SERMONS AND ESSAYS 
 
 OX THK 
 
 APOSTOLICAL AGE 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, M.A., 
 
 FELLOW AND TUTOR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER: 
 
 AND 377, STRAND, LONDON. 
 SOLD ALSO BY MACMILLAN AND CO., CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 MDCC'CXLTII. 
 
OXFORD : 
 PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON. 
 
P 11 E F A C E. 
 
 THE Sermons contained in this volume were 
 preached before the University of Oxford in the 
 years 1846 and 1847, the four first in the office of 
 Select Preacher, the two last on two occasional 
 turns afforded by the kindness of friends. The 
 Essays have been inserted in explanation or illus- 
 tration of points on which it would have been in- 
 appropriate to enlarge in spoken discourses. 
 
 In the composition of the volume it is almost 
 needless to say that I have derived great help not 
 only from the works which have more or less 
 treated of the same subject, but from those to 
 whose intercourse and acquaintance, as well as to 
 their actual criticism of these pages, I would here 
 express my deep obligations, which I do not feel 
 the less, because it is impossible more directly to 
 acknowledge them. And, if there are fewer refer- 
 ences than might naturally have been expected to 
 the name of one to whom, though not living, this, 
 as well as any similar work which I may be called 
 to undertake, must in great measure be due, it is 
 because I trust that I may be allowed to take this 
 opportunity of vindicating, once for all, for the 
 scholars of Arnold, the privilege and pleasure of 
 using his words and adopting his thoughts without 
 
 a2 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 the necessity of specifying in every instance the 
 source from which they have been derived. 
 
 It has been my object (as I have implied in the 
 title of these Sermons and Essays) not to enter on 
 the higher questions of Theology involved in <l the 
 " Apostolical Doctrines" of the New Testament, ex- 
 cept so far as they are implied in every subject of 
 Christian study, but to confine myself strictly to 
 the consideration of those characters and circum- 
 stances which represent most fully " the Aposto- 
 " lical Age," by exhibiting as far as possible the 
 outward and local image of that which we usually 
 contemplate in its inward and spiritual essence. 
 To have entered on the wider field of the truths 
 themselves which the Gospels and Epistles commu- 
 nicate, or of the general principles of their inter- 
 pretation and application to the affairs of men, 
 would have required more thought and labour than 
 under the circumstances it was possible to bestow ; 
 and for the same reason, even within the narrow 
 compass which I have assigned to myself, many 
 questions necessarily remain untouched, important 
 as some of them may be to the full understanding 
 of the subject, and indefinite as some of my state- 
 ments must appear by reason of their omission. 
 Enough however will I trust be found of complete- 
 ness both in the plan and in the subject, to justify 
 a humbler selection, which, if it possesses far less 
 general interest than would have attached to higher 
 and more controverted points, was more easily 
 brought within the limits imposed by the circum- 
 
V 
 
 stances of the case, and in itself was naturally 
 suggested by the peculiar studies and pursuits of 
 the place. 
 
 Such historical representations of the first age of 
 Christianity, as I have here ventured to attempt, 
 are so necessary to a right interpretation of many 
 parts of the New Testament, as well as so instruc- 
 tive in themselves, that there has been hardly any 
 age of the Church in which they have not been 
 more or less frequent. Cave's Lives of the Apostles 
 and Butler's Lives of the Saints are familiar in- 
 stances in which the individual human characters 
 of the several Apostles have been exhibited at con- 
 siderable length. And it is natural to expect that a 
 branch of sacred criticism, to which so much atten- 
 tion was paid under the manifold disadvantages of 
 former times, should not be neglected now, amidst 
 our many additional means of investigating and 
 illustrating the events of past times, and at a time 
 when the reasons for endeavouring to form a lively 
 conception of the scenes of Scripture history have 
 been certainly increased rather than diminished. 
 
 The language indeed and the form of such works 
 must vary with the wants felt by different ages of 
 the Church ; and the requisitions of the nine- 
 teenth century necessarily differ from those of the 
 eighteenth, in which most of our existing histories 
 of the Apostolic age were framed. Such changes 
 are however incidental to every endeavour to ap- 
 proximate the state of religious knowledge to that 
 of the period in which we live ; and whether 
 
v PREFACE. 
 
 criticism or translation be the mode in which 
 they are effected, the defence prefixed to the 
 Authorized Version of the Bible equally applies to 
 either ; "It breaketh the window that it may let in 
 " the light ; it breaketh the shell that we may eat 
 " the kernel ; it putteth aside the curtain that we 
 " may enter into the most holy place ; it removeth 
 " the cover of the well that we may come by the 
 " water." 
 
 To bear a part in a work at once so inevitable 
 and so important, is pointed out as the especial 
 duty of those whose natural tastes and studies in- 
 cline them in this direction ; and in so doing it 
 seems a duty no less imperative to avail ourselves 
 of such human means and appliances as God has 
 placed within our reach, and as in any merely 
 human studies we should think it disgraceful to 
 neglect. Amongst these I need hardly say some of 
 the chief are to be found in the labours of that 
 great nation from which we should be loth to be- 
 lieve that Theology alone had derived no light, or 
 that whilst we eagerly turn to it in every other 
 branch of study, we should close our eyes against 
 it here. Accordingly in the following pages I have 
 had frequent occasion to express my obligations to 
 continental divines, though of course not render- 
 ing myself responsible for their general views, any 
 more, I may add, than in the case of similar ac- 
 knowledgments which I have been glad to make to 
 a very different school amongst ourselves. Until we 
 have equalled the writers of Germany in their inde- 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 fatigable industry, their profound thought, their 
 conscientious love of knowledge, we must still look 
 to them for help ; and, even if we were as much 
 superior to them in all other points as we are cer- 
 tainly inferior to them in those just mentioned, I 
 know not how we should be justified in rejecting 
 with contempt the immense apparatus of learning 
 and criticism which they have brought to bear on 
 the Sacred Writings, why we should refuse the aid 
 of the workmen of Tyre in building up the Temple 
 of God at Jerusalem. At the same time it is clearly 
 on our own resources that we must ultimately 
 rely ; no mere imitation of foreign writers, even 
 were they as perfect as in many respects they are 
 exceptionable, can meet our own necessities ; it will 
 not be from the rise of any German school in this 
 country, even were it possible, but from such a 
 union as the characters of the two nations so natu- 
 rally invite, of the German spirit of research and 
 love of truth with our own practical life and religi- 
 ous activity, that the true antidote is to be sought 
 for our intellectual dangers, and not for ours only, 
 but, may we not also hope without any undue 
 confidence ? for those of Germany no less. 
 
 The particular point of view from which I have 
 regarded the three chief Apostles as connected with 
 the Apostolical age itself and with the subsequent 
 fortunes of the Church, is too obvious not to have 
 been oftn dwelt upon. As early as the twelfth 
 century it was made the subject of an elaborate 
 exposition by one of the greatest authorities of 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 that period ; and it must be familiar to every 
 student of the most recent works of modern theo- 
 logy, whether treated historically, as by Neander, 
 or devotionally, as in Chevalier Bunsen's Prussian 
 Liturgy, or philosophically, as by Schelling in his 
 Lectures on the Philosophy of Revelation. Such 
 anticipations or exemplifications of large periods of 
 history, whether in the events or the characters of a 
 particular age, are unhappily liable to much fanciful 
 exaggeration, such as in some French writers on this 
 and kindred subjects is too palpable in spite of its 
 ingenuity to need any detailed confutation. But 
 the general principle of regarding individual cha- 
 racters as representatives of large classes, and of 
 tracing in all great changes, whether Divine or 
 human, the natural stages of a beginning, middle, 
 and end, will not be disputed. Above all it must 
 be applicable to the Apostolical Age, of which 
 the characters have always been admitted to be 
 especially set forth for the examples of subsequent 
 times, and in which, if in any period of the world's 
 history, we might expect to find a summary of 
 God's dealings with mankind, a likeness of those 
 marked epochs with which we are familiar in the 
 history of the Jewish people, and afterwards of the 
 Christian Church. Of course there is a higher and 
 more universal sense in which each of the Apostles 
 is an example and a witness to all ages alike, and 
 which can never allow the work of St. Peter to be 
 superseded by that of St. Paul, nor the Epistles of 
 St. Paul to "give way by subjection, no not for an 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 11 hour," to St. Peter and St. John. But this need 
 not prevent us from receiving the subordinate les- 
 sons which a closer investigation of the Apostolical 
 age and its consequences seems intended to con- 
 vey, and which it has been the chief object of this 
 volume to exhibit both historically and in their 
 practical application. 
 
 Lastly, it must be remembered that these Ser- 
 mons, as addressed to an Academical audience, and 
 it may be added immediately after the close of the 
 long theological struggle which for several pre- 
 ceding years had agitated the University in an un- 
 usual degree, necessarily contain allusions which 
 perhaps will hardly be intelligible except to those 
 for whom they were especially intended. I have 
 thought it best however to leave them as they were 
 delivered, in the belief that even for the general 
 reader the application of the truths of Scripture 
 to the wants of a particular class, would more effec- 
 tually illustrate their real value, than the exhibition 
 of them in a more abstract form. 
 
 It was chiefly with a view to the younger gene- 
 rations of my hearers that these Sermons were 
 preached ; and it is in the hope that they may not 
 find this volume altogether useless in their studies 
 here and elsewhere that it is now published. And, 
 if, in the representation of the lives and characters 
 of the Apostles which it contains, there is anything 
 to awaken in them a deeper sense of their peculiar 
 responsibilities in this place a livelier perception 
 of the truth and power inherent in the words and 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 records of Scripture above all, a stronger belief in 
 the possibility of a nobler end to all our recent ex- 
 citements, than the Epicurean indifference which in 
 many instances threatens to succeed to them, or 
 than the controversies out of which they grew, I 
 can truly say that its object will have been accom- 
 plished. It is at least my humble trust that it con- 
 tains nothing by which such aspirations or convic- 
 tions can be retarded or destroyed. 
 
 University College, Oxford, 
 November 13, 1847. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 Page 
 Statement of the subject. The character and position of the Three 
 
 Apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John . . . 1 7 
 
 Necessity and advantage of such historical criticism, as applied to the 
 
 characters of Scripture generally . . . . 8 1 
 
 Especially to those of the Apostolical age . . .10 
 
 1. As a part of the evidences of Christianity . . 11, 12 
 
 2. As a help in the study of the Apostolical writings . . 13 
 
 3. As a sanction of unity of spirit amidst diversity of forms . 14 20 
 4-. As a proof of their Divine mission . . . 20 24 
 5. As a practical example for all ages of the Church . . 25 30 
 
 ESSAY ON THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
 APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Inadequacy of the traditions or of the criticism of the four first centu- 
 ries as substitutes for a study of the New Testament itself . 31 34 
 
 1. Tradition of our Lord's discourses in Papias . . 35 
 
 2. Statement of our Lord's age in Irenaeus . . 36 
 
 3. Criticism of the Gospels by Eusebius . . .38 
 
 4. Statement of the gift of tongues in Chrysostom . . 35) 
 
 5. Chronology of St. Paul's Epistles in Chrysostom . . ib. 
 
 6. The interpretation of the Psalms in Chrysostom . . 40 
 Conclusion . 43 45 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAY ON THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE, AND ITS RELATION TO THE 
 OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. The essential characteristics of the office of the Apostles . 46 
 
 1. The appointment by Christ Himself . . .48 
 
 2. The gift of the Spirit . . . .50 
 
 II. The spiritual gifts of the Apostolical Church . . 52 
 Description of them in 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; Eph. iv. 7 : explained by 
 
 Hooker .... . 53 55 
 
 (1.) As conferred upon the whole Church . . 55 
 
 (2.) As personal gifts, not official functions . . 56 5i) 
 
 In themselves, peculiar to the Apostolical age, but by analogy, to 
 
 be found in the sanctification of natural gifts . . 59 61 
 
 III. The outward offices of the Apostolical Church 
 
 1. The "Seven" ..... 62 
 
 2. The "elders" . . . . .63 
 
 3. The " bishops" and "deacons" . . . 65 70 
 Accidental union but essential distinction between the gifts and the 
 
 offices . . . . . . 72, 73 
 
 Conclusion . 7477 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 ST. PETER. 
 
 Difficulty of investigating the history of St. Peter 
 
 I. His character in the Gospels .... 81 85 
 as the repi-esentative of the Galilean Apostles . 86 89 
 
 II. His character in the Acts, as founding the Church, and as 
 receiving the first Gentile convert . . 90 94 
 
 III. His character in the Epistles an i in tradition, as retiring to 
 
 make way for St. Paul . . . 94 101 
 
 IV. His character, as a model for analogous circumstances in 
 subsequent ages . . . 101 10U 
 
 ESSAY ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 I. The promise in Matt. xvi. 17 19. 
 
 The context . . 111 117 
 
 1. The name of Peter . 117 
 
 2. The Rock of the Church . 118 
 
 3. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven . J24 
 
 4. The Binding and Loosing . . 1-6 
 Its fulfilment . . . . .129 132 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 Page 
 
 II. The promise in John xxi, 15, 23. 
 
 The context ..... 133, 134 
 
 The Charge ... . 134139 
 
 The Warning . .139, 140 
 
 The Address to John . . . 140147 
 
 III. The promises in Luke v. 1 20; xxii. 31, 32. 
 
 The context . . . . .147 
 
 And explanation ..... 148151 
 
 The application of the promises to subsequent times . 152, 153 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Preparation for the appearance of St. Paul . ... 159 161 
 
 I. His character . . . 162165 
 
 II. His mission ..... 165170 
 
 III. Use of his example and teaching in subsequent times . 170 172 
 
 1. As a sanction of freedom and comprehensiveness . 172 175 
 
 2. As a sanction of Gentile studies . . . 175 178 
 
 3. As a sanction of secular pursuits . . . 178 180 
 
 4. As declaring the power of faith . . . 180 188 
 
 ESSAY ON THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 The heresies of the Apostolical age* universal in principle, but 
 Judaic in form . 190 192 
 
 FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 Circumcision their watchword 
 Their wide diffusion . 
 Their hostility to St. Paul 
 
 Their efforts in Palestine, Asia Minor, and Greece 
 And at Rome 
 
 . 195197 
 197 
 201 
 206 
 208 
 
 SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 Revolutionary character of the heresies of this period 
 
 Greatness of the danger . 
 
 Its form Jewish . 
 
 Its chief seat Ephesus, and the Asiatic Churches 
 
 The ascetic and superstitious form of these heresies 
 The licentious and revolutionary form . 
 
 THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 The Ebionites 
 Cerinthus 
 
 211 
 212 
 213 
 214 
 216 
 218 
 
 235 
 237 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 ST. JOHN. 
 
 Page 
 
 General character ..... 241 
 
 I. Earlier period Boanerges the Apocalypse . . 24-5 
 
 II. Later period the Apostle of Love the Gospel and 
 Epistles . . . . .249 
 
 III. Use of his example and teaching in subsequent times . 258 
 
 ESSAY ON THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 I. Tradition of St. John's immortality . . . 277 
 
 II. Traditional traits of St. John's character . . 278 
 
 1. The young robber of Ephesus . . ib. 
 
 2. Cerinthus and the batht .... 279 
 
 3. The commencement of the Gospel . . . 281 
 
 4. The farewell address . . . . ib. 
 
 5. The huntsman ..... ib. 
 
 III. Traditions of St. John's Jewish customs . . . 283 
 
 1. His austerities . . . * .. ib. 
 
 2. The pontifical diadem . . . ib. 
 
 3. The observation of the Jewish passover . . 287 
 
 IV. Traditions of St. John's residence at Ephesus and of his ex- 
 treme age ... . 288 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO SERMON II. 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 I. Local authority and traditional character of St. James the Just . 298 V 
 
 II. The Epistle of St. James .... 300 
 
 1. Its circumstances .... 302 
 
 2. Its object . . . . . 304 
 
 3. Its general character . . . .311 
 
 4. Its practical lessons . . . .315 
 
 THE TRADITIONS OF ST. JAMES THE JUST, AS NARRATED 
 
 BY HEGESIPPUS. 
 
 History of Hegesippus . . . . gjg 
 
 1. Position of St. James in the Church of Jerusalem . 325 
 
 2. His austerities ..... 326 
 
 3. His names ..... 330 
 
 4. His death .... 333 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO SERMON III. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. The object and occasion of the Epistle . . 340 
 
 II. The lessons to be derived from it . . . . 353 
 
 1. As written in a period of transition . . . 355 
 
 2. As addressed to sufferers . . . 358 
 4. As the sanction of systematic study . . . 360 
 
 ESSAY ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 I. The factions at Corinth . . . . 368 
 
 II. The Clementines . . 373 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 MARK ix. 2. 
 
 Jesm taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth 
 them up into an high mountain apart by themselves. 
 
 No one can doubt that in order to have the key of SERM. 
 the whole revelation of God, we must turn to the - 
 Life, the Teaching, the Person of Jesus Christ. 
 There alone is contained that knowledge which He 
 Himself has told us is no less than life eternal. 
 There alone are to be found the facts, on which, 
 however variously explained, Christianity is founded. 
 There is the original outline of God's will respecting 
 us, which fully to unfold, explain, and apply, is the 
 highest task to which any teacher or student of 
 theology can aspire. 
 
 But without touching on this higher question, 
 there is another, which, though subordinate, is 
 closely allied with it, and which, arising as it does 
 out of the very structure of the Christian Scrip- 
 tures, is not, I trust, unsuited to the present time 
 or place : viz. What were the human media through 
 which that Divine life, and those Divine truths, were 
 in the first instance communicated to man ? Is the 
 intervening atmosphere, as some would tell us, an 
 indistinct haze, in which all particular shapes are 
 
2 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. wholly lost to us? or can we, through the mist I 
 of ages can we, through the drifting clouds of 
 Jewish or Gentile opinion can we, through the 
 brightness which surrounds Him who was the 
 express Image of God, discern any distinction 
 of individual form and feature to tell us what 
 were the human influences which first intercepted 
 the rays of that Divine glory what the human 
 characters which received themselves, or caught 
 for others, the first impression of that Divine 
 countenance? It surely is not presumptuous to 
 say that we can. It was, we may well "believe, 
 not without meaning, that as the Twelve were 
 separated from the multitude, so the Three were 
 separated from the Twelve, to be with their Master 
 " apart by themselves," on the mount and in the 
 garden, in His glory and in His suffering : <c Simon 8 , 
 whom He surnamed the Rock, and James and 
 John, whom He surnamed the Sons of Thunder." 
 Of these, one, indeed, is presented to our view 
 to be almost immediately withdrawn from it. Of 
 James we know hardly any thing, save his sudden 
 and early removal by the sword of Herod's exe- 
 cutioner. But in his place, whether we ascribe it 
 to change or design in the providential laws of the 
 world, there arose one, who, though not of the ori- 
 ginal Twelve, was " yet not behind the very chiefest 
 of the Apostles" in labours, in miracles, or in the 
 closest communion with his risen Lord. To James 
 succeeded Paul, and from that time no less surely 
 
 a Markiii. 16, 17. 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 than the earliest disciples waited on the lips of the SERM. 
 
 first Three as they descended from the holy mount, : 
 
 may we fix our gaze on the Three of the later period 
 PETER, PAUL, and JOHN. 
 
 It is, indeed, no passing fancy which rises before 
 us in the image of that scene, which, even in its 
 outward form, has been so indelibly impressed upon 
 our minds by that well-known representation of 
 it, with which Christian art has made us familiar. 
 To that Divine teaching, which, as I have said 
 before, is truly the essence of revelation, far re- 
 moved above all earthly influences whatsoever to 
 that Divine Form "whose face did shine as the 
 sun, and whose raiment was exceeding white as 
 snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them" 
 we may still, each one for ourselves, recur, with- 
 out any human interposition, to know the one 
 original object of our Christian faith. But in 
 tracing its gradual descent into that world of 
 sin and misery below, where the disciples are ever- 
 more vainly striving to cast out the evil spirit which 
 vexes and destroys the children of men in in- 
 vestigating its actual historical application to the 
 existing circumstances of the world, it is some- 
 thing to remember that these Three, and these 
 alone, exhaust all the influences which were at work 
 in the intermediate conflict of the apostolical age ; 
 that these Three, and these alone, intervene be- 
 tween us and Christ. 
 
 If the various forms of evil, which throw their 
 shadows over the Gospel history, are marked out 
 
 B 2 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. by the mere fact of their contact with Jesus the 
 
 j * 
 
 - Christ, for our especial warning, it is no less true 
 that in those who were the especial instruments of 
 His purposes we may see the various forms of good- 
 ness which God has marked out for our especial 
 imitation. If even in common history a thousand 
 men are truly said to die to make up one hero if 
 in every part of Scripture it is clear that the promi- 
 nent characters represent to us vast classes of 
 human thought which without them would have no 
 expression then most emphatically is this the case 
 with the three great Fathers of the whole Christian 
 world. If, in short, it may be said, without irre- 
 verence, that the character and life of our Lord 
 Himself determined once for all the whole charac- 
 ter of Christianity for all future ages then, al- 
 though in a far lower degree, it may be said that the 
 several forms and stages through which Christianity 
 has passed, have been exemplified to us in the cha- 
 racters of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John. 
 
 Each of the Three has his distinct place in the 
 first formation of the early Church. Peter is the 
 Founder, Paul the Propagator, John the Finisher 
 Peter the Apostle of the rising dawn, Paul of the 
 noon in its heat and in its clearness, John the 
 sunset -first in the stormy sunset of the Apoca- 
 lypse, then in the calm brightness of the Gospel 
 and Epistles of his old age. Each is the centre 
 round which the floating elements of thought and 
 action the scattered writings of the sacred canon 
 the wild distortions of them in the heretical sects 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 5 
 
 clustered and crystallized. The whole world of s E R M. 
 Jewish Christians leaned upon St. Peter, as the - 
 whole world of Gentile converts leaned upon St. 
 Paul, and the whole body of mixed believers turned, 
 after the fall of Jerusalem, to the sole surviving 
 Apostle at Ephesus. Each was connected with the 
 sole authentic records of the life of Christ ; what- 
 ever may be the explanation in detail of the origin 
 of the twin Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, 
 there can be little doubt that it was St. Peter's dis- 
 ciples, who first received the representation which 
 is preserved to us in the Prophet and Lawgiver ac- 
 cording to St. Matthew, the human Friend according 
 to St. Mark : whatever may be the account of the 
 compilation of the Gospel and Acts of St. Luke, 
 we need not hesitate to recognise in them St. Paul's 
 view, first, of the Suffering Victim, then of the In- 
 visible Guide of the universal Church ; whatever 
 may have been the immediate objects of the Gospel 
 of St. John, we at once acknowledge that we there 
 have the complete image of the Word made flesh, 
 which the early Church naturally believed could 
 have proceeded from none but the beloved disciple. 
 Each has borne his part in the unfolding of the 
 Divine economy. Peter, the Apostle of courageous 
 and confident hope, Paul of faith, John of love; 
 Peter, of power and action ; Paul of thought and 
 wisdom ; John, of feeling and of goodness ; Peter 
 clings to the recollections of the older world, that is 
 passed or passing away : Paul plunges into the con- 
 flicts of the present : John, whether as prophet, 
 
6 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. evangelist, or teacher, fixes his gaze on the in- 
 
 - visible and the future : Peter gave to Christianity 
 
 its first outward historical form ; Paul its inward 
 
 and spiritual freedom ; John, that Divine end and 
 
 object in which form and spirit harmonize. 
 
 And what wonder is it, that as in epochs far 
 less momentous, in characters far less impressive, 
 the germs of future destiny have been discovered, 
 so here subsequent ages have delighted to recog v 
 nise in each that peculiar type and form of the 
 Christian faith which was to them most congenial ? 
 What wonder that the whole of Christian Europe 
 through those early struggles which can hardly 
 fail to recall to our minds the times of the 
 Jewish covenant, reposed with such unshaken con- 
 fidence on the name of Peter ? that in the gradual 
 rising of a freer spirit, the gradual opening of a 
 wider sphere, theologians and statesmen, nations 
 and individuals, were enkindled with new life by the 
 words of Paul? that in these our latter days, all 
 thoughtful minds, whether in search of evidence 
 from Christian history, of comfort from Christian 
 truth, of instruction from Christian holiness, are 
 turning by a natural instinct to the writings of the 
 last Apostle, who left the historical record in his 
 Gospel of the things which he saw and heard, and 
 taught us that God is Spirit, and that God is Love? 
 What I have said is not inconsistent with the 
 existence of the other spheres of influence in the 
 apostolical age, which will at once occur to many 
 of us. Not to speak of modes of thought external 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 but still congenial to the first beginning of the SERM. 
 Christian society not to lay stress on the long- - 
 cherished veneration for the teaching of John the 
 Baptist I will name two individuals who might 
 seem at first sight to hold almost divided sway with 
 the three great Apostles, and who certainly are, next 
 to them, the two chief centres of interest ; I mean, 
 James the Just, and Apollos. But though they 
 require a distinct mention in any complete analysis 
 of the apostolical age, it is obvious that their sphere 
 was too limited and temporary, and their position 
 too subordinate, to interfere with the general truth 
 of the absolute and unrivalled supremacy of one 
 or other of the three Apostles. Thus with re- 
 gard to James b , it is indeed impossible to mistake 
 the tone of authority and the independent character 
 which belongs to his Epistle, or the commanding 
 position, which, according to Josephus and Hege- 
 sippus, no less than the Acts, he occupied amongst 
 the Jews and Jewish Christians of Palestine. Still, 
 though from this point of view he was regarded and 
 may by us be regarded in the position in which he 
 is on one occasion placed by St. Paul as the very 
 chiefest pillar of the early Church, yet from a higher 
 and more general point of view, he is absorbed in the 
 similar but wider sphere of Peter, the one great Apo- 
 stle of the Circumcision. And though Apollos d was so 
 "eloquent" in Alexandrian wisdom, and "so mighty 
 in the Jewish Scriptures" that he was placed by the 
 
 l) See Sermon on the Epistle of St. James. c Gal. ii. 9. 
 
 d Acts xviii. 24; 1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 22. 
 
8 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. Corinthian factions on a level even with Paul and 
 Cephas, and though modern criticism has found it 
 difficult to refuse him at least a share in that great 
 Epistle, of unknown origin 6 , which forms so remark- 
 able a link between the writings of Paul and John, 
 yet the few hints which we possess of his life and 
 character, amply justify the usual belief which for 
 all practical purposes has merged his career in that 
 of the Apostle of the Gentiles. 
 
 Such is the general view which must always have 
 been present more or less to every careful reader of 
 the New Testament, but which has only been brought 
 out in its full distinctness by the increased study and 
 observation of later years. It is indeed the pecu- 
 liar privilege of an age like ours, that in propor- 
 tion as it recedes from the events of the past by 
 lapse of time, it is enabled in thought and imagi- 
 nation to reproduce them with a vividness which to 
 previous ages was wholly unknown. If criticism 
 destroys much, it creates more. If it cuts away 
 some grounds from our faith, it re-constructs out of 
 the chasm others incomparably more secure. If the 
 sea of doubt has advanced along one part of our 
 coast, it has proportionably receded from another. 
 If it has been maintained that " infidelity is" in 
 some respects "in a more hopeful position" towards 
 Christianity than heretofore, its ancient strong- 
 holds have been absolutely destroyed. If Christians 
 of the fourth century still enjoyed something like 
 a living recollection of the first, it would be easy to 
 
 6 See Sermon on the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 9 
 
 prove, that of facts so remarkable as the object and SERM. 
 plan of the several Gospels, the chronology of the - 
 Epistles, the gift of tongues, and many similar 
 points, even Eusebius and Chrysostom knew far 
 less than we do f . If Christians of the fourteenth 
 century reposed with confidence on the genuineness 
 of the so called Apostolical Constitutions, and the 
 elaborate forgery ascribed to Dionysius the Areopa- 
 gite, it was still reserved for Christians of the 
 nineteenth century to discern in those remains of 
 the apostolical age which increased inquiry has but 
 doubly confirmed to us, whole scenes, characters, 
 and institutions, which were to our forefathers as if 
 they had never existed at all. 
 
 Nor let us shrink from making use of this, God's 
 especial gift to us, from a fear lest by so doing we 
 should think less reverently of those whom God has 
 chosen out to communicate His will to men. " I 
 was afraid and hid thy talent in the earth/' was the 
 speech of the unfaithful servant. " Stand up, for I 
 also am a man," was the speech of the first Apostle 
 to one who would have worshipped him. Creation is 
 not set aside, because God has allowed us to discover 
 the general laws by which the world was brought 
 into existence ; still less is revelation resolved, as 
 some would say, into " a merely human process," 
 because we are able to trace the human or the natu- 
 ral agencies through which it has been conveyed. 
 It has been remarked not less wisely than boldly, 
 
 f See Essay on The Traditionary Knowledge of the Aposto- 
 lical Age. 
 
10 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. that of the five causes assigned by Gibbon for the 
 rapid advance of Christianity, there is not one 
 which need not be gladly admitted by the sincerest 
 believer, if only he understands them rightly. And 
 this remark is obviously of equal force if extended 
 from the later propagation of the faith to its earlier 
 formation. The Patriarchs were not less truly the 
 friends of God, because in their outward lives we 
 see a faithful likeness of the usages of an Arab 
 chief. Moses did not less receive the law from 
 God, because he was a man " mighty in words and 
 deeds, and learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp- 
 tians 8 ." The Judges were not less truly raised up by 
 God, because their name and functions were the 
 counterpart of the magistrates of their Phoenician 
 neighbours. The Kings were not less truly the 
 anointed of the Lord, because their office was 
 actually suggested by the practice "of all the nations 
 round about." The Prophets were not less certainly 
 inspired by God, because the vision of Messiah's 
 kingdom presented itself to them in the earthly 
 images of their age and country. And in like 
 manner the Apostles of Christ were not less the 
 heaven-sent Lawgivers of the Christian world for 
 ever, because they spoke the language, and breathed 
 the atmosphere, and represented the feelings of a 
 time which is past away. " What God hath joined 
 let no man put asunder." Let us contemplate 
 them not merely as lifeless instruments, or empty 
 shadows, but as " men of like passions with our- 
 
 s Acts vii. 22. 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 11 
 
 selves," and we shall not be the less, but the more SERM. 
 able to enter into the higher truth, that while Paul - 
 planted and Apollos watered, it was God that gave 
 the increase ; that how different soever were their 
 individual gifts, it was the self-same Spirit working 
 in each of them severally as He would. 
 
 It will be my endeavour then from time to time 
 to lay before you the most striking results at which 
 those have arrived who have most studied the sub- 
 ject; to describe in succession the historical posi- 
 tion of each of the three Apostles, to inquire what 
 were the natural faculties or feelings with which 
 each was endowed, what the various lines of think- 
 ing and of acting which converged in each, what 
 the peculiar work to which each was called in the 
 Church of God. But before I descend into details 
 it may be well to insist on some practical advantages 
 which flow from a consideration of the subject not in 
 its parts but as a whole. 
 
 I. Viewing the Apostles in their purely human, 
 historical, individual characters, it is on the low- 
 est ground most valuable as a matter of Christian 
 evidence. A distinct image of any one part of the 
 rise of the Christian religion, however insignificant 
 that part may be in itself, does much to confirm the 
 strictly historical character of the whole narrative ; 
 even though it be no more than the details of a 
 shipwreck on the Mediterranean sea, it is some- 
 thing to feel certain that here at least is a plain 
 matter of fact which cannot be disputed, here at 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. least we have a firm footing where we may pause 
 for a moment to overlook the surrounding country. 
 Much more if this same impression can be extended 
 to the lives of those who were, according to all 
 accounts, the chief instruments in the work. Once 
 let us fix in our minds, by whatever means, the 
 fact that Peter, Paul, and John, exercised as real 
 an influence over the Roman empire in the age 
 of Nero and of Trajan, as Socrates over the age 
 of Pericles, and Aristotle over the age of Alexander, 
 and it will then be hard, even to the extreme of 
 difficulty, to find a reason for abandoning our faith 
 in Christ crucified and Christ risen. 
 
 It is not, God be thanked, the whole evidence for 
 the Divine origin of our Faith, it is at most but half 
 of it. If, as it has been h well said, the two great 
 proofs which contain all that we need, are "Christi- 
 anity and Christendom/' the intrinsic excellence of 
 the truth itself, and the wonderful effects which that 
 truth has produced, it is obvious that, whilst the 
 second only of these is exemplified in the lives of 
 the Apostles, the first and greatest is to be sought 
 in no lower region than in the life and teaching of 
 Christ Himself. If it be difficult by any mere 
 human explanation to account for the characters of 
 those by whom Christianity was first preached, it is 
 still more difficult to account by any ordinary cir- 
 cumstances for all that relates to Him whom they 
 preached. But short of this, whatever evidence we 
 can hope to have from the sudden change in the 
 
 h Coleridge's Remains. 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 13 
 
 whole course of the civilized world, from the com- SERM. 
 plete transformation of human characters, from the - 
 necessity of supposing an adequate cause, and an 
 adequate object, for the display of energies almost 
 if not altogether unparalleled all this is brought 
 before us in its most palpable form in proportion as 
 we can conceive to ourselves the historical existence 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 II. Again, when we reflect how all of the 
 Three, though absent from us in the body, are 
 present in their Epistles, constantly read in our 
 churches, constantly before us in our Bibles, we 
 surely should understand them better in proportion 
 as we realized to ourselves not merely the sense 
 of each particular passage, but something of the 
 central idea, something of the peculiar characteris- 
 tics, something of the living image, of the Galilean 
 fishermen, and the Pharisee of Tarsus, and the aged 
 Apostle of Ephesus. We should feel the contrast 
 between the colour which even their minds received 
 from the influences of their age and country, and the 
 absolute elevation above them all of Him who is the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; between the 
 distinctness of individual character in each of them, 
 and the total absence of any merely human pecu- 
 liarities in the life and character of Him, in whom 
 dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. We 
 should, in proportion as we realized those spheres of 
 thought of which each of them was a centre, 
 learn to perceive what is universal and eternal in 
 their writings, and what is local and temporary 
 
14 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. to distinguish the principles of Christian truth and 
 duty which were then laid down once and for ever, 
 from the particular modes of their application, 
 which vary with every age and country, the parti- 
 cular forms and institutions which for the most 
 part never have been reproduced in any subsequent 
 time, and probably never can be. 
 
 III. Once more, the compatibility of great varieties 
 in forms, characters and views, with the closest unity 
 of spirit, is a topic which has been of late times 
 much insisted on, and which all history, no less 
 than our own daily experience, concurs in teaching 
 us. But there is nothing, whether in the revelations 
 of God, or the wisdom of man, which brings this 
 lesson home to us with such irresistible force, as 
 the simple fact, thoroughly understood, that the most 
 perfect of all truth was imparted to the world not 
 in one uniform code, at one single moment of time, 
 but by a gradual process lasting through more than 
 half a century, and by the agency of men in natural 
 character and disposition the most opposite that it 
 is possible for the human mind to conceive. It 
 might have pleased the Most High to have illumi- 
 nated the understandings of all His Apostles in an 
 equal degree by one single lightning flash on the 
 day of Pentecost. It might have been so ordered, 
 that every other voice should have been hushed, 
 and that one Gospel and one Epistle alone should 
 have spoken to us from the general silence. It 
 is by thus conceiving what might have been, that 
 we can best understand what has been. Not to 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 15 
 
 dwell now on the successive stages in the pro- SERM. 
 gress of each, which will best appear hereafter, let ' 
 us bring once for all before our minds the contrast 
 which divides one from the other. It is in their 
 writings, of course, that this contrast is most vividly 
 seen. In the case of St. Peter, indeed, the contrast is 
 rather in action than in word between his Epistles 
 and those of St. Paul, there is, from distinct reasons 
 which will best be explained in another connexion, 
 a greater likeness than could naturally have been 
 anticipated between the two Apostles, who in their 
 actual lives stood at the two opposite poles of the 
 apostolical age, whom the conflicting factions of the 
 time endeavoured to represent as rival teachers, of 
 whom " one withstood the other to the face because 
 he was to be blamed." But if we bear in mind this 
 complete antithesis between their practical spheres, 
 and if we further remember that it is the Epistle 
 of St. James which expresses most strongly in writ- 
 ing the peculiar views of what may without offence 
 be termed the school of St. Peter, then it is not 
 too much to say that never in any age of the world 
 have there been employed in the same time and 
 country, and for one common cause, styles of 
 thought and language so radically distinct as those 
 which appear in the works of these three Apostles : 
 that in no comparison of cotemporary works, 
 whether in ancient or in modern literature, is it so 
 impossible to mistake the style of one author for 
 that of another, as it would be to confound the 
 severe and prophet-like warnings of St. James with 
 
16 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. the impassioned appeals and complicated argu- 
 ~ ments of St. Paul, or either of them with the simple 
 aphorisms and intuitive perceptions of St. John. 
 Whatever, in short, is the difference between action 
 and thought, between a mind building itself up on 
 the past, and a mind embracing and communicating 
 to others a flood of new and startling ideas, is the 
 difference between St. Peter and St. James on the 
 one hand, and St. Paul on the other ; whatever is the 
 difference between those two great philosophers, who 
 may emphatically be said to have divided between 
 them the two great schools of human thought and 
 speculationsuch , if wemay without irreverence adopt 
 an analogy long since suggested by one of our own 
 theologians 1 ; such, in kind, and in its leading fea- 
 tures, is the difference between St. Paul and St. John. 
 Such is the fact in its general outline, and now 
 what should be our inference from it ? I might point 
 out, were this a congregation which needed to be told, 
 or had not others already explained it in part from 
 this place, how triumphant a testimony is borne to 
 the divinity of Gospel truth by the distinct and in- 
 dependent characters of " the Gospel witnesses 14 ." I 
 might dwell on the impression which is left upon 
 us not only of the truth and the Divine origin, bat 
 of the inexhaustible greatness of Christianity, when 
 we see " the many mansions" of our Father's house 
 thus opening in succession before us ; when we 
 reflect on the vast amount of wisdom and holiness 
 
 1 Coleridge's Table Talk, p. 89, 95. 
 
 k Newman's Sermons, vol. ii. Serm. xvii. The Gospel Witnesses. 
 
THE THTIEE APOSTLES. 17 
 
 which might be gathered, and which has been SERM. 
 gathered from the representation of Christianity 
 by each of the Three singly ; and yet beyond them 
 all, the impression to be produced by the harmony 
 and comparison of all the Three together. But 
 perhaps the most practical and obvious result is 
 that to which I alluded before the solemn, I might 
 almost say the awful, sanction, thus given, to the 
 union of the most various tempers, thoughts and 
 views, within the pale of our Christian sympathy. 
 When we look steadily at this fact, not accidentally 
 connected with the Sacred Canon, but engrained 
 into its very inmost substance not one out of a 
 hundred insignificant events of an ordinary age, 
 but standing in the very foremost ground of the 
 most critical epoch in the history of the human 
 race it seems impossible to explain away its im- 
 portance, as though it belonged to a generation of 
 men with whom we have no concern. However 
 difficult it may be in many cases to pass from the 
 circumstances of the apostolical age to those of our 
 own, in this case at least there is no such insur- 
 mountable difference between them, as need de- 
 prive us of the lesson which is read to us by this 
 divergence of the Apostles from each other. We 
 must remember that, if we look upon their diversities 
 of style, and thought, and action, as trivial, their 
 cotemporaries, as will appear more clearly after- 
 wards, often looked upon them as matters of life 
 and death that if our difficulties are aggravated 
 by the co-existence of all manner of schools and 
 
 c 
 
18 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. opinions, which in former ages existed separately, 
 - this was more especially the case in the first century 
 than in any other age except our own that if long 
 familiarity has habituated us to the amalgamation 
 of their several writings and views, there was a time 
 when the Churches of St. James knew nothing of 
 the Churches of St. Paul that nearly a whole gene- 
 ration passed away before either of them received 
 the Gospel and Epistles of St. John that the very 
 highest truths concerning God and man are ex- 
 pressed by each of the Three in terms not merely 
 dissimilar, but absolutely opposed, to the other. 
 
 It will not be thought for a moment that these ap- 
 parent differences are real contradictions : nor again, 
 that the mere co-existence of different views in itself 
 constitutes real unity. It is certainly not enough to 
 dwell on the divergence of the apostolical writings, 
 unless we dwell also on the still higher and essential 
 harmony to which this divergence leads it is not 
 enough to be tolerant of the various forms of good- 
 ness and truth, unless we strive to unite them in 
 ourselves, as they are combined for our instruction 
 in the volume of the New Testament it is not 
 enough that our sympathies should be wide, unless 
 they be deep and strong not enough to know the 
 breadth and length of Christianity, unless we also 
 know its height and depth ; whilst in one sense it 
 is most true that different ages, nations, and in- 
 dividuals may range themselves under one or other 
 of the three Apostles, there is yet a higher sense in 
 which no less truly every age, nation, and individual 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 19 
 
 must belong to all the three alike; whilst in one SERM. 
 sense Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, and John are - 
 all distinct, in a higher sense they are all one, " for 
 we are Christ's, and Christ is God's 1 ." 
 
 Still, whether we look at their differences or 
 their unity, the practical lesson for us is the same. 
 If there be any who are perplexed by the divisions 
 of opinion which exist amongst us, it surely must 
 be a consoling thought that no greater burden is 
 laid upon us than was laid upon the Apostles and 
 their followers. If there be any to whom the many 
 noble qualities which emerge on all sides out of the 
 midst of these divisions inspire the longing and 
 suggest the thought of a happier and a better union 
 than we have known for many centuries, it is surely 
 a hopeful reflection that some such union was fore- 
 shadowed to us in the spring time of the Christian 
 society. If there be a communion amongst us, 
 which, whether by the overruling providence of 
 God, or the jarring passions of men, or the national 
 character of our countrymen, has had the power of 
 uniting within its pale more dissimilar elements 
 than any other communion in the world if its 
 institutions and its forms of worship be such as of 
 necessity to afford a refuge to those who shrink 
 from rushing into either of the two extremes 
 between which Christendom is at present divided 
 if it thereby holds out a means of Christian 
 unity which we cannot lose without at the same 
 time violating its fundamental principles then 
 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 
 
 c2 
 
20 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. such a communion, whatever may be its general 
 - character, and however far unlike in this or other 
 respects it may be to the Church of the fifth or 
 of the fifteenth century, is at least in this respect 
 not wholly unlike to the Church of the aposto- 
 lical age. 
 
 IV. I have hitherto spoken of the Apostles as men 
 of those points which they have not in distinction 
 from, but in common with, the men of other times 
 and of ordinary circumstances. We must now turn 
 to them as Apostles to that more solemn and 
 sacred character with which our natural feeling 
 almost instinctively invests them and this the 
 more lest the very vividness of the historical image 
 which rises before us should tempt us to neglect the 
 general effect of the whole scene, in overcharging the 
 picture of each individual figure. I have spoken of 
 them, and shall have occasion again to speak of 
 them, in the phraseology which we employ to de- 
 scribe the great men of common history, as swayed 
 by the influences, representing the feelings, and 
 directing the revolutions of their age and I have 
 done so, and shall continue to do so, because I 
 know no other language which can adequately 
 express the transcendent interest, the heroic gran- 
 deur of all that belongs to that more than second 
 birthday of the world's history. But if one word 
 which I have uttered, or may utter, calls up an 
 image of merely intellectual greatness, or throws 
 into the shade for one moment the Divine power, 
 without which the highest Apostle felt himself to 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 21 
 
 be as nothing, I would once for all remind you that SERM. 
 such an expression is not more certainly incon- - 
 sistent with our common religious feeling, than it 
 is with the whole idea of the Apostles' characters 
 that it is no mere transient impulse of devotion, but 
 the strictest truth of fact, which calls upon us to 
 join in that great thanksgiving which was, if I may 
 so say, the natural expression of Him who saw 
 from first to last the full consequences of the new 
 element which in them was first and most fully ex- 
 emplified : " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
 heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these 
 things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed 
 them unto babes 111 ." It was not only that the reli- 
 gion which the Apostles preached was new, but 
 that their very appearance was also new in itself 
 not only that they were " full welling fountain- 
 heads of change" but that when we have tracked 
 these changes up to their source, we find ourselves 
 on a level hitherto wholly unknown to us on a 
 mountain-ridge which not only overtops, but coun- 
 ter sects, all those other ranges which determine the 
 configuration of the moral surface of the world. 
 It was not by intellectual power, like the philo- 
 sophers of Greece, nor by arms and statesmanship, 
 like the conquerors of Rome, nor by the influence 
 of a sacerdotal order like the priestly castes of 
 India or of Egypt, nor even by the patriotic zeal 
 and unshaken endurance of their own Jewish ances- 
 tors, that the supremacy of the Apostles was esta- 
 
 m Matt. xi. 25. 
 
22 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SKRM. blished. It was by the transforming energy of 
 - simple goodness, devoted, with a child -like faith, 
 through a whole life to the service of God and man. 
 Paul indeed, in one sense, stands apart from the 
 others ; but even in him the change effected by his 
 conversion was so powerful, the intellectual was so 
 completely merged in the moral greatness of his 
 character, that he is only an apparent exception. 
 And of the other two, I will only say that one main 
 cause of our difficulty in entering into their writings, 
 lies in the difficulty of realizing to ourselves the 
 style and language of men suddenly called from the 
 lowest and most uneducated stations to speak on 
 the loftiest subjects which can exercise the mind of 
 man. They stand the first and greatest in that long- 
 protracted warfare, in which the weak things of the 
 world have confounded the things that were mighty 
 in which the palaces of Nero gave way before the 
 unlettered slaves who herded in the Roman cata- 
 combs in which the kings and philosophers of 
 Europe have been instructed by the peasant from 
 the plough, the workshop, and the mine. 
 
 And again, great beyond expression as was the 
 revolution in which the Apostles bore their part, 
 and great as that part was, there is still a truth in 
 the common feeling which teaches us to look upon 
 them as instruments, rather than as -actors, as un- 
 consciously impelled, rather than as consciously di- 
 recting its course. They enkindle others because 
 there is burning within themselves a fire which will 
 not suffer them to rest : " we cannot but speak the 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 23 
 
 things which we have seen and heard;" " necessity SERM. 
 is laid upon me, yea woe is me if I preach not the ~ 
 Gospel";" however high they rise, there is some- 
 thing higher still behind, to which their words, 
 their miracles, their lives, point with a constant 
 witness. If they were not something besides the 
 heroes and great men of other ages, great men and 
 heroes they were not ; exalt their human influence 
 to the utmost, and still if there was not a mightier 
 than any human agency at work, a greater than 
 any human interest at stake we have not solved 
 the difficulty of their existence, their lives no less 
 than their writings will become -unmeaning and 
 impotent. 
 
 It is this which brings us to the great question, 
 What was the one common, the one peculiar ele- 
 ment which raised Peter, Paul, and John, so high 
 above all others which raised the Twelve above 
 the rest, and the Three above the Twelve which 
 made them in short not merely teachers, philoso- 
 phers, philanthropists, missionaries, prophets but 
 Apostles? What was the faculty, or feeling, or 
 fact, on which their gifts, their miracles, their 
 writings, their inspiration, were based? It was 
 this, that they had seen, and known, and felt, not 
 merely by the outward senses, but through the work- 
 ing of the Spirit of God in their inmost spirits, 
 the life and death and rising again of Jesus Christ . 
 
 n Acts iv. 20; 1 Cor. ix. 16. 
 
 See Essay on the Apostolical Office. 
 
24 THE THttEE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. What the vision of the Lord of Hosts with the 
 - seraphim in the Temple had been to Isaiah, 
 what the vision of the whirlwind, and the chariot, 
 and the cherubim, had been to Ezekiel on the 
 banks of the river Chebar ; that, the sight, the 
 impression, the intercourse of our Lord had been 
 to the Apostles. Deny this, and their whole 
 history is one inexplicable riddle. Grant this, 
 and almost every difficulty is fully accounted 
 for. " He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew 
 it unto you p ," was our Lord's own descrip- 
 tion of the promised Comforter. " To have been 
 a witness of the resurrection q " is the one test 
 of Apostleship so often insisted upon by St. 
 Peter. "Have I not seen the Lord Jesus r ?" is 
 the answer of St. Paul to those who would have 
 questioned his authority. "That which we have 
 seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
 which our hands have handled, that which we 
 have seen and heard, declare we unto you 8 ," is 
 St. John's commendation to the readers of his 
 Gospel and Epistle. That Divine Presence was felt 
 to be ever with them ; that eye of love ever upon 
 them ; that voice of wisdom ever sounding in their 
 ears ; the recollections of that Divine Teacher re- 
 pelled, as by instinct, shade after shade of supersti- 
 tion and harshness and untruth ; the communion 
 with that Divine Friend drew their hearts heaven- 
 
 P John xvi. 14. 
 
 i Acts ii. 22; iii. 15; v. 32 ; 1 Pet. v. 1. 
 
 r 1 Cor. ix. 1. s i Johni. 1. 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 25 
 
 ward, where He sate at the right hand of God : SERM. 
 they, beyond all others, " reflecting (fcaroTrTpi&fjievoi) - 
 as in a glass the glory of their Lord, were changed 
 into His likeness from glory into glory*." 
 
 V. And now we can enter at once on that in 
 which their characters both as men and as Apostles 
 converge, the eternal lesson of their example. " Be 
 ye followers of me even as I am of Christ Jesus," 
 are words which, if what I have said be true, 
 should ever rise to our minds when the life of an 
 Apostle is brought before us. So said not the 
 older prophets ; they were signs, oracles, preachers, 
 but not of necessity examples. It was the charac- 
 teristic privilege of the Apostles that their lives, like 
 that of their Divine Master, though in lower degree, 
 cannot be known and felt without being imitated. 
 Prophets, psalmists, evangelists, miracles, preachers, 
 rulers, all these may pass away from the Christian 
 Church, but Apostles never. The first burst of 
 early devotion, the first impression of the Word 
 made flesh, are indeed gone. In that the Apo- 
 stles must stand alone : in that no later age 
 can claim the slightest share. But the spirit 
 
 t That this is the true rendering of the passage (2 Cor. iii. 18) 
 seems certain from the context. "We Christians and Apostles, not 
 as Moses with a veil on his face, but with unveiled faces (avaKfKa- 
 Xv/n/xeVw Trpoo-toTTQ)) reflecting the glory of Christ, as Moses reflected 
 the glory of the Lord, are changed into His likeness, and so are 
 constantly commending ourselves to you not by concealment, but 
 by openness ; not in proportion as our lives are less known, but 
 in proportion as they are more known." The word itself is am- 
 biguous. 
 
26 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. of their example that new wonder which the 
 - world saw for the first time in their lives that 
 which alone is the imperishable part of an Apo- 
 stle's office the devotion of their whole ener- 
 gies for the love of Christ, to the moral and spiri- 
 tual good of man this, the especial creation of 
 Christianity, has lasted with it ; this Divine suc- 
 cession has endured consecrated not by man, or 
 through man, but by God Himself not expiring, 
 as some have fondly deemed, with the primitive 
 Church, nor with the saints of the Middle Ages, nor 
 with the Puritans of the seventeenth century but 
 to be revived in every place and in every time, and 
 in every station of life, so long as we believe in the 
 continuance of God's grace, and the freedom of 
 man's will. 
 
 Therefore it is no abrupt transition, if from 
 a subject in itself so great and wide, our thoughts 
 should turn to our own sphere of duties here, 
 to you, my younger hearers, for whose sake 
 especially I am called to this place. Even 
 were the atmosphere of your present lives ten 
 times more uncongenial than it is to the exercise 
 of the highest moral and religious gifts, still it 
 cannot be useless for you to feel what they are in 
 others : it cannot be indifferent whether you dis- 
 regard or treasure up, whether you admire, or 
 whether you treat with no concern, the examples 
 of apostolical goodness, which you may have heard 
 of, or have seen ; whether amongst the dead or the 
 living ; whether in the first or the nineteenth cen- 
 
THE THEEE APOSTLES. 27 
 
 tury. It is most important, whether in your lives SERM. 
 here, or in looking forward to your future profes- - 
 sions, that you should be made to feel that there 
 have been, and are, and always will be, strains of a 
 higher mood to be heard, flashes of a purer light 
 to be seen, than the sights and sounds with which 
 you are most familiar that there have been, and 
 are, and always will be men, who think more of 
 others than of themselves, more of who is above 
 them, than of what is around them whose lives 
 are a constant witness that you are not placed in 
 this world solely for your own enjoyment that you 
 have other interests to consult in your schemes, or 
 opinions, or employments, than the interests and 
 pleasures of yourselves or of your friends. It is 
 most important that you should feel that no sight 
 which you can possibly see is so ennobling, so pre- 
 cious, as the sight of exalted goodness that it is at 
 your own peril if you stifle the serious thoughts 
 which it may for the moment awake in you or if 
 you find an excuse in some difference of time, or 
 circumstance, or opinion, or even in error and ex- 
 travagance, for turning aside from the eternal 
 lesson which from the Apostles downwards always 
 has been and will be taught by holiness and self- 
 devotion, wheresoever and in whomsoever it may 
 be found. 
 
 All this would be true, even if direct imitation 
 were out of the question. But surely even here, 
 even in the easy and unruffled, in the too often 
 frivolous and selfish tenor of an academical life, 
 
28 THE TH11EE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. there is more room than many of us would sup- 
 - pose for the exercising something of the love, 
 for reaping something of the fruits of apostolical 
 labours. With some of you there has been a 
 time immediately before the commencement of 
 your course here, when the peculiar responsibility 
 and the peculiar means of usefulness which fell 
 to your lot were so great, that a call to tread in the 
 Apostles' footsteps was not then strange to your ears 
 that St. Paul's complaint of " that which came 
 upon him daily in the care of all the Churches," 
 has actually been felt to be the legitimate ex- 
 pression of the sense of your own anxiety. Such 
 direct means of combating evil, as I here speak 
 of, or as you will all of you have in after life, this 
 place certainly does not afford, and its most obvious 
 duties are of another kind. Still it surely is not 
 the inevitable doom of an institution like this, that 
 all care or thought of others should be paralyzed 
 as soon as you enter its walls ; even here, in the 
 necessary impression which your characters make 
 on those around you, there is room to be Apostles 
 of Christ or of Satan. Here, as well as elsewhere, 
 there are recorded, instances, on the one hand, of 
 the most precious gifts shipwrecked or perverted 
 for the want of some such guiding hand, of some 
 such thoughtful sympathy instances, on the other 
 hand, no less, of the effect which a single example 
 of firmness arid purity may have in the formation 
 of characters, afterwards destined to become the 
 support and blessing of thousands. Whether we look 
 
THE THREE APOSTLES. 29 
 
 to the history of the Three Apostles, or to our own SERM. 
 daily experience here, we know well that it matters - 
 not for this whether you have or have not intel- 
 lectual gifts : it is not merely by conversing on 
 serious subjects that you promote serious thoughts, 
 nor by seeking directly to obtain influence that you 
 really influence others it is by being good that 
 you do good : it is by kindness and thoughtfulness 
 for others' feelings, by sufferings or disappointments 
 cheerfully endured, by advantages of intellect or 
 fortune humbly borne, by adherence to fixed prin- 
 ciples of duty, by the princely heart of guileless in- 
 nocence, whose very look is the worst rebuke to 
 vice that here even more than elsewhere, a whole 
 society may be made to feel that there is something 
 better worth living for than our own daily and hourly 
 self-indulgence something which, even amidst the 
 turmoil or apathy of our own little world here, speaks 
 of that world whither Christ is gone before us. For 
 our own sakes no doubt, indeed, this is no less im- 
 portant than for the sake of others ; still the effect 
 of our own conduct on others is often the surest 
 way of reminding us of what it is on ourselves ; and 
 as the recollection of the Apostles' lives, if for no 
 other reason, is valuable to us as evidence to the fact 
 that He once lived and died on earth so it surely 
 is no exaggeration to say, that the lives of Chris- 
 tians now are the greatest evidence for or against 
 the fact that He now lives in heaven. " Because 
 He lives, we shall live also u ." If amidst the con- 
 
 u Johnxiv. 19. 
 
30 THE THREE APOSTLES. 
 
 SERM. troversies, the thoughtless selfishness, the positive 
 1 sins or temptations of this place, our excitement is 
 sobered, our carelessness checked, our principles 
 strengthened, by the thought of what He was and 
 is of what He has done and will do for us then 
 to others and to ourselves His name receives a wit- 
 ness from us, more humble, but not less real, than 
 it once received from Peter, Paul, and John. 
 
THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
 APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 IT will be seen that in the course of these Sermons 
 I have assumed that our chief knowledge of the apostolical 
 age is to be gained from the study not of any later 
 ecclesiastical writers, but of the documents of the aposto- 
 lical age itself; and consequently, that in many instances 
 a far greater knowledge is attainable on this subject by the 
 investigations of later criticism than was possessed by the 
 writers of the fourth and fifth centuries. 
 
 It will be my endeavour in the following remarks to 
 shew that this assumption is grounded in fact, and that 
 whatever may be the use, in other respects, of studying the 
 works of the four first centuries, no such advantage was 
 conferred upon them in this respect by their proximity of 
 time and place to the scenes and events of the first cen- 
 tury, as in any degree to supersede the necessity of later 
 inquiry. 
 
 In the first place, it must be observed that the apostolic 
 age, instead of being fertile in what we call traditions, was 
 remarkably barren in them. In respect to the one great 
 and central event of the first century, this is universally 
 acknowledged. The New Testament, one may almost say 
 the Gospel narrative, is " the sole record of our Lord's life 
 and teaching a ." Tradition has either no part in it at all, 
 or what it has may be collected in half a page. Of all 
 that vast collection of acts and words, which, " if they were 
 written every one of them, I suppose the world would not 
 
 a Newman's Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, p. 347, 348. 
 
32 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 contain the books which should be written," the whole result 
 is contained in the short volume of the four Gospels. But 
 what is true almost entirely of the chief subject of in- 
 terest in the apostolical age, is true in a great measure of 
 all that relates to it. Of the traditions of St. Peter, 
 St. John, and St. James, I shall have to speak afterwards. 
 But what do we really know of the rest of the Twelve? 
 Legendary accounts of later date we have indeed in abun- 
 dance, but "there are scarcely two out of the whole 
 number," it has been remarked, " of whose deaths we have 
 even so much as a statement of probable authority." " The 
 graves of Peter, Paul, John, and Thomas, are well known," 
 says Chrysostom, (Horn, in Heb. xxvi.,) "of the rest, none." 
 Isolated facts and sayings no doubt have been preserved : 
 and of the later years of St. John's age we have something 
 like a continuous narrative but this is all ; there are oc- 
 casional flashes of light, which make the darkness visible 
 but the scene as a whole is not the less wrapt in obscurity. 
 If then of our Lord Himself tradition could tell nothing 
 if of the general history of His Apostles it could tell hardly 
 any thing beyond what is recorded in the New Testament, 
 it is superfluous to inquire further ; it is evident that the 
 stream had been interrupted in its course that either the 
 first century had nothing more of importance to give, or 
 that the succeeding centuries were incapable of receiving 
 it. It is indeed sufficiently easy to conjecture the great 
 purposes which may have been answered by this broad line 
 of demarcation between the two periods. It needs no more 
 than a glance at any paraphrases, ancient or modern, of the 
 sacred text, to understand how much any representation of 
 the Divine Idea gains by concentration and loses by dilu- 
 tion ; if we can enter into the Divine Providence which com- 
 pressed even the authentic records of the origin of Chris- 
 tianity themselves within so small a compass, we shall be at 
 no loss to comprehend how high an end might be served by 
 
OF THK APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 destroying its doubtful and traditionary records altogether. 
 But, in fact, it was but the almost necessary result of the 
 circumstances of the case. Once grant that the great event 
 of the first century was what we believe it to have been 
 once grant its difference not only in degree but in kind, 
 from all that followed, and we shall appreciate by the very 
 force of the terms the depth of that chasm which must 
 have been fixed between the two. Take even the ordi- 
 nary instances of sudden transitions from one state of feel- 
 ing and opinion to another take that with which all 
 scholars are so familiar, the rapid change from the age of 
 Plato to the age of Aristotle, and we may have some 
 conception, however faint, of the incapacity which Chris- 
 tians living amongst the ordinary influences of the age of 
 Nerva and the Antonines must have had for entering into 
 the feelings, or even recording rightly the facts, of an age 
 which had witnessed the events and received the records of 
 the Gospel history ; still more, when we add to this inward 
 separation between the two eras, the complete loss of all 
 outward knowledge of the times the destruction of such 
 a multitude of traditions, feelings and customs, as must 
 have perished in the fall of Jerusalem and the extinction 
 of the Jewish Church. And if even at its source tradition 
 was so nearly dried up, what are we to expect from the 
 writers of the fourth or fifth centuries, from whom most of 
 our information on these points must necessarily be de- 
 rived? The period between St. Chrysostom and St. Paul, 
 which, through the long perspective of ages, seems to us 
 so brief, was really no less than that between us and the 
 Reformation. It was a period too in which the variety and 
 importance of 'the intervening scenes may well have inter- 
 rupted the view of any writer, Christian or heathen in 
 which the Church of the age of Nero may well have dis- 
 appeared under the numerous layers not only of events, 
 but of whole states and stages of society which must have 
 
 D 
 
34 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 been heaped upon it in the successive epochs of Trajan, of 
 Septimius Severus, of Aurelian, of Diocletian, and of Con- 
 stantine. Whatever, after such a lapse of time, may be 
 recovered, must depend entirely on the individual industry 
 or sagacity of the inquirer. Tacitus and the Emperor 
 Claudius dwell on points of early Roman history, which 
 in the reign of Augustus were utterly unknown, and the 
 reconstruction of the whole of that history by Niebuhr at 
 the distance of twenty-five centuries, is far nearer the truth 
 than the narrative which Livy composed at the distance of 
 seven. And we might fairly ask whether in the case of 
 a purely natural and intellectual gift, like that of historical 
 criticism, we have any reason for imagining that the heads 
 of the Christian clergy far as they were elevated above 
 their cotemporaries in high moral tone and deep spiritual 
 feeling were exempt from the general degeneracy which 
 overspread the w r hole Roman literature in the age of Con- 
 stantine and Theodosius, which could produce no greater 
 poet than Claudian, no better historian than Ammianus, 
 no profounder philosopher than Boethius. 
 
 In illustration of these remarks I shall now proceed to 
 give three or four well-known instances of points, on which, 
 if on any, we might have hoped to have received inform- 
 ation from these authors, and yet where their ignorance is 
 so complete that our darkness seems light in comparison. 
 The first two shall be from writers distinguished chiefly by 
 proximity of time; the next three, from Eusebius and 
 Chrysostom, both because their claim to critical acumen 
 is undoubtedly beyond that of their cotemporaries, and 
 also because in the subsequent part of this volume there 
 will be occasion to express our real obligations to them on 
 these very subjects; to Eusebius, for his preservation of 
 the fragments of Hegesippus ; to Chrysostom, for the felici- 
 tous rhetoric by which he has designated the work or cha- 
 racter of each of the three Apostles. 
 
OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 35 
 
 1. It is well known that most of the early traditions pre- Tradition 
 served by Irenseus were contained in a lost work of Papias, Lord's 
 Bishop of Hierapolis, who had seen and heard the Apostle ? 
 John. This work amongst others contained the following 
 statement of a discourse of our Lord on the times of His 
 kingdom : " The days shall come, in which vines shall grow, 
 " each vine with ten thousand boughs, each bough with 
 " ten thousand branches, each branch with ten thousand 
 " twigs, each twig with ten thousand bunches, each bunch 
 " with ten thousand grapes, each grape containing twenty- 
 " five measures of wine. And when any of the saints shall 
 " take a bunch, another shall cry out, 'I am a better bunch, 
 " take me, through me bless the Lord.' In like manner 
 " also a grain of wheat shall produce ten thousand ears, 
 " and every ear ten thousand grains, and every grain five 
 " measures of two parts of clear white meal, and the rest 
 " of fruits, and seeds, and herbs, according to their several 
 " proportions ; and all animals using these kinds of food, 
 " which are received from the earth, are to become peace- 
 " ful and harmonious, subject to man with all subjection. 
 " 'These things are possible to be believed by believers.' 
 " And when Judas the traitor believed not, and asked, 
 " 'How shall these predictions be brought to pass by the 
 "Lord?' the Lord said, 'They shall see who come to 
 " them; for these are the times of which Isaiah prophesied, 
 " The wolf shall lie down with the lamb.'" (Iren. adv. 
 Hier. v. 33.) 
 
 Now even if it were possible for a moment to conceive 
 that Papias had in this passage truly preserved a fragment 
 of our Lord's teaching, yet still the fact would remain, that 
 it is a departure from the usual tenor of that teaching, so 
 absolutely unparalleled, that probably no one since Irenaeus 
 has ever ventured to quote it as genuine. But if instead 
 of receiving this as a true tradition, we should all with one 
 voice regard it almost as blasphemy to ascribe such words 
 
 D 2 
 
8t) THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 to Him who spake as never man spake if we should all 
 agree with the judgment of Eusebius in supposing thatPapias 
 was here transferring the imaginations of " his b own little 
 mind" to the Divine discourses which he was wholly in- 
 competent to receive or report rightly what becomes of 
 the great storehouse of tradition which his work contained, 
 except in every case to subject it to a comparison with the 
 sole authentic documents, of which we can no longer con- 
 sider him an independent interpreter ? 
 
 Statement 2. Irenseus, who was bishop of Lyons in the close of the 
 Lord's second century, in his answer to the erroneous assertion of 
 age in fae Gnostics, (which however coincided with the belief of 
 
 Irenaeus. 
 
 Clemens, Origen, and the later Fathers generally,) that our 
 Lord's ministry began and ended* in His thirtieth year, 
 states as a positive fact, that His preaching chiefly took 
 place between the fortieth and fiftieth year of His age. 
 This statement he defends partly by inferences from John 
 viii. 56, 57, but chiefly by an appeal " to the testimony of 
 " the Gospel and all the elders who had met John in Asia, 
 " that John had handed down this statement to them, (for 
 " he had remained with them till the time of Trajan :) and 
 " some of them had seen not only John, but others of the 
 " Apostles, and heard this same fact from them, and testify 
 " to the truth of an account of such as has been given." 
 "To whom then," he asks triumphantly, "is credit to be 
 " given ? to men like these, or to [the Gnostic] Ptolemy 
 " who never saw the Apostles, nay, who never even in his 
 " dreams followed so much as an Apostle's footstep." 
 (Adv. Hser. ii. 22.) Now it is just conceivable that Irenseus 
 may be correct in stating that our Lord's public ministry 
 lasted for nearly twenty years, and that in believing that 
 it lasted for one or for three years, the whole Christian 
 world of earlier and later ages alike may have been mis- 
 taken. But if we may be allowed to acquiesce in the 
 
 b ff<f>68pa ffniKpbs &v rbv vovv Qaiverat. Eus. H. E. iii. 39. 
 
OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 37 
 
 common belief, sanctioned as it is alike by general consent 
 and sound criticism, then the statement of Irenseus is a 
 crucial instance of the worthlessness of all such traditional 
 proofs. It has been sometimes stated that this is "im- 
 properly called a tradition," that it "makes out no claim 
 " to be considered apostolical." But so far from this 
 being the case it would be difficult to find any appeal 
 to apostolical tradition of equal positiveness and circum- 
 stantiality of statement. However likely it may have 
 been to have sprung in the first instance from a misap- 
 prehension of what the elders may have inferred from 
 John viii. 57, this is nowhere stated in the passage itself, 
 and that text is referred to only as a proof subordinate to 
 the apostolical tradition which Irenseus deemed a suffi- 
 cient guarantee of the opinion which the whole world 
 now regards as an exploded falsehood. When, therefore, 
 on a point of such importance to the whole outward 
 aspect of the Christian history, involving a complete revo- 
 lution in the chronology both of the Gospels and Acts 
 introducing a period of nearly twenty years in our Lord's 
 life, wholly unaccounted for and unnoticed in the sacred 
 narrative when on a point like this, we find that either 
 the immediate hearers of the Apostles so utterly mis- 
 conceived the Apostles' teaching, or were themselves so 
 utterly misunderstood by Irenaeus, we may well ask what 
 outward fact is there in the history of the first century, 
 on which it would not be safer to take the assertion of 
 one " who had not even in his dreams followed so much as 
 an Apostle's footstep," if only it agreed with the undoubted 
 tenor of the Apostles' teaching, rather than the assertion of 
 those who professed to "have heard it from the Apostles 
 themselves," if only it was in contradiction to all that the 
 New Testament teaches us of the Apostles and their Lord ? 
 3. One of the most remarkable facts on the very surface 
 
 c Newman's Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, p. 206. 
 
38 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 Criticism of the New Testament, is the difference bet ween the fourth 
 peis^by 08 " an( ^ tne tnree earlier Gospels, which accordingly had at- 
 Eusebius. tractec i the attention of the cotemporaries of Eusebius. The 
 solution which he gives is as follows : " The other three 
 " Evangelists wrote the history only of the events after the 
 " imprisonment of the Baptist, as appears from the com- 
 " mencement of their narrative ; (viz. Matt, iv., Mark i., 
 " Luke iv. ;) the Apostle John, therefore, is said to have 
 " committed to his Gospel the period passed over in silence 
 " by the other Evangelists, namely, the events before the 
 " imprisonment, as appears also from his own statement 
 " (John ii. 4). Therefore," he concludes, " to those who 
 " understand this, there will no longer appear any difference 
 " between the Gospels, inasmuch as the Gospel of St. John 
 " contains the earlier part of our Lord's actions, and the other 
 " three the account of the end of His life." H. E. iii. 24. 
 
 Now at the very outset it is incredible that any one who 
 had a real insight into what it was that he was professing 
 to explain a difference not merely of outward facts, but 
 of tone, spirit, object, of every thing in short which can 
 distinguish one biography from another should have 
 thought that he could do so by a theory of mere chronologi- 
 cal transposition. The very attempt destroys his authority 
 before we examine it. And now confining it merely to that 
 narrow limit of the outward narrative, what is the solution 
 which he offers ? That the events peculiar to the Gospel 
 of St. John, took place before the imprisonment of John 
 the Baptist; in other words, that almost the only events 
 in the Gospel history which the context compels us 
 to connect with the very latest period of our Lord's 
 ministry, such as the visit to the Feast of Tabernacles, and 
 the raising of Lazarus, must be supposed to have occurred 
 in its very earliest period. " Grant this," he says, " and 
 " then St. Matthew and St. John will perfectly agree." 
 Compare this explanation, I will not say with the masterly 
 
OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 39 
 
 discussions of the subject, and arrangement, of St. John's 
 Gospel in recent commentators, but with the answer which 
 would be given by the humblest theological student of the 
 nineteenth century, and would it be possible to doubt 
 which had the best understanding of the method accord- 
 ing to which the Gospel narrative was composed? 
 
 4. No one can read the Acts or Epistles without observ- Statement 
 ing how characteristic and prominent a feature of the O f Tongues 
 
 apostolical age is represented to us in the Gift of Tongues, 
 and accordingly in modern times many able discussions 
 have been written upon it, from which, in spite of the great 
 obscurity with which it is encompassed, yet a tolerably 
 lively image may be formed of its true nature and ends. 
 Yet of this whole subject, so interesting in itself, so capa- 
 ble of receiving illustration from those who lived near 
 the time, and who might be expected to have heard 
 something of it from those who had actually witnessed 
 it, our sole information from so illustrious a commentator 
 as Chrysostom is summed up in the candid confession 
 which he has left us in his Homilies on the twelfth chap- 
 ter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians d . "This whole 
 " place is very obscure, but the obscurity is produced by 
 " our ignorance of the facts referred to, being such as then 
 " used to occur, but now no longer take place." 
 
 5. In order to form an exact historical conception of the Chrono- 
 apostolical age, no point is more necessary to determine stJPaul's 
 than the order of St. Paul's Epistles : the tissue of events, Epistles 
 
 r 3 m Chry- 
 
 the understanding of the Epistles themselves, greatly de- sostom. 
 pends upon it. Accordingly in Chrysostom's Preface to 
 his Homilies upon them, is a brief chronological arrange- 
 ment of them 6 , drawn out with tolerable correctness, and 
 
 d In the subsequent parts of his comment he does indeed say that " after 
 baptism one spake in the Indian, one in the Persian, another in the Roman 
 tongue." But these are evidently mere conjectures of his own. 
 
 e That the traditionary knowledge of the chronology of the Pauline Epi- 
 stles had expired even before the beginning of the third century, appears from 
 
40 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 not without striking remarks on the importance of rightly 
 understanding it. But it is impossible not to see that his 
 knowledge on the subject is entirely confined to the infer- 
 ences afforded by the Epistles themselves : the greater part 
 of his cotemporaries, he says, either knew nothing about it, 
 or else maintained a chronology directly at variance with 
 the evidence of the Apostle's own words : and his conclu- 
 sions accordingly are stated with a hesitation, a meagreness, 
 a consciousness of uncertainty, which by the side of the 
 searching and sifting criticism of German scholars, or even 
 the plain common sense deductions of our own Paley, seem 
 like scepticism itself. 
 
 The inter- (>. One more quotation shall be added from Chrysostom, 
 of the because, though not immediately connected with this sub- 
 Chrysos- j ec ^ ^ J e ^ * s kindred to it, and affords a remarkable in- 
 stance of the discrimination needed by those who take the 
 Fathers for their guides in exegetical questions. In com- 
 menting on the description of Christian love in 1 Cor. xiii. 8, 
 the difficulty occurs to him, which has occurred to many 
 since, "Why then saith David, 'Do not I hate them, 
 O Lord, that hate Thee; I hate them with a perfect 
 hatred?'" 
 
 To this question he returns two answers. The first is as 
 follows : " Now in the first place not all things spoken in 
 " the Psalms by David, are spoken in the person of David. 
 " For it is he himself who saith, * I have dwelt in the 
 " tents of Kedar,' and ' By the waters of Babylon there we 
 " sat down and wept,' and yet he neither saw Babylon nor 
 " the tents of Kedar." That is to say, the apparent con- 
 trast between the expressions of the Apostle and the 
 Psalmist is explained by the fact that though David wrote 
 all the Psalms, he yet, as in the case of the 137th, did 
 
 the Fragment on the Canon preserved hy Muratori, (Routh, Rell. iv. 1,) where 
 the order of arrangement, which professes to follow that of time, is as follows : 
 1. I and II Cor.; 2. Eph. ; 3. Phil.; 4. Col.; 5. Gal. ; 6. I and II Thess. ; 
 7. Rom. It is needless to point out the manifold errors. 
 
OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 41 
 
 not always speak in his own person. On which it may 
 be observed, 1st. What should we say at the present time to 
 any one who was to excuse what appear to be diffi- 
 culties in the Psalms on the ground that the Psalmist put 
 them into the mouth of another person, implying of course 
 that their use "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
 " for instruction in righteousness," depends entirely on 
 their having been spoken in the person of David, and 
 that if we can make them out to be spoken in the person 
 of another, they may be (as in the case of the speeches of 
 Job's friends) the dictates "not of God but of Satan. There 
 may have been interpretations in modern literature equally 
 uncritical, or equally rationalistic, but we may fairly doubt 
 whether the whole recentftheology of England and Ger- 
 many united could furnish a passage which equally com- 
 bined the two. 2ndly. Is there any educated person, 
 now living in England, who if asked 1 ] deliberately (for 
 of course I do not now speak of oversights or popular 
 parlance )'Jwhether the words "By the waters of Babylon 
 we sat down and wept" were written in the reign of 
 David, would not treat that as a wild absurdity, which the 
 Archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth century as- 
 sumed as an undoubted truth ? And if so, does not this 
 imply such a radical difference between the whole mode 
 of viewing the composition of the sacred volume in the 
 respective periods, as to render it worse than useless for the 
 readers of the latter age to be guided in their studies ex- 
 clusively by the writers of the former? 
 
 Far different is the ground assumed in the second answer, 
 which meets the difficulty by insisting on the gradual 
 progress of God's revelations, on the imperfect standard 
 allowed and even approved under the old dispensation, 
 as contrasted with the perfect law of love in the new. 
 
 " But besides this we now require a completer self-com- 
 " mand. Wherefore also when the disciples besought that 
 
42 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 " fire might come down even as in the case of Elias, ' Ye 
 " know not,' saith Christ, ' what manner of spirit ye are of.' 
 " For at that time not the ungodliness only, but also the 
 " ungodly themselves they were commanded to hate, in 
 " order that their friendship might not prove an occasion 
 " of transgression to them. Therefore He severed their 
 " connexions both by blood, and on every side He fenced 
 " them off. But now because He hath brought us to 
 " a more entire self-command, and set us on high above 
 " that mischief, He bids us rather admit and soothe 
 them." 
 
 It is not meant that this exhausts the subject ; or that 
 the harmony of the Scriptures might not be still further 
 ^indicated by the distinction which later theologians have 
 often drawn between the letter and the spirit between the 
 (different forms which the same truth assumes in different 
 stages of God's dispensations. But for the present pur- 
 pose it is sufficient to call attention to the union of dis- 
 cordant qualities which is implied in this abrupt transition 
 from a statement which sets all rules alike of criticism 
 and of reverence at defiance, to a statement which, whilst 
 it is in full accordance with the highest requirements of 
 later investigation, is at the same time an almost neces- 
 sary inference from our Lord's own words in Matt. v. 43 ; 
 xix. 8 ; and from the contrast implied throughout the New 
 Testament between the Law and the Gospel. 
 
 These instances of the small value of the traditionary 
 knowledge of the apostolical age, and of the inability 
 of even the most eminent writers of the fourth and 
 fifth centuries to reconstruct the history of it from such 
 sources, are, of course, perfectly familiar to students of 
 patristic theology, and are, as is also well known, merely 
 samples of a large class of passages which it would be alike 
 invidious and tedious to detail at length. The hypo- 
 
OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 43 
 
 thesis^ maintained by Tertullian and Cyprian, Cyril of 
 Alexandria, Gregory, Jerome, and Chrysostom, that the 
 dispute between the two Apostles at Antioch was a mere 
 preconcerted collusion the confident 11 belief expressed 
 " always, every where, and by all," in the existence of the 
 Phoenix, not as an argumentum ad hominem, but as an 
 undoubted fact the incapacity to discern or to grapple 
 with the obscurities in the Apostolical Epistles, as when 
 Chrysostom 1 passes over, almost without notice, the cele- 
 brated texts in 1 Cor. xi. 10 ; Gal. iii. 20 ; where the hun- 
 dreds of interpreters in modern times have at least recog- 
 nized the difficulty of the passages, even if they have made 
 but little advance towards discovering the meaning -the 
 substitution of allegorical figures for real explanations of 
 perplexities, whether in the Old or the New Testament, as 
 when Augustine meets the question which naturally occurs 
 on the perusal of the narrative of Jacob and Esau k , by 
 answering that Jacob is the Church and Esau the syna- 
 gogue these, and countless similar instances might be 
 given, each of them capable of a detailed exposition like 
 the preceding, as convincing proofs that whatever excel- 
 lences the writers of the first ages of the Church possessed 
 in other departments, we cannot as a general rule look to 
 them for critical tact in receiving, or critical skill in repro- 
 ducing, the events of a previous period. No doubt in some 
 this critical acumen existed to a far greater extent than in 
 others: but even in them there were counter influences 
 .at work which prevented it from having its full scope. 
 When Origen, for example, turned his attention deli- 
 berately to questions of this nature, the gain to sacred 
 criticism is immediate and undisputed : we thankfully ac- 
 
 % See the references given in the notes to the Oxford edition of Chrysos- 
 tom's Homilies on the Epistle to the Galatians, (Gal. ii. 12.) 
 fc The only douhts are those expressed by Origen and Photius. 
 4 See Chrys. ad loc. k See Aug. ad loc. 
 
44 THE TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE 
 
 knowledge his recovery of the true 1 reading of geographi- 
 cal names in Palestine, from his investigation of local tra- 
 ditions his concise but comprehensive summary m of the 
 controversy on the authorship of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews his explanation of the darkness at the Cruci- 
 fixion, as singular then as it is almost universally accepted 
 now. But the tendencies of his age and school it may 
 be of his own individual character led him for the most 
 part to an opposite field of inquiry : it is not with the letter 
 of actual facts, such as we have been now considering, but 
 with the spirit of allegorical and mystical meanings that his 
 name is always associated, and accordingly for one passage 
 which we see quoted from his works as elucidating histo- 
 rical difficulties, we meet with ten in which the his- 
 torical fact is, if not denied or explained away, at least 
 altogether lost sight of, in the profounder spiritual lesson 
 which it was supposed to be intended to convey. 
 
