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
or institutions expressl y recorded as having a symbolical and spiritual meaning-, but in every miracle , every speech , ( I had almost said , ) and every movement of our . blessed Lord , in every mention of time , place , or outward circumstance , he finds a mystical designation of somewhat more closely and highly connected with the progress of the gospel , and the reception of Christ into the hearts of his faithful people . "—Pp . 140 , 141 . . " Thus , before the termination of the third century , such a body of spiritual and allegorical interpretations had been accumulated , as to leave to subsequent expositors the power and opportunity of little more than actual repetition , or direct and obvious imitation . The principle was generally recognised as applicable to the Scriptures of the New as well as the Old Testament ; and the chief alteration perhaps observable , as we advance , appears to be this , that the philosophical expositions are gradually either omitted , or so modified ,
as to harmonize more readily with the established faith of the church . As the vapa $ 6 < r £ is too became more copious , and more technically defined , the subjects , believed to lie concealed under the mysterious veil of the letter , naturally became somewhat more numerous . "—P . 143 . It will , therefore , be unnecessary for us to pursue the history of allegorical interpretation in the hands of later writers , who only repeated what their more eminent predecessors had said . Theodore of Mopsuestia ( who died A . D . 428 ) appears to have set himself against the prevailing taste of the age , and to have endeavoured to bring back the interpreters of Scripture to the literal sense , but with little success ; and the rapid decline of
learning , secular and sacred , which ensued after the fifth century , forbade the hope of any revival of the true principles of sacred criticism . The fathers of the Latin church who succeeded to Tertullian , though they abound in mystical interpretation , yet indulged their fancy less than those of the Alexandrian school , and in greater subjection to the regula jidei . They do not in general deny the literal sense , but only treat it as in itself unworthy of the author of Scripture . Jerome and Augustine are the most eminent expositors among the Latin fathers of this age . To the former , as to Origen ,
biblical criticism owes the highest obligations ; yet , in his expositions , he adopted the vague and uncritical canon , that every thing . improbable or unworthy in the literal sense was to be explained allegorically ; and he not only uses this method to illustrate or enforce doctrines which he supposed to be clearly taught in other parts of Scripture , but attaches an argumentative and
doctrinal value to the allegorical sense . Augustine , inferior to Jerome in erudition , but superior to him in imagination and eloquence , found mystical interpretation in an especial degree conformable to his mental habits , and in proportion to the imperfection of his philological knowledge and his contempt for the letter of Scripture , was his success in discovering meanings most remote from the intention of the writers . The following is a
specimen : " The whole of the Psalms , as well as the greater part of the historical books of the Old Testament , Augustin appears to regard as having been understood by the Israelites themselves in their primary and literal sense alone , A ad tempua temporaliter intellecta sunt , ' but to have involved universally a second sense , of a prophetical as well as spiritual nature . , He grounds this assertion , erroneous perhaps in the extent onl y of its application , upon a text which evidentl y bears no such meaning as that which he would anix to it , ' Cantate Domino canticum novum—Vetus homo cantat vetus
canticum , novus , novum . ' The applicability of each Psalm to the person , the history , or the spiritual kingdom of our blessed Redeemer , he gathers usually from . the mystical import of the titles prefixed to each ; titles , the age and origin of which ace , in the opinion of the beet biblical scholars , by no
Untitled Article
116 Review . — The Bampton and Hulsean Lectures .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/44/
-