1. In 1 Cor. iii. 15. St. Paul, speaking of certain Christian teachers at Corinth, observes, that, "if any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." On this passage, by a forced and erroneous construction, has the church of Rome erected the doctrine of purgatory, a place in which she pretends that the just, who depart out of this life, expiate certain offences that do not merit eternal damnation. Let us, however, consider the subject matter of the apostle's discourse in his Epistle to the Corinthians. Reflecting on the divisions which were among them, and on that diversity of teachers who formed them into different parties, he compares these to various builders; some of whom raised an edifice upon the only foundation, Jesus Christ, composed of gold, silver, and precious stones; in other words, who preached the pure, vital, and uncorrupted doctrines of the Gospel; while others, upon the same foundation, built wood, hay, stubble, that is, disseminated false, vain, and corrupt doctrines; of both these structures, he says, (v. 13.) Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try (rather prove) every man's work of what sort it is. Either the day of the heavy trial of persecution, or rather the final judg ment of God, shall try every man's work, search it as thoroughly as fire does things that are put into it. Then, adds the apostle, if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, if the doctrines he hath taught bear the test, as silver, gold, and precious stones abide in the fire, he shall receive a reward. But if any man's work shall be burnt, if, on that trial, it be found that he has introduced false or unsound doctrines, he shall be like a man, whose building being of wood, hay, and stubble, is consumed by the fire; all his pains in building are lost, and his works destroyed and gone. But (rather yet) if he be upon the whole a good man who hath built upon Christ as the foundation, and on the terms of the gospel committed himself to him, he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire, ws dia mugos, that is, not without extreme hazard and difficulty, as a man is preserved from the flames of his house when he escapes naked through them, and thus narrowly saves his life though with the loss of all his property. This expression is proverbial concerning persons who escape with great hazard out of imminent danger; and similar expressions are to be found in the Old Testament, as in Amos iv. 11.2 and Zech. iii. 2. and also in the Epistle of Jude v. 23. Now, let this phrase be compared

1 Some writers have imagined that the apostle is speaking of the materials, that is, the persons, of which the church of God is composed, rather than of the ministers of the Gospel, whom he represents as architects in the heavenly building. On a repeated consideration of the verses in question, the author is satisfied that the latter are intended and in this view of the subject he is supported by Mr. Locke, Dr. Doddridge, and other eminent critics.

2 Grotius, in his note on this passage, has remarked that a similar mode of speaking obtained among the Greeks, Σώζεσθαι εκ πυρός, οι εκ φλογγος, but he has not cited any examples. Palairet cites the following passage from one of the orations of Aristides; who, speaking of Apelles, says that the gods saved him out of the midst of the fire, ΕΚ ΜΕΣΟΥ ΠΥΡΟΣ τον ανδρα ΣΩΖΕΙΝ. Observationes PhilologicoCritic in Nov. Test. p. 386. Some additional instances are given in Elsner's Observationes Sacræ in Novi Fœderis Libros, vol. ii. p. 78. See Bishop Porteus's Brief Confutation of the Errors of the Church of Rome, pp. 48, 49. 12mo. London, 1796; and the Bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Christian Theology, vol. ii. pp. -351.; Drs. Whitby, Macknight, and A. Clarke, on 1 Cor. iii. 18.

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with the Latin words ambustus and semiustus. Livy, speaking of Lu cius Æmilius Paulus, says, that he had very narrowly escaped being sentenced to punishment, prope ambustus evaserat, (lib. xxii. c. 35.;) and again (c. 40.) the consul is represented as saying that he had, in his former consulate, escaped the flames of the popular rage not without being scorched, se populare incendium semiustum evasisse.1 Here, also, though there is no verbal resemblance between the expression of Saint Paul and those of the Roman historian, yet the real analogy is very striking, and shows that the apostle employed a well known proverbial expression, referring solely to a narrow escape from difficulty, and not, as the Romanists erroneously assert, to the fire of purgatory, a doctrine which is justly characterised as "a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God."2

