guide, we must imagine the Sacred Volume to be corrupt to a degree far beyond anything that was ever pretended. V. That the fact is, as might hence naturally be expected, that the best Masoretic text, as now existing, does actually contain some indubitable errors, which are proved to be such, by other copies, by ancient versions, by evident reason, and by the spiritual sense;" and that this view of the subject is sanctioned and recognized by E. S. himself; of which instances are given. Very large portions of the Word of the Old Testament are, without doubt, correctly given in his works. To conclude this section, we will remark, that the extreme caution which the Jews have always observed in the transcription of the Holy Writings, especially of the Pentateuch, is not the least remarkable feature in the character of that remarkable people. The manuscript rolls in their synagogues were preserved with uncommon care, in an ark or coffer, and, when the roll containing the law was exposed to the gaze of the congregation, it formed a spectacle of unusual solemnity. The Rabbinical rules relating to the preparation and transcription of the SEPHER-TORAH, i. e., Book of the Law, for the use of Synagogues, are no less than eighty-eight. They are excessively strict; and these the greatest desire to secure textual accuracy. These copies are directed to be made by sacred scribes alone, called Sephorim, who are set apart for this especial purpose. The transcriber must, at the commencement of his task, be in the full enjoyment of health, and, from time to time, must leave off before lassitude supervenes. He must prepare himself for his work by submitting to a prescribed course of medicine, and by observing certain peculiar ceremonials. The Synagogue roll must be copied from ancient and approved manuscripts. It must be written with pure black ink, prepared from materials and with ceremonies according to an ancient Rabbinical receipt. The skins upon which the law is to be transcribed, must be those of a clean animal, carefully prepared for that express purpose, by an appointed individual. The sheets or skins are to be fastened together with strings made of the sinews of a clean animal. Each skin must contain a prescribed number of columns, of a limited length and breadth; each column must contain a regular number of lines and words; and all, except five, must begin with the same letter. The pens must be made of the quills of a clean bird, and the "Tetragrammeton," or ineffable name of Jehovah, must be written with a new pen, devoted to that exclusive purpose; before writing it the scribe must bathe his whole person, and in writing the sacred names of God, he is required to solemnize his mind, by devotion and reverence; and, previously to writing some of them, he must wash his pen. He must not write a single word from memory. He must attentively look upon each individual word in his exemplar, and orally pronounce it, before writing it down. The copy must be examined within thirty days after its completion. Some authors say that the mistake of a single letter, even an imperfectly formed letter, much more a superfluous one, vitiates the entire codex; others state that it is permitted to correct three errors in any one sheet, but if more are found, the copy is condemned as profane, or unfit for religious purposes, and, as the case may be, is either cut to pieces with solemn curses, or preserved for private use. In such a way did Divine Providence, acting through an almost superstitious reverence for the very words of Holy Writ (for it was little more than superstition with the Jews), secure the authenticity of the text, and guard the canon pure against all corruption.- Holy Ghost teacheth,' 1 Cor. ii. 13, if that See also Professor Gaussen's Theopneustos; Scott Porter's Principle of Textual Criticism, book ii., caps i., ii.; Bishop Marsh's Lectures on Criticism, p. 65; Hartwell Horne's Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, etc. Dr. Whitby, quoted with great approbation by Dr. A. Clarke, thus writes respecting the inspiration of the apostles: and if what is advanced be confined, as it ought most assuredly to be, to their Acts and apostolic Epistles, we are perfectly agreed, differing with him, however, toto cœlo, that the same opinions are applicable to the Gospels and the book of Revelation; for these, as we have already proved, were penned under the highest degree of inspiration, and, containing a heavenly meaning within the letter, are divinely true in every particular. "I contend only," says he, “for such an inspiration, or divine assistance of the sacred writers of the New Testament, as will assure us of the truth of what they wrote, whether by inspiration of suggestion or direction only; but not for such an inspiration as implies that even their words were dictated, or their phrases suggested to them by the Holy Ghost. This, in some matters of great moment, might be so, St. Paul declaring that they spake the things which were given them of God, in the words which the relate not to what the Holy Ghost had taught them out of the Old Testament. But that it was not always so is evident, both from the consideration that they were hagiographers, who are supposed to be left to the use of their own words, and from the variety of the style in which they write, and from their solecisms, which are sometimes visible in their compositions; and more especially from their own words, which manifestly show that, in some cases, they had no such suggestion from the Holy Ghost, as doth imply that He had dictated those words unto them. For instance, when St. Paul declares his will or purpose to do what he was hindered by the providence of God from doing, as when he says to the Romans, 'When I go into Spain I will come to you,' chap. xv. 24; 'I will come by you into Spain,' v. 28. For though he might, after his enlargement, go into the West, where St. Clement (Ep. ad Cor. 6) says he preached, and even into Spain, as Cyril (Catechis. 