 To point out whence these counter influences came, or to 
 point out the true services of " the Fathers" to their own or 
 to after ages, is beyond the scope of the present discussion. 
 It is only on the particular point of these claims as critical 
 historians that I have spoken or wish to speak. It is 
 difficult to conceive the circumstances which would justify 
 an indiscriminate depreciation of the eminent men of any 
 age, least of all of an age to which we owe so much, 
 and in which there is so much to love and admire, as the 
 period of the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian 
 Church. But it is necessary from time to time to shew, 
 that because they did much, there is no reason to expect 
 that they should have done all that there is nothing more 
 extraordinary in their being deficient in historical criticism 
 than in their being ignorant of the invention of printing ; 
 and that their call was so wholly different from that of 
 
 1 Comm. on John i. 28. m Apud Eus. H. E. vi. 25. 
 
 " Comm. on Matt. xxvi. 45. 
 
OK THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 45 
 
 modern theologians, that to charge the students of recent 
 commentators with the presumption of preferring them to 
 Augustine or Ambrose, is almost as irrelevant as if an 
 admirer of Shakspeare were to be charged on that account 
 with a contempt of Bacon. Where two spheres are 
 wholly incommensurable, all comparisons to the detriment 
 of either are happily innocuous or impossible. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE, 
 
 AND ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER INSTITUTIONS 
 OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 THE general description of the essential characteristics of 
 an Apostle which has been given in the Sermon, (p. 23, 24,) 
 will not be disputed. The common notion of an Apostle 
 which must naturally occur to every one's mind, is of one 
 eminently endowed with moral and spiritual gifts. The only 
 sense in which the word is still naturally used amongst us, 
 is of one devoting his energies to some great moral or reli- 
 gious cause, as when we speak of Boniface the Apostle of 
 Germany, or Xavier the Apostle of the Indies, or Howard 
 the Apostle of prisons. 
 
 Still as there are various notions associated with the 
 name of Apostle, which more or less interfere with the 
 clearness of this impression, and as it is of no slight im- 
 portance to our own conception of the essentially moral 
 and spiritual character of Christianity itself, that the con- 
 ception which we form of those who appear as its chief 
 propagators should correspond to this character, it may be 
 worth while to define more precisely our idea of what we 
 call the Apostolical office. 
 
 I. The name is probably derived from the words and actions 
 
 of the (G of our Lord Himself, (John xvii. 18; xx. 21 ; Matt. x. 5,) 
 
 Apostles. ag ex p ress i ve o f the peculiar characteristic of the Apostles, 
 
 which I have endeavoured to describe in the text, viz., that 
 
 they were men, not speaking in their own name, but in 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 47 
 
 that of Another ; not doing their own work, but the work 
 of Him who had sent them forth. Compare Rom. x. 15. 
 It is one of the many cases which we find in the New 
 Testament, of an idea and of a word both new each illu- 
 minating and illuminated by the other. The " Prophet " 
 spoke the message which was delivered to him, or painted 
 the vision which rose before him; but it was the pecu- 
 liarity of the inspiration of an " Apostle" that inasmuch 
 as it was not temporary but perpetual, on the one hand not 
 only particular moments of his life, but his whole being 
 was impressed by that one impulse which had driven 
 him forth whilst, on the other hand, his particular utter- 
 ances, far more than in the case of the prophet, appear to 
 depend on the working of his own individual mind, and 
 to be occasioned by the peculiar circumstances of his own 
 life. One only of all the characters in the Old Testament 
 approaches to this distinguishing mark of the New, in the 
 complete self-devotion of his whole life to his original call, 
 Moses, the man of God and it is remarkable, that as in 
 Heb. iv. 1, it is in reference to Aaron that our Lord receives 
 the title of Chief Priest (apxiepevs), so it is in evident re- 
 ference to Moses that He receives the title of Apostle, 
 (aTTocToXo?.) And it is for this reason that, whilst the pro- 
 phet or the ruler may be regarded without reference to any 
 thing but his words or his deeds, the Apostle's authority 
 necessarily rests on the witness of his life and character 3 . 
 
 It is obvious from this, that whilst in the very highest 
 sense of all, the word could only be applied to Him whose 
 whole life was the reflex of Him that sent Him, and whose 
 words were the reflex of His life, so in the highest sense 
 in which it could be applied to any mere man, it was ap- 
 plied to the Twelve, and to them alone, with the addition 
 of the Apostle Paul. [The only exceptions to this are to be 
 accounted for either by the attraction of the context, (as 
 
 a See 2 Cor. iii. 1 ; v. 12 ; xi. 1830 ; xii. 12 ; xiii. 3. 
 
48 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 in its application to Barnabas, Acts xiv. 4. 14; Apollos, 
 1 Cor. iv. 9. 6,) or by its being used in its simple etymolo- 
 gical sense of messenger, (Phil. ii. 30. 45 ; iv. 18 ; 2 Cor. 
 viii. 19. 23.)] The characteristic points, therefore, of an 
 Apostle's office were two. 
 
 1. The appointment by Christ Himself. I have said that 
 we can best understand the position of the Apostles by 
 the analogous position of what we call great men. Great 
 men, as we all know, are created by no human agency, but 
 by God Himself. They are what they are often called, 
 " God's nobility." Such, by analogy, although only by ana- 
 logy, were the Apostles. Amidst almost every other conceiv- 
 able difference, they were alike in this, that neither the one 
 nor the other could be made or ordained by man. And this 
 idea is strictly preserved in the New Testament. No human 
 consecration intervened between Christ and His Apostles. 
 His choice, His teaching, His mission not only super- 
 seded but excluded all besides 5 . Nowhere does this appear 
 more strongly than in the case of the two who were 
 created after His withdrawal from them ; when, if ever, 
 outward forms or human agency would have been employed 
 for the purpose. St. Matthias was not appointed by impo- 
 sition of hands, but by lot. He was found to have the 
 only signs by which men could judge of his fitness for the 
 post, namely, intercourse with our Lord, and being a witness 
 of the resurrection : whether he had an inward character 
 
 b It is a striking illustration of this fact, that in the most solemn inaugura- 
 tion of the Apostles to their office, (John xx. 20,) the symbolic act which ac- 
 companied it was not the usual form of imposition of hands by which the 
 officers of the Jewish synagogue and of the early Christian Churches were 
 appointed to their outward work, but that remarkable sign which is men- 
 tioned here alone " He breathed upon them, and said, Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost." As if the sense were, "Earthly offices have been and may be 
 given away by outward ceremonial acts, but you must enter on your work 
 with no other recommendation or authority than the inspiration of My Spirit." 
 Comp. Isa. xi. 4; 2 Cor. iii. 1. (See Herder, vom Geist des Christenthums, 
 c.4.) 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 49 
 
 corresponding thereto could be known only to the Searcher 
 of Hearts and as soon as the prayer was over, and the lot 
 fell upon Matthias, he was at once "numbered with the 
 eleven Apostles." (Acts i. 2326.) 
 
 St. Paul's case is, if possible, still more striking. His 
 own words are decisive. " Paul, an Apostle not from man, 
 neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father 
 who raised Him from the dead." (Gal. i. 1.) And to the 
 same effect is 1 Cor. ix. 1 4. Two circumstances only 
 in his life most seem to imply the intervention of some 
 human form of appointment. (a). The imposition of the 
 hands of Ananias in Acts ix. 17, three days after his con- 
 version. But if we compare this fact not only with the 
 two passages just quoted, but with his own account of the 
 whole event in the two speeches in the latter part of the 
 Acts, (6 0eo? . . . Trpoexeipio-aro, Acts xxii. 14 ; and still 
 more axfrOrjv croi . . . Trpo^eLplo-acrdal (re, Acts xxvi. 16,) it 
 is clear that the visit of Ananias was regarded as wholly 
 subordinate to the appearance and words of Christ on the 
 road to Damascus, so much so that in the second of the 
 two speeches (Acts xxvi.) it is omitted altogether. The 
 crisis of his life, so to say, was already passed when Ananias 
 arrived ; and the imposition of hands, followed by the gifts 
 of the Spirit, (probably the speaking with tongues, as in x. 
 46 ; xix. 6,) the cure of his blindness, and his baptism, 
 evidently relate not to his Apostleship, but, as in the 
 other passages where the same conjunction of facts occurs, 
 (Acts ii. 38; viii. 12. 17; x. 46; xix. 6,) to his reception 
 into the Christian society. And even if it could be sup- 
 posed for a moment that these gifts could have constituted 
 him to be an Apostle, it is important to observe that 
 Ananias, through whose instrumentality they were con- 
 ferred, not only was not an Apostle, but, as far as appears, 
 was nothing more than an ordinary disciple, (/Aa&yr^?, ix. 
 10). ($). The imposition of the hands of the prophets of 
 
50 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 Antioch before his first journey, Acts xiii. 1 3. What has 
 been already said of the coincidence of the call to his 
 Apostleship with his conversion, applies still more strongly 
 against connecting it with an event at least four years sub- 
 sequent. But it is sufficiently clear from the transaction 
 itself. This imposition of hands was evidently no inaugura- 
 tion of Paul to an office which he had not before received, 
 but a solemn dedication of him with prayer to that parti- 
 cular part of it on which he was now for the first time 
 called by the Spirit of God to enter, viz., the journey 
 through the provinces of Asia Minor. The prophets who 
 acted on this occasion were not the superiors, but the 
 inferiors both of Paul and Barnabas; there is no proof, 
 but rather the reverse, that they held any distinct office 
 in the Church of Antioch; Paul himself, who is enu- 
 merated amongst them in xiii. 1, had none such : the gifts 
 of prophecy were enjoyed (1 Cor. xiv. 34; Acts xxi.) both 
 by men and women; Hooker (Eccles. Pol. v. 78. 6.) has 
 truly observed that "we nowhere find prophets to have 
 " been made by ordination ;" and where these same, persons 
 seem to be mentioned again in xv. 40, they are spoken of 
 simply as " the brethren" (VTTO rwv d$e\(f>tov). The act itself 
 also which they performed, is described in xiv. 26, as a 
 "commendation of Paul to the grace of God," a phrase 
 which obviously implies not any communication of a new 
 office or character, but an invocation of God's blessing and 
 protection on his arduous task, which did not take place 
 once for all, but which might be, and apparently was, 
 repeated many times over, whenever the Apostle entered 
 on any new field of labour . 
 
 2. The second characteristic of the Apostles lies in the 
 
 e Observe the repetition of the same expression Acts xv. 40, xiv. 26, when 
 St. Paul departed on his second journey from the same place. " There was 
 " scarce any public design or grand employment, but the Apostolic men had 
 "a new ordination to it, a new imposition of hands." (Bishop Taylor's Epis- 
 copacy Asserted, Works, vii. p. 43.) 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 51 
 
 fact that their work consisted not in the performance of any 
 formal or outward acts however solemn, but in the impres- 
 sion produced by a whole life, character, and teaching. 
 This in fact is the almost necessary consequence of what 
 has just been said respecting their appointment. As their 
 mission was derived from no lower source than God Himself, 
 through the calling of His Son, so their authority rested on 
 no lower ground than the personal qualities with which 
 God Himself had endowed them through the gift of His 
 Spirit They were, if one may so say, the natural 
 aristocracy of the Church, as great men are the natural 
 aristocracy of the world. Their power was moral, not 
 magisterial; their influence spiritual, not official. The 
 very words, "apostolical office," are, when we come to 
 analyse them, a later union of two discordant ideas. Offices 
 no doubt they undertook in abundance, t but it was only for 
 particular emergencies of time and place, only to shake 
 them off again, their own essential office, if we still will 
 have the word, remaining unimpaired without them, as if 
 it had never been identified with them. So it was in the 
 well-known instance of the serving of tables and the minis- 
 tration of the poor, which was first undertaken by the 
 Twelve, then dropped, then resumed by Paul, when in 
 addition to his labours as sole Apostle of the Gentile 
 Churches, he also undertook the difficult and delicate task 
 of providing for the needs of the Christians in Judaea. (Acts 
 vi. 1, 2; 1 Cor. xvi. 1; xi. 30; 2 Cor. vi. viii.) So, to take 
 again the case of the Apostle whose life is best known to 
 us, at one time the government of all the Greek and Asiatic 
 Churches devolved on him alone, (2 Cor. xi. 28,) then it 
 is thrown provisionally into the hands of his companions, 
 as of Timothy and Titus, (1 Tim. i. 3 ; Tit. i. 5,) once 
 more however to be resumed by himself, whenever he should 
 return in person to his charge, (1 Tim. iii. 14; v. 13.) And 
 so of the various names which in the apostolical age or 
 
 E2 
 
52 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 subsequently were taken to denote various orders or func- 
 tions in the Christian society, there is not one, Bishop d , 
 Presbyter, Deacon, Pastor, Prophet, which may not be 
 found in all stages of. their lives applied to one or 
 other of the Apostles ; not of course in their stricter and 
 more technical meaning, but still sufficiently shewing how 
 far above all the outward institutions which have gathered 
 at its feet the true idea of the Apostolical character rises in 
 its greatness, embracing all, circumscribed by none of 
 them transmitted to later times, so far as it can be trans- 
 mitted at all, not by any continuance, real or supposed, 
 of apostolical usages or forms, but by the perpetuation and 
 imitation of apostolical goodness and apostolical wisdom. 
 The spiri- II. Here then the proposed sketch of the characteristics 
 of Ihe Apo- of the Apostles might stop. But two or three points have 
 Church nece ssarily been stirred in it, which may require solution, 
 and which will also serve to illustrate what I have said. 
 The Apostles, although the chief instruments in building 
 up the early Church, were not the only instruments ; and 
 in order to understand their ministrations aright, it may 
 be necessary to describe those inferior ministrations of dif- 
 ferent kinds, which, although in part resembling them, must 
 not be confounded with them. 
 
 First then, we find various gifts and functions described 
 as bound up, like the gifts and functions of the Apostles, 
 though less frequently and prominently, with the very 
 essence of religious life in the Christian society, as the 
 most visible sign of God's Spirit amongst Christians. See 
 Rom. xii. 5 8 ; Eph. ii. 20 ; but especially 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; 
 Eph. iv. 7. On these two last passages Hooker (Eccl. Pol., 
 v. 78. 8, 9.) observes as follows. " I beseech them therefore 
 ft which have hitherto troubled the Church with questions 
 
 d MO-KOTTOS, in Acts i. 20 : Trpe<rftvTfpos, in 1 Pet. v. 1 ; 2 John 1 ; 3 John 
 1 : SiaKovia, tiianovtiv, Actsi. 25 ; vi. 1, 2; 1 Cor. iv. 1 ; 2 Cor. ix. 13 : 
 John xxi. 16: Trpo^rr/s, Acts xiii. 1. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 53 
 
 " about degrees and offices of ecclesiastical calling, because 
 " they principally ground themselves upon two places, that 
 " all partiality laid aside they would sincerely weigh and 
 " examine whether they have not misinterpreted both 
 " places, and all by surmising incompatible offices where 
 " nothing is meant but sundry graces, gifts, and abilities 
 " which Christ bestowed. To them of Corinth his words are 
 " these : ' God placed in the Church first of all some 
 " Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly Teachers, after them 
 " powers, then gifts of cures, aids, governments, kinds of 
 " languages. Are all Apostles ? Are all Prophets ? Are 
 " all Teachers ? Is there power in all ? Have all grace 
 " to cure ? Do all speak with tongues ? Can all inter- 
 " pret? But be you desirous of the better graces.' They 
 " which plainly discern first that some one general thing 
 " there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all 
 " these branches, and do secondly conceive that general 
 " to be church offices, besides a number of other diffi- 
 " culties, can by no means possibly deny but that many 
 " of these might concur in one man, and peradventure in 
 " some one all, which mixture notwithstanding their form 
 " of discipline doth most shun. On the other side admit 
 " that communicants of special infused grace, for the bene- 
 " fit of members knit into one body, the Church of Christ, 
 " are here spoken of, which was in truth the plain drift of 
 " that whole discourse, and see if every thing do not answer 
 " in due place with that fitness which sheweth easily what 
 " is likeliest to have been meant. For why are Apostles 
 " the first but because unto them was granted the reve- 
 " lation of all truth from Christ immediately ? Why 
 " Prophets the second, but because they had of some 
 " things knowledge in the same manner ? Teachers the 
 " next, because whatsoever was known to them it came 
 " by hearing, yet God withal made them able to instruct, 
 " which every one could not do that was taught. After 
 
54 THE APQSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 " gifts of education there follow general abilities to work 
 " things above nature, grace to cure men of bodily dis- 
 " eases, supplies against occurrent defects and impedi- 
 " ments, dexterities to govern and direct by counsel, finally 
 " aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues. Which 
 " graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and 
 " given, were a cause why not only they all did furnish up 
 " the whole body but each benefit and help other. 
 
 " Again the same Apostle otherwhere in like sort, ' To 
 " every one of us is given grace according to the measure 
 " of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When He 
 " ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave 
 " gifts unto men. He therefore gave some Apostles and 
 " some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors 
 " and Teachers, for the gathering together of saints, for 
 " the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body 
 " of Christ.' In this place none but gifts of instruction 
 " are expressed. And because of teachers some were Evan- 
 " gelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by 
 " revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach 
 " were far beyond other Pastors, they are as having re- 
 " ceived one way less than Prophets, and another way 
 " more than Teachers set accordingly between both. For 
 " the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of 
 " them were by office or power given them through ordi- 
 " nation, but what by grace they all had obtained through 
 " miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost. For in Christian 
 " religion this being the ground of our whole belief, that 
 " the promises which God of old had made by His Pro- 
 " phets concerning the wonderful gifts and graces of the 
 " Holy Ghost, wherewith the reign of the true Messias 
 " should be made glorious, were immediately after our 
 " Lord's ascension performed, there is no one thing whereof 
 " the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak. Out 
 " of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 55 
 
 " conversion to Christian faith the Church had her minis- 
 " ters chosen, unto whom was given ecclesiastical power 
 " by ordination. Now because the Apostle in reckoning 
 " degrees and varieties of grace doth mention Pastors 
 " and Teachers, although he mention them not in respect 
 " of their ordination to exercise the ministry, but as exam- 
 " pies of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy 
 " Ghost, divers learned and skilful men have so taken it as 
 " if those places did intend to teach what orders of ecclesias- 
 " tical persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ 6 ." 
 
 To these remarks little need be added, except in the 
 way of confirmation and inference. The gifts here spoken 
 of belong, as Hooker well observes, not to any one portion 
 of the Church, but to the whole of it. In 1 Cor. xii. 28, 
 this is necessarily required by the whole tenor of the argu- 
 ment. "It is not necessary," the Apostle would say, "that 
 each of you should have all the gifts of the Spirit, but it is 
 necessary that each of you should have some of them." 
 In Eph. iv. 7, the substitution of the phrase eSw/ce for Wero 
 in 1 Cor. xii. 28, has somewhat tended to obscure the 
 similarity of sense between the two passages. But this 
 substitution is evidently occasioned by the greater promi- 
 nence of the idea of "giving" in the later passage, in con- 
 nexion with the quotation from Ps. Ixviii. in the 8th verse ; 
 and the 8th, the 13th, (ol Trdvres,) and 16th verses, (irdaa 
 a<t>rj,) express in the strongest language the fact that the 
 perfection of which the Apostle speaks as the ultimate con- 
 summation of the Christian body was to be brought about 
 not by the ministration of one part to the rest, but by the 
 joint co-operation of all the parts together. 
 
 Again, as Hooker also observes, these two passages speak 
 not of any outward office, but of personal gifts and quali- 
 ties, moral, intellectual, or physical. Whatever obscurity 
 
 e The remainder of the section has been left out, as belonging to another 
 part of this discussion. 
 
56 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 may hang over particular parts in either of the passages, 
 or (from its greater conciseness) over the whole of that in 
 the Epistle to the Ephesians, there can be no doubt as 
 to the meaning of those points which, as being the most 
 prominent, naturally fix the meaning of the rest. Of the 
 name of " Apostle " (aTrocrroXo?) which stands first in both 
 catalogues, enough has already been said to shew its 
 independence of any outward circumstance whatever. 
 The next in order, as well as in importance, is that of " Pro- 
 phet" (TrpofirJTTjs). Of this office in the early Church, I 
 have already spoken in connexion with the dedication of 
 Paul and Barnabas to their first mission by the Prophets 
 of Antioch. What was then said is confirmed by all else 
 that we know on the subject. What was the character of the 
 Hebrew Prophet, from which that of the Christian Prophet 
 was immediately derived, (so much so that in some passages 
 (Eph. ii. 20; 2 Pet i. 19.) it is difficult to distinguish one 
 from the other,) is sufficiently known to us from the Old Tes- 
 tament. Confined to no tribe, or station, or sex, sometimes 
 found in the heroic chieftain or chieftainess of an insurgent 
 people, as in the case of Ehud and Deborah, sometimes 
 in the precincts of the sanctuary, as Samuel, sometimes in 
 the palace of the kings, as Saul and David, sometimes on 
 the wild mountains and secluded pastures of the country, 
 as Elijah and Amos ; the Prophet stands forth to us as the 
 direct antithesis to all the more formal and positive parts of 
 the Jewish system as the natural counterpoise to the more 
 ceremonial element which was represented in the Priest- 
 hood as the natural link which united the humblest of the 
 people to the anointed of the Lord who sate on the throne 
 of David. And accordingly whilst the inauguration of 
 Priest and King is detailed to us with the greatest pre- 
 cision, the Prophet with hardly a single exception f appears 
 at once as the messenger of God, without any outward or 
 
 f 1 Kings xix. 17. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 57 
 
 formal consecration to his office whatever. Schools indeed 
 we hear of from the time of Samuel down to the end of the 
 monarchy in which were educated those who were more or 
 less gifted with the prophetical faculty; but even those 
 seem rather to have been intended to develope or excite 
 the divine inspiration than to train their pupils to a dis- 
 tinct order in the commonwealth, and in all the most emi- 
 nent of the number we have their own express statement, 
 like that of St. Paul respecting his Apostleship, that they 
 were first called to their mission by nothing short of the 
 vision or voice of God Himself. 
 
 Such were the essential features of that office which after a 
 long interval revived in the first burst of inspired enthusiasm 
 which ushered in the birth of Christianity. And the few 
 traces which we gather of its history from the New Testa- 
 ment, amply prove that the chief difference between its ear- 
 lier and its later forms lay not in the additional restrictions, 
 but in the additional freedom and developement which it 
 acquired in its passage from the law of bondage to the law 
 of liberty. There was still, as far as we can see, the same 
 absence of any human or ceremonial inauguration to the 
 office its authority still rested on the heayenly message 
 itself which was to be delivered, and which, by disclosing 
 to the hearer the secrets of his heart, caused him, like the 
 Hebrew king of old g , to fall down as in fascination before 
 a power greater than his own (1 Cor. xiv. 25.) But the 
 wish of Moses in the camp, that not one or two only, but 
 that all of the Lord's people should prophesy, was now re- 
 ceiving a higher fulfilment than in any previous time ; 
 whereas, even in the widest diffusion of the prophetical 
 gifts in the age of Samuel or Isaiah, they had still been the 
 exceptions, not the rule, so now they were the rule, not 
 the exceptions ; the very modifications which they under- 
 
 S I Cor. xi. 24. Comp. Numb. xxiv. 4, and the comments in Hengsten- 
 berg's History of Balaam, p. 140. 
 
58 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 went arose from the fact that they had ceased to be par- 
 ticular and had become universal that they were the ex- 
 pression not of isolated individuals, but of the whole col- 
 lective Church. If in one single family there were no less 
 than four daughters all known as prophetesses, (Acts xxi. 
 9) ; if in one whole society, though it might have been dis- 
 orderly, yet it would not have been thought impossible 
 or extraordinary for every member of it, male and female, 
 to have prophesied even in the public assembly, (1 Cor. xi. 
 4; xiv. 24. 31. 34); it is obvious that the new epoch was 
 truly described by St. Peter when on the day of Pente- 
 cost he saw, in the sudden disappearance of all previous 
 barriers before the power of the new faith, the first ade- 
 quate fulfilment of the words of Joel ; ee I will pour out 
 My Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daugh- 
 ters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, 
 and your old men shall dream dreams : and on My servants 
 and on My hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of 
 My Spirit; and they shall prophesy." (Acts ii. 17, 18.) 
 
 The two instances of Apostle and Prophet, which, as in 
 order so in importance, stand first in the passages which 
 have been quoted, will be enough to bear out the truth of 
 Hooker's interpretation. Of the rest which are mentioned, 
 some, (" miracles, gifts of healing, diversities of tongues," 
 1 Cor. xiv. 29,) will hardly be regarded by any one as 
 belonging to any especial order or office ; the last in par- 
 ticular, which occupied so prominent a place in the mind 
 both of the Apostle and his readers, was evidently common 
 to the whole Church, (1 Cor. xiv. 23,) and the usual ac- 
 companiment upon a sincere adoption of baptism, (Acts 
 xix. 6; x. 46.) Others, ("teachers, helps, governments," 
 lCor.xiv.28; " evangelists, pastors," Eph.iv. 6,) are in them- 
 selves more ambiguous, and shall be spoken of in another 
 connexion presently. Meanwhile it cannot be doubted 
 that the less certain and less prominent points in these and 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 59 
 
 similar passages, must be fixed by the meaning of the more 
 prominent and more certain points, such as those that have 
 been mentioned. It could hardly be intended to describe 
 a system of regular orders and officers by heading it, or 
 uniting it, with gifts and functions whose essential charac- 
 teristic it was that they belonged to no regular order or 
 office whatsoever. 
 
 We can now therefore understand how it is that these gifts 
 are spoken of as the necessary accompaniment the natural 
 expression, if I may so say, of a religion and a society, 
 which was, in the highest degree, not formal and cere- 
 monial, but moral and spiritual. What the Apostles were in 
 the highest sense, the Prophets, Evangelists, speakers with 
 tongues, workers of miracles, were in a lower sense the 
 living representatives of all that was best and holiest in the 
 Christian society the living witnesses of that unseen 
 Friend and Master whose power and wisdom and good- 
 ness was shewn forth in their actions and lives. As the 
 Apostles derived their especial character from their inter- 
 course with, and appointment by Christ Himself, so these 
 lower functions were called into existence by the Spirit of 
 Christ in that great manifestation of power which, in 
 the energy of its operations, belonged peculiarly to the 
 first rise of the new religion. And as no later time has 
 or can reproduce in all points the exact image of the 
 office of an Apostle, so no later time has ever witnessed, 
 in any thing like its full extent, the same outpouring of 
 spiritual gifts. " Prophesying," in its literal sense, was 
 unknown after the close of the first century ; " the gift of 
 tongues," with the exception of one faint trace of it in the 
 beginning of the second, so totally passed away, that its 
 very name and nature was to the writers of the fourth and 
 fifth centuries a hopeless riddle : and whatever may be the 
 case with respect to the continuance of miracles in general 
 after the generation of the Apostles and apostolic men, no 
 
00 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 one could think for a moment of comparing the scattered 
 and disputed instances, few and far between, from the 
 second to the fifth century, with the constant display of 
 them which is implied in the Acts, in the two Epistles to 
 Corinth, and in the Epistle of St. James. 
 
 In this, their strict historical sense, all these gifts ceased 
 with the cessation of the immediate circumstances which 
 had called them forth, thereby adding one to the many 
 marks which divide, as by an impassable bar, the aposto- 
 lical age from all that succeed. In another and a more gene- 
 ral sense they can doubtless be still reproduced amongst us ; 
 not, indeed, so truly as the office of the Apostles, inasmuch 
 as they did not, in the first instance, rest so entirely on 
 a moral and spiritual basis inasmuch as they belonged 
 essentially to those things which St. Paul expressly de- 
 clared should " cease and vanish away b ," whereas the apo- 
 stolical authority had its root in that Divine grace of which 
 we are assured no less emphatically that it (t never faileth." 
 But by analogy, as has been often observed, these gifts are 
 still a necessary growth of the perfected Christian society. 
 If Christ be truly Lord of all, if to Him have truly been 
 committed all things both in heaven and earth, then it is 
 no idle fancy, but the simple truth, that we may trace His 
 hand not only in the extraordinary and supernatural, but 
 in the ordinary and natural gifts of men that the earliest 
 form of the Christian society was, as it were, a microcosm 
 of the world at large that what was supplied to it in its 
 first stage by miraculous intervention, is to be sought for 
 now in the various faculties and feelings which it has com- 
 prehended within its sphere. And therefore it is truly 
 a part of Christian edification to apply what St. Paul 1 and 
 St. Peter have said of the diversity and relative importance 
 
 h 1 Cor. xiii. 8. 
 
 1 Rom. xii. 68; 1 Cor, xii. 28; 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. See Arnold's Ser- 
 mons, vol. ii. 217 ; vi. 300. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 61 
 
 and final cause of the first extraordinary display of the gifts 
 of the Spirit, to the analogous variety of the gifts of imagi- 
 nation, reasoning powers, thought, activity, means of bene- 
 ficence, whose co-operation in some degree is necessary to 
 society for its very existence, whose co-operation in hum- 
 bleness, disinterested love, and dependence on Him who 
 gave them, is no less necessary to society for its perfection 
 and full Christianization. 
 
 III. Such, strictly speaking, is the end of all that can The out- 
 be said on the formation of the early Christian Church as fi c es of 
 such. But, besides the Apostles, and those who were pos- 2^2" 
 sessed of spiritual gifts, there are also offices and officers Church, 
 mentioned, not, like these, in connexion with the inner- 
 most life of the Church, but as occupying posts of teaching 
 and of government properly so called. It remains, then, 
 to inquire what these were and what their relation to the 
 Church of their own and of later times. 
 
 1. The first certain mention of any such, is that of the The Seven 
 Seven Hellenists appointed to preside over the distribution 
 of charities at Jerusalem. (Acts vi.) Although their appoint- 
 ment is only mentioned incidentally, not so much for its 
 own sake as for the sake of introducing the history of the 
 forerunner of St. Paul, yet it may so far be regarded as in 
 itself an epoch, that it constitutes the first instance of any 
 direct administrative office in the Christian society, and, as 
 such, furnishes us with the general principles on which all 
 similar offices were founded during the apostolical age. 
 
 (a.) The appointment is not described as necessarily re- 
 sulting from any fixed principle of the Christian religion, 
 but as intended to meet a particular emergency, viz. the 
 murmurs of the Hellenist widows, and the accumulation of 
 work upon the Apostles. And accordingly, whatever was 
 required by the need, (eVJ TT}? %pe/a? ravrrj^,) distributing, 
 (vi. 3,) preaching to the new converts, (vi. 9; viii. 5. 26,) 
 baptizing, (viii. 12,) they performed. They are only men- 
 
62 THE APOSTOLICAL OITICE. 
 
 tioned in connexion with the history of Stephen and Philip, 
 (Acts vi viii. ; xxi. 7,) and have probably k no direct con- 
 nexion with the " Deacons" (Sidtcovoi) in the later period 
 of the apostolical age, of whom I shall speak presently 
 though they may possibly have borne the name, and though 
 there was in some respects a likeness between their respec- 
 tive duties. But their usual appellation 1 down to the time 
 when the Acts were composed was "the Seven," (Acts 
 xxi. 7,) as if in opposition to " the Twelve/' That is, on 
 the one hand were the Apostles, maintaining the essen- 
 tially moral and spiritual character of their office, by giving 
 themselves up to prayer and the word on the other hand 
 were the Seven, directing all the outward arrangements of 
 the visible society. And if, as Hooker says, "tract of 
 "time has clean worn out the first occasions for which 
 " their office was the most necessary," (Eccl. Pol. v. 78. 5,) 
 this should not prevent us from distinctly conceiving its 
 original design. 
 
 (b). They 'were elected, not by the Apostles, still less, 
 like Matthias, by lot, but by the whole society. And they 
 were dedicated to their office with prayer and imposition 
 of hands, either by the whole society, or by the Apostles 
 in conjunction with them, exactly as Paul and Barnabas 
 were afterwards dedicated to their first mission by the pro- 
 phets of Antioch. All that the Apostles, as such, had to 
 
 k Such seems to have been the view of Chrysostom, (Horn, on Acts vi.) 
 The council of Trullo (Can. 16.) also draws a distinction between these Seven, 
 and the later deacons. (Concil. Labb., torn. vi. p. 1149.) 
 
 1 One of them indeed (Acts xxi. 5.) is called an "evangelist." But the 
 context and usage of the word elsewhere makes it unlikely that it had any 
 especial connexion with the office of the " Seven." 1. Philip is so called in 
 connexion with the prophetical gifts of his four daughters, which would 
 rather lead us to suppose it to imply something of the same kind. 2. Such 
 is also the sense required by the context of Eph. iv. 11. 3. Timotheus is so 
 called in 2 Tim. iv. 5, and whatever may have been the nature of his post at 
 Ephesus, it could hardly have been identical with that of the Seven at Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 63 
 
 do with the matter, was the relief which it afforded them : 
 in the appointment of the Seven, they acted, if at all, merely 
 in conjunction with the rest. " Select from yourselves, not 
 from us, (eTTio-KetyaaOe e' vp&v,) men whom we (the whole 
 Church you and we together not ^efc distinctively) 
 shall appoint to their work (/cardo-TrjaofjLev) ; whilst we (^et? 
 e) devote ourselves to prayer." And in like manner it 
 is left ambiguous whether the Apostles, or the Church 
 generally, are to be understood as "laying hands " upon 
 them in vi. 6. 
 
 (c). Whatever gifts were possessed by the Seven, they 
 had not after, but before their dedication. "Look out 
 men (not who are imperfectly supplied, or who are here- 
 after to be supplied, but who are already) full of the 
 Spirit and of wisdom," i. e. of those qualities which would 
 most naturally fit them for the office, and which (vi. 10.) 
 they exercised in that office. 
 
 2. The same general features will be found, although less TheElders 
 distinctly marked, in the next institution which we find. y ou ng 
 This is that of the Elders (Trpeo-ftvTepoi), illustrated as it men * 
 is by the apparently corresponding office of "young men" 
 (vearepoi,, or vedvivKou.) Of its origin we have no regular 
 account, partly because it was not like that of " the 
 Seven" connected with the progress of the apostolical 
 history, partly also because unlike the Seven, it was not 
 called suddenly into existence, but, as the name implies, 
 and the nature of the office shews, grew up gradually 
 from the natural allotment of certain functions to age 
 and youth, and from the imitation m , conscious or uncon- 
 
 m It is possible that of a.Tr6ffTo\oi may be supplied from T&V 
 just before ; but the natural construction of the sentence would require the 
 same nominative case to eTreflrj/caz/ as to effTyo-av and e|eAe|az/To, viz. rb Tr\ri6os ; 
 and that it was no unusual thing for others besides the Apostles to lay hands 
 on their fellow Christians is evident from the case of Ananias in Acts ix., of 
 the Antiochene prophets in Acts xiii., and of believers generally in Mark xvi. 
 18, 19. 
 
64 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 scious, of the Jewish synagogue. But we may safely 
 infer that it could not have assumed any definite shape 
 at the time of the appointment of the Seven : the whole 
 account of that transaction evidently precludes the notion 
 of any governing body in the Church of Jerusalem be- 
 sides the Apostles and the whole assembly; and the first 
 mention of the "presbyters" (Acts xi. 30) implies that the 
 very duty of presiding over the alms, which had been be- 
 fore the especial business of the Seven, was now allotted to 
 them. If one might hazard a conjecture, it would be that 
 when in process of time the Seven had been broken up by 
 the death of one of their number (vii. 50), and the settle- 
 ment of another at Csesarea (xxi. 5), the outward super- 
 intendence of the Church, originally committed to them, 
 now devolved upon those whose age and tried qualities fitted 
 them to exercise it, whilst the more active and actual bodily 
 labour would be discharged by the younger members", who 
 had from the first, according to the general feeling of the 
 East, come forward to assist their elders. (Acts v. 6. 10.) In 
 the case of these latter, who are only mentioned by that spe- 
 cific name once again, (1 Pet. v. 5,) the connexion between 
 the office and the age is too evident to be overlooked for a 
 moment. In the case of the Elders, though it must from the 
 first have been slightly modified by the official sense in 
 which the corresponding Hebrew word was used in the ser- 
 vices of the synagogue, yet even to the very close of the 
 first century it still retained something of its original mean- 
 ing. St. Peter, in speaking of the presbyters, classes him- 
 self with them (1 Pet. v. 1.) as a fellow elder (o-v/j,7rp(r/3v- 
 Te/30?) merely on account of his own advanced age. St. 
 John (2 John 1 ; 3 John 1,) evidently for the same reason 
 calls himself emphatically "the elde_r," (6 Trpeafivrepo?.) And 
 
 n Compare the relation of Joshua to Moses, (Numb. xi. 28; Josh. i. 1,) 
 expressed in both cases by the Hebrew word corresponding to the Greek 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 65 
 
 it is well known that the name of " the elders" (ol irpea- 
 pvrepot) was still used in the next generation not for 
 any distinct office, but for those venerable men who were 
 the depositaries of the last instructions of the Apostles. 
 (Irenseus, passim. See Rothe, Anfange der Christlichen 
 Kirche, i. 221.) 
 
 3. Such was the original office of the Elders, an office, The Bi- 
 like that of the Seven, originating in the needs of the Deacons, 
 particular Church of Jerusale^ n? and most frequently men- 
 tioned in connexion witby'^.. and though, as we shall 
 see, the name was part? . , y introduced into the Gentile 
 societies, yet it is still in the predominantly Jewish 
 Churches, and in the writings of the Apostles of the cir- 
 cumcision, James arid Cephas and John, (Acts xi. 30; 
 xv. 4, 22, 23; xxi. 18; James v. 1 ; 1 Pet. v. 14; 2 and 
 3 John 1 ; Rev. iv. 4, 10; v. 6, 8, 11, 14; vii. 11, 13; xi. 
 16 ; xiv. 3 ; xix. 4,) that it is chiefly to be found, as if it 
 still lingered within the circle of the forms of the syna- 
 gogue and the atmosphere of eastern customs, to which, 
 humanly speaking, it owed its birth. 
 
 But the first wants of the early Churches were too simi- 
 lar all over the empire not to require the creation of 
 similar offices to those which existed amongst the Churches 
 of Judaea. It was a Gentile rather than a Jewish office 
 that was to be ennobled and sanctified by its introduction 
 into the bosom of the Universal Church. The institution 
 of two grades like those just mentioned, one for the dis- 
 charge of the higher, the other for the discharge of the 
 lower and more mechanical duties of the society, was at 
 once so simple, and also so exactly in accordance with the 
 familiar division of the higher and the subordinate magis- 
 trates of the Grecian commonwealths, that nothing more 
 than congenial names, and a slight modification to meet 
 local difficulties, was needed to introduce it at once into 
 the Gentile Churches. The first instance of the name of 
 
66 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 "elders" in a Gentile society is that in which they are de- 
 scribed as elected (xeiporovrjcravres) by Paul and Barnabas 
 on their first journey through the several Churches of Asia 
 Minor, (Acts xiv. 23) ; and the next is when St. Paul called 
 together "the elders of the Church" from Ephesus to receive 
 his farewell address at Miletus (Acts xx. 17.) But in the 
 last of these cases the same persons whom the narrative calls 
 "elders" are by the 'le himself designated as "over- 
 
 " seers" or "bishops ^ * -^TTOU?) "over the flock," (xx. 
 28.) And although this naT^ a ^ ro bably used rather in its 
 general than in its official seC evej yet it is probable that we 
 here see the first indications of that use of it which was in 
 a short time to become almost universal. The eight earliest 
 of St. Paul's Epistles contain no detailed direct allusion to 
 the government of Christian societies ; but at the close of 
 his first imprisonment we find in the Epistle to the Philip- 
 pians (i. 1), that the "bishops" and "deacons" are spoken 
 of as the two bodies which had the supreme control of 
 that Church; and in 1 Tim. iii., it is obvious that the 
 only appointments with which Timotheus was concerned 
 were those of " bishops" and "deacons." These were evi- 
 dently the two correlative terms, as 7rpeo-/3vTpoi, and veto- 
 repot seem to have been before : exactly corresponding in 
 their mutual relation to the ap%ovTe$ and vTryperai of the 
 Grecian states : thus, in the language of the New Testa- 
 ment, "bishop" (eV/cr/eoTro?) is never used in conjunction 
 with "younger" (z/eoore/jo?), nor "elder" (irpecT^vrepo^) 
 with "deacon" (Sta/eow?). Accordingly the above passages 
 amply prove that the offices of "bishop" and "presbyter," 
 though slightly differing in origin, were in station and 
 duties exactly identical. In the address of St. Paul (Acts 
 xx. 28), if the word eVtWoTros is to be understood at all in 
 its technical sense, it is applied to those who are called in 
 xx. 17, "presbyters of the Church," (i.e., as the context 
 indisputably implies, of the Church of Ephesus,) and who 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 67 
 
 therefore cannot be regarded as independent heads of sepa- 
 rate societies. In the Epistle to the Philippians (i. 1), it 
 is no less evident that the "bishops" there spoken of con- 
 stitute a body of several officers of equal rank within the 
 single Church of Philippi ; and, if so, in a position corre- 
 sponding to that elsewhere (Acts xi. 30; xiv. 23), denoted 
 by the presbyterate. In the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, 
 the identity of the offices is re- 1 still more apparent 
 by the context in which the ^ ar ^cur. Titus is ordered 
 to appoint at Crete presby'^.. ,ith qualifications precisely 
 corresponding to those . ^ v ured in the first Epistle to 
 Timothy for bishops, and uie reason for the necessity of such 
 qualifications is expressly said in both cases to be " because 
 " the bishop must be of this character," (Tit. i. 5 7; 1 Tim. 
 iii. 1 7.) And further it is to be observed, that in 1 Tim. 
 iii. 1 13, as in Phil. i. 1, no officers are mentioned, except 
 " bishops and deacons," a mode of speech which would be 
 inexplicable if so -important a body as that of presbyters 
 had intervened .between them. If it be asked how it hap- 
 pens that the name of "presbyter" occurs at all in these 
 Epistles (1 Tim. iii. 14; v. 1, 7; Tit. i. 5), in its official 
 sense, when it was so nearly or so entirely superseded by 
 the more recent term of " bishop," it would appear that this 
 transition is precisely what the passages indicate: where 
 the functionaries of the society were spoken of in their 
 more general relation, they might still be designated by 
 that respectful title of " elder," which even in these Epistles 
 is at times hardly distinguishable from that which would 
 merely denote old age, (see 1 Tim. v. 1, 2 ; Tit. ii. 2, 3 ;) 
 whereas when their official qualifications are brought for- 
 ward, it is at once exchanged (as in Tit. i. 7) for the 
 appellation of " bishop," which to Gentile ears more natu- 
 rally expressed this aspect of their position. 
 
 It only remains to trace in detail the origin and growth 
 
 In this passage the word is 
 F2 
 
68 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 of the two names of "bishop" and "deacon" in the 
 Churches where we chiefly find them. In them, as in so 
 many words in the New Testament, there is as it were a 
 conflux of two trains of thought, an oriental and a western. 
 In the earlier or more exclusively Jewish of the writings in 
 the New Testament, we find the name "bishop" (eVtWo- 
 73-09) only in its more general sense, and in all these pas- 
 sages (Acts xx. 28, Troifjiaiveiv, 7roifi,vi<p, i. 20, eiravXis, 
 1 Pet. ii. 25, iroifdva, v. 2, Troi^dvare} it evidently ex- 
 presses generally the watchful care and superintendance of 
 a shepherd, and this, so far as it became incorporated into 
 the phraseology of Jewish Christians, must doubtless have 
 been its predominant meaning. But it was, as we have seen, 
 in the Gentile Churches that the word, from the more 
 general signification noticed above, passed into the name of 
 an office ; and this result was doubtless accelerated by the 
 fact that it had been already so used as the translation of 
 civil and military offices by the Seventy (see especially 
 the elaborate use made of Is. Ix. 17, in Clem. Rom. 42), 
 who had themselves probably derived it from the name 
 of the officers stationed by the Athenians in their subject 
 towns, corresponding to the Harmostse of LacedsemonP. 
 
 It is evident in like manner that the word "deacon" (&a- 
 KOVOS), with its cognate verb and substantive, had acquired 
 a religious sense indicative of a man's humble service of 
 God and his brethren long before it was appropriated to 
 any particular office, and is perhaps more extensively used 
 than any other for all the various functions of Christian 
 life. This word however had also a hold on the Greek 
 language from classical times, though not in quite so 
 
 P Such at least was the opinion of Hooker, (Ecc. Pol. vii. 2. 2.) " The 
 " name bishop' hath been borrowed from the Grecians ;" which he defends 
 by the passages often since quoted from Suidas (voc. eTrtovcoTros), Dionys. Hal. 
 Ant. ii. 76, Cic. ad Att. vii. 11, To these may be added Aristoph. Aves. 1022. 
 with the Scholiast. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 69 
 
 definite" a form, as eWcr/eoTro?, sufficiently however to 
 render its amalgamation easy, (see Buttmann's Lexilogus, 
 p. 231 233); and it is accordingly only in the Gentile 
 Churches^ that we find it, and that at a much earlier 
 period than its correlative office of "bishop," viz., Rom. 
 xvi. 1. It is not here necessary to enter into the various 
 changes which in after times distinguished it from the 
 simple office of the younger minister of the Christian 
 synagogue. One modification however has r been remarked 
 on its passage from the Jewish to the Gentile Churches, 
 viz., the institution of female deacons, as we see at Cenchrea 
 (Rom. xvi. 1), and perhaps at Ephesus (1 Tim. v. 8 19); 
 not improbably from the greater delicacy required in deal- 
 ing with the female converts in Greek society, where, as 
 Grotius well observes, the female portion of the house- 
 hold (yvvai/ccwrjTis) was closed against male intruders. 
 
 These then are all the offices, properly speaking, which 
 we can discover in the early Church. Other names indeed 
 occur, also evidently denoting an official eminence, as ol 
 TTpoio-TaiJLevoi, Rom. xu. 8; 1 Thess. v. 12, (evidently used 
 as the most general name for the presiding body,) ol rjyov- 
 fievoi, Heb. xiii. 7, (since adopted by the Greek clergy as 
 a title for the heads of monastic establishments,) ol KCLTTJ- 
 ^owre?, (Gal. vi. 6,) but it is so natural to suppose that 
 they were either substantially the same as the elders and 
 overseers, or (as is more likely) provisional officers who 
 were afterwards blended with them, that this point re- 
 quires no further discussion. Nor again is it necessary 
 to prove at length the wholly temporary character of the 
 office, if it may be called an office, which Timotheus and 
 Titus held respectively at Ephesus and Crete, of whom 
 the first was governor of the Church only in Paul's absence, 
 1 Tim. iv. 13 ; i. 3, and left it altogether before Paul's 
 
 * Rorn. xvi. 1 ; 1 Tim. iii. 8 ; Phil. ii. 1. r Rothe, i. 244. 
 
70 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 death, 2 Tim. iv. 9, and the second was to leave the island 
 that very winter, 2 Tim. iv. 10 ; Tit. iii. 12 s . Nor can any 
 ecclesiastical institution be deduced from the mention of 
 the "angels" of the seven Churches, in the total absence of 
 any proof for such an application of the word in the apo- 
 stolic age, and against the uniform use of it in all other 
 parts of the Apocalypse in its usual sense of a heavenly 
 messenger, which seems to be required especially in this 
 place by the obviously figurative and prophetical style of 
 the whole address in which the term occurs. (Rev. i. iii.) 
 
 Accidental Such then is the difference between the apostolical and 
 essential Ut the spiritual gifts of the early Church, on the one hand, 
 distinction and itg O ffi ces on tne ot h er h an( j. That the two were fre- 
 
 between. 
 
 the gifts quently blended in the same persons is of course not only 
 offices. likely but certain to have happened, even were no traces 
 of such a union expressly recorded. "As every man hath re- 
 " ceived a gift (e\a{3ev %dpi(r/jLa), even so minister the same 
 " one to another (i. e., for your mutual profit, els eavrovs, 
 " comp. 1 Cor. xii. 27), as good stewards of the manifold 
 " grace of God ; if any man speak, let him speak as the 
 " oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of 
 " the strength (LO-^VOS) which God supplies (xopyyel), that 
 " in all alike God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to 
 " whom (i. e., as the source of these gifts) is the glory and 
 " the power (i. e., the glory of the teaching and the power 
 " of the strength) for ever and ever." (1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.) 
 Such doubtless was the general principle on which those 
 who were endowed with the different gifts chose or were 
 
 This is hesides almost required by the improbability of supposing Timo- 
 theus to have remained at Ephesus after the arrival of St. John, or of ascrib- 
 ing to Titus (contrary to the practice of that or of any of the early ages of 
 Christianity) the regular episcopal superintendance not of any one of the 
 hundred cities, but of the whole island of Crete. And it may be observed 
 that Chrysostom in his Homilies on the Pastoral Epistles never gives the 
 name of bishop either to Timotheus or Titus. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 71 
 
 appointed to the different offices in which they could best 
 exercise them ; some, according to the division here sug- 
 gested, in accordance with Rom. xii. 6 8 ; 1 Cor.* xii. 28, 
 by their moral or intellectual character rather entitling a 
 man to the function of teaching, others by the more out- 
 ward and physical activity, which was also counted as a 
 gift of God, being more suitable to the functions of 
 government or of administration to external wants. The 
 possession of these gifts was what (in the language of later 
 ages) constituted the Divine "call" to the offices of the 
 Church ; the subsequent appointment to these offices cor- 
 responded in like manner to the actual ceremony of the 
 present (< ordination." Accordingly, as time went on, the 
 two spheres would naturally become concentric, the gifts 
 which in Rom. xii. 6 8 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28, are freely distri- 
 buted through the whole community, appear in the later 
 enumeration of Eph. iv. 11, to be represented in the more 
 fixed and concrete form of "evangelists," "pastors and 
 " teachers," who in their turn are thrown into the shade in 
 the yet later Epistles by the more formal array of " bishops 
 " and deacons," who like Timotheus in his post" at Ephesus 
 might well be called to find in their new offices the fittest 
 scope for the exercise of those gifts of et government," of 
 " knowledge," of " teaching," and of " ministering," which 
 they had received long before at their conversion. 
 
 But the two things are not the less essentially distinct. 
 The former belong to the Church, strictly as the Church, 
 
 * The gift of tongues in this passage is put last, perhaps as the one of which 
 the Apostle was especially speaking : otherwise they are arranged as in 1 Pet. 
 iv. 10; Rom. xii. 6, first the gifts of "speaking," then of "action" or 
 " strength." 
 
 u 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6. The comparison of these passages with 
 1 Tim. i. 18. confirms the conclusion to which we are led by the general 
 analogy of the apostolical history, and to which this transaction if otherwise 
 interpreted would form the only exception, that the "gift" which Timotheus 
 was to "stir up," had been received by him at his first conversion. Acts xvi. 
 1, 2. Comp. Acts ii. 38 ; viii. 17; ix. 17 ; x. 44; xix. 6; Gal. iii. 5. 
 
72 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 as a spiritual society of which Christ was the head, and all 
 its members religiously equal in the sight of God, although 
 endowed by Him with various gifts for the perfection of 
 the whole body. The latter belong to the Church, not 
 as the Church at all, but so far forth as the Church, dwell- 
 ing on earth and amongst men, is constrained to borrow 
 the forms of the world. It is not without significance that, 
 whilst the name at least of the chief of those offices was 
 amongst the Jewish Christians borrowed from the existing 
 institutions of the synagogue, amongst the Gentile Chris- 
 tians it was, as we have seen, derived from those of Greece 
 and Rome. And in like manner, all the other names by 
 which their functions were first designated, sprung not from 
 the religious but the civil vocabulary of the time ; and the 
 ideas which they first suggest to those well read in the his- 
 tory of the times, are not of spiritual, but of political power. 
 u Ordo" (the origin of the present "orders") was the well- 
 known name of the municipal senates of the empire, 
 "ordinatio" (the original of our (( ordination") was never 
 used by the Romans for their religious ceremonies; the 
 "diocese" already existed in the divisions of the Roman 
 empire : the earliest place of Christian assembly was not a 
 temple, but a basilica: the stern counsels of the first 
 bishops are couched in the very language of the consuls 
 and senates of the ancient republic: the Papacy itself, 
 according to the well-known expression of Hobbes, of 
 which the truth up to a certain point will not be disputed 
 by any, was "the ghost of the deceased Roman empire 
 " sitting crowned upon the grave thereof x ." 
 
 In saying thus much I have slightly outstepped the 
 limits of the apostolic age ; because, from the nature of the 
 case, there was not in the apostolic age sufficient scope for 
 the idea to develope itself. But though the intensely 
 moral and spiritual character of the whole period precluded 
 
 x See Hooker, Ecc. Pol. vii. 8. 7. Gibbon, c. xv. note 147. 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 73 
 
 the possibility of any complete organization such as ex- 
 isted in the Church a few years later, yet it is not to be 
 denied, that in the last stage of the lives of the two great 
 Apostles of the Asiatic Churches, St. Paul and St. John, 
 we see something like the beginning of a new and com- 
 plete institution growing up under their hands. We see 
 it both on its good and evil side, on the one hand in the 
 appointment of Timotheus and Titus by St. Paul, temporary 
 though it seems to have been, and in the establishment of 
 single officers in some at least of the Asiatic citres y by 
 St. John; on the other hand, in Diotrephes striving to 
 have the first place (3 John 9), and in the nameless indi- 
 vidual whom Clement of Rome charges with usurping the 
 rights of the Corinthian presbyters, (Clem. Rom. c. 47, 
 54,) w r e see the shadows cast before by the events of the 
 coming age the little cloud at first like a man's hand, 
 which was destined to overspread the whole heaven the 
 earliest indications of that illustrious office, which was to 
 assume such gigantic proportions in the days of Ignatius, 
 of Cyprian, and of Gregory. 
 
 To pursue these indications into their expansion in later 
 history would be foreign to the present purpose; but it 
 will not be out of place to add, in conclusion, a few words 
 to point out how they contain elements of instruction 
 which we could ill spare from the sacred volume, and 
 which amply justify the parting gleam shed upon them by 
 the latest writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, by the 
 latest care of the Beloved Disciple. 
 
 First, these institutions serve to bridge over the gulf 
 between the apostolical period and that which followed it; 
 they were indeed but the outward frame-work of the 
 
 1 forou fte?/ eTTHTKOirovs KaraffT-fiffaiv, oirov Se oAas KK\r)(rias ap/j.6<r(av, Zirov Se 
 K\riptp, eW 76 viva. KXripwffcai/, rwv viro TOV irufv/maros ffrjfji.aivofj.ei'cav. Eus. H. E. 
 Hi. 23. " Ordo episcoporum ad originem recensus, in Joannem stabit auctorem." 
 Tert. adv. Marc, iv. 5. 
 
74 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 Spirit, but still they were something tangible and visible 
 for the Christians of the first age to hand on in bodily 
 form to their successors, and for the Christians of the 
 second age to look back upon as having, in very truth, 
 grown up under the shadow of apostolic authority, and 
 amidst the blaze of apostolic miracles. " We stop at the 
 " last Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy," it has been said, 
 " with something of the same interest with which one 
 " pauses at the last hamlet of the cultivated valley, when 
 " there is nothing but moor beyond. It is the end, or all 
 " but the end, of our real knowledge of primitive Chris- 
 " tianity ; there we take our last distinct look around ; 
 " further the mist hangs thick, and few and distorted are the 
 " objects which we can discern in the midst of it." This is 
 perfectly true. Still it is something for us now it must 
 have been something for the Christians of the second and 
 third centuries to be able to trace in those " few and dis- 
 " torted objects," a likeness, faint it may be and merely ex- 
 ternal, but still a likeness to the forms which we last saw 
 before the mist closed in upon us ; we know how precious 
 are the relics of characters, or periods, which have passed 
 away from us ; and we can well understand how dearly the 
 generation which succeeded to the times of Paul and of 
 John, must have cherished the links which bound them, 
 however slightly, to the institutions amongst which Paul 
 and John had actually lived and moved. 
 
 Secondly, the prominent position which these offices of 
 government occupy in the closing period of the apostolic 
 age, implies a sanction it might perhaps without offence be 
 said a sanctification of the principle of government gene- 
 rally. When we contemplate the active freedom, the uni- 
 versal excitement, the preternatural energies, of the Chris- 
 tian society, as implied in the earlier Epistles, we might be 
 led to doubt whether any outward and administrative in- 
 stitution was not in itself an infringement on the original 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 75 
 
 apostolical conception of a Christian Church. But when 
 we find the attention bestowed on institutions of this kind 
 in the pastoral Epistles of St. Paul, and in the best authen- 
 ticated traditions of St. John, we learn that here also the 
 harmony of God's dispensation has been preserved, and that 
 this element of human interest, though still subordinate to 
 the higher moral and spiritual ends of the whole society, 
 has not been overlooked in the comprehensive sphere of 
 apostolic teaching. The well-known injunctions in Rom. 
 xiii. 1 6, and 1 Pet. ii. 20, to obey the authorities of the 
 Roman empire, as ministers of God, had already prepared 
 us to regard the power of government as an object to be 
 held in respect and admiration by its Christian subjects 
 to invest, as it has been said, "even those laws which we 
 " call the common machinery of government," with some- 
 thing of a divine character. The passages of which we are 
 now speaking, whether in the writings or the actions of the 
 later period of the apostolic age, carry us yet a step further. 
 They teach us that these offices of outward administrative 
 power may not only be reverenced by Christians, as exist- 
 ing without the pale of Christianity, but may also be held 
 by Christians themselves, within the pale of Christianity, 
 without fear of degrading or secularizing their higher 
 calling as citizens of heaven. Further than this the veil 
 could not be withdrawn except by a miraculous anticipa- 
 tion of the whole course of the world's subsequent history ; 
 but so far as the apostolic sanction could be given to the 
 Christian use of social functions in so simple, and, poli- 
 tically speaking, so subordinate a body as the first Chris- 
 tian society, so far it was given, and is capable of an in- 
 finite variety of applications, not ecclesiastical only, but 
 civil, down to the latest stage of the world's existence. 
 
 Too much time perhaps has been expended in the fore- 
 going pages on the proof of facts which are familiar to 
 
76 THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 
 
 every student of this portion of Christian antiquity, and 
 which have been long ago summed up in the obvious re- 
 mark of Bingham, (ii. 19. 3,) that "all Churches had not 
 " immediately all the same Church officers on their first 
 " foundation, but time was required to complete their con- 
 " stitution." But, not to mention that these facts are still 
 often forgotten amidst the echoes of controversies which 
 have themselves long since died away, it is not unim- 
 portant to observe the testimony which, so far as they go, 
 is borne by them to the genuineness of the Epistles which 
 embody them. It will be observed that the state of things 
 implied by them resembles indeed more or less the indica- 
 tions preserved to us in the writings immediately subse- 
 quent, such as Clement, but is wholly distinct from any 
 thing after the middle of the second century. By 
 that time not only the whole constitution of the Asiatic 
 Churches had been altered, but the very terms by which its 
 offices were expressed had changed their meaning. It is 
 not perhaps impossible, but surely it is in a very high de- 
 gree improbable, that works, which speak only of presby- 
 ters and deacons, should have been composed during or 
 after a period when, as even the genuine remains of Igna- 
 tius testify, the authority of a single person was regarded as 
 the one object of paramount importance when it must 
 have required an effort of imagination wholly uncongenial 
 to the habits of the time, to assume the language of 
 a former age on the very points respecting which the 
 greatest changes had taken place. And if it is only by 
 slow degrees, and after the lapse of many centuries, that 
 the original meaning of these passages has been discovered, 
 it may afford some satisfaction to the Christian student to 
 reflect that this is one of the cases, referred to before, where 
 modern criticism has been allowed to furnish an evidence 
 to the truth of the apostolical writings, which to the vague 
 apprehensions of an earlier age was wholly or in part de- 
 
THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICE. 77 
 
 nied. We may lament that we can no longer find in the 
 Pastoral Epistles the exact mirror of our own institutions 
 that we cannot anticipate half a century by calling 
 Timotheus the bishop of Ephesus, or by elevating that 
 venerable name as it occurs in the pages of the New 
 Testament to the single dignity which it has since acquired. 
 But it is surely a compensation to feel far more truly than 
 heretofore in their perusal that the very contrast between 
 the earlier and later signification of the words employed 
 sets a seal on their historical value and to be reminded 
 by the absence of that complete organization which was 
 reserved by God's good Providence for subsequent times 
 that' we have not descended from the higher region of the 
 apostolic age, that we are still moving not amidst the forms 
 belonging to a particular period, but amidst the general 
 principles which best accorded with the first beginnings 
 of His Church, and can be applied for its guidance in all 
 future ages alike. 
 
SERMON II 
 
 ST. PETER. 
 
 MATTH. xvi. 18, 19. 
 
 Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I 
 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and 
 whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, sJuill be loosed in 
 heaven. 
 
 IN continuing the subject which I opened to you SERM. 
 some time since from this place, when I attempted ~ 
 to set before you the general character and position 
 of the three great Apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul, and 
 St. John, it must now be my endeavour to exhibit, 
 so far as one part of so complex an enquiry can be 
 separated from another, the first of the Three, 
 St. Peter, both in his historical relation to the age 
 in which he lived, and also in the practical applica^ 
 tion of his life and example to ourselves. 
 
 Whatever difficulty exists in recalling any part of 
 the apostolical age, exists in the highest degree 
 with regard to the earliest period of it represented 
 to us by St. Peter. It is not only that his character 
 is less strongly reflected in his writings, but that the 
 
80 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. outward sphere of his action, the immediate scope of 
 
 ' his teaching, the cotemporary mode of thinking and 
 
 feeling with regard to him, belongs, far more than in 
 the case of the other two, to a state of things which 
 has long passed away, not only from our experience, 
 but from our very thoughts and imaginations. We 
 must banish from our minds not only all the recent 
 controversies with which his name has been con- 
 nected, but all those images of the later epoch even 
 of the apostolical age itself, with which the Epistles 
 of St. Paul have made us familiar ; we must go 
 back in thought to a time even before the name of 
 Paul was known, or if known, known only to be 
 suspected and feared when the dawn of Chris- 
 tianity was but just breaking over the eastern sky, 
 and men were too deeply absorbed in watching the 
 first streaks of sunlight catch the mountain tops, to 
 look round on the wide and varied prospect which 
 was opening to their view on every side. Still there 
 is something in the very remoteness of the scene, 
 something in the very twilight of that early morn- 
 ing, something in the very shade that veils so much 
 from our sight, which invests with additional in- 
 terest any image however faint of the only living 
 object that we can discern, and which may render 
 this enquiry profitable, even though its only result 
 should be to impress upon us not our knowledge, 
 but our ignorance. 
 
 I. It is naturally in the first stage of St. Peter's life 
 that we must look for the leading idea of his whole 
 character. Progress indeed there was in him as in 
 
ST. PETER. 81 
 
 the other two, but there was no great and abrupt SERM; 
 change from his former self, no sudden conversion 
 as in St. Paul, no wide chasm of which we know 
 nothing as in St. John. What he was when we 
 first knew him, that same man, sanctified, softened, 
 strengthened, he was down to the end. He was 
 then and he still continues to be, in a sense which 
 was true only of himself, the representative of the 
 original apostolical brotherhood, of those who had 
 seen the Lord face to face, of those who dwelt in 
 the earliest recollections of that time preserved to 
 us in the two earliest Gospels, both in an especial 
 manner a connected with his name and teaching. 
 What he was, that we see clearly they in a lower 
 degree were also. He was exactly what he has been 
 well called by those to whom that highest concep- 
 tion of ancient poetry was still a living image. He 
 was in the words of Chrysostom b the l< Coryphaeus" 
 of the devoted band, which, like the Chorus of the 
 Grecian Tragedy, watched the unfolding, part by 
 
 It would require too long a discussion to enter fully on the 
 connexion of the two first Gospels with St. Peter. It will suffice 
 to observe with regard to that according to St. Matthew, that 
 internal and external evidence alike represent it as the Gospel of 
 the Jewish Churches with which St. Peter was especially con- 
 nected, and that some of its recensions actually bore the name of 
 Peter. And with regard to the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 
 strong internal evidence of a kindred origin with St. Matthew's 
 Gospel is confirmed by the unanimous tradition which recognises 
 in it the substance of St. Peter's teaching as communicated to his 
 companion and interpreter. 
 
 b Chrysost. ad Matt. xvi. 16. 
 
82 ST. PETER, 
 
 SERM. part, of that awful drama, half actors half spectators, 
 - from its opening scene to its final crisis. He is the 
 central figure round which they all move ; in his 
 hopes and aspirations, advancing, wavering, baffled, 
 triumphant, we see the hopes and aspirations of 
 them all ; in his impassioned acts and words, we 
 catch the energetic expression of that which in 
 them is silent or motionless ; in that strong Jewish 
 enthusiasm, which is the key to his whole character, 
 clinging to the forms of the ancient law, yet with 
 his heart open to their true fulfilment, we see the 
 natural leader of those whose especial office it was 
 to be at once the last link in the line of Jewish pro- 
 phets, the first in the line of Christian Apostles. 
 
 Of all the three Apostles, as of God's chosen 
 instruments in other times and for other purposes, 
 it must be remembered that there was a correspond- 
 ence between their work and their character. Dis- 
 cover the one, and you have discovered the other. 
 The call was made by Providence, and to that call 
 their lives were the answer. It is when the fields 
 are white unto the harvest that the Lord of the 
 harvest sends forth His labourers to gather it in. 
 
 It is difficult for us now to conceive the moment 
 of suspense, when in the language of St. John, He 
 who had been in the beginning with God, "came c 
 l( unto His own, and His own received Him not." 
 The yearnings of ages were accomplished, the law 
 and the prophets were fulfilled, yet " the world 
 
 c John i. 11. 
 
ST. PETER. 83 
 
 " knew Him not :" even " the greatest of those that SERM. 
 <f had been born of women," could not reach the 
 point at which he should become d " the least in 
 " the kingdom of heaven :" even within the nearest 
 circle of all, His kinsmen drove Him forth, and His 
 brethren believed not on Him e . Where then was 
 the smoking flax which the spark should kindle 
 into life ? Who or what was to bridge over this 
 chasm between the old and the new dispensations ? 
 Who was to take the first step without which even 
 the wisdom of Paul and the love of John could 
 have found no fitting place ? Was Caiaphas indeed 
 the representative of the whole people of Israel, as 
 he deemed himself or was by others deemed to be, 
 or was it still possible to find traces of that nobler 
 influence, so characteristic of the better spirits of the 
 older times, who stood fast indeed on " the ancient 
 " ways," but whose hearts and minds f , unlike all 
 the other nations of antiquity, turned not backward 
 
 d Matt. xi. ll. 
 
 e Luke iv. 29 ; John vii. 5. 
 
 f See Bacon's paraphrase of the often quoted text " Stare super 
 " antiquas vias." " That we stand upon the ancient ways and then 
 " look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, 
 " and so to walk in it." (Essay on Innovations.) Compare Tholuck's 
 first Appendix to his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 " The Jew was especially an ' homme de 1' avenir,' a ' homo desi- 
 " deriorum.' " It is impossible in a passing remark to enlarge upon 
 this remarkable feature in the character of the chosen people. The 
 golden age of Palestine was not in the past, but in the future ; the 
 epic of their history was in their prophecies ; the hero, if one may 
 so speak, of their national affections was no divine ancestor of 
 remote antiquity, but the Messiah who was " to come." 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. to an irrecoverable past, but forward to a distant 
 
 ' future? 
 
 It would be needless, perhaps, to look for any 
 outward circumstances to account for feelings, 
 which, if they existed at all, must have been im- 
 planted from above in the inmost depths of the 
 human heart. Yet if we were to turn especially to 
 any one part of Palestine for such a faithful like- 
 ness of the ancient glory of God's people as was 
 needed for this purpose, it would be amongst the 
 mountains of Galilee, or the secluded villages which 
 line the shores of its inland sea. There, as we 
 are reminded by St. Matthew", " in the borders of 
 
 * Matt. iv. 15. The general sense of this passage, as of Isa. ix. 
 1, 2, from which it is quoted, is, that even the most despised and 
 remote parts of Palestine shall share in the future glory of the 
 Messiah's kingdom. (See Ewald, ad loc.) And in one sense it 
 might be said that the Galileans were so mixed up with the sur- 
 rounding Phoenician tribes as to be more than half Gentiles. 
 This, however, does not interfere with the Jewish zeal here 
 ascribed to them. They were, as distinct from the inhabitants of 
 Judaea, the peasantry of Palestine. However much the purity of 
 their race may have suffered from their juxtaposition with hea- 
 then neighbours, their manners must have been less exposed 
 than those of their southern countrymen to the contagion of Greek 
 and Roman influence. It is amongst the followers of the 
 Galilean Judas, perverted as their zeal might be, that we find 
 the last trace of the mingled spirit of national independence 
 and religious enthusiasm which had in former days charac- 
 terized the struggle of the Maccabees against Antiochus : it 
 is in the fidelity and affection of the Galilean peasants to 
 their protector Josephus, that we find the simple feelings of 
 self-devotion and gratitude which were vainly sought for in 
 the Sanhedrin and the metropolis. (See Joseph. B. J. ii. 8. 
 
ST. PETIIH. 85 
 
 " Zebulon and Napthali " amidst the recollections SERM, 
 of those heroic tribes who had once " jeopardied - 
 " their lives unto the death" against the host of 
 Jabin under the very shadow of those ancient hills 
 which had once echoed the triumphant strains of 
 Deborah and of Barak, was nursed that burning 
 zeal, that unbroken patriotism, which made the 
 name of Galilean so formidable even to the legions 
 of the empire. There, far removed from the min- 
 gled despotism and corruption of the schools and 
 courts of Jerusalem, out of the country, from 
 which the chief priests and scribes were proudly 
 convinced that no prophet could arise, we might 
 fairly look for the freer and purer development of 
 those older yearnings after the future, of that un- 
 dying trust in the invisible, which had once cha- 
 racterized the Jewish race for an ardent hope 
 of the promised deliverance, not yet hardened into 
 formalism by the traditions of the Pharisee for 
 a soaring aspiration after Divinity not yet chained 
 to earth by the unbelief of the Sadducees. 
 
 Such were all the Galilean Apostles such espe- 
 cially was Simon surnamed the Rock. No priest of 
 the house of Levi, no warrior of the host of Judah, 
 ever burnt with more fervent zeal in behalf of God's 
 chosen people ; no prophet ever waited in more 
 rapt expectation for the hope of the coming De- 
 liverer, as it dawned upon him through the earthly 
 images which bounded his immediate view in Baby- 
 
 1 ; Aiit. xviii. 1. 26; xx. 5. 2. Vita passim, but especially c. 42, 
 43, 50.) 
 
86 ST. PETEE. 
 
 SERM. Ion, or Edom, or Jerusalem, than did the fisherman 
 - of Galilee as he hung upon the words and looks of 
 that unknown Teacher who appeared on the shores 
 of his native lake. Gradually, dimly, doubtfully, 
 the vision rose within his mind ; sometimes an 
 awful consciousness of some Divine Presence, which, 
 like Gideon or Manoah, he "prayed to depart from 
 " him 1 ;" sometimes of an earthly empire, in which 
 they who had " left all and followed Him k ," should 
 reign as satraps of the King of Zion ; sometimes 
 of the blaze of glory which rested on the ancient 
 tabernacle, as when he woke upon the holy mount, 
 and spoke " not knowing what he said 1 ." But, 
 amidst all these dark and wavering images, his face 
 was set in the right direction ; and therefore, in 
 that memorable scene of which every detail of place 
 and circumstance is described to us with unusual 
 precision, when at Csesarea Philippi, far withdrawn 
 from the gaze of the multitude beneath the snowy 
 heights of Hermon, the question was solemnly put, 
 "But whom say ye that I am m ?" the heavenly 
 truth flashed upon him, and his whole being ex- 
 pressed itself in the words which did indeed con- 
 tain the meeting point between the two dispensa- 
 tions ; " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living 
 " God ;" the anointed Messiah, whom prophets and 
 kings had desired to see ; the Son of Him, who 
 once again, as at the burning bush, had come with 
 everliving power to visit and redeem His people. 
 
 1 Luke v. 8. k Matt. xix. 27. 
 
 * Luke ix. 33. m Matt. xvi. 15. 
 
ST. PETER. 87 
 
 Well might the solemn blessing which follows an- s E R M. 
 nounce to us, as with a trumpet's voice, that this - 
 was at once the crisis of Peter's life and of the 
 Christian faith. " Thou hast told Me what I am, 
 " and I will tell thee what thou art." In that con- 
 fession were wrapt up the truths which were to be 
 the light of the future ages of Christendom ; on 
 him who had uttered it devolved at once the awful 
 privilege of passing from the Jew into the Chris- 
 tian ; from the Prophet to the Apostle ; from Simon 
 the son of Jonah, into Peter the Rock. 
 
 Gradually too, and doubtfully, and with many 
 a wild and wayward impulse, did the enthusiasm of 
 Peter kindle not merely into admiration for the 
 Divine Teacher, but love for the Divine Friend. 
 That central fire which was the life of the whole 
 career of every one of the Apostles, so far as they 
 were Apostles at all, in him existed, not more 
 deeply and truly, it may be, but more visibly, as 
 the one absorbing form in which his natural enthu- 
 siasm centred. Amidst all the impetuous sallies of 
 zeal amidst all the weaknesses consequent on our 
 presumption and vehemence whether when he 
 drew the sword in the garden, or gave way to the 
 panic of the moment in the house of Caiaphas, 
 this was still the sustaining, purifying, restoring 
 principle ; " He needed not save to wash his feet, 
 " and was clean every whit n ." 
 
 Whatever else might be the feelings with which 
 
 n John xiii 10. 
 
88 ST. PETEB. 
 
 SERM. he looked upon our Lord with whatever grounds 
 " the early Church may have traced to his hand the 
 representation of the Prophet and Lawgiver, which 
 is preserved to us in the Gospel according to 
 St. Matthew, it may have been a true feeling which 
 ascribed to his more personal and direct teaching 
 that second Gospel which, though in substance the 
 same, is yet so remarkably contrasted with it in the 
 minuteness p and liveliness with which it records the 
 outward actions, the look and. manner, the very 
 Syriac words which fell from Him who there ap- 
 pears not merely as the Fulfiller of the ancient 
 covenant, but in the closer and more personal rela- 
 tion of the human Protector and Friend a Friend 
 not only in boundless power and goodness, but in 
 all human sympathy and tenderness. "He loved 
 " St. John exceedingly/' says Chrysostom, " but it 
 " was by Peter that He was exceedingly beloved." 
 
 E. g. Matt, v vii. x. xiii. xviii. 15 20; xxiii. xxiv. xxv. 
 xx viii. 18 20. 
 
 P Compare for minute details, Mark v. 4, 13 ; vi. 21, 39 ; viii. 
 24; xi. 12, 13, 20; xiii. 1, 3; xiv. 51, 52, 68; for the 'out ward 
 look and manner, vii. 34; viii. 12, 23; x. 16; for the Syriac 
 words, Epphatha, vii. 34 ; Talitha Cumi, v. 41 ; Abba, xiv. 36. 
 Inasmuch however as this vividness of description is also to be 
 found in passages, such as the description of Herod's banquet, (vi. 
 21,) where it cannot be traced to any ocular observation either of 
 the Apostle or Evangelist, it is perhaps safer to ground the in- 
 ternal evidence for a peculiar connexion between the Gospel of 
 St. Mark and the teaching of St. Peter not so much on the liveli- 
 ness of the details as on the greater degree of attention devoted 
 to the outward and the local, than the inward and spiritual part 
 of our Lord's ministry. 
 
ST. PETER. 89 
 
 And therefore, as the more intellectual crisis OSERM. 
 Peter's character and work (if I may so say) is - 
 represented to us in the scene to which I have just 
 alluded at Csesarea Philippi, so its moral phase is 
 determined by that second scene on the shore of 
 the sea of Tiberias, which the art of the painter has 
 instinctively blended with it, when on the thrice- 
 repeated declaration not only of general affection, 
 but of the deep personal love of a human friend 
 (Kvpie olSas on <pi\ o"e q ,) once again, in language 
 more indefinite, but not less solemn than on the 
 earlier occasion, that second blessing was pro- 
 nounced, whose echoes are still reverberated to us 
 alike from their fulfilments or their perversions, 
 down to the latest ages, " Feed My sheep ; feed 
 " My lambs r ." 
 
 II. And now let us carry our thoughts a few 
 years forwards and place ourselves in that early 
 period of the Christian Church, of which our only 
 historical record is to be found in the twelve first 
 chapters of the Acts. It is indeed a scene only 
 known to us dimly and partially ; the chronology, 
 the details of life, the characters and fortunes of the 
 several Apostles, are wrapt in almost impenetrable 
 darkness. One colossal figure however emerges 
 from the gloom, now more than ever the represen- 
 tative of his brethren, though from twelve they have 
 grown to many thousands ; though from the little 
 
 i See Essay on the Promises to Peter. 
 * John xxi. 15 17. 
 
90 ST. PETEft. 
 
 SERM. flock of the first Apostles they have grown into a 
 - vast society striking its roots far and wide wherever 
 the Jewish race extends. Can we doubt that this 
 was the time when those promises to Peter which I 
 have just quoted recurred to the minds of the dis- 
 ciples with all the force of prophecies which had 
 received their full accomplishment ? Can we doubt 
 that, when they saw him stand forth in the front of 
 the whole body of the believers, in their first days 
 of bereavement, for the election of a new Apostle, in 
 their first hour of exultation on the day of Pentecost, 
 in the first brunt of persecution from the Jewish 
 Sanhedrin, Peter was to them indeed the Rock and 
 Shepherd of the Church 8 ? Can we doubt that 
 when they witnessed the thousands* upon thousands 
 of his converts, they felt that it was the rolling back 
 of the everlasting doors by him who had the keys 
 of the kingdom of heaven? that" when the magic 
 arts of Simon quailed before him, when x the four 
 quaternions of Herod's soldiers were unable to 
 detain him in the guarded fortress, they felt that 
 the embattled powers of evil were driven back be- 
 fore that power against which the gates of hell 
 should not prevail ? Can we doubt that when they 
 saw the crowds 7 rushing into the city and laying 
 their sick along the streets if so be that the shadow 
 of Peter passing by might overshadow some of 
 them, the awful z judgment upon falsehood in the 
 
 3 Acts i. 15 ; ii. 14 ; iv. 8. t Acts ii. 41 ; iii. 4. 
 
 11 Acts viii. 18. x Acts xii. 4, 10. 
 
 y Acts v. 15, 16. z Acts v. 3, 5 ; ix. 36. 
 
ST. PETER. 91 
 
 death of Ananias , the divine sanction of beneficence s E R M. 
 in the resurrection of Dorcas, they felt that what - 
 Peter had bound on earth was indeed bound in 
 heaven, that what Peter had loosed on earth was in- 
 deed loosed in heaven ? But as before, so now, there 
 was yet a higher mission to discharge than to stand 
 at the head of his brethren. He had been the first 
 to recognise 'the manifestation of the Son, he was 
 now to be the first to receive the manifestation of 
 the Spirit. It is true that as before he had been the 
 fervent Galilean, so now he was the Apostle of the 
 Circumcision*. Still in those appeals which swayed 
 the hearts of thousands in the streets of Jerusalem, 
 he takes his stand b on David's tomb he welcomes 
 the newest and latest of God's dispensations in c the 
 language of the oldest of the prophets. Still he 
 and his brother Apostles are to be found entering 
 the Beautiful Gate of the temple, to join in its noon- 
 day services d ; still at the close of day they may be 
 seen lingering on its eastern 6 height in that ancient 
 cloister which bore the name of Solomon. The 
 
 a Gal. ii. 8. 
 
 b Acts ii. 29. " His sepulchre is with us until this day." 
 
 c Acts ii. 16. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet 
 " Joel." For the antiquity of the prophecy of Joel, see Ewald 
 on the Prophets, i. 64. 
 
 d Acts iii. 1. " Peter and John went up together into the temple 
 " at the ninth hour." 
 
 e Acts iii. 11 ; v. 12. Solomon's porch, or cloister, (oroa,) as is 
 well known, was so called from the fact that in it were preserved 
 the few fragments that remained of the ancient Temple. Joseph. 
 Ant. xx. 9. 7. 
 
