Inspiration and Interpretation Part 35

16:) &c.

[613] "It is a very misleading notion of Prophecy," says Dr. Arnold,--(a writer to whom, more than to any other person, I conceive that we are indebted for "Essays and Reviews;" _that_ unhappy production being the lawful development and inevitable result of the late Head-master of Rugby's most unsound and mischievous religious teaching:)--"It is a very misleading notion of Prophecy, if we regard it as an antic.i.p.ation of History." (_Sermons_, i. p. 375.) "I think that, with the exception of those prophecies which relate to our LORD, the object of Prophecy is rather to delineate principles and states of opinion which shall come, than external events. I grant that Daniel _seems to furnish an exception_." (_Life and Correspondence_, p. 59.) This was written in 1825. In 1840, we are informed:--"The latter chapters of Daniel, _if genuine, would be a clear exception to my Canon of Interpretation_....

But I have long thought that the greater part of the Book of Daniel is most certainly a very late work, of the time of the Maccabees; and the _pretended prophecy_ about the Kings of Grecia and Persia, and of the North and South, is _mere history, like the poetical prophecies in Virgil and elsewhere_.... That there may be genuine fragments in it, is very likely." (_Ibid._, p. 505.)--In other words, Dr. Arnold, rather than suppose "_my_ Canon of Interpretation" (!) worthless, is prepared to eject the Book of Daniel from the Inspired Canon. Any thing is "very likely," in short, except that G.o.d could foretell future events, and Dr.

Arnold be in error!... ??' ??? ???? t?d';

[614] a.n.a.logy, P. II. ch. vii.

[615] _Throughout_ the volume ent.i.tled "Essays and Reviews;" while the third Essay is simply an affirmation of their _impossibility_.

[616] And yet, Bp. Butler says,--"The facts, both miraculous and natural, in Scripture, appear in all respects to stand upon the same foot of historical evidence:" ... "and though testimony is no proof of enthusiastic opinions, or of any opinions at all; yet, it is allowed, in all other cases, to be a proof of facts."--_a.n.a.logy_, P. II. ch. vii.

(ed. 1833, pp. 285 and 293.)

[617] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 140.

[618] _Ibid._, p. 104.

[619] There are some admirable observations on this subject in the 'Preliminary Essay' prefixed to Dean Trench's _Notes on the Miracles._--See pp. 10, 12, 15, 60, &c.

[620] Dr. Temple.

[621] Mr. Babbage's _Bridgewater Treatise_, (2nd. Ed. 1838,) p. 92.

[622] "_Why we should pray for Fair Weather_: being Remarks on Professor Kingsley's Sermon,"--by a Member of the University [of Cambridge,]--12mo. Cambridge, 1860, p. 8.

[623] "The view taken of Miracles in chapter viii., is the same as that contained in the work of Butler, on _the a.n.a.logy_" &c.--Babbage (as above), p. 191.

[624] _Edinburgh Review_, for April 1861, p. 486.

[625] How exactly, in this instance, has Dr. Whewell's antic.i.p.ation received fulfilment!;--"We may, with the greatest propriety, deny to the mechanical Philosophers and Mathematicians of recent times any authority with regard to their views of the administration of the Universe; we have no reason whatever to expect from their speculations any help, when we ascend to the first Cause and supreme Ruler of the Universe. But we might perhaps go further, and a.s.sert that _they are in some respects less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to make any clear advance towards such a subject of speculation_."--(Whewell's _Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 334.)--Scarcely less acute is the remark which the late excellent Hugh James Rose has somewhere left on record, concerning the chapter wherein the preceding remark occurs,--That the world would not easily forgive Dr. Whewell for those two chapters on "Inductive" and "Deductive Habits."

[626] Babbage (as before), p. 92, (heading of ch. viii.)

[627] See the _a.n.a.logy_, P. II. ch. iv. sect. iii.

[628] St. Mark i. 24. St. Luke iv. 34: viii. 28, 30-32, &c. &c.

[629] Exod. xvi. 18-21: 22-24:--25-27: 31: 33-34. Add Wisdom xvi. 20-1.

[630] Exod. xvi. 35, and Josh. v. 12.

