that hope- 
 less abandonment to which some misjudg- 
 ing Christians have consigned them, is the 
 Christian left without sufficient grounds of 
 peculiar exultation and gratitude ; nor shall 
 we lose those motives which by every bond 
 of love and pity would induce us to la- 
 bour in the conversion of our heathen bre- 
 thren. 
 
 While we contend that the heathen have 
 received such a measure of knowledge and 
 of grace, as, when properly improved, may 
 elevate some of them, through the merits 
 of Christ, to a seat even in the Christian 
 paradise ; while we delight to reckon 
 among our future associates in glory the 
 wise and virtuous of every age and every 
 country, it will not, therefore, follow, that 
 
 more 
 
LECTURE VI. 429 
 
 more of the benighted multitude might 
 not have been wise and virtuous, had they 
 enjoyed the same advantages with our- 
 selves. It will not follow that those who 
 sinned against the degree of light allowed 
 them might not have repented in sack- 
 cloth and ashes, had they known those im- 
 portant truths of whose value we are so 
 negligent, or that those, be they many or 
 few, who have been snatched as brands 
 from the burning, might not, with greater 
 lights, have attained to greater blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 An equality of gifts or graces is no- 
 where to be found in the analogy of nature 
 or religion; nor is it any imputation on 
 the justice or mercy of God, that, where 
 enough is given to all, he offers more to 
 some than others. But it is the duty of 
 the favoured part to remedy this seeming 
 partiality, and to remember, that the more 
 advantages have fallen to their share, the 
 more clearly are they marked out by the 
 common Parent as instruments of disper- 
 sion arjd distribution. The rich must feed 
 the hungry, the seeing must conduct the 
 
 blind ; 
 
430 LECTURE VI. 
 
 blind ; the Christian must join his efforts 
 with the Church towards the illumination 
 of heathen darkness. 
 
 And, while we indulge our gratitude for 
 that unspeakable gift of the Gospel where- 
 by we are admitted to the inmost sanctu- 
 ary of mercy, and rendered spectators of 
 those secret springs of grace, from whose 
 diffusive dews and larger channels the uni- 
 versal earth derives fertility ; let us remem- 
 ber, that not as spectators only should we 
 approach the well-head of salvation ; and 
 that, unless we drink more deeply of its 
 purer stream, the virtues of the heathen 
 will hereafter be reckoned to our shame, 
 when they shall come from the east and 
 from the west to sit down in the kingdom 
 of God, and when the men of Nineveh 
 and the queen of the south shall rise up 
 against us in judgment ' ! 
 
 I have now run through the most im- 
 portant, indeed the only serious objection 
 which occurs to me as likely to be urged 
 against the doctrine of my present Lecture ; 
 and have shewn, I trust, satisfactorily, both 
 from profane and sacred testimony, that 
 
 both 
 
LECTURE VI. 431 
 
 gans may have been partakers like our- 
 selves in the graces of the Holy Ghost, and 
 inheritors with us, through Jesus Christ, 
 of everlasting life and glory. 
 
 But from the facts which I have esta- 
 blished, we are authorized to deduce some 
 important though incidental corollaries. 
 
 1st. While by expressly attributing to 
 the grace of God every single instance of 
 good, whether done or thought or spoken, 
 we cut up by the roots all human pride, and 
 all tendency to Pelagian error u , it is appa- 
 rent that we exhibit in a yet clearer point 
 of view the improbability of that opposite 
 system, which supposes that sanctifying 
 grace is, wherever bestowed, irresistibly ex- 
 erted; and which, by referring our destiny 
 to a previous infallible decree, would leave 
 to the human will but an empty name of 
 freedom. For since no single instance can 
 be found in Scripture where the title of 
 Elect is assigned to any other than Chris- 
 tians, and since it is assigned in the Epi- 
 stles of St. Paul to communities of Chris- 
 tians generally and without exception ; it 
 must follow that it denotes some privilege 
 
 in 
 
432 LECTURE VI. 
 
 in which all Christians and Christians only 
 participate. But if there be certain hea- 
 thens from whom sanctification to eternal 
 life is not withheld, and if there be certain 
 Christians (as is too lamentably and fami- 
 liarly known) who, by their own ingrati- 
 tude, have lost all claim to this inestimable 
 privilege, it must follow that the election 
 of St. Paul has reference to some other 
 blessing than that with which the followers 
 of Augustin are accustomed to identify it. 
 
 Nor can any doubt remain, that the only 
 privileges to which this election applies are 
 a knowledge in this world of God's more 
 perfect will, and a share in the comforts of 
 the Gospel ; a preference, no doubt, suffi- 
 ciently great to call forth our unbounded 
 gratitude, but which does not extend so 
 far as to give us the exclusive possession of 
 our heavenly Father's love and mercy. 
 
 But, the distinction once removed which 
 confines to Christians only the sanctifying 
 grace of God, no reason can be given why 
 such grace should be restricted to any par- 
 ticular persons, either among the Hea- 
 thens, Christians, or Jews; or why the 
 
 merciful 
 
LECTURE VI. 433 
 
 merciful patience of God which leads us to 
 repentance should not, together with his 
 ready help by which only repentance is 
 possible, be extended to every capable sub- 
 ject. That equal grace is given to all, both 
 religion and experience alike deny ; but 
 that any are altogether excluded from its 
 influence, the observations which have been 
 already made will, apparently, forbid us to 
 maintain. I can duly appreciate, and I 
 can sincerely honour that reverence for the 
 power and purity of God's Spirit, which 
 has induced so many wise and holy men 
 to limit its presence to those only who are 
 finally triumphant over sin : but do we in- 
 deed diminish the value of his gift or tar- 
 nish the brightness of his mercy, when we 
 suppose it, like the sun of our mental sys- 
 tem, to dart its pervading blessedness from 
 the midst of heaven on all who do not wil- 
 fully shut their eyes against the day? Or 
 shall we, who have the privilege of ap- 
 proaching nearer to its beams, be indiffe- 
 rent to our brighter prospect, because the 
 ends of the earth are not immersed in to- 
 tal darkness; and because the witness of 
 
 rf the 
 
434 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the Most High has not entirely forsaken 
 those tribes on whom the purer day-spring 
 has not dawned ? 
 
 From this universality, ho\vever, of grace, 
 a second corollary arises; that grace, name- 
 ly, may, so far as our personal sanctifica- 
 tion is concerned, be resisted arid rendered 
 vain. Were it otherwise, indeed, there 
 could be no condemnation at all, since no 
 man is punished but for neglect of grace. 
 But, if grace may be at first withstood, no 
 reason can be given why it should ever, in 
 this life, become irresistible ; or why we 
 should not, through life, retain the fatal 
 power of falling from our highest profi- 
 ciency. It follows that the doctrine of as- 
 surance, as that doctrine, at least, is com- 
 monly expressed, is an opinion groundless 
 and illusory; that though on our present 
 state of acceptance with God our con- 
 science is reasonably said to bear us wit- 
 ness, yet is it impossible, without the gift of 
 prophecy or the crime of presumption, to 
 anticipate our final perseverance in godli- 
 ness, with that degree of confidence which 
 many pious men profess to feel. 
 
 It 
 
LECTURE VI. 435 
 
 It may be suspected indeed, (and well 
 it is for them that such a case is possi- 
 ble,) that those excellent persons have 
 not, in reality, that unbounded assurance 
 of final salvation to which they, however 
 sincerely, lay claim ; and that they con- 
 found those feelings which arise from a 
 high degree of probability, with that 
 stronger effect which is produced in the 
 soul by the contemplation of what is abso- 
 lutely certain. 
 
 The circumstances are of very rare oc- 
 currence, in which this certainty is possible 
 to man ; and the highest degree of faith it- 
 self will, perhaps, fall vastly short of it. 
 But, though the sense of probability is in 
 its nature a conditional expectation, we 
 may, doubtless, by inferring the future 
 from the past, exhilarate or depress the 
 soul to a degree of joy or misery very 
 hardly to be distinguished in definition 
 from that certainty which belongs, it may 
 be thought, to present objects only. 
 
 In practice however, and in their effects 
 
 on the subsequent conduct, such feelings 
 
 are easily distinguishable. What we indeed 
 
 F f 2 regard 
 
436 LECTURE VI. 
 
 regard as certain we are never found to 
 strive against or to forward : but that con- 
 fidence of which we only persuade our- 
 selves is by far too weak to hold out against 
 the excitements of hope or terror. The 
 merest Fatalist, if life be dear to him, will 
 take care, notwithstanding his professed 
 opinions, to guard his head in battle : the 
 sturdiest Predestinarian, when temptations 
 arise, is truly and piously disquieted. 
 
 And, though the recollection of frequent 
 victories over sin may, doubtless, yield a 
 well-grounded hope that we shall not be 
 hereafter defeated ; though the probability 
 that we shall be supported to-morrow as 
 we were yesterday and the day before, may 
 kindle in the good man a holy joy and gra- 
 titude, which, for the moment, casts out 
 fear ; yet that this troublesome but neces- 
 sary guest must, nevertheless, ere long re- 
 turn, is apparent from the circumstance, 
 that the good man does not fail to conti- 
 nue those precautions which the apprehen- 
 sion of danger alone can dictate. 
 
 There is an awful difference between the 
 absence of doubt and the sensation of per- 
 fect 
 
LECTURE VI. 437 
 
 feet confidence. That we shall sleep to- 
 night as safely as we slept the night before, 
 there is none of us, perhaps, who ques- 
 tions; and, if we think on the subject at 
 all, we rejoice in our sense of that merciful 
 protection, without which the watchman 
 waketh but in vain. Yet do we none of us 
 neglect to secure our doors against assault, 
 which, if assault were impossible, would, 
 surely, be a futile trouble. The mariner 
 in sight of his desired haven is as glad as if 
 his voyage were already concluded : and 
 the saint beside his funeral pile may exult 
 with reason that a crown is laid up for him 
 for evermore. But neither the one nor 
 the other is so sure of his safety, as to con- 
 found what is only extremely probable with 
 what is absolutely decreed by Heaven. The 
 seaman, till the anchor is cast, forsakes not 
 the care of his helm ; the martyr, whose 
 pardon was laid before him on the condi- 
 tion of his apostasy, exhorted his persecu- 
 tors, as they loved his soul, to remove from 
 him that temptation*. With both, the in- 
 
 * Fox's Life of Bishop Hooper. 
 
 F f 3 tensity 
 
438 LECTURE VI. 
 
 tensity of hope is allayed with an attendant 
 anxiety, lest by any fault of theirs they 
 should perish in the very moment when all 
 their toils were about to terminate. 
 
 To a wicked man the doctrine of pre- 
 destination is a dangerous and deadly 
 downfall, because he is glad to use it as an 
 excuse for neglecting those interests which 
 he does not really regard. To a good 
 man, if his reason be sound, it can, proba- 
 bly, do little harm ; and may, sometimes, 
 beyond a doubt, administer comfort under 
 temptation, and inspire him with a grati- 
 tude which is not less warm or pure be- 
 cause the hope on which it rests is found- 
 ed on an erroneous opinion. 
 
 But, neither the good man nor the sin- 
 ner can be really asserted to believe in 
 predestination, inasmuch as without hope 
 enjoyment would be impossible, and with- 
 out danger caution superfluous. The great 
 detector of sophistry, our natural appre- 
 hension, exclaims aloud against every at- 
 tempt at self-deceit ; and, if we value our 
 lives or our souls, we dare not commit ei- 
 ther the one or the other to the hazard of 
 
 those 
 
LECTURE VI. 439 
 
 those principles which we stimulate our 
 fancy to conceive, and torture our under- 
 standing to maintain. 
 
 pf4 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Page 382, note a . 
 
 1 CANNOT help inserting the following passage from 
 the " Golden Remains of Mr. John Hales/' p. 14. 
 " The effects of the Spirit (as far as they concern know- 
 ledge and instruction) are not particular information 
 for resolution in any doubtful case, (for this were 
 plainly revelation,) but, as the angel which was sent 
 unto Cornelius informs him not, but sends him to 
 Peter to school; so the Spirit teaches not, but stirs 
 up in us a desire to learn: desire to learn makes us 
 athirst after the means ; and pious sedulity and careful- 
 ness makes us watchful in the choice, and diligent in 
 the use of our means. The promise of the Apostles 
 of the Spirit which should lead them into all truth, was 
 made good unto them by private and secret informing 
 their understandings with the knowledge of high and 
 heavenly mysteries, which had as yet never entered into 
 the conceit of any man. The same promise is made 
 to us. For, what was written by revelation in their 
 hearts for our instruction have they written in their 
 books; to us, for information, otherwise than out of 
 these books, the Spirit speaks not. When the Spirit 
 regenerates a man, it infuses no knowledge of any point 
 of faith, but sends him to the Church and to the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
NOTES ON LECTURE VI. 441 
 
 tures. When it stirs him up to newness of life, it 
 exhibits not unto him an inventory of his sins, as hi- 
 therto unknown ; but either supposes them known in 
 the law of nature, of which no man can be ignorant, 
 or sends him to learn them from the mouth of his 
 teachers. More than this, in the ordinary proceeding 
 of the Holy Spirit, in matter of instruction, I yet could 
 never descry. Which I do the rather note, first, be- 
 cause by experience we have learnt, how apt men are 
 to call their private conceits the Spirit : and again, be- 
 cause it is the especial error, with which St. Austine 
 long ago charged this kind of men : Tanto sunt ad 
 seditionem faciliores, quanto sibi videntur spiritu ex- 
 cellere." 
 
 Page 384, note b . 
 
 Clarke's Expos, of Catechism, p. 113. " The offices 
 which the Scripture ascribes to the Holy Spirit are; 
 That in the Prophets from the beginning it testified 
 beforehand to the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
 that should follow. That afterwards he was sent 
 forth in a more extraordinary manner, to abide with 
 Christ's followers for ever, even unto the end of the 
 world, as the great sanctifier of the hearts of good 
 men." Here the learned author evidently gives us to 
 understand that the sanctifying graces of the Holy 
 Ghost were unknown till the time of Pentecost, and 
 accorded then to Christians only. And this seems also 
 to have been the opinion of Bishop Tillotson, Works 
 published by Barker, vol. i. p. 298. "The Spirit of 
 God doth still concur with the Gospel, and work upon 
 the minds of men to excite and assist them to that 
 which is good. And this influence of God's Holy 
 Spirit is common to Christians of all ages." The same 
 is taught in the Catechisms of Crellius and Schlichtin- 
 
 gius, 
 
442 NOTES 
 
 gius, c. vi. p. 252. " Etenim, si illud donum Spiritus 
 Sancti quod ad tempus duravit, non dabatur, nisi cre- 
 dentibus Evangelic; certe non minus, id Spiritus Sancti 
 donum, quod perpetuum est, iis tantum dari statuen- 
 dum est, qui Evangelio plane crediderint, et illud ex 
 animo amplexi fuerint, precibusque insuper ardentibus 
 id a Deo expetiverint. 
 
 Page 38G, note c . 
 
 Mosheim, t. i. p. 277- " Their (the Semipelagians') 
 doctrine, as it has been generally explained by the 
 learned, amounted to this : That inward preventing 
 grace was not necessary to form in the soul the first 
 beginnings of true repentance and amendment; that 
 every one was capable of producing these by the mere 
 power of their natural faculties ; as also of exercising 
 faith in Christ, and forming the purposes of a holy 
 and sincere obedience. But they acknowledged at the 
 same time, that none could persevere or advance in 
 that holy and virtuous course, which they had the 
 power of beginning, without the perpetual support and 
 the powerful assistance of the divine grace." Catechesis 
 Eccl. Polon. c. vi. . 6. De Promiss. Sp. Sancti. " Qu. 
 Nonne ad credendum Evangelio Spiritus Sancti inte- 
 riore dono opus est ? Resp. Non. Nee enim in Scrip- 
 turis Sanctis legimus cuiquam id conferri donum nisi 
 credenti Evangelio." Hieron. adv. Pelagianos, 1. i. 
 Op. t. 2. p. 177- Atticus. "Oro te, non legisti : c Non 
 enim volentis neque currentis^ sed miserentis est Dei/ 
 Ex quibus intelligimus nostrum quidem esse velle et 
 currere, sed ut voluntas nostra compleatur et curs us, 
 ad Dei misericordiam pertinere; atque ita fieri, ut et 
 in voluntate nostra et in cursu liberum servetur arbi- 
 trium, et, in consummatione voluntatis et cursGs, Dei 
 cuncta potentise relinquantur." 
 
 Page 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 443 
 
 Page 386, note <*. 
 
 Articles of Religion : X. Of Free Will. " We have 
 no power to do good works acceptable and pleasant to 
 God, without the grace of God by Jesus Christ prevent- 
 ing us, that we may have a good will, and working with 
 us when we have that will." John vi. 44. " No man 
 can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me 
 draw him." 
 
 Page 390, note c . 
 
 Owen on the Spirit, book iii. c. 4. . 20. " As they 
 (the unregenerate) cannot come to Christ, unless the 
 Father draw them, so they will not come that they may 
 have life, wherefore their damnation is just and of 
 themselves." 
 
 Page 393, note f . 
 
 Sohar Chadasch, fol. 35. 1. " Angeli ante pios excla- 
 mant ; Date gloriam filio Regis, Imagini illustris Regis, 
 in quo Spiritus Sanctus habitat !" Tanchuma. fol. 18. 2. 
 " Quodcunque justi faciunt, faciunt per Spiritum Sanc- 
 tum." Schemoth Rabba, sect. 23. fol. 122. 1. " Et 
 propter fidem habitavit in eis Spiritus Sanctus, et dixe- 
 runt Canticurn." Siphre. fol. 46. 1. " Hac ratione 
 liberasti nos, ut, si peccemus, tu statim propitius no- 
 bis sis, et Spiritus Sanctus dicat onmi tempore, quod, 
 si sic fecerimus, remissus nobis erit reatus sanguinis." 
 Sohar Numer. fol. 86. col. 342. "Josephus coram 
 uxore Potipharis simulabat se non intelligere linguam 
 ejus; et Spiritus Sanctus clamavit ad eum verbis Prov. 
 vii. 5. Ut caveas tibi a muliere peregrina I" 
 
 Ibid, note S. 
 
 Bull. Harmonia Apost. Diss. Post. xi. . 4. " Hinc 
 solvi possit et altera questio : An scilicet Spiritus San- 
 ctus 
 
444 NOTES 
 
 ctus V. Testament! Temporibus datus fuerit? Resp. 
 Omnino : neque enim alias tot viros pios et sanctos sub 
 Lege Mosis fuisset reperire. Sed, primo, datus erat 
 Spiritus sub Lege quidem, at non ex Lege; quippe 
 haec gratia mutuo erat accepta, et sumpta de gratia 
 Evangelica. Hinc, Spiritus promissus, dicetur a Paulo 
 in eo, quern modo laudavimus, loco, guAoy/a 'ASpoajx, 
 benedictio Abrahami non Mosis, (Gal. iii. 14.) quia, 
 scilicet, ingens hoc beneficium ex promisso Abrahae 
 facto, non ex Mosaico foedere, i. e. ex Evangelio non a 
 Lege effluxit," 
 
 Page 395, note h. 
 
 Bull, ubi sup. " Legis temporibus dedit Dominus 
 Spiritus sui gratiam parce admodum et restricte; sub 
 Evangelio largiter atque effusissime." 
 
 Page 402, note . 
 
 Timaeus ap. Plat. Op. t. x. p. 10. 0sov 8e TOV |*ev 
 alwviov vooj opy p,ovo$ TWV aTravTcov ap^otyov x, ysveropa rargcov. 
 Id. in Phaedone. t. i. p. 141. EuAo'ycoj e%s TO 0sovrs elvau 
 l7r<jw,sXoy|X6VOv >jjxaJv x, yjjxaj exelvtt XTfaotTcx, elveu. Id. de Legi- 
 bus. 1. iv. t. 8. p. 171- o? j^ev vfoivrtXy x, jtx,er 0soD TU^>J 
 x, xaipoj T avSpwrivai btaxuSfyitwn ^u/xTravra. Id. in Theae- 
 teto. t. ii. p. 122. soj ou5a/x>j ouSajxa;^ aSixoj, XX* wj oov 
 re 8<xaiOTaroj, xa^ oux If/v awraJ 6/xoiorg^ov ouSev, % oj av 
 ^wv au yev>3Ta< or* SixaioraTOj. Ibid. 121. T^v 8e 
 ^yrv xa rovSe TOV TO'TTOV -crepiTroXsT (Ta xaxa) 1 
 x, -crepacr3a< ^5j IvSsv 
 0ea; XCCT^ TO 
 
 vijo-sw? yeve^a*. Id. Epist. vi. t. 11. p. 92. Tov TWV 
 0sov yjysjtiova TCUV T OVTWV x, TWV /xsAXovTcov, TOU TS 
 x, aT<8 vrotTepot. xwpjov snopvuvras' ov, av OVTOJJ ^iAo- 
 
 Aristoteles DC Coelo. 1. ii. c. 3. Op. t. i. p. 455. 
 
 Ed. 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 445 
 
 Ed. Du Val. "Exarov e$-iv cov sgyov gg-iv evexa T e^yy. 0g' 
 $g evepyaa a3avao~a, TTO Se Ig-i co^ a*0. Id. de Mundo. 
 C. vi. t. i. p. 610. 'Ap^aio; j&sv ouv T)J Ao'yoj x, -nrarpiof gft 
 sra<nv avSpaJTroij, wj ex 0g ra -cravTa xai Sia 0e3 fjjw,7v 
 
 ex royre o-amjpiaf. Id. Nat. Auscult. viii. 7- 
 Op. t. 1. p. 419. 4>avepov Se jj Ix TSe OTI vayx>; ae TI gv 
 ^ aTS*ov TO -cygwTov xivv. Id. Metaphys. 1. i. c. 11. Op. 
 t. 2. p. 841. 0so SoxiT TO aiT/ov OTacnv glvai x, ap%i? T/J. Id. 
 Ibid. 1. xiv. c. 7- P- 1001. E* ouv OUTW? eu e^ei, w$ 
 croTe, 6 eo ccei ^OLD^OL^OV si 8e jaaAAov, eri 
 "E^a Sg a>oV TC, Ja>^ 8g ye uTra^a, T; yap v 
 IxeTvoj 8g Ive'pyaa' Ivgpyaa 8g ^ xa-&' auT^v gxs7v fay ap/roj x, 
 <l>jw,ev Se TOV 0sov glvai ^cuov al&iov p*$"ov^ cog-e ^co>j x, 
 iS<oj UTrap^a TW 0sa; 5 TTO ya^ 6 0*o^. Cal- 
 licratides Pytliagoreus Lacon. ap. Stobaeum, Sentent. 
 p. 486. 'A^a j,6V yap TO ^sTov T ^ycrio^^ OUTS TO SKSIVWV 
 oKovpevov, ovre jtxav TO TJOV a7roAeAt>jaevwj 5 aAAa TO 
 To S* sv lf<v apifov auToj 5 oVep e$-i xaTTav 
 
 ouav*ov 5 a^apTOV, p% Tg x, alT/a Taj TWV oXwv 
 
 . Zaleucus in Leg. Prooem. ibid. 279. Ou 
 T< 
 
 xat -cj-poa/pso-a TWV xaXwv gy;v xa S/xa/ccv. AID exa- 
 jrov Se7 slj Suvajtjuv aya-^ov slvoii, xa) -crpa^a xa) CTpoa/po~<, TOV 
 
 Menand. Frag. 
 
 xai 
 
 efco 
 
 TT TOU 
 
 nVT>j yap If/, OTavTa x, /SAgVa 0goj. 
 Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1. i. " Deum dixit Thales Mi- 
 
 lesiui 
 
446 N O T E S 
 
 lesius earn men tern quee ex aqua cuncta fingeret." Id. 
 ibid. (f Quis enim Deum non timeat, omnia providentem 
 et cogitantem et animadvertentem, et omnia ad se per- 
 tinere putantem, curiosum et plenum negocii Deum ?" 
 Id. Tusc. Qusest. 1. i. " Cur Deos esse credamus firrnis- 
 simum hoc afferri potest, quod nulla gens tarn fera, 
 nemo omnium tarn sit immanis^ cujus mentem non im- 
 buerit deorum opinio." Seneca. Ep. Ixv. "Sed nos nunc 
 primam et generalem causam quserimus; hsec simplex 
 esse debet, nam et materia simplex est \ Quserimus quid 
 sit causa ? Ratio faciens : id est, Deus." 
 
