I have already said enough to feel at liberty to gather out of it all, the two chief propositions concerning Holy Scripture, which it is my business this morning to establish. And first, I assert that it may be regarded as a fundamental rule, that the Bible is not to be interpreted like any other book. This I gather infallibly from the plain fact, that the inspired Writers themselves habitually interpret it as no other book either is, or can be interpreted.

Next, I assert without fear of contradiction that inspired Interpretation, whatever varieties of method it may exhibit, is yet uniform and unequivocal in this one result; namely, that it proves Holy Scripture to be of far deeper significancy than at first sight appears[489]. By no imaginable artifice of Rhetoric or sophistry of evasion,—by no possible vehemence of denial or plausibility of counter assertion,—can it be rendered probable that Scripture has invariably one only meaning; and that meaning, the most obvious and easy to those who first heard or read it.

I would not be misunderstood by this audience, nor do I fear that I shall be. I am not denying (God forbid!) the literal sense of Scripture. Rather am I, above all, contending for it. We may never play tricks with the letter. Those Six Days of Creation, depend upon it, were six days: and the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge, and the Serpent, were the very things they are called,—and no other things. So of every other part of the Bible. The Temptation of our Lord was as matter of fact a transaction as one of His walks by the sea of Galilee. In what form the Tempter came to Him, hath not been revealed. After what fashion the Prince of the power of the air contrived the dazzling panorama "in a moment of time[490]," I do not pretend to understand. The literal sense of what has been revealed, is, for all that, to be depended on. All is sincere History: nothing is ever allegory,—nothing may ever be evacuated or explained away! We have our Lord's own word for it. The speech in Paradise, and what happened at the time of the Flood; the fate of Lot's wife, and what befel the cities of the plain; the conduct of David (when he ate the shew-bread), and the visit to Solomon of the Queen of Sheba; the history of the widow of Sarepta, and of Naaman the Syrian:—all these stories of the Old Testament are by our Lord Himself appealed to as veritable History[491].

But I am proving that Scripture itself, literally understood, compels us to believe that under the letter of Scripture, (which of course is to be interpreted literally,) there lies a deeper and sometimes a far less obvious meaning; occasionally a meaning so improbable, (as men account improbability,) that, but for the finger of God pointing it out, we could never by possibility have discerned it; so extraordinary, that when it is shewn us, it needs an effort of the heart and of the mind to embrace it fully.

Cases of literal Interpretation are indeed of constant occurrence in Scripture; but the principle on which they depend is obvious, and common to all writings alike. I do not doubt, for a moment, that the history of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, (which we heard read this morning,) is a bonâ fide narrative,—truer and more authentic in details, than is to be found in any other book of History.—Neither do I doubt that the obvious teaching, (the moral Interpretation as it may be called,) of that incident, is the proper one: viz. that even for the most fiery of fleshly trials, God's grace is sufficient:—that Joseph's safety lay in refusing even to be with her, joined to his holy fear of sinning against God:—that lust is ever cruel, and will hunt for the precious life[492]:—finally, that the way of purity, though it may lead at first to sorrow, will infallibly conduct to blessedness at the last. Considerations like these, which are obvious and easy, are also unquestionably true; and especially precious, (who ever doubted it?) as helps to personal holiness.—But still, there may underlie this narrative, for aught I see to the contrary, a mystical signification. Potiphar's wife may, (as the best and wisest of ancient and modern Divines have thought,) symbolize the Power of Darkness; and Joseph, our Divine Lord. The garment Joseph left in the woman's hand, may represent that fleshly garment of which the true Joseph divested Himself,—(ἀπεκδυσάμενος as St. Paul speaks in a very remarkable place,)—the mortal body which Satan apprehended (his sole triumph!) and by which he was ensnared, when a greater than Joseph gat Him out from an adulterous world[493]. Joseph in the prison, and Christ in the grave: Joseph exalted, and Christ Ascended: Joseph at last feeding the families of the World, and Christ becoming the Bread of Life to all:—let it not occasion offence, Brethren, if I confess that, for aught I see to the contrary, some such hidden teaching as this, may underlie the plain historical narrative; and in no way interfere with a literal interpretation.

III. From the two foregoing negative positions, however, (which almost need an apology, such obvious truisms are they,) I eagerly pass on to something better and higher.

