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Not merely are there to be found in them wide-reaching principles of duty, which admit of easy application to an endless number and variety of particular cases, but there are, comparatively, few combinations of circumstances, even the most extraordinary, in which the diligent, humble, pious student of the Scriptures, will not find himself furnished there with information and directions, as suited even to the minute peculiarities, or it may be, as he is apt to think it, the absolute singularities of his case, as if these had been immediately before the mind of the inspired writers. He is there taught how to employ all his faculties; how to regulate all his desires; how to behave himself to God and man, to relatives and strangers, to friend and enemy; in retirement and in society; in his own house and in the house of God; in prosperity and in adversity; in youth, in middle life, and in old age; how to think and feel; how to speak and act; how to live and how to die. How so much particular, easily applicable, practical instruction, could, without any appearance of unnatural constraint, be brought within the compass of so moderate a sized volume as the Bible, is indeed extraordinary; and he who is best acquainted with that divine Book, and has been most in the habit of taking it as a "lamp to his feet and a light to his path," will be readiest to say with Tertullian, "I adore the fulness of the Holy Scriptures."

This train of thought is naturally suggested by observing how much varied, important, particular, readily-available instruction, on the interesting subject of the duties of Christians when exposed to persecution on account of their religion, is crowded into the short paragraph with which the subject of this discourse concludes. We have here not a general exhortation to patience and constancy, but directions are given suited to the various forms which persecution might assume. Injuries and insults might be heaped on them: how were they to act in this case? They were not to "render evil for evil, but contrariwise, blessing." Prospects the most appalling might be presented to them for the purpose of shaking their faith: how were they to act in this case? They were not to be afraid of the terror of their enemies, neither were they to be troubled, but to "sanctify the Lord God in their hearts," as the object both of supreme fear and confidence. They might be called on publicly to state and defend the religion on which rested all their hopes: how were they to act in this case ? They were to "be always ready to give an answer to every one who asked them a reason of the hope that was in them with meekness and fear." They might be exposed to a sort of attack from which it is peculiarly difficult to defend either themselves or their cause: systematic calumniation. Men might "speak evil of them, and falsely accuse them as evil-doers:" how were they to act in this case? They were to hold "a good conscience," and to maintain "a good conversation in Christ." And what a persecuted Christian must have found in this portion of Scripture, given by inspiration of God, every Christian, if he is but careful enough to search the Scriptures, will find in some portion of it-that which is fitted to make him, as a "man of God, perfect, thoroughly furnished," for work and for warfare.

NOTE A. p. 433.

The present division of the Holy Scriptures into chapters and verses is not of Divine origin, but is a human invention of comparatively late date, intended chiefly to facilitate reference to any particular portion of the sacred oracles. With the exception of the book of Psalms-the particular poems in which, as separate compositions, given forth at different times and on various occasions, were, from the beginning, divided from each other-all the books, both in the Old Testament and the New, were originally written as so many continued discourses; not only without paragraphs, but with the clauses, and even sentences, undivided by such notes as we call points, and the words themselves not separated by any sensible distance from each other.

The division first made of the Old Testament writings is considerably ancient; probably not much, if at all, posterior to the days of Ezra. The different books were divided into large paragraphs, and verses; which last were, however, merely marked by a point, not numbered. This division was probably made for the convenience of their synagogue worship. Pure Hebrew, in which the Old Testament books are written, ceased to be the vernacular language of the Israelites after the Babylonian captivity. After the return from Babylon, when the sacred writings were read in the synagogue, they were first read in the original, and then interpreted into the Chaldaic or Syro-Chaldaic dialect, which was commonly used by the people. To this mode of reading the Holy Scriptures, it is generally supposed there is a reference, Neh. viii. 8, where it is said that the Levites "read in the book, in the law of the Lord, distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." As this was done period by period, it became necessary to adopt some notation to mark the beginning and end of the periods.

The division of the Bible into the chapters, with which we are familiar, is comparatively a modern invention. It was made about the middle of the 13th century, by a cardinal of the Roman Church, Hugo de St. Caro, who formed the first concordance of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Scriptures, for the obvious purpose of facilitating reference to any particular passage or word. This division was adopted by a learned Jew Rabbi, Isaac Nathan, who, about the middle of the 15th century, published the first concordance of the Hebrew Scriptures; and, in addition, he numbered the verses into which the sacred text had been anciently divided.

