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DISCOURSE XIV.*

SAINT JOHN v. 39.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. OR YE SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.

THE ambiguity of the Greek original of these words is well known: and, in this place, and on this occasion, an inquiry into their proper meaning may be no unsuitable exercise. Nor am I altogether without hope, that this inquiry may be interesting in the progress; and, in the sequel, may afford us profitable matter of reflection.

You are aware that the words, ερευνάτε τας ypapas may be understood imperatively, or indicatively; as an injunction, or an assertion; Search the Scriptures, or Ye search the Scriptures. Our venerable translators have given

* Act Sermon; preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, before the University, for the degree of B.D. 1821.

the preference to the former rendering. And, writing when they wrote, their preference was quite natural. The Fathers and early ecclesiastical writers, had, almost unanimously explained the passage, not as an assertion, but as a command; the only known exceptions being Nonnus, the Greek Paraphrast, and Cyril of Alexandria, who both flourished in the fifth century. The commentators of the middle ages, in this, as in most other particulars, were exact copyists of the Fathers who went before them. And, on the revival of letters, and Reformation of the Church, the great body of interpreters, both Lutheran and Reformed, understood our Lord, as, in these expressions, authoritatively enjoining the study of the Scriptures.

The lapse of two centuries, however, has afforded room for a re-judgment of the question. And a more extended, and at the same time, a more minute examination of the context, has decided the most, and the best, of modern critics and expositors, to understand the passage indicatively; and to explain it, as the significant assertion of an undisputed fact.

In venturing to coincide with this rendering and explanation, I am far from intending disrespect to the writings of the Fathers. For the most part, they were men of great ability.

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And, after a manly institution in the porch of human literature, they fixed their permanent abode in the temple of the Scriptures. Their delight was in the law of the Lord: and in his law did they meditate day and night." And the result is manifest, in their labours. They mastered the meaning, while they imbibed the spirit, of both Testaments. They defined the boundaries, while they defended both the outworks and the citadel, of the Christian faith. Triumphant in controversy, they were unrivalled in exhortation: for every good purpose, whether of defence or attack, whether of reproof, advice, or consolation, the words of truth stood ready at their call; and perhaps it might be scarcely an exaggeration to say, that, if all existing copies of the Scripture were destroyed, the Sacred Volume could be restored from the writings of the Fathers. But their fertility in popular instruction, and their familiarity with the words of Scripture, were by no means favourable to exactness of interpretation. In all the weightier matters of religion, indeed, in all express statements of the catholic truths of Christianity, they carefully respected the analogy of faith: but, in lesser points, and where the Christian verity was secure, they did not scruple to apply those passages, with which their memory was richly

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stored, in a manner not strictly accordant with the principles of a sounder criticism. Their use, and their abuse, of allegorical interpretation, are too notorious to be dwelt upon and, indeed, it is more within my present limits to observe, that, in the ardour of practical exhortation, they were apt to urge upon their hearers detached portions of Holy Writ, without cautiously adverting to the bearings of the context; a practice which had a considerable, though, to themselves, probably, an imperceptible influence, on their more continued, and more elaborate commentaries. present text may furnish an example. If taken imperatively, it would supply a pithy and forcible topic of popular address: if taken indicatively, its independent force, its hortatory strength, was gone; and, however unquestionable its value and importance were, in union with its proper context, it could no more be urged as an awakening call; it could no more be sounded in the ears of every Christian Christian congregation, as the voice and the command of Christ himself. Here, then, the judgment had, by no means, an open field; the ground was pre-occupied, by a moral inclination, the more strong, because, in all likelihood, wholly unsuspected, to determine on one side, and without any close scrutiny, the meaning of these ambiguous words. How the

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Fathers determined, we already know; and why they so determined, we have, perhaps, offered no improbable conjecture.

Again: when the great religious movement of the sixteenth century brought the Scriptures into light; when, instead of being smothered, they were searched, and when, by numerous and faithful versions, the people were re-instated in that sacred birthright, of which they had been so long, and so shamefully defrauded, it cannot be denied, that controversy sometimes took the lead of impartial exposition. The new division of the Bible into verses, while it facilitated reference, became a hindrance to the course of just interpretation. The flow of many an important argument was broken and interrupted, while favourite texts, like insulated rocks, were continually seen to raise their heads above the stream. The maxim, that a good textuary is a good theologian, universally prevailed; and, by each contending party, short sentences of Scripture were fluently and plausibly alleged, while the context was too commonly disregarded, and parallel places were scarcely, if at all, examined and compared. And here, again, the words of our text may be adduced as an example. That dark tyrannical decree, which wrested the Scriptures from the hands of the laity, was justly

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