 Page 405, note k . 
 
 Epicharmus ap. Clem. Alex. Stromat. 1. v. 
 
 v Erv &v$p&xap Aoyr/jtO, If) x, Siio$ Aoyo^ 
 Ou ya^ oivSpWTro; rep^vav evg, 6 Se eof Taurav <p^. 
 'O 8e ye rav^coTrs Aoyoj creipujc' O.TTO rS Ssls 
 Menand. Fragm. 
 
 'O vou^ y^p? 
 
 Plato in Theage. Op. t. ii. p. 21. TaOra ^ ravr slf- 
 <ro OTI y $vvctj,i$ aurij rov ftotttovis TOVTOV xoii elj TJ 
 
 TO 
 QVK e$-i TQVTOI$ 
 
 T6 X 
 
 av (ryXXarai rrjj cruv8(7aj i T a<jixov yva^i^ GOTO 
 cyv xa) cru ^(r3>j(rai* Tap^u yap -OTapa^p^a l7riS<Soacr<v xai 
 , oi //<ev xa* /Ss^aiov 
 6Vov av JW.ST 
 av 8s jw-ou aTro 
 
 OTOOWV. Idem. Ibid. p. 24. 'Ef)v ouv, a; 
 TOiauT>j r) yjjaeTepa <ri;vovcr/a' lav j,ev TO; @g5 <p/Aov >), cravu 
 nroXu iTrjScoo-aj xa* ra^y, el 8e ^ ow. Id. Epinom. Op. 
 t. ix. p. 269. OuS* av 8t5afasv, si p? ^eoj u^yotro. Ibid. 
 
 p. 273. 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 447 
 
 p. 273. '&; lav (j.ev TI; sxag-a TOUTCOV op3w Aaju,|3av7, /xey* 
 y/yverai TW GragaAajW,avovTJ xara rpoTrov ei Se /*>j 
 as* 
 
 Page 406, note '. 
 
 Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. ii. " Nemo unquam vir magnus 
 sine aliquo afflatu divino fuit." Seneca, Ep. 61. " Prope 
 Deus est, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili, sacer 
 intra nos Spiritus sedet, bonorum malorumque nostro- 
 rum observator et custos. Hie ut a nobis tractatur, ita 
 nos tractat ipse, bonus vero vir sine Deo nemo est., An 
 potest aliquis supra fortunam, nisi ab illo adjutus, ex- 
 surgere ? Ille dat consilia magnifica et erecta in unoquo- 
 que bono viro !' J 
 
 Page 409, note m . 
 
 Cicero de Senectute. Diis immortalibus sero. Plato 
 Epinomis. Oper. torn. ix. *Ov xai Sncr^yp/^o^a -cra/^cov ^ 
 a/xa, ore ^avarw TJ TWV TOWUTOOV rty aurou 
 v lav vrsp aTro^avcov p, JW^TS ftsde^eiv er< 
 Atov TOTS xotSomsp vvv aiV^o-gcov, jaiaj TS poigoi$ p,eTiXv}<pdTot 
 jtcovov, xa< Ix CToAA.cov sva yeyovora, euSa/^x-ova T= evsa'Six.t xat 
 o-of curarov a/^a xa; jU-axapiov* eTre r<$ Iv ^7re;po<j eTr' Iv v^<ro*j 
 jt^axapio; an/ ^, xax7vov jite^e^eiv T^; TOiaj/nj; as) Tup^>j^' xal 
 eTre Sjjw,o<na T/J l7nT>)5ey(ra; rayra elre j/a 5<a^/aJ, ra aura 
 60<raurcj at/rov -crpa^eiv OTapa ^ewv. 
 Epicharmus ap. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. v. 
 
 lx<psuys< TO 0g7ov. TOUTO yiyvcocrxetv erg Se7, 
 g'<r.y ajawv e7ro7rr>jj 3 aSuvare* 8' ouSev 
 Menander, ibid. 
 
 'AAXa TCWV 
 i riv eTnsXsiav xa* 
 
 Ae7 yap TOV a 
 
 M^ -srap^evouc pSs/^ovra, xa) 
 
448 NOTES 
 
 xa* <r 
 
 T* 
 "Hro 
 
 *H xT>jcrea), -cyaiSoj TS, 
 
 "I7T7T60V, /SOOJV TO (TUVOAOV, >} KTYjVWV T/ &1J. 
 
 - - jtx>)e /SeXovvjj, co ^/ATars, 
 'E7r<dy/x>jflraj tn-ors aXXorpiaj* 6 yap 
 v Epyo*j 8<xa/oj ^Seraj. 
 Diphilus. ibid. 
 
 a; 
 
 ro -dsTov coj 
 
 aXjU^oj oj ra 
 Ka ya^j xad' a?>jv &yo T^//3ouj 
 M/av Sixa/cov^ ersgotv 8' (rs/3wv 
 
 c, ecrn xa< ev aSou 
 o eof 6 OTavTt 
 Ou rouvojota <pospov, ouS* av ovofj.aa'ctip lyou. 
 Pindari Frag. ibid. 1. iv. et Op. t. iii. p. 36. Ed. Heyne. 
 
 * 8* acrs/Sswv U7roypav<o ya/a 
 Iv aAyea"! <povioi$ VTTO 
 
 Eu(re/3ouv S* sTTOvpctvioi voourou 
 MoATraT,- MAKAPA MEFAN &etW Iv 
 Plautus in Captivis. Act. ii. Sc. 2. 63. 
 
 Est profecto Deus, qui, quae nos gerimus^ auditque 
 
 et videt. 
 
 Is, uti tu me hie habueris, proinde ilium illic curaverit. 
 Bene merenti bene profuerit, male merenti par erit. 
 Virgilius. ^Eneid. I. 543. 
 
 Sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi ! 
 
 Page 410, note n . 
 
 There is a remarkable similarity between the notions 
 
 of 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 449 
 
 of the Heathens, as to the horn and ivory gates through 
 which dreams and visions passed, and the similar dis- 
 tinction made by the Rabbins between the opaque and 
 transparent windows, by which the comparative clear- 
 ness or obscurity of the visions vouchsafed to the pro- 
 phets is illustrated. See my notes on Lecture II. also 
 Schottgen Hor. Hebr. p. 647. It is possible that both 
 the Heathen and the Jewish allegory are borrowed from 
 the same source, the phantasmagoria, namely, which the 
 Egyptian and Eleusinian mystics appear to have exhi- 
 bited through mediums more or less pellucid. See Mr. 
 Christie's Essay on the Sepulchral Vases of the An- 
 cients. I may be allowed to add, for the sake of the 
 young theological student, that it is this Rabbinical no- 
 tion of the " specular non lucidum," to which St. Paul 
 refers, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. and that, therefore, the refine- 
 ments of Mr. Nolan, p. 103. as to the manner in which 
 objects are reflected in a mirror, are, however ingenious, 
 completely out of place. Nor is Warburton much more 
 happy in his observations on the phrase, ev otlvtypotrt, 
 which, as Wetstein has shewn in the parallel expres- 
 sions which he has collected from the best Greek au- 
 thors, is, by our translators, very properly considered as 
 i mere periphrasis for " darkly." 
 
 Page 410, note . 
 
 Callistratus ap. Athenaeum, 1. xv. 
 
 'AgfAoSr otrn -orou 
 ' ev 
 
 TS <pa<nv 
 
 Peerless youths, in islands blest, 
 Not, like recreant idlers, dead, 
 
 G g You 
 
450 NOTES 
 
 You with fleet Pelides rest, 
 And with godlike Diomed ! 
 
 Sir W. Jones. 
 See also Lowth. Prselect. i. p. 13. 
 
 Page 411, note P. 
 
 Plato Apolog. Socr. Op. t. i. p. 66. 'Eyci ouv 8etva av 
 gT>jv lpyao~|u,evoc, co avSpsj 'AS>jva7ot, at ore jttev JK.S o* ap%QVT$ 
 TXecr^s up%ew /AOU, xa Iv IIoTiSaja, xai sv 
 o'Aei, xai ITTI A>jAta), TOTS ftev, ou Ixelvot IVaTTOV, gjo 
 xai I 
 
 Id. ibid. p. 68. 'Eyw y/*^ co avSpsj 'A3)jva7oi, 
 H*V xa* ^<Aw, -srs/oroju-at 8e TW sw jU,aAXov 13 
 ys* 6 0eo, eu TCTTS. 
 
 Page 412, note 9. 
 ^Eschyl. Frag. ap. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. T. 
 
 TOV 050V, xa) ^ So'xe*, 
 w crapxivov 
 S* auTOV, 
 
 pfAY), niOTe S' oScop, croTe Ss yvo' 
 Kat 3yj^<7iy UTOJ 
 'Avspcu, vetpeArj TS, xac 
 'TTrrj^sTeT 8* auTaJ &aAacro~a xat tzrs 
 Ka cracra ta-yjy^, ^' t8CTo 
 Tpepsi 8* op>j xa) ya7a xat 
 Bydoj daXa<7(rrjj, xat opewv 
 "E?rav s7ri/3X5\f/>j yopyov 
 
 August. De Civ. Dei. 1. iv. c. 11. " Ipse in aethere 
 sit Jupiter, ipse in acre Juno, ipse in mari Neptunus, 
 in inferioribus etiam maris ipse Salacia, in terra Pluto, 
 
 in 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 451 
 
 in terra inferiore Proserpina, in focis domesticis Vesta, 
 in fabrorum fornace Vulcanus, in divinantibus Apollo, 
 in merce Mercurius, in Jano initiator, in Termino ter- 
 minator, Saturnus in tempore^ Mars et Bellona in bel- 
 lis, Liber in vineis, Ceres in frumentis, Diana in sylvis, 
 Minerva in ingeniis. Ipse sit postremo etiam ilia turba 
 quasi plebeiorum Deorum. Ipse prsesit nomine Liberi 
 virorum seminibus, et v nomine Liberae foeminarum. Ipse 
 sit Diespiter, qui partum perducat ad diem : ipse sit 
 Dea Mena quam prsefecerunt menstruis foeminarum; 
 ipse Lucina quas a parturientibus invocatur ; ipse opem 
 ferat nascentibus, excipiens eos sinu terras, et vocatur 
 Opis. - Haec omnia quse dixi, et quaecunque non 
 dixi, hi omnes Dii Deaeque sit Unus Jupiter ; sive sint, 
 ut quidam volunt, omnia ista partes ejus, sicut eis vide- 
 tur quibus eum placet esse mundi animum ; sive virtu- 
 tes ejus, quae sententia velut magnorum multorumquc 
 doctorum est." 
 
 Hermesianax Colophon. 
 
 Tpircavsg, Nyjgsuf, Tvj^u? xa; K 
 
 ^ajfoV TS xXyrof, Hav, Zsu$ TB x, "H^rj, 
 ic, vfi exaspyo$ 'ATroAAcov elj 0soj lor/. 
 Seneca, Nat. Quaest. 1. ii. . 45. "Deum ilium maxi- 
 mum potentissimumque, qui ipse vehit omnia : qui ubi- 
 que et omnibus praesto est; cceli et omnium deorum 
 Deum ; a quo ista numina quae singula adoramus et 
 colimus suspensa sunt." Maximus Tyrius, Diss. i. 
 p,ev ev TO!$ aAAa, Iv 8s roTj aAXa xa ou raura t|/>j(p<- 
 TOUJ avdpcwTroy;, -cravTa^ -cracri fottyijpdjbtfyao;* ou TO 
 TO auTo -srao-iv, ou TO xaxov ojaojov, ou TO alcrp^pov, ow 
 ev a & xai 8/x 
 
 OTI yvo? yevei o^oXoys y 
 aAX* otJSe cro'Xi^ taroXe*, XX* ou&e olxoj oTxa>, ou5 av^p 
 
 T g 2 
 
452 NOTES 
 
 evot $>oif v Iv crao-yj yyj o/xo^wvov VG^OV xi Xo'yov, T* 
 riteu$ xat Qranjg, xat 0eot troXXoi. 0eot? 
 0eo;. Tertullianus ad Scapulam, Op. 
 p. 71. Ed. Rigalt. " Populus, adclamans Deo Deorum 
 qui solus potens est, in Jovis nomine Deo nostro testi- 
 moniuni reddidit." Aristseus ad Ptolemseum Regem, 
 ap. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xii. c. 2. . 2. Ed. Hudson. T>? 
 /3<nXe/av croy SJSTTOVTOJ TOU -&e/x,evou TOUJ vojo-oyj auro7f flov- 
 
 ^s. Tov yap aTravra (Tuorija'ajxsvoy 0sov xa OUTO* xa 
 G.efiofjitsSot, Zrjva xaAouvrsj aurov Iryju-co^ a9ro rt? (ryju.7ra(rv Ijt*- 
 ^ysv TO rjv r^v l7r/xA>ja-iv auroi) vo^cravT^. R. Kimchi 
 Comm. in Jeremiam. x. 7 "Quis Te [Deus] non time- 
 bit? Sane inter omnes gentium sapientes et inter 
 omnia ipsorum regna, fatentur neminem tibi similem ; 
 neque stellas adorant nisi tanquam mediatores." Cud- 
 worth. Intell. Syst. b. i. c. 4. p. 451. "The true etymon 
 of Jupiter (though Cicero knew not so much) being, 
 without perad venture, not Juvam Pater, but Jovis Pa- 
 ter, Jove the Father of gods and men; which Jovis is 
 the very Hebrew Tetragrammaton, (however these Ro- 
 mans came by it,) only altered by a Latin termination. 
 Wherefore, as there could be no impiety at all in call- 
 ing the supreme God Jove or Jovis, it being that very 
 name which God himself chose to be called by ; so nei- 
 ther is there any reason why the Latins should not as 
 well mean the supreme God thereby, as the Greeks did 
 unquestionably by Zeus." If it be asked, whence the 
 Romans derived 4heir name Jovis, we may possibly an- 
 swer from Pythagoras, who appears to have derived 
 many sacred as well as profane traditions from the east. 
 The name of the true God was known however to 
 many of the ancients. Sanchoniathon derived his know- 
 ledge of antiquity from Jerombaal, priest of the God 
 Jao. Diodorus Siculus^ in his first book, speaks of 
 
 the 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 453 
 
 the same divine name as the tutelary Deity of the Jews* 
 And Macrobius, Saturnal. i. gives a remarkable ac- 
 knowledgement of the Clarian oracle. 
 
 $>pOl%l:0 TOV 1ZUVTC0V VTTtXTOV 0OV fjU-jU^V 'IAI2. 
 
 The first stanza of Pope's Universal Prayer, which 
 has given much offence to many good men, may seem, 
 therefore, more conformable both to reason and antiquity 
 than Pope himself was, perhaps, aware of. And, if it 
 should be asked, why then, if Jupiter were only a name 
 for the true God, the early Christians suffered death rather 
 than adore him ? it may be answered, 1st. That though 
 Jupiter were the true God, yet the notions which the 
 vulgar entertained respecting him were such as no 
 Christian could, without impiety, sanction ; and 2ndly. 
 That the test proposed was not a mere acknowledge- 
 ment of his existence and power, but the worship of 
 his image ; an act of which the criminality is neither 
 increased nor lessened by the reality or falsehood of the 
 Deity thus represented, and which is as m-uch to be ab- 
 horred in the zealous Romanist who bows down to a 
 picture of God the Father, as in the Indian who burns 
 odours before the form of Krischna or Kali. 
 
 Page 421, note r . 
 
 Office of Private Baptism. " This child being born 
 in original sin and in the wrath of God, is now, by the 
 laver of regeneration in Baptism, received into the num- 
 ber of the children of God and heirs of everlasting life : 
 for our Lord Jesus Christ doth not deny his grace and 
 mercy unto such infants, but most lovingly doth call 
 them to him." Communion Office. " We most hear- 
 tily thank thee, for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us, 
 who have duly received these holy mysteries, with the 
 spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of 
 thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ ; and dost assure us 
 G g 3 thereby 
 
454 NOTES 
 
 thereby of thy favour and goodness towards us ; and 
 that we are very members incorporate in the mystical 
 body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of all 
 faithful people; and are heirs through hope of thy ever- 
 lasting kingdom through the most precious death and 
 passion of thy dear Son !" Catechism. " An outward 
 and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given 
 unto us, ordained by Christ himself as a means where- 
 by we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us 
 thereof." 
 
 Page 424, note s . 
 
 Nizacchon. No. 21. p. 19. " Nesciunt [Christiani] 
 quod fides non posita sit in circumcision e, sed in corde. 
 Quicunque non vere credit, ilium circumcisio Judseum 
 non facit : qui vero recte credit, is Judaeus est, etiamsi 
 non sit circumcisus." Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 7 60. "You 
 will wonder, reader, to hear that some Jews were al- 
 ways uncircumcised : yea, that some priests not cir- 
 cumcised ministered at the altar, and that without the 
 complaint of any, and indeed without any fault. Very 
 frequent mention is made in the Talmudists of an un- 
 circumcised Israelite, and an uncircumcised priest. If 
 the first, second, and third son should die by circumci- 
 sion, those that were born after were not circumcised, 
 and yet Israelites in all respects, priests in all respects." 
 
 Page 480, note f . 
 
 The extension of God's grace and mercy to the Hea- 
 then is said to have been taught by Zuinglius. See 
 Naylor's Helvetic History, voL iv. p. 240. and Pallavi- 
 cino Concilio di Trento. 1. i. c. 19, p. 140. In more 
 ancient times it was, unquestionably, taught by Justin 
 Martyr, Apol. i. Xpig-ov T&POOTOTOXOV TOV GeoO elvott ! 
 Aoyov 
 
ON LECTURE VI. 455 
 
 Ao'you /SicocravTef Xp/s-iavo/ eicn xav 
 cray. olov ly f/ E/\A>j(n jaev Scux^arrj xcu 'HfJaxAsiro^ xa* 
 
 OjltOJOJ 
 
 Page 431 a note u . 
 
 Hieron. Epist. ad Ctesiphont. Op. t. ii. p. 171- " Ita 
 nim [Pelagiani] Dei gratiam ponunt, ut non per sin- 
 gula opera ejus nitamur et regamur auxilio, sed ad libe- 
 rum arbitrium referunt, et ad praecepta Iegis 3 ponentes 
 illud Esaise, ^Legem Deus in adjutorium posuit^' ut in 
 eo Deo referenda sint gratise, quod tales nos condiderit 
 (fiii nostro arbitrio possiinus et eligere bona et vitare mala. 3 ' 
 Idem Adv. Pelag. 1. i. Op. t. ii. p. 176. " Novi plerosque 
 vestrum ita ad Dei cuncta referre gratiam, ut non in 
 partibus sed in genere, hoc est, nequaquam in rebus 
 singulis sed in conditione arbitrii intelligant potesta- 
 tem." 
 
 g 4 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7- 
 
 I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I 
 go away : for if 1 go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come ; but if I depart, I will 
 send him unto you. 
 
 1 HAT the name of Comforter here given 
 to the Holy Ghost was given in anticipa- 
 tion of some peculiar and permanent fa- 
 vour to be conferred by him on the orphan 
 Church of Christ, it has been already my 
 endeavour to prove. And I have shewn, 
 in like manner, that these essential charac- 
 teristics of permanence and peculiarity will 
 evince that benefit, whatever it may be, to 
 be something distinct both from the gifts 
 of miracle and prophecy, which were ac- 
 corded to a single generation only of Chris- 
 tians ; and from those more common aids 
 and larger influences, whence not the 
 
 Christian 
 
458 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Christian virtues only, but every act and 
 word and thought hath issued, which hath 
 thrown a transitory gleam of light and 
 beauty over that gloomy prospect which is 
 offered to the mental view by the natural 
 state of mankind. 
 
 For, as the comfort of God's Spirit was 
 promised to Christians only, and as it was 
 promised to the universal Church of Christ 
 in every age of its duration, it is plain 
 that such specific benefit could not con- 
 sist in a bounty, however great, in which 
 Christians partake with some of those to 
 whom the name of Christ is unknown ; and 
 that we can with yet less ground of proba- 
 bility identify it with a privilege which was 
 confined to the Apostles and their imme- 
 diate successors. 
 
 We have still, then, to inquire after an 
 instance of celestial bounty more accurate- 
 ly corresponding with the terms of Christ's 
 prediction. And such an instance it is not 
 impossible to find, to which external aids 
 and internal graces are attendant only ancj 
 incidental appendages ; a bounty in the 
 hopes and promises of which, the Christian 
 
 alone, 
 
LECTURE VII. 459 
 
 alone, and Christians of every age and na- 
 tion are partakers and proprietors, and of 
 which the privileges, as they were pur- 
 chased by the sinless obedience and meri- 
 torious sufferings of the second Person in 
 the Deity, so were they conferred on us in 
 plenary enjoyment, by the advent and in- 
 spiration of the Third in that mysterious 
 essence. 
 
 That the Son of God is the object, not 
 the teacher of the Christian Faith ; that he 
 did not " bear testimony of himself," and 
 that he left to the subsequent doctrine and 
 illumination of the Paraclete to record and 
 explain those awful dispensations whereby 
 he triumphed over death and hell, is evi- 
 dent from that ignorance which, till the 
 advent of the Holy Ghost, the chosen fol- 
 lowers of our Lord displayed as to the na- 
 ture of their Master's kingdom. An igno- 
 rance it was indeed, so total, and to us so 
 extraordinary, that the greater number of 
 commentators have been rashly induced to 
 ascribe it to a degree of national prejudice 
 or natural incapacity in those whom Christ 
 selected to instruct the world, which as it 
 
 would 
 
460 LECTURE VII. 
 
 would be beyond all bounds of probability, 
 so is it altogether needless to enhance the 
 wonder of the fact, that the world has been, 
 by their means, converted. Enough there 
 is of miracle to confound the wisdom of 
 the wise, and to establish the celestial origin 
 of our religion, in the event which all par- 
 ties allow, that the fabric of Paganism was 
 overturned by twelve Galilean fishermen, 
 without the further supposition, that these 
 instruments of God's will were less favour- 
 ed in intellect or acuteness than others of 
 their rank and nation. Nor must we for- 
 get that, by how much the more we un- 
 derrate the extent of their intelligence, by 
 so much do we decrease the weight, which, 
 even in facts most obvious to their eyes 
 and ears, we can reasonably assign to their 
 testimony. 
 
 In truth, however, I can discover no 
 single passage in Scripture from which we 
 may infer that they had either stronger pre- 
 judices against the truth, or less of natural 
 capacity, or greater and more brutish ig- 
 norance of the sacred writings of the an- 
 cient covenant, than even the wisest mem- 
 bers 
 
LECTURE VII. 461 
 
 hers of the Sanhedrim. At all events, the 
 phenomenon to which I have alluded may 
 be more reverently and as satisfactorily ac- 
 counted for by the recollection of that fact 
 which is implied in so many passages of the 
 Gospel ; that the time, namely, was not 
 come at which the veil of mystery should 
 be withdrawn from the designs of God, 
 and that the work of our redemption was 
 to be complete in all its parts, before it 
 was exposed to the public eye and to the 
 curiosity and devotion of the universe. 
 
 It is thus that the atonement for sin by 
 the meritorious sacrifice of the Messiah, 
 which is expressed, in the Epistles of St. 
 Paul and St. John, with a precision and a 
 copiousness answerable to its vast impor- 
 tance, is conveyed, in the language of our 
 Saviour while on earth, by scattered hints 
 and through the darkness of prophecy and 
 parable. It is thus, too, that our Lord 
 himself disclaims, as alien from the pur- 
 poses of his coming, that abolition of the 
 Mosaical Law, which was, nevertheless, 
 among the most important of those changes 
 which, since his decease, and in conse- 
 quence 
 
462 LECTURE VII. 
 
 quence of his sacrifice, have taken place in 
 the practice of his followers. 
 