17, p. 204, c.), Epiphanius (Hær. 27, p. 107, c.), and Theodoret (in 2 Tim. iv. 17, and Præfat. in Psalm cxvi.), say he did; yet it is certain he did not designedly go to Rome, in order to an intended journey into Spain; and when he says to the Corinthians, 'I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia,' 1 Cor. xvi. 5, and yet confesses in his second epistle, 2 Cor. i. 15, 16, 17, that he did not perform that journey; for it is not to be thought the Holy Ghost should incite him to promise, or even to purpose, what he knew he would not perform. This also we learn from all those places in which they do express their ignorance or doubtfulness of that which they are speaking of; as when St. Paul says, 'I know not whether I baptized any other,' 1 Cor. i. 16. And again, ‘Perhaps I will abide, yea, and winter with you,' 1 Cor. xvi. 6. And when St. Peter saith, 'By Sylvanus, a faithful brother as I sup pose, have I written to you,' 1 Pet. v. 12. | I baptized none of you but Crispus and For these words plainly show that in Gaius; lest any should say that I had all these things they had no inspiration baptized in my own name" (1 Cor. i. 14, or divine assistance. This, lastly, may 15). "Who then is Paul, and who is be gathered from all those places in Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, which they only do express their hope, even as the Lord gave to every man” (1 and that conditionally, of doing this or Cor. iii. 5). "I speak this by permission, that, as in these words, 'I hope to see you and not of commandment" (1 Cor. vii. 6). in my journey,' Rom. xv. 24. 'I will come "To the rest speak I, not the Lord.” “I to you quickly, if the Lord will,' 1 Cor. iv. give my judgment as one that hath ob19. 'I hope to stay some time with you, if tained mercy of the Lord to be faithful." the Lord permit,' 1 Cor. xvi. 7. I hope "I think also that I have the Spirit of God" in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly (1 Cor. vii. 12, 25, 40). "I speak not by unto you [so soon as I shall see how it will commandment; but by occasion of the forgo with me],' Phil. ii. 19, 23. 'And I wardness of others." (2 Cor. viii. 8.) trust that I myself also shall come quickly," "When Peter was come to Antioch I withv. 24. 'These things I write, hoping to stood him to the face because he was to be come to thee quickly, but if I should tarry blamed" (Gal. ii. 11). "The cloak that I that thou mayest know how to behave thy-left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comself in the church of God' (1 Tim. iii. 14, est, bring with thee, and the books, but es15). 'I hope by your prayers to be given pecially the parchments" (2 Tim. iv. 13). to you' (Philim. 22). This will we do, if Language like this never could fall the Lord permit' (Heb. vi. 3). 'I hope to from the lips of a plenarily inspired come to you' (2 Ep. John v. 12; 3 Ep. writer. "That which I speak, I speak it v. 14). For, spes est incertæ rei nomen, not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, the word hope implies an uncertainty; in this confidence of boasting” (2 Cor. xi. whereas the Holy Spirit cannot be un- 17). certain of anything, nor can we think The author of Tracts for the Times, He would inspire men to speak so un- lxxxvii., pertinently observes, that certainly. And there can be no neces-"[there are] strong indications which sity, or even use, of a divine assistance all must have noticed throughout St. to enable a man to express his hopes, Paul's Epistles, that he discloses and seeing all men do, by natural reflection, withholds Christian knowledge and know them."-Dr. A. Clarke's Commen- mysteries, according to the meetness tary. Introduction to New Testament, of those to whom he was writing to reP. v. ceive them."-P. 11. To this very conclusive reasoning of Hence, the Apostle Paul, speaking Dr. Whitby, on the character of the of the peculiar adaptation of his religApostolic Epistles, from a consideration ious instructions to the varied characof their internal evidence, very much ters and circumstances of those whom more to the same purport might be he addressed, says in 1 Cor. ix. 20-22, added. I will instance only a few ex-"Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I amples, in which the vast difference between plenary inspiration and what the Doctor would probably call inspired direction, will be most evident to every reflecting mind. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men (Gal. iv. 13; Rom. vi. 9). "I thank God that might gain upon the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I pear evidently to any one who studies am made all things to all men, that I these writings with attention."--New might by all means save some, and this 1 Jerusalem Magazine, 1790, p. 140. do for the Gospel's sake." Thus teaching us, that his preaching and writings are to be regarded as accommodations of the Gospel to the particular states and circumstances of both Jews and Gentiles. Dr. Beyer, Professor of Greek to the Consistory of Gottenburg, having asked Swedenborg the reason why, in explaining the spiritual sense of the Word in his Arcana Coelestia, he never quoted from the Apostolic Epistles, he replied from Amsterdam, as follows, under date of April 15, 1766: "With regard to the writings of St. Paul, and the other Apostles, I have not given them a place in my Arcana Coelestia, because they are dogmatic [or doctrinal] writings merely, and not written in the style of the Word, as are those of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Revelation of St. John. The style of the Word consists, throughout, in correspondences, and thence effects an immediate communication with heaven (see Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, n. 113); but the style