BROWNE says, yet He could not have been left in error on such a subject as that of the authorship of the Pentateuch :— Whether in things merely human it was possible that our Lord in His Humanity should have erred or not, surely, with such a mission as His, even if we lay aside the truth of His Divinity, we can never suppose that He would have been suffered to err in those things, which concerned the dealings of God with man. . . . It seems unquestionable that our Lord continually speaks of Moses as a great Lawgiver, as a great Prophet,-that He continually endorses his laws, at least his moral laws, -that he quotes the Pentateuch as written by Moses,-that He tells us that Moses wrote of Him. If, therefore, our Divine Lord, He through whom most, and most signally, God has spoken to man, was not in error about a most important religious truth, there was such a man as Moses, there were such laws as the laws of Moses, there was such a Prophet as Moses, and there remained writings of Moses.* p.12-15. 404. I reply, first, that I have never denied that 'there was such a man as Moses, &c.' On the contrary, I have assumed it throughout as most probable, if not certain, that there was an Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, under some such a Leader or Prophet as Moses, and as possible, that he may have given them laws and written documents, of which portions may still be contained in the Pentateuch. In maintaining also that Samuel, most probably, was the writer of the Elohistic story, I have carried up the origin of this account of the Exodus to within a century or two of Moses himself, taking account of the fact, allowed by most scholars, that the time of the Judges was probably very much shorter than is generally supposed. I have thus made it appear the more probable that some real remains of the Mosaic laws or institutions may be retained in some part of the Pentateuch. But this is a very different thing from * Precisely the same argument, as we have seen, note, p.314, is used by Dr. MCNEILE to prove that every scientific or historical statement of the Bible is infallibly true. If we deny this, he says, we also deny the veracity, the honesty, the integrity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a Teacher of Divine Truth.' From this proposition, however, Bishop BROWNE altogether dissents, since he says, Aids to Faith, p.317,318,-'It is a secondary consideration, and a question on which we may safely agree to differ, whether or not every Book of the O.T. was written so completely under the dictation of God's Holy Spirit, that every word, not only doctrinal, but also historical or scientific, must be infallibly correct and true.' saying that Moses wrote the whole or the main portion of the Pentateuch. I have proved, as I believe, that he certainly did not, that the Pentateuch, as a whole, is the work of a later age, that especially the Book of Deuteronomy was written as late as the age of Josiah. 405. But the argument of Bishop BROWNE is obviously based upon a mere fallacy. He says, p.18 Christ was so great a Prophet, (let alone the question of His Deity), and a Prophet sent for so high a purpose, that we cannot believe Him to have been in error as to that which concerned the truth and the groundwork of the religion which was before Him. But what do we know about this? How do we know whether it was so 'important,' in a religious point of view, that our Lord should not be left to share the ordinary views of His countrymen about the authorship and historical value of the Pentateuch? It may seem to us important': but what does that prove? As Bishop BROWNE says, p.6:— We know that our religion is of God, and if so, most probably, some of it may not be quite clear to man. 406. Thus it may seem strange to us, that so very many of the Christian world should have been left for centuries resting their religious hopes upon a baseless dogma,-still more so, that Saints and Apostles, Prophets and Priests, and even the Son of Man Himself, should have been allowed to share on these points the current opinions of their time, though they did not make them the basis of their faith and hope, as some in our own days have done. But, if the facts are found to be so, our duty is to acquiesce in them, as being such by Divine permission, and to conclude that our poor human wisdom is mistaken in assuming it to be important,' that correct knowledge on matters such as these should have been revealed supernaturally even to the Christ Himself. Our duty is to receive the facts, as they really are,—without trying to evade, to hide, or to pervert them, and with the Apostle of old, in view of a fact, alike inexplicable by human methods of reasoning, to bow our heads before the Supreme Goodness and say 'O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!' Rom.xi.33. 407. Securus judicat Orbis Terrarum! Again I say, the fact that the true and faithful of all lands, of all ages, have found unspeakable solace and delight in the study of the Scriptures, such as no other book has ever supplied,-have drunk from it, day by day, as from the brook by the wayside, the living stream which has refreshed their souls, when travelling hot and weary through this land of their pilgrimage,— this witness of the Church to the value of the Bible is a surer evidence of its Divine original, of its Divine appointment to fill a wonderful part in the education of mankind, than any decree of Synod or Council, or any miraculous proof could be. 408. But so, too, that intense longing, which pervades so many earnest hearts in this our day-in all countries, and in all classes to find a way for ourselves and others out of the narrow dogmatic systems, in which in our different churches we have all been more or less trained, into that Christianity of which Dean MILMAN speaks, History of the Jews, p.xxxiv— comprehensive, all-embracing, Catholick, which knows what is essential to Religion, what is temporary and extraneous to it that so we may breathe a freer air, and enjoy a clearer light, and have Free space for every human doubt, That the whole mind may orb about is to my own mind a certain proof that the Divine Educator Himself is here, and the Spirit of God moving even now upon the face of the waters. |