 I am not unacquainted with the usual 
 distinction between the ceremonial and 
 moral law, whereby divines have sought to 
 reconcile the well known assurance of Je- 
 sus with the subsequent destruction of that 
 ancient rampart of sacrifice and ceremony 
 which separated the chosen tribes from the 
 other nations of the world. But, by this 
 distinction, it may be thought, we scarcely 
 obviate the objection of the Jewish Doc- 
 tors, (by whom this passage is, of all others 
 in the Gospel, most fiercely taxed with in- 
 consistency*,) inasmuch as our Lord's con- 
 firmation of the Jewish Law is not specific, 
 but general, and must therefore refer not 
 to any particular features of the Penta- 
 teuch, but to all those statutes, whether of 
 moral or positive obligation, which are con- 
 tained under the general term of the Mo- 
 saic covenant or economy. As little will 
 the answer of those learned men avail who 
 maintain, that as, by the confession of the 
 Jews themselves, the scope and purport of 
 the ancient law was comprised in the sin- 
 
LECTURE VII. 463 
 
 gle duty of love to our Maker and our 
 brethren, and, as by the Christian dispen- 
 sation these two great commandments are 
 preserved and carried to perfection, so the 
 spirit of the law continues the same as ever, 
 though its subjects are released from bur- 
 densome ceremonies, though they are led 
 to their duty by brighter hopes and sanc- 
 tions more forcible than impelled the an- 
 cient Israelite. For, in their object and 
 intrinsic spirit, almost all appointments 
 whether of God or man agree, and the 
 difference between one law and another is 
 not as to the end, but as to the means 
 whereby this end is sought after. Nor 
 would it be difficult to prove that of every 
 positive institution the subject matter can 
 relate to forms and sanctions only, inas- 
 much as no ordinance can add strength to 
 what is already a law of nature, any other- 
 wise than by rendering its accomplishment 
 more easy and more obviously necessary, 
 by exposition or reward or punishment. 
 And, doubtless, whoever should project a 
 complete revolution in the forms of the 
 British Legislature, would be grievously 
 mistaken if he hoped to escape the name 
 
 of 
 
464 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of innovator on the plea that, under his 
 new institutions, the security and happi- 
 ness of the country were as well preserved 
 as by the ancient regimen of a limited mo- 
 narchy. 
 
 If we recollect, however, what an atten- 
 tive examination of the Gospel history can 
 hardly have failed to suggest to us, that, 
 during the whole of his earthly pilgrimage, 
 our Lord, both by example and precept, 
 enforced a strict attention even to the mi- 
 nutest features of the Mosaic ritual ; that 
 the admission of the Gentiles to the cove- 
 vant of grace, though merely hinted at by 
 Jesus as a future occurrence, was the sub- 
 ject of express and immediate revelation to 
 St. Peter from the Spirit of God ; while, 
 from the same Spirit, St. Paul professes to 
 have learned the abrogation of the Mosaic 
 covenant; no doubt will remain, that the 
 words of Christ may be satisfactorily re- 
 conciled to his own practice and the prac- 
 tice of his followers; and that the abolition 
 of the law, though the reality of such abo- 
 lition cannot be denied, was not the work 
 of Christ himself, but of the Third Person 
 in the Trinity, after the Second in that 
 
 mysterious 
 
LECTURE VII. 465 
 
 mysterious union had returned to the right 
 hand of his Father. 
 
 The Holy Ghost then, as I have already 
 had occasion to observe, was the Hiero- 
 phant of the Christian mysteries ; the Dis- 
 penser of that universal pardon which the 
 Son had purchased with his blood ; the 
 Herald to mankind, by the means of his 
 Prophets and Apostles, of that better co- 
 venant of grace which should supersede, 
 in after ages, the fleshly ordinances of Si- 
 nai. 
 
 But that such a discovery was, to the 
 followers of our Lord, sufficient both of 
 comfort and compensation for his depar- 
 ture from the world, is apparent from the 
 importance of the communication itself, 
 no less than of the practical results and il- 
 lustrious hopes to which their eyes were 
 thenceforward opened. They no more 
 looked forward with mistaken and painful 
 anxiety to the restitution of a national 
 greatness which their countrymen . were 
 unfit alike to maintain or to enjoy. No 
 more did they contemplate their Master as 
 the sovereign of a great, indeed, but not 
 an unbounded empire. They beheld him 
 H h seated 
 
466 LECTURE VII. 
 
 seated on the throne of Omnipotence it- 
 self, confining in his invincible grasp the 
 keys of death and of hell ; and worshipped 
 by all the countless multitude of those 
 whom his blood had ransomed from the 
 grave. Themselves they found released 
 from a yoke which neither " they nor their 
 " fathers had been able to endure;" trans- 
 lated from the elementary bondage of ce- 
 remonies and sacrifices to the glorious li- 
 berty of God ; no longer servants but sons. 
 
 The Gentile was not now excluded from 
 the more perfect knowledge and nearer 
 favour of the common Parent of mankind : 
 the Jew was no more the member of a 
 small and unpopular community, divided 
 from the great family of earth by exclusive 
 and, in their effect at least, invidious privi- 
 leges. The tabernacle of adoption, like 
 the canopy of heaven, overshadowed all 
 the children of Jehovah ; and the nations 
 of the east and the west were gathered in 
 peace together under the wings of the 
 Christian Dove ! 
 
 Can any wonder that, by their admission 
 to these glorious prospects, the very tem- 
 per of the Apostles' souls was changed? 
 
 that 
 
LECTURE VII. 467 
 
 that they, thenceforth, no more shrunk 
 back in terror from the fulfilment of their 
 arduous ministry, no more lamented their 
 departed Lord ; no more shut their doors 
 in selfish timidity from the notice or dis- 
 pleasure of their countrymen? that they 
 from that moment rejoiced under affliction, 
 and glorified God that " they were count- 
 " ed worthy to suffer shame in the cause 
 " of Christ?" 
 
 As a comfort, then, and compensation 
 to the afflicted followers of Jesus, the dis- 
 covery of that new and better covenant, 
 which was revealed by inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost, was amply sufficient to entitle 
 that blessed Person to the name of Para- 
 clete. Nor do the effects which this dis- 
 pensation pronounced on the world at 
 large, less strikingly answer to those other 
 features whereby the Paraclete was! to be 
 distinguished as a Patron to the Christian 
 cause, and a Defender of the son of man 
 against the slanders of his hostile country- 
 men. The Spirit of God, in his character 
 of Paraclete, was to testify, it will be re- 
 membered^ of the innocence and inspira- 
 H h 2 tion 
 
468 LECTURE VII. 
 
 tion of the Messiah : he was to convict the 
 world of the guilt which they had incurred 
 in rejecting him ; he was to vindicate at 
 once the character of Jesus from the 
 charges of imposture or enthusiasm, and 
 the name of God from the suspicion of in- 
 justice and cruelty. His appointed func- 
 tion it was to reconcile the righteousness 
 of the Deity with those awful dispensations 
 which had lately doomed the innocent to 
 death, and to make the dignity of the 
 Messiah consistent with the sufferings of a 
 houseless wanderer in the kingdom of his 
 ancestors, a crucified slave beneath the 
 walls of that Sion, whence salvation was to 
 issue forth to all the regions of the world. 
 
 Objections these, which, great as the 
 miracles of Jesus doubtless were, those 
 miracles could not entirely solve ; much 
 less could the exercises of power by which 
 his followers were, after his exaltation to 
 the throne of glory, enabled to bear wit- 
 ness to his truth. Such powers were, in- 
 deed, a very sufficient evidence that he 
 was a Prophet sent by Jehovah. But this 
 was not enough to answer the purposes of 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE VII. 469 
 
 the Apostles and of the truth ; and it was 
 required, moreover, to prove him to be 
 that particular Prophet and Saviour on 
 whom the hope of Israel depended ; and 
 not of Israel only, but of all the nations in 
 the universal earth. 
 
 And to such a claim two objections 
 might be raised, which no miraculous pow- 
 ers on the part either of Christ or his Apo- 
 stles could obviate, inasmuch as they arose 
 from facts which could not be denied, and 
 which, if unexplained, were absolutely in- 
 consistent with the character of the Mes- 
 siah promised by God. And these cir- 
 cumstances were the obscurity of his life, 
 and the manner in which he suffered 
 death. 
 
 The first of these was inconsistent, as 
 every Jew might urge, with the character 
 of a great deliverer; since, whatever might 
 have been his innocence and extraordinary 
 powers ; however dear he might have been 
 to God, and however approved in his 
 sight ; nay, though he were allowed to 
 have risen from the grave like Lazarus, 
 and, like Enoch and Elias, to have ascend- 
 H h 3 ed 
 
470 LECTURE VII. 
 
 ed to heaven b ; yet, neither during his 
 public life, nor after his alleged resurrec- 
 tion, had he, in fact, any more than Enoch 
 or Elias or Lazarus, accomplished any vi- 
 sible deliverance, whether for the world at 
 large, or for the chosen people of God. 
 
 But, if he had wrought no deliverance, 
 then was he no deliverer, and, if no Sa- 
 viour, no Messiah. " How," say the Rab- 
 bins in that work to which they have pre- 
 fixed the ostentatious title of Nizacchon or 
 " the Victorious," " How can Jesus be 
 u called the Admirable Counsellor, whose 
 " designs even Judas rendered vain ? How 
 " is he strong, who was subdued by Death? 
 " How the eternal Father, who perished 
 " in the midst of his days ? How the 
 " Prince of Peace, whose life was spent in 
 trouble ?" 
 
 It was necessary, then, to prove that, 
 by the agency of our Lord, some great 
 salvation had in reality been effected ; and 
 this was proved by the promulgation of 
 that covenant, wherein, for the sake of the 
 Son of man, and through the merits of his 
 obedience and sacrifice, the burden and 
 
 curse 
 
LECTURE VII. 471 
 
 curse of the Law were removed, and for- 
 giveness of sins accorded. His title was 
 thus established to the appropriate name 
 of JESUS, because " he saved his people 
 " from their sins*;" and the most formi- 
 dable of those objections was removed, 
 which could not be obviated either by his 
 blameless life, or by the acknowledged 
 greatness of his miracles. 
 
 The objection which arose from the 
 manner of his death was, doubtless, less 
 considerable ; yet was it to Jewish preju- 
 dices a very material scandal ; inasmuch 
 as, though they might be brought to ac- 
 knowledge, on the authority of Daniel, 
 that the Messiah was to " be cut off," and, 
 from the testimony of Isaiah, that he was 
 to be " sent to prison and to judgment f ;" 
 yet that he should perish by a species of 
 death which, we find it urged again with 
 malignant triumph by the author of the 
 Nizacchon, the Almighty had declared ac- 
 cursed, was a difficulty only to be solved 
 by the knowledge of that mysterious and 
 
 * Matthew i. 21. f Dan. ix. 26. Isaiah liii. 8. 
 
 H h 4 awful 
 
472 LECTURE VIL 
 
 awful dispensation whereby the innocent 
 was made a curse for the guilty d . 
 
 It was thus that the revelation of the 
 covenant of grace, which was made through 
 the Apostles to mankind, was both need- 
 ful and efficacious to lead them into truth, 
 and to bring to their knowledge or remem- 
 brance those awful lessons which had been 
 communicated under the veil of mystery 
 or parable during the Messiah's abode 
 among men. 
 
 Nor can a stronger objection be required 
 against that which is called the simplicity 
 of the Unitarian system of theology, than 
 that, by denying the Divinity of our Lord, 
 as well as those other awful truths which 
 supply the only competent answer to the 
 cavils of the unconverted Jew, it takes 
 away all adequate motives for that tre- 
 mendous apparatus of power and prophe- 
 cy, by which the birth and life and death 
 of Jesus were distinguished. 
 
 As a teacher of morality he told us little 
 which was really new. As a preacher of 
 the resurrection he inculcated no more 
 than the great majority of his countrymen 
 
 believed 
 
LECTURE VII. 473 
 
 believed already : and it is difficult to say 
 in what manner those understand him to 
 have abolished the Law of Moses, who re- 
 fuse to acknowledge, in his death, a sacri- 
 fice and propitiation for sin. 
 
 So far indeed from that simplicity, if 
 real, being admissible as a proof of the 
 truth of a religious system, it may be 
 thought that the credit of any pretended 
 discovery of God's will or nature would, 
 if it did not contain discoveries transcend- 
 ing human reason, be, on that very ac- 
 count, impaired and rendered precarious. 
 No ghost need rise, no angel come from 
 heaven, to disclose to us those truths 
 which we already knew, or those of which 
 a competent knowledge might be acquired 
 by the natural process of induction or ex- 
 periment. And though that be an r absurd 
 refinement of the schoolmen who advance 
 a seeming impossibility as, in itself, a 
 ground of faith; and though there be 
 something still more preposterously unrea- 
 sonable in the complaint of the author of 
 Religio Medici, that the Christian Religion 
 had not enough of mystery ; yet is it cer- 
 tain, 
 
474 LECTURE VII. 
 
 tain, that the garb and language of Revela- 
 tion evince her to be a stranger among 
 men ; and that she demands and receives 
 the more attention at our hands, by bring- 
 ing us such tidings as belong to nothing 
 earthly. 
 
 To return, however, from this short di- 
 gression. The advent of the Paraclete was, 
 moreover, to instruct the followers of Christ 
 in the future fortunes of Christianity. " He 
 " was to shew them things to come." 
 
 Now, it is unquestionable that, with the 
 exception of his own predicted sufferings, 
 and that of the overthrow of the city and 
 polity of the Jews, no single conspicuous 
 instance can be found in which, according 
 to the popular acceptation of the term, 
 our Lord assumed the prophetic character. 
 Nor, of* future events, and of that general 
 course of Providence which shall precede 
 and promote the final triumph of truth, is 
 any knowledge possessed by the world, 
 which has not been communicated by the 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost to his chosen 
 servants the Apostles. The rise of Anti- 
 Christ, which has now become a matter of 
 
 history ; 
 
LECTURE VII. 475 
 
 history ; his fall to which we still look for- 
 ward in faithful hope : the terrific events 
 which are to occupy the latest scene of na- 
 ture's drama ; and the manner in which 
 nature herself is to be at length dissolved ; 
 as they are circumstances of which our 
 knowledge has been derived from the Pa- 
 raclete only, so are they essential features 
 in that system of belief and happiness and 
 duties which it was his office to impart to 
 Christians. Essential they are to our faith, 
 which, unless prepared beforehand by pro- 
 phecy for the bitter trials of the Church, 
 might faint and fail beneath the burden of 
 our Master's cross ; essential to our happi- 
 ness, since, without such an assurance of 
 the final triumph of truth, our condition 
 would be of all men most miserable ; es- 
 sential to our duties, inasmuch as they 
 raise our hopes and apprehensions above 
 the limits of a perishable world. 
 
 It may be said then, with truth, that by 
 the single discovery of the Christian system 
 of atonement and peace and pardon ; by 
 the revelation of the will, and "the mercy, 
 and the power, and the future counsels of 
 
 God 
 
476 LECTURE VII. 
 
 God in Jesus Christ, the promise of a 
 Comforter, insomuch as the Apostles were 
 concerned, was exactly and most merci- 
 fully accomplished. But the promise, it 
 has been already shewn, was not to the 
 Apostles only, but to the Universal Church 
 of Christ. And, as whatever either of 
 knowledge or consolation we now enjoy, 
 we enjoy through the written word of God 
 alone, it is incumbent on us to shew that 
 our possession of the Scriptures of the New 
 Testament is a comfort sufficiently great, 
 a guidance sufficiently infallible to corre- 
 spond with the essential features of that 
 benefit foretold by our Lord ; as the dis- 
 penser of which it behoved the Spirit of 
 God to be, in every age of the dura- 
 tion of the Christian Church, its Govern- 
 or, its Advocate, its Teacher, and its Com- 
 forter. And to this effect the following 
 observations may not be found unservice- 
 able. 
 
 There are two ways, and only two, by 
 which, so far as our experience leads us to 
 suppose, a revelation from Heaven, or any 
 other supernatural knowledge, can be con- 
 veyed 
 
LECTURE VII. 477 
 
 veyed to the human understanding. The 
 first is by an impulse immediately commu- 
 nicated by God to the perceptions of the 
 individual who is destined to be thus en- 
 lightened ; the second, by the intervention 
 of some other and more favoured person, 
 who is empowered and commanded to em- 
 ploy, for the instruction of his brethren, that 
 knowledge, which he has himself received 
 from God. But, of a revelation which should 
 be at once universal and immediate, no in- 
 stance can be found in the history of our 
 Maker's dealings with mankind, on the 
 great majority of whom he has always im- 
 posed the condition of being taught by 
 others of their species. 
 
 Even in the case which approaches most 
 nearly to that of an universal and imme- 
 diate revelation, the case, I mean, in which 
 the Almighty promulgated with his own 
 voice the decalogue to the assembled na- 
 tion of Israel, his auditors, it is plain, were 
 only a single generation out of the many 
 who were equally the objects of the instruc- 
 tion thus afforded, and of whom all the 
 succeeding stream were bound to receive 
 
 the 
 
4JT8 LECTURE VII. 
 
 the truth on the authority and from the 
 testimony of their Fathers. 
 
 And, in the particular instance of the 
 Christian Revelation, as the fact itself on 
 which our faith is founded, the resurrec- 
 tion, namely, of the Lord, was communi- 
 cated not to all the people but to witnesses 
 chosen of God ; so were the doctrines 
 which depended on that fact revealed, in 
 the first place, to certain selected teachers, 
 on the credit of whose testimony the Uni- 
 versal Church was thenceforward to be 
 guided and governed. 
 
 It was, then, through the medium only 
 of a few inspired individuals that, in the 
 earliest and golden age of Christianity, the 
 Holy Ghost can be said to have guided or 
 comforted that orphan flock which was left 
 to his care; and it appears from many 
 very remarkable passages of the New Tes- 
 tament, that the ordinary believers of the 
 Apostolic period were no more endued 
 with miraculous powers, and no more in- 
 spired with supernatural knowledge than 
 the faithful in any subsequent age. Were 
 all Apostles, were all Prophets, did all 
 
 speak 
 
LECTURE VII. 479 
 
 speak with tongues in the days of Paul? 
 Let Paul himself decide the question * ! 
 Nay more ; it is apparent from the writings 
 of that great Apostle, with what a holy 
 jealousy he vindicated to himself and to 
 the rest of the Elders the peculiar privilege 
 of delivering to the Church those rules of 
 faith and practice, which only were to be 
 received on the authority of the Holy 
 Ghost : and that neither man nor angel 
 could pretend to the possession of a reve- 
 lation independent of that which the Apo- 
 stles proclaimed, without incurring the 
 heaviest weight of anathema f . 
 
 If, indeed, the Spirit of God had com- 
 municated an immediate and supernatural 
 assistance to all who once embraced the 
 Christian Faith, it is apparent that the 
 controversial writings which the Apostles 
 left behind (and all their writings may be 
 regarded as more or less controversial) 
 would never have existed at all; that doubts 
 would never have arisen, where every indi- 
 vidual was alike divinely inspired; and that 
 
 * 1 Corinth, xii. 29. f Galat, i. 8. 
 
 no 
 
480 LECTURE VII. 
 
 no appeal would have lain to the superior 
 authority of the Twelve, if the Churches of 
 Rome or Corinth or Galatia had inhaled, 
 no less deeply than the Apostles, the un- 
 speakable gift of God. 
 
 When inspiration, accordingly, was pro- 
 mised by Christ, and afforded by the Holy 
 Ghost, in the earliest age of Christianity, 
 to the collective and Catholic Church ; it 
 was not afforded, and doubtless therefore 
 not promised to the body, otherwise than 
 through the medium of some distinguished 
 members. And though John and Paul and 
 Peter were, in the first instance, guided 
 and comforted by the Holy Ghost himself, 
 it was by Peter or Paul or John that such 
 instruction or consolation was dispensed to 
 Apollos or Onesimus or Philemon, 
 
 Nor can a dispensation of this kind be, 
 with any degree of justice, accused of in- 
 equality; nor are the inspired individuals 
 more essentially favoured than those to 
 whom their mission is addressed, for whose 
 sake and in order to whose instruction they 
 are thus distinguished from the remainder 
 of mankind ; and who, from them, receive 
 
 a no 
 
LECTURE VII. 481 
 
 a no less perfect measure of knowledge 
 than they have themselves derived by the 
 visions or inspiration of God. By inspira- 
 tion, it will be recollected, in the scriptu- 
 ral sense of the word, neither universal 
 knowledge is implied, nor, even in religious 
 questions, universal infallibility. Of future 
 events in general the Prophet had no more 
 knowledge than the meanest of his au- 
 dience ; of the nature or will of the Al- 
 mighty, (abstracted from those particular 
 facts which it was his especial commission 
 to disclose,) the Apostle might himself in- 
 quire in vain. The veil was never except 
 in part withdrawn from mortal eyes; and, 
 when the vision was described, and the 
 Gospel announced to the world, the world 
 was as wise as its teachers. Those teach- 
 ers were not the objects, but the transmit- 
 ting medium of God's favours : the pro- 
 phetic office was not so much a privilege 
 as a burden imposed : the whole counsel 
 of God, so far as it was freely communi- 
 cated to them, they were freely to impart 
 to their uninstructed brethren : they were 
 the heralds to the world of those gracious 
 i i offers 
 
482 LECTURE VII. 
 
 offers which unbounded mercy made to 
 all, and of which they themselves were 
 partakers, if (which by no means necessa- 
 rily followed from the fact of their official 
 privileges) they really partook in the bene- 
 fits of the Gospel, not as Apostles or Pro- 
 phets or Ministers of Heaven, but as men 
 as sinners and as penitents. 
 
 The comfort, then, of the Holy Ghost, 
 both might be and was afforded to the 
 early ages of the Church through the 
 means of a comparatively trifling number 
 of inspired individuals. And, if a succes- 
 sion of such individuals had been raised by 
 God's providence in the several and suc- 
 cessive generations which have since elaps- 
 ed in our Sion ; if there had been a pro- 
 phetic school in the Christian Church, such 
 -as is by most divines supposed to have ex- 
 isted in the Church of Israel ; or were that 
 claim admitted to official infallibility which 
 our fellow Christians of the Romish per- 
 suasion have not yet ceased to advance 
 in favour of their universal Bishop; we 
 doubtless should not hesitate to allow that, 
 by such a succession, the promise of our 
 
 Saviour 
 
LECTURE VII. 483 
 
 Saviour and the permanent residence of 
 the Holy Ghost with the Church were sa- 
 tisfactorily accomplished and exemplified : 
 though we neither beheld (as some of the 
 modern Jews pretend was the privilege of 
 their Fathers) the glory of the Almighty 
 visibly present in our sanctuary ; nor could 
 reckon up with St. Paul, as incidents of 
 frequent occurrence, that long and splen- 
 did list of miraculous powers and graces 
 for which the Corinthians so earnestly con* 
 tended *. 
 
 Of miraculous gifts, indeed, peculiarly 
 so called; of tongues, of healing, of ex- 
 orcism, of discerning spirits ; though they 
 were unquestionably among the most con- 
 spicuous and frequent triumphs of the 
 early Church of God, the present words of 
 Christ say nothing. The grace which the 
 Comforter was to bring among men, cor- 
 responds with inspiration and inspiration 
 only : it was a knowledge of God's will 
 and of God's future intentions in relation 
 to his Church, which our Lord engages to 
 
 * 1 Corinth, xii. 4. 
 
 i i 2 send 
 
484 LECTURE VII. 
 
 send to us ; and, where this is afforded, we 
 have no reason to complain that gifts are 
 withdrawn, of which, whether the cessa- 
 tion be foretold or no % the permanence is 
 nowhere promised. 
 
 It appears, then, that the advent of the 
 Paraclete and his abode among men would 
 be, during any period of Christian history, 
 sufficiently evinced by the existence of one 
 or more inspired individuals, whose autho- 
 rity should govern, whose lights should 
 guide, whose promises should console their 
 less distinguished brethren ; and by whom 
 and in whom, as the agents and organs of 
 his will, the Holy Ghost should be recog- 
 nized as Sovereign of the Church univer- 
 sal. But, if this be conceded, it will sig- 
 nify but very little, or (to speak more 
 boldly, perhaps, but not less accurately) it 
 will be a circumstance altogether insignifi- 
 cant, whether the instruction afforded be 
 oral or epistolary; whether the govern- 
 ment be carried on by the authority of a 
 present lawgiver, or through the medium 
 of rescripts bearing his seal, and, no less 
 than his personal mandates, compulsory 
 
 on 
 
LECTURE VII. 485 
 
 on the obedience of the faithful. In every 
 government, whether human or divine, the 
 amanuensis of a sovereign is an agent of 
 his will no less ordinary and effectual than 
 his herald ; and St. Paul both might and 
 did lay claim to an equal deference, when, 
 in the name and on the behalf of that Spi- 
 rit by whom he was actuated, he censured 
 by his letters the incestuous Corinthian, as 
 if he had, when present, and by word of 
 mouth, pronounced the same ecclesiastical 
 sentence. 
 