2. The sentence in Gen. xlix. 10. nor a lawgiver from between his feet, has greatly exercised the ingenuity of commentators. It is at present considered as equivalent to a teacher from his offspring. But, without altogether rejecting this interpretation, we may derive some light on the venerable patriarch's meaning from the Greek writers, among whom the expression of Moses occurs in the very same terms. Thus, in the Theage of Plato, we have εκ των πόδων αποχωρησομεν. Τα other writers the expression is εκ ποδών, or εκ ποδων γίνεσθαι, which is equivalent to e medio discedere, e medio evadere, e conspectu abire, that is, to disappear.3 The general meaning of Moses, therefore, may be, that a native lawgiver, or expounder of the law, teacher, or scribe, (intimating the ecclesiastical polity of the Jews) should not be wanting to that people, until Shiloh, or the Sent (the Apostle, as Saint Paul terms Jesus Christ, Heb. iii. 1.) come. How accurately this prediction has been accomplished it is not necessary to show in this place.

3. In Matt. viii. 20. we read that Christ had not where to lay his head which expression has been interpreted as meaning that he had literally no home of his own. But considerable light is thrown upon it by two passages from the Arabic History of Abulpharagius; in the first of which, having stated that Saladin had animated his soldiers to the storming of Tyre, he says, that no place now remained to the Franks, WHERE THEY COULD LAY THEIR HEAD, except Tyre; and again, after relating that the Arabs had stormed Acca, or Ptolemais, he says that NO PLACE WAS LEFT TO THE FRANKS, on the coast of this (the Mediterranean) Sea, WHERE THEY COULD LAY THEIR HEAD.*

1 Cicero, (Orat. pro Milone, c. 5.) has the following passage:— "Declarant hujus ambusti tribuni plobis illæ intermortuæ conciones, quibus quotidie meam pe tentiam invidiose criminabatur" (tom. vi. p. 91. edit. Bipont.); and in his second pleading against Verres, the following sentence, which is still more fully in point: Sic iste (Verres) multo sceleratior et nequior, quam ille Hadrianus, aliquanto etiam felicior fuit. Ille quòd ejus avaritiam cives Romani ferre non potuerant, Utica domi suæ vivus exustus est; idque ita illi merito accidisse existimatum est, ut lætaruntur omnes neque ulla animadversio constitueretur: hic sociorum ambustus incendio, tamen ex illa flamma periculoque exolavit," &c. (Cont. Verr. Action ii. lib. 1. c. 27. tom. iii. p. 265.)

2 Article xxii. of the Anglican Church. The antiscriptural doctrine of purgatory is copiously and ably exposed by Mr. Fletcher in his " Lectures on the Principles and Institutions of the Roman Catholic Religion." pp. 236-250.

3 Mori Acroases in Ernesti Instit. Interp. Nov. Test. vol. i. p. 181.

4 Abulpharagii Historia, pp. 406. 591. cited by Ammon, in his notes on Ernesti's Anstit. Interp. Nov. Test. pp. 67, 68. The subject of the preceding section is briefly

From these two passages it is evident that the evangelist's meaning is, that Jesus Christ had no secure and fixed place of residence.

SECTION II.

ON THE ANALOGY OF SCRIPTURE, OR PARALLEL PASSAGES.

1. Nature of Parallel Passages. -II. Verbal Parallelisms. — III. Real Parallelisms. IV. Parallelisms of members, or poetical parallelisms.-V. Rules for investigating parallel passages. Helps for the investigation of parallel passages.

