Evangelists may easily be solved, which would otherwise be inexplicable, and that the true conception of many expressions of the New Testament is to be sought in those languages rather than that in which it has been delivered to us, it will not be necessary to set forth the great importance of those languages in the interpretation of that volume with which we are so much concerned, or to recommend the study of them to those who would understand it not in the letter only, but in the spirit.

H

SERMON IV.

Preached at Christ Church, May 30, 1824.

LUKE i. 2.

Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and ministers of the word.

IT

was intimated on a preceding occasion, that the languages in which the Jewish and Christian dispensations have been revealed were more intimately connected with one another than they might at first sight appear to be, and that, though totally different in form and structure, and apparently distinct and irreconcileable, they are still so nearly allied to one another in their idiom and phraseology, that the language of the New Testament cannot but derive the strongest illustration from that of the Old. The force of this remark, it may be observed,

applies in strictness to the verbal interpretation only, and not to that interpretation of the implied meaning, which is discoverable by the mind when enlightened by faith and the right perception of the spirit of Christianity, and which is derived from a higher principle than that by which we are enabled to understand the productions of merely human intellect. The latter kind of interpretation is unquestionably of paramount importance to the other, inasmuch as the sacred writings were given to us for the purpose of improving our moral and rational nature, "for a guide unto our feet, and a lamp unto our paths," rather than as subjects of merely intellectual investigation; but Christians have been abundantly taught by experience, that the verbal interpretation cannot at any time be safely set at nought or neglected.

On reviewing most periods of ecclesiastical history, especially those which have been most strongly characterized by disputes concerning the doctrines and mysteries of our faith,

we find that not a few controversies have, if traced to their origin, taken their rise in the misinterpretation of words either unintentional or designed, or that words in the course of those controversies have either by one or both parties been perverted to purposes most opposite to their natural and proper significations. We ourselves have seen in our own times, that the expressions of Scripture have often been subjected to explanations, the most unwarrantable upon any principles of rational criticism, which have led to conclusions altogether inconsistent with the general tenor of the passages where they occur, or of those which are parallel, more sometimes, it may charitably be believed, from an ignorance of the original and simple meanings in those who explained them, than from any wilful perversion, particularly among those who are wont to despise the aids of human learning, and flatter themselves they have something within them which qualifies them for the solution of every difficulty without any such assistance. We have seen too in our own