whether borne out by historical evidence or not, has never been disputed on dogmatical grounds, is important as showing that the orthodox Eastern Church was not ashamed of receiving its most solemn declaration of Christian faith from one who, had he lived in our times, would have been pronounced by some as a dangerous heretic. There can be no doubt in the mind of any one who has examined his writings—and it is freely admitted, indeed urged, by theologians without the slightest suspicion of latitudinarianism— that Gregory of Nyssa held the opinion shared with him by Origen, and although less distinctly by Gregory of Nazianzus, that there was a hope for the final restoration of the wicked in the other world. And whether or not he actually drew up the concluding clauses of the so-called Creed of Constantinople, there is no doubt that Gregory of Nyssa was present at the Council of Constantinople-that he, if any one, must have impressed his own sense upon them-and that to him, and through him to the Council, the clause which speaks of the life in the world to come' must have included the hope that the Divine justice and mercy are not controlled by the powers of evil, that sin is not eternal, and that in that 'world to come,' punishment will be corrective and not final, and will be ordered by a Love and Justice, the height and depth of which is beyond the narrow thoughts of man to conceive.

See especially Catech. Orat. ch. xxvi. De iis qui prematurè abripi. untur, ch. xv. De Anima et Resurrectione (on Phil. ii. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 28). The contrary has been maintained by a recent writer, Vincenzo, in four volumes, on the writings of Gregory of Nyssa. But this is done, not as in former times (Tillemont, vol. ix. p. 602), by denying the genuineness of the passages cited in favour of the milder view, but by quoting passages from other parts of his works, containing apparently contradictory sentiments. This might be done equally in the case of Origen, of Archbishop Tillotson, and of Bishop Newton, and to any one who knows the writings of that age proves absolutely nothing.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

THE Ten Commandments were always in the Christian Church united with the Lord's Prayer and the Creed (whether longer or shorter) as a Christian Institution. In earlier Catholic times, they were used as a framework of moral precepts; in Protestant times they were written. conspicuously in the churches. In either case, there are important principles involved in the prominence thus given to them, which demand consideration. In order to do this, we must trace the facts to their Jewish origin.

I. Let us first examine what were the Ten Commandments in their outward form and appearance when they were last seen by mortal eyes as the ark was placed in Solomon's Temple.

Outward form.

arrangements.

1. They were written on two tables or blocks of stone or rock. The mountains of Sinai are of red and white granite. Israelite On two blocks of this granite rock-the most lasting and almost the oldest kind of rock that is to be found in the world, as if to remind us that these Laws were to be the beginning and the end of all things-were the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words, written. They were written, not, as we now write them, only on one side of each of the two tables, but on both sides, so as to give the idea of absolute completeness and solidity. Each block of stone was covered behind and before with the sacred letters. Again, they were not arranged as we now arrange them. In the Fourth, for example, the reason for keeping holy

the seventh day is, in Exodus, because God rested on the seventh day from the work of creation'; in Deuteronomy it is to remind them that they were once strangers in the land of Egypt.' Probably, therefore, these reasons were not actually written on the stone, but were given afterwards, at two different times, by way of explanation; so that the first four Commandments, as they were written on the tables, were shorter than they are now. Here, as everywhere in the Bible, there may be many reasons for doing what is right. It is the doing of the thing, and not the particular cccasion or reason, which makes it right. Another slight difference was that the Commandments probably were divided into two equal portions, so that the Fifth Commandment, instead of being, as it is with us, at the top of the second table, was at the bottom of the first. The duty of honouring our parents is so like the duty of honouring God, that it was put amongst the same class of duties. The duty to both, as in the Roman word 'pietas,' was comprised under the same category, and so it is here understood by Josephus, Philo, and apparently by St. Paul.'

These differences between the original and the present arrangement should be noted, because it is interesting to have before us as nearly as we can the exact likeness of those old Commandments, and because it is useful to remember how even these most sacred and ancient words have undergone some change in their outward form since they were first given, and yet still are equally true and equally venerable. Religion does not consist in counting the syllables of the Bible, but in doing what it tells us.

2. When the Christian Church sprang out of the Jewish Church, it did not part with those venerable relics of the earlier time, but they were still used to teach Chris- Christian tian children their duty, as Jewish children had ments. been taught before. But there were different arrangements introduced in different parts of the world. The Talmudic and

arrange

1 Ewald's History of the People of Israel, vol. i. pp. 581-592, English

translation.

Ꮓ

the modern Jewish tradition, taking the Ten Commandments strictly as Ten Words or Sentences (Decalogue), makes the First to be the opening announcement: 'I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt,' and the Second is made up of what in our arrangement would be the First and Second combined. The Samaritan division, preserved in the roll on Mount Gerizim, puts the First and Second together, as the First, and then adds 2 at the end an Eleventh, according to our arrangement, not found in the Hebrew Pentateuch, which will be noticed as we proceed.

When the Christians adopted the Commandments there were two main differences of arrangement. There was the division of Augustine and Bede. This follows the Jewish and Samaritan arrangement of combining in one the First and Second Commandments of our arrangement. But inasmuch as it has no Eleventh Commandment, like the Samaritan, nor any First Word,' like the Jewish, it makes out the number ten by dividing the last Commandment into two, following here the arrangement of the clauses in the Hebrew of Deuteronomy, and in the LXX. both of Deuteronomy and Exodus, so as to make the Ninth Commandment Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife,' and the Tenth, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,' &c. This is followed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church. The division followed by Origen and Jerome is the same as that followed in England and Scotland. It is common to all the Eastern Churches, and all the Reformed Protestant Churches. Here, again, the various arrangements give us a useful lesson, as showing us how the different parts of our doctrine and duty may not be quite put together in the same way, and yet be still the same. And also it may remind us how the very same arrangements, even in outward things, may be made by persons of the most opposite way of thinking; it is a warning not to judge any one by the mere outward sign or badge that they wear. No one could be more unlike to the Roman Catholic Church

2 See Prof. Plumptre, in Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. pp. 1465–1466.

than the Reformer Luther, and yet the same peculiar arrangement of the Ten Commandments was used by him and by them. No one could be more unlike to the Eastern Church than John Knox, or Calvin, or Cranmer, and yet their arrangement of the Ten Commandments is the same.

II. What are we to learn from the place which the Ten Commandments occupied in the old dispensation?

of the Com

We learn what is the true foundation of all religion. The Ten Commandments are simple rules; most of them can be understood by a child. But still they are the very Importance heart and essence of the old Jewish religion. They mandments. occupy a very small part of the Books of Moses. The Ten Commandments, and not the precepts about sacrifices, and passovers, and boundaries, and priests, are the words which are said to have been delivered in thunder and lightning at Mount Sinai. These, and not any ceremonial ordinances, were laid up in the Most Holy Place, as the most precious heritage of the nation. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb.'

Do your duty. This is what they tell us. Do your duty to God and your duty to man. Whatever we may believe, or feel, or think, the main thing is that we are to do what is right, not to do what is wrong. Therefore it is that in the Church of England and in the Reformed Churches of the Continent they are still read in the most sacred parts of the service, as if to show us that, go as far as we can in Christian light and knowledge, make as much as we will of Christian doctrine or of Christian worship, still we must never lose hold of the ancient everlasting lines of duty.

Command

III. But it may be said, Were not those Ten Commandments given to the Jews of old? Do they not refer to the land of Egypt and the land of Palestine. We love Spirit of the and serve God, and love and serve our brethren, not ments. because it is written in the Ten Commandments, but because it is written on the tables of our hearts by the Divine Spirit on our spirits and consciences. But herein lies the very meaning of their having become a Christian Institution.