Fairbairn on Prophecy

+ Larger Font | - Smaller Font

The Creation Concept


Prophecy viewed in respect to its distinctive nature, its special function, and proper interpretation

The Relation of the OT to the NT

The historical character of revelation

Assault of Gog, and his destruction

Principles of interpretation

Vision of the temple waters

The Typology of Scripture: Preface

Book I.

Book II.

Book III.

Patrick Fairbairn on the land promise

Jonah, his life, character, and mission, viewed in connexion with the prophet's own times, and future manifestations of God's mind and will in prophecy

Divine revelation explained and vindicated

Lectures by principal Fairbairn et al.
David Bryce & Co., 129 Buchanan Street
Glasgow 1866.

THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF REVELATION

PARTICULAR IN METHOD AND FORM, BUT UNIVERSAL IN DESIGN AND APPLICATION.

By Patrick Fairbairn

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope."--Rom. xv, 4.

The theme we now propose to handle, is to some extent familiar to all. The Scriptures which, with one consent, Christians agree to regard as the book of God's revelation, came by men, as well as to men; nor this all at once, but at different periods, and in successive portions. Hence those Scriptures, with their heavenly treasures, fall into two great divisions--a new and an old; and these, again, have their easily recognised distinctions, as of earlier and later--things pertaining to the remoter past, and things comparatively near at hand. The whole compass of the field, along with the diversities that characterise it, is sketched in the opening words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son;" God's voice in all, sounding through the ages, now in this manner, now in that, but culminating in the work and appearance of the Son, as that wherein it found its deepest utterance, and its most perfect form of manifestation.

2. Revelation, therefore, not less than civilisation, has a history. Though supernatural in its origin, it is yet perfectly natural or human in its course of action --not occupying a sphere of its own, apart from earthly relations and affairs, but freely intermingling with these, and serving itself of them as the channel and cover of things spiritual and divine. It stands associated with human wants and emergencies, as the occasions which have called it forth; human agencies have been employed to minister it; and it has been written, not in certain mystic characters of its own, but in the common tongues and dialects of men, and under almost every variety of form:--Simple narrative, stirring song, poetic imagery, direct precept, veiled parable, trains of reasoning, colloquial discourse-- according as each happened to suit best the circumstances of the time, and the ends more immediately in view. So little does this revelation of God affect a merely ideal or super-earthly style--so much does it let itself down into the characters and events of history, that it has ever embodied its more fundamental ideas in outstanding and important facts. In these, primarily, God has made himself known to man. And hence, alike in the Old and the New Testament Scriptures, the historical books stand first--the foundation. of all is there--the rest is but the structure built on. it; and just as is the reality and significance of the facts recorded in them, such, and no more, is the truth of the doctrines, the obligations and the hopes, growing out of them.

3. But if revelation thus has a history, it must also have a progress; for all history, in the proper sense, has such. It is not a purposeless moving to and fro, or a wearisome iteration, a turning back again upon itself; no, but an advance--halting it may be at times, or circuitous, but still an advance--toward some specific end. In like manner, with revelation there is an end, because it is of God, who never can work but for some ends worthy of himself, and who also sees and plans the end from the beginning. This end may be variously described according to the point of view from which it is contemplated; but, speaking generally, it may be said to include such an unfolding of the character and purposes of God in grace, as shall secure for those who submit to its teaching, salvation from the ruin of sin, and the bringing in of the everlasting kingdom of righteousness and peace, with which both the good of His people, and the glory of His own name are identified. This is the grand theme pursued throughout; the different parts and stages of revelation are but progressive developments of it; and, to be rightly understood, must be viewed with reference to their place in the great whole. So that the revelation of God in Scripture finds, in this respect, its appropriate image in those temple waters seen in vision by the prophet--issuing at first like a little streamlet from the seat of the Divine Majesty, but growing apace, and growing, not by supplies ministered from without, but as it were by self-production, and carrying with it the more--the more it increased in volume and approached its final resting-place--the vivifying influences which shed all around them the aspect of life and beauty.