of these dogmatic writings is quite different, having indeed a communication with heaven, but only mediately or indirectly. The reason why the Apostles wrote in this style was, that the New Christian Church was then to begin through them; consequently, the same style as is used in the Word would not have been proper for such doctrinal tenets, which required plain and simple language, suited to the capacities of all readers. "The letters he [the Apostle Paul] wrote, were intended for those who were already Christians, whose religious nature was already awakened, who had already enjoyed, in this awakening, the revelations of Christianity. His writings, therefore, were designed, not so much to be a revelation of truth, as a further explication of it. Based upon a revelation already made, they were adapted simply to bring the ideas involved into a more explicit and somewhat reflective form, and thus to furnish us with an inspired authority for the value of systematic theology in the Church."-- Morell's Philosophy of Religion, p. 140. Dr. Orville Dewey, writing on the original use of the Epistles, observes, that "they were particularly called forth by the exigencies, the difficulties, the trials, of the primitive Christians. . . They took their form from circumstances; and with those circumstances we have, and can have, but a partial acquaintance. . . . Such, for instance, are the answers to questions, the solution of difficulties, the settlement of disputes, which have long since passed away. Such, too, is what relates to the use of prophetical and miraculous powers, to meats offered to idols, etc. These things do not now concern us; because we have no miraculous powers, and there are no idols to solicit our offerings. Paul adapted his religious instructions to the men whom he addressed,-to their peculiar character, circumstances, difficulties, and speculations."- Works, p. 808. "Nevertheless, the writings of the Apostles are very good books for the "Thus the form and character of St. church, inasmuch as they insist on the Paul's Epistles are evidently derived doctrine of charity and faith thence from circumstances of his early life, his derived, as strongly as the Lord him- country, his family, his occupation," etc. self has done in the Gospels, and in—Dr. W. T. Powell's Discourses (xv.), the Revelation of St. John, as will ap- pub. by Dr. T. Balgny, 1776. traces in these epistles, concerning the efficacy and duration of the Mosaic economy; the admission of Gentiles into the church of Christ; the necessity of combining the Jewish ritual with the Christian faith; and upon many subordinate points, relative to the ceremonies and superstitions both of Jews and The following excellent remarks of the late Bishop of Durham, Dr. Maltby, on the writings of the Apostle Paul, express, with a critical authority which must command the respect of all intelligent Christians, the estimate in which we hold these compositions. I quote from a Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, March 31, heathens.-Moreover, as the Apostle 1805, from 2 Peter iii. 15, 16. "Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." "Most epistolary writings are obscure, unless we be perfectly acquainted with the situation of the parties, the design with which they wrote, and the circumstances to which they allude. It is indeed of considerable use in the interpretation of a letter, or series of letters, when the chain of correspondence is preserved entire, and when the occasion which called forth the answer is preserved together with the reply. It is well known that many of St. Paul's epistles were addressed to persons who had solicited his advice upon peculiar, and sometimes local and temporary, emergencies. It is equally well known that not one of the letters addressed to him are extant, nor is there any other method of ascertaining the occasions upon which he wrote, than what is supplied by the letters themselves. Many of the epistles turn principally upon controverted points; upon questions, which, from changes in the external condition of the Christian world, have ceased to be agitated; and which, to us (who are not, like the contemporaries of St. Paul, proselytes from Judaism or heathenism) seem to be of little or no moment. Such, for instance, are the disputes, of which we have so many wrote upon some topics, which, however clear at the time, are since become obscure; so does he, upon one occasion,* at least, studiously and even avowedly hold back a part of his meaning; and upon others,† he refers his readers to those oral communications, which had been previously made to them, and of which no distinct vestiges are preserved to us in Holy Writ. We may indeed venture to suppose, that the epistles which he wrote to one set of converts, were not always, even in his own days, intelligible to another. "It appears, then, that these parts of the Sacred Volume from various causes are, in point of fact, obscure: and that, according to the more obvious import of St. Peter's words, in the version adopted by our church, the Apostle acknowledged their difficulty, in the very age when the circumstances alluded to were recent; and when the language in which they were written, was the native tongue of many, and well understood by all, to whom they were addressed. Yet to these epistles, which above all other parts of the New Testament, have unavoidably and invincibly become obscure in their phraseology, in their allusions, and in the peculiar direction of the reasoning which they contain, to these epistles, which have so long exercised the talents, and so often baffled the exertions of the most diligent, the most judicious, and the most learned expositors; I say, to these very epistles, * 2 Thess. ii. 5, 6. +1 Cor. xi. 2; 2 Cor. xiii. 2; Gal. iv. 13; 1 Thess, iii. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 2; iii. 14. |