THE importance of parallelisms or parallel passages to the elucidation of the Scriptures having already been frequently adverted to, it now becomes necessary to institute a particular inquiry into their nature, and to offer some general hints for beneficially consulting this very important subsidiary mean in the study of the Bible. "When, in any ordinary composition, a passage occurs of doubtful meaning with respect to the sentiment or doctrine it conveys, the obvious course of proceeding is, to examine what the author himself has in other parts of his work delivered upon the same subject; to weigh well the force of any particular expressions he is accustomed to use; and to inquire what there might be in the occasion or circumstances under which he wrote, tending to throw further light upon the immediate object he bad in view. This is only to render common justice to the writer; it is necessary both for the discovery of his real meaning, and to secure him against any wanton charge of error or inconsistency. Now, if this may justly be required in any ordinary work of uninspired composition, how much more indispensable must it be when we sit in judgment upon the sacred volume; in which (if we acknowledge its divine original) it is impossible even to imagine a failure either in judgment or in integrity.

"God has been pleased, in sundry portions and in divers manners, to speak unto us in his word; but in all the books of Scripture we may trace an admirable unity of design, an intimate connection of parts, and a complete harmony of doctrines. In some instances the same truths are conveyed nearly in the same modes of expression; in other instances the same sentiments are clothed with beautiful varieties of language. While we are interested in discovering some of the indications of mental diversity among the sacred writers, we clearly perceive that the whole volume of revelation is distinguished by a certain characteristic style and phraseology altogether its own, and which for simplicity, dignity, energy, and fulness, must be allowed to have no parallel. Now, if there be in the various parts of Scripture such important coincidences of sentiment, of language, and of discussed by Ernesti, pp. 65-70. and more at length in his Opera Philologica, pp. 173. et seq. and 277., as well as by Morus, in his Acroases, vol. i. pp. 168-184. and particularly by G. G. Zemisch, in his Disputatio Philologica De Analogia Linguarum, Interpretationis subsidio, (Lipsia, 1758.) reprinted in Pott's and Ruperti's Sylloge Commentationem Theologicarum, vol. vii. pp. 185-221. ́1 Bishop Vanmildert's Lectures, p. 190.

idiom, it is evident that we proceed on just and rational principles, in comparing together passages that have some degree of resemblance, and in applying those, the meaning of which is clear, to the illustration of such as are involved in some degree of obscurity."

The passages which thus have some degree of resemblance are termed Parallel Passages; and the comparison of them is a most important help for interpreting such parts of Scripture as may appear to us obscure or uncertain: for, on almost every subject, there will be found a multitude of phrases, that, when diligently collated, will afford mutual illustration and support to each other; the truth which is more obscurely intimated in one place being expressed with greater precision in others. Thus, a part of the attributes or circumstances, relating to both persons and things, is stated in one text or passage, and part in another; so that it is only by searching out several passages, and connecting them together, that we can obtain a just apprehension of them. More particularly, the types of the Old Testament must be compared with their antitypes in the New (as Numb. xxi. 9. with John iii. 14.); predictions must be compared with the history of their accomplishment (as Isa. liii. the latter part of v. 12. with Mark xv, 27, 28. and Luke xxii. 37. and the former part of Isa. liii. 12. with Matt. xxvii. 57. Mark xv. 43. Luke xxiii. 50.); and the portion of Scripture, in which any point is specifically treated, ought to be chiefly attended to in the comparison, as Genesis, ch. i. on the creation, Romans, ch. iii.-v. on the doctrine of justification, &c. &c.2

