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(2.) And as nothing was further from the design of St. Paul and the other Sacred Writers, than to frame a philosophical system, so, they aimed at no philosophical regularity of language: their writings, as I have before remarked, were popular, not scientific; they expressed their meaning on each occasion, in the words which on each occasion, suggested themselves as best

shall be misled. Both we and the Sacred Writers, indeed, understand by the word, something hidden from one party and known to another, (for we suppose all mysteries to be known to God); but there is this difference; that we use the word in reference to the party from whom the knowledge is withheld; St. Paul, in reference to those to whom the knowledge is revealed. Such an expression as, "this is a mystery to us," conveys to us the idea that it is something we do not and cannot understand; to St. Paul it would convey the idea that it is something which "now is made manifest," and which we are, therefore, called upon to contemplate and study; even as his office was "to make known the mystery of the gospel." Not that he meant to imply that we are able fully to understand the divine dispensations; but it is not in reference to this their inscrutable character that he calls them mysteries, but the reverse; they are reckoned by him mysteries, not so far forth as they are hidden and unintelligible, but so far forth as they are revealed and explained.

For another use of mystery, to signify a symbolical representation, See Parkhurst.

fitted to convey it to readers of plain understanding; and these terms are to be understood, though not indeed always in their ordinary sense, yet, on the other hand, not according to any precise scientific definition, but each with reference to the context of the place where it is found.

(3.) And again, it is this popular and unsystematic character of the Sacred Writings that makes it the more unsafe to dwell on detached portions of them, instead of comparing each part of Scripture with the rest. Not merely incomplete knowledge, but actual error, will often be the result; because it will often happen (as might be expected in an unscientific discourse) that the author has in view, in some particular passage, not the full development of any truth, but the correction of some particular mistake,--the inculcation of some particular caution,--or the enforcement of some particular portion of a doctrine or precept; so that such a passage, contemplated by itself, would tend to partial, and consequently, erroneous views.

(4.) And as it is hence necessary to call in the aid of different parts of Scripture for the

interpretation of each other, so, those which appear the most at variance with each other,---which if taken singly, and strictly interpreted, would contradict each other,are, for that very reason, the most important to be brought together and contemplated in connexion. The seeming contradictions in Scripture are too numerous not to be the result of design; and doubtless were designed, not as mere difficulties to try our faith and patience, but as furnishing the most suitable mode of instruction that could have been devised, by mutually explaining, and modifying or limiting, or extending, one another's meaning. By this means we are furnished, in some degree, with a test of the truth or falsity of our conclusions: as long as the appearance of mutual contradiction remains, we may be sure that we are wrong:--when we can fairly and without violenced reconcile passages of opposite tendencies, we may entertain a hope that we are right. Such must be the procedure of the candid inquirer after truth; and by which, through divine help, he may hope to attain it. Those whose object is to find arguments in

d See Pascal's Thoughts, XIII. 12.

support of a favourite hypothesis built on a partial view of Scripture, will often be no less successful in their object;---in finding texts that will serve to give plausibility to their own system, and to perplex an opponent. But that opponent will usually have exactly the same advantages on his side also; each party having apparently some portion of Scripture favourable to his scheme, and others which he can hardly reconcile with it; and both parties perhaps being equally remote from the truth, and guilty of the very same error as to their mode of interpreting Scripture.

§ 4. That the apparent contradictions of Scripture are numerous,---that the instruction conveyed by them, if they be indeed designed for such a purpose, is furnished in abundance,--is too notorious to need being much insisted on.

We are told that God "repented of having made man upon the earth,"--that He "repented of having made Saul King over Israel,"---that "He repenteth Him of the evil;" and again, that "He is not the son of man that He should repent;" and that "in Him is no variableness nor shadow of turning." We are told that "whosoever

is born of God doth not commit sin;" yet again, by the very same author, that " if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." We read in St. Paul, that Abraham was justified by faith, and in St. James, that he was justified by works. One discourse of our Lord's, in which He makes mention of the day of judgment, and describes the blessing and the curse respectively pronounced on those who have performed or neglected such charitable offices as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and ministering to the sick, might seem to favour the conclusion that our final doom is to depend exclusively on our care or neglect of our distressed brethren, without any regard to our faith, or to the purity or the integrity of our lives; in his final charge to his disciples again, it might seem that every thing is made to depend on right belief alone; "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." We are told again, by our Lord, to pray and to give alms, secretly; and again, to let our "light so shine before men that they may see our good works;" and by the Apostle, "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together" for the purpose of worship. We are told by our Lord," He that is not with

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