[631] Exod. xiv. 22, 29.

[632] St. Matth. viii. 26. St. Mark iv. 39.

[633] St. Matth. viii. 15.

[634] _Edinburgh Review_, (art. on 'Essays and Reviews,') April 1861, p. 487.

[635] _Edinburgh Review_, (art. on 'Essays and Reviews,') April 1861, p. 487.

[636] I have softened the expression originally employed in this place, out of deference to the opinions of some wise and good men. But I do not think that St. John, (the Evangelist and Apostle _of Dogma_,) would have thought my language too strong: nor St. Paul either. ?? t?? ??

f??e?,--

[637] 1 Cor. xv. 14.

[638] From a Sermon by the pious and learned chaplain to the English congregation at Rome, the Rev. F. B. Woodward,--_CHRIST risen the Foundation of the Faith_,--preached on Easter Day, 1861. (Rivingtons.)

[639] Van Mildert's _Bampton Lectures_ for 1814, ("An Inquiry into the general principles of Scripture-Interpretation,")--pp. 242-3.

[640] The reader is particularly requested to read what Dr. Moberly has said on this subject in _Some Remarks on 'Essays and Reviews,'_ being the _Revised Preface to the Second Edition of 'Sermons on the Beat.i.tudes_,'--p. xxii to p. xxv.--The _constructive_ value of the 'Remarks' of that excellent Divine will long outlive the occasion which has called them forth. I allude particularly to the considerations which occur from p. x.x.xii to p. lxiii.

[641] St. Luke xix. 14.

[642] 2 Tim. iv. 2.

[643] 1 Sam. xx. 3.

[644] Ps. xvii. 16.

[645] Jer. vi. 4.

[646] Song of S. ii. 17: iv. 6.

APPENDIX A.

(p. 16.)

[_Bishop Horsley on the double sense of Prophecy._]

"I shall not wonder, if, to those who have not sifted this question to the bottom, (which few, I am persuaded, have done,) the evidence of a Providence, arising from prophecies of this sort[647], should appear to be very slender, or none at all. Nor shall I scruple to confess, that time was when I was myself in this opinion, and was therefore much inclined to join with those who think that every prophecy, were it rightly understood, would be found to carry a precise and single meaning; and that, wherever the double sense appears, it is because the one true sense hath not yet been detected. I said,--'Either the images of the prophetic style have constant and proper relations to the events of the world, as the words of common speech have proper and constant meanings, or they have not. If they have, then it seems no less difficult to conceive that many events should be shadowed under the images of one and the same prophecy, than that several likenesses should be expressed in a single portrait. But, if the prophetic images have no such appropriate relations to things, but that the same image may stand for many things, and various events be included in a single prediction, then it should seem that prophecy, thus indefinite in its meaning, con afford no proof of Providence: for it should seem possible, that a prophecy of this sort, by whatever principle the world were governed, whether by Providence, Nature, or Necessity, might owe a seeming completion to mere accident.' And since it were absurd to suppose that the Holy Spirit of G.o.d should frame prophecies by which the end of Prophecy might so ill be answered, it seemed a just and fair conclusion, that no prophecy of holy writ might carry a double meaning.

"Thus I reasoned, till a patient investigation of the subject brought me, by G.o.d'S blessing, to a better mind. I stand clearly and unanswerably confuted, by the instance of Noah's prophecy concerning the family of j.a.pheth; which hath actually received various accomplishments, in events of various kinds, in various ages of the world,--in the settlements of European and Tartarian conquerors in the Lower Asia; in the settlements of European traders on the coasts of India; and in the early and plentiful conversion of the families of j.a.pheth's stock to the faith of CHRIST. The application of the prophecy to any one of these events bears all the characteristics of a true interpretation,--consistence with the terms of the prophecy, consistence with the truth of history, consistence with the prophetic system. Every one of these events must therefore pa.s.s, with every believer, for a true completion."

BP. HORSLEY's _Sermons_, No. xvii. Vol. ii. pp. 73-4.

FOOTNOTES:

[647] Gen. ix. 25-7.

APPENDIX B.

(p. 50.)