4. Now, this characteristic of divine revelation, as being historically developed, and thence subject to the law of progress, undoubtedly has its dark side to our view; there are points about it which seem mysterious, and which we have no means of satisfactorily explicating. In particular, the small measures of light which for ages it furnished respecting the more peculiar things of God, and the imperfect form of administration under which the affairs of His kingdom were necessarily placed, till the fulness of the time had come for the manifested Saviour--this at first sight appears to us strange, and scarcely compatible with our abstract notions of wisdom and benevolence. Why should the world have been kept so long in comparative darkness, when some further communications from the Upper Sanctuary might have relieved it? Or, why delay so long the forthcoming of the great realities, on which it was mainly to depend for life and blessing? So we are disposed to ask, forgetting that we here know but in part, and that many reasons must meet in the divine plan of the world, which we can but imperfectly estimate, if we can even properly understand. The same mystery, however, in a measure compasses us about on every side: it cleaves to the history of every man's personal life, which, on an average, is half spent before he reaches the relative perfection of his gifts and powers. It cleaves also to the history of arts and sciences, the history of nations, the history of the human race at large, which have all had to pass through long cycles of comparative rudeness and imperfection, with capacities of growth, indeed, and elements of greatness working in their bosom, yet only by slow degrees rising to strength and maturity. As, therefore, we cannot doubt the reality of this wide-reaching principle in the divine government, neither should we question its wisdom, in respect to spiritual, any more than temporal things. Our part rather is to apply our minds to consider what a revelation so historically moulded, and progressive in its character, has to commend it to our regard, and how, as a whole, or in its several parts, it should by us be handled and employed.

5. A very little reflection may suffice to convince us of the advantages accruing to revelation from being cast in such a form--though at present we can do little more than glance at them. First of all, it humanises (if we may so speak) the communications of God to men --does to some extent for the revelations generally of His mind and will what was specially and pre-eminently done by the Incarnation. The divine word spoken from the invisible heights, from the secret place of Godhead, and the same word uttered from the midst of earthly transactions, linked to the susceptibilities and experience of human bosoms---though they might perfectly coincide in substance--yet in form how necessarily different! and in the one how much more than in the other fitted to touch the sympathies of men, and sound the depths of their hearts! It is at bottom, a recognising and acting on the great truth, that man was made in the image of God, and that only by laying hold of what remains of this image, and sanctifying it for higher uses, can the Spirit of God effectually disclose divine things, and win for them a place in the soul; the rays of the eternal sun must reach it, not by direct effulgence, but "through the luminous atmosphere of created minds." Then, think how well this plan accords with, and secures that fullness and variety which is necessary to Scripture as the book, which from its very design, was to provide the seed-corn of spiritual thought and instruction for all times--a book for the sanctification of humanity, and the developing in the soul of a higher life than that of nature. An end like this could never have been served by some general announcements from Heaven, or even by the most orderly systematic exhibition of divine truth--though written as with a sunbeam from the Upper Sanctuary. No; there was needed just what we find in Scripture-- from its partaking so largely of the historical element --a rich and various treasury of knowledge, ample materials for meditation and inquiry, resembling more the freedom and fullness of nature, than the formality and precision of art. And so Scripture, as has been well said, "cannot be mapped, or its contents catalogued; but after all our diligence to the end of our lives, and to the end of the Church, it must be an unexplored and unsubdued land, with heights and valleys, forests and streams, on the right and left of our path, full of concealed  wonders and choice treasures." One may well enough get to the end of a system; but a history, a life, especially such lives and memorable transactions as are found in Scripture, most of all what is written of our blessed Lord, His marvellous career, His divine works, and not less divine discourses, His atoning death and glorious resurrection --- who can ever say he has exhausted these? Who does not feel that there belongs to them a kind of infinite suggestiveness, such as is fitted to yield perpetually fresh life and instruction to thoughtful minds? And this, not as in the case of human works, for a certain class merely of mankind, but for all who will be at pains to search into its manifold and pregnant meaning. As was strikingly remarked some time ago by one of our Indian converts, "the Word of God is truly wonderful, for I have some new thoughts every time I look into it. I do not find it so with anything else; but the Word of God is like a fountain which sends forth fresh waters every day." Still farther, what noble uses may not be found in the actual structure of revelation, viewed in respect to its progressive exhibition of the divine plan! in this a type of the progress, through which the divinely educated mind must ever pass, as from childhood to youth, and from youth to the ripeness and vigour of manhood! It thus has, as it could not otherwise have done, its milk for babes, and its meat for strong men. And the scheme of God for the highest good of His people is seen to be no transient or fitful conception; but a purpose lying deep in the eternal counsel of His will--thence gradually working itself into the plan of the world-- proceeding onwards from age to age, transmitted from one prophet to another; the same grand principles maintained; the same high ends pursued amidst every change of circumstance, and varying forms of outward administration, till all reached its destined consummation in the appearance and kingdom of Christ. How assuring such a progressive course to the humble heart of faith, which desires in earnest to know its God! and how instructive, also, to mark the organic unity pervading the manifold external diversity, and to learn from the earlier, the simpler manifestations of the truth, the lessons of wisdom, which are equally applicable, but often more difficult of apprehension, under its higher and more purely spiritual developments! So that for those living now in the ends of the world--if they know aright their privilege and their calling-- there is the rich heritage of a revelation concerning God's character and purposes, stretching through every stage of the Church's progress: they have an interest in all; God speaks to them in all; all has been written for their learning that, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, they might have hope.