About a century later, a learned French printer, Robert Stephens, divided the New Testament into verses; and his division, with few exceptions and with very slight variations, has been generally adopted in the editions of the original text, and in the translations of the Scriptures, which have been since published throughout the christian world. This division of the sacred text is convenient for the purpose of reference; and had it been always judiciously made and accommodated to the different kinds of composition of which the sacred books are made up, might have contributed materially to the more important purpose of interpretation. Like all human works, however, it bears abundant evidence of the imperfection of its authors, and has been productive of some bad as well as of some good consequences. The division, whether of chapters or of verses, is not always judicious: where there is no pause in the discourse, no division in the thoughts, we often find a division in the words; while, on the other hand, where the sense requires such a division, it is not always to be found.

To no part of the sacred writings does the division into chapters and verses less happily apply, than to the epistolary writings of the New Testament. Both from their argumentative character, and their epistolary form, it becomes almost impossible to break them down into such short sections as our verses, without materially impairing their beauty and obscuring their meaning. It would be a considerable help towards the understanding of the apostolical epistles, if the chapters and verses were merely marked on the margin, while the epistle itself was printed as a continuous discourse, broken down only into such paragraphs as it naturally resolves itself into; and indeed we are persuaded, nobody will ever make very satisfactory progress in the study of these most interesting portions of sacred writ, who does not get into the habit of reading them with an almost total disregard of the ordinary divisions.

We have an illustration of these remarks in the words which form the subject of the first division of the third part of this discourse. They form a part of a series of injunctions laid by the apostle on the Christians to whom he wrote, respecting their duty so to behave themselves towards their persecutors as that no discredit should be reflected either on their religion or themselves; but that, on the contrary, the doctrine of God their Saviour might be adorned, and their adversaries have no evil thing to say with truth of its professors. The first injunction is, to abstain from all resentful retaliation, and to meet injury and reproach by kindness both in conduct and in language. This injunction is contained in the 9th verse: and with the illustration and enforcement of this injunction, the

apostle is engaged down to the middle of the 14th verse. Here there is a pause in the discourse, a division in the thought. He proceeds to a second injunction; calling on them to guard against the undue influence of fear, and prescribing a due regard to God as the best means of preventing an undue regard to man. But you will notice there is in our common bibles no division of the words here. You would suppose the second part of the verse just a following out the thought contained in the first; when, in reality, it is what in a discourse we would call entering on the illustration of a new particular. And, as we have here no division where the sense required one, so, at the close of the verse, we have a division where the sense requires there should be none: for the first part of the 15th verse is just the conclusion of the sentence begun in the last part of the 14th,-a part, indeed, of the same quotation from an Old Testament writer. And then again a third, and entirely distinct injunction, is given in the remaining part of the 15th verse,—an injunction to be always ready to give an account of their religion, and its grounds, to all who should call them in question for them. Here again we have a distinct division in the thoughts, unmarked by any corresponding division in the words.

These may appear to some very minute and unimportant remarks, and comparatively they are so; but nothing should be considered as trifling or useless, which goes to remove obscurity or pointlessness from an inspired declaration or precept; or to give it, even in a slight degree, additional clearness or force.

NOTE B. p. 434.

"Observandum est, duo esse in Novo Testamento e veteri citationum genera. Quædam enim, imo pleraque omnia loca quæ e veteri proferunter in Novo Testamento ejus modi sunt, ut, juxta mentem consilium et scopum Scriptoris ex quo depromuntur, adducantur ad doctrinæ evangelicæ confirmationem. Sed et alia sunt nonnulla in quibus a Novi Testamenti Scriptoribus, non tam spectatur mens consilium et scopus, quam Scriptoris verba duntaxat, quæ quoniam aliquam habent cum iis de quibus loquuntur similitudinem et significationis convenientiam, iis utuntur, non tanquam testimonio et auctoritate, qua velint dictum suum communire, sed per allusionem duntaxat. Cujus modi ferme sunt illa quæ vulgo Noemata seu Gnomas Rhetores vocant, dicta nimirum quædam sententiosa ex poeta aliquoVirgilio puta vel Homero deprompta, quæ nos solemus ad rem et propositum nostrum accommodare, non quod hoc velimus, poetam idipsum spectasse et in animo habuisse quod nos cum ejus verba usurpamus, sed id grata quadam accommodatione' duntaxat a nobis fit, quod allusionibus libenter et impense soliti sint homines delectari.”—Matt. xiii. 34. Psal. xlix. 2. Rom. x. 18. Psal. xix. 5. 2 Cor. viii. 15. Exod. xvi. 13.-L. CAPELLUS.