92 ST. PETEK. 
 
 SERM. worship of the temple and the synagogue f still went 
 - side by side with the prayers, and the breaking of 
 bread from house to house ; the Jewish g family life 
 was the highest expression of Christian unity, whe- 
 ther in the household of the great Apostle himself, 
 where Abraham and Sarah 11 were still the types of 
 Christian marriage ; or in that sacred circle of the 
 brethren of our Lord, in whom with- their wives 1 
 and children the apostolic age may have loved to 
 trace the continued sanction of those domestic rela- 
 tions by which they were bound to our Lord Him- 
 self. The fulfilment of the ancient law was the 
 aspect of Christianity to which the attention of the 
 Church was most directed, whether as set forth in 
 the Divine code of Christian duty contained in the 
 earliest and most purely Jewish of the Gospels, that 
 according to St. Matthew, or in the earliest and 
 
 f Acts ii. 46 ; compare the assembly (<rvvayo>yr)v) of Jewish 
 Christians in James ii. 2. 
 
 KO.T OIKOI/. Acts ii. 46 ; and compare the household of Mary, 
 Acts xii. 12. 
 
 h 1 Pet. iv. 1. For Peter's own household see Matt. viii. 14 ; 
 1 Cor. ix. 5 ; possibly 1 Pet. v. 13 ; and the tradition of his wife's 
 martyrdom in Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. p. 736. 
 
 1 1 Cor. ix. 5. " Have we not power to lead about a sister or 
 " wife, as well as the other Apostles (ot AOITTO)), and as the brethren of 
 " the Lord and Cephas." So the story of St. Jude's grandchildren, 
 in Hegesippus apud Eus. H.E. iii. 20. From the passage above 
 quoted from 1 Cor. ix. 5, it is obvious that as a general rule the 
 original Jewish Apostles, as distinguished from the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, were married, and with this coincides the belief of the 
 three first centuries, which maintained that St. John was the only 
 exception. See Cotel. ad Tgn. Phil. 4. 
 
ST. PETER. 93 
 
 most purely Jewish of the Epistles, the Epistle of SERM. 
 James the Just, now beginning to take his place in - 
 the Divine economy as the type of all that strictly 
 belonged to the primitive, original Israelite Chris- 
 tian j . 
 
 But was this all? Was Christianity to be no 
 more than a perfected Judaism ? Was Peter to be 
 no more than the founder of the Jerusalem Church ? 
 Was this to be the final end of those lofty aspira- 
 tions of the ancient prophets ; the adequate fulfil- 
 ment of those parting words of his ascended Lord ? 
 Was the. existing frame-work of the Christian so- 
 ciety, which, however widely ramified, was still con- 
 fined to that Hebrew race, and those Hebrew insti- 
 tutions that bore on their very front the marks 
 of approaching dissolution was this the Church 
 against which the gates of death were never to pre- 
 vail? Were all those generations of the ancient 1 " 
 world who had lived before the law all those 
 countless hundreds of Gentile proselytes who even 
 now were knocking for admittance at the gates of 
 life were all these, with all the heathen nations at 
 their rear, to be for ever excluded from the king- 
 dom of heaven ? Such were the questionings which 
 must have arisen in the mind of the great Apostle, 
 when on the roof at Jaffa, overlooking the waves of 
 the western sea ] the sea of Greece and Rome the 
 
 J See the Sermon on St. James. 
 
 k See 1 Pet. iii. 18, which, however interpreted, must imply 
 reference to the state of the primitive world. 
 1 See Christian Year, Monday in Easter Week. 
 
94 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. sea of the isles of the Gentiles he knelt in trance 
 - and prayer waiting for the answer to his thoughts. 
 No, it could not be ; no, although he himself shall 
 pass away before a new Apostle, greater even than 
 himself; though the first shall be last m and the last 
 first ; though he has borne the scorching blast n of 
 the rising sun, and the other has been called but at 
 the eleventh hour though all this take place, it 
 must not be. What God hath cleansed , that Peter 
 must not call common or unclean ; . already the 
 messengers of the Roman centurion are in the court 
 below ; once more he is to wield the keys of life 
 and death once more to loose the Christian Church 
 for ever from that yoke p which neither he nor his 
 fathers had been able to bear once more, wider far 
 than ever mortal hand had up to that moment 
 dared, to throw open the gates of heaven, even to 
 the whole human race ; and then his work, his own 
 especial work, as the first Apostle and the founder 
 of the Church, was ended. 
 
 III. The conversion of Cornelius is then the last 
 recorded apostolical act of St. Peter an act, in its 
 unspeakable consequences, in its union at once and 
 
 m Matt. xx. 6. The whole of this passage has long been used 
 in the Church -services as the Gospel for the Feast of the Con- 
 version of St. Paul. 
 
 n rov Kavo-fova, Matt. xx. 12. That it means not the heat of 
 the noonday sun, but the scorching wind of the desert at sunrise, 
 appears from James i. 1 1 ; Jonah v. 8 ; Matt. xiii. 6 ; see Trench's 
 Parables, p. 169. 
 
 Acts x. 15, and compare Acts xv. 9, where the same word 
 KaOapicras is repeated. 
 Acts xv. 10. 
 
ST. PETER. 95 
 
 for ever of the Gentile with the Jewish world, SERM. 
 worthy indeed to close the career of him whose - 
 characteristic it was, that with his thoughts ever 
 bounded by time, his spirit was ever open to the 
 first dawn of things eternal. Henceforth, for the 
 long period of twenty years, between his escape 
 from Herod and his death, we derive our know- 
 ledge of his life only from such incidental allusions 
 as occur in the Epistles, or from such uncertain 
 light as can be gathered from ecclesiastical tradi- 
 tions. At Antioch q , at Corinth, and in the scene 
 of his earlier history at Jerusalem, we trace for 
 a moment his presence or his influence. We 
 catch a glimpse of him with the partner of his 
 labours, and his son r Mark, far away in the distant 
 
 i For Antioch, see Gal. ii. 11 ; for Corinth, 1 Cor. i. 12, and 
 compare 1 Cor. ix. 5 ; xv. 5, as indicating a certain authority 
 in his name. For Jerusalem see Gal. ii. 9 ; Acts xv. 7. The 
 connexion of St. Peter with Alexandria and Egypt, though 
 asserted in some ancient traditions, and some modern commen- 
 tators, is too remote or too uncertain to be noticed here. 
 
 r 1 Pet. v. 13. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that 
 T) (TweKXeKTr) is the wife of Peter, and if so that 6 vlos /xou is not 
 metaphorically (in which case TCKVOV would be the natural word, 
 as in 1 Tim. i. 2) but literally " his son." Whether the Babylon 
 from the neighbourhood of which this Epistle is dated be the city 
 of Mesopotamia, or, (as in Rev. xiv.) a metaphorical name for 
 Rome, cannot perhaps be settled with certainty. On the one hand 
 there is the natural inference that in the context such a meta- 
 phor would be out of place; the fact that the Mesopotamian 
 Babylon was, next to Jerusalem, the chief seat of the Hebrew 
 Jews, and so the proper field of Peter's labours ; the indication 
 (observed amongst others by Niebuhr) in 1 Peter i. 1 . that the 
 countries are addressed not from west to east but from east to 
 west. On the other hand is the frequent use of such metapho- 
 
96 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. east, by the waters of Babylon, amongst the de- 
 - scendants of those who long ago had hung their 
 harps on the willows that are therein. And yet 
 again, although here we are dependent solely on 
 the wavering testimony of later ages, it may still be 
 allowed to us to trace his footsteps by the banks of 
 the Tiber to witness beside the Appian way the 
 scene of the most beautiful of ecclesiastical legends 8 , 
 which records his last vision of his crucified Lord 
 to overlook from the supposed spot* of his death the 
 city of the Seven Hills, to believe that his last 
 remains repose under the glory of St. Peter's dome u . 
 Such uncertainties are indeed of no moment to us, 
 if " the hour had indeed come when neither at Jeru- 
 
 rical names in the Jewish phraseology of this period, and of this 
 very name for Rome (Schottgen Hor. Heb., vol. i. 1125); the 
 calamities which had recently devastated the Babylonian pro- 
 vinces; and the short interval which is left for the passage of 
 St. Peter from Babylon to Rome, if we attach any credit to the 
 common traditions of his martyrdom. Whatever can be said in 
 favour of this second hypothesis is stated with great ability by 
 Windischman in his Vindicise Petrinse, (p. 130-133,) and it is 
 supported by the universal opinion of the four first centuries, 
 and in later times by the polemical interests both of Papal and 
 Anti-papal controversialists. But on the whole there does not 
 seem sufficient reason for abandoning the literal meaning of the 
 passage, backed as it is by the arguments just mentioned, and 
 which maybe found at length in the commentaries of Steiger, 
 (Eng. Tr., vol. i. p. 30), and Mayerhoff, (p. 130,) or in Lightfoot, 
 Hor. Heb. Appendix (ad 1 Cor. xvi.) 
 The Chapel, " Domine quo vadis." 
 
 1 The eminence of S. Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculan. 
 
 u The remains of St. Peter, as is well known, are supposed to be 
 buried immediately under the great altar in the centre of the famous 
 Basilica which bears his name. 
 
ST. PETER. 97 
 
 :( salem," nor Babylon, nor Rome, "were men to SERM. 
 " worship the Father," but that everywhere, in the - 
 words x of St. Peter himself, "he that feared God and 
 " worked righteousness, would be accepted of Him;" 
 and, however great the scope which the silence of 
 Scripture on these points may leave for imagination 
 or speculation, it certainly does not encourage us 
 to dwell upon them either for historical infor- 
 mation or moral instruction. One general fact, 
 however, does emerge to us respecting him out 
 of the general obscurity which is the true image 
 of the close of his mortal life ; and which shews, 
 that though his own age was passed away, and 
 the age of Paul had begun, there was still a 
 work left, which then, and not before, Peter, and 
 none but Peter, could perform 7 . Throughout the 
 empire, in the capital and in the provinces, there 
 existed a powerful body, of Jewish descent, des- 
 perate enough to attempt, and numerous enough 
 under an energetic leader to effect, any enterprize for 
 the establishment of the kingdom of David upon the 
 ruins of Rome. These were the men who, seeing 
 in the intense excitement, and the vast energies of 
 the first burst of Christianity, a ready instrument 
 for the prosecution of their own daring plans, would 
 fain have identified themselves with the early Church; 
 these were the men who became the rallying point 
 for all those wild revolutionary sects and super 
 stitions which the heathen historians and statesmen 
 confounded with the Divine system under which 
 
 x Acts x. 35 ; 1 John iv. 21. y Essay on the Judaizers. 
 
 H 
 
98 STc PETER. 
 
 SERM. they tried to shelter themselves these were the 
 - Judaizers who had long been at such deadly war with 
 St. Paul, and who still hoped to make circumcision 
 and the rites of the law essential, that they might turn 
 the Gospel into a vast organization, distinguished 
 by the political badge of Judaism, armed with the 
 strength of a new faith, and unearthly origin, to 
 rise against the weak and profligate princes who 
 occupied the imperial throne. To one place and to 
 one name the eyes of this great party were turned ; 
 that place was Jerusalem, and that name was Peter. 
 If even in Corinth, the most exclusively gentile of all 
 the early Churches, there was yet a faction which 
 bore the name of Cephas z , we may well conceive, 
 and St. Paul's Epistles sufficiently indicate, how 
 studiously the Apostle of the Circumcision must 
 have been put forward in opposition to the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles in the Churches of Asia Minor, and 
 above all in the Church of Galatia a , where this 
 party was entirely dominant ; and in the apocryphal 
 acts and writings ascribed at a somewhat later date 
 to St. Peter, we may still read the covert, but sig- 
 nificant language which denounces " the hateful 
 11 teaching of the enemy of the law b ." 
 
 Such was the host which might have been 
 gathered round Peter as the Mahomet of a Chris- 
 tian Judaism. Such however was not, nor could 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 12; ii. 22; and implied in 1 Cor. ix. 5. 
 
 a As implied in Gal. ii. 7, 8, 11, 14. 
 
 b See the Epistle of Peter to James (c. 2), prefixed to the 
 Clementines in Cotelerius' Patres Apostolici, (vol. i. p. 602). See 
 Essay on the Divisions of the Corinthian Church. 
 
ST. PETKU. 99 
 
 be by any possibility, the career of any Apostle of SERM. 
 Christ. It was now if we may take the most pro- 
 bable conjecture as to the time and place of its 
 composition it was now that from the banks of the 
 Euphrates there came that great Epistle addressed 
 to all the Asiatic Churches, from the eastern hills 
 of Pontus down to the cities on the ^Egean sea. 
 Its direct object seems to have been at once to 
 strike, whether amongst the Jewish or Gentile por- 
 tions of those communities, at the root of that 
 counterfeit Christianity which would have made 
 him its Apostle : to conjure them, not once only, 
 but repeatedly, " to submit to every ordinance of 
 " men for the Lord's sake ;" "to have their con- 
 " versation honest among the Gentiles;" that "they 
 " should not give occasion to evil speaking ." And 
 how nobly this object was answered, at least in one 
 of the Churches which received the Epistle, is pre- 
 served to us in that only extant record of the early 
 Bithynian Church, the letter of the younger Pliny. 
 There we see how " by their well-doing they put to 
 " silence the ignorance of foolish men ;" how by 
 their universal practice " not to be thieves, or mur- 
 " derers, or evil-doers," they disarmed the suspicions 
 alike of the proconsul and of his imperial master d . 
 
 But the indirect object and general character of the 
 Epistle are still more significant. There, at the close 
 
 c 1 Pet. ii. 12, 13; iv. 14. 
 
 d 1 Pet. ii. 15 ; iv. 15. Comp. Plin. Ep. x. 97. Affirmabant . . . 
 quod essent soliti . . . . se obstringere . . . ne furta, ne latrocinia, 
 ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appel- 
 lati abnegarent. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ST. PETJSK. 
 
 s E R M. of his life, lie appears not glorying in bis early fame as 
 leader of the first Apostles, not entrenching himself 
 within the sphere of his naturalJewish prepossessions, 
 but striving to merge his own individual character and 
 existence in the career of him whom his own follow- 
 ers would fain represent as his rival and his enemy. 
 We trace, indeed, the favourite recurrence to the 
 images of the older world e ; the longings of the 
 prophets ; the simplicity of patriarchal life ; the 
 traditions of the antediluvian epoch ; the strong 
 resemblance to the Epistle of St. James, no less than 
 to his own early speeches in the Acts f . But still 
 its whole spirit and phraseology accords not with 
 that of James or of John, but of Paul ; and coin- 
 ciding *as it does with the thoroughly Pauline cha- 
 racter of his only recorded speech during this later 
 period g ; coinciding also with the celebrated testi- 
 mony however explained in the second Epistle " to 
 the wisdom of his beloved brother Paul ;" coin- 
 ciding lastly with the express assertion that the 
 Epistle was sent by Paul's own companion Silvanus, 
 and that it was to assure them that " this h ," the 
 Gospel to which Paul had converted them, " was 
 11 the true grace of God, wherein they stood 1 ," it 
 
 e 1 Pet. i. 6; ii. 23 ; iii. 6, 18. 
 
 f For the resemblances to the speeches in the Acts see Hilde- 
 brand's Commentary on the Acts, p. 571 574.; for the resem- 
 blances to the Epistle of St. James see De Wette's Commentary 
 on the Epistles of St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jude, p. 8. 
 
 s Comp. especially Acts xv. 9, 11, with Rom. iii. 22, 24. 
 
 h 2 Pet. iii. 15. 
 
 1 1 Pet. v. 12. 
 
ST. PETER. tO>l : 
 
 may well be taken as the pledge of the last work of SERM. 
 St. Peter, in crushing absolutely and for ever this - 
 fatal schism which would have divided the two 
 great Fathers of our faith him who gave it its 
 first outward form, and him who proclaimed its 
 deep inward spirit. And it is pleasing to trace the 
 traditionary confirmations of their entire unity the 
 unity which joins St. Peter to St. Paul, rather than 
 to his own early friend St. John the legends which 
 represent them as joint rulers of Antioch, Corinth, 
 and Rome both confined in the same Mamertine 
 dungeon both receiving the crown of martyrdom 
 on the same day and in all the early works of 
 Christian art both ever exhibited side by side the 
 one with his inverted cross, the other with the ex- 
 ecutioner's sword "lovely and pleasant were they 
 " in their lives, and in their deaths they were not 
 " divided V 
 
 k These traditions are referred to not as in themselves a 
 proof of the unity of the two Apostles, but only as the prolonged 
 echo of the fact, of which the^ real proof is given in the first 
 Epistle of St. Peter. Valueless as may be the historical testimony 
 of each singly, yet collectively they are of some importance as ex- 
 pressing the consciousness of the third and fourth centuries 
 that there had been an early contest, or at least contrast, be- 
 tween the two Apostles, which in the end was completely re- 
 conciled ; and it is this feeling which gives a real interest to the 
 outward forms in which it is brought before us, more or less indeed 
 in all the south of Europe, but especially in Rome itself. It would 
 be difficult to find in a few words a truer representation of their 
 respective characters and missions than is given in the two farewell 
 addresses to each other inscribed over the small chapel which 
 professes to be built on the scene of their final parting, immediately 
 without the walls of the citv. 
 
ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. IV. Such is the career of St. Peter, and such the 
 - fulfilment of the great prediction which must always 
 stand at the head of his history. We cannot indeed 
 realize it so vividly as those did who actually wit- 
 nessed it ; but the lapse of eighteen centuries rather 
 increases than diminishes our sense of its literal 
 and perfect truth, whether we look at what it did or 
 what it did not contain. Without Peter, humanly 
 speaking, the infant Church must have perished in 
 its cradle ; he it was who under God's blessing 
 caught 1 the truth which was to be the polar star of 
 its future history who guided it safely through 
 the dangers of its first existence ; who then, when 
 the time came for launching it into a wider ocean 
 preserved it no less by his retirement from the 
 helm which was destined for another hand. He was 
 the Rock, not the builder of the Christian society 
 
 the Guardian of its gates, not the master of its 
 innermost recesses the Founder, as I have before 
 expressed it, not the propagator, nor the finisher 
 
 the Moses of its Exodus, not the David of its 
 triumph, nor the Daniel of its latter days. 
 
 And with him, by the very force of the terms, 
 the purely personal and historical part of our Lord's 
 promise of necessity came to an end. Never again 
 can Jewish zeal and Jewish forms so come into 
 contact with the first beginnings of Christian faith 
 
 never again can mortal man find himself so 
 standing on the junction of two dispensations 
 the Church once founded can have no second rock 
 
 * "The pilot of the Galilean lake." 
 
ST. PETER. 103 
 
 the gates once opened can never again be closed SERM. 
 the sins which were then condemned, the virtues - 
 which were then blessed, the liberty which was 
 then allowed, the license which was then forbidden, 
 whether by word or deed, of the first Apostle, were 
 once for all bound or loosed in the courts of heaven, 
 never again to be unbound or bound by any earthly 
 power whatever. 
 
 But there is a sense and that of great practical 
 importance, in which the example of Peter like 
 that of the other Apostles lives and will live always. 
 We know the feeling of suspicion, of contempt, of 
 compassion with which the world regards those 
 labourers in a good cause, who whether in praise 
 or blame are called enthusiasts. We know how 
 often this feeling is provoked or even deserved 
 by the imperfections, the narrowness, the one- 
 sided views with which such characters are often 
 marked, and how strong is the temptation to regard 
 them, if not as absolutely mischievous, at least as 
 useless or despicable. It is as a warning against 
 such a feeling as this that the blessing on Peter 
 becomes the expression of a universal law of the 
 Providence of God. Most signally indeed was it 
 shewn in the character of the first Apostle, that it 
 was by no intellectual greatness or strength of mind 
 that Christianity was first communicated to man. 
 Most remarkable is the proof afforded of the Divine 
 origin of our faith, when we contemplate the fact 
 that he, who was undoubtedly its first human 
 founder, cannot by the wildest license of conjecture 
 
104 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. be imagined capable of conceiving or inventing it: 
 - Grant that Peter was the chief of the first Apostles 
 and it follows almost of necessity that the Apostles 
 were, as they professed to be, the disciples of no less 
 than the Son of God. What is true however of 
 Christianity in its first rise, is true also in a measure 
 of all its subsequent exemplifications. Look at the 
 history of any great movement for good in the world, 
 and ask who took the first critical step in advance, 
 whom it was that the wavering and undecided crowd 
 chose to rally round as their leader and their cham- 
 pion ? and will not the answer always be as it was 
 in the apostolical age not the man of wide and 
 comprehensive thought, nor of deep and fervent 
 love, but the characters of simple unhesitating zeal 
 which act instead of reflecting, which venture in- 
 stead of calculating, which cannot or will not see 
 the difficulties with which the first straggle of an 
 untried reformation is of necessity accompanied. 
 They may be doomed, like Peter, to retire before 
 the advancing tread of a new Apostle ; but it is not 
 till their task is finished ; they may perish, but their 
 cause survives ; they have been the pioneers in 
 the great work which they themselves but faintly 
 and partially understood. And of such, whether in 
 nations or individuals, the well-known comment of 
 Origen on the words of the text, echoed as it is m 
 with more or less distinctness by so many illustrious 
 voices from Tertullian down to Leo, is no exaggera- 
 tion of the truth " He who has Peter's faith is 
 
 m See the end of the Essay on -the Promises to Peter. 
 
ST. PETER. 105 
 
 " the Church's rock; he who has Peter's virtues SERM. 
 u has Peter's keys." 
 
 Doubtless there have been ages in which that 
 spirit and those blessings have been especially 
 exemplified. Such above all was the momentous 
 epoch, when Christianity may almost be said to 
 have had a second beginning when the northern 
 nations rushed down upon the Roman empire and 
 modern Europe came into existence. If ever there 
 was a time which needed a second founder like 
 Peter, it was the age of Clovis and of Gregory, of 
 Charlemagne and of Innocent ; if ever a sphere des- 
 tined for spirits who like him should be the Moses 
 of the Christian Church, it was the age when the 
 deeds of Joshua and Sampson and Jephthah were 
 acted over again in the lives of the first Crusaders ; 
 if ever a period when, as in the age of the Apostle 
 of the circumcision, the outward form of Judaism 
 seemed necessary as the temporary framework of 
 the inward life, when the irregular impulses of a 
 simple enthusiasm were made the means of preserv- 
 ing so much that was holy and divine, it was the 
 union of anarchy and superstition with heroic zeal 
 and self-devotion which characterized the system of 
 the Middle Ages. I am not saying that that system 
 was a complete representation of St. Peter's charac- 
 ter it doubtless was in many respects an exaggera- 
 tion and distortion of it. But if there be any such 
 general resemblance as has been stated, then I know 
 not the wisdom of denying that here also our Lord's 
 promise was fulfilled and that in the connexion 
 
106 ST. PETER. 
 
 3 E RM. which the great city of the Middle Ages sought to es- 
 - tablish between itself and St. Peter, there was some- 
 thing more than local tradition or fanciful associa- 
 tion ; I know not why the most determined oppo- 
 nent to the revival of that ancient system should 
 not recognise the shadow of this undoubted truth, 
 when in the most magnificent edifice ever yet con- 
 secrated to Christian worship, he reads the majestic 
 inscription traced in colossal characters round the 
 cupola which overhangs the Apostle's grave Tu 
 ES PETRUS ET SUPER HANC PETRAM ^DIFICABO 
 ECCLESIAM MEAM ET TIBI DABO CLAVES REGNI 
 COELORUM. 
 
 I have said thus much on the real revival of the 
 spirit of Peter in the institutions and feelings of the 
 Middle Ages, both because it helps us to appre- 
 ciate them rightly, and also because it shews how 
 thoroughly we may enter into the great historical 
 associations with which the name of St. Peter has 
 been invested without involving ourselves for one 
 moment in either side of the later controversies 
 that have been built upon it. 
 
 But there is a far more practical conviction to be 
 enjoyed of the reality of that solemn promise there 
 is a far higher sense in which before Him who seeth 
 not as man seeth it is written in a temple not made 
 with hands even in the heart of every one in this 
 congregation who after his measure walks in Peter's 
 steps and abides in Peter's faith. The Middle Ages 
 have passed away; with them and their own especial 
 institutions we have no longer any concern. But 
 
ST. PETER. 107 
 
 those moral and spiritual gifts, which they exhibited SERM. 
 on so gigantic a scale, and in so exclusive a form, - 
 must still in some shape or other be capable of 
 revival amongst ourselves. Peter was succeeded by 
 Paul and by John, but his spirit was still continued 
 though its form was wholly changed : Paul still 
 retained the zeal of the Pharisee ; the Beloved Dis- 
 ciple was also the Son of Thunder. Whatever else 
 might be superadded, enthusiasm was, and always 
 must be, the basis of the true apostolical character. 
 And surely not least is this lesson needed in this 
 place, where on the one hand the dawn of Christian 
 life and manhood opening upon you, as upon St. 
 Peter, at once requires and justifies the natural zeal 
 of youth in behalf of what is pure and just and holy 
 and true ; where on the other hand there is so much 
 in the deadening influences of our own peculiar 
 atmosphere to chill or to corrupt it. Think of the 
 great works which still remain to be accomplished 
 of the great evils which still remain to be destroyed 
 in this our age and country ; think of the vast 
 capacities of moral improvement here, in which 
 every one of you may bear his part above the 
 slightest taint of controversy, above the slightest 
 suspicion of presumption ; and then ask yourselves 
 whether there is or is not need of zeal either in 
 yourselves or in others ; whether there are not 
 higher objects for it than those temporary or trivial 
 or external subjects which now so often absorb it. 
 You know what it is to be enthusiastic in your 
 tastes, in your opinions, yes, even in your amuse- 
 
108 ST. PETER. 
 
 SERM. merits; you surely must know, or can conceive, 
 - what it is to be enthusiastic purely for good and 
 against evil. You must have felt yourselves, or 
 you can at any rate imagine for others, the thrill, 
 the elevation, communicated by even a single spark 
 of true moral enthusiasm. Without doubt there is 
 danger in zeal, or in the prejudice and narrowness 
 with which it is often allied. But still the very 
 point which I am urging, is that He, who out of the 
 Jewish Simon raised up the Christian Peter, can 
 out of these very weaknesses, if only they be coupled 
 with an honest and true heart, make His strength 
 perfect ; that it is possible for us to be like the 
 Galilean Apostle, without being like the Galilean 
 zealot ; that it is possible to have the fervour of the 
 Middle Ages without their forms or their fanaticism. 
 It may be that from temperament or other causes 
 we cannot be enthusiastic ourselves ; but there is 
 one thing which we can all do, and that is, to admire, 
 or at least not to condemn, those who are. Such an 
 one, whoever he may be, with whatever slowness of 
 intellect or plainness of speech, with whatever way- 
 wardness or eccentricity or false assumption, is to us 
 the true representative of the first of the Apostles. 
 To such at least the command is still in force " to 
 " strengthen their brethren," and woe be to us if by 
 word or deed of ours we damp the fire of their 
 ardour, or suffer our sense of difference of manner, or 
 disposition, or intellect, to overpower our sense of 
 the far greater cause which we have or ought to have 
 in common with them ; if we refuse to acknowledge 
 
ST. PKTKR. 109 
 
 that the Spirit of Christ and of all goodness still SERM. 
 breathes the spirit of power and of wisdom. Their - 
 judgment may be weak, their opinions crude ; but if 
 they have the simple self-devotion of Peter, if they 
 have at heart the thought of God and Christ and 
 duty, not the thought of their own abilities, or inter- 
 ests, or amusements, then, like Peter, "they need not 
 " save to wash their feet and are clean every whit." 
 There, amidst whatever defects, will be the Rock of 
 the Church that is amongst us : wherever by their 
 influence the path of duty is made more easy, the 
 path of evil more difficult and odious, there the gates 
 of heaven are opened, the gates of hell are closed : 
 whatever of playful sport or serious principle is by 
 their presence and example sanctioned, that for all 
 practical purposes is sanctioned to us in heaven : 
 whatever lax notions of duty, or loose conversation, 
 or vicious action, are by such an one condemned, 
 there, as far as human voice and countenance repre- 
 sent it to us, we may look for the condemnation of 
 heaven. Let the world at large be distracted as it 
 may, still for us, in our world here, in our work 
 here, in proportion as we can dwell in the love and 
 recollection of such characters amongst ourselves, 
 we may rest assured that we are reposing under the 
 shadow of St. Peter's throne, that we are holding 
 communion with that Church against which the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE EASTER TERM OP 1846. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 A GENERAL view of the promises addressed to Peter in 
 the Gospel narrative has been already given in the Sermon. 
 But the importance of these passages, both intrinsically and 
 from the interest with which in some instances they have 
 been invested by later controversy, may render it desirable 
 to give here once for all such a detailed exposition of them, 
 as the nature and limits of a spoken discourse necessarily 
 precluded. 
 
 They are contained in three of the four Gospels, Matt. 
 xvi. 1719; John xxi. 1519; Luke v. 10; xxii. 31, in 
 which order it is now proposed to examine them, endeavour- 
 ing in each case to discover the general intention with which 
 they were originally recorded, and the precise meaning 
 which the words originally bore. It will be seen that in so 
 doing the results of the investigations on the subject have 
 been given, without interrupting a disquisition in itself too 
 long by refutations of hostile, or quotations of favourable 
 commentators, or by specifying in each particular case the 
 obvious sources of German and English theology, from 
 one or other of which have been for the most part de- 
 rived the arguments or references which the following 
 pages contain. 
 
 1. THE PROMISE TO PETER IN MATT. XVI. 17 19. 
 
 This passage forms part of a large section common to 
 St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, (Matt. xvi. 13 ; 
 xvii. 23 ; Mark viii. 27 ; ix. 32 ; Luke ix. 18 45,) con- 
 
112 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 taining the account of the questions to the Apostles, the 
 confession of Peter, the first announcement of the Pas- 
 sion, the Transfiguration, and the healing of the demo- 
 niac child. 
 
 In most parts of the record of our Lord's ministry, as 
 preserved in the three Gospels, it would be extremely rash 
 to venture to pronounce on the exact time and place when 
 the events may be supposed to have occurred. Whatever 
 may have been the order of arrangement followed, the 
 transpositions sufficiently prove that it could not have been 
 that of an exact chronology. In this instance, however, an 
 approximation seems possible. It is an unusual mark of 
 precision in the narrative, which we probably owe to a 
 sense of the extreme importance of the event described, 
 that the confession of Peter is said to have taken~place not 
 in the general neighbourhood of the sea of Galilee, but at 
 a spot not elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament, 
 and the northernmost point of the Gospel ministry, the 
 remote city of Paneas a , or Csesarea Philippi. And combined 
 with the fact of this retreat so far beyond the ordinary 
 circle of our Lord's teaching, we are met for the first time 
 by intimations of the impending sorrows of the Passion, 
 remote indeed, but arresting our attention from the fre- 
 quency and emphasis with which they recur. Hud any 
 change, unnoticed by the three Evangelists, come over 
 the hitherto even tenor of the Lord's teaching? Was 
 there any cloud passing over the heavens at this particular 
 juncture, of which this triple narrative has as it were un- 
 consciously caught the shadow ? It is at least a remarkable 
 coincidence that when we turn to St. John's Gospel, with 
 which we are here for the only time during the whole of 
 
 a The only other connexion which this city has with our Lord's history is 
 in the story of the statue there preserved of His healing the woman with the 
 issue of blood (Eus. H. E. vii. 18.) But, as the Gospels indisputably refer that 
 event to Capernaum, nothing can be deduced from the statement. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 113 
 
 the synoptical account of our Lord's ministry brought into 
 contact by the mention, immediately preceding, of the one 
 miracle (that of the loaves) common to all the Four, we 
 find that it is precisely this period which is there described 
 as the crisis, the turning point (if we may so speak) of the 
 earthly career of our Lord's life. From the time of the 
 memorable discourse recorded in the sixth chapter of St. 
 John's Gospel, we are told that "many of His disciples 
 " went back and walked no more with Him ; " even the 
 Twelve seemed likely " to go away ;" and Jesus could 
 " no more walk in Jewry (Judaea) because the Jews 
 " sought to kill HirnV The enthusiasm which up to that 
 moment had drawn such multitudes after Him, now began 
 to turn steadily against Him, until (with the exception of 
 the temporary reaction on the resurrection of Lazarus) it 
 closed in the Betrayal and Crucifixion. 
 
 Such, if we may trust these indications, was the juncture 
 at which the confession of Peter took place. It fully 
 agrees with the corresponding confession recorded in 
 St. John (vi. 68), supposing that we regard them as the 
 same ; or, if we are to look upon them as distinct, though 
 nearly cotemporaneous, it would account for a reiterated 
 requirement of that belief, which was now about to un- 
 dergo such a severe and unprecedented trial. The time 
 was now come when the mere feeling of personal attach- 
 ment and national predilection would be insufficient to 
 secure the allegiance of the Apostles to their new Teacher ; 
 if Christ was no more than a Jewish prophet, the course 
 of events had now shewn that a Jewish prophet He was 
 not; if they were not prepared to receive Christianity, 
 they could no longer conceal their discipleship under the 
 veil of Judaism. 
 
 Whether, therefore, in answer to the question, " Whom 
 " say ye that I am ?" or to that more touching address in 
 
 " John vi. 66; vii. 1. 
 
 I 
 
114 ON THE PK-OMISES TO PETER. 
 
 St. John, " Surely ye are not also bent on going away," 
 (M?) Kal vfjiets 0\6re vTTayeiv) the impassioned exclama- 
 tion of Peter is substantially the same, and equally signifi- 
 cant. " Thou (<rv) art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 " God." " Thou and no other that is yet to come art, not 
 " merely Jeremiah, or John the Baptist, mortal forerunners 
 " of the hope of Israel, but the anointed Messiah Himself 
 " the Son or Likeness of God Himself, before the living 
 " power of whose manifestation all other manifestations are 
 " dead and powerless." " Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
 " Thou hast the words of eternal life." " What to us could 
 " the world now be without Thee ? Those words which are 
 " indeed as Thou hast said, spirit and life, can be found 
 " with Thee, and what else do we need ?" " And therefore " 
 (for so the speech of Peter continues in almost exact agree- 
 ment with the earlier Gospels, St. John as usual having 
 supplied the deep inward conviction and idea of that, of 
 which they only give the outward expression) "we (ridels 
 " 7T7rt(rT6VKafj,6v) have believed and known that Thou art 
 " the Christ, the Holy One of God c ." "We, whatever others 
 " may think, have long felt in our inmost hearts who and 
 " what Thou art." It was not merely the outward belief 
 in supernatural power, but the inward belief in that higher 
 region, whither miracles point the way, though they can- 
 not of themselves force an entrance. It was not merely 
 the momentary impulse which caused them to leave all and 
 follow Him, but the deliberate conviction that in Him they 
 found all that their moral nature needed that with Him 
 was happiness and life, without Him, misery and death d . 
 
 Such a confession we may well conceive to have occu- 
 pied that prominent place in the recollections of the early 
 Christian world which is implied in its position in all the 
 
 c So Lachmann's text runs; the remaining words of the received text 
 being probably taken by the MSS. from Matt. xvi. 16. 
 d See Neander's Leben Jesu, p. 277, 448. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 115 
 
 four Gospels. They wished to know what was the first 
 expression of the feeling which possessed their own hearts 
 and souls, and they found it here. But, unlike the 
 confession itself, the blessing which follows upon it is con- 
 tained in St. Matthew alone. It is by bearing in mind the 
 probable cause of this that we shall best be able to enter 
 into the true meaning of the words themselves. Now, 
 whatever other uncertainty may hang over the nature and 
 origin of the first Gospel, there is no reason to doubt that 
 it was originally intended for Christians of Jewish descent, 
 if not of the Syriac tongue. It was therefore with the 
 peculiarities of this especial portion of the Christian world 
 that the peculiarities of this Gospel have been usually sup- 
 posed to correspond; and it is precisely what we might 
 expect, that, whereas the most signal honour bestowed on 
 St. Peter should have had no especial interest for the 
 readers of the Gospel narrative generally, it should have 
 at once assumed the highest importance in that part of it 
 which was intended for those amongst whom, as we know 
 from the Acts, and the Epistles to Corinth and Galatia, 
 St. Peter was the chief authority. " Tell us e ," they may 
 well have said when they came to this point of the Gospel 
 teaching, " tell us something of our great Apostle : tell us 
 " not only what he said of his Master, but what his Master 
 " said of him tell us what prophetic anticipations were 
 " uttered in this the crisis of his life concerning those 
 " mighty works which he has done and is doing amongst 
 " us concerning those awful responsibilities which have 
 " been entrusted to him alone in his dealings with his 
 "Jewish and Gentile brethren?" And to this question 
 the blessing on St. Peter in St. Matthew's Gospel was the 
 answer. 
 
 e For the gradual omission of the prominence of Peter from the cycle of 
 the Evangelical teaching, see Herder on the Son of God, 14. 
 
 i2 
 
116 ON THE PltOMISES TO PETER. 
 
 THE NAME OF PETER. 
 
 " Blessed art thou, Simon, Bar-Jonah, for it was not 
 " flesh and blood that revealed it to thee, but My Father 
 " who is in heaven." " Blessed" (paicdpios) for a con- 
 fession such as this implies that holy temper* which is 
 indeed blessed, (Matt. xi. 27 ; 1 Cor. xii. 3.) " Simon, Bar- 
 Jonah" This is evidently the full designation of Peter by 
 his original name and parentage, as if dwelling on the 
 human and natural personality which was contrasted with 
 the new and spiritual birth, implied in the new name of 
 Cephas. Compare John i. 42. " For it was no human 
 " power" ("flesh and blood," in the language of the New 
 Testament, Gal. i. 16; Heb. ii. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 50; Eph. 
 vi. 12; John i. 12, as well as of the Rabbis (Lightfoot 
 ad loc.), is always used of human f nature in its out- 
 ward and perishable aspect) "that in that confession un- 
 " veiled (aTre/caXv^re) to thee this great truth, but the power 
 " of Him who sits enthroned above any human power 
 " or influence whatever." [For the exact phrase compare 
 the similar expression in John vi. 44 ; and for the general 
 contrast between the divine inspiration of Peter and the 
 earthly fickleness of others, compare the corresponding 
 passage of John vi. 63, 65, 70. He might have confessed 
 Jesus to be the Messiah on former occasions, but now first 
 in the sight of Him who knew what was in man, his con- 
 fession was the result of a purely heavenly influence, un- 
 mixed with an} 7 baser element.] 
 
 " And / (/caya)) say unto thee, thou (crv) art Peter ;" thou 
 " hast told Christ what He is, and now He tells thee what 
 " thou art. In token of that new spirit which in this the 
 " crisis of thy life has come upon thee, it is declared to thee 
 
 f It was thus opposed to "hearts and reins," (the inward man.) See Ziillig, 
 on Rev. ii. 23. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 117 
 
 " that that new name, which expresses the rock-like firtn- 
 " ness of thy resolution, is now for the first time truly thine." 
 [The different form of the giving of the name " thou art" 
 here, and "thou shalt be called" in John i. 42, of itself im- 
 plies that the name had in some sense been given before ; 
 and compare the exact analogy in Gen. xlvii. 8. (f Judah 
 " (Praise) art thou, and thy brethren shall praise thee."] 
 The giving of the new name to imply a new character, 
 carries us back naturally to the instances of it in Gen. 
 xvii. 5, 15 ; xxxii. 28 ; where the change of appellation 
 proceeds from God Himself. The name, as originally given 
 in John i. 42, and if, as is most probable, the Syriac lan- 
 guage was used, here also, was of course not Peter, but 
 Cephas : and so far as we can trace its gradual assumption, 
 it seems to have been as follows : The name of Simon is 
 still preserved in most of our Lord's addresses to him in 
 the Gospel history, Luke xxii. 31 (but not 34); John 
 xxi. 15 17; and in the Jewish Church it still appears 
 in the speech of James at the council at Jerusalem, (Acts 
 xv. 14). But the usual name by which he was known 
 amongst the Jewish Christians, during the period of his 
 chief influence, must have been Cephas, as appears from 
 its being the only name by which St. Paul calls him in the 
 first Epistle to Corinth, and with one exception in that 
 to Galatia. That % exception (Gal. ii. 8) seems to indicate 
 the occasion of the first adoption of the Greek translation 
 of Cephas in the word Petrus or Peter. As Cephas h had 
 been his name amongst the Hebrew Jews of Palestine, so 
 
 g In the received text indeed this is not apparent, but the recension of 
 Lachmann, whilst it retains rieVpos in Gal. ii. 7, 8, in Gal. i. 18, ii. 9, 10, 
 14, gives KTJ^SS. 
 
 h For the general practice of changing the Jewish names in foreign countries 
 see Ziillig on the Apocalypse, i. 301. Instances of its being effected by a slight 
 alteration of the sound are "Jason" for" Jesus" or" Joshua," " Josippus" for 
 " Joseph," " Alcimus" for " Jehoiakim," Mnaseas or " Mnasson" for " Ma- 
 " nasseh," " Paul" for "Saul," " Kedron" for "Kidron," or by a translation, as 
 in the case of Peter, "Didymus" for " Thomas," "Porphyrius"for"Malchus." 
 
118 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " Peter" seems to have been his designation amongst the 
 Hellenistic Jews of the dispersion; in which sense it is 
 used, first, as has been said, in the allotment of the Church 
 of the circumcision to him, as of the Gentiles to Paul 
 in Gal. ii. 8, and then in 1 Pet. i. 1, and 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
 What principle guided the selection of one or other of 
 the different names in the narrative, as distinct from 
 the speeches, of the several Gospels, it is perhaps im- 
 possible to determine. " Peter" is the general name in 
 St. Matthew 1 and St. Mark, (perhaps from the fact that 
 these two Gospels were addressed to the Jewish Christians, 
 with whom " Cephas," or its corresponding phrase " Peter," 
 was most familiar,) " Simon" in St. Luke, " Simon Peter" 
 in St. John. Ultimately the name of Cephas became en- 
 tirely extinct, and that of " Peter" (which apparently had 
 not before existed as a proper name) took its place in 
 the nomenclature of the Christian world. 
 
 THE ROCK OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 " And upon this rock I will build My Church k , and the 
 " gates of the grave (rov 'ASov) shall not prevail against it." 
 From the giving of the name we pass to the meaning 
 which was involved in it. That it was in consequence of 
 the confession and in reference to it that the name was 
 bestowed, thus agreeing with the probable origin of 
 the only other surname bestowed in like manner on 
 any of the Apostles, (Luke ix. 54,) there can be little 
 doubt. But as the name of Cephas has regard not 
 
 1 In the Syriac version of Philoxenus, " Petrus" is used throughout St. 
 Matthew ; in the Peschito, " Cepho ;" in the ancient MS., now in the British 
 Museum, "Simon," or "Simon Cepho." For this as well as for all other 
 information on the Syriac versions I am entirely indebted to the kindness 
 of Mr. Cureton, of the British Museum. 
 
 k Compai'e the exactly similar transitions in Gen. xvii. 5 ; xxvii. 36 ; 
 xxxii. 27, the "and" (wai) here being equivalent to the "for" in the 
 Hebrew. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 119 
 
 merely to this particular act, but (John i. 42) to the 
 general character of which it was the expression, so it 
 seems certain that the words themselves (eVt ravrrj rrj 
 irerpa), though occasioned by the confession, refer to 
 Peter himself. The change of person " on this rock," 
 instead of " upon thee" is the natural result of the sudden 
 transition from a direct 1 to a metaphorical address; and 
 is in exact accordance with our Lord's manner on other 
 occasions. He said not "Destroy Me" or "the temple 
 "of My Body," but "destroy this temple," (John ii. 19.) 
 The change of gender from Herpos to Ilerpa, is the 
 natural result of the change from a proper name to the 
 word from which the proper name is derived. The French 
 language alone, of all those into which the original has 
 been translated, has been able entirely to preserve their 
 identity. The Greek Tlerpos^ which for the sake of the 
 masculine termination was necessarily used to express the 
 name itself, was yet so rarely used in any other sense 
 than a " stone" that the exigency of the language required 
 an immediate return to the word Ue'r^oa, which, as in 
 Greek generally, so also in the New Testament, is the 
 almost invariable appellation of a " rock." To speak of 
 any confession or form of words, however sacred, as a 
 foundation or rock, would be completely at variance 
 
 1 An exact parallel to this transition may be seen in Rev. ii. 12, except 
 that whereas here it is from the person to the metaphor, there it is from the 
 metaphor to the person. " He shall he a, pillar, and on him I will write." 
 
 m In the Peschito and the ancient MS. before referred to it is " Cepho" in 
 both cases, except that in the passage where it is used for this rock the femi- 
 nine pronoun is added. In the Philoxenus version it is " Thou art Petrus, and 
 " on this ' shuo' I will build," &c. " Cepho" appears properly to mean a stone 
 (A.i'00?), but from the poverty of the Syriac to be also used for a rock. In the 
 Peschito of Matt, xxvii. 60, it is used in the same verse both for \idos and 
 Trerpa. The few instances of Trerpos for a "rock" (Soph. (Ed. Tyr. 334; 
 Callim. Ap. 22, see Bloomfield, ad 1.) are merely exceptions proving the 
 rule ; and in the New Testament TreVpa is invariable. Comp. especially 
 Matt. vii. 24, 25. 
 
120 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 with the living representation of the New Testament. 
 It is not any doctrine concerning Christ, but Christ 
 Himself, that is spoken of, as being in the highest and 
 strictest sense the foundation of the Church, (1 Cor. iii. 11,) 
 and so whenever the same figure is used to express the 
 lower and earthly instruments of the establishment of 
 God's kingdom, it is not any teaching or system that is 
 meant, but living human persons. Thus the Apostles are 
 all of them called " foundations" of the Church in Eph. ii. 
 20; Rev. xxi. 14; and, by a nearly similar metaphor, Peter, 
 James, and John, are called "pillars," (Gal. ii. 6,) the- 
 faithful Christian a " pillar in the temple of God," (Rev. 
 iii. 14,) and Timotheus, by a union of both metaphors, 
 " the pillar and ground [or foundation (eSpai^^aJ] of the 
 " truth in the house of God." (1 Tim. iii. 15 n .) 
 
 To return to the particular application of this metaphor 
 to Peter, it is necessary to conceive rightly the whole 
 image of which it forms a part, and to draw out the several 
 trains of latent association which its connexion with the 
 
 n The above interpretation of a somewhat disputed passage may need a 
 few words of explanation. The sense of the whole context is as follows : 
 " That thou mightest know how to walk in the house of God, (and by the 
 " house of God I mean no literal temple of dead stones, but the congregation 
 " of the living God,) in which thy true position is to be a pillar and founda- 
 " tion of the truth ; which truth is the mystery of godliness," &c. : the words, 
 " which is the Church of the living God," being inserted as a parenthesis to 
 explain the previous metaphor. The common interpretation which makes 
 "the Church" to be the "pillar," would not indeed involve in it any 
 disputable conclusions, as it is obvious that " the Church" here, as else- 
 where, means the whole assembly of Christians as distinct from its officers or 
 ministers, and also that it is spoken of in its ideal rather than its actual con- 
 dition. But it is evidently against the whole tenor of the passage to describe 
 the same object first as a building and then as a part of that building ; and 
 the invariable application of the figure of a pillar to individuals rather than to 
 abstractions, is further confirmed by the fact that in the very first quotation of 
 these words by any subsequent writers they are so applied .- in the Epistle of 
 the Church of Lyon, c. 5. (A.D. 177), Attalus the martyr is expressly called 
 the pillar and foundation of all in that place, (<TTV\OS /cal e'8pa/ux ruv eV- 
 ravQa. #et 7 eyovSrow) . Compare also the similar passages in Clem. Rom. 5 ; 
 Ign. Phil. 6. St. John is called 6 <TTV\OS in Chrysostom, (Horn. Joan. i. 1.) 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 121 
 
 whole tissue of Scripture imagery almost necessarily in- 
 volves. The Church, or assembly of God's people, (this 
 and Matt, xviii. 17, are the only passages in the Gospels 
 where the word occurs,) is represented as a house ; not 
 a temple so much as a beleaguered fortress, according to 
 the figure frequently used by the prophets immediately 
 before the captivity, and naturally suggested by the 
 actual p position of the palace and temple of Jerusalem 
 on their impregnable hills. But this assembly or con- 
 gregation, which up to this time had been understood 
 only of the Jewish people, is here described as being 
 built afresh; "built," according to the significant mean- 
 ing of that word, which, both in the Old and New Tes- 
 tament, always involves the idea of "progress, creation, 
 " expansion," by Him who here, as so often elsewhere, 
 appropriates to Himself what had up to that time been 
 regarded as the incommunicable attribute of the LORD 
 of Hosts. It is of this fortress, this spiritual house, as it is 
 called in his own Epistle, (1 Pet. ii. 5,) that Peter is to be 
 the foundation-rock. It was no longer to be reared on the 
 literal rock of Zion, but on a living man, and that man not 
 the high-priest of Jerusalem, but a despised fisherman of 
 Galilee. He, who had stepped forward with his great con- 
 fession in this great epoch, had shewn that he was indeed 
 well fitted to become the stay and support of a congregation 
 
 In both these places the word seems to be used in strict accordance with its 
 original and proper meaning. In the passage before us, as in that just quoted 
 from 1 Tim. iii. 15, it expresses that the structure to be reared on the rock is 
 no dead structure of wood and stone, but a vast congregation of living human 
 souls. In Matt, xviii. 17, it expresses that if the offender will not listen to 
 the remonstrance of individuals, he is to be brought before the whole body of 
 believers, that body of which it is afterwards said " where two or three are 
 " gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." 
 
 p Compare the expression " Obliam" or " Ophliam," as applied to St. 
 James, the "Ophel" or "bulwark" of the people, Ophel being actually the 
 name of the ascent or " clivus" to the eastern side of Mount Zion. See the 
 Sermon on St. James. 
 
122 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 no less holy than that which had been with Moses in the 
 wilderness, or with Solomon in the temple. And against 
 this new theocracy not merely in itself, (for then there 
 would be no purpose in mentioning it here,) but as so 
 founded and supported q not as a mere abstract state- 
 ment of general truth, but as a promise of present com- 
 fort in an approaching conflict, it is declared that "the 
 " gates of the grave shall not prevail." It is a continuance 
 of the same image : on the one side is the divine citadel, 
 seated aloft on its unshaken rock ; on the other r , like the 
 dark shadow of the valley of Gehenna, under the precipice 
 of Zion, which doubtless rendered the picture more vivid 
 to its first readers, yawned the gates of that black abyss 
 where the powers of death and destruction sat enthroned 
 against it. It is one of those frequent expressions found 
 from time to time in the Scriptures, and suggesting to the 
 oriental hearer, in two words, a whole world of imagery, 
 which, to a modern reader, needs to be unfolded in a pain- 
 ful and detailed exposition. The figure, it will be ob- 
 served, is derived from the oriental sieges, where the kings 
 sat round about the beleaguered city, (Jer. i. 15,) only 
 that here the adverse powers are more immediately con- 
 fronted by the mention not merely of the camp, but of 
 the very gates themselves of the enemy, which, accord- 
 ing to the eastern custom, so often alluded to in the Old 
 Testament, and still preserved in the name of the Sublime 
 Porte of the Turkish empire 8 , represented the power and 
 
 i /car' aur^s must refer (according to the usual interpretation) not 
 but fKK\T)ffia. Still it is to the Church as founded on the rock. The phrase 
 would not be left thus ambiguous if a more general meaning was intended. 
 
 r Thus in the Apocalyptic representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
 lake of fire (uniting the images of the Dead Sea and the valley of Himnon) is 
 brought close under its walls. See Ziillig, p. 387. 
 
 8 Such too are the vestiges of the practice still preserved in Europe the 
 Gate of Lions at Mycenae, where the kings of the patriarchal age of Greece sat 
 in judgment before the palace, and the Gate of Justice at the Alhambra, which 
 receives its name from having been in like manner the seat of the Moorish 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 123 
 
 greatness which in early times took its seat in them, 
 as in later times in the Forum, the Senate-house, or the 
 Throne. 
 
 And further, these gates are the " gates of the grave," 
 an expression which belongs to the whole Hebrew con- 
 ception of Hades, VlKSP, or " the unseen world" of death, 
 which in the English version is usually rendered by the 
 translation, true etymologically, but conveying a false im- 
 pression theologically, of " hell." Here, as elsewhere, it is 
 represented to the outward sense as the dark palace of 
 death hewn, like the sepulchral caves of the east, in 
 the depths of the earth, (see Lowth's well known com- 
 ment on Isa. xiv. 15,) and guarded like an impregnable 
 fortress, (Isa. xxxviii. 10.) And here too, though from 
 the frequent blending of the two together, the, thought 
 of evil seems to be implied in the thought of destruc- 
 tion, yet the idea of Destruction is predominant of 
 Destruction, whether it be merely the region of De- 
 struction that is spoken of, or whether, as in the bolder 
 imagery of the Apocalypse, (Rev. i. 18; vi. 8,) it is 
 conceived as the King of the unseen world* sitting to 
 receive the prey which Death (Oavarbs) brings to him 
 from the world above. Whichever it be, the promise 
 is clear, that vehement as may be the struggle for its 
 very existence which the early Church will have to main- 
 tain, yet such will be the strength of Peter that through 
 Christ's blessing it will survive the shock triumphantly. 
 
 kings in that last western stronghold of oriental customs, and where the 
 passage of the text is also recalled by the figure of the "key," which, in 
 common with many other Moorish fortresses, it presents engraven on its 
 archway. 
 
 * See Ziilligon Rev. i. 18. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 " And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 " heaven." The idea which was placed before us in the 
 preceding words now expands into a wider and higher 
 range : from the earthly and outward " congregation" or 
 " Church" of God's people waging an outward warfare 
 with earthly danger, we pass to that inward and heavenly 
 aspect of it that Church as it were within a Church 
 where the visible and invisible are blended into one, and 
 which in the New Testament is represented to us in the 
 expression, "the kingdom of God" or "of heaven." 
 
 And with the change of idea the imagery changes also, 
 yet so as naturally to grow out of that first presented to us. 
 It is still a fortress or building, but it would seem as though 
 the gates of the dark valley had suggested the correlative 
 idea of those " everlasting gates" of Zion u which had lift 
 up their heads of old on the overhanging mountain as 
 though the gates of the deep abyss had called into more 
 immediate view the corresponding image of the gates of 
 the highest heaven, of which those earthly gates were the 
 natural and fitting symbol. It is not now so much the 
 struggle for life or death which is set before us as the final 
 triumph ; and accordingly the great Apostle now appears 
 no longer as the mute E/ock on which the city leaned for 
 support, but as the keeper of the Keys which are to repel 
 or to admit the suppliant captive or triumphal procession 
 that seek to enter the walls of the victorious people. The 
 august associations which have been just alluded to as 
 belonging to the eastern idea of the "gates," in part be- 
 longed also to the keys. It is mentioned as the highest 
 reward of Eliakim, that " the key of the house v of David 
 " should be laid upon his shoulder, and he shall open and 
 
 u See Ewald on Ps. xxiv. v Isa. xxii. 22. 
 
ON THE PEOMISES TO PETER. 125 
 
 " none shall shut ; and he shall shut and none shall open. 1 ' 
 And the same expression is in the Revelations (iii. 7) 
 transferred to our Lord, in a passage strikingly illustrative 
 of the words before us, because, like them, it contains the 
 same implied contrast between the keys of heaven and 
 the keys of Death and Hades, which had in one of the 
 chapters immediately preceding (i. 18) been spoken of as 
 wrested from their owners and given to Him who was dead 
 and is alive for evermore. And as the Rock, which in the 
 highest sense could only be predicated of Christ, was yet 
 in a lower and sufficient sense predicated of Peter, so the 
 power over the Keys, which admitted men into the inner- 
 most sanctuary and citadel of heaven, was indeed in the 
 highest sense to be wielded by none but the Holy and the 
 True, yet in the lower sense might be enjoyed, like all other 
 attributes of our Lord, by all His servants : and by whom 
 so fitly as by that Apostle whose insight into heavenly 
 things had been so critically shewn on the present oc- 
 casion ? 
 
 [That the meaning above given to the "keys" of Peter 
 is correct, will appear still more clearly by reference to the 
 other passages in the New Testament, where the same 
 metaphor is used. (1.) In that just quoted from Rev. iii. 
 7, the natural meaning of the "house of David" is evi- 
 dently merged in that of the temple ; and the sense of the 
 whole passage will be, (t To Christ, as High-Priest, (cf. Rev. 
 i. 13.) is given the right of entrance into the Holy of Holies; 
 and that right He also gives to all His true followers ; they 
 shall be kings and priests like Him." (cf. iii. 12 ; i. 6.) And 
 such is obviously the meaning, more generally expressed, 
 " 1 am the door of the sheep." (John x. 7.) (2.) In Acts 
 xiv. 21 it is used with express reference to the event in 
 Peter's life which, as will appear, was the chief fulfilment 
 of this especial promise. " They rehearsed how God had 
 " opened the door of the faith to the Gentiles." (3.) In 
 
126 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 St. Paul's Epistles, (1 Cor. xvi. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 12; Col. iv. 
 3,) it is applied more generally to the giving or with- 
 holding opportunities of usefulness to the Apostle, but still, 
 so far as it goes, confirming, rather than contradicting, the 
 explanation of the text in St. Matthew.] 
 
 THE BINDING AND LOOSING. 
 
 " And whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be 
 te bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
 " earth shall be loosed in heaven." One remarkable 
 characteristic of this whole passage is the consecutiveness 
 with which one image rises out of another. It is im- 
 possible to mistake the parallel between the words " what- 
 " soever thou shalt bind," &c., and those which form the 
 close of the passage just quoted from Isa. xxii. 22, "he 
 " shall shut and none shall open," &c. ; and the point of 
 transition from one idea to the other is naturally afforded 
 in the ancient x practice of fastening gates not by locks, 
 but by cords. 
 
 Still it is clear that a new idea is introduced ; however 
 naturally the notion of " opening and shutting" shades off 
 into that of " binding and loosing," it is obvious that the 
 less familiar expression would riot have been substituted 
 for the more familiar without some specific reason, which 
 reason is in this case supplied by the well-known meaning 
 of the words themselves. The figure of "binding and 
 " loosing," for " allowing as lawful, or forbidding as unlaw- 
 " ful," is so simple and obvious that no language has been 
 wholly without it ; " Set," " religio," " obligation," " a man is 
 " bound to do his duty," are all familiar instances ; but in 
 
 x For the keys of the ancients, and the use of cords, compare the works 
 quoted in Rosenmiiller ad h. 1, who mentions especially a picture (in Mich. 
 Angel. Causseum. in Simulacris Deorum. Fab. xv. Torn. V. Ant. Rom p. 776,) 
 of a woman holding a key in her right hand, and in her left a cord. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 127 
 
 the Jewish literature of our Lord's time it was more than 
 this ; the examples given by Lightfoot of the use of these 
 words in this sense, being, as he says, selected out of 
 thousands, incontestably prove not only that these words 
 might have had this meaning, but that in the minds of those 
 who heard them they could have had no other. Twice 
 besides the expression is used (Matt, xviii. 18; John xx. 
 23) to others besides St. Peter, and on each occasion the 
 sense is substantially the same. "So great shall be the 
 " authority of your decisions, that unlike those of the ordi- 
 " nary schools or rabbis, whatsoever you shall declare law- 
 " ful shall be held lawful, whatsoever you shall declare un- 
 " lawful shall be held unlawful, in the highest tribunal in 
 " heaven." It is, as it were, the solemn inauguration of the 
 right of the Christian's conscience to judge with a discern- 
 ment of good and evil, to which up to this time the world 
 had seen no parallel. " If the house be worthy, let your 
 (( peace come unto it, but if it be not worthy, let it return 
 " to you," (Matt. x. 13.) "It is not ye that speak, but 
 " the Spirit of My Father which speaketh in you," (x. 20.) 
 " He that is spiritual judgeth all things," (1 Cor. ii.) " He 
 " that despiseth [i. e. thinks lightly of the evil of sensuality] 
 " despiseth not man but God, who hath also given to us [or 
 "you] His Holy Spirit," (1 Thess. iv. 8.) "Ye have an 
 " unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things, and 
 " ye need not that any man teach you," (1 John ii. 20, 27.) 
 " If we judged ourselves, we should not have been judged," 
 (1 Cor. xi. 31.) These are some out of the many instances 
 in which the same truth without the metaphor is ex- 
 pressed as belonging to the disciples of the first age of 
 Christianity. In that age, when the foundations of all 
 ancient belief were shaken, when acts which up to that 
 time had been regarded as lawful or praiseworthy were 
 now condemned as sinful, or which before had been re- 
 garded as sinful were now enjoined as just and holy, it was 
 
128 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 no slight comfort to have it declared by the One authority 
 which all Christians acknowledged as divine, that there 
 were those living on the earth on whose judgment in these 
 disputed matters the Church might rely with implicit con- 
 fidence. In the highest sense of all doubtless this judg- 
 ment was exercised by Him alone who taught as one 
 having authority and not as the scribes, and who on the 
 Mount of the new law drew the line between His own 
 commandments and what was said by them of old time. 
 In a lower sense, it was exercised and has ever since been 
 exercised, by all those who by their teaching or their lives, 
 by their words or their examples, have impressed the world 
 more deeply with a sense of what is Christian holiness and 
 what is Christian liberty. In an intermediate sense, it has 
 been exercised by those whose especial gifts or opportuni- 
 ties have made them in a more than ordinary degree the 
 oracles and lawgivers of the moral and spiritual society in 
 which they have been placed. Such above all were the 
 Apostles. By their own lives and teaching, by their 
 divinely sanctioned judgments on individual cases, (as St. 
 Paul on Ely mas or the incestuous Corinthian,) or on 
 general principles, (as in their Epistles,) they have in a 
 far higher sense than any other human beings, bound 
 and loosed the consciences, remitted and retained the 
 sins, of the whole human race for ever. Whatever in short 
 was the gift in them, which first in the early Church, and 
 then in all future times, has invested their words and acts 
 with a sacredness and authority accorded to no other acts 
 or words of men, that was the realization to them of this 
 august promise, now addressed especially and first to Peter, 
 who amidst the general panic stood forward to avow his 
 belief in the divinity of the cause which others deserted, 
 and who might therefore well be named not as the only 
 one, but as the first, whose judgments should be proved 
 by the most infallible signs to be not human but divine. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 129 
 
 Every part of this remarkable passage as so explained, 
 now stands in complete harmony with itself. First, the 
 blessing, followed by the declaration that the confession 
 which had called it forth was no transient emotion, bat the 
 work of God Himself; then the announcement, that he 
 who had uttered the confession had proved himself to be 
 indeed the foundation-rock of the new spiritual edifice, 
 followed by the declaration that the edifice so founded 
 was no perishable structure, but instinct with immortal 
 life : lastly the promise, that of that edifice Peter should 
 command the entrance, followed by the declaration that 
 his judgments there pronounced should not pass away like 
 those of the Jewish Rabbis with the fleeting opinion of 
 successive schools, but should, like those of his brother 
 Apostles, be ratified for ever in heaven. 
 
 It only remains for us to enquire what was the fulfilment 
 of the promise in Peter's subsequent history. In propor- 
 tion indeed as we believe it to partake of the character of 
 a Divine prophecy, we should shrink from marring its 
 effect by an endeavour to fix down each word to any par- 
 ticular fact, and for this reason it has been thought best to 
 explain its general meaning before attempting to descend 
 into any minuter application of it to details. Prophecy, it 
 has been well said, is not so much anticipated history, as an 
 enunciation of those eternal principles by which history is 
 determined, and accordingly neither here nor in the pro- 
 phets of the Old Testament, are we justified in demanding 
 such a literal anticipation of every detail as would leave 
 no room for the free play of human agency and subordi- 
 nate circumstances. If the general effects of the Apostle's 
 character, and of characters like his in after ages, has cor- 
 responded to the language here used, the essential and 
 eternal value of this promise has been sufficiently vindi- 
 cated. Still it has been so ordered, that, as in the prophe- 
 cies generally, so here, the salient points, so to speak, of 
 
 K 
 
130 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 the history and the prophecy, shall to such an extent 
 coincide, that whilst the Divine wisdom of the prophecy 
 speaks for itself, our attention is fixed on its Divine power 
 by the history. Its true spiritual import stretches into the 
 remotest future, but its first historical fulfilment is to be 
 found in the life of Peter. It is needless to repeat what 
 has been already said on this point at sufficient length in 
 the Sermon, especially as it would also in part anticipate 
 what is yet to come in the exposition of the remaining 
 passages. Yet it may not be irrelevant to justify more 
 at length than was there possible the great importance 
 attached to Peter's acts, and their consequent correspond- 
 ence with the greatness of the promise. 
 
 In the first place, we must recollect the extremely 
 scanty materials from which our knowledge of Peter's 
 life is derived. The ten first chapters of the Acts com- 
 prise it all. Where so much is left untold, it is probably 
 that "what is told has been preserved and recorded from 
 the deep impression which it had made on those amongst 
 whom it occurred, and which it was intended to make 
 on those who were to read of it. Had there been a 
 hundred speeches handed down of the different Apostles 
 during the first years of their residence at Jerusalem, the 
 two speeches of Peter which remain to us might have been 
 comparatively insignificant. But when these two alone 
 are preserved, it is evident that the very fact of their pre- 
 servation is a guarantee of their great importance. What 
 is not told becomes to us more expressive than what is 
 told. 
 
 Accordingly, though it would be rash to say that either 
 the history or the prophecy were recorded one for the 
 sake of the other, it certainly does seem as if it was the 
 same prominence which occasioned the selection of the 
 general traits of St. Peter's character in the one, and 
 the selection of the particular facts of his life in the 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 131 
 
 other. When for example we reflect on the all but 
 entire extinction to which the first disciples were ex- 
 posed during the first days or months succeeding to the 
 Ascension, it surely was most natural that in the one man 
 who then stood at their head, and by whose preaching 
 took place the first great increase of their numbers, which 
 in fact converted them from an insignificant handful of 
 individuals into a formidable and extensive society, they 
 should realize the image of the foundation-rock, and in his 
 wonderful escapes from death and imprisonment should 
 acknowledge the baffled attempts of the powers of the 
 grave to destroy him. Or again, if ever there was a time 
 when the keys of heaven might be said to be wielded 
 with more than ordinary sway, it was in the crisis which 
 has been described in the Sermon as taking place at the 
 conversion of Cornelius. Nothing but our own complete 
 acquiescence in what then seemed the most startling of 
 paradoxes could blind our eyes to the immense import- 
 ance which that journey from Joppa to Caesarea must have 
 assumed in the eyes of those to whom it was the one 
 absorbing question of the times, and the greatness of the 
 consequences which it involved for all future generations. 
 
 And lastly, if there could be any doubt as to the cor- 
 rectness of the view above given of the power of " binding 
 " and loosing," and the reality or significance of such a gift 
 in the early Church, nothing could so effectually dispel it 
 as a view of the unquestioned exercise of it by St. Peter, 
 as recorded in the Acts. " Let your yea be yea, and your 
 " nay, nay y ," was the injunction to strict veracity put for- 
 ward as we know on the very front of the earliest Christian 
 Church at Jerusalem as a mark of the new society, and 
 the more remarkable from its collision with the besetting 
 sin of all the nations of the east. What more terrible proof 
 could be given that what the Apostles had thus bound on 
 
 y James v. 12. 
 K 2 
 
132 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 earth was bound in heaven than in the death of Ananias 
 and Sapphira at the word of St. Peter ? " The pure and un- 
 " defiled service of God z ," such was another maxim now 
 asserted in the churches of Judaea, "is to visit the fatherless 
 " and the widows, and to keep oneself unspotted from the 
 " world." What more consoling proof could be given to 
 the outward senses that this was truly the service which 
 God approved, than when Peter raised from the bed of 
 death, " the woman who was full of good works and alms- 
 " deeds which she did," and over whose body "all the widows 
 " stood weeping, shewing the coats and garments which 
 " Dorcas had made when she was with them a ?" And if from 
 the peculiar failings or excellencies of the Church of Pales- 
 tine, we ascend to the record of the more general questions 
 which agitated the Church at large, it is still no exaggeration 
 to say that here also the "binding and loosing" of the Chris- 
 tian conscience which was doubtless exercised in a measure, 
 and subsequently perhaps in a greater measure, by the 
 other Apostles, was in the first instance exercised pre- 
 eminently by St. Peter. In the great dispute which was, 
 so to say, the source of all the casuistry of the first period 
 of the apostolical age, it was Peter whose decision on the 
 lawfulness of associating with Gentiles both at the conver- 
 sion of Cornelius and in the assembly at Jerusalem was 
 confirmed by the descent of the Spirit, and the whole sub- 
 sequent order of Providence b . In the daring attempt of 
 the second period of the earliest heresies to claim the sanc- 
 tion of Christianity fo;r their own wild and revolutionary 
 doctrines, it was Peter whose decision on the unlawfulness 
 of " using the liberty of Christians for a cloak of malicious- 
 " ness," was, as has been in part shewn already and will 
 be more fully shewn hereafter, the chief human instrument 
 of their overthrow. 
 
 ' James i. 27. Acts ix. 36, 39. 
 
 * Acts x. 45 ; xv. 28. = ] Pet. ii. 16. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETEIl. 133 
 
 II. THE PROMISES TO PETER IN JOHN XXI. 15 23. 
 
 The difficulties of the passage which has just been 
 discussed arise in great measure from the strongly pro- 
 phetic and Hebrew character of its expressions; but its 
 general import could never have occasioned so much dis- 
 pute if it had been measured by the more simple language 
 of the passages in the two remaining Gospels, which treat 
 of the same subject, and which, though touching upon it 
 only incidentally, are in one respect doubly valuable on 
 that account, because they afford a remarkable proof that 
 the record of the promise in St. Matthew cannot be 
 ascribed merely to the reverence of the Palestine Church 
 for its great Apostle, but that it agrees substantially with 
 other speeches of our Lord, for the preservation or in- 
 vention of which there existed no similar motive. 
 
 We now pass to that contained in John xxi. 15 23. 
 The chapter in which these words occur, occupies, as is 
 well known, a remarkable position in St. John's Gospel. 
 That it is an appendix, so to speak, to the general narra- 
 tive, which had already been closed with the solemn scene 
 of the confession of Thomas, can hardly be doubted; and 
 there are not wanting indications that the actual compo- 
 sition is by another hand than that of the Evangelist him- 
 self d . But these difficulties in the outward details of this 
 chapter are not incompatible with the belief that we have, 
 if not the very words, at least the last recollections of 
 the beloved Disciple; taken down it may be from his 
 mouth, or written immediately after his death by the 
 Ephesian disciples, but still substantially his own. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the immediate object of 
 recording the scene must have been the contradiction of 
 the expectation of John's immortality. With this it closes ; 
 
 d See Lucke's Commentary on John xxi. 
 
134 ON THE PROMISES TO PETEE. 
 
 to this it tends throughout ; and on this the chief stress is 
 laid by the writer. But it would almost seem as if in the 
 statement of the real saying of our Lord, on which the false 
 rumour had been founded, the whole scene had come back 
 so vividly to the Apostle's mind not merely the Divine 
 prediction, but also his own early companions, employ- 
 ments, and haunts that either he delighted to record, or 
 the enquiring disciples would not pause in their questions 
 till they had received, the whole account even down 'to the 
 minutest outward details 6 , elsewhere so unusual in St. 
 John's Gospel, and especially those which related to that 
 early friend of their own beloved teacher, the ancient 
 Apostle of a bygone age, of whose latter days and dread- 
 ful death the recollection was still fresh in the minds even 
 of the eastern Christians. And thus were touched so 
 many chords of the earlier narrative of the Gospel his- 
 tory, the names of the five disciples, the miraculous 
 draught, the leaping into the sea, it may be the older 
 promises to Peter, that it appeared then, as it has ap- 
 peared since f , no unfitting conclusion to the last teaching 
 of St. John. With this preliminary view of the general 
 spirit and object with which the account was given, we 
 may now, as far as may be, endeavour to conceive the 
 immediate scene and circumstances when it represents 
 the words to have been spoken. 
 
 It was the early dawn upon the sea of Galilee; the 
 fishing vessel with its little crew, headed by Peter, was 
 once again, after a long interval, on the waters of the lake ; 
 and now again, as once before, the long night had passed 
 away in useless toil. Then it was that there came the 
 
 e If we admit some such explanation as is here given of the minuteness 
 of the details, it obviates the necessity of introducing into the narrative a 
 lengthened allegory, such as that adopted by St. Augustine, wholly uncon- 
 genial to the usual spirit of St. John's Gospel. 
 
 1 " I almost seem to see the whole Gospel in it." Arnold. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 135 
 
 friendly voice from the shore, the sudden draught of fishes, 
 the instant recognition which that sign of former times 
 brought home to the mind of the younger of the sons of 
 Zebedee, that "it was the Lords." In a moment they 
 rush to land; Peter, with his characteristic vehemence, 
 plunging h into the lake, the others following in the little 
 boat (r&> 7r\oiapl(0), by which they neared the shallow 
 water which the larger vessel (TO ir\olov) could not ap- 
 proach, and with the heavy net behind, which Peter 
 dragged up the shelving bank, and spread upon the 
 white margin of the sandy beach. 
 
 But it was not now, as it had been in other days ; an 
 awful silence reigned through that solemn meal ; no inter- 
 change of questions and of answers, as on the last supper 
 in the upper chamber, or as on the feeding of the five 
 thousand on the mountain-side. He was still indeed the 
 same holy and loving Master; they knew that it was 
 " the Lord:" but they felt also that their relation was 
 changed : He was now to speak, and they, except at His 
 command, to be silent. v 
 
 And now, when the meal was over, in those accents of 
 
 s One is perhaps hardly justified in assuming a reference to the miracle 
 in Luke v. 9. Yet when one considers the reflective character of the whole 
 narrative, the natural recurrence of it to St. John's mind, the mention (else- 
 where not occurring in St. John) of the sons of Zehedee, it may be worth while 
 suggesting whether it he not the most obvious solution of the recognition which 
 is here described, and is evidently spoken of as resulting from the sudden 
 revival of an old association. 
 
 ll I have ventured thus to enter into the details, because the narrative itself, 
 probably from the circumstances of its composition mentioned above, invites 
 us to do so. It is evident that Peter rushed to shore through the shallow 
 water, which could only be approached in the little boat attached to the 
 larger fishing vessel, as is still the custom with the Galilean fishermen, 
 (see Light's Travels in Palestine, p. 205,) and hence the mention (not of his 
 casting off but) of his putting on his outer garment which he had thrown off 
 whilst fishing. The scene is also marked by the word alyta\os; one of those 
 spots where the shore of the lake descends to the water side not in a steep 
 grassy slope, but a white sanded beach, (see the authorities quoted in Trench's 
 Parables, p. 57). 
 
136 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 mingled love and rebuke, which seemed to blend in one 
 the recollection of all those previous addresses of former 
 times, there came the question, thrice repeated, " Simon, 
 " son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ?" and in the first of the 
 three, " lovest thou Me more than these ?" It is not the 
 address now to Peter as the future Apostle, but to Simon, 
 the man, the disciple, the friend, who, as he had thrice 
 denied, was now thrice called upon to avow that love to 
 his Master * which alone could blot out the memory of his 
 sin; and which at least in its outward manifestations existed, 
 as Chrysostom has said, more fervently in him than in any 
 of the others. Thrice he answered, " Yea, Lord, Thou (o~v) 
 " knowest that I love Thee." It is allowable to mark the 
 contrast between the confident words, " Though all should 
 " forsake Thee yet will not I," and this refusal to answer 
 at all for himself, much more to institute comparisons 
 between himself and the others, this throwing of the 
 question back on the searching knowledge which he now 
 felt, by sad experience, to be indeed possessed by Him, to 
 whom, in his last reply, he felt that he could truly say, 
 not merely " Thou knowest my love," but " Thou knowest 
 " (olSas) all things ; all things are given to Thee both in 
 " heaven and in earth; Thou k canst recognise (yiyvcoo-KetS'), 
 " though I dare not, the depth of that love which I bear to 
 " Thee ; not the mere general affection which Thou askest 
 " of me, and which Thou hast enjoined to all Thy disciples 
 l ), but the deep personal affection which one 
 
 i " Love covers the multitude of sins," 1 Pet. iv. 8. 
 
 k It is difficult to suppose that these words are in the same sentence inter- 
 changed at random ; and the meaning which is here given to them corre- 
 sponds with that which they bear in a somewhat similar juxtaposition. 
 " Jesus' divine power I recognise (yiyvitxrKQ)), Paul's historical existence I 
 know (eTricrrafjiai) ." Acts xix. 15. Here, as usual, the distinction is lost in the 
 Peschito, and preserved in the Philoxenus version. 
 
 * Here again the words are interchanged, evidently with the sense above 
 affixed to them. 'AyctTnj is the general love from man to God, and from man 
 to man, for the sake of God, which occurs so often in the writings of John. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 137 
 
 " human friend bears to another," (<f>i\ta.) It was after 
 each of these successive answers (according to that uni- 
 versal law exhibited in Scripture, God answering for man 
 only when man answers for himself, bestowing His gifts 
 not arbitrarily, but through and because of the moral and 
 spiritual affections of man) that our Lord repeats those 
 charges, which bear the same relation to the promise in 
 St. Matthew that the confession of individual affection 
 here bears to the confession of general belief there. 
 The peculiarly Hebrew imagery is dropped; the particu- 
 lar features of the Rock and the Keys and the binding 
 and loosing, which were to be exemplified in his rule of 
 the Palestine Church disappear; and we have instead the 
 more universal metaphor with which the readers of this 
 Gospel must have been already familiar from the para- 
 ble of the Good Shepherd. It is as if the sense were : 
 " Love is the true condition of Apostleship ; he only who 
 
 is a term, as the readers of Aristotle know, more general than our word 
 " friendship," inasmuch as it includes all family relations yet still having 
 this in common with it, that it always implies personal affection, and is, ac- 
 cording to Aristotle's definition, e/ceivou ez/e/co. (Eth. viii. 3.) It is of course a 
 doubtful criticism which transfers the rules of classical Greek to that of the 
 New Testament. But the distinct ideas which lie at the root of words often 
 survive many changes, and in cases like the present, where a direct contrast 
 is made, are the surest guide in determining the sense. It would seem to 
 be from a feeling of reverence that the mote special affection of our Lord for 
 John and Lazarus is always expressed by the more general word ayairav : the 
 only exception is the speech in the mouth of the unbelieving bystanders at 
 the grave of Lazarus, " Behold how He loved him," (e^iAet), John xi. 36. It is 
 also to be observed, that in the last of our Lord's three questions <pi\eis is 
 substituted for ayairas, as if the sense was, " Thy double avowal has satisfied 
 " Me that thou lovest Me generally ; but hast thou indeed that true personal 
 " love which thou claimest to have, and which so signally failed in the hour 
 " of the betrayal?" In the English the distinction is wholly lost. The 
 Vulgate has made an ineffectual attempt to preserve it in " diligo" and 
 " amo." It is of more importance to observe, that here, according to its usual, 
 though not invariable practice, the Syriac version of the Peschito employs the 
 one word rohem for both, whilst the Philoxenian, according to its professed 
 object of preserving the Greek text as faithfully as possible, renders <f>iAeT/ by 
 rohem, and ayairai/ by maheb. 
 