 It follows that the Holy Ghost as accu- 
 rately fulfilled the engagement of Christ 
 as the Patron and Governor of Christians, 
 by the writings of the inspired person, 
 when absent, as by his actual presence and 
 preaching. And, if St. Paul, having once, 
 by divine authority, set in order the Asia- 
 tic and Grecian Churches, had departed 
 for Spain or Britain or some other country 
 at so great a distance as to render all sub- 
 sequent communication impossible ; yet 
 still, so long as the instructions left behind 
 sufficed for the wants and interests of the 
 community, that community would not 
 i i 3 have 
 
486 LECTURE VII. 
 
 have ceased to be guided and governed by 
 the Holy Ghost through the writings of his 
 chosen servant. 
 
 But that authority which we allow to 
 the writings of an absent Apostle, we can- 
 not, without offending against every ana- 
 logy of reason and custom, deny to those 
 which a deceased Apostle has left behind 
 him. For the authority of such writings, 
 I need hardly observe, is of an official, and 
 not of a personal nature. It does not con- 
 sist in their having emanated from Peter 
 or James or John abstractedly considered, 
 (in which case the authority of any one of 
 them might, undoubtedly, terminate with 
 his life,) but their authority is founded in 
 that faith which receives these persons as 
 accredited agents of the Almighty, We 
 reverence their communications as the 
 latest edicts of the Paraclete ; and we be- 
 lieve all further communications to have 
 ceased for a time ; not because these emi- 
 nent servants of God have long since gone 
 to their reward, for it were as easy for the 
 Holy Spirit to raise up other prophets in 
 their room, as it was originally to qualify 
 
 them 
 
LECTURE VII. 487 
 
 - 
 
 them for that high office ; not because we 
 apprehend that the good Spirit is become 
 indifferent to the welfare of the Church, 
 for this would be in utter contradiction to 
 the gracious assurance of our Saviour : but 
 because sufficient light has been already 
 afforded for the government of our hopes 
 and tempers ; and because no subsequent 
 question has occurred for which the Scrip- 
 tures already given had not already and 
 sufficiently provided. 
 
 But, are we free from the authority of 
 an earthly lord because his orders are not 
 daily repeated? or hath the Lord Omnipo- 
 tent ceased to reign among men, because 
 he doth not, with the frivolous inconsis- 
 tency of an eastern despot, continually re- 
 verse his own decrees; or delight, as if 
 afraid of being forgotten, to terrify his sub- 
 jects with incessant displays of his might 
 and majesty? Surely his name is among 
 us, and his law is gone forth among men : 
 he sendeth his commandment on earth, 
 and his word runneth very swiftly : by the 
 sword which goeth forth from his mouth 
 shall his enemies be consumed before him ; 
 i i 4 till 
 
488 LECTURE VII. 
 
 till all nations and people do him worthy 
 reverence, and till the knowledge of Jeho- 
 vah shall spread over the world as the wa- 
 ters cover the sea ! 
 
 We conclude then, as Warburton has 
 long since concluded, (though he arrived 
 at the same truth by a process somewhat 
 different, and incumbered its definition by 
 circumstances which I have shewn to be 
 irrelevant,) we conclude that it is by the 
 revelation of the Christian covenant, and 
 by the preservation of the knowledge thus 
 communicated to the ancient Church in 
 the Scriptures of the New Testament, that 
 the Holy Ghost has manifested and conti- 
 nues, as the Vicar and Successor of Christ, 
 to manifest his protecting care of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 To this, however, two objections will be 
 made : the first against the authority of 
 those writings which are accepted by us as 
 divine ; the second against their sufficiency 
 to provide for those spiritual necessities, to 
 which the Church of Christ and the indi- 
 viduals of which it is composed, are col- 
 lectively and severally liable. The first of 
 
 these 
 
LECTURE VII. 489 
 
 these objections proceeds from those va- 
 rious misbelievers who deny the authority 
 or inspiration of the several treatises which 
 our canon of Scripture comprises ; the se- 
 cond from such as maintain, that the Scrip- 
 tures, though divine, are of themselves a 
 rule of wax which the prejudices and pas- 
 sions of mankind may warp to any system 
 which pleases them ; and, who seek, ac- 
 cordingly, in the jurisdiction of the Church 
 at large, or of some single ecclesiastical of- 
 ficer, a permanent and perceptible throne, 
 wherein the Spirit of the Lord may dwell 
 as the interpreter and administrator of 
 those laws of which he is himself the Au- 
 thor. 
 
 The first of these objectors deny the 
 law to which we appeal to be itself of sa- 
 cred authority ; the second demand some 
 aid beyond the original promulgation of 
 the law, in order, as they tell us, to render 
 the law effectual. But the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures and their sufficiency to an- 
 swer the promise of our Saviour, are ne- 
 cessarily implied in an hypothesis which 
 makes that sacred volume the instrument 
 
 whereby 
 
490 LECTURE VII. 
 
 whereby the Holy Ghost continues to in- 
 struct and console the Church ; and I am 
 therefore concerned to maintain both the 
 one and the other of these assertions, 
 against the open enemies or injudicious 
 friends of Christianity. 
 
 And, in the first, there are three propo- 
 sitions contained which will require to be 
 severally defended. First, the personal in- 
 spiration of the reputed authors of our sa- 
 cred volume : secondly, that the works 
 which bear their names are with good rea- 
 son received as their composition : thirdly, 
 that the authors were actually inspired at 
 the time of composing the treatises in 
 question, and that the rules of faith and 
 practice which they contain are, conse- 
 quently, entitled to be received as the liv- 
 ing dictates of Almighty Wisdom. 
 
 On all these subjects I am well aware, 
 indeed, that as from the multitude of my 
 precursors but little of novelty is to be exr 
 pected, so the approaching termination of 
 the present Lectures affords a very insuffi- 
 cient scope for doing justice even to any 
 single branch of the inquiry. But, if it be 
 
 allowed 
 
LECTURE VII. 491 
 
 allowed me to conduct those doubts, which 
 I want room to satisfy, into channels where 
 satisfaction may be best obtained, if some 
 principles of inquiry may be, at least, esta- 
 blished, which may be improved by future 
 diligence ; neither my pains nor your at* 
 tention will be altogether ill bestowed. It 
 is something to point the way to truth, 
 though it be a path which we must travel 
 separately. 
 
 The first of those assertions, which our 
 former proposition contains, has been often 
 and satisfactorily proved from the miracu- 
 lous powers with which the Apostles are 
 said to have been indued, and to the rea- 
 lity of which not Christian writers only, 
 but the earliest and most formidable an- 
 tagonists of Christianity appear to have 
 borne an ample testimony. Thus Celsus 
 does not deny the fact that the founders of 
 Christianity had a power of working mi- 
 racles ; he only argues against the infer- 
 ence which, from this acknowledged fact, 
 the Christian sought to establish. The 
 same admission is made by Julian the Apo- 
 state, as quoted by St, Cyrill. And the 
 
 Toldos 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 " Toldos Jeschu," of all the Jewish libels 
 on our faith the most virulent and outra- 
 geous, which (though in its present form 
 it doubtless belongs to a far later period) 
 contains some traditions not unknown to 
 Celsus himself, is full of the miracles both 
 of Jesus and the Apostle Peter f . 
 
 Nor can the credence which was given 
 to these early miracles by the converts and 
 ev 7 en the enemies of our religion be justly 
 ascribed to any peculiar readiness in the 
 contemporaries of our earliest teachers, to 
 acquiesce without examination in the fame 
 of whatever was wonderful ; and, from pre- 
 vious superstition, to admit the more rea- 
 dily a claim to supernatural power, from 
 ignorance of those natural secrets wiiich 
 have become obvious even to the vulgar. 
 To detect the falsehood (if any deception 
 really lay hid) in the acts which the early 
 Christians through Christ's name pretend- 
 ed to perform, was not a task which de- 
 manded the skill of an experimental philo- 
 sopher, inasmuch as the removing of an 
 obstinate malady is a fact of which the 
 reality may be ascertained by the poorest 
 
 villager. 
 
LECTURE VII. 493 
 
 villager. And of the prevailing parties into 
 which the world was then divided, there 
 were two at least who had every possible in- 
 terest and inclination to unmask if possible 
 the claims of a new religion, the heathen 
 priests and the Epicurean philosophers. 
 The first of these were disturbed in that mo- 
 nopoly of wonders which they had for so 
 many ages peaceably enjoyed ; the second, 
 opposed, as they were from principle, to 
 every thing which marked a superintend- 
 ing Providence, had already, in no small 
 degree, succeeded in making the altars of 
 Jupiter ridiculous ; and were little inclined 
 to suffer a new divinity to interrupt their 
 dance of atoms. A time of general irre- 
 ligion (and such was, undoubtedly, the 
 prevailing characteristic of that period of 
 which I now am speaking) is, of all others, 
 least favourable to a belief in miraculous 
 powers, inasmuch as where attention is 
 refused, all possibility of faith is taken 
 away. 
 
 Nor can a stronger proof be required of 
 the prodigious sensation which the won- 
 derful works of the early Christians pro- 
 duced 
 
494 LECTURE VII. 
 
 duced in all the civilized countries of the 
 world, than the total and practical change, 
 a change extending beyond the bounds of 
 the Church, to the shrines and courts and 
 schools of heathenism itself, from that ge- 
 neral indifference to all religion which dis- 
 tinguished the world from the days of Au- 
 gustus to those of Nero ; to that spirit of 
 fanaticism which raised up in Apollonius 
 and lamblichus and Vespasian himself the 
 imitators at most humble distance of those 
 works which (they could not deny) were, 
 in the case of the Apostles, genuine. Had 
 not Moses first turned the waters of Egypt 
 into blood, we should never have heard of 
 Jannes and Jambres essaying to do the like 
 by their enchantments. 
 
 Above all, however, there is an internal 
 evidence of the strongest kind in those 
 works which are ascribed to the Apo- 
 stles, which shows that their supernatural 
 gifts were circumstances of general noto- 
 riety ; and that they were of a nature 
 which, had they been so inclined, it would 
 have been utterly impossible to counter- 
 feit, For not only did they assert the 
 
 power 
 
LECTURE VII. 495 
 
 power in their own persons of healing the 
 sick, of speaking with unknown tongues, 
 of foretelling things to come ; they as- 
 serted also, (and, in all the Epistles of St. 
 Paul, we find incidental references to this 
 fact,) that others, through them and by 
 the imposition of their hands, became par- 
 takers of the same Spirit with themselves, 
 and performed the same or greater mira- 
 cles. And many of those Epistles contain 
 specific and detailed directions for the use 
 and improvement of such extraordinary 
 powers, addressed to those who, in com* 
 mon with the writer, possessed and em- 
 ployed them. 
 
 Now, supposing it to be possible, that 
 a religious empiric might so far impose on 
 the credulity of his admirers as to instil 
 into their minds the notion that he was 
 himself a prophet and a worker of mira- 
 cles ; yet is it utterly preposterous to sup- 
 pose, that such a deceiver would attempt 
 at all, much more that he should attempt 
 successfully, to make his followers believe 
 that they themselves were inspired with 
 miraculous faculties. To persuade me into 
 
 an 
 
496 LECTURE VII. 
 
 an erroneous opinion, that Paul has the 
 gift of tongues, is not beyond the compass 
 of possibility; but it is neither in the power 
 of Paul nor of an angel from heaven to in- 
 duce me to believe, in contradiction to my 
 own sensations and experience, that I my- 
 self have such a faculty. But the greater 
 part of Paul's addresses to the Corinthians 
 proceed on the supposition that those 
 whom he addresses had, since their con- 
 version to Christianity, both possessed and 
 exercised this faculty or faculties equally 
 wonderful. So that either St. Paul, if he 
 were an impostor, must have done that 
 which would have immediately detected 
 his imposition ; or the miracles of the an- 
 cient Christian Church are established as 
 perfectly authentic. 
 
 Is it supposed that the Corinthian con- 
 verts were accomplices with the Apostles 
 in their deceptions on the ignorant majo- 
 rity of mankind? To what purpose then 
 does St. Paul thus gravely address them in 
 a letter intended for their private instruc- 
 tion, as if those powers were real which 
 both he and they sufficiently knew to be 
 
 counterfeit ? 
 
LECTURE VII. 497 
 
 counterfeit Do not confederates, when 
 together in private, make haste to lay aside 
 the mask ? or do the kings and prophets 
 of tragedy address each other in ordinary 
 life with the same lofty language which 
 they employ on the public theatre ? 
 
 For, the Epistles of St. Paul are none 
 of them, we may observe, immediately in- 
 tended to enlarge the fame of Christianity 
 among those who were as yet without its 
 pale, or to attract from the Synagogue or 
 the Academy an increasing harvest of con- 
 verts. They are not, like the apologies of 
 a later age, designed to obviate the objec- 
 tions and remove the prejudices which the 
 heathen entertained against Christianity; 
 but they are addressed exclusively to those 
 by whom that religion had been already 
 adopted. Their differences are to be ap- 
 peased ; their errors to be corrected ; their 
 firmness in the faith to be encouraged and 
 preserved ; and their exertions directed in 
 the proper path to victory. The Epistles 
 to the Corinthians, in particular, (though 
 they contain truths which are interesting 
 to all, and counsels by which all may 
 
 K k profit,) 
 
498 LECTURE VII. 
 
 profit,) do not seem to apply in the first 
 instance to the whole body of the Achaean 
 Church, but ^re a series of private instruc- 
 tions for the conduct of the Bishops and 
 Presbyters in that opulent and factious 
 province. 
 
 And so little do we find of empirical 
 ostentation in the tone with which the 
 Apostle speaks of these extraordinary fa- 
 culties, that the object of his address is 
 expressly to lower the high opinion which 
 such persons entertained of the gift of 
 tongues and prophecy ; to remind them 
 that these powers, however extraordinary 
 and brilliant, were of an utility only tem- 
 porary ; and that it was better and more 
 blessed to excel in the common virtues of 
 mutual temper and forbearance, than to 
 attract by their miracles the gaze of man- 
 kind, and to win over others to salvation, 
 while their own hearts continued unim- 
 proved. 
 
 If, then, the writings of the New Testa- 
 ment be really the production of those 
 whose names they bear, the fact is certain, 
 that their authors were men approved by 
 
 God 
 
LECTURE VII. 499 
 
 God as instructors of mankind, and de- 
 signated by him, through signs and won- 
 ders, to be prophets of his Son and organs 
 of his inspiration. 
 
 And, that these writings are really ge- 
 nuine, is a fact which rests on the united 
 authority of internal evidence at once the 
 most minute and pervading ; of tradition 
 primitive and universal ; of the acknow- 
 ledged reluctance which Christians have, 
 in every period of their history, exhibited 
 to affix, without long examination and ac- 
 cumulated weight of testimony, to works 
 laying claim to divine authority, the seal 
 of approbation and reverence. It is in this 
 manner that the rejection by the Church 
 of those numerous pretended Acts and 
 Gospels and Epistles reckoned up by 
 Beausobre, and the very difficulty with 
 which some of the works contained in our 
 present canon were admitted to that ho- 
 nourable station, may prove not only the 
 indisputable authority of those in whose 
 reception all ages and parties agree, but 
 will also shew that none, even of those 
 K k 2 which 
 
500 LECTURE VII. 
 
 which were longest doubted, were received 
 without probable testimony *. 
 
 Nor is this all: the Scriptures are yet 
 more satisfactorily distinguished from the 
 productions of more recent imposture by 
 the weight of argument, the simplicity of 
 narration, the dignity of devotion, the pe- 
 culiar grace of candor and authority, which 
 every where may be seen to shine through 
 the rudeness of their Hellenistic dialect; 
 and which, as they would have baffled the 
 imitation of the most artful impostor, so 
 none of those impostors whose works have 
 descended to our time have, in reality, at- 
 tempted to copy. 
 
 We have yet some spurious works which 
 were offered, in their day, to the reverence 
 of the world, as productions of Apostles 
 and Evangelists; and we have fragments 
 of many more, which the lapse of time and 
 the merited contempt of the Church have 
 long since consigned to oblivion. But of 
 how different materials are these compos- 
 
 * Beausobre, Hist. Man. lib. ii. Discours sur les 
 Livres Apocryphes. 
 
LECTURE VII. 501 
 
 ed from those which distinguish the books 
 of our present canon ! Unnecessary and 
 childish miracles g ; discourses tedious and 
 ill-constructed h ; and a temper altogether 
 alien from that which is displayed in the 
 genuine New Testament 1 ; sufficiently mark 
 out the infinite difference between the au- 
 thentic oracles and human counterfeits of 
 inspiration ; and evince their hopeless dar- 
 ing, who, with mortal flames, would strive 
 to emulate the force and brightness of Hea- 
 ven's own inimitable lightning. 
 
 When we compare, indeed, the ac- 
 knowledged compositions of the unin- 
 spired though primitive Fathers of the 
 Church, themselves distinguished orna- 
 ments of Christianity, the pupils of the 
 Apostles, and possessed, in all but super- 
 natural aid, of equal or even superior ad- 
 vantages to the Apostles themselves ; when 
 we compare their writings with those as- 
 cribed to their illustrious teachers, is it 
 possible to conceal from ourselves the ut- 
 ter incompetency of Clemens or Hernias 
 or Polycarp to have counterfeited the nar- 
 rations of St. Luke, St. Matthew, or St. 
 K k 3 John ; 
 
502 LECTURE VII. 
 
 John; or the masterly train of reasoning 
 which runs through the polemical writings 
 of St. Paul ? What monstrous fables would 
 have filled our Gospel history, had Pa- 
 pias been its compiler k ! What endless 
 refinements of allegorical and cabbalistic 
 learning would have distinguished the Epi- 
 stles, if the Fathers of the second century 
 had palmed their own compositions on the 
 world as the works of St. Peter and St. 
 John ! 
 
 I will go yet farther : when we find the 
 Apostolic Scriptures so greatly superior to 
 all other Christian writings of any sect or 
 period whatever, can we forbear inquiring, 
 from what peculiar circumstance can this 
 preeminence possibly arise, if it be not 
 from that inspiration in which only the 
 Barbarian teachers of our faith can be sup- 
 posed to have excelled their Grecian con- 
 verts ? 
 
 On the nature and extent, however, of 
 this inspiration, a great but very natural 
 difference of opinion has, in every age of 
 the Church, prevailed : and not only have 
 the open enemies of our faith attempted to 
 
 reduce 
 
LECTURE VII. 503 
 
 reduce the Apostolic writings to the level 
 of merely human productions; but men, 
 whom it would be uncharitable and unjust 
 to accuse of disaffection to the general 
 cause of Christianity, have sought, never- 
 theless, to further the views of their parti- 
 cular party by diminishing, as far as possi- 
 ble, the authority of such parts of Scrip- 
 ture as have appeared least favourable to 
 their claims ; or, in their controversies 
 with the infidel, have so greatly narrowed 
 their definitions of the Divine assistance 
 accorded to the earliest preachers of the 
 Gospel, as to deprive our hope of the 
 corner-stone of its foundation, and to 
 leave hardly more of efficacy to the writ- 
 ten oracles of everlasting truth, than to 
 the dictates of earthly prudence, and the 
 recollection of mortal and fallible wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 It is not, on the other hand, to be con- 
 cealed, that this low opinion of inspiration 
 is the consequence, in some degree, of 
 that natural revulsion which an opposite 
 and overstrained hypothesis is apt to occa- 
 sion in acute and inquiring minds; and 
 K k 4 that, 
 
504 LECTURE VII. 
 
 that, if modern Christians be in the habit 
 of receding too much, the claims and lan- 
 guage of some earlier doctors were con- 
 siderably too high and unbending. To 
 state and to mediate between the several 
 schemes which have, on this important 
 subject, excited and divided the attention 
 of mankind, must be the work of a future 
 Sermon. 
 
 NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 LECTURE VII 
 
 Page 462, note a . 
 
 NlZACCHON Vetus. p. 141. Ed. Wagenselii. In- 
 terrogandi sunt infideles : Quare vos quaedam ex Lege 
 Mosaica tollitis ? Annon ipse Jesus dixerat, non ve- 
 nisse se extirpatum Legem Mosaicam et dicta Propheta- 
 rum, quamdiu enim superfuturum sit coelum et terra, 
 non perituram inde vel literulam imam aut apicem 
 unum ? Quae si ita sunt, quare vos abrogatis omnia 
 praecepta de Sabbato et Circumcisione?" Rabbi Isaac. 
 Munimen Fidei, . ii. c. 10. p. 401. " Ecce dicta ista 
 [Jesu] adversantur religioni ipsorum, assertionique, quse 
 perhibent Legem Mosis pridem defecisse, in ej usque lo- 
 cum successisse Legem Jesu. Nee aliam ob causam 
 abrogarunt praeceptum Circumcisionis, et pro eo substi- 
 tuerunt Baptismum, similiter abrogarunt quietem diei 
 Sabbati, quiescentes in vicem die primo hebdomadae ; 
 quin et abrogarunt praecepta omnia divina quorum ser- 
 vandorum necessitas per Legem innotuit." Drusius ad 
 Matth. v. 17. " Non est in toto Evangelic sententia 
 aliqua quam Judaei nobis magis objiciunt atque istam, 
 quam et Latine probe tenent et Ghristianorum auribus 
 perpetuo ingerunt, perinde quasi Christi verba et facta 
 parum sibi consistent, cum tot cerimoniae, purifica- 
 tiones, delectus ciborum, sacrificia, judicialia et alia id 
 
 genus 
 
506 NOTES 
 
 genus sint ablata per Christum, et tamen hie dicat sc 
 non solvisse Legem et Prophetas." Julianus ap. Cy- 
 rill. 1. X. Op. t. 6. p. 351. 'T/xeTf of (roAX)j&jy aTracraj -cra- 
 fiotGs@qx.OTSc, oirdiov supyceTe T*J; otTrohoyiac, rov Tponov ', qv yap 
 <pqa'}v ) 6 'lijcr&u^ yyovv vp^il; TSOWTVI xa< -G7ayra> eu 
 
 Page 470, note b . 
 
 Nizacchon Vetus. p. 233. " Responsionem hanc nota 
 adversus infideles : Henochus et Elias superna petie- 
 runt^ ceu vos dicitis fecisse Jesum, neque tamen in il- 
 los credimus. Quod si mirum vobis videtur, ipsum 
 convertisse aquam in vinum ; cibasse quinque panibus 
 homines millenos, suscitasse mortuum ; sanasse aegro- 
 tos; ambulasse super aquas: atqui sic Moses quoque 
 convertit aquas in sanguinem, amaras aquas reddidit 
 dulces, et Israelitas per mare tanquam per aridam tellu- 
 rem deduxit, percussit petram ut aquae inde scaturirent. 
 Elisa vero ex unico urceolo olei multos implevit cados, 
 et Naamanis lepram abstulit, duosque mortuos suscita- 
 vit, unum adhuc vivus, alterum etiam post fata. Simi- 
 lia Elias praestitit." 
 
 Ibid, note c . 
 
 Ibid. p. 86. C( Porro quomodo Jesu conveniunt no- 
 mina Admirabilis, Consiliarius ? &c. Annon Judas (Dis- 
 cipulus) consilium ejus amens reddidit? Sic porro re- 
 spondere licet ; Non fuit Fortis, nam occisus est. Nee 
 fuit Pater ^Eternitatis, quippe in medio dierum periit. 
 Sed nee Princeps Pacis fuit, nam quamdiu superstes 
 vitam agebat, gereljantur bella, neque ab eo deinde 
 tempore usque in hanc diem, orbis ab illis quievit. 
 
 Page 472 7 note d . 
 