6. If the view now given be correct-- in other words, if the principle apparently involved in the statement of the apostle, that "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" is one that can be properly carried out--then the historical and .progressive character of revelation--the circumstance of God's mind and will being communicated, in the first instance, to particular individuals, and associated with specific times and places in the past, does not destroy its application to other men and other times; we, too, are bound by the obligations it imposes--we have to answer for all its calls and invitations--its threatenings and promises. But how can this be? it is asked by the critical, disputing, self-isolating spirit of our age. We were not yet alive when those things were done and spoken, through which God revealed himself to men of the olden time: He commanded Abraham to leave his father's house, and go into the land of Canaan, that surely was no command for us; He redeemed Israel from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, but we have not been so redeemed; and what things were assured to persons so circumstanced, or what duties were imposed on them, are no proper concern for us; even if we should take to do -with them, it must be on other grounds, and for other reasons, than that they belong to ancient Scripture; we must be able to find them in the teaching of Christ or our Christian consciousness. This is no new style of reasoning. In principle, at lesst, it is as old as Christianity; for the view it adopts of ancient Scripture was firmly maintained by the unbelieving Jews of apostolic times, though applied more to the blessings promised, than to the duties enjoined. They imagined that because they were the descendants of those to whom the word originally came, they alone were entitled to appropriate it; as if the God of revelation were the God of the Jews only, and they alone had a proper right to the salvation it made known. So tenaciously, indeed, did they cling to this view of the matter, that centuries later, we find Augustine earnestly contending with them about it. In a treatise addressed to the Jews, after quoting various passages in Moses and the prophets about the redemption God wrought for man, and the greater things promised in the future, he represents the Jews as proudly raising their necks, and saying, "We are the persons; this is said of us, it was said to us; for we are Israel, God's people." [1] The fact that the oracles of God had come immediately to their fathers, and had thence been committed to them, they turned into a selfish thing, in order to exclude others from participation in the promised good. The same fact is urged by some now, as a ground to have themselves excused, or men generally exempted, from the authority of the precepts enjoined. The principle is one--namely, by means of what is historical or special in God's revelation, to cut off its general application, and so to present it, instead of one grand whole made up of many parts, as a collection merely of fragments, of which only a limited portion has any proper reference to us? But it is something to know, that the new light first arose, and had its earliest phase of manifestation amid the Pharisaism of the ancient synagogue.