138 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " excels his brethren in love may excel them in power ; 
 " and if thou lovest thy Master truly, thou shalt be as thou 
 " wast before. But He will be no longer with you. The 
 " Chief Shepherd shall be withdrawn from this earthly 
 " scene ; it will be for thee to shew thy love to Him by care 
 " for those whom He leaves behind. (Comp. Matt. xxv. 40; 
 " x. 40.) Therefore, according to each successive avowal of 
 " thy love, follow the successive charges 111 , Feed My lambs ; 
 t( Give that tender care to the little ones, to the young of 
 " thy flock which they especially need ; Be the shepherd of 
 " My sheep (Troi/maive) ; Guide and protect the matured 
 " and full-grown disciples through the dangers which will 
 " attack them ; and also Feed My sheep ; forget not in thy 
 " higher task that even the oldest may require the same 
 " tender care that thou owest to the young." It is needless 
 to repeat the events of Peter's earlier life, in which this 
 charge, no less than the promise in St. Matthew, was 
 realized. But as it was probably to the latest recollections 
 of Peter's life that this chapter was addressed, so it is pro- 
 bably the more general image, now fading in the distance, 
 and more especially that implied in his First Epistle, that 
 its readers would recognise : and, if nothing more, it 
 is at least a striking coincidence and illustration of this 
 passage that there is no part of the New Testament (with 
 
 m The distinction between the words &pvia and irpSftara, &6(TKe and iroi- 
 fj.aive, whatever may be meant by it, is surely as undeniable as that between 
 $iA.e?z/ and aya-rraf, although Liicke, who maintains the first, denies the second. 
 It is true that in the two corresponding passages of Matt. x. 16, Luke x. 3, 
 irp60a.Ta and &pvas are used as synonymous ; but this cannot apply to a context 
 where they both occur together: and the meaning here given is certainly borne 
 out by the two passages referred to in the writings of the two Apostles chiefly 
 concerned, (1 John ii. 12; 1 Pet. v. 1, 5.) And again, when we remember 
 the danger and difficulty implied in the eastern notion of a shepherd, (comp. 
 John x. 11, 12 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35 ; and, taken as it probably should be, in 
 conjunction with the earlier part of the chapter, 1 Pet. v. 8,) there is nothing 
 strange in tracing a difference between the simple notion of "feeding," and 
 that of " being a shepherd." In both the Syriac versions the distinction is 
 lost, as there is but one word in Syriac to express the two ideas. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 139 
 
 the exception of John x.) where the image of the shepherd 
 is so prominently brought forward as in this very First 
 Epistle of Peter (v. 2 4), where almost the very words of 
 this passage are repeated, and where in the same con- 
 nexion the very distinction that seems implied in our 
 Lord's address, between the elder and the younger disciples, 
 is drawn out with an emphasis peculiar to himself (v. 1 5) 
 and St. John (1 John ii. 12.) (See also the previous Essay 
 on the Apostolic office on the word 'ETTIO-KOTTOS.) 
 
 But as this passage, unlike the one in St. Matthew, has 
 reference to Peter's individual history, rather than to his 
 apostolical mission, and to the later part of that history 
 rather than the earlier, so the address of our Lord here 
 includes the allusions to his death, in which, as I have 
 said, the later generation of the age of John would 
 naturally take a deep interest. The general sense, in 
 part arising from the contrast between the younger and 
 older members of the flock who would need Peter's care, 
 might perhaps be expressed thus : " This is thy charge, 
 " which if thou lovest thy Lord truly, thou wilt fulfil 
 " arduous though it will be. For in thy youth, before 
 " these heavier cares have fallen upon thee, thou wast free 
 " to follow thine own pleasure, even as just now in the 
 " boat thou couldst gird n thy fisher's coat about thee, or 
 " cast it off as thou wouldest ; or walk (TrepieTrarels) along 
 " the shores of the lake, or tread its shelving sands, ac- 
 " cording to thine own free will. But it is a far different 
 u portion which awaits thy future years. Thou hast loved thy 
 
 a The repetition of the word " gird," (etypvvfs,} which had occurred so im- 
 mediately before (Sie^axraro in ver. 7), fixes the reference to the ordinary 
 occupations of Peter's youth. That it is a natural reference is confirmed by 
 its occurrence (without any direct intention of elucidating this passage) in a 
 similar contrast in the Christian Year. (St. Peter's Day.) 
 " Or haply to his native lake 
 
 His vision wafts him back, to talk 
 With Jesus, ere his flight he take, 
 As in that solemn evening walk." 
 
140 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " Master hitherto ; canst thou love Him also in age, when 
 " thou wilt have to sacrifice thine own pleasure in all things, 
 " when thou shalt stretch forth thine hands on the cross 
 " which must be borne by all His true disciples ; when thou 
 " shalt be the sport of the rude hands of enemies, to gird 
 " thee with another than a fisher's belt, to carry thee to 
 " other places than the free air of the Galilean lake ? And 
 " now if thou fearest not this, once more, as at thy first 
 " call, and as was promised to thee at the Last Supper, 
 "follow Me." 
 
 In itself the passage is not so much a prediction of an 
 actual event, as a warning of general suffering and distress, 
 such as the passage, so strikingly similar to this in its 
 immediately following upon the promise in Matt. xvi. 18, 
 " If any man p will come after Me, let him deny himself 
 " and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt. xvi. 24). 
 But it is precisely after the manner of the Evangelist to 
 refer to specific details, as the fulfilment of promises or 
 warnings which themselves bear a more general significa- 
 tion, (see vii. 38 ; xii. 32, 38 3 and most indisputably xviii. 
 9). And in this case especially, where the words seemed 
 expressly framed to meet the exact circumstances of 
 Peter's death (the literal extension of the arms, the literal 
 binding, whether of the girdle <i round his loins, or of his r 
 hands and feet to the cross), it was natural that the parti- 
 cular should throw the general into the shade, and that the 
 self-crucifixion of Peter through his whole subsequent life 
 
 Matt. iv. 19; John xiii. 36. 
 
 P So again the notion of "binding with a girdle" was expressive not only 
 of the binding at crucifixion, but of imprisonment and affliction generally. 
 (Acts xxi. 11.) 
 
 Evang. Nicod. 10. 
 
 * Tune Petrus ab altero vincitur, cum cruci adstringitur. Tert. adv. Gnost., 
 c. 15. This may be a fair testimony to the general practice of binding, as 
 well as nailing, criminals to the cross ; but it is too evidently founded on 
 this passage to be considered as an independent testimony to the particular 
 mode of Peter's crucifixion. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 141 
 
 should seem to be concentrated in the actual crucifixion 
 which closed it, and thus signify " by what death he should 
 " glorify God" -even as the two thoughts are beautifully 
 blended together in the legend which is in fact a comment 
 on this whole passage, and which represents Peter as es- 
 caping from Rome on the eve of his martyrdom, as if at 
 the last seeking to have again that liberty which he was 
 here warned to sacrifice, and meeting on the Appian way 
 the vision of his risen Lord who said, "Venio Romam 
 " iterum crucifigi s ." 
 
 The coincidence of this last passage with Matt. xvi. 24 
 has been just observed; it is remarkable and may perhaps 
 throw some light on the context, that the parallel still 
 seems to continue, and that in Matt. xvi. 28 occurs the 
 passage which of all in the three first Gospels most nearly 
 corresponds to the concluding words in John xxi. 19 22. 
 Of these words, as forming the keystone of the whole 
 chapter, and also occupying a prominent place in one of 
 the subsequent Sermons, it will not be out of place to give 
 an explanation here, though not immediately connected 
 with the character of Peter. 
 
 As the last words to Peter were uttered (so we must 
 conceive the scene) the Lord turned to depart ; Peter, with 
 the natural energy of his character, and also with the 
 tendency which so often appears in the minds of the dis- 
 ciples, to take in its immediate literal sense what really 
 could have only a spiritual meaning, sprang forward as if 
 in obedience to His injunction to " follow Him," forget- 
 ting for the moment that as He came and went amongst 
 them not as in former times, so they could be with Him 
 only in the higher sense which His address had of itself 
 indicated. But as Peter thus hung on his Master's parting 
 
 s As 1 Pet. v. 1 5 may be considered an allusion to the first part of the 
 address, so it might seem that 2 Pet. i. 14 is in allusion to the second part 
 of it. 
 
142 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. - 
 
 words, another step was heard behind, and he turned and 
 beheld the beloved Disciple, silent as before, but, now that 
 the dialogue with Peter was closed, following like him, in 
 rapt attention, the track of his departing Lord. What 
 wonder if, with the thought of the marked contrast of their 
 characters, the active energy of the one, the passive gentle- 
 ness of the other, impressed as it was even on the minute 
 details of this brief scene, elated it may be by his own 
 restoration to favour, and excited by the foreshadowing of 
 his own future destiny, the natural impetuousness of Peter 
 should break through the awful reverence which had up to 
 that moment prevailed over the meeting, and vent itself 
 in the question partly of eager curiosity, partly of half- 
 expressed complaint or personal interest at the fate of his 
 youthful friend, too retiring to ask for himself, " Lord, and 
 " what shall this man do ? " It was on this occasion, it was 
 under such circumstances, (so we can imagine the feeling 
 to have run which dictated the record of this scene,) that 
 the Lord uttered that memorable speech, on which has 
 been founded the belief that John " should never die ;" 
 with how much or how little truth may be inferred from 
 the speech itself. 
 
 Jesus saith unto him, "If I will that he tarry till I come, 
 " what is that to thee ? Follow thou Me." The first im- 
 pression conveyed and intended to be conveyed, is of 
 a rebuke to Peter; that same rebuke which throughout 
 the Scriptures, but in the Gospel History especially, is ad- 
 dressed to those who leave the thought of their own duties 
 for profitless enquiries about the fate of others. " Lord, 
 " are there few that be saved?" was a similar question of 
 Peter's on a former occasion, and met by a similar answer, 
 " Strive to enter in at the strait gate 1 ." And now the 
 solemnity of the rebuke was enhanced by the additional 
 awe which invested all their interviews since the Resurrec- 
 
 ' Luke xiii. 23, 24. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 143 
 
 tion, and which more than ever refused to be broken in 
 upon by questions of idle or irreverent curiosity. " Touch 
 " Me not" is the prevailing tone which pervades the 
 whole mysterious intercourse of the Forty Days. 
 
 But in this as in many of our Lord's rebukes, a positive 
 lesson lies hid under the negative form in which it is 
 couched, just as we find an eternal truth wrapt up in the 
 answers to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matt, xxiii., 
 although the outward form in which they are expressed is 
 intended not so much to impart truth, as to confute error. 
 Even regarding it still in its reference to Peter, there 
 is the general instruction conveyed which is so beauti- 
 fully deduced from it in the Christian Year, and which 
 so strongly resembles the answer given to the somewhat 
 similar question of the same Apostle on a previous occa- 
 sion, "We have forsaken all and followed Thee, what 
 "shall we have therefore?" (Matt. xix. 27 xx. 16;) or 
 to the demand of the mother of John himself, when she 
 asked for her two sons the loftiest places in the kingdom 
 of heaven. (Matt. xxi. 20.) " What is it to thee, if he 
 " tarry u till Christ comes, in rest and peace, whilst thou 
 " art led to suffering and death ? What is it to him, if he 
 " linger on year after year in loneliness and weariness of 
 " spirit, whilst thou art serving in active self-denial ? Each 
 " of Christ's servants has his appointed task. Thou art 
 
 u As in the previous passage, much depended on the double meanings of 
 "gird" and "walk," (^uvvwai, TreptTrore?^,) so here on the various significa- 
 tions of /jiweiv. It is no douht this very fulness of sense which renders the 
 word so appropriate. (1.) It is probably chosen from its immediate contrast 
 with d/>Aou0ei. " He may stand still here, but thou must follow My depart- 
 " ing steps." But then (2.) it also has the sense which it seems to have 
 acquired in the apostolic writings of "continuing in life," 1 Cor. xv. 6; 
 1 Thess. iv. 17, in which sense it must have been understood by the authors 
 of the rumour of John's immortality. And (3.) both meanings must be in- 
 vested with the notion of permanence and quiet resting, which, in St. John's 
 writings especially, is the peculiar force of this word. (See inter alia, i. 32, 
 33; xiv. 17; xv. 4; 1 John iv. 16.) 
 
144 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " the first, and yet it may be thy lot to become the last, 
 " and he the last and youngest of the Apostles may by his 
 " happy and peaceful end become the first : thou mayest 
 " glory in thy martyr's death, but he too may serve 
 " though he only f stand and wait:' the cup that he shall 
 " drink and the baptism that he shall be baptized with 
 " is far different from thine, and from that of his elder 
 " brother, yet each shall have the reward that is prepared 
 " for him. In the Father's house are many mansions, and 
 " divers are the paths which lead thither : whether there- 
 " fore thou murmurest for thyself, or complainest for him, 
 "rest content in the belief that that which ( I will' is 
 " good." 
 
 Such, if we may so far venture to paraphrase the Lord's 
 words, is the most obvious and general lesson which they 
 convey, the lesson of that resignation to the will of God 
 and Christ, in which, according to the well-known saying 
 of Bishop Butler, is involved the whole sum of human 
 piety. But that "will" is on this occasion expressed in 
 such definite language, as to invite to a consideration not 
 merely of man's duty under it, whatever it might be, but 
 of what it actually was to be. The natural inference un- 
 doubtedly is that His will was that John should " tarry till 
 " He came." The first and most obvious sense in which this 
 must have been fulfilled to the mind of the early Church, 
 was that he, alone of all the more celebrated Apostles, 
 lived to see the close of the Jewish dispensation in the fall 
 of Jerusalem, which in the thoughts of the first disciples 
 and in the speeches of our Lord Himself was blended 
 with what is called "the coming of the Son of Man." It 
 would be in this case an almost exact parallel in sense, 
 as well as in position, to Matt. xvi. 28. There, as here, 
 the general tenor of the whole passage speaks of the final 
 reward of Christ's servants according to their several 
 works at His coming, and of the near approach of that 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 145 
 
 coming within the lifetime of those who heard Him. The 
 only difference would be that what is there spoken in 
 general terms of the existing generation is here concentred 
 in the person of John ; a concentration, to which the natu- 
 ral feeling of the early Church towards the sole surviving 
 representative of the original Apostles would at once re- 
 spond, and which is no less familiar to later ages from 
 the connexion of his name with the book which is writ- 
 ten in express expectation of Him who "comes quickly, 
 " and whose reward is with Him to give to every man as 
 '' his work shall be," (Rev. xxii. 12.) 
 
 But this sense of our Lord's words did not satisfy the 
 feeling of the Church, after this first coming was past and 
 gone and John still remained alive. Of the belief which 
 arose in consequence that he should never die, there will 
 be occasion to speak hereafter, (see Essay on the Tradi- 
 tions respecting St. John.) We are here concerned not 
 with their false interpretation, but with what we may con- 
 ceive to be the true interpretation still remaining, after the 
 words had received their first and historical fulfilment. The 
 " coming of the Lord," as we know from the variety of 
 passages in which it occurs, expresses any such epoch or 
 " crisis" in the world's history as may be considered in 
 some sense a foreshadowing of its final end and judgment. 
 Sometimes it may be marked with "fearful sights and 
 " great signs," as in the fall of Jerusalem and of Rome, 
 (Luke xxi. 11,) sometimes "coming not with observation, 
 " with no man saying ' Lo here' or ' Lo there,' for behold 
 " the kingdom of God is within us." (Luke xvii. 21.) Such 
 a coming as the last of these two modes was the close of the 
 apostolical age at the end of the first century ; to ordinary 
 observers imperceptible, gradually passing away with the 
 last sands in the hour-glass of one enfeebled, speechless, 
 solitary old man ; yet withal a crisis which even more than 
 the fall of Jerusalem or of Rome marked off the end of 
 
146 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 that generation from all which preceded it, inasmuch as it 
 marked on the one hand the extinction of the last re- 
 flected ray of the Divine Presence which had illuminated 
 the whole of that period with a preternatural intensity of 
 light ; but on the other hand the beginning of that great 
 society, which, as now left to itself, and its indwelling 
 Spirit, was now what we call in its ordinary sense the Chris- 
 tian Church, " the holy city, coming down from God out 
 " of heaven, prepared as a bride to meet her husband." 
 This crisis x , the point of transition between the mira- 
 culous and the natural, between the age of the Apostles 
 and the age of the Church, between the times of the 
 earthly and the times of the spiritual Jerusalem, St. John 
 lived to see and in this sense may truly be said to have 
 waited till his Lord came to call him to Himself. One 
 remaining and still higher sense there is in which those 
 words may have been in part fulfilled, in the work which 
 is still left and always will be left to be performed till the 
 end of all things, by the spirit of John, whether in his own 
 writings, or in the still more living monuments of his 
 earthly likenesses. But for this so much more fitting a 
 place will be found in the Sermon upon St. John that it 
 need not be further pursued here. 
 
 It may be allowed in conclusion to call attention 
 to the striking example which this passage aifords of 
 "inspiration," or whatever else we may call the charac- 
 teristic difference between ordinary writings and those in 
 the Sacred Volume. Here is a chapter, of which it might 
 be alleged that the peculiarities of its style and composition 
 suggest the probability of its having passed through other 
 hands than the Apostle himself; an interpretation of our 
 Lord's words is spoken of as generally current in the 
 Church ; an interpretation which actually laid so great a 
 hold of the existing generation that it has required nearly 
 
 x See Ziillig's Introduction to the Apocalypse, p. 67. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 147 
 
 seventeen centuries to shake it entirely off; an interpreta- 
 tion too, which from its definiteness and precision would 
 in some respects have exactly suited the mind which so 
 loved to trace the fulfilment of the Lord's words in parti- 
 cular specific events. And yet, thus hovering as it does on 
 the very confines of the sacred writings, thus seeming even 
 to demand admission, it is rejected. The Evangelist goes 
 to the very verge; he mentions it; he does not even declare 
 it to be false; he contents himself with stating the real 
 saying on which it professed to rest. But, as if by an 
 infallible instinct, he there pauses; and the New Testament 
 is relieved from having given the slightest sanction to a 
 belief, which however natural and even beautiful in itself, 
 was yet sure to degenerate into wild superstition, and 
 which even in its simplest form was incompatible with the 
 stern plainness of Christian history. 
 
 III. THE PROMISES TO PETER IN LUKE V. 1 10; 
 
 xxii. 31, 32. 
 
 The compilatory y character of St. Luke's Gospel pre- 
 cludes the possibility of fixing on the intention of any par- 
 ticular narrative in it with as much precision as is attain- 
 able in the others. Still there is a general purpose running 
 throughout, however much obscured by incidental causes. 
 That the universal diffusion of Christianity as a fact is the 
 chief object of that "second treatise" which we now call 
 " the Acts of the Apostles" no one will doubt, and it seems 
 probable, that in like manner the universal applicability of 
 Christianity even to the lowest and most degraded states 
 of humanity is the prevailing characteristic of his " first 
 " treatise," now called his " Gospel." Such at least is the 
 tenor of most of those parts which are peculiar to it, and 
 
 y As stated in the Preface to the Gospel (Luke i. 1 5). 
 L 2 
 
148 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 such apparently the occasion of the insertion of the two 
 passages now before us. The prominent feature in each of 
 the two transactions is the contrast between the struggles 
 and weaknesses of Peter's human nature, and the gracious 
 assurance of his Divine Master. The great Jewish Apostle, 
 as in St. Matthew, the passionate and eager friend, as in 
 St. John, are here put out of sight. It is only the man 
 Simon that is set before us, in whose life, as in the prodigal 
 son, the woman who was a sinner, the weeping women of 
 Jerusalem, and all the other characters peculiarly brought 
 out in this Gospel, a lesson may be read to the desponding 
 minds whom it was intended especially to console. 
 
 It is therefore from a wholly new point of view that We 
 now approach the promises to Peter; their substance is 
 the same, but their form, their context, their intention is 
 entirely different. "Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt 
 " catch men," (Luke v. 10,) conveys no doubt the same 
 truth as was expressed in St. Matthew by the Rock, and in 
 St. John by the Shepherd ; it is but the image which would 
 be most naturally used in the first call of the Apostles to that 
 higher life of which their common occupations furnished so 
 ready a likeness : as in that higher life it would also bring 
 back to their minds the humble origin from which they had 
 risen to it. But it would seem as though the words were here 
 recorded not so much as an augury of the future greatness of 
 the Galilean "Fisherman," but rather as an answer of com- 
 forting reassurance to the feeling of conscious sin, which, as 
 in our first parents, so in the first Apostle, shrunk from the 
 presence of Divinity and vented itself in the despairing cry 
 "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." "Fear 
 " not to approach, it is for thee and such as thee that these 
 " mighty wonders are wrought. The presence of Christ, 
 " divine though it be, will not be death to thee, but life ; 
 " and if thou followest Him, thou shalt perform wonders far 
 " greater than that which thou now seest ; not the mute 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 149 
 
 " unconscious creatures of the deep, but living human 
 " beings shall henceforth be thy spoil." 
 
 So again the address at the Last Supper, Luke xxii. 31, 
 32, was doubtless fulfilled when the wavering resolutions of 
 the early Church were "strengthened" by the reviving energy 
 of Peter at the election of Matthias, at the day of Pentecost, 
 before the Sanhedrin; in the council, and in the first and 
 second Epistle. But all these mighty works of the great 
 Apostle lay far in the remote horizon of that awful evening. 
 All the nearer prospect was overclouded, doubt, betrayal 
 sorrow even unto death desperate declarations of fidelity, 
 which by their very vehemence proved their fickleness ; 
 such were the thoughts and words which brooded over the 
 closing meal. It was amidst associations such as these that 
 the chief Apostle was singled out to receive his Master's 
 warning. Again, in the repetition of the name (e Simon, 
 " Simon/' we recognise the same solemn form, as in the 
 earlier and later address, but it is now not in allusion to 
 what he was about to be, but to what he actually was ; the 
 vision set before him is not of the future, but of the present 
 and the past, not clothed in the imagery of the national 
 prophecies, but of that book which above all others in the 
 Old Testament speaks of the struggles and temptations of 
 the individual man in the presence of his Maker. It is 
 the opening of the book of Job that furnishes the medium 
 through which the inward and spiritual contest is repre- 
 sented to the outward sense. As in a previous occasion, 
 peculiar to this same Gospel, it had been said on the return 
 of the Seventy z , "I beheld Satan fall from heaven like 
 " lightning," as if the court of heaven had been opened, 
 before Him, and at the triumph of good the Accuser had 
 visibly fallen from his wonted place amongst the sons of 
 God ; so here the same scene is again displayed, but with 
 its brightness overcast by the coming on of the Sf hour of 
 
 z Luke x. 18. 
 
150 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " the power of darkness," brought before us, also in this 
 especial Gospel, with a vividness and emphasis peculiar to 
 itself. (Luke xxii. 53.) It is, if we may so far bring out 
 the latent image implied in the sacred words, "It is no 
 " light trial which is now impending over you, it was no 
 " slight demand which has, as it were even now, been 
 " made and obtained by the great Adversary a as he stood 
 " before the throne of heaven, and received permission 
 " from the Most High to sift as on a threshing floor the 
 " good from the bad who are mixed up in your company." 
 (Comp. "Ye are clean but not all," John xiii, 10.) "But 
 " great as the trial will be to all, and above all, to thee, the 
 " first and chief Apostle, fear not. One there was who at 
 " that moment sent up His prayer to the Father that thou 
 " at least mightest come through victorious, that thy faith 
 " might not sink under the terrors of the coming distress ; 
 " and it will be for thee therefore, whensoever the time may 
 " come that thy spirit shall revive, and that thou shalt turn 
 " again from thy flight, (eVfccrrpeS/ra? Trore,) to support those 
 '* whose faith has even more than thine given way under the 
 " danger ; when thou hast known what it is to be tried thy- 
 " self, thou wilt be the better able to strengthen b others," 
 
 The sense, here given, is so much lost in the English 
 version, that it may be necessary to justify it in detail. 
 1 . The translation of the aorists e^r^craro and eSeTjaa^Vy 
 "has desired" and "have prayed," instead of "desired" and 
 "prayed," though allowable and perhaps necessary in some 
 cases, is a violation of the usual rule, which in this case is 
 not only not called for, but destroys the vividness with 
 which the trial, so to speak, is brought forward as in a 
 scene or vision which had just passed as they were speak- 
 ing. 2. The want of emphasis in the English pronoun 
 "I" (eya> Se) also prevents us from seeing the contest, as 
 it were, between Satan or the Adversary on the one hand, 
 
 Compare Rev. ii. 10. b Rev. iii. 3. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 151 
 
 and Christ on the other, for the souls of the Apostles. Comp. 
 Zech. iii. 1 ; Rev. xii. 10, and the whole passage in 
 John xvii. 11, 12, where there is the same sifting implied, 
 one of them being actually lost in the process, and where 
 the prayer for their safety is actually offered up by our 
 Lord. 3. The present confession of "you" and "thou," 
 causes most modern readers to overlook the distinction 
 which is faithfully represented in the original between 
 Peter and the other Apostles. All of them were to be 
 sifted by Satan, but it was for Peter that the prayer was 
 especially offered up, and Peter who was especially warned 
 to comfort the rest, a distinction in accordance with the 
 actual result, inasmuch as the others all fled at once, 
 but Peter's courage alone (with the exception of John) 
 endured till the last moment, and also was the first to 
 revive. 4. efyrrjo-aro is not merely (like e^r^cre) "de- 
 "sired" or "asked," but "succeeded in his request," a 
 sense not only in accordance with the general usage of 
 the word, but almost required by the context, which im- 
 plies that they were all to be tried, though one only was to 
 be lost ; and the others, though overcome for a time, were 
 to be restored. (John xiii. 10.) 5. eTTWTptyas Trore, is ill 
 expressed by " when thou art converted." Evidently the 
 indefinite Trore throws a remoteness and uncertainty over 
 it, fully in accordance with the general gloom of the whole 
 context, and eTrio-rptyas is in direct allusion to the flight 
 and discomfiture of the Apostles, as implied not only in 
 the parallel passage in Matt. xxvi. 31, but in Peter's answer 
 in this very place (Luke xxii. 33), "Lord, why speak of 
 " flight and return ? with Thee I am ready to go in undi- 
 " vided companionship to prison and to death." 
 
 The 'foregoing remarks on the promises to Peter d have 
 
 c See Greswell's Dissertations, vol. iii. p. 114. 
 
 d The only allusion to the promises to St. Peter contained in St. Mark's 
 Gospel is when in the catalogue of the Apostles it is said, " Simon He sur 
 
152 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 been confined to the explanation of the original meaning 
 of the passages, without entering on the wider application, 
 which has been given in the Sermon, or the subordinate 
 applications which have at different times been affixed 
 to them. They have as is well known been greatly 
 varied according to the circumstances of the age, and 
 the point of view from which the passage was ap- 
 proached. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the whole 
 stress was laid on the confession of Peter, as an argument 
 for our Lord's divinity, in the Arian controversy which was 
 then at its height. In the sixth, seventh, and following 
 centuries, it was adduced to support the then rising power 
 of the supposed successor of Peter in the person of the 
 Western Patriarch. In the sixteenth and seventeenth, this 
 last interpretation was again met by' the revival, although 
 under a somewhat different form, of the more dogmatical 
 view of the fifth and sixth, and between these two the 
 works of controversial divines have to a great extent oscil- 
 lated ever since. But wherever the immediate points of 
 dispute have fallen out of sight, there the more spiritual 
 and universal explanation which has been quoted in the 
 Sermon from the commentary of Origen on this passage 
 has maintained its ground. From time to time the vehe- 
 mence of controversy has thrown it into the shade, or 
 endeavoured to explain it away : but on the whole, whether 
 
 " named Peter, and James and John, Boanerges." It might be asked why in 
 a Gospel ascribed by general tradition to the teaching of St. Peter, all the 
 more especial mention of Peter's blessing should be omitted, and (without 
 ascribing it, as has sometimes been done, to the supposed modesty of the 
 Apostle, or to the intended neutrality of the Evangelist) it might be answered 
 that, unless in works especially written with a view to exalt the author, it 
 would be more natural, than not, that the author should be thrown into the 
 shade. If we had a second history of the Peloponnesian war we should pro- 
 bably learn more from it concerning the life of Thucydides, than we^can from 
 his own narrative. But this is a precarious argument, and it is safer to ascribe 
 the omission merely to the absence of any particular occasion for mentioning 
 it, such as we have seen to exist, in different degrees and forms, in the Gos- 
 pels of. St. Matthew, St. John, and St. Luke. 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETEE. 153 
 
 we look at the long chain of patristic opinions collected 
 by Dupin and Gratz, and in the Appendix to the recent 
 Oxford edition of Tertullian, or whether we turn to the 
 Churches of the Reformation, the Church of England 
 as represented in the Apology 6 of the final compiler of its 
 Articles, (to give one authority out of many) the Churches 
 of the Continent, as represented in the almost unanimous 
 opinion of their latest divines, we shall find that amidst 
 much fluctuation and contradiction even of the same writers 
 with themselves, it is after all this interpretation which 
 alone includes them all, and with which for that reason this 
 discussion shall be closed f . 
 
 "If we shall say, like Peter, c Thou art the Christ/the 
 " Son of the living God,' not by the revelation of flesh and 
 " blood, but by the light of our Father which is in heaven 
 " shining into our heart, we become Peter, and to us might 
 " be said by the Word, ( Thou art Peter,' &c. For every 
 " disciple of Peter is a rock, from the time when (or e from 
 " whom' a<j> ov) they drank of him who drank from ( the 
 " spiritual rock which followed them,' and upon every such 
 " rock is built the whole teaching of the Church (6 /cK\rj- 
 " cri-aariKos TTCLS \6<yo$\ and the polity formed according to 
 " such teaching; for in every individual of those who, being 
 " perfect, have the collection of those words, and deeds, 
 " and thoughts, which make up the state of the blessed, 
 " there is the Church which is built by God." [After ex- 
 tending this to the other Apostles, and explaining the 
 meaning of -the gates of hell, he proceeds.] " Now let us 
 " see in what sense it has been said to Peter and to every 
 " one who is Peter, (TO> Uerpo) /cal jravrl Ilerpm,) ' I will 
 (< give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' And 
 " first I think that it has been said in connexion with 'the 
 " gates of hell shall not prevail,' &c. ; for he is worthy from 
 " the same Word to receive the keys of the kingdom of 
 
 e See Jewell's Apology, part 6. f Origen ad Matt. xvi. 
 
154 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " heaven who has guarded himself against ' the gates of 
 " hell, lest they should prevail against him/ as though in 
 " return for the powerlessness against him of the gates of 
 " hell he was to receive for a reward the keys of the king- 
 " dom of heaven, that he may open for himself the gates 
 " which are closed against those who are conquered by 
 ft the gates of hell : and he enters, if he is gifted with self- 
 " control, then through a gate as it were of self-control, 
 " opened by the key which opens self-control, and if 
 " he is just, through the gate of justice opened by the 
 " key of justice, and so in the case of all the other virtues ; 
 " for I conceive that by every virtue of knowledge some 
 " mysteries of wisdom, according to the corresponding 
 " forms of virtue, are opened to him who lives virtuously, 
 " the Saviour giving to those who are not overcome by the 
 " gates of hell as many keys as there are virtues, opening 
 " an equal number of gates according to the revelation of 
 " the mysteries to each separate virtue ; perhaps too each 
 " separate virtue is itself the kingdom of heaven, and all 
 f< virtue collectively is f the kingdom of the heavens g ,' so 
 " that, according to this, he is already in the kingdom of 
 " the heavens who lives according to the several virtues ; 
 " and thus, ' Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 " hand,' is not to be referred to time, but to acts and dis- 
 " positions, for Christ, who is Himself the sum of every 
 " virtue, has taken up His abode there, and speaks, and 
 " therefore it is within His disciples, that the kingdom of 
 " God is, not 'Lo here' or <Lo there.' And see what power 
 " is possessed by the rock on which the Church is built by 
 " Christ, and by every one that says, ' Thou art the Christ, 
 " the Son of the living God,' so much so that his judg- 
 
 8 Oil this distinction, founded on the exact words of the original, 
 TWV olpavuvy] Origen lays stress afterwards in explaining that herein lay the 
 superiority of the promises to Peter to that addressed to the other Apostles in 
 Matt, xviii. Peter binding in all the heavens, (to rots ovpavois,) they only in one, 
 
ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 155 
 
 " ments remain firm, as though God judged in him, that in 
 " that very act of judging the gates of hell should not pre- 
 (( vail against him. Against him, therefore, who judges 
 " unjustly, and does not bind upon earth according to 
 " God's word, nor loose upon earth according to His will, 
 " the gates of hell shall prevail, but he against whom they 
 " do not prevail judges justly. Therefore he has the keys 
 " of the kingdom of the heavens, opening them to those 
 " who are loosed on earth and free, that also in the 
 " heavens they may be loosed and free, and closing them 
 " to those who by his just judgment are bound on earth, 
 " that also in the heavens they may be bound and con- 
 " demned. But since they who lay claim to the rank of 
 " episcopacy (rbv TOTTOV) use this saying, as being Peter, 
 " and as having received the keys of the kingdom of 
 " the heavens from the Saviour, and teach that what 
 " is bound, i. e. condemned, by them, is bound in the 
 " heavens also, and that what has received forgiveness 
 " from them has been loosed in the heavens also, we 
 " must say that they speak soundly, if they have the work 
 " or reality (epyov) on account of which it has been said to 
 <f that first Peter (e/ceiva) r&> Herpw>\ ' Thou art Peter/ 
 " &c., and if their characters are such as that on them h 
 " by Christ the Church is built, and that to them might 
 " reasonably be applied the saying, * the gates of hell shall 
 " not prevail against him that wishes to bind and loose.' 
 " But if he is bound with the cords of his sins, it is in vain 
 " that he binds and looses. Perhaps also it might be said 
 " that it is in the heavens of the wise man, i. e. in his 
 " virtues, that the wicked is bound ; and again, that in 
 " them the good is loosed, and every one who obtains 
 " pardon (a^vria-riav) for the sins committed before he 
 
 h In like manner, when commenting on Matt, xviii. 18, he ascribes the 
 power of binding and loosing there spoken of to all who have thrice a rebuked 
 their erring brethren. 
 
156 ON THE PROMISES TO PETER. 
 
 " became good. Just as he who has no cords of sins, no 
 " sins like cart ropes, is not bound by God, so neither is he 
 " by any who is in the place of Peter (oaris av y Herpes.) 
 " But if any one who is not Peter, and who has not the 
 " qualities here mentioned, believes that he can bind on 
 " earth like Peter, so that what he binds is bound in the 
 " heavens, and what he looses is loosed in the heavens, 
 " such an one is puffed up, not knowing the meaning of 
 " the Scriptures, and being puffed up he has fallen into 
 " the snare of the Devil." 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
 ACTS xxii. 21. 
 Depart, for I will send theefar hence unto the Gentiles. 
 
 IN recurring I trust not unfitly on this day a to the SERM. 
 consideration of the three great Saints and Apostles - 
 of the Christian Church, St. Peter, St. Paul, and 
 St. John, the thoughts of some will perhaps recur 
 to the three original disciples of our Lord, with 
 the mention of whom I opened these discourses. 
 The first has been already spoken of. But when 
 we come to the second, the continuity van- 
 ishes. Unlike his two fellow disciples, James the 
 son of Zebedee is suddenly called away without 
 leaving a trace behind to justify the exalted place 
 which he occupied above his brother Apostles, and 
 in his stead we find one born out of due season, not 
 only not belonging to the circle of the original 
 Three, or even of the Twelve, but in all the cir- 
 cumstances of his education, his calling, and his 
 life, most unlike to all of them. 
 
 I am not now going to dwell on the thoughts 
 which this substitution suggests ; such coinci- 
 
 a Preached on the Feast of All Saints, 1846. 
 
158 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. dences are often more fanciful than real, not to 
 - speak of the handle which they afford to scoff 
 against the undoubted truths with which they are 
 confounded. 
 
 Still though the connexion between St. Paul and 
 James the brother of John is immaterial to the 
 general argument, I know not how we could find a 
 truer point of view from which to regard the rise of 
 the great Apostle of the Gentiles, than by placing 
 ourselves in the position of the early Church mourn- 
 ing over the untimely death of the eldest of the Sons 
 of Thunder. It was not only that now for the first 
 time a chasm had been made in the original apo- 
 stolical brotherhood never to be again filled up on 
 earth, that one of those who were to " sit on twelve 
 " thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" had 
 passed away, without seeing with his bodily eyes 
 the coming of the Lord : but also that a change 
 had come over the general aspect of the whole 
 Christian society. Jerusalem was no longer the 
 exclusive centre of the new faith ; the Church was 
 no longer one with the Synagogue ; new wants had 
 arisen which no natural experience of the fishermen 
 of Galilee was able to supply ; the children were 
 come to the birth and there was not strength to 
 bring forth: even Peter " withdrew 11 and separated 
 " himself" from the very emergency which he had 
 been the chief instrument in bringing to pass ; the 
 framework of the early Church, which twelve years 
 
 b Gal. ii. 12. 
 
ST. PAUL. 159 
 
 before had seemed instinct with immortal vigour, SERM. 
 now appeared to be breaking up and passing away - 
 before a mightier spirit which it was unable to com- 
 prehend : far off beyond the confines of the Holy 
 Land, in the purely Gentile city of Antioch, the 
 capital of the Grecian kingdom, was growing up a 
 new body of prophets which threatened to throw 
 the older societies of Palestine into shade ; a new 
 name was given to the disciples, of which the very c 
 form indicated its Roman origin, and which so long 
 offended against the feelings of the earliest converts 
 that down to the very close of the apostolical age 
 the great mass of believers still shrank from adopt- 
 ing it. 
 
 And now who was the new teacher round whom 
 these tendencies of dangerous error, as they would 
 have been deemed by some, this unfolding of divine 
 truth as it was deemed by others, gradually fixed 
 themselves ? We are not left to conjecture to know 
 the feelings with which this question was asked by 
 the more timid or the more prejudiced of the great 
 bulk of the Jewish Christians. " Who was this pre- 
 1 ' tending to the name of an Apostle, yet ' un- 
 " known by face to the Churches of JudseaV 
 " ' unknown to the circle of those who had seen 
 
 c The name " Christianus" which was first given to the disci- 
 ples at Antioch is never used in the New Testament except as 
 applied to them by others, as in the place where its origin is men- 
 tioned, Acts xi. 26, in the speech of Agrippa, Acts xxvi. 28, and 
 in 1 Pet. iv. 16. "If any man suffer [before the Roman magis- 
 " trates] as a Christian." 
 
 d Gal. i. 22; 1 Cor ix. 1 ; Acts xxi. 21. 
 
160 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. " the Lord Jesus/ with no authority for his teach- 
 " ing, human or Divine, of Gentile life if not of 
 " Gentile birth, a renegade to the faith of his 
 " fathers, 'teaching 6 the Jews which are among the 
 " Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought 
 " not to circumcise their children, nor to walk after 
 " the customs.'" 
 
 Such was the image which we learn from the 
 Acts and Epistles to have been the Jewish concep- 
 tion of St. Paul. But there were others even then, 
 who were ready " to glorify God when they heard 
 " that there was one preaching the faith which once 
 " he destroyed f ;" and now after the lapse of so many 
 hundred years we may still be allowed to ask the 
 question even with a deeper interest, " Who was 
 " this founder of a new epoch in the Christian reli- 
 " gion ? Who was it to whom a greater prominence 
 " is given in the New Testament than to any one else 
 " save our Lord Himself? Who was this to whom 
 " alone of the sons of men our Lord revealed Him- 
 " self on earth after His Ascension, for whom not 
 " merely the laws of the world of nature, but the 
 " order and continuity of the world of grace seemed 
 1 ' to be suspended and interrupted?" 
 
 Whatever difficulty there may be in answering 
 this question certainly does not arise from the ab- 
 sence of materials. Unlike in this respect to the 
 Apostle of whom I last spoke to you, there are very 
 
 e Acts xxi. 21. For the fuller exposition of the misrepresenta- 
 tions of St. Paul see the Essay on the Judaizers. 
 f Gal. i. 22. 
 
ST. PAUL. 161 
 
 few characters in ancient history of which we know SERM. 
 so much as we do of St. Paul, none perhaps in the " 
 Sacred Volume with the exception of the Psalmist 
 King, who in this as in many other respects holds a 
 place in the older dispensation analogous to that of 
 the Gentile Apostle in the new. His very form and 
 manner, his personal feelings and affections the 
 advance of years from the prime of manhood to old 
 age are all reflected to us in the Acts and in his 
 letters with a liveliness and minuteness of detail 
 which have always furnished to the Christian apolo- 
 gist one of the best defences of the authenticity of 
 Christian history. The argument of Paley's Evi- 
 dences must change its value with the shifting state 
 of the metaphysical schools of the age. The argu- 
 ment of the Horse Paulinas will stand fast for all 
 ages alike. 
 
 In examining what this character was it is not 
 necessary to go back to the times before his con- 
 version. It was this which was his birthday into 
 the world's history. He might no doubt have been 
 the head of the Pharisaic faction in the last expiring 
 struggles of his nation; he might have rallied round 
 him the nobler spirits of his countrymen, and by 
 his courage and prudence have caused Jerusalem to 
 hold out a few months or years more against the 
 army of Titus. Still at best he would have been a 
 Maccabaeus or a Gamaliel, and what a difference to 
 the whole subsequent fortunes of the world between 
 a Maccabaeus and a Paul, between the Jewish Rabbi 
 and the Apostle of the Gentiles ! It was not till the 
 
 M 
 
162 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. scales fell off from his eyes after the three days 
 -stupor 8 , till the consciousness of his great mission 
 awakened all his dormant energies, that we really 
 see what he was. That Divine Providence (which, 
 as he himself 11 tells us, had " already separated him 
 " from his mother's womb") had no doubt overruled 
 the circumstances of his earlier education for the 
 great end to which he was afterwards called; in him, 
 as in similar cases, the natural faculties were by his 
 conversion "not unclothed but clothed upon:" the 
 glory of Divine grace was shewn here as always not 
 by repressing and weakening the human character, 
 but by bringing it out for the first time in its full 
 vigour. He was still a Jew; the zeal of his ancestral 
 tribe 1 which had caused him " to raven as a wolf in 
 " the morning" of his life, still glowed in his veins 
 when he " returned in the evening to divide the 
 " spoil" of the mightier enemy whom he had de- 
 feated and bound ; and in the unwearied energy and 
 self-devotion, no less than the peculiar intensity 
 of national feeling, which mark his whole life and 
 writings, we discern the qualities which the Jewish 
 people alone of all the nations then existing on the 
 earth could have furnished. But there were other 
 elements which his conversion developed into life 
 besides the mere enthusiasm of the Jew shared 
 equally with him by St. Peter. I would not lay 
 stress on the Grecian culture which he might have 
 
 g " He was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor 
 " drink." Acts ix. 9 ; compare 2 Cor. xii. 1 . 
 
 h Gal. i. 15. Gen. xlix. 27. 
 
ST. PAUL. 163 
 
 received in the schools of Tarsus k , or the philoso- SERM. 
 
 in. 
 phical tone which we know to have characterized - 
 
 the lectures of Gamaliel, though doubtless these 
 had their share in the formation of his subsequent 
 character ; nor yet would I insist on the difference 
 of intellectual power, great as it seems to have been, 
 between his mind, and that of James and Peter and 
 John. But whatever had been in former ages 
 that remarkable union of qualities which had 
 from the earliest times constituted the chosen 
 people into a link between the East and the 
 West, that was now in the highest degree exem- 
 plified in the character of Paul. Those histori- 
 cal anticipations of the Grecian forms of thought 
 and feeling which have so often struck the classi- 
 cal student of the Old Testament; those pro- 
 phetical aspirations after a wider and more compre- 
 hensive system to which the Apostle so often refers 
 in what he calls the "very bold 1 " expressions of 
 Isaiah, reached their highest pitch, although under 
 a different form, not only in his mission, but in 
 himself. Never before or since have the Jew and 
 Gentile so completely met in one single person, 
 not, as in Josephus and Philo, by mere imitation, 
 not, as in the Jews of later times, by the destruction 
 
 k For the schools of Tarsus, see the often quoted passage in 
 Strabo, (xiv. p. 673), expressing their superiority even to those of 
 Athens and Alexandria. And for the Talmudic traditions of the 
 Gentile tendencies of Gamaliel, agreeing with the tolerant spirit 
 of his speech in the Acts, so alien to the usual rigidity o f his sect, 
 see Tholuck on the Character of St. Paul, (Eng. Trans, p. 17. 26.) 
 
 1 Rom. x. 20. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 ST. PAUL. 
 
 s E RM. of the older element, but by an absolute though un- 
 - conscious fusion of the two together ; not founding 
 a new system, but breathing a new spirit into that 
 which already existed, and which only needed some 
 such Divine impulse to call it into that fulness of 
 life, which had been stunted only, not destroyed. 
 He knew nothing, it may be, of those philosophers 
 and historians with whom we are so familiar, nor 
 can we expect to find in him the peculiar graces of 
 Athenian genius ; yet it is in the dialectical skill m of 
 Aristotle, the impassioned appeals of Demosthenes, 
 the complicated sentences of Thucydides, far more 
 than in the language of Moses or Solomon or Isaiah, 
 that the form and structure of his arguments finds 
 its natural parallel. He had never studied, it may 
 be, or, if he had, would hardly have discerned those 
 finer feelings of humanity of which the germs existed 
 in Greece and Rome, and have from them been pre- 
 served to modern Europe, but how remarkably are 
 they exemplified in his own character ! What is 
 that probing of the innermost recesses of the 
 human" heart and conscience, so unlike the theo- 
 cratic visions of the older prophets, but the aposto- 
 lical reflexion of the practical, individual, psycho- 
 logical spirit of the western philosophies ? What 
 is that inimitable union of self-respect with 
 
 ra As a few out of many instances of this unconscious parallelism 
 to Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Thucydides, may be given, (1.) 
 Rom. vii. 723; 2 Cor. viii. 13, 14; (2.) 2 Cor. xi. 22, 31; 
 (3.) 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, and the digressions in Eph. iii. 2 ; iv. 1 ; 
 1 Tim. i. 419. 
 
 n As in Rom. vii., viii. 
 
105 
 
 respect and deference to others which distin- SERM. 
 guishes his more personal addresses to his con- ~ 
 verts, but the anticipation of that refined and 
 polished courtesy which has been ever esteemed 
 the peculiar product of European civilization? 
 What is that capacity for throwing himself into the 
 position and feelings of others, that becoming " all 
 things to all men p ," which his enemies called world- 
 ly prudence, that " transferring q of arguments" to 
 his own person, which lends such vigour to the Epi- 
 stles to Rome and to Corinth, that intense sym- 
 pathy in the strength of which, as has been truly 
 said, he ' had a thousand friends, and loved each as 
 his own soul, and seemed to live a thousand lives in 
 them, and died a thousand deaths when he must 
 quit them/ which " suffered when the weaker 
 " brother suffered'," which would not allow him to 
 " eat meat whilst the world standeth lest he make 
 " his brother to offend" what was all this but the 
 effect of God's blessing on that boundless versatility 
 of nature which had formed the especial mark of 
 the Grecian mind for good and evil in all ages? 
 what was it but the significant maxim of the Roman 
 poet, "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto," 
 transfigured for the first time in the heavenly radi- 
 ance of truth and holiness ? 
 
 As in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Philippians, and 
 Philemon. 
 
 P 1 Cor. ix. 22 ; see Essay on the Judaizers. 
 
 1 Rom. vii. 723 ; 1 Cor. iv. 6 ; vii. 1 ; viii. 16. 
 r 2 Cor. xi. 29 ; 1 Cor. viii. 13. 
 
166 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. II. It will not be supposed that in this brief view 
 - of the outward aspect of St. Paul's character I have 
 attempted to give a complete analysis of it. I have 
 purposely confined myself solely to those natural 
 and moral gifts which as they were practically called 
 into existence by and for the work which he was 
 to perform, can only through and in that work be 
 fully understood. There is perhaps no feature of 
 the apostolical age which is more difficult for us to 
 realize than the immense importance attached by 
 St. Paul to so obvious a truth as the admission of 
 the Gentiles into the Christian Church, still more 
 the furious opposition by which its first announce- 
 ment was met. Yet so it was. Other questions 
 occupied the attention of the first dawn and of the 
 final close of the apostolic age, but the one question 
 above all others which absorbed its mid-day prime, 
 which is the key to almost all the Epistles, 
 which is the one subject of the whole history of 
 the Acts, was not the foundation, not the com- 
 pletion of the Christian Church, but its universal 
 diffusion ; the destruction not of Paganism, not of 
 Gnosticism, but of Judaism. He therefore who 
 stood forward at this juncture as the champion of 
 this new truth at once drew the whole attention of 
 the Christian world to himself every other Apo- 
 stle recedes from our view east and west, north 
 and south, from Jerusalem to Rome, from Mace- 
 donia to Melita, we hear of nothing, we see nothing 
 but St. Paul and his opponents. 
 
 It is only by bearing this steadily in mind that 
 
BT. PAUL. 107 
 
 we can rightly conceive the nature of the conflict, s E R M. 
 He was not like a missionary of later times whose - 
 great work is accomplished if he can add to the 
 number of his converts ; he was this, but he was 
 much more than this ; it was not the actual conver- 
 sions themselves, but the principle which every 
 conversion involved ; not the actual disciples whom 
 he gained, but he himself who dared to make them 
 disciples, that constitutes the enduring interest of 
 that lifelong struggle. It was not merely that he 
 reclaimed from Paganism the Grecian cities of Asia 
 Minor, but that at every step which he took west- 
 ward from Palestine he tore up the prejudice of 
 ages. It was not merely that he cast out the false 
 spirit from the damsel at Philippi, but that when he 
 set his foot on the farther shores of the ^Egean sea, 
 religion for the first time ceased to be Asiatic, and 
 became European. It was not merely that at 
 Athens he converted Dionysius and Damaris, but 
 that there was seen a Jew standing in the court of 
 the Areopagus, and appealing to an Athenian audi- 
 ence, as children of the same Father, as worshippers, 
 though unconsciously, of the same God. It was not 
 that at Rome he made some impression more or 
 less permanent 8 on the slaves of the imperial palace, 
 but that a descendant of Abraham recognised in the 
 dense masses of that corrupt metropolis a field for 
 his exertions as sacred as in the courts of the 
 Temple of Jerusalem . It Was not the Roman 
 governor or the Ephesian mob, but the vast body 
 
 8 Phil. iv. 22. 
 
168 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM, of Judaizing Christians which was his real enemy ; 
 
 : not the worshippers of Jupiter and Diana, but those 
 
 who made their boast of Moses and claimed to be 
 disciples of Cephas. The conflict with Paganism 
 was indeed the occasion of those few invaluable 
 models of missionary preaching which are preserved 
 to us in his speeches ; but it is the conflict with 
 Judaism which forms the one continuous subject of 
 that far more elaborate and enduring record of his 
 teaching which is preserved to us in his Epistles. 
 At every step* of his progress he is dogged by his 
 implacable adversaries, and at every step, as he 
 turns to resist them, he flings back those words of 
 defiance, of entreaty, of rebuke, of warning, which 
 have become the treasures of the Christian Church 
 for ever. They deny his authority, they impugn 
 his motives, they raise the watchword of the law 
 and of circumcision, and the result is to be found 
 in those early Epistles to Corinth, to Galatia, and 
 to Rome, which have once and for ever laid down 
 what an Apostle is, and what he is not, what are 
 the limits and what the extent of Christian liberty, 
 which have asserted in a form which, if startling 
 now, was assuredly not less startling then, the great 
 principle, " That man is justified by faith without 
 " the works of the law u ." They harass him in his 
 imprisonment at Rome, they blend their Jewish 
 
 1 See Essay on the Judaizers. 
 
 u See especially (1.) 1 Cor. ix. 1 7 ; 2 Cor. x. xii. ; Gal. i. 
 1 ; ii. 10 ; (2.) 1 Cor viii., x. ; Gal. iv. 10 ; v. 1 ; vi. 7 ; Rom. xiv. ; 
 (3.) 1 Cor. i. 30; Rom. iii. 20; viii. 30; Gal. ii. 16; iii. 29. 
 
ST. PAUL. 
 
 notions with the wilder theories of Oriental philo- SERM. 
 
 in. 
 sophy, and there rises before him in the Epistles to ' 
 
 Ephesus, Colossae, and Philippi, the majestic vision 
 of the spiritual Temple which is to grow out of the 
 ruins of the old, of that Divine head of the whole 
 race of man, before whom all temporary and tran- 
 sient rites, all lower forms of worship and philo- 
 sophy fade away, in whom in the fulness of times 
 all things were gathered together in one x . They 
 rise once more in the Asiatic Churches ; all Asia is 
 turned away from him ; his own companions have 
 forsaken him ; he stands almost alone, under the 
 shadow of impending death y . But it is the last 
 effort of a defeated and desperate cause. The vic- 
 tory is already gained, and in the three Epistles to 
 Titus and Timotheus we may consent to recog- 
 nise the last accents of the aged Apostle, now con- 
 scious that his contest is over; some forebodings * 
 indeed we catch in them of that dark storm which 
 was about to sweep within the next few years over 
 the Christian and Jewish world alike ; but their 
 general tone is one of calm repose the mid-day 
 heat is past away the shades of evening are begin- 
 ning to slope, the gleam of a brighter sky is seen 
 beyond, and with the assured conviction that 
 the object of his life was fully accomplished, that 
 Judaism, though for a time it might still linger 
 
 * See especially Eph. ii. 1922; iv. 1116; Col. i. 1527; 
 ii. 9; Phil. ii. 6 10. 
 
 y See 2 Tim. i. 15; iv. 10, 11, 7, 8. 
 z 1 Tim. iv. 16 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
170 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. on. could never regain its hold on the Christian 
 in. 
 Church so long as the world lasts, he might well 
 
 utter the words on which seventeen centuries have 
 now set their indisputable seal, " I have fought 
 " the good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
 " kept the faith a ." 
 
 III. Such was the work of St. Paul. Others may 
 have had some share in it ; Peter prepared the way 
 for it it was hallowed by the sanction of John, but 
 still it was emphatically wh at he himself calls it, the 
 Gospel of Paul and of Paul alone. Had it not been 
 for some such timely intervention, all future genera- 
 tions must have entered Christianity through the 
 gate of Judaism, the peculiar usages of an Oriental 
 nation must have been hopelessly blended with the 
 ordinances of the Universal Church. But God's 
 purposes were not thus to be narrowed ; with the 
 preaching of St. Paul began that mighty change 
 which does indeed justify the pre-eminence given in 
 the Sacred Volume to his conversion above every 
 other human event which it records. Henceforward 
 the Church and the world became co-extensive ; 
 other evils may hinder the diffusion of Christianity, 
 but not the limits of a local and national worship ; 
 other restrictions may be imposed on the freedom 
 of the human race, but the yoke of Judaism never ; 
 other forms may be assumed by the spirit of bigotry 
 and superstition, but from its earlier province it 
 is utterly expelled: the most exclusive zealot will 
 a 2 Tim. iv. 7. 
 
ST. PAUL. 171 
 
 never again venture to confine the privileges of the s E R M. 
 true religion to a single nation ; the most ardent ~ 
 admirer of ancient usages and external forms will 
 never again dare to insist on the universal necessity 
 of circumcision. 
 
 Truly, even if this were all, St. Paul would well 
 deserve, according to the fervent eulogium of Chry- 
 sostom b , the glorious name of " the Heart of the 
 " world." But did St. Paul's work indeed end with 
 his own life ? are we to reverse the judgment of his 
 contemporaries, and say that while " his bodily pre- 
 " sence was mighty and powerful, his letters are weak 
 " and contemptible ? " or may we not rather believe 
 that in a sense higher than Chrysostom ever dreamt 
 of, the pulses of that mighty heart are still the 
 pulses of the world's life, still beat in these later 
 ages with even greater force than ever ? 
 
 There is indeed no need to confine the operations 
 of his teaching to any time or country whatever; 
 even in periods of the darkest ignorance and of the 
 narrowest superstition, the spark of spiritual life 
 and freedom must have been kept alive in Europe 
 by those thirteen Epistles to an extent which we 
 cannot easily calculate. Still if there is any purpose 
 in the study of Scripture it is surely not too much 
 to presume that a vast additional impulse must 
 have been given to the peculiar teaching and spirit 
 of St. Paul, when for the first time almost for fifteen 
 hundred years his Epistles were again read with all 
 
 b First Homily on Epistle to the Romans. 
 c 2 Cor. x. 10. 
 
172 ST. PAUL. 
 
 s E RM. the zest of newly discovered works ; when his words 
 ' were again made the watchwords of parties, of 
 schools, of nations, with an intensity of feeling and 
 a conviction of their truth, which however perverted 
 or exaggerated it might be, had not existed since the 
 age when they were first uttered ; when in the great 
 men, whom the convulsions of the sixteenth century 
 produced on either side, the one character which 
 they have always as it were unconsciously sug- 
 gested to their admirers is that of the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 But it is not necessary to refer to any uncon- 
 scious instinct or doubtful analogy of an excited 
 age ; it is an inevitable result of the very nature of 
 things and the course of events that for the last 
 three hundred years the example and teaching of 
 St. Paul must have a meaning for us which it could 
 not have had for those who went before. 
 
 1 . When last I addressed you from this place, I 
 spoke of the simple enthusiasm and childlike faith 
 which were at once the especial characteristic and 
 the especial privilege of the Middle Ages ; whatever 
 other perplexities may have existed, they were not 
 such as resulted from novel and complicated rela- 
 tions of thought or of society. But no sooner did 
 that older state of things begin to crumble away 
 before the new characters, the new enquiries, the 
 new wants which rushed in like a deluge with the 
 opening of the sixteenth century, and have more or 
 less agitated the mind of Europe ever since, than 
 the question at once arose, " Can this be reconciled 
 
ST. PAUL. 173 
 
 " with Christianity or can it not?" It is unhappily SERM. 
 no imaginary difficulty which here presents itself. 
 We know only too well how the love of truth and 
 the love of goodness' have been constantly set in 
 array one against another, how piety and wisdom 
 have almost regarded each other as natural enemies, 
 how often the promoters of the social and intel- 
 lectual improvement of mankind have regarded all 
 high and pure devotion with indifference if not with 
 hostility, how those who really care for religion 
 have either stood aloof altogether from the .great 
 cause of human progress, or have joined it only 
 with a blind and one-sided zeal. 
 
 It surely is of no slight importance that the 
 history of the first age of Christianity should pre- 
 sent us with one undoubted instance of a character 
 which unites all the freedom and vigour of a great 
 Reformer with all the humbleness and holiness and 
 self-denial of a great Apostle. If any one thinks on 
 the one hand that wide comprehensiveness and re- 
 moval of restraints is unchristian, or on the other 
 hand that Christianity is servile, degrading, super- 
 stitious, let him reflect that St. Paul threw down 
 the greatest barriers that ever divided man from 
 man, not in spite of his being a Christian, but 
 because he was a Christian ; not because he had 
 forgotten, but because he never could forget the 
 heavenly vision on the road to Damascus ; not in 
 obedience to a rebellious human reason, but be- 
 cause those solemn words were always sounding in 
 his ears, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" 
 
174 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. And as St. Paul's life is a sanction of such unequal 
 
 '- struggles against the apathy or the corruption of 
 
 men, so also is it a pledge of their final triumph. 
 That blessed Apostle whose memory is now revered 
 by every sect and party throughout the world, was 
 condemned by the most ancient of the ancient 
 Churches as " a ring-leader of sedition and heresy d ;" 
 that teaching which has in later times with hardly 
 an exaggerated estimate been actually called " the 
 11 Gospel," was treated by his own contemporaries 
 as the most fatal delusion ; that new name by which 
 the Gentile disciples were first called in Antioch, 
 and which for so long even Apostolic lips feared 
 to utter, is now esteemed as the most exalted 
 name which can be given to any human being ; 
 that mixed society which he ventured to uphold, 
 but with which 6 Peter and Barnabas and the 
 mother Church of all the world feared to hold 
 any intercourse, was in the next century enshrined 
 for ever in the solemn confessions of Chris- 
 tendom under the name of the f( Holy Catholic 
 " Church;" that blessed communion of " All Saints" 
 which is this day celebrated through almost the 
 whole Christian world, was first announced by him 
 as the most startling novelty which the ears of men 
 could conceive. There may be times when truth 
 and goodness are so universally triumphant that we 
 must be guided by the adage of "Quod semper, quod 
 " ubique, quod ab omnibus;" but there are also times, 
 and the time of St. Paul was one, when it is no less 
 
 d Acts xxiv. 5. Gal. ii. 12. 
 
ST. PAUL. 175 
 
 needful and no less comforting to remember the SERM. 
 opposite truth, " Athanasius contra mundum." 
 
 2. Yet again, when at last after a long interval 
 God's Providence opened to the human mind an 
 horizon wider than the mere circle of half-formed 
 ecclesiastical literature to which it had been before 
 accustomed, when for the first time the works of 
 pagan art and genius began to be studied in Europe, 
 when new worlds in the earth and in the heavens 
 were opening to the eyes of science, again the ques- 
 tion must have arisen with still greater earnestness, 
 " Are these also capable of being brought within 
 " the sphere of Christianity, or must we choose be- 
 " tween secular and religious knowledge, between this 
 " world and the next ?" We know also that this is 
 no trivial question, least of all in this place where 
 the very course of our education brings us into 
 contact with those very subjects which most sug- 
 gest the enquiry. It is no answer to say that reli- 
 gion has a sphere of its own, and that worldly 
 knowledge may be taught by worldly men. The 
 conviction of the truth of Christianity rests far 
 more than may at first sight appear on the convic- 
 tion of its universality, and if it could be proved 
 that large provinces of human thought, important 
 elements of human advancement were altogether 
 foreign if not hostile to its teaching, then far more 
 than by any direct attack on its outward evidences, 
 would its hold be loosened over the minds of men ; 
 it might be held to have been a religion, it could 
 hardly be practically held to be the religion of the 
 
176 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. world. Thanks be to God, the Scriptures teem with 
 ^ a thousand proofs that no such alternative is offered 
 to us, and none perhaps is more convincing than 
 the lesson forced upon us by the work and charac- 
 ter of St. Paul. Even in detail we may surely be 
 allowed to see a significance in those traits which 
 do at once connect a Christian Apostle with those 
 immortal nations in whose works, as I just now said, 
 our studies here almost compel us to take so deep 
 an interest. We may surely dwell with satisfaction 
 on the fact that a " Hebrew of the Hebrews" did not 
 think it a profanation of the speeches and epistles 
 which were to guide the Church in all future ages, 
 to quote from f Menander, Aratus, and Epimenides, 
 to point his argument by allusions 8 to the green 
 garland of the Isthmian games, to the gorgeous 
 spectacle of the Capitolian triumph ; that a de- 
 scendant of the royal tribe of Saul, a citizen of the 
 nation that owned no earthly sovereign but the 
 house of David, should have assumed a name which 
 recalls to us the days not of Gilboa but of Cannae h 
 
 f 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Acts xvii. 28 ; Tit. i. 12. 
 
 8 It is almost needless to refer to the " corruptible crown of 
 " those who strove for the mastery" at Corinth, the green pine of 
 classical ages which still clothes the plains of the Isthmus. (1 Cor. 
 ix. 25). And it is in the scene of the triumphal procession at 
 Rome, with its incense and sacrifice, its solemn trophies of victory 
 and its victims doomed to death, that we at once recognise the 
 train of images which follows on the appropriation of that greatest 
 of earthly associations to the Apostle's triumph in Christ 
 /Seuo-ai/rt.) (2 Cor. ii. 14.) 
 
 h "Saul, who is also called Paul." Acts xiii. 6. 
 
ST. PAUL. 177 
 
 should have shielded himself from Jewish 1 persecu- SERM. 
 tion under the privileges of a Roman citizen should ~ 
 have acknowledged in " the minister of God" who 
 " bore the sword" on the Roman seat of justice an 
 authority no less Divine than that which had once 
 been enthroned on the holy hill of Zion. But it is 
 not on any mere details, remarkable as they may 
 be, that we need rest the Divine sanction hereby 
 given to Gentile studies. If anything that I have 
 said of St. Paul's work and life be true, then surely 
 the conversion of the nations must have embraced 
 something far beyond the mere outward fact ; it was 
 not their bodies only, but their hearts, and minds, 
 and spirits that were to be saved and sanctified ; 
 man may"" strike thrice and stay, "but it is the will 
 of God that he should " strike till he have utterly 
 " consumed ;" and therefore it is with no fond pre- 
 sumption but with a humble Christian confidence 
 that we in this place may feel when wrapt in the 
 study of Pagan literature, of European art and 
 science, that however startling this contrast may 
 seem, it is not so startling as that first event in 
 which it virtually had its origin, under the ex- 
 press commands of Him who said to His chosen 
 Apostle even in the courts of His most holy temple, 
 " Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the 
 " Gentiles j ." 
 
 3. But it is not only on your present studies that 
 St. Paul's life and teaching may throw so cheering 
 
 1 Acts xxii. 25 ; Rom. xiii. 1 ; xxv. 1 1 . 
 Acts xxii. 21. 
 
 N 
 
178 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. a light ; it is even more on all those various occu- 
 
 m. 
 pations of your after life, on that vast outer world, 
 
 into which before three years are over almost every 
 one of you will have past, to influence or to be in- 
 fluenced by it. There was a long period of Euro- 
 pean history when all distinct professions and call- 
 ings either slumbered altogether, or else reposed 
 under the shadow of the great ecclesiastical institu- 
 tions which remained standing amidst the wreck of 
 the Empire. But there came a time when as at the 
 voice of the Archangel's trumpet, all these several 
 elements of society were suddenly called into a 
 new existence; new relations, new populations, new 
 responsibilities rose up and have ever since been 
 rising up on every side, for which the old frame- 
 work of society furnishes no adequate place, on 
 which the old associations and restraints exercise 
 no hallowing influence. To meet this want, to ac- 
 knowledge, enlighten, sanctify, these new elements 
 of individual and social life, is indeed a great task, 
 yet surely not more hopeless than that which was 
 set before St. Paul; and which he accomplished. Is 
 it too much to say that, in their measure, the vast 
 mass of secular professions, sciences, and pursuits, 
 are now to the old forms of religious and ecclesias- 
 tical life from which they have been dissevered what 
 the vast mass of heathen nations were to the com- 
 monwealth of Israel in his time ? that to all such 
 portions of the human race, whensoever, and by 
 whatsoever barriers they are, or appear to be, divided 
 from that fulness of communion with God to which 
 
ST. PAUL. 179 
 
 they are all alike entitled, St. Paul is called to de- SERM. 
 
 in. 
 clare, whether in the first, the sixteenth, or the nine- - 
 
 teenth century, that they are "no more strangers and 
 " foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and 
 " of the household of God k ? " Is it too much in short 
 to say that, as he was the Apostle of the Gentiles 
 then, so he is the Apostle of the Laity now ; that, 
 as he proclaimed then that in the great matters of 
 human salvation there is no difference between Jew 
 and Greek, so now he proclaims, as he did in fact 
 proclaim even then, that " every man in the calling 
 " wherein he is called is therein to abide with God;" 
 that "whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, 
 " we can and ought to do all to the glory of God 1 ." 
 We cannot of course be indifferent as to what pro- 
 fession we choose ; one far more ,than another may 
 help or retard our heavenly progress, one far more 
 than another may be suited to our peculiar faculties 
 or characters. But it is when we have chosen that 
 it becomes of the utmost importance to remember 
 that none is in itself nearer to God than another ; 
 that the Church, according to St. Paul, is not one 
 order or institution however sacred, but the whole 
 body of Christian believers with all their various 
 gifts acting and sympathizing for and with each 
 other; that every member of the Church "in his 
 " vocation 111 and ministry," no less than the highest 
 primate or pontiff, is called to be the soldier and 
 servant of Christ ; that, to use the words of a great 
 
 k Eph. ii. 19. l 1 Cor. vii. 24; x. 31. 
 
 m Second Collect for Good Friday. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. religious, leader of the age of which I just now 
 - spoke, and whose reverence for ecclesiastical autho- 
 rity is beyond all dispute, "It is the Devil's master- 
 " art to persuade us that any profession would be to 
 " us holier than our own;" that in all the variety of 
 callings and pursuits amongst which you may be 
 thrown, there is no corner too dark, no occupation 
 too secular, to escape the influence of Christianity ; 
 no station in which the great battle of our age 
 against ignorance and sin may not by your selfish 
 indolence or your devoted energy Jbe -retarded or 
 advanced. 
 
 4. But after all, the one great reply to all these 
 questions, the one great lesson of St. Paul's teach- 
 ing still remains behind, in the innermost springs 
 of his own individual life. 
 
 Unlike the other Apostles he had been called 
 alone, by no gradual preparation, with no sympa- 
 thizing brothers or companions, " not of men, nei- 
 " ther by men, but by the immediate revelation of 
 " Jesus Christ," and " as one born out of due 
 " time," " having been before a blasphemer, and 
 " persecutor, and injurious"," he stood before the 
 heavenly vision " seeing no man," knowing and 
 feeling nothing in the whole world besides, save 
 himself, and " Jesus whom he had persecuted." 
 He looked upon all that he and his countrymen 
 had up to this moment held most sacred, the 
 descent from Abraham, the strict observance of 
 outward acts, moral no less than ceremonial, pre- 
 
 n Gal. ii. 1 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8 ; 1 Tim. i. 13. 
 
ST. PAUL. 181 
 
 scribed by the law he looked upon all these, and SERM. 
 he knew by his own experience that he had tried 
 them all and found them wanting : " circumcised 
 " the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the 
 " tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
 " as touching the law a Pharisee, as touching the 
 " righteousness of the law blameless : if any man 
 " had whereof to trust in all these things, he 
 " more :" yet " he counted them all for loss;" he 
 felt that " circumcision availed nothing, nor un- 
 " circumcision," that "by the works of the law 
 " should no flesh be justified," "yea that he had 
 " not known sin except the law had said, ' Thou 
 " shalt not covet V One word there still re- 
 mained in the sacred vocabulary of his country- 
 men, one principle, wrought into the very inmost 
 being of man, which had been for years despised 
 or neglected, not in the heaven above, nor in the 
 depth beneath, but "very nighi, even in his heart 
 " and in his mouth," and that was " the word of 
 " FAITH which he preached." That Faith, that 
 trust in the unseen and eternal, which even in the 
 heathen world 
 
 " Through many a dreary age 
 " Upbore whate'er of good and wise 
 " Still liv'd in bard or sage" 
 
 which every Jew must have acknowledged to be 
 the glory of his first ancestor Abraham, and the 
 
 Phil. Hi. 4. P Gal. v. 6 ; Rom. iii. 20 ; vii. 7. 
 
 i Rom. x. 8. 
 
182 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. key-note of the Psalms of David, was now to be 
 
 in * 
 
 : aroused from its slumber of ages, was now to be- 
 come in the hands of St. Paul " the likeness of a 
 " living creature 1 *," so much mightier than it had 
 ever been before, in as far as it was now directed to a 
 new object, even to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died 
 for our sins and rose again for our justification. 
 
 Such a principle, so seated in the inmost heart 
 and will of man, so resting by its very nature on the 
 unseen and spiritual world, so containing in itself be- 
 yond every other human motive, the necessary seed 
 and germ of all holiness, love, and obedience, could 
 not but become the natural and peculiar topic of 
 him, to whom, as for the first time, the struggles of 
 the inward conscience were fully revealed ; who in 
 his efforts to be delivered from the bondage of the 
 Mosaic law could hardly fail to assert the complete 
 freedom of the human will, not only in the contro- 
 versy of Jew with Gentile, but of man with himself 
 and with God. 
 
 Other aspects no doubt there are of St. Paul's 
 teaching, and this great principle itself is merged in 
 the great object of his mission to the Gentile world. 
 Yet still, standing as it does in the very front of his 
 chief Epistles, it is absent from hardly any, and is 
 the basis implied in all; and, as it is the principal, 
 so also it is the peculiar, characteristic of his teach- 
 ing. Doubtless both in the heathen and the Jewish 
 
 r "The words of St. Paul are not dead words; they are living 
 " creatures, and have hands and feet." Luther, as quoted in Arch- 
 deacon Hare's Notes to the Mission of the Comforter, (p. 449.) 
 
ST. PAUL. 183 
 
 world it had been to the extent of their knowledge SERM. 
 understood and taught, and we see at once in the - 
 Gospel narrative that from the moment of our 
 Lord's appearance on earth this must henceforward 
 have been the work of God, " to believe on Him 
 " whom He hath sent." But to draw this out in 
 all its various applications, to confront it with the 
 claims of rival systems, to make as it were the 
 lever of the new moral world, this was reserved 
 for the especial ministrations of St. Paul. A Creed, 
 and not a Commandment, henceforth became the 
 universal symbol of that religion which rests not 
 on the requirement of what man is to do towards 
 God, but on its belief of what God has done for 
 man. The Living Person in whom we trust, not the 
 system of precepts which we follow, or of dogmas 
 which we receive, is the centre of the Christian 
 society. The name by which religion in all sub- 
 sequent times has been known is not an outward 
 " ceremonial" (Optfo-Keia) as with the Greeks, nor an 
 outward " restraint" (religio) as among the Romans, 
 nor an outward "law" as among the Jews ; it is by 
 that far higher and deeper title, which it first re- 
 ceived from the mouth of St. Paul, " the Faith." 
 
 How this principle was applied at that period 
 when it was again made the watchword of an 
 awakening world, when nations and individuals 
 once again rallied around it as the Article of a fall- 
 ing or a standing Church ; how deeply it must 
 affect every age and society where the struggles 
 of the inward conscience are consciously felt and 
 
184 ST. PAUL. 
 
 .SERM. realized, opens a thousand questions on which it is 
 -impossible to enter at length, but still in which all 
 of us, more or less, must bear a part. Even in 
 its negative aspect it may well remind us again 
 and again that it is on no outward circumstance, 
 however solemn, not even though it be as sacred 
 as circumcision was to the Jews ; on no outward 
 act, however great, even though it be the deeds of 
 that law which was " holy and just and good," but 
 only on our individual faith and conscience that the 
 highest welfare of the human soul depends. What- 
 ever and wherever we may be, all that is really essen- 
 tial must, if St. Paul's words are true, be still within 
 our own reach ; our own individual souls are ours to 
 save or to lose ; our own individual consciences can 
 and must decide in the great matters of right and 
 wrong, of life and death, of time and of eternity. 
 
 But the great and crowning lesson of St. Paul's 
 teaching is lost upon us, if, while learning from him, 
 as learn we must, the principles of entire freedom 
 from all that is around or below us, we fail to learn 
 the no less essential dependence on what is above 
 us. /^dependent in some sense you must be of 
 outward institutions, and of mere human opinion ; 
 your own natural feelings of youth recommend it ; 
 the course of the world, in which you will have to 
 act, requires it ; Christ through the voice of His 
 own holy Apostle sanctions it. But it seems to have 
 been specially ordered that he, who was to be so 
 mighty a witness to the liberty of man, should have 
 been a witness no less mighty to the power of God; 
 
ST. PAUL. 185 
 
 that he, who was so entirely removed from every- SERM. 
 thing that was earthly or local as not 8 to " have - 
 " known after the flesh" even Christ Himself, yet 
 should have been united in the very closest com- 
 munion with Him in spirit. I have described up 
 to this point the undoubted life and teaching of 
 St. Paul, as I might have described the career of 
 any other great benefactor to the human race, who 
 was to be held up for our example. And now I 
 would ask the question which is to receive its no 
 less undoubted answer from those of his Epistles 
 whose genuineness has never yet, so far as I know, 
 been disputed by the extremest criticism, whether 
 of German sceptic or French infidel, What was 
 the principle by which through such a life he was 
 animated? What was the strength in which he 
 laboured with such immense results ? 
 
 We may, if we will, represent him to have been an 
 enthusiast, or his words to have lost their meaning 
 for us, but we cannot pretend to doubt for one 
 moment the full sincerity of his own belief that 
 " the life which he lived in the flesh he lived by the 
 " faith of the Son of God, who died and gave Him- 
 " self for him*." To believe in Christ crucified and 
 risen, to serve Him on earth, to be with Him here- 
 after, these, if we may trust the account of his 
 own motives by any human writer whatever, were 
 the chief, if not the only thoughts, which sustained 
 Paul of Tarsus through all the troubles and sor- 
 rows of his twenty years' conflict. ' His sagacity, 
 
 8 2 Cor. v. 16. t Gal. ii. 20. 
 
186 ST. PAUL. 
 
 SERM. his cheerfulness, his forethought, his impartial and 
 
 : clear-judging reason/ all the natural elements of 
 
 strong character which I have tried to set before 
 you, are not indeed to be overlooked : but the 
 more highly we exalt these in our estimate of 
 his work, the larger share that we attribute to 
 them in the performance of his mission, the more 
 are we compelled to believe that he spoke the 
 words of truth and soberness, when he told the 
 Corinthians that "last of all Christ was seen of 
 " him also u ," that by "the grace of God he be- 
 " came what he was," that "whilst he laboured 
 " more abundantly than all, it was not he but the 
 " grace of God that was in him." 
 
 Some doubtless there must be in almost every 
 Christian congregation, and I trust here also, to 
 whom such words of St. Paul will suggest a whole 
 world of thought on which I have hardly ventured 
 to touch ; some who, whilst I have been going over 
 the outward glory of his life and the effects of his 
 teaching on the course of human history, will have 
 felt that St. Paul himself still remains to be de- 
 scribed ; that the interest of his outward conflict and 
 victory fades into nothing before the interest of that 
 inward conflict and inward peace which have made 
 his Epistles the storehouse of comfort to thousands 
 of humble believers, who know no more of the con- 
 troversy of Jew and Gentile than if it had never 
 been. For them, it needs no formal words to set 
 forth that life of his life which was u hid with Christ 
 
 u 1 Cor. xv. 10. 
 
ST. PAUL. 187 
 
 " in God," and which must find a far deeper and truer s E RM. 
 explanation, it may be, in their own personal expe- - 
 rience, it may be, in what they have seen in others. 
 For the rest of us, even for the most sceptical or 
 the most indifferent, it surely is not without in- 
 struction to feel that there is something in St. Paul's 
 life beyond what we can understand, that there is a 
 height veiled from our view because we are not fit 
 to see it. We can trace the presence of a great 
 mystery, even though we cannot comprehend it ; 
 we can be moved by the sight or sound of acts and 
 words, even though we dare not imitate or adopt 
 them for ourselves. If we see that a man so holy as 
 St. Paul was yet penetrated with so deep a sense of 
 his own sin and of his own need of God's forgive- 
 ness ; if one so wise and energetic as St. Paul should 
 still feel that he owed all to " the grace of Christ 
 " strengthening him," what are we if such thoughts 
 as these are utterly strange to us ! Or if, on the 
 other hand, we can find something like a response 
 to them, however faint, it surely is no presumptuous 
 fancy, but the very simple truth, that we are ap- 
 proaching, however remotely, to that standing place 
 from which St. Paul moved the world ; that in all 
 our difficulties and temptations, here and hereafter, 
 we may rest assured, like him, that we are not the 
 slaves of our own passions or prejudices, nor yet 
 the victims of an unchangeable destiny, but that we 
 may go on as he did advancing still in all Christian 
 goodness, from youth to manhood, from manhood 
 to old age, and in the end be more than conquerors 
 
188 ST. PAUL. 
 
 s E R M. through the selfsame living and eternal Saviour in 
 -whom he trusted. 
 
 Let us realize thoughts like these, and then we 
 shall indeed feel that St. Paul's Epistles may be 
 read with a deeper than any mere theological in- 
 terest ; we shall indeed enter more and more into 
 the truth of his memorable words, not as the text 
 of a worn-out controversy, but as the life of our 
 inmost being, "That being justified by faith we 
 " have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
 " Christ." 
 
THE JUDAIZEBS OP THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 IT has often been remarked that truth and error keep 
 pace with each other. Error is the shadow cast by truth, 
 truth the bright side brought out by error. Such is the 
 relation between the heresies and the apostolical teaching 
 of the first century. The Gospels indeed, as in other 
 respects, so in this, rise almost entirely above the circum- 
 stances of the time, but the Epistles are, humanly speaking, 
 the result of the very conflict between the good and evil 
 elements which existed together in the bosom of the early 
 Christian society. As they exhibit the principles after- 
 wards to be unfolded into all truth and goodness, so the 
 heresies which they attack exhibit the principles which were 
 afterwards to grow up into all the various forms of errors 
 and wickedness. 
 
 The energy a , the freshness, nay even the preternatural 
 power which belonged to the one belonged also to the 
 other. Neither the truths in the writings of the Apostles, 
 nor the errors in the opinions of their opponents, can be 
 said to exhibit the dogmatical form of any subsequent age. 
 It is a higher and more universal good which is aimed at in 
 the former ; it is a deeper and more universal principle of 
 
 a Through the whole of this Essay I have derived great assistance from 
 the recent Essay of Thiersch on the Criticism of the Writings of the New 
 Testament, as well as from the facts stated in the works of his opponents. 
 