 Exod. xxi. 23. Galat, iii. 13, Schickar. Jus Regale 
 
 Hebr. 
 
ON LECTURE VII. 507 
 
 Hebr. p. 248. s< Suspensus, quamdiu in ligno esset, 
 haberetur maledictus, et terra seu regio in qua de ligno 
 pendebat reus, polluta et conttiminata." Aben Ezra. Ap. 
 Schickar. ibid. " Historia Gibeon arguit quod statuturn 
 de non pernoctando strangulate, neutiquam in hono- 
 rem strangulati conditum sit sed in honorem terrae po- 
 tius." 
 
 Page 484, note e . 
 
 Those who wish to enter more at length into the in- 
 teresting question of the time at which miracles ceased 
 to be common in the Church, and whether that cessa- 
 tion be foretold and provided for in the Scriptures of 
 the New Testament, are referred to Bishop Warbur- 
 ton's Doctrine of Grace, b. i. c. 2. p. 71. and Mr. No- 
 lan's fourth Sermon, u On the Cessation of the extraor- 
 dinary Operations of the Holy Ghost/' 
 
 Page 492, note f . 
 Origenes contr. Cels. 1. i. p. 7- Ed. Spencer. MSTCC 
 
 raura, otJjc oI8a T&oSev xivoupsvo^ 6 KeAc'o's <prj<n, Sajju-o'vcov T<- 
 vcwv ovo'jua<n xai xaraxvj Arisen SoxsTv i(rpu=*v Xp<fiavot>. Ka- 
 TYiyopsi 8' Iv roTf l^j xa rot) 2aiT>j^oc 5 we, yoyjre/a 
 a, e$os CTapaSo^a -srs7ro<*jxsvai, xa< arpo'/SoWo^ ori 
 aAAoi T aura jaaSijjicaTa lyycyxoVsj -croisTv TO at5ro 5 
 vot TO; 0eoO 8uva/xs< -crojsTv, ouj T*var aTreAayvsi r^c iauroy -BTO- 
 Aire/af 6 'I>j(rou^. Ibid. p. 53. 'Ap' STTSJ raura -CTOioucnv Ix- 
 sTvoi Ss^crgi yjjuaj aurouj yjysTo-dai vlou^ elvat 0eou; ^ Asxreov 
 aura l7r<T>j8cUpaT elva avdpaiTrcov tzrov>jpa;v xat xaxoSa/jtto'yccv 5 
 Julianus ap. Cyrill. 1. vi. Op. t. 6. p. 191. tV O 8s ' 
 
 crap ov >) xpovov epyov ouev xo>jj ajov, s< jtt TIJ osai 
 xuAAouj xa) TWipAou^ ia(rao-^a, xai Sai^ovaivTaj l^ogx/^iv Iv 
 ^a, xi Iv B>j^av/a TaTj xw/x,a/j TCOV jxey/trrcoy ecyoov sl- 
 Tol. Jeschu, p. 11. Ed. Wagensel, Mox Jeschu; 
 
 " Adducite 
 
508 NOTES 
 
 " Adducite hue leprosum quendam, eum sanabo. Cum 
 leprosus fuisset adductus, imponebat ei manum, prola- 
 toque nomine immense, sanitati eum reddidit, ita ut 
 earo illius earn faciem indueret qualis solet esse puero- 
 rum. Amplius aiebat Jeschu, afferte hue mortal cada- 
 ver. Allato cadavere, simul ac imposuisset ei manum, 
 nomenque enunciasset, revixit illud atque erexit se in 
 pedes." Ibid. p. 21. " Simon Kepha jubet sibi adduci 
 leprosum, quern cum ei exhibuissent manus suas ei im- 
 ponit unde is convaluit. His visis scelesti illi coram eo 
 in terram procidunt aiuntque, Proculdubio tu a Jeschu 
 missus es, cum enim vivus ageret, eadem nobis preesti- 
 tit !" This celebrated libel as it now appears, I have 
 said, is not of very ancient date. This is plain from 
 its fixing the residence of Peter in Rome, and still 
 more, perhaps, from the apparent confusion between 
 " Schimon Kepha" and Simeon Stylites. I cannot else 
 account for their fancying that St. Peter " abode on a 
 tower in the midst of the city to the day of his death," 
 or that the tower was called " Peter,- ' ~0 s r, " quod est 
 nomen lapidis, quia in lapide sedit ad diem usque obitus 
 sui." The account however which it gives of our Lord's 
 mother, &c. in many respects remarkably agrees with 
 that which Celsus professes to have received from the 
 Jews of his time. 
 
 Page 501, note g. 
 
 In the "Gospel of the Infancy," of which a fragment 
 is published by Cotelerius, Not. ad Const. Apost. Patr. 
 Apost. p. 3<-18. Jesus, when a child, is described as 
 amusing himself and his playfellows by making spar- 
 rows of clay, and then commanding them to fly. 'En-a- 
 E= IK ir^ ^slXsu)^ avrwv tznjAov rpvQspov, eTAacrsv I au- 
 
 rov a^djtxov </3'. 'O g 'l^ou^ <ruyxpoT>j<raj 
 
 roVj s-pou$/o< xa irt=v avrolg, 
 
ON LECTURE VII. 509 
 
 Ka) 
 
 TWV rgovSlwv, !i->jA\kiv xpa^ovra. He is also made 
 to astonish his schoolmaster hy an intuitive knowledge 
 of the letters of the alphabet. Ibid. KaSiVavrof e auroO 
 TOU 8jaaj y^a^ara TOJ 'Irj(rou, ?^aro TO 
 TO v AAe<p* 6 Se 'Irjcrouf Aeyei TO Sewrspov MTreS, 
 xa) e?7TV auTw -sraVTa T s-o<^ja ewj TeAouj. Kat 
 |3^A/oj/, TOUf -ojgo^^Taj IS/Sao-xs TOV xa^yjjTTjv. 
 The same story is told^ with some variations from the 
 books of the Marcosians, by Irenaeus, who makes our 
 Lord inquisitive about the Cabbalistic powers of the se- 
 veral letters. Irenseus, 1. i. c. 17. p. 86. See also Beau- 
 sobre. Hist. Man. t. i. p. 368. The story of the spar- 
 rows was so perfectly to the taste of Mohammed and 
 his countrymen, that we need not wonder it has found 
 a place in the Koran, Sura. iii. And there are many 
 moral fables as to the infancy of our Lord, probably 
 derived from the same source, which I have heard sung 
 by cottage children in their Christmas carols. Of those 
 carols, most of which are very old, and many filled with 
 traces of forgotten doctrines and traditions, an inter- 
 esting collection might some years ago have been made. 
 But this custom, like every other custom which intro-r 
 duced the poor to the houses and hospitality of the 
 rich, and lessened, during one solemn season of the 
 year, the gloomy distance between the different classes 
 of society, has, during the last twenty years, almost 
 completely fallen into oblivion. With a better choice 
 in the subjects and language of their hymns, the prac- 
 tice would have been, to the children employed, most 
 valuable. 
 
 There are miracles equally preposterous with those 
 adduced from the Gospel of the Infancy, in the Gos- 
 pel of Nicodemus, a work of great though enthusias- 
 tic talent j wherein the journey of our Lord to Hades 
 
 after 
 
510 NOTES 
 
 after his crucifixion is described by Lenthius and Cari- 
 nus, two dead men, who sit up in their graves to write 
 it, and then sink down again as in a placid slumber- 
 On this work, to which Klopstock is greatly indebted, 
 and which I have more than once met with in the book- 
 stalls of Germany, as a religious novel for the lower 
 orders, Beausobre comments in a mariner which proves 
 he had, like most of his countrymen, no real taste for 
 poetry. The sublime though wild discourse between 
 Satan and Hades, which is worthy of Milton, he calls 
 plaisante scene dans les enfers." The wonders in 
 the Acts of Paul and Thecla" are far more childish 
 and inelegant. See Grabe. Spicil. t. i. p. 95. &c. In 
 the Acts of St. Andrew, of which there is a Greek ma- 
 nuscript in the Bodleian Library, Cod. Barocc. 180. 
 f. 111. Peter causes a camel literally to pass through a 
 needle's eye. St. Barbara, who is the heroine of the 
 drama, leaves the impression of her feet and hands on a 
 rock, &c. 
 
 Page 501, note h . 
 
 See the sermon of Paul in the Acts of Paul and The- 
 cla, Maxaoi ol xaSapoi x. r. A. which has not the small- 
 est resemblance to the known style of the Apostles. See 
 also that most tedious of all compositions the 
 TCUV <'. riarpia^wv. Grabe. ubi supra p. 145. 
 
 Ibid note. J . 
 
 Thus Thecla, (Grabe. ubi supr. p. 107.) ' 
 TOV 'AAe^avS^ov, 'sssgiea-^ia-sv UUTOV T^V ^a^utta, xai TOV g-e- 
 <Bavov a<p5/Aero airo Tfjf xe<paArj auroD, xa) gpjtrsv aurov $p/- 
 ajxSov ITTJ n-avTcov. But, what is far worse, in the Gospel 
 of the Infancy already cited, our Lord himself is repre- 
 sented as a most cruel and vindictive child, who so far 
 abuses his supernatural power, as to inflict, for tfte 
 
 most 
 
ON LECTURE VII. 511 
 
 most trifling offences, impotency, blindness, and sudden 
 death. 'O 8= vlo$ "Avva, TOU ypa.[jt,[j.oiTe(u$ Aa&ov xAa8ov Iris 
 *&X SS T & u$ara a <7yv)jyay=y 6 'Iijcrouf. 'Icuv $s TO 
 *I>jo-oy; TO ywopevov yV auroDj ^yavaxTTjcrs, xa* eTrrev 
 'Avoirs, TI ^'"yjorav (re o Xaxxoi ; xa) eepee ra 
 vuv xa <ru ca^ Ssv^pov 7ro>jpavSyjf, xa< oy jtt 
 yre xAaSoy^ ouVe xa^Trov. Ka* eudecoj I^rjpav^yj oAoj. Ibid. 
 IlaA/v ouv 6 'Irj<roiJj eTro^syeTO Sia T% X/iJ^ xai trraiS/ov rps- 
 ^ov 8/e^pay)j ej$ TOV cojaov auroy. Kai -sT*xpv-&sj 6 ' 
 Trev ayraJ, Oyx aTreAeyVrj T^V oSov <rou. Ka* 
 
 aTre^avev. Ibid. 'ExeTvoj Se o* eJprjxorej cro* 
 r^v xoAacriv T^V alcwv/ov. Ka* eydlwj oi lyxa 
 TypAa&jjfrav. How utterly different from the ge- 
 nuine Gospels ! 
 
 Page 502, note k . 
 
 See the Fragments of Papias collected from Irenaeus 
 and Eusebius. Grabe. Spicil. t. ii. p. 30 et seq. and 
 Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae. t. i. p. 7- et seq. To the stu- 
 dious in Christian antiquities the latter work is inva- 
 luable. 
 
 LECTURE 
 
LECTURE VIII 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7* 
 
 1 tell y oil the truth-, it is expedient for you that I 
 go away : for if 1 go not away, tkb Com- 
 forter will not come ; but if I depart, I will 
 send him unto you* 
 
 HAVING established, from the fact of 
 those miraculous gifts wherewith the power 
 of God endued the earliest teachers of 
 Christianity, the consequent fact of their 
 prophetic mission, it might seem, at first 
 sight, to follow as a necessary corollary > 
 that to all their assertions^ whether oral or 
 committed to writing, no less a deference 
 was due than to the sacred oracles of God ; 
 that the entire New Testament, as their 
 undoubted and genuine composition, must 
 be received as the embodied dictates of 
 eternal truth and wisdom ; and that, by 
 this single present to the Christian world, 
 the Holy Ghost has sufficiently redeemed 
 
 L 1 his 
 
514 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 his gracious pledge of becoming through 
 every succeeding age our Guide, our Guar- 
 dian, and our Comforter. 
 
 For, though two of the Gospels, and the 
 narration of the Acts of the Apostles, are 
 composed, indeed, by men who were not 
 themselves of that number, and to whom 
 we have no sufficient grounds for ascribing 
 the gift of personal inspiration, yet were 
 Mark and Luke the companions and ama- 
 nuenses of the two most considerable el- 
 ders, and the histories which bear their 
 name were written, if we believe the al- 
 most universal voice of antiquity, under 
 Apostolic dictation and revisal. They even 
 bore, among the writers of the primitive 
 Church, the names respectively of those 
 two illustrious teachers whose sentiments 
 they were supposed to convey ; and were 
 known no less as the Gospels of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul than as the works of their fa- 
 miliar attendants a . 
 
 Had the case, indeed, been different, we 
 have every reason to suppose, from the ac- 
 knowledged conduct of the Christian world 
 in other and similar instances, that these 
 
 works 
 
LECTURE VIIL 515 
 
 Works would never have been received as 
 standard histories by the great majority of 
 believers, nor have been placed on the 
 same level of reverence and authority with 
 the corresponding productions of persons 
 confessedly inspired. There were, we know, 
 many other distinguished teachers, who 
 were, as well as Mark and Luke, the con- 
 temporaries and companions of the twelve ; 
 and some of whom, no less than these 
 Evangelists, have left behind them written 
 relics of their zeal in the service of Jesus. 
 Such was Clement, the " fellow-labourer" 
 of St. Paul ; such was Hermas, whom the 
 same great Apostle salutes by name ; such 
 Ignatius, who has been himself, however 
 truly, accounted as, no less than the Apo- 
 stles, an eye-witness of our Lord's resur- 
 rection b . 
 
 Yet where can we find in the annals of 
 primitive religion that the acknowledged 
 writings of these men, or men like these, 
 were appealed to by the Church as the 
 charters of her profession, or any otherwise 
 made use of by the assembled faithful than 
 as human sources of instruction ? 
 
 t, 1 2 Again, 
 
516 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Again, there are certain treatises in our 
 present canon, and many others which have 
 at different times pretended to a place in it, 
 whose right to that eminent station has been 
 severely contested, both by ancient and mo- 
 dern criticism. But the authority of such 
 works has been contested, on the single 
 ground that they were not in truth com- 
 posed by the Apostles, to whose writing or 
 dictation they were ascribed. That they are, 
 many of them, of antiquity equal to the 
 apostolic writings themselves, that they are 
 the productions of men who lived with the 
 Apostles, and were the preachers of a com- 
 mon faith with them, as their strongest 
 opposers have not ventured to deny, so has 
 not this admission been accounted by their 
 most eager defenders as sufficient to esta- 
 blish their canonical authority. The dis- 
 pute has been restricted by common con- 
 sent to their authenticity, and their authen- 
 ticity only; nor are they quoted as Scripture 
 by any of the Christian Fathers, who did 
 not, as it should seem, believe them to have 
 been the work either of an Apostle, or his 
 amanuensis. And so perfectly has the au- 
 thority 
 
LECTURE VIIT. 517 
 
 thority of this last been in every age iden- 
 tified with that of the Saint to whom he 
 ministered, that, among the various sects 
 whose errors and controversies have deform- 
 ed the face of religion, while some are not 
 wanting who have professed to build their 
 faith on the testimony of Luke alone ; yet 
 have none been found who, receiving the 
 Gospels of John and Matthew, have ascribed 
 to their authority a higher rank than that of 
 the two other Evangelists 41 . A deference this, 
 which there could be no reason for paying 
 to Mark and Luke, rather than to their 
 companions and contemporaries, to Apol- 
 los and Hermas and Clemens, if it were 
 not that the former had been in every age 
 regarded as the channels of Apostolic in- 
 spiration, the official transcribers of facts 
 or doctrines delivered by infallible autho- 
 rity. 
 
 But though the writers or dictators of 
 the entire New Testament are respected by 
 the great majority of Christians as messen- 
 gers of the will of Heaven, yet, in the ap- 
 plication of this common principle to the 
 authority of the works which bear their 
 L 1 3 names 
 
518 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 names, so great a difference of opinion has 
 prevailed, as may lead us to suspect that 
 those who use the term of inspiration, have 
 not been always agreed as to the idea which 
 they meant to convey by it. 
 
 In the language of the ancient Fathers, 
 and in the ordinary opinion which, from 
 feeling rather than conviction, has conti- 
 nued since their time to pass current with 
 the Christian world, the gift of inspiration 
 is to a considerable extent identified with 
 omniscience and infallibility. It has not 
 been supposed to consist in a succession of 
 distinct revelations, communicated at vari- 
 ous times to the person whom the Almighty 
 selected as his messenger ; but it has been 
 considered as a continual and pervading 
 obsession of the Deity, inspiring every 
 thought and prompting every action, in 
 conformity with truth and wisdom, and 
 establishing the favoured individual as a 
 living oracle of God most High, whose lips 
 were the fountain of universal knowledge, 
 and whose earthly sentence was faithfully 
 registered in heaven. And, if such were 
 the factj no doubt could be entertained 
 
 that. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 519 
 
 that, in their writings no less than their 
 words, and in every fact, every doctrine, 
 every argument which their genuine writ- 
 ings contain, we are bound to reverence 
 and obey the declarations of the Almighty, 
 no less than if we had received them graven 
 on stone by his hand, or heard them pro- 
 claimed in accents of thunder from the 
 smoking summit of Mount Sinai. 
 
 Between the tongue and the pen, as or- 
 gans of expression, no difference can be 
 conceived, which should render the last less 
 proper than the former to convey celestial 
 knowledge to mankind. If the inspired ora- 
 tion of a prophet be faithfully committed 
 to writing, whatever authority the sounds at 
 first possessed, the image of those sounds 
 must, on every principle of reason and pre- 
 cedent, retain. If the Prophet himself de- 
 clare with accuracy those ideas which the 
 Almighty suggests to his soul, it can make 
 no difference whether he declare them by the 
 conventional sign of spoken or of written 
 language. 
 
 But this perpetual and pervading inspi- 
 ration of the Apostles is unfortunately the 
 L 1 4 very 
 
520 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 very subject in dispute ; and the hypothesis 
 which maintains it would conduct us, it 
 may be thought, to inferences no less at 
 variance with the narratives given by the 
 Apostles themselves, than with the analogy 
 which might be expected between their en- 
 dowments and those of the elder Prophets, 
 and with that natural and universal feeling 
 which forbids us to expect at God's hands 
 an unnecessary miracle, or that he should 
 exempt his creatures, while on earth, from 
 that weakness and peccability which is the 
 common misfortune of their kind, any fur- 
 ther than is required by the dispensation 
 committed to their charge, and the accom- 
 plishment of his will through them. For, 
 as it is by no means necessary for the safe 
 conveyance of a message, that the servant 
 to whom it is entrusted should be acquaint- 
 ed with the whole of his master's designs, so 
 does not the definite act of an Apostle or an 
 Evangelist require, in the agent, any power 
 to read the hearts of men, or to rise, in 
 particulars unconnected with his peculiar 
 mission, above the abilities and acquire- 
 of an ordinary mortal. Accordingly, 
 
 it 
 
LECTURE VIII. 521 
 
 it may be observed, that the Prophets of 
 the former covenant were only then ac- 
 quainted with future or distant transac- 
 tions, when they were under the im- 
 mediate influence of the Spirit by which 
 they were favoured ; that his illapses took 
 place at distinct and sometimes at dis- 
 tant periods, and that in the intervals 
 of such awful visitations, they were in no 
 respect distinguished from the weakness 
 and ignorance of their brethren. Nor is 
 there any ground in Scripture for suppos- 
 ing, with Michaelis, that John or Peter 
 were in this respect distinguished from Je- 
 remiah or Isaiah or Elijah; or that the 
 power which our Lord assigned them of 
 officially deciding cases of conscience, or of 
 making laws and administering justice in 
 the community over which they were placed, 
 required in them, any more than in other 
 ecclesiastical governors, an inherent and 
 permanent infallibility*. Had this been 
 the case, St. Peter would have been no less 
 an object of imitation when he dissembled 
 with the Gentile converts in Antioch, than 
 * Michaelis, Introd. E<1. Marsh, vol. i. pp. 82, 83, 
 
522 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 when he admitted Cornelius into the bosom 
 of the Christian church ; and St. Paul and 
 St. Barnabas must have been equally cor- 
 rect in their opposite judgments on the 
 character of Mark the Evangelist. But in 
 truth there is sufficient evidence in the New 
 Testament itself, that the discoveries of 
 God's will, which the Apostles received, 
 were limited and occasional, and the pow^ 
 ers with which they were entrusted, for the 
 most part, temporary only. The time is 
 marked when Peter was enlightened by a 
 vision as to the removal of the ancient bar- 
 rier between the Gentile and the Jew ; and 
 till Peter had himself communicated this 
 knowledge to the remaining disciples, they 
 were strangers (at least in this particular) 
 to the counsel of their heavenly Director. 
 St. Paul's first mission to the Gentiles, his 
 call into Macedonia, and his knowledge of 
 things in Paradise, were all the subjects of 
 distinct revelations from Heaven ; nor could 
 he predict the escape of his companions 
 from the devouring ocean, till he had first 
 received his information from the Angel of 
 that God whom he served. Nor should we 
 
 omit 
 
LECTURE VIII. 523 
 
 omit to notice, that the same St. Paul, on 
 more than one occasion, distinguishes his 
 private judgment from his divine instruc- 
 tions ; and that the Author of the Apo- 
 calypse specifies a particular Lord's day, 
 during which he was in the Spirit*. It is 
 apparent, however, that a person continu- 
 ally and in every word and action inspired 
 could, correctly speaking, have no human 
 judgment at all ; and that, in him who was 
 always under the supernatural influence of 
 the Holy Ghost, it would have been as ab- 
 surd to specify any particular moment at 
 which that influence overshadowed him, as 
 it would be to say that he was, at such or 
 such a time, alive and in the body. 
 
 The divine assistance, therefore, which 
 w r e believe the Apostles to have enjoyed, 
 may be more plausibly regarded as a limit- 
 ed and occasional assistance only, a con- 
 ductor not into all truth abstractedly con- 
 sidered, but into every truth which was 
 necessary to be known to the Founders of 
 the new religion of grace and pardon ; to 
 
 * Acts x. 28. xxii. 17, 18. xiv. 10. 2 Cor. xii. 1, 2, 3. 
 Acts xxvii. 23. 1 Cor. vii. 25, Rev. i. 10. 
 
 the 
 
524 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 the missionaries of a certain definite creed, 
 which at various times, and with various 
 degrees of clearness, was communicated to 
 them by vision or inspiration. But if it be 
 granted, and I own I do not see on what 
 principle either of reason or revelation it 
 can be denied, that the guidance of the 
 Spirit, as vouchsafed to the Apostles, w T as, 
 indeed, thus occasional and limited, it must 
 be an inquiry of the utmost delicacy and 
 importance to ascertain the occasions on 
 which, and the bounds within which it was 
 accorded. And so far as the Scriptures of 
 the New Testament are concerned, it will 
 be demanded, first, what reason we have to 
 ascribe any part of them to the dictation of 
 the Holy Ghost ; and, secondly, how much 
 of them is to be received as proceeding from 
 a source so sacred, and what is our crite- 
 rion for distinguishing between the fallible 
 opinion and the authoritative command, 
 between the imperfect recollection of an 
 earthly witness, and the all-sufficient testi- 
 mony of that glorious Being, to whom the 
 past, the present, and the future are eter- 
 nally and equally known ? 
 
 If 
 
LECTURE VIII. 525 
 
 If all was not inspired which an Apostle 
 wrote or uttered, how many and of what 
 nature were the orations or treatises com- 
 posed under celestial influence ? How can 
 we be sure that those works of theirs which 
 have been handed down to our times were 
 indeed among the favoured number ? Nay 
 more, what reason have we for supposing 
 that any of their written compositions were 
 inspired at all ? What internal marks of 
 heavenly aid do they present ? Where do 
 they themselves lay claim to a privilege so 
 extraordinary? or where is the promise of 
 our Lord, which would lead us to expect 
 that such aid would be accorded? The 
 Son of God, indeed, assures them that, on 
 certain solemn occasions of peculiar alarm 
 and peril, when they were called before 
 kings and rulers for his sake, and for the 
 sake of the gospel, their unpremeditated 
 eloquence should be prompted and sustain- 
 ed by the internal aid of the Spirit*. But 
 we find, it may be urged, no similar neces- 
 sity or promise in the case of such labours 
 
 * Mark xiii. 11. Luke xxi. 14, 15. 
 