7. Now, as this is a point which concerns the proper bearing and interpretation of Scripture, it is to Scripture itself that we must make our appeal. We must find our principle of interpretation there; and, if I do not entirely misread and misunderstand what is written, that principle is very nearly the converse of the one just mentioned. It is this: that what may be called the particular in revelation--particular, that is, as regards the precise manner and occasion of its appearance--is not to the prejudice, but rather for the sake, of its universal bearing; it was with a view to the preservation of the word and its world-wide diffusion; so that, excepting what was merely circumstantial in the matter, or, from its very nature, local and temporary, it is for all men and for all time. Instead of saying--concerning this or that part of Scripture--it was a word of God to such a person, at such a time in the past, therefore not strictly for me, I should rather, according to the true Scriptural principle, say, There was a revelation of the mind and will of Him, who is the great God of heaven and of earth, made to one of like nature and calling with myself-- made, indeed, to him, but only that it might, through him, be made known and certified to others; and coming, as it does, to me a component part of that Word which the Lord delights to magnify above all His name, I also am bound to listen to it as the voice of God, speaking to me through my brother-man, and should give heed to it, so far as it is not clearly unsuitable to my position and circumstances.

8. I need scarcely say, there are things of the latter description--things that, in their stricter or literal form, are inapplicable to any one now, and to some more than to others; for this is a necessary consequence of the historical form that has been given to revelation in Scripture. But then it is in a measure common to all Scripture--not wanting even in the New Testament portions of it. Our Lord himself spake things to His immediate disciples, issued to them both commands and promises, which can no longer be applied in the letter: as when He called some to leave their nets and follow Him; or gave His apostles assurance of gifts which would enable them to do even greater works than He had done. And how many things are there in the Epistles written by the apostles that cannot, as they actually stand, be transferred to people of other lands and times? But such things create no difficulty to the commonest understanding; nor, if honestly desirous to know the truth, can any fail to perceive that, in all, there are lessons of great value and imports ance to them, though requiring to be somewhat differently applied. It is, therefore, but a difference in degree, which in this respect exists between the Scriptures of the New and those of the Old Testament, not in kind: there is in the Old merely a larger proportion of things which, if viewed superficially, are not strictly applicable to the circumstances, or binding on the consciences of believers in Christian times. I need only point to the facts of patriarchal history, the transactions that fill up the record of Israelitish life, the symbolical ritual and theocratic polity of the Old Covenant, which, as regards the mere shell and form of things, were in their very nature local, and have long since passed away; while yet they were all inwrought with lines of truth, and law, and promise, which should have gone forth to the world's end, and which stretch even unto us. Nay, such is the admirable order and connection of God's dispensations, so closely has He knit together the end with the beginnings, and so wisely adjusted the one to the other, that many things in those earlier revelations have a light and meaning to vis, which they could not have to those whom they more immediately concerned; the ultimate aim and object of what was done, was more important than its direct use. Placed beside the realities of the Gospel, and lighted up by these, Moses and the prophets speak more intelligibly to us of God and the life that is from Him, than they did to the men who had no further revelations to instruct them.