190 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 evil which is attacked in the latter. Christ Himself, and 
 no subordinate truths or speculation concerning Him, is 
 reflected in the one ; Antichrist, and not any of the particu- 
 lar outward manifestations of error which have since ap- 
 peared, was justly regarded by the Apostles as fore- 
 shadowed in the other. 
 
 Such being the case, it is obviously as impossible for 
 these primitive heresies, as for the Divine truths which they 
 opposed, to be comprehended under any one outward form, 
 or ascribed to any merely local influence. And in point of 
 fact any undue limitation of either has always resulted in 
 an undue limitation of both. As those who have identified 
 the opponents of the Apostles with some particular evil of 
 their own day have also incurred the risk of degrading the 
 Apostles themselves into the partisans of their own parti- 
 cular sect, so those who have traced the course of Gnosti- 
 cism or Judaism in every object of the apostolical censures, 
 have also turned those censures themselves from univer- 
 sal lessons of instruction into attacks on evils long ago 
 extinct. 
 
 Still, as there is a sense in which the language of the 
 Apostolical Epistles was coloured by the influences of the 
 age, so we must expect to find that the heresies which 
 called them forth were also clothed in a particular histo- 
 rical form. And therefore, whilst a complete analysis of 
 the principles of these heresies belongs to a wider field 
 than can now be entered upon, it may not be without its 
 use to give at least so much of their outward appearance 
 as may be necessary to explain the allusions in the sketch 
 which has been attempted in the Sermons of the career of 
 the Apostles themselves. 
 
 It has been there stated that the true conflict of the apo- 
 stolical age was, to speak generally, not the foundation or 
 completion but the universal diffusion of Christianity. To 
 unfold this in its gradual stages "in Jerusalem, and all 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 191 
 
 " Judaea, in Samaria b , and unto the utmost parts of the 
 " earth," beginning with the first intimations of it in the 
 day of Pentecost, and ending with the preaching of the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, is the one thread which connects 
 together the whole history of the Acts. And although in 
 the earliest and the latest of the Apostolical Epistles the 
 marks of the conflict are not so visible as in those which 
 occupy the centre of the period, yet even in St. James we 
 may trace the first rise, and in St. John the gradual sub- 
 siding of the storm which forms the whole atmosphere of 
 St. Paul. Necessarily corresponding to this is the fact that 
 of all the false systems or sects which the Apostles are 
 called on to oppose, there is hardly one which is not con- 
 nected more or less remotely with Judaism. The principle 
 itself which was involved, the mightier power of evil of 
 which it was but the outward organ, has, so far as it is 
 included within the range of the present volume, been 
 already discussed; it yet remains to trace it through its 
 several phases, to detect the various forms which it assumed, 
 the opposite quarters which it occupied. 
 
 It is not necessary here to enter upon the national 
 feeling of the Jewish Church or nation itself as it existed 
 before it was brought into direct collision with Christianity, 
 according to the picture which in its better side is pre- 
 sented to us in the character of Peter and of James the 
 Just, in its worse in the description of the Scribes arid 
 Pharisees in the Gospels, especially Matt, xxiii., and in the 
 Epistle of St. James, and the end of the second chapter of 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Rom. ii. 17 24.) In 
 
 b Acts i. 8. This verse, or at least the successive propagation of the Gospel 
 as implied in it, gives the natural divisions of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 1. The preaching of Peter at Jerusalem, i. v. 2. The preparation for the 
 preaching of Paul by the diffusion of the Gospel through Judaea and Samaria, 
 vi. xii. 3. The preaching of Paul " to the uttermost parts of the earth," 
 xiii. xxviii. 
 
192 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 part this is exhibited in different portions of this volume, 
 in part another occasion may perhaps occur of exhibiting 
 it more fully hereafter. It is not the nation of the Jews, 
 but the sect of the Judaizers that have to be described, 
 and in so doing it will be convenient to consider them 
 in the three successive stages into which their history 
 naturally falls. First, the period which coincides with 
 the latter chapters of the Acts, from the fifteenth chapter 
 to the end, and the six earliest Epistles of St. Paul, 
 viz., those to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians, 
 and Romans. Secondly, the period from the close of 
 St. Paul's Roman imprisonment to the fall of Jerusalem. 
 Thirdly, the period from that time to the close of the first 
 century. 
 
 It is not meant that this division thoroughly exhausts the 
 subject. The Clementine Homilies and the writings of, 
 Justin Martyr sufficiently prove that a contest between 
 Judaism and Christianity was still to be traced till the 
 middle of the second century, and vestiges of Judaizing 
 sects were to be found even in the time of Jerome. But 
 it is the object of this Essay to confine itself, as strictly as 
 the subject will admit, to the writings of the New Testa- 
 ment, and to assume, as in the present state of our know- 
 ledge is the safest as well as the most convenient course, 
 the usual limits assigned to the intervals of time over which 
 they severally extend, and of which the successive stages of 
 development, rather than the chronological exactness of 
 dates, is the matter of chief importance. 
 
 I. FIRST PERIOD, from Acts xv. 1, to Acts xxviii. 
 
 It was not till the universal character of the Christian 
 religion became known from the preaching of St. Paul on 
 his first journey that the great division of which we have 
 now to speak first manifested itself amongst the disciples. 
 
THE JUDAIZEES OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 193 
 
 Up to that time the idea of the Christian Church had been First rise 
 confined to the idea of a Jewish synagogue, distinguished d a j ze rs. 
 indeed from all similar associations by its belief that Jesus 
 was the Christ, and by its purer morality and faith, but 
 still entirely confined to God's ancient people. Within the 
 range of the circumcision, whether in Palestine or out of it, 
 it was to witness the name of Christ and to proclaim the 
 duty of renouncing in baptism the sins " of that untoward 
 " generation ," above all the one great sin of the Cruci- 
 fixion ; but still its sphere was not more catholic than that 
 of the Jewish race itself. To those indeed who watched 
 with observant eyes the progress of the new revelation, a 
 considerable shock must have been given to this notion, if 
 not by the intimations in our Lord's teaching, and to a 
 certain extent in that of Stephen and Philip, at least by 
 the conversion of Cornelius, and of the Greeks at Antioch. 
 But to the mass of the Jewish Christians even this great 
 step was not decisive. Cornelius had indeed been received 
 into the Christian society by baptism without any previous 
 admission into the Jewish people by circumcision ; it was 
 henceforth incontestably proved "that in every nation," 
 whether Gentile or Israelite, "every man that feared God 
 " and worked righteousness was accepted of Him" so far 
 as to be forthwith enrolled amongst the members of the 
 Christian synagogue. Yet after all it might be said that 
 this was the exception only, not the rule. Even if circum- 
 cision were deferred in such cases for a time, it might be 
 insisted upon afterwards; even if in their case it were 
 altogether suspended, yet still so long as the mass of the 
 society partook of it, so long as the metropolis of the 
 Church was at Jerusalem a few interlopers here and 
 there might well be overlooked or tolerated, as Araunah 
 the Jebusite and Uriah the Hittite had been tolerated in 
 the ancient times of the monarchy; they could exercise 
 
 c Acts ii. 40. 
 O 
 
194 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 no important influence in separating the Christian con- 
 gregation from the body of the nation. 
 
 But this illusion was at once dispelled when the tidings 
 arrived not merely of a few isolated instances of conversion 
 amongst the Roman soldiers at Ccesarea, or the Greek 
 settlers at Antioch, within, or at least only just beyond, the 
 confines of the Holy Land, but of whole Gentile commu- 
 nities in the heart of Asia Minor ; when it was announced 
 at Jerusalem that two of the most distinguished members 
 of the Christian society had been sent out by the prophets 
 of Antioch for this very purpose; that seeing how the Jews 
 " had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life they 
 "had turned" deliberately " to the Gentiles;" that "He 
 " who had wrought so effectually in Peter amongst the cir- 
 " cumcision, had wrought effectually in Paul amongst the 
 " uncircumcision d ;" that in short the Christian Church, 
 instead of being as heretofore a nucleus of Jews with a 
 sprinkling of Gentiles, was henceforth to be a vast society 
 of Gentiles with a sprinkling here and there of Jews. 
 It was natural that at this discovery the suspicions of 
 the Palestine Christians, which must have been long 
 awakened, should have broken out into open hostility ; they 
 had temporised, it might be said, long enough, it was neces- 
 sary at last to adopt some decisive measure which should 
 stifle in the cradle this new movement which was carrying 
 them they knew not whither, to consequences wh : ch those 
 who had first set it on foot could never have anticipated ; 
 and accordingly the account of the first Gentile mission is 
 immediately followed in the Acts of the Apostles by the 
 first mention of the Judaizers; no sooner have we heard 
 that Paul and Barnabas had " rehearsed all that God had 
 ee done with them, and how He had opened the door of 
 "faith to the Gentiles," than we are told 6 that "certain 
 " men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren 
 
 d Acts xiii. 46 ; Gal. ii. 8. e Acts xiv. 27 ; xv. 1. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 195 
 
 " and said, ' Except ye be circumcised after the manner of 
 " Moses, ye cannot be saved.' " 
 
 In itself this was no more than would probably have been Circum- 
 maintained a short time before by the Apostles themselves wa tchword 
 and by the Church of Jerusalem ; even at this moment, as 
 the context implies, it was regarded as an open question. 
 But amongst the thousand instances which are perpetually 
 recurring even in ordinary history, and which are brought 
 before us with peculiar liveliness in the New Testament, of 
 positions or modes of teaching which, according to the point 
 of view from which they are taken up, may be regarded as 
 the holiest truths or the most fatal errors, none is more 
 striking than the maintenance of the necessity of circum- 
 cision before and after the conversion of Cornelius. Other 
 points there were no doubt on which the Judaizing Chris- 
 tians may have at different times or places insisted, but this 
 was always their main watchword. In Palestine itself, 
 as we may gather from the accusations f against Stephen 
 and from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Temple and the 
 Temple service was the great bond of union ; but, when an 
 appeal had to be made to the feelings of the whole Jewish 
 race throughout the world, it necessarily rallied round that 
 which they all had equally in common the observances 
 of the Law ; and of all these observances, great as might 
 be the stress laid on the festivals and sabbaths, or on the 
 distinction of clean and unclean meats, yet still the one 
 essential, universal, indispensable sign of a Jew was the 
 sign of the covenant which God had made with their 
 father Abraham in circumcision. Foreign armies were 
 not allowed to offer their services in defence of the holy 
 city foreign kings could not ally themselves with prin- 
 cesses of the house of Herod, unless they submitted to this 
 ceremony? was it to be borne that those who claimed to 
 
 f Acts vi. 13 ; Heb. vii. x. 
 
 e Joseph. Ant. xx. 7. 1, 3. See Milman's Hist, of Christianity, i. p. 425. 
 
 02 
 
196 THE JUDA1ZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 be the servants of the true Messiah should commence their 
 career by breaking through the one bond of national union, 
 and admitting to the closest of human intercourse those 
 who had always been regarded 11 as "cut off from the 
 "people of God?" 
 
 And as this was the one point for which the Judaizers 
 contended, so it was the one point on which the Apostles 
 took their stand against them. Although they taught that 
 the Temple with its worship was henceforth to be sought 
 only in "the spiritual house and royal priesthood 1 " of the 
 whole Christian society, still they never k scrupled to fre- 
 quent its services. Although St. Paul spoke of the " holy 
 t( days and new moons, and sabbath days," the observation 
 " of days and months, and times and years 1 /' as merely a 
 shadow of things to come, still he did not hesitate himself 
 to keep the feasts of the Passover and of Pentecost" 1 , and 
 to the Romans he spoke of it as a thing indifferent whether 
 " one man esteemed one day above another, or another 
 "esteemed every day alike"." "The kingdom of God," 
 they well knew, "was not meat or drink ," but here 
 again St. Paul would not "eat meat whilst the world 
 " standeth lest he should make his brother to offend ;" 
 and the assembled Apostles and brethren at Jerusalem 
 enjoined the Christians " to abstain from meats offered to 
 (< idols, and blood, and from things strangled?." But on 
 the point of circumcision they were immoveable, in pro- 
 portion as their opponents were urgent. Both alike saw 
 that all else might be conceded, and the real cause of 
 Christian liberty be left untouched that, if this were 
 granted, all else must follow with it. And therefore, to 
 their solicitations St. Paul "gave way by subjection, no, not 
 
 h Gen. xvii. 14; Ex. xxxi. 14. ' 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. 
 
 k Acts ii. 46; iii. 1 ; xxi. 26. J Gal. iv. 10; Col. ii. 16. 
 
 m Acts xviii. 21 ; xx. 16; xxiv. U. Rom. xiv. 5. 
 
 Horn, xiv. 17. p 1 Cor. viii. 13; Actsxv.29. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 197 
 
 " for an hour q ;" and, as if in direct antithesis to their own 
 statement, declared with an emphasis which would be un- 
 accountable but for the vehemence and the importance of 
 the conflict, that "if they were circumcised, Christ profited 
 " them nothing, they were fallen from grace 1 ";" and the 
 final decree of the Apostles at Jerusalem, which, as has 
 been said, conceded to Jewish prejudices all that could be 
 conceded, was prefaced by declaring that <f to those who 
 " went out 8 from them saying, 'Ye must be circumcised 
 " and keep the law,' they gave no such commandments." 
 
 Such was the position of the Judaizers after the frustra- Their wide 
 tion of the first attempt to impose a yoke* on the neck of dlffuslon< 
 the disciples which neither the Apostles nor their fathers 
 had been able to bear. The battle had been fought and lost 
 at Jerusalem, but the cause was to them too sacred to be 
 given up without a farther struggle in its behalf, and it is 
 from this time forward that we trace their efforts as a dis- 
 tinct and energetic body in almost every place to which 
 the influence of Christianity extended itself. Palestine of 
 course must still have remained their head-quarters. Every Jewish 
 Jew, wherever he dwelt, must have felt with Philo, " Jeru- settlers - 
 " salem is the city of my fathers, the mother city not only 
 " of Judsea, but of almost all the countries of the world 
 " through the colonies w r hich it has at different times sent 
 " forth"." But he must have felt no less how widely and 
 deeply the ramifications of his race extended, through all 
 the various provinces which Philo proceeds to enumerate. 
 Beginning from the east, there was the vast settlement in 
 Babylonia of those Jews who had remained after the return 
 from the captivity. Of the twenty-four courses of priests, 
 only four had followed Ezra to Palestine. No less than 
 three universities of Jews existed in Mesopotamia alone. It 
 
 I Gal. ii. 5. r Gal. v. 2. 
 
 8 Acts xv. 24. * Acts xv. 10. 
 
 u Philo Leg. ed. Caium. 1031. Comp. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7. 2. 
 
J 98 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 was a well-known saying, " whoever dwells in Babylon is as 
 " though he dwelt in the land of Israel." (Lightfoot, vol. ii. 
 Appendix to Comments on 1 Cor. xiv.) Advancing west- 
 ward, there is hardly a province of the empire in which 
 they did not form a considerable portion of the population. 
 The great colony at Alexandria is too well known to need 
 any further comment here. In every part of Asia Minor 
 they had possessed numerous settlements from the time 
 that the two thousand families of their countrymen had 
 been transplanted thither by Antiochus the Great, to keep 
 down the unquiet population of Phrygia. (Jos. Ant. xii. 3.) 
 Spreading, probably from thence, to Greece and the adja- 
 cent islands, in that of Cyprus alone their force was such 
 that in the insurrection under Hadrian they massacred 
 240,000 of the Greek inhabitants, and took possession of 
 the island. And in Rome the settlers to whom a large 
 part of the Trans-tiberine district had been assigned by 
 Pompey (Philo, Leg. ad Caium. 1014.) had by the time of 
 Augustus reached such an amount, that Josephus (Ant. 
 xvii. 1. 11.) calculates the number of those who appeared 
 at the trial of Archelaus to have been 8000, and Horace 
 expresses so strongly his sense of their importance, as to 
 imply (hyperbolically of course) that he and his fellow 
 citizens were a minority in comparison x . (Sat. i. 70.) 
 
 Nor were they at this time, as we see from Juvenal 
 (Sat. iii. 65), and Martial (i. 42), that they were soon after 
 the fall of their city, the contemned and oppressed race 
 that they have been in later times. They were feared, 
 they were hated, but they were not despised. In that 
 era of transition, when the native vigour both of Pagan- 
 ism and of the Roman character began to decline, it was 
 natural that the strong will of the Jewish race, indomit- 
 able even in its extravagance, should have made itself 
 
 x Most of these references are derived from the second volume of Milman's 
 Hist, of the Jews, p. 134141. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 199 
 
 felt; that the ignorant populace, the sceptical philosopher, Proselytes. 
 the Epicurean statesman, should alike have cowered before 
 the sight of a religion, whose sublimity must have awed if 
 it did not convert them, whose mystery must have excited 
 their curiosity if it did not awaken their conscience. No 
 complaints against the Roman governor gained such a 
 ready hearing at the imperial court as those from Judaea ; 
 no portion of the Roman people had such especial privi- 
 leges granted to them as the Jewish y settlers in Egypt and 
 Asia Minor. But it was more than this. The gulf which 
 naturally might have been expected to exist between the 
 Jewish and heathen portions of the empire was bridged over 
 by the vast floating population of the proselytes whether "of 
 "righteousness" or of "the gate," who, Gentiles by birth, be- 
 came Jews by religion, and, being henceforth known by the 
 name of the "devout 2 ," the "men that feared God," lost 
 the recollection of their own outward descent in the sense 
 of that higher spiritual descent from Abraham which they 
 were held to enjoy by the rite of circumcision ; whilst the 
 diffusion of the Greek language by the conquests of Alex- 
 ander as the medium of communication between the east 
 and west at once introduced them to the study of the Old 
 Testament, not in the form, so difficult to foreigners, of its 
 Hebrew original, but in the well-known version of the 
 Seventy. With what zeal these new citizens, so to speak, 
 were invited to join the ranks of Judaism, may be judged 
 from the woe denounced on those 3 who " compassed sea and 
 
 y See the account of the Egyptian Jews in Straho apud Jos. Ant. xiv. 
 7, 2, and of the privileges granted to the Galatian Jews in the Inscription of 
 Ancyra. 
 
 z Such, as is well known, is the almost invariable usage in the Acts of the 
 words euo-ee?s, euAa0e?s, and Qo&ovnevoi rbv 0eW, meaning apparently "those 
 " who though Gentiles by birth were distinguished from the rest of their race 
 " by devotion and fear of the true God," a usage of which we already find 
 traces in the contrast drawn in the later Psalms between "the house of 
 " Israel" and "those that fear God." (See Ps. cxv. 911 ; cxxxv. 19, 20.) 
 
 a Matt, xxiii. 15. 
 
200 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 " land to make one proselyte." With what success this 
 zeal was accompanied may be inferred from the complaint 
 uttered on this very account by the Roman philosopher in 
 the reign of Nero, " that the conquered had given laws to 
 " the conquerors b ." 
 
 It has been necessary to enter at some length into the 
 numbers and the influence of the Jewish residents in 
 different parts of the empire in order to the full under- 
 standing of all that follows. How exactly these inferences 
 from contemporary writers agree with the state of things 
 described in the Acts and Epistles is obvious. In every 
 Grecian city whether in Greece or Asia Minor (with the 
 single exception of Athens), St. Paul found a Jewish syna- 
 gogue or proseucha to which in the first instance to address 
 himself; in every one (with the exception of Philippi) the 
 persecutions which he underwent were either excited or 
 fomented through the influence of the Jewish over the 
 Gentile population of the place. Of all the Epistles, how- 
 ever clear the evidence in some instances that they are ad- 
 dressed to those who had been originally heathens, there 
 is not one which does not imply a familiar acquaintance 
 with Jewish customs, and with the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament. Now what was true of the relation of the Jews 
 themselves to the rest of the ancient world would be true 
 also of the Jewish Christians, more especially of those to 
 whom, as making their Christianity subordinate to their 
 Judaism, it has been customary to give the name of 
 Judaizers; and it was accordingly in the wide field thus 
 open before them that they endeavoured to rally their 
 forces for the preservation (as they thought) of the Chris- 
 tian society from the contamination and dissolution which 
 the indiscriminate admission of the Gentile world was 
 likely to bring upon it. 
 
 b Victoribus victi leges dederunt. Seneca, ap. Aug. See Neander's Hist. 
 of the Church. (Eng. Tr., vol. i. p. 58.) 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 201 
 
 In describing the operations and views of a great party Their hos- 
 merely from such scattered hints as occur in the Epistles 
 of St. Paul, it is of course difficult to ascertain that we 
 have at all times seized the right point of view from which 
 to regard them ; and it is obvious from those allusions 
 themselves that the motives and feelings of the party were 
 extremely various. Nor again must we confound with the 
 great body of the sect, that portion of them whom we may 
 call "the weaker brethren ," to whose prejudices, as arising 
 not from party violence but from a scrupulous conscience, 
 such tender consideration is shewn by the Apostle in the 
 fourteenth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, and in 
 the eighth of the First to the Corinthians. But with these 
 qualifications it is easier to exhibit an outline at least of 
 their proceedings and character than might be expected by 
 those who have not duly weighed the great vividness and 
 truth of the touches, few and isolated as they may be, which 
 we possess in the Apostolical Epistles. The first period of 
 their activity, as has been already said, begins with the time 
 when St. Paul first commenced what may be called his 
 independent career as Apostle of the Gentiles; it closes 
 with what was practically his farewell to the Eastern 
 Churches in his voyage to Rome. It is evident that to 
 counteract the objects of his great mission, now for the 
 first time fully known and understood, was the one great 
 aim of the Judaizers. To contend against truth rather 
 than for error, was with them, as with others of later times, 
 the mark of sect and heresy, as it has been no less the 
 mark of wisdom and goodness to contend not against error, 
 but for the truth. It might well seem too, as if in this 
 case, it was all that would be wanted for the accomplish- 
 
 e Such a distinction seems to have existed in the Jewish Christians of 
 Justin's time, (Dial, cum Tryph. 48.) (Neander, Hist, of Church, ii. 12.) 
 (Eng. Tran.) corresponding apparently to the two divisions afterwards known 
 by the names of Nazarene and Ebionite. (ib. 19.) 
 
202 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 ment of their purpose. The other Apostles might possibly 
 be persuaded to concede; Peter, they knew, had been over- 
 awed by them at Antioch; Barnabas had been carried 
 away by their dissimulation; but he, never. "Delendus 
 " est Paulus" was as truly their watchword as the cry for 
 the destruction of Carthage had been of old to the Roman 
 senator. Accomplish this, and all was clear before them ; 
 without it, nothing. 
 
 So long as Christianity appeared merely as a purer form 
 of Judaism, as one of those ancient religions which was 
 tolerated by Roman law, it won even from heathens some- 
 thing of that reverence, which, as has been before shewn, 
 was entertained towards the Mosaic worship. But as soon 
 as the preaching of St. Paul exhibited its independent 
 character, all those vague feelings of suspicion, of alarm, 
 of mistrust, which the mass of mankind entertain against 
 anything new, would immediately fasten on the man who 
 dared to disturb the existing order of the world. Every 
 point in his authority which seemed open to question, 
 every trait of his character which could by any possibility 
 admit of a sinister interpretation, would be at once turned 
 against him, even though it may seem to us the best 
 proof of his Divine mission and of his saintly character. 
 * He had not "seen the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. ix. 1) in His 
 ' lifetime' such we know from his own Epistles was the 
 language used concerning him, strange as it now seems to 
 recall it 'his authority was only "by man and through 
 ( " man," it might be from the prophets of Antioch, it 
 ' might be from "those at Jerusalem who were Apostles 
 f " before him." (Gal. i. 1, 17.) He was only a Jew of 
 ( Tarsus, not of pure Palestine d origin like the original 
 
 d This is all that could be inferred with certainty of the accusation from 
 the Epistles. But if we may trust the account of the Ebionite attacks upon 
 him in Epiphanius (Haer. xxx. 16), it went so far as to assert that he was 
 altogether a Gentile by birth, and only adopted circumcision in order to 
 
THE JITDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 ' Twelve, (2 Cor. xi. 22; Phil. iii. 5), with no letters of 
 s commendation from the mother Church at Jerusalem. 
 ' (2 Cor. iii. 1 ; x. 18, 12.) His very appearance and 
 ( conduct betrayed the hollowness of his claims. " His 
 '"letters" indeed from a distance "were weighty and 
 ' " powerful," but " his bodily presence was weak and his 
 4 " speech contemptible," (2 Cor. x. 10.) His "infirmities 
 ' " in the flesh" were manifest to all, (2 Cor. xi. 30; xii. 
 
 * 10; Gal. iv. 13;) even he himself had confessed that he 
 s had "no excellency of speech or of wisdom;" (1 Cor. ii. 
 ' 1, 3 :) even the heathens round about, whilst in Barnabas 
 
 * they had recognised the majesty of Jupiter, in the insig- 
 ' nificance of Paul had observed only the "chief speaking" 
 ( of Mercurius. (Acts xiv. 12.) He was conscious himself 
 ' of his inability to carry out his authority ; he fixed and 
 ' unfixed the times of his coming; he "used lightness," 
 ' and the things that he purposed he purposed according 
 6 to the flesh, so that his vacillating intentions were alter- 
 ' nately "yea, yea," and "nay, nay," (2 Cor. i. 17;) "in 
 ' " absence only he was bold towards them, in presence he 
 
 * " was base." (2 Cor. x. 1.) He made a great boast of 
 ' receiving no maintenance from the Greek Churches, but 
 1 the real reason was that he did not venture to exercise 
 ' that true apostolical privilege. He worked with his own 
 f hands, only because he "had not power to eat and drink" 
 ' (1 Cor. ix. 4, 6; 2 Cor. xi. 10) at the cost of the Church. 
 ' He remained single only because "he had not power to 
 ' " lead about a sister as a wife" like the other undoubted 
 ' Apostles, the great saints of the Jewish Church, " the 
 ' " brethren of the Lord and Cephas." (1 Cor. ix. 5.) And 
 ' yet all this seeming simplicity was merely a cover for 
 ' serving his own interests. Every one knew how easily 
 ' he could " become all things to all men." (1 Cor. ix. 22.) 
 
 marry the high-priest's daughter, and that it was the rejection of this suit 
 which drove him into his extreme hostility to the law. 
 
204 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 ' Was there no fear lest "his exhortations should not be 
 ' " of deceit and uncleanness and guile;" "flattering words 
 ' " and a cloak for covetousness," (1 Thess. ii. 3, 5 ;) in 
 ' " fleshly wisdom ;" " dealing in the hidden things of dis- 
 ( t( honesty;" " walking craftily and handling the words 
 ' of God deceitfully," (2 Cor. i. 12; ii. 17; iv. 2;) "with 
 ' " secret meanings," (2 Cor. iii. 12 :) " writing other things 
 ' " than would be read or acknowledged" on the surface ? 
 
 * (2 Cor. i. 13.) In this very matter of the refusal of main- 
 ' tenance, " be it so, he in his own person (eyco) did not 
 
 * " burden them, but being crafty he caught them with 
 ' " guile ;" whilst pretending to receive nothing from them 
 ' himself and on this ground, he yet contrived to "make 
 ' " a gain of them by Titus, and those whom he had sent" 
 ' (2 Cor. xii. 20) to collect the contribution which was to 
 ' be ministered through him to the poor Christians in 
 
 < Judaea. (2 Cor. ix. 20, 21.)' 
 
 Such, it would be said, were the manifold disqualifica- 
 tions for the office which he had assumed ; what a contrast, 
 they would urge, to their own lofty pretensions! 'They 
 ' knew and were known by the great pillars of the Church, 
 ' " James and Cephas and John." (Gal. ii. 9.) Some of 
 
 * them, those of Palestine origin, came direct "from James," 
 6 the head of the Church of Jerusalem, (Gal. ii. 12;) others, 
 ' belonging to the dispersion, looked to the great Apostle 
 ( of the Circumcision as their head, called themselves by 
 6 the name of Cephas, (1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 22; ix. 5,) and 
 ' rested on his authority and example. (Gal. ii. 11, 14.) 
 ' They had known too not Apostles only, but " Christ 
 
 < " Himself after the flesh," (2 Cor. v. 16;) they "trusted 
 6 " to themselves" from this their earthly connexion with 
 ' Him that they were in an especial manner " Christ's 
 ' " own," (2 Cor. v. 7 ;) with " proofs of Christ speaking in 
 
 them," (2 Cor. xiii. 3;) "Apostles of Christ," (2 Cor. 
 xi. 13;) "ministers of Christ," (2 Cor. xi. 23;) "the 
 
 " 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OV THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 205 
 
 6 " party of Christ 6 ," (1 Cor. i. 12.) They came then in 
 ' all the plenitude of Apostolical authority, as more than 
 ' Apostles, as the very chiefest Apostles, (pi V7rep\t,av cnro- 
 ( <TTO\OI) (2 Cor. xi. 3; xii. 11;) with "letters of com- 
 f " mendation" at once attesting their mission, (2 Cor. 
 ' iii. 1; v. 12; x. 12, 18;) with no false shame in assert- 
 * ing the privilege which the Lord Himself had ordained 
 ' to His oldest, original disciples, that " they who preach 
 ' " the Gospel should live of the Gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 14; 
 ' 2 Cor. xi. 21 ; Matt. x. 11.) Powerful in speech, (2 Cor. 
 6 xi. 6,) not hesitating to f assume that absolute control 
 ' over their charge which by "exalting themselves" and 
 f " bringing into bondage" and "lording it over the faith" 
 e of their converts (2 Cor. ii. 1 ; xi. 20) was the best 
 ' ground for glorying and for proving that they were the 
 ' masters and not the slaves of their disciples. (2 Cor. xi. 
 6 18; iv. 5.)' 
 
 It would be natural to expect, even if we had not posi- 
 tive testimony to assure us, that with these lofty claims of 
 the Judaizers were mingled those baser and more selfish 
 motives into which all sectarianism is prone to degenerate. 
 To them may well be applied with a slight alteration the 
 well-known saying of Coleridge, that they " who began by 
 " loving the law of Moses more than the truth, went on to 
 " love their own sect better than the law, and ended by 
 " loving themselves better than their sect." It was natu- 
 ral that in their claim to receive maintenance from the 
 Churches, they should have been convicted by St. Paul of 
 being " deceitful workers of their own interest," 
 
 e The more detailed proof of this representation is reserved in part for the 
 Essay on the Divisions of the Corinthian Church, with such illustrations as 
 are furnished by the Clementines. 
 
 f This again is in accordance with the spirit of hierarchical dominion ex- 
 hihited in the Ehionite works of a later date. See Ep. Petr. ad Jac. c. 1. 
 Clem, ad Jac. 1. Apost. Const, ii. 3032, 34, 35. 
 
206 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 epyarai, 2 Cor. xi. 13,) and of "making a trade of the 
 61 word of God,'' (/ccnfX'rjevovTes rbv \6jov rov deov, 2 Cor. 
 ii. 29) : and again, that with their zeal for circumcision 
 was blended the baser motive of hiding their Christianity 
 under g the veil of a tolerated religion, " whose praise was 
 "not of God but of man," (Rom. ii. 29,) in order "to 
 " please men," "lest they should suffer persecution for the 
 "cross of Christ." (Gal. i. 10; v. 11; vi. 12.) Still on 
 the whole they must be regarded as genuine fanatics, with 
 that mixture of craft and self-interest with which fanati- 
 cism is often blended, yet subordinate to the zeal, the 
 jealousy, (trfkos, Gal. iv. 17, 18,) for the honour of their 
 law and country which distinguished the Jewish "Zealots" 
 properly so called, and which alone could have given them 
 the success which they enjoyed. 
 
 Their What that success was is evident from merely following 
 
 Palestine ^ e course f St. Paul's journeys. Wherever he was, there 
 Asia Mi- were they, like vultures on his track, to seize the spoil 
 
 nor, and 
 
 Greece, which his apostolical efForls had won for the Church 
 before they entered on the field. (2 Cor. x, 14.) The 
 meeting at which his mission had been sanctioned by the 
 Church of Jerusalem had hardly been dissolved, when 
 " certain came from James " to Antioch in the hope, and 
 for a time with the effect, of undoing all that had there 
 been determined. (Gal. ii. 12.) In Galatia 11 , the simple- 
 
 Sub umbraculo religionis Hcitae. This was made a reproach against 
 Christians in later times. See Neander, Hist, of the Church, (Eng. Tr.) i. 83. 
 
 h This, rapid transition from extreme veneration to extreme antipathy, 
 which is nowhere so strongly implied as in the Epistle to the Galatians, is 
 exactly what might have been expected from the excitable and changeable 
 temper of a half-civilized race. Compare a similar revulsion in the simple 
 heathens of Lystra and the "barbarian" inhabitants of Melita. (Acts xiv. 19 ; 
 xxviii. 6.) Compare too the well-known scene in the history of the ancestors 
 of these very Galatians, when in the sack of Rome the Gauls had first re- 
 garded the Roman senators in the Forum as something more than human, 
 and then, the moment that the spell of reverence was broken, put them all to 
 death primo ut deos venerati, deinde ut homines despicati interfecere. See 
 Arnold's Rome, i. 542. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 207 
 
 minded Celts who had just received St. Paul "as an 
 " angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," and "would if it 
 " had been possible have plucked out their eyes and given 
 " them to him," (Gal. iv. 15,) were so soon carried away by 
 these new teachers " to another gospel/' " a little leaven 
 "had so entirely leavened the whole lump," (Gal. v. 9; 
 i. 6,) that their once beloved Apostle had "become an 
 " enemy to them because he had told them the truth; they 
 " were fallen from grace." (Gal. iv. 16 ; v. 4.) At Corinth, 
 already before he had written the first Epistle, the party of 
 Cephas, though not dominant, had begun to question his 
 authority, (1 Cor. i. 1 ; ix. 1, 4,) and in the few months 
 which elapsed by the time that it was necessary to write 
 the second, they and their kindred factions had attained 
 such influence that "the majority" (ol 7ro\\ot, 2 Cor. ii. 
 17) of Corinthian teachers belonged to them. All the 
 boasted wisdom of the Corinthian Church could not pre- 
 vent them from "suffering" the despotic dominion of any 
 of these leaders " gladly," " even if he brought them into 
 " bondage, if he devoured them, if he exalted himself, if 
 "he smote them on the face," (2 Cor. xi. 20;) and the 
 reports which had been already circulated with less success 
 at Thessalonica (1 Thess. i. 3, 5) against the character of 
 the Apostle whom they had known by "so many signs and 
 " wonders and mighty deeds," were so readily believed on 
 the authority of these new comers, that he had himself to 
 take every precaution " to provide things honest not only 
 " in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men," (2 Cor. 
 viii. 20;) and to vindicate himself in detail from the charges 
 brought against him. (2 Cor. i. 13 18 ; iii. 1 iv. 7 ; x. 
 xiii.) And, although we cannot with certainty assume that 
 they were connected with all the plots against his life, of 
 which the Acts speak as concerted by the Jews, yet when 
 we consider how slight the distinction must have been 
 which separated them from the "Jews which believed 
 
208 THE JUDAIZE11S OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 " not," (Acts xvii. 5,) and how necessarily from their in- 
 tense hostility to St. Paul they must have sympathized with 
 every attempt to thwart his progress, it is almost unavoid- 
 able to conclude that in the share which the Jews took in 
 the Ephesian tumult, (Acts xix. 23,) and the conspiracy 
 which was to lie in wait for him on his return from Greece 
 to Syria, (Acts xx. 3,) at the time when his contest with 
 the Judaizers was at its height, they must have played an 
 active part. The furious assault upon him in the Temple 
 (Acts xxi. 20) which ended in his long imprisonment at 
 Csesarea and Rome, is not indeed expressly ascribed to the 
 instigation of "the many thousand Jews who believed at 
 " Jerusalem :" still, when we consider how completely it de- 
 stroyed the effect of the peace-offering to his countrymen in 
 the contribution for the poor in Judaea, on which he had 
 built such hopes, and which they had, for that very rea- 
 son perhaps, done so much to misinterpret; (Rom. xvi. 25 
 27; 1 Cor. xvi. 1; 2 Cor. vii. ix. ; Acts xxiv. 17;) 
 how totally it altered all his plans of a mission to western 
 Europe, (Rom. xv. 24 28 ; Acts xx. 25,) and removed 
 him for four years in this the prime of his life and activ- 
 ity to close imprisonment, (Acts xxiv. 27 -, xxviii. 30,) 
 we may well imagine with what a proud satisfaction the 
 Judaizers must have felt that God had set His seal to their 
 exertions, and that the danger which had threatened their 
 Church and nation was now successfully arrested. 
 Their One task alone remained to them, and that was to under- 
 
 efforts at mme (-j^ influence which he might have acquired before by 
 his Epistle, or would now acquire by his presence, although 
 in confinement, at Rome. At Rome alone, that particular 
 phase of Judaism which we are now considering had not yet 
 manifested itself. There had been the " weaker brethren," 
 as we have seen already, whom St. Paul addressed in the 
 fourteenth chapter ; there had been another class of whom 
 we shall see more hereafter, who had been addressed in 
 
THE JUDA1ZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 209 
 
 the thirteenth and sixteenth ; but, as there is no trace in 
 the Epistle itself of the peculiar form with which we are 
 now concerned, so also it is expressly stated that when on 
 St. Paul's arrival at Rome he addressed the Jewish Chris- 
 tians, evidently expecting that his implacable enemies had 
 been there before him with their usual accusations, they 
 answered at once, " We neither received letters from Judaea 
 " concerning thee, neither any of the brethren (i. e. Chris- 
 " tians) who came shewed or spake any harm of thee.*' 
 (Acts xxviii. 21.) That such however was not long the 
 case, appears from the one Epistle which gives us any 
 account of the Apostle's personal history during the long 
 imprisonment at Rome, that to the Philippians. There 
 we still hear of those rival teachers, who " preached Christ 
 " of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add afflic- 
 " tion to his bonds." In them apparently it was that he 
 saw the inveterate enemies, who like the unclean " dogs" 
 of the eastern cities had tracked their prey even into his 
 prison at Rome, the "evil workers" of their own gain, the 
 party who, having confidence in the flesh, deserved only 
 the name of " the concision," leaving the name of the cir- 
 cumcision in its highest sense to those who worshipped 
 God in the spirit, and "made their boast" (Kav-^w^evovs) 
 not in outward rites but in " Christ Jesus k ." 
 
 This however is the latest direct mention in the New 
 Testament of that peculiarly personal hostility to St. Paul, 
 that zeal for the law and circumcision, which marked the 
 earlier stage of the Judaizing Christians; subordinate traces 
 of it indeed may be found afterwards, but it is no longer the 
 
 k Phil. i. 16; iii. 2, 3. The image of "the dog" both in Greek and 
 Hebrew, as still in Oriental countries, seems to unite to the expression of 
 scorn, the double idea of shamelessness and uncleanness, such as I have en- 
 deavoured to represent. Comp, Ps. xxi. 17; Deut. xxiii. 18 ; Rev. xxii. 15. 
 For the notion of dishonesty implied in the words " evil workers," (5o\iovs 
 epydras,} comp. 2 Cor. xi. 13; iv. 2. 
 
 P 
 
210 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 prominent aspect which it wears in the Apostolic writings ; 
 whether from the absence of the fuel which had once been 
 furnished to its energies by the personal presence and 
 activity of its great opponent, or, as is more probable, from 
 its absorption into the new forms in which it henceforward 
 clothed itself. 
 
 II. SECOND PERIOD. The later Epistles of St. Paul, and the 
 General Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude. 
 
 The heresies of the second act of the conflict with 
 Judaism on which we now enter are, as is natural, more 
 difficult to reconstruct than in those of the first ; the unity 
 of the contest is lost by its ceasing to centre round St. Paul; 
 the individual traits which were brought out by hig per- 
 sonal conflict with his opponents are necessarily lost in 
 the more general character of the Epistles from which we 
 must now derive our information; the simple element of a 
 Judaizing Christianity, intelligible to any ordinary reader 
 of the Old and New Testament, now becomes complicated 
 by a vast variety of mixed influences, only to be under- 
 stood fully through their connexion with causes extrane- 
 ous to both Jew and Christian. It will still however be 
 possible by confining ourselves to the Apostolical writings, 
 and to the historical rather than the prophetic represen- 
 tations which they furnish, to give so far as can be done 
 within a short compass a general view of this new develop- 
 ment of evil. 
 
 Revolu- Its object and principles were in most respects wholly 
 Character different from those which we have first discussed. The 
 heresies g reat a ^ m of the Judaizers hitherto had been to restrain, so 
 
 of this t speak, the energies of Christians within Jewish limits, 
 
 period. 
 
 chiefly on purely fanatical grounds, as has been before 
 stated, partly also with something of the worldly prudence 
 which formed at least one element in the speech of the 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 211 
 
 chief priests, "lest the Romans should come and take away 
 " their place and nation 1 ." Then, as on that more awful 
 occasion, they thought " it expedient that one man should 
 " die and the whole nation perish not," (John xi. 49 ;) they 
 joined their unbelieving countrymen, in fear of the odium 
 which they might incur from the extravagances of a rising 
 sect which threatened to "turn the world upside down, 
 " and to do contrary to the decrees of Caesar." (Acts xvii. 
 6, 7.) But when in proportion to the diffusion of Chris- 
 tianity and the recognition of its universal character, any 
 such attempt became more and more hopeless, it is per- 
 fectly conceivable that the very same party should suddenly 
 shift its ground, and that, instead of endeavouring to check 
 the new religion, they should see that it was possible to use 
 it as an engine for effecting their own purposes. The very 
 fact however of this change of position at once introduced 
 elements which were either wholly new, or which having 
 been before subordinate, now rose to the surface of the 
 movement. Christianity was now about to share the com- 
 mon lot of every great moral change which has ever taken 
 place in human society, by containing amongst its advo- 
 cates men who are morally the extreme opposites of each 
 other, some being the really best and noblest of their kind, 
 and others the vilest. "Perfect as it was in itself," (it 
 will be perceived that this description is taken from the 
 work m in which this fact has been most fully set forth,) 
 " perfect as it was in itself, its nominal adherents often 
 " took part with it for its negative side, not for its positive, 
 ft advocating it so far as it destroyed what was already in 
 " existence, but having no sympathy with that better state 
 " of things which it proposed to set up in the room of the 
 " old. Accordingly when the Church began to shew its 
 " wide range of action and its singular efficacy, all who 
 
 1 John xi. 48. "' Arnold's Fragment on the Church, p. 85. 
 
212 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 " longed to see the existing system overthrown, rallied 
 " themselves round its assailant. Here they thought was 
 " a power which they could use for the accomplishment of 
 " their purpose ; when this should first have cleared the 
 " ground of the thickets which encumbered it, it would be 
 " for them to sow in the vacant soil their own favourite 
 " seed. Let any one who knows what the Roman empire 
 " was in the first century of the Christian era imagine to 
 " himself the monstrous forms of opinion and practice 
 " which such a state of society so diseased could not fail 
 " to engender. All varieties of ancient and foreign super- 
 " stition existed together with the worst extremity of un- 
 " principled scepticism, while, in practice, the unquelled 
 " barbarism of the ruder provinces, and the selfish cruelty 
 " fostered by long and bloody civil wars, had provided a 
 " fearful mass of the fiercer passions, and the unrestrained 
 " dissoluteness of a thoroughly corrupt society was a source 
 " 110 less abundant of every thing most shameless in sen- 
 " suality. These seemingly incongruous evils, superstition 
 " and scepticism, ferocity and sensual profligacy, when 
 " from any particular circumstances they turned against 
 16 the monster society which had bred them, sheltered 
 " themselves under the name of Christianity," and became 
 the heresies of the second period of the apostolic age. 
 Greatness The vastness and reality of the danger which this crisis 
 danger. threatened not only to the purity, but (humanly speaking) 
 to the very existence of the Christian Church, is evident 
 both from heathen authors and from the apostolical writings 
 themselves. Far and near, the front rank of the Christian 
 society, as it moved forward in its aggression on the heathen 
 world, was pre-occupied by these dreadful shapes of error 
 and wickedness, which alone attracted the attention of the 
 superficial observer, and which rendered the Christian 
 name a byeword amongst its enemies for licentiousness 
 and fanaticism, prevented the wisest and best of Roman 
 
I UK Jl'DAl/KKS OF THE APOSTOLICAL A(iK.- 18 
 
 historians from seeing anything in the Christianity of the 
 age of Nero, except a "hateful superstition," known 11 
 only by the "shameful and abominable crimes" of those 
 who professed it. One point alone these heresies shared 
 in common with the Church, and that was the intense 
 and the Scriptures justify us in adding the preternatu- 
 ral energy of its operations. Even the Apostles them- 
 selves seem to have gazed with awe on the portentous 
 forms, half human half diabolical, which confronted them 
 either close at hand or in immediate prospect. The 
 " working of Satan with all power and signs and lying 
 " wonders," (2 Thess. ii. 9 ;) the " seducing spirits and 
 " teachings of demons, who speak lies and hypocrisy, 
 " and have their consciences seared with a hot iron," 
 (2 Tim. iii. 1 ;) the "synagogue of Satan," (Rev. ii. 9, 
 13;) "the false prophet," (Rev. xvi. 13; xvii. 13;) the 
 " antichrists," (1 John ii. 18;) the "spirits that were to be 
 " tried whether they were of God," (1 John iv. 1 3 ;) the 
 sorceries of Balaam, of Egypt, of Jezebel, (2 Pet. ii. 15 ; 
 Jude 11; Rev. ii. 14; 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9; Rev. ii. 20;) such 
 are the figures under which the Apostolical writings ex- 
 press their sense of the danger which impended over them. 
 
 In endeavouring to exhibit its workings in detail, two its form, 
 points emerge which will give some assistance in guiding Jewish - 
 us through the mazes of a labyrinth from the nature of the 
 case so wrapt in obscurity and uncertainty. In the first 
 place, it would seem that Judaism still succeeded in making 
 itself the rallying point of the movement. It was no longer 
 the informing soul and spirit, but it was still the framework, 
 the instrument, the handle, to which the floating elements 
 of evil, however loosely and remotely, continued to fasten 
 themselves. It was no longer the stiff Pharisaical Judaism 
 
 n Tac. Ann. xv. 44. Comp. Iren. adv. Hser. i. 25. 3. 
 o The English version is ambiguous. All the participles in 1 Tim. iv. 2, 3, 
 relate not to T/es 
 
THE JUDATZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 which had opposed St. Paul, that, so far as the Church was 
 concerned, had retired into the background, and St. Paul is 
 therefore no longer the all-absorbing figure of the plot ; 
 but we shall see, as we trace it in detail, that it still wore 
 the Jewish physiognomy, still pandered to Jewish preju- 
 dices, still fostered the wilder and more remote extrava- 
 gances of Jewish superstition. 
 
 Its chief Secondly, what is lost in unity of person is in some 
 suf'and *" measure compensated by the greater unity of place. The 
 the Asiatic p rev i ous movements of the Judaizers had been discernible 
 
 Churches. * 
 
 in every part of the empire from Palestine to Italy; the 
 present, so far as we shall be able to follow them in 
 the apostolical writings, however widely they may have 
 extended, and however great their influence may have 
 been at times in Rome itself, yet generally speaking 
 had their head quarters in that part of Asia Minor on 
 which the earlier Judaism had produced the least effect, 
 the province of Proconsular Asia, the Christian commu- 
 nities which lay in the plain formed by the Vales of the 
 Mreander and Cayster. If the metropolis of the earlier 
 opponents of Christianity had been, as in some sense 
 it must have been of the later also, the holy city of Jeru- 
 salem, so the metropolis of the mixed Judaism of this 
 second period was Ephesus. In that great emporium of 
 Asia Minor, uniting, as has been truly said p , more than 
 any other city in the world, the manners of the east and 
 west, with its mingled population of Greeks and Asiatics, 
 with its schools of magic, and its magnificent temple, whose 
 sacred image blended the name of the Grecian Diana with 
 the symbolic form of the old eastern nature-worship, with 
 its large population of legalized Jewish settlers who had 
 furnished there as elsewhere the nucleus of the Christian 
 Church; there more than in any other place it was natural 
 that the strange forms of eastern and western superstition 
 
 P See Milman's Hist, of Christianity, ii. 24. 203. 
 
THE JUUAIZKRS OF THK APOSTOLICAL A(!K. 215 
 
 should meet together, and that their combination should 
 exercise the greatest sway. And there accordingly it is 
 that we are to look for the chief scene of the last aposto- 
 lical conflict. It was in his farewell warning to the Ephe- 
 sian elders against the false teachers who should arise even 
 from their own body to draw away disciples after them, 
 that St. Paul gave the earliest distinct intimation of the 
 coming evil. It is to individuals or communities within 
 the range of this influence that every one of his later Epi- 
 stles are addressed, with the exception of that to the 
 Philippians, which, as has been seen, treats for the most 
 part of the earlier form of the mischief. It is to the Chris- 
 tians of Asia Minor that the First Epistle of Peter is ex- 
 pressly written, and with it, we may suppose, the Second 
 Epistle and that of St. Jude. And it is, lastly, to the seven 
 Churches immediately in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, 
 or to Ephesus itself, that we must confine the ministrations 
 of St. John. As, in short, it was the centre of what q was 
 called " tho'people of the dispersion," so also for that very 
 reason it naturally became the chief sphere of Christian 
 activity, the battle-field of the conflict of Christianity with 
 its most formidable rival. 
 
 It now remains to trace this new effort of early heresy 
 through its various forms down to the crisis of the aposto- 
 lical age, commonly marked by the fall of Jerusalem. 
 
 These may be divided into the two phases indicated in 
 the predictions of the two Epistles to Timothy, (1 Tim. iv. 
 15; 2 Tim. iii. 19,) into what may be called the 
 ascetic and the licentious. Both equally partook of the 
 mixed elements which have just been noticed, and each 
 played into the other, but here for the sake of convenience 
 they may be considered apart. 
 
 (a.) The former of these, as might be expected, is the The Ju 
 earlier in point of time, as we infer from its occupying the 
 
 See Ziillig on the Apocalypse, p. 215, 216. 
 
216 THE JITDA1ZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGK. 
 
 hi their chief place in the two first of the Epistles which were 
 and super- written within this period, viz., that to the Colossians and 
 form 118 ^ e ^ rst to Timothy. Its two leading features, in which 
 we already see the influx of the more purely oriental 
 element, are a scrupulous abstinence from matter, and an 
 indulgence in fanciful speculations about heavenly beings. 
 It is true that to both these errors a Gentile origin might, 
 not without reason, be ascribed. " Touch not, taste not, 
 " handle not" "a shew of wisdom in will worship, and 
 " humility a neglecting of the body," (Col. ii. 21, 23) 
 " forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from food," 
 " bodily exercises," (1 Tim. iv. 3,) might in themselves 
 be merely the result of the Manichsean abhorrence of 
 matter, with which doubtless they have a connexion. The 
 " philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men," 
 " the voluntary humility and worshipping of angels," 
 "intruding into things not seen," (Col. ii. 8, 18,) "the 
 " profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science 
 falsely so called," (1 Tim. vi. 20,) the rejection of the 
 doctrine of the resurrection of the body by Hymenaeus 
 and Philetus, (1 Tim. i. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 18,) perhaps "the 
 " seducing spirits and teaching of demons," (1 Tim. iv. 
 1,) might possibly be referred to the Gnostic theories of 
 aeons and emanations. But that the general form of 
 the errors was Jewish appears in the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, from the stress laid on the spiritual as distinct from 
 the outward circumcision, (ii. 11 14,) in the First Epistle 
 to Timothy, from its opening declaration that the " vain 
 "janglers" who were to be opposed "desire to be teachers 
 " of the law," (1 Tim. i. 7.) This is true also, predomi- 
 nantly if not exclusively, of each particular subdivision. 
 That the bodily austerity had attached itself to the Jew- 
 ish asceticism with which we are familiar in the Essenes 
 and Therapeutse, is evident from its association with 
 such phrases as "the rudiments of the world," (Col. ii. 
 
THK .11 DAI/KHS 01' TI1K APOSTOLICAL AGE. 217 
 
 8, 20; comp. Gal. iv. 3, 9;) "let no man judge you in 
 " respect of the meat and drink, or of an holy day, or the 
 " new moons, or the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of 
 " things to come," (Col. ii. 16; comp. Gal. iv. 10; Rom. 
 xiv. 3;) "profane and old wives' fables," (1 Tim. iv. 7,) 
 evidently identical with "Jewish fables, and command- 
 " ments of men/' in the Epistle to Titus, (i. 14.) That 
 the angel worship also was such as became ultimately 
 fixed in the superstitions of the Talmud, may be inferred 
 partly from the general tone in the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, partly from the similar danger implied in the nearly 
 cotemporary Epistle to the Hebrews, whose readers, of un- 
 doubtedly Jewish descent, receive almost similar instruc- 
 tions, (comp. Col. i. 16; iii. 15, with Heb. i. 4 17,) and 
 is confirmed by the vestiges of such a superstition which 
 may be traced in the neighbourhood of Colossae long after 
 it had ceased to exercise any general influence, the cen- 
 sures directed against it in the thirty-fifth canon of the 
 council of the adjoining city of Laodicea, the chapels of 
 the Archangel Michael which Theodoret saw in Phrygia 
 and Sardis, and one of which remained standing in Colossse 
 itself down to the Middle Ages, not to speak of the legends 
 which are still said to linger amongst its present Greek 
 inhabitants 1 ". Such was the last form of Judaism which 
 attracted the direct notice of the Epistles of St. Paul. It 
 is evident indeed that in them he regards it as a feeble 
 antagonist compared with its earlier manifestation; he is 
 nowhere incited to the same vehemence as in the Epistle to 
 the Corinthians and Galatians; he speaks strongly of it, 
 but not so much in anger as (if we may venture so to 
 apply the word) in scorn. Still we may believe that under 
 these few withering sentences in the Epistles to Colossse 
 and Timotheus all that was important in the purely Jew- 
 
 r See Thiersch's Essay on the Criticism of the New Testament, p. 272. 
 
218 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 ish element of this false asceticism dwindled away and 
 
 perished. 
 
 The Ju- (b.) There was however another and more formidable 
 heresies in shape which the Judaizing spirit was to assume, and with 
 their H- which the one iust discussed seems to have allied itself 
 
 centious 
 
 and revo- according to the proverbial paradox of the natural approxi- 
 
 lutionary T . i i 
 
 form mation of extremes. It is to this, the wilder and more 
 licentious aspect of the early heresies, that the general 
 sketch with which this part of the subject has been opened 
 more especially applies. That this danger had in some 
 sort already beset the Christian communities is evident 
 from the warnings in 1 Thess. iv. 1 8; 1 Cor. v. vi.; 2 Cor. 
 vi. 11 18, Rom. xiii. 13, 14; Gal. v. 19; but it is not till 
 the period now before us that it presented any distinct and 
 organized front. But taking the Epistle to Titus and the 
 Second to Timothy for the connecting link between this 
 and the last mentioned form of error, and examining fully 
 the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, and the address to 
 the seven Churches of the Apocalypse, we shall arrive 
 here also at certain definite characteristics which mark a 
 new era in the development of these Judaic heresies. 
 
 These are, the attempt to overthrow the existing 
 order of Roman society, combined almost always with 
 doctrines of avowed licentiousness, and, although less fre- 
 quently, with professions of sorcery and magic. It is re- 
 markable that the earliest notices of any tendency of this 
 kind are found not in the Asiatic provinces which have 
 been described as the usual scene of these wild opinions, 
 and in which they ultimately organized themselves, but at 
 
 at Rome: Rome. There, where as we have seen, the Pharisaic form 
 of Judaism did not make its way till long afterwards, we 
 find a joint exhortation to obedience and to purity of life 
 in language so strong as if to imply there was something 
 in the state of the Roman Christians which imperatively 
 called for such a warning. (Rom. xiii. 1 14.) And the 
 
T11K .11 DAl/KKS OF TI1K APOSTOLICAL AGE. 219 
 
 only teachers especially marked out for their condemnation 
 and avoidance are those who cause it to be slanderously 
 reported of Christians that " they say * let us do evil that 
 " good may come,'" and who " cause the divisions into two 
 " parties, and the occasions of offence and scandal amongst 
 " them contrary to the teaching which they had received, 
 " (ras Si^oa-rao-ias Ka\ TO, (T/cavSaXa,) who serve not the 
 " Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and with words 
 te of kindness and bounty (Sta rfjs xpycrToXoyias KOI euXo- 
 " ylai) deceive the hearts of the simple," (Rom. iii. 8 ; 
 xvi. 17, 18.) These words would exactly describe the 
 counterfeit Christianity taught by those who wished to use 
 the real Christianity for their own interests, and would also 
 critically coincide with the somewhat later description in 
 the Epistle to the Philippians of a party, wholly distinct 
 as it would seem from the pure Judaizers of Phil. iii. 1 
 6, also at Rome; "who are enemies of the cross of 
 ft Christ, whose end is destruction, (comp. Rom. iii. 8,) 
 " whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, 
 " who mind earthly things for our citizenship (q^v yap 
 " TO TToKireviia) is in heaven ;" as though the Apostle 
 said, "they desire an earthly empire, but we look only 
 " for a heavenly one 8 ." (Phil. iii. 19, 20.) Now when we 
 consider how completely Rome was at this time the con- 
 fluence (to use the expression of its own poet) of the Tiber 
 and the Orontes, how truly in its darker form it was like 
 " Babylon the great who had made all nations to drink of 
 " the wine of the wrath of her fornication," it is not sur- 
 
 s Such an application of this passage from Phil. iii. 20, as well as of that 
 from Phil. iii. 2, 3, quoted in p. 209, is perhaps not capable of formal proof to 
 any one who is disposed to doubt it, nor is it essential to the argument. Still 
 it may be said, 1. that no other explanation falls in so naturally with the 
 immediate context, or with the probable reference of the allusions in this 
 Epistle to parties not in the East but at Rome. 2. That it receives confir- 
 mation from the coincidence of Phil, iii 2, 3. with Phil. i. 15, 16, and of Phil, 
 iii. 20. with Rom. xvi. 17, 18. 
 
20 THE JUDA1ZER8 OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 prising that we should find here an exception to the usual 
 scene of the last apostolical conflict, and that the earliest 
 manifestation of this wild revolutionary spirit should have 
 first shewed itself not in the eastern but the western focus 
 of lawlessness and superstition, where there was so much at 
 once to foster and to provoke it. And it may reasonably 
 be asked whether the practices to which the Apostle here 
 alludes may not have furnished some foundation for the 
 tradition of the visit to Rome of that real heresiarch and 
 sorcerer, who had indeed before " declared himself to be 
 " the power of God, and had bewitched the people of 
 " Samaria," but who here first, according to the story, set 
 himself in. open rivalry and hostility to apostolical Chris- 
 tianity 1 ; whether it may not have been these very prac- 
 tices which gave rise to the misrepresentations of Tacitus 
 already referred to, nay whether it is not probable that 
 they may really in their hostility to the city, as well as 
 the laws of Rome, have given cause for the saying of 
 Nero himself that the true incendiaries of Rome were to 
 be found amongst the ranks of the Christian community, 
 in the But another sphere than the crowded stage of the metro- 
 
 Churches. P^ s was nee( led for the full exhibition of these heresies ; 
 it was reserved for another hand than that of the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles, whose work was now drawing towards its 
 natural close, to arrest their progress. It is in the Asiatic 
 Churches that this false liberty, like its twin sister of false 
 asceticism, presents itself most definitely to view. It is 
 impossible to mistake that the party which called forth 
 the last warnings of St. Paul at Crete and Ephesus in the 
 Epistle to Titus, and the Second to Timothy, is in all its 
 main features the same as that which is attacked in Asia 
 Minor generally in the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, 
 and in the seven Churches of Proconsular Asia in the 
 Revelations. In all there is the same remarkable union of 
 
 1 Act? viii. 9 ; Iren. adv. Haer. i. 20. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 221 
 
 principles at once anarchical and licentious ; men " lovers 
 " of their ownselves," "proud, unholy, without natural affec- 
 " tion, truce-breakers, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers 
 " of pleasure more than lovers of God," (2 Tim. iii. 2 4;) 
 men " whose mind and conscience is defiled, so that with 
 " them nothing is pure abominable and disobedient, and 
 " to every good work reprobate," (Tit. i. 15, 16;) who must 
 " be put in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, 
 " to obey magistrates, to speak evil of no man, to be no 
 " brawlers, so that the doctrine of God their Saviour may be 
 " adorned in all things, and that he who is of the contrary 
 " part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of them." 
 (Tit. iii. 1 ; ii. 8, 10.) This general picture is evidently the 
 same as that which calls forth the warnings of St. Peter's 
 First Epistle, "to abstain from fleshly lusts and submit 
 " themselves to every ordinance of men for the Lord's 
 " sake ;" to " have their conversation honest among the 
 " Gentiles, who speak against them as evil-doers, that so 
 " with well-doing they may put to silence the ignorance 
 " of foolish men ; as free and not using their liberty for 
 " a cloke of maliciousness, but as servants of God ;" that 
 " to endure grief is thankworthy only if when they do well 
 " they suffer for it ;" that " it is better they should suffer 
 "for well-doing than for evil- doing;" that "no one will 
 " harm them if they become (yevrjcrOe) followers of that 
 " which is good " that " they must not suffer as murderers 
 " or thieves or evil-doers." (1 Pet. ii. 11 20; iii. 11 17; 
 iv. 12 15.) And what is implied here indirectly is in the 
 Second Epistle of St. Peter and the parallel passage in St. 
 Jude stated directly. In both, the examples of the angels and 
 the world before the flood and of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 are held out as warnings to those "who walk after the 
 " flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise governments;" 
 " murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, 
 "speaking great swelling words;" who while "they pro- 
 
222 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 " mise their followers liberty are themselves the servants 
 " of corruption." (2 Pet. ii. 119; Jude 616.) And 
 lastly, all of them are identified with the corrupters of the 
 Seven Churches by the implied union of those doctrines of 
 gross sensuality with the profession of magic and sorcery, a 
 union which perhaps might be startling to us did we not 
 know from the cotemporary records of heathen authors 
 how generally these acts were professed by all those who 
 lent themselves by such means to be the instruments or 
 instigators of the crimes so prevalent amongst the higher 
 orders of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo, 
 
 which has always been the feeling of the dregs of a corrupt 
 society, was never more fully exemplified than in the min- 
 gled wickedness and superstition which marked the witches, 
 sorcerers, and astrologers of the age of Tiberius, Nero, and 
 Domitian. Elymas at Cyprus, Simon Magus u at Rome, 
 Apollonius of Tyara at Ephesus, are well-known instances 
 of the influence which such arts endeavoured to gain in 
 rivalry to that of the Christian miracles. And it is there- 
 fore exactly what we might expect, when we find that with 
 the grosser forms of vice in the Second Epistle x to Timothy 
 are joined "seducers" or " wizards" (yorjres) after the manner 
 of the old Egyptian magicians " Jannes and Jambres who 
 withstood Moses," (2 Tim. iii. 8, 13 ;) and that in the Seven 
 Churches, " the woman Jezebel who calleth herself a pro- 
 " phetess, and the false prophet Balaam," who is also held 
 up as the type of the heresies attacked in 2 Pet. ii. 15, and 
 Jude 11, and whose very name when translated into the 
 Greek form of Nicolaus seems to have been fixed on one 
 
 u For the union of licentiousness and magic in the representations of 
 Simon Magus, see Iren. adv. Haer. i. 23. 
 
 x The same union is to be observed in Gal. v. 19, 20, 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 223 
 
 of their sects, are spoken of as the prototypes of those 
 who now endeavoured to lead the Christians " to eat things 
 " sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication." (Rev. ii. 
 6, 14, 15, 20.) 
 
 It might seem at first sight, after this brief survey of these Gentile 
 
 . . element. 
 
 wild and licentious speculations, that now at last we must 
 have bid farewell to Judaism, that now at length we must 
 have reached a form of evil which is the excess not of the 
 servile spirit of the East, but of the free spirit of the West ; 
 not a perversion of the teaching of James and Cephas, but 
 a perversion such as we have seen in later times of the 
 teaching of Paul. To a certain extent this is true : the 
 heterogeneous element which from the state of the Roman 
 empire at this time must have been mixed up with any 
 such movement has been already noticed. The Epistles 
 to the Corinthians furnish indications that there had been, 
 even at that early period, a danger lest the unrestrained 
 profligacy of the Gentile world should shelter itself under 
 the cover of Christian liberty. The close of the Epistle to 
 the Galatians (v. 11 vi. 6.) indicates that there was a 
 party who, while they despised the Judaizing Christians 
 and prided themselves on being "spiritual," were in danger 
 of "sensuality, idolatry, and witchcraft." The answer in 
 the Epistle to the Romans (vi. 1.) to the question " Shall 
 " we continue in sin that grace may abound?" proves that 
 there was a fear even then of that which is implied to have 
 actually taken place in 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16, that there were 
 things in the Epistles of St. Paul "hard to be understood, 
 " which the unstable and unlearned had wrested to their 
 " own destruction." 
 
 But stiff and unaccommodating as was the more Phari- Jewish 
 saical form of Judaism to foreign usages, there was yet 
 more than one point of view in which it lent itself to the 
 corrupt practices and excesses of heathenism. The language 
 of the older prophecies which had spoken "of the law going 
 
224 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 " forth from Jerusalem, and of the riches of the Gentiles 
 " flowing into her, of Gentiles coming to her light and 
 " kings to the brightness of her rising, of the dromedaries 
 " of Midian and Ephah, the flocks of Kedar, and the rams 
 " of Nebaioth, her gates open continually, all nations and 
 " kingdoms fearing her ;" conveyed, as is well known, to the 
 carnal minds of the later Jews, far different notions of 
 universality and magnificence than those with which we 
 are familiar through the application of it by the Christian 
 Apostles. It was to them a universality not of spiritual, 
 but of temporal dominion ; it was a felicity not of moral 
 and religious blessings, but of outward and worldly plea- 
 sures. Such was the vision which floated before the more 
 aspiring spirits amongst the purely Jewish zealots in their 
 last desperate endeavour to throw off the Roman yoke in 
 the war with Titus ; such, when translated into a differ- 
 ent form, was the gross conception of the millennial reign 
 of Christ entertained by the Judaizing Cerinthus. With 
 such feelings as these it is easy to conceive how to the 
 Jewish Christians the all-absorbing comprehensiveness, 
 the all-overpowering energy of the Church might seem to 
 furnish a mean for promoting their object, which was 
 denied to them by the fixed rigidity of the Synagogue. 
 Whether or not they intended ultimately to receive Jesus 
 of Nazareth as the true Messiah, whether or not their 
 whole nation would at once acknowledge Him when He 
 returned, as they hoped, in earthly splendour to take His 
 seat on the throne of David, they might still use His 
 name as a watchword for gathering round them the allies 
 whom in the hour of triumph they might discard or retain 
 at their pleasure. 
 
 Such is the general form which we can imagine to have 
 been assumed by the Jewish nucleus of these heresies. It 
 now remains to justify it in detail through their various 
 manifestations. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 225 
 
 That the earliest indication of this revolutionary move- At Rome, 
 ment, which has been noticed in the city of Rome itself, 
 was, if not predominantly, at least to a great extent, Jewish 
 in its origin or its connexions, may be inferred not only from 
 the generally Judaic character implied in the readers of 
 the Epistle to the Romans, more so than in any other 
 Epistle except those to the Galatians and Hebrews, but 
 also from the context of the passage itself which contains 
 the warning in question. " Owe no man anything, for he 
 " that loveth hath fulfilled the law ; for this Thou shalt 
 " not kill, thou shalt not steal,' is briefly comprehended 
 " in this saying, * Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 " self,'" is an address which, standing as it does in the 
 very midst of the exhortations to obedience and to purity, 
 could hardly have been used unless those who needed these 
 exhortations had themselves acknowledged the authority of 
 the Mosaic law. And the contrast between the earthly 
 and spiritual empire, implied, as was above noticed, in 
 Phil. iii. 19, 20, could apply to nothing so well as to the 
 outward and carnal dominion, which was the object of the 
 aspirations of the Judaizers. Nor again is there anything 
 in such a view contradictory to the allusions to this move- 
 ment preserved in heathen historians. The expression of 
 Suetonius, (Claud. 25,) that the Emperor Claudius expelled 
 " the Jews from Rome in consequence of their tumultuary 
 " proceedings at the instigation of Chrestus," evidently has 
 reference to some such attempts; the name of Chrestus 
 indicating its connexion with Christianity, the mention of 
 the Jews indicating its Jewish origin, which would be the 
 more certain if we could identify this with the expulsion of 
 the Jews from Rome, which brought Aquila y to Corinth. 
 (Acts xviii. 2.) And with regard to the expressions of 
 
 * It has sometimes been said that Aquila had been a follower of Simon 
 Magus (Burton's Eccl. Hist. i. 185), but this rests on a confusion between 
 him and the (apparently) imaginary character in Clem. Rec. II. 1. vii. 33. 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 Tacitus on the persecution by Nero, (Ann. xv. 44,) besides 
 the more general excuse for them which has been already 
 noticed, it is at least not an improbable conjecture of a 
 recent historian 2 that "when the Jewish part of the 
 i( Christian community saw the great metropolis of the 
 " world blazing like a fiery furnace before their eyes, 
 " the Babylon of the west wrapped in one vast sheet of 
 " destroying flame, they may have looked on with some- 
 " thing of fierce hope and eager anticipation, they may 
 " have regarded it as the first indication of the coming 
 " of the Lord to judge the world in fire, as the opening 
 " of that kingdom which was to commence with the dis- 
 " comfiture of heathenism," and to conclude with the 
 millennial triumph. 
 
 The It is however when we turn to the Asiatic stage of the 
 
 ChorcLs. heresies that their Jewish parentage is most evident. In 
 the Epistle to Titus this is stated in express words, where 
 the "unruly talkers and deceivers" are said to be specially 
 " of the circumcision," (i. 10,) and their false teaching is 
 directly connected with "Jewish fables and command- 
 " ments of men," (i. 14,) with " foolish questions, and 
 " genealogies, (probably of Levitical families,) and con- 
 " tentions, and strivings about the law.'' (iii. 9.) These 
 expressions would of themselves almost be sufficient to 
 prove a similar origin in the almost exactly similar evils 
 mentioned in the Second to Timothy, (comp. especially 
 2 Tim. iii. 6, with Tit. i. 11 ; 2 Tim. iv. 4, with Tit. i. 14,) 
 and the First Epistle of St. Peter, (comp. especially 1 Pet. 
 ii. 13, 14, with Tit. iii. 1.) In the latter Epistle moreover 
 it admits of a distinct proof from the origin of those who 
 are described as its readers. To maintain indeed that 
 the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cap- 
 padocia, Asia, and Bithynia, were exclusively Jews of the 
 dispersion, is hardly consistent with the assertion that their 
 
 z Milman, Hist, of Christianity, ii. 37. book ii. c. 3. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 227 
 
 former religion had been " a vain conversation received by 
 st tradition from their fathers," (^draia dvacrrp6(f)rj Trarpo- 
 TrapdSoros, i. 18,) that "in time past they were not the 
 " people of God," (ii. 10,) and that they once "wrought 
 " the will of the Gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, 
 " revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries," (iv. 
 3.) But when we consider the close intermixture of the 
 Jewish settlers with the native inhabitants of the Gentile 
 countries which has been described above, their great 
 numbers and influence in these very countries, the almost 
 complete identification with them, even amongst those who 
 had been wild semi-barbarian idolaters, (Gal. iv. 8,) which 
 is implied in St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, the fami- 
 liarity with the Old Testament and with Jewish customs 
 which is presupposed throughout this very Epistle, it is 
 natural to suppose, especially in a letter from the great 
 Apostle of the circumcision, that the nucleus, the main- 
 spring of these Asiatic Churches, and consequently of these 
 Asiatic heresies, was not Gentile but Jewish. If we could 
 rely with confidence on the natural inference from 2 Pet. 
 iii. 1, that the Second Epistle of St. Peter was addressed to 
 the same readers as the First, then what has just been said 
 would necessarily include the censures contained in this 
 and the corresponding Epistle of St. Jude. But in con- 
 sideration of the obscurity which hangs over the origin 
 and composition of both, it will be safer to derive the 
 proof of the Judaic connexion of the heresies which they 
 attack, partly from their likeness to those already men- 
 tioned, partly from the Jewish allusions (see especially 
 Jude 9, 14) with which both abound, chiefly from their 
 exact coincidence above pointed out with those in the Apo- 
 calyptic Churches, (Rev. ii. 14, 20,) where it was not so 
 much the revolutionary spirit, as the profession of magical 
 arts, that was spoken of as associated with the licentious 
 practices common to all these forms of evil. That the use 
 
 Q2 
 
228 THE JUDATZEES OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 of sorcery, however strongly forbidden by the Law, was 
 generally prevalent amongst the Jews at this period is too 
 well known to admit of elaborate proof; the very name of 
 Cabbala the semi- Jewish origin of Simon Magus the 
 seven Jewish exorcists at Ephesus, the magical wonders 
 supposed to be wrought by those possessed of the mysteri- 
 ous name of God, are all familiar instances of it. That it 
 actually was so in this particular case is certain from the 
 express language of the Apocalyptic vision, " I know the 
 " blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, 
 " but are the synagogue of Satan." (ii. 9 ; comp. ii. 13, 24, 
 iii. 9; and compare the false claim to be Apostles (ii. 2), 
 with the language of the Judaizers in 2 Cor. xi. 5, 13, 23, 
 xii. 11.) 
 
 What was the precise meaning of the acts ascribed to 
 them which likened their sin to that of Balaam, (ii. 14, 
 20,) whether it was that they were themselves guilty of 
 expressly transgressing the apostolical decree, and indulg- 
 ing in the sacrificial feasts and accompanying sensuali- 
 ties of the heathen worship, thus combining the excesses 
 of the Gentile with the fanaticism of the Jewish party ; 
 or whether they, in their hostility to the true Christians 
 whom they regarded as their rivals, tempted them to do 
 so by laying accusations against them before heathen ma- 
 gistrates, is not clear. Probably both may have existed 
 together, exactly as the earlier Judaizing or Jewish zealots, 
 who were themselves bent on destroying the Roman em- 
 pire, did not scruple to use this very charge as a pretext 
 to the Romans for the destruction of St. Paul, and of our 
 Lord Himself. (Acts xvi. 20; Matt. xxiv. 5; John xix. 12.) 
 Both crimes however are alike compatible with a Jewish 
 origin. If we suppose them to have tempted the Chris- 
 tians " to eat meats offered to idols and to commit fornica- 
 (t tion" by their own example, then it is parallel with the 
 warning given nearly at this same period even to the. 
 
THE JUDAIZEBS OP THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 229 
 
 Hebrew Christians in Palestine, "Follow peace with all 
 " men," (i. e. do not think it necessary to enter on hostile 
 aggressions against any one, not even against the heathen 
 Romans,) " and holiness, without which no man shall see 
 " the Lord," (i. e. but at the same time do not so mix your- 
 selves up with them as to lose that purity (a^iaa^ov) 
 which is to Christians what ceremonial holiness was to the 
 Jews, comp. 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4, 7; Matt. v. 8;) "looking dili- 
 " gently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root 
 " of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many 
 " be defiled," (i. e. in evident allusion to Deut. xxix. 18 ; 
 lest any of you should go after heathen customs, and by his 
 example lead any into their polluting sins ;) " lest there be 
 " any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one 
 " morsel of meat sold his birth-right," (i. e. lest any of you 
 for the sake of his temporary gratification in the sacrificial 
 feast, fall into the sins by which these feasts are so often 
 accompanied, comp. 1 Cor. viii. 13; vi. 13.) And appa- 
 rently there is a similar allusion to these practices in the 
 last chapter, (xiii. 9,) " Be not carried away with divers 
 " and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the 
 " heart be established with grace, (see xii. 15,) not with 
 " meats which did not profit them that walked in them," 
 (dvacrrpefavo-iv.) Or on the other hand if their crime was 
 tempting the Christians to join in the sacrifices by expos- 
 ing them to the fear of heathen persecutions 3 , this again 
 would be in conformity with what we know of the instigation 
 of these persecutions not only in the early period during 
 St. Paul's first journeys, (Acts xvii. 5, 13,) but at this very 
 period, in these very provinces. Clement of Rome asserts 
 that Peter and Paul met their deaths through envy, (Sia 
 
 a To justify the application of the description of the false prophet (Rev. 
 xiii. 12; xvi. 3) to the Judaizers of Rev. ii. 14, would be too long a digres- 
 sion, but it is evident how exactly the above traits agree with Rev. xiii. 
 1218. 
 
230 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 an expression not elsewhere explained, but, so far 
 as we can build upon it, apparently pointing to the machina- 
 tions of some such rival sect, as the Judaizers. (Comp. Phil. 
 i. 15.) Melito expressly says that Nero and Domitian were 
 prejudiced against the Christians " by certain enchanters," 
 (VTTO ftacricavtov TWWV avOpwirow,) a phrase which exactly 
 coincides with the sorcerers and followers of Balaam in the 
 passages before us. In the account of the martyrdom of 
 Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, one of the very Churches 
 where these Judaizers existed in the greatest force, it is 
 said that the Jews no less than the heathens joined in the 
 shout which went up on the appearance of the aged 
 martyr, " This is the teacher of all Asia, the overthrower of 
 " our gods, who has perverted so many from sacrifice and 
 " from adoration of our gods ;" and that they howled with 
 savage joy around the funeral pile whose materials they had 
 themselves eagerly collected. 
 
 The Such being the form and origin of these heresies, it 
 
 tcTthese remains to ask from what quarters and by whose means 
 were met ancl destr y ed? No doubt St. Paul's 
 
 General Epistles contained in themselves the antidote not only to 
 St. Peter Jewish Pharisaism, but also to this Jewish libertinism, 
 which in some sense was the abuse of his own teaching. 
 But it is not after the manner of the Scriptures that one 
 Apostle or Prophet should exhibit the whole cycle of truth; 
 it would not have been according to the analogy of faith, 
 that St. Paul should have been the Apostle especially 
 brought forward to correct himself. It was now that the 
 intervention of St. Peter, of which a description has been 
 attempted in the second Sermon, would naturally be ex- 
 pected. Vestiges may well have been preserved in this later 
 stage of Judaism either of the ancient hostility to St. Paul, 
 or of the hopes that Peter was to place himself at the head 
 of that great party which had once, and perhaps still called 
 itself after his name, and turned as of old to the example 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 231 
 
 of the brethren of the Lord and of Cephas ; and to repress 
 these would have been a fitting call for the exercise of the 
 authority of St. Peter and St. Jude. Here too was the 
 true place for the intervention of the ethical character 
 which belongs more or less (with the exception of that of 
 St. John) to all the General Epistles, or in other words, 
 the writings which bear the names of the purely Jewish 
 Apostles; and what the moral teaching of St. James (as 
 will afterwards appear) was to the barren belief of the 
 Palestine Church, that the moral teaching of St. Peter 
 and St. Jude might well be to the licentious fanaticism 
 of these later Judaizers. Whilst on the one hand the 
 style and language of the First Epistle of St. Peter, and 
 the express assertion of the Second, must have indicated 
 then, as it has been a decisive proof ever since, that before 
 the close of the Sacred Canon the traces of the dispute 
 at Antioch had been virtually effaced, so the three Epistles 
 together must have borne testimony then, and are a valu- 
 able testimony now, to the irreconcileable difference which 
 existed between real Apostolical Christianity and that 
 counterfeit representation of it which for a time deceived 
 the world by its rival pretensions. External resemblances 
 are to an outward observer so much more palpable than 
 inward differences, that Tacitus may well have confounded 
 together the abominable superstition and the Divine in- 
 struction, which both presented themselves to him under 
 the common name of a new religion, even as Aristophanes 
 had long before assailed as belonging to the same school 
 the basest of sophists and the greatest of philosophers. But 
 as even in the case of Grecian history the judgment of 
 posterity has set aside the Athenian verdict upon Socrates, 
 much more have these Epistles determined for ever the 
 true relations once so grievously misunderstood between 
 the Apostles and their opponents, and the mistake of a 
 part for the whole which, as we see from Tacitus, was 
 
232 THE JUDAIZEES OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 natural in the reign of Nero, we learn from the Epistles of 
 the younger Pliny to have become impossible in the reign 
 of Trajan. The viper which had come out of the heat 
 and fastened itself on the apostolic age was shaken off 
 into the fire ; the wild anarchy which then succeeded in 
 identifying itself with Christianity has been rarely con- 
 founded with it since ; and if the lessons of acquiescence in 
 existing authorities which this spirit called forth from the 
 Apostles in the first century were in the next pushed to 
 excess by Ignatius and his followers, if in later ages they 
 have been used as pretexts for undue servility, yet if rightly 
 understood, and taken in conjunction with the other parts 
 of the New Testament, they may be well regarded as 
 monuments of the possibility of reform without revolution, 
 of introducing the greatest moral and spiritual changes 
 without loosing the social and political bonds which hold 
 mankind together. 
 