 .arvh-'s 
 
 as 
 
526 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 as were carried on in the tranquil solitude 
 of the study or the oratory, or which were 
 addressed to private friends. But, are they 
 their public and official communications 
 which only are to be received as divine? 
 At what point does the distinction between 
 public and private begin ? Are the letters 
 to Timothy, to Titus, and Philemon offi- 
 cial ? The writings of St. Luke, which are 
 also addressed to an individual, can they or 
 can they not be said to answer this descrip- 
 tion ? Such are some of the leading diffi- 
 culties which, on the question whether the 
 Scriptures of the New Testament were in- 
 spired, have been a subject of triumph to 
 the infidel, and to the weak believer, of 
 perplexity and alarm. That both the tri- 
 umph and the alarm have been alike pre- 
 mature, may appear, perhaps, from the 
 following observations. 
 
 First, it was, a priori, highly probable, 
 that the supernatural assistance of the Al- 
 mighty, which informed, we are assured in 
 the earliest records of Christianity, on cer- 
 tain occasions, the oral and extemporaneous 
 effusions of the Apostles, should direct, on 
 
 others, 
 
LECTURE VIII. 527 
 
 others, their pens no less than their tongues 
 to the instruction and benefit of mankind. 
 It was to be expected that some of their 
 writings, as well as some of their speeches, 
 should proceed from the inspiration of God. 
 And this may be shewn from the necessity 
 of the case ; from the analogy of the Mo- 
 saic dispensation; from the promises of 
 Christ in the Gospel ; and from the assei> 
 tions of the Apostles themselves. 
 
 That the comforts and lessons of Chris- 
 tianity were intended as a common benefit 
 to every nation and every age of mankind, 
 it is altogether unnecessary to prove. It is 
 a dispensation in which all are concerned, 
 and which was destined, therefore, to be 
 made known to all. The truths which it 
 reveals are tidings of great joy, which the 
 Apostles were to communicate to all peo- 
 ple, and of which the knowledge was to 
 proceed both conquering and to conquer, 
 till the universal earth should be covered 
 with the glory of the Lord, and till the 
 anointed Son should descend again in 
 power to reap the harvest of his sufferings. 
 But, that to the extension and perpetuity 
 
 of 
 
528 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of religious truth the existence of written 
 documents is a circumstance of the first 
 necessity, will be allowed by all who have, 
 in common life, appreciated the uncertain- 
 ties of popular fame, and the corruptible 
 nature of oral tradition. Unless indeed, 
 (what no religion, either false or true, has 
 as yet pretended to,) the truth were in every 
 successive age divulged and guarded by a 
 never-ending line of inspired instructors ; 
 unless such instructors, too, w r ere in every 
 age sufficiently numerous to be accessible by 
 every believer ; it is apparent that the know- 
 ledge which mankind might retain must 
 be more and more imperfect and impure 
 in proportion as it receded from the parent 
 fountain ; and that, without some storehouse 
 of original principles, which might confirm 
 the weak, recall the wandering, and expose 
 and repress the wilful innovator, the religi- 
 ous opinions of the world would be little less 
 fluctuating and unstable than the fashions 
 of our attire and the varying idioms of our 
 language. 
 
 But that such a rule of practice and belief 
 could be afforded by the compositions of 
 
 human 
 
LECTURE VIII. 529 
 
 human arid unassisted wisdom will be as- 
 serted, I apprehend, by none. A rule 
 must, in itself, be absolute and definitive, 
 for it would, otherwise, be no rule at all. 
 But human authority can never be defi- 
 nitive, since whatever right Augustin may 
 possess to propose his sentiments as most 
 agreeable to truth and virtue, the same 
 right, undoubtedly, has Jerome or Epi- 
 phanius to question the propriety of his 
 decision. If the Apostles thought fit, on 
 their own authority, to recommend to their 
 followers the practice of celibacy, it was not 
 beyond the authority of any one among 
 those followers to declare himself of a con- 
 trary opinion. Or, supposing the recom- 
 mendation to have been a command, yet, 
 provided that command was given in their 
 capacity of ecclesiastial rulers only, their 
 successors in the government of the Church 
 would have, at least, an abstract right to 
 reverse that decree when it seemed to them 
 expedient. Wherefore, indeed, do we appeal 
 in controversy to the Apostolic writings, 
 rather than to the far more learned volumes 
 of Origen, of Clemens, of Augustin, of 
 M ra Chrysos- 
 
530 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Chrysostom, if we do not appeal to them 
 as the dictates of God himself? It is in 
 vain to say, nor will it, I apprehend, be 
 urged in answer, that because Peter or 
 James or John are in certain cases inspired, 
 whatever falls from their mouth is therefore 
 to be received as sacred, whether they are 
 at that time inspired or no. Such an an- 
 swer would be obnoxious to all the difficul- 
 ties attendant on the old hypothesis of a 
 permanent inspiration, with the additional 
 and yet more portentous absurdity of ascrib- 
 ing that weight to human authority which 
 the other only imputed to Divine. Who is 
 Paul ? Who is Barnabas ? Who are James 
 or John or Peter, that we should put our 
 trust in them, if our trust be not reposed in 
 them as the accredited messengers of the 
 Allwise and Alltrue? But, is it the mes- 
 senger himself whom we honour and obey ; 
 or is it not rather that royal message which 
 he bears to all the nations of the world, the 
 subjects and children of Him who sitteth on 
 the throne, the redeemed of the Lamb that 
 was slain? If, then, the speech or the 
 epistle on which we are commanded to 
 
 build 
 
LECTURE VIII. 531 
 
 build our faith be not the authentic mes- 
 sage of God, the only claim is gone which 
 the messenger possessed on our belief, our 
 obedience, and our attention ; and the sen- 
 timents of John, of Peter, and of Paul will 
 possess no more authority than the private 
 opinion of an herald or ambassador, ab-> 
 stracted from that law or treaty which 
 only speaks his master's will. And these 
 observations may suffice to shew the weak 
 and inconsistent conduct of those who re- 
 strict the inspired commission of the Apo- 
 stles to the delivery of certain important 
 truths, which they style the essentials of 
 Christianity. With them it is indeed a 
 frequent boast, that by renouncing the ple- 
 nary inspiration of Scripture, they deprive, 
 in many instances, the common enemies of 
 the Faith, of that vantage ground from 
 which they have been long accustomed to 
 assail it. And it is, certainly, convenient, 
 in their controversies w r ith other and more 
 orthodox Christians, to reply to such texts 
 as are urged against their peculiar opinions, 
 that the Apostles have in these instances 
 spoken without authority ; or that, however 
 M m 2 thev 
 
532 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 they themselves may have been enabled to 
 " think with the wise/' it was no part of 
 their commission to do otherwise than " talk 
 " with the vulgar." 
 
 But it is the misfortune of this Scythian 
 mode of warfare, that it is only suited to a 
 territory, which, like Scythia, is little worth 
 preserving ; and that the practice once be- 
 gun, of abandoning to the pursuer whatever 
 parts of Scripture it does not exactly suit 
 us to defend, no means of defence will at 
 length remain for those tenets themselves 
 which we now regard as of vital importance. 
 If it be advanced and admitted, that for 
 any point of faith the assertions of Scripture 
 are not sufficient authority ; if St. Paul, for 
 instance, were mistaken or insincere in his 
 expressions as to the existence of evil spi- 
 rits, or the immaterial nature of the soul 
 of man ; what reason have Christians for 
 their confidence, that a future state of re- 
 tribution may not be a faulty inference 
 from insufficient grounds, or a compliance 
 with Jewish error ? How are we to be sure 
 that, on the Unity of God himself, the Apo- 
 stles themselves may not have mistaken their 
 
 Master, 
 
LECTURE VIII. 533 
 
 Master, or that the Son of God has not, in 
 this instance, conformed (as, they blush not 
 to tell us, he, in the case of the Demoniacs, 
 conformed his manner of expression) to the 
 established usages of speech, and the popu- 
 lar superstition of his countrymen ? 
 
 Nor is the case much bettered by sup- 
 posing with Simon and Warburton, that, 
 though of the New Testament, only a few 
 conspicuous truths are immediately prompt- 
 ed by the Holy Ghost, yet, in all the rest, 
 were the human recollection and reason of 
 the Apostles so restricted by a superintend- 
 ing Providence, that nothing can be found 
 in their volumes, by which a material error 
 can be introduced into faith or practice. 
 For that is, indeed, a wretched sanction of 
 a law, to plead that no harm can arise from 
 following its letter; nor does any man obey 
 the Scriptures as a rule of faith and con- 
 duct, because there is no danger in such 
 obedience, but because we incur the great- 
 est of all dangers by a contrary course of 
 behaviour, a danger no less than that of 
 disobeying Him whose detailed and definite 
 injunctions are made known by these his 
 M m 3 testi- 
 
534 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 testimonies. We cannot, if we would, dis- 
 guise it from ourselves ; if the general in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures be not conceded, 
 the Scriptures are not the Word of God ; 
 and, if not the Word of God, then ha\ 7 e 
 they no rational hold on our faith, our 
 practice, our hopes, or our fears. They 
 are the law of the Most High, or denounc- 
 ing, as they do, the vengeance of God 
 against all wilful transgressors of their pre- 
 cepts, that holy name is used by them with- 
 out authority, and their contents are im- 
 posture and blasphemy. 
 
 If, then, a written law be necessary to 
 the extension and perpetuity of religion ; 
 and if the qualities of a religious law can be 
 only possessed by a rule of God's dictation, 
 it is beforehand to be strongly presumed, 
 that a law which corresponds both to one 
 and the other of these particulars has not 
 been withheld from the followers of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. And this probability is yet 
 farther increased by a consideration of the 
 analogy of God's previous conduct with the 
 Israelites under the Mosaic dispensation. 
 It is no essential part of my present pur- 
 pose 
 
LECTURE VIII. 535 
 
 pose (though it is a task which, on a pro- 
 per occasion, I should, certainly, not de- 
 cline) to demonstrate the general inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures of the elder Cove- 
 nant : but it is sufficient for my argument 
 to adduce the acknowledged fact, that cer- 
 tain written laws were given by divine in- 
 spiration to the Hebrew Church; that 
 Moses was commanded by Jehovah to write 
 down his words in a book; and that the 
 Prophets announce their volumes to the 
 world as the express and infallible dicta of 
 the Most High *. But, if a written code of 
 faith and morals be as necessary to the fol- 
 lowers of Christ as to those who were taught 
 by Moses, it is probable that the advantage, 
 which was graciously accorded to the in- 
 troductory and less perfect dispensation, 
 would be, a fortiori, conceded to those on 
 whom the adoption and the ends of the 
 world are come. 
 
 In vain, indeed, was it promised by the 
 Messiah to his chosen Twelve, that the 
 Comforter, which was to come, should 
 
 * Exod. xxxiv. 27. Isaiah viii. 1. Jer. xxx. 2. Hab. 
 ii. 2. 
 
 M m 4 . guide 
 
536 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 guide them into all religious truth, if the 
 truths thus revealed were to perish with 
 themselves, or their contemporaries and 
 immediate audience. In vain did the Spi- 
 rit implant in the minds of his messengers 
 a perfect remembrance of every word which 
 their departed Lord had spoken, if those 
 blessed words were again to be entrusted to 
 the dubious recollection, or still more dubi- 
 ous integrity, of their human and unassisted 
 successors. I do not mean, that the lead- 
 ing facts on which our Christian faith is 
 grounded might not continue in full force 
 of evidence, and deserve by their native 
 dignity our fullest reverence and wonder, 
 though the writings in which they are re- 
 corded were degraded from the rank which 
 they now maintain to the level of human 
 compositions. In point of fact this is even 
 now the case, inasmuch as no one in his 
 senses would begin to prove the life, and 
 death, and miracles, and resurrection of our 
 Lord from the previous assumption, that 
 the histories which we possess of those oc- 
 currences were inspired and infallible com- 
 positions : but, as unfolding to us the se- 
 cret 
 
LECTURE VIII. 537 
 
 cret springs of Providence, by which those 
 facts were caused, and the results to which 
 those facts conducted; as affording an au- 
 thoritative rule of life, and, on certain con- 
 ditions, a no less infallible assurance of 
 immortality : if the Scriptures are reduced 
 to the level of a human composition, their 
 force and efficacy are gone. 
 
 We might still believe that Christ was 
 born, and wrought miracles, and died, and 
 rose again : but those awful scenes of pow- 
 er and suffering and victory would present, 
 in such a case, no further and no better 
 practical results to the soul, than the tale 
 of Agamemnon or of CEdipus. It would 
 not more necessarily follow from the resur- 
 rection of one man, that all mankind should 
 be raised from the dead, than it would fol- 
 low from the manner of his death, that all 
 mankind should, like him, be crucified, or 
 that they should rise, if they rose, on the 
 third day after their dissolution. It was 
 for God alone to declare, (and, if the 
 Scriptures be not inspired, I know not 
 where he has declared it,) it was for God 
 to declare, in what respect and for what 
 
 reason 
 
538 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 reason our Lord was the representative of 
 the universal human race. And, if this 
 declaration has been nowhere made, we 
 are dust and ashes still. 
 
 And, this probability that some written 
 law would be given to men, which arises 
 from the necessity of such an assistance, is 
 materially increased by the circumstance of 
 that inspiration which, we know from Scrip- 
 ture, was, at times, accorded to the unpre- 
 meditated discourses of the Apostles. There 
 were, we know, occasions, when it was not 
 the preachers of the Gospel who spake, but 
 the Holy Ghost who dwelt within them * ; 
 and, if those orations whereby they them- 
 selves alone were delivered from violence; if 
 that preaching by which the immediate hear- 
 ers only w r ere benefited, were instinct with 
 such a sacred power, it might be expected, 
 on still stronger grounds, that the same good 
 guidance w r ould not abandon them in the 
 composition o.f those writings which were to 
 edify a people yet unborn, and to convey 
 the glad tidings of salvation to the extrem- 
 est corners of the earth, and to the latest 
 
 * Mark xiii. 11. Luke xii. 12. 
 
 march 
 
LECTURE VIII. 539 
 
 march of time. If the xouQot KAI TTTWOI hoyot 
 were not suffered to go forth without a pe- 
 culiar and supernatural Providence, is it 
 probable that those documents which are 
 the x,T*ipct,T<x, is aet of believers, the xetpfaia, of 
 our faith, our hope, our daily practice, our 
 apology and our crown among men, should 
 not be stamped with the same broad seal 
 of Almighty truth, the same credentials of 
 infallibility ? 
 
 It was naturally, therefore, to be expect- 
 ed, that some certain writings of the Apo- 
 stles would be sent forth under the direction 
 of God's Spirit; and, if this be once con- 
 ceded, it will not be easy on any ground of 
 reason or likelihood to deny this sacred 
 character to those treatises which are come 
 down to us under their names. They are 
 marked by every character of official and 
 authoritative documents; they are addressed 
 by inspired men in their prophetic capaci- 
 ties, either to the general Church of Christ, 
 or to the particular branches into which 
 that Church was divided, or to individuals 
 who fitly represented considerable bodies of 
 Christians. And whether immediately ad- 
 dressed 
 
540 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 dressed to individuals or no, they are alike 
 on subjects of public importance ; subjects 
 where, of all others, the aid of the Holy 
 Ghost was most needful and most to be ex- 
 pected ; the exposition, namely, of the 
 doctrines of the Christian faith, or the re- 
 gulation of the Christian republic. Nor, 
 however slightly it has been of late years 
 usual to appreciate the value of tradition, 
 can it be denied, that the universal preju- 
 dice (if it deserved no better name) which, 
 in the very earliest ages of the Church, has 
 received as Divine those writings which they 
 then esteemed authentic, must lead us to 
 suppose that these solemn instructions were 
 communicated by the Apostles themselves, 
 and received by those for whose benefit 
 they were intended, with some very per- 
 ceptible and striking difference from such 
 of their communications, if any such there 
 were, as were dictated by their human rea- 
 son or their private friendship only : and 
 that, (as St. Paul is acknowledged to have 
 done, in one remarkable passage of his 
 Epistle to the Corinthians,) they observ- 
 ed in every instance a broad and constant 
 
 line 
 
LECTURE VIII. 541 
 
 line of demarcation between the dictates of 
 the Most High, and the opinion or request 
 of a simple fellow-creature *. 
 
 And that the Apostles themselves laid 
 claim to a divine authority for the princi- 
 ples and precepts laid down in the several 
 works which are read in the assemblies of 
 the faithful, is apparent from many expres- 
 sions in those works themselves. In one of 
 them St. Paul addresses the Corinthians, as 
 "an ambassador for Christ," " as though 
 " God did beseech them by him." " If any 
 " man," he observes, " think himself to be a 
 " Prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge 
 " those things which I write unto you, that 
 " they are the commandments of the Lord." 
 Nor should we omit that the Epistles of 
 Paul are mentioned by St. Peter on the 
 same footing, and in the same manner, with 
 the avowedly inspired writings of the Old 
 Testament, and that the author of the 
 Apocalypse professes to have written, by 
 the express dictation of the Spirit, to the 
 churches of Asia Minor f . That objection, 
 
 * 1 Cor. rii. 25. 
 
 f 2 Cor. v. 20. 1 Cor. xiv. 37. 2 Pet. iii. 16. Rev. ii. 29. 
 
 then, 
 
542 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 then, is no less futile than common, which 
 was first advanced by Spinoza* against 
 the doctrine for which I contend, that the 
 Apostles themselves make no claim to in- 
 spiration in favour of their writings. And, 
 indeed, as it is a distinction utterly imma- 
 terial, whether a man say, " This is the 
 " Lord's message/' or, u I the messenger of 
 " the Lord speak this to you ;" the ordinary 
 superscription of " Apostle of Christ," which 
 precedes the greater number of the trea- 
 tises contained in the New Testament, is 
 an assertion no less absolute of official and 
 inspired authority, than if they were expli- 
 citly entitled " The Word of the Lord which 
 " came to his servant Paul," or introduced 
 themselves to our attention and reverence 
 by the old prophetic formula of " Thus 
 " saith Jehovah f ." 
 
 With still less reason has Spinoza urged, 
 in answer to such claims as these, that St. 
 Paul himself has, on a certain occasion, 
 
 * Spinoza, Tract. Theolog. Polit. c. xi. R. Simon. 
 Grit. Hist. t. ii. p. 81. 
 
 f Michaelis, Introd. vol. i. pp. 81, 82. Simon. Grit. 
 Hist. ibid. 
 
 expressed 
 
LECTURE VIII. 543 
 
 expressed himself as doubtful whether he 
 spake by inspiration or no ; and that, in 
 another and yet more remarkable passage, 
 he cautions his hearers against receiving 
 that particular sentence as any other than 
 his private opinion*. The first of these 
 passages has been very clearly explained to 
 be no otherwise than an ironical reproof of 
 those who affected to doubt his apostolic 
 powers. With the solution which Horberry 
 has given of the second, I acknowledge 
 that, ingenious as it is, I am not altogether 
 satisfied f . But, in truth, on the principle 
 that exceptio probat regulam, this passage, 
 as it is usually understood, is among the 
 strongest proofs of the general inspiration 
 of Scripture ; inasmuch as no one would 
 state in his discourses or letters that for 
 such or such particular expressions he was 
 himself* to answer, unless he intended to 
 imply, that in the remainder of his address 
 he spoke from another and a higher autho- 
 rity. Nor* is the same objector much more 
 fortunate, when he urges against the in- 
 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 2'$, 26. 
 
 f Horberry, Sefmon on Inspiration,. 
 
 spired 
 
544 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 spired authority of the Christian Scriptures, 
 that the Apostles, by their frequent appeals 
 to human reason, surrender tacitly the-cha- 
 racter of God's heralds and instruments, 
 for that of human doctors and disputants 6 . 
 " It is the part," he tells us, " of the Al- 
 " mighty, as it is the part of any absolute 
 " sovereign, to command, not to argue; 
 since not only where the will of a sovereign 
 is expressed is argument on the expedi- 
 ency of that will superfluous ; but since 
 the very use of argument or persuasion 
 " to induce men to obey implies, in itself, 
 " a deficiency of power to compel obe- 
 " dience." 
 
 But all these circumstances, so incon- 
 sistent, as we are told, with the notion of a 
 celestial command, are found in the writ- 
 ings of our New Testament ; and it is there- 
 fore concluded, that whatever value they 
 may possess as faithful histories of super- 
 natural facts, or judicious expositions of 
 natural and moral duties, they can have 
 none as authoritative declarations of the 
 will of Him whose will alone is sufficient 
 ground of obligation and obedience. 
 
 I have 
 
LECTURE VIII. 545 
 
 I have given this objection thus at length, 
 because it is, I believe, the foundation, in 
 many instances, of that reluctance which 
 has been so prevalent, to ascribe to our 
 Scriptures the honour which they may 
 justly claim ; and because, from its plausi- 
 bility, it calls for a more satisfactory an- 
 swer than the learned Simon, in whose 
 Critical History I first saw it, has, in my 
 opinion, supplied. His answer may be re- 
 duced to the following assertions; " That 
 prophecy is not to be confounded with 
 enthusiasm; that the Spirit of God 
 which supplied the Apostles with super- 
 natural knowledge did not extinguish or 
 " overpower their natural reason or their 
 previous human acquirements ; and that 
 it was permitted them to employ both 
 the one and the other of these lights for 
 the purpose of persuading the people *." 
 Now this is nothing else than to admit 
 that, though the subject matter of the 
 argument be divine, and though the facts 
 which it is intended to illustrate be com- 
 
 * Simon, ubi supr. pp. 82, 83. 
 
 N ri municated 
 
546 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 muriicated absolutely and infallibly, the 
 arguments and illustrations arise from the 
 Apostles themselves, and are, properly 
 speaking, no part of God's revelation. But 
 this, while it is an admission of the utmost 
 delicacy and danger, is by no means a suf- 
 ficient answer to the objection advanced 
 by the unbeliever; since, if it became, as 
 he supposes, the Almighty, on all occasions 
 where he taught his creatures at all, to 
 teach them dogmatically and peremptorily; 
 it became him no less to direct the tongue 
 or pen of his inspired Apostles in the 
 manner most suitable to his dignity. And, 
 above all, it would have been, on their part, 
 a frantic presumption, to endeavour to sup- 
 ply, by their own glosses or observations, any 
 supposed deficiency in the message of Him 
 by whom they were employed. It is more 
 to the purpose to shew, (and the means of 
 doing so are fortunately in the Christian's 
 power,) that it is unworthy neither of an 
 earthly nor an almighty Sovereign to con- 
 vince and persuade his subjects to obedi- 
 ence ; and that there are precedents, to 
 which Spinoza at least could not have ob- 
 jected, 
 
LECTURE VIII. 547 
 
 jected, where Jehovah has not in his own 
 person disdained to apply to the natural 
 reason and former experience of his people 
 Israel. 
 
 If the question were of power alone, it 
 might, indeed, become the majesty of 
 kings to enforce a blind and mechani- 
 cal obedience to every dictate of their will 
 or wisdom ; and it might be sufficient 
 for the King of kings to produce by a 
 single fiat whatever effect he now pro- 
 duces by the intervention of the human 
 will, and by discovering to his creatures 
 such motives for action, as, by their free 
 and affectionate service, may produce the 
 result desired. But the earthly monarch, 
 who proposed the first of these as the object 
 of his highest ambition, instead of the 
 leader of men, would be the driver of cattle 
 only: the Deity who should rule his crea- 
 tures by the single operation of necessity, 
 would be degraded into the regulator of a 
 machine. But, if it be more worthy of a 
 righteous king to make his people subjects 
 than slaves ; if a good God is more excel- 
 lently glorified by the grateful duty of his 
 N n 2 offspring, 
 
548 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 offspring, than by the mere accomplish- 
 ment of certain purposes by the weight of 
 overruling authority ; if goodness and wis- 
 dom are, both with men and God, more 
 illustrious attributes than strength or emi- 
 nent station ; it can excite no wonder that 
 both should, on certain occasions, convince 
 where they might compel, and, where it 
 was in their power to command, persuade. 
 If it were unworthy of God to set forth in 
 a true light to mankind the reasonableness 
 of that service which he requires at their 
 hands, or that confidence which it is his 
 pleasure that they should place in him ; 
 if he could not, without too much conde- 
 scension, enforce and explain the motives 
 whereby he seeks to influence us ; the same 
 objection would lie with equal justice against 
 the proposition of any motives whatever ; 
 and the promise of definite rewards, and the 
 threat of definite punishments, would be 
 superfluous alike in him who might, with- 
 out warning or explanation, pour forth the 
 full measure of his wrath on those who 
 presumed to doubt or disobey. But if it 
 be not unworthy of an allwise Being to 
 
 govern 
 
LECTURE VIII. 549 
 
 govern mankind by those passions and 
 those rational powers which he has im- 
 planted in them, no reason can be given 
 why the same great Teacher should not 
 illustrate and explain, as seems best to him- 
 self, from the principles of human reason 
 and experience, those discoveries which 
 he proposes to us whether of his nature or 
 his will. 
 