9. But let me ask you to consider for a little, what ground there is in Scripture for the principle of interpretation we have set forth. In doing so, I would have you to note a change in the divine method, which shows the gracious anxiety of God to adapt himself to the state of mankind, and to meet most effectually the evils to which it gives rise. When He began to reveal himself to fallen man, he did so for a time in a quite general manner. No formal distinction was made between one portion of the human race and another; and the distinction which, as a matter of fact, appeared in respect to divine things, arose mainly from the different use made of what was given in common. The facts on which the earliest religion for our sinful world was based--the facts, namely, of creation and the fall--of a promise that the seed of the woman should reverse the doom of evil, by bruising the serpent's head--of the institution of sacrifice, in which an animal's life was accepted for that of the sinner: These facts or revelations stood equally related to all the offspring of Adam; they had no special custodiers; no one stood nearer to them by lineage or office than others. And what was the result? Only a gradual and growing defection from the faith, issuing in such reckless hardihood and unrestrained violence as drew on the sweeping desolation of the flood--leaving but the small remnant of Noah's household, to commence anew the moral and spiritual history of the earth. That history, however, had not proceeded far till roots of corruption began to discover themselves in the saved household itself. And here comes the change I wish you to notice. To prevent the corruption from reaching its former excess, the Lord gave indication of a purpose to single out,-- part as, in spiritual things, His more peculiar representatives among men--a part that should stand nearer to himself as the depositaries of His revealed will, iu order that the knowledge of it might be more securely guarded, more regularly developed, and more faithfully displayed. It was for the line of Shem, among the sons of Noah, that this honour was reserved. In some peculiar sense, Jehovah was to manifest himself as the God of Shem--so it was announced by Noah in his latter days; and in Abraham, who was of that line, the purpose began, a few generations afterwards, to take effect; when the again waning knowledge of God, and the general progress of corruption, called for some efficient method for arresting the evil. On this account, Abraham and his chosen seed were brought into special connection with God--made from time to time the medium of intercourse between heaven and earth; and so, while other races heedlessly lost what they already had, and were ever drifting farther away into darkness and the shadow of death, they were kept acquainted with the being and purposes of God, and enjoyed the distinction of the people, who knew and at first hand possessed the truth of Heaven.

10. But all this, let it be well observed, was for the sake of others, as well as themselves. The particular was with a view to the general. To be themselves blessed, was only the first part of the good conferred on them; the next, and the immediate consequence of this, was, that they might be a blessing to others--nay, as was said to Abraham at the outset, that in them "all the families of the earth might be blessed." The light imparted to him and his seed was, by means of them, to shed itself forth on the world around, so that to have it was their great talent, as well as their peculiar privilege; and it was to go well with them in proportion as they did the part of God's representatives, and spread abroad the spiritual leaven wherewith they had themselves been leavened. Hence the prayer of the Psalmist, so beautifully expressive of this connection:--"God be merciful unto us and bless us; and cause His face to shine on us." For what end? "That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations;"--Israel's blessing and prosperity besought only in order to the general diffusion of that knowledge of God, and that interest in His grace and truth which was the source of their own greatness. Hence, also, the temple--which was at once the symbol and the centre of all that God was to Israel--was declared by the prophet to be "a house of prayer for all peoples." And hence, yet again, and as the fitting issue of the whole, Jesus, the Israel by way of eminence--the impersonation of all that Israel should have been, but too often was not--the One in whom at once the calling of Israel and the grand purpose of God found their proper realisation--He, while outwardly appearing only as a Jew among Jews, yet was not less the life and light of the world--revealing the Father for men of every age and country--and making reconciliation for iniquity on behalf of all who should believe on His name, to the utmost bounds of earth and the very end of time.

