differed from those whose opinions are justly honoured by all, we have not done it alone, nor have we done it with any depreciatory feeling. And if we have erred in judgment, our error is at least a natural and venial one. Diffident

of our own powers, we have leant upon the strong support of the Scriptures, and have felt no wish to go farther than they guided and sustained our steps. Without quitting "the form of sound words1," we have had no difficulty in deciphering the handwriting of the Spirit in many of our Saviour's actions,-while in the others, the power and goodness manifested are more than sufficient to fill and satisfy the eye;— and all conspire, at every new contemplation, to give fresh enthusiasm to our gratitude,-devotion to our love, and confidence to our hopes.

1 2 Tim. i. 13.

NOTES.

NOTE A.

THIS is generally understood as referring to our Saviour's atonement for our sins on the cross. So St Peter, 1st Epist. ch. ii. ver. 24, explains it,—" who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." But, in the sense illustrated above, the two interpretations are easily reconcileable.

NOTE B.

V. 7. "We cannot conceive why the Evangelist should give the typical import of the word Siloam, unless to intimate that the whole miracle had a typical reference."

SIMEON, Skel. Serm. Vol. 111.

NOTE C.

As the flesh and blood of Christ are expressly mentioned here, as well as in the institution of the Lord's supper, numbers have contended that the external ordinance was intended in precisely the same way that baptism with water has been mistaken for the new birth of the Spirit. But the Lord's supper was not at this time instituted; and can any one seriously think that every man is dead in sin, till he has received that sacrament? or that Christ dwells in, and will save all those who partake of that ordinance, however hypocritically.

NOTE D.

SCOTT, on John vi. 52-58.

"Multum certe omnibus seculis passa est veritas, a duobus hominum generibus: altero eorum qui omnia in allegorias, et sensus, quos falso vocant spirituales, vertunt; altero eorum qui omnia nude ac ad literam exponunt.

Dr PococкE, Not. Mis. 176.

NOTE E.

This was a style of religious thought which the Fathers very much affected. Origen and others have carried the system to a most extravagant and injurious extent. St Jerome, it is well known, when grown older and wiser, lamented that, in the fervours of a youthful fancy, he had spiritualised the prophecy of Obadiah before he understood it'. But the abuse has been crowned by the theory of Professor Cocceius. "He laid it down as a fundamental rule, that the words and phrases of Scripture are to be understood in every sense of which they are susceptible; or, in other words, that they signify in effect every thing which they can signify."

NOTE F.

Mutos, qui dominum non laudant, vel non confitentur fidem, signant; cæcos, qui non intelligunt, etiamsi obtemperant jubentibus; surdos, qui non obtemperant, etiamsi intelligunt; claudos, qui precepta non implent.

ST AUGUST. Evan. Quest. XVIII.

NOTE G.

Perhaps it may be too much to say that the miracles wrought by our Lord were types of the spiritual blessings he conveys: but we may affirm without hesitation, that there is a very strong analogy between them.”

SIMEON, Skel. Serm. Vol. 1. p. 217.

NOTE H.

"In farther explanation of this canon, it may be observed, that in a type every circumstance is far from being typical * * * * * From not considering the evident relation which ought to subsist between the type and the antitype,

Preface to Bishop Horne's Com. on Psalms.

some fanciful expositors, under pretence that the tabernacle of Moses was a figure of the Church of Heaven, have converted even the boards and nails of it into types." "There is often more in the type than the antitype," &c. T. H. Horne's Introd. p. ii. ch. 8.

NOTE I.

We are far from coinciding with Woolston's assertion, that the spiritual was the only view which they took of the miracles, though it must be confessed that their writings afford but too good a handle for his cavils. Thus "non historiam denegamus sed spiritualem intelligentiam præferimus." S. Joann. de Hiero. So, "Respondendum ergo est, a nobis, evidenter decernitur in quam plurimis servari et posse, et opertere historiæ veritatem." St Hilar. &c.

NOTE K.

The same reasoning is found in the Fathers. Thus, St Austin says "Quid est ergo certiorem?-quoniam sunt homines infideles, qui sic detrahunt Christo, ut dicant eum magicis artibus fecisse, quæ fecit. Possent ergo infideles etiam, istam vocem delatam de cœlo, per conjecturas humanas, et illicitas curiositates ad magicas artes referre. Sed Prophetæ ante fuerunt, non dico, ante istam vocem, sed ante Christi carnem: Nondum erat homo Christus, quando misit Prophetas. Quisquis eum dicit magum fuisse: si ergo magicis artibus fecit, ut coleretur, et mortuus, nunquid magus erat antequam natus."

ST AUGUST. in Serm. 43. §. 5.