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ment of Jacob's dying blessing upon Benjamin, and learn the to bless God for having "taught the whole world by they preaching" of the great apostle of the Gentles, and to beseech his prevailing intercession on behalf of ourselves and the whole Gentile world. One lesson, however, there is, which should not be lost upon us; how much more hopeful is the case of one who ignorantly opposes God's true faith than that of the lukewarm and indifferent worldling. There was one Gallio mentioned in the Acts, who "cared for none of those things" which were taught by the holy apostles. We do not hear of his conversion. But Saul, the raging and ravenous wolf, is changed by a miracle of grace, into the meekest and gentlest of the lambs of Christ, and lays down his life for the cause which once he so ignorantly and so vehemently persecuted.

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ART. V.-1. Difficulties in the Church. A Sermon preached at the Re-opening of the Church of Longbridge Deverell. By EDWARD, Lord Bishop of Salisbury. London, F. and J. Rivington, 1853. 2. Essays: chiefly Theological. By the Rev. PATRICK MURRAY, D.D., Professor of Dogmatic and Moral Theology in the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth. 4 vols. 8vo. Dublin, Bellew, 1850-3. 3. St. Peter, his Name, and his Office, as set forth in Holy Scripture. By Thomas W. ALLIES, M.A., author of "The See of St. Peter, the Rock of the Church," "A Journal in France," &c. 8vo. London Richardson and Son, 1852.

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IT is often amusing to observe how widely practice dif

fers from profession. With those who are sincere in the profession of the all-sufficiency of Scripture, the whole science of theology should resolve itself into Biblical Hermeneutics. Even in that modified acceptation of the principle, which admits, other sources of critical evidence as subsidiary to Scripture, it is plain that every doctrinal enquiry must, at the least, involve a full and careful investigation of the entire teaching of the Bible in reference to the subject in question. For one who draws his creed from the sacred volume, it becomes a clear and inevitable duty,

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only to master the true sense of particular passages,
t to weigh carefully the bearing of each upon the other;
consider the qualifying circumstances of all; to contrast
their statements when they are unharmonious and conflict-
g; in a word, to employ every device of critical science
as thoroughly to exhaust the whole doctrine of the
Scripture upon the subject. Without this, it is impossible
have even the semblance of "the teaching of the
Bible.

On the other hand, if one were to accept the tradition-
imputation against Catholics, that, in their blind sub-
mission to the authority of the Church and her traditions,
they make their teaching independent of that of the
Scriptures, and perhaps even antagonistic to it, he might
Expect to find Hermeneutics entirely discarded in the
schools of Catholic theology. If the voice of Scripture is
to be silenced before that of the Church, it cannot practi-
cally be of much interest to discover what that voice may
chance to be; and, as Protestants are taught to believe
that such is, if not in theory, at least in fact, the system
of Catholic theology, we cannot wonder that they should
regard us as utterly insensible to the importance of the
science of biblical interpretation.

How unjust and unfounded is this supposition regarding
Catholics, we have already shown in a series of papers in
this journal. We need scarcely be at the pains of disavow-
ng the imputation on which it is founded. It is true that
Catholics do not regard the Scriptures as the sole deposi-
tory of God's revelation; but nevertheless, far from setting
it aside, or silencing its voice before that of the Church, they
regard the Church, not as the rival or antagonist of the
Scripture, but simply as its authoritative expositor; and
hold it as a fundamental principle that her teaching never
can be out of harmony with that of the inspired deposit which
the Divine Master has committed to her keeping. And
hence, in the principles of the Catholic system, as the first
office of the Church is to propose and to interpret, for the
practical guidance of her members, the doctrinal and
moral lessons contained in the word of God, so it is
her first duty, and her holiest privilege, to ascertain its
true and genuine interpretation. And although it is a
fixed principle of our belief, that in infallibly ascertaining
this interpretation, she is assisted by Him who is with
her all days;" yet we also believe, that in arriving thereto,

she employs the arts of human learning;-just as, in administering the details of her external government she employs the agency of the ordinary human instruments.

Accordingly, in the papers already referred to, we have illustrated by a few out of numberless examples which might have been selected, the singularly rich and curious fecundity of interpretation, in which it is the privilege of the Catholic Church, and hers alone, fearlessly to indulge. We have seen how, in the wondrous and ineffably beautiful adaptation of all the parts of that divine system which she alone possesses in its fulness and integrity, she is enabled to discover deep sense and harmony where every other creed can but find unmeaning commonplace, or perhaps patent incongruity with its own principles ;-how she can draw confirmations-often indirect, but yet not the less striking of the great truths which she professes, from incidents and expressions which in themselves might not seem to bear even remotely upon them; how she can push to its furthest limits the exposition of our Lord's Parables, the minutest details of His miracles, the smallest and least considerable circumstances of the ordinary actions of His blessed life; and find in them all the most curious, but conclusive evidences of her doctrines, the most significant types of her institutions, and the most striking analogies with the practices, which, under the guidance of the Spirit of her Divine Founder, she has engrafted upon these doctrines, and maintained as a living and enduring exposition of their spirit ;—above all, how, in the great deposit of her ancient and traditionary wisdom, she lays up the smallest grain and fragment of hidden sense which has fallen from the lips of her Divine Master, finding propriety and beauty where those modern systems can but see confusion; detecting fitness and congruity in things which to other eyes are repulsive, or at least inharmonious; and recognizing a profound and instructive significance in acts and circumstances, which, for her, are speaking types, while, to all else beside, they present nothing beyond the ordinary relations of human affairs.