11. Thus, when we look generally over the field of divine revelation, we perceive that throughout God speaks in it to humanity; and that what is special in it, as to person, or time, or place, was in no respect intended to evacuate its import, or narrow the range of its application; but left it substantially the same for all, if they had but faith to discern and grasp it. And when we look to particular passages of Scripture, and see how God-inspired men understood and used what came from heaven at other times and places, than those in which they themselves lived, this conviction is yet more deepened on our minds; for we find them personally recognising and acting on the principle of which we speak. In the Book of Psalms, for instance, how constantly do the sacred writers, when seeking to revive and strengthen a languishing faith, throw themselves back upon the earlier manifestations of God, recal to their contemplation what He did of old as having permanent meaning and vitality in it--teaching the same lessons, presenting the same ground for confidence and hope still, that it did at first! "I will remember the works of the Lord, surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. Thou art the God that doest wonders; Thou hast declared Thy strength among the people. Thou hast with Thine arm redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph:" Thou didst it, that we might know and believe what Thou canst and will do still. Or hear how the prophet Hosea argues from the past, and strives to make it real and present to the eye of faith:--"He (that is Jacob) took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication imto Him; he found Him'in Bethel, and there He (God) spake with us; even Jehovah, God of hosts, Jehovah is His name." That is, the I Am, Jehovah-- He who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever-- when ages ago He spake with Jacob at Bethel, and at Peniel gave him strength over the angel, He virtually did the same with us; in the record of these transactions, which is the word of the unchangeable, ever-living God, He testifies of what He is, and is ready to do in our behalf. And so, the prophet adds, as making practical application of its contents; "Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually." Or, pass to New Testament times, and see how the same principle of interpretation is there taught and exemplified. Not only does our Lord generally recognise as of God, whatever was written in the law and the prophets, and recognise it as what he had not come to destroy, but to fulfil--not only this, but see in particular instances how faith in Him appropriates and lives, in a manner, on the ancient word. When plied by the tempter with the plausible request, to turn the stones of the desert into bread, the ready reply was, "It is written, man liveth not by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God:"--man does it; that is, man as the humble, docile, confiding child of God, he lives thus--so it was written hundreds of years ago; written for me also as the Son of man, and for me it is as valid and effective, as if it had been now for the first time uttered in my ear--because it is a portion of that divine word which liveth and abideth for ever. And in like manner with the other temptations; they were successively met and repelled by what was written aforetime, as being of still abiding force and application. If we turn to the Apostle Paul, we find him here as elsewhere, treading in the footsteps of his Master; he also frequently sets forth and applies the same great principle; sometimes in a more general way, as in the words of our text, "The things written aforetime were written for our learning;" or, more particularly, when speaking of the dealings of God with Israel in the wilderness, he states that "they happened unto us for examples, and are written for our admonition;" or, again, when identifying believers now, with Abraham, he affirms, that "they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham;" mark the words--are blessed with him, that is, the blessing pronounced upon him should be appropriated as if it had been actually pronounced upon them. And, if possible, still more striking and explicit is the exposition given of the principle under consideration in the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap, vi.), where, referring to the promise of blessing given to Abraham, and the oath, after the offering of Isaac, confirming the promise, it ia said that in this "God shewed to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel," so that "by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to the hope set before us"--not that he merely, but that we might have it! Therefore, the promise of blessing and its confirmatory oath to Abraham are to be viewed as equally intended for us; why? Because they reveal the character and purpose of God in respect to the covenant of salvation, which may be said to be independent of place and time, changing not, but, like himself, standing fast for ever, and calling for a hearty response and confiding faith from all to whom they come.

12. Such is the spirit or principle in which the teaching and example of inspired men--psalmists and prophets of the Old Testament--Christ and His apostles of the New--instruct us to regard and use that revelation of God, which comes associated with the history of His dispensations toward men. If anything can be deemed more certain regarding it than another, it is that we must look through and beyond the external accompaniments to the substance of truth and duty, embodied in the recorded dealings of God;-- in other words, we must not allow what is merely circumstantial in the divine communications to cut us off from what is essential; and which, from the organic unity pervading those communications, is properly of no age or time. The false principle of some in the present day, is to reverse this order--to employ the circumstantial as a lever for neutralising or virtually pushing aside that which is essential. Had such been our Lord's method of interpreting ancient Scripture, what would it have availed Him in His hour of temptation to remember, how it was written, that man liveth not by bread only, but by every word of God; since that was written of Israel as redeemed from Egypt and fed with manna, while he was without either? Or, had it been Paul's, how should he ever have thought of transferring such special transactions and assurances of blessing as those connected with the faith of Abraham and the offering of Isaac, to believers generally under the Gospel? In such a case they would have looked merely to the historical accompaniments of the things spoken and done, and said: What is there written has reference to times and persons long since gone---matters are entirely altered now But if they actually thought and judged after another manner, whence could it be, but that they took for their guiding principle, instead of the meagre superficialism which makes account chiefly of the outer form and appearances of things, the faith of God's elect, which ever penetrates into their heart, and is anxious to know Ilow much it is entitled to derive from the written testimony of God, rather than to find how much it is at liberty to reject? And so now with us; if this spirit of faith have anything like the same place in. our hearts, can it fail, in respect to the weightier matters of God's law to Israel, in respect, for instance, to that master-piece of legislation-- the ten words proclaimed from Sinai--to cany us above the mere adjuncts of the past or the future in reference to Israel, with which they were associated, and fix our regard on the great principles of truth and duty, in which they make known the righteous character of God, and His indefeasible claims on the homage, the love, the time, and the service of his people? Assuredly not; to a truly enlightened and believing spirit the one will be but the form and drapery under which God's will was declared, while that will itself remains the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