 In the Lastly, as the authority of these two Jewish Apostles 
 
 lypse. was thus employed in strangling in its cradle this mon- 
 strous birth of Jewish and Gentile evil, so that of the 
 only one who remained (for the work of James the Just 
 was as will be seen confined to a narrower sphere) was 
 no less providentially employed in exhibiting in the Apo- 
 calypse the only aspect of it which was capable of 
 a Christian expression. Reserving entirely the ques- 
 tion of the interpretation of its details, it is sufficient 
 to observe here that what the Gospel and Epistles of 
 St. John have often been remarked to be in relation to 
 the third stage of the primitive heresies, that the Apo- 
 calypse is to the second. It meets them not by direct 
 opposition, but by adopting and redeeming all that was 
 capable of a higher meaning in their thoughts and phrase- 
 ology. If there be a worse than the Roman Babylon to 
 be destroyed, if there be a holier than the Jewish Jeru- 
 salem to be reverenced, if there be a reign of Christ 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 233 
 
 greater than the Jtidaizing millennium to be hoped for, 
 they are to be sought for in the true antithesis to the 
 Apocalypse b of Cerinthus, in tlie "Book of the Revela- 
 " tion of St. John the Divine." 
 
 III. THIRD PERIOD. The Gospel and Epistles of St. John. 
 
 The juxtaposition of these two names brings us to the Errors op. 
 closing period at once of the bright and of the dark sides st.John. 
 of the apostolical age. It is a remarkable proof of the 
 indiscriminate transference of our own notions to that time, 
 that most readers of ecclesiastical history if asked what was 
 the most controversial period of the first century, would fix 
 upon that which seems in fact to have been the least con- 
 troversial of all. It is precisely because the energy of the 
 primitive antagonism to apostolical truth was gradually 
 dwindling away into the ordinary operations of error, such 
 as have provoked the controversies of later ages, that we 
 therefore insensibly come to regard the writings of St. 
 John as more polemical than those of St. James, St. Paul, 
 or St. Peter. But the apostolical controversies were not 
 like ours, they were carried on not against "flesh and 
 " blood," not against the mere outward figure of mortality 
 in which evil may chance to clothe itself, but "against 
 " principalities, against powers, against rulers of the dark- 
 " ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
 " places," against the real principles of moral evil which lay 
 at the root of the whole matter, and which shewed them- 
 selves in their naked undisguised depravity of avowed 
 hostility to goodness, and avowed love of wickedness. 
 And if therefore in St. John's writings, the vehemence of 
 St. Paul, and the severity of St. James, has disappeared, 
 it is not merely because the fire of the Son of Thunder 
 has been superseded by the peaceful temperament of the 
 
 1> See Eus. II. E, iii. 28, vii. 25; Epiph. Hfer. -51. 3. 
 
34 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 Apostle of Love, but because St. James and St. Paul and 
 St. Peter had thoroughly done their work, because the 
 evils with which he had to contend, however malignant 
 in spirit, were at least less rampant and less powerful in 
 form, because it was c only a solitary Diotrephes here and 
 there, and not whole masses of Christian communities who 
 " received him not." 
 
 This would be our natural impression if we derived our 
 impression from the general tone of St. John's writings, 
 not as illustrated by later theologians, but as compared 
 with those which proceed directly or indirectly from his 
 brother Apostles. Yet some form of rivalry, some hostile 
 principles of evil we do seem to encounter even here, and 
 these, with the assistance of tradition, which, as shall 
 elsewhere be shewn, is here more important than usual 
 in filling up the gap of apostolical history, it now remains 
 to endeavour to reproduce, 
 
 Chiefly Doubtless in the speculations concerning the nature of 
 Christ which seemed to be glanced at in the Gospel and Epi- 
 stles of St. John, (John i. 114 ; 1 John i. 1 ; ii. 13 ; iv. 2,) 
 there seem to be traces of an opposition to the first indica- 
 tions of those Gnostic errors, which as belonging to a later 
 age, and to another sphere than that with which we are now 
 concerned, it is not my intention here to notice. But the 
 Gnostic sects, properly so called, had not yet come into 
 existence, their first founder Basilides did not appear till 
 A.D. 120, long after the Apostle was laid in his grave. So 
 far as the principles opposed by St. John had assumed any 
 outward and definite shape at all, it is still the same ancient 
 enemy that we have tracked throughout, it is still not 
 Gnosticism but Judaism, or, if we will have the word, it is 
 not yet the Gnostic pure, but the Gnostic d grafted on a 
 Jewish soil. 
 
 c 3 John 9. 
 
 d That even the later Gnosticism was in its origin Jewish appears from 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 235 
 
 It was after the fall of Jerusalem had stripped it of every The 
 other form in which it could take refuge, after its Phari- 
 saical rigidity and its daring ambition had in that great 
 catastrophe been alike extinguished, that the Judaism of 
 the Christian Church entrenched itself in that first of sects 
 or heresies, according to the later meaning of these terms, 
 which is commonly designated by the name of Ebionite. 
 The very name indicates its Jewish origin, not from an 
 individual leader, but, as is now generally acknowledged 6 , 
 from the Hebrew word expressive of the poverty and 
 humble state of the Jewish Church, the caricature (if one 
 may so say) of those Divine blessings which in the earlier 
 Gospels had been pronounced on the poor and the poor in 
 spirit, of those Divine privileges which in the earliest of the 
 Epistles had been ascribed to the " poor of the world, whom 
 " God had chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the king- 
 " dom which He hath promised to them that love Him." 
 (James ii. 5.) And with this perversion of the social prin- 
 ciples of Christianity was united a similar perversion of its 
 Divine truths. That simple reverence with which many of 
 the Jewish Christians may long have continued to regard 
 our Lord, as the great prophet of their nation, without 
 endeavouring to analyze minutely the precise nature of 
 their feelings towards Him, was in this the last stronghold 
 of all that was purely Jewish in Christianity, hardened and 
 petrified, according to the true spirit of sectarianism, into 
 a fixed dogma, which refused to recognise in Him any- 
 thing else than a mere man, which determined to see in 
 Him not the fulfilment of those wider and higher intima- 
 tions of the Messiah in the ancient prophets, but only of 
 the technical formula of later Rabbis, according to which 
 the man Jesus was indeed to be their deliverer and re- 
 such passages as Tgn. Magn. 8, Heges. ap. Eus. H. E. iv. 22, and the claim 
 of Basilides to have derived his teaching from the traditions of St. Peter. 
 
 e See Neander, Hist, of the Church, ii. 10. (Eng. Tr.) 
 
236 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 deemer, but to be recognised as the anointed Messiah 
 only when he had received the promised unction from 
 the hands of the messenger of the Lord who was regarded 
 as his superior, the greatest of the prophets f , Elijah. 
 John the Baptist with them was still all in all; he had 
 indeed come in the spirit and power of Elijah : from him 
 Jesus of Nazareth had received His baptism, and though 
 they might well, according to John's instructions, acknow- 
 ledge themselves as His disciples and call themselves by the 
 name of Nazarene, what need they asked was there to go 
 further, what need to ascribe to Him that more universal 
 character, to take to themselves that more universal name 
 of " Christian" which the Gentile Churches were now be- 
 ginning to insist upon ? 
 
 It was in Pella g , the last home of the Judaeo-Christian 
 community, that this sect arose, or rather that the simple 
 faith of the Palestine Christians refused to expand into the 
 higher or more universal creed of the society which was 
 now about to be called in name what it had long been in 
 reality, the Catholic Church. But after all that has been 
 said of the widely spead Jewish element throughout the 
 Asiatic provinces, it would not be surprising to find traces 
 of it at Ephesus, even had we not the preparation for it in 
 the disciples of John the Baptist, who formed the nucleus 
 of the Ephesian Church in the lifetime of St. Paul, (Acts 
 xix. 1 6.) And so far as any definite errors are implied 
 by St. John's writings as existing within the sphere of his 
 teaching, they are at least as much of this peculiarly Jewish, 
 as of the later Gnostic, character. The stress laid on the 
 testimony of the Baptist to our Lord's superiority over 
 him the strong assertions (beyond what the other Gospels 
 contain) of the universality of the Christian religion the 
 
 f Justin, Dial. Tryph. c. 49. See Thiersch on the Criticism of the New 
 Testament, p. 260. 
 g Epiph. Haer. 30. 3. 
 
THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 237 
 
 importance attached to the Divine character and mission 
 of our Lord, which, so far as it can be said to have any 
 polemical view, coincides exactly with the similar expres- 
 sions undoubtedly aimed against Jewish errors in the 
 Epistles to the Colossians and Hebrews, and the First to 
 Timothy the very use of the phraseology of Philo, which, 
 as we see from the Epistle of St. James h , was familiar 
 even to the Jews of Palestine, much more to those of 
 Ephesus, all point to the fact which later writers ex- 
 pressly assert, that the errors against which the Gospel 
 and Epistles were directed were Ebionite. 
 
 It is indeed a remarkable coincidence, that, if we may Cerinthus. 
 trust the traditionary statements, the one individual form 
 which we can discern in the midst of these last heresies is 
 the same which we see though more dimly in each of their 
 preceding stages. Cerinthus, who is always spoken of in such 
 close connexion with the Ebionites as in one place 1 to be 
 confounded with their imaginary founder Ebion, is not only 
 the antagonist of St. John's latest years, but is also repre- 
 sented as in his representation of the Millennium the cham- 
 pion of those doctrines of sensual profligacy which marked 
 the previous period of the primitive heresies, and yet further 
 back still, is stated to have been actually k one of those who 
 in the very first beginning of the conflict carne from Jeru- 
 salem to Antioch, and taught " Except ye be circumcised 
 " after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved." In this 
 final conflict then of the last heresiarch of the apostolical 
 Church with its last Apostle, the long struggle is brought 
 to its natural close. They had met, it may be, at the 
 meeting at Jerusalem, when John with James and Cephas 1 
 as the chief pillars of the Jewish Church gave the hand of 
 fellowship to Paul ; they had been confronted once again 
 
 h See Schneckenburger on St. James. (Introduction.) 
 
 Epiph. Hjer. 30. 25. k Epiph. Haer. 28. 2. 1 Gal. ii. 6. 
 
238 THE JUDAIZERS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 
 
 when the Apocalypse of each was set in opposition one 
 against another, in the troubles which preceded the fall of 
 the Jewish nation ; and now, on the threshold of the apo- 
 stolical age and of their own lives, they met once more, the 
 aged Apostle with the last earthly lineaments of his charac- 
 ter purified away in the light of love and holiness the 
 aged heretic having descended step by step from the rigid 
 dogma of a stern fanaticism through the licentious schemes 
 of a wild revolution down to the hard cold scepticism, 
 which, as it had been deaf before to the dictates of huma- 
 nity was now equally closed against the recognition of 
 divinity the withered trunk, cut down already to the 
 roots, leafless, sapless, lifeless. 
 
 Opposi- Such is the representation which tradition loved to give 
 of hidivi- ^ tne meeting of the last champion and the last enemy of 
 of al rfn T a P sto ^ ca ^ trutn > guided at least so far by a right instinct 
 pies. that it preserves the faithful impression of the consistency 
 of Judaism in which, as their one continuous outward form, 
 from first to last the primitive heresies clothed themselves. 
 But as in St. John's own writings no name of any particu- 
 lar sect is preserved, no individual Cerinthus handed down 
 to infamy, so it would be safer for us to consider that, as 
 the Judaism which was up to this time the palpable mani- 
 festation of evil had itself retired into a less prominent 
 position, so also his opposition to it, if so it may be called, 
 is merged in the general antagonism to sin as sin, to dark- 
 ness as darkness; as if to bring before us once for all in 
 this the closing period of the conflict the real principles 
 which alone had been at stake throughout. And if, as is 
 likely, it may have been the result of St. John's work, that 
 the false teachers who up to this time had maintained their 
 ground within the Church were henceforth cast out from 
 it, "if they went out from us because 111 they were not of us," 
 and because the Christians at the Apostle's bidding " would 
 
 m See 1 John ii. 19 ; 2 John 10 ; 1 John v. 19. 
 
THE JUDA1ZEBS OF THE APOSTOLICAL AGE. 239 
 
 " not receive them at their homes nor wish them God speed, 
 " lest they should be partakers of their evil deeds ;" yet 
 there is still the higher truth to be remembered, which is 
 implied as through all the apostolical writings so especially 
 throughout St. John, that the true antithesis, the true con- 
 tradiction is not between the Church and the individual 
 Judaizers, whether Pharisaical, revolutionary, or Ebionite, 
 but between the Church which "speaks the truth in love," 
 and the " world which lieth in wickedness." 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 ST. JOHN. 
 
 JOHN xxi. 22. 
 If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
 
 WHATEVER ground there may be for the hesita- SERM. 
 
 tion with which a pious mind approaches a critical 
 
 analysis of any of the apostolical characters, what- 
 ever reverence and caution may be required in con- 
 ducting this analysis, exists in the highest degree 
 with reference to the last of the Three Apostles, 
 St. John, on whose life and work I this day pro- 
 pose to enter. The strongly-marked natural pecu- 
 liarities which distinguish St. Peter, the full blaze 
 of historical light which surrounds St. Paul, in 
 themselves justify and invite an investigation of 
 the human springs of action to which they were 
 subject. But St. John's life, at first sight, seems 
 shrouded in an atmosphere of religious awe which 
 we cannot penetrate ; in him the earthly seems so 
 completely absorbed into the heavenly the cha- 
 racter, the thoughts, the language of the disciple 
 so lost in that of the Master that we tremble to 
 draw aside the veil from that Divine friendship; 
 
242 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. we fear to mix any human motives with a life 
 iv. J 
 
 - which seems so especially the work of the Spirit of 
 
 God : it was, we may be inclined to think, a true 
 feeling which in the greatest of Christian poems 
 declared itself unable to discern any earthly* form 
 or feature in the third of the Three Apostles ; 
 we may fancy that in the answer to the question, 
 " Lord, and what shall this man do ?" there is con- 
 tained for us, though in a different sense, some- 
 thing of the same mild rebuke as was addressed to 
 John's first companion, " What is that to thee ? 
 " Follow thou Me." 
 
 But the fact is, that in these natural and obvious 
 feelings we have virtually anticipated all that is 
 peculiarly distinctive of the life of St. John. The 
 mysterious characters, as well as the mysterious 
 truths of Scripture, are placed before us not to 
 perplex but to instruct us ; and our Lord's words, 
 if rightly understood, may invite us to the task of 
 defining the lineaments of that character which 
 Jesus loved without intruding into things invisi- 
 ble ; of ascertaining the true position of the Apo- 
 stle of Love without instituting any irreverent com- 
 parison between him and the Apostle of Faith. It 
 was precisely in this very capacity for reflecting, as 
 in an unbroken glass, the glory of things Divine ; 
 
 a As he who looks intent, 
 
 And strives with searching ken how he may see 
 The sun in his eclipse, and through decline 
 Of seeing loseth power of sight, so I 
 Gazed on that last resplendence. 
 
 Gary's Dante; Paradiso xxv. 117. 
 
ST. JOHN. 243 
 
 in this passive reception (so to speak) of the high- SERM. 
 est and holiest influences, that the human fitness of~ 
 St. John for his appointed work properly consisted. 
 It was not by fluctuating and irregular impulses 
 like the first Apostle, nor yet by a sudden and 
 abrupt conversion like the second, that he received 
 his education for the Apostleship ; there was no 
 sphere of outward activity as in Peter, no vehement 
 struggle as in Paul ; in action, while Peter speaks, 
 moves, directs, he follows, silent and retired ; his 
 teaching is expressed not in the arguments and 
 entreaties which mark the Epistles of St. Paul, but 
 in the simplest forms in which human language can 
 arrange itself. Every thing local and national seems 
 to have passed away ; and, if in Peter we seemed to 
 trace the Jewish element in its native vigour, if in 
 Paul there seemed to be a development of those 
 peculiar qualities which so well fitted him to be 
 the Apostle of the Gentile nations of the west, it 
 would almost seem as if in St. John the still con- 
 templation, the intuitive insight into heavenly 
 things, which form the basis of his character, had 
 been deepened and solemnized by something of that 
 more eastern and primitive feeling to which the 
 records of the Jewish nation lead us back ; some- 
 thing of that more simple, universal, child-like 
 spirit, which brooded over the cradle of the human 
 race ; which entitled the Mesopotamian Patriarch, 
 rather than the Hebrew Lawgiver or the Jewish 
 King, to be called the " friend of God b ;" which 
 
 b James ii. 23. 
 R 2 
 
244 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. fitted the prophet of the Chaldsean captivity, rather 
 - than the native seers of Samaria or Jerusalem, to 
 be the " man greatly beloved ." If there be any out- 
 ward influence visible in the mind of St. John, it is 
 from these remoter regions, from that more primi- 
 tive atmosphere that it seems to come : it is in 
 the opening words of his Gospel that, after the 
 lapse of ages, we catch the echo of the same words 
 which had announced the creation of all things d : 
 it is in the close of the Sacred Canon that we hear 6 
 once again of the tree of life and the river of para- 
 dise : it is the most primeval traditions and images 
 of ancient civilization to which, if to any outward 
 source, we owe those ideas of life and death, of 
 light and darkness that blending of fact with doc- 
 trine, of the real with the ideal, which so strongly 
 characterize the writings of St. John. He could 
 not by any possibility have been a Jewish zealot or 
 a Hellenistic rabbi ; it is possible to conceive that 
 but for the grace of God he might have been an 
 Oriental mystic. 
 
 Still, after all that can be ascribed to any outward 
 circumstances, the whole sum of his character must 
 of necessity be contained in the one single fact that 
 he was " the disciple whom Jesus loved." Once 
 understand that from whatever causes no obstacle 
 intervened between him and that one Divine object 
 which from the earliest dawn of youth to the last 
 years of extreme old age was ever impressing itself 
 
 c Dan. x. 19. d Comp. Gen. i. 1. with John i. 1. 
 
 e Comp. Gen. ii. 9, 10. with Rev. xxii. 1, 2. 
 
ST. JOHN. ;2 | :> 
 
 deeper and deeper into his inmost soul, and his SERM. 
 whole work on earth is at once accounted for. - 
 Whatever we can conceive of devoted tenderness, 
 of deep affection, of intense admiration for good- 
 ness, we must conceive of him who even in the 
 palace of the high priest, and at the foot of the 
 cross, was the inseparable companion of his Lord ; 
 whatever we can conceive of a gentleness and holi- 
 ness ever increasing in depth and purity, that we 
 must conceive of the heart and mind which pro- 
 duced the Gospel and Epistles of St. John. 
 
 I. One phase, however, of his character there 
 was, which might at first sight seem inconsistent 
 with what has just been said, but which nevertheless 
 was the aspect of it most familiar to the mind of 
 the earliest Church. It was not as John the Be- 
 loved Disciple, but as John the Son of Thunder, 
 not as the Apostle who leaned on his Master's breast 
 at supper, but as the Apostle who called down fire 
 from heaven, who forbade the man to cast out devils, 
 who claimed with his brother the highest places in 
 the kingdom of heaven f , that he was known to 
 the readers of the three first Gospels. But in fact 
 it is in accordance with what has been said, that 
 in such a character the more outward and super- 
 ficial traits should have attracted attention before 
 the complete perfection of that more inward and 
 silent growth which was alone essential to it ; and, 
 alien in some respects as the bursts of fiery passion 
 may be from the usual tenor of St. John's later cha- 
 
 f Luke ix. 53 ; Mark ix. 38 ; x. 37. 
 
246 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. racter, they fully agree with the severity, almost 
 ' unparalleled in the New Testament, which marks 
 the well-known g anathema in his Second Epistle, 
 and the story, which there seems no reason to 
 doubt, of Cerinthus and the bath. It is not sur- 
 prising that the deep stillness of such a character 
 as this should, like the oriental sky, break out 
 from time to time into tempests of impassioned 
 vehemence ; still less that the character which was 
 to excel all others in its devoted love of good 
 should give indications in its earlier stages even 
 in excess of that intense hatred of evil, without 
 which love of good can hardly be said to exist. 
 
 But, though this is only a temporary and sub- 
 ordinate feature of the Apostle's character, there is 
 yet one point of view 7 where it meets us at once at 
 the exact stage which we have now reached in this 
 sketch of the apostolical age, and which though 
 later than the end of St. Peter and St. Paul, is yet 
 the first beginning of the work of St. John. 
 
 It was not till the removal of the first and the 
 second Apostle from the scene of their earthly 
 labours that there burst upon the whole civilized 
 world that awful train of calamities 11 , which break- 
 ing as it did on Italy, on Asia Minor, and on Pales- 
 tine, almost simultaneously, though under the most 
 
 s 2 John 10 ; see Essay on the Traditions concerning St. John. 
 
 h For these calamities, and the effect produced by them on 
 those who witnessed them, compare, in Palestine, Joseph. B. J. vi. 
 5.3; Luke xix. 43 ; xxi. 20 24 ; xxiii. 2830 : in Asia Minor, 
 1 Pet. iv. 12 19 ; Rev. ii. 10, 13; iii. 10: in the Empire gene- 
 rally, Matt. xxiv. 6, 7 ; Tac. Hist. i. 1. 2. 
 
ST. JOHN. 247 
 
 different forms, was regarded alike by Roman, SERM. 
 Christian, and Jew, as the manifestation of the~ 
 visible judgment of God. It was now, if we may 
 trust the testimony alike of internal and external 
 proof, in the interval * between the death of Nero 
 and the fall of Jerusalem, when the roll of aposto- 
 lical epistles seemed to have been finally closed, 
 when every other inspired tongue had been hushed 
 in the grave, that there rose from the lonely rock 
 of Patmos that solemn voice which mingled with 
 the storm that raged around it, as the dirge of aii 
 expiring world ; that under the " red and lowering 
 
 1 To enter into the proofs of the date of the Apocalypse here 
 assumed as the most probable, would involve too long a dis- 
 cussion, especially as it involves more or less the whole question 
 of the interpretation of the book itself, which had better be re- 
 served for another occasion : I will content myself therefore with 
 stating the general grounds of this opinion, and for the details 
 refer to Liicke's Introduction to the Apocalypse, and to a very able 
 article on the subject in the first number of the Biblical Review. 
 
 1. The extremely Hebraistic character of the language, beyond 
 that of any other part of the New Testament, best agrees with a 
 date long previous to that of the Gospel and Epistles. 
 
 2. The troubles described in the book as impending over the 
 Church not at some distant period, but immediately, (Rev. i. 9 ; 
 xxii. 6, 7, 10, 12, 20,) refer to no historical event so naturally as 
 the destruction of Jerusalem described almost in the same Ian- 
 guage in the three first Gospels. 
 
 3. The indication of the exact time furnished by the book itself, 
 (Rev. xvii. 10,) which assuming the most natural interpretation 
 which the words will bear, would fix it to the year A.D. 68, 
 or 69. 
 
 4. The external testimony referring it to the time of Nero has 
 at least as much weight as that which refers it to the reign of 
 Domitian. 
 
248 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM, " sky" which had at last made itself understood to 
 iv. 
 
 '- the sense of the dullest, there rose that awful vision 
 
 of coming destiny which has received the expressive 
 name of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. 
 
 This is not the place and time to enter on the 
 origin and object of that mysterious book, but it is 
 not irrelevant to the present subject to ask whether 
 amidst all the differences which distinguish it from 
 St. John's later writings, we may not trace a con- 
 geniality to the earlier phase of his life to which 
 it properly belongs ; whether in the thunderings 
 and lightnings and voices which proceeded out of 
 the throne, in the cry " How long, O Lord, holy 
 " and true," in the thrones on the right hand 
 and the left, and the armies clothed in white, we 
 may not see k something like the flash, the last ex- 
 piring flash it may be of the Son of Thunder ? 
 May we not in these words be justified in recog- 
 nising the same accents that we remember from 
 the impatient disciple in the earlier Gospels, now 
 used, however, to express not the transient feelings 
 of human indignation, but the solemn message of 
 inspired revelation ? May we not enquire whether 
 in the wild Oriental imagery, in the peculiarly He- 
 braic character, both of style and thought, in the 
 true apostolical counterpart which it presents to 
 those carnal dreams of earthly dominion, which 
 the troubled aspect of the times had brought to 
 their highest pitch in the Judaizing spirit of this 
 
 k Comp. Mark iii. 17 ; Luke ix. 54 ; Rev. v. 5; xi. 19; xvi. 
 18; yi. 10; xix. 14; xx. 4. 
 
ST. JOHN. 249 
 
 epoch, there is any thing really incongruous with SERM. 
 the mission of St. John ? whether he who had been - 
 up to this time an Apostle solely of the circumci- 
 sion, and had, in this sense at least, tarried till his 
 Lord was come, might not now for a moment be 
 rapt out of himself and of his own especial sphere, 
 to utter the last voice of Divine judgment over the 
 catastrophe which, by a Christian of that age, could 
 almost without a figure be called the end of the 
 then existing world, to sing the coming triumph 
 of a holier even than the earthly Jerusalem over a 
 greater even than the Roman Babylon ? 
 
 II. But there was a higher sense in which the Lord 
 was yet to come, in which, according to no subordi- 
 nate circumstance, but to the inmost essence of his 
 character, the beloved disciple was to be the Apostle 
 of the latter days. The clouds which had gathered 
 so darkly round the Apocalyptic vision rolled away, 
 and we now enter on that final period of the apo- 
 stolical age which is emphatically and without dis- 
 pute the age of John. He alone of the Three now 
 survived : if here and there some Diotrephes 1 might 
 be found to dispute his authority, still, generally 
 speaking, unlike that of his two predecessors, it must 
 have been unquestioned ; he full of years and of 
 holiness must have been truly the father of the 
 new generation of Christians, and they his " little 
 " children;" to him, in his Ephesian retreat in the 
 
 1 3 John 6. 
 
 m See the 1st Ep. of St. John passim, and for the address to 
 
250 ST. JOHN. 
 
 s E R M. metropolis of the Asiatic Churches, which were them- 
 
 IV. 
 
 - selves the centre of Christendom, every eye must 
 have been turned with the feeling that now, if ever, 
 was the time when he should break his silence 
 when his appointed work was fully come. Nero 
 and the tyrants who had succeeded him on the im- 
 perial throne were swept away ; and no Peter was 
 needed to revive the hope of an infant and perse- 
 cuted Church. Jerusalem had perished, and in its 
 ruin was broken the strength of that Judaic spirit 
 which had so vehemently struggled against St. Paul. 
 There was nothing within or without the Church to 
 break the profound peace in which the whole world 
 reposed at the commencement of the reign of Trajan, 
 and which seemed as if providentially designed for 
 the atmosphere in which this epoch of Christian 
 history should receive its final completion. 
 
 Whatever were the needs of this last period were 
 not outward, but inward ; trials not of the flesh, or 
 of the world, but of the spirit ; the temptation not 
 of the hungry wilderness, nor of the view from the 
 exceeding high mountain, but of the pinnacle of 
 God's holy temple, of presumptuous speculation 
 and slumbering conscience. A new generation of 
 Christians had now appeared, to which the thoughts 
 and feelings of the first were unknown; "fathers 
 " and young men n " are alike addressed in St. John's 
 
 the Christians in the assembly, and to the young robber, see Essay 
 on the Traditions of St. John. 
 
 n 1 John ii. 12 14 ; see Lucke's commentary on the passage, 
 from which it would appear that the phrase " little children," is 
 
ST. JOHN. 251 
 
 Epistle as having grown up in Christian education ; SERM. 
 very few now remained who had seen the face of the - 
 Lord Jesus : between the earlier and the present 
 state of Christian society, if by no other cause at 
 least by the destruction of Jerusalem, there seemed 
 to be fixed a chasm as of many centuries ; and what 
 wonder if in the place of that Divine history now 
 growing dim in the distance, there should have 
 arisen those portentous shadows of oriental specu- 
 lation which afterwards deepened into the Gnostic 
 heresies of the second century, but which even now 
 were chasing each other to and fro across the field 
 of the Eastern Churches? what wonder if in the place 
 of that fervent zeal, which marked even in excess the 
 conduct of the earliest Christians, we find iniquity 
 abounding and the love of many waxing cold, and 
 faith and holiness which to St. Paul's view had 
 seemed absolutely indivisible, now falling asunder 
 from each other in that fatal disunion which is de- 
 plored through all the Epistles of St. John ? 
 
 And now what were the weapons with which 
 these evils were combated by the sole surviving 
 Apostle of the Christian Church? We must re- 
 member that compared with the mortal conflict 
 which was waged by St. Paul in the Epistles to the 
 Corinthians and Galatians against his Jewish op- 
 ponents, or with that which was sustained in the 
 Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude against the revo- 
 
 used as a general designation of the disciples, to whom in each 
 case a general address precedes the more particular appeal to the 
 earlier and later generations of the Apostle's hearers, spoken of 
 respectively as " fathers" and " young men." 
 
ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. lutionary sects which threatened to shake the foun- 
 ' dations alike of moral and religious society, the age 
 of St. John, so far from being in itself a time of 
 fierce controversy, seems much rather, both in the 
 evils attacked and the mode of attacking them, to 
 partake of the general tranquillity of the whole 
 period, ' moving towards the stillness of its rest/ 
 gradually softening away into that deep silence 
 which succeeds immediately to the apostolic age, 
 " that silence as it were about the space of half an 
 " hour/' during which we hear and know hardly 
 any thing, till it is broken by the din of the angry 
 combatants in the middle of the next century. It 
 is then in exact accordance with the wants and cir- 
 cumstances of the age, no less than with his own 
 character, that the chief form in which the beloved 
 disciple inculcated Christian truth, was not that of 
 a polemical Epistle, but an historical Gospel ; was 
 not the assertion of any principle however deep, of 
 any morality however exalted, but the description 
 in all its fulness of the Person of Jesus Christ. 
 This is the subject of his Gospel, and round this his 
 Epistles converge. Previous Evangelists had given 
 to the Church that which the Church had then most 
 needed ; the cycle of the warnings, the precepts, the 
 miracles, the external ministrations of the Lord 
 had been preserved in what we now know as the 
 teaching of the three first Gospels. But the Life, 
 as a whole the outer life, with the distinct stages 
 of progressive interest from passover to passover, 
 and all the several steps that led to the final issue 
 the inner life, with the Divine discourses which repre- 
 
ST. JOHN. 253 
 
 sented not merely the wisdom of the earthly prophet, s E RM. 
 but the glory which He had with the Father before IV ' 
 the world was the life, not as seen only by Jewish 
 eyes, and in connexion with Jewish feelings , but as 
 intended to be the source of life to the whole world 
 this was precisely what we might expect from 
 St. John ; the Beloved Disciple, and the Last of the 
 Apostles. It was as though the recollections of his 
 youth, which to the minds of all else were waxing 
 faint, came back upon him in the loneliness of his 
 declining years with all their original vividness : no 
 greater treasure could he bequeath to the world, which 
 seemed as it were to have had a new term added to 
 its existence, than a faithful historical record of those 
 scenes that would else have perished with him out 
 of human memory : no fitter antidote could he fur- 
 nish alike for the intellectual and moral perversions 
 of his age, than that which in a measure had been 
 already urged in the later Epistles of St. Paul, as 
 the remedy to the same incipient evils, the com- 
 plete representation of the Word made flesh. 
 
 But to meet such tendencies as those with which 
 St. John was surrounded, no belief in mere facts, 
 however great, was sufficient : the errors of his day 
 had arisen from speculating not on the facts them- 
 selves, but on the ideas which the facts represented ; 
 the sins of his day had arisen not merely from an 
 outward forgetfulness, but from an inward unbelief 
 of the great end for which the facts took place. 
 Still, therefore, keeping his stand on the immove- 
 able historical ground of " Jesus Christ come in the 
 
 See Herder on the Gospel of St. John, p. 362. 
 
254 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. flesh" as the one central truth of all, both in the 
 - Gospel, and in the First Epistle which seems to 
 have accompanied it as a practical comment, he 
 passes over every thing merely outward or local ; 
 institutions, miracles, actions, are only mentioned 
 in the higher truths which they represent, or else 
 introduced only for the sake of those truths ; the 
 earthly things of the previous Gospels are, as has 
 been well said, transfigured in the fourth ; they, as 
 the early Christian writers expressed it, are of the 
 body ; his, is of the Spirit. The dreamy specula- 
 tions of the East which in the central city of Ephe- 
 sus blended with the advancing tide of Platonizing 
 philosophy from the West, he met not merely by 
 opposing them, but by acknowledging and repro- 
 ducing in the light of Christian faith whatever there 
 was of truth in them. With that natural approx- 
 imation, which I have already ventured to describe 
 in his character, to the simplest and purest forms of 
 Eastern contemplation, it is impossible not to re- 
 cognise in his phraseology the imagery, and even 
 the words, of the Oriental philosophies transferred 
 to the most sublime and awful subjects of Christian 
 theology ; and it is a curious proof of this outward 
 coincidence between them, that' for the first hun- 
 dred years after the publication of St. John's Gos- 
 pel there are more indications of the high estima- 
 tion in which it was held amongst the Gnostic 
 sects p than in the bosom of the Church itself. 
 Yet it seems almost like profanation to bring 
 
 P The first commentary on St. John's Gospel was that of Hera- 
 cleon. See Thiersch, p. 192; Lange on the Gospels, i. 170. 
 
ST. JOHN. 255 
 
 such a subject into any connexion, however remote, SERM. 
 with the debased Orientalism of the Ephesian- 
 schools ; and, in strict historical truth, the gulf 
 between Caiaphas and Peter, between Gamaliel and 
 Paul, is not so deep as that between Cerinthus and 
 St. John. It was not enough that this later age 
 should bring out in all its clearness the facts of 
 the Gospel history, or that its peculiar tendencies 
 should meet with a character whose natural turn 
 enabled him to understand and correct them ; it 
 must bring out ST. JOHN himself, the St. John who 
 beyond any other of the sons of men had received 
 the impression of the Divine character; in whom 
 all that there had been of earthly or of selfish in 
 the Son of Thunder had melted away in the soften- 
 ing light of growing perfection ; in whom all merely 
 outward and intellectual elements were swallowed 
 up in the contemplation of things spiritual and 
 eternal. It was doubtless no undesigned or use- 
 less lesson to this last period of the apostolic age, 
 that when the eyes of men turned to the head of 
 the Christian world they saw there enthroned not 
 the activity and zeal of Peter, nor even the faith 
 and wisdom of Paul, but the love and goodness of 
 John. Then, when the Church was about to enter 
 on that period of God's ordinary Providence in 
 which it was henceforth destined to move, there 
 was no blaze of miracles like that which heralded 
 the approach of the first Apostle ; no scenes of 
 suffering, imprisonment, and martyrdom, such as 
 closed round the end of the second ; nature went 
 
256 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. on upon her usual course; there was nothing to 
 
 '- divert the attention from the one simple unadorned 
 
 spectacle of moral and spiritual excellence, en- 
 shrined as if in its own heavenly light, irradiating 
 every thing that fell within its sphere, not by the 
 speculations of an Eastern mystic however pro- 
 found, but by the crystal purity of a heart and mind 
 penetrated through and through with the in-dwell- 
 ing Spirit of Christ. Words and ideas which had 
 up to that time suggested only the gross doctrines 
 of Manichean superstition, or at best the complex 
 theories of an abstract philosophy, were now as it 
 were redeemed one by one from their baser earthly 
 use, as they passed through that translucent atmos- 
 phere, until we have almost forgotten that they had 
 ever any other than that high and heavenly meaning 
 which they owe, humanly speaking, to the writings 
 of St. John. He spoke of " life and death/' of 
 " light and darkness," as the conflicting elements 
 of the universe ; but it was of a moral not a phy- 
 sical conflict that he spoke ; of the birth, and life, 
 and extinction, not of systems or emanations, but 
 of the moral soul and spirit of man. He spoke of 
 duty of separation from "the world" as the anta- 
 gonist of all good ; but it was not the world of out- 
 ward matter, but " the world that lieth in wicked- 
 " ness." He spoke of the Divine " Word which was 
 " in the beginning with God ;" but it was no shadowy 
 effluence or abstract speculation that he proclaimed, 
 but a Living Person, " whom his eyes had seen and 
 " his hands had handled ;" " whose glory he had be- 
 
ST. JOHN. 257 
 
 " held, and of whose fulness he had received ;" " who s E R M. 
 
 IV. 
 
 " came to destroy the works of the devil, and to do ' 
 
 "His Father's will." He spoke of "the Spirit" 
 which was to come and dwell with man; but it 
 was no irregular impulse, no ecstatic leader of a 
 wild fanaticism q , such as the Asiatic sects were 
 for ever expecting, but the Eternal " Comforter, 
 " who was to convince the world of sin, of right- 
 *' eousness, and of judgment. " Above all, he 
 spoke of the union of the soul with God, but it 
 was by no mere process of oriental contemplation, 
 or mystic absorption; it was by that word which 
 now for the first time took its proper place in the 
 order of the world, by LOVE. It had been re- 
 served for St. Paul to proclaim that the deepest 
 principle in the heart of man was Faith ; it was 
 reserved for St. John to proclaim that the essential 
 attribute of God is Love. It had been taught by 
 the Old Testament that " the beginning of wisdom 
 " was the fear of God ;" it remained to be taught 
 by the last Apostle of the New Testament that 
 * the end of wisdom was the love of God.' It had 
 been taught of old time by Jew and by heathen, 
 by Greek philosophy and Eastern religion, that 
 the Divinity was well pleased with the sacrifices, 
 the speculations, the tortures of man : it was to 
 St. John that it was left to teach in all its fulness 
 that the one sign of God's children is " the love of 
 
 <3 For the form which this feeling took in Asia Minor, compare 
 the belief, as of the later Arabians with regard to Mahomet, that 
 Montanus was himself the Paraclete. 
 
258 ST. JOHN. 
 
 
 
 SERM. "the brethren." And as it is Love that pervades 
 
 IV 
 
 - our whole conception of his teaching, so also it 
 pervades our whole conception of his character. 
 We see him it surely is no unwarranted fancy 
 we see him declining with the declining century; 
 every sense and faculty waxing feebler, but that 
 one divinest faculty of all burning more and more 
 brightly; we see it breathing through every look 
 and gesture ; the one animating principle of the 
 atmosphere in which he lives and moves ; earth 
 and heaven, the past, the present, and the future, 
 alike echoing to him that dying strain of his latest 
 words, " We love Him because He loved us." And 
 when at last he disappears from our view in the 
 last pages of the Sacred Volume, ecclesiastical tra- 
 dition still lingers in the close : and in that touch- 
 ing story r , not the less impressive because so familiar 
 to us, we see the aged Apostle borne in the arms of 
 his disciples into the Ephesian assembly, and there 
 repeating over and over again the same saying, 
 " Little children, love one another ;" till, when 
 asked why he said this and nothing else, he replied 
 in those well-known words, fit indeed to be the 
 farewell speech of the Beloved Disciple, " Because 
 " this is our Lord's command, and if you fulfil this, 
 " nothing else is needed." 
 
 III. Such was the life of St. John ; the sunset, as 
 I have ventured to call it, of the apostolic age : not 
 amidst the storms which lowered around the Apo- 
 
 r Hieron, Comment, ad Gal. vi. 
 
ST. JOHN. 259 
 
 calyptic seer, but the exact image of those milder SERM. 
 lights and shades which we know so well even in - 
 our own native mountains, every object far and 
 near brought out in its due proportions, the harsher 
 features now softly veiled in the descending shadows, 
 and the distant heights lit up with a far more than 
 morning or midday glory in the expiring glow of 
 the evening heavens. 
 
 And now, as in the case of his two predecessors, 
 we must ask what has St. John done or left corre- 
 sponding to this position ? The immediate work of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul was, as we have seen, in a 
 great measure fulfilled within their own lifetime. 
 Can this be said of St. John, or is it not much rather 
 the truth that on his own cotemporaries he exercised 
 hardly any permanent influence at all ? Some check 
 no doubt must have been given to the Ephesian 
 heresies, some effect produced by the sight of a life 
 and character so divine, something like a respite 
 and breathing time afforded for the Church of St. 
 Peter and the Gospel of St. Paul to take root be- 
 fore they were left unassisted to bear the shock of 
 outward violence or inward dissensions. But half a 
 century had not passed before, as we are told, the 
 tide of Gnostic delusions broke over the Apostle's 
 grave in all their fury; even in the school of holy 
 men which succeeded him in the sphere of his 
 earthly labours, the teaching of Poly carp is based 
 far more on that of Paul than of John ; and what a 
 contrast between his Gospel, and the traditions of 
 Papias, between his Epistles, and the letters, whether 
 
 s2 
 
 
60 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. we read them in their longer, their shorter, or their 
 
 IV 
 
 - shortest form, of Ignatius of Antioch ! And when 
 from the age of the Apostle himself, we track his 
 influence through the succeeding centuries of the 
 Christian world, are we not still met by the same 
 disproportionate results ? The very surface of Eu- 
 ropean society, its greatest revolutions, its works of 
 art, its most splendid edifices bear on their very 
 front the names of St. Peter and St. Paul ; can it be 
 said that there has been any age which in any sense 
 at all corresponding to this bears the impress of 
 St. John? 
 
 Doubtless it may be maintained, and with much 
 truth, that this is precisely what we ought to expect : 
 that it is in the still small voice that we are to 
 recognise the highest marks of divinity : that it is not 
 in the palaces of kings, or the revolutions of opinion, 
 but in the secret chambers of solitary goodness, that 
 we are to recognise the influence of the last Apostle, 
 St. John. Something even in the world at large 
 must always have been due to the impulse which in 
 all ages has been given to Christian poetry by the 
 imagery of the Apocalypse, to the strains of impas- 
 sioned devotion, treasured up alike by both sec- 
 tions of the Christian Church, which have been 
 formed almost entirely on the model of his Gos- 
 pel and Epistles ; much more when from these we 
 turn to the countless individual souls, which in life 
 and in death his writings have supported. There 
 is enough, it might well be said, in the added gen- 
 tleness and tenderness which seems so often to be 
 
ST. JOHN. 261 
 
 the natural forerunner of a blessed end, in the SERM. 
 increasing glow of all pure and heavenly affections - 
 amidst the decay and dissolution of every other 
 feeling and faculty, to remind us of the closing 
 career of St. John ; and how many cases are there 
 alike in youth and age where the very mystery 
 attendant on his destiny, the loneliness, the weari- 
 ness, the apparent uselessness of his course, may 
 well read to us the lesson so beautifully drawn 
 from it by our own Christian 8 poet, " If I will that 
 " he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" ' What 
 is that to him or thee, So his love to Christ en- 
 dure?' 
 
 Still we may be excused for asking whether after 
 all we may not look for something more. It was, 
 we know, an early, though mistaken belief, that 
 " that disciple should not die;" it was* a natural 
 superstition which led the Christians of the three 
 first centuries to hang over the grave, where they 
 still believed him to lie not dead, but only sleep- 
 ing, and to watch what they fondly deemed to be 
 the gentle heaving of the sepulchral dust by the 
 breath of the slumberer ; or which, in later times, 
 has ever and anon awakened the vain expectation 
 that he was on the point of returning once again 
 to visit in bodily form the world which he had too 
 soon deserted. Wisely indeed was it ordered that 
 to any such idle fancies as these an express contra- 
 diction should be given in the last page of his Gos- 
 
 s Christian Year, St. John's Day. 
 
 * See Essay on the Traditions of St. John. 
 
262 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. pel. Yet is there not still a sense in which we may 
 indeed humbly trust that he still lives, and that his 
 work is yet to come, in which we may even at this 
 very time hear the sound of his approaching foot- 
 steps, and hail the coming of a time when the 
 same course of natural Providence which impressed 
 so strongly on our forefathers the acts and words 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul, may open our eyes in like 
 manner to the peculiar lessons of the life and writ- 
 ings of St. John ? May we not still hope that the 
 future has an especial share not only in the visions 
 of the Apocalypse, on which this is not the time 
 to enlarge, but in the eternal spirit of truth and 
 holiness which breathes through the Gospel and 
 Epistles, and which, more than the spirit of pro- 
 phecy, lifts the teaching of John above any parti- 
 cular age, and renders it, in the language of Chry- 
 sostom, the " Inheritance of the universe ?" 
 
 When, indeed, we look out on the world around 
 us ; when we see the bitter factions, the cold indif- 
 ference, the absorbing selfishness of the age in which 
 we live, it does seem like a cruel mockery to say 
 that this or any thing like this can be in any sense 
 the age of the Beloved Disciple. But in speaking 
 of the Divine dispensations, we necessarily speak 
 not of what is, but of what might be ; not of the 
 actual evils which exist in any age, but of the pecu- 
 liar opportunities for good which it holds out, whe- 
 ther men will profit by them or no. How great is 
 the contrast between the triumphant exultation of 
 the first half of the 89th Psalm and the deep de- 
 
ST. JOHN. :>(i;i 
 
 spondency of its close; and yet it is but the same SERM. 
 subject approached from opposite sides ; it is but - 
 the difference between the course of God's intended 
 providence and the course of man's perverseness. 
 Or if from this last decline of God's chosen people 
 in older times we turn to that very close of the 
 apostolical age of which I have been this day speak- 
 ing, how little real correspondence was there be- 
 tween the divine life and teaching of the Apostle 
 on one side, and the worldly and carnal influences 
 which surrounded him on the other ! And so with 
 regard to these latter days of our own, the real 
 question is whether any obstacles are removed, or 
 are likely to be removed, which formerly stood be- 
 tween us and the true understanding of the Apo- 
 stle's writings ; whether there are any peculiar ten- 
 dencies, which if encouraged would, more than those 
 of former ages bring us into harmony with his spirit ; 
 any peculiar evils, which his example and teaching 
 seem especially calculated to counteract. 
 
 To those who know what has been done even 
 for the mere criticism of St. John's writings within 
 our own generation, there is enough to make us ask 
 whether we have not at least a truer insight into 
 their composition and intention than existed in 
 earlier times. Never before has there seemed so 
 fair a prospect of seeing the Apocalypse delivered 
 from the wild and arbitrary interpretations which 
 had long made its study a byeword and reproach 
 amongst sober-minded Christians ; never before has 
 the relation of the Gospel and Epistles to each other 
 been so clearly brought out ; never before have the 
 
264 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. low and unworthy theories of the polemical, or sup- 
 -plemental, or temporary character of the Gospel, 
 been so completely exploded ; nor its supreme im- 
 portance, both for Christian history and Christian 
 theology, been so deeply and generally recognised. 
 
 But it is after all our own inward relations to the 
 teaching of St. John which will best enable us truly 
 to profit by it ; and that not by any fanciful ar- 
 rangement of mystical cycles, such as belongs rather 
 to Etruscan soothsayers than to Christian students, 
 but by the natural course of the history of the 
 world. It is not that we are to expect to have an 
 especial interest in St. John, merely because he 
 came the last in the series of the Three Apostles, 
 but it is because in the very nature of things the 
 close of every long-protracted struggle in human 
 society must be marked by tendencies more or less 
 resembling those which marked the end of the great 
 crisis of the apostolical age ; and if any such can 
 be discerned in our own days, it is but natural 
 to turn for instruction to the lessons which the 
 highest wisdom provided under similar or analo- 
 gous circumstances ; it is but just and fair, whilst 
 we shrink from boasting of our own age, or church, 
 or nation, to beware of dwelling only on its darker 
 side, of involving in our censure of its real evils the 
 traits which it may possess in common with the 
 life of the Beloved Disciple. 
 
 Surely, when we look around upon our own later 
 times, full indeed of moral and intellectual interest, 
 but outwardly unruffled without persecution and 
 without enthusiasm far removed from the last con- 
 
ST. JOHN. 2G5 
 
 fines of the age of miracles, martyrdom seeming SERM. 
 to be almost an impossibility, human and natural - 
 agencies alone at work every where ; it is not 
 without its use to check desponding thoughts if we 
 remember that such an age, uncongenial as it might 
 seem to the growth of religious excellence, was the 
 age which witnessed the full development of that 
 character which we are wont to regard as the holiest 
 amongst the sons of men. Or again, when we look 
 at the intellectual temptations by which our times 
 are especially assailed, the tendency to lose sight of 
 fact and reality in shadowy systems of philosophy 
 which we have not strength to grasp, the confusion 
 and dissolution of barriers which once fenced round 
 our opinions and our duties, may we not fairly be 
 reminded of some of the speculations which beset 
 the Christian world at the close of the first century ? 
 may we not be allowed to trust that as then in the 
 first publication, so now in the revived study of 
 St. John's writings, we may find our best refuge 
 from the distractions of the time, that as of old 
 we have seen that he was the "true u Gnostic," so 
 now he may be to us for all our practical wants, 
 the true Idealist of the age ? may we not hope that 
 as the life of western Europe was developed si- 
 multaneously with the study of the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles, so even in those theories and ten- 
 dencies which at the present time often seem to 
 stand most aloof from Christianity, nay even 
 in those great strongholds of primeval unbelief 
 
 u So the well-known expression of Clement of Alexandria. 
 
266 ST. JOHN. 
 
 s E R M. with which we are yearly brought into closer con- 
 - tact in the regions of the remote East, and on which 
 all previous teaching seems to have made so faint 
 an impression, there may be some divine chord 
 which yet remains to be struck, some nobler aspi- 
 ration than our dull senses have yet discerned, 
 which may even yet be drawn within the range of 
 that highest aspect of Christianity, of which the 
 Apostle at Ephesus is the true representative ? 
 
 Lastly, and with a far more practical and universal 
 interest than belongs to any mere speculative difficul- 
 ties, it is hardly much to say that, manifold as are 
 the reflexions which suggest themselves in speaking 
 of the coming age before those who in all human 
 probability must exercise no unimportant influence 
 over it, great as are the difficulties and the pri- 
 vileges of those who feel what it is to live in these 
 latter ages, ' foremost in the files of time,' yet if 
 the Apostle himself were again brought before us, 
 there is no doctrine, or precept, or principle that 
 he could deliver, more immediately striking at the 
 root of our greatest dangers, or awakening more ef- 
 fectually our greatest hopes of good, than those last 
 words of his earthly life, " Little children, love one 
 another." 
 
 The words, alas, fall upon our ears, as they did 
 indeed on those of the Ephesian Christians, with all 
 the triteness and powerlessness of an exhausted 
 proverb. We ask like them, ' Why repeat once more 
 what we have heard a thousand times, and what if 
 we were to hear a thousand times again, can tell us 
 
STc JOHN. 267 
 
 nothing beyond what we knew before?' But is it SERM. 
 indeed so? Can any age be said to have truly - 
 realized it in theory, and, even if it had, is it not 
 part of the very nature of the command that it 
 is illimitable ? There has been zeal no doubt, 
 there has been philanthropy, but can we say that 
 our own or any age of the world has shewn such 
 a careful consideration for the consciences and 
 feelings of others, such an abstinence from imputing 
 bad motives where not absolutely necessary, such a 
 sympathy with the wants of our poorer brethren, 
 such a deep sense of the misery of moral evil, of the 
 greatness of moral excellence, such an earnest at- 
 tempt to fix our thoughts and affections steadily on 
 the one central object, which all must allow to be 
 the essence of the Christian religion can we say 
 that either with our fathers or ourselves anything 
 of this ever existed to such an extent, as to justify 
 us in supposing that we have yet seen the full and 
 legitimate results of Charity or Christian Love ? has 
 it ever assumed that undisputed and paramount 
 supremacy in our minds, over every other part of the 
 Divine instructions, as that we can respond to the 
 Apostle's own answer to this very complaint, and 
 feel that in that short and simple saying was vir- 
 tually contained the whole sum and substance of 
 the Christian revelation ? 
 
 Most true indeed is it that it is " a command- 
 " ment," as he himself calls it, at once " old and 
 " new ;" and most encouraging to think that, much 
 as there may be of evil in the tendencies of our age, 
 
268 ST. JOHN. 
 
 s E RM. far removed as it may be itself from the age of Love, 
 ~ yet at least it is a preparation for it, if we would 
 only use it as such ; it is not in itself the voice of 
 the Apostle, but it is the prelude, the expectation, 
 the hush of the audience before the gentle accents 
 of that farewell speech can make themselves heard. 
 Doubtless there never has been any age of Chris- 
 tendom in which forbearance has not been held a 
 duty, and unity a blessing. But (to take even the 
 very simplest case) whatever there may now be, 
 whether in private or in public life, of that unforgiv- 
 ing spirit which is not so much against the perfec- 
 tion, as against the very rudiments, of Christianity, 
 whatever forms of implacable enmity, national, 
 political, or private, of injuries, long and studiously 
 remembered, of sensitive readiness to receive, and 
 to offer affronts, of looking on every act or circum- 
 stance of life through the medium of personal pique 
 or jealousy, wherever such feelings are found, as 
 they certainly may be found both in nations and 
 individuals, who pride themselves on being in ad- 
 vance of their time, it must be remembered that 
 whatever excuses they may have once had, exist no 
 longer ; it is at least something gained to the cause 
 of Christian Love that they are not now, as in the 
 times of Feudalism or of the Reformation, in accord- 
 ance with the tendencies of the period, but against 
 them ; and that to sin thus openly against the com- 
 mand of St. John, thus sanctioned alike by God and 
 man, is therefore in a sense beyond what it has been 
 in any previous age to sin against light. And when 
 
ST. JOHN. 
 
 we ascend from this the lowest and most obvious SERM. 
 fulfilment of the Law of Love to its higher demands, is _ 
 it too much to hope that here too we may he enabled 
 to enter on that more excellent way by approaches 
 which to our fathers were closed ? Although we 
 have ceased to enforce agreement, like them, by fire 
 and sword, although we have ceased to tolerate dis- 
 agreement, like them, in placid indifference, al- 
 though the outward means of unity seem further off 
 than ever ; although divisions appear to multiply 
 rather than diminish; and comprehensions, alli- 
 ances, reconciliations, are regarded as idle dreams ; 
 yet can it be said that in those inward means which 
 after all are alone essential, any previous age has been 
 so rich as our own ? Is not the gift of discerning in- 
 ward agreement under outward difference, of distin- 
 guishing between the form and the spirit, of placing 
 ourselves in the position of others, of trying to 
 appreciate and understand instead of at once con- 
 demning the characters or systems from which we 
 differ, is not all this, if not peculiar to the present 
 time, at least so eminently characteristic of it, as to 
 have changed the whole course of its poetry, history, 
 and philosophy ? Nay is there not something in the t 
 total disruption of party, whether ecclesiastical or 
 political, which, whether in this place or elsewhere, 
 has taken place without any merit of ours, even 
 within our own experience, that almost compels us 
 to look round for some deeper and wider basis of 
 sympathy than we have been before accustomed to, 
 that forces us almost in the very weariness of ex- 
 
270 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. haustion to repose on the belief that where wisdom 
 
 - and goodness and holiness are, there and there alone 
 is the Spirit of God? 
 
 If this be indeed so if our opportunities be in- 
 deed so great, what ought to be our responsibilities, 
 and what judgment should those of us deserve who 
 have become the 'heirs of all the ages' only to criticise 
 them in listless apathy ; who have burst the barriers 
 of form and opinion only to speak lightly of selfish- 
 ness and sensuality ; who have lost enthusiasm 
 without increasing in charity ; who despise zeal, be- 
 cause we worship ourselves ; who live in the age of 
 St. John to be disciples of the Epicurean Cerinthus ; 
 who have tarried even to the days of the Son of man, 
 only " to eat and drink, to buy and sell, to plant 
 11 and build," until He shall indeed come in an 
 hour when we look not for Him ! 
 
 May God grant to us a truer sense of our posi- 
 tion and duties, and then no evil tendencies of the 
 present, no gloomy prospects of the future, ought 
 really to deprive us of the example of St. John's life 
 and doctrine. It is indeed the highest consumma- 
 tion in which any practical lessons which any of us 
 may have derived from these discourses find their 
 fullest exemplification. c To all but one in ten 
 ' thousand/ it has been well said, ' Christian specu- 
 ' lation is barren of great fruits ; to all but one in 
 1 ten thousand, Christian benevolence is fruitful of 
 
 * ' great thoughts.' There may be many here present 
 to whom the various intellectual questions on which 
 I have touched may be wholly useless ; there are 
 
ST. JOHN. 271 
 
 none who cannot derive benefit, both moral and SERM. 
 
 IV 
 
 intellectual, from recollecting the all-sufficient im-- 
 portance of that divine Love of which we know, even 
 from the life of St. Peter, that the one condition 
 of apostolical power was that he " loved" his Mas- 
 ter " more than others ;" of which we should know, 
 even from the words of St. Paul, that though "there 
 " abide these three, Faith, Hope, and Charity, yet the 
 11 greatest of these is Charity." Much more do we 
 know that it bore St. John on eagle wings into the 
 Eternal Presence, and that it will bear us also, if 
 only we dare to trust it. Let us not fear for visible 
 institutions, or for the cause of Divine truth. Even 
 here the Apostle's life may fitly remind us that it 
 was not under St. Peter but St. John that there 
 grew up that framework of Christian society x in 
 the Asiatic Churches which eventually became the 
 model of all ecclesiastical government ; that it was 
 not the Apostle of Faith, but of Love, who was em- 
 phatically called "Theologos y ," and whose words 
 supplied the foundation of the most universal of 
 the Catholic Creeds. Truth, if spoken in love, 
 will not become indifferent to us, but its several 
 parts will then assume their proper harmony and 
 proportion. Outward institutions will not perish, 
 but will then be used in subordination to the higher 
 ends, which alone can give them their proper value. 
 
 x See Essay on the Apostolic Office. 
 
 y "Theologos," or the " Divine," as applied to St. John, is not 
 used in its ordinary modern sense, but, as is well known, in the 
 peculiar sense which it bore in the fourth century, " one who 
 " spoke of the Divinity of our Lord." 
 
272 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. Former ages and ancient associations, future ages 
 - and lofty aspirations will not be trampled under 
 foot, but will alike acquire their true meaning in 
 the light of that charity which " beareth all things, 
 " believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 " things." Let us not think that in the great work 
 that is before us we shall need the bonds of an ela- 
 borate system, and the combination of party or pro- 
 fessional ties ; let us think rather, as every thought- 
 ful man must think if only he looks round on the 
 familiar faces of his own college chapel, that as in 
 this place he would not dream of resting our true 
 bond of union one to another on sameness of in- 
 tellect or of theological schools, so in the greater 
 struggle of life itself we shall have enough to oc- 
 cupy and to unite us if we have in common a due 
 sense of those great practical evils which as Christians 
 we are bound to subdue and of that great moral 
 good which as Christians we are bound to accom- 
 plish ; that, whether here or elsewhere, the natural 
 sympathy and practical co-operation which such a 
 feeling cannot but engender, is, if we would but so 
 regard it, our true shelter from the strife of tongues, 
 until this tyranny be overpast ; our true refuge 
 from the storms and waves of this troublesome 
 world, until we have attained a more certain view 
 of our destined haven. 
 
 And not only in the toil and conflict of this mor- 
 tal life, but when we think of that higher life which 
 it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive, 
 there also it may be truly said that the veil which 
 
ST. JOHN. 273 
 
 rests on the view even of zeal and faith is drawn SERM. 
 
 IV 
 
 up from before the gaze of Love. The curtain of - 
 the physical world which hides it from our sight 
 may with each advancing year be extended more 
 widely and woven more thickly around us : one 
 after another, the discovery of the general laws of 
 the universe may throw the first moving Cause 
 further and further back beyond the limits of time 
 and space : we no longer hear or see Him as our 
 fathers did, in the wind, the earthquake, and the 
 fire. But, if we have that blessing of a loving heart 
 which no advance of science can take from us, we 
 have St. John's assurance that " we know" what GOD 
 is : the same Apostle who has moved Him furthest 
 from our outward senses in the announcement that He 
 " is a Spirit," has brought Him nearest to our inmost 
 affections by declaring to us that He " is Love." 
 
 And yet once more, if we dare no longer figure 
 to our minds the life beyond the grave with those 
 images which brought it home to the mind of pre- 
 vious ages ; if we dare no longer speak, as our 
 fathers did, of the mountain of purification and the 
 circles of paradise ; if there are times when the 
 things of this world on the one side, and the great 
 change effected by death on the other, seem to 
 leave no place in our thoughts or imaginations for 
 the things beyond ; if ever difficulties like these 
 press upon us, there is surely some comfort in re- 
 membering that there have been those to whom 
 these or similar difficulties have been present, and 
 who yet have assured us that there is one faculty 
 at least which shall rise with our regenerated na- 
 
 T 
 
274 ST. JOHN. 
 
 SERM. hires, and live amidst the death of all heside. St. 
 
 IV. 
 
 : Paul, who has told us that all our present powers 
 of knowledge shall "cease and vanish away," has 
 told us that " Charity never faileth." St. John, 
 who declared that " it doth not yet appear what we 
 11 shall be," has told us that " Hereby we know 
 " that we have passed from death to life, because 
 " we love the brethren/' 
 
 Yes, even in that familiar love of our earthly 
 homes which is to most of us the well-spring of 
 our earliest and latest happiness in that love of 
 our friends and benefactors which so endears to 
 us the scenes of our education here and else- 
 where in that love which in after-life binds us to 
 the service of those for whom God in our several 
 stations makes us each responsible in that love 
 which in all but the very worst of us must be from 
 time to time awakened for the wisdom and good- 
 ness which not having seen we long to see, which 
 to believe in now is what to many of us makes life 
 worth living for, which to see hereafter is the great 
 and blessed promise reserved for those who shall 
 see Him as He is in all these several degrees we 
 have at least some link to connect the life of time 
 with the life of eternity. When in its perfected 
 form Love has indeed mastered self, here even in 
 this life we may trust that the mortal has indeed 
 put on immortality. For of a truth " that disciple 
 " shall never die ;" for " he that dwelleth in Love, 
 " dwelleth in God and God in him." 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 IN considering the traditions which form the ground of 
 almost all that we know or are told respecting the latter 
 part of St. John's life, it is important to remember that 
 they cannot lay claim to the same authority as they would 
 have if they formed parts of a connected narrative instead 
 of being, as is for the most part the case, isolated anecdotes 
 of which the purport may have been lost or mistaken by 
 their separation from the context, so to speak, in which 
 they originally occurred. But they have contributed so 
 largely to the conception commonly entertained of the 
 life and character of St. John, and they are most of them 
 so consistent with each other and with the records of the 
 Apostle in the New Testament, that it seemed right to 
 dwell upon them at greater length in the Sermon on St. 
 John, than was possible in the case of the analogous tradi- 
 tions of St. Peter, and also to state as far as could be ascer- 
 tained the amount of external and internal probability 
 which they severally present. And they possess more- 
 over this advantage, that none of them (except that which 
 was pressed into the service of the Paschal controversy in 
 the second century) have been inextricably mixed up with 
 polemical disputes. 
 
 I. The earliest recorded tradition respecting St. John Tradi- 
 had apparently sprung up, not like most of them after the john^sim 
 Apostle's death, but during his lifetime, and professed (for mortaht y- 
 this is the obvious inference from the manner in which it 
 is reported to us) to be founded on an express prediction 
 of our Lord that " St. John should never die." In this 
 case it was still possible to confront the traditionary state- 
 
276 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 ment with the historical : a chapter was added to the Gos- 
 pel, apparently with this especial object, in which the true 
 fact was brought out, that Jesus said not unto him, " He 
 " shall not die," but " If I will that he tarry till I come, 
 " what is that to thee?" 
 
 Whether the misunderstanding of the words of our Lord 
 on that particular occasion was the sole origin of the tradi- 
 tion may perhaps be questioned : it is perhaps most likely 
 to have been in the first instance occasioned partly by the 
 great age to which the Apostle seemed to be advancing, 
 partly by some such expectation, as I have described in the 
 Sermon, of greater works than he had yet performed : we 
 feel at least that no such belief could have sprung up with 
 regard to St. Peter or St. Paul. Nor again, was the opinion 
 without some ground of truth if we consider the earlier 
 belief of the Church that the world was to end with that 
 generation, and the language in which the Lord's coming 
 is throughout the New Testament so often identified or at 
 least blended with the images which equally describe the fall 
 of Jerusalem. (See especially Matt. xvi. 28, and the expla- 
 nation of it given in the Essay on the Promises to Peter.) 
 
 This last feeling however had evidently passed away 
 before the time when the tradition assumed the particular 
 shape specified in John xxi. 23, and it now therefore took 
 its ground on the supposed saying there referred to. The 
 " coming of the Lord" was now to them what it is to us, 
 another expression for the end of all things, and having 
 thus limited the spirit of our Lord's words, the next and 
 natural process was to limit the words themselves, to the 
 new view which now prevailed concerning them. Yet 
 neither the express caution of the Evangelist in that chap- 
 ter, nor yet the contradiction of this story by the fact of 
 his death, was sufficient entirely to eradicate it. The story 
 of his being not dead but asleep in his grave at Ephesus 
 was related to Augustine by persons who professed to have 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 277 
 
 witnessed the motion of the dust by the supposed breath 
 of the sleeper (Tract. 124. in Joann.), and the notion 
 that he was still living not only became a fixed 3 article 
 of popular belief in the middle ages (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. 
 ii. 42), but has been revived from time to time by later 
 enthusiasts (Lampe, Proleg. p. 98), and is still partially 
 commemorated in the Greek Church in the Feast of 
 the Translation of the Body of St. John. But even 
 without the apostolic refutation of it, we should have 
 required much stronger proof than can be adduced to 
 warrant our admission of a story so alien not only to the 
 simplicity of apostolic times, but to the reasonableness of 
 Christianity itself; and, however willing we may be to 
 regard it as the fanciful expression of what might have 
 been in itself a true feeling, yet it must be pronounced to 
 belong essentially to the region not of Christian history 
 but of Christian legend b , where it has both in earlier and 
 later times found its appropriate place. 
 
 II. The anecdotes of traits of character vary in value, but 
 there seems no reason for absolutely rejecting any of them. 
 
 1 . The story of the young Asiatic robber, preserved Tradition 
 in Clement of Alexandria, and from him in Eusebius you ng 
 (H. E. iii. 23), A. D. 180. What was Clement's autho- robber ' 
 rity does not appear, but the communication between 
 Alexandria and Ephesus may easily have supplied the in- 
 formation, and the internal evidence of the details of the 
 story is strongly in its favour. The account of the organi- 
 zation of the Asiatic Churches with which the story opens 
 has been spoken of elsewhere, and accords as well with the 
 express statement of Tertullian that St. John was the author 
 
 a See Liicke's Introduction to the Gospel of St. John. 
 
 b Compare amongst other instances the well-known story of the apparition 
 of St. John to James IV. at Linlithgow before the battle of Flodden, the 
 belief in Prester John in central Asia, and the ancient legendary representa- 
 tions of the search for the body in the empty tomb. Such also is the aspect of it 
 which has been so happily caught in Mr. Moultrie's poem on St. John's Day. 
 
278 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 of the episcopacy which existed in his time, as with the 
 indications contained in the Pastoral Epistles of St. Paul 
 that Ephesus with its district was the first spot where the 
 government of Churches became more regularly consti- 
 tuted . In all other respects, the paternal care of St. John 
 over the Asiatic Churches generally, old and young alike 
 (comp. 1 John ii. 13), the use of "presbyter" and 
 "bishop" as convertible phrases, the robber-hold d in the 
 mountains close to the neighbourhood of the Greek cities, 
 the agreement of the general moral of the penitence of 
 the young man with the distinction drawn in 1 John v. 
 16, and ii. 2, and the characteristic union of sternness and 
 energy with devoted affection, which pervades the whole 
 account, seem strong guarantees for its genuineness not 
 only in substance but in form, especially when it is con- 
 sidered that some of these points belonged to a state of 
 things which by the time of Clement had ceased to exist. 
 Tradition 2. The sto'ry of Cerinthus and the bath rests on the 
 
 of Cerin- 
 thus and authority 6 of Irenseus (Adv. Haer. iii. 3), who professes to 
 the bath. 
 
 c It would also exactly agree with the theory which represents the " angels " 
 of the seven Churches in the Apocalypse to have been their respective heads 
 or bishops. But for the reasons stated in a previous Essay, the context hardly 
 justifies our departure from the ordinary use of the word in the Apocalypse, 
 especially when the particular language used concerning them (see especially 
 Rev. ii. 4, 5, 9; iii. 15, 17) almost compels us to regard them not as indivi- 
 dual ministers, but as the Churches themselves, personified in their guardian 
 or representative angels. Comp. Matt, xviii. 10, and also Dan. x. 13, 20. So 
 too they are represented in medieval illuminations of the Apocalypse. And 
 it may be observed that even if we could assume that the word here was used 
 for an officer of the Church, it is still doubtful whether it would imply the 
 supreme governor. The angel or minister of the Jewish synagogue was infe- 
 rior not superior to the officiating Rabbi. (See Ewald ad Apoc. i. 19.) The 
 deacon not the bishop is the " angel" of the Apostolical Constitutions 
 (ii. 30). 
 
 d The chief strongholds of the pirates who infested the Mediterranean in 
 the later times of Roman history were in Cilicia, but they extended more or 
 less to a 1 ! the maritime states of Asia Minor. Appian, Bell. Mith. c. 92. 
 See Arnold's Later Roman Commonwealth, i. 274. 
 
 e Epiphanius (Haer. 30. 25), who represents the heretic to be not Cerinthus 
 but Ebion, lays stress on the fact that St. John's use of the bath was so mi- 
 
THE TRADITIONS EESPECTING ST. JOHN. 279 
 
 derive it from hearers of St. John's own scholar Poly- 
 carp, and if regarded unfavourably is in accordance with 
 the spirit of Luke ix. 51, Mark ix. 38, if favourably, with 
 the expression in 2 John 10. It is however precisely in 
 such a story as this, and passing through such hands, 
 that the essential difference between history and tradition 
 is to be borne in mind. That some such event took place 
 it is unreasonable to doubt. But the point of such an anec- 
 dote greatly depends on the circumstances which accom- 
 panied it, and which a second or third hand narrator of it, 
 especially when relating it for a special purpose, is likely to 
 omit. What a difference for example would there have 
 been if the passage just referred to in 2 John 10 had been 
 handed down to us by tradition, without the accompani- 
 ment, " For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of 
 " his evil deeds." That this same direct wickedness was 
 also the character of the teaching of Cerinthus we have 
 reason to believe from other sources, and in this aspect the 
 story may be usefully employed, as a living exemplifica- 
 tion of the possibility of uniting the deepest love and 
 gentleness with the sternest denunciation of moral evil. 
 But to use it simply and in itself as a warrant for refus- 
 ing intercourse with the teachers of erroneous opinions, 
 would be an assumption, which however true it may pos- 
 sibly be on other grounds, cannot be warranted by the 
 amount of testimony on which this particular story is 
 handed down to us. Polycarp may have reported it as we 
 now have it, but even in his mouth something may have 
 unconsciously altered according to the feeling ascribed to 
 him in the story of his dialogue with Marcion. Or again, 
 Polycarp may have heard and related it rightly, but how 
 
 usual, as to give to the visit in question the appearance of a providential occa- 
 sion for his uttering the anathema. This is certainly not the impression left 
 by the account in Ireuaeus, who speaks of it without any indication of 
 surprise. 
 
280 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 easily may the genuine tone and spirit of it have been lost 
 
 in its transmission through the Gaulish bishop, whose 
 
 whole heart was in the great polemical work of his life, 
 
 and who also maintains that he heard from St. John's 
 
 hearers that our Lord was above fifty years old. 
 
 The tradi- 3. The story of the calling of the Ephesian presbyters 
 
 composi- together for a common fast when they asked him to com- 
 
 Gospel! e P ose ^' ls G s P e lj an( i tnen suddenly as if by miracle 
 
 breaking out into the words, " In the beginning was 
 
 " the Word," rests on the authority of Jerome (De Vir. 
 
 111. 29.) It is of course itself perfectly conceivable, but 
 
 with the suspicion thrown upon it by the silence of 
 
 Irenseus f (Adv. Hser. iii. 1), who relates the general fact 
 
 of his being asked to compose a new Gospel, it ought 
 
 perhaps to be regarded as originating in a wish to give 
 
 a tangible shape to the solemn feeling with which the 
 
 opening words of the Gospel have always been regarded 
 
 in the Church. 
 
 The tradi- 4. The story, mentioned in the Sermon, of his last 
 
 tion of the , , ,-, , . ~, , . , , , 
 
 last words words to the Ephesian Church, again rests solely on the 
 ofStJohn. aut hority of Jerome (Comm. ad Gal. vi.), but its exact 
 agreement with the spirit and phraseology of the Epistles 
 of St. John, and we may add, its contrast with the severe 
 language so frequent in the author who records it, as well 
 as with the general spirit of later times, as embodied in 
 the wholly different account of St. John's last days, given 
 by Nicephoruss, sufficiently justifies the general credit 
 which it has received. 
 
 The tradi- 5. In the works of Cassianus the monk (A.D. 420), con- 
 Johnand' sisting of twenty-four Collationes or colloquies of different 
 
 the hunts- 
 man. 
 
 f The fact however of the fast is mentioned by the author of the ancient 
 Fragment on the Canon (probably of the end of the second century), preserved 
 by Muratori, and agrees with the practice in Acts xiv. 22; xiii. 2. See Routh, 
 Hell. iv. 16. 
 
 * Hist. Eccl. ii. 42. See Cave's Apostles, p. 151. 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 281 
 
 abbots, and prefixed to the works of John Damascenus, 
 occurs a story which considering the character of the work 
 in which it is found, ought hardly to be noticed amongst 
 the usual traditions of St. John, were it not that it occurs 
 in the regular account of his life in Fleury's Ecclesiastical 
 History (ii. 54), and that although wholly destitute of ex- 
 ternal testimony, it possesses a grace and tenderness, which 
 would be an argument in favour of its reception had it any 
 other support to rest upon. "It is said" (so the Abbot 
 Abraham is introduced as arguing on behalf of some relaxa- 
 tion of the usual austerities of the convent on the arrival of 
 new brethren), " it is said that the blessed Evangelist St. 
 " John, as he was gently stroking a partridge which he held 
 " in his hand, suddenly saw a huntsman approaching, who 
 " in astonishment at the sight of so illustrious a character 
 " descending to such trivial enjoyments, asked, ' Art thou 
 " that John, whose glorious renown had inspired even me 
 " with a wish to know thee ? why then occupy thyself with 
 " pleasures so humble ?' St. John replied, * What hast 
 "thou in thy hand?' <A bow/ was the answer. 'And 
 " why dost thou not always carry it bent?' 'Because/ 
 " replied the huntsman, ' it would then lose its strength, 
 " and when it was wanted to shoot at some wild animal, 
 " it would fail from too continuous straining.' ' Then, let 
 " not this brief and slight relaxation of my mind offend 
 " thee, young man/ answered St. John, ' without which 
 " the spirit would flag from over exertion, and not be able 
 " to respond to the call of duty when need required/" 
 A similar speech is ascribed to an Egyptian king by 
 Herodotus, and the metaphor is too obvious to need an 
 Apostle to enunciate it. Still, if it be, as it is perhaps 
 most safe to regard it, a pure invention, we may fairly 
 admire the dramatic propriety which has placed the scene 
 in the life of the one apostolical character which we most 
 naturally associate with all the gentler affections not less 
 
282 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 than with the more solemn devotions of the Gospel nar- 
 rative. 
 
 III. Such is the more general class of traditions with 
 which we are familiar ; another cycle less known, and less 
 easy of interpretation, are those which belong to St. John, 
 not so much as the Apostle of Love, but in that earlier 
 aspect, of which I have spoken in the Sermon, in which he 
 appears to us as one of the Apostles of the Circumcision. 
 The tradi- 1. The general picture of this side of his life is taken 
 Johns l fr m tne collection of stories which exist in Epiphanius' 
 tie? 6 "" work on heresies C 78 - 14< )> written about"A.D. 380. St. John, 
 as well as his brother James, are there described as sharing 
 the same mode of life as James the Just, who "lived a 
 " single life, on whose head the razor never came, who 
 " used neither bath nor oil, who ate no animal food, and 
 " wore no garments but linen." This account of James is 
 evidently taken from that of Hegesippus, to which refer- 
 ence will have to be made again in another connexion, 
 and from its mention here it would seem to be presented 
 to us as the type of a Jewish Apostle, according to which 
 the lives of the others were to be modelled. If therefore 
 there is any truth in the representation of it in St. James, 
 there is perhaps no sufficient cause for doubting it, at least 
 at some period of his life, in St. John, who as we know 
 from the Acts attended the temple services with Peter, and 
 was with Cephas and James one of the chief pillars of the 
 Church of Palestine, if we make allowance for the doubt 
 which must hang over parts of it, from their apparent con- 
 tradiction with 1 Cor. ix. 4, and Iren. Haer. iii. 3. And 
 when we recollect that even the Apostle of the Gentiles 
 conformed in all matters of indifference to the Jewish ritual, 
 much more according to the same rule similar conformity 
 would be expected from those who like St. John and St. 
 James were especially Apostles of the Circumcision. 
 
 2. In a fragment of Polycrates, who was bishop of 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 283 
 
 Ephesus in the close of the second century, amongst a The tradi- 
 catalogue of the remarkable saints whose bodies were p^ntifica^ 
 interred in Asia Minor, and thus gave to its Churches a diadem - 
 claim to be heard in the controversy concerning the time 
 of Easter, it is said, " And John too, he who reclined on 
 " the Lord's breast, who became a priest bearing the 
 " diadem (os eyevrjOrj iepevs, TO irera\ov Tre^ope/ca)^ which 
 " is somewhat inaccurately paraphrased by Jerome, pon- 
 " tifex ejus auream laminam in fronte portans), and martyr 
 " and teacher (/cat ftdprvs /cal Si.SdcrfcaXos), he too sleeps 
 " (/cetcotwrai) in Ephesus." (Eus. H. E. v. 24. Hieron. 
 De Vir. 111. c. xlv. 119.) That the 7rera\ov or plate here 
 alludes in some way to that borne on the forehead of the 
 Jewish high-priest (Ex. xxxviii. 36, 37) is evident, but 
 what Polycrates meant by saying that St. John wore it 
 must on any hypothesis be very doubtful. The same thing 
 is said of St. James the Just by Epiphanius (Hser. 39. 2. 
 4. 78. 2. 14), and of St. Mark in an anonymous MS. 
 (Passio S. Marci, quoted by Valesius, 169,% p. 155. c. 7), 
 and of the latter it is expressly said that he wore it as 
 being of the family of Levi, which statement is confirmed 
 to a certain extent by its coincidence with the inference 
 which may be drawn from the statement in Col. iv. 10, that 
 he was a relation of Barnabas, and in Acts iv. 36, that Bar- 
 nabas was a Levite. But if James the Just was the same as 
 James the brother of our Lord, and if there is any ground 
 for the very late tradition that John was a relation of our 
 Lord, they must have been of the tribe of Judah, and at 
 any rate it is safer to look for some further reason. 
 
 That James the Just was in the mind of the early Jewish 
 Christians invested with all the attributes of the Jewish high- 
 priest, is clear from the account in Hegesippus, and this 
 not by virtue of any Levitical descent nor of any outward 
 office which he held in the Christian society, but by reason 
 of his own intrinsic and extraordinary holiness of life. But 
 
284 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 the impossibility of understanding literally the words " to 
 " him alone it was lawful to enter into the holy place," (for 
 the Jewish high-priest must at any rate have entered also,) 
 would almost lead one to suppose that the words are to be 
 interpreted as a matter of fact exposition by the later his- 
 torians of what was really a strong figure by which the 
 Church of Jerusalem expressed its belief in the sanctity of 
 its head; in the same way as by a similar metaphor Symeon 
 the successor of James, and equally of the tribe of Judah, is 
 apparently called not only a priest, but also a Rechabite, 
 the latter expression being evidently derived not from any 
 literal descent from the Kenite tribe, but from the Naza- 
 rite austerities which he in common with James was sup- 
 posed to have exercised, and which in some important 
 points resembled that of the sons of Jehonadab h . And the 
 same may probably be said of the still later addition of the 
 wearing of the golden plate by Epiphanius. If then we 
 apply this to the statement of Polycrates respecting St. 
 John, perhaps the simplest explanation, and the one which 
 best agrees with the context of the "martyr" or "witness" 
 and " teacher," is that John as well as James was re- 
 garded as invested with the sanctity which was especially 
 indicated in the golden plate of the mitre, and which up 
 to that time had belonged only to the descendants of the 
 house of Aaron. 
 
