ESSAY VII.

ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS IN SCRIPTURE.

§ 1. IT has been above remarked (Essay II.) that the expression of the Apostle Peter relative to the "things hard to be understood," in Paul's writings, has been employed to furnish an excuse at least, if not a reason, for neglecting and keeping out of sight those writings; as being, to the generality of Christians, both too abstruse to be studied with any profit, and too liable to perversion to be approached with safety. And the principle of avoiding altogether whatever is hard to be understood, or liable to be wrested to a destructive purpose, naturally extends itself (as indeed the passage in question cannot but seem to warrant) to other parts of Scripture as well as to Paul's Epistles; till the result ensues of an exclusive attention to certain narratives of fact and plain moral precepts; while all that relates

to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, is left, as matter of mere speculative inquiry, in the hands of learned theologians.

Of the precise extent of such an error, no one individual can be an adequate judge; but that it is not imaginary—that it does prevail to a considerable degree-is a conclusion which I am convinced no one will doubt who has made extensive and careful observations. Indeed there is in the human mind a kind of indolence which tends to produce this consequence. The remark of the intelligent historian of Greece, will remain as true as ever while human nature continues the same; that "the generality of men are averse to labour in the investigation of truth, and ready rather to acquiesce in what is set before them.” The most corrupt Churches, in the darkest and most priest-ridden ages and countries, have only taken advantage of, what they could not have created, this disposition of the many to leave the task of searching the Scriptures to the learned few, to let them acquire knowledge, instead of themselves, and to acquiesce without inquiry into whatever these should promulgate. The Clergy of those Churches were thence looked to,

not as leaders and assistants to the laity in the study of Scripture, but as their substitutes; and the word of God became, in consequence, a prohibited book to the great body of Christians; who were thus left to the guidance of men often themselves ignorant of Scripture, but whose ignorance the others had lost the means of detecting. This state of things, however, no priestcraft could have brought about, had not the dread of laborious investigation prepared the way for it.a

That there are difficulties in many parts of Scripture,—as great perhaps in Paul's writings as in any,—and that there is consequent danger of mischievous perversion, is undeniable; and is indeed what analogy would prepare us to expect for if the Scriptures could be properly understood without any trouble, and were incapable of perversion to bad purposes, they would be extremely unlike the rest of God's gifts.

But the difficulties of Scripture, as well as the

a I have treated of this subject more at large in a Sermon on the Christian Priesthood, subjoined to the Second Edition of the Bampton Lectures.

danger of misinterpreting it, are evidently an additional reason for diligence in the study of it. And Peter's implied censure of "those who are unlearned" (that is, ill acquainted with the religion of Jesus Christ) and (as will natu rally follow) " unstable," and likely to be "blown about with every wind of doctrine," should operate as a caution, not against the study of the Scriptures, but against the faults which would lead us to wrest them to our destruction.

To examine into all the difficulties of Scripture, or even of Paul's writings alone, would be a task to which perhaps the whole life of any single individual would be scarcely adequate to lay down all the rules that might be applicable in such a task, would far exceed my present limits; but it may be worth while to offer a few remarks on some of the most important, and, at the same time, most commonly overlooked, of those principles which should be kept in view in the study of the doctrinal parts of Scripture; and the neglect of which has aggravated, if not produced, many of the difficulties. complained of (in Paul's writings especially,)

and has led, in many instances, to perplexity, if not to error.

§ 2. (1.) It is evidently of great importance, with a view to the right interpretation of any author, to consider, and to understand fully, his general drift and design. If we are mistaken in this point, the utmost diligence and the utmost ingenuity may sometimes answer no other purpose than to lead us the further astray. Now it is, I conceive, not uncommon to consider Revelation as designed, in part, to convey to us speculative truths-to increase our knowledge concerning divine things as they are in their own intrinsic nature;-in short, to teach us not merely religion properly so called, (that is, the relations between God and man,) but also what may be styled theological philosophy,—a certain branch of abstract science. All men, it is true, acknowledge revelation to have a practical purpose; but it is conceivable that this might still be the case, though it were not confined to such purposes; it might, conceivably, propose to

b Hinds. "Rise and Early Progress of Christianity." Introd. p. 31. See also Essay IV. First Series.