13. Here, undoubtedly, lies the root of the whole matter--it lies in the possession, or the want, of this spirit of faith. Were this really living and dominant in us, as it was in those who are set forth for our ensamples, it would make all, even the earlier parts of God's revelation to men, instinct with life and blessing to us; because, connecting the whole in our minds with the ever-abiding presence and immutable verity of God, it would make us feel we have to do with the evolution of an eternal purpose, which step by step has been conducting fallen man to the righteousness and blessing of heaven. Nothing in such a case properly dies. In the doom pronounced by God of old on the ungodliness of men, and the judgments inflicted on their impenitence and guilt, we shall hear His voice speaking in condemnation of the evil that is in our hearts and lives, and warning us to flee from the wrath to come. In the deliverances wrought for those who, in other ages, have feared His name, we shall realise the mercy and the grace, which, as perennial properties in His character, give assurance of help to every humble believer in the time of need. In the commands uttered, as by a fiery law, to resist the corruption of the world, and, under the behest of the most imperative obligation, to make conscience of doing the will of the Highest, we shall read our call to follow, at all hazards, after that holiness without which no man can see God--follow it, if that be not unsuitable to our circumstances, in the very things enjoined--if otherwise, in the essential principles they reveal and embody. Nay, even in those things wherein the Old in God's dispensations formally differed most from the New--in those, I mean, which present the life of faith in connection chiefly with visible affairs and symbolical institutions, we shall find what is of value also for us--a law and a testimony that may truly be called God's treasure-house of mysteries laid up for pious meditation, and the perpetual nourishment of a living faith. The Church must still, in this respect, draw from the resources of the past; she must still, as it were, tread the courts of Zion, and speak the language of Canaan. As we inherit the promises made to the fathers, and cannot be made perfect without them, so, also, the old earthly relations, the temporal fortunes, and material symbols, amid which, and through which, divine truth came into substantive existence among them--these are all ours for spiritual uses, and neither without them can we be made perfect. We need them, whatever may be our relative standing in the Church of God-- the humble believer, the earnest preacher, even the well-furnished theologian --each needs them as mirrors wherein to see reflected the sublime realities of the Gospel, and the spiritual experiences of the life of faith. And, however much he may find in the revelations of the Gospel to carry him, as regards clearness of discernment and comprehension of view, above the position of ancient Psalmists and prophets, he must still be indebted to their more fleshly forms and sensible representations, in order to have his faith in God freshened up, and the imperfections of his spiritual sense quickened and improved. The reality, indeed, of divine truth, and of the spiritual life which grows out of it, has incomparably its fullest manifestation in the Scriptures of the New Testament; but, just because the spiritual and divine are here so nakedly exhibited, we need the help of things done and written aforetime, as a pattern after which to guide and fashion our views respecting them, and from which also we may derive a language, sufficiently rich and varied, to give expression to our thoughts, and tell forth the experiences of our heart.