1 Rev. H. F. Burder's Sermon on the Duty and Means of ascertaining the Sense of Scripture, pp. 17, 18.

2 On the importance and benefit of consulting parallel passages, Bishop Horsley has several fine observations in his comment on Psal. xcvii. The whole passage is too long to extract, but the following sentences are so appropriate to the subject of this section, that the author deems any apology for their insertion unnecessary. "It should," says his Lordship, "be a rule with every one, who would read the Holy Scriptures with advantage and improvement, to compare every text, which may seem either important for the doctrine it may contain, or remarkable for the turn of the expression, with the parallel passages in other parts of Holy Writ; that is, with the passages in which the subject-matter is the same, the sense equiva lent, or the turn of the expression similar. These parallel passages are easily found by the marginal references in Bibles of the larger form." "It is incre dible to any one, who has not in some degree made the experiment, what a proficiency may be made in that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation, by studying the Scriptures in this manner, without any other commentary or exposi tion than what the different parts of the sacred volume mutually furnish for each other. I will not scruple to assert that the most ILLITERATE CHRISTIAN, if he can but read his English Bible, and will take the pains to read it in this manner, will not only attain all that practical knowledge which is necessary to his salration; but, by God's blessing, he will become learned in every thing relating to his reli gion in such degree, that he will not be liable to be misled either by the refined ar guments or by the false assertions of those who endeavour to ingraft their own opinions upon the Oracles of God. He may safely be ignorant of all philosophy, except what is to be learned from the sacred books; which indeed contain the highest philosophy adapted to the lowest apprehensions. He may safely remain ignorant of all history, except so much of the history of the first ages of the Jewish and of the Christian church, as is to be gathered from the canonical books of the Old and New Testament. Let him study these in the manner I recommend, and let him never cease to pray for the ILLUMINATION OF that Spirit by which these books were dictated; and the whole compass of abstruse philosophy, and recondits history, shall furnish no argument with which the perverse will of man shall be able to shake this LEARNED CHRISTIAN's faith. The Bible, thus studied, will indeed

The foundation of the parallelisms occurring in the sacred writings is the perpetual harmony of Scripture itself; which, though composed by various writers, yet proceeding from one and the same infallible source, cannot but agree in words as well as in things. Parallelisms are either near or remote: in the former case the parallel passages are sought from the same writer; in the latter from different writers. They are further termed adequate, when they affect the whole subject proposed in the text; and inadequate, when they affect it only in part: but the most usual division of the analogy of Scripture, or parallelisms, is into verbal, or parallelisms of words, and real, or parallelisms of things.

II. A Verbal Parallelism or Analogy is that in which, on comparing two or more places together, the same words and phrases, the same mode of argument, the same method of construction, and the same rhetorical figures, are respectively to be found. Of this description are the following instances.

1. Parallel words and phrases. Thus, when the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking of the human heart, says, that it is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jer. xvii. 9.), in order to understand the full import of the original word there rendered desperately, we must compare Jer. xv. 18. and Micah i. 9. where the same word occurs, and is rendered desperate or incurable. From which two passages it is obvious that the prophet's meaning was, that the deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart of man are so great, that they cannot be healed or removed by any human art. Compare also Isa. xl. 11. and Ezek. xxxiv. 23. with John x. 11. 14, 15. Heb. xiii. 20. and 1 Pet. ii. 25. and v. 4.

2. Parallel modes of arguing. Thus the apostles, Paul, James, and Peter, respectively support their exhortations to patience by the example of Jesus Christ. Compare Heb. xii. 2, 3. James v. 10, 11. and 1 Pet. ii. 21. On the contrary, dissuasives from sin are more strongly set forth in the Old and New Testaments, by urging that sinful courses were the way of the heathen nations. Compare Levite xviii. 24. Jer. x. 2. and Matt. vi. 32.

3. Of Parallel constructions and figures we have examples in Rom. viii. 3. 2 Cor. v. 21. and Heb. x. 6. in which passages respectively, the Greek word auagria, there translated sin, means sacrifices or offerings for sin, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language, in which the same word elliptically signifies both sin and sin-offering, which the Septuagint version invariably renders by apagria in upwards of one hundred places. Dr. Whitby, on 2 Cor. v. 21., has pointed out a few instances; but Dr. A. Clarke (on the same text) has enumerated all the passages, which are in fact so many additional examples of verbal parallelisms. To this class some biblical critics refer those passages in which the same sentence is expressed not precisely in the same words, but in similar words, more full as well as more

prove to be what we Protestants esteem it- a certain and sufficient rule of faith and practice, a helmet of salvation, which alone may quench the fiery darts of the wicked."-Sermons on the Resurrection, &c. pp. 221–228.