On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
all the nations of the earth be blessed . " T ^ his could only mean the conversion of the Gentiles by the promulgation of the gospel : for they became by faith the children of Abraham , and thus received the promised blessing as his seed .
On this passage Paul and Philo ground a certain doctrine : the former calls it mystery 9 because it was concealed under the veil of figurative language , till Christ caused that veil to be laid aside , and the metaphorical or spiritual sense to emerge into view . The latter calls the same doctrine
" wisdom / ' a name which on one occasion our Lord himself gave to the gospel , where he says , " And wisdom is justified of her children /'
6 . The religion of Paul consisted of the religion of Moses and the prophets separated from the Levitical code . And the writings of Philo supply abundant proofs that the religion which he calls Wisdom was sublime
piety , benevolence , and moral purity * without a particle of external ordinances entering its composition . Thus * Vol . II . p . 151 , he writes , " If a man be wicked or unjust , his sacrifices are abominable , his rites profane , and his prayers blasphemous in the sight of God , and he * obtains by them , not the
forgiveness , but the recollection of his sins . On the other hand , the sacrifice of a just and holy man ever remains effectual and undecayed , when thfe victim offered by him is consumed , or rather when he offers no victim at all ; for what can be that sacrifice which
is real and substantial in the sight of God , but the piety of a soul which loves God ? " Again , Vol . II . p . 501 ,
he says , " It becomes a citizen of the world to present with earnestness and without intermission , thanksgivings to the universal Father- and , converting himself into incense , to offer his soul and body as the incense most acceptable to God . " These are nearly the words of . the Apostle Paul : I beseech you , brethren , by the mercies of God , to dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice , holy and acceptable unto God , which is your rational service . "
7- The spiritual Judaism of Paul , founded on the promise made to Abraham , soon prevailed over the world ; it was a power of God unto salvation , a divinely efficacious principle in savr
Untitled Article
perfume that adorns and enriches thei ? own . " This passage , it must be allowed , does not occur in the book where he speaks of the physicians who went about healing the diseases of the moral world , but occurs in a
commentary on the promise made to Abraham , by way of illustrating its fulfilment ; and this demonstrates that the K < wisdom , " of which Philo here speaks , means the Gospel . The dispute between the apostles and their enemies among the Jews was not , whether
Christianity or Judaism was true , but which was the true way of interpreting Moses and the prophets ; the former assigning to their sacred writings a spiritual or metaphorical sense , the latter a literal sense . Thus the apostles insisted on a spiritual and not a
temporal king in the character of the Messiah , and the certainty of a future state through his resurrection , taught under the veil of figures , in their literal sense , expressive of the present life . This state of the dispute is thus implied in the following words of
Philo : " The interpretation of the Sacred Writings is made by them in an implied allegorical sense : for the law , in the opinion of these men , resembles a living- being ; the express
literal interpretation constitutes the body , while the implied spiritual sense forms the soul of the Scriptures . " An observation more happy and more important than this cannot well be conceived , as it accounts for the terms
flesh and spirit , expressive of the literal or metaphorical interpretations put upon the law , which run through the Epistles of Paul . I will illustrate this by an example : " The Lord said unto Abraham , In blessing I will bless them , and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven . ? Gen .
xxii . 17 , 18 . Now , according to Christ and his apostles , this promise was not to be taken in a literal but in a metaphorical sense , taking Abraham to be father of the faithful , and his seed a spiritual seed . For this we have the
Apostle Paul ' s own words : c < And he received the si ^ u of circumcision , that he might be the father of all them that believe , though they be not circumcised . " Romans iv . 11 . That the angel who spoke to the patriarch meant a spiritual seed , is evident , because he adds , "And in thy seed shall
Untitled Article
Dr . Joriess Summary of the Evidence of Philo being atJhristian . 151
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1825, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2534/page/23/
-