NOTE C. p. 440.

"Should the empress," says Chrysostom, in his epistle to Cyriacus, “determine to banish me, let her banish me; 'the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' If she will cast me into the sea, let her cast me into the sea; I will remember Jonah. If she will throw me into a burning fiery furnace; the three children were there before me. If she will throw me to the wild beasts; I will remember that Daniel was in the den of lions. If she will condemn me to be stoned; I shall be the associate of Stephen, the proto-martyr. If she will have me beheaded; the Baptist has submitted to the same punishment. If she will take away my substance; 'naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return to it.""

DISCOURSE XVI

THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (THEIR NATURE-DESIGN-CONSEQUENCES) AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO CHRISTIANS SUFFERING FOR HIS CAUSE.

1 PET. iii. 18-22.-For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him.

IN studying Christianity, as developed in the inspired writings of the New Testament, few things are more fitted to strike the mind, than the intimate, the indissoluble, connection which exists between its principles and its laws, its doctrinal statements and its practical requirements. Its doctrines are such as, if really believed, necessarily lead to the discharge of its duties; and its duties are such as cannot be discharged without a knowledge and belief of its doctrines. They are connected together as the two constituents of human nature; body and soul. The doctrines are embodied in the duties, and the duties are animated by the doctrines.

This is true even of those doctrines which, at first view, seem to partake most of the nature of abstract principles; such as the doctrine of the expiation of human guilt, and the accomplishment of human salvation, through the penal, vicarious, expiatory sufferings of the incarnate Son of God. This doctrine, which to many seems a point of mere speculation, having little or nothing to do with the formation of character or the guidance of conduct, is brought forward in the New Testament as the grand motive to christian obedience generally, and to all the various parts of christian obedience. Are Christians exhorted to universal holiness? this is the motive, "Ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Are they exhorted to "walk in love?" the motive is, "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor." Are they exhorted to mutual forgiveness? the motive is, "God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us." Are they exhorted to a complying, selfdenying spirit? the motive is, "Christ pleased not himself.' Are they exhorted to public spirit, in opposition to selfishness? the motive is drawn from "the mind which was in Christ," and which manifested

itself in his emptying and abasing himself, in his laboring, and suffering, and dying, for the salvation of men. Are they exhorted to make pecuniary sacrifices for the relief of their poor brethren? the motive is, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus, in that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Are husbands urged to love their wives? the motive is, "Christ also loved the church," his spouse, " and gave himself for her." And not to multiply examples, are Christians in the passage which I have read as the subject of discourse, called on cheerfully and patiently to endure suffering in the cause of Christ? the motive is, "Christ also once suffered for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison; which aforetime were disobedient: and having risen from the dead, is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject to him."

In the immediate context, as you are aware, the apostle has been instructing those to whom he was writing how to behave themselves, when exposed to persecution on account of the religion of Christ, so as to reflect honor on Him, on it, and on themselves; and to reconcile them to such sufferings, and induce them to conduct themselves properly under them, he suggests the thought, "that divinely-appointed suffering in a good cause, rightly sustained, is not to be considered as an evil." If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye." is better, since such is the will of God, that ye doing well suffer:" better not only that ye should suffer doing well," rather than doing evil;" but better in these circumstances that ye should suffer than ye should not suffer.

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It is in illustration and proof of this principle, I apprehend, that the apostle introduces the example of our Lord, the Prince of sufferers. His sufferings were divinely-appointed sufferings; sufferings in the best of all causes: sufferings sustained in the best possible manner; and sufferings terminating in such a way, as very strikingly to show, that divinely-appointed suffering in a good cause, rightly sustained, is rather to be chosen and embraced as a good, than dreaded and shunned as an evil. Such seems to me the general import of the interesting paragraph I have read, excluding from consideration, at present, the 20th and 21st verses, which, being plainly parenthetical, may be left. out without at all interrupting the train of thought, and which, being involved in considerable difficulties, may, with greater advantage, be afterwards made a subject of separate examination.

In suffering "for righteousness' sake," you may well account yourselves happy. It is better, since such is the will of God, that you doing well should suffer; for even1 (that is the force of the particle rendered also) the Lord Christ, all excellent and glorious as he is, even HE, ONCE suffered, though now and henceforth he suffers no more—is completely and forever exempt from suffering of every kind, in every degree, the ends of his sufferings being completely gained. He suffered, even to the death, "for sins;" not his own, for he had none, but for those of others, of course, then, by the will of God, the express

1 Kai.

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