 The statement of Epiphanius respecting St. James might 
 lead us to ascribe to this story a Palestine origin. But 
 if the mention of it by Polycrates points to an Asiatic 
 tradition, and we ask how an image so purely Jewish 
 could have presented itself to the mind of the Ephesian 
 Christians, the answer is perhaps to be found in the apo- 
 stolical writings peculiar to the period when St. John's 
 prominence was first beginning to be recognised. It is 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the First Epistle of St. 
 
 h See the Essay on the Traditions of St. James. 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 285 
 
 Peter, the Gospel of St. John, and the Apocalypse, that 
 we find for the first time distinct mention of the High 
 Priesthood of our Lord, and as involved in it 1 , of the 
 priesthood of all His true followers. Such a feeling may 
 well have regarded St. John as being in an especial manner 
 a representative and living witness of the truth which he 
 taught, and, whether sanctioned or not by any outward 
 practice of the Apostle himself, may have easily shaped 
 itself into the image of his wearing the golden plate. 
 Other circumstances also confirm the belief that it was a 
 figure of speech, and not an actual fact on which the story 
 was founded. (1.) The total absence of any such ornament 
 in any of the ecclesiastical usages of the four first centuries. 
 (See Bingham, Ant. ii. 7.) (2.) The fact that in Rev. ii. 
 17. such a figure is actually used to express the priestly or 
 the pontifical character with which every true Christian is 
 invested, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
 " the hidden manna," (i. e. an access to the manna hid- 
 den within the Holy of Holies, where none but the 
 high-priest could penetrate,) "and will give him a white 
 " stone," (i. e. the precious stone on the high-priest's 
 breast-plate, Ex. xxviii. 21,) " white and shining" (iii. 
 4), " and in the stone a new name written, which no 
 " man knoweth saving him that receiveth it," (i. e. the 
 stone on which was written the unutterable name of 
 God, and in the place of which is now written the new 
 name of Christ, iii. 12.) (See Ziillig's Excursus on Rev. 
 ii. 17.) (3.) The extreme facility with which such figures, 
 whether preserved in word or in pictures, pass into matter 
 of fact statements ; as, for example, in later times, of the 
 
 1 For a similar figure of speech, compare the address of Eusebius to the 
 clergy of Tyre, in an age when it was usual to invest them with priestly attri- 
 butes. " O friends and priests of God, who wear the holy robe which reaches 
 " to the feet, and the heavenly crown of glory, and the divine unction, and 
 " the priestly garb of the Holy Ghost." (Bus. H. E. x, 4. See Liicke i. 21.) 
 
286 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 support of a falling church by St. Francis of Assisi from the 
 dream of the Pope, as possibly, in the traditions of St. 
 John himself, the story of the cauldron of boiling oil from 
 some strong expression of the sufferings through which 
 he passed unhurt, as in the misinterpretation which has 
 actually been put on St. Paul's words, " I bear in my body 
 " the marks (TO, o-rlj^ara) of the Lord Jesus," as though 
 he had, like the devotees of later times, literally exhibited 
 in his person the marks of the Five Wounds of the Cruci- 
 fixion. Had this last expression been preserved to us not 
 in the words of the Apostle himself, but in the chance 
 record of a later tradition, it might have been as difficult 
 there, as it now is in the 6 jreraXov irefyopiicws of Poly- 
 crates, to distinguish between what is fact and what is 
 metaphor J. 
 
 Tradition 3. Lastly, it was a tradition preserved in Asia Minor, and 
 servation mentioned in the fragment just quoted from Poly crates, 
 Jewish that St. John had introduced the practice of celebrating 
 passover. Easter on the day of the Jewish passover irrespective of 
 the Christian Sunday. (Ens. H. E. v. 24.) This doubt- 
 less indicates a more decided regard to Jewish associations 
 than might naturally have been expected from the in- 
 tensely spiritual character of the Apostle's later writings. 
 But (not to speak of its coincidence with the traditions 
 just mentioned) there is nothing incredible in the suppo- 
 sition that when he left Jerusalem for Asia Minor, he 
 should still, with that reflective habit of mind which so 
 characterizes the narrative of his Gospel, have recurred 
 in thought and practice to the recollections of his earlier 
 years, however little we can imagine him to have sympa- 
 thized with the attempts of the succeeding generation to 
 invest them with the character of a Divine apostolical ordi- 
 nance. Nor is there in this tradition a more decided 
 
 J For the opinions on this whole question Lucke refers to Cotta De 
 lamine Pontificiali Apostolorum Joanni, Jacobi, et Marci, Tubing. 1754. 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 287 
 
 indication of attention to outward forms than in those 
 which ascribe to him the first formation of the system of 
 government, which afterwards spread through all the 
 Churches of Christendom. And it has been well re- 
 marked k that there is a natural fitness in the sanction of 
 these outward forms not by Peter from whom they might 
 have derived a more rigid fixity than was congenial to the 
 new and spiritual dispensation, nor by Paul, whose calling 
 was in a wholly opposite direction, but by John, whose 
 elevation (so to speak) above the peculiar usages of any 
 age or country, would afford a scope for giving to them 
 such support and favour as from either of the other great 
 Apostles would have been either misplaced or misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 IV. In conclusion we may observe that all the accounts Tradi- 
 of St. John's later life resolve themselves into a statement John's re- 
 of his residence at Ephesus and of his living to the close or *J d nce at 
 
 .kpnesus, 
 
 shortly beyond the close of the first century 1 . This state- and of his 
 
 i- i . . . i i i extreme 
 
 ment, implied as it is in every story which is preserved to old age. 
 us respecting St. John, and thus attested by so many inde- 
 pendent witnesses, and contradicted by none m , and with 
 no possible motive for its invention, stands on a different 
 ground from any one of the isolated traditions just quoted, 
 and unless all testimony subsequent to the first century is 
 to be rejected, must be regarded as an indisputable fact. 
 In the difficulty of reconstructing any clear or consistent 
 view of the latter part of the apostolical age, it is not to be 
 expected that much additional light can be gained even 
 from a statement so well authenticated as this. Still it 
 
 k Thiersch's Essay on the Criticism of the New Testament, p. 319. 
 
 1 Those traditions which relate to his persecution at Rome and his banish- 
 ment to Patmos are so closely connected with the interpretation of the open- 
 ing words of the Apocalypse, that it has been thought best altogether to post- 
 pone their consideration. 
 
 m The story of his preaching in Parthia seems to be a mere inference from 
 the superscription (itself a mistake) to the second Epistle, "ad Parthos." 
 
288 THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 
 
 may be worth while to remark that so far as it goes it 
 confirms the inferences which we should naturally deduce 
 from the apostolical writings themselves, and that, as a 
 testimony is in some degree borne to the traits of St. John 
 recorded in the New Testament by their coincidence with 
 those ascribed to him in some of the traditions just enume- 
 rated, so also this account of the close of his life is at least 
 not at variance with the most probable conclusions which 
 the history of the New Testament would itself suggest. 
 
 Thus, for example, whilst any early date for the removal 
 of St. John to Ephesus would have been contradicted by 
 Gal. ii. 5, as well as by the absence of allusion in the Epi- 
 stles of St. Paul, the alleged date of his removal and of the 
 subsequent position ascribed to him as head of the Asiatic 
 Churches agrees so far as it goes with the scattered notices 
 of those Churches contained in the several books of the 
 New Testament, especially with the importance attributed 
 to them in at least five of the Epistles of St. Paul, in the 
 Apocalypse, and in the First of St. Peter n . 
 
 And in like manner the alleged composition of the Gos- 
 pel and Epistles at Ephesus, and in extreme old age, is the 
 condition which would best suit the intimations furnished 
 by the books themselves, such as the distance from Pales- 
 
 n It is not necessary here to enquire into the truth of the late ecclesiastical 
 traditions which represent Timothy as continuing in the see of Ephesus till 
 his martyrdom in A.D. 97. This story would only contradict the more 
 authentic statement of St. John's residence at Ephesus on the hypothesis 
 ascribing to the Apostles that fixed official character, which in a previous 
 Essay has been represented as not belonging to them. Still any account, which 
 confirmed the natural inference from 2 Tim. iv. 21, that Timothy's resi- 
 dence at Ephesus expired even before St. Paul's death, would unquestionably 
 accord better with the absence of all allusions to Timothy in the traditions of 
 St. John. It should perhaps be stated that the Apostolical Constitutions (vii. 
 16.) assume a double succession, as at Antioch and Rome from Paul and 
 Peter, so at Ephesus through Timotheus and the presbyter John from Paul 
 and John. Such however does not appear to have been at all a general view, 
 and is almost equally difficult to reconcile with the common account of the 
 state of the Asiatic Churches in St. John's time. 
 
THE TRADITIONS RESPECTING ST. JOHN. 289 
 
 tine implied in the explanations of Jewish localities, cus- 
 toms, and words the late date indicated both by the gene- 
 ral tone of the Gospel and Epistles and also by particular 
 passages, as John xxi. 18, 28; 1 John ii. 14, and the 
 resemblance between some of the views opposed and those 
 which are attacked in the Epistles of St. Paul to the same 
 Churches. 
 
[The two following Sermons in point of time preceded 
 the Fourth, but from their subordinate character have been 
 here reserved as Supplements to the Second and Third.] 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO SERMON II. 
 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 JAMES i. 1. 
 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 IN beginning the series of discourses, in which SERM. 
 the present discourse 8 must be regarded as a di- 
 gression rather than a continuation, I stated that SERM< " 
 although the lives and teaching of the three great 
 Apostles comprise in themselves all that is of neces- 
 sary and eternal import in the apostolical age, yet 
 there were other subordinate influences and charac- 
 ters at work, which it would be necessary to con- 
 sider in order to the full understanding of the whole 
 subject before us. These may be shortly summed 
 up in the purely Jewish element of the Church of 
 Palestine, and the more mixed influences of the 
 Church of Alexandria. 
 
 To have treated of these points together with 
 the main subject of the whole, would have inter- 
 
 a Preached in the Vacation, on the Sunday before Christmas- 
 Day. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. fered with the order of the argument, and have 
 introduced extraneous topics where they would 
 ii. have been least needed. But I trust to be excused 
 if on separate occasions like the present, I venture 
 to call your attention to these important though 
 subordinate elements of the apostolic history, begin- 
 ning, as will be seen, not without some response 
 in the services of this day, with the chief represen- 
 tative of the purely Jewish Church, James the Just. 
 
 I. It is, I would hope, needless to employ your 
 time in reminding you that the subject of my pre- 
 sent discourse is distinct from the other James, 
 the son of Zebedee. Nor again need I enter on 
 the arguments for and against his identification 
 with James the son of Alphaeus. Whether he was 
 or was not the same, is of but little practical im- 
 portance in considering his history; it is obvious 
 that whatever was the influence which he exer- 
 cised 11 , or the authority which he maintained, it was 
 exercised and maintained not in his capacity as 
 James the Apostle, but in those relations in which 
 he is more naturally brought before us by the epi- 
 
 b Without entering into the details of a controversy which has 
 been decided in so many different ways, and which never perhaps 
 can be decided with certainty, it seems on the whole the most 
 probable truth that James was identical with the Apostle James, 
 the son of Alphaeus, and that the comparison has in great measure 
 arisen from the circumstance alluded to in the text, that the Apo- 
 stleship in his case, as in that of his brothers, was thrown into the 
 shade by his relationship to our Lord, and by his position as 
 bishop of Jerusalem. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 293 
 
 thets affixed to his name, as James the brother of SERM. 
 
 y^ 
 
 our Lord, James the head of the Church of Jeru- - 
 
 8UPP. TO 
 
 salem, James the Just ; in other words, from his SERM - lr - 
 natural connexion with his Divine kinsman after 
 the flesh, and from his peculiar position in regard 
 to his countrymen in Palestine, whether Jews or 
 Christians. 
 
 How great that influence and authority was we 
 now with difficulty conceive. No doubt if we look 
 at it from the more general point of view, whether 
 of the whole Jewish Christian world, or of the 
 whole Gentile Christian world, it sinks into nothing 
 before the majesty of Peter and of Paul. But place 
 ourselves within the circle of those purely Palestine 
 Christians who still frequented the services of the 
 Temple, and adhered to the usages of the syna- 
 gogue confine our view to the horizon of the 
 favoured land, which was the scene of the last ex- 
 piring struggle of Jewish national life, and we shall 
 find that to whatever quarter we turn for informa- 
 tion, James appears before us as the one authorita- 
 tive ruler, as the one undoubted representative of 
 the Christian society. If we open the cotemporary 
 Christian records of the Acts and Epistles, it is c to 
 his decision that the council of Jerusalem bows, to 
 him, as a pillar of the Church, taking precedence d 
 even of Cephas and John, that Paul communicates 
 the new revelation which had been entrusted to 
 
 c Acts xv. 13. 
 
 d Gal. ii. 9. James, and Cephas, and John, who seemed to be 
 pillars. Comp. Acts xxi. 18; xii. 17; Gal. i. 18; ii. 12. 
 
294 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. him. If we turn to the later traditions of the Jew- 
 
 v. 
 SUPP T0 ish Christians themselves, as preserved in the frag- 
 
 SERM. ii. men t- s o f Hegesippus or in the Clementine Recogni- 
 tions and Homilies, he appears hefore us as the one 
 mysterious bulwark of the chosen people, invested 
 with a priestly sanctity before which the pontificate 
 of Aaron fades into insignificance, as the one uni- 
 versal bishop of the Christian Church, in whose 
 dignity the loftiest claims of the ecclesiastical domi- 
 nion of later times find their earliest prototype 6 . If 
 we look to the impression produced on the mind of 
 the Jewish people itself, we find that he alone of all 
 the Apostles has obtained a place in their national 
 records, whether in the simple narrative of his 
 death by Josephus, or in the wilder version of the 
 miracles f of " Jacob of Secaniah," preserved to us 
 in the legends of the Talmud. Whatever sanctity 
 in short was attached to that little bands of brothers, 
 
 e See Essay on the Divisions of the Corinthian Church. 
 
 f See the quotations in Dr. Mill's Dissertation on the Brothers 
 of our Lord, p. 317. 
 
 8 It is an ingenious conjecture of Schneckenburger, that, assum- 
 ing the identity of James with the son of Alphaeus, we have then 
 the three "brothers of the Lord" holding the same place in the 
 apostolical body, and each marked by a surname indicative of 
 their Jewish sanctity James the Just, Simon the Zealot, Jude, 
 whom he asserts (in a reference to the ancient Latin version 
 which I have been unable to verify) to have been also called 
 Zelotes ; and to these he would then add with great plausibi- 
 lity, Joses the Just, who evidently after the Apostles themselves 
 (Acts i. 23 ; xv. 22) must have been one of the most eminent 
 of the disciples at Jerusalem. Comp. Mark vi. 3. with the cata- 
 logues of the Apostles. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 295 
 
 which in their domestic circles, their ancient Jewish SERM. 
 
 y 
 
 family life, their austere Rechabite or Nazarite cus- 
 
 toms, still kept up the recollection of the Son of SERM - " 
 David with whom the bonds of earthly relationship 
 connected them, whatever veneration was due to 
 him who in consequence of that connexion seemed 
 the natural head of the earliest organized Chris- 
 tian society, whatever awe was still inspired by the 
 sight of the stern righteousness of the ancient pro- 
 phets, of that "justice" which seems to have been 
 the peculiar distinction used to characterize those 
 who lived like Simeon and Zachariah " according to 
 " all the ordinances of the law blameless," all this 
 belonged to James of Jerusalem and him only. He 
 was emphatically the "Just;" his own personal 
 name h was superseded by it ; the predictions of the 
 " Just One" were regarded ass fulfilled in his per- 
 son 1 ; the people, we are told, vied with each other 
 to touch even the hem of his garment 15 ; after the 
 manner of Elijah 1 he was reported in the droughts 
 of Palestine to have stretched forth his hands to 
 heaven and called down rain ; and, like the ancient 
 saints m , even in outward aspect, with the austere 
 features, the linen ephod, the bare feet, the long 
 locks and unshorn beard of the Nazarite, he ga- 
 
 * Epiph. Ha*., 78. 14. 
 
 * " They fulfilled the prophecy which is written in Isaiah, Let 
 " us take away the Just." (Heges. ap. Eus. H. E. ii. 22.) 
 
 k Hieron. in Gal. i. 19. 
 
 1 Epiph. Hser., 78. 14, possibly founded on James v. 7, 17. 
 
 m Ibid. See for this the Essay on the Traditions of St. James. 
 
296 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 s E R M. thered round him the admiring populace to ask as 
 once before of one who had appeared in like man- 
 
 > 
 
 supp T0 
 
 ii. ner on t^ banks of the Jordan, " What is the gate 
 11 of salvation?" And in that striking scene, when 
 at the close of his n long life he is described as 
 standing on the front of the temple and bearing wit- 
 ness to the coming judgment of the Son of man in 
 the presence of the assembled multitudes who had 
 come up to worship at the Passover, it was with a 
 feeling of bitter disappointment that the Scribes 
 and Pharisees are represented as rushing upon him 
 with the cry, " Woe, Woe, the Just one also is de- 
 " ceived ;" and in his cruel death, the Jewish histo- 
 rian no less than the Christian martyrologist saw 
 the filling up of the cup of 'guilt which was to 
 hasten on the final catastrophe of the apostate 
 nation. 
 
 But as his sphere was limited, so also was his 
 pre-eminence ; with the destruction of the Church 
 of Palestine all that was peculiar in his posi- 
 tion was destroyed also. However great his in- 
 fluence over the immediate circle of his cotempo- 
 raries, it was based upon a transient feeling which 
 necessarily died away before the higher purposes of 
 the Christian faith. His lineage no doubt still won 
 for himself and his kinsmen the reverence of those 
 who thought p more of his outward connexion with 
 the Son of David, than of their own eternal com- 
 
 n See Essay on the Traditions of St. James. 
 
 So at least Origen and Eusebius read. 
 
 P See Essay on the Divisions of the Corinthians. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 297 
 
 munion with the Son of God : the austere Symeon, s E R M. 
 the son of Cleophas q , was still selected to succeed 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 him in his charge at Palestine ; the grandsons of SERM ~- " 
 his brother Jude were still remembered as descend- 
 ants of the house of David, in their humble 1 " occu- 
 pations amongst their native valleys ; his chair was 
 preserved as a relic till the fourth century 8 ; the 
 sepulchral pillar which marked the spot where he 
 fell 4 long remained to be seen in the dark valley of 
 Jehoshaphat, under the precipice from which he 
 was thrown. But these were merely local and tradi- 
 tional tributes to his memory. " Jerusalem was to 
 " be trodden down of the Gentiles ;" " Though we 
 " once knew Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth 
 11 we are to know Him so no more ;" and accord- 
 ingly there was far less in the career of St. James, 
 than in that of the three great Apostles, to involve 
 any eternal principle in God's government of the 
 world ; there has been no great revolution of action 
 or opinion of which his name has been the watch- 
 word ; with the details of his life, as preserved to 
 
 i Hegesippus apud Eus. H.E. iv. 22. Whether Symeon was the 
 brother or cousin of James is uncertain, but it seems evident that 
 it was as a member of the same sacred family that he was chosen 
 to be the second bishop of Jerusalem. And with this also would 
 agree the austerity of his Nazarite or Rechabite life, (Epiph., 78. 
 14). See Essay on the Traditions of St. John. 
 
 r See the story in Hegesippus, ap. Eus. H. E. iii. 20, which de- 
 scribes how they were brought before Domitian, and shewed their 
 hands hard with toil, to vindicate themselves from the charge of 
 aspiring after royalty. 
 
 s Eus. H.E. vii. 19. 
 
 * Heges. ap. Eus. ii. 22. 
 
298 THE EPISTLE OP ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. us in the fragmentary notices to which I have 
 ' supp ' To just referred, we have now no practical concern ; 
 ii. w hatever is of universal import in them is included 
 in the more comprehensive range of the character 
 of Peter ; of the rest Scripture is silent, and its in- 
 terest belongs rather to the historical student than 
 to the Christian preacher. 
 
 II. One aspect however of his character there is 
 which reads to us a valuable lesson, and which is 
 preserved to us for ever as the one authentic monu- 
 ment of him which we find in the New Testament. 
 It was not, we may believe, without an object that 
 the Divine Providence which so carefully excluded 
 from the sacred volume those harsher or more tem- 
 porary peculiarities on which the Palestine Jews 
 dwelt with exclusive pleasure, has admitted into it 
 the great Epistle, where the same general character 
 indeed appears before us, but refined and purified 
 from the earthly admixture by which the merely 
 human record of him is marred. 
 
 Let me then take this Epistle, as the true reflex of 
 all that it practically concerns us to know of James 
 the Just. It stands, as many of us doubtless are 
 aware, according to the oldest arrangement of the 
 New Testament, first u in order of all the apostolical 
 Epistles. And this position does in fact exactly 
 correspond to its character, both historically and 
 morally. Whether it be or be not the earliest in time, 
 which however there is much reason to believe, it is 
 
 u As in Lachrnann's arrangement, according to the Canons of 
 Laodicea. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 299 
 
 certainly the earliest in spirit. It belongs if not to SERM. 
 an age, at least to a mind, which knew nothing of ^ 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 the contest which shook the whole Christian society SERM - 
 to its very foundations in the time of St. Paul : not 
 only is the Gentile Christian completely out of 
 sight, but the distinction between Jew and Chris- 
 tian is itself not yet brought to view; both are 
 equally addressed in the Epistle as belonging to 
 the twelve tribes scattered abroad ; it passes at once 
 from rebuking the unbelieving Jews of the higher 
 orders x to console the believing Jews of the lower 
 orders ; the Christian 7 assembly is still spoken of 
 under the name of " synagogue ;" the whole scene in 
 short is that which appears before us in the earlier 
 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, and which I 
 have already described in the Sermon on St. Peter. 
 And as in these outward circumstances, so also in 
 its inward spirit, this Epistle exactly coincides with 
 the character of him in whom the Jew and the 
 Christian throughout his whole life were indistin- 
 guishably blended together. Christianity appears in 
 it not as a new dispensation, but as a development 
 and perfection of the old ; the Christian's highest 
 honour is not that he is a member of the universal 
 Church, but that he is the genuine type of the ancient 
 Israelite ; it instils no new principles of spiritual 
 life such as those 2 which were to " turn the world 
 " upside down" in the teaching of Paul or of John, 
 but only that pure and perfect morality which was 
 
 x See the transition from James v. 1 6, to v. 7, 8. 
 y See James ii. 2. z Acts xvii. 6. 
 
300 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. the true fulfilment of the law : it dwells not on the 
 
 y 
 
 TUPP "TO" numan Teacher and Friend, whose outward acts 
 ii. anc [ W0 rds are recorded minutely in St. Mark, or on 
 the human Sufferer, whose sorrows and whose ten- 
 derness are brought out in St. Luke, nor yet on the 
 inward and essential Divinity impressed upon us by 
 St. John ; but, as we might again expect from the 
 position of its author, it is the practical comment a 
 on that Gospel which internal evidence as well as 
 general tradition ascribes to the Church of Pales- 
 tine, and in which our Lord appears emphatically as 
 the Judge, the Law-giver, and the King. 
 
 1 . It is however not merely the general character 
 of the Epistle which accords with what we know of 
 the position of St. James. Its particular time and 
 circumstances equally imply that there was a mis- 
 sion which its author felt that he was peculiarly 
 
 a Compare especially James i. 23 ; Matt. vii. 24 : James ii. 27; 
 Matt. xxv. 35 : James ii. 26 ; iii. 2 ; Matt. xii. 36, 37 : James 
 ii. 1 ; Matt, xxiii. 8 : James iv. 3 ; Matt. vii. 7 : James v. 12 ; 
 Matt. v. 34. In connexion with this internal resemblance of the 
 Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistle of St. James, it is worth 
 while to mention the links of external tradition. Not to speak of 
 the ascetic life ascribed to both of them as saints of the Juda?o- 
 Christian Church, (see Essay on the Traditions of St. James,) or 
 of the possible tie of relationship between them if Alphaeus the 
 father of Matthew were, as has been sometimes conjectured, iden- 
 tical with the father or relation of James himself it is a remark- 
 able coincidence to find a statement in the works of Athanasius, 
 (torn. ii. p. 102, quoted in Kirchhofer's work on the Canon, p. 
 202, and Thiersch's Essay on the Criticism of the New Testament, 
 p. 221,) that the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew was translated 
 into Greek by James the bishop of Jerusalem. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 301 
 
 sent to perform. It was indeed a moment when, if SERM. 
 ever, the spirit of the ancient prophets might seem ~ p ~ - 
 
 to have revived. It was, we must remember, ' the be- SERM - " 
 ginning of the end.' However early the date of this 
 Epistle, it could not have been before the first mani- 
 festations of that terrible catastrophe, whose com- 
 pletion is portended to us in the Christian Scriptures 
 by the Apocalypse, as its commencement is by the 
 Epistle now before us. This is nqt the place to trace 
 the resemblances and contrasts between these books, 
 in most respects so widely different. Yet it is not 
 without interest to observe that as the Apocalypse 
 and the Epistle of St. James represent to us by far 
 the most exclusively Jewish phase of thought and 
 language, although in wholly opposite aspects, which 
 the New Testament has preserved to us, so they 
 preserve to us the two predominant forms of the 
 ancient prophecies ; if it is impossible to overlook 
 the likeness of Ezekiel and Daniel which is repro- 
 duced in the seer of Patmos, so it is equally impos- 
 sible to overlook the likeness of the moral teaching 
 of Amos and Jeremiah, which reappears in the pro- 
 phet at Jerusalem. It is not on the banks of some 
 great Eastern river, nor on the desert shore of a 
 sea-girt island, that St. James takes his stand. It 
 is in the streets of the holy city, it may be even 
 within the courts of the Temple itself, where 
 popular belief imagined him to kneel by day 
 and night interceding for his people's sins, that 
 we must conceive this last representative of those 
 ancient preachers of righteousness, like them, if 
 
SUPP. TO 
 
 302 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. we may so far again trust the traditionary picture, 
 like them even in outward garb and form and man- 
 " ner, such as had indeed been seen recently in the 
 forests of the Jordan, but which probably had not 
 beenb beheld within the walls of the capital for at 
 least four hundred years. But though Jerusalem 
 was his chosen home, his view again, like that of 
 the older prophets, extended to the utmost confines 
 of the Jewish race. Dispersed as they already were 
 in all lands, from the Euphrates to the Tiber, the 
 bond of nationality still remained unbroken ; to 
 every true Israelite the name, the fortunes, the 
 sufferings of an Israelite, wherever he might be, had 
 an enduring interest, and therefore it is but natural 
 to find that it is not his own immediate charge at 
 Jerusalem alone, but " the twelve tribes scattered 
 " abroad," who are addressed by the warning voice 
 of this last watchman from the gates of Zion, not in 
 the native accents of his own Hebrew tongue, but 
 in the more universal language which the Macedo- 
 nian conquests had made the vehicle of communi- 
 cation throughout the Eastern world. 
 
 2. It was probably some immediate practical occa- 
 sion, from which this address took its rise. I have 
 said that, early as it might be, the troubles of the 
 last period of Jewish history were already beginning, 
 and it might seem, as it has been well expressed 
 by a modern historian, ' as if the skirts of that 
 
 b This also distinguishes him from the Essenes, whose customs 
 have otherwise much resemblance both to the details of his life as 
 recorded by Hegesippus and to some parts of his Epistle. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 303 
 
 tremendous tempest which was slowly gathering SERM. 
 over the native country and metropolis of the gi)pp ' To 
 devoted people first broke and discharged their SERM - " 
 heavy clouds of ruin and desolation one by one 
 over each of their remoter settlements .' Such 
 amongst others was the train of calamities which, 
 about the probable date of this Epistle, fell upon 
 that vast Jewish population which still dwelt in 
 the plains of Babylonia, and which, unlike their 
 brethren of Alexandria, still looked to the tem- 
 ple of Jerusalem as the centre of their faith, and 
 still regularly sent their contributions for its sup- 
 port. It was, we may suppose, to console and 
 sustain these, or such as these, of his countrymen, 
 that St. James wrote, just as his predecessors had 
 in like manner striven to revive the sinking spirits 
 of the different portions of their nation or its kindred 
 tribes as one by one they fell before the advance of 
 the Chaldean invasion. " Count it all joy when ye fall 
 " into divers temptations," " Let patience have her 
 " perfect work/' " Blessed is the man that endureth 
 " temptation," " The coming of the Lord draweth 
 " nigh/' " The Judge is standing before the door d ;" 
 these and similar exhortations are the "burden" of 
 
 c Milman, Hist, of the Jews, ii. 185. For the suggestion of 
 this (A.D. 42) as the probable occasion of this Epistle, as well as 
 for much else respecting its general character, I am indebted to 
 Chevalier Bunsen. 
 
 d James i. 2, 4, 12 ; v. 8, 9. This last passage evidently alludes 
 to the eastern practice of the judge taking his stand before the 
 gates of the city. 
 
304 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. the Epistle, which the twelve tribes received from 
 
 8UPP T0 the metropolis of their race. 
 
 [ - But we know too well that now no less than for- 
 merly it was not consolation alone, but instruction 
 and rebuke which they needed from any true ex- 
 pounder of God's will towards them. The Gospel 
 narrative and the history of Josephus alike inform 
 us of the deep moral depravity which had eaten into 
 the heart of the national character, and which, far 
 more than any outward cause of war or pestilence, 
 was hastening on their final doom. And therefore 
 we may well understand how St. James was called 
 to fulfil the mission, if I may so say, rather of a 
 Christian Baptist than of a Christian Apostle or 
 Evangelist, to make them believe in Moses, before 
 he could make them believe in Christ. 
 
 He knew that with the mass of his readers forms 
 were everything and morality nothing ; that he was 
 addressing a nation which " strained at gnats and 
 " swallowed camels;" which "cleansed the outside of 
 " the cup and platter, but within was full of extortion 
 " and excess;" which "made its boast in the law, 
 " and yet through breaking the law was a dishonour 
 " of God e ." And therefore in the true spirit of that 
 Divine discourse in St. Matthew's Gospel, which is 
 the true model of his whole teaching, he asserted f 
 the depth and unity of the moral law, that " who- 
 " soever shall offend in one point, he is guilty of 
 " all ;" that " he who has shewed no mercy shall have 
 
 e Matt, xxiii. 24, 26 ; Rom. ii. 23. 
 
 f James i. 8 1 1 . Comp. Matt. v. passim. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 305 
 
 " judgment without mercy ;" that the " pure and un- s E RM. 
 " defiled" service 8 of God is not to use many ablu- '- 
 
 * SUPP. TO 
 
 tions and eat with unwashen hands, but to perform 8ERM - 
 those acts of purity and beneficence which were so 
 beautifully shewn forth in the society over which he 
 presided in Palestine, in the Church of Barnabas 
 and Dorcas, and of those who had all things in 
 common, "to visit the fatherless and widows in 
 11 their affliction, and to keep unspotted from the 
 " world." 
 
 He knew well the fatalism which threw the guilt 
 of its crimes upon an overruling Providence, and 
 the fanaticism which under the name of "faith" 
 made zeal for God the pretext of the most atro- 
 
 s Qprjo-Kcia KaQapos *ai dfiiavTos, James i. 27. "The outward 
 " service of ancient religion, the rites, ceremonies, and ceremonial 
 " vestments of the old law had morality for their substance. They 
 " were the letter of which morality was the spirit, the enigma of 
 " which morality was the meaning. But morality itself is the 
 " service and ceremonial (cultus exterior) (Sprja-Kcia) of the Chris- 
 " tian religion. The scheme of grace and truth that 'became* 
 " through Jesus Christ the faith that looks down into the law of 
 " liberty, has light for its garment its very robe is righteousness." 
 (Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, Aph. 23.) 
 
 This is no doubt the true meaning of the passage, obscured in 
 our version by the obsolete sense of " religion," which at the time 
 of the translation was generally used for a " monastic order." For 
 the general sense comp. Matt. xxv. 34; xv. 10. Ablutions, as 
 they had been part of the ancient ceremonial, so, as is well known, 
 were observed with excessive and rigid punctiliousness, not only 
 by the Pharisees, but also by the Ebionitish section of the Chris- 
 tian society. See Epiph. Hser. 30. 2. 15. 21. 'Ai/a*ce0. p. 140; 
 Clem. Horn. xi. 26. 1 ; x. 1, but especially xi. 28, where there is 
 almost a verbal contrast with this passage, TO idiov rf)s 
 eVrt TO 
 

 306 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. cious wickedness, and desperately trusted in the 
 ^- privilege of being God's chosen people as the cloak 
 ii. f or every sin, the charm against every danger. And 
 therefore he taught that "no man could be tempted 
 " of God," and that "the wrath of man worketh 
 " not the righteousness of God ;" that the trust 
 and faith in God which now bore that name with 
 them was something wholly different from that 
 trust which had caused their ancestors to be en- 
 rolled amongst the "just," and which, whether in 
 their own first father Abraham, or the one divinely 
 sanctioned type of Gentile excellence in Rahab, was 
 no wild and licentious fanaticism, but the simple 
 performance of acts of self-denial and love, such as 
 now were despised and hated h . 
 
 He knew the hollowness and falsehood which 
 pervaded all their social intercourse, the casuistry 
 which distinguished between the formal oath and 
 the simple affirmation 1 , and between the oath by 
 the temple, and the oath by the gold of the temple ; 
 which cared much for the honour of teaching, and 
 being called Rabbi, Rabbi k , and cared nothing for 
 its duty and reality. And therefore with an em- 
 phasis which would be startling did we not remem- 
 ber how in the Gospel which is his model we are 
 told that "by our words we are justified and by our 
 " words we are condemned," how in the very society 
 of which he was the head, a single falsehood was 
 punished with immediate death 1 he insists on the 
 
 11 James i. 13, 20; ii. 14 26. * Matt. v. 33; xxiii. 16. 
 
 k Matt, xxiii. 7. l Matt. xii. 37 ; Acts v. 1. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 307 
 
 control of the tongue, and the right use of conver- SERM. 
 sation, as one of the heaviest of all responsibilities, ^77"^ 
 the most solemn of all religious duties. " Be not SERMt " 
 " many masters," "If any offend not in word he is 
 " a perfect man," " Above all, swear not at all m ;" 
 such are the traces of the teaching of his Divine 
 master, preserved almost verbally in this Epistle ; 
 whilst in the injunctions " Is any afflicted, let him 
 " pray; Is any merry", let him sing psalms," we see 
 exactly the same spirit of blending together the com- 
 mon acts and words of daily life with the heavenly 
 and the spiritual, as was exhibited in outward form 
 for the first time in that primitive Church at Jeru- 
 salem , of which we read that its members, " break - 
 " ing the bread," (for so surely we must understand 
 the sacred narrative,) "breaking the bread" of the 
 Holy Communion "from house to house," did there, 
 in the common intercourse of family life, "eat their 
 " food with gladness and singleness of heart." 
 
 Lastly, he was addressing a body of readers, not 
 like the Greek communities of St. Paul's Churches, 
 thinly settled in an impoverished country, and 
 therefore with no strong demarcation of ranks ex- 
 cept that of the free citizens and household slaves, 
 but vast masses of a great nation, even in this its 
 last decline, exhibiting traces both of its ancient 
 wealth, and of that activity and facility in the acqui- 
 sition of wealth which have so fatally distinguished 
 it in more recent times, -inhabiting both in Pales- 
 
 m James i. 26 ; iii. 1 ; Gal. v. 12. n James v. 13. 
 
 Acts ii. 46, 
 
 x2 
 
308 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. tine p and out of it, some of the most thickly peo- 
 ~ upp * T0 pled regions to be found in the then known world, 
 SERM. ii. an( j impressed w ith the same broad distinction be- 
 tween rich and poor, which had so strongly marked 
 it in the flourishing ages of the Jewish monarchy. 
 Such was the state of things, with the haughty 
 aristocratical insolence engendered by it amongst 
 the higher classes, to which Isaiah and Jeremiah q 
 had addressed themselves of old, which had not 
 escaped the rebukes of Him who declared r " woe on 
 l( those who devoured widows' houses" which the 
 early Church of Jerusalem had endeavoured at once 
 to check and to remedy by its commons property and 
 its frequent contributions for the wants of the poor 
 in Judsea, and against which now for the last time 
 was lifted up the warning voice of James the Just. 
 
 He saw the oppression which trampled on the 
 poor, and the meanness which truckled to the rich, 
 although* amongst the poor were " the heirs of the 
 " kingdom which God hath promised to them that 
 " love Him," and amongst the rich were those who 
 
 P Such as Babylonia (Milman, ii. 186) and Galilee, (ii. 262; 
 Joseph. Vit. 145 ; B. J. ii. Ill, 112.) 
 
 q See Isa. v. 8 ; Jer. v. 5. r Matt, xxiii. 14. 
 
 8 Acts ii. 45; iv. 34; Gal. ii. 12; Acts xi. 30; xxiv. 17; 
 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. viii. 4 ; Rom. xv. 27. 
 
 t James ii. 1 9. The " poor men," (ol Trrw^ot) was in fact almost 
 the recognised appellation of the Christians of Palestine, whether 
 from the real poverty of their circumstances, (comp. Acts ii. 45 ; 
 iv. 34,) or from the stress which they laid upon it as a voluntary 
 virtue. See Rom. xv. 26 ; Gal. ii. 10 ; and compare the later name 
 of Ebionite, originating from this very circumstance, (Neander, 
 Hist, of Church, ii. 10.) 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 309 
 
 " blasphemed the worthy name by which Christ's SERM. 
 " people were called." He heard the cry of the ' supp ' T0 
 labourers 11 , who were defrauded of their hire, on the 8ERM - " 
 one side, and he heard on the other the sound of 
 feasting and wantonness", and the words of careless 
 luxury and selfishness which said, even under the 
 shadow of impending destruction, " To-day or to- 
 :e morrow we will go into such a city and continue 
 " there, and buy and sell and get gain." He saw and 
 heard all this, and his spirit burned within him, and 
 breaking through all the forms of the apostolic Epi- 
 stle, once alone in the pages of the New Testament 
 we hear the terrific denunciation of the ancient pro- 
 phet, delivered with all the impassioned 7 energy of 
 an Amos or a Joel, " Go to, ye rich men, weep and 
 " howl for the miseries that shall come upon you," 
 and then, as if its work was over, dying gradually 
 away into the softer Christian strain, which bids even 
 the oppressed and suffering poor take comfort in 
 the surer consolation that " the Lord was at hand 2 ," 
 and to turn to the records of the older dispensation, 
 not only for awful warnings against their enemies, 
 but for the more enduring instruction which they 
 hold out in " examples of suffering, affliction, and 
 " patience." 
 
 3. Such is the peculiar character of the Epistle 
 of St. James. Standing as it does in the foreground 
 of the apostolical Epistles, it is to them what in the 
 Gospel narrative the teaching of the Baptist is to 
 
 u James v. 4. x James v. 5 ; iv. 13. 
 
 y James v. 1. z James v. 7 11. 
 
310 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. the teaching of Christ. Its voice indeed is the voice 
 
 y 
 
 of the new dispensation, but its outward form and 
 ii. figure belongs almost entirely to the older. It is 
 the lake which lies midway on the mountain-side; it 
 has received the torrents which have descended 
 through a thousand channels from the ancient 
 heights above, but it is not yet divided into the 
 mighty waters which are to fertilize the world 
 below. It is the outline which is to be filled up, 
 the foundation which is to be built upon, the mate- 
 rials which are to be worked, by the hands of the 
 later Apostles. It is not opposed to the teaching 
 of St. Paul and St. John, but it is St. Paul and St. 
 John on a lower stage ; like St. Paul, he opposes a 
 religion of ceremonies, but he opposes it not by the 
 assertion of faith, but of morality 8 ; like St. John, 
 he speaks of love, but it is as the royal law b , not as 
 the divine life of man. 
 
 Still less is it c , as some have imagined, a cor- 
 
 a James ii. 15. b James ii. 8. 
 
 c For the whole view here and in the earlier part of the Sermon 
 taken of the relation of the statement of St. James to that of St. 
 Paul, see Neander's Hist, of the Planting of Christianity, p. 295 ; 
 Schneckenburger's Commentary on St. James, app. 2 ; Thiersch's 
 Essay on the Criticism of the New Testament Writings, p. 257 
 269; Archdeacon Hare's Victory of Faith, p. 32. It is there 
 maintained with the same arguments as are used here, that the 
 faith spoken of in James ii. 15 is a perversion not of Christian but 
 of Jewish faith, corresponding in modern times not to the Evan- 
 gelical perversion of grace, but to the ecclesiastical perversion of 
 creeds. This false faith or fanaticism, being identical with that 
 described in Matt, xxiii. 15, Rom. ii. 17 29, shewed itself in 
 two forms, (1.) a desperate trust in their privileges as the people 
 
THE EPISTLE OP ST. JAMES. 311 
 
 rection of St. Paul. It would surely be against the SERM. 
 whole order of progress so manifest in the revela- supp r m o 
 tion of Christianity, if we could suppose that the SERM - " 
 
 of God, like the Mahometan belief that death in battle for the 
 faithful is a passport to heaven. Compare for earlier instances 
 Jer. vii. 4; 2 Mace. xii. 43 45; Eccl. vii. 4, and for its worst and 
 latest excess, the fatalism described in James i. 13 ; Jos. Ant. xiii. 
 5. 9, and the last days of the final siege of Jerusalem ; (2.) a trust 
 in their orthodox belief in the unity of God, James ii. 19. Comp'. 
 Rom. ii. 17; Justin, c. Tryph. 378; Clem. Horn. iii. 3. 7; xiii. 
 4 ; xii. 23. 
 
 Of course the great objection to this view, which to many per- 
 haps will appear insuperable, is the apparently designed antithesis 
 between the expressions of St. James and those of St. Paul. But, 
 if we can suppose that the words "faith," "works," "justifica- 
 " tion/' were, as is most probable, not invented by St. Paul, but 
 taken by him from the ordinary Jewish phraseology, and invested 
 with a higher Christian meaning, as the parallel case of Xoyos and 
 TrX^pw/bia in the writings of St. John, the difficulty would be greatly 
 diminished. The selection of Abraham and Rahab is sufficiently 
 accounted for by the reason given in p. 306, not to mention that 
 the only Pauline passage in which they both occur is contained in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, and there not in juxtaposition, and in 
 no connexion whatever with the contrast of faith and works. 
 
 After all, the practical difference between this and the com- 
 mon explanation is not so great as would at first sight appear. 
 On the one hand, even if we suppose that St. James had in view 
 the phraseology of St. Paul or St. Paul's followers, we are still 
 compelled by the context to conclude that the example of its per- 
 version which he attacks was to be found in the barren faith of 
 the Jew : on the other hand, if we adopt the interpretation fol- 
 lowed in the text, and thus avoid even the appearance of a colli- 
 sion between the two Apostles, we may still from the pointed con- 
 trast of their expressions derive the lesson which seems thus to 
 have been as it were providentially brought before us, and remem- 
 ber that, as I have endeavoured to shew further on, there is still 
 a sense in which the teaching of St. James may at times be used 
 as a useful supplement to that of St. Paul. 
 
312 THE EPISTLE OP ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. more perfect statement of Christian truth in St. 
 7 Paul should be intended to receive its completion 
 
 SERM. ii. f rom the i ess perfect statement in St. James, and, 
 even if this were possible, it would be precluded by 
 the very nature of the circumstances under which 
 the Epistle was written. So far from its readers 
 being likely to have fallen into an exaggerated zeal 
 for St. Paul's assertion that " a man is justified by 
 " faith without the deeds of the law," it is probable 
 that they had either never heard of it at all, or if 
 they had would have rejected it with scorn ; and at 
 any rate to have warned them against an exces- 
 sive or licentious use of it would have been like 
 insisting on the dangers of knowledge to a man 
 who has not learned to read, or on the dangers of 
 liberty to one who has spent his life in slavery. 
 It was, as we have seen, a far different teaching 
 which they needed and which he gave ; it was not 
 an abuse of Christian faith, but of Jewish faith, 
 against which they had to be warned ; it was not 
 the Apostle's teaching of " faith in the blood of 
 " Jesus Christ," but the Pharisee's teaching of 
 faith " that there is one God;" not the wild extra- 
 vagance which said, " Let us continue in sin that 
 " grace may abound," but the stiff formalism, which 
 rested satisfied in its correct belief. His was a teach- 
 ing as a preparation for St. Paul and St. John most 
 valuable, but no more tending to contradict or super- 
 sede them, than the sober warnings of this morn- 
 ing's service can be said to contradict or supersede 
 the glad tidings which await us on Christmas Day. 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 313 
 
 4. Such is the Epistle which stands before us at SERM. 
 
 y 
 
 the opening of the Canon, such the legacy which the ' 
 
 Jewish Church of the first age has been allowed by 8ERM - " 
 God's Providence to bequeath to after times. It 
 may be that there are those amongst us who in- 
 wardly complain that it neither soars to the heights 
 of divinity, nor descends to the depths of our com- 
 mon humanity, who in the impatient spirit of 
 the earlier d though not the later years of Luther, 
 would fain declare that, compared with the writings 
 of Paul and John, it is an Epistle of straw. Yet, 
 unless we would wilfully run counter alike to the 
 reverence of ages and to the soundest laws of sacred 
 criticism, we cannot tear it from its place in the 
 Word of God; there it stands, to warn or to in- 
 struct us, if only we will ask ourselves what lessons 
 it was intended to teach us. 
 
 Even if no deeper and more general principle 
 were involved, it would be important to remark the 
 peculiar energy with which it enforces particular 
 precepts, which we are all of us perhaps inclined 
 too much to overlook. It is not without its use to 
 have a proof that the ordinary rules of familiar in- 
 tercourse, of words, of conversations, which we are 
 accustomed to treat as the mere play and surface 
 of life, were not thought beneath the notice of the 
 earliest address to the Christian Church. It may be 
 instructive to see that those national and social 
 
 d For the true account of this, as of so many of the other mis- 
 representations of Luther's words, see the Note W in Archdeacon 
 Hare's Mission of the Comforter. 
 
314 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. duties, which we are inclined to leave as the undis- 
 gupp xo turbed province of worldly politicians, or at least 
 ii. to confine to the older Scriptures, have not been 
 thought too secular for a prominent place in the 
 New Testament ; and, if the severe denunciations 
 against the higher orders of society which this 
 Epistle contains have been often quoted by wild 
 and lawless fanatics, this makes it not the less, but 
 the more important to remember that there has 
 been a time, when we must acknowledge them to 
 have been the words of truth and soberness, spoken 
 not by a fierce revolutionist, nor yet by a prophet 
 of the Hebrew nation, but by " James, the servant 
 " <jf God and of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 But it is in the more general impression left by 
 the whole Epistle that its chief instruction consists. 
 Undoubtedly its one pervading characteristic is that 
 its end and object is entirely moral, that the same 
 energy of language, the same authoritative tone, 
 which in other parts of the New Testament are 
 used to inculcate what we strictly call religious 
 truths, or to excite what we strictly call religious 
 feelings, are here used to insist upon those plain 
 matters of right and wrong, of vice and virtue, 
 which strictly speaking we hardly call religious at 
 all. It is indeed not to be forgotten that this Epi- 
 stle is one only out of many. St. James himself, 
 even if we identify him with the Apostle of that 
 name, was yet not one of the Three, whose position 
 commands" an universal interest, and his teaching 
 must in like manner be regarded as subordinate to 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMKS. 315 
 
 theirs. But still the mere fact that it has been SERM. 
 admitted at all within the range of apostolical doc- 8UPP .' T0 ~ 
 trine is an indisputable proof that there are times SERM ' "' 
 and circumstances when the simple inculcation of a 
 high and pure morality is not only not incompatible 
 with Christian teaching, but the best and only mode 
 of imparting it. 
 
 St. James, as I have said, may be looked upon 
 either as, the earliest of the Apostles, or as the 
 latest of the prophets. He may be looked upon as 
 the especial teacher of those who like the Chris- 
 tian converts amongst his readers are on the very 
 beginning of their new life, and in this aspect 
 how great an example to those who are or have 
 been concerned with the first formation of Christian 
 Churches ! How much might have been spared of 
 useless toil and disappointed zeal on one hand, how 
 much of unchristian superstition and unchristian 
 practices on the other hand, if the first missiona- 
 ries whether of our own forefathers of the German 
 forests, or of heathen populations in later times, had 
 always remembered that " repentance towards God" 
 must precede " faith in Jesus Christ," that in the 
 order of the Divine dispensations the moral teaching 
 of St. James must go before, or at least accompany, 
 the religious teaching of St. Paul and St. John ! 
 Or again, he may be regarded as the especial 
 teacher of those who, like his own Jewish country- 
 men, have fallen step by step into the degenerate 
 formalism of the last stages of a corrupted faith. 
 And here again, although we need not fear to find 
 
316 THE EPISTLE OP ST. JAMES. 
 
 SERM. any exact parallel amongst Christian nations to the 
 * ast state f t^t Degraded race, yet undoubtedly 
 
 j s t oo p OSS ible for men to come in the last days 
 even of the Christian religion who shall have the 
 form of godliness without the power, who shall 
 speak much of the doctrines of Christianity, and 
 care nothing for its duties ; who shall trust, like the 
 Jews of St. James's time, that oppression, and self- 
 ishness, and careless luxury, may be fully compen- 
 sated by the inviolable sanctity of their descent, by 
 their strict adherence to the letter of the ceremonial 
 law, by their correct belief in the creed of their 
 forefathers. And doubtless wherever such a state 
 of things be found, wherever the faith in Christ 
 which was preached by Paul has sunk into a dead 
 and formal belief, as in the last age of the Jewish 
 nation was the case with the faith in God, which 
 had been preached by Moses, there is indeed a 
 sense in which St. James may come in to correct the 
 teaching of St. Paul, as he came in before to correct 
 the teaching of Moses. I need not repeat what I 
 said in the Sermon on St. Paul of the words which 
 he used to assert the great principle of spiritual life 
 and freedom ; I need not repeat how those words 
 became after the lapse of centuries the symbol of a 
 reviving world, how important it is for each one 
 of us to remember that they are not the text of a 
 worn out controversy, but the very life and soul of 
 our inmost being. But still if ever there has been 
 or may be a time when they shall come to be used 
 as a mere technical formula or party watchword, 
 
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 317 
 
 then we may feel thankful to that good Providence SERM. 
 which has secured us against this very perversion - 
 
 11 J r 8UPP. TO 
 
 by the counter statement which is always at hand SERM - 
 to check it in the words of the Epistle which tells 
 us that " a man is justified by works, and not by 
 " faith only." St. Paul has always furnished the 
 rule and standard of our theological confessions, 
 but the exceptions may well be expressed in the 
 language not less inspired, though less frequent, of 
 St. James. 
 
 But it is not only to large masses of men, or in 
 particular epochs of the world, that this Epistle has 
 its use. How often are we obliged to acknowledge 
 the great usefulness of books, which are yet without 
 the tone and feeling which we generally expect from 
 religious men ! how often have we heard of persons, 
 who, having been by circumstances separated from 
 the religious world, with hardly ever a religious ex- 
 pression on their lips, have yet been so earnestly 
 employed in works of honesty, or justice, or bene- 
 volence, that we cannot but think of them as having 
 been engaged in the service of God ! It is in con- 
 templating such cases as these that the Epistle of 
 St. James may be most useful, both as a warning 
 and an encouragement. It teaches us not to con- 
 demn at once those whose life and teaching is 
 formed on the model which God has been pleased 
 to set before us in the life and teaching of St. James. 
 It may not be the highest excellence, any more than 
 the Epistle of St. James is the most important part 
 of the New Testament ; but at the same time it is 
 
318 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES, 
 
 SERM. not on that account to be put under the ban of the 
 v 
 ^J Christian world, any more than this Epistle was 
 
 ii. rejected from the Sacred Canon. It is not the end, 
 but it is the beginning. It is not Christmas, but it 
 is Advent. It is not the teaching of any of the three 
 great Apostles of the whole Christian world, but it 
 is the teaching of the chief pillar of the Church of 
 Palestine. It is the ground of an honest and good 
 conscience which every Christian rite and every 
 Christian truth implies ; it is, if rightly and wisely 
 dealt with, no mere superstructure of " hay, straw, 
 " and stubble," which the fiery trial will sweep 
 away, but the very house which He who is the true 
 foundation has Himself declared to be built by 
 " whosoever both heareth His sayings and doeth 
 "them 6 ; and the rains descend, and the floods 
 " come, and the winds blow and beat upon that 
 " house, and it falls not, for it was founded upon 
 " a roc/c." 
 
 e Matt. vii. 24, 25. 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF ST. JAMES THE JUST, AS 
 NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 
 
 THE account of the martyrdom of St. James the Just, 
 which has been so frequently referred to in the previous 
 pages, is found in one of those remarkable fragments which 
 have been preserved to us by Eusebius, from the lost work 
 of Hegesippus, a Christian of Hebrew origin, (as Eusebius 
 conjectures, H. E. iv. 22,) who wrote in the reign of the 
 Antonines and lived at Rome between the years A.D. 
 157176. (Hier. Vir. 111. 22.) Of the history, of which 
 nothing remains but the following narrative, (with the ex- 
 ception of a very few and comparatively insignificant frag- 
 ments,) we know nothing beyond the information derived 
 from Eusebius, (H. E. iv. 8,) viz., that it consisted of five 
 books, and professed to give an account of the preach- 
 ing of the Apostles that its style also, as we can our- 
 selves judge from what remains to us, was extremely sim- 
 pl e? an d that it contained passages or words in the 
 Hebrew language, a fact of some importance in determin- 
 ing the meaning of some of the chief obscurities in the 
 existing fragments, and thus confirming what would appear 
 likely on other grounds a , that the present narrative has not 
 come down to us in its original state. 
 
 Such is the conclusion also at which we should naturally arrive from the 
 variations in the account as we find it in Epiphanius, (Haer. 78. 14,) who 
 though he' does not profess like Eusebius to give the words of Hegesippus's 
 narrative, has evidently used it as his groundwork. 
 
320 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 Two other early accounts remain of the same event; 
 one the very brief description of it in Josephus, (Ant. 
 xx. 9. 1,) which even if in part interpolated was already 
 in the copies of Josephus seen by Origen, (Com. on 
 Matt. p. 234,) the other in the Clementine Recognitions, 
 (i. 70,) which describe a scene at Jerusalem evidently 
 based on this, but with the difference that James, after 
 being thrown from the " steps of the temple," is not killed, 
 as it was at first thought, but returns to life, a variation 
 possibly suggested by the necessity of the story of that 
 work, which required that James should outlive Peter. 
 
 Between these two must be placed the narrative of 
 Hegesippus, less authentic than the cotemporary account 
 of the Jewish historian, but certainly more so than the 
 Clementine romance. It is not my intention to go through 
 the various arguments which have pointed out the atmos- 
 phere of fable in which even this the earliest merely 
 human record of apostolic times has been enveloped. The 
 contradictions of the narrative, the direct verbal imita- 
 tions of Scripture, the contrast of its extravagances and 
 exaggerations with the calm majesty of the Canonical Epi- 
 stle, are sufficiently evident. It will be enough to indicate 
 the fragments of truth which it contains more perhaps 
 than have been allowed by some of the more severe critics 
 of recent times and there is at any rate an interest in the 
 subject, and even in the abruptness and simplicity of the 
 style, which may fairly invite us to consider, however cur- 
 sorily, this last detailed account of the Church of Palestine, 
 this earliest specimen of Christian martyrology. 
 
 "The b charge of the Church was undertaken with the 
 " Apostles by James, the brother of our Lord, who is 
 " called by the name of * Just' by all from the Lord's time 
 
 b The passage may be read either in Eus. H. E. ii. 23, or together with all 
 the fragments of Hegesippus, and the convenient apparatus of annotations 
 collected in Routh's Relliquiae Sacrse, vol. i. p. 182 255. 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPOS. 321 
 
 " till our own, for there were many of the name of James. 
 " Now he was holy from his mother's womb ; he drank no 
 " wine or strong drink ; he eat no animal food ; no razor 
 " ever went upon his head ; he anointed not himself with 
 " oil, and used not the bath ; to him only was it lawful to 
 " enter into the holy place, for he wore no wool, but only 
 " linen ; and he only was wont to enter the Temple, and 
 " he used to be found lying on his knees, and entreating 
 " forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard 
 " like a camePs, from his always kneeling in prayer to 
 " God, and entreating forgiveness for the people. On ac- 
 " count therefore of the excess of his righteousness (Suceuo- 
 " avvrjv) he was called the " Just," and " Oblias," which is 
 " in Greek ' bulwark of the people,' and ( righteousness,' as 
 " the prophets testify concerning him. Some then of the 
 " seven sects amongst the people, who are described by me 
 " in my history, asked him * What is the gate of Jesus ? ' 
 " and he said that He was the Saviour, from which some 
 " believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the aforesaid 
 sects did not believe, either in the resurrection or in 
 " one who should come to award to every man according 
 " to his deeds, but all who did believe, believed through 
 " James. When many therefore even of the rulers were 
 " believing, there was an alarm amongst the Jews, and 
 " Scribes, and Pharisees, saying, ' The whole people is in 
 " danger of falling into the expectation of Jesus as the 
 " Christ.' They came therefore to James, and said, ' We 
 " beseech thee, restrain the people, for it has gone astray 
 " after Jesus, as though He were the Christ ; we beseech 
 " thee to persuade all that come to the passover concern- 
 " ing Jesus, for to thee we all give heed, for we and the 
 " whole nation bear witness to thee that thou art just and 
 " 'receivest not the person of men.' Do thou therefore per- 
 " suade the multitude not to be deceived concerning Jesus, 
 " for the whole people and all men give heed to thee. 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 " Stand therefore on the pinnacle of the Temple, that thou 
 " mayest be visible from above, and that all thy words may 
 " be well heard by all the people, for on account of the 
 (t passover all the tribes with the Gentiles also have come 
 " together.' The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees therefore 
 " placed James on the pinnacle of the Temple, and cried to 
 " him and said, ( O Just one, to whom we all ought to give 
 " heed, inasmuch as the people is gone astray after Jesus 
 " who is crucified, tell us what is the gate of Jesus?' And 
 " he answered with a loud voice, ' Why ask ye me con- 
 " cerning Jesus the Son of Man? He sits in heaven on the 
 " right hand of the mighty power, and He also is about to 
 " come in the clouds of heaven.' And many being con- 
 ft vinced, and glorifying [Jesus] on the testimony of James, 
 " and saying, ' Hosanna to the Son of David ;' then again 
 (( the same Scribes and Pharisees said amongst themselves, 
 " ' We have done ill in furnishing so great a testimony to 
 " Jesus, let us go and cast him down, that they may be 
 " struck with fear and so not believe on him/ And they 
 t( cried, saying, ' Oh ! oh ! the Just one too is gone astray.' 
 " And they fulfilled the prophecy written in Isaiah, ' Let 
 " us take away the Just, for he is troublesome to us, there- 
 " fore shall they eat the fruit of their deeds.' They went 
 " up then and threw down the Just one, and said, e Let us 
 " stone James the Just,' and they began to stone him. For 
 " he had not been killed by the fall, but turning round 
 " knelt and said, ' I beseech Thee, Lord God, and Father, 
 " forgive them, for they know not what they do.' But whilst 
 " they were thus stoning him, one of the priests of the sons 
 e( of B/echab the sons of Rachabim, who are mentioned by 
 " the prophet Jeremiah, cried, saying, ' Stop, what do ye ? 
 " the Just one prays for you ;' and one of them, one of the 
 " fullers, took the club with which he used to press the 
 " clothes, and struck it on the head of the Just one. And 
 " so he bore witness, (epapTvprja-e,) and they buried him on 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 823 
 
 " the place by the Temple, and the pillar still remains on 
 " the spot by the Temple. He has been a true witness both 
 " to Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ. And im- 
 " mediately Vespasian besieged them." 
 
 1. It will be seen that in the opening of this passage a Position of 
 distinction is drawn by Hegesippus between James and f n t- Jjf 68 
 the Apostles generally, whether we interpret iiera "with" Church of 
 
 Jerusa- 
 
 or " after. On that intricate question, for the reasons lem. 
 above stated, it is unnecessary here to enter: whether he 
 was or was not identical with the son of Alphseus, it is 
 obvious that both in the New Testament and the earliest 
 ecclesiastical writers, he is described as holding a different 
 position from the apostolic body generally, with which this 
 statement of Hegesippus is therefore so far in exact accord- 
 ance. It may however be worth while to observe, both in 
 itself and as an indication of the general antiquity of the nar- 
 rative, that he is nowhere in it called by the name of eW- 
 O-KOTTOS, and that the pre-eminence assigned to him, as to the 
 Apostles of the New Testament generally, is evidently attri- 
 buted to his sanctity of life, rather than to any official dig- 
 nity. At the same time we can well understand how in the 
 Church of Palestine, where the existing organization of the 
 synagogue would naturally invite such an arrangement, he 
 should both here and in the Acts and Epistles be described 
 as occupying a position far more resembling that of the 
 later bishop than we can venture to ascribe to the minis- 
 trations of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John ; and we may 
 therefore, in spite of the slight anachronism and inaccu- 
 racy involved in it, be justified in designating him by the 
 well-known title of " Bishop of Jerusalem," which a few 
 generations later was usually accorded to him, and which 
 Hegesippus himself unequivocally gives to his successor 
 Simeon, at whose death it expired, never again, or at 
 
 Y2 
 
324 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 least not for many centuries, to be revived in its original 
 form. 
 
 His auste- 2. It is the account of the austerities of James which 
 has provoked the chief suspicions of the authenticity of the 
 whole narrative, on the ground of the numerous inconsis- 
 tencies with Jewish usages in the very character which is 
 held up as a model of Jewish sanctity. It is certainly impos- 
 sible to reconcile the literal meaning of the priestly practices 
 ascribed to him in any degree with historical probability; 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews is of itself evidence, if evidence 
 were wanting, of the utter impossibility of such a violation 
 of Jewish feeling as that any private individual not of the 
 house of Levi could enter into the Holy of Holies, much 
 less that he should be the only one who should be so privi- 
 leged d . Still even in this, as I have endeavoured to shew in 
 the Essay on the Traditions of St. John, there may have been 
 a foundation of truth, in the sentiment which invested him 
 with a priestly sanctity, not of office but of character, and 
 of which the hyperbolical expression has by the later his- 
 torian been taken for reality of fact. Such is evidently the 
 feeling in the Clementine Recognitions, (i. 68,) which sets 
 his living influence as it were in rivalry with the dead 
 formalism of Caiaphas, not altogether without its counter- 
 part in the solemn character with which prophet and king 
 were invested in earlier times, amidst the first indications of 
 the decline of the high-priest's power. In like manner in 
 the other details, amidst great exaggeration of particular 
 circumstances, elements of truth may be discovered which 
 it seems fastidious to reject altogether. We may regard the 
 " kneeling till his knees were hard as the knees of camels," 
 
 c When the Christians returned from Pella, their Church was called by the 
 name of the new city of uElia, and hy the time that the sacred appellation of 
 Jerusalem was again restored to it, the ancient title of "bishop" had been 
 exchanged for that of "patriarch," still retained by the Greek occupant of 
 the see. 
 
 & Comp. also the strong feeling expressed in Jos. Ant. xv. 11. 5. 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 325 
 
 as an Oriental hyperbole, and his "constant prayers in the 
 " Temple," as a striking contrast to the attention to social 
 duties inculcated in his Epistle ; but still the general fact 
 is in accordance with the practice of Anna, " who departed 
 " not from the Temple, serving God with prayers and fast- 
 " ing night and day," (Luke ii. 37 ;) of Peter and John, 
 who went up to the temple services, (Acts iii. 1,) and of 
 the disciples at Jerusalem generally, who immediately 
 after the ascension were " continually ($LairdvTos) in the 
 " temple," "continuing daily with one accord in the 
 " temple, blessing and praising God." (Luke xxiv. 53 ; 
 Acts ii. 46.) And as the life and teaching of James re- 
 calls to us that of the ancient prophets, so also this resi- 
 dence (if one may so call it) within the precincts of the 
 Temple is well illustrated by the practice of Jeremiah and 
 the prophets cotemporary with him, who are described not 
 only as teaching in the Temple courts, (Jer. xxvi. 2 ; xxxvi. 
 10, 20,) but as actually living in its chambers or cells. (Jer. 
 xxvi. 7 ; xxxv. 2 4.) So also his asceticism is for the 
 most part strictly Jewish. The abstinence from wine and 
 strong drink, and the long hair, is what might be expected if 
 he were of the order of Nazarites, (Numb. vi. 1 6,) a fact 
 which is expressly asserted of him in the corresponding pas- 
 sage of Epiphanius, (Haer. 78. 14,) and is apparently im- 
 plied in the expression of Hegesippus, "holy from his 
 " mother's womb." That such vows, whether perpetual or 
 for a time, were common at this time amongst the devout 
 Jews, appears not only from the case of the Baptist, who in 
 many respects occupied a position so similar to that of James, 
 and of whose life almost precisely similar expressions are 
 used, (Luke ii. 15,) but also from the general practice as 
 implied in the account of the Nazarites, whose vow was un- 
 dertaken to be discharged by Herod, (Joseph. Ant. xix. 6. 1,) 
 and by St. Paul, (Acts xxi. 26,) the latter at the instigation 
 of James himself; not to mention the Rechabites, who are 
 
326 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 mentioned further on in this very narrative. Whether there- 
 fore, as Neander has conjectured, James as the eldest son 
 might have been devoted to this order like Samuel, Sam- 
 son, and the Baptist, from his birth, or whether he entered 
 upon it after he became known, it would equally accord 
 both with his general character and with the details here 
 given. The other traits are more questionable. But the 
 abstinence from the luxury of oil is a custom of the Essenes, 
 the account of whose life in other respects so much reminds 
 us of St. James, (see Joseph. B. J. viii. 2, 3,) and the absti- 
 nence from animal food, though it would hardly have been 
 practised literally by any Jew who partook of the paschal 
 lamb, yet in some sense must have been the practice of 
 the weaker brethren, i. e., of the Jewish Christians who are 
 described in the Epistle to the Romans (xiv. 2) as eating 
 only herbs. This may indeed have been practised only 
 with the view of avoiding the danger to which they were 
 constantly exposed in heathen countries, possibly even in 
 Palestine itself, of buying in the shambles the remains of 
 idol sacrifices ; but it is easy to see how it might thus be- 
 come part of the regular type of a devout Jew, and thus be 
 fairly represented as the practice not only of James, but of 
 the Jewish Apostles generally, of Peter, (Clem. Rec. xii. 
 6; Horn. xii. 6; xiv. 1,) of the sons of Zebedee, (Epiph. 
 Hser. 78. 14,) and of Matthew, (Clem. Paid. ii. 1.) So 
 again the linen garments agree with the practice of ascetic 
 Jews, so amply illustrated by commentators on Mark xiv. 51, 
 (where the young man with " the linen garment" has been 
 sometimes identified, perhaps however from this passage, 
 with James himself,) and would accord with the semi- 
 sacerdotal character ascribed to him. The abstinence from 
 the bath, unless taken simply as a general expression for 
 an ascetic life, is the point most difficult to reconcile, not 
 only with the general practice of ablutions in Oriental 
 nations, hallowed as it was amongst the Jews by the ex- 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 327 
 
 press command of the Law, but also with the great stress 
 laid on it by the Essenes (Jos. B. J. viii. 2. 7. 10) and 
 Ebionites, (Epiph. Haer. 30. 2. 21.) Possibly however the 
 contrast of the alleged practice of St. James with that of 
 the last-mentioned sect, may furnish us with a reason, if 
 not for believing it to be historical, at least for the inser- 
 tion of it by his biographers amidst other customs so in- 
 disputably Jewish. According to the statement of Epi- 
 phanius, the use or disuse of ablutions was the recog- 
 nised mark of distinction between the Ebionite sect and 
 the Catholic Church, and thus whilst he ascribes to this 
 motive the perpetual purifications and washings attri- 
 buted to St. Peter in the Clementines, (Hser. 30. 15, 21,) 
 he regards the well-known story of St. John's visit to the 
 bath where he encountered Cerinthus (or, as it is there re- 
 presented, Ebion) as a solitary and almost miraculous ex- 
 ception to the Apostle's usual rule, providentially brought 
 about for the purpose of disclaiming intercourse with the 
 heresiarch. (Haer. 30. 25.) If such a feeling existed in 
 the apostolic age, then the alleged practice of St. James 
 might fairly be taken as an outward representation of the 
 same inward truth, which, as has been observed in the 
 Sermon, is strongly brought out in his Epistle, (i. 21.) If 
 on the other hand it was only the growth of later times, 
 it would at least be important as indicating a distinction 
 which has been sometimes denied between the Ebionites 
 and Hegesippus himself. 
 
 One circumstance further deserves to be mentioned 
 in this narrative, though perhaps it is merely accidental, 
 namely, the omission of the celibacy of St. James, so 
 strongly insisted upon by Epiphanius 6 (Hser. 78. 14) and 
 later writers. It is possible of course that in this as in 
 
 e Another trait added by Epiphanius is his walking barefoot. For this 
 compare Jos. B. J. ii. 15. 
 
328 THE TRADITIONS OP JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 other points his life may have resembled that portion 
 of ascetic Jews which as we learn from Josephus (Ant. ii. 
 8. 2) abstained from marriage, or that there had already 
 begun in the Palestine Church that high admiration for 
 the single state which soon overspread the whole Church. 
 But if so, it is a fact extremely difficult to reconcile with 
 the implication of the Apostle Paul, not merely that the 
 " brethren of the Lord and Cephas" were married, but 
 that they were held up as apostolical examples on that very 
 account, (1 Cor. ix. 4.) That Jude, the brother of James, 
 was so we know from the appearance of his grandchildren 
 in the reign of Domitian, (Eus. H. E. iii. 20;) and, 
 although the expression need not of itself include all the 
 brothers, yet, when we remember that they were only 
 four in number, one could hardly expect that it should 
 have excluded exactly the one who was most eminent and 
 most likely to be selected as the type of the whole family. 
 And therefore the discrepancy of Hegesippus with later 
 writers is so far worthy of notice, as it brings his statement 
 into nearer conformity with the most authentic declaration 
 which we possess on the subject. 
 
 The 3. The next point to be observed in the narrative is 
 
 St. James. tne statement of the names of James. This is one of 
 the passages which makes it probable that we have here 
 a Greek translation of a sentence, originally Hebrew or 
 Syriac. " He was called Just (Alicaios) and Oblias, which 
 " is in Greek bulwark of the people and justice," ($(,- 
 /caioauwrj,) where it is obvious that the sense requires in 
 the first clause of the statement a Hebrew word for "Just," 
 such as " Zadok," which would then, as in the correspond- 
 ing phrase of Obliam, be translated in the next clause by 
 its counterpart in Greek. However this may be, the 
 sense is clear that St. James was known by two names, 
 " The Just," and " Oblias," or in the Hebrew form 
 " Obliam." 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. -329 
 
 With regard to the first of these, it would seem from 
 this narrative, as well as from the express statement of 
 Epiphanius, (Hser. 78. 14,) that it had in common par- 
 lance superseded his original name. " He was called so," 
 says Hegesippus, " to distinguish him from the many 
 " other individuals of the name of Jacob or James," and no 
 less than five times in the story he is not called "James 
 " the Just," but simply " The Just," Whether it might be 
 the Greek Al/couos, the Latin "Justus," (as in Acts xviii. 
 7,) or the Hebrew " Zadok," as in the well-known name 
 of the high-priest of Solomon, and the alleged founder of 
 the Sadducees, it was, as has been stated in the Sermon, 
 the word especially used in this last period of the Jewish 
 nation to express " those who kept the ordinances of the 
 " law blameless." Thus Simon " the Just," the high-priest 
 on whose character Jewish tradition dwelt with peculiar 
 attachment, (see Ecclus. i. 50,) and whose death, like that 
 of James himself, was regarded as the commencement of 
 the disasters under the Syro-Grecian kings. (Milman's 
 Hist, of Jews, ii. 32.) So Zacharias and Elizabeth were 
 both "righteous," (the same word, SUaios, Luke r. 6,) 
 and Simeon "just," (Luke ii. 25;) so Joseph who was 
 surnamed "Justus," (Acts i. 23.) Hence probably the 
 true origin of the name of " Sadducee," assumed as a 
 name of honour by themselves as the real observers of 
 the Law in opposition to their rivals the Pharisees. 
 Hence also the appropriateness of its peculiar use in St. 
 Paul, as vindicating for it the higher spiritual meaning 
 which was properly attached to it, and which was endan- 
 gered by the more outward and ceremonial signification 
 with which this Jewish usage had invested it. (Comp. 
 especially Phil. iii. 6, 9.) 
 
 The other name, " Obliam," though of more obscure 
 origin, is still not difficult to decypher, especially with the 
 explanation given of it by Hegesippus himself, which at 
 
330 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 once leads us to the true etymology &V ^'V f , the "ophel" 
 or " fortress of the people," a name the more appropriate, 
 from its likeness in signification, as has been before ob- 
 served, to the surname of the other great Jewish Apostle 
 " Cephas," and to the image of the "pillar" of the Church, 
 so emphatically given by St. Paul to James himself; the 
 word " ophel" being used for a tower or fortress generally, 
 as in Isa. xxxii. 14; Micah iv. 8; 2 Kings v. 24; but more 
 especially for the eastern projection or ascent (in Latin 
 " clivus") of mount Moriah, (2 Chron. xxvii. 3; xxxiii. 14; 
 Neh. iii. 27 ; xi. 21 ; Jos. B. J. vi. 6. 3,) which would thus 
 tend to familiarize the expression to the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem. Compare too in earlier times the name Reho- 
 boam, (enlarger of the people,) Jeroboam, (multiplier of 
 the people,) in all cases perhaps names of the attributes of 
 God transferred to men. Comp. Ex. xxxii. 24. A similar 
 compound seems to have existed at the same time in the 
 word "Bala-am," (&3> jA?,) "Destroyer of the people," 
 sometimes in its Hebrew, sometimes in its Greek form, 
 (Nicolaus,) applied to the false teachers of this period, 
 (2 Pet. ii. 13; Jude 11 ; Rev. ii. 6.) See Hengstenberg's 
 History of Balaam, pp. 22, 23, and Ewald on Rev. ii. 6. g 
 
 f See Neander's Hist, of the Planting of the Christian Church, p. 291. 
 
 * As this interpretation of the word Nicolaitans, first suggested 1 believe by 
 Vitringa, has been alluded to more than once, it niay be as well to answer 
 briefly the arguments which have been brought against it. 1. The common 
 story of their origin from the Nicolas of Acts vi. 5, is one of very gradual 
 growth, (see Neander's Hist of Church, ii. 116,) and may well have arisen, 
 like that of the confessedly imaginary Ebion, from a misunderstanding of the 
 word. 2. The passage in Rev. ii. 15, " So hast thou also them that hold the 
 " doctrine of the Nicolaitans," which from the ambiguity of the English trans- 
 lation has sometimes been supposed to draw a distinction between the teach- 
 ing of the Nicolaitans, and the teaching of Balaam, mentioned in the pre- 
 ceding verse, is in fact a strong argument in favour of their identity, being 
 the natural close of the charge just brought against the Church of Per- 
 gamus in spite of its general excellence. "Thus it is, that even thou, 
 " pure as thou art, hast still those who hold this hateful teaching," the Greek 
 being here substituted for the Hebrew word, as so often elsewhere in the 
 Apocalypse, for the sake of greater emphasis. 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 331 
 
 4. In the account of the death of James, as well as that The 
 of his mode of life, there are many points which awaken 
 considerable suspicion, both in detail and in the romantic 
 air of the whole transaction, and critics have naturally 
 pointed out the strong resemblance of the story itself to 
 that of Prexaspes in Herodotus, and of the speeches of 
 James and of the Jews to those in the Gospels and the 
 Acts. Still there is enough of general probability in the 
 whole, and we may add enough of difficulty in some of 
 the details, to warrant us in supposing that we can dis- 
 cover in this earliest scene of ecclesiastical history some 
 authentic ground-work of the story of the martyrdom of 
 James. The great influence implied in the words "all 
 " who believed believed through the means of James," 
 partakes indeed of the general tone of exaggeration which 
 runs through the language of the Palestine Christians 
 respecting him, as though he had been a greater even 
 than the Apostles ; and the whole description of the plot 
 against him is disfigured by contradictory and inconceivable 
 statements. But in the union of Pharisee and Sadducee 
 once again against the Christian preacher we recognise 
 the same union which had taken place against his Divine 
 Master; and especially in the prominence given as it were 
 unconsciously to the Sadducees, (for although the Phari- 
 sees alone are mentioned, it is obvious from the opinions 
 especially alluded to that the Sadducees were the moving 
 power,) we have an unintentional coincidence both with 
 the active part taken by them in the first persecutions of 
 the disciples, under the first Annas, (Acts iv. 1, 6,) and 
 with the express testimony of Josephus that it was under 
 the rule of the second Annas b , also a Sadducee, that 
 James was put to death. Nor is there any thing more 
 
 h That the persecution of Annas was directed against Christians, whether 
 the clause about James himself is received or rejected, is well argued in 
 Milman's Hist, of Christianity, vol. i. p. 441. 
 
332 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 tumultuary in the stoning of James by the Jewish popu- 
 lace than had already taken place in the case of Stephen, 
 especially when we reflect how much further the dissolu- 
 tion of the nation had advanced since that time, and that 
 here again we learn from the account of Josephus that 
 Annas had taken advantage of the temporary interval 
 between the two Roman governors to perpetrate the 
 crime. 
 
 So also in descending to particulars there is nothing 
 that is absolutely incredible, though much that needs ex- 
 planation. The question "What is the gate of Jesus?" 
 cannot be understood without supposing that the origi- 
 nal sentence has been in some way altered in reaching 
 its present form, and perhaps no more probable interpre- 
 tation can be given than that suggested by Mosheim, that 
 as before the Greek word St/caios had been substituted for 
 the Hebrew Zadok, so here the Hebrew word " Jeshua," 
 (ny-185^) <( salvation," has been preserved in the proper name 
 " Jesus," when it ought to have been translated by the 
 Greek word o-wrripla 1 , and that the question, so natural to 
 the falling nation, would then be " What is the door or 
 " way of salvation?" exactly analogous to the questions 
 put to John the Baptist and our Lord, " What shall we do 
 " then ?" " What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" " What 
 " shall we do that we may work the works of God?" A 
 similar explanation seems in part to apply to the obscure 
 passage relating to " the priest of the sons of Eechab the 
 " son of Rechabim," for here again it would seem as if the 
 Hebrew plural "Rechabim" had been retained, when in 
 fact it had been already translated in the expression the 
 
 This is more obvious in the first passage where the question occurs, 
 irvv9dvovTO avrov rls f) Qvpa. TOV 'iTjcroD, Kal H\fyf TOVTOV flvai rl>v 2wnjpa, 
 where it would almost seem as if the Greek and Hebrew words had changed 
 places. ' They asked, " What was the gate of salvation," (ffcar-npias,) and he 
 said " that it was Jesus," 
 
AS NAERATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 833 
 
 " sons of Rechab." What could be meant by introducing 
 on the scene a priest who was also a Rechabite, and there- 
 fore not only not of Levitical, but not even of Jewish 
 descent, is not so easy to explain, but the key to the diffi- 
 culty, as has been already suggested, seems to be contained 
 in the parallel passage of Epiphanius, (Haer. 78. 14,) where 
 he ascribes the words of the Rechabite to Symeon, and, 
 if so, whether we understand by Symeon, the brother or 
 cousin of James, it is natural to suppose that, he, like his 
 kinsman, was classed amongst the order of Nazarites, and 
 so regarded as having at once a priestly sanctity though 
 not after the ceremonial law, and as being identical in spirit 
 with the Rechabites of Jeremiah, though not lineally 
 descended from them. The scene of the event, though 
 strange, has more to attract than to repel belief. If we 
 imagine the people-* assembled in the front court of the 
 Temple, and James standing on some elevated terrace or 
 battlement k to address them, nothing can be more natural 
 than that the priests in their indignation should drag him 
 to the verge of the precipice of Mount Moriah, on which 
 the Temple stood, and, in their fear of polluting the sacred 
 precincts with blood, cast him down from thence into the 
 gorge beneath, and that on or near the spot where he so 
 fell, not within the walls, (as has been sometimes errone- 
 
 J It is worth while to observe the constant use of "the people," (6 \dos,) 
 for the chosen people, as in the New Testament every where, and not as far 
 as appears in later writers; so also " all the tribes." (iraacu at </>u\ai.) Corap. 
 James i. 1. 
 
 k The word rrrcpvyiov and its Latin translation (pinnaculum), as applied to 
 a building, is elsewhere used only in Dan. ii 26, (LXX) ; Tertull. adv. 
 Jud. 8) ; and in the accounts of the Temptation, Matt. iv. 5; Luke iv. 9 ; 
 from which it was probably borrowed here : and it would be enough for the 
 general truth of the narrative to suppose any of the elevations in or about the 
 Temple buildings; "at the top of the steps," (pro summis gradibus,) is the 
 spot given in the Clementine Recognitions, (i. 70.) But even if it were the 
 irrfp-uyiov itself, the word seems to mean not so much "pinnacle" as " front," 
 (fastigium,) and the royal cloister which formed part of the great front is also 
 expressly said to have overhung the steepest part of the precipice. (Jos. Ant. 
 xv. 11. 5.) See Schleusner in voce irrepvyiov. 
 