 Accordingly, in the whole tenor of the 
 Old Testament, we find that the Almighty 
 has pursued this course with his people. 
 It is thus that (before he condemns, by the 
 mouth of Samuel, the disobedience of the 
 first king of Israel) he enlarges on the be- 
 nefits which he had in the first instance 
 conferred, and the ingratitude with which 
 Saul had repaid them. It is thus that, in 
 the fifth chapter of Isaiah, Jehovah calls on 
 the men of Judah themselves, to judge 
 " what more could have been done than 
 " he had done for his vineyard?" Thus, 
 too, he explicitly invites, in the first chapter 
 of the same prophet, his people to " reason" 
 with their God, when he urges on their 
 common sense the inutility of that vain pa- 
 N n 3 rade 
 
550 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 rade of sacrifice and outward honour where- 
 by the wicked hoped to conciliate him*. 
 Will it be contended, that the Prophets in 
 these instances speak from themselves and 
 on their own responsibility ? Then are they 
 in the strictest sense of the word impostors; 
 for every one of these passages, no less 
 than innumerable others which might be 
 cited to the same effect, are introduced by 
 them as the message, nay as the words of 
 Jehovah. But would Spinoza have openly 
 ventured to refuse a divine axithority to 
 those laws which God in person pronounc- 
 ed to his assembled nation, under every 
 imaginable circumstance of supernatural 
 majesty and terror? If not, then, cer- 
 tainly we need seek no further precedent 
 wherein the Ruler of the world has vouch- 
 safed to argue with men, since even then 
 he scorned not to deduce his claim on their 
 obedience from the mercies which they 
 had received from him, and to assign as a 
 reason why they should keep his laws, that 
 he was their God, who had brought them 
 
 * 1 Samuel xv. 17, 18, 19. Isaiah v. 3, 4. i. 18. 
 
 out 
 
LECTURE VIII. 551 
 
 out of the house of bondage*. The Al- 
 mighty, doubtless, may draw his children 
 "with the cords of a manf," he may 
 humble his language to our conceptions, 
 and exact from us a service reasonable as 
 well as implicit, without degrading his dig- 
 nity in those dispensations whereby his love 
 is chiefly magnified. For all which we have 
 received at his hands be to him all praise 
 and glory ; but for this above all, that, by 
 enduing us with power to know him in part 
 as he is, he has called forth and concentrated 
 the best and most pleasurable affections of 
 our nature, and enabled us to build an image 
 to him in our hearts, to whose awful beauty 
 we may direct our prayers, and whose per- 
 fect excellence we may, at humble distance, 
 emulate ! 
 
 But, though the practice of reasoning 
 with his creatures be far, very far indeed, 
 from degrading to the Almighty Teacher ; 
 yet is there much plausibility in one ob- 
 servation of Spinoza, against which Simon 
 heavily inveighs ; " that there is, in the very 
 
 * Exod. xx. 2. f Hosea xi. 4. 
 
 N n 4 " act 
 
552 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 " act of reasoning, a submission to the sen- 
 66 tence of others ; and that arguments, by 
 " whomsoever advanced, do, inasmuch as 
 " they are arguments, challenge refuta- 
 " tion f ." The same may be said, indeed, of 
 every mode by which the Allwise has mani- 
 fested to mankind his existence, his nature, 
 or his will, since, even in the case of a visible 
 glory, the question might arise, whether the 
 vehicle employed were worthy of him whom 
 it represented; and since, when God con- 
 descends for our instruction to become an 
 historian or a lawgiver, he subjects himself, 
 whether he makes use of argument or no, 
 to those rules of criticism by which we de- 
 cide on human compositions. And if in 
 any of those particulars, for which human 
 works are condemned, the work which 
 claims to proceed from him be found de- 
 fective, though it would be preposterous 
 impiety to attribute error of any kind to 
 God, it would be a conclusion warranted 
 by every principle of reason and reverence, 
 that a composition unworthy of our most 
 exalted ideas of God did not, in truth, pro- 
 ceed from him. Accordingly, if we pro- 
 duce 
 
LECTURE VIII. 553 
 
 duce the Scriptures to the world as a code 
 of laws or narrative of events of Divine 
 and infallible authority, we may be reason- 
 ably expected to prove against all assail- 
 ants, either that the volume which we re- 
 vere is both in manner and matter fault- 
 less and unimpeachable, or that the faults 
 of its human promulgators are not incon- 
 sistent with that aid and authority of the 
 Holy Ghost, which the terms of infallibility 
 and inspiration in their natural sense im- 
 
 piy- 
 
 But the objections of the infidel are di- 
 rected at once against the style and the 
 matter of those works whose merits we are 
 now discussing, since in both, as we are 
 told, is the volume of the New Testament 
 assailable. Its language is, at best, the 
 language of a Jewish Greek : its argu- 
 ments and assertions, by the confession of 
 one of its own prophets, occasionally hard 
 to be understood*; of its contents there 
 are some which its authors might have well 
 supplied from their natural recollection or 
 
 * 2 Pet. iii. 16. 
 
 their 
 
554 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 their natural reason only ; and some so 
 trifling, that it seems little less than blas- 
 phemy to ascribe them to any higher source 
 than common prudence or civility. Nor 
 is this all. There are circumstances, trifling 
 circumstances indeed, and which, if they 
 occurred in a work of human skill, would 
 be altogether unworthy of reprehension, 
 where the authority of Scripture is at va- 
 riance with itself, or with uninspired but 
 credible testimony. 
 
 Of these imputations, it would be easy 
 to shew, and it has, in fact, been often 
 shewn satisfactorily, that by far the greater 
 part of the passages on which they depend 
 will by no means bear up the consequences 
 which infidelity has sought to raise on 
 them 5 . As some however will still be 
 found, which the best and wisest of men 
 have deemed it easier to evade than ex- 
 plain, it is necessary and it is sufficient to 
 demonstrate, that the allegations, where 
 they are accurate, do not apply to their 
 intended purpose, and that we have still 
 ample grounds for ascribing to every part 
 of the New Testament, a sufficient though 
 
 not 
 
LECTURE VIII. 555 
 
 not an equal share of Divine inspiration 
 and authority. 
 
 I say, a sufficient but not equal share, 
 because as the works of which our sacred 
 Volume is composed are of many different 
 kinds, and have been produced under cir- 
 cumstances extremely dissimilar, it would 
 be unreasonable to expect the same sort or 
 measure of celestial aid to be accorded to 
 all indiscriminately ; and it is on every 
 principle of argument sufficient, if we can 
 shew that none of them have been without 
 that degree of help which would identify 
 their authority with the divine instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 And, here, it will be allowed on all 
 hands, that inspiration and infallibility 
 must, in their strictest sense, be predicated 
 of those expressions which, as they follow 
 in order, have been' immediately dictated 
 by God. Such are those ordinances and 
 messages in the Book of Moses, and in the 
 ancient prophecies, where the Almighty 
 himself exactly specifies the sentences to 
 be written down ; so that, though the 
 translation of such passages into another 
 
 language 
 
556 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 language be liable, beyond a doubt, to hu- 
 man error and infirmity, in the original at 
 least, not only the purport but the style 
 and arrangement are truly and exclusively 
 Divine. And, so far as such passages ex- 
 tend, those lofty claims to literal inspira- 
 tion for which the Jews are ridiculed by 
 Warburton, and the proverbs and parables 
 whereby they were accustomed to illustrate 
 and enforce the sanctity, not of the words 
 alone but of the letters and particles of 
 letters, " every jot and tittle of their Law," 
 were justifiable, undoubtedly, and laudable, 
 inasmuch as that form of words, which God 
 had himself made use of, must needs have 
 been, of all others, the best, and best suit- 
 ed to his purpose. 11 
 
 And, though there are very few pas- 
 sages, (two or three at most there are,) in 
 the course of the New Testament, which 
 are given as the very words of the Almighty 
 Father, or as proceeding from either of the 
 other Persons of the Trinity in their divine 
 and eternal nature; yet can there be no 
 doubt that the words of the Son while on 
 earth are, no less than these, the accents 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 557 
 
 of infinite wisdom and goodness, and that 
 they merit as much of reverence from his 
 followers as those which, before his incar- 
 nation, he addressed to the tribes in Ho- 
 reb, or which, after his exaltation, he spake 
 to St. Paul or St. John. Were error, then, 
 detected here, the most reverent conclu- 
 sion which we could draw would be. that 
 the Apostles had mistaken their Master; 
 a conclusion at once decisive against the 
 inspiration of the work which they have 
 given us. But, concerning the sentiment 
 and wisdom of our Lord's discourses, we 
 have not, even with infidels, any contro- 
 versy. And, as these Divine expressions 
 were, when uttered, in a different language 
 from that, in which they are transmitted to 
 our time, the question of their style and 
 grammatical accuracy must naturally fall 
 under another branch of our inquiry, since, 
 however the followers of Christ profess to 
 have been divinely assisted in the recollec- 
 tion of their Master's words, they, in no 
 instance that I am aware of, lay claim to 
 any celestial aid in their translation. 
 
 Nor will this admission in the slightest 
 
 degree 
 
558 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 degree contravene the inspired authority 
 of the New Testament, since, secondly, a 
 written document may properly be called 
 inspired, when the sentiments and ideas 
 which its words convey are suggested by 
 the Holy Ghost; though the words in 
 which those sentiments are clothed be en- 
 tirely left to the human and unassisted 
 genius of the writer. And this is that spe- 
 cies of assistance which was especially 
 promised by Christ to the original teach- 
 ers of his Gospel, whom the Comforter 
 was to guide, we are told, into all reli- 
 gious truth, but of whom it is no where 
 said, that the Spirit should put his power 
 in their lips, or that he should enable them 
 to express to others their own internal 
 perceptions with supernatural force of sa- 
 cred eloquence. Nor is that opinion either 
 improbable in itself, or inconsistent with 
 the pretensions of the sacred Writers, 
 which apprehends that the Holy Ghost 
 might thus illuminate the inward man with 
 knowledge which the favoured individual 
 was not necessarily qualified to disclose to 
 mankind, with all that energy or clearness 
 
 of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 559 
 
 of diction which, if the same good Spirit 
 had so pleased, it was, doubtless, in his 
 power to have conferred. If a prophetic 
 vision were exhibited to Amos, the herds- 
 man of Tekoa, it by no means followed 
 that he should be able to describe what he 
 had seen in the same pomp of diction and 
 glow of colouring as the high-born poet 
 Isaiah. Had Newton been, in other re- 
 spects, uneducated, his discoveries in as- 
 tronomy would neither have improved his 
 elocution or his style. And if we suppose, 
 what we cannot help supposing, that the 
 ideas communicated by Almighty power 
 would affect the mind precisely in the 
 same manner with those which are gene- 
 rated by memory or reflection, it is appa- 
 rent that the process by which ideas are 
 presented or combined is altogether dis- 
 tinct from that by which they are clothed 
 in those conventional signs, which convey 
 to other men the result of our internal 
 meditation. How often do we conceive 
 with force and clearness, what we are un- 
 able at the moment to express with ele- 
 gance or fluency ? And what closer con- 
 nection 
 
560 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 nection does there exist between the origi- 
 nal conception and the choice of words, 
 than between the choice of words and the 
 handwriting ? It was possible, then, to be 
 inspired with a knowledge of celestial truth, 
 without any corresponding improvement 
 in natural or artificial eloquence. That 
 wisdom which committed, in the first in- 
 stance, to earthen vessels, the treasures of 
 eternal life *, might be expected, by a pa- 
 rity of reason, to leave the vessels earthen 
 still ; and the fisherman of Galilee, when 
 elevated into a prophet, might retain, ne- 
 vertheless, all the original simplicity of his 
 character, and all the imperfections of his 
 education. 
 
 Accordingly, though the Apostles were 
 full of the Holy Ghost, that internal illu- 
 mination did not prevent the Sanhedrim 
 from reading in their manners and dialect 
 their original ignorance and obscurity; 
 and the revelation entrusted to St. Paul 
 would no more make him a Demosthenes, 
 than the revelation of which Moses was 
 
 2 Corinth, iv. 7- 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 561 
 
 the minister corrected his imperfect utter- 
 ance '. 
 
 The defects, then, of Scriptural lan- 
 guage, were they really no less numerous 
 and striking than infidels pretend, would 
 be no solid objection to the hypothesis, 
 that " all Scripture was given by the in- 
 " spiration of God." It may be thought, 
 indeed, that, as the Hellenistic dialect 
 which is imputed to the New Testament 
 was the usual language of the race for 
 whose instruction it was, in the first in- 
 stance, intended, so it could never be ex- 
 pected that the Almighty should miracu- 
 lously interfere to perplex the Jews of Ma- 
 cedon and Asia with refinements of which 
 they could not feel the force, and with pe- 
 culiarities which, however consecrated in 
 our opinion by the talent and elegance of 
 Athens, were to them unusual, and, if I 
 may use the expression, barbarous. Nor 
 are Christians compelled to maintain, on 
 the one hand, the purity of every passage 
 in the written Word, nor to confess, on the 
 other, that the Holy Ghost has dictated 
 solecisms. With a becoming zeal for the 
 o o honour 
 
562 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 honour of the sacred Text ; with a due ad- 
 miration of the real beauties of Scripture ; 
 but confessing with Augustin, that the mat- 
 ter, not the words, of Revelation is entitled 
 to the epithet of Divine ; they may watch, 
 with much composure, the harmless malice 
 of their enemies exhausted on those pecu- 
 liarities of language and of style, which, as 
 specimens of Greek, may, perhaps, offend, 
 but, as evidence of the Hebrew extraction 
 of their authors, are, in themselves, a suffi- 
 cient proof, that the volume of our Scrip- 
 ture is really the production of those Apo- 
 stles who only, of all the Hebrew race, 
 had authority with Gentile believers. 
 
 The observations which I have made on 
 the grammatical incorrectness of Scriptu- 
 ral language will apply with equal force 
 to its real or supposed obscurity. It is no 
 part of my present purpose to enter into 
 the disputed question, whether the words 
 of St. Peter refer to the mysterious nature 
 of those circumstances which his brother 
 Apostle had imperfectly explained to the 
 faithful, or to the darkness of his style in 
 speaking of them k . It is sufficient for my 
 
 argument 
 
LECTURE VIIL 563 
 
 argument to have shewn, that admitting 
 to its full extent the cavil of the infidel 
 objector, its consequences could not affect 
 the Divine authority of Scripture, inas- 
 much as a composition may merit the 
 name of inspired, though the ideas only, 
 and not the forms of expressing them, be 
 suggested by the Spirit of God. And it is 
 apparent; that as, on the one hand, we 
 cannot, from the necessity of the case, and 
 the constant deference which the Apostles 
 claim to their written sentiments, deny this 
 share at least of Divine assistance to the 
 doctrinal and controversial treatises of the 
 New Testament ; so will even this be com- 
 pletely sufficient for those ends for which 
 only inspiration has ever been accorded, 
 " for doctrine/' that is, " for reproof, for 
 " correction, for instruction in righteous- 
 
 ness." 
 
 But, thirdly, a composition is also in- 
 spired, when circumstances to which we 
 have ourselves been formerly witnesses are 
 preserved or renewed in our recollection, 
 by the influence of the Almighty, in more 
 vivid colours and with an accuracy more 
 o o 2 perfect 
 
564 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 perfect than was possible to our unassisted 
 faculties. For, as that which we have for- 
 gotten may be, undoubtedly, no less pro- 
 perly a subject of inspiration than that 
 which we have never known ; so is the 
 wonder no less, and the Divine interposi- 
 tion as immediate, which prevents us from 
 forgetting that which we could not, with- 
 out such an aid, have remembered. And, 
 in the case of our Saviour's discourses 
 while on earth, there is an absolute pro- 
 mise that the Apostles should be assisted 
 with this supernatural and infallible power 
 of recollection or memory, inasmuch as 
 the Comforter was not only to guide them 
 into truth, but " to bring all things to their 
 " remembrance, whatsoever their Lord 
 " had said unto them*." And, though a 
 miracle be, doubtless, never wrought un- 
 necessarily, yet would nothing less than 
 a miracle be, apparently, required, to en- 
 able men of no extraordinary parts, and 
 strangers, as were the Apostles, to those 
 arts and habits whereby only we acquire 
 
 * John xiv. 26. 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 565 
 
 the power of accurately reporting conver- 
 sations, to retain, after twenty or forty years 
 interval, with that degree of accuracy which 
 the nature of the case demanded, those 
 words of our Saviour on which so many 
 leading features of the Christian faith de- 
 pend. Nor will any doubt remain of this 
 necessity to those who shall reflect how few 
 persons are to be found, I will not say 
 among peasants only, but among those 
 who are most in the habits of attention 
 and correctness, who, even a single month 
 after they had once heard it, would be 
 able to repeat or write down a discourse 
 like that which Jesus held on the moun- 
 tain, or that yet more difficult one from 
 which the w r ords of my text are taken. 
 
 And it may be, at the same time, ob- 
 served, that such assistance as is here de- 
 scribed, since it does not amount to the 
 internal suggestion of a new idea to the 
 soul, but simply to the preservation or re- 
 vival of an idea originally suggested by 
 the natural and external process, is, there- 
 fore, perfectly consistent with that cha- 
 racter to which the Evangelists lay claim, 
 oo3 of 
 
566 LECTURE V11I. 
 
 of witnesses speaking from their own dis- 
 tinct experience and recollection, and, 
 by their separate testimonies, confirming 
 the veracity of each other. For, the pro- 
 mise of our Lord is not that the Holy 
 Ghost should prompt to the Apostles what 
 testimony they ought to bear, (in which 
 case I am ready to allow that the Holy 
 Ghost himself, and not his human organ, 
 would be the person who bore witness;) 
 but that the Holy Ghost should enable 
 them to be better and more accurate evi- 
 dence of what they had heard than they 
 could otherwise have been possibly consi- 
 dered. But if, of two witnesses, the one 
 had, by an artificial system of memory, or 
 by notes taken at the time, acquired the 
 power of speaking, after a lapse of years, 
 more positively to certain facts or expres- 
 sions than his companion could do, we 
 should, certainly, not consider his testi- 
 mony as on that account less valuable, 
 nor, as I conceive, less genuine and au- 
 thentic. The manner in which the know- 
 ledge was first obtained is the single point 
 on which the question of originality de- 
 pends ; 
 
LECTURE VIII. 567 
 
 pends; and, let the help be what it may 
 by which that knowledge has been pre- 
 served or refreshed, that help can do no 
 more than add probability or certainty to 
 the natural recollection of the witness. 
 
 And there is yet another way in which 
 the assistance of the Holy Ghost may be 
 useful and necessary, even where all our 
 knowledge had been acquired and retained 
 by our outward experience and natural 
 abilities ; and that is by suggesting, out 
 of several circumstances or expressions 
 of which all are equally remembered, the 
 selection of those particulars which are 
 best adapted to the instruction and advan- 
 tage of ourselves, or of those for whom we 
 are writing. Nor can we think it impro- 
 bable that, in this manner also, the narra- 
 tives of the Apostles are inspired, since, in 
 the circumstances which they have record- 
 ed of the life and conversation of Christ, 
 so little is to be found whereby mere cu- 
 riosity is gratified ; and since, notwith- 
 standing the brevity of the Gospels, the 
 picture which they afford of the character 
 of Jesus is at once so complete and in- 
 oo4 structive. 
 
568 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 structive. It is possible, therefore, for in- 
 spiration to be useful and even necessary, 
 though the circumstances which we relate 
 are such as we have in our own persons 
 witnessed ; and there is no room for saying 
 that, when we suppose the grant of God's 
 assistance to the narratives of Matthew and 
 John, we suppose a needless miracle. 
 
 It is, at the same time, certain that, 
 wherever the aid of the Holy Ghost is be- 
 stowed, whether to suggest, or preserve, or 
 discriminate, the results of such aid will be 
 of an authority alike divine, and the doc- 
 trine or example which they convey alike 
 imperatively binding on the obedience and 
 the faith of Christians. Though the pro- 
 positions which are thus selected and ap- 
 proved should have been, in the first in- 
 stance, advanced by human craft or wis- 
 dom, yet will the choice of the Holy Ghost 
 establish them as the adopted word of 
 God; nor will that be less infallible to 
 which he has set the seal of his assent, than 
 that which immediately proceeded from 
 him. If a celestial messenger had recom- 
 mended to our faith and obedience some 
 
 certain 
 
LECTURE VIII. 569 
 
 certain passages in Plato or in Porphyry, 
 would it he doubted that, whatever were 
 the general character of those authors or 
 their productions, the words thus cited 
 would be, thenceforth, the laws of the 
 Most High? At the same time, though 
 such particular passages would be thereby 
 invested with Divine authority, it is plain 
 that the question would remain untouched, 
 whether the writings from which they were 
 taken were inspired or no, and whether 
 they were, in truth, the production of 
 those authors whose names they bore. 
 And we thus may understand how the hu- 
 man learning and human diligence of an 
 Apostle might, no less than the use of pre- 
 vious documents, be perfectly consistent 
 with the internal dictation of God's Spirit, 
 and that whatever truth was found in an 
 apocryphal or heathen writer might be 
 suggested by their celestial guide to James 
 or Jude or Paul, without subscribing to 
 the general contents or prophetic dignity, 
 whether of the books of Enoch or Aratus 
 or Epimenides l . 
 
 That any part of Scripture can be found 
 
 where 
 
570 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 where inspiration was an useless or super- 
 fluous blessing, is a doctrine, then, not 
 easy to be maintained. Undoubtedly, it 
 will be difficult to shew that those passages 
 in the Epistles which have been chiefly in- 
 stanced as too trivial to call down a celes- 
 tial interference, were really unimportant 
 to those persons whom they, in the first 
 instance, concerned, or in the instruction 
 which the Church might, in after ages, 
 draw from them. The salutations which 
 St. Paul, in his official writings, addresses 
 to particular believers, may have produced 
 a moral effect of the strongest and most 
 beneficial character, as so many testimonies 
 of that approbation with which the Holy 
 Ghost himself beheld their inward feelings 
 and their outward conduct. The books 
 and garment which were left at Troas have 
 furnished more than one important lesson 
 to the Christian world m ; and where the 
 Apostle reproves, in his Epistle to Timo- 
 thy, the excessive abstinence of his disci- 
 ple, a testimony is borne which a Prophet 
 might fitly bear against those ascetic doc- 
 trines which were, thus early, invading 
 
 Christianity, 
 
LECTURE VIII, 571 
 
 Christianity, and which imposed, at length, 
 on the faithful a yoke of unprofitable re- 
 strictions, as grievous and as manifold as 
 the burden of that Law which they had 
 cast down *. 
 