To us, who have been taught to know and understand the true nature of the Church's commission on earth, all this presents itself as natural and intelligible. It is but a perpetuation of the gift, which every one who has formed even a superficial acquaintance with the ancient expositions of Scripture in the Homilies, and commentaries of the

Fathers, has, a hundred times, had occasion to admire. To a Protestant mind it may, in some respects, be otherwise. But, at least, in all that regards the examination of the sense of Holy Scripture, for the purpose of discovering the true doctrines contained therein, Protestants, if they do not lay claim to a stronger consciousness of obligation, must, at least, feel with ourselves that it is impossible to exaggerate the necessity of a full, minute, and critical investigation. For those in whose eyes the Scriptures constitute the final tribunal, it is clear that to be content with a partial, an imperfect, or a superficial examination, would be a perversion of all order. In the many books which compose the Holy Scripture, as in every other collection of independent sources of information bearing upon the same subject, it cannot fail to happen that general statements are frequently to be qualified or restricted by particular exceptions; that the meaning which a passage, if taken in its isolation would seem at first sight to bear, is seriously modified by the incidents out of which it has arisen, the circumstances by which it is accompanied, or the subsequent explanation which it may have received; or that the signification which naturally attaches to a phrase or sentence is materially affected by a consideration of some peculiar use of language on the part of the writer by whom it is recorded. For any student of the Holy Scripture to neglect all of these considerations, is to expose himself to the danger of doubtful or false interpretation. But, whatever may be said of a Catholic who has the authority of the Church to fall back upon, for a Protestant to do so, is plainly to exhibit an utter indifference to the very foundation of his religious belief.

These observations have been suggested to our mind by a comparison of the very opposite methods of interpretation adopted in reference to the same passages of Scripture in the publications which are named at the head of these pages. Of these, the first is by a dignitary of the Anglican Church; the second and third are by members of our own communion. They all profess precisely the same object, namely, to discuss the scriptural evidences on which the alleged primacy of St. Peter above the other Apostles is made to rest. In all, the discussion is confined exclusively to the Scripture, except that in Mr. Allies' volume, which is a compilation from the larger work of Father Passaglia, there is an occasional reference to some of the interpre

tations of the passages under examination, which have been adopted by the more remarkable among the Fathers. It would be difficult, therefore, to find a more apt illustration of the opposite methods of interpretation of Scripture-the Catholic and the Protestant-than may be drawn from a comparison of these works. The subject itself is one whose importance to both sides it is impossible to exaggerate; one which," to use the words of the Bishop of Salisbury, we may safely assert to be the foundation of the whole system of the Church of Rome; as indeed the great controversialist, Bellarmine, explicitly declares that the whole of Christianity depends upon it," and to the consideration of which, if to that of any controversy by which Christians are divided, we may expect every resource of criticism to be devoted by the advocates of the rival opinions regarding it.

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And, first, although it may strike an uninterested observer as extraordinary, considering the respective opinions of the parties as to the function of Sacred Scripture in deciding questions of faith, that the Protestant advocate should, in a few pages, dispose of the whole mass of scriptural evidence to which the writers upon the Catholic side have each devoted several hundred laborious pages, yet we do not mean to dwell upon this seeming anomaly. A lengthened discussion of the texts of Scripture on which the controversy turns, would, of course, be out of place, and, indeed, entirely impracticable, in a sermon addressed to a mixed congregation. But it is perfectly possible, nevertheless, for a writer, even in the space of a few pages, at least, to indicate the principles of interpretation by which he is guided, quite as completely as in a lengthened treatise; and we purpose to judge the Bishop of Salisbury by the principles upon which he decides the sense of Scripture in this particular instance, rather than by what he has actually written in defence of his interpretation. Now we cannot hesitate to say that it has seldom been our lot to meet such an example of captious and superficial interpretation, so much slurring over every inconvenient point, so much suppression of essential evidence, and so many of the familiar devices of polemical special pleading, as in the few but pregnant pages of his Lordship of Salisbury. We should not, of course, have expected him to enter into the

* Sermon, p. 17.