334 THE TRADITIONS OF JAMES THE JUST, 
 
 ously inferred from this passage,) but amongst the rocks of 
 the valley of Jehoshaphat, to this day so thickly set with 
 sepulchres, the very "street of tombs" to Jerusalem, the 
 memorial of his death should have been erected, and there 
 remembered and preserved till the time of Hadrian. The 
 cavern still shewn as " the Tomb of St. James" derives 
 its 1 traditional name not from being supposed to be his 
 sepulchre, but from a legend of his concealing himself 
 there, and it is curious that amidst the many localities at 
 Jerusalem which profess to be connected with Apostolical 
 times, there is none which lays any claim to connexion with 
 this almost the only local tradition which can be traced 
 as far back as the second century. The undoubted tombs 
 however amongst which it is situated, and which are im- 
 mediately opposite the Temple, illustrate the possibility of 
 what is here suggested, whether or not we agree with a 
 recent suggestion, that the monument which bears the 
 name of Zacharias refers to the son of Baruch m , who in 
 the Jewish war was thrown over the walls of the Temple 
 into the valley beneath, in a manner reminding us of the 
 death of James himself. 
 
 The date of the death of James is fixed by the account 
 of Josephus to A.D. 63; and that it happened some years 
 before the siege of Jerusalem is the natural inference from 
 Heb. xiii. 7. Nor in fact is there any reason for pressing 
 the words of Hegesippus to mean that the siege followed 
 upon it in the very next year ; it is evident that here, as in 
 
 1 Robinson's Palestine, i. 518; Jerome (De Vir. 111. 4.) seems to have 
 known of this tradition and disbelieved it. It may be observed that if the 
 spring En-rogel (interpreted in the Targum to mean the spring of the 
 fullers) is the same as the fountain of Siloam which is usually identified 
 with it, or according to Robinson, that at a little greater distance, the well of 
 Job or Joab, it would agree with the circumstance that the slayer was els rcov 
 yv0.<$>4<av y "one of the fullers," as if speaking of a class of men either well- 
 known or likely to be close at hand. 
 
 m Joseph. B. J. iv. 5. See Williams' Holy City, i. 173, (2nd edition.) 
 
AS NARRATED BY HEGESIPPUS. 335 
 
 the alleged passage of Josephus quoted by Origen, Comm. 
 in Matt. 324 ; Eus. H. E. ii. 22, the whole stress is laid on 
 the fact that the calamities of the city were a judgment for 
 the death of the Just one ; whether a few years sooner or 
 later, could be of no great moment either to the Jewish or 
 the Christian historian of the event, 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO SERMON III. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 HEB. i. 1, 2. 
 
 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time 
 past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last 
 days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath made the 
 heir of all things. 
 
 WHEN first I opened this course of Sermons SERM. 
 
 VI 
 
 on the chief characters of the Apostolical age, it "T^T^T 
 was also my hope to describe on such a occasions as SERM - '" 
 would not interfere with the more general argu- 
 ment, the subordinate influences which, though of 
 less moment than those that are involved in the 
 characters of the three great Apostles, are yet neces- 
 sary to complete the full picture ; namely, the purely 
 Jewish element of the Church of Palestine, and the 
 mixed element of the Hellenistic Jews ; closing it 
 may possibly be at some future time with the great 
 catastrophe which cut short the influence of both in 
 the capture of Jerusalem by Titus. Of these the 
 first was discussed at the end of last Advent, in an 
 a Preached on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
SUPP. TO 
 SERM. Ill 
 
 838 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. analysis of the character and Epistle of St. James, 
 and now I trust that I may be allowed on this day, 
 so especially connected with the name of St. Paul, 
 to dwell on that peculiar portion of his teaching 
 which is preserved to us in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, and which has always been regarded as 
 exhibiting, more or less distinctly, the influences 
 shared by the Apostolical age in common with the 
 Church of Alexandria. 
 
 It is needless to remind you that the Jewish race 
 at the time of the Christian era was commonly 
 divided into the purely Hebrew b Jews, whose centre 
 was at Jerusalem, and the Grecian or Hellenistic 
 Jews, whose centre was that great city, which bore 
 the name of the only conqueror of ancient or 
 modern times who has succeeded in fusing toge- 
 ther the discordant elements of the East and West. 
 There, under the sway of the Grecian Ptolemies, a 
 colony of Jews had grown up so important as to be 
 known by a distinct name , and to have a separate 
 worship of their own ; there was the chief seat of 
 the later Jewish literature ; there also was the chief 
 school of Christian theology during the four first 
 
 b The word " Hebrew," CEftpaios,) as is well known, is used 
 in the New Testament, and in the earliest ecclesiastical Greek, 
 for those Jews who spoke Hebrew, whilst the word " Hellenist," 
 ('EAATji/tWTjs,) always translated in the authorized version by the 
 word " Grecian " as distinct from " Greek," (which is confined to 
 the translation of "EXX^i/,) is used for those Jews who, living in the 
 eastern parts of the empire, made use of the Greek language, then 
 the medium of communication between all civilized nations. See 
 especially Acts vi. 1. 
 
 c See Jos. Ant. xiv. 7. 2 ; 10. 1 ; xix. 5.2; B. J. ii. 18. 7. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 339 
 
 centuries. But, great as must have been the in- SERM. 
 
 VI 
 
 fluence of the atmosphere on the outward aspect 8UPP T0 
 of the Christian Church, even in its earliest times, SERM - '" 
 and long as it survived the extinction of the Church 
 of Jerusalem, it seems at first sight to have been 
 passed by in the sacred record as if it had never 
 existed. Few points bring before us so vividly our 
 imperfect information of the apostolic times as .the 
 recollection of what we do and do not know of the 
 one representative of that great community who 
 appears before us in the person of Apollos. There 
 is no one d whose natural gifts are so highly com- 
 mended in the New Testament, as are his eloquence 
 and power when he was first found by Aquila and 
 Priscilla at Ephesus ; no one out of the Apostolic 
 circle whose name attains so great a pre-eminence 
 as his, when it was placed by the Corinthian fac- 
 tions on a level with that of Paul, of Cephas, and of 
 Christ Himself. But this is all, and what Scripture 
 fails to tell us, tradition, contrary to its usual cus- 
 tom, does not even attempt to supply ; of him 
 almost alone amongst the characters of the New 
 Testament can it be said that his name is enrolled e 
 in no calendar, however apocryphal, his presence 
 attested by no relics, however disputed. And thus 
 whereas by the side of St. Peter arose St. James, by 
 the side of St. John his less illustrious namesake 
 the Ephesian Presbyter, whose presence tended to 
 
 d See Acts xviii. 24; 1 Cor. i. 12. 
 
 e The name of Apollos as a Saint is said nowhere to occur in 
 the Acta Sanctorum. 
 
 z2 
 
VI. 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 8ERM. Ill 
 
 340 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. confuse the traditions of the early Church re- 
 specting the Apostle himself over the whole re- 
 gion which bears his name in the New Testament 
 St. Paul reigns alone, and the one character which 
 might have been placed in competition with him in 
 the same sphere has been swept out of it by subse- 
 quent history as if it had never existed. 
 
 But, whilst Alexandria itself with all that belongs 
 to it is thus entirely, and as it were studiously 
 thrown into the shade, as if to guard the sacred 
 precincts from the slightest intrusion of merely 
 human wisdom, as if to impress upon us that " the 
 " understanding of the prudent, and the scribe and 
 ft disputer of this world" had indeed no place amongst 
 the Apostles and Evangelists of Christ ; yet still, as 
 there is a true union of philosophy and faith, which 
 Christianity does not refuse to recognise, so there 
 was a true union of divine and human learning even 
 then, of which one phase at least is perpetuated in 
 the New Testament. What there was in it purely 
 outward and transitory has for the most part passed 
 away with the theologians of Alexandria, who have 
 preserved to us only its exaggerated and distorted 
 likeness ; what was compatible with the divine sim- 
 plicity of Apostolical faith, may for the most part be 
 found where the Church has always sought and re- 
 cognised it, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 I. In considering the object and occasion of this 
 Epistle, it is not necessary here to enter on the 
 question of its origin. If the Gospels of St. Mark 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 341 
 
 and St. Luke, though not written by Apostles, SERM. 
 have yet been admitted into the Sacred Volume, 8UPP> ' TO 
 no one need regard the canonicity of a book as SE 
 dependent on its authorship ; if once we recognise 
 its place in the circle of Apostolical teaching, it has 
 an authority over us which no criticism respecting 
 its origin can disturb. And in the case before us, 
 quite independently of the question of its general 
 authority, it is still less necessary to decide posi- 
 tively, inasmuch as whether we believe it to be or 
 not to be the writing of Paul himself, the conclu- 
 sion at which we must arrive concerning its end 
 and spirit must be substantially the same. If in 
 obedience to the doubts suggested by Clement, 
 Irenseus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Caius, 
 Origen, and in a less degree by Clement of Alex- 
 dria, Eusebius, and Jerome, we ascribe the Epistle 
 in its present state not to the Apostle, but to one 
 of his companions, whether Luke, or Clement, or 
 Barnabas, or Apollos, we must still acknowledge 
 that though not of Paul it is Pauline ; that without 
 the intervention of Paul it would, humanly speaking, 
 never have been composed ; that the thoughts and 
 images are too like those of the Epistles to the 
 Romans and Galatians to be merely an accidental 
 coincidence ; that there is a certain sense in which 
 we may thus far, in accordance with the common 
 phraseology, regard it as the " Epistle of Paul the 
 " Apostle to the Hebrews." If on the other hand we 
 venture to trust in the decision of most of the 
 writers of the Eastern Church, and the universal 
 
SUPP. TO 
 SERM. III. 
 
 342 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. belief which subsequently prevailed in the middle 
 ages, and conjecture that it was written not only 
 in the spirit but by the hand of Paul, yet still the 
 indications which Providence has left to guide us 
 on its very front by the marked difference of form, 
 style, and language, from the other Epistles which 
 expressly claim to be by the Apostle himself, and 
 by its confessed approximation in all these points 
 to the Alexandrian school, must compel us to con- 
 clude that if St. Paul himself be the author he 
 has assumed for the time a new character ; he 
 has dropped the commanding tone of the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles which marks the thirteen previous 
 Epistles ; he has become e (to use his own phrase) 
 " a Jew to the Jews ;" he has " for their sakes f 
 " transferred in a figure the things of Apollos to 
 " himself;" he appears before us, not as heretofore, 
 with independent authority, " neither by men nor 
 " through men," but " as s having had the word con- 
 " firmed to him by those that first heard it ;" not 
 " with signs 11 and wonders and mighty deeds," but 
 as "an eloquent man 1 , and mighty in the Scrip- 
 " tures, mightily convincing the Jews, and shewing 
 " out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ." 
 
 Whether in short we believe that " Paul planted 
 " and Apollos watered j ," or whether we prefer to 
 think that Paul both planted and watered, suffice 
 it to know that in either case it is " God that gave 
 
 e 1 Cor. ix. 20. f 1 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
 * Heb. ii. 3 ; comp. Gal. i. 1. h 2 Cor. xii. 12; comp. 
 
 Heb. ii. 4. l Acts xviii. 24, 28. J 1 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 343 
 
 " the increase :" whether we lean to the decision of SERM. 
 
 VI. 
 
 the Western or the Eastern Church, we cannot go 8UPP .' TO 
 wrong if we acquiesce in the judgment of the pro- 8I 
 foundest of all the ancient Fathers, that amidst the 
 conflicting theories on the subject " the real author 
 " is known to God alone V 
 
 Leaving then this question, let us proceed to 
 examine the time, circumstances, and object, of the 
 composition of this great Epistle. It was addressed, 
 as its ancient and undisputed title tells us, " to the 
 " Hebrews;" that is, to that portion of the Jewish 
 nation which spoke the Hebrew tongue, the aristo- 
 cracy, if I may so speak, of the whole race, unde- 
 filed by any contamination of Grecian custom or 
 language. Palestine, to a true Israelite, whether 
 Hebrew or Hellenist, must still have been the home 
 to which his national feelings turned. Jerusalem, 
 
 k " The style of the Epistle to the Hebrews has not the rude- 
 " ness of the language of the Apostle who confessed himself to be 
 " rude in speech, that is, in diction : but the Epistle is more purely 
 " Greek in its composition, as would be confessed by every one 
 " who is any judge of the difference of styles. On the other hand, 
 " that the thoughts of the Epistle are wonderful, and not inferior 
 " to the acknowledged writings of the Apostle, would be agreed 
 ' ' upon by every one who has paid any attention to the reading of 
 " the Apostle. My own judgment then is that the thoughts are 
 " the Apostle's, but the language and the composition of some 
 " one who noted down the Apostle's views, (ra a7roo-ToXca,) and 
 " as it were commented as a scholiast on what had been said by 
 " his master. If then any Church hold to this Epistle as Paul's, 
 " let it have the credit of so doing, for it was not without reason 
 " that the ancients have left it as Paul's. But as to who wrote 
 " the Epistle, the truth is known to God." (Origen, ap. Eus. 
 H.E. vi. 25.) 
 
344 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM, to a Jewish Christian, even though he wrote from 
 SUFP T0 imprisonment in a distant country, would, especially 
 &ERM. in. j n this its impending crisis, command the first claim 
 on his " word of exhortation 1 ." It is still therefore 
 the Church of St. James which we see before us, 
 but with times and circumstances far different, 
 St. James himself already it would seem numbered 
 with the departed, " the end of whose conversa- 
 " tion" the Hebrews were to consider with grate- 
 ful remembrance ; the calamities which then only 
 threatened them from a distance were now near at 
 hand; the bonds of their communion were to be 
 drawn closer and closer, "so much the more as they 
 " saw the day approaching" ;" the trial of trials, which 
 year after year had been delayed, was now brought 
 inevitably before them the dreadful necessity of 
 choosing once for all between those ancient institu- 
 tions, in which up to this time even Apostles had 
 not refused to join, and that eternal polity which 
 could alone endure the convulsion which was " to 
 " shake not the earth only but also heaven /' 
 
 The teaching of St. Paul, from the First Epistle 
 to Thessalonica down to the latest Epistle to 
 Timothy, had for these wants no especial meaning ; 
 the controversy of Jew with Gentile was either set 
 at rest for ever, or at least had no concern for 
 
 1 Heb. xiii. 22. 
 
 m Heb. xiii. 7- This assumes that the date of James's death 
 in Josephus, A.D. 63, is correct. 
 
 n Heb. x. 25. Heb. xii. 26. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 345 
 
 them; the purely spiritual teaching of St. John SERM. 
 
 VI 
 
 could not fully come into the world until after the 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 dissolution of that older framework of the earlier SERM - In - 
 period of the Apostolic age under which they still 
 sheltered themselves. It was a link between the two 
 which they needed, a teaching which, whilst it 
 entered into their national feelings with a sympathy 
 beyond what could have been possible during the 
 vehemence of the original contest with Judaism, 
 should yet through those feelings prepare them 
 for the full appreciation of those spiritual truths, 
 which St. Paul himself had rather indicated than 
 expressly taught. It was no native prophet of 
 Palestine, dwelling within the sphere of their own 
 narrower view, to whom the suffering Hebrews can 
 have looked for a solution of their doubts ; here, if 
 ever, was the time for the introduction of a higher 
 wisdom, a profounder knowledge, such as might 
 well be supposed to exist amongst their foreign 
 countrymen, analogous, it may be, to the gifts which 
 had been partially communicated from contact with 
 Greek philosophy, but elevated above them by the 
 purifying and strengthening influence of Apostolical 
 faith and love. Such was the consolation which 
 they needed, and it came. It came, bearing in its 
 very form the mark of that transitional period to 
 which it belonged, when, after the subsiding of 
 the personal contest of St. Paul with his antagonists, 
 it ceased to be regarded from whom, but only to 
 whom and for what object Apostolical instructions 
 were sent ; when, as in the contrast of old between 
 
346 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 s E R M. the acts and speeches of the earlier Prophets and 
 - the books p of the later, so here the living Epistle of 
 . in. the first period of Christian history was gradually 
 fading off into the systematic and general treatise, 
 headed by no personal greeting, closed by no auto- 
 graph salutation. As in form, so also in style, it 
 bespoke at once its peculiar character : language 
 equally classical may be found in parts of St. Luke ; 
 appeals to their national history and tradition 
 equally emphatic in the speech of the Hellenist 
 Stephen; interpretations of the Old Testament 
 equally spiritual in the Epistles to Corinth and 
 Galatia ; adoption of terms equally philosophical 
 in the writings of St. John ; but there is no other 
 part of the New Testament where all these Helle- 
 nistic elements are brought so strongly forward. 
 There they are occasional and accidental, here they 
 are perpetual and essential ; the rhetorical flow, 
 the sustained argument, the polished Greek, the 
 spiritualising interpretations, neither can be, nor by 
 an observant reader ever have been overlooked, as 
 the predominant marks of this Epistle, however we 
 may attempt to account for them. 
 
 And, as the outward aspect, so also are the inward 
 contents of the Epistle. It was in true harmony 
 with the wants of the time that all the Apostolical 
 writings immediately before and after, as well as 
 during this period, those especially, addressed by 
 St. Paul and St. John to the Asiatic Churches, bring 
 out with the utmost vividness the One central Object 
 
 P See Ewald on the Prophets, i. 40 ; ii. 208, 392, 542. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 347 
 
 of Christian faith in the Person of our Lord, in SERM. 
 direct contrast to the dissolving forms both of opi- 
 nions and institutions with which this particular 8ERM - 
 epoch was beset. But the peculiarity of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews is that in it the manifestation of 
 God in Christ is set forth not only in its more 
 general aspect, but as the consummation (if I may 
 so speak) of the historical course of human events, 
 as the satisfaction of the yearnings, the realization 
 of the institutions, of the Jewish nation. 
 
 It is necessary once for all to place before our 
 minds the feelings of the Hebrew Christians. Their 
 national existence was, as I have said, on the eve 
 of destruction ; the star of their ancient glory was 
 about to set in blood ; their institutions had " de- 
 " cayed and waxed old" and were " ready to vanish 
 " away q ;" but still for this very reason there was the 
 fond attachment which clings to what all the world 
 beside has abandoned ; there was the longing linger- 
 ing look which a dying nation casts behind to its 
 earlier life ; there was the despair which cherished 
 the more dearly the vestiges of it that still re- 
 mained. The ' chariots of angels, even twenty thou- 
 sand of angels Y amidst which the Law had been de- 
 livered ' in the holy place of Sinai,' they might still 
 believe to watch unseen around the walls of Jeru- 
 salem, as when they guarded the prophet of old at 
 Dothan. The recollections of Moses and of Joshua 3 , 
 
 <i Heb. viii. 13. 
 
 r As inferred from Heb. i. 3 13. See Ps. Ixviii. 17 ; 2 Kings 
 vi. 17. s As inferred from Heb. iii. iv. 
 
348 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. the possession of the Law and of the promised rest, 
 ^- still seemed to them pledges of the Divine protection. 
 HI. The Temple still stood in all its magnificence on 
 Mount Moriah ; the priestly ministrations still con- 
 tinued day by day according to the exact letter of 
 the Levitical law ; the pontificate of Aaron, after the 
 vicissitudes of fifteen hundred years, after the dis- 
 appearance of Judge, and King, and Prophet, through 
 the splendour of the monarchy and the oppressions 
 of the captivity, still remained unshaken and un- 
 impaired as when it was first ordained amongst the 
 mountains of Horeb. What wonder if the better 
 spirits of the nation should be fascinated by the 
 spell, which rallied even the blood-thirsty ruffians of 
 the final siege round the ruins of the burning sanc- 
 tuary, which awakened a glow of patriotic enthu- 
 siasm in the breast even of the renegade Josephus 
 while he described his descent 1 from the house of 
 Levi, which invested the high-priesthood 11 even of 
 Caiaphas with a character of Divine inspiration? 
 What was there, they might well ask, what was 
 there in the whole world beside, which could com- 
 pensate to them for the loss of recollections so 
 august, of institutions so sacred ? 
 
 It was to meet this need that the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews was written. And now, if we compare its 
 opening words with those of the Gospel of St. 
 John, it is the natural result of what has just been 
 said, that whereas in the latter we are carried be- 
 
 * Joseph. Vita, c. 1. Comp. Contra Apionem, i. 7; ii. 21. 
 u John xi. 51. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 349 
 
 yond the limits of the visible world to that " be- SERM. 
 " ginning in which the Word was with God and the - 
 " Word was God," in the former we are brought 8ERM - 
 down to the close of the long series of ages in which, 
 after " having in times past spoken unto the fathers by 
 " the prophets, God in these last days spoke to them 
 " by His Sonv." If the Ephesians, Colossians, and 
 Philippians, were taught to look to Him who was 
 4 'the First-born of every creature, the Head of the 
 " Church, the Lord of heaven and earth*," we find that 
 the Hebrew Christians are especially reminded that 
 there y was One far above all their own ministering 
 angels ; One who was 2 to be " counted worthy of 
 " more glory" than their great law-giver Moses ; One a 
 who was to guide them into a deeper rest, than 
 even their great deliverer who with the same signi- 
 ficant name of "Joshua" or "Jesus" had led them to 
 their earlier rest in Canaan ; that there was b a true 
 sense in which the glory not only of Aaron, but 
 even of the mysterious patriarch king of Salem, was 
 transferred to Him who was to be to the whole 
 human race " a Priest for ever after the order of 
 " Melchisedec." 
 
 Every name, every feeling, every institution, which 
 had existed under the older covenant was still to 
 
 v Compare the two passages, as they appear in the Gospel and 
 Epistle for Christmas-Day. 
 
 x Eph. i. 2023; Col. i. 1518; Phil. ii. 10. 
 
 y Heb. i. 313. ' Heb. iii. 1. 
 
 8 Heb. iv. 8. Compare too the more than usually frequent use 
 in this Epistle of the name of " Jesus" for our Lord. 
 
 b Heb. v. 10; vii. 28. 
 
350 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. continue, but invested with a higher meaning, a 
 SUPP T0 meaning, new indeed in itself, but yet fulfilling for 
 SERM. in. fa e rg f. ti me w h a t h a( j before been dimly shadowed 
 forth; "the first was taken away only that the 
 " second might be established." It was indeed no 
 visible hierarchy of angelic forms, to which their 
 thoughts were now directed, but d He who was the 
 same always, and " whose years could never fail ;" 
 it was no earthly 6 Sabbath to which He was to guide 
 them, but the eternal " rest which remains for the 
 " people of God ;" no weapons of human warfare, 
 like those which won the land of Canaan, but the 
 " word f of God, quick and powerful, and sharper 
 " than any two-edged sword ;" the Laws was to be 
 written not on tables of stone but "in their hearts and 
 " in their minds ;" the Sacrifice 11 was to be offered 
 up in no earthly sanctuary; the Priest was to minis- 
 ter within the veil, "not 1 in the holy places made 
 " with hands, but in heaven itself, now to appear 
 " in the presence of God for us." But still it was 
 something to be told that the past and the future 
 were not to be suddenly snapt in sunder, something 
 to feel that the new wine k was not rudely to be 
 forced on those whose natural feeling would still 
 make them say that " the old was better," some- 
 thing to be assured by Apostolic teachers that the 
 words, the thoughts, the associations with which 
 
 c Heb. x. 9. d Heb. i. 12. 
 
 e Heb. iv. 9. f Heb. iv. 12. 
 
 g Heb. viii. 10; x. 16. h Heb. ix. 12. 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 24. k Luke v. 39. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 351 
 
 they had been familiar would not perish in the SERM. 
 approaching catastrophe, but would endure, as 
 humanly speaking through the medium of this very 
 Epistle they have endured, to become the stay and 
 support of thousands in every age and country, to 
 whom the difficulties, the sentiments, the very ex- 
 istence of the original Hebrew Christians would be 
 utterly unknown and unintelligible. Yet, gradual as 
 this preparation was, tenderly as they were accus- 
 tomed by "the milk 1 of babes" to receive "the strong 
 " meat which belongeth to them that are of full age," 
 it still remained to touch some faculty or feeling in 
 their own hearts which should respond to this higher 
 strain, which should raise them from m " the first 
 " principles of the doctrine of Christ to go on unto 
 " perfection," which should prevent them when in n 
 sight of " so great salvation" from sinking back into 
 the wretched state of the apostate nation, " rejected 
 " and nigh unto cursing, whose end was to be 
 " burned ." That feeling was "Faith," the same 
 " Faith" which had been so triumphantly brought 
 forward by the great Apostle of the Gentiles in his 
 conflict with Judaism, but which was now insisted 
 upon not in vehement controversy, but in earnest ex- 
 hortation ; a faith, not condemned like mere Jewish 
 faith, as in the Epistle of St. James, not set in dis- 
 tinct opposition to the works of the Law, as in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians, but traced back through 
 all its various stages from its most general manifes- 
 
 1 Heb. v. 13, 14. m Heb. vi. 1. 
 
 n Heb. ii. 2. Heb. vi. 8. 
 
352 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. tation by which P in its earliest effort the Jewish 
 
 vi. J 
 
 supp T0 mind had " understood that the worlds were framed 
 
 HI. by t^ wor( J of God," down to its latest workings in 
 the heroic struggles of the Maccabean age, " desti- 
 " tute, afflicted, tormented." With such a " con- 
 " fidence (vTroaraa-is) in things hoped for, with 
 " such an evidence of things not seen," they might 
 well rise above the visions of outward dominion and 
 array of legal ceremonies which hovered before the 
 earth-bound senses of their countrymen; they might 
 still have " patient q trust that in a little while he 
 " that shall come will come and will not tarry ;" 
 they might well be assured that although not like 
 their fathers in the presence of " the terrible 1 " sight 
 " of the mountain that might be touched and that 
 11 burned with fire," they were even amidst the im- 
 pending ruin of their earthly home, brought within 
 " the city of the living God s , the heavenly Jerusa- 
 " lem, to the innumerable company of angels, the 
 " general assembly and Church of the first-born 
 " which are written in heaven, and God the Judge 
 " of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect, 
 " and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." 
 
 II. Such is the Epistle to the Hebrews ; the true 
 link between St. Paul and St. John, the true prepa- 
 ration for the end of the old and the rise of the new 
 dispensation, the true picture of the Apostolical 
 sympathy of a loftier spirit and a larger heart with 
 the wants and failings of the weaker brethren of 
 
 P Heb. xi. 237. Heb. x. 37. 
 
 r Heb. xii. 18. s Heb. xii. 22. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 353 
 
 Judaea. Like the Epistle of St. James, it endea- SERM. 
 vours to exhibit the new covenant not as the de- - 
 struction, but as the fulfilment of the old : only in SEKM. m. 
 accordance with the change of times and circum- 
 stances, it was not now the moral but the religious 
 element of the ancient law that the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians needed to see developed. Like the Apoca- 
 lypse, it is written under the impression of ap- 
 proaching convulsions, and the prospect of what 
 was in some sense the immediate coming of the 
 Lord ; its imagery is in many respects the same*, 
 only with the necessary difference between the fervid 
 strains of a prophetic vision, and the calm reason- 
 ings of a didactic treatise. Resembling however 
 these two books in the readers to whom or in the 
 circumstances under which it was written, resem- 
 bling them in the peculiar light which it throws on 
 the local and temporary influences of the age, it 
 resembles them no less in the subordination in 
 which it stands to that aspect of apostolical Chris- 
 tianity which has of itself an universal and eter- 
 nal interest. It is not, nor could we have ex- 
 pected it to be, a necessary part of the conti- 
 nuous progress of the new revelation ; it fills up 
 an interstice between the successive stages of the 
 ascent; it does not in itself command on every 
 side the approaches to the heavenly summit. But 
 in saying even thus much, it is obvious that there 
 have been, and will be, to the end of the world, 
 
 * Comp. especially Heb. iv. 12; Rev. i. 16; xix. 1315: 
 Heb. vii., viii. ; Rev. i. 13 : Heb. xii. 22 ; Rev. xx. 1. 
 
 A a 
 
354 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. peculiar times and occasions, when this Epistle fur- 
 
 supp T0 nishes us not merely with a true representation of 
 
 SERM. in. Christianity, but with the very representation of it 
 
 which is of all others most needed, when the loss 
 
 of it from the Sacred Canon could for the time 
 
 be hardly compensated by the possession of all the 
 
 rest. 
 
 To explain the peculiar bearing of the truths 
 themselves which this Epistle teaches, is beyond 
 my present purpose ; I have spoken only of the 
 occasion and the mode of its teaching them. In 
 every part of Scripture there is this two-fold method 
 of Divine instruction ; not the message only, but 
 the circumstances of its communication, not the 
 matter only, but the form. It is to the latter alone 
 that I have wished to confine myself, as heretofore, 
 so now ; and, although in comparison with those 
 who are employed in unfolding and applying the 
 truths themselves we may seem to be but as hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water in the Temple of 
 God, yet it is surely a useful though an humble 
 task to gather such lessons as we can from the time 
 and circumstances under which these eternal truths 
 were delivered. There have, as we know, been 
 extraordinary exceptions when the two have been 
 wholly disjoined, as when we are told that God 
 through the voice of the dumb ass rebuked the 
 madness of the prophet, or that Caiaphas spake by 
 Divine inspiration 11 the words which even from Apo- 
 
 u 2 Pet. ii. 16; John xi. 51. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 sties had been hitherto withheld. But this is not SERM. 
 
 VI 
 
 the usual process ; it is not through the unconscious p ' T0 
 agency of an irrational animal, or an apostate priest, 8ERM - "' 
 but through the living words of His own holy Evan- 
 gelists and Apostles that God has caused His will 
 to be known. To learn with what object and in 
 what spirit these words were first uttered, is not all, 
 but it surely is something; to place ourselves at 
 the feet of our inspired instructors, and catch, so 
 far as we may, the look, the emphasis, the feeling, 
 with which their lessons were accompanied, is 
 surely a fitter posture for truly understanding 
 them, than if we merely sit afar off and hear the 
 sound of their voices as they come to us over the 
 waste of many centuries, borne indeed on the wings 
 of a mighty rushing wind, but with no visible form 
 on which our thoughts or imaginations can repose. 
 
 What then is the lesson which we may learn not 
 from the truths which the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 communicates, but from the outward circumstances, 
 the form and manner, in which they were commu- 
 nicated ? 
 
 1. In the first place there is for all who live, like 
 the Hebrew Christians, on the point of transition 
 between two epochs, a real instruction to be derived 
 from this example of the method in which under 
 such circumstances larger and wider views were im- 
 parted to those who clung to the older state of things. 
 The Epistle to the Galatians no doubt furnishes a 
 proof that there may be characters, who can only 
 
 A a2 
 
356 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. be shaken out of their ancient prejudices by having 
 TO new truths placed before them in the most vivid 
 n. contrast ; but the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches 
 us no less that there is a stage in the process of 
 transition when ancient forms and feelings must be 
 treated not with stern severity, but with tender 
 sympathy ; when the failing heart and flagging 
 spirit will be best attracted towards Divine truth 
 not by seeing its opposition, but its resemblance, to 
 that with which they have been themselves familiar. 
 It might for example have been asked even then 
 what words or institutions could of themselves ap- 
 pear more transient and fugitive, than those of 
 "temple," " sacrifice," and "priest," to one who knew 
 that in a few short years or months the whole Jew- 
 ish system was to perish for ever ? what fanaticism 
 could appear more grovelling than that which still 
 regarded with devoted reverence what had now be- 
 come a u den of thieves," an empty "shadow," a 
 " whited sepulchre x ?" Yet it seemed good that 
 these institutions should be confronted by those 
 truths in the Christian Revelation, which have ever 
 been regarded not as their antagonists, so much as 
 their counterpart and fulfilment : that these feelings 
 should be met not by leaving them without an 
 object, but by raising them to those true objects 
 which had hitherto been known to them only 
 through earthly veils ; that there should have been 
 a meeting point in which the old should blend into 
 the new, without any violent disruption, the perish- 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 13; Col. ii. 17; Matt, xxiii. 27. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 357 
 
 able exhibited as the type of the eternal, without SERM. 
 any unchristian compromise. 
 
 . SUPP. TO 
 
 It is a lesson also not only to those who like 8ERM - " 
 the author of the Epistle have to communicate new 
 truths, but to those who like its readers have to 
 receive them. A struggle indeed so trying as theirs 
 none are again likely in all its extent to experience ; 
 never since have the foundations of society seemed 
 to be so shaken to their base, as in the dissolution 
 of the Jewish commonwealth ; never since have 
 systems so venerable as the Jewish jpolity and 
 priesthood been seen hastening to their graves. 
 Yet still in a measure such critical periods have 
 occurred, and will be likely to recur, in the history 
 of the Christian world. Some such trial was un- 
 dergone by the Church at the fall of the Roman 
 empire, or still more when it lost the social and 
 religious framework of the Middle Ages ; some 
 such trial for the Christian mind and conscience, 
 when the traditional and authorized version of the 
 Sacred Scriptures was first confronted with the 
 countless variations of the original manuscripts, 
 or when the ancient mode of interpreting them was 
 first disturbed by the discoveries of Copernicus and 
 Galileo. It is in the panics which attend on such 
 convulsions as these that this Epistle may serve to 
 reassure us that there is a difference between what 
 is essential and what is accidental. It is a pledge 
 to us that those feelings which we most cherish and 
 most value will not be lost to us with the destruc- 
 tion of those outward objects, on which they may 
 
358 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. now be fastened, but will it may be we know not 
 supp To how be taken up into a higher sphere, as was the 
 in. Hebrew reverence for the ceremonial of the Temple 
 service. It is a pledge that amidst all the varia- 
 tions of things outward, local, national, there are 
 truths inward, eternal, unchangeable, on which we 
 can always fall back, and towards which every such 
 change teaches us ever more and more to advance ; 
 not always "laying again the foundations, but going 
 " on unto perfection y," adding ourselves, if so it 
 may be, to the long catalogue of the heroes of faith 
 who have gone before us, " God having provided 
 " some better thing for our children, that we with- 
 " out them should not be made perfect 2 ." It is a 
 pledge, we may fervently trust, that He in whom the 
 Hebrew Christians were taught to find the most 
 complete satisfaction to all their wants, will still be 
 to us as to them, amidst all changes inward and 
 outward, a sufficient stay and support, " Jesus 
 11 Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
 " everV 
 
 2. It is also the Epistle for sufferers; for suf- 
 ferers of whatever kind, whether from the more 
 refined suffering of inward perplexity, such as I 
 have just now noticed, or from the actual " re- 
 " proaches and afflictions b ," such as fell on the 
 Jewish Christians amidst the persecutions and cala- 
 mities which attended them in the downfall of their 
 nation. It is there, that those words are written 
 
 y Heb. vi. 1. z Heb. xi. 40. 
 
 a Heb. xiii. 8. b Heb. x. 33. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 359 
 
 for our endless comfort and instruction, which are SERM. 
 appointed to be read, and which have been read ^ 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 again and again by the beds of the sick and dying, 8ERM - '" 
 to teach us how we should * patiently and with 
 ' thanksgiving bear our heavenly Father's correc- 
 1 tion, whensoever by any manner of adversity it 
 ' should please His gracious goodness to visit us c .' 
 It is there that more fully than in any other part of 
 Scripture we have set before us the examples of our 
 suffering brethren, who " confessed that they were d 
 " strangers and pilgrims upon earth," who had "trials 
 " of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of 
 "bonds and imprisonment; were stoned, were sawn 
 " asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, 
 " who wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, 
 " in deserts and mountains, and caves and dens of 
 " the earth, of whom the world was not worthy." It 
 is there that with the most especial solemnity He 
 to whom its whole teaching points is brought 
 before us as the Man of Sorrows. What the Gos- 
 pel of St. Luke is to the two earlier Gospels, this 
 is to the other Epistles. As it is to St. Luke's 
 Gospel that we most chiefly refer for the accounts 
 of His tenderness, His sympathy, His own human 
 sufferings, so here we learn the practical application 
 of it to ourselves. In the other Epistles we read of 
 the greatness of His work of redemption, of His in- 
 communicable union with the Father, but it is to 
 this Epistle that we turn to learn of Him " who in 
 
 c See the Exhortation in the Order for the Visitation of the 
 
 Sick. 
 
 * Heb. xi. 13, 3638. 
 
360 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. " the days of His flesh offered up prayers and sup- 
 
 ^- " plications with strong crying and tears," " who 
 
 SERM. in. endured such contradiction of sinners against 
 
 " Himself," who is " touched with the feeling of 
 
 " our infirmities, having been in all points tempted 
 
 " like as we are, yet without sin e ." 
 
 3. Were I preaching before a common congrega- 
 tion, it might be needless to proceed, but in this place 
 there is yet a further lesson to be furnished by this 
 Epistle, in the very structure of its outward form 
 and composition. It is here that we have before us 
 the first and only Apostolical model of a systematic 
 study and Christian application of the older Scrip- 
 tures. They furnish no doubt the illustrations 
 and the style of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John ; 
 they furnish much of the spirit and almost the 
 whole imagery of St. James and the Apocalypse ; 
 but it is here alone that they are made the object of 
 a distinct and acknowledged study. The comparison 
 of the two dispensations, which is elsewhere implied 
 and suggested, is here alone formally stated ; it is 
 from this source that we chiefly derive our use of the 
 very names of the " Old and the New Testament f ," 
 for the two parts of the Sacred Canon ; it is here 
 that we have the earliest exposition of the problem 
 which has so often agitated thoughtful minds, ' Ve- 
 ' tus Testamentum in Novo patet ; Novum Testa- 
 * mentum in Vetere latet.' 
 
 The peculiar character of the Epistle at once ex- 
 presses to us its peculiar object. It approaches the 
 books of the Old Testament not as from a Hebrew, 
 
 * Heb. v. 7; xii. 3; iv. 15. f Heb. viii. 7; x. 14. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 361 
 
 but as from a Christian, point of view; it regards SERM. 
 them as standing in connexion with an institution '- 
 
 8UPP. TO 
 
 that is virtually past and gone, but as still capable *** m. 
 themselves of a living application ; the subjects 
 of which it treats are purely Jewish, and therefore 
 partaking of all the practical hopes and fears, the 
 immediate wants, the impending calamities of the 
 time ; but its own style is the least Jewish of any 
 part of the New Testament. It looks on as it were 
 from a sphere of its own, withdrawn from the 
 actual presence of that which it meditates, as if that 
 its own meditations might be themselves unbroken. 
 It is as though the turmoil of the Apostolical age 
 was for a moment suspended, as if on the eve of the 
 approaching convulsion we were called aside into 
 the stillness of the student's chamber, and bid to 
 contemplate in quiet the relations of the earlier and 
 the later systems which we had hitherto watched only 
 in struggle and conflict. Here alone in the New 
 Testament we are allowed to see, if I may so say, 
 the very process and apparatus of composition ; here 
 alone we are called upon to dwell on the skilful 
 construction of sentences, on the euphonious ar- 
 rangement of words ; here alone, whilst the great 
 subject of the Epistle expands before us, we are in- 
 vited to trace its labour and research, to watch the 
 careful comparison of passage with passage, to see 
 the s scroll of the Septuagint Version unfolded as it 
 
 e The quotations from the Old Testament in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews can be traced, as is well known, not merely to the LXX 
 version, but to the particular edition of it, preserved to us in the 
 Codex Alexandrinus. 
 
SUPP. TO 
 SERM. Ill 
 
 362 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. were before our very eyes, text by text, with scru- 
 pulous fidelity ; to be present at the reconstruction 
 of the details of the Temple service in the ninth 
 chapter, or the summary of Jewish history in the 
 eleventh. The practical, energetic, impassioned 
 Epistle has given way to the outward form of a 
 regular Treatise; the greatness of the Apostolic office 
 has retired for a time into the background to make 
 way for the first advances of Sacred Criticism. 
 
 Doubtless when we come to consider this aspect 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews in detail, there are 
 (to use its own words) " many things to say, hard 
 " to be uttei-ed;" things, as in St. Paul's Epistles 
 generally, " hard to be understood, which they that 
 " are unlearned and unstable may wrest to their 
 " own destruction 11 ." But the general lesson which 
 we may derive from it is obvious and indisputable. 
 It surely is a great thing to us, if we would but feel 
 it to be so, that, amidst all the differences which 
 divide the Old from the New Testament, we have 
 this undoubted assurance, that it was not set aside 
 in the Apostolic age as belonging to a perishable 
 and perishing system, but was still even in that 
 momentous crisis revered as a source of Divine 
 instruction, explored as an unexhausted mine of 
 Divine truth ; that its expressions of devotion and 
 warning, its record of institutions and events, were 
 thought worthy to rouse the sinking faith of apo- 
 stolical Christians, to engage the deepest research 
 of apostolical teachers. Nor in considering the style 
 
 h Heb. v. 11 ; 2 Pet. iii. 16. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 863 
 
 and manner of this Epistle ought we to overlook SERM. 
 the feeling of solemn responsibility which it im- VI> -.- 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 presses upon us in our study of the Old Testament, 8ER >- 
 not indulging in fanciful and unrestrained specu- 
 lations concerning it, but making use of those ap- 
 pointed methods of ascertaining its real meaning, 
 which Providence has afforded to us, and of which 
 this Epistle gives such remarkable indications ; not 
 dwelling on details selected at random from the 
 sacred narrative, but viewing it, as in this Epistle, 
 in its general bearings, systematically and as a 
 whole ; not confounding all its various portions to- 
 gether in indiscriminate confusion, but comparing, 
 so far as our knowledge will allow, the occasions 1 
 and the context of psalm, and history, and pro- 
 phecy ; the successive formation part by part of 
 the " great cloud of witnesses," through all " the 
 " sundry times and divers manners by which God in 
 " past times spoke to the fathers by the prophets." 
 And this brings me to yet a further principle 
 which is involved in the method of instruction 
 adopted in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In point- 
 ing out the continuity of the Divine dispensations, 
 it necessarily confined itself to the relations between 
 Christianity and Judaism, because it was of Judaism 
 alone that circumstances required it to speak. In 
 using the weapons of argument and of learning, it 
 necessarily confined itself to the language of the Hel- 
 
 1 Compare for the confirmation of this fact the argument in 
 Maurice's Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 3639. 
 
364 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 
 
 SERM. lenistic literature, because that was the highest form 
 - of mental cultivation with which the Jewish mind was 
 
 SUPP. TO 
 
 in. familiar. But when with the added light of eighteen 
 centuries we read the solemn words with which the 
 Epistle opens, is it possible to escape the convic- 
 tion that they have a meaning high above the sense 
 which they bore to their own immediate readers? 
 that when we of the western world see, as we can- 
 not but see, in the dim aspirations of heathen 
 mythology and philosophy the anticipations of a 
 brighter world to come, we may indeed feel that 
 " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
 " spoke in time past unto our fathers, hath in these 
 " latter days," not by an interruption, but by a 
 consummation of His previous revelations, however 
 imperfect and partial, " spoken unto us by His Son, 
 " whom He hath made the heir of all things?" 
 When in its general style we trace not merely the 
 unconscious reproduction of Gentile forms, or the 
 occasional fragments of Gentile learning, which I 
 noticed on a former occasion in the Epistles to 
 the Corinthians, but the polished Greek, the well- 
 turned periods, the elaborate arguments, with which 
 this Epistle alone abounds, may we not turn with 
 pleasure to the sanction here given to the philological, 
 and oratorical, and critical studies, which humanly 
 speaking we trace to the well-spring of Hellenis- 
 tic literature at the University of Alexandria, and 
 may we not extend it by a just analogy to those 
 Gentile schools of learning which have sprung up 
 in countries of which the Hebrews never dreamed, 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 365 
 
 under the auspices of a greater than Alexandrian SERMI 
 civilization, of which we are the natural inheritors ? 
 
 St IT. TO 
 
 When m the eleventh chapter of the Epistle we 8ERM - " 
 read the record of Patriarchal saints, and Israelite 
 heroes, and Maccabean patriots, who, although ex- 
 pressly said "not to have received the promises," are 
 yet held out as examples of faith to Christians is it 
 not allowed us to apply the thought to our own his- 
 torical studies, whether of the heroes of the heathen 
 world, whose deeds of imperfect virtue have " ob- 
 " tairied for them a good report," or still more of our 
 own Christian ancestors 15 , who in a far higher sense 
 than those old Hebrew worthies, "have through faith 
 " subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and 
 " out of weakness been made strong," to feel that 
 by the very course of our studies we too are " com- 
 " passed about with a cloud of witnesses," far greater 
 than that which this Epistle sets forth, in propor- 
 tion as our Christian education has opened to us 
 a wider and a loftier view, than by any Jewish 
 student was or could be enjoyed ? 
 
 May we in this place take this duly to heart, 
 especially now at the commencement of our usual 
 studies 1 ; may we feel all of us, both we who teach 
 and we who learn, that if we are not the better and 
 
 k It is hardly necessary to refer to the passage at the close of 
 Archdeacon Hare's Sermons on the Victory of Faith, which forms 
 so natural an accompaniment to the study of the eleventh chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 1 This Sermon was preached on the second day after the open- 
 ing of the Lent Term. 
 
366 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 
 
 SERM. the wiser for such pursuits, it is not their fault but 
 ~suppTr<r ours 5 ma y we f ee l> whenever the Epistle to the 
 HI. Hebrews is read, that it is a warrant to us for 
 hoping that our work here, however different from 
 that more direct and active contest with evil which 
 is carried on by God's servants elsewhere, is yet 
 worthy of a place in His dispensations ; that we 
 may bear our part, however slight, in rearing up an 
 edifice on that " foundation 111 ," of which St. Paul was 
 the master builder, in preparing the way for that 
 " perfection/' which was to close in the teaching of 
 St. John. 
 
 m I Cor. iii. 10, 6; Heb. vi. 1. 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN 
 CHUECH. 
 
 IN the Essay on the Judaizers of the Apostolical Age it 
 has been attempted to give some account of what we should 
 now call "the heresies" of the apostolic age ; in the present 
 discussion it is intended to attempt an account of what 
 would in like manner be called the "schisms" or factions of 
 the same time two subjects indeed so closely connected 
 that much which has been said of the former has necessa- 
 rily anticipated what might be said on the latter, but still 
 sufficiently distinct to deserve a separate consideration 3 . 
 
 In tracing the history of the heresies of the apostolical 
 age, there was no fear lest any feelings of reverence should 
 be shocked by the discussion of men and of principles 
 long since consigned by common consent to infamy and 
 abhorrence. The peculiar curse of faction and party spirit 
 on the other hand, is that it calls into its service the 
 
 a It is hardly necessary to observe that the Greek words from which our 
 names of " heresy " and " schism" are derived, are in fact synonymous. See 
 especially Gal. vi. 20, 21, where the word "heresies," (oipeVfts,) is introduced 
 between " seditions" and " envyings," evidently as a sin of the same character, 
 and still more clearly in 1 Cor. xi. 18, 19, where as a reason for his belief 
 that " there were divisions" (ffxiffnara) amongst the Corinthians, he gives 
 the fact, " for there must be even heresies (alpeffcts) among you." The 
 idea which we mean to express by the word "heresy," is in the New Testa- 
 ment represented by the phrases of " false teachers," " false prophets, " false 
 " apostles," and in this sense I have ventured to adopt it in the Essay on 
 the Judaizers. 
 
368 ON THE DIVISIONS OF THE CORINTHIAN CHU11CH. 
 
 highest and purest names, and desecrates them in the 
 process ; its essence is not that it is evil in itself, but that 
 it worships with an unholy zeal objects in themselves most 
 holy, and it might in this case therefore almost seem an 
 ungracious task, to examine into the party watchwords of 
 an age, which would naturally take them not from the 
 fallible men of common history, but from those whose 
 names we can least bear to hear associated with local or 
 temporary animosities. There is however the less tempta- 
 tion here to enter into detail, because, unlike the picture of 
 the ancient " heresies " which is represented to us through 
 the whole course of the apostolical Epistles, we are left to 
 form our picture of the ancient "schisms" from a few scat- 
 tered allusions, enough indeed to convince us of the fact, 
 and to give us the judgment of Scripture concerning it, but 
 not enough either to gratify our curiosity, or to offend our 
 natural feelings of devotion by its perpetual prominence 
 or recurrence. 
 
 Omitting then all the more doubtful indications of such 
 divisions as may exist in the New Testament or out of it, 
 I propose to confine myself to those passages in the First 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, to which, as forming our chief 
 source of information in the Scriptures themselves, I have 
 already had occasion more than once to allude, and to the 
 apocryphal work called the Clementines, which forms the 
 best comment upon them in subsequent writings, and 
 which has also been frequently referred to in the previous 
 pages. 
 
 The fac- I. It is natural that whatever notices of these schisms we 
 Corinth. nave * n other parts of the New Testament, (as for example 
 in Gal. vi. 20; Rom. xvi. 17,) should have been brought 
 to a head in the Church of Corinth. The traveller who 
 has stood upon the lofty citadel of the Acro-corinthus, and 
 seen the winding shores of the double sea unite in that 
 narrow isthmus, will easily conceive how through those 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 369 
 
 free outlets to the eastern and western world, the influences 
 of the age would have passed to and fro to the city which 
 has been truly called the V T enice of antiquity. The classical 
 scholar who is familiar with the never-dying spirit of fac- 
 tion, (arda-is,) the proverbial disorder of the Grecian com- 
 monwealth the ecclesiastical student who recognises the 
 same spirit reproducing itself in the later controversies of 
 the Greek Church, and who in the times immediately suc- 
 ceeding the Apostolic age is reminded by the Epistle of 
 Clement to the same Corinthian congregation, almost of 
 the very phrases which expressed the feuds of the old re- 
 publics, will not be surprised in the one city of Greece 
 which still retained some vestiges of political and social 
 activity, to meet with traces of the ancient national spirit 
 displaying itself in the new forms to which the vast excite- 
 ment of the new faith would naturally give birth. 
 
 That these factions were not merely chance divisions, 
 but that they ranged themselves under distinct party 
 watchwords, and that these party watchwords were derived 
 not merely from their own local teachers, but from the 
 highest and holiest names to which they could attach them- 
 selves, is clear from the express mention, certainly of 
 three, perhaps of four appellations, by which these factions 
 claimed to be known. See especially 1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 4 
 22. The only passage which could throw any doubt on 
 the reality of these parties and of their designations, is the 
 expression in 1 Cor. iv. 6, "These things have I trans- 
 " ferred in a figure (yLterao-^^arto-a) to myself and Apollos 
 " for your sakes," as if, as it has been sometimes said, he 
 had used the names of himself and Apollos instead of the 
 names of the unknown leaders themselves, in order either 
 to avoid mixing himself up in their party disputes, or to 
 impress more forcibly upon them the futility of these rival 
 claims, which even in himself and Apollos would be out of 
 place, much more in those who really made them. But even 
 
 Bb 
 
370 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHUIICH. 
 
 if the whole passage (iv. 1 7) did refer principally to the 
 subordinate teachers in the Corinthian Church, there still 
 would be nothing in it necessarily to interfere with the 
 literal meaning of the other passages, (i. 12; iii. 22,) which 
 mention the names not only of Paul and Apollos, but of 
 Cephas, and which naturally imply that whatever might be 
 the claims or rivalries of particular leaders of the respective 
 parties, those were the names to which the respective parties 
 and leaders alike appealed. Accordingly it seems the natural 
 inference that the Apostle here is stating the fact, that in- 
 stead of speaking of the factions generally, especially of the 
 rival faction calling itself by the name of Cephas, he had 
 confined himself to those which called themselves after his 
 name and that of Apollos, in order to shew that his censure 
 was aimed not against his Judaizing opponents merely, but 
 against the factious spirit itself, by which those who claimed 
 to be his partisans were no less animated than those who 
 claimed to be his enemies. Such appears to have been the 
 course adopted also in i. 13 16, where he immediately 
 selects the party which said, " I am of Paul," as the chief 
 instance of the sin common to them all. 
 
 When from the fact that such parties existed we come to 
 consider what they were and in what their differences con- 
 sisted, the scanty information which we possess forbids "us 
 to advance anything with certainty beyond the most gene- 
 ral statement. That they followed the great division of 
 Jew and Gentile which run through all the Churches of 
 this period, and that the adherents of the former ranged 
 themselves under the name of Cephas, and those of the 
 latter under Paul, will hardly be doubted; and, if so, it 
 would seem probable that it was the party of Paul that 
 were in the ascendant during the period of the First 
 Epistle, which chiefly attacks such sins as would belong to 
 the more Gentile portion of the community, and the party 
 of Cephas during the period of the Second, which ex- 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE C01UNTHIAN CHURCH. 371 
 
 pressly attacks a formidable body of Judaizers. And the 
 connexion of these latter with Cephas is further confirmed 
 by the appeals which they would seem to have made to his 
 example and authority, in the only passage where their 
 presence is certainly indicated in the First Epistle, (ix. 4,) 
 and in the stress laid by St. Paul on the error of Peter in 
 his address to a similar party in Galatia. (Gal. ii. 17.) 
 
 What might be the relation of the followers of Paul to 
 those of Apollos is now perhaps impossible to determine. 
 That they were on the whole homogeneous, may be in- 
 ferred both from the connexion of Apollos with the dis- 
 ciples of Paul in the Acts, (xviii. 26,) and from the constant 
 union of their names in this Epistle, (iii. 4j iv. 6; xvi. 12.) 
 The only other certain indications furnished to us are those 
 contained in the contrast of the expressions ft planting" and 
 " watering," " laying the foundation," and " building," 
 which would, so far as they go, agree with the account in 
 the Acts, speaking of the mission of Apollos to Corinth as 
 producing a great impression subsequent to that of Paul. 
 To this, although less positively, we might add the frequent 
 allusions to pretensions to human wisdom and learning in 
 the early chapters, (i. 17 28 ; ii. 1 6,) which would agree 
 with no party so well as with those who professed to follow 
 "the Alexandrian Jew, eloquent, mighty in the Scriptures;" 
 whether we suppose them to have been found amongst the 
 pure Gentiles or amongst the Hellenistic Jews, to whom 
 he seems chiefly to have addressed his arguments. (Acts 
 xviii. 28.) 
 
 Whether the words eya Se Xpio-rov, refer to any dis- 
 tinct party, must always remain doubtful. One would be 
 glad with Chrysostom so to read the passage, as if the 
 Apostle, after enumerating the other names, had broken off 
 with the indignant exclamation, " But I am of Christ." 
 Had however such an antithesis been intended, some 
 such expression as eyco Be IIav\os Xpiarov seems almost 
 
 Bb2 
 
372 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHUHCH. 
 
 of necessity required to prevent the ambiguity which other- 
 wise arises. And that there was some party laying claim 
 to an exclusive connexion with the One Name which, as 
 the Apostle implies in 1 Cor. i. 13, ought to have been re- 
 garded as common to all, is strongly confirmed by the ex- 
 pression in 2 Cor. x. 7, " If any man trust to himself that 
 " he is of Christ, let him of himself think thus again, that 
 " as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's;" and although 
 with a much less certainty, by the claims apparently of 
 the same persons to be considered " Apostles of Christ," 
 and " ministers of Christ," (xi. 10, 23.) Without profess- 
 ing to determine the nature of this party with exact pre- 
 cision, or to examine the many opinions which have been 
 expressed concerning it, the context of the Second Epi- 
 stle where the above passages occur, indicates that, if they 
 refer to either of the two leading divisions of the Corinthian 
 Church, it is to the Jewish ; and it is in accordance with 
 what is implied of Judaizing Christians in other passages, 
 that they should have dwelt especially on their national 
 and lineal connexion with "the Christ/' "the anointed 
 " Messiah," " the Son of David," and that " the outward 
 "appearance," the "carnal and fleshly" arguments on 
 which they prided themselves, (2 Cor. v. 12 : x. 2, 3, 7,) 
 should have been their intercourse either with " Christ 
 " Himself after the flesh," (as seems implied in 2 Cor. v. 
 16,) or with the original Jewish Apostles, who had seen 
 Him, (1 Cor. ix. 1,) or with "the brethren of the Lord," 
 (1 Cor. ix. 4,) especially James, who would be prominently 
 put forward as the head of the Church of Palestine. (Comp. 
 especially Gal. ii. 16, 20.) Such a view, which has been 
 often defended at great length and in distinct treatises, is 
 of course nothing more than a conjecture, but as the most 
 probable, and, as that which has been in part assumed in a 
 previous Essay, it seemed not out of place to mention it 
 here. 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 373 
 
 II. From these indications of the primitive factions inTheCle- 
 the Apostolical Epistles, I pass at once over the various mentine8 ' 
 traces of them more or less doubtful to the remarkable 
 monument of them which is preserved to us from a some- 
 what later period in the work published for the first time 
 by Cotelerius, from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, 
 under the name of " the Clementines," which, whether we 
 regard it as a fruitful storehouse of ancient traditions, or an 
 almost unique example of a work in which the early here- 
 tics or sectarians speak for themselves, or as the earliest 
 specimen of a religious romance, is certainly deserving of 
 more attention than has usually been bestowed upon it, 
 even although it be regarded as an accidental memorial of 
 some obscure sect, and not as an indication of a more 
 general tendency. 
 
 It may be necessary for the sake of perspicuity to state 
 briefly the nature of this work, of which a detailed account 
 may be found in the elaborate treatise of Schliemann. The 
 " Clementine Homilies," which form the chief part of the 
 whole book, and of which eighteen out of twenty remain, 
 profess to give the account of the life and conversion of 
 Clement of Rome, as recorded by himself. He starts from 
 Rome to Palestine in search of the truth, after having 
 vainly sought for it in the schools of heathen philosophy : 
 on his way meets with Barnabas at Alexandria, who intro- 
 duces him at Csesarea to Peter, and after witnessing or 
 taking part in various dialogues, in which Peter and him- 
 self defend the unity of God against the Polytheistic errors 
 of Simon Magus and Apion, is baptized in one of the cities 
 of Phrenicia, which form the scene of the latter part of the 
 book; and the story closes with a discovery and mutual 
 recognition of his mother, brothers, and father, who had been 
 separated from each other and believed to have been lost. 
 The plot is of course subordinate to the conversations, 
 which chiefly consist of a representation of Christianity as 
 
374 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 a perfected form of Judaism, in opposition to the absurdi- 
 ties of Pagan and Gnostic philosophy, of which Simon 
 Magus appears as the representative. To the Homilies are 
 prefixed (1.) an Epistle of Peter to James, sending to him 
 a book of his " preaching," with a charge not to let it fall 
 into the hands of the Gentiles, lest they should corrupt it ; 
 (2.) a solemn adjuration of the presbyters by James, that 
 he and they shall comply with this request; (3.) an Epistle 
 of Clement to James, in which, after announcing Peter's 
 death, he proceeds to describe his appointment by Peter to 
 the see of Rome, with an accompanying description of the 
 duty of a bishop, and a charge that Clement will send to 
 James " an epitome of Peter's preachings on his travels." 
 This title is affixed to the Homilies, and it is therefore clear 
 that the Epistle of Clement was meant as a preface to 
 them ; and for the same reason, as well as from their position 
 in the MS., it would appear, though less certainly, that the 
 two previous documents relating to Peter's communication 
 with James are inserted with the same view. 
 
 Besides this work, which is called by the name of 
 "the Clementines," there exist two other treatises more 
 or less closely connected with it. (1.) "The Clemen- 
 " tine Recognitions/' (so called from the mutual discove- 
 ries in Clement's family before mentioned,) which though 
 originally composed in Greek, exist now only in a Latin 
 translation of Rufinus, arid are, like the Clementines, to be 
 found in Cotelerius's Patres Apostolici. They consist of 
 ten books, which carry on the story to the end, and in the 
 earlier part (i. 54 72,) contains a very curious description 
 of a controversy between the Apostles and High-priest, not 
 to be found in the Homilies ; but otherwise they appear to 
 be abridged from the Clementines, and are without the 
 Epistle of Peter or the Attestation of James. Their date 
 is fixed by an allusion in ix. 27, to the reign of Caracalla, 
 A. D. 212230. (2.) The Clementine Epitome of the 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 875 
 
 Preachings and Journeys of Peter, including an account of 
 Clement's own death a compilation of very late date, 
 (apparently after A.D. 980,) from both the previous works, 
 but in all important points of variation following the Re- 
 cognitions. 
 
 It will be seen from this account, that of these three 
 works, the chief historical interest attaches to the original 
 treatise of the Clementines. The other two seem to be 
 subsequent editions of it, in which most of the passages 
 of questionable tendency have been either suppressed or 
 altered. Its own date is uncertain, but the undoubted 
 indications of Ebionite views on the one hand, combined 
 with its artificial style on the other, would seem to point to 
 some period about the middle of the second century, which 
 would also suit the date of the subsequent Recognitions in 
 A.D. 212230. 
 
 Another treatise which perhaps should be mentioned as 
 forming part of the same cycle is the Apostolical Constitu- 
 tions, a work which professes to be the teaching of the 
 twelve Apostles drawn up by Clement, and which, though 
 not otherwise exhibiting any close resemblance, has pas- 
 sages on ecclesiastical government, coinciding almost ver- 
 bally with the Clementine Epistle to James; (Compare 
 Apost. Const, iv. 61 ; vi. 6. 44. 57.) 
 
 Amongst the many points of interest which this book 
 presents, there is none so great as that which arises from 
 the fact that here alone we have the undoubted language 
 of one at least of those factions which are mentioned in the 
 Epistles to the Corinthians, at a later period indeed, and 
 doubtless with considerable modifications of sentiment, but 
 still sufficiently identical to serve as an illustration of the 
 truth of the Apostle's representations. Springing as it does 
 from a Jewish quarter, it was not likely that the watch- 
 words either of Paul or Apollos should have been found in 
 it, and as a matter of fact their names are never mentioned. 
 
376 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 It is, as one might expect, the accents of those who 
 claimed to be adherents of Cephas or of James, whose 
 echoes we catch, however remotely, in this treatise. 
 
 Of these indications the following are the most remark- 
 able. 1. Peter is represented not merely as the Apostle 
 of the Circumcision, but as the Apostle of the Gentiles 
 also ; all the glory of St. Paul is transferred to him ; no 
 other preacher to the Gentiles is acknowledged except 
 him. (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. c. 1 ; Horn. ii. 17 ; iii. 59.) For 
 the coincidence of this with the language of the earlier 
 Judaizers, compare 2 Cor. x. 14 15; Rev. xv. 20; for its 
 contrast with the acts of the Apostle himself, compare 
 Gal. ii. 9, 10. 
 
 2. Although Peter is spoken of as "the first of the 
 " Apostles," (Ep, Clem, ad Jac. i. 3,) and as appointing 
 Clement to the see of Rome, (ibid.,) yet James is de- 
 scribed as superior in dignity both to him and Clement, 
 (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. 1 ; Ep. Clem, ad Jac. 19,) and to all the 
 Apostles, (Rec. i. 66 68;) as "the Lord and Bishop of 
 " the Holy Church, Bishop of Bishops, ruling the Churches 
 " everywhere, the Bishop, the Arch-bishop;" "the Chief 
 " Bishop," as opposed to Caiaphas " the Chief Priest." 
 (Ep. Pet. c. 1 ; Ep. Jac. c. 1 ; Rec. i. 66. 68. 70. 72, 73.) 
 For the coincidence of this with the extravagant claims 
 of the early Judaizers, compare 2 Cor. i. 24; xi. 20; 2 
 Cor. xi. 5, (agreeing again with the sentiment ascribed by 
 Irenseus (Haer. i. 26.) to the Ebionites, " Hierosolymain 
 " adorant quasi domum Dei.") For its contrast with the 
 expressions of the canonical Epistles, compare James i. 1 ; 
 1 Pet. v. 2. 
 
 3. St. Paul is never attacked by name, but the covert 
 insinuations are indisputable. 
 
 (a.) St. Peter is represented as warning St. James against 
 " the lawless and foolish teaching of the enemy," (rov 
 %0pov avOpMTTov,) who perverts "the Gentiles from the 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. -Ml 
 
 " lawful preaching of Peter," and misrepresents Peter "as 
 " though he thought with the Gentiles but did not preach 
 " it openly." (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. 2.) Comp. Gal. ii. 12, 14. 
 
 (b.) The "enemy" (homo inimicus) appears again as 
 taking part in the attack on the life of James, and as receiv- 
 ing letters from the high-priest to persecute Christians b 
 at Damascus. (Rec. i. 70.) Comp. Acts ix. 1. 
 
 (c.) St. Peter warns his congregation to beware of " any 
 " Apostle, prophet, or teacher, who does not first compare 
 " his preaching with James, and come with witnesses, lest 
 "the wickedness" which tempted Christ "afterwards, 
 " having fallen like lightning from heaven," (for the allu- 
 sion here comp. Acts xxvi. 13, 14,) "should send a herald 
 " against you, and suborn one who is to sow error (TrXdvyv) 
 " amongst you, as it suborned this Simon against us, preach- 
 " ing in the name of our Lord under pretence of the truth." 
 (Horn. xi. 35.) Compare again the coincidence with the 
 stress laid by the Corinthian Judaizers on commendatory 
 letters as marks of Apostleship. 2 Cor. iii. 1; x. 12 18; 
 v. 12. 
 
 (d.) The parallel which is suggested in the foregoing 
 passage between St. Paul and Simon, is carried out still 
 further in other passages, which go so far as actually to 
 describe the Apostle under the name of Simon, as the re- 
 presentative of all Gentile and Gnostic errors. This in- 
 sinuation is first conveyed in general language, and in con- 
 nexion with the doctrine of pairs or combinations, which 
 is strongly put forward in this work as a principle of the 
 Divine government. St. Peter is introduced as maintain- 
 ing that as Cain preceded Abel, and Ishmael Isaac, so 
 
 b It 'may be observed here tbat according to the altered point of view from 
 which the Recognitions are written, the allusions to St. Paul are taken not 
 from his later antagonism to Judaism, but from his earlier hostility to Chris- 
 tianity ; that he is spoken of not as identical with Simon Magus, but as 
 charging the Apostles with being his followers. 
 
378 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE COltlNTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 " Simon preceded Peter to the Gentiles, and that Peter 
 (( then succeeded to him, as light to darkness;" that "the 
 " false Gospel must come first from some deceiver, (VTTO 
 " 7r\dvov TWOS,) and then, after the destruction of the holy 
 " place, the true Gospel ; were he known, he would not 
 " have been received; but now, not being known, (dyvoov- 
 " yitei>oj,) he has been trusted to; he who does- the deeds 
 " of those who hate us, has been loved ; he who is our 
 " enemy, has been received as a friend ; being death, he 
 " has been longed for as a saviour ; being fire, he has been 
 "regarded as light; being a deceiver, (7r\dvos } ) he has 
 " been listened to as speaking the truth." (Horn. ii. 17, 18.) 
 Much of this might be regarded as merely taken from 
 the necessary opposition between Simon and Peter, from 
 our Lord's prophecy in Matt. xxiv. 11, 14, 15, and from 
 the account of Simon's universal reception in Acts viii. 10. 
 But, when taken in conjunction with the designation of 
 " the enemy" in Ep. Pet. ad Jac. c. 2, it seems impossible to 
 doubt that the whole passage contains allusions, sometimes 
 even verbally exact, to such charges against St. Paul as 
 are implied in 2 Cor. vi. 8, 9 ; Acts xxL 28, or to the gene- 
 ral success of his mission in parts where the Jewish Apo- 
 stles had not yet penetrated, as implied especially in Rom. 
 xvi. 19, 20; 2 Cor. x. 1316; 1 Cor. i. 13, 15; Gal. iv. 
 14 16. All doubt however is removed by the more pre- 
 cise language of another passage in a later part of the work. 
 In an argument between Simon and Peter, in which the 
 former insists on the superiority of visions as evidence to our 
 Lord's discourses, the latter on that of actual intercourse, 
 Peter concludes as follows: "If then Jesus our Lord (6 
 " 'Irjaovs fj^wv) was seen in a vision and was known by 
 " thee and conversed with thee, it was in anger with thee 
 " as an adversary that He spoke to thee through visions and 
 " dreams, and even through outward revelations. But can 
 " any one be made wise to teach through a vision ? If 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 379 
 
 " thou sayest that he can, why then did our Master abide 
 " and converse with His disciples not sleeping but awake 
 " for a whole year? And how shall we believe the very 
 " fact that He was seen of thee ? And how could He have 
 " been seen of thee when thou teachest things contrary to 
 " His teaching? And if by having been seen and made a 
 " disciple by Him for one hour, thou becamest an Apostle, 
 " then expound what He has taught, love His Apostles, 
 " fight not with me who was His companion. For against 
 " me the firm rock, the foundation of the Church, even me 
 " thou didst 'withstand' openly, (avOear^Kas.) If thou 
 " hadst not been an adversary, thou wouldst not have 
 " calumniated me and reviled my preaching, to deprive me 
 " of credit when I spoke what I had heard myself in inter- 
 " course with the Lord, as if I were to be blamed, I whose 
 " character is so great. Or if thou sayest that I was to be 
 " blamed, (^Kareyvwcri^kvov^ thou accusest God who re- 
 " vealed Christ to me, arid attackest Him who blessed me 
 " because of that revelation. But since thou wishest truly 
 " to work with the truth, now learn first from us what 
 " we learned from Him, and when thou hast become a dis- 
 " ciple of the truth, then become a fellow-worker with us." 
 (Horn. xvii. 19.) * The whole passage is given because it 
 exhibits at length the objections made to St. Paul's divine 
 mission, which might have been inferred to exist from his 
 own expressions in Gal. i. 1, 12, 15, 16 20; 1 Cor. ix. 1; 
 2 Cor. x. 16 ; xi. 1 5. And in the indisputable reference to 
 St. Paul's own words in the account of the feud at Antioch, 
 avrevrriv, Kareyvwo-jjievov, (Gal. ii. 11,) which was before 
 glanced at in Ep. Pet. ad Jac. 2, there is hardly an attempt 
 to draw over the true object of the passage even the thin 
 veil of the character of Simon, which serves to darken only, 
 not conceal it c . 
 
 c In quoting these passages I have not ventured to question the date 
 assigned to them by Schliemann, as forming parts of a treatise which it seems 
 
380 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Further indications of the same tendencies might per- 
 haps be collected from the same work or from others of the 
 same period, but what has been given is sufficient for our 
 purpose. It may be tantalizing to see these few memorials, 
 rising here and there like fragments of a submerged conti- 
 nent, and to know that they belong to a series of events or of 
 feelings which are now lost to us ; and it is natural that in 
 an age in which so much has been done to recover and re- 
 construct past history, complete systems should have been 
 formed to fill up and bridge over the vast gulfs which in- 
 tervene between one of these stepping-stones and another. 
 But it is not necessary to do this for the sake of vindicating 
 to criticism in this sphere that constructive power which 
 in its other branches almost all would now accord to it. 
 There was a time when with far less real knowledge 
 than we at present possess, it was supposed that nothing 
 more remained to be known beyond the isolated facts on 
 the surface of the history ; it is something now to be im- 
 
 difficult to place before the middle of the second century. It is a point in 
 our present state of knowledge possibly beyond the power of criticism to 
 determine accurately ; and some of the passages (those from the Epistle of 
 Clement and from Horn. ii. 17.) may be too essentially interwoven with the 
 present text, to be imagined ever to have existed separately from it. There 
 is however in the Epistle to James and in Horn. xi. 35, and xvii. 19, a loose- 
 ness of connexion with the context, and also a vigour and conciseness of ex- 
 pression unlike the general style of the Homilies, such as might possibly 
 suggest the doubt whether they do not in fact belong to a still earlier work, 
 which may have been wrought up into its present form of the Clementines, 
 as the Clementines themselves have been wrought up into the subsequent 
 editions of the Recognitions and Epitome ; or whether they might not have 
 been become incorporated from some other source, in the same manner as 
 there are evidently passages which have undergone an interchange between 
 the Clementines and the Apostolical Constitutions. 
 
 But it is useless to speculate on a subject which will soon in all probability 
 receive a new light from the same collection of Syriac MSS. in the British 
 Museum which has already enriched our knowledge of the first ages of Chris- 
 tianity, and which contains a Syriac version of the Clementines, not agreeing 
 precisely either with the Recognitions or the Homilies, to be brought out 
 shortly under the auspices of Mr. Cureton. 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 881 
 
 pressed with the sense that our information is broken and 
 uncertain, to be reminded that the mere consciousness of 
 the large departments of our ignorance is in itself a great 
 accession to our knowledge, that of the second no less 
 than of the first creation, darkness and chaos was the 
 natural prelude and accompaniment. 
 
 In the case before us that very dimness and uncertainty 
 is itself a testimony to the Divine origin of the light which 
 shined in the darkness and " the darkness comprehended it 
 fl not." It is by catching a glimpse, however partial, of those 
 wild dissensions which raged around and beneath the Apo- 
 stolical writings, that we can best appreciate the sublime 
 unity and repose of those writings themselves; it is by see- 
 ing how completely these dissensions have been obliterated 
 that we can best understand how marked was the difference 
 between them, and analogous divisions in other history. We 
 know how the names of Plato and Aristotle, of Francis 
 and Dominic, of Luther and Calvin, have continued as the 
 rallying-point of rival schools and systems long after the 
 decease and contrary even to the intentions of their re- 
 spective founders. But with regard to the factions of the 
 Apostolical age it was not so. Hundreds of inferior names 
 have been perpetuated in the history of inferior sects; but 
 the schools of Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, which once 
 waged so bitter a warfare against each other, were extin- 
 guished almost before ecclesiastical history had begun ; and 
 the utmost diversity of human character and outward style 
 between their supposed heads has been unable to break the 
 indissoluble harmony in which their memories are united in 
 the associations of the Christian world. Partly this arose from 
 the nature of the case. The Apostles could not have been 
 the founders of systems even if they would. Their power 
 was not their own but another's, "who made them to 
 " differ from another ? what had they which they had not 
 " received ?" If once they claimed an independent autho- 
 
382 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE COBINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 rity, their authority was gone ; great philosophers, great 
 conquerors, great heresiarchs, leave their names even in 
 spite of themselves, but such the Apostles could not be 
 without ceasing to be what they were, and the total ex- 
 tinction of the parties which were called after them is in 
 fact a testimony to the divinity of their mission. But are we 
 not also justified in believing, as has been assumed through- 
 out these pages, that in the great work of reconciliation, 
 of which the outward volume of the Sacred Canon is the 
 eternal monument, they were themselves not merely pas- 
 sive instruments, but active and conscious agents ; that a 
 lesson is still to be derived from the record which they have 
 left of their own resistance to the claims of the factions which 
 vainly endeavoured to divide what God had joined together? 
 I have endeavoured to exemplify this in the case of St. 
 Peter, and if the view taken in the Sermon on St. James 
 is correct, it is obvious that the opposition which some 
 have sought to find between him and St. Paul rests on a 
 mistaken interpretation of his words. But as the one deci- 
 sive testimony to the existence of these factions is con- 
 tained in the passage from the First Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians prefixed to this discussion, so the one decisive testi- 
 mony to the "still sublimity with which the Apostles rise 
 " above them" is contained in St. Paul's own comment 
 upon them, with which for that reason the subject may 
 most fitly be closed ; whether we regard it as the most 
 complete answer to the charges which in ancient times or 
 in modern have been brought against the motives of the 
 Apostle, or whether we turn to it, irrespectively of any 
 temporary object, as the -true model of Christian wisdom 
 and forbearance in factious and troublous times. 
 
 There we have an indisputable proof that it was not 
 merely the errors or the hostilities of sect or party, but 
 the spirit itself of sect and party, even when it conferred 
 glory on himself, that the Apostle denounced as the sign 
 
ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 383 
 
 of an unchristian or half-Christian society, when he warned 
 them that not only their sins or their Judaism, but their 
 " strifes" and "divisions" of whatever kind, were a proof 
 that they were "carnal and walked as men;" when he 
 " transferred in a figure to himself and A polios" all that 
 he would teach them of the evil of the factions generally, 
 in order that they might fully understand that it was by 
 no personal feeling that he was influenced, but that what 
 he condemned he condemned "for their sakes" in what- 
 ever form it might be found, whether it made for him or 
 against him. (1 Cor. iii. 3; iv. 6.) There too we meet 
 with the most express contradiction to the suspicions 
 always natural to low minds, that a character which exer- 
 cised so vast an influence must have been intent *on self- 
 exaltation, when he tells them that "he rejoices that he 
 " had baptized none of them, but Crispus and Gains, lest 
 " any should say that he had baptized in his own name ;" 
 when he conjures them " so to account of him" not as an in- 
 dependent teacher and master, but merely as a subordinate 
 " minister (VTTTJP eras') to Christ," as a humble "steward" 
 whose only object it was faithfully to expound "the se- 
 " crets of God," not to think that their favourable judgment 
 would justify him before God, but to wait patiently to the 
 end of all things, for "then" and not before "shall every 
 " man have praise of God." (1 Cor. iv. 1 5.) And there 
 lastly we have the true secret of freedom from party-spirit, 
 true always, but in the highest degree true of the Apostles, 
 when he represents the nothingness of himself and all other 
 teachers, how wise soever, in comparison with the great- 
 ness of their common cause, with the recollection that 
 they were "in Christ Jesus, who of God was made unto 
 " them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 " redemption." " All things are yours," however strong 
 their outward contrast, "whether Paul or Apollos or 
 " Cephas, or the world, or life or death, all are yours, for 
 
384 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHUECH. 
 
 "ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. i. 30; 
 iii. 22.) 
 
 With these words of the great Apostle I gladly close this 
 volume. They contain the sum and substance of all that I 
 have endeavoured to express. To represent faithfully both 
 the distinctness of character and the unity of object which 
 St. Paul there sets before us, has been one chief object of 
 the previous pages. If I should have overstated either the 
 one or the other, I trust that the attempt may at least 
 be of use in inducing others to adjust more exactly the 
 scales of that balance, which cannot be disturbed without 
 danger, whether in the study of the Sacred Writings them- 
 selves, or in their application to our practical duties, as 
 men, as citizens, and as Christians. 
 
 OXFORD : 
 
 HUNTED BY I. SHRJiMlTON. 
 
384 ON THE DIVISIONS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 
 
 "ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. i. 30; 
 iii. 22.) 
 
 With these words of the great Apostle I gladly close this 
 volume. They contain the sum and substance of all that I 
 have endeavoured to express. To represent faithfully both 
 the distinctness of character and the unity of object which 
 St. Paul there sets before us, has been one chief object of 
 the previous pages. If I should have overstated either the 
 one or the other, I trust that the attempt may at least 
 be of use in inducing others to adjust more exactly the 
 scales of that balance, which cannot be disturbed without 
 danger, whether in the study of the Sacred Writings them- 
 selves, or in their application to our practical duties, as 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 P 2 line 25. for change read chance 
 _1 1(5 i. 18. add I. before In examining 
 
 183. 8- read make it 
 
 189. 14. no break 
 
 __ 222. 18. for Tyara read Tyana 
 
 2-*3. -- 13. for element read elements 
 
 __ it, .' 15. for has read have 
 
 s >34 t 19. far seemed to be read are 
 
 OXFORD : 
 IRINTEI) BY J. SHRJM1TON. 
 
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