name, I in Inσes."148 These, however, further illustrate the use of the numerical mode of the außoxía; the instances of which are not of very frequent occurrence in the writings of the early fathers, and will not, therefore, require any more particular observations.

Our amphibolical quotations hitherto have borne altogether upon the cross. We have noticed a constant effort to multiply the number of scriptural allusions to it, by giving such a meaning to the most improbable places. All the particulars of its external appearance are diffusively dwelt upon. That which in the first century was ascribed to the divine energy of him who was crucified, is, in the writers of the second, (frequently by implication, and more than once by express declaration) taught to be the effects of certain magical virtues residing in the figure of the cross. This error, like so many of the preceding ones, soon yielded its fruits. Very shortly afterwards, all who professed the Christian name were called upon, not to prostrate their hearts before Christ crucified, but their persons before the crucifix; and, instead of worshipping "him who died on tree," to pay their adorations to the tree on which he died!

It will also have been observed, that several of the glosses which we have quoted, equivocate upon the names and titles of our Lord. As this is, with the early fathers, an ordinary mode of applying the canon of comment we are considering, we will exemplify it by an instance or two, which will again illustrate the influence which the epistle of St. Barnabas exercised over the church in the second century.

"Jesus (that is, Joshua) is said to have circumcised the people a second time with stone knives,"149 because

148 Pæd., lib. 1. c. 9.

149 μαχαίρας πετρίνας, Josh. v. 2. LXX.

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Jesus Christ is the herald of that circumcision wherewith he hath circumcised us from stones and other idols. And he hath made heaps of the foreskins 150 of those that were uncircumcised from the error of the world, who are now circumcised with the stone knives' of Jesus our Lord, that is, with his words. For Jesus is often called by the prophets a stone' and 'a rock :' by stone knives, therefore, we are to understand his words, whereby so many who were in error through uncircumcision have been circumcised with the circumcision of the heart. All, therefore, who enter into the heavenly Canaan, undergo this circumcision by the stone knives of Jesus."151 When the ark of the covenant had been taken by the men of Ashdod and was returned by them on account of the plagues wherewith they were smitten,152 the heifers that drew the car which contained it, under no mortal guidance, took it to the field of a certain man named Jesus, (that is, Joshua,) and stood still; whereby we are to understand that they were directed by the power of that name."

"153

I will mention here an objection to the practice of throwing the narratives of the Old Testament into types of the New Dispensation, which appears to me an important one. Has it not a direct tendency to raise and to confirm the infidel notion that the events there narrated are by no means to be viewed in the light of literally historical facts, but of mere parables, founded indeed upon history, but embellished by the narrator, to suit

150 βενὸς τῶν ακροβυσιών. Id.

151 Justin. Dial., p. 341 A. The extract is preceded by much more to the same purport, and followed by a dissertation at length upon Christ the stone; I have only taken what appeared to be the most remarkable passage.

152 1 Sam. vii. 7-14.

153 Ubi supra., p. 362 B., where see more.

the purpose for which he relates it? The idea that the two dispensations of God have been so ordered that the one is, not merely the type, but the very protoplast of the other; the resemblance holding throughout every possible particular, with such minute exactness, as to justify the obscure, and scarcely comprehensible allusions which the early fathers so often discover, and of which our present quotations afford us the example, is, in itself, so complex, and, therefore, so discordant with every thing that is revealed to us regarding the divine mode of operation, that we are not surprised that they who maintain it should endeavour to rid themselves of the difficulty by the invention of some easier expedient; by the supposition that the inspired historians altered and embellished their narrations in the spirit of prophecy, or, in plainer terms, that they lied by the Holy Ghost. 154 Philo, who wishes to identify Judaism with philosophy, was certainly of this opinion; and I am not prepared to

154 That my meaning may not be misconceived, I will further illustrate it from the example before us. There is a perfect propriety in elucidating the captivity of the world to sin by the Egyptian bondage; the conversion to Christianity, of which water baptism is the figure, by the passage through the Red Sea; the vicissitudes of the Christian life, by the sojourn in the wilderness; and the "rest that remaineth for the people of God" by the promised land of Canaan: because for all these we have scriptural authority. Nor am I insensible to the beauty, as well as the propriety, of the illustration. But the connection between the two is purely metaphorical; it partakes not at all of the nature of protoplasm, or sympathy; we allow of nothing beyond that air of general resemblance which justifies the use of the figure. In the instances before us, therefore, we cannot hesitate to deny that there is any relation, typical, or sympathetical, between the names of the son of Nun and the Son of God, because such an application runs the metaphor aground, which is a greater offence in divinity than even in literature. And besides, the inspired writings connect the two names, not in the way of type, but of antithesis. Heb. iv.

say that the philosophical Christianism of the second century was entirely free from it. I have sometimes been led to entertain the suspicion in perusing the works of its professors.

The following very objectionable comment well exemplifies, both the evil of these historical types, and the extent of licence allowed in the second century to the außoxía; which, it will be seen, was by no means confined to the cross and names of Christ, but applied to every thing relating to him. "If any one will look into the acts of Jacob, he will find them not unmeaning, but full of dispensation. In the first place, at his birth; he was called Jacob, a supplanter, because he laid hold on his brother's heel; holding, not being himself held; binding feet, not being bound himself; holding in his hand the heel of his adversary, that is the victory. Even unto this also, the Lord was born, of whom Jacob was the type as well as the progenitor; and of whom John says in the Apocalypse: he went forth conquering and to conquer.' Jacob then attained the primogeniture, when his brother despised it, even as also we, the younger people, obtained Christ, when our older brethren in grace (the Jews) rejected him, saying, we have no king but Cæsar,' There is a universal blessing in Christ; and, therefore, the Father's blessing upon the first people the last stole away: even as Jacob got the blessing from Esau. And as on this account he was greatly persecuted by his brother, so also the church at this day suffers persecution from the Jews. The descendants of Jacob became twelve tribes, and Christ hath founded his church upon the twelve-pillared basis of the apostles. The spotted sheep were Jacob's wages; 155 and the wages of Christ are men

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155 Gen. xxx. 32.

of various and differing nations, gathered together into one cohort, and made of one faith; as the Father hath promised, Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.'156 And as Jacob's numerous family were prophetic of the multitude that should be born unto the Lord, it was needful that he should beget them of two sisters, even as Christ's children came from two laws, of one and the same lawgiver. A part of Jacob's family was also by two hand-maidens; signifying how, according to the flesh, Christ makes the sons of God both of bond and free, giving the Spirit that quickens us, unto all. But Jacob did all things for the sake of her who had beautiful eyes, even Rachel, who prefigured the church on account of which Christ suffered. No part of Jacob's history is without significancy."157

There is a gravity in the style of Irenæus, as well as an ingenuity, in the application of the amphibolical meanings in this passage, which gives it, at first sight, a very imposing and plausible appearance: but a slight examination will suffice to detect its real character; it is a tissue of wretched trifling, surpassed in utter absurdity, yea buffoonery, by nothing which is before the reader. Nor can we better expose the folly of the entire system, than by comparing it with the gloss we have already given from Tertullian upon the same passage; 158 when it will be observed that the same Jacob and Esau, in whom the one discovers a type of Gentiles and Jews, the other finds to be an equally instructive symbol of Christ and Satan; and that the very events which the one interprets as predictive of the acceptance of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews, the other, with the aid of the außoxía, applies to the victories of Christ and the dis157 Iren., lib. 4. c. 38. 158 Page 249.

156 Psa. ii. 8.