14. If there be any truth in the views we have advanced, and the grounds on which they are supported, one conclusion, you will readily see, of great moment, follows--namely, that whatever difference may exist between the earlier and the later revelations of God in Scripture, there must pervade them all deep fundamental agreements; from first to last they must exhibit the same great principles of truth and duty. For thus only could it be said of all Scripture, that it is alike "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for repoof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Deny this, and not merely will much in Scripture fall into abeyance, as no longer applicable to us, but it never could have been Scripture, in the sense of being given by inspiration of God. Nothing in the strange utterances that have of late been heard among us, has so astonished me, and, I may say, so filled me with shame for the theology of my country, as the following words on this subject, recently heard from a pulpit in this city:--"No one can compare Judaism and Christianity, without feeling that in essence and spirit they are absolutely unlike. Judaism deals with the outward, Christianity with the inward. Judaism rejoices in the law, Christianity in liberty. Judaism looks to the act, Christianity to the motive that prompted it." Said as this plainly was of the Judaism of Moses and the prophets, not of Scribes and Pharisees, the conclusion is inevitable-- that Judaism and Christianity must then have come from diverse sources; the God of the New Testament could not also have been the God of the Old. For religions, differing in their very essence, of necessity differ in their parentage. He, who is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, could only regard himself mocked, not worshipped, by an outward show; counting, as He now does, nothing done in His service, except in so far as it breathes the spirit of faith and love, He could never have prescribed a service which stood merely in the acts of formal obedience. It was thus precisely the ancient Manichees reasoned: Pointing to the outward ritual and temporal promises of Judaism, they said to the Christians, These could not be from the God you acknowledge; they must have proceeded from a demon; and, if a Jew were to become a believer in Christ, it could not but seem to him that his God had died. [2] Nor, if they had thought rightly concerning the religion of the Old Testament, had it been possible to reject their conclusion. Therefore, Augustine, who contended most earnestly with them, withstood them especially there. Imperfectly acquainted as he was with the religion of Judaism, and often erring as to particular points, he yet held firmly and nobly by the great principle of the essential oneness between the New and the Old: affirming that the law was in itself good, as the rule of righteousness, and the couvincer of sin; that for those who rightly understood it, the Old Testament was a shadow and prophecy of the New; that there is now nothing to be found in the teaching of evangelists and apostles which is wanting in the books of the Old Testament; though as he justly stated, to learn this from them the Sacred Scriptures require, not rash and supercilious accusers, but diligent and pious readers." [3] Yes, assuredly, they require such; and if they should fail from among us, and those great beliefs should in consequence fall into abeyance, then beyond doubt we have come into perilous circumstances. The very foundations of the earth are getting out of course. We have lost our hold, either of the divine authority of Scripture, or of the unchangeable character and faithfulness of the God whose mind it reveals.

Another conclusion, and one more directly practical, let me also, in a few words, press before I close. It has respect to the frame and attitude of soul, with which the very structure of God's revelation requires that it- should be handled--the reverse of a captious or pragmatical spirit--a spirit sincere, earnest, teachable. From the historical, and often distinctively personal character of its contents, it is easy for those who wish to disregard its lessons, and shun its requirements, to find therein something that may serve for a plausible excuse. What Pascal said of the substance of its communications, may also be said of the form or method under which they have been conveyed, "There is light enough for those whose sincere wish it is to see, and darkness enough for those who are of an opposite description." How strikingly was this exemplified at the great era of the Gospel, when wise men from the east found their way to the infant Saviour, though they had to come from a far country, and had only dim informations, mere starlight to guide them, while proud carnal children of the kingdom at the very door, and possessing every advantage, saw no signs, heard no voice, continued to feel and act as if nothing had occurred that greatly concerned them. Therefore, I conclude with the prophet, "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things--prudent, and he shall know them, for the ways of the Lord are right; and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein."

Notes

1. Ad. Judteos, 5 9-

2. Contra Faustm, L. x. I, xv. 1., etc.

3. Contra Adim. § 3.4; Con. Faust. xv. 2.8.

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas E. Cox
All Rights Reserved.