 Should this be thought, however, to sa- 
 vour of scholastic refinement, I can per- 
 ceive no inconsistency with that character 
 to which the Scriptures lay claim as an in- 
 spired and infallible rule of faith and prac- 
 tice, if, in circumstances where neither 
 faith nor practice are, by any possibility, 
 concerned, or, in others, where the unas- 
 sisted powers of the writer's intellect were 
 amply sufficient to answer the purposes of 
 Providence, we should admit that the Pro- 
 phet was left to his private judgment. 
 When the counsel was given, or the dis- 
 covery made, w r hich it was the object of 
 the Holy Ghost to enforce or communi- 
 cate, it can excite no surprise, that, though 
 the heavenly voice was silent, the Apostle 
 might still conclude his letter with the 
 usual forms of salutation to his friends, or 
 
 * 1 Timothy v. 23. 
 
 with 
 
572 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 with the mention of his private necessi- 
 ties*. Where the Evangelist was already 
 in perfect possession of the fact, or where 
 a trifling inaccuracy could have no practi- 
 cal effect on the faith or life of his bre- 
 thren, the tenor of the history might pro- 
 ceed, it may be thought, as before, though 
 the historian had in that instance to de- 
 pend on himself alone. All that can be in 
 such case required is, that celestial aid 
 should be supplied, wherever human au- 
 thority was insufficient ; and that a broad 
 and competent line of demarcation should 
 be established between such divine and 
 earthly ingredients as might mingle in the 
 same treatise or history. And while we are 
 assured of the first of these necessary cir- 
 cumstances by the promise, that the Spirit 
 of God should guide us into all needful 
 truth ; so the reason of the case, and our 
 knowledge of those definite objects which 
 Scripture has in view, might seem amply 
 sufficient for the second. 
 
 If, then, it be objected, lastly, against 
 
 * 1 Timothy iv. 13. 
 
 the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 573 
 
 the divine authority of the New Testa- 
 ment, that, in the narratives which the 
 Evangelists have severally furnished, there 
 are certain difficulties which the followers 
 of Christ have not yet been able to recon- 
 cile, we may answer, with Michaelis*, (in 
 which assertion he should seem to be sup- 
 ported by the authority of St. Paul,) that the 
 inspiration of Scripture is doctrinal not his- 
 torical; and that our Lord himself, who has 
 given, as we have seen, so explicit a pro- 
 mise to his Apostles of ability to record his 
 words, has nowhere declared, that in re- 
 lating every particular occurrence of his 
 life, they should have the same supernatu- 
 ral accuracy ; far less that they should 
 possess it in their references to the con- 
 temporary history of Judea and the Ro- 
 man empire. Where facts are concerned, 
 there is not, indeed, the same necessity for 
 divine assistance as in the case of words ; 
 since not only are facts more easily com- 
 mitted to memory, and more stubbornly 
 retained than words or arguments can be ; 
 but since the errors which might be ex- 
 
 * Michaelis, Introd. vol. iii. p. 27. 
 
 pected 
 
574 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 pected in their detail are of far less im- 
 portance than those which would arise 
 from a mistaken turn of expression, or 
 from the omission, in a sentence, of anj 
 connecting or explanatory member. For 
 one person in the lower or middling ranks 
 of society who is competent to repeat the 
 exact expressions of another, five thou- 
 sand may be found who are adequate wit- 
 nesses to what they see him do or suffer ; 
 and if the supernatural influence of the 
 Holy Ghost were necessary to enable the 
 Apostles to remember and relate the dis- 
 courses of their Lord, with the accuracy 
 which such blessed instruction merited^ it 
 might seem, on the other, that they could 
 hardly, without a miracle, forget any ma- 
 terial circumstance of those most wonder- 
 ful facts " which their eyes had seen, and 
 " which their hands had handled." It is, 
 indeed, most true that there are facts re- 
 corded in the Gospels which, without ce- 
 lestial illumination, it was impossible that 
 their authors should have known ; and 
 others of which it is not, perhaps, too 
 much to say, that no human testimony 
 
 would 
 
LECTURE VIII. 575 
 
 would be, of itself, sufficient to establish 
 them. But these are all of a character in 
 which doctrine is implicated as well as his- 
 tory ; and as, where these occur, it is ne- 
 cessary to suppose inspiration, so we have 
 the Word of God himself for it, that inspi- 
 ration would not in such cases be withheld 
 from the master-builders of his sanctuary. 
 Nor can we fail, at the same time, to ob- 
 serve, that the seeming inaccuracies of the 
 Evangelists, and whatever trifling difference 
 may be found between the accounts which 
 they have severally furnished, belong ex- 
 clusively to those parts of their narration 
 which have reference not to doctrines but 
 events ; which affect not in the smallest 
 degree those lessons of faith or holiness 
 which the Messiah delivered in their pre- 
 sence ; but which can do no more, at 
 most, than leave their reader under some 
 degree of hesitation as to the hour of the 
 crucifixion, the title on the cross, or the 
 year in which our Saviour drove forth the 
 money-changers from his temple. I do 
 not mean that the difficulties which I have 
 instanced may not be, and have not been, 
 satisfactorily solved, and that without im- 
 peaching 
 
576 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 peaching in the smallest degree the accu- 
 racy of the sacred historian n ; nor will I 
 dissemble that confidence which the Chris- 
 tian may be well allowed to feel, that such 
 discrepancies as yet remain to try our faith 
 and our humility will, hereafter, in God's 
 good time receive their perfect solution. 
 It is a proverb of the Jews, that when 
 Elias shall come, every knot of their sacred 
 book shall be loosed * ; and we may safely 
 trust that a greater than Elias will vindi- 
 cate at his second coming the truth of his 
 written word, and that of the genuine Gos- 
 pel, as of the genuine Pentateuch, no jot or 
 tittle shall pass away. Meantime, how- 
 ever, I am most anxious to prove, that 
 mistakes in points where inspiration did 
 not properly apply can by no means dero- 
 gate from the inspired character of a work 
 in those respects where inspiration was ei- 
 ther needed or promised. I am desirous 
 to impress on your minds that circum- 
 stances, which, whether true or false, have 
 no possible bearing on the doctrine or 
 character of Christ, may belong, indeed, 
 
 * Mede, Works, book 5. p. 896. 
 
 to 
 
LECTURE VIII. 577 
 
 to his history, but are no essential parts of 
 his Gospel ; that, while the words of Christ 
 are reported to us with supernatural and 
 infallible authority, we may submit our 
 faith in the actions of his life to that same 
 human evidence on which we at first be- 
 lieved them ; and that we may admit the 
 New Testament as an unerring and impe- 
 rative rule in every point of doctrine or of 
 practice, though we should be for ever ig- 
 norant of the year in which Cyrenius go- 
 verned Syria, or whether the apostate Ju- 
 das met his fearful end by strangulation or 
 by rupture . Above all, it has been mine 
 aim to shew that by the Comforter whom 
 Christ foretold, and by those blessed aids 
 which he has for Christ's sake dispensed to 
 mankind, the faithful of every age and na- 
 tion are, no less than the Apostles them- 
 selves, infallibly conducted to that truth 
 which is in Jesus : and that " for doctrine, 
 " for reproof, for correction, and for in- 
 " struction in righteousness," the Scripture 
 of the last, no less than of the former cove- 
 nant, is " given by the inspiration of God/' 
 Nor do we expect, nor do we desire 
 P p those 
 
578 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 those further aids to knowledge and to ho- 
 liness which the Romanists would seek for 
 in the authority whether of their collective 
 Church, or of a single ecclesiastical officer. 
 To us it seems presumptuous and unrea- 
 sonable, when a rule has been given by 
 God himself, to go on demanding at his 
 hands another and yet another criterion ; 
 to peer about, in the full blaze of sunshine, 
 for the beams of a supplementary star ; or 
 to subject the inspiration of the immediate 
 Apostles of our Lord to the authoritative 
 decision of their, surely, less enlightened 
 successors. But, neither in the ancient 
 synagogue, nor in that primitive Church 
 which the Messiah formed on its model, is 
 any claim to be found, when their language 
 is rightly apprehended, to a privilege so 
 extraordinary as that of themselves inter- 
 preting the charter whence they derived 
 their authority. In things indifferent, and 
 in controversies between the brethren, the 
 sentence of the Church was unquestion- 
 ably binding on the conscience of all its 
 members. But where God and man were 
 parties, they could express their opinion 
 
 only ; 
 
LECTURE VIII. 579 
 
 only; and the most awful denunciation 
 which they had it in their power to utter, 
 is a confession of their own incompetency. 
 The anathema, of which so formidable 
 ideas are entertained, is in its very terms 
 no other than an appeal to the final judg- 
 ment of that Lord who shall hereafter 
 come in glory ; that Lord before whom, 
 as before his proper Master, every indivi- 
 dual must stand or fall ; and whose laws 
 must be applied by every individual for 
 himself to his own case, and at his own ex- 
 ceeding peril. 
 
 If, then, the Scriptures be, as these pre- 
 tend, obscure, they are obscure to those 
 who perish. No remedy was provided 
 under the elder Covenant for those to 
 whose instruction neither Moses nor the 
 Prophets sufficed ; nor does St. Peter in 
 the New (though in a case where he ad- 
 mits the difficulty of God's word) direct 
 the ignorant and unstable to apply for fur- 
 ther light to himself or his Roman succes- 
 sors. Nor, indeed, is it intelligible, even 
 on the established principles of Popery, in 
 what manner the rescripts of their Pontiff, 
 p p 2 and 
 
580 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 and the decrees of their Council, could pro- 
 duce, any more than the ancient books of 
 Scripture, the effects which they fondly 
 ascribe to them. Unless the inspired in- 
 terpreter were omnipresent as well as infal- 
 lible, his edicts must, no less than every 
 other composition, whether human or di- 
 vine, be liable to perversion or cavil. If 
 the secular arm be withdrawn, it may be 
 suspected that the sentence of a council 
 will not very greatly avail with those by 
 whom the words of Peter or Paul are evad- 
 ed or despised ; nor will any solid satisfac- 
 tion be afforded by the cumbrous mazes of 
 the canonists and schoolmen, to those weak 
 brethren who have already lost their way in 
 the narrow compass of one little volume. 
 
 But, in the essentials of salvation, and 
 to those who sincerely desire to be taught 
 of God, are the Scriptures really obscure? 
 Let those bear witness, whom, by these 
 means alone, the Spirit of God has guided 
 into all necessary truth ! Let those bear 
 witness who have fled from the perturbed 
 streams of human controversy to this source 
 of living water, whereof "if a man drink 
 
 " he 
 
LECTURE VIII. 581 
 
 " he shall never thirst again*/' Let the 
 mighty army of the faithful bear witness, 
 who, believing no less than they find, and 
 desiring to believe no more, have worship- 
 ped in simplicity of heart, from the earliest 
 ages of the Messiah's kingdom, the Father, 
 the Son, and the comfortable Spirit of God ! 
 I do not, God forbid that I should in this 
 place, and before so many of those who 
 must hereafter unite their amplest stores 
 both of classical and sacred learning in his 
 cause from whom we have received all 
 things ! I do not deny the efficacy, the 
 propriety, the absolute necessity of offer- 
 ing our choicest gifts of every kind on the 
 altar of that religion to whose ministry we 
 are called, and of concentrating all the 
 lights of history and science to the illustra- 
 tion of these wonderful testimonies. But, 
 though, to illustrate and defend the faith, 
 such aids are, doubtless, needful, the faith 
 itself can spring from no other source than 
 that volume which alone can make men 
 ivise to everlasting salvation, that engrafted 
 
 * John iv. 14. 
 
 p p 3 word 
 
582 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 word which, though the ignorant and un- 
 stable may wrest it to their own destruc- 
 tion, is, to those who receive it with meek- 
 ness and with faith, the wisdom and the 
 power of God. 
 
 By this book the Paraclete has guided 
 the Church into whatever truths the Church 
 of Christ has, at any time, believed or 
 known; by this book and the doctrine 
 which it contains, he has convinced the 
 world of sin, and justified the Son of Man 
 from the malicious slanders of his enemies ; 
 by this book he consoles us for the absence 
 of our Lord, and instructs us in things to 
 come ; by this he reigns ; where this is 
 found his kingdom reaches also ; by this 
 weapon, proceeding from the mouth of God, 
 shall the enemies of his Christ be at length 
 extirpated from the world*; and by this, 
 it may be thought, as by the rule of God's 
 approbation, shall the secrets of all hearts 
 be, finally, made known, in that day when 
 " whosoever is not found written in the 
 " book of life, shall be cast into the lake 
 " of fire f." 
 
 * Revel, xix. 21. f Ibid. xx. 15. 
 
 Where- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 583 
 
 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of 
 the spiritual gift, seeing that we have not 
 followed after cunningly devised fables, let 
 us, each in his station, abound in the la- 
 bour of the Lord, diffusing as we may that 
 saving knowledge, the possession of which 
 alone could make it expedient for the dis- 
 ciples of Christ that their Master should 
 depart and leave them ! And let us pour 
 forth, above all, our fervent prayers to that 
 Almighty Spirit, who hath given us these 
 holy records of his will, that, by his sup- 
 porting grace, they may bring forth in us 
 the fruit of holiness, and the harvest of life 
 without end, through the mercies of the 
 Father, the merits of the Son, and the 
 strong protection of the Comforter. 
 
 p 4 NOTES 
 
N O T E S 
 
 LECTURE V11I 
 
 Page 514, note a . 
 
 IllEN^EUS adv. Haer. 1. iii. . 1. p. 199. Mra fe 
 
 TQVTWV Io8ov. Ma^xoj 6 jua$vjT>j x, 
 
 K 
 
 Ee 6 
 
 , TO u?r' IXS/J/H 
 Tertull. adv. Marcion. 1. 
 iv. p. 416. " Marcus quod edidit, Petri adfinnetur, cujus 
 interpres Marcus, nam et Lucse digestum Paulo adscri- 
 bere solent." Hieron. in Cat. Scriptor. Op. t. i. p. 169. 
 " Sed et Evangelium juxta Marcum qui auditor ejus et 
 interpres fuit, hujus [Petri] dicitur/* Ibid. p. 173. " Quo- 
 tiescunque in Epistolis suis Paulus dicit, juxta Evange- 
 lium meum, de Lucae significare volumine." See the 
 Greek version of this passage by Sophronius, and the 
 note of Erasmus. See also Simon. Crit. Hist, of New 
 Test. pp. 87, 101. Beausobre, Discours sur les Livres 
 Apocryphes, Hist. Manich. t. i. p. 453. Lardner, Credib. 
 vol. ii. p. 553. et sequ. 
 
 Page 515, note b . 
 
 Phil. iv. 3. " Clement with other my fellow labourers." 
 Rom. xvi. " Salute Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes." Jerome 
 reckons Ignatius among those who had seen Christ in 
 
 the 
 
ON LECTURE VIII. 
 
 the flesh after his resurrection. Cat. Scriptor. t. i. p. 176. 
 " Super persona Christi [Ignatius] ponit testimonmm di- 
 ce ns : Ego vero et post resurrect! onem in carne eum vidi, 
 et credo quia sit.'* The words, however, of Ignatius in the 
 Epistle to the Smyrnaeans are, 'Eyo> yap x, jotsra rr t v avaj-a- 
 <r*v Iv aagx) auTov ol&a xa* 7n$-suco ovra. And accordingly 
 the majority of commentators do not understand Igna- 
 tius as declaring himself a witness of the resurrection, 
 but merely that he was fully persuaded of the fact. It 
 may be urged, however, that Ignatius is here giving a 
 reason to the Smyrnaeans for believing Christ to have 
 appeared, and suffered, and risen again in the body. But 
 it is not usual to urge our inward persuasion of the trutK 
 of that which we do not know from our o\yn experience, 
 as any argument for others to believe it. And Ignatius 
 does not say, " 7 know that Christ rose from the dead, 
 on the testimony of such or such persons/' or " we 
 know the fact from those Scriptures which we all alike 
 receive." His testimony is given absolutely, and should 
 therefore seem to be founded on a personal knowledge 
 of the fact which he thus corroborates. But further, h 
 trap*} olZot, " novi in carne," is, unquestionably, a 
 scriptural phrase; and it is equally certain that, in Scrip- 
 ture, it always implies a personal acquaintance, and can 
 be no better translated, than as both Jerome and the 
 old Latin interpreter have rendered it, " Vidi." Igna- 
 tius may, therefore, be not improbably reckoned among 
 the ocular witnesses of our Lord's rising, and he may 
 have been in the number of those five hundred who re- 
 ceived tlvs highest degree of conviction. But whatever 
 credit we may give to this opinion, its prevalence in the 
 ancient church is sufficient for the purpose of my argu- 
 ment. 
 
 Page 
 
586 NOTES 
 
 Page 517, note c. 
 
 Epiphanius, Heer. xlii. 9. p. 309. O5ro$ yap [o 
 MapxW] s%i TO EuayyeXiov fto'i/ov TO xaTa Axav. 
 
 Ibid, note d . 
 
 The Ebionites and Nazarenes are, perhaps, to be ex- 
 cepted, if it be true that the Gospel according to the 
 Hebrews, which they employed, was either written by or 
 ascribed to St. Matthew. But this instance, after all, 
 will not apply, since it was to all appearance rather their 
 ignorance of Greek, than any doubt as to the authority 
 of the other Gospels, which restricted them to the use of 
 their own. 
 
 Page 544, note e . 
 
 Spinoza ubi supra. " Apostoli ubique ratiocinantur ; 
 ita ut non prophetari sed disputare videantur." 
 
 Page 552, note f . 
 
 Spinoza ubi sup. " Prophetise auctoritas ratiocinari 
 non patitur. Quisquis enim vult sua dogmata ratione 
 confirmare, eo ipso ea arbitral! uniuscujusque judicio 
 submittit." 
 
 Page 554, note g. 
 
 Simon. Hist. Crit. p. 2. c. xx. xxi. Michaelis, vol. i. 
 c. ii. . xii. c. v. and Townson on the Gospels, more par- 
 ticularly his very learned observations on " The Hours 
 of the Ancients." 
 
 Page 556, note h . 
 
 Sanhedrin. f. 20. 3. Hieros. " Liber Deuteronomii 
 veniens prostravit se coram Deo, dixitque ; O Domine 
 universi, in me scripsisti legem tuam : jam vero testa- 
 mentum vacillans in aliqua parte vacillat in toto : ecce 
 
 Salomo 
 
ON LECTURE VIII. 587 
 
 Salomo conatur a me extirpare Jod. [in Deut. xvii. 7-] 
 Respondit Deus, S. B. Salomo et mille tales peribunt, 
 vocula autem de te non peribit." Scbemoth R. vi. 
 Nulla litera aboletur a lege in aeternum. Hieros. 
 Schabb. f. 10. 4. " Si fuerit 1 et ille in 1 formaverit, 
 aut "1 in 1 reus est. Rabbi Meir. Semit. fidei, viii. fol. 
 104. 4. " Tempore prophetarum erant qui singularum 
 legis literarum minutias sectabantur, singulasque literas 
 seorsim excutiebant, mysticumque earum sensum ex- 
 quirebant." Ibid. fol. 105. 1. " Et ne mireris quod sic 
 excusserint singulas seorsim literas ; nam et singulos 
 Hterarum omnium apices pari ratione excusserunt." 
 Ludovic. Capellus, ad Mattb. v. 18. Crit. Sacr. t. vii. 
 p. i. p. 171. " Aliud etiam est Talmudicorum dictum 
 quod ad bujus loci illustrationem facere possit, cum di- 
 cunt, f Nulla est Legis literula quae vel deficiat vel 
 abundet.' ' See also Warburton's Doctrine of Grace, 
 1. i, c. 6. 
 
 Page 561, note '. 
 
 Mark xiv. 70. " Tbou art a Galilean, and thy speech 
 agreeth thereto." Acts iv. 13. " When they saw the 
 boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they 
 were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled.'* 
 
 Page 562, note k . 
 
 It is doubted whether we should read Iv ole !-) Su<rvcV 
 rot rim, which would refer the obscurity to the things 
 spoken of, or sv afc, which would apply to the Epistles 
 themselves. See Wetstein ad loc. and Mill. Proleg. 1484. 
 p. 165. The latter teaches us, " Certe ad Epistolas Pau- 
 linas hie referri constat ex sequentibus, ubi dicitur insta- 
 biles quosdam Epistolas istas, non minus ac reliquas 
 ypoup&s, perperam interpretatos esse ad suam ipsorum 
 perniciem." On the other hand, Beza ad loc. " Relati- 
 
 vum 
 
588 NOTES 
 
 vum oV (ut recte observat doctissimus interpres) 11011 co- 
 haeret cum enis-oXtzic, sed cum TOVTWV. Itaque non satis 
 apposite citatus est hie locus, perinde ac si Pauli Episto- 
 las difficiJes atque obscuras esse significaret Petrus. Non, 
 inquam, disputat perspicue an obscure scripscrit Paulus, 
 sed in istis quae ad venturum judicium spectant, quag- 
 dam esse dicit quae non ita facile possunt a quibusvis 
 comprehendi." The " doctissimus interpres/' to whom 
 Beza refers, is Calvin, who observes, " Hoc relativum 
 Epistolis non convenit, est enim neutrum apud Grae- 
 cos." The authority, however, of the manuscripts and 
 ancient versions cited by Mill and Wetstein, and above 
 all the solid reasons offered by the former, may induce 
 us to believe that the genuine reading is al$, according 
 to which impression our English translators have, ap- 
 parently, rendered the passage. 
 
 Page 569. note ] . 
 
 Grotius ad Act. xviL 28. " Non minim si Cilix Pau- 
 lus Cilicem Aratum, vel in patriae communis honorem, 
 legerat." Drusius ad Tit. i. 12. KpyTe$ cts\ \[/eSfai, K. r. A. 
 (( Hie versus heroicus Epimenidis Poetae est." Grotius, 
 ibid. " Dicitur [Epimenides] Paulo propheta, quia a suis 
 pro tali habebatur, sicut prophetae Baal." Erasmus ad 
 Jud. v. 14. " Enoch &c." "Id ex Apocryphis adductum 
 est ut, et illud de Michaele." Nor need we wonder that 
 the Apostles have made this use of the works which 
 were popular among the persons whom they addressed, 
 since our Lord himself in his sermon on the Mount 
 has so largely drawn from the stores of Rabbinical 
 learning. See Wetstein's Notes, and Schottgen, p. 15. 
 et sequ. 
 
 Page 570. note m . 
 
 Erasmus ad 2 Timoth. iv. 13. " O suppellectilem 
 
 Apostolicam ! 
 
ON LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Apostolicam ! penulam quae defendat ab imbribus et li- 
 bros aliquot, baud dubie sacros ! Nunc quantum est ca- 
 ballorum, quantum bombardarum, quantum aliarum re- 
 rum quas referre non licet !" Calvin, ad loc. Op. t. vii. 
 p. 491. " Cum mox subjiciat libros et membranas, unde 
 apparet Apostolum, quum jam ad mortem se parant, 
 non tamen a lectione destitisse. Ubi ergo sunt qui se 
 eo usque profecisse putant ut nulla amplius exercita- 
 tione indigeant ? Quis se cum Paulo conferre ausit ! 
 Magis etiam refellitur FANATICORUM HOMINUM 
 FUROR, qui, libris contemptis, damnataque omni lec- 
 tione, solos suos ev$wiat<r[Mvs jactant ! Nos vero sciamus 
 hoc loco piis omnibus commendari assiduam lectionem 
 ex qua proficient." 
 
 Page 576. note n . 
 
 There is something extremely rational as well as 
 pious in the exclamation of Thummius, In Impiet. Pho- 
 tin. p. 121. Differemus ad Academiam Paradisaicam, 
 ubi plenius et planius de hoc controverso et omnibus 
 dubiis et Ivavnopavec-i locis erudiemur. 
 
 Page 577- note . 
 
 See the questions of Cyrenius's government, and the 
 manner in which Judas died, discussed in Poole's Syn- 
 opsis, t. iv. pp. 656, 657, 658, 659. 886. 
 
 THE END. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 20. line 6. for remains read it remains 
 
 26. 14./or motion r. motive 
 
 58. 22 for iXiu r. iXt'yn 
 99. 3. for proposition r. propositions 
 
 123. 29. for patrum r. patrem 
 
 134. 25. for something like r. something like it 
 
 125. B.for qua r. quam 
 
 199. 9. for Qwyuretv r. Qvyofrav 
 
 205. 35. for Horduero r. Korduero 
 
 250. 4. dele and 
 
 281 . 11. for by the silence r. from the silence 
 
 28?. B.for Clavius r. Clarius 
 28. for Vardale r. Vandale 
 
 ;J5O. 16. for contemperaries r. contemporaries 
 
 36o. 16. for Unitarian r. Unitarians 
 
 402. 25. for Heathens r. Heathen 
 
 467. ig./or pronounced r. produced 
 
 481. 2. for by r. from 
 
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