1. And first, I boldly declare that the clue to all that has been advanced concerning the marvellous method of Holy Writ is supplied by the single consideration that the Bible is the Word of God,—that Holy Scripture, from the Alpha to the Omega of it, is the language of the Holy Ghost. Incomprehensible and unmanageable on any other hypothesis,—all the disclosures of inspired Interpretation, by the hearty reception of this one revealed truth, are rendered perfectly intelligible and clear. The Holy Spirit may surely be assumed competent to interpret what the Holy Spirit has already delivered! His disclosures therefore are beyond the reach of censure; however marvellous they may happen to be. But they are all a hopeless riddle to those who have blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.

Thus, to advert for a moment to the prophetic character (as it may be called) of the historical parts of Scripture,—What is it which moves secret unbelief, and prompts a reference to the human devices of Allegory and Accommodation[494]? It is the profound conviction that no merely human narrative could be handled as St. Paul handles Genesis, except by indulging in rhetorical license, and giving to Fancy a very free rein. But disabuse your mind of this lurking suspicion, so derogatory to the honour of Him by whose Spirit the Bible is inspired,—cease to suspect that the narrative of Scripture is a merely human narrative,—and how different becomes the problem! Why should the Holy Ghost have spoken less by the mouth of Moses, than by the mouth of David and Isaiah, Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets? But if He speaks in Genesis, then are the words of Genesis His;—and every word of the narrative "proceedeth" (as our Lord phrases it,) "out of the mouth of God."

I am constrained to be thus express and emphatic, because it has been lately "laid down that Scripture has one meaning;—the meaning which it had to the mind of the Prophet or Evangelist who first uttered or wrote,—to the hearers or readers who first received it[495]." The original sense of Scripture, (says this writer,) is "the meaning of the words as they first struck on the ears, or flashed before the eyes, of those who heard and read them[496]." Now, I will not pause to remark on the complicated fallacy involved in this. For (1), Why should a hearer's first impression of a speaker's meaning be assumed to be that speaker's meaning[497]? And (2), Why may not Prophets and Evangelists have intended secondary meanings[498]? But I do not dwell on this, for it does not touch the point. Let us hear the voice of one who adorned this place many years before the present controversy arose, and who has exactly anticipated the question now at issue. "Observe how this matter really is," says Bp. Butler. "If one knew a person to be the sole Author of a book; and were certainly assured, or satisfied to any degree, that one knew the whole of what he intended in it; one should be assured or satisfied to such degree, that one knew the whole meaning of that book: for the meaning of a book is nothing but the meaning of the Author. But if one knew a person to have compiled a Book out of memoirs which he received from Another, of vastly superior knowledge in the subject of it; especially if it were a Book full of great intricacies and difficulties; it would in no wise follow that one knew the whole meaning of the Book, from knowing the whole meaning of the compilers: for the original memoirs, (i.e. the Author of them,) might have, (and there would be no degree of presumption, in many cases, against supposing Him to have,) some farther meaning than the compiler saw. To say then, that the Scriptures, and the things contained in them, can have no other or farther meaning than those persons thought or had, who first recited or wrote them; is evidently saying, that those persons were the original, proper, and sole authors of those books, i.e. that they are not inspired: which is absurd, whilst the authority of these books is under examination; i.e. till you have determined they are of no divine authority at all. Till this be determined, it must in all reason be supposed,—not indeed that they have, (for this is taking for granted that they are inspired;) but,—that they may have, some farther meaning than what the compilers saw or understood[499]."—So far Bp. Butler.

2. Now, if God be in effect the Speaker, why need we hesitate to believe that He has so framed the stories, that they shall be throughout adumbrations of the things which concern our peace[500]? Let some garment be shewn me of merely human manufacture, and however costly it may prove, I look for nothing in it beyond the known properties of any other earthly fabric. But give me the assurance that, on the contrary, it was woven by Divine hands, and fashioned in a Heavenly loom, and do I not straightway expect to find it a mystery and a marvel of Art? It is even so with the language of Holy Writ. It is all framed and fashioned after a Diviner model than men are able to imagine. It is instinct with sublimest meanings. It is penetrated, through and through, with the Spirit of the Most High God. It is of so celestial a texture, that, to the eye of the soundest Reason, informed by the purest Faith, it reveals, (when the Spirit of its Divine Author shines upon it,) the glorious outlines of an imperishable Life!